- and micronutrients, but it also requires
attention to Ayurvedic basics such as food quality, agni, ojas, and balance. MACRO- AND MICRONUTRIENTS
Your diet should be filled with all essential macro- and micronutrients. As the name implies, macronutrients are needed in lar ger amounts, as
they are the ones that provide ener gy. There are three macronutrients:
carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Micronutrients are substances such as
vitamins and minerals that are needed only in small quantities but areessential for normal physiological functions. The following micronutrients
are especially important:
Calcium:  important for baby’ s bones
Folate:  to support baby’ s brain and spinal cord
Iron:  to nourish your increased blood volume
Magnesium:  to maintain mama’ s blood pressure and avoid
conditions like preeclampsia and eclampsia in later stages of
pregnancy
Omega-3 fatty acids:  important for brain development of your little
one
Vitamin B12: needed for proper brain functioning of both mama and
babe
Vitamin C:  important for absorption of iron
Vitamin D:  helps to absorb the right amount of calcium and
phosphate, helping baby’ s bones, teeth, kidneys, heart and nervous
system develop
Zinc:  important for baby’ s immunity
FOOD QUALITY
Ayurvedic tradition advises that pregnant women should favor a (lacto-ovo)
vegetarian diet—with healthy fats and protein components from or ganic
raw cheeses, paneer, ghee, milk, and other high-quality dairy—as these
foods are nutrient dense and generally lighter and easier to digest than
animal meat. A thoughtful diet of vegetarian foods contains all the essential
amino acids in simpler and easier -to-digest forms, digestible within six to
eight hours. Ayurveda teaches that it is best to avoid nonvegetarian food
during this time, as the digestive system slows down and animal meat tends
to be more compound and much heavier. A meat-based diet is alsoconsidered to be tamasic, carrying a more dulling and dense ener gy, as well
as any of the fear or anxiety that the animal was feeling before death. Ayurveda recommends sattvic ahara : food that is homemade, fresh,
made with good thoughts in your mind, and prepared in a clean
environment, which will carry sattva—the qualities of clarity, purity, and
inner connection—to your baby. Along with this recommendation about
preparation comes the emphasis that the main qualities in the food that you
eat during pregnancy should be sweet, nourishing, and liquid/watery:
Sweet. The sweet taste is stabilizing, building, and cooling to the
body, as well as relieving to thirst and soothing to burning
sensations. The sweet taste can be found not only in foods that are
obviously sweet—like most fruits and sweeteners—but also in foods
like rice, wheat, mung beans, beets, carrots, almonds, milk, and
ghee. Eaten in moderation, the sweet taste encourages love,
sharing, compassion, and joy. Nourishing. Eat foods that of fer stabilizing sources of energy and
deep nourishment for your physical body. Cooked food is generally
easier to digest, and thus more nourishing. Generally, these foods
will naturally taste sweet. Ideal examples include cooked grains,
spiced milk, root vegetables, stewed fruits, soaked nuts, and seeds. Liquid/watery. Eat foods with generous amounts of high-quality oil
or ghee, and be sure to stay hydrated. Drink plenty of fluids, ideally
warm or hot, no cooler than room temperature. Favor moist foods
like berries, melons, summer squash, and zucchini; oily foods like
avocado and coconut; and hydrating preparations such as soups
and stews. AGNI
You can be eating the highest-quality local and or ganic foods, but if your
body isn’ t able to digest the food properly, then you won’ t be receiving anynourishment from it. Ayurveda looks at the strength of your agni, your
digestive fire, to determine your ability to digest, absorb, and assimilate
your food—as well as grow from your life experiences. SIGNS OF HEAL THY AGNI
Normal appetite ( Note:  healthy hunger involves lightness, clarity,
and a pleasant anticipation of food, but not an urgent need to
eat.) Clean tongue (no or light coating)
Appreciation of taste
Good digestion, balanced metabolism
Can digest a reasonable quantity of any food without issues
Proper (and regular) elimination
Easily maintains homeostasis
Steady weight
Sound sleep
High energy, strong vitality
Calm mind
Clear perception
Courage, lucidity, and intelligence
Cheerfulness, optimism, and enthusiasm
Love of life and natural longevity
SIGNS OF IMP AIRED AGNI
The strength of agni is inevitably af fected when its qualities are muted by a
poor diet, improper food combinations, an unsupportive lifestyle, emotional
disturbances, or even damp, rainy weather. If you learn to recognize and
quickly address the following signs of imbalances with agni, the ef fects
need not be long-lasting. Otherwise, they will undoubtedly lead to ill health
and disease. Emotional disturbances, with an increased tendency toward fear,
anxiety, anger, confusion, lethargy, or depressionLow energy, weakness, or fatigue
Suppressed or overactive appetite
Indigestion: gas, bloating, constipation, nausea, hyperacidity,
loose stools, a sense of heaviness, feeling tired or mentally
foggy after meals
A tendency toward congestion in the sinuses, the lymph, or even
the mind
GENERAL  AYUR VEDIC GUIDELINES T O IMPROVE DIGESTION
Sip on warm water throughout the day. Drink only a small amount of liquid with your meals (½ cup of warm
water) and avoid drinking for at least an hour after eating. Favor warm or room-temperature beverages over cold or iced. Eat at regular times each day. Do not eat anything until your previous meal is fully digested. Allow lunch to be your biggest meal of the day and dinner to be your
smallest meal. Have your last meal two hours before bedtime. Eat home-cooked meals (made with love!) as much as possible,
rather than going out to eat. Eat in a calm environment, and when your emotions are calm. Eat slowly, chewing and tasting your food. Do not overeat. Eat so that you still feel light after your meal: smaller
portions more regularly. Eat foods that are easy for your body to digest. Eat freshly cooked food, ideally within two or three hours of when it
was prepared. Avoid reheated or prepackaged foods.Stay hydrated with mineral-rich water, hydrating teas, fresh food, and
juicy fruits. Sit down while eating. Eat local and seasonal foods. OJAS
According to Ayurveda, healthy people have abundant ojas, the vital
essence that promotes health, immunity, happiness, and spiritual strength:
“It is the ojas which keeps all the living beings refreshed,” says the
Charaka Samhita. “There can be no life without ojas. Ojas marks the
beginning of embryo.” Signs of abundant ojas are clear radiant eyes,
lustrous hair, glowing skin, a strong immune system, a positive outlook on
life, joy, mental clarity, and compassion. Signs of depleted ojas are dry skin,
cold hands or feet, constipation, anxiety, pain, mental fogginess, negativity,
loneliness, and fatigue. To avoid disruptions in the vital ener gy of both you and your baby, lean
into the ojas-building foods discussed in chapter 4 (see “Building Ojas”
starting at this page ), and avoid foods that undermine ojas, such as the
following:
canned, processed, and prepackaged foods (these contain color and
flavoring agents, preservatives, artificial sweeteners, and chemicals)
frozen foods
tamasic foods
spicy foods
alcohol and caf feine
carbonated beverages
too much of the bitter or astringent tastesMAINTAINING BALANCE
Each of the five elements found in all things—ether, air, fire, water, and
earth—has a specific role in the development of your little one. When you
notice symptoms of imbalance such as bloating, acid reflux, constipation, or
diarrhea, refer to chapter 1 (and especially the section “Elements and
Doshas: Seeking Balance”) to find dietary and lifestyle practices that will
support you in coming back to a state of ease. MEALTIME IDEAS FOR
PREGNANT MAMAS
Some mamas may feel perfectly fine having three meals per day without
any snacks in between. Some mamas might feel that three typical meals are
not enough nourishment during pregnancy, and they may end up feeling
depleted and exhausted without smaller meals between the main ones. Below are some ideas for your main meals, as well as some simple and
nourishing mini-meal ideas for those of you who need more. FIRST MEAL OF THE DAY, 7–7:30 A.M.
Fresh fruit can be a good way to start the day. Fruits are alkaline and help to
reduce acidity and morning sickness. Fruits such as apples, pomegranates,
fresh figs, and watermelon also contain iron, necessary for both you and
your little


 it is doing anything
wrong, while indiscriminately handling the enzyme activity
doled out to it and stressing the whole system. We are guilty
of forcing our precious enzyme activity to do all of the menial
work of digestion and then expect it also to do a perfect job on the metabolism. Food enzymes, and other exogenous
enzymes, can help with digestion, but not with metabolism. Then why not let these helper-enzymes free our body's energy
stores to more efficiently run the metabolism of the body? Animals such as cattle and sheep get along with a pancreas
about a third as large as ours (figured as a percentage of the
body weight) on their raw food diet. Laboratory mice, eating the standard laboratory chow diet of heat-processed, enzyme-
free food, have a pancreas two to three times heavier than that
of wild mice eating the enzyme diet of raw food they find in nature. When laboratory rats are put on an enzyme-rich diet
of raw food, their pancreas gets only about one third as heavy
as the same gland in rats fed a random diet, or one totally free
of enzymes. The tremendous impact that wastage of body enzymes can
have on health and even life itself is pointed out by
experiments performed on animals. At Washington University, surgeons equipped a group of dogs with fistulae
(tubes) designed to drain all of the pancreatic juice enzymes
out of the body and waste them. Despite the animals' usual
access to food and water, profound deterioration set in, and all
of them died within a week. This experiment was later duplicated on rats by other research workers and the same
sequence of events took place, with death following in less
than a week. Acute human intestinal obstruction has been
described as resultin
g in death within three to five da ys. Both in experimental intestinal obstruction in the dog, and in
spontaneous human obstruction, authorities believe death is
attributable to loss of pancreatic juice enzymes, caused by
continuous vomiting. It is a remarkable fact that prolonged loss of bile through biliary fistulae, which prevent bile from
entering the intestines, is not fatal in man or in laboratory
animals, because no enzymes are wasted in this instance. The
modern human digestive system makes extravagant demands
on the enzyme potential. In this area man is in a class by himself, unlike all of nature's creatures in the wild. Indeed,
only humans live on enzyme-free food. All wild creatures get
their enzyme supplements in the raw food itself. Animals
using raw food do not have the rich concentrations of enzyme
activity in their digestive juices that humans do. Many animals have no enzymes at all in the saliva. But human
saliva is loaded with a fantastically high concentration of the
enzyme amylase, also known as ptyalin. Cattle and sheep
secrete huge quantities of saliva entirely devoid of enzymes. The horse has no salivary enzymes on its natural raw diet. When dogs and cats eat their natural raw, carnivorous diet,
there are no enzymes in the saliva. But when dogs are fed on
a high carbohydrate, heat-treated diet, enzymes show up in
the saliva within about a week, obeying the Law of Adaptive Secretion of Digestive Enzymes. THE FOOD-ENZYME STOMACH
   One would think that because ruminants such as cattle and
sheep have no enzymes in the saliva, they would have an
extra large concentration of enzy mes in the pancreatic juice to
make up for it. But this is not the case. My organ weight
research has, in fact, disclosed that the pancreas of cattle and
sheep is much smaller than ours, figured as a percentage of body weight. This shows that these animals get along with far
less pancreatic enzymes than we. Cattle and sheep have four
stomachs, only one of which secretes enzymes. And this one
is the smallest. The other three, which are forestomachs, and
which I have named food-enzyme stomachs, have no enzymes of their own, but allow enzymes of the food to digest
it. In addition, the forestomachs of ruminants harbor protozoa,
giving these tiny animals "free room and board" in exchange
for use of the enzymes in digesting the food. It is a nice
symbiotic relationship. As the digestion of a meal is advanced, most of the protozoa pass on into the fourth
stomach where they are digested and supply a considerable
portion of the protein requirements of the ruminants. This
raises the question whether animals, such as cattle and sheep,
are true vegetarians, since protozoa are animals, and their
hosts depend on them for some of their nutrients. Besides the forestomachs of ruminants, a study of
comparative anatomy furnishes other examples of what I have
called the food-enzyme stomach. For years, physiologists
were puzzled as to the function of these organs. The largest food-enzyme stomach in the world is owned by the whale, the
first of three stomachs of this largest member of the Cetacea. The smaller cetaceans are dolphins and porpoises, which also
have a food-enzyme stomach and two other stomachs. These
food-enzyme stomachs are loaded up with enormous catches of aquatic prey. One killer whale was found to have 32 seals
piled up in its food-enzyme stomach. It must be kept in mind
that these food-enzyme stomachs secrete no enzymes or acid. How do you suppose this huge pile of whole animals can be
broken down to a consistency small enough to pass through the small opening connecting the food-enzyme stomach to the
second stomach without enzymes to do the job? Physiologists
have also asked this ques tion and several papers from
physiologists in different countries have recently appeared in scientific literature trying to resolve this riddle. The Food Enzyme Concept is the only answer. Each of the
32 seals inside the whale has its own digestive enzymes in its stomach and pancreatic juices. When the whale swallows the
seal, these digestive enzymes become the property of the
whale. They are now its food enzymes and work for the
benefit of the whale during the many days required to digest
and empty the contents of the food-enzyme stomach. In addition, all animals have a proteolytic enzyme known as
cathepsin, which is widely distributed in muscles and organs,
yet has no known digestive function in life. After death, the body tissues become acidic, which is favorable for catheptic
activity. This enzyme then functions as the prime factor in autolysis, the breakdown of cells and tissues. Another example of the food-enzyme stomach is the crop of
birds using seeds as food, such as the chicken and pigeon. Physiologists had always stated that the crop has no known
function, but that was before the Food Enzyme Concept brought together a consortium of facts to permit a new and
more mature outlook. The crop has no enzymes of its own,
but all seeds have a good inventory of them. It has been
demonstrated that during the sojourn of 10 to 15 hours that
intact seeds remain in the crop, they accumulate moisture; their enzymes multiply; there is incipient germination;
enzyme inhibitors are neutralized, and starch is digested to
dextrin and maltose. This digestion in the food-enzyme
stomach (crop) by food enzymes is continued when the crop
contents are emptied into the gizzard, and perhaps further along in the gastrointestinal tract. It becomes evident that in
many animals, perhaps all, provision has been made for the digestion of food by food enzymes. Is the human being
included? FOOD ENZYME DIGESTION IN HUMANS
   According to the Food Enzyme Concept, there is a
mechanism operating in all creatures permitting food
enzymes to digest a particular fraction of the food in which
they are contained. In humans, the upper portion of the
stomach is in fact a food-enzyme stomach. This part secretes no enzymes. It behaves the same as other food-enzyme stomachs. When raw food with its enzymes is eaten, it goes into this peristalsis-free food -enzyme section of our stomach
where these food enzymes digest the food. In fact, the
digestion of the protein, carbohydrate, and fat in raw food begins in the mouth at the very moment the plant cell walls
are ruptured, releasing the food enzymes during the act of
mastication. After swallowing, digestion continues in the
food-enzyme section of the stomach for one-half to one hour,
or until the rising tide of acidity reaches a point where it is
inhibited. Then the stomach enzyme pepsin takes over. Once food is swallowed, it settles in a mass in the food-
enzyme section of our stomachs. If it is cooked, enzyme-free
food, it waits there for a period of one-half to one hour,
during which time nothing happens to it. If harmful bacteria are swallowed with the food they may attack it during this time of enforced idleness. The salivary enzyme works on the
carbohydrate, but the protein and fat must wait. Here is where proper enzyme digestive supplements fit in. Taken and chewed up with the meal, these exogenous
digestive enzymes begin immediate digestion of all nutrients. They work on the protein, carbohydrate, and fat during the half-hour to hour period that these foods remain in the food-
enzyme part of the stomach. According to the Law of
Adaptive Secretion of Digestive Enzymes, whatever digestion


 hidden and protected from
external inue nce, are Yin relative to the exposed skin and muscle,
which are Yang. The lower part of the body is in contact or rooted to
the ground, Yin, where as the upper body is able to move freely,
Yang, even when the legs are rigid. The front of the body is
protected by folding the arms and legs to enclose the chest and
abdomen, whereas the back of the body is relatively exposed. Hence
the front is more Yin relative to the back, which is Yang.Immunity functions as the rst line of defense: guarding the
surface protects against internal harm. Using our battle analogy, the
eld army wards o attacks on the fort. If they get cut o from the
fort, the troops  will run out of ammunition and food. If the Yang is
weak, the body is unable to ward o attack and enemy forces
penetrate the protective walls. If the Yin forces of the fort are not
strong, supplie s and food are insucient to meet the ghters’ need
to refuel the energy they have expended. The Yin fort provides the
substance that sustains the Yang activity in the eld. Without
substance, activity is weakened; without activity, substance is
insecure and unprotected. They mutually support each other as an
interdependent and indivisible system. The exterior surface of the human body (skin, hair, supercial
nerves, and blood vessels) is exposed and therefore Yang. The
internal struct ures (viscera, bones, brain, and spinal cord) are the
basis of sustenance and therefore Yin. The internal Organs  can be
further dierentiated into the “hollow” Organs  (Yang), which
perform functions of digestion and elimination (catabolism), and the
“solid” Organs  (Yin), which  perfor m the function of assimilation and
storage (anabolism). The solid Organs  are analogous to the rock that
soaks up the sunlight and stores this energy as heat for later use,
much like a passive solar heater. The hollow Organs  can be likened
to a water wheel, which is capable of transforming the movement of
water into energy for work. The water wheel itself canno t store up
energy, and the heated rock cannot perform work directly. Together, as Yin and Yang, a paired solid and hollow Organ
comprise Organ Networks  (comm only referred to by the Yin Organ
name). The dense Yin Organs  of the Liver, Heart, Spleen, Lung, and
Kidney  store the essential and potential energy derived from
substances; the hollow Yang Organs  of the Gallbladder, Small
Intestine, Stoma ch, Large Intestine, and Bladder  process the substances
of the external environment. However, Yin and Yang are relative,
not absolute designations: the Heart  is a “solid” Organ  and therefore
Yin, yet its propulsive contraction while squeezing the blood
through the vessels is Yang. This is what is meant by the Yang
within the Yin.QI, M OISTURE, AND  BLOOD
In the human body, Qi and Blood  are manifestations of Yang and Yin
respectively. The concept of substance as Yin and activity as Yang is
illustrated by the following: the Blood  itself is Yin; the activity of the
blood circulat ing is Yang. The mucus itself is Yin; its secretion,
movement, and expectoration are Yang. Urine and perspiration are
Yin; the ltration process that generates urine and the heat that
promotes perspiration is Yang. Nutrient substances are Yin; the
metabolic activity of digestion is Yang. Water has a Yin nature. Blood  has a Yin nature. Like water, Blood
is a soft, yielding substance that takes on the form of its container. Moist and dense, it is the medium for the nutritive essence that
feeds the tissues of the body. The Blood  is also considered the
medium of the mind insofar as it carries information (in Western
terms this takes the form of chemical messengers or horm ones) that
regulates body function. Blood  has the natur e of Yin, but Yin is not
the same as Blood. Yin is a universal principle, a concept, an aspect
of a dynamic process, whereas Blood  is a substance  that exists in the
living body. The Qi (Yang) moves the Blood  (Yin). Fire has a Yang nature. Qi has a Yang nature. Like re, Qi is
insubstantial, mobile, changeable, a catalyst for movement and
transformation. In fact, Qi is synonymous with movement and
process. Blood  and Qi are as insepa rable as Yin-Yang. If they are
separated, the Blood  does not move  and the Qi has no basis, so there
is no life. Based on these principles, the circulation of Blood  is
induced by the sucking and squeezing action of the lung, which
moves the Qi throughout the body. Blocking this ow of Qi inhibits
the circulation of Blood. Obstructing Blood  exhausts Qi. When the
muscles are not active and the vessels cannot pulsate, the Blood  will
not circulate. This happens when people who are bedridden over a
long period develop stasis ulcers or bed sores. Lack of activity leads
to a stagnation of Blood  and Moisture, which  in turn leads to
degeneration and death of tissue.Yang also correspo nds to the basal metabolic state. The warmth
that we associate with life when a person is completely at rest (as in
deep sleep or coma) belongs  to Yang. There may be no perceptible
movement or activity, yet if the body is warm with moist vapor
being exhaled, then we know the person is alive. Yang and Yin are
the fundament from which Qi and Blood  derive their existence—just
as the mother gives birth to the child, but the child grows on its
own. Moisture  is the intermediate state of Blood  generating to Qi and Qi
transforming Blood. Qi, Moisture, and Blood  can each be located on
the Yin-Yang  continuum as dierentiated manifestations of the
unitary life force, which is also Qi. EVERYDAY  LIFE
The course of our everyda y lives requires that we balance the
interior proces s of nurturing the self (Yin) with being engaged in the
exterior work of the world (Yang). Our activity in the world fosters
our productivity, then we retreat from the business of the day each
evening to relax, rest, and sleep in order to accumulate and
replenish our store of Qi for the day to follow. Our contempo rary culture encourages constant, often frenetic,
activity. People are so consumed with their productivity  that they
often neglect allowing enoug h time for the self to be replenished. To
overwork, overexercise, overparty, and overengage in the act of love
is to overindulge in Yang, which leads to burnout of Yin. The body
cannot for long tolerate consuming more than is replaced. The
consequences of this may be muscle, joint, bone, heart, or kidney
problems perhaps as serious and sudden as a heart attack. On the other hand, to be preoccupied with matters of internal
health and overly focused on nourishing and protecting the delicate
interior of the body could mean an overemphasis on the Yin phase
of accumulation. A collector  who keeps acquiring more and more
goods that have potential value is so busy amassing and storing that
he has no time or energy left to put his hidden treasure s to use inthe productive life of the world. The Yin is protected, but the Yang is
lifeless. Similarly, a person who is all mass or substance (Yin) and
no energy (Yang) is lethargic, inert, and cannot work or play well. Without exercise the muscles atrophy and the cardiovascular system
weakens. The key is to achieve balance, which means being exible,
diverse, moderate, and in harmony with your own rhythms and
needs. Chinese medicine makes use of acupuncture, herbs, diet,
physical exerci se, massage, mental discipline, and the modication
of life-style habits as forms of therapy to reestablish the rhythmic
swing of the Yin-Yang  pendulum. YIN-YANG  CHARACTER  PATTERNS
Some people can be characterized as being more Yang or Yin, based
on their character and body structure. Yet it is common for people
to manifest qualities of both, such as inhabiting a relatively Yin
body with a more Yang personality. A Yang body is larger, stronger, more tense, springy, and
muscular, with a greater capacity for food and activity and a
minimal requirement for rest. Yang prefers and feels comfortable in
a stimulating, complex environment and acts quickly and
impulsively as if endowed with an unlimited supply of stamina and
invincible immunity to harm. It is a predilection of Yang to
overindulge without severe consequences and, when sick, to suer
intensely and recover quickly. A Yin body is smaller, more slender and sinewy, and soft and
dense rather than tense. To be Yin is to enjoy quiet, calm, simple
environments and possess a more limited capacity for food, work,
and interaction. It is a preference of Yin to avoid prolonged stress


. Depending on which
muscles work, breathing can be abdominal, chest (it in turn is divided into
upper and lower), mixed (it is divided into deep and superficial). Abdominal br eathing

It is carried out with the help of contraction of the diaphragm and the
muscles of the abdominal cavity with relative rest of the chest wall. When
you inhale: the shoulders fall, the pectoral muscles weaken and the
diaphragm contr acts and falls. As a result, the negative pressure  in the chest
cavity increases. The lower part of the lungs is filled with air and the abdomen  bulges out. During exhalatio n, the diaphragm relaxes and rises, and the abdominal wall
returns to its original position. Most often, such breathing occur s in men. It
also occurs when a person rests, usually during sleep. Lower chest br eathing
 It involves intercostal muscles. As a result of muscle contractio n, the chest
expands outward and upward, air enters the lungs, and inhalation occurs. During lower breathing, only part of the lungs is filled, only the ribs are
involved. The rest of the body remains stationary. As a result,  there is no
full-fledged gas exchange process. Upper chest br eathing

It occurs due to the work of the clavicle muscles. When inhaling, the
clavicle and shoulders rise, and air enters the lungs. In this case, it is
necessary to make a lot of effort, since the frequency of inhalation and
exhalation increases, and the oxygen supply turns out to be insignificant. Such breathing can be deliberate ly caused if the stomach is drawn in. In the
upper chest respiration only an insignificant part of the lungs is involved
and gas exchange is incomplete. As a result, the air is not properly cleaned
or warmed up. This type of breathing is resorted to by women during
childbirth. Mixed br eathing

It sets in motion  the entire breathing apparatus. At the same time all types
of musc les and a diaphragm work, and lungs are fully ventilated. Mixed
breathing can be either deep or shallow. Surface breathing is light and fast. The frequency of respiratory movements is up to 60 movements  per minute. During mixed breathing people make a silent breath and noisy intense
exhalation. This allows you to relieve tension from all the muscles of the
body. In superficial breathing, the lungs are only partially filled with air. Only small children breathe superficially. The older the child becomes, thefewer breaths per minute he takes. The breathing of an adult person
acquires a deep character. During deep breathing, the frequency slows down; the lungs fill with air as
much as possibl e. The volume of breath in this case exceeds the permissible
rate. It is widel y believed that exactly deep breathing is correct, because
during it our body is best saturated with oxygen. However, this is not at all
the case. The idea that deep breathing enriches the body with oxygen  as fully as
possible is erroneous. For the body to function normally, it is necessary to
maintain the balance of carbon dioxide and oxygen established by nature. The desire to increase the oxygen content due to deep breathing leads to
oxygen starvation. From deep breathing in 1-3 minutes there is a decrease in pressure or
hypotension, edema, bags under the eyes appear, the thyroid gland is
disturbed, the metabolism increases, the concentration of cholesterol
increases, regardless of diet. In addition, insomnia, irritability develops,
memory deteriorates, and as a result, asthma, heart attacks, strokes, etc. How to maintain an optimal balance of respiration depth, the balance
between oxygen and carbon dioxide, so as not to harm the body? And how
is breathing right in general? Chapter 5. What should be proper breathing? Most people are limited to only shallow breathing, or vice versa, emphasize
deep. And believe that it does not affect their health. In fact, all of the above
types’ respiration deviates from the norm and after a while manifest itself in
the form of diseases. Proper breathing involves the use of the entire lung volume and provides
the body suf ficient oxygen, therefore, has a healing ef fect. It consists of three phases:
1) Involuntary silent breath (necessarily through the nose);
2) Exhalation;
3) A brief pause - respite. All three phases are always present in the act of breathing. Exhalation is
about one second and then followed by a pause - about one and a half
seconds and the return of breathing - about a second. Time relationship may
vary depending on the type and intensity of the load. An untrained person
has a cycle of three phases are repeated on average 16 times per minute, and
that of a trained person - about 8–10 times per minute. Three-phase breathing is provided for by the laws of nature. And I can
assure you, it is the most optimal and effective. Proper breath ing restores
normal activity of the nervous system, increases the vital capacity of the
lungs, blood and tissues actively saturated with oxygen, which affects a
significant improvement in overall health and performance. By the way, it is in a dream that a healthy person breathes as correctly as
possible, since breathing not consciously controlled. The management ofthis process is entirely transferred to the respiratory center. Breathing test

Now that you know what proper breathing is, try checking how you
breathe. To do this, conduct a small test. Sit on a chair in a free, relaxed
position. Clothin g should not constrain the body. Close your eyes and wait
for the moment when you hear your own breath. Follow him, but do not
consciously interfere with the process. Your task is to follow the sequence
of filling and emptying the lungs. At the same time, first smoothly  fill the lower part of the lungs with air so
that the stomach moves forward, the diaphragm goes down, then the middle
part (the ribs and chest rise) and finally the upper part (the clavicle should
rise, and the stomach should be pulled up to the spine). During exhalatio n, your stomach should be drawn in, the diaphr agm should
rise, and then the chest and shoulders should lower. Movement during
inhalation and exhalation shoul d be soft, smooth, without sharp jolts and
tension. Repeat them 3 times. On the fourth breath, hold your breath and
record the time in seconds. Then exhale and fix again the time during which
you can do without air entering the lungs. Compar e the r esults

In most cases, the duration of inhalation and exhalation will be different. Someone breath es too short, and someone breathes out. With proper
breathing, the duration of inhalation and exhalation should be the same. So
it is time to seriously take up your health. As soon as you master the
technique of proper breathing, it will become your primary need and habit. Chapter 6. Curative breath by K. Buteyko

The system of therapeutic respiration, or the so-called strong-willed
elimination of deep breathing, was developed by K. Buteyko,  a doctor, a
Russian scientis t who for many years headed the laboratory of functional
diagnostics at the Institute of Experimental Biology and Medicine of the
Siberian Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR in Novosibirsk. Due to his profe ssion, Buteyko more than once had to see how people were
dying. He noticed that before death, a person began to breathe deeply. Buteyko suggested that such intense breathing brings death closer, and
therefore could be the cause of a number of diseases. Then Buteyko decided to perform an experiment with his own breath: he
changed the rhythm, depth, intensity. After a while, he noticed that the
tormenting attacks of hypertension became less frequent, moreover, they
were easily removed by breathing exercises, without the help of
medications. So the method of Volitional Elimination of Deep Breathing
(VEDB) was born. Why you need to learn how to br eathe not deeply

Improper breath ing can be corrected by volitional effort. A special method
of “volitional elimination of deep breathing” has been developed. Its
essence is a gradual volitional decrease in the depth of breathing at rest,
during motor activity and during physical activity. The principle of proper
breathing is simple - you need to take a shallow, superficial breath for 2-3
seconds, then exhale for 3-4 seconds and try to increase the pause betweenbreaths. At this time, there is a feeling of lack of air; it is it that allows the
human body to relax. But this requires learning to constantly relax the respiratory muscles, or
rather, the diaph ragm, during training until there is a slight sensation of lack
of air. What is the effectiveness of the technique? The method of method of Volitional Elimination of Deep Breathing has
been recognized by official medicine worldwide: many doctors recommend
breathing to their patients "acco rding to Buteyko." In many countries there
are clinics and practitioners for helping people with health problems. For
example, in London there is a clinic where one of the departm ents works
with patients with bronchial asthma using the VEDB technique. According
to statistics, the number of people who recovered from bronchial asthma,
ang


	muscle	testing	to	sort	out	the	content
of	one’s	spiritual	library. Put	the	books	that	allow	one	to	go	weak	on	one	side
and	the	ones	that	make	one	go	strong	on	the	other. It	is	highly	educative. It	is	very	important	to	remember	that	it	is	an	impersonal	fact	that	the
consciousness	of	the	seeker	is	naïve	and	has	no	means	of	discovering	truth
from	falsehood. Avoid	the	attractive	but	irrelevant. There	are	astral	realms
and	universes	without	number,	each	with	its	own	teachers,	masters,	spiritual
hierarchy,	and	belief	systems. Many	are	quite	intriguing. The	unwary	can	be
easily	entrapped	by	these	fascinating	and	esoteric	doctrines;	however,	the
seeker	of	enlightenment	will	remember	that	the	ultimate	state	is	not	reachable
via	the	levels	of	form. Many	people	think	they	ought	to	be	involved	in	spiritual	endeavor	but	are
intimidated	by	what	appears	to	be	complexity,	rituals,	requirements,
sacrifices,	commitments,	complicated	readings,	dogma,	and	money. Some
spiritual	groups	even	insist	that	the	applicant	become	‘initiated’	and	go
through	strange	ceremonies,	pledges,	and	agreements. Proprietary	groups
have	mandatory	attendance,	training	courses,	and	the	payment	of	many	fees. In	reality,	there	is	nothing	one	has	to	join,	do,	or	study. There	are	no	rules,
regulations,	or	requirements;	there	are	no	rituals	or	strange	garb,	and	no	odd
breathing	exercises	or	postures	are	necessary. Many	new-age	groups	sound	less	demanding	but	rely	on	misleading
sources	of	information. There	is	emphasis	on	strange	garb,	odd	diets,	weird
headdresses,	and	all	manner	of	necklaces,	symbols,	card	readings,	psychics,
channelings,	mediums,	chantings,	and	mantras. It	is	best	to	beware	of	and
avoid	all	manipulation	of	energies,	light	fields,	mystical	visualizations,	colors,
mystical	numbers,	signs,	and	‘ancient	secret	teachings’. Some	misleading
figures	claim	special	private	instructions	from	God	and	become	self-
proclaimed	prophets	and	visionaries. It	is	simple	to	see	through	all	this	with	a
simple	muscle	test. These	distractions	all	rely	on	form	and	specialness. The	whole	field	takeson	a	carnival-like	atmosphere,	with	reference	to	spaceships,	UFOs,
extraterrestrials,	and	doomsday	prophecies. All	these	aspects	are	mistakenly
labeled	as	spiritual	and	tend	to	be	accepted	at	face	value. One	is	easily	misled
into	the	astral	circus	thinking	that	it	is	‘spiritual’. The	whole	new-age
community	becomes	enamored	of	an	endless	array	of	‘babas’,	‘masters’,	and
legendary	figures,	most	of	whom	cause	one	to	go	weak	with	muscle	testing. Research	reveals	that	many	famous	gurus	have	sold	out	spiritual	integrity	for
power	over	others	and	delusions	of	grandeur. CHAPTER	10
The	Nature	of	God
Introduction
Although	it	may	seem	like	putting	the	cart	before	the	horse,	it	serves	the
spiritual	aspirant	to	know	something	of	the	destination	in	order	to	avoid	being
led	off	track	by	the	fallacious. Error	is	rampant	and	often	pervasive	by	the
sheer	masses	of	people	who	follow	erroneous	and	misleading	concepts	and
proselytize	error. To	know	God	via	direct	experience	is	extremely	rare. Enlightenment
occurs	to	less	than	one	person	in	more	than	ten	million	people. True	teachers
are	few	and	pretenders	abound. If	the	masses	were	headed	in	the	right
direction,	sainthood	and	enlightenment	would	be	common. They	are	not. The
Buddha	said,	“Put	no	head	above	your	own. Follow	the	true	teachings	only. ”
The	true	way	is	simple	and	direct. The	Qualities	of	Divinity
This	knowledge	is	important	to	comprehend	so	that	one	can	quickly
discern	what	God	is
not. Many	religions	teach	what	God	is
not
	in	the	form	of
misunderstanding	and	distortions	of	truth	that	occur	because	of	the	ego’s
misinterpretations	and	projection	of	anthropomorphic	perceptions. To	know
what	God	is	and	to	have	a	tool	available	that	can	calibrate	levels	of	truth	is	to
be	very	well	prepared	indeed	for	what	can	be	at	times	a	difficult	journey	or
process. God	is	everywhere	present,	including	the	here	and	now. God	is	not
elsewhere,	such	as	only	in	a	distant	heaven	or	in	the	future	so	as	to	be
available	only	when	one	gets	to	heaven. The	presence	of	God	is	thus	available
to	everyone	all	the	time. To	realize	this	is	just	a	matter	of	awareness. It	is	said
that	without	the	help	of	a	guru,	savior,	or	avatar,	this	awareness	is	unlikely	to
occur	in	the	lifetime	of	most	people,	which	may	be	true. God	is	beyond	perception,	duality,	positionality,	or	having	parts. God	is
beyond	all	opposites,	such	as	good	and	bad,	right	and	wrong,	win	and	lose. Like	the	sun,	God	shines	equally	on	all. God’s	love	is	not	reserved	for	the
favored	few. It	is,	however,	experienced	directly	only	by	the	few,	but	it	does
shine	through	the	clouds	via	the	love	we	experience	with	others,	including
even	pets	and	nature. The	degree	to	which	one	experiences	the	presence	ofGod’s	love	varies	markedly	from	one	person	to	another,	depending	on	one’s
level	of	consciousness. The	presence	of	God	is	the	quintessence	of	profound	peace,	stillness,	and
love. It	is	overwhelming	in	its	profundity. It	is	totally	enveloping,	and	the	love
is	so	powerful	that	it	dissolves	any	remaining	‘non-love’	held	by	the	residual
ego. Like	empty	space	that	is	unsullied	by	its	content,	or	water	that	is
unaffected	by	the	fish	that	swim	through	it,	the	Reality	of	God	is	beyond,	yet
within,	all	form. Like	space,	it	is	equally	present	in	the	objects	therein. That	which	is	omnipotent,	omniscient,	and	omnipresent	is	not	vulnerable
to	threat	or	emotional	upset;	thus,	God	is	not	prone	to	revenge,	jealously,
hatred,	violence,	vanity,	egotism,	or	the	need	for	adulation	or	compliments. The	beneficiary	of	worshipping	is	the	worshipper. God	is	totally	and
absolutely	complete	and	has	no	needs	or	desires. God	is	not	unhappy	or	upset
if	you	have	never	heard	of	him	or	do	not	believe	in	him. Many	of	the	old-world	descriptions	of	God	are	actually	reprehensible	and
figments	of	man’s	guilty	projections	of	fear. Primitives	thought	that	every
storm	meant	that	God	was	angry	and	needed	sacrifices	to	calm	down. Volcanoes	also	indicated	that	God	was	angry. The	ego	demands	explanations
and	looks	for	‘causes’. God	was	therefore	rationalized	to	be	the	‘cause’	of
earthly	events	that	created	fear,	such	as	earthquakes,	famine,	floods,
pestilence,	storms,	drought,	barrenness,	or	ill	health. God	was	considered	the
great	punitive	enforcer	as	well	as	the	great


 e. Without r ealizing it, we position
ourselves to pr ove that we ar e mor e, better, or diﬀer ent
than the r est of the cr owd or try to stay invisible by ﬁtting in
and not being seen. W e scramble to cr eate the e xact
persona we believe will bring us the appr oval and
recognition we desperately need or, alter natively, give us an
excuse for not playing full out and having a life we love. And
then we begin to act and behave in ways, consciously or
unconsciously, that will leave others with the thoughts,
feelings, and impr essions we believe will bring us their love,
respect, or pity—until that one day when the walls come
crumbling down. Amanda was deeply ashamed of the fact that she never
graduated fr om college and mortiﬁed that most of the
relatives on her mother’s side of the family wer e from the
wrong side of the tracks and uneducated. She work ed har d
to create a persona to hide her embar rassment and mak e
her look good to those she wanted to impr ess. She found a
niche for herself in a specialized ﬁeld wher e she was
regarded as smart, helpful, and indispensable, but no
matter how much she r ead or how much she contributed at
work, Amanda ended most days feeling “less than.” In an
attempt to r esolve her pain, she decided to go back to
school, hoping that ear ning a degr ee would transfor m her
from an uneducated girl fr om a trailer park into a
sophisticated, worldly woman. One evening she walk ed into her psychology class suited
up inside her pr ofessional persona. She felt pr oud, because
she had alr eady cr eated a r eputation for being the smart girl
in the class. As the pr ofessor detailed their assignment for
the week, Amanda began to cringe as her shame-ﬁlledshadow took over. She could feel her whole body tightening
up as she lear ned that the pr oject was to cr eate a very
detailed family tr ee showing the educational backgr ounds
and car eers of all her family members. As she began
working on the assignment, noting all the members of her
family who wer e drug-addicted, ﬁnancially unstable, and
uneducated, she was confr onted with the pain and
embar rassment of her family history. Her overwhelming
sense of not being good enough suddenly felt too big to be
hidden by any persona. Later in the week, as she r ead her
report and look ed over her compr ehensive family tr ee,
instead of feeling pr oud of the work she had done, she was
riddled with shame. A fter years of trying to outrun her
shadow and cover it up, it took only one assignment for
Amanda’s persona to crack open. Like Amanda, some of us wer e awar e, even at a young
age, that we wer e trying to be someone we wer e not. Instead of ourselves, we wanted to be lik e someone we
looked up to, so we unconsciously took on another person’s
façade, not even r ealizing that it was not an authentic self
we wer e seeing. But either way, in our sear ch for fr eedom,
safety, and authenticity, it is imperative to r ecognize that
we ar e wearing some version of a mask that we put on
twenty, thirty, or even forty years ago. And now our
authentic self, which is scr eaming to get our attention, is
deeply hidden behind a mask, and our false self is
masquerading as our true natur e.
Imagine this. When you wer e a small child, you r eceived a
little gif t—a magic penny, per haps—fr om your grandmother. Wanting to k eep it safe, you hid it somewher e so no one
would ﬁnd it. W ould you be able to r emember all these
decades later wher e you had hidden it? W ould you
remember that you had hidden it at all? The same is true for
your unscathed authentic self. You’ve k ept it hidden for such
a long time, you have for gotten that this part of you ever
existed in the ﬁrst place.The natur e of the façade we chose varies based on our
backgr ound, our par ents, our sur roundings, and what was
consider ed good and bad behavior, yet the masks that ar e
commonly seen in our society today ar e no diﬀer ent fr om
those of a hundr ed years ago. Today we see updated
versions of the seductr ess, the char mer, the people pleaser,
the eter nal optimist, the “cool” one, the martyr, the good
girl, the nice guy, the tough guy, the abuser, the bully, the
quiet snak e, the intellect, the savior, the depr essive, the
jokester, the loner, the victim, and the overachiever. They
are repetitive, ar chetypal e xpressions appearing in the
moder n age. The pr oblem with living inside these masks,
these personas, is that eventually we lose sight of who we
really ar e and what is possible for our life. In canceling out
our darkness, we unconsciously e xtinguish our authentic
power, cr eativity, and dr eams. EXPOSING OUR SECRET LIFE
Our shadow thrives when we have secr ets. The moment we
close the door on one or mor e aspects of ourselves, we set
into motion a secr et life. Ther e’s an adage in twelve-step
programs: “Y our secr ets k eep you sick.” And in my years of
working with people, I can conﬁr m that this is, in fact, true. It is nothing to be ashamed of, because most of us have a
public life and a secr et life. W e have a public persona we
show the world and a secr et life we k eep hidden. W e
construct a secr et life in or der to hide the parts of ourselves
that we’r e most ashamed to face. It could be an ar ea of our
life that holds some shame or wher e we ar e behaving in a
way we fear will be unacceptable to those we love. Maybe
it’s an ar ea of our life that’s out of contr ol, a habit or
addiction we ar e struggling with, or a fantasy that we’r e
afraid to speak out loud. When our behaviors ar e
incongruent with the masks we wear, we will work har d tohide them. W e might be r eally sweet and caring to everyone
we come in contact with during the day and then go home
at night and yell at our kids. Maybe we position ourselves as
a brilliant intellectual while we’r e with our colleagues, only
to go home and spend hours watching mindless TV and
playing video games. P erhaps we’r e in a committed
relationship but ar e secr etly cheating, or we act lik e a self -
made success when the fact is we ar e secr etly living oﬀ our
parents. Our unr esolved shame causes us to act out; it eventually
gets e xpressed as an outer behavior that blows the cover oﬀ
the parts of our life we’ve been trying to conceal. W e can
work day and night trying to contr ol our hidden impulses
from ever coming to the surface, but we ar e only a moment
away fr om acting in ways that under mine our self -respect. If
we’ve been hiding a part of our life in which we act without
integrity, it will eventually be e xposed as we write bad
checks or cheat on our tax r eturns.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        If you pull back fr om the spectacle, however, the whole
drama could have been avoided. An idealized self -image
isn’t a viable solution. Only true self -acceptance is, and
when that happens, ther e is nothing for others to r eject. This doesn’t mean you will be universally loved. Someone
else might still walk away, but if that happens, you won’t
feel r ejected. It won’t r esult in an emotional wound. How do
you know if you ar e falling for a false sense of self, which is
what an idealized self -image is. Y ou will hold such attitudes
as the following:
“I’m not lik e those people. I’m better. ”
“I’ve never strayed. ”
“God is pr oud of me. ”
“Criminals and wr ongdoers ar en’t even human. ”
“Everyone sees how good I am. Even so, I need to
remind them. ”
“If I don’t have bad thoughts, why do other people. ”“I alr eady know who I am and what I need to do. I’m not
conﬂicted. ”
“I’m a r ole model. ”
“Virt


ile	duct	obstruction	through	gallstones. The	gallstones	distort	the	structural	framework	of	the
liver	lobules
	(see
Figures	3
	and
4
),
which	are	the	main	units	constituting	the	liver	(which	contains	more	than	50,000	such
units). Subsequently,	blood	circulation	to	and	from	these	lobules,	and	the	cells	of	which
they	are	composed,	becomes	increasingly	difficult. In	addition,	the	liver	cells	have	to	cut
down	bile	production. Nerve	fibers	also	become	damaged. Prolonged	suffocation	due	to
the	presence	of	stones	eventually	damages	or	destroys	liver	cells	and	their	lobules. Fibrous
tissue	gradually	replaces	damaged	cells,	causing	further	obstruction	and	an	increase	inpressure	on	the	liver’s	blood	vessels. If	the	regeneration	of	liver	cells	does	not	keep	pace
with	this	damage,
liver	cirrhosis
	is	imminent. Liver	cirrhosis	usually	leads	to	death. Liver	failure
	occurs	when	cell	suffocation	destroys	so	many	liver	cells	that	the	number
of	cells	required	to	carry	out	the	organ’s	most	important	and	vital	functions	is	insufficient. Consequences	of	liver	failure	include	drowsiness,	confusion,	shaking	of	hands/tremor,
drop	in	blood	sugar,	infection,	kidney	failure	and	fluid	retention,	uncontrolled	bleeding,
coma,	and	death. The	capability	of	the	liver	to	recover	from	major	damage,	though,	is
truly	remarkable. Once	the	liver	cleanses	have	removed	all	gallstones,	and	the	afflicted
person	discontinues	using	alcohol	and	medicinal	drugs,	there	usually	are	no	significant
long-term	consequences,	even	though	many	of	the	liver	cells	may	have	been	destroyed
during	the	illness. When	the	cells	grow	again,	they	will	do	so	in	an	ordered	fashion	that
permits	normal	liver	functions. This	is	possible	because	in	liver	failure	(as	opposed	to	liver
cirrhosis)	the	basic	structure	of	the	liver	has	not	been	substantially	compromised. Figure	4
:	A	liver	lobule

Acute
hepatitis
	results	when	whole	groups	of	liver	cells	begin	to	die	off. Gallstones
harbor	large	quantities	of	viral	material,	which	can	invade	and	infect	liver	cells,	causing
cell-degenerative	changes. As	gallstones	increase	in	number	and	size,	and	as	more	cells
become	infected	and	die,	entire	lobules	begin	to	collapse,	and	blood	vessels	begin	to
develop	kinks. This	greatly	affects	blood	circulation	to	the	remaining	liver	cells. The
extent	of	the	damage	that	these	changes	have	on	the	liver	and	its	overall	performance
largely	depends	on	the	degree	of	obstruction	caused	by	the	gallstones	in	the	liver	bile
ducts. Cancer	of	the	liver	only	occurs	after	many	years	of	progressive	occlusion	of	the
liver	bile	ducts. This	applies	also	to	tumors	in	the	liver	that	emanate	from	primary	tumors
in	the	GI	tract,	lungs,	or	breast. Most
liver	infections
	(type	A,	type	B,	type	non-A,	and	type	non-B)	occur	when	a
certain	number	of	liver	lobules	are	congested	with	gallstones,	which	can	even	happen	at	a
very	early	age. The	now-common	practice	of	prematurely	cutting	or	clamping	the
umbilical	cord	that	connects	a	newborn	baby	with	its	mother	leaves	the	child	with	justtwo-thirds	of	its	required	blood	volume,	a	lot	of	toxins	normally	filtered	out	by	the
placenta	during	the	first	hour	after	birth,	and	nearly	no	antibodies	to	protect	it	against
disease. It	usually	takes	at	least	40	to	60	minutes	before	the	umbilical	cord	stops	throbbing
completely. Cutting	the	cord	too	early	constitutes	an	act	of	medical	negligence	that	can
affect	the	baby’s	liver	right	from	the	start	and	set	it	up	for	gallstone	formation	even	during
childhood. This	can	subsequently	lead	to	liver	infections. A	healthy	liver	and	immune	system	are	perfectly	able	to	destroy	viral	material,
regardless	of	whether	the	virus	has	been	picked	up	from	the	external	environment	or	has
entered	the	bloodstream	in	some	other	way. The	majority	of	all	people	exposed	to	these
viruses	never	fall	ill. In	fact,	we	all	have	most	viruses	that	exist	outside	the	body	in	our
body	right	now. However,	when	large	amounts	of	gallstones	are	present,	the	liver	becomes
congested	and	toxic,	which	turns	it	into	a	conducive	environment	for	viral	activity. Viruses
are	intracellular	parasites	that	enter	a	host	cell	and	take	over	the	host’s	cellular	machinery
to	produce	new	viral	particles	(it	also	has	been	proved	that	viruses	can	be	created	from
bacteria	within	the	cells). But	viruses	don’t	develop	and	attack	cells	randomly. Contrary	to
common	belief,	viruses	tend	to	“hijack”	the	nuclei	of	the	weakest	and	most	damaged	cells
to	prevent	them	from	mutating. Not	all	viruses	succeed,	though,	and	liver	cancer	may
result. Their	presence	in	cancer	cells	should	not	be	misconstrued	to	have	cancer-producing
effects. Gallstones	can	harbor	plenty	of	live	viruses. Some	of	these	viruses	break	free	and	enter
the	blood. This	is	known	as	chronic	hepatitis. Nonviral	infections	of	the	liver	may	be
triggered	(not	caused)	by	bacteria	that	spread	from	any	of	the	bile	ducts	obstructed	with
gallstones. The	presence	of	gallstones	in	the	bile	ducts	also	impairs	the	liver	cells’	ability	to	deal
with	toxic	substances	such	as	chloroform,	cytotoxic	drugs,	anabolic	steroids,	alcohol,
aspirin,	fungi,	food	additives,	and	the	like. When	this	occurs,	the	body	develops
hypersensitivity	to	these	predictable	toxic	substances	and	to	other	unpredictable	ones
contained	in	numerous	medicinal	drugs. Many
allergies
	stem	from	such	conditions	of
hypersensitivity. For	the	same	reason,	there	may	also	be	a	drastic	increase	in	toxic	side
effects	resulting	from	the	intake	of	medicinal	drugs,	side	effects	that	the	Food	and	Drug
Administration	(FDA)	or	pharmaceutical	companies	may	not	even	be	aware	of. The	most	common	form	of
jaundice
	results	from	gallstones	being	stuck	in	the	bile	duct
leading	to	the	duodenum,	and/or	from	gallstones	and	fibrous	tissue	distorting	the	structural
framework	of	the	liver	lobules. The	movement	of	bile	through	the	bile	channels
(canaliculi)	is	blocked,	and	the	liver	cells	can	no	longer	conjugate
4
	and	excrete	bile
pigment,	known	as
bilirubin. Consequently,	there	is	a	buildup	in	the	bloodstream	of	both
bile	and	the	substances	from	which	it	is	made. As	bilirubin	begins	to	build	up	in	the	blood,
it	stains	the	skin. Bilirubin	concentration	in	the	blood	may	be	three	times	above	normal
before	a
yellow	coloration
	of	both	the	skin	and	the	conjunctiva	of	the	eyes	becomesapparent. Unconjugated	bilirubin	has	a	toxic	effect	on	brain	cells. A	tumor	in	the	head	of
the	pancreas	caused	by	bile	duct	congestion	may	also	cause	jaundice. Diseases	of	the	Gallbladder	and	Bile	Ducts

The	liver


 der to be r eleased. Once we have ask ed to be
healed, then our unhealed places ar e forced to the surface. A relationship that is used by the Holy Spirit becomes a
place wher e our blocks to love ar e not suppr essed or
denied, but rather br ought into our conscious awar eness. We never get crazy lik e we do ar ound the people we’r e
really attracted to. Then we can see our dysfunctions
clearly, and when we’r e ready, ask God to show us another
way. As temples of healing, r elationships ar e like a trip to the
divine physician’s oﬃce. How can a doctor help us unless
we show him our wounds? Our fearful places have to be
revealed befor e they can be healed. A Course in Miracles
teaches that ‘darkness is to be br ought to light, and not the
other way ar ound.’ If a r elationship allows us to mer ely
avoid our unhealed places, then we’r e hiding ther e, not
growing. The universe will not support that. The ego thinks of a perfect r elationship as one in which
everybody shows a perfect face. But this is not necessarilyso, because a show of str ength is not always honest. It is
not always a genuine e xpression of who we ar e. If I pr etend
to have it together in some ar ea wher e I really don’t, I am
fostering an illusion about myself. I would only be doing this
out of fear—fear that if you saw the truth about me, I would
be rejected. God’s idea of a “good r elationship” and the ego’s idea of
one ar e completely diﬀer ent. T o the ego, a good r elationship
is one in which another person basically behaves the way
we want them to and never pr esses our buttons, never
violates our comfort zones. But if a r elationship e xists to
support our gr owth, then in many ways it e xists to do just
those things; for ce us out of our limited tolerance and
inability to love unconditionally. We’re not aligned with the
Holy Spirit until people can behave in any way they choose
to, and our own inner peace isn’t shak en. Ther e have been
times in my life wher e my thought about a r elationship was,
“This is ter rible,” but upon further r eﬂection I r ealized God
would pr obably be saying, “ Oh, this is good.” Marianne gets
to see, in other wor ds, her own neur oses mor e clearly. A girlfriend once told me she had br oken up with her
boyfriend. “Why?” I ask ed. “Because he didn’t call me for ﬁve days.”
I didn’t say anything. “He knows I need verbal r eassurance on a daily basis,”
she continued. “So I set my limits. Don’t you think that’s
good?”
“No,” I said. “I think it’s childish.” I paused. “ Have you
consider ed accepting him as he is?”“Well, thanks for the support,” she said. I responded, “Y ou’re welcome.”
I knew she thought of support as agr eement fr om others
that her boyfriend was guilty. Support for the belief in guilt
is extremely easy to ﬁnd. But r eal support is when we help
one another see beyond someone’s er rors, to dr op our
judgments and see the love that lies beyond. Our neur oses in r elationships usually stem fr om our
having an agenda for another person, or for the r elationship
itself. It’s not our job to try to mak e a relationship into
something we think it should be. If someone doesn’t behave
like a gr eat romantic partner, then per haps they’r e not
meant to be that for us. That doesn’t mak e them wr ong. Not
every r elationship is meant to be the ultimate r omance: if
the train doesn’t stop at your station, it’s not your train. The
ego seeks to use a r elationship to ﬁll our needs as we deﬁne
them; the Holy Spirit asks that the r elationship be used by
God to serve His purposes. And His purpose is always that
we might lear n how to love others mor e pur ely. We love
purely when we r elease other people to be who they ar e.
The ego seeks intimacy thr ough contr ol and guilt. The Holy
Spirit seeks intimacy thr ough acceptance and r elease. In the holy r elationship, we don’t seek to change
someone, but rather to see how beautiful they alr eady ar e.
Our prayer becomes “ Dear God, tak e the scales fr om in
front of my eyes. Help me to see my br other’s beauty.” It is
our failur e to accept people e xactly as they ar e that gives us
pain in a r elationship. Our ego is mer ely our fear. We all have egos, that doesn’t
make us bad people. Our egos ar e not wher e we ar e bad but
wher e we ar e wounded. The Course says that we ar e ‘allafraid on some level that if people saw who we r eally ar e,
they would r ecoil in hor ror.’ That is why we invent the mask,
to hide our true selves. But the true self—the Christ within
us—is that which is most beautiful. W e must r eveal
ourselves at the deepest level in or der to ﬁnd out how
lovable we r eally ar e. When we dig deeply enough into our
real natur e, we do not ﬁnd darkness. W e ﬁnd endless light. That is what the ego doesn’t want us to see; that our safety
actually lies in letting down  our mask. But we cannot do this
when we’r e constantly afraid of being judged. The holy
relationship is a conte xt wher e we feel safe enough to be
ourselves, knowing that our darkness will not be judged but
forgiven. In this way we ar e healed, and fr eed to move on
into the light of our true being. W e are motivated to gr ow. A
holy r elationship is this: “a common state of mind, wher e
both give er rors gladly to cor rection, that both may happily
be healed as one.”
8. ROMANTIC L OVE
“There is no love but God’s.”
‘Ther e are no diﬀer ent categories of love. Ther e isn’t one
kind of love between a mother and a child, another between
lovers, and another between friends. The love that is r eal is
the love that lies at the heart of all r elationships. That is the
love of God and it doesn’t change with for m or
circumstance.’
A girlfriend of mine r emark ed to me r ecently, “Y our
relationship with your baby must be showing you a whole
new kind of love.” “No, it’s not,” I r eplied. “ But it’s showing
me a new depth of tender ness, which is teaching me mor e
about what love is.”People ask, “Why can’t I ﬁnd a deep, intimate r omance?”
The question is understandable, because people ar e lonely. An intimate r omantic love, however, is lik e taking graduate
work towar d a Ph.D. in the ways of love, and many of us ar e
hardly out of elementary school. When we’r e not in a
relationship, the ego mak es it seem as though all the pain
would go away if we wer e. If the r elationship lasts, however,
it will actually bring much of our e xistential pain to the
surface. That’s part of its purpose. It will demand all of our
skills at compassion, acceptance, r elease, for giveness, and
selﬂessness. W e might tend to for get the challenges
involved in a r elationship when we’r e not in one, but we
remember them clearly enough once we ar e.
Relationships don’t necessarily tak e the pain away. The
only thing that “tak es the pain away” is a healing of the
things that cause the pain. It isn’t the absence of other
people in our lives that causes us the pain, but rather what
we do with them when they’r e ther e. Pure love asks for
nothing but peace for a br other, knowing that only in that
way can we be at peace ourselves. How many times have I
had to ask myself, “ Do I want him to be at peace, or do I
want him to call?” P ure love of another person is the
restoration of our heartline. The ego, ther efore, is marshaled
against it. It will do everything it can to block the e xperience
of love in any for m. When two people come together in God,
the walls that appear to separate us disappear. The beloved
doesn’t seem to be a mer e mortal. They seem for a while to
be something else, something mor e.


 about presence,  and the
mind can’ t understand it. Understanding presence is being  present. T ry a little experiment. Close your eyes and say to yourself: “ I wonder
what my next thought is going to be. ” Then become very alert and wait
for the next thou ght. Be like a cat watching a mouse hole. Wha t thought
is going to come out of the mouse hole. T ry it now. W ell. I had to wait for quite a long time befor e a thought came in. Exactly. As long as you are in a state of intense presence, you a re free of
thought. Y ou are still, yet hig hly alert. The instant your c onscious
attention sinks below a certain l evel, thought rushes in. The men tal noise
returns; the stillness is lost. Y ou are back in time. T o t est t heir deg ree of presence, some Zen masters have been k nown to
creep up on their students from behind and suddenly hit them with a
stick. Quite a shock. If the student had been fully present and in a state
of al ertness, if he had “kept his loin girded and his lamp burning,” which
is one of the analogies that Jesus uses for presence, he would have
noticed the master coming up from behind and stopped him or stepped
aside. But if he were hit, that w ould mean he was immersed in thought,
which is to say absent, unconscious. T o s tay present in everyday life, it helps to be deeply roote d within
yourself; otherwise, the mind, which has incredible momentum, will drag
you along like a wild river. What do you mean by “r ooted within yourself”. It m eans to inh abit your body fully. T o always have some of your
attention in the inner ener gy fie ld of your body. T o feel the body from
within, so to speak. Body awareness keeps you present. It anchors you in
the Now (see chapter 6 ). THE ESOTERIC MEANING OF “W AITING”
In a sense, the state of presenc e could be compared to waitin g. Jesus
used the analogy of waiting in s ome of his parables. This is not the usual
bored or restless kind of waiting that is a denial of the present a nd that I
spoke about already. It is not a w aiting in which your attention i s focused
on some  point in the future and t he present is perceived as an undesirable
obstacle that prevents you fro m having what you want. There is a
qualitatively dif ferent kind of waiting, one that requires your totalalertness. Something could happen at any moment, and if you are not
absolutely awak e, absolutely still, you will miss it. This is the  kind of
waiting Jesus talks about. In tha t state, all your attention is in the Now. There is none left for daydreaming, thinking, remembering, anticipating. There is no tensi on in it, no fear, just alert presence. Y ou are pre sent with
your wh ole Being, with every cell of your body. In that state, the “you”
that has a past a nd a future — the personality, if you like — is hardly
there an ymore. A nd yet nothing of value is lost. Y ou are still essentially
yourself. In fact, you are more fully yourself than you ever were before,
or rather it is only now  that you are truly yourself. “Be like a serva nt waiting for th e return of the master,” says Jesus. The
servant does not know at what hour the master is going to com e. So he
stays aw ake, alert, poised, still, lest he miss the master ’ s arrival. In
another parable,  Jesus speaks of the five careless (unconscious) women
who do not have  enough oil (co nsciousness) to keep their lamps burning
(stay present) and so miss the br idegroom (the Now) and don’ t get to the
wedding feast (enlightenment). These five stand in contrast to  the five
wise women who have enough oil (stay conscious). Even the  men who wrote the Go spels did not understand the me aning of
these parables, so the first misinterpretations and distortions crept in as
they were written down. W ith subsequent erroneous interpretations, the
real meaning was completely lost. These are parables not abou t the end
of th e w orld but about the end of psychological time. They po int to the
transcendence of the egoic mind and the possibility of living in an
entirely new state of consciousness. BEAUTY ARISES IN THE STILLNESS OF YOUR PRESENCE
What you have j ust described is something that I occasionally ex perience
for brief moments when I am alone and surr ounded by natur e. Y es. Zen  maste rs use the word  satori  to  describe a flash of insight, a
moment of no-mind and total presence. Although satori  is not a lasting
transformation, be grateful whe n it comes, for it gives you a  taste of
enlightenment. Y ou may, indeed, have experienced it many times withoutknowing what it is and realizing its importance. Presence is needed to
become aware of the beauty, the majesty, the sacredness of nature. Have
you eve r gazed up into the infinity of space on a clear night, a westruck
by t he absolute stillness and i nconceivable vastness of it. Have you
listened, truly listened, to the sound of a mountain stream in the forest. Or to the song of a blackbird a t dusk on a quiet summer evening. T o
become aware of such things, th e mind needs to be still. Y ou ha ve to put
down fo r a moment your personal baggage of problems, of past and
future, a s well as all your knowledge; otherwise, you will see but not see,
hear but not hear. Y our total presence is required. Beyond the beauty of the extern al forms, there is more here: so mething
that cannot be named, someth ing inef fable, some deep, inner, holy
essence. Whenever and wherever there is beauty, this inner essence
shines through somehow. It only reveals itself to you when you are
present. Could it be that this nam eless essence and your presence are one
and the same. W ould it be there  without your presence. Go de eply into
it. Find out for yourself. When you experienced those m oments of presence, you likely didn’ t
realize th at you were briefly in a  state of nomind. This is because the gap
between that state and the influx of thought was too narrow. Y our satori
may only have lasted for a few seconds before the mind came in, but it
was ther e; otherwise, you would not have experienced the beauty. Mind
can neither recognize nor create  beauty. Only for a few seconds, while
you were completely present, was that beauty or that sacredness there. Because of the narrowness of that gap and a lack of vigilance and
alertness on your part, you were probably unable to see the fundamental
dif ference between the perception, the thoughtless awareness of beauty,
and the naming  and interpreting of it as thought: The time ga p was so
small th at it seemed to be a sing le process. The truth is, however, that the
moment thought came in, all you had was a memory of it. The wider the time gap between perception and thought, the more depth
there is to you a s a human being, which is to say the more consc ious you
are. Many pe ople ar e so imprisoned in their minds that the beauty of nature
does not really exist for them. They might say, “What a pretty flower,”
but that’ s just a  mechanical mental labeling. Because they are  not still,
not pres ent, the y don’ t truly se e the flower, don’ t feel its essence, its
holiness — just as they don’ t know themselves, don’ t feel their own
essence, their own holiness. Because we live in such a mind-dominated culture, most mo dern art,
architecture, music, and literatur e are devoid of beauty, of inner essence,
with ver y few exceptions. The reason is that the people who cre ate those
things ca nnot —  even for a moment — free themselves from their mind. So they are never in touch with  that place within where true creativity
and beauty arise. The mind lef t to itself creates monstrosities, and not
only in art gal leries. Look at our urban landscapes and industrial
wastelands. No civilization has ever produced so much ugliness. REALIZING PURE CONSCIOUSNESS
Is pr esence the same as Being. When you become conscious o f Being, what is really happening is that
Being becomes conscious of itself. When Being becomes conscious of
itself — that’ s presence. Since Being, consciousness, and life are
synonymous, we could say that presence means consciousness becoming
conscious of itself, or life attaining self-consciousness. But don’ t get
attached to the words, and don’ t make an ef fort to understand this. There
is nothing that you need to understand before you can


, 1996. OceanofPDF.comChapter Nineteen
HOW T O FOLLOW THE GERSON THERAPY ON YOUR OWN
What are the characteristics of a person who survives cancer or another
“incurable” disease? We, whose work entails furnishing information for
coping with incurables, have observed the traits shown by those  who thrive,
even against life-threatening odds. T o open this chapter, we are sharing such
information. Every day, the incurable disease survivor embarks on a healing journey
and:
• asks lots of questions and makes multiple new health discoveries;
• seeks out others knowledgeable about health care;
• questions the practices of conventional oncological medicine (COM);
• examines of ferings in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM);
• uncove rs and then puts aside the abundant myths perpetuated  by both
medical disciplines (COM and CAM);
• associates closely with a higher spiritual power;
• keeps faith in, acquires hope for, and expects healing from that higher
power;
• abandons self-pity and accepts personal responsibility for homeostatic
bodily functions;
• avoids stressors and masters stress; and
• prepares a set of principles for living well and abides by them. In the October 1999 issue of the Townsend Letter  for Doctors & Patients,
Al Schaefer of Seattle, Washington, discusses the successful cancer
survivor. Mr. Schaefer writes: “The survivor questions him/her self and
wonders what steps to take for correction—how to recover [and remain in a
state of wellness]. He/she asks [informed persons], ‘If you were in my
shoes, what would you do?’ ”
The cancer survivor discovers that there is a definite belief system about
malignancy programmed into allopathic doctors that trickles down tomedical consumers through the journalistic media, which invariably take
their material from organized medicine’ s propaganda mechanisms. This
programming states: “Cancer is death; it is tumor; tumor is autonomous;
under no circumstances can it be conquered!” If accepted by a cancer
patient, these erroneous beliefs severely hinder recovery and are likely to
come true. Alternately, when they are not believed their falsity becomes
apparent, and the person with cancer survives splendidly.1
A second set of falsehoods leveled at the public by a brainwashed North
American medical orthodoxy is that (1) surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy
is the only effective cancer treatment, and all other therapies  should be
considered quac kery; (2) biopsy, excision of the lump accompanied by a
pathology examination, CAT scans, mammograms, X-ray films, and other
forms of high technology are the most reliable diagnostic methods; (3) food
quality and good nutrition have no effect upon cancer ’s progre ss; (4) early
detection and treatment increas e the odds of survival; and (5) if someone
with cancer lives five years, such an interval counts as a cure of the disease. The above five propaganda pronouncements are unmitigated myths
perpetrated by the cancer industry, usually for financial gain. The knowing
cancer survivor recognizes statements such as these as coming from
allopathic sourc es. He/she knows that they are sheer fantasies, and
subsequently, develops more accurate personal beliefs based on observation
and education. “Identifying these fabrications as altogether wrong and harmful to the ill
individual, I know there must be a more effective way to gain healing and
health maintena nce,” says the “incurable disease” survivor who puts the lie
to such an inaccurate label. This positive-minded patient seeks out and finds
the better way. In doing so, he or she becomes totally confide nt and self-
reliant. Some survivors  discover their inspiration through the actions of an
empathetic health professional who has become disenchanted with the
various conventional myths of medicine. This doctor radiat es love for
patients who eventually do push him or her into some form of alternative
method of healing—a rare physician who deserves to be cherished. Other
patients become  inspired by the testimonies of survivors who are proof that
cancer or another illness is reversible. Tumor, for instance, turns out to
merely be a symptom of some  pathology that’s treatable, but to which
treatment had not yet been applied.The “incurable disease” survivor becomes anchored in reality. He/she
wastes no time searching for “silver bullets” or some anticance r vaccine or
another form of “miracle” cure repeatedly being promised but never
delivered by the cancer establ ishment. It’s realized by the sophisticated
individual that our cancer industry reaps vast profits each time it predicts
such a cure if only enough money could be donated. Instead of a miracle cure, the disease survivor searches for nontoxic
alternatives and asks, “How many have been helped by this treatment? Do
you know someone who recove red by its use? Can I talk to the recovered
person? Does it have detriment al side effects? What are they? Also, what
are the product’ s ingredients or the method’ s procedures?”
A cancer survivor continues to nourish his/her body with excellent food
containing all the essential nutrients and cleanses it internally and
externally. One’ s body is considered a temple for the soul. The patient has
become vegan with the ingestion of no animal products, drinki ng from ten
to fourte en glasses of vegetable or fruit juices a day. All drugs,  soft drinks,
coffee, chocolate, and processed  foods are avoided. And only those certain
adjunctive practices or medications permitted by the Gerson program are
brought home to be introduced into the body. If engag ing in the Gerson Ther apy at home, the supposedly “incurable
disease” survivo r requires self-discipline, determination, and the vigorous
pursuit of huma n body knowledge. He or she becomes a student of organic
agriculture, nutritional science, body detoxification, psychology,
visualization, meditation, the politics surrounding cancer ’s medical
treatments, and much more general information connected with
degenerative diseases. This individual becomes an educator about what’ s
pure, good, and true for the welfare of body and mind. There is much
sharing with others. Most of all, although difficult to pursue, complete
recovery from illness using the program developed by Dr. Max Gerson
continues for the patient at home. Without any question or doubt, an incurable disease survivor affirms that
self-administering the Gerson Therapy at home is the principal means by
which one ensures that perfect health remains evermore. AN INTRODUCTION T O SELF-ADMINISTERING  THE GERSON  THERAPY A T
HOMETo unde rstand and apply the Gerson Therapy at home to increase the
chances of beating back most of the incurable diseases, the balance of this
chapter offers a quick reference format for various aspects of the healing
program. It also explains recen t developments in adjuvant therapies, too. Practical help for those seeking the required materials and suppl ies used for
the Gerson Therapy, sometimes difficult to obtain, is given. The authors,
primarily Charlotte Gerson, who is most conversant with her father ’s
therapy, are drawing on more than forty years of experience in “curing the
incurables”. For peop le who are afflicted, or who have loved ones suffering  with all
types of life-threatening degenerative diseases, starting immedi ately below
with informatio n about adjuvant therapies we show how patients can
become their own healers. Because the Gerson Therapy is the primary management tool for
eliminating illness, any agent, material, technique, or procedure added to it
must be characterized as adjuvant, or supportive in nature. No adjuvant
agent should be used at the expense of a regular Gerson procedure or
medication in the hope of improving that adjuvant’ s performance. If a
Gerson-trained physician makes an alteration in the healing program,
however, adjunctive treatment under that doctor ’s supervision is
permissible. Furthermore, always consult your Gerson Therapy physician
with regard to any promising new addition to the treatment. ADJUNCTIVE  THERAPIES  THAT FIT INT O THE  GERSON  PROCEDURE
The procedures and materials listed below are available at all Gerson
facilities in a form compatible with the Gerson Therapy. Pleas e be aware
that each Gerson Center is separately owned and licensed by the Gerson
Institute. At any given facility, certain additional therapies cited below may
or may not be available. The Gerson-trained physician in charge may
choose to recommend the addition of one or more of such adjunctive
therapies. Laetrile,  the purified form of amygdalin, which occurs naturally in the
pits of apricots and in some  other foods, is a cyanogenic glycoside
(containing cyan ide). While it is nontoxic, laetrile by itself does not cure. Itis used as an analgesic and has other purported anticancer properties. Lactrile is not part of the routine Gerson Therapy. When a Gerson patient elects to add lactrile to the Gerson program, this
supplemental material must in no way replace the central and continuous
work of the Gerson Therapy. (Some laetrile therapists have recommended
dietary measures counterproductive to natural healing progress with the
Gerson Therapy. Do not follow those non-Gerson measures.) Polarizing


 power to effect change begins with our power to think differently. There is no greater preparation  for a meeting than to blast the room with
love before we get there. It changes the meeting because it changes you. How you show up in life—no t only what you do, but who you are—
determines in lar ge part the reactions of those around you. Love is the organizing principle of the universe. Just as the body
organically organizes itself, so does the universe when we allow it to. And
just as the body has a tremendous capacity to heal itself when something
has gone wrong, so does the rest of life. Miracles are the natural unfold ment of the universe, an expre ssion of
the Mind of God as every loving thought is followed by another loving
thought. “Mirac les are natural. When they do not occur something has gone
wrong”* (T-3). What has “gone wrong” is a wrong-minded thought—that
is, a loveless one. But God’ s universe is like a GPS. As soon as we take a
wrong turn, the GPS simply recalculates our path. That recalculation, that
return to right-minded thinking when the heart has been closed, is called the
Atonement. The world is moving in a dangerous direction because our
collective thoug ht patterns are infused with irreverence. This is the century
to turn things around. This will be a century of miracles, if we so choose. As someone whose mind has been purified of all ego thought, Jesus has
become one with the Atonement. In calling on him we are reaching for
divine correctio n: the thought, the feeling, the situation that will free usfrom the ego’s grip. He is a portal to a different world because he is a portal
to a dif ferent kind of thought. He cann ot do for us, however, what he cannot do through us. Without
our willingness, the miracle cannot occur. When we are willing to forgive,
be merciful, be gentle, be kind, then we are allowing our lives to be
channels for his appearance. And when he appears the world is made new. Thinking of ourselves as vesse ls through which God is trying  to express
Himself, the birth of Christ begins to make sense on a psychological and
emotional level. The light Jesus brings to the world is the light he brings to
your world. When we are more compassionate, more forgiving, then our
lives begin to change. So often we’re busy searching for an answer to a problem, unaw are that
the answer begins with us—with  the way we’re speaking to others, thinking
of others, or behaving toward others. The solution to whatever problem
confronts us is always available within the ethers of an unlimited universe,
simply blocked when our hearts are closed. Love in our hearts—and most
important, expressed in our behavior—attracts help, respect, and
willingness to help us when we need it. When our hearts are closed, we
deflect the miracles we desperately need and long for. I remem ber years ago when I would sit in a therapist’ s office
complaining about how hard it was for me to attract support in my office. So much  time and money I spent trying to analyze what had happened in
my childhood to create the pattern I constantly reenacted. If only even one
therapist had thought to ask me, “Can we look at how you behave toward
those who are trying to support you. Do you realize that in your pain you
close your heart to others. You are responsible for your effects in life. Your
childhood is not an excuse; no matter where you got the problem, it’s yours
now, and you are responsible for it. No matter what happened in your past,
the miracle lies in who you choose to be now. ” It wasn’ t analysis of the
problem that freed me, it was a prayer for a miracle: “Dear God, where I am
harsh, please make me gentle. ”
How profound that love truly is the Answer. Salvation itself isn’t
complicated, and perhaps that’s the reason we so often ignore it. We think it
can’t be that easy, that the answers to our problems must surely be more
complicated than simply choosing love. Yet “complexity is of the ego”* (T-
310). The truth is very simple, really. If a child is hungry, you feed them. Voilà. Choosing love is not what’ s difficult; what’ s difficult is getting over our
resistance to choosing love. The ego comes up with very complicated
reasons why love is rarely the right answer, using the power of our own
minds to obscure the obvious. The ego makes strength appear as weakness
and weakness appear as strength. The ego’s thought system is like a consciousness hack, and the mystic
Jesus unhacks it. He transfo rms the world by transforming us. He
transforms our attitudes, our nervous systems, and our relationship to
others. It is not hyperbole to say that he gives us new life. From the immaculate conceptio n to the annunciation, from his birth to
his family’ s flight into Egypt, from his teaching in the temple to his
baptism, from his temptation to his transfiguration, from Gethsemane to the
crucifixion, from his resurrecti on to his ascension, the life of Jesus has
meaning on both outer and inner planes. Yes, those are stories, but they are
also states of awareness. All stages of his life have mystical equivalents. The birth of every child is the birth of God’ s love, or the birth of love into
the world. The thinking of the world then inevitably violate s all of us,
leading to pain and despair; that is the meaning of the crucifixion. When we
choose to respon d with forgiveness, love prevails; that is the meaning of the
resurrection. The lesson of the resurrection is that love corrects all things. That’ s not just the story of our lives; in some ways it’s the story of
almost every situation. Everyone’ s life is different, with unique
circumstances and experiences. Yet on another level there is only one story. Every single moment, we’re living out the same one. The dynamic of the life of Jesus—his birth, his crucifixion, and his
resurrection—is a template for a deeper understanding of the human
experience. As we recognize the workings of those dynam ics, we’re
empowered to claim the miracle of resurrection in our own lives. In him it
is already done. The power of the ego has been overcome in one; therefore
his overcoming is available to all. The point is not to share the crucifixion
of Jesus, but to share in his resurrection. Understanding the mystical journey makes it easier, quicker, more
miraculous. OceanofPDF. comMary’s Love
Just as the figures in a dream are various aspects of who we are, so are the
figures in scripture. The mysti cal Mary represents the human heart, the
receptive feminine aspect of the psyche. Humanity is pregnant with a new phase of its history, and for most of us
it’s a difficult pregnancy. Every life is a microcosm of the evolutionary
changes occurring in the world. We’re experiencing rebirth as individuals as
well as the rebirth of human civilization. We’re either headed  for a death
spiral, or else we are preparing for something new. That something new will
not emer ge just from science or politics; it will emer ge from within us. The esoteric dimensions of Mary’s story hold deep meaning for the
modern seeker. She was a maiden blessed by God, awakened in the middle
of the night by the angel Gabriel and told to go up onto the roof. There, she
was told by the angel she would give birth to the Son of God. Mary’ s was said to be a virgin birth, of course, yet what we read as the
word “virgin” today meant simply “maiden” in the original Greek. The idea
that Mary was impregnated by God rather than by man has mystical
significance whether she was physically a virgin or not. There is something
that happ ens in our hearts when we feel a stirring, a sense we can’t quite put
our finger on, that something new is about to happen. It does not come from
anything or anyone outside us. It’ s unfolding from deep within. Mary is the feminine yin to God’ s masculine yang. God impregn ates the
human heart. What is born from  that divine conception is the Christ, a new
sense of self that we carry into the world. This newborn self is fathered by
God and mothered by our humanness, the truth of who we are, both human
and divine. It’s not just Mary who was awakened from her sleep; all huma nity has
been in a state of spiritual slumber. “Yet the Bible says that a deep sleep fellupon Adam, and nowhere is there reference to his waking up”* (T-18). Who
among us isn’ t feeling the call to awaken. Our personal awakening is a gradual process, not necessarily a eureka
moment heralding a dramatic change. There might not have been a
particular moment or event, or anything that even seemed very significant
at the time. It might have been a prayer or meditation or mindfulness
practice. It might have been a relationship or a book or a teacher or a
spiritual journey. It could have


 to sleep and just after we awaken. I n this
state the negative thoughts, which tend to neutralize your desire and so
prevent acceptance by your subconscious mind, are no longer present. Suppose you want to get rid of a destructive habit. Assume a
comfortable posture, relax your body, and be still. Get into a sleepy
 78  state, and in that sleepy state, say quietly, over and over ag ain as a
lullaby, “I am completely free from this habit; harmony and pe ace of
mind reign supreme.” Repeat the above slowly, quietly, and lovingl y
for five or ten minute’s night and morning. Each time you repeat t he
words the emotional value becomes greater. When the urge comes t o
repeat the negative habit, repeat the above formula out loud by
yourself. By this means you induce the subconscious to accept th e
idea, and a healing follows. • The thank-you  technique
In the Bible, Paul recommends that we make known our requests
with praise and thanksgiving. Some extraordinary re-sults fo llow this
simple method of prayer. The thankful heart is always close to the
creative forces of the universe, causing count-less blessings  to flow
toward it by the law of reciprocal relation-ship, based on a  cosmic law
of action and reaction. For instance, a father promises his son a car for gradua-tion; the  boy
has not yet received the car, but he is very thank-ful and happy, a nd is
as joyous as though he had actually re-ceived the car. He knows hi s
father will fulfill his promise, and he is full of grati tude and joy even
though he has not yet received the car, objectively speaking. He has,
however, received it with joy and thankfulness in his mind. I shall illustrate how Mr. Broke applied this technique with
excellent results. He said, “Bills are piling up, I am out of work, I have
three children and no money. What shall I do?” Regularly every nig ht
and morning, for a period of about three weeks, he repeated the words,
“Thank you, Father, for my wealth,” in a relaxed, peaceful manne r
until the feeling or mood of thankful-ness dominated his mind. He
imagined he was addressing the infinite power and intelligence within
him knowing, of course, that he could not see the creative inte lligence
or infinite mind. He was seeing with the inner eye of spiri tual
perception, realiz-ing that his thought-image of wealth was t he first
cause, relative to the money, position, and food he needed. His
thought feeling was the substance of wealth untrammeled by
 79 antecedent conditions of any kind. By repeating, “Thank you, Father,”
over and over again, his mind and heart were lifted up to the poi nt of
acceptance, and when fear, thoughts of lack, poverty, and dis-tress
came into his mind, he would say, “Thank you, Father,” as often as
necessary. He knew that as he kept up the thankful attitude h e would
recondition his mind to the idea of wealth, which is what happened. The sequel to his prayer is very interesting. After prayi ng in the
abovementioned manner, he met a former employer of his on the
street whom he had not seen for twenty years. The man offered him a
very lucrative position and advanced him $500 on a temporary loan. Today, Mr. Broke is vicepresident of the company for which he
works. His recent remark to me was, “I shall never forget  the wonders
of ‘Thank you, Father.’ It has worked wonders for me.”
• The affirmative method
The effectiveness of an affirmation is determined largely by  your
understanding of the truth and the meaning back of the words, ³In
praying use not vain repetition.´ Therefore, the power of your
affirmation lies in the intelligent application of defin ite and specific
positives. For example, a boy adds three and three and puts down
seven on the blackboard. The teacher affirms with mathematic al
certainty that three and three are six; there-fore, the boy changes his
figures accordingly. The teacher’s statement did not make thre e and
three equal six because the latter was already a mathemati cal truth. The mathematical truth caused the boy to rearrange the figures  on the
blackboard. It is abnormal to be sick; it is normal to be healthy. Health
is the truth of your being. When you affirm health, harmony, and
peace for yourself or another, and when you realize these are unive rsal
principles of your own being, you will rearrange the negative patterns
of your subconscious mind based on your faith and understanding of
that which you affirm. The result of the affirmative process of prayer depends on y our
conforming to the principles of life, regardless of appear-a nces. 80  Consider for a moment that there is a principle of mathem atics and
none of error; there is a principle of truth but none of dishonesty. There is a principle of intelligence but none of ignorance; there is a
principle of harmony and none of discord. There is a principle o f
health but none of disease, and there is a principle of abundance  but
none of poverty. The affirmative method was chosen by the author for use on his
sister who was to be operated on for the removal of gall-stone s in a
hospital in England. The condition described was based on the
diagnosis of hospital tests and the usual X-ray pro-cedures. She asked
me to pray for her. We were separated geographically about  6,500
miles, but there is no time or space in the mind principle. Infinite mind
or intelligence is present in its entirety at every point simulta neously. I
withdrew all thought from the contemplation of symptoms and from
the corporeal personality altogether. I affirmed as follows : “This
prayer is for my sister Catherine. She is relaxed and at p eace, poised,
balanced, serene, and calm. The healing intelligence of her sub -
conscious mind, which created her body, is now transforming every
cell, nerve, tissue, muscle, and bone of her being according to t he
perfect pattern of all organs lodged in her subconscious mind. Silently,
quietly, all distorted thought patterns in her sub-conscious mind ar e
removed and dissolved, and the vitality, wholeness, and beauty of th e
life principle are made manifest in every atom of her being. She is
now open and receptive to the healing currents, which are flowing
through her like a river, restoring her to perfect health, harm ony, and
peace. All dis-tortions and ugly images are now washed away b y the
infinite ocean of love and peace flowing through her, and it is so.”
I affirmed the above several times a day, and at the end of  two
weeks my sister had an examination, which showed a re-markabl e
healing, and the X ray, proved negative. To affirm is to state that it is so, and as you maintain this attitude of
mind as true, regardless of all evidence to the con-trary, you will
receive an answer to your prayer. Your thought can only affirm, for
 81  even if you deny something, you are actually affirming the presence of
what you deny. Repeating an affirma-tion, knowing what you are saying and why
you are saying it, leads the mind to that state of consciousness where it
accepts that which you state as true. Keep on affirming t he truths of
life until you get the subconscious reaction, which satisfies. • The argumentative method
This method is just what the word implies. It stems from the
procedure of Dr. Phineas Parkhurst Quimby of Maine. Dr. Quimby, a
pioneer in mental and spiritual healing, lived and practiced in B elfast,
Maine, about one hundred years ago. A book called The Quimby
Manuscripts, published in 1921 by Thomas Y. Crowell Company,
New York City, and edited by Horatio Dresser, is available i n your
library. This book gives newspaper accounts of this man’s remarkable
results in prayer treatment of the sick. Quimby duplicated many of the healing miracles recorded in the
Bible. In brief, the argumentative method employed according  to
Quimby consists of spiritual reasoning where you convince the patie nt
and yourself that his sickness is due to his false belief, ground less
fears, and negative patterns lodged in his subconscious mind. You
reason it out clearly in your mind and convince your patient tha t the
disease or ailment is due only to a distorted, twisted patte rn of
thought, which has taken form in his body. This wrong belief in some
external power and external causes has now externalized itself  as
sickness, and can be changed by changing the thought patterns. You explain to the sick person that the basis of all heali ng is a
change of belief. You also point out that the subconscious mind
created the body and all its organs; therefore, it knows how t o heal it,
can heal it, and is doing so now as you speak. You argue in the
courtroom of your mind that the disease is a shadow of the mind based
on disease-soaked, morbid thought-imagery. You continue