If you are subscribed to my ThoughtsAlive Ezine newsletter, then you probably received an invitation to find the hidden rabbit in a recent issue.

Before I announce the winner, I'd like to tell you about this most interesting experiment.  :)

To begin, I'll copy the original invitation here:

This special edition of the ThoughtsAlive Ezine includes a hidden rabbit.

Those who find it will be entered into a drawing for a free gift - valued at $359.40! Keep in mind, though, the rabbit may be in the ezine, or it may be in one of the articles or pages that this ezine links to.

Hint: it is NOT my logo - if you stumble onto the little black rabbit in a rectangle thing - that's not the one you need to find.

When you think you've found it, reply to this message and describe it - what does it look like (how big, what color, etc.) and where did you find it?

Get the answer correct, and you could win a full year of FREE access to the online School of Life Mastery, which includes the complete FTMF program ($847 value) plus several other premium advanced level training courses, presented in an online format.

(If you win and you're already enrolled, you may gift your prize to a friend or family member. Sorry, this offer does not replace current memberships.)

Happy hunting!   Have FUN! :)

Here's a little history behind this contest:

One of my biggest dilemmas is that I've created SO many things to help people experience a major breakthrough in their lives, yet if I try to keep everyone informed about each thing, they'd get an email from me every day (and sometimes more than once a day).

While that's what it would take to convey all that I want to share, it's not practical (or even polite) to overload people's mailboxes that way.  So, once in a while, I'll send a message that has ONE point to make or announcement to share... but when there's too many things all at once, I create an Ezine.  (An Ezine is an electronic magazine - or a magazine you read online.)

The problem with an Ezine is that you might be desperate for some particular piece of information, but the chance that you'll open it up to find that nugget is only about 10-20%.  Once you've opened it, there's so much content inside that the chance that you'll find the information you need the most is even lower.

Those who are intent on finding the answers to their dilemmas, and who expect to find them, are those who will see the email and get that feeling that they should open it.  Then, their subconscious mind wakes them up to the part of the ezine that is trying to get their attention.  They don't have to read the whole thing to find the piece that was written just for them; they will naturally be drawn to the right section.

However, most of us are going about life on a day to day basis, flying on autopilot. If we're frustrated about the way things are, the default state-of-being is to feel like nothing ever goes our way, and that it's too hard to get the answers we're looking for.  In that state of mind, we miss the solutions that are sometimes right under our noses.

So the hidden rabbit game was originally created to help all of my readers, regardless of their state of mind, find the answer to their most pressing dilemma, and the original "hidden rabbit" was meant to represent whatever idea or information that reader needed the most. But for the contest, I did in fact plant a rabbit (not a metaphor for a rabbit) on the site for my readers to find.

Most people who attempted to find the rabbit only looked for what was most obvious. For example, these were some of the most common responses to this challenge:

• The logo on the journals in our bookstore
• The cartoon rabbit on the children's book
• The text "Jackrabbit Factor" on the Portal to Genius book
• The white statue on the picture at the top of the School of Life Mastery
• Shapes in the clouds on the picture of the roadtrip
• Formations in the rocks on the Book Writing Retreat page
• The rabbit on the coin
• The Jackrabbit Whisperer icon on our Mentor Directory

Because so many people were trying so hard to find the rabbit but kept guessing wrong, and because NOBODY had found the one I had intentionally planted for this contest, I finally had to reply to everyone with this:

Thanks for responding - you've made some fantastic observations, but these are not the ones I'm waiting for.  My site is all about the rabbit book, so rabbits are already all over the place. To find the hidden rabbit means that you have to find something that is out of the ordinary, something unusual.  It's not a cloud shape on a picture, and it's not a rock formation on a photograph… it's a very simple, perfectly clear, but hidden rabbit. A rabbit logo on a book, or a cartoon rabbit on a children's book is already a regular item on my site.  So is the rabbit coin on my blog, and so is the mention of the Jackrabbit Whisperer.

These kinds of discoveries are valid, but as of yet, NOBODY has found the unusual rabbit, the one that is out of place, the one that is definitely hidden.  When you find it, you won't say, "Is this the one?" You'll say, "I KNOW this is it," because it's totally out of place and sticks out like a sore thumb. People stumbling onto it by accident (if they didn't' know there was a contest going on) would literally say, "What is this doing here? That 'rabbit' is out of place; it just doesn't make sense there…"

My husband thinks I've made the contest too hard. The fact that nobody has found it yet tells me that he's probably right.  It's no fun holding a drawing when there are zero names in the hat… so here's what I'm going to do.  I'm going to let the contest run through the end of this week. If nobody finds the right rabbit, then everyone with a valid guess will be entered into the drawing for the year membership in the School of Life Mastery ($359.40 value)… including you… because you found a rabbit that seemed to be hidden.

But in addition to that, I'm going to "up the ante"… which means, if anyone does successfully find the hidden rabbit I'm talking about, they will be entered into a drawing for a physical FTMF course, which includes my personal assistance at the midterm ($847 value). So if only ONE person finds it, guess who gets the program?  It's easy to win a drawing when you're the only one it the hat!  But you've got to think like a sleuth… this one is tricky.

Might be a good time to apply the principles of the Jackrabbit Factor… see yourself winning! Enjoy the victory! Imagine how it will feel to be announced as the winner!  And then relax your mind and believe in your success.  Doing all of this will help you tune in to the genius idea that helps you know just how to find it. If you figure it out, let me know, but also keep it a secret.  I think we may have an ongoing promotion on our hands here… :)

I've noticed something interesting. The way most people approached this contest is similar to how people in general try to find answers to their money problems.  They look for the answers by relying on their physical senses alone, but miss the mark. Even those who looked for a rabbit in the clouds or in a rock formation were relying on their physical senses.

There were a few people who looked beyond their physical senses and began to employ their thinking skills.

They were on to me - they deduced that the hidden rabbit was a metaphor. (Which, like I said, was the original idea for the contest, but not the winning answer.)

For example:

So I didn’t find an actual rabbit but I found my rabbit in this issue. I always scan through the articles you send and usually go out of order and in the end, I always read all of them. Today I was thrown off because when I thought I’d saved the best article for last and was expecting to be reading a funny article about you forgetting your kid somewhere, in the “I Forgot my Kid” article, I was instead lead to the article “I Don’t Know What I Want”.

While on Christmas vacation I re-read the Jackrabbit Factor and also read for the 1^st time, Portal to Genius. Since then I have been on a quest to find out what I want and it has been very difficult. I just wanted to thank you for putting this article in this Ezine because I found it very helpful. I have gotten better over the past year at setting goals and trying to achieve them so this will help me in a big way. I will get started right away so I can be ready to identify a goal when I am inspired with one.

So thanks again for the emails and I look forward to many more to come! - Tricia

(FYI, the article link mishap was a total mistake. I didn't redirect people to the wrong article on purpose, I just forgot to update a link in my email template before hitting send.)

Here's another response of the same nature:

...it is definitely the article “I don’t know what I want”.  Its placement was totally unexpected, but exactly what I needed to read at the time…and again and again… Especially, the line “Just as you can use the principles to find an opportunity, enjoy a certain kind of relationship, or better health; you can also use the principles to figure out what you really want.” and the goal statement.

I have caught that rabbit and am on to catching more… - Terri

And another:

Ok, so I got home from work and turned off my left brain. Thinking about what your reply said and what I thought I saw made me think about some experiences with perception a thinking we know what people are saying.

Well I let my mind loose... Then I remembered how odd it was that when I went to a story about leaving kids behind I was sent to your blog about how to set a a goal to get a goal. Big letters at the top of the page told me how to get to the story I wanted, and without any thought I read both stories and put it out of my mind looking for that elusive 'rabbit'. Maybe I'm closer... Maybe. - Jay

I congratulate those who took the hunt up a notch my thinking outside of the box that way.  However...

To solve the hidden rabbit puzzle, and to find answers to your money problems, you still need to employ something else. You already have everything you need to solve the problem - you just need to remember all the tools you've been given, and utilize them in the right order to solve the problem.

Although the game was originally conceived to help the reader to find a metaphorical rabbit, there is still a very concrete hidden rabbit on my site that NOBODY found.

But since it's no fun to hold a drawing with no names, I promised to still give away a free year in the School of Life Mastery.  So I put the names of all who gave it a shot into a hat (okay, so it was actually a box) and pulled one out.

The winner of the free year in the School of Life Mastery was... Ruth Watson! Congratulations, Ruth!

So I posted a new challenge:

The first person to find the REAL hidden rabbit (the one I planted for the contest which nobody found) was going to receive a complete complimentary copy of the FTMF (Family Time & Money Freedom) Program ($847 value)!

So I gave another hint. I said: you must employ at least one additional tool before it will appear. It is not visible without the tool. It's hidden! When you find it, it will be white with a solid color background... but don't go looking for something white, because you will not see it until you employ the additional tool. If you want to find it faster, you'll need a second tool.  Both tools are available to everyone reading this post - I guarantee it. If you don't think of the right tool, there's yet a third tool that would reveal the rabbit for you if you use it in the right place. If you did not get the Ezine, you can still find the rabbit at ThoughtsAlive.

When you KNOW that you've found it, let me know. If you're not sure if you've found it, then trust me, you don't have the right answer.

To avoid spending all my time on this challenge, I said I'd only respond to the submission if it was correct.

Then, at 11:15 pm MT on January 22, 2011 - We got a winner!

Congratulations goes to John S. of Murietta, California - well done!!

But to encourage more searches... we continued to accept submissions regarding this riddle a little longer, and held a drawing among those who guessed correctly.

Three more people found it, so at 1:01 pm MT on March 4, 2011 - we held the drawing...

Congratulations to Jay Walther - winner of the FTMF program drawing. Great job!

Stay tuned for future contests and promotions. Join our newsletter, the ThoughtsAlive Ezine to be notified of all things related to principles of prosperity and laws of success.