Sandra Zimmer, for example, runs the Self Expression Center in Houston. One day she and I were having lunch and talking about marketing. I told her I remember seeing her ads years ago, and that they seemed to have a halo around them.

"I put that there," she said.

"How?" I asked.

"I meditate on the ad I'm about to run and infuse it with my energy," she said. "When the ad comes out, only those people who pick up on the energy in the ad will call me."

Since Sandra has been running a thriving business for many years now, I'd say her method works.

Two years ago I began seeing ads run by a healer named Ann Taylor Harcus. Those ads had the same border of invisible light around them. When I called Ann the first time, I said, "Your ads are charged!"

She knew exactly what I was talking about.

"I put my energy into those ads," she told me. "I sit in silence and consciously send my energy into them. I am charging them so they magnetically attract the people who need me most."

Considering Ann has now worked with well over 100,000 people, I'd say her method is working, too.

A month or so ago I was interviewed by Terri Levine, of www.ComprehensiveCoachingU.com. She had read my latest book "Spiritual Marketing" and wanted to know how someone "charges an ad" with magnetic power. It was the first time anyone had asked me that question.

"Well, I simply intend for the ad to pull the perfect clients to me," I began. "I know that intention rules the earth. So I simply decide to add my energy to the ad and program it to bring me the results I want."

I could tell I needed to explain myself further.

"Think of it as Mental Science Marketing," I went on. "There's a whole school of thought that says you can heal anything by tuning in to the underlying perfection in life. Well, why not heal a business in the same way?"

Before my "Spiritual Marketing" book became a #1 bestseller at Amazon, I may have been reluctant to talk about this unusual new form of marketing.

But the truth is, this is what I've been doing for maybe ten years. I simply haven't been talking about it in public.

You can probably understand why. Mental Science Marketing isn't as nuts and bolts as the marketing practiced by those who like to focus on headlines, benefits, guarantees, and other traditional elements of a good ad.

Mental Science Marketing is more internal.

It's flying by your gut.

It's listening to your intuition.

It's aligning your beliefs.

It's tuning in to your spirit.

It's, well, different.

But Esther Hicks is only partially right.

What you put in an ad does indeed matter. If you run an ad with nothing in it, you won't get any calls, despite what you may have done on an energy level. You still need to put *something* in that ad, if only a phone number. That's where knowing traditional selling methods helps.

But I've known people who created ads with all the right elements in it -- headline, coupon, you name it -- and the ads bombed.

So just writing ads with skill won't always work, either.

Just ask Jerry or Esther. They hired me to write an ad for them to run in a leading national magazine. I wrote it and they ran it.

"We got so many calls we had to stop running the ad," Jerry told me later. "It overwhelmed our office."

What made it work? The words in it or the energy in it?

My guess is that the words in it reflected the energy in it -- and in fact amplified it.

In short, you need both.

Just as studies show that most (not all) communication is visual, most (not all) marketing is mental.

Finally, let me leave you with a challenge:

Look at the next ad, sales letter, commercial, or even website with an inner radar searching for the energy in it. See if you can note what is radiating from the ad.

How does it make you feel? What is happening inside yourself while you view the ad?

Then ask yourself what is actually in the ad -- the words and images -- that are helping you feel that way.

You might even go so far as to hold a sales letter in your hand and -- before you read it -- see what you sense.

Does it have a good feel?

Do you want to buy?

Are you seduced or repelled?

Now read the letter.

Were your feelings right?

If nothing else, this is a great way to increase your sensory awareness of everything from your five senses to your intuition.

Why not start right now, with this very article?

How does this make you feel? Are you picking up on my energy? Do you have a sense of what I'm trying to communicate?

The fact of the matter is this: People buy for emotional reasons and justify their purchases with logic.

When you are clear about your offer, your energy will be clear.

When you proceed to create your ad, that energy will guide you.

And when people read the final ad, it will be your energy that they will feel first.

Just something to think about.

Or do I mean "feel" about?

Welcome to the new world of Energy Marketing!