What Others are saying about A Manual For Mastering Your Life:

In a world where the conventional medical model teaches that health is the absence of disease, Guy Ale’s experiences and insights provided in this comprehensive and stimulating manual remind us again and again that health is much more than the absence of disease.

-Prof. Lakshman Madurasinghe, Consultant Psychologist; Chairman Board of Trustees, Academic Consortium of the Americas; Author of Clinical Psychology

A Manual For Mastering Your Life

Published by Guy Joseph Ale at Smashwords

Copyright 2014 by Guy J Ale.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this eBook with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it to your favorite eBook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Personal background

Near-death experiences

Scientific and spiritual discoveries

Unfolding consciousness

Meditation exercises

Body postures

Everyday application

Self-management skills

Letting go of bad habits

Acquiring good habits

About the Author

Other Titles by the Author

Connect with the Author

INTRODUCTION

Dear Reader, This book explains that it is in our DNA to sense how long we can live, and teaches how to do this. It is a scientific book in the way that Albert Einstein thought of science, as being nothing more than a focused study of everyday phenomena. Therefore, it is intended for every person who wants to master their lifespan potential. I have known how long I can live for the past nineteen years. To address skepticism head-on, this is not a fact but a potential, something that might come true if I make the right decisions. I believe that if I keep making correct choices in my life I may live to be 102. I have lived with this notion since 1992, and the longer I live it the more I believe it. Every doubt, disbelief, or wonder that a reader may feel at this statement I have experienced over the past nineteen years on a much more profound level. For the first several years of this notion I’ve fought and struggled with it, suspected it, didn’t know what to make of it, was scared of it, mistrusted it, tried to vigorously oppose it, but as it wouldn’t go away I gradually yielded to it, researched it, understood it, accepted it, and finally came to rely on it. Now I teach what I’ve learned. Another thing that must be acknowledged at the start is that this process has never been for me a means of self-aggrandizement or self-congratulation, but a journey of self-analysis, curiosity, and faith. I am not the source of this power, but am rather accessing this power at its source. What is the source? The Mind at Large. The order underlying all things in the universe. Albert Einstein also said, There is no logical way to the discovery of these elemental laws. There is only the way of intuition, which is helped by a feeling for the order lying behind them. My research over the past nineteen years of human evolution, behavior, nutrition, mind-body integration, and consciousness, along with my intuition, tell me that the ability to sense the amount of energy our bodies contain is a latent capacity in us, currently unknown, as the introduction of fire, the invention of flying, and the discovery of radio waves were before we revealed them. Latest science tells us that approximately 14 billion years ago a phenomenon we label the big bang occurred, and that counts as the origin of the universe as we presently understand it. What was before that no one knows for certain. We keep pushing the envelope of knowledge and keep discovering new galaxies out there, as we keep discovering new attributes in our minds and bodies. The notion that on average we use only 10% of our brain capacity might also reflect the fact that currently we know only that amount of the universe. As we will discuss further along these pages, the worlds within and without are interconnected and interdependent. We human beings are not a foreign entity that was randomly inserted into this universe from outside. We are made of the same building blocks of energy and matter of which the planets and stars are made. We are an offspring of the same cosmic forces. Every atom in our body comes from planet Earth, which in turn is made of the components of the galactic ash which resulted from the explosion of the big bang. We move through space with the other celestial bodies, and the same spirit that animates them also animates us. Until we find otherwise, we are the most advanced intelligence existing in the world. In order to be willing to incorporate a new system into our lives, two conditions must be met. First, our mind has to understand this new information so it can process and assimilate it; and second, we have to have the mechanism by which to acquire this new knowledge. Therefore, this book is composed of two main components: Philosophy and Practice. Philosophy will analyze the scientific, spiritual, evolutionary, and mental aspects of the awareness that we can sense how long we can live. And Practice will detail the workable means by which each person will be able to develop this perception in their own lives. Obesity is becoming the most prevalent public health problem in industrialized nations, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said in a study published in Paris on September 23, 2010. If recent trends continue, projections suggest that more than 2 out of 3 people will be overweight or obese in at least some OECD countries within the next 10 years, according to the study, Obesity and the Economics of Prevention. What is to be done? As a thoroughly pragmatic person, for me an idea is just that until it is proven in reality. The potential that I might live until the age of 102 is not a highfalutin theory but a practical approach to life which enables me to be the best version of myself at fifty, without the use of drugs, pills, or enhancements of any kind. Therefore my job, as the president of Lifespan Seminar, is to show you, dear reader, what I see in my life, which is a framework of life-affirming choices. Simply put, seeing how it works for the next person triggers similar insights in our psyche. As this book is being revised at the end of 2010 to incorporate the latest discoveries in the science of the cosmos and the science of the mind, we stand at the end of the beginning of a new millennium, of a fresh start of a period of a thousand years. Granted, these are only numbers on a page, but in our collective consciousness they carry deep symbolic significance. For example, the wedding chapels in Las Vegas, Nevada, were fully booked months in advance by couples who wanted their marriage certificates to be stamped with the date 10-10-10.Consciousness in the universe has been developing for the past 14 billion years since the big bang. We, the carriers of this consciousness, are at the present stage of evolution, and have not reached our final form. The perception of our duration is a natural step in our future progress.

PART 1 – PERSONAL BACKGROUND

"Our normal waking consciousness, rational consciousness as we call it, is but one special kind of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different…No account of the universe in its totality can be final which leaves these other forms of consciousness quite disregarded." – William James

I am now a proud American citizen but I was born in Georgia, which at the time was a republic of the Soviet Union, and although I only spent eight of my fifty years in that country, I carry a clear Georgian identity in me. Georgians are considered to be fiercely independent, and that attribute appeals to my own sense of freedom. The folk tales tell of people in the Caucasus Mountains living well past one hundred years. But current data do not support those legends. There are in the world Blue Zones, areas where there is documented evidence of high percentage of living centenarians (persons 100 and over), and super-centenarians (persons 110 and over), and Georgia is not one of them. These Blue Zones are: Icaria, Greece; Loma Linda, California; Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica; Okinawa, Japan; and Sardinia, Italy. However, because of Georgia’s clement weather, it was considered the bread-basket of the region, and its cuisine and food culture are well-known. What I gained from this is a life-long love of fruits and vegetables, of healthy eating habits – the opposite of fast food – and a solid judgment of good nutrition. Nothing that comes in a pill or a box is better than what is found in nature. Rather than looking for nutrients and vitamins in processed supplements, it is better to go to nature, where these nutrients originate. This also requires a shift in thinking from treating maladies after they occurred to healthy preventive habits. From playing catch-up to being proactive: deterring trouble before it happens. Yes, fresh vegetables and fruits are expensive and are not always available everywhere, but this is an effort that pays for itself in both health and wealth. Here’s the vicious cycle – people lose health to gain wealth, and then spend their wealth to try to regain their health. In most cases, the damage and neglect have gone for too long, and the bad habits in a person’s lifestyle have been ingrained so deeply, that a significant improvement in overall health is difficult to accomplish. The more effective paradigm is to see health as the true wealth, and from this perspective, make it a top priority at every stage of your life, which will enable you to be the best version of yourself at every age. When I was four, our family moved to Uzbekistan, in Central Asia, and I lived there till the age of eight. Uzbekistan has desert climate with temperatures reaching 115 degrees. At eight we went back to Georgia for another four years. My parents divorced, and when I was twelve years old, our family of mother, sister, grandmother and I moved to Israel. Looking back it is clear that my parents’ divorce was a big factor in my rebelliousness and experimentation in the years to come. Since I did not have a father figure in my life, someone to set clear boundaries, there were basic things I had to find out on my own, which on the one hand causes a sense of uncertainty, but on the other a sense of freedom. I am listing my early experience in these different countries as they relate to the focus of this book, because they gave me a very clear understanding that there is no one correct way of doing things. People in Georgia, Uzbekistan, Israel, and in the places I lived later, New York, Los Angeles, and the various countries I visited, go about their lives in different ways – and all these ways work. This realization gives our psyche a sense of flexibility, of limitless possibilities, and the license to think outside of boundaries. The Mind at Large, the consciousness flowing through every person, is infinite in nature. We set designations on ourselves, define ourselves as – an American, an executive, a blonde, not good at math – and through these delineations we have put borders on our minds and persons. I was born into a Jewish family, lived in a Muslim country as a child, and in predominantly Christian societies as an adult. I have never felt a part of any one religion, and have always felt at one with God.

1.1 Near-death experiences

I was almost killed at seventeen riding a motorcycle. I was knocked off my bike from behind by a car on a highway. Commonly in incidents like this certain images crystallize in our minds and stay forever. I have a clear recollection of lying on my back in the middle lane of the highway, my helmeted head facing the oncoming roaring traffic. Instinctively, I rolled to the left and was saved. This was the first genuine brush with physical death. When an incident like this happens, there naturally is a newfound appreciation of life, and a humble and liberating awareness of the precarious nature of existence. In a very strong sense it makes life all the more precious. Now you almost know what it would be like to die. My second brush with physical death happened in 2007 when I underwent a back surgery. As was explained to me, a fragment of a bone in my lower back broke off the edge of a vertebra and lodged itself in the nerve canal. As I attempted to move my body, this chip in the nerve canal touched on the nerve endings and sent piercing signals to the brain. I could not walk, stand, sit, or lie without debilitating pain. I understood at this time the condition of being incapacitated. Following an ordeal that lasted several weeks while the true nature of my situation was being diagnosed and the appropriate treatment determined, I went into surgery and then physical rehabilitation, and came out whole as ever, but now with an exceptional perspective on the tenuous character of the human body. If health is not there, nothing is there. Your life can be at the best circumstances imaginable – you can have someone you love who loves you back; you can have a loving family; you can have wealth and success at work and in society. All this abundance notwithstanding, an