March 6, 1994

Samuel: Greetings, dears.

Greetings, Samuel.

S: What a group! Good.

After this month, Phoenix Institute will never be the same again, and your opportunity is to take part in its changes. All of those changes have to do somewhat with what’s going to be happening in this coming year. Do you remember what’s going to be happening, what’s in store for ‘94? Do you remember? What’s in store for ‘94?

Synthesis.

S: In your life, in the visions that you have, in the things that you’re going to do this year, in the goals that you have and the desires that you wish to meet, the changes that you’re making in your life, the relationships, the love you give, the love you receive, the person that you are going to be—what is in store for you, for this world? What is in store for ‘94, Frank?

The same thing we had in ‘93 and ‘92 and ‘91, unless we take action.

S: What’s in store for ‘94? Nothing. Nothing. Life will not be different. None of the portal, none of the great cosmic cloud of having the angels that are whispering in everybody’s ears these days will have anything to do with you. Nothing will change; your life will be exactly as it is right now. And for some of you I hope that is a delightful blessing and a beautiful promise and you’re absolutely delighted; and for some of you I hope you take it as the insult it’s meant to be. Because nothing will be different unless you are. Nothing will be different unless you are. Right? Aye.

Change is happening. Be a part of it. Seriously; gloriously; lovingly, compassionately. But be a part. Don’t hear it.

And that’s what I’m talking about tonight. Because I seem to have lurked about in enough corners to find that there is a great death happening, and that’s what I’m going to be talking about this night.

But before we do, how about a couple of gifts? Frank, you have one?

I have a gift. I’m the surrogate gift giver.

S: All right, but I want you to be careful how you offer it. All right.

We have a friend many of us know, Cynthia, who’s in South Africa for the … our winter, her summer over there, and I was talking to her today, and she asked me to share a gift.

She has a neighbor across the street who has always had two cockatiels, which are birds. And Cynthia stays with her mother, and they have a cockatiel. And the young girl came over several weeks ago and said, “Would you like our cockatiel?” And Cynthia said, “Why is that?” And she said, “Well the male flew away, and we only have one now, and that would give you a pair.” And Cynthia said, “I think we can get that bird back for you.” And it’s very rare for domesticated birds to ever come back. Once they’re out, usually the wild birds will kill them, because they’re domesticated birds that don’t know how to … [laughter].

So she got with those people and asked them if they believed in positive thinking, and they said they didn’t know what it meant. And she explained to them about positive thinking, about visualizing, and said, “You need to sit down and visualize that male bird coming back to you. And picture it every day, and you have to take action. Put an ad in the newspaper, put posters up, and work on it every day. Picture that bird coming back. And after ten days Cynthia was disappointed because the bird hadn’t come back, but two weeks after the bird had disappeared her downstairs neighbor noticed an ad in the newspaper saying that ten miles away someone had found a cockatiel. She called the young girl, and they drove out and it was her bird. And she got her bird back, and they came over and said, “We believe in the power of positive thinking.”

S: But you know, there was more than just positive thinking going on there. Someone get airy-fairy on me here, and explain what’s happening, just very quickly, when you’re putting out something like that.

Intent.

S: That’s right. Intent’s a very major part of what’s going on. Stuart?

I’m not sure it’s the direction you’re talking about going, but the fact that they were putting out energy and taking action and let the neighbor realize that, you know, it made that person aware enough that when they saw the ad in the paper it clicked in their mind that, hey, this might be the bird. If they had not taken action to try to find it, the neighbor may not have seen that and may not have thought of that.

S: Putting feet on your wishes, which is going out and putting up the signs, adds to it, puts more emphasis on it. It repeats it, enhances it, and that works—it lets others know. But what’s going on here? What’s happening?

There’s a real partnership that’s happening because you’re communicating on several different levels.

S: Good.

You’re communicating with the world utilizing what’s available there to work with, and you’re also communicating to those forces that are unseen that can help move things and synchronize things.

S: Absolutely yes, that’s right. You are more than simply your physical experience, so the things that you do physically add to everything that you want to create in the physical world. But everything started with a thought. You put it out on the thought level. But do more than that. Hook up with big help.

Now, do you think that it’s possible that the bond created between bird and human, when that human was sending energy, thought, come home, positive, that it created a bit of a homing signal for that bird, based on the bond which had been created? Do you think that the creatures respond to your thought? Absolutely. Absolutely. A lot of things going on in that gift. Good.

How about another? Bad week, eh?

I could give you another bird story.

S: Just a moment, dear. Quick, somebody, symbology: bird story. Symbology. Give me something this could mean, that there are bird things going on. Jennifer, yes.

For me, birds are flight, freedom.

S: Good, good. That’s nice.

And it means that, in order for me to have my freedom I have to take action, in order to get what I want.

S: Aye. That can be in there, too. Birds, flight freedom.

Illumination.

S: Birds, illumination.

In Native American.

S: Ah, all right. So, adding to another form of information, we can connect that bird symbology means illumination. That’s good.

Birds, birds. Free, fly, illumine.

Spring coming.

S: Spring coming, sure. Remember that the Universe will use absolutely anything possible to get information to you, including patterns in speeches in meetings you go to. All you have to do is allow yourself to be open to get it. The Universe is doing everything it can to get it to you—everything it can to get it to you. It will even use gifts. Lillibeth.

One of the things that I’ve been doing to improve my communication with the Universe and also to improve how I feel about my life has been a thing I’m doing every night, and that is, at the end of the day, before I go to sleep, I’m thanking the Universe for everything that I’m aware of that I can appreciate during my day.

S: A very powerful way to end the day, by the way.

Well it’s been very powerful for me, because sometimes I think we get caught up in our lives and we see the things that only we feel are missing, and this is a wonderful way of seeing how absolutely abundant and filled your life is. It’s just been … that to me has just been the gift, just doing that, and on a consistent basis it has changed a whole lot of things that are happening in my life.

S: One of the greatest difficulties that I have seen in individual after individual is the result of a teaching that says, “You have a lot of rotten things that happened in your life. Let us go over them one by one and look at them very, very carefully, so that you thoroughly know, so that you truly deeply know all the rotten stuff you are. And only then can you begin to work it out.”

And as a result, most humans are absolute experts at seeing the negative, at not knowing their own gifts, at not knowing their passion, their happiness. As a result, most individuals are fearful of trying something new, of being something new, because what if you should fail, because every other time you did. Whereas looking for the patterns of power in your life, the patterns of positive experience, the patterns of personal growth, those experiences that [say], “YES! IT WORKED! Oh, look again. Today I had five really good things happen, and look, yesterday I had a few good things, too.” And more and more and more you begin to build a habit of living successfully and, better than that, knowing that you’re doing it. And as a result of that, being able to seek that pattern and repeat it at will.

The only thing you really know about you is what a failure you are. How can you change? Indeed, my soul, that’s one of the best gifts you can give yourself. Good work.

This is the month of new beginnings, isn’t it? And I think perhaps many of you, within your own selves, are beginning to feel the power of spring curling up inside of you, and let it stretch and get out in the world again. But after having said all of those very lovely things about freedom and power and looking to the positive, my talk to you tonight is about something that is sure death. I have seen something in your lives that is a great eating disease. They used to call them wasting diseases. Do you know what that is, a wasting disease? What is it?

Something like tuberculosis or something where you just kept getting thinner and thinner, and finally just …

S: Sort of eaten from the inside out. That’s right. Aye. This death is killing your happiness; it is killing your ability to feel that you are functioning successfully in a world in which you have vision, or at least once did. Maybe not since you were about five. Keeps you from functioning successfully in a world in which you have goals, in which you feel there is hope. It’s killing hope. This disease, if you will, this sickness, if I may, is killing off all manner of relationships, and that’s one of the first great symptoms of this sickness. You see it in your relationships, perhaps at work, perhaps in the most intimate of one’s … you know, those usually are the ones that go first. And in killing off relationships, I cannot leave out that it’s not only killing off the relationship you have with others, but it’s the relationship you have with yourself and the relationship you have with the Source which you are.

This sickness takes life, in the truest sense of what life is. And what is it? What is it? Is it the new influenza sweeping your country? Is it heart disease or drunken driving or cancer or AIDS?

What’s killing you, my friends, is a sickness called inflexibility. I wonder why you laugh. Whenever I make a serious statement and the room laughs, it’s because it’s nervous. “Oh, Samuel, I am not inflexible. I don’t know whom you’re speaking with. it’s not me.”

Inflexibility. What does that mean? Should not be hard. You can give me one of those second grade explanations. Inflexibility means …

Not flexible.

S: Not flexible! Stiff.

Rigid.

S: Rigid. Stubborn.

Controlling.

Unbending.

Judgmental.

Unwilling to change.

S: Unwilling to change. You know, all of you are discussing with me your specific symptoms. Nobody else gives me symptoms now. You notice how this works! “I don’t have the slightest idea what it means.”

And it’s killing your world, and it’s taking your life from you.

Inflexibility means what? The inability to change—but it’s more than that. It’s not only the inability to change, my friend, it is the deep-seated need to hold your place because it’s the right one. Nothing else out there might be better or worse, you don’t know. Finding out is too much of a risk. And always, always, always you must believe in your position, you must defend your right to be right, to be wrong. You must hold that position.

Your planet and you are dying slowly from the inside out because you have lost your ability to bend. You’ve had a pretty incredible winter here this year now, haven’t you? And in the ice and in the snow you have seen very major pruning work going on in your city, haven’t you? Many trees. In fact some of you have had trees that could not bear the weight of so much accumulated snow, and as a result what happened? They broke. But not all trees broke, did they? Some of them have made some fairly radical changes in their shape, haven’t they? Some of them perhaps are still not over some of those radical changes in their shape, but because they were able to bend they were able to survive.

It’s not my desire this night to take a long time talking to you, to rant and rave—although I’m really good at it—about the need to become more adaptable. It’s my desire tonight to give you something to remind you of the power you have and then, literally, send you on your way to use it.

I have found a new piece of common magic. Anybody remember my last piece of common magic?

The pin.

S: Aye, the safety pin. What a lovely thing, a safety pin. You know safety pins? Is common, correct? Aye. Safety pin. And what’s magic about a safety pin, other than it holds the form together? There’s all manner of things you can do with it. Well, I found another for you. What is it? [He holds up a rubber band] Magic. Everyday magic, that’s what it is. Don’t be fooled. This is a piece of ancient magic; it was just dug up in Egypt a few weeks ago. (That makes it better for some, you see.) Because it’s a reminder of what you really are. You are flexible.

I have spoken very recently with some very, very dear friends, and I asked, “How do you define you these days? How do you define yourself?” And, in order to keep this anonymous, I won’t go into detail, but she said, “As an equine artist.” (Was that anonymous enough, Gwendolyn?) And I said, “Well, if you define yourself as an artist, perhaps a sculptor, perhaps a flower fairy, perhaps a student, the way that you define yourself is also the track that you are going to be taking to live your life. Everything that you are going to be doing is going to be done in order to fulfill that definition of self. “I am an equine artist.” Therefore, the way that you think, the things that you do, it’s all going to be oriented toward keeping that definition of self going.

If I do it one more time, will everybody get it? How you define yourself determines the activity of your life.

How is it you define yourself? Last time you were at a cocktail party—a strange word: seems like it should be a large group of feathers. The last time you were at a cocktail party, if indeed you do that sort of thing now and again, or the last time that you met somebody and they said, “Oh, so what is it you do?” or “What are you about?” or “Who are you?” how do you answer that question? Don’t answer me. I’m asking you. When you’re thinking of yourself, what are you about, what do you do? How do you answer that question? How do you define you? Yes, be aware that, number one, where you are has a big effect on the definition of the moment. For instance, when you are in a group of lawyers, Frank, you probably define yourself more in that direction, simply so that you’ll better be able to fit in. Correct? That’s a very natural sort of thing to do. I don’t recommend it for any of the rest of you, though.

But the way that you live your life and the ability to have in your life what you want is based on your definition of you. Therefore, if what you don’t have in that definition is a very loving, open person who has very easy relationships with others, perhaps that’s because equine artist doesn’t mean happily married, or whatever. Perhaps you are limiting your life and your ability to get what you want because it’s not how you automatically think of yourself. And how you automatically think of yourself is likely to be based upon the activity in which, number one, you spend the greatest amount of your time or, number two—which could be the same as number one—the one that pays you to keep living. So that, naturally, because you are a graphic designer and that’s how you get the most of your money, you think of yourself as a graphic designer, and therefore your definition of self is based in fear. Do you get that?—I must put all of my focus into this one area that feeds me, because there are no other areas that do feed me. And as a result of that, Gwendolyn is absolutely one of the country’s very best equine artists, but she forgets that she’s really good at people, too. And if ever anything were to happen with her sculpting abilities, she could probably do some pretty good landscape. And that artistry isn’t limited to powders and bronzes, but it’s a thousand other things, too, and if your definition is “I am a decorator; I am poor; I am a florist; I am …,” then you’re never going to see all of those other options, and why? Because it’s safer not to. Because as long as you have a very clear fence around yourself, you never have to risk—fill in the blank: being invaded or being a Viking, take your choice. That is, being the invader. You never have to risk finding out if you can do it, if you are more. You never get to know the glory, because you don’t know how to stretch.

How do you define you, and on what do you base that definition? How open and fearless is your definition of you and your world and your life? And if it’s not open and fearless and unlimited, your limbs are going to break at the weight of the first heavy snow.

So what do you do to become flexible? Anybody got ideas here? What can you do to become flexible?

Stretch.

S: That’s a good one, really. Not only on a physical level, not only on a mental level, not only on a spiritual level. Everything you are, stretch it. What does that mean, stretch?

Go beyond.

S: Go one safe step farther than you’ve ever gone before. See if, sure enough, the world does fall in on you. And if it does, back off and try a different direction next time. But you know what’s likely to happen is that the world isn’t going to fall in on you. Every day you can do something slightly different. Take a different path in to work. Say hello to somebody you’ve never said hello to. Every day you can stretch your beliefs to see if they are still accurate. Do you still need to hold the hand of a responsible adult when you cross the street, like when you were four? Well, you know what I say, don’t you? It’s too hard now to find a responsible adult. That’s a belief that’s got to go. Well, maybe that’s one that you can stretch a bit more.

Stretch. Stretch your mind. You would be absolutely amazed at what you can do. And aren’t you ready for that kind of amazement these days? To absolutely be delightedly shocked at how incredibly capable you are? How delightfully intelligent you are? How beautifully graceful or fun or funny you are? But how do you know, if you are afraid to stick your little face out the window of “can’t” to see if maybe “can” is there for you?

Stretch. How can you stretch your mind? What’s something easy you can do to stretch the mental self?

Creativity.

S: Something creative. Such as?

You can begin to learn another language.

S: Sure. How about that one? How about Hungarian? Greek? A new language.

What’s another thing?

Turn off your television.

S: Aye, turn off your television.

To see what you put in its place.

S: See what begins to fill up your time. Read a book. Everybody here knows how to read, eh? Pretty much? Fairly well? But try something out of your usual genre, maybe something really sloppy silly. Maybe something hot and steamy. Maybe something intellectual. Maybe a “how-to self-help—get it all together NOW.”

How else can you stretch the mental?

Begin learning anything new. Starting a hobby. If you like, birds, study ornithology. If you like the planets, study a little astronomy.

S: Anything new.

How can you stretch the physical?

[Several responses]

S: Here is what I heard. Harvey, with a big smile, said “Take up yoga.” Frank says exercise. Did you sort of hunker down as you said that?

Sure, you can stretch the physical body. Yoga is a very wonderful way to do that, but it’s not the only way. Bonnie, tell me another thing that stretches the body.

Walking, dancing.

S: Walking, dancing. Dancing’s the one I was looking for. Kathleen, [your line dancing class is] over now, isn’t it. You know, I was hoping to get something going maybe once a month, to just give you, on a regular basis, a fine opportunity to come together and stretch your eager muscles, because indeed that’s what you’re doing, you know. When you’re letting yourself learn something new and you’re letting yourself take up yoga or learn to clog, when you are letting yourself change your set vision of what you are that has been so safe and made it in the world thus far, you are stretching your ego muscles, because, darlings, it is ego that says “can’t” as much as it is ego that says “everything can.”

Ego’s not a bad thing. Ego’s a barometer, but it is absolutely a barometer of your current definition of you.

Don’t actually answer it out loud; it would be absolutely embarrassing; it would look like I’m asking for a crop of hands. How many of you have I sat across from and warned that it’s just as much ego that denies your power as it is that overrates it?

Stretch your vision of what you are.

Spiritually, how can you stretch? Well, I would say tonight is a really good example. Good for you. It’s a good stretch. It feels good, doesn’t it? You’re doing something—something. Your opinion of that something is your own business, but you’re doing something for your higher good. That’s a spiritual act.

Now, how can you stretch spiritually?

Meditation.

S: Meditation, yes. That’s a good stretch, in fact. It’s a discipline. More.

Keep in touch with the Source.

S: Develop a relationship and then keep in touch with the Source. And for some of you, the very idea that that’s possible is a stretch.

Be willing to talk to other people who might not be doing the same thing you are and share.

S: Be willing to talk with others, to share. Aye.

One of the techniques that you have is grow and develop as you do, because nothing is stagnant. We all change, and so I’m learning now my techniques are changing and my definition of my spiritual time is changed.

S: And be willing to allow your very important, worked out over a series of years, absolutely the most powerful spiritual act you’ve ever had in your whole life, here is the technology, to change, as you do. It’s called a practice for a reason, you know. Because once it has done its work and changed you, you need to adapt the practice to who you now are. Yes. That’s a stretch.

Stretch the boundaries of your physical, your mental, and your spiritual definitions. See just how far you can go before fear stops you, and then look at that fear. Ask it why it’s there.

I think that perhaps the evergreen trees, as they were bending over in the weight of that snow, were probably fearful that they would never be able to get back up again. Do you think? May have gone too far this time. And you know, it’s true—even in those trees that have great flexibility, there is a point where they, too, will snap.

So listen to your fears. Just don’t be daunted by them. Your fears are there to say “be careful,” not “stop, forget it all.”

Inflexibility is a symptom of an absolute terminal need to not be wrong. I want you to be aware that I did not say that it’s a need to be right, because a need to be right and a need to not be wrong are two very different things. Most of you beautifully gentle, kind, sweet, airy-fairy, powerful New Agers know that you don’t have to be right. You’ve just forgotten that it’s also okay to be wrong. You’ve turned the need to be right and its great sin into “I don’t have to be right; I just am never wrong.” And inflexibility is the need to never be wrong. Which means you create your reality, the situations the actions, so that you can hold firm in your definition of you. You know, that’s a very good thing to do, isn’t it? You spend a lot of time learning how to hold firm to your definition of you, to be true to your “school?” It’s only when the definition, the way that you have defined you, does not cover all of who you are, that you lose so much. When you are spending so much of your time defending your right to be a narrow, tiny slice of all you have available to you, that is loss.

It’s spring, my darlings, and in the hardened shell of fear and beliefs that this world’s long winter has given you, there is life popping from the inside saying, “Let me out. Let me out. Let me OUT.”

You can stretch. You are flexible. You are adaptable.

A very dear friend said to me once, “Sometimes, Samuel, I feel alone. Sort of like I don’t really fit.” And I said to her, “I want you to think about a desert. Now what does a desert look like?”

“Oh, it’s just vast expanses of sand, and very, very hot. Just a very empty place.”

Well, naturally I could not let that pass without correcting it, because a desert, of course, is filled with life, life which has perfectly adapted.

Well now, do you think that the creatures of the desert get together at night when it’s cool and they start coming out from under the rocks and from burying in the sand and they say, “Oh, I am so upset that we are not creatures of the day. You know, I was just thinking about it a few moments ago, and you know, I was getting really angry because here we are, creatures of the night. I want to go out tomorrow and just spit at that sun.” Do you think they do that? Not for long. Never for long. No. They do what they need to do wherever they are. They have learned to do the best they can where they are with what they have at the moment. And my dearest souls, for those of you who have seen the miracle of perfect adaptation, you know that in the desert there blooms the desert rose.

In this month when your world is choosing to grow, I ask you to remember that you, too, can stretch, that you are flexible, that you have many uses, not just one.

What are these for? [He shows the rubber band around Lea’s wrist.] What do you do with them? Tell me where you find these things. [He snaps the rubber band.] Well you know, it takes a lot for me feel something. I’m quite impressed with how strong these are. Where do you find these things? Where are they?

Around newspapers.

S: You find them around a newspaper. All right, that’s what they are good for. Somebody invented these things so that all of your newspapers would be firmly secured. Isn’t that lovely? And that’s the only thing they’re good for. It’s the definition of a rubber band, isn’t it? No, they have more uses. What else?

Your hair. For pony tails.

S: You can put them in your hair. You can decorate yourself with them. All right, what else.

Slingshots.

S: You can use them as slingshots. Thank you, Bonnie. My goodness, look at all the definitions thus far. What else can you do with these marvelous, magical inventions?

Shoot them at people.

S: Shoot them at people. They are weapons.

Yeah, they hurt.

S: And they hurt. They can inflict pain.

They hold things together.

S: Thank you. They can hold many things together. Like maybe your lips. Come, let us try it.

When you’re little, you can string them over a box and they make noise.

Or when you’re big.

S: They may be instruments.

They can help straighten your teeth. You can attach one tooth to another and pull them together.

S: I’m not sure this [size] would do much.

They’re very small.

S: These look all about the same. Aye.

Exercise equipment. Now they have big rubber bands, and you can exercise your muscles.

Some people put them on their wrist, and when they do something that they want to stop doing, they snap it.

S: You can do it to teach yourself painful consequences to something that you want to associate painful consequences to.

Look, you’re getting my point now. You’re warming up here, and I’m going to stop it. Your uses are limited only by your definition of it. If a rubber band is only good to wrap around your newspaper, you’d never get your teeth straightened now, would you?

And in this case, a rubber band is a reminder of what you are. You are whole, without beginning and without end, with an incredible ability to adapt to this desert world. You are the desert rose, if … if you learn to stretch, to flex, to adapt.

Can I have somebody from this section, and somebody from this one and from this one. I would like you to be the purveyors of magic tonight, and give these [rubber bands] one to each in your section, to remember that you are only limited by your definition of you.

But Gwendolyn, you’ve got to do it quickly. Equine artists are not quick rubber band purveyors.

And when you’ve got it, do this [stretching one out], and notice how amazingly strong it is. Did you get that? It’s what I’m leaving you with. When you get yours, do this, and be aware of how amazingly strong you are.

Glochanumora, my friends. Happy trails.