Michael Beckwith
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THE MASTERS OF WITH BILL HARRIS A CONVERSATION WITH MICHAEL BECKWITH 1 THE MASTERS OF THE SECRET MICHAEL BECKWITH A CONVERSATION WITH MICHAEL BECKWITH Bill Harris: Welcome again to the Masters of the Secret seminars. His books include: Inspirations of the Heart, series. I am very glad to be with you again. Today, I have 40 Day Mind Fast Soul Feast and A Manifesto of Peace. with me Dr. Michael Beckwith of the Agape International In 2003, his work was acknowledged in the congressional Spiritual Center. Michael and I met in Jack Canfield’s record of the 107th Congress and he has been the recipient Transformational Leadership Counsel and appeared of numerous humanitarian awards including the 2004 together in the hit DVD movie The Secret. Michael is an Africa Peace Award, the Thomas Kilgore Prophetic amazing example of a human being living a spiritual as Witness Award, the Howard Thurman Stained Glass well as a practical life and certainly someone who has Window Award by Morehouse College, a commission to mastered what people these days are calling the secret and oil portrait for Morehouse’s prestigious Hall of Preachers the law of attraction. Let me tell you a few things about and the humanitarian award of the National Conference him before we get started. In the 1970s, Michael began an for Compassion and Justice. He was one of the stars of the exploration into Eastern and Western spiritual teachings hit DVD movie The Secret and he has recently appeared on leading him to some amazing realizations. As a result, he Larry King Live and twice on Oprah, speaking about The began to teach universal truth principles in what many Secret and the law of attraction. I was a guest at his Agape people called the New Thought Tradition of spirituality International Spiritual Center a couple of Sundays ago and he does this at his Agape International Spiritual along with about 4,000 other people and I will tell you that Center in Los Angeles, which he founded in 1986. Some Dr. Michael Beckwith creates an amazing transformational people see Michael Beckwith as carrying on the work of experience in everyone with whom he comes in contact. creating spiritual community in the tradition of Martin He has an amazing talent for helping people experience Luther King. Dr. King’s widow, Coretta Scott King wrote their own inner divinity as well as their spiritual to him, “I greatly admire what you are doing to bring about connection with other people, with God, and really with the beloved community, which is certainly what my dear the entire universe. He does this in a very tangible way. husband worked for and ultimately gave his life.” What is Michael, I am so glad to have you here today. Enlightenment? magazine described Michael as a ‘non- aligned trans-religious progressive,’ which sounds a little Michael Beckwith: Bill, it is my pleasure and honor kinky to me. I will have to ask Michael exactly what that to be here. It is amazing listening to that resume, you is. He has appeared on international panels with other know, you just do what you do, day to day, moment peacemakers and spiritual leaders including His Holiness, by moment, to be a beneficial presence on the planet the Dalai Lama, Dr. T. Ariyarante of Sri Lanka and Arun and you never even think about awards or any of that Gandhi grandson of Mahatma Gandhi. He is cofounder kind of stuff. We are just here to become our real of the Association for Global Thought, an organization selves. dedicated to planetary healing and transformation. Michael is the originator of the Life Visioning Process, Bill Harris: Well, that may be one of the reasons why which he teaches throughout the country along with you have made a lot of those awards, because you have meditation, scientific prayer and the spiritual benefits of not been focusing on them and focusing on actually selfless service and he facilitates retreats, workshops and doing something. 2 THE MASTERS OF THE SECRET MICHAEL BECKWITH Michael Beckwith: Absolutely, I think that is the key. or spirit or whatever you want to call it. Some people are so stuck in… Bill Harris: So, you know, I am so impressed with what you do and I am so glad that I was able to actually Michael Beckwith: Well, they are nervous. I think be there for one of your services. You seem to get into people have identified themselves in a very limited way a state when you speak that is almost like, I mean, I and in order to touch these other dimensions that we say this partly tongue in cheek, but it is almost like you are talking about, they have to actually reconstruct their are channeling and I know that state myself because I identity and it is a very difficult thing to leap into that get into it sometimes too when I am speaking. What because actually, you used the word extemporaneous, happens to you when you are speaking? which means out of time, you are absolutely allowing yourself to move out of time so the eternal can take Michael Beckwith: It has evolved over the years, but over and for many people it is very scary because they of course, my life is centered around my meditation are living their lives primarily from memorization. practice and so, what happens is, I will go up to speak They memorize things, which is like a filing cabinet and I am just open to the energy of inspiration and rather than being in the flow of the energy, which transforming knowledge to flow through me. And so, I is spontaneous goodness happening. It is a totally will begin to speak on whatever the theme is and then different way of being in the world. at some point, the energy itself, the knowledge itself about that subject, will begin to pour forth through me Bill Harris: Yeah, you know, I have been a jazz and I will begin to have a greater understanding, even musician for… in the moment, of what I want to talk about. Michael Beckwith: Which you actually understand! Bill Harris: You know, it is interesting that you would say that because the same thing happens to me. I Bill Harris: …decades and it is very much like that almost always speak extemporaneously when I am in because when you are playing a jazz solo, you do not front of groups and many times some of my best ideas have time to think your way through it. You either are come while I am speaking. I figure things out or put there and you are playing it and it is coming out of you things together in new ways that I had not thought or not, but the jazz player, just like a public speaker, has about before. Does that happen to you too? to pay a price in terms of investigating certain things, practicing or whatever you want to call it. You know, Michael Beckwith: Oh absolutely all the time! I call a person cannot just get up there and do what you do it my surprise. I am not satisfied when I speak unless I without having some preparation, but then, having done am surprised. I have to be surprised at the new way it is the preparation, you know, you get up there and instead languaged or a new insight into a new interpretation of it of thinking and analyzing your way through it, you just and it will surprise me, which means I have been available. let it come out of you and it does. I have made myself available to the larger knowledge rather than staying with what I thought I knew. Michael Beckwith: Right. There is a difference between playing the piano and making music. When a Bill Harris: Absolutely, you know, one of the things person learns how to play the piano and they go through that I am teaching my students that a lot of them the scales and they learn all of that. They learn how to have some trouble with is kind of getting their linear play the piano and then at some point when they release mind out of the way and letting this other thing come themselves, they are able to make music and this is exactly through. A kind of tapping into their unconscious mind what you are talking about. My wife, Rickie, often times 3 THE MASTERS OF THE SECRET MICHAEL BECKWITH calls me that. She says, “You are like a jazz musician up and starts looking at all of the available information there speaking. You get on a theme and a roll and then a outside of your awareness and then it is just kind of all theme and then suddenly, that theme will go into an area available there. that you have never talked about before and it will become a sweet riff and then it will come back to the original Michael Beckwith: Absolutely, again based on identity, theme again and then off on another riff and then come you know, if you want to use the language of Jesus, we back to the same theme again until the night is sewed up would say that we are the light, the light that lights up and it is this nice song that has been played.” every man and woman that comes into the world or we could say that we are the holographic expression of Bill Harris: Yeah. You do something on the stage.