Philosopher's Notes The Prism
The Prism
Seven Steps to Heal Your Past and Transform Your Future
About the Book
Brian's take
This is the first Note I’ve created on one of Laura Day’s books, although it’s one of three of hers I’ve now read. To be very direct, I tend to have an allergy to “psychics.” Then Alexandra told me I would really love Laura’s take on the ego and that I should read this one. I follow orders from my Boss, so I grabbed the book, flipped straight to the chapter on “Ego,” and was instantly hooked. Laura argues that the ego is not the enemy, a fragile ego is. A healthy, integrated ego is the structure that allows us to channel energy, heal our past, and consciously create our future. In The Prism, she walks us through seven Ego Centers, often described as chakras, and shows how strengthening them builds the strength, flexibility, and resilience required to manifest what we truly want. It’s spiritual, yes, but deeply practical and shockingly grounded. If you’ve ever wrestled with the role of ego in growth, purpose, and transformation, this book will challenge and empower you. Big Ideas we explore include Be the Hero of Your Own Story, The Ego Is Not the Enemy, The Seven Ego Centers, The Chakras in Practice, and A Little-Known Law, You Can’t Cheat.
“You don’t choose the starting line.”
But you can choose the destination.
Laura Day
“Your pathology can become your potential.”
Mine has. I want to make you aware of this gift that is innate within you, to offer you the experience of forty years of teaching and over six decades of living, and to help you use that gift to change your life. I want to be your angel.
Laura Day
“Decide what you want to experience next.”
Direct your energy toward what you want to create.
Laura Day
“When you spend too much time in the future, be it imaginary or intuitive, you neglect the opportunities in the present to do the very things that would create a better tomorrow.”
No amount of foresight can replace action. Foresight plus action, however, equals success. The future is yours to create, but only if your attention is in the present.
Laura Day
“A word of caution: If you try to work on all your injuries at once, it will feel flooding, suffocating, and dispirting.”
Work only with what helps you to function effectively now!
Laura Day
“The human psyche shows that each invidual is an extension of all of existence.”
Stanislav Grof
“So stay on course with your goals.”
Let them be the lighthouse. The more doggedly you keep at it, the more easily you will accept change. When an obstacle arises, work with it as fuel toward your chosen goals. Address it, use it, get help with it—but don’t let it stop you.
Laura Day
“Change demands courage and an absolute commitment to act as consciously as possible.”
Laura Day
“The higher your structure is to be, the deeper must be its foundation.”
Saint Augustine
“As a moment-to-moment practice, ask yourself, ‘What should I do differently right now to transform this situation, so it supports my goals?’ And then make the shift.”
Remember: a series of small, consistent changes often yields more than a big, dramatic one.
Laura Day
You = The Hero of Your Own Story
27:12
Introduction
From the book
“The book you have just opened, my seventh, has been more than ten years in the making.
I have workshopped and tested it through countless sessions with thousands of my students. It is the next step in the Practical Intuition program, the next step in applying intuition to your life, your business, and your understanding of the world. The next step in creating effective change. I call this study The Prism. It begins with an understanding of how intuition (mobile attention) and its active brother, healing (directed attention) can utilize what is commonly called ‘spirit’ in a practical way, producing evidence-based results and affording you the opportunity to make a life-changing impact on the world around you…. There is a lot of mystification out there about spirit, about ‘oneness,’ about experiencing one’s union with the Universal Mind, the Highest Good, Source, Atman—call it what you will. But spirit is simply energy. The human structure that creates what you experience as part of that energy is the ego. The ego has been much aligned in spiritual practices. Yet it is the ego, and its adaptable yet precise structure, that allows us to channel spirit and create physical forms and events…. This is what you will be mastering in the chapters to come. Mastery doesn’t mean you will never have another loss or difficulty. Life is far too complex for that, and your subconscious patterning has so many layers. It does mean that you will experience your disappointments as guides to what you truly want to create, and you will use them to do just that: create your best reality.”
Brian's Notes
This is the first Note I’ve created on one of Laura Day’s books but it’s one of three book of hers I’ve read.
Alexandra has had her first book, Practical Intuition, forever. I’ve seen that book around the house for YEARS, but was never particularly interested in reading it.
To be very direct: I tend to have an allergy to “psychics.” (Hah.)
Then, Alexandra got THIS book and told me I’d *really* like the way Laura discusses our ego. She told me I should read it. I follow orders from my Boss so I grabbed the book, looked at the table contents, and flipped to the chapter on “Ego.”
Let’s just say I was HOOKED.
Laura’s take on the role a healthy ego plays in our lives was shockingly (goosebumps) GREAT.
We’ll talk about it in a moment and I’ll show the parallels between her thinking and the thoughts of other wise teachers with whom I’m aligned on the subject of a healthy ego including Jonathan Haidt (The Happiness Hypothesis), Richard Rohr (see Notes on Falling Upward), Joseph Campbell (Pathways to Bliss), Ken Wilber (Ken Wilber), and Nathaniel Branden (The Art of Living Consciously).
After reading that chapter on “Ego,” I devoured the book then went back and read Practical Intuition and another one of her books called Welcome to Your Crisis: How to Use the Power of Crisis to Create the Life You Want. We’ll be featuring the other two soon.
This book was one of my favorites from last year. If you’re a “spiritual” practitioner looking to integrate more power into your life, I think you will especially love it, but I HIGHLY recommend it for everyone. Get a copy here. It’s packed with Big Ideas and I’m excited to share a few of my favorites so let’s get to work!
P.S. As you know if you’ve been following along, I’m a big fan of Ryan Holiday and his practical application of Stoicism. We’ve featured SEVEN of his books. (Check them all out.)
And… The ONE thing with which I’ve disagreed with him? His assertion that, as per the title of one of his books, “Ego Is the Enemy.” No, it isn’t. A FRAGILE ego is the enemy. We MUST have a strong, integrated sense of self (aka “ego”) if we want to flourish. Period. This book by Laura is one of the best I’ve read on how to go about forging that.
