Foreword

Within the first two pages of Keith Varnum’s book, I found the answer to one of the most perplexing puzzles of my life. I’d struggled for years to understand why my son, now 23 years old, never seemed to get ahead. We had talks together. He created a dynamite action plan, but he never followed through with it. Time and again, this baffling syndrome occurred. As his mother, I became totally exasperated, attempting to assist him, yet knowing I had to let him grow by making his own decisions.

When I picked up this book, a clear distinction hit me right between the eyes—the vast difference between the soul and the personality:

If these two aspects of ourselves don’t know each other, don’t communicate and don’t work together, then we must be prepared for frustration, endless toil and exhaustion.

Once these two components are aligned—WOW! We gain energy instead of having it sucked from us. We see our dreams and desires unfold effortlessly!

Having these revelations inspired me to be more compassionate with my son and gave me the strength and insight to give him the freedom to find his own way to unfold his unique destiny.

As I participated in Keith’s workshops for more than three years, I became empowered to create the alignment and fruition of my own dreams. I became very focused and found the courage to go for what I really desired in my life. Miracles happened—in my physical body, as well as in my mental, emotional and spiritual worlds.

Trained in traditional Western medicine, I had only that orthodox background from which to view disease, aging and other natural functions. Keith helped me to see a panoramic picture with a wide-angle lens instead of the narrow view of my training. As a result of expanding my expectations of what is physically and medically possible, I experienced profound positive physical changes in myself that I never thought possible. I shifted a 15-year-old medical condition that was an expected, but unwanted, result of previous pelvic surgery. I know that mental and emotional alterations are definitely possible as a result of relieving stress and unresolved feelings, but my physical condition reverting back to that of 15 years earlier absolutely astonished me! My body now feels—and functions—as it did when I was a vivacious young woman!

Also, I have been able to take these concepts—of connecting to my true knowing and of transforming old, fixed realities—back into my professional practice. As a specialist in Internal Medicine, I’m now able to assist others to effect wonderful and lasting changes in their lives. I am forever grateful!

The experiences Keith shares, marking the milestones of his own transformation, are described so vividly, they leave the reader anxious to know more:

What does he do next in this episode?

How does he handle this person or predicament?

How does he get out of this dilemma?

You mean, I create stuff like this too?

Hmmm.

And I know from my personal creation of miracles that the principles behind these most amazing stories are valid and true.

In Inner Coach: Outer Power, dynamic writing details a compelling account of one man’s journey. Keith inspires courage—your courage! A book you’ll want to keep reading until the wee hours of the morning.

If you dare to live your dream, begin now to pay close attention to your inner coach. Then watch your life take off in exciting, new directions!

Maggie Mears, M.D.

Founder of Write From Your Heart-A Creative Writing Workshop

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Preface

"How’d they do that?" I asked myself time and time again.

As a journalist and documentary filmmaker, I witnessed ordinary people performing extraordinary feats on countless occasions. I documented individuals in moments of crisis and emergency going beyond the limits they and society believed possible. Caught up in earthquakes, floods, hurricanes and accidents, I watched mild-mannered people become super-heroes.

When extreme circumstances demand action, paranormal abilities arise from normal folks. Women lift two-ton trucks and hold them aloft until their child or husband is freed from beneath the vehicle. Young boys perform successful medical procedures as if they were trained professionals. Men lead victims to safety through burning buildings, pitch-black forests and raging floods. Teenagers bend steel and rip open closed elevator doors to liberate loved ones. Scared people jump ten feet over a chasm to safety. Given a death sentence by doctors, people heal themselves spontaneously.

"Where do human beings get the power and knowledge to perform such implausible feats?" I wondered. I observed that when life offers a person a choice between their beliefs in what is possible and the necessity to save another from harm, people often scrap their perceived limitations and choose to do whatever needs to be done. Very often, people choose life, caring and rescue over the restrictions of their belief systems.

"If we can break out of our belief box when life has us up against the wall, why can’t we release our limiting beliefs at will when we are not in a crisis?" I inquired within myself.

I looked around in my world for examples of people who know how to free themselves from tribal collective limitations— mainstream cultural beliefs—in order to access fresh possibilities of human potential. I discovered my models through reading biographies of dynamic individuals and interviewing adventurous people. I found that people who are forerunners, pioneers and explorers in social, political and artistic expression invariably refer to one or more moments in their lives in which they opened to a peak experience. And not only do these resourceful people make reference to these extraordinary moments, they draw strength, wisdom and compassion from these glimpses of their true power. They have learned how to tap into these past moments of heightened awareness and achievement in order to surmount present life challenges. Whether it be excellence in athletic or artistic expression, or success in business or romance, these potent moments of "transcendence of the ordinary" act as wells of inspiration and inventiveness that enable people to handle current predicaments.

With a degree of benevolent innocence, I decided that if these people could break free of their restrictive belief systems and tap into the power of previous peak experiences, then I could as well. Their successes inspired me to try this approach myself—to reach beyond my perceived boundaries. The stories in this book report my exploration of inviting magic into my life and welcoming miracles into my world. It is my heartfelt wish that my stories inspire you to go beyond your own self-created limits.

--Keith Varnum

Phoenix, Arizona

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INTRODUCTION

There Is Only One Story

The Universe is made of stories, not atoms.

--Muriel Rukeyser

There is only One Story:

Having . . . losing . . . finding,

Knowing . . . forgetting . . . remembering,

Hide and seek—

The drama of the outer personality and the inner coach,

The interplay of the external and the internal,

The dance of form and essence.

From the beginning of time, the One Story is told and retold in every culture in the form of books, movies, songs, myths, dances, rituals, games and art.

We keep telling the One Story through all these varied outer forms, so one day, when we are ready to remember, we will hear the One Story again:

One People, One Spirit, One Destiny.

If you listen to these stories with your heart, you will hear the One Story, and you will remember Your Story—

the story your inner coach has to tell.

Enjoy.

My Story

This book is my expression of the One Story.

These pages tell the simple version and the complicated version.

The simple version is my life from the point of view of the inner coach, the real self. This rendition is the same as everyone else’s story. Every inner coach has the same story. Every spirit is on the same inner journey.

The complex version tells my life from the perspective of my outer personality. This rendition is different from everyone else’s story. Every personal identity has its special saga with its own unique plot. Every personality is on a different outer journey.

The inner coach uses multisensory perception to enjoy its world.

The personality usually limits itself to the five external senses.

The real self interacts with the physical and nonphysical worlds.

The personality confines itself to the world of outer physical sight, sound, smell, taste and touch.

The spirit’s story is full of similarity, connection and coincidence.

The personality’s tale is full of difference, division and happenstance.

The scenario of the real self focuses on unity, compassion and joy.

The script of the personality focuses on separation, anxiety and regret.

The goals of the real self are harmony, cooperation and understanding.

The personality’s agenda is conflict, competition and confusion.

The inner coach is into fun, ease and freedom.

The personality thrives on drama, trauma and karma.

Spirit’s story is guts and glory.

The personality’s yarn is guts and gore.

It takes guts to fully experience and embrace your personality’s epic struggle.

It takes even more courage to fully explore and embrace the triumph of your soul.

Through telling the story of my inner coach, I hope to remind you of the story of your own inner coach.

As the spirit of my tale shines through the surface details, it may remind you of Spirit working behind the details of your personality’s fable.

As the outer appearances of my narration reveal the inner agenda of my real self, you may begin to see the common thread of soul intention running through the surface appearances of your life.

Believe It or Not

Many individuals don’t believe my story.

It is too "farfetched." Too far out.

I agree. I had to live far out to fetch such a story.

Usually, those same people reconnect with me years later to tell me they now understand what I was talking about.

What transpired in those intervening years to change these people’s perspective?

These folks had a far out occurrence of their own. Life presented them with an experience beyond their belief box—outside their personality’s old framework, envelope, paradigm or range of previous experiences.

Once our world is expanded outside of our old boundaries, we realize all manner of stories are possible, even probable.

Really good stories entice the personality so far out of its ordinary prison of perception that a person encounters his or her real self.

My intention in telling you my story is to catalyze the reunion of your personality with your real self.

The Bridge

The real self is too smart to leave the hearing of its story to chance.

The inner coach loads the dice. The gig is rigged.

When we travel away from the unified field of multisensory awareness into the complexity of the personality, the inner coach leaves a trail of markers for us to find our way back to the simple knowing of Who We Are.

These soul clues are hidden along our personality path so we will stumble across them just when we need the encouragement of a wider perspective to get through our next life challenge.

This is the original message of the fairy tale, "Hansel and Gretel." Hansel, our adventurous personality, takes us on an exploration of the mysterious forest, the vast world of surface difference and diversity. Gretel, our intuitive real self, marks with pebbles the route we take going away from home, Spirit. When we get lost in the confusion of the surface appearances, Hansel and Gretel unite to find the way home. When our personality and inner coach communicate, we find our way back to Oneness and knowing Who We Are.

The stories in this book are real-life exploits of mine.

As I tell these candid tales to people, the stories have the effect of triggering people’s memories of actual, extraordinary events in their own lives.

People recall events in their lives that, at the time they occurred, were too farfetched to fit into any known category of personal experience.

These far out, socially unacceptable encounters were buried, misinterpreted, discounted, denied, forgotten, or, by some other device, shoved into a mental closet.

As I openly relate my extraordinary encounters, people listening become comfortable enough to remember the forgotten out-of-the-ordinary events that have happened to them.

As the personality senses the space of acceptance of extraordinary life adventures, it feels safe enough to recall its own unusual, extrasensory exploits.

We have all had hundreds of direct personal experiences of multisensory, nonphysical awareness and extra-normal powers this lifetime.

Using our innate connection to our inner coach, these amazing exploits can be recollected from the closets and graves in which we buried them.

As a storyteller—in the guise of a therapist, healer, journalist, talk show host and filmmaker—my stories have assisted thousands of people to recall their own inner coach: outer power stories.

May the muse of True Memory shine on you as you read my story.

INNER COACH: OUTER POWER