I have learned throughout my readings that intent is a very powerful thing.  It almost serves as a connection to the universe, where your thoughts can manifest not only in altered states of consciousness, but in waking reality as well.

My relationship with intent began during my eartly attempts at Astral Projection.  The simple act of stating my intent before sleep or before an attempt would dramatically increase my projection results.  Likewise, it gives me access to spiritual learning expeirences in altered states of consciousness and in dreams.  Bruce teaches the finger bending technique, which seems to work great for me.

Tonight I decided to experiment with intent while playing Monopoly with the family.  I was fairly shocked and amazed at the results of my experiment with dice. 

The procedure I came up with was as follows:
1.  Induce the feeling of intent(learned by the finger bending exercise)
2.  Visualize the number I intended to role
3.  Visualize the dice landing on the intended number
4.  Know that the intended number will be rolled.  I would think to myself, "I am going to roll the number X," with absolutely no doubts in my mind.   
5.  Visualize the number being rolled, followed by a creation of the emotions associated with rolling that number and a visualization of my response.(Feeling great joy and excitement at rolling the intended number while seeing myself get up and scream YES!!!)

This method was used for about 25% of my rolls.  I am pleased to report that well over half of the rolls landed on the intended number!  Probably in the 70% area.  I got so excited that it was actually working at one point that I told my mom what I was doing and how great it was working.  Occasionally I would say the number out loud to show my mom that I wasn't lying.  At one point she said, "Vin your a freak." lol. (She meant it in a nice way)  I was most impressed with this technique on occasions when I would roll my intended number, but one of the die would land off the board, so I would have to roll again, and the very same number would come up!  I recommend everyone giving this technique a try while playing board games, or even while gambling.  You may leave the table a millionare.. too bad the monopoly money isn't real!

Vincent,

This is my area of expertise on the board, so I'm going to suggest some resources.  Initially, there is an almost giddy feeling in realizing that we can alter reality in the physical world.  It seems akin to magic.  I know; I have experienced the power of intent and caused changes, which could not have occurred by random chance.  

This topic has been picked up by many self-help gurus, only they miss the mark.  This is my main criticism of the topic of the power of intent.  If one uses intent simply for personal gain, without coupling it to love, then one creates negative karma, and may achieve short term goals, but not evolve in a spiritual sense ("gain the world and lose your soul," so to speak).  Keep this in mind as you explore.  

Much of this is based on what has been called the laws of mind and the law of attraction.  I would suggest certain sources:  (a note here, though some sources mentioned are not scholarly, they are eminently readable and they get their point across - the PEAR lab mentioned below and some of Ernest Holmes work borders on scholarly - sorry to Don in advance)

1.  In order to show scientifically that thought can change random reality, Google
the Princeton P.E.A.R. laboratory.  They created random number generator machines, and have had literally thousands of people sit in front of them.  Their results, published in peer reviewed scientific journals are significant.  The intent of someone sitting in the room will actually change the outcome (not always in the ways the subjects wanted).  

2.  There is a short 30 page book written by an author named James Allen in the 1800s entitled "As a man thinketh" which is an easy read, and makes a good case for experimenting and understanding these laws yourself.  It used to be free on asamanthinketh.net; if not, PM me, and I will email you my copy.

3.  There is another simple read that is actually quite informative by an author named Dr. Joseph Murphy called  "The power of your subconscious mind"  Here the subconscious is really equivalent to our connection through intent with the universe.  You cn also substitute "God" for subconscious and understand things better.  This fits in well the the christian aphorism; "ask and ye shall receive."  Along with many others.  While simply written, there is much wisdom in it.  Again, if not available free, I can email you my copy.

4.  To get further into this, I would recommend a tough read by Ernest Holmes called "The Science of Mind."  Holmes was self-taught, and his prose and verbiage are quite difficult, perhaps in an effort to make up for this.  He was very influential in this area.

5.  There is a slightly hokey online movie, available on a certain link for free called "The Secret."  In it, about seven people discuss the universal law of attraction and how people can change reality.  I may post a link here, but again, any are free to email me for it if interested.

Eventually you will realize that after experimentation, that prayer and love can be connected to intent.  This is the highest form of the use of our minds, as all other uses are for material things.  

Best to you,


Matthew

If people ask me what the biggest practical issue is for spirituality, I reply that the relationship between the latent power of the mind and divine guidance and intervention ranks as one of the most important.  Years ago, I discovered that St. Francis used bibliomancy to obtain divine guidance and achieved marvelous results.  Bibliomancy involves meditation on a personally important issue and then opening the Bible at random to see if the  first verse viewed provides the  answer.  The first time I tried this, I asked when my stale romantic life would brighten up.  My finger randomly and promptly pointed to Song of Songs 8:4: "I  charge you daughters of Jerusalem, to  stir not up, nor awaken his love until it please."  Startlingly appropriate!  My dating life dramatically improved a while later.  

Being greedy, I thought I knew a good thing when I saw it.  So I started obsessing over bibliomancy.  The resulting prophecies came true less and less.   But the verses I randomly fingered were consistently startlingly appropriate to my intent!  It soon became clear that what might initially have been divine guidance soon turned into a purely psychic talent with no observable practical use.  

Linda was a pretty Harvard Art History grad student, who was contemplating a divorce from her abusive and unfaithful husband.  She was exploring Catholicism at the time and had used bibliomany to receive guidance as to whether divorce was permissible for her.  She immediately randomly fingered a biblical prohibition against divorce.  When she told me this, I smiled and insisted: "Give me your Bible!"  She handed it to me, I closed my eyes, opened her Bible, and immediately fingered a  verse that permitted divorce.  A shocked Linda coyly smiled and asked, "Are you saying that your guidance trumps my gudance?"  I replied, "No, Linda, I've discovered  I can synchronistically get answers like that at will, and it doesn't necessarily mean anything.   Trust your own discernment about divorce and stop relying on methods that might deceive you into making a bad decision."  Linda got the divorce and we became close  friends.  [In fact, the Bible allows divorce under certain conditions.]

A while later, I was invited to a professor's home for dinner.  The subject of psychic gifts came up and I volunteered to demonstate my bibliomantic skills to them.  I asked them to think of something.  The woman shouted "plants!"  Several times in a row, I fingered a "plant verse" in the Bible.

I also discovered another odd ability.  I once used a deck of cards to see if it could be the instrument of divine guidance.  I decided that hearts would be a symbol of impending romance.  I closed my eyes and drew 4 straight hearts out of a shuffled deck.  I had just read Robert Monroe's "Journeys Out of the Body," and was wondering whether it had any merit.  That night, I went to a nightclub and was approached by a pretty lady who  suddenly regaled me with stories of her OBEs.  She seemed like a Monroe clone, but had never heard of him!  We dated.  I had never met anyone like this before and it happened the same day I finished "Journeys" and performed my divination with the cards.  

I got obsessed over this card method and soon learned the same lesson I did with bibliomancy.  I could quite consistently randomly draw 4 straight hearts, but this no longer synchronizied with some speicial outcome I was contemplating.  

I have known Christian faith healers with spectacular clairvoyant ability, who used this talent to evoke healing faith.  But like my experiments, their psychic abilities were far more impressive than their healing talents.  

So what do I infer from these weird experiments?   I suspect thare must be a better way of harnassing such psychic talents, so that they can be transformed into spiritual gifts that benefit others.  

Don

Vin,

It is true that achieving what you want does not necessarily create negative karma.  One of the surprising facts that comes out is that God and the universe does not insist that we suffer to be loving.  Those who have mastered the power of intent learn to believe that abundance is our birthright.  Money and wealth are not a sin, they are obtainable, if that is our intent.  The universe/God is neutral about our obtaining wealth or fame.   Nobility is how you see it.  However, you can free yourself from suffering and poverty by realizing that it is, to some extent self-imposed (this you can learn from the short book "As a man thinketh.")

I was moved by Howard Storm's NDE, during the life review.  He was surprised that the beings of light (angels, etc.) seemed completely indifferent about his earthly succeses.  He thought that his winning a trophy in little league or winning an award for excellence in school they would have been happy;  they couldn't care less.  Instead, when he was expressing love, they were very happy and seemed to encourage him, even if the event seemed minor while in the physical plane.  If you extrapolate this to the power of intent, you could imagine that winning a lottery, or coming up with the next great money making invention might be viewed with the same indifference.  So might living in a mansion, or achieving fame and notoriety in your field.  All of these accomplishments are important to us here, in ego-driven earth life.  In the heavens, they are not meaningful (sorry, Brendan).  

This is why I bring up the coupling of intent to love and service to others.  In its worst form, the use of intent is known as black magic or curses.  If intent is applied properly, injury or a bad outcome can be achieved.  However, it is usually accompanied by a negative counter push (what comes around, goes around).  

So learn, and enjoy.  Just realize that as John Lennon said "Last night, the wife said, oh boy when you're dead, you don't take nothing with you but your soul.  Think!" (Ballad of John and Yoko).

Matthew

Dude-
I get the impression that you have an unusual degree of self control. This might be used, should you be so inclined, as a means of answering some of the issues about religion, in specific or in general, that you were bringing up before. I'd be especially interested in anything that you bump into that you find surprising.
dave

Evening forum

Outofbodydude I read your original post on this thread re the finger bending exercise. I googled it, not having exact knowledge on this simple technique, and tried it a couple of times. I definitely felt the region of my brain/head/consciousness that was triggered during the formation or focusing of intent. 4 hours later I was in bed and decided to give it a try. I began to activate that feeling of intent and decided that tonight I will leave my body. Left it at that and relaxed until I succumbed to sleep.

I don’t know how long I had been asleep but the following is what I experienced. Putting this as simply as possible for the sake of clarity, I felt like I opened my eyes to another world/dimension for the very first time. I went from darkness to shimmering lights and colours until an absolutely clear world/scene was being perceived (just like opening your eyes in a bright room after sleep). I was in awe of the clarity of the landscape in front of me and was absolutely lucid. It was simply incredible (I now understand what others mean by these worlds feeling more real than our own). No previous dream or dream state has ever come close to this. This reality was simply as believable (if not more) and experientially plausible as the one I wake up to day after day.

The landscape was desert like, with large mountains in the background. The cloud covered sky was colored with shades of pink, white and blue. I decided to fly and quickly flew across the plains at a relatively low height. I willed myself to ascend higher but was unable to shake what felt like a fairly strong attraction to ground level. I decided to look for some people. I flew a little further until I encountered some people on the ground. When I came down I saw some vehicles and a number of people in what seemed to be riot police/military style uniforms (all were wearing helmets). A member of the group sternly asked who I was. I replied that all was fine and that I was friendly, spoke English…..I was doing my best to communicate that I meant no harm. Once more I was asked who I was by the same man, though this time with a little more hostility in his voice. At this point I felt the appropriate course of action was to leave and thus I took off in the opposite direction. I then continued to dream(?) vividly for some time which included some points of interest.

- At one stage I found myself reading a text, clearly, I could see all the words/paper/pages and remember that the sentences were coherent and of interesting subject matter (I can’t remember the content now though).

- At one point I was being pursued and found myself evading capture by scaling buildings and fences. I scaled up a fence to find the top of it barbed. In my haste I grabbed a portion of the fence. I looked at my thumb and saw that there was a sharp barb right through it. I felt no pain and yet thought that such an incident should cause pain. As I though as such I felt a very dull pain sensation (like remembering a painful event from your child hood) run through my thumb. I wonder if such vague recollections of pain are typical when a non-physical being with prior earth life system experience remembers their time on earth.

Apologies for the lengthy description all however I feel this is one of the most profound shifts of consciousness I have experienced. Even more incredible is that I am certain it was a result of the evocation of intent.  Finger bending exercise gets two thumbs up from me.

best wishes
Peter

Dude:

Perhaps you didn't remember because you didn't want to remember. Perhaps you heard some things that are counter to your current viewpoints. I've found that I have a hard time receiving messages from divine guidance when I'm not open to doing so. Isn't that how it always is. Fort example, love is always there, some people just don't want to open up to it (By this last sentence I "don't" mean you.).


I Am Dude wrote on Jan 16^th, 2007 at 8:48pm:

Recoverer

When I made the choice to open myself up to discover Jesus, I opened myself up completely.  Although my current viewpoint is that he did not have an earthly existance, I do believe he exists in spirit.  If I was to find out that he did in fact have an earthly existance, that would be the only thing that would counter my current viewpoint.(of course, if I was to find out that he did not exist in spirit, that would also counter my viewpoint, but I don't think that will happen. I'm still open to the possibility, however.) Discovering that my view of Jesus' earthly existance is wrong would be small beans.  I would not undergo any belief system crashes, or have a totally different view of the world after finding this out.  In other words, I see no reason why I would want to block out any information I was given.  During the dream, I remember having a feeling that everything he told me made perfect sense, and I remember thinking this with my current view of Jesus in mind.  I simply cannot remember the details.  I am not biased about the Jesus issue at all, I look at the entire thing from a neutral point of view and that is where I base my views from.  Finding I am wrong either way is not a big deal to me.  If it was, I would not be searching for the answers.