	total
equality. Likewise,	in	a	spiritual	field	of	power,	everyone	and	everything	is
attracted	and	influenced	by	virtue	of	its	own	constitution	or	spiritual	‘weight’,
vibration,	or	attractor	field. Some	entities	or	personal	egos	are	repelled	by	a	positive	field. Many
people	are	sincerely	‘turned	off’	by	anything	loving,	spiritual,	or	benevolent. Lots	of	people	really	hate	both	silence	and	peace;	it	drives	them	crazy. Are
not	solitary	confinement	and	silence	the	ultimate	punishment. It	seems	that	at	consciousness	level	200,	a	polarity	shift	occurs. It	is	as
though	from	200	up,	the	entity	is	positively	charged,	and	below	200,
negatively	charged. It	is	obvious	in	society	that	those	who	tend	toward
criminality	are	attracted	to	criminality	and	to	others	of	the	same	ilk,	whereas
those	who	choose	peace	and	love	are	attracted	to	others	with	the	same
propensities. Principles	that	are	obvious	and	attractive	above	the	level	of	200	can
become	repulsive	absurdities	and	are	often	ridiculed	below	the	level	of	200. Societies	whose	power	derives	from	keeping	the	consciousness	level	of	the
people	extremely	low,	such	as	the	recent	society	in	Cambodia,	even	take
official	political	positions	against	love	or	its	expressions. In	contrast,	peace	and	love	would	be	seen	as	the	greatest	of	opportunities
for	a	person	who	is	spiritually	motivated. Although	it	may	seem	absurdly
simple	and	obvious,	unfortunately,	to	most	of	mankind,	it	is	an	unfamiliar	fact
that	God	is	at	the	top	of	the	Scale	of	Consciousness	and	not	at	the	bottom. It	is
also	obvious	to	the	spiritually	advanced,	but	not	to	the	masses,	that	creation
and	power	radiate	from	the	top	down	and	not	vice	versa. The	power	of
creation	belongs	to	God	alone. The	physical	world	does	not	possess	the	power
of	creation	or	causality;	thus,	it	is	impossible	for	creation	to	proceed	from
form	and	materiality	into	life	and	eventually	nonform. People	are	not	‘co-
creators’	with	God. God	doesn’t	need	help. What	would	a	human	being	be
capable	of	co-creating,	anyway. God	is	beyond	all	form. Ordinary	people	think	in	terms	of	form. Why	would	that	which	is
omnipotent,	omnipresent,	and	formless	be	interested	in	worldly	games. There
is	nothing	that	‘needs’	to	be	created. The	effects	of	the	presence	of	God	emanate	from	the	Divine	Essence	itself
and	are	not	selective	acts	by	God. In	Reality,	there	are	neither	happenings	nor
events,	and,	therefore,	there	is	no	need	for	correction	or	intervention. Between	God	and	man	there	is	a	hierarchy	of	spiritual	energy	levels	and
fields	of	graduated	power. These	are	intuited	and	referred	to	as	the	Holy
Spirit,	the	Higher	Self,	the	Grace	of	God,	angels,	archangels,	and	heavens. Consciousness	levels	beyond	1,000	and	up	through	the	spiritual	hierarchy
represent	power	beyond	the	capacity	of	human	imagination. The	touch	of	an	archangel	is	so	powerful	and	devastating	that	the	ego	is	as
if	paralyzed	or	stunned	and	goes	silent. The	power	is	absolute	and	total. (An
archangel’s	power	calibrates	from	50,000	and	above. ) If	life	continues	in	the
form	of	a	physical	body,	it	may	take	years	to	be	able	to	function	again	in
worldly	terms. Each	existence	is	then	the	consequence	of	the	Presence	and	is	given	the
capacity	to	fulfill	its	destiny. The	strength	to	sustain	and	survive	the
enlightenment	experience	itself	is	provided	by	the	Holy	Spirit	as	a	powerful
energy	that	sustains	the	remainder	of	destined	life. It	is	by	means	of	the	Holy
Spirit	that	there	is	a	return	to	function	of	the	faculties	necessary,	but	they	have
been	transformed	forever. Even	the	‘experience’	itself	cannot	be	spoken	of	for
many	years. There	is	no	one	to	tell	and	nothing	to	report. There	is	no	speaker
and	no	one	to	decide	to	speak. Life	is	directed	and	propelled	by	the	Presence. The	illusion	of	an	independent,	personal	will	or	decision	maker	is	gone
forever. Perhaps	subsequent	actions	are	the	momentum	of	a	prior	covenant	or
commitment. Everything	happens	of	its	own. Ongoing	life	is	self-actualizing
and	fulfilling. There	is	no	personal	self	to	do	anything;	there	is	no	thinker	to
think,	no	actor	to	act,	no	doer	to	do,	no	decider	to	decide. All	verbs,
adjectives,	and	pronouns	become	meaningless. The	Reality	of	God
God	does	not	direct	floods,	conflagrations,	earthquakes,	volcanoes,
storms,	lightning,	or	rainfalls. These	are	impersonal	effects	of	conditions
within	the	physical	world	and	its	universe. God	does	not	get	mad	and	‘trash
out’	cities,	civilizations,	towns,	or	ethnic	groups. All	these	things	occurred	on
the	planet	before	there	were	any	living	societies. God	does	not	get	involved	in
human	conflicts,	political	and	religious	struggles,	or	strife. God	has	no
interest	in	war’s	battlefields. He	has	no	enemies	that	need	to	be	slain. There
are	no	‘Holy	Wars’—the	term	itself	is	self-negating	and	absurd. Infidels,	believers,	or	the	like	are	all	positionalities	of	the	human	ego. Even	sensible	humans	are	beyond	such	smallness	of	mind	and	its
judgmentalism. God	does	not	‘care’	whether	one	believes	in	‘Him’	or	not;
however,	the	consequences	will	be	quite	different. Love	gravitates	towards	heaven,	and	hate	sinks	into	the	other	direction. Goodness	rejects	no	one. Like	goes	to	like;	love	is	attracted	to	love. God	takes
no	actions	against	anything	or	anyone. Some	souls	are	attracted	by	light	and
others	by	darkness. The	selection	is	from	within	the	ego	and	not	imposed
from	without. God	Is	Beyond	Form
It	is	important	to	recognize	that	that	which	is	beyond	form	is	not	reached
through	form	or	by	the	manipulation	of	form. Therefore,	involvement	in
esoteric	or	occult	practices	is	a	snare	and	a	delay. These	practices	are	byways
that	lead	to	astral	planes,	enthusiasts,	and	proselytizers,	all	of	which	areendless	in	number. There	is	no	power	in	geometric	figures,	mandalas,	icons,
paintings,	statues,	or	recitations. Any	value	that	ensues	is	by	the	intention,
dedication,	commitment,	and	faith	of	the	believer. The	world	is	full	of	well-
intentioned	but	naïve	reciters	of	mantras;	lightworkers;	worshippers	of	sacred
objects,	amulets,	charts,	holy	places,	Druid	remains,	mystical	charms;	and
sites	for	pilgrimage,	such	as	Machu	Picchu,	Stonehenge,	the	pyramids,	the
Ganges,	ancient	temples,	energy	vortices,	and	all	the	rest. This	could	be	called
‘making	the	circuit’,	but	eventually,	one	has	to	go	within. “Heaven	is	within
you,”	said	the	Lord	Jesus	Christ. God	is	self-revealing	and	beyond	all	form,	yet	present	and	innate	within
all


 traits wer e demonized, criticized, or
denied love and acceptance while others wer e idolized and
shower ed with attention. F rom this time on, we distanced
ourselves fr om any part of ourselves that did not ﬁt into
society’s standar ds or our own ego ideals. W e rejected mor e
and mor e aspects of ourselves for all kinds of r easons—
some because they seemed too bold, others because they
were too silly or foolish. We tried to ﬁgur e out ways to get rid of these unwanted
aspects of our persona until one day we got so distracted
that we for got they e xisted at all. W ith everyone giving us
diﬀer ent messages about which of our many faces we
should show the world, it became safer to listen to the
voices of authority rather than trust in our authentic natur e.
Soon we found ourselves with only a limited range of
emotions. Our self -expression was stiﬂed; the endless
possibilities that wer e once in fr ont of us nar rowed to just
the few. We lear ned how to shut oﬀ life and actually became
comfortable doing it. Eventually we identiﬁed with the
internal character we believed to be most acceptable to
those ar ound us—and chances ar e we ar e still playing some
version of that r ole to this day. We may mak e little changes
here and ther e, but when we tak e an honest look, we may
see that we’ve never r eally r einvented ourselves completely. Chances ar e we’r e like most people—we ﬁx ourselves up a
bit, put a patch over the parts of our lives that ar en’t
working, and cr eate a slightly new version of who we’ve
been. By the time we move thr ough our thirties, most of ourchoices ar e already pr edeter mined in one or mor e areas of
our life. Even the clothes we wear, the foods we eat, the
types of entertainment we seek. The things we fantasize
about ar e even r epetitive and monotonous. As we become mor e present and awar e, we begin to see
how r obotic and trapped we r eally ar e inside the personas
we’ve cr eated. And we can choose to tak e proactive
measur es to deal with the shadows that ar e keeping us
bound and try to br eak fr ee. If we don’t deal with these
shadows, mak e no mistak e—they will deal with us. They will
show up in our r elationships and separate us fr om those we
love, k eep us tied to a job or lifestyle that we outgr ew years
ago, or lead us to an addiction or habits that under mine our
success and happiness. They will blind us fr om seeing the
warning signs of an abusive r elationship or a bad business
deal. They will k eep us in a state of perpetual denial, and in
that state we fail to help those we love when they most
need us, when they ar e faced with their own demons. Every one of us has constructed an ego -based identity in
which we have assigned ourselves an acceptable r ole that
eventually smothers our full self -expression. R ather than
being who we r eally ar e, we become a characterization of
the person we think we “should” be. Over time, our stiﬂed
self-perception becomes the perfect br eeding gr ound for our
shadows to tak e root. Whether this r ole was cr eated to
compensate for some inadequacy that we believed e xisted
within ourselves or as a strategy to meet the e xpectations
of our par ents, car egivers, or friends—if we strive to fulﬁll
our ego’s r ole to the e xclusion of all other r oles that we
could potentially enjoy, we end up cr eating a life devoid of
depth, adventur e, meaning, and ﬂavor. As we begin taking
our assigned r oles too seriously, they get sealed into our
ego structur e. Rarely do we deviate fr om the identity we’ve
created, because we fall into the illusional state of denial
and start to believe we are that identity. Looking ar ound ourown lives, most of us can r ecognize the limitations and
repetitiveness of the r oles we play. Of course, it’s much easier to spot the r oles that our
friends and family members ar e playing than it is to spot our
own. W e can identif y the martyr who will volunteer at the
PTA and tak e on mor e than her fair shar e of the workload
(and then complain about it later), or the neighbor hood
charmer who is pr etending to be super -dad while secr etly
cheating on his wife. W e know who lik es to play the part of
the gossip whor e, who knows the dirt about everyone and
everything (and looks for every opportunity to shar e it). W e
are familiar with the local drama queen, who is always being
victimized in one way or another (whether it’s by getting in
a fender bender or because her husband didn’t bring home
enough money last month). It’s easy to spot the eter nal
optimist who is always the life of the party or the wallﬂower
who always sits passively on the sidelines. What’s incr edible
is that even if the r ole we’ve assigned ourselves is boring,
miserable, r epetitive, or joyless, we cling to it for dear life,
all the while rationalizing why we can’t be mor e than we
already ar e or have mor e than we cur rently do. Unknowingly
we ar e the ones who have typecast ourselves to play some
version of the same character year af ter year and rar ely—if
ever—do we allow ourselves to ventur e into a r ole that we
aren’t familiar with or a level of self -expression we don’t yet
know. If we operate inside the myth that we must squelch, kill
oﬀ, lock up, and hide all of the qualities that mak e us
interesting and unique, we forsak e our right to e xperience
passion and peace. The quest for the perfect life, the perfect
role, and the perfect persona will always leave us unfulﬁlled
—even if we attain it—for the simple r eason that we ar e
much mor e than the small handful of qualities that ﬁt neatly
into our ego ideal. In the pr ocess of trying to e xpress only
those aspects of ourselves that we believe will guarantee us
the acceptance of others, we suppr ess some of our mostvaluable and inter esting featur es and sentence ourselves to
a life of r eenacting the same drama with the same outwor n
script. In this quest for safety and pr edictability, our range of
self-expression shrinks and, with it, our choices. Who and
what we will be tomor row is usually some for m of who we
were yester day, because we can only access the r esour ces
and behaviors of the self that has consented to be seen. In
shutting out the darkness we fear lurks within us because
we fear the destruction it might cause, we also shut oﬀ the
competent, powerful, successful, se xy, funny, and brilliant
parts of ourselves that ar e year ning for e xpression. This is
the root cause of the bor edom we of ten feel in some or
many ar eas of our life. As we sever our r elationship with certain aspects of our
personality, we deny ourselves access to stimulation,
excitement, passion, and cr eativity. One of the most e xciting
aspects of being human is that ther e are literally hundr eds
of inspiring, useful, and powerful parts of ourselves lying
dormant, aching to come out of the shadow and be
integrated into the whole of the self. Ther e is a whole ar ray
of wonderful feelings waiting for an opportunity to move
through our body, bringing us new sensations and new
levels of happiness, joy, and pleasur e. We can’t r eally enjoy
the enor mity of who we ar e, because we have for gotten who
we ar e beyond the bor ders of our own r estricted inter nal
barriers and the constraints we have imposed on our
emotional world. To be r einspir ed in any ar ea of our life, we just have to
look to see which of our shadow aspects or characters have
been driven out of sight, ﬁnd safe and appr opriate ways for
them to e xpress themselves, and invite them once again
onto the stage. W e must challenge ourselves to accept all
the faces of our humanity; otherwise the characters that got
booted oﬀ stage and ar e now r epressed will become the
silent or chestrators of our secr et life. Only in the pr esence ofour entir e, uncensor ed self can we fully understand and
appreciate our totality and our uniqueness. W e must ﬁnd a
good use for every character, or we will r emain


	month,	the	resulting	toxins	will	lead	to	symptoms	of	illness. Thrush	indicates	the	presence	of	large	quantities	of	bacteria	that	have	spread	throughout
the	gastrointestinal	tract	(GI	tract),	including	the	mouth	area. It	shows	up	in	the	mouth
because	the	mucus	lining	there	is	not	as	developed	and	resistant	as	in	the	lower	parts	of	the
GI	tract. The	main	source	of	thrush,	though,	is	in	the	intestines. Since	the	largest	part	of
the	immune	system	in	the	body	is	located	in	the	mucus	lining	of	the	GI	tract,	thrush
indicates	a	major	weakness	in	the	body’s	general	immunity	to	disease. Herpes,	which	doctors	consider	a	viral	disease,	is	similar	to	thrush,	with	the	exception
that,	instead	of	bacteria	attacking	the	cell	exterior,	viral	materials	attack	the	nucleus,	or
cell	interior. In	both	cases,	the	“attackers”	target	only	weak	and	unhealthy	cells—that	is,
cells	that	are	already	damaged	or	dysfunctional	and	are	susceptible	to	mutate	into
cancerous	cells. Added	to	this	survival	drama,	gallstones	can	harbor	quantities	of	bacteria
and	viruses,	which	escape	the	liver	via	the	secreted	bile	and	affect	those	parts	of	the	bodythat	are	the	least	protected	or	already	weakened. The	thing	to	keep	in	mind	is	that	germs
do
not
	infect	the	body	unless	it	requires	their	help. The	intestinal	tract	needs	bile	to	keep
itself	neat	and	clean. Lack	of	bile	in	the	intestines	prevents	this	from	happening. The	next
best	solution	to	removing	harmful	waste	matter	is	to	employ	destructive	germs. Gallstones	can	also	lead	to	other	problems	in	the	mouth. They	inhibit	proper	bile
secretion,	which,	in	turn,	reduces	appetite	and	secretions	of	saliva	from	the	salivary	glands
in	the	mouth. Saliva	is	required	to	cleanse	the	mouth	and	keep	its	tissues	soft	and	pliable. If	not	enough	saliva	is	present,	destructive	bacteria	begin	to	invade	the	mouth	cavity. This
can	lead	to
tooth	decay,	gum	destruction,
	and	other	tooth-related	problems. However,	to
reiterate	the	previously	made	point,	bacteria	do	not	cause	tooth	decay. These	germs	are
attracted	only	to	those	areas	in	the	mouth	that	are	already	congested,	undernourished,	and
acidified. A
bitter	taste
	in	the	mouth	is	caused	by	bile	that	has	regurgitated	into	the	stomach	and,
from	there,	into	the	mouth. This	condition	occurs	because	of	major	intestinal	congestion,
as	seen,	for	example,	during	bouts	of	constipation. Instead	of	properly	moving	downward
and	out	of	the	body,	parts	of	the	intestinal	content	back	up,	which,	in	turn,	may	force	bile,
bacteria,	gas,	toxins,	and	other	irritating	substances	into	the	upper	regions	of	the	GI	tract. Bile	in	the	mouth,	for	example,	drastically	alters	the	pH-value	(acid-alkaline	balance)	of
saliva,	which	inhibits	its	cleansing	action	and	makes	the	mouth	susceptible	to	infectious
germs. A
mouth	ulcer
	in	the	lower	lip	indicates	a	similar	inflammatory	process	in	the	large
intestine. A	repeated	occurrence	of	ulcers	(in	either	one	of	the	two	corners	of	the	mouth)
points	to	the	presence	of
duodenal	ulcers
	(also	see	the	following	section,
Diseases	of	the
Stomach
). Tongue	ulcers,
	depending	on	their	location,	indicate	pockets	of	inflammation
in	corresponding	areas	of	the	alimentary	canal,	such	as	the	stomach,	small	intestine,
appendix,	or	large	intestine. Diseases	of	the	Stomach

As	already	indicated,	gallstones	and	subsequent	digestive	trouble	can	lead	to	regurgitation
of	bile	and	bile	salts	into	the	stomach. Such	an	occurrence	adversely	changes	the
composition	of	gastric	juices	and	the	amount	of	mucus	generated	in	the	stomach. The
mucus	is	there	to	protect	the	surface	stomach	lining	from	the	destructive	effects	of
hydrochloric	acid. The	condition	where	this	protective	“shield”	is	broken	or	diminished	is
known	as
gastritis. Gastritis	can	occur	in	acute	or	chronic	form. When	the	surface	cells	(epithelium)	of	the
stomach	are	exposed	to	acidic	gastric	juice,	the	cells	absorb	hydrogen	ions. This	increases
their	internal	acidity,	counterbalances	their	basic	metabolic	processes,	and	causes	an
inflammatory	reaction. In	more	severe	cases,	there	may	be	ulceration	of	the
mucosa
(peptic	or	gastric	ulcer),
	bleeding,	perforation	of	the	stomach	wall,	and
peritonitis
,
	a
condition	that	occurs	when	an	ulcer	erodes	through	the	full	thickness	of	the	stomach	or
duodenum	and	their	contents	enter	the	peritoneal	cavity. Duodenal	ulcers
	develop	when	acid	leaving	the	stomach	erodes	the	duodenum’s	lining. In	many	cases,	the	acid	production	is	unusually	high. Eating	too	many	foods	that	require
strong	acid	secretions,	as	well	as	improper	food	combining	(for	more	details,	see
Timeless
Secrets	of	Health	and	Rejuvenation
	by	the	author),	often	disturb	balanced	acid	production. Esophageal	reflux,
	commonly	known	as	“heartburn,”	is	a	condition	in	which	stomach
acid	washes	upward	into	the	esophagus	and	causes	irritation	or	injury	to	the	delicate
tissues	lining	the	esophagus. Contrary	to	common	opinion,	this	condition	is	not	due	to	the
stomach’s	making	too	much	hydrochloric	acid,	but	is	due	instead	to	back-flushing	of
waste,	toxins,	and	bile	from	the	intestines	into	the	stomach. In	many	cases,	heartburn
results	when	the	stomach	makes	too	little	hydrochloric	acid,	thereby	forcing	food	to
remain	there	far	too	long	and	to	ferment. Taking	antacids	can	further	impair	the	digestion
of	foods	and	cause	major	damage	to	the	stomach	and	the	rest	of	the	GI	tract. A	number	of	other	causes	of	gastritis	and	heartburn	can	be	identified. They	include
overeating,	consuming	fried	foods,	excessive	alcohol	consumption,	heavy	cigarette
smoking,	drinking	coffee	every	day,	ingesting	soda,	eating	large	quantities	of	animal
protein	and	animal	fats,	and	subjecting	oneself	to	x-ray	radiation,	cytotoxic	drugs,	aspirin,
and	other	anti-inflammatory	drugs. Food	poisoning,	highly	spiced	foods,	iced	beverages,
dehydration,	and	emotional	stress	also	cause	gastric	distress. All	of	these	also	cause
gallstones	in	the	liver	and	gallbladder,	thereby	starting	off	a	vicious	cycle	and	creating
major	disruptions	throughout	the	GI	tract. In	the	final	event,	malignant
stomach	tumors
may	be	formed. Most	medical	doctors	now	believe	that	a	“bug”	(
H. pylori
)	causes	stomach	ulcers. Combating	the	bug	with	antibiotic	drugs	usually	brings	relief	and	stops	the	ulcer. Although	the	drug	does	not	prevent	the	ulcer	from	returning	after	discontinuation,	there	is
a	high	“recovery”


 that because ﬁghting isn’t always ﬁghting. Once I was
having a “dramatic discussion ” with a friend. A mutual
friend of ours spok e up and said, “I can’t stand the way you
guys ar e always ﬁghting.” “W e’re not ﬁghting,” I said. “We’re Jewish.” He thought we wer e ﬁghting; we thought we
were having a passionate conversation. Anger is a hot topic for spiritual seek ers. Many people,
for instance, have an issue with Jesus’s anger with the
money -changers. If Jesus was so pur e, they ask, then how
could he have gotten angry? But no Jew or Italian would
have a pr oblem with that scene. The r emoval of ego is not
the removal of personality. What we call Jesus’s anger was
energy. An outburst of emotion doesn’t have to be so
quickly labeled anger. It’s a r elease of ener gy and doesn’t
have to be thought of as a negative or “unspiritual”
emotion. Just because someone isn’t e xpressing their rage, by the
way, doesn’t mean they don’t have any. Rage tur nedoutwar d is called rage. R age tur ned inwar d is called ulcers
and cancer and things lik e that. The unhealthiest thing you
can do with anger is to deny you have it. The miraculous
perspective is not to pr etend you’r e not angry, but rather to
say, “I’m angry but I’m willing not to be. Dear God, please
show me what it is I’m not seeing.” Ther e is a way of
sharing our anger with people, without e xpressing it as an
attack. Instead of saying, for instance, “Y ou made me feel
this or that,” you say, “This is how I’m feeling. I’m not
saying you made me feel  this way, or that you’r e to blame. I’m simply sharing this as part of my healing, in or der to
release this feeling and move beyond it.” In this way, you’r e
taking r esponsibility for your feelings, and what could have
been seen as an ar gument—or even avoided as unpleasant
—can become an important part of the healing power of
relationships. W e’re then not adversaries in the
conversation, but partners. R eal relationships demand
honest communication, and no matter how painful, no
matter how frightening. A Course in Miracles  says that
miracles arise fr om total communication given and r eceived. When you ask God to heal your life, He shines a very
bright light on everything you need to look at. Y ou end up
seeing things about yourself that maybe you’d rather not
see. W e have a lot of ar mor that has accumulated in fr ont of
our hearts—a lot of fear self -righteously masquerading as
something else. As anyone who has ever been in serious
psychotherapy is well awar e, the pr ocess of personal gr owth
isn’t always easy. We must face our own ugliness. W e often
must become painfully awar e of the unwork ability of a
patter n befor e we’r e willing to give it up. It of ten seems, in
fact, that our lives get worse rather than better when we
begin to work deeply on ourselves. Life doesn’t actually get
worse; it’s just that we feel our own transgr essions mor e
because we’r e no longer anesthetized by unconsciousness. We’re no longer distanced, thr ough denial or dissociation,from our own e xperience. W e’re starting to see the truth
about the games we play. This pr ocess can be so painful that we ar e tempted to go
backwar ds. It tak es courage—this is of ten called the path of
the spiritual war rior—to endur e the sharp pains of self -
discovery rather than choose to tak e the dull pain of
unconsciousness that would last the r est of our lives. I laugh
whenever anyone suggests that A Course in Miracles  has us
taking an easy way out. It’s a lot of things, but it’s not easy. We have to look the ego straight in the eye befor e we have
the power to r elinquish it. The ego isn’t a monster. It’s just the idea of a monster. We all have demons and dragons within us, but we also
have the dashing prince. I’ve never r ead a fairy tale wher e
the dragons triumphed over the prince. And I’ve never r eally
tried to outgr ow a patter n and not had the e xperience of
God’s grace given me when I sincer ely and humbly ask ed. “You tak e the good with the bad,” my father used to tell us
when we wer e childr en. The mor e we lear n about the light
within us, the easier it ultimately becomes to for give
ourselves for the fact that we’r e not perfect yet. If we wer e
perfect, we wouldn’t have been bor n. It’s our mission to
become perfect, however, and looking at wher e we’r e not is
an important part of the pr ocess. W e become perfected
personalities by accepting the spiritual perfection which
already e xsists within us. There is a story about L eonar do da V inci that has always
moved me. Early in his car eer, he was painting a pictur e of
Christ and found a pr ofoundly beautiful young male to
model for his portrait of Jesus. Many years later, L eonar do
was painting a pictur e that included Judas. He walk ed
through the str eets of Flor ence looking for the perfect
person to play the gr eat betrayer. Finally he found someonedark-looking enough, evil-seeming enough to do the job. He
went up to the man to appr oach him to do the modeling. The man look ed at him and said, “Y ou don’t r emember me,
but I know you. Y ears ago, I was the model for your pictur e
of Jesus.”
In the movie Star W ars, Darth V ader tur ns out to have
been a nice guy af ter all, a long time ago. And L ucifer was
the most beautiful angel in Heaven befor e he fell. The ego is
simply wher e a glitch occur red, wher e the wir es got cr ossed,
wher e love became block ed. As many times as I’ve
expressed negativity instead of love in my life, ther e’s one
thing I’m very sure of: I would have done better if I had
known how. I would have e xpressed with love if I had felt at
that moment that I could have, and still had my needs met. Until we fully appr eciate that the ego is the impostor
within us, we of ten feel embar rassed to admit to ourselves,
not to mention anyone else, the games we play. Instead of
feeling compassion for ourselves, and r emembering that our
neuroses ar e our wounds, we tend to be too ashamed to
look at them. W e think we’r e bad. ‘W e think that if we, or
anyone else God forbid, wer e to see the r eal truth about us,
we would all r ecoil in hor ror.’ The truth, rather, is that if we,
or anyone else, wer e to see the r eal truth about us, we
would all be dazzled by the light. In looking deeply into
ourselves, however, we ﬁrst have to face what A Course in
Miracles  calls the ‘ring of fear.’ Befor e the P rince can save
the damsel in distr ess, he has to slay the dragons that
surround her castle. So do we all. Those dragons ar e our
demons, our wounds, our egos, our brilliant ways of denying
love to ourselves and others. The ego’s patter ns have to be
rooted out, deto xed from our system, befor e the pur e love
within us can have a chance to come forth.A spiritual teacher fr om India once pointed out that ther e
is no such thing as a gray sk y. The sk y is always blue. Sometimes, however, gray clouds come and cover the blue
sky. We then think the sk y is gray. It is the same with our
minds. W e’re always perfect. W e can’t not be. Our fearful
patter ns, our dysfunctional habits, take hold within our
minds and cover our perfection. T emporarily. That is all. W e
are still perfect sons of God. Ther e has never been a stor m
that hasn’t passed. Gray clouds never last for ever. The blue
sky does. So what ar e we to do with our fear, our anger, the clouds
that cover the love inside us? R elinquish them to the Holy
Spirit. He transfor ms them thr ough love, and never thr ough
an attack on another person. It is attack, not the anger
itself, which is destructive. Y elling into pillows has become


 u p a shield, but by raisi ng the frequency vibration of y our totalener gy field, so that anything that vibrates at a lower frequency, such as
fear, anger, depression, and so on, now exists in what is virtually a
dif ferent order of reality. It do esn’ t enter your field of consc iousness
anymore, or if it  does you don’ t need to of fer any resistance to i t because
it pa sses right through you. Please don’ t just accept or reject w hat I am
saying. Put it to the test. There is a simp le but powerful self-healing meditation that yo u can do
whenever you feel the need to boost your immune system. It is
particularly ef fective if used when you feel the first symptoms of an
illness, b ut it also works with ill nesses that are already entrenched if you
use it at frequ ent intervals and with an intense focus. It will also
counteract any disruption of your ener gy field by some form of
negativity. How ever, it is not a substitute for the moment-to-moment
practice of being in the bod y; otherwise, its ef fect will only be
temporary. Here it is. When yo u are unoccupied for a few minutes, and especially last thing at
night be fore falling asleep and first thing in the morning before getting
up, “floo d” your body with consciousness. Close your eyes. L ie flat on
your back. Choose dif ferent parts of your body to fo cus your attention on
briefly at first: hands, feet, arms, legs, abdomen, chest, head, and so on. Feel the  life ener gy inside those  parts as intensely as you can. S tay with
each par t for fifteen seconds or so. Then let your attention run  through
the body like a wave a few time s, from feet to head and back again. This
need only take a minute or so. After that, feel the inner body in its
totality, as a single field of ener gy. Hold that feeling for a few minutes. Be intensely present during that time, present in every cell of your body. Don’ t be  concerned if the mind  occasionally succeeds in drawing your
attention out of the body and you lose yourself in some thought. As soon
as you notice that this has hap pened, just return your attention to the
inner body. LET THE BREA TH T AKE YOU INT O THE BODY
At t imes, when my mind has been very active, it has acqui r ed such
momentum that I find it impossible to take my attention away fr o m it and
feel the inner bo dy. This happens particularly when I get into a worry or
anxiety pattern. Do you have any suggestions? If at any time you are finding it hard to get in touch with the inner body,
it is usually easier to focus on your breathing first. Conscious breathing,
which is a powerful meditation i n its own right, will gradually put you in
touch w ith the body. Follow the breath with your attention as it moves in
and out of your body. Breathe into the body, and feel your abdomen
expanding and contracting slightly with each inhalation and exhalation. If y ou find it easy to visualize, close your eyes and see yourself
surrounded by light or immerse d in a luminous substance — a sea of
consciousness. Then breathe in that ligh t. Feel that luminous su bstance
filling u p your body and making it luminous also. Then gradually focus
more on  the feeling. Y ou are now  in your body. Don’ t get attached to any
visual image. CREA TIVE USE OF MIND
If yo u n eed to use your mind for  a specific purpose, use it in con junction
with your inner body. Only if you are able to be conscious  without
thought can you use your mind creatively, and the easiest way to enter
that state is through your body. Whenever an answer, a solution, or a
creative idea is n eeded, stop thinking for a moment by focusing attention
on your  inner ener gy field. Be come aware of the stillness. When you
resume thinking, it will be fresh and creative. In any thought activity,
make it a habit to go back and  forth every few minutes or so between
thinking and an inner kind of lis tening, an inner stillness. W e c ould say:
don’ t just think with your head, think with your whole body. THE AR T OF LISTENING
When listening to another person, don’ t just listen with your mind, listen
with your whole body. Feel the ener gy field of your inner body as youlisten. T hat takes attention away from thinking and creates a still space
that ena bles you to truly listen without the mind interfering. Y ou are
giving the other person space —  space to be. It is the most precious gift
you can  give. Most people don’ t know how to listen because t he major
part of their attention is taken up  by thinking. They pay more attention to
that than to what the other person is saying, and none at all to what really
matters: the Being of the other person underneath the words  and the
mind. O f course, you cannot fe el someone else’ s Being except through
your ow n. This is the beginning of the realization of oneness, which is
love. At the deepest level of Being, you are one with all that is. Most hu man relationships consist mainly of minds interacting with each
other, not of hu man beings communicating, being in commu nion. No
relationship can  thrive in that way, and that is why there is so much
conflict in relationships. When the mind is running your life, conflict,
strife, and problems are inevitab le. Being in touch with your inner body
creates a clear space of no-m ind within which the relationship can
flower.CHAPTER SEVEN
P O R T A L S  I N T O
 T H E  U N M A N I F E S T E D
GOING DEEPL Y INT O THE BODY
I can feel the en er gy inside my body, especially in my arms and  legs, but
I don’ t seem to be able to go mor e deeply, as you suggested earlier. Make it into a m editation. It needn’ t take long. T en to fifteen m inutes of
clock time should be suf ficient. Make sure first that there are no external
distractions such  as telephones o r people who are likely to interrupt you. Sit o n a chair, but don’ t lean ba ck. Keep the spine erect. Doin g so will
help you  to stay alert. Alternati vely, choose your own favorite position
for meditation. Make su re the body is relaxed. Close your eyes. T ake a few deep  breaths. Feel yourself breathing into the lower abdomen, as it were. Observe how
it expan ds and contracts slightly with each in and out breath. Then
become aware of the entire inner ener gy field of the body. Don’ t think
about it — feel  it. By d oing this, you reclaim  consciousness from the
mind. If you fi nd it helpful, use the “light” visualization I described
earlier. When you can f eel the inner bo dy clearly as a single field of ener gy, let
go, if possible, of any visual image and focus exclusively on the feeling. If you can, also drop any mental image you may still have of the physical
body. A ll that is left then is an all-encompassing sense of presence or
“beingness,” and  the inner body  is felt to be without a bounda ry. Thentake your attention even more d eeply into that feeling. Become one with
it. Mer g e with the ener gy field, so that there is no longer a perceived
duality of the o bserver and the observed, of you and your b ody. The
distinction betw een inner and outer also dissolves now, so there is no
inner b ody anymore. By going deeply into the body, you have
transcended the body. Stay in this realm of pure Being for as long as feels comforta ble; then
become aware again of the physical body, your breathing and physical
senses, and open your eyes. Look at your surroundings for a few minutes
in a meditative way — that is,  without labeling them mentally — and
continue to feel the inner body as you do so. Having access to that formless realm is truly liberating. It frees you from
bondage to form and identif ication with form. It is life in its
undif ferentiated state prior to its fragmentation into multiplicity. W e may
call it the Unmanifested, the in visible Source of all things, t he Being
within all beings. It is a realm o f deep stillness and peace, but also of joy
and intense aliveness. Whenever you are present, you become
“transparent” to  some extent to the light, the pure conscious ness that
emanates from this Source. Y ou  also realize that the light is not  separate
from who you are but constitutes your very essence. THE SOURCE OF CHI
Is th e Un manifested what in the East is called chi, a kind of universal life
ener gy? No,


 sugar (FBS)
laboratory test measures glucose metabolism as required in diabetes
mellitus. In the fasting state, blood glucose levels decrease, stimulating
release of the hormone glucagon. Glucagon then raises plasma  glucose by
accelerating glycogenolysis, stimulating glyconeogenesis, and inhibiting
glycogen synthesis. Normally, secretion of insulin checks this rise in
glucose levels. In diabetes, absence or deficiency of insulin allows
persistently high glucose levels. Normal ranges for fasting blood glucose on the FBS laboratory test after
an eight- to twelve-hour fast are:
• fasting serum, 70 to 100 mg/dL;
• fasting whole blood, 60 to 100 mg/dL;
• nonfasting whole blood, 85 to 125 mg/dL in persons over age 50, and
70 to 1 15 mg/dL in persons under age 50. These laboratory readings help to screen for diabetes mellitus and other
disorders of glucose metabolism. They also monitor drug or dietary therapy
for diabetics, insulin requirements for uncontrolled diabetics, and known or
suspected hypoglycemics. Fasting blood glucose levels of 140 to 150 mg/dL or higher obtained on
two or more occasions are diagnostic of diabetes mellitus. Nonfasting levelsthat exceed 200 mg/dL also show diabetes. The elevated blood glucose may
come from pancreatitis, hyperthyroidism, pheochromocytoma, chronic
hepatic disease, brain trauma, chronic illness, chronic malnutrition,
eclampsia, anoxia, and convulsive disorders as well. Depressed blood  glucose occurs from hyperinsulinism, insulin oma, von
Gierke’ s disease, functional or reactive hypoglycemia, hypothyroidism,
adrenal insuf ficiency, congenital adrenal hyperplasia, hypopituitarism, islet
cell carcinoma of the pancreas, hepatic necrosis, and glycogen storage
disease. THE SERUM  IRON AND  TOTAL IRON-BINDING  CAPACITY  LABORA TORY TEST
Two separate blood tests conducted with buffering and coloring reagents
measure (1) the amount of iron bound to the glycoprotein transferrin and (2)
the plasma’ s total iron-binding capacity (TIBC) if all the transferrin were
saturated with iron. The percent age of saturation is obtained by dividing the
serum iron result by the TIBC, which reveals the actual amount of saturated
transferrin. Normal transferrin is 30 percent saturated. Thus, the two tests
(a) estimate total iron storage, (b) diagnose hemochromatosis, (c)
distinguish between iron deficiency anemia and chronic disease anemia,
and (d) evaluate a person’ s nutritional status. Normal serum iron and TIBC values have been determined to be:
In iron deficiency, serum iron falls and TIBC increases to decrease the
saturation. With chronic inflammation as in rheumatoid arthritis, serum iron
is low in the presence of adequate body stores, but TIBC remains
unchanged or drops to preserve normal saturation. Iron overload does not
alter serum levels until relativ ely late in the pathology, but serum iron
increases and TIBC remains the same to increase the saturation. THE ERYTHROCYTE  (RED BLOOD  CELL, RBC) C OUNTTraditionally counted by hand with a hemacytometer, red blood cells
(RBCs) are now commonly counted with electronic devices, which provide
faster, more accurate results. This erythrocyte count does not provide
qualitative information about the RBCs’ hemoglobin content, but it does tell
mean corpuscular volume (MCV) and mean corpuscular hemoglobin
(MCH). Thus, the erythrocyte blood count offers indices for RBC size and
hemoglobin content and supports other hematologic tests in diagnosing
anemia and polycythemia. Depending on age, sex, sample, and geographic location, normal RBC
values in adult males range from 4.5 to 6.2 million/microliter (4.5 to 6.2 x
1,012/L) of venous blood; in adult females from 4.2 to 5.4
million/microliter (4.2 to 5.4 x 1,012/L) of venous blood; in children, 4.6 to
4.8 million /microliter of venous blood; in full-term infants,  4.4 to 5.8
million/ microliter (4.4 to 5.8 x 1,012/L). An elevated RBC count indicates
polycythemia or dehydration; a depressed count shows anemia, fluid
overload, or recent hemorrhag e. With total bed rest, RBC counts drop
considerably from decreased oxygen requirements. THE TOTAL HEMOGLOBIN  (HGB) L ABORA TORY TEST
The total hemoglobin (Hgb) concentration in a deciliter (100ml) of whole
blood is measured by the total hemoglobin laboratory test. The Hgb-RBC
ratio (mean corpuscular hemoglobin or MCH) and free plasma Hgb affect
the RBC count. This test, a usual part of the complete blood count,
measures the severity of anemia or polycythemia, monitors therapy
response, and supplies figures for calculating MCH and mean corpuscular
Hgb concentration. Based on venous blood samples, normal values for dif ferent patients are:
AgeHemoglobin Level
(g/dL)
Less than 7 days 17-22
1 week 15-201 month 11–15
Childr en 11-13
Adult males 14-18
Elderly males 12.4-14.9
Adult females 12-16
Elderly females 11.7–13.8
THE HEMA TOCRIT  (HCT) LABORA TORY TEST
The volume of RBCs packed in a whole blood sample is measur ed by the
hematocrit (Hct) laboratory test. Number and size of the RBCs determine
the Hct concentration, and such a readout aids in the diagnosis of abnormal
states of hydration, polycythemia, anemia, fluid imbalance, blood loss,
blood replacement, and red cell indices. According to a patien t’s sex, age,
laboratory competence, and type of blood sample, the test routinely screens
one’s blood in a complete blood count. Hct reference values range from  40 percent to 54 percent (0.4 to 0.54) for
men and from 37 percent to 47 percent (0.37 to 0.47) for wome n. Low Hct
indicates anemia or hemodilution; high Hct shows polycythemia or
hemoconcentration caused by blood loss. If a hematoma develops at the
venipuncture site, ease discomfo rt by applying ice, followed later by warm
soaks. THE ERYTHROCYTE  INDICES  LABORA TORY TEST
Mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular hemoglobin
(MCH), and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) are the
three measurem ents accomplis hed by the erythrocyte indices laboratory
test. The MCV expresses the average size of erythrocytes and indicates
whether they are undersized (microcytic), oversized (mac rocytic), or
normal (normoc ytic). MCH gives the weight of hemoglobin in an averagered cell. MCHC defines the concentration of Hgb in 100 mL of packed red
cells. The normal RBC indices are:
MCV = 84 to 99 cubic microliters/red cell (femtoliters (fl)/red cell)
MCH = 26 to 32 picograms (pg)/red cell
MCHC = 30% to 36% (300 to 360 g/L)

These indices aid in diagnosing  and classifying anemia. Low MCV and
MCHC show microcytic hypochromic anemias caused by iron deficiency
anemia, pyridoxine-responsive anemia, or thalassemia. High MCV
indicates macrocytic anemia caused by megaloblastic anemias coming from
folic acid or vitamin B12 deficiency, inherited disorders of DNA synthesis,
or reticulocytosis. THE ERYTHROCYTE  SEDIMENT ATION  RATE (ESR)
Measuring the time required for erythrocytes in a whole blood sample to
settle to the bottom of a vertical tube, the erythrocyte sedimentation rate
(ESR) is a sensitive but nonspecific test that indicates the presence of
disease when other chemical or physical signs are normal. It rises in
widespread inflammatory disorders caused by infection, autoimmune
disease, or malignancy. Thus, the ESR monitors inflammatory or malignant illness and detects
occult disease such as tuberculosis (TB), tissue necrosis, or connective
tissue disorders. The normal ESR ranges from 0 to 20 mm/hour. It rises in
pregnancy, acute or chronic inflammation, TB, paraproteinemias, rheumatic
fever, rheumatoid arthritis, and some cancers. ESR also rises in anemia. ESR drops in polycythemia, sickle


. These are places not where you’re bad, but
where you’re wounded. Yet our wounds do not necessarily look like
wounds to other people; they’re more likely to appear as character defects
that only set us up for further pain. All of us have character defects, of course. But salvation lies in our
willingness to change the way we are, not in the endless analysis about why
we are the way we are. At a certain point, you don’t keep trying to
understand why you’re needy, negative, controlling, or manipulative. You
simply realize you are, admit you are, and ask God to change you. Dear God,
I know I am harsh wher e I would be gentle, weak wher e I should be str ong, judgmental wher e
I should be mer ciful. I am willing to change. Please show me how. Amen
Scan your perso nality as though you are looking at yourself from above. See how you manifest to the world, and ask yourself honestly how you
come across to others. Reflect on the fact that the life you’re  living is a
result of the person you’ve become. Who we are in the world is based on moment-by-moment decisions. Every moment we decide, consciously or unconsciously, whether to face
life with an open or closed heart. Whether to embrace the innocence inothers and express lovingly, or to constrict in defensiveness, judgment, and
unprocessed pain. Fake it till you make it means practice till it’s real. And
what we find when we do something like that is that doing something
makes  it real. I have a friend named Kathy who comes from Geor gia, and she has a
way of addressin g almost all her friends as “My love.” One day I decided to
do that too, and it was amazing the changes I felt as I did. Coming from
Texas, I was already big on calling people “Darling”—sort of longish for
the “Darlin’” I had grown up around—but “My love” took things to another
place. I don’t know if I’ve kept it up, but I know I felt a shift when I did it. It’s hard to snap at someone when you’re calling them “My love.”
Words are not just an expressio n of thought; they also create thought. And every thought we think takes us, and those around us, straight to
heaven or straight to hell. Accor ding to A Course in Miracles, heaven isn’t a
condition or a place, but an awareness of our oneness. And hell is the state
of anxiety that results when we feel separate from others. Neither happen
after we die; they happen in any moment. Every thought takes us in some
way closer to the awareness of our oneness or to the anxiety of feeling
separate and alone. Again, this isn’t about what we get from others. We only
get what we choose to give away. Deciding who we choose to be in any moment is more import ant than
any other decision, because it determines all others and influences all
others. If I think of myself as a victim, I will behave as a victim and come
across as a victim. If I think of myself as less than, I will behave in ways
that are less than and I will appear that way to others. If I judge others, I
will behave in ways that of fend them and thus keep love at bay. Yet all these deadly games begin to grow old after a while, not only to
us but to those around us. I can think of few more cringe-filled experiences
than looking around and realizing that people find you pathetic—or worse. This might be the moment when you realize that your way isn’t
working. When you grow sick and tired of being sick and tired. That’ s often
when people fall to their knees, looking for an escape from their habitual
patterns of self-sabotage and pain. Such a moment,  of course, is not a eureka experience that autom atically
changes everything. Simply knowing that we need to change doesn’ t
necessarily mean we know how to. Often our emotional muscles have
congealed around mental habits that formed so long ago we can’t evenremember their source. They then burrowed into our subconscious mind
and continue to dictate our thoughts and behavior. When I was growing up, the entrances into many areas of power were
still closed to women that are not closed now. It felt as though we had to
grow claws on our fingernails in order to make our way into rooms that
were much easier for men to enter. What I found—a nd I think this is true of many women around my age—
is that even when the doors had been opened and I no longer needed my
claws, it was as though they’d  become cemented into my fingernails. A
certain harshnes s in my personality had become a mental habit, like an
emotional muscle that seemed permanently cramped. I imagined opponents
who weren’t even there, then suffered the consequences of treating people
as though they were. For where we don’t extend love, we project fear. We
are subconsciou sly setting people up to become who we’ve already decided
they were. The ego doesn’ t deny your suffering. It simply says other peop le are to
blame for it—which then maintains the separation, as people keep
appearing in your life to consta ntly disappoint you. What the ego doesn’ t
want you to see are all the subco nscious and brilliant ways you set them up
to do that. Spiritual rebirth  is not an easy process; like physical birth, it can be
messy and difficult. It takes brutal self-honesty to recognize the parts of us
that need to die. First we come to see that a pattern is ego, that it’s dysfunctio nal and
doesn’ t serve us. But that doesn’ t mean it necessarily goes away, that it
immediately stops. If anything, the pattern sometimes seems to become
more prevalent, more obvious, as though the Holy Spirit puts a magnifying
glass onto that aspect of our personality so we have no choice but to attend
to it. This is why it often feels as though once you get serious about the
spiritual path, things can seem  to get worse before they get better. Your
character defects  were operative before, but you were sort of anesthetized to
them, able to get by with pretending they weren’ t much of an issue. But
once we do admit we have them, the work begins. You still might behave in
a dysfunctional way, but you can no longer pretend to yourself that you’re
not doing so.The fact that we’re admitting our issues is a good thing, but the ego is
very sly here. The ego loves to talk about itself and thoroughly  enjoys this
part of the proce ss. It doesn’ t mind you owning your shadow, so long as you
blame someone else for why you are the way you are. Contrary to the psychotherapeut ic trend, it doesn’ t really matter how our
neurotic patterns  got started. Some say they started with Mommy or Daddy,
or with social or ancestral patterns, and all that might be true. But
metaphysically it all started millions of years ago with the first thought of
separation. All that’s happened since then is that we keep repeating it. What
matters is not where the fear came from, but that it’s lodged in your brain. And analyzing the darkness doesn’ t necessarily turn on the light. At a certain point it doesn’ t really matter where you got your issues. They’re yours now. And no matter who your parents were, you can be
reparented by God. Your parents birthed your mortal self; God Himself
birthed the real you. We don’t heal our lives in the past but in the present. We’re not held
back by the love we didn’ t receive in the past but by the love we’re refusing
to give right now. In this moment, we can make a better choice. But that’s
not alwa ys easy, and sometimes it takes more than simply positive thinking. Sometimes it’s not enough to just tell ourselves to act differently. Sometimes we need God’ s help. And lo and behold, He is always there. OceanofPDF.comPositively You
The ego is simply a false belief, but beliefs—particularly unrecognized
beliefs—are very powerful. The ego is the power of your mind turned
against you, in opposition to who you truly are. The ego will use any scrap of evidence with which to prosecute its case
against you: you’re too average, too poor, too boring, too uneducated, too
unpopular, too young, too old, or whatever else might prove your
unworthiness. If you’re  skirtin g failure, it will appear as a fear of failure. It will tell
you what a loser you are and make you too afraid to keep trying. If you’re skirting success, it will appear as a fear of success. It will set
you up for a fall by telling you that you know more than you actually do. If you’re in a relationship, it will appear as a fear of intimacy. It will tell
you it’ s unsafe to be vulnerable and will create barriers to deep relationship. If you’re not in a relationship, it will make you cynical. It will tell you
that you’ll never find someone and there aren’ t any good people out there
anyway. The ego will


 hours a day and never sleeps. It is
always trying to help and preserve you from harm. Your subconscious mind is in touch with infinite life and boundless
wisdom, and its impulses and ideas are always life-ward. The gr eat
aspirations, inspirations, and visions for a grander and nobler life,
spring from the subconscious. Your profoundest convictions are those
you cannot argue about rationally because they do not come from your
conscious mind; they come from your subconscious mind. Your
subconscious speaks to you in intuitions, impulses, hunches,
intimations, urges, and ideas, and it is always telling you to ris e,
transcend, grow, advance, adventure, and move forward to greater
heights. The urge to love, to save the lives of others comes from the
depths of your subconscious. For example, during the great San
Francisco earthquake and fire of April 18, 1906, invalids and cripples
who had been confined to bed for long periods of time, rose up and
performed some of the most amazing feats of bravery and enduranc e.
The intense desire welled up within them to save others at all  costs,
and their subconscious responded accordingly. Great artists, musicians, poets, speakers, and writers tune in with
their subconscious powers and become animated and inspired. For
example, Robert Louis Stevenson, before he went to sleep, us ed to
charge his subconscious with the task of evolv-ing stories for  him
while he slept. He was accustomed to ask his subconscious to g ive
 88  him a good, marketable thriller when his bank account was low. Stevenson said the intelligence of his deeper mind gave him the  story
piece by piece, like a serial. This shows how your subconsci ous will
speak lofty and wise sayings through you, which your conscious mind
knows nothing about. Mark Twain confided to the world on many occasions that he never
worked in his life. All his humor and all his great writ-ings were due
to the fact that he tapped the inexhaustible reser-voir of h is
subconscious mind. • How the body portrays the workings of the mind
The interaction of your conscious and subconscious mind requires a
similar interaction between the corresponding system of nerve s. The
cerebrospinal system is the organ of the conscious mind, and th e
sympathetic systemis the organ of the subcon-scious mind. The
cerebrospinal system is the channel through which you receive
conscious perception by means of your five physical senses and
exercise control over the movement of your body. This system ha s its
nerves in the brain, and it is the chan-nel of your volitional and
conscious mental action. The sympathetic system, sometimes referred to as the in-v oluntary
nervous system, has its center in a ganglionic mass at the ba ck of the
stomach known as the solar plexus, and is some-times spoken of as
the abdominal brain. It is the channel of that mental action whic h
unconsciously supports the vital func-tions of the body. The two systems may work separately or synchronously. Judge
Thomas Troward says, “The vaguest nerve passes out of the cere bral
region as a portion of the voluntary system, and through it we c ontrol
the vocal organs; then it passes onward to the thorax sending out
branches to the heart and lungs; finally, passing through the
diaphragm, it loses the outer coating which distinguishes the ner ves of
the voluntary system and becomes identified with those of the
sympathetic system, so forming a connecting link between the two
and making the man physically a single entity. 89  “Similarly different areas of the brain indicate their con-nection
with the objective and subjective activities of the mind respectively,
and speaking in a general way we may assign the frontal portion of the
brain to the former and the posterior portion to the latter, wh ile the
intermediate portion partakes of the character of both.”
A rather simple way of looking at the mental and physical
interaction is to realize that your conscious mind grasps an idea, which
induces a corresponding vibration in your voluntary sys-tem of nerves. This in turn causes a similar current to be gen-erated i n your
involuntary system of nerves, thus handling the idea over to your
subconscious mind, which is the creative me-dium. This is how your
thoughts become things. Every thought entertained by your conscious mind and ac-cepted as
true is sent by your brain to your solar plexus, the brain of your
subconscious mind, to be made into your flesh, and to be brought forth
into your world as a reality. • There is an intelligence which takes care of the body
When you study the cellular system and the structure of the organs,
such as eyes, ears, heart, liver, bladder, etc., you learn they c onsist of
groups of cells which form a group intelligence whereby they  function
together and are able to take orders and carry them out in deduct ive
function at the suggestion of the master mind (conscious mind). A careful study of the single-celled organism shows you what goes
on in your complex body. Though the mono-cellular organism has no
organs, it still gives evidence of mind action and reaction per forming
the basic functions of movement, ali-mentation, assimilation, and
elimination. Many say there is an intelligence, which will take care of your body
if you let it alone. That is true, but the difficulty is that the conscious
mind always interferes with its five-sense evi-dence based on outer
appearances, leading to the sway of false beliefs, fears, and mere
opinion. When fear, false beliefs, and negative patterns ar e made to
register in your subconscious mind through psychological, emotional
 90  conditioning, there is no other course open to the subconscious mind
except to act on the blue-print specifications offered it. • The subconscious mind works continually for the common good
The subjective self within you works continuously for the genera l
good, reflecting an innate principle of harmony behind all things. Your subconscious mind has its own will, and it is a very real
something in itself. It acts night and day whether you act upon it or not. It is the b uilder
of your body, but you cannot see, hear, or feel it building, as all this is
a silent process. Your subconscious has a life of its own whic h is
always moving toward harmony, health, and peace. This is the divin e
norm within it seeking expression through you at all times. • How man interferes with the innate principle of harmony
To think correctly, scientifically, we must know the “Truth. ” To
know the truth is to be in harmony with the infinite intelli-ge nce and
power  of your subconscious mind, which is always moving lifeward. Every thought or action, which is not harmonious, whether through
ignorance or design, will result in discord and limitation of all kinds. Scientists inform us that you build a new body every eleven m onths;
so you are really only eleven months old from a physical standpoint. If
you build defects back into your body by thoughts of fear, anger,
jealousy, and ill will, you have no one to blame but yourself. You are the sum total of your own thoughts. You can keep from
entertaining negative thought and imagery. The way to get rid o f
darkness is with light; the way to overcome cold is with heat ; the way
to overcome the negative thought is to substitute the good thought. Affirm the good, and the bad will vanish. • Why it ’s normal to be healthy, vital, and strong it ’s abnormal to
be sick
The average child born into the world is perfectly healthy with all
its organs functioning perfectly. This is the normal state, and w e
 91  should remain healthy, vital, and strong. The instinct of self-
preservation is the strongest instinct of your nature, and it constitutes a
most potent, ever-present, and constantly opera-tive truth, inhe rent in
your nature. It is, therefore, obvious that all your thoughts, i deas, and
beliefs must operate with greater potentiality when they  are in
harmony with the innate life-principle in you, which is forever seeking
to preserve and protect you along all lines. It follows from thi s that
normal conditions can be restored with greater ease and certai nty than
abnormal conditions can be induced. It is abnormal to be sick; it simply means you are going a gainst the
stream of life and thinking negatively. The law of life is the  law of
growth; all nature testifies to the operation of this law  by silently,
constantly expressing itself in the law of growth. Where there  is
growth and expression, there must be life; where there is l ife there
must be harmony, and where there is harmony, there is perfect health. If your thought is in harmony with the creative principle of y our
subconscious mind, you are in tune with the innate prin-ciple of
harmony. If you entertain thoughts which are not in accordance with
the principle of harmony, these thoughts cling to you, harass you,
worry you, and finally bring about disease, and if persisted in,
possibly death. In the healing of disease, you must increase the inflow and
distribution


 So far as our studies have shown, booze has little
or nothing to do with choked arteries one way or the other. In my sixty years I have seen no one better
themselves by drinking it, but I have seen dozens of fine talented people throw their lives away for it. Milk, freshly squeezed juices, canned tomato ju ice, tea, coffee, and soda pop (except lime-lemon) are
rated in descending health value in the order listed. Some people have a hard time digesting milk, some
are allergic to tomato or orange, others find coffee makes them nervous or nauseated. On balance, tea is
probably the blandest of all, though has little nutritional value except for the milk and sugar. It is a great mistake to make up a lot of fruit juice at  home and drink it later. It goes through important
changes in chemistry which greatly reduce the food value. Digestion begins in the mouth. As you chew your food, your saliva flows from two big glands under
your tongue and two at the angle of your lower jaw. Saliva is not just "spit", it contains important
digestive juices which mix with your food to mois ten it, neutralize toxins, and commence digestion. When you begin to chew, your stomach begins to secrete digestive juices and prepare itself to receive
the food at a regulated moderate rate. This is Nature's plan. How foolish we are to blend or juice a food
and drink it down quickly. We have shortcut our natu ral functions and cheated ourselves. Juice hits our
stomach in a concentrated unprepared condition, and ups ets our digestive process. Put that power juicer
or blender on a high shelf, and chew your food. That's what teeth are for. 20. HOW GOOD LIVESTOCK PRODUCTS CAN BE OBTAINED
   Healthful meat and eggs can be obtained and money saved by buying direct from
farmers who keep livestock in green pastures. There are many small abattoirs and meat packing plants that slaughter, cut, and
wrap meat on a personalized custom basis. These plants will help one find good
livestock, and so will the county farm and home agents. The meat can be kept in a locker plant or in a home freezer, but one should avoid
buying more at a time than can be used before it becomes stale. In the case of large animals, it is best to divide the meat between several families. It is essential to freeze meat rapidly, else it will not keep well. The frost-free
freezers have a concealed fan that circulates air when the door is closed, so they freeze meat much faster than the chest type. When storing un-frozen meat, it should
be off the bottom of the freezer on a rack, not touching the bottom, sides or other
packages. Not more than three pounds of un-frozen meat per cubic foot of freezer
should be put at one time in a chest type freezer, or five pounds per cubic foot in a
frost free freezer, otherwise it will freeze too slowly. If there is an ice plant nearby it is best to take the wrapped meat there to be quick frozen and then the freezer can be
filled at one time. Almost any livestock pasture may contain certain weeds and herbs which are foul tasting or slightly
poisonous, and when eaten by livestock during times of grass scarcity can cause adverse effects in food
products. The flavor of milk is easily affected by such plants as wild onion and garlic, bitterweed,
marsh elder, etc., and temporary symptoms such as nausea, dizziness, trembling, headache, and bowel upset can result from drinking weedy milk. It is a good plan to pen animals for a day or so before slaughter to allow time for weedy substances to
be cleared out of the meat. 21. THE GOOD QUALITY OF VEGETABLES AND FRUITS
   Few people know that the fruit and vegetables sold on the raw produce counters and roadside stands
are actually still living. Even though cut loose from the parent plant or soil and thus doomed, they still
live on for a period of weeks or months if they are kept cool and moist. These products if not wilted or
decayed are definitely fresh food. The nutritional quality of nearly all the fresh raw vegetables and fruits offered for sale is quite good,
far better than the livestock products commercially available. Organically raised produce is usually
superior and worthwhile if available in a fresh raw condition. Processing such as grinding, canning, cooking, and even freezing of course kills these products, and
after death they become stale and develop fatty rubbish faster than do meat products. "Left-over" cooked vegetables should not be eaten. Cook only enough for one meal. In the case of large vegetables like cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, or celery, don't cook "the whole
thing" and have to eat left-overs. Cut off just enough for one meal, and leave the stem part still attached
so the rest can remain alive in the refrigerator for ot her meals in the next few days. If something like an
apple or melon becomes dried out or discolored where it was cut, trim off and discard a thin slice to get
down to the fresh part. In this way you can keep a variety of vegetables and enjoy them fresh for each meal. You can cook
several kinds together in one vapor-cooker bowl (Pag e 37) without the flavors mixing. The kinds which
take the longest to cook are put in first, and the quick-cooking kinds added at the proper time, so all will be done at once. Add butter and salt at the table, and you can eat like a king for only a few cents,
with little work and no pots to wash. Don't cook your vegetables down to a mush; only cook until
tender, to avoid destroying the vitamins and health factors. For defense against microbes, insects, and animal s, Nature has put toxic substances of various kinds
into all plants, otherwise they would have been completely devoured and perished from the earth long ago. This is why fruits and vegetables are a little bit toxic to us when we eat them, and if too much of
one kind at a time is eaten we may have stomach ache, headache, bowel upset, etc. Or if we eat the
same kind every day for a long period serious illness can result. But this is nothing to worry about, for there is no danger if we eat a variety of fruits and vegetables and not get into a rut by trying to live on
just one or two kinds. Many people have been misled into thinking that anything "natural" is harmless, but this is far from
true. Many plants and seeds, in fact nearly all plants except conventional vegetables, fruits and grains,
are much too toxic for humans to eat, and some are deadly poison. For instance, atropine and strychnine, two of the most deadly poisons, are extracted from plants. This is why we should stick to
conventional fruits and vegetables that have been found best by long experience. 22. SUN-DRIED FOODS
   In dried fruits the natural contents are gr eatly concentrated by removal of the water,
resulting in a tendency toward toxic reacti ons in sensitive persons. Dates frequently
cause sore spots in the mouth and lips as well as stomach upset. Fresh pineapple,
while not a dried food, can cause similar eff ects. The effect of dried figs in producing
loose bowels is widely known. Dried peaches and apricots have been known to have
such effects. Raisins are much milder, however some sensitive people have such symptoms from them. 23. REFINED OILS AND SHORTENINGS
   Fresh foods from either vegetable or an imal sources contain a considerable amount
of oil, so if fresh foods are eaten our oil requirements are well taken care of. Most commercial oils and shortenings are highly refined by heat and chemicals,
stabilizing them to such an extent that they are not readily assimilated by the flesh and
thus remain in the bloodstream, diluting the blood so grossly that nowadays when
people are autopsied after death large masse s of yellow oil are found in the heart
chambers and main arteries instead of blood. This shocking dilution  of the blood by
processed oils leads to nutritional deficien cies because the fat-soluble nutrients and
vitamins in the blood are dissolved in the oil and thus locked up and withheld from
use by the body. Any slight reduction in blood cholesterol due to eating these "poly-
unsaturated" oils is more apparent than real, only due to dilution of the blood by the oil. The Food and Drug Administration issued a ruling on December 10, 1959,
holding that any advertising claims for fats and oils having a beneficial effect on heart
disease are false and unlawful. "Tri-glycerides" are simply these oils diluting the
blood. Butter is one of the richest sources of high quality health-building materials, and has
delicious flavor as well. True, it costs more than margarine, but in the overall grocery
bill you would hardly find the difference. Margarine is an "empty calorie" food,
having little health-building value. Like some other foods, butter varies in quality, taste, and color due to the location
where the milk was produced, time of year, weather, care in churning and packing,
etc. Even under a single brand label, it will not always be the same, due to these
variations and the fact that packers buy wholesale lots from various parts of the country. It is wise to shop around and try different brands to find the best available in
your area. Besides the big national bra nds available everywhere, there are many
regional brands just


 He also serves as the
Joseph P. and Rose F. Kennedy Professor of Neurology at
Harvard Medical School. OceanofPDF.comWhen ﬁrst published, Quantum Healing  was a provocative
title based on a controversial idea. The idea was that the
mind inﬂuences the body either to be sick or well. Twenty-
ﬁve years ago the mind-body connection struck most
doctors as weak science,  bad science, or not science at all. Their medica l school training taught them about  systems,
organs, tissu es, and cells—end of story. Somewhere on the
fringes lurked the placebo eﬀect, a suspicious oddity few
doctors paid attention to. Patients got better when given
sugar pills they thoug ht were drugs. Sometimes the
placebo eﬀect was just as eﬀective as the drugs. Why? Hardly anyone cared. Placebos were dismissed as
psychosomatic. In other words, they weren’t “real
medicine.” I vivid ly remember the reaction of hospital
colleagues in Boston when they discovered my newfound
interest in the mind-body connection. With a frown or a
pitying smile they asked, “Do you really believe in such a
thing?” Almost three decades later I can reply, “You don’t?”
Controversial ideas have a way of becoming main stream,
and that’s what happened to the mind-body connection. No
longer does anyone have to defend their belief in
meditation, yoga, stress reduction, anger management, and
a host of positive lifestyl e changes. These measures have
one thing in common: Better messages are being sent fromthe mind to the body. With better messages a higher state
of wellbeing is possible. No one disputes this anymore. The ﬂoodgates have opened, and today Quantum Healing
could be doubled in size by introducing just a fraction of
the new evidence supporting the mind-body connection. Medical school training is still about systems, organs,
tissues, and cells, but that’s no longer the end of the story. A new ﬁeld known as integrative medicine has sprung up
since 1989. It incorporates what used to be called
alternative medicine, along with traditional healing
modalities like Ayurveda, which played a large part in my
own journey, as this book recounts. Yet the mystery of healing is far from solved. I was
baﬄed by Chitra, the ﬁrst patient mentioned in the book,
who somehow recovered from breast cancer without
beneﬁt of conventional treatment (only to die just as
mysteriously). Such cases of spontaneous remission
continue to occur. Just this month I encountered a young
man who had struggled with stomach cancer for six years,
ﬁnally giving up on chemotherapy because  of its
debilitating side eﬀects. His cancer had metastasized throughout his body, to the
bones and liver. Given six months to live, he traveled to
India, where his family originated, and renounced the
hectic life of New York City for the peace and quiet of the
rural countryside. He took up meditation and yoga. He
became a strict vegetarian. He immersed himself in the
most traditional practices of Ayurveda, practices that have
roots going back thousands of years. As of three months
ago his scans show that he is entirely free of cancer. There are thousands of spontaneous remissions of cancer
found in Western medica l journals, and yet it’s fair to say
that they make hardly any diﬀerence in the routine practice
of oncology, not directly at least. Cancer treatment has
advanced over the past quarter century, but the path it hasfollowed—toward genetics, sharply focused drugs, and
more precise statistics—has little to do with the mind-body
connection. Instead, the inﬂuence of spontaneous remissions has
been indirect, by motiva ting research into heali ng itself. Genetics is a crucial key in cancer, and the mind can
inﬂuence genes. Literally thousands of genetic markers are
improved through meditation, for example. Inﬂammation
could be just as crucial in the onset and spread of cancer,
and inﬂammation is stress related. Stress is a reaction that
begins in the mind, and a person’s mindset can be changed. Lifestyle choices that lead to obesity, lack of sleep, and
distorted biorhythms are being connected to cancer, and
these bad choices can be reversed. *1
In short, there’s nothing about cancer that is separate
from the mind in one way or another. This realization led
the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston to announce
the following in 2008: “Only 5–10% of all cancer cases can
be attributed to genetic defects, whereas the remaining 90–
95% have their roots in the environment and lifestyle.”*2
This represents an enormous shift in attitude. When I was
in medical school, 95 percent of cancers were considered
nonpreventable. If Quantum Healing  is to remain relevan t, a new
controversial idea is needed. What if all healing is
quantum? Then every barrier separating mind and body
would come down. Every cell would be conscious, not just
brain cells. Beyond the boundary of the skin, all of life
would be conscious, arising on a conscious planet in a
conscious universe. To the ﬁve senses, body, planet, and
universe are not one and the same. But at the quantum
level they have a common source. To quote the great
quantum pioneer Erwin Schrödinger, “To divide or multiplyconsciousness is something meaningless….In truth there is
only one mind.”
You and I go through life assuming that we have
individual minds and bodies. When one person burns his
hand on a radiator, he says “Ouch,” not the person standing
next to him. But at the quantum level this changes—you
and I are imbedded in one mind, a cosmic intelligence that
creates, gove rns, and controls reality. Where is this cosmic
intelligence located? Schrödinger comes to our aid again by
dissolving all the everyday barriers that keep us from
seeing our cosmic status. First, the barrier of separate minds: “Consciousness is a
singular that has no plural.” Next, the barrier of past,
present, and future: “Mind is always now. There is really no
before and after for the mind.” Finally, the barrier between
life and death: “Consciousness is pure, eternal and inﬁnite:
it does not arise nor cease to be. It is ever present in
moving and unmoving creatures, in the sky, on the
mountain, in ﬁre and in air.”
This last quote doesn’t come from Schrödinger, however,
but from one of the most ancient texts in the Indian
spiritual tradition, the Yoga Vasistha. The fact that a sage
living thousands of years ago could take an inner journey
and make discoveries consistent with quantum physics
wasn’t news  when Quantum Healing  came out. But the
world of sages, seers, and saints felt closed oﬀ from
ordinary life back then. All the ensuing research  in mind-
body medicine has helped to build a bridge between two
worlds, and the sage Vasistha, like Buddha, could be our
contemporary. What would it take to turn all healing into quantum
healing? I will addre ss this, the most burning question
facing modern medicine, in the expanded edition you’re
now reading. After each chapter you’ll ﬁnd a section titled
“Expanding the Topic,” which approaches the mystery ofhealing as viewed by cutting-edge medical research and
the world’s wisdom traditions. Beyond the mind-body connection there is a deeper
connection between now and eternity. The human brain
knows only the now. Every electrical impulse or chemical
reaction in your brain occurs right this second. The
feedback between mind and body is being replenished
thousands of times a minute. We can take great hope in this
fact, because it means that the entire universe has
conspired to bring about this very minute. Inﬁnite
creativity, intelligence, and power are supporting us once
we open ourselves up to them. When I wrote this book, I knew it was pointing in the
right direction. If I felt the barbs of skeptics then (and
there were many), I was conﬁdent that conﬁrming studies
were still to come. Now the idea of quantum healing has
had nearly thirty years of supporting research. Let’s hope
this expanded edition prompts open-minded readers to
revisit this concept. Hope is born from impossible ideas. To
the skeptical mind, the most impossible idea is this: We are
children of the universe. Our source is beyond all
boundaries. Seeing ourselves as isolated, limited physical
creatures is merely an assumed identity. I suppose those
are three ideas, but once they are fused into a new
mindset, the era of true healing will have arrived. *1 In 2013 the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that
a third of cancer cases were related to smoking and another third to obesity. *2 The cited lifestyle factors include cigarette smoking, diet (fried foods, red
meat), alcohol, sun exposure, environmental pollutants, infections, stress,
obesity, and physical inactivity. Ocean


scrutiny. Rather than being branded miraculous by religion
or science, they stand as the mute, inglorious Miltons of the
healing process. Ayurveda extends their ability to everyone. The Ayurvedic
approach is to take a process already going on in the body
and assist it naturally and without strain. Any pain or
disease you have is like an island of discomfort surrounded
by an ocean  of comfort, for in comparison to any one
disease, your healthy awareness is as big as an ocean. Assuming that you are normally constituted, there is no
innate reason why you cannot heal any disease with
awareness. (In old age, or in cases of chronic illness, our
inner abilities get depleted; therefore, Ayurveda cannot
guarantee a cure because sometimes it is not there in
nature’s scheme.) The bliss technique gives the patient the experience of
himself as pure awareness, the ocean of well-being that is
our basic prop and susten ance. With this technique alone it
is possible to “drown” a disease in awareness and cure it. However, like the hypnotic subjects who can focus their
attention to make a bliste r appear, it is also usefu l to focus
attention more precisely to heal. For that, the primordialsound techni que exists. With it, a speciﬁc tumor or arthritic
joint can be attended to; a weak heart or clogged arteries
can be zeroed in on. You are not attacking the disorder with
the primordial sound but paying closer attention to it—so
close that the distortion of awareness lurking at the bottom
of the disorder falls back into line. In earlier chapters I
called this process banishing the ghost of memory. Together, meditation, the bliss technique, and primordial
sound are the practical application of all that I have been
building up to, the tools of quantum healing. Let me
illustrate them with a case study, and afterward I will
explain their connection to bliss. Laura is a young woman from Boston who contracted
breast cance r in her mid-thirties. Confronted with her
diagnosis, she elected for personal reasons not to undergo
any conventional treatment, despite her doctor’s anxious
insistence that without treatment she would be dead in less
than two years. Today, three years later, she is still alive
and on the surface appears perfectly normal. Her X rays
reveal that the tumor has not shrunk, but its growth, if any,
has been slight. This implies that Laura is still in
considerable danger, but in her own mind, her present
state is a great victory. Although her cancer is still present, it has not followed
what doctors call the “expected natural history” of the
disease. Dr. Yujiro Ikemi, one of Japan’s leading experts in
psychosomatic medicine, has surveyed sixty-nine patients
whom he considers to have had spontaneous regressions of
cancer. It is not necessary for the cancer cells to disappear
entirely, Dr. Ikemi notes— he looks for other signs, such as
that the tumor is growing abnormally slowly, the patient
has not wasted away, and the malignancy has not spread to
other parts of the body. These signs are enough to indicate
a spontaneous regression in Ikemi’s view, and Laura ﬁts
them all.Laura was already meditating when I ﬁrst saw her. In
1987 she went through two weeks of inpatient Ayurvedic
treatment and was taught primordial sound and the bliss
technique, both of which can be used during meditation. Let us say that the mind has settled down in meditation and
is expe riencing itself as silence. Bliss is in that silence, just
as intelligenc e is. You cannot “feel” that you are intelligent,
but you can feel bliss. The bliss technique bring s it out for
the mind to register in various ways—as warmth in some
part of the body, tingling, a ﬂowing sensation, or several
other physical manifestations. Bliss remains abstract, but a
sort of “after glow” is being picked up during the technique. Primordial sound, on the other hand, is quite focused—it
brings the awareness of bliss directly to the diseased area
of the body. (One does not have to think of all this as
happening separately. The bliss level of awareness is
always present; the techniques simply draw the conscious
mind to it. Once bliss is experienc ed, the mind-body
connection has been made.) As soon as she learned the techniques, Laura felt
immediate positive eﬀec ts. The primord ial sounds went
right to the breast area, she told me. At times they induced
a throbbing feeling, heat, or even pain; most of the time,
however, she would sit down with pain in that area and the
technique would cause it to go away. The most dramatic
results, subjectively, came from the introduction of bliss. I
asked Laura to write out her experiences for me, whether
joyful or painful or just indiﬀerent, and she agreed to. The
latest report says this:
The experien ces during the bliss technique are
not as profound as when  I started one and a half
years ago, but then there was such deep-rooted
fear and sorrow, a feeling of helplessness andintense anxiety, so the contrast was quite great
when I began to experience such joy and bliss. At that time there were large black holes
experienced in my awareness. I do not see the
black holes anymore, and the feeling of constant
happiness is more stable. Yet days still come
when the joy and bliss are so powerful that I can
hardly contain them. I rarely experience fear
anymore, just some general anxiety that I can
usually control with a little attention. While other women in her position are devastated by
their treatments and left with the deepest scars, physically
and mentally, it is amazing that Laura, though still
suspended between life and death, can end her letter this
way:
A year and a half ago, I was only 99 percent sure
that the cancer would be eliminated. It has only
been in the last month that I have grown 100
percent sure. I have no doubts now. I feel
conﬁdent in the support of nature. I still don’t
know the exact form nature’s help will take, or
the timing for it, but I am less concerned about
the ﬁnal manifestation than I am about the
breakthrough in consciousness. I can see clearly
in my awareness the perfect breast. Laura is a sensitive observer of her own awareness, and
she sees its ﬂow very exactly. To her, there is a huge
diﬀerence, from the inside, between being sick and
becoming well. The techniques she is using do not call for
visualization, but she says that she can see the tumor grow
whenever she feels anxious or sorrowful. This imagerepresents, I believe, a direct link between her awareness
and the progress of the cancer. What will the ﬁnal outcome be? She and I agree that the
process itself is the outcome; every day is a whole—not a
step toward some dreame d-of recovery, but an end in itself,
to be lived in its fullness as if no disease existed. Because I
am much more indoctrinated by my past medical
experiences with cancer than Laura is, I often think that
she is far ahead of me in her joyful conﬁdence. —
Bliss is both objective and subjective. You can feel it as a
sensation, but it also eﬀects measurable change—it can
alter the heart rate, blood pressure, hormone secretions, or
anything else for that matter. This is what allows bliss to be
useful medically. The patient  is using the Ayurvedic
techniques “in his head,” but the bliss being experienced is
re-creating his body at the same time. What is happ ening is
that the body is receivin g a signal from its own blueprint,
not a material blueprint but the one that exists in
consciousness. Because the blueprint is invisible, it has to ﬁnd a way to
cross over into material existence. To do that, nature
employs bliss—it is a vibration that bridges mind and
matter, allowing each bit of the body to be paired with a bit
of intelligence:
This diagram shows the mind-body connection as being like
a radio broadcast: mind is sending out impulses of
intelligence, DNA receives them, and bliss is the carrier
signal. On paper, these three elements have to be
separated, but in reality they are completely fused. The
message, the messenger, and the receiver are one. Of
course, we have looked at the mind-body connection dozens
of times before, but we didn’t have the “glue” that keeps
mind and body from ﬂying in separate directions—bliss. DNA now takes on special importance. A single
neuropeptide, or any other messenger molecule, carries
only a tiny bit of the signal that mind is sending. Adrenaline, for example, is correlated to fear. This seems to
imply that each thought activates one molecule, but that
would be like saying that 101.5 on an FM radio  receives
only one song. In fact, the body can receive an inﬁnite
variety of signals, thanks to DNA. We are used to thinkin


 back to the self, you return to the present moment. The present
moment is the doorway to the field of infinite possibilities. The presentmoment is characterized by infinite flexibility. Living in present-moment
awareness reverses the aging process. When you evoke fear you set into motion the physiology
of str ess that accelerates biological aging. Y ou must
let go of this fear in or der to r everse aging. FORGIVENESS
The grea t V edic scholar Eknath Easwawan tells a poignant story. At the end
of a lifet ime, a person’ s soul goes to a plane of existence where each life is
reviewed. The soul enters a the ater in which a movie of the r ecent life is
playing. The soul begins watch ing the movie but often has to turn away
because of terribly uncomforta ble scenes. Sins of omission and sins of
commission cramp the heart, and the scene becomes too painf ul to watch. As a result of n ot being able to watch the complete movie, im portant life
lessons are missed, and the soul must reincarnate to learn them in the next
lifetime. According to this story, the primary cause for not being able to watch the
painful scenes of life is a lack of for giveness—for others and for oneself. For giveness is the essence of let ting go. It means relinquishing attachments
to t he past and  clearing encumbrances that constrict the heart. These
constrictions are  the source of inertia, entropy, and aging. Release them to
grow younger. T ry this simple exercise:
Close your eyes, bring your atte ntion into your heart and ask if you are
holding on to any grievances, hostilities, resentments, or regrets. If any
come to mind, ask what occurred that led to the blockage in your heart. Then, ask what needs to occur now in order to release these t oxins. Look
for t he g ift that every life experience of fers, even painful ones, and express
your gratitude for the experience.Remember this beautiful expres sion from A Course in Miracles and refer
to it often: “Every decision I make is a choice between a grievance and a
miracle.”
W e encourage you to choose a miracle. When things do not go  the way
you think they s hould, you could indulge in self-pity. Y ou cou ld complain
and gripe that life isn’ t fair. Y ou could lament about what y ou are not
getting and make yourself and everyone around you miserable. Or you
could se e the situation as anothe r opportunity for surrender, flexibility, and
expansion. Grievances, hostilities, resentments, and regrets become
festering emotional wounds that accelerate aging. For give and for get and
you will reverse the aging process. BREAKING HABITUAL P A TTERNS
It’ s easy  to become trapped in habitual patterns that do not ser ve you well
and promote inflexibility. Therefore it is very helpful to consciously
cultivate flexibility by relinquis hing things in your life and creating new
patterns of thinking and behaving. Practicing flexibility creates flexibility in
your nervous system by challenging your brain cells to make new
associations. The neurons in your nervous system and the cho ices in your
life are engaged  in a continuou s feedback loop. In your willin gness to try
new things, your neural networks become more flexible and o pen to new
perceptions, interpretations, and choices, which in turn support new
interneuronal connections. Here are a few suggestions of things you can do to break ou t of your
habitual behavioral patterns. T ry them for a week and observe what happens
to your body and mind. Change your diet
Change your exercise programChange your route to work
Change your bedtime
Meditate longer
Buy dif ferent clothing
W ear new colors
Listen to dif ferent kinds of music
Stop wearing a watch
W ear your watch on the other wrist
Go out to lunch with someone new
T ry a new restaurant
Change your opinion about something or someone
Call a friend you haven’ t spoken to in years
Answer the phone dif ferently
Change your voice mail message
Read a book that you usually wouldn’ t consider
W atch a dif ferent television show
Listen to a dif ferent radio station
T ake a new class
Let go of old ways and you w ill feel renewed. Learning to be flexible
means le arning t o access the mo st flexible domain of your being — the field
of t imeless awareness underly ing your mind and body. Th is realm offlexibility is the basis of growing younger. Immerse yourself in this field of
infinite flexibilit y on a daily basis through meditation. Have th e conscious
intention to think and act flexibly. Practice letting go whenever holding on
is no longer serving you. Cr eativity
Once you have cultivated flexib ility you are ready for creativ ity. W ithout
flexibility there can be no creativity. According to Amit Goswami, author of
Quantum Cr eativity, creativity is a discontinuous, nonalgorithmic quantum
jump from one pattern of thinking into a completely new o ne. It is a
quantum leap— a paradigm shift— from one pattern to anot her without
progressing through incremental steps in between. All the great creative
advances in the worlds of art, music, architecture, or science represent new
leaps of imagina tion that could not have been predicted on the basis of the
prevailing patterns. Once the creative leap is made, be it Einstein’ s theory
of re lativity, Picasso’ s cubism, o r music by the Beatles, the world is forever
changed. Y ou are by nature a creative being, although you may no longer think of
yourself this way. As a child you had a rich imagination, w hich is the
source of all creativity. Y our youthful flexibility and present-moment
awareness allowed for new perceptions and interpretations on an ongoing
basis. Y ou were capable of cre ating entire worlds with your i magination,
whether it was building sand castles at the beach or playing with your
make-believe fa mily of dolls. T oday, the very fact that you are alive is
evidence of your creativity, for you are co-creating your reality every
moment. Y ou are creating a new body/mind with every impulse of
experience and every breath you take. Learn to reawaken your creative
response and you will recapture the ener gy and enthusiasm of youth. In
addition to helping you grow younger, the creative process can be applied to
healing, relationships, the arts, and business.T AKING A CREA TIVE LEAP
Creativity is the process of takin g the raw ener gy, information, a nd material
of th e universe and transforming it into something that has never been
created before. Whether you are creating an original work of art, a new
piece of music, a unique software program, or a healing response to an
illness, creativity requires a leap in awareness. If you are improving on
something that already exists, that is innovation. Creativity brings
something into existence that has never been here before. There are nine b asic steps to the creative response. Become con scious of
these steps and use the creative response whenever you are facing an issue
or ch allenge in y our life. Y ou h ave unlimited creative potential  that can be
used to solve any problem you are facing. Intended Outcome
The first step of the creative response is to have a clear intended
outcome. Y ou must have a clear vision of  what it is that you want to have
unfold. If you are not certain about what you want, you are  unlikely to
fulfill yo ur needs. State your in tended outcome in clear positive language:
“I h ave a health y body with abundant ener gy.” “My intimate r elationships
are l oving and nurturing.” A void defining your intentions in ter ms of what
you don’ t want. Rather than saying “I want to leave this dreadful job,” state
your int ention as “I have a position that enables me to express my full
potential.”
W rite down your intentions and review them regularly to be certain that
they ref lect your current desires. Although living in a state of flexibility
implies not being attached to a particular outcome, it is still e ssential that
you have unambiguous intentions. Formulate a clear intention and be
detached from the outcome.Information Gathering
The second step is information gathering. In this stage, learn everything
that is available about the issue you are facing. Become an expert on the
challenge that confronts you, recognizing that your particular variation is
unique. Read books, do research, use the Internet, explore spiritual
literature, go to lectures, participate in workshops, speak with friends and
family. G ather i nformation from  every possible source without judging or
filtering. Pay attention to the sensations in your body as you learn what
others have to say about your issue, noting which approaches feel
comfortable for you and which feel uncomfortable. Information Reshuffling and Information Analysis
As y ou gather in formation, your mind will digest what you are  learning,
formatting the information in ways that are useful to you. This process of
information r eshuffling takes place on both conscious  and subconscious
levels. The data is analyzed looking for patterns that can provide clues