Dear viewers, This is not the speech I gave of course, it is the speech I prepared. Speaking should be spontaneous, and it certainly was since Tutti called me in the middle of it and like a dutiful husband, I called her straight back from the podium to everyone’s hilarity! Unfortunately, she missed my call, otherwise she could have spoken to my audience of two hundred book enthusiasts as well! HAHAHA!! Anyhow, here is my speech. I’ll look forward to your feedback and please feel free to ask any questions that come to mind as a result.

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen,

First of all, I’d like to express my gratitude to Ocean and his team for giving so many writers this opportunity to express their passion on this wonderful Author’s Day and to have some direct exposure to you all, which would not be available otherwise. I’d also like to pay tribute to the great support Ocean has given me personally throughout the entire process of printing and uploading my book and if any of you here are considering writing and self publishing your own book, I can’t recommend Ocean and his team highly enough. It’s been a great experience and very much appreciated. Thanks so much Ocean.

So, let me introduce myself. I am Paul Bennett, also known as the Cranky Guru and my book is called “The Cranky Guru – Adventures in Metaphysics” ‘Metaphysics’… A lot of people don’t really get what that is. So, perhaps this Wikipedia definition will help?

But I can assist here with a much simpler definition and it’s this.

We’ll explore this concept in some detail in the time allotted to me this afternoon and I want to share some ideas you may find challenging and possibly unlike anything you’ve experienced before.

But before I do that, I’m often asked “why The Cranky Guru?” to which I reply “what’s it’s to ya? Do you want to make something of it?” HAHA! But the truth is, it’s a comfortable moniker to wear. Not too much pressure. I mean, Can you imagine if I had chosen “The Immaculate Guru” or “The Pristine Guru? Picture trying to live up to that every day? It would be insufferable wouldn’t it? And the truth of the matter is regardless of our aspirations, we’re all human, and prone to the endless vicissitudes of daily life.

But I need to point out that when I say “we’re all human” it’s not a put down of any kind. In fact, it’s the greatest accolade one could ever be paid! Because of all the monikers we might choose, to be ‘human’ is the greatest, even taking into account our foibles and flaws and perceived station in life!

Because it’s so chock full of potential for good things to happen, it’s THE moniker we should all wear with pride! It means, we made the planet! And what an achievement that is! And if we’re still on the planet, that’s also quite an achievement!

I wrote my book ‘The Cranky Guru – Adventures in Metaphysics‘ because I was brim full of positive ideas desperately seeking an outlet. From the earliest time and even before I had read any books on Metaphysics, I intrinsically knew that ‘what we think, we create’ and that ‘acting as if’ got the outcomes we wanted quicker! But, it’s the antithesis of how most people think isn’t it? More likely, it’s ideas like “be careful.” Don’t jump too quickly.” “Wait and see what happens and then act” that are the norm.

And in response to that, I say:

Crazy, maybe, and yet, isn’t it what every coach tells their athletes? They say IMAGINE yourself jumping higher, running faster, hitting harder? I love Einstein’s take on this concept. He said:

Einstein was very cool. He knew some stuff!

And before I go further, I want to make it clear, even though I live by metaphysical principles every day, I don’t consider myself an authority.

If I were to consider myself an authority, that is to think I know everything there is to know about this subject, then I would have merely ‘arrived at my limitation.’

And of course transcending our limitations is a recurring theme in Metaphysics. In truth, to get close to what I’m proposing, we need to transcend our conscious mind and even, as Eckhart Tolle suggests transcend thought. Why you may ask, would I say that? Isn’t it the mind that keeps us on track, tells us to be careful, avoid potholes, helps us catch buses, consider our options and don’t ever forget what happened to poor old uncle Bill? Exactly my point. It is always judging and comparing, reminding us we’re not complete. We’re not ‘there’ yet and in many ways, not measuring up to others. Our conscious mind is also very good at explaining to us in a logical and measured fashion why the great idea we thought we had, can’t be done.

It whispers in our ear, have you considered the cost? And what if you should fail? You have a wife and kids to support. How would you live with the humiliation? And on and on… As an aside, at times like this when the mind is riding rough-shod over my hopes and dreams, I say to mind quite firmly, MIND! STOP THE TAPE! That’s works for me. Please try it.

So, let’s draw a comparison between the traditional mind-dominated approach and the Metaphysical approach.

Conscious Mind says, “let’s wait and see what happens, and then I’ll believe”, while Higher Consciousness says I’ll believe first and in so doing, create my preferred reality.

In the first chapter of my book, I tell the story of a challenge I faced to have my passport renewed in just three hours when the official ‘fast-track’ timeline was two days! Sound impossible, I know. This is how the story unfolded. Note: I told this story verbatim in my speech and it was an amazing ‘sliding doors’ experience which you can read in full in my book. However one of the most humorous experiences was that I attempted to do my own passport photo over night, complete with excellent photoshopping!

But it was not accepted, and I had to run off in the pouring rain to have it redone and this is the photo I have to live with for the next 10 years! HAHA!!

(My book has lots of inspiring stories like this and I’m particularly fond of the one about my father Cecil George Bennett.)

But now, let’s look at the basic concepts of Metaphysics

As I’ve said previously, I’ve managed to reduce the entire discipline down to just three words: ‘ACT AS IF’ However, there are four basic belief principles we must engage before we can successfully manifest our preferred reality. And they are these:

Of course, I appreciate that’s a lot to ask of anyone on a first meeting, so I’ll try to explain each one of these points. But first, let me ask you this question: Is there anyone here who would consider embracing these beliefs? (I was amazed and delighted at the impressive show of hands! Writers are a spiritual lot!

Let’s start with time.

Now, ask yourself this: What makes something ‘real’? We humans usually decide what’s real by using our five senses of sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing. But can any of our five basic senses detect time? The answer is no. So time only exists in a relative sense and if we are to fully embrace and use metaphysics in our lives, we must accept that time doesn’t exist.

And I just love it when Einstein agrees with me! He said:

Here’s the hypothesis:

If we can accept that time is not ‘real’, shouldn’t we also accept that the linear progression of time is also not real? Meaning, everything we’ve thought of as past or future is really happening NOW. Try this. Stretch your arms out to the sides and imagine every meaningful thing that’s ever happened in your life moving forward in line with your arms, instead of behind you. This would mean, everything that ever happened in your life can be revisited. Re-lived! That’s how I understand timelessness and the Eternal Moment of Now. That’s a game-changing idea isn’t it?

But another way of understanding this concept would be to imagine you’re watching your favourite program on TV, while your other favourite is playing on another channel. “Add to this countless dramas, comedies, news events, music shows and soap operas, all playing at once on different stations. This is a picture of human consciousness. We humans, being linear in our thinking over millennia, can only ‘tune in’ to one station (one reality) at a time, but it doesn’t mean all the other programs aren’t equally ‘real’. However, we can choose another station simply by changing what we think. Because what we think, we create.

Meaning, there is the potential for every thought to be ‘real-ised’. We are often so cavalier in our thinking aren’t we? Unconscious of the fact that we are creating every instant. And surely it’s true that if you think something can’t be done, it can’t? Our chances of success are much greater if we ‘consciously’ think only those thoughts we want to see manifest in our physical reality. So, my belief is we should focus exclusively on positive outcomes, knowing deep in our hearts that they have already been created!”

Every thought and belief manifests an outcome of some kind and quite literally, we see what we want to see based on our beliefs!

Let’s suppose a child has been born into a family whose father just happens to be head of the Ku Klux Klan. This unfortunate child will be schooled from birth in the dangers of associating with practically anyone who does not fit with the white supremacist belief system.

These beliefs will then colour every aspect of this young person’s life, as if viewing the world through tinted lenses. And this will remain the reality until such a time as something happens to modify those beliefs. As the beliefs change, so too will the reality.”

So, there are the basic principles of Metaphysics in a nutshell.

Unfortunately, there is far too much to say about Metaphysics to cover it adequately in just 20 minutes, but I do hope if my brief talk has stimulated your interest at all, you might take the time to explore this fascinating subject further.

There are chapters in my book which cover such topics as: DESTINY, FRIENDSHIP, JOY, GRATITUDE, KINDNESS, MY MENTORS, HOW TO MANIFEST YOUR PREFERRED REALITY, THE BELIEF PRINCIPLES (I’ve just discussed), and MEDITATION TECHNIQUES.

I’ve also included in the back, a full glossary of pretty much everything I’ve read on this subject over the past 38 years or so, so I do hope you’ll find it an entertaining and informative read. 

My book is not about religion, but if it were, I would choose to emulate this quote from the Dalai Lama which I’ve printed on the last page of my book. He said this:

Thank you.