Joe Vitale

“I love you. I’m sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you.”
—statement made to God/Divinity in ho’oponopono

“It’s not your fault, but it is your responsibility.”
—Joe Vitale, commentary on the 100% responsibility principle in ho’oponopono

I once read a book by a 20th century Greek monk who’s rather famous in that particular part of the world. I gave it away after reading part of it because he was like, pained, and stiff, you know, tight—People don’t read the Fathers of show more the Church! They believe in evolution! And the way they drive on the freeway! Oh, my God! And the late-night TV! The stand-up comics! Ah, I think I ate something that didn’t agree with me, oh, the comics, oh, my stomach….

He did say something interesting, though. He said he didn’t believe in blame, in blaming others. (I know, but just go with it. For one second.) He said, If we were truly great saints, whatever evil people are out there, would be converted by our presence, so if we are in the presence of evil people and they are not converted, /we should blame ourselves/.

Dr. Hew Len is kinda the handsome cousin of that, with 100% responsibility. (He doesn’t complain about late night comics.) Now, not everybody will buy that, right. I’m not going to address the scientism people and the making-money-should-be-against-the-law people (although I myself have a great job, or whatever! Or at least, I get paid! I’m normal, dammit! Normie power! /normie power/!!!!!). (I’m sorry, please forgive me. I love you.) But even a lot of new age people will find that to be a no-go area, you know: I’m being blamed; I’m being judged; I’m not responsible for any of this; I shouldn’t have to be sorry; I don’t need to ask forgiveness; I had to read Shakespeare in school, you know—I never recovered from that!

But the thing—in my opinion—that the Hawaiian dude got that the Greek monk didn’t, is power. Of course, in a sense, all power comes from God. Source. Divinity. We just receive—or not. But the thing is, if you do receive it, then you’ve got it. Because you took responsibility. This is how I interpret it. If whatever happens, it’s my responsibility to “clean” it, then I have unlimited power to face whatever happens to me in my life. I just put out my hand, and God slaps some money down in it, however much he thinks I need.

Obviously that’s a metaphor—although even dollar bills are kinda abstract, in a way—and maybe you just think I should be committed, so let me tell it like this. I have an alcoholic mother. At first, I didn’t know that she was alcoholic. (She wasn’t always drunk, and most alcoholics don’t fit the stereotype of a male homeless person who eats rats, and is a “bad person”. My mom is a MOM, even when we don’t want her to be!…. And as the study of alcoholism can tell you, even though she doesn’t treat her alcoholism with drink anymore, she still has the disease.) I didn’t know my mother was an alcoholic—but I knew that sometimes I didn’t like her. I blamed her. She wasn’t acting like my mother. She was bad.

I had a problem. I developed mental illness. I wound up in the psych ward—couple of times.

I discovered spiritual teachings, and I learned to stop blaming people. I even discovered Adult Children of Alcoholics, and I learned that I had a disease. My mother had a disease, alcoholism, and I had one I had inherited from her—para-alcoholism, a form of codependence.

So then I could meet with my mom, and I could realize: my mother had a disease. This is what life is like for her. This is her life. My own prayers might help me deal with the fact that I am over sensitive to her energy. Is my mom an alcoholic? Well…. That’s how it is. And I’m upset maybe a little; I’m not really fully in my healing, my recovery. I got to take responsibility for myself.

But now, I read “Zero Limits”—why don’t I take responsibility for the whole thing? What’s going on in my life, what is my energy pattern like, or what was it like, what was my karma, my “memory”, my lesson, what was all that, that I showed up with an alcoholic mother?

That thought actually felt good. There’s a Course In Miracles affirmation that’s like, My holiness is a blessing to (Johnnie, Susie, etc). That’s what it felt like.

And then, what sort of mother would show up, if I were really on my game with these God thoughts, right?

Maybe a loving mother would show up, or at least…. Just, mom, right. No disease, no undiagnosed pattern. Eventually.

Just mom.

So….

There’s nothing I can do, and yet, everything is the result of my actions. Through no fault of my own, I have chosen this particular situation, and I have the responsibility. I have the power.

It’s the best of the Native or pre-industrial or Enneagram Nine person pattern.

There are a lot of mysteries and paradoxes, you know. Perfect words…. Or divine silence?

But, hey.

The greatest mystery: I love you. show less

When I read Zero Limits, I didn’t get the part where people didn’t want to say “I’m sorry”, because I was more conventional/churchy then, and I felt like it’s normal to be at fault. Now, I’ve felt that way myself; I also have this Aquarius thing now where I don’t like saying the exact same affirmations all the time, like it’s a sameness thing. But specifically I’ve felt like I’d rather just take one of the two, as I think of it, Enneagram Nine phrases, I love you/thank show more you—for me, thank you—and just use that, because it’s like, being at home, or something. The Six (I’m sorry) and Three (please forgive me) feel more like an away from home, journey thing, where first I fall, and then I make a deal, and I just don’t want to feel like I’m in the habit of being at fault anymore, like a kid in school, head down in front of a scowling schoolmaster (or scowling little boy, right).

But Joe kinda repeated what he said before and this time it clicked. It’s not that I’m bad or even that I did bad. It’s like I wasn’t here. I was absent. It’s like you step into someone, bump into them. For a moment, you didn’t know where you were. You didn’t do bad. You just weren’t here. So you say sorry, and it’s part of coming home.

…. And also that EVERYTHING—all my problems, are in me: not just mom and dad, but scowling professors and aggressive boys, all of it. It’s all memories, and it’s all what I’ve chosen to see.

…. There are a lot of other things written in it, but I don’t think it would make sense if I tried to jam it up about them for another paragraph, you know.

…. Although, I guess I know that when I perfect my gratitude skills, I’ll be able to ask and let go, and know that I’m already perfect.

~ Riches of I,
goosecap show less

An entire book based on a weekend seminar. Vitale swallows the Hawaiian doctor's story hook, line and sinker without bothering to check it out. He relies on the mans word for the miraculous healing of criminal minds—by looking at records and thinking forgiving thoughts—that leads to the closing of an institution for the criminally insane. Did such an institution even exist? The book is a also come-on for further (expensive) seminars to further explore the doctor's concept, ho'oponopono. show more Vitale make snake-oil salesmen look like choir boys. show less

After reading this book, I first have to say, if I read another word by Joe Vitale about his having been homeless, I'll scream. I'm so fed up reading about it. Those of us who know anything about Joe Vitale know that he was homeless at one point, and he's now a multi-millionaire, presumably. I'm also fed up hearing that he's a "big movie star" after appearing in "The Secret". It was a good film and he has been in other films too, but he's certainly not what I would call a "big movie show more star".

Also, in the book he talks about letting go of ego consciousness, But to judge from it, I have to say that it "sure sounds like" he still has a huge ego.

Having got all that off my chest, I'll go on to some positive factors as regards Joe and this book. He writes, as always, in a simple, clear style. Anybody and everybody should be able to understand what he writes in this book. It is very readable; Joe's positive outlook is very infectious and inspiring. If anything, the book seems a bit too simplistic.

The four basic stages of awakening Joe deals with in the book are as follows: Stage One, Victimhood, Stage Two, Empowerment, Stage Three, Surrender and Stage Four, Awakening.

In the chapter about victimhood, he draws our attention to the fact that only victims "blame and complain". We are more powerful than we know, in fact we are limitless. It's important to stop complaining and to change our language, so instead of talking about "problems", for example, you talk about "opportunities"; you don't "have to work out", you "get to work out". You should focus on what's right in your world, instead of what's wrong.

Well, this was all fine and good, but I felt I knew all that beforehand, and wondered whether it was a waste of time for me to continue with the book.

In the chapter about empowerment, Joe discusses clearing limiting beliefs, "nevillizing" your goal, i.e. visualizing the end result of your goal with feeling. Feeling is the key factor, and he uses the term "nevillize" in a reference to the mystic and gifted speaker and writer Neville Goddard who advised us, among many other things, about the power of feeling. (I, like Joe, am a great fan of Neville.) Then we need to let go (of our attachment to wanting something, for instance) and take inspired action. Joe notes that it's more powerful to intend something rather than just to want it. It's also powerful to focus on gratitude. You look on what you have right now and are grateful for this, and you'll find that actually you're already wealthy.

Again, this chapter was good, but there was nothing new.
Then I started on the chapter about surrender. Here we're reminded about Dr. Hew Len and the "miracles" he effected in a Hawaiian mental hospital for the criminally insane by means of his Ho'oponopono techniques. Now I've previously read Joe's book "Zero limits" on this healing method, and was greatly inspired by it, and I myself have used the techniques with some success. The process is absolutely simple, since the only thing you need to do is recite for yourself the phrases "Please forgive me, Sorry, Thank you, I love you" (or only the two latter phrases), directing the words to the Divine, while thinking of your problem. However, the process is somewhat laborious, since it all takes TIME. The theory is that by performing this technique you're healing, or clearing, yourself, and this happens since every problem or person with a problem you meet in your life is a reflection of yourself and your own problems. You thus take responsibility for everything you encounter and clear/heal yourself by the practice of this technique.

Although I'd read "Zero Limits" and practised the technique previously, it was beneficial to be reminded of it. Not only this, but I felt that I got more information about carrying out the method properly than in the original book. Apparently it's a matter of focusing on the feelings/emotions you have when working on the problem in question (if I'm permitted to use the word "problem"). I hadn't realized this before, hadn't really felt any feelings but simply repeated the phrases in my head (and still the process had worked!). (Looking back at my comment at the start of my review about the size of Joe's ego, I suppose that if I'm to accept the theory behind this technique, I will need to focus on Joe and clear my own ego, since he's obviously reflecting an aspect of myself!)

Joe informs us that the Ho'oponopono phrases constitute his new self-talk.

And thinking back to the chapter about victimhood in relation to the necessity of taking responsibility for everything in our lives, I realized that though I don't feel like a victim, I have problems with a certain person in my life, whose behaviour towards me makes me feel sad - and since I can't control this person's behaviour, since we can't control anybody's behaviour, I have apparently had a feeling of victimhood in relation to this person; and to deal with this feeling and move out of victimhood I will myself have to take responsibility for his/her behaviour and use Hew Len's process to heal myself.

So I got an important insight from the book.

I find that the process of surrender, which is stage Three of Joe's awakening course, is absolutely vital to living a happy, abundant life, but difficult to achieve. So simple, but so hard to do. Especially as regards achieving a manifestation, it is an essential factor in my view.

In Joe's chapter on awakening he admits, finally, that he isn't actually awakened yet, but has experienced only glimpses of this stage - satori moments. Good for him to admit it, I was wondering about that.

You must make time daily for meditation, in fact your whole life can be a walking meditation. Again, gratitude and being happy in the moment, that is, all the time, are important elements in achieving this stage. You can and should ask for help from the masters.

Perhaps the very best chapters of the book are the two subsequent ones, which are transcriptions of interviews with Joe, one on the subject of the awakened millionaire and the other on awakened relationships. He explains everything very clearly in these interviews. Especially inspiring are his statements about awakened relationships. "An awakened relationship is completely based on love ... You are, in fact love, and the other person is coming from love and is, in fact, love." Very powerful.

Hew Len taught him "If you are complaining about something, whatever the problem is, do you notice that you're there?" If you hear about earthquakes or flooding or whatever, you helped create them, and that's why constant cleaning (by way of Ho'oponopono) is so important.

The only negative features of the book are a few spelling mistakes and the like, mostly in the first part. Otherwise it is a book that grows on you and can help you gain insights and realizations. I strongly recommend that you read it. show less