Frequently Asked Questions

Question: Everywhere you go you’re likely to encounter someone who is stressed out. Maybe you would even put yourself in that category. News articles and reports in the media often discuss the epidemic of health woes and other problems associated with the pressure of stress. And they all come to the same conclusion: Stress is a major contributor to ill health, physically, emotionally and psychologically. What do these teachings say about dealing with stress?
Answer: There is a genuine solution to the stress problem, but it begins with individual choice. Do you want to continue feeling tense and stressed or do you want to understand what’s really going on?
     We’ve discussed the nature of the False Self from which we presently live many times. It is the cause of every trouble we have. This imposter entity loves to feel more of itself, so it grips onto nervousness, tension and other stressful states more and more tightly to increase its “false feeling of life.” Strangely, this provides both uneasiness and a sense of excitement because it seems as though the unnatural self is being validated.
     But this emotional agitation is not real life. Catch it trying to enter the mind sometime and suddenly let it go, relax from it. Practicing this exercise consistently starts the process of freeing you from the domination of the old nature and strengthening the True Self within. Vernon once said something like, “You can relax yourself all the way to Heaven.”

Question: I have always been attracted to what Vernon says about the True Self.
Answer: It’s everything the false nature is not. It does not operate from negativity but from a oneness with the higher power that created you. It is the real you, not the phony that habitually and mechanically reacts from a bunch of carelessly acquired, conditioned opinions and beliefs. Vernon explained there is nothing more important to investigate and understand than that everyone has both a True Self and a False Self. Our spiritual aim is to weaken the grip of the artificial troublemaker, which attracts suffering like a magnet, and to allow the essence, the true part of us, to come to the fore. These are not just mental constructs, but realities. You can prove their existence for yourself by quietly watching everything that goes on both inside of you and outside of you.

Question: It’s hard for me to believe I’m choosing to suffer.
Answer: The suffering wouldn’t be there if you didn’t consent to it. It is possible to voluntarily wrench yourself away from identification with the pained nature. This will hurt because it’s all we’ve ever known. The average human being cannot live without psychological pain of some sort. It’s the way of the false nature. Stop loving the pain as a way of avoiding spiritual self-responsibility. Vernon made it very clear. We cannot have a new nature while retaining the old one. It is possible to simply view suffering as the unnecessary repetition of habitual thoughts and feelings running through the mind. Nothing is forcing you to stay there. You can stop arming yourself with mechanical anger and distress. You can go beyond the crying point and be nobody claiming nothing. If you create your own life, you’re stuck with it, stuck with the box of “me” demanding and insisting to get my own way. You have a choice. Abandon self-will and submit to the Higher Will. Let go of the thought ropes and you’ll miraculously be lifted outside of yourself.

Question: We are called on to be courageous.
Answer: Courage is proceeding without any courage. If I am in a nightmare — as Vernon Howard explains we are — the greatest of dragons poses no real threat as I expose it as an illusion that my mind fell for. Don’t try to be unafraid but keep going while being afraid. Vernon said to take one small area where you’re afraid to act, maybe to speak up in a certain situation, but to do it anyway. It will feel right and will encourage efforts to go against the fear more often.

Question: Do I really have this all wrong? I’m not in control of my thoughts and emotions, but my false nature is?
Answer: Yes this is true, but almost no one will face it. Human beings are not in command of their thoughts, emotions, behaviors, etc. If you look at the mind in operation, you’ll see how it flits from one mental scene to another, all riding under the level of consciousness. There’s no unifying force in charge there. The thought-self will never stop or even pause of its own accord. Another force must be introduced.
     Right now as you’re reading this, ponder the fact that something opposed to your essential nature is living through you. We suffer terribly from listening to the lie that says this nature is all there is. The true nature does not suffer, so why are we choosing to feel bad? Always remember that Truth never condemns us, it only just invites us to learn and to understand more.

Question: I still feel that some of what Vernon Howard says is negative.
Answer: The false part of us has an unseen desire to remain imprisoned by its own negativity, so it projects its own dark attitudes on to the Truth itself. From this viewpoint we can appreciate Vernon Howard's direction to not think about being happy, but rather think about being free.
     Here was a recent reminder of what we should apply to ourselves from the old Perry Mason TV show, where a frequent occurrence throughout the series is that someone offers to withhold the truth or even lie to “help” an accused friend. In one such episode Perry Mason responds: “Always tell the truth, no matter how much it may appear to be against the accused.”

Question: In these studies, we are often encouraged to study evil. I am not sure that is important or necessary. It seems to me that we see plenty of evil on television, in movies and every day we read and hear news stories of the worst kind of destructive behaviors of people. Isn’t that enough? Shouldn’t we be focusing on good things like love and kindness?
Answer: Good and evil must be studied equally. There must be a balance there. Spiritual work says that you cannot understand one unless you understand the other. In order to know evil, it’s one thing to see it but it’s quite another to know why and how it happens. We can look out and see all kinds of terrible things going on in the outer world, but unless we actually see how much wrongness moves our own psychic system we’ll never change. We can catch someone being hypocritical but it’s another matter entirely to catch ourselves behaving just as hypocritically. That's a real revelation! We can condemn others for being rude, arrogant, mean, dishonest, untruthful, disloyal and so on but what about ourselves? We must be extremely vigilant of what’s going on inside of us. Only by using the flashlight of honest self-examination can we expose the wrongness within us. Spiritual studies help a great deal by bringing more light into the dark places inside, which purifies them. There’s another benefit, as Vernon points out in Esoteric Encyclopedia of Eternal Knowledge, “A true man makes it a point to see what his negative parts do not want to see, which eventually banishes the negative parts. Learn to read yourself.”

Question: Why am I so nervous?
Answer: My grandmother called that the heebie-jeebies, the jitters. Let's see what's going on. First, we're taught “the inner determines the outer.” The cause is originally an invisible one, not its physical manifestation. We have a nervous, out-of-control mind, plagued by chaotic thinking. When the problem is seen clearly, the solution becomes obvious. The answer is to slow down, calm down. Vernon once said [now in A Treasury of Trueness], “You must come to a stop, and remain at a stop.” Putting the brakes on the impetuous mind and body is a shock. But that's always good if we use it rightly. Just be quiet. Persist with this. It allows us to take in what can't be seen with the eyes, the Invisible World. Be aware of the desire to go right back to rushing and fidgeting. The mind and body will resist; they are not accustomed to being reined in. You’ll find there’s instant relief and release in quieting down and coming back to Now.

Question: How can I move more quickly toward real understanding in these studies?
Answer: Our own denial and refusal to see ourselves clearly and objectively is what we need to work on. How many people will admit they harbor ill will toward another person? Will you? Do you want revenge when hurt (which is the message of nearly every other movie and drama)? Do you carry grudges? Vernon said in a talk that our self-deception is “voluntary.” Look at your reactions when your own low behavior is exposed. We do not want to see it, let alone have other people know it. That’s why our New Life classes are a safe haven to learn what we must in order to change. For while they reveal the hidden secrets of human nature and our own wrongness, they also provide the healing facts necessary to keep going forward in our quest. For example, we learn we don’t create the darkness that takes over our mind, and so we can identify the assault and develop the power of choice to refuse it.

Question: The teaching of pure truth is so rare, it almost seems like it’s hidden.
Answer: Though it’s called esoteric knowledge, it’s not really hidden at all. It most definitely is available, but to acquire it there must be a desire in a person to understand the real answers to life beyond the senseless and contradictory rantings of society. People are very reticent to leave the familiar and that is why the pure truth is accepted by very few. Most people prefer to remain where they are, while believing they already know all about life and that they know who they are. They go on blaming the exterior world for their difficulties instead of learning to do the right thing which is to change the inner. This is the cause of all earthly woes, including war, but most will stubbornly and persistently fight anyone who tries to disturb this fantasy life. They will never know what they could have had. We can be different. We can choose to go all the way with this.

Question: I’ve been experiencing bouts of insomnia for a while now and have noticed in conversations that many other people are also waking up in the middle of the night and having trouble going back to sleep or they simply can’t fall asleep at all. What’s the cause of all this?
Answer: Vernon Howard taught the lesson of Keeping it Simple. What goes on in your nighttime mind is simply an extension of what occupies that same mind all day long. Are you afraid you can’t handle a certain situation that unexpectedly comes up? Are you tormented because a friend doesn’t like you anymore? Are you worried about societal chaos? These and thousands of other thoughts and emotions force themselves on us during the day and continue their invasion to cause nightmares and to prevent restful sleep at night.
     When asked to go into an explanation of dreams and nightmares Vernon made it clear. Your mind will be straightened out if you will constantly and carefully practice impartial self-observation during the day. Vernon said you can even make an aim to be aware of what your mind is doing while you’re sleeping! And he said yes, you can know what is going on in your mind even while asleep. And since negativity cannot stand to be seen and studied, it will leave you alone and eventually go away altogether. The result will be calmer days and a good night’s sleep.

Question: I sense I try forcing situations in a certain direction to give me a desired outcome.
Answer: Examine what’s doing the forcing and you’ll see it’s being driven by a transitory desire of the moment. Then be honest in seeing that after the “victory” of getting what you want, you must put your shoulder to the wheel again to force yet another outcome. Society will try to convince you that this is “life.” Go against this lie by becoming aware of a tiredness and feeling of futility in this endless effort to create the result you want. We were born to have a life that flows, like a mountain stream that easily glides over every obstacle in its path as it flows toward its ocean home. Remember that the Law of Natural Living is to flow, not to force.

Question: I’ve been working with these principles for a while now, but am still overtaken by negative feelings and moods, sometimes for an extended period. What more do I need to see?
Answer: First, try to separate from the negative feeling, which you can do. It’s impossible to be completely overtaken by a negative state, and to be aware of it at the same time. So if we’ll choose the awareness of the pain caused by the state itself, it loses its power to harm us.
     Secondly, try to slow down your thoughts enough to see that a painful emotional state is always preceded by a negative thought. The negative thought then invites in its buddy, the negative emotional state.
      And lastly, we recently discussed at our classes in Pagosa Springs a very interesting aspect of this, where Vernon said: “Be indifferent to your feelings.” Some of us found this to be an amazing statement. Why should I consent to be at the mercy of bad feelings? One senses that if this simple instruction is followed, eventually we will see that these negative states are not us, but simply impostors stealing our energy, and our life. We can rise above them.

Question: I don’t understand, Vernon Howard said in a talk that we have no intelligence at all?
Answer: Vernon allowed that we might have the intelligence to cook and repair cars, but at present, we cannot live with the intelligent absence of anxiety, open or hidden. See that what you call your "intelligence" is always focused on something that is temporary and invariably has a false feeling of self-glorification in it. True intelligence is eternal, without egotism, lasting beyond the persistent ruminations of the mind. Being truly wise and perceptive, higher intelligence is able to handle the earthly and the temporary with perfect ease.

Question: I feel like I’ve made progress but then the crisis comes, and I fall apart.
Answer: Just know that there is a lot more self-work to be done. It is very easy to fall into a certain “comfort zone” in these studies, believing that intellectual agreement is the same as feeling and living these truths. And the human intellect can be very flippant, arrogant and deceptive. Believing we know more than we actually know is a big pitfall in this Work. There is always much more to learn, much more to understand. Vernon himself never stopped working. That’s why it’s so important to guard against “settling down” with just the intellectual knowledge. Essence must be ignited, and the spirit must enter into it.

Question: Tell me again what New Life is all about.
Answer: Another way of life exists without problems or pain. It contains no heartache or regret and is free of pretense, emotional torment and financial struggle. Isn’t that what your heart really wants? You’ll find it here.

Question: How in the world can it be that human beings love their psychological pain, that I love my misery? Why does everyone want to feel bad?
Answer: Tormenting thoughts are allowed and even welcomed into an undeveloped mind. How strange that people are so in love with the familiarity of dark and gloomy thoughts that they cling to them with everything they have. It is fantastic but there does exist a low-level force operating in the recesses of the mind that is working overtime to keep the pain going. Hypnotized by this false feeling of life, humans actually fight Truth when it says to just walk away. If you are a sincere student of these teachings, you have been called to “come out from among them.” It takes genuine courage to face the fact that it is my love of and dependence on the lower that is preventing my ascent to the higher. In his book There is a Way Out, Vernon puts it this way, “It is cosmic law that you cannot retain anything you cease to love.” Stop loving the pain and it will depart.

Question: As I go through my day I seem to be very tense and on-edge, even when no crisis is looming.
Answer: Relaxation is actually painful to the average human being. To relax and to let go of the problem is viewed by the unnatural personality as an enemy state. We are perpetual motion machines, if not physically then certainly in our thought lives. Vernon Howard often said things like “Be real honest now — what do you really love? Do you love peace and quiet or do you love your noisy mind and your dramatic feelings?” The artificial nature urges us to never stop, to keep going the way we have been for all these years. Go against that bad advice by relaxing right now as you are reading these lines. One of the astonishing things you’ll see is that when letting go is welcomed by the small seed of rightness within, tension has nowhere to go.

Question: What in the world is going on with this planet? Awful events, endless wars, economic depressions, fear, confusion, insane solutions from obvious idiots. I want to know what’s really going on and what I should do!
Answer: Most people are afraid to even bring this question up to consciousness for fear that there is no answer. But if we are ever to make it out, we’ll have to honestly ask ourselves “What in the world is going on?” And what is going on is that there really is a destructive force, which wants to ruin every individual’s chance to reach the higher. Don’t fall for it when you’re urged to take the path of least resistance, to just go along with crowd thinking, like believing the falsehood that things in this world are actually getting better. Don’t listen when it insists that you will be safer staying in the confinement of your mental prison than to begin to ‘Question Everything’.
     This force operates in this world through human beings. Have you ever been excited about a spiritual principle you’ve learned about in these teachings and have tried to relay the excitement of that new insight to someone else? For example, the dawning of awareness of how easily we fall into negativity. And you’ve been met either with the assurance that they live with no negativity or that any exploration of our own confusion and torment would be too scary? You need not be affected or discouraged by others’ lack of interest because you can make the vow right now to go all the way in spite of everything.
     Simply know that we must stop fighting the world and stop trying to save it. We need only leave it, psychologically, spiritually in order to rise to a higher level that is a million miles above this warring world. Really understand what runs this planet and the confusion and torment will end. God has not left us here without an escape route. Understanding the truth protects us from all worldly chaos and evil because “When you understand you do not fear.”

Question: I can’t help but think that all of the mistakes I‘ve made over the years, especially when I was younger, are going to disqualify me from finding the New Life you talk about.
Answer: Stop identifying with your mistakes. In reality, there is absolutely nothing that glues the present you to who you were at 18 when you made that stupid blunder. What you did back then has no power to block your wish for genuine understanding now. This is important now — you don’t pretend that incident didn’t happen. You don’t repress the memory of it. You don’t yell at the memory to go away. You remember the incident with clarity but withdraw the idea of ‘self’ that you’ve attached to it. It is perfectly possible to do this. But right now, these excursions into the past seem to provide a ‘secure’ anchor to who you think you are.  Only something higher than your memories can show you how to rightly refuse their intrusion into your mind.

Question: I was recently faced with a very difficult situation. Harsh thoughts, questions and bad feelings were tormenting me and just wouldn’t stop coming. My thoughts and feelings were out of control. But then I remembered the spiritual directive, “Dare to not think about it.” Even though I was still struggling, I made repeated attempts to say ‘NO’ to the crazy thoughts and internal chaos. What happened astounded me. The weight of the pain disappeared and I was able to handle the problem in a calm and mature way. Everything turned out just fine but most importantly, I learned that these principles do just what they say they’ll do — they work!
Answer: This is exactly what applying this Work in our daily experiences means. Where else do we really live but within our own inner thoughts and feelings? There is nothing more important for personal growth than to rightly apply these very high principles rather than just talking or thinking about them. There’s a famous Vernon Howard story about a character he named Cabbagehead Q. Dummo. Cabbagehead went out and bought cans of paint for his barn over and over again. He just kept buying and storing the paint but never painted the barn. In other words, he never applied the special mixture that could have taken his barn building from an unsightly mess to a completely new structure. It’s precisely that way with the genuine spiritual life; this Work is made to be applied and used so that the day comes when the torment is taken out of every challenge, every situation. You don’t have to hold back from working with these ideas because of laziness or for fear of failure. Yes, it’s hard work but the reward is a free mind and a brand new life.

Question: Please go over again exactly what these teachings will do for me.
Answer: The Vernon Howard principles available in all of his materials and taught in the New Life classes will allow you to extract the meaning of life from the most unlikely situations. You can actually understand why life is the way it is and you can learn how to flow peacefully and richly through it. For example, a simple trip to the Post Office to mail a package will be an entirely new learning experience. When you see the long line you have to wait in, you actually notice your irritation, whereas before you were completely overtaken by it. You are aware of other bored and impatient people around you but by being conscious of these states within yourself as well, you can choose not to behave like them. When you finally reach the window and realize you left your wallet in the car, you become fully aware when you got out of the car and hurried into the building, you were “asleep” when you could have and should have been awake. Finally, when the clerk tells you it’s okay to go get your wallet and come back without waiting in line again, you get the full experience of seeing how much what we call the ups and downs of life are really caused by our own life level. We see how much we have a part in why things happen as they do. It is you and I, not “them” or those events that ruined the day. And how does this help us to understand the meaning of life? By becoming aware of my responsibility for my own life, I take command of it. And the roller coaster existence of highs and lows is gradually replaced with a “peace that passeth understanding.” Where there was once agitation, confusion and pain, there is now an inner calmness that transcends the human intellect.

Question: I’m not sure I’m a person who can be honest, really honest with myself. Maybe I’m just not capable.
Answer: Vernon Howard used to say, “Is anything too much for God?” It is extremely good and helpful to recognize that right now you may not be able to tell the truth. Ask for help. Say “God show me what I’m really like and then teach me that I’m not that either.”

Question: Why has my nature not changed? Or to put it another way, why is my level still so low and my behavior so childish?
Answer: You need to reach the point in your studies where being told the truth about yourself is a pleasure, not an upsetting or unwanted experience. Truth can never force itself upon you, but is always right there with the explanation when you are ready to enter into mental silence.

Question: The other day I saw a thought flash through my mind that was completely contradictory to my usual attitude about a particular subject. I never thought I would say this but I got excited to see proof of the contradictory mind-machine in action!
Answer: All of these small steps will one day lead out of the human jungle into spiritual sunshine. Can you see how this kind of enthusiasm provides the energy for more and more liberating discoveries? It is supremely positive to know that we now dwell in the cellar because only this kind of an honest and forthright admission will motivate us to make the “great escape.”

Question: In society it does seem as though things are deliberately being made ambiguous and obscure which results in producing even more agitation, confusion and fear.
Answer: That’s a good insight. One way we’re kept slaves of our negative reactions to everything is to be so dazed and overwhelmed by what is going on that we just stay stuck in a whirlpool of base thoughts and emotions. A person tied up in psychic knots cannot decide which way to go. But the incredible news is that any destructive state can be conquered.

Question: What is wrong with this society?
Answer: It focuses on the shallow and trivial, not on the vital and the necessary. What is more important than recovering your essence, your soul?

Question: Recently, my neighbor and I had a strong disagreement. The experience upset me, and I became aware that I subsequently wanted to avoid him. I knew this feeling was not coming from a position of inner strength but was based in hostility and fear.
Answer: Depending upon the circumstances, wisdom can reside in either approaching or cutting off contact with the neighbor, but the crucial point is the strength of your wish to be free from your own cringing reaction to the encounter. How much do you really want to stop vibrating to your own loss of control and to someone else’s negative atmosphere?

Question: I have noticed that no one out there is very willing to be accountable for their own actions anymore. Whatever happens is always someone else’s fault.
Answer: There are millions who take this attitude and you can see the societal chaos that is the result. The evidence is all around us that not obeying this fundamental life principle leads to unhappiness. But happily, students of these teachings can know that our spirits were made “to develop into vigorous independence,” as Vernon once put it. And that in part means following the law of self-responsibility all the way to release, relief and contentment.

Question: Wow, I’ve just had a revelation of how much resistance I have to what this work is telling me!
Answer: The importance of receptivity cannot be overestimated. It must suddenly strike us that to welcome learning about the cunning tricks and interference of the belligerent, hostile nature is what frees us from it. It was once asked what our effort in this work must be and Vernon said your entire effort to wake up is receptivity to what you are hearing.

Question: What is a blockage I have that I’m not even aware of?
Answer: Here’s something to be aware of and to work with in our daily studies. As hard as it is to fathom, we secretly and unconsciously believe our current way is the only way possible. We have moments of true encouragement with the sighting of another way, thanks to these marvelous teachings, but the old mind always wants to return to its habitual prison cell. Vernon Howard said we should use what we see out in the world to remind us of these spiritual facts — in this case, a striking though unfamiliar way to handle things.
     Recently, I experienced an example of a different way. I had to move an old refrigerator out of the way to make room for a new one. Two of us lowered the refrigerator down some steps, with a hand truck bearing almost all the weight, but still a decided exertion was needed to get it down the steps. Two delivery men moved the new refrigerator in working with an entirely different method, using something called forearm forklift straps. It was truly amazing to watch; they carried the entire weight of the refrigerator up steps with seeming ease. You would not suspect something could be so easy, and yet that is what Vernon Howard repeatedly tells us about the spiritual life — if we are not there, everything is easy!

Question: Recently, I had a sudden revelation of how much resistance I have to what Vernon is telling me!
Answer: The resistance is much deeper and more pervasive than we have any awareness of. Recall a time when you wanted something, and you were absolutely obsessed with getting it. Nothing was going to get in your way. That’s the kind of force the false nature will exert when we begin to challenge its control. It’s a mistake to underestimate the intent of the artificial self to stop you from reaching for the higher. It’s also a mistake to underestimate the power of Truth to completely take away this destructive forcefulness and replace it with a free and flowing life.

Question: Society’s chaos and disorder frighten me. Shouldn’t we all band together to bring some sense to this warring world?
Answer: Saving the world and helping other people is one of the biggest hoaxes ever perpetrated on unsuspecting mankind. It took an awakened and highly evolved human being, Vernon Howard, to expose this gigantic falsehood to deluded humanity. Darkness knows it can tempt almost all lost souls who are searching for a way out to take this detour because: 1) it provides an easy escape from seeing our own wrong nature and 2) we then forget our real purpose in life — to find the way back home. Banding together with other lost people always places us in a dangerous position, for the masses are mad and can never think correctly and logically. They tempt you to take sides, to adopt a viewpoint and to fight an enemy. Of course, you are now “right” and they are “wrong”. You have found an identity as a “good” person and they are labeled as the “bad” people. As Vernon said (on MP3 CD, Volume 8, Talk 11), “You’re depending on enemy forces for you to feel angelic.” You’ve lost yourself in a cause, added yet another identity to the shaky false self and are farther than ever away from finding your true and real self. Don’t go there! Don’t go with them. Walk away and start heading toward home.

Question: I feel I already know who I am. I have a lot of activities and a lot of friends and family that provide me with security. Oh, of course there are moments of doubt and unhappiness but  that’s just part of life, isn’t it? I don’t understand. Why should I study myself?
Answer: When taken all the way, sincere and intense self-study will provide you with the life you really yearn for. But most people prefer to remain where they are, believing they already know and that they know who they are. This is one of the most solid defenses of the Old Nature. It is imperative to see that a mere idea about life is not real life. How in the world can we learn anything new when we’re clinging to the false premise that we already know? What is really fascinating is that there is a part deep inside that senses it does not know. It feels the emptiness in all of the activities and distractions and it is definitely aware that nothing in this world has ever brought permanent contentment and peacefulness to daily life. You’re not running toward senseless distractions; you’re running away from the emptiness you sense and from the fear that nothing else exists. Something Else does exist. Try very hard to be silent and to receive its message.

Question: Other people at work seem to be getting promoted faster than I am. I’m beginning to feel left behind. Can these teachings help me to advance more quickly in my job?
Answer: Lots of people in the workplace struggle to understand why things happen as they do in their vocation. It seems that those who work the hardest are often rewarded the least. Inexperienced people with seemingly little knowledge are put in charge and given a fancy title. Personal integrity doesn’t seem to count for anything anymore. But listen to this. With these teachings, you are actually being given a pair of X-ray glasses with which to see the real motives of people, including your own! It’s fine to do the best job you can but it’s a huge trap to connect success in your occupation with your inner worth.
     Vernon Howard makes it clear that there is really only one true definition of success and that is simply the attainment of genuine personal happiness. This is an authentic state not dependent on an object or a person or a societal reward, but a happiness that flows from the inside out. If you’re sincerely working with these ideas, your whole focus will change. For one thing, you’ll catch your mistakes before they happen. You’ll no longer be caught up as fiercely as you once were in jealously and “people-pleasing.” Work will take on a new richness because you’re in tune with using your skills to the fullest. Your reward is not a pat on the back from someone else but the new understanding that resides within you. Interactions with other people will become more pleasant and phony behavior will be replaced with genuine communication. Because of expanding awareness, the work that you used to call drudgery now becomes a tool for learning something new about yourself, about others and  about life. At the end of the day, you come away with a real sense of satisfaction and you feel richer, not poorer.

Question: Why do I suffer?
Answer: I suffer because I don’t really understand myself. I suffer because I live from ideas about myself that clash with ideas others have about me. I suffer because I live from illusions about life that crash into reality. I suffer because I live from a false nature that suffers. I suffer because I want my way, but with everyone else wanting his or her way, who can win? I just do spiritually stupid things, like living from a hostile nature, which can only result in self-suffering. Thank God I came in contact with something higher than the suffering. Vernon Howard explained that suffering is stupid and doesn’t have to be endured one minute longer. The sufferer must declare independence from the suffering nature and then, where is the problem?

Question: How can I face reality and not run away and hide?
Answer: Come back to NOW. Don’t think about yourself. Now you’re safe — with nothing to run away from.

Question: When I ask God for help, it doesn’t seem to come. What’s wrong?
Answer: We’ve been told if we are sincere, if we really want higher help, it will come. Also we’ve been told that people are often not really praying to God but only to themselves or to something very base and low. (See the “Prayer Mountain” story in Solved — The Mystery of Life, for example.) So first always watch and question your prayers: What is my  state? What am I saying? What are my real motives? For years we’ll  observe wrongness, yet it is right to keep watching and asking, to “cry out for help” (see A Treasury of Trueness, #2303). Daily, minutely, ask what is God’s will instead of my own. Of course the false self only wants its own way, but seeing that consciously will weaken and change the state to a right request for trueness and innocence. God is helping us in ways we don’t yet see. We will gradually be able to see more as we become free of the bondage of self.

Question: We’ve been told to go out into the world and to use our daily experiences to observe the folly of human nature. One thing I observe all around me is that a lot of people seem to be just going through the motions. They’re very active but when you look at their faces and observe their states of mind, they seem to be bitter toward life.
Answer: These teachings say that futility is doing something without knowing why you’re doing it. People go through their whole lives doing things, pursuing things, without really understanding why they’re doing them.  They have their money, their friends, their businesses, their families, but they do not operate from an independent spirit, they do not own their own lives. And rather than look for the real cause of unhappiness, they become bitter and hardened when life fails them.
     In reality, the underlying cause of all discontentment can be tracked back to this feeling of futility. At the core, underneath all of the rushing around, there is a voice saying “What’s really the use of all this?” There is a sensing of missing the point of life but unfortunately it’s often accompanied by a pervasive, almost paralyzing fear that lasting relief is not attainable. But Truth assures us that we haven’t been left here alone with no answer, with no way to escape this fierce, mauling world. The solution comes with knowing this feeling of futility is with us constantly, but that we must not try to fill the emptiness ourselves. Everything comes back to wanting authentic fulfillment. You see, when  you’re on the spiritual path laid out by these teachings, there is always true purpose. There are no nagging doubts about whether what you’re doing is right, if what you’re doing is good for you. You will  feel the fulfillment and you will know that God can lead you all the way out.

Question: We often see the ‘attack’ or challenge as coming from outside of ourselves. But in reality, it’s frequently coming from our own mind. Right?
Answer: Yes, right. One student recently told this story in a New Life class. She drove a long distance one day to attend an exercise class but when she got there, found out it had been canceled. At this point a choice presented itself — either fall into disappointment and annoyance or try to be fully present in the moment and enjoy the drive back through the beautiful countryside. She chose the latter and stated, “It was so nice not to be attacked,” that is, it was a huge relief not to be attacked by the harping mind which would have complained about the time wasted, about the gas money spent, about not getting the anticipated exercise, etc. Remember that phrase “It’s so nice not to be attacked” the next time something negative wants to act in your name, the next time the impostor inside of you demands that it has the right to tell you how to feel.

Question: Why do you say you must follow this teaching by Vernon Howard in order to wake up spiritually? I already know another spiritual teacher.
Answer: Sooner or later you must decide for yourself whether that person really lives what he teaches or is just another one of the many examples of "the blind leading the blind and both fall into the ditch." Wrongness is not going to announce itself as wrongness. False teachers are very clever at leading us astray and will often even include a few truths in with the “weed seeds,” so question everything. Here is a general principle to follow when evaluating any teacher or teaching: the teacher or teaching must challenge you to see what is wrong first. It will never work if you first try to focus on your own “goodness.” Only when self-work is put in this sequence will the right eventually be revealed to you.

Question: More and more often I seem to be overwhelmed by fearful states like anxiety and dread. I know they’re interfering with my ability to handle what comes my way in life but how do I conquer them?
Answer: To quote Vernon, “Fear can be conquered but you must rise up against it with tremendous emotion, then settle down to study and understand the entire process of fear.” (Secrets for Higher Success,
page 213). Studying the entire process means to study ourselves. God did not intend for fear to dominate our mental and emotional lives but in our panic to feel better, we forget all about God. The honest truth is that we are not alone here. A Higher Power is with us every step of the way if we will yield our will to it. And these teachings provide us with endless resources to understand what that means. It’s very inspiring to remember the following statement that Vernon once made in class: “God fears nothing!”

Question: Something in me senses the importance of the idea that men and women are occupied by two selves, a False Self and a True Self, but I can’t quite grasp its full meaning.
Answer: Know that this is much more than a just a compelling idea, it’s a reality. The False Self, which embodies personal egotism, is the creator of every single problem, every trouble we have. Convinced that it is emperor of the universe whose every demand should be met, it cannot see anything outside of itself. It can’t be reformed but can be dissolved. And thank heavens, there is also a True Self within that is meant to replace the illusory nature. Right now, it’s covered over but can be uncovered with right work. A fuller understanding will enter when you know from yourself that the presence of these conflicting selves is not just a convenient or expedient concept for the mind to latch on to. The replacement of the false nature by the true nature is our actual destiny.

Question: Who was Vernon Howard?
Answer: He was a man who lived untouched by the world. He taught that there is another way to live and that we, too, can learn to live untouched by all of the lunacy around us. He was invisible psychologically, no longer affected by any type of negativity. And though his body lived here, he resided in a happy place above this world.
     Vernon explained that we grew up in an environment from which we absorbed many things that were harmful to us without being aware of it. For example, people around us would get angry when we broke a dish or spilled the milk. They often got angry and soon we began to unconsciously imitate them. They got sad and cried whenever they didn’t get something they wanted and got worried and depressed about the future. And if they lost a job or some money, they felt really bad. “So, it’s a sad, lost, desperate world because we don’t know any other way to behave,” Vernon explained.
     He also told us that there’s a solution and gave us bright new answers to old, tired problems. These answers can heal us if we will apply them to our lives. These miraculous teachings show us how to uncover the blockages and get rid of secret heartaches we don’t tell anyone about. We can learn to put ourselves in harmony with spiritual, cosmic laws and live where pain and suffering are impossible to experience.
     Yes, we can learn to live untouched by this world too. It can be done.

Question: I am upset by a huge house being built on a lot just outside our living room windows that blocks our view. Help me to work on my negativity regarding that situation.
Answer: Remember this exercise from Vernon and say it to your wrong reactions, whatever they are, “That has nothing to do with my search for the light!” This statement attracts higher essence that will demolish all brick walls you run into.

Question: What is a cure for procrastination?
Answer: The cure, as with all negativity, is to consciously see and feel the pain of it. Procrastination never brings the sought-after relief, only an underground dissatisfaction, a haunting pressure. It is one of the alluring siren songs that make promises but never delivers the goods. Most of the physical things we put off, we’ll have to do later anyway (hang up the clothes, mop the floor). Not only is it impractical to delay necessary tasks, but it is also closely tied to spiritual delay. We can only embrace the higher calling by acting now, in the present moment. So any delay is living, or rather non-living, in the past or future. The mistake is time-thinking, which hinders and stops forward movement. Our wrong thinking is what creates the limitation.
     Recently in classes students have alluded to a bad mental habit of thinking, “I worked hard yesterday so today I’ll kick back. I deserve a break.” We may need to rest after hard physical work, but spiritual work is ongoing, never “finished.” The loss of momentum is not an innocent snooze but a deadly relapse, going downhill and losing the ground gained. Is there any doubt that the mind is our enemy? Don’t listen to it! “Do it now! Get it done! Bang, bang, bang!” Vernon said we have powers we’re not yet aware of. And we do get glimpses of this when we push beyond our self-erected barriers and receive new energy.

Question: Vernon Howard’s books and audio recordings have been very, very helpful to me. I thought my friends would find them useful too, but they have no interest at all whenever I talk about them. In fact, it seems as though they would rather I not bring the subject up. Why aren’t they as interested as I am?
Answer: It is said in these teachings that Truth is the only real friend you’ll ever have so consider yourself very fortunate! Truth continuously calls everyone but only a few can hear. Just about everyone’s peace and quiet is drowned out by the loud noise of society making its silly and dangerous demands, not to mention our own inner voices that add to the cacophony. Vernon Howard once said, ‘Truth is the most unpopular product on earth’ but of course what is right and what is godly is the only true liberator. People say they yearn to be free but almost everybody would rather stay shackled to their fear and their suffering. It’s their idea of security and they don’t want to give it up. They don’t want to learn about the keys that could open the prison door and teach them how to live a happy life with real meaning. Keep walking your own path and don’t worry about doing it alone. Ultimately, you will learn a great deal about your friends and you’ll be thankful for the insights. There is great significance to the saying “And the truth shall set you free.”

Question: Give me something I really need to know.
Answer: If you were to find out who you really are, you could be right in the middle of this cruel world and it would not be able to touch you at all.

Question:  I make a spiritual aim and then almost immediately forget it.
Answer: Suppose you make an aim to get up early to study your spiritual lessons. You set the alarm for 5:30 am with every intention of getting up and doing something right for yourself. But when the alarm goes off  at that early morning hour, you don’t get up but turn over and go back to sleep, forgetting the aim entirely. Why? Because the person who made the aim and the one who turned the alarm off are not the same person. The truth is that any unawakened man or woman lives from a very fragmented, scattered, contradictory and changeable nature.
     One of the hallmarks of genuine spiritual work is to begin to observe our own internal life. Even a small bit of work in this area can lead to the shocking realization that we are being pushed this way and pulled that way by internal forces beyond our command. Living in this way tears us up inside. This insight should not be frightening, it should be immensely encouraging and freeing because at last we’re becoming acquainted with the enemy.

Question: How do I keep a spiritual aim?
Answer: To keep a spiritual aim, a super effort is required. Have you ever been at a sports arena after the game is over? People are pouring out of the exits, carelessly jostling others and pushing everyone else aside in their mad rush to get out. The spiritual parallel here is that if you want a different kind of a life, you can’t join the crowd but must deliberately and consciously walk against that tidal wave of humanity to reach safety. You must go against everything familiar to reach the other side. Make an intense effort to become aware of yourself at each moment and the needed help will come. Directing your energy in this way strengthens spiritual memory, which in and of itself can begin the process of uniting all the disparate parts of us. Instead of living from inner chaos, the whole nature can then begin to feel and understand events as they come to us.

Question: Sometimes I catch an imp in me that is shockingly resentful and hostile toward these ideas. Why do I block out and push away what could help me?
Answer: It is absolutely necessary to be aware that what has always had us in its grip will not easily let go. The impostor is very reluctant, resistant and yes, very hostile toward what is trying to shake us awake. Wrongness is extremely clever in making seekers believe that what is good is bad and what is bad is good. Is it bad for a prisoner to wish to escape his or her chains? Just know that your authentic wish to understand is stronger than all the opposing voices and forces in the world.

Question: What can be done to straighten out my mind? I want to be happy and free of suffering and problems but who can I trust to really help me?
Answer: These teachings say, “Follow only Truth.” The dawning light within a sincere student is perfectly capable of discerning the pure truth from an artificial version based on the personal interpretation of some  so-called expert or teacher. Pure truth will never try to appeal with  flattery nor will it ever compromise with human nonsense. For example, a real teaching will not mix in strategies of how to succeed in business or how to ‘get rich quick’ because these matters are not at the heart of true transformation.
     As much as you’ll allow it, these teachings will get very personal with you. We’ve been fooled and hurt so much by following false paths we carelessly assume that Truth is out to hurt us or cheat us or take something ‘important’ away from us. But in reality it can offer the ultimate help precisely because it is not of this world, it is not like we are.
     We can be very grateful for Truth’s clarity, directness and bluntness in exposing our actual position here on earth. We can also be very grateful for its flexibility as when it provides spontaneous lightness and humor to help us get rid of our stuffy, self-righteous images of being wise and profound. In essence, the spiritual path cuts straight through the jungle of sick human nature and avoidance of the path is avoidance of the Supreme Reason for being on earth.

Question: What is an example of an unseen enemy?
Answer: Well there are so many, like vanity, fear, hostility and pretense, even sadness which we take as us. Or how about insisting on winning the argument, which ends up ruining your relationships with the people in your life? You may not even know you always have to have the last word and insist you are always right and the other person is wrong. We see it in others but not in ourselves. Isn’t that really the cause of all divorces? This is sleep. This is being possessed by an unseen enemy we take as our friend. That is why it is always stressed to turn our attention inward and ask ourselves what is going on in there.

Question: Some people believe that because Vernon is not with us, they don’t need this teaching anymore, or that maybe another teacher will do it.
Answer: I quote, “Happiness is always and only the Spirit of Truth coursing through us.”  What are the chances of finding that out there in this wicked world? For example, we need to be constantly reminded to break the mechanical flow of thought and come awake so something higher can reach us. But how many people can remember to do it on their own? The sleep state is too deep. Once you have found a True teaching hold on tight.
     There are many traps along the path. Vernon once gave a great story about this. Briefly, he said, people heard about the great treasures (spiritual wealth) somewhere beyond the mountains and so began the journey. But one by one, because the journey was long and hard, they came back. They lied and said they found the treasure and began to tell others how to find it.
     The world is filled with those who start the spiritual path but before finding the treasure, begin to deceive themselves and others in saying they know the way. Maybe a few of them even heard Vernon Howard at one time. Vernon once said, “New Life is like a café, which prints at the bottom of the menu “No substitutions allowed.”

Question: These teachings state that we can become free. It seems to me that I’m already free. What do you mean?
Answer: Are you free from psychological suffering? Are you free from anger, jealousy, anxiety and other negative states? Do you go about your day happy, knowing that God is truly in charge of this life that you’re living? Or do you feel a haunting and compelling need to protect the things in your life from being taken away from you — like money, people, power, possessions? Is that freedom? We must earnestly ask, “Who is this person that these things can be taken away from?” Any description of this person is not a description of your True Self — your Kingdom of Heaven within. There are no words to accurately describe the True Self — it is something that must be lived by you. As Vernon Howard wrote in There Is a Way Out, page 104:
          “Describe to me the nature of this new life.”
          “Describe to me the taste of a peach.”
     Freedom is like that. You must taste it for yourself. You must see what it is not and it is not worrying about a past or future event. It is lived in the present moment, consciously.

Question: What does it mean when you say to think from Truth about life, not from life about Truth?
Answer: Thinking from life about Truth leads to distorted viewpoints, for example, treating Truth studies as one compartment of life, separate from work life, family life, social life, sports life, etc. This separation blocks the understanding that the one and only purpose of life here on earth is to completely abandon the old nature so that an entirely new nature can be born within us. In other words, everything in this life must be put into the service of the higher. Right now, we suffer from a divided mind and spirit. If Truth is the supreme force that can heal any wound, any heartache, which it is, thinking from Truth about life will bring together all of our disconnected parts into one unified whole and that is what the heart is really yearning for.

Question: Why study Vernon Howard’s teachings?
Answer: The reason to study the teachings of Vernon Howard is that they really work. They open the gateway to the higher understanding of everything we experience and will provide a new calmness and command in daily life. You will find them unlike any other teachings … but don’t take our word for it. You must keep in mind an unusual request that we’re often reminded of in New Life classes: “You don’t have to believe anything you hear or read. The proof that these principles can transform your nature is in the experiencing of them.” Only then will you really be on your way to encountering something authentic, lasting and ultimately, very satisfying.

Question: Please summarize the basis of what Vernon Howard teaches.
Answer: Vernon once said if there was one phrase he would put in huge letters on the side of the New Life building it was “SOMETHING ELSE.” He wanted to shout it from the rooftops. There is something else besides the overwhelming obstacles and circumstances we face in this wobbly and scary world. There truly is another way to go through life and to live in complete spiritual safety and protection. But this higher life isn’t made up of trying to feel secure by getting money, relationships, power or anything else from outer circumstances. Genuine knowing and happiness is discovered in the inner world. Within us there is a center that is not part of this world at all. It stands free and untroubled in the midst of all the craziness.

Question: It seems I only pray when I either want something to happen or when I want something to stop happening.
Answer: A lot of what is called prayer has its base in prideful wishes that always include subtle elements of self-enhancement and self-glorification. This type of prayer is a request for what the “I” wants, for example, someone praying for material wealth or worldly attention or praise. God does not hear this type of prayer.

Question: Then when does God hear my prayers?
Answer: Revelations often come to us by recognizing what does not work. You must study the manifestations of wrong prayer before real prayer can come into the picture. To ask for help purely means many things. It means that the appeal doesn’t come from an image of being pious or religious or spiritual or from a desperate wish that circumstances were different. Most of all though, it means you know in a deeper sense that nothing you have relied on has worked and that you can no longer continue to try to do it for yourself. Something has to be invited into your inner life that is separate from the horizontal level of thought. You can extend this invitation any time, any place. The realization must come that help from a higher source can’t be provided by colliding and confused thoughts. See, it truly always comes back to knowing all about your human nature and when that has been replaced by what Vernon calls the ‘star self,’ your higher life itself will be the perfect prayer.

Question: I have a friend who says he read a book written by a woman who has had “visions” about a future Heaven. The book describes what a great place it’s going to be and sounds very appealing. Wealth for everyone, pleasant surroundings and relations, etc. How do New Life teachings view this subject?
Answer: There’s a right part of us that sees the condition of the world we live in today. It’s a very restless, confused, hostile, insecure, and unsettled place. That same right part also senses the existence of something much better that surely can be individually attained and can be ours. Well, it’s true. There really is a Heaven and it’s ready and available for us right here, right now. However, Vernon Howard warned us about "various roadblocks along the esoteric highway,” one of which is false hope in the future. He clarifies by saying, “Beware of those who urge you to sacrifice today for some misty heaven tomorrow. It will never come. The right time to wake up is right now."

Question: The world grows crazier all the time and seems too much for the mind to handle
Answer: Our false thought-self has a secret sinister wish to be overwhelmed. It wants to shake and vibrate by madly zigzagging back and forth among “the growing list of problems and issues it has to deal with.” The True Self we are learning to invite in by relaxing can direct the mind to handle matters that practically need to be dealt with and without ego involvement. We have a spiritual sentry inside that Vernon Howard said can watch for dark forces trying to make us think about ourselves instead of rightly thinking above ourselves.

Question: I’ll have a higher insight that I know does not come from my mind but then I’ll fall back into depression. What’s going on?
Answer: What you’ll encounter when truly working on yourself with these principles is that a period of light will be followed by a period of darkness. It was once explained that when you start out, the periods of darkness last for a long, long time with relieving insights coming at short intervals. The further you go, however, the longer the stretches of light become and the shorter the periods of darkness until you are living 100% in the light. The key is to persist during the periods of darkness. Do not give up. Do not give in to the feeling of being overwhelmed and helpless. God wants you to succeed. But the reward will come on Truth’s terms, not on our terms. The light comes because we’ve gone through the wrenching process of giving up what we call ourselves. Spiritual success hinges on the willingness to leave the old nature behind without knowing what will replace it. If we’ll do this, the empty space will be filled with Truth’s light.

Question: Why do these teachings continually emphasize being aware and awake and staying in the present moment?
Answer: “Instead of falling asleep and becoming more of yourself, stay awake!” This is the way out of all problems because what we call ourselves is the problem maker. Staying awake where higher help can reach us is what our hearts really want.

Question: What does it mean to be saved?
Answer: Can you see that there is something wrong with the world and with your life in particular? Honesty and self-study will reveal that a sinister force within is lying to you day and night. Its purpose is to hurt you and to prevent you from rising above yourself. This force does not want even one human being to escape. One of its lies is to place the blame outside — to point the finger at other people and events for the choices we ourselves have made. To live an authentically free and happy life, to make it out, to be saved, we must take full responsibility for our thoughts, feelings and actions. We cannot blame anyone for anything but must come to the freeing realization that the inner determines the outer. The inner state is like a magnet that attracts people and events to itself. Work to release negativity and to raise the level of your state with these workable principles and all will be different. For example, do we need fear or anxiety or anger? NO, of course not! But we must face the fact that if we suffer from these painful and destructive emotions, we’re somehow inviting them into our psychological home. We’ve been hoaxed into believing they are our friends. To be saved means to boot out all of the nonsense so that it can be replaced by genuine celestial guidance. While this is bad news for the artificial nature that’s controlled us for so long, it’s wonderful news for who we really are.

Question: My friends say I don’t need this. They say what I need to do is to believe in Jesus because the bible says we have to believe to be saved.
Answer: Haven’t you met a lot of people who say that but who are still secretly sad and hostile? Notice people, people of all ages, when you go out into the world. Notice the facial expression of those elderly people as you pass them in the grocery store. Do they look relaxed and happy or do they look defeated? Just believing is self-deception and is an excuse for not doing the hard work required to wake up, which is what Christ really taught. Did he not say “Awake, awake, thou that sleepest?”
     Nothing that is worthwhile is ever going to be attained without work.  We understand this in relation to our efforts in daily life — on the worldly level — but why do we think that merely saying we ‘believe’ is going to result in spiritual awakening? In this work, we’re told to not believe anything but to prove the validity and viability of everything we’re learning here for ourselves. Truth offers us ample encouragement. For example, when trying to be aware of what’s going on both inside and outside of you, have you personally felt a sense of true power in awareness? Awareness and thought are very different states. Thought is circular and repetitive; awareness is alive and vibrant. As Vernon once said, “Why believe when you can know?”

Question: Sometimes these teachings seem to be too tough on us.
Answer: It is the false self, the egotistical self, which is insulted by these spiritual facts. Who we are in reality is someone else entirely, someone who is not afraid of anything in this whole world. Although undeveloped at present, there is an authentic part of us that loves hearing the truth and responds with delight. This is the part Vernon is trying to reach but because our resistance is so great, shocks must be given to awaken it. Though people search the world over, happiness can never be found without discovering and living from the true self within. It is an illusion that any success in this world can make us content. All of us have known people who, when they reached the height of success, became exceedingly depressed because the promised reward turned out to be an empty package. Still, this teaching will never be popular with the masses; in fact, the truer the teaching, the fewer the students.

Question: I am beginning to sense the shallowness of the so-called rewards of this world, but still feel compelled to try to achieve public popularity and success.
Answer: Realize what a dreadful price you pay to society for its smiles and pats on the back. If you were elevated to the greatest level of public popularity ever achieved, it wouldn’t reduce your self-doubt one bit. Never fall into depression because you fail to win accolades or wealth or excitement. God doesn’t care one bit if you succeed in this way.

Question: I recently was very hurt by the betrayal of someone close to me. What should I do?
Answer: Know that the pain does not reside in the situation itself. What causes the hurt and the shock and the disappointment is the expectation that the person should behave differently, should behave in a decent way toward you. Each one of us is perfectly capable of ceasing to live in fantasy by beginning to understand that lost human nature can do nothing but betray. The only thing that will never ever hurt or betray you is the truth itself. Truth will explain, inspire and heal in a way that the ordinary solutions of this world never can.

Question: Recent events in the news are shocking and scaring me.
Answer: Because we have a physical presence on this earth, it is very difficult for us to understand that the real rewards of this life are spiritual, invisible. No matter what horrors are going on around us, there is a higher power within that can transcend it all. We are not at the mercy of a society gone mad.
     Never forget that God is stronger than anything that happens to this planet. If we carelessly fall into fear from what we see, we are feeding the negativity, both within ourselves and in everyone around us. The feeling of helplessness can disappear but we must cooperate in our own rescue. That means making an intense effort to see what is really going on.

Question: It seems as if pursuing Truth will take a lot of my time. Why can’t I just work  with these principles when it’s convenient for me?
Answer: In order for our true nature to be liberated from the chains of the false personality’s demands, we need to make an unshakeable inner resolution and commitment to understand all of these things. In reality, we are in dire need of Truth’s help. To ever be different, to change our nature, we have to give up something. What we are now must vacate the premises to make room for the new. The beauty of Truth is that it can go wherever we do. This work is not just something we must take time out for in our busy day from a sense of drudgery. As a matter of fact, once we begin to fully realize what we’ve made contact with here, the real adventure starts. The tendency is to live a divided life in which there is ‘my life’ and then there is Truth. Working when we don’t want to work provides the chance to put our petty little life and concerns aside to  gain something of real value. Start to use every opportunity to apply these spiritual teachings as you go about your everyday affairs and the division will start to fade. When you walk into that business meeting, for example, vow that you will use it as an opportunity to learn everything you can about yourself by alertly watching what goes on. Perhaps you’ll remember the higher principle of not being concerned with results and that will make all the difference in your feeling toward the meeting’s outcome. The false nature will feel threatened that it’s under scrutiny but do it anyway. This is the path to real self-wholeness.

Question: How did Vernon Howard become spiritually enlightened?
Answer: Vernon persistently and courageously did what he’s always urging us to do — to use this life in order to understand that there is another power in the universe besides the human mind. He wanted a transformed life with a direct connection to the Higher Power more than he wanted any temptation that the world could dangle in front of him. It’s really a matter of what we value. Everything depends on how much a seeker really wants out. One blockage that hinders a sense of urgency toward this aim is thinking from life about Truth, not from Truth about life.
     Do you really want to continue to meekly surrender to a ruthless world that will use you and then toss you aside? Then work to know that a person’s level of spiritual understanding is his or her most valuable possession. If we’ll put Truth first, last and always, we’ll begin to see and feel the miracle of spiritual transformation for ourselves. But of course this release does not come without much resistance and fighting on the part of the hostile inner nature. As Vernon once said when asked how he woke up, “I fought with God until He won!” Anyone who reaches authentic enlightenment must break through every single wall of resistance and endure unto the end.

Question: I am upset that I am not going fast enough or far enough on this path.
Answer: Who are you talking about? Who is not going fast enough or far enough? Always go back to the basics like the knowledge that there exists within you both a true self and a false self. It is the competitive and petty false self that feels discouraged with progress because it wants to call itself spiritually enlightened. This false nature has had its sway over our thoughts and feelings for a very, very long time and it will not give up easily. But the assurance exists that there is a true part within that wants to grow up spiritually. This part can be developed and nurtured to the point that our lives belong to it and not to the imposter.

Question: I have a desire to turn toward something higher but seem mired in old reactions and feelings of disappointment and regret. What will help me to remember this right aim?
Answer: Just this morning I walked outside to the garden and noticed a group of sunflowers I hadn’t seen before. Every one of them was turned toward the rising sun. What an encouraging view to brighten my day and my outlook. It reminded me that spiritually speaking, the rising sun and all it represents is ever-present. In a world of fleeting, temporary thrills followed by frustrating setbacks, the sun-nature is patiently and quietly waiting for a student on the path to change direction in order to receive its warmth, energy and vitality. However, the wish to turn in a new direction cannot be separated from a continual willingness to turn away from what is hurting us.

Question: One of your recent Secrets of Life Daily Quotes emphasized that one roadblock on the way to real understanding is a false hope in the future. If I don’t have any future rewards to look forward to, what do I have?
Answer: We’re always so busy anxiously trying to attain a certain elusive emotional state that we miss what we could have. We’re looking for a sense of security where it simply doesn’t exist — in continued self-affirmation. Vernon once said, “You’re nervously waiting on the dock for the treasure ship that will never come in.” False hope that something good will come your way is always going to alternate with bitterness that the anticipated sense of security hasn’t arrived. Let the shocking realization that you’re waiting in the wrong place lead to the spiritual aim of living in moment-to-moment awareness. That’s where enduring happiness resides.

Question: Lately, I’ve noticed that each Secret of Life quote is better than the one preceding it. It feels like I’m becoming more receptive to these healing truths.
Answer: You are beginning to feel the rightness of Truth rather than just think about it. Real Truth principles are like diamonds — each more brilliant than the last. To develop the capacity to continuously take in these truths without resistance or defiance, allow them to fall on the heart rather than on the intellect. The heart can go straight to the point but it is the nature of the mind to try to figure out and interpret life. At some point, though, the mind always finds itself mired in the opposites of mental argument. That’s the severe limitation of living on the horizontal level. Your growing willingness to receive something new, different and extraordinarily special will not come through your willpower. It will only appear when your growing receptivity meets Truth’s own urging. Gladly follow its directives and guidance and you will be led all the way out to find yourself living in the wide-open spaces of your liberated nature.

Question: But with enough willpower, why can’t I stop negative impressions from coming in? Self-will is a sign of personal strength, isn’t it?
Answer: This effort has nothing to do with human willpower; forcing life to twist and bend through personal will is what causes so much suffering and frustration because our desires and demands are always going to be blocked and opposed by the personal wills of thousands of other people. Self-will is one of the stubbornly fixed cornerstones of the false nature that must yield to something higher to achieve any real peace.
     Vernon Howard said many times, “It’s God’s will, not your will.” In other words, reuniting with and being guided by the force that created us is the reason we have been given this temporary physical life in the first place. It’s time to come home, where there is no blockage or interference, and everything flows freely.

Question: I have heard that awakening can take place in a matter of weeks or even days. Is this true?
Answer: There is no such thing as instant salvation. To use a worldly example, would you expect to become a medical doctor in a matter of weeks or days? Of course you wouldn’t. You would know that to gain a certain level of expertise in this field would require a long period of study. It is the same in the spiritual world. We’ve been under the spell of our own habitual nature for so long that it will take an extraordinary effort to begin to truly ask God to help us break out. We must do this over and over again. But as we go along, it becomes our great pleasure to rid ourselves of delusion and to get ourselves out of our own way so we are in a position to receive heavenly impressions all day long.

Question: When I’m in the middle of the crisis, why can’t I remember my spiritual lessons?
Answer: There are a lot of reasons, but first and foremost it’s because we don’t want to. No, the false self asserts, I want to do this work, I want to obey right instructions. But as Vernon has often said, we fail to turn to higher truths because we’re having too much ‘fun’ being the center of our own attention, the star of our own dramatic stage performance. To truly grow, we must get off the stage altogether. Perhaps there is a part of us that loves what we’re hearing, but another part wants its own way and wants to only pretend to be a good and obedient student. This is a fascinating thing to observe and can lead to the realization that there really is a very dark force that will do anything and everything to stop our escape from living as we always have. This is not a gloomy or frightening perception at all, but a good and bright revelation. How can we know what spiritual riches await us if we do not thoroughly know the nature of the enemy?

Question: Why can’t we see more? Some people seem to have no “eyes to see or ears to hear.”
Answer: Watch how people actually see only what they want to see and nothing more. Then see it in yourself too. As the world increasingly spirals downward, it seems safer to hide one’s head ‘ostrich-like’ in the sand. But of course this doesn’t work. No matter how many times we turn our attention away from reality, the deep-seated fear is still there, isn’t it?  Likewise, the old nature really has no wish to see its own wrongness, hostility, defensiveness, so it finds endless distractions to blind us to the pain. Do some work right now and consider what some of these distractions are. Keeping busy, pursuing the trivial, never slowing down long enough to watch our own thoughts and feelings, obsessing over something, using alcohol to dull the senses, to name but a few. Vernon Howard said, “I’m trying to get you unrepressed!” and we unfortunately are fighting against that kicking and screaming. The way out is to stay with the pain, to face it completely and to release our fear of seeing more deeply. Never, never run away or it will never go away! This is how to have a truly new experience. There’s no condemnation or judgment here, none at all. We’re simply watchful and aware of the inner states passing by and as we do this, the dawn starts to break. We realize that beyond the tyranny of the pain is the New Life we have wanted all along.

Question: What is Truth?
Answer: That is like asking “What is God?” It can’t be explained in words but we can join Truth by discarding all that is false within. Then all is well forever.

Question: Why doesn’t everyone want the pure truth?
Answer: Most people prefer to remain where they are, while believing they already know and that they know who they are. They go on blaming the exterior world for their difficulties instead of learning to do the right thing, which is to change the inner. This is the cause of all earthly woes, including war, but they will fight anyone who tries to disturb this identity (their ego) and will never know what they could have had. We can be different. We can choose to go all the way with this.

Question: How can we tell a true teacher?
Answer: Unless he continually urges us to work on ourselves by trying to wake up, to be aware, to turn our attention back on ourselves, to watch what is going on inside and to be honest about our actual inner condition (which is much different than the picture we have of ourselves), he is just another phony teacher. A true teacher doesn’t believe in the artificial identities we have built up for ourselves and doesn’t go along with them. He knows we are suffering from what we are hiding from ourselves and will help us to see it in order to be free. He will also help us not to be deceived by the exterior performance of others. He knows that everyone is especially terrified and confused when first hearing the truth and though right encouragement is given, there is no  compromise. False teachers, not having first found the inner treasure themselves, are very shrewd at deceiving the masses. It is much worse than we think. But those who really want to know can begin to discern the difference by working according to these principles. All of this is good news but to see how good it is we first must see how bad it is.

Question: What if none of my relatives or friends supports my interest in these teachings?
Answer: As long we are more concerned with and attached to worldly things rather than focusing upon our own spiritual aims, we will be in danger of being dragged away from those higher aims. Until we’re living from real self-command, our relatives are often those who can ‘push more of our buttons’ than anyone else. We grew up with them; our sense of ‘I’ is strongly attached to them. We continue to believe we are still that small child or that person we remember, or the spouse, the mother, the brother, the sister or whatever label we place on ourselves. But truth reminds us we are not these identities that tell us how to feel, how to think and how to behave. True freedom lies in getting free of all of these identifications and the emotional baggage attached to them. The incredible fact is that their dissolution rids us of the fear of disapproval and rejection once and for all, allowing a genuine enjoyment of our human contacts and relationships for the very first time

Question: People attend New Life classes but is New Life a church or a school?
Answer: New Life is both. In a higher sense a church is a place where people gather to make a connection with God and that is certainly true of New Life. Anyone who has been to a New Life class, however, will not mistake it for a conventional church service. There are no people in robes, no religious ornaments on the walls, no statues in alcoves, no choirs, hymns or group prayers. New Life is a school for higher spiritual education where you learn that none of those things have anything to do with contacting God. With persistent effort, called ‘The Work’, you’ll come to understand the real purpose of your life and why you’re here on  this planet. You’ll see that you can actually enjoy life instead of suffering from it but you’ll be asked to give up your old dark nature as the price. Incidentally, there’s no degree awarded in New Life classes because you don’t graduate from the Truth, you become one with it.

Question: There are areas of these teachings that I simply do not understand and this is causing me stress and frustration. What do I do?
Answer: It is great to admit you don’t know. To know you don’t understand something is a big, first step. That in itself is not a problem. Now don’t go on to make it a problem, to misunderstand. Stop right there and stay with that. This is a perfect example of the false ego-self trying to get an identity — “I am frustrated” — and therefore causing a  difficulty in order to get a thrill, a vibration out of it. You only add more difficulties and pain by thinking and stirring up the waters. Just quietly watch and stay with not knowing. Let understanding come to you. It can’t come when your mind and emotions are full of “me” and “my stress.” If we already understood everything, why would we need Vernon Howard’s explanations to understand and receive the truth? We are like the child sitting in the highchair screaming “I want my food now.” We have to give up our childish demands and wait on God.

Question: I have heard things like this before. What makes this different?
Answer: We have all heard higher truths and maybe we can quote them glibly, but applying them will require all the help we can get. As we learn to see and drop the falsehoods that have made us unhappy, dark forces will use new and more devious means to prevent progress. The dark forces we are up against will give you 99% truth in order to deliver the 1% of  falsehood that will stop your final spiritual success. Only a 100% pure spiritual source can give you the warnings about self-deception that will protect you from start to finish. Vernon Howard is a 100% pure spiritual source.

Question: What is something shocking I need to realize concerning my inner life?
Answer: Most people waste their entire lives thinking. Nothing from the higher world will ever be experienced unless a person drops thought, though few ever do. The answer lies in mental silence.

Question: How can I correct my mistakes, so they aren’t continually repeated?
Answer: Come to a full, conscious stop at the moment you see you made a mistake. Here’s an instructive example of something that occurred recently while two students were proofreading The Power of Esoterics for a new e-book publication. The men in the Southern California classes were using this book for a class, and one discovered a fairly serious mistake in one story, and it was sent to Richard by email. The proofreaders in Pagosa Springs read the same story and came to a place where they both sensed something wrong but didn’t come to a stop, just went full speed ahead reading. Sound familiar? The proofreaders received the correction email the same day they had read the story — what are the chances of that “coincidence” happening!?
     This incident illustrates what we should and should not do about an error. When we sense something wrong, when the still small voice speaks to us, we must listen and come to an immediate halt! If we ignore it and listen to contrary voices that tell us to keep moving blindly ahead, our impulsivity will get us into trouble. But if we see we didn’t stop, we can still just say “I was wrong” and now I can learn. Remember, to correct a mistake I must first see it as a mistake. “It is good to see the bad.” Don’t avoid and condemn the revelation of your mistake. The sensing of something wrong is a friend, not a foe.

Question: In society it does seem as though things are deliberately being made ambiguous and obscure which results in producing even more agitation, confusion and fear.
Answer: That’s a good insight. One way we’re kept slaves of our negative reactions to everything is to be so dazed and overwhelmed by what is going on that we just stay stuck in a whirlpool of base thoughts and emotions. A person tied up in psychic knots cannot decide which way to go. But the incredible news is that any destructive state can be conquered.

Question: What is a Vernon Howard exercise? Why do them?
Answer: Vernon has given us many exercises in his talks and his writings. In fact, there are literally hundreds of them. He put such a great emphasis on them because they give us a focus for our spiritual exploration. When done consistently and honestly, these practical exercises reveal what we presently do not know and cannot see about ourselves. Some exercises are physical, some mental, others emotional — all varied and enjoyable to do.
     People live very unbalanced lives, relying on habitual thoughts, mental repetitions and their companions — negative emotions and false excitements — to provide security. Most have no idea that it is possible to fully live from God-given essence which will provide all the security needed for a pleasant, peaceful life. Practicing the exercises will help us to develop into the integrated, harmonious human beings we were meant to be. Nothing aids inner insight more than to work on ourselves to see how we operate. And one blunt fact that we must face is that we’re almost always in a state of sleep or unawareness. Why else would we act in ways that hurt us?

Question: I never really feel content, at least not for very long.
Answer: That is the way everyone feels who is living from mental identities. It is the nature of the mind to wander. If we were not “living there,” we would not have a problem; we would not feel unsettled and unfulfilled. Some years ago, a very famous person in the media world was giving an interview. He candidly and accurately described his restlessness and lack of contentment, and ours: “No matter where I am, I want to be somewhere else.” Of course, there is no place to go except to stay right where we are and see that this restlessness is just another trick of the mind.

Question: Please give me an esoteric principle that can lead me all the way out if I apply it.
Answer: One of the great secrets of happiness is to cease to defend yourself to the point where there is no one left to defend. For example, consciously lose the argument. Simply cease to fight. Instead of angrily defending yourself, relax from yourself. No, this is not weakness. It’s the start of the realization that what you're defending is an illusion that keeps you separate from God. The mind will object vehemently to stepping back, to simply watching and being aware of what is happening rather than battling the person or the situation. Despite howls of protest from the old nature, don’t forget this exercise. Make a note of it and work, work, work to understand that tense self-defense gives no protection. It only leads to more uneasiness and more touchiness.

Question: I’m getting a lot out of these studies but time and again, I find myself puzzled and shocked by the nature of human nature, my own included. Is there a way to view human behavior and characteristics that will go above the puzzlement and shock and lift me to a different level of understanding?
Answer: Here’s something helpful given to us by Vernon. He said to view human nature in two ways at the same time. You must see that mankind suffers terribly, but simultaneously see that human nature is a fierce resister of God, Truth, Reality. You’ll go wrong if you only focus on one or the other. They must be seen together. To observe only the suffering side leads to false sympathy and sentimentality but becoming aware of how vehemently we object to what could get rid of the sufferer creates a balanced viewpoint and encourages the wish to be more welcoming and receptive to higher facts.

Question: Why are Vernon Howard classes not held in fancy church-like settings, with men in beautiful robes conducting the classes?
Answer: If something is real, it never needs window dressing to convince people that it is real. If there is something in you that longs for the higher life, that small part will know that these teachings are genuine guides to the way out and that is all that is necessary.

Question: Why are my prayers not answered?
Answer: Actually, they are, but because life works in a different way than we imagine, we don’t see that the cause of what we get is the result of our actual inner nature. By raising our level of being, we can request new and better things. How? Stop fighting what life brings. We have to stop blaming outer people and events. The inner determines the outer. As Vernon Howard said, “When you rebel in the wrong way against society, any other human being, against conditions, you are doing the very thing that keeps those conditions in place.” We are either working on ourselves and going uphill or going along with our old mechanical reactions and sliding downhill. What we really want is freedom from all that is wrong inside including the big phony actor. Then we will actually have a New Life — something real and lasting. And yes, we know it is right to keep calling on something for help that is not a part of the darkness.

Question: Why is it all so scary?
Answer: We have it backwards. It isn’t scary to who you really are. It is scary to the false parts inside that presently control your life and that are terrified that you will wake up and go to work to boot them out. These voices adamantly protest all along the way, but if you continue, some day you will see that this is the only real friend you ever had, because it is the only thing that can help you to win your own life back. And as we persist we begin to think, “How lucky can I be to have found this and stuck with it?”

Question: What does Mr. Howard mean when he says don’t plan your life?
Answer: On the everyday social level it’s fine to plan your life. We have to be good householders and take care of our day-to-day responsibilities. The psychological planning is where we go wrong. We constantly engage in mentally planning for future happiness, like trying to get someone into our lives or out of our lives or looking for security using our ideas of what security means. For example, perhaps we believe that if we get the right employment, we’ll make a reasonable amount of money and feel respected in this society. But this type of planning can never provide the true and lasting contentment our hearts really yearn for. What we gather to us from the outside world can never be used to convince ourselves that we’re happy inside. At some point haven’t you gotten what you wanted? And doesn’t a part of you know that it didn’t bring you authentic security? Anything that represents happiness in the future can’t work because true happiness can only be in the moment with a calm, quiet and aware mind that does not need anything outside itself to tell itself that it’s happy. Happiness is a state of being where trueness flows through us and directs us with ease and purpose through our days.

Question: Truth seems to require so much from me.
Answer: All Truth wants is for you to live a free and happy life. These teachings help us to understand why we have all these headaches and heartaches and how to get rid of them. We do not have to give up anything except what is hurting us. The truth of how we hurt ourselves is in plain sight, but we cannot as yet see it. Go to work with every bit of self-honesty you can muster in order to understand more deeply how the negative states that we so carelessly invite into our minds and emotions are interfering with our ability to live a decent, contented and truly free life. Each new insight will provide right excitement for uncovering the next needed revelation!

Question: I need practical solutions for dealing with daily problems with people and money; I don’t have time for pursuing the lofty.
Answer: Stick with these principles, apply them to your daily personal life and watch how old problems begin to disappear. The only proof you need is to investigate and experiment for yourself.

Question: How long does it take?
Answer: Your only requirement is an open mind and a willingness to learn and you will find help and relief at the very beginning of your studies. As you continue, you will find more and more helpful insights along the way as the progress continues. You won’t want to go back to the old ways of dealing with situations that used to drain your energy and time. The New Life will be yours forever.

Question: Won’t we become a dull person if we don’t allow ourselves to experience life with the full range of emotions we were given?
Answer: We were given feelings and thoughts as part of our human nature.  However, there are valuable thoughts and feelings, and there are destructive thoughts and feelings. Unfortunately, we’re spending most of our time giving way to all sorts of negative states, calling them right and necessary. The ability to use the mind and the emotions rightly comes from an intense wish for a higher purpose in life.
     Try to see that something has taken possession of us and feeds on our mental and emotional energy. It twists this natural source of life into something wrong and destructive and worst of all, we believe that it is us. It is NOT. It is our great pleasure in this class to boot this wrongness out! What is left is a New Life that God is just waiting to give us.

Question: Vernon Howard said he was an ordinary man who found the extraordinary. What is meant by ‘the extraordinary’?
Answer: The same as the Kingdom of Heaven within, freedom from pain and suffering, uncovering the truth, which is hidden beneath numerous false identities and pretenses that we take as us but which in fact imprison our essence or spirit. Vernon once said if he could put only one sign on the New Life building, it would be, “There is something else.”

Question: What does it mean to be a spiritual detective?
Answer: It is a beautiful state where there is no judging, no condemnation, no set idea about how life should unfold according to the demands of the old nature. The spiritual detective is ever watchful, alert and open to facts about the inner states he is observing. There is no pushing away of what is found. He is unattached to the results of his experiment. He sees clearly without mental judgment what the cause and effect of certain actions are. For example, weakness is accompanied by other low states like fear, nervousness, guilt, irritation, etc. Through trial and error he begins to see for himself that personal weakness is destructive and harmful. Eventually this pure watching can take him all the way home to spiritual wholeness.

Question: I’m afraid by following these teachings, I’ll lose my friends.
Answer: It depends on what you and what they want. Certainly we are social beings. Friendship on the level of this world is often based on things we have in common like a love of sports, cooking, raising children, etc. But something different happens when we begin to question our lives in a new way. We found these teachings when we wanted something more — an authentic life — free from suffering, heartache, problems. Others like you found them too. It is this growing inner spiritual aim that draws to itself like-minded people with whom you have only things of value in common. As you follow these teachings, you’ll find that old friendships may fall away of themselves only to be replaced by a dawning  understanding of life that provides all the comfort and understanding needed by the developing spirit.

Question: What are Vernon Howard’s credentials? Does he have philosophy or psychology degrees?
Answer: Vernon went a billion miles above and beyond the conventional credentials of this world. His book The Mystic Masters Speak reveals how widely he explored men of true wisdom, but his own awakening lifted him out of the world of words (though he was a supreme master there too) into a world of direct perception. Thus he inspires us to break free of the burden of memorized thought and to receive Truth directly.

Question: I overheard someone say that he stopped going to church as a young man because no one there could answer his questions. They just told him to “believe.” How do these teachings differ from religious doctrines?
Answer: These principles are based upon the same healing truths that Christ taught — that we must first die to what is wrong in us before we can experience the New Life. Then and only then will we discover how to live our lives rightly. You won’t find any rituals, self-flattery, or hypocrisy in Vernon Howard’s works. What you will find is how to truly understand yourself, why you do what you do and why things unfold the way they do in your life. We can discover how to find relief from society’s pressures right here, right now. True strength lies deep down inside but all false ideas of what it means to be strong must be discarded before it can be uncovered. We can learn the value of having a silent mind and that it is in this silence that God is finally able to speak to us.

Question: This warring world seems to be getting completely out of control. How can I discern truth from falsehood in this crazy atmosphere?
Answer: Only the spirit can cut through all the deception to discern right from wrong but a beginning can be made by seeing that wild emotions want to rob us of all logic. In Treasury of Positive Answers #266, Vernon says, “Substituting emotion for pure logic is like burning a book instead of reading it.” To want to develop mental clarity, common sense and simple logic are a fine starting point in the aim to increase spiritual understanding.

Question: I’ve been trying a number of different churches and philosophies looking for answers to questions I have about my life. They all claim to know the answers but mostly I wind up confused again. What makes New Life teachings different?
Answer: New Life is a place for those who have trodden wearily down the road of life and finally have admitted to themselves that they, unfortunately, have been going in the wrong direction. They really know they are lost and that all the advice and solutions they’ve been given have not solved the fundamental puzzle of why we are here and what we should be doing with our lives. New Life is different because it is based 100% in Truth. The purity of these teachings does what nothing else can. These are not idle claims. Your searching has guided you to the right place. Be different. Make a choice for yourself and walk in a new direction. The real answers to all your questions await you.

Question: I am used to attending religious services with lots of people, music and sermons given by people in special garments, but am frequently left with the feeling that something is missing. New Life classes are completely different. Can you explain why?
Answer: The path to genuine spirituality is indeed a very unique and different one. You’ve had questions about your life that have persisted, but have probably noticed deep down inside that the ceremonial approach hasn’t actually provided lasting calmness and life command. New Life classes will give you the deeper answers, but they’re not like the church services you’re used to. You’ll find that refreshing and will come to discover that the “pomp and circumstance” of most organized religions aren’t really necessary.
     Authentic salvation is not a group experience, but a personal one. Spirituality is about you contacting God directly, not through other people. This takes real courage and commitment to experience for yourself. As Vernon says, “If you do the different, you will find the different. If you do the same, you will find the same.” You have within you the power to choose to be different.

Question: As strange as it sounds, I’m afraid to go too deeply into how bad conditions are, into how deep the psychic sleep really is.
Answer: Truth has given us its complete assurance that there is nothing to be afraid of, but we’re convinced that if we explore these subjects too thoroughly, it will be too much for us. Of course, it is going to overwhelm the unreal self, but it can never be too much for who we really are. That’s really one of the biggest and brightest revelations of these teachings. There is a seed of rightness, decency and strength within, which we were created to live from, though we don’t live from it now. All the buffers, pillows and blockages in the world can’t and won’t change this reality. Letting go of the false to make way for the true is the purpose of life.

Question: What is an exercise I can use to strengthen my connection with what is true inside?
Answer: Remember to “Relax and receive.” Vernon explained that when you relax, receptivity is increased. We can relax by releasing physical tension and we can also make an aim to relax the frantically churning mind by simply allowing the thought self to go quiet. The silence is what provides self-release and self-relief.Howard guaranteed, “If you live up to what little Light you have now, more will be added to you.”

Question: You mean the higher nature has right command over the quality of the impressions allowed to enter the mind and emotions?
Answer: Yes! Although you can’t stop negative impressions from trying to enter, you can stop them from actually being taken in and absorbed. The more alert and aware you become of the operation of your inner parts, you’ll realize that you are a receiver and not a sender. The ability to receive and welcome higher impressions is the essence of the true life.

Question: Is awakening a sudden experience?
Answer: No, awakening requires the long hard work of uncovering and recovering your natural essence. It’s a lengthy but necessary process, because the more F.P. (false personality) you have covering it up, the more work and the more resistance. There comes a point where you must turn completely toward heavenly help and it will be done for you. But not in imagination. Self-deception is our constant foe, always justifying our vanity and wrong behavior. Be still and listen for the true voice within.

Question: Isn’t there a gradual and increasing awakening of people all over the planet?
Answer: No, the hypnosis is becoming worse and the sleep deeper. Society’s propaganda has greatly increased in the last few decades. The myth that there will be a mass awakening is part of the fantasy sold to the millions to keep them imagining that they are all right the way they are, don’t need to change and are already on a higher level than most. We have been tricked long enough. The game is fixed. Get off life’s mad merry-go-round as Vernon Howard put it.

Question: Sometimes these teachings seem full of contradictions.
Answer: Isn’t Truth fascinating! It is far above the mind of opposites. We were trained, especially in schools and universities, to debate, to look for the opposite point of view, to argue about every little statement. This is on the mechanical level of thought that leads nowhere. Truth has no opposite. If you truly want to find understanding, answers about God and Reality, you must go to a higher level yourself.

Question: Why is Vernon Howard so negative?
Answer: I’m very glad you asked that question. People actually think that Truth ― including what Vernon teaches ― is out to hurt them but it is only out to expose what has been hurting us. Can that be negative? But to begin to sense this, an individual needs more insight into himself. A part of him must begin to suspect that he simply does not understand what is going on inside, though the false nature will try to convince him that he does. As Vernon puts it, “The healthy information you must acquire, the right information, at first seems to be the enemy.” The part of us that resists these teachings is the real enemy and knows it will be defeated at the hands of Truth so it desperately fights to hold on to us. It doesn’t want to lose a single soul. But anyone who continues to listen with an open mind will sooner or later be ever grateful for persisting in these studies despite everything.
      Vernon Howard was fierce against the wrong parts of us but a conscious man cannot be negative. His strength was coming from a higher place. You could feel it in his presence during his lifetime and you can feel it now on films and recordings of his lectures. He is fighting for the essence within ― for who we really are. But Truth does not and cannot force itself on anyone. It is up to the individual to choose between the old life and the new and bright life that awaits us if we will love what we’re hearing.

Question: Why does so much emphasis seem to be placed on what is wrong with us? Isn’t it helpful to also remind ourselves of the good things in us?
Answer: Truth wants us to see things, including ourselves, as they really are. The reason we have every problem we’ve ever had is because we still see things the way we want to see them, not as they are in reality. It is the beginning of real sanity and decency to see that we’re really not at all the way we like to think of ourselves as being. No man can be truly helped until he at least begins to sense that he is in urgent need of help.

Question: Now that I’ve been working with these principles for a while, it seems that things are much worse than I had imagined, both in myself and others. Is this a correct view?
Answer: Actually things have always been as bad as you’re now sensing. It is simply that your awakening awareness is now revealing for the first time the reality of how things are. Few wish to see the emptiness of others’ lives, let alone their own. But do not despair, Vernon Howard told us that a deeper look into hell is always equaled by a higher look into heaven. You are on your way out!

Question: These teachings seem to emphasize personal development over helping others. Is there not something to be said for helping others?
Answer: No one can give to others what he has not first truly found for himself. The world is full of people who spread badness while calling it goodness. Honestly now, what have you given to yourself up until now in your own life? You have enough to do to save yourself. Dedicate your life to finding what is real and true. Then you will have something real to offer those who may approach you.
     Here is a special lesson from Vernon Howard about helping others entitled Unearned Benefits: “It is extremely dangerous to give people unearned benefits. It first destroys the receiver of unearned benefits, then it destroys the society that gives out unearned benefits. The receivers destroy the givers and themselves. It is an absolute spiritual law that every benefit in life must be individually earned.”

Question: What is the proper sequence in which to study these materials?
Answer: We are used to studying programs that start with the fundamentals and then proceed to the more advanced material. But authentic, workable spiritual principles are not like that. You need not follow any sequence; jump in anywhere and if you’re sincerely willing to work with the principles, you’ll immediately find help, new understanding and relief. Often, when we choose a book or lecture whose title appeals to us, it contains exactly what we’ve been looking for. This is not an accident because a genuine prayer for higher understanding is always answered.

Question: Why does Vernon yell like that in his talks?
Answer: Because our psychological walls are so very thick. Only strong talk will begin to break down the buffers and barriers we have erected around ourselves and our PDF’s (Precious Darling Feelings, as Vernon Howard called them). What distinguishes a true teacher from the many charlatans is whether or not the teacher forcefully exposes our wrongness. If you are never urged to turn the light of attention onto your own behavior, you will never change. False teachers blither and blab with high-sounding words like “harmony” and “love”, but Vernon Howard actually taught us how to reach those states.

Question: I have noticed something remarkable about Vernon’s books and the recordings of his talks. I’ll go back and listen to a talk for a second or third time or re-read one of his books and it seems as if I come across more and more things that I don’t recall reading or hearing the first time. More of what he is saying seems to be clearer and easier to understand. What is going on?
Answer: Truth only gives you what it knows you can handle. Through your studies, you are absorbing true spiritual wisdom, which develops your ability to see and hear in new ways. In the New Testament it says “Blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear.” By accumulating as many spiritual facts as you can, you give the Spirit more to work with, more to resonate within you. You begin to see more deeply and to understand more. Revisiting something said or written by Vernon always yields new insights. When the dark curtains of a window are pulled aside, light can come in, making everything in the room visible.

Question: How do I overcome resistance to obeying Truth’s instructions? I like the precept of going against myself but I can’t seem to do it very vigorously or very often.
Answer: Whether we are aware of it or not, there is a constant battle going on inside of us between the wish to do the right thing and our stubborn self-will. Much of our resistance is quite simply based on weakness and laziness. We have spent a lifetime taking the easy way out, getting by with the least amount of effort possible. Vernon told us to start with small steps. For example, if you wish to do a written exercise he gave us, pick up a pen, put paper on the table and start with a word. If you can get one center, like the physical, pointed in the right direction, one foot on the path up the mountain, then it’s much easier to take the next step and then the next step. Remind yourself often that if you don’t go against yourself, you will inevitably continue in an endless circle (of self), repeating the same mistakes again and again. So if you want a different life, you must break the pattern. Just say, “Please God, help me to be willing in spite of myself.” All change of being is really “in spite of myself” — for the false self never wants to change. Genuine help does not reside on the lower level. We must voluntarily approach and welcome the higher without hesitation for this alone can begin to develop real strength within.

Question: I still want the approval of others. How can I learn to detach from them?
Answer: Recently I watched a dog show at our rural County Fair where young 4-H-ers were learning how to show their dogs. Afterwards in the parking lot in front of my car a father was angrily berating his son for losing. The boy, neatly dressed and standing tall, had done a nice job trotting his lab around the ring. But the father wanted him to win! So he was sneering and scoffing at the boy’s efforts. Interestingly, the boy who won was stooped over, dragging his equally timid dog around, and always looking at the judge. As it turned out, incredibly, that’s why he won — he kept his eyes on the judge.
     Parents and leaders do untold damage to children, beating them down with wrong demands. They grow up with a “please don’t hit me” attitude or an arrogant, hard, intimidating manner, to mask fear of failure and criticism. Is it any wonder that spirits are crushed by the cruelties of this world, which will always pounce on weakness, and reward dependence and compliance with false values?
     Vernon Howard explained you can either feel right or feel accepted by others but you can’t have both [DVD Volume 3, Talk 4 or Blu-ray Volume 2, Talk 1]. Find out who you are looking to for agreement and approval, then say “No! I’ll stand alone!”

Question: I am attracted to these teachings but am unsure how to start the work on myself.
Answer: Take one principle that resonates with you and make a super-effort to work with it during the week. You may realize that you’re not really very comfortable with other people and even sense that being dependent upon them for approval and smiles is a kind of psychological and emotional slavery. Work at knowing that God has provided a way for your spirit to be independent from this neurotic, demanding world. This does not mean you become a hermit; it means that people will come in and go out of your life on the terms of your higher understanding.  You can develop yourself to the point where your self-command will naturally extend itself to others and you will enjoy your relationships without any discomfort, fear or guilt at all.

Question: I feel like I have to make my mark on this world. It will provide me with the security I need.
Answer: Truth doesn’t care one bit about someone’s accomplishments in this world. It makes no difference if you’re the CEO or the janitor. In fact, Vernon once said that if the head of the company and the man working down in the basement of the company were both awakened, they would have no wish to trade places with one another. Looking for security in a fickle and unstable world is a wrong move. All Truth cares about is whether you are moving toward it or away from it.

Question: I feel I’ve left God out of my life. How can I correct this?
Answer: With stubborn self-will, I believe I can handle my life. This arrogance blocks God’s help in my life. I’m actually a mental midget and an emotional wreck, but that’s really hard to admit! I meet events and I howl. Yet, I can learn from the shock of the storms and the howling reactions to prefer God’s goodness. The life I’m now choosing is not the life I really want because there is a Higher Choice. I can increase my spiritual memory to meet all events. I can step aside and let God handle the storm because in the absence of me everything can and will be handled perfectly.

Question: I regularly attend Vernon Howard classes, read his books and listen to his talks. Why should I attend the banquets that New Life offers?
Answer: The banquets were created by Vernon  and are special gatherings that New Life holds approximately every two months. At every banquet, you are offered inspiring talks, clean, humorous entertainment (something very rare today), great food and the chance to grow spiritually. What distinguishes banquets from regular classes is the incredible healing power that takes place in their unique atmosphere. Many a student will confirm that they have arrived at the banquets with a load of problems and worries but by the end of the weekend, something has lifted the weight of the world off their shoulders. At the most recent banquet, those who came were told they were there to be purified. Yes, something extraordinary does happen, something that is impossible to convey.
     A speaker gave a quote from Vernon that summed it all up: “You can’t put a spiritual experience into words.”  Attend a banquet and experience something remarkable yourself.
     “The banquet is always on the table, but hungry men and women refuse to approach.” (1500 Ways to Escape the Human Jungle, #81)

Question: I’m amazed at how Vernon Howard can alternate so naturally between spiritual seriousness and lightheartedness in his lectures.
Answer: Truth has endless flexibilities, and it is good to understand that the ability to be light and cheerful also plays an important role in waking up. Vernon once said in a talk, “Your heavy seriousness is killing you.” Of course, it’s understood that this is an absolutely essential endeavor, but grimness and gloom are not part of authentic earnestness, as some would like to believe. If the seriousness is accompanied by an ability to laugh at ourselves and to be happily grateful to have found this Work, a right balance is created in the effort. In this respect, all New Life banquets offer a perfect atmosphere for growth, from learning and being inspired by the talks to being lifted out of any heaviness of spirit by watching and perhaps being a part of the wholesome and fun entertainment.

Question: I still think if I can get the right man [or woman] in my life and enough money, and maybe the right place to live, I will be happy. What’s wrong with that?
Answer: How many times have you attracted someone into your life you thought you wanted and in Vernon’s words, “The love boat turned into a battleship”? The reality is no other person and no amount of money will ever quell the awful ache inside that, by the way, no one ever talks about. The emptiness and craving in a person’s inner life will never be satisfied by accumulating people, experiences or wealth. But who will be honest enough to admit that this is the truth and so go on to be qualified to receive the authentic answers?

Question: I seem to be caught in the “time-trap.”
Answer: It is common for people to live either in the past or in the future, often rapidly flip-flopping between the two. Looking back at the past often brings up feelings of nostalgia or regret. Trying to peer into the future creates equal chaos with worries about possible dire outcomes or nervously hoping things will work out in our favor. In this condition, there is no possibility of enjoying the present moment, what is right here, right now. Our efforts to prevent the past from happening again result in things turning out exactly the way we don’t want them to. It’s like trying to walk forward while looking backward. Our lack of understanding of the principles of life only insures that no matter how hard we try to bend and twist reality to conform to our mental wishes, we will never be happy when suspended between the past and the future. It takes a lot of spiritual work to see that the past and the future don’t really exist. There truly is only the moment of now and that is where a new and enjoyable life resides. As Vernon wrote, “Don’t let the past control your thinking. Accept the offer of newness in the now.”

Question: I have followed dozens of different philosophies and teachings over the years but none of them have ever led to lasting contentment or have ever given me the real answers.
Answer: Just because a hundred false paths haven’t worked doesn’t mean the authentic one doesn’t exist. You’re reading about it right here.

Question: What are these teachings and classes all about?
Answer: Everything taught at New Life is about you reconnecting with the natural higher energy that created you. You can call that energy God, Truth, Reality, the Higher Force — whatever you like. This energy, which does exist, is extremely high, supremely intelligent and 100 percent pure. It is the same eternal energy that causes the flowers to grow and that allows you to walk across a room. Your duty is to realize that while you are not living from this supreme source right now, there is something existing within you that is not a part of the habitual nature. It is this unique part within that responds to the Truth when you hear it and that is eager to uncover your true purpose of life.

Question: What is the true purpose of life?
Answer: Your true purpose in life is to attend Cosmic College. This Work is the Cosmic College! Forget how others choose to spend their time and their energy here on this earth. You were placed here to grow, to develop, and to be guided by what Vernon Howard has termed the “Sacred Spirit.”  Part of your duty is to see how everything on the repetitive, horizontal level of life is trying to fritter away your energy in order to prevent you from reconnecting with the source of all higher energy. The problem is that almost everyone has allowed the noisy chaos of the world to take over his or her inner resources. People constantly lose themselves in other people and events. But you can learn how to turn all of this around by using the physical power of attention rightly. Directing a concentration of fresh energy toward self-study is what is needed. Don’t waste one more minute of one more day fearing that the task is too overwhelming or that no one else supports your efforts. If you put conscious awareness of all that passes through you first and foremost, you will be supplied with both the power of persistence and with the very valuable ability to put your attention where it should be.

Question: But I don’t understand how turning my attention inward is going to help anything.
Answer: This question has brought up a vital principle that always makes up a cornerstone of any true spiritual teaching. It can be put very simply but what a world of revelation can be opened when it is understood by a receptive mind and spirit. That principle is: “The inner always determines the outer.” In other words, the inner psychological life of the individual is what determines the quality of the outer life. This has nothing to do with financial status or with attaining all of the external trappings that society equates with happiness. It has to do with the kind of energy that is being generated inside of you and being put out by you every day. Is there fear in there? Is there rage? Is there depression? Is there a feeling of being cheated and left out? Those negativities go out into the world around you and always come back to the source that put them out in the first place. The problem is within and that is where conscious awareness that has neither desire nor egotism must be placed. Turning the arrow of attention inward and simply observing what you see there will eventually reveal that you are under no obligation to feel bad. This is the means by which the higher in you can connect with the higher above you.

Question: If I’m honest about it, I get glimpses that deep down I feel powerless. How can I gain true power in my life?
Answer: The only true power is the Creator of the Universe or God, Truth, Reality as Vernon calls it. It is the supreme power and it knows that what our hearts really want is to live within its guidance and protection. What is blocking this? The conditioned, acquired human nature that we have carelessly allowed to control our thought and feeling processes and which causes us to live from all sorts of negativities. You must get to know not only this part of yourself but also the true part, which is seeking to reunite with the Creator. You ask for permanent power by applying these teachings in your daily life, by sensing more and more how you are not presently in command of your own thoughts and feelings and by observing this destructive nature in action. But never forget that this nature has been built up through many years of living in the pressure cooker of this man-made society. In reality, man and Cosmic Intelligence are one so as Vernon puts it “Your aim is to be one with yourself.”

Question: What is the purpose of self-observation?
Answer: The purpose is to see your actual condition, not what your flattering self-images say you are and not what you pretend to be. Have you ever faked a confident manner when you really felt very, very shaky inside? That is what we’re talking about. Vernon said the angels of heaven rejoice when you honestly admit how confused and uncertain you really are.  Because only a truthful admission like that can attract real help.

Question: How do I stop feeling trapped by what other people think of me? I’m always afraid people don’t like me or approve of me.
Answer: This is a persistent problem for almost everyone. We just don’t realize what slaves we are to the opinions of others. Vernon Howard said in a talk [Higher World Volume 14, 10], “You need account only to God for your actions.” What a relief! If we lived by that principle, so much worry and heartache would be eliminated. But he also explained that there is such a thing as having “right remorse” when we begin to see what a horror our life has been, and that we should be sorry for how we’ve acted. But always come back to the basic understanding that that is not actually who we are, no matter what we said or did or thought. The real or true nature is Something Else and we can find it through this work.

Question: How can we hear more?
Answer: To develop a ‘hearer’ apart from the touchy, irritable and nervous habitual nature, it is necessary to become better acquainted with the essential quality of our thoughts. An important part of growing up spiritually is that we start to grasp the fact that the actions of someone operating on a lower level of being cannot bring about a “good” or “happy” result. Mechanicalness only produces more mechanicalness. A mind obsessed with getting its own way is not capable of providing clarity, insight or real goodness either for itself or for anyone else. Try small experiments in letting go of harmful self-will without knowing what will take its place, perhaps by realizing you don’t need to win the argument with that other person. Find out what it is inside that is insisting you get one up on someone. That really gets to the heart of the matter, doesn’t it? Ask, “What is it that drives me to bulldoze other people to get what I think I want?” Remember how many times you’ve gotten your heart’s desire and then wondered how to get rid of it? If you will put growth before grasping, you’ll realize that you don’t need to compete in the lowlands when your spirit can live happily and freely on top of the mountain.

Question: What is something I may never have realized that will inspire me to keep going on the path?
Answer: That darkness cannot follow you out of hell.

Question: What is my biggest problem?
Answer: You are so busy trying to make an impression on this world, you are so fiercely engaged in futile attempts to have your worldly demands met that you have forgotten there is a spiritual home you must reach before dark. To get home is the true purpose of your life.

Question: Nervousness is a much bigger problem for me than I had previously realized. Could you comment on this?
Answer: Ah yes! Nervousness and all its dark buddies. Vernon said in A Treasury of Trueness #348: “The reason human beings are so jittery is that they are trying to pass counterfeit money.” And in #349: “Your single greatest cause of nervousness is your unawareness of it.” So we’re nervous because the pretender in us is faking its way through life. But amazingly, merely becoming more aware that this is what is actually happening begins to loosen its hold on us.

Question: The picture of the sunflowers naturally turning toward the light really appeals to me, but I doubt my own ability to do the same.
Answer: The only thing that blocks us from understanding all of this is lack of receptivity and unconscious resistance to what we’re hearing. The entity that doubts your God-given right to live a trouble-free life is the same one clinging to the false feeling of life created by immersion in disappointment, regret or any other bad feeling. In complete contrast, a life dedicated to the superior and exceptional force of truth is exactly the same as a life dedicated to our own real happiness. When the force above occupies our inner space, there is no room for lowness. Our inner home will be as clear and as refreshed as a beautiful mountain landscape after a cleansing rain.

Question: I’ve recently come into these studies and it makes me nervous when you say I must disappear from my own life. What does that mean?
Answer: Think of getting outside of yourself as a release into open spaces that are not tight, cramped or constrained in any way. Just now, our spirits are confined by being in and of this world. Through society’s influence and through association with every human being we’ve ever met, we operate from the strange belief that this limitation is normal and natural. It is not! We were not meant to suffer from insecurity, dread and doubt but we were meant to choose to be animated and guided by the free life of the source that created us. The only way this can happen is for the old nature to be transcended, to disappear.

Question: Why do we need spiritual help?
Answer: Wherever we go we take our whole world with us. We have settled in troubled lands. There is an urgent need to refresh, reboot and remember that Now is always New. A new nature is necessary.
     The answer to every problem is a spiritual one. There is no separate answer to the financial problem, the relationship trouble, the work difficulty, the anger problem. The answer to every problem resides in a different place, on a different level than the problem itself.

Question: Your articles on how to “Take Charge” of life on your website have given me a fresh view on that subject. I always thought this meant to be in command as an authority figure at work or home.
Answer: It certainly applies to exterior business and to relationships. We must be self-responsible wherever we work or live. But our primary emphasis must be on our interior life, the state we’re in. To truly be “in charge” is not to control a situation or people; exterior control is an illusion. What we really want is to be at peace within ourselves. What’s ironic is that usually means to not do something. One way to say it is that to take charge is to let go — of myself. For example, as Vernon Howard said in Cosmic Command, it is “ceasing to behave badly while justifying it.” When I get panicked and impulsive, that is the chance to work on myself. For if I go along with the panic, I am actually trusting myself more than I trust God. If I stop doing the wrong things, that allows the higher to enter and to direct and command my feelings, thoughts and actions. Only then are things in the proper order — God is in charge of my life and I am led spontaneously.

Question: How do people get mixed up in trying to understand these higher truths?
Answer: Some take them as similar or identical to worldly advice. Take the man or woman who confuses monetary prosperity with spiritual success and security. Vernon assures us you can have little of what this society calls success and be completely victorious in the spiritual realm. A recent ‘Secrets of Life’ quote said, “Practice at placing the spiritual before the material.” It can be a surprisingly healthy shock to realize how little we do this. However, the extent to which we learn to value the invisible over the visible world determines the quality of our inner life. Many people say they want to change themselves but few really mean it. Be one of the few.

Question: I’m just beginning to notice how everyone is so divided and compartmentalized. For example, a friend will talk about the need to be kindly and generous and the very next moment will make a biting, cruel remark.
Answer: Division and lack of wholeness is the price we pay for living outside of the Kingdom of Heaven. We were made by the higher power to be whole and complete within ourselves. In this state we no longer suffer from living in the opposites (for example, “kindly/cruel”) but with great relief and freedom, effortlessly act from the oneness of our original nature.

Question:  Why do nonsensical ideas draw large audiences but few want to listen to a Truth talk?
Answer:  Vernon once said that people are more stimulated by crowds than they are attracted by Truth. He further explained that these teachings will never appeal to the masses of humanity and will never attract a huge following. These astounding truths coming down from on high are for those men and women who are sick and tired of giving their lives over to psychological suffering and who want to risk all to find “the pearl of great price.”

Question: Sometimes I feel really strong in these teachings and other times I’m overwhelmed by what I’m learning about human nature.
Answer: These principles can be a great shock to the aspiring spiritual student who has been taught and compelled to live in Dreamland for years. Truth is trying to tell us that a dream existence is a pale imitation of real life. We must be shocked by how bad it is but at the same time be aware that no one can ever function normally and naturally when living within the confines of an unreal fantasy world. Reality is limitless while daydreams put us into a prison of our own making. So persist on the path and go through the jolts and shocks willingly and you’ll experience something very few people on this earth know anything about. You’ll understand that beyond the terrible facts about human nature lie the wonderful truths about our potential to return to our ‘cosmic homeland’, as Vernon once put it.

Question:  A lot of terrible things going on in this world and on the news scare me to death. Is there really an answer to this?
Answer:  Yes. Vernon was a perfect example of an unafraid human being in this warring and hostile world and he assured us that we could be too. We can actually reach the point of freedom from all fear and anxiety but must go through the terror of leaving all of our self-images, hardened beliefs and emotional props behind. Don’t allow yourself to be distracted from seeking the higher solution and from understanding the necessity of trying to reach the spiritual mountaintop. Be assured that purity of spirit does exist and the healing answer lies beyond the worsening insanity of this world.

Question: Why don’t I always do what’s best for me?
Answer: If we’re living from the ego, it has no interest in doing what is truly best for us. Its only plan and purpose is to lead us into destruction. If we can start to see where it is stealing our life, forcing us to live in negativity, chaos, heartache and defeat, we can go to work in a beneficial way. Is it wise to do harm to ourselves? Absolutely not! These teachings give us so much practical help, as when Vernon tells us to slow down and begin to carefully observe our thoughts and feelings in a new way. Slowing down leaves room for the voice of wisdom to enter and nothing is more useful in everyday affairs than this inner voice. “We must be practical. What good is it to be a nervous scholar or a frustrated hero or a miserable leader? The only worthwhile philosophy is that which shows us where to go at every step of the journey.” Secrets for Higher Success Nothing is more practical than living from our True Self, which always does what is best for us.

Question: Give us a helpful exercise to do.
Answer: In the morning when we get up, at night when going to bed, doing errands, walking into a room, watching TV, surfing on the computer — wherever we are, whatever we’re doing we must always have a true aim in front of us. Start the day with a new note, a specific lesson or guiding principle to focus on for that entire day. For example, you can say, “Everywhere I make a move or have an encounter, I will try as best I can to put God first. I am here to learn from what is happening at this moment, not to just ‘get it done.’” Always having a Higher Mission at the forefront is one way of fulfilling our purpose here on earth.

Question: I’ve always been taught that if you believe you will be saved.
Answer: Where is the growth in that, the effort in that? Anything worthwhile can only be gained through personal effort. But this is a very special kind of effort, one that requires genuine courage. You are asked to abandon your false source of self-wisdom so that the eternal source of all wisdom can take its place.

Question: Where do we tend to go wrong when trying to understand and apply these teachings?
Answer: One of the biggest stumbling blocks is that we believe the mind has the ability to understand the higher way. The mental always demands rigid guidelines and “proof” on it own level, which leads to a belief in surface appearance and the blockage of instant perception. Truth doesn’t operate like this. It provides thousands of facts, clues and hints but the student is required to make the higher connections that will open up a completely new avenue of seeing and understanding. Not even the teacher can force someone to go beyond what the mind insists is accurate and obvious. Nevertheless, the stubborn refusal to do so causes tremendous conflict and pain. Only when someone starts to sense how caged and limited they are by literal thinking will they begin to make efforts to break out.

Question: Why haven’t I heard of these teachings before?
Answer: Society and the mainstream media that influences it aren’t interested in a true and lasting solution to human problems. Their focus remains on what brings more notoriety, more fame, more wealth and more of everything of this world. These teachings are ‘esoteric’, ‘hidden’ from the knowledge of the masses, not by intent but from humanity’s choice to pass right by real aid in favor of what is trendy and popular.

Question: As I study these teachings and apply them to my life, I have noticed my idea of what’s funny isn’t the same as it used to be. I now find myself recoiling when friends tell off-color jokes. Even humor on television seems really offensive. I listen to what people are laughing at and I think, “That’s pretty bad.” Whatever happened to clean wholesome entertainment?
Answer: You are beginning to see how vile and low the world really is. Truth opens your eyes to what is actually going on. You have no doubt noticed that society’s idea of humor becomes more tasteless and vulgar with time. These are simply dark forces diligently working to bring the world down further into self-destructive chaos. It is done through shocks and assaults on what is good and right. As society sinks lower, the offensiveness becomes more brazen. Once people get used to a new “low”, the next assault is going to be more forceful than the last one. Have you noticed that what is “acceptable” today on television and radio would never have had a chance of being broadcast just a few years ago?  Unfortunately, the world is so sick now that it’s just going to get worse but you don’t have to be a part of any of it anymore. There’s a very insightful talk Vernon Howard gave called “The Devil Is a Chipper” that explains it all.  The date of this talk is June 6, 1987 and it’s on the MP3 CD Vernon Howard’s Higher World - Volume 12, Track 3.

Question: Why can’t I ever find any happiness that lasts? My emotions are like a roller-coaster. They keep going up and down, excitement one day, then depression the next.
Answer: Real happiness is not made possible by any exterior occurrence because happiness has no object. If we think it does, we’ll fall victim to every outer change of circumstance, every unexpected event and every challenge to the “comfortable” routines we live from. Since “God has hidden the treasure inside of you” that’s where you must work. Authentic contentment can only come as the result of an interior change of being. And even if we mentally agree with this statement, we must begin to feel and to sense it more and more or we’ll continue to endlessly go flying off to the next distraction or dream.

Question: I want nothing more than to reach the higher center within myself.
Answer: Then you must want to be guided by the Spirit of Truth more than you want your old life and your old ways. This means a voluntary letting go of the old life and the old ways that you want to cling to so desperately. You must get rightly emotional about not wanting to live with a tormenting mind anymore. When you’ve exhausted every other avenue of escape, God knows that and will come to your rescue.

Question: Can you give me an example of a helpful exercise?
Answer: Here’s an exercise given by Vernon that’s been very valuable to me. The gist of it is to always check your work. It sounds strange but before working with these studies, I never wanted to proof or double-check anything I did. But just yesterday, I looked over a bill for the second time and found a serious mistake that could have been very costly. I actually smiled and silently thanked Vernon and these teachings for saving me from so much grief. Nothing could be more practical or rewarding than this kind of self-correction.

Question: But how do I know if Vernon Howard’s teachings can really help me?
Answer: You must be willing to work with the teachings to begin to enjoy their life-healing benefits. When inner willingness meets an outer truth, something rings true inside of you with a definite certainty and purity. Imagine that a friend enthusiastically recommends a movie to you. You can listen to your friend tell you about how great the movie is but until you actually see the movie yourself, you only have someone’s opinion. You then go see the film and after that, you have gained first-hand experience. You are now able to decide for yourself because you went beyond mere words.
     Vernon Howard once said that the Truth itself is a million miles above the words used to describe it. There is absolutely no substitute nor can there be any substitute for the personal witnessing of the power of Truth. And the further you go with this, the more you will learn about and experience this power for yourself.

Question: You know, there is something in me that longs for freedom from all the negativity.
Answer: Then get very serious and honestly ask yourself, “Do I really want to continue to be controlled by these underground fears and shakings or do I want to calmly command every situation I’m faced with?” One problem is that the reaction is lightning-fast, isn’t it? It comes up in a nanosecond. But do you know what? Because Truth doesn’t exist in time, it is quicker than the downward pressure of the familiar response. Slowing down the freight train of clattering thoughts and feelings is an effective way of inviting something higher in that can handle what the old nature can’t handle. A deliberate effort to slow down creates self-awareness which puts distance between the challenge and the self-defeating reply. This is how spiritual memory, the ability to remember these lessons in the moment, is developed.

Question: Why is worry harmful?
Answer: Because worrying always creates suffering. It doesn’t matter if it’s a little worry or a big one. You’re in pain when you’re worrying because the vibration of worry always predicts doom and gloom. The odd thing is, this state is strangely appealing because there is something in us that is familiar with and that likes agitation. It’s a candy store solution for the false self but actually tastes like a bitter lemon! Start exploring worry to see how it’s never provided lasting relief, only more uneasiness. Go through your day just watching it come up and letting it go. Do this enough and you’ll discover there is something else that can handle everything for you.

Question: This idea of fear and refusal to investigate what is really going on interests me.
Answer: Vernon said in a talk (MP3 CD Vol. 8-17) that our self-deception is “voluntary.” Look at your reaction sometime when some underlying hostility of yours is exposed. You do not want to see it, let alone have other people know about it. That’s why these teachings and the New Life classes are a safe haven to learn what we must in order to change. For while they reveal the hidden secrets of human nature and our own wrongness, they also provide the healing facts necessary to keep going forward in the quest for the higher life.

Question: I was listening to a Vernon Howard lecture in which he told the class, “You don’t know anything.” I know I have been drawn to these teachings because I need help, but I also feel like I know some things that are of religious and spiritual value.
Answer: Our position in relation to Reality is somewhat captured by certain movies where the viewer finally realizes that he was not watching “the movie” but “a movie” that was inside of “the movie.” He thought he basically “knew” what was going on only to find he knew no such thing. Our movie is mental knowing; Reality is spiritual knowing. Vernon Howard put it this way: “If you don’t know you are walking across the floor, you don’t know anything else.” We need to become aware that we almost never have even physical in-the-moment awareness, let alone complete self-knowledge of how we operate.

Question: Give me some specifics on what to do to remember higher aims?
Answer: Specifically, study regularly by listening to a Vernon Howard talk or reading one of his books or booklets every day. Make and review notes and post regular daily aims and exercises. And most importantly, do not allow this knowledge to just reside in the mind. These principles are not for memorization but are meant to come alive in us by using everything that happens to us to gain self-understanding.

Question: I’m amazed at what a master Vernon is at presenting these principles in clear and understandable language from every conceivable angle.
Answer: Cosmic principles express themselves in a myriad of ways and he wrote in a variety of styles to reach the widest possible audience. For example, Inspire Yourself is full of parables and stories while Treasury of Positive Answers is composed in a question and answer format. Other books focus on visual pictures (Psycho-Pictography) while some are written in a narrative style like The Power of Your Supermind and Pathways to Perfect Living. But within all of these different elements is contained the pure truth with its combination of classic wisdom and practical guidance that will provide new life-command and lead the way to inner freedom.

Question: What is a helpful viewpoint to have toward these spiritual principles?
Answer: Know that spiritually accurate facts are friendly forces. They are not out to deprive you of something valuable but to take away the pain and give you real and lasting life. And here is one accurate fact to ponder: The battle has already been won by God and all you must do is join in the victory.

Question: I’ve always gotten bored very easily but that isn’t true of these teachings. I keep coming back to them over and over again.
Answer: Your continued attraction to the teachings has created a spark of excitement for what you’re learning. Whether you are aware of it or not, there is a part of you that is not of your usual nature and it is this unique part that responds with interest to the various truths presented here. These authentic spiritual principles will always give you something real to do with yourself so how can boredom set in? And if you persist, your love for what you’re hearing will increase and you’ll come to see that self-work with the aim of self-understanding is great fun. In fact you’ll be stunned to realize that in all honesty every other pursuit, every other thrill you ever went after led absolutely nowhere. As Vernon once put it, “There is no thrill like the thrill of finding your own soul.”

Question: When I fall into a bad state, how do I get out of it?
Answer: In a recent class, a student told of a humorous but valuable experience she’d had years ago, before she ever found this work. When she was young she’d had a romantic breakup of some sort and was going around putting on a “Sarah Heartburn” act. One day, a song came into her mind and she said to herself, “What is that song?” — finally realizing it was “Happy Days are Here Again”! In that moment of recognition, the spell of despair and depression she’d been under was completely broken. This was an early experience of something higher becoming conscious in her and breaking the false power of that negative state. Always remember that a painful state is lifted by the power of the higher. Our aim is to more and more invite that healing force in to do its good work.

Question: New Life has helped me tremendously to understand life and myself. But I still feel like I’m standing in my own way. The principles work but I don’t. Am I hopeless?
Answer: Never forget that evil does not want one person to escape, to get free from its clutches. So as soon as you realized that Vernon Howard’s truthful message was real and necessary, dark forces unmercifully attacked you. These forces give people who are not interested in truth the rewards of this world: perhaps they get money, a great sex life, a big family or career, travel and adventure, whatever is needed to keep them distracted and deluded. Yet when you learn there is a way out and turn your heart towards escape, the demons of hell are put on alert: they must go after that one and bring him back. Now is when you must work, fight for yourself. Truth is stronger than anything. Let God do the fighting for you; you only need fight to stay awake and watch. This is when seeing is everything: that you are not a victim, that only your thoughts are tormenting you, that you can indeed be free. Then the upward horizon becomes limitless.

Question: I’m really worried about all the bad things I hear in the news these days — financial crises, horrible crimes, terrible tragedies and war, war, war. The world seems to be getting worse every day. Where’s the good news these days?
Answer: The world is getting worse but the good news is that you don’t have to be a part of any of it. Dark and unseen forces want nothing more than the destruction of mankind and there is nothing too low for them to do to make it happen. Mankind is walking around in a state of psychic stupor, unaware of the influences of these dark forces and the results are horrific. If you yourself work on becoming more conscious, then you can begin to wake up and your life will start to change! From an awakened state of consciousness, you’ll see that man can never rise above his greedy, cruel and warring self as long as he is in a state of psychic sleep. A sleepwalking man is not aware of what he is doing. Only after falling down the stairs and injuring himself is he vaguely aware of what’s happened. Even then, he’ll probably blame the stairs and not himself. The awakened man sees all the evils and dangers in front of him and understands them completely. As Vernon says, “No human being knowingly harms himself.” The keyword here is “knowingly”. Make it your aim to become more conscious every day and you won’t be terrified by world events because you will see and understand what is happening.

Question: As someone with a religious background, I’m interested in what Vernon Howard says about heaven and hell.
Answer: Vernon made it very clear that heaven and hell exist right now, right here at this moment. A truly higher level of being is heavenly, just as the punishment of a low level of existence is hellish. And both must be seen as such in the here and now — not in some far-off future.

Question: I recently had someone cancel plans to do something with me and was surprised by the intensity of my reaction. I was angry and upset, couldn’t stop thinking about it and lost a lot of energy from it. I’m just beginning to realize that maybe I ought to focus on my reaction and not on the cancelled plans.
Answer: An experience like that taken with a genuine wish to not suffer anymore can be the starting point for an exceptional breakthrough. For example, you can realize with a jolt that never in your entire life did anyone ever tell you that what goes on inside of you is more important than anything happening outwardly. Parents, friends, teachers, co-workers all in one way or another conveyed the message that the externals are not only vitally important but are the only important thing. We spend a lot of time roaming around the jungle of our minds but authentic inner study is almost never mentioned and is certainly not valued in this society. You can realize with tremendous relief that “You have not failed the world, the world has failed you!” By not giving you true information that could lead to spiritual rebirth, the world has betrayed you. On the MP3 CD Vernon Howard’s Higher World, Volume 31 Talk 1, he goes into this in great detail. If you want to know more, I urge you to listen to this talk because written words cannot do justice to the urgency and right emotion with which he gives this explanation.

Question: I want to introduce my friends to Vernon Howard’s teachings because I’ve received so much help from them myself. What book would you recommend to tell them to start with?
Answer: Mr. Howard’s classic book is considered to be The Mystic Path to Cosmic Power but all of his writings and talks are jam-packed with messages that will both inspire and challenge any sincere seeker. If you give a friend our catalogue, they’ll often come across something that they’re personally drawn to. Vernon himself said a person wouldn’t go wrong if they start with the book or books whose titles and descriptions are most appealing to them.

Question: What are the benefits of studying and applying this information to my life?
Answer: Oh, there are so many benefits! A person’s life becomes so much easier and so much more comfortable because after all these years, real understanding is beginning to dawn. Life becomes pleasant, better in all worldly aspects and filled with moments of great relief and delight. Mere existence can be transformed into a life of wonder in which astounding things can be seen. One of the most valuable benefits is the development of a deep understanding that there is no natural need to feel bad about anything — ever. How wonderful is that?

Question: Right now, I’m going through a period of discouragement as I work with these principles. What’s going on?
Answer: When you are working hard to understand all of life, including your past follies and mistakes, embarrassment is going to come up and you’re going to want to turn away. Don’t! To see a pain consciously is no worse than living with it unconsciously. To face this directly leads to the way out. There is tremendous relief when it begins to dawn on us that although hurtful decisions were made and destructive things were done, pure memory exists. You can remember the incident with no pain or guilt attached. What a miracle it would be to be free of the tremendous burden of the past in this way.

Question: I have been reading Vernon Howard’s books, listening to his MP3 CDs and find his work to be wonderful. I’ve thought of coming to a class or banquet but just don’t seem to be able to make it. I’m resistant to taking that next step.
Answer: How much resistance do you have when invited to participate in one of your favorite activities? Hardly any when the interest level is high. So, work to develop more and more enthusiasm for living a life of true command and not one of surrender to the impression of the moment. One day it can dawn on you that resistance in the spiritual realm is literally the choice between light and darkness. More and more you can learn that being asleep is dangerous and that you feel much better when being alert, aware and awake. When refusing a morose, apathetic sleep state, you can have the experience of being a much happier, lighter human being.
     Where New Life classes and banquets come in is to bring the choice between right and wrong into much sharper focus. Truth says it is your life and it is your choice, but also makes it clear that the rewards of choosing the higher are so refreshing and so renewing, why would you ever go back to the old, lazy way?

Question: I have noticed with this work that many of the things I used to do for enjoyment aren’t bringing me much joy these days. Something is happening but I don’t know what. Can you help me understand?
Answer: What you are experiencing is the growth of your true self at the expense of your false self. This is actually a very good thing and a very encouraging indicator of your progress along the spiritual path. You’re coming up against the realization that the old thrills that once amused and entertained you so much don’t offer any genuine rewards for your newly uncovered higher self.
     When you look back, you will remember that the old enjoyments didn’t last very long. There’s a vital clue right there. The false self is only temporarily enchanted with what it calls “thrilling” experiences. It gets bored or upset very easily and there goes the fun! Coming from a pseudo sense of enjoyment, any happiness you might have felt was destined to be short-lived, and ultimately unrewarding.
     Authentic joy comes when something right falls on your true self. As you immerse yourself in these higher teachings, you’ll be enriching the essential you, resulting in an experience of deep happiness, something you will know, and you will feel from yourself. And the higher you go, the freer you will be. You will get more lasting benefits out of attending a Vernon Howard class and learning about all of this than you can possibly imagine. When it comes to happiness, why choose something temporary and uninspiring when you can learn how to have something permanent that is really good for you?

Question: Can you clarify why we want to step back from our usual reactions?
Answer: Vernon said to “be a Watchman in the night.” What have you seen in yourself or society that you sense is wrong? Like realizing that you were faking it in school. Pretending to know when you didn’t know. We have all been told to “never be a nobody, try to be somebody,” get approval, be appreciated, needed, elected, saved, even vilified, as long as you’re not ignored. People spend their lives in endless and useless activities trying to cover up underground emotions and tormenting thoughts. Truth tells us that there is something far above the fray that can observe everything without being affected by it. Not only that, we are equipped to develop that power. The impartial watcher can do what we cannot. It can see and understand everything fully and clearly.

Question: I am holding onto myself. How can I let go?
Answer: You must yield to something outside and above your ordinary world. The Truth itself must be trusted above human thoughts, raging emotions and all of the demands, claims and insistences that you must cling to the familiar, trouble-making self. The problem is that people are thoroughly identified with their duplicitous, fraudulent human natures.
     To break the hardened identification, Vernon tells us to impartially observe ourselves in order to create a separation between the claim and the reality of how we operate. Notice when you even think about rebelling and quietly observing what’s going on in the mind in a detached way, it yells, “This is me, this is my individuality, and no one is going to take it away from me!” But all true higher teachings say the old must voluntarily be given up, abandoned, left behind before anything new can replace it. In the New Testament, it is said that you “can’t put new wine into old wineskins”, because they are brittle and will burst. New wineskins are pliable and will accommodate the expansion of the new wine. In other words, you can’t put new understanding into old mindsets.

Question: Give us some basic information for transformation from the mental level to the spiritual level.
Answer: We are presently dominated by what Vernon calls the false self, the false personality that has been formed by acquired attitudes and beliefs and has actually been imagined into existence. This artificial nature is the cause of all our problems and suffering. It separates us from our essential self — who we really are — from our true and spiritual self. The false personality wants to be a god unto itself and fights fiercely to deceive us and keep us in the dark. Few people ever see through it but we can. Start by interrupting thought and becoming aware of where you are dozens of times a day.

Question: I feel like there’s something preventing me from waking up. It’s like wanting to swim in the ocean but being affected by the constant pull of an undercurrent. Is there a force stronger than my desire to wake up?
Answer: There is absolutely nothing that can prevent you from being a truly conscious human being. In these spiritual studies, you are given the tools of attention, of persistence and perseverance, of observing obstacles, of checking your actual motives, of honest inquiry and of earnestly studying your actions, intentions and wishes, to name only a few. The tools for waking up are as inexhaustible as your willingness to use them.

Question: I sense the liberating power of these truths but I don’t live from them yet.
Answer: Know that “what you seek also seeks you.” The knowledge and the capability to act from the higher viewpoint already exist within your higher nature but must be activated and animated by an intense desire to know what your life is all about. Cosmic essence wants to communicate with your personal essence in order to explain, to clarify and to teach you. The only real question is “Will you be receptive enough to let it?”

Question: How do these teachings relate to what is written in the New Testament?
Answer: A number of New Life students have remarked that New Testament teachings took on new meaning for them once they came into contact with Vernon Howard’s works. Put in another way, these principles you’re studying will help you to see something in spiritual literature you never saw before; that all true teachings have the same essence no matter where or when they’re delivered to sleeping humanity. The language and style are different but the message is the same. For example, you’ll realize sayings from the Bible like “The truth shall set you free,” “No man can serve two masters” and “The things which are not seen are eternal” are vital principles that can provide powerful insight and fresh inspiration in your daily life right now.

Question: What does it mean that Vernon Howard broke through to another world and anyone can find it?
Answer: It means that for anyone who wants it badly enough, there is a way out of the illusion of suffering, fear and loneliness that plagues us on the worldly level of existence. There is no suffering in the Kingdom of Heaven. Why do we endure a life of negativity when we can align ourselves with the power of the Universe? That’s what God, Truth, Reality wants to give us.

Question: Hearing Vernon Howard for the first time on a recorded talk astonished me. I exclaimed inwardly, “What is that?! Who is he?” Even though the words were clear and simple, I had never heard anything like that before. What makes him so unique?
Answer: His message is alive! For it contains the pure Truth. Though his words are familiar, the presence of something very high moved through him from above this world, from out of this world. So his words glow and pulse with energy and life. And we sense that with receptivity we too can have real life.

Question: Why do you say you must follow this teaching by Vernon Howard in order to wake up spiritually? I already know another spiritual teacher.
Answer: Sooner or later you must decide for yourself whether that person really lives what he teaches or is just another one of the many examples of "the blind leading the blind and both fall into the ditch." Wrongness is not going to announce itself as wrongness. False teachers are very clever at leading us astray and will often even include a few truths in with the “weed seeds,” so question everything. Here is a general principle to follow when evaluating any teacher or teaching: the teacher or teaching must challenge you to see what is wrong first. It will never work if you first try to focus on your own “goodness.” Only when self-work is put in this sequence will the right eventually be revealed to you.

Question: When can I expect to reach the end of the spiritual journey? Is there an end to these teachings?
Answer: When I first heard Vernon Howard speak, he described his adventure with Truth, which of course can be our adventure too. He told a story of a man who climbed mountains just to see what was on the other side — a very curious man, one who discovered daily newness. The story was so appealing. With evident enthusiasm, Vernon said, “And the spiritual journey never ends, it goes on and on and on. I climb for the pure pleasure of it.” I never forgot this.
     In my goal-oriented mind, having to “arrive,” I thought there was a finish line to reach with everything. To be connected to a never-ending school of unlimited learning that can provide a steady flow of realizations that just grow and grow is a new and marvelous experience. And what an opportunity it offers. What an inspiration!
     Look at all the books and booklets Vernon wrote and all the talks he gave. He never wrote or said the same thing in the same way twice. He was in touch with endless discoveries and we can be too!

Question: What is one of these discoveries?
Answer: We are not meant to be afraid of our own weakness. Realize that it’s not so much the world out there that frightens us, it’s the fear that we can’t handle what happens to us that’s so scary. By allowing a certain attitude and understanding toward life to be developed within us, this explanation can turn from being mere words into a personal experience. That attitude is: You cannot expect life to give you what only authentic higher teachings can.
     This Work is not about taking life as an end in itself and hoping to eventually achieve some kind of final success and triumph in this world. Your individual life is intended to be used as a means to reach a completely different psychological state with absolutely no fear attached to it. If you place yourself in right relationship toward these teachings, if you understand the direction you’re supposed to be going in, then whatever happens in life will not be able to shake you or destroy you. You’ll care less and less about what the world calls victory and loss and more and more about living a simple, decent and pleasant life with all of its accompanying insights and mental and emotional perceptions.

Question: Vernon Howard seems so stern as a teacher.
Answer: Any true teacher is stern and uncompromising with what’s wrong in an aspiring student. But because “Truth has 10,000 flexibilities,” Vernon Howard is also funny, relaxed, casual and truly compassionate when inviting the student to start the inner discovery process. For example, Vernon once began a class by saying “How many of you would like to live on a level above a tuna sandwich?” Of course, this brought laughter from the audience but also brought home the point that by taking higher information and ‘insults’ with humor, we have achieved a small bit of separation from the stiff, stuffy and constrained false nature that so often controls our actions and feelings.

Question: Could you give us a central theme of Vernon Howard’s teaching?
Answer: Self-facing. We must as much as possible examine our actual inner state at any given moment. This will eventually show us the extent to which negative and agitated mental pictures and feelings overtake us. If we’ll keep at this, the shock of seeing the low level and mechanicalness of our inner life will eventually open the door for something of a truly higher nature to come to us. “Spiritual riches follow awareness of poverty. That is the one and only order of things” (Esoteric Encyclopedia of Eternal Knowledge, “Astonishing Discovery”).

Question: What explains why things happen to us and why some people seem to have so many troubles and problems?
Answer: “Level of being” explains it all. The level of being is the actual life level that a person occupies, not the level he or she claims to occupy. How much understanding a person has of human nature, his own and others, determines what happens in his or her outer life. Vernon once gave a story illustrating this principle. It was about a father at the beach with his children. He threw a stick out into the ocean numerous times and showed them that the tide always brought the stick back into shore. Whatever is put out by us comes back to us. The lesson that “The waves never lie” are words of wisdom that everyone can take out into life. A low level of being, like a life lived in interior anger and bitterness, is released into the world and will always come back to the sender. Are you beginning to see how higher knowledge can not only raise our level of understanding but can also protect us from all kinds of harm?

Question: Some people I deal with cause me trouble and pain. I don't like admitting it and too often anger is there also. How do I think correctly to change it, to be free?
Answer: Yes, we want to work to break out of ourselves so that we’re no longer troubled or pained by difficult people. So, do this.
     1. Determine to no longer permit negative people to influence you in any way.
     2. Know that only when we obey spiritual laws can our relationships be right. We can’t wait for other people to change but must apply the unbreakable law of self-responsibility to our own lives. This means to take responsibility for our own thoughts, feelings and actions no matter what. To understand that we could have responded differently, without rancor or blaming, is the key.

Question: In class it was said that people refuse to see badness. Could you explain more about this?
Answer: If you really investigate society and want to see through people, you’ll see this denial of badness is very common. People have fixed beliefs and opinions and refuse the higher view. They’ll say, for example, that people are basically good (behind this is the unspoken meaning that they themselves are good) and then are shocked by the level of violent crime, drugs, political intrigue and social disorder. They’ll complain and then deny it all with an “It’s-all-good” philosophy.
     If you love these truth principles taught by Vernon Howard, perhaps you’ve tried to share them with others. Did they welcome them and say, “tell me more”? Probably not. People do not want to see the world as it is or see themselves as they are. They’ll label you negative, as they did Vernon, if you “give the show away.”
     Yes, there is a conspiracy of silence. There is willful ignorance, a refusal to learn and investigate what’s really going on. But don’t be afraid to take this on. While the way to Heaven must first go through hell, you’ll get many helps and encouragements along the way. For example, you’ll learn that it is 100% possible to refuse the intrusion of darkness and negativity into your mind and into your life.

Question: I’ve noticed I often seem to be moving along OK through life, but then I feel the pressure and frustration building. How can I stop this strain before the inevitable explosion or lashing out, which I’ve done so many times in my life?
Answer: Realize that you’re unnecessarily living from a wrong part of yourself. That wrong part is always wrapped up with useless and repetitive thought. It then very quickly welcomes its low buddies — negative emotions. Break the spell! Relax from unnecessary thought. Be as fierce as you can, inwardly, against these unwanted invaders. Vernon told us that who we really are has no need to be worried or frustrated over anything whatsoever.

Question: What is an example of an unseen enemy within that blocks crucial knowledge I could have about myself?
Answer: Well there are so many, like vanity, fear, hostility and pretense, even sadness, all of which we take as essential parts of our make-up. Or how about the insistence on winning the argument, even though you sense this course might wreck your relationships with other people in your life? You may not even be aware that you always have to have the last word, that you feel you’re in the right and the error is always in the other person’s viewpoint. You may be able to see this trait in someone else, but what about making it your objective to diligently watch your own behavior, your own thoughts and feelings? Begin to sense that the one away to change your life in an amazing way is to become an “aware” person.

Question: Sometimes I forget my higher aims, getting caught up and lost in thoughts and daydreams.
Answer: The main thing is to work hard at observing your thoughts and emotions. Never let a day go by without snapping the mind's mechanicalness and becoming conscious and aware. It would be even better if we would awaken and ‘come back to ourselves’ multiple times every day.

Question: Give me something encouraging to understand while I study these teachings.
Answer: In a recent class in Colorado, someone brought up a remarkable principle discussed by Vernon in Chapter 11 of his classic book The Mystic Path to Cosmic Power. He said that you receive thousands of both positive and negative impressions every day. They come from both the exterior world and the interior world. “You see a glittering lake, or overhear a gloomy remark” … or “silently recall an incident from yesterday” — and there you have three separate impressions. He explains, “Impressions flow in a constant stream; you need do nothing to invite them and can do nothing to stop them. But the kind of impressions admitted to your mind make your life what it is.” When reaching a certain level of conscious awareness, you’re given the power to only receive healthy impressions and reject negative ones before they can grab ahold of the mind and spirit. Sensing what this truism means for the inner life could lead us all the way out.

Question: It is said that the Truth is out there but where exactly is it? I have been to many church and spiritual services of all kinds, but I am often left confused and unsure about what I heard. I sense the helpfulness of these teachings but how can I know the truth about Truth?
Answer: That’s a very good question. No matter how many people tell you they have found the Truth, only you will be able to know this for certain from yourself. It’s something you experience personally and by no other way. A seed of Truth has been planted inside every man and woman by God. The truth in your heart is waiting to be joined with the larger Truth that it came from. When you fully appreciate and value what you are learning from Vernon Howard’s authentically pure spiritual teachings, you will be so energized that you’ll say to yourself, “This is what I have been looking for all my life!” No one can say that for you. It’s something you must and can know from yourself.

Question: I make a spiritual aim and then forget it. What is happening?
Answer: When we make a spiritual aim, that aim comes from a right part of us. However, at the present time, this truthful part is not strong enough to remain focused on the intention to rise above ourselves. We have a larger wrong part that is threatened and wants to prevent us from remembering. This domineering part dimly senses that if we succeed in our aim, it will be put out-of-business and we will move to a new elevated place within. Forgetting is an attempt by the old self to prevent this movement upward. Another way of looking at it is that distracting us from our aim is a counterattack by the false nature that does not want to let us go. Awareness of this counterattack will help us to remember the aim.

Question: As I study Mr. Howard’s teachings, I have noticed that the world seems to be getting more gloomy, more strident, and more intrusive. Isn’t there anything cheerful out there for us to be encouraged by?
Answer: Yes, there is, but there are forces that don’t want you to be exposed to the encouraging news. You are beginning to see through society’s game, which is good. Grim news stories, which continue to flow in at a remarkable rate, are food for the wrong part of us that is convinced we are here on this planet to suffer. People love the dark side of worldly events because those accounts confirm the darkness within themselves. Everyone feels justified in holding on to what’s making them miserable instead of walking in a new direction, one that is brighter and healthier. This new direction provides everything helpful, everything encouraging that you need.

Question: But what am I walking away from and where am I going?
Answer: You are voluntarily walking away from every negativity from which you now suffer. Vernon explains that all those negative thoughts and feelings that reside in us create “a false feeling of life.” Bad news gets everyone’s attention. It sells newspapers and makes people tune in to news programs. “Now, I have something to think about, to talk about!” we say. This is all a deliberate effort to bring us down and make us give up our rightful purpose in life to connect with the Higher Power. How many encouraging news stories do you see on any given day? Virtually none.
     Make a super-effort to understand that this world wants to keep you in the dark, but that you do not have to stay there. Repeatedly make the aim to ignore the gloomy voices and to come back to yourself at each present moment. Now there’s authentic encouragement! You can start to experience the Light of a new life right now by heading up the right path to where the air is clean, the view is exhilarating, and you will enjoy your time on this earth instead of suffering through it.

Question: What is a true friend in this Work?
Answer: A friend in this Work is someone who does not tolerate my weakness, just as I should not. An experience demonstrated to me how nice this can be. A student and I were talking, and I slipped into bemoaning a situation which I said caused me pain. (As it turned out it was a mechanical, unconscious complaint about something I hadn’t even thought of for months.) She replied, “Well, get over it!” This was said without any harshness or malice, and no sympathy either. It was the perfect and kindly reply. It’s the same advice I should give myself whenever a wrong thought or emotion appears. “What must I remember?” I must remember to say NO, as long and as strong as necessary until complaint is no longer part of my nature, of wrong memory and of my identity. And I might find that I have a true friend as well, instead of driving someone away because of complaint and unconscious blabbing.

Question: But this work is what I consider hard and difficult and requires too much of a commitment.
Answer: We heard this in a recent class: Vernon Howard says in The Mystic Path to Cosmic Power, Chapter 7, “Don’t work so hard at living your life; just let it be lived.” What makes life hard is the resistance to reality. The difficulty is not in working on yourself but in avoiding and fighting life as it occurs. One example of resistance that comes to mind is when Vernon said to “pick up that spiritual book you don’t want to read,” urging us to go against the impulse to look for that next distraction.
     A refrain in nearly every one of Vernon’s talks is how there is a large part of us that doesn’t want truth, how we refuse it, and how we prefer our suffering because it’s familiar to us. What makes life hard is thinking and planning how to take care of myself in an insane world, in fearfully dodging bullets from imaginary enemies, in forcing my will on events and people, and in getting my own way and then living with the results of my wrong choices. It’s more than worth the commitment to not live with that kind of pain and uncertainty anymore.

Question: Then how can I stop resisting and forcing life?
Answer: Only if I see my resistance and its burdensome consequences deeply can I refuse it, and not before. The mental machine will go on lying and refusing to obey higher instructions as long as the artificial self fearfully attempts to control life.
     I can ask God to not let me be me anymore. Getting out of my own way can’t be done by forcing something, but by giving up the “delusion of control.” In the section of A Treasury of Trueness, #1112 says, “I know what to do. I will relax and let the Spirit enter and clear the junk away from me.”
     Remember Vernon’s story about the man steering his own boat and fighting the storms in rough waters? He is told to stop forcing the boat of life, and to go over, sit down and enjoy the ride! “If you still take care of yourself, then God can’t do it…. When you don’t do anything about guiding the boat, no rocks, no storm.” I am the one who has made the journey hard and I must stop it.

Question: What is one of my biggest misunderstandings?
Answer: That you are alone in this endeavor to find Real Life. God is always with you as long as there is a sincere desire to wake up, a persistent effort made to apply these teachings in daily life and a willingness to challenge the voices that say no higher solution is really possible. Unfortunately, people are spiritually asleep to the fact that they are not alone and are tormented by believing they are separated from God. The problem is that the thought-self is very clever at convincing us we must battle our way through life. No, this is the wrong train of thought to follow! Instead of struggling and fighting, we can aim to understand that God is in charge of all and our part is only to be open to higher guidance.

Question: Sometimes the assault of social and political strife seems never-ending, and I feel overwhelmed by it all. What can I do to turn things around for myself when this occurs?
Answer: It’s always helpful to return to basics. We recently discussed again in class the benefit of simply relaxing physically — as in relaxing the jaw or releasing tension in the shoulders. This sends a signal to other parts of us to also quiet down. Being alert, aware and relaxed in the present moment is one key to waking up. You can also pick a psychological or physical exercise with particular meaning to you and remember to do it as often as possible during the week.
     Society is mad and getting madder. But everything is all right with Truth right now and we can join in the recognition of this.

Question: I am puzzled by an age-old question: What is the purpose of life?
Answer: The first few pages of Vernon Howard’s book A Treasury of Trueness give many excellent answers to this question. Vernon tells us that we were created by God and that our real purpose must be to reunite with the powerful force that created us. How do we do this? One of the ways is by actively seeking Higher wisdom, and by refusing to continue to chase after the low false gods that our ego selves tell us we must worship … things such as fame, money, awards, material possessions and the like.  We work so hard to get what we think we must have only to wind up confused, disappointed and angry when we don’t get them … and if by some chance we do get them, they never bring us the lasting contentment we thought they would. “Negative states want to keep you from discovering the purpose of your life,” Vernon writes. We drift through life asleep, thinking we are awake. Our painful reactions to our daily life experiences prove this point.

Question: So, our purpose is to attain a New Life in this life?
Answer: The work at New Life is about attaining a spiritual awakening from the deep psychic spell that has been cast upon us. This is done by studying ourselves, by welcoming the jolts that can shake us up and by making an ardent attempt to become aware of everything that is happening to us. With Truth’s help, this spiritual work knocks down the barriers that stand in our way and allows what is above the mind to show us the way to authentic safety and security. When we see the pointlessness of suffering, for example, we begin to know that something truly good is happening. All this will take time and persistent effort on our part but, as Vernon tells us, “The greatest day in your life is when you hear the voice of God.”

Question: I’ve never seen so many jumpy, depressed people out there in my life. The fear factor seems to be overwhelming nearly everyone in this society right now. How do I deal with it?
Answer: Use your time on this earth to wake up. Only a spiritual solution is capable of permanently vanquishing fear and every other negativity that hounds and torments human beings. Fear is the constant companion of the false nature. And people filled with fear are very easy to manipulate.
     Here’s an example: Vernon has told us many times, “You are not your body.” Yet, people falsely identify with the body and fear for its continuance. People know intellectually that the body will leave this earth at some point in time, but there is a gigantic wall of denial that blocks full cognizance of this fact.
     If we understood that this life is temporary, we would be way more grateful for the life we have been given and would be striving to learn how to live consciously while here in a physical form. We would make good use of our time on the planet to wake up. We would be more rightly serious with these studies. We wouldn’t be afraid of the body’s inevitable demise, because we would understand that the spirit lives eternally. As Vernon states, “The spirit wants nothing from this world. Why should it? It has everything already from God.”

Question: I pray to God for many things — success in my business, a mate to share my life with, good health and many other things. Many times, my prayers are not answered. I get disappointed and confused by the whole process.
Answer: Vernon once said that most prayers never rise any higher than the ceiling of the room in which they were made. He has also said that when people pray, they are just praying to themselves. They are really trying to bolster their own ego. God is not going to give anything to human beings that doesn’t lead them toward genuine understanding. God is only going to give you what will help you. Praying from yourself to yourself is only going to supply more of you, which is not what you need.

Question: So then, what is right prayer?
Answer: If you pray to get something from this world like a new car or a new relationship, don’t you have a dim sensing that there will always be a next prayer for something else down the road? We are not here to perpetuate or to feed the unhappy and never-satisfied false nature. We are actually here to have a change of nature.
     A good reason to listen to Vernon’s talks and read his books is that he tells you what you should be asking God for. If you come across instructions from Vernon on right prayer, follow them. An example is in the booklet 50 Ways to Get Help From God. In #14, it says to “Ask God to give you guiding light.” He tells us that this kind of request will be honored at once and that “God will supply as much Light as you can take.”
     And there is an entire chapter in Your Power of Natural Knowing that beautifully clarifies the nature of “Pure Prayer.” Vernon explains that a pre-arranged prayer is not needed because “it’s your heart that God is listening to.” Just say “I need help” and stop right there. Don’t think and don’t try to help God help you. The Higher Power knows what to do with your request and you must leave it at that. God will do the work for you if you will only allow it.

Question: Why does it sometimes seem as if I’m spinning my wheels in seeing positive differences in my inner life?
Answer: We have to remember two things. First, our false mental self is almost completely entrenched inside of us. It fiercely resists any attempt to dislodge it. So, it’s important to become much more aware of it either defending or promoting itself — which it is constantly trying to do. Watching myself in action — this is the key! This thought self which so tyrannizes and attacks us has been building itself up since we physically came into this world, so it’s going to take more awareness to catch it in action.
     Secondly, any preconceived ideas we may have about “progress”, “improvement”, “change” … can of themselves block the dissolution of the unnecessary mental self. They may simply be ideas, and what we really want is above all mental constructs, both what we call “bad” and what we may call “good”. Working to apply right spiritual principles is like planting seeds — they will grow and work for us if we allow them to. When placed in the nourishing soil of Truth, the spirit grows healthy and thrives. We’ve been given an unlimited number of ways to do right work on ourselves — we just have to stay the course!

Question: What’s a basic principle to start with?
Answer: That we have been led to believe that life success is outer when it is really inner. First, we are required to scrutinize what is false and phony in us. Watching the thoughts, the voices that constantly bombard the mind and lead the emotions into dark places is a great place to start. In Vernon Howard’s Freedom from Harmful Voices booklet, we learn that these voices are not really ours but have been imposed on us through indoctrination by many wrong forces. What a freeing experience it is to get even a glimpse of this!

Question: What does this quote from Vernon Howard mean: “You are responsible for breaking the hoax that was imposed on you”?
Answer: You are giving power to everything that hurts you. At a business meeting many years ago, Vernon said very forcefully, “You are being hoaxed and don’t know it!” You have come into this world and have accepted everything you’ve been told, like the lie that fear, anger, frustration and all other combative and hostile states are necessary. Truth assures us that they are not necessary, but it is your responsibility to do the work to find out what that means.

Question: Please give me an esoteric principle that can lead me all the way out if I apply it.
Answer: One of the great secrets of happiness is to cease to defend yourself to the point where there is no one left to defend. For example, consciously lose the argument. Simply cease to fight. Instead of angrily defending yourself, relax from yourself. No, this is not weakness. It’s the start of the realization that what you're defending is an illusion that keeps you separate from God. The mind will object vehemently to stepping back, to simply watching and being aware of what is happening rather than battling the person or the situation. Despite howls of protest from the old nature, don’t forget this exercise. Make a note of it and work, work, work to understand that tense self-defense gives no protection. It only leads to more uneasiness and more touchiness.

Question: Vernon frequently tells us to do writing exercises (such as to list worries or fears; or to write on a spiritual topic like “How would I behave if I lived from the Spirit of Truth?”). I’ve noticed I have a lot of resistance to doing this. How can I overcome it?
Answer: Vernon knew how beneficial writing is to us and to him in his own work. For example, writing with a higher purpose greatly focuses and clarifies the mind, while then going beyond the mind to provide spiritual insights, fresh sensing. It also proves to you that the answers are actually inside (the Kingdom of Heaven within), which awaken when this kind of effort is made. Like everything Vernon tells us to do, you must do it to prove it for yourself. You’ll see and experience the rewards when you follow his instructions.
     A favorite exercise to begin writing is simply to pick up a pen and paper and put the pen to the paper. Write the topic at the top and begin by numbering each item. You’re on the way. Now relax and receive.

Question: Sometimes I’m just overwhelmed by negative emotions. When this happens, how can I break the state? What can I do about it?
Answer: There are times when we are inundated with a negative emotion (like anger, for example), even to the point of believing we are one with that emotion. Vernon Howard tells us we are not our negative emotions! Having no higher value, these base feelings reside in something called the False Self, which is not part of our essence, our true nature. This False Self is acquired from society and houses all the negative emotions and wrong ideas we have about how to deal with life. This imposter works overtime to convince us that all we are, all we have, is what we think and feel. That is a lie.
     The world tells us to push the disturbances down or to distract ourselves with a movie or something from the refrigerator. A first important step in dealing with this problem is to try to understand that they are not you. We have a part within us called the Observer which can separate from the negativity and see things from a spiritual viewpoint. This Observer, which is small at first, can be developed but only with your willingness to watch your internal states impartially. When the Observer watches, the negativity will become smaller since it cannot stand up to the light of Awareness. If you work with this, you’ll be amazed when you see something like anger begin to fade away.

Question: I sense there is something wrong with chasing after the approval of other people. Even if they seem to like me, I’m worried about keeping their goodwill. I know there is a higher answer, but weakly giving in to the demands of others has been a pattern my entire life.
Answer: You are capable of breaking the pattern. Wanting others’ approval creates a lot of personal strain. And always being preoccupied with their opinion of you and “giving in to get along” is a form of psychological slavery. Start by reflecting from your own experience how fickle and changeable people are; they’re your friend one minute and ignore you the next. But there is a way to leave all this uncertainty behind.
     In this work you will learn to develop a type of inner integrity that will never compromise itself. Vernon said, “Trust only your own integrity,” which is developed by embracing the old-fashioned virtues of self-responsibility and self-reliance. When you catch yourself angling for that smile or that bit of praise and you are able to immediately snap the spell and come back to impartial awareness, you are building up the needed strength to refuse to bow down to an aggressive, demanding person and indeed, to an aggressive, demanding world.

Question: But then does that mean I don’t have friends or that I avoid people? I don’t want to become an isolated hermit.
Answer: Not at all. You can truly enjoy relationships with other people when you don’t want anything from them, when you understand that you do not need anything outside of yourself for completion. And only a whole, undivided human being can truly enjoy life.

Question: Sometimes I feel I have spiritually lost what I had before.
Answer: Recently a dark moonless night on the New Life property in Strawberry, Arizona provided an encouraging and necessary reminder about the nature of the spiritual path. There are two buildings at some distance from each other there, both having outside sensor lights. Anyone approaching one of those buildings in the dark causes that light to turn on, brightly illuminating the immediate building, but also dimly and briefly illuminating the safe path to the next building. However, after a certain time the first sensor light turns off, so that it is necessary to travel in the dark until the next sensor light comes on — which can safely be done. We must pass through darkness — deeper revelations about our human nature — until we get to the next spiritual light.

Question: That is a very encouraging illustration. We can still walk the path in darkness but be headed toward a source of light.
Answer: Vernon Howard said, “Dark revelations must come before bright revelations.” He once described the spiritual path as consisting of a stretch of darkness followed by a stretch of light. At first, it’s like being on a trail in the dark woods, where the sun cannot be seen because of the denseness of the surrounding trees. Then a glimmer of light will appear which grows into sunshine for a while but is then followed by another stretch of darkness. It goes on like this for a long time, as we alternate between insight and sleep. Finally, the stretches of light become longer and longer and the stretches of darkness shorter and shorter, until there is no more darkness.

Question: There is an extraordinary amount of fear in the world today and it’s hard not to get caught up in it. I feel the need to draw closer to these teachings more than at any other time in my life.
Answer: It’s good that you have recognized the power of Truth and sensed that it will help you. It will. What’s important to remember is that dramatic worldly events always provide an extraordinary opportunity to move further up the spiritual path. This is a good time to see how fear is being used as a smokescreen to paralyze everyone. Truth clears the air. Dark forces don’t want us to know that truth always protects those who walk towards its light. We can use this exciting fact to see how fear is trying to keep us from being in contact with our true self, which knows everything is just fine. In response to the scary headlines, terrifying news reports and the gloom that is choking the planet, you can do what New Life students are told: “Don’t get caught up in it.” Use all that’s going on to get to the point in your life where you see through fear and are no longer controlled by it. Vernon tells us, “There is something stronger than the world in each of us.” And always remember this: “Evil only wins in this world.”

Question: Why doesn’t everyone follow what is True? Why do so many get dragged away?
Answer: For one thing, they can’t hear spiritual truth but don’t know they can’t hear, and for another thing, don’t most people you know think they already know? We have to study and work hard in order to yield to truth and allow it to transform us. It may take a long time before we begin to hear and understand what we thought we knew long ago. For example, how many understand the fact that “The spiritual path cuts straight through the jungle of sick human nature”? There is no other way but to see what is wrong first, yet millions insist on their own way and end up living in imaginary spirituality.

Question: I have heard there are such things as cosmic, universal laws. What is one of them?
Answer: One of the most meaningful ones is “The Supreme Law of Spiritual Growth” which is discussed by Vernon Howard on his MP3 CD The Laws of Spiritual Development. In the above titled talk, he explains that the supreme law of life is spiritual growth and he relates a story that beautifully illustrates the law.
     It’s the story of a botanist who wanted to develop plants that could thrive in adverse weather conditions. Starting the plants in a greenhouse, he noticed over the weeks that one plant had grown much higher than the others and he took special care with it, eventually transplanting it outdoors. The plant endured cold and storms but nonetheless developed firm, deep roots and eventually flourished in its new environment. Vernon said we’re huddled with all the other plants in that greenhouse believing we are safe and comfortable, not wanting to leave its confines to go outside where we will face new and unfamiliar trials. But to grow higher, we must leave the greenhouse which symbolizes our willingness to have the false nature melted down by Truth.

Question: Life is hard enough. I’m afraid of what will happen to me if I let myself be “melted down,” as you put it. Why not stay where I am comfortable?
Answer: Because despite what society tries to get you to believe, the greenhouse is not the whole world, and that so-called comfort never lasts for very long. The greenhouse represents the limitation and pain of trying to live from an undeveloped nature in competition with every other undeveloped nature in the world. Outside of the greenhouse, there is no limit to your growth. That’s where you’re meant to be because used properly, the new storms you’ll encounter will strengthen your roots in spiritual soil. Never say, “these storms are too much for me; I can’t handle them.” They are not too much for who you really are.

Question: How can we extend, prolong and retain the energy generated from attending a New Life class or listening to a Vernon Howard talk?
Answer: After a class, don’t get lost in thought and go back to sleep! Keep the state of clarity and the feeling of being energized you have received for as long as possible. That means to continuously observe thoughts and feelings and to keep bringing yourself back to the present moment. Yes, the world will call you back, distract you, may even provide some type of thrill to make you forget your aim. Continue to put your spiritual growth first which means to stop putting the world’s demands first.

Question: With all of the recent unsettling events, how can these truth teachings help me understand what's going on and become less fearful even while I’m seeing others completely losing their minds?
Answer: People often fear what they don't understand. Start by seeing that those behind the crises, conflicts and uprisings are egotistical, self-centered tyrants out for themselves. As Vernon explained in Cosmic Command #384, “Wars are caused by human beings who deny their inner wars.” Fear is a horribly draining emotion which we have unconsciously picked up from years living with and among family, friends and society and we deem it necessary for our very survival. It is not at all! Evil itself knows that people in fear are more easily manipulated and controlled. In addition, fear attracts the very negative events and people that we say we want to avoid. An understanding of these facts can help anyone who sincerely wants to live a fear-free life

Question: Vernon Howard is the first person I ever heard who uses the term “mental movies” to describe how the mind works. What does he mean by a mental movie?
Answer: Much of our energy and attention are taken away by running scenes of past or future events through the mind. These scenes, which are projected on the flickering screen of the mind, can engross and preoccupy us all day long. They keep us chained to the past or future and block the clarity needed to awaken to higher possibilities. Mental movies continually distract us and serve as a mechanism by which we avoid facing our real predicament: that we are refusing to listen to anything but the acquired memorized life. Habitually counting on mental movies to keep us busy and entertained and to fill up space and time is a refusal to turn to God for real help. We’re wandering around in the wilderness, pretending to have it made. Work to let go of these scenes when they appear, and they will start to be replaced by a fresh, clearer perspective.

Question: If there is an opening, what is one fundamental explanation to start with?
Answer:We have not been left without a way out, a way to rise above the world’s chaos.
     A fact stressed by every true teacher can become a shining star of guidance for us in this respect; it is the quality of the inner life that is important, not the exterior circumstances. It is the inner that determines the outer, not the other way around. What good is it going to do me to strive for recognition, money, power, and everything else I’ve been told is important for happiness if my inner life is a wreck? Happiness does not reside in outer activity but is simply a state of inner freedom. It is freedom from everything that now makes us unhappy.

Question: These principles are appealing and make a fascinating study but how can they relieve my financial and relationship problems or my concerns over the future?
Answer: It is very hard for the mind to grasp that a way has been provided in this life for human beings to psychologically transcend the visible world and live in a completely different realm free from worry and torment. If you were living in self-unity according to these principles, you would not feel the same way about your personal circumstances. That doesn’t mean you might not be surrounded on all sides by challenging situations, but you would understand that the most valuable thing in your life is contacting and living from these higher facts. Being one with the true nature is what provides you with protection. God has already won. He is not fearful, apprehensive, angry, discouraged or in any other destructive negative state and does not want you to be.

Question: A man asked me, “Why do you want to study yourself? Isn’t that self-centered?” I’m new to this work and I didn’t know how to answer him. I only know I want more of it!
Answer: This is an excellent chance to build your own discernment to read that person. Did he seem really interested or was he hostile? Never argue. Just see whether he is ready for new answers, then give him a little bit of the basics.

Question: I have been following the teachings of Vernon Howard for many years. His writings and talks have been enormously helpful to me. I understand things about myself and about the world a lot better than I ever did. Currently, however, I am baffled because I feel a lot of fear now in my life and it seems more intense than I have ever felt before. Can you explain why this is happening?
Answer: Your psychic eyes are being opened. You think those feelings of fear are new, but they are not. They have been there throughout your life. You’ve just managed to push them down or put them aside. It takes a lot of unconscious energy to cover over what is really going on inside. Now that you are developing cosmic consciousness, the True You is not only tired of covering up fear, it wants you to see that so much of what you are afraid of has nothing to do with who you really are. In fact, your real nature is giving you the strength to see what fear really is: a hoax. Fear is something that keeps you from growing, from enjoying your life and the impostor inside who has been passing himself off as you is responsible for the whole problem. As you understand more and more of fear’s bluff, the warmth and sunlight of Truth will dissipate the storms of fear within you.

Question: Give me some specifics on what to do to remember higher aims?
Answer: Specifically, study regularly by listening to a Vernon Howard talk or reading one of his books or booklets every day. Make and review notes and post regular daily aims and exercises. And most importantly, do not allow this knowledge to just reside in the mind. These principles are not for memorization but are meant to come alive in us by using everything that happens to us to gain self-understanding.

Question: Then the sufferer is attached and identified with his suffering when it’s not necessary?
Answer: Yes. To grasp this truth requires a big leap in receptivity and understanding. We say, “But, I’m in such pain! I’ve been hurt so badly. You’re telling me I’m inviting this heaviness into my mind and emotions?” Yes, it is all part of our identification with images of ourselves that have been built up over years of living in this harsh, unforgiving world. This fictitious nature encases us like we’re in cement. But these teachings provide the way to break out and live fully where it really matters, in the present moment.

Question: It’s hard to understand that there’s only one solution. Why can’t I just work on the specific areas where I see there’s an issue?
Answer: Because then you’ll just be caught in the endless trap of solving the “next” difficulty, then the next and so on. The mental self doesn’t want salvation. You call it intelligence but it’s really ignorance that insists it knows what should be done about all these difficulties and heartaches. Deep down though, something in you knows all solutions on that level have always failed and will always fail. “You” can’t do it, but God can!

Question: I want to experience this liberation for myself more than anything!
Answer: With a right intention and aim, there will be moments where you feel that something higher is present and trying to reach you. Vernon once said that an experience with God can never be taken as an experience with man. You will know and feel with certainty that you have been touched by something outside of this world.

Question: What is wrong with this society?
Answer: It focuses on the shallow and trivial, not on the vital and the necessary. What is more important than recovering your essence, your soul?

Question: Also, how do I extend moments of self-awareness?
Answer: Develop the desire for awareness more than you want to return to Dreamland. Being a mechanical machine in our quick reactions and repetitious behaviors must become conscious to us. Fight to stay awake and refuse the impulse to habitually and lazily go back to unnecessary thought. The dawning realization that we are not in charge of own minds will help to develop a preference for alertness over spiritual sleep.

Question: I’m confused about what is actually good for me. My family and friends say one thing but in my heart I sense that nothing they recommend, like pursuing more activities, getting more friends or more money, is working for me.
Answer: This sensing can be the beginning of a stunning breakthrough because a necessary stage you must go through is to realize that nothing you’ve tried up until now has worked. While there is temporary excitement, there is no deep and lasting contentment.

Question: How can I know this center within?
Answer: It is already there but must be uncovered and activated, in part by the honest admission that we have never really known how to deliver ourselves from inner pain and negativity. Troubled states may go away temporarily but always come back to reassert themselves, don’t they? With that realization can come the certainty that only something else, something not part of the habitual psychic system, can rescue us. So instead of spending the day looking for comfort and affirmation where it cannot be found, we can choose to direct our considerable energies toward connecting with what is above this warring world.

Question: You say that spiritual principles alone can save us. Please explain.
Answer: Once you have been introduced to the principles of heavenly flight, you cannot stop. You must determine to go all the way.
     By reading, by studying, by pondering, by applying the exercises in daily life, by praying to and inviting something outside the circle of self to come in, by remembering to stay in the present moment, by catching negative emotions and letting them go, and by persistence, the grace of God becomes active and begins to change you through understanding. When negativity is booted out, a vacant space is created that allows something else to enter.

Question: Please say more about becoming an independent thinker.
Answer: Ponder the fact that these facts are all a big insult to the so-called intellectual, to whom thinking is supreme, a false god. Which is why there is endless debate, theorizing and lack of true conclusions in all of society — in the ivory towers, on Wall Street, in churches, governments and the home. Schools teach by having us memorize rather than reaching deeper understanding through a faculty that is there but remains largely undeveloped. In fact, it is commonly denied in so-called higher educational settings that a higher knowing, sensing, or instant perception even exists. (See Vernon’s wonderful list of those in Your Power of Natural Knowing essay of the book by the same title.)

Question: So thinking for yourself free of conditioning flows from reaching this level of higher understanding?
Answer: Yes. Spiritual understanding is not on the lower level of thought. This is the esoteric secret of the ages, that a knowing exists above thought or ideas; you can feel the Truth with a sense above the mind. It is in the realm of consciousness, accessible with a different mode of perception than the intellect. It might be called “common sense” or wisdom or sentience, but like saying the word God, words are not sufficient to convey the meaning, which must be sought through effort and awareness and personal experience.

Question: What do speakers or students at New Life mean when they say, “It’s just an idea”?
Answer: Ideas (thoughts) pick us up and carry us to places, tell us we must get a certain job or house or spouse. They drive us like machine pinballs to act in odd ways or say things we believe we thought up ourselves. Ideas are just floating around our heads like gnats in the atmosphere. We’ve picked them up from everyone we’ve met growing up, reading, listening to the media, etc. One false idea stuffed away in our memory is that we have “original ideas.” Vernon Howard made it clear that’s only a self-flattering myth. We are really imitators and memorizers. As we are now, we don’t actually think for ourselves. Yet we can be independent thinkers — by following the instructions of these exceptional teachings.

Question: What is something I may have overlooked that will help me to grow spiritually?
Answer: Genuine enthusiasm for what you have found in these teachings can take you a long way in this work. If you really understood that these are the most valuable principles you’ll ever encounter and that they will lead you to a brand-new and genuinely happy life, wouldn’t you be excited to know more? Enthusiasm for learning all about how to escape the pressures and propaganda of both the inner and outer worlds can propel you from a mental level of understanding to the uplifting and inspirational realm of higher feelings where you know you’re on the right path and will never stop walking toward the Light.

Question: Self-responsibility isn’t talked about very much in today’s society.
Answer: Yes, and that is why everyone is so confused and unhappy. The virtue of self-responsibility isn’t valued these days, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a requisite for true personal change. And just because few know or care of this law’s existence doesn’t mean it is not in operation.
     But it is long difficult work to understand this because the old nature — our ego — will fight back. It doesn't want to lose. It wants to lash out at the world and continue to think, “I am right, and you are wrong.”

Question: I do sometimes sense that I’m missing higher messages because my restless and noisy mind is blocking them.
Answer: The mind is addicted to its wandering and restless movements, but have you noticed that even with all that activity, there is never a final resolution that results in lasting contentment, quiet and security? That’s why one of the most valuable spiritual tools we have been given is full awareness of this present moment. Though they don’t put it into practice or even really understand what it means, people throw this out as a catch phrase nowadays in an attempt to sound spiritual and profound. But the Reality of what is behind “being in the present moment” or in “keeping your mind where the body is” can absolutely free the spirit. The past is gone, and the future hasn’t been revealed yet, so the present moment is the only place where life occurs, where the true self can awaken and come alive.

Question: What is the best way to spark someone’s interest in these teachings?
Answer: Vernon explained that you can give people the basics, but you cannot force them to be interested. Once they know a little, the rest is up to them to either pursue or turn away. The best way to encourage others in your life is to work on yourself and show them by example the massive benefits of trying to be more conscious.
     However, we have to remember that people are very resistant to even beginning to question their current way of living. Their egotism springs up and says, “I am already working on myself and what makes you think that these teachings will help any more than what I’m currently pursuing?” That’s why there must be more than idle curiosity there when an introduction to Truth is given. A person has to be able to admit that their present ways aren’t leading them to what they may even feel in their heart is possible. It could be just a faint feeling, but if you have felt it, then you cannot ignore the energy behind it which is trying to lead you home.

Question: What is someone who knows the answers to life like?
Answer: Unlike anyone else you’ve ever met. There are many characteristics of a person who is awakened and here is just one of them, one that we can be very thankful for. Such a person has no motive for personal gain when teaching the Truth. Did you watch your reaction? Was there a part of you that argued in disbelief that such a person could ever exist?
     It is hard for us to conceive that there is someone who is not driven by earthly rewards and does not need to get anything from anyone. But if you’ve read or listened to Vernon Howard and you’re at all receptive to the message, you sense he’s different. He could help us precisely because we had nothing to give him. He already had everything. And he spent his time here doing whatever he possibly could to let others know about this state of individual spiritual awakening that is our birthright and that we can have right now while living in a physical body on this earth.

Question: I find my mind returning to memories of the past all the time, some pleasant, some very painful. I know that’s not the place I should be living, but I seem to be carried away all the time by the pull of “yesterday.”
Answer: Unless we’re living a higher life, we’re all memory worshippers. We believe reliving a memory, even a painful one, provides the security of knowing who we are, but it only keeps us anchored to the lower level of the false self when we could be soaring above the clouds right now. One way to cease being a memory worshipper is to detach your sense of self from the memory, as if it didn’t happen to the real you, which, in reality, it didn’t. Wouldn’t it be a relief to remember any incident or any experience with no personal pain connected to it at all? It’s perfectly possible to do so if we want it more than we want to cling to our old ways.

Question: I want to learn how to handle an upsetting situation without falling apart.
Answer: The inability to handle the crisis calmly is trying to teach you something. You must begin to question everything you’ve ever been taught and picked up from society and from other lost people. For example, the idea that the world is too much for you. Vernon said, “You are too much for the world!” In other words, your negative reactions are thrown out there and adversely affect the level of everyone in your vicinity and beyond.
     People know only what they’ve been told to go after in this life, and they don’t like it when their wants and demands are denied. But what you really yearn for is a life free of strife, fighting and pain. In other words, a higher life where you are in complete command of yourself. Begin by handling the crisis in the moment without the interference of the memory of past mistakes or fear of future events. Keep bringing yourself back to “right now”. The anger, the trepidation, the negativity can’t occupy the same psychological space as pure awareness.

Question: How do I advance toward becoming strong, not in the world’s definition of outer aggressive strength and power, but in the view of God, Truth, Reality?
Answer: When it starts to dawn on you that you’ve been utterly hoaxed about what’s important to pursue in this earthly existence, you’ll develop a much more intense interest in discovering more about your human nature and how much it interferes with the flow of life. There will be much less fear in investigating what’s wrong with you and with everyone else. You won’t want to turn away as much from seeing things as they really are. At the same time, you won’t have nearly as much interest in going after the carrots the world dangles out there to entice you. These changes in and of themselves will advance the development of inner strength. You’ll stop trying to get personal credit and applause for your actions and start to understand what it means to yield to something higher.

Question: I like the idea of trusting the Higher, but letting go of myself scares me. I won’t know who I am.
Answer: No, you won’t know who you are. And that’s the point. You must go through the wrenching experience of separating from the false nature before the Higher will reveal your true nature to you. More than once, Vernon gave a story of someone standing at the edge of a high cliff. The person is being hunted and pursued from behind but has reached the end of the road and has nowhere to go. There is no way out except to leap off the cliff, which represents rejecting suffering to plunge into the unknown. But Vernon said when the person jumps, “They are held aloft by Angel’s wings.” Rescue is guaranteed, but the leap away from the ordinary must happen before we can experience the extraordinary.

Question: I have been studying these teachings and attending New Life classes for quite a while now. Despite some definite positive changes, there are still negativities that sometimes seem to maintain a firm grip on me. Do you have any advice?
Answer: Stay the course! A bad habit, negative states, self-harming opinions, and attitudes — all belong to the strange human habit of unnecessary thinking. It’s our thinking about it, itself, that keeps it going. Ponder this a bit, and you’ll be able to come up with certain wrong things that have fallen out of your life as you’ve worked with the spiritual principles presented by Vernon Howard. There are things that used to occupy a lot of your time and energy that you rarely think of at all anymore. They don’t “belong” to you any longer. Work to drop the unnecessary thoughts about, the self-recriminations toward, and the attention to the remaining negative, self-harming states.
     And you must bring self-honesty to bear: Do you still believe these negativities bring you satisfaction, a reward of some kind? That alone will keep them around. Do you get some sort of thrill out of it, does it keep an image or identification inside you in place? Vernon said that no man consciously injures himself, so you must see how a self-harming state is just that, an unconscious, self-harming state.
     We also would do well to remember that all sorts of self-harming states belonging to our false self have had their way with us for many years. We picked them up from early childhood onward, and there is very little in society in the way of right guidance for ridding ourselves of them. They’ve likely been inside there for a very long time. We had to find the pure Truth in Mr. Howard’s teachings before we could slow down enough to really see what has been going on, and then begin to work to reverse the damage. Work patiently to increase your efforts to be aware of everything that goes on internally, and you’ll be able to watch these remaining stubborn imps fall away too.

Question: What can help me to remember there is a God? How can I know it from myself?
Answer: Remember the right feeling you have when you wake up and feel your feet on the floor. When the night sky clears, and you glimpse trillions of stars. When you know for certain you can trust nothing and no one in society and you are glad to be free of trying. When you “descend into hell" — into the chaos of your own artificial nature, and you find nothing but fear and hostility. When you’ve tried and failed thousands of times to find permanent rest and you know the old nature can do nothing about it. Now God can show you that the counterfeit imitator is not your true nature and that there is something higher above you which can provide real comfort.

Question: But we live in a physical world. Shouldn’t we be grounded here?
Answer: Our bodies live here, but Truth is trying to wake us up to a much broader perception of Reality. God does not want us to be earthbound! There exists an all-powerful force that created human beings, all of nature on this planet, in fact the entire universe. This power is a million miles above where we now reside, but we were meant to live within its protection and guidance.
     Our purpose is to “unite with the Cosmic Whole,” as Vernon puts it. But our obstinacy and the buffers it creates are blocking its healing power from reaching us. There is a secret world of safety we can live in right now, but it will not be revealed to an obstinate, hostile fighter. All the defensive weapons we employ to keep the facade in place must be let go of. It’s not too much for us to understand this if we really want to. We must simply admit we don’t know the answers to life, but that Something Else does.

Question: Sometimes I feel cut off from the truth — that all is lost.
Answer: Yes, there will be times when you feel disconnected from the truth, but then if there is true sincerity inside, you will know even if only for an instant that all is NOT lost. This experience could even produce the sensation of something physically rising inside of you. When higher contact is made, it’s very helpful to try prolonging that sense of connection for as long as you can. But at some point, a false distraction will intrude and make you forget what you’ve experienced. But always remember that what is true can never be lost. Whatever you have earned spiritually can never be taken away from you.

Question: Why do I have so much trouble inviting something higher into my life?
Answer: Because even though there is some attraction to Truth, human stubbornness and self-will prevent further exploration. Darkness loves to keep people confined in a very limited personal space, focused only on what is visible. Spiritually asleep human beings only care about what they can experience through their physical senses. They’re content to let that level explain the whole of life to them. Yet even science tells us there is an entire world of natural forces that we’re unable to see with our physical eyes. We don’t see radio waves, we don’t see gravity or many other scientific phenomena, but they definitely have a powerful effect on all life forms on earth. But spiritually asleep human beings, who rarely ponder the immensity of creation, use only their limited eyesight and other sense perceptions to determine their understanding of what is real.

Question: I have been hit hard by a very distressing situation in my life and feel as though I’ve been abandoned by God.
Answer: God never abandons you! In a time of trouble, you are choosing to be overwhelmed by your chaotic thoughts and raw emotions when you have within you the capability of turning to only the Higher Power itself. Vernon Howard gave a stunning talk on June 10, 1988 (Vernon Howard’s Higher World, Vol. 20, Talk 19) in which he emphatically warned us, “Do not curse the storm” but during the crisis, “put your mind and your spirit on God and God alone.” The higher can’t reach you when you are shaking yourself apart, only when you have given up your desperate demands and have begun to understand that there is a profound lesson to be learned in the very storm you’re railing against. The lesson is twofold. You will know that “God first approves, then He proves” and you will rest in the certainty that “The spiritual ship of life is stronger than any storm.” Turn all of your resolve into knowing that God does exist and when you succeed at this, “the storm will be gone and ou will be healed.”