I recently received an email from a Bending God reader that had questions I have heard before from other readers. Since it seems to be a recurring theme I wanted to share what she asked and my response to help other people who may be asking themselves the similar things. (Now, I may post emails from other readers in the future, but I will always take out personally identifying information unless you tell me it’s okay to include it.)

Here’s what she wrote:

Dear Eric,

I just completed your book and have enjoyed it immensely. I also took into account that your expedited spiritual growth was due to being in the presence of Eric Pepin, which many of us, obviously do not have the time or the resources to take off from life to do so.

For me to understand how to connect or plug into God or the Force, forgetting about all the practices that we all go through and search for, is this something that must constantly run through my thoughts? I’m not talking about looking for things to keep myself busy. you understand where i’m coming from. Do I need to keep myself constantly conscious of the Force in order to be connected to it, or do I have to “jump through hoops” by doing meditations, visualizations and affirmations.

This is sort of the conclusion that i’m getting from what you experienced in the four months since beginning with Eric P. Thank you for your time and effort into replying………J. 

Here’s what I told her:

Dear J, 

I do understand where you’re coming from. 

First, as I say in Bending God you cannot discount Eric’s presence in the breakthroughs I encountered. That said, you also cannot discount what I put into it. It takes two! Don’t kick me to the curb yet. However, you also cannot discount what I took away from it, meaning how much I fought against moving forward. 

In that sense, you are more prepared then I was to use what you have at hand. The knowledge! When I look at the catalog of courses available to Higher Balance participants now, compared to what I had access to then, it blows my mind. Now, I don’t want to assume what you do or do not know so I apologize if this is redundant but Higher Balance has almost 60 Expansion Modules beyond the Foundation set. It really is a full, comprehensive system. There are Modules out now that contain information that I didn’t have access to for years! 

Eric Pepin has also refined his teaching style and knowledge over time. What is delivered to people now has already aged and advanced 7 years beyond when Bending God took place. The core remains the same but the delivery has improved. 

Now, let’s get to the heart of what you’re asking. The formula is as simple as the day Eric told it to me six years ago. You get out of your spirituality what you put into it. By that, I mean effort. Everything in this universe requires an exchange of energy. You want fire? Burn wood. You want to drive a car? Fill it with gas (bio-diesel, petroleum, electric, whatever). Even to function, every day, you must feed your body. Is eating three meals a day jumping through hoops to connect with your life? Well, if you’re like me you think so, but it is what it is. Many people enjoy eating. They take pleasure in good food and the experience of eating or dining. It’s not a chore or jumping through hoops but when you look at it in a functional level it appears that way. You HAVE to eat! How restrictive is that?! (I’m waiting for the perfect kibble to pop and be about my day.) 

There is a universal currency that you must use in order to get what you want from the Universe. That currency is effort. Payment equals effort. 

Must this knowledge constantly run through your thoughts? No. You cannot maintain yourself in that place 24/7. You are alive, here, now. One foot here and the other there, yes? Don’t burn yourself thinking that needs to be the case. 

On the other hand, Eric clearly told me from that conversation in Bending God a long time ago the number one reason people fail is laziness. When I said earlier not to discount what I put into my own journey I meant my time spent reflecting. I didn’t just listen to what Eric would tell me and walk away never to think about it again. I thought about it when I was home, when I woke up, when I showered. It wasn’t all the time but I did spend time thinking about it. When you go to school to major in something how long do you spend reflecting, studying, talking and discussing your courses? Now what about if you wanted your masters? Why should this knowledge require less? Is there an inherit belief that spirituality is supposed to be ‘easy’ because it’s all about relaxation, or effort is ego-driven therefore counterproductive? Or maybe it’s the worst one… that Enlightenment will simply ‘come’ or we’re all ‘already Enlightened’ so there’s no reason trying? 

When you ask if you have to “jump through hoops” with meditations, or affirmations this is what comes to my mind. That you are looking for an easy way that requires little to no effort. Still, you also acknowledge there are practices we all go through and search for. Here’s the trick of it… you do have to do something to plug into or connect with God or the Force, you have to understand what the Force is. You have to know it. You have to become it. That requires some effort. 

You do not need Eric personally in your life. You do not need gobs of free time or put your life on hold. Aside from this initial summer I write about in Bending God the period where I actually had my biggest surges in awakening is when I worked a full-time job, in Los Angeles, a place packed with people, distractions and not much Prana from life force. It’s a desert! I also spent my entire weekend hanging out with friends and Eric and I was dating someone for a good chunk of my burst. So, you don’t need to take a break from your life. 

You do need one thing most people lack, consistency. Look at it this way. When you meditate using the Higher Balance meditation, you are raising the vibration of your consciousness and pulling in massive amounts of energy (among other things.) Now for the sake of this explanation let’s say before you meditate your consciousness is vibrating at 2. Then you meditate and you shift up to 15. A few hours pass, you go to work, do you your thing and your consciousness is down to 12. A few more hours pass, you get off work, go home, eat, hang out and your consciousness is down to 6. Now you have a choice. Either meditate again, or watch some TV or some other activity and then go to bed. If you go to bed you’ll wake up at let’s say a 3. Did you make progress the day before because you meditated? Yes, you did. 

But what would happen if you had meditated that night? You would have gone from a 6 to a 19. The next day you’d wake up at say, 12. Don’t worry about the numbers not matching up, that’s not important. The important thing is you understand there is a vibration, the vibration of the planet, that is pushing you back down to its frequency every single second. In order to rise above it you must do *something*. Meditation is great. You could have also listened to the Foundation, or a Module, or reflected and it would keep your consciousness in that place. 

If you don’t eat you get hungry. If you really starve yourself you’ll get weak. No different with your energy body that is your vehicle to that place you want to get to. The Force is a frequency. You are trying to raise yourself to tune into that energy. How will you do it without “jumping through hoops” which means putting in some effort? 

Now, how much effort you put in is up to you. Sometimes, more is not necessarily better because you can burn yourself out. Two meditations, twenty minutes a day is great. I hear about people practicing other forms of meditation where they are meditating 2, 3 sometimes 5 hours a day. To me, that’s jumping through hoops and they are getting nowhere. 

The funny thing is how much you will convince yourself you have no time even for small stuff. The next book covers a period of time where Eric really made the impression on me about effort being a currency. I had some great arguments and battles with myself when I tried putting more effort into things and when I really broke my time down, it was kind of a joke about what my time said about what I really placed importance on. 

In case you hadn’t noticed by now there’s a reason Bending God is almost 500 pages, once I start typing I really can’t stop. I’m kidding. I know this is getting long but there’s a point I really want to address. 

You don’t need Eric in your life to have the kind of experiences I talk about in Bending God. You have Bending God, you know it’s possible. You have all the knowledge Eric’s given to me at your fingertips. If you can get yourself to put in a little bit of time, every day (there’s the trick), you will find what you’re looking for. In the time it takes to watch one TV show (an hour) you’re on your way. 

There is a woman who called Higher Balance about a month ago and wanted to describe some experiences she was having and didn’t know what to make of them. She’s been in the program about a year and a half. Now, granted she is in Star Reach, which is a special program where you get all the Higher Balance material and also work with your own personal coach over the phone. To me, that mainly helped ensure she was consistent (her coach was there to help motivate her) and give her constant access to knowledge (food for her to reflect on). Her coach was a little unsure what to tell her right away and wanted confirmation before he said anything. He put her on hold and contacted Eric and described what she was saying. After a little back and forth asking certain questions, he had to tell her she had reached a state of Enlightenment. She hit a peak. 

Her reaction? “Oh, well, that’s interesting. Thanks.” Which, to me, makes sense. 

What she described is not something that is “out there” in the sense that she could have read about it from some other yogi, or spiritual person and just relayed the experience. The details she gave matched up. Now, whether she’ll be able to hold that state and maintain it has yet to be seen but here’s the most important point: she made it. Never met any Higher Balance staff member, not Eric, not me, nobody, in person. 

She used the knowledge, she applied it along with her daily life, and she got there. Under two years. 

Now, don’t let that create an expectation you have to do it in two years or you’ve failed. It doesn’t work like that. But it does work. You can do it. You can do it with a full-time job, a fun-filled weekend, and a life. You do have to make choices and shift your priorities. You have to apply effort, and you have to be consistent. 

If you can do that, you got it. Hope that helps and remember, enjoy the journey! 

All the best,

Eric Robison 

Home. Where is home? Home is where the heart is. I’ve arrived home after a few weeks journey through Mexico. Before that I was at the Higher Balance retreat in Hawaii. No time in-between to decompress and reflect on everything that happened in Hawaii. Only now am I beginning to unwind it all.

Before I forget, let’s talk about Hawaii. Everyone who came up to me during Hawaii and told me what they thought of Bending God I truly, really, completely, appreciate it. It meant so much to see your face, hear your words in person and feel what you were saying. It really helped it hit home that Bending God was worth the effort I put into it these last two years. That it has inspired, entertained, informed and brought all these wonderful things into people’s lives. There was a little seed of doubt in me about the book. Had I done the Universe justice? Had I served as well as I could? Have I done Eric Pepin justice? What were reader’s truly going to think?

I heard you. I heard you and it was good. While in Hawaii I did a book reading, Chapter 13, and there was a discussion afterwards that was so much fun. I enjoyed it so much and it made the journey in Bending God seem alive for me again. So, I can’t say it enough but for everyone who shared their thoughts thank you, thank you and thank you!

Hawaii, in general, was fantastic. It was so fulfilling. It was also very overwhelming. Leaving directly from there to Mexico was perhaps a little shortsighted. The first week in Mexico I felt this need to sit and just… decompress.

After that, I put on my backpack and things started to flow as I traveled from place to place. Once I’d visited a fair number of hostels and talked to people from all over the world I started to get this feeling. The best way I can describe is like global crosshairs. Imagine the longitude and latitude lines on a globe except they are three dimensional. What I mean is that they aren’t touching where they meet because there is also vertical space between them.

In the center of these crosshairs is… you.

As you move and walk through the world the vertical space between these crosshairs move closer or farther away. When people travel it’s like they are instinctually in search of places and scenes that will move these crosshairs closer together. The space between them is your internal measure of peace. Your closeness to the Universe. Your inner-harmony to the Force.

I felt this so distinctly from almost all the backpackers I met. They all had this strong, instinctual searching feeling and they knew when they hit it and when it was separating and they needed to move on. Many of them had been traveling 3 months, 6 months, a year. As if they were hoping to navigate these internal frequencies, these crosshairs, into alignment by moving externally.

It made sense to me why they felt so drawn to it. I could feel it too. If I didn’t have my spiritual practice I knew that I could have easily found myself among them. But I do have my spirituality. I am blessed and fortunate by it and reminded often of its worth. Feeling this I was reminded of a quote,

“People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering.”

-   St. Augustine

We travel to such lengths. We go to such heights. Trying to change inside by changing the external. Internally we can feel the change. How many will go the world over and see all there is to see but never know what lies within?

It’s at this point I realize this post is too long. Over complicated and unnecessary.

The world is beautiful. See the world. Experience it, taste it, touch it. Inside of you is an incredible universe. See yourself, see this universe. Experience it, touch it, taste it. It is then you will know wonder. You will know peace. You will know the traveler’s mind because you will suddenly realize you were out within some other place and at long last… found your way home.

Welcome to the official Bending God: A Memoir website. Bending God will not be published until the Fall of 2007.

However, if you are a Higher Balance participant, you may have gotten one of the pre-publication copies of Bending God. If you have read the book please leave comments about what you thought! Feedback is welcome, encouraged and greatly appreciated.

As you know Higher Balance is, by publishing standards, a new independent press. Books such as Bending God: A Memoir, live or die based greatly on the enthusiasm of its readers. So, if you read it please tell others about it!

This memoir is a personal, sometimes quirky, yet profound, intimate journey and I do not see any ad, or commercial doing it justice. It is really through people sharing and giving that this book will find its way and grow. That is my hope for this little seed I’ve planted… that those who it has touched will help it along its way. As I passed on what was given to me, through this book, I hope you will pass on what you have been given.

Thank you for your support. Enjoy the journey!

Eric Robison