Ariel’s Experience in the Hot Seat with Abraham-Hicks

Category Enlightenment, Law of Attraction

Today I attended an Abraham-Hicks workshop here in Atlanta with close to a thousand other people.

Here on this blog I’ve been periodically discussing the differences between the pathway of enlightenment and the methodology involved using the law of attraction, but there’s still been some nagging uncertainties that I’ve wanted to address, so I formulated a question I wanted to ask Abraham about enlightenment, about how thought fits in within the synchronistic and spontaneous unfoldment of Creation.

I went in somehow knowing that the question would be answered. Nevertheless, I still tried to intend my way into making it happen the night before using the LoA techniques, but it felt silly trying to nudge the system into doing something I already knew would unfold perfectly in its appropriate time…

The Workshop Begins

So we get there and Jerry gets up first to do the welcome and introductions and then Esther comes up on stage. As soon as she did, she said ‘goodbye’ and began channeling Abraham the same way you’ll see in their youtube videos.

It was cool to see the shift in person. There was a very definite and tangible shift in energy and demeanor. Esther is very playful and yin while Abraham is more deliberate and solid.

(Abraham is really a ‘they’, a collection of non-physical beings of Source energy, but Abraham speaks through the body of Esther and for the sake of convenience and discussion, I’m going to refer to Abraham as ‘she’ since they were working through Esther’s body.)

Abraham spoke for a little while as the workshop began and then started asking for volunteers. It wasn’t so much a structured workshop that follows a preset plan, but rather a series of Q&A’s that drive the discussion. Many of the youtube clips are literally questions taken from workshops.

I didn’t really feel ready when the first question was opened, so I just let go.

When that conversation finished, Abraham opened the floor for another person to come up. Within the sea of hands, I raised my hand and casually sat back in my chair. Much to my shock, I got laser targeted by Abraham to come on up. I was pretty taken aback, like when you casually scratch off a standard lottery ticket and suddenly realize you’ve just won a bunch of money.

So I head up and have a seat in the hot seat directly in front of Esther as the assistant aligns the mic stand in front of my face and whoa, Esther is much bigger in person than on a little youtube window. She’s not a particularly huge person, but she’s up on stage and just a few feet in front of you, just radiating this silent love and powerful presence. It was intense and almost surreal.

Now I know you guys want to know about our discussion, but I’m actually going to hold off on the details and specifics. It’s not that I don’t want to discuss it, but we literally talked about SO much that I don’t remember it all and there was so much said so quickly. I ordered a set of CDs of the talk which should arrive in about 4 weeks and when they do, I’ll give you guys a thorough discussion of what we talked about. No worries.

However, just to wet your appetites, here are a few of the things I brought up, the ones I can remember off the top of my head anyways:

Ariel’s Questions

Seeking the Self and asking “Who am I?”
The necessity of ending seeking
The value and role of thought on the spiritual pathway
The desire to simply “be who I truly am” in this world rather than obtaining anything from the world
Witnessing the dream world and witnessing the dream called “real life” versus actually thinking it’s real
The importance of using physical experiences and our emotions as a way to remember who we are

Abraham would cut off our questions when she felt that there was something to address. I never got to actually ask my full question, but instead let out some fragmented pseudo-questions as the discussion unfolded. Instead of trying to get my question out, I sat back and trusted the process, knowing that people had come to listen to Abraham speak, not me. I asked a series of questions, but couldn’t quite get to a place of satisfaction and completion until the end. It felt like what I had come up for had been left unanswered. I remember looking Abraham/Esther in the eyes and us sharing this look of incomplete and unsettled business. In the end though, it worked itself out. It’s been a few hours now and I don’t really remember all of what was said, but I think she answered a lot of what I asked, though not necessarily the way I expected.

Actually, I just found this. Someone shared some notes from today’s workshop!

My questions start from the second question, after the question about death, beginning with the question on awakening to my true nature.

Check it out!

Abraham’s Noteworthy Comments

A couple important things Abraham said stick out in my mind (some are in response to my questions, but not all):

By asking yourself “Who am I?” and focusing on the question, you are keeping yourself vibrationally apart from the answer.
Abraham redefined “desire” from thought associated with the wanting and craving feeling to simply an idea of something we’d like to see manifest, an idea which ignites the process of Creation.
The idea that the content within the universe was created spontaneously without thought is a mistaken idea. Everything in our physical reality exists because we all collectively believe it, including our very planet itself.
Dreams are a way for us to see our current desires more clearly without the resistances, doubts, and worries that cut our desires away at the knees.
Children are those who have come into this world with a strong connection to Source and haven’t yet been taught to pinch off their connections to themselves through ideas like, “No, you’re bad. Don’t act that way. Don’t do that. It’s not okay to be yourself.” and so on.
Leadership is simply being in a state of connection with Source and living in the space of what you envision, no matter what anyone else thinks.
2012 is simply the year before 2013, the year after 2011. It is a time of vibrational shift, just like every other moment in time, including right now, not anything drastic. What we’re seeing is a reawakening of human consciousness on an individual level.
The most important thing is that you feel good. It is by feeling good that you bring yourself info alignment with your vibrational escrow and from this place, your desires can come into manifestation. What’s necessary isn’t constantly thinking about what you want, but constantly feeling good.
Your significant other in a relationship is, and this is meant in the nicest way possible, irrelevant. What’s relevant is your connection to Source and you can use this person as the focus of your attention to feel better and connect back to Source. From this place of connection with who you truly are, magic happens. Love and bliss abound.
Don’t focus on what is now in this moment because the present is old news! It’s the result of old thought. Focus on what you want in the future.

Feel free to comment on these responses.

The Selection Process

Abraham was really specific about the people she chose. It wasn’t like “someone come up and first one to stand up or run to the chair gets to ask a question.”

No, she knew exactly who she wanted to come up. She would keep working at it to get the person she wanted to come up, even if they were hesitant to stand up. “No, farther back. A few rows forward. If you think it’s you, stand up. Yes you in the red. Stop. The other person.”

She explained that she actually scans the energy of the room to find the people who have a strong desire to ask their question without strong resistance. The people she picks, their questions just so happen to tie in nicely with each other. While some questions may seem personal and individual, the answers tend to open up into a more generalized and global scope to where they apply to everyone.

In this sense, it kind of relieves me of thinking I might be asking a question that I want to know the answer to, but that won’t be of interest to any others, yet it turns out nothing could be farther from the truth. It seems like we all share many of the same questions and confusions.

Probably one of my favorite parts was all the comments people mentioned to me afterwards, everyone who approached me and thanked me for asking the questions that I did, and those who struck up continued conversations based on what we’d talked about. It was truly a heart-warming and wonderful experience.

Speaking of the questions, once the recording comes in the mail, I’ll be sure to keep you guys posted. So stay tuned for more in the weeks to come…

In Depth Discussion

Edit: Since this post was written, there have been some follow-up posts where I go into detail about the discussion between myself and Abraham on the following subjects:

Clicky clicky to keep reading!

Continued Discussion | Post a Forum Comment

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31 Responses to “Ariel’s Experience in the Hot Seat with Abraham-Hicks”

Jeff said:

Ariel, did you get any more clarity on self-inquiry? It seems like the question “Who am I?” is pretty relevant to self-inquiry Or is it more focusing on, and belaboring the question that is the issue?

Would it be desirable to ask questions like, “Who am I? Where is the one that is separate? Where is this ‘me’? ect..” and then instead of actually “looking” for an answer, just sit with whatever is there?

Ariel Bravy Reply:
October 25th, 2008 at 11:08 pm
lol, I know, right?

Self-inquiry is a tool and there’s a right way and a wrong way to use it, the same way as any other tool like a hammer. Give an idiot a hammer and he’ll pound holes in the wall. Give a carpenter a hammer and he can create a room like the one you’re sitting in now.

Adya talks about meditative self-inquiry which isn’t an intellectual debate, but it goes in and engages the physical body and is more about really feeling if the answer to “Who am I?” is true. The response doesn’t need to be verbalized, only experienced.

Perhaps Abraham was referring to simply being in the space of asking the question whereas its designed to lead you into a place where you’re recognizing that you’re something other the mental, intellectual self, where the very “I” who’s asking the question dissolves, unlike with other questions we could ask.

So I’m not entirely convinced that this specific question should be thrown out, particularly when I’ve had such wonderful experiences from it, as have many other spiritual practitioners.

Nevertheless, it isn’t until the seeking and questioning itself ceases that realization can occur and on this level, I would completely agree with Abraham. Self-inquiry is an ego game used to actually unravel the ego. It’s not the only way to enlightenment, but it is a direct and rapid way.
Liora said:

I was there today, too. I was the woman who mentioned cancer and medical debt and a number of other things. Funny, when I was up there, I understood and thought I would be able to remember everything, but it’s become harder to think of all they said. I remember bits and pieces. I ordered the CDs, too. What an experience, wasn’t it? Any doubt within me has been eliminated. I believe, and I am so excited. I also asked very specifically several times over to be called into the hot seat and set my intention on it and really believed it would happen, and then she said “we are thinking of two people,” and she looked right at me. I wasn’t anywhere close to the stage. I knew it was me. It was so exciting. I felt like running down the aisle like it was The Price is Right or something. The people around me knew how badly I wanted to be up there, so they were so excited and all in tears by the time I got back to my seat. One of the most amazing experiences of my life. I hope yours, too!

Ariel Bravy Reply:
October 26th, 2008 at 12:11 am
Hey Liora! I remember your question vividly as well as the ecstatic feeling of the entire room after you finished your discussion with Abraham. You were the “woman in red” I mentioned above.

It’s great hearing from you, Liora, and thank you so much for giving us a taste of your experience. I’m so excited to see all the books that will be written about you.
Scarface said:

Reading your post and the notes on that forum, I now begin to think I had one misunderstanding about the Loa stuff. I have used Loa before and got the result I was looking for, but it mostly made me think when I achieved what i wanted “Is this it, Is this what for I had been putting al this effort in. What a dissapointment, this did not satisfy me as deeply as I thought it would”, and stuff like that.
Now I know I’m really understudied in the Loa, all I read on a forum somewhere to do like 4 steps: know as specific as possible what you want, visualize or daydream about it for like 2 minutes, say the affirmation whith it, Surrender and not worry about the outcome of it anymore, throughtout the day ask yourself the right questions and think the right things that comply with what you want. So excuse me if it is somewhat of a simple question.
But is it so that I misinterpreted that it was all about GETTING the endresult what you wanted, and that it actually is more about the DOING towards what you want?

Ariel Bravy Reply:
October 26th, 2008 at 5:34 am
Scarface, you just hit on a MAJOR issue. Thank you for bringing this up and yeah, what you mention mirrors my experience as well.

It’s not about the end result, but about being who you are. Who you are is joy, love, and bliss. By being who you truly are, all else will be given to you. “Seek first the kingdom of God and all else will be added unto you.”

Using the metaphor of placing an order with the universe, you just do the visualization process for a short while to place your order, then completely LET IT GO and get on with your life and simply be you as the universe does its thing and plays deliveryman. In the meantime, feel good. Live. Laugh. Love. In joy. Enjoy.

There’s no need to keep asking and asking and asking because once you ask, the answer and everything necessary to manifest that result is already available.

If we were to keep asking repeatedly, it’d be because we’re not trusting that the universe heard us the first time, or that we believe we need to keep focusing on it until it happens, which isn’t necessarily the case. What’s necessary is to surrender away all beliefs that are in opposition to and in resistance to what you choose for yourself.

So it’s not about GETTING the end result (even though you will) and it’s not about DOING the actions to get the end result (even though you should), but it’s about BEING who you truly are.

BE -> DO -> HAVE

That’s the order to focus on. Focus on your state of being. The appropriate doingness will arise naturally from within the space of beingness and all that you want to have will result from the actions that you take that stem from who you’re being.
Tom Jones said:

One of Abraham’s noteworthy comments (above) was: “Don’t focus on what is now in this moment because the present is old news! It’s the result of old thought. Focus on what you want in the future.” However, this causes me confusion, as I’m currently reading Eckhart Tolle’s book ‘The Power Of Now’, which emphasises that we dwell far too much in ‘psychological time’ (ie: thinking of either the past or the future). He says that when one is unhappy, “Hope is what keeps you going, but hope keeps you focused on the future, and this continued focus perpetuates your denial of the Now and therefore your unhappiness.” How do I reconcile these two dissonant pieces of advice?

Ariel Bravy Reply:
October 26th, 2008 at 10:27 am
You’re right Tom, they do disagree with the oft-given advice to be present in this moment.

I brought up this same question over lunch and someone responded that Abraham’s viewpoint on this is that being present in the moment is just a mistaken understanding or something along those lines.

Scarface Reply:
October 27th, 2008 at 5:43 am
Dear Tom Jones,
I am not well known with the teachings of Loa and Eckhart Tolle but I would like to add 1 thing about “Time”.
A physician can tell you that “NOW” doesn’t exist. So that word is an illusion. Because when you say “now” it’s already the past. You can’t crasp the now. But also, this fycticious ‘now’ contains the future, when yo do something in this fycticious ‘now’ it will change where you are in the future (aka next fycticious ‘now’).
So as the physician says. The comcept of time, has in what we call the “now”: both past and future in it. But the Now itself doesn’t exist.
So the use of the word now in these different concepts is likely to go create misunderstanding in one’s mind, when one tries to synchronise and match the diffrerent concepts.

Michael Hussar Reply:
October 27th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
With regard to your question:
—————————————
>“Don’t focus on what is now in this moment because the present is old news! It’s the result of old thought. Focus on what you want in the future.” However, this causes me confusion, as I’m currently reading Eckhart Tolle’s book ‘The Power Of Now’, which emphasises that we dwell far too much in ‘psychological time’ (ie: thinking of either the past or the future). He says that when one is unhappy, “Hope is what keeps you going, but hope keeps you focused on the future, and this continued focus perpetuates your denial of the Now and therefore your unhappiness.” How do I reconcile these two dissonant pieces of advice?
———————————————

I believe the problem lies in what is meant by “Don’t focus”. I don’t believe that Abraham is suggesting that
a person not be here and now. For whatever else could you do or be? Here and now is always where you are. To deny that is to, of course, as you’ve paraphrased Tolle “dwell far too much in ‘psychological time’ (ie: thinking of either the past or the future)”.

I believe that Abraham was suggesting was that while you are in the present, do not deny, i.e. actively push away the present situation, (If you read/listen to other Abraham talks, he will explain how pushing away something you don’t want is a sure way of attracting it to you) but avoid ATTACHMENT to what is now. A fine old metaphor is the geese flying over a
mountain lake. The geese do not mean to cast a reflection and the lake does not mean to receive it. The reflection comes across the lake (as one’s present situation come’s across one’s mind), but the lake does not hold it. In the same way, if we do not hold on to what is in the present, we we will have achieved what, I believe, Abraham means by saying “Don’t focus on what is now”, while at the same time remaining in the here and now. There are many things going on in the present. By focusing and perseverating on one of these things, we are no longer fully here and now. We have entered the particular discriminating space of a given aspect of our present situation. While thinking about how we don’t like the car we drive “now”, we are not being fully in the NOW. There may be birds chirping or light dancing off the fenders, or a beautiful cloud etc. that were also in our NOW that we’ve missed and perhaps could have helped elevated our mood.

Hope that helps

Tom Jones Reply:
October 27th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Thanks, Michael. That does indeed help me.
David Boxen said:

“What’s necessary isn’t constantly thinking about what you want, but constantly feeling good.”

“Don’t focus on what is now in this moment because the present is old news! It’s the result of old thought. Focus on what you want in the future.”

So which one is it?

Ariel Bravy Reply:
October 26th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Both.

You don’t have to necessarily get to the good feeling place by constantly focusing on what you want, but on constantly choosing better feeling thoughts.

At the same time, you are constantly choosing better feeling thoughts to replace your old thoughts and current way of being. You deliberately choose your thoughts of appreciation, desire, love, joy, acceptance, and so on. Instead of talking about what is now, talk about what will be in the future, now.
Marselle said:

“The most important thing is that you feel good. It is by feeling good that you bring yourself info alignment with your vibrational escrow and from this place, your desires can come into manifestation. What’s necessary isn’t constantly thinking about what you want, but constantly feeling good.”
Wow, beautiful. So clear and simple.

“Your significant other in a relationship is, and this is meant in the nicest way possible, irrelevant. What’s relevant is your connection to Source and you can use this person as the focus of your attention to feel better and connect back to Source. From this place of connection with who you truly are, magic happens. Love and bliss abound.”
Again, beautifully put. An essential IG teaching in a nutshell.

I’m well happy for you Ariel that you got to speak to A-H. Thanks for posting all that, I’m currently reading “Ask and it is Given”, so this ties in nicely. Looking forward to the follow up.
Jeff said:

Ah nice.

It’s not about trying to force good feelings on something you want intellectually.

It’s about just feeling good and flowing with the things that resonate deeply and joyfully with you.

In my heart I feel like all this “paradoxes” fit together, I guess my head just hasn’t caught up yet,

BTW, this emoticon rocks Yipeee!

Ariel Bravy Reply:
October 26th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
Yeah Jeff, the paradoxes all do fit together and being in the center of them is where life is most powerful. It’s not this OR that, but this AND that.

Abraham said something that I loved: Surrender all control and give up the idea that you are in control. Life isn’t something you force, but something that you allow.
Liora said:

Hi Ariel,

Thanks for your response. I am glad you received some fulfillment of your questions; I could tell that for a while things were unfinished for you, but then saw, as you mentioned above, that things changed.

I saw you at lunch and wanted to ask if you meditate, because you seem to be a very peaceful, aware individual, but you were talking with someone. Your questions of Abraham seemed more, hmmm, advanced than many of the other questions I’ve heard.

It’s interesting you write that you’ve forgotten a good bit. I’ve heard this from others. I am blanked out on much of what Abraham said. They said so much in such a short period, and much of it was deep. If it were in a book, I could have paused and reread, but it’s just all coming at you so quickly.

I just wrote about my experience here:
http://www.powerfulintentions......c%3A969319

Ariel Bravy Reply:
October 26th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
Yeah, no kidding. I don’t remember if things all clicked intellectually (so much information…), but there felt to be some change energetically within. Several people have said the same thing about the flood of information that comes in and the sense of “hot seat amnesia” that happens.

Mike Reply:
October 27th, 2008 at 5:03 am
Might the hot seat amnesia be because of extra presence? For instance, you’re more in the moment. Steph always says he never remembers what he says to girls, he’s too in the moment. Or it could also be out of nervousness–you’re focused on surviving being in front of a crowd, not remembering. For instance, sometimes when I want to work on a particular aspect of my performance as a guitar player, I’ll often forget to pay attention to it when I go up on stage because I’m more focused on not making an ass of myself. xD I remember feeling pretty relaxed when I went on stage at the Hawkins seminar, a little nervous, but neither extra present nor extra fearful, and I feel like I recall practically every word.

Mikes last blog post..Alan Watts, Existence and Nonexistence

Ariel Bravy Reply:
October 27th, 2008 at 5:26 am
lol yeah, this wasn’t extra presence in this particular case, but I know what you’re talking about with respect to being totally in the zone and letting the experience just happen.

It was more about the intensity of being so close to the energy of Abraham, wanting to make sure I remembered my question (Liora, who posted above, even brought her questions written down on paper just in case), and consciously (as opposed to naturally) being present to help tend to the nervousness.
Terry said:

Just read your experience in the ‘hot seat’ with Abraham. You must have had butterflies in your stomach, or where you chilled about the whole experience. Anyway, the vibration of your experience felt good and surreal all at once. I’ll add you as a friend in the ‘power of intentions’ page. Look forward talking more with you. What changes — for the better — have you observed since your experience and, have you stop believing in this so-call 2012 hpye?

I’m so glad Abraham put it to you more clearing about 2012. I wish more people would stop the mayhem about it, and realize it will be another year, much in alignment with another year. Just like the year 2000, when everyone thought the end would happen.

Talk soon Ariel, and I really mean to talk more with you.

Terry

Ariel Bravy Reply:
October 27th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
haha Terry, there was definitely a feeling of butterflies in the stomach, as well as a deliberate movement to bring calmness within during the experience.

As for what changes have there been since? The main thing was a reinforcement of the call to stop seeking in every area of my life. I’ve made a list of the questions I have to bring clarity to them, then let them go and in this space of allowing and in the openness to receiving answers, the answers I seek are already presenting themselves.

As far as 2012, they say it’s going to be a sort of critical mass of shift of consciousness. Will there be some massive event that happens? Maybe, maybe not. Either way, the most important thing is to focus on who we’re being, as always. Circumstance don’t matter. Only our state of being matters. What happens happens. It’s how we respond to what happens which is what really matters. So, no worries!

Terry Reply:
October 28th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
The main thing (when I started listening to Abraham) was also to stop seeking in every area of my life. Now I put out my desire, relax, and ride with the vibration.

One quick question. Abraham speaks of clearing-up, cleaning-up your vibration. Did you get better clarity about that and, what does Abraham mean by ‘cleaning-up one’s vibration? Is there a step one, step two and step three process to this. Or is it just, feeling good, and going with the flow.

Terry

Ariel Bravy Reply:
October 28th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
Terry, that’s great to hear about you choosing to go with the flow rather than always seeking. It’s suuuuch an important point, something I’m personally realizing again and again.

The idea of cleaning up one’s vibration has to do with progressively letting go of all negative energies in your physical vibration. So all thoughts that create negative emotion in your being, replace them with better feeling thoughts.

To use some more of Abraham’s terminology, your point of attraction is your main vibrational focus at this point. So cleaning up your vibration has to do with changing the spectrum of your point of attraction. Instead of going from super deep negative depression to extreme ecstasy, you change to maintain your vibration anywhere from calm neutrality to extreme ecstasy. You basically cut out the negative vibrations in your energy field.

It’s not really a step-by-step process, but it does involve choosing progressively better feeling thoughts. It may help to review their emotional guidance scale. This helps point us to the fact that when we’re feeling depressed and powerless, it’s easier to move up to anger than it is to total joy and love. Anger is an improvement over powerlessness for it does offer a sense of inner drive to at least change things, so it’s a step in the right direction. So little by little.
Liora said:

You know what’s weird? I went from that mountaintop experience to the polar opposite of contracting food poisoning sometime Sunday and being voilently ill since Sunday night. I’m just now starting to recover.

Regarding the “hot seat amnesia,” I listened to an Abraham-Hicks CD on the Paranormal purchased at the workshop. In it, someone speaks of how they have an expeirence like this and then are trying to get back to it and recall it, and they’re just finding they’re more and more forgetful of the specifics. Abraham answered something to the effect that once you have your answer, you know it and don’t need to keep going back to the question, trying to reproduce the experience. They said something like the trying so hard only makes your resistance stronger.
Ligy said:

There is another point to note about the LoA that is often overlooked – what goes up must come down: the joy received from the satisfaction of desire (using LoA), must be followed by its opposite.

Life is balanced, like yin and yang, totally 50/50. We tend to think that it is possible to experience more happiness than sadness, but eastern traditions say that it is absolutely not, sukha (happiness) and dukha (sadness) actually arise together – being opposite sides of a single coin – that coin is manifestation itself.

The only way to withstand the polarity is to go deeper into the Self, as the witness. When we abide as the witness, the polarity of reality becomes less polar. Eckhart Tolle speaks of this as a magical aspect of living in the Now (as the witness).

However, when we require objects and circumstances to complete us we are then “object-identified,” instead of “Self-identified” and must endure the deepest aspects of the polarity – as misery after we have chased down and experienced our desire.

Certainly we should be content with our material circumstances. But most of us enslave ourselves to circumstances – demanding that circumstances change, and that those changed circumstances produce the spiritual sensation of happiness within us. Indeed, happiness is our true nature – but the only way to experience it on a continual basis is to abide as the witness. Identification with thoughts, emotions, but most especially desire, is an impediment to our contentment.

Desire is function of the Ego – looking outward to the transient world of manifestion for its completion, desire feeds into desire in an endless loop without satisfaction. Looking inward, the Ego finds its true nature, and rests content at last.

Life is meant to be easy, effortless, and prosperous – but I find that to achieve that most effectively, you must simply surrender to your higher Self, and live in the now (quiet mind, heightened perception). With a mind quieted by meditation, you will find yourself having inspirations and impulses – follow these to your highest, best and least polar, fulfillment.

Ariel Bravy Reply:
October 29th, 2008 at 3:36 am
Yeah, I agree with you Ligy. Great comment!

Abraham suggests that you can get to the state where you go progressively higher and higher, like a continuous upward spiral, but since I haven’t experienced that, I’ll just have to tell you what they said.

I suppose if one was able to clear up every single thought in their head so that they had only positive beliefs about everything, both in their conscious and subconscious mind, then they’d experience only pleasure. Our emotional reactions are simply manifestations of thoughts and beliefs. No negative thoughts? No negative emotions.

Abraham also suggested that desire is built into the system and is a natural part of creation. Desire, the way they define it, is simply an idea that we’d like to see come into manifestation. Now the idea that our happiness comes from anything outside of us and that we need it to be happy is a cause of suffering. Hence the necessity of learning to be totally satisfied with what is and allow what is, no matter what. Happiness, to use their terminology, comes from our connection to Source.

Ligy Reply:
October 31st, 2008 at 9:00 am
I suppose there are people who want to ride the rollercoaster (manifestation of desire for happiness), and those who want out of the park (knowledge of the Self for happiness).

Indeed, our true nature is Satchitananda (happiness). What obscures that natural happiness is the output of the mind, in the form of thought, and desire.

Vedanta teaches that the mind is naturally luminous – BUT FOR the desires that cloud it. So, once you quiet desire, awareness naturally turns back to the source of its own being – the Self – and that is actually the only STABLE source of happiness.

I’ll agree with Abraham that it is connection with Source that matters – the true wellspring of contentment we seek. However, the problem is still that LoA teachings promote object-identification. Abraham seems to temper that by saying we must maintain a connection with Source – but that part is dismissed by most.

Abundance is natural to life, so is ease, so is creativity. Indeed, you, your desire, and the object of your desire are all the Self. The only point I want to make is, witness the desire that arises in your mind as the desire of the Self, then witness the unfolding of the path to the desire, as the Self moving to its own fulfillment. As the witness, there is no resistence to the manifestion of desire, and there is also no object-identification, which is the culprit behind all human suffering.

Ariel Bravy Reply:
October 31st, 2008 at 11:41 am
Well put, Ligy.

You’re right that the LoA focuses awareness upon objects rather than the Self. It seems to be not so much “wrong,” as it is a stepping stone towards the importance of awareness. Many people discount its importance.

So it’s like a stepping stone from thinking that they’re a helpless victim in the world, to learning to work with awareness and creation, to ultimately letting go and allowing awareness to rest back upon itself.

So we definitely can choose to skip the stage or integrate in our beings, but it is generally more practical for people to focus on the power of their awareness itself because what you focus on is what you’ll experience, including the Self.

So once people realize the power of their conscious awareness, it would be much easier to suggest that they allow awareness rest upon the Self and see what happens.
Brendon said:

Ariel, what’s the link to getting the CDs from this workshop?

Ariel Bravy Reply:
October 29th, 2008 at 3:28 am
It looks like they’re not available quite yet, but when they are, you can find them here. It should be listed as Atlanta, GA 10/25/08.