Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:09 Welcome to Lessons from The Helpful Dead, where you'll learn the world is not what it seems, and you are much more than you think you are. Here you learn about positive and reassuring messages from supposedly dead people whose main purpose is to help us find out what happens after we die, why we're here, how we got here, where we're going, and discover that you are really a powerful, eternal spirit. I'm Dan McEnany. In today's session, we're going to talk about will the power of the will. And in order to address that, I'm going to read just one page of comments that, uh, Rob Jane's husband put together. And, uh, then I'm going to talk about the single individual that I believe represents the most dramatic story of the use of the will, uh, to achieve what he wanted to achieve against all odds. First, here are Seth's comments.
Speaker 1 00:01:07 You have a will for a reason. When you are born, the will is directed toward growth and development. You literally will yourselves alive. That will to be triggers all bodily activity, which then operates automatically with the same power from which the will itself emerged. In infancy and childhood, the will single heartedly directs the body to go full thrust ahead. Sweeping aside obstacles and the great impetus toward growth and development, the will is meant to assess the conditions into which the organism grows and to also seek out the best areas for expansion. Now, there are times in history when the species deals with different kinds of challenges in programmed societies where quote, each man or woman knows his or her place, then the will knows which directions to follow, though other conditions and prerogatives might be ignored actually in your own society. There are many prerogatives, rubert that his, uh, cess word for Jane Rub.
Speaker 1 00:02:13 Rupert wanted to go in one particular direction, but with no clear cut known ways of getting there. He wanted to pursue a course that was unconventional. He felt he needed protection while he learned, and until he attained enough wisdom, the search itself would lead to a completely different set of values and a new belief system. I'm gonna repeat that because I'll refer to it later. The search itself would lead to a completely different set of values and a new belief system. You see about you others dealing with life's challenges following the old beliefs, they must see for themselves that those beliefs do not work. The universe is with you and not against you. Your fellow men are with you and not against you. When each of you realize that, then you reach those portions of your fellows that are with you. You meet them at a different level that is illuminating to them also and starts them developing the will's.
Speaker 1 00:03:12 Power is impressive and it is distributed throughout the body. The body depends upon it for direction. The will's beliefs again, activate the body's automatic resources. Alright, that, that's the end of, uh, Seth's comments. And now I'm going to, uh, go to a discussion of James r Doty, MD, d o t y. And he wrote the book into the Magic Shop. It's, uh, pretty much the story of his life and it's very illuminating in terms of showing and demonstrating the power of the will. Now. Uh, Jim grew up in the hard scrabble town of Lancaster, California, uh, in the sixties. And if ever there were a kid who had the odds stacked against him, it was Jim Doty. His father was a drunk, uh, who was often absent or in jail. His mother was, uh, depressed and fearful. He had a brother who was older, but who was small and weak and was often the subject of bullying.
Speaker 1 00:04:19 Of course, the family had no money and they'd been evicted from their apartment a number of times. Often he went hungry. But, uh, the one thing that, uh, gave him some joy in life was that he liked magic tricks. And he had a little box where he kept whatever magic tricks he had. Now, one day he was riding his bike in a different part of town that he very seldom visited, and he noticed a lone strip mall. He also noted some kids and he was always on the lookout if there were a bunch of boys together, because they might be picking on his brother, in which case he'd have to get into a fight. But this day there was no group of bullies beating up his brother. And instead he noticed in that strip mall a magic shop that he'd never noticed before. Long story short, he went into the Magic shop and lo and behold, there was an older woman there.
Speaker 1 00:05:13 She was minding the store for her son who owned the store. He struck up a conversation with the woman, or she struck one up with him to be more correct. And what happened is that eventually she convinced him to learn a different kind of magic, a special kind of magic that would bring him whatever he desired. Then through a series of meetings, she taught him what amounted to meditation and focus. She taught him in terms of, uh, teaching him a number of tricks. But the tricks were a, actually a series of steps that a person would take when learning how to meditate and focus and use affirmation and visualizations to bring about what you want, something that's commonly called today, the Law of attraction. And of course, we've discussed in past sessions, uh, that Seth explained how this works moving ahead in the story. Uh, toward the end of high school, he really had no ambition.
Speaker 1 00:06:16 He didn't know what he was going to do. The only thing he ever really wanted to be at one time was a doctor, but he always considered that basically impossible. As graduation neared, he was sitting next to a girl beside him who was filling out forms. He asked her what she was doing, and she said she was filling out her application forms for uc, Irvine, and she was latent in doing so. She asked him where he was going and he was too embarrassed to say anything else except, oh yeah, I'm going to uc, Irvine also. Well, the girl then reached into her desk drawer, handed an extra set of application forms. Lo and behold, she said, lucky you here, get these filled out and get them in quickly. Well, he did that and lo and behold, despite the fact that his marks weren't all that great, and despite the fact that he had no money to get there or spend money on anything else you need when you attend college, he was accepted also about that time.
Speaker 1 00:07:12 They were about to get evicted again with their belongings put out on the sidewalk. That time he used the quote magic tricks that, uh, Ruth had taught him, visualizing that they would somehow have the rent money. Sure enough, when they expected the sheriff to knock on the door to evict them. Instead it was a man with an envelope, uh, paying his father a thousand dollars for work the father had done three years ago, but he'd never paid him. Suddenly they had the rent money and Jim could proceed with whatever plans he had for getting to uc. Irvine. This convinced him that Ruth's magic really did work. Now, at uc, Irvine, he didn't have particularly good grades because he had to deal with all the family issues. And so what he did, he had to do with, uh, only about half the time he had available to him, he wanted to go to Tulane medical school, but was dis he was discouraged, uh, from even applying because his grades were so poor.
Speaker 1 00:08:09 That's when his strong will came into play. He stated it was simply unacceptable for him not even to get a hearing, insisted on getting an appointment with the re review committee that would decide whether he could be accepted into Tulane. And when they told him that, uh, he was basically wasting their time with the kind of marks that he had, he went into a long and impassioned story saying, who are they to step on someone else's dreams? And he explained about his life situation and all that he had to do, and that he still got decent grades despite having to put up with, uh, dealing with a dysfunctional family where he was the only strong person. So once again, his very strong will, combined with the affirmation of visualization, led to his being accepted into Tulane medical School against all odds. Really, the same thing was virtually repeated when he wanted to get into a program for, uh, neurosurgery at Walter Reed Hospital.
Speaker 1 00:09:13 This time totally against any and all odds. Many other applicants had much better marks and the slots for that were already filled. But he persevered and by a series of coincidences and strange occurrences, uh, using his ability to focus and to concentrate on what he wanted, he was miraculously accepted for, uh, the brain surgery, the, the neurosurgeon program at Walter Reed. He simply would let no obstacle, however large stand in his way to getting what he wanted. What he wanted was to become a, a brain surgeon and also to make a lot of money. Indeed, he achieved all those things and even went beyond because of some inventions he had made and some investments. He eventually became worth over $75 million because of the value of his investments in various medical companies. And of course, he was a highly respected brain surgeon. But then came the.com crash and he lost everything in his stock.
Speaker 1 00:10:29 Valuations. He sold off all his properties, lost a lot of so-called friends, did some reflection, and realized that he had forgotten one very important point that this lady who had trained him years ago had given him. And that point was, sometimes the things you want are not really what's best for you. He realized then because he had been so poor as a child, that he had focused on money, money, money. And this had made his value system out of whack, decided to change his beliefs and his value system and determined that he was going to focus on helping others. Well, he did that in spades. And when he found out that he could get back $30 million because of a bequest that was never fulfilled or legally, he said, no, let it go ahead. And he just simply turned it down and turned his focus to helping others.
Speaker 1 00:11:24 Of course, he knew he could make a good living as a brain surgeon, but this time he used his wealth and his connections for the purposes of helping others as much as he could. Remember when I read the Seth passages, how repeated one sentence about, uh, Jane changing her value system and beliefs? Well, the same thing happened here, and he went on to do some wonderful things around the world. Uh, some of them in connection with the Dalai Lama. He also came to the firm conviction that every human being has great value, great potential, and that we are all connected. Well, you've heard many of the same things in a number of previous episodes, and that's why I wanted to share the story of James r Doty, md. But my brief summary does not do justice to the power of this book. The title again, is Into The Magic Shop. It's not expensive and it's a quick read, but a very powerful read. Anyone I've ever, uh, recommended it to or bought it for has thought it was one of the most, uh, powerful, inspiring books they've ever read. Okay, that's the end of today's session. And once again, I'm Dan McEnany, bringing you lessons from the Helpful Dead.
