I’ve always thought that Americans on the whole are a very tolerant lot, not much given as are the French, Italians and Spanish, to taking to the streets, overturning cars and setting garbage bins on fire.  However, earlier this year, I would not have been surprised to see bricks and bombs hurled through the windows of the offices of Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs and AIG.  I fully expected to see the mansions in the Hamptons, owned by the executives of the perpetrators of the biggest financial swindles ever perpetrated against the American people, burned to the ground by angry mobs who had their life savings and 401K retirement plans gobbled up by the banker’s greed-driven schemes.  I expected large mobs with upside down mortgages and pending foreclosures to at least pillory the mortgage brokers who sold them the loans in the first place, even if they couldn’t find out who actually owned their sub-prime loans. 

 But none of this happened.  Americans just sat on their hands and watched both the Bush and Obama Administrations and the Fed bail out AIG and the big banks, and then the auto industry, to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars.   It didn’t seem to phase them that the same executives responsible for the swindles were still pocketing many millions of dollars in bonuses and, by all accounts, continue to do so even now. 

 But repressed rage has a way of coming out sideways, especially if the rage is about something not easily understood – like hedge funds, credit default swaps and securitization.  When the rage finally bubbles up, it gets acted out on people who just happen to be conveniently available.  Or it gets projected onto some other situation that has only a marginal connection to the original cause of the rage.  Ask anyone who grew up with a rageaholic parent. 

 Another way that anger gets acted out and displaced, especially when it concerns authority figures like fathers, bosses and, as in this case, governments, is that it gets turned back towards the self.  In our rage, like jilted lovers who kill themselves as a way to get even, we engage in activities which damage ourselves more than the people we are really mad at.  Sometimes we even forget who we were angry with in the first place and just lash out in ways that leave them unscathed and ourselves in serious jeopardy.

 This is what I see happening with the healthcare issue.  Of all the things that we could be justifiably mad about – high unemployment, record deficits, banks refusing to adjust mortgage rates, jobs disappearing, climate change and the death of the American Dream – we have chosen to wound ourselves by channeling all our fear and rage into stopping or crippling the very thing we need most – as if it alone was responsible for all our problems. 

 There is not a person in this country that does not have an interest in having a more sensible healthcare system that would provide them a reasonable amount of security.  There is no doubt it will need a lot of passionate debate and a high level of commitment to get a good solution.  Yet a large number of people seem to imagine that failure to create meaningful reform would be a victory.  They imagine that stopping reform would somehow be in their interest and would by itself solve the bigger problem of record deficits. This is not only self-sabotage, it is self delusion.  If they prevail, we will all end up getting the health care system we deserve and we will have only ourselves to blame.  

Colin Tipping

 I’m doing my best to avoid listening to the comments of dishonest politicians and moronic media commentators sounding off about healthcare reform, but some of it does get through.  Most of it I can shake off, but the one thing that gets me riled up is how the politicos who are against any kind of public option express their opposition by defiling the UK National Health Service.  

Not that the public option bears any relation to the socialized form of health care that the English enjoy (and at the same time complain about because they haven’t experienced a system like the one we have here), but I have heard senators and congressmen stand up and, without blinking an eye, blatantly tell out-and-out lies about how health services are delivered in Great Britain as if there were some actual connection.  Some cover their butts by prefacing their lies by saying, “I am told that . . .”  but most don’t even bother to do that.  They just tell the lies knowing that the great American public, largely ignorant of what actually goes on outside their own country, will believe them. 

 They spread lies like healthcare in the UK is rationed, or that life-saving operations are withheld for the elderly because it is not economic, or that waiting lists are so long you are likely to die before you get the care.  It is a travesty of the truth.  Unlike in the U.S., no one is denied the best that medicine can offer irrespective of age, condition, ethnic background, religion or ability to pay.  No-one in the UK goes bankrupt because of obscenely inflated medical bills – unlike the 700,000 people per year who do so in the US.  No one loses the right to free healthcare if they lose their job.  Healthcare is free to everyone and is never denied whereas in America 20,000 people die each year because they can’t afford a doctor or their insurance company dumped them.   

 Everyone in the UK has a family doctor.  Some doctors in the UK still do home visits – unheard of in the U.S.  Doctors are well paid (my son is one, so I know), but not paid according to how many tests they order and procedures they perform.  They are patient outcome oriented, not money driven.  (Example: They get paid a bonus if a patient gives up smoking.) 

 If you really want to learn how the U.S. healthcare system stacks up against all others in the civilized world, read The Healing of America: A Global Quest of Better, Cheaper and Fairer Health Care, by T.R. Reid.  You’ll see that we compare very badly on almost every criteria. The one thing he found that set the U.S. apart from every other country was that all the others think of universal health care for all their citizens as being a moral issue.  In America it is seen as matter of cost.

 I was brought up in the UK system and I know it well.  It began right after the war and naturally it had its problems.  In the fifties and sixties it did get a reputation for inefficiency and for extended waiting times for non-emergency operations.   But old ideas take a long time to die.  Americans still believe London is shrouded in fog most of the time and that if you drive a Jaguar you need one for the shop and one for the road.  The Clean Air Act of 1951 removed the fog, the Jaguar is now said to be the most reliable car on the road and there are no unreasonable waiting lists for health care in the UK. 

 But the politicians don’t want you to know that.  They don’t want you to read a study by The Commonwealth Fund that showed Americans wait a whole lot longer to see primary care physicians than patients in Britain, Germany, Australia or New Zealand — all countries with strong public health systems.

 The U.K. National Health Service is not perfect of course, but I can assure you that if Americans knew the truth they would be so envious of what people take for granted in the UK, they would be putting their anti-public option Republican politicians in the stocks and pelting them with rotten eggs and tomatoes until they promised to provide something on a par with it.

 Shortly after coming to live in the U.S, in 1984, I dated a girl who was having severe problems with her colon.  Her condition was life threatening.  I asked her when she was going to have something done about it.  “There’s nothing I can do,” she said.  “I have no health insurance.”  Well, can’t you get some?” I asked naively.  “Of course not,” she said. “I’m already sick.  No one will insure me if I’m sick.”  “But you need an operation,” I cried.  “I know, but I can’t pay for it.  It would cost many thousands of dollars, and I am not quite poor enough to qualify for Medicaid.  I have a job, albeit a low paid one.”

 This was a profound shock to me.  I just couldn’t get my mind around the fact that an American citizen who desperately needed medical care was unable to get it because she didn’t have insurance provided by her employer.  Not only that, she couldn’t get insurance because of a “pre-existing condition.”  It was a huge shock and I really haven’t gotten over it to this day.  It is still beyond my comprehension how any society claiming to be civilized and wealthy can call this a sane health care system. 

 For many years I was without any insurance at all.  Finally, I managed to pay for a policy with a $5,000 deductible and a prayer to go with it.  I have lived long enough now to qualify for Medicare.  I am fairly healthy but have had occasion to use it for some minor things and some preventive medicine.  I am very satisfied with it.  To me, Medicare seems very much like the UK National Health System. I notice that I am feeling much more secure now that I am not worrying about whether my insurance company, mindful of its quarterly report, might refuse some treatment I need or increase my premiums to the point where I could not afford it any more. 

 But politicians are so deeply embedded in the quagmire of their own ideology they just can’t admit that we already have a form of socialized medicine that works quite well and could well be extended and modified to suit everyone if they would only get the costs under control..  If they did admit such a thing, they might have to start driving Jaguar cars and letting it be known that London is no longer shrouded in fog, which is more than I can say about their rhetoric in the current debate.

Most people are of the mind that forgiveness is difficult. I don’t agree. The hard part is making the decision to do it. Once you make the decision, the rest can be easy, especially if you use the tools of Radical Forgiveness with which to do it.

Time helps. In the early days, when we are still raw from the pain and suffering, we are likely to decide in that moment never to forgive. But as the years go by and the rope burn of the grief has subsided and the wound has at least stopped bleeding, we are sometimes given an opportunity to bring some higher reasoning to that decision.

The families of the 270 passengers on Pan Am Flight 103, blown out of the skies over Lockerbie, Scotland, by Libyan terrorists, were recently given such an opportunity. It occurred when the only man ever convicted of that heinous crime was released from prison and allowed to return home to Libya on compassionate grounds after serving only eight  years of his life sentence. The dispensation was made in the light of his having terminal prostate cancer and the likelihood of his dying within three months.

Twenty years or so have passed since the tragedy and eight years since the conviction of el Megrahi, so we might imagine that a few people who lost friends and family members that day took the opportunity on this occasion to reflect on their own feelings and may even have perhaps moved into to a place of forgiveness. The media, of course, focused on and supported those who, quite understandably, did not. They were outraged by the decision to let the man go even if he was dying.

Who is to say they should forgive el Megrahi? Not I. I see no moral imperative here.  Forgiveness is a spiritual choice, not a moral one. The families are perfectly entitled to hold on to their hate and need for revenge if they want to. Their loss was great and their lives changed forever by the actions of this man. They are unlikely to be swayed by the fact that whether he rots in jail and dies in jail, or goes home to die, changes nothing and insofar as it has any bearing on their own future is quite inconsequential. To them, it has great symbolic meaning and it increases their suffering. That’s the choice they make.

There is a chance however that some of them might have come to see the extreme irony in the fact that while the object of their hatred goes free, they are the ones who remain in a prison of their own making. And maybe in seeing the irony so graphically presented on television, it may shock them into seeing that the key to their own freedom is their forgiveness of el Megrahi and all the others involved in the bombing of Pan Am 103.

Forgiveness is a choice we make, not for any moral reason, but for our own spiritual health and wellbeing. To forgive is to become free from anger and resentment and to connect with the source of our own being which is love. To forgive is to open our minds, in all humility, to the possibility that there might be a higher purpose in what happens to us in life and that the hand of God is in there somewhere. To the extent that we won’t allow that possibility, we deny God and separate ourselves from our own source. That is the prison we make for ourselves. And it’s our choice to make.

Hello from the Emerald Isle!

Having spent the last three weeks doing workshops in Germany and Switzerland, I have just completed a Radical Manifestation workshop this weekend in Ireland.  It was organized and promoted by one of our coaches, Clodagh O’Connor.  Clodagh is doing a great job in Ireland and is one of our most successful coaches.

Tomorrow I’m doing a Radical Manifestation Coach training and I’ll be capping off my tour with a Miracles workshop next weekend.   Then I return to UK to spend some time with my family. (Sounds like a politician resigning doesn’t it!)

Speaking of politics, I have been able to stay in touch with the current crisis situation in the U.S., and the shenanigans going on in Washington.  Having just witnessed live, on Irish TV, the rejection of the legislation to bail out of the banks, which apparently means more bank failures and possible economic breakdown worldwide, I am tempted to say “I told you so.“

In 2003 I wrote a book, A Radical Incarnation, in which I told a story about a soul whose mission was to become the President of the United States and during his term, bring the country to the brink of disaster and total breakdown.  The purpose of this mission would be to facilitate the spiritual breakthrough that would begin the mass awakening of humanity and begin the process of creating heaven-on-earth by 2012.

Not familiar with this idea?  Well, because it has been my mission “To raise the consciousness of the planet through Radical Forgiveness and to create a world of forgiveness by 2012,” and because we need a greater awareness of the predicted Awakening, I am offering an audio version of this book on CD at half price.  Click here for info and to order.

It is not too much of a stretch to say that we seem to be well into the breakdown phase already and that the plan to create the mass transformation of consciousness is unfolding exactly as planned by Spirit.  All the predictions about 2012 seem to be coming true

If you are directly affected by this historic crisis, and there cannot be many who will not be, then it will be extremely difficult to see it in these terms and even more of a stretch to see it as perfect.  But we have two choices.

We can either see it this way and keep our vibration high, or we can get caught up in the fear, anger and blame.  That choice will have us ending up in Victimland with a vibration so low that it will attract nothing but hardship to ourselves personally and, furthermore, will contribute nothing to the process of creating the mass transformation we have all been yearning for.

There can be no more crucial a moment than this one to stay firmly anchored in Radical Forgiveness and make use of the technology it provides.  We can keep our own vibration high and make our individual contribution to raising mass consciousness by using the Radical Forgiveness worksheet immediately to forgive George Bush, the politicians and the bankers.  Click here to go online to use the online worksheet.

(NOTE: We have recently moved most of the online programs to this new interface. If you try to log on and the system does not recognize you, click the link on that page to register.)

Yesterday was my 67th birthday.  Frankly I can’t help wondering what my 68th year will bring.  Part of me is excited and full of joyful expectation of the shift to a love-based existence.  The other part of me looks into the eyes of my youngest grandson and wonder about his future.

Click here to order, at half price, Soul Contract – the audio book version of A Radical Incarnation.

All Parents Are Imperfect; But That Doesn’t Mean Your Life Has to Suck!
Forgive Your Parents Now — Easily and Quickly — and
Find the Happiness and Success You Deserve

Start the 21-Day Online Program Today and Break Out of the
Cycle of Unhappiness and Limitation!

Our promise to you is, if you forgive your parents for whatever you feel they did to you, your life will improve immediately and immeasurably. You will feel lighter, happier, more at peace with yourself and your life will simply zooooom forward!

You Have Nothing to Lose But Your Pain —
And Your Parents Gain As Well

Click Here to Register Now

Nothing keeps us stuck in our lives as much as an unhealed childhood wound. Such wounds can range from severe physical or sexual abuse, to that of simply feeling unloved, abandoned or unappreciated by one’s parents.

If left unhealed, these wounds become the touchstones for our sense of who we are, beliefs about what our worth is, what we deserve and how successful we will be in our lives. They affect every aspect of our lives and all our relationships.

A Wound Becomes a Repeating Pattern

We subconsciously act out these wounds over and over again, enfolding them into a subtle, but deadly, pattern of repetition. Each replay creates still more pain — until we say “enough is enough!”

“Well, Enough is Enough NOW”

Assuming they are still alive, the chances are good that your relationship with your parents will improve dramatically, as well. “Breaking Free” is not only for you; they feel the benefits, too. Their energy changes in line with yours. It can make a dramatic difference to the whole family dynamic. You will be amazed.

Click Here to Register Now

RADICAL Forgiveness is the Key

If you’ve ever tried to forgive anyone, let alone your parents, you will have discovered how difficult it is. Not so with Radical Forgiveness, which is totally different. At the end of the 21 days, it will have been achieved and it will have been easy and simple — a matter of devoting about one hour per day, doing the assignment we send you each day of the 21 days. It couldn’t be easier, quicker or more reliable. With traditional forgiveness, it would take years.

Newbie?

If you are new to this kind of thing, please don’t worry. After you have registered, you fill in a questionnaire. From what we learn from that, we design a program that fits your needs and speaks your language.

The Program in Two Parts

Part One
This part of the program consists of a number of modules giving you information about how Radical Forgiveness works. You can take as long as you like going through these modules.

Part Two
When you are ready to start Part Two, 21 days of assignments, you simply click a button and off you go.

You will have to make sure that you are going to be available to receive those e-mailed assignments, so pick your start time carefully.

Click Here to Register Now

Coaches

If you find yourself needing emotional support, at any time during the process, we have Radical Forgiveness coaches who are specifically trained to give help to people, like yourself, going through the program. This service is at additional cost to the program because it is optional. Alternatively, you might prefer to have a friend or a ‘buddy’ support you.

Look What Others Have Said

“As Colin says, ‘Don’t worry about believing it. Just do it. Shift happens.’ And how. I feel more alive than in years. It’s 9:30 p.m. and I’m going for a swim.”
Dave E., Texas

“When I talk to my mom there is a generous softness to our conversion now. I would highly recommend this program to anyone. It really is like a pebble in the pond. It affects more just your relationship with your parents.”
Amy P., Georgia

“I can’t begin to tell you how doing the “Breaking Free – Forgiving Your Parents” online workshop has improved and enhanced my life. It took a week or so after completion for me to notice how my attitude had changed towards my father. I can now speak to him on the phone without anxiety and, amazingly, he has not tried to push any of my buttons. We seem to be relating in a new, calmer and more loving manner. This is truly a blessing for me. Thank you so much!”
Barb B., Missouri

Click Here to Register Now

“After I started the program, I realized that pattern had to do with a perceived abandonment issue I had beginning when I was 5 years old. I am thankful for being able to do this program and for the amazing results I have achieved.”
Heather D., Georgia

“On day 13 of the program, I was feeling better and was so happy that I had pushed through the pain. With the assignment that day, for the first time in years, I actually FELT love for my mother. And I felt compassion for her. That was it! The understanding was great, but the compassion had been missing. With each remaining day of the program, the love I was feeling for Mom continued to expand, and by the end of the program, I felt like I had her back. This woman who had been such an awesome mother in so many ways, this amazing mother who caused our friends to envy what we had, Mom was back in my heart where she belongs. As I write this, I am filled with so much gratitude that I am again crying the tears of joy that I cried during the last week of this program.”
Karla G., Texas

“My time I am spending with my mother in conversation and personally is more gentle and I am peaceful and look at her with love that is not cluttered up with all the demands. My head knows I love my mother, now my heart is feeling the love.”
Kathryne M., California

“I was blessed enough to do the 21 days to forgiving your parents online program. I was thrilled but still skeptical. Believing that nothing would work on her. That she was beyond help and these circumstances would never change. Within three days I was seeing big shifts of energy. I have had some amazing epiphanies.

“Each day things change. Not always in big ways but certainly significantly. I no longer fear her. I no longer fear each and every move I make is wrong. Guilt has lifted from my shoulders in such a way that I am making huge strides in my life. Weekends here used to be a nightmare. Today is peaceful. Her face looks like it has shed twenty years of pain and suffering. I have changed so much since the beginning of this program.”
Tammy D., New Hampshire

Click Here to Register Now

Your Investment in Your Happiness

We have priced this program very competitively so that thousands of people all around the world can have this extraordinary opportunity. At a cost of just $247.00, you will be getting extraordinary value from this program.

At the end of the 21 days, you will feel totally different and, from that time on, your life is certain to improve. Why? Because the energy you have expended holding onto the pain of the past will now be available to you as manifestation energy.

You cannot be a powerful creator in your life if you have so much of your energy tied up in the past. Once you have done this program you will have so much more energy and that means you have the energy to create more of what you want in your life – more abundance, better relationships and so on.

If that isn’t worth $247.00, I don’t know what is!

Register NOW, Forgive Your Parents and BREAK FREE!

(Note: I am writing this as if from what I think might be the very near future.)

Someone asked me a few days ago, why 2012? She was referring to my inclusion of that date in my declared mission, which I have for the past eight years stated as: “To raise the consciousness of the planet through Radical Forgiveness and create a world of forgiveness by 2012.”

My answer was, “Because if we haven’t done it by then it will almost certainly be too late.”

“Too late for what?” she asked, incredulously.

“To be part of the process of creating heaven on earth,” I replied.

She clearly thought I was crazy. Oh, if only Harley were here, I thought. He would do a much better job of explaining it to her than I ever could. [Harley was the Angel of Incarnation who, in my book A Radical Incarnation — Yours, prepared Jack for his upcoming mission on the Earth plane. Jack was to get elected President of the United States, become enlightened, heal America and then awaken the whole of humanity before it destroyed itself. No small feat!]

This woman was no fool and could see what was happening. She was acutely aware that the United States economy stood on the very brink of disaster and was only hanging on by a mere thread. She was obviously in a great deal of fear over it, too.

Her own life mirrored the larger situation. Her 3,500 square foot home was in foreclosure, she owned a Lincoln Navigator SUV she couldn’t sell at any price, her credit was shot, her bank had gone under taking most of her money with it, and she could see how the entire system on which the U.S. had based its existence and its way of life — cheap oil — was about to collapse.

At $7.50 a gallon, she couldn’t afford to buy gas to get to work and there was no public transport available so she was effectively without a job or money. Her employer was probably out of business anyway by now. All her neighbors were in the same boat having bought into the myth of the suburban lifestyle based on cars, freeways and cheap oil. Now they were all stuck.

In any case, even if she could afford it, many gas stations were posting cardboard signs on the pump — ‘Out of Gas’ and there were long lines stretching around block after block. Tempers had frayed and the guns everyone had been encouraged to own and carry as of right had come out and were being waved around and sometimes used as of right!

Since there were hardly any trucks on the road to carry food from one part of the country to the other, let alone from other countries, food was in very short supply and astronomically expensive. Her greatest concern was how she was going to feed her two kids. And it was all getting worse by the minute. And that doesn’t even factor in the local effects of global warming — floods, fires, tornadoes and hurricanes.

How then could I even begin to explain to her that it was all part of the Divine plan? Harley himself would have had a job to make her see any sort of perfection in it, let alone have her see it as an opportunity for her to awaken and become part of the great spiritual transformation now in progress.

The only way I could begin to talk about it in those terms was to frame what was happening as being a healing crisis, and that this was preparing the whole human race for a dramatic shift in consciousness. According to many sources, this was likely to occur around December of 2012. This shift would take us into a wholly different dimension where love and harmony would prevail as the dominant way of being. I did my best to explain all this.

“But why is America to take the lead in this?” she asked.

“Because the people have become so dependent on their modern way of life that they will have the greatest difficulty of any nation on earth adapting to extreme hardship and the inevitable shortage of everything. The breakdown necessary to create breakthrough will happen suddenly and will be total. Social order will break down and society as a whole will implode. Many will die.

“But the other side of that coin is that the people of the U.S. are extremely resilient and they will likely be the first emerge from the chaos enlightened and changed. They will then lead the rest of the world in creating the shift in consciousness I have alluded to. That’s how Harley had framed Jack’s mission, of course.

“But no matter who Jack is or was, (and the conjecture is fascinating), we cannot look to any president to create the shift for us. We all have to participate in that process. As times get difficult, we have to stay centered and clear. We need to stay out of fear and to hold the vision of a healed world emerging out of the debris of the old consciousness now in its death throes. If we give in to fear and resist the process it will be many times more difficult than if we surrender to what needs to happen and ride the wave.”

“Does that mean doing nothing practical to prepare for what is to come?” she asked.

“Of course not,” I replied. “In order to stay out of fear and to be of use to others who will need help, you would be wise to make careful preparations now for the breakdown to come. You can only be of assistance in this great endeavor if you survive, so it is your responsibility to do everything you can in order to do so. You should begin storing food and water, seeds, batteries, solar panels, cooking oil tools and other essentials. You might want to move to where you can find food and be in community with others of like mind. You should give a lot of thought to what you would need to survive a fairly prolonged period where virtually all supply of goods was stopped. It would be difficult to hold the high vibration during this time if you were cold, hungry and helpless to help yourself.”

“So why forgiveness? Why is that so important?” she asked.

“Because it will be through the use of the Radical Forgiveness technology that people like you and I will be able to hold and maintain that higher vibration, and the sooner we begin to practice it and the more people we can enroll into that higher purpose, the easier the transition will be for everyone. Each one of us holding the vibration of perfection no matter what is happening out there will counteract millions of people who are in fear. A relatively small number of people holding the vision of a healed world will make the healing happen a lot faster and a lot fewer people will perish in the process. That’s why my mission statement means so much to me.”

“How can I begin doing that?” she inquired.

“I have designed a special ‘Radical Consciousness’ worksheet, based on the Radical Forgiveness technology, for you to use any time something happens or you hear of something happening that ordinarily would send you into a spiral of fear and hopelessness. It is available as a free PDF download. It is very simple but it’s purpose is to remind you that everything is in Divine order and that what we are living through now is the prelude to something unimaginably wonderful.

“Thank you,” she said. “I get it now.”

Do you?

To download the worksheet click here. (Note: This is not the same as the regular RF Worksheet).

The race between Obama and Clinton to be the nominee of the Democratic Party has been fascinating, especially to the degree that it caught the interest and active participation of so many people. Young, old, rich, poor, black or white, people were truly invested in a way we have never before witnessed.

However, given that both candidates represented hope and historic opportunity to roughly equal halves of the population, it was inevitable that a vast number of people would be left feeling intensely disappointed and perhaps even resentful. We have seen a lot of understandable and, to some, even justifiable anger expressed on TV about Clinton’s loss.

Doesn’t this sound like a case where Spider-Woman needs to swoop in with Radical Forgiveness to save them all from a terrible case of victimitis? (Spider-Woman became a Radical Forgiveness Coach last year, but she’s keeping it a secret.) After all, you put disappointment, anger and resentment together and you’ll get a pretty strong brew of victim consciousness, right? And we (as well as Spider-Woman), know the antidote to that, don’t we?

On the assumption that the people on our mailing list reflect the general population, we can imagine that half of you might be Democrats and the other half Republicans. Of the half who lean Democratic lets say one third were backing Hillary, and one third for Obama. The other third we might consider politically disengaged. (A lot of spiritual people are, unfortunately, but that’s another issue.)

Power versus Force by David Hawkins you will get what I mean when I say that each person with a vibration of 350 on the scale of consciousness (which would be you if you were moved to do a worksheet, I would guess), would be counteracting about 200,000 vibrating below 200 which is where someone might be who is still in anger and resentment about the race. That means if just half of the 3,500 did a worksheet it would impact 3.5 million people. But even if just one of you does it, you will be helping 200,000 others. That’s how much power you have to make a difference.

Who needs Spider-Woman? Click here to go to the NEW On-line Worksheet.

I thought you might be interested to read my letter to Charles Griswold, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy at Boston University, him having sent me a copy of his book, Forgiveness. This is the most in-depth, rigorous and searching philosophical examination I have seen yet on the topic on (traditional) forgiveness that I have seen.

And yet I think the whole book, cogently and eloquently argued as it is by an obviously accomplished philosopher, is basically flawed. And that’s because his whole theory rests on an assumption that I think is fundamentally wrong. Read the letter to find out what that is and see where you might stand on the issue.

Charles and I have been corresponding back and forth and have developed a good relationship. He has been very gracious about wanting to read my book, Radical Forgiveness, and actually quoted from it in an article that he wrote in the esteemed Tikkun magazine. [They have since asked me to contribute an article. I am very happy about that since this a magazine that I really respect.] He is still trying hard to bring me around to his point of view! Here’s the letter:

Hi Charles,

I know I said I was going to save reading your book for my trip in December but I couldn’t resist dipping in a little bit. I have enjoyed reading the little I have read so far but couldn’t help but giggle to myself at how you might be receiving my book which, while yours is so meticulous in its academic rigor and commitment to all details of the argument about forgiveness as you see and define it, mine is so full of assumption and broad sweeps of metaphysical possibilities that no one can refute or support by any rational argument or logical analysis.

All that aside, we are clearly coming from very different angles on the whole topic of forgiveness, each based in entirely different cosmology.

As I see it, your entire approach is what I have referred to as traditional forgiveness, based in the traditional, objective, scientific-rational and psychological framework. This is of course exactly how I would expect the subject to be treated by a distinguished academic and most of what I have read in your book so far I would agree with, (bar one – see below), so long as we are talking about traditional forgiveness and all the other concepts that go with it.

Radical Forgiveness, as you will see, is not a religious approach but one that is secular/spiritual and metaphysical in orientation. That immediately puts it beyond ‘normal’ logical, scientific or even philosophical inquiry probably, though you might tell me of an acceptable form of such which would deal with it philosophically. I would say myself that it has its roots in Eastern philosophy which is anyway, as I understand it, closely bound up with spiritual interpretations of reality.

If you haven’t already dismissed my book as ‘new-age psycho babble,’ and you wouldn’t be the first to do so, so it wouldn’t hurt my feelings, then maybe it would be interesting to discuss these differences further. For my part I would be happy to.

I am very comfortable with most of what I have written though, as I tell people, I don’t really believe a word of it. None of us really know the Mind of God, or the reality on the other side of the veil, nor even whether there is a veil, or even a God. There is very little proof of either. I tell people straight out that I am making a whole set of assumptions for which there is no proof of their veracity. It’s just a story, I tell them.

However, what I am able to claim through more than a decade of observation of results in thousands of people who have used the Radical Forgiveness technology, is that in the practical application of these assumptions in everyday life, there are effects which are measurable, subjectively experienced, sustained, and anecdotally recorded. The results are very similar and consistent across the spectrum of intelligence, race, gender, country of domicile, and any other variable that one might apply.

The results which are anecdotally reported by people, even those who have simply read the book and done one worksheet, include such things as a marked decrease in feelings of resentment, anger, rage and all those emotions associated with a belief in having been victimized by someone, and a corresponding uptick in the opposite kinds of emotion such as a sense of peace, acceptance, understanding, empathy and even love. People also report feeling more energy, decrease in physical symptomology, regression of disease such as cancer, weight loss and other problems.

The problems that might have caused an upset between two people also seem to become dissolved (not solved) which indicates that the energy shift that occurs between people when forgiveness takes place in one or both of them (usually only one), then the energy has an effect beyond the two individuals and actually impacts physical reality and other people. This is why I am now teaching the technology to corporations so it can contribute to raising the culture of an organization if enough people use it.

I have also noticed that, in people who use the Radical Forgiveness technology regularly, that there is a tendency for them to begin operating at a higher level in terms of human virtues, such as humility, tolerance, integrity and honestly. The reason for this I believe is the development of a more profound understanding of and respect for spiritual law. They become answerable to a higher authority and more accountable for having created the circumstances of their lives. Once you begin operating from that idea, finger pointing and blaming has no validity at all. You are immediately out of integrity with yourself if you revert to those strategies.

The reason why I think Radical Forgiveness works so well on a practical level is that I believe that when we are using the tools, we are activating a faculty of mind that I call ‘spiritual intelligence.’ It therefore bypasses the rational mind and ignores the subconscious mind which harbors all the negative beliefs and attitudes we have learned over the years, and deals directly with Universal Intelligence and knows the truth of who we are at the spiritual level. This is why people who use the tools find forgiveness to be surprisingly easy, almost instantaneous, therapy free and so simple anyone can do it. Neither belief or high IQ is needed.

I contrast this with traditional forgiveness which by universal agreement is seen to be very difficult to do, takes years and years to achieve if it ever happens, and has no methodology attached to it to help people go through the process. Basically, you wait and hope that one day the resentment will subside. Those who do manage to forgive something serious usually end up on Oprah which is a good indicator of how rare it is.

If you were up for it, I would be willing to come to the University and have a discussion with your students about my approach and give them the opportunity to try it for themselves. In fact that would be a condition. Let me know if that is something that would be attractive.

Now let me come to one of your themes central to the book and your ideas on forgiveness with which I strongly disagree. It came up early, right there in the Prologue and it surprised the heck out of me. This was:

“forgiveness is to be understood as a moral relation between two individuals, one of whom has wronged the other, and who (at least in the ideal) [is that a get out clause?] are capable of communicating with each other.” You go on to say, “forgiveness requires reciprocity between injurer and injured.”

For me this is the definition, not of forgiveness but of reconciliation, which clearly required both parties to be in broad agreement to reconcile and therefore definitely requires reciprocity. Forgiveness, on the other hand, seems to me to be something that occurs primarily within the injured, and is not dependent on whether the injurer feels any obligation whatsoever to apologize, atone or even acknowledge the crime. This idea takes the power away from the forgiver by making his forgiveness dependent on the other, which for me simply compounds victim consciousness. “If it wasn’t for you, I could forgive!” Reciprocity in the form of an apology may help the injured person forgive, but I cannot see that it is required. This idea takes the power away from the forgiver by making his forgiveness dependent on the other, which for me simply compounds victim consciousness. “If it wasn’t for you, I could forgive!”

What if the person is dead or otherwise unavailable for the interpersonal moral relationship you say is required? You dismiss all such questions that are raised and cripple the very notion of forgiveness by calling them departures from the definition of forgiveness. In my workshops, even in the context of traditional forgiveness, I have a lot of people who wish to forgive God, George Bush, someone who is long dead and so on. What do I do with them? What chance do they have of having a moral relationship?

I look forward to reading more of the book and maybe this will become clearer to me but I have certainly found this to be the most difficult things in your writings to swallow so far.

I must resist the temptation to keep writing but I must get on with some work here. And I don’t need to labor the point, I’m sure.

Blessings,

Colin

So, “sorry” is not such a hard word to say, after all. After many years in which the word Reconciliation has been on the lips of virtually all Australians, finally a newly elected Government down under has done what previous ones have steadfastly refused to do — to say “Sorry” to the Aboriginals. It’s an apology that the indigenous people of Australia deserve in recognition of the centuries of abject cruelty, dehumanization, mistreatment, genocide, marginalization, ethnic cleansing and family destruction visited upon them by the white settlers until not too many years ago. They stole children from the said ‘savages’ and gave them to white folks. These children became known as the ‘stolen generation.’

The people of Australia have for a decade or more been thirsting for this gesture of reconciliation in a way that the people of America have not – for all that they feel deep anger and shame about slavery and segregation and the Native American holocaust. Both still await an apology and some semblance of reconciliation.

I wonder when we will demand it of our government like the Australians demanded it of theirs? When will we have a government that will say “Sorry” to African and Native Americans so that a genuine healing can begin. It is overdue. (Obama might be the one to do it!)

But in Australia today, there is much rejoicing and tears of joy. Maria Malone, a coach living in Sydney who never fails to be on the monthly Tuesday call, wrote to the coaches group that she was ecstatic about it. JoAnn and I are ecstatic about it too, because we became in a very small way part of that national reconciliation process.

We spent half a year in Australia in 2000 – 2001 dedicating ourselves to teaching radical forgiveness as a way of bringing reconciliation to this great land. I wrote a book and published it there. It was called Reconciliation Through Radical Forgiveness. I wrote an article in a leading newspaper in Melbourne entitled, Sorry is NOT the Hardest Word. In Alice Springs we participated in the celebrations of the Centenary of Federation, which was commemorating the coming together 100 years prior, of the separate states and territories in order to create a united Australia.

They really made it an Aboriginal Affair. They had five separate stages set up in the field and the huge video screen that was used at the Sydney Olympic Games. They brought together, for the first time in history, aboriginal people from all over the country, and each tribe performed their own Creation Dance. All five stages featured these dances and it went on for two days, non-stop, night and day. While we were there in Alice Springs we did the Radical Forgiveness Ceremony and a special ceremonial version of the Group 7-Step Process for creating a healing between aboriginals and whites. Then we went to Uluru, the sacred rock in the center of Australia (the Europeans call it Ayers Rock) and did a special healing ceremony there. It was a joy.

It was while we were at Uluru that we heard the news about 9/11. We didn’t know what to do so we decided to walk the 3-1/2 miles around the base of Uluru in silent meditation and prayer.

Now you might be wondering why, if everything is perfect and nothing wrong ever happened — which is the basic tenet of Radical Forgiveness – why is an apology is even necessary and why would I personally join with others to push for it. The answer is that an apology can open to door to Radical Forgiveness. An apology is a act of compassion, regret and contrition and is appropriate even within the spiritual philosophy of Radical Forgiveness as being a part of the soul’s learning process. It is an act that might awaken us to the truth that separation is the myth. When I realize that when I hurt my brother I hurt myself, I begin to connect with the principle of oneness.

Let’s look at the difference between an ordinary apology and a Radical Apology.

The Ordinary Apology:

An ordinary apology recognizes that someone was hurt, disadvantaged or in some other way damaged because of something we intentionally did – and that what we did was wrong. It is a direct communication to the aggrieved party that we are in sorrow, guilt and regret that the event occurred and we wish that the party knows this.

It may also be an appeal for forgiveness. However, because there is no recognition of any underlying spiritual purpose in what took place, and that victim consciousness is fully maintained, this kind of apology is not compatible with Radical Forgiveness.

The Radical Apology:

A Radical Apology recognizes in just the same way that, in human terms, someone got hurt and that it is something to be truly sorrowful and perhaps even ‘appropriately’ guilty about. We also accept full responsibility for what happened in human and worldly terms and are willing to be accountable for what we have done.

At the same time, however, we are open to the possibility that some higher purpose was being served and it had to happen that way for whatever reason. We are, in effect, seeing the situation from the perspective of both the World of Spirit and the World of Humanity at the same time. This has the effect of raising our own vibration while at the same time releasing the low vibration energy tied up in the situation itself — thus enabling a healing to occur for all concerned as well as a general raising of consciousness such that there will in the future be less need for such hurtful things to occur.

However, since it is still difficult for us — as the perpetrator — to really ‘know’ that there was a perfection in the situation, and probably even more difficult for the victim, it seems that a genuine expression of compassion and sorrow (rather than regret), might help us both. The sorrow is not so much because it happened but that the person (a human being) was hurt or damaged. If nothing else, it opens the energy up for Radical Forgiveness to enter into play — especially for the victim. Therefore a Radical Apology is a BRIDGE to Radical Forgiveness and Reconciliation. It is also a preliminary step in the direction of clearing one’s shadow.

Now governments can say “Sorry”, and perhaps one day the American government will follow the example of the government of Australia. There is no gainsaying the symbolic value of an apology coming from on high like that. However, we in America can do what ordinary people did in Australia. They made their own individual apologies. You could walk into any store, even a post office, and there on the counter would be something you could sign as a declaration of desire for reconciliation. You could say “sorry” and sign your name.

But those of us who understand Radical Forgiveness can go one step further by making a Radical Apology on behalf of ourselves and America to all those groups that have been hurt by us.. You can do this right now by going to our web site, www.radicalforgiveness.com, click on Radical World Peace and on that page sign a Radical Apology just like this one here. This one is a blanket apology to a range of people to whom we as Americans owe an apology but you can write one of your own that focuses on one specific issue if you wish.

The Blanket Radical Apology

1. Even though I know that everything was, is and always will be in Divine order, I as a representative of America, am nevertheless now willing to make a blanket statement of Radical Apology to everyone and everything that I have caused to be hurt or damaged in any way. I do this in the knowledge and comfort that this will begin the process of clearing mine and America’s shadow and, hopefully, healing the pain of those who have been hurt. In particular, on behalf of all Americans, I put forth sincere Radical Apologies to:

African Americans

American Indians

Hispanics

Chinese Americans

Japanese Americans

Other races discriminated against ____________________________

Women

American citizens wrongly accused, incarcerated and/or executed

American citizens subjected to witch-hunts by government agencies

The people of Nagasaki and Hiroshima

The people of Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and others we have bombed.

Thanks for being willing to say Sorry.

The giving of thanks is an expression of gratitude. Here in the U.S., Thanksgiving is celebrated as an expression of the Pilgrim’s gratitude for their escape from religious persecution in Europe and for their survival in the New World.

In England, our “Harvest Festival” is our way of giving thanks to God for the bounty of the harvest. The way it is expressed there is not so much by gorging turkey, green beans and sweet potatoes, but by bedecking out the churches with incredibly beautiful displays of all manner of produce that nature has bestowed upon the populace during that year and then, after church, going down to the pub for a pint of Britain’s Best.

But as Joseph Farah points out in his Between the Lines blog, “It wasn’t just an economic system that allowed the Pilgrims to prosper. It was their devotion to God and His laws. The Pilgrims recognized that everything we have is a gift from God – even our sorrows (my italics). Their Thanksgiving tradition was established to honor God and thank Him for His blessings and His grace.”

The Pilgrims, it seems, understood the basic idea of Radical Forgiveness. Giving thanks to our Source (God, Spirit, Universe, Universal Intelligence, etc.), for “our sorrows” is to recognize and give thanks for the blessings that come from the challenges we are given and from which our soul has the opportunity to learn and grow.

If everything flows from our Source, even our sorrows, wisdom decrees that we must be willing to not only thank but forgive those who provide such opportunities, no matter how much they appear on the surface to be our enemies. The Pilgrims, it seems, understood that fundamental idea which is the basis of Radical Forgiveness. It’s all good and it’s all part of the Divine Plan. How willing are you to forgive on this basis?

Here’s my suggestion. When you sit down to Thanksgiving dinner with your family and bow your heads in that special moment of thankfulness, make an effort to think of some of the people in your life that you might forgive . Allow yourself to become willing to entertain the possibility that the people you have judged, condemned, criticized and perhaps even punished, did what they did not so much TO or AGAINST you , but FOR you. Then try to feel some sense of thankfulness that their soul was willing to do this for you, knowing they would probably have to endure your ego’s negative reaction to them.

Fortunately, willingness is all that is required for Radical Forgiveness to occur. Belief is not necessary, neither is any understanding of the reasons why things happen the way they do. Try it and see what happens.Blessings,

Colin

“Radical Forgiveness is much more than the mere letting go of the past.
It is the key to creating the life that we want, and the world that we want.
It is the key to our own happiness and the key to world peace.
It is no longer an option. It is our destiny.”