FAQ

FAQ: The Money Question

Expand The Box training is not cheap.

It is not expensive either if you know the relative value of what Expand The Box delivers in the personal-development training market.

From one perspective, Expand The Box is free because it is possible to get millions of dollars for free through legalized gambling with commodities shorts and puts and futures, using insider information in stock-market trades, running money-market systems, etc. Banks and Governments “print” trillions of dollars for free in their computers, and give this money away as grants to other countries as long as those who control those governments use the free money to buy products from the granting government’s businesses. Multinational corporations externalize environmental and social costs while changing nature’s wealth into free money as “profits”. From this clarity, paying money for Expand The Box is giving something fake to receive something real. This deal may not continue to be available much longer…

From another perspective, Expand The Box costs everything you have. This is because during Expand The Box your “you” – the story-world you’ve created about yourself which you believe is true and which you unconsciously identify as “yourself”, in other words, your Box – changes fundamentally. After you are digested by a few Possibility Management distinctions nothing works the same anymore. The whole world opens up in unexpectedly delightful ways. Expand The Box costs you everything because your previous relationship to the world ends. This is one reason why rich people almost never participate in Expand The Box: fear of losing everything. Which in one sense is a valid fear, and yet, in the same sense, it is just as valid to say that what you get in return is more than everything you had before.

However much money you have, your relationship to money is challenged by the Expand The Box training. Being challenged in general is an essential part of it.

The intensity of Expand The Box’s challenge is why we cannot charge anything for Expand The Box. Without paying the full price you will not make full room in your life to receive the astonishing quantity of high-quality possibilities given by the training experience. We have tried over and over again and found that it also does not work to collect grants to provide half-price scholarships or free seats for those people who “have no money.” What we found is that the people who “have no money” have no money on purpose. It is a political statement to have no money.

The requirement of paying for Expand The Box quickly reveals the hidden purposes behind the political position of “I have no money.” This can be a valuable heart-opening process.

It is not whether or not you already have enough money for Expand The Box that determines whether or not you come to Expand The Box. Nobody already has enough money for Expand The Box unless it is your practice to reserve a certain budget for personal development trainings each year – not a bad idea! Most people already have all their money dedicated to other purposes and don’t have a thousand bucks sitting around.

The determining factor as to whether or not you attend Expand The Box is whether or not you have truly decided to come to Expand The Box.

Authentic decisions do not happen in your mind. Authentic decisions happen in your energetic body and each decision changes who you are.

In the moment you irrevocably decide to participate in Expand The Box your energetic body changes shape and the universe must conform to your new shape. Then the money seems to come all by itself. It is your decision that opens doors. This is the first money secret.

Deciding is so simple! What could ever get in the way of this? Fear can get in the way.

Since an authentic decision changes who you are, and since deep change is frightening, then if you try to avoid the fear you will avoid evolutionary change. This means you will never grow up, the equivalent of a butterfly never hatching out of its chrysalis to fly free in the wind. To justify this atrocity it becomes convenient to believe yourself when you say things like, “I don’t have enough money for Expand The Box. It is too expensive.” This statement gives you a logical reason that explains to your logical mind why you must avoid getting for yourself something a part of you may, in fact, deeply long for.

We are trained to be afraid of fear by modern culture. On modern culture’s Old Thoughtmap of Feelings, fear is one of the negative or bad feelings that you should avoid at any cost. This is convenient for the regime because then, if they can make you afraid, they can control you as easily as herding sheep.

This leaves us in a quandary. How can you apply an initiated relationship to fear so you can register for Expand The Box when you have not yet done Expand The Box and are probably still afraid of fear?

One way through this is to let yourself get even more afraid of continuing your life as it is than you are afraid of changing your life. Get afraid of missing the opportunity to upgrade your thoughtware. Be afraid of years going by chasing modern culture’s illusionary carrot-at-the-end-of-a-stick security, when you could instead be using those years to head into an entirely different future.

When you get more afraid of staying the same than you are of changing, you no longer need to use the story, “I don’t have enough money” to avoid registering for Expand The Box. You can simply decide you are going to Expand The Box and start behaving as someone who is getting their money together.

Then you will discover that getting the money together for Expand The Box is itself part of your initiation. Accomplishing the challenge of getting the money together is not so much a benefit for us as it is a benefit for you.

Once you figure out how to get $1000 together for the Expand The Box’s tuition, overnight stays, food and transportation, your new skills make it possible for you to get $100,000 together, or perhaps $10,000,000 for even bigger projects.

Authentically deciding for something shows up as you being committed to that thing. Commitment is decision in action. Committing to a thing even before you know how to do that thing forces the universe to give you the know-how for doing that thing. Would you spend the time and energy to give someone the know-how if they are not already committed to doing the thing no matter what? No.

The universe is not stupid. The universe conserves know-how because know-how is precious. The universe provides know-how to those who are already decided and therefore committed. So a second secret about money is to commit first, before you know how. Then there is true necessity for you to gain the know-how.

11 WAYS TO CREATE THE MONEY FOR ATTENDING EXPAND THE BOX

Before reading the list below, prepare yourself with these three actions: First, label a big glass jar “Expand The Box Money”. Do not take money out for anything except Expand The Box.

Now is the only time you can put money in your jar. Put a dollar of you own money into the jar now.

Yes, it is true: whatever money you put in the jar is no longer available for cigarettes, cokes, ice-cream, restaurant meals, movies with your girlfriend, or that new pair of shoes. But each time you put more money into your jar you prove wrong the story that you don’t have any money for Expand The Box. Look at your jar. You ALREADY have money for Expand The Box in the jar! Is it enough money? Do not count how much money is in your jar for two months! Just keep bringing in the money for Expand The Box.

Second, select an Expand The Box training to attend that is 4 to 6 months in the future. Register for that training. Tell the Trainer you are committed to coming no matter what and that you are getting $1000 together to come.

Third, circle #1 plus four more plans in the list below and start doing all 5 of them simultaneously. Don’t be concerned if you are not good enough to do them, or if you don’t know how to do them, or if you feel too embarrassed to do them, or if while you are trying to do them the details morph into another set of actions, so long as you keep using what you learn to improve your “sourcerer” or “sourceress” skills, and you keep taking actions to get your money together for Expand The Box.

1. Go to our Calendar, click on the button for our TeamUp calendar and choose one of the Possibility Teams. Call up the spaceholder and arrange to attend their Possibility Team. If you find a team that is inactive, ask the spaceholder to call together a special meeting just for you. If there is no Possibility Team that you can attend, get 5 or 6 friends together and have your own Possibility Team meeting. During the check-in (of whichever Possibility Team it is: yours or someone else’s) tell people that you have committed to attending Expand The Box (tell them the city and date), and that you came to the Possibility Team for this reason: “Please give me possibilities for getting together the $1000 for attending Expand The Box.” Then clearly write down every idea they tell you, especially if you do not understand it or do not agree with it. Then ask if one person at this meeting is willing to be your mentor during the process of getting the money together for Expand The Box. Call or meet with your mentor once every week to get more courage for doing whatever it takes to get the money together to attend Expand The Box.
2. Tell each person you come into contact with, including colleagues, neighbors, and your boss, that you have registered for Expand The Box training. If they ask you what that is, you can say, “Ask me afterwards!” If they ask why you are doing this, you can say something like, “Life is an adventure!” or “The future is unknown and human potential is so amazing, isn’t it?” or “Do you want to come with me?” Then say, “After Expand The Box I am going to have a celebration at my house (tell them the date and time). I am getting the money together for the whole thing now. Will you donate $10 or $20 towards this?” Put the money in the jar. Also be sure to have the party!
3. Go through everything you own in your closets, the garage, the basement, the attic. Anything you have not touched in a year, take a photo of it and put it up for sale on eBay. Especially the little things. There are so many people out there collecting Star Wars mementos, baseball cards, coins, stamps, souvenirs from Mexico, old ice skates, or small sized penguins. Do not try to get top dollar for your stuff. Just get rid of it. Once you figure out how to sell things on eBay, tell other people you will sell their stuff for them on eBay if you can keep half the money. Immediately convert your PayPal money into cash and put it in the jar!
4. Set up a chair on a busy street corner or the shopping zone of your town. Stand on the chair holding a sign that says, “Laughing Lessons $1”. As soon as someone gives you their attention, get off the chair and have them come stand on the chair. When they are up there, give them the sign to hold. They will laugh. Then tell them exactly every detail about how you got them up on the chair to laugh, and then have them practice what they just learned about holding space, making contact, asking nonlinear questions, etc. to get the next person up on the chair laughing.
5. Go door to door in your neighborhood and ask people: “Is there anything I can do for you right now in exchange for you donating $5 towards a project that expands young people’s awareness and increases their ability to take positive actions that create a better future for humanity?” Many people, if they think about it for a moment, have light bulbs that need changing, a compost pile that needs turning over, a hedge that needs trimmed, something moved in their garage, a refrigerator that needs washing, a dog that needs to be walked, windows that need cleaning, or rain gutters that need to be cleaned out. When they feel the enthusiasm and joy you put into creating positive change they will be happy to donate $5. Put the money in your jar!
6. Start a crowd-funding project online at www.kickstarter.com, www.ecocrowd.com, www.indiegogo.com, or, google “crowd-funding” and choose from the many that are now available. Select the kind of crowd-funding program where either you reach your goal and get the full $1000 or you get nothing. Do not choose the kind where you get whatever people give – this takes the spirit of excitement out of crowd-funding and changes it into begging. Don’t confuse the two. Get a couple friends together to help you develop your list of perks for the various levels of contribution. Your friends have a different sense of your value than you do, and probably they are right. Make the perks so juicy and universal that nobody can resist supporting your project. Paint the big picture of what is happening in the world and what your contribution is to creating a brighter future for humanity on Earth. Tell people who you are really, to a depth that you’ve never revealed it before. Surprise yourself with your vulnerability. If you reach your goal, celebrate everywhere, and be meticulous and impeccable with delivering each and every perk.
7. Go to your boss at work and say, “If I can tell you a way to save the company $10,000 in 3 months, and we implement the plan and it works, will you give me 10% of the money we save?” If the boss says, “Yes,” write the deal down on paper and both sign it. Then get 4 or 5 friends together for an evening around the kitchen table at your house, people who do not work at the same company. Give them papers, writing materials and coffee. Brainstorm ways your company could save $10,000 in less than 3 months. The trick is to go into a Generative Phase by establishing a creative sanctuary in which you write down every idea that is said and stop anyone from judging or criticizing ideas. Doesn’t matter how stupid the ideas are or if you already tried it 100 times before. Add on to ideas, even crazy ideas. Go sideways and nonlinear. Then for the last 20 minutes, switch from the Generative Phase to the Analytical Phase where you pull out your Sword-of-Practicality and select the best 3 proposals that you can implement with your boss. Tell your boss that you will manage the project for her. Put the money in your jar!
8. Have an extra birthday party now because… “When I was 17 years old I forgot to have a birthday party and now it is time!” Invite as many people as possible, people you would normally never invite, especially invite your “enemies” – defined as anyone who when you scan them from a distance you feel that there is some kind of charge or story between you. Invite people to dress as they did when they were 17 years old, and to bring their favorite teen-songs as MP3 files to dance to. Tell people that you are saving up for a “wild-ass fun adventure” that will transform your life and that for birthday presents could they please only bring you cash. Put the money in your jar!
9. Start a tutoring job on the side. For example, put signs up around town that you teach conversational and business English for small groups of people wanting to get better jobs. Charge a middle to low fee per hour, like $8 per one-hour class. Limit class size to 6 people. A full class means $48 per hour for you. Teach two classes per week and in less than 3 months you have your $1000. Run your class no matter how many people come. Keep it exciting and experiential, not intellectual. Keep people talking English from the first minute they arrive, properly greeting each other with, “Hello Dr. Sonners.” “How are you today Miss Spring? Are you enjoying global warming weather changes?” But also sing with them in English, read English subtitles out loud together while watching Hollywood or Bollywood films, do movement poems like Patty cake. Patty cake. Baker’s man. Bake me a cake as fast as you can. Never let students be able to predict what will occur next at your conversation classes. Get them into pairs and have each one ask the other: What is the thing you’ve done in your life that you are most proud of? Most ashamed of? What is the scariest ghost story you know? What do you feel when you see a policeman? Why? What do you think about God? When you die, what will people say about you? Have the Asians pair up with the Mexicans teach them how to eat with chopsticks. Have the Mexicans show the Asians how to make tortillas. Have them write poems in English that start and end with the same line, a sentence about their childhood, such as: “I never knew who my father would be when he came home.” Have people read their poems out loud. Don’t let people use any curse words. Instead teach them to say, “Pickle!” Use exercises from Directing the Power of Conscious Feelings to practice conversing. Have them read SPARKs out loud in pairs while giving each other feedback and coaching about pronunciation. Have them give 3 minute improvised speeches about topics written on scraps of paper they pick from a hat. Here and there you can teach them the 10 most common mistakes foreigners make while learning to speak English. Put the money the jar!
10. Set up a small booth at a fair or festival or a Farmer’s Market with a sign that says Next Culture Career Shift Consultant. The idea is that careers such as lawyer, doctor, schoolteacher, businessman, senator, nurse, etc. defined by modern culture fit last century’s patterns of training citizens to fit into a capitalist patriarchal empire. This makes sense if the empire is in its expansion phase and environmental conditions are stable. Neither of these conditions are true anymore. The empire has entered its collapsing phase and environmental conditions are rapidly degrading. The service you offer is to engage the very real conversation with people of them shifting to a more realistic career. You can start by asking, What kind of work do you do? Then ask: Do you love your work? Would you continue to do your job if you were not getting paid for it? (If the answer is “No” they do not love their work.) What kind of work do you think you would really love to do? Spend a couple minutes appreciating their qualities of being while making notes for yourself. Then help them formulate these true service skills in the framework and language of next culture. Here are some examples: Guardian of the Diversity of Species, Healer of the Soil, Communicator and Ambassador for the Nature Beings, Sourceress, Kaitiakitanga, Designer for Earth Centered Cultures (rather than profit oriented), Agent for 7 Generation Thinking, Possibility Alchemist, Four Body Geomant, Speaker for the Dead, Defender of the Laws of Nature, Gaian Agent, and so on. Then help them plan out the first three steps they would need to take to shift from their current modern-culture occupation to a next-culture career path. The first three steps will certainly include some kind of education about what else is possible, such as studying some of the books from Next Culture Press. It may also include attending gatherings with people who are already engaged in next-culture lives, such as ecovillage summer programs, alternative music and dance festivals, intentional community seminars, transition town open days, and the many projects with websites, online webinars, videos, and training programs. Listen more than you talk, but do not allow the space to go longer than half-an-hour (most conversations will be 15-20 minutes), and especially do not let them use you as an emotional garbage can for victim stories and complaining about their troubles. Make this a real career-shift consultation. The fee for your service is by donation, that is, people can give whatever they feel your consultation was worth to them as an energy exchange. Put the money in your jar!
11. Figure out other linear and nonlinear ways that use your hidden gifts and talents to serve others while creating the thousand bucks for your next training. The first ten people who tell me ideas that worked for you that I am turned on by and add to this list I will add $100 to your jar! Please send your strategies to clinton at next culture dot org. I can’t wait to hear from you!