March 24^th marks the launch of my YouTube Channel, RETHINKING CHANGE.

Here, I’m sharing with you the link to the Premier video, as well  as the script which appears below.

Hello and Welcome to Rethinking Change. I’m Pat West.

So. Let’s start right in with a riddle. Here’s a list of thought leaders in fields like:

• Finance – Napoleon Hill. Robert Kiyasaki.
• Science – Gregg Braden.
• Healing – Joe Dispenza.
• Energy Work – Donna Eden, Jeffrey Allen.
• Hypnosis – Marisa Peer.
• Martial arts — Bruce Lee
• . . . . the  list goes on

But here’s the question. What do they have in common? By the end of this video, you’ll have the answer to that question, as well as an appreciation for the value Rethinking Change has to offer you  and those you care for.

As a special bonus, at the end, I’ll share with you what the Book of Change has to say about the COVID-19 pandemic. As you’ll come to find out, the I Ching is the foundation of energy medicine and Tai Chi. It’s the missing link we need NOW to survive and thrive in this intense time of extremes. I think you’ll find its message . . very interesting.

You’re probably wondering by now, who I am to be saying all of this. Well, there’s a long version, because I have plenty of stranger-than-fiction stories to share with you in good time. But here’s the short version.

I was trained as a musician. I played piano and various string instruments — guitar, a bit of sitar, but primarily violin. I shared this life-saver in common with my man, Einstein, who was also a violinist. It led me to yoga and to the magical, marvelous I Ching, the Book of Change, which maps the laws of nature, the repeating cycles of change which everyone everywhere share in common. For more than 8,000 years, it’s been used as a decision-making tool by leaders in every walk of life, all over the world. It’s used to bypass danger, optimize opportunities and to maintain balance in the midst of change.

Psychologist Carl Jung wrote an introduction to the Wilhelm/Baynes translation. He taught us to use it as a tool for making the unconscious conscious.

In 1975, I wrote my own version. It still works for me. My idea was, it shouldn’t be so tough . . and it should be made available to everyone. You can find it on Amazon. It’s called The Common Sense Book of Change.

I’ve been growing with the book for over 40 years now, taking it with me through every imaginable situation to understand the dynamics that drive human behavior. It’s become a good friend and mentor. More than once, it’s saved my life. If you want to know more, you can check out my website, rethinking survival.com. You’ll find several related posts. One is “The I Ching and Me.” Another is “How the Common Sense Book of Change (CSBOC) Came To Be.”

In the late 1970s, I earned a Ph.D. in Educational Administration. From writing books to fill the shelves that weren’t there when I needed them, I went on to earn the credential to build schools to fill what I call the fatal knowledge gap in what we’re taught in schools.

Basically, though, what you need to know about me is summed up in my latest book, You Are Already Enough: How Would Your Life CHANGE if you really Believed It? There, I give you my personal Why, How and What.

Basically, though, what you need to know about me is summed up in my latest book, You Are Already Enough: How Would Your Life CHANGE if you really Believed It? There, I give you my personal Why, How and What.

My WHY is to pay forward the extraordinary blessings I’ve received over a lifetime. I experience it as a calling. My HOW has been to write books, blog, give an occasional class, and now, to create content for this YouTube channel. My WHAT, the end result I’m aiming for, is to restore sanity to a badly fractured world, one person at a time.

Okay then. The Book of Change is one self-awareness tool. The second is a spin-off. And here things get even more interesting.

I came to it by applying yoga sutras to Einstein. Take the archetypal Life Wheel that repeats through all cultures and all times, well known to meditators. Then take the variables of Einstein’s formula – M = mass, E = energy, C = light – and plug them into the increasingly deeper levels of the Life Wheel. The result is the Unified Field Theory – including the elusive “consciousness factor.” Einstein had already received it, but for lack of yoga training, he missed it.

Now. . . . just like the Ching’s repetitive cycle of hexagrams, this quantum pattern of creation also repeats throughout nature, on every scale of magnitude . . . smallest to largest, from atoms to solar systems. It repeats in every cell of our bodies. In Already Enough, I give pictures of this pattern repeating throughout nature and world art.

But what’s important to emphasize here is that this isn’t just an interesting, abstract idea. The formula e=m2 has powerful applications, for destruction – the atomic bomb – as well as creation. We can personalize the Life Wheel to make it real in our own lives. We can use it to assess how we’re doing, to identify what’s missing, decide what we intend to change, and then to plan how to get from here to there. It’s a powerful tool. It can bring us back from an incomplete, fractured lifestyle into full alignment with our true complete nature, the original design of creation.

Here’s just one picture of what wheel-work looks like:

And here’s my Why, How and What prioritized inside the Life Wheel structure.

So. The answer to the riddle I asked at the beginning . . is this. What all those thought leaders share in common is an intuitive fidelity to this basic structure, the quantum reality embodied in the Life Wheel. It explains . . for example. . the effectiveness of Napoleon’s Hill Think and Grow Rich formula. And so on. . . In You Are Already Enough!, I show that, just as Einstein’s formula plugs into the Life Wheel, so do the ideas that get the powerful results each of these thought leaders has achieved.

Before moving on to the COVID-19 section, I briefly want to tell you this. When I was brainstorming for future video content, the list got huge . . . because the Life Wheel truly meets the Occam’s Razor standard of greatest simplicity with maximum inclusiveness.

Once you start rethinking change, seeing how the dynamics expand and contract from the inside out, and how the levels of the Life Wheel link up . . the possibilities become infinite. It’s like, anywhere you focus the laser beam, it illumines the field.

Here’s a short list of potential subjects:

• The MPI standard – motive, purpose, and intent. (Being aware of what you’re doing and why.)
• Abundance. Magic. Manifestation. Wealth.
• Change. Change agents. Affirmative action. Positive Action.
• Unity. The United States.
• Conflict. Common sense. The law of Karma. Ethics.
• Creativity. Intuition. Self-awareness. Self-actualization.
• Relationships. Empaths and narcissists.
• Interdependence. Cooperation.
• Communication. Community. Intentional community.
• Education. Higher Education. Paradigm shifts. And opportunity.
• Authority. Inner authority. Conscience.
• Medicine. Healing. Mindfulness. Meditation.
• Codes. The Emotion Code. The Healing Code.
• Stress. The suicide epidemic and its prevention.

So, if you have any preferences among those topics or other related questions you’d like me to address, please comment below and I’ll do my best to respond. And please do take the time to like, share and subscribe, so we can get this urgently needed information out to a badly fractured world that – for lack of it – is in SUCH deep trouble.

Now, here’s the COVID-19 bonus I promised you.

There are many ways to approach the Book of Change. It starts with finding a quiet place and settling down the noisy mind. After deciding on a question, there’s a process for arriving at an answer. I’m saving the technical side for later. Today, I’m going straight to the answer I got on March 14^th to this written question: “What advice does the Book of Change have to offer the general public about the COVID-19 pandemic?”

The initial outcome was 14, SELF-POSSESSION. It looks like this:

It seems to me that the general public expects leaders to demonstrate calmness, integrity, and fairness. We want them to give us a clear picture of what’s going on. Deep down, we really want leaders who inspire us.

However, the initial answer was dynamic. It had two changing lines that offer warnings or advice. These combined to result in a different outcome.

The advice from line four is “Do not compete with others. Use your skills to build.” It advises restraint and to avoid careless waste. So I would be concerned that precious time is being wasted, that this crisis is being used BY SOME as a political football, and that it’s possible resources being mobilized might to some extent be misdirected.

The advice from line five reads “When you prove yourself responsible, others will trust you.” The shadow side here is that unless leaders prove themselves trustworthy, people won’t trust them.

But even when there’s restraint and responsibility, the second outcome remains FRUSTRATION. This makes good sense. We have expectations that aren’t always being met. It’s related to the leadership issue, but just as importantly . . . we need to be aware that there’s a lot going on – hidden – behind the scenes. Things aren’t exactly what they seem.

Number 9 reads: External factors you may not even be aware of will cause FRUSTRATION. New projects will not work out now. This cannot be avoided. Arguing will not influence those who could help. Your choice is either to wait patiently or to leave the situation. “

So it seems to me that right now we’re in for a waiting game. Getting emotionally caught up in the upheavals that have been set in motion would be counter-productive. To the extent that worry is a waste of time, refocusing attention . . . rethinking the change going on all around us . . . is a better option.

So, the next question that arises is Where should we turn our attention? For one thing, I would look for the opportunities hidden within current dangers, because it’s a rule of Natural Law that in duality, there are two sides to every coin.

It’s quite possible we’ve been looking in the wrong places for IMPORTANT answers. And that the Book itself is welcoming the pandemic as an opportunity to reintroduce itself as an inspirational way to access the deeper energy and light levels of our Life Wheels for a better understanding what’s truly going on – within ourselves . . . as well as in the world around us.

NOW this opens WIDE the door to a whole new world. I will continue this thread in my next video, which I’m calling “Blessings in Disguise.”

So, here’s what you can expect from now on. In each Thursday video, I’ll balance discussion with a hands-on reading from different versions of the Book of Change. The plan is to illumine key issues in terms of the Life Wheel pattern, supported by readings to make the Book of Change increasingly more familiar.

Again. Please comment below. Like, share and subscribe. Hit the bell to be notified each time I publish a new video. And I’ll see you again next time. Until then, do take good care of yourselves.