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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN This chapter is about how I organize for others and how I recommend people organizing for me handle their functions. These are my own specific attitudes, ideas that have worked well, but I recognize that other leaders have other needs and other procedures. Essentially, what I do ask is very simple: After I tell an organizer I'll be able to do a workshop on particular dates, I usually make my travel arrangements and pay for my travel costs myself, and we agree that she will repay the portion of my transportation costs we agree upon (it depends on how many other trainings I'll be doing in the reasonable vicinity on a tour), she'll provide my lodging (usually a room in the home of either my organizer or someone attending the workshop), and she'll pay me 50 percent of the fees collected from the fully-paying trainees plus whatever I negotiate from anyone paying less than full fee. The remainder is her profit. Long before the organizer knows how many people actually are committed to attend the workshop, she is able to know what my travel costs will be. She can then set limits for the cost of the venue and for costs of advertising and recruitment so that she is likely to make at least a reasonable profit from the number likely to attend. When an organizer is just starting out organizing and is worried about how much money she's investing and what the likely return is going to be, I suggest she keep her scarcity consciousness limited by keeping costs limited and sensible and safe. I point out that almost anybody can get at least one person to come to a training. And she'll be attending as well. So, if she keeps the cost of the venue below the amount of her half of one person's attendance fee and she keeps the costs of promotion to the same amount, she only needs to generate my travel costs to be even. Since that's an amount she knows in advance, she can easily target in on how many people she wants and needs to attend. Once she has commitments from that number, she can expand if she wants and find a larger venue or spend more on further promotion. Sometimes my organizers have been remarkably proficient at getting immense groups to attend meetings, well in the hundreds. Sometimes even previously highly successful organizers have only brought a handful of people to a workshop. Apparently, consciousness determines what will happen-scarcity or abundance. The areas she can easily economize in are the costs of the venue and the money spent on promoting the workshop; these are costs which the organizer controls. And aside from some negative consideration like snobbishness, they are costs she can keep most modest, so far as my desires go. It's funny how scarcity thoughts reveal themselves. For example, sometimes, to reduce the tension an organizer may be feeling about her costs, she asks me to buy a non-refundable, non-exchangeable ticket because such tickets are immensely much cheaper than ones that can be returned for a full refund, but I prefer air tickets that are changeable and refundable if canceled. The total ticket cost may be higher, but the flexibility is worth it. Several times, buying the unreturnable ticket has led to increased tensions. In any case, if the ticket cannot be exchanged or refunded, or if my itinerary for a tour is established and can't be changed, I suggest we continue and see what the universe will provide. I usually make time to exchange Rebirths with my organizers wherever I travel. That, of course, is without charge, without any exchange of money, just as our way of showing each other that we love each other. If there isn't time for both of us to get Rebirthed, I've been willing to sacrifice my opportunity to get Rebirthed by my organizer to make certain there is at least time for me to Rebirth her. I do my best to mitigate any loss my organizer seems to be facing if not enough people seem likely to attend the workshop. I like to do all the following, anyhow, just to help promote all my events: Generally, if twenty or thirty people come to a party like that, I can usually stimulate at least a half dozen to come to the workshop. This approach always works very well for the organizer, who still gets her half of everyone I recruit. Another effort that I've made that has been successful in pulling a profit out for the organizer has been to give impromptu evening talks in a school auditorium or church meeting hall. Generally, a few people attending the inexpensive or free talk become interested in attending a weekend or week-long workshop. For example, following a lightly attended Sydney workshop I will talk more about shortly, I traveled to four or five cities along the Sunshine Coast, giving evening talks to twenty to thirty people who came after only a day or two phone notice given by local chiropractors, midwives, childbirth nurses, and physicians. Following each evening, three or four people asked to join the weekend residential training scheduled for the following weekend. Ultimately sixty-two people attended the weekend training that had, on my arrival in Australia the week earlier, only had my two organizers signed up for! From a total financial disaster, we moved into great abundance! And in all situations, whatever is happening can be used to clear the mind of negative considerations-mine or my organizers. For example, the first time I traveled to Sydney, Australia, the ticket had to be bought at considerable cost because the arrangements were decided almost at the last minute. My organizer assured me she would have a large group for me, even with only two weeks advance notice. I arrived to find only one person besides my organizer attending an introductory evening meeting in a hall that seats 200! That one person wanted to attend the upcoming weekend workshop, but she could only pay a very greatly reduced fee. She also had a friend who wanted to attend, but who couldn't pay at all. With my organizer, we four were the weekend workshop! In the past, I had led the biggest week-long training in the history of Rebirthing (495 fully paying trainees!) and had myself organized the biggest training Leonard ever led (143). So I knew I was open to leading record-breaking large groups and receiving immensely large remuneration. My usual workshop averaged between twenty and sixty people. As I pondered over why our collective consciousness had only managed to materialize these three people for my workshop, I suddenly saw clearly that the number is always perfect. What seems to be most important in determining the number attending a workshop I'm leading is the fact that I'm there to help each trainee handle his specific case. I'm not there to make a fortune off of Rebirthing, although that's nice and I enjoy it when I do. I'm there to help each individual attending attain the goals they have set for themselves. I usually have around sixty people in a workshop. Very few workshops have had less than 20. When the group is this size it seems to be mainly people who are "easy" cases, so I have always managed to give each of them sufficient individual time during each of the seminars to handle their cases. But occasionally, a workshop is very small, like the one in Sydney. When only a small group attends, it's because each person in the group needs extensive attention in order to get off some old negative. I believe that if any small group I've ever led were to have been any larger, I probably wouldn't have been able to put out the effort and time required to help every person attending be satisfied and transformed. On two occasions, both in Los Angeles, where I'm my own organizer, I only had one person attending a workshop. In one instance, I had even set that particular date for the workshop after people from six different cities all over the USA had asked me to hold one that weekend because it was the only time they could come to LA to do a training with me. Yet, not a one of them appeared! But someone else quite unexpected did, also from out of town. As in the other situation when only one person arrived to attend my LA workshop, I suggested she move into my guest bedroom and we spent the weekend together. On both occasions, I spent the same amount of time with just that one person that I would otherwise have spent with a larger group; 7:00 P.M. to 10:00 P.M. on Friday evening, 10:00 A.M. to 10:00 P.M. on Saturday, and 10:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. on Sunday.
Another insight that I realized at the beginning of my stay in Australia is that, unlike a lot of other people, the money I make from individual Rebirths and from leading Rebirthing workshops or seminars doesn't determine my lifestyle. I make enough money from my pension for teaching college for twenty-six years to live on, the way I want to. So I can come to a small training of "hard cases" and feel free of the need to have made more money from it than I have. My money picture also enables me to be generous with people who want to be trainees, but who can't pay much. I don't need to convince them to pay the full fee. I only do try to do that when I believe the person does have the money to spend, but is trying to get out of that responsibility. Generally speaking, as my own money picture gets clearer and clearer, and I find myself having fewer and fewer negatives about money, I find most of the people coming to my workshops able and happy to pay the full fee. Most of my organizers have now also developed an abundance consciousness, so they usually manage to attract people who can afford to and are happy to pay the full fee. In the USA, I currently ask that each trainee pay $260 for a weekend workshop and $300 for a week-long Monday through Friday workshop. Outside of the USA, I leave the decision of how much a reasonable fee for that country is up to my foreign organizer. She knows more about what's appropriate in her economy that I do. When I visit another city or country to do workshops, it's more like taking residence than being a tourist. I get to live in a "real" home and live the way my organizer lives. And, although I'm not taking a vacation when I travel to other countries, I always set aside a little time to go to tourist attractions like castles and palaces and museums, and that compensates as well. So even if I'm not making much money sometimes, I'm always benefiting. I feel compensated by having the opportunity to meet people and share their everyday lives, in the context of their country. Sometimes the price set for the workshop is very low because of a particular country's economy, so I can't make very much money even with a very large attendance. In such situations, I do my best to help my foreign organizer change her money thoughts, so she asks for a higher enough fee the next time. Then we'll all be satisfied with the money itself. I have always told my organizer that I want to be involved in all final negotiations with anyone paying less than the full fee, unless all reductions come from the organizer's half. If she wants to let friends or relatives she cares about deeply come to the event paying only my half of the fee because she thinks she serves them well that way, that's fine with me. In that case, I still receive my half, and she's in the position of being generous, giving away her half. I don't ask to be included in such decisions. My organizer and I usually handle requests for a reduction from other people by talking together for a few minutes just before the start of the event. I'm willing to negotiate with anyone who is poor and who, I think, will benefit from the training. Generally speaking, if I have enough fully-paying people already signed up so that I feel good about how much money I'm going to be making for the time I'm spending on the workshop, I have no hesitation about letting others join the training at a reduced or even no fee. My next-to-"worst" ratio on this, by the way, was 20:1, where twenty-one people attended a workshop at my house in LA, and only one person paid the full fee, which at that time was $200. Many of the other people attending were people who had taken a workshop previously, and in those days I didn't ask repeaters to pay to repeat the training. A few others were so down-and-out that I felt they really needed to try to get their money cases together by plugging into and undoing their old money negatives, based on the scarcity consciousness which they had established at birth. When George, the one person who had paid, asked why he was the only one paying, I replied,
"Because you're the only one in this group who has his money together enough to be able to pay." Unless my organizer agrees, I don't ask her to sacrifice her portion. I learned how important this is when I first organized for Leonard, shortly after I first started organizing for other Rebirthers. Leonard announced that anyone wanting to negotiate about the fee needed to speak with him. Almost every one of the 143 people attending lined up. Leonard said he didn't want anyone paying him for the training after the end of the week. He said he wanted the psychic umbilical cord cut, not hanging on, still attached. So, if anyone asked to pay later, Leonard told him to just come free. In a matter of a couple of hours spent interviewing these many people, Leonard gave away the entire training free to 128! Not only his half, but mine as well! That was my worst ratio of payers to non-payers. I didn't think Leonard was "wrong" not to ask my agreement as he gave away my part of the fee, but I was disappointed about making so little. I had a sudden insight on the fourth day of the training, when Louis, my friend and helper, pointed out to me that I had paid for so much printing of materials that Leonard wanted distributed free to everyone in the workshop that my half of the fees collected from the fifteen people who were paying had all been used up. So, I wasn't going to be making any money having this circus in my home! That morning the training didn't start on time. Everyone was waiting for Leonard to get out of the bathtub in my guest cottage behind my house where he was Rebirthing himself. I waited upstairs in my sitting room, crying at first, then concentrating on what I was hurting about. In a flash, I realized what was wrong. So I went downstairs, jumped into the center of the circle and said I wanted to make an announcement. I said, "I'm sure that Leonard's thoughts are spiritually higher than mine and I certainly agree with him that anyone who wants to take a Rebirth training should be allowed to. I also agree that it was very good of him to tell people he didn't want them owing him for the training, that when he left for San Diego at the end of the week, he didn't want anyone to feel obligated to send him any money." "But I'm staying here, and I want you all to know that I'm open to receiving my half of the fee from any of you who can pay me later on. Right now, I've only received one half of whatever has been paid by the fifteen of you who have paid anything at all. And I've had to spend all that on printing costs for the papers you've received free. So if anyone wants to pay me, I'll be happy to accept it." The group seemed amazed that so few were paying. After a few minutes of buzzing about that, one person said he would be happy to pay me on Monday, but he wanted to be certain that I didn't plan on splitting whatever he paid with Leonard. I replied that Leonard had given away my half of the fees when he had told 128 of them they didn't need to pay if they couldn't pay by Friday, and that I had already paid him his half of the fifteen who had paid within his time limit. Since he had made his decisions unilaterally, I felt entitled to make my decision unilaterally, too, and I didn't intend to collect any more for him. In the two weeks afterwards, I received my full half from about 10 people, so that at least I not only cleared the costs of all the printing Leonard had had me give free to everyone attending, but I even had enough left over to cover the phone bill when it came in with over $200 worth of long distance calls placed by trainees, without my knowledge or permission. (For several years afterwards, whenever I organized a workshop for any other Rebirther in my home, I kept the downstairs phones locked so only incoming calls could be received. Fortunately, as I worked on my money case, that people never take more than they give back, that problem evaporated. Also, I mainly stopped organizing for others, so strangers with no personal connection to me weren't in my home.) I know that would be
"good business" in the realistic world, but I don't think it makes sense in a world where consciousness dictates results. So I don't need to worry about scarcity. I don't need to dictate how reality will organize itself. Once I recognized that I'm here to handle the hard cases, I no longer needed to feel bad when a group was less than a dozen. I stopped worrying that the reason a group might be small was that I was running some old number like, "I really want to be rejected and humiliated and mortified over not making any money and not attracting many people." Many people who plan to exist on the income they make organizing Rebirth trainings have had conflicts about my attitude. They say, "All I have to sell is my time and I have to make enough money from that time to make it `worthwhile' for me." My reply is, "Enough for what?" "'You've covered my transportation and lodging and your other costs, so you're not out any money. And in exchange for your time and effort, you're having a great opportunity to learn a valuable lesson, free, about whatever negative considerations have prevented you from creating a large, lucrative workshop filled with easy, loving, fun-filled, practiced Rebirthers." As I see it, an organizer always benefits from organizing no matter how large or small a group she brings in. Certainly I have always learned something of immense value every time I've organized. I lost $200 several times, but I got the training free and learned. If I hadn't been the organizer, I would gladly have paid the tuition to attend, and that was usually $200. So it all evened out. I know organizers, very successful ones, who spend weeks in advance of a workshop writing affirmations like, "I am now open to having fifty fully-paid trainees at this workshop." They believe that by establishing their aims in this very definite affirmative fashion, they are doing something good for their consciousness, raising it and simultaneously controlling reality. And, of course, they do more than just write affirmations: They phone, they help people they solicit clear up their negatives about attending. My aim is to let go all expectations, all limitations on my own consciousness and, therefore, on whatever it produces.
Sometimes, I have very large groups where almost everyone is really open to the Rebirthing philosophy and practice, except for a few people who aren't. Those few, instead, are really stuck in their negatives and their interpretations of Rebirthing ideas. When that's happening, I believe I wouldn't have been able to have handled these few people without the aid of the entire group. I needed the psychic and real help of everyone else in the group to deal successfully with those few 'hard case" people's problem. An example is what happened in the case of a fellow at a very large workshop in England, with over fifty trainees. Apparently he didn't wash or change his clothes. Several people complained to me that he smelled very bad and they didn't want to sit next to him. I steadfastly tried to resist automatically falling into the role of good mother, ready to do anything to save her little children from discomfort. I suggested each of them needed to deal with the situation directly by talking about it with him. But each chose simply to sit elsewhere, instead. I waited to see what was going to happen. Finally, on the fourth day of the workshop when we were talking about sex and love, the smelly fellow spoke up, complaining, "'m a virgin. I know how to strike up a conversation with a girl and I know that I'm nice-looking and interesting and she's attracted to me. But somehow or other when we start to get close, she backs away and she won't have anything to do with me. I think it must have something to do with something I do I'm not aware of." I remarked, "It's more likely something you don't do-like take a bath or change your clothes. Several members of the group have told me you smell bad and they don't want to be near you." The whole room sat in stunned silence at first, and then a few giggled. I was surprised by his reaction. He explained that he thought that keeping clean and ordinarily attractive would be trying to earn love, and he believed love should be given freely and unconditionally. Then he focused his negatives on the idea that the group had failed him. "Anyhow, why aren't people honest? They should tell me if I'm offensive." I tried to move him away from that position, but even a half hour of vigorous argument didn't bear results. He insisted unconditional meant unconditional and politeness was dishonest. Finally, an older man said, in a strong brogue, "For Heaven's sake, mon, ye're not a wee little bairn that needs to be taken by the hand to the bath. Grow up and stop making it difficult for people to like you. They'll never love you unconditionally if you stink so much they never want to get near you." That got through to him. The discussion ended right then as that fellow, as well as two others, left the meeting, without saying anything. I thought the three of them were offended and hurt, and I worried they wouldn't come back. But within an hour, all three returned, with still-wet, newly-shampooed hair, bathed bodies, and clean clothes! We took a break so everyone in the group could hug these three. The next morning, another member of the training who kept clean but who looked unkempt appeared with his previously scraggly beard shaved off completely and his long, unkempt hair trimmed to above his ears. No one even recognized him! Getting back to the issue of letting people attend trainings without paying, I operate the way I do because I want to develop within myself and others the highest spiritual concepts. The concept of service, free of the mundane necessity of getting paid for providing that service, is a purer and higher spiritual concept, I believe, than one which is attached to getting paid. Mind you, I'm not saying that a person doing spiritual work, which Rebirthing certainly is, shouldn't receive pay. Of course not! I deserve to be paid for my services. And my organizer deserves to make a profit, too. But I don't want to be in the bind of rationalizing my pressuring someone who wants to receive my services into forking up the money for them by claiming that I need to be paid. Or by rigidly refusing to allow anyone to attend unless the full fee is paid because I say they will always find the money if they really want to attend. Need is no justification. Not mine. Nor the trainee's. In this connection, I'm reminded of a fellow from
"Down Under" who felt he truly needed to attend a workshop in the USA run by another Rebirther I love very much who almost never allows anyone to attend without paying the full fee. In addition to the tuition for the workshop, he needed money for his overseas travel to the workshop. He didn't have it because he spent his fairly low wages as soon as he was paid. He couldn't attend the workshop without paying for it. So he
"needed" to get the money from other people. He told me he was operating with the concept that no one is ever a victim; he believed that everyone who had loaned him money wouldn't be hurt if he didn't pay it back. After all, they all knew him. They knew he was fairly incompetent at making a living for himself. So they must have known that he wasn't intending to pay them back. His belief was that if people were willing to loan him money in the face of everything they knew about him, surely it was his duty to take the money from them. A thief's logic. This is just another manifestation of scarcity consciousness. In essence, his belief is, "I don't have enough. I can't get enough unless I con other people into providing for me." There's no difference between that rationalization and the one every psychopath in the world has used to justify harming someone else in order to avoid working to get what someone else has and he seeks to take. In any case, I'm open to making accommodations, so long as I'm not encouraging people to be lazy, stingy, etc. As I've mentioned previously, many people go into Rebirthing because it looks like an easy way to make money. You don't do anything. Your job is essentially effortless. You don't have to lift heavy loads or deal with dangerous machinery. It's clean. You don't need any special equipment or even a special place-you can Rebirth anywhere, indoors or out. You don't even need to have much training. All you have to do is convince someone to pay you to sit watching him breathe. In essence, Rebirthing seems like an ideal job for someone who can't or won't do much work, in conventional terms. It appeals to people who have not succeeded in other endeavors because it seems easy to learn and to do. Many of these people are
"broke." I usually say, "Okay, let them have it. It can't hurt me to give it to them and it won't hurt them to get it free. And I'd sooner have them come free than coaxing or conning their friends and relatives out of the money to pay me." But organizers sometimes argue, "If they get it for nothing, it won't have any value at all. They won't think it's worth anything. You should make them pay. You shouldn't give anything away." I don't agree. I don't want these "takers" in my world, so I'm open to helping them become "givers" instead. I believe that attitude of not letting anyone come to a training free rests on several negatives and limiting thoughts (besides greed on the part of the trainer or the organizers). One is that people who can afford to pay are coming to meet and be with people like themselves. They won't come to a workshop if they know there are going to be people at it who don't pay; they don't want to be around "bums'' or "losers." In addition to the obvious lack of compassion in such an attitude, I don't like it because I'm not running a group for people to practice the social dating-game routine in. I'm running a Rebirth training to help people get rid of whatever is keeping them from loving everybody. I want them to know that everyone is a divine creature of God. Everyone is totally loveable. External considerations like how people dress, what job they have, how much education they have, and whether or not they can "do you some good" in your business are not the considerations I want coming up when someone is thinking about attending one of my workshops. I'm willing to have déclassé people in my workshops. It makes for interest and excitement and fun. I don't want a homogeneous group of yuppies coming because consciousness-raising is a current fad-and because they hope they'll meet someone in the group they can start dating. I want people to come because they're serious about knowing God and getting as close to God Consciousness as they possibly can. Another reason for not wanting a homogeneous group of yuppies or a group of wealthy wives of any such similar group of people all paying the full fee, is that people in such workshops simply truly cannot see themselves; they're always looking in the same clouded mirror. Unless they are challenged by other viewpoints, they may simply support each other in their neuroses. Very often, it's because I have an extremely heterogeneous group of people-yes, even including bums and losers-that certain problems can be aired and shared. After all, there's nothing like having a perfect bad example right there with you in the workshop so you can see clearly the dimensions, the shape, the coloration of your own craziness. So, I don't put any limitations on who may attend, and I make certain my organizers understand and agree. We don't struggle to exclude people who can't pay the full fee. About every third workshop, on average, people ask if they can bring children. I say, yes. Even very young children are fine. I once had a workshop in the Netherlands with sixteen adults and twenty-three children! It was an excellent week for all of us. Nurslings and toddlers are generally no disruption at all. People also ask if there's an upper age limit. No-I've had people well into their eighties at workshops, and not only have they benefited, but so have all the other people in the group. I'm sure the anti-old-folk attitude prevalent in some Rebirthers back in the late 70s rests on a lot of PDS. Occasionally, I've noticed that some young Rebirthers still have a prejudice against older people. The sooner I let go an old negative, the sooner I arrive at bliss. Besides the questions of how many attend and who, the organizer also has to deal with establishing the venue for the workshop. Many Rebirthing trainers demand to work in hotel conference rooms which may cost their organizers a great deal. Perhaps they believe that by setting such high standards for the venue, they can predictably attract the fancy clientele they want to work with. My previous comments apply. Usually, I urge my organizers to think in homely terms about the venue, rather than hiring a venue at large cost. I think organizers are better off not setting such hurdles for themselves. I urge my organizers to make it easy for themselves to develop the workshops profitably. I suggest they locate several venues: the home of one of the attendees if the group is very small, an inexpensive meeting room at some place like a church, library, or bank for a group of fifteen to twenty, and a large and generally expensive conference room in a hotel or school only once they have received deposits from a larger group. The great thing about all this is that if an unexpectedly large group shows up, there's almost no trouble accommodating the group. Even if a hotel conference room hasn't been booked, other large venues can be tentatively engaged. In one city where the hotels were closed because the tourist season was over, and where fifty people "unexpectedly" showed up in addition to the six that had committed in advance for the weekend, we ended up moving the furniture out of a suite of rooms used as a clinic during the week by one of the trainees, and that worked very well. Sometimes organizers operate with the same lazy, negative attitudes as the ones held by people seeking freebies. What they may call "Trust in the Universe" is probably a great excuse for expecting something for nothing or becoming lost in highly unrealistic expectations. Back in 1981, one organizer rented an extremely expensive, immense hotel conference room, mailed two thousand engraved invitations to local psychologists and psychiatrists (who tend not to go to non-medical conferences), and ordered a fruit buffet for 200 laid on for the first morning. He chose that hotel and that room and that buffet because he knew they were used by a very successful "motivator" who always commanded huge audiences for lectures. I think he thought that just making grandiose plans would be enough for them to be realized. He forgot to take care of his negatives toward doing the work of contacting each of the strangers he had invited and trying to convince them to come. He never even phoned the people on his mailing list to confirm that anyone at all was going to accept his "invitation" to pay $200 to learn about something they had never even heard of from some woman named Eve Jones whom they didn't know either. A dozen people attended, almost all of them friends of mine, and there wasn't a single "shrink" among them. He ended up going over $2,000 in the hole simply because of the cost of the room and the buffet. What a price to pay to learn to be less grandiose. . . Residential trainings afford a really marvelous opportunity for carrying on the workshop for long hours, arriving at an intensity of sharing that is extremely productive for everyone concerned. Even though it's more expensive to go away to some resort area or retreat area for the workshop rather than staying in the big city, it's well worth it because of the added value received. If necessary and possible because they live nearby, it's all right with me if a few people come to a residential training and don't stay in residence. In England, for example, where distances are so small, many times I've had several people join a residential workshop as day students, leaving at the end of the evening session to return to their homes, thereby saving the costs of rooms. In residential trainings, though, I still expect everyone to be together for meals. So far as my lodging goes, I ask my organizer to be sure I have a bed in a pleasant, clean room, alone, with a toilet nearby. It's easiest if she has room for me in her place. If not, I suggest she find someone in the training who will exchange accommodations for me for receiving a reduction of a portion of the training fee. Only as a last resort do I suggest a hotel since putting me up in a hotel costs her more than finding me a place in someone's home, and thereby increases the pressures on her scarcity consciousness, If, instead, I find when I get to the workshop that I've got unbearably uncomfortable accommodations, I know that I'm running some old birth number again-it's up to me to learn my lesson and do something about such negative thoughts. I don't have to tolerate difficult conditions more than one night. Whenever I have sought to make rooming changes, very positive results have occurred. For example, one night I found myself being given a sleeping bag in which to sleep on the cold, dirt cellar floor in a house which had no heating anyhow. The toilets and bathrooms were three floors up-a very long trek to make in the middle of the dark night, especially since I didn't know my way around the house at all. The next day at the workshop, I simply asked, "Is there anyone here who has a warm place for me to stay? I'm not used to sleeping through a cold night and the room I now have doesn't have any heating." I was promptly offered a beautiful warm suite of rooms by one of the workshop attendees, and that was that. My consciousness changed my universe because I changed my consciousness about the universe. And I once again confirmed that the universe always provides for me when I ask. Had I told my organizer in advance that I must be given a room with an adjoining bath and toilet, if I had stipulated how I wanted my needs and desires met, I would never have learned the particular lessons I was able to learn through these circumstances. For similar reasons, I'm not awfully interested in dictating the behavior of my organizer (or anybody else, for that matter), so I don't ask my organizer to wear certain kinds of clothes other than clean-and-neat ones. I'm not out to impress anyone with my stagecraft. I want my organizer to feel comfortable, coping with a minimum of pressures, especially the worry that she's investing in something that might not pay off. I know that if I don't make requirements about the venue, if I don't ask for flowers or a certain type of music at a certain time or a certain kind of refreshment for me at certain times, if, in short, I don't act like a prima donna, whatever does appear is usually even better than whatever I might have demanded. As I said earlier, I like being surprised. And the universe surprises me pleasantly frequently. Every workshop or lecture I have ever led anyplace has been a great, positive adventure. The only other necessary expense for the organizer, beyond my travel, lodging, and the venue, is the cost of recruiting attendees. Many organizers think of recruitment in terms of large-scale advertising to the general public. Like the costs of the venue, high costs of advertising may not be justified by increased attendance. The easiest and least expensive is if the organizer contacts only people she knows, preferably people she has Rebirthed. She already has total creditability with them, so if she tells them she thinks they will gain a great deal from attending my workshop which she is organizing, they are very likely to attend. Writing to clients, then phoning, is generally extremely inexpensive, and is likely to bring very high returns. I usually send out an announcement about a coming workshop to everyone I've Rebirthed in the past year, including everyone who has attended any workshops, as well as to everyone who has inquired about Rebirthing in the past year. I usually keep my costs for postage and for printing to well below $100. I try to keep the announcement sincere and clear, rather than attempting to construct a flashy, commercial announcement. Lately, I have been printing the notices on 4" x 6" card stock, rather than on letter-size paper. The card is mainly a brief announcement of the program schedule and place, telling the recipient to phone for further information about price and about what to bring. Cards are easier to mail since they don't need to be folded and sealed, and they each cost 12Š less than letters to mail. More importantly, they are easily scanned and are more noticeable. I always send a page of information to everyone who responds to the initial notice. This contains a brief program detailing which topics will be handled and when, and when the Rebirths will be conducted. It also tells what each trainee needs to bring along: a sleeping bag or blanket and pillow for the Rebirths, a sack lunch for each day (for I don't want meals to interfere with the flow of the workshop itself, if we're not in a residential setting where we all eat together anyhow), and tissues, snacks, and anything else they think they may need to be comfortable. I also include a special notice that I would prefer it if no one wears scented aftershave or perfume, etc. I like to smell fresh unscented air, whenever possible. Many Rebirthing organizers publish their notices of a coming workshop in New Age newspapers, magazines, or newsletters that are distributed to a select mailing list by a particular organization. Full page ads in Breathe, the quarterly publication of the British Rebirthers Society, have been very productive for several of my organizers, for example, and are very reasonably priced. Sometimes organizers have spent very large amounts of money on ads in general circulation big city newspapers. If my organizer is part of an entity that advertises in newspapers frequently, and I'm only one of the events that that organization is sponsoring, the cost of the ad is averaged out over all the events, and the cost of the ad would be being borne by my organizer even if my event weren't scheduled. So such ads are free of scarcity considerations, and are usually quite successful. However, my experience is that, unless my organizer advertises in a general circulation publication continually, once a week, for example, all year long, a single advertisement in a major newspaper for a special event usually doesn't seem to do more than, at best, pay for itself, in terms of trainees recruited. Organizers do best, I believe, to concentrate lots of effort on arranging newspaper, radio, and TV interviews for the time I'm in town before a workshop begins. I am absolutely believable because I tell the truth, and that comes across easily in interviews. So they have always been very successful in drawing people to talks and workshops. I advise organizers to make every effort to arrange interviews of me by reporters for the local general circulation newspapers. Such stories have always elicited a very good response. I typically invite the reporter to attend the workshop free, so he can add a follow-up story afterwards. People often save the clippings and phone for appointments months later, so my organizers always benefit from such stories. As mentioned before, local organizers always increase their clientele sizably when I come to their towns, especially if I appear on local TV or radio. In Auckland, for example, my organizer arranged appointments for individual Rebirths with close to two dozen new clients following just one ten-minute noontime radio interview I gave the day I left. There, as elsewhere, people phoning the station for information about Rebirthing were referred to the local Rebirthing organizer, and, in the course of her initial conversation with each caller, she converted their inquiries into appointments for sessions. So, the broadcast media work-and they're free. They may be a hassle to arrange, but they're always productive. That's all of it-that's what the organizer needs to do to be successful. With only two exceptions out of many organizers for hundreds of workshops and lectures, my organizers have always been regular members of the regular workshop group activities, attending all the group meetings. I want my organizers to take care of matters like collection of fees or assignment of rooms outside of the group meetings. I don't want them leaving the group for anything, including handling meal preparations or clean-ups. When that hasn't been possible, I've usually made such Karma Yoga a group activity, so it gets done fast and so we're still together. Getting the payoff for lectures or workshops, especially outside the USA, has also, of course, brought up different facets of my own money case, changing almost every time. At first, the issue was in connection with my sense of worth and that of my organizers in relation to the number of people who paid to come to one of my events. Everything was fine whenever huge numbers of people came to everything I did-my organizers were pleased with me and I loved having them feel good. We eagerly made plans for additional lectures and workshops the next time, on my return trip. We all believed the "proof was in the pudding," so we must all have let go lots of money negatives and handled our money cases successfully-otherwise my events wouldn't have been so successful. Occasionally, however, the universe provided for our higher spiritual good by arranging the worst winter storms in recorded history, for example, or a transit shutdown, or some other barrier to good attendance. At such times, a lot of PDS re money is brought up-eventually to be breathed away. A low attendance simply gave my organizers and me plenty of time to go through our money stuff. By the way, some of the highest moments of my life have occurred in connection with receiving my share of the tuition from workshops that I've led. As the years have gone by, I've become more and more comfortable about being open about dealing with my money issues in the group. In fact, for the past few years, I have even made a small public ceremony of receiving my share of the receipts, using it as an example of one of the many enjoyable aspects of running a Rebirthing business. This has led to a series of funny happenings, each one an advance, spiritually, over the previous one, each one a "teaching," each one bringing up different negatives. Initially, through the first seven or eight years of leading workshops, I waited until the workshop was over to meet with my organizer to receive my share privately. I generally took the cash or checks without looking at them, and never even checked payments against the names of the people attending. I felt it would be insulting to check the payments and count the cash in front of my organizer. So far as I know, my organizers were always honest. Of course, I always counted the money and made a note of the amount received immediately upon returning to my room, so that I had good records for my dear Internal Revenue Service. Whenever I sold someone a book, tape, deck of affirmation cards or whatever else I was providing for sale to people attending the meeting, I immediately wrote down the amount received and the item sold. I always tried to be present and conscious about money, and my system worked well, I thought. We had an extremely interesting discussion in front of the huge group. It was recorded and is almost comical to listen to, especially as several people in the audience ran up to give me money, but refused to give it to him. Anyhow, his failure to count his change taught me that my way of "trustingly" handling receiving the money from my organizer was actually a way I was using to stay unconscious about money. I realized that my organizer deserved the attention and respect involved in actually counting out the money as it was received by me. I felt this was progress, an indication that I had let go some of my unconscious negative belief that there must be something "wrong" about money. Making public receiving my payoff came about shortly after, as I realized that keeping this a private transaction was also, somehow, connected to some negative thought about money. I realized, further, another way that I was neglecting to have a fully sensible attitude toward my money when one day I received my payoff during the group meeting. It was counted into my hand, I carefully wrote down the amount, and then, as usual, I put everything into my knitting bag under a chair, not to be looked at again until I returned to my lodgings many hours later. Imagine my shock when I realized that several thousand dollars were not in the knitting bag! At first I thought that I was making the error because that country's currency was unfamiliar. So, I spent a good hour re-counting the money that still was in my bag before I truly grasped that the money was missing. Then I spent more time kicking myself as I wondered who in the workshop could possibly have stolen from me. I finally had enough sense to phone my organizer. It was then I learned that she had indeed counted out my proper amount, but in putting a rubber band around it as she took the pile from my hand, she had deftly taken back money so she could pay her personal bills! Eventually, of course, she did send me the full amount. But the whole hassle of my worrying about having been stolen from needn't have happened if I had made a practice of taking better care of my money. Also, she would have had time to find a better way to deal with her money problems. So from then on, I not only made a public ceremony of receiving my money, but I kept my hands on it and immediately excused myself to go lock it up safely. I think the biggest problem new organizers have is simply the negatives they have about asking for the money, especially if most of their community hasn't yet heard much or anything about Rebirthing. He had arranged for me to give a lecture that evening, and a very large crowed showed up, although, in accordance with Spanish custom, most of the people didn't arrive until close to midnight! I finally stopped my talk and discussion at 3:00 AM.! Then, after almost everyone left, I spoke to him as he was seated at his desk, counting the names of the people who had signed the attendance list. I said, "Well, that was certainly successful. You must have taken in at least a few hundred dollars, even if you only charged $3 a person." That was when I learned what his biggest problem about getting money really was: He hadn't charged for admission! So that taught me to ask, up front, what an organizer is charging for an event. And it gave me a valuable story to tell at workshops when we talk about running a Rebirthing business. I remind everyone that the first thing they have to do if they want to handle their money problems is very simple: Ask for it! I wish that every Rebirthing organizer would organize for me, and that all my previous organizers were still organizing for me. In some cases, they stopped because they made so much money from my workshops that they moved away from their home countries and are living out their life dreams elsewhere. Several former organizers have become workshop leaders themselves or they have become exclusive organizers for another Rebirther or someone in the LRT or in Vivation. In some cases, though, I have lost an organizer who was disappointed because not many people attended a particular workshop. A few organizers have even come close to failing to break even on their expenses (in addition to the "fruit buffet" fellow mentioned earlier). When I learn that my organizer isn't making a profit, I do my best to mitigate the situation. First of all, instead of tithing to whoever or whatever I was planning to tithe to, I give that 10 percent to the organizer. In almost every case, that has been enough for the organizer to turn a profit, albeit a small one. To me it seems quite obvious that unless she has done something highly unusual, my organizer is bound to at least clear her costs. When an organizer claims to be losing money, I sometimes find she has charged as "event costs" items that are part of her "cost of doing business" or performing her usual duties. For example, one organizer typed out the workshop notices on her own computer and then handled the mailing. But then she charged, as part of the event costs, a portion of the capital cost of the computer, and she also charged for her time as a typist, and as a folder, stamper, and mail-box depositor. In effect, she had already been paid, at least on paper, for doing what organizers usually do for their portion of the receipts. In such a situation, of course she's not going to make any money being an organizer because she's putting herself out as a typist or general office help. I said to her, "Do you expect to get paid for typing though you're really an organizer? I guarantee you'll make your typing wages-but you'll go broke as an organizer. It's as if you've closed the door on your open account with the universe. Scarcity! Do the scud work free, leaving yourself open to receiving an abundance as an organizer." Another example of what happens with scarcity consciousness is when people who send out regular newsletters from their organization have then apportioned a certain amount of the cost of that regular newspaper as a cost of advertising a workshop that they were organizing for me. That doesn't work, for essentially the same reason. Instead of being organizers, essentially they're hiring themselves out as printers, as newsletter circulators, as typists, as computer owners, as telephone message makers, as letter folders and sealers. All of that is a legitimate part of being an organizer, from my point of view, and should not be costed in. I know that Time is Money and you're supposed to charge for your time and you've got to be as severe with yourself as you are with anybody. But don't confound the issue. All those activities are how you discharge the duties of an organizer, for which you will be rewarded by receiving tuition from lots of trainees. Think about the ways you like to "waste" money enjoyably, without feeling sore. For example, some people really enjoy taking a hundred dollars and going out and eating a splendid meal with a good friend. Some people like to go to an expensive play or concert. Other people would take the same hundred dollars and would go somewhere to see sights, the memory of which they really enjoy having. Other people are willing to take the hundred dollars and gamble at a casino. How do you give yourself pleasure that's evanescent? You may remember it and treasure that memory, but you don't have anything to show for it. I, for example, feel very good about the money I give to charities. Every time I write a check for a hundred or two hundred or five hundred dollars and send it to some organization, I feel really good about myself. I know that I'm showing other people that I love them and care for them and hope that they have as much joy and nochas as I have in my life. It is a blessing that I can perform, an act of goodness that I can give to my community. So, I don't mind giving money away at all. But I mind buying a really expensive meal! I'm not the kind of person who generally goes out and spends a big bunch of money for a meal just to be in a stylish and overpriced place. As mentioned previously, I suggest that organizers keep their costs within whatever can be realized from their share, their 50 percent share, of the tuitions and fees received from two or three people attending. So if you're going to charge $300 for a workshop and you're going to make $150 for each person, keep your costs down to $300 to $450. Then you know you're going to make your costs back, you're not going to lose. I urge you to act from a sense of generosity, especially when organizing, and not from the desire to make a lot of money doing very little. If not, it's very easy for you to begrudge the amount of work that goes into getting a bunch of people together to pay to attend the workshop. Probably the best attitude to take with regard to organizing a Rebirthing event is that it's like throwing a big party. It's going to cost you a lot for the food and for the decorations and the flowers. It's going to be a lot of work and a lot of effort and a lot of mess. But you're going to have a fantastically marvelous time, and you enjoy spending your money on something like that. What a marvelous thing it is when, with such an attitude, you find that you get the party for nothing, or even better, that you have made money out of giving this party for people! I think that's a desirable, constructive, positive attitude about organizing. Regard yourself as worthy of spending money on to get your business started. Remember that Rebirthing really isn't only a business, it's also a medium of spiritual exchange and it's the way you show your love to your community. So, the profit is not always in dollars and cents. We do pay for an education. We do pay for therapy, whether it be to a physical therapist or a psychotherapist. As with education or therapy, with organizing we're also getting something marvelous and precious. So, let's not begrudge what it costs us. For me to reach people, I need organizers. Remember, though, I am not a high-tech, slick performance commodity. I don't have state-of-the-art huge speakers breaking up the workshop tension with rock music, and I'm not dressed in flowing chiffon gowns. I still dress in the suits I wore to teach college in or in jeans and tops (plain but clean). So if you don't have a lot of PDS about your momma enjoying herself, I invite you to think of trying to organize for me. We can have fun together. But remember, I've been known to swear and to smoke grass, and I haven't always been married to the man living with me. If all that bothers you, organize for me only if you're ready to change your views. I'll be glad to help. I'm out to help people use the tool of Rebirthing to enable themselves to get what they want. I'm here to encourage them to want to develop their highest, finest spiritual selves, so we can all walk through the gate together, as we must if any of us is to arrive at Heaven on Earth. I'm eternally grateful to every one of the dozens of organizers who have helped me fulfill these aims.
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The Logic of Magical Thought and The Dance of the Breath CHAPTER
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