There are several guideposts along the Earth trail.  Some will seem obvious and some will be completely foreign. I will list them all here and explain each in turn.

1. You are more than your physical body.

2. You get what you concentrate on.

3. Prayer works because you concentrate on what you want.

4. You have the power to change anything about your life at this instant.

5. You have chosen, consciously or unconsciously, the situations in which you currently find yourself.

6. YOU decided what your life would be before you were born.

7. We are all small pieces of God.

8. There is no evil or hell or Satan, unless you create them.

9. Today's mainstream religions have lost their original focus.

10. Jesus was a misunderstood man who knew all these things and how to apply them.

11. Reincarnation (or better -- multi-incarnation) exists and is very useful.

12. You (your soul or the YOU that you know inside) can experience things outside of your physical body.

13. There is no reason to fear anything, because YOU can't be hurt.

14. There is other life in the universe that is learning just like you.

15. There are many layers to existence that humans haven't uncovered scientifically yet.

16. The future is not pre-determined and free will guides all humans.

17. Faith is just a substitute for knowing what really is.  

18. You can know what really is

1. You are more than your physical body

Yes, you are.  You are made of two separate entities: a physical, fleshy self that knows how to speak, see, think, talk, move, walk etc.  You are also made of a light, nebulous self that knows how to feel, express, remind, help and explain.  These two selves create the one person that you are.  Your physical self is conscious for most of the day, solving problems, searching for what it needs and generally doing Earth related behaviors.  Your light self is also always conscious, perhaps a better term is aware, it never sleeps.  To better differentiate between the two parts or yourself, I'll call your physical self you and your light self YOU, your total self is made of YOU + you. In the end it is the YOU that really matters, the YOU that persists past death.  The physical part of yourself, you, is simply a physical shell in which YOU are currently residing.  The physical you has value in that it allows YOU to be part of Earth life, to experience Earth situations and interact with them.  

This is not a radical or new idea. In fact, virtually every religion believes that humans have a soul that resides within the body and lives on in one form or another after death.  Many people call this YOU the soul, which is an appropriate term, many other terms have been used over the centuries.  For example, the Egyptians used the term Ka.  You are aware of your light self, if not as I am explaining, at least as a part of you.  You may recognize the following indicators of YOUR presence:

All of these things (and there are many others) are indications of your light body, YOU, at work.  

Your light body is what separates from your physical body at death, taking every experience that you had with it.  Every thought, dream, action, conversation...everything is part of YOU.  What ever you did while in this life, is a part of YOU and everything you did is OK.  Nothing you did is wrong, because everything you did, you did for a reason, YOU needed to experience it.  Your light body separates from your physical body on a regular basis as well, but it is generally below the awareness level of most humans.  There are some that are aware of this separation, and some have become quite adept at it.  Most notably are Sylvan Muldoon (circa 1920's), Robert A. Monroe,  Robert Bruce and William Buhlman.  Because of current western beliefs, this type of phenomenon, typically known as astral projection, soul traveling or having an Out-Of-Body (OBE) experience, is still popularly considered occult or Satanist.  These beliefs stem from early church teachings however and are no more occult than believing that your soul leaves your body when you die and forever resides in a place called heaven! 

Most current western beliefs were ingrained during the reformation and renaissance periods, when the church was seeking power over the people.  Their tactic was to induce fear, a fear of a wrathful and vengeful god, and it worked.  There are still many on Earth that completely believe the teachings of the early churches.  Fear is a powerful motivator and, being raised a church-going Lutheran, I still feel slight pangs of guilt after all these years for not attending church on a regular basis.  I keep reminding myself though, Is God really a being such that he must be addressed regularly 52 times during the revolution of the third planet about a smallish Sun in a virtually non-descript galaxy?  With billions of Suns (stars) in our galaxy alone, and then billions of galaxies in the observable universe, can we really be so special?  Really?  More of this in guidepost 12, I'll get back on topic.

This small exercise (derived from Robert Bruce's NEW Energy Ways [2])  has shown how you can interact with your light body.  You may want to experiment with stimulating other parts of your physical body as well.  This can certainly be done, and I recommend that you read the free online and downloadable New Energy Ways tutorial by Robert Bruce.  There are specific ways to stimulate your light bodies' energy and Mr. Bruce's method is quite detailed and well to the point.

The purpose of this guidepost is to enlighten you to the fact that we all have a soul, a light body, a higher self, the YOU you know inside.  More to the point, this soul of yours can be felt and manipulated, it is a part of you that you can know and not some theosophical abstract,  separate from your daily experiences.

2. You get what you concentrate on

This guidepost sounds ridiculous, but let's see if I can get you to believe otherwise. First, let me state that you will probably not be able to make your wishes come true just by wishing for them.  If this were true, everyone would already know what I an writing and not be searching for answers.  However, you do get what you concentrate on...whatever you concentrate on -- everyday.  Lately I have been thinking about writing more in this chapter and today I am writing.  Of course you say, if you think you want to do something  you will go and do it (unless you are very lazy).  That is my point.  I concentrated on writing this section and now it is being written.  You wanted to read it and now you are.  The point I want to make though is deeper than this, not as obvious to everyone.

When you are thinking about actually doing something, you have the full intent of doing it and, either sooner or later, if your intent is still there, it gets done.  This statement is true for ALL of the intentions you have -- for all of the thoughts upon which you devote time.  The more time you devote (or , rather the more you concentrate on a topic) the more likely the topic will become reality, either by your hand or by some other means.  At first appearance this seems ridiculous, but it is simply just an extension of the idea that is mentioned in the paragraph above.  Consider the following analogy.  You are turning 5 or 6 and you are just learning to ride a bike.  Your desire to move quickly from place to place is great and you soon master the two-wheeler.  At this point any thought of driving a car is simply ridiculous, however, driving a car is simply an extension of riding a bike: the car simply moves you farther, faster.  As you grow, the idea grows on you and soon, it is no longer ridiculous but somewhere in the realm of possibility.  By the time you are 16 or so, you are sure that you will be driving a car soon, moving farther and faster.  After you have been driving for awhile, you reminisce about riding a bike and think about how you could have ever thought that driving a car was ridiculous.  

So, if you do get what you concentrate on, everything you concentrate on, what do you concentrate on?  Think about what it is that occupies your mind most of the time.  Is it constant worry about something?  Are you afraid of something and spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about it?  Do you think about how you will get ahead or how you will react to a situation?  

Supposing this concentration premise is true, what does that mean for the way humans currently think?  Especially for people who continually state that they don't meet expectations, they aren't good enough or they keep feeling worse and worse.  What do you suppose happens to these people?  They don't meet expectations, they aren't good enough and they feel worse and worse -- because they continue to concentrate on these thoughts. 

My first encounter with this phenomenon was when I was about 20 years old.  I was living in San Diego, California, and severely low on money.  I had run up large bills on my credit card and The job and lifestyle I had chosen at the time did not leave me enough money to pay off the bills that I had.  I was getting very desperate and began to pray for some cash to help my situation.  I was becoming more and more afraid of what I would have to do to pay my creditors.  I remember being very emotional about the situation, it was constantly in my thoughts, along with the silent prayer for some money to relieve my situation.

Some time later, perhaps a month after I began fretting about my situation, my mother and grandmother, who lived in northern California at the time, came down to visit me over a long weekend.  I never mentioned any of this to them, and we had a good time visiting.  On the second night of their visit, my grandmother began to talk to me.  She explained that she was going to give me a large sum of money -- part of my inheritance -- so that I could use it now.  At the time, I did not know what caused her to do this, or why she chose that time to give me the money.  I do know now why she did what she did.  And so do you.

Some things need to be cleared up regarding this concentration phenomenon:  so that you are not confused.

You experience this for your self everyday, by doing.  You can put it to the test in other ways as well.  If you want to experiment with this, start small.  Do not, for example start concentrating on acquiring a large sum of money. Start by concentrating on looking for something unusual, or on creating a specific situation.. Concentrate on finding a blue plant for example.  It is not a very common thing to see, and you may find it in many forms.  Look for live plants that are discolored for some reason, or for pictures of plants that have been touched up.  Or, you may find a real blue plant!!  The point here is that the form you will receive is not specific to the original thought you may have had.  Retain an open mind and look for what it is your are seeking.  If you are not on the lookout, you may never find it.  You can concentrate on creating a specific situation as well.  As an example, you may want to achieve a certain goal, or meet someone you've admired.  Concentrate on how it would feel to have that goal met and what possible paths could lead to getting it met.  Envision a meeting between you and the person you admire, what will happen?  How will the situation play out?  

With these thoughts, continue to be on the lookout for opportunities that may lead to a meeting or having a chance to work on your goal.  If you are not attentive to the evolving situations around you, you will miss opportunities that may eventually lead you your desired result.  Be consistent and attentive to change.  Notice how the change is working towards your specific desire.  If your desires have been negative, notice too how your current situation reflects that state of mind.

This guidepost is intended to make you aware of the power you have within YOU to create the reality that you know.  The persistent thoughts we all have mold the world around us, creating the situations we concentrate upon most.  Make the most of your thoughts, they make your life.

3. Prayer works because you concentrate on what you want

This really stems from Guidepost 2.  Every religion has some form of prayer, whether it is a constant state of meditation, as Buddhists try to achieve or whether it is steeped in ritual as in Catholicism or Wicca. Each religion has a method of concentration for a certain purpose.  Usually that purpose is to provide health for its congregants or to worship the particular deity of the religion.  Not every prayer works though.  As described above, concentrating on a particular topic will eventually bring that topic into actuality.  However, if the prayer is not continued, if the topic is not routinely concentrated upon, it will not be actualized.  

Over the world, there are many ways to pray.  Muslims must pray many times a day; western Christians will typically pray only when necessary (when they feel they need help) and on Sunday, though there are many Christians that pray more than this.  Many people pray for hours a day and many never pray.  Prayer has a connotation with it that implies a certain religion, that implies a specific God to be prayed to.  When members of specific religions pray and there prayers are answered, they are sure that their God has answered their prayers.  This is understandable, until their prayers go unanswered and they then believe that their God is punishing them for some misdeed. 

There will be more on this topic in the text for guidepost 9, however, there are growing numbers of people that do not feel comfortable in a specific religion.  Religions of today have many rules that must be followed and many dogmas that must be adhered to, in spite of evidence to the contrary.  When faced with a controversial issue, a member of a particular religion will have to weigh the religion's guidance with his or her personal feelings.    Often there will be internal conflicts that the person must resolve.  Depending on the persons character, the resolution will either involve submitting to the religious doctrine and resolving to have faith that "all will occur in accordance with the higher power" or a deeper doubts will emerge regarding the validity of this particular religion. Most religions posit that their religion is the correct one, and those that do not adhere to their particular beliefs are to suffer some kind of unpleasantness.  You must follow strict procedures in the catholic faith or you will be bound to Hades or worse for an eternity.  This is simply a scare tactic used to steer the followers of this faith to the submissive decision.  As will be discussed in guidepost 8, there is no Hades, Hell or Satan, these are all generalizations that have been taken out of context and used for controlling purposes over the centuries.

Now, prayer works because you are concentrating on what you want to happen.  The  prayer must be consistent and you must believe that what you are praying for will actually happen.  This is another way of saying that you must not believe that it won't happen.  Beliefs are concentrations that have become habit.  When you dwell on something for a long time it will eventually become a belief.  If you have spent most of your life believing that you will not achieve success, chances are that you haven't.  There are many churches and groups across the world who pray on a regular basis.  Some of these groups are very large and they all pray together for the same goal.  This will have a powerful effect.  However when the group disperses, the effect is lost because they are not praying any longer.  Some might still be praying or concentrating on the prayer's subject, but the cohesion of the group is lost and the effectiveness is severely diminished.  This is not to say that one persons effectiveness as a pray-er is diminished, but that the effectiveness of a group all focused on a single subject is far greater. This is similar to the construction of a building.  When a group of individuals concentrates on constructing a large building, their knowledge and skills combine to create the building -- it becomes a reality.  However, if a single person were to concentrate on the same thing, he or she may not have all of the requisite skills or knowledge to complete the construction.  The building may not become reality.  There are cases however, where humans have persevered, undaunted by the large task they are trying to accomplish.  These individuals have achieved great feats, though typically, their feats have taken most of their lives to accomplish.  Whether concentration for a small amount of time by a large number of people has the same effect as concentration for a long amount of time by a smaller number of people has still to be determined.  I recommend an experiment be  conducted to see the results.  

This guidepost is intended to show you that prayer is just an outgrowth of concentration.  Prayer works because you get what you concentrate on.  When you perceive that your prayer are not answered, it is NOT because your God is punishing you, God does not punish.  It is NOT because you have somehow misbehaved, there is no misbehavior, only misdirection.  It is NOT because you are not deserving, it is because YOU GET WHAT YOU CONCENTRATE ON.  Review what you have prayed for and examine what your true beliefs are and you will find out why you have not gotten that for which you have prayed.