With all the change happening in our world today, it’s interesting to look to today’s futurists to try to make sense of it all.

Meet Ray Kurzweil, the futurist visionary, inventor, entrepreneur, who predicted with uncanny accuracy the rise of the Internet, the fall of the Soviet Union, and the year that a computer would beat a human being at chess. His prediction for the coming Singularity–when Artificial Intelligence completely outpaces the human brain, an event Kurzweil forecasts will happen in the year 2045–remains to be seen.

Ray’s theory on “The Singularity” is an era in which our intelligence will become increasingly nonbiological and trillions of times more powerful than it is today—the dawning of a new civilization that will enable us to transcend our biological limitations and amplify our creativity. Wired Magazine has a good article on Ray here.

Food for thought…

Ray Kurzweil has been described as “the restless genius” by The Wall Street Journal, and “the ultimate thinking machine” by Forbes. Inc. magazine ranked him #8 among entrepreneurs in the United States, calling him the “rightful heir to Thomas Edison,” and PBS included Ray as one of 16 “revolutionaries who made America,” along with other inventors of the past two centuries.

Ray was the principal developer of the first CCD flatbed scanner, the first omni-font optical character recognition, the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind, the first text-to-speech synthesizer, the first music synthesizer capable of recreating the grand piano and other orchestral instruments, and the first commercially marketed large-vocabulary speech recognition.

Ray is the recipient of the $500,000 MIT-Lemelson Prize, the world’s largest for innovation. In 1999, he received the National Medal of Technology, the nation’s highest honor in technology, from President Clinton in a White House ceremony. And in 2002, he was inducted into the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame, established by the U.S. Patent Office.

He has received nineteen honorary doctorates, and honors from three U.S. presidents. Ray has authored six books, four of which have been national bestsellers. The Age of Spiritual Machines has been translated into 9 languages and was the #1 best-selling book on Amazon in science. Ray’s latest book, The Singularity is Near, was a New York Times bestseller, and has been the #1 book on Amazon in both science and philosophy. Kurzweil AI.net has over one million readers annually.

by Bill J. McCarley

In December 1983, I decided to venture out on my own and left my job at Texas Instruments. My wife, Linda, had finished her doctorate program and had started a psychotherapy practice. We had a 9 year old daughter and a 7 month old daughter. After beginning my consulting practice, Linda’s business partner told me about a program being presented in Colorado called Money and You. It seemed like a good idea to do this program, so in March 1984 I flew there to attend it.

To my surprise, I discovered the most important information I have learned in this lifetime… The Responsibility Flipchart!

On Thursday night we played a wild game with Xs and Ys called, “Win as Much as You Can”. I knew the purpose of the game was to play Win-Win and that is what I did! When the game ended, Marshall Thurber, the program originator, collected the scores. He took a slow look at them; then turned and asked, “who got this minus 66?” My partner and I raised our hands and got singled out as the ones with the biggest losing score. Marshall next asked, “What happened?” I proceeded to tell him what was wrong with the other partnerships in my group, and he pointed to LAY BLAME on the chart. I moved up the chart to JUSTIFY and told him why I had played the game the way I did. He wrote the word RIGHT on a new page and let me know I was right.

For a moment I felt better knowing I was right, but then he added a few more letters… RIGHTEOUS. Now this guy I didn’t know was calling me righteous in front of the entire group. I was not happy and felt very agitated. The evening went on and eventually I was back in my room, pacing back and forth and ranting about how Marshall had mistreated me. Like a bolt of lighting, it hit me that he was totally correct, and I was being righteous in that very moment.

I lost the game… but got the lesson!

I became completely committed to the practice of personal responsibility and have made it a lifelong activity and study. I joined Money & You’s Instructor Training Program and eventually became a promoter of Money and You. I also trained with Robert Kiyosaki when he was leading Money and You.

I continually teach people about personal responsibility and how freedom is impossible without it. It became completely clear to me that it is easy to assume responsibility when things are going the way you want them to go. However, the mind is totally committed to being “below the line” when something does not seem right. I began to see how trying to move up the chart and get past JUSTIFY leads a person to blaming themselves instead of others or the situation. I began to recognize this as Lay Blame on Self. About the time I began to consider this new distinction, we decided to promote Marshall’s new workshop on Dr. Deming’s material and when Marshall introduced “The Responsibility Flipchart”, he had added the word SHAME above JUSTIFY.

Trying to move above JUSTIFY mostly leads to asking ourselves the question, “What’s wrong with me?” Of course, this is not a very empowering question and still not “above the line”.

On my journey through life, I have found more teachers who offer key lessons in what personal responsibility really is and how to assume it and take it: Bucky Fuller, Dr. Deming, Tony Robbins, Esther Hicks (who channels Abraham,) the Dalai Lama, Lester Levinson (originator of The Releasing Technique and The Sedona Method), Dr. Hew Len (who teaches Ho’oponopono,) and others, as well.

I now define responsibility as “owning the power to create, choose, and attract”. You are in fact creating, choosing, or attracting everything in your life… ALL the time. As Abraham, through the voice of Esther Hicks, puts it, “It is all you… only you… no exceptions.”

When things are working, responsibility is great!

When things are not working, it is hard to own that you are the cause without stopping at Shame (laying blame on yourself.) Being at Shame is when responsibility really sucks. I teach that it is critical to skip right over that place on the chart and take 100% Responsibility…. not the Blame!

Then you can own the power that you have and be fully “above the line”.

About the author:
Bill J. McCarley is a long time supporter of Money and You and its powerful principles. He trained with Marshall Thurber and Robert Kiyoskai to lead Money and You. He even taught a slightly modified version in a corporate setting. He promoted Money and You, Creating Wealth and Powerful Presentations in Austin, Texas from 1987 – 1992. His company Co-evolution is committed to personal development, business development, and more recently Web development. Web site: http://www.co-evolution.com

Feng Shui: 6 Steps to Create Happiness and Wealth in Your Life

1. What is Feng Shui?

Feng Shui, meaning wind and water, is an ancient art and science based on laws that govern the flow of energy. The Chinese called it Chi or Qi. By creating improvements in the flow of Chi in your home or office, you create positive changes in your life.

2. What is Diamond Feng Shui?

Marie Diamond has studied the Laws of the Universe since she was 7 years old and has seen that Happiness and Wealth depend on 3 aspects. She calls this the quantum physics of the home.

You can attract happiness and wealth with your spirit and mind but if your home is not telling the universe the same, the universe cannot deliver.

Two important parts of the Law of Attraction are: Act as if and Like attracts like. You can act as if you are already wealthy and happy by making your home and workspace exactly as you wish.

If you create disharmony around you, the universe can’t bring you harmony because the message between your mind and your environment need to be in sync for manifestation to occur.

1 – Your Heaven Luck: Every human being born on this planet is not only living this one life. You are coming in with a bag of Heavenly Good and/or Bad Luck. These are simply actions, thoughts, and emotions you have created in a past life experience. This creates 1/3 of the Law of Attraction. What you have created in a past life experience will reflect in the life circumstances you were born into.

The astrologer will tell you: tell me when you are born and I will tell you your life.

2 – Your Human Luck: Every human being has a physical, emotional, mental and spiritual experience and how you use your talents and skills to attract happiness and wealth, is 1/3 of your Law of Attraction.
What you create through living your daily life as a human being will reflect in the life circumstances you are creating. Your attitudes and behaviors will determine what you do with your life.

The psychologist will tell you: tell me how you think, how you feel and how you act, and I will tell you your life.

3 – Your Earth Luck: Every human being lives in several environments: your home, your workspace, your community, your country, the earth. This creates 1/3 of the Law of Attraction.
The positive or negative influence of these environments reflects on your life and work.

The Feng Shui specialist will tell you: show me your home and I will tell you your life.
Marie Diamond has discovered that these 3 kinds of luck are totally interconnected and that the Law of attraction works on these 3 levels.

Improve your destiny, and you will attract your greatest dreams.
Improve how you think, feel, and act, and you will improve your destiny.
Improve your home, and you will think, feel, and act differently.

DO YOU WANT TO KNOW THE SECRET?

Improving your home is the easiest of all.

Changing your bed, changing pictures, changing the flow, can all be done in a couple of minutes.
Changing your destiny and changing your thoughts and feelings, can take many years of practicing.

In this Free Diamond E-Book, Marie Diamond gives you the first 6 steps to use the Law of Attraction in your home. Use the Secret of the Law of Attraction in your home to change your life and your destiny.

Marie Diamond wishes for each of you that you become the Queen or King in your own Universe. Your home or office is your castle in your universe. Marie will explain the 6 steps to be free to manifest all the wealth and happiness that you as a queen or king deserve to have in the universe of your life.

First Step: BE GRATEFUL FOR WHAT YOU HAVE

The Law of the Attraction says you can’t go from where you are to where you want to go, if you are not grateful for what you have.

How to be grateful in Diamond Feng Shui?

Gratitude for your environment is by taking care of what you have.

1 – Clean up your home and office: garbage bins cleaned out, no clutter, no spider webs, and no piles of books or magazines.

2 – It is better to hide things in closets and cabinets than show disorder in your energy field- you can organize it later if necessary.

3 – Paint old surfaces, put lights in dark corners.

4 – Wipe the dust and clean the floor.

5 – Remove dead as well as dried flowers.

6 – Place fresh bouquets to thank your home for sheltering, supporting and loving you.

Click here for Part 2 – Create Happiness and Wealth with Feng Shui – Steps 2 and 3

Good Fortune,

Marie Diamond
Info@MarieDiamond.com

Copyright Marie Diamond USA 2006
photo credit: (A3R) angelrravelor (A3R)

On July 12, we celebrated R. Buckminster Fuller’s birthday.

He was such a futurist that we can expect his work still being world-famous decades from now.  We were blessed to have him in our lives as a Mentor — we were not his Protegees (you had to be a genius to be that) — but students of the principles that he taught us.

Bucky would learn from nature and then apply it the human experience.

Here’s a great video from CBS Sunday Morning Show…

You can find many other resources and learn more about our dear teacher in our Bucky Library here…

A great video on conflict from William L. Ury co-founded Harvard’s Program on Negotiation and is currently a Senior Fellow of the Harvard Negotiation Project.

With the Holidays upon us, it’s a timely message. When we learn to resolve conflict peacefully and in a manner, we see positive change in the world around us.

“… normally when we think of conflict, when we describe it, there’s always two sides. It’s Arabs versus Israelis, labor versus management, husband versus wife, Republicans versus Democrats, but what we don’t often see is that there’s always a third side. And the third side of the conflict is us, it’s the surrounding community, it’s the friends, the allies, the family members, the neighbors. And we can play an incredibly constructive role. Perhaps the most fundamental way in which the third side can help is to remind the parties of what’s really at stake. For the sake of the kids, for the sake of the family, for the sake of the community, for the sake of the future, let’s stop fighting for a moment and start talking. Because, the thing is, when we’re involved in conflict, it’s very easy to lose perspective. It’s very easy to react. Human beings: we’re reaction machines. And as the saying goes, when angry, you will make the best speech you will ever regret. And so the third side reminds us of that. The third side helps us go to the balcony, which is a metaphor for a place of perspective, where we can keep our eyes on the prize”

From Bucky Fuller’s book Grunch of Giants – Published in 1984:

The social revolution potential now can for the first time in history realize economic success for all and a comprehensive world enjoyment that involves not revengefully toppling the economically successful minority but elevating all humanity to a sustainable higher level of existing and interacting than any humans have heretofore either experienced or dreamed of.

The now-potentially-to-be-omni-successful social revolution could never before in history have been realized. Until 1970 there had always been enough physical resources but not enough metaphysical resources (of experience-won know-how) on our planet to render the physical technology capable of taking care of everyone at a sustainable, eminently successful level of physical well-being— bloodlessly accomplished and sustainable without the coexistence of either a human slave or working class. Until 1970 it had realistically to be either you or me, not enough for both. Since 1970 it has become realistically you and me—all else is automated acceleration to human-race extinction on planet Earth.

• • •

Never before in all history have the inequities and the momentums of unthinking money-power been more glaringly evident to so vastly large a number of now literate, competent, and constructively thinking all-around-theworld humans.

There’s a soon-to-occur critical-mass moment when the intuition of the responsibly inspired majority of humanity, in contradistinction to the angered Luddites and avenging Robin Hoods, faced with comprehensive functional discontinuity of nationally contained techno-economic system, will call for and accomplish a world-around reorientation of our planetary affairs.

At this critical moment will occur a realization by the responsibly inspired majority that the adequate capacity of the invisible technology to sustainingly support all humanity depends on all the resources, physical and metaphysical, being always and only employed for all of world-around humanity as a completely integrated techno-economic system operating entirely on its daily income principally of Sun-emanating energy.

The integrated world-technoeconomic system purpose is in contradistinction to a union of 150 autonomously operating nation-states, as with the United Nations.

All this can now be comprehensively commonwealth-accounted in time-energy work units. All this can provide regenerative-initiative accommodating access of human individuals to the ever multiplying commonwealth-techno-economic facilities. The degree of individual-initiative computerized access to the commonwealth facilities will be predicated on the demonstrated performance and sustained integrity of the individual’s ever-forwardly-anticipatory designing competence.

I have been a deliberate half-century-fused inciter of a cool-headed, natural, gestation-rate-paced revolution, armed with physically demonstrable livingry levers with which altogether to elevate all humanity to realization of an inherently sustainable, satisfactory-to-all, ever higher standard of living.

Critical threshold-crossing of the inevitable revolution is already underway. The question is: Can it be successfully accomplished before the only-instinctively-operating fear and ignorance preclude success, by one individual, authorized or unauthorized, pushing the first button of chain-reacting all-buttons-pushing, atomic, raceirradiated suicide?

The only happily promising recourse of each human individual is to our highest intellectual faculties and their mutual, ego-deflated, unselfishly loving preoccupation with comprehensivity and our employment of the most powerful tools of all:

* (A) the family of generalized scientific principles governing the operational design of eternally regenerative Universe itself;

* (B) comprehending and effectively employing synergetics, with the books Synergetics and Synergetics II presenting the comprehensive omni-image-able mathematical coordinate system employed by nature, thus avoiding the mentally debilitating, vastmajority-of-humanity-excluding quasimathematical coordinate system employed by present-day science;

* (C) comprehending the major objectives and operating strategies of the major opposing power structures of world politics, their present status quo and probable future trending;

* (D) comprehending the fundamentals of economics, of wealth vs. money, of the principal features and functioning of industry, banking, and securities;

* (E) comprehending the educational system in general as well as the discovery of the shortcomings of science, engineering, and education in general;

* (F) synergetically comprehending “what it is all about,” as propounded in Critical Path and this book, Grunch of Giants, and discovering what our options are to confront imminent race disaster; and

* (G) the individual discovery of God by a vast majority of human individuals—not the discovery of religions, but the discovery that each and every individual has an always-instantly-open, no-intermediary-switchboard-authority-to-contend-with, no-interferenceof-any-kind, direct “hot-line to God”: i.e., the weightless, nonphysical communication occurring teleologically between the differentially limited, weightless, nonphysical, temporal, special-case mind of the individual human and the comprehensively integrated, macro-micro unlimited, weightless, eternal, generalized mind of God.

You can read the complete book here. It’s a fascinating read and relevant to today’s global economic challenges.

Grant interview me because he wanted to share with the world about left/right brain teaching techniques — about “Excellerated Learning” and to show many others that when they don’t succeed in School is not because they are not smart, it’s just that their style of learning may not match our traditional school’s way of teaching.

He was so happy to have found me, since he had heard so much about me/Kiyosaki as he was growing up, and he interviewed me for his show in The Room Live.

CompassionHappens was formed to establish, strengthen and expand a global community of socially and spiritually conscious people, united around the belief that together we can re-define the role of business in the world . . .

The Conscious Capitalism® movement is gaining momentum as more and more businesses seek ways to stand for a deeper purpose — providing harmonious collaboration among all stakeholders, including investors, employees, team leaders, suppliers, community, environment and humanity. Businesses of all sizes now recognize they can make a profit AND a difference in the world.

It’s making a difference in the world today and you can be part of it!

In the following 3 videos Jerry Conti and Ed Rholl explain what it means to be a  Socially Conscious Entrepreneur.

We’d really like to hear your thoughts on being a Socially Conscious Entrepreneur… How do you see the concepts revealed to you in these videos applying in your business’s future?

Come meet everyone at our next meetup – Join The SCENE and Discover the Timeless Principles of Money & You® – click here for details.

Also, if you attend Money and You®  on September 22-25, you will have a community to support  you in your efforts to succeed… click here to register for Money &You®.

Steps to Create Happiness and Wealth – Step 2

In our lest segment we introduced Feng Shui and the first step or six. Now I’d like to introduce step two.

Second Step: Make a decision of what you wish

The Law of Attraction tells us that the Universe is only able to help you create your desires if you clearly decide what you wish.

The Universe tells us: YOUR WISH IS MY COMMAND.

A. WHAT DO YOU WISH?

Some people are very clear about what they desire, and others are totally not.

Marie Diamond can help you decide with SOME TIPS.

1 – If you have a hard time making a decision on what you wish to create, make sure you place a bubbling fountain in the north of your living room or office, but not in your bedroom.

2 – Check which images you surround yourself with:

• Are they uplifting or depressing? Choose uplifting images.
• Are the people in the images alone or with others? Find pictures or images with a feeling of togetherness.
• Are there many pictures on your walls or is there space between them? Zen is better than chaos.
• Are there any pictures confirming your dreams or your nightmares? Confirm your dreams.

3 – Make sure your desk is clear and your papers are filed, or it can be hard to make decisions in your professional life.

4 – Declutter your computer files. Don’t let too many files be open on hold as you work.

B. 4 THINGS TO START WISHES:

When using Diamond Feng Shui, it is important to have your wish ready in 4 aspects of your life:

SUCCESS: Your professional life

HEALTH: Harmony in your body

RELATIONSHIPS: All kinds – professional, romantic, family and friends

WISDOM: Your spiritual level, or level of knowledge

In order to ask the universe your wishes for these 4 aspects, you need to know how to address them to the universe:

1/ in the present tense
2/ with your Name: for example – I, Marie Diamond
3/ in detail: the more details, the better the Universe can respond to you
4/ confirmed with symbols, colors, and images that according to Diamond Feng Shui can help you

SUCCESS: royal blue will be helpful for everyone to manifest professional success.

HEALTH: emerald green will be helpful for everyone to manifest good health in body, mind and spirit.

RELATIONSHIPS: rose will be helpful for everyone to manifest great relationships.

WISDOM: yellow will be helpful for everyone to manifest wisdom and knowledge.

C. SENDING THE MESSAGE TO THE UNIVERSE FROM THE RIGHT ANGLE

Asking the universe is one thing, but which direction will have the most impact? In Diamond Feng Shui Essentials, Marie Diamond explains to you exactly which directions are important for you personally, to activate in your living room, office or bedroom.

THE SECRET is that this direction is not the same for everyone. You need to know your 4 best directions to send your message on success, health, relationships and wisdom to the universe. That is the knowledge Marie Diamond has acquired from the ancient wisdom of Feng Shui.

As we are living in a linear time and space dimension we need to use this linear information to reach the non-linear dimensions of the universe. The universe is like the postal service. If you post your mail in the right mailbox, and from the correct address, you will receive the right answers back from the universe more quickly.

Marie explains in a DVD, CD and Manual exactly how to send the right message to the universe and increase your ability to manifest your desires more quickly.

Click here for Part 3 – 6 Steps to Create Happiness and Wealth: The Third Step

Go on line for DIAMOND FENG SHUI ESSENTIALS

Good Fortune,

Marie Diamond
Info@MarieDiamond.com
Money & You^® Grad
Copyright Marie Diamond USA 2006

photo credit: Ksionic
photo credit: 1Happysnapper

Third Step: The Universe supports your wish

The Law of Attraction tells us that the Universe is our greatest supporter and supports us in any wish we have.

Show the universe that you know you trust the support, by sitting on your throne; the King or Queen always sits on a throne. Feng Shui requires that you feel the support of the universe in your life. Remember you need to act as if. When you sit in a way that you feel support in your back, you are acting as if the universe is supporting you and IT WILL.

1/ Sit in a solid, high–backed chair.

2/ Sitting with a solid wall behind you also provides support.

3/ If you sit with your back to a door or window, make sure you have a solid, high–backed chair or a tall round-leaved plant behind you.

4/ If those are not possible, make sure you hang on the back of your chair an image of a mountain or a mentor or an angel, so you are symbolically supported by someone representing the Universe.
Fourth Step: Be open to the gifts of the Universe

The Law of Attraction tells us that you need to be open to the gifts of the universe. You need to be in a receiving mode. If you are not opening yourself to what the universe has as insights or as taps on your shoulder and you turn yourself away from the possibilities, you will not see the gifts coming to you.

Show the universe that you are open to receiving. The King or Queen sits in their throne in a way that allows them to see the incoming flow from the universe. By sitting this way, they are open to the gifts that the universe is in process of manifesting. The gifts can come as physical gifts, in the form of relationships with the right people, or the perfect insight or information you need. Feng Shui requires that you feel the support of the universe in your life. Remember you need to act as if. When sitting in a way that you feel support in your back and are open in the front, you are acting as if the universe is supporting you and IT WILL.

Position your Chair as the throne of the Queen or King

Wherever you sit: your desk, on your couch, in a restaurant, or in meetings, position yourself like a queen or king to see the incoming flow. If you can see the incoming flow where you sit, you can see the opportunities the universe is sending you. You will make the right decisions, as your senses will capture all the messages the universe sends.

Extra tips:

1/ Make sure you have a solid wall behind you for support or a high-backed chair.
2/ Make sure images hang behind you that are supportive: as mentors, mountains, angels, family members or partners that support you.
3/ Remove any sharp-leaved plants from your area.
4/ Remove all clutter around you.
5/ The main breadwinner or head of the family needs to sit in the best position – not your children or your dog or cat or your mother in law: you need to be in charge of your home.

Position your Bed as the bed of the Queen or King

The universe also sends messages at night because dreams and inspiration can help you direct your life to make the right decisions. You need to clearly see the door when you wake up to the messages of the universe in the morning.

Extra tips:

1/ Make sure you have a solid wall behind you for support.
2/ Try to sleep in a good direction for you personally: the top of your head needs to point to a good direction.
3/ If your bed is placed into a corner for sleeping in the right direction, make sure you have a headboard or a screen behind you.
4/ Make sure no mirror is reflecting your bed.
5/ Sleep in a queen or king sized bed even when you sleep alone.
6/ Do not hang images of water above your bed: you drown – no images of big rocks – you are squashed.
7/ Put images above your bed of what you wish to manifest: romance, health, wisdom, success, so your unconscious mind can focus on them during your sleep.
8/ No headboard made of slats or you will cut to pieces your energy for manifesting.

Check out the final installment of “6 Steps to Create Happiness and Wealth” – You’re almost ready to receive it!

Good Fortune,

Marie Diamond
Info@MarieDiamond.com

Copyright Marie Diamond USA 2006

photo credit: bucci1
photo credit: Jeremy Burgin