Host Brad Kearns welcomes Luke Shanahan for the momentous occasion of unveiling the true identity of the bestselling book, The God Academy: A Master Class In The Power of Attraction, by Angelica Crystal Powers. ACP is in fact a pseudonym, and the true author of this Amazon.com classic is Luke himself!
This book was written as a satire of the bestselling book The Secret, about the law of attraction. But if you flip through the pages just a bit, you will quickly realize that there are some powerful life lessons offered by Luke โ ideas like how your behaviors have a ripple effect on the entire world. For example, Luke mentions that every day our choice of words can either generate pride or shame in our loved ones. We can take things for granted and miss out on some of the precious simple pleasures of life, or we can jump to gratitude with a quick thought exercise, or by taking inspiration from those who have experienced setbacks and persevered.
In this interview, Luke touches on numerous aspects of the book content, but the discussion is framed by the circumstances of the day, namely the global COVID-19 pandemic and the social distancing obligation. Luke discusses how we live our lives like a movie, injecting drama, and conflict to keep the plot interesting. He talks about how we grossly distort and misinterpret the law of attraction to believe we can call in our dream man or a big house to make us finally happy. Only when you live in gratitude for your present circumstances are you able to unlock the power of attraction. This is a wide-ranging discussion that will really get you thinking about the big questions of life, if not the classic movie Groundhog Day.
TIMESTAMPS:
This is a period of transition we can learn from. Keep the community mindset. [04:36]
Security in your life is an illusion. [09:55]
People learning a way of thinking with gratitude are more fulfilled. [14:36]
If an event it’s going to happen, we perceive it in one way. And then when we look back and with hindsight, we perceive in an entirely different way and in a more accurate way, because now we actually see what the heck things were. [19:08]
The power we have in the world is completely underestimated. [19:53]
Brad and Luke role play how oneโs words can be so powerful. [24:36]
When people give you that unfiltered scoop, you can process and appreciate it. Or you can choose to disagree. [27:09]
What is wrong with a committee? Not necessarily the best idea will immerge. [30:19]
The toxic person in your life is there to teach you a lesson. [32:06]
Movies are stories that mimic real life with reversals, conflict, hope, and success. [34:16]
Ninety-five percent of the time we are operating from flawed subconscious programming. (Bruce Lipton) [44:13]
Luke describes the premise of his book, The God Academy. Every thought you have is a prayer. [46:15]
Every little thing that you do has a massive impact on the entire world a year from now. [50:33]
LINKS:
QUOTES:
- “Move in faith, move with love, do your best. And that’s it.” (Luke Shanahan)
LISTEN:
Get Over Yourself Podcast
Brad (00:04:28):
Luke Shanahan is back and it’s about time. We got a lot to talk about, man, how’s it going over there?
Luke (00:04:36):
I’ll tell you what, it’s, it’s crazy here as it is anywhere else. I think it’s, first of all, great, you know, Florida’s already a little bit nutty. Um, we’ve got alligators that wander up into the backyard. Um, but yeah, everyone’s spinning out of control as usual, but, uh, so far, uh, you know, Cate’s been able to usher people through, uh, you know, this COVID stuff. And she’s been explaining to me sort of the ins and outs of the science of it and all that, but uh, strange times. So we were thinking right, you and me, that would be a good time to talk about being in a period of transition and what, you know, you can do to, to make the most use of it, to use it as a plot point to spend you into a better trajectory than you were before. And we’re all in this together. Once Kobe Bryant fell out of the sky, you know, I think that was a message from the universe that, uh, Hey, guess what?
Luke (00:05:31):
Let’s not forget. All things are possible. Crazy things can happen. And yeah, that was just the, the, the overture to this craziness. So I think it was a good time to talk about working on what we can work on. And as we’re, you know, we’re, most of us are locked, locked at home with our partners and with their families and because of stresses and economic stresses and everything else possibly at one another’s throats more than we would like to be. So we thought, right, Brad, we thought it was be a good time to talk about some of that stuff. Yeah.
Brad (00:06:03):
Yeah. I hope no one’s at each other’s throats and I hope we’re, uh, looking on the bright side and trying to, I did a little, a breather show about the positive aspects of the quarantine and the social isolation, because I feel like there’s some, uh, some things in my life that are, uh, improved or going better. And one of them is my mindset where anytime I have the slightest inclination to complain about something, I force myself to jump over to a gratitude position, just like you’re instructed to in the books and the podcasts and people talking about this, but so much easier said than done. Yeah. Oh, we’re going to talk about The God Academy momentous occasion here, when we reveal the true, the true author of that fabulous book.
Luke (00:06:50):
Oh, that’s right. We’re revealing that for the first time ever on this podcast, by the way, because up til now people have presumed because it says right on the book it’s written by Angelica Crystal Powers. Here’s the book and here’s Angelica. Well, guess what, everybody, I am Angelica Crystal Powers.
Brad (00:07:09):
So this has been a Luke’s top secret bestselling book on Amazon. It’s been available for many years. Uh, but now we’re going to highlight it and talk about, I think the, um, the, the intro you gave there, that nice intro. I think a lot of that’s covered in the book, so we can kind of make this a, a personal growth and, uh, adjusting to strange times podcast session. Um, and like I was saying, um, you know, I’m forcing myself to be grateful for, uh, all the good things about this. And, um, instead of whining and complaining that my, uh, my spring break has ruined as the, the Florida partiers, who, who went viral with that, uh, that video clip where they’re, you know, they’re, they’re bent out of shape. Cause some stuff has closed while they, they came to party. Yeah.
Brad (00:08:00):
And, uh, you know, the hoarding shopping, I’m not participating as of yet. And my dream is that someday I’m going to walk into Costco and be able to grab a set of paper towels because everyone’s already hoarded. And then thinking about like, if no one had hoarded to begin with, Costco’s never out of paper towels, they’ve never in history, been out of paper towels, so why are they out now? It’s like, let’s, you know, let’s keep that community mindset, uh, you know, going so that we’re, you know, we’re not engaging in this, you know, strange, um, uh, adverse human behavior. And I have to, uh, admit myself, Luke, that at the start of this, when the news reports were coming through, uh, Mia Moore and I were on a, uh, a wild vacation where we were going to basketball games and Vegas and magic show and concerts in, uh, Nashville with a real estate conference and, uh, walking around on Bourbon Street, checking it out, all these partiers.
Brad (00:08:56):
And I had no direct connection to the severity of what was coming, even though the news reports were hinting at that. Cause I had this sort of, um, uh, I guess it was a, uh, self-absorbed mindset where I figured like I’m not going to get hit by some virus. That’s, that’s taking down old people cause I’m too healthy and my lungs are strong, but I failed to make that connection of how my behavior can put others at risk until we all agree to, uh, to quarantine on behalf of the people who are most vulnerable. I think Governor Cuomo said it best in New York. He said, you know, we’re shutting the economy down for the most vulnerable 1% and that’s a big deal, but it’s your grandma and your mother and my mom and your grandfather, and that’s why we’re doing it. And it’s the right thing to do. And I think that’s a good wake up call for everybody to, to realize that, you know, when it comes to a pandemic, it’s a good way to, uh, show how connected we are and how our behavior affects others.
Luke (00:09:55):
Yeah. It’s funny. I, for, for reasons I talk about like being in the dark, but there’s just seemed to be an electricity in the air. I think since, you know, Kobe’s you know, on timely and sad death, which, you know, I know he was, what does it hit me? You’re a super fan. You could say,
Brad (00:10:14):
well, you guys had that personal connection to him. And I can’t imagine, um, you know, the, the level of that tragedy and it hit me really hard. I mean, uh, it’s something that, you know, with my son going through the basketball years and he was such a hero and represented so many things. And, um, at the time the text message came onto my phone. I was talking with Dave Rossi, former podcast guest, and you know, he, he’s got his book, The Imperative Habit talking about not taking things for granted and, um, you know, being grateful for the present time and all that. And his comment to me when the news came to us and we were driving in a car, he says, well, there’s a guy who was almost positive. He had as much financial security as anyone could ever imagine. He was, he was completely secure in every way until he wasn’t.
Brad (00:11:07):
And he was making that point before the text message came in, that security is an illusion, even financial security, relationship, security, all these things that we, we count on to, to collect our, uh, our, our, our assets and our things that we have going for us could be taken away at any time. And so we sure as heck better appreciate the present. And man, that was a, that was a tough way to get the message, uh, with, you know, an icon being able to be taken down like that. But time to move on just like his wife did such a great job giving that presentation in public and being so brave and strong. And yep. She’s got to go on and raise a three, some little kids. So,
Luke (00:11:46):
and it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s an extraordinary thing, but it’s absolutely true. There’s the misspeaking of gratitude I was, I’ve been giving. I think we’ve all been to some extent, but I’ll tell you for me personally, I’ve been going through a massive learning curve over this past couple of months, about a lot of stuff. And about a month and a half before any of this started, I just notice that this book, well, Angelica Crystal Powers wrote called The God Academy, which I actually wrote. I didn’t have a copy. I said, I wonder, you know, it’s been a long time since I’ve opened that book. It’s been two years, you know, so, uh, I ordered a copy and it showed up and I started leafing through. And then pretty much two days after it arrived, all this nightmare stuff, you know, in terms of the virus and then the economic downturn, you know, which hit us as hard as anybody just like anybody else, we’re all in this together.
Luke (00:12:35):
But, um, you know, I started leafing through and in case said, why don’t you just open to a random page? And I just started reading. And every time it was like, where has this book been my whole life and I thought, Oh, wait a second. I wrote it. But it was a good reminder of things. Like, you know, you brought up gratitude and, and how you said you were walking around a little bit with your, with your head in the sky about I’m not going to get this virus. Mmm. The first thoughts I was getting about the virus were selfish ones. I hope we don’t get sick. Uh, gee, I hope we don’t lose, you know, all our money and camp, you know, can never retire and all that. And thinking about quality of life being reduced for, for me and, and mine. And instead, you know, my first thought should have been wow.
Luke (00:13:24):
How, what, what’s, what it must be like to be a restaurant owner right now, or, you know, wow. I hope that, you know, people who are really immune immunocompromised, you know, are going to be okay through this. And then the, and then in terms of finances, it shouldn’t have been like, you know, wow. Think of all the stuff we’re not going to be able to get and all this it should have been, Hey, I hope, I hope that this prompts me to be more influential, not less influential. Cause that’s, that’s where the riches are. That’s where all the riches are. Wouldn’t you agree? It’s in your abilities to influence in a good way and improve everyone else’s life. That’s where the money is. How money plays a role into that. Whether you have, or do you don’t, you won’t know until you’re right in the midst of it 10 years from now and you look back and go, I’ll be damned.
Luke (00:14:09):
You know, the story that I was meant to tell the narrative that God or the universe wanted me to tell the place that I was supposed to play is exactly as it should have been. So yeah. You remember back when we were in, um, in Tulum, Mexico, right? I did a presentation there. You did a bunch of presentations, which all went really well. And I, and back then I had a bruised foot that had really gotten me down. You remember that?
Brad (00:14:35):
Yeah. Yeah.
Luke (00:14:36):
Well, about two months after coming out, down here to Florida, I was going paddle boarding. And as I was stepping on the board, there was about a six foot alligator right there. And to avoid it, I tried not to, I didn’t want to hurt it. And, uh, I stepped on a branch and now I’ve got the same injury on my foot again, which is slowly healing, you know, takes a long time. But what you were mentioning about, you know, the tragedy, uh, you know, with Kobe Bryant, but any, any tragedy and how it is a necessary component of gratitude. I mean, wouldn’t it be great? You know, if we could, if we could have the ability, if we could expand our imaginations enough where we could say my legs feel okay, my feet feel okay, my hips don’t hurt. Like crazy. I can move. I can swim. I can draw. I’m so lucky. I’m one of the people that can draw, you know, how many people can’t yeah. People who lose the use of their legs. They say, w what do you miss? And you expect them to say running through a field. What do you think they typically say?
Brad (00:15:43):
I don’t know.
Luke (00:15:44):
I was surprised to hear from a number of different people who had wheel sports and other people are interviewed. I always think they’re going to old. You miss basketball. Do you miss all this top end stuff? They’re very humble about what they miss. They have a whole different gratitude about their legs, but they couldn’t. Without the loss of use of them, they say, I miss going upstairs. I miss a full body hug. I miss being able to reach this thing from the top shelf. They’re not talking about triathlons. We’re talking about going up a few stairs and the absolute joy of that. How could you possibly know without having that experience that they’ve had? How could one, you, it seemed odd to people. If you, when you go up a flight of stairs and you turn to your friend and you go, God, how great was that?
Luke (00:16:31):
They go, what? We went up a flight of stairs and they go, are you all right? Did you take something? But if you said to them, Oh, no, I forgot to mention. I had lost, completely use of my legs for five years. So this is an absolute thrill for me. They’d go, Oh gosh, it really must be. That makes sense. Now, why do we have to lose the legs first? Why can’t we have that? Why can’t we have that knowledge, that beautiful gratitude, that deep gratitude and just carry it around regardless. We have to wait for the tragedy to get it. It seems like for most of us, but that, I mean, certainly for me, but I’m really practicing this art of not just like, um, I’m grateful to have this cookbook, but you really got to imagine, you know, what, if it just said, what if, what if it got lost or stolen, it really got to put yourself in like, no, it could be gone. Like you said, it’s an everything, every object or relationship, any financial security or other kind of security can go by in a flash and you have to, in order to really fully dive into this deep gratitude thing, I think you gotta, you really gotta have the imagination to imagine what it’s like, if it were gone and then really put yourself there and then replace it back in your life and go, Ooh, lucky me.
Brad (00:17:50):
Yeah. I guess the parents wish the same for, uh, teaching the life lessons to their children instead of having everything to be learned the hard way. But it seems like all humans, uh, you know, operate that way where it has to be completely visceral and, and actually, you know, get taken away. And then given back to you for you to have a position of gratitude, it’s pretty, um, it’s pretty frustrating to realize we’re all in that. We’re all in that category. I remember during the, um, the.com uh, bubble of, uh, 1999, 2000, I remember when the stock prices went crazy and I was actually working in Silicon Valley at the time, and I made some bad decisions because, you know, why should I sell any stock it’s doubled in the last three months? Of course, it’s on track to double again. And then, uh, when everything crashed, uh, I’ve made a flippant comment to a friend of mine. I said, you know, the next time there’s a bubble. I’m not going to be so greedy. I’m going to, you know, sell my stock in a patterned manner. Like they’re professionals recommend. And he said, well, the next time there’s a bubble. You’re not going to know because that’s the definition of a bubble.
Luke (00:18:54):
That’s right. I mean, who am I going to be standing outside the bubble the next time there’s a bubble.
Brad (00:18:59):
No, it’s going to have to be a deeper reflection than that because, uh, you know, it’s, we’re all, we’re all accountable to participating in the bubble.
Luke (00:19:08):
It’s funny because we also, we’re not wired to understand, you know, if you look at a graph and you see the stock market and it drops 10% and people say, and you say to somebody, okay, what is that? When it does that? And then you show the graph where it’s gone down 10% and go, that’s a, that’s a, that’s a correction. And then you go, Nope, it’s the beginning of the crash. And then you show the rest of the graph and then you look back and you go, wait a minute. Why did I call it a correction? Because we’re not wired to see things. If an event it’s going to happen, we perceive it in one way. And then when we look back and we, you know, the hindsight thing we perceive in an entirely different way and more accurate way, because now we actually see what the heck things were.
Luke (00:19:53):
Our brain and our hearts and our mind tend to judge us. We have a less self judgment about, Hey, wait a second. How come we didn’t see it before? The way I see it now? Well, that’s the bummer part about being locked in the linearity of time. So give yourself a little bit of a break, right? And everything like this. This is part of people who don’t give themselves, you know, much of a break for any kind of mistake. We were talking about the car crash, you know and how that’s an opportunity, like say, say, say, you know, your, your partner things up the car, and I’ve been on the wrong end of this. Um, you know, thinking like, what were you thinking? You know, what the heck didn’t you notice, didn’t you, blah, blah, blah.
Luke (00:20:41):
But it’s like, if we remember, and this is for people who are having financial reversals and really kicking themselves in the pants, here’s a little self healing, and you can do this back and forth to your partner. And you, one of the things I want to talk to you about today was the power that we have over one another. And the power that we have in the world that is completely underestimated. So we have the power when we, if the first thing people say, for example, if they lost a bunch of money, or if they got sick and they say, I wasn’t being very careful, most folks are actually more concerned about not standing up fully for their responsibility for others. I think that’s what hits people more than, than anything, like, think about nightmares. You’ve had everyone had when you were a kid and we’re just egocentric kid. We have nightmares about running away from the bad guy or getting that dream when you’re running in you’re underwater, and you can’t get any purchase of your feet on the ground and the bad guys coming, that’s just basic visceral. Right. But when you get older, what kind of nightmares? Like, tell me like a nightmare. We’d have you wake up and be disturbed.
Brad (00:21:46):
Oh, like you mentioned that you’re, you’re going to fall short of your responsibility to your children and your family, your role in life, your contribution.
Luke (00:21:58):
Exactly. So it’s the classic showing up and not being prepared for the test. It’s the classic, where’s my cat. There’s a big wave coming. And I can’t find my cat. There’s the classic. I’m supposed to be doing something. And I’m confused. And I don’t know what that thing is most when for most caring thinking adults, and most of us are, are, are, are real emotional, you know, plus or a negative charge stems from how we feel judged and how we judge ourselves and how others judges, so we can give and once we acknowledge that, that means literally, you know, if, if I banged up my car driving to, to give a talk to a thousand people and Cate’s in the car and I get it a little fender bender, and I’m expecting, of course, hate to say, well, that’s just great. We can’t, we can’t afford that.
Luke (00:22:48):
That’s yeah, thanks. You know, I was able to have this car nice for three years, and then you got ahold of it and I’ll look at it. But if she said, I’ve always wanted a thing in the car, and then I show up and I tell the story to the audience and they love it, and they go good for you. And I really believe it. We have the power just say to anybody who is prepared to be shamed, or it’s open to be shamed, or to be what I call prided, and we can completely change, reframe anything that happens in life. So if somebody says, look, you’re doing your best. You made the smart choices. You know, we did everything we could to avoid this virus, and now we have it. And there it is. And you, and you don’t have to lay that shame on the other person. You can actually take it as an opportunity to elevate the experience as being part of the larger narrative story of their life. You know, it’s like, Hey, we’ll see where this takes us. And I’ve, I’ve really been practicing that pretty well. This month. I’ve had times in my life when I haven’t. And, but I’m glad I ordered this, this book cause it reminded me, we have incredible power about how we make people feel. And like we were talking about this book that you’re working on doing, right. This, you’ve brought this up on the podcast,
Speaker 6 (00:24:01):
the book about cold exposure, the benefits of cold exposure and how to do it.
Luke (00:24:06):
Yeah. So let’s just use this as an example. If I wanted, I have an opportunity to either make you feel good about that book or bad about that book. Everyone has that opportunity and the closer and more respected people in your life, the more power they have, but everyone perfect strangers have this power. So if you were to bring up this, so let’s do a little skit here. So you bring up your book and I’ll be the, I’m going to shame you if that’s okay. None of this is real I’m just for, for display purposes only,
Brad (00:24:36):
Right. We started talking offline. So just to, just to set this up, you said we have, we have a chance to either pride or shame people at any occasion at any juncture throughout the day and throughout life. And, um, it, it seems like, uh, these, the story you mentioned, we were, so, um, we’re, we’re more inclined to kind of throw the barbs out instead of start from that point of seeing how you can, uh, you know, dispense, uh, you know, good energy around. We seem to kind of react really quickly and get into this, uh, who done it. Thing happens in relationships and happens in families among close, close, uh, uh, people in your life. And, um, hopefully we’re going to solve that issue and figure out how we can come from a, a nicer place, but okay. I’m excited. And I’m telling you, look, I’m working on this really awesome book. It’s about jumping into the cold water and experiencing the hormonal benefits and the psychological benefits.
Luke (00:25:36):
Oh. So don’t, they already have stuff about that. I’ve heard isn’t there stuff about that already. And then,
Brad (00:25:43):
yeah, it’s a really competitive marketplace and I’m not sure mine is good enough.
Luke (00:25:49):
Well, I, I dunno, I think that maybe enough spend set on the subject. I mean, do you do, I mean, I don’t know, maybe you’re bringing something new and you think you’re bringing something new into it, I guess, or,
Brad (00:26:00):
uh, well, I don’t know. I’m not sure.
Luke (00:26:03):
Okay. Right, right now let’s, let’s not go any further down because I think it’s a great idea. Okay. The book, I mean, but you get my point. If I could, I could just continue to deliver a general negative charge toward you about this project that you’re doing. And people, there are people who just as a general practice, see anything as an opportunity to, to, well, like say, to throw shade, right. To do a little shaming, to certainly not to be supportive. Right? And sometimes they’ll say, Hey, look, I’m just, I’m just, I’m just being honest. You know, I’m from, I’m from New York city. I don’t BS anybody. I tell it like, it is no, I’m sorry. I don’t care if you’re from New York City, if you’re spending your time diminishing the way people feel about themselves and their projects and you know, everything else in their life you’re taking, what could have been a wonderful opportunity to absolutely bolster somebody, you know, to, to, to throw more testosterone thrown into your bloodstream to throw a little more, uh, uh, Mmm. Uh, sorry. What’s the, um,
Brad (00:27:09):
Well, estrogen, if it’s the female testosterone, if it’s the male, making someone be the best they can be with, with support is a huge deal. I’ve had my shows with John Gray, which we’ve talked about so much. And, um, you know, the, the romantic partnership can make or break all kinds of things, your health, happiness, and especially your longevity. It can trash it, or it can boost it by seven years, happily married couples have this huge boost in longevity. Uh, and it’s, it’s interesting that you bring up the, you know, the, the, the wise, the wise ass with the, with the quick trigger and, and the, you know, the unfiltered mouth. And I have, uh, I’ve had certain types of people like that in my life throughout my life. And I’ve really appreciated those people that are completely blunt and honest and direct good or bad because they give you that unfiltered scoop and you can process and appreciate it.
Brad (00:28:01):
And you can, you can choose to disagree with them, but there’s no, uh, there’s no nuance to it. And so therefore there’s no potential to misinterpret or, or engage in any little, uh, sort of a, um, you know, the, the harmful game of when these things are, are disguised and sugarcoated. And I see that happening a lot where, uh, these innocent comments that if someone did challenge you and say, Hey, what do you mean by that? You would say, Oh, I didn’t mean to offend you, but you sorta did mean to offend me. And you did it in a cute little way that you couldn’t get, uh, you know, it couldn’t get pinned on you, but that’s where I feel that insidious nature that we, we see so frequently where, you know, either speak what you’re really want to say and say it straight up, or, um, you know, seek to, uh, to, to pride instead of shame.
Luke (00:28:51):
Yeah. And that’s where, that’s where instinct comes in. And I’ve had those kinds of people in my life, too. I have a whole chapter in the book here. The God Academy has a whole chapter called the law of the dancing demon. And the idea is that if you do have someone in your life where you perceive, and this is totally instincts and good luck trying to explain to those people, you go, you know, you kind of spend a lot of time shaming me. And then the next thing you know, you’re doing and now you’re in a courtroom. Really? No, you’re the one who shames me. No, you shame me. And you’re like, and then, and here’s something that’s interesting if you’re with an aggressive personality, you know, with a friend or whatever. Um, and I don’t have, you know, much of that in my life, but I’ve had it on occasion.
Luke (00:29:36):
You know, everyone knows, you know, when, when you’re with someone, you know what I’m talking about, everybody, if you on the phone with somebody, whether it’s, you’re talking to your mom or someone in your family, or a photo or a friend you’ve had, and you just don’t know what to, here’s the key. Yeah. It’s either a plus sign or a minus sign. So when you’re done talking to him, do you feel better about yourself? Or do you feel worse about yourself now? Don’t you dare, I’m telling you do not examine it past that point, your guts, right? If you feel less about yourself, there’s a reason. Now, if you try to contest, if you try to bring this up with the person and you enter a contest about, you know, who’s at fault and all this kind of craziness about, you know, you make me feel, you know, you don’t want to use that language, of course.
Luke (00:30:19):
But one thing I’ve come to realize is that, you know, I’ve always wondered why, um, group think produces, you know, committee, right. Thinking, but you see a bad movie and they say, it seems like a movie made by committee. Right? Okay. What’s wrong with what is inherently wrong with committees? What what’s, what’s the problem here? Here’s the problem. If you take a committee and you have people bargaining with one another about ideas, if it’s a committee, it two or more people, the person with the strongest will not the best idea with the strongest will, will win the day. Now, sometimes that is the person who coincidentally also has a really great idea. Maybe even the best idea, but any committee will produce mostly the views of the people with the strongest views, with the strongest personalities who pushed the hardest. But that doesn’t say anything about the quality or ideas.
Luke (00:31:17):
That space speaks only their personality. So if you have someone in your life, who’s kind of a negative force in your life as defined by you don’t feel as good about yourself when you’re with them. Which man I’m telling you this, the bottom line, if you have that and you try to contest with them, guess what? You’re now in a committee situation. And all you’re really testing is a battle of wills. It’s like taking two beta fish and throwing them into a tank and saying which one’s going to be alive next week. Next week, there will be one fish, not to one will eat the other. You think it’s the one with the better ideas or it’s the one with a stronger will, the more aggressive personality, the biggest fish, you know, in terms of, you know, ego and, and, and just the stridency of their, of their attack.
Luke (00:32:06):
It’s just going to be the fish that has a stronger will. That’s what committee thinking is it’s throwing eight fish, eight ideas into a tank. And the one that emerges is the one that fights the hardest, not the best. So with those people, that what I say in the, in the chapter though, when you have people like that in your life, if they’ve been in your life for awhile, it’s almost certainly a time there. If they’re there and you’re like, God, why can’t I get rid of this toxic person in my life, this toxic friendship or whatever. A lot of times, it’s there something they’re there to teach us something a lot of times it’s, if you find yourself saying to them, well, here’s the deal I will not be spoken to in that tone, or I don’t like it when you continually degrade every time I see I have a project, I’m just, I’m not hearing a lot of, you know, way to go, you know?
Luke (00:32:51):
Mmm. A lot of times it’s just to teach, to remind you about, you know, the primacy of protecting your own self respect. So even those kinds of people in your life have something to teach you. Then once you’ve really learned it, you’re not angry at them anymore. You can just move along. You’ll be angry at the person in your life that you think is toxic right up to the moment that you learn that you grow, they take from their hands, the gift that they’ve been there to give you, you know what I’m saying? That’s when you’re not angry anymore, it means you’ve learned the lesson they came to teach you.
Brad (00:33:23):
You’re a, at some point, you’re hoping not to repeat the pattern and not to have these minuses. I like that simplification of saying plus or minus when you’re talking about the people and the things that you, people you associate with and the things that you do and you come home and you give yourself a plus or minus score. And if you’ve got a bunch of minuses in your notebook, um, at a certain point, you’re gonna, I think what you’re trying to say is, uh, why do I keep putting the minus in my notebook? And maybe there’s a reason in this time in your life and this journey that you’re on, you have to learn these lessons. But boy, that’s a tough way to go. Just like we talked about earlier, um, why can’t we learn from, uh, you know, a concept instead of having to, having to wade through it and learn the hard lessons ourselves. If you’re writing too many minuses in your book, you got to change the dynamic of these relationships or move on in many cases.
Luke (00:34:16):
And we tend to over examine. You know, we, we tend to think that we have so much control that if we examine it enough, we can tinker. We can take a screwdriver and turn a screw about an eighth of a turn and recalibrate the relationship such that it’s not hurtful to us anymore. But the bottom line is if it’s minus sign minus sign minus then, and this is so think about this, think of it in terms of cinema, right? In a movie, what defines a scene or, or a sequence? Like what, what makes a movie, what makes a movie grab us and keep us, you know, the roller coaster ride? What makes it fun?
Brad (00:34:56):
Well, the characters, the characters have to arm the plot, right? Th th the characters have to evolve over time. They have to face challenges and then overcome them. And that’s kind of what we relate to in a good movie.
Luke (00:35:10):
So let’s, let’s, let’s talk about a challenge in a movie, right? So, so let’s say, uh, the challenges that a detective needs to find some clue, any clue to give him a lead to who the murderer is. Right. So he’s frustrated, frustrated, frustrated, but then what does the writer give you after that?
Brad (00:35:32):
A breakthrough and some hope and some inspiration. Yeah.
Luke (00:35:37):
Okay. That’s a plus sign. No, plus sign is, Oh, good news. There’s a clue. Great, great. Then what is it? What does the writer give you?
Brad (00:35:46):
Uh, conflict dramatic conflict,
Luke (00:35:50):
right? Negative side. Things are going good. Things are going bad. Things are going. I mean, look at, look at any of these, you know, super popular TV shows, Breaking Bad, Sopranos, uh, Silicon Valley entourage. You know, any of them, what you’ll see is a pattern of just reversal, reversal, reversal, things are going great. Now things are going bad. Things are going great, how things are going bad. So those reversals that’s spin you into a negative or a positive charge are the stuff of life. Stories mimic the way life works, right? So you take those referrals reversals around. You don’t have a story anymore. So if you think of yourself as being, you know, the main character of your own narrative, when we have these crazy things happening, you know, if you think of it, just in terms of wanting to be in a state of constant gain, constant security, constant advancement, constant social, and economic advancement, for example, okay. Could make for a pretty comfortable life. It doesn’t make for a very good story. That’s a horror story. Now you’re kind of freaking, you know, if it’s a story you got to decide, do you want it to be an interesting story? Or the one where someone was born and everything went fine, and then they died.
Brad (00:37:05):
Yeah, you’re kind of freaking me out, man. We’re kind of, cause we’re, we’re compelled to live our lives, like a movie and bring this drama and bring these setbacks into position so that we can have something to fight against and maintain our own interest, I guess. And that’s a little disturbing because that means that we’re inviting, uh, relationship trauma, relationship conflict. Uh, we’re, we’re self sabotaging so that we can have a setback to, uh, to, to battle against and feel whole again. And it, when it, when it comes to real life, um, I don’t know. I would probably vote I’d raise my hand and say, yeah, I’d like less drama, uh, fewer setbacks and more prosperity and good times and happiness. And I don’t really want to learn from all these struggles, but we seem to, if we,
Luke (00:37:58):
no, it’s a reasonable thing to say, doesn’t it?
Brad (00:38:00):
Yeah. But I mean, we, I mean, if we all were really honest and admit this, um, we’ve all done this and, and that includes, um, uh, you know, picking a, uh, a petty conflict at the end of a long, a great family vacation or whatnot, you know, people just get, get off kilter a little bit and, um, you know, try to try to get that, uh, electrical charge going rather than, uh, you know, peace and tranquility and all the time.
Luke (00:38:30):
Well, is it, it’s unfair. There, there are many, many people who sense that they want their, their, their lives story to be more dramatic that they are when, when you everyone’s known somebody, a whirlwind kind of person. And I come from, you know, poor, very poor, very difficult upbringing, Clinton, Iowa. And I know looking around, there are people who create drama for drama’s sake. And we think that they’re doing it because often there maybe they’re narcissistic and they want all attention to be put on them. Or maybe they’re just lost a lot of times. It’s they feel there’s no plot point in my life every day is the same as the last. Do you remember the movie Groundhog Day?
Brad (00:39:12):
Yes.
Luke (00:39:14):
How would you describe that plot?
Brad (00:39:17):
That guy’s stuck in a repeating pattern, uh, due to, um, uh, whatever magical forces with the, uh, uh, the Groundhog and the town. And so he wakes up every day and he’s the only one that realizes he’s in the pattern. Everyone else is, uh, just living, living the same, the same life every single day.
Luke (00:39:36):
So he’s stuck in this pattern of living the same life every day. Yes. Yeah. Okay. What if I was to propose to you that it’s exactly the opposite and that’s why it’s a great movie. See, the way people mostly feel in their daily lives is most unhappy people, as they say every day is like the day before. There’s no plot point. They hate it. When they hear, Hey, it’s like life, you get out of it. What you put into what? And they go, not me, not me. It’s the same day. All the time Groundhog Day. It’s the kind of life we want to have where he, he it’s the opposite. He’s he, before he entered that Punxsutawney or whatever it was called. Mmm. Before that he was just a run of the mill average weather, weather, caster hitting, you know, in a cat, hitting on every woman around him, kind of a jerk everyday for him was the same.
Luke (00:40:34):
So he was on, he was on rails, man. Once he entered that town every day, he woke up. Once he realized, Oh, I’m in, stuck in a pattern here every day. He learned something new. Every day, he made a slight change. He made a slight advancement toward his goal, which was not self preservation. It was not money. It was get the girl. That’s all he cared about. And every day was slightly different, slightly better. He worked at it. He took piano lessons and became an expert pianist. Right. It became a medical expert. He learned about everybody in the town. He learned French poetry for God’s sakes. This is a man who’s every day changing, which means every day that he woke up was a new day. Yeah. It was the same song every day. Right. I Got You, Babe. But everything else advanced and that’s how life should feel. It should feel like Groundhog day and happened have that. They look for points.
Luke (00:41:36):
You got what I’m saying for him every day was for him every day, felt like a plot point. So he was happy. He had a goal and every day spun him and was slightly different trajectory. So everyday was different than the one that followed. So that, that’s why it’s a brilliant movie, by the way, because what you said is exactly correct. That is the plot guy wakes up the same day every day, every day. The reason it’s beautiful is that inside that framework, it’s actually secretly exactly the opposite. And so when we have these kinds of reversals, like a lot of us are having right now. Okay, baby, that’s a plot point. Hmm. That counts. Well, if you, you know, if people were not financially hurt, if they don’t have people who are sick, if their job is not affected, if you’re a restaurant. Oh, I shouldn’t say I’m sorry. If you’re, if you’re in a business where this is just something you’re kind of watching from a safe remove.
Luke (00:42:28):
Okay. Lucky you, but you don’t get the plot point. You don’t get a chance to spend your life into a different trajectory. There’s a line out of bill Merwin, William S Merwin, possibly our greatest living American poet past 50 years. And the line is this, you that lose nothing. Know nothing. There’s no. And like we said before, you can’t know the miracle, remember Shakespeare. He says, you know what, what a piece of work is a man. And he’s looking at the absolute miracle of the human hand. You know, I mean, when it’s seeing the Dawn wall, you want to know, somebody knows how miraculous a hand is. Talk to that guy with you, cut his finger off. For him he realized, Oh my God, every single, every single single finger on your hand is its own independent miracle. And that’s why he grieved it. But what did he do?
Luke (00:43:22):
The next order of business for him to say, God, my whole body’s a miracle. And he had a whole new drive, a whole new appreciation to go take that wall. And he did, but you can’t know what a miracle your hand is just by shaking it around and feeling all the, you know, the thousands of little intercut structures inside you get in a motorcycle accident and rip your transverse carpal ligament. And you can’t use your hands for two years ago. My God, what a thing, this thing is, but you need that reversal in order to take that knowledge in and really own it. And so any reversal that you feel, think of it as a plot point in the narrative, it’s going to be, it might, you’ve got tough times, but it’s a better, your life is a better show. It’s a more interesting narrative now,
Brad (00:44:13):
or I guess like you were talking about earlier, even the idea of a reversal or to, you know, consider, uh, the idea of, of, of not being able to use your legs. Maybe you’ll have a different appreciation for ascending the staircase rather than walking around, taking everything for granted. Um, Bruce Lipton’s book Biology of Belief. He says we’re 95% of the time operating from flawed subconscious programming. So we’re living our lives just in sort of a robotic mode where we’re not conscious and therefore less capable of appreciating the moment and the experience and not judging and, uh, you know, get getting out of that, uh, FOMO mindset, fear of missing out all those kinds of things that were most of the time engaged in, uh, the, the brain science shows that, um, uh, 96% of our thoughts are identical to yesterdays and 80% of those thoughts are negative.
Brad (00:45:17):
So, you know, we’re waking up and guess who’s helping us along. This journey is the, the media and the distortion of reality. That’s, uh, you know, do designed to, uh, listen our fears and anxieties because that’s what sells and that’s what the machine wants. And so, you know, we’re waking up every day looking at a new, uh, you know, life changing headline with news about the, uh, the outbreak and all these kinds of things. And we’re going into negative mindset and we’re repeating the same thoughts and same patterns. So I guess the w you’ve kind of covered a lot of the content of The God Academy, but if you want to dip in to kind of frame it, uh, whatever we haven’t covered and also tell me kind of the, the opening premise of writing this book, which was sort of a parody, and it was written by a different author and it was making fun of kind of, uh, what, what we see in that realm. Uh, but kind of set the, set the tone a little bit for them.
Luke (00:46:15):
Sure. Yeah. Thanks for asking. I hope people have, you know, here’s the book God Academy and, um, well, it kind of happened like this. I was teaching, uh, yeah, at the University of Hawaii, uh, in Kauai, um, uh, pre tenure track, um, great job, great kids. The first I’d open up the class. A lot of the kids, their English would not be, you know, the best you know, by mainland English standards, but they, they spoke English, but they also spoke Pidgin, that’s two languages. So I started the class and saying, you know, our first lesson’s going to be lessonfor me. I need an assignment that you need me to write in Pidgin. And they’d gave me an assignment. And they said, well, you’re going to, Oh, you have to write one pet, one Peppa professor. I’m like, yeah, you’re going to, and then I do my best to do my homework, go in the next day, sit on the floor, which was deliberate,
Luke (00:47:15):
and have them correct me and mock me for how awful my Pidgin was, all the errors that was making. So it was those kinds of things that got me a reputation as a different kind of teacher and over time Mmm. Faculty and students and all this, I kind of got a reputation as somebody, people could just go talk to, you know, if they’re in a lot of kids are going through some really rough stuff, you know, they’re, they’re kids with, you know, it’s just been recently diagnosed with HIV and other ones who are getting beat up at home. Others are working six jobs and haven’t slept and there, you have to take speed to stay awake and all kinds of interpersonal stuff. And teachers would come with students who were having troubles and ask me for advice sometimes. And I got better at it. And I found, I was teaching simultaneously a lot of like comparative mythology, you know, in English literature.
Luke (00:48:07):
And there was a lot of lessons in there. Of course I would naturally just draw from those in order to try to help people out. So over the years, I just, you know, you got into this mode, I didn’t charge anybody, anything. I just became this kind of GoTo source. And I really enjoyed it. I like being helpful. And so later, Cate and I moved to New Hampshire and I said, I should kind of take some of these lessons and put them in a book. But like you said, it was a little bit of a kick in the pants to the, the secret specifically, because I’d read that. And you know, everyone in California in Hawaii was you gotta read the secret. And I said, you know, I actually, I actually believe in this attraction concept. I mean, I don’t know where you come down on that Brad, but I mean, I’m telling you, I’m a believer.
Brad (00:48:50):
I’m saying it to the whole world. Tell us the premise of the secret. This was a bestselling book.
Luke (00:48:56):
Yes. So the central idea, the core concept is that they don’t put it this way, but I put it this way is that every thought you have is in fact, a prayer. There’s no such thing. As a thought, it’s a prayer and out it goes and different people have, maybe, you know, are on a different scale of how true this is for them. But for me, the thoughts I have do come true sometimes when I don’t want them to. But as a scientist, you know, um, I can’t ignore the evidence. That’s right in front of me. And this has been the case my whole life. And I’ve had to try and I’ve tried to train. This is part of the book, The God Academy. I talk about the benefits of lucid dreaming and lucid dream, as you know, because one of those is a dream where you wake up inside the dream in the sense that you go, Oh, I’m dreaming.
Luke (00:49:51):
This is a dream. And then you can start to control the dream. Oh, I think I’ll try flying. I’ll think I’ll go, I’ll do this. I’ll reset the stage. Now I’m in the Taj Mahal. It’s my mind. And, and that experience of a lucid dream reminds you that, you know, as they say life is, but a dream it’s true. And it’s not a truth that you can prove on a blackboard, but it’s a truth that a lot of people have and in a moment of epiphany, and once you get that, you’re stuck with it, man. You can’t get rid of it. It’s a, it’s a thorn in your soul, but a good one. Cause it’s always prodding you reminding you hold it. Don’t get too angry at this. Don’t too attached to that. This thing’s a dream. It’s not a put on it. It’s as real as anything gets, but it’s a dream.
Luke (00:50:33):
My personal belief is that it’s that, you know, I said in the God Academy, you know, many times it’s in the final chapter said, look, realize you are God. I tried to find what that means you are God. And when I say that, the idea is that if you believe that there is some sort of God consciousness, and I don’t mean some underlying matrix that you know, used us as a, as a, as consciousness, as a probe to understand the universe. No, if you go a step further than that and go so far as to say, the God has a consciousness, then it became, becomes evident. Then that the entire universe, including us, are an attempt for God to better understand every aspect of his own spiritual landscape. It means we’re all probes like, like tendrils of a plant, reaching out to taste all the minerals of the dirt within, within a hundred miles, because to do that is for God to better understand himself.
Luke (00:51:38):
And if you feel like if you get this ephinany, which could people could say, I don’t buy it, never had that epiphany sounds like a lot of the estimate I dig. But if you’ve had one of those moments, a lot of religious people have a lot of non-religious people have, you know, so called spiritual. This people just, just regular people go, Oh, I get it. But there’s even a philosopher who suggests that, you know, there’s a, there’s a very high likelihood mathematically that we’re all figments of a very extensive software program. You probably heard that. But the idea being that if you do believe, if you believe that there’s more to this to, to, to our philosophy, that more to the world than the strength is in our philosophy, then this idea of attraction suggests that thoughts are things I think of men’s prayers and that they can, in fact, if they’re powerful, bring about those events.
Luke (00:52:33):
Now begs the question. What if two people have a very, very strong thought and they are attracting incompatible realities, right? And that’s a simple scientific question. That’s a reasonable retort. I would say the answer to that is that the life we’re living right now, the thing that connects us all together is that we are all in the midst of a collision of provisional realities. Each of which being each reality, being spontaneously created by each of us and living in court in a kind of collider agreement with one another. But they’re always like a supercollider they’re always banging. Then when he went other setting each other’s trajectories in different directions, this mass collision of provisional realities that we’re all dreaming up with our thoughts is what we call the daily life. And within that context, within that context to realize if you start to notice it that yes, we do bring about realities. So that’s one of the main consequences of my book as well. The difference, one of the key differences between my book, God Academy and the secret is that I don’t think that thinking about cars and big houses and making as much money as possible is the end game. And I think there’s a much, much bigger picture a foot. And then you, and you’re really missing the boat if you don’t see that. So I see this as sort of, that’s why I call it a masterclass it’s it’s okay. If you ha, if you had the, you know, the grade school version of misconcept, step up and get your PhD.
Brad (00:54:04):
So what’s the, I mean, most people are familiar with this law of attraction and manifesting wealth has become a popular concept, popular topic. Um, I think there’s a lot of misinterpretation going on. And Luke Story, one of my podcasts, guests lifestyle is podcast hosts. He, um, he explained it really well where he said, if you’re not living in a position of gratitude right now, you’re cut off from these amazing powerful forces where you can attract the man of your dreams. And he’s got a trim beard and he’s six one, and he drives a, this kind of car, uh, all these things that people claim are so powerful and so true and work for them as they live in their house on top of the hill. And you do a good job making fun of that, all that nonsense in the book, right. But you know, the, the, uh, the powers of manifestation, um, I’m starting to pay more attention to them.
Brad (00:54:56):
And I appreciate the concept very, very much. So, uh, you know, the way Luke prefaced, it was great because he said, if you’re not in that position of gratitude right now, and grateful for what you have and who you are and where you are, then you’re cut off from these, these forces and powers. And if you’re thinking that manifesting something and bringing it in is then going to make you happy content and, and balanced and all that, um, you’re completely missing the point. So that was a good, a good setup for the people that scoff at first, at first notion that you manifested this car because, uh, you know, you dreamed about it. Um, and I think you’re, you’re still on that, on that same wavelength to where you’re kind of ridiculing the, the misinterpretation of these concepts and going deeper,
Luke (00:55:41):
absolutely most definitions that you’ll find in a book like the secret. I find those definitions so narrow as to be as destructive, as sunlight through a magnifying glass, you know, aimed at some, you know, at a, at a balsa wood house, it’s going to, it’s a nice entry point idea, but it sets the larger point of flame. It loses the plot.
Brad (00:56:03):
Give me an example.
Luke (00:56:04):
You know, when people think about people need a smaller ego, right? You have a big ego, you have a small ego forget size of ego, nature of ego. There’s not the first chapter in the book. Law of ego talks about expanding your ego to encompass all things. And there’s a word for that, by the way, how the fact that you were not just, you, you were everything that you’ve touched and influenced. It’s called influence. And that’s the actual you, the physical body that goes around influencing thing. That’s the probe. That’s just the vehicle that you use to walk around and influence. It’s the mushroom that pops out that you can see above the ground, but the entire giant plant this mass organism, that’s a shape that that’s an in shape of a ring. It could be a mile wide. That’s the real you. So the real us is influence. So I bring that up because when he talked about being in a state of gratitude, I also have a chapter about this and call it law of infinite return. The idea is to be in a state of gratitude, must extend beyond even. I’m great to have my car.
Luke (00:57:04):
I’m happy to have my car. I’m happy to have my relationship. I’m happy to do this and this and this. Let me just real quickly tell me what tell you what I mean by that. If right now, Brad, you went outside, jumped in your car, drove across town. I bought some beef jerky and came back just on a whim, right? You were like, I don’t know why I did that. It was out of nowhere, right? The other day, Cate, it was great moment. I’m not spontaneous enough. And Cate’s trying to teach me about this, but I said, let’s just go get sushi, just cause I want to. And she was great. She goes, okay. And we went and I go, wow, this feels weird. You know this, but if you were to do that, do something totally spontaneous. If you were to take a quarter and go outside and put it on the sidewalk, it has absolutely.
Luke (00:57:50):
And this isn’t, this isn’t a spiritual reality. Only. This is a mathematical truisms written about in chaos theory. Uh, the, the whole butterfly causing, uh, you know, a hurricane, every little thing that you do has a massive impact necessarily about the state of the entire world a year from now. Do you know what I mean? Every single action you take and everything that happens to you will, the consequences of that will ripple out until the state of the entire planet will be measurably different. Who’s going to be president could’ve changed because you went and got beef jerky. This is a mathematical truism because you go there that affects the guy who’s selling the beef jerky. He goes home. He goes, he walks into his house three minutes later than he would have otherwise because he closed up the shop a little bit later because this and that, which caused his wife, that dah, dah, dah, and so on the ramifications of all our choices are infinitely powerful.
Luke (00:58:46):
And the only time that they influence stops is when the influence is saturated on the whole world. But even then that influence continues year after year after year after year, the longer period of time, you can imagine it as kind of a, a cone of influence your choice to get the beef jerky. We’ll have a given amount of influence by tomorrow. Not much, but some by the end of the week, far greater by the end of the month, year, five years, the cone of influence. So what that means is if we’re grateful, imagine this. You hear about an airplane crash, 300 people die, massive, horrible, terrible.
Luke (00:59:30):
Imagine that you got to know one of the people who died very, very, very well. And you know that they’re a wonderful person, right? They do a kitty cat rescue and not the Tiger King kind, you know, a nice person and you heard they died and, and, and the mathematical gods come to you, God himself says, well, I’ll tell you what, remember how you had a poker game last year and you won 500 bucks. Remember how happy you were? And you go, yeah, that was great. I never win. That was a great day. Yeah. I just, it was like, I couldn’t lose. It goes okay. But it tell you what, um, because of the nature of, of the cone of influence the cone of consequence, if you were to lose a hundred bucks that night, that plane won’t crash and you go, what, how, how, wait, what if we buy the idea, the chaos concept that a butterfly can cause a hurricane it’s a much, much less, uh, while the novel concept to see that something as big as winning thing, 500 bucks can influence whether an airplane winds up hitting something on the airstrip or runs into some geese, right?
Luke (01:00:44):
Like the, like the plane that landed in the Hudson imagine. So what does that mean? That means to be grateful for what we have in the here and now is still a little bit narrow. That’s about stuff. We have no idea. You know, if you say you’re grateful for your car, and then you get in the car crash, you can’t be too grateful or ungrateful about the car, even because you have to consider this.
Luke (01:01:12):
I don’t know if this is going to save a hundred or a thousand or 10,000 lives in a year, or if it won’t, I’ll never know, that’s just the nature of life. But what I do know is me being in a small car crash, thankfully, thankfully, nobody got hurt, but that is going to have massive influence down the road. And it might have influence that will wind up touching people who you would have chosen. Looking backward, if you knew everything, if you had the omniscient mind, you might go, Oh, actually, I’m cool with the car crash, leave that in the story. Cause that wound up being a good thing for all these people. That didn’t happen to me, me, but for other people down the road,
Brad (01:01:48):
that’s heavy, man. It’s, it’s tough to get your head around it, but if you can live your life in that manner, thinking that your impact is massive and has this massive ripple effect, that’s possibly a very good way to go and to be more thoughtful and deliberate and more kind and try to pride instead of shame and all those things, Right?
Luke (01:02:10):
When, like you said, it totally undermines the idea that that security is real, that our control is real. That’s. Things are real in the, if you really have an empathetic, loving Godlike heart that says, you know, I’m pretty cool with losing a card game. I mean, imagine Seth, Oh, sorry. What’s his name that does all the voices as a family guy and all that seemingly wonderful guy. He does a great Kirk. Thank you, Seth MacFarlane. Okay. You might know the story. He just barely missed that. One of the flights that flew in and the, the buildings, he just missed that flight. By a hair or half an hour. But you know, it was pretty close. And I didn’t know that story. And you think, huh? What if you were playing poker with Seth the week before and you won and you go, ha ha Seth, I got 500 bucks off you.
Luke (01:03:10):
See you next time. And you’re all happy with yourself. It’s so fantastic. Or, and they say, you’ll lose and you’re all down. And you feel shamed because you’re not a very good card player and you have to go home and tell your partner, Oh, not a good night. You can’t know if that was a good thing until a week later where Seth goes, it’s funny. Cause after I, you know, let’s say that you took his 500 bucks and he goes, I was kind of upset. Cause I like to think of myself as a good card player. And I stayed up till two in the morning just feeling like a total boob and I’ve been sleeping and I met and that kind of set me for the whole week. I’ve been sleeping too late. And then, and then on the day for the flight, I woke up a little bit late, missed the flight and there you go.
Luke (01:03:53):
Oh, so that’s the influence of a card game in the period of one week. So that means everything that happens to us. We have no idea, no, this, you know, if you, if you take a quarter, put place in the center of a sidewalk, you just changed the world. And I mean the world and I don’t mean metaphorically. I mean, for real, you haven’t changed that in an hour. If someone comes and sees it and picks it up, okay, that’s the entry point to how you’re beginning to change the war role, which means just because we’re blind to it. It doesn’t mean it’s not happening. And if that’s true, that means if that’s, and here’s where faith comes in. If seeming reversals in your life, feel horrible, you have to go, you know what? I have no idea what the consequences of this does. I know it’s not very good for me right now, but I just changed Earth, man. The whole thing for every living, human being and every animal of change Earth. How long will that take to have happened a year or so? Maybe less. Why don’t we change the world? That’s powerful.
Brad (01:05:05):
Yeah. That’s I think that’s a nice conclusion here, Luke, because we’re existing in this time where, uh, it’s, you know, your, your statement is validated by, uh, our actions to shut down this, uh, pandemic and every little thing we do and every person we touch. So if you’re selfishly going off to get some beef jerky, uh, or, you know, traveling on a jet, I don’t know, who’s still flying places now. It might be some really important business people that are getting on an airplane, uh, exposing the flight attendant to everyone they’ve exposed themselves to. And so on this ripple effect. So what a great time to converse about the, um, the powers and we can learn more in the fabulous book with the unveiled author, uh, Angelica Crystal Powers, it’s called The God Academy of masterclass and the power of attraction. And where do we go find out about this on Amazon or anywhere books are sold
Luke (01:06:06):
available on Amazon. And, um, yeah, I mean, like I said, this pandemic is a perfect example. You know, somebody might’ve felt really, really good that they sold that there was some meat that was left out a little longer than it should have been. Or however, this thing started in that province in China. And if any, no doubt felt really good that they got to sell that meat. That maybe it wasn’t so great. And you go, okay, well enjoy your, you know, $2, but just so you know, that’s going to have a little bit of an effect.
Brad (01:06:33):
Mercy,
Luke (01:06:34):
More than a $2 sale. And I think, you know, so we, so we see like, I want to just focused on that for one last second, because that’s a perfect, you brought up the perfect example in the way that, that small outbreak from what seems to be, you know, the mishandling of this, of these, of these, not very pleasant. Mmm. You know, wild animal markets that has live and dead animals and the whole thing. Right. Which is kind of a metaphor for sin in a way it’s not, it’s unwholesome. You see a place like that and you go, we’re not doing something something’s wrong here. It’s like going to one of those massive, you know, uh, hog killing facilities, you say, okay, well, if there’s hell on earth here, here it is. You know, but we see how a tiny, tiny act. And you say to that person at that marketplace, just a humble person, just selling them, their meat. And you go, Hey, just so you know, your actions have really big consequences, like bigger than you think. And I go, really, you go give it a few months, give it six months. You’ll be surprised how powerful you are. You can change the world. The good news is we can do the same thing for the better, but it definitely means that examining any single event that happens in your life, in that tiny little context, as opposed to being part of the larger, larger tapestry of the narrative, that we’re all engaged in it’s myopic and ridiculous. So keep changing the world and don’t judge yourself too much. Cause you don’t know what the consequences of your actions are. Move in faith, move with love, do your best. And that’s it.
Brad (01:08:12):
Luke Shanahan. Love it. Thank you for joining good stuff, man. We’ll check back in and we’ll check back in, in a year and discover the ripple effect of this this year podcast.
Luke (01:08:26):
Hey, that’s no joke, man. We’ll see, you know, by the book people have, have me on a gun and I’m, you know, I promise you I’m coming from a good place and I have no intention. It was one of this. Another thing I learned this month, I have no intention of ever getting rich. Well, I do want to be influential. I want to do good. I want to make some noise and that’s, that’s a happy place to be.
Brad (01:08:50):
Thank you for listening to the show. We would love your feedback at getoveryourselfpodcast@gmail.com. And we would also love if you could leave a rating and a review on iTunes or wherever you listen to podcasts, I know it’s a hassle. You have to go to desktop iTunes, click on the tab that says ratings and reviews and then click to rate the show anywhere from five to five stars. And it really helps spread the word so more people can find the show and get over themselves cause they need to thanks for doing it.
