The New Money Magicians

I explored the alternative spiritual path for years. It was lonely because I thought I was the only one. I took a Silva Mind Control class in 1978. The training took place in a church. “What kind of place is this?” I asked the instructor. It’s a metaphysical spiritual church. She gently nudged me to attend. I cried at the first service; I was no longer alone. There were more like me and they were everywhere.

My childhood was average; meaning dysfunctional. I grew up as a normal neurotic. Money confusion as a tradition.. Money was worshipped on one side of the cultural altar while being demonized on the other. Money lived in me as a tantalizing creature who offered pleasure and pain. People at my new church, didn’t chant the proverbial money is the root of all evil axiom. I found solace in the idea that money was not my source; rather there was a principle, AKA God, that provides for my needs. Money was neither glorified nor disparaged; there was a clear message about money; my attitude could either attract or repel it. I could stop being a victim and become a victor. It was my spiritual heritage. I learned to manifest material things, paid off my debts, harmonized relationships, attracted money and created a wide array of spectacular experiences. As I spiritually matured I realized that my happiness was contingent on circumstances and acquisitions. Even when I did great things to make a difference, I returned to suffering. I wasn’t suffering so much about money: I just rested in that lonely question “Is that all there is?” The normal progression of confusion, knowledge, attainment, clarification and spiritual growth occurred. I learned that as Eva Peron said in Evita, “and as for fortune and as for fame… They are just illusions … they are not the solutions they promised to be.”

Today I find a disturbing phenomenon. It’s money magic. The new money magicians don’t defame money; they deify it. I was happy when “The Secret” came out. It is nifty for people to learn those old time laws of attraction. We are creators, not victims. Yet something sticks to my craw over the new found sorcery that breeds from the supermarket to the stock market. Spiritual people buy the idea that more or better stuff or even more and better experiences bring happiness. Please tell me who needs, deserves or should have a 10,000 square foot home or a shiny gas guzzler? Our trees are slaughtered and resources compromised, while money magicians get more of everything. Like Jesus, I want the money changers out of the church. People commercialize spirituality – and we are the people. It’s not morally wrong, it’s just spiritually devastating.

It’s easy to get sucked into the new frenzy of Master Minding, group incantations and positive thinking. People, new to the ideas, are on a metaphysical honeymoon and the energy is enticing, but really, if you are still just finding parking spaces after 20 years of study, I think there’s a maturation problem. Unfortunately many of the law of attraction activities, focus on spiritual materialism. Money and then more money mean success. Even gratitude can be valued as a commodity, rather than a state of being.

People focus more on getting than receiving or giving. Receiving is an effortless art and true giving feeds the soul, but getting more things or more spiritual experiences, leads back to suffering. Getting and getting more, better or different, is ego’s plan to scare the fear away, but it never works.

Metaphysics is based in mind. Spirituality is based in the heart. Trying to get more gives us a metaphysical “to do list” which can never be completed. The ego demands more action, more planning and more control. The ego analyzes every situation and buys or rejects ideas based on keeping the body or certain mental constructs safe. Jesus said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and all else will be added unto you.” It is exhausting to couch everything in positive terms. Spontaneity suffers as ego controls. The Jesus plan is so much easier than using the mind as our ruler, decider and conflict generator.

Even though words have meaning, it is our total energetic makeup that attracts or repels our good. Actually you can spot people who are putting out bad vibes. Sorry, I couldn’t resist that 70’s term. I don’t like it when the word police interrupt me to change the way I’m saying things or to point out the problematic nature of my communication. I don’t want to be stopped to hear a word lecture. The lecture is not helpful; it is codependent. Get out of my business! As a 47 year consciousness student, I am aware of what I am saying and how I’m saying it; I just don’t always choose to use those perfect positive magic words. For me, authenticity outweighs perfection.

We start our spiritual journeys as unconscious victims; “He made me angry.” At some point we realize we have choices. We learn to reframe our views and change our perception. Hopefully, we turn from systematic dehumanizing thinking. We move to positive thinking. We move away from primal fear.

Yet regardless of how much we control the negative, insert the positives, or create convenient parking spaces, health, friendships and wealth – we still experience a yearning. We think our thoughts can solve the problem. What we think is not the problem. Positive thinking and negative thinking keep us evaluating reality rather than experiencing it. Positive thinking is a stepping stone to wholeness but when we reach the promised land we no longer need the path.

When we immerse ourselves in omnipresent goodness, the need to change, manipulate, dissect, control or get more, dissolves. We enter the kingdom and rest in the peace of being.

Manifest; it’s a part of conscious living. Take care in your mind. If hungry; eat. If thirsty; drink. If you need to pay bills; attract money. The problem arises when the ego drives us to continually get more. With ego at command central, there is a dominating restlessness that keeps us driving toward meaningless acquisitions and goals. When manifesting is the central theme of one’s life, it is neurotic. The spirit rises in being not in doing, getting or having.

If money magic worked, I would know. It does work to gain more money, but it doesn’t work in the arena of spiritual satisfaction. Money magic dulls the soul and takes us from the present onto a hope that money will provide the means to power, love, importance, or that we can buy the spiritual experiences we need to self-actualize.

If we must question or take action, our effort might best be spent finding out who we are; rather than what we want. We could practice the presence rather than milking it for personal gain.

We heal lack thoughts and feelings when we live in the ever-present state of abundance. Abundance is our natural state. Trying to stomp out fear about money fuels the fear. As these illusions appear on the screen of life, we normally work hard to fill the void. As we fill one void another appears on the horizon. When we stop and realize that the void is mental and that lack is the fiend of dualistic thought, we bring forth the wholeness of present reality.

The mind, when not aware of its true nature, stalks reality with an agenda. It is in the decision to stop the mind, so that it might surrender and rest in a deeper stillness, that we become peaceful. When we can be still and know that I am God, we find a dynamic spiritual rest, which refreshes, restores and renews our lives.