July/August 2005

Avatar: Deliberately creating your life

By Summer Jones

In the current movie sensation What The Bleep Do We Know? scientists, scholars and spiritual teachers lead the audience on a journey through quantum physics to reinforce the premise that what we think and believe creates our reality. It’s not a new concept; the idea that thoughts create external experiences has been around for thousands of years in dozens of disciplines and practices. What’s new is the refinement of the concept, and its current practical application in any number of self-help systems. One of these, Avatar®, focuses on deliberately, rather than unconsciously, creating your reality and, thus, your life.

Founded by educational psychologist Harry Palmer, Avatar’s premise is that your beliefs will cause you to create, attract or influence situations that you experience as your life. Dozens of self-development practices, from Anthony Robbins to the Landmark Forum, have similar approaches. What’s different about Avatar?

“In other practices, people usually argue for or against beliefs about what is true,” Palmer says. “I’m not saying this is necessarily a bad thing, but it’s the big difference between Avatar and a lot of other practices. Avatar is not going to tell you what to believe. What Avatar will do is, first, show you how to connect the dots between what you are believing and what you are experiencing; and second, show you how to identify and dissolve a personal belief that is creating some experience you don’t prefer. The focus in Avatar is on exploring consciousness and learning effective procedures for changing the things in life that you want to change.”

Palmer spent several decades exploring various psychological models, religious paths and spiritual philosophies. But it wasn’t until 1986, after spending nearly two months in a sensory deprivation tank, that he had a spiritual breakthrough. (For those of you who have never experienced a sensory deprivation tank, here’s what happens: an eight-foot tank of water is laced with Epsom salts, causing your body to float weightlessly, and the tank is completely light- and sound-proof, effectively cutting off all external stimuli, all feeling and perception; there’s nothing there but you and your consciousness.

Other than periodic refrigerator and bathroom breaks, Palmer spent eight weeks in the tank. During his floating period, he would occasionally emerge to write about his experiences. One thing he noticed: when the body’s sensory input is deprived, the mind becomes a three-ring circus. After days of sensory deprivation, Palmer’s mental circus grew exhausted; as his racing thoughts were subdued, he began to experience what lay beyond his thinking mind.

“It was like being in a room with a rock ‘n roll band playing in full throttle, and in the corner was a portable radio playing classical music with the volume set very low,” he says in Living Deliberately. “You had no idea the classical music even existed until the band took a break.” Palmer says this was a transformative moment: he gained a new perspective on what his self really was, and began to understand how his consciousness worked in creating the experiences that determined his reality. He began to develop a set of tools to help people learn how to deliberately, rather than unconsciously, create their realities; in 1987, the first Avatar course was presented.

The first step in Avatar is a nine-day workshop that’s divided into three sections: the first is a two-day workshop, called Resurfacing, which consists of experiential exercises to bring more awareness of how your beliefs affect your life. The Resurfacing segment of the workshop helps participants find out where they’re unconsciously placing their attention, and how powerful that direction of attention can be. This section also helps participants to find out what unconscious beliefs may be running their lifes.

Section Two is a four- or five-day workshop that further explores this idea, and begins to introduce ways to deliberately create one’s reality. Section Three typically lasts two or three days, and introduces strategies to “dis-create” or dispel beliefs that no longer work.

For example, let’s say you’re a chronic underachiever. You’ve moved from job to job over the past 20 years, and just when you think you’re getting ahead, you always seem to do something to mess up the situation. You’ve come to Avatar with the hope of changing this self-sabotaging pattern. Here’s how the course would work:

In Section One, the Resurfacing portion of the workshop, you would start to examine your current beliefs about yourself and your ability to succeed, via experiential exercises. These exercises examine the “blueprint” of your life—that is, your patterns, how they’re adversely affecting your life, and the beliefs that are creating those patterns. One belief you might discover, for example, is “I don’t want to be responsible.” So while you might have a pattern of getting a raise here, a promotion there, something keeps stopping you from really getting ahead—because, on some level, you don’t want the responsibilities that success brings. Maybe once a job situation is looking good, you start showing up late for work. Maybe you miss an important meeting the day before you’re up for a promotion; maybe you spill coffee on your boss’s new Chanel suit—anything to ruin your chances of succeeding.

In Section Two, your pattern of self-sabotage may begin to unfold even further; one of the primary tools in this section is an exercise that helps quiet the mind. Once your mind is still, you can really begin to see and feel all the ways you sabotage yourself. Section Two also further promotes the idea that you—not your mother, not your boss, not God—are the one who’s responsible for your life. Tools in this section also help you recognize judgments, see how they affect your experiences and learn how to surrender them. The last part of this section introduces a tool to help remove “blocks” that keep you from deliberately (rather than unconsciously) creating experiences and, thus, the reality you prefer.

In Section Three, you would be presented with different types of excercises, called “rundowns,” to “dis-create” beliefs and self-sabotaging patterns. For example, in the “body handle” rundown, you would would discreate unpleasant perceptions about your body, in order to be able to see yourself—your self—as separate from your body. In the “limitations” rundown, you would systematically dismantle all the beliefs limiting you, or keeping you from your goals. In the “identities” rundown, you would discreate all the identities—like being irresponsible—that are conflicting with your goals. In the “persistent mass” rundown, you would address more persistent, stubborn patterns and conditions.

Avatar can be used for general spiritual growth, and is useful for all kinds of conditions, including physical ailments, addictions, relationship issues; it’s especially helpful in creating what some call a sense of purpose.

The cost of the nine-day Avatar course is $2,295, which is priced per section. Section I is $295, Section II is $500 and Section III is $1500. (Incidentally, Star’s Edge, the organization that runs Avatar courses, hasn’t raised the cost since 1987, when the first courses were introduced.) You get to call on other Avatar students and masters for support after the course is completed. The Star’s Edge website allows you to download mini-courses for free, and the organization offers refresher courses for those who have been through the entire course.

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