Alignment With THE REAL
Spoiler Alert
If you are one who likes the story to play out and hates it when someone tells you how it ends, then do not read this web page until after you have finished the book.
But if you are curious about what Welcome to The Grand Illusion is about, then this page is like reading the owner’s manual for the novel.
The book is written with three parts in mind: The first part helps you get to know who JR Norman is, so when he writes the blog, you understand where his ideas come from.
The second part, JR writes the blog about THE REAL and THE FORCE. If you didn’t know who he was, you might conclude that he is just another conspiracy theory nut job.
The third part is where the story gets interesting; this is where JR is desperate to understand THE REAL. His life is nothing like he thought it would or should be—the loss of his family was a final blow, and nothing mattered anymore.
At the end of part two, he stopped writing the blog because he had nothing more to say. It seemed like THE FORCE was winning in his own life and in the culture—but he couldn’t understand why. Because it is only logical that THE REAL must always win.
Part three begins, and JR is defeated, confused, and hopeless. In good literary fashion, the story shows it happening rather than telling the reader how it happened.
JR breaks out of his prison of darkness, but it’s not because the circumstances of his life suddenly improved. What changed was the way he related to reality. Once he stopped fighting what was true and began aligning himself with it, he discovered a freedom no circumstance could take away.
The book shows how JR gained clarity, became more resilient, and found the freedom to live in harmony with reality. Science may call this neuroplasticity or cognitive-behavioral therapy. Philosophy may call it virtuousness or living in accordance with reality. Theology may call it renewal of the mind or sanctification.
JR simply calls it ALIGNING WITH THE REAL: living in harmony with reality.
When I had the idea for this book, I did a lot of research on neuroplasticity and how thoughts and beliefs affect our reality. I applied this information to JR’s life. Then JR writes about it in his blog posts. In chapter 37, he writes about the three steps to rewire the brain. And in chapter 39, JR writes about the nine principles to resonate with THE REAL.
I wanted to include the entire process of how JR found alignment with THE REAL on this webpage so readers can see it without the details of the storyline. It may inspire others to find their own alignment with truth and reality as well.
Just for fun, I wrote it in the form of JR’s blog post. This is not a part of the book; it’s a bonus for readers who also found this website. It is not intended to be a self-help guideline—it’s written by a fictional character from a novel. But, like the novel, the ideas could very well be real. I encourage you to share it with someone you think could use some fresh ideas on how to make the world a better place.
Let me know your experience, and we can keep making this page better:
Alignment With THE REAL
by JR Norman
You could be tremendously successful in life if you do one thing and do it consistently. I can’t tell you how to do it—you will have to figure it out on your own. And that one thing is… ALIGN YOURSELF WITH THE REAL.
If you align your life with what is good, care about what is true, and live your life with the intention of doing what is right, you will be tremendously successful in life.
I can’t tell you how to do that; you will have to figure it out for yourself. But here is what I did, and maybe you can use it to create your own path to align your life with THE REAL:
I. Write out your life story
Victor Frankl was famous for helping people understand the meaning of their lives. Notice he didn’t say understand the meaning of life—that age-old philosophical question. He said, “Understand the meaning of YOUR LIFE.”
He was a psychiatrist who helped patients understand, from their own life experiences, how to discern meaning in their own lives. The best part of that is no one can tell you what that is. Only you can answer the question of what your life means—it must come from deep inside yourself.
The place to start is to write down all the key events of your life that shaped who you are today. Sometimes this can be painful. But most of the time you will discover a sense of gratitude—even from some of the most difficult circumstances and events. Don’t worry about neatness or grammar–this is not something you write for anyone else to see. This is you examining your own life to reveal what you have learned about yourself and about the world you live in.
Use this to begin a regular habit of journaling. Writing your observations, experiences, and thoughts about what is going on and conversations you have had. This is “Creating rather than Consuming,” and I will get more into that later in this blog post.
II. Rewire your brain
New experiences and new thought patterns can literally change our neurological wiring. It’s not motivational fluff. The renewing of the mind is neuroscience.
Nikola Tesla says that the secrets of the universe are found in energy, frequency, and vibration.
Energy is the neuroelectric current in our brains—literal electrical signals firing between neurons.
Frequency is tuning the brain to truth—to receive and recognize truth.
Vibration is the resonance of our entire being—mind, emotion, body, and spirit—aligned with what is good, true, and right.
This is not about affirmations or pretending to believe;you don’t manifest reality by repeating what you hope to be true. You resonate with reality by aligning your mind with what is true.
Truth is discovered, not declared. Likewise, it is important to recognize that everything that is less than true must be identified and appropriately managed. So here are three steps I have found that help to rewire the neuroelectric currents of the mind:
#1 Stop Entertaining Negative Thoughts
Negative thoughts are counterproductive. For example: If you are frustrated with others and you think, “People suck,” it may be emotionally honest, but it wires the brain toward anger, bitterness, and fear. Such a statement feels true, and feeding that thought validates the thought patterns in the brain—thinking “people suck” gives THE FORCE a foothold in our mind. These negative thoughts are the automatic reactions that need to be rewired by consciously stopping such thoughts before they can reinforce neuroelectric pathways in our brain.
It is human nature to energize these negative mental pathways in our brain. We hate our job; we get angry about politics, and we yell at the TV news programs. We isolate ourselves from people, scowl at strangers, and become suspicious of colleagues. When we give in to these human tendencies, we reinforce negative conditioned responses that are counterproductive.
When we refuse to think the worst every day, we gradually rewire the neuro networks of our brain to process information differently. That changes how we interact with others. That changes how we react to circumstances. That changes how we feel and the conditioned responses our body makes, so we can make better decisions and more constructive choices throughout the day.
Here is what this may look like: Replace the belief “People suck” with a different reaction throughout the day? Instead, every glance of a stranger, every conversation with a colleague, client, customer or family member, you replace the thought “people suck” with, “Either you are going to improve my day—or I am going to improve your day.” Either way, you are both better off because today happened.
This sounds like a new-age hippie commune cult ideology on the surface, but it is actually neuroscience. People can be exhausting, disappointing, and broken. It is impossible to avoid negative experiences in dealing with people. Over time, these negative experiences become the filter through which all interactions with people are processed in the mind—it becomes normal human interaction.
Disappointment and cynicism can become an unconscious expectation that becomes a constant in life. When interaction with people does not reinforce the frustration response, it either goes unnoticed or is received as a pleasant surprise that is mentally dismissed as an anomaly.
“People suck” is not a decision or choice added to every interaction; it is a standard belief embedded in the neuro network of the mind. “Either you are going to improve my day—or I am going to improve your day,” is a way to rewire the brain from the “people suck” belief and expectation, and replace it with something that is good, true, and right. It is an attempt to renew the mind from the dissonance of THE FORCE to the authentic satisfaction of THE REAL.
The desire to eliminate negative thinking is a persistent journey, not a destination. We are surrounded by negativity, and denying its existence is to deny reality. We cannot control people, and often we can’t control situations, but we can control how we react to people and circumstances.
Negativity is part of life, but entertaining negative thoughts is an unconscious choice we make—unless we replace it with a more productive conscious choice.
Entertaining negative thoughts is taking a break from the journey—our life is the journey, and it is too valuable to waste time with distractions. Continue the path to THE REAL—it is a journey, not a destination. We resonate with THE REAL when we tune our thoughts into the higher frequencies; like truth, goodness, and thankfulness.
If Tesla were a psychologist, he would have said, “When we raise our own vibration, we will raise the vibration of those we come into contact with. If we communicate at a higher frequency, we raise the frequency of those around us.” We know we are on the path of THE REAL when we experience love, forgiveness, gratitude, humility, peace, compassion, and contentment.
When we are on the path of THE FORCE, we recognize we are going the wrong way when we experience anger, fear, worry, depression, bitterness, restlessness, condemnation, and pride (that we deserve so much better than we have). THE FORCE lowers our vibration when we tune into the lower frequencies, and we influence others we encounter to do the same.
#2) Acknowledge What You Know To Be True
Positive thinking without truth is fantasy. Declaring affirmations of your wish list while ignoring what is real is ineffective because it’s not true. That doesn’t mean it can’t be true, but right now it is not true. However, it can be something to work towards.
Write down what you know to be true about yourself? What do you know to be true about those whom you love? What do you know to be true about who you are and what you want to be?
These seem like questions with obvious answers, but as time goes by, life happens, and things change. Neuro networks form in our brain without our consent, and it is important to re-align neuroelectric impulses with truth.
The past is everything that made me who and what I am today. The future is what I am working towards. But now is all that I have to work with—now is all that matters.
Focus 96% of your thoughts on now, because yesterday is done and tomorrow hasn’t happened yet.
When we make the best of the present, the future will take care of itself.
If we dwell on the past, we live there and can’t change anything.
But when we simply accept the past for what it is, and focus our mind and heart on today, then we will look back on this time a year from now and feel like it was a good year—that only works if we make it a good year now.
If we fret about the future and about our finances, and fear and stress immobilize our effectiveness, then we get the future that we feared—not because we manifested it, but because we didn’t do something about it today. What we do now determines our future!
In order to shift our focus from the past and from the future, write down what you know to be true about yourself. Not what you wish to be true, and not what you hope will be true—what you know, right now, to be absolutely true.
It may not feel true at this time because things happened you don’t understand. You are confused and frustrated because you thought something was true and it didn’t work out that way. But deep down in your soul, you know this is true about yourself and about those close to you.
What is true about your family? What is true about your talents and abilities? What is true about God?
Then, today, walk in that truth—remember it—believe it—and live it—because you know it is true. If you discover that what you believed to be true was wrong, then change. Walk in truth, always—align your beliefs, and your faith, with what you know to be true, and you will live in reality—not the hurts of your past, or the fear of the future; you will live in THE REAL.
THE REAL is everything that is good, true, and right. We can rewire our brain, so our mind and heart are filled with what is REAL. Our thoughts, our desires, our hopes are centered on what is good, what is true, and what is right. Because everything else is just noise.
#3) Practice meditation
Meditation is more physiological than spiritual.
Meditation is like re-booting a computer when it gets sluggish and buggy. When your computer is not operating at a hundred percent, you clear the browser history, delete all the cookies and site data, and delete all cached images and files; then reboot the computer. Most of the time it will work much better. If you do this regularly, your computer will keep working at maximum efficiency.
Meditation is like clearing out the bugs in the mind and body so it can operate at maximum efficiency. Meditation has many techniques and preferences, but the basics are simple. Sit or lie down in a comfortable position. Take deep, cleansing breaths—inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth—and focus on breathing. Don’t let your mind wander. Relax your body completely so that there is zero tension throughout your body, and you feel like you are melting into the bed or the chair.
You can tell when you reach a meditative state. It is as if you are asleep, except you are completely lucid and mindful. You can also tell if you need to relax a part of your body, because you become keenly aware of your entire body and your being.
Sometimes it helps to play frequency music. How long you meditate is completely a personal preference. It may not make sense, but meditation is key to becoming grounded in THE REAL. It is also personal, so you need to research meditation and discover what works best for you.
You will recognize the value and power of meditation after you try it a few times. When the day begins to feel out of control, just stop, relax every inch of your body, and breathe—you will reboot and be ready to take on the day in THE REAL.
These three things:
1. Stop entertaining negative thoughts.
2. Acknowledge what you know to be true.
3. Practice meditation.
You can call it renewing the mind or rewiring the brain, or a physiological reset. Whatever you call it, now you are psychologically, emotionally, and physiologically prepared to tune your mind and heart to all that is good, true, and right.
III. Nine Principles to Align with THE REAL
What if you expand Tesla’s ideas beyond electricity and apply them to a profound understanding of reality—patterns that connect the physical world to something eternal.
THE REAL is a personal transformation found in alignment with goodness, truth, and virtue. THE FORCE is simply the misalignment with THE REAL.
Truth is the expression of reality—reality is structured in such a way that alignment with truth produces coherence.
In the same way that Energy, Frequency, and Vibration explain the physical universe, alignment and coherence with truth explain THE REAL. THE REAL is alignment with reality.
The question now is: How do we become more aligned with the reality of what is good, true, and right?
1. LOVE THE TRUTH
Be relentless in your pursuit of truth—not certainty, not comfort, but truth. Stand up for truth, even if it costs you. Every lie distorts perception—especially the ones we tell ourselves. Self-deception clouds judgment; it fragments the mind and pulls us deeper into THE FORCE.
But humility, skepticism, reason, and discernment bring clarity. Healthy skepticism is not cynicism; it is the willingness to question assumptions, including our own, in the pursuit of what is good, true, and right.
Bank tellers are trained to detect counterfeit currency by studying the real thing. The same is true of life. Do not obsess over every deception, conspiracy, or illusion. Know THE REAL so well that falsehood becomes obvious by contrast.
There are endless ways to be wrong—but only one standard for truth.
None of us sees perfectly. We will often miss the exact bullseye. But we know the bullseye still exists. Wisdom is the constant willingness to adjust our aim as we move closer to what is real.
2. PRACTICE GRATITUDE
Gratitude shifts the focus from fear and scarcity toward what is good and meaningful.
THE FORCE fixates on what is missing, what is broken, what was lost, and what should have or could have been—gratitude interrupts that cycle.
Gratitude does not erase pain, disappointment, or confusion. It does not pretend that suffering is good. Gratitude is not forced optimism or a denial of reality. Genuine gratitude is grounded in truth. Love, beauty, kindness, memories, and friendship; the truth of these keeps us moving forward. Gratitude weakens the grip of THE FORCE because it refuses to let bitterness define reality. THE FORCE struggles to gain ground in a grateful heart.
Some days gratitude feels impossible. These are often the moments when it matters most. Not because gratitude changes the world around us, but because it prevents THE FORCE from shaping the world within us.
Gratitude does not guarantee prosperity—but it produces resilience, clarity, peace, and alignment with what is good, true, and right.
3. FORGIVE OTHERS AND YOURSELF
Bitterness chains us to the past. Unforgiveness keeps old wounds alive by forcing us to relive them again and again. THE FORCE thrives when pain becomes identity, resentment becomes purpose, and anger becomes permanent.
Forgiveness breaks that cycle.
Forgiveness does not excuse injustice, deny consequences, or pretend evil never happened. Some wounds leave scars that never fully disappear. But refusing to forgive allows the injury to continue to shape us long after the original damage was done.
When you harm someone, apologize and make it right. You can be a source of healing or a force of injury. Forgiveness is never fully complete unless there is reconciliation—because reconciliation requires truth, accountability, and change.
When someone harms you and the offender denies responsibility, it is important to forgive, even if it doesn’t feel complete. Not because they deserve it, but because you need to be free from bitterness.
And forgiveness is rarely a one-time event. Sometimes it must be applied repeatedly; it is a deliberate decision to maintain alignment with THE REAL.
When you make a mistake, extend grace to yourself. Do not build your identity around shame, regret, and disappointment. Self-condemnation fragments the mind and distorts the soul just as effectively as resentment toward others. The forgiveness we extend to others, we must also learn to extend to ourselves in order to remain aligned with what is good, true, and right.
4. PURSUE STILLNESS AND SILENCE
Stillness is not an escape; stillness is recalibration.
THE FORCE thrives on noise, distraction, and endless stimulation. A distracted mind becomes reactive, impulsive, anxious, and fragmented.
Stillness restores clarity.
Meditation, solitude, and reflection create space for the mind and soul to settle. They slow the constant flood of noise long enough for deeper awareness to emerge—restoring alignment.
Stillness does not eliminate suffering or solve every problem. But it helps separate what is real from what is merely noise. The world constantly pressures us to react—stillness teaches us to observe. And in that quiet space, the heart and mind gradually become more aligned with what is good, true, and right.
5. CREATE INSTEAD OF CONSUME
Consumption is passive.
Scrolling social media can become emotional anesthesia that blocks anxiety, loneliness, boredom, or responsibility. Scrolling news headlines makes us feel informed, engaged, and responsible, but makes us unproductive, disconnected, and distracted. Doomscrolling is the endless search for stimulation while quietly avoiding the deeper life we actually want.
Binge-watching entertainment and overindulging in video games satisfy a psychological need for social connection as a substitute for real life. Passive consumption resembles real experience. But it is a simulated life of dopamine hits that keeps us in the grip of THE FORCE.
Creation is active.
Writing, building, learning, and serving are acts of creation. Creation requires presence, intentionality, and participation in reality. Deeper fulfilment comes from contribution rather than consumption.
Write in a journal or write a letter to a friend. Learn a new skill or repair or refinish furniture. Serve in a nonprofit organization you believe in. Reach out to family and friends, even strangers, just to make their day better. Simple things like cooking and gardening bring order out of chaos. Any resistance against entropy is embracing THE REAL.
Passive consumption distracts us from life. Active creation connects us to life.
6. LOVE WITHOUT AGENDA
Genuine love expects nothing in return. Love must be real: unconditional, selfless, honest, and free from manipulation.
Love is more than an emotion. Emotions change constantly. Real love is a decision—a commitment to care about the well-being of another person even when it requires sacrifice, patience, forgiveness, or discomfort.
THE FORCE counterfeits love through flattery, lust, and manipulation. It treats people as tools for validation, pleasure, power, or personal gain. The opposite of love is selfishness—devotion turned inward to self rather than outward to others.
Unconditional love breaks the grip of THE FORCE in our relationships.
7. OBEY YOUR CONVICTIONS
Not legalism. Not blind obedience. Not cultural morality.
Convictions are the still, clear, small voice inside that whispers: This is true. This is good. This is right. This is who you were meant to be.
False convictions masquerade as conscience—guilt, shame, fear, or cultural programming that demands conformity. These voices are not THE REAL; they are echoes of THE FORCE.
Obeying genuine conviction often requires courage—because following that voice may cost comfort, approval, or belonging. But ignoring conviction creates fragmentation and drags us toward THE FORCE.
Obedience to principle is not rule-keeping; it is alignment with truth itself.
8. SEEK BEAUTY AND DO GOOD
Beauty is more than appearance, entertainment, or pleasure—it’s harmony.
Beauty resonates with truth and goodness and is a weapon against despair. It is a word or a song that awakens something beyond ourselves—a song that stirs hope, a word that restores courage, a moment that reminds us that life is sacred.
Doing good, not for applause, but because it is the right thing to do… and because it’s needed. Kindness, generosity, and selfless acts push back against THE FORCE and shine a light on THE REAL.
THE FORCE offers counterfeits: vanity disguised as beauty, virtue-signaling disguised as goodness, and performance disguised as compassion.
But REAL beauty is not just what pleases the senses; REAL beauty awakens the soul. REAL goodness restores hope and offers resistance against THE FORCE.
9. CHOOSE LIGHT AND AVOID DARKNESS
To choose light is to move toward what is good, true, and right.
To drift toward darkness is to fall into deception, resentment, and bitterness.
Love the truth, and lies will reveal themselves. Forgive freely and ask for forgiveness regularly, and freedom will follow. Seek to understand before demanding to be understood. Walk in humility, not in pride. Choose love instead of selfishness. Pursue peace instead of cultivating bitterness. Stand against injustice, but without hate or anger. Show compassion instead of indifference.
Every choice moves us to greater alignment—either alignment with THE REAL or alignment with THE FORCE. Each moment tips the scale toward light or darkness. Choose THE REAL. Reject THE FORCE.
Self-examination begins with humility—with reverence for reality. It begins with the unsettling realization that you are not the center of the universe—and that’s a good thing. When Proverbs said, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” it’s not about fear, it’s about reverence and respect. It’s about waking up to something greater than yourself—something good, true, and right. Something you didn’t invent and can’t manipulate. That’s THE REAL.
Life is a journey. We are more than flesh and bone. What we repeat and the language we use shape who we become. To truly live is to do what is good, seek what is true, and become what is right.
And once you experience THE REAL… it becomes harder to ignore.
We may not be able to change the world, but we can change the way we relate to it. Everyone experiences life differently; we cannot always control our experiences, but we can examine the truth of our experiences in the light of what is real. No one can do that for us—we must discover that on our own.