The Power of Intention Read online

  THE

  POWER OF

  INTENTION

  ALSO BY DR. WAYNE W. DYER

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  A Morning and Afternoon of Your Life

  No More Holiday Blues

  A Promise Is a Promise

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  10 Secrets for Success and Inner Peace

  There Is a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem

  Unstoppable Me! (children’s book with Kristina Tracy)

  What Do You Really Want for Your Children?

  Wisdom of the Ages

  You’ll See It When You Believe It

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  (unabridged audio book)

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  You Are Living Will Change (abridged 4-CD set)

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  Inspirational Thoughts

  The Keys to Higher Awareness

  Making Your Thoughts Work for You (with Byron Katie)

  Meditations for Manifesting

  A Morning and Afternoon of Your Life

  (abridged 4-CD set)

  101 Ways to Transform Your Life (audio book)

  The Power of Intention (abridged 4-CD set)

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  Notecards, Candle, and JournalAll of the above are available at your local bookstore,

  or may be ordered by visiting:HayHouseUSA:

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  India:www.hayhouse.co.in

  THE POWER OF

  INTENTION

  Learning to Co-create

  Your World Your Way

  Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

  HAY HOUSE, INC.

  Carlsbad, California • New York City

  London • Sydney • Johannesburg

  Vancouver • Hong Kong • New Delhi

  Copyright©2004 byWayneW.Dyer

  Published and distributed in the United States by: Hay House, Inc.: www.hayhouse.com • Published and distributed in Australia by: Hay House Australia Pty. Ltd.: www.hayhouse.com.au • Published and distributed in the United Kingdom by: Hay House UK, Ltd.: www.hayhouse.co.uk • Published and distributed in the Republic of South Africa by: Hay House SA (Pty), Ltd.: www.hayhouse.co.za • Distributed in Canada by: Raincoast: www.raincoast.com • Published in India by: Hay House Publishers India: www.hayhouse.co.in

  Wayne Dyer’s editor: Joanna Pyle: www.editorjoanna.com

  Editorial supervision: Jill Kramer • Design: Amy Gingery

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic, or electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording; nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or otherwise be copied for public or private use—other than for “fair use” as brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews without prior written permission of the publisher.

  The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Dyer, Wayne W.

  The power of intention : learning to co-create your world your way / Wayne W. Dyer.

  p. cm.

  ISBN 1-4019-0215-4 — ISBN 1-4019-0216-2 (tradepaper) 1. Intentionalism. I. Title.

  BF619.5.D94 2004

  158.1—dc21

  2003014622

  ISBN 13: 978-1-4019-0216-2

  ISBN 10: 1-4019-0216-2

  10 09 08 07 28 27 26 25

  1st printing, February 2004

  25th printing, December 2007

  Printed in the United States of America

  “Every beauty which is seen here below by persons of perception resembles more than anything else that celestial source from which we all come . . .”

  — Michelangelo

  “Self-realization means that we have been consciously connected with our source of being. Once we have made this connection, then nothing can go wrong. . . .”

  — Swami Paramananda

  For my daughter Skye Dyer.

  Your singing voice is a perfect vibrational match

  to your angelic soul.

  I love you!

  CONTENTS

  Preface

  PART I: THE ESSENTIALS OF INTENTION

  Chapter 1: Viewing Intention from a New Perspective

  Chapter 2: The Seven Faces of Intention

  Chapter 3: Connecting to Intention

  Chapter 4: Obstacles to Connecting to Intention

  Chapter 5: Your Impact on Others When Connected to Intention

  Chapter 6: Intention and Infinity

  PART II: PUTTING INTENTION TO WORK

  (Eight chapters offering specific information and a step-by-step guide for applying these principles to your daily life.)

  Chapter 7: It Is My Intention to: Respect Myself at All Times

  Chapter 8: It Is My Intention to: Live My Life on Purpose

  Chapter 9: It Is My Intention to: Be Authentic and Peaceful with All of My Relatives

  Chapter 10: It Is My Intention to: Feel Successful and Attract Abundance into My Life

  Chapter 11: It Is My Intention to: Live a Stress-Free, Tranquil Life

  Chapter 12
: It Is My Intention to: Attract Ideal People and Divine Relationships

  Chapter 13: It Is My Intention to: Optimize My Capacity to Heal and Be Healed

  Chapter 14: It Is My Intention to: Appreciate and Express the Genius That I Am

  PART III: THE CONNECTION

  Chapter 15: A Portrait of a Person Connected to the Field of Intention

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  PREFACE

  The book that you’re now holding in your hands, and all of the information it contains, was once a formless idea residing in the invisible domain of the field of intention. This book, The Power of Intention, was intended into the material world by applying all of the principles written about here. I managed to make my own vibrational energy match up to the all-creating Source, and allowed these words and ideas to flow through me directly to you. You’re holding in your hands evidence that anything we can conceive of in our minds—while staying in harmony with the universal all-creating Source—can and must come to pass.

  If you’d like to know how this book might impact you and how you might think, feel, and co-create after reading and applying its messages, I encourage you to read the final chapter, A Portrait of a Person Connected to the Field of Intention, before beginning this journey. You and everyone else, as well as all of life, emanated from the universal all-creating field of intention. Live from that perspective, and you will come to know and apply the power of intention. You have an endless stream of green lights before you!

  — Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

  Maui, Hawaii

  THE

  ESSENTIALS

  OF

  INTENTION

  “Beside the river stands the holy tree of life.

  There doth my father dwell, and my home is in him.

  The heavenly father and I are one.”

  — The Essene Gospel of Peace

  VIEWING

  INTENTION

  FROM A NEW

  PERSPECTIVE

  “In the universe there is an immeasurable, indescribable force which shamans call intent, and absolutely everything that exists in the entire cosmos is attached to intent by a connecting link.”

  — Carlos Castaneda

  During the past several years, I’ve been so strongly attracted to studying intention that I’ve read hundreds of books by psychological, sociological, and spiritual writers; ancient and modern scholars; and academic researchers. My research reveals a fairly common definition of intention as a strong purpose or aim, accompanied by a determination to produce a desired result. People driven by intention are described as having a strong will that won’t permit anything to interfere with achieving their inner desire. I imagine a sort of pit-bull kind of resolve or determination. If you’re one of those people with a never-give-up attitude combined with an internal picture that propels you toward fulfilling your dreams, you fit this description of someone with intention. You are, most likely, a super-achiever and probably proud of your ability to recognize and take advantage of opportunities that arise.

  For many years I’ve held a similar belief about intention. In fact, I’ve written and spoken often about the power of intention being just what I’ve described above. Over the past quarter of a century, however, I’ve felt a shift in my thinking from a purely psychological or personal-growth emphasis, toward a spiritual orientation where healing, creating miracles, manifesting, and making a connection to divine intelligence are genuine possibilities.

  This hasn’t been a deliberate attempt to disengage from my academic and professional background, but rather a natural evolution that’s been unfolding as I began to make more conscious contact with Spirit. My writing now emphasizes a belief that we can find spiritual solutions to problems by living at higher levels and calling upon faster energies. In my mind, intention is now something much greater than a determined ego or individual will. It’s something almost totally opposite. Perhaps this comes from shedding many levels of ego in my own life, but I also feel the strong influence of two sentences I read in a book by Carlos Castaneda. In my writing life, I’ve often come across something in a book that starts a thought germinating in me that ultimately compels me to write a new book. At any rate, I read these two sentences in Castaneda’s final book, The Active Side of Infinity, while I was waiting to have a cardiac procedure to open one clogged artery leading into my heart that had caused a mild heart attack.

  Castaneda’s words were: “Intent is a force that exists in the universe. When sorcerers (those who live of the Source) beckon intent, it comes to them and sets up the path for attainment, which means that sorcerers always accomplish what they set out to do.”

  When I read those two sentences, I was stunned by the insight and clarity it gave me about the power of intention. Imagine that intention is not something you do, but rather a force that exists in the universe as an invisible field of energy! I had never considered intention in this way before reading Castaneda’s words.

  I wrote those two sentences down, and then I had them printed on a card and laminated. I carried the laminated card with me into the catheter lab for my minor surgical procedure, and as soon as I could, I began talking about the power of intention to everyone who would listen. I made intention a part of every speech I gave. I immersed myself in this idea to use it, not only for my own healing, but to help others use the power of intention to carry them where they’re fully equipped to go. I had experienced satori, or instant awakening, and was intent on offering this insight to others. It had become clear to me that accessing the power of intention relieved so much of the seemingly impossible work of striving to fulfill desires by sheer force of will.

  Since that defining moment, I’ve thought of the power of intention in virtually all of my waking hours—and books, articles, conversations, telephone calls, items arriving in my mailbox, and arbitrary works I might be looking at in a bookstore all seemed to conspire to keep me on this path. So here it is: The Power of Intention. I hope this book will help you view intention in a new way and make use of it in a manner that leads you to define yourself as Patanjali suggested more than 20 centuries ago: “Dormant forces, faculties, and talents come alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.”

  Patanjali’s two words, “dormant forces,” kick-started me in the direction of writing about intention. Patanjali was referring to forces that appear to be either nonexistent or dead, and he was referring to the powerful energy a person feels when inspired. If you’ve ever felt inspired by a purpose or calling, you know the feeling of Spirit working through you. Inspired is our word for in-spirited. I’ve thought long and hard about the idea of being able to access seemingly dormant forces to assist me at key times in my life to achieve an inner burning desire. What are these forces? Where are they located? Who gets to use them? Who is denied access? And why? Questions like these have propelled me to research and write this book and subsequently arrive at a totally new perspective of intention.

  At this point, as I’m writing about my excitement of realizing a long-obscured truth, I know that intention is a force that we all have within us. Intention is a field of energy that flows invisibly beyond the reach of our normal, everyday habitual patterns. It’s there even before our actual conception. We have the means to attract this energy to us and experience life in an exciting new way.

  Where Is This Field Called Intention?

  Some prominent researchers believe that our intelligence, creativity, and imagination interact with the energy field of intention rather than being thoughts or elements in our brain. The brilliant scientist David Bohm, writing in Wholeness and the Implicate Order, suggested that all ordering influence and information is present in an invisible domain or higher reality and can be called upon in times of need. I found thousands of examples of these kinds of conclusions in the research and reading I did. If scientific evidence appeals to you, I suggest that you read The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe
by Lynne McTaggart. Her book is filled with studies supporting the existence of a higher, faster energy dimension or field of intention that can be tapped in to and used by everyone.

  The answer to Where is this field? is: There’s no place that it’s not, because everything in the universe has intention built into it. This is true for all life forms, whether it be a wildebeest, a rosebush, or a mountain. A mosquito has intent built into its creation and life experience. A tiny acorn with no apparent power to think or make plans for its future contains intention from the invisible field. If you cut the acorn open, you won’t see a giant oak tree, but you know it’s there. An apple blossom in the springtime appears to be a pretty little flower, yet it has intent built into it and will manifest in the summer as an apple. Intention doesn’t err. The acorn never turns into a pumpkin, or the apple blossom into an orange. Every aspect of nature, without exception, has intention built into it, and as far as we can tell, nothing in nature questions its path of intent. Nature simply progresses in harmony from the field of intention. We, too, are intended from the energy of this field.

  There is what some call a future-pull in the DNA that’s present at conception in each of us. In the moment of our conception, when an infinitely tiny drop of human protoplasm combines with an egg, life in physical form begins, and intention directs the growth process. Our body structure, the shape of our physical features, our development, including our aging, are intended in that one moment of conception. The sagging skin, the wrinkles, and even our death are all there. But wait, what exactly happens at the moment of conception? Where did this life, born of intention, begin?

  As we examine that seed/egg dance attempting to discover its origin, moving backwards toward Creation, we first find molecules, then atoms, then electrons, then subatomic particles, and then sub-subatomic particles. Ultimately, were we to put these tiny quantum subatomic particles into a particle accelerator and collide them, trying to put our finger on the source of life, we’d discover what Einstein and his scientific compatriots discovered: There’s no particle at the source; particles do not create more particles. The Source, which is intention, is pure, unbounded energy vibrating so fast that it defies measurement and observation. It’s invisible, without form or boundaries. So, at our Source, we are formless energy, and in that formless vibrating spiritual field of energy, intention resides. On a lighter note, I know it’s there, since somehow it managed to get into a drop of sperm and an ovarian egg and determine that my hair will no longer grow on my head after 25 years . . . and in 50 years, it will grow in my nose and ears, and all I (the observer) can do is watch it and snip it away!