T
HE
B
ILL
ON
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EACH
In my dream, I am giving a speech. The auditorium is dark, but in the
blackness and via live streaming, millions of people are listening intently.
I’m using a PowerPoint presentation.
The next-to-last slide is one of a gateway. It has a big wooden post on
either side. In the middle hangs a yellow sign with crenellation on top. It
says, “The Happy Universe.”
I tell the audience that every one of them deserves to live there. There’s
nothing stopping them. Well, almost nothing. I flip to my last slide.
It’s a ticket that says, “Admit one.”
I tell them that they have to pay for this ticket. The price of admission is
their suffering. They can’t get in if they hang on to even one atom of it.
They have to give up absolutely every shred of suffering to purchase the
ticket. Do that, and you’re in.
The ticket only admits one person. You can’t take your loved ones in
The ticket only admits one person. You can’t take your loved ones in
there with you. They have to make the choice to buy a ticket themselves.
Each person has to give up his or her suffering to get in, and you can’t let
go of it for someone else.
That’s the end of the dream. I awake with the images embossed on my
mind.
That was the dream I had the day I finished this book. Every part of the
writing process was laced with synchronicities.
The previous New Year’s Eve, my primary prayer for the year was that I
be able to enter a deep meditative state quickly. Usually, it took me a while
to shed all the mental chatter, and I wanted to be able to dive right in
without spending so much time quieting my mind.
In a few weeks, this began to happen. I could invoke alignment quickly.
Two months later, taking a break from a conference at which I was
speaking, I took a walk on the beach in San Diego. I was becoming
obsessed with the idea of writing a book about the scientific evidence
linking mind and matter. But I already had another book project half
finished, too much other work, and no publisher. There were far more
reasons not to proceed with the project than to go ahead.
It was a chilly winter’s day, so my wife, Christine, had decided to stay in
the car. I paced for a mile, wrestling with the book idea. I dodged children,
dogs, and kites, all of which were out in force despite the cold weather. I
could find no clarity, and I asked the universe for a clear sign.
I didn’t receive any great epiphany, so I turned to walk back to the car.
My eye caught something at the tide line. It was a $10 bill. There was no
one around who it might belong to, and I picked it up.
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