The Vortex This tool combats exhaustion and allows you to tap into boundless reserves of energy. TWELVE SUNS: See twelve suns in a circle lined up directly over your head. Summon the Vortex by silently screaming the word “help” with focused intensity. This will set the entire circle of suns spinning, creating a gentle tornado-shaped vortex. RISE: R

The Black Sun This tool can free you from one of Part X’s most potent weapons—your own impulses. DEPRIVATION: Feel the deprivation of not getting what you want, as intensely as possible. Then let go of the thing you want. Forget about the outside world—let it disappear. EMPTINESS: Look inside yourself. What was a feeling of deprivation is now an en

Your power comes from the choices you make.

We hold on to our egos for dear life because we believe (mistakenly) that what our egos want is what we really need. The ego wants three things: the approval, validation, and adoration of others; immediate gratification of its physical needs and desires; and to be “right.”

Finding yourself is a paradox. You become your real, Higher Self by putting your personal goals second and the Higher World’s first. Only in this role of helping and service do you expand into full aliveness. And only in this fully alive state can you be a bridge between the Higher and Lower Worlds.

The solution I’m offering may seem radical, even foolish: encouraging you to give things away (not just material things but control, status, adoration, etc.) to serve a Higher World that you can’t see.

activate your Higher Self. Here are three of the biggest ways you can do that: • Giving to someone when you have nothing to gain for yourself • Performing generous acts that no one is aware of (even the recipient) • Helping someone else at a personal cost (for example, canceling your vacation in order to stay with a close friend who is ill)

When life presents you with someone in need, rather than see them as a threat, see them as an opportunity to put yourself in this expansive state. It’s only when you give without expecting anything in return that you become fully alive.

The Life Force you’re seeking is only granted when you behave—behave, not read, memorize, or explain—in an expansive way.