achycardia. Extra systole. Paroxysmal tachycardia. Spasms of the vessels of the heart, limbs, brain, kidneys. Protein in the blood. Bed-wetting. Oxalates, urates in the urine. Nocturia (frequent urination at night). Coldness of limbs and other areas. Pain in the heart. Angina pectoris. Hypertension. Hypotension. Phlebeurysm (varicose veins). Marbling skin. Vascular fragility (bleeding gums, nosebleeds). Sensations of pulsations in various areas (pulsating tinnitus). Myocardial infarction. Stroke. Increased blood coagulation. Thrombosis (thrombophlebitis). Hypercholesterolemia. Eosinophilia. Anemia. Lowering, increasing appetite. Salivation. Loss of taste or perversion. Pain in the pit of stomach. Colitis (constipation, diarrhea). Abdominal pain. Heartburn. Burping. Nausea, vomiting. Flatulence. Gastritis and peptic ulcer of the stomach and duodenum. Fast physical fatigue. Muscle pains. Muscle cramps. Twitching of various parts of the body. Amyotrophy (muscular atrophy). Pain in tubular bones. Dry skin. Pustular rash. Itchy skin. Eczema. Psoriasis. Pallor. Acrocyanosis. Angioedema. Pitting edema of the face. Lipomatosis
Osteophytes and salt deposition. Deposits of cholesterol on the skin. Alcoholism. Addiction, including hormonal dependence. HIV (not AIDS yet). Chapter 2. Introduction to breathing methods

Sages at all times said: in order to know God, a person must first. learn to
breathe. Or rather, improve your breathing and only in this case, a person
will be able to confidently manage not only his own words and emotions,
but also health and even fate. Therefore, in the history of mankind, the process of breathing and conscious
work with it has been given attention by all, without exception, religious
traditions and systems of spiritual practices. So, the Torah tells how God breathed life into Adam, thereby reviving him. It also says that breathing returns to God after a person dies. In many world cultures, breathi ng concepts are also key. Indee d, in many
languages    the words "spirit", "soul" and "breath" have a common origin. From time immemorial, people  have distinguished breathing as the main
property of all living and animated. In Chinese philosophy, one of the main categories of "qi" is defined as "air",
"breath", "ener gy". The ancient Chinese believed that qi permeates
everything in this world and connects everything together. In Indian medicine, the concept of "prana" literally in Sanskrit means "life",
"breath". And yogis are sure that “prana” permeates the entire universe. And from ancient Greek mythol ogy, the word "psyche", which translates as
"soul", "breath", has migrated to the arsenal of world philosophy,
psychology and medicine. Respiratory practices themselves began many thousands of years ago in the
East: in India - Pranayama, in China - Qi-gun, in Central Asia - the Sufiexercise system,  in Tibet - the breathing practices of Vajrayana  Buddhism. All these eastern teachings penetrated the West only in the 20th century. And in XXI became a vital necessity. The fact is that modern civilizat ion has greatly changed people. And first of
all, we changed because we for got how to breathe properly. You have to pay
a very high price for comfort. After all, our health depends on how we
breathe. Attention. This book is designed to ensure that every person, regardless  of age and
physical condition, can easily apply theory in practice. But it is always
important to remember that any, even the most harmless intervention in the
body can cause serious violations. Therefore, before starting exercise, you
must consult your doctor. Diseases of civilization

300 years ago, when medicin e was not developed, sick people were
"rejected" by natural selection. And most people barely survived to
adulthood, without leaving sick of fspring. Under these conditions, only a small part of the diseases was determined by
genetic defects, but most of the diseases were the result of conditions and
lifestyle. Only after antibiotics appeared, serious infections were defeated. People began to die less and live longer. But life has changed. The first fruits of civilization was the emer gence of a huge number of
harmful products, due to which the human body began to become clogged
with toxic concentrates, chemical carcinogens, new refined food products
and alcohol. Human genes were not adapted to such changes. But natural
selection has stopped working because medicine has worked well producing
more and more medications. And then new chronic diseases appeared that
shortened life. Scientists called them "diseases of civilization. " At first, they
develop imperceptibly for a person, as the harmful effects of the external
and internal environment accumulate. A person is not sick yet, but is no
longer healthy. But he could be healthy if he began to apply the necessary
measures in a timely manner. Prevention is of particular importance
precisely in the fight against "diseases of civilization. " And one of the most important preventive measures is the ability to breathe
correctly. Expert s assure: breathing is a reliable barometer of the state of the
human body. Even by how often and deeply we breathe, you can make an
accurate diagnosis of any ailment and prescribe treatment and in the end to
cure not only the body, but also the head. According to scientists, breathingis closely interconnected not only with a state of health, but also with a state
of consciousness. Maybe breathing not only keeps the soul in the body, but also decides its
fate. Basic instinct

What does it mean to breathe correctly. A strange question at first glance. After all, each of us daily makes nearly 20,000 breaths. And we do not
think at all how to do it. Otherw ise, the same tragedy would have happened
to us as with the hedgehog from the joke. Do you remember. The hedgehog
ran through the forest, for got how to breathe, and died. Breathe. This basic instinct is laid in us by nature. A person is considered
born when he takes his first breath, and dead when he takes his last breath. And between the beginning and the end there is only a series of breaths. The same is true with our younger brothers. But everyone breathes different ly. For example, jellyfish have the simplest
form of breathing. Oxygen dissolved in water is absorbed through their
skin, and dissolv ed carbon dioxide is vented out in the same way. And on
the abdo men of insects there are many small holes. Each of these pores is
the entrance to a tube called the trachea. It acts like a human breathing tube,
or breathing throat. Thus, insects breathe in the same way as we do, with
the only difference being that hundreds of breathing tubes can be located on
their abdomen. And the pace of breathing, that is, how often we breathe air, largely depends
on the size of the creature itself. The larger the animal, the slower it
breathes. For example, an eleph ant inhales about 10 times per minute and a
mouse about 200. And with the respiratory rate, it turns out that life
expectancy is directly related: the elephant lives longer than a mouse. And
turtles breathe very slowly and live very long. On average, a person inhales 16 times per minute, but perhaps less often -
6-8 times per minute, and maybe more often - up to 20 times per minute,
depending on the circumstances. Moreover, young children breathe 20-30
times per minute, and infants - 40-60 times. Doctors have long been thinking about the riddle of uneven breathing in
humans. The first information and tips for proper breathing were  discovered
already in Chinese jade inscripti ons, which date back to the VI century BC. Ancient sayings teach: “When breathing, you must do the following: hold
your breath, it accumulates; if it has accumulated, it spreads further; if it
spreads further, it goes down,  it becomes calm; if it becomes calm, it
strengthens. If released, then it grows; when it grows, you need to squeeze
it again. If you squeeze it, it will reach the crown of the head. There it
presses on the head, presses down. A person who follows this method lives,
and whoever acts the other way round dies. ”
Who needs breathing exercises

• The method of shallow breathing is shown to everyone, starting from
infancy, and especially to peopl e with illnesses, because it is harmless and
cures over a hundred diseases, eliminating the cause of the disease - carbon
dioxide deficiency in the blood. • If a healthy person at rest after exhalation can hold his breath  for at least
60 seconds, then the possibilitie s of a sick person are extremely limited: the
holding of his breath does not exceed 5-10 seconds. The deeper the breath,
the shorter the pause after exhalation and the delay after it, the harder the
person is sick and it is necessary to correct his breathing as quickly as
possible


	painful	or	unwelcome. Q:	What	about	justified	resentments. A:	The	willingness	to	let	go	of	resentments	reveals	that	all	so-called
justifications	are	rationalizations	and	excuses. They	are	the	projections	of	blame	and	represent	a	narcissistic
positionality. Resentments	are	really	childish	and	based	on	kindergartennotions	of	fairness. Nothing	in	the	universe	has	anything	to	do	with
fairness. Instead,	everything	represents	universal	justice	outside	present
time	and	locality. All	resentments	represent	the	justification	of	blame,	the
projection	of	responsibility,	and	seeing	oneself	as	victim. For	the	spiritual
student,	even	if	the	other	person	was	‘wrong’,	they	still	have	to	be
forgiven. All	resentments	calibrate	below	the	level	of	200	and	are	not	in
integrity. There	is	no	gain	in	harboring	them. The	modern	trend	toward	‘political	correctness’	is	a	great	source	of
conflict,	strife,	and	suffering	(calibrates	at	190). It	is	based	on	imaginary
‘rights’. In	reality,	there	are	no	such	things	as	‘rights’. These	are	all	social
imaginings. Nothing	in	the	universe	has	any	‘rights’. The	whole	area	of
‘rights’	leads	to	a	‘chip	on	the	shoulder’	paranoid	attitude,	confrontiveness,
conflict,	concepts	of	perpetrator	and	victim,	illusions	of	causality,	and
revenge. All	this	displaces	taking	personal	responsibility	for	one’s	own
experience	of	life,	which	is	the	level	one	has	to	reach	for	integrity. Q:	How	does	humility	undo	the	hold	of	the	intellect. A:	By	fearlessly	exploring	logic	and	reason,	science	itself	comes	to	realize	its
limits	and	its	proper	domain. Eventually,	reason	and	logic	become
circuitous	so	that	one	ends	up	defining	definitions,	categories	of	thought,
and	modes	of	description	from	preselected	points	of	observation. Logic
has	practical	and	useful	applications	in	the	everyday	material	world	that
are	salutary	and	beneficial,	but	they	do	not	lead	to	enlightenment,	which	is
an	entirely	different	endeavor. Q:	But	what	about	morality. Doesn’t	letting	go	of	right	and	wrong	and
judgment	of	others	lead	to	immorality. A:	Denotations	of	right	and	wrong	are	practical	guides	to	behavior	for	people
who	are	not	yet	spiritually	evolved. They	are	a	temporary	substitute	for	a
greater	awareness. Thus,	we	teach	a	child	that	it	is	‘bad’	to	cross	the	street
alone	because	they	lack	the	awareness	of	danger. By	adulthood,	such	a
contextualization	as	right	or	wrong	about	crossing	the	street	is	no	longer
meaningful	or	significant. We	look	both	ways	before	crossing	the	street	to
avoid	being	run	over,	not	because	it	is	wrong	or	bad. With	spiritual
progress,	ethical	values	replace	moralistic	dictums,	just	as	awareness	of
spiritual	truth	replaces	dogma	and	coercive	belief	systems. Behaviors	that
have	to	be	outlawed	to	suppress	their	occurrence	in	the	general	population
have	lost	any	meaning	to	people	who	are	far	more	advanced. Q:	If	there	is	no	‘objective’	right	or	wrong,	then	what	guides	behavior. A:	One’s	awareness	of	Reality	recontextualizes	all	meaning	and	significance
as	well	as	any	appearances. There	are	no	gains	to	be	desired,	no	wrongs	to
avenge,	no	winners	or	losers,	no	causes	to	sacrifice	for. The	guide	to	all
action	becomes	an	unconditional	lovingness,	kindness,	and	compassion. All	choices	have	consequences,	and	there	is	actually	no	injustice	anywhere
to	be	seen	when	one’s	vision	is	unlimited	by	time,	space,	and	perception. Q:	What	about	karma. A:	We	can	avoid	controversy	and	contention	by	not	using	that	term,	which,	in
the	Western	world,	is	associated	with	Eastern	religions	and	spiritual
traditions. Instead,	we	can	observe	the	association	between	actions	and
choices,	both	mental	and	physical,	with	consequences. In	reality,	these	are
not	sequential	but	are	actually	concordant	and	seemingly	separated	by
perception. From	outside	the	duality	of	perception,	an	‘event’	and	its
‘effects’	are	one	and	the	same	thing. Nothing	actually	moves	except	the
point	of	perception	itself. All	religions,	without	exception,	teach	that
decisions,	choices,	and	actions	are	connected	with	consequences	that
appear	and	occur	later	in	‘time’. If	life	is	seen	as	a	continuum	from	one
realm	to	the	next,	then	all	religions	are	the	same	in	that	they	teach	that
actions	have	consequences	in	another	realm	or	condition	of	sequential	life
frame. All	the	religions	teach	that	there	will	be	a	nonphysical	life	that
supersedes	the	physical	one. The	confusion	here	arises	from	the
misidentification	of	this	life	as	physical	and	other	lives	as	nonphysical,	or
recurrently	physical. To	begin	with,	this	life	is	an	inner,	subjective
experiencing	that	includes,	but	is	independent	of,	the	physical	body. Thus,
this	current	existence	is	not	actually	physical,	either. This	life	is	the	subjective	adventure	of	that	mysterious	entity	called	‘I’. This	current	experience	of	the	‘I’	may	consider	itself	physical,	but	that	in
itself	is	an	illusion. Whether	successive	life	experiences	include	the
illusion	of	physicality	or	not	is	really	irrelevant	to	the	inference	and
significance	of	the	sequential	progress	of	conditions. All	‘lifetimes’	are
subjective,	nonphysical,	interrelated,	and	actually	continuous. Each	is
conditioned	and	determined	by	choices,	positionalities,	and	their
consequences. All	possibilities	are	included	in	the	evolution	of
consciousness. Once	consciousness	stops	identifying	with	form,	it	is	then
beyond	karma. It	is	of	considerable	interest	that	newborns	already	have	a	calibratable
level	of	consciousness	at	the	time	of	their	birth,	and	that	this	level	in	most
people	tends	to	persist	throughout	their	lifetime. The	progression	ofconsciousness	in	the	average	human	being	during	one	lifetime	is	an
advance	of	about	five	points. Paradoxically,	however,	the	level	of
consciousness	of	mankind	as	a	whole	remained	at	190	for	many	centuries,
and	only	recently	crossed	the	critical	line	of	200	to	the	current	level	of
207. The	rate	of	increase	of	the	general	level	of	consciousness	is	held	back
by	the	immense	number	of	people	who	continue	to	make	negative
decisions	and	choices. Q:	Is	karma	therefore	related	to	form. A:	Preexisting	conditions	of	consciousness	consist	of	patterns	expressed	as
prevailing	energy	fields	of	relative	power. Each	level	contains	within	it	the
unresolved	issues	and	limitations	that	characterize	that	level	and	thereby
confront	the	individual. Let	us	say	that	at	birth,	one’s	energy	field
calibrates	at	150. This	person’s	main	confrontation	will	certainly	be	anger. They	may	spend	a	lifetime,	or	many	lifetimes,	with	anger	as	the	central
theme. Persons	who	are	in	the	energy	field	that	calibrates	in	the	50s	will
face	a	life	of	poverty	and	deprivation	and	may	be	born	in	a	starving
population,	ravaged	by	disease	and	war. Q:	Aren’t	conditions	at	birth	pure	chance,	depending	on	genes,
chromosomes,	and	the	accident	of	ge


. In
dealing with your shadow, you ar e aligning yourself with the
same inﬁnite power. After all is said and done, the
requir ements ar e not comple x:
1. Acknowledge your shadow when it brings
negativity into your life. 2. Embrace and for give your shadow. Turn an
unwanted obstacle into your ally. 3. Ask yourself what conditions ar e giving rise
to the shadow : stress, anonymity,
permission to do har m, peer pr essur e,
passivity, dehumanizing conditions, an “us
versus them” mentality. 4. Share your feelings with someone you trust:
a therapist, trusted friend, good listener,
counselor, or conﬁdante. 5. Include a physical component: body work,
energy release, yogic br eathing, hands- on
healing. 6. To change the collective, change yourself—
projecting and judging “them” as evildoers
only incr eases the shadow’s power. 7. Practice meditation in or der to e xperience
pure consciousness, which is beyond the
shadow. I’ve laid out a vision of unity as the solution to the shadow. The instant that life is split into good and evil, the self
follows suit. A divided self cannot mak e itself whole. Ther e
must be another level of life that is whole alr eady. Casting
their eyes over the invisible world, the ancient sages of
India r ealized that it was indescribable. The V edic scriptur es
from thousands of years ago wer e the ﬁrst to declar e,
“Those who know it speak of it not. Those who speak of it
know it not. ”
But of course people wer en’t thrilled to hear this teaching. They wanted help with their everyday pr oblems. If a vision
cannot be tur ned into practice, it’s arid and useless. The
ancient sages wer en’t trying to discourage their listeners. Quite the opposite, they wer e trying to give a r eliable map,
and wher e that map leads is to unity consciousness. My aim
in this part of the book has been to draw the same map in
vivid, moder n colors. Now it’s up to you to follow it. The
shadow isn’t a fearsome opponent, but a worthy one. Powerful as it is, the power of wholeness is inﬁnitely gr eater,
and by a miracle of cr eation it is within your grasp. OceanofPDF. comPART II
OceanofPDF. comMaking Peace with Ourselves, Others, and the
World
DEBBIE FORD
The story of the human being and the human psyche has
been e xamined, studied, and written about since the
beginning of our e xistence. Although it’s been r esear ched
and dissected by brilliant think ers, e xplor ed and e xplained
by the gr eatest intellects of all time, most of us ar e still
living in the dark, perple xed by the behavior of our friends,
our family members, our idols, and—mor e often than not—
ourselves. Disappointed by the condition of our own lives,
we for ge ahead each day hoping that our dark er impulses
and bad behaviors will miraculously disappear. Hurt time and again by the ﬂaws that we can’t seem to
shake free of, we silently pray that we will ﬁnd the courage
to give up our pr ocrastination, our overspending, our
chocolate, our r esentments, or our sharp tongues. Y et we
continue to succumb to our lower impulses, sabotage our
own desir es, and neglect our futur e. In an attempt to hide
our discontent, we put on a happy face, muster our best
“everything is ﬁne” look, and continue acting out in ways
that under mine our self -esteem and defeat our best-laid
plans. In the course of raising our childr en, chasing success, and
struggling to put enough away for vacation or r etirement,
answers to the very questions that will help us gr ow elude
us. Our deeper year ning for self -understanding gets buried
beneath the daily news, family issues, a health crisis, or a
common cold. An indignant neighbor, a disgruntled e x, or achild who has lost their way will literally suck the hours out
of our days and the money out of our bank accounts while
twisting our minds into believing that we can’t and won’t
ever have everything we want. Sometimes, we even for get
that we ever wanted anything diﬀer ent fr om what we have. The r epetitiveness of our to xic memory can lur e us into
years of accepting mor e of the same and wasting away in a
mediocr e existence that fails to meet even our own
expectations. Unfortunately, this method of survival strips us of the
ability to live the life that we wer e meant to live. The
emotional pain that surfaces as part of everyday life has us
wish away our past and become r esigned about our futur e. If we feel we have been deceived or conned or that we have
acted out of character, we become victims of the past and
hopeless about what’s to come. Cynical and sk eptical, we
fall pr ey to judgment, opting to point our ﬁnger at others
rather than look inside ourselves for the answers to our
woes. The r obotic natur e of our egocentric self rises up to
help us over come our feelings of insecurity and shame by
protesting our innocence and pr oclaiming our diﬀer ences. We think that if only we could just get that one person or
thing to change, we would feel better. We believe that if we
handle the one issue that we k eep complaining about or get
that one thing that we’ve been striving for, we will be happy. Rather than taking the time to pier ce the veil between who
we think we ar e and who we r eally want to be, we allow the
illusional life of a self that e xists in our minds to be in
contr ol. The pr oblem with this appr oach to life is that it pr events
us from discovering our true self, and it endangers the ar eas
of our lives that ar e most important to us. When we ar e
busy pr otecting ourselves fr om the demons that lurk in the
dark, we miss out on feeling joyful, fulﬁlled, and deeply
connected with those we love. Intent on hiding the dark erhalf of our human natur e, we fail to r each our full potential
and e xperience the depth and richness of our lives. We wer e bor n whole, and yet most of us ar e living as
partial human beings. W e each have the capacity to be an
important part of a grander whole. W e have the capacity to
leave this world a better place than we found it. W e are
meant to discover our authentic natur e—the state of being
in which we ar e inspir ed by ourselves, tur ned on, lit up, and
excited about who we ar e. We are meant to over come
adversity and manifest the gr eatest version of our own
individual soul, not a version of a self that is birthed out of a
fantasy. Big, blown- out fantasies about our lives stem fr om
the pain of our unr ealized potential, but true dr eams ar e a
reality we ar e willing to work for, ﬁght for, stay up late for—
this is a futur e that is within our r each. And ther e is only one
thing that can r ob us of that futur e, and that is our shadow—
our dark side, our secr ets, our r epressed feelings, and our
hidden impulses. The gr eat Swiss psychologist C. G. Jung tells us that our
shadow is the person we would rather not be. The shadow
can be seen in the person in our family whom we judge the
most, the public oﬃcial whose behavior we condemn, the
celebrity who causes us to shak e our head in disgust. If we
understand this cor rectly, we come to the startling and
sometimes sobering r ealization that our shadow is
everything that annoys, hor riﬁes, or disgusts us about other
people or about ourselves. W ith that wisdom in hand, we
begin to see that our shadow is all that we try to hide fr om
those we love and all that we don’t want other people to
ﬁnd out about us. Our shadow is made up of the thoughts, emotions, and
impulses that we ﬁnd too painful, embar rassing, or
distasteful to accept. So instead of dealing with them, we
repress them—seal them away in some part of our psyche,
so we won’t have to feel the bur den and shame they car ry
with them. P oet and author R obert Bly describes the shadowas an invisible bag that each of us car ries ar ound on our
back. As we’r e growing up, we put in the bag every aspect
of ourselves that is not acceptable to our families and
friends. Bly believes


absorption	of	life-essential
fats,	calcium,	and	vitamin	K,	gallstones	can	lead	to	life-threatening	diseases,	such	as
heart
disease,	osteoporosis,
	and
cancer. The	liver	uses	the	fat-soluble	vitamin	K	to	produce	the
compounds	responsible	for	the	clotting	of	blood. In	case	of	poor	vitamin	K	absorption,
hemorrhagic	disease
	may	result. The	body	cannot	fully	absorb	this	vitamin	when	a
problem	with	the	digestion	of	fat	exists. The	main	cause	of	inadequate	vitamin	K
absorption	is	an	insufficient	supply	of	bile,	pancreatic	lipase,	and	pancreatic	fat. It	stands
to	reason	that	following	a	lowfat	or	no-fat	diet	can	actually	endanger	your	life. Calcium	is	essential	for	the	hardening	of	bone	and	teeth,	the	coagulation	of	blood,	and
the	mechanism	of	muscle	contraction. Poor	bile	secretion	can,	therefore,	undermine	the
uptake	of	calcium,	a	mineral	the	body	requires	for	some	of	its	most	vital	activities. What	applies	to	vitamin	K	also	applies	to	all	other	fat-soluble	vitamins,	including
vitamins	A,	E,	and	D. The	small	intestine	can	only	absorb	vitamin	A	and	carotene
sufficiently	if	fat	absorption	is	normal. If	vitamin	A	absorption	is	insufficient,	the
epithelial	cells
	become	damaged. These	cells	form	an	essential	part	of	all	the	organs,
blood	vessels,	lymph	vessels,	and	so	on	in	the	body. Vitamin	A	is	also	necessary	to
maintain	healthy	eyes	and	protect	against	or	reduce	microbial	infection. Vitamin	D	is
essential	for	calcification	of	bones	and	teeth. 5
	It	is	of	great	importance	to	realize	that
supplementing	these	vitamins	does	not	resolve	the	problem	of	deficiency. 6
	To	sum	up,	without	normal	bile	secretions,	the	body	cannot	digest	and	absorb	enough	of
these	vitamins,	which,	in	turn,	can	cause	considerable	damage	to	the	circulatory,
lymphatic,	and	urinary	systems. Inadequately	digested	foods	tend	to	ferment	and	putrefy	in	the	small	and	large
intestines. They	attract	a	vast	number	of	bacteria	to	help	speed	up	the	process	of
decomposition. The	breakdown	products	are	often	very	toxic,	and	so	are	the	excretions
produced	by	the	bacteria. All	of	this	strongly	irritates	the	mucus	lining,	which	is	one	of	the
body’s	foremost	defense	lines	against	disease-causing	agents. Regular	exposure	to	these
toxins	impairs	the	body’s	immune	system,	60	percent	of	which	is	located	in	the	intestines. Overburdened	by	a	constant	invasion	of	toxins,	the	small	and	large	intestines	may	be
afflicted	with	a	number	of	disorders,	including
diarrhea,	constipation,	abdominal	gas,
Crohn’s	disease,	ulcerative	colitis,	diverticular	disease,	hernias,	polyps,	dysentery,
appendicitis,	volvulus,
	and
intussusceptions,
	as	well	as	both
benign
	and
malignant
tumors. Ample	bile	flow	maintains	good	digestion	and	absorption	of	food	and	has	a	strong
cleansing	action	throughout	the	intestinal	tract. Every	part	of	the	body	depends	on	the
basic	nutrients	made	available	through	the	digestive	system,	as	well	as	the	efficient
removal	of	waste	products	from	that	system. Gallstones	in	the	liver	and	gallbladder
considerably	disrupt	both	these	vital	processes. Therefore,	they	can	be	held	accountable
for	most,	if	not	all,	of	the	different	kinds	of	ailments	that	can	afflict	the	body. Removal	of
gallstones	helps	to	normalize	the	digestive	and	eliminative	functions,	improve	cell
metabolism,	and	maintain	balance	throughout	the	body. Disorders	of	the	Circulatory	System

For	descriptive	reasons,	I	have	divided	the
circulatory	system
	into	two	main	parts,	the
blood	circulatory	system
	and	the
lymphatic	system. The	blood	circulatory	system	consists
of	the	heart,	which	acts	as	a	pump,	and	the	blood	vessels,	through	which	the	blood
circulates. The	lymphatic	system	consists	of	lymph	nodes	and	lymph	vessels,	through	which
colorless
lymph
	flows. The	body	contains	three	times	more	lymph	fluid	than	blood. Lymph
takes	up	waste	products	from	the	cells,	as	well	as	cellular	debris,	and	removes	these	from
the	body. The	lymphatic	system	is	the	primary	circulatory	system	used	by	all	immunological
cells:	macrophages,	T-cells,	B-cells,	lymphocytes,	and	so	forth. An	obstruction-free
lymphatic	system	is	necessary	to	maintain	strong	immunity	and	homeostasis. Coronary	Heart	Disease

Heart	attacks	take	more	American	lives	than	any	other	cause. Although	it	occurs	suddenly,
a	heart	attack	is	actually	the	final	stage	of	an	insidious	disorder	that	has	been	years	in	the
making. This	disorder	is	known	as	coronary	heart	disease. Since	the	disease	plunders
mostly	prosperous	nations	and	rarely	killed	anyone	before	1900,	we	have	to	hold	our
modern	lifestyle,	unnatural	foods,	and	unbalanced	eating	habits	responsible	for	today’s
literally	heartsick	society. However,	long	before	the	heart	begins	to	malfunction,	the	liver
loses	much	of	its	major	vitality	and	efficiency. The	liver	influences	the	entire	circulatory	system,	including	the	heart. In	fact,	the	liver
is	the	greatest	protector	of	the	heart. Under	normal	conditions,	the	liver	thoroughly
detoxifies	and	purifies	venous	blood	that	arrives	via	the	portal	vein	from	the	abdominal
part	of	the	digestive	system,	the	spleen,	and	the	pancreas. In	addition	to	breaking	down
alcohol,	the	liver	detoxifies	noxious	substances,	such	as	toxins	produced	by	microbes. It
also	kills	bacteria	and	parasites	and	neutralizes	certain	drug	compounds	with	the	help	of
specific	enzymes. One	of	the	liver’s	most	ingenious	feats	is	to	remove	the	nitrogenous
portion	of	amino	acids,	since	nitrogen	is	not	required	for	the	formation	of	new	protein. It
forms
urea
	from	this	waste	product. The	urea	ends	up	in	the	bloodstream	and	is	excreted
in	the	urine. The	liver	also	breaks	down	the	nucleoprotein	(nucleus)	of	worn-out	cells	of
the	body. The	byproduct	of	this	process	is
uric	acid,
	which	is	excreted	with	the	urine	as
well. The	liver	filters	more	than	one	quart	of	blood	per	minute,	leaving	only	the	acidic	carbon
dioxide	for	elimination	through	the	lungs	(see
Figure	7
). After	it	is	purified	in	the	liver,	the	blood	passes	through	the
hepatic	vein
	into	the
inferior	vena	cava,
	which	takes	it	straight	into	the	right	side	of	the	heart. From	there	the
venous	blood	is	carried	to	the	lungs,	where	the	interchange	of	gases	takes	place:	Carbon
dioxide	is	excreted	and	oxygen	absorbed. After	leaving	the	lungs,	the	oxygenated	blood
passes	into	the	left	side	of	the	heart. From	there	it	is	pumped	into	the
aorta,
	which	supplies
all	body	tissues	with	oxygenated	blood. Figure	7
:	The	way	the	liver	filters	blood

Gallstones	in	the	bile	ducts	of	the	liver


 not
angry, r eally I’m not. I’m on of A Course in Miracles  and I
don’t get angry anymor e,” when inside you’r e seething. The
Holy Spirit tells us, “ Don’t try to purif y yourself befor e
coming to me. I am the puriﬁer. ” I was once on my way to
giving a lectur e on the Course, and I thought about a
woman I knew who I was feeling annoyed at. V ery quickly, I
tried to hide the thought, as though it wasn’t holy enough
for me to be thinking at such a time. Then it seemed asthough a voice in my head said, “ Hey, I’m your friend. Remember. ” The Holy Spirit wasn’t judging me for my
anger; He was ther e to help me move past it. We mustn’t for get what the Holy Spirit is for. We don’t
deny we’r e upset, but at the same time we own up to the
fact that all our feelings stem fr om our own loveless
thinking, and we’r e willing to have that lovelessness healed. Growth is never about focusing on someone else’s lessons,
but only on our own. W e aren’t victims of the world outside
us. As har d as it is to believe sometimes, we’r e always
responsible for how we see things. Ther e would be no savior
if ther e wer e no need for one. Of course things happen in
this world that mak e it almost impossible to love—cruel,
horrible things—but the Holy Spirit is within us to do the
impossible. He does for us what we can’t do for ourselves. He will lend us His str ength, and when His mind is joined
with ours, ego thinking is cast out. But we must be awar e of our ego feelings in or der to
release them. “ He cannot shine away what you k eep hidden,
for you have not oﬀer ed it to Him and he cannot tak e it fr om
you. ” It would be violating our fr ee will for the Holy Spirit to
change our mental patter ns unask ed. But when we ask Him
to change them, He will. When we’r e angry, or upset for any
reason, we’r e ask ed to say, “I’m angry but I’m willing not to
be. I’m willing to see this situation diﬀer ently. ” We ask the
Holy Spirit to enter into the situation and show it to us fr om
a diﬀer ent perspective. Once I was having por celain ﬁnger nails applied, and my
manicurist’s friend came into the r oom. I couldn’t tolerate
her personality. From the moment this woman opened her
mouth, I felt lik e someone was running ﬁnger nails over a
blackboar d. Since my hands wer en’t fr ee, I couldn’t leave
the room, and since the manicurist was someone who cameto my lectur es, I felt ashamed of my own r eaction. I prayed
and ask ed God for help. His r esponse was dramatic. W ithin
moments, the “ obno xious” woman began talking about her
childhood, and particularly her r elationship with her father. As she began to describe her upbringing, it became
perfectly clear to me how she would have gr own up with
little self -esteem, and an inor dinate need to develop
grandiose personality characteristics, which in her mind
would denote str ength. Her defenses didn’t work, of course. Coming fr om fear, they mer ely put people oﬀ. Suddenly, the
same behavior that had so ir ritated me ﬁve minutes befor e,
now elicited in me a deep compassion. The Holy Spirit had
pointed me to the infor mation that would melt my heart. Now I saw her diﬀer ently. That was the miracle: Her
behavior hadn’t changed, but I had. 5. LEVELS OF TEACHING
“Therefore, the plan includes very speciﬁc
contacts to be made for every teacher of God. ”
Relationships ar e assignments. They ar e part of a vast plan
for our enlightenment, the Holy Spirit’s blueprint by which
each individual soul is led to gr eater awar eness and
expanded love. R elationships ar e the Holy Spirit’s
laboratories in which He brings together people who have
the maximal opportunity for mutual gr owth. He appraises
who can lear n most fr om whom at any given time, and then
assigns them to each other. Like a giant universal computer,
He knows e xactly what combination of ener gies, in e xactly
what conte xt, would do the most to further God’s plan for
salvation. No meetings ar e accidental. “Those who ar e to
meet will meet, because together they have the potential
for a holy r elationship. ”The Course says that ther e are ‘thr ee levels of teaching’
in relationship. The ﬁrst level is what we think of as a casual
encounter, such as two strangers meeting in an elevator or
students who “happen ” to walk home fr om school together. The second level is a “mor e sustained r elationship, in which,
for a time, two people enter into a fairly intense teaching-
learning situation and then appear to separate. ” The thir d
level of teaching is a r elationship which, once for med, lasts
all our lives. A t this level, “each person is given a chosen
learning partner who pr esents him with unlimited
opportunities for lear ning. ”
Even at the ﬁrst level of teaching, the people in the
elevator might smile at one another or the students might
become friends. It is mostly in casual encounters that we
are given a chance to practice the ﬁne art of chiseling away
the har d edges of our personalities. Whatever personal
weaknesses ar e evident in our casual interactions will
inevitably appear magniﬁed in mor e intense r elationships. If
we’re crabby with the bank teller, it will be har der to be
gentle with the people we love the most. At the second level of teaching, people ar e brought
together for mor e intense work. During their time together,
they will go thr ough whatever e xperiences pr ovide them
with their ne xt lessons to be lear ned. When physical
proximity no longer supports the highest level of teaching
and lear ning between them, the assignment will call for
physical separation. What then appears to be the end of the
relationship however, is not r eally an end. R elationships ar e
eternal. They ar e of the mind, not the body, since people
are ener gy, not physical substance. Bodies joining may or
may not denote r eal joining, since joining is of the mind. People who have slept in the same bed for twenty -ﬁve years
may not be truly joined, and people who ar e many miles
apart may not be separate at all. Often we see a couple who has separated or divor ced
and look with sadness at the “ failur e” of their r elationship. But if both people lear ned what they wer e meant to lear n,
then that r elationship was a success. Now it may be time for
physical separation so that mor e can be lear ned in other
ways. That not only means lear ning elsewher e, from other
people; it also means lear ning the lessons of pur e love that
come fr om having to r elease the for m of an e xisting
relationship. Third-level, life-long r elationships ar e generally few
because “their e xistence implies that those involved have
reached a stage simultaneously in which the teaching-
learning balance is actually perfect. ” That doesn’t mean,
however, that we necessarily r ecognize our thir d-level
assignments; in fact, generally we don’t. W e may even feel
hostility towar d these particular people. Someone with
whom we have a lifetime’s worth of lessons to lear n is
someone whose pr esence in our lives for ces us to gr ow. Sometimes it r epresents someone with whom we participate
lovingly all our lives, and sometimes it r epresents someone
who we e xperience as a thor n in our side for years, or even
forever. Just because someone has a lot to teach us, doesn’t
mean we lik e them. P eople who have the most to teach us
are often the ones who r eﬂect back to us the limits to our
own capacity to love, those who consciously or
unconsciously challenge our fearful positions. They show us
our walls. Our walls ar e our wounds—the places wher e we
feel we can’t love any mor e, can’t connect any mor e deeply,
can’t for give past a certain point. W e are in each other’s
lives in or der to help us see wher e we most need healing,
and in or der to help us heal. 6. THE SPECIAL RELA TIONSHIP“The special love r elationship is the ego’s chief
weapon for k eeping you fr om Heaven. ”
We can all r elate to the desir


 most powerful telescopes, each galaxy an “island univer se” with
billions of stars. Y et what is ev en more awe-inspiring is the in finity of
space itself, the depth and stillness that allows all of that magnificence to
be. Not hing co uld be more awe-inspiring and majestic than the
inconceivable vastness and stillness of space, and yet what is it? Emptiness, vast emptiness. What ap pears to  us as space in our universe perceived through the mind
and the senses is the Unmanifested itself, externalized. It is the “ body” of
God. An d the greatest miracle is this: That stillness and vastness that
enables the universe to be  is not just out there in space — it is also within
you. When you are utterly and totally pr esent, you encounter it as the
still inner space of no-mind. W ithin you, it is vast in depth, not in
extension. Spacial extension is ultimately a misperception of infinite
depth — an attribute of the one transcendental reality. Accor ding to Einstein, space a nd time ar e not separate. I don’ t r eally
understand it, but I think he is saying that time is the fourth dim ension of
space. He calls it the “space-time continuum.”
 Y es. What you perceive extern ally as space and time are ultimately
illusory, but they contain a core of truth. They are the two essential
attributes of God, infinity and eternity, perceived as if they  had an
external existence outside you. W ithin you, both space and time  have an
inner equivalent that reveals their true nature, as well as your own. Whereas space is the still, infinitely deep realm of no-mind, the inner
equivalent of time is presence, awareness of the eternal Now. Remember
that there is no  distinction between them. When space and time are
realized within as the Unmanifested — no-mind and presence —
external space and time continue  to exist for you, but they beco me much
less imp ortant. The world, too, continues to exist for you, but i t will not
bind you anymore. Hence, t he ultimate purpose of the world lies not within the wo rld but in
transcendence of the world. Just as you would not be conscious of space
if there  were no objects in space, the world is needed for the
Unmanifested to  be realized. Y ou may have heard the Buddhis t saying:
“If there were no illusion, there would be no enlightenment.” It is
through the world and ultimately through you  tha t the Unmanifested
knows itself. Y ou are here to enable the divine purpose of the un iverse to
unfold. That is how important you ar e! CONSCIOUS DEA TH
Apart fr om dreamless sleep, which I mentioned already, there is one
other inv oluntary portal. It opens up briefly at the time of physic al death. Even if you h ave missed all the other opportunities for spiritual
realization during your lifetime, one last portal will open up  for you
immediately after the body has died. There are countless accounts by  people who had a visual impression of
this portal as ra diant light and then returned from what is co mmonly
known as a near -death experience. Many of them also spoke of a sense
of blissful serenity and deep peace. In the T ibetan Book of the Dead, it is
described as “the luminous splendor of the colorless light of Emptiness,”
which it says is  “your own true self.” This portal opens up o nly very
briefly, and unless you have al ready encountered the dimension of the
Unmanifested in your lifetime, you will likely miss it. Most people carry
too muc h residual resistance, too much fear, too much attachment tosensory experience, too much identification with the manifested world. So they see the portal, turn aw ay in fear, and then lose consciousness. Most of what happens after that is involuntary and automatic. Eventually,
there will be another round of birth and death. Their presenc e wasn’ t
strong enough yet for conscious immortality. So going thr ough this portal does not mean annihilation? As with all the other portals, your radiant true nature remains, but not the
personality. In any case, what ever is real or of true value in your
personality is your true natur e shining through. This is ne ver lost. Nothing that is of value, nothing that is r eal, is ever lost. Approaching death and death itself, the dissolution of the physical form,
is al ways a grea t opportunity for spiritual realization. This opportunity is
tragically missed most of the time, since we live in a cultur e that is
almost totally ignorant of death, as it is almost totally ignorant of
anything that truly matters. Every portal is a  portal of death, the death of the false self. When you go
through it, you cease to derive  your identity from your psych ological,
mind-made form. Y ou then real ize that death is an illusion, just as your
identification wi th form was an illusion. The end of illusion — that’ s all
that death is. It is painful only as long as you cling to illusion.CHAPTER EIGHT
E N L I G H T E N E D
 R E L A T I O N S H I P S
ENTER THE NOW FROM WHEREVER YOU ARE
I alw ays thought that true enlig htenment is not possible except thr ough
love in a r elation ship between a man and a woman. Isn’ t this wh at makes
us whole again? How can one’ s life be fulfilled until that happens? Is that true in your experience? Has this happened to you? Not yet, but how could it be otherwise? I know that it  will happen. In o ther words, you are waiting  for an event in time  t o save you. Is this
not the core err or that we hav e been talking about? Salvation is not
elsewhere in place or time. It is here and now. What do es that statement mean, “salvation is her e and now”? I don’ t
understand it. I don’ t even know what salvation means. Most pe ople pur sue physical pleasures or various forms of psyc hological
gratification because they believe that those things will make them happy
or free them from a feeling of fear or lack. Happiness may be perceived
as a heightened sense of aliveness attained through physical pleasure, or
a m ore secure a nd more complete sense of self attained throu gh someform of psychological gratificat ion. This is the search for salvation from
a state of unsatisfactoriness or insuf ficiency. Invariably, any satisfaction
that they obtain is short-lived, so the condition of satisfa ction or
fulfillment is usually projected o nce again onto an imaginary po int away
from the here and now. “When I obtain this  o r am f ree of that  — then  I
will be okay.” T his is the uncon scious mind-set that creates the illusion
of salvation in the future. T rue salvation is fulfillment, pea ce, life in all its fullness. It is to be who
you are,  to feel within you the good that has no opposite, the joy of
Being that depends on nothing outside itself. It is felt not as a passing
experience but as an abiding presence. In theistic language, it is to “know
God” —  not as something ou tside you but as your own innermost
essence. T rue salvation is to know yourself as an inseparable part of the
timeless and formless One Lif e from which all that exists derives its
being. T rue salvation is a state of freedom — from fear, from suf fering, from a
perceived state of lack and insu f ficiency and therefore from all wanting,
needing, graspin g, and clinging. It is freedom from compulsive thinking,
from ne gativity, and above all from past and future as a psychological
need. Y our mind is telling you that you cannot get there from here. Something need s to happen, or  you need to become this or th at before
you can  be free and fulfilled. It  is saying, in fact, that you need  time —
that you need to find, sort out, do, achieve, acquire, bec ome, or
understand something before you can be free or complete. Y ou see time
as the means to salvation, whereas in truth it is the greatest obstacle to
salvation. Y ou think that you can ’ t get there from where and who you are
at this moment b ecause you are not yet complete or good enough, but the
truth is that here  and now is the only point from where you can  get there. Y ou “ge t” there by realizing tha t you ar e  there already. Y ou find God the
moment you realize that you do n’ t need to seek God. So there i s no only
way to salvation : Any condition can be used, but no particular condition
is neede d. How ever, there is on ly one point of access: the Now. There
can be no salvation away from t his moment. Y ou are lonely and  without
a pa rtner? Enter the Now from


 are reading. The patient’ s wife, Dolores A.
Lechuga, signed the permission form to release this story.) From Wilmington, Mrs. Potter brought her father to consult with
oncologist Robert Enck, M.D., located at the Crozer -Chester Medical
Center in Chester. He confirmed the need for radiation therapy. Upon Dr.
Enck’ s referral, radiologist Warren Sewall, M.D., from July 10 to August
21, 1979, used a linear accelera tor to administer radiation doses of 4,400
rads (the modern dosage term is centigray  [cGy]) to the right lung and
mediastinum for four weeks. The patient also received 1,600 rads to the
upper lobe of the right lung plus 5,000 rads simultaneously to cancer -filled
“supraclavicular nodules.” He took this high-ener gy therapy five days per
week for four weeks. Then the radiologist added another 5,000 rads to those
supraclavicular nodules for two additional weeks. The linear accelerator, one of the most popular machines now being
used, was truly state-of-the-art  back in 1979. It is available in energies
ranging from 4 to 3 5 megavolts and uses a mixed beam of X rays and
electrons. Electrons are accelerated along a wave guide to their high
velocity. Penetration into tissue is determined by the energy of the beam
selected.6
With the object of relieving his symptoms (not curing the cancer), Jesus
Lechuga Valdez underwent multiple exposures to the hospital’ s linear
accelerator ’s high-ener gy X rays. They were responsible for certain
discomforting side effects and may be responsible for cancer to have
appeared curren tly, twenty years later. The massive amount of X rays given
then to normal tissue supposedly never exceeded safe doses. Through a process of “ionizatio n,” the radiation is designed to kill some
cancer cells by damaging their chromosomes and DNA to stop cell division. Of the centigray dose, one gray equals 100 rads, so that Senor Lechuga each
day actually received 44 cGy plus 16 cGy plus 50 cGy for a four-week total
of 2,200 cGy, and then he accep ted another 1,000 cGy for two weeks more. The 3,200 cGy dosage is enormous and, as you will learn later, such
radiation therapy held significance for the man’ s future health prospects. The beam’s adverse effects caused Senor Lechuga to experience mental
depression, loss of appetite, serious weight loss, darkening of the skin in the
irradiated chest area, and difficulty swallowing from esophageal scarring
that resulted from the radiation burns he sustained. Even today, almosttwenty-one years later, he must swallow carefully because he can be choked
by an overly lar ge food particle getting stuck at the esophageal scar site. By means of follow-up diagnostics back at the El Paso Cancer Treatment
Center, on August 31, 1979, Dr. Horowitz confirmed that his patient’ s lung
tumor had been reduced by about 80 percent. The coughing fits were less
strong and not striking Senor Lechuga as often; his appetite had returned;
and the annoying hoarseness improved. Throughout his examinations and
treatments, the doctors put no dietary restrictions on him whatsoever,
permitting Danish pastries, fatty hambur gers, french fried potatoes, pizza,
cola drinks, and other assorted junk. He was told merely to avoid sunlight
directly on his irradiated skin areas. When pressed for a prognosis as the result of radiation therapy received,
Dr. Horo witz gave him an estim ated 50 percent chance of either having a
lung cancer recurrence or living somewhat longer. It was then that the man
returned home to Durango and resumed working in his truck  and tractor
dealership. Lung Cancer Returns
Less than a month after conclusion of the radiation, his cancer came
back. Coughing  spells and hoarseness returned worse than ever for Senor
Lechuga. It was then that he and Dolores decided to act upon information
about the Gerson Therapy provided by their daughter, Geor gina Lechuga
Potter. Her friend, practicing pharmacist Irwin Rosenber g, Ph.D. (a
doctorate in nutrition), acquired  information and taught Mrs. Potter about
healing cancer using Dr. Max Gerson’ s dietary/detoxification program. Dr.
Rosenber g is owner of the Apothecary Pharmacy on Geor getown Road in
Bethesda, Maryland (ironically, located across from the National Institutes
of Health). On October 28, 1979, Senor Lechuga accompanied by his wife arrived at
the Gers on Therapy hospital in Tijuana, Mexico. Victor Ortuno, M.D., the
hospital’ s medical director, initially examined the patient and then turned
the Lech uga case over to his cousin, Arturo Ortuno, M.D., who took full
responsibility for supervising treatment. Although very uncomfortable from his numerous healing reactions,
Senor Lechuga’ s physical response was rapidly positive. His cancermarkers and other laboratory tests improved; however, his state of mind hit
bottom—depression set in. Still, from Dr. Arturo Ortuno’ s efforts and with
much encouragement from Dolo res Lechuga, Senor Lechuga stayed on the
dietary/detoxification program at the Gerson hospital and then later at
home. On his own back in Durango, Senor Lechuga struggled with tolerating
the many glasses of Gerson juices, coffee enemas, castor oil treatments,
salads, and eating the well-done  and unsalted foods. The Gerson diet was
contrary to his Mexican cultural background and abhorrent to his psyche. During healing reactions, appet ite left him completely, and such reactions
came on frequently for prolonged periods. Sometimes they lasted for a
week, but the love and support of Dolores, his companion for life, prevailed
over his discouragement. Dolor es prepared the foods, juices, enemas, and
other healing components; she became his self-contained caregiver and the
household’ s Gerson therapist. In effect, his wife saved the life of Senor
Lechuga. By the week between Christmas  and New Years day of 1980, his healing
flare-ups diminished, and he began to feel better. However, the man did
experience extreme weakness and had to force himself to eat anything at all. He preferred to do nothing more than rest in bed and sleep frequently. In
another week he made enough  progress to return to work part-time and
sporadically. Sitting at his desk gave him a renewed will to fight his cancer
with all his might. W ith an of fice a mere five minutes by car from home, the
patient went home for coffee enema cleansings, to eat his meals, and to
drink the green juices. He carrie d carrot juice in a thermos with him to work
for hourly drinking.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        Clay poultice,  a soft composition powder mixed with water and applied
as a mud pack to an inflamed body part for purposes of absorbi ng toxins of
arthritis, cancer, insect stings, diarrhea, and poisons, it has an adsorptive
effect like that of charcoal. The clay poultice aids detoxification. Clay
powder can also be used interna lly to clear gastrointestinal difficulties and
inflammations. The procedure for applying a clay poultice should involve
the following steps:
1. Prepare enough warm water to mix the needed amount of clay powder
into a paste. 2. Apply the paste quickly to a square of clean muslin to prevent cooling. 3. Place the muslin on an area to be treated. 4. Cover the area with plastic and wool cloth. 5. Pin the covering in place and leave it on overnight or until dry. 6. Remove and gently rub the area with a cold wet cloth. 7. Repeat this procedure as required. 8. Discard used clay pack. References for Chapter Nineteen
1Schaefer, A. “Some characterist ics of cancer survivors. ” Townsend Letter
for Doctors & Patients. 195:70-71, October 1999. OceanofPDF. comChapter Twenty
GERSON LAB TESTS EXPLAINED
In this chapter we explain the significance of certain laboratory tests that
are necessary for monitoring one’s healing progress. Laboratory testing of
blood and urine are a standard part of follow-up protocols for Gerson
Therapy patients employed by all Gerson-trained health professionals. Among practitio ners invited to administer the Gerson program are medical
doctors, osteopathic physicians, and naturopathic physicians. If you are a patient utilizing the Gerson approach to healing but have no
access to a trained Gerson health practitioner to act as your ombudsman, it’s
still possible to have appropriate  monitoring performed. Accom plish this by
hiring the services of a convent ionally practicing allopathic physician who
is willin g to order laboratory examinations for you or for ill loved ones (of
course, for a fee). Then


* (T-
254). Looking at the world throu gh the eyes of love, we do not see fear. But
looking at the world through the eyes of fear, we cannot see love. By acknowledgi ng that God’ s kingdom is the kingdom with which we
choose to identify, we are empowering ourselves. We are determining
which universe we choose to inhabit. When we choose love, fear cannot
choose us. Prayer is a migh ty power. But not only does the ego resist praying; it
also resists giving God any credit when the prayer works! It’s remarkablehow many times I’ve seen people express despair and hopelessn ess about a
situation, have it change dramatically after they’ve prayed about it, then
react almost casually when things turn around for the better. God certainly doesn’ t care; He has no ego with which to be offended by
our lack of acknowledgment. But saying “Thank you, God” is a far more
powerful use of the mind than saying “Yeah, it turned out better than I
expected after all.” It’s a way of reminding your mind of all the power that
it holds. OceanofPDF.comYour Holiness
Our vulnerability and mildness are spiritual strengths, although the ego
views them as weaknesses. The three kings bowed before the Christ child;
the Christ child didn’ t bow before them. There is no power in the world
that’s greater than the power of love. The mystic Jesus is a reminder of this. His name is a signal to the
subconscious mind that you are more than the world has told you that you
are. To say you were made in the image of God means you are an idea in
His mind, and ideas do not leave their source. Your bond is inseparable. Every problem we have in life stems from just that fact: we have forgotten
who we are. Forgetting who we are, we forget where we came from. Forgetting who we are, we forget we are one with each other. Forgetting
who we are, we for get why we are here. Jesus helps us remember. In remembering who we are, we remember
that our love, not our fear, is our true identity. Our love is not our weakness;
it is the strength of God within us. A more compassio nate, more
regenerative, more nurturing consciousness is in fact the only way to a
survivable future for the human race. The Christ is a facet of your psyche, the melding of your heart and
mind. It is holy because it is whole. There is no power that can stand against
it. There is nothing your holiness cannot do. This section from A Course in Miracles  describes the power of our
holiness:
Your holiness reverses all the laws of the world. It is beyond every restriction of time, space,
distance, and limits of any kind. Your holiness is totally unlimited in its power because it
establishes you as a Son of God, at one with the Mind of his Cr eator. Through your holiness the power of God is made manifest. Through your holiness the power
of God is made available. And there is nothing the power of God cannot do. Your holiness, then,
can remove all pain, can end all sorrow, and can solve all problems. It can do so in connectionwith yourself and with anyone else. It is equal in its power to help anyone because it is equal in
its power to save anyone. If you are holy, so is everything God created. You are holy because all things He created are
holy. And all things He cr eated ar e holy because you ar e.* (WB-58)
The thinking of God is 180 degrees away from the thinking of the
world. One of the places where our thinking is particularly upside-down is
regarding arrogance and humility. It isn’t arrogant to say the power of God
is within you; what would be arrogant is to think it’s not. Wouldn’ t that
mean you were a creation of something other than Him? You are powerful
because of a power that is in you, but not of you. To claim that power, and
seek to use it well, is not arrogant but humble. The mystic Jesus puts our perce ptions in right alignment. Surrendering
our thoughts to him, our perceptions are illuminated, lifted  above the
limitations of our routine thought patterns. If we identify with our
weakness, the vicissitudes of weakness will be the reality we experience. If
we identify with Christ, we will be lifted to a higher realization that (1) love
is who we are, (2) miracles occur naturally as expressions of love, and (3)
we were  not created to be at the effect of lovelessness in ourselves or in
others. Disciplin ing our minds to remember those things, whatever our
spiritual practice, is the assumption of the power of Christ. As your thoughts are lifted above the illusions of the world, you
automatically help lift others—for all minds are joined. Thinking with love,
we don’t simply experience miracles for ourselves. We become miracle
workers in the lives of others. It’s not only our own lives that we are here to
heal; in healing ourselves we help to heal the world. The real you is not at the effect of limitations imposed by the ego mind. Which world you identify with is your choice. If you identify only with the
mortal world, then the mortal world has power over you. If you identify
with the spiritual world, you have power to transform the mortal. Identifying with our separate needs, separate desires, and separate self, we
are limited to the laws that prevail within the ego’s domain. But identifying
with our holiness, we are under no laws but God’ s* (WB-134). None of this means, of course, that I can walk off the roof of a high-rise
building and not fall to the ground. It does mean, however, that I need not
be boun d by the shackles of false beliefs. The universe of God is literally
limitless. To the extent that I align my thinking with the thoughts of God, so
am I.We are born into this world as physical beings, but spiritually we can be
twice born. We can choose to be reparented by God and receive the
unlimited spiritual riches that are our natural inheritance. Spiritual maturit y is an aspect of personal maturity. There doesn ’t come
a day when you “get there”; you just evolve over time into a more
sophisticated person. Miracle-mindedness simply becomes the rule rather
than the exception in how we live our lives. As it is written in A Course in
Miracles, “miracles are everyone’ s right, but purification is necessary
first”* (T-3). We must purify the mind of darkness before we can see the
light. Only when our minds are purified of judgment, attack, self-reference,
and unfor giveness can we experience the miracle of a life that works. We can see every situation as an opportunity to purify ourselves of the
mental plaque that has accumulated since yesterday. We can say about any
circumstance, “The last time something like this happened, how did I play
it? Was I openhearted, or closed? Kind or uncaring? How can I do better
now? Which aspect of myself do I choose to express? My wounded self, or
my holy self?” Every situation is both an invitation to express our holiness
and a temptation to display our wound. Remembering the mystic Jesus, I remember who I am. And as I
remember that I am not my wounds, my wounds begin to heal. OceanofPDF.comCinderella
Everything in life is a projection of what we’ve already decided to see. We
see in life what we expect to see. Expecting to see miracles is simply a
change in focus, from thoughts of limitation to thoughts of infinite
possibility. Waking up each morning and casting your love before you is the most
powerful way to plan your day. It directs the subconscious mind to notice
those things that are good and generative, consciously disregarding
elements of fear that are always lurking on the periphery of our minds. The words “disciple” and “disc ipline” come from the same root, after
all. Enlightenment is a mind training, in which we consciously take
responsibility for the nature of our thoughts. We needn’ t surrender our
thoughts to fear; instead, we can surrender them to love. The discipline of
spiritual practice  is everything. If you don’t turn on the light in a room, it’s
ridiculous to curse the darkness. Turning on that light—dedicating ourselves to love—we begin to
discern patterns of goodness and opportunity that are otherwise obscured. We come to see how much good is always available to us. Everything we
need is either right in front of us or is on the way, because that’s how God’ s
universe operate s. Living with that realization is a powerful rearrangement
of our assumptions, expectations, and mental filters. Sometimes we miss out on a miracle for the simple reason that it
seemed too easy. We can’t imagine that the universe could be designed so
perfectly that whatever will support our growth is always right in front of
us. But it is. We’re trained to think in a very limited way; therefore limits
are pretty much all we see. In my past, there were two gigantic professional opportunities that I
turned down. I realize that the reason I turned them down was because I
failed to recognize their importa


and were not interested in the wonders of their subconscious mind. • Wealth is of the mind
Wealth is simply a subconscious conviction on the part of the
individual. You will not become a millionaire by saying, “I am a milli onaire, I
am a millionaire.” You will grow into a wealth consciousness by
building into your mentality the idea of wealth and abundance. • Your invisible means of support
The trouble with most people is that they have no invisible means  of
support. When business falls away, the stock market drops, or they
lose their investments, they seem helpless. The reason fo r such
 102  insecurity is that they do not know how to tap the subconscious mind. They are unacquainted with the in-exhaustible storehouse within. A man with a poverty type mind finds himself in poverty-stri cken
conditions. Another man with a mind filled with ideas of wealth is
surrounded with everything he needs. It was never intended that man
should lead a life of indigence. You can have wealth, everything you
need, and plenty to spare. Your words have power to cleanse your
mind of wrong ideas and to instill right ideas in their place. • The ideal method for building a wealth consciousness
Perhaps you are saying as you read this chapter, “I need wealth and
success.” This is what you do: Repeat for about five minutes to
yourself three or four times a day, “Wealth—Suc-cess.” These  words
have tremendous power. They represent the inner power of the
subconscious mind. Anchor your mind on this substantial power
within you; then conditions and circum-stances corresponding to their
nature and quality will be mani-fested in your life. You are not say ing,
“I am wealthy,” you are dwelling on real powers within you. There is
no conflict in the mind when you say, “Wealth.” Furthermore, the
feeling of wealth will well up within you as you dwell on the idea of
wealth. The feeling of wealth produces wealth; keep this in mind at all
times. Your subconscious mind is like a bank, a sort of universa l
financial institution. It magnifies whatever you deposit or i mpress
upon it whether it is the idea of wealth or of poverty. Choose wealth. • Why your affirmations for wealth fail
I have talked to many people during the past thirty-five ye ars whose
usual complaint is, “I have said for weeks and months, ‘I am w ealthy,
I am prosperous,’ and nothing has hap-pened.” I discovered that w hen
they said, “I am prosperous, I am wealthy,” they felt withi n that they
were lying to themselves. One man told me, “I have affirmed that I am prosperous until I a m
tired. Things are now worse. I knew when I made the statement t hat it
 103  was obviously not true.” His statements were rejected by t he
conscious mind, and the very opposite of what he outwardly affirmed
and claimed was made manifest. Your affirmation succeeds best when it is specific and when it  does
not produce a mental conflict or argument; hence the statement s made
by this man made matters worse because they suggested his lack. Your subconscious accepts what you really feel to be true, not just idl e
words or statements. The dominant idea or belief is always acc epted
by the subconscious mind. • How to avoid mental conflict
The following is the ideal way to overcome this conflict for  those
who have this difficulty. Make this practical statement fr equently,
particularly prior to sleep: “By day and by night I am bei ng prospered
in all of my interests.” This affirmation will not arouse a ny argument
because it does not contradict your subconscious mind’s impress ion of
financial lack. I suggested to one businessman whose sales and finances were very
low and who was greatly worried, that he sit down in his offic e,
become quiet, and repeat this statement over and over again: “ My
sales are improving every day.” This statement en-gaged t he co-
operation of the conscious and subconscious mind; results followed. • Don’t sign blank checks
You sign blank checks when you make such statements as, “There
is not enough to go around.” “There is a shortage.” “I will lose the
house because of the mortgage,” etc. If you are full of fear ab out the
future, you are also writing a blank check and attracting neg ative
conditions to you. Your subconscious mind takes your fear and
negative statement as your request and proceeds in its own way to
bring obstacles, delays, lack, and limitation into your life. • Your subconscious gives you compound interest
To him that hath the feeling of wealth, more wealth shall be adde d;
to him that hath the feeling of lack, more lack shall be  added. Your
 104  subconscious multiplies and magnifies whatever you deposit in i t.
Every morning as you awaken deposit thoughts of prosperity, succ ess,
wealth, and peace. Dwell upon these con-cepts. Busy your mind w ith
them as often as possible. These constructive thoughts will f ind their
way as deposits in your subconscious mind, and bring forth abundance
and prosperity. • Why nothing happened
I can hear you saying, “Oh, I did that and nothing hap-pened.” You
did not get results because you indulged in fear thoughts perha ps ten
minutes later and neutralized the good you had affirmed. When you
place a seed in the ground, you do not dig it up. You let it ta ke root
and grow. Suppose, for example, you are going to say, “I shall not be abl e to
make that payment.” Before you get further than, “I shall—” sto p the
sentence and dwell on a constructive state-ment, such as, “By da y and
by night I am prospered in all my ways.”
• True source of wealth
Your subconscious mind is never short of ideas. There are with in it
an infinite number of ideas ready to flow into your conscious mind
and appear as cash in your pocketbook in countless ways. This process
will continue to go on in your mind regardless of whether the stock
market goes up or down, or whether the pound sterling or dollar d rops
in value. Your wealth is never truly dependent on bonds, stocks, or
money in the bank; these are really only symbols necessary and
useful, of course, but only symbols. The point I wish to emphasize is that if you convince your
subconscious mind that wealth is yours, and that it is always
circulating in your life, you will always and inevitably have it,
regardless of the form it takes. • Trying to make ends meet and the real cause
There are people who claim that they are always trying t o make
ends meet. They seem to have a great struggle to meet their
 105  obligations. Have you listened to their conversation? In many
instances their conversation runs along this vein. They are cons tantly
condemning those who have succeeded in life and who have raised
their heads above the crowd. Perhaps they are saying, “Oh, that fe llow
has a racket; he is ruthless; he is a crook.” This is why  they lack; they
are condemning the thing they desire and want. The reason they speak
critically of their more prosperous associates is because they are
envious and covetous of the others prosperity. The quickest way to
cause wealth to take wings and fly away is to criticize and condemn
others who have more wealth than you.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        Learn to pray for your loved ones who may be ill. Quiet your
mind, and your thoughts of health, vitality, and per-fection operati ng
through the one universal subjective mind will be felt and re surrected
in the mind of your loved one. 71  6
Practical Techniques in Mental
Healings
An engineer has a technique and a process for building a bridg e or
an engine. Like the engineer, your mind also has a technique for
governing, controlling, and directing your life. You must realize that
methods and techniques are primary. In building the Golden Gate Bridge, the chief engineer understood
mathematical principles, stresses and strains. Sec-ondly, he had  a
picture of the ideal bridge across the bay. The third step was his
application of tried and proven methods by which the principle s were
implemented until the bridge took form and we drive on it. There  also
are techniques and methods by which your prayers are answered. If
your prayer is answered, there is a way in which it is answ ered, and
this is a scientific way. Nothing happens by chance. This is a world of
law and order. In this chapter you will find practical technique s for the
unfolding and nurture of your spiritual life. Your prayers must not
remain up in the air like a balloon. They must go somewhere  and
accomplish something in your life. When we come to analyze prayer we discover there are many
different approaches and methods. We will not consider in this book
the formal, ritual prayers used in religious services. These have
important place in-group worship. We are imme-diately conce rned
with the methods of personal prayer as it is applied in your daily life
and as it is used to help others. Prayer is the formulation of an idea concerning something we wish
to accomplish.


it. Use only the best grades of oil marked "Virgin." Commercial salad dressings can
be used in small amounts unless you are troubled with high tri-
glycerides. Especially avoid coconut oil. All commercial salad oil,
shortening, lard, margarine, if you
want to avoid or reduce high
triglyceride content in your blood. VEGETABLES
 EAT   AVOID
   Each day eat at least 3 kinds of
fresh vegetables purchased in
their natural state as follows:
Celery, carrots, squash, lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower, snap beans (green beans), broccoli, turnip, collard or mustard greens,
cucumbers, sweet peppers,
endive, Chinese cabbage, melons
of all kinds, pumpkins, avocadoes
and all other conventional fresh    All canned and frozen
vegetables except in off seasons,
or emergencies when fresh
vegetables are not available. vegetables. The following vegetables are
also allowed, but many persons
suffer allergy and indigestion
from them: Onions, garlic,
spinach, rutabagas, kale, rape, and
tomatoes. FRUITS AND NUTS
 EAT   AVOID
   Any fresh fruits and nuts bought
in their own skins or shells
according to your taste. Examples
are: Apples, pears, bananas,
plums, apricots, peaches, nectarines, figs, grapes, melons of
all kinds, oranges, grapefruit,
avocadoes, cherries, berries of all kinds, and all other conventional
fresh fruits. Pecans, walnuts, almonds,
brazil nuts, filberts, hazelnuts,
peanuts, coconuts, chestnuts, and
all other conventional nuts bought
in their own shells and in good condition with no rancid taste. Canned or frozen fruit, except
when fresh fruits are unavailable. Lemons and limes. BEVERAGES
 DRINK   AVOID
   Drink beverages between meals
only. No fluids with meals, or
soon after meals, not even water or soup. See page 33. Water, milk as earlier described,
tea if you wish, or juice from newly squeezed oranges,
grapefruit, or any other fresh fruit or vegetable you like. Coffee is against you, but a
little fresh-brewed from light-
roast coffee will do the least
harm. Use natural fresh milk or cream in coffee or tea if desired. Honey is a good sweetener for
tea. Don't drink any beverages with
meals. Lemon or lime drinks. Canned or frozen juices except
when fresh fruit is unavailable. DESSERTS, SWEETS, SNACKS
   Special Note: Persons old enough or unwell enough to be on a diet
frequently have diabetes at least in a borderline form, perhaps not
detectable by medical tests. If you feel very tired and achy in the legs or arms a few hours after eating sugar, or if you have rashes or sores
which are slow to heal, you should not eat anything with sugar in it. But you can still eat all the good sweet fresh raw fruit you want. EAT   AVOID
   All fresh fruit and nuts you like
as earlier listed. Let these be your
candy and dessert as far as
possible. As a second choice, not as good
for you: Small servings of ice
cream, custard, pie filling with no
crust, jam, jelly, hard candy, and the like. CAUTION: Diabetics
should avoid these items, which
contain manufactured sugar. Canned and frozen fruit except
when fresh fruit is unavailable. Cakes, pies, cookies, doughnuts,
crackers. Candy with filling, chocolate
and cocoa. Potato flakes, fried pork skins,
and fried snacks of all kinds. SALT, FLAVORING, SPICES, DRESSINGS
   None of these things have any worthwhile nutritional merit, though they are
valuable in making food taste better. So do not feel that you have to use any of them unless you feel the need. Nearly all of them are to at least a slight extent harmful if
used in excess, especially salt, so they should be used in the smallest quantity which
will satisfy your taste. Persons with weak hearts or serious high blood pressure should completely avoid
salt. Those with digestive and intestinal troubles should use no pepper or spices, only a
little salt. A little salt and butter go a long way toward covering flavoring needs. 35. DIET AND THE MEDICAL PROFESSION
   There is a growing awareness of th e importance of diet among the medical
profession, with consequent increase in the amount of dietary advice given to patients. Doctors and dietitians have quickly recognized that there is nothing radical about the
fresh food diet, and in some respects it is similar to various diets which they have previously been recommending. It is not a fad diet or hazardous in any way, being
basically suitable for persons of all ages past infancy, in the absence of some special
condition for which the doctor may recommend modifications. Physicians are welcoming these findings as a means of helping chronically ill older patients and
retarded children. It is good common sense for persons who feel unwell or consider themselves
unhealthy to seek the care of a kind, sensible M.D. doctor who will take an interest in them and be ready to help them through emergencies which may occur regardless of
diet, as well as give them the advantages of medical observation and treatment. Doctors are urged to carefully observe the progress of persons using the fresh food
diet and to publish any constructive information obtained, for it is only by actual clinical experience that new findings are at last confirmed. 36. FUTURE IMPROVEMENTS IN FOOD SUPPLY
   Many clever and knowledgeable scientists are employed by the various food
manufacturers, and just as recounted in the case of flour these people understand very
well the presence of the deteriorated materials which I have called "fatty rubbish" in
stored foods. However, they have apparently not realized previous to publication of my discovery on September 21, 1967, that these materials cause arteriosclerosis,
previously considering the materials as simply "unavailable" for nutrition. The staling and deterioration of stored food has been the chief concern of food
scientists for many years, and they have developed dozens of chemicals and processes
which are applied to stored foods to preserve them. It is possible that they will be able
to make future improvements in processed foods to make them cause less
arteriosclerosis, now that the cause of this  disease has been disclosed. For example,
five years ago millions of people had fatty  atherosclerotic yellow plaques in their
facial skin and eyelids. After the salad and cooking oil manufacturers were shown by
my feeding experiments that some atherosclerosis was being caused by durable
materials in their oils, the oils were further purified with the result that nowadays the plaques are rarely seen. Sometimes it happens that scientists may be pressed to make statements which serve
the business interests of their employers or sponsors
   rather than the public interest or the extension of true knowledge. Food scientists
know better than anyone else the truth of the conditions disclosed in this book, and have an awesome moral responsibility to their own race to bear themselves honorably
and truthfully as regards this matter. The atherosclerotic condition of the people cannot wholly be laid at the door of the
food processing industries, because the same disease from flour, bacon, ham, sausage,
and so on existed to some extent long before development of the modern food
industry. Rather this condition is simply an extreme stage in the long process of
gradual learning and improvement by which civilization is developing. It is not
desirable to point an accusing finger at anyone, but only that all concerned should
work constructively to improve the condi tion of our people. Knowing the cleverness
of industrial scientists, I would not be surprised to see arteriosclerosis begin to gradually fade away after they have had a decade or so to improve processed foods
based on this new knowledge. Due to the seasonal availability of agricultural products there will always be a
necessity for storing food through the barren seasons. Fresh food for all will hardly
come in our time, but it is hoped that publication of these findings will start a trend
toward increased use and production of fresh foods, and stimulate research in food storage and processing. It should be recognized that an increased appreciation of and demand for fresh farm
produce would foster a revival of the small family farm, open up possibilities for responsible self-employment to the unemployed, and promote a return to the
countryside with consequent dispersal of the urban masses. 37. CRITICISM OF THESE FINDINGS
   These findings have been favorably commented on by a number of eminent
scientists and doctors. Four criticisms have been made as follows:
1. "Why were these findings published now instead of waiting until academic
science can investigate them thoroughly?" Because the people who are sick
now need help now, not ten years or more in the future. Academic scientists
can study the fine details at their pleasure, but meantime the information is
being released so the people can help themselves. Also, book sales will help support further research. 2. "There is not enough fresh food to go around." True, but there is enough to
feed the sick and as the demand gradually increases the farmers and business
interests will keep pace with it. 3. "Food that is stale enough to hurt us has a bad taste so that we wouldn't eat it." False. Food scientists have published extensive reports of


 one of exchanging a body doctor for a
head doctor.) A miracle cure, then, simply throws into high relief the
need to reexamine some of medicine’s basic concepts. Our
current logic  of healing can be impressive, or at least good
enough, as when we apply penicillin to cure an infection,
but nature’s logic can be awe-inspiring. Many physicians
have stood in wonder witnessing such cures as Chitra’s
without having a clue how to explain them; the standard
term for them is spontaneous remission, a convenie nt tag
that says little more than that the patient recovered by
himself. Spontaneous remissions are quite rare—one study
in 1985 estimated that they occur once in every twenty
thousand diagnosed cancer cases; some specialists believe
they are much rarer (fewer than ten per million), but no
one knows for sure. Recently I spent an evening with a leading oncologist, or
cancer specialist, from the Midwest, a doctor who treats
thousands of patients every year. I asked him if he knew of
any spontaneous remissions. He shrugged and said, “I feel
uncomfortable with that term. I have seen tumors
completely regress. It’s very rare, but it happens.”Did these regressions sometimes happen totally by
themselves? He admitted that they occasionally did. He
thought for a moment and mentioned that certain kinds of
melanoma—an extremely lethal skin cancer that kills very
quickly—are known to disappear by themselves. He
couldn’t explain why this happened. “I don’t stop to think
about these rare incidents,” he said. “Treating cancer is a
matter of statistics—we  go with the numbers. A huge
majority of patients respond to certain lines of treatment,
and there just isn’t time to ﬁnd out about the inﬁnitesimal
minority who recover for some unknown reason. Besides, it
is our experi ence that many of these regressions  are only
temporary.”
Did he think complete regressions were rarer than one in
a million? No, he answered, not that rare. Then, as a scientist, didn’t he want to ﬁnd out the
mechanism that lies behind them, even if the odds are one
in a million, or one in ten million? Again he shrugged. “Of
course there must be a mechanism behind it,” he conceded,
“but my practice is not set up to look into that. Let me give
you an example: eight years ago, a man came to see me
complaining of a painful chest cough. We X-rayed him, and
it turned out that he had a large tumor between his lungs. He was admitted to the hospital, we took a biopsy, and the
pathologist’s report diagnosed the tumor as oat-cell
carcinoma. This is an extremely deadly, very fast-growing
malignancy. “I told my patient that he must have immediate surgery
to relieve the pressure that his tumor was creating,
followed by radiation and chemotherapy. He was quite
disturbed by the prospect of treatment and refused. I
completely lost track of him after that. Eight years later, a
man came to see me with an enlarged lymph node in his
neck. I took a biopsy, and it turned out to be oat-c ell
carcinoma. Then I realized that it was the same man.“We took chest X rays, and there was no trace of lung
cancer. Normally, 99.99 percent of untreated patients
would have died in six months; as many as 90 percent
would not live ﬁve years even with maximum therapy. I
asked him what he had done for the earlier cancer, and he
told me he hadn’t done anything—he had just decided he
was not going to let himself die of cancer. And he may
refuse treatment again with this second cancer.”
By deﬁnition, scientiﬁc medicine deals in predictable
results. Yet, whenever spontaneous remissions appear,
their behavio r is completely unpredictable. They can occur
without the presence of any therapy, or they can
accompany conventional cancer treatment. The myriad
alternative approaches to cancer available in the United
States today may each have distinct merits, but no one has
proven that they prom ote spontaneous remissions any
better than standard radiation and chemotherapy, nor are
they apparently any worse. How advanced the cancer is
seems not to matter, either. Both tiny tumors and extremely
large masses of malig nancy can disappear, virtually
overnight. Because of their rarity and because they happen
as if by chan ce, spontane ous remissions have so far taught
us very little either about  the cause of cancer or about how
an “impossible” cure is achieved. It seem s reasonable to suppose that the body is ﬁghting
cancer all the time and winning a huge majority of the
battles. Many kinds of cancer can be induced, either in test
tubes or in laboratory animals, using toxic substances
(carcinogens), fatty diets, radiation, high doses of stress,
and viruses, among other  things. Since we are subjected to
all of these at a furious rate, they must be causing  damage
inside us. DNA is known to break down under these
extreme conditions; usually, however, it knows how to
repair itself or to detect the damaged material and discard
it.This means that early  cancers are probably  being
detected and combatted in the body on a regular  basis. If
you take this process and step it up in intensity, you have
the “miracle” of a spontaneous remission. It is no miracle
at all, in fact, but a natural process that has yet to be
explained, just as curing  pneumonia with penicil lin would
be a miracle  if you could not explain it through the germ
theory of disease. The point is that the mechanism behind
miracle cures is not mystical or random—and it deserves to
be investigated. —
In ordinary practice, once the miracle is over, the doctor
goes back to his routine, including his routine concepts. Even these, however, the stock -in-trade of medical school,
have buckled. To give just one example:  Since its inception
as a ﬁeld of rational scien tiﬁc study, medicine has accepted
the degeneration of brain function in elderly people as a
natural occurrence. This deterioration was thoroughly
documented with “hard” ﬁndings—as we age, our brains
shrink, grow lighter, and lose millions of neurons every
year. We have our full complem ent of neurons by age 2, and
by age 30, the number starts to decline. The loss of any
single brain cell is permanent, since neurons do not
regenerate. On the basis of this well-known fact, brain
decline seemed to be scientiﬁcally valid; sadly but
inevitably, to grow old must lead to memory loss, decreased
reasoning ability, impaired intelligence, and related
symptoms. These time- honored assumptions, however, have now
been shown to be wrong. Careful study of healthy elderly
people—as opposed to the sick, hospitalized ones whom
medicine habitually studi ed—has revealed that 80 percent
of healthy Americans, barring psychological distress (such
as loneliness, depression, or lack of outside stimulation),suﬀer no signiﬁcant memory loss as they age. The ability to
retain new information can decline, which is why old
people forget phone numbers, names, and the reason for
walking into a room; but the ability to remember past
events, calle d long-term memory, actually improves. (One
authority on aging quotes Cicero, who declared, “I’ve never
heard of an old man who forgot where his money was
hidden.”)
In tests where 70-year-olds were matched with 20-year-
olds, the older people performed better than the younger in
this area of memory. After they practiced the other kind of
memory—called short-te rm memory—for a few minutes
every day, the older group could almost match the younger
subjects, who were at their prime of mental functioning. Perhaps the “prime of life” should be extended. The
secret, as with almost every other “natural” decline in old
age, depends on habits of mind, not the circuitry in the
nervous system. As long as a person stays  mentally active,
he will remain as intelligent as in youth and middle age. People will still lose over one billion neurons throughout
their lifetime, at an average rate of 18 million per year, but
this loss is compensated for by another structure, the
branchlike ﬁlaments called dendrites, which connect the
nerve cells to one another. A nerve cell tends to be highly individual in shape, but
typically it has a bulbou s central section from which thin
arms radiate, like an octopus. These arms, or axons, end in
a swirl of tiny ﬁlaments that looked treelike to the early
anatomists, so they named them dendrites after the Greek
word for “tree.” Dendrites, which can vary in number from
less than a dozen to more than a thousand per cell, serve as
contact points, allowing the neuron to send signals to its
neighbors. By growing new dendrite s, a neuron can open
new channels of communication in every direction, like a
switchboard sprouting extra lines.It is not known how a thought is


ice to the clinic. One October
day I walked into the dining hall and noticed one of the
cancer patients, a middle-aged man who was sitting quietly
in the corner, eating lunch with his wife. He had cancer of
the pancreas, a fatal condition that is also extremely
painful. When he had come in the door ﬁve days earlier, his
face was gray and creased after months of suﬀering. I
walked over now to say a few words. As I approac hed, he
casually looked up at me. It was one of those moments that
stops the heart. His face looked peaceful and relaxed; his
eyes were unmistakably touched with bliss. I asked himhow he felt. He said that he had no pain at all; after four
days of Ayurvedic treatment, he had taken hims elf oﬀ all
his pain medication. A few days later he left, and until the
time he died, he remained largely free of drugs. This is not yet a cure, but it is a huge step towa rd one. Consciousness would be curing people today, I am
convinced, except that we diagnose disease too late, after
years of stress have hardened the physiology and made it
diﬀicult for bliss to penet rate. But the gate is always open,
even if only by a crack. All the Ayurvedic healing
techniques operate on the premise that one treats the
patient ﬁrst, the disease second. The prospect of becoming a well person again, as
opposed to ﬁghting against a disorder known to be
incurable, gives hope to people who otherwise have
nothing to hold on to but grim statistics. One AIDS patient
in Germany has been treated with Ayurveda for two years
as part of a pilot program  conducted in Europe. Diagnosed
in 1984, he is still alive at the time of this writing in August
1988 (80 percent of AIDS  patients die within two years of
diagnosis); he leads a normal life and is without overt
symptoms. A similar program is under way in California, treating
AIDS patients under clinical observation to see if both the
latent and active phases  of the disease can be aﬀected. Both groups are small, and the subjects know that
Ayurveda is not promising a cure, but the supervising
physicians feel that they are seeing improvements,
particularly in the patients’ ability to withstand the
debilitating fatigue that saps the strength and will of AIDS
patients. Just to extend the latency period, giving a patient more
years before the disease produces symptoms, would be a
major breakthrough. However, I met one patient, not
connected with the clinic, who seems to have done betterthan that. A musician from Los Angeles in his early forties
came to be taught the bliss technique two years ago; I did
not see him again until this year, when he came to learn
primordial sound. I asked how he was doing, and he
answered that he had something important to tell me—he
had AIDS. The diagnosis had been made four years earlier after he
came down with pneumonia. Rather than the typical
pneumonia caused by the pneumococcus bacteria,  his came
from a protozoa known  as Pneumocystis carinii;  this
disease is one of the most common that strike AIDS
patients when their immune systems collapse. He
recovered from the attack and decided to change  his life. He learned to meditate, and for the ﬁrst time in his adult
life he gave up the habit ual routine of long nights, heavy
drinking, pills, smoking, and promiscuity that had been
attached to his career. (Interestingly, a survey of long-term
AIDS survivo rs shows that all of them have made this kind
of “take charge” decisi on over their disease. Standard
medicine cannot explain why this should be such a
lifesaver, but it is.) By the time he learned the bliss technique, two years
later, his health had improved to the point where he looked
totally normal. The bliss technique becam e a major focus of
his determination to overcome AIDS. “I don’t think of myself as ﬁghting my sickness,” he
remarked. “I’m just learning that all the unhappiness and
anguish I used to live with was wrong.” Inside, he began to
experience a much more  positive range of emotions—he
told me that he had never suspected that he could get
hooked on happiness. Today, four years after the original
diagnosis, he looks completely healthy, and except for a
certain amou nt of fatigue, he lives as if the AIDS were not
there.Each year’s international symposium on AIDS discloses
deeper gloom about defea ting it. AIDS is caused by the HIV
virus, plus its related mutations, which are a researcher’s
nightmare, because they belong to a particularly  baﬄing,
elusive class of organis ms called retroviruses. Even a
normal virus, such as the one responsible for colds, has
remarkable powers to elude the body’s immune system. Contrary to the way it responds to bacteria, our DNA
mysteriously forgets how to ﬁght against an invading virus
—in fact, it actually appears to cooperate with it. When a
virus comes near the cell wall, it melts through,
penetrating as if without resistance; it is next ushered
directly to the cell’s nucleus, where the DNA obligingly
shuts down normal operations and begins to manufacture
the proteins for making new viruses. A cold or ﬂu virus is content to let DNA build proteins for
it, but a retrovirus like HIV goes one better by blending
into the DNA’s own chemical strands, masking itself as the
host’s genetic material. There it sleeps until the day, which
may come years later, when the DNA is triggered to ﬁght
another disease. Then the retrovirus awak ens and begins to
replicate itself by the millions, using the host cell as an
incubator and eventually resulting in the host cell’s death. The cell bursts open, loosing a horde of lethal viruses into
the bloodstream. Every step of the cycle is so mysterious
and complica ted that the AIDS virus has quickly earned a
reputation for being the most complex disease organism
ever discovered. No drug is capable of treating it; AZT,
which helps postpone the active phase, is riddled with
major side eﬀects, making it impossible for some patients
to take the drug. This is not to deny Western medicine its own approach. When a life-threatening disease arises, it is necessary to
take drastic  measures —on this point there is no
disagreement. But I believe that viewing disease as adistortion of intelligence might represent a move toward a
deeper level of understanding, and therefore of treatment. Both cancer and AIDS seem to be cases where the proper
sequence of sutras must be unraveling at the deepest level. In other words, they are failures of intelligence, like “black
holes” where  bliss gets distorted out of its normal pattern. What makes both diseases so intractable is that the
distortion runs so deep— it is locked inside the DNA’s own
structure. This causes the cell’s self-repair mechanism
either to break down or turn against itself. In the case of
cancer, DNA actually seems to want to commit suicide by
ignoring its knowledge of proper cell division. In both diseases the distortion apparently penetrates as
far as the very force ﬁelds that hold DNA together. (Cell
physics is a complex ﬁeld, but it is believed that a cell
senses and interacts with viruses in the ﬁrst place by
detecting their chemical and electromagnetic resonances;
such signals are interpreted by the DNA and presumably
can also fool it.) From the perspective of the sutras, or Vedic sounds,
there must be a distor tion in the proper sequence of
intelligence as it unfolds into the relative world. “Hearing”
the virus in its vicinity, the DNA mistakes it for a friendly or
compatible sound, like the ancient Greek sailors who heard
the siren’s song and were lured to their destruction. This is
a believable explanation once one realizes that DNA, which
the virus is exploiting, is itself a bundle of vibrations. If this explanation is valid, then the remedy is to reshape
the improper sequence of sounds, using Ayurveda’s
primordial sound (known as Shruti  in the Sanskrit texts,
from the verb that means “to hear”). These sounds are
basically like pottery molds—by placing the mold back over
the distorted sequence, one guides the disrupted DNA back
into line. This treatment is subtle and gentle in its eﬀects,
but some preliminary results have been quite dramatic.Once the sequence of sound is restored, the tremendous
structural rigidity of the DNA should again protec t it from
future disruptions. In the near future Ayurveda will blossom, I believe, and
help us to create a new medicine, one of knowledge and
compassion. At its best, current medi cine already contains
these ingredients—the medical system is in trouble, but its
woes are transcended by caring individuals. They will be
the ﬁrst to see that Ayurveda is not in conﬂict with their
work as doctors; it can only help the process of recovery
and bring healing under our control. EXP