The Power of Intention: Learning to Co-create Your World Your Way

During the past several years, I've been so strongly attracted to studying intention that I've read hundreds of books by psychological, sociological, and spiritual writers; ancient and modern scholars; and academic researchers. My research reveals a fairly common definition of intention as a strong purpose or aim, accompanied by a determination to produce a desired result. People driven by intention are described as having a strong will that won't permit anything to interfere with achieving their inner desire. I imagine a sort of pit-bull kind of resolve or determination. If you're one of those people with a never-give-up attitude combined with an internal picture that propels you toward fulfilling your dreams, you fit this description of someone with intention. You are, most likely, a super-achiever and probably proud of your ability to recognize and take advantage of opportunities that arise.

For many years I've held a similar belief about intention. In fact, I've written and spoken often about the power of intention being just what I've described above. Over the past quarter of a century, however, I've felt a shift in my thinking from a purely psychological or personal-growth emphasis, toward a spiritual orientation where healing, creating miracles, manifesting, and making a connection to divine intelligence are genuine possibilities.

This hasn't been a deliberate attempt to disengage from my academic and professional background, but rather a natural evolution that's been unfolding as I began to make more conscious contact with Spirit. My writing now emphasizes a belief that we can find spiritual solutions to problems by living at higher levels and calling upon faster energies. In my mind, intention is now something much greater than a determined ego or individual will. It's something almost totally opposite. Perhaps this comes from shedding many levels of ego in my own life, but I also feel the strong influence of two sentences I read in a book by Carlos Castaneda. In my writing life, I've often come across something in a book that starts a thought germinating in me that ultimately compels me to write a new book. At am rate, I read these two sentences in Castaneda's final book, The Active Side of Infinity, while I was waiting to have a cardiac procedure to open one clogged artery leading into my heart that had caused a mild heart attack.

Castaneda's words were: "Intent is a force that exists in the universe. When sorcerers (those who live of the Source) beckon intent, it comes to them and sets up the path for attainment, which means that sorcerers always accomplish what they set out to do."

When I read those two sentences, I was stunned by the insight and clarity it gave me about the power of intention. Imagine that intention is not something you do, but rather a force that exists in the universe as an invisible field of energy! I had never considered intention in this way before reading Castaneda's words.

I wrote those two sentences down, and then I had them printed on a card and laminated. I carried the laminated card with me into the catheter lab for my minor surgical procedure, and as soon as I could, I began talking about the power of intention to everyone who would listen. I made intention a part of every speech I gave. I immersed myself in this idea to use it, not only for my own healing, but to help others use the power of intention to carry them where they're fully equipped to go. I had experienced satori, or instant awakening, and was intent on offering this insight to others. It had become clear to me that accessing the power of intention relieved so much of the seemingly impossible work of striving to fulfill desires by sheer force of will.

Since that defining moment, I've thought of the power of intention in virtually all of my waking hours-and books, articles, conversations, telephone calls, items arriving in my mailbox, and arbitrary, works I might be looking at in a bookstore all seemed to conspire to keep me on this path. So here it is: The Power of Intention. I hope this book will help you view intention in a new way and make use of it in a manner that leads you to define yourself as Patanjali suggested more than 20 centuries ago: "Dormant forces, faculties, and talents come alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be."

Patanjali's two words, "dormant forces," kick-started me in the direction of writing about intention. Patanjali was referring to forces that appear to be either nonexistent or dead, and he was referring to the powerful energy a person feels when inspired. If you've ever felt inspired by a purpose or calling, you know the feeling of Spirit working through you. Inspired is our word for in-spirited. I've thought long and hard about the idea of being able to access seemingly dormant forces to assist me at key times in my life to achieve an inner burning desire. What are these forces? Where are they located? Who gets to use them? Who is denied access? And why? Questions like these have propelled me to research and write this book and subsequently arrive at a totally new perspective of intention.

At this point, as I'm writing about my excitement of realizing a long-obscured truth, I know that intention is a force that we all have within us. Intention is a field of energy that flows invisibly beyond the reach of our normal, everyday habitual patterns. It's there even before our actual conception. We have the means to attract this energy to us and experience life in an exciting new way.

Where Is This Field Called Intention?

Some prominent researchers believe that our intelligence, creativity, and imagination interact with the energy field of intention rather than being thoughts or elements in our brain. The brilliant scientist David Bohm, writing in Wholeness and the Implicate Order, suggested that all ordering influence and information is present in an invisible domain or higher reality and can be called upon in times of need. I found thousands of examples of these kinds of conclusions in the research and reading I did. If scientific evidence appeals to you, I suggest that you read The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe by Lynne McTaggart. Her book is filled with studies supporting the existence of a higher, faster energy dimension or field of intention that can be tapped in to and used by everyone.

The answer to Where is this field? is: There's no place that it's not, because everything in the universe has intention built into it. This is true for all life forms, whether it be a wildebeest, a rosebush, or a mountain. A mosquito has intent built into its creation and life experience. A tiny acorn with no apparent power to think or make plans for its future contains intention from the invisible field. If you cut the acorn open, you won't see a giant oak tree, but you know it's there. An apple blossom in the springtime appears to be a pretty little flower, yet it has intent built into it and will manifest in the summer as an apple. Intention doesn't err. The acorn never turns into a pumpkin, or the apple blossom into an orange. Every aspect of nature, without exception, has intention built into it, and as far as we can tell, nothing in nature questions its path of intent. Nature simply progresses in harmony from the field of intention. We, too, are intended from the energy of this field.

There is what some call a future-pull in the DNA that's present at conception in each of us. In the moment of our conception. when an infinitely tiny drop of human protoplasm combines with an egg, life in physical form begins, and intention directs the growth process. Our body structure, the shape of our physical features, our development, including our aging, are intended in that one moment of conception. The sagging skin, the wrinkles, and even our death are all there. But wait, what exactly happens at the moment of conception? Where did this life, born of intention, begin?

As we examine that seed/egg dance attempting to discover its origin, moving backwards toward Creation, we first find molecules, then atoms, then electrons, then subatomic particles, and then sub-subatomic particles. Ultimately, were we to put these tiny quantum subatomic particles into a particle accelerator and collide them, trying to put our finger on the source of life, we'd discover what Einstein and his scientific compatriots discovered: There's no particle at the source; particles do not create more particles. The Source, which is intention, is pure, unbounded energy vibrating so fast that it defies measurement and observation. It's invisible, without form or boundaries. So, at our Source, we are formless energy, and in that formless vibrating spiritual field of energy, intention resides. On a lighter note, I know it's there, since somehow it managed to get into a drop of sperm and an ovarian egg and determine that my hair will no longer grow on my head after 25 years ... and in 50 years, it will grow in my nose and ears, and all I (the observer) can do is watch it and snip it away!

This field of intent can't be described with words, for the words emanate from the field, just as do the questions. That placeless place is intention, and it handles everything for us. It grows my fingernails, it beats my heart, it digests my food, it writes my books, and it does this for everyone and everything in the universe. This reminds me of an ancient Chinese story I love, told by Chuang Tzu:

There once was a one-legged dragon called Hui. "How on earth do you manage those legs?" he asked a centipede. "I can hardly manage one!" "Matter of fact," said the centipede, "I do not manage my legs."

There's a field, invisible and formless, that manages it all. The intention of this universe is manifested in zillions of ways in the physical world, and every part of you, including your soul, your thoughts, your emotions, and of course the physical body that you occupy; are a part of this intent. So, if intention determines everything in the universe and is omnipresent, meaning there's no place that it's not, then why do so many of us feel disconnected from it so frequently? And even more important, if intention determines everything, then why do so many of us lack so much of what we'd like to have?

The Meaning of Omnipresent Intention

Try imagining a force that's everywhere. There's no place that you can go where it isn't. It can't be divided and is present in everything you see or touch. Now extend your awareness of this infinite field of energy beyond the world of form and boundaries. This infinite invisible force is everywhere, so it's in both the physical and the nonphysical. Your physical body is one part of your totality emanating from this energy. At the instant of conception, intention sets in motion how your physical form will appear and how your growing and aging process will unfold. It also sets in motion your nonphysical aspects, including your emotions, thoughts, and disposition. In this instance, intention is infinite potential activating your physical and nonphysical appearance on Earth. You've formed out of the omnipresent to become present in time and space. Because it's omnipresent, this energy field of intent is accessible to you after your physical arrival here on Earth! The only way you deactivate this dormant force is by believing that you're separate from it.

Activating intention means rejoining your Source and becoming a modern-day sorcerer. Being a sorcerer means attaining the level of awareness where previously inconceivable things are available. As Carlos Castaneda explained, "The task of sorcerers was to face infinity" (intention), "and they plunged into it daily as a fisherman plunges into the sea." Intention is a power that's present everywhere as a field of energy; it isn't limited to physical development. It's the source of nonphysical development, too. This field of intention is here, now, and available to you. When you activate it, you'll begin to feel purpose in your life, and you'll be guided by your infinite self. Here's how a poet and a spiritual teacher describes what I'm calling intention:

O Lord, thou art on the sandbanks As well as in the midst of the current; I bow to thee. Thou art in the little pebbles As well as in the calm expanse off the sea; I bow to thee. O all-pervading Lord, Thou art in the barren soil And in the crowded places; I bow to thee. - from Veda XVI by Sukla Yajur

As you make your metaphorical bow to this power, recognize that you're bowing to yourself. The all-pervading energy of intention pulses through you toward your potential for a purposeful life.

How You Came to Experience Yourself As Disconnected from Intention

If there's an omnipresent power of intention that's not only within me, but in everything and everyone, then we're connected by this all-pervading Source to everything and everyone, and to what we'd like to be, what we'd like to have, what we want to achieve, and to everything in the universe that will assist us. All that's required is realigning ourselves and activating intention. But how did we get disconnected in the first place? How did we lose our natural ability to connect? Lions, fish, and birds don't get disconnected. The animal, vegetable, and mineral worlds are always connected to their Source. They don't question their intention. We humans, however, with our capability for presumably higher brain functions, have something we refer to as ego, which is an idea that we construct about who and what we are.

Ego is made of six primary ingredients that account for how we experience ourselves as disconnected. By allowing ego to determine your life path, you deactivate the power of intention. Briefly, here are the six ego beliefs. I've written more extensively about them in several of my previous books, most notably Your Sacred Self.

1. I am what I have. My possessions define me. 2. I am what I do. My achievements define me. 3. I am what others think of me. My reputation defines me. 4. I am separate from everyone. My body defines me as alone. 5. I am separate from all that is missing in my life. My life space is disconnected from my desires. 6. I am separate from God. My life depends on God's assessment of my worthiness.

No matter how hard you try, intention can't he accessed through ego, so take some time to recognize and readjust any or all of these six beliefs. When the supremacy of ego is weakened in your life, you can seek intention and maximize your potential.

Holding on to the Trolley Strap

This is a practice I find exceedingly helpful when I want to activate intention. You may find that it works for you, too. (See Chapter 3 for an entire chapter describing ways to access intention.)

One of my earliest memories is of my mother taking her three boys on the streetcar on the east side of Detroit to Waterworks Park. I was two or three years old, and I recall looking up from the seat and seeing the hand straps hanging down. The grown-ups were able to hold on to the straps, but all I could do was imagine what it would he like to be so tall as to grab those straps way above my head. I actually pretended that I was light enough to float up to the hanging handles. I then imagined feeling safe and the trolley taking me where it was destined to go, at whatever speed it chose, picking up other passengers to go along on this glorious adventure of streetcar riding.

In my adult life, I use the image of the trolley strap to remind myself to get back to intention. I imagine a strap hanging down about three to four feet above my head, higher than I'm capable of reaching or jumping up to grab. The strap is attached to the trolley, only now the trolley symbolizes a flowing power of intention. I've either let go of it or it's just out of my reach temporarily. In moments of stress, anxiety, worry, or even physical discomfort, I close my eyes and imagine my arm reaching up, and then I see myself float up to the trolley strap. As I grab the strap, I have an enormous feeling of relief and comfort. What I've done is eliminate ego thoughts and allow myself to reach intention, and I trust this power to take me to my destination, stopping when necessary, and picking up companions along the way.