I was thumbing through my Google Reader this morning, trying to sort through the stuff I’m terribly behind on reading. I’m behind on everything at the moment, it seems. So I was looking through the entries for TED (”TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.”)

So I see this entry for “Stroke of Insight: Jill Bolte Taylor “, a neuroanatomist — she studies and maps the brain and its functions. Here’s an excerpt from the TED page:

One morning, a blood vessel in Jill Bolte Taylor’s brain exploded. As a brain scientist, she realized she had a ringside seat to her own stroke. She watched as her brain functions shut down one by one: motion, speech, memory, self-awareness …

Amazed to find herself alive, Taylor spent eight years recovering her ability to think, walk and talk. She has become a spokesperson for stroke recovery and for the possibility of coming back from brain injury stronger than before. In her case, although the stroke damaged the left side of her brain, her recovery unleashed a torrent of creative energy from her right. From her home base in Indiana, she now travels the country on behalf of the Harvard Brain Bank as the “Singin’ Scientist.”

Watch how a scientist describes what happened to herself. If you’re not intrigued by what she has to say and the enormous possibility it implies, then IMHO you ought to check your pulse…

Following is the contents of Chapter 17 of The Science of Getting Rich, by Wallace D. Wattles. Through the course of the book, Wattles develops and amplifies on these statements and considers them to be the essential points that anyone practicing the art of conscious creation must master. Without further ado:

There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made, and which, in its original state, permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the universe.

A thought in this substance produces the thing that is imaged by the thought.

Man can form things in his thought, and by impressing his thought upon formless substance can cause the thing he thinks about to be created.

In order to do this, man must pass from the competitive to the creative mind; otherwise he cannot be in harmony with the Formless Intelligence, which is always creative and never competitive in spirit.

Man may come into full harmony with the Formless Substance by entertaining a lively and sincere gratitude for the blessings it bestows upon him. Gratitude unifies the mind of man with the intelligence of Substance, so that man’s thoughts are received by the Formless. Man can remain upon the creative plane only by uniting himself with the Formless Intelligence through a deep and continuous feeling of gratitude.

Man must form a clear and definite mental image of the things he wishes to have, to do, or to become; and he must hold this mental image in his thoughts, while being deeply grateful to the Supreme that all his desires are granted to him. The man who wishes to get rich must spend his leisure hours in contemplating his Vision, and in earnest thanksgiving that the reality is being given to him. Too much stress cannot be laid on the importance of frequent contemplation of the mental image, coupled with unwavering faith and devout gratitude. This is the process by which the impression is given to the Formless, and the creative forces set in motion.

The creative energy works through the established channels of natural growth, and of the industrial and social order. All that is included in his mental image will surely be brought to the man who follows the instructions given above, and whose faith does not waver. What he wants will come to him through the ways of established trade and commerce.

In order to receive his own when it shall come to him, man must be active; and this activity can only consist in more than filling his present place. He must keep in mind the Purpose to get rich through the realization of his mental image. And he must do, every day, all that can be done that day, taking care to do each act in a successful manner. He must give to every man a use value in excess of the cash value he receives, so that each transaction makes for more life; and he must so hold the Advancing Thought that the impression of increase will be communicated to all with whom he comes in contact.

The men and women who practice the foregoing instructions will certainly get rich; and the riches they receive will be in exact proportion to the definiteness of their vision, the fixity of their purpose, the steadiness of their faith, and the depth of their gratitude.

A question for you: do you grasp the true meaning of ‘infinity’ or ‘infinite’?

“The line stretches to infinity.”

“The world is full of infinite possibility.”

So what does the word mean according to the dictionary?

in·fi·nite /??nf?n?t/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[in-fuh-nit] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation –adjective

–noun

infinite. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/infinite (accessed: October 01, 2007).

But consider this as a mind excercise: you are out in the universe, floating. In each hand you hold a line. At a point a couple of feet in front of you, the lines cross. The one in your right hand points off to the left, the one in your left hand points off to the right.

Begin to bring the lines to parallel. The lines’ point of intersection moves farther and farther away from you as you twist your hands. Will the lines become uncrossed? They will not. The point of intersection will continue to move away from you, but if the lines never end, they can never uncross.

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All this goes to show that we really don’t have the ability to conceptualize the infiniteness of God (or Infinite Intelligence, or the Universal Mind, or whatever term you choose), or the infiniteness of possibility. We cannot comprehend the meaning of “All things are possible to him that believes.” All things. Everything. But everything doesn’t exist because God is infinite. The word everything implies a limit, every thing. But there are not limits.

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Okay, I’m drained. Back to your regularly scheduled programming.