The power of negative intentions (6/8/08)
I was riding high after our high-tech HeartMathematical triumph in Santa Cruz, so the Fates apparently decided that it was time for a fall. It’s actually worth going into all the gory details of what happened, because they illustrate some surprising but important principles about the power of intention. So here goes.
The first signs of a downturn came on my “day off” at the La Costa resort near San Diego, with two weeks of conferences and meetings finally behind me. I thought I’d catch up on emails and writing projects, but apparently someone else had other ideas. My laptop was totally dead, and I couldn’t even get it charged up via the outlet at my hotel room’s desk. I was pretty sure that the problem didn’t stem from when the iBook fell off the plane seat a few days ago– it was in the carry pack, and it still worked for a day or two after that mishap So after ascertaining that the hotel’s IT crew had the whole Memorial Day holiday weekend off, I made an executive decision to go to the beach, and forget about all this electronic faff. And it was a truly wonderful Monday at the beach in nearby Encinitas, at the so-called Swami’s Beach. Yes, that’s actually the name – in honor of Yogananda, the Indian guru who moved to the US almost 100 years ago to bring yoga to the West, and who donated some land near his headquarters to local beachgoers.
The Swami and the surfer – Southern California in a nutshell
I figured I’d fly home the next day, fix my laptop and get caught up with all things electronical . So I got back home on Tuesday night, but I wasn’t able to get to the local Mac store until Saturday (I got by with the hospitals Pcs until then), where one of their junior MacGurus quickly recharged my laptop’s battery. We figured out that the hospital’s powerstrip wasn’t working, and that’s why my laptop had run dry; no damage had been done by its fall in the plane. So I took my revived iBook home and went online, got caught up on some emails, and began to prepare for Monday’s upcoming bi-monthly conference call, a chance for JoS’s Big Three producers to catch up on things.
I got a little worried when I suddenly and mysteriously lost email access Saturday night and a bit more worried when we lost phone service altogether on Sunday morning. But a friendly neighbor put in a service call to Verizon Sunday noon when I discovered our loss of service. Verizon was able to get our phone line going again by 8am on Monday morning, in plenty of time for our 10am conference call. Oddly, my hospital pager had gone off at 5am in the morning, signalling that its battery had nearly run out. So I put in a new AA, figuring that I now had my back-up contact link securely in place (true confessions – I don’t have a cellphone).
After breakfast, I found that the DSL internet/email link was still out, so I tried calling Verizon’s tech support. Their guy led me through a lot of guided connecting and disconnecting of jacks and powerups of modems, with me having to shuttle from room to room because the battery on our cordless phone (our family’s cellphone equivalent) had run out during a day away from its charger. But to no avail. A serviceman would have to come to the house later that day, but only after our conference call. I scooted over to the Public Library and did a few quick email catchups, and got back home in plenty of time to set up for the call. Everything went well for the first 10 minutes or so of our talk, but then my ear must have inadvertently pressed too hard against the phone receiver, pushing the disconnect button and cutting me off. It was a poor design feature that I had silently cursed several times before, but had never remedied with a simple phone upgrade. So there I was, with a dead line, and no way to tell the others that I was cut off.
I know – get a cellphone! But in the meantime, I could only hope that my two partners would telepathically (if not telephonically) figure that I had gone silent because of a phone glitch, not because I was being extremely thoughtful. I wasn’t sure, though, if they’d figure out to hang up so that I could re-dial and start the con call process over again. Oh well, hopefully they could still have a fruitful call without me.
Again, events were forcing me to take a break from business, since there was nothing else to do but wait. It was warm and sunny out back, and the rhododendrons were at the height of their glory (see photo for proof). It was clearly time for some deep meditation (a process my wife sometimes confuses with a cat nap). I woke up refreshed, with a non-trivial question to ponder: “What’s the message here?”
I believe that all life events are like dreams, and have both a literal and a symbolic meaning. So I obviously had to take a look at what was going on. The common theme of all these glitches seemed to be disconnection, running out of power. Hmmm… My best guess is that I’m running a little low myself, since I haven’t had time to unwind yet after a very busy but very productive couple of weeks on the road. My deeper intent must have been to stay away from electronics for a while, and take the time to recharge my own batteries first, before I bothered to recharge my computer. I guess I felt too guily to admit that after 2 weeks in such beautiful climes, I was still in need of some downtime.
Addendum (3pm): The Verizon guy came by (I called him with the neighbor’s phone) to fix both problems - the lack of dial tone and the missing DSL access were both caused by a corroded main cable down the road. J&K did – eventually - notice my silence on the line yet had a good conference call despite (because of?) my absence . And no – I’m still not ready to get a cellphone. But I will heed that inner voice that was urging me to rest, or meditate, or whatever, even though my mind was loudly declaring that it knew better. These mixed motives had seemingly attracted a string of symbolic glitches into my life, until I finally got the message. The power of intention and the process of manifestation were still working, but they were harnessing my deeply mixed feelings, not my surface wishes. It’s a lot more fun to create you life when you’re clear about your goals and your motivations!
The first signs of a downturn came on my “day off” at the La Costa resort near San Diego, with two weeks of conferences and meetings finally behind me. I thought I’d catch up on emails and writing projects, but apparently someone else had other ideas. My laptop was totally dead, and I couldn’t even get it charged up via the outlet at my hotel room’s desk. I was pretty sure that the problem didn’t stem from when the iBook fell off the plane seat a few days ago– it was in the carry pack, and it still worked for a day or two after that mishap So after ascertaining that the hotel’s IT crew had the whole Memorial Day holiday weekend off, I made an executive decision to go to the beach, and forget about all this electronic faff. And it was a truly wonderful Monday at the beach in nearby Encinitas, at the so-called Swami’s Beach. Yes, that’s actually the name – in honor of Yogananda, the Indian guru who moved to the US almost 100 years ago to bring yoga to the West, and who donated some land near his headquarters to local beachgoers.
The Swami and the surfer – Southern California in a nutshell
I figured I’d fly home the next day, fix my laptop and get caught up with all things electronical . So I got back home on Tuesday night, but I wasn’t able to get to the local Mac store until Saturday (I got by with the hospitals Pcs until then), where one of their junior MacGurus quickly recharged my laptop’s battery. We figured out that the hospital’s powerstrip wasn’t working, and that’s why my laptop had run dry; no damage had been done by its fall in the plane. So I took my revived iBook home and went online, got caught up on some emails, and began to prepare for Monday’s upcoming bi-monthly conference call, a chance for JoS’s Big Three producers to catch up on things.
I got a little worried when I suddenly and mysteriously lost email access Saturday night and a bit more worried when we lost phone service altogether on Sunday morning. But a friendly neighbor put in a service call to Verizon Sunday noon when I discovered our loss of service. Verizon was able to get our phone line going again by 8am on Monday morning, in plenty of time for our 10am conference call. Oddly, my hospital pager had gone off at 5am in the morning, signalling that its battery had nearly run out. So I put in a new AA, figuring that I now had my back-up contact link securely in place (true confessions – I don’t have a cellphone).
After breakfast, I found that the DSL internet/email link was still out, so I tried calling Verizon’s tech support. Their guy led me through a lot of guided connecting and disconnecting of jacks and powerups of modems, with me having to shuttle from room to room because the battery on our cordless phone (our family’s cellphone equivalent) had run out during a day away from its charger. But to no avail. A serviceman would have to come to the house later that day, but only after our conference call. I scooted over to the Public Library and did a few quick email catchups, and got back home in plenty of time to set up for the call. Everything went well for the first 10 minutes or so of our talk, but then my ear must have inadvertently pressed too hard against the phone receiver, pushing the disconnect button and cutting me off. It was a poor design feature that I had silently cursed several times before, but had never remedied with a simple phone upgrade. So there I was, with a dead line, and no way to tell the others that I was cut off.
I know – get a cellphone! But in the meantime, I could only hope that my two partners would telepathically (if not telephonically) figure that I had gone silent because of a phone glitch, not because I was being extremely thoughtful. I wasn’t sure, though, if they’d figure out to hang up so that I could re-dial and start the con call process over again. Oh well, hopefully they could still have a fruitful call without me.
Again, events were forcing me to take a break from business, since there was nothing else to do but wait. It was warm and sunny out back, and the rhododendrons were at the height of their glory (see photo for proof). It was clearly time for some deep meditation (a process my wife sometimes confuses with a cat nap). I woke up refreshed, with a non-trivial question to ponder: “What’s the message here?”
I believe that all life events are like dreams, and have both a literal and a symbolic meaning. So I obviously had to take a look at what was going on. The common theme of all these glitches seemed to be disconnection, running out of power. Hmmm… My best guess is that I’m running a little low myself, since I haven’t had time to unwind yet after a very busy but very productive couple of weeks on the road. My deeper intent must have been to stay away from electronics for a while, and take the time to recharge my own batteries first, before I bothered to recharge my computer. I guess I felt too guily to admit that after 2 weeks in such beautiful climes, I was still in need of some downtime.
Addendum (3pm): The Verizon guy came by (I called him with the neighbor’s phone) to fix both problems - the lack of dial tone and the missing DSL access were both caused by a corroded main cable down the road. J&K did – eventually - notice my silence on the line yet had a good conference call despite (because of?) my absence . And no – I’m still not ready to get a cellphone. But I will heed that inner voice that was urging me to rest, or meditate, or whatever, even though my mind was loudly declaring that it knew better. These mixed motives had seemingly attracted a string of symbolic glitches into my life, until I finally got the message. The power of intention and the process of manifestation were still working, but they were harnessing my deeply mixed feelings, not my surface wishes. It’s a lot more fun to create you life when you’re clear about your goals and your motivations!
posted by Rick Leskowitz,MD at 7:47 PM
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