The Oprah Event - A Raised Consciousness with a lil MJ in the House

This weekend I was privileged to be able to attend Oprah's The Life You Want.

I arrived Friday midday to attend the O Town event prior to Oprah's speaking engagement.  The energy


in the stadium was low and I found myself irritated as people stepped in front of me, bumped into me, the long waits in lines and in traffic.  Oprah spoke for a few hours on Friday evening and I went home that night thinking perhaps I had expected too much.  Maybe I had made a mistake in attending.

On Saturday I awoke to a vision of Michael Jackson walking with a young man, whom I believed to be Ryan White.  I had asked him prior to attend the event with me and since he seemed busy, I rolled over figuring I'd take my time.  Maybe not go.  I prize my weekend "sleep in" time and besides, if it was going to be anything like O Town the day before, I wasn't too excited.

Rolling over I found Michaels face in my head with one word: "Go!".  Internally I rolled my eyes and my inner dialog went off:  "Fine.  I'll go, but I'm going to take my time.  Drink some coffee, make breakfast....I'll get there when I get there.  I'm not going to fight traffic or people today."

I arrived with no traffic, no lines and in perfect time for the show to start.  Oprah came out looking ready for business.  Dressed in slacks and wearing her glasses, she seemed to be portraying the teacher and that she was.  For the entire day they had speakers come out and give us insights into their lives and the lessons they had learned from them.

I noted the repeated use of the word "pattern" in Iyanla Vanzant's work and it resonated deeply.  She spoke of the same patterns we speak of here on the blog.  The repetitious cycles, other peoples labels for us, and our own inner dialog that keeps us from achieving our "best life."

As the day progressed I could feel the energy shifting ever so slightly.  We would break every now and then and they would play music during the break.  I'd get up, walk around and then return to my seat.  It was changing.  People were walking more slowly, and the energy was more relaxed.

They had given us bracelets to wear for the event.  Every now and again the lights would dim and the bracelets would light up.  In the opening of the event the lights around the stadium were likened to stars. It was a beautiful analogy and I was awestricken with the sight every time they lit up.  All around you it looked like you were right in the middle of a starry galaxy.  I thought of Michael.  He had been to that stadium for his Bad Tour years ago.  I sat just a few rows in front of the stage and at one point all the lights went out.  It was black, but I heard Michael's voice say "Turn around.  Turn around and look.  It's beautiful."  When I did all I could see were lights.  Flickers from lighters all around the stadium.  They looked like stars and it was beautiful.  The scene at Oprah's event was the same, only more brilliant so I decided to send him a snapshot in my head.  I didn't "feel" him around.

Moments later I was walking back to my seat and they began playing "Remember the Time" by Michael Jackson.  The words struck me in an unusual way.  The memory came back immediately, and I hadn't realized it, but it was in that arena that Michael Jackson and I first saw each other physically back in 1984.  It all came back in one swoop and I recognized the message.  If he wasn't there, his energy was.

I sat back down and the DJ continued to play songs.  Every once in a while I'd look around and see some people dancing.  Then Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough" came on and the crowd roared with cheers.  It seemed as if the whole stadium got up and began line dancing in groups through the crowds and around the stage.  You could see the lights of their wristbands bouncing up and down as they moved.  The energy was vibrant and people where holding on to each other, dancing with one another.  The spirit of joy and happiness permeated the room.  I could physically feel the energy with my hands extended, rich and warm.

 Oprah came back out on stage and immediately asked "What happened?!"

Every speaker, each story, and every sharing of wisdom changed the vibration in that arena.  The last evidence of the changed consciousness was this dance.  The energy of all the people in that stadium had shifted.




The message then was very clear from Oprah, her colleagues and from beyond.  When it comes to the game of life, you can't let events or the words in your head stop you from achieving your dreams.  In life you "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough".


There were many amazing insights that I'd like to share.  Tomorrow I'd like to share some exercises we did, but for today I'll share some of my favorite quotes from the event that I think everyone will find helpful:

• Be present-stay in relationship to everything because everything is energy connected to us all.
• Don't let other peoples voices drown out your own soul.  When you know something is right for you, you don't have to ask anybody.
• Along the path of life you will find friends that look like enemies, enemies who look like friends and tricksters.
• Always look for beauty and magic in the world.  Where you focus your thoughts, that is which will be made larger in your life.
• Everyone hears a guiding voice and can hear it within themselves.  Make time to be silent to hear it.
• Fight for your right to live your life the way you want it.  Not how someone else thinks it "should be."
• You have to be the hero of your own story.  You can't wait for someone else to do it for you or give you "permission"
• Never stop looking for "signs".  The coincidences in life are the signs the universe gives us to help us navigate our way.
• Our crazy, wacked out lives are ours and ours alone.  It's our responsibility to do something with them.
• When things go wrong in our lives treat it as "information".  Information you can use to re-do, re-route and move on.
• Science has shaped our capacity to allow for the miracles of life that we don't know how to prove yet.  Don't let that shape your capacity for life and constrict your personal beliefs to manifest miracles in your own life.
• While we ask why we suffer, we can also ask why we receive blessings.
• Let yourself be caught up in the "mystery" of life.  Like a good book that comes to an end we don't want it to be over.  Uncertainty in life is like a good mystery.  Don't expect to know, just enjoy the story and anticipate what might be next.
• Birthing a new life is often painful, but something beautiful always transpires in the end.
• Most of us are addicted and loyal to dysfunction because we are familiar with it.  We "expect" it.
• Everything you need to heal in your life shows up in the story you tell yourself and other people.
• We often cheat ourselves out of our dreams by setting ourselves up; doing the things we think we are "supposed" to do and not anticipating or trying for our "real" dreams.
• If you made it through your past, you "passed" that class already.  You don't need to carry it with you any longer.
• You have to be able to stand in your vision.  Don't look at it with the eyes of your dysfunctional past.
• Life doesn't play tricks on us, our mind does.  Our thoughts can be like the new puppy that humps the company that comes to our home.  They need to be trained...(the humping puppy on the leg story)
• If you find yourself being loyal to people who treat you badly because that's what you're used to, don't stay in the relationship.  If you're not getting what you want from it, it's OK to leave - this includes family.

I'd like to thank Oprah Winfrey, Mark Nepo, Elisabeth Gilbert, Rob Bell and Iyanla Vanzant for sharing their time and their wisdom.  The conscious choice of using their lives to help others touched many.  It is in our own singular decisions to do what's in our own souls and follow our own music that allow us to touch the lives of others as well.  It all brings us closer to union with the whole.  Encourages a state of grace,  and closer to the love we were made from.  May this event and others like it bring us all to a place of forgiveness, sharing and our own inner beauty.  The lights that shown in the stadium that day will all shine a bit brighter because of them.  May we use our lights to light up the lives of others in the same way.