The Surrender Experiment: My Journey into Life's Perfection - by Michael A. Singer

[SteveO]

I just finished the surrender experiment and am partway through the untethered soul. It is very similar to my approach, practices, and philosophy with life.

The whole idea of letting life guide you is working for me.

Part of the book seems to imply that the universe is directing if you let it. I believe that it is our inner-selves doing the directing. But, we are all connected through energy thus tied into the universe.

 

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[MTF]

Sorry for the side tangent, but some supplemental material to Singer's work I've found helpful (and I'm only a few chapters in) is the work by David R. Hawkins...

Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender: Hawkins M.D. Ph.D, David R.: 8601420019690: Amazon.com: Books

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Power vs. Force: Hawkins M.D. Ph.D, David R.: 9781401945077: Amazon.com: Books

I read it a few years ago. I remember he gave some very questionable pseudo-scientific advice and that makes me skeptical of it.

Example:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GlJfPBgdPM


His scale of consciousness and measuring it with "muscle testing" is weird to say the least.

 

[redshift]

Part of the book seems to imply that the universe is directing if you let it. I believe that it is our inner-selves doing the directing. But, we are all connected through energy thus tied into the universe.

Yeah, I think he mentioned this in one of his talks somewhere. "Universe" / "Life" can also be thought of as "intuition", which gets stronger the more the consciousness expands. I'm guessing he said it like this as most people would confuse intuition with the heart/mind and mess it up. He did a lot of deep meditation so his is probably very developed, but what he's teaching with surrender and the associated release of energy would lead to the same results as well once you start distancing yourself from your thoughts / emotions.

 

[SteveO]

Ok... finished both the untethered soul and the surrender experiment.

To try and answer your original question; yes and no.

He says not to worry or stress and to let life flow. Nothing about that says not to start a business. In fact, he started a mega-business.

What entrepreneurs may not agree with are his methods. His idea to let life flow and these things will come to you is a tough pill to swallow. You hear many people taking about how to focus, remain motivated, etc...

The idea of letting life flow does not mean that you do nothing and everything will come to you. The author clearly talks about his efforts in three of the business he ran.

A big part of his premise is to follow the opportunities that are presented. Even if your mind argues with you. Sometimes the presentations don't seem like they make sense. He follows through with many examples.

I myself operate with this approach and it works for me. I have many examples that are in alignment with his.

One thing he does not seem to stress is the fact that you need to move in the direction of what you want. But I do basically agree with a lot of what he says.

 

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[Solomon Kim]

Michael Singer is amazing. Adding onto @MTF's post of letting go:

A huge lesson that may serve anyone reading this is that "letting go" is the result of seeing your own flaws in other people. It means to be on the same team as people in the world. You have to let go of the default paradigm of bringing other people down for your own self-gain. Everyone is NOT out to get you. When you operate in a collaborative and empathetic frame, you are never losing. Mistakes and bad experiences are catalysts for growth.

Tying in with @MJ DeMarco's book : The process of business is taking your mistakes and being proactive to use those scars as launch pads. Mistakes are lessons. Letting go is key to making the first right step toward self-awareness. At the same time, self awareness is the synergetic momentum builder to let go. Everything is connected when we observe the present moment.

 

[Deleted68316]

I didn't read Singer's work, but related to your question about taxes, if a burglar comes during the day to steal your TV, will you start shooting at him, or "let it go because this is life?"

Letting go has limits.

I was long looking for the answer to this dilemma.

Does surrender mean that we don't have to act to external events and accept everything that comes in our way?

Inside ourselves, yes, we always want to surrender (accept reality).

Outside, instead, we can deal with situations AFTER we have dealt with the emotion inside ourselves.

This is is how Michael Singer puts it:
"don't think that because you accept the reality it means you don't deal with things. You do deal with them. You just deal with them as events that are taking place on the planet Earth, and not as personal problems."

Letting go has limits.

Letting go inside ourselves is limitless.

 

[Ahfraser]

I was long looking for the answer to this dilemma.

Does surrender mean that we don't have to act to external events and accept everything that comes in our way?

Inside ourselves, yes, we always want to surrender (accept reality).

Outside, instead, we can deal with situations AFTER we have dealt with the emotion inside ourselves.

This is is how Michael Singer puts it:
"don't think that because you accept the reality it means you don't deal with things. You do deal with them. You just deal with them as events that are taking place on the planet Earth, and not as personal problems."


Letting go inside ourselves is limitless.

It makes me so happy that you all are connected with Micheal Singer’s work. his work and MJs work actually make me tear up with happiness.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Today I surrendered.

For the last week I've been debating about hiring someone to re-narrate the TMF audiobook and its 10th Anniversary Edition, or doing it myself. I've flipped flopped several times.

I ultimately decided to do it myself since a lot of readers prefer that authors read their own work. And the original is read by me. The problem is, recording and finishing takes a god-awful lot of time. But I did it before, and I know I can do it again.

Today I started.

I spent 2 hours in my little silent audiobook room recording a few chapters. Took forever to just do two chapters.

After finishing, I checked the voice recordings and for some reason, they did not record properly. Basically, the recording was unusable and I wasted hours of my day.

After getting upset about it, I re-framed the mishap and figured I should "surrender" and take this as a sign. And boy was this a sign.

That said, I will not re-narrate the audiobook and instead I will hire it out. Doing so should save me literally weeks, perhaps months of my time. And the quality likely will be better.

I know some folks won't be happy, but to get all "woowoo" on ya, the *universe* doesn't want me to do it.

 

[mikecarlooch]

Today I surrendered.

For the last week I've been debating about hiring someone to re-narrate the TMF audiobook and its 10th Anniversary Edition, or doing it myself. I've flipped flopped several times.

I ultimately decided to do it myself since a lot of readers prefer that authors read their own work. And the original is read by me. The problem is, recording and finishing takes a god-awful lot of time. But I did it before, and I know I can do it again.

Today I started.

I spent 2 hours in my little silent audiobook room recording a few chapters. Took forever to just do two chapters.

After finishing, I checked the voice recordings and for some reason, they did not record properly. Basically, the recording was unusable and I wasted hours of my day.

After getting upset about it, I re-framed the mishap and figured I should "surrender" and take this as a sign. And boy was this a sign.

That said, I will not re-narrate the audiobook and instead I will hire it out. Doing so should save me literally weeks, perhaps months of my time. And the quality likely will be better.

I know some folks won't be happy, but to get all "woowoo" on ya, the *universe* doesn't want me to do it.

The guy who narrated unscripted was phenomenal

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Today I surrendered.

For the last week I've been debating about hiring someone to re-narrate the TMF audiobook and its 10th Anniversary Edition, or doing it myself. I've flipped flopped several times.

I ultimately decided to do it myself since a lot of readers prefer that authors read their own work. And the original is read by me. The problem is, recording and finishing takes a god-awful lot of time. But I did it before, and I know I can do it again.

Today I started.

I spent 2 hours in my little silent audiobook room recording a few chapters. Took forever to just do two chapters.

After finishing, I checked the voice recordings and for some reason, they did not record properly. Basically, the recording was unusable and I wasted hours of my day.

After getting upset about it, I re-framed the mishap and figured I should "surrender" and take this as a sign. And boy was this a sign.

That said, I will not re-narrate the audiobook and instead I will hire it out. Doing so should save me literally weeks, perhaps months of my time. And the quality likely will be better.

I know some folks won't be happy, but to get all "woowoo" on ya, the *universe* doesn't want me to do it.

On a follow up to this, 4 days after I made this decision, a voice actor joined to become a Fastlane Insider. He posted an intro and I asked him to submit an audition. At the time, I was auditioning for voice-actors on Voices. Had 30+ auditions and only a few were candidates for acceptance. The new insider, @BrunoMars , submitted an audition and I liked it the best.

I find it oddly serendipitous...

 

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[TonyStark]

Loved the book which had a ton of entrepreneurial angles (later in the book).



Very true, but there is also some subjectivity to what constitutes "surrender."

Just to give you an example ...

Arizona just raised state income taxes by 77% on high income earners.

Before this law was passed, I was already considering moving out of state. However once I learned about this law potentially passing, I reasoned, "If the law passes, I will move"-- I'll let "life" decide.

Sure enough, it passed. So now I'm moving.

So one might say I let "whatever happens" dictate what I do.

The other subjective aspect of this is to posit that NOT MOVING is to surrender, to stay put and pay the tax.

All in all, you really don't know which choice is the true "surrender".

Surrendering does not mean to give up, or to relinquish control. It means to CONSIDER what life is throwing at you as a possible alternative.

Where ya moving to?

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Where ya moving to?

I moved to Utah 9 months ago.

 

[Andy Black]

On a follow up to this, 4 days after I made this decision, a voice actor joined to become a Fastlane Insider. He posted an intro and I asked him to submit an audition. At the time, I was auditioning for voice-actors on Voices. Had 30+ auditions and only a few were candidates for acceptance. The new insider, @BrunoMars , submitted an audition and I liked it the best.

I find it oddly serendipitous...

Amazing how stuff like this happens. That’s for sharing that story.

 

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[Sid781]

ive been hearing about this book and want to read it!

 

[shinshin88]

I haven’t voted, because I feel that it’s a decision that is ultimately up to you and only you can know which the surrender choice is. I haven’t read this book “The Surrender Experiment” but I have read “Untethered Soul” and also listened to “Untethered Soul at Work”.

As far as I understand Singer, what he means by “surrender” is similar to what he means by “letting go”. In both cases it’s about an attitude of the soul towards what is happening. It’s surrendering the need for obsessing over what is happening, being free of the psychological hangups and self-blaming that often arise when we’re put in difficult situations. So letting go isn’t about a specific set of actions or non-actions... but rather about how we mentally relate to those actions or non-actions. To illustrate:

Suppose you’re sitting in a bus next to a drunkard and it annoys you. If there is an emtpy seat close by, letting go doesn’t mean that you go on sitting there and being annoyed. You get up, and move without further thought. But suppose now that there is no other seat available... in this case letting go is staying where you are but at peace with the situation, not obsessing about being next to the drunkard and continuing to fuel your feeling of annoyance.

So thats why in this situation you mentioned I feel letting go can be either choice, and what it is depends on the person making it. Will you stay where you currently are, and always think that you should have moved and avoided the tax? If so, then that’s not letting go. Will you move and start thinking you’ve made the wrong choice, and you like the new place less? Then that wouldn’t be letting go.

My 2c.

Hi there,

I'd love to add another scenario for discussion. In my previous rented homes I've been averse to slamming doors, noisy tenants having random visitors over etc. In recovery, I have learnt how to set boundaries and be clear about my 'needs'. So I am looking for my next home to be peaceful and being clear about that intention.

I am scared about the idea of releasing these desires, saying yes to the first flat I see on Spareroom and ending up living somewhere that is noisy, dirty and chaotic, where I have no boundaries and live with people who do not either.

Sooooo... with MS's theory, where do boundaries stand in your opinion? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Best Wishes

Shireen