These messages have increasingly focused on inner growth, health and having your own business. They seem three separate subjects, but actually tie together rather well.

First health, wealth, meaning and service are so inexorably linked it is difficult to have one without the other.

This thinking came clear to me years ago when one small sentence in a book review about "The Wealthy 100" showed the fallacy of working just for cash.

This book showed who the wealthiest people in the world were by looking at their wealth at the time of their death in relation to the GDP of the U.S. John Jacob Astor was the wealthiest man in these terms as his wealth equaled 1/65th of the U.S. GDP.

The paragraph in that article that shook me to my roots was: "The stories of the Astors, Vanderbilts and Morgans have been fascinating. They were not always the smartest, or best educated, but possessed a single minded discipline. If there was a common denominator it was a passion they brought to business whether inspired by greed or desire to be the best. The backlash; many lived unhappily."

My immediate thought was, "how would I feel if in the last 30 seconds of my life I realized that I was the richest man in the world ever and yet I had lived an unhappy life?

Second, if we do what we love, we do better and joyfully, put in more energy, time and care. This is nature's irony; if we chase money, it seems runs away. If we pursue our passion and work with without concern for the cash, the wealth can't resist us.

Third, health, well being, personal growth, the environment and longevity are among the fastest growing industries around. Look at how businesses are shifting into this. Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream supported the environment. Subway, one of the most successful fast foods, offers low fat healthy meals and Ford see itself as the green motor company. Everywhere you look you see that businesses growing in or expanding into the wellness field. More on this is at http://www.garyascott.com/archives/2002/09/13/640/ and http://www.garyascott.com/archives/2002/10/30/678/

Now is a great time to know more about health and its relation to wealth because as the war carries on, terrorism grows and the economy sinks, people feel worse. They look for new values and ways to feel better despite the negatives in the outside world.

We live in a holographic, fractal universe.

This quantum reality can be summed in the phrase, "As above, so below". Most humans on this earth are feeling the external turmoil within. We are all one and we are all connected. Every life lost, every terror felt, every act of aggression impacts us at some level. See more on what this means at http://www.garyascott.com/archives/2002/10/22/672/

There is no better way to overcome this, to make a positive statement in the way we serve others. Charity is not the main answer either. For success, we must be rewarded for our efforts. "The Noonday Demon" a book on human behavior by Andrew Solomon tells of a unique study that shows how people put meaning back in their lives after the most horrible of circumstances. The book reviews a study of Cambodian women who had survived the trauma of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge purge where 20 % of the population was destroyed.

The three-step plan used gives us a great insight into how we can have true wealth. First, the women were taught to forget, the psychotherapist Phaly Nuon, a woman who had lost her family as well says they used exercises each day to forget so that each day they could forget a little more of the things they would never entirely forget. They distracted with music or embroidery or weaving or whatever seemed to work. "The loss is under the skin", she said "and we cannot take it out." But they could forget that it was there, even though it was.

Second, Phaly Nuon taught them to work. They had to learn to work well, have pride in the work and to be paid. The receiving of energy as well as the giving of it was necessary to make this work. Finally, once they had mastered a trade or profession she taught them to love. She used a steam bath to do this, where the women could meet and give one another manicures and pedicures. Doing this made the women feel beautiful and put them in contact with the bodies of other people and to give up their bodies to the care of others. Grooming is one of the primary forms of socialization among primates and this return to grooming brings the women back to balance.

Finally, she taught the women one more vital lesson, that these three steps, forgetting, working and loving are not three separate skills, but part of one enormous whole. The practice of these three things together each as part of the other is what makes the difference.

I quote this book and Phaly Nuon: "It (this wholeness) is the hardest thing to convey" she laughed-"but they all come to understand this, and when they do-why, then they are ready to go into the world again."

Wholeness in giving and receiving is the answer. If we give too much without allowing others to return we manifest the parasitic element that lies within us all.

There is nothing more powerful without and within than serving through business. Give in ways that support this earth, help the world in a positive way and your rewards will be better health and wealth as well. There is no other model for success that makes more sense

This is why we are featuring so many courses on health at the farm this year. For example, our course by Keith Varnum on May 2-3-4 is about inner growth and how to maintain our own sovereignty when it seems that everyone is trying to rule us.

May 23-24-25 Dr. Jay Glaser conducts a powerful way to live that improves our health and every aspect of our being.

There is a special purpose in having Jay conduct this course because one of the first important discoveries Merri and I made when we began looking for shamanic secrets of health and youth in the Andes is that the root of Quechua, the language of the Incas, is Sanskrit. This was an overwhelming piece of evidence that India and the population of Latin America were connected.

Thus when we were invited to be the first westerners to be taken by a Taiti Yatchak to the sacred valley of longevity, we knew that we wanted Jay Glaser to come with us. Jay is a western trained M.D. who spent many years learning auyervedic medicine in India. In addition he specializes in longevity and is a Sanskrit scholar. Here are pictures of Jay with Merri and me at the rim of this sacred valley deep in the Llanganatis mountains at the headwaters of the Amazon ("Gary and Merri with Dr Jay Glaser at entrance to sacred valley"). You can learn the entire story here.