, something worthy of a
place in literature and memory. Empires and dynasties have
arisen and fallen like bubbles on the water; bloody typhoons
called wars have swept over the earth and exterminated races
and changed the geography of the map of the world. The
mind of man was employed for thousands of years in trying
to ascertain where he came from, for what purpose he was
here, and where he was going. Stimulated and excited by
invention and travel, only a few hundred years ago the
faculties of gain and accumulation began their development. These have evolved on and on, un til they have reached such
ugly and vulgar eminence that it is no longer respectable to be
extremely rich. It is only of recent years that the intelligence of  mankind
has been directed towards finding out the really useful things
in life. If we mistake not, this decade will stand out in history
as one of the most important since the world began. Its
greatest achievement will be that it has put into motion a tidal
wave, a current of thought that will, do more for the human
race than all the mighty ages and musty centuries that have
gone into the eternity of the past. So long as men looked into the heavens and said, "The
Lord will provide" they never took much interest in
performing that very important task themselves. So long as
they depended upon ignorant kings and rulers for guidance,
the brain was a useless lump of  clay; but in this decade the
people are thinking. The question mark is the sign of the times. The universal
password is "Why?" Why is disease so common, and perfect health so rare? Why are the great majority of people afflicted? Why has the word "ease" b een changed to "disease"? Why do we find so many specimens of perfect health and
development in all other forms of life, and so few among
mankind— the king? All forms of animal life on this globe live about eight
times their periods of maturity, except man. He matures at
about 24. Measured therefore by all other forms of life, he
should live nearly 200 years. But he drops into his grave at an
average age of 40—while he is yet in his youth. There is some good reason for this. We believe the
answer must be found in a consideration of the material from
which his body is constructed. Of what is he made? With what kind of material does he
keep himself fed and repaired? He must be what his food has
made him. Disease is merely the outward expression or penalty for
violated laws. Health is nature's reward for conformity to her laws. If man's present condition is imperfect and unnatural, to
what must it be attributed? The question will soon be solved. It cannot long remain
unanswered. It is too great, t oo important, too stupendous, too
serious for the great throbbing heart of the world to go on and
give it no thought. The best talent in America, that throne and
home of genius whose light and literature have encircled the
world, is beginning to turn toward this question. Men are
really beginning to think something about the material out of
which they construct themselves. It is indeed amazing to think that all these years have
come and gone, and that such a vast amount of human
thought has been bestowed upon the arts and all the sciences
except one, viz. what kind of material will bring mankind to
the highest state of mental, moral and physical development. THE FUNCTION OF FOODS. THE true function of food is to supply material for growth,
and for new tissue, to replace that worn out by effort. Things
which do not serve these two purposes cannot be consistently
classed as foods. On the contrary, they are exactly the
opposite; for when they are taken into the body, they must be
excreted at the expense of energy. These facts should be
observed in the preparation of all materials used as food. What we call life is but the ever-changing expression of
organic matter. Just how it is created, how from the
protoplasm or the tiniest molecule there comes the well-
organized being—what strange change takes place when two
atoms called germs are blended, to create a living thing, what
' gives it form, color and inte lligence—all these things are as
deeply buried in the realm of the unknown as they were a
million years ago. All we know is that all life must comply with certain
natural laws in order to be free—for a man in the throes of
disease is not free. He is a vassal, a slave. He is in bondage. He has himself fastened fetters on his flesh by his own
foolishness—by disobeying nature's laws. Obedience to these laws will keep life in the line of
evolution to higher and high er degrees of perfection till it
reaches that zenith to which nature is ever striving to bring all
she creates. But if these laws are violated the process of evolution is
interfered with, and the penalty is expressed by disease and
death. In the support and maintenance of life the first and most
important thing is the substance upon which it feeds. Animals
in their native state seem to put the proper appreciation upon
foods. They instinctively reject that which is harmful—that
which would interfere with na ture's process of evolution—
and accept as food that which is good for them. Man does not
act with such wisdom. Civilization has created for him
artificial environments in the chaos of which his instincts
have been lost. The most important thing that can possibly engage the
thoughts of mankind is how to build the human body, how to
bring to their highest development all its faculties. This must
depend upon something, must be made of something. That
something is food. It looks incredible indeed that the wisest, wealthiest and
most philanthropic men the world has ever produced would
spend great fortunes and many of the best years of their lives
in erecting and perfecting such things as astronomical
observatories, in creating instruments and delicate scales
upon which the worlds are weighed and distances measured
to the remotest planets, knowing full well that when all this
magnificent array of knowledge was gained that it would be
of no possible benefit to mankind except the mere satisfaction
of knowing that it was known. It seems incredible that they would do all this, yet give absolutely no thought or attention
to the selection of the material out of which the body and
brain are made, upon which, therefore, men must depend for
their health, their contentment and happiness; yes, even their
ability to think out these intricate problems. Man seems to have appropriated for food everything he
could lay his hands on. His ch ief study and delight seems to
have been the mixing and stirring together of all sorts of
things, the combinations of which go on to infinity. No
chemist in the world would dare risk his reputation upon an
attempt to analyze an ordinary Thanksgiving dinner. The only true function of food is the growth and support
of life. The needs of the human body are very limited. All the
nutritive elements it requires can be found in their purest form
in less than half a dozen different articles, which in a natural
and healthy being should be selected by the demands of the
system expressed by hunger. There is therefore no reason for
feeding upon the innumerable variety and endless and
senseless mix-ups that are served upon the average table. By long persistence in incorrect and unnatural habits of
eating and drinking the body will seemingly adjust itself to
false conditions. The argument is nearly always brought forth
that "my foods taste good," "they seem to agree with me," "I
am never sick," etc., etc. This appears convincing, but it is not even entitled to
serious consideration, unless the other (natural) method has
been also tried. Unnatural live rs have no standard to measure
from except their own. They know not what the result would
have been had they lived naturally and correctly. Mr. Gilman Low, of New York, who is in many respects,
perhaps, the most perfect specimen of manhood in the world,
thought the same thing, and argued the same way for many
years. But he tried the new method of living. He decided to
subsist entirely upon foods in their elementary condition, and
to limit his bill of fare to a very few articles. As a result he
lifted, in the presence of a party of friends, a few weeks ago,
one million pounds in thirty-four minutes, lifting 1,000
pounds at a time. He possesses a kind of strength and
endurance that is the marvel of the athletic world to-day. He has the new standard to measure from. It takes
experience to constitute an authority. It takes experience to
convert theory into knowledge. Of all those who will oppose
these methods, not one probably will speak from experience. Not one will possess an opinion that would be taken in a
court of justice on any case involving a dollar bill. Prof. Low is not a professional strong man. He is better
known professionally as an Artist and Health Director and
had sense enough and nerve enough to cease plodding on in
the dusty pathway of others—but decided to try something
new, because it appealed to his common sense. Every faculty in our being conspires together to aid the
body in conforming to the requirements of natural law. Foods
in their natural or elementary state (that the taste will at first
revolt against because it has


	its	existence. All	apparent	form
and	separateness	begin	to	disappear,	and	everything	is	seen	to	be
connected	and	continuous	with	everything	else. One	is	then	witness	to	the
endless	miracle	of	timeless	creation. Everything	is	viewed	as	whole,
perfect,	and	complete. With	the	realization	of	self-identity,	everything	is
seen	to	be	absolutely	perfect	in	its	expression	of	its	divine	essence. Imperfection	exists	only	in	the	mind’s	thoughts. No	imperfection	exists	in
the	world	as	it	is. As	the	level	of	consciousness	proceeds	upward	past	600	into	the	levels
calibrated	at	700	and	beyond,	even	the	world	itself	disappears	as	such. There	are	only	the	unmanifest	and	the	manifest	that	exist	only	as
perception. The	Absolute	Reality	is	itself	formless	and	therefore	present	in
all	form. Q:	Can	one	be	trained	to	reach	these	levels	of	awareness?A:	These	understandings	are	self-revealing;	they	are	not	acquired. Spiritual
learning	does	not	occur	in	a	linear	progression	like	logic. It	is	more	that
familiarity	with	spiritual	principles	and	disciplines	opens	awareness	and
self-realization. Nothing	‘new’	is	learned;	instead,	what	already	exists
presents	itself	as	completely	obvious.CHAPTER	13
Explanations
Q:	What	is	the	best	attitude	for	spiritual	work? A:	A	‘Yin’	type	of	position	that	is	persistent	and	unwavering. The	work
consists	of	understandings,	realizations,	and	a	general	attitude	of	allowing
rather	than	getting. Know	that	what	is	being	sought	is	all	present,	innate	in
All	That	Is,	invisible,	and	silent. It	is	the	requisite	condition	for	existence
itself. It	is	the	one	quality	that	is	of	prime	significance	and	is	the	absolute,
irreducible	matrix	for	anything	to	‘be’. This	is	so	taken	for	granted	that	its	significance	is	ordinarily
overlooked. For	the	condition	of	existence	itself	to	be	apprehended,
Awareness	is	the	necessary	prerequisite. The	intrinsic,	innate	quality	and
essence	of	that	prerequisite,	awareness/	existence,	is	Divinity. When
discovered,	it	is	unmistakable. The	knowingness	is	silent,	without	words,
and	shines	forth	as	a	revelation. It	presents	itself	in	total	completeness	and
finality. It	is	neither	vague	nor	obscure	but	powerful	and	overwhelming. The	Presence	dissolves	all	separateness. It	feels	as	though	one	has
stepped	outside	time. All	sequence	stops	as	if	all	time	and	creation	were
totally	present	equally	in	the	Now. All	that	ever	was	or	could	be	is	already
totally	present	and	complete. All	that	is	possible	to	know	is	already
known. The	potentiality	already	is. All	thought	stops	and	therefore	all
categories	of	thought,	such	as	time,	space,	distance,	and	duration,	cease
and	are	not	applicable. The	world	literally	looks	different. Everything	is	seen	at	much	greater
depth. Everything	is	alive	and	radiant	with	consciousness. Everything	is
aware	that	it	is,	and	it	is	aware	that	everything	else	is	aware. Nothing	is
innately	inert. Q:	What	is	the	best	spiritual	approach	that	is	appropriate	for	self-
inquiry? A:	It	is	an	attitude,	almost	like	a	‘mudra’,	in	that	it	is	a	position	of	awareness
or	observation. It	is	actively	passive	in	that	the	Yin/allowing	attitude	is
consistent	and	unwavering. One	should	not	‘try’	to	see	the	obvious	but
merely	remove	all	obstacles,	such	as	opinions,	beliefs,	mental	categories,
commentaries,	impatience,	or	attempts	by	the	mind	to	anticipate	or	control
the	next	split	second. As	children,	we	have	all	tried	to	‘see	the	hidden	picture’	in	some
pictorial	art	form,	and	when	we	stopped	trying,	it	revealed	itself;	the	bush
suddenly	became	obviously	a	smiling	lion,	for	example. To	‘try’	results	in
reinforcement	of	perception	and	narrowing	of	vision,	and,	therefore,
greater	limitation. It	is	a	paradox	to	look	for	the	invisible. It	is	more	like	an	identification
that	takes	place	with	All	That	Is	and	the	very	substrate	of	existence. By
observation,	it	becomes	clear	that	all	emotional/	mental/conceptual
phenomena	are	spontaneously	happening	on	their	own	and	that	there	is	no
person	as	such	causing	them. The	Self	is	the	total	field	and	all	its	contents	as	well. Consciousness	is
the	quality	by	which	the	Self	is	known,	knowable,	and	expressed. God	is
All	That	Is,	without	any	exclusion—sight,	sound,	space,	objects,	form,
formless,	visible,	invisible,	solid,	liquid,	without	dimension	or	location,
and	everywhere	equal. There	is	no	opposite	to	God. God	is	both	Allness
and	voidness,	equally	form	and	nonform. Q:	How	does	one	transcend	the	opposites? A:	This	is	a	frequently	asked	question. Realize	that	all	opposites	are	only
descriptions	of	convenience	and	have	no	self-existent	reality. They	are	an
illusion	created	by	adopting	or	choosing	an	arbitrary	starting	point	or
observational	position. Their	only	value	is	an	operational	one	to	a
reference	point	of	intention	or	purpose	of	action	or	denotation. That	they
may	and	do	have	operational	convenience	leads	to	the	false	assumption
that	they	are	a	self-existent	reality	rather	than	merely	a	descriptive
viewpoint. All	positionalities	depend	on	definition	and	all	definitions	are
conventionalities	reached	by	historic	agreement. All	conflict	arises	from
positionalities. From	a	higher	viewpoint,	all	alternative	pairs	of
positionalities	are	irrelevant. All	are	based	on	a	presumption	of	an
intended	or	theoretically	possible	future	action. An	obvious	one	is	the
possibility	of	choice. If	no	potential	value,	action,	qualification,	or	choice
is	desired	or	appropriate,	the	opposites	disappear	into	meaninglessness. Discrimination	is	definition	for	the	purpose	of	the	communication	of
information	between	separated	points	or	entities. In	Reality,	where	nothing
is	separate	from	anything	else,	there	is	no	information	necessary	nor	are
there	any	spaces	or	gaps	across	which	such	information	would	be	sent. There	is	neither	a	sender	nor	a	receiver,	nor	any	discrete	or	limited	parcels
of	information	that	could	be	conveyed. Communication	is	of	value	only	in	the	world	of	perception	whereeverything	appears	to	be	separated	from	everything	else. In	Reality,	all	is
already	known	by	all	that	has	existence. No	messages	are	necessary,	just	as
the	ocean	does	not	need	the	concept	of	‘wetness’	to	be	itself. Q:	Are	verbalizations	misleading? A:	If	accurate,	they	can	be	very	useful	as	a	starting	point	to	delineate	the
nature	and	direction	of	a	quest. A	verbalization	helps	to	set	a	context	that
then	progressively	becomes	nonverbal	and	more	inclusive. Accurate
information	saves	time	and	speeds	fruitful	inquiry	by	indicating	which
routes	would	be	fruitlessly	time-consuming	and	diversionary. To	know
which	closet	the	shoes	are	in	saves	searching	all	the	closets	in	the	house. A
good	compass	saves	many	miles	of	being	lost,	just	as	an	accurate	map
saves	a	lot	of	fruitless	and	frustrating	guesswork. Q:	How	can	one	see	past	the	opposites	of	duality? A:	The	om


—even if we attain it—for the simple r eason that we ar e
much mor e than the small handful of qualities that ﬁt neatly
into our ego ideal. In the pr ocess of trying to e xpress only
those aspects of ourselves that we believe will guarantee us
the acceptance of others, we suppr ess some of our mostvaluable and inter esting featur es and sentence ourselves to
a life of r eenacting the same drama with the same outwor n
script. In this quest for safety and pr edictability, our range of
self-expression shrinks and, with it, our choices. Who and
what we will be tomor row is usually some for m of who we
were yester day, because we can only access the r esour ces
and behaviors of the self that has consented to be seen. In
shutting out the darkness we fear lurks within us because
we fear the destruction it might cause, we also shut oﬀ the
competent, powerful, successful, se xy, funny, and brilliant
parts of ourselves that ar e year ning for e xpression. This is
the root cause of the bor edom we of ten feel in some or
many ar eas of our life. As we sever our r elationship with certain aspects of our
personality, we deny ourselves access to stimulation,
excitement, passion, and cr eativity. One of the most e xciting
aspects of being human is that ther e are literally hundr eds
of inspiring, useful, and powerful parts of ourselves lying
dormant, aching to come out of the shadow and be
integrated into the whole of the self. Ther e is a whole ar ray
of wonderful feelings waiting for an opportunity to move
through our body, bringing us new sensations and new
levels of happiness, joy, and pleasur e. We can’t r eally enjoy
the enor mity of who we ar e, because we have for gotten who
we ar e beyond the bor ders of our own r estricted inter nal
barriers and the constraints we have imposed on our
emotional world. To be r einspir ed in any ar ea of our life, we just have to
look to see which of our shadow aspects or characters have
been driven out of sight, ﬁnd safe and appr opriate ways for
them to e xpress themselves, and invite them once again
onto the stage. W e must challenge ourselves to accept all
the faces of our humanity; otherwise the characters that got
booted oﬀ stage and ar e now r epressed will become the
silent or chestrators of our secr et life. Only in the pr esence ofour entir e, uncensor ed self can we fully understand and
appreciate our totality and our uniqueness. W e must ﬁnd a
good use for every character, or we will r emain at war
within ourselves. BEFRIENDING OUR SHADOW
To begin to grasp how essential the shadow is, try to
imagine a story without any conﬂict or a her o whose virtue
is never put to the test by a worthy adversary. The her o of
any story could not e xist if it wer e not for the villains that
challenge the her o along the way. If what the Easter n
wisdom traditions say is indeed true, that “the sinner and
the saint ar e mer ely e xchanging notes,” then the conﬂict
between our higher and lower natur es cr eates the tension
necessary to pr opel our evolution as human beings. The
same concept that guides good literatur e applies equally in
real life: heroes ar e only as str ong as their villains. In the drama of our evolution, the shadow is the character
of greatest inter est. The shadow is only danger ous when we
keep it lock ed away in the dark cellar of r epression. That’s
when we run the risk that it will blow up in our face,
derailing our diets, sabotaging our r elationships, and killing
our dr eams. But if we allow our shadow characters to serve
as integrated parts of our whole self—as colorful, powerful
forces for the good—they will lead us to richer e xperiences,
more genuine connections, mor e laughter, mor e
authenticity, and honest self -expression. The battle with our
dark side will never be won thr ough hatr ed and r epression;
we can’t ﬁght darkness with darkness. W e have to ﬁnd
compassion and embrace the darkness inside us in or der to
understand it and, ultimately, to transcend it. In his inﬂuential book The Art of W ar, Sun Tzu suggests
that “to know your enemy, you must become your enemy. ”
In this case, the enemy is usually an impulse insideourselves that we don’t understand or don’t know how to
deal with. As long as we’r e denying, r epressing, or
minimizing the importance of this and other hidden ur ges,
as long as we believe that our own dark impulses will never
catch up with us or be e xposed, their wisdom will continue
to elude us. By actively ﬁnding the gif ts and r eceiving the
contribution our shadow is trying to mak e, we r edirect its
once destructive power into a for ce that can beneﬁt our life. More than that, we become a r ole model for others to ﬁnd
healthy outlets for the parts of themselves that don’t
confor m to society’s script or to their ego ideal. We can be saints by pr oviding the sinners that r eside
within us the fr eedom of self -expression—not by indulging
bad behavior, but by seeing how this impulse or quality
could serve us or society as a whole. The mor e acceptance
and safe e xpression we ﬁnd for our dark er impulses, the less
we will have to wor ry about being blindsided by them. I
know you might be wondering how a part of you that you
fear and loathe could actually serve you, but I pr omise you
as you go thr ough the pr ocess, you will see that ther e are
gifts to be mined in every quality, feeling, and e xperience. Reclaiming the parts of ourselves that we have r elegated
to the shadow is the most r eliable path to actualizing all of
our human potential. Once befriended, our shadow becomes
a divine map that—when pr operly r ead and followed—
reconnects us to the life we wer e meant to live, the people
we wer e meant to be, and the contributions we wer e meant
to give. Embracing our inner beast is the tick et to fr eedom. It is the conduit for tapping into all our gr eatness. It mak es
our inner life rich and meaningful and our outer life mor e
enjoyable. It allows us to bask in wholeness rather than be
constrained by the limitations of a self that was cr eated by
smok e and mir rors. Why smok e and mir rors. Because if we
have cr eated our public image or persona out of only those
qualities we have deemed acceptable, we will have lef t outsome of the most important, potent, and ﬂavorful parts of
ourselves. OUR SHADOW MASK
Uncovering the parts of ourselves that we lear ned to r epress
is the k ey to understanding why we enjoy fr eedom in some
areas of our life and behave lik e a robot in others. It is fear
that convinces us to wear one of an inﬁnite number of
masks to hide behind and to construct a persona—a
costume, so to speak—to conceal all of who we r eally ar e. We work tir elessly to cr eate an outer façade, so that no one
will ﬁnd out about our dark thoughts, desir es, impulses, and
history. It is the shadow of our past that dr ove us to cr eate
the face—the mask—that we show the world. W ill we be a
people pleaser, or will we seek r elief from the world by
being isolated, distant, and alone. W ill we work tir elessly to
be per ceived as an overachiever, or will we be content to lie
in front of the TV or spend hours sear ching Inter net gossip
sites. Our persona was not cr eated by accident; it was
created in or der to camouﬂage the parts of ourselves we
deemed the most undesirable and to over compensate for
what we believe to be our deepest ﬂaws. This false self is char ged with one mission only : to hide all
of the unwanted and unacceptable parts of ourselves. If we
were wounded fr om having been raised by emotionally
unpredictable par ents, we may work very har d to portray an
image that we ar e calm and in contr ol. If we had a lear ning
disability gr owing up, we might cr eate a war m, overly loving
personality, so others won’t notice what we per ceive to be
our handicap. If we ar e ashamed of the fact that we wer e
raised by a welfar e mom, we might become a highly
motivated work er who is always impeccably dr ess


rainage	slows	down	or	becomes	obstructed,	the	thymus	gland,
tonsils,	and	spleen	start	to	deteriorate	quite	rapidly. These	organs	form	an	important	part	of
the	body’s	system	of	purification	and	immunity. In	addition,	microbes	harbored	in
gallstones	can	be	a	constant	source	of	recurring	infection	in	the	body,	which	may	render
the	lymphatic	and	immune	systems	ineffective	against	more	serious	infections,	such	as
infectious	mononucleosis,	measles,	typhoid	fever,	tuberculosis,	syphilis,
	and	the	like. Owing	to	restricted	bile	flow	in	the	liver	and	gallbladder,	the	small	intestine	is	restricted
in	its	capacity	to	digest	food	properly. This	permits	substantial	amounts	of	waste	matter
and	poisonous	substances,	such	as
cadaverines
	and
putrescines
	(breakdown	products	of
putrefied	food),	to	seep	into	the	lymphatic	ducts. These	toxins,	along	with	fats	and
proteins,	enter	the	body’s	largest	lymph	vessel,	the
thoracic	duct,
	at	the
cysterna	chyli. The
cysterna	chyli	are	dilated	lymph	vessels	in	the	shape	of	sacks,	situated	in	front	of	the	first
two	lumbar	vertebrae	(see
Figure	9
)	at	the	level	of	the	belly	button. Toxins,	antigens,	and	undigested	proteins	from	animal	sources,	including	fish,	meat,
eggs,	and	dairy	foods,	as	well	as	leaked	plasma	proteins,	cause	these	lymph	sacks	to	swell
and	become	inflamed. When	the	cells	of	an	animal	become	damaged	or	die,	which
happens	seconds	after	it	is	killed,	its	protein	structures	are	broken	down	by	cellular
enzymes. These	so-called	“degenerate”	proteins	are	useless	for	the	body,	and	they	become
harmful	unless	they	are	promptly	removed	by	the	lymphatic	system. Their	presence
usually	invites	enhanced	microbial	activity. Viruses,	fungi,	and	bacteria	feed	on	the	pooled
wastes. In	some	cases,	allergic	reactions	occur. Figure	9
:	Cysterna	chyli	and	thoracic	duct

When	the	cysterna	chyli	(lymph	sacks)	are	overtaxed	and	congested,	the	lymphatic
system	is	no	longer	able	to	sufficiently	remove	even	the	body’s	own	degenerate	proteins
(from	worn-out	cells). This	results	in
lymph	edema. While	lying	on	the	back,	existing
lymph	edema	can	be	felt	as	hard	knots,	sometimes	as	large	as	a	fist,	in	the	area	of	the	belly
button. These	“rocks”	are	a	major	cause	of
middle	and	low	back	pain
	and
abdominal
swelling,
	and,	in	fact,	of	most	symptoms	of	ill	health. Many	people	who	have	grown	a
“tummy”	consider	this	abdominal	extension	to	be	just	a	harmless	nuisance	or	a	natural
part	of	aging. They	don’t	realize	that	they	are	breeding	a	living	“time	bomb”	that	may	go
off	some	day	and	injure	vital	parts	of	the	body. Anyone	with	a	bloated	abdomen	suffers
from	major	lymph	congestion. Some	80	percent	of	the	lymphatic	system	is	associated	with	the	intestines,	making	this
area	of	the	body	the	largest	center	of	immune	activity. This	is	no	coincidence. The	part	of
the	body	where	most	disease-causing	agents	are	combated	or	generated	is,	in	fact,	the
intestinal	tract. Any	lymph	edema,	or	other	kind	of	obstruction	in	this	important	part	of	the
lymphatic	system,	can	lead	to	potentially	serious	complications	elsewhere	in	the	body. Wherever	a	lymph	duct	is	obstructed,	lymph	has	also	accumulated	at	some	distance
from	the	obstruction. Consequently,	the	lymph	nodes	located	in	such	an	area	can	no	longer
adequately	neutralize	or	detoxify	the	following	things:	dead	and	live	phagocytes	and	their
ingested	microbes,	worn-out	tissue	cells,	cells	damaged	by	disease,	products	of
fermentation,	pesticides	in	food,	toxic	antibodies	contained	in	most	plant	foods,	inhaled	or
otherwise	ingested	chemical	particles,	cells	from	malignant	tumors,	and	the	millions	of
cancer	cells	every	healthy	person	generates	each	day. Incomplete	destruction	of	these
things	can	cause	these	lymph	nodes	to	become	inflamed,	enlarged,	and	congested	withblood. Infected	material	may	enter	the	bloodstream,	causing	septic	poisoning	and	acute
illnesses. In	most	cases,	though,	the	lymph	blockage	occurs	slowly,	without	any	symptoms
other	than	swelling	of	the	abdomen,	hands,	arms,	feet,	or	ankles,	or	sometimes	puffiness	in
the	face	and	eyes. This	is	often	referred	to	as	“water	retention,”	a	major	precursor	of
chronic	illness. Continuous	lymphatic	obstruction	usually	leads	to	chronic	health	problems. Almost
every	chronic	illness	results	from	congestion	in	the	cysterna	chyli. Eventually,	the	thoracic
duct,	which	drains	the	cysterna	chyli,	is	overburdened	by	the	constant	influx	of	toxic
material	and	becomes	clogged	up,	too. The	thoracic	duct	is	linked	with	numerous	other
lymph	ducts	(see
Figures	9
	and
10
)	that	empty	their	waste	into	the	thoracic	“sewer	canal.”

Since	the	thoracic	duct	has	to	remove	nearly	85	percent	of	the	body’s	daily-generated
cellular	waste	and	other	potentially	hazardous	material,	a	blockage	there	causes	backing
up	of	waste	into	other,	more	distant	parts	of	the	body. When	the	daily-generated	metabolic	waste	and	cellular	debris	are	not	removed	from	an
area	in	the	body	for	a	certain	length	of	time,	symptoms	of	disease	start	to	manifest. The
following	are	but	a	few	typical	examples	of	illness	indicators	that	result	directly	from
chronic,	localized	lymph	congestion:

Figure	10
:	Lymphatic	system	and	lymph	node

Obesity,	cysts	in	the	uterus	or	ovaries,	enlargement	of	the	prostate	gland,	rheumatism	in
the	joints,	enlargement	of	the	left	half	of	the	heart,	congestive	heart	failure,	congestedbronchi	and	lungs,	swelling	or	enlargement	of	the	neck	area,	stiffness	in	the	neck	and
shoulders,	backaches,	headaches,	migraines,	dizziness,	vertigo,	ringing	in	the	ears,
earaches,	deafness,	dandruff,	frequent	colds,	sinusitis,	hay	fever,	certain	types	of	asthma,
thyroid	enlargement,	eye	diseases,	poor	vision,	swelling	in	the	breasts,	breast	cancer,
kidney	problems,	lower	back	pains,	swelling	of	the	legs	and	ankles,	scoliosis,	brain
disorders,	memory	loss,	stomach	trouble,	enlarged	spleen,	irritable	bowel	syndrome,
hernia,	polyps	in	the	colon,	and	others. The	thoracic	duct	typically	empties	its	detoxified	waste	contents	into	the	left
subclavian
vein
	at	the	root	of	the	neck. This	vein	enters	the
superior	vena	cava,
	which	leads	straight
into	the	heart. In	addition	to	blocking	proper	lymph	drainage	from	the	various	organs	or
parts	of	the	body,


 them in or der to get my
needs met. Or what I thought my needs wer e. My r eal need,
of course, was to r ealize that I didn’t need a man to ﬁll what
only felt lik e these insatiable emotional needs. The needs
themselves wer e not r eal, but mer ely a r eﬂection of the fact
that I thought of myself as less than perfect. Salvation
would only come thr ough my r elinquishing the thought that
I wasn’t good enough. By defending myself against being
abandoned, I continued to r ecreate the conditions in which
it was bound to occur. Why can’t men commit? I can only answer for some of
them that I’ve known, but in those cases, and in the cases
of many women I’ve observed, men haven’t committed
because the women have been ar mored against it. Our
armor is our darkness—the dark of the heart, the dark of the
pain, the dark of the moment when we mak e that wick ed
comment or that unfair r equest. Our defenses r eﬂect our wounds. But no person can heal
those wounds. They can give us love, innocently and
sincer ely, but if we’r e already convinced that people can’t
be trusted—if that’s the decision we’ve alr eady made—then
our mind will construe whatever someone’s behavior is, as
evidence that our pr eviously drawn conclusion was cor rect. The Course tells us we decide what we want to see befor e
we see it. If we want to focus on someone’s lack of r espect
for our feelings, we can certainly ﬁnd it, given the fact that I
don’t know of many enlightened masters available for
dating in the major cities of America today. But a lot of
people ar e making gr eater eﬀorts than we give them cr edit
for, and ar e working against some for midable odds when
our egos have convinced us that men or women ar e jerks, ordon’t lik e us, or always leave, or that ther e just ar en’t any
good ones out ther e.
13. CHANGING OUR MIND
“The fundamental change will occur with the
change of mind in the think er.”
The goal of spiritual practice is full r ecovery, and the only
thing you need to r ecover fr om is a fractur ed sense of self. If
you don’t alr eady believe it yourself, another person cannot
convince you you’r e okay. If they act as though you ar e, you
will either not believe them, or become so dependent on
their r einfor cement that you pr oceed thr ough your
dependency to change their mind. Either way, you stay
convinced that you’r e not ok ay. The only e xercise in the
Workbook of A Course in Miracles  that is r epeated several
times is “I am as God cr eated me.” As I have mentioned
earlier, the Course says that your only r eal pr oblem is that
you have for gotten who you ar e.
You awak en to your own perfection thr ough your desir e
to see the perfection in someone else. Sometimes this is not
easy. When I feel the old familiar darkness starting to
descend ar ound me, when a man, for instance, mak es a
comment that I know intellectually is pr obably innocent
enough, but which mak es me feel that I am abandoned or
uncar ed for or r ejected, I’ve been thr ough enough in my life
to know that the evil does not lie in what he just said. He is
not the enemy. The enemy is this feeling, which in the past
has led me to attack or defend enough to mak e him feel
exactly what I’m feeling he’s feeling but he r eally isn’t. I can
choose to see this diﬀer ently. This is my wall. This is wher e
we must be very conscious and call on God. Ask for a
miracle: “ Dear God, please help me. This is it. Right her e.There is wher e the swor d enters my heart. This is wher e I
blow it every time.”
The moment when the pain is gr eatest is a wonderful
opportunity. The ego would pr efer that we never look too
directly into the pain. When in crisis, ther e’s a good
opportunity we might have a slip and ask Heaven for help. The ego would pr efer that we not go into crisis. The ego
prefers that a mild river of misery run thr ough the
backgr ound of our lives, never bad enough to mak e us
question whether our own choices ar e creating the pain. When the pain is her e, that is when we have a chance to
“rout Satan and r emove him for ever.” A man once said to
me, “Y ou know, Marianne, you can work on this stuﬀ with
your therapist, A Course in Miracles, your editor, the
relationships lectur er, and all of your girlfriends, but none of
them pr ovide you with the opportunity that you have by
working it out with me.” What he meant of course, is with
them I could describe the pain, but with him I could feel it. And in that moment, if I didn’t tak e the childish, nar cissistic
copout and leave, but r emained to face the fear and move
through it, then the purpose of the r elationship could be
fulﬁlled. When our darkness is br ought to light and for given,
then we can move on. We heal thr ough noticing, and prayer. Awareness alone
does not heal us. If analysis by itself could heal our wounds,
we would all be healed by now. Our neur oses have become
deeply embedded into our psyches, lik e a tumor that wraps
itself ar ound a vital or gan. The pr ocess of miraculous change is twofold:
1. I see my er ror or dysfunctional patter n.
2. I ask God to tak e it fr om me.The ﬁrst principle without the second is impotent. As
they say in Alcoholics Anonymous, “ your best thinking got
you her e.” You’re the pr oblem but you’r e not the answer. The second principle isn’t enough to change us, either. The Holy Spirit can’t tak e from us what we won’t r elease to
Him. He won’t work without our consent. He cannot r emove
our character defects without our willingness, because that
would be violating our fr ee will. W e chose those patter ns,
however mistak enly, and He will not for ce us to give them
up. In asking God to heal you, you ar e committing to the
choice to be healed. This means the choice to change. The
ego’s r esistance to this is intense. It wants us to think that
an old dog doesn’t change. “I’m angry because I’m an
alcoholic,” for instance, might describe your anger, but it
doesn’t justif y it. The only advantage of knowing that you’r e
angry, is so that you can mak e a choice to be otherwise. Y ou
can spend years in therapy, but until the choice is made to
do it diﬀer ently, you just k eep going ar ound in cir cles. Of
course it feels unnatural to be gentle when you’ve been
harsh for many years, but that’s no e xcuse for not trying. A Course in Miracles  says that the most eﬀective way to
teach a child is not by saying ‘Don’t do that,’ but ‘Do this.’
We don’t r each the light thr ough endless analysis of the
dark. W e reach the light by choosing the light. Light means
understanding. Thr ough understanding, we ar e healed. If the purpose of a r elationship is for people to be healed,
and healing can only occur when our wounds ar e revealed,
then the ego confr onts us with a ter rible Catch-22. If I don’t
show myself, ther e can be no gr owth. W ithout gr owth, ther e
will ultimately be bor edom, which is death for therelationship. But if I do r eveal myself honestly, then I might
appear unattractive and my partner will leave. The ego’s nar cissism has us waiting for the perfect
person to appear. The Holy Spirit knows that the sear ch for
perfection in another is just a smok escreen that hides our
need to develop the perfect within ourselves. And if ther e is
a perfect person out ther e—which ther e isn’t—would they
date you? When we give up the childish obsession with
scanning the planet for Mr. or Ms. Right, we can begin to
develop the skills of compassionate r elationship. W e stop
judging people and start relating to them instead. W e
recognize, ﬁrst and for emost, that we’r e not in a r elationship
to focus on how well the other person is lear ning their
lessons, but rather to focus on lear ning our own. The ego defends against love


 that I find it impossible to take my attention away fr o m it and
feel the inner bo dy. This happens particularly when I get into a worry or
anxiety pattern. Do you have any suggestions. If at any time you are finding it hard to get in touch with the inner body,
it is usually easier to focus on your breathing first. Conscious breathing,
which is a powerful meditation i n its own right, will gradually put you in
touch w ith the body. Follow the breath with your attention as it moves in
and out of your body. Breathe into the body, and feel your abdomen
expanding and contracting slightly with each inhalation and exhalation. If y ou find it easy to visualize, close your eyes and see yourself
surrounded by light or immerse d in a luminous substance — a sea of
consciousness. Then breathe in that ligh t. Feel that luminous su bstance
filling u p your body and making it luminous also. Then gradually focus
more on  the feeling. Y ou are now  in your body. Don’ t get attached to any
visual image. CREA TIVE USE OF MIND
If yo u n eed to use your mind for  a specific purpose, use it in con junction
with your inner body. Only if you are able to be conscious  without
thought can you use your mind creatively, and the easiest way to enter
that state is through your body. Whenever an answer, a solution, or a
creative idea is n eeded, stop thinking for a moment by focusing attention
on your  inner ener gy field. Be come aware of the stillness. When you
resume thinking, it will be fresh and creative. In any thought activity,
make it a habit to go back and  forth every few minutes or so between
thinking and an inner kind of lis tening, an inner stillness. W e c ould say:
don’ t just think with your head, think with your whole body. THE AR T OF LISTENING
When listening to another person, don’ t just listen with your mind, listen
with your whole body. Feel the ener gy field of your inner body as youlisten. T hat takes attention away from thinking and creates a still space
that ena bles you to truly listen without the mind interfering. Y ou are
giving the other person space —  space to be. It is the most precious gift
you can  give. Most people don’ t know how to listen because t he major
part of their attention is taken up  by thinking. They pay more attention to
that than to what the other person is saying, and none at all to what really
matters: the Being of the other person underneath the words  and the
mind. O f course, you cannot fe el someone else’ s Being except through
your ow n. This is the beginning of the realization of oneness, which is
love. At the deepest level of Being, you are one with all that is. Most hu man relationships consist mainly of minds interacting with each
other, not of hu man beings communicating, being in commu nion. No
relationship can  thrive in that way, and that is why there is so much
conflict in relationships. When the mind is running your life, conflict,
strife, and problems are inevitab le. Being in touch with your inner body
creates a clear space of no-m ind within which the relationship can
flower. CHAPTER SEVEN
P O R T A L S  I N T O
 T H E  U N M A N I F E S T E D
GOING DEEPL Y INT O THE BODY
I can feel the en er gy inside my body, especially in my arms and  legs, but
I don’ t seem to be able to go mor e deeply, as you suggested earlier. Make it into a m editation. It needn’ t take long. T en to fifteen m inutes of
clock time should be suf ficient. Make sure first that there are no external
distractions such  as telephones o r people who are likely to interrupt you. Sit o n a chair, but don’ t lean ba ck. Keep the spine erect. Doin g so will
help you  to stay alert. Alternati vely, choose your own favorite position
for meditation. Make su re the body is relaxed.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>
Q: What is the relationship between presence and the inner body?,
A: The inner body is your link to the Unmanifested, and it is the key to transcending the ego and the world of form.
Q: Can you use your mind to understand the Unmanifested?,
A: No, you cannot use your mind to understand the Unmanifested, as it is beyond the realm of thought and conceptualization.
Q: What is the relationship between the inner body and the outer body?,
A: The inner body is timeless and ageless, and the outer body will also slow down its aging process and become stronger as a result.
Q: Is it possible to use your mind to create a portal to the Unmanifested?,
A: No, the mind cannot create a portal to the Unmanifested, and instead, it is the source of separation and conflict.
Q: Can you achieve enlightenment through a romantic relationship?,
A: No, enlightenment is not achieved through a romantic relationship, as it is a fleeting experience and not a sustainable state. True love and enlightenment can only arise from a deep understanding of the inner body and the Unmanifested.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>T o defend himself against her
pain-body’ s atta ck, which he sees as totally unwarranted, he wil l become
even mo re deeply entrenched in his mental positions as he justifies,
defends himself, or counterattac ks. Eventually, this may activate his own
pain-body. When  both partners h ave thus been taken over, a level of deep
unconsciousness has been reached, of emotional violence, savage attack
and counterattack. It will not subside until both pain-bodies have
replenished them selves and then enter the dormant stage. Until the next
time. This is only one of an endless number of possible scenarios. Many
volumes have been written, and  many more could be written, about the
ways in which unconsciousness is brought out in male-female
relationships. Bu t, as I said earlier, once you understand the root of the
dysfunction, you do not need to explore its countless manifestations. Let’ s briefly look again at the scenario I have just describe d. Every
challenge that it contains is actually a disguised opportunity for
salvation. At every stage of the unfolding dysfunctional process, freedom
from unconsciousness is possible. For example, the woman’ s hostility
could become a signal for the man to come out of his mind-identified
state, aw aken into the Now, become present — instead of becoming even
more id entified with his mind, even more unconscious. Instead of
“being” the pain-body, the woman could be the knowing that watches the
emotional pain in herself, thus accessing the power of the Now and
initiating the transmutation o f the pain. This would remove the
compulsive and automatic outward projection of it. She could then
express her feelings to her partner. There is no guarantee, of co urse, that
he w ill listen, b ut it gives him  a good chance to become present and
certainly breaks  the insane cycle of the involuntary acting out of old
mind pa tterns. If the woman m isses that opportunity, the man could
watch h is own  mental-emoti onal reaction to her pain, his own
defensiveness, r ather than being  the reaction. He could then watch hisown pain-body being triggered  and thus bring consciousness into his
emotions. In this way, a clear a nd still space of pure awarene ss would
come in to being — the knowing, the silent witness, the watcher. This
awareness does not deny the pain and yet is beyond it. It allows the pain
to b e an d yet transmutes it at the same time. It accepts everything and
transforms everything. A door would have opened up for her through
which she could easily join him in that space. If you are consistently or at least predominantly present in your
relationship, thi s will be the greatest challenge for your partn er. They
will not be able to tolerate your presence for very long and stay
unconscious. If they are ready, they will walk through the door that you
opened for them and join you in that state. If they are not, you will
separate like oil and water. The light is too painful for some one who
wants to remain in darkness. WHY WOMEN ARE CLOSER T O ENLIGHTENMENT
Ar e the obstacles to enlightenment the same for a man as for a woman? Y es, but the emphasis is dif ferent. Generally speaking, it is easier for a
woman to feel a nd be in her body, so she is naturally closer to B eing and
potentially closer to enlightenment than a man. This is why many ancient
cultures instinctively chose female figures or analogies to represent or
describe the formless and transcendental reality. It was often s een as a
womb that gives birth to everything in creation and sustains and
nourishes it during its life as form. In the T ao T e Ching, one of the most
ancient and profound books e ver written, the T ao, wh ich could be
translated as Being, is described as


 Thera py taught me how to live correctly. At my
parents’ home back then, body  weight began to come back from my dad
and mom making juices for me to drink. They used only fresh, organic
vegetables and fruits, which are more expensive than the supermarket
variety. Original ly, my mother was afraid for my life; she truly thought I
was gone, but then she saw that slowly I was improving. “It took nearly two years of detoxifying and nourishing my body before
the immune system kicked in and took over against ovaria n cancer. I
observed it do this when one day my temperature rose to 104°F during a
healing reaction. After that point, I just got better and better,” Sandra says. “I took no other  medication or nutritional supplementation other than what
the Gers on diet prescribes—the  niacin, coenzymeQ10, thyroid, potassium,
acidol/pepsin, pancreatin, and liver. These simple supplements, the diet
itself, the juices, and the detox  worked for me. I am alive and thriving
today, fourteen years after being  diagnosed with the cancer, because of my
faithfully following the Gerson Therapy [see the photograph below showing
how Sandra Whitwell appears today]. “The detoxification is difficult to take and people should be aware of
what to expect. I kept a diary so that I know what I went through and how
to cope with the flareups. Perhaps you would want some of my suggestions
for achieving a successful Gerson Therapy,” wonders Sandra Whitwell. “Would you?”Sandra Whitwell
Sandra’ s Suggestions for a Successful Gerson Therapy
Having faithfull y pursued the Gerson Therapy full-time for two years,
and still making it her total lifestyle, Sandra Whitwell affirms that this
procedure has saved her life and restored her health. Durin g that time
almost fifteen years ago Sandra  accepted the Gerson program as her anti-
ovarian-cancer treatment, and nothing else. She still eats, juices, and
cleanses according to the Gerson therapy’ s regulations and occasionally
returns to the nearest Gerson facility for further program updates. She
looked the picture of robust health when we visited with her at the Gerson
hospital for one full week in November 1999. “Two years is not so long to ensure that you will live, and during the
process you are renewing every cell in your liver—the main  portion ofone’s immune system,” says Sandra. “The Gerson method is not for wimps;
however, it takes fighters! This natural and nontoxic treatment is difficult,
because you’re not just popping  a pill or having some health professional
do something to you or for you. Instead, you must help yourself  and call for
personal assistance from famil y or friends when needed, at least in the
beginning. Most of us are too accustomed to eating fast foods, looking for
fast fixes for what ails us, and taking the easy way out. Not so with the
Gerson Therapy; it’ s a life-changing treatment! “From my experience, I put together some suggestions for achieving
success with conquering cancer and other chronic illnesses by use of the
Gerson Therapy. In no particu lar order of importance, my suggestions
follow:
• Keep a diary  to record your emotional swings, healing reactions,
deviations from the Gerson program, responses of outsiders to how you
are eatin g or what you’re doing. You’ll discover what you’ve done to
bring on a flare-up. And from their comments, you’ll learn who are your
real friends. • Try to prepare foods and procedures in advance of the next day after
drinking your last daily juice. Not enough time is left to spare during
each day for making coffee, taking ‘coffee breaks,’ engaging in castor oil
enema days, fixing the medicati ons, taking in organically grown produce
shipments, cleaning the veggies, studying recipes, and planning meals. Being or ganized is a plus for your self-treatment. • Watch the Gerson videos, read the Gerson books, listen to the Gerson
audiotapes. After almost fiftee n years of participating in the Gerson
Therapy, I still do this and learn new information every time. • On castor oil days, start early with drinking the terrible stuff. Use the
little medicine cups as dosage forms. (Use of castor oil is not for anyone
who has been pretreated with chemotherapy.) I always put one
tablespoonful of cranberry juice or apple juice in my cup first and then
add the required  two tablespoonfuls of castor oil. The mixture goes down
more readily with juice added. Then, after swallowing the mixture, I taste
the juice  rather than the oil. Always drink one cup of hot coffee directly
after swallowing the castor oil mixture to speed up the process of the oil
going through your gastrointestinal tract. • Next after drinking the castor oil, eat a piece of fruit and take your first
coffee enema. Undoubtedly this will be a ‘yucky-feeling’ day, buttomorrow you will definitely feel much better! In my opinion,  drinking
the castor oil is easier on the body than taking a castor oil enema. • To prepare the castor oil enema, my suggestion is slightly dif ferent from
the Gerson regulation. Put warm  distilled water in the bucket and run that
water through the tube into the tub or shower. Then shut off the tube
leaving the warm water in it. Pour out the excess water that remains in
the bucket. Put castor oil and ox bile mix (no soap) in the bucket. Now
open the tube and allow water  to flow out into the tub or shower (or
toilet); as the water flows out it pulls the oil mixture into the tube. The
tube should hold the full amou nt of mixture needed. Shut off the tube! Now fill the bucket with the coffee mixture, and you are ready  for your
castor oil coffee cleansing. This enema is usually hard to hold—don’ t
worry! Hold as long as possible  and still benefit from taking a castor oil
cleanse. As it happens, this method which had been recom mended
previously is now discontinued by the Gerson hospital, but I find it still
works well for me. • Chamo mile tea enemas are always welcome to take when you have
released toxins causing you to feel unable to hold the coffee during a
cleansing. Cham omile taken rectally is soothing, and on castor oil days
especially, may be easier to hold. • Never become upset when you can’t hold the coffee enema. Sometimes
you just need to try again or maybe wait until your next coffee-cleansing
time. Just keep trying until you become practiced at doing the enema and
look forward to the good feeling with which it leaves you. • A trick I use for those rare times when I’m having a hard time holding
the coffee enema is to slow down the flow. I feel fewer spasms if it takes
about five minutes to flow in. Slow the flow by lowering your bucket or
closing the valve on the tube and opening periodically. • If you have tried slowing the enema flow but still feel spasms, put a
teaspoonful of potassium into the four cups of coffee solutio n. At the
beginning of using the Gerson approach, your body may well be
potassium-depleted which manifests itself by abdominal spasms. • To reduce or eliminate niacin flush, take this vitamin B3 only on a full
stomach. Alternatively, let the niacin tablet melt in your mouth  or under
the tongue. That’ s what I do. • If you hire help for daily assist ance, employ two or three peop le so that
if someone doesn’ t show for the work shift, you’ll have a backu p personto do a double shift. If the absent person is sick, you won’ t want him or
her around anyway since you’re fighting enough against illness. • Don’t play the mind games thrown at you by your subconscious or by
other people. Think positively, play good music, count your blessings,
think of the troubles others are experiencing, and realize that yours are
surmountable. Self-pity will get you nowhere. As I’ve suggested, your
diary is the place to write down your thoughts to get rid of them from
your head. Then you can dwell on better things. Tomorrow, when you
reread your diary, you will wonder why you were in such a bad state of
mind. • Each phase in this step-by-step process—juices, food, medications,
coffee—is impo rtant. Work hard! Stay with a stick-to-it attitude! Be
disciplined! Succeed! • Finally, remember that God never gives you more than you can handle. There is a reason for going through this tribulation. After coming out
from under your trouble, you may be the one to save someone else’s life
beside your own!”
—Sandra Whitwell, Stuart, V irginia
PANCREA TIC CANCER  REMAINS  GONE FOR  ALMOST  FIFTEEN  YEARS
In Septemer 1985, pneumonia  developed for forty-six-year -old Mrs.
Ronald (Patricia) Ainey of Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada. Despite
her being a cigarette smoker and alcoholic beverage drinker, she had
sustained good general health throughout


 that I was trying to write a book
and I needed support here, dammit?!? There was a time in my life when I would have seen the situation that
way—as simply  about me not attracting the support I neede d. But this
wasn’ t some random event ironically at odds with the book  that I was
writing. It was an exact reflection  of the book I was writing. The fact that
I’m writing abou t these things brought up all the ways in which  I’m not yet
living them. That is how perfectly the cosmic computer works. If my only response to an assistant who doesn’ t do as I wish is simply to
get angry, then I’m limiting my ability to find the words or behavior thatcan help her do better. It also keeps me from having larger clarity about the
relationship as a whole. This isn’ t about her. It’s about me. But what about healthy boundaries? When is it okay to hold someone
else accountable? I threw such questions at Jesus as I made a cup of coffee
and slammed shut a cabinet door. “Yeah, I’m sorry you’re going through
this” was all I could imagine him saying at the time. I know it’s okay to set healthy boundaries, disagree when necess ary, and
hold someone else accountable. But all those things can and must be done
with respect and love. When we attack another person, we’re wrong even if
we’re right. The issues we’re here to monitor are our own. My ego would argue that the problem was her behavior; the Spirit
points out that the problem is my anger. Situations such as that will
continue as long as I consistently push up against the same wall. But the
wall isn’t going to give; I have to. That wall is the place—and most of us
have one—at which point we can’t see how to act with love and still get our
needs met. But we’re going to have to learn. The situation is going to repeat
itself until we do. So what do we do in such situat ions? Pray for a miracle. Pray for a shift
in perception. Say you’re willing to see the situation dif ferently. Sit down, breathe, pray, and your perceptions will begin to shift. As
your mind begins to calm down, one of two things will happen:
1. Your guidanc e will be to say nothing, to absorb the moment and just
let it pass. OR
2. Your guidance will be that something does need to be said, but you’ll
be given the wisdom to say what you need to say at just the right time and
in just the right way. You’ll be guided not only in what you should say but
in who to be while you’re saying it. The Holy Spirit doesn’t handle
situations for you, but turns you into a person who knows how to handle
them yourself. The main point is to see that the problem is within yourself; therefore so
is the solution. If you think the only solution is to find someone else to
fulfill whatever function you had assigned to that person, you’ll simply
attract someone else who acts the same way, or whom you subconsciously
set up to act the same way, until your eyes are opened to the real issue: you! The universe is intentional. It is always nudging us to be better, and if
that means putting people in our lives who make us have to confront ourown barriers to love, then it will. “This is my commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have
loved you” (John 15:12, ASV). To say this is easy; to live it is hard. That’ s why the mystic Jesus is so
relevant and important. Whether through religion or psychotherapy, the
world is in desperate need today of lessons in how to love. Both are the healing of the mind. Religion is limited when it lacks
psychological astuteness, and psychotherapy is limited when it lacks
spiritual understanding. There are voices within both these days
transforming them into genuinely spiritual pursuits. Whether in
psychotherapy or at a religious service, the greatest gift we can receive is a
reminder to give more love. The ego loves to use both religion and psychotherapy for its purposes,
and clearly that includes the Christian religion as much as any other. But
there’ s no legitimate conversation about Jesus that’s not a conversation
about love. Reclaiming the radic alism of love is the only way of claiming a
radical relationship with Jesus, and the radical love of Jesus is the true
nature of the self. OceanofPDF.comRelationship to God
Every circumstance involves a relationship: our relationship to God, our
relationship to ourselves, our relationship to other people, or our
relationship to the world. Some would say we have no relationship to God because there is no
God. There are just atoms and particles that make up an amazing but
ultimately mean ingless goop. That means we’re floating in a random
universe where whatever meaning life has for us is the meaning  we bring to
it. That’s a respe ctable existenti al argument, but it’s a lonely one. It leaves
us very much on our own. It posits no “cosmic companionship,” as Martin
Luther King Jr. referred to the Holy Spirit’ s presence in our lives. If you
believe you’re on your own, in your experience then you will be. This gives
no sense of comfort, denying ourselves our inheritance of either power or
love. Then there are those who do believe in God but see Him as a
judgmental long-bearded man in the sky, just waiting for us to screw up and
not do what He told us to do so He can send us to the depths of hell. Such a
God is a God made in man’ s image rather than the other way around. The
notion of an angry God is a projection creat ed by angry people. Feeling
guilty, they assumed they deserved punishment. They therefore concocted
the image of a God who would mete out all the punishment they felt they
deserved. I can’t imagine that any of those people have made it to chapter 3
of this book. Then there are those who believe in a loving God yet don’t understand
how such a God would tolerate hungry children, global poverty, and endless
wars. Interesting, that, because it’s the question He has for us. Hungry
children, global poverty, and endless wars are a product of man’ s misuse of
power, not God’ s.Created with free will, we can think and do whatever we wish to think
and do. God Himself will not save us from the consequences. The Law of
Cause and Effect was created for our protection, and He does not violate
His own law. What He will do, and has done, is create the help we need in order that
we might choose more wisely. Asking Him to heal the world means asking
Him to turn us into the people who will do it for ourselves. Our relationship to God is, if we allow it to be, our most intimate
relationship. His is a voice that is always there to whisper in our ear. He is
closer than our breath to us. Our communion with him, our melding into
him, is the repair of our person alities and the restoration of our souls. For
many, the mystic Jesus is part of that repair. As far as the hungry children are concerned, this isn’t about our waiting
for God to work a miracle. God is waiting for us to do that. He has a very
simple answer to our prayers about this. His answer is “Feed them.”
And we should do so now. OceanofPDF.comRelationship to Self
Your holine ss is the salvation of the world. It lets you teach the world that it is one with you, not
by preaching to it, not by telling it anything, but merely by your quiet recognition that in your
holiness ar e all things blessed along with you. * (WB-37)
One of our most difficult relati onships is our relationship to self. We
tend to do to ourselves what we do to others: we withhold approval, judge
harshly, punish severely. And we’re never too sure why. The ego doesn’ t tell
us we did something wrong; it just tells us that we are wrong. I used to wonder, in my young er, self-hating days, if maybe I’d done
something so terrible I’d suppressed it and didn’ t remember. I couldn’ t
figure out why I felt such disgust toward pretty much everything about
myself. There is a lesson repeated a few times in the Course —“I am as God
created me”* (T-667)—that says all of us are perfect, unalterable creations
in the mind of God. When I first read it, I cried. It formed a crack in what
felt like a stone wall in front of my heart. It had never occurred to me that
I’m innocent because God created me that way, and my mistakes have not
eradicated the divine perfection in which we were all created. God created
us perfe ct becau se He is perfect, and everything created is created in His
image. It’ s such an enormous concept, so infinitely merciful. There was once a law in various places around the country stating that if
a criminal was on the run from police but made their way into a church then
they couldn’t be arrested. The state was acknowledging that in the


 you. The urge of the life principle in you is toward growth, ex-pansi on,
and the life more abundant. You are not here to live in a hovel, dress
in rags, and go hungry. You should be happy, prosperous, and
successful. • Why you must never criticize money
Cleanse your mind of all weird and supe rstitious beliefs about
money. Do not ever regard money as evil or filthy. If you do, you
cause it to take wings and fly away from you. Remember that you lo se
what you condemn. You cannot attract what you criticize. 111  • Getting the right attitude toward money
Here is a simple technique you may use to multiply money in your
experience. Use the following statements several times a  day, “I like
money, I love it, I use it wisely, constructively, and judiciousl y. Money is constantly circulating in my life. I release it wi th joy, and it
returns to me multiplied in a wonderful way. It is good and very g ood. Money flows to me in avalanches of abundance. I use it for good only,
and I am grateful for my good and for the riches of my mind.”
• How the scientific thinker looks at money
Suppose, for example, you found gold, silver, lead, copper, or iron
in the ground. Would you pronounce these things evil? All evil comes
from man’s darkened understanding, from his ignorance, from his
false interpretation of life, and from his misuse of his  subconscious
mind. Uranium, lead, or some other metal could have been used as a
medium of exchange. We use paper bills, checks, nickel, and silver
surely these are not evil. Physicists and chemists know today that the
only difference between one metal and another is the number and rate
of motion of electrons revolving around a central nucleus. They ca n
now change one metal into another through a bombardment of the
atoms in the powerful cyclotron. Gold under certain conditions
becomes mercury. I believe that our modern scientists in the ne ar
future will be able to make gold, silver, and other metals s ynthetically
in the chemical laboratory. The cost may be pro-hibitive now, but it
can be done. I cannot imagine any intelli-gent person seeing anything
evil in electrons, neutrons, protons, and isotopes. The piece of paper in your pocket is composed of atoms and
molecules with their electrons and protons arranged differ-entl y. Their
number and rate of motion are different. That is the only way  the
paper differs from the silver in your pocket. • How to attract the money you need
Many years ago I met a young boy in Australia who wanted to
become a physician and surgeon, but he had no money. I explained to
him how a seed deposited in the soil attracts to itself ever ything
 112  necessary for its unfolding, and that all he had to do was to ta ke a
lesson from the seed and deposit the required idea in his subcons cious
mind. For expenses this young, brilliant boy used to clean out doctors’
offices, wash windows, and do odd repair jobs. He told me that every
night, as he went to sleep, he used to picture in his mind’s e ye a
medical diploma on a wall with his name on it in big, bold let ters. He
used to clean and shine the framed diplomas in the medical build ing
where he worked. It was not hard for him to engrave the image  of a
diploma in his mind and develop it there. Definite results fol -lowed as
he persisted with his mental picture every night for about four months. The sequel of this story was very interesting. One of the doctors
took a great liking to this young boy and after training him i n the art
of sterilizing instruments, giving hypodermic in-jections, and ot her
miscellaneous first-aid work, he employed him as a technical assistant
in his office. The doctor later sent him to medical school at his  own
expense. Today, this young man is a prominent medical doctor in
Montreal, Canada. He discovered the law of attraction by using his
subconscious mind the right way. He operated an ageold law, whi ch
says, “Having seen the end, you have willed the means to  the
realization of the end.” The end in this case was to become a medical
doctor. This young man was able to imagine, see, and feel the reality of
being a doctor. He lived with that idea, sustained it, nourished it,  and
loved it until through his imagination it pene-trated the layers  of his
subconscious mind and became a con-viction, thereby attracting  to
him everything necessary for the fulfillment of his dream. • Why some men do not get a raise in pay
If you are working in a large organization and you are silently
thinking of and resenting the fact you are underpaid, that you are  not
appreciated, and that you deserve more money and greater
recognition, you are subconsciously severing your ties with that
organization. You are setting a law in motion, and the superintende nt
or manager will say to you, “We have to let you go.” Actually, you
 113  dismissed yourself. The manager was simply the instrument thro ugh
which your own negative mental state was confirmed. It was an
example of the law of action and reaction. The action was your
thought, and the reaction was the response of your subconscious mind. • Obstacles and impediments on the pathway to riches
I am sure you have heard men say, “That fellow has a racket.” “He
is a racketeer.” “He is getting money dishonestly.” “He is  a faker.” “I
knew him when he had nothing.” “He is a crook, a thief, and a
swindler.”
If you analyze the man who talks like that, you discover he is
usually in want or suffering from some financial or physical  illness. Perhaps his former college friends went up the ladder of  success and
excelled him. Now he is bitter and envious of their progress. In many
instances this is the cause of his downfall. Thinking negativel y of
these classmates and condemning their wealth causes the wealt h and
prosperity he is praying for to vanish and flee away. He is
condemning the thing he is praying for. He is praying two ways. On the one hand he is saying, “Wealth is
flowing to me now,” and in the next breath, silently or audibly, he i s
saying, “I resent that fellow’s wealth.” Always make i t a special point
to rejoice in the wealth of the other person. • Protect your investments
If you are seeking wisdom regarding investments, or if you are
worried about your stocks or bonds, quietly claim, “Infinite
intelligence governs and watches over all my financial tr ansac-tions,
and whatsoever I do shall prosper.” Do this frequently and you will
find that your investments will be wise; moreover, you will be
protected from loss, as you will be prompted to sell your secu rities or
holdings before any loss accrues to you. • You cannot get something for nothing
In large stores the management employs store detectives to prevent
people from stealing. They catch a number of people every da y trying
 114  to get something for nothing. All such people are living in the mental
atmosphere of lack and limitation and are stealing from themsel ves
peace, harmony, faith, honesty, integrity, good will, and confidence. Furthermore, they are attracting to themselves all manner of loss, such
as, loss of charac-ter, prestige, social status, and peace of mind. These
people lack faith in the source of supply and the understanding of  how
their minds work. If they would mentally call on the powers of th eir
subconscious mind and claim that they are guided to their true
expression, they would find work and constant supply. Then by
honesty, integrity, and perseverance, they would become a credit  to
themselves and to society at large. • Your constant supply of money
Recognizing the powers of your subconscious mind and the creative
power of your thought or mental image is the way to opulence,
freedom, and constant supply. Accept the abundant life in your own
mind. Your mental acceptance and expectancy of wealth has its own
mathematics and mechanics of expression. As you enter into the  mood
of opulence, all things necessary for the abundant life will c ome to
pass. Let this be your daily affirmation; write it in your heart, “I  am one
with the infinite riches of my subconscious mind. It is my right to be
rich, happy, and successful. Money flows to me freely, copious ly, and
endlessly. I am forever conscious of my true worth. I give of my
talents freely, and I am wonderfully blessed financially. It is
wonderful!”
• Step up this way to riches
1. Be bold enough to claim that it is your right to be rich and your
deeper mind will honor your claim. 2. You don’t want just enough to go around. You want all the
money you need to do all the things you want to do and when you
want to do them. Get acquainted with the riches of your sub conscious


 the Loetschental
valley ever had the benefits (or curse) of sugar. This Swiss valley, while supporting a
rich and prosperous population, has never ha d a doctor or a dentist. There has been no
need for either. The expected life period is around one hundred years. The persons are
vigorous and well able to do manual work in the 80's and 90's. Deficiency diseases as
we know them simply do not exist. The Swiss Guard which formerly was furnished to
the Pope, and for which the Swiss government searches the country for the finest
physical specimens, was largely taken from this valley. The foregoing are given as illustrations in the human family which might in some
measure parallel laboratory experiments made on animals. A larger and more
convincing exhibit could be adduced from the experience of the Chinese, Japanese, and
Filipinos in connection with polished rice. The eating of polished rice produced
hundreds of thousands of cases of beriberi--a  disease which paralyzes certain muscle
groups, and in some cases produces insanity, and always leads to death. Our own southern states, southern Spain, Italy,  and other Mediterranean areas furnished
thousands of cases of a disease called pellag ra. Persons affected with pellagra have red
discoloration of the skin, with disturbances of digestion, and nervousness which finally
becomes insanity. In the insane asylums of the southern states, over half of the inmates
are there as the result of pellagra. Pellagra ha s been found to be a disease caused by diet
deficiency. Beriberi in the orient and pell agra in America are still common, and the
conditions producing the diseases in these different parts of the world can be duplicated
in laboratory animals with the same result. Our knowledge, then, in regard to diet  does not depend altogether on experiments
with laboratory animals, but every step and every conclusion may be backed up with
facts that have been gleaned from human experience on great groups of people in various parts of the world. Our purpose here is not to adduce in every case the proofs of what we are saying in
regard to human disease. These proofs are to be found in every well-stocked library. In
the medical journals for the last five years this subject has taken up more space than any other, and in medical papers presented at c onventions this subject has been the principal
topic for discussion. Newspaper and magazine s have carried innumerable articles, and
in some several such articles may be found in one issue. The result of all the work that is being done in the universities and commercial
laboratories throughout the whole civilized world is that certain chemical entities are
found to, be necessary to life processes. Animal life demands certain minerals, certain
vitamins, and certain fats and proteins in order that the body chemistry may be properly
carried out. Never before in the history of the world has it been possible to say what
these necessary things are. Always, up to the present time, diet has been a hit-or-miss
affair. Experience has been the only guide. Success or failure depended upon accident. No guide was available except the likes and dislikes of appetite. Everything that
contributed to the pleasure of eating was considered acceptable and good, just as anything that contributed to protection from the winter's cold and storm was thought to
be acceptable and good. Grains were known to be good food. Human teeth were not capable of properly
crushing them. Artificial methods came into  use. The crushing of wheat between two
stones relieved the human teeth of much of their natural function. Elaboration on this principle led to the development of wheat flour as we know it today. Modern milling
has robbed food of certain valuable ingred ients. The sweetness of fruits was acceptable
and valuable to our early ancestors, but chemistry concentrated the sweetness and
cheapened it so that sugar became a universal food. In the development of these two foods much was left out, and we now know that some
of the things omitted were and are necessary to optimum functioning of life processes. In an effort to make foods more acceptable to the taste and to keep food supplies over the winter's season, sterilization by heat and the exclusion of microorganisms brought
about the conditions which resulted in the canning industry. The factory production of
sugar has robbed another class of food of valuable ingredients. Canning has also
contributed to the deficiency picture by robbing certain foods of valuable chemical elements. When these changes in food were first developed, no one believed that anything was
being done which was detrimental to our food supply. But now it is well known that factory processes--heating, canning, and ster ilizing--have a definitely bad effect, and
that this bad effect is the removing of certain health promoting elements which formerly
existed in the natural food. The question then  arises--What are these elements, and what
has their absence from modern food done to the average so-called civilized individual? Before discussing the individual elements that are lacking in modern foods, we should
understand that most of our thinking processes are on the basis of relativity. Do we
know whether a child in school is a normal, healthy child or not? Do we know that a
boy on a football team in college is a normal, healthy individual or not? Do we know a
private in the army who has passed the physical examinations is a normal, healthy
individual? Is the doctor who writes your pres cription a healthy or a diseased person? Is
your minister, your grocer, your secretary, a normal, healthy individual? It is quite
obvious that the standards of the present time are wrong standards. We have been afflicted by mass diseases for so many decades that the average layman and the average
doctor, and quite obviously the average dentist, does not know what is normal. The standards of the present time have been built up from population averages, just as
the standards of the insurance companies have been compounded of groups of
policyholders. Both of these are false standards, but standards of groups of human individuals "as is." In the future when the human family takes advantage of the
scientific aids to optimum health now available, the standards will be quite different. A
decayed tooth will be looked upon as a very rare disease. Persons will not be afflicted
with arthritis or neuritis before the advan ced ages. Most of the chronic diseases that
afflict middle-aged persons at the present time will have disappeared. CHAPTER II
WHY WE MUST HAVE VITAMINS
   The young animal coming into the world receives a diet of milk. The milk contains
fats, proteins, sugars, and minerals. With the exception of water, the needs of the young
animal are completely supplied by this one food. After a certain time, in order to
develop properly, the young animal must provide himself with other foods. One of the
first needs is food that contains iron, as  Nature supplies the young animal with iron
enough to last only a few months. Milk supplies calcium for the growing bones of the young, and must also supply protein for building muscle, brain, and other bodily
structures. The milk supplies certain elements which convey the ability to resist
infections. The most common of these is vitami n A which is to be found in the fat in the
milk. The protein elements in the milk ca rry all of the vitamins of the vitamin B
complex. The milk contains some vitamin C and perhaps, if the mother has been exposed to sunshine during her period of pregnancy, the milk contains the bone-
building element, vitamin D. The young animal, then, receives from his parents the
vitamins necessary to life--the sugars constituting a good part of the solid material in the
milk. The sugars are burned to supply energy. In the early months and years of life, the young animal is exposed to various types and
kinds of infections. The only way in which the organism is enabled to resist such
infections is through the optimum functi oning of the various glands, and the proper
working out of body chemistry. It is a fact that well-fed animals survive exposure to
infections which readily kill animals which are not thus well nourished. While the functions of various vitamins and minerals overlap to a very great degree,
there is to some extent a specific action, and this specific action has much to do with
ability or lack of ability to resist infections. Vitamin A, for instance, has something to do with protecting eyes from infections. The person who is lacking in vitamin A may
develop a mild or severe eye infection, depending on the degree of the deficiency. The
severe infection will inevitably lead to such  destruction of the eye tissues as to produce
permanent blindness. Deficiency eye diseases are the best examples of infections built
up on a deficiency basis. For years the scientific men of the orient debated the question as to whether beriberi
was a mild infection of the nervous system, or an outright lack of building material necessary for nerve tissue. It is now quite apparent that the symptoms are those of a
low-grade infection superimposed on diet deficiency. In the case of scurvy, it is not the
same problem as in the past. It was formerly thought that lack of vitamin C was a lack
of actual building material. The person with advanced scurvy has for years had the
symptom of leakage of blood vessels under the skin. It was thought that the leakage was due to the fact that the cement substance in the walls of the capillaries was lacking to
such a degree that the blood oozed out between the poorly cemented cell walls. Whether
or not there is some lack of building material we do not know. It is evident that leakage


assailable now. Over the
past thirty years the network that transmits messages
throughout the body has been studied in much greater
detail, leaving no doubt that every thought, feeling, mood,
and belief crosses the bridge from mental to physical. But
these detailed researches into hormones,
neurotransmitters, immunomodulators, peptides, and
thousands of products expressed by genes has obscured
the simplicity of the mind-body connection. In simple terms, the entire system is a feedback loop,
with only two factors to consider, input and output. Input
enters the brain, output  exits. This is the nexus where
every process, mental or physical, meets every other, like
trillions of train tracks converging on a train station and
then exiting the station  to go their separate ways. The
reason for simplifying the almost inﬁnite complexity of a
living mind and body comes down to practicalities. Each of
us wants to know the right and wrong kind of input that
will aﬀect us. Positive Input
Pure food, air, and water
Positive emotions
Strong self -esteemLow stress, good coping skills in the face of stress
Moderate exercise
Good sleep (eight to nine hours every night)
Loving, supportive relationships
Inner contentment, lack of conﬂicts and tensions
Satisfying work
Meditation and other contemplative practices
Abstaining from alcohol, tobacco, and recreational drugs
Minimizing the use of prescription drugs
Healing old wounds and self-destructive conditioning
from the past
The reason that little or none of these things seem new is
that they don’t need to be. After decades of public
information about prevention and the rise of the wellness
movement, we know a great deal about positive lifestyle
changes (this isn’t the same as knowing all we need to
know about why these changes work). Input, positive or
negative, registers in every cell of the body, down to the
expression of your genes (that is, their complex chemical
output). The ﬂy in the ointment is that information isn’t the same
as motivation. People may know what’s good for them, but
they continue to live otherwise. The most common kinds of
negative input remain a mainstay in the lives of people who
sincerely want to change, including overuse of alcohol,
tobacco, and drugs; eating processed and junk foods;
tolerating a high level of stress; going short on sleep;
taking little or no exercis e. The Gallup organization, which
surveys the wellbeing of populations around the world, has
a top catego ry known as “thriving.” These are the people
who describe  themselves  as happy, safe, ﬁnancially secure,
and healthy—in short, they are enjoying a level of wellbeing
that most Americans would consider a basic minimum. Yetthe percentage of people who are thriving around the world
is dismally low, often under 10–15 percent, and even in the
prosperous developed West, it rarely rises above 33
percent. The fact that the United States continues to
consume antidepressants and tranquilizers in record
numbers attests to our inner unease, and by some
estimates the abuse of prescription painkillers is now a
cause of death surpassing the total deaths from illegal
substances. No amount of preaching about these things will work
over the long run. Prevention implies a level of fear, and
fear is a bad motivator except in short bursts. The body
resists being  in a state of chronic stress, and worrying
about your health is a form of stress. The only successful
long-term motivation is inspiration. It, too, can ﬂicker out
quickly. But there’s a secure kind of inspiration that comes
from valuing yourself with such conviction that you like and
enjoy the experience of giving your mind and body positive
inputs all the time. When I wrote Quantum Healing  I wanted to give the
human side of the mind-body connection, realizing that a
term like feedback loop,  adopted from computers and
information theory, sound s cold and abstract. But the whole
game comes down to input-output in the end. Without dwelling on the negative, let’s say that you’ve
had a stressful day. You feel wiped out by ﬁve o’clock, so
you grab a burger and fries instead of cooking at home. You
settle in with a drink or two to unwind. Your workload is
heavy, so you catch up by taking some of it home with you,
and by bedtime you ﬁnd your mind is still so active that
getting to sleep takes a while. Your alarm clock goes oﬀ at
the usual time the next morning, but you’ve managed only
six hours of sleep. No matter, it’s time to start the whole
routine over again. In the back of your mind you promise
yourself to do better, a promise you may or may not keep.Yet as normal as this daily routine has beco me for
millions of people, adap ting to it is a challenge  for the
human body, because as we now realize, each deviation
from a positive lifestyle registers at the cellular level. Here’s a summary of what is happening. The consequences
of negative input are daunting. What Negative Input Does
Disturbs overall balance, leading to inﬂammation. Moves errati cally though  the body, obstructed by chronic
stress and the toxic debris of negative input from the
past. Reinforces old neural pathways, making it much harder
to break bad habits. Contributes to abnormal cell function, including
precancerous anomalies. Weakens the immune system, impairing resistance to
disease. Contributes to premature aging. Creates a general sense of dullness, discomfort, and dis-
ease, the opposite of wellbeing. Because Quantum Healing  focus ed on the drama of
spontaneous remissions from cancer—so-called miracle
cures—the bigger message might not have struck with
enough force. So let me state it in unmistakable terms:
Input is under your contr ol. Without antic ipating cancer or
any other disorder, your chief aim every day should be to
maximize positive input and minimize negative input. We are badly in need of a new model for wellbeing. Most
people segment their lives into work, leisure, and family. Little time is left for self-care. Yet caring for yourself today
is exactly what determines your life for decades to come.True self-care embraces a person’s entire life. Taking
charge of your own wellbeing reaches into every corner
because it has to. Your brain processes every experience,
physical, mental, and spiritual, as input. Look at the
contrast that self-care makes when compared  to self-
neglect. 10 Keys to Self -Care
1.Making happiness a high priority. Versus:  Coasting along with our present state of
happiness and unhappiness. 2.Making sure your life has purpose and meaning. Versus:  Focusing on daily practicalities, even those
that seem routine and meaningless. 3.Living according to a higher vision. Versus:  Living for externals like a better job, more
money, a bigger house, etc. 4.Expanding your awareness in every decade of life. Versus:  Viewing youth as the peak of life and old age
as a dwindling decline. 5.Devoting time and attention to personal growth. Versus:  Staying the same as you always were and
feeling proud about it. 6.Following a sensible regimen of good diet and physical
activity. Versus:  Eating a diet high in sugar, fat, and calories. Promising yourself to exercise tomorrow, or next week. 7.Allowing your brain to reset by introducing downtime
several times a day.Versus:  Working your brain to the point of exhaustion
before allowing yourself to take a break. 8.Getting to know your inner world through meditation,
contemplation, and self -reﬂection. Versus:  Avoiding what you really feel. Fearing what
you might ﬁnd if you dared to look inside yourself. 9.Practicing gratitude and appreciation. Versus:  Grabbing as much as you can for yourself. Never forgetting to look out for number one. 10.Learning how to love and be loved. Versus:  Leaving romance behind in the past. Not
looking into the deep source of love in yourself. As you can see, self-care goes far beyond eating our
vegetables and signing up for the gym. It amounts to a new
model for success and happiness, a model that abundant
medical evidence suppor ts. I’ll say more about that as we
proceed. There’s a reason for giving these general
principles ﬁrst. In a world where massive  attention is given
to the next fad diet, the gym-honed body, and the beauty of
youth, the truth is that a shift in consciousness produces
far greater beneﬁts. Getting peop le to turn inward is an important aspect, but
they have to know why. What Quantum Healing  aimed at
was far more radical: seeing yourself in a new way, as a
child of the universe. On the basis  of that realization, self-
care cannot help but begin at the source, where your
consciousness merges with cosmic consciousness. You can’t
truly value yourself until this happens, and then self-care is
like caring for Nature itself. OceanofPDF.comCounting the number of cells in the human body is no
easier than counting


cancer. It is not necessary for the cancer cells to disappear
entirely, Dr. Ikemi notes— he looks for other signs, such as
that the tumor is growing abnormally slowly, the patient
has not wasted away, and the malignancy has not spread to
other parts of the body. These signs are enough to indicate
a spontaneous regression in Ikemi’s view, and Laura ﬁts
them all. Laura was already meditating when I ﬁrst saw her. In
1987 she went through two weeks of inpatient Ayurvedic
treatment and was taught primordial sound and the bliss
technique, both of which can be used during meditation. Let us say that the mind has settled down in meditation and
is expe riencing itself as silence. Bliss is in that silence, just
as intelligenc e is. You cannot “feel” that you are intelligent,
but you can feel bliss. The bliss technique bring s it out for
the mind to register in various ways—as warmth in some
part of the body, tingling, a ﬂowing sensation, or several
other physical manifestations. Bliss remains abstract, but a
sort of “after glow” is being picked up during the technique. Primordial sound, on the other hand, is quite focused—it
brings the awareness of bliss directly to the diseased area
of the body. (One does not have to think of all this as
happening separately. The bliss level of awareness is
always present; the techniques simply draw the conscious
mind to it. Once bliss is experienc ed, the mind-body
connection has been made. ) As soon as she learned the techniques, Laura felt
immediate positive eﬀec ts. The primord ial sounds went
right to the breast area, she told me. At times they induced
a throbbing feeling, heat, or even pain; most of the time,
however, she would sit down with pain in that area and the
technique would cause it to go away. The most dramatic
results, subjectively, came from the introduction of bliss. I
asked Laura to write out her experiences for me, whether
joyful or painful or just indiﬀerent, and she agreed to. The
latest report says this:
The experien ces during the bliss technique are
not as profound as when  I started one and a half
years ago, but then there was such deep-rooted
fear and sorrow, a feeling of helplessness andintense anxiety, so the contrast was quite great
when I began to experience such joy and bliss. At that time there were large black holes
experienced in my awareness. I do not see the
black holes anymore, and the feeling of constant
happiness is more stable. Yet days still come
when the joy and bliss are so powerful that I can
hardly contain them. I rarely experience fear
anymore, just some general anxiety that I can
usually control with a little attention. While other women in her position are devastated by
their treatments and left with the deepest scars, physically
and mentally, it is amazing that Laura, though still
suspended between life and death, can end her letter this
way:
A year and a half ago, I was only 99 percent sure
that the cancer would be eliminated. It has only
been in the last month that I have grown 100
percent sure. I have no doubts now. I feel
conﬁdent in the support of nature. I still don’t
know the exact form nature’s help will take, or
the timing for it, but I am less concerned about
the ﬁnal manifestation than I am about the
breakthrough in consciousness. I can see clearly
in my awareness the perfect breast. Laura is a sensitive observer of her own awareness, and
she sees its ﬂow very exactly. To her, there is a huge
diﬀerence, from the inside, between being sick and
becoming well. The techniques she is using do not call for
visualization, but she says that she can see the tumor grow
whenever she feels anxious or sorrowful. This imagerepresents, I believe, a direct link between her awareness
and the progress of the cancer. What will the ﬁnal outcome be. She and I agree that the
process itself is the outcome; every day is a whole—not a
step toward some dreame d-of recovery, but an end in itself,
to be lived in its fullness as if no disease existed. Because I
am much more indoctrinated by my past medical
experiences with cancer than Laura is, I often think that
she is far ahead of me in her joyful conﬁdence. —
Bliss is both objective and subjective. You can feel it as a
sensation, but it also eﬀects measurable change—it can
alter the heart rate, blood pressure, hormone secretions, or
anything else for that matter. This is what allows bliss to be
useful medically. The patient  is using the Ayurvedic
techniques “in his head,” but the bliss being experienced is
re-creating his body at the same time. What is happ ening is
that the body is receivin g a signal from its own blueprint,
not a material blueprint but the one that exists in
consciousness. Because the blueprint is invisible, it has to ﬁnd a way to
cross over into material existence. To do that, nature
employs bliss—it is a vibration that bridges mind and
matter, allowing each bit of the body to be paired with a bit
of intelligence:
This diagram shows the mind-body connection as being like
a radio broadcast: mind is sending out impulses of
intelligence, DNA receives them, and bliss is the carrier
signal. On paper, these three elements have to be
separated, but in reality they are completely fused. The
message, the messenger, and the receiver are one. Of
course, we have looked at the mind-body connection dozens
of times before, but we didn’t have the “glue” that keeps
mind and body from ﬂying in separate directions—bliss. DNA now takes on special importance. A single
neuropeptide, or any other messenger molecule, carries
only a tiny bit of the signal that mind is sending. Adrenaline, for example, is correlated to fear. This seems to
imply that each thought activates one molecule, but that
would be like saying that 101. 5 on an FM radio  receives
only one song. In fact, the body can receive an inﬁnite
variety of signals, thanks to DNA. We are used to thinkin g of DNA as an unchanging
blueprint, albeit “the blueprint of life. ” DNA is nowhere
near so static. I was sitting quietly two days ago when I had
a glimpse of DNA in my mind’s eye. I saw DNA speeded up
so that one human lifetime, from the moment of inception
to the moment of death, ﬁt into the space of a few minutes. What I saw wasn’t a chem ical but a process of incredible
richness and dynamism. Everything in life pours  out of
DNA—ﬂesh, bones, blood, heart, and nervous system; a
baby’s ﬁrst word and a toddler’s ﬁrst step; the maturing of
reason in the brain’s cortex; the play of emotions, thoughts,
and desires that ﬂicker like summer lightning  through
every cell. All of this is DNA. To call it a blueprint is to take
the husk and miss the fruit. Imagine yourself going to a
Mercedes dealer, paying thirty thousand dollars, and
having him hand over a car’s blueprint instead of a car. Now imagine the blueprint actually turning into the car—
not only that, but starting  itself, driving down the road, andreplacing its own spare parts. Then the blueprint would be
equal to DNA. (It would also need another quite amazing
talent: any part—the carburetor, the tires, even a chip of
paint on the door—would  have to know how to turn into a
whole car. ) Whatever it is that make s DNA so dynamic is not visible
in its material makeup; molecules themselves are passive
participants in time. They can change, as oxygen and
hydrogen change when they combine to form water, but
DNA actively  shapes the course of time. This is such an
important feature that I need to explain it at length;
otherwise, the real miracle of DNA will be lost on us. In the past few years, researchers have been intrigued by
one particular gene, called the per gene, in the DNA of a
fruit ﬂy. As part of their inherited behavior, fruit ﬂies sing
in the evening to call their mates. Normally, they repeat
their call quite rhythmically, once every 60 seconds. Ronald Konopka, a research professor at Clarkson
University, ﬁrst linked the rhythm of the fruit ﬂy’s song to
the per (for “periodic”) gene. He also found that the rhythm
could change. When the per gene mutates, it produces
faster or slower intervals  between calls: one ﬂy sings every
40 seconds, another every 80 seconds. What is so fascinating about this discovery is that each
kind of ﬂy times its existence to a diﬀerent length of day. The normal, 60-second ﬂy follows a 24-hour day; the faster,
40-second ﬂy a shorter day of 18 to 20 hours;  and