Who is the author of The Surrender Experiment?

The author of The Surrender Experiment is Michael A. Singer.

Biography & Memoir

The Surrender Experiment Book Summary - The Surrender Experiment Book explained in key points

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The Surrender Experiment summary

Name: The Surrender Experiment
Rating: 4.1 (162 reviews)
Author: Michael A. Singer

Michael A. Singer

My Journey into Life’s Perfection

4.1 (162 ratings)

16 mins

Brief summary

"The Surrender Experiment" by Michael A. Singer is a memoir that documents his journey in surrendering to life's flow, leading to unexpected success and inner peace.

Topics

Success

Table of Contents

The Surrender Experiment
Summary of 8 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 8

What’s in it for me? Learn to let go.

Be honest: how much pointless “noise” goes rattling through your head on a daily basis? Would you mute it if you could? Don’t know how to? For some reason the world is just too loud, and we get caught up in stress and hampered by conventional ideas about how we should live our lives.

Did you ever consider letting go? Simply surrendering to life?

If not, you should! Life might just throw you a bone or two.

Here, the author challenges you to give in to the natural flow of life. By sharing his own personal story, he’ll make you feel well-equipped to start your own journey into a life of spirituality and success.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

how to quiet your mind;
how surrendering to the flow of life can result in a successful business; and
about the random events that led to the author’s first spiritual insight.

Quieting the mind is one of the main goals of spiritual practice.

You know that awkward feeling when you’re talking with someone and you suddenly run out of things to say? You shift anxiously, frantically searching your mind for possible conversation topics, all the while fretting about what the other person is thinking of you. Well, not to worry – at times like this, you have the opportunity to begin your spiritual awakening!

These situations offer a perfect moment to allow your self, or consciousness, to observe your anxious mind.

This is what led the author to his first spiritual insight. Instead of getting entangled in the embarrassment of the situation, he observed his thought processes to see how he might continue the conversation. Slowly, he realized his anxious mind and his consciousness were two separate things, as the latter can observe the former.

But how exactly can you avoid getting distracted by the constant chatter of your anxious mind? One way is to practice meditation.

When the chatter in the author’s head was getting grating, he picked up a book on Zen meditation. Zen meditation involves sitting in a quiet spot, focussing on your breath, and repeating the sound "Mu" in your head. With some effort on your part, Zen meditation quietens the mind and can lead to an experience of complete silence.

On a camping trip with friends, the author chose a secluded spot for his meditation, determined not to leave until he achieved some spiritual awakening. As he drifted in and out of his meditation, a loud voice reminded him to continue looking beyond himself. Eventually, he relaxed into a deep meditative state and his awareness of self fell away.

Surrendering to the flow of life calms the mind.

You wake up, take one look out the window and your mood instantly sinks as you see a grim, gray day outside. You think, “How can this weather affect me so much?” and “Why does it always happen on a day when I have to be out and about?” Well, you can blame your resistance for feeling this way, because railing against things you can’t change – like the weather – leads to that anxious mind chatter. And you probably experience the same resistant thoughts about many other things, too.

So what makes us think in this nervous or irritated way? The answer lies in our personal preferences.

Service is more noble than solitude.

Do you recall a time when a friend asked you to look after their cat over the holidays and you refused because you felt you already had enough on your plate? Well, perhaps next time you should agree to it. Why?

Surrendering to service, rather than resisting other people’s requests, led the author from being a hermit to becoming a teacher and spiritual leader.

Following the flow of life can help build a successful business.

Oftentimes people assign meditation and spirituality exclusively to those who want to abandon the material world. But as the author discovered, spiritual principles can be just as life-changing to a business person as a spiritual guru or a monk.

In fact, living in line with his spiritual principles was what led the author to his first business.

From carpentry to software, life knows what it wants you to do.

It’s hard to believe that fewer than 40 years ago, computers were a futuristic novelty. When the author first saw a plastic keyboard attached to a 12-inch TV screen with a sign reading TRS-80-COMPUTER in a shop window, he could barely comprehend what he was looking at.

However, he had a hunch it would be useful to him, so he followed his instinct, bought the newfangled machine, and entered the rising world of computers and software.

If you surrender to the flow of life, the right people and opportunities will often show up.

Imagine if the phone rang every time you had a problem and on the other end of the line was just the answer you’d been looking for. Well, life often works like this and has curious ways of giving us exactly what we need.

In the author’s case, his company’s first big commercial job came from a woman who was an extremely demanding customer, frequently requesting changes and imposing hard-to-meet deadlines. But, rather than throwing in the towel, the author pushed on with the job and was paid $35,000 for his work. It really started to pay off when one of his neighbors called him a week later to announce that she was moving and was willing to sell her land to the author’s spiritual center for $37,000.

Continued surrendering to life can result in extreme success.

If you were offered a $300 million business, what would you do? Perhaps you’d be so dazzled by the cash that you’d be blind to the responsibility and complications that came with it. The truth is, experiencing massive success often means accepting that you’ll need to work very hard to maintain it.

In 1985, as more and more medical practices introduced computers, it dawned on the author that the next step for his medical billing software would be to replace paper billing with electronic billing. But this of course meant more work. Fortunately, he had the help of Larry Horwitz, who combed through each of the 250 specification books from the insurance companies and packaged them all into one program, Medical Manager. Thanks to Horwitz, Medical Manager became the forerunning product in its field.

Surrendering to life also means accepting extreme adversity.

When life serves up a million-dollar business, a perfect house or a wonderful partner, going with the flow is a cinch! But what if life offers you a prison sentence?

When life gets tough, learning to surrender and accept are essential to keeping your sanity.

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What is The Surrender Experiment about?

The Surrender Experiment (2015) delves into the author’s life to illustrate the extraordinary things that can happen when we stop pushing for the things we think we want. Instead we can learn to accept the opportunities life gives us and find joy in serving others.

The Surrender Experiment Review

The Surrender Experiment (2015) by Michael A. Singer explores one man's journey of surrendering to life's flow and how it transformed his life. This book is definitely worth reading because:

It offers inspiring examples of what happens when we let go of control and allow life to unfold naturally.
The author's openness and vulnerability in sharing his experiences create a deep connection with readers, making the book relatable and authentic.
Through this book, you'll discover the power of acceptance and trust in creating a life that goes beyond your wildest dreams.

Who should read The Surrender Experiment?

Decision-makers
People who dwell too much on what they want
Anyone who is struggling in life

About the Author

Michael A. Singer is a spiritual leader, business manager, author of the New York Times number one bestseller The Untethered Soul, and the founder of The Temple of the Universe – a yoga and meditation center. Singer also created ground-breaking software for the digitization of medical practices.

Categories with The Surrender Experiment

Biography & Memoir Religion & Spirituality Motivation & Inspiration

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