The other night we heard a comedian on television talking about the fact the optimists are people that always think things are going to get better, and the pessimists are always right. I don’t think either one of those are true. But it is interesting to take the idea that comes primarily from India, and now from science, and look at this question of what is this that we call reality. The answer that’s emerging is it is an illusion over which we have a profound amount of control.

Now, if you really thought about that, you really believed, and if it really was true, then it makes sense to say, “Well, if we are in control of this, if this is going according to our idea of creation, and we have somehow or another been given the power to do this, then wouldn’t it make sense to get as good an illusion as possible to live in and to have that be your life? ” It would be for me. It would make a lot of sense.

Let me just give you some insight and some facts and big figures. Since 9/11, and including 9/11, there have been a little over 3,000 people killed in this country as a result of terrorist attacks. During that time, there have been less than 30 terrorists involved, including last week’s event at Boston. We don’t think that this is a small number, but it’s an incredibly statistically small number when you compare it with all of the people who have been killed since 9/11 by gunshot wounds. It’s a huge number. It’s 300,000 people. Interestingly enough, a significant portion of those people have been killed by suicide. Apparently, guns are still the weapon of choice when it comes to suicide.

So if you’re thinking about this, and I have been, then you realize that this big number of people that have been killed by gunshot, including the suicides, somehow or another were living their lives in total fear. That transfers to us when we become fearful of a terrorist attack or really anything else. If we are really creating this illusion that we’re living in, there is no place for fear. There’s no reason for fear. We’re here. We are eternal, and we are going to survive here until we choose to leave here. But everywhere you look, there is evidence that justifies our fear.

I was always surprised when I moved to Telluride. I thought this was probably the safest place in America. There was one road in, and it was the same road out. There were no stop signs. There was one stop sign, and there were no traffic lights. There were no chain food stores. There was a tiny, little community of 2,200 souls. Yet, these people, who were so safe that people wouldn’t even know where Telluride was, were equally as fearful as the people who lived in downtown Manhattan. Somehow or another, this fear thing, against all common sense, grabs us when we least expect it and most don’t want it.

So I’m going to suggest to you something that I am working on myself. Jerry Jampolsky, in his book “Love is Letting Go of Fear,” said that you can’t have or experience love and fear at the same time. That’s the same kind of thought that Einstein said when he said, “You cannot be preparing for war and trying to create peace.” They are mutually exclusive. So if fear and love are mutually exclusive, then we might as well begin to look at the things that we can do that express love. By the way, we all have love for each other, some for a few of each other and some for all of each other. But that love cements the idea that we are all one and not just with the humans. I mean the whole thing.

This is all one seamless piece of reality-illusion that connects us on a cellular level, on a neurological level with each other, with this planet, and with this universe. If we knew for certain, and we can, that we are going to be eternal and we’re going to be eternal because we are consciousness, and consciousness is going to be eternal. If we knew all that, then we would say, “Well, wait a minute. Let’s just go ahead and change all the things that we are afraid of.” The way to do that is you can’t change a system by resisting it or trying to tear it down. The way you change a system is create a better system that people will come to. Margaret Mead said, “New technology always replaces old technology. No exceptions.” So it must be true that new ways of looking at the world and expressing love can and will and do replace fear.

So I’d like to suggest something to you. Run a little exercise. The exercise is keep a notepad, and on this side say to yourself, “Well, what are the things that I seem to be afraid of on a daily basis? What am I looking at?” On this side, look at all the ways that you know you can overcome those fears. Now, imagine living in Telluride, Colorado at 10,000 feet with 2,200 souls on 9/11, and they’re never going to be touched by anything. Yet they were equally afraid as the people were in New York. That fear was not justified. It was not necessary. It was simply a response, an illusion to a situation that happened 2,000 miles away. We do not need to carry the world’s fear with us. When we do carry it, we carry such a load that we can’t see anything else.

The only way to change this thing is to make up our minds, one at a time, one day at a time, one hour at a time, one breath at a time that we are not going to see fear. We’re going to see love. This week, just give us a little thought. Keep that list and at the end of the week ask yourself, “What happened? Was I able to change anything?” If you were, I’d like to hear from you. In fact, if you were, you can call me on Skype. That’s ChuckRobison on Skype. We’ll record your conversation, and we’ll play it as part of the Masters Class because it’s very important. That’s it for this week. Thank you very much, and I’m glad you were here. Bye.