“It’s possible to create whatever you want to create.” ~Cassie Parks
Cassie grew up in a family where her father worked eighty-hour weeks to make the money he did, and not surprisingly, she thus grew up believing that it was hard to make money and that she would never have enough money. While working sixty-hour weeks and spending money on things that she didn’t love just so she could enjoy the feel of spending money, she decided to work on her mindset and used the techniques she would eventually teach in her “Manifest 10k” program to become financially independent, and she now views money as sacred and spends forty hours a day working on coaching, which is something she loves and which, for her, isn’t something she views as hard work.
Manifest $10,000 comes from Cassie’s experience with running her “Manifest 10k” program, where she worked with people to change their money mindset and attract more money into their lives. The book outlines the process that Cassie had been teaching, and she was inspired to write the book from all the results the people who undertook her program actually experienced, to help others who could use the principles within. She chose $10,000 as the target as it is reachable but not overwhelming (compare working for getting $10,000 in 90 days to getting $2,000,000 in 90 days, for example) and which will require people to stretch themselves. Although she doesn’t have exact numbers, Cassie estimates that the average person who takes her program averages $2,500, which is still a substantial amount, although she notes that some of her clients have manifested as much as $100,000. She remarks that the exact amount depends on how much her client had been using the Law of Attraction.
According to Cassie, one’s thoughts and beliefs about money will determine how money is attracted to a person. An unsuccessful mindset consists of such thoughts and beliefs as money being hard to get, “I’m never gonna make it,” “Can’t do this,” and this has an impact on people, in that, even if a person with that mindset can attract a lot of money, something will happen where they will need to spend the money they attracted. A successful money mindset is based on trust, one where one believes that one will always have money, and where one is capable of handling and honoring money. She also notes that self-love is also involved with a successful money mindset, wherein one believes that one is worthy of that money and the life that one wants.
For Cassie, the Law of Attraction is basically that like attracts like; thus, how one comes across to the world determines what is attracted to one, which she remarks is something like the way magnets work. She also notes that there is a neurological aspect to using the Law of Attraction, in that our brains see only that which we want it to see, because the brain can’t process everything, and this creates the filters which either hinder or help us discover opportunities that would enable us to achieve financial independence. She notes that people need to work on the Law of Attraction for more than three or four days to attain permanent results and that our brain works best when given a lot of information, so visualization and feeling are very important when it comes to attaining one’s goals. With regard to goals, Cassie remarks that one shouldn’t just think of manifesting $10,000 but should also be clear on what that money is for, for the process to become truly successful, as people don’t want $10,000 itself but what that money can buy.
For Cassie, writing the book has enabled her to reflect on the first eighteen months she ran her program and made her present to how much she had come as a coach.
People can register for Cassie’s “Manifest 10k” program at manifest10k.com, and while only $1 is the initial registration fee; the rest is 10% of whatever one manifests.
“The search for the Oak Island treasure has been a treasure in itself for me.” ~Petter Amundsen
Petter Amundsen is a church pipe organist by profession, and while he admits that may be a strange profession for someone writing a book on hidden treasure, he remarks that his training as an organist is similar to that of a symbologist, as it includes learning about languages and symbols.
Petter’s initial experience with Shakespeare didn’t impress him, but while he came across a story about a cipher on Shakespeare’s gravestone while investigating the stocks and futures markets, he became so fascinated with this that he dropped his investigation into stocks and futures to pursue the cipher angle. He bought a facsimile of Shakespeare’s original folio of thirty-six plays and when he began looking for cryptic patterns, he found several, not only in the original folio of thirty-six plays but also in the original collection of Shakespeare’s sonnets, which translated to a celestial map that could correlate with locations on the ground.
Cygnus or The Northern Cross with the star, Deneb.
The pattern he found is a square-and-compass celestial pattern that mimics some aspects of some societies such as those of the Masons, and Petter then mentioned features that locked in a source point on the map, such as the star Deneb. Petter then went on to say that, if the original zero meridian of the day was used, one which ran through west of the Canary Islands rather than the modern-day meridian based on Greenwich, that celestial point corresponds to the coast of modern-day Nova Scotia, on Oak Island itself.
Petter noted that the Rosicrucians probably had a hand in the publication of Shakespeare’s portfolio, and notes that the Rosicrucians created patterns in their own publications of the day and invited people to search for these. So for them to place patterns in Shakespeare’s work wouldn’t be far-fetched. Petter theorizes that Shakespeare wasn’t the author of all of his plays, acting more like a “front man” for the speculated actual three authors of the plays attributed to him, pointing out that the children of the man called William Shakespeare were illiterate - something that would be highly unusual for someone who virtually codified the English language.
The Money Pit in 1931.
Petter gave a brief rundown of the official, historical story behind the supposed discovery of the Oak Island Money Pit, remarking on the various layers that the original diggers had discovered as they went deeper down. He then remarked that the people who got involved with finding the supposed treasure in the Money Pit spent or are spending all of their lives attempting to get it. He notes that there are different theories on the exact location of the Money Pit, and that, around the present site, there have been many cave-ins. Petter speculated that a lot of people had to be involved in creating the Money Pit, including slaves and convicts, likely from Spain, selected specifically for a lack of understanding of English in order to maintain secrecy, and, as mining was done in the area at the time, going deep shouldn’t have been a problem for the available technology.
Petter Amundsen has put an X mark on Oak Island where there could be hidden treasure. It coincides with a point on the Magnetic Resonance Image map of the island revealed on The Curse of Oak Island show on the History Channel, which shows a junction of underground tunnels.
Petter then went into the cross pattern discovered by Fred Nolan, a land surveyor who had the entire island mapped with the help of students during one summer. It was in 1981 when he realized that there were five large boulders, each one weighing at least ten tons. Petter noted how the lengths of the arms were exactly 360 feet distant (with the number 360 being mathematically significant) and that the boulders most likely refer to five of the ten points in the Sephiroth, the Tree of Life, which is a cabalistic symbol - and the Rosicrucians were Christian cabalists. He then went on to say that, when Fred Nolan dug into the ground at the intersection of the paths created by the stones, he found a sandstone block, and Petter himself, during an expedition with Oak Island stakeholders, brothers Rick and Marty Lagina (for the History Channel show, The Curse of Oak Island), found two more stones possibly related to the Sephiroth. Petter hypothesizes that the stones discovered will indicate the X that marks the spot of what he believes is the entrance to the cave complex that holds the treasure.
Petter remarked that the quest for the treasure has been a treasure in itself for him, as he learns something new each time he investigates.
“Success in life is about getting fulfilled.” ~Chris Palmer
As a college professor for around twelve years Chris Palmer noticed how much difficulty his students had with starting their careers after they graduated. He mentioned that a lot of students have no structure for living outside college, winding up living in the basements of their parents’ home, lonely and stressed out at not knowing how to handle an interview or find a job as well as struggling to figure out what their lives are about. He wrote the book to cover those topics which he admits college and university professors should teach their students but don’t - topics such as enabling students to figure out what their passion is and who they are. Now What, Grad? also deals with how to look for a job and deal with stress, as well as how to find mentors and be lifelong learners, among other things.
Chris notes that the present generation of college graduates looks too much “at screens,” or preferring dealing with people through a phone or a laptop, rather than dealing with them physically face-to-face, which includes shaking hands, meeting other peoples’ eyes and conversing. He also remarks that employers are looking for employees who have such soft skills, such as showing up on time, having a good attitude, know how to collaborate, are creative, ethical and resilient. Chris recommends college students to look for someone who could be a suitable mentor for them, which requires courage and hustle, to guide them. He also recommends that college students join student organizations, and, in particular, leadership positions in these, as these can be highlighted in their resumes to show prospective employers that they can take initiative.
Chris remarks that having a “growth mindset,” wherein one realizes that one’s skills are never fixed and that one needs to learn more, is very important to becoming a lifelong learner, and noted that the people who succeed in life are those who make lots of offers and keep their word.
Where looking for a job is concerned, Chris recommends that graduates do so by creating a list of organizations that the graduate wants to work for, then do an Internet search on what these companies do. That done, the graduate should apply, and Chris remarks that doing both online and real-world applying, which involves actually going out to where the company is and submitting one’s resume in person, are important. He notes that applicants will be rejected more often than not, as this is part of the game, and recommends going through the route of an informational interview on getting some career advice.
Where interviews are concerned, Chris states that being tense is a good thing, as this enables top performance, making one alert and energetic. He also recommends having a few questions handy, which requires that the applicant do research on the company he is applying for, as well as listen carefully and respond properly. Chris remarks that it is okay to reply, “I don’t know the answer to that question, but I know where to find it,” and that the applicant should enjoy the interview, noting that an interviewer will feel positively towards enthusiastic people whom they feel they can work with.
Chris remarks that a graduate taking some time off to find oneself, to do such things as travel or join the Peace Corps or participate in other activities, other than just sitting around and watching TV, is a good thing to do. He strongly recommends that people write out their personal mission statement which encompasses what that person stands for, what is important to that person, and this mission statement will enable one to find the career that suits him.
The key to networking, according to Chris, is to not be afraid to reach out to other people and to ask for help, noting that successful people aren’t afraid to ask for help, information, advice and guidance. Where leadership is concerned, Chris notes that this is present at all levels of society, and that leaders take initiative and are not afraid to stand and take action and be proactive when needed. Chris notes that failure has a stigma that it does not deserve, as while it is unpleasant, failure is essential to learning, and that failing means that one is taking risks and getting out of one’s comfort zone, which are “necessary precursors to success.”
Chris notes that writing the book made him realize that professors and parents have a big responsibility to help out younger people thrive and grow in the real world, remarking that what they learn in college isn’t enough to enable them to do so. He encourages people to think about the design of their lives, or what kind of life they want to create, and to create their own, personal mission statement based on this. Chris’ next two books are about fathers helping daughters, and about death.
“Stress isn’t really about stress, it’s about managing your humanness.” ~Eric Walrabenstein
Eric was an officer in the United States army who had already suffered the effects of stress when he was mugged sometime in 1980, from which he suffered from chronic stress for at least a decade after that - something he didn’t recognize at the time, but which resulted in such things as bouts of insomnia, agitation and issues with anger management. The experience was what made him seek out a way to get back to a state of wellness, which led him to meditation and yoga. He had always gravitated towards training, so as he got more involved with meditation and yoga, it was natural for him to share this with others, which was why he took a yoga teacher certification course some four years after starting off in yoga.
Waging Inner Peace is based on the BOOTSTRAP program that Eric created specifically to enable military veterans to cope with the stresses that stemmed from the pressures they experienced while in active service, with Eric noting that the effects of stress on veterans and troops is “catastrophic” and that around 20% of all veterans who had been on active combat deployment suffered from stress-related disorders, according to the US Veteran’s Administration, and Eric calls it “an epidemic.” BOOTSTRAP, which is based on the idea of “pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps,” is a ten-week program that enables those who take it up to better understand the underpinnings of stress, and as more and more people took the program, Eric realized that the principles and techniques could also be applied by non-veterans to their own lives.
The book itself sprang from when the mother of a veteran approached him with her concerns about her son, who was a Marine who had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, and was concerned about the situation. This was the impetus for Eric to start thinking about how to reach people who had no physical access to him, and from there, Eric realized that writing the book could impact more people than those he could reach with just his practice, particularly since he found these practices to be particularly transformative in his own life.
Eric notes that there has been a shift in the way society helps veterans deal with stress compared to before, giving the example of a relative who was a B-17 bombardier in World War II who dealt with stress by downing a few drinks and moving on. He notes that being in combat overwhelms the “human” system, and he also notes that stress has an internal component where people are concerned in that people’s responses to a stressful situation differ depending on how they respond to it, with one such example being how the same person can take the stress of traffic in stride one day and become angry, while being in the same situation, on another. He remarks that different people respond to stress in different ways, which is also the reason why some people aren’t affected by what others would deem to be large amounts of stress, while others just need a slight amount of stress to put them into a tailspin.
Eric remarks that stress isn’t an entirely bad thing, noting that “good stress” enables people to grow, such as the stresses people experience when they learn new things, or when they work out in a gym or getting a cold, which only improves a person, but that too much stress overwhelms one’s system, which is what causes problems. PTSD is on the extreme end of the stress spectrum, where people are stuck in a “fight or flight” state which causes the symptoms associated with it, including adverse physiological effects such as high blood pressure.
Eric notes that, while yoga seems to be oriented more towards the physical today, it actually springs from the mental and psychological. He notes that BOOTSTRAP essentially enables people to mind their own humanness, which is the essence of managing the stresses people face in their everyday lives. BOOTSTRAP works on how people can help themselves to recover, and Eric also notes that this is not meant to be the sole source of recovery, as other methods - pharmaceutical, therapy - are also necessary. The process helps people understand the internal patterns of thought and attention that contribute to stress, then use specific techniques to interrupt these patterns to bring oneself back to balance. He gave the example of one of his veteran clients who had been struggling with stress and brain injury for years and who, after only four weeks into the program, had been noticed by his therapist to be more alive, relaxed and different in a positive way, with that veteran remarking that, for the first time, he was in control of his own recovery.
One of Eric’s techniques is called “Mindfulness,” which is based on two parts. The first is focused attention, where one brings one’s attention to what is going on in the present, while the second is to focus one’s attention without judgment, or with acceptance, and gave the example of being mindful while being stuck in traffic.
To people who are stressed out, Eric would tell them that they need to recognize that the greatest source of stress comes from within, due to the way we have learned to respond to our circumstances. He notes that a lot of us blame stress on the outside world, but that our own reactions to the circumstances play a part, and that we should be curious about what goes on within us that exacerbates the stress response.
Eric remarks that, when he started writing the book, he was focused specifically on helping veterans deal with stress. This then developed to helping anyone with chronic stress conditions, then evolved to helping everyone, as everybody deals with stress every day, remarking that, according to the Center of Disease Control, 90% of all first visits to physicians stem from stress, which directly affects the nervous system. He notes that managing one’s humanness in a way that enables us to interact with our circumstances and the world around in a way where we can be productive and positive. He notes that we should pay more attention to what goes on within us the same way we pay attention to our physical bodies, giving the regular brushing of teeth as an example.
