Pam Grout

This year’s Nobel Prize proves our minds render reality

December 9, 2022 27 Comments

“Our willingness to place unjustified faith in immediate perception leads us to an inaccurate and starkly limited vision of reality.”—Brian Greene

This video of how we render reality was kindly sent to me by Michael Dawson of the Action Factory who recently interviewed me on his podcast. See how the figures suddenly pop up.

I was super jazzed to learn that the main tenet of my long-time spiritual squeeze (A Course in Miracles) was just awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize for Physics. The three physicists who landed the prize called it “experiments with entangled photons,” but to quote the Scientific American headline that announced it, “The Universe is Not Locally Real, and the Physics Nobel Prize Winner Proved It.”

What that means is that we, as observers, literally create the world from our minds. In other words, we’re not interacting with a fact-based world of material objects, but with our own perceptions. Yes, it appears that objects, our bodies, etc. are real and solid, but John Clauser, Alain Aspect and Anton Zeilinger, the Nobel award-winners, just proved the key supposition of quantum theory: that local realism is false.

This means that, when not observed, material objects are not there. Nothing exists until it is perceived. Like the first lesson of the Course says, “Nothing I see means anything.” And it goes on to say that I’m the one that gives everything I see its meaning.

This idea that nothing has a position until its observed has been a prediction of quantum theory for years, but it was so stunning that nobody could believe it to be true. It makes absolutely no sense. Even the scientists making the calculations figured there HAS to be a loophole. The Nobel committee, even though they didn’t like this crazy idea that the observer “creates” the “world,” finally consented to award the prize after Clauser, Aspect and Zeilinger were able to eliminate every single escape clause.

What this means for non-scientists like me is that I literally render the world I see from my own consciousness. The nature of reality is defined by how I choose to look at it.

This is throw-out-the-streamers news because it means that the parody of life I’ve thus far created can be rewritten. Individual consciousness, profoundly limited by senses, egoic ideas and cultural messaging, can surrender and synchronize with a vastly greater reality. I mean, how cool is that?

We can literally render a different world. We can relinquish our minds, our consciousness, our beliefs to a reality that transcends time and space.

So that’s my science lesson for today, folks. As I repeatedly say, “Go out there and have the very best weekend of your life.” #222 Forever!

Pam Grout is the author of 20 books including E-Squared, E-Cubed, Thank & Grow Rich and her latest, The Course in Miracles Experiment: A Starter Kit for Rewiring Your Mind (And Therefore Your World).

Taz Grout 222 Foundation: spreading love and giving money away

December 2, 2022 32 Comments

“In these temporary human forms, we’re here to be used in service to the undivided, to the flow of life, to how love wants to move.”—Gail Brenner

By the time life’s biggest blessing landed in my womb, I had already accumulated a couple degrees, three decades of experience and some notable, if sporadic, accomplishments.

But it was Tasman McKay Grout that taught me all the things I really needed to know: how to slow down and marvel at tiny, everyday things, how to laugh and dance and sing as loud as I possibly can and how to make a fort out of sofa cushions.

But the two biggest lessons I learned from my brilliant, kind, creative daughter is how much love a heart can hold (Like the Grinch, my heart grew three sizes that monumental day in October 1993) and how vital it is to embrace every day, every moment, every second.

Death has a way of slapping us in the face with the reminder that life is short and uncertain and that uttering or promoting any message but “I love you. I have always loved you” is a complete and utter waste of time. This is it, friends, right now. And the only question worth asking is “How can I use this right now moment to be more generous, wide open and fully alive?”

As you know, I consider myself the ground crew for Taz’s wise, now cosmic perspective. That’s why I started the Taz Grout 222 Foundation that every February 22 (2/22) offers a monetary gift to an innovative project or person with a big idea to change consciousness and therefore the world.

We’re committed to changing the story of the modern world from consumption and acquisition to the more meaningful pursuit of creativity and self-expression. We believe happiness comes from human solidarity, simple living, respect for nature and the empowerment of all.

We look for projects that support the following ideas:

1. All people long to be generous and create beautiful things.

2. The story of scarcity, lack and the need to fight for resources was made up and is no longer valid. We aim to prove that, once liberated from outdated paradigms, the world is generative and endlessly abundant.

3. We believe all humans are interconnected and that even tiny actions have great significance.

If you or anyone you know has an idea to help bring about a change in consciousness, please consider applying for the 2023 grant.

It’s easy to apply. Just send a description of your big idea to taz.grout.222.foundation@gmail.com.

The more creative the project, the more likely it is to be chosen. In the past, we’ve funded a free coffee shop in India run by survivors of acid attacks, a forest of 2222 trees, a library in Nepal, a regenerative agriculture project in Ontario (Taz’s Hot Dirt), a couple different dancing projects and Service Space, an international, all-volunteer troop of love bombers who I just happen to be going to India with next month.

I hope you, my friends here on the blog, will help spread the word about this year’s award.

I’ll end with this quote by Jon Kabat-Zinn: “At the deepest level, there is no giver, no gift, and no recipient…only the universe rearranging itself.”

Have the very best weekend of your life and, as always, #222 Forever!

Pam Grout is the author of 20 books including E-Squared, E-Cubed, Thank & Grow Rich and her latest, The Course in Miracles Experiment: A Starter Kit for Rewiring Your Mind (And Therefore Your World).

Let me invite you to a different kind of party

November 29, 2022 27 Comments

“Happiness, when done right, is a kind of holiness, palpable and redemptive.”—Mary Oliver

It occurs to me that my blog posts all say the same thing. I wrap them up, of course, in different packages. But basically, they assert some variation of this theme: 1.) That our natural state is peace and happiness and that 2.) Our feckless egos tell us just the opposite.

The trick, of course, is deciding which idea to feed.

The ego is pretty mouthy and insistent. It runs like stock market ticker tape, constantly announcing that something is wrong, that something needs to be fixed.

I notice that when I place my attention on the random thoughts profusely supplied by the ego, they clump together and create whole Hollywood-worthy productions, complete with set designers and dancing penguins.

But when I feed idea #1, that my natural state is peace and happiness, I evoke a self that’s more generous, open and spontaneous, one that can respond to whatever happens to be at hand.

My thoughts, I’ve noticed, are like legos. They literally build things. One thought leads to the next and to the next and so on.

And while thoughts, when guided by the ego, can certainly construct a lot of heavily-encrusted delusions, it’s important to remember that they ARE just that: delusions. They simply are NOT true. They’re habits that our long-standing attention has temporarily set into concrete.

The good news is the delusions can be dismantled, blown to smithereens, by simply returning to idea #1.

As the Course in Miracles likes to remind me, when I let go of self-deceptions and images I’ve falsely worshipped, fear disappears and only love remains. When I give up suffering, anxiety and doubt, the awareness of eternal peace and happiness, my natural state, can’t help but come pouring in.

Welcome to the celebration of a different kind of party. #222 Forever!

Pam Grout is the author of 20 books including E-Squared, E-Cubed, Thank & Grow Rich and her latest, The Course in Miracles Experiment: A Starter Kit for Rewiring Your Mind (And Therefore Your World).

The freaky math of gratitude

November 21, 2022 19 Comments

“I will give thanks to you forever and with my whole heart.”—Book of Psalms

Between the above quote and the story I’m about to tell, you can probably surmise that I went to church yesterday. A dear friend joined the Unity church here in town so, of course, I went to cheer her on. That’s what possibility posses do—celebrate each other for any and all spiritual leaps. Go team!

The speaker at the church service reminded us of the Bible story of the fish and loaves. It happens to be a favorite of mine because its math equation doesn’t add up to what we consider “normal, scientific reality.”

5+2=5000 is not an equation that computes for most of us. It doesn’t match what we were taught in school. Every reasonable, educated adult knows that five loaves and two fish do not feed 5000 people. But that’s only because, alongside math, we were taught the erroneous subject of scarcity and limitation.

When you use the equation of gratitude, when you add blessings to “math problems,” the resulting sums are skewed in your favor. Gratitude compounds and expands everything – even material things.

Jesus and his 12 disciples took 7 measly items (5 loaves and 2 fish) and, by blessing them, by giving gratitude for them, grew their larder into a feast for 5000.

So today someone emailed me they’d “lost $280 in cash and did I have any practices that can find the lost money or an equivalent?”

Here’s my answer, dear correspondent: Give thanks for whatever you have left, whatever you happen to have now. Even if it’s only one dime. If there’s no dime, give thanks that the sun came up this morning. And that your heart is still pumping blood throughout your body. Give thanks that you get to experience this precious life, even when it doesn’t feel so precious!

Every word or thought or even breath of gratitude multiplies whatever you have. It renders old school math problems irrelevant. It adds up to truth and the unfathomable math of miracles.

I know I repeat this over and over and over. (I figure I can get away with it because it happens to be Thanksgiving week here in the United States.) Counting blessings turns even the tiniest of things into monster-size blessings, abundance and, yes, miracles that defy all laws of mathematics. Happiest of holidays, my friends!

#222 forever!

Pam Grout is the author of 20 books including E-Squared, E-Cubed, Thank & Grow Rich and her latest, The Course in Miracles Experiment: A Starter Kit for Rewiring Your Mind (And Therefore Your World).

A tale of two miracles

November 16, 2022 51 Comments

“Writing music is my second career. My first career is to be happy.”—Jewel

I have never had what’s considered a normal career, the kind with insurance benefits and retirement packages. Instead, I spent the years people typically use to “climb the career ladder” pursuing interesting adventures and, like Jewel, investigating practices that encourage peace, wonder and spontaneity.

I’ve come to believe that this state of pure aliveness is my natural state (yours, too) and that other states of say, stress, impatience and fear are the result of an erroneous belief system. I’ve been known to blame society and old cultural paradigms for trapping me inside the box, but I realize my own mind is also guilty of misappropriating truth from time to time.

That’s why I believe sharing miracles (the only conversation worth having, in my opinion) is so important. So here are two:

At today’s possibility posse, Jay mentioned his intention to forgive the Catholic church. We all have those institutions and legacies that seem to have hurt us. Jay, a cradle Catholic who LOVED the church, was devastated when a priest, upon learning they were gay, refused to give communion. At the time, Jay wrote the church off, but in their desire to live the most authentic, open life possible, knew forgiveness would eventually be necessary. When Jay was ready, they said it out loud. “I now forgive the Catholic church.”

Soon after, Jay opened their old childhood jewelry box and found a very unusual Catholic medallion.

“I’ve seen lots of Catholic medallions, but never one like this. Where did it come from? I know I didn’t put it in there.”

What Jay did know is that once you make a sincere intention, you better hang on to your hat. Especially when said intention includes the F word. Because the universe–the field, God, whatever you want to call it–takes that shit seriously. Signs will start showing up like the owls who inundated Harry Potter’s muggle relatives with invitations to Hogwarts.

In the last month, Jay has been invited to four Catholic funerals. The willingness to open to new things (that’s all forgiveness really is) resulted in a priest apologizing, a canter singing “Panis Angelicus,” the song Jay’s mom sang every year and more importantly, Jay being willing to look the very priest who slighted them in the eye, and say, “I forgive you.” In other words, Jay is now free. They even reported doing a rosary the other day.

Despite its reputation, forgiveness is the path that opens us to all good things. It has nothing to do with letting someone off the hook. It’s simply a realization that nothing or nobody can hurt us. That’s true freedom.

Another climbing out of the box miracle occurred at All Souls. A beautiful young woman shared that she’d been asking the question so many of us have—what is mine to do right now? How can I make a difference? How can I help mend the world back together? One night during this period of soul-searching, she had a vivid dream, a dream that seemed realer than normal reality. She was sitting on the couch in her living room when a little blond girl with blood coming out of her nose and her ears approached. Needless to say, the woman picked her up, held her tight and comforted her. The little girl said she’d lost her parents, so the woman hugged her even tighter. They shared a beautiful, holy connection.

When she woke up the next day, she read in the paper about a bombing overnight in Ukraine where many children and their parents were killed and she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, that she had lovingly ushered that little girl into the next realm.

It was a stunning moment. All of us who heard her story knew it to be true. Truer and more real than “normal” reality.

As we climb out of our heads, as we escape the four walls in which we endlessly circle, we discover that our true purpose may be happening in a cosmic realm. And that anybody or anything we forgive heals not only us, but the entire world.

I love you, people.

#222 Forever!

Pam Grout is the author of 20 books including E-Squared, E-Cubed, Thank & Grow Rich and her latest, The Course in Miracles Experiment: A Starter Kit for Rewiring Your Mind (And Therefore Your World).

Love or above

November 9, 2022 26 Comments

“This whole experiment in pretending to be a human was intended as a light comedy, a stroll in the garden, a cheeky knock-knock joke.”–Matt Cornwall

What I’m about to say is so simple that I know for a fact that a lot of you will dismiss it, write it off, roll your eyes and think “there she goes again, talking nonsense.”

So I’m going to ask you to take this rather primitive, four-word strategy out for a spin. Don’t take my word for it. Just try it.

Ready? Give thanks for everything.

What do you have to lose? Unless you woke up feeling absolutely blissful this morning, excited to leap out of bed, there’s always room for improvement. Try this for the next 21 days. And see what happens.

Remember, I said thanks for everything.

Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius pointed out some 2000 years ago that the quality of our lives depends on the quality of our thoughts. And the quality of our thoughts depends on our perception.

And while there are lots of techniques for changing perception (meditation, affirmations, going to workshops are a few that springs to mind), the one that ALWAYS, 100 percent of the time works is counting your blessings.

I was reminded of this potent manifestation technique at All Souls this past weekend. I was standing in line to get a latte and one of the beautiful participants, also jonesing for caffeine, expressed her excitement at the new PERFECT job she’d started the Monday before. She said this awesome job literally fell into her lap (she didn’t even apply, if I remember correctly) after she started practicing the gratitude program I wrote about in Thank and Grow Rich.

It was all surprisingly easy. And that’s the other perception I personally play with on the regular. Things don’t have to be hard. Life can be easy. As easy, my friends, as “giving thanks for everything.”

Again, nothing to lose and a whole new perception to gain. #222 Forever!

Pam Grout is the author of 20 books including E-Squared, E-Cubed, Thank & Grow Rich and her latest, The Course in Miracles Experiment: A Starter Kit for Rewiring Your Mind (And Therefore Your World).

Unicorns are the national animal of Scotland and other magical things

November 7, 2022 44 Comments

“When all your desires are distilled; You will cast just two votes: To love more, And be happy.”—Hafiz

Wow! This is a rather strange admission for a writer to make, but sometimes that’s the only thing I can really say. Wow!

Well that and, of course, thank you, thank you, thank you!

I have just experienced the most extraordinary three weeks, the first two in Scotland where I fell in love with Edinburgh (gotta love a city that regularly perches an orange traffic cone on the head of Adam Smith’s statue) and had a rip-roaring time traveling with the band, The Town Pants.

There were 27 of us together on a bus and not once, in our entire tour of the Scottish highlands, did I hear a complaint, an unkind word or really anything that wasn’t a synonym of “Wow!” Props to this amazing group of musicians and their band of merry fans. As Trish, our plucky tour guide liked to say, “It was pure dead brilliant.” I guess that’s Scottish for amazingly awesome.

And last night, I returned home from Lake Geneva and the All Souls Conference where, even though I was on the bill of speakers, I sat in on every single session (there were mediums, intuitives and, of course, “I’m Spiritual, Dammit’s” Jen Weigel and her intrepid partner Amy O’Keeffe) and can truly say, I feel completely re-energized. For one thing, I spent the week before going through notes from previous talks and playshops. Funny how my own words and ideas feed me.

So for the next week, I’m going to post about some of the beautifully inspiring miracles that have transpired starting with what one of the All Souls speakers said about angels, spirit guides and all the other beings who count on us humanoids to serve as their ground crew.

She mentioned that right now there is a surplus of unemployed angels who are chomping at the bit for a job. They really, really, want to help us and, in fact, are constantly doing what they can to give us signs and direction. Most of us, sadly, aren’t paying attention.

We on the ground crew can facilitate the process by actually asking. Hey, you up there (metaphorically speaking), could you lend a hand? Could you, you know, just step in here for a sec and smooth out the bumps? No ask is too small. No ask is too large.

So Happy Monday, my glorious tribe! Have an extraordinarily epic day! And stay tuned for more magic and miracles right here in this space. #222 Forever!

Pam Grout is the author of 20 books including E-Squared, E-Cubed, Thank & Grow Rich and her latest, The Course in Miracles Experiment: A Starter Kit for Rewiring Your Mind (And Therefore Your World).

Let it be beautiful!

October 14, 2022 40 Comments

“If you allow it, your life will flow into zones of astonishment you could never invent.”–Martha Beck

Happy Friday, my wonderful cosmic tribe! I’m heading to Scotland tomorrow so I wanted to check in and tell you how grateful I am for each and every one of you. Please know your support and love keep me afloat.

I also thought I’d share a couple pictures from the dedication of the Taz Grout Memorial Library in Nepal that “just happened” to occur on her birthday, unbeknownst to HANDS In Nepal, the wonderful organization that arranged it all.

There was a tikka ceremony, kata scarves, flower necklaces, dancing and well, let’s just say it was a worthy birthday celebration. Funny how that works.

As I’ve said before, it’s pretty miraculous being the ground crew for Taz and her bigger perspective. One of the ideas she recently “led me” to is the importance of rescinding all beliefs in mind-controlled thought forms. You know, thought forms that tell us what is and isn’t beautiful, thought forms that tell us to fear, thought forms that tell us we must work really, really hard to fix problems and that, if we want to access our spiritual power, we must pray, meditate, visualize and write a bazillion affirmations.

What about the inalterable fact, Taz went on, that you are already spiritual, that you can’t NOT be? What if it’s only your gaze on the distorted illusion (those mind-controlled thought forms) that blocks the intensely alive energy field that surrounds and flows through you? And what if there’s nothing, absolutely nothing, you have to do? Except live in the awareness of the Divine frequency. And what if when you do, you can’t help but bless all life around you? Without working hard, without changing anything. But by simply being who you are and saying thank you.

So thank you, wonderful blog tribe, thank you Dude and thank you, as always, Tasman McKay Grout. #222 Forever!

Pam Grout is the author of 20 books including E-Squared, E-Cubed, Thank & Grow Rich and her latest, The Course in Miracles Experiment: A Starter Kit for Rewiring Your Mind (And Therefore Your World).

The joys of being abnormal

October 7, 2022 39 Comments

“We’re all quietly aching for something to celebrate.”—Mark Nepo

I just ordered Gabor Mate’s new book, The Myth of Being Normal, and can’t wait to read it. The nearly 80-something physician argues that society trains us to suppress our own needs and authentic selves in order to fit in.

I always called it following rules and cultural paradigms and I’m proud to say I spent most of my life avoiding the biggies.

I refused to take on a job that had no meaning or purpose just for the sake of money. I refused to believe that having a ginormous house or a fancy car would make me happier or that the celebrities on Instagram were worth emulating. Even on my recent travel assignment to Lake Geneva, I couldn’t help but look at all the Gilded Age mansions and wonder, “Don’t all those big yards and 28 thousand rooms just separate you from other people?”

Disconnection, after all, is the exact opposite of freedom when you no longer trust others or the universe or the life force that thrums through us all.

As Mate points out, we evolved as communal creatures in close contact with each other. But now, because we live in an economic system that depends on growth and bigger, better, faster, we’re running roughshod over our basic human needs. Loneliness is at epidemic proportions.

But the biggest diversion from “normal” are my views on death. Tomorrow would be my daughter Tasman’s 29^th birthday. Yes, I’m sad that she’s not here in physical form (we reveled in a lot of pretty amazing Tasmanfests over the years), but all the real things—the love, the closeness, even the conversations continue. And, as my friend Martha Creek pointed out, sadness is just a disguise for love.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that, as a culture, we celebrate a lot of things that aren’t good for us. In fact, a lot of what we think is desirable is flat out dangerous. And when celebrations of wealth, manufactured, one-size-fits all beauty and what’s billed as safety is considered “normal,” it resists scrutiny.

What I’d rather celebrate today is creativity, connection, having conversations that matter and that all the love we so long to enjoy already inescapably exists.

Have the very best weekend of your life, my friends. #222 Forever!

Pam Grout is the author of 20 books including E-Squared, E-Cubed, Thank & Grow Rich and her latest, The Course in Miracles Experiment: A Starter Kit for Rewiring Your Mind (And Therefore Your World).

Everything leans on everything else

September 13, 2022 20 Comments

“The only true privilege in life is to love.”– -Justin Faerman

I’m totally jazzed about meeting some of you at this Sunday’s Amazingly Awesome Benefit Concert for the Taz Grout 222 Foundation. It’s such an honor to be surrounded by so much support, so much love, so much possibility. Even if you are on the other side of the globe.

Because remember – it’s impossible to step out of the ocean of wholeness. There’s literally nowhere else you can go.

So thank you one and all for so richly blessing me on this wild and crazy ride. From wherever you might hail.

I’ve already gushed here on the blog about my joy at writing a song with THE KAREN DRUCKER! She of Tarzan calling fame.

And I’d be remiss in not mentioning one of the other musicians who will be joining us on Sunday. Greg Tamblyn and I have been friends for eons. When I taught a journalism class at Avila College, he kindly showed up for my student reporters to interview. I wrote about his hilarious song, “The Shootout at the I’m Okay, You’re Okay Coral” in my book, Art & Soul, Reloaded. And it was Greg who first introduced me to Evy McDonald who I’ve written about on the blog and, if memory serves, in one of my books. It’s a story about stepping away from the ego’s limited narrative and returning to the present and the wholeness of who we really are.

Here’s the scoop:

In 1980, Evy was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease. By the time doctors finally determined her illness, she was, to use her own words, “a bowl of jello in a wheelchair.” The doctor told her, at best, she had six months to live.

After raging about the unfairness of it all for a day or two, she had this thought: “Since I’m dying anyway, why not use the short time I have left to finally learn to love myself unconditionally?”

For years, she despised her body. She was overweight, for one thing. The polio she’d had as a child left her with two withered limbs and well, she was hard-pressed to find anything she really liked about her physical body.

But she was determined. Three times a day, she’d roll her wheelchair to the mirror and sit naked. She wouldn’t leave until she’d find new positives to add to a list. Her hair was pretty, for starters. She decided that whatever it took, she was going to learn to accept herself. She also resolved to give all negative feelings and thoughts over to the bigger thing.

At some point, she crossed some kind of miraculous threshold. She actually began to feel love and compassion for herself. She began to see her body as a miracle of creation, to see herself as a blessed being who could experience joy.

Strength began to return to her limbs. She eventually began to walk, to feed and to clothe herself. She became the first person to completely recover from ALS and 40 some years later, she’s still ALS-free.

So whatever fabrication you believe is ultimate reality, be open enough to consider it might just have a few glaring holes.

Here’s the song and one more invitation to join us this Sunday in our extraordinarily epic quest to change the consciousness of the world. #222 Forever!

Pam Grout is the author of 20 books including E-Squared, E-Cubed, Thank & Grow Rich and her latest, The Course in Miracles Experiment: A Starter Kit for Rewiring Your Mind (And Therefore Your World).