R E A D E R ' S    E X P E R I E N C E S

From: Cindy Duryee, Seattle.

Thought I'd share just a few other things that continue to happen with me...  I look and feel ten 
years younger (really!), I am being guided as to what to eat to be healthy (including large amounts of 
fruit, LOTS of water, and organic fruits and vegetables whenever possible).  I have already shed five 
pounds and am feeling lean and vital.  And, I spent the entire day on Monday JOYFULLY cleaning my 
meditation room and house - a physical manifestation of the entire cleansing process. 
[To read more from Cindy, please see the end of this page]
 
From: Luisa Fernanda Nino, Ontario, Canada.

What an inspiration! I am very thankful to have had the chance to preview this book.  
Of all the sections I have ever read, Chapter 9, this is the most impactful, strong, and clear. I 
finally understood what meditation is all about: not acting on your thoughts. I finally understood 
how using the discipline of selective action frees the world from the ego in you. I finally understood, 
exactly and clearly how to act (or perhaps better said not act) on simple thoughts. With the example 
of the thoughts of toys that are no longer useful, I finally understood how selecting a single guiding 
principle to always rule your actions, can guide you to take actions only aligned with that principle 
until it becomes a discipline. For whatever reason, this chapter totally connected the dots for me. 
Last night I worked non-stop until midnight, such was the impact of this piece! I couldn't stop until 
it was complete. Thank you for giving the world clarity about the ego and how many of our thoughts 
can be simply disregarded. Thank you very much for this clarity!  ~ Luisa.


From: Debora Prieto, Spain.

When I first met you, I never could have imagined how important this “coincidence” was going to be, 
and how amazing my life was about to become from that day. The sense of overwhelming loss I had 
when we met was the same sense I had, in reality, for all my life. It was so great that even when I had 
a little hope for a better life, I never imagined that life could be as full as I know and live now. I always 
knew that there had to be something better than the “normal life” I witnessed all around me. I always 
was looking for something but I did not know what I was looking for, until I first met you. What was really 
interesting to me was simply that you were a person who was here just to write a book, who left behind 
him all that he spent his whole life building.  That was enough to hook my interest, but at the same time y
our eyes were saying to me, There is something more to life. Do you know this?
[To read more from Debora, please see the end of this page]


From: Patricia Hampton, San Diego, California.

As I continue to read your book I am stunned and awed by its insightfulness. I have been somewhat
of a wandering sadhu and a "spiritual harlot" for 40 years and have never seen such depth of under-
standing of the subconscious (conditioned) mind. (I even took in a one-year hypnotherapy school to 
try and understand myself). Also, you indicate a direction out of the conditioned mind, without 
elaborate techniques. I can't tell you how grateful I am to find your teaching. It has made so many 
things clearer for me.   I thought that it would be impossible to reprogram all the years of the past and 
each minute  dysfunction. I knew clearly how thinking got you there, but didn't know how to get out 
of the trap.  Even without yet knowing the exercises you give, except the stillness body meditation, 
just rising  above the conditioned mind with "I am free" is a relief. Now I know not to get dragged 
back into  the conditioned mind. I just re-read Chapter 10.  I really like the planetary analogy and 
artwork.  I think the gurus had it all backwards, body stillness should be first, as you suggest. 
For me, it all hinges on As soon as you admit that you are free, you are. 

From: Lynnda Pollio: NYC

I just got back from the gym where your book was bouncing around in my head and I think, 
for me, what rang truly unique from other books similar to Power and Grace was the idea of 
attentive action. So many of these books live in the ether. It's about affirmation, thought and 
surrender. Ultimately it's the responsibility of the spirit - not us. Your book puts the 
responsibility clearly in our hands but provides powerful tools to help the reader. We can think 
and pray about everything else but ultimately we must take conscious action for our lives to 
change. Accepting this responsibility is HUGE and in doing so shifts all other energies to support 
our action. Thanks! You've motivated me to take action in my own life instead of waiting for the
and pray about everything else but ultimately we must take conscious action for our lives to 
universe to do it for me...


From: Rogier in NYC

Mick Quinn is blasting a path to psychological/spiritual integration and obliterating the old dualistic 
misinterpretations of the teachings of the Buddha and Jesus respectively. My path definitely is ACIM, 
but I'm enjoying your work tremendously. Very interesting how a different way of saying things, 
which essentially are familiar really shook me up, and right now I'm quite clear that just reading, 
proofing your material has been like a breath of fresh air.


From: Ann, Colorado.

Your writing has given me cause to re-evaluate my perceptions of life. As I read about conditioning, I 
wonder if some conditioning isn't necessary to give humans a framework in which to experience their 
world.  However, we have taken it to the extreme of believing that it is all and everything. We often 
make a similar mistake with language. Language is a tool humans created to convey ideas. But we 
have come to fancy the tool more than its purpose.  These superficialities of life create the veil that 
keeps the light from shining through.

v
From:  Bill Dowling, Illinois..

I have been on the path for many years and have to admit that I had grown somewhat cynical, especially 
of a writer who is twenty-five years my junior. I was quite shocked at first to find out much clarity the 
values section of this writing brought to my decision making process.  I always knew that I had different 
values to do with different parts of my life, but I had no idea the extent to which the ego manipulates this, 
keeping me from sustaining joy in my life. That shock turned to humility and for a time I could actually see 
the possibility of my own freedom. Then the humility was overrun by fear. But this time it was becoming 
clearer to me that this was the ego rushing back in to try and take control of my life all over again. This time 
though I have learned to be equipped with a very valuable tool that allows me to to go about my day in 
peace, with one watchful eye on the ego and its long list of fears and desires because now I know what 
it is I am looking for. For years the ego was in charge of quest for freedom and I did not even know it. I 
know when I have to make a decision I now have to choose to place my desire for joy first, in front of 
the ego and its hankerings. And, yes, it screams, it fights, and then it stops!
The result is none less than magical.  Thank you.

From:  Jessica Franks, Montana.

How lucky we will be to have a touchstone for the knowledge Mr. Quinn has gained in his life.  
He has performed no miracles thus far, except for showing others that they can.  How often do we 
want to manifest change and get stuck in analysis?  I know personally the impetus that Mick Quinn 
can be in one's life - a catalyst for the most simple and most powerful changes.  His words are not 
dogma, not ritualistic, not empty promises.  They are the purest call to attention it has been my 
delight to receive. My life has changed because of me, because of Mick Quinn. 


From:  Belinda Ramos, New York.

The material was direct and concise. The teacher exhibited enthusiasm for the subject and the 
participants. He provided a cohesion from the abstract dream to the tangible road to reality. 
Lots of reference sources were given which allows for different styles and personalities.


From:  David Oakley, New Jersey.

Your inspiration has triggered a series of non-stopping thoughts, goals and subsequent actions. 
From the center of my passion and appreciation, Thank You for that first wonderful conversation...
You have unleashed and unchained my essence and now I must bring it out into the sunlight.  
Again, Thank You!   



From: Wendy Silverstein, Long Island, New York.

I was thinking this morning about some of the doors you have enabled me to open by myself. I was 
thinking back on one conversation we had a few years ago—we were talking about the incorrect 
ways in which I was identifying with the presence of certain thoughts that appeared in my mind. 
Thereafter I just started adopting a new position of objectivity in relation to these particular thoughts.
When I think of all of the adventures that I have had since that conversation, I realize what a 
wonderful gift you gave to my daughter and I, and you did it just by causing me to ask myself a 
question. Thank you for the wisdom, insight and light that you have brought into our life. 

From: Mike DiFluvio, New York, NY.

I so much enjoy reading your letters! Little chance Mick that I would fail to read your E-mail as I 
find it just about the only true... non-political or self serving mail I receive these days! 
I am so impressed and interested in the words you create into sentences as they awake my internal 
consciousness and thought. Not only do I read your messages, but yours are about the only ones I 
read many times...to make sure I really understand your point, as I attempt to find the value when 
placed in my own life...with it's own issues be them personal or business or whatever...it is good!

From: Tara Fleig, Washington State.

We've been trained that any kind of psychological analysis of ourselves takes years and is a long 
grueling process, and even then most people are no closer to inner peace than they were when 
they began.  The same goes with the path of enlightenment.  
Maybe we've all been wrong and it really doesn't need to be so arduous...      

From: Maria Chella, Santiago, Spain.

I wish to thank you for the simplicity and clarity of the meditation instructions!  Today I saw a great 
light in a vast emptiness. I went towards it, yet in a moment the light became an arrow and it came 
to me. It crossed right through me, and then I was full of light as if I were rising, both in the universe, 
and as the universe. Yet I never lost my unique point of perception. There seemed to be no difference 
between the observer and the observed. I even wanted to cry - not for the pain, but for the 
overwhelming sense of emotion. It was very strong. Now I am "new", like a rose.
But this experience was different from the first one that happened, just weeks after I began meditating. 
I cannot remember that experience at all, because I was ‘gone’ for 50 minutes. I don’t know where, 
and I cannot tell you anything about it - only that when I opened my eyes time had advanced one hour.
The kind of emotion in this latest meditation is impossible to explain with words. What is clear, though, 
is that I now know of a great sorrow - that other people do not know of this potential in themselves.
Because of this, I am sure about my job from now to the end of my life: to help people who do not 
know that this kind of joy and completeness is possible, to be able to know for themselves.
It was a gift from the universe, and now I have to respond to it.
 

From: Cindy in Seattle.

Thanks to your suggestions and encouragement, the depth and clarity of my meditation sessions have 
changed considerably.  I am practicing stillness meditation daily for over two hours at a stretch now and 
am going deeper into the experience of emptiness than I've never been before.  I now feel a strong 
connection, or flow of energy, between the front and back parts of my brain and along my spine, when 
I meditate.  And, amazingly, I have experienced what I can only describe as a full-body "orgasm."  I'm 
not sure quite what to expect next, but am remaining open and remembering to relax into myself 
and not evaluate the experience as it is happening.  Any other suggestions or comments are welcome.

All is progressing well here with me.  I find I am able to maintain “consciousness” for longer periods 
of time during the day, although it is somewhat more difficult when interacting with others.  

When I do, however, I can see clearly the ego/conditioned self behind my motives and emotions.  
Talk about enlightening!  As a result, I have begun making some real progress with long-time 
conditioning - specifically my “perfectionist” tendencies.  I can see now how the ego in its effort to 
gain approval will go to any length.  As this awareness of my conditioned-self increases, it can sometimes 
be a little overwhelming, but I am learning to be gentler with myself.  As I gain more experience of my 
True Self in meditation, I am able to see the “disturbances on my surface” for what they are, and that 
they are not what I AM.  This realization is truly liberating…

I had my own opportunity to practice enlightened communication this weekend with my step-brother.  
Our relationship, which has been very caught up in ego in the past, has begun to evolve.  Honest 
communication from a place of Love has brought about more change in an hour than years of built-up 
resentment and concern about confronting him and hurting his feelings...

We just returned from our trip to Portland, so I now have some time to write and fill you in on what 
has been going on with me…

I continue to receive insight regarding how things “really are” – insight that goes behind intellectual 
thought and is more a “knowing”.  I understand now the challenge of trying to put it into words, as 
something is invariably lost in the translation.

The tremendous joy of the first couple weeks has somewhat faded in intensity but, when not strongly 
present, it is still in the background. I find it requires fine balance to maintain it while interacting with 
others who have not had the experience I have had.  I have to be ever “mindful” to not fall into old 
patterns, but am able to go for much longer periods being aware of my “real self” watching my thoughts.  
I am finding that as negative or critical thoughts arise, I am usually consciously able to reject them or 
refrain from expressing them to others (a big step!).

I can see now that time spent alone in meditation or mindful, silent activity is the best way to bring the 
joy to the surface, and I suppose that it is like learning to ride a bike – the more I practice, the easier it 
will become! 

I have such an appreciation for the preciousness of each day now, and certainly a greater sense of 
urgency (?), excitement (?), responsibility (?) with respect to progressing on my spiritual path and 
making the most of the time I have left in this life.  But, at the same time, I know that everything is 
unfolding as it should…  


Now I can tell you the GREAT news and a little about what has been 
transpiring here....

I have had the most AMAZING week.  In short, I’ve had a transforming 
experience – an awakening.  It’s like everything in my life converged on 
Wednesday, May 11.  It unfolded as the most beautiful, awesome, effortless 
day of my life.  Since then, I have been filled with profound Joy and wonder.
I have lost all fear.  My daily, waking mind is the calmest and clearest it has 
ever been.  I smile all the time.  Everyone has noticed the change in me.

All of a sudden, the words of The Four Insights from the sample chapter have 
taken on new levels of meaning for me. I understand what you are saying 
beyond the words themselves.  The light has GONE ON!!!!

I attribute my awakening to several things:

1)    The work I have been doing with the book.  
2)    Over a year of daily meditation practice.
3)    My classes at the Vajralama Buddhist Center.
4)    The direct intervention of my spiritual guide. 
5)    A recent severe respiratory infection.
6)    The fact that I was completely alone with 
       nothing but my thoughts each day during my illness.  


Somehow through this illness, I was guided to watch each and every thought 
very carefully.  I came to see how filled with fear I was and how this directly 
contributed to my illness.  I embraced the illness for the “friend” that it was 
in giving me the opportunity to finally face this and to see what an illusion my 
fear was.  I was in prolonged meditation throughout the week and asked for 
healing and help to finally break through.  At the culminating point, as I began 
a meditation, I felt a powerful surge through me.  It left my body all at once 
and I felt thoroughly at peace and cleansed.

From that moment on, my life has unfolded in perfect ease and Joy.  Literally, 
in one day, every one of my concerns disappeared and EVERYTHING fell into 
place. All the right phone calls came, the right people appeared at the right 
time, etc., etc. Amazing instances of connection appeared.  Signs were every-
where.  It was all of a sudden OBVIOUS to me how supportive life is!

I could go on forever, but you KNOW what I am saying.  I just want to say 
thank you for the work you are doing and to let you know that it has contributed 
directly to this breakthrough in me.

Blessings to you,

Cindy 

From: Debora Prieto, Spain.