The Super Human Effect: My Quest for the Moment When Everything Changes

By Dennis Rodriguez

Fear has picked up uncontrollable speed in our world today. Skyrocketing unemployment rates, the threat of a worldwide economic collapse, global warming, civil unrest, terrorism, and what the end of the Mayan calendar might bring in 2012 have put the prospects of a better life on hold for many throughout the world. Trips have been canceled, weddings postponed; fulfilling jobs aligned with our skills and passion are not pursued for security reasons. Is fear destined to win?

The Super Human Effect is an exploration of the moment when our lifes purpose is revealed and the actions that stem from this inspired epiphany. As we strip away disempowering beliefs, painful references, and a strong identification with our limiting sense of self, we allow for our authentic nature to be re-ignited and inspired action to be released.

Along with inspiring stories of the moment when everything changed in the lives of influential figures, author Dennis Rodriguez shares in real time his decision-making process to resign a university director position after eight years and during the deepest recession since the Great Depression to follow his spiritual heart and live the life in public he has led in privatea life committed to eradicating fear.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Mar 23, 2011
• ISBN: 9781452532967

Dennis Rodriguez

Dennis Rodriguez was born in Lajas, Puerto Rico, and grew up in a bilingual home in the Bronx, New York. At the age of sixteen, Dennis moved to Boston, Massachusetts, to attend Boston University’s College of Fine Arts, earning a degree in acting. After graduating in 1993, Dennis moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and completed a master of fine arts degree in acting and directing. The decision to make family and security his most cherished values took over, and he left acting completely to learn how to use a computer and get an office job. He spent the past twelve years in sales management, earning an MBA in international business. Simultaneously, his existence as a businessman was rivaled by a second life. Having spent twenty years studying comparative religion and new thought principles, Dennis was consumed for hours in prayer and meditation, experiencing extrasensory mystical and healing experiences and spiritual communication with the dying. On May 17, 2009, Dennis made the decision to write a book and embark on a career as a transformational author and speaker. In 2010, Dennis started a company called Metatransformations Consulting, LLC, in which he coaches individuals and groups on the principles of manifestation and dream fulfillment through the use of creative art techniques, intuitive counseling, and heart exploration. Dennis lives with his wife and two children in Denver, Colorado.

Book preview

Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Part 1. SIXTY DAYS TO RESIGNATION DAY

Chapter 1. Countdown to The Super Human Effect

Chapter 2. My Teachers and Guides

Chapter 3. Let’s Make a Deal

Chapter 4. Let’s Hit This Thing … Hard

Chapter 5. Meet Jose Black

Chapter 6. Fly, Icarus, Fly

Chapter 7. I Don’t Know

Chapter 8. Going Up?

Chapter 9. It Is What it Is

Chapter 10. I’m Grateful for Everything

Chapter 11. It’s Not About Me

Chapter 12. Who Do I Think I Am ?

Chapter 13. What Am I Thinking?

Chapter 14. Resignation Day

Part 2. THIRTY DAYS TO A NEW LIFE

Chapter 15. Dare to Be Disappointed

Chapter 16. Daddy, I Don’t Understand

Chapter 17. I’m Already Here

Chapter 18. Do We Know We Know?

Chapter 19. I Dream, Therefore I Am

Chapter 20. A Little Pressure

Chapter 21. It’s Becoming Real

Chapter 22. We Are the One

Chapter 23. Dig Deeper if You Want to Get to China

Chapter 24. What’s Happening Now?

Chapter 25. It’s All Useful Stuff

Chapter 26. Do You Know Me, Bert?

Chapter 27. Blank Canvas

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Notes

Foreword

Today is another great day to be alive. It’s a miracle that I am here, now, and that you are too. We’ve all come a long way to get to this point. We are here, we made it to another day, and we’re still alive. Today, I am here, in this moment, and I am healthy, I am grateful and I’m alive. No longer am I drowning in despair and suicidal tendencies. My story includes severe childhood abuse, multiple stints in jail and homelessness. Even in the darkest nights of my soul, light always gets through. Studying the Super Human Effect is one of those Rays of Light shining on my life’s path. It’s a glorious day when I remember life as the gift that it is. It is another chance to try again and again; another chance at life, love, and healing. Another chance at goals being accomplished and dreams long held becoming real. Today is another shot at believing in myself more than I did yesterday. Another day to make a choice for pain and suffering or the choice to somehow find ways to expand, heal and forgive. I have spent most of my life being a victim, of hating myself, being ambivalent and paralyzed. Meeting Dennis and integrating the Super Human Effect has helped to change that. What if today I choose to explore what it really means to experience the moment when everything changes? Every day that I remember to ask what it would be like to live the Super Human Effect, is a day in which I choose to not give up. Living this book will invariably touch every aspect of life, individually and collectively. Just look around- notice how even nations are having their own Super Human moment. If the people I love demand of me to grow up and wake up, and if the world is asking this of me, then it is time. I owe it to the ones I love, to the world, to life, to own up and embrace my inherent greatness. I deserve the life of my dreams. You do too. What’s done is done and can’t be undone. What will be your legacy? What is it you wish to change? Keep the faith burning bright no matter what. Look how far we’ve come already. Patience now, we’re almost there…

Namasté,

Cortley Rion

March 9, 2011

Introduction

You are about to read a book about your life. One of the greatest obstacles to living our life’s calling is the belief that we are alone in the world. That our experiences are unique and that no one can relate to our depth of confusion and despair. We doubt whether there really is a supportive universe that gets us. We ask the ultimate question at the heart of our sense of separation: What is wrong with me? Our work begins when a specific answer is revealed: Nothing is wrong with you. A flood of judgments come our way and every moment becomes an opportunity to deliberately choose acceptance or resistance. This book is about the power of free will to reveal our destiny. When the moment arrives where you become aware that nothing is wrong with you, what follows is a shift in perception from doubt to certainty. What is born is the free will to make one choice: join the rest of creation in becoming an instrument of divine grace. What is left behind is the struggle perpetuated by a state of resistance to what we think, feel, do and are. We become compelled to follow our heart without reservation.

PART I

SIXTY DAYS TO RESIGNATION DAY

Chapter 1

Countdown to The Super Human Effect

Sixty Days

[October 21, 2009] The countdown has begun. In sixty days, I will quit my eight-year-old, secure management position at a 130-year-old university and embark on a journey of dream fulfillment. At a time when the world is afraid of rising unemployment, double-digit inflation, and a full-scale economic collapse, I’m quitting my job! What am I thinking? I’m not. I have no choice. I am compelled to follow my heart without reservation. Why? Because of what happened on May 17, 2009.

A dream was branded in my heart. A dream of a new life that bears no resemblance to the ordinary one I have lived in public and yet, it eerily echoes through time as a memory of childhood fantasies, daydreams, and visions of the future. When I was a child, I was enraptured by the idea of flying across oceans, gazing at the stars, and building a time machine— flux capacitor and all. (Didn’t everyone memorize every line from Back to the Future?). I wanted to learn about mystics and saints and go beyond my mind and body. I was told by my grandmother that I would accomplish great things. I felt different, as if I was wiser than my fearful existence allowed me to portray. I could not stop my dad from yelling incessantly at my mother, but had an inner knowing that our family life would one day experience forgiveness and peace. As a child, I was fearful of dancing or speaking in front of others, yet I have demonstrated an outgoing personality and have chosen theatre as the predominant vehicle for my education. I’d rather be insecure than prideful. This belief has protected me from a fatal fall, but has also kept me from believing in myself. It is the choice I have made to ensure that I never fly too close to the sun. Something or someone has made a different choice for my life, propelling me toward a new creation. The time has come to realize my true nature, and 2009 has revealed spiritual teachers who have painted a glorious portrait of this new identity. Your work will be published, said one. You are a holographic matrix healer, a shaman, said another. Yet, there has been a war going on inside of me that keeps me from believing what my loved ones seem to already know—I am more than who I think I am. All my life I have asked the question, What else is there? This question was not a recipe for enlightenment—or was it? No, at least not in the traditional sense. Enlightenment is surrendering to the moment as perfect. My approach was to always want more from the moment. I was never satisfied with how I felt, what I was doing, or where I was going. My journey has been to tirelessly search for a buried treasure, a treasure that would bring stillness to my mind and the answer to the only universal desire. While I searched, I lived an ordinary existence in the eyes of most who knew me. Yet I never stopped having dreams of flying. I have finally found my treasure! I won’t spoil the surprise by telling you what it is. My expectation is that in sixty days, we will all know. First, let’s learn about the moment that conceived my first book, which will be published in 2011, The Super Human Effect. Tomorrow, I’ll start telling you my story (I might even tell you my true story) as we move one day closer to Resignation Day!

Fifty-nine Days

So what do I mean by, "I might even tell you my true story"? On the one hand, I’ve got a pretty ordinary life: I was brought up in the Bronx, New York, one of four kids with very little means. This was the pre-Giuliani New York of the ’70s and ’80s, with lots of gang activity, drugs, graffiti, and hookers. My parents did the best they could with what they had. A little bit of faith, Puerto Rican food, merengue music, and endless shouting matches to relieve stress. As their highest ambition in life, most of my friends wanted to move to Westchester and go to a community college. I wanted to be an actor, go to college hundreds of miles away, and do everything my way. After twenty-five school plays by the time I graduated high school, I was accepted to Boston University’s School of Fine Arts. I struggled with my confidence as an actor the whole time I was at BU. One day, I sneaked into my school’s administrative office and read my student file. I found out that in my audition, I had received less-than-mediocre marks, and so drew the conclusion that the only reason I got a scholarship to attend BU was because I was Hispanic. So Marlon Brando I was not, but I still earned a BFA. What was I to do? I know: This Nuyorican will go to grad school in Missouri (of all places) and get an MFA in acting!

Okay, I’ll stop my bio-tribe there. You’ll hear a lot about my insecurities in the next fifty-nine days. I’m not smart enough, not creative enough, and not affectionate enough. I worry about money, and I don’t go to church enough. I got an MBA after an MFA but didn’t learn anything. This is not my true story. This is the story that keeps me from believing I deserve happiness. I also see the healer, the man who brightens other people’s lives, who wears his heart on his sleeve, and who will do anything to bring happiness to others. This man is committed to his family and the raising of consciousness across the globe. He has developed a world view that is rooted in a hope for a better tomorrow and a compassionate understanding of the human condition. This man resonates with a higher wisdom and a higher vibration that opens doors to unseen worlds. I’m that guy too—and you’ll get to know them both. Tomorrow, I’ll write about the moment when everything changed for me. No doubts about quitting the university. At least not today.

Fifty-eight Days

On May 17, 2009, while walking from the kitchen to the bathroom (short walk, small house); I was stopped dead in my tracks by a memory of a scene from the movie Superman². This scene is responsible for my decision to quit my job, start this blog, and transform the way I see what is possible in my life.

When I was eight years old, my mother took me to see the movie Superman. I remember how excited I was to see the object of my toy obsession on the silver screen. It was the first time my mother had taken me to the movies without my sisters, and I was on top of the world. Clark Kent, without looking at his mother, reveals to her that the time has come for him to leave his childhood home. The moment has arrived without notice and the next time we see Clark Kent, he has become Superman.

As I arrived in the bathroom, I turned to my wife and said, "I have an idea for a book. I want to call it The Super Human Effect." As fast as I arrived, I was gone to grab my computer, and start typing the title page:

The Super Human Effect

My Quest for the Moment When Everything Changes

By Dennis Rodriguez

5-17-09

In the twinkling of an eye, Clark knew his life was changed forever and that his mission had truly begun. Clark had no choice but to act, to leave his rural home and follow his destiny. It was a moment that was expected with absolute certainty by Clark’s mother and was seized without hesitation by Clark Kent.

Many throughout history have experienced such a moment. Where old constructs of who we think we are fade away, and clarity of purpose comes upon us, making the fruits of this realization undeniable. Moments such as this crystallize our destiny and compel us to surrender willingly. This moment is filled with an unconditional love that burns all perceptions of fear and illusions of separateness. It calls us to act with conviction, and completely transforms the way we see the world and our place in it. Overnight, we are made aware of our mission and purpose for being. It can reach us as the sound of roaring waves or as a still, small voice, but when it arrives, there is no doubt. We are moved by the creative force of the universe to say yes and live.

I realized that I had already read many of the books I would use for my research. What I did not know was that this decision to follow a higher purpose would lead to multi-dimensional healing, spirit communication, and an awareness of an enthusiastically supportive universe. So why didn’t I just quit my job right on the spot? Although perceptions of fear and uncertainty about becoming a transformational author were dissolved, worry about what would replace the income from my secure job remained. After all, I have a family who counts on me to help earn a living. Tomorrow, I’m going to write about this fear. Thankfully, it has not been overwhelming. I’m still on track to fulfill my dream. Keep rooting for me. I’ll need you to get to Resignation Day.

Fifty-seven Days

So am I really going to quit my job to become an author during the deepest recession since the Great Depression?

Which of my fears are real? H1N1, 9.8 percent unemployment, loss of employer-sponsored health coverage, big mortgage, or the fact that I had never written a book before? The fear feels real, but is it really real? Where does it come from? I can honestly say that I don’t have a clue where it comes from. I have always been taken care of. I live in a safe neighborhood, have always paid my bills on time, my family is in great health, and I have already found health coverage that is identical to what I have at the university. I think you can already see that I can put down my thoughts on virtual paper. So why am I freaked? I don’t know, but I am.

I went online looking to see if I can find ways to get more people to read my blog. I Googled, How can I get more people to read my blog? I followed the sages’ advice and went searching for popular websites on personal transformation and spirituality.

My head is spinning with sayings: The only thing you have to fear is fear itself; Run like the wind, This is not the time to analyze your life; and Is it true?

By the way, if I am afraid that I am not creative enough because I got mediocre marks in my audition to attend Boston University, then what about the fact that I received the 2004 Best Supporting Actor Awards for the play Waiting for Godot from Westword and the Rocky Mountain News? Which story am I going to listen to?

I have one last saying to share: I think I can, I think I can.³

Fifty-six Days

I woke up this morning to the news that my brother-in-law’s father—who had been diagnosed with cancer a year ago—had passed away of a sudden heart complication—only to learn an hour later that he was not yet dead. Although he is in a coma, he is still exhibiting vital signs. I see mystery present all around me. This is the life I lead. A life in which profound energy moves through my body when I am in meditation, and I often sense the thoughts and emotions of souls who are near death, near birth, and near the threshold in between. Leaving the university freaks me out, but this does not. I am at home, traveling through other dimensions and seeking ways to heal others. At the risk of sounding like Yogi Berra, it all started at the beginning.

As long as I can remember, I have had a sense of reverence for the unseen. I knew from my early days that if all we did was focus on what we can see, hear, touch, feel, or taste, we would miss many magic moments in our lives. These moments reveal extraordinary purpose but are so easily dismissed by our rational mind. As a child, I loved to read about the Catholic saints and Indian yogis, as well as stories of past lives, time travel, and prophecy. This was far more interesting to me than math or any of the physical sciences. Passion for the mysteries of life has never left me—and I am not allowed to leave it. I have witnessed an evolution in my experience of the unseen. What I am about to reveal to you may make you uncomfortable. It may even force you to question my sanity—and that’s okay. It’s time to let it all hang out. If I am going to quit my job and start living in public the life my family and I have lived in private, then keeping this information from you makes no sense to me.

It began as a feeling that there were others in a room when I was alone and