Timothy Schultz:

I am really excited to be joined here right now with Mike Dooley, New York Times bestselling author featured in The Secret, creator of Notes from the Universe, which reaches millions of people. Mike Dooley, how are you doing today?

Mike Dooley:

I'm doing great, Tim. Honored to be with you. Thanks for having me.

Timothy Schultz:

Thank you so much for taking the time. Before people knew you from The Secret and everything that you've built, what did that period of your life look like before all of this happened and you were reaching millions of people? Did you have any sense of where this might go?

Mike Dooley:

Mike Dooley:

In that moment, which was just a couple of years before things really blasted off, I was dangling by a thread. I was scared. I was humiliated. I was lost. I initially took the approach of "I better figure out what's wrong with me because I'm self-sabotaging, and if I don't figure it out, I'm going to loop around endlessly." It dawned on me after beating myself up as severely as I was that on the plane of manifestation, where we all live our lives, where our thoughts become things, so powerful are we that whatever it is we are in hot pursuit of, wealth and abundance, love and romance, or finding out what's wrong with us, we're either going to eventually get there, and my life did bear that out, we're either going to find what we're looking for or we're going to make it up out of thin air. That's our power. We're going to make it up. Our thoughts become things. If I'm just hell-bent on finding out all of my flaws and that's where all my focus goes, oh my God, I'm going to find stuff and make stuff up and not know the difference between either and not be able to carry on. I was so worried about losing my home and getting my life back on track, if that was even possible. I did have doubts. Back then, when I was 39, about to turn 40, I felt like I'm ancient, and look what I've got to show for it. Nothing, so I made this pivot. It was like, okay, look, you know who you are, the eyes and the ears of the divine. Your thoughts become things. All things are possible. You're pushed onto greatness. You haven't manifested that life quite yet, although there were sparks everywhere and lots of good times. Double down. Live what you know to be the truth, and later on you can figure out why your life ended up in a train wreck. If you don't focus on what you want and imagine your life as if it was already the life of your dreams, you're never going to get there by looking for what's wrong with you, if that's your sole focus.

Mike Dooley:

Mike Dooley:

I know I'm on a rant here, excuse me. When I look back just for humor, and I did this little drill 20 years ago, after I'm in The Secret and everything is just turning to gold, I was like "What ever did screw up my life so much that on the cusp of 40, everything appeared to be a train wreck?" I thought that's safe territory now, I'm not going to tailspin, I can coast. I could not find any sign of a train wreck. It was clear that my life came to a halt in almost every major regard, income, business, romance. But by coming to a halt, earlier dreams of mine, which had been much bigger than our t-shirt business, were able to align. It's like the train of my life stopped so that it could change tracks and go higher, faster, better, quicker than the track I was on. It was the so-called train wreck. We're too quick to pass judgment on ourselves when we meet rejection or disappointment. The so-called train wreck was the beginning of the biggest dreams of my life coming true. I was at peril of waving the white flag. I'm broken. I'm bad. I don't believe in myself. I'm self-sabotaging and I don't know why. I would have made it so much worse if I had stayed on that path. Not that I was perfect then nor now, but when you go looking for what's wrong with you, you're going to find it or make it up, and you won't know the difference. Meanwhile, you could have at least simultaneously be following your heart, taking baby steps, moving in the direction of your dreams, and achieving both. I don't know if I ever did not believe in myself. At the time, it sure looked like that was my problem. I was not worthy, but I can tell you today, Tim, I know I believe in myself. I know I'm worthy. Whatever invisible limiting beliefs I may have had were mightily eroded without me pinning the tail on the donkey, just by the evidence I have otherwise gathered. That stands to be a possibility for anyone and everyone listening and watching right now.

Timothy Schultz:

If you could go back and tell your 40-year-old self something with where you're at now, what would you say?

Mike Dooley:

I would say "Just hang in there. You have no idea how good things are going to get. You have no idea how poised you are for greatness. Everything is lining up for you." We can't see the miracles. I equate manifesting to GPS navigation. You're going on a three-hour journey to a town or a home you've never been to in your entire life. At what point do you know that every left and right-hand turn was spot on, perfect, a miracle when you arrive, and not one damn minute earlier? It's the same in life. There's miracles unending. Even the setback is to set up for better, but if you judge, "I just turned on Alligator Alley. Never been here before. This can't be right. This isn't Key West," it's how you get to Key West. Don't draw bogus conclusions, and that doesn't mean don't soul search. That doesn't mean don't ask big questions. That doesn't mean don't reassess how could I do this more lightly with more joy and more fun. There's always room for that. The distinction I was trying to make is I was all about, for a spell of time, finding out what's wrong with me. If that's your only track, you're going to succeed and it'll be demoralizing, debilitating, depressing. You can do both. More often than not, I just advocate go for your dreams, because in the journey, if you've got issues, they're going to show up and then you can face them in the journey by sidestepping, journaling, going within, while you continue to stretch.

Timothy Schultz:

So many people, when they are on the journey, they get caught up in the timing of it. They get frustrated that this or that or whatever they're trying to manifest in their dream life hasn't happened yet. What do people most misunderstand about manifestation when nothing seems to be happening?

Mike Dooley:

There's a whole heck of a lot. First and foremost is don't be using clocks or your physical senses to judge your progress or seeming lack thereof. I know how it goes. It was two years before I really got a foothold. It felt like forever. I would bemoan to my mother and bum cigarettes off of her, like, "Where's the freakin' magic? It's not working. What am I doing wrong?" Then when I realized it, it was really a moment. I just got back from speaking in Europe. I was booking a flight to speak in Hawaii and I had this sudden flash. I was like, "I'm living the life of my dreams. When did this happen?" It happened during these months that I was badmouthing the universe and claiming that there's no magic. I was at risk and peril of losing it all, saying it's a bunch of hoo-ha and it's not going to work, it's not working for me. But to alleviate the frustrations or to impart patience, one of the best things we can do is be as present in every moment and every day as we possibly can while doing the best we can to choose pathways that somehow might align with our passions, joys, or at least promising future joy. When you're emerging from the depths of despair as I was, if somebody said, "What is the life of your dreams," I'd be like "I have no flippin' idea." At this stage, I had hated the corporate world, bombed in the entrepreneurial world. What other worlds are there? I suggest assess your options. If you're coming from the dark night of the soul like I was, they all suck, so assess your sucky options. Make a list of 10. I could go work at McDonald's. I could go dig ditches. I could go back to being an accountant. I could clean houses. I could pet sit. I could write my book. Decide what the three least sucky are. At least have three, and commit within a few days to begin going down each of those paths while perhaps raising your family, while perhaps keeping that job that you don't like, not to learn to love it, but just to tide you over. Begin making headway in what seems to be the closest avenues you could find to something that might light you up one day. Invariably, the road we start out on when we want transformation is never, nor could it be, the road we will end up on, which means everyone's got to start on the wrong road. But if you can start with presence and understanding and make the best of it, not to learn to love it but to free yourself from it, and you're dabbling in a direction that perhaps lights you up, decoration, beauty secrets, teaching kids, the list is endless, this is going to eventually get you on track. Like GPS, you're going to go from Sunset Drive to County Road 535 to I-4 to the Turnpike to Alligator Alley to A1A. All those roads, except for A1A, are wrong, but they're going to lead to better and better and better.

Mike Dooley:

For me, my passion had always been the nature of reality. Who the hell are we? Why are we here? What's the point? How can we have the best time possible in space? It didn't seem to play out well for me by the time I was hitting 40, although I had a rocking career with Pricewaterhouse for six years. I had a rocking seven of ten years selling t-shirts. I still felt like go in the direction of the nature of reality, and perhaps by teaching it, you'll master it even better. That does seem to be exactly what happened. I moved in the direction of inspiration, of truth, of discovery, of self-realization. I taught thoughts become things. Our words give us wings. We're pushed on to greatness. That became my schtick, if you will, in the emails and the audio recordings and in the world tour events. That bought me time to being so busy, I didn't even realize my dream had come true until I looked back with hindsight and was like, "Damn, man. I'm doing it. I'm in my element, talking and teaching what I most love, making money, meeting girls." It still is a fairy tale, Tim.

Timothy Schultz:

It's very inspirational. What made you realize that thoughts become things? Is there a moment that made you realize this?

Mike Dooley:

Like I said, always it was my leaning and fascination. Literally as a boy, I remember going to my mother. We were raised Catholics. I am not one today, all due respect. I'm not religious. I'm spiritual. I would ask, "How could anything not be God? What would it be made of? How could there be a hell? Wouldn't God be big enough to say, "You're my creation. I must have blew it. Let me give you another chance. We have for eternity."" I remember thinking that time had to be illusionary. If you made a timeline a zillion trillion years in either direction, that doesn't show up in the scope of eternity. It can't be what we think it is. In my early teens and just before, I would be thinking stuff like that. I was a competitive tennis player, pushed by my mother too much. She got these books on creative visualization, psycho-cybernetics, the inner game of tennis, visualize, visualize. There seemed to be something there that did make a difference in my life as a kid playing national competitive tennis. I remember in college, University of Florida, I would be doubled over, just like what the hell? Why are we here? What is the freakin' point? Everybody dies. Everybody, and they're gone forever. I'm missing something. Right about then, serendipitously, my mom who was an avid reader, I was not, she sent me a book and she said, "I've got to warn you. It's written by a lady in trance who channels this higher portion of her spiritual family." I'm like, "Mom, this is just one bridge too far. You have lost it," and she's like, "Shut up, Mike." I was always close to her. She said, "When you get it, you read it, and then pass judgment." She knew I hated reading, especially back then. It was the Seth Material, author Jane Roberts. She channeled Seth, and the books answered my questions. The books went further than questions I could even contemplate. The books were kind and loving. There was zero agenda. There was no call to arms. There was no place to send donations. Seth just blew my mind. From that point in my life and in her life, and then ultimately in my brother's and my sister's lives, we fell into the truth about the nature of reality. It's absolute. It's knowable. It's objective. It's benign. It puts wind under our wings. We're all of God, by God, pure God. We're all creators through our chosen mental focus. We're all eternal beings. Everything plays to a greater good. There is no ending, there's no real goodbyes, and that's about the rule book. The movable part there is that we are creators based on what we focus on. Thoughts become things.

Mike Dooley:

When we had our 10-year run selling t-shirts, we sold a million t-shirts in 10 years, the three of us, Mom, Andy my brother, and I. I had written one of our better selling t-shirts. I wrote most of them. My brother's a genius artist and he did all the art. One of the best-selling t-shirts was Warning. It had a little stick figure with no arms, his little hair straight up and funny face. Thoughts become things. Choose the good ones, and then that evolved into choose them wisely. For me, and I'm sure others have said those three words together, but for me when I wrote that shirt after pages and pages of failed attempts and I saw these three words together, on page three of seven in my journal, I was like, thoughts become things. That says everything. Those are the most potent, powerful three words probably in any language on earth. It says everything. It's not kind of, not sort of, not maybe, not if you're lucky. Thoughts become things.

Mike Dooley:

In spite of that shirt, the t-shirt business did not survive. Fast forward years and years from that t-shirt, and I was being interviewed by Rhonda's team for The Secret, those were the words that came to mind. I was like, thoughts become things. It's been my tagline even before The Secret, but certainly since The Secret. Coming to those words was kind of a life's pursuit, if you will, a life's fascination with what is termed metaphysics. I know that sounds really woo-woo and sketchy and rainbows and unicorns, but Google it. Metaphysics is the study of reality and/or sciences that belie, that sit beneath the known sciences. You've got physics, biology, chemistry, quantum physics, and beneath that is metaphysics, which is really hard to find in a laboratory so it gets pushed to the side. Instead, most of our scientists, like most of the entire world dabble in the illusions thinking their reality, time, space, and matter, not realizing that what gives rise to reality is spirit, is consciousness, is thought that divine intelligence aka God is the entirety of the illusions, and we are, if you will, mini me's of divine intelligence, fully-fledged God particles ourself, capable of moving mountains as was biblically said.

Timothy Schultz:

A lot of people that are watching or listening to this today are also very much interested in things such as years ago, I won a lottery prize, but I had a dream about it three months before it happened. I've had lots of dreams about things before they've happened. I've met and interviewed scientists and other people that have had similar experiences with not just the lottery but with all kinds of things in life. My question to you is, how much of that is just pure random luck in that sense vs. that we're either tapping into something or creating something through our energy? What are your thoughts on that sort of thing, luck and our energy?

Mike Dooley:

There's no such thing as luck. There's no such thing as random. The dream of life here and now is virtually identical structurally to a dream we have at night. I create my nighttime dreams, you create yours. Nobody's pushing buttons, doing nothing. We all know that we are the creator of our nighttime dreams. In those dreams, very often when we remember them, there's gravity and sunlight and a chirping bird or a charging wildebeest or whatever. In the dream at night, we don't know we're dreaming. But it gives us a stage to learn more about ourselves, to discover our power, to play out and resolve issues or challenges. I have as many icky dreams as I do happy dreams, but I know they all serve a purpose. Whether or not I figure out what that purpose is, as Seth would say, the work was done. You don't have to decode your dreams to have been enriched by them. Because we truly are everywhere always at once, time is an illusion, space is an illusion. Einstein proved that. It's quite common that we can tune into probabilities. Nothing is destined. Nothing is set in stone. Those probabilities may thrill us or terrify us, but it's still just an illusionary probability because life is just an illusion, not to detract from its beauty and meaning either. You remember the dream in which you won the lottery and then later you won it. That is not necessarily, in my view, prophetic, or you dream you won the lottery so you're going to win the lottery. In someone else's dream, the lottery might be metaphoric. They might be about to meet somebody wonderful, and they've cast it in their dream for their own intents and purposes to be a Powerball game or something like that, or somebody like you maybe tuned into a probability and you actually saw that. Other people will have dreams that horrify them. Equally, that doesn't mean it's going to happen. It's some kind of symbolic message that was received and will be incorporated into your existence, and thereby benefit you. You may remember it. You might not remember it. Remember, we are all-powerful and we are not vulnerable to circumstances. There's no such thing as predetermination or destiny. If somebody had a bad dream and they were scared, like, "Oh God, this is foretelling and I better get my trust and will and estate documents in order because I might be checking out soon," just because you had a dream doesn't necessarily, from your conscious egoic mind, mean anything that you might think it means. The more someone works with their nighttime dreams and they journal them and become familiar with that territory, many spiritual teachers, including Seth, highly recommend that, not as a means to read the future, but as a means to better understand yourself and to make adjustments or corrections or enhancements as you go for the sheer joy of living. That's what it's all about. Nobody came here to learn how to survive. Nobody came here to see how beaten down they could be. Things like that happen through spells of our lives, but we're not vulnerable and we can change the channel, change our thinking, change our life. I think it's fun that stuff like that happens, but still, each of our tomorrows and the remainder of our lives will be predicated entirely based on the thoughts we choose to think between now and their manifestation.

Mike Dooley:

You said sometimes manifestations take a long time. Scientists tell us we think 60,000 thoughts a day. While somebody might say, "This is my dream," simultaneously, there's probably 400 other things that are also really important to them and there's some fears that they're dealing with, which they need to embrace and see beyond. There's work to be done there. But when you've got so many things racing through your mind, many of which you want and some of which you don't want but you keep thinking about them, it's quite an obstacle course out there. The ones that can be aligned the quickest and the ones that are most aligned with truth, and I'll clarify that in just a sec, are the thoughts that will become the things and events of our lives soonest. The clarification I wanted to offer is one of my favorite personal realizations, and I've seen it play out. To a degree, I do recall Seth talked about the same thing. When I first became aware in my early 20s of how powerful our thoughts were, like end all and be all, not just influential but almighty, first there's euphoria, and then there's like "Oh crap. I'm worried about this and I'm worried about that. I'm worried I'm going to get fired at Pricewaterhouse. I'm worried that my girlfriend is going to run away from me." Sometimes I couldn't stop worrying. I'm a good worrier. Not as good as I used to be, but I still have my times, my moments. I would think I'm doomed. Thoughts become things. It's an absolute immovable law, and here I am worried about A, B, and C nonstop. I'm just going to surrender. I could tell you stories of fear and worry that never came to pass and made me double back. If thoughts become things is as dependable as gravity, and it is, then how come so many of my fears and dreads never came to pass? The answer is hallelujah, being of God, by God, pure God, all of us. Here to rock and roll and careen through the jungles of time and space, these sacred, beautiful, safe jungles of time and space, to discover our power anew, to revel in the glory of creation, to smell a flower and taste some honey and hold a hand is like "Oh my God." It's so intoxicating.

Mike Dooley:

We came here with those intents and purposes. God doesn't go where God doesn't want to go. Doesn't have to. It'd be silly, futile, no point. That could raise questions. What about the starving child in Ethiopia? Maybe we'll go there, maybe we won't. Everything has an answer. Not that it all puts a smiley face on it, but given our drive, our intention, and the love that is the glue of all reality, that's another one of the inviolate truths that I was speaking of before being objective. When we think thoughts in alignment with truth that we're powerful, that we're loved, that we're eternal, that love is the glue, those thoughts become things a lot easier than "I'm stupid. Nobody likes me. I'm bad at math. It probably won't happen. Things never work out for me." You can't judge who you are based on stubbing your toe or a few times you fell down, or because you were abused or whatever it was. That's not all of you. Anybody can drill down, as we've been doing and I've been talking, connecting dots, seeing the obvious. We live in a flippin' magical, bountiful, abundant universe. We then begin to realize when we think thoughts in alignment with this beauty and abundance, they go with the flow. They go with the truth of who we really are, which is an absolute truth. It's not an opinion. As arrogant as that may sound, remember, you could count my truths on one hand, beauty, power, love, unity, etc. When you think thoughts out of alignment with truth, it's tough. It's not easy. We can do it, but it's not easy. We typically call thoughts in alignment with truth, not realizing that that's what's going on. We call that positive thinking, and thoughts out of alignment with truth typically called negative thinking. This is not a judgment thing. Thoughts in alignment with truth, there's no judgment there vs. thoughts out of alignment with truth. Thoughts in alignment with truth become things much easier and much faster. I now tell audiences, "Don't worry that you worry. Do your best to curb it. Give it a rest. You're going to prevail. You're not vulnerable. Don't worry that you worry." This is kind of a paradox. Life is not fair, not even close. The cards are so stacked in our favor, it's like we're cheating every single day. It's not fair because we're exceedingly powerful and we're extremely likely to live our dreams if we dare to dream them and settle for nothing less. March on and enjoy the journey. Smell the flowers and press the flesh and make new friends. That's the name of the game. We've just been led by fear heretofore. That's changing now with the Great Awakening. People are waking up. Life, we'll greet you as heaven on earth.

Timothy Schultz:

That is beautiful. Thank you very much. For people that are watching or listening that really believe in the power of feeling, or some people are really into feeling the outcome before it happens, in addition to getting aligned with the timing and with the truth, how important or unimportant do you think that the feeling of something to manifest your goal is?

Mike Dooley:

Emotion is the determining factor. Feeling is the fuel that helps you keep thinking what you want to be thinking. When I say thoughts become things, really, thoughts is an umbrella term that includes everything else that courses through us, words or wordless, especially emotions. Emotions are the turbocharger rocket fuel that will bring about your expectations and intentions quicker than ever. It's all under the umbrella of thoughts, but you're right to point that out. If you are lacking passion for whatever it is you claim to be wanting, or you're wanting it to please your mom who was never satisfied with you, or you're wanting it so society will respect you more, anything other than your own joy is a waste of time. It's your joy that will help you feel passion and excitement for the possibilities that await you, brand new discoveries and awe. I advocate when people are visualizing, imagine the details. Don't attach to the details but imagine the big picture, wealth, friends, laughter, romance, travel. Visualize you're in Paris. Visualize you're in Tokyo. Visualize all the details, but it's not the details. What matters is the travel, the abundance, the financial freedom, the health, the vitality, the rejuvenation, the love that's in your life. That's what matters. That you can attach to and insist upon, but visualize the details to get you excited about it. If I was going to Hong Kong, I'd want to fly Cathay Pacific on their famous lay flat sleeper seats, so there I am and there's the logo behind my head. I'm going to order a glass of champagne and have a cup of coffee and take a little nap and listen to whoever I want to listen to on the sound system. You're dressing up the vagueness of love, joy, abundance, romance with all kinds of sexy details that thrill you. You feel the joy. There's a happy tear running down your face. Feel it, feel it, feel it, and then when you're done, let it go. Then go out, take baby steps, enjoy what you already have, who you already are. Move in the direction of Hong Kong. Move in the direction of wherever you want to go. I made several points there that I usually have far more time to share. The details are awesome. Get into the details, but then surrender the details. Don't surrender the overall overarching objective. I want transformation financially. I want transformation with my occupation and creative fulfillment. I want transformation in terms of intimate relationships. Those you insist upon. Anybody can have those. But if it's "I want a great relationship, travel, partner with benefits, and it's got to be Trixie, Trixie lights me up, she's my soulmate, oh Trixie do love me, Trixie I love you, universe work your magic," there are eight billion other contenders, four billion of which are women, one billion of which may be viable. You're going to limit divine intelligence and insist that it's Trixie, not realizing Trixie has issues. She might not be the one. You can visualize Trixie, but always surrender to or better. I want Trixie or better. Trixie's my model, but I don't know awe, give me better. The same thing with other, more refined wishes. Always add or better, and then the universe has infinite latitude. You visualize the details, maybe even the whos vs the hows, the whens, the wheres, and then you let it go and you get back to your rocking life now. You take action and you move in that direction, and you ask for help and you knock on doors. You turn over stones. You go and you never stop, and your life will blow you away.

Timothy Schultz:

I love it. Thank you so much. We are here with Mike Dooley. You are the author of several books. I know you have a course and all kinds of things. Where can people find them?

Mike Dooley:

18.

Timothy Schultz:

Oh my gosh.

Mike Dooley:

They can find my books at Amazon, Mike Dooley. I think I'm in 27 languages now. Not all of the 18 books are in all those languages. Several New York Times bestsellers. You can Google me. Go to Amazon. I do have a website, tut.com, The Universe Talks. That's where I send out my free daily notes from the universe, really short, tiny emails. The universe is your buddy reminding you of your power and the infinite possibilities that await you. That's how people can wet their toes, wet their whistle and see if what I offer might work for them. The free daily email's at tut.com.

Timothy Schultz:

We will link to that in the show notes if you're listening to this or in the description if you're watching this on YouTube. Mike, this is so inspirational. I could ask questions that would go on for hours and take all day, but I do respect your time. Is there anything else that you want to say today that I didn't ask or that I don't know enough to ask?

Mike Dooley:

No, you were pretty good, Tim. I love what you're doing. Thanks for being a light in the world. We are going through some turbulence right now on planet Earth. I'm sure everyone knows what I'm talking about, the polarization of the masses, the crazy headlines all the time. I would say it still applies. You're not vulnerable. You're powerful. You can create your own heaven on Earth in your own corner of the world, and you'll attract the right people who think like you. Together, you can usher in your own paradise, your own dreams, so don't be distracted by this. We're moving through a time that was prophesized where the old systems that got us this far are not able to take us any further, and that's good. They serve their purpose. New and better systems are coming. There'll be more unity, more cooperation, more joy, more transparency. Some people don't want change, but the change that is coming, irrevocably the planet Earth is going to usher in a golden era, much of which we will see in this lifetime. Keep the faith, keep dreaming, keep shining, and the storm will pass to a much brighter world.

Timothy Schultz:

Beautiful. Mike Dooley, thank you so much for your time today and thank you for being here. I really appreciate your insights and for being here today.

Mike Dooley:

Tim, it was an honor. Thank you.