February 19, 2006 Issue: #333

Intention

. . . The Driving Force of the Universe

. . . plus The End of Gas Guzzling Cars

. . . and Got Antique Gas Mileage?

and other News, Humor & Fun Stuff

“Before the throne of the Almighty, man will be judged not by his acts but by his intentions. For God alone reads our hearts.”
--- Mohandas Gandhi (Internationally renowned philosopher; political leader; legend; esteemed for his doctrine of nonviolent protest. 1869-1948) )

* Skip to The Power of Intention
* Skip to Antique Gas Mileage
* Skip to End of Gas Guzzling Cars
* Skip to Cosmic Quotes

Greetings!

What is INTENTION?

What does it take to manifest our true hearts desire and live according to our soul's purpose?

For the most part, the answer rests in the original meaning of intention: "the act of stretching out" or the "state of mind in which an act is done."

When we create, when we manifest, we are in a state of "intending". The words intention and attention emerged out of the same ancient root word and are similar in nature. We can't have one without the other. When we create, it is the focus of our attention and the power of our intention that makes it happen.

Through intention, we tend (pay attention) to the thoughts, feelings, action and form that relate to the ideas, wishes, dreams, desires and visions that we want to manifest.

As an analogy, it's similar to tending a garden: if we want to have a lush and healthy garden with beautiful plants and flowers, then we use our attention to focus on all the ways in which we can bring this about.

To grow your beautiful garden, you take the time to find the healthiest materials in which to build it: healthy seeds, good water, nutrient-rich soil, healthy organic fertilizers, optimum growing climate and environment. Then you add your focus, physical efforts, attitude, patience and time. The entire combination can be summed up into one word: attention!

Through the focus of our attention we make it happen. The kind of attention you put into your garden will make all the difference in the world. If a garden lacks attention it soon withers and dies, becomes wildly overgrown or the weeds take over.

Where is Your Attention?

Is the larger portion of your attention on the recent argument you had with your spouse ... going over and over the details of what was said or done?

Or are you worrying about the mistakes you made at work and how it may affect your reputation ... or promotion ... or raise?

Do you dwell on a current health issue and how it keeps you from doing this or that?

The list of situations is endless. Furthermore, when strong emotions accompany our attention, it increases the magnetic power of our focus a thousand-fold. Consequently, we will attract more situations that elicit the same kind of emotional response --- which in turn triggers the corresponding thoughts and beliefs about our self, the events of our lives and the world around us.

On the other hand, when our attention is accompanied by inspiration, enthusiasm, passion and a positive outlook ... then that, too, becomes a powerful magnet that will continue to attract the situations that will produce an increase in enjoyable and positive opportunities.

What kind of attention do you place upon the experiences you want to happen in your life? If your hopes and dreams of success in certain areas of your life are peppered with frequent doubt, fear, restriction, worry, unworthiness - then you will sabotage the outcome. Either your success will be delayed by months or years ... or it won't happen at all.

Some aspects about our life are easier to focus attention on ... and wa-la! ... it becomes almost instantly manifest. Other aspects are harder and take longer. Perhaps, it's because most of us were not trained to use the power of our minds to focus our attention in this way. Instead, most of us were taught from childhood on to use our minds and attention to memorize facts from a book, follow the rules, be like everyone else, be compliant, listen and obey the authorities, etc.

Few of us were trained to freely use the power of our minds and attention in creative fashion. Therefore, the neuronal pathways of our brains are deeply etched along the lines of following, obeying and memorizing. Consequently, we know those "trails" pretty well and they've become a habit. In fact, we know them so well, that we walk those same paths over and over in our minds in a rather unconscious manner.

How many times have you driven the same road nearly every day around the same time and not even notice the scenery? You may have even arrived at your destination and not remember much about how you got there or what you saw along the way. During those times, your subconscious mind had taken over the wheel while your thoughts and attention were elsewhere. This is very similar to how you navigate through life: the habits of thinking and behaving become so deeply etched in our brains that we can do most of it subconsciously without paying much attention.

But what about the unique and the unusual; the different and the new; the stretch beyond the known into the unknown and the stretch beyond the mundane into the mystical?

Few of us have had anyone train us or encourage us to venture into those realms. Perhaps this is why those particular neuronal pathways of our brain are not very well developed, nor worn away into a familiar trail. Since the vast majority of humanity tend to follow along and pretty much do the same things over and over ... it becomes a real task of courage and perseverance to try something new and forge a new trail ourselves.

In this respect, a new path - like a new endeavor - can seem daunting. It can, for a while, be more of a relief to stay on the same old familiar path and be surrounded by the same old scenery: nothing new, nothing threatening, and not much change.

But like a tight bud that must finally heed the urgings of its fundamental nature and burst forth in flowering new growth, we, too, must finally heed the fundamental yearnings of our deeper nature to move forward and break free of the old, limiting habits ... otherwise we wither and spiral downward into depression, despair and often illness.

It has been proven through clinical research that loss of mental clarity, early senility, dementia and other illnesses of the mind - like Alzheimers - are greatly aggravated by sticking with familiar habits for years and years without introducing much of anything new into ones life.

Personal Experience

From personal experience, I have seen how applying intention consciously in certain areas of life have worked extremely well while in other areas it's harder.

It seems that the stronger our beliefs are in some areas, the deeper those pathways run through our brains until some of them become menacing trenches. Picture yourself in a deep trench where the only way out is to have someone reach down and pull you out or they throw in a rope or a ladder! Sadly, many will stay in that trench for a very long time before calling for help.

When it came to my own experience of overcoming a major obstacle, it was the biggest challenge in my life at that time: to heal myself of serious, chronic, life-threatening illness.

How was it that I was able to heal myself of these ailments that severely limited me for the first 40 years of my life?

It all boils down to intention and the kind of attention I put into healing and achieving health. My success in this area came about because I made it a priority in my life. Achieving health became far more important than anything else: it was more important than money, more important than a relationship, more important than owning a house, more important than having fame or owning all those things that many of us were taught were most important - but never really are.

It took a lot of hard work and a colossal amount of my attention. Yet because I was deeply dedicated, my intention and the amount of attention I put into it became a magnet for anything and everything that could help me achieve it: the right people miraculously came into my life as guides; the perfect books appeared; the most appropriate classes and workshops showed up; the finest health practitioners showed up; the best opportunities for growth and change presented themselves to me.

After years of determination, perseverance and applying the knowledge gleaned from many sources I now have a level of health and vitality that I thought would never be possible for me. I persevered in spite of set backs, back slides and slow progress. In spite of the hurtles, my efforts totally paid off.

Now I'm learning to apply this same kind of determination into other areas of my life. Its a challenge for sure, because those ol' neuronal pathways are pretty deeply etched in some areas. But like all good things worth striving for, a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.

We Are Creating All the Time

Most of us are unaware that we are creating all the time - every minute of every day. Our attention is always working and focused on SOME thing. In fact, wherever our attention happens to be in any given moment, that's where the energy goes.

Think of it this way: your attention is like a magnet. And like a magnet, your attention attracts certain images, events, situations, beliefs and thoughts.

Do you believe that BMW owners are always reckless drivers? Then guess what? You'll likely attract all the reckless BMW drivers on the road to prove your point!

I knew a man who strongly believed just that ... and guess what? He got to prove his point quite frequently - which came him the opportunity to verbally vent any an all accumulated hostilities through some shocking aggressive language (I had to cover my ears!). Although I was a passenger in the same car, I never saw the reckless BMW drivers. What I did see were people driving BMWs ... however, what he perceived as horrible reckless driving was not evident to me. I simply was unable to see it even though I was looking out at the same scene at the same time.

Standing next to a woman in a workshop while we're both looking straight at the speaker, I heard this woman complaining offensively about the speaker's attitude, body language and choice of words. Although I was looking at the speaker at exactly the same moment the woman was making her assessment, none of her observations were evident to me. I wondered what she was seeing that I could not see at all. Where was this woman's attention? Did she tend to dwell on some other incident - like an unpleasant interaction with a spouse? a sibling? a parent?

The more unconscious a person is about why they do what they do the more often their perceptions are skewed: they are simply not aware that their observations are being filtered through some old habits of thinking.

What you intend will surely come about ... either consciously or unconsciously. What ever holds your attention will surely hold you. Your attention and the amount of emotional force behind it gives it the power to become form. It MUST manifest itself - 'cuzz that's the way things work around here!

We can either create through unconscious intention or we can create through conscious intention. The choice is ours.

By increasing our awareness of our thinking habits and questioning ourselves on why we do what we do - we increase our ability to consciously direct the power of our intention. The intention we hold behind any act is the key to the outcome we will attract.

So be careful what you wish for ... it will likely come true!

Namaste' ~ Paula Peterson

* Skip to The Power of Intention

(The usual features - HUMOR BREAK, FUNNY PHOTOS and other FUN STUFF - are further below)

C O S M I C Q U O T E S

"God will not ask you when and where you did service. He will ask, with what motive did you do it? What was the intention that prompted you?

"You may weigh the service and boast of its quantity. But God seeks quality - the quality of heart, the purity of mind, the holiness of motive.”

--- Sri Sathya Sai Baba (World renowned Indian Spiritual leader, b.1929)

The Power of Intention

Driving Force of the Universe

An Interview with
Dr. Wayne Dyer

In his latest special for public television, Dr. Wayne Dyer: The Power of Intention, best-selling author and speaker Dr. Wayne Dyer offers a new definition of the concept of intention and explains how every individual can connect to his or her own infinite potential. With unique interpretations of the scientific and metaphysical philosophies of history's greatest thinkers, Dr. Dyer has inspired countless people to enjoy richer, more spiritual lives. In the following interview, he talks about the program and the book, and his own life's path.

You describe "the power of intention" as the driving force in the universe. What drove you to write this book and tape this special for public TV?

I was, quite simply, inspired. I think that there's a difference between motivation and inspiration. Motivation is when you get an idea yourself and then you put motion to it, motive to it... and you feel like a driving force to go out and accomplish something. And people have told me my entire lifetime that I am highly motivated. In fact, some people call me "the father of motivation," which is strange. I have eight children and I don't need another one called motivation!

Inspiration is the opposite of motivation. It's what happens when an idea gets a hold of you from someplace that you can't even identify and you feel almost compelled to let that idea carry you. That's what happened with this book and this show, and I'm in awe of how it came about.

Intention is thought of in this program and in this book as a field of energy that we connect to, which will carry us, rather than something that we will do. I was the observer to watching the book write itself, and to watching all the forces that came together to bring this PBS program together - the right people showed up, the right funding showed up, the right place to do it showed up, the right venue, the right way of getting the audience there. Everything just flowed. That's what happens when you get inspired.

How has the "power of intention" worked in your own life?

It has brought the right people into my life; it has allowed me to recover from a heart attack; it has allowed me to keep myself in shape; it has allowed me to have divine relationships; and it allowed my relationships with my children to improve dramatically. And everything about it has been in a very positive and loving vein.

What's the single most important thing a person can do every day to invoke their power of intention?

They have to repeat the five key words: I want to feel good; or I intend to feel good. Remember that feeling good is the same things as saying I want to feel spirit, or I want to be in harmony with source - and this is a source of well being; it is a source of abundance; it is a source of healing; it is a source of kindness; it is a source of love.

You can call my cell phone and you will hear the message, "This is Wayne Dyer that you've reached and I want to feel good. If your message is intended to do anything other than that then you've reached the wrong number and I suggest you call Dr. Phil."

It's a funny sort of message, but I really want to feel good and I remind myself of that all the time. It can take away a stomach ache, it can take away fear, it can take away depression and it can take away scarcity, and it can take away lousy relationships. It can take anything away anything … So, anytime during the day when you feel out of sorts, when things aren't going the way you want them to go … when you are a little depressed, when you feel perhaps anxious or when you're afraid, you can repeat to yourself, "I want to feel good; I want to feel good." What it does is allow you to reconnect... to be in harmony with your source.

This program is so uplifting - and it has more humor and laughter than your previous specials - are you "letting your hair down" so to speak?

I'm able to laugh at everything, even losing my hair. Humor has always been a very important part of my life - and I've always been able to see the sunny side of life and in different things. I think it's a part of feeling good. If you want to feel good, you want to laugh. Remember, you can't be depressed and laugh at the same time. It's impossible. The more laughter we can have in our lives, the richer and less stressed and happier we will be.

You've committed so much time to public television and its viewers - why do you feel so strongly about public broadcasting?

I think there's no better place on the TV dial than public television. The television sets that everybody has in their homes are really just energy systems. And when we allow into our homes low energy, negative energy, violent energy, we exacerbate that in our lives, and in the lives in the people in our community, and in our country and in our world and in our universe.

But... negative [programming] isn't something that you see on public television. On public TV you see something that is enriching and uplifting and I believe that we can use this medium and these frequencies that public television has been granted to help raise the energy and consequently make very dramatic positive shifts in our lives.

I've learned that America is a place that is willing to support programs that support higher consciousness and spirituality and that raise our energy levels. America is a country that is filled with people who want to grow, who want to become more enlightened, who want to improve the quality of their lives and who want to feel closer to their source - closer to God, or Buddha, or Mohammed, to whomever or whatever you feel is your source - without making it into a religious thing. The evidence of their support is in the very large percentage of people who watch and send in their dollars in support of the programs I present on public television.

What programs do you watch on TV?

Well, I love sports, and I watch sports, but I particularly love pledge time - that's my favorite time on public television. You get to see all of the wonderful concerts and all of the great educational shows and the travel shows and so forth. I have eight children and they have been raised on Barney and Sesame Street. Public TV has been a staple in their lives.

Just the other night I watched an entire three-hour show on Abraham Lincoln that was just absolutely fascinating - a six-part series on slavery in America. It was very compelling television. Anytime that there's a special on of any kind, especially on these kinds of ideas that can transform our country, I'm watching them. I also watch Jim Lehrer every night. It's the only news I watch. It's the only news program that offers an intelligent and balanced point of view.

You've taken a unique path through your career, and you've shared many personal stories and experiences in your books, lectures and shows. What work or achievement stands out?

You know, I believe that this show on the power of intention and the creation of this book are really the crowning achievements of my life. I'm 63 years old and I've written 25 books and traveled all over the world and spoken to hundreds of thousands if not millions of people. I don't think there's anything I'm more proud of or that I think is going to make more of an impact than this book or this program. I believe it will be a real vehicle for transformation in our world and in our times. I couldn't be prouder of it.

What is the most important lesson you learned along the path you've taken that you might not have learned if you'd taken another?

The lesson that stands out for me is that true nobility is not about being better than anyone else -- it's about being better than you used to be. One thing I know about myself in all aspects of life is that I'm better than I used to be in every regard... as a writer, speaker, husband, father, lecturer, and as a man. When I look back at some of the things I said and did 25 years ago, I wonder who that person was. I've been traversing a path of growth for as long as I can remember and I believe I will do that until my last breath.

What's on the horizon for Wayne Dyer?

I have no idea. I go where I'm sent. I say what I'm told to say. I listen to that inner voice and wherever it takes me is where I'll go.

There is much in "The Power of Intention" about healing and forgiveness and empowerment. What message would you give to the people of New York, and really any one who is personally impacted by violence in America, the war and other tragedies of today?

The answers are all the same regardless of whether you live in New York, Afghanistan, Iraq or Columbia or anywhere in the world today. The basis of the answer is in the little man we named the City of San Francisco after. Francesco [Saint Francis of Assisi], who lived back in the 13th Century, said where there is hatred you have to send love; where there is doubt you have to send faith; where there is injury you have to send pardon... The answer to the problems we face personally and as a society is in being able to bring a higher, more loving, more spiritual energy to whatever it is we confront. When we do, slowly, inch-by-inch, we will become a better society, a better people, and a better world. And I think that is happening.

Dr. Wayne W. Dyer - affectionately called the "father of motivation" by his fans, is one of the most widely known and respected people in the field of self-empowerment. He became a well-known author with his bestselling book, Your Erroneous Zones, and has gone on to write many other self-help classics, including Meditations for Manifesting, Staying on the Path, Your Sacred Self, Everyday Wisdom, and You'll See It When You Believe It.

Despite his childhood spent in orphanages and foster homes, Dr. Dyer, who has a doctorate in counseling psychotherapy, has overcome many obstacles to make his dreams come true. Today he spends much of his time showing others how to do the same. His latest Hay House titles include: Secrets of Your Own Healing Power, Wisdom of the Masters, Creating Your World the Way You Really Want It to Be, with Deepak Chopra, and How to Get What You Really, Really, Really, Really Want.

When he's not traveling the globe delivering his uplifting message, Wayne is writing from his home in Maui, Hawaii.

Visit Dr. Wayne Dyer's website: http://www.drwaynedyer.com

(The usual features - HUMOR BREAK, FUNNY PHOTOS and other FUN STUFF - are further below)

The End of Gas Guzzling Cars

Fuel Cell Vehicles Hit the Road

You may have heard a lot about fuel cells recently.

According to many news reports, we will soon be using the new energy-saving technology to generate electrical power for our homes and cars.

The technology is extremely interesting because it offers a means of making power more efficiently with less pollution. But how does it do this?

What is a Fuel Cell?

If you want to be technical about it, a fuel cell is an electrochemical energy conversion device. A fuel cell converts the chemicals hydrogen and oxygen into water, and in the process it produces electricity. This electricity can be stored and used to power a car.

The other electrochemical device that we are all familiar with is the battery. A battery has all of its chemicals stored inside, and it converts those chemicals into electricity too. This means that a battery eventually "goes dead" and you either throw it away or recharge it.

With a fuel cell, chemicals constantly flow into the cell so it never goes dead -- as long as there is a flow of chemicals into the cell, the electricity flows out of the cell. Most fuel cells in use today use hydrogen and oxygen as the chemicals.

The fuel cell will compete with many other types of energy conversion devices, including the gas turbine in your city's power plant, the gasoline engine in your car and the battery in your laptop. Combustion engines like the turbine and the gasoline engine burn fuels and use the pressure created by the expansion of the gases to do mechanical work. Batteries converted chemical energy back into electrical energy when needed. Fuel cells should do both tasks more efficiently.

A fuel cell provides a DC (direct current) voltage that can be used to power motors, lights or any number of electrical appliances.

There are several different types of fuel cells, each using a different chemistry. Fuel cells are usually classified by the type of electrolyte they use. Some types of fuel cells work well for use in stationary power generation plants. Others may be useful for small portable applications or for powering cars.

The proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is one of the most promising technologies. This is the type of fuel cell that will end up powering cars, buses and maybe even your house. Let's take a look at how they work...

Automobiles

Fuel-cell-powered cars should start to replace gas- and diesel-engine cars in the very near future. A fuel-cell car will be very similar to an electric car but with a fuel cell and reformer instead of batteries.

Most likely, you will fill your fuel-cell car up with methanol, but some companies are working on gasoline reformers. Other companies hope to do away with the reformer completely by designing advanced storage devices for hydrogen.

READER'S COMMENTS ....

"Hi Paula:

Your work is beautiful and such as gift to so many.

May God continue to bless you and keep you in truth and grace.

With love, Stephanie"

Got Antique Gas Mileage?

from the official
Fred Burks Want to Know Website

"Ford's 1908 Model T , which went 25 miles on a gallon of gasoline, was more fuel efficient than the current Ford Explorer sport-utility vehicle -- which manages just 16 miles per gallon."
----- Detroit News June 2003

What happens when we compare technological advances in various fields over the last 50 to 100 years?

In communications, we've gone from the basic telephone of 50 years ago to answering machines, faxes, instant messaging, and wireless cell phones packed with cameras, GPS, and more. Just 50 years ago computers were huge, multi-million dollar monsters capable of only rudimentary mathematical problems. Today, the laptop on which I'm typing can perform functions literally millions of times faster and more complex than its ancestors, and connect me instantly to anyone in the world with Internet access.

In engineering and materials science, we have gone from basic woods and metals to sophisticated plastics, teflon, fiber optics, and other manmade materials which perform all kinds of functions which would have been considered miraculous 100 years ago. Television, movies, microwave ovens, air conditioning, radar, and gameboys didn't even exist in 1905. In astronomy, biology, medicine, agriculture, genetics, electronics, and most any other field you can think of, we are light years ahead in both knowledge and applications of what was available 100, or even 50 years ago.

Now consider the areas of energy and transportation, and the oil and automobile industries in particular. Technological progress in these sectors has moved at a snail's pace compared to the fields mentioned above.

Automobiles still use the same internal combustion engine on which the Model T depended almost 100 years ago. And while the Model T boasted 25 MPG in 1908, average car mileage for 2004 according to the EPA was only 20.8 MPG!

The Detroit News admits that even this EPA figure is inflated, as "most drivers achieve only about 75 percent of the [EPA mileage] figures."

And when it comes to energy, most of the world still depends largely on huge, polluting coal and oil generation plants not much more efficient than those of 100 years ago. How can it be that we've had such dramatic, almost miraculous advances in so many fields, while the energy and transportation sectors have had so little progress? Could it be that greed and the desire for economic and political control have kept the profit-rich energy and transportation sectors from developing as rapidly as they might have in a more open climate, where big money did not suppress technological breakthroughs?

Genius inventors for the past 100 years have made remarkable discoveries of new, more efficient energy sources, only to find their inventions either suppressed or not given the attention and funding needed to break us free of our dependence on archaic oil-based technologies.

Consider Nobel Prize winner Nikola Tesla, the genius inventor of AC current, fluorescent light, and laser beams, who has over 700 patents to his name. Tesla proved in 1900 that the Earth itself could be used as a very cheap conductor of electricity. He successfully lighted 200 lamps without wires from a distance of 25 miles.

Why wasn't Tesla's wireless electricity developed and spread around the world? His main financial supporter, banking tycoon J.P. Morgan, withdrew funding along with the classic comment, "If anyone can draw on the power, where do we put the meter?"

Educating Ourselves

By educating ourselves and our friends and colleagues on this crucial topic, we can build a critical mass of informed citizens who will demand the release of suppressed inventions and technologies that will pave the way for a brighter, healthier future for us, for our children, and for our planet. Thanks for caring, and you have a good day.

Taken from the official Fred Burks Need to Know website:

http://www.WantToKnow.info/newenergysources

For more on Tesla and his amazing inventions, see PBS's voluminous tribute at:

http://www.pbs.org/tesla/index.html