My first experience of this place came with a startling rush in 1973. I had just lost everything within a week's time -- my teaching job at a business college, my successful commercial photography business, my mother to an early and sudden death. I felt deep despair.

At this very point in time, I had a remarkable and life-altering experience. I was suddenly propelled into another dimension, a state of being in which I had a deeper experience of love and well-being than I ever imagined was possible. I stayed in profound peace and harmony for two months. Then I dropped back into so-called "normal" reality.

But my life would never be the same again. I now knew what was possible. I set out to understand that place of being in which I experienced continuous clarity, connectedness, and well-being. I wanted to find it again and, once found, never lose it.

I learned as much as I could about letting go. I studied massage therapy, chiropractic, and Chinese medicine. I learned yoga to open the body and meditation to quiet my busy mind.

I discovered the most remarkable and unexpected thing: the more the body relaxes and opens, the quieter the mind becomes and the more vitality and ease we have.

I began to notice that deep rest leads to a profound shift in the way we perceive and interact with the world. This shift in being allows your entire quality of life to improve - effortlessly.

If we are going to move toward stillness, we have to learn to move toward things that move energy and away from things that shut down the flow. We have to move toward letting go and away from holding on, toward expansion and away from contraction.

There is an actual vibration with any degree of contraction. This vibration feels like a rev in an engine. Eliminating the layers of contraction in the body/mind allows the vibration to slow . . the rev to soften . . . you to open.

This process of uncoiling has been spoken to throughout history and across domains from the ancient mystics to contemporary religious teachings. In the last few decades, even science has begun to support the stillness model of opening.

We are beginning to see how the principles of quantum physics apply to creating success in our lives. Some of these principles are:

o everything is energy - even you and me;

o almost everything in the universe is just empty space;

o vibration is the most subtle disturbance in the universe;

o the universe is entirely interconnected and dynamic; and

o what you experience is influenced by your thought, your expectation.

If we are to experience peace, connection, and fulfillment, we will have to choose a way of being in the world that reflects this larger view, these principles and properties of the universe. As we become more like the universe, we find that we are totally supported by the universe instead of having to fight against it. We flow with the river instead of having to move against the current.

So, an approach that opens us begins to clear a lifetime of tension, resistance and disturbance, creating in us the experience of stillness. As we open, we actually slow the vibration or "rev" caused by disturbance in our bodies and minds.

And, finally, as energy flows unimpeded, you will discover that your true desire actually influences what occurs in life. From this place there is no need to work hard or worry. What you desire in ease and confidence will come to you effortlessly.

The experiences of a life in flow are high vitality, pleasure, peace, connectedness, and more creativity and intuition. Some of the specific everyday benefits are:

o You will sleep better and may actually need less sleep since you will be in a state of deeper rest all during your day.

o You will also experience less stress.

o You will enjoy better health.

o You will have less obsessive behavior, react less to circumstances, and have more options for behavior.

o You will notice that you will consistently receive the information and resources that you request.

The way to a life in flow is letting go. Although the process of letting go is simple, we've never learned it. We have had few models of it in our lives. So, it seems foreign.

Our culture teaches us that there is no gain without pain. We've mostly seen how to tighten up, narrow down, and focus in. We know how to use our attention to exclude things rather than to include them. We've learned to focus on the parts rather than on the connectedness of things.

Profound new tools that work at the level of vibration can accelerate your ability to let go. As your vibration shifts, you will open and flow with energy. All the other good things in life naturally follow from this relaxed, open, and inclusive state of being.

Happily, I have learned to live there.