A Recipe for Alchemy By Keith Varnum

Grandma has a scrumptious, old-family recipe for chocolate
pecan pie that melts in your mouth. Uncle Bert whips up a killer BBQ sauce for ribs (or grilled tofu). I've discovered
a more direct route to happiness-a tantalizing recipe for
alchemy!



According to Webster's dictionary, alchemy is not simply
change, but rather "permanent transformation." Alchemy is a
metamorphosis-a lasting, complete change in form.

Transmutation.



Alchemy is like the caterpillar after it comes out of the
cocoon, having morphed into a butterfly. If that butterfly
doesn't eat the "right' foods, or meditate every morning, it
doesn't boomerang back into a caterpillar! It's a butterfly
for good. Thank God!

So, when we manage to open to true alchemy in our lives, we
are forever transformed. We've broken through to the other
side via a one-way portal. The gains we make will last. The
progress we've achieved will not reverse itself.

What's Going on Here?

For thirty years with my friends, clients and myself, I've
witnessed permanent alchemical transformation. Dramatic
healings of long-standing physical ailments. Deep emotional
and karmic releases. Breakthroughs with money and love.
Spiritual awakenings. I always ask myself, "Why do some
people heal, open or wake up after only one special
experience-and for others it takes 20 to 30 such
experiences? And for some people "it" never "takes" at all!

The Secret Ingrdients

My recipe for alchemy is simple. Mix in equal proportions
the following qualities:

1. Safety

2. Eternity

3. Reality

4. Honesty

5. Ecstasy

You can add these ingredients to your life in any order
because they all spawn, feed and reinforce each other.

A Cup of Safety

What I've observed is that people shift toward health,
harmony and wholeness when they know that they are safe.
When people feel secure, they relax in mind and body. They
release their minds' "death grip" on having to monitor and
control each and every aspect of their lives in order to
survive.

They no longer have to be right about everything and have
all the answers. They feel secure enough to allow some fresh
solutions or options to enter the picture. Thus, they can
let in a fresh approach or angle that can shift them into a
new and better place.

When a person feels safe and relaxes the grip on the body,
the body is free to shift, rearrange and adjust-and thus, it
balances, harmonizes and heals itself. Even traditional
medical doctors admit that the body knows how to heal
itself-if we allow it to!

Get to know yourself psychologically. Pay attention to how
you respond to different elements in life. In what
environments, situations and relationships is it safe for
you to relax, let go and open up? Seek and cultivate those
spaces and people.

A Dash of Eternity

People feel secure when they experience themselves as being
connected-part of-something eternal. When people allow
themselves to love, or be loved, they open to the experience
of someone, or something, outside themselves, larger than
themselves. They feel timeless, serene, at one with all
life. The aborigines of Australia greet each other daily
with the salutation, "The forever part of me greets the
forever part of you."

Walk on a beach at sunset, sit on a mountaintop, or let
yourself fall in love with someone or something. If you
allow yourself to be deeply touched by any aspect of life,
that life will bestow upon you a glimpse of eternity.

A Good Dose of Reality

When people feel they are in touch with something authentic
and genuine, their world feels solid and real. When people
feel grounded, anchored and centered within their body and
world, they feel safe and loved. When life feels safe enough
to relax into, people feel connected to the Oneness and a
sense of being eternally taken care of.

Seek friends with whom you feel safe enough to be real. Find
physical activities through which you can get grounded and
anchored in a solid, tangible ways to the Earth, to your
body and to life. Garden. Hike. Dance. Paint. Sculpt.
Massage somebody. Pet a dog or plant. Hug a rock or tree. Do
tai chi or yoga. Play a sport. Construct something with
wood.

An Ounce of Honesty

People are in touch with what accurately and authentically
exists in their world when they are honest about how they
feel emotionally. This is a major reason why people like the
reality shows that are so popular on TV right now. The show
participants are entangled in real life situations,
presented in fairly authentic ways, within familiar,
relatable everyday situations.

Place yourself in situations and with people where it's easy
and possible for you to feel deeply and honestly. Find at
least one person with whom you can be genuine and
spontaneous-and from whom you feel safe to hear frank
feedback.

Also, seeing the practical value of honesty makes the
"truth" more attractive and exciting. When you're honest
with yourself about what truly is, and isn't, working in
your life, then you're dealing with what is really so in
your life-instead of what you hope, wish, think or believe
is so. When you're working with the truth, the changes you
make are beneficial and lasting. You master practical
alchemy.



The more you realize that you can manifest solid, permanent,
desirable results in your world, the more secure you feel.
And when you successfully use your innate power to manifest
your soul's desires, you get in touch with your true nature,
which is eternal. To the same end, when you explore your
world truthfully, you discover that you are, in reality,
eternally safe and loved.

And breaking through into honest enjoyment of your true
Eternal Self is an ecstatic experience. You feel real joy,
bliss, orgasmic exhilaration. You're "in heaven."

Ecstasy Pie

The word "ecstasy" comes from the Greek meaning of "ec"
(moving out of) and "stasis" (status quo, static, fixed,
stagnant). Alchemy is moving out of an old, fixed, stuck
place into a new, flowing world. As the Doors' Jim Morrison
reminds us, when you "break on through to the other side" of
any stuck condition or limitation, you enjoy the freedom to
experience life in fresh, different and exciting ways.

Break on through to Alchemy

Ecstasy is a fun and easily attainable state-since it is,
after all, our natural state of being. Give it a chance.
Relax that grip on your old picture of yourself and what you
think is possible. That's all it takes to activate
alchemical magic in your life!





Drawing from the wisdom of native and ancient spiritual
traditions, Keith Varnum shares his 30 years of practical success
as an author, personal coach, acupuncturist, filmmaker, radio
host, restaurateur, vision quest guide and international seminar
leader with "The Dream Workshops". Keith helps people get the
love, money, and health they want with his F-r-e-e Prosperity
Ezine,F-r-e-e Abundance Tape and F-r-e-e Coaching at
http://www.TheDream.com.