The Attractor Genie is now part of my daily routine.  

I find it great planning tool that enables me to better focus on what I want to achieve in all aspects of my life.  In particular I am using it to get my mind clear about my vision, purpose, values and identity which will enable me to set better goals and take full control of my life. 

The fact is most people do not take control of their lives.  Most people do not accept responsibility for what happens to them believing they are subject to luck, fate or a sequence of random event they have no power over.  Thus they stay in a reactive mode responding to situations and circumstances as they occur.

Every successful person without exception, regardless of the field of accomplishment, has been proactive in taking charge of their life.  They have a vision of their future and purpose.  They know who they are and what is important.  They may not have all of this for every aspect of their lives but they will have for the area they are successful in.

Even if you do not believe in the Law of Attraction I believe you will still find the Attractor Genie software a useful tool for getting focussed and increasing your own productivity.  

When you open Attractor Genie the home screen has four tabs for My Vision, My Purpose, My Values and My Identity. 

Writing these is not easy.  If you find it so then you are way ahead of most other people.  Most of us have never really sat down and thought about these things. 

I have found that it best to just jot down some ideas and keep returning to it when you feel inspired or motivated.  Slowly your Vision, Purpose, Values and Identity will start to take shape and you will start to feel more clarity in your mind.  Consult the Attractor Genie manual as it has helpful examples.

Your Vision, Purpose, Values and Identity are not set in concrete.  While one would not expect these things to fundamentally change they can always be reviewed, refined, added to or otherwise improved.

To me it seems like the Law of Attraction has become a magnet (pun intended) to all the other New Age proponents and they are jumping on the Law Of Attraction band wagon and trying to incorporate it with their particular New Age beliefs. 

Recently I have seen something called EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) becoming popular and being linked directly to the Law of Attraction. 

I found this definition of EFT:  

EFT is based on the electrical systems in our body called the meridians. It is an emotional version of acupuncture except that we don’t use needles, instead we stimulate the release points by tapping with our fingertips.

Some of the meridian points ( also called acupuncture or acupressure points) on the skin have actually been measured with very sensitive instruments and the electrical charge there has been higher than in the non meridian points. We can think of the meridians like rivers along which the electricity in our body flows. This flow has been called many other names such as, chi, prana, life force, electromagnetic, electrical or just energy. EFT helps in restoring the energy flow to normal and that helps us feel emotionally and physically healthy.

EFT seems to be a New Age (nice – no needles) version of the old yet to be proven Chinese system of acupuncture with its belief in energy channels running through your body.  While my research has only been very superficial it does seem to me that EFT is a good example of a New Age belief jumping on the Law of Attraction bandwagon.    

I watched some videos and basically the practitioner talks to the subject determining what is troubling them and then gives verbal instructions telling them to release and let go of the feelings or problem and tapping them in a number of places with their fingers.  As I watched the EFT practitioner I was reminded of some aspect of NLP in the way they were working with the subjects. 

Visit any EFT website and you will see how strongly it is being linked to the Law of Attraction.  I remain a sceptic of EFT but believe that its possible people undergoing EFT are helped partly by the power of suggestion and perhaps by the Law of Attraction.

The Law or Attraction seems like part pseudo religion and part pseudo science yet I find it to be the best working model available to explain my experience of life.   There have been way too many serendipitous coincidences in my life.  Far too many things line up too many times for there not to be an unseen power or force at play. 

The law of Attraction may or may not work exactly how it is popularly believed to work.  The process of Ask, Believe and Receive might not be 100% accurate, but I have no reason to believe otherwise at this time. 

One aspect of this Law of Attraction movement I am aware and cautious of is the zealots that have embraced it as a new religion and are trying to marry it into all their old beliefs.

I remain a sceptic at heart and will not accept everything that is presented to me because it comes under the banner of the Law of Attraction. 

For the time being I find the Law of Attraction the best working model available in the absence of any better explanation.

If you can start the day without caffeine,

If you can get going without pep pills,

If you can always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,

If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles,

If you can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it,

If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time,

If you can take criticism and blame without resentment,

If you can resist treating a rich friend better than a poor friend,

If you can conquer tension without medical help,

If you can relax without liquor,

If you can sleep without the aid of drugs,

THEN…Click HERE for the ANSWER

There is an ancient Wiken Rede that finishes “An Ye Harm None, Do What Ye Will”

This has always sounded good to me and to some extent I adopted it as one of my beliefs.

In hindsight I have hurt some people in relationships along the way all be it not intentionally. I know I have used the Rede as a justification for certain actions that have resulted in harm to others.

The problem is that we are not always able to assess the consequences and impact of our actions on others.

Most societies have laws that restrict the speed at which you can drive on particular roads. Most people understand and accept that these restrictions have been determined to minimize the possibility and severity of accidents.

Despite this individuals continue to speed. They do NOT do so in the belief that they will have an accident – to the contrary they believe they will not otherwise they would slow down.

They are making their own assessment in accordance with the Rede whether or not they have even heard of it.

I am often frustrated by laws which arbitrarily are set to work to the lowest common denominator in society. I resent being restricted or penalized because a law needs to take into account stupid people or other variables such as road condition.

So when it’s a beautiful clear day with virtually no other traffic on the road the temptation is to speed. The only thing that might persuade us against doing so is the threat of a penalty.

Without the laws restricting our speed it would be up to individuals to make their own assessment of what speed is safe which would be similar to following the Rede. I think most people already realize this would not work.

The principle behind the Rede is fundamentally good but there is a risk for it to be used as an excuse to be reckless and selfish.

This examination of the Rede was motivated by work I am doing within Attractor Genie as part of getting down My Vision, My Purpose, My Values and My Identity.

I can say with certainty now that I will not be cancelling the billing for this Attractor Genie software.  It is exactly what I have been looking for.  The more I use it the more I can see it will be beneficial.

In fact the purpose of starting this blog was to establish a habit of focusing my thoughts each day and getting my life back on track.   This attractor genie software will be a much better tool to achieve this than the blog.  I actually leave it open all the time and can jump in and add a note or some inspiration as it comes to mind.

My first entry in my Atractor Genie Gratitude Journal a couple of days ago was this:

Despite almost three years of neglect and minimal effort my business is still providing me with a good income and it will be easily expanded to enable me to reach my new goals.

I really have not worked much at all in the past three years.  If I put all my work time together it might be about the equivalent of three months in a regular job which is one month a year yet I still have an income greater than most people who slave in a regular 9 to 5 job.

In 2008 I totally neglected my hosting business due to a major personal upheaval I have spoken about in previous posts.  In late December I started to look at the figures and state of my business infrastructure and on first appearance it looked very bleak. I even wondered if I had left it too late as it was in sharp decline.

I put a big effort in for a month in to fixing the business infrastructure and realized that there had been changes in the past three years and the business really need a restructure. 

I was thinking about getting back into a positive mode by listing to some of my motivational tapes again and also The Secret but I was still preoccupied with my personal problems.  It was not until I started this blog that I have really started to really get focussed.

The income for month of January and February was not as bad I as I thought it would be.  It seemed I had stopped the decline and the first half of march looked like a continuation which similar figures, but this second half since I started the blog and listening and focusing on positive things slowly start to turn around. Current projections show I will be $500 up on last month and this increase has only occurred in the past week.

I mentioned previously that The Secret website has a free downloadable blank check from the universe which you fill out.   On mine I have written $25,000 which I expect to be my monthly income from this business.   

I understand that for every goal you need to set a target date otherwise it remains not much more than a wish.  I am setting a very achievable and believable target date of December 2009.   Perhaps I am setting my expectations too low as I know that the universe is capable of delivering much more than that in no time at all.  In fact there are no limitations.

It is however important that when you set a goal and work towards it you need to be able to believe it can happen so that you can truly receive.  I look forward to watching my income steadily climb and can easily visualize it already. 

Anyway that is my goal for my current business but this month I have two other very exciting businesses under development and they both look like being gold mines.

I have a story to tell that I found truly touching and uplifting.  

I have a long term friend that I met in high school.   In his early 20s his mother passed away from cancer and soon after his father moved the family to a new residence.  The father soon met another woman who was separated with kids and they moved in also.  They became a sort of Bradey bunch.

I really do not know the details of what happened but the end result was a very serious family rift with the younger sister of my friend refusing to even talk to her father.   This rift continued long after the father divorced the new wife who I am told was a chronic alcoholic. 

Slowly the relationship between father and his children had been healed with the exception of the youngest daughter who still refused to speak to him.  She now had her own family which her father had never met.

There was an impromptu family gathering held by my friend and they decided to invite his younger sister hopeful of some sort of reconciliation.  He rang his sister and the husband answered the phone.  He explained that there was a family gathering and that his father would be present and it would be good if they could come and try to make some sort of reconciliation. 

The husband said that they were just on the way out to a dinner but said this was more important and that they would be there. 

What happened next is truly beautiful.  The younger sister walked into the room with her husband and infant son.   The child saw his grandfather sitting on the couch and immediately ran over and jumped in his lap hugging him.

Now what is amazing is the child had never seen his grandfather before and had no idea who he was.  I think he is only 3 years old.    Even more amazing is the child is normally reserved and shy with strangers and not at all inclined to want to be cuddled.  Everybody was speechless and stunned.

This was the ultimate ice breaker.   There was no opportunity for any awkward situation to develop.  There might still be some issues not resolved but the daughter could not ignore this demonstration of love between her son and his grandfather.  The healing and reconciliation process had commenced initiated by the spontaneous expression of love by a small child not old enough to understand any of problems of the past.

 The thing to ponder is why did the child was instantly attracted to the grandfather sitting on the couch when he had no idea who he was.  

I would guess that the grandfather sat there with great expectations of seeing his grandson for the first time and feeling immense feelings of love.  These feelings were picked up by the child as soon as he entered the room. 

We are of course talking about vibrations and the Law Of Attraction.  Maybe the grandfather had day dreamed (visualized) countless times about this moment.  I can think of no other better explanation.

I have finished the tutorials for Attractor Genie and have started to setup my first project.  It’s really looking good. 

I also have subliminal messages happening on one of my screens.  It is meant to be happening on the main screen that I work on but the software does not seem to be aware of a dual screen configuration and is working on the screen off to my left.  I have about five messages happening selected from the huge database of readymade affirmations that come with Attractor Genie.

There is also a daily journal and I have started to use that too.  It is made up of a gratitude Journal, Success proof, New Ideas and comments.  It is good to consult the Attractor Genie manual as it gives examples on how these should be used.

There is also a questions tab with a large number of prepared questions designed to get you thinking and help you focus.  When you select and answer one of these questions it is also recorded against that particular day in the journal.  I chose two questions and one of them actually prompted me to write myself a note in the comments area.

I have made a start in all sections of the journal.   I like the structured design of the Attractor Genie journal that prompts you to address the different aspects I listed above as opposed to a journal that presents you with a single black page.

I have been listening to The Secret and some other material on the Law Of Attraction and the message is loud and clear.  I need to write down what I want.

I would think that most people can easily come up with a shopping list for the universe.  When I ponder what might be my shopping list I struggle.   It is not that I am so contented with what I have as there are many things I currently would like.

I think that maybe I have been just too unsettled up until now to decide what I want.  The turmoil of the previous year has made many of my previous plans and goals either redundant or no longer important.

I feel I am now closer to being able to formulate a plan and shopping list.  This morning I decided it was time to start and thought about the best way to write them. 

I am not into pen and paper.  For me it has to be onscreen and stored away from prying eyes.   Therefore I would need to put it into some sort of document.

I wondered if there were any applications out there to facilitate writing down your plans, goals, shopping lists and things like affirmations.   I found some free and shareware applications but when I examined them they were nothing more than glorified notepads. 

I then found the Attractor Genie and it promised to be everything I was looking for and much more.   I read the blurb and then continued my search but after spending a few hours on the net looking around at different things there was nothing else that even came close to the Attractor Genie in terms of promised functionality. 

I then checked the price on the sales page and saw that it was $97 through CLICKBANK.  This is a little expensive in my opinion but immediately below was a second purchase option to Test Drive Attractor Genie Software for 7 days for only $5.00 after which the remaining $92 would be billed if I did nothing (did not cancel).  

This appealed to me as it seemed to reduce the risk.  In reality it would make little difference if it was $97 or $5 being refunded.   I know that if I was not satisfied with the product I would have recourse both through my credit card and CLICKBANK who I know to be a reputable company.   

I went off for lunch and to attend to some other things and a couple of hours later I returned to my computer with the intention to purchase using the $5 option and did so.

As they promised access was immediate.  The download and installation instructions were easy to follow and took me step-by-step.  I now had the application installed on my system and when I started it there seemed to be a lot too it.

The step-by-step instructions recommended watching the online video tutorials.  I decided to have a look before attempting to use the applications.  

I am currently up to video tutorial number 12 of 14 and I must say I am extremely impressed at what this application seems to do.  The functionality is everything  I wanted and much more.   I am actually excited to start working with the software.

The video tutorials seem to cover all the functionality and would be enough for anyone to start using the application.  Within the video tutorials they make continual references to there being more information and help in the Attractor-Genie manual which I have download but have yet to open. 

At this stage I feel I will allow the remaining $92 to be billed but I still have 6 days to work with Attractor Genie and make my decision.  If it even provides half of what it seems to provide then it’s worth it.  

Unless something else more interesting comes up I think the next few posts here will be about Attractor Genie and my experience working with it.

I recently got some sort of cold and despite my refusal to accept it I had a few days of congestion, coughing and runny nose.  

I say refusal because a long time ago I decided I would no longer entertain a cold and for the better part of 30 years I have had almost no colds.

A few days ago I posted about my introduction to Mind Power from a meeting with John Kehoe and how my brother who was able to attend his 3 day lecture gave me a copy of the cassette tapes. 

It was on one of those tapes that I heard John discussing health with his audience with regard to the importance of what you tell yourself about yourself.

One guy in the audience announced that ever since he was a small child he told himself that he was the kind of person that never got colds and sure enough he never got colds.

Another guy responded immediately that he had always told himself that he was good for 2 or 3 colds every year and sure enough he would get two or three colds are year.

This had a profound effect on me.  I actually decided from that day on that I too would no longer be the type of person that caught colds and for the most part I have been successful in not succumbing to colds.

In fact I extended this attitude to my health in general.  I decided that I was a healthy person and the type that did not get sick.  This became more than just an affirmation – it became a core belief that I have to this very day.

If anyone is looking for evidence in support of the power of thoughts or the Law of Attraction you cannot go past health.  Putting my anecdotal experience aside there are countless documented stories of how a positive mental attitude has brought about healing and recovery when the best scientific medical opinion said it was impossible.  

Today most Doctors would agree that a patient’s attitude is vitally important to his health and recovery.    So even the conservative medical profession now recognise that a person’s attitude (thinking) directly affects their health.

If your thoughts can directly affect your health then why wouldn’t they be able to affect other aspects of your life also?   It is actually logical to accept they would and for me this is all the proof I need for the Power of thoughts.

Now back to my recent cold.   I am been out of alignment with the universe for almost a year and given my very negative state of mind I am surprised I did not suffer a serious illness in the past year.

 Now I am rapidly moving back into alignment and already enjoy excellent health again.  I will not be succumbing to any more colds in the future.

The web site for the Secret has some great free stuff including the check from the universe.  I have printed it off and filled it out and have it placed where I can see it.  

There is also a desktop widget that will deliver some inspirational wisdom every day.  I have this installed on my system.

I find myself particularly challenged by the message for today

Praising and blessing dissolves all negativity. So praise and bless your enemies.  If you curse your enemies, the course will come back to harm you.  If you praise and bless them, you will resolve all negativity and discord, and the love of the praising and blessing will return to you.  As you praise and bless, you will feel yourself shift into a new frequency with the feedback of good feelings. 

Sounds very New Testament like TURN THE OTHER CHEEK and LOVE THY ENEMY.

If this message had been presented to me a year ago I would not have had much trouble accepting it.  I am not the type of person to hold a grudge and had I been asked if I had any enemies I would have said no.   There was really no one I hated.  Maybe some I disliked but I would not waste my time and energy even thinking about them.

This all changed when a psychopath entered my life and poisoned the mind of my then girl friend and mother to my baby son.   The poison was both mentally and physically as the guy got her addicted to drugs.

I have just come out a living hell as they played with me and taunted me.  For some 4 or 5 months the guy would hide behind the bedroom door of my girl friend’s apartment when I visited.   For him it was a big game and she soon became a very active participant.   During the first few months of this the guy still pretended to be my friend while he fed lies and half-truths back to my girl friend.

The depth of deception and hurt was such that I experienced a range of extreme emotions including defeat, betrayal, depression, hatred and revenge.   Talk about vibrating negatively to the universe. 

In the past month I have moved to a positive frame of mind and can actually write about this with some detachment.   I suspect it is my knowledge of NLP in practice.

To ask me now to praise and bless my enemies is to say the very least a challenge.   I think it an accomplishment that I have been able to deal with it enough that I can stop spending my time cursing them and focus on more positive things. 

I know all the feelings are still there and the matter is far from resolved.  I am not in denial about it nor am I just suppressing it.  I just need to put it in perspective and get on with my life.

So Praising and blessing my enemies.  I am just not ready for that at this time.   The best I can do for now is be vigilant in curbing any negativity towards them.

Before finding out about the Law of Attraction I had come up with my own law that was similar but not as comprehensive in its explanation of how things work.   I called it the law of expectation.

Put simply I had observed all my life that we generally got whatever we expected.   While people may have aspired or expressed a desire for something more, they actually only received what they felt they were worthy to receive. 

I concluded that most people put their expectations too low.   As children we have wonderful dreams and plans but these “unrealistic” notions are “educated” out of us as we get older.

I also saw our western Christian heritage as having a negative effect on many people’s expectations with its feelings of guilt and unworthiness. 

The law of expectation also seemed to explain why people born into wealth seem to be able to easily acquire wealth while those born into relative poverty stay there.

It also seemed that people that were oblivious to obstacles or otherwise not constrained by the concept of realistic expectations were able to achieve great things that “normal” people were not.  To my mind this further proved my law of expectation.  

I observed that it was a few that dared to dream and felt worthy of more that actually got more.   I concluded that all we needed to do was to raise our own expectations. 

This idea was playing in the back of my mind for a few years and I actually raised my own expectations in life and did get more in terms of better jobs, income and even my love life.

Then I was introduced to The Secret and realized that my law of expectation was just a part of the Law of Attraction that provided a far better explanation.   I was not completely wrong but there were vital parts missing.

My law of expectation is really the receiving part of the law of attraction.  The part where you believe and vibrate out to the universe what you really know it will give you.  

I have been reflecting back on my childhood and when I first became aware of the power of thoughts.
 
When in my teens I lived in a small city in the middle of a rural area in the mid 70s. The local radio station announced the arrival of a guy who would hold lectures on Mind Power.  There was to be a free introductory night and I convinced my mother to take me.  My older brother and his girl friend also came along.

The guy giving the talk was John Kehoe and what he had to say sounded very interesting but the price of attending the lecture was beyond my budget of my mother.

My brother and his girl friend did attend the lectures and were given audio cassette tapes of the 3 days of lectures they attended.   He let me make copies of the tapes.

I listened to these once or twice and then left him in my draw with dozens of other tapes.  A few years later I found them again and played them this time absorbing the content.

My approach to learning has always been very intellectual as opposed to practical by which I mean I thought about and pondered the information at a philosophical level but never attempted to put any of it in practice.  It did however impart on me a more positive outlook and attitude.
 
The ideas and concepts were digested and laid dormant for a decade or so while I struggled with life, getting married and raising kids like most people do.  I continued to ponder the meaning of life and explored other things that I will probably talk about in future posts.

I then discovered the tapes again when I was cleaning out my no longer used cassette collection and put them aside to listen too again.  I then searched John Kehoe up on the internet curious about what he was doing and found he had an active website and was still touring and selling books and tapes.
 
I purchased a few books and tapes online and picked up a copy of his book the Practice of happiness as well as listening again to the now 20 year old tapes.  The information they contained had not dated in any way.
 
I was a believer in most of what he said but still only intellectualized it not putting any of it into practice by doing the exercises.  The one benefit I did derive was to substantially reduce my own negativity and became a far more positive person.
 
After being introduced to The secret I have again revisited the original tapes of John from 30 years ago and in his teachings way back then are all the key components and ideas found in the The Secret and the law of attraction.  Rhonda Byrne never claimed that the ideas in the secret are new.

If you are not familiar with John Kehoe then visit his Learn Mind Power website  http://www.learnmindpower.com/   There is lots of good information there and if you do see a book or tape of interest do not hesitate to buy it.  It’s all good.

Last year has proven to me that the law of attraction works as I experienced success beyond my wildest expectations in manifesting what I was thinking about.

If you read my last entry you might be wondering what I could be talking about as I have already stated that it was the worst year of my life. 

I spent most of last year in negative thought and sure enough the Universe responded by giving me heaps of what I was thinking about.  I spent a lot of time in fear and obediently the universe responded with creating more situations to be fearful of.  I spent a lot of time in anger and the universe gave me even more to be angry about.   I could go on but I think you get the point.

So yes I was exceedingly successful in manifesting what I was thinking about.  I can now see very clearly the direct correlation between my thinking and my life experience.  

I have also had ample life experiencing in manifesting good results in the past.  In fact I have done so all my life long before learning about the Secret and Law of attraction.

So it’s time to start creating my life experience and that means letting go of feelings of hurt, anger and even revenge.  I could have let go a long time ago but for the existence of my child.

I told myself that what I was doing was necessary to try to rescue him.  The thing is none of what I have done so far has worked and it would seem has made things worse.  

Now I have to work with the universe instead.  Let’s see how quickly it can deliver.

This leaves me wondering what is the best way to ask and receive with regard to my child.  Should I just visualize him being in my care again?  

I would like to ask readers for their ideas about this but at this time I have only given the site address to one other person so I should not expect too much response.  

As I said this blog is for my own self development and focus.  If others read it and find it interesting or helpful in some way that is great.

The one thing I have noticed time and time again is that when I allocate time to my own personal development everything is better.  I am happier and life seems to give me what I ask for.  Then I become complacent again and fall back into the day to day rut being reactive again.  Then life returns to it normal ebb of ups and downs.

I am often inspired by something and on a high for a few months.  This happened when my son brought me a copy of The Secret.   I was highly motivated by it for a few months and everything around me started to improve.   In virtually every aspect of my life there was a measurable and significant improvement.

I then decided I would continue to work with the some of the things suggested as well as other things on a daily basis but again I always had an excuse to put them off for another day until I they were almost forgotten.  I am sure many others have the same problem as this.

That was almost a year ago and I have just experienced the worst year of my entire life in terms of personal relationships.  I was introduced to a psychopath and he had a field day playing around with my life.  I am almost 50 and had no experience with such people and there for did not even have inkling as to what was going on.

I will spare you the long sordid details but he took away my girl friend and our baby.  The girl friend is now addicted to drugs (crystal meth) like the guy and he is on the run with arrest warrants to two countries.  Sadly the girlfriend is in hiding with him along with my child.
 
Until this happened I have lead a relatively simple life in that it was peaceful without any drama and intrigue.  I want this simple life again now.  I have been through the emotional wringer feeling extreme depression, hurt, anger, frustration and defeat.  

There was a time when I actually thought about working with my thoughts but I was holding on to hatred and revenge, and did not want to let those feelings go.  I knew that if I did work with my thoughts the only logical conclusion would be to let those go and embrace feelings of love.

I knew that to get what I want I must work with the universe and not against it.  I knew that the negativity I was immersed in would not get me what I wanted but I just could not let go. 

I have finally decided that it is time to get my life back on track.  I have pulled out the secret and played it again along with some other materials I have and can see the futility of what I was doing and how I was just bringing more anger, pain and frustration into my life.

This blog is an attempt to focus my thoughts and develop daily routine for personal development and realignment with the universe.   The mere act of thinking about this stuff on a daily basis will help me break one out of the reactive mode and give the mind constructive things to work with.

This phrase caught my imagination many years ago and is something I continued to contemplate from time to time.   When I decided to write about it here the first thing I did was too look up the quote and found a number of variations going back to twelfth century but the same basic idea. 

“We are like dwarfs standing [or sitting] upon the shoulders of giants, and so able to see more and see farther than the ancients.”
    – Bernard of Chartres, circa 1130

“Bernard of Chartres used to say that we are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, so that we can see more than they, and things at a greater distance, not by virtue of any sharpness on sight on our part, or any physical distinction, but because we are carried high and raised up by their giant size.”
    – John of Salisbury, Metalogicon, 1159

“A dwarf standing on the shoulders of a giant may see farther than a giant himself.”
    – Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, 1621

“Dwarfs on the shoulders of giants see further than the giants themselves.”
    – Stella Didacus, Eximii verbi divini CONCIONATORIS ORDINNIS MINORUM Regularis Observantiae, 1622

“A dwarf on a giant’s shoulders sees farther of the two.”
    – George Herbert, Jacula Prudentum, 1651

“If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”
    – Isaac Newton, letter to Robert Hooke, 1676

“Newton won the race in part because, as he put it, he had stood on the shoulders of giants and in part because he just happened to be the biggest giant of them all.”
    – Alan Cromer, Uncommon Sense: The Heretical Nature of Science, 1993

“In the sciences, we are now uniquely privileged to sit side by side with the giants on whose shoulders we stand.”
    – Gerald Holton

It is a metaphor for how we as individuals (dwarfs) can benefit from all those great minds that have gone before us (collectively a giant) by gaining great insight and understanding beyond what our own intellectual capacity and limited recourses would enable us learn in a life time.

The quote is most often attributed to Isaac Newton who would be considered by most to be a genius.  He saw himself as benefiting from those that came before him enabling a greater view.   

Today my basic understanding of many areas of physics and science would exceed that of Isacc Newton.   Would I profess to be smarter than him?   OF COURSE NOT.   I am a mere dwarf peaking over the shoulder of such giants and my view is only greater by virtue of all those that came after him.

Today we are in a unique position in history.   In the West at least we are no longer compelled to be prisoners of superstition and ignorance.  This is called the information age and there has never been more of it out there.  So much that most of suffer information overload. 

We all crave answers but most of us feel dwarfed by the amount of information and complexity of ideas out there.  It’s easier to live our lives in reactive mode as our forefathers have done before us.   Just go with the flow and do the best you can as circumstances seem to dictate.  This is exactly what most people will do.    

If you are reading thus far then you are not like most people.  You are searching for answers and will not be satisfied without trying to at least glimpse over the shoulder of giants.  Don’t be shy.   Don’t underestimate yourself of your ability to see further. 

Stand on the shoulders of giants and take a look but don’t let anyone put blinkers on you and limit your view.

I am not sure the direction this blog with take.  Will it be a self indulgence that I put up like a personal journal or a useful resource for others?  

To some extent I know it will be a journey of exploration and discovery.   I also envisage it as a focal point for my own Personal Development.

Thus begins my blog about the power of thoughts.