Just as there are laws which govern our physical world, there are laws which govern our Spiritual existence. Since we are Spirit in matter, these laws also apply on the physical level in our everyday lives. These laws operate whether or not we are aware of them. These are basic truths which determine the course of our existence. Universal Laws are basic truths which describe how the Universe functions. These Laws explain truths no matter who you are, where you are, or when you are. They are absolute and unchanging.

The Ten Commandments, going to church on the Sabbath, not eating meat on Friday, the indissolubility of marriage, death to the infidel, etc are not God's laws. These are human laws used to govern or control human behavior. I assure you, God's Laws, assuming that He has any, cannot be disobeyed. Even Natural Law, the laws of physics, must be obeyed only until a Consciousness evolves to a point at which It knows that It is beyond any law created only to govern physical reality.

Actually, there is only one Universal Law: How the Universe Operates. Unfortunately this doesn't explain much. Therefore, we break down that one Law into smaller parts which explain certain aspects on the One Law. There can be as many or as few laws as are necessary for you to understand yourself and your life. One author has taken one major Universal Law and broken it down into several hundred smaller laws, each helping to refine an understanding on that one major Law. Be assured that Universal Law is not God's Law either, but merely an observation from an enlightened human perspective how universal reality operates.

This will be an overview of some of the major aspects of Universal Law. Then, knowing these laws and how they operate, you can take this information, put it to active use in your life, and begin to consciously choose the life you want to live. By working in harmony with Universal Law, your life will proceed more smoothly with fewer traumatic interruptions. As you begin to understand and apply Universal Law, you will begin to naturally choose the paths which are consistent with the reason you are here. This will lead to a greater understanding and a more meaningful existence in your daily life as each experience takes on more relevance for you.

One Law which is pertinent to the task at hand is the Law of Believing and Knowing. This Law states that before you can accept something as true, you must first accept the possibility that it may be true, or at least keep an open mind. You must believe something before you can know it. You must observe and experiment with it in your daily life, keeping track of the consistency of the results. After repeated observations and trials with the information, you will then know for yourself whether the information is true or not. Just as Knowledge plus Experience equals Wisdom, Belief plus experience equals knowing. Do not accept any purported statement of Truth as fact or truth without going through this process; for until you do, it will ever remain someone else's truth and not yours.

One of the basic bits of information which gives meaning to our lives is the Law of Responsibility. This Law states that we are responsible only for ourselves and only to ourselves. We cause all things that happen to us either by our conscious, deliberate actions and choices, by our Subconscious needs, or by our deliberate passive inaction. Everyone has Free Will and we cannot tell them what they should do or believe. That is up to them to decide. Nor should we hold ourselves accountable to anyone else. We are not here to live up to anyone else's expectations. We are not here to live up to someone else's opinion of what is right for us or what we should do, say, or believe. That is for us to decide. When we die, no one will judge us but ourselves. We will see ourselves as we are and how we chose to become. No one will stand with us on our defense and say that we did what someone else told us to do so it is all right. No, we will hold ourselves accountable for what we did and became.

An exception to this is our children. They are placed within our care and we are responsible for the basics of food, shelter, clothing, love and Spiritual guidance until such time as they can do these things for themselves. Then we should let them go and allow them to experience their own lives freely. They will make their own mistakes, learn their own lessons, and express themselves according to who they are and what they brought with them into these lives.

The Law of Reflection is something that we encounter every moment of our waking existence. It states that our physical environment is an outward expression of our Spiritual and Mental reality. Our physical surroundings and the things that happen to us are a reflection of our thoughts, beliefs and attitudes. Psychologists refer to this as Self-Image Psychology. We are who we think we are. Our beliefs about who we are and what we deserve shapes all things that we are and that happen to us. If we think of ourselves as wealthy, then we will always have money and opportunities for obtaining what we want. If we do not like people and think them unpleasant, then we will find ourselves surrounded by people who will reinforce that opinion of them. We create our physical reality by what we believe to be true.

A friend of mine made the mistake of asking me why she was always surrounded by nerds. I told her that it was because she enjoyed telling people that they were nerds. So anybody who had a desire to be told that he was a nerd came to her and acted nerdy. She was too lost in the experience of being surrounded by nerds to understand what I was saying, but I am sure that you understand.

At the core of our existence and permeating all that we do is the Law of Expression. All energy expresses on the physical level. Energy comes into us from the highest, least dense part of our being, the innermost Spiritual level. The energy travels outward through all of our Spiritual levels, becoming increasingly more dense until it expresses on the dense physical level. ALL energy expresses on this level. If not in the form of some thought, feeling or action, then it expresses in the physical body as tension, anxiety, injury or dis-ease. Energy is supposed to flow through the physical body, not express in it. When we block the expression of energy through the physical body, it must then express in the body.

Psychosomatic medicine deals with this principle. Ulcers, high blood pressure, intestinal problems and heart disease are all said to be at least partially psychosomatic. Even in the treatment of cancer patients doctors can give personality profile tests to patients and, according to the results, predict which patients are likely to recover from their disease. Psychosomatic diseases are diseases in which mind and body interact to cause physical disease. Have you ever known someone who was grouchy and seemed never to be sick? This occurs because they are expressing their grouchy negativity, possibly making those around them sick!

The Law of Cause and Effect states that whatever cause we create, we will also experience the effect of it. What we do comes back to us. Like a bouncing ball, it comes bouncing back. If we steal, we will be stolen from. If we love, we will be loved. This Law is the basis for the Golden Rule--Do unto others what you would have them do unto you. Because in fact they will. You reap what you sow. The Law neither rewards nor punishes. The intent of this Law is to help the Soul understand the consequences of its actions by eventually experiencing those consequences. This Law is governed by our intent. It is the quality of our intentions that comes back to us. If we intend to give help to someone who has asked for it but end up inadvertently causing them harm, then it is the quality of helping that comes back to us. This is not on a literal one-to-one basis. If we stop to help someone fix a flat tire, it does not mean that we must have a flat tire so that someone can help us. If we are ever in need, someone will help us. If we are not in need, someone will give us an extra boost of good fortune.

The Law of Expectation explains why the optimist and the pessimist are both correct. It states that we get what we expect. If we expect to be lucky, then we will be. If we expect one obstacle after another, we will always find them. If you have spent your life programming yourself that you always have too much month left over at the end of the paycheck, you will always be pressed to make ends meet at the end of the month. However, you can adopt a positive attitude and, bit by bit, program yourself to expect things to go well in your life and change your expectation. Your life will change for the better to meet these new expectations. This will not happen overnight, but if you are consistent in your new positive expectations, you can look back after a week, a month, a year and see the difference in your life.

In reprogramming yourself, be sure to also reprogram your emotions, because your new thought has to move through the emotions before expressing on the physical level. If your thought is positive but your emotional feeling is negative, then your result will be negative. Everyday in front of the mirror you can repeat ten times that you are more confident with each intake of breath. If you do not also add the FEELING of being more confident to your picture, then your new thought will die in the emotion of feeling insecure. As the energy flows through you, the emotion has the final say as to how the energy will manifest.

The Law of Attraction is the glue that holds the Universe together. It states that like energies attract. People with similar interests will find each other. People with a need to sell something will attract to them people who need to buy that particular item. When you give out a pleasant, harmonious energy at all times, people will respond to you in that vein. You will draw that quality from them. If someone is around you who is unpleasant, be nice to them. In addition to driving them crazy, they will either be nice to you in return or leave you alone. Dissimilar energies repel. When you wake up on the wrong side of the bed and everything seems to go wrong, realize that is the quality of energy you are putting out. To change the situation, laugh, smile and think pleasant thoughts. When you put out this more harmonious energy, your life will go much more smoothly.

A difficult Law for many of us to accept is the Law of Giving and Receiving, which merely states that for every giver there is a receiver. We are taught that it is divine to give and that we should not expect anything in return. Hogwash! If it weren't for the receivers, there wouldn't be any givers! Also, the Law says that when we give something it comes back to us. Whatever we give comes back to us. When you give love, you receive love. When you give money, you receive money. Nature abhors a vacuum, so whenever we give of ourselves, nature quickly replenishes it in like kind. If we are not receiving what we are giving, then we are blocking it by our negative expectations of no return. Begin to break down your misconceptions about giving and receiving, and begin to both give and receive more completely.

The Law of Abundance says that we can have whatever we want. There is more than enough wealth in the world for everyone to have all they desire ten times over. All that limits this is our inability to receive. Our parents would gladly give to us whatever we asked them for. God is our Spiritual Parent. With His infinite capacity to give and love, could He possibly deny us anything we asked for? The key is in realizing this heritage and accepting what is already ours. I am independently wealthy. My Father and Mother have all the money in the world.

These are some of the major aspects of Universal Law. The list is by no means complete. There are as many more Laws as you need. You might notice that some of these Laws tend to overlap. This is true. They are not separate, distinct Laws, but different aspects of the same Law. Each explains a different quality of Universal Law. Now is your time to discover if these Laws are true for you, or what Laws you would add to the list. Begin to experiment with these Laws in your daily life. If you do, you will discover there is an intelligent order to the Universe, and when you know and work with the Laws your life will become more harmonious and fulfilling.