 does it feel
to you? What is your intuitive response? Please give this some thought as you prepare to
move into the final cha pter of this book; as you prepare to embrace The Final Change... “Show yourself to me,”
said I to God again. And this is what happened next:
I became pregnant with Light. My eyes were sunrise and sunset, both. Freckles announced themselves planets and s tars,
and beamed upon my cheeks. Each of my lips became a kiss to the other,
my ears heard oceans of life. Between my eyes there was an indigo wheel,
between my toes, blond fields. My hands remembered climbing -trees,
my hair, each Lover’s fingers. And then  I whispered,
“But why have you made me this way?”
And it was told to me:
“Because I have never had Your name before,
nor heard the way You sing it. Nor stared into the Universe through eyes like These. Nor laughed This way, nor felt the path that These te ars take. Because I have not known These ecstasies
nor risen to These heights, nor experienced
every nuance of the Innocence
with which you create your lows,
nor how a Heart could grow so wide,
or break so easily
or Love
quite so unreasonably.”
—‘Unreasonably’  © 2008 Em Claire  24. THE NINTH CHANGE
HERE IS WHAT  I now understand: Some souls co -create experiences that are clearly (on a
human level) hurtful and damaging to themselves. Nobody can know why they are doing
this. Maybe they  have come to their present incarnation in order to experience the “other
end” of something they have done to others in a previous lifetime. Maybe they have come to allow other souls a chance to experience themselves in a
particular way. Maybe they have co me to provide “players” or “actors” for some larger “scene” in the
whole drama of life, the acting out of which will permit huge numbers of humans to come
to a singular realization at once. (Those who were killed in the 9/11 tragedies come to
mind... as  do the millions murdered in the Holocaust.)<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        This can, in turn,
remove you a great deal of the time from fear. The process that I have created and use in my Changing Everything Workshop gives
people a chanc e to do that. It offers participants an opportunity to move from Distorted
Reality to Observed Reality in a very short period of time. I like to say that it can take you
from tears to laughter in seven minutes. (I have seen this happen in our workshops. ) We go farther, then. We take participants from laughter to the joy of awareness —which
is a different level of happiness altogether. It is not just a place where you move away  from
fear, but where you actually transform it, changing the very meaning of the w ord. We use
this acronym:
F-E-A-R = Feeling Excited And Ready. The person who is coming from Actual Truth, and therefore living on an even higher
plane in the realm of Ultimate Reality, is always in such a space, is always “feeling excited
and ready,” because that person does not even see the same things that a person  living in
the Observed Reality sees —for the simple reason that the person living in Ultimate Reality
is looking at everything from an entirely different perspective. from that third  reality
that modern clinical psychology doesn’t even acknowledge exi sts. Do you remember this. The place from which you are looking determines what you see. Indeed, it does. And so the trick is to live as an integrated whole, with all three  parts of the
Totality of Your Being —Body, Mind, and Spirit —creating, expressing, an d fulfilling your
current notion of Who You Are and Who You Choose To Be —and with you gathering that
notion not from your Imagined Truth, not from the Apparent Truth, but from the third level
of truth: the Actual Truth. By moving to the Actual Truth as you r Point of Origin, you can use the Mechanics of the
Mind to transform any moment. And you access this Actual Truth by using the System of the
Soul to change your perspective. Is this real. Can this really happen. Those are fair questions. You may now be as king
those questions yourself. I have come (or, more accurately, you have brought me to you) to
tell you this: yes, it is real. This is how the soul and the mind work together in a synergistic
process that allows the Total Being That Is You to do what you came here to do; to use this
life as you were intended to use it. So far I have invited you to do six things. I’ve invited you to change your decision to “go
it alone,” to change your choice of emotions, to change your choice of thoughts, to change
your ch oice of truths, to change your idea about Change Itself, and to change your idea
about why Change occurs. Now, with this background, I’m going to invite you to make a stupendous change, a
humongous change, a mountainous, gigantic, gargantuan change. I’m in viting you to make
CHANGE #7:
Change your idea about future Change
It may not have yet occurred to you that the System of the Soul can be applied to future
change as well as presently experienced change, but it can. In fact, this is where it has its
greate st power, because it can systematically change not only this moment, but your entire
life. I have said now a number of times that change occurs because you want it to occur. You
want it to occur because you are continually choosing the perfect people, plac es, and
conditions with which to experience what you next seek to experience as you move
forward in the process of the evolution of your soul. Now you may not feel that the change
that is now occurring has been caused by you, but it has been, at a very hig h metaphysical
level, through the process of synergistic energy exchange. In simple terms: thought in
action. What some have called the Law of Attraction. Yet why would you attract something to you that you do not experience as being very
welcome. Because it is only in your mind  that it does not seem welcome. In your soul it is
very clear that the change now presenting itself is your simple and intuitive assertion of the
Principles of Life (life is eternally functional, adaptable, and sustainable). But, you  may ask, how is what is happening now actually “good” for me. Well, you can experience that in two ways. You can either wait long enough for the
passage of time to show that to you (which it inevitably will), or you can go to the place of
knowing that rig ht now. That place is your soul, not your mind. Your soul will show you now what your mind will
show you later. Later, as life unravels itself, you will see that everything that’s ever
happened to you has happened for the better. What a statement. What a G od we must have. Now I know that it is compelling (and important) to bring this up right now: what about
the unthinkable plight of those people who have endured unimaginable suffering in their
lives. I know, I know. and I agree that it is very, very d ifficult for the limited perspective of
the human mind to hold such suffering as acceptable, purposeful, or intentional on the part
of the soul. Yet Conversations with God  has been very clear on this point. It says there are no
victims and there are no vil lains in this world. Everything that happens is happening for the
highest evolutionary purpose —and it is notable that sometimes a soul reincarnates at a
time and for a purpose that serves the agenda of another. Such a statement could be made about the man named Siddhartha Gautama, who came
to be called the Buddha. It could also be made about Moses, who led his people out of the
desert and into the promised land. It could also be made about Jesus Christ, whose message
has likewise impacted the world entire. It could also be made about Muhammad ibn
Abdullah, bless his holy name, a diplomat, merchant, philosopher, orator, legislator,
reformer, military general, and, according to Muslim belief, an agent of divine action; a
messenger and prophet of Allah. It coul d also be said of many other masters and avatars
and saints, some known and some not known, but easily recognizable by their actions, by
what they have given and what they have sacrificed in order to serve the sacred and holy
agenda of others. (This idea, this concept, is described in beautiful terms easy enough for a child to
understand —indeed, written  for a child —in the wonderful book, The Little Soul and the
Sun, a children’s literature bestseller that emerged from the messages in Conversations with
God. ) Into this final category falls a multitude of contemporary figures, or what might be
termed latter -day saints. which include, of course, more than the members of a particular
religion. People such as Mother Teresa, Paramahansa Yogananda, Mahatma Gha ndi, Martin
Luther King Jr., and even


 through two realms of
awareness, the  body and the active mind. You might supp ose that
the journey has nowhere else to go. What more is there to life
beyond the physical and the mental. There actually is so methingdeeper, a department of existence that makes things turn out the
way the y do—g ood or bad, su ccessful or a flop, a dream fulfilled or
a dream denied. Here we discover that everything happens for a
reason, but the reason is very different from the stories  we tell
ourselves. Pur e consciousne ss organizes every event, including
every possible event. It sees and knows all. From this vie wpoint,
everything happens for a reason because there is only one thing. Yet the  parts of life we work  so hard to get right—job, family,
relationships, morality, religion, law, politics—are not expressions
of one thing. They are compartmentalized constructs. What
happens in one can be alien or even anathema in another. It is
against the law to take a life, but political leaders can win mass
popularity by starting a war and taking an enormous number of
lives. Nature ignores compartments at every level. A cell thrives as
one thing, not a collection of parts. It eats, breathes, manu factures
proteins and enzymes, divides, and expresses the knowledge
compressed into DNA’s double helix. To a cell, these are not
compartments described in a medical textbook—parts don’t
matter. What matters is the life of the cell, which is one thing. Can we get hum an life back t o one thing, and, if we can, will it
solve the problem of pain and suffering. The direct path affirms
that thi s is possible. The one thing, as it applies to human  beings,
is pure conscio usness, but giving it a label takes us further away
from one thing, not closer. The great mystery of pure
consciousness is that it has nothing that can be formulated, turned
into a good way to exist, and trusted to bring happiness. For example, in the Indian tradition pure consciousness is
eternal, conscious, and blissful ( Sat Chit Ananda  in Sanskrit). This
formulation led someone to think, “Aha, bliss is the key. What is
happiness but bliss. ” On tha t basis, “Follow your bliss” b ecame a
widely popular phrase. Wh en put into practice, it had the
advantage of pointing people  inward, telling them that how they
feel abo ut their lives is more important than external rewa rds. Yet
“Follow your bliss” is useless if you can’t find your bliss in the first
place, or if a tragedy or natural disaster has struck. It is worse than
useless if, like Freud, you fin d yourself the target of unstoppable,
malignant persecution. The direct path doesn’t rely o n any formulations or fixed ideas
about how to l ive. Confronte d by the mystery of being human, it
says, “Let the mystery solve  itself. You are here to watch this
happen. In that role, you are the living expression of the mystery. ”
This is the closest anyone has  ever come to living the one thing the
way a cell lives one thing, which is itself. When distilled to its
essence, the direct path asks you and me to dedicate our lives to
the kno wledge that we, in ou rselves, are the mystery of life as it
unfolds. Beautiful word s, but what d o we do when we get out o f bed
tomorrow morning. The actions and thoughts that occupy our
days ar en’t at issue. Tomorrow morning you will get out of bed
and do what y ou want to do or have to do. Following you around
with a video camera might  detect nothing special about your
everyday existence; it could seem like a typical existence followed
by someone who has never heard of the direct path. Yet on the inside the thing yo u have dedicated your life t o will
be v ery different. In every c ulture where people have seriously
investigated o ne thing (a philosophy technically known as
“monism”), the  same dedication was present. Whether it arose in
ancient India, Persia, Greece,  or China, monism directed the mind
away from the countless det ails of life toward one thing. That’s
what th is chapter is about. Despite the allure of diversity, the
infinite variety  of things held out by the physical unive rse, the
mystery offers no solution there. When you reduce life to wha t is truly essential, diversity d rops
away and unity increases. Your consciousness starts to reshape
itself ar ound one thing. Waking up is one thing; enlightenment is
one thin g; allowing the mystery of existence to unfold through you
is on e thing. These descriptions are limited, however. What we’re
really after is the experience of one thing. Once this is attained,
everything else follows, not just the end of suffering, but access to
the infinite potential that wants to express itself through us. This is the state I’ll call “choiceless awareness. ” It is the very
opposite of struggle. Instead of always doing, you practice  the art
of n ot-doing. Instead of trying  to decide if X will make you  happier
than Y, you let  the choice happen on its own. When we hear about
the advantage of letting go, living in the now, and allowing life toflow, th ese possibilities become real in the state of ch oiceless
awareness. Choiceless awa reness is the final stage of waking up. It brings
you to a place where the next thing you want to do is the be st thing
for y ou. In suc h a state, pain  and suffering end because th ey bear
no relat ionship to the life you  are consciously living. The mystical
Indian poet Kabir saw the situation clearly:
I asked my heart,
Where are you bound. There’s no traveler ahead of you
Or even a road. How can you get there,
And where will you stay. The roa d, in Kabir’s imagery, is about the stages of lea ving,
going along, and arriving, which is how we all live. We start an
action, either a small one l ike getting orange juice out of the
fridge, or a lar ge one like ge tting married or finding a job. The
action begins, goes along, and  ends. Kabir sees that the heart—his
word for the soul—cannot find fulfillment this way. He sees
another way instead:
Be strong, O my heart,
Put your fancy away,
And stand where you are
In yourself. Let’s see if we can manage to do just that. T h e  A r t  o f  N o t - D o i n gChoiceless awareness sounds alien in the modern world, where
life is viewed a s nothing but choices, and happiness is thought to
be r eached by making good ones instead of bad ones. It’s hard to
realize that the best choices make themselves. The rationale
behind not-doing is simple: one thing has nothing to do but be
itself. Therefore, we have nothing to do but be ourselves. This is
the essence of not-doing. It’s not a new i dea. In the Tao ist teaching of ancient China not-
doing is Wu wei. The concept arose as far back as five to seven
centuries BCE. In Buddhism the teaching is found in a sutra like
the following: “Happiness can be accessed directly in meditation
by abstaining from conscious mental activity. ” In Christianity, the
leap of faith th at originated with the Danish philosophe r Søren
Kierkegaard was his attempt to carry out the central concept in the
Sermon on the Mount, that all things can be left to Provid ence. In
a leap of faith, a believer lets God take over, the ultimate
experiment in trust. The absence of struggle is common to all teachings of not-
doing, b ut the passage of cen turies hasn’t made it less mysterious. Not-doing mak es no sense to  the logical mind. Of course we have
lots of stuff to do—we barely find enough hours in the day to
accomplish the m. But what did you do today to produce new red
blood corpuscl es, the lining of your stomach, and the out er layer
of your skin. These are parts of your anatomy that m ust be
constantly replenished because blood, stomach, and skin cells
have a life span of only a few weeks or months. For tha t matter, what will you do today to exchange oxygen for
carbon dioxide in your lungs, without which life is extinguished in
a matte r of minutes. Already the vast proportion of your physical
life takes care of itself. Existe nce is divided between things we do
and thi ngs that take care of themselves. Therefore, some  part of
you is already living without  making choices. To begin to  see the
value of choiceless awareness, stop assigning so much importance
to your  everyday choices, which are mostly governed by habit. In
the long run, h abits keep you from finding renewal. Even worse,
while entangle d in virtual rea lity, you may fall prey to the feeling
that life is incredibly


s	with	the	proper
functioning	of	proteins	in	your
body. MSM	is	revered	for	joint	health	and
helping	to	promote	beautiful	skin. It	has	anti-inflammatory	and	antioxidant
effects	and	is	even	said	to	aid	with	circulation. Some	of	the	richest	natural
sources	of	MSM	include	tomatoes,	raspberries,	apples,	Swiss	chard,	and	alfalfa
sprouts. Incorporating	MSM-rich	foods	for	beauty:
When	they’re	in	season,	snack	on	lots	of	fresh	raspberries	and	apples. Slice	up	tomatoes	and	eat	them	plain. Add	chopped	tomatoes	to	your	soups	or	stews. Blend	Swiss	chard	into	your	smoothies. WHITE	TEA
White	tea	may	be	very	helpful	in	maintaining	your	weight,	and	some	have	even
anecdotally	claimed	that	it	protects	against
acne. A	series	of	experiments	on
human	fat	cells	(adipocytes)	demonstrate	that	white	tea	can	help	inhibit	new	fat
cells	while	stimulating	the	fat	mobilization	from	mature	fat	cells. 9
	This	may
even	be	useful	in	combating	cellulite. Green	tea	has	received	great	press,	but	it
contains	a	fairly	high	level	of
caffeine. We	all	know	this	can	feel	temporarily
energizing	but	is	still	irritating	to	your	nervous	system. While	actual	caffeine
levels	depend	on	the	specific	buds	and	brewing	methods	used,	green	tea
generally	contains	more	caffeine	than	white	tea. White	tea	undergoes	less
processing	than	green	or	black	tea,	even	though	they	derive	from	the	same	plant
(
Camellia	sinensis
). Because	it	is	less	processed,	white	tea	also
contains	more
antioxidants,	which	are	great	for	keeping	your	skin	youthful	and	protecting
your	vitality. Incorporating	white	tea	for	beauty:
Source	some	excellent	organic	white	tea	and	drink	it	during	the	day,	stopping
by	late	afternoon,	as	it	does	contain	some	caffeine. For	added	benefits,
add	some	sliced	ginger,	turmeric,	or	lemon. A	Word	About
SupplementsYou	certainly	do	not	have	to	take	a	dozen	supplement	pills	every	day	to	be
healthy. And	you	will	never	achieve	the	beauty	and	health	results	you	are	after
by	trying	to	rely	on	pills	in	lieu	of	eating	a	superior,	nutrition-packed	diet	made
up	mostly	of	whole	foods. Unfortunately,	most	supplements	out	there	are
synthetically	created,	which	makes	them	cheaper	to	produce	and	more	stable. The	problem	is	that	with	vitamins,	more	is	most	definitely
not
	more. Synthetic	vitamins	are	not	remotely	similar	to	the	forms	of	these	nutrients
found	in	nature,	which	you	would	obtain	from	eating	natural	foods. Our
bodies	evolved	for	millions	of	years	getting	these	nutrients	in	unison	with
countless	other	nutritional	cofactors	that	are	present	in	real	food. Vitamin
supplements	may	not	be	bioavailable,	usable,	or	absorbable	by	your	body,	and
even	worse,	they	can	be	recognized	and	treated	as	a	toxin,	which	then	has	to	be
processed	and	expelled	by	your	eliminative	organs. One	study	even	found
synthetic	vitamin	supplementation	can	actually	increase	mortality	rates. 10
One	supplement	that	is	a	must	is	an	excellent	probiotic	supplement,	which	is
not	an	isolated	micronutrient	but	rather	helps	your	entire	body	function	more
efficiently. Remember	that	the	best	probiotics	are	not	necessarily	those	with	the
highest	culture	counts	but	ones	that	have	the	most	effective	and	diverse	strains
that	can	actually	be	assimilated	into	your	body	(please	see	authors’	websites	for
resources	and	recommendations:
deepakchopra. com
,
kimberlysnyder. com
). What’s	the	best	way	to	get	the	nutrients	you	need. Be	sure	to	eat	from	a	wide
variety	of	plant	foods,	preferably	organic,	as	the	first	step. You	can	also	source
specific	superfoods	rich	in	certain	vitamins	(bee	pollen	is	rich	in	B	vitamins,	for
instance). If	you	still	are	worried	you	aren’t	eating	as	well	as	you	should,	you
can	also	source	a	high-quality,	whole-food-based	and	nonsynthetic
multivitamin
or	multimineral	supplement	from	a	reputable	company	that	has	done	the
necessary	work	and	research	to	ensure	optimal	nutritional	absorption. It	should
include	vitamin	D
3
	(which	many	people	do	need	to	supplement,	especially	if
you	aren’t	getting	an	adequate	dosage	of	regular	sunshine)	and	the	spectrum	of
B	vitamins,	including	vitamin	B
12. If	you’re	vegan,	you	should	definitely
supplement	vitamin	B
12. A	magnesium-oxygen	supplement	(such	as	Detoxy	+)	is	great	for	promoting
ongoing	cleansing	(see
this	page
). As	recommended	in
Pillar	1
,	be	sure	to
consume	chia,	hemp,	or	flaxseeds	daily	for	daily
omega-3	fats. An	algae-based
DHA	and	EPA	supplement	can	be	good	insurance,	as	some	people	don’t
convert	omega-3	fats	adequately	into	longer-chain	DHA	fats. Algae	is	the
primary	source	from	which	fish	obtain	their	DHA,	and	scientists	from
Harvard
and	the
Cleveland	Clinic	also	report	in
The	Journal	of	Nutrition
	that	algae-based
DHA	can	boost	levels	of	good	cholesterol	and	cut	levels	of	triglycerides. 11
	Fishoil	pills	as	a	source	of	omega-3	fats	are	not	recommended,	as	they	can	often
become	rancid	and	contaminated	with	toxins. How	Does
Salt	Fit	In	with	Beauty. Sodium,	found	in	salt,	is	an	element	our	bodies	need	to	function	properly. It
helps	to	control	our	blood	pressure	and	blood	volume,	as	well	as	ensuring
proper	muscle	and	nerve	function. The	best	beauty	forms	of	salt	to	use	are
small	amounts	of	high-quality	sea	salt,	such	as	Celtic	or	Himalayan	sea	salt. These	sea	salts	also	have	trace	minerals	and	elements. Sea	salts	are	obtained
from	the	evaporation	of	saltwater	bodies,	rather	than	the	heavy	processing	that
produces	table	salt;	this	includes	bleaching	and	diluting	the	salt	after	harvesting
with	anticaking	agents	and	other	chemicals. For	these	reasons,	stick	to	sea	salt
in	your	cooking. But	too	much	salt	is	definitely	a	beauty	and	health	no-no. Excessive	salt
intake	can	increase	the	risk	for
heart	disease,	hypertension,	high	blood	pressure,
and	kidney	disease. It	can	also	make	your	skin	look	dehydrated. Excessive	sodium	can	also	create	“false	fat,”	making	you	look	bloated	and
pounds	heavier	than	you	truly	weigh. An	average	daily	guideline	is	1,000	to	1,500	milligrams	(mg)	of	sodium	per
day	or	less. If	you	are	at	risk	for	a	medical	condition,	such	as	those	listed	above,
you	can	certainly	omit	salt	from	your	cooking	altogether. Most	of	us,
accustomed	to	so	many	processed	and	restaurant
foods	that	contain	loads	of
sodium,	are	used	to	a	very	salty	flavor. Shifting	into	eating	more	n


 of
resolution. I was curious to know  if my father had told the hosp ital officials
that he had three sons and if our names would be on the death certificate. I
wanted to talk to his friends in Biloxi to see if he had ever mentioned us. Did he ever secretly try to find out how his ex-wife and children were
doing. Did he care. Did he have a capacity for love that perhaps he had
hidden from everyone. Mostly I wanted to know how he could have turned
his back on his family for a lifetime. I always looked for a loving reason
that he might have left, and yet my anger at his behavior in those years still
haunted me. At thirty-four years  of age I was controlled by a man who had
been dead for almost a decade. I rented a brand-new car in Columbus to make the drive to Biloxi. I mean
brand -new. The odometer read 00000. 8 miles. As I settled in behind the
wheel I reached  for the lap belt and discovered that the right-hand belt was
missing. I got out of the car, took out the entire bench seat, and there was
the belt, attached to the floorboa rd of the car with masking tape, the buckle
encased in plastic wrapping, and a rubber band around the plastic wrapping. When I ripped off the tape and the plastic, I found a business card tucked
inside the buckle. It read: “Cand lelight Inn…Biloxi, Mississippi,” and had a
series of arrows leading to the inn. I thought it was odd, since  the car had
not been used before I rented it, but I stuck the card in my shirt pocket. I arrived at the outskirts of Biloxi at 4:50 P. M. on Friday and pulled into
the first gas station I saw to call the cemeteries in Biloxi. There  were three
listed, and after a busy signal at the first and no answer at the second, Idialed the third and least impressive listing. In response to my inquiry, an
elderly-sounding male voice said he would check to see if my father was
buried there. He was gone for a full ten minutes, and just as I was about to
give up and wait for Monday morning to do more research, he came back
with the words to end a lifetime journey. “Yes,” he said, “your father is
buried here,” and he gave me the date of his interment. My heart pounded with the emotion of this powerful moment. I asked
him if it would be all right if I visited the grave right away. “Certainly, if you will just put the chain up across the driveway when you
leave, you are welcome to come now,” he said. Before I could ask for
directions, he continued, “Your father is buried adjacent to the grounds of
the Candlelight Inn. Just ask someone at the station how to get there. ”
Shivering, I reached into my shirt pocket and looked at the business card
and the arrows on it. I was three blocks from the cemetery. When I finally stood looking at the marker on the grass, MEL VIN LYLE
DYER, I was transfixe d. During the next two and a half hours I conversed
with my father for the very first time. I cried out loud, obliv ious to my
surroundings. And I talked out loud, demanding answers from a grave. As
the hours passed, I began to feel a deep sense of relief, and I became very
quiet. The calmn ess was overwhelming. I was almost certain that my father
was right there with me. I was no longer talking to a gravesto ne, but was
somehow in the presence of something which I could not, and still cannot,
explain. When I resumed  my one-way conversation, I said, “I somehow feel as if I
were sent here today and that you had something to do with it. I don’t know
what your role is, or even if you have one, but I am certain that the time has
come to abandon this anger and hatred that I have carried around so
painfully for so long. I want you to know that as of this momen t, right now,
all of that is gone. I forgive you. I don’t know what motivated  you to run
your life as you did. I am sure that you must have felt many forlorn
moments know ing that you had three children you would never see. Whatever it was that was going on inside of you, I want you to know that I
can no longer think hateful thoughts about you. When I think of you it will
be with compas sion and love. I am letting go of all this disorder that is
inside me. I know in my heart that you were simply doing what you knew
how to do given  the conditions of your life at the time. Even though I have
no mem ory of ever having seen you, and even though it was my fondestdream to someday meet you face to face and hear your side, I will not let
those thoughts ever hold me back from also feeling the love I have for you. ”
As I stood at that lonely grave marker in southern Mississippi I said words
I’ve never forgotten, because they signified how I would be conducting my
life from then on: “I send you love…. I send you love…. Honestly, I send
you love. ”
In one pure hone st moment I experienced feeling forgiveness for the man
who was my father and for the child I had been who wanted to know and
love him. I felt a kind of peace and cleansing that was entirely new for me. Though I was unaware of it at the time, that simple act of forgiveness was
the beginning of an entirely new level of experiencing life for me. I was on
the thres hold of a stage of my life that was to encompass worlds I could not
even imagine in those days. When I went back to New York, miracles began to appear everywhere. I
wrote Your Erroneous Zones  with ease. An agent arrived in my life through
a series of “strange” circumsta nces at exactly the right mome nt. I had a
meeting with an executive of T. Y. Crowell Publishers, and a few days later
he called to tell me that Crowell was going to publish my book. Every step along the way of the Your Erroneous Zones  story was another
miracle waiting to happen. Strange and wonderful events occurred with
delightful frequency. The exactly “right” person would be there when
needed. The perfect contact would materialize out of the strangest
coincidences. My speaking schedule increased, and my performances in
front of audienc es became effortless. I abandoned my notes, though often
talking for six and eight hours at seminars. Later, these seminars became a
series of successful tapes. My personal family life improved almost
immediately, and I made decisions that I previously had ponde red over for
years. In what seemed fast-forward, I had achieved what most authors
dream about. I had the top-selling book in the United States and was having
the time of my life appearing on the talk shows. In the years that followed,
my writing seemed to be taking me in new directions. I went from writing
about “How to” utilize specific strategies in self-understanding to “How to”
become a more assertive human being. I went from telling peopl e how to do
something to writing about the importance of being at transcendent levels as
a human being. Today, I am convinced that my experience of forgivenes s, while
emotionally draining at the moment it was occurring, was the beginning ofmy transformation. It was my first encounter with the power of my own
mind to go beyond what I previously considered the constr aints of the
physical world and my physical body. Pablo Picasso said, “While I work I leave my body outside the door, the
way Moslems take off their shoes before entering the mosque. ” I did the
same thing as I wrote this book. I left my body outside the room. By that I
mean that I left outside the world of aches and intrusions which are
experienced in form, and allowed only my mind to enter my writing
domain. In this world of pure thought there are no limits. What  is the limit
to your imagination. This part of me that is my thoughts is pure energy
allowing the ideas to coalesce into words in my mind, and then into form on
my typewriter. No excuses, no fatigue, no fears, no anguish, simply energy
that is somehow flowing through me to you without any limitations. As I
create I know that these words and ideas are not mine to own. That I am the
conduit through which they flow, and that when I am open and unattached,
when I leave my body at the door as Picasso said, I am a part of the creative
process that is related to being awakened. This awakening process and the
rewards that go with being bitten by the transformational bug are precisely
what this book is about. To begin  the awakening process you must become very comfortable with
the concept of paradox. Why. Because you are one big walki ng, talking,
breathing parad ox at all mome nts of your life. It is simply the way of
things. The Bhagavad Gita, one of the most ancient spiritual books on our
planet, sums up paradox as follows:
By passion for the “pairs of opposites,”
By those twin snares of


the hip joint. For the upper extremities, proceed from the
fingers to the wrists, elbows, and shoulder joints, in that
order. The effects of the wind-releasing asanas upon the circula
tion of prana can be explained by the meridian theory of
Chinese medicine, in the following manner:
There are twelve major meridians of ki energy which
course over and through the body; most of them are related
to one particular internal organ which they transverse. The
terminal points of these meridians are located on the fingers
and toes, and are known as sei ("well") points. For example,
the sei point of the lung meridian is located on the thumb;
that of the large intestine meridian is at the tip of the second
finger. The position of fourteen sei points (the twelve major
plus the stomach-branch and diaphragm meridians) are in
dicated in the diagram below (the meridians are virtually
identical for both left and right sides). The sei points are very important, for it is here that ki
energy enters and leaves the meridians. The energy level at
these points is said to accurately reflect the condition of the
entire meridian. In the case of acute illness, acupuncture or
moxa treatment here is known to have an immediate effect. The hand-clenching and toe-bending exercises of pawan-
muktasana directly stimulate the sei points, and thus pro
mote better ki-energy (prana) circulation. 53
Chinese medicine also speaks of the gen ("source") points,
located either in the wrist or ankle, or between the sei point
and the joint. Diseases in the internal organs related to the
specific meridians are often reflected at the gen points and
treatment there is frequently prescribed. Therefore, the exer
cises which bend and rotate the ankles and wrists stimulate
the gen points and help normalize the functions of the inter
nal organs related to the twelve meridians. The Yellow Emperor's Treatise on Internal Medicine - the
oldest text of Chinese medicine, and the original source of
the above information - further states that the knees and
elbows are closely connected to the gen points, and that they
too can have an effect upon diseases of the internal organs. Thus the rotation of the knees and elbows is beneficial;
stimulation of the hips and shoulder joints has similar effects. In terms of Western medicine, also, the joints are con
sidered to be very vulnerable parts of the body. Fluid tends to
accumulate and stagnate in these areas, and the whole body
gradually becomes fatigued. This condition can lead to rheu
matism and neuralgia, common complaints of the modern
age. In this sense, too, the benefits of wind-releasing asanas
can be observed. In addition to improving the ki energy flow
through the meridians, they promote the circulation of blood
and body fluids through the joints, thus helping to cure ill
ness and maintain good health. Group 2:
Asanas for Regulating the Sushumna
As explained previously, the principle aim of these asanas
is to strengthen and adjust the central psychic channel
which runs through the spinal cord, the sushumna nadi. Displacement of the spinal vertabrae is detrimental to the
flow of prana through the sushumna, and causes disorders in
the nerves and internal organs - as well as the nadis and
chakras - controlled by them. The asanas in this second 54
group are designed to correct vertebral displacements, thus
helping to purify the sushumna. This is an indispensable
preparatory step for arousing the kundalini and awakening
the chakras. (1) Tadasana
Stand erect with your feet four to six inches apart. Gaze at
an object directly in front of your eyes. During inhalation
raise the arms overhead with the palms facing upwards, and
look up at the hands. Lift the heels and stretch the whole
body as if it were being drawn upwards. Hold the breath for
one or two seconds and then, during exhalation, return slow
ly to the starting position. Repeat 10 times. Tadasana Hasta uttanasana 55
Benefits: Tadasana develops and stretches the rectus ab
dominis (stomach) muscles, and promotes proper spinal
bone growth. It clears up congestion around the inter
vertebral foramina, and also protects the nerves emerging
from these foramina from undue pressure by correcting ver
tebral displacements. Walking 100 steps in tadasana after
drinking six cups of water can clear non-chronic intestinal
blockages. (2) Hasta uttanasana
Stand with the trunk erect and the arms at the sides. While
inhaling, raise the arms above the head at shoulder width
and bend the head and trunk backwards slightly. Concen
trate on the vishuddhi chakra for one or two seconds, then go
into pada hastasana. (3) Pada hastasana
Exhaling, bend forward from the hips until the palms or
fingers touch the toes, or grasp the backs of the ankles and, if
possible, place the forehead against the knees. In the final
Pada hastasana 56
pose, breathe out completely, drawing in the lower ab
domen, and concentrate on the svadhishthana chakra for
one or two seconds. Raise the trunk slowly and move back
into hasta uttanasana. Keep the legs straight throughout the
movement. Practice these two asanas in alternating succes
sions 10 times. Benefits: Hasta uttanasana stretches the abdominal viscera
and improves the digestion. It also removes excess abdomi
nal fat and exercises the arm and shoulder muscles. All the
vertebral joints are stimulated and the spinal nerves toned. The functioning of the lungs is improved through the expan
sion of the alveoli (lung compartments). Pada hastasana benefits the digestion and the blood cir
culation, and is an effective treatment for constipation and
gastro-intestinal disease. Surplus fat in the abdominal region
is reduced. The spinal nerves are toned and the spine is
made supple. (4) Yoga mudra (Psychic union pose) 57
Sit in the lotus position (padmasana) and close the eyes. Hold one wrist behind the back with the other hand and
relax. Slowly bend the trunk forward until the forehead
touches or nearly touches the ground, relaxing the whole
body as much as possible in the final position. Slowly return
to the starting position. If necessary, beginners may place
padding under the buttocks while performing this asana. Breathing: Breathe normally, relaxing the body. Inhale. slowly and deeply in the starting position, and then exhale
while bending forward. Breathe deeply and slowly in the
final position for five or more minutes, and inhale as you
return to the starting pose. Repeat the asana a few times. Concentration: On the manipura chakra. Caution: Do not strain the back, ankles, knees, or thighs by
stretching more than their flexibility permits. Benefits: This asana massages the abdominal organs and
helps to counteract malfunctions there, including constipa
tion and indigestion. The individual vertebrae are separated
from each other and the spinal autonomic nerve fibers pass
ing through the intervertebral foramina are gently stretched
and toned. These nerves connect the entire body with the
brain and improvement of their condition contributes to
overall health. This asana is also very effective in awakening
the manipura chakra. (5) Paschimottanasana (Back-stretching pose) 58
Sit on the floor with the legs extended, arms on thighs, and
relax the whole body, especially the back muscles. Slowly
bend the upper torso forward, sliding the hands along the
legs to grasp the big toes with the fingers and thumbs. If this
is impossible, hold the feet. If even this is difficult, as is often
the case with beginners, hold the ankles or the legs as near to
the feet as possible. Again consciously relax the muscles of
the back and legs. Keeping the legs straight, pull the trunk a
little lower toward the legs, using the arms rather than the
trunk muscles. This should be a gentle process without any
sudden movements or excessive strain anywhere in the
body. If possible, touch the forehead to the knees. As this is
usually difficult for beginners, bending forward as far as
possible is sufficient. Do not use force under any circum
stances. Some weeks or months of regular practice will
enable the forehead and even the chin to touch the knees. Re
main in the final pose for a comfortable length of time, relax
ing the whole body, and then slowly return to the starting
position. Note: The knees must not bend, as one aim of this asana is
to stretch the posterior muscles of the leg. These will
elongate in time. Breathing: In the sitting position breathe normally; then ex
hale slowly, bending the trunk forward to grasp the toes. In
hale while holding the body motionless and exhale when
pulling the trunk further forward with the arms. In the final
pose breathe slowly and deeply, and inhale when returning


 constipation has also been ehmmate. y
appetite is good... I bo t my successful expenement. "I keep informing many peop e a u tl benefited"
Man of my friends have adopted it and are consequen y... Y f 1 • e treatment mA1ve
Shri Lakhani has described ~cess u un~he patient was the
cases one of which wads ofMbl.. -p~~~yss~~~ he also got rid of his
health officer in Porban ar ume~pa
irritation in the soles. 148 : AUTO-URINE THERAPY
AFTERMATH OF CASES
1. Shri Nandalal P. Solanki aged 35 is a tailor residing at
Kumbharvada, Bombay 17. He was suffering from eczema for the
last 20 years. He could get no benefit frqm the treatment of various
skin specialists and even from hospital I!Jieatment. He started urine
treatment on 28-5-67 and continued it for three months. He used to
drink four to six ounces of auto-urine daily and massaged with warm
and old urine for three monthsi the massage was twice a day. On
the spot of the disease he used to put urine-soaked cotton. He fasted
for eight days and during this time he had cold, loos motions and
thereby toxins were removed. The disease was completely cured. 2. Shri Bhagavandas N. Dhimar, D.M.E., lecturer at Polytechnic
Sch~l, Bulsar and residing at Dhimar Housing Society at Bilimora,
had p1o-derma for the last eight years. He used to have boils all over
the body and they were sometimes full of pus. He was not cured by
doctors and even hospitals. He started urine treatment in August
1967 and continued it for two months. He used do drink two ounces
of auto-urine twice a day. He massaged his whole body for half an
hour twice a day for two months. He used to put urine-soaked pads
on the boils. He had fasted for eight days in the beginning. He was
completely cured. 3. Shri Kalyanjibhai Mehta, -the first Speaker of Gujarat State
Assembly, had skin infection. He had itching sensation on the leg
and then there was burning and blood began to ooze. He tried
various medicines for a month but to no avail and was much
harassed by the disease. He applied urine-soaked pads on the spot
for three nights ~nd was completely cured.. 4. S~rimati Chanchalben P. Patel (Rajbhavan, Malad, Bombay)
used unne for her eczema for 25 days, three times a day. She did
not drink it but only by application she was completely cured and it
never recurred since then. 5. ~hri R. N. Patel, Nairobi (Africa), had a small eruption on
leg-joint and it slowly turned into skin-disease on the whole body. SKIN DISEASES : 149
There was itching sensation all over the body and there was oozing
of watery substance at some places. Doctors could not cure the
disease even though he spent thousands of rupees. He undertook
urine treatment and was completely cured even though he did not
observe all the rules of the treatment. Thereafter he became a
propagator of urine therapy and cured his wife•s diabetes and his
friend•s burning sensation at the time of urination by urine treatment. His brother•s diabetes, and sinus were completely removed by this
treatment. 6. Shri Hans came to know from Kaviraj Ramaswarup an instance
of successful cure of a fisherman from leprosy by urine treatment
Kaviraj met him when he was on evening walk. The fisherman asked
him to prescribe any medicine for his ghastly disease. Kaviraj
showed him urine treatment and the fisherman started it at once. After three weeks a watery ill-smelling substance began to ooze from
his body. The patient was so discouraged that he was on the point of
giving up the treatment. But Kaviraj persuaded him to continue it. He used to visit the patient daily. Only day he had fever and it went
up to 105° He was uneasy for the whole night but the next day his
whole skin came out like the outer skin of a serpent. He was
besmeared with ashes. Two days after, he was given cow•s milk with
honey and he was given a full bath and was full cured. €: HA.PTER XV
EYE DISEASES
1. Glaucoma and Other Complaints : Shri Bhikhaji Kalaji aged
41 is a resident of Kasaiwada, Jamalpur, Ahmedabad. He suffered
from throbbing pain in the temples along with headache. His vision
was also dim and he was unable to see anything in the late evening
or at night. His eyes constantly remained red and watery. He
suffered from these troubles since a year. Though poor, he had
already spent Rs. 500/-. An eye-specialist of Ahmedabad examined
his eyes and said that they could be cured only when the excess
poisonous fluid behind the pupils is removed by an operation. Bhikhaji was shocked. He feared that operation may result in
blindness which might leave his family in the lurch. In the meanwhile he met Shri Ambalal Patel, Superintendent of
Ahmedabad Municipal Stores. The latter advised Bhikhaji for urine
treatment. So he began to wash his eyes twice or thrice a day with
urine and in addition drank three ounces of it once or twice a day. Within a week he had some relief in his eyes and so he continued
the treatment with faith. Within the month of treatment, his
headache, throbbing pain in temples and pain in the eyes
disappeared totally. Natural whiteness returned to his eyes and
watering ceased. Not only his vision became clear, but
night-blindness was also removed. On 3-11-58, Bhikhaji gave me a written account : "My body is in
perfect health and is more active than before. Now I am abte to read
newspapers which was impossible for me before the treatment. I
have been benefited to such an extent that I have given up even the
use of spectacles.",,. 2 A. Freedom from Spectacles : Shri Ranjitbhai B. Parikh, was
getting his vision dim and he was compelled to use spectacles of-2
number. He began drinking urine through nose as prescribed in the
150. EYE DISEASES : 151
Sanskrit text Shivambukalp and practised it for five months as a
result of which the defect of reaction in his eyes was removed and
they appeared very bright. There were certain reactions as well during the treatment. For a
couple of days, there was heaviness in his head and pricking
sensation in his throat. But gradually all the complaints ceased. There
was much elimination of phlegm through the nose. But ultimately,
health was restored and the experiment proved successful. 1 have come to the conclusion that vision improves within 4 to 6
weeks if the eyes are daily washed with fresh urine in the morning,
at noon and in the evening for about five minutes each time. The
best way is to blink eyes in two eye-wash cups full of urine. 2 8. Freedom from Spectacles : Shri Dasbhai in this letter of
21-7-60 also writes that at the ripe age of 73 he got rid of his
spectacles completely by washing his eyes daily with fresh urine. 3. Improvement of Eyes, Etc. : Shri Kalyanji Lakhani has
described the various benefits he derived from urine treatment:
1. He had been a slave to spectacles for the last 45 years. With
the putting of drops of urine, 4 days old, in the eyes, he is now able
to do without spectacles for a number of hours with no
inconvenience at all. 2. There was termor in his hands. With urine treatment, he is ab~e
to hold a cup or a dish. 3. Before treatment, he was compelled to urinate every 10 to 15
rninutes. Now it is so only after 2 or 2 112 hours. 4. His constant uneasiness of body has gone and instead he feels
vigour.,. • 'i..'
4. Eye-trouble : Shri Jaikishandas Panchal of Bombay takes gr"eat
interest in urine therapy. His neighbour, a wornan of 44 had pain in
the eyes for the past six years and she used spectacles. On Shri
Panchal's advice, the woman undertook urine treatment and it
proved successful. Here is her report is short: 152 : AUTO-URINE THERAPY
111 had a severe pain in the eyes for the last six years. There was
irritation in the eye-lashes. I had to rub the eyes constantly and this
caused excessive pain. treatment frorr, the local K. E. M. Hospital for
two months gave


ere	vibrations	in	the	void. Finally,	energy	disappeared	when	it	was	found	that	vibrations	are
temporary	excitations	in	a	field,	and	that	the	field	itself	doesn’t	vibrate	but
maintains	a	flat,	constant	“zero	point.”
Theoretically,	to	reach	the	zero	point	in	Nature	one	could	cool	empty
space	down	to	absolute	zero,	and	instantly	everything	would	cease	to	vibrate. Yet	the	zero	point	also	exists	here	and	now—it	provides	the	starting	point
from	which	everything	in	the	universe	springs. Since	matter	and	energy	are
constantly	emerging	and	then	vanishing	back	into	the	void,	the	zero	point
serves	as	the	switching	station	between	existence	and	nothingness. Newton
had	established	that	matter	and	energy	cannot	be	destroyed,	but	they	can
oscillate	in	this	shadowy	way	at	the	subatomic	level,	as	long	as	the	sum	total
of	matter	and	energy	isn’t	altered. The	Zero	Point	Field
It	wouldn’t	be	so	disturbing	if	this	vanishing	act	was	due	to	occur	only	when
the	cosmos	dies	billions	of	years	from	now	by	cooling	down	to	absolute	zero. Nor	would	it	be	so	disturbing	if	matter	only	collapsed	into	the	void
theoretically. Such	isn’t	the	case,	however. Matter	and	energy
have
	to
disappear. If	they	remained	stable,	which	is	how	rocks,	trees,	and	planets	look
to	the	eye,	chaos	would	break	loose. Matter	would	exist	only	as	randomly
floating	particles	in	interstellar	space. Exploded	bits	of	the	Big	Bang	would	be
flying	apart	at	millions	of	miles	an	hour	without	any	relationship	to	one
another. There	would	be	no	forms,	no	evolution,	no	organization—in	other
words,	no	universe	as	we	know	it. At	best,	gravity	could	possibly	pull
together	larger	clumps	of	matter,	but	gravity	is	also	a	wave	function	that
fluctuates	around	the	zero	point. The	fact	that	chaos	doesn’t	totally	dominate	remains	a	huge	mystery,
which	may	only	be	solved	by	Akasha. Here	the	needs	of	physics	and	the
Vedic	rishis	begin	to	converge	in	startling	ways. The	rishis	were	focused	on
consciousness	as	a	universal	principle. But	to	have	a	thinking	universe,	they
needed	to	explain	how	the	cosmic	mind	works,	how	it	holds	itself	together
and	organizes	itself	into	thoughts. If	the	“mind	field”	was	totally	stable,	it
would	be	a	dead	zone,	or	at	best	filled	with	a	constant,	meaningless	buzz. Physics	also	needs	to	know	how	the	universe	holds	itself	together	and
organizes	into	coherent	forms. Otherwise,	the	inconceivable	fireball	that
appeared	at	the	instant	of	the	Big	Bang	would	have	blown	itself	apart,	the	way
dynamite	blows	itself	apart,	without	bothering	to	create	forms	along	the	way. Physics	was	drawn,	step-by-step,	into	the	void	because	nothing	in	the
visible	world	was	adequate	to	explain	what	had	to	be	explained. The	zero
point	became	an	all-inclusive	“field	of	fields”	that	encompasses	every	unseen,or	virtual,	particle	in	the	universe. It	was	calculated	that	the	zero	point
contained	10	to	the	40th	power	more
energy
	than	the	visible	universe—that	is,
a	one	followed	by	forty	zeros. The	void	turned	out	to	be	a	seething	exchange
of	energy,	not	just	between	photons	and	electrons	but	in	every	conceivable
quantum	event. Suddenly	the	unseen	has	become	incredibly	more	powerful
than	the	seen. But	in	what	way	is	the	“field	of	fields”	like	a	mind,	the	thing
the	rishis	were	looking	for? Thinking,	the	basic	operation	of	the	mind,	organizes	reality	to	make	sense. The	universe	does	this	physically. It	forms	complex	systems. DNA	is	one
example,	but	genes	didn’t	create	life	simply	by	stringing	simple	molecules
along	a	double	helix. There	are	spaces	between	each	genetic	bit,	and	this
sequencing	is	all-important. An	amoeba	differs	from	a	human	being	in	the
sequence	of	carbon,	oxygen,	hydrogen,	and	nitrogen	along	its	genes,	not	in
the	atoms	themselves. The	fact	that	empty	spaces,	or	gaps,	between	genetic
material	are	so	important	brings	us	back	to	the	void,	where
something
	is
arranging	random	events	so	that	they	are	meaningful. Once	a	form	has	been	created,	it	has	to	be	remembered	in	order	to	stay
together. The	universe	remembers	what	it	has	created	and	meshes	it	with	older
systems. The	Earth’s	ecosystem	is	a	good	example. Life-forms	constantly
relate	to	each	other	in	exquisite	balance. The	oxygen	given	off	by	plants
during	photosynthesis,	for	example,	would	eventually	poison	the	entire
atmosphere,	killing	off	all	vegetation	that	needs	carbon	dioxide,	were	it	not
for	the	evolution	of	animals,	which	consume	the	oxygen	and	return	carbon
dioxide	back	to	plants. This	extremely	complex	balance	can	be	traced	back	to
the	void,	where	every	single	fluctuation	of	virtual	energy	is	passed	along	and
absorbed	by	a	virtual	particle	in	need	of	energy. (As	one	popular	writer	has
put	it,	it’s	as	if	the	cosmos	were	passing	along	a	penny,	so	that	every	time	one
particle	is	a	penny	poorer,	another	gets	a	penny	richer.) The	basic	pattern	is
very	simple,	but	when	trillions	of	energy	exchanges	are	involved	every
second,	as	they	are	with	life	on
Earth
,	the	ecosystem’s	ability	to	keep	one
form	separate	from	another,	yet	in	dynamic	relationship,	is	mind-boggling. There	are	other	things	the	mind	can	do	that	are	paralleled	in	the	universe. The	mind	can	keep	track	of	two	events	separated	in	time—this	is	how	we
recognize	a	face	today	that	we	saw	years	ago,	for	example. Similarly,	the
universe	keeps	track	of	any	two	paired	electrons. They	will	be	paired	for	all
time	even	if	they	travel	millions	of	light-years	apart. Uncannily,	if	one	of	the
paired	electrons	should	change	in	position	or	spin,	its	twin	will	change
simultaneously	without	sending	a	signal	that	needs	to	travel	through	space. The	Zero	Point	Field	communicates	without	regard	for	time,	distance,	or	the
speed	of	light. The	very	fact	that	we	use	a	word	like	“communicate”	indicates	how	hard
it	is	not	to	see	parallels	between	our	minds	and	Nature	“out	there.”	Whichbrings	us	to	a	dangerous	trap. Mind	and	matter	offer	two	ways	of	describing
the	same	thing,	but	they	are	not,	in	themselves,	exactly	the	same. If	one	could
show	that	the	universe	has	a	memory,	for	example,	that	wouldn’t	prove	it	had
a	mind. Remembering	a	face	is	a	mental	act. The	ability	of	two	electrons	to
match	each	other’s	spin	across	a	vast	distance	is	a	material	feat. The	same	trap
works	in	reverse. If	one	could	calculate	every	vibration	of	a	violinist’s	bow
while	playing	a	Beethoven	sonata,	that	wouldn’t	explain	music	or	its	beauty. Those	are	mental	phenomena,	not	material	ones. All	we	can	do	is	draw
parallels	between	two	models


 are interpreted by the mind as images. Just as a
salamander cannot grow a new limb if the nerves to it have been cut, so we
cannot receive these messages if the nervous system is damaged or if our
minds are closed to conscious communication with psyche and soma. As you can see, a great deal of knowledge about language and
mythology is often necessary to interpret dreams correctly. Like Jung, I
believe that the mind has available to it the experience of all previous life. This is why people sometimes dream in languages consciously unknown to
them, or in a universal language of symbols whose meanings they do not
know when awake. Drawings are easier to interpret, because the symbolism
is generally simpler, more closely related to everyday life, and can be
directed to a specific theme. I ask my patients to draw themselves, their treatment, their disease, and
their white cells eliminating the disease. To elicit undirected material from
the unconscious, I ask each patient for at least one additional drawing of a
scene of his or her own choosing. Depending on what areas of conflictexist, I may also ask them to draw themselves at work, at home with their
family, in the operating room, and so on. One of the conflicts I most often see concerns the patient’ s attitude
toward treatment. On a conscious or intellectual level the patient is often
saying, “This treatment is good for me,” yet unconsciously feeling, “This is
poison. ” In such a case, there is only one way out: if the patient reacts as
though poisoned, treatment must be stopped. However, once a drawing
reveals a patient’ s resistance to treatment, that attitude can be changed. It
can be made conscious and dealt with. It requires the visualization of
successful therapy, a reprogramming at an unconscious level. I discuss the drawings with each patient, sometimes for hours, before
the first ECaP  session or as part of the consultation before sur gery. The
drawings are a wonderful way to get people to open up and talk about
things they would otherwise conceal. After all, they have made the picture,
and the conflicts and attitudes it represents are now there on paper for both
of us to see. Furthermore, it doesn’ t matter how many of my lectures a
patient has attended, or how much he or she knows about the picture-
drawing technique. The unconscious always knows more symbols and finds
new ways of revealing something that consciousness has concealed. Susan Bach has worked with this approach for over thirty years, much
of that time in children’ s hospitals where the use of drawings was
encouraged. She has found specific illnesses reflected in a typical, recurrent
way. She writes:

We may comprehend that the human being can and does convey,
through these wordless communications and in his own idiom, both his
somatic and his psychological condition. Somatically, such pictures may
point to events in the past relevant to anamnesis [recall], early diagnosis,
and prognosis. Psychologically, we may see what goes on and has been
going on deep in the mind—for instance, past traumas—and how the
drawing can help him to express his hopes, fear, and forebodings. Moreover, these pictures can build a bridge between doctor and patient, the
family, and the surrounding world. Indeed, their meaning and what it
implies could guide the healing profession to assist especially the critically
ill patient in living as near to his essential being as possible, whether in
recovery or before his life’ s circle closes. Finally, we may ask how it could be that spontaneous pictures reflect, as
dreams do, the total situation of the human person. I have come to see, in
decades of clinical work, that through the imagery of spontaneous pictures
and of dreams something shines through, which I have called “inner
knowingness. ” Thus a new dimension may be opening before us. In her own way, psychologist Joan Kellogg has shown that patient
drawings of mandalas, an ancient Indian type of circular symbolic image
representing wholeness or one’ s whole life, can reveal much about the
unconscious life of the mind. The person fills in a circular outline with
colored geometric designs or pictures, which are then interpreted in a
dialogue with the healer or therapist. For examples of drawings by patients, see the insert following page 1 16. They have been chosen to illustrate some of the things this technique can
reveal. I have made no attempt to give a complete interpretation of each
picture. Nor have I tried to teach the art of interpretation itself, which would
require an entire book.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>
Q: According to the text, can you do meditation and visualization anywhere, including on a subway?,
A: Yes, as your concentration improves, you can do meditation and visualization anywhere, even on a subway.
Q: What is the most important requirement for effective visualization?,
A: The development of one's imagination.
Q: What is the key to the success of the visualization technique, according to the author?,
A: The image must be chosen by the individual, and it must be an image that the person can see in their mind's eye as clearly as something seen by the physical eyes.
Q: What is the author's view on the role of the doctor in the healing process?,
A: The author believes that the doctor should not force their own beliefs on the patient, but rather help the patient find their own spiritual beliefs.
Q: What is the main difference between the approach of the author and the Simontons?,
A: The author does not assume that everyone will be comfortable with the idea of attacking and killing cancer, and instead suggests using benevolent and nurturing symbols, such as sharks or polar bears, or seeing the disease as food being eaten by white blood cells.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>However, a significant number of ECaP  members had already exceeded
predictions before joining the group, so there is a self-selection process at
work that is hard to keep from skewing the results. At the end of
Morgenstern’ s study, he noted that new patients entering ECaP  do begin toshow a higher survival rate and that this deserves careful observation and
follow-up, which we are now planning. It isn’ t easy to put love under a microscope, and because I’m a
practicing physician trying to help people here and now, I prefer to deal
with individuals and ef fective techniques, and let others take care of the
statistics. There is also a lack of grant money for this research, but that will
surely change as psychoneuroimmunology becomes more widely accepted. Research gradually improves medical care, and I believe that someday we
will understand the physiological and psychological workings of love well
enough to turn on its full force more reliably. Once it is scientific, it will be
accepted. When doctors and patients understand the healing power of love, we
will begin to add another dimension to medicine. Then we will be well on
our way to the glorious revelation predicted by Teilhard de Chardin in these
famous words:

Someday, after we have mastered the winds, the waves, the tides and
gravity, we shall harness for God the ener gies of love. Then for the second
time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire. EMOTIONAL  SUPPOR T
We encourage spouses, relatives, and friends of patients to attend ECaP
meetings, because it’ s much harder for one person to change while loved
ones continue in the old patterns. Ideally, the entire family or extended
family should be treated as a unit. We have to understand that, in a sense,
everyone  has the disease when it strikes one family member. In a group
setting, we can often help people see how destructive behavior patterns
interact to reinforce each other, and how love heals. It’s also well known that a focus outside the self helps people survive a
crisis. London sociologist Geor ge W. Brown reported in 1975 that, based on
psychiatric testing, “an intimate and confiding (but not necessarily sexual)
relationship with a husband or boyfriend” reduced the likelihood of
depression among women who had recently under gone severe stress of any
kind. In 1979 L. F. Berkman and S. L. Syme reported long-term work with
4,725 adults in Alameda County, California. They studied the ef fects of
marriage, church and club memberships, and friends, with controls forsmoking, obesity, and other previous health problems. The researchers
found that those with the fewest social contacts had a death rate two and a
half times higher than those who had the most social contacts. Those who
have pets live longer after heart attacks than those who don’ t, and nearly
everyone knows someone who has postponed death until after Christmas, a
reunion, or a birthday. Love of other people always is a sustaining factor. In a sense, however,
living for others is a “gimmick,” a stopgap measure like sur gery or
chemotherapy, which can buy time until people learn to live authentically
for themselves. We all know that one of our basic needs is someone in whom to confide,
and recent research is proving that confession is good for the body as well
as the soul. Several statistical studies have shown that people in
psychotherapy visit physicians less often than people not in therapy. In experiments spanning the early 1980s, James Pennebaker, a
psychologist at Southern Methodist University, has shown that sharing
sorrow with someone else protects people from the stress of loss.


 Ingredients
Onion juice – 200 ml
Ginger juice – 50 ml
Cow’s ghee – 50 ml
Organic sugar or jaggery – 250 grams
Cumin seeds (ne powder) – 1 gram
Cinnamon ne powder – 1 gram
Cardamom (ne powder) – 1 gram
Saﬀron (kesar) – 1 gram
Honey – 50 ml
(Optional) – ne powder of almond and Cashew nut 5 grams each. Method of PreparationObtain the fresh juice of onion and ginger and kept ready. To this, prescribed quantity of ghee and sugar or jaggery are added and
cooked well till it is getting yellowish brown colour (honey like consistency). Later, it is  taken out of the re and allowed for cooling. While it is lukewarm ne powder of the remaining ingredients is added and
mixed thoroughly. (If at all, almond, cashew etc are to be added make it into
ne powder and fry it a little with ghee and add it)
When it is completely cooled, honey is added and mixed well. Dose: 5–10 grams twice daily
Vehicle: Milk
Or else it can be used along with Idli, dosa etc like jam/jelly. Action: Tonic, rejuvenator, complexion enhancer, aphrodisiac. Indications: Nerve disorder, chronic cough, anaemia, post fever debility,
lethargy, indigestion, sexual debility, night fever etc. Note: ose who are having Diabetes are advised to avoid the formulation. Also, if the patients are having BPH, this remedy should not be administered
in large quantity or for a very long period of time.191. Madhupaka – Honey
Remedy for Non Healing
Wounds, Ulcers
By Dr. M.S. Krishnamurthy MD (Ayu)., Ph.D.
Y
Ayurveda does not recommend cooking of honey. Honey consumption is even
contra indicated during summer or with very hot beverages and food that is
freshly made, in hot condition. However, the cooked honey can be used for
external application. Here is a classical evidence for Madhupaka; cooking of honey along with the
herbal ingredients. is formulation is not for internal administration. It is
restricted for external application only. e following citation is from Yogaratnakara text. is is explained under
Ikshu prakarana (Sugarcane products)
Ingredients
Honey – 1 prastha (768 g) – 16 part
Cow’s milk – 2 kudava (384 g) – 8 part
Turmeric – Fine paste/powder – 48 g – 1 p art
Haritaki (Chebulic myrobalan) – Paste/Powder – 48 g  – 1 p art
ProcedureTurmeric and Haritaki are soaked in water and ne paste is made. It is mixed
with honey. is honey mixture is taken in a stainless steel container and cow’s
milk is added in prescribed quantity. is is cooked in mild intensity of heat,
till complete reduction of milk (only the amount of honey remains). is is
ltered and stored. My Experience with is Formulation
I am using this processed ghee in cases of wounds and non healing ulcers. It is
very eﬀective against these conditions. In diabetic ulcers and varicose ulcers
also it has shown signicant benet. In case of mouth ulcers 2–3 days’
application gives good benet.192. Simple Ayurveda Home
Remedy for Heartburn and
Gastritis
Y
is is a churnam home remedy, meaning it is just a simple mixture of herbal
powders. It involves only two herbal ingredients that are quite easily available. Ingredients
Pippalimoola – Root of long pepper – Piper longum – ne powder – half
teaspoonful
Usheera – Khas Khas grass/Vetiver – Vetiveria zizanioides – ne powder – half
teaspoonful. How to take? e ne powder of above two are mixed and half to one teaspoon of this
powder mixture is traditionally administered along with little bit of ghee to
relieve heartburn and gastritis. After taking in, small quantity of lukewarm water can be given for easy
swallowing. Benets: Helps to relieve Gastritis, Heartburn, Indigestion
How it works? is is one of the best home remedies for heartburn.Pippalimoola is a powerful digestive. It boosts digestive enzymes and
promotes easy absorption of digested food. Usheera/Vetiver is a natural coolant. It has calming and soothing eﬀect over
gastric mucosa. It balances out increased Pitta during heartburn and gastritis. It
also relieves vomiting sensation. Ghee is again helpful in calming Pitta and is good to soothe stomach
mucosa.1.193. 4 Remedies for
Morning Sneezing with
Turmeric, Black Pepper,
Tulsi
By Dr. M.S. Krishnamurthy MD (Ayu), Ph.D.
Y
Sneezing is a natural urge. As per Ayurveda, when sneezing is initiated, you
should not suppress it. But some people get continuous sneezing in the early
morning hours. Ayurveda recognizes it as a Kapha dominant, Vata associated
symptom. Sneezing is a reaction to the stimulus caused due to irritating factors of the
cilia of the nostrils. Morning mist or dust is the common causes for sneezing. Tropical
eosinophilia, allergic rhinitis, infective rhinitis etc are some of the underlying
diseases for this annoying symptom. Here are few simple and eﬀective techniques and home remedies to
overcome sneezing caused during morning hours –
Turmeric Fumes
1–2 spoon of turmeric powder is taken. It is sprinkled over a pan, kept
on re. e person is asked to inhale the fumes.2. 3. 4.For those who nd turmeric fumes as a bit string, 1 teaspoon of
turmeric powder can be mixed with 1 teaspoon of ghee and this can be
sprinkled over the pan, kept on re. e patient is asked to inhale it 3–4 times in a day, or at least, soon
after getting up in the morning. is is based on an Ayurvedic procedure called Dhumapana/herbal
smoking. Betel Leaf Juice Remedy
2–3 betel leaves are taken and it is crushed well to obtain fresh juice. To this half teaspoon of honey is added and mixed well. Patient is
given to lick and consume this paste. is is very eﬀective in case of
morning sneeze as well as cough, allergic rhinitis, cold. Black Pepper and Pepper Leaf Recipe
5–8 pepper seeds and a pinch of turmeric powder are taken and
wrapped over a pepper leaf. is is subjected to mild heat. Soon after brushing teeth, this is given for chewing. ough it is a very eﬀective remedy, it is better to avoid in young
children as they develop gastritis or burning sensation of the mouth
and chest. Drum Stick Leaf/Tulsi and Garlic Remedy
A stful of drumstick leaf is taken and added with de – husked garlic. is is pounded well and ne paste is made. is is applied to a cloth
or cotton gauge and patient is asked to inhale/have the smell of it. If drumstick leaves are not available this can be tried even with Tulsi
(Holy basil) leaves also.Warm water usage, avoidance of the mist and dust, remaining away
from the pollutants and irritants including the allergic agents are also
equally essential to control excess sneezing early in the morning.194. Sour Buttermilk
Remedy for Bloating and
Constipation
By Dr. M.S. Krishnamurthy MD (Ayu), Ph.D.
Y
Buttermilk is appreciated as the ‘nectar of the mankind’. Sour buttermilk is well known for its good digestive (pachana), carminative
(deepana) and absorbent (grahi) nature. Most of Ayurvedic text books
prescribe buttermilk in digestive disorders such as diarrhoea, IBS, atus,
haemorrhoids, distension of abdomen etc. Here are few extra benets of sour buttermilk which is less practiced. Secondly as sourness is not liked by all its use is restricted only among ‘sour
lovers’ only. Buttermilk, by nature itself is a acid fermented product. As it is a fermented
beverage, it is not spoiled very easily. Hence it can be preserved for as long as
8–10 days without any additives and even without refrigeration. At the
maximum it may sour; but such sour buttermilk has multiple advantages as
mentioned below. Sour Buttermilk for Constipation
200–300 ml is mixed with a pinch


 from the cradle to the grave. In the case of nervous afflictions resulting from the degeneration
of the sheathing of the nerves, the abundant use of carrot and celery
juice has helped to restore these to their normal condition and thus
alleviate or remove the affliction. Celery is very high in magnesium and iron content, a combination
which is invaluable as a food for the blood cells. Many diseases of the
nervous and blood system are due chiefly to the inorganic mineral
elements and salts taken into the body by means of dev italized foods
and sedatives. If there is an inadequate supply of sulphur, iron, and calcium in
the diet, or even if there is an abundant supply of these, but in
36 devitalized inorganic form, then asthma, rheumatism, hemorrhoids,
and other disturbances may result. Unbalanced proportions of sulphur
and phosphorus in the diet may create conditions of mental irritability,
neurasthenia, and even insanity. Also, many diseases hitherto ascribed
to excessive uric acid in the system may really be caused by the
consumption of foods too rich in phosphoric acid and deficient in
sulphur. The combination of carrot and celery juices furnishes a balance
of these organic minerals in excellent combination to combat
tendencies toward these diseases and help to restore the body to
normalcy where these afflictions have started or taken root. CUCUMBER JUICE
Cucumber is probably the best natural diuretic known, secreting
and promoting the flow of urine. It has, however, many other valuable
properties, for example, as the promotion of hair growth, due to its
high silicon and sulphur content, particularly when mixed with carrot,
lettuce, and spinach juice. It contains more than 40% potassium, 10%
sodium, 1XA% calcium, 20% phosphorus, and 7% chlorine. The addition of cucumber juice to carrot juice has a very beneficial
effect on rheumatic ailments which result from an excessive retention
of uric acid in the system. The addition of some beet juice to this
combination speeds up the general process. The high potassium content of the cucumber makes this juice
very valuable in helping conditions of high and low blood pressure. It
is equally helpful in afflictions of the teeth and gums, such as in
pyorrhea. Our nails and our hair need particularly the combination of
elements which fresh vital cucumber juice furnishes, helping to prevent
the splitting of the nails and falling out of the hair. Skin eruptions of many kinds have been helped by drinking
cucumber juice to which the juices of carrot and lettuce have been
added. The addition of a little alfalfa juice in some cases has helped
to speed up their efficiency. DANDELION JUICE
This juice is one of our most valuable tonics. It is useful to
counteract hyperacidity and to help normalize the alkalinity of the
system. While exceedingly high in potassium, calcium, and sodium,
it is our richest food in magnesium and iron content. 37 Magnesium is essential for giving firmness to the skeleton and
preventing softness of the bones. A sufficient quantity of vital organic
magnesium and calcium in the food during pregnancy will help prevent
the loss or degeneration of teeth due to childbirth, and give firmness
and strength to the bones of the child. Vital organic magnesium in proper combination with calcium,
iron, and sulphur, is essential in the formation of certain ingredients
of the blood. Such magnesium has great vitalizing powers and is a
constituent as builder of body cells, particularly the tissues of the
lungs and the nervous system. Vital organic magnesium can be obtained only from live, fresh
plants and must be used fresh and raw. It must not be confused with
manufactured magnesium preparations which, as inorganic minerals,
interfere with the proper healthy functions of the body. All chemical magnesium preparations, whether powdered or in
so-called milk form, result in deposits of inorganic waste matter in
the system. While they may give the more or less immediate results
claimed for them, such results are purely temporary. The aftereffects
of the deposit of such inorganic matter in the body may have
repercussions of a more or less devastating nature in the future. We
prefer to follow in the footsteps of the sage whose principle was to be
safe now rather than to be sorry later. Vital organic magnesium, as obtained raw from vegetable juices,
is a nourishing element of inestimable value to the human system. Raw dandelion juice obtained from the leaves as well as the root,
and combined with carrot and turnip leaves juice, will assist in
remedying spinal and other bone ailments, as well as give strength
and firmness to the teeth, thus helping to prevent pyorrhea and decay. ENDIVE JUICE
Endive is the curly vegetable resembling lettuce, and known also
as escarole and chicory. In our east coast markets the curly endive is
usually known as chicory, the word endive being usually reserved for
the winter-grown heads of the Witloff or Brussels Chicory, which
consists of only the long, more or less straight, thick creamy-white
leaves, 5 to 6 inches long by one or two inches wide, pressed closely
together. This is not as rich as the green varieties of endive, as its
large leaves are cut off and the roots set in cellars in sand to bleach
them. Thus, this type is deficient in chlorophyll and in some of the
essential minerals of which the full-grown vegetable is so rich. 38 Endive is closely allied to the dandelion plant, and their chemical
constituents are more or less alike. Endive however, has food elements
of which the optic system is constantly in need. The addition of endive juice to that of carrot, celery, and parsley,
we furnish nourishment to the optic nerve and muscular system, which
bring amazing results in correcting many eye defects. One or two
pints daily of this combination has frequently corrected eye trouble
in the course of a few months to the extent that normal vision was
regained, making the use of glasses unnecessary. One of the most outstanding cases which has come to our attention
is that of a lady whose home was in West Virginia, south of Pittsburgh. Cataracts took away her eyesight completely, and for nearly three
years no hope whatever was given to her that she could ever see again. She heard that in Pittsburgh there was a very efficient plant in
operation that made fresh juices daily from a large Triturating and
Hydraulic press. It had been said that miracles were happening as a
result of fresh, raw vegetable juice therapy and she decided to give it
a try. She followed rigidly the necessary cleansing regime of colonic
irrigations and enemas to remove all interference by waste matter in
the body; she ate only raw vegetables and fruits with no concentrated
starches or sugars; she drank daily:
One pint of carrot, celery, parsley, and endive juice,
One pint of carrot juice,
One pint of carrot, celery, parsley, and spinach juice,
One pint of carrot and spinach juice. She recovered her eyesight sufficiently in less than one year's time so
that she could read newspapers and magazines with the aid of a
magnifying glass. Endive is one of the richest sources of Vitamin A among the
green vegetables. Carrot, celery, and endive juices combined, are most helpful in
asthma and hay fever, provided the cause of these conditions has been
permanently removed from the diet. The cause, naturally, is usually
milk and the concentrated starches and sugars. In combination with celery and parsley, endive is very helpful in
anemia and in functional heart trouble (when this is not the result of
gas in the intestines), and as a blood tonic. It is also very beneficial in
conditions involving the spleen. 39 Endive juice in almost any combination promotes the secretion
of bile and is, therefore, very good for both liver and gall bladder
disfunctions. FENNEL (Finocchio) JUICE
There are two varieties of fennel—the common garden or sweet
fennel, which is used mostly as condiment and flavoring, and Florence
Fennel usually known as Finocchio and used on a very large scale by
Italians and other Latin races. The former is classified mainly as an herb and is not suitable for
use in juice form except under the care of an expert on the use of
herbs. The Florence variety, however, makes an excellent juice. The plant
belongs to the celery family, but its juice is much sweeter and more
aromatic than celery juice. In fact, the plant is sometimes known
erroneously as anise celery, but the Italian name, Finocchio
(pronounced Finokkio), is more generally used. Fennel juice is a very valuable blood builder and is, therefore, of
the utmost benefit in menstrual disorders. It has been used successfully
alone or in combination with carrot and beet juice in this connection. GARLIC JUICE
Metaphorically speaking, garlic itself is bad enough but garlic
juice by itself may cause devastating social ostracism for the one who
drinks it. It is very beneficial, if one has the mental fortitude to
overcome social handicaps, and the intestinal fortitude to endure the
general discomfort which accompanies the more or less rapid house
cleaning of one


 oxygen-rich blood the heart receives. This process can cause
angina, or severe discomfort and pain in the chest region. Patients with
angina are often prescribed nitroglycerin pills, which dilate (open up and
relax) the arteries, allowing the heart to receive more blood. At other times
the narrowing of the arteries due to plaque can completely shut of f the
blood supply and cause a heart attack. Most people believe that the lar ger blockages are the primary cause of
heart attacks; actually, they represent only 10 percent of all cases. Why? Because over the course of many years, the miraculous human body
compensates for plaque blockages by creating new channels that reroute
blood around them, similar to the way a river might redirect itself around a
large boulder. Eventually, the plaques form scar tissue and calcify, making
them stable. The other 90 percent of heart attacks are caused by the small,
soft plaques, which are less than 50 percent of the width of the artery. These
obnoxious rascals appear when your blood and the endothelium, or the silky
smooth lining of your arteries, become sticky. This tackiness permits lethal
LDL  cholesterol to attach and burrow into the artery wall. To heal this injury, the body forms the equivalent of a pimple, inside of
which certain enzymes act to weaken its cover, making it delicate as a
cobweb. The blood flowing past eventually causes the pimple to burst. Next, the natural blood-clotting platelets in your blood rush to heal the
injury, a clot rapidly develops and enlar ges, preventing any blood from
flowing downstream to the heart. Bam! You have a heart attack. SO HOW  DO YOU PREVENT  the formation of these terrible plaques? Stop eating
animal-based products! Animal-based products contain all the building blocks for heart disease:
artery-clogging saturated fat, plaque-promoting dietary cholesterol,
cholesterol-raising and inflammation-causing animal protein, and free-
radical-promoting oxidants. All these components encourage the buildup of
plaque and damage the silky lining of the sixty-thousand-plus miles of
arteries, veins, and capillaries through which your blood flows.Plant-based products discourage plaque buildup and promote the health
of your artery lining because they contain healthy unsaturated fats, zero
cholesterol, friendly protein, and free radical–zapping antioxidants. And
unlike animal-based products, plants are nutritional powerhouses, with the
ability to prevent and even reverse existing heart disease. Plants are loaded
with vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, and bioflavonoids. Why am I so confident of the connection between diet and heart disease? Because so many studies have proven that heart disease need never exist,
and that existing heart disease can be halted in its tracks, or even reversed. As mentioned, my father, Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn, conducted the most
profound evidence-based research on the arrest and reversal of heart disease
on the planet; his patients demonstrated striking reversal of the plaque in
their diseased arteries. Remember his prescription? Eat a completely low-fat, plant-based diet. My father was not the only person to show a reversal of heart disease. For example, just as my father was embarking on his arrest and reversal
study, Dr. Dean Ornish was also conducting his second Lifestyle Heart Trial
Study at the University of California at San Francisco, whose results were
published in the medical journal The Lancet. Ornish worked with two groups of patients stricken with heart disease. For one year, a group of twenty-eight individuals ate a pure plant-based diet
supplemented with minimal exercise and a stress-management program. At
the same time, a control group of twenty patients consumed the typical
American diet. The outcome: The patients on the low-fat, plant-based diet saw a reverse
in, or an end to, their preexisting coronary blockages, as well as a reduction
in or elimination of their angina. However, the members of the standard
American diet control group saw an increase in their coronary blockages, as
well as in the frequency and intensity of their angina. What caused these results? First, by avoiding all animal-based products,
the plant-eating patients eliminated all the major building blocks that
contribute to plaque formation: fat, cholesterol, and animal protein. They
were able to lower their total cholesterol to a level that helped their body
metabolize away the plaque buildup in their arteries. Second, by consuming only fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and
legumes, the patients allowed the arteries themselves to heal at a cellular
and metabolic level. A plant-based diet permits the silky lining of thearteries to produce nitric oxide, an element crucial to their health that cleans
the blood, heals the endothelium (making it slippery instead of sticky), and
allows the capillaries, arteries, and veins to relax, letting more blood flow to
the heart. Corroborating this research, in 2004 Cornell professor Dr. T. Colin
Campbell, the project director of the China-Oxford-Cornell Diet and Health
Project, published The China Study, a book chronicling the results of a
thirty-year investigation of nutrition and health that examined more than
6,500 people in sixty-five dif ferent Chinese villages. The New York Times
referred to this study as the “Grand Prix” of all epidemiological research. Among the study’ s findings: American men are seventeen times more
likely to die from heart disease than rural Chinese men. During one three-
year period in the study, Campbell even found certain areas in China with
populations over 100,000 where not a single person under the age of sixty-
five had died from heart disease. All of the Chinese subjects ate a predominantly whole food, plant-based
diet, containing few to no packaged products (or meals at restaurants). As a
result, their average total cholesterol ranged between 81 and 135. Conversely, the typical American eats an animal-based diet with close to
40 percent of his or her calories coming from animal products, 50 percent
from refined and processed sources, and only 10 percent from plant foods. Not surprisingly, Americans, who also rely heavily on packaged food
products, have an average total cholesterol of 215. The Framingham Study, the lar gest equivalent review of diet and heart
disease among Americans, had results similar to those of The China Study. The study was initiated because heart disease had become so prevalent in
this country during the last century that, in 1948, researchers from the
National Institutes of Health (NIH) began what has become the longest
ongoing investigation into the causes of heart disease ever conducted. After compiling data on almost everyone in the entire town of
Framingham, Massachusetts, the NIH researchers were able to determine
that the leading risk factors for heart disease were (1) high cholesterol
levels, (2) high blood pressure, and (3) cigarette smoking. Further research over the last half century has confirmed these findings. Today, a high cholesterol level is still the number one risk factor for heart
disease, greater than smoking, high blood pressure, family history, stress, or
obesity.Interestingly, nobody in the Framingham Study whose total cholesterol
level was under 150 without using cholesterol-lowering drugs ever had a
heart attack. Once again, as Dr. William Castelli, the former director of the
Framingham Study, puts it: Keep your total cholesterol under 150 and you
protect yourself from ever having a heart attack. And get this! Some 35 percent of all heart attacks documented in the
Framingham Study occurred in people whose total cholesterol level was
between 151 and 200, numbers the American Heart Association and most
physicians will tell you are rock solid. This research indicates that the only way to become truly rock solid is to
get your total cholesterol below 150 and your LDL  cholesterol below 80. You can best do this by eating a delicious plant-based diet. The sooner you can start, the better of f you’ll be. For example, autopsies
of young American soldiers from the Korean and Vietnam Wars confirmed
that 80 percent already had plaque deposits greater than 50 percent of the
width of their coronary arteries, while the Korean and Vietnamese soldiers
examined, who had eaten a plant-based diet, had little to no plaque. We also know from the landmark PDA Y (Pathobiological Determinants
of Atherosclerosis in Youth) Study, begun in 1985 and supported by the
NIH’ s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, that adolescents who died
from accidents, homicides, and suicides already had the makings of fatty
plaque lesions in their coronary arteries. In other words, dangerous levels
can build up long before you hit the age most people associate with heart
attacks. STROKE
Stroke is a silent killer that hits like a well-camouflaged assassin perched
in a tree. Stroke attacks with no warning signs, and results in death 25
percent of the time. Of every five people who die of stroke, three are
women and two are men. Nearly 700,000 Americans suf fer strokes
annually, and 150,000 of these victims die. A stroke is similar to a heart attack, but af fects the brain. It can occur in
one of two ways. The first type, called ischemic stroke, is the result of a
blood clot, or a narrowing of the arteries to the brain. The second type, hemorrhagic stroke, occurs when one of the arteries
leading to the brain ruptures. In both cases, there isn’ t enough


 and place your feet wide apart
instead. T ake in a deep breath through your nose, and as you exhale, open
your mouth wide, stick out you r tongue, and say the word ha  emphasizing
the h  on the exhale, as if you are a lion roaring. If you want to add another
physical compon ent to complete the asana, b ring up your hands and make
claws as you exhale. It’ s great for releasing negative ener gy. Bridge P ose — Setu Bandhasana :  Begin by lying on your back with your
knees bent and your feet flat on  the floor. Place your feet hip-width apart
and parallel, your toes forward, and your arms alongside you  with your
palms facing down. Press your palms down and lift your pelvis up. If you
can, bring your hands together on the mat underneath your pelvis and
interlace your fingers. W alk your shoulders inward toward your spine, and
lift your  pelvis even higher. Loo k straight at the ceiling, and keep your head
steady. H old for  five to ten breaths. T o lower, separate your hands, bring
your palms to the floor, and lower your pelvis to the gro und. As a
counterpose, bring both knees to your chest and roll gently side to side to
massage your back. Bridge po se stimulates the thyroid, parathyroid, and
thymus glands. Shoulderstand — Salamba Sarvangasana :  Shoulderstand is a more
advanced pose, so if you’re a beginner, do it at a wall (see below for
instructions) or with a spotter. Place a thinly folded blanket or towel on
your ma t, and lie down so that the blanket is underneath your head, neck,
and sho ulders. Bring your arms alongside you with your palms facing
down. B end you r knees with your feet flat on the floor. Press your hands to
the floor, and bring your legs straight into the air while lifting your lower
back. B ring you r hands up to support your back, and move your elbows
inward toward your spine. Keep your head straight and steady; do not turn
it to the side. If you would prefer to use a wall, start in the same position
with you r mat perpendicular to  the wall. Bend your knees and place your
feet against the w all. Press your feet into the wall to lift your pelvis, support
your lower back with your hands, and walk your feet up the wall. If you feel
stable, bring one foot away from  the wall and then th e other to exten d the
legs stra ight up toward the ceili ng. Remain in the pose for a few  breaths or
a few minutes depending on your ability level. T o lower, bring your bent
knees toward your forehead a nd gently roll your back to the floor. If
continuing with the sequence sh own here, move on to plow pose. If you’re
ready to wind down, do fish pose ( matsyasana ; see page 174 ) or reclining
butterfly pose (see page 55 ). Plow Pose — Halasana :  T o begin, lie d own with a thin ly folded blanket
underneath your  head and neck. Rest your arms alongside your torso withyour palms facing down. Bend both knees with your feet flat on the floor. Press into your h ands and lift your legs. W ith your legs joined a nd straight,
bring them over your head until your toes touch the floor above your head. Y ou will  be folding your body c ompletely in half. Y ou can either leave your
arms on the floor or bend your elbows and support your back with your
hands. Hold the pose for several breaths. T o come out of the pose, lower
your knees toward your forehead and gently lower your back to the floor,
one vertebrae at a time. T o recover, do reclining butterfly pose (see page 55 )
or hug your knees to your chest, and roll your back out side to side. Healing the Emotional and Energetic Body
For many of us, one of the hardest things to do is to speak truth. I’m not
referring to telling the truth, wh ich at times is challenging in and of itself. I’m talking about speaking you r inner truth, the truth that resides within
your hea rt. The truth that is the pure essence within your personal soul, the
voice th at comes from your h ighest Self and gives authenticity to your
words. It speaks of who you ar e as an individual and brings light to your
uniqueness in every way. In the third and  fourth chakras, your personality develops to formulate
your pas sions an d love. But it’ s  in the fifth chakra that these f ormulations
are exposed to the world through your words and verbal expression. Fear of rejection or of not fittin g in may be a reason why you feel you
can’ t sh are who  you are. Y et who you are is what God breathed into your
soul, and you will feel balanced only when you share that with the world. L IVING IN  T RUTH
Far from  being an easy task for most of us, living in truth m eans living
authentically in every moment. When you take this to heart an d put it into
practice, you truly realize how incredibly challenging it is. It is humbling
and ego- crushing, in a way. Unle ss you are consciously working at this, you
aren’ t generally  cognizant of how much untruth can infiltrate your life. Most of the untruths aren’ t harmful or pivotal to changing your destiny, but
they are like little grains of sand that can build up to a mountain. Think of  the reasons why you might not tell the truth or the entire truth. Sometimes we don’ t say the t ruth because it’ s not convenient, such as
telling your boss that you were late because you were stuck in t raf fic rather
than bec ause yo u got into an ar gument with your spouse. Or  maybe the
untruth comes from fear of embarrassment. For example, you accidentally
schedule a date with a new hot guy on the same night as you had already
committed to another date with a nother guy who isn’ t so hot. So you lie and
say you’ re sick. Or perhaps you tell an untruth because you fear  rejection or
you feel  bad for the other perso n. There are many reasons why you might
tell an untruth, and most of them are linked to fear. Fear is a low and slow
ener gy. Once you reach the fi fth chakra your body, mind, and soul are
already vibratin g at a higher frequency so you can easily connect to your
spiritual self. Any untruth or lie  you tell inside or out will corr ode the link
between you and your higher self. Therefore it’ s not about the bent reality
that you’re telling but rather your alignment with your own integrity and the
higher vibrations of truth and love. B EING  A UTHENTIC VERSUS  B EING  N ICE
Authenticity is about lifting the false masks of your identity as a person and
revealing who you are to the w orld. W e all wear masks. Som etimes we
wear the mask of someone who works, who plays, who is a spouse, friend,
son, daughter, sister, brother, and so on. And we tend to wear dif ferent
masks fo r dif fer ent people. Living in the truth is about discarding all those
masks a nd inste ad exposing yourself to the world as you are. People who
live authenticall y show little dif ference in their attitudes and app earances no
matter who is before them. S ometimes these people are referred to as
“genuine and real” or even “down-to-earth. ”
If, on the other hand, you are c onstantly worried about pleasin g others
or afraid of wha t others might th ink of you, you are not only wearing masks
but also changing those masks d epending on who is in front of you. Being
nice, or people pleasing, is the antithesis of truth. It’ s impossible to be
genuine or authentic and be a p eople pleaser. If you morph into  what otherpeople want or what you think they want, you deny who you a re and your
needs and desires. Y ou can  begin to counter this tendency by first finding out w hat you
truly wa nt, need, and desire. Get to know yourself and your true  nature. For
example, if you hate golf but you go golfing with the guys every weekend
because you want to fit in or to climb the corporate ladder, you aren’ t being
true to yours elf by doing it. Eventually your dislike for golfing will show
through and the guys will figure out you’re just doing it to get ahead. Y our
actions will backfire in a way that will be disadvantageous to you. When I was a young stay-at-home mom, I noticed that all th e other
moms around me spent most o f their time volunteering at the  elementary
school and carting their kids a round to several sporting teams and other
extracurricular a ctivities. I fell into the trap of wanting to be like them. I
thought I should be the perfect mom and that I could achieve th at