FAQ material for SPIRITUAL OPTION

This is current version of FAQ material. As it would grow, SPIRITUAL OPTION

practitioners will get newer versions of it (trough subscription list).

FAQs about the setting of the initial goal and SPIRITUAL

OPTION

What kind of goals can I achieve with SPIRITUAL OPTION? Does it matter
how difficult is a goal?
SPIRITUAL OPTION system is universal. It is effective for any goal you have. Starting
or improving your own business, getting and leading a big project in a company that you
work for, organizing your spiritual group or publishing your own book. It doesn’t matter.
Whatever your life goal is, learning how to use your spiritual options will guarantee that
you’ll achieve it in the best possible way.
For practical use during the SPIRITUAL OPTION seminar we usually choose a goal that
ranges from 4-8 on difficulty scale. (0 being the difficulty of a goal that will naturally be
accomplished without any effort from practitioner, and 10 of a goal that is practically
impossible to accomplish.)
It is important to choose a goal of appropriate difficulty while learning the SPIRITUAL
OPTION System. SPIRITUAL OPTION is a simple system, but there is an inevitable
learning curve.
Do yourself a favor and select a goal of medium difficulty to use while you are first
learning the technique. A too-easy goal won’t show the true power of SPIRITUAL
OPTION, and an impossible goal may derail your progress. This is because your inner
barriers could become so troublesome and could make you quit before you get the
necessary confidence and proficiency in using system.
So, the goal you choose to work on during the SPIRITUAL OPTION seminar, should be
fairly ambitious, but not impossible (or nearly impossible). Your most impossible goals
will wait for you until you become proficient in the SPIRITUAL OPTION process.
When you achieve the goal set in the SPIRITUAL OPTION seminar, you will master the
system in such a way, and attain such confidence in it, that you will be able to set (and
achieve) any "impossible" goal you can think of!
How come that SO is so effective?
It's because spiritual techniques are increasing one's awareness about environment and
harmony with himself.
When you use spiritual techniques while working on your goal, you improve your state of
mind in regard of that area. Because of that you not only feel much better while taking
necessary actions, but also dramatically decrease probability of giving up (and this is the
only way of failing). Most people give up when some negative outcome activate some of
their emotional problems, which they can't confront.
Unlike most of goal achievement systems, SPIRITUAL OPTION doesn't just improve
the way you feel about your goal. It gives you exact method of finding specific actions
that will lead you to the achievement.
And the last, but not the least, SO also give you the techniques for keeping yourself in
10/10 state of mind until the final achievement of your goal, and exact system that
guarantees that you will improve your behavior, when necessary.
Most systems of this kind work much better if the practitioner believes in
system, and in his ultimate success. Is it also true for SO?
No it's not. Asking practitioners to believe in the system is nonsense. You either believe
in something, or you don't. If you try to force yourself to believe, you don't believe, you
just pretend to believe, and that will not improve effectiveness of any system.
SO gives you the tools that will enable you to easily change your negative beliefs, and
learn from the past experiences that generated these beliefs.
It’s easiest to understand this on the example of one of my clients. He was extremely
skeptical, so he has practiced the system for the two full months while believing that his
goals couldn’t be achieved in this way. (Of course, he should have used SO techniques to
deal with that feeling, but he didn't). Now he owns a civil engineering company that
builds apartment complexes and have a profit of over a million dollars a year. The
techniques of SPIRITUAL OPTION are based on universal principles of achieving goals
in spiritual way and they work whether you believe it or not!
I've noticed that I have very strong inner conflicts about the goal I've set
(starting an exercise program). How is it possible to have such conflict? In
which way could exercise program be in conflict with her spiritual path?
This question is really interesting for understanding achievement process ("How can it be
that setting a running program is in conflict with my spiritual path?").
Generally the setting a running program is NOT in conflict with one's spiritual path. But
the way most people do it usually is.
Let's suppose that a person have had started and quitted running (or exercising some
other way) in the past. If such person had such experience, that experience (and
underlying conflict) will get restimulated with the decision of starting exercise program
again.
Because of that whenever she go to jog, or makes a plan for exercising, or even go out to
buy running shoes before she starts program, she will have one part of her attention on
previous experience of quitting.
And because of this she will experience some of mental pictures, thoughts, emotions and
body sensations connected to that previous experience (probably unpleasant:-(.
Unfortunately that is not all.
Let's suppose that our about-to-start-running person wants to start running because she
wants to improve her health.
She probably has some previous experiences that show her that she has some health
problems.
In her mind all these experiences are connected with starting the exercising program (as
it is supposed to be a solution to this problem). This is why all these experiences will be
restimulated while she tries to start exercising (or do any other activity connected to her
goal).
The situation is pretty much the same if she wanted to start exercising to improve her
looks.
There are some previous experiences that show to her that she is not looking like she
would want. These experiences will get restimulated while she tries to work on her goal.
And that's not all. If she has some experiences from a high school in which she had some
not-so-nice experiences because she didn't look the way she wanted (and who doesn't:-))),
that will get restimulated too.
On the other side, if our running-person is trying to show to her husband that she has a
will power, situations in which she lacked will power will get restimulated. And maybe
even more important, some situations in which she didn't get acknowledgement from her
husband (why else would she want to show this to her husband?).
When you understand all this, it's pretty clear why most of the people have a pathetic
record in achieving different goals:-(
When you set your goals from inner conflicts, most of the time you will experience (to
some degree) problematic past experiences connected to that goal (or to different benefits
you are trying to accomplish with it's achievement).
This is the reason why you should use the SO techniques before you start working on
your goals.
What if I don't know what my goal is?
Situation "don't know what my goal is" is (as everything else connected to the mind) the
matter of the emotional charge. Some things that could be my natural goals are
overwhelmed (There are some beliefs and attitudes that make me feel that I can't achieve
my goals).
Initial setting of a goal is just the matter of deciding what part of your reality you want
changed. Unfortunately, the goal you set usually won't be in complete harmony with your
whole being (because of existing charge). If it were, you would probably act in accord
with your goal, and achieve it long time ago. Maybe, you even wouldn't be aware that it
was your goal, and that it's already achieved:-)
After setting that initial goal you use SPIRITUAL OPTION techniques to
discharge (and modify) it, until it is finally in harmony with your whole being.
So, you should not demand your goal to be perfectly attractive BEFORE you process it. It
could not be so attractive because of the charge.
Only reason why you need some "spiritual goal achievement techniques" is to get rid of
the charge connected to your initial goal. (That charge is making it non-optimal for you
(not perfectly attractive for some parts of your being)).
Your goal will be perfectly attractive for all parts of your being only AFTER you process
it (and this is the state of mind in which participants regularly finish SPIRITUAL
OPTION workshops (or individual practice with E-workshop)).
Is it possible to work with the SPIRITUAL OPTION on more than one goal
at the same time?
Yes. But you should start practicing with one. It should be important goal (connected
with one of few most important areas of your life). After you achieve it, it's possible to
work on few different goals at the same time. Of course that would demand some kind of
"multi-processing", and careful time management.

FAQs about the TEST

Do we test ourselves in regard of affirmations about our goals, or generally in

our lives?
Ratings in the test should be about your current states of mind in regard of your goal. You
may be generally optimistic person in your life, but being pessimistic in regard of
chances to achieve your goal. Then your rating for optimism affirmation is negative.

FAQs about Experience Modification Technique (EMT)

Is it true that EMT could be used just for experiences, and not for dealing
with the problems?
"Bare" EMT technique can really be used just for modifying specific past experiences.
But, most problems and negative emotions COULD be eliminated by locating relevant
experiences, and then applying EMT on these experiences.
For example, if you are working on client's lack of confidence, you can't directly apply
EMT (questions from the process would be senseless). But you can ask: "which previous
experiences show that you lack confidence?" and then use EMT on these easily. So, you
can use EMT to deal with every problem, but you have to find relevant past experiences.

How long is an "experience"?

It really depends on practitioner's own feeling about it. Usually we all have our own
subjective feeling about when some experience starts, and when it ends. Sometimes it's
just a few seconds, and sometimes it lasts few hours. But for the purposes of EMT, it's
usually important that it happens on one particular place. For example, We could
consider whole afternoon of being lazy as a one experience (if the practitioner is
perceiving it in such a way), but could treat shaving, and taking a shower as two different
experiences, even if they are separated by just few minutes (for example, practitioner is
whistling happy while taking shower, and five minutes later, he is having a different
experience cursing because he cut himself shaving.

What to do with the experiences that happened in longer period (few months
for example)?
When we are talking about EMT, this is not one experience, but sequence of different
experiences. Those experiences could have some common elements, but they are
different experiences. If practitioner is considering something that happened in longer
period ("When I was in college"), he should take one specific experience (specific time,
specific place...) that is characteristic for this period, and do EMT with this (for example,
"feeling anxious before algebra exam").

How long should EMT process last?

EMT process shouldn't take longer than 5-10 minutes. Once he has identified problematic
experience, practitioner should go trough questions pretty quickly. Read the question,
find your answer for it, and write it down. You probably shouldn't have your eyes closed
for more than 10 seconds (while answering question). Some practitioners loose a lot of
time (unnecessary), while trying to feel some experience thoroughly, or they drift away
when they have some interesting cognition (or when some charged issues key in). In this
case you should just open your eyes, read the last question again, find your answer and
write it down). If you are just moderately well concentrated, process shouldn't take more
then 10 minutes.

When we ask for modifications in some experience are we asking for a

perfect experience, or just a better one?
Practitioner should modify the most troublesome part of experience, and go trough the
process with that modification. Maybe new experience will be perfect (10/10), and maybe
it won't.
You shouldn't try to make it perfect in one modification, but just change the element of
the experience that is most bothersome for you. After describing and rating the new
experience, you will know if the process is complete, or you should go back to point no.
7.

What if there is more then one problematic part of experience?

Always modify just one element in experience at a time. Then go trough steps 8-10 with
that modification. If other modifications are necessary, they will appear in the next
rounds of EMT applications.
In EMT, in deciding what needs to change to make the experience better,
how much change is ok in one go? For example, is the change: "I'm
penniless, homeless and alone on the streets." to "I'm walking with my
dream wife on the beach belonging to my Mediterranean luxury property" too
big?
You should modify the part of the experience that needs modification to make it better
for you, regardless of how ambitious, or impossible that modification is. But in that
example up there, there are (at least) two different modifications (Financial, and love
situation). You should (as we already stated) make just one modification at the time.
So my answer is: Make one change at a time. As big as it needs to be.
Why do we need to write down all our answers?
Writing down your answers is really necessary in order to do this process effectively on
your own.
Any processing (therapy etc.) is basically a two-person activity. One of the persons
(therapist, processor) is there to guide and direct the process. Other person (person that is
being processed, or "therapee") is deep in the process, exploring contents of her mind.
She is experiencing and re-living various problematic issues.
Because the processed person is exploring experiences that are usually unpleasant or
painful, she usually needs a processor to guide the process. This is why in order to do the
process on your own, you need to “put it on auto-pilot”.
You can do that by writing down all your answers. In this way you are substituting
processor with your piece of paper where all your answers are noted down. When you are
stuck somewhere in the course of the process, all you need to do is take another look at
the last thing you've written, and continue from there.
And believe me, in some processes you WILL get stuck or wander off.
Sometimes, process will become very emotional, and sometimes you will wander off
when you have a significant insight.

Why do we need to write down changed experiences as it they were

happening right now?
If you are having problem with EMT, this is the point in process (command number 8. in
EMT process, or number 12 in EMT for Goals process), where the problem usually lies.
This is because in most cases technique works even if you just find the necessary change
(point 7 (or 11 (in EMT for Goals))), and neglect next step (describing modified
experience, as if it were happening right now).
Because of that, some practitioners tend to systematically skip over that step, and that
leaves them without well-defined modified experience to examine in next round. That
sometimes allows you to finish the process just fine, but in some cases leads to trouble.
Usually this means that you won't be able to get your experience to 10/10.
So, even if you don't write down all the steps in your processes thoroughly, write down
EVERY DESCRIPTION OF THE MODIFIED EXPERIENCE, as if it were happening at
the moment of process.

Why is it necessary to get experience to 10/10, if even 9.5 is ok for me?

EMT is very cognition rich process. Every round of modifying past experience gives you
some insight about yourself, your behavior, your goal, or your environment. If you stop
before it's 10/10, you are neglecting some important cognitions because they are covered
with some others that have more charge. We are so used to some problematic elements of
our reality, that we don't examine them at all. This is why we may feel that some
experience is ok for us, and after asking ourselves to rate it, we realize that it's not 10/10.
That usually gives us some valuable cognitions about some problematic chronic elements
of our reality, which we don't question at all.

What if I can't remember details?

One of the most important rules about EMT is that practitioner should have specific
experience in every phase of the process. Specifying details of experience (in initial one,
and in all later modifications) guarantees that.
For example, your description shouldn't be vague as: "My father was angry at me about
something." (That is obviously not a specific experience). You should specify what was
your father angry about. If you can't remember, create the missing details of experience.
Usually, when you imagine specific "wrong" details that you "just created", you will
realize that your description is not right, and remember what really happened. And even
if that doesn't happen, you could do much better EMT with such description than you
would do with the vague one.

What if I choose "wrong" experience in EMT for Goals process?

There is no such thing as a wrong experience. If experience appeared, your attention is
somehow tied to it. If your attention is on it, there is an emotional charge. If there is a
charge, you should process it. That allows us to access the "right" experience (the one
that is the main source of the charge in this area.
So, it's much better to start process with the experience you can find easily (even if you
know that it's not the "key experience" for this process), than to "dig" for the right one.
Working with the easily accessible experience, and only then searching for the deeper
one will produce smooth process instead of a laborious one.
Sometimes I complete modifying experience, but the still feel bad about my
goal. Rating doesn't increase, although the experience is perfect.
This is something that happens time after time to inexperienced practitioners, and is the
consequence of the lack of understanding of the whole process that we are doing. The
moment you find problematic previous experience, you should forget about your goal (for
the time being). After all, there is no command in process that tells you to rate your
feeling about the goal.
That problem arises when during the process practitioner rates his global state in regard
of the goal, instead of the modified experience he created. And you can't be sure that your
feeling about the goal will get to the 10/10 with modification of one experience (I would
be very suspicious if it did). Usually different past experiences contribute to the feeling
that we couldn't achieve our goal. So, you should:
Start with your goal (Are you sure that…).
Find a negative feeling and connect it with the specific past experience.
Start EMT-ing that experience.
Only when you finish that EMT process, you would start thinking about your goal again.
Only rating that you should do is the rating of the new modified experience, and not of
your feelings about the goal.

How many experiences are usually there to EMT before my goal is clear?
Although it may seem that there can be thousands of experiences showing that you won't
be able to achieve your goal, there are just few of them (that are important enough to
create that negative feeling). In most cases it's 4-9 EMT for Goals processes before
practitioner get into the state in which he is sure about achieving his goal. I haven't ever
done a process that is longer than 14.

Why is it so important to feel 10/10 that you will achieve your goal?

There are two very important reasons why you want to have this feeling while you are
working on your goal. If you feel that you will fail in the end, all your efforts are useless.
So if you are not certain that you will succeed, you would give up when you confront
some serious barriers (Why bother, when I will fail in the end anyway), and you would
have a real trouble motivating yourself for taking necessary actions (again "Why
bother…"). So, with that feeling you are almost destined to really fail (which would
prove that you were right about that feeling, but I seriously doubt that this would give
you comfort:-)

FAQs about the creating your Goal Achievement Experience

 What if I realize that my goal is connected with other goals, and I realize that
I am not confident that I will achieve them?
This is exactly the reason why we need SO system, and to create a GAE. When you
create your GAE, you have a specific experience. When you examine it, all remaining
inner conflicts about your goal are clearly visible. People who don't use their spiritual
options would have such conflicts "unexplainably" block the achievement of their goals.
They wouldn't recognize the conflicts that exist (or just seem to exist:-) between different
goals. With SO you realize what is the problem. You are able to identify remaining
problematic experiences and EMT them.
First, you should modify your GAE to 10/10 (chapter 12 in E-workshop) and realize what
is the 10/10 relationship between your goals. Than (with the EMT for Goals process), you
would eliminate remaining inner barriers that concern these other goals.

Is it really necessary to make a GAE just one scene (specific time, specific
place)? How could I explain all characteristics that achievement have to posses,
in that case?
The best way to create your Goal Achievement Experience really is to make it one
specific experience (like movie, or theater play scene). You can add all necessary
elements by describing your feelings and thoughts in this experience. For example, the
GAE of one practitioner whose goal was to increase profit of his company was: "I am
sitting on the beach in Santa Barbara, with my wife and daughter. I am truly relaxed, as I
know that my company's profits are very high, and my new executive director is in
control of my company." You see, we don't have to have a movie in which you will first
hire a new executive director, and then start new advertising campaign, and so on (you
will do that later, while specifying your BCS). It would be too complicated to work with
the goal like that. You want the final result (the experience in which you will know that
the goal is achieved) for your GAE.

FAQs ABOUT BCS

How many IBOs should BCS have?

Your initial BCS will usually have 5-10 In-Between Outcomes, but you should have as
many as feels right to you (IBOs should be based on important milestones in your
project).
That number will increase, as your BCS becomes more detailed, and your understanding
of your goal increases. In some moments one of my BCSs had something like 45-50
IBOs, but it was complex 2 year deadline goal, and I got to BCS so specific after 2-3
months of processing (and after different actions were taken, and some of results were
already there, so it was possible to see in great detail how my goal could be achieved, and
which were specific actions I would have to take.)
 What is the difference between Best Case Scenario, and List of Actions?
Practitioners often confuse BCS and LA, as it is natural to connect the outcomes you
want to achieve with the actions you will try to achieve these outcomes by. But these are
two different things. In BCS you would like to have a list of outcomes you will have
achieved in different phases of your project, and only after stating that, you will list the
actions you will take to achieve these.
For example your IBO could be: "50th air-conditioning unit sold as a result of my
advertisement on KBC radio station." And your List of action could be something like:
"1. Buy a book about copywriting (writing advertisements). 2. Study it until I am
proficient in writing ads. 3. Write an ad about Samsung air-conditioning unit. 4. Send my
ad to radio station by mail etc.

FAQs about 101 rewrites

What should I rewrite (copy) in 101x rewriting process?

You should rewrite your GAE (without BCS, or LA). This is the description of the future
experience that you will have when you achieve your goal (it ends with: "Such
experience, or something…"). In the course or rewriting you will realize that some
sentences should be different, some should be added, some shortened, and some removed
completely. Your GAE text will change in every re-write, and you should do the next
round with your new changed GAE experience. So, in every round of rewriting you have
new (current) version of your GAE.

Is it ok to use PC or typewriter, or should I copy it by hand?

It's really ok to type your GAE instead of doing it by the hand (but no copy/paste:-).

You say that if we have some ideas about possible actions we can take for
achieving our goal, while rewriting, we should stop the exercise and take
these actions. Why?
When you have those ideas during copying exercise, you are in optimal state of mind
about taking that action. Then it's really easy to take them. If you leave it for later, some
inner conflicts about those ideas may reappear, and you would have to force yourself
about it again. Use that good state you are in and take action immediately.

Is the text of the goal declaration the same as GAE text?

No. The text of the goal declaration is a simple text in which you are stating that you will
achieve your goal before the date you chose. GAE is description of the whole experience
that you will have when you achieve your goal.
 FAQs about working on your goal after workshop

What if during individual work (after workshop) I realize that I didn't set a date of
achievement right?
If you realize that your date of achievement should be different-change it. But change it
only after doing EMT process on the experience that showed that you should have
different deadline (if you are to prolong achievement of your goal). In this way you will
do that because you realize that the deadline should be different, and you are 10/10 with
it. In this case you wouldn't prolong the achievement because of some negative outcome
(that you should process, instead of changing deadline).
And before prolonging deadline, you should ask yourself are you in 10/10 harmony with
this new deadline. If not, you should process more.