Are we better off fighting with reality to bring our desires into existence, or letting go of our desires and allowing our will to be directed by the same forces of reality that created the perfection of the universe?

Michael Singer dedicated his life to answering this question. This book is about his unexpected journey to creating a multi-billion dollar company through complete surrender.

His story highlights the surprising unpredictability of life and challenges the consensus views on how to live. His lifestyle synthesizes the wisdom of eastern philosophy with youthful ambition and the will to create.

It has changed my perspective on embracing uncertainty and opened my mind to the possibilities of achievement aligned with inner tranquility and the beauty of following the flow of life.

My Notes

Here is the core premise of the experiment, extracted from his writing.

The scope of life is universal, and the fact that we are not actually in control of life’s events should be self-evident. The universe has been around for 13.8 billion years, and the processes that determine the flow of life around us did not begin when we were born, nor will they end when we die.

The planets stay in orbit, tiny seeds grow into giant trees, weather patterns have kept forests across the globe watered for millions of years, and a single fertilized cell grows into a beautiful baby. We are not doing any of these things as conscious acts of will; they are all being done by the incomprehensible perfection of life itself.

If the natural unfolding of the process of life can create and take care of the entire universe, is it really reasonable for us to assume that nothing good will happen unless we force it to?

If life can manifest the DNA molecule on its own, not to mention create the human brain, how is it that we feel that we have to control everything on our own?

For example, what would happen if we respected the flow of life and used our free will to participate in what’s unfolding, instead of fighting it?

At the heart of the experiment is a simple question: Am I better off making up an alternate reality in my mind and then fighting with reality to make it be my way, or am I better off letting go of what I want and serving the same forces of reality that managed to create the entire perfection of the universe around me?

This experiment would not be about dropping out of life; it would be about leaping into life to live in a place where we are no longer controlled by our personal fears and desires.

As one thing naturally followed the other, the flow of life’s events led me on a journey that would have been beyond my comprehension. This book shares that journey with you so that you can experience what happened when someone dared to let go and trust the flow of life.

My story of these forty years is simply the story of what happened when the assertion of will was guided by what life was doing instead of what I wanted it to be doing.

My personal experience is that aligning one’s will with the natural forces unfolding around us leads to some surprisingly powerful results.

Hopefully, sharing my surrender experiment with you will encourage you to find a more peaceful and harmonious way to live your life and to better appreciate the amazing perfection that unfolds around us.