By Dr. Matthew B. James

Last week my eight-year-old son asked if we could watch Deal or No Deal together before going to bed.  I'd never watched the show before but instantly sensed a great parenting opportunity!

When I asked my son why he wanted to watch the show, he said that it would be "cool to win a lot of money."  This led to a discussion about what I teach hundreds of people in my Huna workshops every year: that money needs to be understood before it can be manifested in abundant quantities (Okay, I did simplify it a bit more since he is only 8).

By the end of the show, we had both enjoyed the discussion and he grasped in a very basic way the entire concept. In fact, my son was very concerned for the people who did not know this information.  What I shared with him is a really simple foundation for prosperity and wealth in life -- a simple foundation which can help anyone make more money no matter what the economic climate.

The game show and my son's interest in it brought up an interesting point: in America, we tend to wish for extraordinary abundance rather than focusing on creating it.  All of us have seen shows about the pitfalls of winning vast sums of money.  According to some reports, the majority of lottery winners end up regretting their win.  Huna would explain that this happens because those lottery winners do not fully understand money and prosperity and their relationship to it.

As I explained to my son, to have true wealth and abundance, first, you need to know what money is.  Second, you need to learn about the flow or movement of money which leads to the building of wealth.  And finally, you need to be clear about the role of focus in the creation of wealth.

Plain and simple, money is energy.  It is nothing more, nothing less.  Before the invention of money, societies used a barter system: products and services were exchanged and the exchange "rate" was based on the value of each product or service.  Since it takes time and energy to create a product or fulfill a service, value was largely determined by energy and the energy put into the creation of the product or service and its relative value within the market.  However, societies grew too large to sustain such a complicated system, so various forms of "money" were created to represent this energy exchange.

I often hear students claim that "money is the root of all evil."  But Huna teaches that since we have a physical world, there must be something to learn from it.  Huna also teaches that, since everything flows from a higher source, everything must have a positive purpose for existence.  So how can money or any energy be evil?  Actually, the original admonition was "the love of money is the root of all evil."  This makes more sense because, as Huna and most spiritual paths teach, attachment (in this case, the love of money) to the physical can be an obstacle to heightened spiritual awareness.

Since money is a physical example of energy, we need to learn about energy and the flow of energy.  In my Huna workshops, I'm often asked to define energy (i.e. metaphysical energy) and to explain what it is and how we can work with it, especially related to money.  Historically, western thinking denied the existence of energy and western scientists specifically focused on proving that energy was not real.  Today, modern science acknowledges the existence and importance of energy and increasingly recognizes the connections between energy and matter.  But most of us grew up with little knowledge of energy and how to use it -- though we have all experienced its effects.

Electricity is an example of a manifestation of energy.  Yet even this physical manifestation of energy cannot be seen. If you pull back the insulation on a wire from a lamp, you won't see electricity flowing through the wire to the light bulb. You only know it is present because the bulb is lit – or by the shock you receive when touching the live wire!

Money or prosperity energy flows like an alternating current just as electricity flows in the wire.  When you put time into doing a job, the current of energy flows back in the form of a paycheck.  The greater the task you attempt to complete, the more energy – mental, physical, emotional, creative -- you must put into your work.  This in turn creates more prosperity energy coming back to you.  Therefore, the goal is not to win more money on a game show.  The goal from a Huna perspective is to learn to flow more energy outward to receive more back.

Focus is important in the creation of wealth, but it's important that the focus has accurate aim.  I have been able to work with individuals whose net worth exceeds nine figures.  To a person, they tell me that the focus on money itself produces nothing.  In other words, sitting around and thinking of "ways to make money" tends to produce little results. Instead, my wealthiest clients focus on the creation of a fantastic product or service, which in turn creates the flow of prosperity energy back.

Are we talking about more "effort" outward to create more prosperity energy coming in?  Not exactly.  "Effort" is often tied to "struggle" or "difficulty."  When energy really flows from you, it usually feels exciting, fun, expansive.  Those "nose to the grindstone" efforts often represent a constricted energy flow that produces constricted prosperity energy in return.

One aspect of broadening your prosperity energy pipeline is by broadening your thinking.  Early on in my studies to earn my master’s in business, I learned that the more abstractly you are able to think in business, the more you will get paid.  An accounting clerk may only need to understand the process of accounts payables.  But the CEO of a major corporation must to be able see the broader vision for the company then know how to communicate that vision to others who will implement the specifics.  In Huna, the CEO's mental energy is much broader and more abstract than the accounting clerk.  Therefore, he or she is able to flow a greater amount of energy (as vision and ideas) outward and is compensated with a larger amount of prosperity energy.

A student of mine last summer began to utilize the concepts from Huna in her career.  Within a very short time, her manager recognized her ability to think in a way that would create more business for the company and she was promoted to run the sales division.  She is now working on opening her own company because she sees an even larger vision for her industry.  All of this has created more income – more prosperity energy -- for her.

Is creating a bigger prosperity energy pipeline more difficult in rough economic times?  Yes, and no.  Yes, because many of us succumb to the underlying current of fear that accompanies such times.  This fear (an energy in itself) can dampen our broader vision, our passion, and our creativity.  But in truth, all circumstances have opportunities within them.  Energy flows are never turned off! So whether the economy is "good' or "bad," energy is flowing and you can establish your prosperity energy pipeline.

Knowing that money is energy, that it flows between two sources, that it is a constant no matter what the economy is doing, and that our focus should be on creating an exchange of our mental-emotional-creative-physical energy for prosperity energy has helped many of my students tap into more abundance in their lives.  Knowledge is power, only if you do something with it.

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