PREFACE

The Author Reveals the Secret

The powerful information you are about to read came together over a twelve-year period of studying with The Secret teacher Bob Proctor and many enlightened people who clearly understand the secrets of success. I gathered Proctor's information, added information provided by other teachers who worked closely with him, and finally added my own knowledge to help people to understand this metaphysical material in a more visual manner. In the beginning, I coached some close friends who wanted to understand these abstract yet life-changing ideas to help them make improvements in their lives. Later, I coached teens and young athletes using the same principles and saw them achieve astounding results. It was then that I realized just how powerful the information was, and I knew that I needed to gather as much as I could and record it all in one place.

It was an incredible experience to work so closely with many of these teachers--people who had a positive impact on the world on a daily basis. These truly were exciting times. Each day held adventure and opportunity, and abundance and advancement toward a better life was inevitable. I find it very powerful to look back to see where it all began.

How did I come across this incredible opportunity?

To some, it sounds like it was a simple process. It sounds like I stumbled on this opportunity by chance. I'd been intrigued by a neighbor's exciting life, and I'd noticed that he drove a new car each month. One day in 1996, I simply asked the neighbor, a man named Mark Low, ''What do you do for a living?'' He didn't say much. Instead, he handed me Bob Proctor's book, You Were Born Rich, and told me that he was Proctor's director of sales.

While some have said that my good fortune was just luck, I tell them that I was at the right place at the right time, and I was open to a guided learning experience at the hand of another. I later heard a quote by Earl Nightingale. He said, ''Luck is when preparation and opportunity meet. If a person is not prepared when the opportunity arises, it will only make them look foolish.''

At the time, I didn't know who Bob Proctor was; nor did I know anything about sales or the personal development industry. I would later become a serious student of both. I was a middle school teacher in Toronto, Canada, and I had dreams of changing the world through our educational system. That weekend, I not only read You Were Born Rich, I also decided that I wanted to learn more about the incredible potential I knew I had. At the time, it was difficult to locate books that would help me gain a deeper understanding of the information I'd been exposed to. In fact, Rhonda Byrne called the movie she created and produced The Secret because many of the avatars and philosophers--Aristotle, Plato, and Dalton--of the past were able to understand this knowledge, but the common person could not. It appeared that these ideas would remain a secret.

I resigned my job as a schoolteacher, and off I went to study. I was interested in hearing about and from anyone who Proctor and his seminar attendees seemed interested in discussing. I devoured every program Proctor had created. I later became a sales representative for Proctor's company, and it was very beneficial to have an understanding of these materials. I started with Proctor's Success Series CD program. Since I was aware that there are only two ways to change my old programming, or thinking patterns'through consistent repetition and emotional impact--I knew that if I was able to listen to the CDs for ninety days in a row, I would begin to change my old programming. So off I went to listen to these discs over and over again. In time, my thinking actually started to change, and the concepts I was learning did not feel so strange or awkward. I also know of people that had a serious emotional impact in their life that affected the way they thought about their future actions. Perhaps a death of a loved one or news of an illness can make one think about the value they place on their life and the direction they will take. I think differently ever time I hear Tim McGraw's song ''Live Like You Were Dying'' as I realize how precious life is, as it can take me in many different directions that I may or may not ever be able to prepare myself for. Life began to have significant meaning and was starting to be filled with excitement and opportunity.

Next, I studied the You Were Born Rich home-study course. During this time, I began to gain a deeper understanding of the talents and abilities within myself. Next, I tackled Proctor's Success Puzzle program. This program highlighted areas where I was having problems attaining my goals. Once I realized that my thinking needed to change, my education pertaining to topics I'd chosen to work on became more specialized. I was clearly learning the material, but at this point, learning and doing remained poles apart. I could quote the material word for word, but I was not yet getting results.

My next quest for learning allowed me to discover more about The Laws of the Universe from the Abraham-Hicks Special Subject Tapes, Vol. 1. I also was able to move toward Jack Canfield's Self-Esteem and Peak Performance Program. I knew I had to change my limiting beliefs, and I knew that this would take time and effort. After mastering the tapes and the program, I was coached by Mark Victor Hansen, author of Chicken Soup for the Soul. He personally taught me effective sales strategies while I also learned from his audio program, which is titled How to Think Bigger than You Ever Thought You Could Think.

Because I was just learning the sales profession, being trained by these sales experts and winners was very helpful. I even had a recorded phone session with America's number one marketing wizard, Jay Abraham, who wrote Getting Everything You Can Out of All You've Got.

As I met more leaders in the motivational speaking industry, I also purchased and implemented their programs. I bought The Ultimate Speaking Package from the late Bill Gove. He is still considered the father of public speaking, and this package afforded me a chance to work on my public speaking skills. These skills came in handy years later when I ran my own workshops as a sales representative.

Next, I met Doug Wead, author, humanitarian, and philanthropist, who has written twenty-seven books that have cumulatively sold five million copies and have been translated into thirty languages. As a corporate speaker, he has spoken to audiences on four continents. This incredible leader worked closely with Proctor for some time, and I took it upon myself to make sure I was the one who looked after Wead every time he spoke at Proctor's seminars. To be able to speak with such a world leader is a privilege that most people will never enjoy.

I also met Ron Schaffer, a consistent winner of teacher of the year awards from Portland, Oregon, whose students have made incredible strides in the past decade, winning ten Oregon Stock Market Games in a row. This semiannual competition is sponsored by Portland State University and the Oregon Council of Economic Education. I listened to Schaffer, this track coach and teacher of the year, speak about topics that most people never fully understand.

It was at this time that I realized the power of the material I was learning, and I began to understand that others also wanted to understand these concepts. Most people had questions, but they were unsure of where to turn to learn the answers. I decided to search for these answers. I then formed a mastermind group which undertook the task of answering these questions in a book that aimed to explain The Laws of the Universe--Living in Harmony by Natural Law. These days, The Law of Attraction is very commonly known, and it is used in many books. But in 2001, when Friends of the Renaissance, of which I am a member, wrote the book, very few people knew what we were talking about. There was a great need to explain this material to the masses in a way that could be easily understood. I am still in contact with this author group, and we are currently discussing publishing a second edition of this book.

After moving to Phoenix, Arizona, in early 2001, I met more people who were studying this material. The area is home to many spiritual thinkers who write books that they hope will help people understand themselves. The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment explains the 'pain body' that holds us back, and Power vs. Force shows us how we can reach higher levels of enlightenment by changing our thoughts, feelings, and moods, thus raising our levels of vibration.

It was at this point in time that I started to put the material into practice. This is a very important point to make. Anyone can quote knowledge, but the key is to translate the knowledge you have learned into results. The only way one can tell if they really understand these ideas would be if they chose to take a close and honest look at their results. If the results are good, the person is likely on the right track. That person may simply need some fine tuning to take their results to a higher level. If the results are not good, it might be time for the person to get back to the drawing board and take a good look at the way they think. If a person is unhappy with any aspect of his life, time, effort, and persistence can change things.

I was unhappy with the results of my life in 2001. At the time, it seemed that life just wasn't going the way I had planned. The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks knocked many people off course. As a result, many businesses had to divert to a new course of direction. It was then that I realized that in order to do the things I wanted to do, I had to start to live my life according to the material I had learned. This is when I began to implement the ideas I'd learned in the previous years. This implementation of ideas required a serious shift in the way I thought about things. It was difficult to move forward when I didn't know anything about the place I was headed. I simply had to trust myself and the people I had studied with. With this trust on my side, I made calculated moves in an effort to realize my dreams. It was at this time that I wrote The Secret for Teens Revealed. As I wrote, I used the material as a mentoring tool to guide many young people.

At the height of my uncertainty, in 2002, I attended a seminar given by Dr. Joseph Guan. At this seminar, I learned about Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). This technique would help me eliminate phobias, abandon self-limiting beliefs, and strengthen my self-esteem. These techniques improved my life by allowing me to focus on the positive side of all situations and by helping me to work through negative situations that can hold me back. This seminar was incredible. Not only did Guan become a close friend and mentor, but he also helped me learn, understand, and perfect the EFT procedure so I could implement it on my own. This seminar, along with the knowledge I learned from Proctor, allowed me to take the concepts I had learned and actually put them into practice. This truly is the missing link that most people do not recognize. There is no use attending seminars and reading books if you are not willing or able to put the knowledge you learn into action.

When the movie The Secret was released in 2006, it helped others to understand what I had been trying to convey. This movie, and another titled What the Bleep Do We Know!?, have tremendously helped the material to become mainstream and understood by the masses. Since The Secret was such a blockbuster hit, I decided that it was the best time for me to release my ideas to help parents and teachers gain a sound understanding of their own thinking. My goal is to then have these adults teach these principles to their teenagers and students. It is also my hope that teens will have a chance to contemplate their own ways of thinking and consider how slight modifications could make a significant impact on their lives.

Greg Link, cofounder and president of CoveyLink Worldwide, noted that ''97% of adults have not learned these secrets and even less live by them.'' He suggests that teens empower themselves to ''master your mind and rule your world--and your parents.'' This is a powerful concept to imagine. Most adults who begin to study these concepts marvel at how much faster they could have achieved their goals if only they had learned these ideas when they were younger.

To this day, I remain a student of this material. Currently, I am enjoying learning more about the unseen world by reading Sylvia Browne's books. Also, Wayne Dyer's book, There's a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem, has given me much insight into balancing my life. I continue to challenge myself by attending speeches given by world-class speakers at the weeklong Principia seminar held annually by PSI Seminars in Clearlake Oaks, California. This seminar company was instrumental in my discovery of strategies for life success.

Another set of tools that have helped me gain a deeper understanding of this material comes from the Abraham-Hicks monthly CD subscription program, through which I receive an audio CD once a month that is recorded directly from Abraham Hicks's live seminars. This connection allows me to continue to think positively while helping me to think of new ways to move toward my goals. Each CD features a lesson and then questions and answers from other people, just like me, who are also trying to realize their goals. Whenever I feel myself straying off course, I plug in a CD while I am driving to work, and I am amazed at how quickly I can turn my thinking around with a little help. As often as I can, I work on staying positive because I know this is the only way to move toward my goals.

I am still searching for answers to my questions. And as time goes on, I find more and more information that helps me gain a deeper understanding of my purpose in life, which feels exciting and full of adventure. Each day, I uncover something new, something that I had never before seen in this world. Have you ever reread a book and learned things that you missed the first time? The book has not changed; you have. Eventually, you will notice that the world around you is constantly changing. Therefore, so are you.

I wish you the best as you pursue your studies, and I know that you will experience many positive life changes once these ideas are implemented. Get ready for an adventure!

Best of luck, and have fun.