Frequently Asked Questions

The Sunflower Experiment is a guided experiment with 12 weekly units sent to you by email- each unit building upon the last and requiring your personal involvement and commitment. The level of commitment you'll need to bring to this is high- but the actual amount of time you'll need to give to your experiment is low. We're talking about using highly distilled principles and proven practices that will help you really leverage positive change. We're not asking for hours a day- just minutes. And we promise they will be some of the best minutes you could give to yourself and by extension to all your important relationships. 

Here are some Frequently Asked Questions and answers.

Q:  What do you mean by Experiment?

The following chart entitled "Cone of Learning" by Edgar Dale

is a great one to understand the importance of the DOING in the learning and retention process.  Merely reading WILL NOT actually do you much good.  Maybe you've even read a lot of ""self-improvement" books before.  Books are great, but if they had the power to change us, most of us would be living the life of our dreams now.  Why is reading good self-improvement books not enough?  Because of the principles shown in this chart.  The Sunflower Experiment is all about learning by DOING- by EXPERIMENTING! 

Q:  How much of a time commitment is this?

 Here's what you can plan on as far as time goes:

1) About 30-60 minutes (one-time) to read through each Unit. This will depend on your reading speed (we recommend reading SLOWLY and THOROUGHLY and highlighting key concepts that jump out to you).

2) Beyond that, the amount of time you give will be totally up to you and how deep you want to go with it. Each week will vary as to the number of exercises and activities. We provide multiple exercises with each Unit. Don't feel like you need to do them all. Pick the one or two that seem the most interesting and useful to you and do those. On average you can get a lot of the benefit by budgeting 30-60 minutes per week to "experiment" with the exercises.

3) The journaling is also up to you as to how much time you give to it. We hope you'll at least take 15-20 minutes a week to reflect and write your reactions and experiences doing the exercises and reflecting on the questions.

Q: What Will I Receive With Each Unit?

Upon full enrollment, we will send you in the mail an attractive, high quality, customized 3-ring binder with 12 colored/numbered tabs, one for each of the Units.  This will become your personal "Experiment" binder where you will store all your printed units, and write on the journaling pages and fill out the worksheets, etc.  There is an additional $20/binder cost which just covers our materials and shipping costs.  You can elect not to pay for the binder and to get your own- but we recommend you do get a separate binder only for this.

Each week you will receive by email an attractive PDF document to print out and place in a three-ring binder.  This document with contain: 

Q:  Can we do this together as a couple?

The Sunflower Experiment is designed to be done as an individual as the exercises and responses are very personal. However, doing this together with someone else close to you would multiply the benefits because you would be able to relate to the things you're doing together and discuss them and encourage each other along the way. It will definantly have a strengthening effect on your relationship. But you should keep separate binders and do the exercises individually. We offer a special two person price if you'd like to share the experience with someone else. See our Cost page for details.

Q: Can I pay for someone else to enroll as a gift?

Yes. The payment and the class enrollment are two separate transactions. You can pay using Step 1 on the Enroll page, but then the person you're paying for would need to add themselves to the Class list using step 2 on the Enroll page. This is because the units will be going to their email address and they need to confirm their joining the email list that will deliver their Units to them.

Q: What is SE going to teach me that I can't get from my religion?

Being active in a peaceful religion is a wonderful thing which we highly recommend. The creator of The Sunflower Experiment, is an active Christian who goes to church every week. I assume that many of the people who will be drawn to The Sunflower Experiment are religious people, and also that they have already developed themselves personally to a higher degree than most. The purpose of The Sunflower Experiment is to help us all grow personally regardless of our religious affiliation or level of activity within our religion and regardless of our current level of personal growth. We can all grow more from where we are if that is our intention and we are open to learning opportunities that get put in our path. The Sunflower Experiment is exactly that- a great learning opportunity that has been put in your path to increase your own level of personal growth and by direct extension, your happiness.

I've put together what we call Future You Profile. It's a list of typical traits of someone who is fairly advanced in their personal growth. These traits have nothing to do with any specific religion. They are traits that can (and will) describe you as you reach higher levels of personal growth.

An organized religion can help us to advance our personal growth, and growing ourselves personally- from whatever source the growth comes- can help us be better members of our religion.

I would caution against the mind set that your religion (whatever it may be) has everything you'll ever need to grow yourself personally and you'd be wasting your time to look in other places for principles of truth and useful practices for developing increased personal growth. There is much truth to be found in all different religions as well as in many different teachers that are not associated with a particular religion. The Sunflower Experiment draws on principles and practices of truth from many different religions as well as many different spiritual teachers not officially representing a particular religion. I then invite you to conduct a personal experiment with these teachings in your own life and just see what happens.

I think that you'll be pleasantly surprised at how the very practical things I cover in The Sunflower Experiment can really make a huge difference in your personal growth- no matter how religious or non-religious you are. That's one of the reason we call it an experiment- because you need to experiment with it yourself- apply it in your current life and keep an open mind and just see what you notice. If you think you've already mastered what we share with you and you get no added value out of it- you just ask for as much of your money back as you want, no questions asked. So if nothing else- just be a little curious and try it out. You've got nothing to loose and maybe- just maybe a whole lot to gain.

Q: I'm already a really happy person, why should I pay you to "fix" what isn't broken?

It's not about being broken or fixed. We're not trying to fix anyone. We're offering a guided e-course in personal growth and asking you to treat it as an experiment in your own life and see what changes you notice as a result of participating in The Sunflower Experiment. Just like a plant starts as a seed and goes through stages of growth, we too need to grow personally through stages. Personal growth is a continual and in fact an eternal process that is never finished or "fixed". To the extent that you are already living the type of life we described in Future You Profile, we think you'll be all the more drawn to what we're offering as you are already highly attuned to attracting truth into your life. Whenever we think we already "know it all" we've disconnected ourselves from the process of growth and we start to stagnate and deteriorate. We don't claim to "know it all"-- not by a long shot. We only claim that what we have learned and carefully organized into The Sunflower Experiment has helped us and many others tremendously and can and will help you too if you are open to "experimenting" with it.

Q: This sounds like a bunch of "New Age Spiritualism" stuff and I'm a conservative religious person or a "show me the facts" scientifically minded type of person.

We live in a marvelous age where the historical perception of a gap between science and religion is closing quickly- like the two ends of a line being bent into a complete circle. Quantum physics is just now getting to the point of being able to explain scientifically the existence of a non-physical, vibrational reality from which all physical phenomenon emerge. This has been taught as truth in many religions for millenia. Albert Einstein, the ultimate scientist understood this better than most. Here's just one of many similar things he had to say:

"A human being is part of the whole, called by us “universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. "

The Sunflower Experiment isn't about what's new or old, what's east or west, what's religious or new age- it's about what's true and how you can prove it to the only person that matters- you. We've studied quite extensively many of the world's greatest and most enduring religions. There is nothing in what we offer in The Sunflower Experiment that is at odds with what Jesus or Buddha or Lao Tzu or Rumi or many other great spiritual leaders of the past have taught. In fact if a principle wasn't taught by these great teachers in some form, it didn't make the cut for what we offer in The Sunflower Experiment. Likewise, we've studied extensively from many of today's most enlightened "new age" teachers and scientists and everything we present in The Sunflower Experiment is also supported by their teachings. Once again- it isn't either/or- it is all one truth looked at from various angles and better understood because the unity of it is seen through a diversity of points of view.

Q: A good book only costs $15, what's so different about what you're offering that I should pay more for it?

I love a good book. In fact I've read hundreds of good books and continue to read more every month. But- books can only go so far- the most they can do is inspire action- and there's nobody but yourself to keep your motivated to take action. The author of the book has no real connection with you, there is no follow up. They may have some great things to teach you that they gained from their own personal experimenting in their own lives, but until you do your own experimenting- that knowledge will not have the power to change your life as it did theirs.

The Sunflower Experiment is a very different experience than reading a good book. It is much more like a good college or graduate school course- a semester long learning process with homework assignments and tests and measuring of progress. How much have you paid for a college course? Do the math- per course it probably gets into the thousands of dollars pretty quickly for something that lasts about as long as The Sunflower Experiment. Now compare the difference that The Sunflower Experiment can make in your life vs. any other college or graduate school course. How many of them can even claim to give you any of the benefits you'll get from The Sunflower Experiment?

Really "getting" (through your own experimentation) just one of the many principles or practices we offer you in The Sunflower Experiment will make any price you paid for this course a huge bargain. And of course, if you do it and feel like you didn't get your money's worth out of it- just ask for as much of your money back as you want to- up to the full amount you paid and we'll give it back- no questions asked. Try that at your local college! Infact I can think of a lot of my own college and MBA school courses I'd love to get refunds on.

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