The Power of Moving On
The insights shared in this post are drawn from a recent webinar led by John Purkiss, author of the book The Power of Letting Go and the recently publishd book, The Power of Moving On. Watch the full webinar here.
What happens when a Cambridge economics graduate, INSEAD prize winner, and successful investment banking consultant finds himself standing at the top of a tower in South Kensington, contemplating jumping? This is the powerful story John Purkiss shares in his new book, The Power of Moving On, and it's a journey that challenges everything we've been taught about success, intelligence, and manifestation.
The Paradox of Success Purkiss' story begins with a familiar narrative: be intelligent, work hard, and you'll have a good life. He followed this formula perfectly—studying economics at Cambridge, working in banking and management consulting, then winning first prize at INSEAD. From the outside, everything looked perfect. Yet within three months of graduating, he found himself suicidally depressed. The problem? He had become so analytical that he'd lost his intuition entirely. For careers like executive search and investment management—fields requiring strong gut instincts—this was devastating. As Purkiss defines it: "Intuition is immediate insight without reasoning." And his had disappeared completely.
The Western Conditioning Trap Purkiss identifies two fundamental assumptions underlying Western education and culture that keep us stuck:
- We are all separate body-minds, going around trying to get what we want and avoid what we don't want.
- The world is governed by Newtonian physics, where outcomes are highly predictable based on the force applied—the "sales is a numbers game" mentality.
These assumptions, while useful to a degree, are incomplete. They lead to the exhausting belief that we must constantly analyze, predict, and control everything in our lives. The more people and resources we manage, the more complicated life becomes.
Moving from Mind to Cosmic Intelligence After years of searching, trying Landmark Forum, Tony Robbins, visualization, vision boards, affirmations, and The Law of Attraction—Purkiss found his answer 11 years ago when he met his guru, Swamji. The fundamental shift? Moving from the mind to the intelligence that runs the entire cosmos.
As Swamji told him on their first meeting: "I'm not here to convince you that I am God. I'm here to convince you that you are God." This isn't about ego or grandiosity, it's about recognizing that we are the cosmic intelligence manifesting our reality, not victims of circumstance.
The crucial insight: You don't manifest your desires. You manifest your beliefs.
Three Transformative Practices 1. Unclutching: The Art of Non-Engagement Most of us engage with every thought that arises—analyzing it, suppressing it, making jokes about it, or following it down rabbit holes. Unclutching is simpler than mindfulness: when a thought appears, you simply choose not to engage with it. You let it pass by, like watching clouds drift across the sky.
The revolutionary part? You can unclutch all day long. Your mind will clutch when it needs to—to answer a phone call, check a shopping list, navigate a street. The rest of the time, you can remain in that pure consciousness where thoughts arise and dissolve without controlling you.
2. Completion: Identifying and Releasing Pain Patterns Between ages two and seven, we formulate the beliefs that run our lives. These pain patterns operate like software, unconsciously driving our decisions and limiting our manifestations. Purkiss shares his own patterns, formed from seemingly small incidents: getting an unwanted haircut at age three led to "I'm a powerless victim" and "life doesn't give me what I want." Being mocked for his accent at age five added "I'm unacceptable" and "it's not fair." Failing a color blindness test at six introduced "it's impossible" and "I'm a failure."
The solution? Relive to relieve. Close your eyes, become that age again, and relive the incident like you're a character in a movie—at least five times. Then do it five times talking to yourself in a mirror. As you keep reliving it, the emotional charge leaves your body. What once was a painful, life-controlling belief becomes an empty memory.
3. Surrender: Letting Cosmic Intelligence Run Your Life This is where everything comes together. After unclutching and completing your pain patterns, you can surrender—not in defeat, but in trust. Instead of constantly analyzing, predicting, worrying, and manipulating, you ask the intelligence running the cosmos to run your life.
Why Manifestation Techniques Fail Purkiss tried all the popular manifestation methods—visualization, vision boards, affirmations, The Law of Attraction. They all had value but were incomplete. Here's why: If you're trying to manifest more money but have a deep belief that "life doesn't give me what I want," that belief will win every time. If you're visualizing success while unconsciously identifying as a "powerless victim," you're creating a beautiful carpet over a festering wound.
You must first identify and complete (release) these pain patterns. Only then can manifestation techniques work effectively, because you're no longer fighting against your own unconscious programming.
Digging for Your Pain Patterns To identify your pain patterns, Purkiss recommends a simple practice: Sit quietly in the early morning or late at night with a blank sheet of paper (or Excel spreadsheet, if you're analytically inclined like him). Write down all the negative experiences, beliefs, and conclusions that arise. Don't censor. Just let it flow.
Focus particularly on ages two through seven, when your core beliefs were formed. Look for patterns. You might notice recurring themes like: • "I'm not enough" or "I'm unacceptable" • "Life is unfair" or "I never get what I want" • "I'm a victim" or "I'm powerless" • "It's impossible" or "I always fail" • "I should do more" or "I'm stuck"
A Life Transformed Purkiss' fifth book, The Power of Moving On, was published just two weeks before this presentation. Within that short time, reviews were already appearing on Amazon from people he'd never met. The book has been translated into Hindi and Spanish. His previous book, The Power of Letting Go, has sold in multiple countries.
More remarkably, his sixth book is already "downloading"—ideas arriving when he wakes up or during the day, the book essentially writing itself. This is manifestation in action: pursuing your dharma (purpose) to help others, with minimal effort and maximum flow.
From suicidal depression at the top of Victoria Tower to this state of creative abundance and ease, Purkiss embodies his teaching. The pain patterns that once made simple tasks feel impossible (like his belief "life doesn't give me what I want" making it hard to manifest clients or money when he lived in Paris) have been completed. What remains is that pure consciousness, that cosmic intelligence, manifesting through him.
The Invitation This isn't about adopting another belief system or following another guru. As Purkiss emphasizes: "Don't believe me. Just try all this stuff for yourself."
The practices are simple:
• Unclutch throughout your day. When thoughts arise, choose not to engage unless necessary.
• Identify your pain patterns. Write them down. Trace them back to early childhood.
• Complete them by reliving the incidents until the emotional charge dissipates.
• Surrender. Ask Paramashiva (or God, the Universe, Source—whatever resonates) to manifest through you.
The work isn't always comfortable. As one participant who survived the 1988 Armenian earthquake shared, some traumas require professional support to process. But the principle remains: relive to relieve. The more you relive painful memories with consciousness, the more the charge leaves your body, transforming them into empty stories rather than life-controlling patterns.
Beyond the Mind We've been conditioned to believe that being intelligent and hardworking guarantees a good life. We've been taught to analyze, predict, control, and hustle. We've learned to see ourselves as separate body-minds in a Newtonian universe where success is a numbers game. But there's another way—an ancient way from the Vedic tradition that's 5,000 to 10,000 years old. A way that recognizes we are not separate from the intelligence running the cosmos. We are that intelligence, temporarily obscured by pain patterns, ego, and conditioning.
When we unclutch, complete, and surrender, we don't manifest our desires—we manifest our true nature. And that nature is vast, peaceful, complete, and endlessly creative.
As Purkiss discovered, the consciousness underneath all your thoughts isn't passive. It's the source of everything. The space you've been seeking through all your achievements? You already are that space.
Welcome home.
The Power of Moving On by John Purkiss is available now. His previous works include The Power of Letting Go, Brand You, and How to Be Headhunted.
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