About the Author

John Gray is a psychologist and bestselling author of Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus. He is a popular and frequent guest on TV and radio, including Oprah’s dynamic Change Your Life TV team.

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First published in the US by HarperCollins 2000
This edition published in the United Kingdom in 2000 by Vermilion, an imprint of Ebury Press
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This book is dedicated to the memory of my mother, Virginia Gray. Her humility, strength, selflessness, and love expressed as a mother to her family and to the many thousands who visited her bookstore, the Aquarian Age Bookshelf, will never be forgotten. Her gentle, youthful, and radiant spirit lives on in me and in all who were lucky enough to know her. She has been my spiritual role model, and I hope this book does justice to the many blessings she has given me.

Thanks, Mom, for always being there, and for staying around to continue helping me.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I THANK MY wife, Bonnie, and our three daughters, Shannon, Juliet and Lauren, for their continuous love and support. Without their contributions, this book could not have been written.

I thank Jane Friedman at HarperCollins for believing in this book. I thank my editor, Diane Reverand, for her brilliant feedback and advice. I also thank my publicist, Laura Leonard; Matthew Guma for his editorial support; Anne Gaudinier, Rick Harris, and Susan Stone of HarperAudio; and the other incredible staff of HarperCollins.

I thank Linda Michaels, my international agent, for getting my books published in more than fifty languages. I thank Monique Mallory at Planned Television Arts for her hard work in organizing my busy media schedule.

I thank my staff: Steve Grumer, Helen Drake, Bart and Merril Berens, Pollyanna Jacobs, Ian and Ellen Coren, Donna Doiron, Michael Najarian, Sandra Weinstein, Jon Myers, Martin and Josie Brown, Matt Jacobs, Bob Beaudry, and Ronda Coallier for their consistent support and hard work.

I thank my many friends and family members for their support and helpful suggestions: Robert Gray, Virginia Gray, Robert and Karen Josephson, Clifford McGuire, Jim Kennedy, Alan Garber, Oprah Winfrey, Merv Griffin, Renee Swisco, Paul Goodberg, Darren Stephens and Jackie Tallentyre, Bill Galt, Gail Weaver, Cheryl Lingvall, Dr. Zhi Gang Sha, Dr. Mohsen Hourmanesh, Dr. Ellen Cutler, Jon Carlson, Ramy El Batrawi, and Malcolm Johns.

I thank the hundreds of workshop facilitators who teach Mars-Venus workshops throughout the world and the thousands of individuals and couples who have participated in these workshops. I also thank the Mars-Venus counselors who continue to support my work in their counseling practices.

I thank my parents, Virginia and David Gray, for all their love and support. Though they are no longer here, their love continues to support me. And thanks to Lucile Brixey, who has always been like a second mother to guide and love me.

A special thanks to Anupati Kaleshwar, whose wisdom and experience assisted me greatly in developing a practical understanding of natural healing energy.

I give thanks to God for the incredible energy, clarity, and support I received in bringing forth this book.

CONTENTS

Cover

About the Author

Title Page

Dedication

Introduction

1. Practical Miracles for Mars and Venus

2. Recognizing Our New Potential

3. The Nine Guiding Principles

4. Spiritual Algebra

5. Living in an Age of Miracles

6. A Life Free from Burden

7. Our Nine Primary Needs

8. The Balancing Act of Life

9. Learning How to Be Healed and Stay Healed

10. Nine Techniques for Creating Practical Miracles

11. The Recharging Technique

12. The Decharging Technique

13. The Natural Energy Diet

14. The Positive Response Technique

15. The Blockbuster Technique

16. The Attitude Adjustment Technique

17. The Willful Breathing Technique

18. Natural Energy Healing

19. The “What If” Technique

20. The Power Is Already Within You

Acknowledgments

Copyright

INTRODUCTION

FOR MANY PEOPLE, the beginning of each new year is filled with resolutions, which, after a few weeks, get abandoned. How many times have your best intentions failed?

Although we are inspired to make a positive change, we soon lose our motivation and relapse into old habits. Life goes on the way it did before. After a while, we lose our enthusiasm and faith in ourselves and in others. When the urge to make a change occurs, we discount or dismiss it because we do not trust in our ability to follow through.

One of the first secrets of change is to recognize and trust our ability to make a change and to sustain it. If we do not believe, then we cannot even attempt to change and will not discover our new abilities to create miracles. Then, on this basis of belief, by understanding how miracles occur, we can immediately begin to use our inner potential and create the changes we seek.


To create change, we must trust in our ability to follow through and behave as if miracles are really possible.


In all my workshops on success, procrastination ranks highest on the list of blocks that hold people back. They want to make a change, but somehow just can’t do it. After taking a few steps forward, they are gripped by some mysterious force that restrains them. They are stuck in emotional quicksand. The more they struggle and try to change, the more deeply mired they become. Almost everyone can relate to this in some way. Unless we first learn how change is possible, we will continue to struggle silently or give up on making significant changes altogether.

All life is dynamic and requires change, and life today is so much faster than ever before. Without a new and better understanding of how to make changes, we are doomed to suffer even more. On the brighter side, by applying a few new principles for making a change, life can genuinely be easier. Suddenly, instead of struggling and suffering, we find ourselves effortlessly flowing through life, making the necessary adjustments not just to cope but to make our dreams come true. Instead of trying to row the boat upstream, we joyfully move with the current.

So many times in our relationships we quietly resolve to be more loving. Then our partner says or does one thing, and we are faced once again with a list of reasons why we don’t want to try again or open up. Although we may love our partner, we no longer deeply feel that love. Most couples begin by wanting to share a lifetime of passion, then later they really don’t understand what happened to take it away. While some are happy to settle for a more traditional loyal but passionless love, most are not, and so dissatisfaction and divorce has increased.


Most couples start out wanting to share a lifetime of passion and later really don’t understand what happened to take it away.


In our business life, we resolve to be more efficient and move ahead in areas where we have procrastinated, only to backslide once again. When we are successful, we earn more money but still find ourselves in greater debt or more stressed so that we cannot enjoy the abundance we have created. Too many families are torn apart by the stresses and pressures of keeping it all together or doing it all. The simple life of a few changes a day is over. Business is now done at the speed of light, and if you can’t keep up, then you miss out.

This stress takes its toll not only on our relationships but on our bodies as well. While occasional junk food is fine, to depend on it makes us sick. We resolve to eat healthier food and exercise, and within a few weeks we are back to our same old convenient habits. In the West, we have more divorce, more debt, and more obesity than ever before.

Although medicine has made miraculous advances, people are more dependent on drugs and doctors than ever before. If they are not troubled by extra weight, they are consumed with addictive behaviors like heavy drinking and overworking, or they suffer from allergies and chronic physical pain. In America, the three biggest problems have been increasing debt, domestic violence, and the rising cost of health care. These are the symptoms of our inability to change with the times.


In relationships we accumulate baggage, in business we accumulate debt, and in our bodies we accumulate fat and disease.


To different degrees, when childhood is over, we become caught in the momentum of our lives and little real or lasting change occurs. Unless this direction is changed, eventually it may lead to physical pain or sickness, decreasing success or the loss of passion in our relationships. To change this direction is what I call a practical miracle.

This kind of shift seems like a miracle because, in the past, to make real and lasting changes was nearly impossible. Fortunately, times have changed. Increasing success, lasting love, and vibrant health are practical miracles within the reach of everyone.

I began to realize miracles are real and possible when I personally witnessed several physical healings that modern medicine could not explain. People who were dying of cancer and unable to heal through modern methods were miraculously able to recover and become healthy again.

These kinds of miracles have occurred throughout history and are well documented. Yet, the idea of miracle healings is often dismissed simply because science cannot explain it or it is not easy to repeat in order to study. Simply because we cannot explain miracles doesn’t mean that they don’t occur. Just because in the past they couldn’t be controlled or understood, it doesn’t mean that we can’t understand them today or, better yet, learn how to create them in our own lives.

When I witnessed many of these healings and then directly experienced a miraculous physical healing of the blindness in my left eye, my mind suddenly opened to the reality that miracles are real. They have occurred throughout history and are happening today. They occur not only in the area of health but in all areas of life.

In my search to understand and explain how miracles occur, I discovered that the same principles that create a physical healing can increase success and create more loving relationships. I also learned that miracles can occur even when our problems are not enormous or life-threatening.


By understanding how miracle healings take place, it becomes easy to understand how miracles can happen in all areas of our lives.


Miracles occur all the time but we normally just call it luck. Attributing our success to luck, however, implies that we have no control over the good fortune we experience. The truth is, there are reasons why good things happen. Choices are made and the results come. When good results come and we don’t know how we did it, then we call it luck. We call it luck only because we don’t clearly understand how our beliefs, feelings, thoughts, attitudes, choices, and actions determine all the results we get in life.

Through learning the way people think, feel, and so on, prior to a miracle or “lucky event,” we can learn how to start creating practical miracles in our own lives. Throughout Practical Miracles for Mars and Venus we will explore and understand nine guiding principles that, when observed, can assist us in creating the results we want in life. Good fortune will not be left up to luck or destiny but can be something we consciously generate each day.

The Placebo Effect

Often, when miracles occur, people attribute the good fortune to strong faith or to the power of suggestion. There is an incredible power in believing. However, positive belief or optimism is not enough by itself. It is only one of the nine principles for creating practical miracles.

When a miracle healing takes place, sometimes, after a few weeks, the relief or healing disappears and the unhealthy symptoms come back. As a result, doctors and scientists are often wary of sudden, miraculous cures. While they recognize that such cures do occur, they feel that, in the majority of cases, the advancement is temporary and that the condition has not been truly healed.

Rather than wonder, “Does miraculous healing really occur?” we would do better to ask, “How and why does faith heal and why is it sometimes temporary?”

Then we can ask, “What can be done so that illness or problems don’t return?”

Once we understand the nine principles of creating miracles, it will become clear why these cures occur, why they go away, and how to make the healing permanent. With this insight we can learn how to stay healthy and avoid sickness and pain in the first place.

The temporary nature of miracle healings, transformations, or changes is well documented in science. It is called the placebo effect. Often patients will get better simply because they believe they will. Studies repeatedly show that some people improve even when given a simple sugar pill containing absolutely no medicine or active ingredient. The sheer belief that they are being treated for their problem or condition creates temporary healing.

The placebo effect appears in other situations as well. People will listen to a motivational speaker or preacher and suddenly be inspired to make positive changes to increase success or love more fully. Although they leave feeling revved up, they soon regress and aren’t able to follow through with the change.

It is not unusual for people who order exercise equipment after watching a late-night infomercial to rarely use their products after a few weeks. Many never even open the box. What equipment do you have around the house that you are not using?

For most of us, enthusiasm fades fast. While some people continue ordering the next quick fix, others are quick to mistrust or dismiss miraculous claims. Anything that promises a quick fix or creates miraculous change is often viewed as a fad or gimmick that really doesn’t work. As with any other placebo, if we believe, the miracle will begin … but belief is not enough to sustain it.


When change is not sustained, many people become jaded and stop believing.


Many people experience the placebo effect in matters of love. When they first meet someone, they are overcome with emotion. Then, within a few weeks to a few years, they grow disappointed. In one minute they fall in love, and then later fall out of love. A few such experiences from their perspective or from their lover’s cause them to mistrust their own feelings of love or the attention and affection of others.

When we are certain we have found the person of our dreams, we fall in love. First we believe they are the one, and then we fall in love. Falling in love occurs when our hearts are open to the possibility that at last we have gotten what we are looking for. Once we get to know the person and we stop believing they are the one for us, then we fall out of love.

Ironically, when we fall in love it is often with someone we don’t even know or with whom we have had very little interaction. But if we believe they may be the one, we will react as if we truly have found the right person for us. Abruptly all our loneliness and pain disappears, at least for a while. This is why falling in love can be such a relief. It also explains why falling out of love can be such a letdown. When we stop believing our partner is the one, all our past unresolved pain that was relieved by falling in love suddenly returns.

The problem with believing and being repeatedly disappointed is that we stop believing we can get what we need and that we can make our dreams come true. As a result, life becomes boring and loses its sparkle and shine. We become stuck and frequently accept our lifelessness as a natural symptom of growing old. Fortunately, it is not.

To create and enjoy lasting love, increasing success, and vibrant health, we must continue to believe. Yet, we must also recognize that believing that miracles are possible is only one of the many principles required to create and sustain practical changes in our lives. Without an understanding of the other required principles, then we stop believing in the power of believing.

When we stop believing in the possibility of positive change, then we have no power to change. With a new awareness of the other factors that allow believing to create sustained results, we are then set free to believe once again. We can easily see what was missing before and we can now begin filling in the missing pieces so that our desires to change can be sustained. With this shift, we are free once again to experience the power and wonder that come from opening our minds and hearts to the real possibilities of change and transformation.


The problem with belief alone is that, after being repeatedly let down, we stop believing.


Optimism is the basis of lasting inspiration. Change can only begin and then be sustained if we continue to believe. Without hope, we have no motivation. Without hope, we will never plant the seeds of our success, settling instead for what we already have. We resign ourselves to the limited belief that this is as good as it gets. While there is a certain comfort in this acceptance, there is no passion, and there are no miracles.

The Limits of Natural Law

Developing the power to create practical miracles doesn’t mean that you can do anything or cause anything to happen. Science teaches us that everything in the universe follows certain natural laws. At the same time, science also admits that it doesn’t fully understand the natural laws that govern everything around us. But, just because more is possible, it doesn’t mean that anything is possible.

For example, you cannot heal a broken bone in a day, but, if someone is not healing, you can stimulate and awaken his or her own natural self-healing ability. As a result, the bone will begin healing in the same way it would heal in a healthier person.

Practical Miracles for Mars and Venus explains the governing principles responsible for changing your life in all areas through updating your beliefs, feelings, thoughts, attitudes, and so on. By changing your inner world, you can then more effectively influence the outer world, your relationships, and your body.

Even with miraculous power, you cannot make all relationships work. You cannot please everyone or be pleased by everyone. There are definite limits. You cannot continue to eat poison and remain healthy. You cannot sustain success or personal fulfillment in your career when your soul wants to be doing something else.

On the other hand, you could be in the right relationship and still struggle, because you are not using your miraculous potential to create lasting love. You could be in the right career and still fail to succeed only because you are not using your miraculous power to increase success. You could be eating healthy foods and doing other good things for your body and spirit, but if you are not using your miraculous power to create vibrant health, you may still get sick.

Why Some People Heal and Others Don’t

Every doctor or healer at some time is frustrated because what has worked for others does not work all the time or with every patient. Practical Miracles for Mars and Venus answers the question many doctors, counselors, and healers ask: “Why do some people heal while others do not?” With these new insights, it all becomes clear. As a result, one can easily begin to see how the patient or client is not using his or her potential for success, love, and health.


Every doctor or healer at some time is frustrated because what has worked for others does not work all the time.


Although it is naive to think anything is possible, a healthy belief regarding miracles is to admit that we really don’t ever know for sure what is possible and what is not. One thing I know for sure, from this study of miracles, is that much more than we can imagine is possible. But, with this openness to all possibilities, we must also accept that there are limits. We are open to possibilities but we are confident about only what we have directly experienced.

The truth is, everything we observe is miraculous, from the latest technological advances to the extravagant bounty of apples that grow from a single seed. When your finger is cut and the body begins healing itself, it is a miracle. Yet, as soon as these miracles become common to our experience, we stop seeing them as miracles. The changes you experience through using the nine techniques for creating practical miracles will at first seem miraculous, but, eventually, as you get used to your new power, it very quickly will feel normal and natural.

Poison Is Still Poison

Miraculous powers can’t make poisonous, unhealthy food good for you. Poison is still poison, but you can wean yourself from its influence. Through healing your sickness, you are then free to pursue what is good for you. With healing comes the wisdom of knowing what is right for you and having the correct motivation to make the change.

When you have healed the cause of a condition, the desire for unhealthy foods or situations diminishes. In a similar but opposite manner, when you ingest something that is not good for you, without healing, your craving to repeat that activity increases. Without learning how to create practical miracles, people become stuck for many years hopelessly attempting to change bad habits.


Without learning how to create practical miracles, we struggle for years trying to change bad habits.


We do not have the power to change the intrinsic value of something, but we do have the power to change what we desire. If you desire poison and are under the influence of an unhealthy craving, compulsion, or addiction, it is a practical miracle to change this desire. More accurately stated, you have the power to release yourself from the grasp of these unhealthy or false desires and reconnect with natural and healthy ones.

One of the greatest practical miracles I have experienced personally is the ability to release unhealthy craving, compulsions, and addictive tendencies. When you develop this power, life becomes so much easier and is so much more satisfying.

For example, if you have spent your life not liking salad, it is quite a miracle not only to hunger for it but also to enjoy it with excitement and delight. If you have spent your life getting upset or feeling hurt when you didn’t get what you wanted, it is wonderful to release this compulsive tendency that demands life be perfect.

As you will discover throughout Practical Miracles for Mars and Venus, this new millennium is a time of accelerated change. By opening your awareness to the new possibilities that exist, you can begin making changes that you didn’t think were possible. With a new awareness of the nine principles for creating practical miracles along with new practical tools and techniques, you will begin to realize this new potential. It is within the reach of every person to take charge of his or her personal destiny and, regardless of past mistakes or limitations, begin today creating lasting love, increasing success, and vibrant health.

John Gray

MAY 3, 2000

1

PRACTICAL MIRACLES FOR MARS AND VENUS

WALKING ON WATER is certainly miraculous, but walking peacefully on earth is an even greater miracle. Changing water to wine is wondrous, but it is more practical to change an unhealthy craving into a healthy desire. Raising the dead is clearly a miraculous demonstration of God’s power, but so is healing your daughter’s tummyache or removing the pain of an earache or, better yet, feeling vibrantly healthy so you don’t get sick in the first place. This power to create practical miracles is now within the reach of every person.

Mankind has long awaited a special time when our capacity to create miracles would occur. All of the great religious leaders and prophets have predicted this time. In the last fifty years, the incredible speed of change triggered by new technologies and television has literally transformed the consciousness of the world. Just as the dawn precedes the rising sun, the last fifty years have glowed in the imminent and radiant light of the rising sun of a new age for mankind.

The dramatic spiritual changes in the West, inspired by the pope and other religious leaders, or the inspirational writings of self-help books that dominate the bestseller lists (and many more that don’t make the lists), reflect this increasing awareness of the need for change and the different ways to accomplish change. These changes are not just of a spiritual nature; they have occurred in every segment of secular society as well. The radical social, political, economic, and health changes that have occurred in such a short period of time are historically unprecedented. Never has so much change occurred in such a short time, and never has so much knowledge and information been available to the public.

Not all these changes are necessarily good, but they have been needed to bring into focus what is most excellent or helpful to realize our new potential. Sometimes we need to go left to realize that we really need to go right. Mistakes are a part of the learning curve. Making a change for the worse and clearly recognizing its futility can become the catalyst to create a radical change for the better. Clearly, Adolph Hitler’s demonstration of extreme one-way thinking revealed to the world the dangers of believing there is one superior race, one superior way of thinking and behaving. This fundamental shift from one-way thinking to seeing the good in all has unlocked the door for accelerated progress and transformation.

In simple terms, what makes this new age unique is that people now have the potential to experience God’s presence and power within their hearts, and, as a result, accelerated change is possible. With this shift, humanity is finally capable of bringing “heaven to earth” and creating a world of peace, love, health, and prosperity for all.

In biblical days, Jesus spoke of a time when people would have the capacity to understand the truth and even surpass the wonders that he worked. He was speaking of our new potential to create practical miracles. Buddha also spoke of a time when mankind would be delivered from the suffering of ignorance. Moses spoke of the Promised Land of milk and honey and the salvation of his people. The great leaders of all faiths, East and West, ancient and new, have predicted an age of universal peace, love, justice, and prosperity. For some, the ancient predictions mean the end of the world as we know it. But for all, it is the beginning of something very special.

This special time is finally here—it is not in five years or twenty years. The shift has already taken place. To appreciate this change, we just have to begin using our new potential. Humanity has been preparing for this change for thousands of years. This shift is similar to the ripening process of a fruit. At a certain time, the pear, which gradually grows and develops over time, is suddenly ripe. You can feel its sweetness by simply reaching up at the right time, and, with a slight twist, it effortlessly comes off. Prior to the moment of ripeness, it is a struggle to pull it off, and when tasted, it is not so tender or sweet.

In a similar manner, what was previously difficult or even unattainable for most is now universally available. This recognition is based not on a psychic vision of the future but on direct experience, a simple observation of what is now happening.

During the past twenty-eight years, besides counseling and teaching about relationships, I have successfully practiced and taught a variety of healing and meditation techniques that enable people to increase their personal fulfillment and outer success. In my workshops today, the immediate results that even beginners experience from healing and meditation practices are light-years ahead of what participants experienced a few years ago. Most participants achieve in one day a level of attainment that in many ways is equal to what took me twenty-five years of disciplined practice to attain.

From Monk to Millionaire

In my twenties, although my fundamental belief was and is Christian, I was a celibate Hindu monk for nine years. My common practice was to spend more than ten hours a day in meditation. I led a very simple life and often ate only one bowl of food a day. As with any devoted endeavor, the more you practice, the better you get. Although I became an expert meditator after about eight years, it took another twenty years of regular practice for my experiences to awaken my inner potential for creating practical miracles. This dedicated effort is no longer necessary. In just a few weeks of easy practice, workshop participants and clients today can achieve many of the positive benefits and results that took me twenty-nine years to experience.

The practical benefits of meditation are not limited to spiritual attainment or peace of mind. Advanced meditation and self-healing practices also can greatly awaken one’s potential for success, love, and health. Don’t let the word “advanced” scare you from the practices that I will suggest. The advanced techniques are the easiest. The main reason people lose interest in meditation is that they are taught the beginner techniques. As a result, it is boring, tedious, and difficult. When you learn the advanced techniques, it suddenly becomes interesting and fun, and you experience real results.

As a student of karate at nine years old, I had the good fortune to have a master teacher who broke away from the ancient teachings of first learning all the beginning moves. We immediately went to the advanced moves, which were stimulating, held my interest, and were appropriate. People in the past needed the beginning exercises, but today we don’t.

This is also similar to learning the piano. A young child needs all the beginning moves and exercises. At age forty-five, I decided that I wanted to learn to play the piano. I found a teacher who was willing to skip all the beginner’s practice and teach me advanced moves. Within a week, I was playing my favorite songs from Les Misérables. The whole process held my interest, and within six months I could play twenty of my favorite songs.

Because you are already advanced but just don’t know it, by learning the advanced meditation techniques, you will experience immediately the benefits that in the past may have taken a lifetime to achieve. Of course, there are many other factors that create success, but I attribute my success as a teacher and writer to my own personal mastery of meditation and prayer. The most important transformational skill I have learned in my thirty years of research has been the regular practice of meditation and prayer. To sustain success at work while nurturing a loving family and a healthy, fit body requires tremendous spiritual grounding and experience. Since I made spirituality my first priority, the rest of my life has flourished.


To be financially successful, nurture a loving family, and sustain a healthy, fit body requires tremendous spiritual grounding.


In my journey, I have literally followed the message of Jesus: “Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven, and all else will be given unto you.” By finding my connection to God within myself, I was able to access tremendous creative power for change. This simple message is the basis of creating practical miracles. The same message is mentioned in all religions, but now is the time when its inherent truth is available to all in a practical sense.

In the famous Christian “Lord’s Prayer,” Jesus teaches his students to say to God, “Let thy kingdom come.” He implies that it is not necessary to postpone the experience of heaven until we die. We can bring it now into our daily experience. John the Baptist also heralds the message of Jesus by proclaiming to his people that “the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Though these messages gave hope to the people, Jesus clearly taught his people that they were not fully ready to understand his teachings but that one day they would, and then they, too, would do miracles.

Since that time has come, the spiritual and practical powers that were previously only attainable by a select few are suddenly easy to attain. In the past, you needed to pull away from life and make many sacrifices to attain even a glimpse of real spiritual love and power. Now, all it takes is a good teacher and the application of new skills and principles appropriate to this new age of miracles.

Witnessing Practical Miracles

I began realizing that miracles were truly possible when I both experienced and witnessed healing and the recovery from sickness. When patients were given up to die, I witnessed miraculous cures provided by lifestyle changes, alternative medicine, and dietary changes. Most amazing or miraculous to me were the benefits gained from getting an “energy healing” or “spiritual healing.” After seeing this with my own eyes, I began to realize that miracles happen all the time in all areas of life. Now, in retrospect, I see every kind of healing, whether it is from a heart transplant, acupuncture, a dietary shift, or a spiritual healer as a miracle. Miracles come in different ways and affect our lives in different ways.

A miracle is not just a physical cure. A miracle could be a physical healing, or it could mean that an emotional block disappears, and one suddenly experiences a stronger ability to feel love for others or themselves. For others with pain or sickness, their miracles are a healing from physical pain. During an energy healing session, chronic pain often simply disappears and never returns.

For others, a healing means the sudden motivation and ability to make a few healthy dietary changes and then lose extra weight. As a result, their bodies eventually get better, and their pain gradually goes away. A practical miracle generally frees people from whatever is holding them back from being more loving, successful, and healthy. This process unfolds in gradual stages. All problems are not magically solved by a miracle, but the blocks that hold us back from solving our problems responsibly can begin to disappear one at a time and one day at a time.

The days of struggling for years with bad habits or limiting patterns are over. This does not mean people can now do without doctors, counselors, nutritionists, and other professionals. The natural energy healing that comes from exercising your power to create practical miracles works together with good medicine, nutrition, and lifestyle. Natural energy healing enhances the effectiveness of whatever treatment you are using or may need to use.

I know this is hard to believe. It is still amazing to me. In my experience of teaching workshops during the past thirty years, this kind of rapid healing did not occur. There were occasional reports of miraculous change, but not for everyone. Certainly, almost all of those who were healed felt inspired, happier, and motivated, but in many cases the results didn’t last. The high that came from spending many days together focusing on growth was quickly followed by a low. Too often those who crashed would blame themselves and become disillusioned with their own personal potential.

Although the experience of new love and power was real, after a few months many of the insights and healing experiences faded, like a dream upon awakening. When I recognized this, I stopped teaching long transformational workshops to focus on short ones and on seminars that conveyed immediately such useful and effective information as the ideas contained in Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus.

Healing Blindness

In 1993, as my success in life was rising dramatically to a new level, and my dreams of helping the world were coming true, I experienced an eye infection. While vacationing in another country, I had unknowingly ingested from my food particular parasites that attack the eyes and cause blindness. Within a few months, I became legally blind in my left eye. As the vision in my eye dimmed, my life became very gloomy. On rainy days or dark evenings, I could not even drive safely. To raise my spirits, I reminded myself that this was another challenge, and that by facing it, there would eventually be a gift. Every other unexpected setback in my life had in time redirected me and brought me some new strength. Ultimately, my blindness would do the same.

I sought help from the world’s leading eye experts. During a frustrating six-month process, I was examined and diagnosed by more than sixteen experts. Unfortunately, there was little they could do. The condition got progressively worse.

After struggling against depression by using my tools of emotional processing, I gradually reached a greater degree of peace and acceptance. At the same time, I was still motivated to find a cure. Meanwhile, I made a lifestyle change and decided to stop working as hard and start doing what I wanted to do in life.

Natural Healing

At the time, my then new book, Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, had been doing well, so I rewarded myself with a new, beautiful, fast car. Though this may not sound like a big change to a lot of people, it was for me. I was used to living within my means and didn’t own many expensive or flashy things. In addition, my wife and I try to be respectful of the environment, and the car I wanted was a gas-guzzler.

My wife was surprised when I mentioned that I was going to go out to buy this car. I explained to her that it was what I wanted, and we could afford it, so I was doing it. When I told her that it was a black car, she replied, “Black is not a good car color; you’ll have to wash it every week. And I know you don’t want to do that.”

My immediate response was, “That’s okay. I want a dirty, black, fast car.”