EXPERIENCING SWAMI FROM WITHIN
- By Ted Henry

Dr Wayne Dyer

Dr. Wayne Dyer is a prominent American best-selling author and internationally recognized lecturer. Recently he was interviewed for a television news programme in Cleveland, Ohio. In the course of that interview Swami’s name came up, and at the first mention of Sai Baba tears appeared in his eyes. He has never seen Swami in person but said that he was well acquainted with Baba because He appeared often in his dreams.

How come Swami is blessing Dyer by regularly appearing in his dreams? That is because Dyer is an intensely spiritual person. He is regularly featured on Public Television in America and he is considered one of the foremost inspirational speakers in the field of spiritual growth and personal development. He has written 25 books over the last 30 years, many of which have been bestsellers throughout the world.

For the first decade of his life, Dyer lived in an orphanage and foster homes. He now looks back on those years as being some of the most formative years of his life, a time during which he learnt the important lesson of self-reliance. He sees himself as the Eternal Soul who is disguised as an author, lecturer, father, husband and a thousand other things – he obviously takes his Advaitam seriously.

Part of Dyer’s popularity is due to the inclusion of many quotes from Swami in his books and presentations. One of his observations demonstrates his closeness to the Teachings of Sai Baba: “Send out love and harmony, put your mind and body in a peaceful place, and then allow the universe to work in the perfect way it knows how”.

In public lectures around the world, Dyer invariably brings up the name of Sai Baba. “I am not sure why He comes to me,” he says, “it just started happening several years ago. This is a Being who lives at God Consciousness who has, as Jesus had, the ability to manifest at will (like Jesus manifested fish and loaves). All of us have the ability to manifest, but there is the timeline between what we think and what we do.”

In a recent TV interview Dyer exclaimed, “Even as you speak (about Sai Baba), I get very emotional. I could almost break down and cry right now. It’s not a tear of sadness; it’s not a feeling that I am hurt in any way. It’s just the most blissful, peaceful (feeling). Do you know what it feels like to be in a warm shower when you have been out in the cold? It’s like having a warm shower running inside of you.”

This is how Dyer describes Baba’s appearances in his dreams:
“It’s an energy that moves up and down your spine and gives you goose flesh; only, it’s internal goose flesh. It’s just bliss. That’s the way it is and that’s how I feel.”

When asked why others don’t have such access to the many qualities of Sai Baba, Dyer replied that everyone has access but they do not want it. He adds, “It’s just that they believe they don’t. It’s like your question itself (about this) has resistance built in to it. You know the idea is that if you believe you don’t have something, then you don’t have it.”

Dyer says this is how people create resistance to what they want. “If you use phrases like ‘the worst-case scenario’ then you just can’t have ‘the best-case scenario’. You know, ‘as a man thinks, so he is’. It’s based on simple metaphysics. Change the way you look at things, and the things you look at change.”

Often in his talks and frequently in his writings, Dyer teaches about non-attachment. About meeting Sai Baba in India one day he says, “I am not attached to it at all. Honestly, I am not. I don’t have any illusion that if He were to walk into this room right now, that it would be any different from this very experience (of talking about Him) right now”. Dyer adds, “It’s because I already feel Baba’s presence in this room right now. It’s just that strong.”

Dyer says, “I have a very, very strong internal knowing about my connection to Source (God) and Sai Baba is someone who lives at this level of God Consciousness. In David Hawkins book Power v/s Force, he speaks of a handful of people who live at this God-Realized level. He says they are steadfast in their abstention of thoughts of harm, that they don’t exclude anyone and that they include all, and Baba is one of those beings that calibrates at one of those exceptionally high spiritual levels that is commensurate with Source. He is Source Energy. He lives at Source Energy. He is God. We are all pieces of God, and He is there all the time.”

The latest book written by Dyer, The Power of Intention, describes the force brought to an individual’s life by ego and how it interacts with fear. “When you get ego out of the way,” he says, “when you just allow (life to be) and if you knew who it was who was walking beside you at all times on this path, then you would have no fear”. Dyer continues: “One of the quotes I like from Swami Paramananda is that when you reach God realization, nothing can go wrong, nothing can go wrong. All you have to do is live at the level I am speaking about and you don’t have to go around practising or worrying about it, you just have to reach for higher vibrational energy at any moment, which means staying connected to Source. One of the great questions to ask is, “Would God have this thought?”, and then to remind yourself that you are God, that you are a piece of God.”

Dyer says that by definition, anything that excludes cannot be spiritual. And he says that nearly all religions exclude. It’s one of the thoughts that makes this famous author so popular among those who know him. His life is dedicated to inclusiveness. It’s one of the reasons he speaks so forcefully about Sai Baba. He knows Sai Baba is all about inclusion. If Wayne Dyer is against anything for anyone, it is exclusion.