chap1

VIEWING
INTENTION
FROM A NEW
PERSPECTIVE

“In the universe there is an immeasurable, indescribable force which shamans call intent, and absolutely everything that exists in the entire cosmos is attached to intent by a connecting link.”

— Carlos Castaneda

During the past several years, I’ve been so strongly attracted to studying intention that I’ve read hundreds of books by psychological, sociological, and spiritual writers; ancient and modern scholars; and academic researchers. My research reveals a fairly common definition of intention as a strong purpose or aim, accompanied by a determination to produce a desired result. People driven by intention are described as having a strong will that won’t permit anything to interfere with achieving their inner desire. I imagine a sort of pit-bull kind of resolve or determination. If you’re one of those people with a never-give-up attitude combined with an internal picture that propels you toward fulfilling your dreams, you fit this description of someone with intention. You are, most likely, a super-achiever and probably proud of your ability to recognize and take advantage of opportunities that arise.

For many years I’ve held a similar belief about intention. In fact, I’ve written and spoken often about the power of intention being just what I’ve described above. Over the past quarter of a century, however, I’ve felt a shift in my thinking from a purely psychological or personal-growth emphasis, toward a spiritual orientation where healing, creating miracles, manifesting, and making a connection to divine intelligence are genuine possibilities.

This hasn’t been a deliberate attempt to disengage from my academic and professional background, but rather a natural evolution that’s been unfolding as I began to make more conscious contact with Spirit. My writing now emphasizes a belief that we can find spiritual solutions to problems by living at higher levels and calling upon faster energies. In my mind, intention is now something much greater than a determined ego or individual will. It’s something almost totally opposite. Perhaps this comes from shedding many levels of ego in my own life, but I also feel the strong influence of two sentences I read in a book by Carlos Castaneda. In my writing life, I’ve often come across something in a book that starts a thought germinating in me that ultimately compels me to write a new book. At any rate, I read these two sentences in Castaneda’s final book, The Active Side of Infinity, while I was waiting to have a cardiac procedure to open one clogged artery leading into my heart that had caused a mild heart attack.

Castaneda’s words were: “Intent is a force that exists in the universe. When sorcerers (those who live of the Source) beckon intent, it comes to them and sets up the path for attainment, which means that sorcerers always accomplish what they set out to do.”

When I read those two sentences, I was stunned by the insight and clarity it gave me about the power of intention. Imagine that intention is not something you do, but rather a force that exists in the universe as an invisible field of energy! I had never considered intention in this way before reading Castaneda’s words.

I wrote those two sentences down, and then I had them printed on a card and laminated. I carried the laminated card with me into the catheter lab for my minor surgical procedure, and as soon as I could, I began talking about the power of intention to everyone who would listen. I made intention a part of every speech I gave. I immersed myself in this idea to use it, not only for my own healing, but to help others use the power of intention to carry them where they’re fully equipped to go. I had experienced satori, or instant awakening, and was intent on offering this insight to others. It had become clear to me that accessing the power of intention relieved so much of the seemingly impossible work of striving to fulfill desires by sheer force of will.

Since that defining moment, I’ve thought of the power of intention in virtually all of my waking hours—and books, articles, conversations, telephone calls, items arriving in my mailbox, and arbitrary works I might be looking at in a bookstore all seemed to conspire to keep me on this path. So here it is: The Power of Intention. I hope this book will help you view intention in a new way and make use of it in a manner that leads you to define yourself as Patanjali suggested more than 20 centuries ago: “Dormant forces, faculties, and talents come alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.”

Patanjali’s two words, “dormant forces,” kick-started me in the direction of writing about intention. Patanjali was referring to forces that appear to be either nonexistent or dead, and he was referring to the powerful energy a person feels when inspired. If you’ve ever felt inspired by a purpose or calling, you know the feeling of Spirit working through you. Inspired is our word for in-spirited. I’ve thought long and hard about the idea of being able to access seemingly dormant forces to assist me at key times in my life to achieve an inner burning desire. What are these forces? Where are they located? Who gets to use them? Who is denied access? And why? Questions like these have propelled me to research and write this book and subsequently arrive at a totally new perspective of intention.

At this point, as I’m writing about my excitement of realizing a long-obscured truth, I know that intention is a force that we all have within us. Intention is a field of energy that flows invisibly beyond the reach of our normal, everyday habitual patterns. It’s there even before our actual conception. We have the means to attract this energy to us and experience life in an exciting new way.

Where Is This Field Called Intention?

Some prominent researchers believe that our intelligence, creativity, and imagination interact with the energy field of intention rather than being thoughts or elements in our brain. The brilliant scientist David Bohm, writing in Wholeness and the Implicate Order, suggested that all ordering influence and information is present in an invisible domain or higher reality and can be called upon in times of need. I found thousands of examples of these kinds of conclusions in the research and reading I did. If scientific evidence appeals to you, I suggest that you read The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe by Lynne McTaggart. Her book is filled with studies supporting the existence of a higher, faster energy dimension or field of intention that can be tapped in to and used by everyone.

The answer to Where is this field? is: There’s no place that it’s not, because everything in the universe has intention built into it. This is true for all life forms, whether it be a wildebeest, a rosebush, or a mountain. A mosquito has intent built into its creation and life experience. A tiny acorn with no apparent power to think or make plans for its future contains intention from the invisible field. If you cut the acorn open, you won’t see a giant oak tree, but you know it’s there. An apple blossom in the springtime appears to be a pretty little flower, yet it has intent built into it and will manifest in the summer as an apple. Intention doesn’t err. The acorn never turns into a pumpkin, or the apple blossom into an orange. Every aspect of nature, without exception, has intention built into it, and as far as we can tell, nothing in nature questions its path of intent. Nature simply progresses in harmony from the field of intention. We, too, are intended from the energy of this field.

There is what some call a future-pull in the DNA that’s present at conception in each of us. In the moment of our conception, when an infinitely tiny drop of human protoplasm combines with an egg, life in physical form begins, and intention directs the growth process. Our body structure, the shape of our physical features, our development, including our aging, are intended in that one moment of conception. The sagging skin, the wrinkles, and even our death are all there. But wait, what exactly happens at the moment of conception? Where did this life, born of intention, begin?

As we examine that seed/egg dance attempting to discover its origin, moving backwards toward Creation, we first find molecules, then atoms, then electrons, then subatomic particles, and then sub-subatomic particles. Ultimately, were we to put these tiny quantum subatomic particles into a particle accelerator and collide them, trying to put our finger on the source of life, we’d discover what Einstein and his scientific compatriots discovered: There’s no particle at the source; particles do not create more particles. The Source, which is intention, is pure, unbounded energy vibrating so fast that it defies measurement and observation. It’s invisible, without form or boundaries. So, at our Source, we are formless energy, and in that formless vibrating spiritual field of energy, intention resides. On a lighter note, I know it’s there, since somehow it managed to get into a drop of sperm and an ovarian egg and determine that my hair will no longer grow on my head after 25 years . . . and in 50 years, it will grow in my nose and ears, and all I (the observer) can do is watch it and snip it away!

This field of intent can’t be described with words, for the words emanate from the field, just as do the questions. That placeless place is intention, and it handles everything for us. It grows my fingernails, it beats my heart, it digests my food, it writes my books, and it does this for everyone and everything in the universe. This reminds me of an ancient Chinese story I love, told by Chuang Tzu:

There once was a one-legged dragon called Hui.

“How on earth do you manage those legs?” he asked a centipede. “I can hardly manage one!”

“Matter of fact,” said the centipede, “I do not manage my legs.”

There’s a field, invisible and formless, that manages it all. The intention of this universe is manifested in zillions of ways in the physical world, and every part of you, including your soul, your thoughts, your emotions, and of course the physical body that you occupy, are a part of this intent. So, if intention determines everything in the universe and is omnipresent, meaning there’s no place that it’s not, then why do so many of us feel disconnected from it so frequently? And even more important, if intention determines everything, then why do so many of us lack so much of what we’d like to have?

The Meaning of Omnipresent Intention

Try imagining a force that’s everywhere. There’s no place that you can go where it isn’t. It can’t be divided and is present in everything you see or touch. Now extend your awareness of this infinite field of energy beyond the world of form and boundaries. This infinite invisible force is everywhere, so it’s in both the physical and the nonphysical. Your physical body is one part of your totality emanating from this energy. At the instant of conception, intention sets in motion how your physical form will appear and how your growing and aging process will unfold. It also sets in motion your nonphysical aspects, including your emotions, thoughts, and disposition. In this instance, intention is infinite potential activating your physical and nonphysical appearance on Earth. You’ve formed out of the omnipresent to become present in time and space. Because it’s omnipresent, this energy field of intent is accessible to you after your physical arrival here on Earth! The only way you deactivate this dormant force is by believing that you’re separate from it.

Activating intention means rejoining your Source and becoming a modern-day sorcerer. Being a sorcerer means attaining the level of awareness where previously inconceivable things are available. As Carlos Castaneda explained, “The task of sorcerers was to face infinity” (intention), “and they plunged into it daily, as a fisherman plunges into the sea.” Intention is a power that’s present everywhere as a field of energy; it isn’t limited to physical development. It’s the source of nonphysical development, too. This field of intention is here, now, and available to you. When you activate it, you’ll begin to feel purpose in your life, and you’ll be guided by your infinite self. Here’s how a poet and a spiritual teacher describes what I’m calling intention:

O Lord, thou art on the sandbanks

As well as in the midst of the current;

I bow to thee.

Thou art in the little pebbles

As well as in the calm expanse of the sea;

I bow to thee.

O all-pervading Lord,

Thou art in the barren soil

And in the crowded places;

I bow to thee.

— from Veda XVI by Sukla Yajur

As you make your metaphorical bow to this power, recognize that you’re bowing to yourself. The all-pervading energy of intention pulses through you toward your potential for a purposeful life.

How You Came to Experience Yourself As
Disconnected from Intention

If there’s an omnipresent power of intention that’s not only within me, but in everything and everyone, then we’re connected by this all-pervading Source to everything and everyone, and to what we’d like to be, what we’d like to have, what we want to achieve, and to everything in the universe that will assist us. All that’s required is realigning ourselves and activating intention. But how did we get disconnected in the first place? How did we lose our natural ability to connect? Lions, fish, and birds don’t get disconnected. The animal, vegetable, and mineral worlds are always connected to their Source. They don’t question their intention. We humans, however, with our capability for presumably higher brain functions, have something we refer to as ego, which is an idea that we construct about who and what we are.

Ego is made of six primary ingredients that account for how we experience ourselves as disconnected. By allowing ego to determine your life path, you deactivate the power of intention. Briefly, here are the six ego beliefs. I’ve written more extensively about them in several of my previous books, most notably Your Sacred Self.

1. I am what I have. My possessions define me.

2. I am what I do. My achievements define me.

3. I am what others think of me. My reputation defines me.

4. I am separate from everyone. My body defines me as alone.

5. I am separate from all that is missing in my life. My life space is disconnected from my desires.

6. I am separate from God. My life depends on God’s assessment of my worthiness.

No matter how hard you try, intention can’t be accessed through ego, so take some time to recognize and readjust any or all of these six beliefs. When the supremacy of ego is weakened in your life, you can seek intention and maximize your potential.

Holding on to the Trolley Strap

This is a practice I find exceedingly helpful when I want to activate intention. You may find that it works for you, too. (See Chapter 3 for an entire chapter describing ways to access intention.)

One of my earliest memories is of my mother taking her three boys on the streetcar on the east side of Detroit to Waterworks Park. I was two or three years old, and I recall looking up from the seat and seeing the hand straps hanging down. The grown-ups were able to hold on to the straps, but all I could do was imagine what it would be like to be so tall as to grab those straps way above my head. I actually pretended that I was light enough to float up to the hanging handles. I then imagined feeling safe and the trolley taking me where it was destined to go, at whatever speed it chose, picking up other passengers to go along on this glorious adventure of streetcar riding.

In my adult life, I use the image of the trolley strap to remind myself to get back to intention. I imagine a strap hanging down about three to four feet above my head, higher than I’m capable of reaching or jumping up to grab. The strap is attached to the trolley, only now the trolley symbolizes a flowing power of intention. I’ve either let go of it or it’s just out of my reach temporarily. In moments of stress, anxiety, worry, or even physical discomfort, I close my eyes and imagine my arm reaching up, and then I see myself float up to the trolley strap. As I grab the strap, I have an enormous feeling of relief and comfort. What I’ve done is eliminate ego thoughts and allow myself to reach intention, and I trust this power to take me to my destination, stopping when necessary, and picking up companions along the way.

In some of my earlier works, I’ve called this process the pathway to mastery. The four pathways may be helpful to you here as steps toward activating intention.

Four Steps to Intention

Activating your power of intention is a process of connecting with your natural self and letting go of total ego identification. The process takes place in four stages:

1. Discipline is the first stage. Learning a new task requires training your body to perform as your thoughts desire. So, eliminating ego identification doesn’t mean disconnecting from your relationship with your body, but rather, training your body to activate those desires. You do that with practice, exercise, nontoxic habits, healthy foods, and so on.

2. Wisdom is the second stage. Wisdom combined with discipline fosters your ability to focus and be patient as you harmonize your thoughts, your intellect, and your feelings with the work of your body. We send children off to school telling them: Be disciplined and Use your head, and call this education, but it falls short of mastery.

3. Love is the third stage. After disciplining the body with wisdom, and intellectually studying a task, this process of mastery involves loving what you do and doing what you love. In the world of sales, I call it falling in love with what you’re offering, and then selling your love or enthusiasm to potential customers. When learning to play tennis, it involves practicing all of the strokes while studying strategies for playing the game. It also involves enjoying the feeling of hitting the ball and of being on the tennis court—and everything else about the game.

4. Surrender is the fourth stage. This is the place of intention. This is where your body and your mind aren’t running the show and you move into intent. “In the universe there is an immeasurable, indescribable force which shamans call intent, and absolutely everything that exists in the entire cosmos is attached to intent by a connecting link,” is the way Carlos Castaneda describes it. You relax, grab the trolley strap, and allow yourself to be carried by the same power that turns acorns into trees, blossoms into apples, and microscopic dots into humans. So grab that trolley strap and create your own unique connecting link. Absolutely everything in the entire cosmos includes you and your disciplined, wise, loving self, and all of your thoughts and feelings. When you surrender, you lighten up and can consult with your infinite soul. Then the power of intention becomes available to take you wherever you feel destined to go.

All of this talk of intention and surrender may cause you to question where your free will fits in. You might be inclined to conclude that free will is nonexistent or that you become whatever your program dictates. So, let’s take a look at your will and how it fits into this new view of intention. As you read the next two sections, please keep an open mind, even if what you read conflicts with what you’ve believed all your life!

Intention and Your Free Will Are Paradoxical

A paradox is a seemingly absurd or contradictory statement, even if well founded. Intention and free will certainly qualify as being paradoxical. They conflict with many a preconceived notion of what’s reasonable or possible. How can you possess free will and also have intention shaping your body and your potential? You can fuse this dichotomy by choosing to believe in the infinity of intention and in your capacity to exercise free will. You know how to think rationally about the rules of cause and effect, so try your intellect on this.

Obviously, it’s impossible to have two infinites, for then neither would be infinite; each would be limited by the other. You can’t divide infinite into parts. Essentially, infinite is unity, continuity, or oneness, like the air in your home. Where does the air in your kitchen stop and the air in your living room begin? Where does the air inside your home stop and the air outside start? How about the air you breathe in and out? Air may be the closest we can come to understanding the infinite, universal, omnipresent Spirit. Somehow, you must travel in thought beyond the idea of your individual existence to the idea of a unity of universal being, and then beyond this to the idea of a universal energy. When you think of part of a whole being in one place and part in another, you’ve lost the idea of unity. And (keeping an open mind as I beseeched you earlier), get this! At any moment in time, all Spirit is concentrated at the point where you focus your attention. Therefore, you can consolidate all creative energy at a given moment in time. This is your free will at work.

Your mind and your thoughts are also thoughts of the divine mind. Universal Spirit is in your thoughts and in your free will. When you shift your thoughts from Spirit to ego, you seem to lose contact with the power of intention. Your free will can either move with Universal Spirit and its unfolding, or away from it toward ego dominance. As it moves away from Spirit, life appears to be a struggle. Slower energies flow through you, and you may feel hopeless, helpless, and lost. You can use your free will to rejoin higher, faster energies. The truth is that we do not create anything alone; we are all creatures with God. Our free will combines and redistributes what’s already created. You choose! Free will means that you have the choice to connect to Spirit or not!

So, the answer to the questions, Do I have a free will? and Is intention working with me as an all-pervasive universal force? is Yes. Can you live with this paradox? If you think about it, you live with paradox in every moment of your existence. At the exact same instant that you’re a body with beginnings and ends, with boundaries, and a definition in time and space, you’re also an invisible, formless, unlimited, thinking and feeling being. A ghost in the machine, if you will. Which are you? Matter or essence? Physical or metaphysical? Form or spirit? The answer is both, even though they appear to be opposites. Do you have a free will, and are you a part of the destiny of intention? Yes. Fuse the dichotomy. Blend the opposites, and live with both of these beliefs. Begin the process of allowing Spirit to work with you, and link up to the field of intention.

At Intention, Spirit Will Work for You!

With your free will consciously deciding to reconnect to the power of intention, you’re altering its direction. You’ll begin to feel pleasant recognition and reverence for the unity of Spirit and yourself as an individual concentration of it. I silently repeat the word intent or intention to help me get my ego and my self-absorption out of the picture. I think often of this quote from Castaneda’s Power of Silence: “Having lost hope of ever returning to the source of everything, the average man seeks solace in his selfishness.” For me, personally, I attempt to return to the source of everything on a daily basis, and I refuse to be the “average man” that Castaneda describes.

Many years ago I decided to give up drinking alcohol. I wanted to experience continuous sobriety to improve my ability to do the work that I felt was burning inside of me. I felt called upon to teach self-reliance through my writing and speaking. Several teachers had told me that complete sobriety was a prerequisite for the work I was called to do. In the early stages of this dramatic life change, a power seemed to help me when I was tempted to return to my old habits of having a few beers each evening. On one occasion, in my state of wavering, I actually went out to purchase a six-pack but forgot to bring money with me. I never forget to take cash with me!

In the few minutes it took me to return home and retrieve the cash, I reevaluated the free will that would allow me to buy beer, and chose to stay with my intention. I found, as the first weeks passed, that these kinds of events started occurring with regularity. I’d be guided by circumstances that led me away from situations where drinking was a temptation. A telephone call might distract me from a tempting situation; a family minicrisis would erupt and deter me from a potential slip. Today, a couple of decades later, it’s clear to me that a firm handle on that trolley strap I described earlier allows me to be whisked along my path to destinations invoked eons ago by intention. And I also see that my free will is a paradoxical partner of the power of intention.

My awareness of intention as a power for me to reconnect to, rather than something my ego must accomplish, has made a huge difference in my life’s work. The simple awareness that my writing and speaking are manifested from the field of intention has been of immeasurable benefit to me. I’m awed by the creative energy when I get my self-importance and ego identification out of the way. Before taking the microphone, I send ego to the lobby or tell it to have a seat in the audience. I repeat the word intent to myself and feel myself floating up to this energy field of intention. I surrender and allow, and I find myself completely at ease, remembering tiny details in the midst of my speech, never losing my way, and experiencing the unique connection that’s occurring with the audience. Fatigue dissolves, hunger disappears—even the need to pee vanishes! Everything that’s necessary for delivering the message seems almost effortlessly available.

Combining Free Will with Intention

In mathematics, two angles that are said to coincide fit together perfectly. The word coincidence does not describe luck or mistakes. It describes that which fits together perfectly. By combining free will with intention, you harmonize with the universal mind. Rather than operating in your own mind outside of this force called intention, your goal may very well be, as you read this book, to work at being in harmony at all times with intention. When life appears to be working against you, when your luck is down, when the supposedly wrong people show up, or when you slip up and return to old, self-defeating habits, recognize the signs that you’re out of harmony with intention. You can and will reconnect in a way that will bring you into alignment with your own purpose.

For example, when I write, I open myself to the possibilities of universal Spirit and my own individual thoughts collaborating with fate to produce a helpful, insightful book. But as I reconsidered my account of leaving alcohol behind me, I wanted anotherexample to put in this chapter of how intention collaborates with life circumstances to produce what we need.

Recently my 19-year-old daughter, Sommer, told me that she’d quit her temporary job as a restaurant hostess and wasn’t sure what she wanted to do before resuming her college studies. I asked her what made her feel most purposeful and happy, and she said it was teaching horseback riding to young children, but she refused to return to the old barn where she’d worked a year before because she felt unappreciated, overworked, and underpaid.

I was in Maui writing this first chapter on a new perspective on intention when we had this telephone conversation. I launched into my intention-as-a-force-in-the-universe spiel and told my daughter that she needed to realign her thoughts, and so on. “Open up to receiving the assistance you desire,” I told her. “Trust in intention. It exists for you. Stay alert, and be willing to accept any guidance that comes your way. Stay in vibrational harmony with the all-providing Source.”

The next day, at the very moment I was searching for that additional example of intention to put into this chapter, the telephone rang, and it was Sommer, bubbling with enthusiasm. “You’re not going to believe this, Dad. On second thought, I’m sure you’ll believe it. Remember yesterday how you told me to be open to intention? I was skeptical, even thinking, That’s my weird dad, but I decided to try it. Then I saw a sign on a telephone pole that said Horseback-Riding Lessons and there was a telephone number. I wrote the number down and just called it. The woman who answered told me that she needed to hire someone she could trust to do trail rides with young kids. She pays exactly double what I was making at the restaurant. I’m going out to see her tomorrow. Isn’t that cool?!”

Cool? Hell yes, it’s cool! Here I am writing a book, looking for a good example, and it arrives in the form of help I was attempting to offer the day before to my daughter. Two for the price of one!

Merging Your Individual Thoughts
with the Universal Mind

Our individual thoughts create a prototype in the universal mind of intention. You and your power of intention are not separate. So, when you form a thought within you that’s commensurate with Spirit, you form a spiritual prototype that connects you to intention and sets into motion the manifestation of your desires. Whatever you wish to accomplish is an existing fact, already present in Spirit. Eliminate from your mind thoughts of conditions, limitations, or the possibility of it not manifesting. If left undisturbed in your mind and in the mind of intention simultaneously, it will germinate into reality in the physical world.

In simpler words, “All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have received them, and ye shall receive them” [Mark 11:24]. In this scriptural quotation, you are told to believe that your desire has already been fulfilled, and then it will be accomplished. Know that your thought or prayer is already here. Remove all doubt so that you create a harmonious thought with universal mind or intention. When you know this beyond doubt, it will be realized in the future. This is the power of intention at work.

I’ll close this section with words from Aldous Huxley, one of my favorite authors: “The spiritual journey does not consist in arriving at a new destination where a person gains what he did not have, or becomes what he is not. It consists in the dissipation of one’s own ignorance concerning one’s self and life, and the gradual growth of that understanding which begins the spiritual awakening. The finding of God is a coming to one’s self.”

In this first chapter, I’ve asked you to stop doubting the existence of a universal, omnipresent force I’ve called intention, and told you that you can link to and be carried to your destination on the energy of intention. Here are my suggestions for putting this to work in your life.

Five Suggestions for Implementing the Ideas
in This Chapter

1. Whenever you feel out of sorts, lost, or even in a sour mood, visualize the trolley strap hanging down from the field of intention three or four feet above your head. Imagine floating up and allowing the trolley to carry you to your built-in intention. This is a tool for implementing surrender in your life.

2. Say the word intent or intention repeatedly when you’re in a state of anxiety or when everything around you seems to have conspired to keep you from your mission. This is a reminder to be peaceful and calm. Intention is spirit, and spirit is silently blissful.

3. Tell yourself that you have a life mission and a silent partner who’s accessible at any moment you choose. When ego defines you by what you have or do, or compares you to others, use your power of free will to terminate those thoughts. Say to yourself, “I’m here on purpose, I can accomplish anything I desire, and I do it by being in harmony with the all-pervading creative force in the universe.” This will become an automatic way of responding to life. Synchronistic results will begin to happen.

4. Act as if anything you desire is already here. Believe that all that you seek you’ve already received, that it exists in spirit, and know you shall have your desires filled. One of my ten secrets for success and inner peace is to treat yourself as if you already are what you’d like to become.

5. Copy this ancient Hasidic saying and carry it with you for a year. It’s a reminder of the power of intention and how it can work for you every day in every way.

When you walk across the fields with your mind pure and holy, then from all the stones, and all growing things, and all animals, the sparks of their soul come out and cling to you, and then they are purified and become a holy fire in you.

In the next chapter, I describe how this field of intention might look were you able to see it, and what the faces of intention look like. I’ll close this chapter with another quotation from Carlos Castaneda’s teacher, Don Juan Matus: “ . . . the spirit reveals itself to everyone with the same intensity and consistency, but only warriors are consistently attuned to such revelations.”

Readers and warriors alike, proceed in the spirit of free will to access the power of intention.