The Maggot

It's mauled unnoticed under my scalp, gnawed through my skull, devoured the membrane... and now it's deep in my head. It feeds veraciously upon nourishing matter; healthy thoughts.

Crawling through the cells, devouring and consuming as it goes. A trail of masticated flesh and detritus in its path.

I’m not alone though, there’s a plague of them. Most people have one; most don’t know it!

Mine got in when I was only nineteen and by the time I had discovered it's intrusion, and done something about it, immeasurable damage had been done.

YOU almost certainly have one.

You probably won’t know it’s there, but if it is, you’ve got a problem ... a real problem!

When I first left England many moons ago I went to work in Tenerife selling timeshare!!!

Whoooooaahh ... wait ... before you log out of The Omniscience Principle and vow never to read another word written by me again ... I was young, I was just a boy who could see no future as a designer (I qualified as an Advertising Art Director actually) living in London. It was my first job and I didn’t know any better ... I’m sorry!!!

Actually, timeshare is a great concept when run by honest, reputable people, but as usual there’s a small minority, The World of Scum, hell-bent on ruining life for the rest of us - I won’t dwell on that though!

I went to work abroad lured by an advert placed in a Sunday paper, which merely read:

How Would You Like to Earn £1,000 ($1,500) per Week,
Working on a Beautiful Tropical Island in 300 Days of Sun?

Who wouldn’t?

I answered the ad, got the job; I packed my bags and caught the next flight out. I was gone from the smog faster than a rat up a drainpipe!

I arrived in the sun and to my surprise, all the hype was true! We were met at the airport and were immediately handed keys to company cars, we raced like maniacs to the town and were given keys to our apartments which were set around our own communal pool.

I thought I'd died and gone to heaven!

Those were great times, young, free and earning a good wage. There were several hundred of us on the island working for various companies and the stories ... well that’s another book!

After a couple of years I was head-hunted and moved on to Lanzarrotte, I was promoted to a management position and on a salary of £700 ($1,050) per week tax-free and with a company car thrown in!

That was twenty years ago when you could buy a house for £20,000. I was in my prime, full of testosterone, on a mission, and this was a lot of money in those days. This was my first job and I honestly thought I would never want for anything again ... ever!!!

One night I was sitting drinking with a bunch of friends and colleagues on the balcony
overlooking the pool. One of the lad’s mother was visiting, had joined us for a tipple and was also enjoying the relaxed atmosphere.

Later that evening, and after a few Budweisers, the conversation turned to astrology, horoscopes and predicting the future … you know how all conversation turns to 'beer bollocks' when the liqueur starts flowing!

My argument was that it’s all a complete load of bull; that you could read any star sign on a given day and it would have some tortuous, convoluted relevance to your life ... any life in fact!

The secret to good horoscope writing is to ensure complete ambiguity for a prediction – ensure your advice is vague. That way anyone reading will always find a situation which fits their circumstances.

‘Today you’ll meet someone wearing purple’ ... well blow me, if I didn’t meet someone wearing purple socks!

If they’re that bloody perceptive why don’t they give a prediction like: ‘The FTSE will drop 100 points today, but rise 150 tomorrow – today’s a good day for laying down a few bets!’

Eventually, my friend piped up: "My mom has a gift, she can read people’s future; all she needs is something personal from you."

Now, this lady was in her late fifties I would say, graying a little, with no particular attributes - just a regular, everyday mother.

"Is that true?" I asked.

Apparently, she had done this reading thing many times before with amazing accuracy – note the use of the word ‘apparently!'

Anyway, I was intrigued, had nothing to lose, so I gave her a ring I used to wear - one which had some sentimental value at the time.

I won’t bore you with the details, but she sat on that balcony on that cloudless, balmy night, rubbing the ring (no that's not a sex thing!) and describing the pictures that appeared spontaneously before her eyes. She did this for around an hour.

We had never met before and no poignant conversation about my past had taken place that evening, but her accuracy was stunning.

Clairvoyants usually ask leading questions which will steer their predictions but she had not.

She described things I had forgotten all about and so dismissed some of her ramblings as useless. But days later I was still recalling events that she insisted had happened to me, I just couldn’t recall them that night.

She mentioned the name Coxon. At the time this meant nothing to me and it wasn’t until a couple of days later it clicked. The girl who had first given me the ring some years previously was named Lisa Poxon.

How in the reign of Spotted Dick would she have known that???

She demonstrated incredible insight … BUT … the wicked, evil, sorceress also planted my maggot.

That night, that witch said something to me; something that drove so deep. She said something that would have a profound affect on my life for the next ten years at least.

Bear in mind that I was earning a large amount of money at the time. In just one sentence, in a single moment, she introduced the maggot into my brain

It was only a flippant couple of words that floated on the cool sea air and meant nothing to her ... it almost crippled me!

Here is that sentence in all its infamous glory:

"You will always be comfortable - but you will never be a millionaire."

That’s all she said!

A simple sentence that would eat away at me for years.

Here lay the contradiction - she was so right with everything else she had said; extraordinary accuracy, that if she knew what she did about the past, why couldn’t she be as precise about the future?

I was also in my early teens, knew bollock-all about life and was extremely impressionable.

Before she said those frightful words, I had been convinced that I would retire by the time I was thirty. I thought I was going to lead a jet-set life enjoying all the trappings wealth could bring. I felt I was well on my way already.

It wasn’t to be!!!

A few months later the company I was working for closed down and eventually the money dried up. Well, actually the resort was part of a large money-laundering operation run by the people who pulled off Britain's biggest gold bullion robbery, The Brinks Mat.

On November 26th 1983, six robbers broke into the Brinks Mat warehouse at Heathrow Airport. It was supposed to be a relatively easy job, stealing £3 million in cash with the help of an inside man. This all changed when, instead of the cash, they found gold bullion worth £26 million!

It appeared at first that the robbery was a huge scale operation that had been extraordinarily well planned. And in reality, the operation was extremely detailed in its planning, but the robbers were expecting to find money, not ten tonnes of gold bullion, waiting to be transported to the Far East.

Astonishing, and I got sucked into their elaborate plan to clean up the proceeds - who'd have believed it!

That was it, I was never to earn good money again until I had dealt with ‘The Maggot’.

From that day forth, every time things did not go well, I would console myself by saying: "That’s the way it’s meant to be; it’s my destiny." Therefore, that’s the way it always was!

I could not break free of the tethers that hold back success because that woman had convinced me I never would. I got so twisted up inside. I knew I ought to be successful; I knew I had the desire, the ambition, the drive, but "why should I bother?" The good things were never going to come my way ... and The Maggot was chewing up and spitting out any logical arguments to the contrary.

It got so bad at one point I convinced myself that I was possessed by badness and even considered getting exorcised by the local preacher! A devout christian relative had me believing for a while back then, that it does happen; evil spirits can occupy a living body ... and I was well and truly squatted!

I had actually considered that she might be right ... Seems ridiculous now, but I had nowhere to turn for sane comment and support. I almost went to see that vicar and only embarrassment held me back, so I didn't and decided to battle my demons alone.

I had assured myself ‘bad luck’ was my bedfellow and it got me extremely down and miserable at times.

On a conscious level I wanted everything money could buy, but deep down believed with unequivocal certainty ... ‘I would never be a millionaire!’

I was wrong ... so very, very, wrong.

In Module 1, I went into great detail about training the subconscious to become congruent with the conscious; to want the things you think you do. Those techniques do deal with The Maggot problem to a degree but often it has eaten so far in, become so deep-seated that only the realization it actually exists will give you the chance to rid yourself of it … and rid yourself you must.

In The Omniscience Principle we explore many systems that were, and are, used by The World’s Masters’ of Wealth to become just that. But one of the greatest lessons you can learn now, is to prepare yourself mentally for that outcome in your life.

If you’re not mentally strong before you start, there’s no way in the world you will surmount the trials that executing those systems will throw up. Yes, I’ll share with you exactly how these people made their fortunes but you’re emulating that success will take a steely resolve which is beyond all but the very strongest and durable individuals.

Frankly, without the right mental preparation you’d stand a better chance of unaided flight!

I can outline a guaranteed, million-pound/dollar system on the back of a postage stamp - it could take you the next ten years to make a go of it, but if you’re mentally stalwart enough to cope with that, and give no quarter, you’re more than half way there.

It’s not what that woman said which held me back, it was how I interpreted it.

Subconsciously, I wanted to believe that what she had said was the truth. It was easy to blame my problems on some old sorceress who had cast a spell on me. It was easy to blame my failures on destiny and fate because ... it was the easy way out.

Once I understood that it was not destiny, which was holding me back, but my own attitude to circumstance, the change in me was significant and immediate.

That very moment things started to change. I instantly stopped blaming my failures on outside forces because I now realised they had absolutely nothing to do with my success. What I learned was that I can’t blame my shortcomings on anything, or anyone except myself - and especially a few words slurred on a drunken evening.

This is an attitude you must adopt also.

It’s easy to give in to The Maggot and fall short … but it is an outside influence; a third party – it’s looking beyond your soul for somewhere to place the blame for failure.

The plain truth is, that once you’ve discovered The Maggot and exorcised it; then what is there left to blame?

Everyone has a maggot ... some are infested. Everyone can reach back into the deepest recesses and find at least one.

Often, someone they admire secretes it there. They tried to live up to their idol’s expectations and couldn’t, maybe they tried desperately to impress them and were dismissed casually.

I remember asking the school's top girl to go out with me on a date, she just sneered and laughed! And knocked any flicker of confidence out of me in an instant. I went back to heavy metal, my mates and left 'girls' till another era!

Actually, she did me a great favour as I saw her recently and phew, what a munter!!! Isn't it strange how all the people you used to consider as being the most attractive at school let themselves go and the ugly ducklings often become swans? ...

The most innocuous occurrences can plant The Maggot.

People rarely understand why they let a casual remark have such a dramatic effect on them.

Maybe it’s the subconscious looking for an excuse to stay in the comfort zone, who knows ... Who cares? So long as you look for it, find it, and deal with it!

I once knew a man who loved to write. He loved creating elaborate pictures from words and his stories were inspiring. His problem was, that he had lousy handwriting. One day, he proudly presented his best ever work to the English teacher who promptly gave him a ‘D’.

The teacher told the lad, wrongly, that until he improved his handwriting he would never be able to write … He never wrote another story!

The teacher had planted such an enormous maggot that this person became a chef so as to avoid writing. It wasn’t until middle age when he was having other, unrelated problems and was talking them through, did he finally realise the damage he had let that teacher do to his life.

He broke down in tears.

After a period of time he came to terms with what had been said in the past and how much he had let it hold him back. It wasn’t what the teacher had said, after all, he only wanted to encourage the child to improve his handwriting, it was how my friend had interpreted it.

He had taken it as a personal attack and used this apparent deformation as an excuse not to do well in other areas. Once he came to terms with the problem the weight finally lifted and he began to write beautiful stories again.

The excess baggage he had been carrying all those years was cast off, The Maggot died.

I have seen a similar scenario played out with my own son - he seem to be really intelligent (well just look at his genes!) and loves writing but his handwriting is appalling. I have watched in horror as his new teacher has knocked the stuffing out of his confidence - just because his writing is messy.

As far as I'm concerned, it's what the words say not how they're presented. Who gives a flying fuck if his writing is not up to scratch when his stories are first rate, after all, who writes with those old fashioned, pen things anyway?

The irony of all this was that when we'd get his report we'd have to sit and basically guess at the headmaster's comments as they are totally illegible.

But the point is how easy it is for a maggot to be planted.

Once I realised that it was me, and once I understood it was my own superstitions and self-destruction which was preventing me from succeeding and not some misguided karma; once I crushed my maggot, I became free.

Running Through Treacle

You’ve had that dream, the one where some nemesis is hunting you down and you can’t run – your feet are stuck in gue. You’re being hunted by a crazed, axe-wielding maniac and you can’t run away. You’ve had a dream along those lines haven’t you?

That’s a maggot!

Most people have a reoccurring nightmare during their early years and many seem to be along this theme.

Mine used to scare the pants off me!

I’ll describe it for you now but nothing I write can convey the absolute, overwhelming, intense fear that accompanied the scene.

The actual dream itself wasn’t that frightening, it was the feeling of pure, raw terror, which would leave me paralyzed and shaking in cold sweats.

I would be sat in a large cave in the middle of a baron place nowhere in particular. I would look out and the sky would be bible black, only the stars shone bright. Eventually, everything would be black. Suddenly, I'd be out of body and looking in on myself in the cave – only now the cavern was set in a large boulder floating aimlessly in space.

Then out of the dimness more asteroids would float in and pass by; they were huge and pulsed slowly. There was nothing remarkable in the picture – in fact, looking back now it was quite a beautiful vision – but panic would accompany those rocks, all-consuming, riveting dread.

I would zoom in, as dreams do, and find myself back in the cave, inside my body and would try to scream … but no sound would leave my dry lips. Panicking, I would fill my lungs and exhale with all my strength – no sound!

I was helpless, isolated and the more I tried to shout, the larger the cave would become, bigger and bigger. As it grew the more insignificant I would become and the weaker and less audible the sound would be, if it ever left my body.

This is the point where I would wake.

This nightmare would visit two or three times a year and haunted me throughout puberty and into my early twenties.

Even now I find it hard to watch a pyroclastic flow. That billowing, unstoppable, awful force.

One night, in a moment of enlightenment and completely out of the blue, the mystery of this visitation was unraveled.

What was it that had frightened me so through childhood and teens?

It was a specific event in my life that sparked illumination and a degree of understanding:

I have explained that I used to earn good money selling timeshare and that it all went tits-up. During the better times on a trip to England, I dropped in on a couple of old friends.

During that visit they took me to see a new machine that had just come over from the States with a view to cashing in on Christmas which was just round the corner. They were all excited about it and they considering getting one for themselves and setting up in business but wanted an investor so as to cover more outlets.

The machine was called ‘The Classy Wrap’ and essentially it would be placed within a
concession at a department store. It would wrap gifts within an inflated balloon – lovely!

We spent a while watching the operation and my friends were jumping around like mad dogs.

"Gotta get one now!!!"

But something wasn’t right.

It occurred to me that there was a fundamental flaw in the set-up. It took around five minutes to wrap a gift, and there was only so much you could charge for that service. The whole concept was extremely restrictive and I came up with the idea of creating a product as ‘a unit’ which could be knocked out much more quickly and at a premium!

As Christmas was just around the corner presents were high on everyone’s agenda.

I came up with the notion of ‘Teddy Bears in Balloons’. I thought it would be so exciting for the kids to get a quality toy encased in a balloon. First, there would be the wonder as it was visually appealing, then would come the inevitable, "how the heck did that get in there?" Then, when the balloon was popped the confetti inside would burst into a great display, just like a firework.

The public agreed and we couldn’t make them fast enough!

Incidentally, Teddies in balloons are still around so if you ever see them, you'll know who invented the concept!

We organized a concession at the top of the escalators from New Street train station in
Birmingham – one of the UK's largest cities. That shopping center was one of the busiest in the UK.

Anyway – long story short!

We took £13,000 ($19,000) in our first week – a huge amount of money for me then – I truly felt I was my way.

One night, at the end of that week I couldn’t sleep, I was buzzing with excitement. I was in a great mood and everything seemed to be rosy; I was making more money than I could have dreamed and life was fine.

One night, after a particularly profitable day and quite unexpectedly, the devastating feeling I experienced during my nightmares rapidly enveloped me, all consuming … I sat there bewildered for a while because this time I was awake and for the first time I had an element of control over the emotion.

I sat like this for a short time, confused and searching for a reason. I found I could let the feeling build and then push it away. I did this for a while, letting the fear build to ever greater levels, then pushing it away.

Why, why did this keep happening; what is this crazy dream about?



It came to me.

I’ve heard plenty of stories from people who say they were touched by God or
Jesus or some prophet – this was the closest I have ever come to a religious experience!

In an instant, I could see with absolute clarity the mystery of the nightmare – it was finally exposed, laid bare.

Out of the crow-blackness, I understood what the nightmarish apparition now meant:

Running through treacle and the floating boulders genre of dreams are maggots showing themselves.

My nightmare was all about not wanting to be inconsequential and worthless. It was an inherent dread of not achieving, and I’m positive the fear of failing was something I could even have been born with – it went that far back!

That extremely successful week brought it all out. That small boy floating around in his cave, a non-entity whom no one could hear - valueless!

The fear was born from not wanting to be isolated and unnoticed during my life. Success would change all that. And as I say, the astonishing thing for me is that it had been within me for as long as I could remember.

I have never had that nightmare since that day. Understanding it enabled me to cope with it and control it. Whenever the feeling of panic shadowed me, I simply brushed it away ... it was only a few months later though that I found myself on that balcony in Tenerife, unaware that an even more influential maggot was being secreted by a witch!

Yes, I now understood the dreams but it would be some years later that I would realise they were maggots.

The dream where you can’t run translates into the conscious as a titanic desire of not wanting to be held back.

You struggle to achieve and the world is conspiring against you – it turns to marshmallow.

If you have a burning passion to become free then this is your subconscious’ way of drawing you back into the comfort zone.

"You’ll never become a millionaire!!!"

What idiot said that, and what a load of bollocks.

Your maggots may be well hidden and you will have to search long and hard to find them, but I’m sure that if you look deep enough you’ll find at least one.

When you do, destroy it, exterminate it, terminate it, get it out of your system ... the release is truly empowering.

Start searching now!

Compound Debt