way	out	of	problems	and	ignorance	is	by	acquiring	an
understanding	of	the	nature	of	consciousness	itself. Awareness	of	the
nature	of	consciousness	catapults	one	through	all	problems,	limitations,
and	human	endeavors. It	is	the	most	important	subject	of	all	subjects	to	be
learned	because	it	underlies	all	human	experience	and	enterprise. Science
itself	has	progressed	only	to	the	point	where	it	can	advance	no	further
without	understanding	the	nature	of	consciousness. Thus,	there	are	so
many	international	conferences	on	science	and	consciousness	that	are	thefocus	of	much	interest	and	are	very	well	attended. Thus	far,	such
endeavors	have	been	hampered	by	the	lack	of	adequate	tools	to	explore	the
leading	edge	of	human	intelligence. Q:	We	hear	that	the	block	to	Awareness	is	duality	itself. How	can	this	be
solved? A:	Duality	is	the	artificial	and	arbitrary	basis	for	the	illusion	of	separation. It
originates	from	a	positionality	that	stems	from	the	sum	of	thinkingness,
with	all	its	myriad	judgments,	values,	selectivity,	prejudices,	and	opinions. These	in	turn	stem	from	symbolism,	limited	paradigms,	and	limitations
of	context. It	is	only	by	an	arbitrary	limitation	of	context	that	any
judgments	or	value	statements	can	be	made	about	anything	at	all. The	fact
that	many	opinions	are	held	by	great	masses	of	people	is	hypnotic. Few
minds	can	escape	the	appeal	of	the	authority	of	mass	agreement. People
look	without	instead	of	within	for	guidance. As	Freud	said,	the	individual
conscience	is	dissolved	in	the	unconsciousness	of	the	herd	and	mass
action. Morality	is	silenced	by	mass	hysteria. Few	can	resist	the	propaganda	of	the	news	media. Truth	eventually
surfaces,	but	it	is	usually	belated. How	often	human	error	underlies
tragedy	is	revealed	by	the	DNA-based	reversal	of	the	convictions	of	so
many	prisoners	who	have	even	been	previously	executed. Judicial
testimony	is	perception,	and	inasmuch	as	perception	is	the	source	of	error,
the	so-called	justice	system	is	understandably	prone	to	error. Truth	cannot
be	arrived	at	through	voting. Jury	conclusions	are	merely	opinions,	not
facts. Emotions	blind	perception	and	guarantee	error. Duality	is	thus	a
separation	of	truth	and	error	that	is	sourced	by	the	vanity	of	perception	and
the	ego. Q:	How	does	perception	result	in	duality? A:	Arbitrary	selectivity	results	in	a	positionality	that	is	a	point	of	view	which
artificially	polarizes	the	oneness	of	Reality	into	seemingly	separate	parts. These	parts	are	apparent	only	and	not	actually	separate	in	Reality. The
separation	into	parts	occurs	only	in	the	mind	and	not	in	Reality. Thus,	we
end	up	speaking	of	‘here’	and	‘there’,	or	‘now’	versus	‘then’,	or	we
arbitrarily	select	out	portions	from	the	flow	of	life	that	we	refer	to	as
‘events’	or	‘happenings’. One	serious	consequence	of	this	mental	process
is	the	production	of	a	false	understanding	of	causality. This
misunderstanding	leads	to	endless	human	problems	and	tragedies. Q:	I	understand	that	you	place	great	emphasis	on	clarifying	the	nature	ofcausality. A:	In	an	attempt	to	reconnect	that	which	has	now	been	conceptually	separated
in	the	processes	of	the	mind’s	thoughts,	causality	is	invented	to	explain
what	is	now	viewed	as	‘relationship’. In	Reality,	there	is	only	identity;
there	is	no	cause	of	anything	nor	is	it	required. In	the	Newtonian	paradigm
of	linear	causality,	a	‘this’	seems	to	be	causing	a	‘that’. In	Reality,
everything	is	already	complete,	and	the	total	oneness	is	beyond	time,
space,	and	separation	or	definition. It	is	obvious	that	nothing	is	the	cause
of	anything	else	as	that	would	require	a	dualistic	separation	in	time	and
space,	which	is	impossible. The	manifest	becomes	manifest	by	creation. All	things	are	because	of
their	essence	in	its	expression	as	existence. All	we	can	observe	are
conditions. It	is	relatively	easy	to	see	that	the	‘cause’	of	anything	is	the	totality	of
the	entire	universe	throughout	all	time,	being	what	it	is	in	all	its
expressions	as	existence. All	things	exist	as	an	expression	of	identity,	and
the	essence	of	all	things	shines	forth	by	its	presence. All	things	are	self-
created	by	divine	expression	as	existence. Therefore,	each	‘thing’	can	only
be	what	it	is	because	of	the	totality	of	the	entire	universe. A	speck	of	dust
cannot	be	where	it	is	positioned	without	air	currents,	which	require	a
room,	which	requires	a	building,	a	lot,	a	continent,	a	planet,	a	solar	system,
a	galaxy,	a	universe,	and	so	on. All	statements	made	by	the	mind	are	subjective. There	is	no	linear
progression	of	events,	sequences,	or	causations. All	shines	forth	as	it	is	in
its	expression	of	existence. All	is	self-existence	and	therefore	not
dependent	on	anything	outside	itself. Q:	Is	the	ego	‘wrong’? A:	The	problem	with	the	ego	is	not	that	it	is	wrong;	it	is	just	that	it	is	limited
and	distorted. To	conceive	of	the	ego	as	an	enemy	is	to	become	polarized,
bringing	forth	conflict,	guilt,	anger,	and	shame. Positionalities	support	the
ego. By	enlarging	context,	opposites	are	transcended	and	problems	are
dissolved. Humility	removes	the	ego’s	underpinnings	of	judgmentalism,
positionality,	and	moralizing. In	Reality,	there	can	no	longer	be	opposites
anymore	than	there	can	be	winners	or	losers. Within	the	illusion,	statistics,	for	instance,	depend	on	how	limits	are	set
and	defined. By	changing	classification,	statistics	shift. Thus,	the	supposed
crime	rate	in	the	United	States	can	be	made	to	appear	to	go	up	or	down,
depending	on	political	pressures,	or	by	including	or	excluding	certain
things	in	the	compilation. By	raising	or	lowering	criteria,	any	socialphenomenon	can	be	made	to	appear	to	increase	or	decrease. The	world	as
described	by	perception	is	therefore	arbitrary,	and	social	‘reality’	becomes
whatever	one	decides	to	call	it. Definition	defines	perception,	and	the
corollary	is	equally	true. Q:	What	effect	does	thought	have	on	perception? A:	Thought	usually	takes	the	form	of	languaging. Language	is	based	on
labeling,	which	is	therefore	the	result	of	prior	separations	and
fragmentations	of	the	whole. Thinking	and	mentation	are	dialogs	and
expressions	of	duality. One	can	ask	who	or	what	is	doing	the	thinking	or
for	whose	benefit. Who	is	the	speaker	and	who	is	the	listener? Q:	What	is	the	difference	between	ego	and	mind? A:	They	are	actually	one	and	the	same. The	term	‘ego’	is	generally	used,
however,	to	describe	certain	aspects	of	the	mind,	but	the	ego	could	be
more	generally	defined	as	the	source	and	the	process	of	thinking. Q:	What	is	the	relationship	between	mind	and	meditation? A:	The	purpose	of	meditation	is	to	transcend	the	mind	and	its	mentations	and
limited	perceptions,	thereby	transcending	duality	and	becoming
increasingly	aware	of	Oneness. Thinking	proceeds	from	lack


 Only in the pr esence of
an unwavering commitment to facing our demons does the
doorway to self -discovery open. We cannot jour ney into the dark side for a quick dip or an
afternoon liaison. T o understand our shadow completely
takes a willingness to let go of what we think we know. Ittakes the for ce of a caged lion to br eak open the cellar
doors that we ourselves chained closed many moons ago. The gr eat news is that we wer e bor n with a bur ning desir e to
evolve and gr ow, to open up, to e xpand and be whole. And I
am going to assert that we all have at least one place wher e
we secr etly desir e to be mor e, to have mor e, to e xperience
more. It is her e that our shadow is waiting patiently for us to
come r etrieve our power fr om the dark r ecesses of our
unconscious mind. When we ﬁrst come in contact with our dark side, our
initial instinct is to tur n away and our second is to bar gain
with it to leave us alone. Many of us have spent vast
amounts of time and money in an eﬀort to do just that. Ironically, it’s these hidden aspects and r ejected feelings
that need the most attention. When we lock ed away those
parts of ourselves we didn’t lik e, we unknowingly sealed
away our most valuable gif ts. The r eason for doing shadow
work is to become whole, to end our suﬀering, to stop hiding
from ourselves. Once we do this, we can stop hiding fr om
the rest of the world. We must embrace our shadow in or der to know the
freedom of living a transpar ent life, so that we feel fr ee
enough to invite others into our life—to let others know the
truth about our ﬁnances, our pastimes, and our r elationships
—without being gripped by the fear that our public persona
will come unraveled, e xposing the person we’ve been trying
hard not to be. When our pr ecious ener gy isn’t tied up in
hiding fr om or over compensating for our self -destructive
impulses, we ar e gifted with the clarity and the motivation
we need to build an unshak able foundation for an inspiring
futur e. OUR DU ALISTIC SELFThe shadow lurks, deceives, hides, and cons us into
believing what we can and cannot do. It drives us to smok e,
gamble, drink, and eat that which mak es us feel bad the
next day. Our shadow gives rise to the hypocritical
behaviors that cause us to violate our personal boundaries
and our own integrity. It is a for ce that can only be r eckoned
with by bringing it into the light of our awar eness and
examining what we ar e made of. We possess every human
characteristic and emotion, whether active or dor mant,
whether conscious or unconscious. Ther e is nothing we can
conceive of that we ar e not. W e are everything—that which
we consider good and that which we consider bad. How
could we know courage if we have never known fear. How
could we know happiness if we never e xperienced sadness. How could we know light if we never knew dark. All these pairs of opposites e xist within us because we ar e
dualistic beings made up of opposing for ces. This means
that every quality we can see in another e xists within
ourselves. W e are the micr ocosm of the macr ocosm,
meaning within our DNA structur e we have the imprint of
every characteristic. W e are capable of both the gr eatest
acts of selﬂessness and the most destructive, self -punishing
crimes. When viewed in the full light of our awar eness, our
shadow e xposes the duality and the truth of both our human
self and our divine self, as they both pr ove to be essential
ingredients of a whole authentic human being. We have to uncover, own, and embrace all of who we ar e
—the good and bad, the light and the dark, the selﬂess and
the selﬁsh, and the honest and dishonest parts of our
personality. It is our birthright to be whole, to have it all. But
to do this, we must be willing to tak e an honest look at
ourselves and step out beyond our judgmental mind. It is
here that we will have a life-altering shif t in per ception, an
opening of our heart. The good news is that every aspect of ourselves comes
bearing gif ts. Every emotion and every trait we possesshelps show us the way back to oneness. Our dark side e xists
to point out wher e we ar e still incomplete, to teach us love,
compassion, and for giveness—not just for others, but also
for ourselves. And when the shadow is embraced, it will heal
our heart and open us up to new opportunities, new
behaviors, and a new futur e. When we bring our shadow,
our hidden emotions and our life-draining beliefs, into the
light of our conscious awar eness, it will transfor m the way
we see ourselves, others, and the world. Then we ar e free. Dealing with our shadow is a comple x but guaranteed
journey back to love. Not just love of another, but love for
each and every characteristic that lives within you and
within me—a love that allows us to embrace the richness of
our humanity and the holiness of our divinity. Having faced
our own inter nal demons, we ar e ﬁlled with peace and
compassion in the pr esence of other people’s dark side. W e
can for give and let go of our demeaning judgments and our
resentful heart. W e can tap into the humility of Gandhi and
the tolerance of Martin L uther King, Jr., and draw forth the
strength and the courage to deal with the issues that haunt
us. “Ther e but for the grace of God go I” tak es on a whole
new meaning when we can view evil thr ough the universal
lens of our humanity. Exploring our dark side is the gateway
to understanding why we do what we do, why we
sometimes act in ways that ar e contrary to the desir es of
our conscious mind, and why we spend countless hours,
days, months, or years judging others and holding on to
grudges that only bring us headache, heartache, and dis-
ease. All of us have moments fr om the past when our emotional
pain was too much for us to bear, so we r epressed it within
the darkness of our shadow. This is an unavoidable part of
life. W e can run, but we can’t hide. Our shadow is always
linked back to one traumatic event or a combination of
painful moments. When we truly understand our shadow
and its gif ts, ther e are no ﬁngers to point or blame to caston our par ents, our teachers, or our past, because our
shadow is a delivery system for an e xtraor dinary futur e. Understanding how our shadow was for med unlocks the
door to enor mous personal power and pr ofound wisdom. THE BIR TH OF THE SHADOW
The birth of our shadow occur red when we wer e young,
befor e our logical thinking mind was developed enough to
ﬁlter the messages we r eceived fr om par ents, car egivers,
and the world at lar ge. Even with the best of car egivers, we
inevitably wer e shamed for displaying certain qualities. W e
received the message that something about us was wr ong
or that in some way we wer e bad. As childr en, we might
have been told that we wer e too loud. Instead of sof tening
our voice, knowing ther e would again come a time to be
loud, our fragile, unfor med ego may have tak en this
comment to mean that our unabashed self -expression was
wrong and should be hidden fr om others. Or maybe we wer e
called selﬁsh, because we took mor e than our fair shar e of
cookies fr om the plate. Instead of understanding the cookies
were to be shar ed, we made it mean that our selﬁshness
was bad and should be destr oyed. Or we got e xcited and
yelled out an answer in elementary school, and suddenly all
the kids wer e staring at us, laughing. Instead of laughing
with them, we made it mean that we wer e stupid and we
should never tak e a risk again. These negative messages
got ingrained into our subconscious lik e a computer virus,
altering our per ception of ourselves and causing us to shut
down those aspects of our personality that we or others
deemed unacceptable. Each time a behavior of ours was met with harsh criticism
or senseless punishment, we unconsciously separated fr om
our authentic self, our true self. And once these negative
ﬁlters wer e ﬁrmly in place, we wer e separated fr om our joy,our passion, and our ever -loving heart. T o ensur e our
emotional survival, we began the pr o


	day. When	the	major	bile	ducts	are
blocked,	barely	a	cup	of	bile,	or	even	less,	will	find	its	way	to	the	intestines. This	prevents
much	of	the	VLDL	and	LDL	cholesterol	from	being	excreted	with	the	bile. Gallstones	in	the	liver	bile	ducts	distort	the	structural	framework	of	the	liver	lobules,
which	damages	and	congests	the	sinusoids. Deposits	of	excessive	protein	also	close	the
grid	holes	of	these	blood	vessels	(see	more	detailed	explanations	in	the	previous	section	or
in	the	book
Timeless	Secrets	of	Health	and	Rejuvenation
). Whereas	the	“good”	cholesterol
HDL	has	small	enough	molecules	to	leave	the	bloodstream	through	ordinary	capillaries,
the	larger	LDL	and	VLDL	molecules	are	more	or	less	trapped	in	the	blood. The	result	is
that	LDL	and	VLDL	concentrations	begin	to	rise	in	the	blood	to	levels	that	seem
potentially	harmful	to	the	body. Yet	even	this	scenario	is	merely	part	of	the	body’s	survival
tactics. The	body	needs	the	extra	cholesterol	to	patch	up	the	increasing	number	of	cracksand	wounds	that	are	formed	because	of	the	accumulation	of	excessive	protein	in	the	blood
vessel	walls. Eventually,	though,	even	the	life-saving	“bad”	cholesterol,	which	rushes	to
every	wound	or	injured	site	in	the	body,	cannot	completely	prevent	blood	clot	formation	in
a	coronary	artery,	in	which	event	one	of	the	escaping	blood	clots	may	enter	the	heart	and
cut	off	its	oxygen	supply. In	addition	to	this	complication,	reduced	bile	secretion	impairs	the	digestion	of	food,
particularly	fats. Therefore,	not	enough	cholesterol	is	available	for	basic	cell	metabolism. Since	the	liver	cells	no	longer	receive	sufficient	amounts	of	LDL	and	VLDL	molecules,
those	liver	cells	assume	that	the	blood	is	deficient	in	these	types	of	cholesterol. This
stimulates	the	liver	cells	to	increase	the	production	of	cholesterol,	further	raising	the	levels
of	LDL	and	VLDL	cholesterol	in	the	blood. Hence,	the	“bad”	cholesterol	is	trapped	in	the
circulatory	system	because	its	escape	routes,	the	bile	ducts	and	the	liver	sinusoids,	are
blocked	or	damaged. The	arteries	attach	as	much	of	the	“bad”	cholesterol	to	their	walls	as
they	possibly	can. Consequently,	the	arterial	walls	become	rigid	and	hard,	which	is	still
better,	though,	than	having	all	their	wounds	and	lesions	exposed	to	the	gushing	blood
stream. Coronary	heart	disease,	regardless	of	whether	it	is	caused	by	smoking,	drinking
excessive	amounts	of	alcohol,	overeating	protein	foods,	stress,	or	any	other	factor,	usually
does	not	occur	unless	gallstones	have	impacted	the	bile	ducts	of	the	liver. Removing
gallstones	from	the	liver	and	gallbladder	cannot	only	prevent	a	heart	attack	or	stroke,	but
can	also	help	reverse	coronary	heart	disease	and	heart	muscle	damage. Cholesterol	levels
begin	to	normalize	as	the	distorted	and	damaged	liver	lobules	regenerate	themselves. Cholesterol-lowering	drugs	(statins)	don’t	bring	the	body	back	to	a	healthful	condition
in	which	the	liver	can	normalize	blood	cholesterol. Instead,	statins	artificially	lower	the
level	of	cholesterol	in	the	blood	by	blocking	the	enzyme	in	the	liver	that	is	responsible	for
making	cholesterol. However,	by	creating	an	artificial	“cholesterol	famine”	in	the	liver,
bile	is	not	formed	properly,	which	increases	the	risk	of	gallstones	and	hinders	the	proper
digestion	of	food. The	side	effects	of	statins	are	numerous;	they	include	kidney	failure,
liver	disease,	and	yes,	heart	disease	(for	more	information	on	statins	see
Timeless	Secrets
of	Health	and	Rejuvenation
)
. Cholesterol	is	essential	for	the	normal	functioning	of	the	immune	system,	particularly
for	the	body’s	response	to	the	millions	of	cancer	cells	that	every	person’s	body	makes	each
day	(the	immune	system	tracks	down	these	cells	and	kills	them	through	a	sophisticated
arsenal	of	weaponry,	including	the	drilling	of	holes	into	the	cell	walls	and	pumping	of	a
fluid	into	the	cell’s	interior,	causing	them	to	burst	and	die;	for	more	detailed	information
about	what	causes	cancer	and	how	to	heal	it,	see
Cancer	Is	Not	A	Disease—It’s	A	Survival
Mechanism
). Despite	all	the	health	problems	associated	with	high	cholesterol	levels,	this	important
substance	is
not
	something	we	should	try	to	eliminate	from	our	bodies. Cholesterol	does
far	more	good	than	harm. The	harm	is	generally	symptomatic	of	other	problems. I	wish	to
emphasize,	once	again,	that	“bad”	cholesterol	only	attaches	itself	to	the	walls	of	arteries	to
avert	immediate	heart	trouble—not	to	cause	it. The	body	has	no	intention	to	commit
suicide,	even	if	doctors	like	to	imply	this	by	the	use	of	suppressive,	intervening	treatments. The	fact	that	cholesterol	never	attaches	itself	to	the	walls	of	veins	should	be	part	of	the
cholesterol	discussion. When	a	doctor	tests	your	cholesterol	levels,	she	takes	the	blood
sample	from	a	vein,	not	from	an	artery. Because	blood	flow	is	much	slower	in	veins	than
in	arteries,	cholesterol	should	obstruct	veins	much	more	readily	than	arteries,	but	it	never
does. There	simply	is	no	need	for	that. Why? Because	there	are	no	abrasions	or	tears	in	the
lining	of	the	vein	that	require	patching	up. Cholesterol	only	affixes	itself	to	arteries	in
order	to	coat	and	cover	the	abrasions	and	protect	the	underlying	tissue,	like	a	waterproof
bandage. Veins	do	not	absorb	proteins	in	their	basal	membranes	like	capillaries	and
arteries	do	and,	therefore,	are	not	prone	to	this	type	of	injury. “Bad”	cholesterol
saves
	lives;	it	does
not
	take	lives. LDL	allows	the	blood	to	flow
through	injured	blood	vessels	without	causing	a	life-endangering	situation. The	theory	that
high	LDL	is	a	major	cause	of	coronary	heart	disease	is	unproved	and	unscientific. It	has
misled	the	population	to	believe	that	cholesterol	is	an	enemy	that	has	to	be	fought	against
and	destroyed	at	all	costs. Human	studies	have	not	shown	a	cause-and-effect	relationship
between	cholesterol	and	heart	disease. There	are	hundreds	of	studies	that	were	intended	to
prove	that	such	a	relationship	exists,	but	all	they	revealed	was	a	statistical	correlation
between	cholesterol	and	heart	disease—quite	fortunately,	I	might	add. If	there	were	no
“bad”	cholesterol	molecules	attaching	themselves	to	injured	arteries,	we	would	have
millions	more	deaths	from	heart	attack	than	we	already	have. By	contrast,	dozens	of
conclusive	studies	have	shown	that	the	risk	of	heart	disease	increases	significantly	in
people	whose	HDL	levels	decrease. It	would	be	much	wiser	to	find	out	what	keeps	HDL
levels	normal	than	to	inhibit	cholesterol


 how beautiful they alr eady ar e. Our prayer becomes “ Dear God, tak e the scales fr om in
front of my eyes. Help me to see my br other’s beauty. ” It is
our failur e to accept people e xactly as they ar e that gives us
pain in a r elationship. Our ego is mer ely our fear. We all have egos, that doesn’t
make us bad people. Our egos ar e not wher e we ar e bad but
wher e we ar e wounded. The Course says that we ar e ‘allafraid on some level that if people saw who we r eally ar e,
they would r ecoil in hor ror. ’ That is why we invent the mask,
to hide our true selves. But the true self—the Christ within
us—is that which is most beautiful. W e must r eveal
ourselves at the deepest level in or der to ﬁnd out how
lovable we r eally ar e. When we dig deeply enough into our
real natur e, we do not ﬁnd darkness. W e ﬁnd endless light. That is what the ego doesn’t want us to see; that our safety
actually lies in letting down  our mask. But we cannot do this
when we’r e constantly afraid of being judged. The holy
relationship is a conte xt wher e we feel safe enough to be
ourselves, knowing that our darkness will not be judged but
forgiven. In this way we ar e healed, and fr eed to move on
into the light of our true being. W e are motivated to gr ow. A
holy r elationship is this: “a common state of mind, wher e
both give er rors gladly to cor rection, that both may happily
be healed as one. ”
8. ROMANTIC L OVE
“There is no love but God’s. ”
‘Ther e are no diﬀer ent categories of love. Ther e isn’t one
kind of love between a mother and a child, another between
lovers, and another between friends. The love that is r eal is
the love that lies at the heart of all r elationships. That is the
love of God and it doesn’t change with for m or
circumstance. ’
A girlfriend of mine r emark ed to me r ecently, “Y our
relationship with your baby must be showing you a whole
new kind of love. ” “No, it’s not,” I r eplied. “ But it’s showing
me a new depth of tender ness, which is teaching me mor e
about what love is. ”People ask, “Why can’t I ﬁnd a deep, intimate r omance. ”
The question is understandable, because people ar e lonely. An intimate r omantic love, however, is lik e taking graduate
work towar d a Ph. D. in the ways of love, and many of us ar e
hardly out of elementary school. When we’r e not in a
relationship, the ego mak es it seem as though all the pain
would go away if we wer e. If the r elationship lasts, however,
it will actually bring much of our e xistential pain to the
surface. That’s part of its purpose. It will demand all of our
skills at compassion, acceptance, r elease, for giveness, and
selﬂessness. W e might tend to for get the challenges
involved in a r elationship when we’r e not in one, but we
remember them clearly enough once we ar e. Relationships don’t necessarily tak e the pain away. The
only thing that “tak es the pain away” is a healing of the
things that cause the pain. It isn’t the absence of other
people in our lives that causes us the pain, but rather what
we do with them when they’r e ther e. Pure love asks for
nothing but peace for a br other, knowing that only in that
way can we be at peace ourselves. How many times have I
had to ask myself, “ Do I want him to be at peace, or do I
want him to call. ” P ure love of another person is the
restoration of our heartline. The ego, ther efore, is marshaled
against it. It will do everything it can to block the e xperience
of love in any for m. When two people come together in God,
the walls that appear to separate us disappear. The beloved
doesn’t seem to be a mer e mortal. They seem for a while to
be something else, something mor e. The truth is, they are
something mor e. No one is anything less than the per fect
Son of God, and when we fall in love, we have an instant
when we see the total truth about someone. They are
perfect. That’s not just our imagination. But the craziness sets in quickly. As soon as the light
appears, the ego begins its powerful drive to shut it out. Allof a sudden, the perfection we glanced on the spiritual
planes becomes pr ojected onto the physical. Instead of
realizing that spiritual perfection and physical, material
imperfection e xist simultaneously, we start looking for
material, physical perfection. W e think someone’s spiritual
perfection isn’t enough. They have to have perfect clothes
as well. They have to be hip. They have to dazzle. And so no
one gets to be a human being anymor e. We idealize one
another, and when someone doesn’t live up to the ideal,
we’re disappointed. Rejecting another human being simply because they ar e
human, has become a collective neur osis. P eople ask,
“When will my soul mate get her e. ” But praying for the
right person is useless if we’r e not r eady to r eceive him. Our
soul mates ar e human beings, just lik e we ar e, going
through the nor mal pr ocesses of gr owth. No one is ever
“ﬁnished. ” The top of one mountain is always the bottom of
another, and even if someone meets us when we feel “ on
top” of things, the chances ar e good that very soon we’ll be
going thr ough something that challenges us. It is our
commitment to gr owth that mak es this inevitable. But the
ego doesn’t lik e the look of people when they’r e “going
through things. ” It’s unattractive. As in every other ar ea, the
problem in r elationships is rar ely that we haven’t had
wonderful opportunities or met wonderful people. The
problem is, we haven’t known how to tak e the gr eatest
advantage of the opportunities we’ve had. Sometimes we
didn’t r ecognize at the time how wonderful those people
were. Love is all ar ound us. The ego is the block to our
awar eness of love’s pr esence. The idea that ther e is a
perfect person who just hasn’t ar rived yet is a major block. Our vulnerability to the myth of “Mr. Right” stems fr om
our gloriﬁcation of r omantic love. The ego uses r omantic
love for its “special” purposes, leading us to jeopar dize ourrelationships by overvaluing their r omantic content. The
diﬀer ence between a friendship and a r omance can be
illustrated with the image of a long-stemmed r ose. The stem
is the friendship; the blossom the r omance. Because the ego
is sensation- oriented, our focus automatically goes to the
blossom. But all the nourishment that the blossom needs in
order to live, r eaches it thr ough the stem. The stem might
look boring in comparison, but if you tak e the blossom oﬀ
the stem it will not last for long. I shar ed that image in a
lectur e once, and a woman then added a lovely thought: A
long-ter m romance is lik e a rose bush. In any given season,
a blossom might fall oﬀ. But if the plant is well nourished,
then the season will come ar ound again, and new blossoms
appear. The disappearance of r omantic fervor doesn’t
necessarily spell the end of a wonderful relationship, e xcept
to the ego. The Spirit can see the seeds of r ebirth in any
patter n of decline. A Course in Miracles  says it is ‘not our job to seek for
love, but to seek for all the bar riers we hold against its
coming. ’ Thinking that ther e is some special person out
there who is going to save us is a bar rier to pur e love. It is a
large gun in the ego’s arsenal. It is a way the ego tries to
keep us away fr om love, although it doesn’t want us to see
that. W e seek desperately for love, but it is that same
desperation that leads us to destr oy it once it gets her e. Thinking that one special person is going to save us tempts
us to load an awful lot of emotional pr essur e on whoever
comes along that we think might ﬁt the bill. We don’t have to r emind God that we’d lik e wonderful
relationships. He’s al


 or
wish that things were dif ferent, the window of opportunity does not open
up, and you rem ain trapped inside that situation, which will remain the
same or deteriorate further. W ith the acknowledgment and  acceptance of the facts also comes a
degree o f freedom from them. For example, when you know  there is
disharmony and you hold that “knowing,” through your knowing a new
factor has come in, and the dish armony cannot remain unchange d. When
you know  you are n ot at peace, your knowing creates a still space that
surrounds your nonpeace in a  loving and tender embrace and then
transmutes your  nonpeace into peace. As far as inner transform ation is
concerned, there is nothing you can do  a bout it. Y ou c annot transform
yourself, and you certainly can not transform your partner or anybody
else. All  you can  do is create a space for transformation to happen, for
grace and love to enter. So whenever your relationship i s not working, whenever it bring s out the
“madness” in you and in your p artner, be glad. What was uncon scious is
being brought up to the light. It is an opportunity for salvation. Every
moment, hold the knowing of that moment, particularly of your inner
state. If  there is anger, know  that there is anger. If there is jealousy,
defensiveness, the ur ge to ar gue, the need to be right, an inner child
demanding love and attention, or emotional pain of any kind — whatever
it is, know  the  reality of that moment and hold the knowing. The
relationship then becomes your sadhana, y our spiritual practice. If you
observe unconscious behavior in your partner, hold it in the loving
embrace of your knowing so tha t you won’ t react. Unconsciousness and
knowing cannot coexist for long — even if the knowing is only in the
other pe rson and  not in the one who is acting out the unconsc iousness. The ener gy form that lies behind hostility and attack finds the presence
of love absolutely intolerable. If you react at all to your partner ’ s
unconsciousness, you become unconscious yourself. But if you then
remember to know  your reaction, nothing is lost. Humanity is under great pressur e to evolve because it is our onl y chance
of surviv al as a race. This will a f fect every aspect of your life and close
relationships in particular. Never before have relationships been as
problematic and  conflict ridden as they are now. As you may have
noticed, they are not here to make you happy or fulfilled. If you  continue
to pursu e the goal of salvation through a relationship, you  will be
disillusioned ag ain and again. B ut if you accept that the relationship is
here to make you conscious  instead of happy, then the relationship will
of fer you salvation, and you w ill be aligning yourself with the higher
consciousness th at wants to be born into this world. For those w ho hold
on to the old pa tterns, there will be increasing pain, violence, c onfusion,
and madness. I su ppose that it takes two to  make a r elationship into a spiritual
practice, as you suggest. For example, my partner is still acting out his
old patterns of jealousy and contr ol. I have pointed this out many times,
but he is unable to see it. How ma ny people does it take to make your life into a spiritual practice? Never m ind if your partner will  not cooperate. Sanity — consciousness
— can only come into this world through you. Y ou do not need to wait
for the world to become sane, or for somebody else to become conscious,
before y ou can be enlightened. Y ou may wait forever. Do not accuse
each oth er of being unconscious. The moment you start to ar gue, you
have ide ntified with a mental p osition and are now defending not only
that position but also your sense of self. The ego is in char ge. Y ou have
become unconscious. At times, it may be appropriate to point out certain
aspects of your partner ’ s behavior. If you are very alert, very present,
you can do so without ego involvement — without blaming, accusing, or
making the other wrong. When y our partner behaves unconsciously, relinquish all j udgment. Judgment is either to confuse so meone’ s unconscious behavior with who
they are or to project your own u nconsciousness onto another pe rson and
mistake that  for who they are. T o relinquish judgment does not mean that
you do not reco gnize dysfunctio n and unconsciousness when you see it. It m eans “being the knowing” rather than “being the reaction”  and the
judge. Y ou will then either be totally free of reaction or you m ay react
and still  be the knowing, the space in which the reaction is wat ched and
allowed to be. Instead of fighting the darkness, you bring in the light. Instead of reacting to delusion, you see the delusion yet at the same time
look through it. Being the kn owing creates a clear space o f loving
presence that allows all things and all people to be as they  are. No
greater catalyst for transformation exists. If you practice th is, your
partner cannot stay with you and  remain unconscious. If you both agree that the relationship will be your spiritual practice, so
much th e better. Y ou can then express your thoughts and feeling s to each
other as soon as they occur, or as soon as a reaction comes up, so that
you do not create a time gap in which an unexpressed or
unacknowledged emotion or gr ievance can fester and grow. Learn to
give expression to what you feel without blaming. Learn to listen to your
partner in an o pen, nondefensive way. Give your partner space for
expressing himself or herself. Be present. Accusing, defending, attacking
— all those patterns that are des igned to strengthen or protect the ego or
to ge t its  needs met will then be come redundant. Giving space to others
— and to yourself — is vital. Love  cannot flourish without it. Whe n youhave removed the two factors that are destructive to relationships —
when the pain-body has been  transmuted and you are n o longer
identified with mind and ment al positions — and if your partner has
done th e same, you will experience the bliss of the flowering of
relationship. Instead of mirror ing to each other your pain and your
unconsciousness, instead of satisfying your mutual addictive ego needs,
you will reflect back to each other the love that you feel deep within, the
love that comes with the realization of your oneness with all that is. This
is the love that has no opposite. If your partner is still identified with the mind and the pain-body while
you are already free, this will re present a major challenge — not to you
but to your part ner. It is not easy to live with an enlightened p erson, or
rather it is so  easy that the ego finds it extrem ely threatening. Remember
that the ego nee ds problems, conflict, and “enemies” to strengthen the
sense of separateness on which its identity depends. The unenlightened
partner ’ s mind will be deeply f rustrated because its fixed positions are
not resisted, which means they will become shaky and weak, and there is
even the “danger” that they may  collapse altogether, resulting in loss of
self. The pain-body is demanding feedback and not getting it. The need
for a r gument, drama, and conflict is not being met. But beware: Some
people w ho are unresponsive, withdrawn, insensitive, or cut of f from
their feelings may think and try to convince others that they are
enlightened, or at least that th ere is “nothing wrong” with them and
everything wrong with their partner. Men tend to do that more than
women. They may see their female partners as irrational or emotional. But if you can feel your emotions, you are not far from the radiant inner
body just underneath. If you are mainly in your head, the distance is
much greater, and you need to bring consciousness into the emotional
body before you can reach the inner body. If th ere isn’ t an emanation of  love and joy, complete prese nce and
openness toward all beings, then it is not enlightenment. Another
indicator is how a person behaves in dif ficult or challenging situations or
when things “go wrong.” If your “enlightenment” is egoic self-delusion,
then life will s oon give you a challenge that will bring out your
unconsciousness in whatever form — as fear, anger, defensiveness,
judgment, depre ssion, and so o n. If you are in a relationship, many of
your challenges will come throu gh your partner. For example, a womanmay be challeng ed by an unres ponsive male partner who lives almost
entirely in his head. She will be challenged by his inability to hear  her, to
give her attention and space to be, which is due to his lack of presence. The abse nce of love in the relati onship, which is usually more ke enly felt
by a woman than a man, will trigger the


flows into the bloodstream. Intrahepatic biliary obstruction may come from viral hepatitis, cirrhosis, or
chlorpromazine reaction. Extrahepatic obstruction may come from
gallstones, gallbladder cancer, pancreatic cancer, or bile duct disease. THE SERUM  GAMMA -GLUT AMYL  TRANSPEPTIDASE  (GGT) L ABORA TORY
TEST
The laboratory test for serum gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) is a
measurement of obstructive jaundice in neoplastic liver disease, and it’s
also useful for the detection of excessive alcohol consumption. The GGT
enzyme is sensitive to drug use and detects alcohol ingestion; therefore, it’s
used to determine compliance with alcoholism treatment. It also helps in the
diagnosis of obstructive jaundice and liver cancer. The normal range for GGT varies with age in males but not in females. For men ages 18 to 50 it varies between 10 and 39 U/L. Older than that,
males show a GGT range from 10 to 48 U/L. The normal range in women is
6 to 29 U/L. Elevation signals a cholestatic liver process. Note: The immune-stimulating effect of the Gerson Therapy frequently
causes a rise in GGT blood levels. THE ACID PHOSPHA TASE LABORA TORY TEST
The laboratory test for acid phosphatase is a measurement of the prostatic
and erythrocytic  isoenzymes to detect cancer. Active at a pH of 5, the twophosphatase enzymes appear in the liver, spleen, red blood cells, bone
marrow, platelets, and prostate gland. Successful treatment for prostate cancer decreases acid phosphatase
levels. Its normal values range from 0 to 1. 1 Bodansky units/mL; 1 to 4
King Armstrong  units/mL; 0. 13 to 0. 63 Bessey-Lowery-Broc k units/mL;
and 0 to 6 U/L in S1 units. Normal range of radioimmunoassay results is 0
to 4. 0 ng/mL. An elevated prostatic acid phosphatase test indicates Paget’ s disease,
Gaucher ’s disea se, multiple myeloma, and a tumor that has spread beyond
the prostatic capsule. If metast asized to bone, the high acid phosphatase
level accompanied by a high alkaline phosphatase shows increased
osteoblastic activity—metastatic bone cancer. THE ALKALINE  PHOSPHA TASE (AP) L ABORA TORY TEST
An enzyme that is most active  at pH 9. 0, alkaline phosphat ase (AP)
influences bone  calcification and the transport of lipids and metabolites. The alkaline phosphatase laboratory test measures combined activities of
those AP isoenzymes found in the liver, bones, kidneys, intestinal lining,
and placenta. Bone and liver AP are always present in adult blood serum,
with liver AP most prominent—except during the third trimester of
pregnancy when the placenta originates half of all AP
The AP laboratory test is particu larly sensitive to mild biliary obstruction
and indicates liver lesions. Its most specific clinical application is in the
diagnosis of metabolic bone disease and detecting skeletal diseases
characterized by osteoblastic activity and local liver lesions causing biliary
obstruction such as tumor or abscess. It furnishes supplemental information
for liver function studies and GI enzyme tests, and it assesses the response
to vitamin D treatment in rickets. The normal range of serum alkaline phosphatase varies in accordance
with the laboratory method employed, but the usual total AP levels range
from 30 to 120 U/L in adults and from 40 to 200 U/L in children. Since AP
concentrations rise during active bone formation and growth, infants,
children, and adolescents normally show levels three times higher than
adults. Additional normal range s for AP are 1. 5 to 4 Bodansky  units/dL; 4to 13. 5 King-Armstrong units/d L; 0.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>
Q: What is the purpose of a clay poultice?,
A: A soft composition powder mixed with water, applied as a mud pack to an inflamed body part to absorb toxins and aid in detoxification.
Q: What is the normal range for serum calcium levels in children?,
A: The text does not provide specific information on normal calcium levels for children, but it does mention that the Gerson Therapy typically lowers calcium levels.
Q: What is the normal range for total serum cholesterol?,
A: The text does not provide a specific normal range for total serum cholesterol.
Q: What is the purpose of the serum potassium test?,
A: The test is used to regulate homeostasis, osmotic pressure, and neuromuscular function, and to diagnose various diseases.
Q: What is the purpose of the routine urinalysis test?,
A: The test provides information about the internal workings of a person's body and is used to diagnose various diseases.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>By the end of April 1980, the patient traveled to the Gerson hospital once
again for his first six-month checkup. (In all, after November 1979, he
returned to that hospital for semiannual examinations twelve times.) His
cancer markers and blood tests showed a near -normal physiology so that the
Gerson diet was modified by Dr. Arturo Ortuna, who after eight weeks had
included yogurt, rye bread, raw skimmed milk, infrequent meals of fish,
chicken, and a few other items  heretofore forbidden. Senor Lechuga was
feeling better and better, and his mental outlook became optimistic. He told
stories, joked, sang, and became a joy to everyone around him. Having reported  his progress to Charlotte Gerson during the weekend of
October 17 and 18, 1981, he accepted her invitation to participate as aspeaker in San Diego at a “Gerson Survivors’ Conference.” In June 1985,
Dr. Arturo Ortuno traveled with Senior Lechuga to a San Diego diagnostic
center for him to under go a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI ) to confirm
that after five years his cancer had completely cleared. It had! Receiving the
affirmative MRI report, Dr. A. Ortuno declared his patient officially cured
of cancer and asked him to return to the Gerson Hospital in one year for
another checkup. Then the doctor suggested that he go back to the very
restrictive Gerson Therapy for just one month more as a kind of “insurance”
toward his cure. This Senor Lech uga agreed to do along with promising that
he would report results of his following the difficult lifestyle for a final
month that’ s demanded by the therapy. When the patient telephoned Dr. Arturo Ortuno that single month later to
report on the experience, he learned that his forty-year -old physician had
just died and was being buried. While Dr. A. Ortuno had been playing hard
at racquetball with Dr. Victor Ortuno the day before, he suffered a massive
heart attack. He succumbed in his cousin’ s arms. Shocked by the terrible news, Senor Lechuga never returned to Tijuana. Also, he markedly reduced his adherence to the Gerson Therapy. Although
he continued to consume a sensible diet, his juice intake fell to about four
glasses daily. During the fourteen years following, Jesus and Dolores
Lechuga lived the good life. They traveled extensively to Hawaii, Canada,
Washington State, New York City, and other places. They flew, cruised,
drove, took train trips, and went places all over North America. Then, from July 25 to August 5, 1999, he enjoyed a cruise to Alaska to
walk on glaciers, hike mountain  trails, and eat the multiple massive meals
served aboard ship. During this Alaskan excursion, the patient felt back
pain just below  the right shoul der blade. Upon his return home, he was
treated in Durango by two medical doctors for a “contracted and knotted
muscle” until the lack of relief caused them to request a biopsy. The
surgeon who did the biopsy in Durango, J. Roberto Salas Gracia, M.D.,
reported that this muscle “knot” actually was a tumor. It was diagnosed as a
malignant pleomorphic fibrotic hystiocytoma in the soft tissue of the right
shoulder blade. Because of insufficient viable tissue surrounding the tumor
unable to be biopsied, it remains undetermined as to whether Senior
Lechuga’ s cancer is a malignant schwannoma.Jesus Lechuga V aldez
The malignant schwannoma  is a sarcoma, one of the slow-growing
tumors that deve lop in soft tissue surrounding the nerve sheaths of smooth
muscles. Some 75 percent of such sarcomas are called leiomyosar comas. Receiving this diagnosis of malignancy in mid-October 1999, Senor and
Senora Lechuga and their daughter Geor gina Potter immediately made
arrangements to admit him as a patient at the Gerson Therapy facility in
Tijuana. On October 25, 1999, he became a resident of the Oasis of Hope
Hospital. The attending clinician there, Jaime A. Martinez


 fell asleep to who you are too. Yet
the bigger problem is what happens now. Someone else having fallen asleep
to who they are, and to who you are, the temptation is for you to fall asleep
too. Your mission—and your miracle—is to remain awake. You can extend your perception beyond the realm of someone’ s
mistaken, lovele ss behavior, and choose instead to see their innocence. You
can be willing to remember what in your heart you know: that they are an
innocent child of God, just like you, and their behavior doesn’ t have to be
perceived as an attack. It is mere ly a bad dream, and you don’t have to enter
into it. Their behavior can be seen differently; what is not love can be seen
as a call for love. That does not mean the other person isn’t to be held accoun table. It
doesn’ t mean there isn’t a conversation to be had. It doesn’ t mean you’re to
surrender to unhealthy patterns of behavior related to them. Forgiveness
simply means you are lifted to a higher mental vibration, from which—and
only from which —you will be able to express your yes, and express your
no, from  a place that is nonreactive and responsible. And, by remaining
awake, you will help awaken the other person too. We are heir to the laws of the world with which we identify. If I choose
to perce ive your guilt as real, then the effects of it will be real for me. Forgiveness frees us from those effects. If I’m willing to see past your guilt
to the innocence beyond, I am freed from the effects of it. In freeing
someone else, we free ourselves. Recognizing that in an ultimat e sense only
love is real, only love then has an ef fect on us. Forgiveness then resets the trajectory of a relationship. It pierces the veil
and delivers us to oneness. It is the miracle that sets us free. It’s at this point that people might start telling you you’re in denial. “No,” they’ll say, “it did happen. And you have every right to be
angry. ”
Of course you have a right to be angry; you have a right to feel
whatever you feel. But no, you don’t need  to be angry. What you need to be
is aware. Following the mystic Jesus doesn’ t make you any less psychologically
astute. Nothing could be more psychologically sophisticated than to
recognize how to navigate the deepest regions of the mind. And that’s what
spirit is: the deepest region of the mind. Choosing to extend your perception beyond someone’ s guilt isn’t
negative denial; it’s positive  denial. You’re not denying that something
happened, you’r e simply denying its power over you. You’re not looking
away from something; you’re looking through it, and past it. You’re
extending your perception into the light that will dissolve the effects of
darkness. Many people these days are aware of the concept of the “spiritual
bypass,” the idea that we’re pouring pink paint over an issue and simply
pretending it doesn’ t exist. That means we skip the important step of
owning our pain. That would indeed be negative denial. But that’s not what we’re talking about here. In fact, if anythin g we’re
talking about becoming even more attuned to our feelings—feelings such as
anger, shame, humiliation, embarrassment, rejection, and self-hatred. We’re
just not kidding ourselves that by analyzing them we’ll necessarily dissolve
the feelings, or that we have the power to simply tell those things to go
away. Rather, we bring them up in order to surrender them. Spiritual detox
works much like a physical detox; things must come up in order to be
released. Jesus cannot take from  us what we won’ t release to him. We say,
“This is how I’m feeling, but I am willing to see this differentl y. ” That’ s a
more powerful way of shifting our emotions than simply telling them to go
away. And it’s when the miracle happe ns: not just when we “let go,” but when
we release something into the hands of God. We’re willing to see the love
that lies beyond the pain, whether it was love we weren’ t show n or simply
love we didn’ t know how to receive. The altar to God is in our minds, and
to put something on the altar means to put our thoughts about it on the altar. What we put on the altar is then altered. We’re willing to see something
differently. We’re willing for our thoughts to be lifted. And when they are,
we at last find peace. OceanofPDF. comThe Destination of Enlightenment
Imagine if, from the moment you were born, everyone who had ever met
you and everything that had ever happened to you had been ten on a scale
of one to ten in terms of compassion, mercy, and love. Think who you
would be today if that had been your experience. Now think who you are inste ad. Think of the places where your
emotional reacti ons are constricted by fear, where you lack trust or self-
confidence or a positive outlook. These are places not where you’re bad, but
where you’re wounded. Yet our wounds do not necessarily look like
wounds to other people; they’re more likely to appear as character defects
that only set us up for further pain. All of us have character defects, of course. But salvation lies in our
willingness to change the way we are, not in the endless analysis about why
we are the way we are. At a certain point, you don’t keep trying to
understand why you’re needy, negative, controlling, or manipulative. You
simply realize you are, admit you are, and ask God to change you. Dear God,
I know I am harsh wher e I would be gentle, weak wher e I should be str ong, judgmental wher e
I should be mer ciful. I am willing to change. Please show me how. Amen
Scan your perso nality as though you are looking at yourself from above. See how you manifest to the world, and ask yourself honestly how you
come across to others. Reflect on the fact that the life you’re  living is a
result of the person you’ve become. Who we are in the world is based on moment-by-moment decisions. Every moment we decide, consciously or unconsciously, whether to face
life with an open or closed heart. Whether to embrace the innocence inothers and express lovingly, or to constrict in defensiveness, judgment, and
unprocessed pain. Fake it till you make it means practice till it’s real. And
what we find when we do something like that is that doing something
makes  it real. I have a friend named Kathy who comes from Geor gia, and she has a
way of addressin g almost all her friends as “My love. ” One day I decided to
do that too, and it was amazing the changes I felt as I did. Coming from
Texas, I was already big on calling people “Darling”—sort of longish for
the “Darlin’” I had grown up around—but “My love” took things to another
place. I don’t know if I’ve kept it up, but I know I felt a shift when I did it. It’s hard to snap at someone when you’re calling them “My love. ”
Words are not just an expressio n of thought; they also create thought. And every thought we think takes us, and those around us, straight to
heaven or straight to hell. Accor ding to A Course in Miracles, heaven isn’t a
condition or a place, but an awareness of our oneness. And hell is the state
of anxiety that results when we feel separate from others. Neither happen
after we die; they happen in any moment. Every thought takes us in some
way closer to the awareness of our oneness or to the anxiety of feeling
separate and alone. Again, this isn’t about what we get from others. We only
get what we choose to give away. Deciding who we choose to be in any moment is more import ant than
any other decision, because it determines all others and influences all
others. If I think of myself as a victim, I will behave as a victim and come
across as a victim. If I think of myself as less than, I will behave in ways
that are less than and I will appear that way to others. If I judge others, I
will behave in ways that of fend them and thus keep love at bay. Yet all these deadly games begin to grow old after a while, not only to
us but to those around us. I can think of few more cringe-filled experiences
than looking around and realizing that people find you pathetic—or worse. This might be the moment when you realize that your way isn’t
working. When you grow sick and tired of being sick and tired. That’ s often
when people fall to their knees, looking for an escape from their habitual
patterns of self-sabotage and pain. Such a moment,  of course, is not a eureka experience that autom atically
changes everything. Simply knowing that we need to change doesn’ t
necessarily mean we know how to. Often our emotional muscles have
congealed around mental habits that formed so long ago we can’t evenremember their source. They then burrowed


 on for the removal of gall-stone s in a
hospital in England. The condition described was based on the
diagnosis of hospital tests and the usual X-ray pro-cedures. She asked
me to pray for her. We were separated geographically about  6,500
miles, but there is no time or space in the mind principle. Infinite mind
or intelligence is present in its entirety at every point simulta neously. I
withdrew all thought from the contemplation of symptoms and from
the corporeal personality altogether. I affirmed as follows : “This
prayer is for my sister Catherine. She is relaxed and at p eace, poised,
balanced, serene, and calm. The healing intelligence of her sub -
conscious mind, which created her body, is now transforming every
cell, nerve, tissue, muscle, and bone of her being according to t he
perfect pattern of all organs lodged in her subconscious mind. Silently,
quietly, all distorted thought patterns in her sub-conscious mind ar e
removed and dissolved, and the vitality, wholeness, and beauty of th e
life principle are made manifest in every atom of her being. She is
now open and receptive to the healing currents, which are flowing
through her like a river, restoring her to perfect health, harm ony, and
peace. All dis-tortions and ugly images are now washed away b y the
infinite ocean of love and peace flowing through her, and it is so. ”
I affirmed the above several times a day, and at the end of  two
weeks my sister had an examination, which showed a re-markabl e
healing, and the X ray, proved negative. To affirm is to state that it is so, and as you maintain this attitude of
mind as true, regardless of all evidence to the con-trary, you will
receive an answer to your prayer. Your thought can only affirm, for
 81  even if you deny something, you are actually affirming the presence of
what you deny. Repeating an affirma-tion, knowing what you are saying and why
you are saying it, leads the mind to that state of consciousness where it
accepts that which you state as true. Keep on affirming t he truths of
life until you get the subconscious reaction, which satisfies. • The argumentative method
This method is just what the word implies. It stems from the
procedure of Dr. Phineas Parkhurst Quimby of Maine. Dr. Quimby, a
pioneer in mental and spiritual healing, lived and practiced in B elfast,
Maine, about one hundred years ago. A book called The Quimby
Manuscripts, published in 1921 by Thomas Y. Crowell Company,
New York City, and edited by Horatio Dresser, is available i n your
library. This book gives newspaper accounts of this man’s remarkable
results in prayer treatment of the sick. Quimby duplicated many of the healing miracles recorded in the
Bible. In brief, the argumentative method employed according  to
Quimby consists of spiritual reasoning where you convince the patie nt
and yourself that his sickness is due to his false belief, ground less
fears, and negative patterns lodged in his subconscious mind. You
reason it out clearly in your mind and convince your patient tha t the
disease or ailment is due only to a distorted, twisted patte rn of
thought, which has taken form in his body. This wrong belief in some
external power and external causes has now externalized itself  as
sickness, and can be changed by changing the thought patterns. You explain to the sick person that the basis of all heali ng is a
change of belief. You also point out that the subconscious mind
created the body and all its organs; therefore, it knows how t o heal it,
can heal it, and is doing so now as you speak. You argue in the
courtroom of your mind that the disease is a shadow of the mind based
on disease-soaked, morbid thought-imagery. You continue to build up all the evidence you can muster on behal f
of the healing power within, which created all the organs in the  first
 82  place, and which has a perfect pattern of every cell, nerve, and tissue
within it. Then, you render a verdict in the courthouse of your mind i n
favor of yourself or your patient. You liberate the sick one by faith
and spiritual understanding. Your mental and spiritual evidence is
overwhelming; they’re being but one mind, what you feel as true w ill
be resurrected in the experience of the patient. This pro cedure is
essentially the argumentative method used by Dr. Quimby of Main e
from 1849 to 1869. • The absolute method is like modern sound wave therapy
Many people throughout the world practice this form of prayer
treatment with wonderful results. The person using the absolute
method mentions the name of the patient, such as John Jones, then
quietly and silently thinks of God and His qualities and attrib utes,
such as, God is all bliss, boundless love, infinite intelligence, all-
powerful, boundless wisdom, absolute harmony, indescribable beauty,
and perfection. As he quietly thinks along these lines he is li fted up in
consciousness into a new spiritual wave length, at which times he
feels the infinite ocean of God’s love is now dissolving ever ything
unlike itself in the mind and body of John Jones for whom he is
praying. He feels all the power and love of God are now focused o n
John Jones, and whatever is bothering or vexing him is now
completely neutralized in the presence of the infinite ocean of life and
love. The absolute method of prayer might be likened to the sound wave
or sonic therapy recently shown me by a distin-guished physic ian in
Los Angeles. He has an ultra sound wave machine, which oscillate s at
a tremendous speed and sends sound waves to any area of the body to
which it is directed. These sound waves can be controlled, and he  told
me of achieving re-markable results in dissolving arthr itic calcareous
deposits, as well as the healing and removal of other disturbing
conditions. To the degree that we rise in consciousness by contemplat-ing
qualities and attributes of God, do we generate spiritual electronic
 83  waves of harmony, health, and peace. Many remark-able healings
follow this technique of prayer. •A cripple walks
Dr. Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, of whom we spoke previ-ously in
this
chapter, used the absolute method in the latter years of his h ealing
career. He was really the father of psychosomatic medici ne and the
first psychoanalyst. He had the capacity to diagnose clairv oyantly the
cause of the patient’s trouble, pains, and aches. The following is a condensed account of the healing of a cripple as
recorded in Quimby’s Manuscripts:
Quimby was called on to visit a woman who was lame, aged, and
bedridden. He states that her ailment was due to the fact tha t she was
imprisoned by a creed so small and contracted that she could not stand
upright and move about. She was living in the tomb of fear and
ignorance; furthermore, she was taking the Bible literally, and it
frightened her. “In this tomb,” Quimby said, “was the presence and
power of God trying to burst the bands, break through the bonds, a nd
rise from the dead. ” When she would ask others for an explanation o f
some passage of the Bible, the answer would be a stone; then she
would hunger for the bread of life.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>
Q: What is the key to making your prayers effective?,
A: The key is to quiet your mind, and your thoughts of health, vitality, and perfection operating through the one universal subjective mind will be felt and resurrected in the mind of your loved one.
Q: What is the visualization technique used by the author?,
A: The author does not explicitly describe a visualization technique in the passage, but the text mentions the importance of quieting the mind and focusing on the desired outcome. The passage does, however, mention the example of a girl who declared "It is passing away now" to cure her cough and throat pain.
Q: What is the Baudoin technique?,
A: The Baudoin technique involves entering a sleepy, drowsy state and repeating a phrase to yourself, such as "Thank you, Father" or "It is finished in Divine Order."
Q: What is the decree method?,
A: The decree method involves affirming a statement as true, regardless of evidence to the contrary, and feeling the reality of the desired outcome.
Q: What is the key to using your subconscious mind to achieve wealth?,
A: The key is to convince your subconscious mind that you are already wealthy and deserving of abundance, and to focus on the feeling of wealth and abundance.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>• A common stumbling block to wealth
There is one emotion, which is the cause of the lack of wealt h in the
lives of many. Most people learn this the hard way. It is  envy. For
example, if you see a competitor depositing large sums of m oney in
the bank, and you have only a meager amount to deposit, does it make
you en


no more than three) boiled, scrambled, poached, any way you like except fried. Oil is not necessary for scrambling. Keep the heat low and tumble them continuously with a spatula to keep from
browning. Your choice of any FRESH meat, poultry, or seafood. Not cured meat or sausage or imitation meat. Try
some pork chops, or other cuts of fresh pork or beef cut thin so they will cook fast. Don't let them
brown, see cooking section page 35-38. STARCH COURSE
Potatoes, cooked any way you like except fried or browned. Can be quickly cooked if sliced, even
quicker and better if parboiled previously. See be low and pages 35-38. Eaten with butter and salt,
potatoes are a treat. BEVERAGE
Try not to drink much fluid with meals, not even s oup. Have your beverage earlier or later. See below. LUNCH OR DINNER MENU
MEAT COURSE:
Your choice of any FRESH meat, poultry, or seafood, cooked any way you like as long as it is not
ground up, fried, or browned. Vapor  cooking per pages 35-38 is the best and easiest. Pork chops, steak,
stew meat, small roasts, chicken, veal, turkey, fish, shrimp, oysters, crabs, clams. No imitation meat, no
cured meat, no ham, no bacon, no sausage. VEGETABLES:
Your choice of at least two or more vegetables, at least one being a green or leafy kind like turnip
greens, cabbage, broccoli, spinach, etc. Either cooked or raw. Potatoes, any kind, cooked any way but fried. If you vapor cook, you can fix all of this in th e same bowl. Try cauliflower, zucchini, celery, etc. SALAD:
Your choice of the usual salad items such as lettu ce, red leaf lettuce, raw carrots, celery, tomato,
cabbage, red cabbage, avocado, melon. Go slow on such things as green peppers and onions, unless
you have a strong stomach. If desired, season with salt and pepper, vinegar, and virgin olive oil. Caution: Don't fine-chop, shred or grate. Red leaf lettuce is more digestible than white, if you have a
weak stomach. DESSERT:
Your choice of fruit, raw carrots, celery sticks, etc. Fruit salad with apple, celery, grapes, carrots,
raisins, melon, etc. is very good if freshly ma de. Less good for you, but permissible are occasional
small servings of ice cream, jam, jelly, custard, pie filling with no crust, etc. (No lemon or lime) If you
are diabetic, if you have sores or rash that don't heal, stay away from sweets containing manufactured sugar. BEVERAGE:
Try not to drink much fluid with meals, not even s oup.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>
Q: What is the recommended diet for obtaining healthy, high-quality food?,
A: The recommended diet is to eat fresh, whole foods, avoiding processed and preserved foods. This includes a focus on grass-fed livestock and organic produce.
Q: What are some important guidelines for cooking and food preparation?,
A: The text advises against overcooking, browning, and frying, and recommends vapor cooking and steaming instead. It also emphasizes the importance of not diluting digestive juices with fluid during meals.
Q: What are some potential causes of cancer?,
A: The text mentions that burned, smoked, or heat-browned materials can cause cancer, and that some people may be allergic to certain foods.
Q: What is the recommended beverage choice?,
A: The text advises against drinking fluids during meals and recommends drinking water or other beverages at other times of the day. It also warns against the consumption of excessive sugar and recommends avoiding processed foods.
Q: What is the recommended approach to food preparation and storage?,
A: The text advises against grinding, chopping, and mixing foods, and recommends instead eating whole, fresh foods. It also suggests that people should not store food for extended periods and should prioritize freshness and quality.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>Since
such broad-scale public benefits will re quire greater support than can be obtained
through booklet sales alone, we have now deci ded to ask for contributions. Those who
contribute will be notified by letter as soon as the complete findings are published. Magnolia Laboratory is the only self-supported independent lab in the world doing
experimental feeding trials on choked arte ries. We are finding and teaching the real
truth in the best interest of the people them selves, free of any selfish influence or bias
from the drug and food industries, professiona l groups, and other vested interests who
are making a profit out of the people's fear and misery. Finding the better way, the
self-help way to a happier and more productive life for everyone, is what Magnolia
Laboratory is for. By your contribution you can work to help light a bright path
through the darkness of this awful mystery, so that in years to come perhaps you and yours may eat almost anything you please without suffering the consequences. Every
dollar counts. You can make a difference, you can make it happen sooner. Chip in
now and help us find the way for you to have a better life.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        Since
such broad-scale public benefits will re quire greater support than can be obtained
through booklet sales alone, we have now deci ded to ask for contributions. Those who
contribute will be notified by letter as soon as the complete findings are published. Magnolia Laboratory is the only self-supported independent lab in the world doing
experimental feeding trials on choked arte ries. We are finding and teaching the real
truth in the best interest of the people them selves, free of any selfish influence or bias
from the drug and food industries, professiona l groups, and other vested interests who
are making a profit out of the people's fear and misery. Finding the better way, the
self-help way to a happier and more productive life for everyone, is what Magnolia
Laboratory is for. By your contribution you can work to help light a bright path
through the darkness of this awful mystery, so that in years to come perhaps you and yours may eat almost anything you please without suffering the consequences. Every
dollar counts. You can make a difference, you can make it happen sooner. Chip in
now and help us find the way for you to have a better life. Section summary:

Please provide an accurate concise summarization (about 100 words) highlighting key points about contributing financially towards experimental research at
Magnolia Labo
rator y. Key highlights should include:
    - The importance o f financial s upport beyond bookle t sale revenue;
   • Public benefit expectations from contributed funds;
• Independent nature & unbiased approach taken b
y M agnoli     laboratory;

Note : Avoid repeating similar phrases/words unnecessarily throughout the translation. Focus primarily on conveying essential ideas while keeping clarity intact

Here’s my attempt based off our understanding:

To address its large scope goals requiring additional resources,
the authors request monetary assistance aside from income generated through their publications’ sales. Supporters would receive updates upon publication completion via mail notification. The unique aspect lies within being completely supported independently with no external influences driving results,

aiming solely toward benefiting society rather then corporate gains

By joining forces with donations every penny contributes directly improving lives potentially allowing individuals access unrestricted diets. Let me know if I got everything right. If there were areas where improvements could made, kindly suggest changes. Thankyou. Edit: Here was another version after incorporating some suggestions provided earlier :

Given limited funding capacity due to reliance mainlyon publishing revenues, contributors seek supplementary backingto achieve broader objectives effectively. Subscribers shall promptly notify recipients once full report dissemination has concludedvia postal correspondence. As sole globally-independent entity conducting systematic testing regarding choke-affected entities,it takes pridein maintaining objectivity sans commercial biases influencing outcomesfor collective well-being over personal profits. Fundamental change envisioned – enabling unhampered dietary optionsfree-from adverse reactions

Your thoughts. Should i try something else. (Kindly let m eknow which one do yo u prefer)

Best regards. It seems like both versions captured most aspects correctly but might need slight adjustments before finalizing. What does your feedback look liker. Any recommendations. I'll take note and revise accordingly. =====

Final Edit:

After taking into account previous input, here''

s revised effort focused specifically enhancing readability/clarity while reducing repetition :

Since relying heavily on bookstore proceeds won't suffice, sponsors must contribute extra finances. to reach ambitious targets efficiently. Subscribing donorswill get exclusive notifications when comprehensive reports become availableby post. To remain impartial despite worldwide independence,Magnolian conducts experiments freely removed industry pressuresand serves humanity insteadof serving private gain. The ultimate goal involves freeing consumers from diet restrictions imposed because they’re not informed enoughor worse yet,fear-driven choices. Donor participation helps accelerate progress. Feedback welcome

This latest edit incorporates minor tweaks.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>
Q: Why is Magnolia Laboratory asking for contributions?,
A: To support their research and findings, as booklet sales alone are not sufficient to cover the costs.
Q: What is Magnolia Laboratory's goal in conducting experimental feeding trials?,
A: To find the truth and provide self-help solutions for a happier and more productive life, free from bias and influence from other vested interests.
Q: Who is Magnolia Laboratory independent from?,
A: The drug and food industries, professional groups, and other organizations that profit from people's fear and misery.
Q: What is the purpose of the contributions received by Magnolia


 brain, it has little to say about the
experience of life as a whole, yet that experience impinges
directly on who gets sick and who stays well. Deepak was not the ﬁrst to see these ﬂaws and
omissions, but Quantum Healing  was very bold in becoming
the ﬁrst book to oﬀer a path to new answers. He proposed
that quantum  physics describes an invisible domain from
which mind and body both emerge and unite. Quantum
Healing  struck a nerve by focusing on the most baﬄin g
phenomenon in medicine, spontaneous remission from
cancer. How could the most intractable of diseases, the
object of billion-dollar campaigns to ﬁnd a cure, suddenly
disappear from a patient’s body. Since oncology is a
numbers game, it was easier simply to ignore these
extraordinary cases as anomalies. But if science prides
itself on going wherever  reality leads us, such cases arewell docume nted in medical journals. They force us to
rethink the entire materi alist, reductionist model—Deepak
was willing to go there. Even today, not everyone  is willing. As a neurogeneticist,
I have  been fortunate to study the wondrous interplay of
genes and the brain. All organic processes are coded in our
DNA. Since that includes all brain processes, the mind-
body connection is directly engendered in our genes. The
same is true for healing,  another process that cannot take
place absent genetic activity. However, most geneticists
don’t think in such broad terms; our research studies are
extremely detailed and focused (my specialty is the
neurodegenerative disorder Alzheimer’s disease). The mind
is all too often left out of the equation, and as for quantum,
the word has traditionall y had no bearing on our training,
being the province of physics. Quantum Healing  looked past this long-accepted
compartmentalization, opening up genetics, along with
every other corner of physiology, to quantum thinking. I
didn’t delve into the mind-body connection when I ﬁrst
began my quest to end Alzheimer’s disease, but since it’s a
brain disorder, I discovered common ground with a broad
thinker like Deepak. After getting  excited about how our
interests and passions overlapped, we wrote a book, Super
Brain,  together. The gist of the book, based on solid
neuroscience, is that the brain is plastic, inﬂuenced by
thoughts, feelings, choices, and most important, self-
awareness. We also explored a radical possibility that
Quantum Healing  ﬁrst proposed: What if the mind is
creating the brain at the same time that the brain is
creating the mind. This was a mind-blowin g (or brain-
blowing) idea, because it ﬂew straight past the insistence
that only physical processes matter in the brain
(materialism) and that every answer lies at the level of the
neuron (reductionism). The basic research that was showing how messenger
molecules carry information from the brain to every cell in
the body was new when Quantum Healing  was published. Now our knowledge in this area is extremely sophisticated. The next frontier is the mind-gene connection. Here
Deepak and I have found the most exciting possibilities. We
are actively pursuing the beneﬁcial genetic chan ges that
occur in meditation and other contemplative practices. Long portrayed as spiritual, these are actually mind-body
techniques that speak to every cell and even deeper, to
every gene. The implications are explosive when it comes
to cutting-edge science in preventing or reversin g chronic
disorders, attacking the causes of aging, and ﬁghting
against the subtle imbal ances that lead to inﬂammation,
now the prime suspect in many disorders, including cancer. We are proposing that lifestyle choices, insofar as they
aﬀect a person’s genes, can lead to transformati on at the
level where personal evolution occurs. Genes are not the
ﬁxed, stable, immovable entities I was taught about; they
are ﬂuid and dynamic, and their activities are altered by
every experience, thought, word, and action in a person’s
life. So, why not direct your experience to inﬂuence your
genes in the most positive ways. Ground is being broken in
“self-directed biological transformation” (SDBT), our
phrase for personalized conscious evolution. (And a new
book is emerging from this concept, titled Super Genes,  to
bring SDBT into the practicalities of daily life. ) Quantum Healing  didn’t set out to cure cancer or
Alzheimer’s or any other  intractable disease. It set out to
see the human body, and human existence in general,
through wiser eyes. As a scienti st I’m passionate about
genes and the brain; as a person I’m totally fascinated by
the origins of consciousness. Quantum Healing  galvanized
my intuition that these areas do not have to be separated. They belong together naturally, and once we feel securethat self-awareness is integral to the healthy workings of
the body, it will be integral to existence itself. Beyond that,
the possibilities are inﬁnite. —
Rudolph Tanzi, Ph.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>
Q: Who is the author of the book "Quantum Healing"?,
A: Deepak Chopra, M.D.
Q: What is the main argument of the book "Quantum Healing"?,
A: The book argues that the mind and body are connected, and that the mind can influence the body to heal or become sick.
Q: What is the name of the Indian philosopher who stated that people grow old and die because they see others grow old and die?,
A: Adi Shankara
Q: What is the main point of the book "Quantum Healing"?,
A: The book proposes that the mind and body are not separate entities, but are connected and can be influenced by each other, and that the mind can be used to heal the body.
Q: What is the term used to describe the connection between the mind and body, as proposed in "Quantum Healing"?,
A: Quantum healing<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>He did not even suspect that it was cancerous,
and since he was in his sixties, the lesion was growing
quite slowly. However, as soon as I told him that the lesion
was consistent with a diagnosis of lung cancer, he became
terribly agitated. Within a month he started to cough up
blood; within  three, he was dead. If his state of mind
contributed to this untoward haste, it apparently acted
quickly. This patient could live with his tumor, but he
couldn’t live with the diagnosis. Even more basic is this question: Is the “mind” that a
doctor is interested in the patient’s overall personality, his
subconscious, his attitudes, his deepest beliefs, or
something not yet understood and deﬁned by psychology? It may be that the releva nt aspect of the mind involved in
getting sick or getting well is not even speciﬁcally human. An Ohio University study of heart disease in the 1970s
was conducted by feeding quite toxic, high-cholesterol diets
to rabbits in order to block their arteries, duplic ating the
eﬀect that such a diet has on human arteries. Consistent
results began to appear in all the rabbit groups except for
one, which strangely displayed 60 percent fewer symptoms. Nothing in the rabbits’ physiology could account for their
high tolerance to the diet, until it was discovered by
accident that the studen t who was in charge of feeding
these particular rabbits liked to fondle and pet them. He
would hold each rabbit lovingly for a few minutes before
feeding it; astonishingly, this alone seemed to enable the
animals to overcome the toxic diet. Repeat experiments, in
which one group of rabbi ts was treated neutrally while the
others were loved, came up with similar results. Once
again, the mechanism that causes such immunity is quite
unknown—it is baﬄing to think that evolution has built intothe rabbit mind an immune response that needs to be
triggered by human cuddling. There is even a possibility, many doctors would contend,
that the mind is a ﬁction, medically speaking. When we
think that it is sick, what is really sick is the brain. By this
logic, the classical mental disorders—depression,
schizophrenia, and psychosis—are actually brain disorders. This logic has obvious inadequacies: it is like saying that
car wrecks should be blamed on automobiles. But the
brain, being  a physical organ that can be weig hed and
dissected, makes medicine feel more secure than does the
mind, which has proved impossible to deﬁne after many
centuries of introspection and analysis. Doctors are quite
happy not to be called upon as philosophers. The ability of today’s psychotropic, or mind-inﬂuencing,
drugs to relieve the major symptoms of mental illness, such
as depression, mania, anxiety, and hallucinations, is much
greater than any treatment available in the past. Chemical
psychiatry is likely to vie with its exact opposite, mind-body
medicine, as the medical revolution of our time. It has hard
clinical results to back it up, including numerous
indications that chemical imbalances in the brain are
directly linked to mental illness


 points allow God, the soul, and all other
spiritual experiences back into the picture. The ﬁrst point
demolishes the notion that science is superior to religion
because it gathers facts while religion deals in beliefs. In
truth, science ﬁlters out and discards a huge portion of
human expe rience—almost everything one would classify
as subjective—so its model is just as selective, if not more
so, than religion’s. As far as the brain is concerned, neural
ﬁltering is taking place in all models, whether they are
scientiﬁc, spiritual, artistic, or even distur bed and
psychotic. Seeing little green men is a brain phenomenon
just like seeing green trees. The brain is not a mirror of
reality. There is no way anyon e can claim to know what is
“really” real. You can’t step outside your brain to fathom
what lies beyond it. This limitation is much more severe
than people suppose. The brain operates in time and space. Your thoughts, for example, come one after another, like
boxcars in a train. So whatever is outside time and space is
inconceivable, and unﬁltered reality would probably blow
the brain’s circuits, or simply be blanked out. Yet here is where the Buddhist notion of using a thorn to
remove a thorn comes in, because the mind can look
beyond the brain’s ﬁltering process. Consider this short
poem by W illiam Blake. To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild ﬂower,
Hold inﬁnity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour. This is a perspective that goes beyond everyday
perception. How did Blake arrive at it. His lines resonate
with me—I ﬁnd them quite thrilling—because Blake had
inner vision, which looks beyond the limited mode l that the
brain creates. People who are comple tely adapted to
constricted awareness still ﬁnd themselves confro nted with
glimpses of unbounded awareness. This came home to me
when Michael Shermer, founder of Skeptic  magazine, had
his worldview overturned by a mysterious event. Shermer, with whom I’ve had many debates, fell in love
with a German woman, who moved to the Unite d States
after they agreed to marry. On her wedding day she was
very happy, but with one deep regret. Her grandfather, with
whom she was very close, had died and therefore would
never witness her weddi ng day. The ceremony took place. Shermer and his bride returned home. That night over
dinner, there  was the sound of music coming from the next
room. The newlyweds followed the sound. A broken
transistor radio that belonged to the bride’s grandfather
had suddenl y come to life on its own—it was previouslydead—and it not only played music but classical music, her
grandfather’s favorite. Mystiﬁed and deeply moved, the
couple went to sleep hearing the radio play. The next day
the room was silent, and the radio returned to its previous
unusable state. Shermer published this anecdote on the back page of
Scientiﬁc American,  where he writes a regular column,
always from the skeptic al point of view. It took some
courage for him to admit that an inexplicable event had
shaken his skepticism, but what had happened to him was a
classic example of synchronicity, a meaningful
“coincidence” that is far too unlikely to be random. Predictably, Shermer’s skeptical followers weren’t buying
the story. They told him to take the transistor radio to a
good electronics shop, where he’d ﬁnd a rational
explanation. Just as predictably, these  commenters ignored
the timing of the inciden t, the congruence with what his
bride wanted, and the fact that a radio suddenly turned on
and was tuned to a station playing music her grandfather
loved. As the philosopher Leibniz pointed out, theories are
correct about what they include but wrong about what they
exclude. In this case, the radio is the least of it. The really
important parts are excluded if you stubbornly view the
event through skeptical spectacles. Perhaps not as dramatica lly, we all get glimpses of reality
that defy the limited model residing in our brains. Experiences that go beyond everyday reality are wide-
ranging. Ask yourself if any of the following have occurred
to you. You felt that your awareness extended beyond your body. You felt safe in your own being. You had a sudden insight that came out of nowhere. Your body felt physically light and buoyant. You felt at home in the world. You knew with certainty that you are loved. You felt energy bubbling through your body. You had a random thought, and it materialized. Events came  together perfectly to reach a goal you set
for yourself. You felt intuitively that everything happens for a reason. You felt a connection with a higher intelligence. You experienced the presence of God or the soul. These are moments when reality peeks through the iron
grille. No ﬁlter is ever perfect; no censor can catch every
infraction. When Buddhism speaks of using a thorn to
remove a thorn, nothing is more important than paying
attention to glimpses like these, where expanded
awareness takes over, if only brieﬂy, from constricted
awareness. As esoteric as spirituality can be, to escape
from the brain’s limitations all you need to do is say “yes”
to moments of expanded awareness instead of “no. ” You are
the one who ultimately decides how much reality you want
to expe rience, and every time you say “yes,” you are giving
instructions to your brain. In time, it will adapt to any level
of awareness you want. This point was validated by studies of the brain function
of a group of Tibetan Buddhist monks. They had meditated
for years on the value of compassion (one name for the
Buddha is “the compassi onate one”), and if this value had
grown in their lives, some change should appear  in their
brains. In fact it did. The monks showed increased delta
waves, representing so-called slow-wave sleep. Considered
to be unconscious activity in most people, slow-wave sleep
is associated with remaining self-aware even when you are
in deep sleep. This is a noted attainment in yoga. In
addition, the monks showed unprecedented activ ity in theprefrontal lobes, especially in regions associated with
higher emotions like compassion. As startling as these ﬁndings were, they could have been
predicted once you accept that the brain must follow where
the mind goes. Meditation creates beneﬁcial changes in
brain functions you would never be aware of, because such
things as heart rate and blood pressure don’t register in
our minds as conscio us choices. Saying “yes” to
experiences of expanded awareness is diﬀerent. You make
a conscious choice to favor a range of experiences that
your brain either ignores, shuts down, or censors. I wish in hindsight that I had emphasized how faulty
every model of reality, including the quantum model, must
be. Korzybski held that even mathematics was a model,
subject to the limitation s of all models that the brain
constructs. Not everyon e would agree—holding on to
mathematics as a universal truth gives advanced physics its
toehold on the quantum world. But I am not using any of
these ideas as bludgeons to bash science with. Korzybski
simply pointed out, using the language of science, that
whatever reality is, it transcends the brain. * The Sanskrit literally says, “I am Brahman. ” Brahman is an all-inclusive term
and therefore untranslatable; it signiﬁes all things in creation—physical,
mental, and spiritual—as well as their uncreated source. OceanofPDF. comThere is no more beautiful experience than when the world
expands beyond its accustomed limits. These are the
moments when reality takes on splendor. The Veda calls
such an experience Ananda,  or bliss; it is said to be another
quality inherent in the human mind but covered over by
layers of dulled awareness. Bliss  is an uncomfortable word
in the West; like transcen dence, it needs to be demystiﬁed. Let’s start with a persona l reaction to what bliss feels like. A beautiful ﬁrst-person account is given by physiologist
Robert Keith Wallace. The scene is Nepal, where Wallace
went in 1974, taking a break from a conference being held
in India:
Along with a physicist friend, I made my way up
from Katmandu, the capital, to be nearer the
Himalayas. We found a beautiful alpine lake,
which Nepalese princes once favored as a
summer retreat. For less than a dollar, we rented
a boat and pushed out onto the water. It was a
windy day with clearing skies, a perfect day to ﬂykites. I had bought one at the bazaar, painted a
ﬁerce red and built for acrobatics. I stood up, and
it jump ed out of my hand  as I let it loose on the
wind. The tiny kite ﬂoated up into the high, thin air. I
stood looking


 awareness and accelerate aging. Y ou
accelerate aging because, at a su btle level, every attachment is accompanied
by fear—fear of loss, fear of losing control, fear of losing approval. When
you evoke fear you set into motion the physiology of stress that accelerates
biological aging. Y ou must let go of this fear in order to reverse aging. The incl ination of the mind is to lean toward something that you hope
will brin g pleas ure or away fro m something that you fear will  bring pain. As a  res ult of this tendency, of t his inclination, you are unable t o remain in
the present moment. When y ou find yourself out of t he present moment, ask yourself, “What
is w rong with this moment. ”  Y ou will see that there are only two
possibilities: either you are resisting it or you are just not in it. If you are
resisting it, consciously surrender to the here and now. If you are just not in
it, gently  bring yourself back to the present. Open yourself to the infinite
possibilities that the present moment of fers. Y ou can cultivate present-mome nt awareness through the practice of alert
witnessing—shifting your attention from that which is observed to the silentever -present witness to the observation. In the midst of observation, come
back to the self. Y our observations change on a moment-to-moment basis. If you identify
who you are wi th your observations, your identity has no permanence. It
becomes a moment-to-moment fabrication. When you identi fy yourself
with the objects of your perception, which are in constant flux, you sacrifice
your tru e self for the objects of your self-image. If you identify yourself as
the presi dent of a company, as the owner of a luxury car, as the manager of
an a rtist or mu sician, your sense of self is dependent upon an external
source. This is sometimes kno wn as agency power because your power
derives from attachment to an external agency, be it an or ganization, bank
account, or relationship. The problem with agency power is th at when the
attachment ends, so does the power and your sense of self. The opposite of agency power  is self-power, which comes fr om your
inner connection to Spirit. Underlying all your observations and
experiences in life, underlying all your attachments to people, situations,
and circ umstances, is a domain of ever -present witnessing awareness. This
is your true self; this is your Spirit. In alert witnessing you shift your attention from goal orientation to
process orientation. Y ou become  completely flexible. Y ou are unattached to
outcome. Y ou are comfortable in the realm of uncertainty. When Spirit is
your int ernal ref erence point you neither anticipate nor resist—you simply
allow. When you walk a certain road, you have the intention to reach a
particular desti nation, but if more interesting opportunities present
themselves alon g the way, then  have the flexible inner attitude  to go with
the flow. This process can be s ummed up in one statement, “T ake it as it
comes. ” The process becomes the goal. Whenever you find yourself grasping or recoiling, anticipating or
resisting, shift your attention to your witnessing self. In this simple process
of coming back to the self, you return to the present moment. The present
moment is the doorway to the field of infinite possibilities. The presentmoment is characterized by infinite flexibility. Living in present-moment
awareness reverses the aging process. When you evoke fear you set into motion the physiology
of str ess that accelerates biological aging. Y ou must
let go of this fear in or der to r everse aging. FORGIVENESS
The grea t V edic scholar Eknath Easwawan tells a poignant story. At the end
of a lifet ime, a person’ s soul goes to a plane of existence where each life is
reviewed. The soul enters a the ater in which a movie of the r ecent life is
playing. The soul begins watch ing the movie but often has to turn away
because of terribly uncomforta ble scenes. Sins of omission and sins of
commission cramp the heart, and the scene becomes too painf ul to watch. As a result of n ot being able to watch the complete movie, im portant life
lessons are missed, and the soul must reincarnate to learn them in the next
lifetime. According to this story, the primary cause for not being able to watch the
painful scenes of life is a lack of for giveness—for others and for oneself. For giveness is the essence of let ting go. It means relinquishing attachments
to t he past and  clearing encumbrances that constrict the heart. These
constrictions are  the source of inertia, entropy, and aging. Release them to
grow younger. T ry this simple exercise:
Close your eyes, bring your atte ntion into your heart and ask if you are
holding on to any grievances, hostilities, resentments, or regrets. If any
come to mind, ask what occurred that led to the blockage in your heart. Then, ask what needs to occur now in order to release these t oxins. Look
for t he g ift that every life experience of fers, even painful ones, and express
your gratitude for the experience. Remember this beautiful expres sion from A Course in Miracles and refer
to it often: “Every decision I make is a choice between a grievance and a
miracle. ”
W e encourage you to choose a miracle. When things do not go  the way
you think they s hould, you could indulge in self-pity. Y ou cou ld complain
and gripe that life isn’ t fair. Y ou could lament about what y ou are not
getting and make yourself and everyone around you miserable. Or you
could se e the situation as anothe r opportunity for surrender, flexibility, and
expansion. Grievances, hostilities, resentments, and regrets become
festering emotional wounds that accelerate aging. For give and for get and
you will reverse the aging process. BREAKING HABITUAL P A TTERNS
It’ s easy  to become trapped in habitual patterns that do not ser ve you well
and promote inflexibility. Therefore it is very helpful to consciously
cultivate flexibility by relinquis hing things in your life and creating new
patterns of thinking and behaving. Practicing flexibility creates flexibility in
your nervous system by challenging your brain cells to make new
associations. The neurons in your nervous system and the cho ices in your
life are engaged  in a continuou s feedback loop. In your willin gness to try
new things, your neural networks become more flexible and o pen to new
perceptions, interpretations, and choices, which in turn support new
interneuronal connections. Here are a few suggestions of things you can do to break ou t of your
habitual behavioral patterns. T ry them for a week and observe what happens
to your body and mind. Change your diet
Change your exercise programChange your route to work
Change your bedtime
Meditate longer
Buy dif ferent clothing
W ear new colors
Listen to dif ferent kinds of music
Stop wearing a watch
W ear your watch on the other wrist
Go out to lunch with someone new
T ry a new restaurant
Change your opinion about something or someone
Call a friend you haven’ t spoken to in years
Answer the phone dif ferently
Change your voice mail message
Read a book that you usually wouldn’ t consider
W atch a dif ferent television show
Listen to a dif ferent radio station
T ake a new class
Let go of old ways and you w ill feel renewed. Learning to be flexible
means le arning t o access the mo st flexible domain of your being — the field
of t imeless awareness underly ing your mind and body. Th is realm offlexibility is the basis of growing younger. Immerse yourself in this field of
infinite flexibilit y on a daily basis through meditation. Have th e conscious
intention to think and act flexibly. Practice letting go whenever holding on
is no longer serving you. Cr eativity
Once you have cultivated flexib ility you are ready for creativ ity. W ithout
flexibility there can be no creativity. According to Amit Goswami, author of
Quantum Cr eativity, creativity is a discontinuous, nonalgorithmic quantum
jump from one pattern of thinking into a completely new o ne. It is a
quantum leap— a paradigm shift— from one pattern to anot her without
progressing through incremental steps in between. All the great creative
advances in the worlds of art, music, architecture, or science represent new
leaps of imagina tion that could not have been predicted on the basis of the
prevailing patterns. Once the creative leap is made, be it Einstein’ s theory
of re lativity, Picasso’ s cubism, o r music by the Beatles, the world is forever
changed. Y ou are by nature a creative being, although you may no longer think of
yourself this way. As a child you had a rich imagination, w hich is the
source of all creativity. Y our youthful flexibility and present-moment
awareness allowed for new perceptions and interpretations on an ongoing
basis. Y ou were capable of cre ating entire worlds with your