Prosperity requires that we know and follow the laws of prosperity.
     We already know the profound effect that the discovery of physical laws has had on the development of modern life.  The discoveries making civilization possible were as available to Neanderthal humans as they are to us. Stone age minds, however, were not ready to observe, understand, or apply the information available.  The difference between then and now is primarily in the development of consciousness.  It is this same growth in awareness that is now leading us to want to know the laws of mental manifestation.
     In Part II you will be introduced to the laws of prosperity, which are tools to help you produce in physical form what you desire.  These laws show you ways of releasing the potential of your creative mind.  This 'crea-tive mind' is the sum total of information from your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual self.  It is the source within you that unites you with the energy of the universe.
     To fully utilize the laws of prosperity, you will want to view them as laws of consciousness.  By changing our attitude through belief, expectation, and acceptance, we are really describing a change of consciousness about the so-called 'real world'.
     What is real to you?
     Most people will bang the table and say, "That's real!  It's solid!" We can feel, taste, touch, smell it.  But how solid is solid?  Modern science has told us that in spite of how it appears, all mass is actually atomic particles in constant motion.  These particles are vibrating and circulating with intense speed, reacting with each other in ceaseless, complex patterns.  In breaking these whirling atoms down to their smallest dimension, scientists have found to their amazement that ultimately there are no 'building blocks' of mass - there is only energy.  Fritjof Capra, physicist, speaking on the nature of matter, said:
 

     The discovery that mass is nothing but a form of energy has forced us to modify our concept of a particle in an essential way.  In modern physics, mass is no longer associated with a material substance, and hence particles are not seen as consisting of any basic 'stuff, but as bundles of energy.*

     The process of manifestation involves working with mental energy in such a way that mind has control over matter.  If the reality of all mass, or matter, is that it is only energy, we will need to learn to work with energy to create a life of abundance.  What can we deduce about the nature of this energy?
     From astronomy and physics we know that all life, all matter, exists within the context of an infinite universe.  Webster defines infinite as "having no limit in power, capacity, and knowledge; extending indefinitely; incon-ceivably great; inexhaustible." If our infinite universe consists only of energy, then this energy too, has to be infinite - powerful, beyond limit.
     Understanding the inter-relationship between infi-nite energy and the power of the mind to create form is the most challenging and rewarding investigative study of this century.  It will be through this study that we may eventually be able to know how mind manifests.  As of now, we can only observe that it indeed does, and make conjectures about how it does.
     We have never had large scale, government-supported research in parapsychology, the study of the mind, such as that found in other countries - especially Russia.  This is due primarily to lack of interest by science as a whole, and by lack of funds to support the effort.
     Individuals from various disciplines, including Nobel laureates in the fields of physics, psychology philosophy, and metaphysics, however, have been fascinated by the powers of the mind.
     William James, Albert Einstein, Luther Burbank, Thomas Edison, Carl Jung, and others, have all actively engaged in some form of study of psychic interaction with matter.  Generally, as they studied these interactions, they went through "a chronology of interest: first fascination, fear, or both; then avoidance of the phenomena as a distraction ... and, finally, acceptance of them as natural, plausible, an extension of human creative powers, and evidence of the essential unity of all life." *

* Marilyn Ferguson, Aquarian Conspiracy, U.P. Tarcher, Los Angeles) p. 175

     Marilyn Ferguson's book, The Aquarian Conspiracy, is an excellent resource of information on current serious, scientific inquiry into all aspects of the mind - biofeed-back, ESP, intuition, right and left brain hemisphere differences, mind transference, and other creative pow-ers.  We are able to study some mind-matter interactions in a laboratory setting, but, as yet, much of the research being done on how the mind moves matter has proven somewhat inconclusive.  Some of the research she re-ports, is highly exciting, however.  For example:

     Human intention has been shown to interact with matter at a distance, affecting the particles in a cloud chamber, crystals, and the rate of radioactive decay.
     An intention to 'heal' has been demonstrated to alter enzymes, hemoglobin values, and the hydrogen-oxygen bond in water .... **

     Scientists admit that "Every human intention that results in physical action is, in effect, mind over matter." ***

*** Marilyn Ferguson, Aquarian Conspiracy, U.P. Tarcher, Los Angeles) p. 175

     Beyond individual, isolated, scientific experiments, one of the greatest boosts for the promotion of serious research on the power of the mind comes from the new quantum physics.  Under the old Newtonian physics, it was thought that we lived in a mechanistic world which ran like a machine, with precise, predetermined clock-work action.  Once it was proven that the act of observing changes that which is observed, we needed a new theory to explain reality.
     Quantum physics provides for the phenomena of mind affecting matter.  In this new physics, the universe is seen as a dynamic whole which always includes the observer in an essential way.  It is a discipline that allows in mathematical language for the unpredictable - the effect on matter of the observing consciousness.

     Since manifesting involves the movement of matter through time and space, we need to look for a moment at what we know about the interrelationships between these elements.  In our universe, infinite energy takes the visible form of matter and non-matter.  Matter has form and exists in space.  Where there is no matter, there is no space, and vice versa.
     We also know that space and matter are both required for time to exist.  Time is defined as that period required for one body to pass from one point to another.  Without 'points of reference', (i.e., matter) therefore, there can be no time.  Where there is no space, there is no concept of distance, or of being separate.  When there is no time or space, everything exists now, always and everywhere infinitely.

     What does all this mean for manifesting with mind power?  We have known for some time that energy and matter are interchangeable.  Nothing is ever lost or gained; it is only converted.  Therefore, when we see that matter and non-matter (without time or space and thus without separateness), are interchangeable aspects of the same energy, we begin to understand the infinite unity of space, matter and mind.
     We are truly united in a conscious spirit that cannot be destroyed.  We are at one with the universe.  Wherever a part of this unity is, the whole is.  Wherever we are, the universe is.
     Therefore, at the energy level, that which we desire is already ours.  According to Capra:

     The basic oneness of the universe is ... one of the most important revelations of modern physics.
     In ordinary life, we are not aware of this unity of all things, but divide the world into separate objects and events.  This division is, of course, useful and necessary to cope with our everyday environment, but it is not a fundamental feature of reality .... *

     Some metaphysicians, in their study of the basic one-ness of mind and matter, have looked at everything we have manifested and have observed that mental inten-tion has influenced matter.  Looking for cause and effect, they feel we are in error if we give credit, exclusively, to the rational mind for these creative advancements.  Ra-tional thought, they say, is only the channel or connection with our real creative source: the subconscious.
     Thomas Troward, metaphysician, scholar and close friend of the philosopher William James, felt that the nature of infinite energy is so much like the nature of our subconscious mind that they must be closely connected.  He saw this connection as the magic key to the source of the powerful creative forces of the mind.
     Troward observed that both infinite energy and the subconscious mind are subjective in nature.  This means that they are both acted upon and never instigate action:

1. Neither has the power of decision making, so neither can choose to respond from persuasion of from a sense of right or wrong.
2. Neither operates from a personal preference - helping some and deliberately hurting others.
3. They both operate purely from cause and effect.  In other words, all things being the same, a specific cause will always produce the same specific result.
4. They are both material from which other things are formed.

* See Thomas Troward, Edinburgh Lectures (Dodd, Mead & Co. 1909)

     As we recognize our oneness with all there is, we sense what is possible when we concentrate our energy on any one desired result.  If we are one, then we are not separate from that which we desire; it is already ours in thought form.  It is our creative thought power that brings it into physical form, because it is our thought energy in the subconscious that unites us with the subjective infinite energy.
     By its very nature, the power of infinite energy has to be drawing upon the energies of everything from everywhere at all time.  By willfully choosing to allow only positive thought-patterns to remain in our conscious minds, we are programming our subconscious to tune into this un-limited storehouse of infinite energy.

     For so long women have grown up thinking that if we were lucky we would find someone who would somehow tell us how to live.  Some expert would give us the word on what we wanted, and on how to get it.  We have thought we must plead for help either because we were helpless, or because we were worthy and deserved help.
     Yet, it seems safe to assume that any laws governing infinite energy must be universal by nature, working without exception for all alike.  This energy can only work within its subjective powers; making exception is beyond its scope, against its very nature.  It follows, then, that it would be inappropriate for you to work with infinite energy with the attitude of needing to coax or persuade because you're worthy or needy
     This new approach suggests to you that you already have all you need within - that you are, naturally, con-nected with universal energy which is all there is.  Your job, then, is to fully open your own channel, your own connection with this energy, knowing you already de-serve a fully rewarding life, and have everything you need to create it.

Janelle M. Barrow, Ph.D., Human Development Consultant.

Q: I know that you have built a really fine, financially successful business doing exactly what you enjoy most - giving seminars, speeches, and day-long workshops about maximizing potential.  You also seem comfortable with your success.  Has this always been true for you?

A: I've always been highly competitive; I've always liked win-ning.  It's never been a problem for me.  I started early by winning a speech contest at age six.  I liked the recognition that came with winning.  All through school, it felt good when the teacher said, "Janelle got the highest score!"
     Every contest I entered, I worked hard at and did very well.  I intended to win.  Even today when I take up something I'm not very good at, like running, the image I see of me as a winner is strong enough that I still picture myself coming out ahead.

Q: You're not afraid of losing then?

A: I do lose.  But I don't dwell on it.  I don't talk to others about my losses either - not even to my husband.>

Q: How about to yourself - what do you say to you?

A: I'm aware of my losses and I constantly look for ways to change the outcome next time so I won't lose again.

Q: In other words, you don't ignore the times you lose?

A: No.  I look for ways of turning the loss into information so I don't repeat it.  That's the only logical and reasonable thing to do.
     I had a very important insight in high school that has influenced my life.  Where I grew up, in the Midwest, the amount Of money you had determined your place in the com-munity.  Financially, we were on the 'wrong side of the tracks'. Because I was competitive, however, I performed as well or better than others in everything I did.  Yet, I always felt put down.  It seemed as if everyone in the whole school put every-body down in as many subtle ways as they could.  I protected myself from that barrage when I realized one day that there was a huge line of people outside my door - and everybody's door - just waiting to sling some negative criticism.  I decided not to join that line.
     Sometimes it was hard.  It seemed as if that line went all the way down the street and around the corner.  Everybody was in it.  But it didn't matter - it struck me as stupid for me to get in that line as well.
     Instead, I isolated myself and became a hard worker.  I devoted myself to learning skills I really wanted to excel in.  For example, besides getting top grades, working on the newspaper, and holding a job in high school, I would get up early to practice the piano for several hours.  At graduation, I was asked to play my favorite piece at the senior recital.  I played a great many pages of music I had memorized.  When I finished, the principal announced to the senior class that when he heard me play, he realized he knew nothing of my talent, and wondered what other potential talents of everyone else in the class he was missing.
     That statement has never left me.  Ever since, I have been looking to see what I might be missing in terms of relating with other people.  I look not only for what I might be missing in others, but in myself as well.

Q: When you are competing then, you are trying to be all that you can be, rather than focusing on beating others?

A: That's correct - but I want to emphasize that the bigger I win, the more I like it.  I want to win all the way.

Q: And when you don't win?

A: I never put myself down.  I figure that if I put myself down for losing, then I've joined that line of people.  It's everyone's choice - join that line or go for what you want.