THE MAKING MIRALCES STUDY GUIDE CAN BE USED BY AN INDIVIDUAL OR AS A MEANS TO FACILITATING A GROUP STUDY ON THE BOOK.  DESIGNED BY THE AUTHOR, THE STUDY GUIDE POSES THOUGHTFUL QUESTIONS THAT TAKE US DEEPER INTO OUR UNDERSTANDIGN OF OURSELVES AND PROMOTE CONVERSATION AND EXPLORATION AMONG FRIENDS AND GROUPS OF PEOPLE.

READ THE STUDY GUIDE BELOW OR DOWNLOAD YOUR COPY HERE.

There are as many ways to structure a study group as there are groups. Here is one suggested format, but don’t be afraid to be creative. Make use of the wisdom of your members, and let what you start take on a life of its own. Structure is a good means for getting people talking, and sometimes for moving people along. At times, however, the best of structures may need to be discarded in favor of engaging spontaneity.

I suggest that group members read a chapter and practice the included exercises during the week before discussing it. This way people will have experiences to share of working with the chapter as they discuss the study questions. However, most of the experiments are guided visualizations and lend themselves to being read out loud with the group for a shared experience. The experiments will be enhanced by doing them twice—once prior to the meeting and again together. 

I. Focusing

Begin each session with a quiet moment to focus and create sacredness. This can be done in a wide variety of ways. I suggest a simple guided meditation to relax, turn attention inward, and create a sharing of love with all the souls – past, present, and future – who are part of the Miracle Experiment.

II. Reading

Shorter chapters can be read in their entirety. If an entire chapter feels too lengthy to read in your allotted group time, pick a portion. In the chapters that include experiments, have someone read the experiement out loud or play the recording on the companion CD so the group can experience it together in a meditative state.

III. Discussion

1. Begin the discussion by inviting people to share any relevant experiences from the week related to working with the book.
2. Read study questions and invite comments related to the questions or to the chapter material.

 Discussion tips:

1. If it’s difficult to get your group members to talk, break down into groups of three or four, and let people work with the discussion questions in this more intimate context. Then bring people back together at the end to share what came up in their small group conversation. An always relevant question is simply, “What in this week’s chapter most caught your attention?”
2. If it’s hard to get people to stop chatting and stay relevant to the group focus, give discussion questions one at a time, with some discussion between each. Feed a new question when the conversation needs a nudge back on track.
3. If your group’s conversations tend to be lively and engaging to all, throw all the questions out at once and don’t worry about holding too tightly to a structure or getting all the discussion points covered.

IV.  Ending

End with a quiet, sacred moment of gratitude.

Focusing Meditation:

Close your eyes, relax your body, and quiet your thoughts with some deep, slow breaths…. Let your sense of identification shift from the density and limitation of matter to the clear, bright, beautiful energy that is your true essence. As you make this shift in perception, you leave behind the limitations of dense matter and start to see the cells of your physical body lit up and radiant with this energy…. And now, all the particles that make up your body are becoming less dense....the molecules, the atoms, the sub-atomic particles spreading out, vibrating in beautiful light. As you leave the density of matter behind, you enter a realm of limitless possibilities where time and space have no bearing.

Now, imagine everyone here in this room as very bright points of light in an energy sea. Through our intention and love we join together, making each other brighter, amplifying our power for good.

Now, let’s expand our awareness further to imagine our group joining with all the souls who have in the past, and will in the future, participate in the Miracle Experiment. See a whole network of souls joined beyond time and space in loving intent, forming a powerful force for good. Together we support each other’s joy, aspirations, and well-being, and allow miracles to unfold. Together we make a miraculous difference in the world. You don’t need to believe any of this. Just think it, and see if you can make it come to life in your imagination.

Open your heart to these souls and welcome them as friends. They have already sent love to you and may have already changed your life for the better. So send your heart-felt gratitude to them, experiencing the power of the whole, as well as the uniqueness and beauty of each individual who makes up this whole.

Now, take some deep breaths, slowly begin to stretch, and bring yourself back to a normal waking state. 

 

CHAPTER DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Introduction 

1.  The Experiment Begins 

1. What was your experience of the first experiment?
2. The introduction speaks of “stalking” miracles as a metaphor for holding on too tightly to a desired outcome. Are there any ways you’ve noticed yourself doggedly “stalking” your heart’s desires as opposed to holding them lightly? If you’ve had experiences of holding a cherished dream lightly, without attachment, what was that like? How did you do it?
3. A premise of this work holds that linear time doesn’t really exist, and that as soon as you invest your heart and imagination in this experiment, you enter a reality in which people from the past, present, and future have all sent transforming love to you. What effect do you think this might have or has already had on your life?

 

2.  What Did You Just Do?

1. What do you imagine might be the impact of the morphic field created by Miracle Experiment participants?
2. We’re all part of many morphic fields of belief. Our culture is full of them. Louise Hay noted that in the early days of flying, the provided barf bags were well-used because collectively we just hadn’t quite assimilated the reality that humans can fly. Several decades ago the connectivity we have through the internet was undreamed of. Now it’s taken for granted—it’s an easy part of our collective belief that we can access anyone, nearly anywhere, in an instant. What are some other collective morphic fields of belief that you see yourself immersed in? Think of those that feel helpful as well as limiting. Here’s an example: Deterioration of health is an inevitable part of aging.
3. What assumptions about life might just be a collective energy field rather than “reality?”

 

3 . Miracles Are Natural 

1. What miracles have you experienced?
2. What was your most significant “lucky” break? What if this experience wasn’t “luck” at all but instead had some connection to you rising to meet your fortune? How would that change the story you tell yourself?
3. The young man in this chapter told himself, “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I know it’s going to be great!” What do you tell yourself during times of uncertainty?

 

4. Impossible Miracles 

1. The idea that you don’t need to “believe,” just imagine, to create a new result runs counter to many popular teachings. Discuss the difference between believing and imagining.
2.  How does it affect your level of attachment to the outcome when you daydream about something you’ve already decided to be impossible, versus when you try to believe that something you deeply want is possible?
3.  What are some of your cherished heart’s desires that you believe to be too impossible?

 

5.  The Science of Miracles 

1. This chapter suggests that the findings of new science, when taken out of the physics lab and applied to daily life ultimately must change how we perceive ourselves and live day to day. Discuss what these changes might look like.
2. A secret to wisdom lies in the willingness to perpetually question one’s certainties. What certainties have you stopped questioning?
3. Discuss the range of new possibilities that open up when things you thought you knew for certain suddenly are no longer certain.

 

6.  We Create Our Reality 

1. Do you accept the author’s premise that we create our reality with our thoughts? Why or why not?
2. The author shares her experience of turning around a difficult day. Have you had experiences of this yourself? If so, what helped you make the switch into consciousness and peace?
3. How can this notion of “creating our reality” be embraced without losing compassion for ourselves and others, especially when in the midst of challenging experience?

 

7. Our Power Together 

1. Chapter 7 introduces the second experiment in the book. Where did this experiment take you?
2. How have you noticed the cumulative effect of the previous chapters and exercises helping to prepare your mind for this one?
3. The Miracle Experiment teaches how to be in intimate and compassionate community with countless individuals whom we will never meet. How do you experience the host of other readers? How can we make these meetings feel personal rather than abstract?

 

8.  The Science of Light, Love, and God 

1. Have you ever had a direct experience of the Light, as with a near-death experience or spontaneous spiritual experience? If so, what was it like and how did it change you?
2. How does it feel to imagine the very air around you is alive and benevolent?
3. What if we make the reality of being held in a loving universe true simply by imagining it? How might that impact our lives?

 

9.  Tapping the Field 

1. Addictions leave us empty and craving more. Love fills us at the very thought. What are your loves and what are your addictions?
2. Imagining what we want can leave us feeling dissatisfied with our present experience and attached to a future outcome, or it can leave us feeling full and happy. The first state of mind tends to create more scarcity while the second is magnetic to wonderful outcomes. Discuss what makes the difference between these two ways of imagining.
3. What was your experience of doing the experiment in this chapter                                 

 

10. The Miracle Rose

1. The various miracles and serendipities related to roses, healing and Mother Mary are suggestive of the Divine Feminine at work. Discuss the Divine Feminine as it relates to miracle making.
2. Have you noticed any serendipities related to roses already happening around you? If so, what message did they have for you?
3. Share any miracles you’ve experienced recently or in the past that seemed to hold this quality of the Divine Feminine.

 

11. Bending Time 

1. Share any experiences you’ve had in which a small amount of time seemed to stretch to a seemingly impossible extent to meet your needs, or contract in a quantum-leap kind of way to bring a desired outcome quickly into the present without the expected linear progression of cause and effect.
2. Science seems to be suggesting that what we think today can affect, not just our future but our past. What does this mean to you?
3. Do some imagining: what could you send back to your past to improve your present and future?

 

12. What Do You Want? 

1. The author holds that desiring from life isn’t a selfish thing; it’s a way inner guidance speaks to us about our path of highest good. How do you feel about your desires? Do they feel out of control and in need of restriction? Do you listen and discern their wisdom? Or, do you override them so routinely that you hardly notice them at all?
2. Do you give yourself time to dream and reflect on what it is you most want from life? If so, how does this practice impact your quality of life? If not, why not?
3. Discuss the difference between goals and heart’s desires. Do you ever confuse these and pursue goals instead of heart’s desires?

 

13. Spontaneous Manifestation? 
Easier Than You Think! 

1. Share any experiences you’ve had with something you thought about tangibly showing up in your life spontaneously or through unplanned serendipity.
2. Do you have an outer edge of what level of spontaneous manifestation could happen for you? Could you imagine yourself spontaneously manifesting a crystal in your hand as did the young woman described in the chapter? Could you imagine your dental fillings suddenly turning shiny and new following one of these exercises (as happened to a reader of the book’s first edition)? Discuss where your belief simply won’t go. Then, let go of trying to believe and simply imagine what it would feel like if the impossible happened.
3. The research of Robert Jahn and Brenda Dunn has shown that harmoniously joined minds have an exponentially greater power to manifest than minds working alone. Along with the personal manifesting exercise given in the chapter, consider doing an experiment in this discussion group where you all together imagine the appearance of an agreed-upon object.

 

14. Manifesting Your Heart’s Desires 

1. What was your experience of writing your heart’s desires list and doing the experiment?
2. How can you cultivate a light, playful, and unattached frame of mind around things you deeply desire? How can you walk the fine and slightly paradoxical line of being passionate about your desires and unattached to outcomes?
3. What if receiving the best possible outcomes meant that none of your heart’s desires would take the form you think? Are you willing to let go that much?

 

15. Surrender 

1. If the path of miracles could only be seen one, uncertain step at a time and the path to “just okay” could be seen ten predictable steps out, which would you choose? (Be honest!)
2. How do you hold on to stubbornness, being right, and trying to stay in control at the expense of surrendering to a higher plan?
3. Where have you been pushing too hard to make something happen, in a way that isn’t working? How could you replace nonproductive control with surrender?

 

16. Making Each Moment Count 

1. Why do you think the author follows up a series of chapters aimed at exercising greater control over our reality with two chapters on the power of surrender, letting go of control and simply being present in the moment?
2. The Namaste Publishing website has a “spiritual status” opportunity where members can share their states of being in the present moment. While some share their thoughts or philosophies, others honestly share their inner states of “contentment,” or “sadness,” or “seeking.” What is your state of being in this moment? How often do you pay attention to it?
3. It’s only when our minds are still and present that we’re able to hear the quiet voice of inner guidance. How present are you? To what extent do thoughts about the past and future dominate your mind?

 

17. Prayer

1. Conversation with God through the vehicle of prayer is a powerful means of opening new doors of possibility. When we feel out of options, asking for God’s help can invite miracles. At the same time, there’s a way that praying to God affirms our separateness from God and our dual nature. At some point, prayer needs to be released in order for communion and Oneness with God to be experienced. Discuss the difference between prayer and communion and the value and limitations of each state.
2. The author says that the word “God” is a hopelessly inadequate shorthand for something too big to be captured in words. What is your concept of God?
3. Imagine that your current definition of God is too small and captures only a glimmer of all that God is. If you were to expand your concept of God, what do you see?

 

18. It Didn’t Work!

1. Here’s an exercise: Everyone make your best case for why your highest heart’s desires won’t come true. Do it with intent: imagine that you are spewing out every last doubtful thought lurking in far corners of your mind so that you can be free of them. Imagine that as you speak them out loud you release them. Be playful, be serious, be real. For this exercise, let go of all of your best efforts to think and speak only in positives and really let loose! Imagine that you all are creating a giant pile of doubts and limited thinking in the middle of your meeting space. Keep going until no one can think of anything more to say.

[Facilitator’s note: Let the group finish with instruction #1 before disclosing the next instruction.]

1. Next, clean up the “pile” by loving it. Recognize that all of these thoughts come from a young, frightened part of your personality. Take a moment to just love, accept and forgive yourself. Imagine the heavy pile of limitation dissipating and turning into a mass of light-filled butterflies taking flight.
2. Now discuss what you just did and how much power your limiting thoughts have over you.

 

19. Cultivating a Miracle Mind 

1. What has been your experience so far of giving up whining?
2. How often do you find yourself speaking or thinking of yourself as being at the mercy of external circumstances?
3. Why do you think the author makes such a point of doing this exercise in an absolute way? What is the importance of making it a “symbolic act?”

 

20. Mastery and Self-Responsibility

1. The author states, “Our power to affect the world around us through our conscious intent expands in direct correlation with our willingness to recognize the connection between our inner state and outer reality, barring nothing, the pleasant and the unpleasant.” Do you agree or disagree? Discuss why.
2. If all the circumstances of your life—the ones you love and the ones you don’t—reflect exactly what you’ve learned to expect from life (not necessarily what you want or consciously ask for, just what you’ve learned through experience to expect) what would that tell you about your expectations?
3. In working with the affirmation, “There are no circumstances beyond my control,” how far is your mind able to stretch and where does your mind start to draw lines?

 

21. Finding the Gift

1. As with the woman who affirmed, “Thank you, God, for cancer,” how would it feel to say thank you, God for the circumstance in your life that you despise the most?
2. What might be some of the payoffs to the persistent challenges in your life? Do you see any way you could give yourself this gain without waiting for the challenging situation to force it?
3. Can you think of any victim stories you tell yourself about your life (as in, “I was damaged by my past”) that you could revise as a “blessing” story (as in, “My past made me strong and taught me compassion”)?

 

22. Paradigm Shifts

1. If something you deeply want that currently feels out of reach was given to you right now, without your having to work for it, without any time elapsing or steps taken, would you feel ready for it? Would you feel worthy of it? Would it feel as precious if you didn’t have to work for it?
2. In doing the chapter’s exercise, were you able to see how what you did to make a situation easier in the past might apply to your experience now?
3. Share some of your past experiences when what you needed or wanted showed up effortlessly through perfect synchronicity and grace. Do these experiences give you confidence in your ability to call things forth easily and faith that circumstances will work in your favor? Or, because these things didn’t come through your effort and conscious intervention, do you tell yourself they couldn’t happen again?

 

23. Creating Safety

1. What was your experience of doing the chapter’s exercise?
2. Fear is highly contagious. Discuss how the fears of others impact your peace of mind.
3. When in the midst of others who are in fear, how can you maintain your own experience of peace and safety without moving into a state of defensiveness?

 

24. Healing a Condition at Its Start

1. What was your experience of doing this experiment?
2. In this experiment and others in the book, you have sent well-being to yourself and to others back through time. Not only that, but other readers of this book have sent well-being to you outside of time. How do you imagine this infusion of well-being may have already changed your life?
3. . Familiar metaphysical teachings tell us we must change our consciousness in order to change our results yet, in working outside of linear time and in intentional connection to the Miracle Experiment wave of joined consciousness, the new result conceivably could come first. Readers of this book’s first edition have reported having experiences of this with healing and manifestation happening before doing the related experiments and exercises. Discuss the implications of this and possibilities that working outside of time with a network of other people open up.

 

25. A Modern-Day Miracle-Maker

1. Real miracle-makers exist. How comfortable are you with being a miracle-maker?
2. What miracles feel too big for God to work through you?
3. The author writes, “We no longer need to crowd around a handful of miracle makers. We now can simply join together and become miracle-makers in our own right.” Consider doing this exercise as a group:
4. Quickly agree on a “miracle” you would all like to join together to invite into manifestation. Do this quickly as the longer you debate it, the more your egos will engage and weigh down the experiment in limited thinking.
5. Energize the miracle with your excitement by discussing how beautiful and within reach it is.
6. Take a moment to silently infuse your collective vision of this miracle with love.
7. Now let go of your attachment to outcomes and stay in the vibration of love by shifting your attention to each other. Share, popcorn style (i.e. whomever feels moved to speak) something you love about another member of the group. Example: “Jane, the beauty I see in you is….” Continue in this way for as long as you like.

 

26. Accepting the Responsibility of Miracles

1. Discuss the Questions for Thought at the end of this chapter:

What magnitude of miraculous power would feel like too much for you to receive? What magnitude of power would boggle your mind and upset your belief systems? Uncomfortably challenge the limits of what you believe you can or should receive or the limits of who you believe you are? Create burdensome or frightening new responsibilities? Cause you to feel separate and alone?

1. What responsibility comes with the power of miracle-making?
2. In this chapter as well as chapter 2, the author talks about the potential for morphic fields to pattern reality for better and worse. Working from the premise that consciousness can transcend the illusionary limits of time, might we be able to access morphic fields of future beliefs? What possibilities might this open?

 

27. Becoming a Miracle-Maker

1. What was your experience of doing this chapter’s experiment and practicing the exercise?
2. What spiritual power did you choose to awaken and why?
3. What is your experience of “lesser powers” as the author defines them?

 

28. Shining the Light

1. The author puts forth in this chapter not just the importance of doing good in the world but that “good” needn’t be grand or complicated to have a significant impact. Are there ways you are giving to the world around you without recognizing how important those gifts are?
2. What are some small acts of kindness that have left a lasting impression on you?
3. What small act could you imagine doing, or have you done, that might be remembered for years to come by the recipients?

 

29. A Return to Our Heart’s Desires

1. What was your experience of doing this chapter’s experiment and exercise?
2. Discuss the different processes of using intention and visualization to manifest your own heart’s desires versus the blended experience of manifesting your heart’s desires as you give toward the highest good of others.
3. Discuss the difference between attachment to an outcome and happy anticipation. How can we let go of the former and cultivate the latter?

 

30. Taking a Quantum Leap

1. What was your experience of doing this chapter’s experiment?
2. Discuss what you think the author means in this chapter by a “quantum leap” and why she equates it with an element of risk.
3. What do you think is the significance of spontaneous dental transformation?