WN Interview with James Ray

In his latest book Harmonic Wealth, The Star of "The Secret" shares his secrets for creating the life of your Dreams.

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We would like to congratulate you on your book Harmonic Wealth. Can you briefly describe for us what you mean by harmonic wealth? And what type of person, do you feel would be interested in reading your book?

So many of us in our western society are hung up on trying to achieve a balanced life even though it simply doesn’t feel like there’s enough time in the day to give an equal amount of attention to family, career, health or spiritual needs (let alone any recreational pursuits). How does your philosophy address this?

First of all, I’m going to say something that is probably a little contrary to what most of us have been conditioned to believe. I really think that the concept of balance is one of the greatest causes of lack of fulfillment and disharmony on the planet. And the reason is because balance is not achievable! If you look at a scale in perfect balance there’s nothing happening, there is no vitality, no life, no dynamism; it’s just not realistic. The concept of balance tells us that every single thing in our lives should be at a perfect ten all the time, and if that’s not happening, we feel frustrated, we feel a lack of commitment. Harmony is much more realistic. It’s dynamic; more like an orchestra. An orchestra is not in balance; it is in harmony. If all the instruments of an orchestra are being played at the same time, at the same pace, at the same volume consistently, would that be a symphony? No. That would be called heavy metal! So what is happening in an orchestra? Well, sometimes the brass section leads, sometimes it’s the woodwind, sometimes it’s the bass, sometimes it’s the drums, but they all come from this diverse perspective at different times and different quantities to create a symphony.

Harmonic wealth is really about what I call the five pillars; Financial, Relational, Mental, Physical and Spiritual. When all five pillars are in harmony, not balance, but in harmony, then you are truly wealthy. Just because you spend ten hours at work doesn’t mean you have to spend ten hours in the gym to be healthy. Thank God! But what you must do is put some energy into each of these five pillars consistently. You run into problems when you totally neglect one of the pillars. That’s where you are maybe making money but you’re relationships are horrible, or you’re really spiritual but you’re sick and broke all the time. Harmonic wealth is about experiencing harmony and wellbeing in all five pillars of life and about reframing this whole idea of balance which is really not achievable.

Let’s talk about the Law of Attraction. Many would recognize you from the movie, The Secret. We know that the movie was a short intro into this way of thinking and it sure has got a lot of people talking. But many felt that the movie skipped over the part about having to back up your desires not just with action, but also with discipline and consist effort and dare I say it? …Hard work. Is this just a belief or is it the reality of this world? What does it really take to manifest your desires?

One of the challenges with The Secret is that it tells you what you need to do. It doesn’t tell you how to do it. And so this is what I hear frequently: “I’ve watched The Secret, I’ve read The Secret. I know that I need to change my thinking and my life in some way but how do I do that?” You have to practice what I call going “Three for Three”. Your thoughts, your feelings, and your actions. All must be firing in alignment. Those who create what they desire and deserve in life are going “three for three”. Anyone who is not creating what they desire is missing one of these components; either thoughts, feelings or actions. Most frequently, it’s the action element that is missing. One of the great misnomers of The Secret is that if you sit around visualizing, your desires will manifest. I hear this all the time. People say “you know I’ve got my dream board, and I’m sitting in my living room just visualizing my millions coming into my lap”. Well, guess what? If you keep doing that, they’ll come and take your furniture away! You’ve got to go “three for three”. You have to change the way you think, you must change the way you feel, and you’ve got to act, and you’ve got to act boldly! Fate favors the bold. Anyone who tells you that all you have to do is visualize and put it out there and it’s going to come to you is not telling you the real truth. I’m really passionate about this by the way, because there are so many people who are disappointed and frustrated; they believe that all they have to do is think about something, visualize it, and then it’s going to happen. And then when it doesn’t happen for them they say “well, you know this stuff doesn’t work”. Well it does work! But you have to go “three for three”. You must follow the full chain of events through to completion.

We are inundated today with different spiritual teachings all offering their own versions of “how one should be” to be happy. Some of these messages are contradictory. For instance, Oprah and Eckhart Tolle recently held a global event on the internet which focused on being in the “Now”. There doesn’t seem to be any emphasis on desires or on creating your dream life. You simply deal with what arises when it arises staying in the Now, not resisting desires but not really putting any attention on them either.

The theory is that by always being in the “Now”, you will eventually attain a state of permanent bliss. Some versions of this approach suggest that trying to manipulate the ever-changing outer world into a state of perfection is not only impossible but a waste of time which only prolongs your suffering since you’re looking for happiness in the wrong place.

Your approach seems to be more pro-active and practical. Can you share your views on this (namely being in the “Now”) and how it fits or doesn’t fit with what you teach?

Where do I begin? That is a really long topic and one that I am very passionate about. Let me take this one step at a time. You’ve mentioned that there is a “more spiritual” approach. Well, everything is spiritual! If you go to the heart of any great tradition it maintains that God created everything, correct? It doesn’t matter which one because you know it all comes from God. Quantum Physics now proves to us that all things are comprised of the same energy. So call it God, call it energy; every scientific modality, every “religion” tells us that everything comes from the same source and that all things are the same. Therefore, it is every bit as much spiritual to want to have a sexy body and to drive a porshe as it is to meditate and burn sage and chant. I say this with respect to everything. I have been initiated into three Shamanic orders, I’ve studied in the mystery schools of Egypt, I’ve been exposed to every great spiritual tradition which exists on the planet, and there’s a time and a place to burn sage and to chant. Yet, what we are conditioned to believe is that every single thing of this Earth is non-spiritual and everything that is etheric or non-physical is spiritual. This is just not true. You know the creator and created are two opposite poles of the same eternal dance and anytime you damn any part of creation, you also damn the creator.

Now, I’m going to get on a roll here, because what I want us to first understand is that all things are spiritual. Where is God not? Where is spirit not? Where is energy not? A pine tree or a porshe; it’s all the same stuff. Put it all under a high powered microscope and the only difference will be the frequency or rate of vibration.

Now Eckart Tolle (I respect him greatly), and what he’s propagating is largely an Eastern way of thinking. You know, I started studying Buddhism when I was 18 years old and I found that desire gets a bad rap in Buddhism. And yet, if you trace the root of the word desire back to its Latin origins it really means “of the stars”, “of the higher self”, “of the father”. Your desire is really your higher self pulling you, prodding you, challenging you to move forward and become the spiritual being that you choose to be. You don’t really want the million-dollar home. You think that you do, but what you really want is to become the person who has the power to create the million-dollar home. What you want is the spiritual growth that it takes, the expansion that it takes. Spirit is always in support of fuller expression and expansion, and as a spiritual being the greatest way to measure your expansion is with the things that you accomplish in the physical world.

You know, I spent years of my life in meditation and really being pretty much a recluse. It was very easy to be the Buddha when I was sitting in my meditation room by myself. But, when I got out and started running my own business I found out how Buddha I wasn’t. I mean, when you get into a relationship with a romantic partner you find out how Buddha you are not, because all your stuff kicks up. That’s the way we really get a chance to measure our spiritual consciousness and who we’re becoming; by getting into the world and going after something and seeing how much harmony and how much well-being we can maintain in the world, versus sitting on the couch alone in some kind of far off cave.

I have heard some people say that when you want something you should just intend it or ask for it and then let it go and forget about it. Then there are others who say you must ask for something and then focus on the feeling of having it until the desire is fulfilled. Which way would you say is more effective and aligned with how things work?

Well, I think that both of them are absolutely necessary and yet insufficient. Again, you’ve got to go “three for three”. If you sit around thinking about things all day long then that’s where they’re going to stay, in your thoughts, in your head. So many times I ask people, “Do you have a list of intentions?” And they go “yeah”. “OK, so where is it?” And they say “It’s in my head”. I say “that’s exactly where your intentions are going to stay, in your head”. And then there are others who say “well I have to feel the feelings and those feelings are vibrations and they’re going to pull into my life exactly what I want”. That’s true, but it’s still incomplete. Again, you must practice “going three for three”. You don’t often hear a lot of individuals talking about the process through to its completion. Your thoughts, feelings and actions must all be fired in alignment. You must practice something I call Living from the Outcome. Now this is very significant because most people are living toward an outcome, and if you’re living toward an outcome the message you’re sending out to the universe is, “I don’t have it”. And so, you’re in contradiction. The message you’re sending out through your feeling tones and thoughts is “I don’t have it”. Most people don’t get what they want because they’re always wanting. You’ve got to live from the outcome.

Let me be real practical here. For example, if you want to create $100,000.00 in the next year, then you must ask yourself, “what would a $100,000.00 income earner do right now?” And then you do it. You must live from the outcome. Make decisions based on where you’re going versus where you are now. If you want to create your dream body then you must ask yourself in the moment of decision, “what would a person with my dream body do right now?” They would push back from the cheesecake and get to the gym. And so you must do it. You know, most people never create what they desire in life because of this final component; action! Living from the outcome is the answer. Again, to reemphasize, you must make decisions in the moment of decisions based on where you’re going versus where you are. You must turn away from appearances. The Christian proverb says, “Judge not by appearances”, because appearances are nothing more then the results of your past thoughts, feelings and actions. When you look at your appearances, that’s not who you are; it’s who you used to be! And if you don’t turn away from appearances and live from the outcome you’ll never even scratch the surface of what you’re capable of achieving.

An answer that comes to mind in response to what a person who earns $100,000.00 might do right now is, well, they might go shopping.

Yeah, I’m not talking about imprudence here. Just because I’m going to earn $100,000.00 doesn’t mean I’m going to go out and buy an Armani suit. What I’m going to make use of, in relation to living from the outcome, is my vision and my attention. So when it comes to the moment of asking “do I need to market?” and “I don’t think I have the money”, well what would a $100,000.00 income earner do in this moment of decision? They would do the marketing. So I’ve got to do it. Do I need to get out and prospect for new clients? Many might say, “Well, I just don’t know if I could do that very well”. Would a $100,000.00 income earner say that? No. They would get out and prospect. So, that is what I have to do. It’s all in relation to the things that move you in the direction of your vision and attention.

Here are a couple of questions. Ask yourself, in that moment, “Will this decision accelerate the achievement of my vision or intention?” If the answer is “yes” then go to question number two.“If money were no issue, would I make this decision?” If the answer is “yes” then you make the decision. So it’s in the moment of decision in relation to where you’re heading and where you’re going. Does that make sense?

So its not, like you say, imprudence; it’s not just free spending. It’s living in the house in your mind and essentially acting from that viewpoint. Not necessarily buying the house when you don’t have the actual money in your bank account, but doing what is necessary to get the money you need to buy the house.

Exactly. So hook up with a realtor, go out and start looking. And more importantly, ask yourself, “why do I really want this house?” Because nobody really wants a house. What you want is what you think the house will bring to you. The feeling that you think the house will bring to you and ultimately, going back to what we were talking about earlier, what you really want is the spiritual expansion that it takes, the growth and evolution that it takes to become the person who can achieve a higher level in the physical world. 

Well some might take that and say, “ok, if spiritual expansion is all we are ultimately looking for, then why give any attention to any of our desires?”

Well, because you cannot “not” have a desire. Every single individual who wants to talk like what you’re suggesting here, has desires. The desire to not have desires is a desire! We are hard-wired to have desires. Desires are how our higher self pulls us and prods us to move forward in life, to go out and pursue our dreams. Yes, you’re going to run into obstacles, you’re going to run into frustrations. Potentially you’re going to run into hang ups and road bumps, but that is where you get the opportunity to grow. We grow the most in our challenges, not in the rose garden. The challenges and the difficulties which come our way in life are the things that cause us to grow, to expand, and to handle higher levels and still stay in a place of equilibrium and harmony. 

The subtitle of your book is called The Secret of Attracting The Life You Want. What if the life I want involves receiving ten million dollars without doing any external activity such as starting a business or dealing with people. I don’t really want those headaches. We hear of people winning huge lotteries. Is this just good karma? Why would anyone settle for a long drawn out process of trying to build financial wealth when they can go for the biggie right off? Is it wise to use our time applying the Law of Attraction in order to attract a windfall like the lottery?

Trying to win the lottery is a total waste of time. In fact, if you look at statistics, 95% of the people or more, who win the lottery are flat broke within two years. And here’s another one; 80% of professional athletes file bankruptcy within two years after they play their last game. Now, what’s going on here? The fact is, if you were gifted with something in the world that you don’t have the power to create for yourself, the universe will take it away from you.

People who win the lottery are interviewed time and time again and they say “it’s the worst thing that ever happened to me.”  “I wish it never happened to me.” They were given something that they did not know how to create for themselves. If the life that you want is to create ten million dollars while sitting on your duff doing nothing, then you need a wake up call because that’s not really what you want. You think it is, but if you really dig down deep you know that it’s not. Just take a look at people who retire at age 65 and do nothing. The statistics tell us that they expire within a couple of years because they have no purpose; they have no meaning in life.

Don’t wish for an easier life. An easier life is an illusion. Wish for greater capacity and a greater ability to ease elegantly through life because that’s what you really, really want; greater capacity and capability to handle the larger difficulties in your life so you don’t go into a melt down. Your self-image, your self-confidence and your self-esteem depend on those things. 

Do you have any parting words for our readers which you feel will help them be the best that they can be?

Yes, I would just like to say that regardless of where you are today in your life; if you feel like you’re at the bottom of the barrel right now you can turn that around very, very quickly. If you feel like you’re doing pretty well and you’d just like to take it to the next level, you could do that very, very quickly also. All great traditions have told you that you are created in the image and the likeness of the Source. You are absolutely unlimited; you have a spark of greatness within you and it’s just waiting to be fanned in the flames of unlimited passion and achievement. That spark is not outside of you, it’s inside of you and my great wish for you is that you remember who you truly are and go out and create the God given life that you deserve.

World Thought Leader, James Arthur Ray has traveled the globe, devoting more than two decades to studying the thoughts, actions, and habits of those who create true wealth in every area of their life. You can learn more about James, his work, and Harmonic Wealth-creating happiness and success in every area of your life, by visiting:

www.jamesray.com or  www.harmonicwealth.com