Journey to Enlightenment: A Conversation with Ken Foster

Have you ever wondered about the pivotal moments that shape a person's life or the power of meditation in reaching higher states of consciousness? Join me, Dr. Douglas James Cottrell, in this profound conversation with visionary, business strategist, and best-selling author, Ken Foster. Ken narrates his inspiring journey from humble beginnings to working with Tony Robbins and his discovery of Yogananda's teachings. His path towards enlightenment offers invaluable tools and strategies for personal growth and self-discovery that you can incorporate into your own journey.

We also delve into the concept of duality and how embracing both pain and pleasure can catalyze personal growth and joy. Ken illuminates how shifting focus from external factors to our internal consciousness can be a potent tool for creating the life you desire. His experiences highlight the transformative power of meditation in reaching higher states of consciousness and improving life choices. We also explore the importance of courage and setting high goals in life, and how overcoming fears and truly listening to your inner voice requires bravery.

In our final discourse, we explore how faith, belief, and setting intentions can manifest in our lives. Drawing from Ken's personal experiences, we challenge you to step up and bring something new and noble into the world. We emphasize the power of our thoughts and intentions in shaping our reality. This enlightening conversation leaves you with the knowledge that you have complete control over your life and the courage to pursue the life you desire. So tune in and let us embark on this journey of enlightenment together.

For more, visit https://kendfoster.com

Hosted by Douglas James Cottrell. This episode was produced by Paul Hughes, with co-production by Jack Bialik and audio engineering by Doug M Cottrell.

Transcript

Introduction: 0:00

Welcome to Wake Up with Dr Douglas James Cottrell, your source for helpful information, advice and tips to live your life in a mindful way in this increasingly chaotic world. For over four decades, Dr Douglas has been teaching people how to develop their intuition and live their lives in a conscious way. His news and views of the world tomorrow, today, are always informative and revealing. To learn more about Dr Douglas, be sure to visit his website, douglasjamescottrell. com, where you can download self-help exercises you can do right in the comfort of your own home. And now here's your host, Dr Douglas James Cottrell.

Douglas James Cottrell: 0:42

Welcome to this show. I'm your host, Dr Douglas James Cottrell. I have a wonderful and amazing man here today with me, Ken Foster, who has over 35 years of experience in personal and business development. He is a visionary, a business strategist, best-selling author and a syndicated radio host and the voice of courage show. Welcome to the show, ken. It's an honor and a privilege to have you here today. I'm very much looking forward to finding out about your work and you have this amazing connection with Yogananda and his amazing book that basically changed the world the autobiography of a yogi. So how did you get from the beginnings, the humble beginnings that you started to being this masterful teacher, this author, the courage to change everything, which I think is a fantastic title? Everybody should run out and get that book right now, after the interview, of course. How did that, how that moment in your life change you from where you were going and to this, let's say, path of enlightenment?

Ken Foster: 1:49

Well, thank you first of all, Douglas, for having me on the show. I really appreciate you, what you do, and I appreciate the invitation to be here and I'm looking forward to really inspiring and uplifting your audience and giving them some tools and strategies and ways to really become a better version of themselves, test themselves in greater ways, involve themselves and remember who they are. So let me answer your question. It was 1996 or 7 and I was sitting in my living room and I'd been coaching for about a year at that time and I was dead broke. I didn't know how to change. You know, I had a lot of clients, but I didn't know how to charge. And so a friend of mine called and said hey, a guy by the name of Tony Robbins is hiring people and he's looking for somebody to run his coaching organization. So, long story short, I applied. They told me I'd beat out 500 people to get that position and I'm working for Tony for a while and he calls me up to his office.

Ken Foster: 2:57

And for those of you that don't know Tony Robbins, he's probably one of the most prolific author, speaker, trainer in the world. He's one of my mentors and has been for many years, and it's helped millions of people. So Tony calls me up to his office and he says and he's late, he's late. So I'm sitting there and I'm looking at his library and in his library is a lot of books. But there's one author. He's got maybe 30 books from this author A lot. And I look and I say because I'm asking myself where's Tony Robbins get all his wisdom? Where's he getting this stuff from?

Ken Foster: 3:36

And the author is a guy by the name of Parma Hansa Yogananda. So I go, all right, I'm gonna find out, parma Hansa Yogananda. A week later, I'm at a garage sale in San Diego and there's a box full of books and of course it's Yogananda's books, all his books, his tapes, everything he's done up to that point in time, and so I buy it for $25. Wow.

Douglas James Cottrell: 4:02

The universe is providing.

Ken Foster: 4:04

The universe and this is their sacredness in the universe right.

Douglas James Cottrell: 4:08

I love it. I love it.

Ken Foster: 4:09

So, you know, I take it home and I start, I start studying and believe it or not, right? So I'm living in in San. I'm living in in San Diego. So I'm living in San Diego. So I'm living in San Diego, so I'm living in San Diego. I'm living in San Diego, so I'm living in San Mexico. I couldn't believe that I was able to even do that, and I understand now why. Maybe we can talk about that. But anyway, that's where I started. So thanks for asking a question. Sorry for the long.

Douglas James Cottrell: 5:36

I can't let the audience keep hanging here with. You've got an eight-hour meditation and we're gonna go out to something else. You were in the ever-present moment. I'm sure where that eight hours didn't seem like eight hours. Tell us about it. How did it seem? What happened?

Ken Foster: 5:51

I would say that about eight hours slipped by in, maybe in my mind, real-time, an hour, I mean, it was just boom. So, as I was able to learn the techniques to steal my mind. And, by the way, yogananda brought in the scientific meditation techniques from India in 1924. His mission was to show that the teachings of Jesus Christ and the teachings of Bhagavan Krishna were one and the same and, quite frankly, the teachings of all the masters are really one of the same Buddha and Allah and Muhammad, and they came in to show us the principles to that we are all one and we all can connect it with one and we can all live in harmony together if we apply the principles, the spiritual principles.

Ken Foster: 6:46

But anyway, technique in, and I'm gonna digress a second. I was on a ski slope after I was a skier for about 30 years. At the time I was on a ski slope and I was up in heavenly, you know as mammoth, california, with a couple buddies of mine. One was a ski instructor and we were going down these moguls, these big giant bumps, and I didn't like those moguls. They they took too much time, effort, energy for me. I never liked them. But my one buddy said hey, ken, I have a technique I will give to you that if you'll learn it it'll change your skiing. You'll be, you'll be 50% better. I didn't necessarily doubt him because he was an amazing teacher, amazing skier. I said, sure, kevin, tell me what it is. He taught it to me. My skiing completely changed. I wish I'd had that technique 30 years earlier.

Ken Foster: 7:37

Well, it's the same thing with meditation. When you get the right scientific meditation technique, that's been sciences right. We repeating that over and over again, not just Ken can do it, you can do it, everybody can do it. When you get that technique, it's it's. It's not brain surgery, it's simple techniques that just like on the ski slope, only in meditation. That helps us to still our mind, still our body, still our thoughts and be able to go into higher states of consciousness. And time passes, of course, like that, but what's happening is we're going into a peaceful state. The first sign that we've touched that state of higher consciousness is the sense of peace and then, as we progress meditatively, we go into higher states. You go into bliss, you go into into omnipresence, you go into, you know, much amazing. Yeah, god is light, god is sound, god is God is all present, and we start to experience those states as oneness with the divine. So that's kind of where I started them well, that's a profound statement.

Douglas James Cottrell: 8:55

My mentor, ross Peters, they once I was in a class and I was just a novice neo fight, if you will, and he was. I was eager to be like he was and to touch upon the that information available, those higher realms, and he casually said to me you know, douglas doesn't know anything about meditation. He does know the difference between vegetation and meditation and the class got a chuckle at it at I was about 24 or 5 at the time. So that was a profound statement. And and as I'm listening to you talk about the different levels of consciousness which you've apple aptly have delineated here for people who to give them some idea that it isn't just a matter of trying to calm your monkey mind and and have like empty thinking, in my, my experience, it's impossible. Your mind keeps doing something and, as you said, you've went through these different levels when you were doing the mind.

Ken Foster: 9:55

The mind becomes, you know it, even in beginning meditation. You know, when we sit there and we start to observe our thoughts, right, who is the observer of the thoughts? And that's the. That's the place we connect with the soul. When, when we're in meditation, we start to be able to, you know, god expresses God in, in sound, in word, and you know, and you know, vibrate, word, vibration, sound vibration, light vibration, right? So you know, when we're in those ecstatic states, we're starting to experience that ourselves and we start to, you know, in, what happens as a result of meditation for me and for everybody else, is that I think one of the first things that happens is our intuition starts to develop.

Ken Foster: 10:48

You know, most people have undeveloped intuition yeah, me included. When I first started this and I'm still working on. I'm not perfected soul by any means, but what happens is, you know, when intuition starts to kick in, we start making better choices in our life. You know intuition is a hundred percent accurate. So imagine you know being able to pick the stock market I guess a hundred percent accuracy. Or you know, choose the right partner for yourself, or choose the right food to put in your body, or choose the the right way for your day. That's intuition, and you know meditation does that. So I'm just saying that to your audience. If you're on the edge, you wondering, well, should I ever try this? Or I've done this, or maybe you're already meditating, but you're like it's time now to go deeper. And then it is time for you to go deeper.

Douglas James Cottrell: 11:50

That's wonderful, said, very accurate, the idea that you've sort of put a few breadcrumbs out of everybody, that they could find their way on the path. It leads to again that greater consciousness, and I like your terminology about getting closer with God Almighty, or the heavenly influences or the divine. Of course that's where we're headed anyway, in my opinion. But I like the title of your book, the Courage to Change Everything, because I think even as you start to do that, inward looking, there's a lot of surprises and necessary changes that you might have to make to get you on the path.

Ken Foster: 12:32

Well, yeah, I'll, for the audience, I'll put this on screen and it's a book I wrote Courage to Change Everything Daily Strategies in Essential Wisdom to Awaken your Energenious.

Douglas James Cottrell: 12:44

I love it. I love it.

Ken Foster: 12:46

You know that book was an interesting book. I wrote it because I had a lot of clients, my coaching clients, coming in and they would be with me and, man, everything is going good with them. And then three days later they're back into their own thinking patterns and I thought, you know, let me write a book, let me bring the astute wisdom from the, from the ages, from all those that have manifested wisdom in their lives, whether it be in business or in health, or in in relationship. Let me put this in a book where, every day, someone can read that wisdom, start to assimilate it into their, into their being, and then be able to have specific questions to take them into. What I want to say is higher levels of thinking, right? So maybe a question like if I were courageous, what are the three most important acts I would take today? Or maybe a question like, if, what is the quantum breakthrough that I'm choosing to have in my business in the next 30 days? Now, I've learned in over the years by asking powerful questions, we get powerful answers. And then, of course, what does it take, douglas? It takes courage, it takes courage. You know, most of us in this world are really good at fear Like we've mastered it. You know, we know how to be afraid of, you know a relationship, you know starting a business, you know asking for something more in our life. We're good, we're good at that. But you know courage when we step into courage and, by the way, courage comes from the Latin word core, which means to speak one's heart. But courage is more than that. Courage is a energy, it's a vibration, it's a power and when you tap into it, you've Providence moves with you. With courage and commitment. Providence moves the people, places and things. You need to show up in your life to accomplish this quote. Big goal will happen for you, and I'll give you an example.

Ken Foster: 15:01

Back in March of this year, a friend of mine mentioned to me that there was a an organization called Challenge Athlete Foundation in San Diego and Challenge Athlete Foundation had been around for 30 years. They've been raising monies for children that, and also adults you know, that had lost limbs. So you know people in military, people with children that had operation. They lost their hand, their arm. They would have been providing monies for them so that they could compete athletically. And so my friend said hey, there's a ride from San Francisco to San Diego, 700 miles or so and would you like to do that ride and go out and raise $15,000 for the organization? That's your commitment, and then you know you'll do the ride and we'll raise awareness. Who will bring people on your show or do this? And that I said that sounds like a big challenge. I'm not sure I'm up to that.

Ken Foster: 16:02

But then I knew, because I've studied these principles long enough is that, oh, this is my challenge to step into to, to grow, to evolve, to remember who I am. And so I took it on. I completed it about a month ago and, unbeknownst to my little mind, every day I got stronger and stronger. Now, how is that? 100 miles a day or so and you're getting stronger the next day and the next day and the next day. The mind doesn't fathom that. But when we step into something greater than ourselves, by the way, not only did I get stronger, the people, the places, the things, everything I needed, all the money came in, everything I needed for this to happen. That happens consistently, and that is exactly what the courage to change everything book is all about. It's helping you to get out of your own way on a daily basis, to step into some of those dreams that you thought were impossible.

Douglas James Cottrell: 17:07

Well, I like your analogy Not actually an analogy, it's a matter of fact. I see you have another book asking and you will succeed. The idea is that an opportunity came to you and you didn't dismiss it intellectually as being too difficult. You had the courage to accept it and then you took the steps. And I found out in my own life that as you go somewhere you've never been before, you'd have no expectations because you've never been there. But as soon as you get there, things come to you and something at the end of the day was extremely important. Had you not taken that first step that you couldn't see around the corner, so to speak, whatever that important benefit or reward was, you wouldn't have achieved the story about getting stronger every day and the mind doesn't fathom it, I'm assuming the mind, how can I say it? You're dealing with another form of mind. You're dealing with that inner mind that's stronger and more aware and touching upon the higher mind. Would you agree?

Ken Foster: 18:10

I would agree, and I'd also say this when we can tap into that, we start to tap into our unrealized potential. Most of us, including me, have not even tested my limits. I keep testing them because I know about that, but a lot of us are not. We're living in lives that are mediocre. We're not testing those limits. At the end of that ride, there was 166 athletes that participated in this.

Ken Foster: 18:39

We raised $3.7 million as a group for the Challenge Athlete Foundation, and when I'm riding down Pacific Coast Highway and next to me are these athletes that are in sleds they don't have the use of their legs anymore, they're using their arms, or we had five of them that rode with us that were blind, so they're on tandem bikes I'm thinking to myself. I could increase my trust. I don't know how much trust it takes to go down 700 miles on the back of a bike without being able to see, but I know one thing I could increase my trust substantially. I could increase my potential substantially just listening and watching these guys. They're just amazing. So it does take courage, though, and, by the way, douglas, let me mention, if somebody wants to get the courage to change book, they can get it at courage2changeus. I just want to put that out there before we go there.

Douglas James Cottrell: 19:49

I would tell everybody who has the availability go get it right now. This is an amazing book. It is going to change your life. I love the title. Having the Courage to Change Everything is something I think. Going from failure to success. There's that moment. You're at that threshold and it takes courage to take that next step because you're about to go somewhere you've never been before. Don't procrastinate, don't turn around, don't give up. Take that step by this book to courage to change everything.

Ken Foster: 20:20

Well, you know, if you've ever bought, let's say, a new couch for your house, when you buy your couch and then you start looking at your other furniture and you go, hmm, I think I need to change this, I need a new picture here, or you know, and you start changing that around and then all of a sudden you think, well, maybe I need a new house. Right, this doesn't fit. When you change one thing I've learned you start to change everything, and this is what we're talking about now in consciousness. So when you can shift you're awareness, when you can shift that consciousness and I believe we do this in, sometimes over time, but sometimes it's a it's like lightning hits us and all of a sudden we see things we've never been able to see before. When you can do that on a consistent basis, be able to see the unseeable, know the unknowable and do the impossible, what happens is you start to get in this flow.

Ken Foster: 21:21

We, we all, live in duality, right? You know there's black and white up and down. You know we're in duality, everything is duality. So a lot of people try to cut duality in half. In other words, there's pain and pleasure. They just wanna feel the pleasure. They don't wanna go down the pain side and yet in that pain side, give the analogy of building my muscles for that ride. It was painful, right. There was a lot of challenges. I had to push myself, I had to grow these muscles that you know needed to grow if I was gonna do this. When we're in that pain side, then what happens when we control the pain, when we are the one stepping into the growth process, what happens is then, at the other side of it, we're in duality is a lot of joy, a lot of happiness. Now the flip side, of course, happens too, right when we're just on the pleasure side and we're not wanting to experience any kind of pain.

Ken Foster: 22:26

Eventually, my experience is that the universe will give you a little tap hey, you're going down the wrong way. And if you don't pay attention to that, you get a little two by four, and if you don't pay attention to that, you get a storm. So why not then, if we know that this is how the universe works, there's duality here, why not take the greatest challenge in your life? Maybe you're having a challenge with your finances right now, or maybe you're a relationship challenge, or maybe a health challenge. Why not realize that?

Ken Foster: 22:59

Okay, I'm going to have to go on a quest to figure out what I need to shift inside of me, in that consciousness as within, so without, as the old proverb would say, that consciousness that I get to shift so that my body heals, my muscles get stronger, my career takes off, my business becomes profitable. And listen, I will tell you this, it is all an inside job and I know Douglas would concur with this. If you're paying attention to the news and the economy and the wars and all this, I'm not saying dig your head in the sand, that's not what I'm going to say here. But if you're focusing on that constantly, you are living from the outside in and not the inside out and as a result of that, where, where, how the world goes, you will go. How the news goes, you will go.

Ken Foster: 23:56

You will be depressed one day. You'll be upset one day, you'll be maybe happy one day, but you'll be living outside in. When you can shift that and the courage to change everything book and my other book that Douglas just mentioned, and I'll get to that in a minute when you can shift that, then all of a sudden you have control over your life, you start to step into and challenge yourself in ways that you've never challenged yourself. But again, if you're the one challenging, it on the other side is a lot of joy, and when you start living your life from that place, everything shows up for you in the way that you need for it to evolve yourself. Remember who you are and, quite frankly, leave a brilliant legacy as you look back in your rocking chair years from now. And you look back and you go, you know what. I lived a great life. This was a great life.

Douglas James Cottrell: 24:53

Well said, well said. I found people who get to those points of you know, question, uncertainty, challenge. To go inside means you decide, not your friends, not somebody. When you go and tell them your plan, they're gonna say no, that's never going to work, because that's usually what happens the universe is pushing back. So if you keep it inside, you know how to ignite your courage and unlock your potential. Are part of the comments made in the courage to change your life and it does take only a moment, in my opinion, to change. You just have to. You know, you get to that point where you've tried everything else and there's something that you haven't done and that's the one thing you ought to do. But to have that courage I love that.

Ken Foster: 25:42

I love that, doug. I think you know, a lot of times we get stuck in this duality, thinking black and white it's this way or that way. I'm right, you're wrong, this is the way it is. This isn't the way it is. When we get out of the rulemaking and you know what we've been taught and you start to open up your creative mind and say, well, what's the third choice, what's the fourth choice, what's the 50th choice, and really start to reason it out in you know this other book I wrote right, ask and you will succeed. Asking, you will succeed. It's a take off of what Jesus quoted in the Bible ask and you will receive. Right, he said that Ask and you'll receive. You know, it's like wow, how many of us really do that.

Ken Foster: 26:29

I mean, when my buddies Mark Victor Hansen and Jack Canfield they were they taught me how to write books and stuff. By the way, they and if you don't know who they are, they wrote their authors, co-authors of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, which has sold about a billion books so far. But those guys asked a question like 300 times, I think. Mark told me you know what would be a mega bestselling book title? Right, 300 times Einstein, right. He asked the question what would it be like to write a light beam of light over 10 years? He came up with a special theory of relativity E equals MC, square right which changed reality.

Ken Foster: 27:11

All great thinkers ask. But they ask powerful questions over and over and over again until they get the answer. This book was based on that principle and there's 35 categories of life in this book and there are 1,001 questions to create to help you go from ordinary success to extraordinary success in whatever area you're looking for. But I've given you the questions because a lot of times we don't have the questions to ask, right. I've given you the questions from the wisdom of the ages, right? So that you have those questions at your fingertip and you can hone in on any area you're working at. Start asking it over and over again so that you start getting the results that you wanna get. It's not rocket science.

Douglas James Cottrell: 28:01

On that note, let's take a short break. We'll be right back after this. Praise be to God.

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Douglas James Cottrell: 29:19

And just before the break we were talking about how a person can change their life just by asking questions, and you have the wherewithal to write what is a thousand and one question. So I think there's something nice in the book.

Ken Foster: 29:34

Yeah, it's the asking you will succeed book and, by the way, people can get this right on Amazon and it's a thousand and one ordinary questions to create extraordinary success. And you know, as I was saying, it's not brain surgery, but here's the key, right, I said it earlier, you've got to find the courage to answer these questions, you've got to find the courage to stay in those questions and you have to be consistent and persistent. With the consistency and courage, as I said earlier, providence will move, honestly, people, places and things will show up. Now a lot of you have already experienced this and you know is easy, as you set your intention, you know, to get a parking space at the mall and that shows up. That's great, that's a, that's a sign that, yes, you can manifest what it is that you like in your business world.

Ken Foster: 30:28

But so many people stop there. I'm not sure if it's between it's been training, you know, program, societal program programming or family familiar programming, of these limitations. But when somebody can take off those limitations, we can start to create a life that really works for us. And here's the other key when you change, you're not only changing you, you're changing the consciousness of your family for seven generations down, really seven generations. How cool is that? So I want to give you the purpose to change right. It's not about you, it's about really helping your family change, all right. So if you'll, if you'll get out of your comfort zone and step into your power right, even for a day, you know this will help you. Now I want to give everybody a free gift. Douglas, oh wonderful.

Ken Foster: 31:29

Those limitations. I created a process. It's called the release process Release, release, release. It get rid of it right. A release process is on my website. It's a gift for me, for free, it doesn't cost you anything. You go to KenDFostercom KenDFostercom and you scroll down on the homepage and right there you can get a the release process.

Ken Foster: 31:58

Most people tell me it takes them a minimum of three hours to start and do it. This is a great time of year to do it. So I encourage you to do this. And it's going to start with your childhood Go up to grade school, high school, college, military first marriage, second marriage, wherever you are okay, all the way up to where you are presently, and you're going to make some conscious choices to release some of the energy around some of the challenges that maybe you've gone through. Okay, so it's a simple process. Again, it just takes your commitment and people tell me at the end of that they have more clarity, they feel lighter, they feel like they have more energy. So there's quite a few reasons to do this. Most importantly, you're going to tap into your creativity like never before. Once you release anything that's depressing, you're holding you back, those limitations.

Douglas James Cottrell: 32:57

I love it. I love it. A lot of people feel guilt, they're unsure. They've been perhaps browbeat by others, they've been told consecutively in their life that they can't do it, they don't deserve it. So going through that kind of process, I guess, is like, well, I just I have a vision of they're just like digging up treasure right, they're just getting the dirt off the top and they're going to find that treasure chest in the bottom there.

Ken Foster: 33:20

And the treasure chest is in all of us. We all come in these little geniuses depending on karma, of course, but we all come in bright and we're bright little stars that are there and of course, you know what happens is the little souls get. It's like almost a mud over the soul, right? You know what's the mud? I think you just mentioned it, douglas. You know it's the guilt, the shame, the remorse, the ways we've been heard, maybe heard others. It's the missed opportunities, the missed, the wood of Kutushutas. It's the misguided programming that we've gotten from our teachers, who are well meant to be, or our families. You know, they just didn't know any better. So when you can take that off, you shine again and it's amazing what happens when that happens.

Douglas James Cottrell: 34:11

Well, you're a shining light. I mean listening to you. Anybody listening to your voice should say to themselves I deserve this, I'm going to do this for me and of course, you have to do something. You have to take that first step and the way you've laid it out today in this interview is remarkably simple for people. They just need to follow the steps. I love the title have the courage to do so. I mean, it does take courage. You know you've got to go up against all those doubts and things in your mind, but understanding that maybe this is a karmic benefit to you, maybe you just have to turn that corner and listen to your words. I understand people can come and take in your events as a speaker, as well as your books. Have you got anything coming up in the near future?

Ken Foster: 34:58

Well, I also want to mention my show. I have a show, so if you'd like to tune in and listening to the voices of wisdom on a consistent basis, there's my show. It's called Voices of Courage. Voices of Courage you could just ask Siri, cortana or Alexa to play Voices of Courage. You can Google me on the internet. I'm all over the place. So Voices of Courage and we bring in author speakers and trainers that are there to support you in growing your life in so many ways, so I hope you'll tune in Voices of Courage. What else, doug, you know?

Ken Foster: 35:38

I want to say this what happened when I met Yogananda was that I started to realize what this lifetime and past lifetimes were about, and I think a lot of times people get off balance mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually. When we're off balance spiritually, we've lost our purpose. We're wondering who we are. Why am I here? Sometimes that's the key to opening up, and a lot of us have gone through the questioning and that's actually opened our hearts and opened up our spiritual understanding. But when we get to a place where we realize why we're here, you know who we are at our essence, who everybody else is at their essence, and we start to be able to see life through those eyes. All of a sudden, life gets more like a what do I want to say? More like a play or a movie, and we're not so attached to everything that's happening. We get to detach and we can become fully empowered to manifest what we're choosing in our life. Okay, at that level. And then when you go to even higher levels.

Ken Foster: 37:00

They did a study recently on prayer. There were two groups. One group was praying for things like please help my family, or please help my family member get XYZ, or please help me find a new job, or, you know, please help the world. You know those kind of prayers. And the other group was praying Thy will be done. That was it. Thy will be done.

Ken Foster: 37:28

Now, both groups are very effective. Prayer is effective in prayer works. But which one had more effect? Well, thy will be done Interesting. So that goes back to the foundation of what you believe this universe is about. Is this universe working for you or against you? Is your Creator working for you or against you? Where did you come from? Who are you? You know what's going on here when you start to realize that everything is being done for you and all of a sudden, you are in a place where, oh, if it's being done for me, maybe I'm going to tune into this universal plan, this universal guidance, this universal plan for my life, and I'm going to let that flow. That's an interesting place to be.

Douglas James Cottrell: 38:25

Just saying that's called faith. Faith is built upon belief, belief is built upon evidence. So what you're giving us today is evidence of that. No, you're exactly right.

Douglas James Cottrell: 38:36

I came to that conclusion in my middle 20s when I was asking for dreams on the commodities and this and the life and whatever and all the different project I was in, because the universe furnishes information. Whatever you're interested in, that's where the information comes from. But then I realized I wasn't smart enough to know how to ask the question. I would keep asking this question. I would get an answer I wouldn't understand it. So then I switched. I said okay, I'm the janitor in the house here, you're the master, you're the boss, you're the landlord. Whatever you want me to know, let me know. So I Complimenting you and the way you put it. I love that. That's a principle that you know. There's a smarter mind up there. You can call it virtue, god Almighty, or the universal mind, or the soul mind. It knows the question even before you you know it knows the question, any answer even before you know the question.

Ken Foster: 39:30

So it knew I was gonna be on Douglas's show before I knew I was gonna be a Douglas.

Douglas James Cottrell: 39:35

It didn't know before Douglas even asked me well, okay, I'll go with that, because I kind of had a feeling and it took a little bit of. Whenever there's resistance, you know I always think something really wonderful is happening or this is really important, or the person I'm about to meet is is Is a very bright light and you know we had a little back and forth on try to get this together, so I was anticipating talking. I think you're a wonderful man. I love your spiritual journey, where the synchrosy of Going somewhere, finding about Yogananda and all the information and going to garage sale and getting everything for $20, that to me is gold, spiritual gold on on finding your path, but I agree.

Ken Foster: 40:21

But you know, before I, before I, even you know the synchronicity and and I think synchronicity is something we ought to talk about because, let's do, it's always there, it's always there, isn't that?

Douglas James Cottrell: 40:33

the good people, your opinion. You know what that means, because people have various understandings. You know, lower to higher, what, in a way of being the master you are at. This understanding of the spiritual wisdoms, how can you explain it to people who are neophytes or people who are perhaps veterans of spiritual seeking?

Ken Foster: 40:56

Well, I would. I would Describe it this way let's just start with intention. Okay, good, yeah, intention, we said our intention. Let's say you set your intention to always have a parking spot at the, at the Front of the, the mall. Okay, at the front, right, next to the store, right? And you say that's, that's my intention, right. And you ask yourself, well, where did that find even come from? And is that important to me? And you know, if you get back, yet that that's important, this is a part of my journey. I'm gonna, I'm gonna see if this is right. Right, and Sure enough, you go to the mall and, wow, there's, there's the first spot.

Ken Foster: 41:38

And you go, well, that's probably just luck, okay. So you go to the mall the next day and, sure enough, that spots there again. You go, ah, nah, probably just coincidence. And you go again and there's there. And you start going, wow, okay, I don't, I don't know, maybe, maybe there's something to this. And you go the next day and it's not there. You go, I knew there's nothing happen.

Ken Foster: 41:59

And then you, somebody says, well, you know, are you playing with doubt and uncertainty, are you creating it, this, this doubt and uncertainty in your mind, and so, therefore, it's not showing up. And you know, well, yeah, I didn't think it happened. You go okay, I'm gonna say it's gonna happen the next day it does. So there's this game we play, right, you know, and it it is a game. It's a game of hide-and-seek, I would say, with the universe, with God. You know it's there and it's not. But here's the key.

Ken Foster: 42:29

Okay, with with synchronicity, when you surrender your ego to something greater than yourself, when you really allow yourself to be guided and you start to tune in to how you feel, how your body feels, are you feeling and tighten your chest? Oh, well, what's? What's your body telling you? Okay, simplicity, you know all getting a headache. Oh, what's what's? Why is that? What's the cause? Why is that? What's the cause?

Ken Foster: 43:01

When you start to go to a place of cause and truth and you're willing to realizing that everything counts okay, and you didn't make it up. It's there for you to learn, to grow and to evolve as a spiritual being. We're all on a spiritual path, everybody's a spiritual being, right? So when you start to understand that, you start to understand Synchronicity. In other words, things start to flow for you in a way that maybe has never happened before and If you allow yourself to let go of doubt and uncertainty, which are the biggest success stoppers in this world, and you allow yourself to go into a place of trust, like Douglas said trust, faith, love, connection when you feel that Life changes.

Ken Foster: 43:57

Changes for Douglas to change for me, changes for everybody, I know it changes for us and at one point At least, my wife and I sure feel this way. We feel like we live in this bubble. Yeah, the world is going on out there, but you know what? That stuff isn't impacting us. We're impacting us by the way we walk through life, by the way we make our choices and by the way we show up, either happy and joyful or, you know that old consciousness, a pissed off and angry. And you know I'm gonna. I can't believe you did this to me. It's always our choice and, of course, it's the audience choice to Well said.

Douglas James Cottrell: 44:35

You know taking responsibility for yourself From your fingertips back. You have complete control beyond your fingertips. You don't what I teach, so it's like yeah, I can choose to be whatever I want to be today, and some of the, some of the Directions you're giving to people are very simple yet powerful, and I think the idea of intention is is a really good place to start. Again, if you tempt, you know the universe about well. You know there's three or four days. Is there going to be a parking space? All of a sudden, there is it. I mean, that's just the intellectual mind getting in interfering in the way.

Ken Foster: 45:14

It's getting in the way right One more time.

Douglas James Cottrell: 45:18

I found it. I found it. If you, if you get into that space that you're talking about and teaching people today, it's like there's no doubt You're gonna go there, and if it isn't there that day, you can say oh, there's one a couple spaces back, that's okay, there's no. Haha.

Ken Foster: 45:35

Yeah, and, by the way, sometimes you know, I know for me, when I was learning that particular lesson, there was a part of patience that had to be learned with that right. So it may not be that I pull into Costco and it may not be there right that moment I pull in. Wait but I wait for a moment and, sure enough, every single time it shows up.

Douglas James Cottrell: 46:00

I've had that exact same experience. I just sit there and I it's supposed to be here. I got the blinks are going. I'm sitting there and all of a sudden somebody backs out that I didn't see. And there's my spot.

Ken Foster: 46:15

So that's a wonder or or, or, the other thing that happens with me as I get this oh it's on the other lane and I just drive around. It's right there. Yeah, intuition again.

Douglas James Cottrell: 46:25

We'll be right back after this.

Ad 2: 46:37

Oh, what's up? I'm just not sure what to do with my health issues and I keep having this recurring scary dream. What's that about? And I I just don't know if my instincts are right, about my business ideas or or anything right now. Maybe it's all past life issues.

Introduction: 46:52

Have you thought about a phone consultation with dr Cottrell? A 45 minute chat should help you out. It's not a deep trance meditation and you'll find it's just as helpful. Plus, with covert going on, they're discounted from 375 to just 275 dollars a hundred dollars off great idea.

Ad 2: 47:08

I love talking to him like chatting with a long lost friend. He's like tapped into a ton of wisdom, loads of spiritual insight, and he's on point. Oh, now what?

Introduction: 47:18

I can't find his number seriously in this day and age. Ready Mm-hmm 519 471 1110 Call from anywhere in the country if you need more info. I found his website to its Douglas James Cartrell storecom.

Douglas James Cottrell: 47:43

While you're talking, this is coming to my mind. I was showing off that principle to some people and I went down to the theater. I was doing a talk and I wanted to get right up to the theater because I had stuff in the trunk, you know. I set up equipment and there was no space in front of the theater. It was on the other side of the street Two lane street so I had to park on the other side. So I got my, I got my. You know, I was in front of the theater and from the universe, of course you're in front of the theater, you're just, instead of going east or going west, it's right there. So I got a chuckle at the universe how sometimes they play with us, I think you know.

Ken Foster: 48:23

And you know and I'll say this too you know we're talking some elementary principles that you can play with today. But you know some of you I know that, listen, the Douglas have been on this path for a while and you know, a lot of times when we start on this path, we learn from our teachers. We, you know, we become a good follower before we become a good leader and we start to generate things. You know, like when I started on this path, you know I I listened to a lot of teachers, I put a lot of their information in my books and that type of thing, and so I was doing things that you know others had done. But eventually on this path, when we step into the next level, you start to do things that nobody's done, nobody's done before.

Ken Foster: 49:15

Okay, so if you're listening, that was shown. You're going oh, this is all elementary. I challenge you there find something that nobody's done, nobody's brought on the planet yet, and at least in this age, and and Bring it in, to bring it into the world. You or might already have it in your mind what this could be, but again, if you do, then you know it's going to take some of the principles You've learned to put it in into the world. You're probably gonna have to have a team around you. You're probably gonna have to tune your. You realize we're two or more gathered there, for that presence is there and you're gonna have to up level that you've been on Under, have to understand the principles of that. You have to understand the principles that we talked about earlier of asking and You're gonna have to understand the. You're gonna have to really be in that place where you can still the mind, still your thoughts, and go into higher realms of consciousness to pull the answers out of the universe. They're already there. They just aren't in you yet or in the world yet.

Ken Foster: 50:16

But you know, if you're, you're challenged. I challenge you. If you want to do that, I challenge you to step up, because why would I even challenge anybody to do that? It's all about your evolution, right? What I learn is when we set big dreams that are great, greater than ourselves, that are noble dreams, that they support us, they support our families, our communities, our world. When we're in noble dreams and we're stretching ourselves, we evolve. We remember who we are, we remember our powers, our passion, our love and we'd be able to bring that into ourselves and bring it into the world in a brighter way.

Douglas James Cottrell: 50:51

Yeah, well said. The idea is that the higher you set your goal, the higher you're going to achieve. So why not set your goals really high?

Ken Foster: 51:00

Yeah, I would say it this way too, douglas. I would say the higher you set your goals, the greater evolution can Tend to take place for you. And now this can be a simple goal. You can say you know, I've been meditating for a while. You know, ken said it, you know, maybe, set his in this, what I've done, set your intention to go a little deeper every day, right, that's huge, maybe you, you're. You know, the thing that you want to do is you're gonna learn how to put a smile on Everybody's face that you meet. That's no, that's no easy feat. By the way, a lot of people don't want to smile. So I, you know, I mean, there's, there are simple ways that we can really tune into our own self, bring out those qualities that are in there and really make a difference in the world. You know, I think it was Gandhi that said you know, be the change you want to see in the world, right? And I would say this, I think you'll get on to said this he said you know, before you change the world, change yourself, right? I think those are wise statements and I'm gonna plus it with one last Quote.

Ken Foster: 52:10

Saint Teresa he's a Catholic saint was in a crowd of people and for those of you that don't know her, she was working in, I believe, calcutta, in the poorest of the poor in India, and she worked with the poorest of the poor for years and years. Somebody was asking her hey, I think she had like five seconds to answer this because she's going through a crowd. They said how should I live my life? And she said do what's hard. I Thought wow, how many of us do those difficult things to stretch ourselves, to put ourselves in in a place. It's that's a little more difficult than what we are. Good advice, my advice to you do the worst first, whatever that is right. Show up in the morning after you go to gratitude, when you open your eyes, after you meditate, then find something that's difficult for you and go do that one. The rest of the day be easier.

Douglas James Cottrell: 53:09

That is good advice and you know, always remember when you make mistakes. They're stepping stones to you know success because you know there they teach you along the way and and that's a wonderful line, you know, find something hard to do because that's worth the reward and it's worth your time. Thank you very much. Can you've been a wonderful guest again? How can people find your books and and and? Where can they find that amazing self evaluation on your website?

Ken Foster: 53:38

Well, thank you. Yeah, if they go to Ken, my name Ken D Foster, comm. D is in Donald, ken D foster, comm. You'll find the release process on my website and if you'd like to find the courage to change everything, book this one right here. You can go to courage to change, dot us and if you'd like to find you want to have the questions to ask, go to Amazon and get that right on Amazon and Douglas. I want to thank you for being here and thank you for your great work that you're doing in the world. Thank you so much.

Douglas James Cottrell: 54:12

Oh, you're very welcome. It's my pleasure to have you on here. You are such a knowledgeable man. You are talking from the heart. You're not giving away hypothetical or or you know some sort of Advice that that's appealing. You're talking, you know, from the heart, and your truth is it bears out your near success. I've very much enjoyed the interview today. Let's do this again. You're an amazing man, your journey has been an exciting one and you continue to be a bright light in this world that needs more light, and I Compliment you on your work and your effort, you and your lovely wife as well. May God bless you with peace and prosperity always.

Ken Foster: 54:54

Thank you. Thank you so much, douglas. I received that Thank you.

Douglas James Cottrell: 54:58

You're very welcome. You've been listening to the Douglas James Cottrell show will be back next week with more light and we will encourage you. Remember the journey is just beginning. I'm your host, dr Douglas James Cottrell. Until next time. May God bless you with peace and prosperity. Take care, my friends. God bless.

Introduction: 55:20

Thank you very much for listening to wake up. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe so you'll be notified when a new episode is posted, and we'd greatly appreciate your review of our show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts to let others know about the great content we're producing. For more about dr Douglas's self-development classes, books and other related products, please visit his website. Douglas James Cottrell. Calm until next time. We wish you all of God's blessings health, wealth and peace of mind.