The Surrender Experiment and forty years of saying yes
Michael Singer stopped acting on his likes and dislikes and did whatever life put in front of him. The Surrender Experiment is his account of the forty years that followed.
Singer was studying for a doctorate in economics at the University of Florida when he had a spiritual awakening. He went into seclusion to meditate. In 1975 he founded the Temple of the Universe, a meditation centre in Alachua, Florida.
Saying yes led him into building houses, then writing software for doctors' offices. His company, Medical Manager, was bought by WebMD in a deal valued at about five billion dollars.
In 2009 he was charged with securities fraud, along with other Medical Manager executives. The charges against him were dropped in 2010 under a deferred prosecution agreement.
Singer on letting life choose
Do whatever is put in front of you with all your heart and soul without regard for personal results.
Singer used this as his rule for work.It 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.
I am so grateful that surrender had taught me to willingly participate in life’s dance with a quiet mind and an open heart.
Do the work as though it were given to you by the universe itself, because it was.
Reading it beside the goal books
Most of our exercises ask you to decide what you want and plan for it. Singer asks whether your preferences should be steering at all. We like having that question on the shelf beside the planning books.
See the whole shelf
Our library has every book we took a line from, and the free exercises that go with them.
Open the libraryThe book itself is The Surrender Experiment by Michael A. Singer.
Questions
Is it an argument for doing nothing?
No. Singer worked hard the whole time. What he gave up was choosing which work to do.
Should I read this or The Untethered Soul first?
The Surrender Experiment is the story and the easier read. The Untethered Soul is the method. Either order works.
When did The Surrender Experiment come out?
In 2015, from Harmony Books.