Monkeys, Coconuts, and Mind Masters

The intensely-curious quest that led to the creation of The World’s First Multi-media Manifestation Portal

It seems like LIFE is just one gigantic irony (or Illusion).

How bout Norman Vincent Peale’s ‘positive thinking’, Robert Schuller’s ‘possibility thinking’ and Tony Robbins ‘personal power’ crusades.

Or, all the affirmations we’ve said, the seminars we’ve attended, and the tapes we’ve listened to? (assuming you started in the 90's).

They were darn good for the ‘moment’, but just maybe — yes, just maybe — all those ‘moments’ have added up to one over-thinking, temporarily over-motivated, person.

NOTE: for a related thought, see my article:

Why Motivational Quotes Could Be Screwing With Your Head!

I’m sure, it’s safe to say that we’ve all come to the conclusion, sometime or another, that a good majority of the personal-peak-performance stuff we’ve done over the years is like Chinese food:

It will fill you up, but an hour later you’re hungry again!

For example, back in the day… my success-oriented / inspirational / how-to-think-big type books were practically falling off my book shelves.

They had been for over 10 years now. I even kept a ‘Life File’ — a folder of saved notes, excerpts, clippings, quotes, articles, etc. of business / sales / motivational knowledge that I can refer to for instant wisdom; time-tested and essential knowledge that’ll help me make the most of the one life I supposedly have (so they tell us).

Yes, that’s full too (the ‘Life File’ that is).

With book titles like, The Magic of Thinking Big, A Rich Man’s Secret, The Instant Millionaire, Making a Difference, The Richest Man in Babylon, and the classics (like Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich or Dale Carnegie’s How To Win Friends and Influence People), I obviously was not lacking the information (knowledge) to capitalize on the experience of other successful men & women gone by.

But still, about a decade ago, I started to wonder why people don’t gravitate towards a book with a title such as, “The Better You Feel, The Better It Gets” or “Expand Consciousness, Change Your Reality”.

All fake titles, of course, but nonetheless each convey the one thing that I wanted more and more people, via my 2005 self-published audio-book Conversations With The World’s Top Manifestation Mentors, to realize:

That you can’t read, wish, affirm, reprogram or analyze your way out of a mediocre, discontent, unfulfilled life.

The ego is a crazy, demented, little trickster and for the most part, us humans have forgotten how to put ourselves into a position to experience ‘non-thinking’ surprising moments — occasional “Ah-Ha” type moments where we become unattached to ‘who we think we are’ in order to remember ‘who we really are’ and what we’re really capable of.

This reminds me of a humorous story, I once heard in grade school, that illustrates this point perfectly:

It concerns a special technique for catching monkeys in the wild. You never know when you might need this :-)

First get a stout stake and bash it firmly into the ground. Then, take a coconut and tie it securely to the stake with a length of rope. Make a small hole in the coconut just large enough for the monkey to get his hand in.

Put a small nut inside the coconut and then hide behind a nearby bush. Along comes the monkey. He sniffs out the nut and reaches through the hole in the coconut to grab it. This accomplished, the monkey is astonished to find that he cannot withdraw his clenched fist back through the hole.

He is caught ! No doubt about that.

You have realized the story is a parable and want to know what the symbols mean ?

I’m glad you asked.

> You and I are the monkey.

> The small nut is the meaning of life at the core of ourselves and which cannot be spoken of or read from a book, since it can only be experienced.

> The coconut is the hard shell of ‘mind viruses’ (which feed off the ego) that force us to resist the egoless experiences that could set us free from our fears and limitations.

So, back in 2005 when I first went out a quest to find masters, gurus, saints, sages, or whatever other label I perceived as an evolved being, I wanted to start by asking them:

What advice would you give the monkey?

The ‘mind virus’ of reason would tell the monkey to let go of the small nut and scoot. This would appear to be good advice, but the monkey would die for lack of small nuts.

Some metaphysical teachers, spiritual mentors and life coaches advocate cracking the coconut. I cracked my coconut once and nearly died of fright. Reality is seriously weird.

I’ve come to believe (but, then again, could be wrong about it) that the coconut has to be, not so much cracked, as dissolved gradually.

This, Dear Reader, is the reason why I gathered- up the best ‘Masters of the Mind’ asking the deeper, somewhat core, questions about Life’s seemingly weird illusions.

I wanted them to help me not only convey the message that there’s a difference between knowing about and knowingness(example: the path from the head to the heart), but that if our book purchasers would dig into the true nature of thoughts, understand the ego and its origins, and the REAL mechanics of the creation of matter (from energy), they’ll come much closer to their own experienced truths than is otherwise possible.

Yep, my desire to find some leading-edge, never-before-said answers — about life (not just about success acheivement or goal-setting) — was my main motivation for compiling the audio-book.

NOTE: For the history of ManifestLife.com, and its flagship product, our now-defunct Manifestation Portal, click here…

My goal was to ask highly-awake and conscious people (coaches, authors, metaphysicians, spiritual leaders, etc), who had already found out how to Master Physicality, certain questions:

- What are the key elements for your contentment, happiness and abundance?
- What approach do you use to live and maintain a magically-leveraged life ?
- What manifestation rules do you adhere to?
- What were your own early experiences into the deeper realms of reality, the ego, and how to experience a higher connection with yourself?
- What advice would you give to other truth-seekers?

While, on one level, my search for answers was personal quest to help surpass my own barriers, in a broader sense, I saw myself as Everyman, asking the questions I think others would ask if given the opportunity.

Via ongoing recorded consistent conversations between 2005 to 2010, I dove down the rabbit hole of LIFE with over 30 seekers (whom I put under the label of ‘Manifestation Mentors’ at the time).

And, the best part?

There was no need for them to hide from wild monkeys either :-)