Worldwide Intention Experiment for Peace gathers momentum

have some exciting news. I have been in discussion with Deepak Chopra, the Alliance for New Humanity, and the Association for Global New Thought, an umbrella organization of New Thought churches, about having their members band together to run a giant Peace experiment in the autumn 2008 . The New Thought churches are planning their own consciousness initiatives, but as one giant supergroup with enormous publicity, we would have the largest experiment of all time.Of course an experiment of this magnitude may have many challenges, most of them technical — chiefly, how to create server power large enough to support thousands of people from all around the world joining forces on the same web page at the same time.
The biggest challenge with these experiences is not in demonstrating the power of intention (that seems to be the easy bit).
The difficulty is in finding an internet system sophisticated enough to allow thousands of people around the world to stare at the same image on a single web page at the same time. Allowing in such sizeable simultaneous traffic requires a vast amount of extra web capacity. The ability of a website to handle simultaneous web traffic is completely reliant upon the size of a web system’s server power.
As many of you remember, we learned this the hard way with our very first Intention Experiment, when the website crashed after an estimated 10,000 people attempted to participate in the experiment.
Three web teams so far
We have had three teams handling these experiments. Our second team attempted to avert a homepage overload by holding the experiments on a special page, away from the main website. That web team also controlled the flipping over of pages, rather than having readers click to other pages themselves, so there would be no possibility of the site freezing when everyone clicked the same button at the same time.
We also rented server space from a company that supplies the servers for Pop Idol, the British equivalent of American Idol, and was well versed in preventing a massive cyber traffic jam. Nearly 7000 people from thirty countries participated in the experiment, and only a handful had problems logging on. Nine linked servers were on hand to distribute the load. For the first few moments of our experiment, they were almost full.
Unique use of a social network
The technology of the second experiment had worked, but afterward we’d been presented with an extraordinarily large bill. The server power alone had cost us $6,000 for a half hour and the special web pages many thousands more – far too much for me to donate on a regular basis.
So we turned to a third web designer, Nick Haenen, who came up with an ingenious solution to our need for vast server power. Instead of renting our own servers, Nick said, why not make use of the giant capacity already created by a social network portal, like MySpace or Facebook? He’d constructed some sites using the Ning social network portal. Ning offers individual organizations instant facilities for a community based website.
The main advantage of Ning, for our purposes, was its server capacity — some 500 linked servers — to cope with the organization’s 20,000 social networks.
When Nick contacted the Ning creators they were enthusiastic about using their equipment to run intention experiments (Ning, by the way means ‘love’ in Chinese), and began working with Nick to modify the system slightly to cope with our special needs. By the time they were through, they said, our system would be able to cope with a hundred thousand simultaneous users.
However, we will still have the problem of having thousands of people registering all at once and participants that exceed even Ning’s enormous capacity.
So we will be meeting with some technical people from the Alliance for New Humanity to resolve some of these unique issues presented by attempting to run such a unique and uniquely large experiment. Watch this space for new developments.

Many people ask me about what it feels like to ‘move aside’, as I mention in Powering Up. How do I drop the ego and connect with The Field?
I can answer that best by examining transcendent experiences — those moments when people have experienced cosmic consciousness — a loss of the self and feeling a sense of oneness with the universe.
All of us at one point or another in our lives have experienced The Field: a sense of unity with all things and with the life force—during a dream or some altered state of consciousness, at a moment in childhood, or even while intensely in love.
It could be a moment of precognition, when we intuitively sense something or see into the future. It could be a dream about our divine purpose in life or perhaps during a profound moment of meditation or self-hypnosis.
However individual the moment, there are several aspects that distinguish it as cosmic awareness. In that moment, you move away from the tightly boundaried ‘self’ of your own ego and embrace a more oceanic feeling of your self in unity with the entire universe, with a sense of interconnectedness with all things. There is also an inner knowing that things will never be the same again.
It is invariably a profoundly transforming experience, usually lasting the rest of your life, having opened a window into a reality you never knew existed.
Moonwalking
It may be the experience that forces you to make an abrupt change in your life, as it did with Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell. Returning from the moon and while staring at the earth from space, Mitchell experienced a transcendent moment. He had a profound feeling of connectedness, as if all the planets and all the people of all time were attached to him by an invisible web. Mitchell’s epiphany changed his life forever. It shattered his world view and became the catalyst for his life’s work thereafter: the study of consciousness.
Arguably the world’s authority on cosmic consciousness and the altered states of consciousness is American parapsychologist and author Dr Charles Tart, who has been investigating altered states of consciousness for more than 40 years.
Tart uses the term ‘cosmic consciousness’, coined by physician Robert Maurice Bucke in 1961, and also his definition:
“The prime characteristic of cosmic consciousness is, as the name implies, a consciousness of the cosmos, that is, of the life and order of the universe.”
Common aspects of cosmic consciousness
Tart concluded that all cosmic-consciousness experiences tend to have some similarities:

  • the experience is usually spontaneous—you don’t turn in on like a tap
  • it tends to be transient—usually lasting about half an hour and rarely for more than two hours
  • the people involved invariably feel a sense of unity with all things as a ‘seamless whole’
  • they have a sense of knowingness, or as James puts it: “a direct insight into the nature of reality that is self validating”, resulting in a sense of authority and certainty about them in the future
  • there is a sense of the ineffable nature of the experience. It is utterly different from any other state of consciousness they’ve experienced, and can’t be described in words, or even by simile or metaphor.

There is often a sense of ‘God’, but more as the ‘Absolute’ than the anthropomorphic god of organized religion.
Our brain becomes more coherent during such experiences. At a meeting of the Society of Psychophysiological Research, the EEGs of meditators during a transcendent experience were far more coherent than that of a control group. They also displayed more efficient performance on complex cognitive activities.

When carrying out intention, many people believe that you must ‘see’ the exact object of your desire clearly in your mind’s eye. But for an intention it isn’t necessary to have a sharp internal image or, indeed, any image at all. It is enough to just think about an intention, without a mental picture, and simply to create an impression, a feeling or a thought.
Some of us think in images, others through words, still others through sounds, touch or the spatial relationship between objects. Your mental rehearsal will depend on which senses are most developed in your brain.
Nevertheless, you can sharpen up your intention and ability to visualize a result by getting into a meditative state and imagining the following, while recalling or imagining as much as you can about the sight and smells, and your feelings about them:

  • A favourite recent meal (can you remember some of the smells and tastes you really enjoyed?)
  • Your bedroom. Walk yourself mentally through it, remembering certain details – the feel of your bedspread, the curtains or carpet. You do not have to see the entire room, just get a detail or impression.
  • A recent happy moment (with a loved one, or a child). Remember the most vivid sensations and images.
  • Yourself performing an activity such as running, riding a bike, swimming or working out at the gym. Try to feel what it is like for your body to be moving that way.
  • Your favourite music (try to ‘hear’ the music internally).
  • A recent experience with an intense physical sensation (such as plunging into a pool or the ocean, having a steam bath, feeling snow or rain, or making love). Try to relive all of the physical sensations.

In honor of Valentine’s Day tomorrow, I’d like everyone to have fun with me by carrying out a special personal Intention Experiment.
As you know, I always refer to personal manifestation as an ‘experiment’. When trying out your own personal Intention Experiments, I always recommend that you select a goal that has never happened to you but that you would like to have happen. If you choose something that seldom occurs or is particularly unlikely, if it does come to pass it is more likely to be the result of your intention.
For many women, the something that never or almost never happens in their lives is receiving flowers from their partner – even on Valentine’s Day.
So today is a great day for us to share a personal experiment. If your partner never sends you flowers, why not set an intention for him to do so?
And as it's a Leap Year, all you men out there – send an intention to receive flowers (or chocolates) from your partners, too.
At some time convenient time today, Power Up and then send the following intention for 10 minutes. If you can do it at 5 pm GMT, with us, so much the better. Here’s the intention and other time zones around the world:
My intention is for my partner to buy me flowers for Valentine’s Day.
Or. . .
My intention is for my partner to buy me chocolates for Valentine’s Day.
Other Time Zones
12 noon US/Eastern
11 am US/Central
10 am Canada/Mountain
9 am US/Pacific
7 am US/Hawaii
6 pm Western Europe
4 am Saturday Australia/Sydney
Please write in with your results here.
If you always receive flowers or chocolates, set another intention — again, something that never happens. Here are a few suggestions:

  • have your wife or partner sit down and watch a football match with you (if she usually refuses to do so)
  • have your child make his or her bed
  • have the boorish neighbour who never gives you the time of day start a cheery conversation with you
  • get someone who can’t stand you at work to say hello and start up a conversation.

Remember, you should choose one single event to change — something where change can be easily quantified and can probably be attributed to your thoughts.
Share your experiences with us tomorrow by writing in here.
Does this kind of intention work?
We know for certain is that intention has generated success under controlled experimental laboratory conditions, and that they are widely used by athletes and also the peoples of native cultures, who are able to effect extraordinary change in their lives.
What you and I are learning together is how far we can take them in our lives. Your efforts today, in effect, are part of our ongoing experiments.
But two readers wrote in about how their flower intentions were extraordinarily successful.
Jean (not her real name) who lives in England, wrote to say that her husband never gives her flowers anymore. One day they were standing in line at a garden center and as she took in all the beautiful plants surrounding her, she remembered my suggestion.
Right then and there, she sent a silent intention for her husband to bring her flowers. Suddenly he left the line and tore off somewhere. When he returned, he was carrying an enormous blooming geranium plant. ‘I just had this sudden urge to buy you this,’ he said sheepishly. ‘It was like a voice in my head telling me to do this.’
An American I’ll call Sandra complained to me in one of my weekend workshops that her partner, loving though he was in every other way, never gave her flowers. So I suggested that she set an intention for this to happen.
She emailed me later: “You won’t believe it. As soon as I got home, he opened the door with a bouquet of red roses in his hand.’
Don’t forget: write in and tell us what happened with your intention today.

As you know, I write a great deal about training first in your head when carrying out your intentions.
These ideas have been distilled from practices now used in professional sports. Every elite athlete worth his salt routinely practices what’s usually referred to as ‘mental rehearsal’ to enhance his level of performance and consistency.
More than visualization
This technique is often — and incorrectly — considered synonymous with visualization. ‘Visualization’ implies that you observe yourself in the situation, as if watching a mental video featuring yourself or seeing yourself through another pair of eyes.
Mental rehearsal also amounts to far more than ‘happy thoughts’ or positive thinking.
The most successful internal rehearsal involves imagining the sports event from the athlete’s perspective as though he or she is actually competing. It amounts to a mental trial run. The athlete envisages the future in minute detail as it is unfolding. You forecast and rehearse every aspect of the situation, and the steps you should take to overcome any possible setbacks.
Mentally rehearsing the ‘feel’, or kinesthetics, of the performance is vital. Champion rowers are most successful when they can mentally ‘feel’ the blade of the oar, the movements of the strokes, the feeling of being in the boat and even the strain on their muscles.
But how can a mental trial run make your actual performance better?
It has to do with the fact that the brain, which is a remarkable organ is many other regards, is also a little bit dumb when it comes to thought. The brain cannot distinguish between the thought of an action and the action itself. Both produce identical results in the body.
Consider some recent brain research electromyography (EMG). EMG offers a real-time snapshot of the brain’s instructions to the body – when and where it tells it to move – by recording every electrical impulse sent from motor neurons to specific muscles to cause a contraction. In one study of group of skiers wired up to EMG equipment while they were carrying out mental rehearsals, the electrical impulses heading to their muscles were just the same as those they used to make turns and jumps actually skiing the run..
Thought produced the same mental instructions as action.
Scientists propose that mental rehearsal creates the neural patterns necessary for the real thing. The nerves that signal to the muscles along a particular pathway are stimulated and the chemicals that have been produced remain there for a short period. Any future stimulation along the same pathways is made easier by the residual effects of the earlier connections.
We get better at physical tasks because our signalling from intention to action has already been forged.
Think in real time
But to derive the most benefit, it’s important that your mental rehearsals be an utter mental replica of the real thing—at the right speed. In one study, when skiers monitored by electromyography (EMG) imagine their performance in slow motion, an entirely different muscle-response pattern was produced in comparison to when carrying out the skill at normal speed. Indeed, the research shows that a task done in slow motion produces a completely different neuromuscular pattern than when done at normal speed.
In fact, their brain–muscle activity when rehearsing in slow motion was identical to the pattern produced when actually doing the task in slow motion.
Think specifics
It’s also important for you to be highly specific when doing your mental training. We know in sports that mental training will help to facilitate only the athletic event that the athlete is mentally rehearsing. It is not transferable to other sports, even when they involve similar muscle groups.
For instance, in a study of sprinters, with some practicing mentally and others working on cycles to condition the same muscles used in running. After six weeks of training the athletes were asked to perform two tests – to cycle their hardest while their effort was recorded on a cycle ergometer, and then to run a 40-metre sprint. Both activities require much the same motor ability and leg muscles.
But when it came to the sprint, only the groups who had mentally practiced sprinting had significantly improved.
Specific imagery enhanced only the specific task that had been imagined.
Your daily mental workout
Mental run-throughs give your brain circuitry a dry run to be better able to perform the activity on the day. These exercises can also be used to practice doing something you’d like to manifest, as it trains the world mind—The Field—to realize them.
Here are some tips to train your brain:

  • Scout out where activity is to take place. Take photos, make notes and store as many mental impressions as you can. Note specific visual impressions and images, and any taste sensations you have, and record every smell and sound. In particular, note what things feel like. Is it cold or blustery there, or hot and sultry? Feel as many aspects of the place as you can.

  • Get into a state of peak intensity. First do your relaxation and meditation exercises, then begin focusing clearly on the present with all your five senses.

  • Develop a picture of yourself engaged in the activity you are rehearsing. Remember: your mental picture should not be like watching a video of yourself, but be an image of what it feels like to be carrying out the activity.

  • Run through your five senses. Examine your visual senses and what you are doing in vivid colour and detail. Recall the place you’ve already visited and insert yourself there, engaged in the activity. Imagine what the activity feels like.

  • Pay particular attention to your kinesthetic sensibility. What’s in your hands? What are they doing? Are you standing or sitting? How does that feel?

  • Carry out the activity in real time in your head. As you do so, pay attention to your feelings, your thoughts and your five senses.

  • Be specific. Don’t imagine only fragments—run through the entire activity, moment by moment. Keep your senses keenly trained on what every minute feels like.

  • Practice getting out of trouble or any sort of setback. If you’re imagining giving a presentation at work, imagine the computer not working. If you’re playing a winning game of tennis, imagine your opponent getting the edge on you. If you’re trying to manifest a dream such as getting the ideal job, buying a dream house or having a child, imagine encountering difficulty. Then mentally run through how you’re going to deal with it.

  • Set yourself a regular time for your run-through. Keep mentally rehearsing, day after day, until you need to perform.

Why wait any longer when you’ve already been waiting your entire life?

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