Mike Dooley / Rhonda Byrne discovered Mike Dooley, “teacher of the nature of reality,” during her research for the international motivational phenomenon, The Secret. As well she might have–the guy’s got this stuff in his blood. Dooley grew up with a father who listened to motivational speaker Earl Nightingale and a mother who introduced him to books of channeled ancient wisdom (and wrote a few of her own). A former Ka-ne’ohe Marine brat, Dooley returns to the islands to finish his second world tour and to continue growing his manifestational empire, which features a dating network, cruises and, soon, an annual convention for those who seek and live out the “secret.

How did you make the transition from tax accountant to motivational speaker?
I wouldn’t call myself a motivational speaker. I’m a teacher of the nature of reality–I might call it a gift. I’ve been obsessed with wondering why are we here. Never did I think I would be a teacher. But if you hold on to a question long enough, you will attract truth. I wanted to be an entrepreneur, [but when] nothing came along to save me from the corporate world, I [finally] quit. I teamed up with my brother and mother and launched a T-shirt company that had my brother’s graphic designs and my little poems about life, dreams and happiness. Today I have the Adventurers Club, I’ve got 215,000 [people] in the world who get my free e-mails and the appreciation is overwhelming. For those who read my stuff and like it, they have the option of buying my audio programs and seeing me speak. Nothing’s mandatory, nobody has to pay anything. There’s no religion, there’s no cult.

You said that by the time you were in your 20s, you had solidified your philosophy. Impressive! What did you build it on?

Not finding answers in the mainstream, including the religion I belong to– [I was] a good old Catholic boy. I was left to draw conclusions–deductive reasoning. For instance, [that] we’re powerful, loved, eternal, that time and space must be illusions. These were my inner suspicions. We are divine creators. What we focus on, we ultimately manifest. Books helped me confirm my inner suspicions about life.

Buddhist books? Scientology

No, no, no. Nothing that hints at religions. One book that electrified me was The Silva Mind Control Method. It pertains to controlling your own thoughts and the power therein. Nothing galvanized my thinking better than Seth Material. My mother would discover the books and share them with myself, my brother and my sister. We came into this knowledge officially that way. We grew similarly together and just as I started writing these things on T-shirts, my mother started writing her books. Like my mother told me, forget where it came from. Read this and see if it makes sense. There’s no doctrine. There’s no place to donate money. It’s a philosophical treatise on the nature of reality. It’s one thing to know where the treasure is buried, but you’ve gotta dig for it. You’ve gotta start acting like you know you’re worthy. We’re distracted by the illusions of time and space and matter, as if they were bedrock reality. The truth is, it’s our thoughts that are bedrock reality. If we want to change it, you don’t manipulate the physical world, you change yourself.

For those in unfortunate circumstances–are they at fault?
The things I talk about are born of spiritual truths. One of these is thoughts becoming things, more commonly known as the Law of Attraction. There are other parameters, none of which take away our power, but do explain the disparity we see in the world. You could still inform somebody in a poverty-stricken nation or somebody infected with AIDS of their ability to make a difference and their freedom to be happy in the moment. You become a magnet for better opportunities. If you’re grateful for the little health you have, you open the door for more. Fault is not a word that would be used spiritually. We choose our lives, the stage, knowing ahead of time that there could be hardships. Irrelevant of the circumstances, we are creators. Why was such a circumstance created? Every person that has cancer has it with their own intents, rationale and motivation. To say, “Is it their fault?” is taking the whole thing out of context. They’re master creators. There are reasons. Whether or not those reasons can be pinpointed doesn’t take away our ability to recognize that we are creators and that things do not happen to us by chance or accident.

Do you have any connection to the Freemasons?

No. The Freemasons, like so many other groups, have been dead-on to the truth, although I don’t know much about Freemasons and I think there’s quite a bit of Christianity involved in them, so I think sometimes that’s good, sometimes that’s detracting. But it used to be that if you spoke in contradictory terms to the organized formal church, you could lose your life. Today, you can speak about your belief and nobody’s gonna care. There’s no need for secret societies. None of that necessarily applies to the Freemasons ’cause I know virtually nothing about them.

What’s the difference between the talk and the workshop?

The talk is about how our thoughts become the things and events of our lives. It’s the ultimate truth. For the astute student, in the workshops, I walk people through a process. Number one: how to define an end result by knowing what it is you really want. Number two: exercises on visualizing. Number three: taking action in the direction of your end result while not getting bogged down with insisting on how it happened. Don’t worry about the hows. It all comes with recognizing your power as a creator due to thoughts you think.

“Thoughts Become Things … Choose the Good Ones,” Manoa Grand Ballroom, Japanese Cultural Center, 2454 S. Beretania St., Fri 6/6, 7:30–8:30, $30; “Manifesting Change: It Couldn’t Be Easier,” Hyatt Regency Waikiki, 2454 Kalakaua Ave., Sat 6/14, 10, $150 in advance, $165 at the door, http://globalmediaproductions.com (808) 875-8820