When Jim Carrey wrote himself a $10 million cheque
Jim Carrey is a spiritual man. Over the years, Carrey has advocated for the practice of transcendental meditation, which has been championed by several major figures in the film industry, such as David Lynch. In addition, he has been a staunch believer in the ‘law of attraction’ since the beginning of his career.
A product of the New Thought movement, the ‘law of attraction’ hypothesises that positive thoughts generate positive experiences and vice versa. While there’s no scientific backing to these claims, some followers of New Thought belief systems (including Carrey) claim that focusing on positive thoughts have improved their quality of life.
During a conversation with Oprah in 1997, Carrey revealed that he practised visualising techniques. He said: “I would visualise having directors interested in me and people that I respected saying, ‘I like your work’, and I would visualise things coming to me that I wanted … and I had nothing at that time, but it just made me feel better.”
Believers of the ‘law of attraction’ practise routine visualising techniques where they try to think of the things they want in life. According to the philosophy behind the techniques, focusing your mental energy on your objectives will lead to their fulfilment in the external world. As an exercise, Carrey wrote himself a $10 million cheque before he achieved success, and he later buried it with his father.
Before he became a star, Carrey tried to become famous by visualising it, but he had his doubts. The actor commented: “At that time, all it really was for me was kind of making me feel better. I would drive home and think ‘Well, I do have these things; they’re out there, I just don’t have a hold of them yet, but they’re out there’.”
He added: “I wrote myself a cheque for $10 million for ‘acting services rendered’ and I gave myself 5 years … or 3 years maybe. I dated it Thanksgiving 1995 and I put it in my wallet and I kept it there and it deteriorated and deteriorated. But then, just before Thanksgiving 1995, I found out that I was going to make $10 million on Dumb and Dumber.”
It’s difficult to believe that these techniques transformed Carrey into one of the world’s biggest stars. When Oprah questioned him, he responded that the real key to success was hard work. Carrey stated: “Well, yeah. That’s the thing, you can’t just visualise and then, you know, go eat a sandwich.”
