Blissful Innocence
by Alan Cohen
A few years ago I attended a screening of
made-for-TV video clips of paranormal and supernatural phenomena. One of the
more humorous segments depicted "The Magnetic Family" of the
Philippines -- a family that, for some unknown reason, has their bodies
magnetized to such a high degree that metal objects hold fast to their skin. The
audience gasped and laughed to view paper clips, metal forks, and even a steam
iron stuck to the bodies of this family, sheerly by magnetic force.
After the presentation the
organizer introduced me to the group, and for a joke I called myself "the
Magnetic Man of Maui". The audience laughed, and the gathering soon
dispersed.
As I was standing on the porch
of the house where the screening had been held, a seven-year-old girl came up to
me and tugged on my sleeve. I looked down to recognize her as one of several
children at the viewing. Then, without a word, the child took a quarter from her
hand and pressed it to my bare forearm. At first I thought the girl was trying
to give me the quarter, but then, when the quarter fell to the ground, she
frowned, looked up, and exclaimed, "I thought you said you were
magnetic!"
A moment of laughter soon
deepened to a profound realization: An innocent mind is open to all
possibilities. Jesus taught "if you want to enter the Kingdom of
Heaven, you must become like a little child."
We have heard that
"ignorance is bliss," and we usually judge and criticize ignorant
people. Yet there is a form of ignorance that serves us well, and that is
ignorance of limiting beliefs. A Calvin and Hobbes cartoon declared, "It's
not denial. I'm just selective about the reality I accept." Every reality
is available to you -- including ones far more wondrous than the one you now
live in -- and you can easily step into a bigger universe if you but drop your
beliefs of what you can't do.
If you think you know it all, and what you have learned is "the only
truth", you cut yourself off from all the truth grander than the one you
currently know.
When I wrote The
Dragon Doesn't Live Here Anymore in 1981, I was blissfully ignorant
about writing and the book industry. I wrote for the sheer delight of expressing
myself creatively, and I published the book myself. Within a few months the book
became popular, and before long I was reprinting in volumes of 10,000 and
traveling around the world to present seminars.
Then one day I walked into a
bookstore where my book was being sold, and I was appalled at the huge number of
books on similar subject matter -- they took up nearly a whole wall! Suddenly
it occurred to me that if I had walked into the store and saw all the excellent
and successful work already presented in my field, I probably would never had
set pen to paper. But I was ignorant -- and that made all the difference.
Later as I got to know the
publishing industry, I learned all the rules; what kinds of books sell, covers
that attract attention, agents who can influence publishers, formulas to appeal
to various kind of audiences, etc. etc. etc. In retrospect, I sure am glad I
didn't know the rules, because most of the rules lead to the disappointing
conclusion that only a small percentage of writers will succeed. Some of the
other people who did not know the rules were Dale Carnegie, Norman Vincent Peale,
and James Redfield. Is there a message here?
Back in 1951, running a
four-minute mile was considered physiologically impossible, Then Roger Bannister
ran the mile in 3:58, and within six months forty other contenders beat the
unbeatable limit. A few years ago in Australia, a 61-year-old farmer named Cliff
Young entered a grueling 400 kilometer race wearing coveralls and galoshes. As
the younger well-trained athletes who competed with him laughed, Cliff went on
to win the race in record time -- a full day and a half before competition
forty years his junior. How did Cliff do the impossible? Nobody told him he was
supposed to sleep.
The word impossible begins with
an imp. Get the imp out of your vision, and you will return to your original
innocence. God created the world in perfection, and if we do not see perfection
it is only because we are choosing to use a vision that is smaller than God's. A
friend told me, "I used to think I was a perfectionist because everywhere I
looked I saw flaws. Now I realize that I was actually an imperfectionist. If I
was really a perfectionist, I would see only perfection."
Swami Satchidananda teaches,
"We started out fine. Then we got de-fined. Now we need to get
re-fined." Perhaps children are the happiest people on the planet because
they have not learned what they cannot do. They have not been taught to fear and
judge and hate, and they have no concept that they must justify their existence
by hard work. Lord, please keep me ignorant, so I may remember my innocence and
see the world as You created it.
Book by the author of this article:
 Dare to Be Yourself: How to Quit Being an Extra in Other Peoples Movies and Become the Star of Your Own
by Alan Cohen.
In this powerful map to self-discovery, Alan Cohen draws on sources
from Buddhism to the Bible, from Gandhi and Einstein to A Course In
Miracles, sharing many of his own radiant moments of revelation on the
spiritual path.
Info/Order this book.
 About The Author
Alan
Cohen is the author of numerous popular inspirational books, including the
award-winning A
Deep Breath of Life. To request a free catalog of Alan's books,
tapes, and seminars, call 1-800-462-3013 or visit Alan's web site at www.alancohen.com.
For info on upcoming events, contact 455A Kukuna Road, Haiku, HI 96708,
(800) 568-3079, email:
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