This weekend Dr. Wayne Dyer passed away.
James wants to recognize the influence Wayne Dyer has had on his life. We're very sad about his passing.
Here is one of the last interviews Wayne Dyer has done and it is with James...
During that interview James asked Dr. Dyer what he saw as the arc of his career. "What has your message been and how have you seen it evolve?"
Without hesitating, Dr. Dyer responded...
"Well, it's really been always about self-reliance, in one form or another. I've often said that I really feel that I had a conversation with God just before I showed up here on this planet in 1940 and I was asked, 'What would you like to do on this trip?' And I said, 'Well, I think I'd like to teach self-reliance.' And God said, 'You want to do that for an entire lifetime? Just teach self-reliance?'
"I said, 'Yes, that would be a great lifetime.' And he said, 'Well, then, we'd better get your little ass into an orphanage and we'd better let you have all of these different experiences, so that once people start to question that, you will never be dissuaded because you'll have the experience of it.' So everything in my life has been directed towards teaching people how to have self-reliance. It has shifted from psychology and an emphasis on psychological principles, to spiritual principles, and that's something that I really had nothing to do with personally; that was just the direction that I was destined to go."
They concluded their conversation with the following exchange...
Dr. Wayne Dyer:Think about your body, the body that you're in. You're in a male body, I'm in a male body. And I'm in a body that's about 6'2", it has blue eyes, it has no hair on its head, it has certain characteristics and so on, and inessence, that's why, for this incarnation, I'm doomed.
I'm doomed to live – I'm not gonna be in a female, 4'10" body. I'm not gonna be in any other – this is the body that I get, okay? Now, what kind of choices do I have to make within that context? Well, I can decide how healthy it's gonna be. I can decide whether I'm gonna exercise it or not.
I can decide actually how long it's gonna live.
There's many, many choices that I make about this body within the context of being doomed to live in this body and not any other body. Now, if you take this metaphor and you extend it to not just the physical body but to the rest of your life and all that you are, you are, in essence – you are given a dharma. You showed up here with a purpose. You showed up here with an energy that propels – and there's something that excites you, and it's like whether you want to be a falconer or whether you want to be a musician or whether you want to be a writer or whether you want to raise horses in Montana.
Whatever it might be, there's something that excites you. Now, you have been doomed; in other words, this is your dharma. This is what you're here for. But you're making choices.
And the choices that you make all along, all the course corrections that you make, involve,
"Am I willing? Am I willing to do whatever it takes to make this come true?" I've always been willing.
"Are you determined?" That is, are you gonna not let anything interfere with it? Yes. You have to have that determination.
"Am I fearless?" In other words, am I gonna get the fear out of me and come from a place of love, from divine love?
"Am I using compassion?" Compassion for myself and compassion for others, and ultimately,
"Do I reach that state? " The highest rung on the ladder, if you will, when Rumi said, "When you are born, a ladder is placed before you to help you to escape from this world.' And so to understand that you're in this world but you're not of this world, and when you reach the top of the ladder, the top rung on that ladder of divine love, you realize that, yes, you are doomed. You have been. You're to be a writer, you're to do all these things, but you also make choices and course corrections along the way, just like the choice you make about how your body is going to be.
When you understand that, when you understand that you showed up here for a reason and a purpose and, "Now I'm gonna be willing, I'm gonna be fearless, I'm gonna be determined, I'm gonna be passionate," then you can live your life without regrets. I just read a book called The Five Regrets of the Dying, by a woman in Australia who is a hospice nurse, and she interviewed people every day who were dying, and asked them what were their regrets.
She wrote a book about it, and the number one regret of people who were under her hospice care, the number one regret of the people dying was, "I wish I'd had the courage to live my life the way I knew I should, rather than listening to other people tell me what to do." That's the essence of it all.
James Altucher: That's really important, because as you said, you're doomed to make your choices, but if you don't make your choices, you're even more doomed.
Dr. Wayne Dyer: Absolutely, absolutely.
James Altucher: 'Cause someone else is making the choices for you. And on that note, Wayne, I really appreciate you spending the time and on this interview. I really want recommend I Can See Clearly Now. It's a great book, it's inspirational. I also recommend all of the books that you referenced in the book and in this interview, because I think they're all transformational books, and again, once again, thank you for coming on this show and being interviewed.
Dr. Wayne Dyer: It's my pleasure. God bless you. Good luck to you, my friend.
James Altucher: Thanks, Wayne.
Dr. Wayne Dyer: Namaste.
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