Between the ages of six and seven, the analytical mind begins to form. It acts as a barrier to separate the conscious mind from the subconscious mind, and it usually finishes developing somewhere between 7 and 12 years old.

If an atom is 99.99999 percent energy and .00001 percent physical substance,1 then I’m actually more nothing than something! So why do I keep my attention on that small percentage of the physical world when I am so much more? Is defining my present reality by what I perceive with my senses the biggest limitation I have?

Not only can we change our brains just by thinking differently, but when we are truly focused and single-minded, the brain does not know the difference between the internal world of the mind and what we experience in the external environment. Our thoughts can become our experience.

Do you remember my talking about the common experience when we can’t consciously remember a phone number, ATM PIN, or lock combination, but we’ve practiced it so often that the body knows better than the brain, and our fingers automatically get the job done? That may seem like a small thing. But when the body knows equal to or better than the

waiting for a conscious observer (you or me) to

Whatever the addiction, people are still thinking that some external thing is going to take that internal feeling away.

they will require a stronger, more powerful emotion from you—a higher threshold of stimuli—to turn on the next time. And when that stronger “hit” of guilt chemicals gets the body’s attention, your cells “perk up” at that stimulation, much like that first cup of java feels to a coffee drinker.

When our will matches its will, when our minds match its mind, when our love for life matches its love for life, we are enacting this universal consciousness. We become the elevated power that transcends the past, heals the present, and opens doors to the future.

Feeling a sense of love and awe for life without needing anything from outside of us is freedom. It is no longer being attached to external elements. It is a feeling that is so coherent that to judge another or to emotionally react to life and change from this state is compromising self. This is when the greater consciousness that we are all