1) I am an Enneagram Two and happy to have learned the lessons of being “wellfull” as I fill the well of others.
2) I have a wonderful son who I am very proud of and adore.
3) I am a Daughter of the American Revolution twice and have a famous relative named Admiral Matthew Perry who was also responsible for opening up trade between the United States and Japan. The Shogan book and TV mini-series is based in part on his life.
4) As far back as I can remember I had mystical inclinations and experiences, which I consciously made attempts to understand at age twelve.
5) I also had a keen awareness of the opposite sex early on and still remember the name of my kindgergarten infatuation. When my mom cut my long pony tail and gave me a “bob” I was almost traumatized. Now that I no longer had a pony tail for him to pull on the bus on the way to and from school he lost interest in me. Because of that I have never liked short hair and for the most part have kept it long ever since (though I also feel more feminine with long hair so that plays a role in the decision).
6) When I was in third grade I told my teacher one day I wanted to be a writer.
7) When I was in the 7th grade a wrote a poem called “If Only” about how we need to “take the past and let it be, if only’s never come.” Though I had written the poem in class, my teacher thought I plagiarized it as she could not believe I was capable of writing something like that at such a young age.
In the 8th grade I won a school wide contest, however, and my poem “Life is Like Clockwork” won an award and was published in the yearbook as the theme poem for my 8th grade class.
9) I also was the editor of the 8th grade yearbook and later was involved in the high school newspaper and became the editor there. Because I was trained early on in layout as well as writing, to this day I continue to write everything in Microsoft Publisher because I enjoy formatting my books as I write, something that sometimes makes my publisher a little nuts.
10) In the past I was known to be a very good dancer, which in many ways I still am though I don’t dance much now.
11) I was also once a very good portrait artist and won a few city wide awards for my drawings (though now I mostly draw stick figures at best).
12) Years ago people considered me to have an excellent singing voice. So, I starred in a few musicals, competed at state level, and sang in a band.
13) I was also one of the first singing telegram girls in California in the early 1980’s. Once when I was dressed as Wonder Woman (magic lasso, black wig, boots, cape and all), I was late to my next act and got pulled over for speeding on a freeway. I blurted out to the cop that my invisible plane was broken. Then, I told him I had been in hot pursuit of a criminal in my car. Sadly, I related, having been pulled over now by him the criminal had gotten away. The policeman laughed out loud for some time and then sent me on my way with advice to simply be more careful. Overall, it was a fun job except for the “Birthday Bumbleebee” costume. Too bulky!
14) I was incredibly straight throughout all of my school years and was teased constantly a lot because of it. It was odd to grow up at time where choosing not to smoke, drink, swear, do drugs, sleep around and so forth was considered out of place and made you an oddball worthy of ridicule.
15) I still have never smoked a cigarette, done illegal drugs, almost have never done legal drugs (I don’t even like to take an aspirin for a once in a blue moon headache) and have only drank alcohol three years out of my life (I drink a little wine on a rare occasion). I have also been for years at a time a vegetarian (today I eat some chicken, turkey and fish on occasion now for extra protein).
16) I first came to California in 1982 from Michigan (where I was born and raised) with only $600 to my name and only a hope and a prayer as to how I would survive all alone on my own. I went to California to attend my first graduate school program in Marriage, Family, Child Counseling. For years I learned a lot about what it felt like to have to scrape by and barely make it (at one point I even lived in a gang infested neighborhood in a studio above a garage). These experiences helped me develop compassion and aided me to be a better counselor to my clients during those years (who were mostly runaway teenagers, homeless people, suicidal people, gang kids, sexually and physically abused children), since I had a better understanding of where they were coming from.
17) In 1984 I was on the cutting edge with others helping people become aware of AIDS. I talked about it in the high schools and once ran meditation classes for people struggling with the disease. One of these classes consisted of a group of homosexual men. At first they were highly skeptical of what I might have in common with them and be able to teach them. In another magical moment (like the Wonder Woman one above), I blurted out, “At least we all like men.” They laughed and it created enough of a bond between us that I was invited by them to attend some Louise Hay events on healing. Meeting them and meeting her back then was a special gift.
18) I have had two marriages (that I mention in my Beyond the Secret book). One to a man who provided me with a lifestyle of relative wealth where I would never have had to work another day in my life again. One to a man who was literally a pauper when I met him (though later for a time he became very successful earning up to six figures). So, I have had cycles of a great deal of money and no money at all, which drove my thirst to understand how money and spirituality do — or do not — fit together.
19) Despite all my accomplishments I still have a difficult relationship with my father who has very different views of life than I do and finds what I have done with my life “impractical” and “dumbfounding.” I have finally accepted that we will always be very different. I have posted his photos here on my website mainly because I find them beautiful and because for me they represent his soul, which I admire and can relate to. This is one part of my father that I really love.
20) A few years ago I took what I called a “spiritual sabbatical.” I decided to scale back on what had been years of intense spiritual practice and just “blend in, hang out, and have fun.” Spirit had a different plan in mind for me and before long sent me back to my work writing, teaching, and counseling others. Though I enjoyed the few years of acting as if I had no cares in the world (“Hakuna Matata”), like Simba in The Lion King movie the “monkey” (representing Spirit) came and got me and asked me to go back to my life’s work. Though the break was good at one level, I am glad to be back to my spiritual calling.
21) Though I had written a number of books (self-published by Kinko’s) in the 1990’s, things changed after 2007 when I read the book The Secret. Due to my five years of research on Wealth and Spirituality and pondering the question, “Can you REALLY have it all and still be spiritual?”, I found myself at odds with some of what the book talked about. I sat down and in two weeks wrote The Spiritual Secret. I intended to give it out as a free Ebook. But, a woman I had spoken with wanted to see it in case it might be appropriate as a talk at a conference she ran. I sent it to her the day the Ebook was done. I had no idea she was a literary agent. Within a week I had a book deal and was blessed by having Hampton Roads as my publisher.
22) The name of my book The Spiritual Secret was then changed to The Secret of Spirit and then to Beyond the Secret by Hampton Roads. In some ways I wish my book had a different title because everyone seems to want the Beyond the Secret title. In fact a few other books and now a movie have used that name. I just hope the Beyond the Secret movie done by others isn’t the same old worn out “law of attraction” stuff I challenged in my Beyond the Secret book, which has 20 ways I disagreed with notions stated in The Secret. It would also be interesting to see if that movie reflects ideas in my Beyond the Secret book, since I know some of the people in that movie have read what my book has to say.
23) I still believe that “the greatest secret isn’t knowing how to wish it’s knowing what to wish for” and that if our egos are doing the wishing Spirit will step in and take what we have wished for away from us no matter how hard we use the law of attraction to try to make it different. In fact, I predicted as early as January 2008 that the world would face an economic collapse of some kind as the ego use of the law of attraction based on a notion of consumption over one of contribution could no longer be sustained. And, so it has not even one year after I was stating this.
24) I am actually pleased with the current economic collapse. NOT because the lower and middle classes are suffering. That is dreadful and upsetting. But, because maybe we will finally change our notion of what it means to be a success and change it from “making a million dollars” to “helping a million people.” I am worn out with the current idea that especially the United States culture (and many law of attraction teachers) teach of what it means to be “successful.” Most of it reflects an ego way of living, which as a human race we can no longer sustain. Gratefully, we may finally embrace a saying I have long enjoyed — “live simply so people can simply live.” I also hope as a whole humanity becomes less obsessed with defining success as how much stuff you have (and using the law of attraction along these lines to get it). Instead, I hope we become more concerned with using the Law of Attraction in combination with the Law of Service and the Law of Sacrifice (which I define as joyful giving in my book) in combination with spiritual values to focus mostly on making a contribution to others instead of thinking about how much we can acquire for just ourselves or our immediate friends and family members.
25) One year ago when my book came out I was on over 600 radio stations world-wide and I invited law of attraction people (and my other listeners) to come up with an entirely NEW way of creating our world. By the way, prosperity consciousness doesn’t mean you can have what ever you want. Especially if you are truly spiritual and sense your connection to others I believe you will joyfully want less and not more. And, you will define prosperity as helping the greater whole prosper around you. For some time I have asked that human beings and law of attraction practitioners shift their approach where the emphasis is no longer on attracting stuff for consumption and more on making a contribution using money as a means to help you do so. And, I have urged them to shift from an emphasis on doing (in the form of excessive busy-i-ness and work designed to make you a millionaire so you can get more stuff) to Being (where the focus is on discovering your true essence and in building deeper and more fuliflling relationships with others and all of life around you).
Finally, I have urged the shift from fear to LOVE. I have even written much of the use of the law of attraction is rooted in fear and the idea of lack. To put it simply if you believe you lack something, then you believe you need to attract something. Yet, I find that the more spiritual people become the more they discover how they don’t lack anything since as Spirit they already have it all. (Peace Pilgrim and Ghandi are just two modern day people I admire who represent this approach). So, the law of attraction becomes kind of a mute point because the more your realize “the secret of Spirit” the more you realize if you truly have all you need then there is nothing to attract.
In light of the new economy maybe humanity is finally ready to wake up more and shift the use of law of attraction along more spiritual lines! So, here’s to attracting that new world instead of the one we have created and attracted in the past twenty years where greed is often justified as good. In my humble opinion this approach hasn’t served humanity (or other species on this Earth) very well. Thankfully, change is coming (whether we want it or not) and I look forward to humanity’s spiritual rebirth!
Blessings,
Lisa
Times can be tough in this economy, I know. But, there are still opportunities out there for you that help you build wealth doing something you love.
Posted by doctorlisalove 
Posted by doctorlisalove 
Posted by doctorlisalove 