CONQUERING PROBLEMS, DRUG AND ALCOHOL ADDICTION

I was a radioactive drinker and there were times of suicidal depression. I've struggled with low self-esteem, terrifying demons, inability to finish projects, procrastination, self-loathing, fear and the lust for fame. But after a chain of events that can only be described as ‘miracles,’ my biggest downfall turned out to be my greatest gift.

I've spoken about this in recovery circles, and often stopped to wonder ‘how did these seemingly miraculous events happen?’ There was one common element: SURRENDER. When I gave up fighting (and worrying), the outside picture changed. But what is the metaphysics of surrender? How did an inner change affect an outer result? By letting go and tapping into an unsuspected inner resource, I’ve had healings that are beyond human understanding, even major financial ones. I’ve finally figured how to recreate the mind-set necessary to activate these events. What appear to be miracles are actually natural laws according to Quantum Physics. Our loving attention to something literally alters the physical universe. It’s hard to talk about these things because they appear to exist in the realm of the magical. But they are real and everyone has access to them, they just don’t pay attention or take them seriously — and that makes all the difference. As Einstein said, “No problem can be solved on the same level it was created on.” In other words, you can't fight fire with fire; you can't cure alcoholism with more alcohol or drugs; you can’t go to war to create peace — you have to go to a higher level — a spiritual or diplomatic solution. Or as George Carlin put it, “Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity.”

The mainstream media rarely mentions the vital, mysterious spiritual element of 12-step programs. And no one asks the root question: why are so many celebrities either dead or in rehab? What breed of person comes to Hollywood seeking the adoration of strangers? Wanting to be famous is an American malaise. With all due respect to Dr. Pinsky, shows like Celebrity Rehab seem dangerously self-conscious. How can a person heal when he’s playing to the camera? “You can’t save your ass and your face at the same time." - Lydia Cornell

Our society rewards glitz, glamour, competition, obsession with winning and achieving. We never allow young artists to fail and you must be allowed to write, paint and sing badly in order to grow.

“It’s not enough to put down the drug or drink; once you put down the ‘spirits’ you have to fill the void with true spirit, and lasting peace.  You have to go out in the world and live your life with joy."

I found my precious brother’s body after his drug overdose. I, too, have struggled with low self-esteem, demons and the lust for fame. But I would not be alive nor would I have been able to raise children if I hadn't gotten sober 25 ears ago by giving up my self-will and surrendering to a power greater than myself. This is the easier, softer way. Once you stop struggling, everything becomes so calm and sweet. It’s like plugging into an electric socket: once you lean on a power greater than yourself, you have more power. The creative force of love which I call God really exists and is always ready to take care of us completely when we stop resisting. Then we have true power.

You have to take the leap of believing that the Universe, your higher Power, love, God or whatever you want to call it, exists. Then the magic happens.

The creative force that sustains the universe is interactive; it needs our participation. In fact, it can’t exist in our lives without our consent, belief, faith or interaction. It needs playmates. It needs to express itself through us. More and more I’m beginning to believe what Elizabeth Gilbert said in her Ted Talks on Genius -- that  there are no individual geniuses. Mozart, Beethoven, Einstien... we are all just transcribers of creative consciousness – we are taking down God’s thoughts. Some are expressing God through music, some through art, some through writing and poetry and movies, some through comedy, some through tragedy, some through cooking, planting and growing, some through design, building, teaching, science, discoveries. 

           

What is the point of gaining the whole world if you lose your soul?  After all the years of struggling to make it — to find true love, to be rich, to have a happy family with a lagoon pool and water-slides, to live my dreams in a hammock in Maui — I’ve come to the conclusion that there is only one urgent need of mankind: to find God. But I’m not talking about the kind of “god” you may be thinking of — the kind that divides and judges. I thought I was too hip to believe in God and used to wonder if I find God canl I still have a sex life? I’m talking about unconditional love and an inner peace that is unshakable. 

The word God has become so political and dirty and misunderstood, I’m embarrassed to use it. I feel guilty about being embarrassed, and I’m not even Catholic. Or Jewish. (This is a joke, as in "Jewish or Catholic guilt.")  All I know is, no human power was able to lift me out of my suicidal despair. The God I’m talking about has no religion attached – no rules, dogma, yarmulkes, pointy bishops hats, long velvet robes, crystals, coins, rosaries, bows toward Mecca or steps to the left. No long, memorized prayers or deciphering of archaic doctrines. Only redemption. 

I have had astonishing results from prayer. I know that prayer actually changes things in the physical universe. But the kind of prayer I’m talking about does not involve begging some anthropomorphic being who rules by fear and punishment. It involves letting go of your fears and worries and truly surrendering them to a loving higher power, whatever your own concept of this is. Substituting your worries with Divine Love, the power of the universe. God is love. It is really that simple. I had to get my intellect out of the way and surrender my doubts first. Then I quietly screamed HELP!

 Addiction is the disease of our time. Alcohol is the number one drug of choice among teens in America, and girls ages 10-15 have the lowest self-esteem and highest rate of suicide attempts of any other group. Add to this the fact that over 85% of violent crime is alcohol and drug related, and we have an epidemic — yet this is rarely mentioned in media reports.

~ Lydia Cornell  Luv xo 11:11

Originally written in 2012: Rest in peace Whitney Houston. You are soaring with the angels now. And as someone posted on Twitter, "another voice was added to Heaven's Choir."  Addiction, suicide, depression are all spiritual maladies that can be corrected by the power of Divine Love. And life is eternal; there is no death. Michael Jackson, Don Cornelius, Elvis, Marilyn, Jimmy Hendrix, Janis, Jim Morrison, River Phoenix, the list goes on... Let's wipe out this strange disease and help our children's generation wake up to the Truth of Being, Light and Love. xo

Cats Dancing on Jupiter cast 

Lydia Cornell, David Faustino at Chiller in New Jersey

HOW TO SOLVE PROBLEMS IN LIFE ~ Turn Pain into Comedy

 WAYS TO SOLVE YOUR PROBLEMS 

1. Sit In Your Parked Car With Sunglasses on and point a Hair Dryer At Passing Cars. See If They Slow Down  2. Every Time Someone Asks You To Do Something, ask If They Want Fries with that.  3. In the Memo Field Of All Your Checks, Write ' For Marijuana.'  4. Page Yourself Over The Intercom. Don't Disguise Your Voice! 5. When The Money Comes Out The ATM, Scream 'I Won! I Won!'  6. When Leaving the Zoo, Start Running towards the Parking lot, Yelling 'Run For Your Lives! They're Loose!' 7. Tell Your Children Over Dinner, 'Due To The Economy, We Are Going To Have To Let One Of You Go.'  8. PICK UP A BOX OF CONDOMS AT THE PHARMACY, GO TO THE COUNTER AND ASK WHERE THE FITTING ROOM IS.

Once you gain control over the thoughts you think, your sense of injustice will subside and be replaced with the exuberance for life and the zest to create that you were born with. ~ Abraham Hicks Law of Attraction teachings.  

Your loving attention to something actually changes things in the physical universe. Your loving attention to a situation, relationship, problem or financial lack -- actually changes the situation or relationship. But the key is "loving" and "letting go of all resentment, fear and worry."  

You can't solve anything when you are in fear. The old primal 'fight or flight' mechanism comes into play and all you get are the material results of either fight or flight. In other words, you get the exact same thing you put out: fight means you engage in battle and risk getting physically or emotionally hurt. "Flight" means you escape and run away. 

Fight or flight are short-term, animalistic survival mechanisms. But where do these get you in the long run? You still haven't solved your basic problem. 

We have been conditioned to believe that the external world is more real than the internal world but it's actually just the opposite: what’s happening on the inside determines what’s happening on the outside. 

Our world is shaped by our thoughts. So your loving attention to something, literally alters the physical universe. This is scientific, but it is not easily understood.

"Great men are they who see that spiritual is stronger than any material force; that thoughts rule the world." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

I really want to be a virgin again in more ways than one. In this age, we’ve seen too much, done too much, been too naked. Mortal life is getting too extreme. There’s too much hard-core violence and porn in the airwaves. But is it possible to become innocent again? Can we put the Genie back in the bottle? There is nothing in the physical world left to want, do or imagine. I don’t want one more luxury gadget to make my life easier except maybe the newest iphone. Actually nothing in the material world impresses me anymore. Except seeing, actually seeing The Force, which some call "God" but which I often call Love. Imagine if love were a tangible force. What would it look like?

I was thinking about the tragedy and the terrorist bombings ~  Brussels, Paris, Boston, San Bernardino, Orlando, 9/11, Oklahoma bombings... and of natural disasters like Katrina hurricane and Indonesian tsunami – and how many bodies have rotted and evaporated – how quickly human life is snuffed out. It proves to me what I’ve always known: that this mortal life is but a dream, and man is not made of matter. Rotting flesh has no essence in and of itself, no matter how real the illusion seems. 

As a culture we put so much emphasis on the body: on cellular substance of the fetus, the death and burial of a corpse, the saving of an unconscious sack of flesh that contains no life force or spirit, as in the case of Terry Shiavo, who was brain dead, but not allowed to be taken off life support. This case became a political circus. We are focused so exclusively on the letter, not the spirit; the style, not the substance; the right hat, not the heart, the ritual, not the meaning — and the flesh which can be wiped out so easily — that it must make me wonder: is flesh man’s most important quality?

At the risk of sounding like a crackpot, I have to say here that I no longer believe in the physical universe as being primary. The invisible harmony is what's real. In other words, the things I know are valuable and real are the things I can’t see with my eyes – the invisible qualities of love, truth, wisdom, soul, principle, thought, harmony, wisdom, compassion, beauty, strength and character – things that cannot be physically touched or scientifically proven. Man is spiritual; we are linked to the Divine and to each other by the invisible fabric of love.

As Emerson said: "this is a spiritual universe and thoughts rule the world."

Imagine if the human pageant were just a tapestry — and God sees the complete, beautiful picture on the finished side — but from our vantage point beneath, we only see dangling threads that keep disappearing as they are woven in and out. As people pass on, certain threads disappear because they are part of a grand stitch that completes a beautiful landscape or picture on the other side. We can’t see the whole picture. We don't know the reason for death and suffering; we don't know what's on the other side, but I'm sure there are many mansions and colors -- and the weave creates a majestic tapestry.

One of my favorite books is MANS SEARCH FOR MEANING by Viktor Frankl, who overcame concentration camp torture through the power of his mind. This is a universe of thought. Thought is energy and it is swift.

Here's the Catch 22: what you think about all day long, is what you become; what you focus on grows. So if you're thinking about how bad the world is, or how much you lack, you will get more of the same. Or as I wrote in the comedy film "Venus Conspiracy", "You can be attractive even if you're not good looking, because if you radiate love, you attract people." I know it's a silly line, but it is true.  Beyond "The Secret" the best metaphysical writers who really know the truth are Eckhart Tolle, Mary Baker Eddy, Emmet Fox, Depak Chopra, Neal Donald Walsch.. actually there are many. 

Whatsoever things are good, pure, beautiful — if we think on these things we will bring these into our life in proportion to our thoughts. Our thoughts create our reality, and as Shakespeare said, "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."

I have the profound sense that we can touch God everyday when we are loving to others, especially those who offend us and disturb us, and especially those less fortunate. Have you seen someone's face light up with just one kind word?

My sister went through open-heart surgery to replace a valve a few months after our brother’s death. Through the past few years, with the help of a pacemaker, she has gradually improved her heartbeat as she has became more spiritually attuned.

In December she started writing songs again. She wrote a song that was so beautiful, it had to come from the Source of love; it was pure inspiration. Her heart suddenly went into "sinus" or normal rhythm. The connection was clear.

When the troubles with her downstairs neighbor began to escalate, my sister developed debilitating pain in her feet, a form of arthritis. She could hardly walk. She was told not to hike anymore with her dog.

I believe her feet hurt because she was walking on eggshells. She was angry and hurt and unable to live freely in her own apartment because the downstairs neighbor kept harrrassing her about the noise upstairs with her dog.

The neighbor also harassed her because she was gay. This woman seemed completely malicious at times. What was more astounding was that she actually received mail from Trinity Broadcasting Network, the Christian evangelical station! We saw it in the mailbox. My sister tried to talk to her, but she refused. My sister tried to move, but couldn't find an apartment that took dogs and would double as a music studio.

She had to to work on this spiritually – seeing her neighbor through God’s eyes, as a child of love. She had to send love to her neighbor. This took a while, but she continued to return love for hate. Everytime the woman would rave and rant, or pound on the ceiling with a broom when my sister played music she was composing (in the daytime!) my sister would refrain from screaming back.

The situation turned around. My sister persisted in seeing the woman as a good person, and the woman became willing to talk. Now they actually wave to each other. This is nothing short of a miracle considering my sister was actually in fear of a hate crime at one point. She also thought her dog was going to be poisoned.

The Death of Adrienne Shelly: Neighbor vs. Neighbor

A few years ago, I was reading the list of Sundance films purchased for sale and was shocked to see that Adrienne Shelly, one of my favorite indie actress-turned-filmmakers, who directed "Waitress" had been murdered. She was murdered by a downstairs neighbor for complaining constantly about the noise he made. He finally marched upstairs and killed her. This was devastating, surreal.

I then thought of my sister and was grateful she had learned the spiritual lesson of getting along with her neighbor.

How to Solve Every Problem in Life ~ the Problem of Living in a Material World

So what is the code? Is there a formula one can plug in here for all problems in life? Yes.

What I've discovered is that the solution to any material problem is never at the level of the problem. As Einstein said: "No problem can be solved at the same level it was created on." You have to go to higher, smarter solution. You have to go to a diplomatic or spiritual solution. Problems are solved in the "gap" -- the space between. It always happens when you let go, or look away from the problem or get momentarily distracted. That's when you find your earring, or get the phone call. It's by “letting go."

No human power could relieve my alcoholism. It was not healed by dissecting the brain.

No military power can solve terrorism. We can’t fight fire with fire; we need to go above the problem and approach it from a different angle.

This hot-bead of hatred is something we actually started when we dropped bombs on Fallujah and invaded Iraq.  We fomented this hatred agains America years earlier when we got into bed with the Saudis and their oil oligarchy. 

But hating ones' enemies never resolves anything, as the Great Peacemaker said. 

All great spiritual leaders know that you must "keep your friends close, but your enemies closer." And "a soft answer turns away wrath." Withdraw our energy from the situation and the situation will solve itself. We must withdraw and take care of our own side of the street.

Energy consists of sub-atomic particles that in turn make up atoms and finally matter. This energy exists as waves spread out over space and time. They have discovered that down to the tiniest atom, there is only empty space. There is no solid matter. Everything is energy. Everything exists in waves of infinite possibility. Only when we focus our attention on an object does that object become a particle. We "particularize" an object by our attention to it.

So thoughts really are things. And 85% of all disease is caused by stress -- which means worry, fear or misplaced thoughts that become ingrained habits of negativity. There is now scientific proof that loving thoughts actually create a thicker brain cortex. Monks who meditate on love regularly have no disease.

If all you did was just look for things to appreciate, you would live a joyous, spectacular life.

 In Quantum physics, scientists have proven that our loving attention to an object actually changes the object in the physical universe.

Dr. Christine Northrup says "Hope is a biochemical state in the body that promotes healing."

Laughter heals. And we know that love heals everything. 

~ Love, Lydia 

LOVE, LUST, MIRACLES AND MAGIC

What I’m about to say may sound weird, but there were several pivotal ‘light bulb’ moments that changed everything and rearranged my molecular structure. These events were so extraordinary, so uncanny — I have to pinch myself to believe they really happened. These events were nothing short of full-blown miracles. That’s the only way to describe them.

My awakening was of the spine-tingling, Twilight-Zonish variety. It’s hard to talk about this stuff because it appears to exist in the realm of the magical.  But these things actually happened, and continue to happen. They give me concrete, tangible evidence of a loving, caring force in the universe. And now I’ve finally figured out the key to activating these gifts, which are really natural laws.       

I've never publicly spoken about this to anyone outside of recovery circles, but I’ve often stopped to wonder ‘how did these seemingly miraculous events happen?’ There was one common element: surrender. When I gave up fighting, the outside picture totally changed. But what is the metaphysics of surrender?  How did an ( invisible) inner change affect an outer result? In order to understand this, I had to study Quantum Physics, which inevitably led me to Einstein, who said, “No problem can be solved at the same level it was created on.”  In other words, you can't fight fire with fire; you can't cure alcoholism with more alcohol or drugs — you have to go to a higher level — a spiritual or diplomatic solution. Or as George Carlin put it, “Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity.”

            

But what does this overused word spiritual really mean? 

            

I began to wonder, what is this key that unlocks the door and enables someone to ‘let go?’ What is the metaphysics of surrender? I had to know how this spiritual concept worked.  I mean it’s not easy to just let go when you’re in the grip of pain, whether emotional or physical.

To experience magic and miracles you have to adopt a childlike sense of wonder at all the beauty around you. Seek it and you'll find it. Really look for beauty. Look for the good in other people. Whatever you focus on magnifies. When you decide to trust others, they become trustworthy. When you start to appreciate this beautiful universe, it will show off for you.  Act as if you believe in a power greater than yourself -- participate, conspire, and cooperate with the LOVE that surrounds all living things. 

Worfeus writes: "Life is what we focus on. Period. Just as with the Double-Slit experiment where matter literally changes from wave to particle depending on whether or not someone is observing it, life it seems really ends up being exactly what we focus on. Focus on the good and positive, and you'll find that's what dominates your life."

Scientists have discovered your brain activity produces waves that are measurable according to your level of serenity or agitation. Enthusiasm and courage actually change your brain waves. We radiate energy. Can these waves radiate outward, affecting our outer circumstance? Are thoughts really things? 

           

This means you can be attractive even if you’re not “good looking” because if you radiate love you attract people. This is a joke I wrote for a movie. 

            

I have often felt like I’m on a two-lane highway going in opposite directions. The theme of my life has been merging my lower nature with my higher nature into one divine track or unity. When I could no longer cope, I surrendered my will, my worries, and my fears.  And a miracle happened. 

To the mortal eye, these experiences are supernatural, spine tingling, like the best magic. But as Wayne Dyer said, you have to believe it in order to see it. You have to cooperate and conspire with this force in order to conjure it. The creative force that sustains the universe is interactive; it needs our participation. In fact, it can’t exist in our lives without our consent, belief, faith or interaction. It needs playmates. It needs to express itself through us. More and more I’m beginning to believe what Elizabeth Gilbert said about her new epiphany: that we are not doing this solo; there are no individual geniuses. We are all just transcribers of creative consciousness – we are taking down God’s thoughts. Some are expressing God through music, some through art, some through writing and poetry and movies, some through comedy, some through tragedy, some through cooking, planting and growing, some through design, building, teaching, science, discoveries. 

            

What is the point of gaining the whole world if you lose your soul?  After all the years of struggling to make it — to find true love, to be rich, to have a happy family with a lagoon pool and water-slides, to live my dreams in a hammock in Maui — I’ve come to the conclusion that there is only one urgent need of mankind: to find God. But I’m not talking about the kind of god you may be thinking of — the kind that divides and judges. I thought I was too hip to believe in God and used to wonder if I find God will I still have a good sex life? Not that I have one now. I’m talking about unconditional love and an inner peace that is unshakable. 

I actually think we’re snowballing toward excess for a reason: to show us that there is no material thing that can make us really, permanently 'happy.' Matter is temporal. 

All this chaos in the world is happening to bring us closer to our spirit, our humanity. We have been snowballing toward excess, materialism, style over substance, violence, porn, for years. There is never enough blood, guts and sex and drugs to fill us up. There is only one way to go: toward healing, the kingdom which is within us. The more we focus on the good in others, even our enemies, the more the good increases. This is a law of the universe, and it's the only real way to pray.

 

The word God has become so political and dirty and misunderstood, I’m embarrassed to use it. I feel guilty about being embarrassed, and I’m not even Catholic. Or Jewish. All I know is, no human power was able to lift me out of my suicidal despair. The God I’m talking about has no religion attached – no rules, dogma, yarmulkes, pointy bishops hats, long velvet robes, crystals, coins, rosaries, bows toward Mecca or steps to the left. No long, memorized prayers or deciphering of archaic doctrines. Only redemption. I have had astonishing results from prayer. I know that prayer actually changes things in the physical universe. But the kind of prayer I’m talking about does not involve begging some anthropomorphic being who rules by fear and punishment. It involves letting go of your fears and worries and truly surrendering them to a loving higher power, whatever your own concept of this is. Substituting your worries with Divine Love, the power of the universe. God is love. It is really that simple. I had to get my intellect out of the way and surrender my doubts first. Then I quietly screamed HELP!

            
If you ask my son’s Social Studies teacher what his religion is, he says, “Western Orthodox Baseball.” I think that’s a wise answer. Religion often gets in the way of God’s simple purpose: to love one another. Often it’s more about style — what tribe you belong to or what hat you wear — rather than substance. The Catch-22 is, by holding onto doubt and fear, we can’t experience the miracle because it takes our trust to activate it. 

We have been conditioned to believe that the external world is more real than the internal world. Quantum Physics says just the opposite: what’s happening on the inside determines what’s happening on the outside. Our world is shaped by our thoughts. So your loving attention to something, literally alters the physical universe. This is scientific, but it is not easily understood.

Scientists have discovered that there is no solid matter in the universe. Not a single speck of solid matter anywhere. Even the tiniest atom has no solid core. At the quantum level, it is empty space. 

Everything is energy. 

Everything exists in waves of infinite possibility, until we look at it, observe it and lock it in or "particularize" it with our judgment, viewpoint or opinion.  In my view, to "particularize" something is to make it into a particle locked in space and time. It appears to be solid once you have judged it and labeled it. 

That is why it's important not to judge others or make negative assumptions about them — for you get whatever you choose to see — and you can therefore experience negative events that were never objectively there before you "locked them in" (made them into a particle, which appears to be solid) with your weighted observation or judgment.  

The observer affects the object (wave) making it collapse into a particle at a certain moment in time. 

I have written a White Paper which proves that our loving attention to an object actually changes the object in the physical universe.

Energy consists of sub-atomic particles that in turn make up atoms and finally matter. This energy exists as waves spread out over space and time. They have discovered that down to the tiniest atom, there is only empty space. There is no solid matter. Everything is energy. Everything exists in waves of infinite possibility. Only when we focus our attention on an object does that object become a particle. We "particularize" an object by our attention to it.

So thoughts really are things. And 85% of all disease is caused by stress -- which means worry, fear or misplaced thoughts that become ingrained habits of negativity. There is now scientific proof that loving thoughts actually create a thicker brain cortex. Monks who meditate on love regularly have no disease.

Dr. Christine Northrup says "Hope is a biochemical state in the body that promotes healing."

Laughter heals. And we know that love heals everything. Love is the actual definition of God. (If only fundamentalist Christians understood this. But they seem to omit Christ's teachings form their form of Christianity. Very bizarre.

Love is an interactive force. The creative force of love that created all this beauty in the world — from peacocks to butterflies to chocolate to puppies to humans — needs playmates to interact with, and to show off for.   I call it 'god' but you can call it love or life or Buddha. This force  needs our cooperation and our BELIEF belief in order to show off for us. This "showing off" is manifests are miracles in our lives.  

Morongo Casino The Cooking Show

A Peacock I met at San Diego Zoo

Me, in Barbados with some surfers 

My sister Kathryn and me at Jeff Franklin's manse

A Swallowtail in my front yard. A Butterfly I met yesterday

To experience magic and miracles try to adopt a childlike sense of wonder at all the beauty around you. Seek it and you'll find it. Really look for beauty. Look for the good in other people. Whatever you focus on magnifies. When you decide to trust others, they become trustworthy. When you start to appreciate this beautiful universe, it will show off for you.  Act as if you believe in a power greater than yourself -- participate, conspire, and cooperate with the LOVE that surrounds all living things. 

By loving ourselves, we can then give love to others, and forgive them when they are not "perfect."  By this loving, selfless action, we create harmony and peace on earth.