Articles About the My Experiments Program

Introduction to the My Experiments Program

“Our life is an apprenticeship to the truth.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life is full of trial and error, like that of an apprentice learning a trade. We learn from our successes and our failures. In that sense we are experimenting all the time. Even actions we do routinely without much thought are experiments we repeat over and over because we consistently get similar results that offer joy or peace or pleasure. If we want to be bolder and more adventurous, we engage in practical spiritual experiments that enable us to explore deeper realms of consciousness and spirituality, with results that we’ve never dreamed possible.

Everyone has their own set of experiences filtered through the complex fabric of their own conscious and subconscious minds. With so many variables at play, day by day, even hour by hour—physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, karmically, astrologically—it is impossible to predict the precise outcome of any spiritual action or experiment. What this means is that a person can meditate for five minutes every day, and the results he or she gets might be very different from one day to the next.

We can give generalizations about what meditation can do for us, but we can’t say specifically what one person will experience during any given meditation. So an experiment with truth is truly an adventure into unexplored realms of consciousness and spirituality. What we can say with certainty is that any spiritual activity done with the right attitude, no matter how successfully or “unsuccessfully” it is performed, will add to our spiritual growth and accumulated practical wisdom.

The My Experiments online spiritual software program available on this website is a tool for experimenting with spirituality in a more conscious way. It is valuable for anyone at any stage of spiritual development or practice. Truth seekers who have practiced spirituality for years may find this program to be a slight adjustment to what they're already doing—perhaps just providing more structure or focus to their ongoing spiritual efforts.

A person just starting out with spiritual practices might find it difficult or perhaps overwhelming to jump in and do every part of the program (see links at the bottom of the page for articles about the different aspects of the program). Its flexibility allows for gradual involvement. A beginner can start creating new spiritual habits, and I recommend starting with one part of the program at a time.

For example, get into the habit of meditating 5 or 10 minutes once or twice a day. After seeing how you can fit that into your schedule, try adding another aspect of the program, and then another, gradually creating habits for each one. The order doesn’t really matter, though meditation is always a good place to start, considering that deep calmness is an ideal launching point for other spiritual practices.

Spiritual practices of the My Experiments program

The program includes the following parts:

Select a spiritual topic to focus on for a day or a week or more.
Select a quote under this topic to study.
Select or write an affirmation or prayer, also related to the topic, to repeat frequently during meditation and possibly throughout the day.
Meditate, affirm and pray.
Study the quote and record your thoughts and insights.
Decide how to apply a spiritual principle related to the topic or mentioned in the quote, visualize yourself applying it when appropriate, and apply it.
Introspect about your daily efforts to increase your self-awareness.
Journal to express and expand upon your experiences, introspection, emotions, thoughts, and insights.

Avoid doing too much too quickly. Also, keep in mind that each part of the program doesn’t have to be done every day, though some spiritual methods, such as meditation, are excellent daily practices. You might want to journal only once or twice a week, or practice the meditative method of study on the weekends when you have more time.

If you become overwhelmed and experience strain in your spiritual practices instead of calmness, you’re on the path to eventual burn-out, with the real possibility of giving everything up. Know yourself and pace yourself accordingly. As a general rule, gradual is good, and gradual is different for everyone. Through experimenting, and self-awareness, you’ll discover what works best for you.

Flexibility of the program

These different parts of the My Experiments program are not necessarily intended to be linear. There is plenty of room for creativity and flexibility.

You might be reading a spiritual book and a paragraph jumps out at you, demanding your attention. That could be the quote you focus on for the next day or week. You don’t have to assign a topic related to it. Or you may want to start with journaling to get in touch with what you’re thinking and feeling, and to explore which topic you might want to work on.

I listed “study the quote” at the end of the meditation period because when you’re in a calm state, intuition is more likely to operate and provide deep insights into the quote. But you can study anytime and anywhere you’re free and able to calmly concentrate. Some might find a study period to be the perfect preparation for meditation, helping them to calm their restless mind and get into the mood for meditating.

You can decide on an area you want to work on and how you want to apply it in your life before you pick a quote. And you don’t even have to pick a quote if you’d rather just work with an affirmation and dive deeply into that statement of truth for a day or a week. You might want to apply a specific spiritual principle in a particular way for an entire week but study a different quote every day.

Use the program in whatever way works best for you, making adjustments day to day, or week to week, as the need arises. That way you’re using the program in a manner that’s tailored to your needs rather than following a routine that is rigid and inflexible—and risks becoming uninteresting. The more you can keep it fresh and interesting, the more likely you will be to keep it up.

Remember that it doesn’t matter what aspect of spirituality you work on. What matters is that you’re working on something. All aspects of spirituality are part of the one cloth of truth, and if you pull on one of those threads, the whole cloth comes with it. Your spiritual life moves forward as a whole. You can strengthen your weaknesses while working on your strengths, without even focusing on strengthening your weaknesses. As you get stronger in certain areas, you’ll become stronger overall. So rather than choosing something you think you should work on but may not want to work on, focus on something you want to work on, something you know you’ll enjoy.

More articles about the My Experiments program

For articles detailing how to practice each aspect of the My Experiments program, click on one of the article titles below: