Present Moments Newsletter

Inspiration Remembering Our Innocence
by Martha Lucia Espinosa
Miracles fall like drops of healing rain from Heaven on a dry and dusty world, where starved and thirsty creatures come to die. Now they have water. Now the world is green. And everywhere the signs of life spring up, to show that what is born can never die, for what has life has immortality.” (ACIM W-340)

ACIM  has proved to be beautiful, yet challenging to apply and quite deep. I studied The Course for more than three years and practiced the lessons it prescribed in the Workbook for Students, but I somehow felt that I was progressing slowly. Even more stormy weather came into my personal life, and the more I studied and practiced, the rougher it seemed to become. You might recall similar moments in your life when you feel as if everything is coming apart, as if there’s very little you can do to hold it and yourself together, yet you know you’re headed somewhere. You reach out and grasp in the dark for a thread with which to get out of the maze.

This is how I felt throughout 2001 and 2002 as my prayer took on a new form. I asked again for understanding, and for an accelerator of sorts. Somewhere, there was a missing link I wasn’t grasping in this voluminous material that I knew contained truth. I was failing to fully grasp it.

In August 2003, I attended a seminar in Anaheim, California, that was sponsored by the largest distributor of ACIM materials. There, a publisher named D. Patrick Miller was onstage and recommended a book he’d recently put out called The Disappearance of the Universe. It had been written by a then-unknown author called Gary R. Renard. I trusted D. Patrick, as I’d also read his balanced journalistic accounts of the history of ACIM and other writings. I ordered The Disappearance of the Universe, or D.U. as its readers now fondly know it, immediately upon returning home from the seminar.

What followed was akin to the experience of intense psychotherapy. It felt as though I were being opened up like a can and poured from the inside out. Many emotions, dreams, visions, ideas, thoughts, feelings, and sensations flowed to finally bring clarity and a sense of true direction and guaranteed peace at the end of this journey. My search came to a stop. Now there was nothing but work left to do in order to reach the goal.

D.U. has been my companion in the study of A Course in Miracles ever since, and it proved to be a spiritual accelerator. It also sealed the answer to my childhood prayer about God’s impossible cruelty and endless and flawless unconditional love for all of His creations. Most of all, it offered a clearer understanding of a simple process of advanced forgiveness that helped me find the way home again along with all of God’s children—not some, but all. There are no exceptions in His infinite mercy and complete, perfect love, which casts out all fear and where no one is left behind—a gospel of complete inclusion and of perfect mercy.

“If God was the maker of this world, He would indeed be a cruel God,” says D.U. Now, at first glance this statement doesn’t sit well with our traditional upbringing. In fact, we may tremble in fear when we read it, seeing it as blasphemy or heresy, based on what we’ve been taught. Yet this simple misunderstanding is the source of all our pain and the block to accepting God’s completely benign presence in our lives. We see Him as the maker of both our joys and our sorrows, and this causes us distress. We then see Him within the frame of a fearful and withdrawn dualistic perspective, where God has two faces, not one, and a flimsy will. As a defense, we set out to make a will that isn’t His but ours and are destined to live in endless competition with the Almighty, who does nothing in return but love without end. God is infinite love. And not only is that all that He is, but that’s all there is, all that you are, and all that I am.

However, in order to see this truth clearly and experientially, you must purposely and voluntarily take on your cross. You must be willing to give up and remove the blocks to the awareness of love’s presence in you. The speck that Jesus spoke about in Matthew 7:5 is in your own eye, as is the plank, and both are quite easily removed if you but invite him to gently put his finger into your eye and pluck them out.

Your willingness to give up your sense of separation from your fellow humans and from God is the only way to take away the pain of the world so that every tear shall be wiped away, as promised in the book of Revelation. The key is to forgive others, yourself, and the world—the whole thing, even Jesus and God Himself if you still hold a grievance in your mind from years of misunderstanding their relationship to you. “A forgiven world rises before your eyes in innocence and majesty, to bring the face of Christ in every brother,” says ACIM.

As D.U. states in its pages, the apparent suffering that ensues whenever we embark on a path of self-transformation and enlightenment is merely the unconscious guilt that surfaces now in order to be forgiven. I had misunderstood the stormy nights that came forth after beginning my work with The Course as indicators of failure, when in reality they heralded the truth that I was really doing nothing more than learning how to face the makings of my own ego, and that’s what needed to be healed.

That’s ultimately what needs to be forgiven so that your total innocence is remembered. You don’t effectively welcome Jesus as a personal savior until you’re ready to forgive yourself and then do so effectively. You can’t give of what you don’t have. An empty vessel can’t offer water to those who thirst; it must first fill itself with water, which it can then give and pour abundantly. To receive forgiveness, one must forgive. To receive peace, one must first choose it.

Excerpt from Spoken Miracles: A Companion to The Disappearance of the Universe by Martha Lucia Espinosa. Click here to order. For more information about Gary Renard's books, The Disappearance of the Universe and Your Immortal Reality, please visit HayHouse.com.
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Focus on Hay House Author Marianne Williamson
Marianne Williamson is an internationally acclaimed author and lecturer. She has published nine books, four of which—including the mega bestseller A Return to Love and Everyday Grace—have been #1 New York Times bestsellers. Her titles also include Illuminata, A Woman's Worth, and Healing the Soul of America. She also edited Imagine: What America Could Be in the 21st Century, a compilation of essays by some of America's most visionary thinkers.

Marianne has been a popular guest on numerous television programs such as Oprah, Larry King Live, Good Morning America, and Charlie Rose.

She is a native of Houston, Texas, and has lectured professionally since 1983. In 1989, she founded Project Angel Food, a meals-on-wheels program that serves homebound people with AIDS in the Los Angeles area. Today, Project Angel Food serves over 1,000 people daily.

Marianne also founded The Peace Alliance, a grass roots campaign supporting legislation currently before Congress to establish a U.S. Department of Peace.

Her book Everyday Grace: Having Hope, Finding Forgiveness and Making Miracles, quickly reached #1 on the New York Times Best-Seller List. Her newest book, The Gift of Change: Spiritual Guidance for a Radically New Life, is available at bookstores everywhere in hardback and paperback.

Marianne's newest professional venture is her own radio show, airing on the new XM Radio block called 'Oprah and Friends'.

In December 2006, a NEWSWEEK magazine poll named Marianne Williamson one of the fifty most influential baby boomers.

Marianne's newest book, The Age of Miracles: Embracing the New Midlife, will be published by Hay House in January 2008.

Click here to view Marianne's publications available on HayHouse.com.

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Laugh-Out-Loud Some Ads Good for a Laugh
by Loretta LaRoche
Every time I read a magazine I find myself incredibly amused by the ads. If you're looking to get a good laugh, just flip through any one of the many publications out there and you will be assured of filling your humor compartment for the day.
If you're lacking some abilities in this area, let me be so bold as to give you some tips. Start by reading the ad out loud. One that always gets me going is the ads on hair removal. The lead line is usually blaring with an accusatory tone: "Do you want to get rid of unwanted hair?" I feel that this is an incredibly stupid question. Would anybody in their right mind say, "Why, yes, I want all the unwanted hair I can get my hands on. In fact, I'm looking forward to getting other people to give me their unwanted hair as well"? In the last several years there has been an almost obsessive preoccupation with hair removal. One company sells a bleach that lightens and softens the hair so that it is practically impossible to see. So now I look like a blond werewolf.

Moving right along, we encounter an ad for toilet paper from Charmin. Or more accurately, from Cha Cha Cha ... Charmin. Why does a Latin rhythm have to be attached to toilet paper? Are we all supposed to start thinking we're going to be doing the samba while we wipe? Maybe they can send Ricky Martin along if you buy a couple of cases. Who knows how wild my imagination could go on this one. Perhaps they should add salsa and nachos with every purchase. Invite a few friends over and have a party.

The ads for alternatives to estrogen replacement are everywhere. Now that the research findings show that much of what was promised was just that—a promise—everyone and their uncle is into menopause products that are not harmful.

One such ad states: "Face menopause with confidence." I had no clue that I needed confidence to get through feeling like I was being microwaved. However, the secret ingredients, which include the hair follicles of the great bird of paradise and an ancient herbal paste once used by Queen Helivitz of the Ukraine, have been found to create feelings of complete bliss and contentment. Millions of women who have used this product have been found sprawled on their sofas completely at ease even though chaos is all around them.

If you can get to the point where you are able to see some of the absurdity in most of what is advertised, you may save yourself some disappointment. To slightly twist P.T. Barnum, "There's a sucker born every day." Let's hope this is not your day!

You can see Loretta, aka: "The Jolly Lama", at the upcoming I Can Do It! Conference in Tampa and on the Mexican Riviera Cruise next Spring. Please click here to view Loretta's publications available from HayHouse.com.
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Self-Help Advice The Power of Your Guiding Emotions
by Esther & Jerry Hicks
If someone you did not know contacted you in some way and said to you, “Hello, you don’t know me, but I wanted to tell you that I’ll never contact you in any way again,” you would say, “All right.” You would not feel sad or disappointed that you would not hear from this stranger again. But if someone important to you were to tell you that, you would feel strong negative emotion.
The emotion that you feel always indicates the vibrational difference between your point of desire and your current thought. You could say that your emotions indicate the difference between your desire and your belief, or between your desire and your expectation. We like to explain that your emotions indicate the vibrational relationship between the vibration of who you have really become and who you are allowing yourself to be right now because of the thoughts you are thinking.

For example, when you are feeling proud of yourself, the feelings that you are experiencing are indicating alignment between the vibration (or thought) of your Inner Being and the vibration (or thought) of you right here, right now. When you feel ashamed or embarrassed, those feelings indicate that you, in your now, are thinking thoughts about yourself that are very different from the thoughts that the Broader part of you is having about you.

Before your emotions can be meaningful to you—before you can allow them to give you the precise and perfect guidance that they are offering—you must understand that you are a Being with two points of perspective that are continually relating to each other. When you understand that your Inner Being, or the expanded Being that you are becoming, stands as the furthermost culmination of life and constantly calls you forward to that, then you begin to understand the feeling of passion or eagerness that is present when you are allowing your movement toward your expanded self. And you also understand the feeling of being unfulfilled or of uneasiness when you are not allowing your movement toward your expanded self.

There is just no way of getting around it: You must allow yourself to be the Being that life is causing you to become if you are to feel joy. And unless you are feeling joy, you are not allowing yourself to be that which life has caused you to become.


Emotions Indicate the Degree of Your Alignment

As you know from your own life experience, a variety of feelings move through you depending upon what is happening, what you are observing, and what you are thinking. Your emotion, whether it feels good or bad, is a vibrational indicator of the relationship between the vibration of your Broader Self and you. Your emotions indicate the degree of your alignment with who you have become. They show you if, in this moment, you are keeping up with yourself or not.

Over time, you have come to describe the variety of feelings or emotions with many different words. And because of the number of individuals who have felt these emotions, and because of the many generations of people having a variety of experiences, you have come to a somewhat consistent agreement on what you are feeling and the word you would use to describe it.

We would much prefer that you find yourself in feelings of eagerness and love and joy than in those of fear or hatred or anger, but because we understand the vibrational reason for these emotions, we do not attempt to guide you from the emotion of fear directly to the emotion of joy, for we understand that the vibrational difference is too great to span all at once. And, in fact, we see no reason to try to make the jump all at once, because a gradual movement in the direction of feeling better is all that is necessary or even possible.

Nothing That You Want Is Upstream

Everything that you see around you (land, sky, rivers, buildings, and even people and animals) was thought-vibration before it became the physical things you now observe. While most do not realize it, you are standing on the Leading Edge of thought. Further, you are so good at translating vibration through your senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch that for the most part you are unaware of the translation process at all. It is just life, and you are living it.

But if you can grasp the concept that everything that you see around you in manifested form was thought-vibration first, and then thought-form, and finally the manifestation as you see it now, the bigger picture of creation will begin to come into view for you. And then not only will you have a clearer picture of how things that you call “real life experience” come to be, but you will also feel the Current from which all things come and upon which all things flow.

What we mean when we say “Nothing that you want is upstream” is that your desires—because you have already thought about them and asked for them—are already in the process of being created. In the same way that a round object will roll downhill of its own accord without needing an engine or added impetus from outside influences, your desires are, in a sense, easily and naturally rolling toward their own conclusions as well. Once your life has caused the creation of a desire, your work is done, and natural forces and laws will take over.

The best way we have come to explain to you this pattern of natural evolution is in our analogy of the Current of the river: Your every request, large or small, adds to the Current of this river; and literally everything that you have ever asked for is downstream, where you can easily find it, experience it, possess it, or live it.

Excerpt from The Astonishing Power of Emotions: Let Your Feelings Be Your Guide by Esther and Jerry Hicks (The Teachings of Abraham).
For more information, please visit hayhouse.com
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Schedule of Upcoming Events Author Lectures and Workshops

Sylvia Browne and Colette Baron-Reid
Secret Societies Tour
Throughout this lecture, Sylvia shares her knowledge of the conspiracies, coverups, long-held secrets, misinformation, and power manipulations of secret societies in both the past and present and how they can affect us today and in the future.

Location — US Tour:  Tampa, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., New York, and San Diego 
 

   

Spiritaul Relationships
Gary Zukav and Linda Francis
Spiritual Partnerships
Gary and his wife Linda show you how to use EVERY relationship – at home, work, and play – to create authentic power and develop partnerships between equals for the purpose of spiritual growth.

Locations: Washington, D.C.

   

Journey of the Soul
John Holland & Brian Weiss
Journey of the Soul: A Day of Spiritual Enlightenment and Healing for the Body, Mind, and Spirit
Join two of the most world-renowned and respected spiritual teachers, John Holland & Brian Weiss M.D., as they explore the 'consciousness of the soul' in an all-day workshop demonstrating mediumship and past-life regression.

Seattle - September 30

   

I Can Do It! - Tampa
I Can Do It! Conference - Tampa, Florida
More than 30 Hay House Authors Together for One Extraordinary Event
Come for a day or spend the entire weekend with your favorite authors! Inspiring keynotes, intensive workshops, kindred spirits, and so much more. PLUS world-premier showing of You Can Heal Your Life - The Movie starring Louise Hay!
Tampa, Florida - October 11 - 14

   

Wayne Dyer Live Lecturs
Dr. Wayne Dyer
Change Your Thoughts - Change Your Life - All New Live Lecture Events
Learn how to align yourself with the universe and start living a balanced and peaceful life today with the help of Dr. Wayne W. Dyer. Dr. Dyer has spent the last year working on a “manual on the art of living” and he’ll be sharing some of its most valuable lessons during this rare and life-changing lecture.

Locations: Tampa, Denver, Houston, Seattle, Los Angeles, Maui, New York, Atlanta, Detroit, San Francisco

   

Love Never Dies
John Holland and Lisa Williams
Love Never Dies: Messages from the Other Side
Hay House is proud to unite for the first time on one stage two of TV’s top communicators with the Spirit World—psychic medium John Holland (A&E’s Mediums: We See Dead People) and medium and clairvoyant Lisa Williams (Lifetime’s Life Among the Dead) in a dynamic new all-day workshop. Both will perform live readings among audience members. Don't miss it!

Locations: Denver, New York, San Francisco

   

Soul Purpose
Sonia Choquette
Soul Lessons and Soul Purpose: Discover Why You Are Here
In this lively and empowering all-day workshop, noted author, six-sensory teacher, visionary, and vibrational healer Sonia Choquette will show you how to connect with your spirit guides. Open your heart, raise your vibration, and learn to become the creative master of the life that you’re intended to have on Earth! Featuring musical artist Mark Stanton Welch.

Locations: Tampa, San Francisco, New York

   

Intuitive Connections Cruise
Sonia Choquette, John Holland, Colette Baron-Reid, and Gordon Smith
Intuitive Connections Cruise: Sun, Surf and Psychics
Board the Holland America Zuiderdam in Ft. Lauderdale, FL for the 2007 Intuitive Connections Cruise to the Eastern Caribbean. While you sail, each author will host two intimate two-hour lectures that will amaze you.

Eastern Caribbean:  November 3 -10

   

Mexican Riviera Cruise
I Can Do It! At Sea
A Most Unique Hay House Conference
An unprecedented cruise experience. The entire ship has been chartered for YOU - our loyal Hay House customers. Featured speakers include Dr. Wayne Dyer, Marianne Williamson, Caroline Myss, Doreen Virtue, Brian Weiss, M.D., Cheryl Richardson, Baron Baptiste, and Loretta LaRoche. Join us for a luxurious week of spiritual adventure!

This program is now SOLD OUT, however there are 4 other programs to choose from on the same Cruise:
  • A Writer’s Bootcamp with Cheryl Richardson - Click for details
  • Transforming Life, Body, and Soul with Baron Baptiste -  Click for details
  • It’s All About You Cruise with Mary Goulet and Heather Reider - Click for details
  • Spiritual Connections with Sylvia Browne, Collette Baron-Reid, and more – Click for details

    Mexican Riviera: April 5 - 12, 2008

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    Just in Print The Latest Releases from Hay House

    The Astonishing Power of Emotion
    Esther & Jerry Hicks
    This leading-edge book by Esther and Jerry Hicks, who present the teachings of the Non-Physical entity Abraham, will help you understand the emotions that you’ve been experiencing all of your life. You’ll come to understand what emotions are, what each of them means, and how to effectively utilize your new awareness of them. Hardcover book and Unabridged Audio (8-CD Set)


    The Wisdom of Avalon Cards
    Colette Baron-Reid
    A 52-card divination system—an inspirational tool to bridge the unseen world of Spirit and the physical world of our day-to-day lives. Based on the rich mythology of ancient Britain’s Isle of Avalon and the wisdom teachings of its priestesses, these cards will help you find valuable and powerful insights in all aspects of life as you chart your path and manifest your destiny with clarity and purpose.


    Meditations for Receiving Divine Guidance, Support, and Healing
    Sonia Choquette
    Accurate, insightful guidance will be yours as Sonia clears the way for you to hear your deep inner wisdom. With these meditations, you will release psychic debris for greater clarity, open your heart to connect to your Source, energize your body, release fears to live in joy, and align with Divine flow to fully appreciate the special gifts you’ve been given. 2-CD Set.



    Secret Societies
    Sylvia Browne
    Sylvia explores it all, and even gives us information on a powerful secret society that no one has even heard about. So lock your windows and doors and read about these societies and their secrets . . . some will really raise the hair on your neck!  Hardcover book and Abridged Audio (2-CD Set)


    Thank You, Angels!
    Doreen Virtue
    Doreen Virtue has written her first book for children! Thank You, Angels! introduces young children to the world of angels and teaches them how these heavenly beings can help them in many ways. Kids will learn how to ask an angel for help, how to recognize an angel’s voice, and what signs angels may use to let kids know that they’re there. This book offers children a sense of comfort and peace by showing them that they’re never alone.


    The Gospel of the Second Coming
    Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy
    A post-modern gnostic gospel for the 21st century. This gospel will shock academics and Christians alike. It makes the extraordinary claim that the long-awaited “Second Coming of Christ” has already happened; and it also explores the intimate relationship between Mary Magdalene and Jesus, his “Beloved Disciple.” And, perhaps most controversial of all, it reveals Jesus as a Gnostic master with a zany sense of humor and an upbeat message.  Hardcover book and Unabridged Audio (4-CD Set)


    Question Your Thinking, Change The World
    Byron Katie
    In this powerful book of quotations, Byron Katie talks about the most essential issues that face us all—love, sex, and relationships; health, sickness, and death; parents and children; work and money; and self-realization. The profound, lighthearted wisdom embodied within is not theoretical; it is absolutely authentic.


    The Sylvia Browne Book Collection
    Sylvia Browne
    Three of Sylvia's bestsellers packaged together for the first time. Sylvia Browne's Book of Angels, Secrets & Mysteries of the World, and If You Could See What I See. Perfect for gift-giving!


    Awakening Your Psychic Strengths: A Complete Program for Developing Your Inner Guidance and Spiritual Potential
    John Holland
    In this enlightening and entertaining audio program, internationally renowned psychic medium and best-selling author John Holland shows you how to tap into the power of your psychic abilities and make them work for you in all areas of your personal and business life. John explains how to find your way back to your true intuitive self by extending your awareness beyond your physical senses through easy-to-follow, practical exercises. 4-CD Lecture Set


    Healing Words From the Angels: 365 Daily Messages
    Doreen Virtue
    Doreen Virtue has created this book to give you daily reminders to ask for your angels’ assistance with anything and everything. All the entries within come directly from the angels, so by reading their words daily, you’ll be immersed in the sweet energy of their love. This will help you be more aware of your own guardian angels’ messages for you. With the help of this book, each of your days will be filled with blessings, miracles, and joy!


    Kick Up Your Heels...Before You're Too Short to Wear Them: How To Live A Long, Healthy, Juicy Life
    Loretta LaRoche
    With her trademark humor and practical wisdom, Loretta tackles how to live a long, healthy, juicy life—using herself and many of her friends and mentors as metaphors. Filled with practical advice, lifestyle skills, wisdom, and spirituality, Kick Up Your Heels . . . is a mental health spa that will inspire you and your family to live with joy, harmony, and peace while you still have the time! 

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    Special Announcement You Can Heal Your Life The Movie
    Hay House is proud to announce the debut of the first-ever film on the life and work of our much-loved founder, Louise L. Hay. You Can Heal Your Life: The Movie, starring Louise Hay and directed by Emmy award winner Michael Goorjian, tells Louise's life story; features interviews with inspiring bestselling authors including Dr. Wayne Dyer, Doreen Virtue, Gregg Braden and more; and shares candid true-life first-hand accounts from people who were healed by Louise's work. Pre-order You Can Heal Your Life: The Movie on DVD by November 1, 2007 and you'll receive both a 30% discount AND a complimentary one-year subscription to The Louise Hay Newsletter.

    Pre-Order Now from www.HayHouse.com
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    Louise Hay
    A Special Message from Louise Hay My Higher Self Pilots My Life

    When I don’t know who I am, I’m prone to being what someone else wants me to be; therefore, I’m interested in learning to know myself. I know that I don’t have to fit into anyone else’s emotional atmosphere. Nor do I have to manipulate others to fit into mine. When manipulative games are going on, it’s important to connect with the little child within me and reassure it that I love it, and that together we’re going to get through this. I call upon my Higher Self and accept its love and wisdom.

    We’re not here to please other people or to live our lives their way. We’re here to learn how to love ourselves and to love other people unconditionally. All our experiences are part of the richness and fullness of our lives.

    For more Daily Wisdom from Louise, please visit LouiseHay.com
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    Message from the Editor
    Message from the Editor Message from the Editor
    Present Moments helps you stay informed about what's going on with your favorite authors. Your comments, suggestions, and contributions regarding this newsletter are welcome. Please e-mail your feedback to editor@hayhouse.com.

    Hay House invites you to look within. Visit our online store at www.HayHouse.com to browse our full complement of books, audios, and gifts in the areas of Self-Help and Personal Growth.

    Not a subscriber yet? Sign-up to receive Present Moments.
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    In health and healing,
    Roberta Grace, E-Letter Editor
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    From Louise Hay