Tony paced the stage from one end to the other, his heart beating fast and rhythmic. He could feel the heat of the spotlights which followed him at every step.
“Whatever life throws at you, no matter how hard it gets and how many punches you receive, always remember that you are stronger.”
He steered the crowd with the strength and conviction of his voice, capturing the critics, the skeptics, and non-believers and pulling them together.
“If you’re an athlete, give everything you have. If you’re a CEO, give everything you have. If you’re an artist, give everything you have. If you want to change the world, change yourself first. Pour yourself out, let the power of dedication and love become your reality, and you’ll change everything.”
He stopped and let his words sink in. After several deep breaths, he lifted his index finger and let it linger in the air, alone and in anticipation until his spell captured the room.
“Be advised,” he continued somberly, “you will suffer.”
He looked past the lights and into the faces of his audience. It would ground them, take them off their high, but was ultimately necessary for them to grow. They needed the harshness of reality.
“It will be the hardest thing you ever did. Your mind will constantly tell you to quit, to do something more fun. Watch TV, play video games, go to magical healers.”
Tony smiled, then went on. “We all have these battles. But we have to fight them. And to quote the words of Winston Churchill: Never give in, never give in. Never, never, never.”
Each word rippled through the hall as he put more emphasis on them until they became an earthquake.
He could feel the emotion surge through the crowd like a wave that formed in the depth of an ocean and found shallow water. It rose like a tsunami and hit land, absorbed everything, devoured them, and brought them out anew. This was why he loved his job.
David chose the darkest corner of the room to watch the event. He tried to make himself indistinguishable from the crowd, submerge into the masses to be unseen. The effort was wasted. No one was paying him attention, anyway. They were all enchanted by the man on the stage.
Of course, David had heard about Tony Robbins before. The greatest speaker and motivational coach in the world. The best in his business. A star. Someone David used to be. Used to.
But over time, David was nothing more than a fading memory in people’s minds. A Wikipedia page that hadn’t been updated in years.
Listening to Tony Robbins speak, he knew why this man was popular. He played with emotions, the expectations and the minds of his audience, challenged their beliefs and delivered a good show. David recognized the beauty in it, the way only someone with an equally powerful skill set could.
When the crowd roared and applauded Tony’s speech, an epiphany struck David so vividly, he could see the future unfold in front of him like a complicated origami figure reversed to a simple sheet of paper.
He saw himself back on the stage, the spotlights on him again, and the crowd mesmerized by his magic.
“Don’t forget to turn your motivation into action,” Tony yelled from the stage before the people lost their attention completely.
David set things in motion and it didn’t come cheap. He spent years and most of his fortune on research and preparation for the first set. A technology so advanced it might change the world. But technology was nothing more than a prop to David, and he wasn’t going down in history as an inventor. No, to be the greatest magician, he needed to break the strongest mind and change the truth of reality.
Getting Tony Robbins to become the first genuine test subject was harder. Months passed until Tony’s schedule allowed a meeting and cost David the rest of his once great fortune. The promise of using his private jet, flying him onto his private island, and housing him in a luxurious villa wasn’t enough. No, he also had to pay a sum with far too many digits to spend a day alone with him.
David paced along the empty entrance hall of his domicile and rehearsing his speech when a knock startled him back into the present.
“Finally,” David muttered, and opened the large doors. All his bravado and preparation was lost the second he saw Tony for the first time from close by.
There was a reason he looked big on stage and TV. Standing a head taller than David and packed with muscles that strained his shirt, he looked like a giant chiseled out of a mountain.
“Ah,” Tony growled from his throat like a hungry bear, “you must be David.” He had a big smile and his outstretched hand looked like a threat to any normal sized human being.
“I am greatly impressed,” Tony continued. “You went to great lengths for this private meeting, and your generosity is beyond expectations.”
They shook hands and David motioned Tony inside, who seemed to appreciate the gesture as well as the location.
“You seem to do fine by yourself. I should have called for an audience and learn from you.”
“Let’s profit off each other,” David said smiling, but without meeting the other man’s eyes.
They walked through the entrance hall into David’s study as Tony marveled at the relics and apparatuses, the hats and wands.
“I feel like a child going to the circus,” he said, low and fascinated. “I used to watch your show. Did you know that? I was a great fan.”
“Please, have a seat,” David said, and offered a drink. Tony shook his head.
“I’m not drinking. My body is my temple, and I try to take care of it.”
“Right, right. Though I believe,” David tapped his temple, “the mind is the center of the universe. All the rest,” he waved his hands, “is just an illusion.”
Out of thin air, he produced a glass of water on the rocks and placed it in front of Tony, who looked both perplexed and amazed.
He took the glass with a tentative touch, not trusting it to be real - or the contents inside.
“How did you do this?” Tony asked and took a sip, tasting water.
“It’s an illusion. Everything’s an illusion.” David sat down and folded his hands. “Just like reality.” It didn’t take long until Tony fell asleep.
Piercing like daggers, bright lights blinded Tony. It took a long moment until his eyes adjusted enough to make sense of the new reality he found himself in. His hands were tied behind his back and he said naked in a chair. Cables were attached to his body and needles stuck in veins. He couldn’t move.
“Wha–?” Tony croaked. His throat was dry and his tongue felt like sandpaper.
“This is the ultimate search for truth, Mr. Robbins,” a distorted voice said from every direction. Tony squinted, trying to see shapes beyond the spotlights. He couldn’t.
“Truth?”
“Yes, the truth,” the voice continued. “You teach the truth, don’t you?” Tony didn’t know what to say and remained silent, frantically thinking, trying to decipher the jungle of thoughts in his head to find a path towards his last memory. Something, anything, that gave him a hint about how he got here.
“I can help your memory, Mr. Robbins,” the voice said mockingly.
“The truth is in your mind. And the question is: how strong is the greatest mind? Will the body wither but the mind resists? Or will it seek refuge in madness and ignore reality?”
“What are you talking about?” Tony asked, but the confusion became worse with every word the voice was saying.
“It is time to test your truth, Mr. Robbins.”
Tony didn’t see where it was coming from, but he could feel it. The pain shot through his spine and flared through his body. For a split second, he thought it could have been an electric shock. Then his brain exploded like the rest of him and everything went from pure white into absolute darkness.
“Wake up, Mr. Robbins,” a voice said from somewhere afar. Tony could hear it, understand it, but as so often not make sense of it. Then the lights turned on again, and he was awake.
“Why?” Tony sobbed through tears. “Why are you doing this to me?” He didn’t know how long he was here, captured and tortured. It could have been weeks, maybe months. There was no way to tell. He was starved half to death, parts of his body were senseless, and he was sure he suffered several internal injuries. Every time he woke from his pain induced coma it started again. The bright lights, the same mechanical voice, the suffering. Only the method differed. It never stayed the same. There was no way to anticipate where it would start, where it would lead, or if it would end. He begged, and he cried, but the voice wouldn’t listen. He offered money, power, devotion. Himself. He would have given the voice whatever it wanted, no matter how impossible it may seem. But all it wanted was the truth. The same question, over and over again.
“Tell me, Mr. Robbins: What is stronger? The body or the mind?”
“The mind,” Tony cried. “The body. The soul. The heart. The faith. The spirit. God, the Queen, Batman. What do you want to hear?”
The voice stayed silent, but Tony could sense it, somewhere out there behind the lights. It was waiting. Thinking.
“Reality is a matter of perspective, Mr. Robbins. You are a man of great strength. Your body is your temple, and you built it like one. Now your temple is broken and your mind still refuses to give in. You could have fled to madness, but you stayed sharp. You could have chosen to die, but your will to live persevered.”
“I don’t want to die,” Tony whispered.
“But neither do you want to live,” the voice said. Tony could hear the smile in the artificial voice.
“Not in your reality.”
The pain was short, sharp, and shooting through his guts. This time, there was no more thinking before he blacked out again.
“Thank you so much for your visit,” David said, and took hold of Tony’s hand. It felt like lifting a bag of potatoes. “You helped me more than you can imagine.”
David ushered the giant man out of his house, where a car waited to bring him back to the airport. David knew Tony wouldn’t remember anything but feel it. Something so profound it would make him come back. Only the next time, he had to wait for him.
Because now it was showtime.
When Tony arrived back home, he was pumped with energy. His body, his mind, the world felt more alive, more vibrant, more accessible. It was a similar feeling after a great workout, minus the sore muscles.
He only spent nine hours on the island with the magician, but it felt like a lifetime had passed.
In his desk he kept a notepad with all the ideas he had over the years, but couldn’t make real for various reasons. Now he knew nothing could stop him from bringing them into reality.
The world sat in awe in front of their TVs and watched the greatest comeback in the history of entertainment. Tony himself felt fascinated when he saw how the magician had changed the lives of his audience. He himself taught people how to achieve greatness in life, and it all broke down to a simple word: belief.
Yet believing, truly believing, is the hardest thing for a human to accomplish. The mind is full of doubts, and the ego will continuously tell its tales to stay in power. These unconscious thoughts will destroy the belief in people, without them even realizing.
“Tell me your desire,” the magician asked a random person on the street. The woman was young, obese and hid herself behind layers of makeup and colored hair. She was the image of her generation, lost and misguided by media and indoctrination. Her clothes were a statement of body positivity, but her expression was full of anger and hatred.
“I want to be loved,” she said without hesitation.
“Close your eyes then,” the magician said and tapped his index finger on the woman’s forehead, squinted his eyes and whispered, “Love yourself.”
Her shoulders slacked in a heavy sigh, her face contorted and colored through the thick makeup. She started crying and hugging herself. When she opened her eyes, all anger was gone, all tension had left her body and her face became an ocean of compassion. As if born blind and seeing the world for the first time, she marveled at the people passing by, then turned her attention back to the magician.
“It was me?” She said through tears. “All the time it was me?”
The magician turned towards the camera and spoke.
“Reality is an illusion. I can change your reality, so you live the life you always dreamed of.”
The camera went back to the woman, who seemed to smile for the first time in her life.
Change your reality and everything becomes possible.
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