Friday, September 01, 2006

Conversation with Peter Ragnar in Poker Player Magazine


A continued conversation with Peter Ragnar, author of The Awesome Science of Luck, Peter is interviewed by: Charlie Shoten, author of No Limit Life

Charlie:
The concept that manifesting your deepest desires (LUCK) is a skill that can be learned has universal value in each and every aspect of our lives—not just our results at the poker table. In Chapter 4, you discuss how emotions power your dreams and those dreams paint pictures in your mind to give birth to reality in a most magical way. When I graduated college, I sold encyclopedias door-to-door, and the customer had little to do with the sale. When I pre-sold the books in my mind before I said hello, I always made the sale. Can you share some of the concepts that can help our readers learn to visualize and manifest their deepest desires?

Peter:
Charlie, I believe we all have an inner knowing that, when we listen to it and act on it, makes things work out well for us. When we don't, it seems that the little voice inside get softer and softer until it's so faint we never hear it.

This is like the agency of our conscience. It has an innate natural sense of right and wrong. Not in the sense of the laws of convention handed down to us by others, but laws of the universe -- natural laws. It tells us when we are out of harmony and when we are aligned with natural law. Think of this as an inner compass—it can be deflected, but if you give it time to settle (much like your mind), it will once again point north. So our inner knowing, like our conscience, is the same. Now, when we resist listening and refuse to follow this in-tutor or internal teacher, our intuition dies.

Think of your intuition as a triangle-shaped object. When everything is right in your world, it spins and hums along effortlessly. However, every time you resist and get stubborn with it or block its spinning, a few pieces get nicked off. Now, at this point, your consciousness should say "ouch!" But if you continue to ignore those warning pains and more of the points are chipped off, your intuition will become so smooth that you can't tell what it's trying to tell you. Once you break your inner compass, you're lost.

If you have no identifiable major purpose, no clear-cut goals, and no vivid dreams for the future, you don't need a map and a compass is useless. But when your goals and reasons for being are crystal-clear and your dream for the future is alive and well, your intuition has a purpose. It will beep loudly if you veer off the road you have set for yourself, like the GPD or OnStar device I have in my new Cadillac. As I get close to a turn that will take me to my destination, a voice will come on and say, "Get ready to make a right turn at..." It might as well say, "Stop at this house, they want to buy your new book."

Charlie:
The universal laws of energy and attraction are always at work to help us achieve our deepest hopes and dreams. You say, "What you want wants you and is rushing to meet you!" Blocking our efforts to create positive pictures in our minds is the debris (baggage) we all carry that distracts us and can cause us to create negative pictures. How can we get in the flow of those universal laws and begin to ride them to victory at the poker table? You say in The Awesome Science of LUCK, "Now is the time to give birth to a magic genie that can grant all your wishes. Now's the time to change your luck!" We all would like our own magic genie. How do we start to go about getting one?

Peter:
Again, Charlie, it’s just like your sister Fran: when she became scared of her seemingly magical talent, it appeared to disappear. The luck genie is locked or bottled up in your mind, and your thoughts are the cork. When you pop the cork, your doubts and fears vanish, releasing the genie from inside.

Only now can you play with confidence and ease, knowing (not thinking or wishing) that the cards you want are right now being dealt—to you. "What you want wants you and is rushing to meet you" is not a thinking process as much as it is listening with confidence to your inner coach.

Your subconscious mind has already figured all the odds and registered all the cards that have been played. It’s all a mathematical and rational process—very computer-like. This is why in my Money Magic course, I titled one of the DVDs "Intuition -- The Lightning Bolt of Reason." You see, the more familiar you are with the game of poker and the more you play it, the more it becomes a living, breathing thing that talks to you. Like I've said, the more you know about any subject, the luckier you become, because your familiarity and association are constantly giving you clues.

Charlie:
Being 100% responsible for everything in my life is something I work toward. The words I say, the thoughts I think, and the efforts I make are all my own responsibility. Can you explain how visualizing what we desire manifests it, and how we can learn and practice this skill?

Peter:
Charlie, I hold to the opinion that thoughts are things; they are magnetic in quality. The stronger the thought, be it a hope or fear, the stronger the attraction field it radiates. You get what you set in your mind’s eye. This is why I caution, never say anything about yourself that you do not sincerely want to come true!

Yes, we are all 100% responsible for the thoughts we choose to think and their resultant reality being manifested. Soon all the visualized and emotionalized mental images become alive. Here's an important point: it's not just seeing, it's a matter of loading the visualization with emotion. The emotion is magnetic. Imagine and recreate the emotion of holding a royal flush. If you can, you're well on your way to building castles with your chips.

Charlie:
In Chapter 5, "Pay Attention to the Signs," you discuss serendipity. It is the knack of finding treasures you may not have been looking for consciously. How can we increase serendipity in our lives? Is there a process?

Peter:
Serendipity, the knack of finding treasures we may not have been consciously looking for, can be summed up in an affirmation I gave my seminar audience: "I believe something wonderful is going to happen to me today!"

If you make this your very first thought as you awaken in the morning, you will set your day off with a positive note. Later in the day you may have forgotten your morning affirmation, but your subconscious mind hasn't. Your subconscious mind will ring the bell and alert you -- "Look! There's a $10 bill lying on the sidewalk. Look! There's your parking spot right up front by the door. Look! There's a piece of land with a new sale sign being placed in front..."

Serendipity is opportunity in disguise. It all depends on whether or not you notice. What allows your notice? It is expectation. If you expect good things to happen to you, what kind of attitude will you hold? Why, an optimistic one, of course. Your attitude creates your expectation. Your expectation creates your serendipity that provides you with unexpected opportunities that enrich your life.

Charlie, it's just like how you and I got together in Poker Player. Someone gave you a copy of my book, and you gave me yours. When I read your book and saw the beautiful color photos, I said to myself, "Something wonderful is going to happen to me today!" Guess what? It did.