Copyright © David Lane 2014

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this work in any form what so ever, without the permission of the author. However; brief passages may be used in a review without the author’s consent.

Cover and layout design by Andy Kahle Askew Vision

Cover image: iStock photo

Final edit by Neil Hopley

Printed in China by Aomeiya Printing Co. Ltd.

Davidlane.net.au

This revised edition published in Australia in 2014

by David Lane Lane, David.

National Library of Australian Cataloguing

– in – Publication entry; 1st ed.

ISBN 978-0-9805834-3-4

Self help (Philosophy)

ISBN: 9780980583427

Acknowledgements

Like many concepts that are put to paper, a history of life’s positive and negative experiences provokes and moulds one’s perceptions into a presentable story. My journey of sixty four years has been the same. My journey towards self-empowerment took a new direction in 1984 when I did my first self-awareness course. Since then I have been inspired and guided by many wonderful authors and teachers, probably numbering over one hundred. Too many to name here! I owe so much to their commitment, and to the contributions that they have made to both the new age movement and modern science. These people have come from areas such as spiritual teachings (modern and esoteric), quantum and conventional physics, the healing industry, channelled information, the teachers of astrology and numerology, sacred geometry and many other researchers and searchers. I say ‘thank you’ to all these people and the many others who have influenced my journey. Closer to home, I want to thank the team that helped get this book to the production stage: my friends that have given so much support in helping develop this book, Neil Hopley, my business advisor and coach who has kept me focused on the goal. David Ford, who has both supported and challenged me to speak my truth. My parents, for believing in me even though they found it hard to relate to my beliefs; and my two children, Garry and Kelly, who have always believed in me. Last, but not least, I thank my wife Nicolie for all her love and support. She created the environment that I needed to research and to write this book. Thanks and love to you all. The world is a better place because of people like you.

Contents

Introduction

The concept of this book, Personal Power, was born during my early teenage years. The recognition of a deep loneliness and a desire to seek an understanding of the deeper purposes of my life. This journey has taken many twists and turns causing a lot of pain and confusion, and sometimes leaving me with no direction at all. My reasonably stable childhood provided me with a sense of belief in myself. On the other side of the coin; it filled my life up with contradictions and fear. Much of my early confusion lay in the teachings of the church; the very institution that was supposed to provide me with the answers to understanding the purpose of life.

I was born into a loving Christian family. This Church’s beliefs are basically the same as that of other Christian denominations; they are all based on ‘love’ and have a lot of beautiful understandings and teachings. Being raised in an Anglican family, however, also meant being brought up with the belief in heaven and hell, and the fear of hell haunted me until my early thirties. The guilt of sin, coupled with the possibility of burning in hell forever, is a scary thing to be taught as a young child in Sunday school, especially at a vulnerable age when everything is accepted as the truth. Although I would grow into believing in a more compassionate Creator, I did not know that this old belief that created so much inner instability was still lurking, hidden in my subconscious.

The prospect of burning in hell forever is a terrifying concept, but the saving grace was that the Church of England believed in the forgiveness of sin through Jesus Christ. This was a temporary reprieve for me, but by living and enjoying life, I kept on breaking the Ten Commandments, which kept me a sinner destined for hell. Even though forgiveness was available, I felt guilty, and a failure, because I continually broke the laws. What was just as confusing was that nearly all my mates (no matter which faith they practiced) were not doing any better; they were all breaking many of these spiritual laws too. It was the continual guilt and feeling of failure that led me to explore a different – and hopefully better – understanding of what life was really about.

The search for a more liveable truth led down different paths that turned me away from the Gospels towards exploring other understandings. I did not totally disregard the Gospel teachings; they just took a back seat. At times, this new journey took me on an emotional roller-coaster ride, but my determination to find an answer that made sense kept me going. There was a deep inner knowledge that there was more to the story than I understood. Finally, during my thirties, a more bearable truth started to unfold. This truth had more credibility, and, slowly but surely, life started to make more sense. Desperation turned into inspiration as more parts of the jigsaw puzzle found their place. This puzzle did not have any new revelations that would change the world, but for the first time there was hope for this sinner, and the guilt that came from enjoying life started to dissipate.

The turning point came with understanding the philosophy of unconditional love and what that meant in relationship not only to me, but to the whole of creation. I discovered that the dynamics of this energy not only laid the foundation for the Universal Laws that control creation, but that it also gave a new understanding of the reasons behind the tragedy, salvation and destiny of the human race. The subject of unconditional love is so profound that the knowledge to fully cover its immensity would require many volumes of books. This book only touches on the understanding of one aspect of it: how humans can use its principles to attain higher consciousness. My intention is to set out guidelines and give some self- monitoring tools to help the reader measure their personal growth in relationship to the Creative Force and Its unconditional love. The more that we can unconditionally love ourselves, the less fear will affect us and the more personal power we will gain. Personal Power describes the journey that we all must take to rise above fear and to find the inner peace experienced in the unity found in ‘Oneness’.

Chapter One

Personal Power

Imagine that you are looking down upon earth and watching a game called life and humans are the players in the game. What would you see?

You would be able to see a myriad of variations of the game being played. Even if certain groups of players have chosen the same game, no two players would be experiencing the game in exactly the same way as anybody else in the group because each player is so individual and therefore; unique. Every game is heavily influenced by an exhaustive variety of options that each player can choose, and the game itself is also affected by the choices they make. The characteristics and rules of the game change in response to the choices and decisions made by the players. Each player leaves their mark of influence on the game and as they depart, the legacy of their participation is passed on to those who follow in their footsteps. The game is moulded and it evolves by the choices and actions of its players over the generations, thus; the game and its rules is not the same as it was many generations ago.

It could be said that the game is an evolving entity with energy of its own. This evolving entity is known as human consciousness. Each human enters the game at birth and they have to quickly learn and adjust to the rules that they encounter. It does not matter whether they like the rules or not, the game has a momentum all of its own, therefore; their best option is to learn to play the game as quickly as possible if they want to capitalise on the experience. Many are preoccupied with creating safety, wealth and happiness in their lives whilst others are struggling to survive. The first experiences of life can be likened to being thrown into the deep end of a swimming pool; we either sink or swim!

The analogy of the game is referring to the life we choose in order to experience who we are and provide us with the challenges that we need to raise our consciousness and develop our personal power. Thus; there is more purpose to life other than just surviving tough physical and emotional environments or enjoying and capitalising on its resources. The ultimate purpose is to evolve our consciousness. We need to increase our vibration through becoming more consciously aware which sets the stage for us to develop our ‘Personal Power’. This means that there is a direct connection between our personal power and how we evolve; both individually and as a human race.

One of the main measures of how much personal power we have attained is by the lack of fear that we experience. Without a strong foundation to build upon; there is always a greater danger of collapsing, falling apart or being unduly influenced by forces outside of our control. In other words; personal power puts us in charge of our life, whereas; the lack of it makes us vulnerable to becoming a victim to outside forces. Victimhood is like a debilitating disease that strips us of the energy needed to rise above it to take charge of our life. The world is full of victims who blame forces in the outside world for their situation. For example; they blame other people such as their spouse, family, friends, employers, work situation, government and even life itself for their predicament. Some go further and blame the Creator or Universal Mind for their perceived unlucky or ill-fated life. They do not realise or find it too emotionally painful to own that they are the ultimate creator of their own destiny.

Most people have a dose of victimhood in their life however; there is a very real way to rise above this and find their personal power. Rising above the negatives in our life normally requires a lot more than becoming a positive thinker. We know that positive thinking and creating does work, however; it does not always work. If our conscious and subconscious beliefs are in sync then it is easier to successfully create positive outcomes. However; if there are opposing subconscious belief systems then it is normally very difficult to create the outcome that we consciously desire. This is because thoughts create our future and a very high percentage of all our thoughts are being generated at subconscious level. This means that they have the greatest influence over what we are creating in our life and many people don’t even know they have them.

Most people who have very negative thought patterns running in their subconscious feel powerless. It is obvious that they won’t be aware of them because they are hidden in their subconscious. These patterns covertly work away, creating outcomes that make life hard, creating self-sabotage and in some extreme cases; set up self-destruction. It is paramount to attaining personal power; that you develop your ability to uncover your negative belief systems and rise above them. This in a nutshell simply means; becoming more self-aware! So what does personal power mean to you? It can mean many different things to different people. For example; it may mean being able to create what you want with ease, feeling secure, having courage, being in control, finding and maintaining happiness, self- confidence, unafraid to speak your truth, being financially wealthy, spiritually wealthy, feeling equal, being heard, being able to get others to follow your wishes. Some people want lots of money while others feel empowered by not needing it, some seek notoriety and recognition whilst others seek humility and privacy. The desires are as varied as the list is long. There are horses for courses and your choices and wants are yours and yours alone to pursue and explore. There are common denominators and basic rules that need to be followed if you want to achieve no matter whether your intention is to spiritually evolve, to be a better person or to be a master creator. Even though the principles are the same; no two paths are exactly the same. The reasons behind the choices you make that mould you into who you want to be cannot be dictated by anyone else on the planet. You are completely in charge of your own destiny and the path that you take to find your personal power will be chartered by you own choices. We can all do with some guidance and tools to achieve our goals but no one can do the walking for us.

Ultimately; the world would be a safe and harmonious place if all humans could attain a high level of personal power! This is because no one could dominate or control anybody else without their consent. The world would be rid of the victimhood which facilitates the opportunists to dominate and control. One cannot exist without the other just the same as positive energy cannot exist without its opposite polarity of negative energy. These equal parts of positive and negative energy are necessary to create balance and the law of balance is the greatest of all the Universal Laws. The more aligned your thoughts become with the universal truths; the more balance and harmony you will have in your life. This means that the less of a victim you are; the less you will attract people who want to dominate you (this is the law of balance in play). Personal power has the potential to set you free!

Exercise; have a quick review of your life. Be aware of what parts of your life are working for you and what parts are not. Now look at the parts that are not working and see if you can understand how you are creating them. If you cannot see how you are consciously creating them then know that they are being created by your subconscious. Because the subconscious is so powerful; it is either your best friend or your worst enemy. It makes sense that a major part of exploring self- awareness in order to gain Personal Power will involve being able to expose and then change or control your negative subconscious thought patterns.

Chapter Two

Super Consciousness

Nobody has been able to prove that the Creator exists. Many theologians and some scientists have done their best to prove that there is a Super Consciousness that controls all creation, but they have not succeeded in convincing everyone. Some people look for a tangible proof through the five senses of touch, smell, sight, sound and taste – the ‘I have to see it to believe it’ approach. Some people look for miracles. Even if they see one, however, they still struggle to believe what they see, and thus keep searching for more proof. Others turn to science seeking a more objective, seemingly rational understanding, hoping that science will come up with the answers. It seems that we may never find the tangible evidence and facts that prove beyond doubt ‘what’ this Creative Force is. Perhaps an easier way to understand is by exploring our faith, but this is too subjective for many; it does not satisfy the proof seekers, because the so-called hard evidence cannot be found here. Whether we like it or not, however, some faith is essential if we want to evolve to the higher levels of consciousness. While it does not serve us to have ‘blind’ faith – the kind which requires us to believe in something without questioning its validity – we do, nevertheless, need some faith that there is a Higher Power or Consciousness controlling everything, even if we do not understand it.

A good starting point would be to postulate that there exists a Super Consciousness. This book begins with the premise that there is a Creative Force that created everything, and that one of the characteristics of this Force is that It expresses Itself through unconditional love. If we experience this unconditional love, therefore, we will come to know a part of this Super Consciousness. By knowing a part of It, hopefully, we will be inspired enough to seek more. This type of love means that there are ‘no strings attached’: we don’t have to earn it, and even if we reject it, its flow will not alter. Its flow is the rhythm of life that endlessly flows throughout creation with an energy that is gently pulling everything towards it like a magnet. Even though this pull is lovingly gentle, we cannot even begin to comprehend its power. The more we experience the love, the more we see this truth; the more we reject it, the more isolated and lonely we become.

Once we come to know this unconditional love through experience, it will encourage us to look further. The more we look, the more we see, the more we therefore experience. Through experience, we develop more faith; the more faith we develop, the more we believe; the more we believe, the more we see, the more we experience. This cycle can also be seen as a ‘chicken and egg’ situation; it does not really matter in what order it happens. We can jump on the merry-go-round at any stage. This faith – action – experience – belief process is a self-perpetuating cycle whereby we come to know higher consciousness. This process also helps us to raise our own consciousness and start to recognise our own personal power. It seems to be far easier to believe in a Creative Force by experiencing Its unconditional love than by any other method. Everyone can experience and understand love because it is something tangible: even though it is subjective, we can, nevertheless, feel it in our hearts. It is available for us to experience now, whereas other sorts of evidence and proof are not so forthcoming.

We need love to attain the higher levels of consciousness

There is a lot more to love than simply expressing and receiving it. In order for it to flow freely, we have to heal the blockages held in our hearts and beliefs. These blockages dissipate as our awareness becomes more evolved. The only way we can evolve to the highest levels of consciousness is by changing and healing the negative belief systems of our human vehicle – the Ego. This brings us into balance and harmony with the Universal truths of creation. This then frees us to truly connect with the centre of creation which is found deep within, or at the very core of our Being. The blockages create layers over this core, so we cannot have a pure connection without removing them one at a time, starting at the surface and working our way down.

Many people connect outwardly with the Creator through prayer, meditation, rituals and by other activities. To communicate and honour the Creator through these practises is fine, but it creates confusion if one believes that this is the way we evolve our consciousness. Some people pray for help and guidance thinking that the answer lies outside them, but all the while the answer lies within. Others increase their knowledge and understanding by studying and reading information on spiritual subjects. This information can be very inspiring, and we certainly have been left some wonderful inspirational messages and guidelines from the Masters and others. Even though the knowledge can be empowering, we still need to apply it to life, and this is where many seekers stumble!

How do we apply these concepts to our life and how do we know if we are on the right track? Day to day situations and problems often arise when people are not sure of what they should do for the best. How each individual reacts depends upon what level of consciousness they have reached. Many of these concepts seem easy at first to understand. Yet when we are confronted with a challenge, all of a sudden they are not so clear anymore, and confusion sets in! There are also those who try to connect through nature and the world outside of themselves. Others believe that by expressing love or doing loving acts, they too will evolve. Because they think that the Creative Force exists outside themselves, they seek to connect with this Force through outside activities. This may come as a shock to many, but expressing love or doing loving acts does not necessarily help us evolve our consciousness, nor does it always reflect someone who is consciously evolving. It may only reflect someone who thinks or believes that they are.

The only way we can evolve is by Raising Our Consciousness! This is an inward activity, not an outward one.

Outward activities only reflect what is going on inside, but even these can be deceptive to the receiver or observer because these expressions may not be as loving as they seem (we will explore this idea later). So how do we know if we are getting the results that we desire, and how do we know if we are really evolving to higher levels? Fortunately for us, the Creator has supplied us with some great feedback and self-monitoring systems to help us know how we are going. Unfortunately, however, many of us have lost touch with these systems. Our heads get in the road of our hearts, or in other words, we think too much and don’t listen to our feelings. How we can monitor ourselves will be explored throughout the book.

Life can be one big grand evolutionary experience. The main things that prevent us enjoying the journey are our belief systems.

I was brought up in an environment where there was a strong belief in Heaven: A place where we go to be with the Creator; a place of bliss, a place of total harmony and balance with an endless supply of everything we could ever want (ask and we shall receive); a safe haven away from the traumas of life; a place with many rewards for our labours and rest from our trials and tribulations; a place of absolute peace and – ultimately – love. It sounds like a wonderful place, so who wouldn’t want to be there? But is it really a place?

When I was a young child, I became attached to the desire of being in this place called Heaven. I was fortunate to grow up in a loving family environment with a relatively comfortable lifestyle; Heaven, nevertheless, sounded a whole lot better than the reality of this earth plane in which I was living at the time. I was brought up in the small farming community of Morawa in Western Australia during those early years after the Second World War when there was a lot of optimism. Being the start of a very affluent time in Australia, it was one of the best environments in which a child could grow up. It was, however, no match for this Heaven of which the churches spoke. Heaven was described as a place or lifestyle where we go when we die, providing that we had been a ‘good person’. It is a place in the ‘after life’ where we go to rest. Or is it?

There is a lot of information available which supports the belief that Heaven is a state of being, a state of mind, a state of consciousness or awareness, and is as achievable during this life as it is any other time or place. This is the crux of understanding what life is all about: the purpose of our life on earth is to give ourselves an opportunity to evolve by creating experiences and emotional environments (States of Mind) where we can choose to raise our level of consciousness, or not. It is up to us what we choose!

If we go back to the statement about Heaven and substitute the word place with the word state then we can see that it is possible for us to achieve this state during our life time. We can choose to be in this state at any time. Not only is it entirely up to us, it is only up to us. This is the bottom line! There is a lot of guidance and support to help us on our journey, but in the end we make the choices as to where our journey takes us. We create our own path towards this state of being. In fact, every day we make choices that will lead us either towards or away from this loving state. Ultimately, we are also making choices that will eventually lead us to a permanent heavenly state of being, even if those choices take us on a much longer path. So how do we know if we are on the right path? Let us look at an analogy of the journey in the next chapter – The Stairway to Higher Consciousness.

Chapter Three

The Stairway to Higher Consciousness:

The steps that everyone will take!

The Stairway is an analogy of the journey we all must take to get back home to the bliss we once experienced when we were at one with the Creative Force (the Oneness).

This stairway is symbolic of the journey that must be taken to achieve this permanent higher state of being because:

Our evolution is a process of climbing upwards to ever higher levels of consciousness and personal power. It is a journey that must be taken one step at a time;

Each step always leads to another step. Each step not only gets us closer to our goal, but also inspires us to keep going;

We use a lot more energy climbing up the stairs than we do descending them. Much more effort, therefore, is needed when climbing;

The further we go back down the stairs (or backwards in our level of awareness), the longer the journey back to the top;

The higher we climb, the easier it seems. This is because we become more aware of (more in tune with) the Universal Laws / Truths that govern our climb.

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(1) Our evolution into higher consciousness is a process of climbing upwards to ever higher levels that must be taken one step at a time

Time is not of major importance in relationship to our evolution because we evolve through a step-by-step process in which time is not important. Another way to look at it is that we evolve through a sequence of events or stages of development, and how long each event lasts depends upon each individual. The evolutionary process happens like the domino effect:

For all the dominos to fall we have to start with the first one (the first step);

The energy created by each falling domino creates the energy needed to knock over the next one;

If for some reason one of the dominos does not fall as it was designed to do in the set-up, then a stale mate situation arises and the chain reaction is stopped. It needs its creator (you) to rectify (or re-align) the problem before the process can continue;

The last domino cannot fall until all of the preceding dominos have been toppled. The game is then over, the journey complete.

What matters here is not the speed at which the dominos fall, but the fact that they have to complete a sequence of events to get to the end. Our evolution is the same. Time is of no consequence: each challenge or lesson has to be completed before we are ready enough (or aware enough) to tackle the next event.

We have to master each lesson before we can be truly ready to master the next.

There is no way that we can avoid or skip any challenge that is presented to us because until we heal (or change) our belief system that created it, we will just re-create it in the future. Recognising how we created it requires a high level of awareness in many cases because most of the creating is happening at a subconscious level.

There are many different lessons that we have to learn on our climb, and there are many different lessons being presented to us at any one stage of our journey. Different aspects of our consciousness are more awake than others. We may, for example, be more understanding and forgiving of our friends than of our family. Another example is that we may stand up to our partner when we feel hard done by, but fail to do so when it comes to challenging somebody in a position of authority. Both of these examples reflect different levels of consciousness within the individual issues. Others may judge us for our seemingly different responses to each situation, but it is nearly impossible for them to know what created the belief systems that initiated these responses. Anyone who judges you really displays a lack of understanding of your situation; if they knew all the facts that contributed to your beliefs, they would understand and thereby not judge you. No-one really knows (though some may think they do) how they might act or react given the same set of belief systems in the same given circumstance. This is why it is said:

Do not judge lest you be judged Do not judge me unless you have walked a mile in my moccasins

Any judgment (or misjudgement) sets up a karmic energy that will eventually complete a cycle and return for the judger to experience. If they have misjudged, they will eventually be on the receiving end of such negativity or lack of understanding. Karma, however, is not about punishment; it is an inevitable result of energy completing its natural cycle. All energy must complete a cycle and return to its starting point, and this happens with both positive and negative thoughts and actions.

……………………………………………………………….

(2) Each step always leads to another step. Each step not only gets us closer to our goal, but also inspires us to keep going.

This is because of the knowledge that we have just taken another step in the right direction: one more step accomplished equals one more achievement

There are basically two forces that motivate us into moving forward spiritually and emotionally and they are; Inspiration and Desperation. Inspiration pulls us towards where we want to be; desperation pushes us away from where we don’t want to be.

Inspiration is by far the better of the two as it pulls us towards our goal.