 Gardener
The Motive Force: Qi
Health in the Garden
Health in the Microcosm of a Human Being
Patterns of Harmony in the Human Garden
Loss of Adaptive Ability: Disease
Observing the Signs: Diagnosis
Problems in Search of a Solution: Treatment
The Gardener and the Mechanic
CHAPTER FOUR
Cycles of Circles: A Theory of Relativity
Yin-Yang
Opposition and Unity
Designations of Yin-Yang
Yin-Yang  and the Human Body
Qi, Moisture, and Blood
Everyday Life
Yin-Yang  Character Patterns
CHAPTER FIVE
Reading the Patterns: Diagnosis
The Doctor As Detective, As ArtistCategories of Stress and the Genesis of Disease
The Five Climates
The Five Emotions
Methods of Examination: Observations, Questions, Palpations
The Eight Guiding Principles
The Acupuncturist and the Herbalist
Same Symptom, Dierent Disorders
CHAPTER SIX
Five-Phase Theory:  Evolutionary Stages of Transformation
Five-Phase Theory:  A Holographic Map
Phases As Transformative Stages
Phases of Pulsation
Five Organ Networks:  Traditional Chinese Physiology
Circulation of Qi from Day through Night
Interaction of the Five Phases: Sheng  and Ke Sequences
The Consequences of Dissonance
For Example, The Liver Pattern
Organ Networks
T YPES
CHAPTER SEVEN
Who Am I? : Five-Phase  Archetypes
Five Phases  Distinguish Five Types of People
Individual Psychology in Chinese Medicine
Five-Phase Theory  for Self-Understanding
Typology Is Not Equivalent to Pathology
Self-Assessment QuestionnaireDetermining Your Type
Yearning to Be Another
Understanding Sheng  and Ke
Steps to Solving the Puzzle
From Theory to Practice
CHAPTER EIGHT
Wood
The Archetype for Wood:  The Pioneer
Sally: Exemplar of Wood
How We Recognize Sally As a Wood  Type
The Evolution of Distorted Patterns of Wood
Dan: How Come I’m Not Better Yesterday? So, You Think You’re a Wood Type
CHAPTER NINE
Fire
The Archetype for Fire: The Wizard
Hector: Exemplar of Fire
How We Recognize Hector As a Fire Type
The Evolution of Distorted Patterns of Fire
Maria: Is It Warm in Here or Is It Just Me? So, You Think You’re a Fire Type
CHAPTER TEN
Earth
The Archetype for Earth:  The Peacemaker
Dorothy: Exemplar of Earth
How We Recognize Dorothy As an Earth  TypeThe Evolution of Distorted Patterns of Earth
Richard: Join My Team
So, You Think You’re an Earth  Type
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Metal
The Archetype for Metal:  The Alchemist
Louis: Exemplar of Metal
How We Recognize Louis As a Metal  Type
The Evolution of Distorted Patterns of Metal
Stella: I Live By the Book
So, You Think You’re a Metal  Type
CHAPTER TWELVE
Water
The Archetype for Water:  The Philosopher
Kate: Exemplar of Water
How We Recognize Kate As a Water  Type
The Evolution of Distorted Patterns of Water
Homer: Between a Rock and a Hard Place
So, You Think You’re a Water  Type
T HERAPY
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Acupuncture: A Unied Field of Invisible Channels
Gates Open into a Matrix of Channels
Correspondence Theory and Reorganizing Patterns of Illness
How Does Acupuncture Work, Anyway?The Mechanic and Gardener Revisited
Bioelectric Oscillating Fields
Acupuncture Treatment: What to Expect
Acupuncture First Aid: Acupressure Massage
Fifty Acupuncture Points For Self-Care
How to Locate the Points
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The Cauldron of Chinese Herbs: Wisdom You Can Swallow
In Sickness and in Health
The Chinese Store of Herbal Knowledge
How Chinese Herbs Are Classied: Qualities and Properties
Herbal Properties and Their Eects: Four Examples
Formulating Herbal Prescriptions
Translating Symptoms into Patterns
Translating Patterns into Modular Formulas
Self-Assessment Prole
Symptom Patterns of Depletion and Congestion
Preparing Herbal Tea
Using Chinese Patent Medicines
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Culinary Alchemy: Herbal Food, Kitchen Medicine
Food Ideology West and East
How Is Your Digestion? Eating: Digestion or Congestion
Establishing the Condition of Earth: Stomach  and Spleen
Dening the Relationship Between Food and Function
What Should I Eat?Learning Herbal Cuisine
Cooking Tips
Pantry Herbs
Simple Recipes to Harmonize Qi, Moisture, and Blood
Ingredients to Eliminate Heat, Cold, Wind, and Phlegm
Recipes for the Five Phases : Seasons and Climates
Herbal Breads and Cakes
Congees and Soups for Common Ailments

Afterword
Acknowledgments
Resource Guide: Finding Practitioners and Chinese Herbs
Notes
Glossary
Herb Names Cross Reference
Bibliography
About the Authors
OceanofPDF.comF OREWORD
FOR OVER  TWENTY-THREE CENTURIES ACUPUNCTURE NEEDLES AND GINseng
have mended what is now one-quarter of the world’s population, yet
it is only in the last two decades that most Americans have even
heard of them. In 1971, the year before the “Bamboo Curtain” lifted,
New York Times  journalist James Reston became ill while on
assignment in China. After having his appendix remove d, he was
treated with acupuncture for postsurgical pain. The front-page
stories he sent home reported, “I’ve seen the past, and it works!” At
that moment Chinese medicine entered mainstream American
consciousness. Efrem and I began to practi ce acupuncture shortly after that in
1973. Since then we’ve treated thousands of Americans. One was
Sam, a thirty-six-year-old biochemist, who had an excruciating pain
in his abdomen diagnosed by his doctor as gallstones. Although he
felt skeptical about Chinese medicine, he was more frightened by
the prospect of surgery. After two months of acupuncture, herbs,
and dietary modication, Sam expelled scores of stones, and a
sonogram con rmed that surgery was no longer necessary. Esther, a
retired seventy-ve-year-old nurse, had severe arthritis. After a year
she was free of pain and had recovered the use of her joints and
limbs. Fifteen years later she’d had no recurrence. Yet another
person was Suzanne, who at age twenty-eight, after three
miscarriages and two gynecological surgeries, was unable to
conceive. In the eighth month of treatment, she became pregnant
and later delivered a healthy daughter, now a teenager. These people and many like them had their intellect aroused by
their success with acupuncture and herbs. Having been impressed,
they wanted to be informed. We began writing this book in responseto their request, “Where can I read more about it?” Although other
books exist on the subject, none give the uninitiated a
comprehensive yet comprehensible overview. So we set out to
explain our sense of what Chinese medicine is—how it thinks, how
it works, what it can do. Numerous schools of thought and various methods are found
within the vast historical tradition of Chinese medicine. It has never
been a monolithic institution. After all, millions of docto rs over the
millennia have practiced its techniques and developed its theories. It
sustained itself in part by adjusting to changing conditions and will
continue to develop dieren tly in each country and era in relation
to the social demands and belief systems that prevail  there. In
Medicine in China: A History of Ideas, Paul Unschuld comments:
The travel of ideas is diere nt from the travel of merchandise. The latter can be handed on, from one region to the next, by
dierent means of transporta tion, without itself undergoin g any
change. Ideas  must be transmitted by the head, and, of
necessity, will undergo change. Where could a foreign idea be
accepted, assim ilated, or transmitted without being inuenced
by the particular situation it meets, by the changing languages
that serve as its means of transportation, and by the
preconditioned patterns of thought cherished by the nal
receiver? As Chinese medicine takes root in our terrain, it evolves to adapt
to our environment. Does a botanist hiking along steep slopes move
through the same forest as the native tribesman who once dwelled
among the evergreens? Is a mountain that endures the ages the
same even though climbers see variable landscapes from epoch to
epoch? What the mountain means to people and how they use it
changes with each traveler or caravan. Ideas, more mutable and
malleable than landmasses, are even more liable to change form. The ancient Chinese had their own mythos, language,circumstances, preoccupations, and we have ours. This book
represents a nexus, a point of convergence, a meeting of worlds. As we traveled the curved footpaths around mountains of Chinese
medical thoug ht, we made choices about what to include, what to
leave out, and how best to express our version of these ideas. Between Heave n and Earth  is a product of continuous


 Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1989), 69–70. 3. Nathan Sivin, Traditional Medicine in Contemporary China, 47–53. 4. It is a paradox that although Chinese medical thinking  can be
considered “unscientic” in Western terms, it is closely allied in
outlook with the insights of advanced modern physics. It is as if
the venerable Lao-Tse and Einstein were chatting with each other
in hushed voices across the millennia. Both advocate the concept
that matter and energy are dierent aspects of one inclusive
pattern; that parts can only be understood within the context of
the whole; that there is no past or “cause,” but merely an as-is-
ness or conditi on of present happening; and that this condition is
not separable from the subject for which it is happening—in other
words, there is no objective  reality that exists “out there,” but
rather a subjective reality that arises “in here.”
Cartesian-Newtonian thinkin g dened science as discerning the
relations between preexisting separate entities isolated by
particular boundaries in time and space. But atoms, once regarded
as the brick and mortar, the “building blocks,” of our universe,
now defy measurement and are no longer regarded as discrete
entities. The evidence gathered from the new physics theory
reveals that matter, which appears passive and static, is actually
full of activity and in constant motion, perpetually reorganizing
itself. Subatom ic particles do not exist as “things,” as if they were
substantive building blocks: these particles are not isolated
entities, but rather “probabi lity patterns” that are said to have
“tendencies to exist” and are invisible to us, evident only by their
eects. Similarly, Qi is not a thing; it is known only by its eect. In physics, the term wavicle  was coined because particle s act as
waves in one situation and particles in another. A vocabulary that
distinguishes sharply between the physical and the nonphysical,
the substantive and the insubstantial, the artifact  and the process,
does not apply. There are no more boundaries, no absolute either-or categories; rather, in the words of contemporary physicist
David Bohm, there is only one “unbroken wholeness of that-
which-is.” Bohm says:
We must turn around. Instead of starting with parts and
showing how they work together (the Cartesian order) we
must start with the whole.… Parts are seen to be in
immediate connection  … their dynamic relationships depend,
in an irreducible way, on the state of the whole system (and,
indeed, on that of broade r systems in which they are
contained, extending ultimately and in principle to the entire
universe). Thus, one is led to a new notion of “unbroken
wholeness” which denies the classical idea of analyzability of
the world into separately and independently existent parts.…
Because these ideas exist in such sharp contradiction to so
many modern beliefs, physic ist Niels Bohr says, “Those who are
not shocked when they rst come across quantum theory cannot
possibly have understood it.” And physicist Henry Stapp believes
that these theories of modern physics are the most profound
discoveries of science and will trigger a major revolution, not only
in Western science, but in Western thought as well. Western medicine, founded upon the thought and logic of
modern scienc e, often considers itself a science, although this is
systematically debated by Pellegrino and Thomasma in A
Philosophical Basis of Medical Practice. In the sense that the
fundamental assumptions of both the new physics and Chinese
medicine are distinct from those of modern science, both are
“unscientic”—one from the historical vantage point of being
prescientic and the other being perhaps postscientic.CHAPTER  4 C YCLES AND  CIRCLES:
A THEORY OF RELATIVITY YIN-YANG
1. Richard Levins and Richard Lewontin, The Dialectical Biologist
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1985), 3, 136, 179.CHAPTER  6 FIVE-PHASE THEORY:
EVOLUTIONARY  STAGES OF  TRANSFORMATION
1. Nathan Sivin suggests that the translation of Wu Xing as Five
Elements  was a confus ed misconcept ion originating with Matteo
Ricci, a Jesuit missionary who in 1608 confused the Chinese
concept with the Greek elements. Sivin asserts that Xing is not a
force itself, but that it is a type of Qi that interacts in an ordered
way to make up complex congurations in space or time. He sums
up, “Wu Xing theory provides a language for analysis of
congurations into ve functionally distinct parts or aspects. In
other words, the Five Phase s do what Yin-Yang does, but with
ner divisions, analyzing into ve aspects instead of two.”
(Traditional Medicine in Contemporary China, 70–76.) Joseph
Needham states that Wu Xing refers more to ve sorts of
fundamental processes than to ve sorts of fundamental matter,
explaining that Chinese thought characteristically avoided
substance and clung to relati on. (Science and Civilisation in China,
vol. 2: Cambridge, England:  Cambridge University Press, 1978,
243–244.) 2. Philosopher Alan Watts expresses the notion of the holographic
paradigm by commenting on the ancient Taoist view: “Pick up a
blade of grass and all the worlds come with it. In other words, the
whole cosmos is implicit in every member of it, and every point in
it may be regarded as its center.…  This is the bare and basic
principle of the organic view.…” (Watercourse Way [New York:
Pantheon, 1975], 33, 35.) Physicist Werner Heisenberg comments
on the relationship between the macrocosm and microcosm: “The
same organizing forces that have shaped nature in all her forms
are also responsible for the structure of our minds.” (Physics and
Beyond  [New York: Harper and Row, 1971], 101.) 3. “The pattern which connects is a meta-pattern. It is a pattern of
patterns. It is that meta-pattern which denes the vast
generalization that, indeed, it is patterns which connect.…  The rightway to begin to think about the pattern which connects is to think
of it as primarily  … a dance of interacting parts and only
secondarily pegged down by various sorts of physical limits.…”
(Gregory Bateson, Mind and Nature  [New York: Bantam, 1979],
12–14.) “The conservative laws for energy and matter concern
substance rather than form. But mental process, ideas,
communication, organizatio n, dierentiation, pattern  … are
matters of form rather than substance.” (Bateson, Steps to an
Ecology of Mind [New York: Ballantine, 1972 ], xxv–xxvi.) Bateson
represents the position of the “new paradigm” thinkers—
physicists, ecologists, biologists, psychologists, anthropologists,
and mythologists—who are crossing conventional boundaries
between scien ce and metaphysics in an attempt to articulate a
dynamic, nondichotomous view of a living, interconnected
universe. Five-Phase Theory  is an example of what medical anthropologist
Paul Unschuld calls “patterne d thinking”—Chinese medicine links
all visible and invisible phenomena by their mutual association
with specic lines of correspondence. The emphasis is upon
describing the way phenomena t together, that is, the context,
rather than explaining why they occur. (Medicine in China: A
History of Ideas [Berkeley, Calif: University of California, 1985],
52.) This parallels contemporary paradigmatic thinking in
biology, physics, and psychology.CHAPTER  7 W HO AM I? : FIVE-PHASE  CHARACTER  TYPES
1. By this we mean that the primary terms of Five-Phase  thinking are
descriptive rather than explanatory, and that its primary  focus is
that which can be known through the human senses. Phenomenology validates the subjective frame of reference by
taking the point of view that by seeking to know the nature of our
lived conscious ness we can comprehend the nature of reality. This
is reminiscent of the Tao Te Ching : “How do I know the ways of all
things at the Beginning, By what is within me” (Tao Te Ching,
John C. H. Wu trans. [New  York: St. John’s University Press,
1961]). 2. In Medicine in China: A History of Ideas, Paul Unschul d suggests
that the correspondence thinking of Chinese medicine is syncretic,
not synthetic—it seeks to “build bridges” among divergent views
rather than to “distill a homogeneous system of ideas” from all
existing views (pp. 57–58). It is common in Western science to
sharply divide the discipl ines of biology, psycholo gy, and
metaphysics from each other. Some contemporary voices argue
for the interpenetration of these elds. For example, commenting
on modern biologists like Paul Weiss and philosophical
anthropologist


als	that	are	valued	or	desired	are	now	exposed	to	the	formless
spiritual	qualities	of	love,	forgiveness,	and	devotion. Through	humility	and
the	choice	of	peace	out	of	love,	one	can	relinquish	even	the	most	cherished	of
negativities,	such	as	revenge,	spite,	or	hatred. The	small	self	is	dissolved	by	the	Self. The	healing	attitude	of	the	Self	to
the	self	is	compassion;	it	is	through	forgiveness	that	one	is	forgiven. This
willingness	to	surrender,	arising	out	of	the	grace	of	God,	permits	the	power	of
God	expressed	as	the	Holy	Spirit	to	recontextualize	understanding	and,	by
this	device,	to	undo	the	reign	of	perception	and	its	attendant	duality	that	is	the
source	of	all	suffering. The	dissolution	of	duality	is	the	ultimate	gift	of	God,
for	it	dissolves	the	very	source	and	capacity	for	suffering. In	nonduality,
suffering	is	not	possible. Dogma
The	way	to	God	via	the	nonduality	of	consciousness	involves	no	dogma
or	belief	systems. Sufficient,	useful	information	is	available,	the	truth	of
which	can	be	verified	by	one’s	own	inner	quest	that	is	crucial	to	progress,
especially	if	one	is	dedicated	to	Enlightenment	in	this	lifetime. The	value	of
any	piece	of	information	can	be	easily	calibrated. It	will	also	be	discovered
that	each	time	this	exercise	is	done,	something	more	is	learned	that	was	not
part	of	the	original	question	verbatim. Diets,	Rituals,	Exercises,	Breathing	Techniques,	Mantras,	and	Symbols
Although	none	of	these	is	actually	necessary,	they	can	be	helpful	to	some
spiritual	devotees. It	is	useful	to	recognize	that	religions	have	their	own
agendas	and	limitations. The	spiritual	pathway	to	enlightenment	is	unique. It
is	not	the	same	as	‘practicing	a	religion’. Religions	tend	to	emphasize
historical	events,	their	geographical	locations,	and	past	cultures	with	political
alliances. Enlightenment	happens	in	the	present	moment	and	is	outside	time,	history,
or	geography,	which	are	therefore	irrelevant. Theology	is	concerned	with	the
consciousness	level	of	the	400s;	Enlightenment	is	concerned	with	the	levels
of	600	and	above. What	of	Music,	Incense,	and	Architectural	Beauty? These	are	inspirational	and	supportive	of	a	spiritual	and	reverential	mood
and	attitude	and	help	to	remove	the	focus	of	attention	from	thought	content. Beauty	is	uplifting	and	calibrates	in	the	high	500s,	which	is	akin	to	perfection.What	Is	The	Essence	of	Spiritual	Practice? To	activate	by	inspiration,	dedication,	and	decision	of	will	those	aspects	of
consciousness	that	become	progressively	self-actualizing. They	are
empowered	by	compassion,	devotion,	humility,	and	the	willingness	to
surrender	to	unconditional	love. Perception	then	transforms	into	spiritual
vision. This	evolution	evokes	a	supportive	response	from	the	highest	levels	of
consciousness	for	it	takes	great	power	to	overcome	the	‘gravity’	of	the	earthly
life	and	its	habits	of	perception. The	act	of	worship	is	an	entreaty	and
invitation	to	these	higher	energies	for	assistance	in	one’s	spiritual	endeavor. What	of	Daily	Life? There	is	a	shift	of	values	from	worldly	accomplishment	to	spiritual
realization,	which	colors	all	activity. It	places	it	in	a	different	context. The
overreaching	goal	of	life	becomes	altered,	and	life’s	events	take	on	a	different
significance	and	meaning	as	though	placed	in	a	new	dimension. Eventually,
the	focus	is	on	the	inner,	silent,	motionless,	still	presence	of	Awareness	itself
rather	than	on	its	passing	content. Suddenly,	the	sense	of	‘I’	shifts	from	the
content	to	the	context,	which	is	the	universal	‘I’	of	the	Self. Why	Is	‘Work’	Even	Necessary	in	Spiritual	Endeavor? The	ego	can	be	thought	of	as	a	set	of	entrenched	habits	of	thought	that	are
the	result	of	entrainment	by	invisible	energy	fields	which	dominate	human
consciousness. They	become	reinforced	by	repetition	and	by	the	consensus	of
society. Further	reinforcement	comes	from	language	itself. To	think	in
language	is	a	form	of	self-programming. The	use	of	the	prefix	‘I’	as	the
subject,	and	therefore	the	implied	cause	of	all	actions,	is	the	most	serious
error	and	automatically	creates	a	duality	of	subject	and	object. To	overcome	the	gravity	of	worldly	thoughts	and	beliefs	requires	the	work
of	implementing	the	decision	of	the	spiritual	Will	to	deprogram
consciousness. This	includes	the	refusal	to	accept	the	ego/mind’s
presumptions	and	statements	as	though	they	were	reality. Instead,	there	is	an
insistence	on	a	higher	understanding. Familiarity	with	more	compassionate	viewpoints	of	life	tends	to	potentiate
them;	thus,	the	traditional	spiritual	advice	to	‘mingle	with	holy	company’	and
avoid	negative	companions. This	potentiates	progressive	discernment	of	more
appropriate	attitudes	and	habits	of	thought. Of	What	Use	Is	Prayer? Supplication	is	an	act	of	humility. To	lower	levels	of	consciousness,prayer	is	an	attempt	to	‘get’	something	for	self	or	others,	such	as	a	new	car,	a
job,	recovery	from	an	illness,	or	special	favors. With	progress,	this	intention
to	control	God	is	given	up,	and	the	act	of	supplication	becomes	a	dedication
instead	of	a	request. In	war,	both	sides	pray	to	win. With	progression	of
consciousness	from	selfishness	to	selflessness,	the	quality	of	prayer	shifts	to
the	willingness	to	be	a	servant	of	the	Lord	and	a	channel	of	His	Will	without
trying	to	specify	the	what	or	the	how	it	is	to	be	done. Prayer	becomes	surrender	rather	than	supplication. Many	children	lose
their	faith	in	God	by	using	prayer	in	the	form	of	pleading	and	then	become
disappointed	when	the	requested	benefit	fails	to	appear. What	Is	The	Healing	Power	of	Prayer? All	love	arises	from	God. On	the	scale	of	consciousness,	Love	calibrates
at	500,	and	as	it	is	perfected,	it	reaches	Unconditional	Love	at	540,	which	is
the	level	of	healing. Healing	prayer	services	thus	seek	to	replace	negativity
with	an	energy	field	of	540	or	over. Some	spiritual	organizations	calibrate	at
540	or	above	and	therefore	provide	a	field	of	healing	energy	that	is	capable	of
accomplishing	‘miracles’. What	Is	A	Miracle? If	an	event	occurs	outside	the	domain	of	explanation	or	expected	linear
causality	and	the	Newtonian	paradigm,	it	is	termed	a	miracle. It	is	an
eventuality	that	is	brought	into	actuality	by	removal	of	the	impediments	of
negativity. This	may	involve	relinquishment	of	limiting	belief	systems,	such
as,“It’s	impossible,”	or	“It	is	not	deserved,”	or	other	ego	viewpoints. For
those	who	have	reached	higher	levels	of	consciousness,	the	miraculous	is	not
only	commonplace,	it	is	the	natural	course	of	events	and	becomes	continuous. The	miraculous	comes	out	of	creation	and	not	causality. Spiritual	Principles
Attitude
The	‘way’	of	spiritual	advancement	through	consciousness	is	actually
uncomplicated	and	simple. The


dharma means that you have found the right work and
manage to do the right thing in your behavior. Dhar ma is
virtue or right living. A t a deeper level, being in your dharma
means that you ar e on the cor rect path spiritually. You ar e
following the pr ecepts of your r eligion and not falling into
traps along the way. But neither of these states r esolves the conﬂict between “I
want to ” and “I have to.” Desir e and necessity r emain at
war. If anything, righteous people ﬁnd themselves bound by
far mor e duties and obligations than or dinary people, since
religions of every stripe mak e many demands and attempt
to curb all kinds of desir es. Only choiceless awar eness
brings the conﬂict to an end, because when you r each this
level of consciousness, what you want is also what you need
to do, for your good and the good of the whole world. In choiceless awar eness, no one needs to tell you the
rules of dharma. Instead, you have assimilated the dharma
—you actually live the axiom, “I am not in the world; the
world is in me.” T o maintain such a state r equir es dedicated
personal gr owth, but everyone has e xperienced times lik e
the following:
You ar e car efree.There is an absence of guilt and self -judgment. You experience a feeling of rightness. Outside conditions don’t block you. Other people cooperate without putting up r esistance. The fruits of your actions ar e positive. Desir e ends in a feeling of fulﬁllment and satisfaction. As you can see, this is a special combination of
ingredients. Y et when you align with the for ce of dharma,
this is your nor mal state. It’s not enough simply to get what
you want. Many people, if they have enough power and
money, can fulﬁll their slightest whim without much eﬀort. But feeling satisﬁed and fulﬁlled is much rar er, and of ten
the e xercise of power and money only inﬂames a person’s
desir es and leads to deeper dissatisfaction. Y ou can’t satisf y
your ego by giving it everything it wants, because the ego’s
whole r eason for e xistence is to accumulate. It wants mor e
money, possessions, status, love, power, and on and on. The machinery is ﬁx ed in place; it runs on a set pr ogram
that is all but impossible to r ewrite. The desir es of the ego
are superﬁcial. Y our true self is without ego. You ar en’t
aiming for gain; you don’t fear loss. When you give of
yourself, you ar en’t secr etly calculating what you’ll get in
return. We are fortunate that ther e is another way to view the
world, not fr om the ego’s perspective, but fr om beyond ego,
wher e wholeness e xists. As the ego’s hold is weak ened,
there’s a subtle fusing of “I want to ” and “I must.” T o act as
the dharma—the will of God—would have you act totally
naturally. You’re simply being yourself. Acceptance V ersus RejectionThe solution: Unbounded awar eness. Fear of r ejection cripples millions of people. It mak es
unrequited love a tragedy understood in every cultur e.
Spiritually, you cannot be r ejected unless you r eject
yourself. I doubt that any message has been so
misunderstood, for when someone else r ejects you, the pain
feels inﬂicted, and you ar e the victim. T o unravel how
rejection works, ther efore, we need to look deeper into the
whole issue of judgment. This isn’t a new topic, yet ther e’s
something new to add. All judgment comes down to judging
against yourself. Self -judgment tak es many for ms, such as
fear of failur e, a sense of victimization, a general lack of
conﬁdence, and so on. Much of the time ther e is only a
vague feeling of “I’m not good enough” or “No matter how
much I achieve, I’m actually a fraud.”
Many people hit upon a false solution. They develop an
ideal image and then try to live up to this image and
convince the world that it’s who they ar e. (Hence the legend
of the perfect pick up line that always works on women in a
singles bar, a desperate fantasy that one can connect
through image alone.) An idealized self -image can be so
convincing that you even convince yourself. How many
investment bank ers, in the wak e of the r eckless gr eed that
nearly br ought down the world economy in 2008, continued
to see themselves as not just innocent, but superior to the
disaster they set in motion? An idealized self sounds lik e a model of acceptance. Listen
to what it tells you: “Y ou’re doing the right thing. Y ou’re in
contr ol. No one can hurt you. Just k eep being the way you
are now.” Thus shielded, you can har dly do wr ong, and if
you do, your misdeeds ar e quickly cover ed up and
forgotten. The beauty of having an ideal image of yourself is
that you actually do feel good about who you ar e. The
image substitutes for painful r eality.As you would e xpect by now, the shadow has something
to say in this matter. At regular intervals some icon of
righteous ness, usually a pr eacher or public moralist, falls
into scandal. Invariably these individuals have committed
the very sins they accuse others of, impr oper se xual
misbehavior being the most typical. Cynically we imagine
that these Elmer Gantrys ar e rank hypocrites, that they live
out the sham of public virtue so that they can pursue vice in
private. In reality fallen icons ar e extreme e xamples of an
idealized self -image. Their powers of denial wer e
super human. The shadow couldn’t touch them. Then when
the shadow did surface, an enor mous sense of guilt and
shame surfaced with it. Once they fall, these pr ofessional
saints indulge in e xtremes of public atonement. Even in
contrition, nothing feels r eal.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        Here are the typical for ms that pr ojection can tak e:Superiority : “I know that I’m better than you. Y ou
should see this and acknowledge it. ”
Injustice:  “It’s unfair that these bad things ar e
happening to me,” or “I don’t deserve this. ”
Arrogance:  “I’m too pr oud to bother with you. Y our
very pr esence ir ritates me. ”
Defensiveness:  “You’re attacking me, so I’m not
listening to you. ”
Blame:  “I didn’t do anything. It’s all your fault. ”
Idealizing others:  “My father was lik e a god when I
was little,” “My mother was the best in the world,”
or “The man I mar ry will be my her o. ”
Prejudice:  “He’s one of them, and you know what
they’r e like,” or “ Be car eful. Their kind is
danger ous. ”
Jealousy : “You’re thinking of betraying me. I can see
it. ”
Paranoia:  “They’r e out to get me,” or “I see the
conspiracy no one else sees. ”
Whenever any of these attitudes appear, ther e is an
unconscious feeling hidden in the shadow that you cannot
face. Her e are some typical e xamples:
Superiority  disguises the feeling that you ar e a
failur e or that others would r eject you if they knew
who you r eally ar e. Injustice  disguises the feeling of sinfulness or the
sense that you ar e always to blame. Arrogance  disguises bottled-up anger, and beneath
that lies deep-seated pain. Defensiveness  disguises the feeling that you ar e
unworthy and weak. Unless you defend yourself
from others, you will start attacking yourself. Blame  disguises the feeling that you ar e at fault
and should be ashamed of yourself. Idealizing others  disguises the feeling that you ar e
a weak, helpless child who needs pr otection and
taking car e of. Prejudice  disguises the feeling that you ar e inferior
and deserve to be r ejected. Jealousy  disguises your own impulse to stray or a
sense of se xual inadequacy. Paranoia  disguises deep-seated, overwhelming
anxiety. As you can see, pr ojection is far mor e subtle than anyone
imagines. Y et it is the open gate to the shadow. It is a
painful gate, though, since what you see as faults in others
masks what


 Alwaysrememberthatwherethereispain,thereislife. Your
paintellsyouthatyournervesandyourbody’stissuesarealive
andwellandaretryingtocommunicatewithyou. Itistelling
youtotakecorrectiveactiontorestorenormalfunctiontoyourbody. ‘Wherethereispain,thereisalwaystheopportunityforhealing. Painisnotnegativeorpunitive,butratherapositive,instructive,helpfulmessagefromyourbody’shealingsystem. Painisaconsummateteacher,andyoushouldconsiderityourfriend,notyourenemy. Painisalwaystemporaryandneedstobeunderstood,notignoredorsuppressed. Whenyousuppresspainthroughartifi
cialmeans,youareturningadeafeartovaluableinformation
yourbodyistryingtosharewithyou. Asmokealarmisinstalled
foryourprotection,andifyouweretosnipitswiresbecause
youdidn’tliketheirritatingsounditmadeeverytimeitwasactivated,yourhousemightburndown. Snippingthewiresto
yourinternalalarmsystemiswhatyoudowhenyousuppress
yourpain. Unfortunately,throughthewidespreaduseofpainsuppressingmedications,peopleinoursocietyarelearninghow
tosuccessfullyignoretheirbodies. Doingthisisoftenvery
254ActivatingYourHealingSystemWhenYoureSick
harmfulbecausemostconditionsgetworsewhentheunderly
ingcauseshavenotbeenaddressed. Sometimes,chronicpaindoesn’thaveaphysicalcausebut
hasitsrootsindeeperemotionalpain. Thisemotionalpainseeksbodilyexpression,whichcancomeintheformofunbear
ablephysicalpain. Thistypeofpainisoftendescribedasfunctional,whichmeansthatnothingstructuralcanbefound
asthesource,asopposedtoorganic,whichmeansthatthereis
adefinitephysicalcauseforthepain. Youmustaddressfunctionalpainjustasseriouslyasyoudoorganicpain,andyou
mustlistentotheseimportantmessagesfromyourbodytoacti
vateyourhealingsystemandbeginthehealingprocess. LearningtoWorkwithYourPain
Painisapotentmessagefromyourhealingsystemthatsomethingisoutof
order. Underlyingcausesalwaysneedtobeaddressed,butifnoseriousorlife-threateningcausehasbeenfound,andyourpainstillpersists,youcan
takethefollowingstepstoworkwithyourpain,nomatterhowlongithas
beenwithyou:
oListentoyourbody. Regularlypracticethe“HowtoListentoYourBody”exerciseaccordingtotheinstructionsgiveninChapter4. Ifyourpainis
severeandlongstanding,youinitiallymightneedtopracticethisexercise
uptofourtimesaday,foraminimumof30to45minutesforeachses
sion. Allowseveralmonthsforimprovementifyourpainhaslastedforsixmonthstoayear. Allowmoretimeifyourpainhasbeenpresentlonger. Ifyouaretakingstrongpainsuppressants,practicingthisexerciseand
gainingfullbenefitsmaybedifficult. Togainfullbenefitsandformaximumhealing,reduceordefertakingthesemedicationswhileyouarepractic
ingtheexerciseoflearningtolistentoyourbody. Asthepaineventuallybeginstolesseninintensityandyourbodyheals,youwillcometoappre
ciatethisdisciplineandseethatitwaswellworththeeffort. oDialoguewithyourpain. Throughtheguided-imageryandvisualizationtech
niquespresentedinPartOne,youcanlearntohaveaconversationwith
yourpainandgainvaluableinsightsaboutitsspecificpurposeandfunc
tion. Youcangainmuchhealinginformationinthisway. Yourhealing
BeforeYouBegrn 255
systemisintelligentandknowsmoreaboutyourillnessthanyoudo,
andbypracticingthesetechniquesyoucanaccessinformationthatmay
becompletelyunavailablethrough‘othermeans. Thisinformationcan
guideanddirectyourhealingeffortsandhelpyoudecidewhatothertreatmentsmaybeofbenefit. Itiscritical,however,thatyoumakeacommitmenttoimplementintoyourlifewhateverinsightsyougainfrom
thesetechniques. (Formoreinformationaboutthesevaluabletech
niques,consultthe“Resources”sectioninthebackofthisbook. ) ~Breathewithyourpain. Inyoga,breathandenergyarenearlyequivalent. Byworkingwithyourbreathing,youcanincreaseyourenergyandgaintremendouscontroloveryourpain. Whenyoulearntoslowlyandgen
tlylengthenyourbreathing,notonlydoyoubringmoreoxygenandheal
ingenergyintoyourbody,butyoualsohelprelaxyournervoussystem,
themastersysteminyourbody. Yournervescontrolallofyourmuscletissues,whichcontainthe
largestnumberofpainreceptorsinyourbody. Sowhenyournervesare
calmandrelaxedbecauseofyourbreathing,yourmusclesrelax. When
yourmusclesrelax,tensionandpainautomaticallydiminishthroughout
yourentirebody. Breathingisoneofthemostpowerfulmodalities
knowntohelpdiminishpainandstrengthenyourhealingsystem. Breath
ingissimple,easytopractice,andalwaysavailabletoyou. (Formoreinformationonbreathing,pleaserefertothebreathingexercisesinthestress-managementsectioninChapter6. ) ~Stretchwithyourpain. Stretchinglengthensmusclesinyourbody,decom
pressesnerves,helpstorestorevitalmovementofimportantstructures
andfluids,improveslymphaticcirculation(whichaidsimmunefunction),
andcreatesspacewithinwhichmorebloodflowandhealingenergycan
enterproblemareasofyourbody. Stretching,whendonegentlyandcor
rectly,andwhencombinedwithslow,gentle,deepbreathing,isapower
fulmodalityforeliminatingpain. Whenyouarestretching,keepthese
basictipsinmind:
I. Followtheguidelinesforstretchingdescribedearlier,andremember
nottostretchtoofar.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>
Q: What was the diagnosis given to Merry, and how did she respond to it?,
A: Merry was diagnosed with severe, progressive osteoarthritis, and she responded by committing to a regimen of yoga and gentle physical therapy.
Q: What is the author's view on the concept of "incurable" diseases?,
A: The author believes that the concept of "incurable" diseases is misleading, as many people have recovered from previously thought incurable diseases, and it's crucial to focus on the healing process.
Q: What is the author's advice on the importance of prevention?,
A: The author emphasizes the significance of prevention and encourages readers to take proactive steps to maintain their health and well-being.
Q: What is the author's stance on the role of diet in healing?,
A: The author advises that each person has unique nutritional needs and encourages readers to listen to their body and make informed choices about their diet.
Q: What is the author's view on the importance of spiritual well-being?,
A: The author stresses the significance of spiritual well-being and encourages readers to cultivate a sense of connection with a higher power, engage in activities that bring joy, and prioritize self-care.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>Thesamenaturaltreatmentsforabscessescanalsobeeffective
foracne.Dryingagents,includingalcohol,canalsobehelpful.Oily,fatty,richdiets,alongwithstress,canmakeacneworse.Peoplewithnaturallyoilyskinneedtopayparticularattentiontotheirdiets.Amacrobioticdiet(averylow-fat,plant-baseddietthatoriginatedinJapan)canoftenclearupstubborncasesofacneinashorttime.In
manycases,conventionalmedicinesmayalsobenecessary.Thesemedicinesincludetopicaldryingagents,suchasthosethatcontain
284ActivatingYourHealingSystemWhenYoureSick
benzoylperoxide,orinternalpreparations,suchasaccutane,avitamin-Aderivative,which,whenprescribedunderthecareofaknowledgeabledermatologist,canbehighlyeffective. Boils,Carbuncles,Furuncles
Theseareinfectiousswellingsintheskinsimilartoabscesses.Many
startwithjustasimpleingrownhair,buttheymaybecomeirritat
ed,painful,andoftenquitelarge,especiallyiftheyaresqueezedorpicked.Theycanalsobecomeunsightly,especiallyiftheyareonthe
faceorshoulder.Naturaltreatmentsthatworkbestwithyourhealingsystemincludesoakingorcompressinginwarm,concentratedsaltsolutions,applyingclaypacks,exposingtosunlight,treatingwithalco
holandotherdryingagents,andkeepingalldirt,oil,andbacteria
awayfromtheaffectedarea.Ifboils,carbuncles,orfurunclesare
severeandareallowedtoprogress,antibioticsand/orlancingmaybenecessarytohelpyourhealingsystemrepairtheseconditions. Burns


rients. These	nutrients	feed
the	60	to	100	trillion	inhabitants	(cells)	of	the	body. Each	cell	is,	in	itself,	a	microscopic
city	of	immense	complexity,	with	billions	of	chemical	reactions	per	second. To	sustain	the
incredibly	diverse	activities	of	all	the	cells	of	the	body	without	disruption,	the	liver	must
supply	them	with	a	constant	stream	of	nutrients,	enzymes,	and	hormones. With	its	intricate
labyrinth	of	veins,	ducts,	and	specialized	cells,	the	liver	needs	to	be	completely
unobstructed	in	order	to	maintain	a	problem-free	production	line	and	frictionless
distribution	system	throughout	the	body. The	liver	is	the	main	organ	responsible	for	distributing	and	maintaining	the	body’s
“fuel”	supply. Furthermore,	its	activities	include	the	breaking	down	of	complex	chemicals
and	the	synthesis	of	protein	molecules. The	liver	acts	as	a	cleansing	device;	it	also
deactivates	hormones,	alcohol,	and	medicinal	drugs. Its	task	is	to	modify	these
biologically	active	substances	so	that	they	lose	their	potentially	harmful	effects—a	process
known	as	detoxification. Specialized	cells	in	the	liver’s	blood	vessels	(Kupffer	cells)	mop
up	harmful	elements	and	infectious	organisms	reaching	the	liver	from	the	gut. The	liver
excretes	the	waste	materials	resulting	from	these	actions	via	its	bile	duct	network. A	healthy	liver	receives	and	filters	3	pints	of	blood	per	minute	and	produces	1	to	1.5
quarts	of	bile	every	day. This	ensures	that	all	the	activities	in	the	liver	and	in	the	rest	of	the
body	run	smoothly	and	efficiently. Obstructive	gallstones	greatly	undermine	the	liver’s
ability	to	detoxify	any	externally	supplied	and	internally	generated	harmful	substances	in
the	blood. These	stones	also	prevent	the	liver	from	delivering	the	proper	amounts	ofnutrients	and	energy	to	the	right	places	in	the	body	at	the	right	time. This	upsets	the
delicate	balance	in	the	body,	known	as	“homeostasis,”	thus	leading	to	disruption	of	its
systems	and	undue	stress	on	its	organs. A	clear	example	of	such	a	disturbed	balance	is	an	increased	concentration	of	the
endocrine	hormones
estrogen
	and
aldosterone
	in	the	blood. These	hormones,	produced	in
both	men	and	women,	are	responsible	for	the	correct	amount	of	salt	and	water	retention. When	stones	congest	the	gallbladder	and	the	liver’s	bile	ducts,	these	hormones	may	not	be
sufficiently	broken	down	and	detoxified. Hence,	their	concentration	in	the	blood	rises	to
abnormal	levels,	causing	tissue	swelling	and	water	retention. Most	oncologists	consider
elevated	estrogen	levels	to	be	the	leading	cause	of	breast	cancer	among	women. In	men,
high	levels	of	this	hormone	can	lead	to	both	excessive	development	of	breast	tissue	and
weight	gain. Over	60	percent	of	the	American	population	is	overweight	or	obese. Men,	women,	and
children	in	this	condition	suffer	mainly	from	fluid	retention	(with	relatively	minor	fat
accumulation). The	retained	fluids	help	trap	and	neutralize	noxious	substances	that	the
liver	can	no	longer	remove	from	the	body. This	helps	the	overweight	or	obese	person	to
survive	a	major,	possibly	fatal,	toxicity	crisis	such	as	a	heart	attack,	septic	poisoning,	or
massive	infection. The	side	effect	of	fluid	retention	in	the	tissues,	however,	is	that	it
causes	these	toxins	and	other	harmful	waste	matter	(metabolic	waste	and	dead	cell
material)	to	accumulate	in	various	parts	of	the	body	and	further	congest	the	pathways	of
circulation	and	elimination. Wherever	in	the	body	the	storage	capacity	for	toxins	and
waste	is	exceeded,	symptoms	of	illness	begin	to	occur. Cleansing	the	liver	and	gallbladder	from	all	accumulated	stones	(see
Figures	1a
	and
1b
)
helps	to	restore	homeostasis,	balances	weight,	and	sets	the	precondition	for	the	body	to
heal	itself. The	liver	cleanse	is	also	one	of	the	best	precautionary	measures	you	can	take	to
protect	yourself	against	nearly	every	kind	of	illness,	known	or	unknown. Figure	1a
:	Flushed-out	gallstones

Figure	1b
:	Flushed-out	gallstones

If	you	suffer	any	of	the	following	symptoms,	or	similar	conditions,	you	most	likely
have	numerous	gallstones	in	your	liver	and	gallbladder:
Low	appetite
Food	cravings	Digestive	disorders
Diarrhea
Constipation
Clay-colored	stool
Hernia
Flatulence
Hemorrhoids
Dull	pain	on	the	right	side
Difficulty	breathing
Liver	cirrhosis
Hepatitis
Most	infections
High	cholesterol
Pancreatitis
Heart	disease
Brain	disorders
Duodenal	ulcers
Nausea	and	vomiting
A	“bilious”	or	angry	personality
Depression
Impotence
Other	sexual	problems
Prostate	diseases
Urinary	problems
Hormonal	imbalances
Menstrual	and	menopausal
disorders
Problems	with	vision
Puffy	eyes
Any	skin	disorder
Liver	spots,	especially	those	on
the	back	of	the	hands	and
facial	area
Dizziness	and	fainting	spells
Loss	of	muscle	tone
Excessive	weight	or	wasting
Strong	shoulder	and	back	pain
Pain	at	the	top	of	a	shoulder
blade	and/or	between	the
shoulder	blades
Dark	color	under	the	eyes
Morbid	complexion
Tongue	that	is	glossy	or	coated
in	white	or	yellow
Scoliosis
Gout	Frozen	shoulder
Stiff	neck
Asthma
Headaches	and	migraines
Tooth	and	gum	problems
Yellowness	of	the	eyes	and	skin
Sciatica
Numbness	and	paralysis	of	the
legs
Joint	diseases
Knee	problems
Osteoporosis
Obesity
Chronic	fatigue
Kidney	diseases
Cancer
Multiple	sclerosis	and
fibromyalgia
Alzheimer’s	disease
Cold	extremities
Excessive	heat	and	perspiration
in	the	upper	part	of	the
body
Very	greasy	hair	and	hair	loss
Cuts	or	wounds	that	keep
bleeding	and	refuse	to	heal
Difficulty	sleeping,	insomnia
Nightmares
Stiffness	of	joints	and	muscles
Hot	and	cold	flashes

	The	Importance	of	Bile

As	already	mentioned,	one	of	the	liver’s	most	important	functions	is	to	produce	bile,	about
1	to	1.5	quarts	per	day. Liver	bile	is	a	viscous	yellow,	brown,	or	green	fluid	that	is	alkaline
(versus	acidic)	and	has	a	bitter	taste. Without	sufficient	bile,	most	commonly	eaten	foods
remain	undigested	or	partially	digested. For	example,	to	enable	the	small	intestines	to
digest	and	absorb	fat	and	calcium	from	the	food	you	eat,	the	food	must	first	combine	with
bile. When	fat	is	not	absorbed	properly,	it	indicates	that	bile	secretion	is	insufficient. The
undigested	fat	remains	in	the	intestinal	tract. When	undigested	fat	reaches	the	colon	along
with	other	waste	products,	bacteria	break	down	some	of	the	fat	into	fatty	acids	or	excrete	it
with	the	stool. Since	fat	is	lighter	than	water,	having	fat	in	the	stool	may	cause	it	to	float. When	fat	is	not	absorbed,	calcium	is	not	absorbed	either


end our per ception beyond
the er rors that our physical per ceptions r eveal to us—what
someone did, what someone said—to the holiness within
them that only our heart r eveals. A ctually, then, ther e is
nothing to for give. The traditional notion of for giveness—
what The Song of P rayer  calls “ forgiveness-to -destr oy”—is
then an act of judgment. It is the ar rogance of someone who
sees themselves as better than someone else, or per haps
equally as sinful, which is still a misper ception and the
arrogance of the ego. Since all minds ar e connected, then the cor rection of
anyone’s per ception is on some level a healing of the entir e
racial mind. The practice of for giveness is our most
important contribution to the healing of the world. Angry
people cannot cr eate a peaceful planet. It amuses me to
think how angry I used to get when people wouldn’t sign my
peace petitions. Forgiveness is a full time job, and sometimes very
diﬃcult. F ew of us always succeed, yet making the eﬀort is
our most noble calling. It is the world’s only r eal chance to
begin again. A radical for giveness is a complete letting go ofthe past, in any personal r elationship, as well as in any
collective drama. 2. LIVING IN THE PRESENT
“All your past e xcept its beauty is gone, and
nothing is lef t but a blessing.”
God e xists in eter nity. The only point wher e eter nity meets
time is in the pr esent. “The pr esent is the only time ther e
is.” A miracle is a shif t in thinking fr om what we might have
done in the past or should be doing in the futur e, to what we
feel fr ee to do right her e, right now. A miracle is a r elease
from inter nal bondage. Our capacity for brilliance is equal to
our capacity to for get the past and for get the futur e. That’s
why little childr en ar e brilliant. They don’t r emember the
past, and they don’t r elate to the futur e. Be us as little
childr en, that the world might ﬁnally gr ow up. One of the e xercises in the Course W orkbook r eads, “The
past is over. It can touch me not.” F orgiving the past is an
important step in allowing ourselves the e xperience of
miracles. The only meaning of anything in our past is that it
got us her e, and should be honor ed as such. All that is r eal
in our past is the love we gave and the love we r eceived. Everything else is an illusion. The past is mer ely a thought
we have. It is literally all in our minds. The Course teaches,
“Give the past to Him Who can change your mind about it
for you.” T o sur render the past to the Holy Spirit is to ask
that only loving, helpful thoughts about it r emain in our
minds, and all the r est be let go. What we ar e left with then is the pr esent, the only time
wher e miracles happen. ‘W e place the past and the futur e
as well into the hands of God.’ The biblical statement that“time shall be no mor e” means that we will one day live
fully in the pr esent, without obsessing about past or futur e.
The universe pr ovides us with a clean slate in every
moment; God’s cr eation holds nothing against us. Our
problem is that we don’t believe this. L et us ask for giveness,
not of ‘God who has never condemned us,’ but of ourselves,
for all we think we did and did not do. Let us give ourselves
permission to begin again. We all encounter situations in our lives wher e we wish we
hadn’t done something we did, or wish we had done
something we didn’t. They’r e those moments in our lives, be
they yester day or several years ago, that mak e us cringe to
think about. One of the most fr eeing techniques pr ovided us
in A Course in Miracles  is a prayer on of the T ext, in which
we instruct the universe to undo our er rors:
“…the ﬁrst step in the undoing is to r ecognize
that you actively decided wr ongly, but can as
actively decide otherwise. Be very ﬁr m with
yourself in this, and k eep yourself fully awar e
that the undoing pr ocess, which does not come
from you, is nevertheless within you because
God placed it ther e. Your part is mer ely to r eturn
your thinking to the point at which the er ror was
made, and give it over to the A tonement in
peace. Say this to yourself as sincer ely as you
can, r emembering that the Holy Spirit will
respond fully to your slightest invitation :

I must have decided wr ongly, because I am not at
peace.I made the decision myself, but I can also decide
otherwise. I want to decide otherwise, because I want to be at
peace. I do not feel guilty, because the Holy Spirit will
undo all consequences of my wr ong decision if I will
let Him. I choose to let Him, by allowing Him to decide for
God for me. And that’s it! It’s a course in miracles, not a course in
moving the fur niture. ‘Miracles r everse physical laws. T ime
and space ar e under His command.’
As for the futur e, the Course points out that ther e is no
way for us to know what’s going to happen tomor row, or the
next day, or ﬁve years fr om now. Only the ego speculates
about tomor row. In Heaven, ‘we place our futur e in the
hands of God.’ The Holy Spirit r eturns our minds to total
faith and trust, that should we live with fully open hearts
today, tomor row will tak e car e of itself. As Jesus said in the
Sermon on the Mount, “ Be ye not anxious for tomor row, for
tomor row shall be anxious for itself.”
‘The ego bases its per ception of r eality on what has
happened in the past, car ries those per ceptions into the
present and thus cr eates a futur e like the past.’ If we felt
that we wer e lacking in our past, our thoughts about the
futur e are based on those per ceptions. W e then enter the
present in an eﬀort to compensate for the past. Since that
perception is our cor e belief, we r ecreate its conditions in
the futur e. “Past, pr esent and futur e are not continuous,
unless you for ce continuity upon them.” In the pr esent, wehave the opportunity to br eak the continuity of the past and
futur e by asking the Holy Spirit to intervene. This is the
miracle. W e want a new life, a new beginning. W e desir e a
life untainted by any darkness of the past, and being
‘entitled to miracles,’ we ar e entitled to that full r elease. This is what it means to say that Jesus washes us clean of
our sins. He completely r emoves all loveless thoughts. W e
relinquish any thoughts of judgment, of anyone or anything,
that hold us to the past. W e relinquish any thoughts of
attachment that k eep us grasping at the futur e.
The world of the ego is a world of constant changes, ups
and downs, darkness and light. Heaven is a r ealm of
constant peace because it is an awar eness of a r eality that
lies beyond change. “ And Heaven will not change, for birth
into the holy pr esent is salvation fr om change.”
The world that the Holy Spirit r eveals to us is a world that
lies beyond this world, a world r evealed to us thr ough a
diﬀer ent per ception. W e die to one world in or der to be bor n
into another. “To be bor n again is to let the past go, and look
without condemnation upon the pr esent.” The world of time
is not the r eal world, and the world of eter nity is our r eal
home. W e are on our way ther e. We are pregnant with
possibilities. 3. RESURRECTION
“Your resurrection is your awak ening.”
The purpose of our lives is to give birth to the best which is
within us. The Christ comes as a little child because the symbol of
the newbor n infant is the symbol of someone whoseinnocence is unmar red by past history or guilt. The Christ
child within us has no history. It is the symbol of a person
who is given the chance to begin again. The only way to
heal the wounds of the past, ultimately, is to for give them
and let them go


 Should a situation arise that you need to deal with now, your action will
be clear  and incisive if it arises  out of present-moment awareness. It is
also mor e likely  to be ef fective. It will not be a reaction coming from the
past conditionin g of your mind but an intuitive response to the situation. In other instances, when the time-bound mind would have reacted, you
will find it more ef fective to do nothing — just stay centered in the Now. A QUANTUM LEAP IN THE EV OLUTION OF
CONSCIOUSNESS
I have had glimpses of this state  of fr eedom fr om mind and time that you
describe, but past and futur e ar e  so overwhelmingly str ong that I cannot
keep them out for long. The time-bound  mode of consciousness is deeply embedded in the
human psyche. But what we are doing here is part of a profound
transformation that is taking place in the collective consciousness of the
planet and beyond: the awaken ing of consciousness from the dream of
matter, form, and separation. Th e ending of time. W e are breaking mind
patterns that have dominated h uman life for eons. Mind patt erns that
have created unimaginable suf fering on a vast scale. I am not using the
word evil. It is more helpful to call it unconsciousness or insanity. This br eaking up of the ol d mode of consciousness or rather
unconsciousness: is it something we have to  do or w ill it happen
anyway. I mean, is this change inevitable. That’ s a question of perspective. The doing and the happening is in fact a
single process; because you are  one with the totality of consciousness,
you cannot separate the two. But there is no absolute guara ntee that
humans will make it. The process isn’ t inevitable or automatic. Y our
cooperation is an essential part of it. However you look at i t, it is a
quantum leap in the evolution of consciousness, as well as our only
chance of survival as a race. THE JOY OF BEING
T o alert you that you have allowed yourself to be taken over by
psychological tim e, you can use  a simple criterion. Ask yourself : Is there
joy, ease, and li ghtness in what I am doing. If there isn’ t, then time is
covering up the present moment, and life is perceived as a burden or a
struggle. If th ere is no joy, ease, or lightness in what you are doing, it does not
necessarily mea n that you need to change what  you are doing. It may be
suf ficient to change the how. “H ow” is alw ays more important than
“what. ” See if you can give much more attention to the doing  t han  to the
result that you want to achieve through it. Give your fullest attention to
whatever the moment presents. This implies that you also completely
accept what is, because you cannot give your full attention to something
and at the same time resist it. As soon as you honor the present moment, all unhappiness and struggle
dissolve, and life begins to flow with joy and ease. When you act out of
present-moment awareness, whatever you do becomes imbued with a
sense of quality, care, and love — even the most simple action. So do not be concerned with the fruit of your action — just give attention
to th e action itself. The fruit will come of its own accord. T his is a
powerful spiritu al practice. In the Bhagavad Gita, o ne of the olde st and
most beautiful spiritual teaching s in existence, nonattachment to the fruit
of your action is called Karma Y oga. It is described as the  path of
“consecrated action. ”
When th e compulsive striving away from the Now ceases, the joy of
Being fl ows into everything you do. The moment your attention  turns to
the Now, you feel a presence, a stillness, a peace. Y ou no longe r depend
on the future fo r fulfillment and satisfaction — you don’ t look  to it for
salvation. Therefore, you are not attached to the results. Neither failure
nor succ ess has the power to change your inner state of Being. Y ou have
found the life underneath your life situation. In th e ab sence o f psychological  time, your sense of self is deri ved from
Being, not from your personal p ast. Therefore, the psychologica l need to
become anythin g other than wh o you are already is no longer there. In
the worl d, on the level of your  life situation, you may indeed  become
wealthy, knowledgeable, successful, free of this or that, but in th e deeper
dimension of Being you are complete and whole now. In that state of wholeness, wou ld we still be able or willing to pursue
external goals. Of cour se, but you will not have illusory expectations that any thing or
anybody in the future will save you or make you happy. As far as your
life s ituation is c oncerned, there  may be things to be attained or acquired. That’ s th e world of form, of gain and loss. Y et on a deeper leve l you are
already complete, and when you realize that, there is a playful, joyous
ener gy behind what you do. Being free of psychological time, you nolonger pursue your goals with grim determination, driven by fear, anger,
discontent, or the need to become someone. Nor will you remain inactive
through fear of failure, which to the ego is loss of self. When your deeper
sense of  self is d erived from Being, when you are free of “beco ming” as
a ps ychological  need, neither your happiness nor your sense of self
depends on the outcome, and so there is freedom from fear. Y ou don’ t
seek permanenc y where it canno t be found: in the world of form, of gain
and loss, birth and death. Y ou don’ t demand that situations, conditions,
places, or people should make  you happy, and then suf fer when they
don’ t live up to your expectations. Everything is honored, but noth ing matters. Forms are born and  die, yet
you are aware of the eternal underneath the forms. Y ou k now that
“nothing real can be threatened. ”3
When th is is your state of Bein g, how can you not succeed. Y ou have
succeeded already. CHAPTER FOUR
M I N D  S T R A T E G I E S  F O R
 A V O I D I N G  T H E  N O W
LOSS OF NOW : THE CORE DELUSION
Even if I comp letely accept that ultimately time is an illusi on, what
differ ence is that going to make in my life. I still have to live in a world
that is completely dominated by time. Intellectual agreement is just another belief and won’ t make much
dif ference to your life. T o reali ze this truth, you need to live it. When
every ce ll of your body is so p resent that it feels vibrant with  life, and
when yo u can feel that life every  moment as the joy of Being, th en it can
be said that you are free of time. But I still have to pay the bills tomorr ow, and I am still going to gr ow old
and die just like everybody else. So how can I ever say that I am fr ee of
time. T omorrow’ s bills are not the p roblem. The dissolution of the physical
body is not a problem. Loss of Now is the problem, or rather:  the core
delusion that turns a mere situation, event, or emotion into a personal
problem and into suf fering. Loss of Now is loss of Being. T o be free of time is to be free of the psychological need of past for your
identity and future for your fulf illment. It represents the most profound
transformation o f consciousness that you can imagine. In some rare
cases, this shift in consciousness happens dramatically and radically,
once and for al l. When it doe s, it usually comes about thro ugh total
surrender in the midst of intens e suf fering. Most people, however, have
to work at it. When you have had your first few glimpses of the timeless state of
consciousness, you begin to move back and forth between the
dimensions of time and presence. First you become aware of just how
rarely your attention is truly in  the Now. But to know  that you are not
present is a grea t success: That k nowing is  pres ence — eve n if initially it
only lasts for a couple of seconds of clock time before it is lost again. Then, w ith increasing frequency, you choose  to  have the foc us of your
consciousness in the present moment rather than in the past or future,
and whenever you realize that you had lost the Now, you are able to stay
in it not just for a couple of seconds, but for longer periods as p erceived
from the external perspective o f clock time. So before you are firmly
established in the state of presen ce, which is to say before you are fully


 long since stopped treating himself and a
bevy of medical  specialists were tending to his diverse needs. But nothing
helped, and the vast number of signs and symptoms remained. Even under repeated examinatio ns, no cancer was found until an internist
who took a computerized tomographic (CT) scan uncovered three lymph
nodes which did appear positiv e for malignancy. From under going many
additional labor atory and clinical tests, finally it was discovered that the
right lobe of Dr. van Zsidy’ s liver had a number of small malignant tumors
growing on it; in addition, the liver’s left lobe showed a larger neoplasm 2
cm by 3 cm in size. If the original diagnosis of hepatitis had been correct, it
now had turned into a verified hepatic cancer. Fate still was not finished with the unfortunate man, for further
disabilities struck. The patient’ s feet swelled; his abdomen filled with fluid
(ascites); the cancerous liver greatly enlar ged; food nauseated him; and pain
in his knees grew to be excruciating. Moreover, Dr. van Zsidy’ s abdomen
ached and cramped continuously  from what could be described  as “chronic
indigestion.” The man felt absolutely miserable, weak and worn out, and he
longed to be put out of his misery. However, chemo therapy was rejected by both his attending internist and
the consulting oncologist becau se they agreed that their patient was too far
gone for the cytotoxic agents to do any good; prednisone was ruled out
owing to his having had a prior bout with tuberculosis as a child. (Giving
corticosteroids is contraindicated when old and walled-of f tubercular
lesions are present.) When Dr. van Zsidy’ s weight dropped to just 97 pounds, and he was so
weak he couldn’ t leave his bed to eliminate body wastes, the patient and hisdoctors were convinced that he would not survive more than a couple of
days. The man told his brother that he wanted to die at home in the
mountains surrounding Montreal, where he could view the river and hills. So the brother immediately arranged for him to be taken there by
ambulance. At his request, the next-door neighbor, whom he considered a
close friend, dug a grave in the private family cemetery on the van Zsidy
property. It was a sad undertaking. Since he was incontinent and could no longer bear the loss of his
personal dignity, Dr. van Zsidy impatiently waited to die and seriously
contemplated speeding the event along by committing suicide. He tried this,
but his complete  physical weakness prevented him from actually carrying
out the act. So the patient waited and suffered through his private hell on
earth. Despite his ingesting large numbers of painkilling drugs, bouts of
gnawing, aching, and sticking pain constantly interrupted the man’ s sleep. Observing his condition, one would be hard put to find any person more
frail, miserable, and weak than Joer gon van Zsidy, M.D., N.D.
Then something  happened which dramatically changed all aspects of his
situation. Dr. van Zsidy’ s brother brought him a dog-eared copy of the third
revised edition of Dr. Max Gers on’s book to read, and it was an eyeopener
for him. This patient became determined to try the dietary therapy—a final
attempt that he would make to survive. Dr. van Zsidy set about following the Gerson program. People around
him, family, friends, and neighbors, helped him to accomplish the Gerson
approach to cancer therapy. Among other procedures for this near-dead
individual, he regularly undertook detoxification by means of coffee
enemas. In fact, Dr. van Zsidy went overboard with the enemas by
increasing their number to one every hour (perhaps eight to ten more per
day than he should have taken). His loved ones helped him perform the
procedures, and results from these enemas were amazing to the patient and
those who gave them to him. The patient has reported to us that he saw
massive number s of parasites in his stools and smelled awful odors coming
from them. Also the man embarked on drinking huge amounts of fresh- squeezed,
raw, organic vegetable and fruit juices, eating organically grown vegetables
as much as he could hold, and taking the prescribed medications. Subsequently, Dr. Joergon van Zsidy gained weight at the rate of up to 1½pounds per week. Soon his weakness left and energy returned. After eight
months, the arthritis in his knees disappeared entirely and, from walking
miles along the mountain paths,  he switched to jogging them. Dr. van Zsidy
faithfully remained on the Gerson Therapy in this manner for two years,
during which he states for publication here, “I felt better than ever I had
before.”
That beginning experience with the Gerson Therapy for Dr. Joergon van
Zsidy took place over seven years ago. Today he continues with most of the
program and eats only organic vegetables and fruits. No animal protein and
no grains are included in his diet. He drinks lots of fresh, organic vegetable
and fruit juices and keeps up with taking coffee enemas, sometimes
regularly but mostly irregularly. To complete his case record Dr. van Zsidy says, “For the past seven
years, I have not felt the resum ption of weakness of any kind, and I never
come down with colds, flu, headaches, arthritis, or any other pains. My liver
cancer is gone. Thanks to the Gerson Therapy, I don’t experience the
symptoms of illness or even vague discomforts anymore. Thanks to God
and Dr. Max Gerson I’ve become a healthy person once again.”
THE GERSON  PROT OCOL FOR A  CANCER  PATIENT  WHO IS  WEAKENED
Dr. Gers on’s nutrient, diet, and medication protocol for the treatment of a
cancer patient existing in a severely weakened state, whether or not
chemical pretreatment has been taken, generally is ultraconservative. Modified Gerson Therapy involv es particular guidelines that we give in this
chapter. Self-treatment precautions regarding the Gerson Therapy
procedures for this class of enfeebled patient are announced in the
paragraphs that follow. Further more, extra care should be taken by the
attending physician to monitor regularly for electrolyte imbalance,
bleeding, dehydration, or other complications related to cancer, no matter
the type of malignancy. A weakened physical condition for the cancer
patient about to engage in Gerson therapeutics is a perilous position to be
in. As repeated below, there are risks directly related to the deprivation of
strength. Anyone participating in the Gerson Therapy—patient, caregiver,
physician, or other health care professional—must recognize that thedetoxification and salt/water management aspects of the Gerson protocol
are extre mely powerful. No overstimulation of the body systems is allowed
because the seriously impaire d patient will not be able to mount an
appropriate healing if the process is brought about too quickly or intensely. The patient’ s variables will include the body’ s overall condition,
symptomatology, blood work results, age, diagnosis, and several other
factors. Please note: All patients with a history of chemical pretreatment should
receive the reduced Gerson protocol, and those in a weaken ed physical
condition with or without having taken chemotherapy should be given this
less intense pr otocol as well. This chapter presents the appro priate reduced Gerson protocol for the
described type of weakened cancer patients. The program offered is a
modification of the standard Gerson Therapy that was described in chapter
14 and varies somewhat from the modified treatment plan discussed in
chapter 15. For each of the medications, their dosages, time intervals,
contraindications, dietary considerations, and follow-up after the first year
of therapy are discussed below beginning with the consumption of juices. JUICE DRINKING BY THE  PATIENT  LINGERING IN A  WEAKENED  STATE
We must emphasize that juice drinking on the Gerson Therapy is a
critical aspect of the regimen. The juices provide most of the vitamins,
minerals, enzymes, phytochemicals, and other nutrients essential to healing,
along with adequate fluid intake. Drinking fresh-squeezed, organically
grown vegetabl e and fruit juices allows for greater absorption and
utilization of all of the nutrients found in foods from which the juices are
made. Patients who are victimized by degenerative diseases almost always
experience difficulty digesting and absorbing food. This can be a result of
toxicity, malfunction of the digestive system, a decrease in stomach acid
production, or a variety of other causes. Gastrointestinal debilitation like
this is the same  reason that many patients have difficulty digesting and
absorbing vitamin and mineral pills or capsules. After Dr. Gerson treated a weak ened patient—frequently somebody in a
terminal state—it became his goal to find ways of increasing the absorption
of nutri ents. He did this in order to bring about steadily  increasingphysiological healing and to produce remissions or cures in the otherwise
terminal patients. His clinical experimentation showed that fresh  juice from
organically grown raw foods provided the easiest and most effective means
of furnis hing high-quality nutrition, and such fresh juice drinking produced
the best clinical results. The Gerson Institute


 chains and by so doing help free
others. Enlightenment begins as an abstract concept, then takes a journey
without distance from the head to the heart. Of course, it seems “real” to us
that someone was unkind or mean to us, that we were rejected or failed to
achieve somethi ng we desperately wanted, or that an important relationship
failed. Of cours e, it seems “real” to us that innocent people are murdered,
unjust wars occur, and people starve to death. Those things are real in our
mortal experience, and they should not be ignored. But such dramas are
happening within a world that is itself a veil in front of a truer truth—a
world of three-d imensional reality that, while real in one sense, is not our
ultimate Reality. They are the manifestations of humanity having forgotten
who we are, and they will change accordingly when we wake up and
remember. As we move further into a new millennium, who among us does not feel
a sense that the world as we know it is fundamentally askew, as evidenced
not just in our individual lives but in the very way that we are living on the
planet? Who doesn’ t recognize  that constant examples of violence and
destruction are symptoms of a deeper disquiet? Who isn’t looking in some
way for a higher purpose, a deeper sense of meaning, and a transformed
sense of self? Such questioning is when the spiritual quest begins. And once it begins,
the path opens before us. Asking deep in our hearts for a way past theinsanity of the world, we are led—often circuitously, always mysteriously
—to something that opens the inner door. The mystic Jesus is one name on that door. He is someone whose mind
was purified of any thoughts of separation, or illusion, and who has been
authorized by God to help the rest of us achieve that state should we so ask. In no moment does he succumb to the lure of ego, and with his help we can
learn not to succumb to it either. The door having been opened within him,
he has the powe r to help open it within us. He is not the only path to God,
but if he is yours then you come to realize it. He is an Internal Teacher, an
evolutionary guide back to the primordial oneness to which our souls so
long to return. He is called Jesus the Christ because he lived in the world of
illusion yet remembered a higher truth. He perceived this world yet saw
beyond it. He lived outwardly on the material plane yet inwardly on the
spiritual. In him the two became as one. Since all minds are joined, the spiritual achievement of anyone then
becomes availab le to all. In remembering the mystic Jesus, we remember
who we are and who others are in relation to us. In calling on him we
invoke our true selves, the memory of which saves us from the misguided
thinking that otherwise torments us. All false beliefs emer ge from the misperception that we are separate. A
thought that we are separate is like a shadow before the sun, keeping us in
emotional darkness. We think we are worse than others, or we think we are
better than other s; we think they are judging us, or we are judging them; we
attack and defen d in a chronic, self-perpetuating loop. We live in a constant
hell of believing we are separate from those from whom we cannot be
separate. We long for love, we long for the feeling of that primordial
oneness, yet we constantly think and behave in ways that make the
separation seem real. Guilt is the ego’s most powerful tool, and the pain it causes us is its
peak experience. Jesus is like a rope that will lift us from a bottomless well
of anxiety, an escape from the hell of our own self-hatred. In teaching us to
forgive each other, he shows us how to love ourselves. Do unto others what you would have others do unto you, becau se what
you do to them you actually are doing to yourself. The Golden Rule is
golden for that reason: what I think about you or do to you, I am thinking
about or doing to myself.In a realm beyond what our physical senses perceive, there is no place
where you stop and I start. In judging you I am judging myself; in attacking
you I am attack ing myself. Whatever I give to you I am giving to myself. As we realize this higher Truth, notions of separate identities and
conflicting need s are dissolved into the nothingness from whence they
came. As we realize we are spiritually one, we become “generous out of
self-interest”* (MT-14). Our perceptions are recalibrated, giving us a far
different sense of our responsibility to others. So simple. Yet so much easier said than done. The illusions of the world are strong, none more so than the perception
of some one’s guilt. Knowing that beyond a person’ s mistake lies the
innocence of their soul is easy enough to accept in theory, but boy, it’s very
hard at times to get there. Sometimes taking the leap from knowing a
person is spiritu ally innocent to perceiving them that way is more than we
can achieve by ourselves. Jesus is someone with the authority, should we request it, to enter our
minds and share with us his ability to love unconditionally. Sometimes it’s
easy enough to just lighten up, to let something go. But someti mes it’s not
so easy at all. Someone truly  betrayed us, or triggered the deepest of
childhood woun ds. It feels at such times that it would take a miracle for us
to forgive. The mystic Jesus is that miracle. “Your mind and mine can unite
in shining your ego away, releasing the strength of God into everything you
think and do”* (T -64). He cannot enter our thought system uninvited, for that would be a
violation of our free will. But if we take a moment, even a mom ent, and call
to him, he will “respond fully to your slightest invitation”* (T-90). He is
authorized by God to help us in any moment we’re willing to see beyond
the separation. Our good intentions are not enough, but our willingness is
everything. Whe n we’re sincerely willing to see beyond the veil of illusion
—the thoughts of guilt we are all so good at—to the innocent truth of who
all of us are, we experience a shift in perception. That shift is a miracle,
changing us on the level of thought and ultimately changing our lives. Let’s say you’re having an argument with someone you love. They’re
attacking and you’re defending  yourself, or you’re attacking and they’re
defending. Usually in such cases, of course you’re sure you’re  right! The
wheel of suffering goes round and round, nailing you to the cross of your
own misery and destroying the fabric of your relationship. People todaywill give you an endless array of terms for what’ s going on between you,
from “trauma,” to “victimization,” to “post-traumatic stress disorder,” to
“narcissism.” All of which might be true, and might need to be looked at. But none of those terms, or their analysis, will deliver you from the hell of
your own suffering until you make your way to forgiveness. For in holding
on to someone else’s guilt, we are holding on to our own. Our willingness
to see through to another person’ s innocence—extending our perception
beyond the level of their mistake to knowledge of who they truly are—is
the for giveness that sets us free. Just stop for a moment. Be willing to interrupt the cycle of what might
be by now a somewhat vicious back-and-forth. Take a deep breath and
remember that “beyond this world there is a world I want”* (WB-235)—a
Reality that lies beyond this world. Silently bless the other person; perhaps
inwardly atone for your own participation in the ridiculousness of how you
have both behaved. If you ask Jesus to help you, he will. Tell him you’re
willing to see this person the way he does—they in their innocence, and you
in yours. Just take that one instant, send love, pray for a miracle, and then
notice what begins to happen. Prayer is the medium of miracles* (T-3), and
it never goes unheard. Dear God,
Please show me how to see this differ ently. Show me how to see beyond the illusions of the world. I am willing to see this person’ s innocence, and I am willing to see mine. Dear God, I am so trigger ed. I cannot see past my feelings of insult or injury. But I am willing to. May the mind of Jesus overshadow mine, and lift me as he is lifted,
that I might be set fr ee. Amen
As you do this, subtle shifts will begin to occur. Something will be said,
other things will not be said. Things will change. All minds are joined, and
on a subconscious level the other person experienced your bless ing. As you
released your judgment, you released yourself. You didn’ t need more
analysis here. You needed a miracle. And you received one. The world as we know it is dominated by the ego’s thought system and it
can be overwhelmingly strong. Its lure is like a heat-seeking missile,
constantly on alert to the tinies t evidence of another person’ s


 critically, but rather reacts to the thoughts and beliefs you hold.
Q: What is the author's advice on overcoming negative suggestions?,
A: The author advises that one should not accept negative suggestions and instead, use autosuggestion to replace them with positive and constructive thoughts.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>Perfect health is mine, and the
Law of Harmony operates in my mind and body. Beauty, love, peace,
and abundance are mine. The principle of right action and divine order
govern my entire life. I know my major premise is based on t he
eternal truths of life, and I know, feel, and believe that my
 36  subconscious mind responds according to the nature of my conscious
mind think-ing.”
He wrote me as follows: “I repeated the above statements slowly,
quietly, and lovingly several times a day knowing that they wer e
sinking deep down into my subconscious mind, and that results must
follow. I am deeply grateful for the interview you gave me, and I
would like to add that all departments of my life are changing f or the
better. It works!”
• The subconscious does not argue controversially
Your subconscious mind is all-wise and knows the answers to all
questions. It does not argue with you or talk back to you. It does not
say, “You must not impress me with that.” For ex-ample, when y ou
say, “I can’t do this.” “I am too old now.” “I can’t meet this
obligation.” “I was born on the wrong side of the tracks.” “I don’t
know the right politician,” you are impregnating your subconsciou s
with these negative thoughts, and it responds accordingly. You are
actually blocking your own good, thereby bringing lack, limitation,
and frustration into your life. When you set up obstacles, impediments, and delays in your
conscious mind, you are denying the wisdom and intelli-gence
resident in your subconscious mind. You are actually say-ing in e ffect
that your subconscious mind cannot solve your problem. This leads to
mental and emotional congestion, fol-lowed by sickness and neurotic
tendencies. To realize your desire and overcome your frustration, affirm  boldly
several times a day: “The infinite intelligence which gav e me this
desire leads, guides, and reveals to me the perfect plan for t he
unfolding of my desire. I know the deeper wisdom of my
subconscious is now responding, and what I feel and claim wi thin is
expressed in the without. There is a balance, equilibrium, and
equanimity.”
If you say, “There is no way out; I am lost; there is no way out  of
this dilemma; I am stymied and blocked,” you will get no answ er or
 37  response from your subconscious mind. If you want the subconscious
to work for you, give it the right request, and attain its co-op eration. It
is always working for you. It is con-trolling your heartbeat thi s minute
and also your breathing. It heals a cut on your finger, and its tendency
is lifeward, forever seeking to take care of you and preserve you. Your
subconscious has a mind of its own, but it accepts your patter ns of
thought and imagery. When you are seeking an answer to a problem, your sub-conscious
will respond, but it expects you to come to a decision and to a t rue
judgment in your conscious mind. You must acknowledge the answer
is in your subconscious mind. However, if you say, “I don’t think
there is any way out; I am all mixed up and confused; why don’t I get
an answer?” you are neutralizing your prayer. Like the soldie r
marking time, you do not get anywhere. Still the wheels of your mind, relax, let go, and quietly affirm:  “My
subconscious knows the answer. It is responding to me now. I give
thanks because I know the infinite intelligence of my subc onscious
knows all things and is revealing the perfect answer to me  now. My
real conviction is now setting free the majesty and glory of m y
subconscious mind. I rejoice that it is so.”
• Review of highlights
1. Think good, and good follows. Think evil, and evil follows. You
are what you think all day long. 2. Your subconscious mind does not argue with you. It ac-cepts
what your conscious mind decrees. If you say, “I can’t afford it,” it
may be true, but do not say it. Select a better thought, decree, “ I’ll buy
it. I  accept it in my mind.”
3. You have the power to choose. Choose health and happiness. You
can choose to be friendly, or you can choose to be unfriendly. Choose
to be co-operative, joyous, friendly, lovable, and the whole world  will
respond. This is the best way to develop a wonderful personality. 38  4. Your conscious mind is the “watchman at the gate.” Its chief
function is to protect your subconscious mind from false impres sions. Choose to believe that something good can happen and is happening
now. Your greatest power is your capacity to choose. Choose
happiness and abundance. 5. The suggestions and statements of others have no power to hurt
you. The only power is the movement of your own thought. You can
choose to reject the thoughts or statements of others and affir m the
good. You have the power to choose how you will react. 6. Watch what you say. You have to account for every idle word. Never say, “I will fail; I will lose my job; I can’t pay the rent.” Your
subconscious cannot take a joke. It brings all these things to pass. 7. Your mind is not evil. No force of nature is evil. It depends how
you use the powers of nature. Use your mind to bless, heal, and inspire
all people everywhere. 8. Never say, “I can’t.” Overcome that fear by substituting  the
following, “I can do all things through the power of my own
subconscious mind.”
9. Begin to think from the standpoint of the eternal truths and
principles of life and not from the standpoint of fear, ignora nce, and
superstition. Do not let others do your think-ing for you. Choose your
own thoughts and make your own decisions. 10. You are the captain of your soul (subconscious mind) and the
master of your fate. Remember, you have the capacity to choos e.
Choose life! Choose love! Choose health! Choose happiness! 11. Whatever your conscious mind assumes and believes to be true,
your subconscious mind will accept and bring to pass. Believe in good
fortune, divine guidance, right action, and all the blessings of life. 39  3
The Miracle-Working Power of Your
Subconscious
The power of your subconscious is enormous. It inspires you, it
guides you, and it reveals to you names, facts, and scenes from the
storehouse of memory. Your subconscious started your heartbeat,
controls the circulation of your blood, and regulates your digestion,
assimilation, and elimination. When you eat a piece of bread, your subconscious mind transmutes
it into tissue, muscle, bone, and blood. This process is beyond the ken
of the wisest man who walks the earth. Your subconscious mind
controls all the vital processes and functions of your body and knows
the answer to all problems. Your subconscious mind never sleeps, never rests. It is al- ways on
the job. You can discover the miracle-working power of your
subconscious by plainly stating to your subconscious prior to sleep
that you wish a certain specific thing accomplished. You will  be
delighted to discover that forces within you will be re-leased, l eading
to the desired result. Here, then, is a source of power and wisdom
which places you in touch with omnipotence or the power that moves
the world, guides the planets in their course, and causes the sun to
shine. Your subconscious mind is the source of your ideals, aspira-tions,
and altruistic urges. It was through the subconscious mind that
Shakespeare perceived great truths hidden from the average man of
his day. Undoubtedly, it was the response of his sub-conscious mind
that caused the Greek sculptor, Phidias, to por-tray beauty, order,
symmetry, and proportion in marble and bronze. It enabled the Ita lian
artist, Raphael, to paint Madonnas, and Ludwig van Beethoven to
compose symphonies. 40  In 1955 I lectured at the Yoga Forest University, Rishikesh, India,
and there I chatted with a visiting surgeon from Bombay. He tol d me
about Dr.
James Esdaille, a Scotch surgeon, who worked in Bengal before
ether or other modern methods of anesthesia were discovered. Between 1843 and 1846, Dr. Es-daille performed about four hundred
major operations of all kinds, such as amputations, remova l of tumors
and cancerous growths, as well as operations on the eye, ear,  and
throat. All operations were conducted under mental anesthesia on ly. This Indian doctor at Rishikesh informed me that the postoper ative
mortality rate of patients operated on by Dr. Esdaille wa s ex-tremely


, no
longer demandin g that it come in a form I think I would prefer. T oday I
am grateful for the love I receive. How often I’ve pushed love awa y by not r ecognizing it was ther e.
How oft en I’ve been ungrateful for love, and then watched as it
dissolved. May such patterns end in me today, as I r esolve to be
watchful for the love all ar ound me.DA Y 308
T o d a y  I  a m  m o r e  a l e r t  t o  t h e  n e e d s  o f  o t h e r s. H ow s elf-sabotagi ng is my selfish ness, when I look but do not s ee the
suf fering of others. T oo seldom  do I notice the courage of th ose who
wake up each day and do their best with painful circumstances. T oday I
will be more alert to the suf fering of others. It is hard to face in ourselves the trait of self-centeredness. But in
facing it  we are saved from it. The only way to truly love ourselves is to
open our hearts to each other. Gener osity towar d others is an act of self-inter est, for in loving
others I attract m or e love. May n o one’ s suffering be meaningless
to m e, that I might know the m eaning of life. Fr ee me fr om a
selfish heart. Amen.DA Y 309
T h e  u n i v e r s e  s e e s  e v e r y t h i n g. T h e  u n i v e r s e  s e e s
m e. T here is nothing in the universe u nseen by the divine. God know s each
thought I think and each action I take, and I will see the ef fects  of both. May I cause only good, that I receive only good. May I not be tem pted to think I am ever “unseen,” for God’ s eyes see
through to my heart. He reward s me for my love, yet He does not judge
me for my lack of it. My love H e will increase; and my lack of love—
should I admit it and surrender it for healing—will be the stuf f of His
next miracle. Such is the awesomeness of God. Dear God,
I know Y ou see me,
Both when I stand tall and when I stumble. I know Y ou smile when I love the world,
And cry for me when I do not. I give to Y ou my br oken places,
The wounds that keep me fr om opening my heart,
And know I shall be healed. Amen.DA Y 310
FOR REFLECTION
O n  M o v i n g  M o u n t a i n s
W e’ve all got the “right stuf f” because all of us are hosts to God; His
voice, and not the fear -based ego’ s, is the voice we can listen to and learn
to fo llow. Each of us is meant to channel the spiritual forces of talent,
creativity, and intelligence. This is nothing to take personal cred it for, but
nothing to apologize for either. As a child of God, you just  happen to be
the recipient of endless power and possibility. Whether or not you’ve
always known this, or practiced it, there lies within you in this very
moment the latent ability to create and achieve beyond your wildest
dreams. And this never changes. No mortal condition diminishes the power of
God. It doesn’ t matter what your résumé is, or how many deg rees you
have. It doesn’ t matter what mis takes you’ve made, or how the economy
is doing. It matters only where y ou place your consciousness now. Know
who you are and who lives within you, and moving mountains will seem
small compared to what you can do.DA Y 31 1
I  t a k e  f u l l  r e s p o n s i b i l i t y  f o r  t h e  s t a t e  o f  m y  l i f e. I  ta ke full respon sibility for the state of my life. As I change my mind
from fea r to love, all situations  miraculously heal. I am not a victim of
the world I see. I do not abdicate the power of my mind. I empower myself by
surrendering to God. I surrender  all of my thoughts to Him, and pray that
I be lifted to the holy mind-set whereby I myself am a creator of good. The pric e I pay for not taking fu ll r esponsibility for my life is an
inability to change it. God Himself r esides in my mind,
empowering me to change any cir cumstance by r emembering to
love. T oday I will use the power I am given, to heal my life b y
loving the people who ar e in it.DA Y 312
I  w o u l d  b e  f r e e  o f  t h e  b u r d e n  o f  s e l f. I  w ill not take m yself too seriously today. As I lighten up, I will  see the
light. T oo much focus on myself only blinds me to the truth. As I  free myself of the burden of self, the chains that bind me shall
fall awa y. Empt ying myself, I s hall be filled with God. Exaltin g God, I
shall be exalted. Losing myself, I shall find myself in Him. Dear God,
Please take fr om me
Any false impr essions of who I am. Release me fr om chains that bind me
T o a limited per ception of others and myself. Fr ee me to see the unlimited life
That is Y ou, that is me, that is everyone. Amen.DA Y 313
T h e  u n i v e r s e  i s  m y  h o m e. I  a m  s a f e  h e r e. G od sees me and  cares for me, as He sees and cares for every one. I
belong i n this world, and He abides here with me. The univer se is my
home, and I am safe here. May I feel the a rms of God arou nd me. May I feel the warmth o f the
sun upon me. M ay I feel the angels surround and uplift me, as I go about
my way. So o ften I have walked the world in fear of what it will do to m e,
cowering befor e imagined dem ons, r etr eating fr om others and
even fr om myself. May light dissolve all darkness in my mind
today, a nd r etur n me to my inner knowing that love is r eal an d
fear is not.DA Y 314
I  n e e d n ’ t  s t r u g g l e  f o r  w h a t  i s  m i n e. I  n eedn’ t  apologize for the fact  of my existence. Angels them selves
celebrate it, for I am a creation of God. I am adored by Him, as is
everyone. I need but to remember this, to experience what is mine. I have a voice that is mine alone. I have talents that are mine alone. I
have a function that is mine alon e. Such are the gifts He has given me. I
needn’ t struggle for what is mine. Dear God,
May I not be tempted to believe
That I am less than Y ou cr eated me to be. May false humility not deter me
Fr om appr eciation of Y our power within me. May true humility fill my mind and heart,
That I might find my str ength. Amen.DA Y 315
FOR REFLECTION
O n  S u r r e n d e r i n g  O u r  A n g e r
I t doe sn’ t matter if someone tells you that you “deserve” to be angry—
you deserve, of course, to feel whatever you want to feel! But the only
way to experience miracles is to think about situations in a miracle-
minded way. Holding on to ange r hurts no one but yourself. As it says in
A Course in Miracles, “Do you prefer to be right or to be happy?”
The universe knows if you were hurt, and it is already on the case to
make rig ht what ever wrong occurred. Y our anger, if it lingers, throws a
wrench in the machine of the miraculous universe. Something
miraculous happ ens when we say, “I am angry but I am willing not to be. Dear God, help me see this situation dif ferently. Amen.”DA Y 316
M a y  t h e  a n i m a l s  b e  b l e s s e d. T oday I remember the animals of the world, our cohabitants of this
precious planet. I recognize their vulnerability, as well as the harm we
sometimes do to them. May careless, even cruel