A Conversation with John Randolph Price

Based on an interview with Pamela Gerloff

My philosophy of giving is based on "the law of cause and effect." As I began to study different philosophies and religions, I noticed that this universal law is a powerful idea that runs through the sacred literature and ancient wisdom teachings of the world. The biblical quotation, "Give and it shall be given to you, pressed down in good measure," expresses it in terms of giving and receiving. For me, the whole idea of giving is to activate that great impersonal law of cause and effect.

I first began to understand how it works when someone said to me, "John, choose what you want, then give the equivalent of it away. If you want more love, give love. If you want wisdom, give wisdom. If you want money, give money." As I considered this, it began to dawn on me that giving is triggering that universal law. So my wife, Jan, and I began a practical experiment. We began to give intentionally, while noting the effect on our income. Each day, she figured up the totals from the income we had received via the foundation we had started, as well as totals for how much we were giving away. We weren't giving with the intention, "If we give more, we'll get more."

We were giving because the act of giving was spiritually nourishing to us, and as we expanded our own consciousness, we naturally gave to others with love. For example, I had heard that my mother was having dental problems. I sat down and wrote her a check for $2,500 to have her teeth fixed, and sent it to her with a note saying, "I send this with love and joy."

Two days later, Random House called to say it was doubling the advance on my next book. I realized that it was a result of this law of cause and effect: Give and you shall receive.

Frankly, Jan and I were shocked with the results of our experiment. Our income began to increase noticeably. Money started coming in from mysterious sources. We even had $3,000 appear in our bank account. So we said, "O.K., this works."

I don't think of this as a religious thing, although I use religious-sounding language. You can take away the religious connotations altogether. It's not that God is going to favor us because we give. The sun rises on the just and unjust alike. We're not bargaining with God; we're simply working with impersonal law, and it works every time.

If we are not good receivers, however, it won't work. We need to be open to receive. (The ability to receive in any area of life can be consciously developed. Jan and I use the approaches described in my books.)

Seventy percent of lottery winners go bankrupt because they don't know how to handle the money. The same thing happens to inheritors. Often, it has to do with not feeling worthy of having a lot of money. That's why you have to get in tune with the power within. If you see that Divine Essence is the reality of your being, then you experience that you are worthy of having abundance in every area of your life. When your consciousness shifts and you actually have that experience, watch out-because the universe sees that and begins to pour out its riches (material and non-material).

I spent 25 years in the corporate world. As the CEO of a large corporation, I operated with the philosophy get more money. Make as much money as you can. Get money from clients I had known then about the law of cause and effect and how giving is related to receiving, I would have taken a very different approach.

I think people are beginning to understand that money is an instrument of goodwill-it is good energy, a token of love and service, a symbol of care and integrity. For the ancient Greeks, money was a medium of exchange; they thought of it as an exchange of love. When we think of money as the energy of love, then when we give with joy, we're really giving love. And we keep experiencing that love as it comes back to us.

Many people I know feel that in the years to come, the international economy will be based on that idea of sharing. It's a concept that is not quite ready for its time, but its time will come. Jan and I are receiving emails now from so many people with family businesses who are applying the law of cause and effect to experience more abundance in their lives and are then sharing with their communities the fruits of their harvest of money. As corporations put money back into their communities, their states, and their countries, and they see money as an avenue of goodwill, the outer environment will change.

I used to wonder how people could be very rich and yet not have integrity, or not be able to enjoy their money, or have problems in other areas of their lives-until I realized that such people had a prosperity consciousness in one area, but they didn't have that same consciousness of no limitations in other areas of their life.

My wife's and my objective has been to have "the perfect circle of life," where everything is in harmony. The ancient texts tell us that the will of God for us is happiness and joy. Many say we are here to suffer and to learn, but I believe that we are here on Earth to experience joy, and to be totally fulfilled in life.

Whatever we give-money, love, joy, wisdom-comes back to us. But we must give it out of love, for the good of all concerned; otherwise it's fruitless. If, for example, you give with guilt, you are inviting punishment or loss on an unconscious level. It is very debilitating. I work daily to dissolve guilt, resentment, and other negative emotions that may get in the way of my experience of abundance and complete fulfillment.

We must also be willing and able to receive. If we can give and receive with love, magical things begin to happen. People can experiment with this, as Jan and I did at the beginning-with an open mind, not trying to get anything. (Once a day, send out radiating love to everyone on the planet, and watch what happens.) And then be open to share and receive that which comes back as a result of the law.

John Randolph Price was for many years a corporate CEO in the advertising and public relations industry. In 1981 he co-founded, with his wife Jan, the Quartus Foundation, a spiritual research and communications organization. He is the author of 18 books and in 1994 was awarded the International New Thought Alliance's Joseph Murphy Award, in recognition of the contribution his books have made to positive living throughout the world.

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