Now it’s time for you to test out the Power of Eight in your own life. What follows are instructions on how to create a group of eight people who will meet regularly in person or virtually. It is not necessary to be physically present with the members of the group. A virtual connection, in my experience, works just as well. It’s also not strictly necessary to have exactly eight people, but eight is the optimum number. I would suggest that your group be no fewer than six and no more than twelve so that you have enough of a critical mass to feel like a group, but not so many that you get lost in it.
Assemble a group of eight like-minded friends who are open to the possibility of healing and intention. You can use a book group, church groups, or the members of your neighborhoods.
1. Ask if any of the members of the group with a healing challenge of some sort (emotional or physical) would like to be the target of the healing intention. Allow the person nominated as the recipient to describe their problem in detail.
2. Spend a few moments talking over and designing the intention statement that you will all hold together.
3. Gather around in a circle. Either join hands or place the nominated subject in the middle of the circle, as every other member of the group places one hand on the subject, like the spokes of a wheel.
4. Begin by having each member of the group close their eyes and concentrate on inhaling and exhaling. Each should clear their mind of any distractions, then hold the intention statement in their mind while imagining, with all five senses, the intention recipient as healthy and well in every way. All members should then send out the intention through their hearts. The intention recipient should remain open to receive. (Follow the techniques of “Powering Up” beginning on page 240, and for full instructions, from The Intention Experiment).
5. After ten minutes, gently end the healing intention and have everyone take a few moments to “come back” into the room. First ask the intention recipient to describe how they feel and if they have experienced any changes, positive or negative. All the other members may then take turns sharing experiences. Take note of any feelings of palpable oneness and also any improvement in the condition of both senders and receivers.
6. With time, begin to select targets outside your group.
7. Keep careful note of any monthly progress in your life: your health, your relationships, your career, your life’s purpose.
Here are some ideas for starting out:
1. Create structured times and frequencies for meeting and stick to them.
Decide as a group whether you want to meet daily or weekly (I’d recommend at least once a week) and keep to a set time every week. Then decide if you want to meet online, as an audio group or as a video group. All three are possible on Google Hangouts or Skype.
2. Elect one web-savvy person on your team as the go-to person for problems on Skype, Google Hangouts, Zoom, or some other online facility for virtual group meetings.
This person can help anyone who is struggling with the technology to get up to speed.
3. Before the meeting, write down your major intentions for the month or year and take turns sharing them during the meeting.
4. Begin the meeting by sharing who you are and what you hope to achieve by your participation in a group for the rest of the year.
5. Start off with questions, sharing, and discussion about aspects of the work you’ve learned in this book and other books, like The Intention Experiment or The Bond.
This would include becoming more conscious of your thought processes and the implications of the fact that we are sending and receiving information at every moment. What does that really mean to you? How does that impact the success or failures you’ve experienced in your life?
6. Include time for questions, which you should address to the group.
7. Include time for practice sessions.
For the first two sessions, break into pairs and practice sending and receiving the mental image of a simple object that holds some special meaning for you—positive or negative. Receiver: try to intuit not only the object but the emotion held by the other person about that object. (It’s always fun to try to “transmit” an object you really loathe once in a while.)
8. Write down in your journal a detailed description of what you sent and then what your partner received.
Then switch and have senders be receivers and vice versa.
9. Write down in your journal a detailed description of what your partner sent and you received.
Keep these descriptions safe to keep a record of your accuracy through the year.
The following are the rudimentaries of the program I developed for maximizing your use of intention. For the complete program, consult The Intention Experiment.
Although the power of intention is such that any sort of focus may have some effect, the scientific evidence suggests that you will be a more effective “intender” if you believe in the process, learn how to focus, quiet your mind, connect with the object of your intention, visualize the outcome, mentally rehearse and let go, trusting the process.
1. Choose Your Intention Space
A number of scientific studies suggest that your intention works faster and better if you use the same intention space each time. Choose a place to carry out your intentions that feels comfortable, a place where you and your group can sit quietly and meditate.
2. Focus Your Mind
Powering up involves developing the ability to attend with peak intensity, moment by moment. One of the surest ways to develop this is to practice maintaining your concentration in the present and focusing on your five senses while involved in everyday activities. You can practice turning off the constant inner chatter of your mind and concentrate on your sensory experiences while engaging in everyday activities like eating your cornflakes, waiting in line, putting on your coat, or even walking to work. One good means of harnessing your mind to the present is to “come into your body” and check in with your individual senses. In time you will be able to attend in your intention group with peak intensity.
Sit in a comfortable position in a chair. Breathe slowly and rhythmically in through the nose and out through the mouth (slowly blow all the air out), so that your in-breath is the same length as your out-breath. Allow the belly to relax so that it slightly protrudes, then pull it back slowly as if you were trying to get it to touch your back. This will ensure that you are breathing through your diaphragm.
Repeat this every fifteen seconds, but ensure that you are not overexerting or straining. Carry on for three minutes and then keep observing it. Work up to five or ten minutes. Begin to focus your attention just on the breath, then slowly take an inventory of your five senses. What does the present moment look like? Sound like? Taste like? Feel like? Smell like? Practice this repeatedly.
3. Make a Connection
Touch, or even focus, on the heart or compassionate feelings for the other is a powerful means of causing a “hyperbrain” between people. If you’re intending for a member of your group, first form an empathetic connection with him or her by spending a few moments exchanging some personal information about each of you, or even an object or photograph. Hold his or her hands for a deeper connection or spend a little time meditating together.
4. Be Compassionate
Use the following methods to encourage a sense of universal compassion during your Power of Eight group:
• Focus your attention to your heart, as though you are sending light to it. Observe the light spreading from your heart to the rest of your body. Send a loving thought to yourself, such as “May I be well and free from suffering.”
• On the out-breath, imagine a white light radiating outward from your heart. As you do, think: “I appreciate the kindnesses and love of all living creatures. May all others be well.” As Buddhists recommend, first think of all those you love, then your good friends. Move on to acquaintances and finally to those people you actively dislike. For each stage, think: “May they be well and free from suffering.”
5. Tell the Universe Exactly What You Want
Make your intentions highly specific and directed—the more detailed, the better. If you are trying to heal the fourth finger of your left hand, specify that finger and, if possible, the problem with it.
State your entire intention, and include what it is you would like to change, to whom, when, and where. Use a reporter’s checklist to ensure you have covered every specific: who, what, when, where, why, and how. Draw a picture of it, or create a collage from photos or magazine pictures. Place this somewhere that you can look at often.
Don’t be shy about announcing your intention openly to your group and allow them to hold it for you while you hold intentions for them. Make a vow, out loud to your group, that you will do everything in your power to make this intention a reality. As many of my Intention Masterclass members say, having to make a public commitment “to the universe” through the group forces them to keep working harder on their intentions and follow through.
If you are trying to improve your career, don’t just say something like “I want money to come in effortlessly.” That’s far too general.
• If you need more people to sign up for a program of yours, specify how many.
• If something isn’t working for you in your work life, work out what it is. The people? The marketing of something? Your role? Tease out the issue and focus on intending for that to change.
• If you want a particular job, write down a full and detailed job spec.
• If your income isn’t steady, ask for a very specific job or situation that is likely to offer you a steady flow of money.
• If you want to meet a special other, describe him or her in detail. Draw a mental and physical picture.
6. Mentally Rehearse
The best way to send an intention is to visualize the outcome you desire with all your five senses. You can create mental pictures for anything: a new house, a new job, a new relationship, a healthier body, or a healthier mind. Imagine yourself (or the target of your intention) engaging in whatever new aspect of life you wish to create.
Visualizations don’t have to be strictly visual. Some of us are kinesthetic, and have an acute sense of feel; others are auditory, and think in sounds. Your mental rehearsal will depend on which senses are most developed in your brain.
7. Believe in the Process
Don’t allow your rational mind to tell you that the intentions won’t work. Keep firmly fixed in your mind the desired outcome and do not allow yourself to think of failure. In some studies of intention, the power of belief enabled people to carry out extreme acts.
8. Time It Right
The evidence shows that intentions work better on days when you feel happy and well in every way. It’s not always possible to wait; sometimes you need the intentions to make you feel better. But if you have the choice—wait until you are on top of your game.
9. Move Aside
In your meditative state within your group, relax your sense of self and allow yourself to merge with the target of your intention. After framing your intention, state it clearly and then let it go. Don’t think of the outcome. This power does not originate with you—you are just the vehicle for it.
In summary:
• Enter your intention space.
• Power up through meditation.
• Move into peak focus through mindful awareness of the present.
• Get onto the same wavelength by focusing on compassion and making a meaningful connection.
• State your intention and make it specific.
• Mentally rehearse every moment of it with all your senses.
• Visualize, in vivid detail, your intention as established fact.
• Time it right—choose days when you feel happy and well.
• Move aside—surrender to the power of the universe and let go of the outcome.
Assemble a group of your friends who are interested in trying out some group intention exercises. Create an intention space where you will meet each time. Select a group target for your community.
Ask one of your members to fill a jar with plain water, “send” an object into the jar via a ten-minute intention meditation (during which time they just focus on the name of the object and imagine it with their five senses). Write the name of the word on a piece of paper, fold it over so the word isn’t visible, and wrap it round the jar, securing it with a rubber band.
Have the intender hold the jar and show it to the group (if you are on a web platform like Google Hangouts or Skype). If in a Facebook group, take a photo of the jar and upload to your group page.
The other group members should focus on the jar and try to intuit the word in the jar.
Try your own Germination Intention Experiments to see if you can make plants grow faster and healthier through the power of intention.
1. Purchase two sets of seeds.
2. Plant both sets.
3. Send loving intention to one set of the seeds to grow a certain specific number of inches by a specific date.
4. After two weeks, measure the outcome on both. See which batch of seedlings have grown higher.
Ask one member of the group to be responsible for buying the seeds, planting the seeds and measuring them. They can even upload the seeds and seedlings on Facebook or your Hangouts group. Choose a time to send intention to the seeds as a group. Have your designated person measure the plants in two weeks to see what has happened.
The easiest way to demonstrate any shift in purification is to measure a change in pH. The lower any pH measure below 7, which is neutral, the more acidic something is and the higher the pH above 7, the more alkaline.
Here’s how to try it out in your group:
1. Nominate someone to run the Intention Experiment.
2. Ask them to buy some pH strips from a local drugstore. Have them take two glasses of tap water from the same source, and label them A and B. Nominate one to be target glass for the group and the other, the control.
3. Have them take pH measurements of both glasses of water.
4. Photograph the target glass and upload it to your Google Hangouts group or Facebook page.
5. At a designated time, ask all members of the group to send intention to raise the pH of the water by 1 full pH. Imagine the water as a clear mountain stream.
6. Wait a few minutes until after the intention is finished. Then take another pH measurement of the water. See if it has shifted at all. (Don’t worry if it doesn’t look like it has—the strips aren’t as sensitive as the scientific equipment we’ve used.)
Send in any other experiments you are doing to: