Dr Joe Vitale - Master the Law of Attraction

Full transcript: Dr Joe Vitale on London Real

5:44 This is London Real. I am Brian Rose. My guest today is Dr. Joe Vitale, the spiritual teacher and author known for your appearance in the hit movie The Secret. You’ve written 70 books that include the best sellers The Attractor Factor and Zero Limits, which dives into the Hawaiian practice for wealth, health and peace. You’re best known for your ideas on the laws of attraction, abundance mentality and hypnotic language.

6:04 Joe, welcome to London Real. Hey, this is a thrill to be here. Thanks for inviting me. You know, it’s great having you here. What’s it like being in London for the first time, you know, coming from Texas?

6:13 Uh, what are your thoughts of this place and, you know, what’s going on here? I love London, absolutely love it. I’ve never been here before, only been here for a couple days, unfortunately leaving tomorrow, but I plan to come back because there’s so much to see, so much to do, so much to eat, so much to shop, so much to learn, the history and everything else, that I’m actually blown away, impressed, inspired, informed. I can’t wait to come back. I’m, you know, I already forgot what your question was, but I think it was something like, what do I think of London?

6:47 Yeah, I love it. They love it. And right now you’re in Austin. Why? I know you’ve lived all, you know, different parts of the country.

6:53 Why Austin for you? Is it a place that has got the right vibrations for you, or what’s going on there? Well, the joke is I tell people I live outside of Austin because that’s where my house is. So that’s a good answer. Partly for the climate, which sounds a little weird because it’s 170 degrees Fahrenheit there and a 100 humidity, and you say London has a heat wave going on.

7:15 To me it’s kind of like a relaxed cool front that’s happening in London compared to Texas. But I was born and raised in Ohio, which is up in the north Midwest, and so you go through winters, you go through freezes, you go through cold fronts and all of that. I didn’t like it, so I moved to a warmer climate. Lived in Houston for 20-some years, then outside of Austin and been in the where I’m at now for 18 years. So it’s home.

7:39 Yeah, it’s home. You know, I want to talk about your books. I want to talk about, you know, some of these Hawaiian ideas because I think they’re really interesting, maybe even some of your music and some of your strongman stuff. A lot of things to cover. A lot of things.

7:50 But you know, maybe we should start off with that movie from 12 years ago, and a lot of people know that, the movie The Secret. I remember watching it. I thought it was kind of pre-internet but I guess it wasn’t, but it was, it was the time when you couldn’t necessarily watch it on YouTube and yet it still kind of went viral in a way and a lot of people watched, a lot of people got behind it. And I was wondering, looking back 12 years, what you think, what that phenomenon was at that point?

8:16 Was it the first time the world had kind of got exposed to a lot of the ideas and, you know, what do you make of it and what was your part in it? Good Lord, that’s a lot of questions. I know, right? About something that is a historic milestone in movie making. Yeah, maybe describe the movie first because some people might not know it.

8:32 Oh, if you haven’t seen the movie, if somebody hasn’t seen the movie, please go watch it. It’s everywhere. It’s on Netflix, it’s on Amazon, you can buy it, it’s in hotel rooms. I think the website’s thesecret.tv, so it’s still there. Um, boy, the movie came out in 2006.

8:47 Most of it was filmed in 2005 and I was one of the lucky ones to be filmed for it, and I was invited because I wrote a book called The Attractor Factor about the law of attraction. The director, who lived in Australia, found me, called me and said, hey, I want to make a movie about the law of attraction and like you to be in it. And I just thought she was a flake. I didn’t think she was going to actually do anything and I said, sure, if you get the money and you pull it together, give me a call.

9:09 She did and she made history. I think the reason that the thing took off so well is there’s two or three reasons that I’ve been able to think about over the last 12 years. One is it was the first public media-friendly introduction to what it could be called mind power. It was about the law of attraction, which is about whatever you focus on is what you’re going to pull into your life. So the movie was introducing this idea to the masses.

9:37 It wasn’t new to anybody who reads books. The law of attraction is in books from the 1800s. I have rare copies of books from the 1900s. It’s in there, but it wasn’t on something people could watch on their computer or watch on their television. So I think that’s the first reason it was a big hit.

9:52 The second one is the marketing behind it was genius. For one thing, she had 24 teachers in that movie besides me: Jack Canfield, Bob Proctor, John Assaraf, Lisa Nichols, a whole long line of people. Every one of those people has a mailing list, every one of those people has a following. So when we all were told, you can now tell the world about your movie, I was the very first person who told my mailing list, hey, I’m in a movie, it’s called The Secret.

10:19 Jack does this, John does this, Lisa does this, Bob does this, and suddenly there’s free marketing going on, free advertising, because the people in the movie are telling their followers about the movie, so the followers all go to watch the movie. The other thing that was going on is that she brilliantly teased people for six months before releasing the movie. So she took, she sent out teasers, little movie clips, little previews, a little insights about what was coming, but she didn’t release the movie for six months.

10:48 Now I’m Mr. Impatient. If I had a movie done that I believed in, I’d release it this afternoon. I’d tell you the movie’s done, tell your followers to go watch it this afternoon. But she held back and she just paced out that enthusiasm. By the time the movie was released, she had a mailing list built of people ready to see it.

11:10 And then of course when the movie came out, so many people saw it that were in power positions. I ended up on Larry King Live twice, not because of Larry King but because of the women who put on his show. They saw The Secret, they said, oh, we have to tell the world, we got to get Larry to do a show on The Secret. Larry could care less about The Secret, but those women got people like me, um, John, Jack and a bunch of other people to go on. Oprah did the same thing.

11:37 Oprah basically did an infomercial on The Secret and did three shows. I can go on and on. Go watch the secret if somebody hasn’t seen it. Go watch it, thesecret.tv. Right.

11:48 And what was that underlying message that people walked away with after watching The Secret? But you can have, do or be anything you want if you controlled your mind. It was about the law of attraction, and the law of attraction is basically saying whatever you focus on, uh, with energy and repetition is what you’re going to tend to bring into your life. And so the movie was an introduction to that idea, and I’m specifically using the word introduction because so many people over the years criticized the movie and they said the movie just promoted wishful thinking, magical thinking.

12:20 It just said, hey, if you sit in a chair and visualize a bike or a car, a doorbell’s got to ring and there’s your bike or your car. Right, that was the criticism of the movie. That was the creature, all you had to do was think of something and not move or do any action and it would just appear. And I would criticize the movie for that as well. I am a massive take-action guy.

12:37 I’ve written 76 books. You don’t get those kind of things written by sitting and imagining a book written. You have to actually get in front of the computer, get on the keyboard and start writing. I’m a musician, I have 15 albums done at this point, recorded and being sold. You don’t get that much material done just by sitting and wishing for it.

12:57 So I tell people the movie is an introduction, an introduction to an idea. It’s a freaking movie, it’s not the be-all and end-all to self-help. It doesn’t tell you everything you need to know. And I also tell the people who are criticizing the movie who say it doesn’t talk about taking action, I’m in the movie saying you have to take action. People blur over that, that part, you know, they kind of let it block out of their mind.

13:24 But I defend the movie. Whether I was in it or not, I would still say go watch that movie. It’s an inspiring movie, it gives you a clue how to use your mind to go in the direction of what you would prefer to get more of, the results that you would like to have. Right, so that idea itself was presented in a powerful way, a pretty revolutionary idea for anybody who wasn’t reading these books, which is most of the world. But if anything, it probably didn’t emphasize the action enough because it couldn’t.

13:50 It was a movie about this one thing. That’s exactly right. So that’s what critics later said, oh, you can’t just think of it and it’ll happen. But it did change people’s thoughts when it came to law of attraction and kind of mindset. Well, it gave, it gave, I want to say millions, but I actually don’t know the figures.

14:04 The movie is still selling like crazy, being viewed like crazy around the world. I’ve gone the countries I didn’t even know existed where they saw the movie, the secret, they want one of The Secret teachers to come in and talk about these principles. I’ve always said Rhonda, the director of the movie, should have done a Volume 2. She actually had enough footage from everybody she filmed for the first one that she didn’t have to film anybody else, she just had to edit it.

14:28 And I was on Larry King the second time and I announced that there’s going to be part two because Rhonda let me believe that there was going to be one, and that would have been more about action, but I think action is the missing step. Again, I still promote, protect, um, the movie because I think it’s fantastic. Okay, what can people know right now or learn from you right now about this concept of this law of attraction, as far as what you think about and what you really concentrate ends up what you bring into your life?

14:59 I mean, what are some basic elements of that? Because I’ve heard you talk about this in detail but I still think most people don’t know how to actually practice it. Yeah, the very first step is you have to become aware of your current thinking. Most people don’t realize that their thoughts are in the toilet, that they’re re-, they’re listening and, and to themselves say negative things about seventy thousand times a day. Seventy thousand?

15:23 Seventy thousand. There are some research studies that are showing it’s higher than that, and the other thing that’s more startling is that they’re mostly repetition. They’re the same thoughts. They’re things like, I’m not good enough, it’s not going to work out, this stuff works for other people, works for Joe Vitale but it doesn’t work for me, works for the people in The Secret but it doesn’t work for me. They want to do things but they think, you know, the economy is wrong, the president’s wrong, the timing is wrong, I don’t have enough education, I don’t have enough experience, all of these kinds of negative thoughts keep people shut down.

15:56 They don’t go for their dreams, they react to life, they kind of crawl through life with no enthusiasm, no sort of energy and no belief in themselves or the possibilities of something better. What the law of attraction is teaching people is that you have a choice, you can change your thinking. One way to look at this is the thoughts you’re having right now are primarily negative, so that’s the first thing to notice, your thoughts are primarily negative.

16:21 The second one is you’re not your thoughts. You are separate from your thoughts, and this is massive earth-shaking news if somebody’s hearing it for the very first time. There have been books that are called You Are Not Your Mind, You Are Not Your Brain, and what they’re saying is these thoughts that we’re having, we’re having them, we’re not them. If we can detach enough to go, oh, here comes that I’m not good enough thought again, and let it go by, we are one step removed from it.

16:51 Now we’ve, we’ve clipped off that energy that was causing us to feel bad because of that thought. So that’s the second step, is to become aware that I’m not my thoughts. Third step is to start to generate what you do want to think, and this is where things like affirmations, positive thinking, positive statements, instead of saying I’m not good enough, begin to say I am good enough, begin to say this can work out for me. If this material has worked for other people, why can’t it work for me too?

17:18 You know, I’m human, they’re human, and you can start to rebuild your software of the mind, if you want, if you will. And these are all elements, and then there’s, you know, we can get into details like what you’re going to tend to bring into your life are things that you think about a lot. Most people think about the things they’re afraid of, the things that they’re worried about. I tell people, why don’t you start thinking about the things you love, the things you’re passionate about?

17:43 You’re going to go in a new direction, you’ll be happier, you’ll be healthier, you know, you’re going to have better momentum, better enthusiasm. So the repetition of that is going to be a big thing. Emotion going with those feelings of passion is going to fuel you to go in a direction that you prefer, and actually having an image, and the image could be a graphical representation of what you want. It could be a house, it could be a car, it could be a job, it could be a pile of money, it could be spiritual awakening, whatever you can do, because the brain, the reticular activating system in the brain, responds to repetition, imagery and emotion.

18:19 So all of this is in the direction of, it’s like a condensed course and how to redirect your life, but becoming aware that you’re not your thoughts, those negative thoughts you can let them go, you can start to create new thoughts, you can actually aim where you want to go by choosing what you want, getting an image of what you want, fueling it with passion and love, and then you can start to create it almost organically and automatically. And why, why is humans, do we tend not to do that? Why, where does this negativity come from?

18:49 Is it a old survival instinct? That is exactly, you don’t even need me to answer these questions, you already know. It is an old survival instinct. What we’re on alert for, we’re hardwired for it. We’re on alert for danger, we’re on alert for anything that can stop us from breathing, from living.

19:06 And so our reticular activating system, that part of our brain in the back of our head at the top of the spine, is already hardwired to be on alert for anything that is a threat to you, your loved ones, your, your life and all of this. And so negativity and fear and worry are all things programmed to alert you that that could be dangerous, and that’s fine. Our reticular activating system and our survival is working. You’re here, I’m here, your viewers are here.

19:34 We can applaud that part of our system that is working. It is keeping us surviving. But what I and the other teachers are saying is that you can program it for other things. You can program it for what you want. So if you do want more wealth or you want the romance or you want the health or you want the house or the job or a spiritual awakening or, fill in the blank, you follow the same principles that have been used to keep you surviving, but you use it for these things that you would like to have, do or be in your life.

20:07 Okay, talking about imagery, because this is interesting, um, so if I want something I need to actually conjure up and create an image, like a vision board or just have something in my mind I’m associating with that future outcome? Well, it’s both, and what I look for is some sort of, I call it a graphical representation of what you want, and a vision board is a very popular way of doing it because the vision board is pretty much like a big poster board and people have cut out pictures of what they want. So I had a ride over here in a Mercedes, so if I wanted a Mercedes I might go on Google and conjure up a bunch of different, search for a bunch of different images, find one that really makes me excited, print it, cut it out and put it on the vision board.

20:48 And if there was a particular house, like you lived in San Diego at one point, there’s some wonderful mansions and old-style Mediterranean homes near the water, and, uh, if I wanted one of those, I’d find some sort of image of it, cut it out and put it on the vision board. The idea is I don’t want to just think it, I need to communicate to my subconscious mind that this is my next desire, and so if I can see the image of it and see it a lot, that’s the repetition part of it, I will be communicating to my mind that this is what I would like to attract into my life. And so vision boards are very popular, and I tell people your vision board can be on your phone, it can be on your refrigerator, it can be something that’s on your dashboard, it can be something that’s by your bathroom, bedroom mirror, any number of these.

21:34 You want to see it, you want to stumble across it so it’s not just thinking about it, because your mind can just go off in a different direction and bring you a different image. You need to be reminded of it. You want to put that up there and say, there’s that house, there’s that car, there’s that bank account, whatever it happens. Okay, and should I have different images for different parts of my goals, like a house maybe or a certain thing in my business or certain things for my relationships or my body or?

21:59 Yeah, that is a great question. There’s mixed information on that. My own view is focus on one thing at a time. If you focus on one thing at a time, you are a missile targeted and sending a powerful signal right into your subconscious mind. There’s no confusion.

22:19 It’s like, I want this car, that’s it. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having like a master vision board, and all the different things you were just referring to are there, so there could be the romance and the house and a boat and whatever it happens to be could be all on there, but I think it’s wiser and more powerful, more effective, more efficient and accelerated to pick one thing at a time. When I reflect over my own life and my greatest accomplishments, I believe they came when I was really focused, when I said, I’m writing this book, or I’m recording this music, or I’m going after this car, or I want this kind of awakening, and that was the primary focus.

22:55 I would get it fast, but if I have too many things up there it feels like it’s a little deluded. Yeah, that makes sense. What, is there something wrong with having a material possession as a goal? You know, I love that question. Yeah, I absolutely not, absolutely not.

23:13 My view is we are spiritual beings in physical bodies on the material plane to enjoy the bounty that is here. We are enjoying it as spiritual beings. I think the problem is when you get attached to it. For example, I love old cars and I have a handful of them, but I’m not trying to create the largest car collection in the world. If I was, I would probably be coming from ego.

23:37 But if I come from the sense of, you know, this car really makes me feel fantastic and I have this car, like I have a Spyker, which is a handmade car from Holland, very rare in Texas, but I absolutely am thrilled by that car, and that’s what’s important, is that my body, sense, my mind, my energy and everything is going, this is almost like a spiritual experience to drive a Spyker. But if I wanted to have every Spyker ever made or have more cars than Jay Leno or some of the people that are known for their car collections out there, I’d probably be coming from ego. So I think there’s some discernment that we need to be aware of, is like, why do we want something?

24:18 I do want us to want it because it makes us feel good, that there’s a feeling, a higher energy that comes from possessing something, but I don’t want the item to possess me. That’s the difference, you know. I want to experience it and enjoy it. For example, at one point I had 11 cars and I realized I can’t keep up with 11 cars. I can’t drive 11 cars, I don’t have mechanics on hand to take care of 11 cars.

24:43 I start giving them away. I knew friends that wanted certain cars and I said, here’s the keys, here you go. That feeling alone was priceless. I mean, I was homeless at one point, to be able to go, here’s a car, and that was a BMW, it was a beautiful, you know, immaculate car, and go, here, have it. And I’ve done that with other people.

25:04 I just bought my sister a car because she needed it and she was struggling and she wanted something in particular, I was able to do it. So I think having these things, sharing these things is part of the spiritual experience within our physical material bodies. We just don’t want to be caught up or addicted or attached to it. That’s interesting. So I could see 10 different guys with 10 different Ferraris and they each might have a different spiritual relationship with that piece of material.

25:32 Absolutely, some could be productive and positive and some could be potentially negative and destructive. Yeah, and it’s a very individual thing. That’s the other thing, we cannot judge other people. You don’t know why I have a car, you don’t know why I have a Spyker. I’m telling you it’s for a spiritual reason, but you can easily sit on the outside of me and go, oh, you just got that because it’s rare and you want to strut around in something that’s unique.

25:54 Well, you don’t know that because you don’t, inside of me, you don’t know what my motivation is, you don’t know what my purity is, you don’t know what my spirituality is, and that’s why we can’t judge other people. We don’t have a clue what their connection to the universe is all about. Okay, but don’t just reject material possessions. No. Okay, and even nice ones.

26:14 You can have them, allow yourself to have it, because we’re in a physical world. Yeah, and I’ve often joked, Buddha never saw a Rolls-Royce, you know. I imagine that he would probably really like it. He just never had the opportunity. He never had the opportunity to be in such a divine car.

26:33 Okay, so if I put the London Real corporate jet on my vision board, yeah, and one day I get it, if I have a good positive relationship with that jet, as in that enables me to travel the world and take the messages of people and boost it out to the world and it shows everyone that we’re going places and that this is what you can do through positive thinking, yes, that’s a very good use of something highly material. That is the best use of it, that is absolutely. In fact, I tell people the biggest reason to be independently wealthy is for how you can fulfill your mission on the planet, and for you to have a jet and be able to travel around or take care of your guests, or the next time you want me you fly me from America over here.

27:16 I mean, you’re fulfilling your mission, you’re fulfilling your divine calling, you’re fulfilling whatever it is that you’re feeling as your vision, uh, for a complete life. And so I think at that point that is beautiful. What a fantastic reason to have wealth or to have a jet, it’s a difference you can make in people’s lives. Such a fascinating concept, Joe, because a lot of people in the quote-unquote spiritual world, they have this real dysfunctional relationship with money and professions and, absolutely.

27:42 You know, I have students inside of our Academy and I teach them, you know, how to build businesses and how to start and build brands from their own self, and a lot of times that’s the hard thing, and I usually say to them, look, the money allows you to scale your message and help more people. As soon as they see it, then the whole concept of quote-unquote sales becomes more interesting. All of it becomes a means to a greater end, of a greater good. But a lot of people see money as this bad thing, dirty thing, but it doesn’t have to be, does it?

28:12 Not at all. In fact, I wrote a whole book called Attract Money Now. I give it away. I mean, anybody watching this can go to attractmoneynow.com. The book is free and there are seven steps in there for attracting more money, and the very first one is along the lines of what we’re talking about, because the very first one is about our beliefs, our beliefs about money and our beliefs about ourselves, our beliefs about deservingness, because what I have found is that the spiritually snobby people who put down money and take a vow of poverty and so forth don’t realize that unconsciously they bought into a limiting belief, and it’s a belief I talk about in the book Attract Money Now, and I believe I can begin it and everybody watching this show is going to finish it.

28:52 Money is the root of all, I don’t have to say evil, everybody said it. So let’s go a little deeper and look at the law of attraction as it pertains to money. If somebody says, I want money for my business, that’s a good reason to have money, but if they unconsciously think money is evil, they’re not going to allow that money to come in. Why would you want anything evil in your life? You will not allow money to come in as long as you think it’s bad, it’s evil, it’s going to corrupt you, it’ll corrupt other people, it’s tainted in some way.

29:26 This is an unconscious belief that virtually everybody has. So the first thing I do to help people with this, and I want to help your viewers right now with this, is to realize that is a shortened biblical phrase. The longer phrase is the love of money is the root of all evil. The love of money is the root of all evil. Well, first of all, that’s from biblical literature, so we don’t know actually what was really said.

29:49 It’s been translated and re-translated and we end up with this phrase, which may or may not be actually what was written down, but let’s look at it even deeper than that. The wealthy people I know, including myself, the healthy, wealthy people I know are not in love with money. They appreciate money, they use money, they leverage money, but they’re not in love with money. That is a huge, massive difference. As soon as somebody realizes, oh, money is actually just a means of exchange that we’ve agreed on, we don’t have to give goat skins in exchange for, you know, milk or something at this point, the old barter system.

30:26 Now we have something called money. Well, it’s not bad, it’s not evil, it’s paper, it’s coin, it’s nothing, you know, it’s a symbol for energy. And so I tell people that when you realize money is neutral, that you don’t fall in love with it but you use it. And what do you use it for? What you were just talking about, to fulfill your dreams, to build your business, to make something of service to people.

30:53 Money enables you to do all of these different things. There was an author, Arnold Patent, who said this wonderful quote. I wish I had originated this quote, it’s so good, but I always give them credit and I always repeat it: the sole purpose of money is to express appreciation. The sole purpose of money is to express appreciation. When I first heard it, I thought, well, there’s bound to be an exception to that, and then I started thinking, well, when I pay any bill, it’s for something I wanted.

31:24 I bought a guitar here in London. It’s like, I wrote a check, I’m really grateful to have that guitar. I bought some cigars, I told you earlier, here in London. I wrote my check, very grateful to have those cigars. When I pay my internet bill or I pay a car payment or I buy whatever it happens to be, I say thank you because the sole purpose of money is to express appreciation.

31:49 This is an entirely new attitude that I invite people to take on, because if they drop, change that, when they drop that money is evil, they can allow money to come in. Right, when they think that money is a tool for appreciation, now there’s a sense of love and gratitude around it, but you don’t love money, you use money. These are all big topics, but, and just that simple dialogue, like you could be in your business right now in your office, and if you could just change that dialogue with your brain and really truly believe it, that it’s no longer evil and dirty, it really would change the course of your business, in your life.

32:26 Absolutely. This is back to getting a little Secret-ish, is that really thinking of it different, but what it will do is it will check, it will affect all of the behaviors of other people and your business. Right, absolutely, but it all begins with you and it all begins inside of you and it all begins with your mind and it all begins with your unconscious mind. These is that what you pull into your life is what you are unconsciously thinking and feeling.

32:47 So you can sit in your chair and visualize great wealth and you can say, I’m going to have great wealth, and do all the affirmations consciously, but if unconsciously you think money’s bad or money’s evil, you’re not going to bring it into your life, or if you do bring some money you will sabotage it and you’ll get rid of it quick. This is why many lottery, I don’t know what it’s like in London, but over in the States people win lotteries and they’re broke a year later. They won millions of dollars and it seems preposterous that they’d be broke, but they’ve lost all the money.

33:18 Why? Unconsciously they still had beliefs that money are bad. So part of my teaching and what I wrote in the book Attract Money Now is giving people the awakening, because just getting aware is going to take them down the road, becoming aware that money is not bad, money is not evil, that you can use it to extend your dream and fulfill your life mission, opens them up to the idea that, oh, money is okay, I can allow money in. From there they will then start seeing opportunities that were there all along but they didn’t see them because they had blind spots.

33:54 Now the unconscious is opened up, it will allow the material to come into the conscious mind, conscious mind will see the opportunities, and then the person who’s having this experience, the leader of the company, the CEO, can then tell everybody around them, here’s what we’re going to do next. But it all begins on the inside. Okay, so by consciously making these things aware, you’re hopefully your subconscious will be a lagging and it’ll kind of lag behind but also come into the fray and you hopefully change your subconscious by, by actively, you know, thinking about these things.

34:24 Right, and I would delete the word hopefully because this is actually what happened scientifically, is that when you reduce, release that belief, uh, the subconscious mind immediately accepts it. The subconscious mind is only operating from previous programming, and the previous programming from virtually everybody is about lack and limitation, fear, worry, survival, naturally, so that we’re just trying to live here on the planet. But what I and other people are saying is, look, you cannot only survive, you can thrive, you can prosper, you can have an exhilarating life.

34:55 You just have to do a little work, and the little work is about looking at your beliefs, because my rule of thumb is you change your beliefs, you get a different reality. Is this, this abundance mentality, and can you talk a little bit about that? Because again, the natural human default is the scarcity mentality because back in the day, you know, we were running around trying to survive, kind of that other default pop. How do you really get that abundance thought into your mind?

35:18 Is that something that you talk about? I absolutely do. I love the question, you’re good at this, you should have your own show. I know, right? You’re right, I’m going to call it London Real.

35:25 And, and then get your own jet. That’s what I want to say, what’s going on the vision board. So what I’m looking at here is the whole idea that you’re getting your own reality, you are creating your own reality from your beliefs. You change your beliefs and you will get a different reality. Life is an optical illusion.

35:45 This is how I look at it, life is an optical illusion. What you see is based on your beliefs. When I was homeless and I was in poverty for 10 years, when I looked out into the world I did not see abundance. I saw lack, I saw darkness, I saw scarcity, and I can find evidence for it. I can look around and go, I went to these people down this street and asked every one of them for a job and every one of them said no.

36:10 I was trying to be an author and I can show you all the rejection slips I had, my evidence that life sucks and life is full of limitation and life is full of scarcity. I had all of the evidence. Today I have evidence for abundance. I can look around and say, hey, I’m living the lifestyle of the rich and famous. I get to go on, go to London and go on a fantastic TV show at the last minute.

36:34 You know what kind of fantastic, miraculous life is this? And I can look around and I can find all the evidence for abundance, which is real. They’re both real, depending on my mindset I will see one or I will see the other. For most people they’re going to see lack of limitation, partly because it’s already been programmed in them, partly because they’re paying attention to the mainstream media. And I tell people a big tip: turn off the mainstream media.

37:05 Why do you say that? Because it is programming you, it’s called programming you for a reason. It’s programming you for lack and limitation. It knows your hot buttons, it knows what you’re afraid of, it is going to focus on that, it is going to highlight that, and if mainstream news can’t find something bad that happened today in London, it’ll go find it in Texas and say, hey, in Texas today somebody was murdered, and I got to put that right there in front of you to make you afraid, and then it’s going to be holding your attention to tell you whatever the commercial is that’s coming next.

37:39 So when I say turn off the mainstream news, it is not programming you for, um, for prosperity. You are, and what you’re doing here, and I tell people, select the information you’re feeding your brain, you’re feeding your soul, you’re feeding your unconscious, subconscious mind. Select it with some sort of wisdom and discernment so you program yourself for this abundant life. So they both exist. You have to have the awareness that when you were growing up, and I don’t mean you in particular, uh, your parents probably did not have an abundant attitude.

38:13 I tell people your parents probably were not enlightened, they were probably not Mr. and Mrs. Buddha, you know, they probably had their own hang-ups, their own programming, their own lack, their own limitation. They downloaded it to you, you were a kid, you didn’t know any better. Then you go into the culture, you go into the media, you go into the education system, and it’s not, it’s not programming you for survival, it’s programming, I mean it’s programming you for survival, it’s not programming you for thriving, for excelling.

38:41 And so at some point, if you’re lucky, you see a movie like The Secret, you read a book, maybe by me or one of the other authors out there, you see a show like this, and suddenly there’s an aha, suddenly you awaken and you go, oh, maybe life can be different. Maybe I don’t have to see lack everywhere, maybe I can see abundance. So to me there’s an optical illusion, they’re both available, you get to choose. And how can I practice that state of abundance?

39:07 Is that through, in affirmations? Yeah, I love that question, you know. Oh, I can talk to you forever. A few basic ways, you know, because also a lot of, a lot of people watching us will say, Joe, Brian, if I look at a street and someone else looks at a street, it’s the same street, it’s the same people, it’s the same. But a lot of people will not understand that actually they’ll pull all of these cultural dialogues, personal dialogues, and they’ll see the things they want to see to continue that scarcity mentality.

39:34 That’s right, they’re going to see it unconsciously. It’s going to be coming from the paradigm they already have, the mindset they already have, which is in their subconscious, unconscious. So when they look, they’re looking consciously not realizing what they’re seeing is being filtered by the unconscious. So when you change that bottom line programming, what’s underneath, the software, you’re going to see something different. So here’s the best technique.

39:59 It’s a technique that comes from 1900, from the book Pollyanna. It’s called play the glad game, and the glad game is you look for something good. Just start looking for something good. The rule of thumb is there is something good in everybody and in every situation, and there are some people and some situations that will challenge you, but you’ve got to focus, you got to look and you got to say there’s something good here. I bought a painting a long time ago, I had a phrase on it, it said, train your mind to see the good in every situation, and I bought it because of the phrase, train your mind.

40:38 This goes back to what we were talking about earlier, where you’re not your thoughts, you’re separate from them, and so the phrase train your mind is, is acting as if it’s a puppy. Train your puppy to use the litter box, train your cat to tell you what it once fed, train your mind to see the good in every situation. The first time you do this, yeah, it might be a struggle, it might feel like, oh, this is really difficult, but if you stay with it you’re going to start seeing the good everywhere.

41:09 That’s a simple, easy, doesn’t cost anything, begin it right now way of using a technique to start to move into abundance. Yeah, because we’re constantly at war with our own brains, right? We’re constantly having to check it, to understand that what we see is not real, to know that the thoughts aren’t real, and that the more you can kind of be separated from that chatter and recognize the things that are quote-unquote right or wrong that you want to invest in, the better.

41:35 Yeah, but I would change one thing if you don’t mind. I wouldn’t say we’re at war with our brains. I would say let’s make love to our brains, let’s seduce our brains, let’s have this better relationship with our brains. And this is a very spiritual concept, because what I’m talking about here, if you’re not your brain and you’re not your thoughts and you’re not your emotions and you’re not even your physical body, you are this spiritual witness within that’s observing all of it.

42:01 This is actually my biggest message for the world. I keep saying that we are spiritual beings, that what we want one is really right here in this moment. When we, we think too much about the past, we think too much about the future, we’ve missed the miracle of right now, and right now is all we have. This is it. This is the miracle right now, you, me, the people watching this, is it.

42:23 And out of this we can create even more miracles, but we’ve got to stay in this moment with awakening awareness, with gratitude, with love, looking for the good in this moment, really appreciating the fact that, yeah, I’m not my thoughts, I’m not my body, I’m the spiritual being within it, I’m the spiritual soul. And, and within you it’s the same thing, and everybody that’s watching, it’s the same thing. Behind your thoughts, behind your emotions, behind your body is this witness looking out through your eyes.

42:53 That witness that’s in you, it’s the same witness in me. We’re meeting right here and that is the commonality of humanity. Absolutely, each one of us is the same spiritual witness. That’s it. But we’re all in different bodies with different programs with different, this, yeah, but that’s that connection that, that is absolutely at the deepest core level.

43:15 Uh, if you want to go beyond The Secret and beyond the law of attraction and go into what could be called enlightenment or a satori experience, is the realization that underneath all of this is the spiritual person, and yeah, it’s covered up. We got this flesh, bones and all of this, we got the software of our mind that’s acting as a filtering system, so we’re looking out through it, but if we can remove all of that, even for an instant, oh, the freedom. And I think people in their lives, no matter what their backgrounds are, no matter what, how much scarcity they’re living in or negative self-talk, I think everyone has a few moments in their lives where they see that and they feel that, and maybe it’s at the birth of a child, or maybe when someone wins the World Cup, or maybe, and then they feel it and then they know something special happened or they observe something, then they kind of go back.

44:02 Right, but it’s something I see in a lot of my guests and I do see it sometimes, where someone will say, you know what, I, I think we’re all one here, I think there’s some type of, of, of connection that we’re all having here, and I hear it come out sometimes from my guests. Yeah, that’s wonderful, it’s incredible to see, and I must see the people that have done a lot of the work you’re talking about, they get more experiences of that, you know, that spiritual witness, whereas if you don’t, I think it’s harder to see sometimes. Well, I think part of what our duty is is to make time for that.

44:35 So in other words, we’re all distracted, we’re looking at our iPhones, we’re looking at our computers, we’re doing our errands, whatever it happens to be, we’re amazingly distracted, but we need to make time for that connection. So back in Texas I have a gratitude hour at the end of the day. I get in my hot tub, it’s outside, I look at the stars and I’m basically saying thank you, thank you, thank you for my life, or whatever has happened, for accomplishments, just for the moment, and it’s my way.

45:01 There’s no computer there, there’s no iPhone there, there’s nobody else there, I am just alone with the universe, but it’s my way of communing with the moment, and as much as I can throughout the day I remind myself of it, even during this interview. What is so cool, you’re asking these great questions, making me dig at times, but there’s a part of me that is observing all this as if it’s a theatrical experience. I’m an actor, you’re an actor, we have an audience wherever they are watching this live for us right now, but in this moment it’s kind of like a spiritual experience and it’s kind of, there’s a detachment to it, there’s a spirituality to it, you know, it’s, it’s, I wanted to go certain ways but at the same time it’s like, let it go wherever it goes.

45:41 It’s just, it’s just a spiritual awakening. Right, and so you’re connecting with that spiritual part of this experience. Yeah, it’s, it’s the vibe that’s underneath, it’s like a radio signal, it’s underneath everything else, it’s underneath the thoughts, it’s underneath the body, it’s that little vibe that is just pulsating, and that’s the spirituality. As long as I can keep going back to that, as long as you and everybody else watching keep going back to that, we’re more in alignment with our life mission, we’re more in flow with life.

46:10 I believe more of the magic and miracles we’ve been looking for and longing for happen automatically as the more we do that. This is why I say all of us need to make time for that. Call it meditation, call it, uh, your private time, your rejuvenation time, your silent time, but something to disconnect from the distractions and get to that pulsating spiritual thread. Right, which is inherently beautiful. Absolutely.

46:38 Right, yeah, there’s no problems there. Right, you know, the problems are up there when we start thinking about things and we want them to be other than what they are. We can start creating problems, seeing problems and doing all kind of things with problems, solving problems, all of that, but underneath that we’re in the miracle. Yeah, the miracle of being here and being alive and this, this incredible human conscious moment. Yeah, if you could focus on that in those tricky situations.

47:02 Um, let me finish with money and then I got a couple more questions for you, because I know you wrote this book recently on it. I had a guest on a couple months ago named Grant Cardone, he’s down in Miami, and, and he said, Brian, poor people are selfish, and a lot of people, like, wow, really, taken aback by that, but when he went further he said, you know, poor people, the dialogue is they’re always talking about themselves and I don’t have this and I don’t have this, and he said if they looked at themselves as being selfish and thought of stepping out of that to where they could empower themselves and then no longer be a burden and power other people, and I must say he started to kind of make a point, and I just wanted to ask you of your thoughts on that, because, you know, you’re writing this book on money and attracting wealth and that kind of thing.

47:40 Right, um, what are your thoughts on that? Well, I think that’s, that’s more blunt than what I would be. Okay, especially since I was, you know, homeless, I was in poverty, I know what it’s like to be poor, I know what it’s like to struggle. Is there a selfish component of that? I don’t think so at all.

47:53 I think there’s an unconscious component to that. Right, and I think that’s coming from programming. So for me, let me tell you this real quick, my wake-up came when I realized that I was struggling, I was homeless, I was poverty because of a belief system I had that I didn’t know I had. Okay, let’s stop there. Everybody that’s struggling is going through a belief system, they’re manifesting that struggle unconsciously, they’re not doing it with intent.

48:18 That’s why I can’t say that they’re, they’re doing something that is shooting themselves in the foot, because they’re not doing it with conscious intent, it’s coming from their unconscious program like I did. What woke me up is I lived in the public library, literally, in Dallas, Texas, and I love libraries anyway, so it wasn’t that big of a deal just to move in. It was air conditioned and they had books. So you spent all your time there? You couldn’t sleep there, but I couldn’t say I slept outside of it though.

48:41 Okay. Yeah, and what I remember thinking and discovering is that I was modeling my hope to be an author on authors who were famous but self-destructive. Jack London, Ernest Hemingway, two of the biggest influences on my life, classics of American literature, ended both of their lives by suicides. They both had dramatic, adventurous, alcoholic, miserable lives. A part of me unconsciously thought that’s what I have to go through, unconsciously thought that’s the curriculum.

49:11 I can’t be a successful author like them unless I suffer like them. When I woke up and realized, wait a minute, that’s a belief, that’s a belief system. Surely there are authors who are happy, successful, healthy, productive, prolific. Let me find them and model them. And when I did, my life began to slowly, didn’t happen overnight, didn’t have shows like this, didn’t have the internet, I was doing it on my own, but I was able to transform it.

49:37 So the people that are struggling, are in poverty, they’re not doing it intentionally, it’s, there’s nothing selfish about it because they’re not aware. But once they become aware what their beliefs are, and I can start to change them, read my book Attract Money Now, it’s free, or go to the library and read some of the other success literature that’s out there. Think and Grow Rich has helped more people than any other book I know of when it comes to wealth.

50:01 So they can change it. And maybe his point was that since they know all this information that it’s there, they’re being selfish not to enact that change. Yeah, and I wouldn’t say that at all either, because these people don’t believe it’ll work for them. These people that are struggling don’t believe, first of all they don’t believe the information works at all, they just think it works for other people. I remember talking to a friend about affirmations and she said, I tried affirmations, affirmations don’t work for me, and I looked at it and I said, do you realize “affirmations don’t work for me” is an affirmation?

50:33 She did not, and that is what’s going on with people, is that they’re telling themselves things that they don’t realize is programming them for the very lack they’re experiencing. This is why books, your show, The Secret, anything that can help all of us to awaken and empower us is of great service to the masses, to the planet. So start now realizing you’re running programs in your head, you’re running dialogues, and just stop it and put something else in there.

51:04 Yes, and, and go with that as a first step. Absolutely. It sounds oversimplified to say it like that, but that’s what we’re really talking about. You have to really face the ruthless reality, the ruthless truth, that what you’re getting in your life is a direct result of your beliefs. Your beliefs are controlling your thoughts, your thoughts are controlling your actions, your actions are controlling what the experience you’re getting out in the real world.

51:28 So back it all the way to the beliefs again. We’ve got to find out what are the beliefs creating the reality you have, change those beliefs, you’re going to have different thoughts, you’re going to have different actions, you’re going to have different results. It’s going to be this domino effect, but it’s got to start now with the actions out here. It is one way to begin it, but I find it easier, more efficient and effective to come all the way back and start there.

51:50 Okay, are there exceptions to this rule? Because someone would say, I just got hit by lightning, what does that have to do with my beliefs, Joe? I mean, are there exceptions to some of this? No, there are no exceptions to any of this at all. People come up with extreme, bizarre examples like, hey, what if I get hit by lightning?

52:05 Were you hit by lightning? No, I’m just giving that as an example. Why are you giving that as an example? You’re just looking for a preposterous stretch to find some reason to escape the reality of taking responsibility. So what I tell people is quit trying to escape responsibility, and that’s one of the reasons they’re doing this, is that you have to realize what you’re getting is due to you, not to anybody else.

52:28 So don’t go looking for lightning or blaming lightning, especially when it’s not raining and there’s no lightning. So let’s, let’s just stay with the beliefs, so always try to go back to some belief, no matter what there’s always something there. Absolutely. Okay, you know, I had someone here in my studio a few weeks ago and it was, it was an 89-year-old woman that had been, uh, taken away to Auschwitz. I mean, this was a really extreme example, and so I’m, I’m always thinking of, like, is there something to think about here?

52:57 And, like, what would I say to Ava, if she’s 15 years old, she gets seized in Amsterdam in hiding and taken with her family to Auschwitz, do I say to her there was something in her belief system that caused that to happen? What would I say to her? You would definitely not say that. Right, okay. Yeah, because anybody that’s suffering does not want to hear that it’s your fault.

53:14 Right, anybody that is going through a challenge, a problem, incarceration, whatever example you might give, that is not going to be helpful in that situation. You have to do whatever it takes to resolve the situation. After the situation is resolved, you can sit down and you can start looking at beliefs. There are such a thing as cultural beliefs, so in other words, groups of people who are thinking pretty much the same are attracting each other. This is where the law of attraction is still working, it’s just working on a cultural level.

53:42 We have cliques of people, we have groups of people, we have different societies, we have different political parties, I mean there’s all kind of, we can go on forever, but the law of attraction is still working and these people are being attracted because of their unconscious cultural beliefs. So if somebody was hit by lightning, I wouldn’t go up to them and say, hey, you attracted that. I’d get punched in the face for one thing, you know. It’s like, we don’t want to hear that, we want to take care of the health of the person, but after that we would start exploring, okay, why did that take place?

54:12 Is there something to learn? Could there be a belief that was underneath it? Okay, so always go back to yourself. You mentioned emotions before, we were talking about this vision board, you’re talking about the dialogue in your head, somewhere you want to go, and then the emotions. I get asked all the time, Brian, you know, you tell me to be passionate about something and I don’t know, I’m not, I can’t figure it out, I don’t know what I love.

54:31 You must hear this all the time, Joe. What do you, what do you say to people who can’t find that emotional component? I practice a form of tough love. I look right at him and say, you’re lying. You’re lying, you’re lying to me and you’re lying to yourself.

54:46 You know what you love, you know what you’re passionate about, you know what you want to do, you’re afraid to admit it. You’re afraid to admit it because as soon as you admit it, you either now have to make excuses for not going for it or you actually have to go for it, which means you’re going to have to take action and you might fail, you might succeed, you don’t know, so it makes you nervous, it makes you afraid. And then I will explore, I can tease it out of people by asking them, what did you want to do when you were a kid?

55:13 What’d you do for fun? What’d you do for a pastime? What are your hobbies today? Or things like, what would you do if you weren’t worried about money or security? What would you do?

55:22 What would be fun for you to do? What would you do if you weren’t afraid of what people think? What would you do if you weren’t afraid of what your family thinks? What would you do if you weren’t afraid of failure or weren’t afraid of success? So I can ask a bunch of questions and coach and mentor and tease out an answer, but my tough love approach is, come on, you know what you want, you just don’t want to admit it.

55:47 I’m inviting you to admit it. Talk to me about the word hypnotic and hypnosis, because it’s something you talk a lot about, and whether it’s, it’s words on the page that needs to have a hypnotic component or, or any of these ideas and practices, what are you talking about there? Is it a way of getting the attention of, of the brain, or pulling people in spiritually? How do you use that word? It is a way of pulling in attention, uh, and it is based in traditional hypnosis.

56:14 Now hypnosis is legit, it’s been around since the 1950s, blessed by the American Medical Association, I think, in the 1950s, and what I’m referring there is the fact that especially in business the competition is overwhelming. I mean, I’ve gone through the streets of London and I see business after business after business, and it’s never ending, and that’s just on the streets. That’s something about the internet that’s not talking about other countries, other continents, and it can go on forever.

56:40 How do you stand out? How do you get your message noticed? You have to do something that, that makes people stop, look and at least pay attention long enough for you to communicate your message in a few seconds. I turn to hypnosis because in hypnosis you can’t put anybody under hypnosis, which is a relaxed, what I call a waking trance. You can do surgery with hypnosis, people have dental work done in hypnosis, so it’s a very powerful tool, and I’m of course not doing any surgery or anything of that sort, but I do want to stop people long enough to be able to get a message across.

57:15 So there’s certain key words. I wrote a book called Hypnotic Writing and I wrote another book called Buying Trances, and both of those are about the idea of stopping people to get their attention. There’s ways to do it. I mean, a headline that begins with the words “how to” will tend to get more people looking than if it was just the headline without the how-to. A headline with the quotations, the beginning and the end of it, is going to get 15% more readership or people looking than if you didn’t have the, the quotations there.

57:45 All of these are just little tips, little things that hypnosis kind of leads you to, so that’s, I’m looking at it as an attention getter. Okay, but you’re not putting me into a trance, or you are, you know, are there different stages of that? I’ve seen people in hypnosis, they’re doing crazy things. That’s right, whether it’s comedy hypnosis, their stage hypnosis, you can see people running around acting like a chicken or, or dancing as if they’re Madonna or doing any number of different things because they’re under hypnosis.

58:10 I’m not doing that, but I do want you to be under a kind of mild waking trance so you will receive my message. I do want to say something like, let me see if I can example this. So people that are struggling with money, I wrote a book, Attract Money Now, it’s free, go to attractmoneynow.com, seven steps in it. I can’t read the book for you, I can’t do the steps for you, but if you go to attractmoneynow.com, download the book, read the book, it can change your life forever.

58:42 Now within that paragraph were several hypnotic commands, right down to the very headline when I said people that are struggling with money, only the people struggling with money have got to pay attention to the following statements. So that was intentionally done. If I wrote a book on attracting your soulmate and I would say, hey, if they’re, if you’ve got people that are watching this right now and they don’t have their soulmate, I have, I have an answer for them.

59:06 I have a way for them to attract their soulmate now. I just connected with their unconscious desire, or maybe conscious desire, but I did it in a way that’s more hypnotic because they’re going to sit up and go, wait a minute, I want my soulmate, or with the previous example, wait a minute, I want more money. You get a sense of what I’m talking about here. Yeah, yeah. And so all great businesses do this to a certain extent.

59:29 Well, if they do it, they do it blindly because I don’t think they do it with any awareness. Okay, I think there might be a handful that have some sense that people respond to the very things we were talking about: imagery, emotion, repetition, same three things that influence the brain and getting what you want, influence buyers in buying from a business. Same things. Yeah, tell me about this, this Hawaiian practice that you that you go through, and it involves, I believe, repeating a set of kind of four mantras in your mind.

1:00:02 Tell me a bit about it because it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s interesting. Oh, it’s fascinating, and we, we need a lot more time to talk about it. I wrote two books about it, Zero Limits, and ten years later I wrote At Zero. This book has changed millions of lives. It’s the true story of a therapist who helped heal an entire ward of mentally ill criminals by using this Hawaiian process called Ho’oponopono.

1:00:27 Now you don’t need to remember Ho’oponopono, but I’ll tell you how simple it is. There’s four statements, and what the therapist was doing, he was working at a hospital for the mentally insane. These people were shackled and sedated because they were so dangerous, they were murderers, they were rapists, they were violent, the, the hospital couldn’t keep staff, it couldn’t keep doctors in. A desperate attempt to get a doctor on call, they found this Hawaiian therapist who said, well, I’ll go and I’ll be there as your therapist and you’ll satisfy your state requirements, but I’m not going to do traditional therapy, I’m going to do Ho’oponopono.

1:01:03 So he started doing Ho’oponopono, these four phrases, and as he did it those patients got better. They didn’t have to be shackled, they didn’t have to be sedated. In a few months they started to be released, being pronounced as healed and whole. In four years that ward was closed. I researched this, I interviewed him, I wrote Zero Limits, which is the story about this.

1:01:25 I did seminars with the therapist, and the four phrases are so simple. He is saying these four phrases inside himself to his connection to the universe, to God, to the divine, to Gaia, whatever you want to call that higher power. We all have different words, I call it the great mystery, or the great something. And he’s saying inside himself, I love you, I’m sorry, please forgive me and thank you. I love you, I’m sorry, please forgive me, thank you.

1:01:57 That’s all. So what’s happening when he was looking at the charts of these criminals, he’s looking at their charge, he’s not looking at the criminals, he’s looking at their charts, he’s feeling emotions, he’s feeling embarrassed, rage, anger, guilt, any number of different things. He wants to clear those emotions. He’s not trying to heal the patient, the patient is triggering emotions in him. So whatever’s being triggered in him, he’s feeling it, and he’s kind of talking to the divine, the universe, the great something, the great mystery, please forgive me, thank you, I love you, I’m sorry.

1:02:35 It’s a shorthand, it’s kind of a petition or a prayer where he’s saying, please forgive me, I don’t know what part of me or my ancestors helped create this person, this belief system in them, it must be in me if I’m noticing it in them. I’m sorry for any part of my role in this. No, he wasn’t physically involved with any of it, he’s taking responsibility. I’m, I’m sorry for any part of that, thank you for healing this, for erasing this, for removing this, I love you, for this healing, for this clearing, for my life, for this rejuvenation.

1:03:12 As a result of saying those four phrases over and over and over again, those feelings in him disappear. So he’s removing his beliefs, he’s removing his emotions and getting back to that little spiritual vibe that I said earlier was going through him as a result of him getting to peace. The patients responded to it and got better. Now let’s take this by extension for everybody that’s watching this, for you and me. I have heard from tens of thousands of people who have used these four statements for money problems, relationship problems, health problems, animal problems, employer problems, business problems, world problems, everything, everything.

1:03:54 And what’s happening is there’s a couple fundamental concepts. One is you have to accept total responsibility for whatever you’re noticing. So if you don’t like whoever is in the political party right now and you’re blaming them for everything, not in Ho’oponopono. You have to look within yourself and say, some part of me helped create this, and if I don’t like it, I love you, I’m sorry, please forgive me, thank you, please heal it, please clear it, please remove it.

1:04:24 You do this for whatever is surfacing in your life. You got a relationship problem, somebody at work, an employer, employee, health problem, anything like that, you notice that you’re noticing it. The therapist used to say, have you ever noticed that when there’s a problem, you are there? Meaning you’re the common denominator, you are participating in this problem unknowingly. So you take responsibility for it, even not knowing how you are responsible in whatever crazy way.

1:04:57 So you take responsibility, like, okay, I see that I’m not getting along with my sister, but it’s not my sister, it’s my perception of my sister, the problem’s over here. The sister is a trigger, the trigger’s here in me. All goes back to everything we’ve been talking about, it’s all inside, and it’s coming from a belief. One way to change that belief, that perception, is with Ho’oponopono, I love you, I’m sorry, please forgive me, thank you, saying it to the divine, the great something, the great mystery, until that dissolves.

1:05:30 Okay, so say I see President Trump acting out in a way that bothers me, right? I’m sure this happens to a lot of people. Right, yes, and maybe some ways that they like as well, but again, people always say when you see something in someone else it’s a reflection of that thing inside of you that you don’t like. Nobody wants to hear that, Joe. That’s right.

1:05:45 Okay, right, so say in this case I see him, I don’t know, whatever, separating migrant families. So first of all, of those four mantras, one of them shows me that maybe I am somehow part of this whole occurrence, somehow there’s something in me that might have contributed to this behavior or the lack of action in me or whatever it is. Right. And so I have to take ownership of that. Yeah.

1:06:08 And is that through one of those phrases, through all four of those, four of those phrases? So when I’m saying I’m sorry, I love you, I’m saying that I love you to the world, to Trump, to the situation? I say it to the great something. So in other words, I’m saying thank you, I’m sorry, please forgive me and I love you to the great something. I am not speaking to another person and I never say them out loud, and I would never say them to you.

1:06:30 If I had a problem with you, I wouldn’t be saying it directly to you. I wouldn’t walk up to you and say, hey, I love you, I’m sorry, please forgive me, thank you. You would have no clue what I was doing. It would be internal because I’d go, oh, if I have a problem with him, which could be Trump, it could be anybody, if I have a problem with anybody out there, the problem’s in me. It’s my perception that is causing me pain.

1:06:53 I clean my perception and the outer will get better. So in some crazy, preposterous, undefensible way, we can change Trump and political parties and the environment and all of these things that are gigantic problems that we perceive out in the world, when we realize they’re not out in the world, we have to take ownership of it. The individual changed first, it’s our own vibration, because if the whole world all of a sudden vibrated differently then by definition these things would change.

1:07:27 Right, exactly, we would have, yeah, there’d be different actions, new leaders, new actions. Okay, um, what’s been the reaction to this technique and what’s been this reaction when you’ve taught this to people, you know what happens? And is it also, is it also the process though, when I’m repeating these four things in my mind, I can’t have an angry thought, I can’t have a negative thought? Oh, no, not at all. It’s actually good to have an angry thought or an unhappy thought because you’re dealing with the emotions that you want to erase.

1:07:53 So you don’t say I love you, I’m sorry, please forgive me, thank you when you wait, and you’re in a state of peace, it’s actually works faster and more efficiently if you’re upset. So I say the four phrases all the time, I’ve been saying them while we’re here because I’ve been doing it for over 12 years at this point, or 11 years, so now it’s the background voice in my head instead of a voice of criticism, which most people had, including me at one point. Now, I love you, I’m sorry, please forgive me, thank you, it’s going on all the time, it’s going on in the bat, and part of that is, I don’t know if you have street sweepers in London, but back in the, do you?

1:08:25 Because what I refer to it as, it’s like by doing this it’s like street sweeping my life. The street sweepers of my mind are going out before I get to the moment and cleaning it so that when I get to the moment it’s pure, there’s no interruption, there’s no problem. So I’m doing it all the time and partly so I can be present with you, I can give the most, hopefully, inspired, articulate answers by being right here in the moment. But if somebody’s upset, if they’re angry or whatever, wonderful, wonderful, because Ho’oponopono seems to work faster if you get some sort of upset.

1:09:02 So as you’re feeling the upset, I don’t know where this anger come from, but I’m sorry, please forgive me, thank you, I love you, saying it again to the great something as a kind of a dialogue and repeating it until it dissolves. You asked how the world responds to this. It is the most beloved technique I have ever taught in my life. They love it, they soak it up, they want more of it. I go on stages and I talk about the law of attraction and I get to the point where I talk about Ho’oponopono, standing ovations when we get to Ho’oponopono, because that is almost like the next level.

1:09:40 Law of attraction and everything we need to know, it empowers us, it gives us a better life, but Ho’oponopono is taking us closer to that spiritual awakening, especially when we realized we have to take full responsibility, which is the one, if there’s any argument about Ho’oponopono, it’s that people don’t want to take full responsibility. They’ll say, I’m responsible, until, nope, Trump did that, that’s over there. Yeah, we have to take full responsibility.

1:10:06 How come more people aren’t doing these practices, Joe? How come, you know, we’re not seeing more of an adoption of this stuff? Well, I am seeing more of an adoption of this stuff, so I’m not sure that that’s accurate, and, and if there is not more of an adoption, it’s probably because of a lack of awareness, because for example, there’s no movie on Zero Limits yet. I’ve been wanting one and I’m going to meet with a movie producer this evening to talk about it again.

1:10:27 So that means it’s restricted to people who read books. Unfortunately very few people read books, the statistics are appalling, especially for somebody who’s an author who writes books, I would like to see more people reading books. So Zero Limits is being communicated through books like mine, Zero Limits and At Zero. There are some YouTube videos of me presenting it and those have been very popular. I think one had almost half a million views for me giving a presentation on Ho’oponopono, but I think much like law of attraction, until there was a movie, not that many people knew about it.

1:11:03 It was the die-hard readers of the world and the self-help people that really dug in and learned about the law of attraction. It’s the same thing with Ho’oponopono. What do you make of the state of the world right now? I get American guests coming through and, and they say, Brian, it’s kind of hectic right now in America, I can’t go out to dinner parties anymore because it ends in a fight and people are kind of taking sides, we’re seeing a lot of kind of tribalism, and, uh, it’s, you know, tricky.

1:11:29 What do you make of that state of that of this world, and what do you, what do you think we should, how should we react to it and what can people do about it? Yeah, I’ve looked at it as almost a psychological civil war because it’s not an actual civil war like in America when we had in the 1800s, but people are fighting among each other, especially on social media, and some of the most cruel bullying kind of ways. That is sad to me, but my job as a self-help author or spiritual teacher is to help people awaken, and so what I am doing my best to do is to give the tools, give the information, give the inspiration, so that people can go, wait a minute, it can be a different way, much like we don’t have to buy into our own thoughts, we don’t have to buy into other people’s thoughts.

1:12:20 So I advise people, just like I say turn off the mainstream news, turn off Facebook or at least censor it so that you don’t get sucked in and triggered by all these different people saying all these different things that are pushing the buttons in you. And then I’m teaching the techniques like Ho’oponopono and even the awareness of your thoughts create your own reality, so that you know those triggers are in you, take care of them so you can be at peace. I think what we want is to be at peace, we want to be serene, we don’t want to be yanked around by every comment that somebody says, and so my work is to help people find that serenity.

1:12:58 Right, don’t react, take ownership, find that peace in yourself and that be the change. Yeah, that’s how you’ll make the difference. You know, it’s not going to make the difference going out there and bullying somebody else, but if you can find your serenity and find your inspiration, you might be inspired to create something, do something, write something, record something that could be the rallying, the rallo, rally call to awaken the rest of the world, but you got to get out of that negativity and get into the inspiration.

1:13:28 76 books, Joe. How do you write so much and what can you teach us about the writing process and how to be so prolific? It’s with everything else, people get ideas for any number of things, whether it’s businesses, books, recordings, any, anything, and they talk themselves out of it, they listen to their mind. I used to and I’ve learned that when an idea comes to me, an idea is a gift. I didn’t ask for it, I didn’t pay for it, it came from the great mystery.

1:13:55 Idea comes for, to me, I get excited and I go, oh, that’s a great idea, let me start writing it. I just start writing it. Most people go, not me, not now, don’t have the education, don’t have the experience, don’t have the connections, the excuses go on forever, they don’t do it. I decided to be a musician five years ago or so when I turned about 60, was on my bucket list, and I went through the same thing where I thought, oh, how am I going to record any music?

1:14:21 I don’t know what I’m doing, I don’t know how to sing, I didn’t even sing in the shower or behind the wheel of the car, didn’t know how to play an instrument, didn’t know how to write songs and no, and so there was a bit of paralysis until I realized, wait a minute, every time you go for something you’ve never done before you’re gonna feel fear because you haven’t done it before, you’re stepping out of your comfort zone. It was the same with me when I realized it and said, wait a minute, I’m the guy who teaches don’t pay attention to those limiting negative thoughts and blast through them. I now have 15 albums recorded because there’s no interference from up here to write the next book or to record the next album or any number of the things that I do or create.

1:15:03 What’s been the experience of being a musician, what’s it been like, what has it taught you? Wow, it’s been an exhilarating experience because I’ve been the luckiest musician alive. I’ve been able to study with Melissa Etheridge, who’s a rock and roll legend. My drummer is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he plays with Joe Walsh and, and Neil Young. My bass player travels with Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin.

1:15:29 My, my producer and lead guitar is a co-author with a book I wrote called The Remembering Process. I’ve got a team behind me that has stretched me, elevated, held me. I performed live a year ago in Austin, Texas, which is one of the highlights of my life because I was terrified before it. I openly admitted I was terrified, uh, because it’s one thing to stand and speak on stage, it’s another thing to stand and sing on stage. If you speak on stage you can talk, you can take a break, you can have a glass of water.

1:16:00 When you start singing, the band’s moving, the train’s going, you can’t stop, but I got a standing ovation doing it, and it partly what it taught me is that when I wrote a book called This, anything is possible. That’s part of my message, anything is possible. If I can do that, I can write books, I can go from homeless to where I’m at today, I can do all these different things, anything is possible, and that’s what I keep telling people, whatever it is that you want, you don’t know if you can achieve it or not, so try.

1:16:30 Anything is possible, that’s the message. And you’re also bending bolts, what’s going on, Joe? You’re like the strongman, what’s that? That’s part of anything is possible. It’s the whole idea that the strongmen and strong women used to be the circus people.

1:16:46 A lot of it started right in London back in the 1800s with Eugene Sandow in the beginning of bodybuilding, and these guys actually physically bend horseshoes and steel bars and nails and bolts and they break chains. I was fascinated, I think I was fascinated because I thought, it’s like a superhuman ability, if you can do that then anything is possible. And I know one of the greatest strongmen in the world, Dennis Miller, and he came to my house and he taught me how to do a lot of these things.

1:17:18 I have physically bent horseshoes, steel bars, nails, bolts, and there is nothing like the feeling, nothing like holding a horseshoe, uh, Dennis Rogers was the guy’s name, not Dennis Miller, Dennis Rogers is the strongman, make sure I give him credit. Nothing like holding a horseshoe that you know was made for a horse, it wasn’t made for you, it wasn’t made to be bent, it goes on a foot of a horse, you know, that weighs 2,000 pounds, and so you’re holding this thing and you’re going, I’m going to bend it. And I remember the very first time because I put everything in my power, everything I can think of, my intention, my will, my muscle, everything, and Dennis Rogers had said most people are going to give up right when it’s about to bend, which is a great little rule of life.

1:18:07 Most people are going to give up right before they get their success. So I kept doing it and I thought, this isn’t going to work, but he kept saying, no, don’t give up, don’t give up, don’t give up, and when that thing bent, I get chills now. I felt like, I felt like, truly, anything is possible. If I can bend a horseshoe at 65 years old, like, what name, anything, anything is possible. Yeah, so I’m exhilarated by it.

1:18:36 What else is coming up for you? Are you out of the things on the horizon? Um, I’m going to come back to London and go shopping. That’ll be the anything is possible next move for me. What about your daily routines?

1:18:47 Do you have some things that are just non-negotiable in Joe’s life that you do every day? We heard about the hot tub gratitude hour, I mean that’s pretty impressive. Are there other things that you make sure you do every day to keep your brain in the right place? I write every day. I’m an author.

1:19:01 I’m going to write every number of words or, no, I don’t think about words at all, even though I was influenced by Jack London, whose rule of thumb was to write 1,000 words a day. And just as a side note, another author saw that quote and misremembered it and he thought it was 2,000 words a day, so this guy went back and wrote 2,000 words a day and ended up writing 50 books. His name’s Richard Webster, and he wrote two thousand words a day because he misremembered Jack London’s 1,000 words a day.

1:19:28 Again, anything is possible, you put your mind to it, you can do it. So I don’t worry about the words, I worry more about the passion. It’s not really a worry, I’m focused on the passion. I want to keep writing as long as I’m excited, so, and that’s really drives me. If I’m excited, I got a message I want to share, I’m passionate about it, just keep, just keep on typing.

1:19:47 So I write every day, I read every day, I’m a book nerd, I’m a bookaholic. It’s always amazing that I can sit in front of a camera and talk because I really feel like I just want to sit in a corner and read, you know, that’s me. I’m a book guy, so I, I’m an Amazon one-click shopper. Amazon delivers almost every day, faster than I can read my books. You like physical books?

1:20:07 Thank you, I love physical books. I have a few books on the iPad because I travel on long flights, it’s a little easier, but no, I greatly prefer the old school, hold my friend, feel the paper, smell the book, be able to turn back pages or mark it up or make some sort of comment or go back to something easily. Okay, how do you feel about Audible books? Um, I don’t listen to them but I know the world loves them. Some of my greatest royalty checks come from my books that are on audio, and I understand people are driving, they’re working out, they’re walking, they’re doing any number of things where they can’t read physically but they can listen, so I’m all for it.

1:20:45 I’m all for books getting into people however they get there. If we’re going to inject them into them, you know, the next step we could probably do that. Okay, good. So writing, reading, other daily practices, that I work out virtually every day. Okay.

1:20:57 And not all strongman training and some of it’ll be, I’ll pick up a nail and bend it just because I want to do it, because it feels good. The thing with bending a bolt is you have an immediate reward. It’s one thing if you go in the gym and work out, maybe you’ll feel the results the next day, maybe in a few weeks you might see the results, but if I pick up a nail and I bend it, not only did I get a workout but I have a trophy. I went through a period where I was giving nails to people and saying, I bent this for you, which made people very confused.

1:21:26 Right, right. I didn’t know how to respond. So that’s physical practice, writing practice, reading practice, gratitude practice, and this is the spiritual practice, right? And then you’re running those four phrases autopilot. Absolutely, in your brain.

1:21:40 Okay, gotcha. Okay, um, what was the, the worst day of your life and also the best day of your life? Wow, you know, learn a little more about you. Well, worst day would be, uh, homelessness, and probably when I remember going door to door asking for any kind of job, even labor. I remember going into a TV repair shop in Dallas, Texas, and I’m sure I did not look good because I was unbathed, unshaven, homeless, big stalky guy walking in to ask for a job, and I do remember the guy being nice because he asked if I had experience and I said no, but I said I can lift things, I can move your TVs, I can do stuff like that, and I can see in his eyes that he wanted to help but, you know, he’s a small business guy, he couldn’t afford it, and I had to leave.

1:22:31 And so when I left I remember standing at a bus stop but I didn’t have the money for a bus. I think it was 60 cents. I have 60 cents. Even now I can feel my energy drop. It’s like, oh man, what a, what a dark night of the soul.

1:22:46 What a dark night of the soul, and that wasn’t just that day, but if you ask for a day, that’s the day that comes to mind. Okay, so real rock bottom days back then. Right, right, and what got you out of it was surrounding yourself with those ideas in the public library and taking action. Okay, always taking action, because I, I still stress on this. I know we talked about it in the beginning, but I got to have people realize that even though the phrase law of attraction has the word action in it, attraction has the word action, it’s a hint that you have to do things, that life is a co-creation.

1:23:18 You have to do your part and the universe chimes in and does its part, but you can’t just sit there. You know, sometimes the, the doorbell will ring and there will be your car or your love of your life. I believe in magic and miracles. I have a T-shirt that says expect miracles. I’m putting that message out there, but I also know you get faster results if you co-create.

1:23:36 Okay, and so even during homeless, poverty, I was typing, I was typing on the old Smith Corona five-dollar typewriter, changing the ribbon, you know, until I finally got a computer which was given to me in the late 80s, I think, early 90s. Okay, so don’t forget the action part. You can have all the great ideas, it’s very important to get your mind right, to know exactly what you want, get these relationships right, but then you got to go out there and pull the trigger and make things happen, make connections.

1:24:02 Right, take risk. Yep. Okay, yep. Best day of your life? Yeah, that’s a great one because I’ve had a lot of best days and, uh, and this is one of them.

1:24:13 This is one of them, to be able to sit here and reflect on things like homelessness and poverty and tell you about books and music and everything, and to sit here in London, you know, this Texas boy, Ohio born and raised, and now I’m in London doing this with you. This is like, well, this is the best day, it’s to sit right here. But there’s been so many. My first book was in 1984. That was a huge moment for me, even though the book ended up being a dud and I never made a penny from it, but after struggling for so long, the first book, 1984.

1:24:43 I’ve been married twice, both times it was like, these are fantastic days and fantastic women, and I’m with the second one, so those are great days. Okay, what scares you? Ah, what scares me, what scares me? Wow, um, I think first of all, naturally, anything that I do that I’ve never done before. For example, I have a friend that has been mountain climbing and I’ve toyed with the idea of joining him, even though he’s doing Kilimanjaro and he’s thinking of doing Everest and I’m like, I’m not there, but the idea of it scares me, to be honest.

1:25:21 Performing scares me, speaking on stage always scares me, even though I’ve been doing it for decades, I’ve got standing ovations, I’ve been all over the world, I’ve been 17 movies at this point, been on all kind of TV shows, performed on stage with my band as I was talking about, but before it, if I can run out the door and not do it and nobody would think anything of it, I’d probably run out the door. Yeah, so it, that scares me. I do it but it scares me.

1:25:50 If I was to ask like five of your close, close friends, uh, what is Joe’s superpower, how does he do the things that he does, what would they say that it is, it’s because he is this or this or that, what would they say your superpower is? Wow, interesting. Would probably say persistence, and this is me guessing what they would say. I would probably say I don’t give up, that if I say I’m going to write a book or I’m going to speak or I’m going to record music or I’m going to perform on stage, I’m going to do it.

1:26:23 I’m going to keep my word, for one thing, my word to myself, my word to the universe, but I will, I will get it done. I’m persistent and I think that’s what they would say. Yeah, I think 76 folks might say that too. Um, what keeps you awake at night? Huh, sometimes leg cramps, you know, but on squat day.

1:26:45 Yeah, squat day, or if you bend a horseshoe because sometimes you put it against your leg and that can cause a problem. Um, I sleep pretty good, I don’t think anything’s keeping me awake. Okay, is there anything that you feel like you need to do before, you know, your, your timing? That’s a great question, thank you, these are great questions. I would like to end homelessness.

1:27:09 I even started a movement called Operation Yes, and this is geared for the U.S. I hadn’t been to London until this trip and I see you have homeless here, quite a, quite a few, and so I didn’t realize that Jack London did write a book about the homeless in London called The People of the Abyss. And he actually lived with the homeless for a while so he could write that book. And because there’s still a sting in my life because I was homeless, I know what that feeling was like, and I also know that not everybody that’s homeless wants to be there.

1:27:41 Some of them do, they’re living there and they want to be there, but a lot of them were like me, where a bad set of circumstances, not understanding your own beliefs and your own actions, puts you there and you don’t know what your alternatives are, you know. Back when I was homeless I didn’t know who do you call, what do you do, and there was no internet back then. Today you can go to the internet on the library at least. So I have a movement called Operation Yes, yes, your economic solution, and it’s at operationyes.com, and so one of my goals, which I have no idea how to do it but we know anything is possible, is to end homelessness.

1:28:19 That’s powerful. Now what are you doing on your 70th birthday? What’s Joe up to on my 70th birthday? You’re not even going to wait till I got 66, you’re gonna jump right to 70. Yeah, I mean, you know, five years from now or, you know, whatever that time frame is, what do you want to be doing?

1:28:36 Hmm, you know, I’ve often said that, uh, here’s what I would do if I retired. So here’s what I would do when I turned 70. I would write books, I would record music, I continued to travel and speak and I would continue to do shows like yours. I wouldn’t retire, I’m doing what I love, I would continue doing what I love, and as far as I know my father is 93 years old and he’s in great health. I’m going to keep going, my genes are already set to go in that direction, so 70, 90, 95, whatever, I’ll come on your show and we’ll talk about, I’ll be on your jet to come on your show and we’ll talk about the latest book that’s happening.

1:29:12 Um, all right, so more of the same, more movies, more books, more speaking, more movements. I’m open to something else passionate and juicy to show up but that’s been working for me. Okay, good, Joe. I always ask everyone that comes on here a few questions at the end, I want to ask you as well. Um, if I could give you like a magic mobile phone and you could ring up the 20-year-old Joe Vitale and give that young man a bit of advice, I don’t know if he’s still in Ohio at this point, I don’t know if he’s homeless, maybe, maybe not yet.

1:29:39 He’s in Ohio, he’s in Ohio. Everything you know now about everything, it’s a lot, what would you tell him? Yeah, great question. I would say, uh, Joe, relax, it’s all going to work out. You’re going to have some bumps in the road but you are going to have successes that are unimaginably huge, bigger than you could even visualize possible for you, but you have to hang in there, you got to maintain your attitude, you got to keep writing, you got to trust.

1:30:14 It’ll all work out. Okay, maintain your attitude, keep writing, trust. Yeah, it’ll all work out, maintain that, that belief. Okay, on that same note, best advice you ever received? You know, it could have come from a mentor, could have come from a book or something, but is there something that stands out that that’s, that’s strong for you?

1:30:35 Best advice I ever received, I have gotten so much advice and I read so many books by so many authors who all have advised me. Wow, um, the one that comes to mind is to do five to ten things every day in the direction of your dream, to do five to ten things every day in the direction of fulfilling your dream. They can be small things, that can be making phone calls today would be making emails, for example. the times of magic and wonder and we’ve got to remember that and not get sucked into the doom and gloom, because by comparison we’re doing fantastic to the ancient times.

1:31:57 Yeah, I love these thoughts. You know, it’s funny, I watched that show Mad Men, and Mad Men, it’s kind of happening in the 60s, early 60s, and it’s funny because everyone’s like, oh man, the technology is overwhelming me, and there’s like a big computer, computer takes up a floor, and then you see they’re struggling with civil rights issues and all these other issues, and yeah, it’s just a mirror of what we’re doing today. Exactly, I think man has always been challenged by technology, always been challenged by each other, by war, by arguments, by this.

1:32:25 Yes, so I would totally agree with you. Um, if you look back at our history, I mean, come on, you don’t have to look far to see this world in a complete madness, so yeah, roll through it, be optimistic. Yeah, and empower yourself, awaken so you can be one of the leaders, at least in your own community, because when you are empowering yourself people are watching you. You don’t need to be a leader where you are in front of a political party or in front of a business, but you’re a leader to the family, to the friends, the community that are watching you, and so as you awaken they’re starting to look and I’ll go, what is that guy doing or what is that woman doing, and let’s find out and do it too.

1:33:00 Yeah, Joe, I was very excited to talk to you today and you did not disappoint, so thank you so much for the time. Uh, people can find out more about you, I’m guessing if they just Google Joe Vitale they’ll find you, attractmoneynow.com to, to grab that book. Right, and there’s 75 other titles out there. Yeah, they’re on Amazon, so if they search my name on Amazon. My website’s joevitale.com or my nickname is Mr. Fire, M-R-F-I-R-E dot com, and yes, the book is free at attractmoneynow.com.

1:33:28 I love the fact that you decide to become a musician at 60 with no background and I love the fact that you’re bending bolts and it’s a great example, and I think everyone should just lead by your example and just say, wow, I can pretty much do anything I want whenever I want because anything is possible, which is the title of one of my books. I love it, Joe. As we say on London Real, it’s about the journey and I really wish you well on yours. Thanks so much for the time, come see us again when you’re back in London.

1:33:53 I love it, thank you for the honor of being here. My pleasure.