How Blockbuster Movies Keep You Broke . . .

How Government Discourages Success . . .

The People You Spend Time With . . .

So How Does All This Play Out?

Key 1: Recognize and Release Victim and Entitlement Mentality

Key 2: Recognize and Reject Jealousy and Envy Mentality

Key 3: Understand the Infinite Nature of Prosperity

Key 4: Build Your Sacred Circle of People Who Nurture and Support Your Highest Good

Key 5: Seek Out Abundance Environments and Limit Your Time in Lack Surroundings

Key 6: Practice a Daily Self-Development Program

Key 7: Know Not Just What You Are Moving Away From But Also What You Are Moving Toward

Law 1: The Vacuum Law

Law 2: The Circulation Law

Law 3: The Imaging Law

Law 4: The Law of Ideas

Law 5: The Law of Reciprocity

Law 6: The Law of Tithing

Law 7: The Law of Forgiveness

Business Model 1: Real Estate

Business Model 2: Information Entrepreneur

Business Model 3: Multi-Level or Network Marketing

Leverage Your Leverage . . .

It was that thin line between Saturday night and Sunday morning. I had just returned from an evening at a club. As I parked on the street and got out of my car, a tall stranger bounded up to me. I figured he probably wanted to bum a cigarette or ask directions.

I didn’t notice the gun until it was too late.

Turns out the guy was a crackhead desperate for his next fix. This was the eighties, the “wild west” days of Miami and the advent of the crack epidemic, when we were overrun by petty criminals from the Mariel boatlift and the infamous Cocaine Cowboys. South Beach, where I lived, sat at the epicenter of drug activity.

And I was about to become the next statistic....

The guy held the gun to my temple, and his eyes glassed over as though looking right through me. A white Pontiac Fiero pulled up behind us, apparently waiting for my assailant.

Although I practiced martial arts, this situation didn’t call for physical defense. The gun remained pointed at my brain, and I knew that if you get shot there, you’re done. Even if you’re not dead, you’re dead. I had no idea whether the accomplice in the car had another gun. (I found out later he did.) And, of course, he could just run me over if he wanted to.

So I elected to try and calm down my attacker, give him my money, and steer the incident to a peaceful resolution. Which works a lot better if you have more than $7 in your pocket! Since a rock of crack cocaine cost five bucks in those days, I kept telling him to take the money, get himself a rock, and we’d just forget about the whole thing. But he wasn’t buying that, insisting I had more money and I’d better hand it over.

I kept trying to rationally explain that the seven bucks was all the money I had on me, and he should just take it and get to the crack house. I pointed out why he didn’t want the situation to escalate, with probable repercussions being arrest, felony charges, and prison. Of course, crackheads are not known for their rational thinking . . .

Finally, he told me to get back in my car. I don’t know how or why, but I knew that if I did get in the car, I wouldn’t come out alive. So I refused.

“You have my money, and here are the car keys. You can have the car, but I’m not getting in it. Just take the money, get a rock, I’ll walk away, and we’ll forget this ever happened.”

We were standing under the periphery of a streetlight’s glow. I kept slowly edging back toward the bright light in the event someone might drive by or look out from an apartment window. I could see him getting jumpier by the second. The driver of the Fiero revved his engine.

Suddenly he moved the gun away from my head and pressed it against my abdomen. Then he said something very ominous. I remember wondering whether what he said was directed at me, at the world in general, or to himself. It was one of those mysterious statements that could mean many things. I remember discussing it with people soon afterwards, debating who he was talking to and what he meant.

The fascinating thing is, when I try and recall those words now, I can’t. I believe my mind has shut out that entire experience, to protect me from reliving too vividly what happened next....

He pulled the trigger.

It wasn’t like TV. The noise was deafening, especially at that time, reverberating off my apartment building and echoing out across the neighborhood. I clutched my stomach as I fell backwards onto the street. Then time slowed down to Matrix speed . . .

I calmly watched the shooter get into the car, which drove off towards Miami. I remember thinking for a second that I’d been had, that the gun must have been a starter pistol or shooting blanks, because I didn’t feel anything. But when I looked down to where I was holding my abdomen, I saw blood streaming through my fingers.

Then I felt the pain. A lot.

As a writer and professional speaker, I pride myself on my ability to communicate ideas, concepts, and stories. But I simply don’t have the words to adequately describe to you what a bullet tearing through vital organs feels like. We’re talking white-hot, searing, thermonuclear hurt.

Because the shot was so loud, I expected lights would flash on, people would lean out windows, open doors, and then someone would come out and take care of me.

None of the above. Complete stillness.

I sat in the street, my legs splayed out under the streetlight. I remained there for who knows how long, suffering from shock, locked in a surreal, detached state, as I watched the pool of blood surrounding me grow larger. Suddenly I realized that if I didn’t get up, go to my apartment, and call for help, I would die in the street.

I ripped off my shirt and tied it around me to stop the bleeding as best I could. I struggled up, crossed the street, climbed a flight of stairs, and entered my apartment. I managed to dial 911, then collapsed into a chair. I felt my life slowly ebbing away from me, as more and more of my blood flowed down onto the carpet.

By the time the paramedics arrived, I was so weak they picked up the chair with me in it and carried me down to the ambulance. When they lifted me onto the gurney, I writhed in pain as blood gushed from my gut. On the way to the hospital my blood pressure dropped so low they had to put me in a pressurized space suit to keep my heart pumping.

Once we arrived, emergency nurses greeted me with four IVs and a catheter. The doctors rushed me into surgery and sewed up my large intestine. My life had been saved, but I had yet to go through the worst agony I would ever experience . . .

For the next few days I could neither eat nor drink. They gave me a cotton swab to moisten my lips. A tube running through my nose, down my throat and into my stomach kept gagging me. Even through the fog of drugs, the pain was excruciating. When I choked on my own mucus and vomit, I ripped the tube out, only to have them reinstall it and threaten to strap my arms to the bedrails if I tried to remove it again.

The operations and recovery that followed made the next several months the most excruciatingly painful period of my life. The sutures ripped out of my stomach and infection set in. I couldn’t find any comfortable way to sit, stand, or lie down. Two years passed before I felt normal again. What I endured I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.

Yet imagine my shock when I realized later that I had subconsciously wished it all on myself.

Now, if you had told me this at the time, I no doubt would have slapped you into next week. But as you’ll soon discover, I had indeed subconsciously attracted the whole painful experience. I was unknowingly following a pattern of victimhood that had been programmed into my subconscious mind since childhood. I was a helpless pawn, blindly manipulated by forces greater than I—just as you, too, probably have unknowingly manifested challenges for yourself, subconsciously attracted adversity, and even sabotaged your own success.

Now why would I do this? And why would you?

Later I’ll explain the bizarre and robotic series of actions that caused me to bring such misfortune, suffering, and pain on myself. But first, let’s explore whether you are being manipulated by these same forces—and might be sabotaging your own success and settling for less than you deserve in life.

And by forces I don’t mean the usual suspects: the devil, terrorists, or communist insurgents. I’m not suggesting a Da Vinci Code conspiracy, nor am I reserving a seat on the next comet out. I’m talking about common, ever-present, and well-regarded people and institutions all around you right now, such as your family, your social circle, the place you worship, your government, and the media.

Because herein lies the real danger. If you are like most people, you think these institutions are part of your support network and working for your highest good. What you probably don’t realize is that instead, they are actually keeping you dumb, sick, and broke.

It’s not that your family doesn’t love you or your friends don’t like you. They probably do. And I doubt that your rabbi, minister, or priest consciously wants to cause you great harm. Your congressperson doesn’t really have a vendetta against you, and the columnist in your daily newspaper isn’t on a mission to harm you. At least not consciously.

But that won’t stop all of these people, and thousands more, from causing you to subconsciously wreck your marriage, get passed over for promotions, manifest an illness or injury, sabotage your business, ingest substances that destroy your body, or do any one of a million other behaviors and actions that can prevent you from reaching the health, happiness, and prosperity that are your birthright.

I understand this may all sound crazy to you. Allow me to suggest the possibility that you have been so totally brainwashed with feelings of unworthiness, prejudice about wealth, and false beliefs about success, that you have unknowingly become your own worst enemy.

To find the cause, we have to go back to the formative years of your childhood—to look at the subconscious programming you were exposed to and the core beliefs that programming created. We must explore the world of memes, which are actually viruses of the mind.

Memes are like computer viruses in that they parasitize the host and cause it to replicate the memes. A hit song that you can’t get out of your head is a meme, as is a catchy expression like “Just Do It!” Those are innocent enough memes. But there are many more memes that aren’t so innocent.

Some of the memes you’ll be exposed during the course of a week are likely to include “Buy furniture with no money down and no payments for two years,” “If you drink our beer, you will be sexy and popular,” and “When you buy our SUV, you’ll be able to traverse fjords, climb mountains, and splash through rivers on your way to the dry cleaners.”

Those endless chain e-mails that state, “Send this to everyone you know, and the people who care about you will send it back,” “Help find this lost girl,” and “Watch this amazing slide show of Conversations with God” are perfect examples of memes in action. When people receive these e-mails, they experience an emotional reaction and instantly feel compelled to forward them to everyone they know. (The term meme and the science of memetics were pioneered by Richard Dawkins in his book The Selfish Gene. And you’ll learn much more about them in the book Virus of the Mind by Richard Brodie.)

The more emotion involved, the more likely a meme is to replicate. Of particular strength are memes involving children. (You’ll see that demonstrated later in this chapter.) Case in point is all those new mothers who feel compelled to place “Baby on Board” decals in their car windows. What practical purpose could these signs actually achieve? Do they really think drivers in other cars are more cautious or slow down because they see one of these signs in the minivan window? But imagine the argument you would get from the mother of a newborn if you questioned this practice.

There is a whole group of memes that are interrelated (known as a memeplex) in the area of money and success. But these memes are about keeping you from achieving money and success, instead of helping you get it. They are very prevalent today, and a vast majority of the population is infected with them. These memes are readily accepted and replicated because they allow people to validate their lack of progress in their life goals. They include:

• Money is bad.

• Rich people are evil.

• It is spiritual or noble to be poor.

• If you struggle and grind it out, you’ll be accepted by the rest of the nice people doing the same.

• Underdogs and the little guys are good; big entities are bad.

• You have to sell your soul to get rich.

• Rich people lie, cheat, and steal.

• CEOs, movie stars, and pro athletes are overpaid.

• Rich people have lots of money, but they also have many additional problems. Being rich isn’t worth it.

• Money causes good people to go bad.

• If you deny yourself now, God will provide true prosperity in the afterlife.

It may be hard to believe that something a teacher or parent said when you were six years old is preventing you from getting a promotion today, but it could very well be so. You may doubt that a TV show you watched when you were 15 could be causing your marriage to suffer 20 years later, but that might be the case. You may find it far-fetched to think the books you read or the movies you enjoy could be causing you to stay sick or manifest disease.

But in fact, this is exactly what is happening to millions of people. And most likely you are one of them. As you are exposed to these people, institutions, and environments, you are likely to be infected by thousands of potential memes. Just as exposure to raw sewage can cause you to be infected with germs, microbes, and other nasty things, prolonged exposure to the data-sphere (meaning TV, radio, movies, books, magazines, newspapers, the Internet, and e-mail) will infect you with many nasty viruses of your mind.

Memes are as real—and deadly—as biological viruses. Just like computer viruses, memes parasitize the host (your mind), replicate, and spread to others. And just like other viruses, an epidemic of memes is sweeping through our society today.

Society spends billions to protect us from biological and computer viruses. Yet most people have never even heard of a mind virus. And they may be the most dangerous of all, because you don’t realize you’ve been exposed to and then infected with them.

Obviously one of the big culprits is the data-sphere. All of these information and entertainment sources come with a slant—a bias, an opinion, or a point of view.

The obvious ones are not so much a problem. You probably listen to or watch a political commentator who you know is a rabid right-winger or bleeding-heart liberal. You know going in that Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly have a conservative bias, and that Howard Stern and Al Franken have a liberal one. That’s not our concern.

The real danger is the insidious subliminal and subconscious programming you are getting—programming that is imprinted in your subconscious mind without your knowledge.

Let me give you an example. Suppose you’re eight years old and your family drives by a mansion. You’re impressed and say something about it. Your mother tells you that people who live in big houses like that aren’t happy. The odds are quite good that you will be infected with the “money doesn’t buy happiness” mind virus without even knowing it. It stays on your hard drive the rest of your life, but you don’t even know the program was installed.

What’s truly scary is that 90 percent of the programming you’re exposed to today is the negative programming of lack, fear, and limitation. This programming causes you to self-sabotage your success and repel health and happiness. And it gets reinforced almost every time you watch TV, go to the movies, read a book, or have any connection with the data-sphere.

How Blockbuster Movies Keep You Broke . . .

You probably saw the movie Titanic. If not, you’re one of the last people on earth who hasn’t. In fact, as of this writing, that movie is the highest grossing film ever released.

Why? Because it panders to the fear-based, lack-centered, and limiting beliefs that most people have about money and success. Titanic programs you on many different levels that it is noble to be poor, rich people are immoral, and money is evil. And the more you liked that movie, the more subconscious lack programming you have. I think it’s the most evil movie ever made.

“Come on, Gage,” you say. “It’s just a love story. And it’s a movie! We know it isn’t real.” But let’s go to the movies the way I go to the movies ...

The first scene of the movie opens with happy-go-lucky Jack. Now why is he happy-go-lucky? Because he’s poor. He’s only on the cruise because he won the trip in a card game, right?

So the first lesson we learn is that poor people are carefree and untroubled. Just think about all the problems rich people have. What if the butler calls in sick? What if somebody keys the Rolls? Have you seen the high cost of helicopter maintenance these days?

In scene two, we meet Rose. Now Rose is decidedly not happy. Why? Because she has to marry the boring rich guy. If you remember, her mother admonishes her to suck it up and go through with the wedding for the sake of the family. So the second lesson we learn (subconsciously, of course) is that you have to sell your soul and trade happiness for money.

As the movie develops, another critical scene shows Rose eating in the first class dining room. She is surrounded by all these dreary, stuffy, rich people who are sipping brandy, smoking cigars, and blathering inanely about polo matches and superficial nonsense. There’s a shot with a mother slapping her little girl’s wrist because she doesn’t know how to use the eleventh oyster fork on the left. (Okay, I’m exaggerating. A little.)

Jack comes along and tells Rose, “Come on down to third class, and let me show you how to party!” Next, the movie cuts away to the poor people, who of course are singing, dancing, and having fun, showing us how much nicer and more fun they are to be around than those ponderous, nasty, and rigid rich people.

What’s the subconscious programming here? Rich people are no fun. Poor people are the ones you want to hang out with. And if you want to be accepted and fit in with the crowd (something most people strive for all their lives, beginning in childhood), then you most certainly are better off being a poor person.

Then the ship hits the iceberg . . .

Rich people try to sneak into lifeboats or bribe their way on. Rose’s wealthy fiancé even snatches a baby from its mother’s arms in an effort to catch a ride. (Remember that memes involving emotion and children are particularly strong. So can you imagine the subconscious reaction imprinted upon your mind as you watch some selfish rich guy steal a baby from its mother to save his own skin?)

We see the rich people rowing into the horizon, as the water gurgles over the poor bastards chained up in the lower decks. We see a brave, poor mother as she calmly tells her children that they are going to go downstairs and sing church hymns until they drown. Excuse me while I puke!

Fast-forward to the end of the movie. Rose is now about 180 years old. Her poor granddaughter is working her fingers to the bone, taking care of this old bag. Rose has a necklace worth about $40 million, which she could give to her granddaughter and set her up for life. What does she do with it?

She feeds it to the friggin’ sharks!

Level, after level, after level, this movie subconsciously programs you that money is bad, rich people are evil, and it is good, even spiritual, to be poor. And nothing could be further from the truth.

“Okay, I’ll give you that one,” you say. “But that’s just one movie.”

Just one movie? Well, let’s look at a few more blockbusters. Take Spiderman, for example. In the first Spiderman, who was the dastardly villain? The billionaire rich guy. By the way, who was the villain in The Fantastic Four, Alien, and almost every James Bond movie ever made? The rich guy. But back to our web-weaving crusader.

Remember when poor Peter Parker finally met up with the girl next door whom he had secretly worshipped from afar for years? They each go to throw the garbage out at the same time. Their eyes meet. She begins talking to Peter, and the sparks start flying. Then what happens?

The rich kid pulls up in his brand new car, which his evil, rich daddy just bought him for his birthday. The girl shrieks with delight, drops Peter along with the garbage, hops into the car, and they drive off, leaving Peter scorned, dejected, and alone. On a subconscious level, how do you think that makes you feel about rich people?

There’s even a part in the movie when Peter’s uncle says the most famous lack-programming words ever spoken:

“We may not be rich, but at least we’re honest.”

Ever heard anything like that? What does that really mean? Let me translate: “Be glad you are poor. That means you are honest, noble, and a good person—because rich people lie, cheat, and steal.”

That’s why something you may have heard from a parent or teacher when you were 10 could be impacting your core beliefs 20, 30, even 40 years later. When you are young and impressionable, things you hear from people in authority create an indelible effect on you.

Now why was Peter’s uncle raising him? Because he was an orphan. Remember, memes are strongest when they are emotional and involve children. What could grab your heart more than a poor little orphan? So Spiderman was an orphan. Come to think of it, so was Batman. And Superman. Wonder Woman. Harry Potter. The Boxcar Children and the Lemony Snicket kids are all orphans.

Do you detect a pattern here?

You may be starting to wonder whether this is a conspiracy among writers to manipulate you. It isn’t. They are infected with the same memes and don’t even know they are replicating them.

Like the original, Spiderman II was riddled with subliminal programming to reinforce negative mind viruses. Which, coincidentally, ensured it would be another smash hit worldwide. Once again, we meet Peter’s noble aunt who raised him. We can tell she’s noble, because the greedy bankers are evicting her from her house.

In the sequel, Peter loses his pizza delivery job, because he stopped to save two little kids who were about to be run over by a truck. This reinforces the meme that noble people sacrifice their own good and happiness for others (which will create more negative and dysfunctional relationships, because we certainly don’t have enough of those around!). Then to make it just perfect, the heartless boss is an East Indian, reinforcing the meme that those money-grubbing immigrants are here stealing all the good jobs from hard-working Americans.

Of course, Spiderman I ends with our hero telling his one true love that he could never be with her. Then he walks off alone into the sunset of his unrequited love. He has made the choice to give away his own happiness so he can serve others and fight the forces of evil.

In Spiderman II, the girl gets pushier, pressing Peter to make her an honest woman. Again Peter is conflicted between pursuing his own happiness or wrapping thugs in spider webs. So he asks his aunt (who is now sorting her possessions on the street) what to do. She tells him that there are special people in the world, people who sacrifice everything that is important to them to serve others for the greater good. Is that sweet or what?

What a crock of spider shit!

Hollywood, Bollywood, Hong Kong, and movie makers everywhere have learned the lesson well. The more a movie conforms to your beliefs, the more certain you are to like it. Of course, it’s not just the movie studios . . .

Television is just as guilty—and a lot more dangerous to your health, happiness, and prosperity, because you are probably exposed to TV more than any other media.

Think about how millionaires and billionaires are portrayed on the small screen. The entire premise of shows like The Beverly Hill-billies is that rich people are snobby, pretentious buffoons, and poor people are kind-hearted, good folk with common sense. Remember the goofy millionaire with the pretentious name on Gilligan’s Island ? Wasn’t there always one rich guy in the tent on MASH who listened to opera, acted like a jerk, and generally made life difficult for the good ole’ boys? Think back to the way those adulterous, lying, cheating, and conniving rich people were portrayed on Dallas, Dynasty, and similar shows. Instant replay, the same tune is played over and over.

But from a prosperity standpoint, probably the most insidious shows came when networks discovered how cheaply reality shows could be produced—and how popular they would become. Shows like Survivor, Fear Factor, The Apprentice, and Weakest Link share a common thread: how much people will demean themselves to get on TV and try for a cash prize. (Of course, a similar dynamic can be found with the Jerry Springer Show and the other daytime talk trash-a-thons.)

The latest hit as of this writing is Unanimous. It pits nine people in a bunker, each one scheming how to go home with $1.5 million and let the other eight leave empty-handed. Of course, the producers seeded the group with a couple of liars and cheats, to reinforce your belief that money causes people to do bad things.

You cannot watch shows such as these without lowering your opinion and expectation of humanity. You lose respect for your fellow human beings, and, as a result, lose respect for yourself.