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Learning the Lessons

Posted By: Randy GageDecember 9, 2010

All week long we’ve been taking the nature versus nurture debate to a deeper level, looking at how the science of epigenetics can help you manifest happiness and prosperity in your life.  

I mentioned the book that started me on this train of thought, The Biology of Belief by Bruce Lipton, Ph.D.   Bruce discusses the evolving nature of even single celled organisms.  And of course we’re all made up of 50 trillion of these.

Even if we can’t say that these cells have “consciousness,” we must certainly acknowledge their ability to sense changes in the environment around them and change.  They can create cellular memories and propagate this knowledge on to their offspring, as when you develop immunity to the measles.  Or Justin Bieber music.

The chapter on how cells learn is particularly fascinating, and filled with lessons for us in our daily life…

Bruce details the differences in belief about how we evolve between French biologist Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck, who was really the first scientist to detail evolution, versus Darwin, who came to the game 50 years later and grabbed all the glory.

Darwin of course is known for his “survival of the fittest” view and saw evolution as the result of fighting against “the war of nature, from famine and death.”  Lamarck had a more abundant view, seeing our development as cooperative interaction among organisms and our environment.

The prosperity analogy I would get from this is best laid out in the video I did recently for Prosperity TV on Fighting Circumstances. (Click the link and watch it again.)

You can fight against government-induced inflation, the economy, or your cheap boss, but they have nothing to do with your true prosperity.  Those things are simply circumstances.  Instead of fighting circumstances, we need to look at the actual causes of things.

Fighting famines and wild animals as Darwin described was certainly an issue for day-to-day life at one time.  But those things were still circumstances that we manifested by the choices we made.  (Or didn’t make.)

Lamarck’s view was that organisms adapt to the environment, and then pass on those adaptations necessary for survival.  Cells are smart, and can continually get smarter.

And in today’s world, most of us are not facing famines and attacking tyrannosauruses that often.  The lessons we need to learn from and grow from are a little more forgiving.  And when you don’t learn the lesson, the universe is kind enough to give you another chance!   You can have 11 negative, dysfunctional codependent relationships in a row (as I did), and the universe will be kind enough to send you another one.

If you are willing to become a critical thinker, and learn from the lessons the universe keeps sending you, you really have the chance to manifest a life of health, happiness and prosperity.   Ain’t it great!

-RG

86 comments on “Learning the Lessons”

  1. Good stuff Randy.. curious... 11 neg, dysfunctional relationships in a row??? That's a lot... perhaps you can describe or write a post why you think they were neg, dysfunctional, codependent etc..

    1. I know exactly why this pattern has repeated itself. I also know the student has to be ready for the teacher to appear, which is not the case yet.

  2. Randy - WOW - Thank you for all that you do -

    I have Bruce Lipton's book headed my way from Barnes & Noble NOT Amazon.com - go wikileaks.ch

    Thank YOU!

    RICH Novak

  3. On the survival of the fittest vs the cooperative interaction point - how do we distinguish between loving challenges from an empowered stance to being a victim and being attacked by challenges?

    I feel most alive when I have challenges. When I don't then it feels like something is missing. In recent years I have been more focused on purposely creating the challenges that I want to take on. I love competition in business because it makes us all better and makes the customer better off. When playing football I love to take on the toughest team so I can be pushed to the limit and feel like I am going to collapse when it is over.

    My favourite posts that you write are always the ones that I disagree with. If I agree with them then I just move on to something else. I love debates with people who are most against what I believe because I have to clarify my argument and then I become more congruent. I get bored when I am with people who think the same as me.

    I know as a child the worse things got the happier I was and the better things got the worse I felt (defined by common ideals of better and worse). Being caught in a riot, high speed car chase, shootings or bombs going off was always fun and exciting, (common in Northern Ireland) but sunny, relaxed days scared me.

    How do we still get the excitement, challenge and fun that these things provide without being a victim? If we love them and if they make us feel alive and full of excitement are we still a victim?

    1. Like you, I operate well with challenges. But I've learned to manifest challenges that cause me to grow and excel, and try to avoid challenges where I could fall back into the victim role.

      -RG

    2. You can't David. This post of yours is frightening. There is no way to have peace and happiness while those atrocities occur. People are dying and being injured while all those things you mentioned were going on.

      I am so sorry you witnessed all of those things and lived with them on a daily basis.

      1. LOL. I just read the end of my comment again. I guess that it sounded like I wanted to have the bombings and shootings again. I meant it to read 'how can we enjoy the challenges in business and sport (not the violence) without being a victim.

        I still get the same rush 'the crazy times' gave me, I just turned them to more empowered areas. Skydiving, cliff jumping, racing supercars, quad biking, surfing etc. I do also love great challenges in business. Building companies to do better than the competition is so much fun, and when they are doing the same it makes us all better and our customers win.

        But I would certainly not have traded all those times when I was growing up for a different life. I hear so many children being smothered by their parents, watching tv, doing lots of boring things. I had a great time. It was scary but I had to grow quickly and now I have lots of amazing stories. I lived the life that most people went to watch in the movies. I always just saw it as a giant super advanced virtual reality game. The games that everyone buys are the ones with the challenges and exciting adventures.

        No one buys games where we get to sit around all day and take it easy. I guess that I am happiest when being pushed to my limits because I get to find out what I can really do. When we have no time to think and our life is on the line then we are fully in the moment and our best comes to the surface.

  4. Randy, there's no doubt that to get on a prosperity level, one has to master one's mind and the sorts of thoughts cooking in it. There is however a conflict of thoughts on how the West and the East perceive the science of the mind. You will be well aware that much of what is related to meditation is a Hindu science. And this goes further with the concept of Transcendental meditation. The techniques of visualization are in fact all about transcendental meditation, however, what the movie 'The Secret' has failed to mention is that there is still a barrier to someone being really bale to manifest. And that is based on one's Karma. The particle mind science however is now available to teach people how bad Karma can be cleaned to make way for quicker manifestation.

    1. The law of attraction is Karma. What we put out through vibration is what we attract. It is not something that is passed down through generations. I killed a slave 12 lifetimes ago and that is why my income dropped yesterday. I helped a blind man find his way home 6 lifetimes ago and that is why my income went back up again today. LOL

      Karma is another one of those cop outs. It is just the subconscious mind and the limiting beliefs that we have that project the results onto our outside world. When we hold poverty images then that is what we get. When we change that then the results change.

  5. You know, I've had a bit of a breakthrough time recently, so this is quite timely for me.

    I certainly don’t think we ever stop ‘learning’ lessons, because if we had nothing more to learn or no more room to grow, our existence would probably prove to bore us to death and we would all die of perfection! 😉 However …

    What has been in the forefront of my mind, of late, is the experience of ‘getting it’. You know – those ‘a-ha moments’ that we all have at one point or another. It’s that pivotal moment where the same message that you’ve heard (or lived) a thousand different times, a thousand different ways, finally cuts through the resistance we wrap ourselves in so tightly and we LET GO and LET IN the Truth with a capital ‘T’. It’s really a surrendering of sorts, isn’t it?

    I concur that the Universe is a patient teacher – and if Ms. ‘I’m here to help you see how you co-create your own pain #10’ doesn’t get the point across, Ms. #11 is waiting outside in the hallway for her turn. (I should know, I dated her brother! 😉 )

    But, what I’ve really been pondering a lot is exactly WHAT happens at that exact moment when we finally receive the Holy Grail? (or one of many, in a lifetime) As Mary Ellen quoted above, ‘when the student is ready, the teacher appears’ … true enough. So what then is the internal process or shift that takes place in us at a cellular level that allows that experience of enlightenment? Is it all cognitive? … or is there a chemical component as well? Fascinating to think about.

    All I can say is that once you’ve made it to the other side of your own blindness about something and your vision is for once, 20/20 – it boggles the mind to look back at HOW MANY TIMES you asked the very question that would set you free and were given the answer by many, but could ultimately only hear “The One” who finally got through.

    And then, the next challenge? To figure out the very best way to become the “The One” who has the honor of being heard for all the others who will ask the same exact question that you did for so long.

    K

    1. I wouldn't get too preoccupied with the cellular or chemical changes that occur at those moments. leave that to Bruce and the other scientists. All that matters for most of us is doing the critical thinking to create the consciousness.

      -RG

    2. I'm a scientist and the cellular/chemical discussions in Bruce's book rocked my world! So, I think they are worth a ponder or two. Interesting KimbraLee, that as you are just working with the awe of those 'a-ha' moments that finally break through, that you are now contemplating the next step as becoming The Teacher, The One for others. Seems like a quantum leap. Intersting that you want to be heard rather than just be.

      1. This mentality, while not new for me, was temporarily abandonned by me. I was in a pain-induced coma.

        So happy to be back ... I want everyone to be awake with me!

        🙂

  6. If we fight the problem, we become what we're fighting, and that doesn't fix the problem. That's not evolutionary growth. We must root cause of our circumstances, which are all in our minds.

    Thanks for the inspiration,
    Wayne

  7. Are you learning the lessons the universe keeps sending you? Your psychology, spriritualy, and now cell philosophy is in stark juxtaposition to your politics. You now have an absolutely incoherent message. I wouldn't keep picking except that you are the one who laid out your political views and social justice philosophy. It is in the book you wrote. You know the "Dumb, Sick, Broke, and so on".

    You have such a positive and such a negative message right together.

    I am beginning to believe you are just ignorant of certain realities that we in America live with.

    To call being poor a sin, is your sin. You missed the mark Mr. Gage. I feel compelled to say these things because you reach thousands of people and mostly they love you. Why not? You give people a message they really want to hear. It isn't that I think most of what you say isn't true, I think a lot of it is. It's just, well, a lot of it is crap too. Really it doesn't even make sense. Does it to you? Especially while you are reading Dr. Lipton's book?

    You miss the mark when you call being poor a sin because of the inequality of races and sexes in America. Have you ever thought about that. These are not easy circumstances to live with and no one can undo the color of their skin. I was about to say gender, but I guess some people do do that don't they? Oh well, I'm off my point. These people cannot change their circumstances very easily at all.

    Do you really think the African people manifested slavery in this country for all those years. Many African Americans have much more opportunity than ever before, but it still isn't anywhere near equal.

    Some people are born with disabilities which will render them forever unable to be productive or wealthy. What about them?

    I know, I know if we all didn't have mind viruses we would all be wealthy, and then out of the goodness of our hearts, just as you do, help these folks. Really do you believe this? How long will it take? How come it didn't happen before in American history, when there were not so many entitlement programs and government was certainly more limited?

    Furthermore, when you call being poor a sin, you are making a judgement call on people you clearly know little about. It hurts them because you make them seem unworthy of support or help. Please stop doing this. I really saddens me, truly it does.

    I even feel bad for your Mom. She raised you to be such a nice gentleman all on her own, and then you call her economic status a sin.

    Single women are often the poorest, especially single African American moms. In fact, I think they top the list of the most impoverished. Yes, many of them created their circumstances, but how many choices did they really have? How easy will it be to change their circumstances without government entitlement programs, no matter how broken these programs are.

    Be careful what you say about the poor. Know you are reaching the demographics that by how they think and vote can really hurt these people who often have no voice. Poor people are not just "Eddies" They are so much more. They are hard working moms and dads. They are children. They are the elderly. They are the mentally ill. They are the injured. Many poor people work very hard and still are poor. Infinite wealth is a possibility, but first lets deal with harsh realities many folks face.

    Your message is great for people higher on Maslow's hierarchy, and most white men. These are the people who love you and write such enthusiastic comments. I wish I could just be an enthusiastic commenter, but this darn critical thinking gets in my way. Ain't it great!

    1. Annie I would be interested to hear what it is you mean by equal opportunities?

      Some people will always excel in some areas ahead of others. The only way to make everyone really equal is communism and that leads to equal poverty and lack of opportunities for all. Britain and America had to go through extremely tough economic times with wretched poverty in order to gradually climb to a higher level. The industrial age was a horror story for many going through it but gradually over time most people were able to significantly improve their lot in life. The freer the system the quicker this happened.

      When Britain opened its doors to free trade with the world in the 19th century they became the richest country in the world. The same for America in that period. As America is becoming more Socialist it is losing its power and will soon fall way down in world rankings of wealth. No system offers a greater opportunity for the poor than the free market.

      To judge the quality of economic system we need to look at how people 'vote with their feet'. No one was risking their lives to get to Romania or Poland. But people all over the world risked their lives to get to America or Hong Kong. The freer the system the more people run to it, the more restricted by government the system is the more people try to escape.

      We cannot elevate people to our level immediately but we can eliminate the barriers to them climbing to this level. Most of these barriers are Government enforced. Always in the name of helping the poor. But really to help special interest groups at the expense of the poor.

      If race or gender was really the defining factor then why is the President Black, Don King is super Rich, Tiger woods is a Billionaire, Mary Kay and Anita Roddick are super rich. There are too many examples to use this as the limiting factor. Obviously it has to be something else than what it appears to be.

      Mankind has a tendency to go from freedom to collectivism/Socialism, then to communism/tyranny then do all they can to get back to freedom. Sometimes it takes the horrors of Communism to make people realise how great the free market really is.

      I would recommend that you watch Milton Friedmans programme 'Free to choose'. it is on youtube. He goes into depth in all these subjects and debates them with the authorities who are for Socialist acts. It will be worth every second you invest in watching it.

      1. David, just a thank you for a terrific, well-thought-out and very accurate response. You just saved me a whole lot of writing, and I wouldn't have been able to say it half as eloquently as you did.

      2. Hi David,

        I am finally replying. Needed some time to think. Plus my poor son has a stomach bug. You know I thought you might be Irish. I am an Irish American, it is nice to be able to dialogue with you. I was just thinking after I wrote the comment above, we Irish do love a good fight. Look us enjoying this debate thoroughly I think:)

        I wrote before that we may not all be equal in our talent, intelligence, etc., but we are all equal in our humanity. Equal oppurtunity means prosperity for all. Everyone wants and deserves a chance to live up to their true potential. We are only able to do this when we have health care for everyone, education standards the same for everyone, and adequate housing and shelter etc....

        Here in America, just because Obama is our president and Oprah wildly successful mean that we have abolished race discrimination. Do not look at anomalies and exceptions as the absolute truth. You will be missing the big picture.

        Come to America and look at the amenities and schools in the urban core compared to the suburbs. Also, mostly we still live separated, African Americans and European Americans. It is visible, and invisible racism.

        I don't believe America with it's Capatalism will become impoverished by injecting some universal welfare programs. I think we will be more prosperous. Healthy, well educated people are more prosperous. And better able to think for themselves. That serves Humanity quite well I think.

        Annie

    2. I'm very congruent with my politics. The Libertarian philosophy is based on the principles of prosperity, trading value for value. I think David handled the issue well in response to your comments, so I'll stand by that and what I wrote in the book.

      You may want to question whether your belief that prosperity is only open to white men with no disabilities is serving you. I don't think it does. I'm doing programs in Sydney this week, as is Oprah Winfrey. I think she'll take home more than I do.

      And when you see me quote that poverty is a sin, I always explain that this is based on either one of two definitions. From the Biblical perspective, the Aramaic definition of sin means, "to miss the mark." The Course in Miracles defines it as a "loss of love." I think both are accurate and that when we are poor, we are missing the mark and the love that Infinite Intelligence has for us.

      Thanks for checking in with your thoughts and keeping the discourse going.

      -RG

      1. You haven't really heard what I am saying. Does it serve you to ignore my thoughts with your trite comments? Would it serve me to believe I could only be prosperous if I were a white man with no disabillities? Of course not, I am not a fool. That is not at all what I was saying. You were not listening. Does that serve you to dismiss my true thoughts on the subject? I suppose it does, doesn't it? You don't deserve my thoughts. I will continue to post comments if I feel it serves my self interest. And well it just may.

        Why? Because the other people that post comments are worth it. Like David and KimbraLee. They both have better thoughts and more substance than you.

        So please refrain from replying to my comments, unless you have something of value to add.

        1. Me too (@Bob Burg above).

          But I did want to add that if a person is of sound mind and body then that person can rise out of poverty. They just have to know how. As far as Randy's message being only for white men, that's complete bunk. It doesn't matter what it's called (sin or no sin). I too believe that poverty is an unnecessary affliction. I am an African American woman. My skin color has never stood in my way - but my mindset has at times - which is why Randy's message is so important to me. It was something I needed to hear to help me undo some of the crap I had been taught directly and indirectly. It's easy to fool yourself into believing that your circumstances are created by your physical attributes or socio-economic status, but when it all boils down to it, it's all about your mind and how you see the world through it.

    3. Hi Annie,

      I hope you will allow me to talk to you as one of those ‘statuses’ you singled out in your posts above - a single woman, a mother of five children … for I know the stuff of which I speak. I believe you might be misinterpreting Randy’s response to you because you can only decipher what is being said through your current perspective, which has so many limitations attached to it. I know Randy’s straight forward approach … and though he doesn’t beat around the bush, I’ve only ever heard him speak from a place of loving respect.

      Will you let me share a little story here? (Sorry in advance if this takes up some space.) 🙂

      Last December, Randy posted a contest on his blog page which he does every year (though I didn’t know that at the time since I’d only recently found him and his website). It goes like this - he offers his own clever re-write of the first few stanzas from the poem ‘T’was The Night Before Christmas’, and then asks whomever is interested to finish the poem in their own words. Once the entries are in, Randy chooses a winner. (Prizes ranging from – in his own words - $100,000 cash right on down to ‘honorable mention’ in his blog – his choice of which item he wants to bestow on the winner.)

      Enter … me. Hard-working single mom … with a large family to raise, plenty of debt, trying to recover from as many sad stories as you have time to hear which included the likes of 2 divorces, having 2 businesses stolen or sold out from under her, becoming mysteriously ill for a year and almost dying, losing her home … yadda, yadda, yadda. Poor, poor, unfortunate me!

      So, I read about the contest and, oh lucky day … I believe I have finally found the answer to all of my prayers! I can write poetry (at least I think I can), and I can post my entry – It’s like the Law of Attraction Lottery … and I have a shot at winning!
      Little did I realize at that point that Randy is as tongue-in-cheek as he is brilliant at times, and I took the entire contest far too literally. I was focused on the money. I wanted that money … no I NEEDED that money! At least that’s what I THOUGHT I needed. So, I wrote my entry. I posted it. And, long story short, two days later I tied with someone else as a winner of the contest. I was SO excited! … for about as long as it takes to get down to the part where Randy’s words read “I’ve decided to award them both ‘honorable mention’ for their efforts.”

      I was stunned … that was it? But, what about the money? After all, Randy … you were the one that put the $100,000 price tag on the game. You dangled the carrot. You made me believe that I could crawl out of this suppressed, impoverished position I’ve found myself in due to my ‘circumstances’. I’m a WOMAN, a SINGLE WOMAN, a MOM raising the future of our country! How could you NOT RESCUE ME???? You are supposed to be so generous! Hey … you wouldn’t even miss $100K and look how it would FIX me!!!! … I held SO TIGHTLY to my belief that I WASN’T CAPABLE of or responsible for creating my own prosperity. Annie … I was STUCK!

      So, after I sat silently in my confusion and anger for a few minutes, guess what I did? I jumped right back on the blog, engaged my victimhood, and I asked Randy to do the ‘right thing’ and give me the prize money after all … because I felt I, the UNDERPRIVILEGED, ‘DESERVED’ it! And, what’s even harder to believe is that I did so in front of anyone and everyone who reads Randy’s page! (and yes, I will wait here quietly with my dark glasses on while anyone who doubts this goes back into the blog archives and verifies that I had enough of an entitlement complex at that point to do what I just said I did. Sigh.)

      But, of course, seeing things for what they REALLY WERE (which I could not at that point) – Randy did NOT give me the money (and thank God he did not – because I am telling you right now that if he had, it wouldn’t have created much lasting change in my life.) Instead he gave me some tough love in the form of advice. He suggested that I take a look inside at my own internal landscape (my limiting thoughts and beliefs) and encouraged me to figure out what value I had to offer the world before I looked for the world to give something of value to me. That was NOT what I wanted to hear in that moment! It made me mad!

      You see, Annie - I was not done yet romancing the thing that was creating the circumstances in my life that were robbing me of my own prosperity – my own poverty mentality. I was not just broke (low on money), I was POOR (low on self-worth). I didn’t think I had the same opportunities as many others because of all the conditions of my existence … single woman , five kids, blah, blah, blah. But Randy knew those titles really didn’t ‘mean’ anything. He didn’t even acknowledge them. Instead, he cared much more about helping me heal my broken ‘mentality’ than he did about comforting my temporary painful ‘reality’. And for that, I will always be grateful!

      As the saying goes, “Give a person a fish, and you feed them for a day. Teach a person how to fish, and you feed them for a lifetime.” This is what Randy does.

      I too was pissed off at Randy when he first put ‘me’ back in my face … and like you, I wanted to just brush my hands and walk away … I tried, but I just couldn’t. I couldn’t turn completely away - because the truth is the Truth. And by virtue of the fact that you say you are willing to continue to hang around this community and participate in discussions, I believe something inside you knows there are nuggets of truth for you here too.

      So, even if the message is hard to swallow and not completely easy to understand at first, based on my own experience, PLEASE don’t shoot the messenger! (Especially this one!) Stick around for a while as I did and I can’t wait to see what a happier, wealthier, more prosperous space you will be in when this time rolls around again next year.
      Just my prosperous wish for you, Annie.

      K

      1. KimbraLee,

        Thank you for time and efforts. I am not a victim. I was angry with Randy for a real reason.

        Thank you for your story too. I wish you would write a book. I would absolutely read it and tell my friends to do the same. You are someone I wish I could meet in real life.

        Thank you for the the prosperity wishes also. I plan on being prosperous. I will owe some of my success to Randy and his message. I will continue to respect at least most of his message. I am not so sure I will respect him, until he debates me in a value for value exchange.

        1. Annie -

          I’m going to hold you to those book sales …

          and you can bet that a percentage of the profits will be definitely be tithed back in a certain mentor’s direction. 😉

          K

        1. Good thing learning to gracefully laugh at myself is also one of my up and coming skillsets, huh?

          Oh, and … please don’t ban me from the poetry contest this year ... it’s not your money that I want anymore anyhow, it’s your …

          well … I’ll just have to get back to you on that! 😉

          K

      2. Brave as it is to share personal "aha" moments, you were inaccurate in your preceptions. My belief that we must help the less fortunate with entitlements that are forced, is not a self defeating blind spot. These are my core values. They define who I am and what I stand for. I will stand up always for my belief in helping others who may not be able to help themselves. Yes, that means teaching them to help themselves as well, if they are able. My favorite bibllical quote is this. "Whatsoever you do to the least of my bretheren, you do unto me." Matthew 25:40

        If we stop government taxes to help the needy, people would not get enough charity to live, they barely do now, and it is not because we are forced. There is still so much hate and discrimination and abuse of power in America that good people must stand up for what evil people would do with the freedom of which Randy speaks. I believe we must vote to force people to pay taxes that help the needy so the do get help. Yes, I am saying we must vote for universal programs that force us to pay taxes. Every life is worh this, not just for some nebulous "others" all of us. People will die if we don't and do. Then we would all be less prosperous, because lives and love would be lost.

        More healthy well educated people will mean a more prosperous nation. Our welfare system has flaws but rest assured it is neccessary.

        We are entitled to some things in life. I believe we are entitled to dignity and respect and kindness. And the less fortunate are entitled to be helped because of the evils we are all culpable in. Hatred and discrimination do exist and if everyone right now was free to do with their money what they wish, the less fortunate would not be taken care of . We would be implicit in this evil even if we give our money freely. We still are here in America because we do not do enough to help others.

        If you believe racism and sexism do not exist you believe a lie. Don't be a band of fools who blindly follow a set of values based on greed. That will only weaken all of humankind.

        Speaking of the entitlement of respecting one another. I owe Randy an apology for being disrespectful with my harsh words. My anger was justified, my mean words not so much.

        I was angry because I felt wether intentional or not you misconstrued the meanings of my words. I said your message was for folks higher on Abraham Maslow's hierachy of needs pyramid(thats a lot of people) and most white men. I am on higher up on that, I have clothes, food, shelter, love. Your message will work for me. But someone who is hungry and in need of shelter will not have the energy or time to read your book.

        1. I wasn't finished. We must help the underpriviliged. This is why I accuse Randy of incongruent politics. He says he helps the less fortunate, which means he must care about them, but supports a political stance that would hurt them. Also, as I have laid out above it will hurt the chances for many to be prosperous.

          Wake up!! Use those critical thinking skills man. The libertarian message of humanitarianism is lovely. But there is a lie inherent in the message. Everyone in America would have to feel exactly as you feel for that to work Randy. They don't. This country is not already filled with wealth individual who would give freely of there money to the less fortunate. There is still to much hate, poverty, discrimination and poptarts for people to not be forced to help others. We are just not ready not everyone would do the right thing. Don't look at people on welfare as codependent. Save that for alcoholics anonymous. We are codependent and need each other. This is the only way right now Humanity will be humane. Just because a political stance promises something, doesn't mean it will deliver. Right now I think the Libertarians are bringing mostly hate into our nations politics.

          That is not prosperity. Preaching this political stance makes you a false prophet. Otherwise, your message is one of tolerance, forgiveness, and self-worhiness. If that was all your message was, Oprah would probably have invited you on her show. And you would be more prosperous too. Oprah loves people who truly inspire others.

        2. It is important not to judge policies by their intention. We need to look at the results that they produce. Most of the policies that are in place the help the needy are the very ones which are causing them to be in that situation.

          The health care policies are the very ones that make health care unaffordable. I explained this in the last blog so I won't go into it again. But when we see the results of the 'help the poor' policies it tells a very different story than the intentions. Most of them are actually set up to protect a special interest group and they are passed by selling it as a help the poor policy. It only takes a little bit of research to see that this is the case time and time again.

          Randy supports a system which helps the poor most. Why do you think so many poor people fled to America when it opened its doors?

          It is the system that you support that hurts the poor the most. It minimises their opportunities, pushes up the cost of health care, prices them out of the labour force, sends them into a welfare programme that has disincentives for getting out of it, monopolies the school system while providing dreadful service, locks out better and lower cost alternatives and treats it's customers like prisoners. Anyone who wants to send their children to an alternative source of education has to pay twice. They are forced to pay for public eduction through taxes, then they have to pay for the private fees on top. Without all the regulations the private market would provide much better and much cheaper education for poor families.

          Hitler knew what was best for everyone and liked force to get what he wants. Listen to his speeches they are very inspiring. But the results were very different from the intentions.

          Randy likes voluntary co operation. If you want to contribute to the less fortunate then you should get to decide how you want to do this. That was the principles America was founded on. Now the Socialists have moved in and want to take money to help themselves and harm the poorest.

          Do you think people fled to america for the good welfare programmes or for freedom to make their own lives as they wanted?

          1. David-

            I cannot and will not deny that many of our social policies in America are flawed. Quite simply they are.And to Kimbralee, I also have to aggree that some will abuse the system and the system will abuse them. There are not easy answers and that is the problem.

            I do know however that people need help, and it is in our "self-interest" to help them. We need each other, not in a codependent sick way, but as a means of survival. I think even Bruce Lipton is saying that. I don't get how you all don't see that you are still sticking up for Darwinian survival of the fittest theory, while saying you support Lipton's finding.

            If we all just go about our own self interest without regard for others, I believe we lose love and community.

            I believe in a Christian philosophy of helping others, not out of guilt or codependency but from a place of love and grace. In helping others, after we have helped ourselves too, we find that this kind of love is all we need.

            What would a world where we didn't help each other look like?

        3. Annie. I truly love your heart and admire your passion.

          Fundamentally, I have to tell you that I, too, share your strong roots in the idea of the ‘tribe’. We must all care for one another and help those who CANNOT help themselves … this I believe one hundred percent. But I have to say that my life experiences over the past years have shown me that there are far more who ‘will’ not than ‘can’ not … and the line between the two is more blurred than we might care to admit. Most don’t prosper because they simply don’t know how … and too many have been convinced they cannot prosper because we spend so much time and energy defending and reinforcing the powerful labels that we attach to them (social, racial, economical) instead of teaching them to rise above those. I personally think the reason we do this is because of our desire to stay blind to our own responsibility to liberate ourselves. Its more comfortable for me to talk about saving ‘you’ than it is to get busy saving ‘me’. 🙁

          If we take a step back for a moment and look objectively at the scale of the problems related to poverty that plague our culture right now and how to tackle them, it seems to me that the only way to have a chance to make a significant impact is to become, well, for lack of a better word … significant. We’ve got to begin to duplicate the model of being successful – not just financially, but spiritually as well if we are going to re-inspire HOPE in our species.

          FINANCIAL SUCCESS + SPIRITUAL MATURITY = GREAT INFLUENCE

          And it seems to me that rather than pledging our allegiance to, and investing our faith in, a government that demands we all mandatorily contribute programs that do little more than preserve a minimal existence for people who so desperately deserve a chance to have more than that, our time and money would be better spent on first becoming, and then teaching how to become, the very biggest, brightest, most prosperous individuals WE can become.

          You have children, so surely your experience as a parent has taught you that the best way to inspire change in a behavior, an attitude or an outcome is to lead by example. This is the only way are going to build a healthy, happy, prosperous planet. We all have a responsibility to reveal to others the transformative quality of their own internal power – not to continue to join them in defending their small concept of themselves. Our world is ultimately not going to survive if we don’t.

          And while you are right on that there are wealthy people with wealth that do ‘evil’, there are plenty of people who are poor who do ‘evil’ as well. Lack of conscience is not saved for the rich. In fact, I believe in most cases that people become criminals BECAUSE they are poor, not the other way around. But what breeds conscience is never going to be someone DEMANDING you develop it, it’s going to happen because of someone INSPIRING you to develop it. Big, big difference there.

          Wonderful, thought-provoking discussion! I love what comes to light out of all this dialogue. This is good work, for sure.

          K

        4. Annie. I truly love your heart and admire your passion.

          Fundamentally, I have to tell you that I, too, share your strong roots in the idea of the ‘tribe’. We must all care for one another and help those who CANNOT help themselves … this I believe one hundred percent. But I have to say that my life experiences over the past years have shown me that there are far more who ‘will’ not than ‘can’ not … and the line between the two is more blurred than we might care to admit. Most don’t prosper because they simply don’t know how … and too many have been convinced they cannot prosper because we spend so much time and energy defending and reinforcing the powerful labels that we attach to them (social, racial, economical) instead of teaching them to rise above those. I personally think the reason we do this is because of our desire to stay blind to our own responsibility to liberate ourselves. Its more comfortable for me to talk about saving ‘you’ than it is to get busy saving ‘me’. 🙁

          If we take a step back for a moment and look objectively at the scale of the problems related to poverty that plague our culture right now and how to tackle them, it seems to me that the only way to have a chance to make a significant impact is to become, well, for lack of a better word … significant. We’ve got to begin to duplicate the model of being successful – not just financially, but spiritually as well if we are going to re-inspire HOPE in our species.

          FINANCIAL SUCCESS + SPIRITUAL MATURITY = GREAT INFLUENCE

          And it seems to me that rather than pledging our allegiance to, and investing our faith in, a government that demands we all mandatorily contribute programs that do little more than preserve a minimal existence for people who so desperately deserve a chance to have more than that, our time and money would be better spent on first becoming, and then teaching how to become, the very biggest, brightest, most prosperous individuals WE can become.

          You have children, so surely your experience as a parent has taught you that the best way to inspire change in a behavior, an attitude or an outcome is to lead by example. This is the only way are going to build a healthy, happy, prosperous planet. We all have a responsibility to reveal to others the transformative quality of their own internal power – not to continue to join them in defending their small concept of themselves. Our world is ultimately not going to survive if we don’t.

          And while you are right on that there are wealthy people with wealth that do ‘evil’, there are plenty of people who are poor who do ‘evil’ as well. Lack of conscience is not saved for the rich. In fact, I believe in most cases that people become criminals BECAUSE they are poor, not the other way around. But what breeds conscience is never going to be someone DEMANDING you develop it, it’s going to happen because of someone INSPIRING you to develop it. Big, big difference there.

          Wonderful, thought-provoking discussion! I love what comes to light out of all this dialogue. This is good work, for sure.

          K

          1. Kimbralee- we are totally running out of room here. You make some strong points. However, quit trying to save me. 🙂 I'm a big girl now. I think we need to save ourselves and others. Maybe not save so much as help. If everyone shared your view would there be teachers, fireman, police, doctors, and social workers?

            I am not suggesting only the wealthy commit the sin of discrimination and evil doing. No,no. Listen, we live in a country that is riddled with structual racism and sexism. Getting rid of the government right now isn't going to solve that. We the oppressers are all of us.

            For example, African American people were prevented from staking claim to land for years while European Americans were not. They did not get to participate in the "Homestead Act" for instance. The attainment of property insures wealth and the were not allowed to participate in that. The effects are still present today.

            Labeling is dangerous I aggree. Yet it is difficult to get around. Many entitlement programs dont work because they are shaming. We do need to change this. Welfare and entitlement programs do work. Public schools, fire departments, libraries, and social security are all government entitlement programs. Would you want to get rid of these? How proseperous would we really be.

            Yes, yes lead by example. Modeling is the only way to go. Children need to model good behaviour and they also need a lot of things given to them and done for them too, until they are ready to do it themselves. We do this as parents because we love them and want them to grow.

            I am for universal health care, because everyone gets to be healthy and would have a chance to be more prosperous.

            I don't know what experiences you have had Kimbralee, but I will share mine. I was a social worker at a community mental health center, and after college I volunteered whith a now defunct group called Volunteers for Education and Social Servieces. I have graduate studies in Social Welfare, wich included social policy classes, research and statistics, and community organizing as well as diagnosing mental illnesses. Having said all that I can honestly say these people that required services were brave and heroic, as well as those of us who assisted them. Frankly, I am insulted by your comments. You would suggest, that all of us are mentally unhealthy for believing we might have a shot at saving others, by example or otherwise. Shame on YOU!!!

          2. Please don't take that last shame on you toharshly Kimbralee. I didn't mean for it to be, but when I read it myself it looked kinda mean sorry. 🙂

            Annie

          3. It is true, Annie - my credentials don't hold a candle to yours. Hopefully, that does not lessen the value of my thoughts or opinions.

            Does this mean I should take your name off of the presale list for my book? 😉

            Honestly Annie, at the core, what's wonderful is that we both champion the same cause ... prosperity for all ... and that is a beautiful thing.

            Happy Sunday.

            K

          4. KimbraLee,

            Yes and Yes, and maybe another yes.
            Yes you can still put me down for book sells. Yes, we do champion the same cause. At the end of the day, I think it's good would don't all think alike. Usually people do want the same things, they just see how to get there differently.

            I don't think your experiences don't count, they do of course. By the way, you are right people sometimes will not take responsibility and they abuse the system I saw that too.

            Yes, we must model prosperity too, but it isn't enough right now. Those social programs do need more money, please champion for that.

            Really truly though those programs help people and do raise many people out of poverty. I mentioned what I did because I have first hand experience and have studied the effects of poverty and the role social programs play in the lives of those who are. I helped many individuals and families who were homeless find housing. I helped people get access to medical care through medicaid and medicare, and trust me this helped many of them riseout of poverty. Some just stayed in a terrible cycle and some took advantage. That's just going to happen.

            My point is that modeling alone is not going to help alot of these folks right now.

            Your friend :),
            Annie

            were homeless

  8. I was first introduced to the works of Bruce Lipton several years ago...did a hub with Video about him then: http://hubpages.com/hub/Where-Mind-And-Matter-Meet

    Since that time saw several other video talks he has done and understand that many others now have realized the truths of his discoveries. He mentions in one talk that it takes at least ten years from proof of new discoveries before new textbooks are actually in place in the medical schools.

    That is sad, yet doctors and other researchers are now able to get new information out to each other more effectively via new technology.

    This man definitely deserves a Nobel Prize for the work he has done and discoveries he's made!

    Keep shinin',

    DJ

  9. The Vatican celebrated Darwin’s publication of the origin of species.

    How come?

    It is part of the preparation to merge church and state into the New World Religion under the NWO.

    You can find a theory to fit everyone if you look long enough.

    A little truth and a lot of disinformation to keep everyone on the wrong track.

    The human race is a result of genetic manipulation.

    The soul-personality incarnating as a human being is an extension of the God-Mind frequency.

    Look at things energetically rather than biologically.

    Memories can be erased biologically but they are always there energetically.

    We do not come from this planet originally, that's for damn sure! 🙂

    Do you know who Fred Hoyle is?

    He was one of the world’s leading astrophysicists in the 20th century. He is well known for rejecting Darwinism and the big bang.

    In May 1971, this man called a news conference and made the following statements:

    “Human beings are simply pawns in the game of alien minds that control our every move. They are everywhere, in the sky, on the sea, and in the Earth… It is not an alien intelligence from another planet. It is actually from another universe which entered ours at the very beginning and has been controlling all that has happened since.”

    All True!

    Our planet is bombarded with ELF, microwave and mind-control.

    Most people have no idea. They listen to CNN. Fox News. AOL. What do they get? Standardized answers that are globally repeated by news services.

    There is no real explanation. No truth. Just cover-ups.

    We live in a gigantic Disney World. All made up.

    Now, that doesn't take away our own responsibility for all of it!

    What you see happening now with Wikileaks, Cheney and on History Channel is only the beginning. Much more is coming. Are you prepared to know?

  10. What fascinates me is the fact that each cell of mine in this moment is aware and conscious about, how my whole has to evolve not to just survive but to be blessed and rich. Struggles fade away and prosperity manifests itself.

  11. I have a comment to this discussion! If Randy had not written, that it is a sin to be poor, many people would not have been able to change.
    When you are born in an invironment, with all odds against you, it takes quite something to make you "wake up" to start believing that you, the single person, is THE ONLY ONE, that can change circumstances, by starting to SEE just that. To be poor is a sin against yourself, because you are hurting yourself, and you are accepting to be a victim.
    I can tell you a real story about this. My son went to school with a girl, whose teacher told her, that she was too stupid, to ever get an education (I do NOT agree, that this was OK!!!).
    She could respond to this in two ways - as a victim or take charge, and change the situation. She chose the last, and proudly wrote to me resently, that she made it. She got so provoked about this comment from her teacher, that she changed the circumstances, she changed her way of thinking, and the univers changed around her, so she made it.
    SO a bit of provocation is in order, when it is said from a loving and caring viewpoint - and I have no doubt WHAT SO EVER that what comes from Randy Gage is JUST THAT.

    1. Remaining a victim even when you don't have to be is a sin against yourself. Not taking responsibility for yourself when you should is a sin. Expecting that life or others will just hand you your prosperitiy, is a sin, when you are able to get it yourself.

      Being poor is not a sin. I think if I remember correctly Jesus was poor. Buddah may not have been, I am not sure. I bring Jesus into the equation only because Randy does.

      To say being poor is a sin, is a sin. You are humilating an entire large group of people. Who may honestlly be victims of circumstances beyond their control.

      Sin is a negative term, no matter how you slice it. Use it wisely for it is easily misconstrued. Negative connotations bring negativity to our thoughts, like hate and intolerance.

      Many poor people do not have a victim mentality, they work very hard and accept responsibility for themselves. Randy should stop insulting them, no matter how good his intentions are.

      Thanks,
      Annie

        1. KimbraLee,

          Do you think most people look at sin that way? Is a murderer "stuck in neutral"? Maybe, I don't know, but I son't think most people would be so generous. Here is Webster's definition of sin- "The breaking of a religious or moral law, especially through a willful act. any offense or fault: as, a social sin"

          Do you think it fair to put this title on let's say family of three where the mom and dad both work, pay their taxes, take care of their child, and give to charity sinful, if they are poor? Seems kinda mean don't it?

          Even if you use Randy's definition of "missing the mark" or "Loss of Love". Could it be this poor family contains people that love themselves and others. Isn't that what life's about, love? And if you have love for yourself and others even if you don't have material wealth are you still sinful then by anyone's definition?

          Annie

          1. Yes, indeed. I believe a murderer is stuck in neutral - for he/she is someone who has not yet the ability to embrace his own worth and gain respect for the value of his own life - otherwise he could not take another's.

            In respect to the family of 3 you mentioned above - let's call it 6, since I have 5 children. I’ll take the bullet and again, I say yes, Annie. It is a sin that I raised my children in a less than abundant financial atmosphere, because had I been ready to accept the wholeness of my potential, I could have provided so much more for them and modeled how to do that for themselves at the same time.

            Am I a bad, immoral or unloving person because of that? No. And I will step out in front of the firing squad again here by stating that I likewise don't think that a murder is either. They are ignorant to the truth, with a capital 'T' ... and our plight as humans is to figure out how to bridge the gap between ignorance and consciousness so we can quit hurting ourselves and others.

            K

          2. I suppose that I could have qualified that acronym better. I meant it in regards to personal growth and development. (As in unwilling or unable to embrace enlightenment.)

          3. Yes, I aggree with you Kimbralee, maybe stuck in neutral is a good way of describing sin. I think your right, and no a sin does not a bad person make. Show me a person who hasn't sinned. Your version is very empathetic as are you.

            However, what I was suggesting is that perhaps most people don't look at sin that way. To most people I believe it has very negative connotations. Even stuck in neutral isn't a very good place to be.

            I admire you sticking your neck out and saying you sinned. My opinion is well a little different. I think if you loved your children and did the best you and the level of consciousness you were you didn't sin. I think you were maybe heroic. It's my opinion though, and it really doesn't count only yours does on this matter.

            Thanks,
            Annie

      1. Be careful what you say Edward, all public schools are government run. Many contain wonderful teachers who love the children they teach. Teachers are our heros they work countless hours for very little to educate our country's children.

        1. What I meant was I would not pay attention to anything negative or demeaning that a teacher would say to a pupil. In the above example it shows that the teacher in this case was an ignorant person. I know someone whom the teachers told him he would never amount to anything and went and become a multimillionaire. I can tell it still bothers him that he was treated that way by them. Teachers, mostly, are not business people and should not practice foretelling the future of their students.

  12. Lamarck's theory is interesting but it may be a bit wrong. He is missing the fact that when animals reproduce, there is much randomness in the sperms ( all the sperms are different ) and eggs - and there is some mutation that always happens from one generation to the next.
    They cannot pass on cellular adaptations per se. They can only pass on the general trait that the entire organism has the ability to adapt to their environment. The cells remain the same.
    For example, I can adapt to the cold very well. I have traits that let me do this. My friend next door has poor circulation in her extremities and always seems to be cold regardless of the weather. If she was living in the cave-man times she might not have survived and nor could her offspring so they die out. My offspring get my traits and survive this cold Canadian environment. My cells did not change, I have an inherent ability, as an organism, or trait for this. I was born with it.
    Fortunately I have been given other traits that would help me survive a physically challenging environment and so do my offspring. But due to random chance in the reproductive cycle, there is no guarantee that ALL my offpring will get these traits. Those that do, survive, whereas those that did not die out. So the only ones that stay alive are the ones that get the relevant traits for their environment ( the ability to survive the cold ) and have a better chance of passing it on. That is what evolution is really about.
    In short, organisms pass on the ability to adapt to their environment but their collective cells are the same.
    Hopefully I have a trait that will enable me to learn how to be more prosperous. That trait would be being receptive to the teachings of prosperous people and applying it in the real world in my current environment.

  13. Help, help, Webmaster ... delete my duplicate post above - Please?? 🙂

    And while we are at it, any chance that for Christmas you might bring us italics and bold so that I don't wear out my Caps Lock key while trying to create emphasis?

    xoxox,

    K

  14. Sorry, folks, but I have to agree with Annie on this one. Randy Gage's (et. al.) message might pan out if we all had the same opportunities. But to really believe that we do is incredibly naive. For example, to say (or think) that "See, African-Americans have all the opportunities as the rest of us because we have a president that is half black and Oprah is one of the richest women in America" is as equivalent on the ignorance scale as saying "See, the world isn't getting warmer" on a bitterly cold day." WAKE UP, people, and see how the world (and your own community) is really like.

    The majority of us are just a paycheck or two away from needing the services you all abhor so much. God forbid if you get into a car accident, thereby losing your job and your health insurance that goes with it. What then? Sorry, but knowing that "prosperity is infinite" or "being poor is a sin" doesn't put food on the table.

    Do you think those that receive services like it? Maybe about 2% do. The vast majority try everything they can do (no matter what Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck, or Randy Gage says) to get out of their predicament and NOT have to receive these services. They're embarrassed and ashamed to, especially around such santimonious and judgemental people as (some of) you. But they receive those services anyway, in order to survive, or at least to prevent themselves from becoming homeless. (Yes, it really happens.)

    (CONTINUED BELOW)

  15. Do you know what life is actually like in the inner core of a large city? Step out of your pretty suburban abode with your perfectly manicured lawn for a moment and find out. I DO know. I've been a public school teacher (Sorry, Edward - you can quit paying attention now) in one of the roughest neighborhoods in the inncer core of a large metropolitan area for the past ten years.

    This year I have a 4th grade girl in my class who works like crazy to learn but has a learning deficiency because she was born a "crack baby." Lashandra (not her real name) has an emotional disorder because her mother, a prostitute, sold her into prostitution when she was six. She was even forcibly sodomized by her own uncle. She and her sister, another crack baby, are being raised as well as possible by her GREAT grandmother, a retiree, who had to return to the work force in order to care for the girls, because their mother is in prison and their father is dead.

    Over the years, I've taught several Lashandras, not with identical circumstances, but from families that needed many services. I'd tell them to just "Suck it up and pull yourselves up by your bootstraps," Randy, if they had boots. But most of them can't afford them.

    Randy's message is not even original, folks. Ayn Rand said the same thing over fifty years ago. I even bought into Ayn Rand's message for a while, until I saw how the world really was. (At least Ayn Rand was a little more consistent, being an atheist. I can't, for the life of me, figure out how a Christian, or anyone who considers him or herself moral, can believe the way you do.)

    CONTINUED BELOW

  16. Sorry, it's me again.

    I guess Randy's message is popular because it is very comfortable, and let's face it, refreshing, to (attmpt to) believe that we're not responsible for anyone but ourselves. It's kind of nice to be able to pass that Salvation Army kettle on the way into Wal-Mart with a guilt-free conscience, thinking "Oh, if I contribute, I'm only exascerbating their situation."

    Well, I've got news for you, folks. A community that TRULY prospers is one that looks out for one another. Sure, there are always going to be a small percentage of people that abuse the system and receives services that do not really need them, or longer than they need them. I think the difference between people like Randy and people like myself is that I would rather pay some extra taxes, etc. (not that I could afford it) for a few people who don't need it than to allow good, hard-working people to succumb, who really DO need it.

    As far as capitalism vs. socialism is concerned, I believe that if you want to live in a bigger house, etc. than the majority of us, you should certainly be able to. But to whine about paying more taxes so that everyone can at least HAVE a house, food to eat, and yes, even health care (what a luxury THAT is!), well, THAT is the REAL sin!!!

  17. I guess Randy's message is popular because it is very comfortable, and, let's face it, refreshing to (attempt to) believe that we're not responsible for anyone but ourselves. It's kind of nice to be able to pass that Salvation Army kettle on our way into Wal-Mart with a guilt-free conscience, thinking "Oh, if I contribute, I'm only exascerbating the situation."

    Well, I've got news for you, folks. A community that TRULY prospers is one that looks out for one another. Sure, there will always be a small percentage of people that abuse the system and receives services that don't really need them, or receives them longer than they need them. I think the difference between people like Randy and people like myself is that I would rather pay some extra taxes, etc. for a few people who don't need them than to allow some good, hard-working people to succumb who really DO need those services.

    As far as capitalism vs. socialism goes, I believe that if you want to live in a bigger house, etc. you should definitely be able to. But to whine about paying more taxes, just so that all Americans can at least HAVE a home, have food to eat, and yes, have health care (what a luxury THAT is), well . . . THAT is the REAL sin!!!

      1. WOW!! I have to say my two cents... A SIN id not a negative inducing word we all learn from our SINS we are all taught that Jesus died to forgive our SINS
        Second more I don't see how voting for more "Government Programs"or more taxes, handled by ... mostly well off white male or well off males, or married well of females will help your TAKE on Humanity is very bleak and if this money is in the hands of non poor opposite gender and race persons how will they ever do the "RIGHT THING"
        IT is a fact that most charities, programs, and trusts or

        1. donations are done by wealth people ... and most of it makes it to the needy
          IE recently here in Canada where "FREE HEALTH CARE IS" it was exposed that the money we give to our Native Americans 8 BILLION yes BILLION with a B the individuals that receive the money just under $15,000 thats the poverty line here with 8 BILLION every man woman and child (Native American) should get well over 150,000
          Live , Healthy, Wealthy and who ever has the most SMILES wins Cheers
          PS i too am IRISH

    1. PB and Annie,

      I think you have both completely missed Randy's teachings. Completely. Never, ever, ever, ever has Randy said that you should not help others. Never.

      He just wants us to do it from a source of inspiration and be able to decide what projects are best to invest our money into. If the project is wasteful or full of corruption then we can take our money elsewhere and put it to better use. The two of you support a system where we are forced to donate to projects that do more harm than good and then we can not oppose them. Not a great policy for a country like America.

      Randy has probably helped more people get out of poverty than any do gooder who wants to do good with other peoples money. It is funny how everyone knows what is best for other peoples money. When the reality is that we always look after our own money better than anyone else.

      Do you think Bill Gates and Warren Buffett would have donated that $70 Billion if it was going to be run by Government officials? Of course they would not have! Warren would only donate if Bill promised to run the projects because he knew that he would get value for money.

      The wealthy do not like the projects you support because they are intelligent enough to know that they do not work, and they would rather build their own projects and make their money work rather than being used to make the problems worse

      Why do you feel that in a country that was founded on freedom, that it is right to use force? Force is what the people ran away from when they risked their lives to get freedom in America

      1. Exactly Randy's teaching is to prosper and with that give back, Randy as well as others that teach this all stress the giving or tithing and even more important helping others reach their potentials..
        My point is more on the taxing to run these "Government programs"
        Canada is one of the top five most taxed countries in the world and we have social programs up the .......
        As far as I can see we have more per capital problems and issues.
        Lets say you make 100k in USA your tax rate is ruffly 20% correct me if I'm wrong this leaves one with 80k 10% tithing is 8k leaving one with 72k giving this individual room to have and give ones family a good home and even a lil extra to give more as most do.
        The 20 k the government took maybe a 1% or 2% get to the welfare or program recipient. Lets be generous and say 5% so a $1000 a total of 9k and more depending on the person.
        In Canada a person making 100k will be taxed over 50% so he takes home 48k tithes 10% $4800 the government took 52k 5% $2600 total of $7400 I know the governments programs are trying and need over hauling and not all give ten percent But the majority do and even give more ....
        i am digressing here and apologize...... but here is a cool story I once read
        A young man moves to America to follow his dreams ....
        in short makes his fortune and raises a beautiful family, sends is children off to university,
        one child gets involved with a group and studies and learns about social programs, during the Christmas break tells the father how he needs to spread his wealth around more and pay more taxes
        the father looked at his child and said that is a great idea but i want you to do something for me when you return to school I need you to share you're A+ grades with the other students
        But dad I worked hard for those grades while they partied and lazed around.
        well there are a lot of students that have disabilities and conditions that they have no control over
        But dad they never learned the material I studied for .......

        Live, Healthy, Wealthy, and Smile

        1. Wade,

          Love story at the end. Made me laugh 🙂 Hits home the point very well. I would like to try that in the universities and see how well it would go down with the top students 🙂

        2. I still want to be in on this debate, even though your fearless leader hasn't the guts to join in. I cannot stress enought how pathetic that analogy is about grades and helping the less fortune the disabled or whatever.

          First of all, I will assume that you follow Randy and aggree with his message. Randy spent this week talking about Bruce Lipton's message, and if you take a moment to read his first chapter you see it is contrast in a way to your analogy. Dr. Lipton said his class did so well because the stronger students helped the weaker and this created a perfect community for all to survive. So, yes the stronger students should help the weaker. Some of those students may have been lazy, or maybe they had other issues. The point is you should help others. Maybe getting an A for once would have boosted their self esteem. There is quite a large judgement call in saying all the rest of students were just lazy.

          Tithing is greating great giving help is great. Truth is until you work with the less fortunate, you don't really know why they are the way they are or what they truly need, unless you ask. Never assume you know what another person needs. That is risky. Community organizers in social work organizations work very hard with communities to help them determine what they need and how they can start doing it for themselves. Should we just get rid of these programs? Women and children are helped out very dangerous situations. Eldery and sick people rely on us and our taxes to help keep them alive. I wonder how much time you have spent working with these folks are studying the programs and the work they do for people.

          We are not ready for the Libertarian way of government. Most people know this it is why in my opinion it is not that popular. What would happen to all the people who rely on these programs? Where will they go, what will they do? Maybe in a utopia Libertarianism would work but right now in America we have too many dire social issues to stop paying taxes for social programs. We really need these programs and the taxes that support them. Literaly, it would be something close to murder right now to stop government funding for social programs and needy individuals.

          One more thing and I have said it before. Most poor people are not just lazy. Some work very hard. Others are lazy and abuse the system, but we can't throw the baby out with the bath water.

      2. David,

        I'm not sure how many wealthy people as intelligent as they may be, really do know what indigent or less fortunate people need.

        Truly you are not suggesting only wealthy people are intelligent? That would be a mistake. Many of the programs do work. If we didn't have them, people truly would die. We can't just get rid of government subsidized social programs it would hurt too many. We should reevaluate many of them and expand some of them and get rid of some of them. But we should never just get rid of them. I

        I believe most people wether or not they want know we have to pay taxes to help others it is only the right thing to do. It is just a bit do unrealistic to think we could go without these government run programs right now. It would close to commiting a holocaust on the less fortunate. Maybe Libertarianism will work sometime in the distant future, just not now.

        I know Randy gives his money, I read his book. I just think his political stance is unrealistic and dangerous to others. This is why I wanted to point it out to him. I don't think his spirituality and his politics acually mesh, maybe in the ideal but not in the real world.

        Annie

        1. Annie,

          First of all - The libertarian view is a limited government (not - no government).

          I think you have a habit of looking at the benefits of Forced Social programmes and not the cost. When you look deeply into the results of these programmes you will quickly see that they do help one side but very much hurt a greater amount of people on the other side (and I don't mean the people paying the taxes). The reason the libertarian system is not favoured by many is because the people with power love the government controlled system as they can manipulate it for their own benefit.

          The unions hate free trade because then the poor can compete against them. If the minimum wage law was removed many on welfare would be able to find jobs at low pay and this would push down prices for all unskilled labour. More companies would be started and therefore more jobs. Gradually the all the job prices would climb again. America could be an industrial country again and grow from there. The poor benefit most from free trade as they can find lots of work at their level or they can easily start a company of their own.

          The big corporations do not want free trade because it is almost impossible to hold a monopoly without government support. They could not put up tariffs to block out the poor countries from offering cheaper alternatives and therefore improving their own lives. Corporations love to be able to take the profits and when they have big losses they just get a bailout and let the taxpayers deal with their messes.

          The doctors don’t want free trade because then low cost alternatives would break their monopoly and push down the prices of health care. The farmers don’t want free trade because then the prices of food would plummet and they wouldn’t get money to burn crops. The oil companies do not want free trade because they would lose their subsidies and would have to pay the full cost of the wars to get oil.

          Government employees do not want free trade because they basically have a job for life even if they do not ever produce quality results. They can demand higher wages than the market would pay for their skills and then force the poor to pay them.

          I could go on for pages with special interest groups that use government to harm others and benefit themselves.

          It is always important to look at both sides before judging a system. I support a system that is fair in which the people who provide the best service get rewards. You support a system in which the people who manipulate the system best get the rewards. The richer and more powerful someone is the easier it is to do this. The poor are not very good at it and they just get a few handouts as compensations for their lives being wrecked. Yes a few little old ladies do get heating, but the greater cost is much bigger when we take a look at the actual results.

          I have been poor and worked with lots of poor people and what I have come to realize is that very few of them need any help. They just need to be allowed to make their own way without all the restrictions of government and special interest groups. Lots of very capable people are kept poor by the laws you support.

          1. David,

            I can't believe you have done any research on this subject of welfare programs and whom they benefit. It does not just help some little old ladies keep their heat on. That shows you up for your ignorance on this topic. Do you think social security deeps people fed and in housing? Of course it does and their could be more. How do you think so many poor women and children get health care coverage from medicare? Do you know how many people have homes who would not if not for government housing voutures? How many people get life saving surgeries with with government healthcare? Well lots, look it up, don't argure about what you know nothing of, it is to difficult to keep arguing with your ignorance on this subject.

          2. I can see that there is no point talking with you about this as you clearly have no idea what is really going on. You may stick to Michael Moore blogs.

            It is obvious that you and your husband are government employees. If you ever work in the market place providing real service then maybe you will wake up to what is really going on.

            Or I guess that you both want big government because you are scared of going out to the real world and providing service. It is easier to do it as a government employee because no one can see what is really working. In the market place you either 'put up' by providing what people are willing to pay for or else shut up and go do something else. If people really want something they will volunteer their money to pay for it. If force is needed then obviously they don't want it.

          3. I'm not sure how long this can go on. I think we both want the last word.

            My husband works for a very good school in the urban core. To do this you really can't be afraid of anything. Before becoming a teacher which is for him a second career, he worked providing services to the private sector, which I may add why on a school teacher's salary we live in a nice house in the suburbs. My son attends one of the best school districts in our country.

            I have worked both sides as well. Community Mental Health centers are a bit of both.

            Anyway, People who work these government jobs are not afraid to go into business. They just have a calling to do something else.

            Where would we be if everyone just went into network marketing or business? We have to have all kinds of people in the world, wishing to do all kinds of different things. Your judgements on others seem pretty harsh, hope your a little gentler to yourself.

            Annie

  18. Wow. Just in time for my internet blog extinguisher to be released. I'll send Randy one free of charge for this post and possible future encounters of the 6th kind.

  19. Oprah, Tiger and all so so-called rich Blacks have made themselves likable commodities to whites. You guys don't even know the wealthy Black folks who have not made themselves likable to whites. Prosperity vs. Poverty is a deep issue when u talk about people of color. There is great opportunity here in America and people of Color should allow racism to motivate them to excellence.

    1. You are right of course about using racism to motivate themselves and my guess is many African Americans do. However, do not be fooled into believing that there are equal opportunities for African Americans and other races, and also women. While there are many opportunities and definatley away to rise above these challenges, it is not easy. European Americans still have much more opportunity than African Americans. Much racism is invisible too, it is often embeded in laws and policies.

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  • 86 comments on “Learning the Lessons”

    1. Good stuff Randy.. curious... 11 neg, dysfunctional relationships in a row??? That's a lot... perhaps you can describe or write a post why you think they were neg, dysfunctional, codependent etc..

      1. I know exactly why this pattern has repeated itself. I also know the student has to be ready for the teacher to appear, which is not the case yet.

    2. Randy - WOW - Thank you for all that you do -

      I have Bruce Lipton's book headed my way from Barnes & Noble NOT Amazon.com - go wikileaks.ch

      Thank YOU!

      RICH Novak

    3. On the survival of the fittest vs the cooperative interaction point - how do we distinguish between loving challenges from an empowered stance to being a victim and being attacked by challenges?

      I feel most alive when I have challenges. When I don't then it feels like something is missing. In recent years I have been more focused on purposely creating the challenges that I want to take on. I love competition in business because it makes us all better and makes the customer better off. When playing football I love to take on the toughest team so I can be pushed to the limit and feel like I am going to collapse when it is over.

      My favourite posts that you write are always the ones that I disagree with. If I agree with them then I just move on to something else. I love debates with people who are most against what I believe because I have to clarify my argument and then I become more congruent. I get bored when I am with people who think the same as me.

      I know as a child the worse things got the happier I was and the better things got the worse I felt (defined by common ideals of better and worse). Being caught in a riot, high speed car chase, shootings or bombs going off was always fun and exciting, (common in Northern Ireland) but sunny, relaxed days scared me.

      How do we still get the excitement, challenge and fun that these things provide without being a victim? If we love them and if they make us feel alive and full of excitement are we still a victim?

      1. Like you, I operate well with challenges. But I've learned to manifest challenges that cause me to grow and excel, and try to avoid challenges where I could fall back into the victim role.

        -RG

      2. You can't David. This post of yours is frightening. There is no way to have peace and happiness while those atrocities occur. People are dying and being injured while all those things you mentioned were going on.

        I am so sorry you witnessed all of those things and lived with them on a daily basis.

        1. LOL. I just read the end of my comment again. I guess that it sounded like I wanted to have the bombings and shootings again. I meant it to read 'how can we enjoy the challenges in business and sport (not the violence) without being a victim.

          I still get the same rush 'the crazy times' gave me, I just turned them to more empowered areas. Skydiving, cliff jumping, racing supercars, quad biking, surfing etc. I do also love great challenges in business. Building companies to do better than the competition is so much fun, and when they are doing the same it makes us all better and our customers win.

          But I would certainly not have traded all those times when I was growing up for a different life. I hear so many children being smothered by their parents, watching tv, doing lots of boring things. I had a great time. It was scary but I had to grow quickly and now I have lots of amazing stories. I lived the life that most people went to watch in the movies. I always just saw it as a giant super advanced virtual reality game. The games that everyone buys are the ones with the challenges and exciting adventures.

          No one buys games where we get to sit around all day and take it easy. I guess that I am happiest when being pushed to my limits because I get to find out what I can really do. When we have no time to think and our life is on the line then we are fully in the moment and our best comes to the surface.

    4. Randy, there's no doubt that to get on a prosperity level, one has to master one's mind and the sorts of thoughts cooking in it. There is however a conflict of thoughts on how the West and the East perceive the science of the mind. You will be well aware that much of what is related to meditation is a Hindu science. And this goes further with the concept of Transcendental meditation. The techniques of visualization are in fact all about transcendental meditation, however, what the movie 'The Secret' has failed to mention is that there is still a barrier to someone being really bale to manifest. And that is based on one's Karma. The particle mind science however is now available to teach people how bad Karma can be cleaned to make way for quicker manifestation.

      1. The law of attraction is Karma. What we put out through vibration is what we attract. It is not something that is passed down through generations. I killed a slave 12 lifetimes ago and that is why my income dropped yesterday. I helped a blind man find his way home 6 lifetimes ago and that is why my income went back up again today. LOL

        Karma is another one of those cop outs. It is just the subconscious mind and the limiting beliefs that we have that project the results onto our outside world. When we hold poverty images then that is what we get. When we change that then the results change.

    5. You know, I've had a bit of a breakthrough time recently, so this is quite timely for me.

      I certainly don’t think we ever stop ‘learning’ lessons, because if we had nothing more to learn or no more room to grow, our existence would probably prove to bore us to death and we would all die of perfection! 😉 However …

      What has been in the forefront of my mind, of late, is the experience of ‘getting it’. You know – those ‘a-ha moments’ that we all have at one point or another. It’s that pivotal moment where the same message that you’ve heard (or lived) a thousand different times, a thousand different ways, finally cuts through the resistance we wrap ourselves in so tightly and we LET GO and LET IN the Truth with a capital ‘T’. It’s really a surrendering of sorts, isn’t it?

      I concur that the Universe is a patient teacher – and if Ms. ‘I’m here to help you see how you co-create your own pain #10’ doesn’t get the point across, Ms. #11 is waiting outside in the hallway for her turn. (I should know, I dated her brother! 😉 )

      But, what I’ve really been pondering a lot is exactly WHAT happens at that exact moment when we finally receive the Holy Grail? (or one of many, in a lifetime) As Mary Ellen quoted above, ‘when the student is ready, the teacher appears’ … true enough. So what then is the internal process or shift that takes place in us at a cellular level that allows that experience of enlightenment? Is it all cognitive? … or is there a chemical component as well? Fascinating to think about.

      All I can say is that once you’ve made it to the other side of your own blindness about something and your vision is for once, 20/20 – it boggles the mind to look back at HOW MANY TIMES you asked the very question that would set you free and were given the answer by many, but could ultimately only hear “The One” who finally got through.

      And then, the next challenge? To figure out the very best way to become the “The One” who has the honor of being heard for all the others who will ask the same exact question that you did for so long.

      K

      1. I wouldn't get too preoccupied with the cellular or chemical changes that occur at those moments. leave that to Bruce and the other scientists. All that matters for most of us is doing the critical thinking to create the consciousness.

        -RG

      2. I'm a scientist and the cellular/chemical discussions in Bruce's book rocked my world! So, I think they are worth a ponder or two. Interesting KimbraLee, that as you are just working with the awe of those 'a-ha' moments that finally break through, that you are now contemplating the next step as becoming The Teacher, The One for others. Seems like a quantum leap. Intersting that you want to be heard rather than just be.

        1. This mentality, while not new for me, was temporarily abandonned by me. I was in a pain-induced coma.

          So happy to be back ... I want everyone to be awake with me!

          🙂

    6. If we fight the problem, we become what we're fighting, and that doesn't fix the problem. That's not evolutionary growth. We must root cause of our circumstances, which are all in our minds.

      Thanks for the inspiration,
      Wayne

    7. Are you learning the lessons the universe keeps sending you? Your psychology, spriritualy, and now cell philosophy is in stark juxtaposition to your politics. You now have an absolutely incoherent message. I wouldn't keep picking except that you are the one who laid out your political views and social justice philosophy. It is in the book you wrote. You know the "Dumb, Sick, Broke, and so on".

      You have such a positive and such a negative message right together.

      I am beginning to believe you are just ignorant of certain realities that we in America live with.

      To call being poor a sin, is your sin. You missed the mark Mr. Gage. I feel compelled to say these things because you reach thousands of people and mostly they love you. Why not? You give people a message they really want to hear. It isn't that I think most of what you say isn't true, I think a lot of it is. It's just, well, a lot of it is crap too. Really it doesn't even make sense. Does it to you? Especially while you are reading Dr. Lipton's book?

      You miss the mark when you call being poor a sin because of the inequality of races and sexes in America. Have you ever thought about that. These are not easy circumstances to live with and no one can undo the color of their skin. I was about to say gender, but I guess some people do do that don't they? Oh well, I'm off my point. These people cannot change their circumstances very easily at all.

      Do you really think the African people manifested slavery in this country for all those years. Many African Americans have much more opportunity than ever before, but it still isn't anywhere near equal.

      Some people are born with disabilities which will render them forever unable to be productive or wealthy. What about them?

      I know, I know if we all didn't have mind viruses we would all be wealthy, and then out of the goodness of our hearts, just as you do, help these folks. Really do you believe this? How long will it take? How come it didn't happen before in American history, when there were not so many entitlement programs and government was certainly more limited?

      Furthermore, when you call being poor a sin, you are making a judgement call on people you clearly know little about. It hurts them because you make them seem unworthy of support or help. Please stop doing this. I really saddens me, truly it does.

      I even feel bad for your Mom. She raised you to be such a nice gentleman all on her own, and then you call her economic status a sin.

      Single women are often the poorest, especially single African American moms. In fact, I think they top the list of the most impoverished. Yes, many of them created their circumstances, but how many choices did they really have? How easy will it be to change their circumstances without government entitlement programs, no matter how broken these programs are.

      Be careful what you say about the poor. Know you are reaching the demographics that by how they think and vote can really hurt these people who often have no voice. Poor people are not just "Eddies" They are so much more. They are hard working moms and dads. They are children. They are the elderly. They are the mentally ill. They are the injured. Many poor people work very hard and still are poor. Infinite wealth is a possibility, but first lets deal with harsh realities many folks face.

      Your message is great for people higher on Maslow's hierarchy, and most white men. These are the people who love you and write such enthusiastic comments. I wish I could just be an enthusiastic commenter, but this darn critical thinking gets in my way. Ain't it great!

      1. Annie I would be interested to hear what it is you mean by equal opportunities?

        Some people will always excel in some areas ahead of others. The only way to make everyone really equal is communism and that leads to equal poverty and lack of opportunities for all. Britain and America had to go through extremely tough economic times with wretched poverty in order to gradually climb to a higher level. The industrial age was a horror story for many going through it but gradually over time most people were able to significantly improve their lot in life. The freer the system the quicker this happened.

        When Britain opened its doors to free trade with the world in the 19th century they became the richest country in the world. The same for America in that period. As America is becoming more Socialist it is losing its power and will soon fall way down in world rankings of wealth. No system offers a greater opportunity for the poor than the free market.

        To judge the quality of economic system we need to look at how people 'vote with their feet'. No one was risking their lives to get to Romania or Poland. But people all over the world risked their lives to get to America or Hong Kong. The freer the system the more people run to it, the more restricted by government the system is the more people try to escape.

        We cannot elevate people to our level immediately but we can eliminate the barriers to them climbing to this level. Most of these barriers are Government enforced. Always in the name of helping the poor. But really to help special interest groups at the expense of the poor.

        If race or gender was really the defining factor then why is the President Black, Don King is super Rich, Tiger woods is a Billionaire, Mary Kay and Anita Roddick are super rich. There are too many examples to use this as the limiting factor. Obviously it has to be something else than what it appears to be.

        Mankind has a tendency to go from freedom to collectivism/Socialism, then to communism/tyranny then do all they can to get back to freedom. Sometimes it takes the horrors of Communism to make people realise how great the free market really is.

        I would recommend that you watch Milton Friedmans programme 'Free to choose'. it is on youtube. He goes into depth in all these subjects and debates them with the authorities who are for Socialist acts. It will be worth every second you invest in watching it.

        1. David, just a thank you for a terrific, well-thought-out and very accurate response. You just saved me a whole lot of writing, and I wouldn't have been able to say it half as eloquently as you did.

        2. Hi David,

          I am finally replying. Needed some time to think. Plus my poor son has a stomach bug. You know I thought you might be Irish. I am an Irish American, it is nice to be able to dialogue with you. I was just thinking after I wrote the comment above, we Irish do love a good fight. Look us enjoying this debate thoroughly I think:)

          I wrote before that we may not all be equal in our talent, intelligence, etc., but we are all equal in our humanity. Equal oppurtunity means prosperity for all. Everyone wants and deserves a chance to live up to their true potential. We are only able to do this when we have health care for everyone, education standards the same for everyone, and adequate housing and shelter etc....

          Here in America, just because Obama is our president and Oprah wildly successful mean that we have abolished race discrimination. Do not look at anomalies and exceptions as the absolute truth. You will be missing the big picture.

          Come to America and look at the amenities and schools in the urban core compared to the suburbs. Also, mostly we still live separated, African Americans and European Americans. It is visible, and invisible racism.

          I don't believe America with it's Capatalism will become impoverished by injecting some universal welfare programs. I think we will be more prosperous. Healthy, well educated people are more prosperous. And better able to think for themselves. That serves Humanity quite well I think.

          Annie

      2. I'm very congruent with my politics. The Libertarian philosophy is based on the principles of prosperity, trading value for value. I think David handled the issue well in response to your comments, so I'll stand by that and what I wrote in the book.

        You may want to question whether your belief that prosperity is only open to white men with no disabilities is serving you. I don't think it does. I'm doing programs in Sydney this week, as is Oprah Winfrey. I think she'll take home more than I do.

        And when you see me quote that poverty is a sin, I always explain that this is based on either one of two definitions. From the Biblical perspective, the Aramaic definition of sin means, "to miss the mark." The Course in Miracles defines it as a "loss of love." I think both are accurate and that when we are poor, we are missing the mark and the love that Infinite Intelligence has for us.

        Thanks for checking in with your thoughts and keeping the discourse going.

        -RG

        1. You haven't really heard what I am saying. Does it serve you to ignore my thoughts with your trite comments? Would it serve me to believe I could only be prosperous if I were a white man with no disabillities? Of course not, I am not a fool. That is not at all what I was saying. You were not listening. Does that serve you to dismiss my true thoughts on the subject? I suppose it does, doesn't it? You don't deserve my thoughts. I will continue to post comments if I feel it serves my self interest. And well it just may.

          Why? Because the other people that post comments are worth it. Like David and KimbraLee. They both have better thoughts and more substance than you.

          So please refrain from replying to my comments, unless you have something of value to add.

          1. Me too (@Bob Burg above).

            But I did want to add that if a person is of sound mind and body then that person can rise out of poverty. They just have to know how. As far as Randy's message being only for white men, that's complete bunk. It doesn't matter what it's called (sin or no sin). I too believe that poverty is an unnecessary affliction. I am an African American woman. My skin color has never stood in my way - but my mindset has at times - which is why Randy's message is so important to me. It was something I needed to hear to help me undo some of the crap I had been taught directly and indirectly. It's easy to fool yourself into believing that your circumstances are created by your physical attributes or socio-economic status, but when it all boils down to it, it's all about your mind and how you see the world through it.

      3. Hi Annie,

        I hope you will allow me to talk to you as one of those ‘statuses’ you singled out in your posts above - a single woman, a mother of five children … for I know the stuff of which I speak. I believe you might be misinterpreting Randy’s response to you because you can only decipher what is being said through your current perspective, which has so many limitations attached to it. I know Randy’s straight forward approach … and though he doesn’t beat around the bush, I’ve only ever heard him speak from a place of loving respect.

        Will you let me share a little story here? (Sorry in advance if this takes up some space.) 🙂

        Last December, Randy posted a contest on his blog page which he does every year (though I didn’t know that at the time since I’d only recently found him and his website). It goes like this - he offers his own clever re-write of the first few stanzas from the poem ‘T’was The Night Before Christmas’, and then asks whomever is interested to finish the poem in their own words. Once the entries are in, Randy chooses a winner. (Prizes ranging from – in his own words - $100,000 cash right on down to ‘honorable mention’ in his blog – his choice of which item he wants to bestow on the winner.)

        Enter … me. Hard-working single mom … with a large family to raise, plenty of debt, trying to recover from as many sad stories as you have time to hear which included the likes of 2 divorces, having 2 businesses stolen or sold out from under her, becoming mysteriously ill for a year and almost dying, losing her home … yadda, yadda, yadda. Poor, poor, unfortunate me!

        So, I read about the contest and, oh lucky day … I believe I have finally found the answer to all of my prayers! I can write poetry (at least I think I can), and I can post my entry – It’s like the Law of Attraction Lottery … and I have a shot at winning!
        Little did I realize at that point that Randy is as tongue-in-cheek as he is brilliant at times, and I took the entire contest far too literally. I was focused on the money. I wanted that money … no I NEEDED that money! At least that’s what I THOUGHT I needed. So, I wrote my entry. I posted it. And, long story short, two days later I tied with someone else as a winner of the contest. I was SO excited! … for about as long as it takes to get down to the part where Randy’s words read “I’ve decided to award them both ‘honorable mention’ for their efforts.”

        I was stunned … that was it? But, what about the money? After all, Randy … you were the one that put the $100,000 price tag on the game. You dangled the carrot. You made me believe that I could crawl out of this suppressed, impoverished position I’ve found myself in due to my ‘circumstances’. I’m a WOMAN, a SINGLE WOMAN, a MOM raising the future of our country! How could you NOT RESCUE ME???? You are supposed to be so generous! Hey … you wouldn’t even miss $100K and look how it would FIX me!!!! … I held SO TIGHTLY to my belief that I WASN’T CAPABLE of or responsible for creating my own prosperity. Annie … I was STUCK!

        So, after I sat silently in my confusion and anger for a few minutes, guess what I did? I jumped right back on the blog, engaged my victimhood, and I asked Randy to do the ‘right thing’ and give me the prize money after all … because I felt I, the UNDERPRIVILEGED, ‘DESERVED’ it! And, what’s even harder to believe is that I did so in front of anyone and everyone who reads Randy’s page! (and yes, I will wait here quietly with my dark glasses on while anyone who doubts this goes back into the blog archives and verifies that I had enough of an entitlement complex at that point to do what I just said I did. Sigh.)

        But, of course, seeing things for what they REALLY WERE (which I could not at that point) – Randy did NOT give me the money (and thank God he did not – because I am telling you right now that if he had, it wouldn’t have created much lasting change in my life.) Instead he gave me some tough love in the form of advice. He suggested that I take a look inside at my own internal landscape (my limiting thoughts and beliefs) and encouraged me to figure out what value I had to offer the world before I looked for the world to give something of value to me. That was NOT what I wanted to hear in that moment! It made me mad!

        You see, Annie - I was not done yet romancing the thing that was creating the circumstances in my life that were robbing me of my own prosperity – my own poverty mentality. I was not just broke (low on money), I was POOR (low on self-worth). I didn’t think I had the same opportunities as many others because of all the conditions of my existence … single woman , five kids, blah, blah, blah. But Randy knew those titles really didn’t ‘mean’ anything. He didn’t even acknowledge them. Instead, he cared much more about helping me heal my broken ‘mentality’ than he did about comforting my temporary painful ‘reality’. And for that, I will always be grateful!

        As the saying goes, “Give a person a fish, and you feed them for a day. Teach a person how to fish, and you feed them for a lifetime.” This is what Randy does.

        I too was pissed off at Randy when he first put ‘me’ back in my face … and like you, I wanted to just brush my hands and walk away … I tried, but I just couldn’t. I couldn’t turn completely away - because the truth is the Truth. And by virtue of the fact that you say you are willing to continue to hang around this community and participate in discussions, I believe something inside you knows there are nuggets of truth for you here too.

        So, even if the message is hard to swallow and not completely easy to understand at first, based on my own experience, PLEASE don’t shoot the messenger! (Especially this one!) Stick around for a while as I did and I can’t wait to see what a happier, wealthier, more prosperous space you will be in when this time rolls around again next year.
        Just my prosperous wish for you, Annie.

        K

        1. KimbraLee,

          Thank you for time and efforts. I am not a victim. I was angry with Randy for a real reason.

          Thank you for your story too. I wish you would write a book. I would absolutely read it and tell my friends to do the same. You are someone I wish I could meet in real life.

          Thank you for the the prosperity wishes also. I plan on being prosperous. I will owe some of my success to Randy and his message. I will continue to respect at least most of his message. I am not so sure I will respect him, until he debates me in a value for value exchange.

          1. Annie -

            I’m going to hold you to those book sales …

            and you can bet that a percentage of the profits will be definitely be tithed back in a certain mentor’s direction. 😉

            K

          1. Good thing learning to gracefully laugh at myself is also one of my up and coming skillsets, huh?

            Oh, and … please don’t ban me from the poetry contest this year ... it’s not your money that I want anymore anyhow, it’s your …

            well … I’ll just have to get back to you on that! 😉

            K

        2. Brave as it is to share personal "aha" moments, you were inaccurate in your preceptions. My belief that we must help the less fortunate with entitlements that are forced, is not a self defeating blind spot. These are my core values. They define who I am and what I stand for. I will stand up always for my belief in helping others who may not be able to help themselves. Yes, that means teaching them to help themselves as well, if they are able. My favorite bibllical quote is this. "Whatsoever you do to the least of my bretheren, you do unto me." Matthew 25:40

          If we stop government taxes to help the needy, people would not get enough charity to live, they barely do now, and it is not because we are forced. There is still so much hate and discrimination and abuse of power in America that good people must stand up for what evil people would do with the freedom of which Randy speaks. I believe we must vote to force people to pay taxes that help the needy so the do get help. Yes, I am saying we must vote for universal programs that force us to pay taxes. Every life is worh this, not just for some nebulous "others" all of us. People will die if we don't and do. Then we would all be less prosperous, because lives and love would be lost.

          More healthy well educated people will mean a more prosperous nation. Our welfare system has flaws but rest assured it is neccessary.

          We are entitled to some things in life. I believe we are entitled to dignity and respect and kindness. And the less fortunate are entitled to be helped because of the evils we are all culpable in. Hatred and discrimination do exist and if everyone right now was free to do with their money what they wish, the less fortunate would not be taken care of . We would be implicit in this evil even if we give our money freely. We still are here in America because we do not do enough to help others.

          If you believe racism and sexism do not exist you believe a lie. Don't be a band of fools who blindly follow a set of values based on greed. That will only weaken all of humankind.

          Speaking of the entitlement of respecting one another. I owe Randy an apology for being disrespectful with my harsh words. My anger was justified, my mean words not so much.

          I was angry because I felt wether intentional or not you misconstrued the meanings of my words. I said your message was for folks higher on Abraham Maslow's hierachy of needs pyramid(thats a lot of people) and most white men. I am on higher up on that, I have clothes, food, shelter, love. Your message will work for me. But someone who is hungry and in need of shelter will not have the energy or time to read your book.

          1. I wasn't finished. We must help the underpriviliged. This is why I accuse Randy of incongruent politics. He says he helps the less fortunate, which means he must care about them, but supports a political stance that would hurt them. Also, as I have laid out above it will hurt the chances for many to be prosperous.

            Wake up!! Use those critical thinking skills man. The libertarian message of humanitarianism is lovely. But there is a lie inherent in the message. Everyone in America would have to feel exactly as you feel for that to work Randy. They don't. This country is not already filled with wealth individual who would give freely of there money to the less fortunate. There is still to much hate, poverty, discrimination and poptarts for people to not be forced to help others. We are just not ready not everyone would do the right thing. Don't look at people on welfare as codependent. Save that for alcoholics anonymous. We are codependent and need each other. This is the only way right now Humanity will be humane. Just because a political stance promises something, doesn't mean it will deliver. Right now I think the Libertarians are bringing mostly hate into our nations politics.

            That is not prosperity. Preaching this political stance makes you a false prophet. Otherwise, your message is one of tolerance, forgiveness, and self-worhiness. If that was all your message was, Oprah would probably have invited you on her show. And you would be more prosperous too. Oprah loves people who truly inspire others.

          2. It is important not to judge policies by their intention. We need to look at the results that they produce. Most of the policies that are in place the help the needy are the very ones which are causing them to be in that situation.

            The health care policies are the very ones that make health care unaffordable. I explained this in the last blog so I won't go into it again. But when we see the results of the 'help the poor' policies it tells a very different story than the intentions. Most of them are actually set up to protect a special interest group and they are passed by selling it as a help the poor policy. It only takes a little bit of research to see that this is the case time and time again.

            Randy supports a system which helps the poor most. Why do you think so many poor people fled to America when it opened its doors?

            It is the system that you support that hurts the poor the most. It minimises their opportunities, pushes up the cost of health care, prices them out of the labour force, sends them into a welfare programme that has disincentives for getting out of it, monopolies the school system while providing dreadful service, locks out better and lower cost alternatives and treats it's customers like prisoners. Anyone who wants to send their children to an alternative source of education has to pay twice. They are forced to pay for public eduction through taxes, then they have to pay for the private fees on top. Without all the regulations the private market would provide much better and much cheaper education for poor families.

            Hitler knew what was best for everyone and liked force to get what he wants. Listen to his speeches they are very inspiring. But the results were very different from the intentions.

            Randy likes voluntary co operation. If you want to contribute to the less fortunate then you should get to decide how you want to do this. That was the principles America was founded on. Now the Socialists have moved in and want to take money to help themselves and harm the poorest.

            Do you think people fled to america for the good welfare programmes or for freedom to make their own lives as they wanted?

            1. David-

              I cannot and will not deny that many of our social policies in America are flawed. Quite simply they are.And to Kimbralee, I also have to aggree that some will abuse the system and the system will abuse them. There are not easy answers and that is the problem.

              I do know however that people need help, and it is in our "self-interest" to help them. We need each other, not in a codependent sick way, but as a means of survival. I think even Bruce Lipton is saying that. I don't get how you all don't see that you are still sticking up for Darwinian survival of the fittest theory, while saying you support Lipton's finding.

              If we all just go about our own self interest without regard for others, I believe we lose love and community.

              I believe in a Christian philosophy of helping others, not out of guilt or codependency but from a place of love and grace. In helping others, after we have helped ourselves too, we find that this kind of love is all we need.

              What would a world where we didn't help each other look like?

          3. Annie. I truly love your heart and admire your passion.

            Fundamentally, I have to tell you that I, too, share your strong roots in the idea of the ‘tribe’. We must all care for one another and help those who CANNOT help themselves … this I believe one hundred percent. But I have to say that my life experiences over the past years have shown me that there are far more who ‘will’ not than ‘can’ not … and the line between the two is more blurred than we might care to admit. Most don’t prosper because they simply don’t know how … and too many have been convinced they cannot prosper because we spend so much time and energy defending and reinforcing the powerful labels that we attach to them (social, racial, economical) instead of teaching them to rise above those. I personally think the reason we do this is because of our desire to stay blind to our own responsibility to liberate ourselves. Its more comfortable for me to talk about saving ‘you’ than it is to get busy saving ‘me’. 🙁

            If we take a step back for a moment and look objectively at the scale of the problems related to poverty that plague our culture right now and how to tackle them, it seems to me that the only way to have a chance to make a significant impact is to become, well, for lack of a better word … significant. We’ve got to begin to duplicate the model of being successful – not just financially, but spiritually as well if we are going to re-inspire HOPE in our species.

            FINANCIAL SUCCESS + SPIRITUAL MATURITY = GREAT INFLUENCE

            And it seems to me that rather than pledging our allegiance to, and investing our faith in, a government that demands we all mandatorily contribute programs that do little more than preserve a minimal existence for people who so desperately deserve a chance to have more than that, our time and money would be better spent on first becoming, and then teaching how to become, the very biggest, brightest, most prosperous individuals WE can become.

            You have children, so surely your experience as a parent has taught you that the best way to inspire change in a behavior, an attitude or an outcome is to lead by example. This is the only way are going to build a healthy, happy, prosperous planet. We all have a responsibility to reveal to others the transformative quality of their own internal power – not to continue to join them in defending their small concept of themselves. Our world is ultimately not going to survive if we don’t.

            And while you are right on that there are wealthy people with wealth that do ‘evil’, there are plenty of people who are poor who do ‘evil’ as well. Lack of conscience is not saved for the rich. In fact, I believe in most cases that people become criminals BECAUSE they are poor, not the other way around. But what breeds conscience is never going to be someone DEMANDING you develop it, it’s going to happen because of someone INSPIRING you to develop it. Big, big difference there.

            Wonderful, thought-provoking discussion! I love what comes to light out of all this dialogue. This is good work, for sure.

            K

          4. Annie. I truly love your heart and admire your passion.

            Fundamentally, I have to tell you that I, too, share your strong roots in the idea of the ‘tribe’. We must all care for one another and help those who CANNOT help themselves … this I believe one hundred percent. But I have to say that my life experiences over the past years have shown me that there are far more who ‘will’ not than ‘can’ not … and the line between the two is more blurred than we might care to admit. Most don’t prosper because they simply don’t know how … and too many have been convinced they cannot prosper because we spend so much time and energy defending and reinforcing the powerful labels that we attach to them (social, racial, economical) instead of teaching them to rise above those. I personally think the reason we do this is because of our desire to stay blind to our own responsibility to liberate ourselves. Its more comfortable for me to talk about saving ‘you’ than it is to get busy saving ‘me’. 🙁

            If we take a step back for a moment and look objectively at the scale of the problems related to poverty that plague our culture right now and how to tackle them, it seems to me that the only way to have a chance to make a significant impact is to become, well, for lack of a better word … significant. We’ve got to begin to duplicate the model of being successful – not just financially, but spiritually as well if we are going to re-inspire HOPE in our species.

            FINANCIAL SUCCESS + SPIRITUAL MATURITY = GREAT INFLUENCE

            And it seems to me that rather than pledging our allegiance to, and investing our faith in, a government that demands we all mandatorily contribute programs that do little more than preserve a minimal existence for people who so desperately deserve a chance to have more than that, our time and money would be better spent on first becoming, and then teaching how to become, the very biggest, brightest, most prosperous individuals WE can become.

            You have children, so surely your experience as a parent has taught you that the best way to inspire change in a behavior, an attitude or an outcome is to lead by example. This is the only way are going to build a healthy, happy, prosperous planet. We all have a responsibility to reveal to others the transformative quality of their own internal power – not to continue to join them in defending their small concept of themselves. Our world is ultimately not going to survive if we don’t.

            And while you are right on that there are wealthy people with wealth that do ‘evil’, there are plenty of people who are poor who do ‘evil’ as well. Lack of conscience is not saved for the rich. In fact, I believe in most cases that people become criminals BECAUSE they are poor, not the other way around. But what breeds conscience is never going to be someone DEMANDING you develop it, it’s going to happen because of someone INSPIRING you to develop it. Big, big difference there.

            Wonderful, thought-provoking discussion! I love what comes to light out of all this dialogue. This is good work, for sure.

            K

            1. Kimbralee- we are totally running out of room here. You make some strong points. However, quit trying to save me. 🙂 I'm a big girl now. I think we need to save ourselves and others. Maybe not save so much as help. If everyone shared your view would there be teachers, fireman, police, doctors, and social workers?

              I am not suggesting only the wealthy commit the sin of discrimination and evil doing. No,no. Listen, we live in a country that is riddled with structual racism and sexism. Getting rid of the government right now isn't going to solve that. We the oppressers are all of us.

              For example, African American people were prevented from staking claim to land for years while European Americans were not. They did not get to participate in the "Homestead Act" for instance. The attainment of property insures wealth and the were not allowed to participate in that. The effects are still present today.

              Labeling is dangerous I aggree. Yet it is difficult to get around. Many entitlement programs dont work because they are shaming. We do need to change this. Welfare and entitlement programs do work. Public schools, fire departments, libraries, and social security are all government entitlement programs. Would you want to get rid of these? How proseperous would we really be.

              Yes, yes lead by example. Modeling is the only way to go. Children need to model good behaviour and they also need a lot of things given to them and done for them too, until they are ready to do it themselves. We do this as parents because we love them and want them to grow.

              I am for universal health care, because everyone gets to be healthy and would have a chance to be more prosperous.

              I don't know what experiences you have had Kimbralee, but I will share mine. I was a social worker at a community mental health center, and after college I volunteered whith a now defunct group called Volunteers for Education and Social Servieces. I have graduate studies in Social Welfare, wich included social policy classes, research and statistics, and community organizing as well as diagnosing mental illnesses. Having said all that I can honestly say these people that required services were brave and heroic, as well as those of us who assisted them. Frankly, I am insulted by your comments. You would suggest, that all of us are mentally unhealthy for believing we might have a shot at saving others, by example or otherwise. Shame on YOU!!!

            2. Please don't take that last shame on you toharshly Kimbralee. I didn't mean for it to be, but when I read it myself it looked kinda mean sorry. 🙂

              Annie

            3. It is true, Annie - my credentials don't hold a candle to yours. Hopefully, that does not lessen the value of my thoughts or opinions.

              Does this mean I should take your name off of the presale list for my book? 😉

              Honestly Annie, at the core, what's wonderful is that we both champion the same cause ... prosperity for all ... and that is a beautiful thing.

              Happy Sunday.

              K

            4. KimbraLee,

              Yes and Yes, and maybe another yes.
              Yes you can still put me down for book sells. Yes, we do champion the same cause. At the end of the day, I think it's good would don't all think alike. Usually people do want the same things, they just see how to get there differently.

              I don't think your experiences don't count, they do of course. By the way, you are right people sometimes will not take responsibility and they abuse the system I saw that too.

              Yes, we must model prosperity too, but it isn't enough right now. Those social programs do need more money, please champion for that.

              Really truly though those programs help people and do raise many people out of poverty. I mentioned what I did because I have first hand experience and have studied the effects of poverty and the role social programs play in the lives of those who are. I helped many individuals and families who were homeless find housing. I helped people get access to medical care through medicaid and medicare, and trust me this helped many of them riseout of poverty. Some just stayed in a terrible cycle and some took advantage. That's just going to happen.

              My point is that modeling alone is not going to help alot of these folks right now.

              Your friend :),
              Annie

              were homeless

    8. I was first introduced to the works of Bruce Lipton several years ago...did a hub with Video about him then: http://hubpages.com/hub/Where-Mind-And-Matter-Meet

      Since that time saw several other video talks he has done and understand that many others now have realized the truths of his discoveries. He mentions in one talk that it takes at least ten years from proof of new discoveries before new textbooks are actually in place in the medical schools.

      That is sad, yet doctors and other researchers are now able to get new information out to each other more effectively via new technology.

      This man definitely deserves a Nobel Prize for the work he has done and discoveries he's made!

      Keep shinin',

      DJ

    9. The Vatican celebrated Darwin’s publication of the origin of species.

      How come?

      It is part of the preparation to merge church and state into the New World Religion under the NWO.

      You can find a theory to fit everyone if you look long enough.

      A little truth and a lot of disinformation to keep everyone on the wrong track.

      The human race is a result of genetic manipulation.

      The soul-personality incarnating as a human being is an extension of the God-Mind frequency.

      Look at things energetically rather than biologically.

      Memories can be erased biologically but they are always there energetically.

      We do not come from this planet originally, that's for damn sure! 🙂

      Do you know who Fred Hoyle is?

      He was one of the world’s leading astrophysicists in the 20th century. He is well known for rejecting Darwinism and the big bang.

      In May 1971, this man called a news conference and made the following statements:

      “Human beings are simply pawns in the game of alien minds that control our every move. They are everywhere, in the sky, on the sea, and in the Earth… It is not an alien intelligence from another planet. It is actually from another universe which entered ours at the very beginning and has been controlling all that has happened since.”

      All True!

      Our planet is bombarded with ELF, microwave and mind-control.

      Most people have no idea. They listen to CNN. Fox News. AOL. What do they get? Standardized answers that are globally repeated by news services.

      There is no real explanation. No truth. Just cover-ups.

      We live in a gigantic Disney World. All made up.

      Now, that doesn't take away our own responsibility for all of it!

      What you see happening now with Wikileaks, Cheney and on History Channel is only the beginning. Much more is coming. Are you prepared to know?

    10. What fascinates me is the fact that each cell of mine in this moment is aware and conscious about, how my whole has to evolve not to just survive but to be blessed and rich. Struggles fade away and prosperity manifests itself.

    11. I have a comment to this discussion! If Randy had not written, that it is a sin to be poor, many people would not have been able to change.
      When you are born in an invironment, with all odds against you, it takes quite something to make you "wake up" to start believing that you, the single person, is THE ONLY ONE, that can change circumstances, by starting to SEE just that. To be poor is a sin against yourself, because you are hurting yourself, and you are accepting to be a victim.
      I can tell you a real story about this. My son went to school with a girl, whose teacher told her, that she was too stupid, to ever get an education (I do NOT agree, that this was OK!!!).
      She could respond to this in two ways - as a victim or take charge, and change the situation. She chose the last, and proudly wrote to me resently, that she made it. She got so provoked about this comment from her teacher, that she changed the circumstances, she changed her way of thinking, and the univers changed around her, so she made it.
      SO a bit of provocation is in order, when it is said from a loving and caring viewpoint - and I have no doubt WHAT SO EVER that what comes from Randy Gage is JUST THAT.

      1. Remaining a victim even when you don't have to be is a sin against yourself. Not taking responsibility for yourself when you should is a sin. Expecting that life or others will just hand you your prosperitiy, is a sin, when you are able to get it yourself.

        Being poor is not a sin. I think if I remember correctly Jesus was poor. Buddah may not have been, I am not sure. I bring Jesus into the equation only because Randy does.

        To say being poor is a sin, is a sin. You are humilating an entire large group of people. Who may honestlly be victims of circumstances beyond their control.

        Sin is a negative term, no matter how you slice it. Use it wisely for it is easily misconstrued. Negative connotations bring negativity to our thoughts, like hate and intolerance.

        Many poor people do not have a victim mentality, they work very hard and accept responsibility for themselves. Randy should stop insulting them, no matter how good his intentions are.

        Thanks,
        Annie

          1. KimbraLee,

            Do you think most people look at sin that way? Is a murderer "stuck in neutral"? Maybe, I don't know, but I son't think most people would be so generous. Here is Webster's definition of sin- "The breaking of a religious or moral law, especially through a willful act. any offense or fault: as, a social sin"

            Do you think it fair to put this title on let's say family of three where the mom and dad both work, pay their taxes, take care of their child, and give to charity sinful, if they are poor? Seems kinda mean don't it?

            Even if you use Randy's definition of "missing the mark" or "Loss of Love". Could it be this poor family contains people that love themselves and others. Isn't that what life's about, love? And if you have love for yourself and others even if you don't have material wealth are you still sinful then by anyone's definition?

            Annie

            1. Yes, indeed. I believe a murderer is stuck in neutral - for he/she is someone who has not yet the ability to embrace his own worth and gain respect for the value of his own life - otherwise he could not take another's.

              In respect to the family of 3 you mentioned above - let's call it 6, since I have 5 children. I’ll take the bullet and again, I say yes, Annie. It is a sin that I raised my children in a less than abundant financial atmosphere, because had I been ready to accept the wholeness of my potential, I could have provided so much more for them and modeled how to do that for themselves at the same time.

              Am I a bad, immoral or unloving person because of that? No. And I will step out in front of the firing squad again here by stating that I likewise don't think that a murder is either. They are ignorant to the truth, with a capital 'T' ... and our plight as humans is to figure out how to bridge the gap between ignorance and consciousness so we can quit hurting ourselves and others.

              K

            2. I suppose that I could have qualified that acronym better. I meant it in regards to personal growth and development. (As in unwilling or unable to embrace enlightenment.)

            3. Yes, I aggree with you Kimbralee, maybe stuck in neutral is a good way of describing sin. I think your right, and no a sin does not a bad person make. Show me a person who hasn't sinned. Your version is very empathetic as are you.

              However, what I was suggesting is that perhaps most people don't look at sin that way. To most people I believe it has very negative connotations. Even stuck in neutral isn't a very good place to be.

              I admire you sticking your neck out and saying you sinned. My opinion is well a little different. I think if you loved your children and did the best you and the level of consciousness you were you didn't sin. I think you were maybe heroic. It's my opinion though, and it really doesn't count only yours does on this matter.

              Thanks,
              Annie

        1. Be careful what you say Edward, all public schools are government run. Many contain wonderful teachers who love the children they teach. Teachers are our heros they work countless hours for very little to educate our country's children.

          1. What I meant was I would not pay attention to anything negative or demeaning that a teacher would say to a pupil. In the above example it shows that the teacher in this case was an ignorant person. I know someone whom the teachers told him he would never amount to anything and went and become a multimillionaire. I can tell it still bothers him that he was treated that way by them. Teachers, mostly, are not business people and should not practice foretelling the future of their students.

    12. Lamarck's theory is interesting but it may be a bit wrong. He is missing the fact that when animals reproduce, there is much randomness in the sperms ( all the sperms are different ) and eggs - and there is some mutation that always happens from one generation to the next.
      They cannot pass on cellular adaptations per se. They can only pass on the general trait that the entire organism has the ability to adapt to their environment. The cells remain the same.
      For example, I can adapt to the cold very well. I have traits that let me do this. My friend next door has poor circulation in her extremities and always seems to be cold regardless of the weather. If she was living in the cave-man times she might not have survived and nor could her offspring so they die out. My offspring get my traits and survive this cold Canadian environment. My cells did not change, I have an inherent ability, as an organism, or trait for this. I was born with it.
      Fortunately I have been given other traits that would help me survive a physically challenging environment and so do my offspring. But due to random chance in the reproductive cycle, there is no guarantee that ALL my offpring will get these traits. Those that do, survive, whereas those that did not die out. So the only ones that stay alive are the ones that get the relevant traits for their environment ( the ability to survive the cold ) and have a better chance of passing it on. That is what evolution is really about.
      In short, organisms pass on the ability to adapt to their environment but their collective cells are the same.
      Hopefully I have a trait that will enable me to learn how to be more prosperous. That trait would be being receptive to the teachings of prosperous people and applying it in the real world in my current environment.

    13. Help, help, Webmaster ... delete my duplicate post above - Please?? 🙂

      And while we are at it, any chance that for Christmas you might bring us italics and bold so that I don't wear out my Caps Lock key while trying to create emphasis?

      xoxox,

      K

    14. Sorry, folks, but I have to agree with Annie on this one. Randy Gage's (et. al.) message might pan out if we all had the same opportunities. But to really believe that we do is incredibly naive. For example, to say (or think) that "See, African-Americans have all the opportunities as the rest of us because we have a president that is half black and Oprah is one of the richest women in America" is as equivalent on the ignorance scale as saying "See, the world isn't getting warmer" on a bitterly cold day." WAKE UP, people, and see how the world (and your own community) is really like.

      The majority of us are just a paycheck or two away from needing the services you all abhor so much. God forbid if you get into a car accident, thereby losing your job and your health insurance that goes with it. What then? Sorry, but knowing that "prosperity is infinite" or "being poor is a sin" doesn't put food on the table.

      Do you think those that receive services like it? Maybe about 2% do. The vast majority try everything they can do (no matter what Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck, or Randy Gage says) to get out of their predicament and NOT have to receive these services. They're embarrassed and ashamed to, especially around such santimonious and judgemental people as (some of) you. But they receive those services anyway, in order to survive, or at least to prevent themselves from becoming homeless. (Yes, it really happens.)

      (CONTINUED BELOW)

    15. Do you know what life is actually like in the inner core of a large city? Step out of your pretty suburban abode with your perfectly manicured lawn for a moment and find out. I DO know. I've been a public school teacher (Sorry, Edward - you can quit paying attention now) in one of the roughest neighborhoods in the inncer core of a large metropolitan area for the past ten years.

      This year I have a 4th grade girl in my class who works like crazy to learn but has a learning deficiency because she was born a "crack baby." Lashandra (not her real name) has an emotional disorder because her mother, a prostitute, sold her into prostitution when she was six. She was even forcibly sodomized by her own uncle. She and her sister, another crack baby, are being raised as well as possible by her GREAT grandmother, a retiree, who had to return to the work force in order to care for the girls, because their mother is in prison and their father is dead.

      Over the years, I've taught several Lashandras, not with identical circumstances, but from families that needed many services. I'd tell them to just "Suck it up and pull yourselves up by your bootstraps," Randy, if they had boots. But most of them can't afford them.

      Randy's message is not even original, folks. Ayn Rand said the same thing over fifty years ago. I even bought into Ayn Rand's message for a while, until I saw how the world really was. (At least Ayn Rand was a little more consistent, being an atheist. I can't, for the life of me, figure out how a Christian, or anyone who considers him or herself moral, can believe the way you do.)

      CONTINUED BELOW

    16. Sorry, it's me again.

      I guess Randy's message is popular because it is very comfortable, and let's face it, refreshing, to (attmpt to) believe that we're not responsible for anyone but ourselves. It's kind of nice to be able to pass that Salvation Army kettle on the way into Wal-Mart with a guilt-free conscience, thinking "Oh, if I contribute, I'm only exascerbating their situation."

      Well, I've got news for you, folks. A community that TRULY prospers is one that looks out for one another. Sure, there are always going to be a small percentage of people that abuse the system and receives services that do not really need them, or longer than they need them. I think the difference between people like Randy and people like myself is that I would rather pay some extra taxes, etc. (not that I could afford it) for a few people who don't need it than to allow good, hard-working people to succumb, who really DO need it.

      As far as capitalism vs. socialism is concerned, I believe that if you want to live in a bigger house, etc. than the majority of us, you should certainly be able to. But to whine about paying more taxes so that everyone can at least HAVE a house, food to eat, and yes, even health care (what a luxury THAT is!), well, THAT is the REAL sin!!!

    17. I guess Randy's message is popular because it is very comfortable, and, let's face it, refreshing to (attempt to) believe that we're not responsible for anyone but ourselves. It's kind of nice to be able to pass that Salvation Army kettle on our way into Wal-Mart with a guilt-free conscience, thinking "Oh, if I contribute, I'm only exascerbating the situation."

      Well, I've got news for you, folks. A community that TRULY prospers is one that looks out for one another. Sure, there will always be a small percentage of people that abuse the system and receives services that don't really need them, or receives them longer than they need them. I think the difference between people like Randy and people like myself is that I would rather pay some extra taxes, etc. for a few people who don't need them than to allow some good, hard-working people to succumb who really DO need those services.

      As far as capitalism vs. socialism goes, I believe that if you want to live in a bigger house, etc. you should definitely be able to. But to whine about paying more taxes, just so that all Americans can at least HAVE a home, have food to eat, and yes, have health care (what a luxury THAT is), well . . . THAT is the REAL sin!!!

        1. WOW!! I have to say my two cents... A SIN id not a negative inducing word we all learn from our SINS we are all taught that Jesus died to forgive our SINS
          Second more I don't see how voting for more "Government Programs"or more taxes, handled by ... mostly well off white male or well off males, or married well of females will help your TAKE on Humanity is very bleak and if this money is in the hands of non poor opposite gender and race persons how will they ever do the "RIGHT THING"
          IT is a fact that most charities, programs, and trusts or

          1. donations are done by wealth people ... and most of it makes it to the needy
            IE recently here in Canada where "FREE HEALTH CARE IS" it was exposed that the money we give to our Native Americans 8 BILLION yes BILLION with a B the individuals that receive the money just under $15,000 thats the poverty line here with 8 BILLION every man woman and child (Native American) should get well over 150,000
            Live , Healthy, Wealthy and who ever has the most SMILES wins Cheers
            PS i too am IRISH

      1. PB and Annie,

        I think you have both completely missed Randy's teachings. Completely. Never, ever, ever, ever has Randy said that you should not help others. Never.

        He just wants us to do it from a source of inspiration and be able to decide what projects are best to invest our money into. If the project is wasteful or full of corruption then we can take our money elsewhere and put it to better use. The two of you support a system where we are forced to donate to projects that do more harm than good and then we can not oppose them. Not a great policy for a country like America.

        Randy has probably helped more people get out of poverty than any do gooder who wants to do good with other peoples money. It is funny how everyone knows what is best for other peoples money. When the reality is that we always look after our own money better than anyone else.

        Do you think Bill Gates and Warren Buffett would have donated that $70 Billion if it was going to be run by Government officials? Of course they would not have! Warren would only donate if Bill promised to run the projects because he knew that he would get value for money.

        The wealthy do not like the projects you support because they are intelligent enough to know that they do not work, and they would rather build their own projects and make their money work rather than being used to make the problems worse

        Why do you feel that in a country that was founded on freedom, that it is right to use force? Force is what the people ran away from when they risked their lives to get freedom in America

        1. Exactly Randy's teaching is to prosper and with that give back, Randy as well as others that teach this all stress the giving or tithing and even more important helping others reach their potentials..
          My point is more on the taxing to run these "Government programs"
          Canada is one of the top five most taxed countries in the world and we have social programs up the .......
          As far as I can see we have more per capital problems and issues.
          Lets say you make 100k in USA your tax rate is ruffly 20% correct me if I'm wrong this leaves one with 80k 10% tithing is 8k leaving one with 72k giving this individual room to have and give ones family a good home and even a lil extra to give more as most do.
          The 20 k the government took maybe a 1% or 2% get to the welfare or program recipient. Lets be generous and say 5% so a $1000 a total of 9k and more depending on the person.
          In Canada a person making 100k will be taxed over 50% so he takes home 48k tithes 10% $4800 the government took 52k 5% $2600 total of $7400 I know the governments programs are trying and need over hauling and not all give ten percent But the majority do and even give more ....
          i am digressing here and apologize...... but here is a cool story I once read
          A young man moves to America to follow his dreams ....
          in short makes his fortune and raises a beautiful family, sends is children off to university,
          one child gets involved with a group and studies and learns about social programs, during the Christmas break tells the father how he needs to spread his wealth around more and pay more taxes
          the father looked at his child and said that is a great idea but i want you to do something for me when you return to school I need you to share you're A+ grades with the other students
          But dad I worked hard for those grades while they partied and lazed around.
          well there are a lot of students that have disabilities and conditions that they have no control over
          But dad they never learned the material I studied for .......

          Live, Healthy, Wealthy, and Smile

          1. Wade,

            Love story at the end. Made me laugh 🙂 Hits home the point very well. I would like to try that in the universities and see how well it would go down with the top students 🙂

          2. I still want to be in on this debate, even though your fearless leader hasn't the guts to join in. I cannot stress enought how pathetic that analogy is about grades and helping the less fortune the disabled or whatever.

            First of all, I will assume that you follow Randy and aggree with his message. Randy spent this week talking about Bruce Lipton's message, and if you take a moment to read his first chapter you see it is contrast in a way to your analogy. Dr. Lipton said his class did so well because the stronger students helped the weaker and this created a perfect community for all to survive. So, yes the stronger students should help the weaker. Some of those students may have been lazy, or maybe they had other issues. The point is you should help others. Maybe getting an A for once would have boosted their self esteem. There is quite a large judgement call in saying all the rest of students were just lazy.

            Tithing is greating great giving help is great. Truth is until you work with the less fortunate, you don't really know why they are the way they are or what they truly need, unless you ask. Never assume you know what another person needs. That is risky. Community organizers in social work organizations work very hard with communities to help them determine what they need and how they can start doing it for themselves. Should we just get rid of these programs? Women and children are helped out very dangerous situations. Eldery and sick people rely on us and our taxes to help keep them alive. I wonder how much time you have spent working with these folks are studying the programs and the work they do for people.

            We are not ready for the Libertarian way of government. Most people know this it is why in my opinion it is not that popular. What would happen to all the people who rely on these programs? Where will they go, what will they do? Maybe in a utopia Libertarianism would work but right now in America we have too many dire social issues to stop paying taxes for social programs. We really need these programs and the taxes that support them. Literaly, it would be something close to murder right now to stop government funding for social programs and needy individuals.

            One more thing and I have said it before. Most poor people are not just lazy. Some work very hard. Others are lazy and abuse the system, but we can't throw the baby out with the bath water.

        2. David,

          I'm not sure how many wealthy people as intelligent as they may be, really do know what indigent or less fortunate people need.

          Truly you are not suggesting only wealthy people are intelligent? That would be a mistake. Many of the programs do work. If we didn't have them, people truly would die. We can't just get rid of government subsidized social programs it would hurt too many. We should reevaluate many of them and expand some of them and get rid of some of them. But we should never just get rid of them. I

          I believe most people wether or not they want know we have to pay taxes to help others it is only the right thing to do. It is just a bit do unrealistic to think we could go without these government run programs right now. It would close to commiting a holocaust on the less fortunate. Maybe Libertarianism will work sometime in the distant future, just not now.

          I know Randy gives his money, I read his book. I just think his political stance is unrealistic and dangerous to others. This is why I wanted to point it out to him. I don't think his spirituality and his politics acually mesh, maybe in the ideal but not in the real world.

          Annie

          1. Annie,

            First of all - The libertarian view is a limited government (not - no government).

            I think you have a habit of looking at the benefits of Forced Social programmes and not the cost. When you look deeply into the results of these programmes you will quickly see that they do help one side but very much hurt a greater amount of people on the other side (and I don't mean the people paying the taxes). The reason the libertarian system is not favoured by many is because the people with power love the government controlled system as they can manipulate it for their own benefit.

            The unions hate free trade because then the poor can compete against them. If the minimum wage law was removed many on welfare would be able to find jobs at low pay and this would push down prices for all unskilled labour. More companies would be started and therefore more jobs. Gradually the all the job prices would climb again. America could be an industrial country again and grow from there. The poor benefit most from free trade as they can find lots of work at their level or they can easily start a company of their own.

            The big corporations do not want free trade because it is almost impossible to hold a monopoly without government support. They could not put up tariffs to block out the poor countries from offering cheaper alternatives and therefore improving their own lives. Corporations love to be able to take the profits and when they have big losses they just get a bailout and let the taxpayers deal with their messes.

            The doctors don’t want free trade because then low cost alternatives would break their monopoly and push down the prices of health care. The farmers don’t want free trade because then the prices of food would plummet and they wouldn’t get money to burn crops. The oil companies do not want free trade because they would lose their subsidies and would have to pay the full cost of the wars to get oil.

            Government employees do not want free trade because they basically have a job for life even if they do not ever produce quality results. They can demand higher wages than the market would pay for their skills and then force the poor to pay them.

            I could go on for pages with special interest groups that use government to harm others and benefit themselves.

            It is always important to look at both sides before judging a system. I support a system that is fair in which the people who provide the best service get rewards. You support a system in which the people who manipulate the system best get the rewards. The richer and more powerful someone is the easier it is to do this. The poor are not very good at it and they just get a few handouts as compensations for their lives being wrecked. Yes a few little old ladies do get heating, but the greater cost is much bigger when we take a look at the actual results.

            I have been poor and worked with lots of poor people and what I have come to realize is that very few of them need any help. They just need to be allowed to make their own way without all the restrictions of government and special interest groups. Lots of very capable people are kept poor by the laws you support.

            1. David,

              I can't believe you have done any research on this subject of welfare programs and whom they benefit. It does not just help some little old ladies keep their heat on. That shows you up for your ignorance on this topic. Do you think social security deeps people fed and in housing? Of course it does and their could be more. How do you think so many poor women and children get health care coverage from medicare? Do you know how many people have homes who would not if not for government housing voutures? How many people get life saving surgeries with with government healthcare? Well lots, look it up, don't argure about what you know nothing of, it is to difficult to keep arguing with your ignorance on this subject.

            2. I can see that there is no point talking with you about this as you clearly have no idea what is really going on. You may stick to Michael Moore blogs.

              It is obvious that you and your husband are government employees. If you ever work in the market place providing real service then maybe you will wake up to what is really going on.

              Or I guess that you both want big government because you are scared of going out to the real world and providing service. It is easier to do it as a government employee because no one can see what is really working. In the market place you either 'put up' by providing what people are willing to pay for or else shut up and go do something else. If people really want something they will volunteer their money to pay for it. If force is needed then obviously they don't want it.

            3. I'm not sure how long this can go on. I think we both want the last word.

              My husband works for a very good school in the urban core. To do this you really can't be afraid of anything. Before becoming a teacher which is for him a second career, he worked providing services to the private sector, which I may add why on a school teacher's salary we live in a nice house in the suburbs. My son attends one of the best school districts in our country.

              I have worked both sides as well. Community Mental Health centers are a bit of both.

              Anyway, People who work these government jobs are not afraid to go into business. They just have a calling to do something else.

              Where would we be if everyone just went into network marketing or business? We have to have all kinds of people in the world, wishing to do all kinds of different things. Your judgements on others seem pretty harsh, hope your a little gentler to yourself.

              Annie

    18. Wow. Just in time for my internet blog extinguisher to be released. I'll send Randy one free of charge for this post and possible future encounters of the 6th kind.

    19. Oprah, Tiger and all so so-called rich Blacks have made themselves likable commodities to whites. You guys don't even know the wealthy Black folks who have not made themselves likable to whites. Prosperity vs. Poverty is a deep issue when u talk about people of color. There is great opportunity here in America and people of Color should allow racism to motivate them to excellence.

      1. You are right of course about using racism to motivate themselves and my guess is many African Americans do. However, do not be fooled into believing that there are equal opportunities for African Americans and other races, and also women. While there are many opportunities and definatley away to rise above these challenges, it is not easy. European Americans still have much more opportunity than African Americans. Much racism is invisible too, it is often embeded in laws and policies.

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