Marc Allen - The Greatest Secret of All: Moving Beyond Abundance to a Life of True Fulfillment

Copyright 2008 by Marc Allen

All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, or other without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

Text design by Tona Pearce Myers

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Allen, Mark, 1946
The greatest secret of all : moving beyond abundance to a life
of true fulfillment / Marc Allen.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-57731-619-0 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Self-actualization (Psychology) 2. New Thought.
3. Affirmations. I. Title.
BF637.S4A5733 2008

First printing, January 2008

ISBN: 978-1-57731-619-0

Printed in Canada on 100% postconsumer-waste recycled paper

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Somewhere along the many paths Ive taken, it became obvious to me that every one of us is completely unique. Every one of us is an original, even a creative genius, in some way or ways. We all have a long and winding and absolutely original path, and each of us makes our discoveries in our own way.

It can be helpful at times to hear another persons story; what has worked for me just might work for you as well. Feel free to skim through this Introduction, if you wish. Find the words that grab your interest, and skip the rest.

The core of this book is in Part One, Part Two, and the Summary. There, slow down and take in the words, especially in the Summary, which is just a few pages. Youll notice that I return to the key points again and again, stating them in different ways. The repetition is important, in my opinion; it can take a long time for us to absorb this kind of life-altering information, and each time we hear it or read it, it sinks in a little deeper.

Ill start with a bit of my story. Throughout my twenties and early thirties, I had the opposite of the Midas touch. Everything I touched fell apart. Worse yet, I was on an intense emotional roller coaster much of the time, with a variety of anxieties and periods of immobilizing depression.

I dropped out of college to join a theater company that fell apart within a year. I joined another company, and that fell apart too after just a few months. I wandered to a Zen center and got kicked out for breaking the rules. I tried a back-to-the-land experiment that only lasted a few cold, wet months. I spent over three years at a Tibetan Buddhist center, working very hard, making no money at all, and not making much progress in my understanding of anything that helped improve my unsatisfactory life.

I wandered around the spiritual smorgasbord of Berkeley, California, for a few years, living on almost nothing. I was fired as a busboy and dishwasher for being too slow. I was fired as a typesetter for not showing up on time. I had a rock band that lasted a few years before it broke up.

And then I turned thirty. I woke up in a state of shock, finally realizing I wasnt a kid anymore. I had no job and no savings or any other assets except an old torn-up electric piano. I was scrounging (a word we used often) to come up with $65 every month for rent for my little studio apartment in a funky part of Oakland, California.

That day changed my life, because I began to apply some ideas in some new ways, ideas that before had just been occasional floating thoughts, ephemeral and remote possibilities in my mind. I sat down and wrote on paper what became for me, in my words the first secret of manifestation:

The day I turned thirty, I sat down and took a sheet of paper and wrote Ideal Scene at the top. I imagined everything had gone as well as I could possibly imagine, and somehow, over the next five years, I was able to create the ideal life for me. What would it look like? What would I do and have, and who would I be?

I was surprised, even shocked in a strange way, at what came spilling out on paper. I imagined I had a publishing company, successfully publishing books and music, including my own books and music. Before I sat down and wrote out my ideal scene, I had absolutely no interest in business. I had never taken a business course. I had never written a book or recorded my music. The words that spilled out when I wrote my ideal scene surprised me as much as they were to surprise just about everyone else I knew.

I imagined I wrote successful books and recorded beautiful music as well. I imagined I had a lovely white home on a hill in northern California, one of my favorite places on earth. I imagined I had a wonderfully loving relationship. I dared to imagine my ideal, so I imagined I had plenty of time for it all: creativity, a successful business, friends and family, and plenty of free time alone for myself as well.