Start Here

By David Terrell

I'm David Terrell, and I wrote Start Here. I break a lot of rules in the book, and the book probably offends most people who have absolute faith in God or Science. So I think you'll like it.

The first thing I did in the book was show that, logically, there is no real difference between The Big Bang and the Creation Story (the one from the Old Testament). I had fun with that, let me tell you. And then I had fun with everything else.

There are those on both sides who don't want to follow the logic. But I don't think there is anyone who can show that the logic is faulty. And I think you might be charmed by the logic.

Oh and that was about the first third of the book. Turns out, whether you are made of God-stuff or subatomic particles, you are actually creating the universe at this moment.

I don't mean that in any woo-woo, what-if, artsy-fartsy way. This is the reality that all of us have to face at some point. Quarks collapse from wave energy to matter at the point scientists expect them to collapse. Or, from the other side, if there was nothing outside of God at the Creation, then the universe was created from God. Which means you are made of God-stuff. Which means, not to skip too many steps here, you are right now creating the universe as God-stuff or as a being that collapses subatomic particles from waves to matter at the place you expect them. Which is you in this place right now.

So some smart-alecks would say, Yeah, but how can you create yourself if you haven't created yourself yet? Wouldn't that mean creating yourself from nothing? Doesn't that sound like a self-referential existence, like “I exist because I exist”?

Yeah. Well, haven't we just gone through explaining that Creation thing? And maybe – oops, we've just been created all over again this moment. Who are you to do that? Here's who: by all astronomical measurements, wherever you are is the exact center of the universe. If microwave radiation travels at approximately the speed of light (for this example, I could accept any whole-number integer percentage as a value of "approximately"), how can those microwaves have traveled for 14 billion years and still be here? And if both of those are true, does "here" have any kind of reasonable definition?

If the only thing you can do is start, break a few rules and buy this book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: David Terrell
• Release date: May 13, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311205698

David Terrell

David A. Terrell was born in California and grew up in the soup of world cultures and the crossroads of consciousness that is Hawai'i. Mr. Terrell was exposed to as many religions and methods as he could find, and he found that they all had value and beauty and truth.He continued a direct encounter with life and the spirit of life, and discovered that every valley, ridge and shoreline, every tree and blade of grass, every bird and lizard and beetle, even every sparkle of sun on every wave that creates the healing foam on the sand, is alive in the perfection of this moment.His education at a high school named after a plantation owner who did his best to continue ancient traditions, and at the University of Hawai'i, taught him that science and math were descriptions of the physical world. With any language, some people are more talented at using and applying the descriptions than others. All languages have their own biases, truths, poetry, grammars, shortcomings and specialties that they are particularly good at expressing.Mr. Terrell also learned the joys of discussions about the meaning of life, the Universe and everything in the knowing, silver flow of the moon.Back in California, he found work as a specialist in learning the technologies for a new product, understanding the various ways customers use the new product, and delivering information at the moment the customer needs it. He perfected his craft and waited for the perfect time to write this book.He has had two marriages, and he’s been happily discussing life, the Universe and everything with Suse for several years.This book is a finalization of the synthesis of his research and philosophy or, to put that same thought in different words, this is one way to get it done now.Mr. Terrell continues searching the possibilities of this moment.

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Copyright 2014 David Terrell, All Rights Reserved

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Cover art by Sharon Compton

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This book is dedicated to Suse Shroyer: when I'm with you, anything is possible.

Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.

Eric Hoffer

Read not to contradict and confute, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider.

Sir Francis Bacon

Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.

C. S. Lewis

I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Big Contents in This Book

(There are also little contents to discover as you move through the book.)

PART ONE: What It is

PART TWO: How It Works

How Your Body Works

Why It Works Sometimes and Why Other Times Are Different

PART THREE: Your Personal Concepts

What Kind of Power You Have

Concepts that Chase Themselves

PART FOUR: The Power You Have

Defining Your New Universe As You Want It

People I Thank

About David A. Terrell

Connect

PART ONE

What It is

You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.

Henry David Thoreau

Start

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties.

Sir Francis Bacon

So this is it. What else is there? Look to the right, left, up, down, under your chair, all around and this is all there is. Dizzying, isn't it? Everything you are, think and feel is right here in this moment. Everything you were is a memory, and now is when you have that memory. Everything that hasn't happened yet is only something you can imagine, and your whole imagination is here. Right here, right now.

So start here.

Because you can’t be anywhere else and the only thing you can do is start.

Where else could you possibly be than right here? When else than at this exact moment? And what else could you possibly do right now other than start the rest of your life?

So, let's say you believe in something called God. Or you don't. Does that change anything? Would you be doing anything right now other than starting here? Let's examine the possibilities.

When God said, Let there be … what did God use to make that stuff? There was nothing other than God. God used God-stuff to make this stuff. So that kind of means all of this is God, if you take that seriously. Like, but seriously, everything. And if you think about it, and I do, I think about this stuff a lot, what is the difference between that and The Big Bang that scientists are always talking about? And then after the Big Bang stars got born and fused hydrogen into helium and another fusion for lithium and more fusions for more elements on up through the Periodic Table to iron, which is basically as much as a star can make. After a while, stars blew out as super-novas which created even heavier elements that cooled into planets with oceans and atmospheres. So here you are, nothing but God-stuff and super-nova stuff, which is exactly the same stuff now that you think about it, and what do you need outside of this right here and right now to tell you anything?

Just because you have to start here and there's nothing other than this, it doesn't mean that this isn't insanely great. Oh, that was a double negative, sorry. To be positive, this is as infinite as you think it is and you are as amazing as you think you are. I think that is insanely great.

You don't believe that you are insanely great? Maybe that's because you think what you are now depends on what you were before, like last year or something. Since you were Fill-In-The-Blank on some day last year (okay, September 18), then you must be Fill-In-The-Blank-Plus-One on September 19. And then more days got added on to that and you did stuff and other things happened, and now you are carrying around all those days and that other stuff that has happened To and For and With and Around and Through you, and now you are all that plus all that other stuff.

Is that what you're saying? Like, you're happy or sad or you’re in a curious mood or you’ve just come back from walking in the wave-wet sand or your head was passing by the leaves of trees or you were celebrating the rain having dazzled your piece of the city or you are just on your way to do one of those things or all of them or something else, heartbroken or just starting your poem or waiting for those last two brushstrokes to flow out of your arm onto your canvas or the phone call just finished and all you need to do is take the contract over for final signatures or your patent didn’t arrive in today’s mail or you’re eating dinner before you leave for your second job and you thought this paragraph wasn’t too long but you are kind of wondering if this sentence will ever end.

So, I mean, you’re something already, you don’t start from scratch, do you? I mean, there’s a lot that you are and if you add Something it blends with the Old Stuff and that changes you into The Sum Of That Plus The Added Thing which makes you become Something Else. Are you still following me? I’m just trying to quote you here, but you’re probably quoting somebody else, and the translation is, well, it’s a little obtuse, maybe just turning sideways. But do you get the gist? The thought that What You Have Been controls What You Are Now and that controls Every Single Thing You Ever Will Be?

Good. Because now that you have a complete understanding of that whole thing, I want you to crumple that up into a ball and throw that away. Who you are now does not require who you were then.

Do you remember who you were when you were 2? When you were 12, did you care about yourself as a 2-year-old? How about 8? 18? Not 18 yet? How about any other number for your age? Can you imagine 61 (or remember it)? It’s a prime number, and the first pun you think of when you talk about 61 being the prime of life may not be the last I intended. You know where I’m going with this, you do. Life was pretty damned old and repetitive and depressing when you crawled around in a dirty diaper. Life is as new as Heaven whenever you realize that the sky goes all the way down to the earth. That's right, you are living in the sky right now.

This moment doesn’t care what you did before. If you remember, that remembrance is only happening in this moment. If you know what you will do in the next moment, that sure and certain knowledge is happening in the exclusivity of right now. Whether you wanted it to happen or were trying like hell to stop it, we have passed into another moment. Oops, here’s another one.

Do they keep happening like mistakes? Or is each new moment a whole new wow?

Whatever you were before, you are something new right now. If you are thinking, yeah, I could be that new if only [insert boogeyman here] didn't exist or if I were good enough or if I didn’t have so much baggage or if I were pure enough or, well, whatever you’re thinking that keeps you from being who you think you want to be right now, then of course obviously it's all true. Like, talk to a professional or work through it or see what it is that is blocking you from your dreams or your reality or your fears or your best and highest self. It’s cool to do that. Then you can get to be who you think you want to be right now. Wow, you've graduated. Congratulations!

First, when you get there, you’re going to have to get over your disappointment at how strangely not-you and disquieting it is to be the person you thought you wanted to be. So maybe you have a little farther to go. You continue peeling that proverbial onion, all those layers that cover your core, and of course it's that same damned onion you’ve been peeling for a few years now. All your life, now that you think of it. What does that onion want, anyway? When are you going to peel away enough layers to get to the pearl? Or whatever the treasure is that you just know you're going to find under all those layers.

But there’s a point when you get there, when you see that the exact spot you're at right now is the spot you were aiming for. Then you might realize that it was you, you yourself, who got you there. And when you get the gist of the limitless power you are, the amazing power that got you to the exact spot you thought you wanted to be (or never wanted to be or you hadn't even thought about it until you read this), then you can probably get yourself to where you are right now.

Uh-oh. I just gave away The Secret, that you have created this Universe right now. Now everyone can be enlightened. Oh, well.

Now that you're enlightened and you know that you have now created at least one Universe, what would you get if you created another Universe right now? Your own special thing that had everything you intended, everything you desired?

Some newly enlightened people take this idea and use it to go away, retiring into the depths of, oh maybe their psyche or a cave in the mountains or a safe bunker against the world or, well, something. Others take it to mean they can gain money, living space or something like power over others. But you, you’re sane enough, if you could create a Universe that gave you everything you intended, what would you put in it?

Really? You'd put that thing over there?

Because if you see that you can Start Here, that you have Started Here, that you did Start Here, well, you have created your own Universe already. This exact Universe right here has everything you could ever imagine. Okay, that’s just playing with words: since you’re here, and you’re the one imagining, then everything you are imagining is, of course, in and of this Universe that you have created.

Everything you want is here, everything you intend is here. Stay with me now, this is all good. Imagine the powerful being that created this. Amazing? It was you. Are you saying you didn’t feel powerful when you did this? You saying you don’t even remember doing this? Wait a minute. What you’re saying is that you are so powerful that you can create a whole Universe without even thinking about it. Not even a second thought — boom, look, now here’s another entire Universe, complete and whole and unique and hey, there's another right now and another Universe.

You certainly are a fecund Universe-creator. (Fecund. It means producing or capable of producing offspring, fruit, vegetation, Universes, etc., in abundance.) What’s that, you say? There are things in your Universe that you say you don’t want? There’s no way you intended every little thing here? You didn’t realize how fuzzy your intention was when you created it and you want to do it all over again? You want to think about it a little more before you do the next one?

Oh. Me too, by the way, and I’m fully enlightened (I mean, unless you are fully enlightened, in which case I have to say hello in an entirely more enlightened way). So what, as enlightened beings, do we do? I say we work on focusing our intentions, get clear (very clear) (even more clear than that) about what we want, and practice by creating a brand-new Universe every single moment until we get it right.

If you want, you can start here. Otherwise, by all means, go over to where you are and wait until you catch up with yourself and start then and there (which, from where you are when you get then and there is here and – have you noticed? you started).

Or Start With This

I maintain there is much more wonder in science than in pseudoscience. And in addition, to whatever measure this term has any meaning, science has the additional virtue, and it is not an inconsiderable one, of being true.

Carl Sagan

I wanted to have some good news to start this out right, and I just got some. I cured cancer.

Some of you may want to quibble over definitions and others may want to have specific names, dates and addresses. But the important part is this: a couple of years ago, an M.D. did a biopsy on me and found some cancer. Just yesterday, another M.D. did another biopsy – same method, same organ – and found no cancer.

There, not there. Sounds like a cure to me.

Of course, you don't get that done without a lot of help. Anybody who's done it can tell you that. And everybody who had a part in it deserves credit. Sure, there were doctors, but my contact with doctors was sporadic and limited by my income, and except for a Naturopath, the doctors counseled Watchful Waiting. Mostly it was Suse, who was my moral support, who researched, and who made my life the focus of her life, so I just might be able to say that she did the curing. And I thank her all the time for this and for every other reason (which, if you're keeping track, makes her life the focus of my life, so here we are).

On the other hand, it was me who was listening and learning, and no matter who said or did what, if I hadn't listened or followed, I might be ... but I'm here to tell you that wishes are horses, contrary to the sarcasm of the old saying, and look who's riding.

So that just might be a good recommendation for a book, don't you think? Now you can tell all your friends that you're reading a book by a guy who cured