Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1047374
CULTIVATING AROUSAL D an Millman, former world-champion gymnast, coach, martial arts teacher, and college professor, is the author of 17 books published in 29 languages and shared across generations to millions of readers. His internationally bestsell- ing book Way of the Peaceful Warrior was adapted to fi lm in 2006. Dan speaks worldwide to people from all walks of life. He lives in New York City and is celebrating the revised 25th anni- versary edition of his bestseller The Life You Were Born to Live. After writing your autobi- ographical novel, Way of the Peaceful Warrior, what drew you into the speculative fi eld of numerology with The Life You Were Born to Live? Dan Millman: My fi rst books in the peaceful warrior saga convey transcendent teachings through story. I then wrote No Ordinary Moments in response to readers who asked how they could ap- ply those teachings in everyday life. At that point it seemed a natural progression to explore life-purpose and self-knowl- edge, which led to immersive work on The Life You Were Born to Live. Such a progression may seem pre-planned and organized, but the process was nothing like that. My books emerged from my own winding path of discovery, as well as meetings with un- usual mentors. I had no innate interest in numerology, which seemed irratio- nal to me — after all, how can adding up the digits in one's date of birth provide valid and accurate information about the core issues of one's life? I remained skeptical until a life-changing session with a man I'll call "the warrior-priest." I had previously studied many systems of insight, including the MMPI and so-called enneagram material (years before any books were published on the subject). But none of these systems seemed as objective, accessible, and accurate as the material that I learned and internalized for nearly eight years, until I fi nally wrote The Life You Were Born to Live. It was an ex- traordinary challenge, but more than a million readers validated the effort. What new information does this anniversary edition cover? DM: The original book described 37 life paths, one of which will apply accurately to anyone born between 1750 to 1999. But some children born after the new millennium have new (sin- gle-digit) birth numbers. The revised and updated 25th Anni- versary Edition covers all 45 birth numbers (life paths). Like the original edition, it reveals a quick and accurate means to determine one's own birth number (and corresponding life path) and the life paths of friends, loved ones, colleagues, parents, and acquaintances. It also covers the strengths and challenges of each life path in areas of health, money, and sex- uality, as well as key spiritual laws to help anyone overcome the hurdles on their own path. In addition, the new edition reveals what makes a "master number" and why — how the single-digit numbers impact the life paths of many young people — and how this knowledge helps to clarify all the other life paths. I also added new exam- ples of well-known people on each life path, as well as how I learned the system and why I chose to share it. What is a birth number? How does it relate to a life path? DM: Both mystics and physicists have proposed that all ex- istence is comprised, at the atomic and subatomic levels, of numbers (frequencies or vibrations). In a way that no one has fully articulated, each of us is connected to the rhythms and dy- namics of the universe, our solar system, and the solar and lunar cycles. But what seems to happen is that when we take our fi rst breath, our parents give us a name and the universe gives us a frequency, expressed as our birth number. How? You'll have to ask Pythagoras. Once we derive our own (or someone else's) birth number — either by looking it up quickly and accurately at the "Life Purpose Calculator" at my website, www.peacefulwarrior.com, under the menu item, "Life Purpose," or by doing the math as shown in the Appendix at the end of the new edition — that number reveals our life path and all that entails. I need to clarify here that if we divide the 45 life paths into the population of the planet, that means millions of people are working the same life path. Does this make them the same in some sense? Of course not — each of us is unique, and has our own story to live. Let's point to a tree growing nearby. That tree is also unique, since no other tree on the planet is exactly like that tree (i.e. the angle of every leaf and branch). Yet we can outline qualities of redwoods that are different from aspens or oaks or cypress trees. In the same way, we each have genetic heritage, life ex- perience, and other factors uniquely our own — yet we also fall within certain overall patterns (or life paths) which we then manifest in our own ways. Can your life path change? DM: The local date and time you are born, when you take your fi rst breath (whether you arrived as expected, or induced, or via C-section), that is when you take on a birth number (or Photos: Courtesy of Dan Millman 16 wholelifetimes.com CULTIVATING AROUSAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR DAN MILLMAN By Dan Millman yoga & spirit THE LIFE YOU WERE BORN TO LIVE