Last spring we published two reviews of the movie The Secret. The movie was about the mind’s ability to create its reality. What became apparent to me then is that there are numerous spiritual laws—not just one. When you put all the laws together you get a better understanding of life. I began to collect and write about these laws, as drawn from my life-long studies. The more I collected and wrote, the more grateful I felt to see them as a whole. To share with you, this begins a series of four articles about these laws.

Non-Physical Reality
Even though we live in physical bodies, in a physical world, everyone knows that there is also a non-physical reality. The exploration of this reveals a web of forces that govern and/or flavor the flow of life. You can’t feel thoughts, yet they exist and invisibly travel from one mind to another.

For centuries, science and religion have both studied natural forces in the world around us. Science creates a theory based on observation and agreement. The agreed upon theory is then accepted as true—until a better one comes along. This is how we have structured the understanding of our world. As we gather more knowledge and awareness, theories changes—and so do we. Humans are becoming smarter and more capable of understanding the mysteries of life. In addition, we have centuries of observation not only by scientists but by many mystics, philosophers and holy people who study non-physical reality.

Science confirms that we live in a universe of energy that forms patterns, which manifest as physical reality (matter). This energy and its subtle forces move through us, just like the mysterious force that makes our hearts beat, moving blood through our bodies. So this same force moves us through life. Some forces can be so subtle that we don’t even notice them, or so much bigger than we are that we feel like pawns on a chessboard. Just think about how much natural force is released during an earthquake! Even though we are propelled through life by physical forces that we cannot see, we know them by sense perception and awareness.

There are numerous natural forces or tendencies managed by natural laws that maintain the divine order of life. In simple terms, they keep the movie of our lives rolling, creating the human drama. We know that life works in certain ways and there is always a correlation between the physical world, the emotional world and the spiritual world. What is happening on one level is happening on the others as well.

When we are aware of the way this operates, we can work with life instead of against it. Truly happy, successful people have learned (consciously or unconsciously) to work with life instead of against it. The easiest thing to succeed at is being yourself, walking the path chosen for you by life, making a contribution with the skills that are uniquely yours. The hard part is getting rid of all the conditioning that tries to make you something you are not, or makes you want more than you are designed to have. The pursuit of what you are not designed for is what pulls you off your life course; thus you end up with the wrong people, in the wrong place, sick and unhappy.

Take any situation in your life that troubles you. Look to see where resistance is being created and what you are resisting. Sometimes just a little correction or alignment can have monumental results. To begin, consider the following laws. As you read, notice that these laws are woven together and often overlap.

Laws of Motion, Unity and Exchange
No man is an island. We are all part of a whole. We live within an energy matrix of life force. Like cells in the human body, we appear independent with different jobs; still, we are a part of—and dependent upon—the body at large for our existence.

Energy is always flowing to us, through us, and from us, as well as pulling us forward. We are joined on the energetic level and interdependent. We don’t make energy; we use it. That is, we exchange energy with people, places and things. Through dynamic exchange, everyone and everything affects everyone and everything else. Have you noticed that you are comfortable with some people and highly uncomfortable with others?

This is because we are reactive beings. A body that is in physical or emotional range of another body is affected by that body—for good or for bad. Just as the moon pulling on our bodies has an effect on us, so does every other body that comes close to our aura. Everything we do and think has an effect, reaction or a result, somewhere or on someone, as well as everywhere and on everyone.

Can you see, then, how blame is a false perception? How guilt is a humanly created emotion? For beneath our conscious awareness, everyone is reacting to and exchanging energy with everyone else to make human drama happen. At the same time, natural forces (or a higher power) are also influencing us. It is never really a matter of ‘you did this’. Rather, it is always ‘we are doing this’.

Law of Balance
We live in a universe that starts as energy, is then organized into pattern, and becomes matter. Matter then breaks down or is made into something else. This is how life is in continual motion—in constant change, ebb and flow.

You could say that life is a pulse that creates a wave. These waves move up and down as they flow and move forward. All energies have such wave patterns. Our body contains many pulses that send out wave frequencies that come together as patterns. Why? Because energy has an organizing ability and this energy—this life force—is the electricity the body operates on.

When our energies are in a state of balance, the body is healthy—the waves are calm. The more stable the balance, the greater the health. And yet, balance is never permanently stable, for some other force will inevitably come along and upset it. This happens because energy is always changing and organizing.

All life seeks balance. Natural forces are always exerting pressure to help us find or direct us toward balance. Balance is obtained by finding center. There are energetic balancing centers everywhere. One spiritual text notes that “God is Spirit whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.” When it feels like your life is out of balance, one thing you can count on is that “this too shall pass.” Even tidal waves do.

Life will try to get you back into balance and on course. And you will find center again. You can help yourself by noticing where or how your life is out of balance or off course, then go within and seek center. Sometimes the tidal wave is nature’s way of destroying an old, shaky balance to bring in a better, more stable one. No matter how you look at it, health is a question of balance.

The Law of Alignment
Every physical body is energetically propelled through life along natural courses. Think of the magnetic pull of gravity that keeps us stuck to the earth like a magnet to the refrigerator. Or, the force that keeps the earth rotating around the sun.

In religious philosophy this is translated into “Every soul has a path to walk”. Indeed, “letting go and letting God” allows us to surrender to a sense of natural direction instead of going against it. Everyone is guided in the direction that is natural for their design, health and wellness—whether they are religious or not.

Alignment creates bonds that hold bodies together. When two people bond, their life paths are pulled into a parallel position. The two are held together by magnetic attraction and may flow as one. Bodies in a synergistic relationship are a beautiful thing.

The sum is always greater than its parts. When we align with something, more is created. The two that align are greater in unity than two that are not. When we are aligned with our own life path, we prosper. We end up in the right place at the right time, meeting the right people and the right opportunities. I like to imagine that we all have a divine light beam that pulls us through life. When we agree to the magnetic pull, everything is easier. When we go against it, life can get very challenging and uncomfortable; we may even make ourselves sick. When we are off course, life doesn’t work well for us.

The Law of Change
Energy is always in motion and changing form. This means, of course, that everything in life is always changing—including you. If you try to resist change, you suffer. In the larger picture, you can’t really resist change. Universal forces are so much bigger than you are that it is totally futile to try and keep things the same. It is the same when you try to force or cause change to happen, for you meet tremendous resistance. It is the fear of change that creates our desire to control the world. If you are a controlling person, you probably fear change. Letting go of fear allows you to give up control.

The Law of Entropy
Everything in the physical universe is born, grows to maturity and then breaks down. Things start, then change, then stop or move into disorder. This means everything is temporary. Now, this can be a very scary realization: nothing is permanent or lasting.

Let us look at this from a different perspective, however. In a mystical sense you could say that God (Intelligent Energy) creates a form out of itself. When the form is complete, God then deserts the form in order to create something new. Energy never dies—it only transforms. It stops being one thing to become something else! Likewise, an artist creates a statue from a piece of rock. In the process of creating the statue, many rock chips fall to the floor as waste. A couple hundred years later the artist is long gone and the whole statue is crumbling. The blueprint of the rock and the statue both fall into entropy. Thus, order always moves to chaos and disorder.

The Law of Choice and Opportunity
Free will really is a fallacy when you consider that we are governed by so many natural forces. We do not have free will; rather, what we have is choice in the moment. Where each of us is going is predetermined. It must be to keep the balance of a world in which 600 billion people live, all of us interdependent for food and life’s necessities. Every day, hundreds of thousands of people are born or die. We come and we go.

Choices and opportunities present themselves moment-by-moment. Some choices hover around whether we choose or not; then they move on. You can’t get through life without picking and choosing. Choice is always present. When choices are made from an inner authority, they will be the best ones to further our self-expression and success in life at fulfilling our purpose. Such choices put us into a state of well-being, balance and general happiness.

Choices are like switches that change our direction in space. Not every opportunity is correct; some choices can really take us off course and into a swamp we then have to fight our way out of, to get back on course. The reward of struggle is strength. When you make your choices from your inner authority, you will make the best choice. When you make your choices from an outer authority, there is a big margin for error.

Even so, choice is a wondrous mechanism. Everyone has an ‘inner authority’ within the body that is linked to a kind of directional device. Call it intuition, instinct or divine guidance. Its presence is like the reviving of your engine or a viewpoint over time, for it will take you closer to health and fulfillment. With some of us, our first choice is the best choice. Others need to “sleep on” choice because they only get clarity over time. Often we have to wait for our inner authority in order to move. In this fast world we want fast results and condition people to be decisive—Make your decision now! If your inner authority is fast and based in the now, that quick decision may work for you. For those whose inner authority is slower, however, waiting is more appropriate. Either way, once you begin to look within for the answers, the choices you make will be the best.

Outer authority can never know what is best for you. So stop believing that others know the answer. Outer authority is not living your life. It doesn’t know your destiny. Only you know you! And you know from an inner place—from your own authority—what is best for you. So, trust yourself and own your authority.

The Law of Good: More and Better
Life is naturally good. The nature of life is to create and recreate, to build and perfect. Life itself is a perfecting process never designed to actually be perfect. In the natural order, everything is getting better and better. There is something within us that strives for something better no matter how good we have it. Desire keeps us alive and developing.

Some call this evolution. As things evolve they become better or more. From mud huts to mansions, it is easy to see how much nicer indoor toilets are for everyone. Life is getting easier, more interesting and more entertaining all the time. If you look back through history you can see the secret laws of life at work. When really bad things happened, really good things came out of it. Progress was accelerated. Life makes lemonade out of lemons all the time. You can see how this natural law is exploited in the media with promises of more and better. But one thing you can always count on is that things will improve. They always do. Everything is always trying to get better, including you.

The reason why we sometimes can’t see that life is naturally good is because we pay so much attention to the bad and very little to the good. We take the good for granted. The mind picks out anything that might threaten it and magnifies it. It will often keep the undesirable on the forefront of our consciousness until it is no longer a threat. Good is so normal and natural that some people actually need to be taught to count their blessings, for they can’t see them. If life were naturally bad, it would destroy itself. If life were naturally bad, the good would stick out like a sore thumb. Everyone has a storm now and then, but balance is the norm; the sun is always shining up there somewhere.

The Law of Supply (Giving or Contribution)
Life automatically supplies us with what we need to live our design and complete our mission or purpose in life. We all have a job to do: talents to perfect, skills to develop. Life will propel us toward the best place to fulfill our potential and receive our supply. There is no set pay for any job. Each is paid what they believe they are worth.

That doesn’t mean we are all supposed to be rich. That would upset the balance. We are designed to have more than enough. Everyone contributes in some way. Everyone flows energy through themselves. Everyone works for, builds, perfects, or maintains life—the whole. If there were no sick people, there would be a lot of people who wouldn’t have jobs or anything to study. Some people are here to give other people jobs. Others are here to manage the wealth of the community. They need to be paid more so they can spread it around.

We all serve each other—from the food on our table, to the entertainment we watch on television. Maybe watching TV is a valuable contribution because it allows talented people to keep contributing their talent. So, relax: do your job. Notice that life wants you provided for, entertained, and educated. The only one that withholds anything from you is usually you.

The Law of Forgiveness
Life forgives everyone for everything all the time. Justice is blind because life is a perfecting process that doesn’t hold grudges.

Hey, that’s not very fair, is it? Well, life is not fair. If we expect life to be fair we will always be disappointed. Life doesn’t place conditions on us. Life doesn’t punish us either. It grants permission to everyone to go forth and make as many mistakes as needed. Remember, life is a perfecting process. If you don’t get wisdom and experience to make you better, you get to repeat the mistake.

Mistakes are a part of the natural order. Life expects us to make mistakes. Mistakes are the learning devices that life turns into wisdom and experience. After all, practice makes perfect. But perfect is not something that lasts. Why? Because you can always make it better or transform it into something else.

We hold our mistakes against ourselves from the mistaken idea that we are supposed to be perfect, instead of merely perfecting. Then we get into a downward spiral of punishing others and ourselves constantly for ‘not being’ something we are not designed to be: perfect. So, let yourself off the hook. Admit that everyone is imperfect. Drop the shame and guilt. Work to forgive yourself—and others. Only then do you get the wisdom. Since energy never dies (it only transforms), sooner or later you have to get on with the journey. You have forever to get it right.

Law of Cause and Effect
Every cause has an equal and corresponding effect. If you throw a rock into a pond, ripples flow outward. If the ripples hit a rock, they bounce off and more ripples are created. If the ripples hit a wall of rock, their reverberating waves will come back at you.

This is also the law of karma. In short, what you give out is what you get back in some way, shape or form. Or, “It is done unto us as we do unto others.” This is true unless we learned a lesson and were forgiven. And this is the place where the Laws of Motion/Action join with the Laws of Mind…

The Law of Creative Thought
Thoughts are energetic causes that create effects. Effects can be as wide ranged as a new theory in technology to the happiness or unhappiness we feel inside. Thoughts are things: energetic blueprints that are propelled into the world to gather or organize life. Every man-made object started as an idea. Thought is not only creative, however; it also attracts and repels. Through thinking we attract things to us, or repel them away. However, we may also attract those things that we may not want or repel the very things that would be helpful to us. This is where the game of life gets personal and interesting.

What it really comes down to is belief. Our beliefs are the basis of our reality. It is natural to believe that our beliefs are true, for we prove them to ourselves by manifesting them in the world or getting someone else to agree with our views. Then we feel right and safe.

Because our actions and state of being are the result of habitual thinking, this is also the place where we affect our life path in creative ways. Think of it as a personal coloring book. When we begin, all we see are faint lines and patterns. But then we begin to color the pages our own way, with our own unique style. This is how we do life, with life. We color our books and add to them as we go along.

The Law of Perception
Because our perception creates reality, reality is always an interpretation. And, because of this, no two people actually share the same reality. Our point of view is a combination of mechanical universe and the type of conditioning we have received. Thus, our perceptions can be slightly different from another’s—or vastly different.

Communication happens when we believe we share the same point of view with another. Missed communication can always happen because perceptions never, really, totally match. Trying to convince others that your perception is right is useless. Everyone believes his or her perception is the ‘true’ one. This is necessary to maintain individuality. Perception is the window through which we see our individual life and world. Conflict is created when two points of view oppose.

The Law of Illusion
Truth based on perception is not really truth. Nor is truth that is solely based on logic. Rather, truth is the subtle energy behind the human movie. All human perception involves shades of logic and abstract thinking. Imagination and story are also woven into our thinking. None of our thinking is really true—nor is it designed to be.

Our right brain is always operating. We make things up; this is our magic. In fact, we cannot not make things up. We love to exaggerate and minimize and otherwise distort reality to fit our whims. The truths we live and die for are really only beliefs or agreed upon theories that we have made up. We all live in our own illusion or, as the ancients called it, in maya. And not only do we live in our own private illusion, we also live in collective and tribal illusions. We love illusion so much that we create it all around ourselves—in the movies, on television, in the books we read, or how we gossip with each other. The only trouble with illusion is that it can blind us to what really is. The good news is that when you see an illusion as an illusion it dissolves. Awake, you can enjoy illusions or dissolve them instead of taking them personally or mistaking them for truth.

The Law of Mental Attention/Intention
Since thought contains creative, organizing energy, what you focus on and think about will get bigger. When you make a decision, you send energy in a specific direction. When you move your attention or ignore something, it loses power. When you keep your attention on the negative aspects, it creates more negativity. When you move your attention to the positive, a different energy is produced. In short, whatever you habitually put your focus on, believe in, or have decided about life, yourself and others, will show up in your life somehow, someway, whether it is good for you or not.

We all have to deal with the negative or more unpleasant aspects of life in order to maintain our balance. To deny the negative is both unhealthy and unsafe. If your brain feels insecure, it can obsess with the negative. On the other hand, total denial will keep you blind while the negative continues to brew. A better way is to acknowledge the negative and determine if there is anything you can do right now to solve it. If there is nothing you can do at the moment, withdraw your attention so it doesn’t get bigger. The goal is to give it as little attention as possible until it is time to solve the problem. Then give it your full attention.

Waiting is a great skill in life. Knowing when to move and when to wait is very valuable. The way to work with this law is to keep your attention on the positive. Put your life in a continuously positive frame and train yourself to count your blessings.

Who does your life really belong to?
Much of our life actually originates behind the scenes. My hope is that through this series you will begin to understand your life better. Why? Because your life doesn’t just belong to you; it belongs to everyone and everything you touch—physically, mentally or emotionally—in your life. There is so much more of you than you know because there are hidden aspects of yourself designed to come out only in certain circumstances, sparked by certain people or life experiences. Growth is a process that continues from birth to death. You honor your own process when you go with the flow.