think of your own body as a verb, not a noun. If change
were the only constant, obviously we’d all desire positive
change. I’ve already simpliﬁed this into positive inputs
versus negative inputs. But I was trained in medical school
to treat ﬁxed processes, with the primary focus on those
processes that have become so impaired that disease has
begun to appear. Not just a model of the human body is
involved in such training  but an entire worldview, which is
why Quantum Healing  had to be so ambitious in its aims. Fortunately, steady progress has been made in the area of
wellness, and now a totally disease-oriented approach isn’t
as dominant. Self-directed change, conducted outside the
doctor’s oﬀice, has caug ht on. Pioneering studies by Dr.
Dean Ornish, ﬁrst published in the British medical journal
The Lancet  in 1990, tested the proposition that lifestyle
changes could create radical improvements in the body. Starting with a one-year study, Ornish took patients already
suﬀering from coronary artery disease, the primary cause
of heart attacks. One group of subjects was followed with normal medical
care while the others were enlisted in a lifestyle program
that consisted of whole foods, stress management,
moderate exercise, and social support. The speciﬁc form of
stress mana gement was yoga and meditati on. The
program’s diet included a drastic reduction in the amount
of fat consumed per day. These measu res sound rather
routine today, but Ornish produced a result that astounded
the medical community at the time. The patients  in the
control group showed no improvement in their heart
disease, and quite often the stenosis in their coronary
arteries (narrowing due to the buildup of fatty plaques) had
worsened after a year. In the group  following the lifestyle
protocols, however, the coronary vessels had slightlyopened, which was the ﬁrst time that coronary artery
disease had ever been reversed by any means, including
drugs. The door had opened to a new world of self-care, as other
studies replicated Ornish’s results. Recent progress has
been even more dramatic. In 2008, Ornish, working in
collaboration with Nobel laureate Elizabeth Blackburn,
showed that lifestyle changes improve gene expression. That is, the genes responsible for disease prevention were
turned on while the gene s responsible for cancer and heart
disease were turned oﬀ. This simple statement hardly
conveys the magnitude of the ﬁnding. It would have
seemed utterly impossible when Quantum Healing  was
written that the way a person thinks and acts has a direct
inﬂuence on their genes. Nor are we talking about minor changes. Within three
months of undertaking Ornish’s program, hundreds of
genetic changes were observed. One of the most exciting
has to do with the production of an enzyme known as
telomerase, which seems  to be crucial in the aging process. Each strand of DNA is capped at the end, like a period
ending a sentence, by a structure known as a telomere. With age, it appears that telomeres weaken, causing the
genetic sequence to fray at the ends. It is thought,  with considerable supporting research, that
increased telomerase, the enzyme that builds telomeres,
might signiﬁcantly retard aging. The Ornish-Blackburn
study discovered that telomerase did in fact increase in
subjects following the positive lifestyle program. I was
excited by these ﬁndings and wondered how far they might
extend. In collaborat ion with a number of universities, the
Chopra Center for Wellbeing is conducting an ongoing
study, the largest of its kind to date, that focuses primarily
on consciousness.Subjects are divided into two groups, with one group
spending a week at the center learning to meditate and
engaging in a multidime nsional program that deals with
mind, body, and spirit. The control group spend s the week
engaging in an unstructu red spa program that is a pleasant
change from their ordinary routine. Dozens of biomarkers
are carefully analyzed, and the results are a magniﬁcation
of the original Ornish- Blackburn ﬁndings. Even more
genetic markers were found to improve, and the changes
occurred within mere days of beginning to meditate. The beneﬁcial eﬀects of meditating were well enough
known that I had conﬁdence in them when writing
Quantum Healing. These new ﬁndings, however, go far
beyond the accepted understanding that meditation can
lower blood pressure, decrease heart rate, increase
immunity to disease, and reduce the eﬀects of stress. Those
key ﬁndings haven’t changed, but now we know that
meditation leads to far more holistic beneﬁts, and that they
occur very quickly—it’s not a matter of dedicating years at
a time to master an esoteric Eastern discipline. The chart below summa rizes what happens when any
kind of positive input enters the mind-body feedback loop. What P ositive Input Does
Promotes overall balance, or homeostasis. Moves easily  through the system, without obstruc tion or
blockages. Generates new neural pathways. Promotes the production of new brain cells. Improves gene expression. Allows every cell to function normally, without anomalies
or aberrant behavior.Supports the immune system, increasing resistance to
disease. Counteracts the eﬀects over time of entropy and aging. Increases a sense of wellbeing: The person feels healthy,
vibrant, and alive. The shape of the future is becoming clear. Two new
concepts are emerging. The ﬁrst is radical wellbeing, the
notion that through lifestyle modiﬁcation a person can
attain a state of wellness that reaches far beyond disease
prevention. The second is self-directed biological
transformation (SDBT), the notion that the genetic switches
that create and govern every cell can be consciously
directed. In a word, you can consciously guide your own
personal evolution. Unlike conventional wellbeing, in
radical wellbeing making the right choices isn’t optional. Every thought you have is already encoding a biological
choice right this minute, pointing to a positive outcome
(wellbeing) or a negative one (imbalance, physical decline,
disease, or death). That our cells change by the instant holds the key to a
higher state of health and the possibility of conscious
evolution. If you want to see what your thoughts were like
yesterday, look at your body today. If you want to see what
your body will be like tomorrow, look at your thoughts and
feelings today. Benign neglect isn’t good enough—once you
see that mind and body form a continuous, all-embracing
feedback loop, there is nothing that doesn’t  have an eﬀect. The cell mem brane of all 50 trillion cells in the body is a
vast communication center that is responsive to every
aspect of your life. Although the brain has traditionally
been considered the seat of mind, there is intelligence in
every cell, with an equal complexity and ability to respond
to the environment.These are the themes I broached in Quantum Healing,
and they have become only more potent over time. OceanofPDF.comTo climb to Machu Picchu, the fortress city of the Incas, is a
formidable task. One crosses a sixteen-thousand-foot pass
in the high Andes, where the oxygen is already low enough
to cause giddiness, and once the city is in sight above the
clouds, its walls are reach ed by three thousand stone steps. This was the last stronghold captured by Pizarro  when he
conquered Peru in 1532. One is astonished to think that
foot-runners connected Machu Picchu with every village
along the two thousand miles of the Incan empire. They
were swift messengers of almost inhuman endurance. They
ran barefoot, covering immense distances every day—at
times the equivalent of two or three Olympic marathons. Some of their trails began at the height of a mountain peak
in the Colorado Rockies  and ascended more than a mile
higher. It must have been these runners, the eyes and ears of the
emperor Atahualpa, who warned him of the approaching
Spanish. By treachery, Pizarro collected a fortune in
ransom when he kidnapped (and later murdered)
Atahualpa. One hopes the legends are true which say thatthe most priceless Incan  gold was secreted away in time. (Pizarro, who was unusually greedy, even for a
conquistador, was himself murdered by jealous rivals in
1541.) If you think of the human brain as the fortress at Machu
Picchu, then it too must have runners to carry its
commands to the farthest outposts of its empire—in this
case, the big toe. The physical routes are certainly visible—
the central nervous system runs down the spinal column,
branching out on either side at each vertebra in the
backbone; these major nerves then branch into millions of
tinier pathways that communicate to every region of the
body. The early anatomists saw the major nerves in the
sixteenth century, but the nervous system kept a secret. Who were the runners that took the messages to and


 should encompass. Feeling unbounded
Being at peace
Having a loose attachment to your personal history
Living in the present
Becoming free of negative thought forms and emotions
Breaking away from traumas and wounds from the past
Accepting that higher consciousness is natural, part of
the human continuum
Experiencing more and more self-awareness as you
evolve
Living in a state of wellbeing that continues to grow and
deepen
A venerated  spiritual teacher was once asked,  “What
does it take to be enlightened?” His reply: “You no longer
have a personal stake in the world.” If you identify with the
boundaries erected by “I, me, and mine,” this sounds like a
death sentence. Having a personal stake in the world is
what life is all about, isn’t it? But with a longer view, across
the entire spectrum of consciousness, the opposite is true. When you no longer identify with “I, me, and mine,” you
are ushered into a new world of experience that transcends
the individual. This is the second birth that the Vedas extol
as the true beginning of life.Finally, I ﬁnd it very touching that Martin’s enlightened
subjects, as amazed as they were by their new state,
thought that nothing could be better. “This is as real as it
gets” was a common reaction. But they were wrong. Reality
is inﬁnite, and what makes it inﬁnite isn’t the edge of the
universe racing away faster than the speed of light. The
universe matches human aspirations, and its inﬁnity
reﬂects the inﬁnity inside  us once we wake up and realize
that it exists. * Adapted from Robert K eith W allace’s The Physiology of Consciousness  (M.I.U. Press, 1993). OceanofPDF.comIf asked for an exact deﬁnition of quantum healing, I would
say this: quantum healin g is the ability of one mode of
consciousness (the mind) to spontaneously correct the
mistakes in another mode of consciousness (the body). It is
a completely self-enclosed process. If pressed for a shorter
deﬁnition, I would say simply that quantum healing makes
peace. When consciousness is fragmented, it starts a war in
the mind-body system. This war lies behind many diseases,
giving rise to what modern medicine calls their
psychosomatic component. The rishis might call it “the fear
born of duality,” and they would consider it not a
component but the chief cause of all illness. The body will send many  signals to indicate that a war is
going on. Recently a young French-Canadian woman came
to see me suﬀering from Crohn’s disease, a severe
intestinal disorder characterized by chronic and
uncontrollable diarrhea, accompanied by painful
inﬂammation. Although the cause of Crohn’s disease is
unknown, it strikes mostl y among young adults and may be
connected to a deﬁciency in the immune system. What iswell known is that the intestinal tract is highly sensitive to
emotional states; in this patient’s case, it was not
surprising to hear that she worked long hours under the
high pressure of a downtown Boston advertising ﬁrm. After talking to her for a while, I discovered that she had
learned to meditate several years before. I asked her if she
still kept it up. No, she answ ered, there wasn’t much time
for it; when she did sit down to meditate, it didn’t do much
good, because she usually fell asleep in a few minutes. I then asked if she had adjusted her diet to help her
condition, slowed down the pace of her life, or considered
moving on to a job with less stress. Looking somewhat
impatient, she said no again—she wasn’t going to allow her
disease, which caused her many diﬀiculties, to rule her life. “Look,” I said, “you have  a very serious condition. If this
inﬂammation persists, you may have to have parts of your
intestine surgically remo ved. What are you going to do
about that?” She was quite knowled geable about her
disease, and I didn’t have to tell her that some grim choices
lay ahead. The surgery in question  involves considerable
disﬁguration, since with part of the intestine removed, a
tube has to be extended  out of the abdomen to handle
elimination. Even then, the disease is not cured and tends
to recur in other parts of the intestine. “That’s why I’m here,” she answered. “I want a mental
technique to help me continue to lead a normal life.”
I was seeing  the result of what the rishis called Pragya
aparadh,  the mistake of the intellect. This woman’s body
was crying out for healin g, and it was telling her so every
time she had an attack. She couldn’t even close her eyes to
meditate without her body desperately grabbing some
relief in the form of sleep. Yet, her mind interpreted these
attempts at healing as either irrelevant or troublesome. She insisted on leading a “normal life” of high stress that
her system wasn’t equipped to cope with.“This is not the kind of disease you can ﬁght,” I said,
“because there’s no one on the other side but you.” I
explained that the same neuropeptides that registered
stress in her brain were produced in her intestines. When
she felt fear, frustration, and worry, the identical emotions
were being experienced in her abdomen. I told her that in my opinion she didn’t need any new
mental techn ique—she needed to let her body do what it
wanted to do, which was to get well. The best way to
cooperate with that was to give her body the rest it was
demanding, continue to meditate, change her diet, and
realize that no rewards from her job could possibly
outweigh the danger she had put herself in. Nature was
trying to tell her something very important, and once she
paid attention, her problems would correct themselves. “In a case like yours,” I said, “you already have the best
medicine you could possibly hope for—it’s your own
attention. Right now, the quality of that attention is fearful
and tense, which is why you aren’t getting better. But as
soon as your awareness becomes settled and loses its fear,
your body will recover—it’s up to you.”
She listened to me with interest, but I sensed that she
resented hearing these things. The mistake of the intellect
is insidious. The intellect refuses to believe that everything
is happening inside one mind-body reality; it creates the
ﬁction that the sick body is somewhere else, anyw here else
but in the same situation as itself. Illness is obviously a sign that there is a war going on. According to Ayurveda, the conﬂict is being waged “in
here,” contra ry to the germ theory of disease, which tries
to tell us that the war was started “out there” by invaders
of every kind—bacteria, viruses, carcinogens, et cetera—
which are lying in wait to attack us. Yet, healthy people live
amid these dangers quite safely. Only when the immune
system collapses, as in the case of AIDS, do we realize thatour skin, lungs, mucous linings, intestines, and many other
organs have learned to coexist with outside organ isms in a
delicate balance. The pneumo nia that an AIDS patient
typically catches is caused by a variety of Pneumocystis
that is prese nt in everybody’s lungs all the time. The AIDS
virus activates such diseases from the inside by
demolishing one part of the immune system (the helper T-
cells), thus breaking apart the network of information that
holds us together. In fact, we are this network, which projects itself into the
world as our bodies, thoughts, emotions, and actions. Nor
does the network stop with us. The simplistic idea that
germs are our deadly enemy is a half-truth, because germs
are part of the network, too. The whole living world is
bound up in DNA, which has evolved along one channel as
bacteria, along another as plants and animals, and along
still another as man. The environment “out there”
cooperates with the one “in here” like two polarities, in one
sense totally opposed but in another totally comple mentary. If you look at reality from the viewpoint of all DNA, not just
ours, then there is an entire global information network
that has to be kept alive and healthy. Viruses, for example, are capable of mutating very
quickly—that is why a shot that immunizes you from this
year’s ﬂu will usually not be eﬀective next year. The ﬂu
virus will have mutated somewhere around the world into a
completely diﬀerent strain. (One of the AIDS virus’s many
unprecedented talents is its ability to mutate a hundred
times faster than a typical ﬂu virus.) Researchers have
recently speculated that the reason why viruses mutate so
rapidly is to keep pace with new variants of bacteria, thus
carrying to all parts of the globe the news that life is


here are many classical rejuvenative herbs from healing systems around
the world that can be considered ojas-enhancing. Ginseng from the Chinese
and Korean systems is the most popular herb in the world and has been
classically used to augment sexual potency. Scientific studies have
suggested that ginseng can enhance sexual appetite and erectile function in
both animals and men. It can enhance your general sense of well-being and
vitality. Ginseng is available in many forms including capsules, teas, and
even chewing gum. A yurveda has an entire branch o f medicine dedicated to maintaining and
regaining optimal reproductive tissue. Known as V ajikarana,  these herbs are
sometimes refer red to as aphrod isiacs. Although you most likely think of an
aphrodisiac as something that arouses sexual desires, according to
A yurveda, these aphrodisiac herbs also improve your reproductive essence. In other words, t hey enhance ojas. The three most commonly recommended
ojas-enhancing substances in A yurveda are ashwagandha, shatavari, and
amalaki. Ashwagandha (W ithania somnifera)
Sometimes know n as winter cherry, this potently fragrant herb has long
been kn own as the primary masculine rejuvenating substance. Its Sanskrit
name means “smelling like a stallion,” implying that it infuses the user with
the pow er of a horse. Although its long-standing reputation is as a sexual
potency herb, most research has  focused on its stress-reducing a nd immune-
enhancing properties. A recent experiment with animals found that
ashwagandha influences the pituitary chemicals that regulate sex hormones. A yurveda recommends taking a  teaspoon of ashwagandha in warm milk
sweetened with  honey or brown sugar before bedtime. This is highly
encouraged on days when the man has ejaculated, with the intention of
helping to replenish lost ojas. It is equally valuable for women to enliven
their passion and sexual ardor. Ashwagandha is now readily available from
a number of herbal distributors in the W est. Shatavari (Asparagus racemosus)
This wild form of asparagus is considered to be the feminine e quivalent
of ashw agandha in that it supports the nurturing, receptive, creative
feminine ener gy that both men and women possess. Not known for
understatement, A yurveda gives this nourishing plant the Sanskrit name
shatavari, which can be translated as “capable of supporting one hundred
husbands. ” It is a classical tonic with several indications includ ing relief of
premenstrual sy mptoms, enha ncement of milk flow in breastfeeding
mothers, and the smoothing of the transition through menopause. Scientific
studies on shatavari have been  limited to date, primarily look ing into its
traditional role in relieving stomach upset and improving lactation. Considering its long-standing history of value in strengthening  a woman’ s
physiology, shatavari is worthy of further scientific exploration. Although most commonly recommended for women, shatavari is also
considered a valuable tonic for men. Like ashwagandha, it is usually taken
in h ot milk sw eetened with honey or raw sugar. The com bination of
shatavari and ashwagandha (one  teaspoon of each) in a cup of hot milk with
a pinch of saf fron and a little honey or brown sugar makes a n excellent
tonic for both men and women and is a traditional ojas restorer. Amalaki (Emblica officinalis)
The powerful little fruit is one  of nature’ s most abundant s ources of
antioxidants. Ounce per ounce, amalaki juice carries twenty times the
vitamin C content of orange juice. Amalaki is considered the most powerful
general A yurvedic tonic, benef icial for both men and women. It is most
readily available  in the W est in the form of an herbal jam that combines
amalaki with a number of other tonic herbs and spices. The mythology around this ancient rejuvenating substance describes an
elderly sage, Chavan, who wa s asked by a king to marry h is daughter. Chavan was concerned that he would not be able to satisfy the needs of his
young b ride, but in meditation cognized the herbal formula that wouldrestore his youthful vitality. This subsequently became know as
Chavanprash or the jam of Chavan. Scientific resear ch on amalaki has shown it to have measurab le health-
enhancing properties, including the detoxification of c arcinogens,
protection of DNA, lowering of cholesterol levels and relief of heartburn. Amalaki-based herbal jams are becoming increasingly available in the
W est. W e recommend a teaspoon or two each day as a natural, general ojas-
enhancing tonic. Sources of ashwagandha, shatavari, and amalaki jam are
listed in the appendix. When we have r estor ed the sexual experience
to the r ealm of the sacr ed,
our world becomes divine, holy, and healed. The Soul of Love
Love ser ves the soul. W e learn our life lessons and awaken our memory of
wholeness through love. Our soul is the weaving of our memories and
desires, providi ng the template for all our aspirations, ch oices, and
experiences in life. W e can look at the soul as a confluence of contexts and
meaning. Conte xt entails a set of relationships and meaning is the way we
interpret the relationships. Ou r lives are a river of relationships and
meaning. Each of us is con tinuously reena cting one of the perennial them es of love
—trust a nd betra yal, unrequited  love and forbidden lust, uncond itional love
and calc ulating neediness. From Adam and Eve to Judas and  Jesus, the
most po werful s tories we tell e ach other across time and cultu re are love
stories. Love is the primal force on earth and beyond all the obvious and
stated re asons, behind every action is love. Striving for good grades in
school, doing well in a job, c reating a great work of art, composing abeautiful symph ony, writing a great novel, winning the Nobel P rize—if you
dig deep ly enough you will se e that all these stories are love stories in
disguise. In actuality, the only reason we do anything is for more love,
although we may go to co nsiderable lengths to concea l our true
motivations. Our disc ussion of love leads to  a simple conclusion: For the benefit of
your ph ysical, emotional, and spiritual well-being, generate m ore love in
your life. Each morning when you awaken, ask yourself, “How can I create
more love today. How can I ex press more love today. How can I be open
to recei ving more love today. ” In every interaction ensure that some
exchange of love takes place. Whether it is chatting with your landscaper,
paying f or your groceries, talkin g with your children or being intimate with
your bel oved, co me from an in ner dialogue of love. When you  make love
the m ost important thing in your life, your mind and body resonate with the
timeless. Every day in every way,
I am incr easing my mental and physical capacity. My Biostat is set at a healthy ____ years of age. I look and feel a healthy ____ years old. I am r eversing my biological age:
By changing my per ception of my body, its aging and time;
Thr ough two kinds of deep r est—r estful awar eness and  r estful sleep;
By nurturing my body thr ough healthy foods;
By using nutritional complements wisely;
By enhancing mind/body integration;
Thr ough exer cise;By eliminating toxins fr om my life;
By cultivating flexibility and cr eativity in consciousness; and
Thr ough love. 1 1
Y ou Can Reverse Y our
Biological Age by Maintaining
a Y outhful Mind

ACTION STEP # 10
I am r eversing my biological age by maintaining a youthful  mind. I put this into practice by:
Enriching my sensory experience, within and without. Devoting myself to lifelong learning and personal gr owth. Enjoying play, lightheartedness, and laughter. The body is a field of molecules. The mind is a field of ideas. Wher ever a thought goes a molecule goes. Fr esh and youthful thoughts
cr eate fr esh and youthful molecules. Psychological age influences biological age. The tent h step to grow younger and live longer is to maintain  a youthful
mind. The mind is not a thing, as the body is. The body is a field of
molecules. Y ou can touch it. It  is solid. Even though it is con stantly and
ever in change and transformati on, it has the appearance of a f ixed object,
like a sculpture. W e can examine the body, and measure its biological
markers in a fairly precise, objec tive way. These biomarkers were discussed
in Chapter 1. The mind on the other hand is not a field of molecules; it is a field of
ideas. Ideas cannot be put in a


 to nd out in your work on yourself how much
of this holds true for you personally. Is your soul impregnated with
similar wrong concepts? If and when the realization of such an
impression becomes conscious within a growing human being, it is
often not understood that this concept of God is false. Then theperson turns away from God altogether and wants no part of the
monster discov ered hovering  in his or her mind. This, by the way, is
often the true reason for someone’s atheism. The turning away is
just as erroneous as the oppo site extreme, which consists  of fearing
a god who is severe, unjust, pious, self-righteous, and cruel. The
person who unconsciously maintains the distorted God-image
rightly fears this deity and resorts to cajoling for favors. Here you
have a good example of two opposite extremes, both of which lack
truth to an equal extent. Now let us examine the case in which a child experiences benign
authority to a greater degree than fear and frustration with a
negative authority. Let us assume that overindulging and doting
parents fulll the child’s every whim. They do not instill  a sense of
responsibility in the child so that he or she can get away with
practically anything. The God-image resulting from such a condition
is, at rst and supercial sight, closer to a true concept of God—
forgiving, “good,” loving, indulgent. This causes the personality to
unconsciously think he or she can get away with anything in the
eyes of God, can cheat life, and avoid self-responsibility. To begin
with, such a child will know much less fear. But since life cannot be
cheated, this wrong attitude will produce conicts, and therefore
fear will be generated by a chain reaction of wrong thinking,
feeling, and action. An inner confusion will arise, since life as it is in
reality does not correspond to the indulgent, unconscious God-
image and concept. Many subdivisions and combinations of these two main categories
can exist in the same soul, and the development achieved in former
incarnations in this particular respect also inuences the psyche. It
is very importa nt, therefore, my friends, to nd out what  your God-
image is. This image is basic and determines all other attitudes,
images, and patterns throug hout your life. Do not be deceived by
your conscious convictions. Rather try to examine and analyze your
emotional reactions to authority, to your parents, to your fears and
expectations. Out of these you will gradually discover what you feel
about God rather than what you think. The whole scale between the
two opposite poles of monster and doting parent is reected in yourGod-image, from hopelessness and despair to self-indulgence,
rejection of self-responsibilit y, and the expectation of a god who
pampers you. Dissolving the God-Image
Now the question of how to dissolve such an image arises. How
do you dissolv e any image, that is, any wrong conclusion? First, you
have to become fully consci ous of the wrong concept. The second
step is to set your intellectua l ideas straight. It is most important to
understand that the proper formation of the intellectual concept
should never be super-imposed on the still-lingering, emotional false
concept. This would only cause suppression. Realize that the
hitherto suppressed, wrong concepts have to evolve clearly into
consciousness. Formulate the right concept. Then these two should
be compared. You need constantly to check how much you still
deviate emotionally from the right intellectual concept. Do this quietly, without inner haste or anger at yourself that your
emotions do not follow your thinking as quickly as you would like. Give them time to grow. This is best accomplished by constant
observation and comparison  of the wrong and the right concept. Realize that your emotions need time to adjust, and also observe
your resistance to change and growth. The lower self of the human
personality is very shrewd. Be wise to it. The injustices in the world are so often ascribed to God, my
friends. If you are convinced of injustice, the best attitude is to
examine your own life and nd in it how you have contributed to
and even caused happenings that seemed entirely unjust. The better
you understand the magnetic force of images and the powerful
strength of all psychological and unconscious currents, the better
will you understand and experience the truth of these teachings, and
the more deeply will you be convinced that there is no injustice. Find
the cause and eect  of your inner and outer actions.God Is Not Unjust
If you make half the eort you usually make when nding others’
faults to nd your own, you will see the connection with your own law
of cause  and eect and this alone will set you free, will show you that
there is no injustice. This alone will show you that it is not God, nor
the fates, nor any unjust world order wherein you have to suer the
consequences of other people’s shortcomings, but your ignorance,
your fear, your pride, your egotism that directly or indirectly caused
that which seemed, so far, to come your way without your
attracting it. Find that hidden link and you will come to see truth. You will realize that you are not a prey to circumstances  or other
people’s imper fections, but really the creator of your life. Emotions
are very powerful creative forces, because your unconscious aects
the unconsciou s of the other person. This truth is perhaps most
relevant to the discovery of how you call forth happenin gs in your
life, good or bad, favorable or unfavorable. Once you experience this, you can dissolve your God-image,
whether you fear God becau se you believe that you live in a world
of injustice and are afraid of being the prey of circumst ances over
which you have no control, or whether you reject self-res ponsibility
and expect an indulgent, pampering God to lead your life for you,
make decisions for you, take self-inicted hardships from you. The
realization of how you cause the eects of your life will dissolve
either God-image. This is one of the main breaking-points. The True Concept of God
God is, God’s  laws are made once and for all and work
automatically, so to speak. Think of God as being, among so many
other things, life and life force. Think of God as of an electric current,
endowed with supreme intelligence. This “electric current” is there, in
you, around you, outside of yourself. It is up to you how you use it. You can use electricity for constructive purposes, even for healing,
or you can use it to kill. That does not make the electric currentgood or bad. You make it good or bad. This power current is an
important aspect of God and is the one that pouches you most. This concept may raise the question whether God is personal or
impersonal, directing intelli gence or law and principle. Human
beings, since they experience life with a dualistic consciousness,
tend to believe that either the one or the other is true. Yet God is
both. But God’s personal aspect does not mean personality. God is
not a person residing in a certain place, though it is possib le to have
a personal God-experience within the self. For the only place God can
be looked for and found is within, not in any other place. God’s
existence can be deduced outside of the self from the beauty of
Creation, from the manifestations of nature, from the wisdom
collected by philosophers and scientists. But such observations
become an experience of God only when God’s presence is felt rst
within. The inner experience of God is the greatest of all experiences
because it contains all desirable experiences. This particular feeling experience might be called the cosmic
feeling. The cosmic feeling is not a theoretical understanding or a
feeling about  the cosmos. It is a true physical, mental, emotional,
and spiritual experience, which encompasses the entire person. I
cannot describe this experience adequately within the limitations of
human language. The cosmic experience no longer splits o feeling from thinking. It is feeling and thinking in one. This is very hard to imagine when
you have never had such an experience. But some of you may have
occasionally had a glimpse of it. The oneness is total. It is an
experience of bliss; the comp rehension of life and its mysteries; all-
encompassing love; a knowle dge that all is well and there is nothing
to fear. In the state of cosmic feeling you experience the immediacy of the
presence of God within. The immedia cy of this incredibly powerful
presence is at rst shocking. The good feeling is shocking. It is as if
literally an electric shock went through your entire system. Therefore the ego-personality has to grow suciently strong and
healthy so that it can acclimatize itself to the high vibrations of theinner presence  of God. This manifestation is then experienced as
your eternal reality and state, as your true identity. The moment you nd yourself in this state you know in a most
profound way that what you now discover you have always known,
that you had only temporarily cut


fections, dandruf f and other hair problems. Shampoos were traditionally made from herbal powders, both
A yurvedic and otherwise, and many are still in use today. Popular
herbs for cleansing are the h ighly scented orris root powder,
thickening arrowroot powder, purifying  amla, neem and
sandalwood for their antiseptic properties, and  reetha  or soap nut. Shikakai,  literally “fruit for hair” is another traditional shampoo in
the f orm of a paste: made from  Acacia concinna  bark that contains
high lev els of saponins or foaming agents, it is a mild clean ser. Whilst the lather is rather weak, it has anaturally low pH, so does
not strip hair of  its natural oils. It also acts as a de-tangler and  is a
useful anti-dandruf f tool. Another ancient custom for healthy hair and scalp often given
on a daily basis is an Indian head massage (see page 26). Less time
intensive is a quick application of hair oil: there are liter ally
hundreds of such oils on the market as Indians believe that they help
hair gro w luxuriantly thick, soft and glossy. In addition, they are
supposed to soothe and invigorate the sense or gans and even
remove wrinkles from the face. Popular hair oils contain
bhringaraj,  brahmi  and  amla, often combined with other
strengthening, conditioning and antiseptic herbs and plants. Regenerating for hair and stimulating for the scalp, a henna conditioning treatment
is a staple at many  Indian beauty salons. After application, the paste rests on the
head for half an hour, then is washed of f with lukewarm water. A plant much used in Indian hair care is  mehndi  or henna
(Lawsonia inermis). Antiseptic and nutritious, it is a popular hair
conditioner and gives grey hair a red-orange tint. It has the abilit y to
coat the hair sha ft, thereby protecting and thickening hair. “One of
India’ s age-old beauty secrets is a henna conditioner,” says herbal
beauty advocate, Shahnaz Husain, “Made from henna paste, mixed
with lem on juice, egg and yog urt, it cleanses and conditions hair,
promotes new hair growth and restores good health to the scalp. ”
She goe s on to add that, unlike chemical deter gents, it doesn’ t
destroy t he natur al acid nature o f the scalp and leaves hair shiny and
supple. Essential oil of henna is also very cooling on the head. The resin of the  Boswellia serrata  tree is collected in a manner similar to rubber
tapping; the harvested gum is then ground into a powder and used in a charcoal
burner to scent the hair. More commonly known as frankincense, the powder is
also used in religious rites and perfumery. A variety of hair cleansing and conditioning routines are
available at Shahnaz Husain salons and day spas — and over -the-
counter conditio ners, rinses and tonics are plentiful in her 100
percent herbal range. Many other Indian spas of fer the sublime headmassage, often as part of a face or body ritual, and a wonderful treat
for dry, dehydrated and sensiti ve scalp and hair is the Ananda’ s
aromatic hot oil treatment with pure essence of lavender, geranium
and rosemary. For a four -prong ed treat, Neemrana Spa’ s heavenly  sirolepam
is a mus t: T aken  from the word s,  siro  meaning “head” and  lepam
translating as “pack”, the treatment (see photos on previous page)
includes a head, neck, face and shoulder massage along with a head
pack to stimulate hair growth and revitalize the brain. the art of mehndi
The application of  mehndi  (henna) as a colorant on ha ir,
hands and nails is a time-hon ored tradition in India. W ith its
origins in Egypt,  mehndi  was also extensively used in the
Middle East, probably as a cooling device. Coming from the
Lawsonia inermis  shrub, it is known as  madayantika  in
Sanskrit. The small leaves, crushed into a powder and mixed
with water and a little bit of sugar, makes a dark green paste
that turns orange when applied to the skin. Mehndi  has anti- irritant, deodorant and antiseptic properties, and is
used by A yurved ic physicians for skin irritations such as heat rashes
and skin  aller gie s. The paste is also used as an antidote against heat
and sunstroke and, in the past, the leaves were applied to bring
down hi gh fever s. T oday, it ma y be applied to the body during the
intense h eat of the day, and peo ple embarking on a long walk often
apply it on the  soles of feet. Because of its cooling proper ties,
mehndi  leaves and flowers are made into  lotions and ointments that
are u sed externally for boils, bu rns, bruises and skin inflammations. Antiseptic and nutritious to th e head also, it is used as a hair
conditioner and gives grey hair a red/orange tint. Historically, there are many references to this versatile plant. The Muslim prophet Mohammed used  mehndi  for heali ng and he
also dye d his hair and beard with  it. It is recorded in the  Qu’ran  that
his wife and daughters used henna for decoration on occasions such
as Eid celebrati ons and weddings. Some Muslim girls are na med
after the  mehndi  plant. Its small intensely fragrant white flowers
make a wonderfully strong-smelling perfume that is favored by both
men and women. Over time, henna developed into a popular beauty aid, and the
application of  mehndi  in intricate patterns on palms and feet is still
an integ ral part of both Muslim  and Hindu marriage ceremonies. It
is co nsidered a s ign of love — the darker the coloration, the gre ater
the love of the groom for the bride. Sometimes, the  mehndi  is applied with the name of the
husband-to-be h idden in the pattern; if he can’ t find it, he has to pay
a for feit. Often applied with the  singing of songs, there are multiple
patterns, most of which have cultural associations. In Rajasthan
where these photos were taken, patterns typically have lines of v-shaped leaves, peacock feather patterning, a  bhandhej  (tie-dye)
pattern, little acacia leaves and a  laheria  pattern (this literally
translates as “waves of the sea” and is found in geometric or floral
patterns on brightly colored Rajasthani saris). Drawings, powder, paste and examples of henna patterns on hands and feet
photographed at the resort of Amanbagh in Rajasthan. The spa manager at the
Aman spa there learned the art of  mehndi  application from her grandmother:
Using a cone simila r to the type of apparatus used for icing a cake, she painted
hands and feet in intricate patterns. Different henna patterns indicate different
geographical locations and cultural associations. It isn’ t only at m arriages that women decorate their hands and
feet with  mehndi. Ma ny other festivals of fer an excuse for girls to
dress up and adorn themselves, and, increasingly, variations of
traditional patterns may be applied as tattoo-type insignias on other
parts of the body. Many visitors to India try a henna decoration at
least once. As i t is a safe, painless and non-permanent alterna tive
form of body o rnamentation that is gaining favor in the W est,
nowadays you’ll find henna artists in popular tourist destinations
such as beach resorts and bazaars all over India. In the past, large leaves were used for wrapping, as they encouraged swea ting,
thereby removing toxins from beneath the skin’s surface. Here, shiny banana
leaves have been used effectively; in today’ s spas, these have largely been
replaced by plastic, cloth, towels or cling wrap. body wraps
There is something immensely comforting about lying
swaddled in cloth, plastic or blankets while a warming,detoxifying pa ste is doing its work on your body. W ith  its
roots in  Indian bridal tradition, as brides always have a wrap
daily fo r a week prior to their wedding day, the body w rap
in Indi a employs a variety of ingredients. From fruits to
flowers, herbs, spices and clays, a body wrap can be deeply
nurturing. Whatever the wrap components, the idea is that the warmth of the
wrap allows ingredients to penetrate subcutaneously through the
pores of skin. Some wraps are prescribed for their preventative and
curative properties against col d and cough; others are used to
alleviate muscle aches, headaches and fever. Others use minerals
and ingredients  from the ocean such as seaweed to encourage
lymphatic drai nage. All aim to increase blood


 the  tip of  your spine  at the  sacrum, is the
opening  through  which the energ y must pass. Once  you have  pulled  the warm energ y of the  ovaries  down to
the perineum, contracte d the front  of the perineum, and  then  pulled
up the mi ddle and back part of the  perineum, follow  by tilting  the
sacru m, slightl y arching  your lower back out ward and pushing  the
botto m of your sacrum  as if y ou were standing  with your back
against  and wall and flattenin g against  it. Then tilt the  sacrum
downward and hold  it in this position  in order  to activate  the Sacral
Pump, wh ich will be further  accentuate d if you gentl y tuck  in yo ur
chin and  straighten  the back of  your neck  and skull. Hold  the ener gy
at the  sacrum for a  while, then  exhale  but continue  to maintain your
attention  at the  sacrum. Repeat  the process  nine  times. f. Once  you have  managed  to bring  the energ y up through  your
coccyx  and sacral  hiatus,  spend  the next w eek drawing the warm
energy  to the  eleventh  thoracic  vertebr a (T-11)  in your mid-back
opposite  the solar  plexus. Practice  in the  sam e manner,  inhaling
short  sips of  air w hile pulling  and guiding  the energy  from  the
perineum up  your spine  to the sacrum, and  then  to T-11. Pull up
and retain  the energ y at T-11,  tilt to the back,  and feel the point  fill
with energ y and continue  to open  as the  energy  moves up b y itself. T-11  is the ener gy center  for the adre nal glands,  which sit on
top of your kidne ys. In Taoist practice  we regard  the adrenal  glands
as a mini pump. As yo u arch,  you will create  a vacuu m here  to
push  the energy  up higher:
    g. Your next  stopping  place  is at the  base  of the neck, called
cervical- 7, or C-7. Practice  in the  same ma nner as described  above:
inhaling  short  sips of air  and pum ping energ y from the  ovaries  down
to the  perine um and up to  the sacru m and  T-11. Slightly push  from
the sacru m to bring  the energy  to C-7,  and then  pull and guide  it
there. Repeat  this process  nine  times. h. Your next  stopping  place  is yo ur Jade  Pillow. This is located
at the  back  of your head,  between cervical- 1, or C-1,  and the base
of the  skull. Practice  in the same m anner  as describe d above,
inhaling  short  sips as y ou continue  to pump the ovaries’  energy
down to the  perineum and  up to  the sacru m, T-11,  C-7, C-1 and
Jade  Pillow. There is a small storage  place  in this area  where you
- 117  -Cultivating  Ovarian Power
can store  the ovaries’  energy  for furthe r use,  althoug h it is the  upper
part of the  brain  that is the largest  storage  place  for ener gy. Repeat
the process  nine  times. i. Y our next  stopping  point  and a larger  storage  place for the
energy  is the Pai- Hui, located  at the crow n of your head. Practice
in the  same ma nner only this tim e fill the  “stra w” to the top. Tilt the
sacru m to the back in  order  to straighte n the curve  of the spine
outw ard a little bit:  this w ill help  to activate  the lower pump. At the
same ti me push  the sternum to C-7,  tuck in  your chin a  little, and
squeeze  the back  of your skull. This wi ll activate  the uppe r Cranial
Pump. Continue  to pull up to  the point  at the  center  of the  top of the
head. Repeat  nine  times. j. Touch  the tongu e to the palate  to permit the  energ y to flo w
down to the  third  eye, to the  inside  of your nose,  throug h the tongue
and dow n to the  heart  center. Pause  for a while at the  heart  center
and feel the ener gy fill and  open  this center  as it transforms into
loving  energy. Then bring  the energ y dow n to the  navel  center  for
storage. Here  spiral  the ener gy 36 times counterclock wise and
outw ard, then reverse  and circle inward 24 times. Once  you finish the  last set of  nine,  and you feel the  ovaries’
sexual  energy  fill the  brain,  begin  to turn  the ener gy to circulate  it in
the brain  counterclock wise for nine,  eightee n, or thirty -six
revolutions,  and then  change  directions,  circulating  the energ y
clockw ise for nine,  eightee n, or thirty-six revolutions. Use y our mind,
eyes and senses  to assist  you. Rest  and mentall y guide  the energy
from the  Ovarian  palace  to the  top of the  crown. 5. Sum mary of Ovarian  Breathing
   a. Bring y our attentio n to your ovaries  and breat he into them. b. Direct your attentio n to the Ovarian  Palace,  lying between the
ovaries. c. Contract  the vagina  slightly, pulling  the ovaries’  energy  down
to the  perine um, then  contract  and pull up the front  part of the
perineum to  bring  the energ y there  while simultaneousl y inhaling  a
short  sip of  air. Rest, holding  your breath,  and feel the  flow of the
energy, from the  Ovarian  Palace  to the  vagina,  the clitoris  and the
perineum. Exhale,  with your mind retainin g the energ y there. Repeat
this proced ure nine  times. d. Continue  to retain  the ovaries’  energ y at the  perine um, and  at
the same ti me return  your partial  attention  to the  ovaries  and the
- 118  -Chapter  V
Ovarian  Palace. Collect  the ener gy there,  then  simultaneously
inhaling  short  sips,  very  slightly contract  the vagina,  the front  part
of the  perine um, then  the middle and  back  part of the  perine um,
and inhale  the ovaries’  energ y to the  cocc yx and up to  the sacru m.
Exhale. Repeat  nine  times. e. Holding  the ovaries’  energ y at the  sacru m, return  your attentio n
to the  ovaries,  and bring  the energy  to the  Ovarian  Palace. Inhale
short  sips of  air as  you lightly close  the vagina  and simultaneously
contract  the front  part of the  perineum. Bring  the Chi to  the perineum,
pause  for a while, and inhale. Pull up  the middle and  then  back
parts  of the  anus. Pull the  energ y up to the  cocc yx and sacrum. Pause  and inhale  and push  the sacru m back  as if it we re pushed
against  a wall to open  the hiatus  so that  Chi can  enter  the spinal
cord. Move  the energy  to T-11. Exhale. Repeat  nine  times. f. Holding  the Ovarian  energy  at T-11,  return  your attention  to
the ovaries  and the Ovarian  Palace. Inhale  short  sips of air, lightl y
closing  the vagina  while simultaneousl y contracting  the front,  middle
and back  of the  perineum. M ove the energ y from  the ovaries  to the
perineum, sacrum, T-11 and  C-7. Hold  and retain  it there. Exhale. Repeat  nine  times. g. Holding  the Ovarian  energ y at C- 7, return  your attention  to the
ovaries  and to the Ovarian  Palace. Inh


 behind the development, marketing,
and distribution of this very special book. There were many early readers, all of whom deserve thanks. I would
like to single out James O’Dea, Bob Merrill, and Stephanie Davis, who
contributed detailed suggestions during the early writing of the book. Lastly, I would like to acknowledge you, the reader, for being
interested in deepening your relationship with yourself and the world around
you. Your willingness to take a second look at what is really going on,
outside and in, has the power to change the world.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        Of course, there are higher states of meditation than simply noticing
the mind, but you should not set expectations. Expectations are just another
mind-trip. Decid e that you are sitting down because you choos e to learn to
be present and work on yourself. This is a time when you don’t have so
many external distractions, so you can practice being present. That’ s all. You may not like what you see inside, but you are learning to be present
with it. Y ou’re learning to be at peace with what used to drive you crazy. To appre ciate the purpose of spiritual techniques, you have to realize
that you are addicted to your mind. You’re more addicted to your mind than
people are to drugs. In fact, the reason many people start doing drugs is to
get away  from their mind’ s incessant chatter. That’ s also why some people
start drinking—the mind can be impossible to live with. If you are like most
people, you are addicted to every single word your mind says. If your mind
suddenly says, “I don’t like it here, I want to leave,” you leave. If it says, “I
think something good will come from being here, I want to stay for awhile,” you stay. You are absorbed in your thoughts, and you follow
whatever the mind says. In essen ce, your mind is your guru, and you need to
back of f from that relationship. Changing your relationship with your mind is a major part of the
spiritual journey. You don’t do this by fighting with the mind and resisting
thoughts. You do this by learning not to listen to the mind. You are the
consciousness, and the mind is the object of consciousness. You must be
able to withdraw your attentio n from the mind, even when the mind is
talking. The easiest way to do this is to pay attention to something else. One
very common meditation technique is to pay attention to your breath. Just
watch your breath. Over time you will see that if you are watching your
breath go in and out, you are not focusing on the mind. If you try this very
simple technique of watching your breath, you’ll see how addicted you are
to the mind. One moment you’re sitting there watching your breath and not
being distracted by the mind. The next thing you know, you’re lost in your
thoughts. That is what’ s going to happen. You may not be able to sit there
for fifteen minutes and watch your breath. Good, that shows you how strong
your addiction is to the mind. The reason you lose focus on your breath is that consciousness gets
distracted by what your mind is saying. In other words, you stopped
watching your breath, and you started watching your mind. The moment
you catch on that you’ve done that, don’t get down on yourse lf. Just start
watching your breath again. The entire purpose is to practice gaining control
of your attention  so that it becomes yours again. What you pay attention to
determines your experiences in life. You should have the right to
consciously decide what to pay attention to. Until you learn to back away
from the mind, you have no choice; you pay attention to whatever your
mind says. There is one more element you can add to this simple meditation
technique we’ve been discussing. You’re not going to know right away that
you stopped watching your breath. You’re going to get lost in your mind,
and maybe fifteen minutes will go by. To help notice sooner, instead of just
watching your breath, count your breaths. Simply count a round of
inhale/exhale as one, then two, and so on. But don’t count to one hundred. Count to twenty-five and start over. That way you will see sooner that you
drifted off the breath. In/out…one, in/out…two, in/out…three. Watch your
breath go in and out of your abdomen. Just sit there and watch  your breathwhile you count to twenty-five, and then go back to one. If you find that
you’re at forty-three, just start over at one. Not a thought about it, just
immediately start counting at one. You now have a job to do that requires
you to be present. You must be conscious enough while watching your
breath to know to go back to one after you reach twenty-five. This doesn’ t
require thought—it just requires awareness. Some people turn mala beads during meditation, others do mantra. These are just ways to help keep your consciousness on something other
than your wandering thoughts. So, meditation is easy—if you understand
that it’s not about having spiritual experiences. Please don’t worry about
that. Just practice being presen t. If you do this on a regular basis, you’re
going to find that you are consciously aware during the day when your
samskaras get hit. Now it’s just a question of your level of commitment. Every single time you start to get disturbed, are you willing to relax and
release. Or do you still need to go through another round of expressing and
defending your blockages. Chapter 34. Handling the Bigger Stuff
Real spiritual practice  entails devoting  every moment of your life to your
liberation. Life is your real guru. It’s challenging you to either move further
away from Self or come back to Self. Life is your friend. Everything that
happens in life is an opportunity to get better at freeing yourself from
yourself—dying to be reborn. If you sincerely work on releasing the low-
hanging fruit, and if you remain centered in the seat of Self as your past
samskaras are released, you will become a more conscious being. You will
no longer have to come back to center after a dif ficult conversation, you will
remain centered during the entire experience. At first, this is difficult. Just
keep working on it. Make this the most important thing in your life—
because it is. It really is the only rational way to live your life. It’s not a
religious techniq ue; it’s simply deciding to wake up and make something
great of yourself. If you constantly let go, you will eventually achieve a state of perpetual
presence. You will be established in the seat of Self, and you will never
leave that seat again for the rest of your life. No matter what happens, no
matter who dies, no matter who leaves you, no matter what. All that stuff
can still come up, but you will have the power to decide what to do about it. There will be time you never had before, between the event and your
reaction to it. Things start to unfold as if in slow motion—even reactive
thoughts and emotions. This gives you time to relax and let go. We are now ready to address the bigger stuff. As you let go, and there
is less small stuff, the bigger things will come up all by them selves. You
may start having very intense dreams. You may be driving in the car and
begin feeling powerful emotion s for no apparent reason. Good, you don’t
need a reason. It is simply energy, the shakti, trying to push up because you
have given her the room to do so. She is your best friend. This energy flowinside is helping you, and it’ s always trying to push up. Y ou don’ t need to do
anything except  keep letting go. What if something happens that’s a really
bad situation. The house catches fire. Y ou lose your job. That’ s certainly not
low-hanging fruit. If you are sincere on this path, what do you do. First let
go. Always let go of your huma n reaction first. If you are upset and cannot
deal with the situation, what good are you. If you can’t handle the sight of
blood, you are of no use at the scene of an accident. First let go of your
personal reactio n so that you can serve the situation to the best of your
ability. Let’s take a real-life example. You get a phone call informing you that
your sixteen-yea r-old son had drugs in his school locker. Difficult things
like this happen in the world. You may not like it, but you are going to have
to deal with it. Perhaps your mind starts up, “How could he do this to me. Oh, my god, what did I do wrong. My husband’ s going to be so mad at me. We’re having enough trouble in our relationship. This could be the end of
my marriage. Why do I deserve  this. ” What on Earth has all that personal
melodrama got to do with your son’s problem. Those are your problems,
and you need to let them go. You’re not supposed to be interact ing with the
world outside based


, a few. A few think they have gotten it. They10Bringers of the Light
know the purpose of life, and it’s just all the rest of
the people who don’t understand. Well, that, of course, is the stance taken by many
of the Earth’s major religions. These religions teach
that they know the purpose of life. There is even a
religion or two which says it is the purpose of life,
and that all we have to do is follow the dictates of
that particular religion and we will have pleased God
mightily — and be saved. On the other hand, if we do not follow the dic-
tates of that particular religion, we will be sent to
the everlasting fires of hell. None of this would be such a problem if it weren’t
for the fact that there are hundreds of organized re-
ligions making essentially the same claim. Could God have really botched the job this badly. If God really established a purpose for Life, and re-
ally wanted us to know what that was, do you sup-pose this is the best God could do when it comes to
communicating that to us in a way we could all un-
derstand. Neale Donald Walsch 11
Or is it possible that the reason we can’t seem to
agree on the point of it all is that there simply is no
point. In fact, that is exactly the case. Yet this may be
difficult to accept for many people until it becomes
clear why there is no point. There is no point because God wants us to create  a
purpose for our life. And if God had already cre-
ated that purpose, He would have robbed us of the
greatest opportunity, and the greatest tool, that wehave as we seek to perform the function  of life. Because, you see, while Life does not have a pur-
pose, it does have a function. Purpose  and function  are not at all the same thing. A clock functions  by ticking, for the purpose  of telling
time. A car functions  by internal combustion, for the
purpose  of moving people from place to place. A
microwave oven functions by causing food molecules
to vibrate very fast, for the purpose of heating food. Life functions in a particular way, but for no prede-
termined purpose. That’s because God created as the12Bringers of the Light
function of Life the determining  of a purpose. Put
another way:
God, you see, is in the constant process of creat-
ing and recreating Itself anew. God is in each mo-ment deciding what God is going to be next. This is
God’s most exciting function. (In fact, it is God’s
only function. ) This is pure creation. (For a better, and complete, understanding of this
Truth, see Conversations with God - Book One (Putnam
Publishing Company, New York City, NY). Your function
is to create the
point of your life. In so doing, you create Your Self. You decide
who and what you really are —
and who you are going to be. Neale Donald Walsch 13
This principle is presented here so that you may
understand that God has not assigned  a purpose or a
point to your life. God is waiting for you to do that. It is you who must create a raison d’etre. And that is
what you have not yet done. You have not created a
reason for being. 14Bringers of the Light
So Step 1  here is to decide and to declare  what life
is all about — for you. What is the purpose of
your life. If you can’t answer that question,  go to a
larger one: What is the Purpose of Life in general.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>
Q: What is the author's intention in writing "Bringers of the Light"?,
A: The author's intention is to help readers understand how to become a Bringer of the Light and find their purpose in life.
Q: What is the main theme of the book "Bringers of the Light"?,
A: The book is about a simple process that helps readers discover their purpose and become a Bringer of the Light.
Q: What is the author's message about the purpose of life?,
A: The author states that life has no point, and it's up to each individual to create their own purpose.
Q: What is the key to moving away from negative experiences?,
A: The key is to focus on what you are being, not on what you are doing. This allows you to move into a state of Beingness and eliminate unwanted experiences.
Q: What is the author's suggestion for those who are struggling to define their life purpose?,
A: The author suggests that readers should not try to force the process but rather allow it to unfold naturally, and that they should focus on what they are being, not what they are doing.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>Praise for Ageless Body, Timeless Mind,  the #1 New Y ork T imes
bestseller with over 1 million copies in print, and Deepak
Chopra, heralded by Time magazine as one of the top 100 her oes
and icons of the twentieth century
“A groundbreaking book on the whole question of aging. Who might have
imagined that the secret to conquering this universal mystery lies not in our
physical bodies, but in our consciousness? Only the genius such as Deepak
Chopra. Fascinating.”
—Wayne Dyer, Ph.D.
“Unparalleled genius…Dr. Deepak Chopra shows us how to transform our
bodies—and our lives—by destroying the myths of aging and guiding us to
the source of our eternal youth.”
—Anthony Robbins
“A breathtakin g vision of human potential. If you incorporate the
knowledge…it will rejuvenate your body and mind.”
—Ken Blanchard, Ph.D.
“Deepak Chopra has written an important and inspiring book that opens the
mind and feeds the spirit.”
—Barbara De Angelis, Ph.D., author of Secrets About Men Every W oman
Should Know
“Dazzling.”
—Washington Post
“Effectively arguing that the body is not an object but a process whose
limits are not known, he combines an impressive store of mind/body
wisdom with current research showing that the effects of aging  are largely
preventable. Ageless Body, Timeless Mind  deserves a long life of its own.”
—San Francisco Chr onicle“Ambitiously and patiently, Dr. Chopra connects East/W est healing
practices into a fascinating, understandable ar gument.”
—Houston Chr onicle
“Deepak Chopra is being hailed as a modern-day Hippocrates for his novel
approach of combining ancient healing traditions with modern research.”
—Chicago Sun-T imes
“A guide to longevity that’s also a thoughtful and sometimes inspiring
reflection on our remarkable place in the cosmic scheme of things.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Brilliant and exhilarating.”
—London Daily T elegraph
“In the ’80s the biggest name in healthy words—aside from the cholesterol
guys—was Dr. Bernie Siegel, who asserted the power of positive thinking. The heir apparent for the ’90s is Dr. Deepak Chopra, who is busy
explaining why it works.”
—Sunday Sun  (Toronto)
“There is plenty to celebrate in Ageless Body, Timeless Mind. In a field
already becoming crowded with popular literature, Chopra manages to
cover the major  subject areas, yet at the same time brings to light unusual
research and fresh opinions. He provides a great deal of worthy practical
advice, as well as much food for thought in more philosophical arenas. I
found the book enjoyable, stimulating, and beneficial, and recommend it
heartily, both for those new to the subject, and for those already familiar
with the field.”
—Herb Bowie, author of Forever Alive
“Dr. Chopra’ s writing has great beauty, great power, great delight, and much
common sense.”
—Courtney Johnson, author of Henry James and the Evolution of the
ConsciousnessOceanofPDF.comAlso by Deepak Chopra
Creating Health
Return of the Rishi
Quantum Healing
Perfect Health
Unconditional Life
Journey into Healing
Creating Af fluence
Perfect W eight
Restful Sleep
The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success
The Return of Merlin
Boundless Ener gy
Perfect Digestion
The W ay of the W izard
Overcoming Addictions
Raid on the Inarticulate
The Path to Love
The Seven Spiritual Laws for Parents
The Love Poems of Rumi (edited by Deepak Chopra;
translated by Deepak Chopra and Fer eydoun Kia)
Healing the Heart
Everyday Immortality
The Lords of the Light
On the Shores of Eternity
How to Know God
The Soul in Love
The Chopra Center Herbal Handbook
(with coauthor David Simon)
Grow Y ounger, Live Longer
(with coauthor David Simon)
The Deeper W oundThe Chopra Center Cookbook
(coauthor ed by David Simon and Leanne Backer)
The Angel Is Near
The Daughters of Joy
Gold for Enlightenment
Soulmate
The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire
Peace Is the W ay
The Book of Secrets
Fire in the Heart
The Seven Spiritual Laws of Y oga
(with coauthor David Simon)
Magical Beginnings, Enchanted Lives
(coauthored by David Simon and V icki Abrams)
Life After Death
Buddha
The Essential How to Know


irst-aidkit. \
PARTI
HISTORY,PRINCIPLES
ANDPRESCRIBING
•1-
THEHISTORY
OF
HOMEOPATHY
Originsofhomeopathic
THOUGHT
InthefifthcenturybcHippocrates(c.470-400bc),the
'fatherofmedicine',wrotethatthereweretwo
methodsofhealing:by'contraries'andby'similars'. Hiswritingsshowhisinsistenceonahighethical
standard,onaccuracyofobservationandclarityof
recordingcasesratherthanontheoryandsymptoma-
tology.Herefutedthecommonideathatillnesswas
punishmentfromthegods:'Everydiseasehasitsown
natureandarisesfromexternalcauses,fromcold,
fromthesun,fromchangingwinds. 'Headvised
againstmeddlesome interference, saying,'Our
naturesarethephysiciansofourdiseases.' Hisobservationsoncureby'similars'werenot
followedbythemedicalprofessionandoverthenext
thousandyearstheyseemedtoliedormant-except,
ofcourse,thatcountrypeoplethroughouttheworld
haveusedthisprinciplesuccessfully intheirown
folk-medicines formanyhundredsofyears. Paracelsus(1493-1541), aGermandoctorborn
PhilippusAureolusTheophrastusBombastusvon
Hohenheim,wasunconventionalevenbythestan-
dardsofhistime.Hewasoneofthenaturalphilos-
opherswhosoughttooverthrowwhathecalledthe
'logico-mathematical' theorisingofthetime.Hesaw
theearthasagreatchemicallaboratoryandrecognised
thevalueofchemicalexperimentsinmedicine,bothas
thebasisforunderstanding physiologicalprocesses
andasasourceofmedicinalpreparations.Heiscalled
the'fatherofchemistry',forheupdatedalchemyby
movingitawayfromitssearchfortheelixiroflife
towardstreatingillnessandpracticalpharmaceutical
studies;hebaseditfirmlyontheobservationofplants,
animalsandminerals,andstressedtheimportanceofdirect,practicalexperienceandexperimentation.He
railedagainstthosewhobelievedthatcontrariescure. Paracelsusbelievedintheharmonyofthewhole
universe.HeturnedtoGermanfolk-medicine,which
believedin'likecuringlike',orthatthepoisonthat
causesadiseaseshouldbecomeitscure.Asaresulthe
wasaccusedofadvocatingtheinternaluseoflethal
poisons,butinfacthegavecarefulattentiontodosage
andnotedthataverysmalldosecouldovercomea
greatdisease.Healsousedonlyonemedicineata
time.Hesawnatureineachandeverypersonasavital
spirit,andpredictedthegermtheoryofdiseaseby
statingthatthecausesofdiseasewereexternal,seed-
likefactorsintroducedintothebodythroughair,food
anddrink;thesethenbecamelocalised,growingin
specificorgansastheseedsofdiseasewhichcombated
thelocalvitalspiritoftheorganandthebody.Healso
believedinthenaturalrecuperativepowerofthe
humanbody.Again,hisobservationsonthelawof
similarswerenottakenupforovertwohundred
years. thefounderofhomeopathy:
SamuelHahnemann(1755-1843)
SamuelHahnemannwasborninMeisseninSaxony
(nowinEastGermany)on10April1755intoaneraof
enormouschangeandpoliticalupheaval.Duringhis
lifetimetheSevenYears'War,theFrenchRevolution
andtheNapoleonicWarsthrewEuropeintoturmoil. TheIndustrialRevolutionbroughtsocialchangeand
greatadvancesintechnology,andtherewerede-
velopmentsinscience.Hahnemannwasbornone
yearbeforeMozart,andthewritersGoetheand
Schillerwerehiscontemporaries. Thisperiodalsosawarevolutioninthought. Eighteenth-centuryGermanywasthebirthplaceofthe
4•TheFounder THEHISTORYOFHOMEOPATHY
political,spiritualandintellectualmovementnow
knownastheEnlightenment; thefreedomofthought
andopinionitencouragedwasimportantforthebirth
anddevelopmentofhomeopathy. Hahnemannwasthethirdoffivechildrenborninto
apoorbutuprightanddevoutlyProtestantfamily.He
waseducatedinitiallybyhisparents.Hisfather,aman
ofhighprinciplesanddeepreligiousbelief,taught
himnevertolearnorlistenpassivelybuttoquestion
everything.Legendtellsusthatbeforehisfatherwent
toworkhewouldlocktheboyinhisroomwitha
'problem'tothinkthrough,releasinghimonhisre-
turnonlyifhehadthecorrectanswer.Theyoung
Samuelappearstohavetakenlearningveryseriously;
hecertainlyhadaninordinatethirstforknowledge
andisreportedtohavebeenagiftedandcleverchild,
thoughoftenailingfromover-studyingandhisfam-
ily'seconomiccircumstances.Atschool,histeachers
recognisedhisunusualintelligenceandhewasnot
chargedtheusualfees.Hisgreatesttalentswerefor
languages,mathematics,geometryandbotany. Byteachingandtranslating,Hahnemannpaidhis
waythroughtheUniversityofLeipzig,wherehe
studiedmedicineandchemistry.Hequalifiedasa
doctorin1791andpractisedmedicineforaboutnine
years,duringwhichtimehemarried.Increasingly,
however,hebecamedisillusionedbythecrueland
ineffectivetreatmentsofhistime(blood-letting,purg-
ings,poisonousdrugswithhorrendoussideeffects)
andtookthecourageousdecisiontogiveuphisprac-
tice,concentratinginsteadonstudy,research,writing
andtranslation:
Jcannotreckononmuchincomefrompractice...Iam
tooconscientious toprolongillnessormakeitappear
moredangerousthanitreallyis....Itwasagonyforme
towalkalwaysindarkness,when1hadtohealthesick,
andtoprescribe,accordingtosuchorsuchanhypothesis
concerningdiseases,substanceswhichowedtheirplacein
theMateriaMedicatoanarbitrarydecision....Soon
aftermymarriage, 1renouncedthepracticeofmedicine,
that1mightnolongerincurtheriskofdoinginjury,
and1engagedexclusivelyinchemistryandinliterary
occupations. Thismeantthatformanyyearshisfamilywas
extremelypoor,withHahnemann, hiswifeanda
growingnumberofchildrenlivingattimesinonlyone
roomandwithlittlemorethanbreadandfreshairas
sustenance. Thefirstproving
OneofthemajorworksHahnemanntranslatedwas
DrWilliamCullen'sATreatiseonMateriaMedica. Cullen(1710-90)wasanEdinburghteacher,physicianandchemist,andhisbookincludedanessayon
PeruvianbarkorCinchona(whichhomeopaths call
China),fromwhichquinine,thetreatmentformalaria,
isderived.CullenattributedCinchona'sabilitytocure
malaria,withitssymptomsofperiodicfever,sweating
andpalpitations, toitsbitterness.Hahnemann,scep-
ticalofthisexplanation,testedsmalldosesonhimself
andwroteinaletter:
/tookbywayofexperiment,twiceaday,fourdrachmsof
goodChina.Myfeet,fingerends,etc.,atfirstbecame
quitecold;1grewlanguidanddrowsy;thenmyheart
begantopalpitate,andmypulsegrewhardandsmall;
intolerableanxiety,trembling,prostrationthroughout
allmylimbs;thenpulsation,inthehead,rednessofmy
cheeks,thirst,and,inshort,allthesesymptomswhichare
ordinarilycharacteristicofintermittentfever,madetheir
appearance,oneaftertheother,yetwithoutthepeculiar
chilly,shiveringrigor.Briefly,eventhosesymptoms
whichareofregularoccurrenceandespeciallycharacter-
istic-asthestupidityofmind,thekindofrigidityinall
thelimbs,butaboveallthenumb,disagreeablesensation,
whichseemstohaveitsseatintheperiosteum,overevery
boneinthewholebody-allthesemadetheirappearance. Thisparoxysmlastedtwoorthreehourseachtime,and
recurred, if1repeatedthisdose,nototherwise; Idis-
continued itandwasingoodhealth. Inotherwords,HahnemannobservedthatCin-
chonaproducedinahealthypersonthesymptomsof
malaria,theverydiseasethatitwasknowntocure. Thisdiscoverywastobeofgreatimportanceinthe
developmentofhomeopathictheoryandpractice.By
observingthes


vendaysaftertherashappears. Germanmeasles,orrubella,isgenerallyashort-lived
andverymildinfectionandshouldnotneed
homeopathictreatment.Thefaintpinkrashmaybe
accompaniedbywateryeyesandswollenglandsatthe
backoftheneckand/orbehindtheears,underthe
armsorinthegroin.Inoldergirlsandwomenitmay
befollowedbystiffjoints,andhomeopathicremedies
areusefulintreatingthis. DO
•avoidanyonewithGermanmeaslesifyouare
pregnant,astheinfectioncandamagethefoetus,
especiallyinearlypregnancy;andifyouhave
measleskeepawayfrompregnantwomenduring
yourinfectiousperiod. •stavindoorswhiletherashisout. SEEKHELPIF
•severejointpainsdevelopandarenotalleviatedby
first-aidhomeopathictreatment.•pregnancy issuspected. •thereisahighfever,severe,persistentheadache
andmarkeddrowsiness. Measles
Incubationperiod:8-21days.Infectiousperiod:fourdays
beforeand5-10daysaftertherashappears. Youcancheckwhetheryourchildisintheearlystages
ofmeaslesbylookingforsmallspotslikegrainsof
sandinthemouth,insidethecheeks.Thesespots,
knownas'Koplik'sspots',confirmmeaslesbeforethe
characteristicredrashappears,usuallyadayortwo
later.Don'tbetemptedtosuppressthefever,evenif
thetemperature isrelativelyhigh(seeFeverpage
215),asitisessentialthatthediseaseburnsitselfout. Complicationsthoughttobecausedbysuppression
includeearinfections,respiratoryproblems,pneu-
moniaandencephalitis(inflammation ofthebrain),
andchildrenneedcarefulnursingtoreducethelikeli-
hoodofthese. DO
•keepa'measly'childwithsoreeyesoutofbright
light(keepcurtainspartiallyclosedandthelights
dimmed,forexample).Television isOKaslongas
yourchild'sevesdon'thurtmorefromwatching it. SEEKHELPIF
•ababyundersixmonthsoldcontractsmeasles. •thereisacoughwiththemeaslesthatlastsfor
longerthanfourdaysanddoesn'trespondto
self-prescribing. •themeaslesisaccompaniedbysevereearache. Mumps
Incubationperiod:12-28days.Infectiousperiod:twodays
beforeandsevendaysafterswellingappears. Mumpsusuallyoccursasamildchildhoodinfection,
butitcanbemoresevereinolderchildrenandadults. Themostcommonsymptomistheswellingofoneor
bothofthesalivaryglands(infrontoftheearandjust
abovetheangleofthejaw),whichgivesa'hamster-
cheeked'appearance.Theglandsunderthetongue
andjawmayalsoswell.Theappropriateremedywill
giverelieffromearacheandwilleasepaincausedby
eating,whicharebothcommoninmumps,andwill
speedrecovery. DO
•givesoupsorliquidisedfoodifchewingispainful. SEEKHELPIF
•thereispainfulswellingofthebreastsortesticles. •thereisabdominalpainingirls(whichmight
indicateswollenovaries). •thereisdifficultyhearing. 210•Coldsores DISEASESYOUCANTREATUSINGTHISBOOK
Roseola
Incubationperiod:5-15days. Roseolaisamild,infectiousillnessverysimilarto
Germanmeasles,andthetwoaresometimescon-
fused.Therashwilldistinguishbetweenthetwo:in
Roseolaitappearswhenthefeverhascomedownand
inGermanmeaslesitismorelikelytoappearwiththe
fever.TreatasyouwouldGermanmeasles. Scarletfever
Incubationperiod:2-7days.Infectiousperiod:sevendays
afterexposuretoaninfectedpersonuntilfourweeks
aftertheillnessappears. Thishighlyinfectiousdiseaseisrarenowadays,which
iswhyitisnotincludedintheMateriaMedica. However, itrespondsextremelywelltohomeopathic
treatmentandpatientsusuallyrecoverwithoutany
complications.Thesymptomsareasorethroat,fol-
lowedadayortwolaterbyarashoftinyspotswhich
beginsontheneckandchestandspreadsoverthe
wholebody,givingtheskinatexturelikesandpaper;
vomiting;feverandaflushedface(thoughthearea
aroundthemouthmaybepale).Thetonguemayalso
havearedandwhite'strawberry'appearance.Pre-
scribeonthefever,sorethroatandanyothergeneral
andmental/emotional symptoms.Themajorscarlet
feverremediesareApis,Belladonna,Lachesis,Lyco-
podium,Mercuriussolubilis,Nitricacid'andRhus
toxicodendron. SEEKHELPIF
•thejointsarepainful. •thereispainintheear. •thereispaininthekidneysoronurination. Whoopingcough
Incubationperiod:7-21days.Infectiousperiod:seven
daysafterexposuretoaninfectedpersonuntilfour
weeksaftertheillnessappears. Thefirstsignsofwhoopingcoughareaslightfever,
runnynoseandloosecough.Themucusthenthickens
andgreatparoxysmsofcoughingareneededtobring
itup,afterwhichthechild'whoops'todrawairback
intothelungs.Remediescaneasethecoughingand
speedrecovery.Whoopingcoughcanlastfromthree
weekstofourmonthsandisalongandtiringinfection
forbothchildandparent,butcomplicationsarerarein
childrenoverayearold,sotrytorelaxanddonotbe
alarmedbythewhooping fits. DON'T
•smokeinthesameroomasachildwithwhooping
cough.•giveproprietarycoughmedicinestoreduce
coughing-thechildneedstocoughtogetthe
mucusup. SEEKHELPIF
•yoususpectyourchildunderoneyearoldhas
whoopingcough. •thereisfrequentvomitingaftercoughingspells. Coldsores
Minorattacksofcoldsoresofthemouthrespondwell
totheappropriateinternalandexternalremedies. Childrencanhaveseriousattacks,withnumerous
soresaroundandinsidethemouthandanaccom-
panyingfever,andhomeopathicremediescanhelp
theseenormously.Renewedoutbreakscanbetrig
geredbvsunlight,coldorgenerallowhealthsoavoid
over-exposureandtrynottogetrundown. DO
•keeptheaffectedareacleananddrv. DON'T
•kiss(orengageinoralsex)whilstaffected. SEEKHELPIF
•coldsoresrecurorareespeciallysevere. •theareaneartheeyesisaffected. •thereisnoimprovement afteraweekof
self-prescribing. •thesoresbecomeinfected,withswelling,redness
andpus. Colic
Colicsimplymeanssharptummypainsorcramps. Homeopathictreatment ishighlyeffectiveinthetreat-
mentofsimplecolic,whetherininfants,childrenor
adults.Themothersofbreastfedbabieswithcolic
shouldexperimentwiththeirowndiet,asmanyfoods
areknowntoaffectsomebabies;theseincludedairy
products,alcohol,tea,coffee,peppers,onions,garlic,
cabbage(especiallyraw),orangesandgrapes.Agood
breastfeedingcounsellorwilladvise(seeBreastfeed-
ingproblems).Somebottle-fedbabiesareallergicto
cow'smilkandwillusuallydowellonsoyamilk
althoughthatcanbetooacidicforsome-again,seek
adviceifthishappens. Colicorstomach-ache inchildrenandadultsneeds
carefulmonitoringincaseitiscausedbyarumbling
appendix. DO
•givesmallmealsofbland,easilydigestiblefoods. •eliminatesuspectfoodsfromthedietofababy
whohasjuststartedonsolids. •trytorelaxwhenbreastfeeding acolickybaby. SEEKHELPIF
•symptomspersist(especiallyinyoungchildren
whocontinuetoscreaminconsolably). DISEASESYOUCANTREATUSINGTHISBOOK Cornsandbunions •211
•severepainisnotquicklyalleviatedbyhome
prescribing. •painisaccompaniedbypersistentvomitingor
diarrhoea. •painisaccompaniedbyconstipationorabsenceof
urine. Commoncold
Acoldisoftenthebody'swayoflettingusknow


 As Muktananda repeatedly reminded his followers, “Catching a
glimpse of the beauty of reality is a gift made possible through
120
Manifest Your Destiny
Shaktipat (divine energy that is transferred directly) and through the
power of repeating God’s name, whether through chanting, prayer,
or mantra repetition. ” And with steadfast practice, as the great
teachers tell us, we will be free of everything that keeps us from living
constantly in the awareness that “all this is God, all this is God. ”
(Darshan Magazine, September 1994, p. 3. ) Opening the third eye is an inner exercise of putting your attention
at the third eye, or mind chakra, and projecting through it, feeling the
joy that is associated with the sound. You experience it leaving the
limits of your physical body and embracing that which you want to
manifest and bringing it back to you. It is tuning into the vibration of
creation by leaving the constraints of your body/mind and opening up
the channel between your procreation center and your manifestation
center. With this passageway cleared of obstacles, you are immersed
in the grace of soul-nourishing bliss with the daily repetition of the
aaah meditation. Implement this sound meditation in your morning practice. You
will be harmonizing with a sound of peace and joy, as well as partici-
pating in the idea that you and God are one in the universal sense. The sound brings you to that awareness since it is not a word that the
mind can then take and distort into an ego-dominated blueprint. It is
a sound that transcends the rational workings of the mind. I have created a cassette tape and a compact disc called Meditations
for Manifesting, which guides you through this morning meditation
using my voice to help you stay focused on the sound. In addition,
this recording guides you through the second meditation, which
takes place in the evening and also places the emphasis on the third
eye chakra. However, the emphasis of the evening meditation for
manifesting is different. Here you put your attention on gratitude for
all that has manifested into your life. This is also the subject matter of
the ninth and final principle. 121
WAYNE W. DYER
THE SOUND OF THAT WHICH IS MANIFESTED
There is a second sound that reflects the vibrational frequency of
manifestations in the physical plane. This sound is om. If you reduced
anything that you can observe on the physical plane to its ultimate
sound vibration, you would hear the sound of om. This is the sound
that women of ancient times meditated to while bringing their babies
into the world. Whereas aaah is the sound of creation, om is the
sound of that which is already created. Om expresses gratitude for all
that has manifested. There is a basic relationship between our level of awareness and
the vibrations of the universe. Being aware of this makes it possible
to tune these vibrations to the state of mind that you desire. This is
why I include the om meditation in the manifestation process. Repeating the om sound in the evening tunes you to a higher state of
awareness and to gratitude for all that has manifested into your life. You will then be in sync with your immediate surroundings. Repeating this sound as a mantra of gratitude is one of the most
joyous feelings you will ever experience, causing you to be in har-
mony with your environment rather than in opposition to it in any
way. You will feel strongly connected to your life rather than experi-
encing the ego-based feeling of controlling your environment. Using the om sound is a way of bonding to all that manifests for
you, in whatever form it shows up. It creates a peaceful space and
contributes to your identifying with the manifesting principle. You
feel as if you and God are finally on the same team rather than in a
boss-employee relationship. Your ability to do this om meditation
regularly will help you to value what you are manifesting, and to feel
spiritually connected. The sound of om while meditating is also centered at the third
eye chakra. Project the energy of thanksgiving from this chakra and
you will feel an opening at the third eye. Then extend your etheric
122
Manifest Your Destiny
energy vibrating to the sound of all that is in the physical world
through the imaginary opening in the area of the third eye. As you
make this sound and become familiar with it, you will coalesce with
the joy that is associated with it. You will feel lighter, more
refreshed and more connected to all that is in your world and all
that has manifested for you. On the tape and compact disc I have
included affirmations of gratitude that I repeat while you are medi-
tating. At this point I hope you are aware of the importance of, and the
need for, using the om meditation in the evening and the aaah mani-
festing meditation in the morning. These two sounds, used on a daily
basis, preferably in the morning and the evening, form the basis for
your becoming adept at connecting with what you desire, and under-
standing totally the message of this book, which is that you indeed
manifest your own desires and destiny. I would not even consider sitting down to write without first sit-
ting in quiet meditation for twenty to thirty minutes of doing the
aaah meditation. It is in this space that I gather the energy of creation
by repeating continuously the aaah sound of joyous creation. Then,
in the evening, when I have completed my writing for the day, I do
the meditation of gratitude, employing the om sound, which is the
sound of all that I have created on my typewriter that day. This simple ritual puts me in a state of grace, and provides me
with an inner knowing that I am in relationship with the creative
God force of the universe, and that I am exceedingly grateful for such
a divine relationship. It is what I call the sacred relationship. Without
it I would be unable to manifest this or any other book. Once you understand these two sounds, and you know the power
of these vibrations, you will want to put this awareness into practice. You will find a detailed account of precisely how to do these mani-
festing meditations on a daily basis in the next section. 123
WAYNE W. DYER
THE PRACTICE OF MEDITATING FOR MANIFESTING
Manifesting and meditating cannot be separated. They are like the
crest and the trough of the wave, separate and distinct from each
other, but always together. You cannot become adept at manifesting
the desires of your heart if you are unwilling to devote time to the
practice of meditation. Meditation is simply the act of being quiet with yourself and shut-
ting down the constant monologue that fills the inner space of your
being. It is stopping the constant bombardment of thoughts and the. seemingly endless chatter filling your inner world. That inner noise is
a shield preventing you from knowing the highest self. Engaging in sound meditation is a useful way of accomplishing
inner silence and removing the influences of the constant chatter that
is largely produced by the ego. The attention of the mind is diverted
from the millions of scattered thoughts and is brought back to the
awareness of the sound itself. The sound serves as a mantra, keeping
you centered and silencing the chatter. The best times for meditating using this manifesting technique of
repetitive sounds are at sunrise and sunset. If you are unaccustomed
to arising at or before sunrise, make an effort to establish this disci-
pline for a trial period of ninety days. If this is impossible, then use
whatever your time of awakening is for the aaah meditation. However, I would encourage you to challenge any preset, condi-
tioned belief you may have concerning your ability to get up before
sunrise for the manifesting meditation. Your beliefs about requiring a
certain number of hours of sleep, or not being able to get out of bed,
or treasuring sleep more than anything and similar reasons are the
result of your conditioning and often represent nothing more than
excuses. What you want to do is to establish yourself as a disciplined per-
son. Early morning, particularly prior to sunrise, is the best time of
124
Manifest Your Destiny
day to awaken. The silence allows you to feel close to God. It is the
time when your mind and heart are the clearest and least distracted. You can feel the energy of healing and solutions in the silence of the
early morning, particularly between the hours of three and six A. M. Use specific acts of personal courage to awaken during these hours,
knowing that the time spent in a manifesting meditation will provide
you with far more rest than the remaining hours of your scheduled
sleep. The sun is a gigantic source of energy for our planet and every-
thing that grows on it. When the sun first begins to show itself in the
morning, the energy of the sun breaking out of the darkness is most
intense. This is the ideal time to begin your manifesting meditation. I
recommend that you find a comfortable place to sit, without regard
for a particular posture or position. What makes you feel most
relaxed and at peace is the perfect posture. If at all possible, it is
advisable to do this outdoors; however, this is by no means a require-
ment. Gently place your forefinger and thumb together on each
hand. Close your eyes and allow yourself approximately twenty min-
utes for this morning practice. Take in a few long, deep breaths and exh


Asteraceae)
Yin Chen Hao
Description  Medium-sized perennial herb with
an erect stem, thin feathery leaves, and clusters of small composite flowers. Habitat & Cultivation  Native to Southeast
Asia, yin chen hao is cultivated in China and other  Far Eastern countries. The young plants are gathered in spring. Parts Used  Aerial parts. Constituents  Yin chen hao contains a volatile
oil and coumarins. The volatile oil is antifungal. History & Folklore  Yin chen hao has been
used in Chinese herbal medicine for more than 2,000 years. Its medicinal properties were first listed in Divine Husbandman’s Classic (Shen’nong Bencaojing), written in the 1st century ce. Medicinal Actions & Uses Yin chen hao
is an effective remedy for liver problems, being specifically helpful for treating hepatitis with jaundice. Traditional Chinese medicine (see pp. 40–43) holds that it is bitter and cooling, clearing “damp heat” from the liver and gall ducts and relieving fevers. Yin chen hao is also anti-inflammatory and diuretic. It was formerly applied in the form of a plaster to  treat headaches. Research  Investigation undertaken in China
indicates that like many Artemisia species, yin chen hao has a tonic and strengthening effect on the liver, gallbladder, and digestive system. Cautions  Do not take during pregnancy. Unsuitable for children under 12 unless  prescribed professionally.Parts Used  Aerial parts. Constituents  Southernwood contains a volatile
oil, abrotanin, and tannins. History & Folklore  Much prized during the
Middle Ages and the Renaissance, southernwood  is now used infrequently in herbal medicine. The closely related wormwood (A. absinthium,  p. 66) is considered superior. Like wormwood, southernwood contains a strong volatile oil that repels insects, and the leaves are placed among clothes to repel moths. Mrs. Grieve (A Modern Herbal, 1931) reports that in England “even in  the early part of the last century a bunch of southernwood and rue [Ruta graveolens, p. 265] was placed next to the prisoner in the dock as  a preventive from the contagion of jail fever.”
Medicinal Actions & Uses  Southernwood is
a bitter tonic. It strengthens and supports digestive function by increasing secretions in the stomach and intestines. An infusion of southernwood has been given to children as a treatment for worms, but this is not recommended without professional supervision. Like other Artemisias, southernwood stimulates menstruation and is commonly
taken to encourage the onset of irregular or absent periods.Southernwood leaves were traditionally placed among
clothing to repel moths. Artemisia cina (Asteraceae)
Levant Wormwood
Description  Shrubby perennial with long thin
leaves and tiny round tufts of flowers. Habitat & Cultivation  This herb is native
to the region stretching from the eastern
Mediterranean to Siberia. The unopened flower heads are gathered from wild and cultivated plants. Parts Used  Flower heads. Constituents  Levant wormwood contains
santonin (a sesquiterpene lactone), artemisin, and  a volatile oil (with up to 80% cineole). Santonin  is directly toxic to roundworms and, to a lesser extent, threadworms. History & Folklore  Levant wormwood was
known to the classical Greek world as a remedy  for intestinal worms, and it has been used for this Arnica montana (Asteraceae)
Arnica
Description  Aromatic perennial growing to
1 ft (30 cm). Has downy egg-shaped leaves and bright yellow daisy-like flowers. Habitat & Cultivation  Arnica grows in
mountain woods and pastures in central  Europe, the Pyrenees, Siberia, Canada, and the northwestern U.S. Its flowers are harvested  when in full bloom; the rhizomes after the  plant has died back in autumn. Parts Used  Flowers, rhizome. Constituents  Arnica contains sesquiterpene
lactones, flavonoids, a volatile oil that includes thymol, mucilage, and polysaccharides. History & Folklore Arnica has been used
extensively in European folk medicine. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832), the German philosopher and poet, drank arnica tea to ease his angina in old age. Medicinal Actions & Uses  Best known as
an effective ointment and compress for bruises, sprains, and muscle pain, arnica improves the local blood supply and accelerates healing. It is anti-inflammatory and increases the rate of reabsorption of internal bleeding. Generally the plant is now taken internally only at a homeopathic dilution, principally for shock, injury, and pain. If taken as a decoction or tincture, it stimulates the circulation and is valuable in the treatment of angina and a weak or failing heart, but it can be toxic even at  low dosage and thus is rarely used in this way. Related Species  In North America A. fulgens
is used. RQ Cautions  Do not take internally. Do not
apply arnica preparations to broken skin. External use may cause dermatitis. Arnica is subject to legal restrictions in some countries. Self-help Uses  Bruises, p. 304; Sprains, p. 312;
Tired & aching muscles, p. 312. US_158-179_Abies_balsa_Boswe_serratta.indd   172 26/02/16   12:47 pm173 other medicinal PlantsAsclepi As Tuberos A
purpose ever since. Its active constituent, santonin,
was first isolated in 1830, and is now more
commonly employed than the plant itself. Medicinal Actions & Uses  Used almost
exclusively to expel worms, Levant wormwood
is strongly bitter and aromatic and has a tonic
and stimulant effect on digestion. The dried flower
heads are occasionally mixed with honey to
disguise their bitterness. QCautions  Do not take during pregnancy. Use
only under professional supervision, especially in
the case of children under 12. Artemisia dracunculus (Asteraceae)
T arragon
Description  Aromatic perennial growing
to 3 ft (1 m). Has narrow lance-shaped leaves
and small greenish flower heads in long
drooping clusters. Habitat & Cultivation  Native to Russia,
western Asia, and the Himalayas, tarragon is now
cultivated as a culinary herb in gardens around the
world. The aerial parts are picked in summer. Parts Used  Aerial parts, root. Constituents  T arragon contains tannins,
coumarins, and flavonoids, and up to 0.8% volatile
oil, consisting of up to 70% methylchervicol, which
is toxic and potentially carcinogenic.History & Folklore  T arragon is widely used
as an herb in cooking. In French, it is sometimes
known as herbe au dragon, because of its reputed
ability to cure serpent bites. Medicinal Actions & Uses  While tarragon
stimulates digestion, it is reputed to be a mild
sedative and has been taken to aid sleep. With its
mild menstruation-inducing properties, it is taken
if periods are delayed. The root has traditionally
been applied to aching teeth. Cautions  Do not take during pregnancy. Do
not exceed the standard dose, and do not take
for longer than 4 weeks at a time. Artemisia vulgaris (Asteraceae)
Mugwort
Description  Shrubby perennial growing to
about 3 ft (1 m). Has dark green deeply indented
leaves and numerous clusters of small reddish or
yellow flower heads. Habitat & Cultivation  Mugwort is found in
temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. It
flourishes in open areas and along roads, and is
gathered in late summer just before flowering. Parts Used  Leaves, root. Constituents  Mugwort contains a volatile oil
(mainly caryophyllene), a sesquiterpene lactone,
flavonoids, coumarin derivatives, and triterpenes. History & Folklore  Known as Mater
Herbarum  (mother of herbs), mugwort was used
from the earliest times in Europe and Asia. Roman
centurions reputedly placed it in their sandals to
keep the soles of their feet in good shape. The
Greek physician Dioscorides (1st century ce)
recounts that the goddess Artemis (who inspired
the plant’s genus name) was believed to give
succor to women in childbirth. The 13th-century
Welsh herbal The Physicians of Myddfai  recommends:
“If a woman be unable to give birth to her child
let the mugwort be bound to her left thigh. Let
it be instantly removed when she has been
delivered, lest there should be hemorrhage.”
An 18th-century Spanish herbalist, Diego de
Torres, recommends the application of a mugwort
plaster below the navel as an effective method
of inducing labor. In the Isle of Man (UK), sprigs
of mugwort are worn at the annual open-air
parliamentary assembly, held on Tynwald Hill. In
China, mugwort has been valued for millennia. It is the principal