Gay Hendricks is an internationally famous author, seminar leader, web entrepreneur, and filmmaker.
He is the author of more than 20 books, including the national bestseller Conscious Loving and the founder of the Spiritual Cinema Circle. He resides with his wife, author and seminar leader Kathlyn Hendricks, in Ojai, California.

Five Wishes describes a conversation that changed your life. Who was it with and what happened?

It was a brief conversation at a party I didn’t even want to be at. I went to the party with Kathlyn, who would later become my wife (now 27 years into a great marriage that probably would not have occurred had I not gone to the party.) I met a man named Ed Steinbrecher, who seemed about as uncomfortable at the party as I was. We decided not to engage in any small talk, so he asked me a question that definitely qualified as Big Talk.

In order to begin to understand the extent to which his life and work stand today as symbols of strength and unwavering determination in the face of unimaginable suffering, one might first try, as much as it is possible, to imagine what life must have been like for Viktor Frankl living in Vienna in the months and weeks leading up to his internment in a Nazi concentration camp.

In 1942, at the age of thirty-seven, less than one year after being married, Frankl was granted a visa from the United States Consulate in Vienna. Emigration to the United States would allow the gifted doctor to escape the pervasive Anti-Semitism by which he was surrounded in his daily life as well as imminent imprisonment by the Gestapo. The visa, for which Frankl had waited years, also meant that he would be able to continue his very important psychiatric work in a relatively free and unabated intellectual environment.

“ Music is a powerful ally on your spiritual path, as it serves to boost your manifestation powers.  Music is part of the invisible realm, and is of a higher frequency than that of the physical plane.  It wraps us in a protective shield to guard us from negative energies.  It also lifts our emotions and thoughts to joyful levels….Use music as a manifestation tool.” - Dr. Doreen Virtue

Each week when I begin my workshops, I play a different song to emphasize the importance of music in our lives.  Just as what we think, say, and do creates the experience of our lives, so too do the conscious choices that we make with music.

Sometimes I wonder what life would have been like if I was on planet earth thousands of years ago when language was somewhat non-existent, extremely elementary at best. Although our lives would have been much simpler, I am certain people were greatly challenged with their ability to effectively communicate their feelings and the beauty they witnessed in the marvelous world around them.

Fast forwarding thousands of year later, language today is quite comprehensive. Maybe it is a little bit too complex at times. The more complex language a person uses, the smaller their audience.

Anyhow, one absolutely amazing aspect of language is the ability to take a complex concept and put it into simple words which can be easily understood by the masses. For example, a metaphor can shortcut our understanding of concepts which may have taken years to understand otherwise.