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[Coenrad Morgan]

Hi,

The personal development industry is just that, AN INDUSTRY and due to humanity, its failings and an ingrained need to improve our circumstances and an entrenched belief in something "out there" bigger than ourselves (that has shown up in cave drawings, religions and even in our language, "God Willing" in English, InshAllah in Arabic) that has the power to make life easier, heal our bodies, minds, relationships, provide comfort if we can only find it, communicate with it, appease it; we create a market.

The demand is created by our neediness, our cravings and aversions, simply put, our humanity, the supply is thus offered in a myriad of forms, instant fix's, books, work shops, audio programs....product after product after product, MANY exploiting our humanity and subsequent failings, all claiming to have the answer if you HAVE THE MONEY, "God" for sale.

I wanted to learn to meditate, an old man who's council I sought likened a human being to his expensive Hi-fi set, huge potential but utterly USELESS unless "plugged in" to the electrical grid, meditation he said, was plugging in to that "God" out there from "in here", and as a result, I and my circumstances would benefit, IN THAT ORDER. But TM wanted more than I could possibly afford, other entrainment options were in US Dollars firstly (at the time the exchange rate was about 7x the cost in my currency) AND it wasn’t a set curriculum, the product line was ever evolving and expanding, thus once in, I was locked into "ever striving, never arriving".

Other books and audio's constantly referred to a previous book or another, or this will help BUT to get the full benefit you need (and it is mentioned somewhere in the book or product).....this workshop, that product which in turn refers to yet another, so as the financial services joke goes, YOUR COMMISION BASED FINANCIAL ADVISOR, Who’s FINANCIAL FUTURE ARE THEY PLANNING, YOURS OR THEIR OWN, I dare to venture the same goes for the self improvement industry, there is much chaff to sift through and so little wheat, who is benefiting, would these Guru's still be out there if there was no money or less would they be into something else?

Oprah, has good intentions and yes, makes some money off it as do her guests but FIRST comes the offering of guidance, then they benefit, not the other way around. She and Eckhart start a web based class on her show (no cost, just watch the show and the adverts that pay for it), millions get to listen and interact with Eckhart via Skype ( also free for the basic pc to pc service) or e-mail and YES it sold a lot of books for him BUT the heartfelt good intentions, the action of doing it for free to back that up came FIRST...AND you could download the entire series of shows (10 of them) FOR FREE and you got a basic work book also FREE. So what do PM's competitors do....start their own "free" class (Actually Infomercials), featuring 9 or so teachers who themselves have products focusing on what Eckhart left out or doesn’t teach and why you are lost without them in addition to Eckhart, so in this case their strategy actually undermined Oprah and Eckhart in order to sell products; what good comes from this, sowing doubt? In the end Pier based referral marketing is the focus even though each and every one of these teachers is well respected, the focus wasn’t positive other than for them firstly and maybe you (after you have forked up some cash as apposed to a relatively inexpensive paperback book - Eckhart’s "A New Earth")?

There is this parable about a man praying to be rescued in a flood, a helicopter comes by to pick him up, as does an inflatable boat, to both of these he says, no thank you, "God" will save me, he eventually drowns and is ticked off, to which "God" responds...."but I sent a helicopter AND a boat". In my case, of the 1000's of conversations I have had in 40 years, the old mans story about the Hi-Fi needing to be plugged in has been my boat, it drifted and remained in my mind for over 20 years and never left me where-as most of the others have drifted out of my conscious memory, I just needed to figure out how to climb on and apparently, according to PM's competitors, the gang-plank to this boat is a credit card and it is so long that I may be "on the path" but never reach the boat unless I purchase the "Insider package" offered to a select few JUST LIKE ME. (according to the e-mail.)

In the case of Project-Meditation, I got the essence of TM minus the white napkin and offering of fruit to the Guru ritual or the mantra of their choice based on my date of birth FOR FREE, I got access to a forum with people from all over who have been there, done that, crashed, burned and like a phoenix rose up again or are in the process of, some are shmucks like me (living proof that at this point in humanities evolution insanity is normal), others are like Ta-Tsu -Wa, Pollyanna, Edwin, Chris063 and on and on and on who come and go helping out for no personal gain other than they want to. I didn't need to make a purchase to gain from the mistakes and triumphs of others, I just had to want to and sign up, as for the others in this industry....CREDIT CARD gains access to the "inner circle" according to yet another e-mail.

The big names of religion and many modern day "saints" like Dipa Ma, Mother Teresa and many more taught by deed, didn’t insists on payment, in the case of Jesus, The Buddha ( Noted because I cant speculate on the other big names because I simply don't know enough about them), you got a teaching AND often something to eat, in return, if you chose, you could join their way of thinking and living and spread it by service to others or not, it was totally up to you.

So, what is the intention behind PM and LF....well; Discover Meditation is FREE, is often referred to as all you need by the makers of Life Flow and I have even seen the forum celebrities tell people to take off their head phones (the commercial product) and do some time with Discover Meditation ( the free product that TM charged 100's or thousands for depending on your currency unit), also that entrainment isn’t enslavement, you shouldn’t need Life Flow to be able to meditate, just to get your mind there enough times so that you can find your own way back to that point...where ever you are and not where your I-Pod is.

They also frequently and consistently tell you that the traditional mantra method works and has had numerous studies proving it's effectiveness, Life Flow just makes the whole process easier and faster (a lot)....use the vehicle of the mantra based meditation or take a fast taxi ride. Life Flow gets you there without your needing to know where there is (thus why I refer to it as a taxi ride), you note the route, once you have been there, you can get back there on your own using your stand alone walking meditation, mantra, left toe in right nostril, what ever works for you, Life Flow is much like Meditation GPS, it guides you where you decide to go from 10Hz to 1Hz .

And now it turns out that Michael trained to be a Shrink for many years...anyone who would put up with years of medical training needs to be sincere in their desire to help others just to survive to graduation, its not fun. This also affords the creation team behind Life Flow a strong knowledge of both the brain and what plagues humanity.

Then there’s Jodie who services the needs of Life Flow customers yet has on numerous occasions either contacted me on her own to offer advice or encouragement or in response to my questions.....and for most of that time, I wasn't a Life Flow customer!

In my opinion, what life flow offers comes from the position of wanting to make a difference, its purpose driven as apposed to profit driven and that shows in their most blatant yet subtle feature - SINCERITY, and this alone is enough to set it above others in the market place at this point in time as quite honestly, they are doing something unique, they put people before profit, they do one thing but do it very well (Life Flow).

Marketing is concise and greatly out weighed by pertinent and useful advice and information, as also the newish Guided meditations specific to a wide range of topics (FREE), and if you have a good idea as per the request for timing and volume changes in the free gratitude segment of Discover Meditation, this is done, there is real customer focus here.

Life Flow and its team ADD VALUE even to the components that don’t earn revenue, this says so much about their ethos and thus so much about their product, the others could learn from this.