(The footnotes, over 140 references to numerous spiritual texts and scientific papers in the book, are not included with these excerpts.)

From the Preface

This book began in the remote wilderness of western Brazil, here in the Pantanal located in the heart of the South American continent. The Pantanal is the world’s largest remaining wetland system, extending to an area more immense than England. This is a spectacularly beautiful and biologically rich region, an ecological paradise with hundreds of species of exotic birds, thousands of varieties of butterflies, myriads of brightly-colored flowers, and shoals of fish. Capuchin monkeys regularly can be seen traversing overhead in the trees, and giant river otters playing in the waters. One’s attention might be riveted by the chaotic bellows from a nearby troop of Howler monkeys or drawn upward by the impressive flight of colorful blue-and-yellow macaws, their wings slowly beating as their long trailing tails glisten in the sunlight. Everywhere one looks is an aquatic and sylvan theater of sights and sounds.

But the interior Pantanal is also a wilderness in every sense of the word. Sitting alone in a boat on a remote lagoon at night, one sees the orange-yellow gleam in the eyes of caimans half-submerged in the piranha-filled waters; the forests team with deadly snakes and poisonous spiders. Jaguars, panthers, and anacondas make the Pantanal their home. Living in such an environment gives one both a sense of awe and a sense of personal frailty. So does removing assorted arachnids, vipers, and scorpions from one’s living quarters in the morning, inspecting the carcass of a Pantaneiro horse felled by vampire bats the preceding night, crawling deep within the pitch-dark depths of an unknown cavern, or taking a flight in a bush plane over isolated stretches of swampland in wind gusts or strong rain.

I came to the Pantanal not to do spiritual reflection or write a book. I am a scientist, an aquatic biologist by trade, and I came to this distant region to do ecological research. This work required living alone and separation from my family in the United States for many months. It is in such an environment that I could acutely reflect on matters of importance. I sensed poignantly that in this uncertain and sometimes hostile environment, my life could be over with one misstep or misfortune. . . .

My own quest to understand spiritual law began with an innate predilection toward wide-ranging theories and broad patterns, and a specific drive to elucidate how one’s peak experiences — those heightened feelings of well-being, calmness, awareness, confidence, and joy — can be replicated on a more regular basis, rather than on a seemingly random basis.

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From the Introduction

The idea that there are various physical laws which govern the universe is very ancient. Heinz Pagels calls these invisible, universal rules the “cosmic code” — the internal logic of the universe. In recent centuries, humanity has been capably working out these laws of material reality via scientific-experimental methods. Such efforts are proving very effective in cracking this code and uncovering the hidden order of the universe.

Also ancient is the idea that there are various spiritual laws which govern the universe. These also tend to be in code: subtle and not readily apparent to the senses. These too operate whether we are aware of them or not. Extending Pagels, we could label these the “spiritual cosmic code” or “spiritual code.” Humanity has been trying to crack the hidden spiritual order through diverse religions and philosophies, and through utilizing the methods of revelation, inspiration, and personal religious or spiritual experience.

The spiritual code has proven to be much more difficult to decipher than the physical one. The logical-scientific method of inquiry has been powerful in deducing laws and principles of physics, astronomy, biology, chemistry, and similar domains investigating nature. However, spiritual laws represent an altogether different dimension — one resistant to scientific methodology. . .

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Codified and summarized in this book are twelve of the more fundamental laws that have broad acceptance, and whose understanding allows immediate application. As laws, they delineate sequences of events, actions or states of being that are an innate feature of the universe and which unvaryingly and uniformly occur under the conditions stated — they apply to each of us, without exception, at all times.

These are twelve “time-tested” laws, with wide support found among the sacred texts of the world’s major living religions, including Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Judaism, Jainism, Sikhism, Taoism, and Shinto. Some supporting scripture can also be culled from among select smaller traditional and tribal religions or from the various new religions of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The acceptability of each law to the different traditions may not always be unanimous, nor the formulations exact, but the support is considerable.

These twelve laws have been selected for their value to the here and now. Properly understood and internalized, they can be powerful guidelines to present happiness and success — so much so that these twelve laws could properly be labeled the “Success Code.”

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From Spiritual Law One

The universal Law of Cause & Effect is elegant and powerful:  Each person has free will to pursue good or bad actions; these actions rebound to the doer in kind. Good actions, performed with the right heart, return benefit to the doer and accrue as merit. Wrong actions require indemnification and accumulate as demerit. In short, this law affirms that the universe is a just one, yielding over time just recompense for one’s actions. For this reason, it is also referred to as the Law of Cosmic Justice.

In essence, our actions are not done in a spiritual vacuum: Each act directed at others or the world has consequences for the doer. If individuals take a course of action that deliberately hurts another, they are in the long run really hurting themselves. As a Yoruba Proverb of Nigeria succinctly puts it:  “Ashes fly back in the face of him who throws them.” Conversely, there is an intrinsic mechanism within the universe that good actions, even if unseen, return benefit to the doer. The corresponding physical law is one of Newton’s laws of motion:  Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

Being a spiritual law, the causal relationships of our actions are not readily obvious to the senses. If no one sees me steal $50 from the company’s coffers, then surely there are no consequences? How could there be any merit to my giving a donation unless someone witnesses me make the donation? I am reminded of an episode of the former television sitcom “Seinfeld” where the character George Costanza tries to make obvious his contribution to a charity and then, when it not observed, tries to take back the money so he can donate it again! The scene is humorous precisely because it reflects the feelings of so many in society: What would be the value of giving a donation if no one knows about it?

Yet, all major living religions reaffirm that actions do not go unnoticed nor unrewarded. Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, Taoism, Sikhism, Jainism, Shinto, and so forth recognize this principle. The Jewish scriptures (Tanakh) and the New Testament of the Bible both reference that one reaps what one sows. So does the highest authority for Sikhs, the Adi Granth. Buddhism’s Dhammapada and Lotus Sutra, Islam’s Qur’an, and Hinduism’s Vedas and Bhagavad Gita all see this axiom at work. The Igbo Proverb of Nigeria colorfully references, “As you plan for somebody, so God plans for you.” New Testament accounts also assert that even an act as simple as giving a cup of water to Jesus’ apostles, or doing a unobserved fast or prayer, will be rewarded.

The doctrine of karma is a particularly well-known member of this genre. Karma literally means “work” or “action,” but practically it embodies aspects of the Law of Cause & Effect: One’s actions and thoughts rebound in like kind to the doer. . .

From Spiritual Law Seven

Thoughts by themselves carry the power to set in motion corresponding experiences on the physical plane. Thoughts directed toward a specific internal or external goal, combined with a positive belief or conviction in the certainty of its realization, release a powerful mobilizing force in the universe toward accomplishment of that objective. If a person’s attitude is basically positive — confident in achieving success, happiness, prosperity, love, and so forth — then such thoughts attract those experiences, people, and events which lead to the fulfillment of those desires. . .

Bending your thoughts toward a goal, with fixed determination and focus, combined with a positive belief or conviction in the surety of the goal’s realization, releases the powerful mobilizing energy of the cosmos to accomplish your objective. Negative thoughts and doubts not only fail to be harmonious with the universe, but mobilize countervailing forces opposing the goal’s fulfillment.

This law relates to the centrality of energy in the cosmos. All matter is essentially energy,  “locked-up” energy, so to speak. Einstein’s famous equation, E=MC², mathematically embodies this reality of the equivalence of mass and energy (mass being the quantification of matter). Furthermore, the cosmos includes the positive energy of motion and the negative energy of attraction, such as results from gravitational or electromagnetic fields.

Intentional thoughts also involve energy. Thoughts alone move carbon and oxygen molecules in our brain, set off neurotransmitters, stimulate hormonal output, and initiate myriad other reactions. . .

Intentional thoughts, being directed energy, carry the power to attract corresponding experiences on the physical plane.

If a person’s attitude is basically positive, if he or she is confident in achieving success, happiness, prosperity, well-being, love, and so forth, then such thoughts attract exactly those experiences, people, and events which lead toward fulfillment of those desires. It is analogous to the action of a tuning fork. A tuning fork, or any instrument for that matter, which resonates at a fixed tone, say pitch C, can set in motion vibrations in a nearby tuning fork of the same pitch. Recent theories of physics posit that all matter and energy, even that of thoughts, is actually reducible to tiny strings of energy vibrating in the universe. .

Unfortunately, the same is also true of negative thoughts. If a person is filled with doubts and anxieties, pessimism and hopelessness, those thoughts tend to attract those experiences leading to that which is feared. We become self-defeating.

 

From Spiritual Law Eight

The synergistic support of the universe in achieving our goals is not obvious to our physical senses. We thus tend to think that we are alone in our daily strivings. We set our goals and go alone into the world to execute our plans, against multifarious obstacles. We are often oblivious to the myriad ways in which the universe is assisting us:  through our intuitions and inspirations, mobilizing other individuals, and the choreographing of events.

When we fulfill our own individual portion of responsibility with total investment, the optimal conditions are laid for this cooperative aspect — this synergistic power of the universe — to be fully and effortlessly manifest. Because this law recognizes that human efforts are undertaken in the context of the workings of the Universal Intelligence, or what one may call divine providence or grace, this law is labeled the Law of Synergy, employing the term which Thomas Aquinas used in acknowledging these two conjoint forces.

Too often when we have a goal, we feel pressure, anxiety, tension, and worry about the result. This is to ignore a fundamental reality of spiritual law: Our role simply is to focus on doing our portion of responsibility, doing it fully, and doing it with correct means. As we do our portion, we need to release any anxiety and worry, and just trust in the universe for its portion.

If you are investing yourself for a higher purpose, and if you truly trust in the workings of the Universal Intelligence, then you will lose the constricting element of personal attachment to the goal. Personal attachment means that you are focused on the result, not the process. It means you feel that you personally win or lose depending upon whether the result is successful or not. By adhering to the principles of this Eighth Law, your focus is not the result, but solely the fulfillment of your personal portion of responsibility.

 

Mahatma Gandhi termed this “detachment”:

You must not worry whether the desired result follows from your action or not, so long as your motive is pure, your means correct. Really, it [detachment] means that things will come right in the end if you take care of the means and leave the rest to Him.