E-Squared: The 10-year anniversary edition (with a Manifesting Scavenger Hunt!!) GET IT HERE
“We, the greatest of all creators, with capabilities to build cities and inspire nations, are squandering our time watching reruns of The Office. We have forgotten that whole galaxies exist within our grasp”
Pam Grout
#1 New York Times Bestselling Author
I am the author of 20 books, two screenplays, a live soap opera, a TV series and enough magazine articles that I haven’t starved in 25 years without a 9-5 job. On this site, you’ll find all sorts of information about my books and about my career as a freelance magazine and travel writer.
If you’re an editor, you can easily click on Portfolio to view writing samples from my illustrious magazine and newspaper career.
If you’re looking for a speaker, you can contact my agent at CAA (Creative Artists Agency) here.
And if you’re a reader of my books, you can find out more about me, read excerpts and take quizzes to see if you’re qualified as an artist, a manifester or a P.L.B. (that’s person who lives big for those who haven’t yet read Living Big!) And if you’re really jazzed, simply click here or on that orange RSS feed icon in the top right corner and subscribe to my free blog.
Enjoy!
Pamela Sue Grout
The Taz Grout 222 Foundation was launched to honor Tasman McKay Grout who spent 25 short years on the planet inspiring everyone who knew her to live and love better. Everything she stood for was some variation of this theme: create relentlessly, love fiercely and do quiet, kind things for the underdog.
Each year on February 22, the 222 Foundation awards a $12,222 grant to an innovative project or person with a big idea to change consciousness and therefore change the world.
We look for projects that support the following ideas:
1. A change in perspective is our greatest need. We believe all people (no exceptions) long to be generous and create beautiful things.
2. Today’s hopelessness is based on false premises. We look to defy the old story of scarcity, lack and the need to fight for resources. We aim to prove that the universe, once liberated from no-longer-working paradigms of scarcity, is generative and endlessly abundant.
3. The us against them model is kaput. We believe all humans are interconnected and that even tiny actions have great significance
“A better world is sitting, literally, right in front of us.”–Tom Shadyac
It’s time for our daily ACIM workout, where we stretch our antiquated views, where we work our imagination muscles, where we reach for a whole new vision.
ACIM Lesson 67 (Love created me like itself) reminds us that we place very low expectations on what might be possible. Even our best and our brightest demonstrate a tiny fraction of what we’re all capable of.
The best way I know for reaching a bigger, more brilliant world is to ask better questions.
Every time we ponder the question “How do I get rid of this?” or “How can I overcome that?” we add energy to sustaining the unwanted state.
As we devote more and more attention to its existence, we further validate its reality. We continue to view the state we’re attempting to overcome as a linear, predictable “problem.”
Not a lot of options in that teensy box.
By continuing to ask the same boring questions and residing in the same uncomfortable little shoebox, we block the flow and full expression of the F.P’s power.
The force, to borrow from Luke Skywalker, “can’t be with us.”
So my intention is to ask bigger questions, to think bigger thoughts?
“What if?” is always a good start.
“What if our politicians could see eye-to-eye, to join forces for true and lasting change?”
“What if every child on the planet had a hot meal before they went to bed tonight?”
“What if every family had a roof over their head?”
“What can I do today that makes me dance with joy?
“How can I grow into the loving, wise, inspiring person I am meant to be?”
“What marvelous thing might I create today?”
Anything is possible, but we have to imagine it first. The more big questions we ask, the more we dare to say, “What would it look like if….?,” the bigger our lives will become.
Putting your attention on something calls it into existence. We can literally reshape and redesign our lives by asking bigger questions.
Pam Grout is the author of 19 books including E-Squared, E-Cubed, Thank & Grow Rich and her new book, Art & Soul,Reloaded: A Year-Long Apprenticeship to Summon the Muses and Ignite Your Daring, Audacious, Creative Side
“Reclaim your land with love.”—Jack Kornfield
So, I started a new relationship today.
And even more noteworthy is that I’ve decided to throw myself into this love affair with complete abandon.
Who is this lucky (or unlucky, depending on your perspective) being?
I’ve decided, as of today, to make a 100 percent commitment, to unconditionally love the asshat in my mind. I’ve mentioned him before. The voice that tells me I’m not good enough, the one that points out my flaws, the one that rolls its eyes and says, “Who are you to talk about the Course in Miracles?”
I’ve tried fighting the voice. I’ve tried resisting it. And now, I’m going all in with the only thing that can ever transform anything. I’m going to love it. I’m going to appreciate that, at one time, this voice was working to protect me. And above all, I’m going to remember one of the first tenets of Buddhism.
Hatred never ceases by hatred.
But by love alone is healed.
ACIM Lesson 66 is My happiness and my function are one. It tells me God only gave me happiness.
And since being happy is my only function and since resistance to the voice and its madness doesn’t make me happy or change anything, I’m–as of today–officially declaring my love for all parts of me, especially the scared little asshat. Who knows? I might even send flowers.
Pam Grout is the author of 19 books including E-Squared, E-Cubed, Thank & Grow Rich and her new book, Art & Soul,Reloaded: A Year-Long Apprenticeship to Summon the Muses and Ignite Your Daring, Audacious, Creative Side
“Love is an act of heroic genius. Pleasure is our birthright. Chronic ecstasy is a learnable skill.” –Rob Brezsny
Merriam-Webster just announced the addition of 850 new words to their dictionary. My favorite, coined by a writer of The Simpsons, is embiggen (to make bigger or more expansive).
That’s what I think A Course in Miracles does. It embiggens my happiness.
In fact, ACIM Lesson 65 (My only function is the one God gave me.) encourages me to be single-minded in my pursuit of joy, to make this my one and only goal.
I know a lot of people can get hung up on the wording, but this lesson is very simple. It’s also very radical.
To believe that happiness, joy and fun is why we are here is a completely foreign concept to most people. As I said, it’s so radical that most people can’t even wrap their heads around it.
Which is why the Course suggests I set aside a time every day to reflect on how important my mission really is.
It also asks me to notice (and then eliminate) all thoughts, cultural paradigms and beliefs that interfere.
Here are 3 biggies that often get in my way:
1. It’s preposterous to believe you can be happy and have fun all the time. This is deeply-engrained cultural paradigm. It’s only true to the extent that I believe it.
2. I don’t really deserve to be happy and have fun. Otherwise, known as guilt, the belief that I’ve done something wrong and deserve to suffer. It often comes with the word “should.”
3. If I work really hard, I might deserve a little happiness and fun. Like on weekends. Or my birthday. Certainly not all the time.
So who’s with me? Who’s willing to take on the 24/7 mission of happiness and joy?
Pam Grout is the author of 19 books including E-Squared, E-Cubed, Thank & Grow Rich and her new book, Art & Soul,Reloaded: A Year-Long Apprenticeship to Summon the Muses and Ignite Your Daring, Audacious, Creative Side
“It is not until our image of God is corrected that we begin to understand how we sabotage our own happiness.”—Michele Longo-O’Donnell
Before we commence with today’s festivities, I want to answer a question that was posted on my blog yesterday.
Could you give some suggestions on how to forgive the old story?
The simple answer, of course, is quit thinking about it, but that’s rather flip and perhaps not helpful.
So it came to me this morning as one my own old stories was playing out in my head that: a) I had cemented this “problem” into the plaster of my life by believing it was absolutely true and b) that an alternative story (in fact a gajillion other stories) were also true.
And that maybe that field of the other gajillion stories (where an alternative story could be true and a whole different thing could happen) is actually a pretty good definition of God.
And that forgiveness is nothing more than withdrawing my belief in the one story, withdrawing my conviction that this “problem” needs to be solved.
At that point, I can return to the field of gajillion possibilities. Or, to use the old terminology, return to God. Or love.
Absolutely anything is possible. Until that moment I pluck one particular possibility (usually a problem) out of the gajillion possibilities and then whip the bejesus out of myself for having it.
In quantum physics, it’s called collapsing the wave. All of our problems are nothing but waves we chose to collapse out of the field of gajillion possibilities.
So to turn it over to God is to turn it back over to the field where anything at all is possible. Where the wave is no longer collapsed.
It occurs to me that this definition may be just as difficult to understand as the Course often is. And my goal is to make it as simple as possible. So let me try one more time.
ACIM Lesson 64 (Let me not forget my function) encourages me to bring my attention back to the field of gajillion possibilities instead of zeroing in on one collapsed wave.
My function is to “be the light,” “to spread molecules of merriment.” And it’s much easier to fulfill that function when I focus on the gajillion possibilities (God) rather than the one thing that I just know is a problem, that thing I failed to “forgive.”
This lesson tells me that it’s all very simple–although it begs the question why the Course has used so many words to tout simplicity.
Every decision I make leads to either unhappiness (This problem is real, I believe in it with all my heart) or happiness (Absolutely anything is possible once I return to the field of gajillion possibilities). I prefer definition 2.
Pam Grout is the author of 19 books including E-Squared, E-Cubed, Thank & Grow Rich and her new book, Art & Soul,Reloaded: A Year-Long Apprenticeship to Summon the Muses and Ignite Your Daring, Audacious, Creative Side.
“Let go all the trivial things that churn and bubble on the surface of your mind.”—A Course in Miracles
Okay, universe, I get it!
I may be dense, but when I hear something enough times (say like 42), I have no choice but to acknowledge that the bigger thing has come a’knocking. It has an assignment it wants me to take on.
So when my schedule slows down (probably when I’m in Ajijic, Mexico in a couple weeks), I plan to create a book proposal for compiling these daily Course in Miracles lessons into a handy-dandy reference guide. So thank you guys for being so persistent.
And I probably should mention that when I first conceived E-Squared, my bestseller to date, I totally pitched it as a starter kit for understanding the Course. In my proposal, I even mentioned that God had a giant PR problem. That those who claimed to be his minions were not doing him (I prefer the less masculine pronoun “it”) justice.
Because here’s the thing. This unseen energetic force is the biggest badass on the planet. It isn’t limited or finite or a last-minute relief team. Why wouldn’t everyone want to feel this buzz? To use its infinite power? To enjoy its guidance and blessings.
I called the book God Doesn’t Have Bad Hair Days. As you may know, it was published back in 2005 and proceeded to do a ginormous nosedive into oblivion. A few years later, I found a different publisher and reissued it with the new title. Let’s just say that it did okay. #1 New York Times okay!
This new book, that we in this community are creating together, will be a paraphrasing of the ACIM workbook.
For example, Lesson 63 (The light of the world brings peace to every mind through my forgiveness)is basically saying that when I give up my old story (that’s what forgiveness is), I’ll find nothing but peace and joy. In the meantime, my role here is to be happy and spread molecules of merriment throughout the planet.
Pam Grout is the author of 19 books including E-Squared, E-Cubed, Thank & Grow Rich and her new book, Art & Soul,Reloaded: A Year-Long Apprenticeship to Summon the Muses and Ignite Your Daring, Audacious, Creative Side
“Pam combines a writing style as funny as Ellen DeGeneres with a wisdom as deep and profound as Deepak Chopra.”
-Jack Canfield
“Your book is beyond spectacular. It’s funny, uplifting, delightful and profound. I am ordering six copies for my daughters and their friends. You rock, the book rocks, and so, of course, does Cosmo K.”
-Dr. Christiane Northrup, Bestselling Author of Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom
“I called your publicity guy and told him that if a 47-year-old Midwestern guy found this perhaps the most insightful and on target book with regard to “how it works” then the best-seller list cannot be far behind. Your journey….message and honesty and humor about the human condition are nothing short of profound.”
-John St. Augustine, producer for Oprah and Friends
“Thank you for being a delight, and a helpfully subversive presence in the universe!”
-Michele Lisenbury Christensen, coach, consultant and speaker
“In the parlance of today’s youth–I think you are the bomb!”
—Nicole Seiffert, inspiring reader
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