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Index of Articles: The Ever-Present Now - The Best Time for Healing Meditation: Healing the Inner World First Time Out of Mind My Journey Back:Holistic Therapies Saved MyLife! NEW THERAPY FOR THE NEW MILLENIUM The Role of Alternative Medicine in Healthcare Title: Opposites Attract, they Don't Last! GRIEF WORK TRANSFORMATION Benefits of Meditation for Individuals and for Society as a Whole Finding Balance in Troubling Times: Bach Flower Essences Have You Ever Run Energy? Kabbalah and Healing STRUGGLE, PAIN AND DISAPPOINTMENT: THE JOURNEY OF HEALING HAS BEGUN Achieving Optimum Health Prostate Cancer as Number One Preventable Health Tragedy? CLEARING THE WAY: HOW I GOT MY LIFE BACK . . . AND YOU CAN TOO  Kabbalah and Healing By: Robert Kashani Cancer, heart disease, and the common cold. One of the goals of Kabbalah is very clear - To eliminate all forms of sickness and ill-health from our lives. According to Kabbalists, diseases do not have to become part of our existence. We have the power to heal ourselves, and to become immune to any ailment, whatever it may be. The Healing Power Within: Kabbalah is a spiritual Wisdom, which is over 3700 years old. It talks about the unseen, spiritual laws of the universe, which we could use to our advantage. The cornerstone of the Kabbalistic Healing Theory is that the body has the built-in power to heal itself. We observe a portion of this power when it comes to broken arms or a fractured leg. Our broken bones are their own healers, and are not miraculously cured by the doctor. The doctor merely acts as a medium for this natural healing process. In truth, permanent healing is only accomplished by being connected to the LightForce of the Creator. This LightForce is always healthy, always happy, and always fulfilled. It is ever-present, but it is concealed within every individual. It is there, but it is concealed. It's like when it's nighttime and it is dark outside. The sun is still there - It hasn't been removed from our solar system. We just have to maybe change a little bit in order to connect with it. Healing The Cause: "Every action has its equal and opposite reaction" were the words of Sir Isaac Newton. Our universe operates on the rules of cause and effect. The Kabbalah explains that the effect is usually something that is manifested in the physical realm, while the cause is solely of a spiritual nature. For example, in regards to one's health, the symptoms of an illness are the effect, while its cause lies within the individual - His thoughts, his actions, what he said, or what he didn't say. Western medicine tends to focus on healing the symptoms; Kabbalah focuses on healing the cause. Kabbalists teach us that negative thoughts, negative actions, and negative speech add to the deterioration of the body. Whenever we are consumed by the desire to receive for the self alone we create an opening for diseases to enter. When we are spiritually stagnant, and not involved in changing ourselves to become a little bit more sharing than what we were doing yesterday - we are then prone to illness. The secret in building our immunity is when we are actively transforming ourselves to be more sharing - especially at times when we need to, but don't want to. Another central healing tool is using Restriction in our life, which means putting a constant stopper or resistance against our desire to receive for the self alone. We all see it in sporadic moments within the course of our lives - A nice, kind, good person, but he has Cancer, or he has heart disease, or whatever it may be. Sharing is not really about morality and ethics. Rather, the essence of sharing is about transformation, and about going out of our nature. Thinking, saying or doing something for another when we would usually not be open to the idea of going out of ourselves. The goal is not to be a goodie-goodie, but by truly sharing we connect to the LightForce of the Creator, and thus, have the power to self-heal all our existing ailments, and further, maintain (and even fully enjoy) our existing health - which is our God-Given right. Mind over Matter Scientists say that we only use 6-7 % of our brain. What happened to the other 93%? We see the power of the mind via studies of patients overcoming a disease by taking placebo medication. In one experiment regarding bone surgery, the placebo surgical procedure was AS EFFECTIVE as the real thing! (New York Times Magazine, Jan. 9, 2000). The success of placebos have demonstrated what Kabbalists have been saying for millenniums - that permanent healing is synonymous with accessing the true power of the mind, via maintaining a consciousness of absolute certainty that we are overcoming the disease, no matter how "serious" it is. This innate power of Mind over Matter is greatly enhanced by utilizing the Hebrew letters. The Kabbalah teaches us that the Hebrew language is more than a means of communication. The Arizal (fifteenth century Kabbalist) stated that different combinations of the Hebrew Letters when visualized and meditated on provide us with the correct key, which would unlock this true power of our minds, and thus, jumpstart and propel our natural, self-healing process. For example, the Hebrew letters mem, hey and shin, and the portion of Pinchas from the Zohar, are designated keys for healing and immunity. The Kabbalah Centre: The concepts of restriction, desire to receive for the self alone, sharing, and mind over matter are simple when put into practice, yet seem vague to the average student that is learning for the first time. Additional learning is always of benefit. Today there is a multi-national organization known as the Kabbalah Centre, which provides lectures, classes, books, tapes, and videos on Kabbalistic Healing, and on Kabbalah in general. Classes are provided in over fifty locations around the world. The main difference between Kabbalistic Healing and Western medicine could be summed up in two sentences. The traditional outlook towards a disease is that the cure is within the pill. The Kabbalistic approach is that the cure is within you. Robert Kashani works as an IT Consultant, and may be reached at: rkashani26@aol.com For more information on Kabbalah or Kabbalistic Healing, contact the Kabbalah Learning Centre @ 1-800-KABBALAH, or at: www.kabbalah.com Back To Top ______________________________________________ STRUGGLE, PAIN AND DISAPPOINTMENT: THE JOURNEY OF HEALING HAS BEGUN When the King visited the monasteries of the great Zen master Lin Chi,
he was astonished to learn that there were more than ten thousand monks
living there with him. Wanting to know the exact number of monks, the King asked: " How many
disciples do you have?" Lin Chi replied, " Four or five at the very most"
A Buddhist Story The life journey that we are on, the path that we follow is a struggle.
This is the reality that we all have to confront, a reality that even Lin
Chi's Zen monks had to face. It's the reality that the Buddha expressed
in the first Noble Truth ( the recognition of suffering - Dukkha ) and even after 2,500 years, this
Truth still holds despite any ' progress ' that we may have made in our
technological, post - modernist world. This is not to deny or minimize
the existence of pleasure ( Sukha ) in our lives. We are all very much
aware of the propensity we have for pleasure, the pleasure that we try to pursue
with single mindedness and dilligence, the pleasure that we hunt down with
ruthless abandon wherever it may lead us. But we have no problems with
our encounters with pleasure, it is our exposure to suffering that causes
us the problems. Life is a struggle.....in our engagement with a spiritual path, no matter how far we think we
have travelled, there are always difficulties to face. No one is exempt
from the vicissitudes of life. Emotional., psychological and physical pain
accompanies us wherever we go, there is no escaping from it. Even if we
join a monastic order, like Lin Chi's monks, there will be difficulties
to overcome, indeed they may very well be intensified under this regime
as lives come under the microscope of fuller attention. Life is a struggle...... We do seem, at times, to have very high thresholds for tolerating pain.
Sometimes it is habitual - something that we have learnt and gone along
with over a period of time, accepting our position with an air of normality.
At other times we can panic at the slightest exposure to pain, sending
us in a spin of confusion. Ignoring our ' visitor ' or putting on an armour
coat of denial ( something deeper and more troublesome than just ignoring
) are other tactics that we can employ, all making matters far worse for
us when dealing with life issues. Life is a slruggle......buried somewhere deep in our suffering is often a signal indicating that
we are clinging to something. This form of attachment, subtle at times, plays a
large part in our mental make up and can cause distressing situations,
if left unchecked. Our commitment to a ' letting go process ' allows us into a space of healing, a space of spiritual
enlargement, where we no longer feel that we have to take on ownership
of the pain - take on the exclusive rights to let it dominate our lives.
Healing can only come to a mind that is able to release its built up anxieties
and fears, its resentments and illusions, through contact with forgiveness
- forgiveness for ourselves and for others. " Each moment we enter our pain with a merciful awareness is a moment of healing.
Each moment we touch suffering with love we are healed."
S Levine
We need to be healed.....starting on a spiritual path can sometimes be interpreted as an implicit
or explicit acknowledgement that we are unwell, that we need to work on
ourselves to discover, or recover a more peaceful existence. But all the
built up blocks of anger, hate, resentment, or even just indifference need
to be attended to in order for us to make this transition. Healing is a form of integration - the integration of mind and body into
the heart. But this is never really easy, as Lin Chi probably recognized,
it constantly has to be worked at with commitment and persistence. We need to be healed..... in my own life I have had to struggle with the pain of a modern malaise,
that of over -achieving. A self -induced condition where I thought I would
never gain happiness unless I was stretching myself, pushing myself, busying
myself with all manner of things that I thought would give me a sense of purpose and identity in the world
at large. But in all the work that I undertook, all I ever found was more
work to undertake, more projects to pursue, and very little in the way
of a lasting, deeper satisfaction or a sense of connectedness to other
people. So I decided to take time out to re - assess my life, to see if
I could find new ways of being in this world that were more conducive to
my health and well - being. I searched for a calmer presence in this world
that did not rely on external judgement and praise but instead embraced
a reflective quality that led to a deeper understanding and inner acceptance
of what was of value to me and what was not. It was pathway to a new life
- a spiritual quest to find an healing, and I did come to a profound healing
in my discovery of a spiritual path...... We need to be healed.....We march through our lives, and through the valuable time that we have
been given, like troops across a vast battlefield. Onwards as if to victory,
but victory for what? The awarding and acceptance of prizes? The certificates and diplomas displayed
in the office or on the living room wall? The careers that promise us '
prospects ' and financial rewards? The relationships that promise us devotion
and unswerving love? Yet we continue our striving, pushing, our searching
out in unrelenting fashion, but are we any further into truth? Any further
into a lasting sense of happiness and contentment? We need to be healed.... Healing is an ongoing process, a constant engagement with listening - listening
to our hearts, our minds, our bodies in an attempt to reach a deeper understanding
which, if acted upon, brings us back into harmony. Healing is a journey
of homecoming, returning to our natural selves. Healing encompasses everything
that makes us whole, that takes us onto a journey to wholeness. We need to be healed.....Because reparation involves us in a positive, integrative process of going
forward, involves us in a process of individual growth and empowerment,
do we really have a choice to refuse this gift? Healing can come to us
but we must be receptive, we must become good hosts for it. Are we? Do
we welcome healing in as a friend or are we still resisting it? Being cured and being healed are not the same thing. Healing is a much
wider concept. To ask for healing is to ask to be made whole, that is to say to reach
a state of well - being in body, mind and spirit, that can triumph over a continuing sickness
in one aspect of oneself. Being healed is to be set free from limitations so that
one can fulfil one's potential as a human being in relation to others. We cannot always
be cured but
we can always be healed
Una Kroll
The Buddha, in recognizing the existence of suffering concentrated his
thoughts on its underlying nature and tried to establish a pragmatic route
that we could follow to lead us away from its presence - the Noble Eightfold
Path. This embodiment of the Dharma still lies at the very heart of Buddhism,
giving it _expression and vitality even today, and it is the same system
that the monks at Zen master Lin Chi's monasteries tried to engage with,
although Lin Chi himself was not convinced. The Noble Eightfold Path consists of: ·
Right Understanding
( Samma ditthi ) ( Looking at the world, as it is, without any illusions ) ·
Right Thought
( Samma sankappa ) ( Thinking in a positive, compassionate way ) ·
Right Speech
( Samma vaca ) ( Speaking in an appropriate manner that avoids hurting anyone ) ·
Right Action
( Samma kammanta ) ( Behaving in ethical ways ) ·
Right Livelihood
( Samma ajiva ) ( Engaged with work that contributes to skilful outcomes ) ·
Right Effort
( Samma vayama )
( Using our energy in a committed and sustainable way ) ·
Right Mindfulness
( Samma sati ) ( Being attentive to others and ourselves ) ·
Right Concentration
( Samma samadhi ) ( Applying the mind to positive ends ) When we engage with the Noble Eightfold Path we are able to reflect, meaningfully,
on our behaviour and distinguish better ways of conduct that incorporates
the needs of others rather than our own narrow needs. It's a move away
from a position of false individualism ( that separates and divides ) to a position of responsible,
collective presence that joins and unites. CONCLUSION Sometimes it is in the very moments when fear and doubt grips our hearts,
when gloom and darkness descends suddenly and quite dramatically upon us,
that we realize the need to find a new way of being in our lives. A new
way that can avoid unnecessary pain and suffering. But a new life can only
begin with us, no one else, we are the ones that decide if a new life is
desirable or not, possible or not. So given the nature of our worldly existence,
with all its attendant dukkha, what way will you choose? The Noble Eightfold Path is a living path that we can all tread in order
to bring peace, happiness and contentrnent into our lives; but it is a
difficult path to follow, because life itself is difficult. However, provided we meet it with an
open heart and generous commitment then we will undoubtedly go forward
into spiritual progress. Given the ambiguous, challenging world of samsara it could be argued that
Lin Chi's expectations, regarding his monks' spiritual growth, were too
high. Perhaps he understated the struggle involved in trying to lead a
truly spiritual existence? Perhaps he did not fully realize the the power
of ' distractions ' in life that can take us all away from the path? Perhaps
he was too judgemental in his approach? Perhaps he should have accepted
the notion of individual progress rather than perfection ? I wonder what the King thought? I wonder what you think? HAVE A SAFE AND REWARDING JOURNEY..... Back To Top __________________ Prostate Cancer as Number One Preventable Health Tragedy?
Back To Topby Plato Rosinke Can you believe that prostate cancer is the number one cancer-killer of males in the world? Can you also believe that there is no universally-agreed upon strategy for its’ diagnosis and management? There is a lot of talk these days about prostate cancer on the news, yet nobody can seem to figure out what is behind the whole thing. A recent article actually suggested that masturbation is the solution! Tired old references to the high incidence of prostate cancer in the clergy are cited. If you have ever surfed the Internet with your content filter turned off, you will have no doubt that the entire world is doing anything but holding back their seed in pursuit of spiritual ideals. So what is behind these staggering numbers? Chinese medical theory would suggest that too much sexual activity is as bad as too little, and common sense in any culture points to the benefits of moderation with respect to any activity. Plant-based herbal remedies like saw palmetto and pumpkin seeds are purchased in large numbers, but the relief they offer is fleeting at best. Their temporary benefit, however, points back to a concept in Chinese medicine called “excessive yang.” In western thought, we would say that something has “overheated.” Your prostate may indeed be suffering from a fever! How could this happen? The answer lies in a substance called DHT, or dihydrotestosterone. This is a by-product of testosterone metabolization, and perfectly natural. DHT is what allows you to produce erections and build muscles. Ironically, it also leads to an inflamed and enlarged prostate if it continues to accumulate in the prostate gland. Interestingly, DHT accumulation in the scalp is what accounts for hair loss. Incidentally, this explains why western drugs that promote hair growth also promote testicular shrinkage.  The truth is that DHT production has been on the rise over the last 30 years. The western world eats a tremendous amount of meat that is filled with hormonal back-wash that has been accumulating in livestock long before they are ever brought to the slaughterhouse. How else could we "grow" the animals so fast? Poetically, we also absorb this accumulation of hormones when we eat these "fast-track" animals. We also ingest sports supplements and energy boosters purchased at our local vitamin shop that are filled with hormone pre-cursors in order to deliver on their claims of more energy and enhanced sexual function. This in itself may not be so bad for the prostate if all the excess DHT was actually burned up. Unfortunately for the prostate, it rarely is. This is where the problems begin. As time goes on, the prostate really has no options available to it other than to grow larger and harder. This brings on a flurry of problems such as premature ejaculation, urinary incontinence, and ultimately impotence. In this respect the medical establishment has resumed their usual course of inventing harmful surgeries, radioactive seed implants, and side-effect laden drugs. The bodies keep piling up and survivors are exactly that--often with permanent damage to their sexual organs as a result of their treatment at the hands of the medical establishment. In the end, a lot of it comes down to money: many chronic wasting diseases such as cancer and AIDS have simple, cheap cures but this doesn’t make anybody any money. Of course, I am aware that I will be branded a conspiracy theorist at best and an imbecile at worst for making such a statement. The common belief is that a cure for AIDS would be all over the news should it suddenly be discovered. People who subscribe to such notions also believe that AIDS "cocktails" are what is keeping industry poster-boy Earvin "Magic" Johnson from kicking the bucket prematurely. The truth is that there are cheap and effective solutions for most of life's problems. Mind you, I don't think buying a pair of magnetic rings will make you an immortal, but I do think purchasing an electronic blood cleaner modeled after the one used by the medical industry itself (or is it the other way around) makes for sound experimentation. Getting back to prostate problems, some people have gone back to traditional prostate massage methods, but the traditional methods are often messy or psychologically as discomforting as a routine prostate exam. Luckily, there are new herbal remedies being developed by individuals who use their own bodies as laboratories, and these same individuals are developing methods for massaging the prostate that are non-invasive. With knowledge we are one step away from power, but it is the application of acquired knowledge is where the power really lies. Plato Rosinke www.prostatesecrets.com ___________________________________________________ Achieving Optimum Health Author: Dr Tim Ong "Optimum health is not just the absence of disease but the presence of wellness in mental, emotional, physical, spiritual and social areas. Some would also include financial health." Introduction: Optimum health is essential at all levels, from the individual to the society we live in to the environment around us. We have to start thinking of wealth not just in terms of possession of money and properties but also the possession of mental, emotional, physical, social and spiritual well-being. Mental Health: The truth is mind is the forerunner of all states. With a proper mindset, a poor man can still be happy. Conversely, if the mindset is not right, no matter how much material possessions you may have, you may still be a very unhappy person. Thus, Gandhi said, "The world has enough for everyone's needs, but not enough for even a single person's greed." So a healthy mind is one that possesses a mindset that can lead to happiness and contentment with self and the world around us. It provides clarity of thoughts, good insight and the ability to see things through an unbiased mind. To be able to see things through an unbiased mind is no small feat. It is extremely difficult to note or observe the unfolding of events and phenomena without judging. We habitually associate emotions or feelings to events, and allow such emotions to direct our actions. Our likes for certain things and dislikes for others are closely associated with our emotions. Emotional Health: It is our emotions that lead us to act impulsively at times. Thus a high level of self-awareness in this area is extremely useful. In fact, it is essential to our well-being. After all, things and relationships that may take us years to build can be destroyed in a moment of anger. There are positive and negative emotions. Positive emotions such as love, compassion and joy should be cultivated, while negative emotions such as fear, anger and hate need to be eradicated. When asked about this, a wise sage of India once illustrated with a story: An old man said to his grandson, "Boy, I have two tigers caged within me. One is love and compassion. The other is fear and anger." The young boy asked, "Which one will win, grandfather?" The old man replied, "The one I feed." At times, it may seem that we have no control over our emotions. This is not true. The truth is how well we manage our emotions depends on how aware we are of our emotions, particularly on the arising of our emotions. The earlier we are able to note the arising of our emotions, we better we can manage them. More and more researches are showing that our well-being is closely linked to our emotional and mental health. Our body's immune system is generally enhanced by positive mental outlook and emotion. Conversely, it is depressed by negative mental and emotional states. Thus, stress, worry, anger and fear are some states that may lead to physical illnesses such as hypertension, cardiac diseases, peptic ulcers, depression and a host of other ailments. Physical Health: To maintain an optimum physical well-being, therefore, requires us to focus not only on our body but also our mind and emotions. On a physical level, our body can be kept healthy through adequate sleep and rest, proper nutrition, regular exercises and a healthy environment that is free from pollution. Spiritual Health: Throughout the ages, wise men have consistently informed and taught us that we are essentially spiritual beings. Although medical science has not been able to reveal to us our spiritual nature, there are many indirect evidence that we would be foolish to ignore. Stories from people who had gone through a near death experience (NDE), or dying people with heightened nearing death awareness, or simply a cure from an 'incurable' disease all suggest that there is more to life than just the physical state. Major religions of the world all based their teachings on the belief that we are essentially spiritual beings. According to these teachings, our physical existence is secondary. While it may be true that we should focus our life more on our spiritual nature than our physical nature, it would be difficult for the majority of people to do so, at least not immediately. Things cannot change overnight. Mindset, however, can, and that is perhaps the best place to start. Financial Health: However, on a more mundane level, most people are still stuck on how to survive from day to day, where to get the next cheque to pay for the house installment, so on and so forth. Practically, therefore, we need to look into ways to achieve a financial state that would theoretically free us from the constrain of 'forced' work. This is where the concept of financial freedom is so attractive. According to this concept, one should strive for a state where we have one or more than one source of income that can be generated passively, that is, even when we don't work. This is what Robert Kiyosaki termed as 'passive income'. According to him, passive income can only be achieved by becoming an investor or a business owner, not a sole proprietor or an employee. To become an investor or a business owner, you must spend the time and money to acquire financial intelligence. Unlike IQ or EQ, you can acquire financial intelligence through self education. To get a financial health check-up, consult an accountant, a banker or a financial planner you can trust. Healthy Relationship: "No man is an island, entire by itself." As a medical doctor, I am in a unique position to confront and comfort dying patients. One of the most important thing that I have observed is that dying people do not ask about their money or possessions. Instead, they focus their remaining energy and strength on trying to heal wounded relationships. It is as though there is an inherent need to get a proper closure to a relationship. Thus, forming and cultivating a healthy relationship is important for our well-being. Unfortunately, this is something we often ignored until it is too late. If there is any forgiving to be done, or the need to be forgiven, leaving things to the last minutes may end up with an unfulfilled desire for a closure. Knowing this now, shouldn't we spend more time and effort in improving our relationship with our loved ones, especially with our parents, spouse, children and siblings? About the Author: Tim Ong is a medical doctor and author of the online "Build From Within" newsletter series. He is also the webmaster of The Self Improvement Site (http://www.theselfimprovementsite.com) and Caring For The Terminally Ill (http://www.caring-terminally-ill.com). You can access his clinic website at http://www.klinikong.com Back To Top ___________________________________________________ CLEARING THE WAY: HOW I GOT MY LIFE BACK . . . AND YOU CAN TOO [About the Author: Sol did his doctoral studies at Brown University before becoming chronically ill and embarking on his own life-changing healing odyssey that resulted in a new energetic repatterning technique called Potentiation.] If asked to capture in a single phrase my quintessence as a young man in my late teens through my mid-twenties, I would say of myself what a friend once said of me during my subsequent decade of chronic illness in an attempt to fathom the depths of my particular fall from grace: that I was a “golden boy.” My senior year of high school I quarterbacked the football team, played the lead in the school drama, sang solos with the show choir, and graduated valedictorian of my class of nearly two hundred—a combination of feats topped only when I was awarded the nation’s most prestigious undergraduate scholarship. But that was just the beginning. I graduated college with Highest Honors at the top of my scholarship class, won a Fulbright to study in Paris, landed a fellowship to pursue a Ph.D. at an Ivy League university, received federal grants for graduate research in South America . . . and I did it all with such gusto and zest that, in retrospect, I’m astonished that any one human being could possess so much drive and focus. I remember a particular sensation I had in those days, an intense thirst to experience the world fully, a sort of tipsy naďveté as if life itself were an intoxicating liquid in a bottle I could simply turn up and drink down with impunity. Instead, life came crashing down on me. It happened when I was twenty-seven. One day I was playing basketball three hours at a stretch and able to eat and drink whatever I pleased; the next I was gripped by a mysterious illness that one by one took away the foods I loved, the beverages I loved, the sports I loved, even—in the way chronic illness has of stripping one clean—many of the people I loved. At first I was “diagnosed” with that most meaningless of medical dismissals: depression. Certainly, I was becoming more and more depressed; but I felt deeply that depression was the result not the cause of all that had suddenly gone haywire in my body. But I dutifully popped my pills (whose only effects were side effects) until I nearly died of an adverse reaction—at which point, growing desperate, I headed down a self-exploratory path into “alternative” territory seeking answers. My first stop on an incredibly twisted journey into the Wonderland of alternative therapies was at my mouth: I eventually found a chiropractor with courage enough to suggest (rightly) that I’d been poisoned by the mercury and other heavy metals leaching from my twelve or so dental crowns and fillings. I spent thousands of dollars I didn’t have getting the metals in my mouth replaced with supposedly benign materials, a move that initially, for all the damage it did to my wallet, provided me with almost total relief from symptoms and, for about five months, gave me my life back. My problems with “candida” and “leaky gut” disappeared immediately. I could eat cheesecake again, I could drink wine again, I had enough energy to play basketball again— When my problems with yeast and chronic fatigue finally returned, this time it was with a vengeance. My old nemeses were joined by a bewildering array of seemingly unrelated symptoms that defied medical diagnosis. Despite a series of “negative” tests, I lay in bed at night afraid that I was dying of cancer, that I had MS, that I’d contracted AIDS . . . I actually sat down one day and made a list of my thirty or so symptoms. In addition to my debilitating food allergies and fatigue, the list included such enigmas as migratory toothache, muscle spasms, continuous back pain, tingling in my feet, hypoglycemia, difficulty focusing, shortness of breath, chemical sensitivities . . . After discovering that my new dentist had made a mistake and replaced all my metal dental work with other metals, I underwent the nightmarish experience of having it all redone. This time, however, there was no “spontaneous remission.” My health continued its steady decline even though I tried everything from acupuncture to homeopathy to transcendental meditation. Eventually, I was forced to withdraw from my doctoral program to the consternation of my professors who considered me “sickly but brilliant,” citing ill health as I scraped together funds, packed up what I could in my Honda and moved to New Mexico to study qigong, the ancient Chinese technique of energy healing. Nearly three hours of qigong a day over the course of a full year succeeded in getting me back on my feet—but I was still a long way from healthy. Although I had more energy than before and some of my more bizarre symptoms had become rare, my problems with candida still festered, my diet remained extremely limited, my gums were receding, my teeth kept abscessing . . . My overwhelming impression when I considered what I used to be like as a younger man was that I was living someone else’s life. Two years later I was managing to get by teaching high school when, out of the blue, another round of abscesses hit me and I was forced to take several courses of antibiotics that wreaked havoc with my fragile immunity and gut terrain. Almost overnight I was practically bedridden. I slept fifteen hours a day. I had to quit my job. I went from an already severely restricted diet to being able to eat literally nothing but unseasoned meat and vegetables. It was at this point when all hope was failing that I accidentally discovered the world of energetic clearing. Invented in the 1980s, Dr. Devi Nambudripad’s Allergy Elimination Technique (NAET) employed a form of muscle testing called kinesiology to determine her patients’ allergies, a term she took to include chemical, environmental and nutritional sensitivities (often unrecognized even by the sufferer) that tended to derange the immune system and contribute to a variety of “incurable” ailments. Nambudripad performed her tests with small glass vials filled with water and alcohol charged with the energetic “signatures” of particular allergens. She then “cleared” the allergy by having the patient hold the vial while receiving a special type of acupressure. The “clearing” resulted from sending a new signal through the nervous system intended to erase the allergic response. The idea was to treat chronic conditions by removing the allergic “blockages” that kept energy from flowing properly through the body. For all its promise NAET, which was restricted to clearing with a single vial at a time, left much to be desired. Still, I was encouraged enough to keep exploring. I tried a similar therapy called BioSET developed in the 1990s by Dr. Ellen Cutler, one of Nambudripad’s students. BioSET expanded on NAET through a type of clearing that employed multiple vials. The decision to use a variety of energies at once allowed Cutler to clear not just for allergens but simultaneously for underlying toxic factors (such as heavy metals) in target organ systems. Unfortunately, while providing some additional relief from symptoms, BioSET also failed to unknot the tangled web of my chronic illness. One shortcoming of these pioneering forms of energetic clearing was a typically “western” tendency to focus on the physical end of the body-mind-spirit spectrum, even though the techniques themselves employed pure energy. Neither NAET nor BioSET addressed the physical body’s energetic blueprint: the governing auric fields. The auric fields might be thought of as an interlocking set of high-frequency subtle bodies, each responsible for the proper functioning of a particular gland, organ system, set of emotions, chakra, etc. The critical concept to grasp here is that disruption of the energy patterns of the auric fields creates disturbances in the body’s blueprint that underwrite all disease processes. Another problem with traditional clearings lay in the processing medium: the nervous system. Especially in chronically ill people, an already overstressed nervous system is an inadequate vehicle for carrying the necessarily vast number of signals required for restoration of the body’s damaged blueprint leading to proper physiological and psychological functioning. In other words, the nervous system simply cannot handle the amount of data needed for what is truly desired: a fully integrated, holistic approach that would have the potential to bring about a total and lasting transformation of the human organism. One reason for the nervous system’s tendency to “short-circuit” stems from the fact that traditional clearings can stimulate overproduction of adrenaline, a hormone typically overabundant to begin with which acts much like battery acid, literally eating away at the nerves’ protective myelin sheath. Aware of the “blind spots” of traditional clearings, and still suffering from symptoms that had defied allopathic and alternative techniques, I committed myself to developing Potentiation. My approach has been to map a completely new type of synergistic clearing using sound to activate the latent intelligence of the DNA, bypassing the nervous system and excessive adrenal stimulation. This has allowed me to incorporate some 2,000 energies contained in vials similar to those used in NAET and BioSET grouped in various categories (physical, mental, emotional, pathogenic, toxic, etc.) across the body-mind-spirit continuum of the auric fields. The reason for clearing in this new way is twofold. First, contrary to the conservative paradigm that insists progress can only be made “one baby step at a time,” my own experience suggests that chronic illness requires a radical, simultaneous energetic repatterning. Secondly, whereas a clearing of this magnitude would exceed the carrying capacity of most if not all nervous systems, DNA, when properly activated by sound, is designed to process just such quantum amounts of information. Another advantage of Potentiation over traditional clearing methods is its ability to be performed over distance. This aspect of Potentiation was inspired by Dr. Larry Dossey’s concept of the “nonlocalized mind” and its capacity to effect remote healings via thought and intention as detailed in his remarkable book Reinventing Medicine. The remote energy transmission used in Potentiation should not be confused with radionics, as instead of frequencies broadcast from a mechanized instrument, Potentiation employs particular combinations of sounds carrying the energies of the clearing that reverberate along the earth’s graphite ley lines to the recipient’s DNA, which functions as a super-sensitive antenna that picks up the signal and initiates the entire process. Potentiation represents a conscious shift away from a diagnostic approach to chronic illnesses, usually defined by default as a set of symptoms lacking a discernible cause. The word diagnosis has etymological roots similar to those of “dissection.” In many cases diagnosis only fragments and minimizes complex disease processes. No one understands this better than those who have suffered through misdiagnosis of a mysterious condition. As an ordained minister I’ve made a decision to move away from the therapeutic model because I’ve realized there are nonlocal, multidimensional forces at work in any act of true healing. I consider Potentiation my “health ministry” and a person’s decision to experience it an exercise in freedom of religion. While making no medical claims, I suggest there is every reason to believe that a successful repatterning of the energetic disharmonies that have created physical diseases and emotional imbalances can have a profoundly positive impact. One of the foundational concepts behind Potentiation is that all degenerative manifestations arise from similar energetic disharmonies originating in the auric fields. Through kinesiological testing, I’ve observed an extraordinary level of consistency of energetic patterns within the auric fields of particular groups of people. Each “auric group” possesses a unique arrangement in its auric structure that applies to all members. This is an exciting realization because it renders individualized “diagnosis” unnecessary. To clear a given individual one simply uses surrogate testing to determine the auric group and then applies the appropriate clearing. Potentiation initiates a domino effect of energetic repatterning of the auric fields that gradually restores the body’s inherent wisdom. The session takes thirty minutes during which the recipient puts him or herself in a tranquil, co-creative state. This could be in the comfort of one’s own home. Unlike most other forms of energetic clearing which can require numerous sessions and considerable expense, Potentiation is an affordable one-time event, performed at a distance. The resultant shifts naturally surface in the weeks and months following as the auric fields recalibrate. The results have been truly remarkable. I’ve received dozens of testimonials from individuals wanting to share their personal breakthroughs. In my own case Potentiation has been like a metamorphosis. At thirty-five I have the energy of a twenty-year-old, my problems with candida have all disappeared, I can eat pizza and drink beer again, and no one thinks of me as a “sickly” person anymore. If you have further questions about Potentiation, please email me, Sol, at solandleigh@yahoo.com. ________________ Back To Top _______________________ The Ever-Present Now - The Best Time for Healing By Robert C Felix With each beat of our heart and every breath that we take, we get a new opportunity to make a choice as to where we want to direct the energy of our lives. Every new moment offers a possibility to open a crack in the door that brings forth the power of the universe. The ever-present "now" is always offering new opportunities to improve our lives. As we verbalize and visualize during our prayer meditation sessions, the now is always turning the present into the past. Scientists have recently determined that the human brain takes an average of three seconds to process and transfer information from reality to memory, to change the present to the past. Each new moment gives us another chance to reevaluate in the light of the present, giving us an opportunity to make new choices and decisions as to what we want to do with our lives. The present is always "now." If we take care of the ever-present now, the future will take care of itself. Now is always a good time to put the mistakes, regrets, and problems of the past behind us. Now is the time to accept reality and uncertainty. Now is the time to get on with our lives. Now is the time to put an end to the powers of hate and to replace it with the power of love. Now is the time to analyze the consequences of our behavior and decide what is best for us and others. Now is the time to give birth to new and better ideas for our future and for all. Now is the time to heal and grow up. Now is always a good time for the solutions of Pure Love. The primary focus of our prayer meditation sessions needs to be on ourselves. Two fundamental principles are: 1) What we do with our lives is entirely up to us. 2) What other people do with their lives is entirely up to them. We are the only ones that can change ourselves. We cannot control how other people choose to live their lives. Sometimes when we make changes in our behavior, we can stimulate change in others. If there are people in your life that you really wish would change, you can make the purpose of a prayer meditation session to send your love to them. Surround a mental image of the person with love during your prayer meditation. But the choice to accept the power you send them is theirs alone. We can only wish the best for them by growing our love for ourselves and expanding our love for others. We have to accept the fact that not everyone is committed to his or her personal development. We can always take comfort that most of us are evolving towards becoming empowered by love and eventually those lacking in this growth will become less of a problem. It has long been thought by many classical spiritualists and New Age writers that there is indeed a connection between our thoughts and the health of the body. Anytime you are practicing your prayer meditations, you can create a mental image of a problem area and then meditate on the colors' cleaning and healing abilities. Regardless of where a problem arises, surround it with the cleaning powers of Orange and the healing powers of Yellow during your prayer meditation sessions and, while being sensitive for the solutions to the reasons that may have caused the problems in the first place, send a message of love to them. Severe problems that may result from inappropriate human powers and particularly poor attention to the ever-present now will frequently manifest themselves with disorders of the stomach, diaphragm, endocrine systems, and the mid to lower spine. Surround yourself with the cleaning powers of Orange and the healing powers of Yellow during your prayer meditation sessions, and send a message of love to your inner body. Healing requires taking action. It may mean leaving behind outmoded behaviors and beliefs. It may means using vision and wisdom to develop a new way of dealing with life. Healing becomes easier when we bring the power of Pure Love into our lives. The power of the prayer meditation partnership can be especially helpful for healing, particularly if we still have a meaningful purpose in life coupled with a strong will to live life to its fullest possibilities. Taken from "The Partners Within -- Using Prayer And Meditation For Personal Growth" by Robert C. Felix. Please visit www.partnerswithin.org where you'll find ebooks and an audio presentation. Back To Top ________________ Meditation: Healing the Inner World First Dr. Darryl Pokea 2003 All Rights Reserved One cannot have healing without embracing that which needs to be healed. Meditation provides a pathway in the mind to observe the multitude of painful thoughts and emotions that we all carry that keep us separate from the One and one "an other". The states of consciousness available through meditation allow for objectivity, so lucidity can shine through the ego's darkest illusions in daily living. Meditation may be "experienced" not "defined". The process of meditation may be "discussed and guided", not "taught". Meditation is an infinitely changing experience characterized by a gentle unfolding of layers of understanding in each our own personal evolution. It returns us to a state open to the presence of the Creator in all experience, "now". In meditation it is more important to "now" than to "know". Meditation directly contrasts with the ego's desire to know. The ego uses the left-brain to veto and suppress the right brain's natural proclivity towards the present, the "now", of the moment-to-moment meditation experience. We can remember in our mind during meditation, that the ego only wishes to "know" in order to "no" the experience of meditation. The highly conflicted outer world may be viewed with a highly conflicted inner mind. This geometrically increases the suffering of the viewer. There may be profound pain in this existence, but there does not have to be prolonged suffering. It is only when we avoid facing our pain that we prolong the pain experience and suffer. A fragmented, conflicted inner mind is sensitized to viewing every unresolved shattering conflict in the outer world, perpetuating unnecessary suffering. The first step towards the release of outer world conflict is the release of our own conflicts within our own inner mind. A type of imprisonment results as images of the world are shared with images in the mind. This may take the form of a narcissistic illusion: "mirror, mirror on the wall, I see my mind on the world, and the world mirrors my mind in all. This must be reality because they both look the same and both are loaded with pain." These imposed and self-imposed cascades of fear-driven thought lead to an unhealthy dis "ease" of the mind and contribute to dis "ease" in the body. Meditation is being the observer and that which is being observed. They are one and the same. We can become one with each experience flowing into consciousness. This quiets any movement or influence from past and future events so we are free to experience continuously detached observation and listen only in the 'now'. In meditation we do not ignore the outer world, as that is merely another form of escapism. Seeking only the transcendent, to the exclusion of what "is" immanent is just another lure into duality where the ego suggests that we try to escape from life's pain. "Detachment" is not indifference or separation, but rather a process of viewing all beauty and crassness in both the inner and outer world with a gently focused "now" observation. Practicing detachment removes any desire for change in the outer world. Simultaneously, the more deeply we clearly see and understand the limitations of the outer world, the more deeply we can travel inward in meditation, where there are no limits. The chaos we think we perceive on the outside is merely a mirror of the chaos that we still have to deal with on the inside in our own personal evolution. They are the same. Detachment includes releasing any desire to have "an experience" during meditation. We simply "let go" of effortful analysis, and "let happen" effortless observation. Perceptions then dissolve into gentle understandings. Perhaps in reading this, the ego may introduce dissonant thoughts that this experience in consciousness is impossible because we would have to spend too much of our time meditating to achieve this. How clever the ego is in using the left hemisphere's proclivity towards logic and time, to focus on outcome, past, and future events. The ego, in desperate fear, attempts to squelch the right hemisphere's present orientation and its capacity to observe simultaneously, both images of the outer and inner world. It may not be that we need to meditate more, but rather, that we never leave the meditative state. 'Being' as virtuous as possible in daily living is remaining in a meditative state. The Buddha sited the importance of the "Eightfold Path" and Christ the "Eight Beatitudes" in daily living. Meditation without virtuous living becomes merely a trick to control the mind and emotions, a form of distorted self-hypnosis. Meditation is seeing all that presents, without fragmentation, without separation, without the distortions of one's own personal fears. Living truly virtuously in daily life is the meditative state of conscious living. Observing all of one's reactions to the cacophony of prejudices, preconceptions, conditionings, socializations, images and past experiences in others and in our self is meditation. As we recognize the crassness of these discordant noises and illusions, we can participate again in the symphony of creation and hear the whispers of our spirit. Meditation returns us to the instance before thought, the timeless moment of being where there is a suspension of all wanting, all will that precedes thought. This wordless acknowlegement of "Thy Will be Done", ranges from single to infinite moments, that we are illuminated by indwelling Spirit. A thoughtless but lucid knowing that we are home "Om". This is the pure experience of Spirit in the spaces between the melody, between the words and between the images and perceptions of all experience. Simply, Spirit indwelling both the mind and body concurrently. Conscious that neither Body & Mind nor Spirit are separate. Both are home "Om" at once. A sacred awareness in the continuum of consciousness where we clearly know that we are both Spirit and the melody, both Spirit and the words, both Spirit and the images and perceptions of all experiences in mind and body. Meditation is a freeing expansive experience where the impermanent noises of the world pass and the eternal vibrations of spirit surface in the quietude. In this heightened consciousness we can experience the silent flow. Meditation heals the body and restores the mind by the deepest quiet intelligence in the body, mind and Spirit. The quieted mind in the glow, experiences the gentle, ever-healing, symphonic flow. The etymology of "between" is be ("am"-ing simultaneously) + twEnonum (two or both). Literally "be both" Dr. Darryl Pokea (pronounced "Po-Kay") is a professional speaker and author on Mind Body and Spirit Interconnectedness and Complementary Medicine. Dr. Pokea invites you to his website to view synopses of his presentations and listen to samples of his Healing Meditations CD's at www.drpokea.com Back To Top __________ Time Out of Mind by Eric Shapiro Let us first consider the role of time in our lives, then let us consider that role in terms of mental illness. Buddhists and Hindus, among others, propose that time does not actually exist. The Western world, however, with its dependence on clocks and deadlines, scoffs at such a notion, relying upon sayings such as "Time is money" and "Time is of the essence." Time is of the essence. What an expression. Its inherent suggestion is that time comes from our essences; time exists within our souls. This is consistent with the Western position that time was discovered rather than created. Then again, the question haunts us: what if we did, in fact, create time? What if all our ticking clocks and watches amount to nothing more than a symbolic quest for orderly and coherent living? It's a terrifying yet convincing idea. One considers, then, how time functions from the perspective of a person with a mental disorder. The sufferer of depression, or anxiety, or psychotic ailments, likely travels life's trajectory in creaky slow-motion. Catchy sayings such as "Life's too short" make such victims grin wearily, responding in their minds, "No, life's too long." Given the incessant presence of pain in the victim's mind-- the ceaseless worrying, excessive self-reflection, and troubling sensory distortion-- hours tend to stretch, stretch, stretch until the act of exiting one's bed in the morning becomes overwhelming. Another kind of smile, likely even more weary, will cross the sufferer's face when met with this maxim: "Time flies when you're having fun." Indeed it does, and indeed the patient's schedule leaves no room for fun of any kind. Unless, of course, one counts the quiet joy of the moment when the depressed person sees that it's already six o'clock and thinks, "I can't believe I've made it another hour." It is this writer's suggestion that given the dark relationship between the aching mind and the ticking clock, the mentally ill should ignore time altogether. Take a note from our Eastern thinkers and do not, as my father always told me, "try to live the whole future in one day." Again, time needn't be regarded as a finite fact of life. One may choose to doubt it, or, moreover, disapprove of it! Who needs time, anyway? Whose mind needs a sweltering flurry of images from a thousand yesterdays and ten thousand tomorrows? The path to wellness may take two months or it may take two years. This is of no consequence. The moment is of the essence. |