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Infinite Possibilities (10th Anniversary): The Art of Living Your Dreams
Infinite Possibilities (10th Anniversary): The Art of Living Your Dreams
Infinite Possibilities (10th Anniversary): The Art of Living Your Dreams
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Infinite Possibilities (10th Anniversary): The Art of Living Your Dreams

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Infinite Possibilities is the masterwork from teacher, author, and featured speaker Mike Dooley. As the next step beyond his immensely popular Notes from the Universe trilogy, and his follow up, Choose them Wisely, this book contains even more enriching wisdom for living an abundant, joyous life.

Mike Dooley knows that we create our own reality, our own fate, and our own luck. We’re beings filled with infinite possibility—just ready to explore how powerful we truly are. Manifesting the magnificence of our dreams isn’t about hard work, but rather about belief and expectation. These principles transcend belief, realizing the truth about our human nature.
Your dreams are not accidental, nor inconsequential. And if someone were tell the truth about life, reality, and the powers we all possessed, would it be recognized? Our lives are full of adventures—and not exactly the sky-diving, mountain-climbing variety—but something better. Readers will laugh, applaud, and be inspired by Mike Dooley’s wit and wisdom.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateSep 8, 2009
ISBN9781439121474
Author

Mike Dooley

Mike Dooley is a former PricewaterhouseCoopers international tax consultant turned entrepreneur. He’s the founder of an online philosophical Adventurers Club that’s now home to more than 800,000 members from 182 countries. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Leveraging the Universe and Infinite Possibilities. Mike lives what he teaches and has spoken to audiences in 132 cities, thirty-four countries, and six continents.

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I find It so wonderful and amazing, I'd Read it again.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Really incredible book about seeing reality in a much different way - I had a blast flipping through it and know that I'll revisit what Mike Dooley has written. I have signed up for Notes from the Universe for months now, and I always enjoy seeing the chipper notes.
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    5/5
    Mike Dooley is THE best! Absolutely amazing read and will read again!
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    I enjoy reading this author's books.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I was inspired for the first number of chapters while waiting for him to get past the message that “thoughts become things”. Similar message that is in “The Secret”. Unfortunately, he just kept repeating this and similar messages with supporting arguments that were full of holes. I also did not like the religious undertones. I put it down after a quarter of the book.

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Infinite Possibilities (10th Anniversary) - Mike Dooley

Introduction

I wrote the following bit ten years ago, for the initial release of Infinite Possibilities, and these words ring even truer today:

There could be no better time than now, at this crossroads in history, to finally learn the truth about who you really are and all you’re capable of. Please don’t let the title of this book mislead you. Just as it’s about learning of your power, it is also about learning of your responsibilities. It shares exactly how to operate within the framework of these two pillars so that you can move through the affairs of the world, discovering opportunity where others have only found closed doors. This is a time of change and upheaval: the old is giving way to the new, naiveté is giving way to truth, and spirituality is about to take on an entirely new meaning. Those who learn of their greatness, honor their passions, and accept responsibility for their own happiness will usher in a golden age that will dwarf any experienced in history. There’s never been a more exciting time to be alive.

So much has changed in the past ten years, and to the naked eye, not in a good way. To let this go unmentioned would neither serve readers nor the truths contained in the pages ahead, casting the worldview you’re about to read of as pure Pollyanna. This is especially unfortunate because, in reality, today is an even more exciting time than when I first wrote those words. Somewhat reluctantly, this means I must go where few authors wish to go: offering a brief analysis of today’s politics—not the Washington, DC, kind (although there are clear parallels) but the politics of living and growing on planet Earth.

Even though it surely seems that we’re a nation and world slowly losing our grip, we are in fact evolving, individually and collectively. Progress sometimes requires taking a few steps back, making possible a much greater leap forward. And one of the many areas in which we’ve progressed, overall (which may surprise you), is in our spirituality—the philosophical and metaphysical understanding of who we are and why we’re here. We’ve been gradually shedding restrictive religious beliefs, just as a century ago we eased away from a pervasive mysticism, believing that God works in mysterious ways (like some Casper the ghost) and similar power-draining abstractions. The progress is, in part, evidenced by increased personal responsibility for our own health and environment, more politically correct dealings with one another, and far greater awareness of the global consequences, both perilous and glorious, of every individual and collective decision. Even though it seems these are exactly the areas we’re falling behind in the most, consider that none of them were even on the map forty years ago, when our greatest concern about fossil fuels was running out of them! Today, there’s even a particularly popular check box on dating websites that declares the participant is spiritual, not religious—a sure sign of progress.

Naturally, not everyone’s happy with such swift advances—especially those benefiting from the old system, accustomed to unearned and unquestioned privileges. These folks have come out en masse, trying in vain to cling to a past that disproportionately favored the few. They’re not the majority, though their loud resistance can make it seem as if they are.

Recently, however, the intensity of narratives and the underlying confusion it’s been born of (not knowing who we are and why we’re here) has flared to a disturbing degree. Rising rates of stress, depression, divisiveness, suicide, addictions, racism, xenophobia, mass shootings, obscene income disparities, and the prospect of new wars now threaten our advancement like few times in recorded history. In the United States, we’re experiencing the longest sustained decline in life expectancy in a century, according to a 2018 study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Yet an irrevocable tide is silently rising on the almost predictable arc made by the evolution of consciousness:

Might Is Right (first physically, then financially) → The Rule of Law → The Way of Love

The Rule of Law has served us well, drafted with noble intentions and high ideals, but it has been influenced by those who once ruled by might. Meanwhile, multitudes still fall through cracks in a floor that never considered this discrepancy: while all people are created equal, the love, guidance, and parenting from which they were born is not.

Of course, anyone can rise above the difficult circumstances they were born into if they know how. And no matter the privilege that may have blinded us to the plight of others, we have the innate ability to see through our folly if we know how.

The antidote for both the under- and overprivileged—what the world needs most today—is truth: Knowing who we are and why we’re here; knowing our power and our responsibilities. Not living selflessly but selfishly, defining self to include all of those whose lives are touched by ours; not putting the needs of others before our own but following our hearts, and thereby, living as a shining example for others. Knowing that the journey to wholeness must begin within each one of us before it can manifest in the world. This is the message quietly underpinning Infinite Possibilities.

I had to learn the same, beginning with my own broken life before I could most effectively serve others. I began writing the chapters that follow on January 1, 2001, as the script for an audio program that would become the genesis of this book—a book that would finally see daylight on September 8, 2009. Only weeks before, I’d announced to my small email list that it would be offered in twelve one-hour installments during the coming calendar year on the first day of each month—and I was late.

I was also scared. I was starting my working life over again—this time as a full-time writer—and I was at a loss to explain why I even had to begin a new career, except, of course, there was no money coming in. But I knew a few things about life and its mechanics—of our divinity and power, of holding to a dream and physically moving with it.

Since then, Infinite Possibilities has gone on to become one of the bestselling audio programs on the internet and in the self-improvement world. It’s led to speaking engagements all over the globe; to being featured in the bestselling book and DVD The Secret, and to the creation of Notes from the Universe, the daily email I still send to a list that’s grown to more than eight hundred thousand people, reminding them of how worthy they are, how powerful they are, and how much they deserve.

When finally published as a book, after countless rejections spanning seven years, Infinite Possibilities debuted on the New York Times bestseller list and ultimately led to my cumulative works being translated into twenty-six languages.

What I discovered then (and continue to live) is that remembering my true place in life—understanding my role in its creation and demonstrating such understandings through thought, word, and deed—is always enough to change everything. In spite of disappointing surroundings, global turmoil, or even the inability to explain recent cultural events or personal setbacks, through understanding life’s truths, we can still begin using what we already have, starting from wherever we are, to blast forward and improve our fortunes immeasurably.

And then, ironically, as almost everything I’ve ever dreamed of has come to pass, a new, almost alien desire has emerged: to serve, helping others by reaching those who’ve not yet been reached with the truth. To that end, I spent several years speaking weekly to prisoners in Orlando’s Orange County Jail, ultimately developing a replicable program with related workbooks so that others wanting to do the same thing could follow. Today, there are more than two thousand certified infinite-possibilities trainers delivering this material in similar settings, as well as in living rooms, classrooms, boardrooms, and keynote addresses to paying audiences.

This is what Infinite Possibilities promised, then and today: an understanding of our divine power, a road map for harnessing life’s ultimate absolute, and a reminder of the infinite grace and perfection that always embraces us. You needn’t explain what’s led you here and now—why the relationship didn’t work out, why the business never took off, or why the diet didn’t succeed—nor must the world be in harmony and governments honorable in order for you to learn who you really are and to understand all the possibilities that still lie before you. Yet, as has always been true for me, once change begins sweeping into your life and an upward spiral commences, you’ll be able to glance back with relative ease at the commotion that preceded the turning point and see the order and beauty in all that unfolded, as well as your hand in its creation and the purpose it served.

To the life of your dreams and the eager world that anxiously awaits your full presence,

Image: Mike Dooley Signature

October 8, 2019

Prologue

AN ADVENTURER’S GUIDE TO THE JUNGLES OF TIME AND SPACE

Not long ago, in the nether reaches of ad infinitum, there formed a council of fearless explorers—adventurers much like you—who had become bored with perfection, infinity, and unending bliss. Whatever it was they wanted, they got. However they wanted to change, they did, and whatever they wanted to be, they became. Their existence had become so same old, same old that they hardly felt like the great Adventurers they were. It wasn’t enough, they agreed; something had to be done. So, being who they were, they decided to invent an entirely new dimension for their reality.

Well, new dimensions, even for these Adventurers, don’t get invented very often, so you can imagine their excitement as they began to explore the vast new possibilities that suddenly lay before them. And this dimension was especially exciting because it made possible the previously unthinkable ability of being in just one place, without being everywhere else at once.

You see, back then, in the nether reaches of ad infinitum, there was only the here and now; nothing else existed. These poor explorers never had anywhere to go because they were already everywhere! What their new dimension did was enable them to dim their awareness of everywhere else enough to focus on being a single somewhere at a time.

And now that they could create somewheres, they found they could each devise secret patterns among their somewheres to play games and conduct experiments. In fact, they did this so often that they began referring to this new dimension as the Secret Pattern Adventure for Creative Enlightenment, or SPACE for short.

SPACE became the new frontier, with lots of possibilities for exploration, fun, and games. And perhaps the most remarkable phenomenon about SPACE was the startling discovery that it could be filled with their thoughts: whenever their thoughts were focused and concentrated within their SPACE, they became dense and appeared solid!

They discovered that they could think big or small, red or blue, hard or soft—whatever they imagined—and their thoughts would then become the same thing in SPACE! These Adventurers had discovered that their thoughts could be projected into this SPACE of theirs, where they would then appear as objects, and they quickly came to realize that they could Manifest Any Thought That Existed into Reality, so in no time at all (mostly because time had not yet been invented), MATTER began to fill their SPACE! Matter, of course, was the acronym for Manifest Any Thought That Existed into Reality. (These Adventurers, as you can tell, loved acronyms.)

Creativity soared as they dabbled, first creating stars and planets and then mountains and oceans. Everything they dreamed of came to life in an explosion of light, color, and sound that stretched their imagination to the very edges of their SPACE.

It was all incredibly exciting, except, deep down inside, they knew that something was missing. As spectacular as their new worlds were, they themselves, the creators of everything, remained on the outside looking in.

The Adventurers began to ponder how they could become part of the mysterious, enchanting, material worlds they’d created, and in their wondering they asked, If our MATTER is simply occupied SPACE, and deep down we know that we’re really still everywhere else at once… hmmm… could we possibly exist in the very same SPACE that holds our MATTER?

Well, of course they could, and as they thought it, they did it, taking up residence inside their MATTER, just as if it were a somewhere, by dimming their awareness of everywhere else.

Now, to make things even more interesting, right about then a new game called hide-and-seek was being invented, and, as could be predicted, the Adventurers scurried about and hid themselves inside their creations, where they would not likely be found. They Hid Under Matter Animated in the Now, because now was still all there was (since time had not yet been invented), and henceforth referred to themselves as being HUMAN when they were in hiding.

It was a great idea, this hiding under MATTER—so great, in fact, that no one was ever found! So despite their joy in having found a new game to play, they were no longer aware of one another’s discoveries. Big problem.

This prompted a call to go out for the need to Trace one another In Material Existence; thus TIME was born finally! The games resumed, reunions were planned, and the fun really began—that is, until everyone had pretty much been there, done that!

Another idea was needed, and given the Adventurers’ track record, it didn’t take them long to come up with one. What if, they thought, we all venture out together, in HUMAN form, into the same SPACE at the exact same TIME? Whoa! This idea was so monumental, so profound, so colossal that it sent a big bang booming throughout all creation, and it has since been compared to the invention of light itself.

Well, by now it should be obvious that these Adventurers weren’t your normal, everyday kind of Adventurers. They were creative Adventurers on a mission—to have as much fun as could possibly be imagined—and to that end, as you well know, they’ve been wildly successful, though they have met up with a few wrinkles that are still being ironed out.

For instance, once TIME was invented, they spent so much of it playing as a creation among their creations that they began to lose themselves. For example, during their unending games of hide-and-seek, they stayed HUMAN for so long, not wanting to be found, that they actually began to forget they were also everywhere else at once.

Many more began to forget that they were even Adventurers, and as TIME marched on, they fell into a deeper and deeper trance. In fact, so far did they fall that they began to feel trapped within their bodies and helpless among their creations. No longer did they notice that they themselves were the ones crafting the objects and events of their lives with their thoughts, though this didn’t change; instead they saw these things as something to contend with.

Unfortunately, a direct result of this naiveté led to their first taste of FEAR, which was felt whenever they Failed to Experience the Actual Reality before them. A scary thing, they soon found out. No fun at all! And worse, a whole horde of emotions sprang to life with their every misunderstanding.

Never in any reality have such lofty beings plunged into such great despair. Terror, anger, sadness, and guilt were rampant. It was a travesty through and through until, little by little, there began a great healing—not from on high or any other such place (though some still say it was a Mystically Incited Reality Adjustment Concealed by Loving Entities); it was a healing that had transpired from within; life ministering to life itself—perhaps a MIRACLE either way.

It turns out that the Adventurers were learning from their emotions. For example, if FEAR stems from the Failure to Experience the Actual Reality before you, then at least it serves as an unmistakable warning (to the one doing the fearing) that his or her thinking has strayed from the truth.

And there was even more good news about these emotions. It turned out they could also be warm and fuzzy, funny and silly, and even wild and crazy! And it was their passage through all the emotions, happy and sad, that brought the Illustrious Ones (as they came to be called) their greatest achievement: an inner Pleasure Experienced by Accepting all Creation as it Exists, or inner PEACE. Mastered by so few, as it requires a deep understanding of the perfection that exists within everything, every moment, every place, and in everyone, no matter what!

By now, in the present day, all forms of awareness, from everywhere ever thought of, have heard about SPACE, TIME, and the brilliant Adventurers who created it all. And those who drop by for a look at this little corner of creation are so astounded by what they find that they are changed forever.

It’s not just the splendor of the planets nor the raging life that thrives upon them, nor even the bold and outrageous thoughts that continue to perpetuate them all that astound visitors. Observers are left speechless and are downright humbled by the few who have returned from the adventure—those Adventurers who have actually found themselves.

These are the Illustrious Ones whose glowing radiance and divine illumination reflect an understanding rooted in the unshakable knowledge that all things and events are born of thought, that in TIME and SPACE it’s all good, and that everything, everywhere, always is One.

Only by losing themselves and serving their illusions could these Adventurers then be driven emotionally—by their burning desires—to reclaim and know the depths of their own divinity. By truly understanding their reality, they’ve become the inspiration and the ideal for all to follow.

Having just shared all that, it is a bit amazing to us that more have not joined the ranks of the Illustrious Ones. Certainly to each his (or her) own; it’s just that they’re all still so caught up in this most awesome adventure of theirs that it seems they really couldn’t care less about everywhere else!

Perhaps you understand them better. Still, to us at least, it seems a shame that such inexhaustible energy and creative genius is being so thoroughly neglected. If they could—and we assure you, they can—just for an instant, glimpse their greater reality and see themselves as the omniscient, unlimited, fun-loving gladiators they’ve always been, it would so radically change everything! Not that they should return. Heavens, no. We just think that they may have a better… TIME, shall we say, if reminded that they themselves are creators. Don’t you think?

By the way, we’ve blown the lid clear off your little charade—

FOUND YOU!

Now, let’s get this party started…


You have but to direct your thinking to direct your experience.

In many ways, this is a true story. Actually, it’s our story and it’s more factual than fictional: We were among the illustrious architects who dreamed up time and space—the eyes and ears of God—and we’re now alive in our own creation to experience our divinity in ways that it could not otherwise be experienced. We are the very reason the sun rises each day. And grasping this premise, instinctively if not intellectually, you should, therefore, be able to see just how worthy you are of any other dream you may care to conjure up. There’s no one outside of yourself who has anything to do with it; you’re not here to be tested and judged. You have but to direct your thinking to direct your experience. It’s that easy.

You are one of the original Adventurers—unlimited, fearless, and divine—not merely a human being. You are an adventurer just being human.

Unfortunately, most of our fellow cohorts are still lost in space, with virtually everything in our society telling us, reminding us, and insisting that we are limited, aging creatures, living lives between luck and fate in a hard, unforgiving world. The truth, however (and this will likely ring bells in your heart of hearts), is that we are infinite and powerful, fun-loving gladiators of the Universe, with eternity before us and the power of our thoughts to help shape it.

We create our own realities, our own fate, and our own luck. That is how powerful we are, and that is how powerful you are. And to offset all the contradictory thinking of the media and masses, you need to hear this kind of message as often as you hear all the others.

This book was written with such a message. It’s a book on the nature of reality—a reality that is simple, organized, and, above all, knowable. My aim throughout is to explain exactly how you fit into this reality, and then to remind you of how powerful you are, of how far you can reach, and of how much you deserve so that you can begin thriving as the giant you are in this oasis among the stars. You have indeed been endowed with the gift to make your dreams come true.

Blood, sweat, and tears aren’t what it takes to create real change. Instead, it’s your imagination, beliefs, and expectations that draw you into the action, circumstances, and coincidences that make dream manifestation inevitable. This isn’t wishful thinking. It’s the way things have always been in the jungles of time and space, the illusionary dimension that is both our laboratory and playground. Here our thoughts become things, our word is our wand, and we can learn of our divinity by witnessing the daily miracles we perform, effortlessly crafting spirit into circumstance as we perpetuate the material world we share. You don’t necessarily need more education, more connections, or more lucky breaks. You just need to understand the principles and concepts that every prophet and mystic has shared since the beginning of time—principles that have nothing to do with religion and everything to do with the truth about who we really are, why we’re here, and the magic at our disposal.

Your dreams are not yours by accident. You have them for many reasons, not the least of which is to make them come true. Your dreams are meant to be—if you do your part. This can seem like a mighty tall order when you don’t fully understand what your part is or the processes that make dreams come true, especially while the whole world wants you to believe that suffering and sacrifice pave the road to success. With greater understanding, however, you’ll find that nothing could possibly be easier than the way life really works.

There is nothing you can’t do, nothing you can’t have, and nothing you can’t be.

You are guided, you do have the power, and the Universe is actually conspiring on your behalf.

This book reviews the principles and concepts that can give you flight. These principles are now at play in your own life, whether you know what they are or not, and these principles are incredibly easy to use. By identifying, understanding, and harnessing them, you will access the power that can literally turn wishes into reality.

Consider today’s so-called successful people. Are they smarter than you? Are they more deserving? Have they paid greater dues? No. Whether through intelligence or naiveté (often the latter, but it doesn’t make any difference), they’re actually living in ways that engage life’s principles so that the Universe begins serving them. The good news is that such people are proof that anyone else can do the same. And understanding this, you’ll have an advantage: you’ll understand your successes and therefore won’t have to live in fear that they could ever be taken away from you.

My mission is to help you look within, to discover how unlimited you are, and to help you find the keys to the Kingdom. What you then decide to do with those keys will be up to you.

In the following pages, I aim to brush up against your own deep, long-forgotten memories that have been yearning to be exercised, thought about, and rediscovered. There’s the old adage about it being better to teach someone to fish than to give him or her a fish, and in this book, I intend to remind you (more than teach you) of your divine nature and limitless capabilities so that you can achieve your own happiness and fulfillment.

If someone were to tell you the truth about life, reality, and the powers you possessed, would you recognize it as the truth? If someone were to offer you the key to the kingdom of your wildest dreams, would you accept it? I think you would.

1

Thoughts Become Things

From as far back as I can remember, until I was a young adult, I used to think that everyone knew something I didn’t. I felt like the perennial outsider. They, like me, weren’t aware of what it was, and they didn’t seem to notice that I was without it. But to me, the difference was painful. Life’s little things seemed second nature to others, whereas I felt I had to fake that I knew what was going on. I felt awkwardly different, which led to an overwhelming desire to question what most people seem to take for granted: a desire to know what this life is about.

In the beginning, my search for answers revolved around the issues of life, death, and the powers of the mind. But from this search arose other intriguing mysteries concerning time, space, heaven, hell, hypnosis, UFOs, ghosts, ESP, the dream state, reincarnation, and the like. Early on, I had drawn basic conclusions that explained each mystery, but they were just hunches. For example, I remember telling my mother when I was about thirteen that time and space couldn’t really exist as we’ve defined them, and that neither could hell or a God that wasn’t One with all things, living and inanimate. My sense was that He or She or Whatever was not just inside us all, but that no part of our experience could ever be anything less than 100 percent God.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but my desire to know had put me on an inner path toward understanding; my thinking was beginning to attract similar thinking. It was as if my questions were slowly answering themselves, opening my eyes to the insights that I now know are latent within each of us. As I walked this path of seeking, the questions I dwelled upon were somehow answered. I was never sure just when my answers had arrived. I only sensed, sometime after illumination on the subject, that an intuitive knowing had been imparted when I wasn’t paying close attention. The point of sharing this is to reveal that the answers I was receiving came from within, which is exactly where your answers reside as well.

I was raised Catholic, baptized and confirmed, but I found many of the teachings, rules, and rituals contradictory and, more importantly, inconsistent with the conclusions I had intuitively deduced. I’ve always believed, for example, that each of us is really doing his or her best, given our own understandings, misunderstandings, and upbringings. Therefore, if divine judgment were to be passed on a life—and I don’t believe it is—sin could only ever be regarded as an honest mistake caused by deeply misunderstanding the nature of our reality, not a demerit system that leads to eternal damnation.

Wouldn’t a loving Father, I reasoned, have more compassion than to seek revenge on His comparatively feeble children who are temporarily blinded by the illusions of time and space? Even human parents are far more understanding of their own flesh and blood than the Father portrayed in most religions. Sin, and its past and present connotations, must have been a term derived by man, I concluded, not by an understanding, all-knowing God. Then and now I believe that our so-called sins should simply serve us as teachers, not as tormentors.

So, while raised amidst traditional religious views, I also needed explanations that made sense, and just as importantly, I’ve always believed such explanations were attainable. Rather than simply dismissing what didn’t make sense to me about my Catholic upbringing, I looked for similarities between what they taught and what I felt, deduced, or rationally understood, and once "my

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