Your Miracle Finder

"The way to do whatever you want already exists. You need only tune into it."

What Is The Miracle Finder: The Miracle Finder is my name for the part of our brains called the Reticular Formation. Everybody has one but few know how to harness its vast capacity. I've used this immense gift prolifically for decades. You'll see this in the examples below. In fact, this entire Palace of Possibilities is a result of it.

And you are about to explore it in detail.

Technically speaking, it is a marble sized piece of "grey matter" that is responsible for filtering through the massive amount of sensory input that we receive every second of our existence (lights, noise, sensations, etc.) and bringing to our awareness only that part which we deem important.

This is why people can live near a freeway and rarely hear the traffic; the traffic is of low importance compared to conversations within the home, or the content of the book you are reading, or your physical discomforts, or a romantic opportunity and so on.

Automatic: And it works for you, automatically, 24/7. It is your ever-present servant and costs you nothing.

Further... drum roll... It will find for you the way to do whatever you want even if you are clueless about how to do it. Here is the way to say that...

The way to do whatever

you want already exists. You

need only tune into it.

Another way to say that is don't give up on a goal or a dream because you don't know how to do it (yet). Let your Miracle Finder will show you the way.

Let me explain further.

Imagine an immense Palace of Possibilities that is thousands of stories high and covers thousands of square miles (or kilometers) on the ground. In this vast Palace is every possibility to do anything you want and all of it is available to you. However, you are only aware of those possibilities that are written on the walls of the limited room in which you reside. All the rest of it seems "out there" and thus your goal or dream seems out of reach or "Impossible."

Setting It In Motion: But if you make it important to you and not give up, you will be setting in motion your Miracle Finder to search through the entire Palace of Possibilities to find it for you. It may take some patience but the rewards can be major eye-openers.

To emphasize this for you, I include below the transcript of a presentation on this topic that I made years ago. It includes ideas, examples and true stories that should bring this gift to life for you.

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TRANSCRIPT FROM GARY'S PRESENTATION

How To Drive Your Own Bus

GARY: Angela, I want to ask you something. Right now you and I are talking and you're

focusing on me, right? [Angela nods yes] And you are hearing what I'm saying. True?

[Angela nods yes] Okay. While listening to me, are you aware at all of your breathing?

ANGELA: No.

GARY: Are you now?

ANGELA: Yes.

GARY: Yes. Because I focused your attention on it. Right now as you are talking to me,

are you aware of any sensations in your left foot?

ANGELA: Well yes, now that you mention it.

GARY: Now that you are talking to me, are you aware at all of your heart beating?

ANGELA: Yes.

GARY : But you weren't a minute ago. Right?

ANGELA: Right.

GARY: [To audience] You see, we have countless sensory inputs that are constantly

intruding on us. All kinds of sights and sounds and internal body sensations are

continually knocking on the door of our senses.

I read where some psychologists estimated it as being 2 million inputs per second. If your brain had to pay attention to 2 million bits of input every second, you'd go bananas, wouldn't you? So your brain has a way of saying, "That stuff isn't important. I'm going to zero in on what is important and leave the rest alone." And the piece of your brain that does that is called the reticular formation. It's about the size of a marble and has many duties.

The duty that interests us here is called the reticular activating system. I call it your

Miracle Finder. It is designed to find what is important to you. [Gary goes into the audience]

[To Gordon] I don't know your name.

GORDON: Gordon.

GARY: Gordon. Gordon Williams, right? I want you to assume for the moment that this room is a large cocktail party where everyone is talking. All the voices create a noisy din in the room and you and I are paired up in conversation...one on one. We are interested in our subject, we have good rapport and are really zeroed in on our conversation. Now, let me see, do you know Ann and Mike over here? [Gary points toward Ann and Mike....about 10 feet away]

GORDON: I do now.

GARY: Okay. Now as you and I are talking are you likely to know what anyone else in

this room is saying.

GORDON: No.

GARY: Okay. Do you know what Ann and Mike are talking about?

GORDON: No.

GARY: Now let's assume that as you and I are talking, Ann turns to Mike and says these words, "Gordon Williams." Do you hear it?

GORDON: Yes, you bet.

GARY: What I'd like to know is, how do you do that? How do you hear it?

GORDON: Smart ears.

GARY: Smart ears. I never know what I'm going to get in these seminars. [Audience

laughs]. Smart ears. Well, you might call it that. Somehow, out of all of the hundreds of

words that are spoken per minute in this room, you picked out two words that Ann said.

And she's a perfect stranger to you, right?

GORDON: Right.

GARY: [To audience] How many would hear your name, do you think? [All hands

raised] [To Gordon] Go ahead, sit down, Gordon. [To audience] Could we have a hand

for Gordon? [Applause]

So, how do you do it? I want to know how you do it? I mean, that's a gift, isn't it?

LADY: We've heard our names a billion times.

GARY: Well, you've heard it a billion times. That's right. You have also heard the words

"the", "and" and all kinds of other words too, right?

LADY: Yes.

MAN: It's important.

GARY: Yes! It's important to you. See, your Miracle Finder is designed to locate things that are important to you. Your name is important to you and so is what somebody says about

you. So, when your name is said at a cocktail party, [Snaps fingers] your Miracle Finder picks it out for you.

How many mothers do we have in the room? [Hands raised] Okay, mothers, let me give you a scene. You come home from the hospital having just given birth to baby. Father needs to go work so you tend to the duties of the day as best you can, including taking care of baby's needs. Father comes home, you have dinner and the evening goes on.

You are really tired because of your weakened state. You feed baby. You take care of baby's

diapers and you put baby to bed two doors down from where you crawl into bed with

father and fall into a very deep sleep. So deep, that if a truck came through your living

room, you are not likely to hear it.

Then, two hours later, when you are in your deepest possible sleep, a little noise comes from two doors down that sounds like this [Gary makes a sound like a faint baby cry...audience laughs]. A little baby cry. Do you hear it, mothers?

MOTHERS: Yes.

GARY: Now, how do you do that? If you wouldn't hear the truck coming through, how

do you hear that?

LADY: Your Miracle Finder.

GARY: Your Miracle Finder. Yes. So your Miracle Finder finds what's important to you even though you are sound sleep. Let me ask you this. Does father hear it?

AUDIENCE: [Some yes, some no]

GARY: Typically, does father hear it?

SHERWOOD: I do.

GARY: Okay, we have a father here that hears it. [Applause]

JUDY: That's because he's so nice. [Laughter]

GARY: To audience] Typically, however, father doesn't hear it. I want to know why not. Is it because he is an evil person?

LADY: Yes! [Laughter] Because he's in denial.

GARY: Because he's in denial, I hear. Why else doesn't father hear it?

MAN: He doesn't have to.

GARY: Right. He doesn't have to. Because in the typical situation, mother will take care

of it. Father says to himself, "I must to go to work tomorrow. No sense both of us losing

sleep. It's already taken care of.". Father tends not to hear it because his Miracle Finder is not

active in this area. He knows mother's Miracle Finder will do the job. But let me ask you this.

What happens if mother has to go away for the weekend and father is home with baby.

Does father then hear it?

AUDIENCE: Yes.

GARY: Sure. His Miracle Finder is brought into play, isn't it? Our Miracle Finder is a gift. We use it all the time, but we take it for granted. Typically, we are not even aware that we can harness its power for specific uses. But we can. When you do affirmations, for example, you generate an awareness in your mind of the "new you" you wish to create. Have you ever noticed that when you read magazines or newspapers, certain articles pop out at you? And some don't pop out at all? Those that pop out at you are those that grab your Miracle Finder. The others are ignored. Use these tools to activate your Miracle Finder and new information will pop out at you that you had not seen before.

So if you use these tools for a new goal or dream, you automatically generate a new level of importance for these achievements. You literally give your Miracle Finder instructions to be on the lookout for things that will help. That's why, when you read a magazine, you are more likely to notice articles on your new pursuits. An article that might ordinarily go right by you will now [Snaps fingers] stick out at you?

Ultra Awareness: Your Miracle Finder creates an ultra awareness regarding your new goal. Your thoughts about it will begin to shift and, in the process, things you see and hear will shift accordingly.

That's the real beauty of your Miracle Finder. These things happen subtly and that's why being an observer is so important.

Your Miracle Finder will cause you to generate awarenesses of things you had never seen

before. Things that were right in front of you that you never noticed. The way I like to put

it is, "The way to do anything you want to do, already exists. You just need to tune in to

it." In fact, I have that statement here near the bottom of page 19. Please circle it. "The

way to do what you want to do already exists. But it is outside of your awareness. Let

your Miracle Finder find it for you."

I'm going to give you some examples to really zero in on this.

EXAMPLE #1: I HAVE MORE PROSPECTS THAN I CAN HANDLE

GARY: In 1983, I finished a divorce (gave away most of my money) and wanted to move from Portola Valley, California to The Sea Ranch, California. How many know where that is....The Sea Ranch? [Hands raised] Oh, most of you. It's up on the Sonoma coast.

I had the beginnings of a brand new little business. I had raised a few hundred

thousand dollars from some friends for an investment partnership. The challenge here

was that I chose to move to Sea Ranch...population 300...and I needed to talk with

pension plans and people with hundreds of thousands of dollars to invest in this little

partnership. And they didn't live at Sea Ranch, did they? No...they were in San

Francisco...2 1/2 hours away.

I didn't make enough money off this little partnership to be able to finance my way

through this world so I knew I had to start prospecting for sales. Accordingly, I created an

affirmation that said, "I have more prospects than I can handle".

Now, does it seem kind of weird for someone living way out in the boonies, to say, "I

have more prospects than I can handle" and expect to have wealthy prospects show up

and do business? Does that sound weird to anyone? Would you do that?

MAN: I might.

GARY: Well, you might. Okay. One or two might. How many would really do it? [Two

or three hands raised] How many would really hesitate to do that? [Many hands raised]

Okay. But I kept activating my Miracle Finder by imagining this abundance of prospects.

Now I knew when I moved to Sea Ranch I could always drive to and from Santa Rosa to

do business. It's about an hour and 30 minutes each way. But 2 1/2 hours to San

Francisco and back (5 hours round trip) is what I should be doing. But that's way too

much, practically speaking, to do every day. But I kept imagining those prospects happening.

Remember how I was telling you earlier that when you read magazines certain things pop

out at you? Well, I was creating an awareness of having more prospects than I could

handle. In fact, I imagined them calling me. I didn't have to call them. They called me.

Mind you, I had no idea where these prospects were going to come from. I had no

concept whatsoever. I only knew that the way to do it already existed and that my

Miracle Finder would find it for me. All I had to do was create it as something important to my

mind. That imagining and some daydreaming were my tools.

One day, after I had moved to Sea Ranch, I was looking through my motivational library

and came upon a book I had read at least 50 times. It was about the philosophy and

business ideas of Ben Feldman, a highly successful life insurance salesman. In that book

was an idea that I had seen countless times but, on the previous readings, I didn't pay

much attention to it because my Miracle Finder was not oriented the way it was now.

Here's the idea. When Ben Feldman wanted an audience with a big corporate president,

he would walk into the reception office, cold...no one knew he was coming...and he

would hand the receptionist five $100 bills. He asked her to give the $100 bills to Mr.

Johnson, the president, with a note that said, "I'll trade these for 5 minutes".

What was the receptionist going to say... "no"? Typically, she went right up and gave the

note and money to Mr. Johnson. The result? Ben got in to see many highly qualified

prospects. It also turns out, at least according to the book, that everyone gave the money

back to him. They really didn't want to keep the money. They liked the clever idea and

granted the interview based on that.

So here I am....broke. I shouldn't say broke, but I didn't have the wherewithal to put out

five $100 bills with great frequency. But see, my Miracle Finder was out and that story, which I had read many times before, caused me to ask myself, "What is the true cost of a quality

sales call?"

What would you pay, you sales people in the audience, to get in front of someone where

they already knew what you were going to talk about...they were interested...they had the

money to buy what you wanted to sell...and you already had rapport with them when you

walked into their office?

How many cold calls do you have to make to finally find one person that fits that

category? How many?

LADY: More than 10.

GARY: More than 10? 50 or 100 in my experience. Whatever the number it amounts to a

lot of calls and a lot of time. And time is expensive.

So using this idea my Miracle Finder just found, I acquired a list of pension plans in San

Francisco which gave me the names and addresses of the trustees of those plans. Then I

put together a letter that said, "Dear Mr. Johnson. I'll trade this"....and I enclosed a brand

new $100 bill...."for 20 minutes." I put a letter behind it giving the basics of what I

wanted to discuss and then asked him to call me for an appointment.

They called me!: I Sent those letters out and guess what? They called me. Half of them sent it back saying, "Gee, I'm really not interested but you have a very clever idea." Most of the other half actually called me. I called a handful only because they hadn't responded within a week.

But most of them called me. And then I would go to San Francisco and have 7 or 8

appointments per day for 2 or 3 days in a row. Then I would come back and do the whole

process again.

On that I raised $20 million for the partnership. Those prospects were smiling when they saw me. They invited me in. They had coffee for me. I didn't drink coffee but they had it for

me anyway. Now let me ask you. Did the way to have more prospects than I could handle

already exist?

AUDIENCE: Yes.

GARY: Was I tuned into it at first.

AUDIENCE: No.

GARY: You just need to tune into it. My imagining activated my Miracle Finder which, in turn, found the idea for me. There are more ways to prospect, by the way. There's not just one way to do it. Your Miracle Finder will find many alternatives if you give it a chance.

MAN: How many kept the $100 bill and didn't see you?

GARY: Some. I would say one out of 20 actually kept the hundred...or said they never

got it...or said some employee stole it...or something like that. On the other side, many

people who gave me an appointment also gave me back the $100 bill.

MAN: Did you send it certified mail?

GARY: Yes, certified mail. They signed for it and everything. That makes it appear as

very important mail. "Who's this from? Gary Craig?...Who's that?...Certified mail?...Is it

a lawsuit? I guess I better open it." So the receptionist opens this thing and goes WOW.

She gives it to the company President. I get a telephone call and go in to see him. That's

typically how it happened. Some did not see me and kept the $100 bill. Some saw me and

gave it back to me.

It ended up costing me about $100 per qualified interview. Cheap. Very cheap if you

really think about it. On the surface it seems like a lot of money but, all things

considered, it was very inexpensive. The way to do anything you want to do already

exists. You just need to tune into it.

EXAMPLE #2: CHECKS IN THE MAIL

GARY: I want to share with you another example because of the importance of this subject. Some of you may know the name of Doug Hooper. Doug was a delightful man. He died a few

years ago but, before he died, he gave talks along the same lines I'm giving here. He

called them, "You Are What You Think."

One day he went to his mailbox and pulled out the typical pile of mail that most of us

receive...namely, junk mail and some bills. So he said to himself, "I keep preaching about the power of our thinking. I'm going to put it into practice here....I want checks in the mail." Of course he had received checks in the mail before, but not the steady stream he was looking for. He didn't know where these checks were going to come from. Nor did he know for what or for how much.

Yet he knew he could create that steady stream of checks with his thinking. Although he

didn't use the term "Miracle Finder," he was quite familiar with the concept that the way to do

anything you want to do already exists. You need only tune into it. So he began a daily

routine of imaging checks in the mail.

Now, how many of you think that is even feasible to do? I'm curious. [A few hands

raised] What are the odds of success for someone imagining checks in the mail and

having it actually happen? What are the odds?

AUDIENCE: One out of a thousand.

GARY: One out of a thousand, you said? Well, you might think that if you weren't used

to the power of your Miracle Finder. In my experience the odds are very high, but only if you are consistent in creating that new thought. The way to do anything you want to do already

exists. You just need to tune into it.

This is what happened. Doug started his imaging process and would come home from

work in the evening and ask his wife, "Eileen, are there any checks in the mail?" By the

way, he didn't tell his wife or his two sons that he was trying to create checks in the mail

through his thoughts. That's to avoid the criticism that people are quick to give you for

such an "absurd" effort. So he didn't even tell his wife.

"Any checks in the mail, Eileen?", he kept asking. "No," she would say. He kept asking

that question night after night. He would say, "Any checks in the mail, Eileen?" After a

while she would say, "Noooo" with growing annoyance. His sons thought this was a little

strange as well and one son would turn to the other and say, "Maybe Dad's elevator no

longer goes to the top." [Laughter]

But you see, he knew the power of what he was doing so he kept with it. In the meantime,

however, nothing was happening. No checks in the mail. Not even a hint of such a thing.

But he kept imagining it anyway. He kept creating the thought because he knew the way

to do it was going to show up.

After about 6 months, he happened to be in the publisher's office of the local Danville

newspaper for which he wrote weekly articles called "You are What You Think". These

articles were stories about how your thought processes create things for you, the kind of

things we're talking about here. Clever little articles.

And the publisher said to him, "You know, Doug, some of our readers have written in

requesting back copies of your articles." Bingo! [Gary snaps his fingers] His Miracle Finder

picked up on that immediately. Here's the way to have checks in the mail. So he made up

a little book of his past articles. Then he put a little footnote at the end of each article he

wrote from that time forward. It said, "If you want back issues, please send so many

dollars to Doug Hooper, address so and so."

Checks in the mail.

I heard Doug tell this story seven years after his first "check in the mail" arrived and

learned that he had received checks in the mail every single post office day, except for

five or six, for the preceding seven years. Interesting, eh?

See, the way to do anything you want to do already exists. You just need to tune into it.

Do you see that? These stories are very real. But you must keep using your tools in order

to put your Miracle Finder to work. You must not get off your track.

Hugs, Gary

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PS: From Gary: Making something important to yourself is not rocket science. There is, however, no magic formula for everyone. Thus I cannot give you THE way to do this. Some prefer affirmations while others prefer day dreaming or fantasizing. Still others like journaling, talking to themselves in a mirror, or conversing frequently with a friend about each other's goals. Your choice