Yes, you can advance spiritually without giving up the joys of Earth...

You've already achieved a certain level of success, but you know there's more to life than just a bank balance. And, unlike people who are concerned only about their bank balance, you know there's something more to life.

Congratulations. You're right... there is so much more.

Even though you may be reluctant to talk about your spiritual suspicions or convictions with your more materially-minded friends, you don't have to deny yourself the benefits of that full connection and experience.

My name is James Arthur Ray, founder of the Institute of Balanced and Integrated Spirituality (IBIS), and if you nod your head "yes" to at least some of the following, you've certainly come to the right place...

Let's face it... there's a lot of confusion regarding issues and pursuits that are "spiritual." With so many different teachers, philosophies and approaches, it can become a full-time job just deciding which system is right—or at least right for you.

Quite simply, if you boil down all spiritual philosophies, there are two basic approaches—the ascending and the descending.

Let me explain.

The "ascenders" want to "get the hell out of here." This mindset is popular with Western as well as Eastern teachers, and the basic thinking is that you work as hard as you can to disconnect from the physical (or at least sacrifice a lot of it), and move into spirit.

From this philosophy comes the mindset that to be "spiritual," you have to wear white robes, speak really softly, eat lots of legumes and never have sex.

That's a bunch of baloney!

True spirituality doesn't mean you can't pay your bills or that you can't relate to (or carry on an intelligent conversation) with those of a more worldly focus.

True spirituality allows you
to gain more and give up less.

The nice cars, fine restaurants, big houses and fancy clothing are all here for your enjoyment... why not take advantage of them?

Of course I'm generalizing, but the basic belief of the ascender is that all the things that provide physical enjoyment—like money, food, sex, power—are not spiritual, and therefore, must be seen as the illusions they really are.

Consequently, the ascending traditions tend to suppress the physical part of nature, which leads to a host of pathological behaviors, lack of fulfillment and soaring levels of angst.

You've experienced this classic conflict yourself, haven't you? The one between the Spirit within you and the "you" that's unwilling to walk away from the material side of life.

Relax. You're not alone... we all have.

In fact, I've solved this thorny dilemma in my life, and I'd love to teach you how you can solve it too.

It's incredibly easy, and the peace
and joy it creates is indescribable.

I didn't just invent this life-changing secret... and, truth be told, it didn't come to me in a flash of light. I discovered it in over two decades immersed in nearly all of the world's great spiritual disciplines.

What an incredible journey it's been.

I've lived with, and learned from, the descendents of the great Inca in the highest peaks of the Peruvian Andes (with altitudes of over 16,000 feet), and I descended from those peaks into the sacred city of Machu Picchu for midnight ceremonies that defy description.

I've camped in the dense jungles of the Amazon and have gone through indigenous rituals and teachings that literally stretch your mind beyond reason and ration.

I've trekked the path of the Mystery school Initiate up the Nile River (through the seven sacred temples of ancient Egypt) to finally earn the honor of meditating alone between the paws of the Great Sphinx... followed by a solo journey into all three chambers of the Great Pyramid of Giza. (Boy, can I tell you some stories about that experience!)

I've repelled miles into the earth into deep and treacherous caverns to visit powerful energy sights of old.

I've journeyed to the nearly forgotten spots in the South Pacific to study, understand and apply some of the original spiritual teachings in existence.

Although I wouldn't trade them for the world, these were some of the most amazing and difficult (sometimes even life-threatening) experiences of my life.

Now I'm going to let you in on a little secret. These real life teachers, gurus and shaman are not the meek, mild, mousy people you might think. They have thunderous personalities and were some of the wildest, most interesting characters I've ever met.

The belief that to be spiritual we must be meek and mild and talk in a harmonious whisper is a bunch of baloney. Frankly, it's one of the main reasons that those in Western culture are turned off by most so-called "spiritual masters."

Individuals of true power typically have more of the things that misguided thinkers believe cause internal conflict (money, sex, food, power), and yet, for some strange reason...

...they're not troubled... and
they suffer no internal conflicts.

This is why they're really fun to be around. They have so much in their life, they're joyous about it, and when in their presence... things light up!

Okay. So basically ascenders want to get the hell out of here, and on the opposite end of the spectrum, we have the "descenders."

The descender believes that
getting out of here is Hell.

The descending mentality believes that everything to do with Earth is spiritual and sacred, and anything that denies these things is "sin."

An interesting side note is that the definition of sin to each of these philosophies is "the other one." The descenders are constantly taking shots at the ascenders, and the ascenders at the descenders.

There have been more battles in the name of God than for any other reason in world history... kind of ironic, isn't it?

The descending approach has most often been pegged by the ascenders as "pagan," which really translates to mean "anything that doesn't agree with us."

Check around, and you'll notice increasing numbers of Shamanic teachings, Native American and indigenous events, Wicca workshops and many others. These traditions embrace and celebrate the physical journey and the joys of Earth.

So what is the true answer?

Simple. Both the ascenders and the descenders are absolutely correct and necessary, and yet in and of themselves, they're incomplete.

Heads is meaningless without tails, white means nothing without black, and up cannot exist without down.

As the Director of IBIS, I'm extremely blessed to teach and work with a unique group of physically and spiritually powerful individuals.

We specialize in comprehensive wealth and abundance. By comprehensive, we mean wealth and abundance in everything you do.

When you join us, you'll learn how to embrace both the spiritual and physical realms to create amazing results in all areas.

Remember, my journeys have taken me on a spiritual quest for over two decades... taking me to the rainforest of the Amazon, the sacred mountains of Peru, the islands of the South Pacific, the deserts of Egypt and many other spiritually powerful locations.

By the way, I've also been very blessed in the business world to be able to afford these journeys, and anyone who tells you that business success and money have nothing to do with spirituality is simply not thinking straight... I'll bet their lives are lacking in both.

I'm curious...

Well, you and I are in the same boat.

I grew up in a very conservative traditional Christian household (my father was a protestant minister), and I found myself frustrated with the lack of answers I was receiving from the questions I continuously asked. Now as a parent, you probably would've considered me your worst nightmare. The answers "because" and "have faith" just didn't feel like real answers to me.

So when I was 18 years old, I began to study Buddhism and decided to meditate. By the way... as you might imagine, in a staunch Christian home, that went over like a bull in a china shop!

For years, I attempted with great commitment to shut down my mental chatter and experience the states that I read so much about. Sometimes I was somewhat successful, but most often, I wasn't.

But I was tenacious...

And I continued on. At that time, I was completely unaware of the vast differences between the practices of the East and the practices of the West (most people I meet today still are). In retrospect, if I'd known the information I know now, life would've been so much easier...

Finally, I learned the differences
between Yoga and Esoteric teachings.

Now I know the term "esoteric" is often interpreted to mean unreachable, unintelligible or "out there," but when you look it up in Webster's, it actually just means "secret or hidden." Every great spiritual tradition has had its exoteric teachings for the masses and then its esoteric teachings for those who are ready to grasp deeper levels of truth and application.

Believe it or not, even such common skills today as math and writing used to be esoteric teachings because they were reserved only for the members of the royal family and Initiates of inner spiritual orders.

Yoga, on the other hand, is not just
stretching your foot behind your head...

Contrary to popular belief, yoga is a complete and comprehensive practice of spiritual growth, not just the physical exercise that has been adopted in the West. The meaning of yoga is "union," and the yogi's basic meditative practice is to sit in silence and discipline the mind to "jump into God" (this is the ascending approach at its finest).

As we discussed before, this meditative practice is where I began, but it was very difficult and still seemed somehow incomplete.

If you're like me, you're interested in practical and
proven methods that will dramatically increase your
results in every single area... both tangible and intangible.

More than anything else, I wanted to understand Universal Laws and Principles and learn how to apply them. So I was drawn to study quantum physics.

I'm not sure why, because I hated science in school... but I just intuitively knew there was something extremely valuable there.

One of the concepts of quantum physics is "morphogenic fields." These fields are clusters of similar energy impulses that gather together like metal shavings drawn to a magnet. Like attracts like. Now stick with me, because this is profound and very important to your life.

Thought is a potent form of energy, and common thought forms literally create a field (or cluster) of energy you can tap into.

Esoteric traditions have long known this. And they knew it way before science proved it. They called this field a "current."

Here's why it's so darn important...

The only way to fully tap into a current
is to be in total resonance with that current.

So, the only way to be in total resonance with the current of Eastern Yoga is to live the lifestyle of the yogi.

Therefore, unless you want to
give up money, food, sex and power...

...you'll never fully tap the power of Eastern meditative practice! To get the total benefit, you've got to become a full-on yogi.

My continuing spiritual search brought me to Shamanism, and as I shared earlier, I've been blessed to study some really great traditions from Brazil to Peru. Now, unless you've been totally unplugged for several years, I'm assuming you've read (or at least heard about) Shamanism.

My teacher in Peru was a Qu'ero Indian. The Qu'ero are the only direct descendents of the Inca, and there are only approximately 400 of them left on the planet.

Shamanism was (and is) beautiful to me for its simplicity, as well as its extreme appreciation for nature and Earth. By and large, Western culture has lost this appreciation and connection that the indigenous people still have.

As amazing and insightful as Shamanic teachings are, I still found them to be somewhat incomplete, and many of my questions remained unanswered.

I found myself in many indigenous ceremonies thinking, "these people are really childlike in their understanding and mentality. Pure and beautiful, yes... but childlike nonetheless."

How do you apply these ancient methods to the modern Western world?

Deep down inside, this nagging feeling told me that our call is not to
return to the old ways but to bring their truths into modern society.

From Shamanism I was drawn to the Mystery schools and Esoteric thought. This is the arena of the secret orders and societies stretching all the way back to ancient Egypt and earlier. These fellowships include the likes of the Order of Isis, Freemasons, Knights Templar, Rosicrucian, Golden Dawn... the list of others is too long to mention.

With the Mystery teachings, I finally
found the "yoga of the West."

While the Eastern yogi attempts to quiet his mind and reunite with The Source, the Western approach uses habits and action in daily life to transcend the intellect and open up to The Source... same outcome, different approach.

This is really interesting and vital to understand.

While I believe in both, the Western mind tends to be overly active and very difficult to shut down. Therefore, I find the active approach much more user friendly, and the results... absolute magick!

Now, before you think magick is pulling rabbits out of hats... think again.

For the purpose of this conversation, magick is "the ability to create willful change in the fabric of your universe, both spiritually and materially." Very different from stage magic, and by the way... the quantum theorists are telling us that this type of magick is not only possible, but an absolute certainty.

(Just in case you're wondering... "magick" is not a typo or misspelling. Traditionally, the letter "K" is added to differentiate ceremonial/spiritual magick from stage magic or slight of hand.)

But the primary difference is that while the yogi wants to leave Earth and the Pagan wants to embrace Earth, the ceremonial magician wants to do both.

Eureka! We're getting to the payoff.

I mean, every tradition tells us that you, and everything around you, comes from One Source. So doesn't it stand to reason that everything should be held as sacred... from a pine tree to a Porsche?

Doesn't it also stand to reason that anytime you damn any part of existence you damn God?

You're a spiritual being having a physical experience. But remember, you are having a physical experience.

If you weren't meant to experience the physical in full splendor—from the fine wines, to fabrics, to cultures, food, money, power and yes, even sex—then why did you even bother coming here?

You could've just as well stayed out in the ethers.

So it stands to reason that your objective is to become what I now call a "practical mystic." This is the individual who has the ability to soar into the realm beyond form and, just as importantly, the ability to bring that experience back into the world of form!

This was a major awakening for me. I had finally found the answers I'd longed for over a lifetime. From this insight and its integration, IBIS was born.

The IBIS bird has long been the Egyptian symbol of Hermes, one of the original Godmen in history and the God of Magick. He was also known to the ancients as Thoth.

So to me, and to all those involved, IBIS really says it all... integrated, comprehensive and magical!

"Balanced and Integrated Spirituality" is just that. All the great teachers and traditions since antiquity have told us that you're here to live "life more abundantly."

In my world model, the word "life" is comprehensive. It doesn't work if you're financially well off but your relationships stink... or you're really "spiritual" but you're sick and broke all the time... or that you're mentally sound but you can barely drag your overweight rear-end up a flight of stairs!

Life in abundance is a life of harmony in all areas of existence: financially, relationally, mentally, physically and spiritually (because remember, it's all spiritual).

At IBIS, you'll join a fellowship of like-minded successful individuals committed to experiencing and actualizing their full potential—both spiritually and physically. We have a flagship event called Modern Magick that's conducted in Kona, Hawaii once every year. At this amazing event and in this amazing location, we all come together and continuously search, learn and explore our virtually untapped capabilities.

Because my journey has been diverse, so is the curriculum in Modern Magick.

Prepare to experience:

And so much more.

Now, you've already shown a high degree of interest by reading this far. So click here and find out how you can join us for the practical and spiritual experience of a lifetime.

By the way, we only hold this unique event once per year, and attendance is strictly limited. As of now, there are only a handful of spots left.

Please click here immediately so you can learn more and make your decision, before someone else makes it for you.

To the fulfillment of your true will,

James Arthur Ray
Founding Director
IBIS, Inc.

P.S. Modern Magick is unlike any program you've ever heard about. If you think you're going to be sitting and listening for days—think again. It'll be one the most experiential events you could ever imagine. See you there! Click here.

© 2009 Institute of Balanced and Integrated Spirituality, a non-profit spiritual organization.