We were the only people who visited Michael Singer. In 1971 he moved to a small plot of land in his van. His hope was to basically sit there and surrender to whatever the universe had to offer.
He had no money. He lived in his van. He saw nobody. He meditated all day.
First one person, then another, built houses on his property and would meditate with him.
Then he fell in love with computers and occasionally a local business would ask him to write some software, which he gladly did.
Then medical companies all over the country started asking him to write software. Because he was surrendered to whatever happened in front of him, he would do it.
Then a company wanted to buy his. He said yes. Then they went public. He said yes. Then they merged with WebMd in a 7 billion dollar merger.
Through all of this, he would sit on his land and meditate all day. He refused to travel for business.
When land came up for sale next to his, often at bargain prices, he would buy. He poured all the profits of his business back into the land.
He wrote the bestseller “The Untethered Soul”. Now he wrote the bestseller, “The Surrender Experiment”.
What did the results of surrendering for over 40 years give him?
The answer: a lot. So much that it’s almost unbelievable. Which is why Claudia and I had to fly down there to see.
Little did we know that they never let anyone stay on the land but we stayed anyway.
Little did we know the only other interview he has ever given in person was with Oprah but we interviewed him anyway and he gave us the full tour of his land, which ended up being the tour of the last 40 years of his life.
It was wonderful and amazing. I wish I could surrender like that.
Maybe one day I can. Maybe one day I will. It seems hard, I guess, until you actually do it and realize that there was never anything to surrender to begin with.
Listen to my podcast with Michael Singer here.