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


 of those ar ound us. The mor e we try
to suppr ess the aspects of our personality that we deem
unacceptable, the mor e they ﬁnd mischievous ways of
expressing themselves. The Shadow Eﬀect occurs when our
own r epressed darkness mak es its pr esence known by
driving us to act out in unconscious and une xpected ways. It
occurs when something in the outer world for ces our inner
darkness out of hiding, and we suddenly come face-to -face
with the character traits, behaviors, and feelings that we’ve
kept hidden in our secr et life. The Shadow Eﬀect is not
something we plan. In fact, it’s something that most of us
have invested a lot of time and ener gy in trying to avoid. But when we understand this phenomenon, we can unravel
the mystery of our own self -sabotage. THE SHADOW EFFECT
Imagine that every quality, every emotion, every dark
thought that you try to ignor e, hide, or disown is lik e a
beach ball you ar e holding underwater. You tak e your selﬁsh
self, you tak e your angry self, your too -good self, your not-
good-enough self, your foolish self, your conceited self, all
the selves. And suddenly you’r e overwhelmed with all these
beach balls you’r e trying to manage. When you’r e young,
you have lots of ener gy, so you can manage a lot of beach
balls—you can suppr ess a lot of your unwanted qualities. But then when you’r e tired, heartbr oken, or sick; when you
no longer believe in the possibility of an e xciting futur e;when your defenses ar e down; when your attention is on
your family or some big pr omotion you’r e going to win;
when you’ve had one too many drinks—all of a sudden,
boom! Y ou or someone ar ound you does something without
thinking and one or mor e of your submer ged beach balls
pops up and hits you in the face. This is the Shadow Eﬀect. What is r oad rage? Is it anything mor e than a beach ball of
suppr essed anger for cing its way to the surface? W e see it
in the media all the time. A ﬁlmmak er making deep
Christian ﬁlms all of a sudden gets drunk and shouts anti-
Semitic comments in a drunk en rage. A radio star who
makes his living being a gr eat communicator in one second
makes a racial slur that destr oys his car eer and r eputation. An ambitious young teacher thr ows away her futur e by
having se x with a fourteen- year-old student. A movie star,
with the means to aﬀor d almost anything, gets caught
shoplif ting. All of the suppr essed impulses and hidden ur ges
we have tried to manage ar e like ticking time bombs waiting
to go oﬀ. And what we can e xpect is that the Shadow Eﬀect will
arise at the least opportune time—when we’r e on the ver ge
of ﬁnancial success or in the midst of r omancing a desirable
new partner; when we’r e days away fr om retirement or
about to close a deal that could change our life for ever. These ar e the times when we consciously or unconsciously
sabotage our own success; when one choice, made in the
haze of unconsciousness, under mines the pr ogress we’ve
work ed years to mak e. All self -sabotage is an e xternalization
of the inter nal shame hidden in the dark r ecesses of our
unconscious minds. Because we have not had the wisdom,
courage, or wher ewithal to mak e peace with what we have
suppr essed out of guilt, fear, or shame, it gets for ced out
into the open so that we can r eclaim and embrace our lost
self and r eturn to the transpar ent state of our whole self. It’s not until our self -destructive behaviors ar e no longer a
secret and we see thr ough objective eyes the damage we’r edoing to ourselves and those ar ound us that we ﬁnd the
motivation to change. It’s not until our childr en come home
from school to ﬁnd the electricity cut oﬀ that we’r e willing to
face our gambling addiction. It tak es a DUI ar rest to wak e us
up to the fact that our drinking has spiraled out of contr ol. When we’r e out to dinner with friends and the waiter
announces that our cr edit car d has been declined, we might
ﬁnally have to face the fact that our spending is out of
contr ol. When we get caught dipping into the company
expense account, we ﬁnally r ealize that we must deal with
our entitlement issues. W e can fool ourselves that we ar e
doing all right at work or on our diet—until we get our yearly
review or step on the scale. The Shadow Eﬀect arises as a
potent outer r eﬂection that our inner world is danger ously
out of balance. But as painful as these moments of truth can
be, they can serve to begin a pr ocess of involuntary
evolution. When we ar e confr onted with our shadow and it is
seen by those whose opinions matter to us, we snap out of
denial and hopefully r ecognize that we must do something
about it. If we wer e able to see ourselves accurately, it would be an
easier task. But we can’t, and because of this, it is so easy
to fall into the trance of denial, otherwise known as “ Don’t
Even Notice I Am Lying.” The lie begins with ourselves. If
we wer e intimate with our dark er impulses—if we knew that
selﬁshness, hatr ed, gr eed, and intolerance have an
important message to deliver—we would heed their
presence in our life, lik e a trusted friend knocking at the
door. But when we alienate our shadow, when out of fear we
refuse to acknowledge or r eceive the messages it is trying
to send, we can be certain that we will do something or
become involved in something that brings our hidden
darkness to the surface. A t these times, the pr overbial
knock on the door feels mor e like a knock in the head; yet
the moments we meet our own disowned darkness ar e notonly some of the most painful, but also the most fertile
times of our life. If we wish to avoid the wrath of the Shadow Eﬀect, we
must do a r eality check with ourselves every day to see if
we ar e acting in ways that could shame, embar rass, or
destr oy our family, car eer, health, or self -esteem. W e must
wake up and consider whether we ar e hiding and denying a
secret life; we must become awar e of habits, behaviors, or
ways of being we ar e keeping fr om others. If we fear what
would happen if our families, cowork ers, or friends look ed
through our e-mails, check ed the history of our most
recently viewed sites on our computers, or r ead the
judgmental, mean thoughts in our minds, we must
recognize these as signs—as ﬂashing r ed lights. Denial is
the culprit that k eeps our secr et life intact and out of sight—
and k eeps us focused on anything but our own indiscr etions. To embrace our shadow and derail the possibility of the
Shadow Eﬀect taking us down, we must open up to a
greater truth about our humanness and what lurks beneath
the surface of the person we believe ourselves to be. When
we engage our minds in investigating the hypocrisy of our
human behavior, we open up to a deeper, mor e meaningful
truth—that all parts of ourselves deserve to be seen, hear d,
and embraced, that every aspect holds a gr eater gif t than
we can see and every feeling deserves healthy e xpression. When they ar e tak en out of the darkness and e xposed to the
light, they will support us in cr eating healthy r elationships,
regaining good mental health, and achieving our potential. The Shadow Eﬀect shatters our perfectly constructed
persona so that we can r einvent ourselves as somebody
other than who we’ve been. Self -sabotage is nothing mor e
than an unwillingness on the part of our higher self to
continue playing the r ole we have assigned to ourselves. Ideally, we embrace our disowned aspects willingly; when
we insist on clinging to our personas, the fallout can be
painful and messy. Ther e are examples of this everywher e.Britney Spears, the all- American Mousek eteer who wor e the
good-girl mask, spirals into self -destruction and becomes a
notorious bad girl. T iger W oods, the all-star golfer with the
nice-guy overachiever mask, acts out and in one day goes
from a super hero to a self -sabot


	“Bladder	stones”	in
Figure	12b
)	can	lead	to
urinary
obstruction,	kidney	infection,
	and,	eventually,
kidney	failure. Figure	12b
:	Bladder	stones

As	kidney	cells	become	increasingly	deprived	of	vital	nutrients,	including	oxygen,
malignant	tumors	may	develop. In	addition,	uric	acid	crystals	that	are	not	eliminated	by
the	kidneys	can	settle	in	the	joints	and	cause	rheumatism,	gout,	and	water	retention. Symptoms	of	impending	kidney	trouble	are	often	deceptively	mild	in	comparison	to	the
potential	severity	of	kidney	disease. The	most	observable	and	common	symptoms	of
kidney	problems	are	abnormal	changes	in	the	volume,	frequency,	and	coloration	of	the
urine. These	are	usually	accompanied	by	swelling	of	the	eyes,	face,	and	ankles,	as	well	as
pain	in	the	upper	and	lower	back. If	the	disease	has	progressed	further,	there	may	be
blurred	vision,	tiredness,	declined	performance,	and	nausea. The	following	symptoms	may
also	indicate	malfunctioning	of	the	kidneys:
high	blood	pressure,	low	blood	pressure,	pain
moving	from	the	upper	to	lower	abdomen,	dark	brown	urine,	pain	in	the	back	just	above
the	waist,	excessive	thirst,	increase	in	urination	(especially	during	the	night),	less	than
500	ml	of	urine	per	day,	a	feeling	of	fullness	in	the	bladder,	pain	while	passing	urine,	drier
and	browner	skin	pigment,	ankles	being	puffy	at	night,	eyes	being	puffy	in	morning,
bruising,	and	hemorrhaging. All	major	diseases	of	the	urinary	system	are	caused	by	toxic	blood;	in	other	words,	by
blood	filled	with	tiny	molecules	of	waste	material	and	excessive	proteins. Gallstones	in
the	liver	impair	digestion,	cause	blood	and	lymph	congestion,	and	disrupt	the	entire
circulatory	system,	including	that	of	the	urinary	system. When	the	gallstones	are	removed,	the	urinary	system	has	a	chance	to	recuperate,	rid
itself	of	accumulated	toxins	and	stones,	and	maintain	fluid	balance	and	normal	blood
pressure. This	is	necessary	for	all	the	processes	in	the	body	to	run	smoothly	and
efficiently. There	may	also	be	a	strong	need	to	cleanse	the	kidneys,	in	addition	to	the	liver
and	gallbladder	(see
The	Kidney	Cleanse,
	section	3	of	Chapter	5). Disorders	of	the	Nervous	System

Our	entire	lives	are	dictated	by	the	way	we	feel. Our	persona,	the	way	we	carry	ourselves,
our	interactions	with	other	people,	our	moods,	cravings,	patience	and	tolerance	levels,	and
our	reactions	to	life’s	occurrences—all	are	strongly	influenced	by	the	condition	of	our
nervous	system. In	today’s	fast-paced	world,	we	are	exposed	to	a	variety	of	conditions	that
wreak	havoc	on	our	bodies. The	brain	is	the	control	center	of	the	body,	and	unless	it
receives	proper	nourishment,	your	entire	physical	and	emotional	being	can	easily	become
chaotic. Brain	cells	are	normally	easily	capable	of	manufacturing	the	huge	number	of	chemicals
they	need	for	the	complex	tasks	they	must	perform,	day	after	day,	year	after	year. However,	their	life	support	depends	on	the	continuous	supply	of	nutrients	necessary	to
produce	those	chemicals. Modern	intensive	agriculture	has	nearly	depleted	farm	soil	of	all
its	basic	nutrients	(see	“
Take	Ionic	Essential	Minerals,
”	section	5	in	Chapter	5). Although
this	has	certainly	added	to	the	nutritional	deficiencies	so	prevalent	among	the	populations
in	industrialized	nations,	most	nutrient	deficiencies	actually	occur	as	a	result	of	poor
performance	of	the	digestive	system	and,	particularly,	of	the	liver. Lack	of	such	nutrients
can	hinder	the	ability	of	our	brains	to	manufacture	the	chemicals	they	need	to	function
efficiently. The	brain	can	operate	for	quite	some	time	with	substandard	amounts	of	nutrients,	but
the	price	one	pays	includes	poor	health,	fatigue,	lack	of	energy,	mood	swings,	depression,
sickness,	aches	and	pains,	and	general	discomfort. Some	deficiencies	manifest	in	mental
disease,	such	as	schizophrenia	and	Alzheimer’s. The	health	of	the	nervous	system,	which	includes	the	brain,	the	spinal	cord,	pairs	of
spinal	and	cranial	nerves,	and	autonomic	functions,	largely	depends	on	the	quality	of	the
blood. Blood	is	composed	of	plasma	(a	straw-colored	transparent	fluid)	and	cells. The
constituents	of	plasma	are	water,	plasma	proteins,	mineral	salts,	hormones,	vitamins,
nutrient	materials,	organic	waste	products,	antibodies,	and	gases. There	are	three	varieties
of	blood	cells:	white	cells	(
leukocytes
),	red	cells	(
erythrocytes
),	and	platelets
(
thrombocytes
). Any	abnormal	changes	in	the	blood	affect	the	nervous	system	as	well	as
the	rest	of	the	body. All	three	types	of	blood	cells	are	formed	in	the	red	bone	marrow,	which	is	nourished
and	maintained	by	the	nutrients	supplied	by	the	digestive	system. Gallstones	in	the	liver
interfere	with	the	digestion	and	assimilation	of	food,	which	fills	the	plasma	of	the	blood
with	excessive	waste	material	and	reduces	nutrient	supplies	to	the	red	bone	marrow. This,
in	turn,	upsets	the	balance	of	blood	cell	constituents,	disrupts	hormonal	pathways,	andcauses	abnormal	responses	in	the	nervous	system. Most	diseases	afflicting	the	nervous
system	are	rooted	in	improperly	formed	blood,	brought	about	by	a	dysfunctional	liver	and
subsequent	waste	accumulation	in	the	intestinal	tract. Each	of	the	numerous	functions	of	the	liver	has	a	direct	influence	on	the	nervous
system,	particularly	the	brain. The	liver	cells	convert	glycogen	(complex	sugar)	into
glucose,	which,	besides	oxygen	and	water,	serves	as	the	most	important	nutrient	for	the
nervous	system. Glucose	covers	most	of	that	system’s	energy	requirements. The	brain,	although	it	constitutes	only	one-fiftieth	of	the	body’s	weight,	contains	about
one-fifth	of	the	total	blood	volume	in	the	body. It	uses	up	vast	amounts	of	glucose. Gallstones	in	the	liver	drastically	reduce	glucose	supplies	to	the	brain	and	the	rest	of	the
nervous	system. This,	in	turn,	can	affect	the	performance	of	the	organs,	senses,	and	mind. At	the	early	stages	of	imbalance,	a	person	may	develop	food	cravings,	particularly	for
sweet	or	starchy	foods,	and	experience	frequent	mood	swings	or	emotional	stress. There	are	other,	even	more	serious	problems	arising	from	the	occurrence	of	gallstones
in	the	liver. The	liver	forms	the	plasma	proteins	and	most	of	the	blood-clotting	factors
from	the	body’s	amino	acid	pool. Occurrence	of	gallstones	in	the	bile	ducts	of	the	liver
increasingly	inhibits	this	important	function. When	the	production	of	clotting	factors
drops,	platelet	count	drops,	too,	and	there	may	be	spontaneous	capillary


r eady clear about that. A Course in
Miracles  teaches us that a desir e is a prayer. The most
enlightened prayer isn’t “ Dear God, send me someone
wonderful,” but, “ Dear God, help me r ealize that I am
someone wonderful. ” Y ears ago I would pray for a wonderfulman to come and tak e my desperation away. Ultimately I
said to myself, “Why don’t you try to deal with that befor e
he gets her e. ” I can’t imagine any man saying to a friend,
“Gee, I met a fabulous desperate woman last night. ”
Looking for Mr. Right leads to desperation because ther e is
no Mr.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>
Q: According to Marianne Williamson, what is the purpose of a holy relationship?,
A: A holy relationship is not about changing or fixing the other person, but about healing and growing together through mutual forgiveness and self-love.
Q: What is the ego's approach to relationships?,
A: The ego seeks to use relationships to fill our needs and hide our own weaknesses, rather than to heal and grow together.
Q: What is the key to a successful relationship, according to A Course in Miracles?,
A: The key is not to focus on changing or fixing the other person, but to take responsibility for our own growth and healing.
Q: What is the role of the Holy Spirit in relationships?,
A: The Holy Spirit helps us to see things differently and heal our own wounds, rather than trying to change or fix the other person.
Q: What is the main difference between a special relationship and a holy relationship?,
A: A special relationship is based on fear, guilt, and control, while a holy relationship is based on love, acceptance, and self-love.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>If I swallow a piece of aluminum foil, my body will
regurgitate until the oﬀending object is e xpelled. If I’m being
asked to swallow an idea that doesn’t “agr ee” with me, then
my psychological system will go thr ough the same pr ocess
of regurgitation in or der to e xpel the oﬀending material.If I’m convinced that I’m not good enough, I will have a
diﬃcult time accepting someone into my life who thinks I
am. It’s the Gr oucho Mar x syndr ome of not wanting to lik e
anyone who would want me in their club. The only way that
I can accept someone’s ﬁnding me wonderful, is if I ﬁnd
myself wonderful. But to the ego, self -acceptance is death. This is why we’r e attracted to people who don’t want us. We know they’r e not into it fr om the gate. W e pretend to be
surprised later when we ﬁnd ourselves betrayed and they
leave af ter an intense but fairly short stay. They ﬁt perfectly
into our ego’s plan: I will not be loved. The r eason that nice,
available people seem boring to us is because they bust us. The ego equates emotional danger with e xcitement, and
claims that the nice, available person isn’t danger ous
enough. The ir ony is that the opposite is true: available
people ar e the ones who are danger ous, because they
confr ont us with the possibility of r eal intimacy. They might
actually hang ar ound long enough to get to know us. They
could melt our defenses, not thr ough violence but thr ough
love. This is what the ego doesn’t want us to see. A vailable
people ar e frightening. They thr eaten the ego’s citadel. The
reason we’r e not attracted to them is because we’r e not
available ourselves. 12. HEALING OUR WOUNDS
“Healing is the way in which separation is
overcome.”
Our bar riers to love ar e rarely consciously chosen. They ar e
our eﬀorts to pr otect the places wher e the heart is bruised. Somewher e, sometime, we felt as though an open heart
caused us pain or humiliation. W e loved with the openness
of a child, and someone didn’t car e, or laughed, or evenpunished us for the eﬀort. In a quick moment, per haps a
fraction of a second, we made a decision to pr otect
ourselves fr om ever feeling that pain again. W e would never
again allow ourselves to be so vulnerable. W e built
emotional defenses. W e tried to build a fortr ess acr oss our
heart, to pr otect us fr om any cold assault. The only pr oblem
is, accor ding to the Course, that we cr eate what we defend
against. There was a time in my life when I felt I should stop
opening up so much to people who didn’t honor my heart as
I wished it to be honor ed. I was angry at people who I felt
had hurt me, but I denied the anger instead of getting in
touch with it and r eleasing it to God. This is a common trap
for Course students. If anger isn’t br ought up into conscious
awar eness, it has no place to go. It either tur ns into an
attack on self or an inappr opriate unconscious attack on
others. So not r ecognizing the full e xtent of my anger, and
thinking that the lesson to be lear ned was mer ely that I
shouldn’t r eveal so much of my honest feelings, I then went
into r elationships with two strik es against me: I was closed—
read that as cold—and ar med with hidden emotional knives
coming fr om my unconscious anger. Contrary to whatever
front I might have been able to lead with, that’s not e xactly
a delightful pack age. Between the coldness and the anger, I
could tur n oﬀ the saintliest men. This, of course, only
increased my anger and distrust. I was once talking to a very wise therapist. I made some
comment lik e, “W ell, a lot of women my age ar e ﬁnding it
very har d to ﬁnd r eally loving, committable, available men.”
Her answer rang thr ough my head lik e chur ch bells. “When
a woman says that to me,” she said, “ what we usually ﬁnd
when we look closely enough is a contempt for men.”Contempt for men. Contempt for men. The wor ds
resounded thr ough my sk ull. I don’t know if that was the
issue for every woman she spok e to, but I knew she had hit
the nail on the head in my case. I had of ten thought about
the idea in the Course that we think we ar e angry at what
our br other did to us, but that r eally we ar e angry because
of what we’ve done to him. I had vaguely known that that
was true, but it took a lot of uncovering to see what it was I
was doing  to these guys who I just knew  were doing all
these hor rible things to me! The Course speaks of “shadow
ﬁgures” we bring with us fr om our past. It tells us that we
tend to see no one as they ar e now. We keep blaming
someone in the pr esent for something someone else did in
the past. Some poor man would tell me, “ Darling, I’m not
able to come back Sunday night lik e I’d planned. I’ve got to
keep working on this pr oject. I might not be back until
Tuesday.” Well, he might as well have just told me that my
cat was dead and the dog was dying. The pr oblem wasn’t
that the man wasn’t coming home for a few days mor e. The
problem was how it made me feel inside to hear him say
that. Such a dark despair would run acr oss my heart, I can’t
begin to tell you. I wasn’t r elating to that man, or this
circumstance. I was r emembering all the times I had ever
felt as though I didn’t matter, I wasn’t attractive, Daddy
didn’t want to hold me, or someone else didn’t want to have
sex anymor e.
From a Course perspective, this situation was coming up
now in or der for me to feel that feeling, and know that it had
nothing to do with the pr esent. I ask ed for a miracle: ‘I am
willing to see this diﬀer ently. I am willing to r emember who I
am.’ God’s answer to my pain was not going to be—contrary
to what my ego k ept insisting was the only way out of this
grief—a man who was going to tell me sixty times a day,
“You’re fabulous, you’r e wonderful, I love you, I want you,”
and then show me just how desirable I r eally was, maybetwice, pr eferably thr ee times a day. The healing, in fact, was
bound to come ultimately fr om men who would not—
because no one can, r eally—tolerate my neediness, or the
guilt I would try to pr oject onto


 there. Y ou are in a relationship? Enter the
Now from there. There is  nothing you can ever do or attain that will get you closer to
salvation than it is at this moment. This may be hard to grasp for a mindaccustomed to thinking that everything worthwhile is in the future. Nor
can anything that you ever did or that was done to you in the past prevent
you from  saying  yes to what is  and taking your attention deeply into the
Now. Y ou cannot do this in the future. Y ou do it now or not at all. LOVE/HA TE RELA TIONSHIPS
Unless a nd until you access the consciousness frequency of pre sence, all
relationships, an d particularly intimate relationships, are deepl y flawed
and ultimately dysfunctional. They may see m perfec t for a while, such as
when yo u are “in love,” but invariably that apparent perfec tion gets
disrupted as ar guments, conflicts, dissatisfaction, and emotional or even
physical violence occur with increasing frequency. It seems that most
“love re lationships” become love/hate relationships before long. Love
can then turn into savage attack, feelings of hostility, or complete
withdrawal of af fection at the flick of a switch. This is co nsidered
normal. The relationship then o scillates for a while, a few months or a
few years, between the polaritie s of “love” and hate, and it give s you as
much pl easure as it gives you pain. It is not uncommon for couples to
become addicte d to those cycles. Their drama makes them fe el alive. When a balance  between the po sitive/negative polarities is lost and the
negative, destru ctive cycles occur with increasing frequency and
intensity, which tends to happen  sooner or later, then it will not be long
before the relationship finally collapses. It m ay a ppear th at if you could only eliminate the negative or de structive
cycles, then all would be well and the relationship would flower
beautifully — but alas, this is n ot possible. The polarities are mutually
interdependent. Y ou cannot ha ve one without the other. The positive
already contains  within itself the as yet unmanifested negative. Both are
in fact dif ferent aspects of the same dysfunction. I am speaking here of
what are commonly called romantic relationships — not of true love,
which has no opposite because i t arises from beyond the mind. Love as a
continuous state  is as yet very rare — as rare as conscious human beings. Brief an d elusive glimpses of lo ve, however, are possible whenever there
is a gap in the stream of mind.The negative side of a rela tionship is, of course, more easily
recognizable as dysfunctional than the positive one. And it is also easier
to re cognize the source of negativity in your partner than to see it in
yourself. It can manifest in many forms: possessiveness, jealousy,
control, withdrawal and unspoken resentment, the need to be right,
insensitivity and self-absorption, emotional demands and manipulation,
the ur ge  to ar gue, criticize, judg e, blame, or attack, anger, unconscious
revenge for past pain inflicted by a parent, and rage and physical
violence. On the positive s ide, you are “in  love” with your partner. This is at first a
deeply satisfyin g state. Y ou fe el intensely alive. Y our existence has
suddenly become meaningful because someone needs you, wants you,
and makes you feel special, and you do the same for him or her. When
you are together, you feel whole. The feeling can become so intense that
the rest of the world fades into insignificance. However, you may also have noticed that there is a neediness and a
clinging quality to that intensity. Y ou become addicted to the other
person. He or she acts on you like a drug. Y ou are on a high when the
drug is available, but even the possibility or the thought that h e or she
might no longer be there for y ou can lead to jealousy, possessiveness,
attempts at manipulation through emotional blackmail, blam ing and
accusing — fear of loss. If the o ther person does leave you, this  can give
rise to the most intense hostility or the most profound grief and  despair. In an instant, loving tenderness can turn into a savage attack or dreadful
grief. Where is the love now? Can love change into its oppos ite in an
instant? W as it love in the first place, or just an addictive grasping and
clinging? ADDICTION AND THE SEARCH FOR WHOLENESS
Why should we become addicted to another person? The reason why the romantic love relationship is such an intense and
universally sought-after experience is that it seems to of fer liberation
from a deep-seated state of fear, need, lack, and incompletene ss that ispart of the hum an condition in its unredeemed and unenlightened state. There is a physical as well as a psychological dimension to this state. On the physical level, you are ob viously not whole, nor will you ever be:
Y ou are either a man or a woma n, which is to say, one-half of the whole. On this level, the longing for wholeness — the return to on eness —
manifests as male-female attraction, man’ s need for a woman, woman’ s
need for a man. It is an almost irresistible ur ge for union with the
opposite ener gy polarity. The ro ot of this physical ur ge is a spir itual one:
the long ing for an end to duality, a return to the state of wholeness. Sexual union is the closest you can get to this state on the physical level. This is why it is  the most deeply  satisfying experience the physical realm
can of fer. But sexual union is no more than a fleeting gli mpse of
wholeness, an instant of bliss. A s long as it is unconsciously sought as a
means o f salvat ion, you are seeking the end of duality on the level of
form, w here it cannot be found. Y ou are given a tantalizing gl impse of
heaven, but you are not allowed to dwell there, and find yourself again in
a separate body. On t he psychological level, the sense of lack and incompleten ess is, if
anything, even greater than on  the physical level. As long as you are
identified with the mind, you h ave an externally derived sense of self. That is to say, you get your sense of who you are from things that
ultimately have nothing to do with who you are: your social role,
possessions, external appearance, successes and failures, belief  systems,
and so on. This false, mind-made self, the ego, feels vulnerable, insecure,
and is always seeking new things to identify with to give it a feeling that
it ex ists. But nothing is ever enough to give it lasting fulfillmen t. Its fear
remains; its sense of lack and neediness remains. But then  that special relationship  comes along. It seems to be th e answer
to all the ego’ s problems and to meet all its needs. At least this is how it
appears at first. All the other th ings that you derived your sens e of self
from before now become relativ ely insignificant. Y ou now have a single
focal po int that replaces them all, that gives meaning to your life, and
through which you define your identity: the person you are “in love”
with. Y o u are no longer a disconnected fragment in an uncaring universe,
or so  it seems. Y our world now has a center: the loved one. The fact that
the center is outside you and that, therefore, you still have an externally
derived sense of self does not seem to matter at first. What matte rs is thatthe underlying feelings of incompleteness, of fear, lack, and
unfulfillment so  characteristic of the egoic state are no longer th ere — or
are they? Have they dissolved, or do they continue to exist un derneath
the happy surface reality? If in your relationships you experience both “love” and the opposite of
love — attack, e motional violen ce, and so on — then it is likely that you
are confusing ego attachment and addictive clinging with lo ve. Y ou
cannot l ove you r partner one m oment and attack him or her the next. T rue love has no opposite. If your “love” has an opposite, then it is not
love but a strong  ego-need for a  more complete and deeper sense of self,
a need that the other person temporarily meets. It is the ego’ s substitute
for salvation, and for a short time it almost does feel like salvation. But there comes a point when your partner behaves in ways th at fail to
meet yo ur needs, or rather those of your ego. The feelings of fear, pain,
and lack that are an intrinsic part of egoic consciousness but had been
covered up by the “love relation ship” now resurface. Just as w ith every
other addiction,  you are on a high when the drug is avail able, but
invariably there  comes a time when the drug no longer works for you. When those painful feelings reappear, you feel them even more strongly
than bef ore, and  what is more,  you now


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

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


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


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


does take place, but it is also evident that low-grade painful infections run concurrently with the progress of the disease. The most apparent of these infections take place in the mouth. The person with scurvy
has infections existing in the gums, and the infections are those of the common pus-producing types of microorganisms. In other words, here as in deficiency diseases of the
eye, there are innumerable evidences of inf ection eagerly crowding in on tissues which
have lost their defenses on account of certain vitamin starvation. Lack of vitamin A and vitamin B and vitamin C opens the door to the entrance of infectious disease of, the eye,
the nervous system, and the mouth. Apparently the processes move up and down like
the arms of a scale. As vitamin and mineral intake is up, infection is down. As vitamin
and mineral intake is down, infection is up. Vitamin D is the substance necessary to the proper building of teeth and bones. Whether a lack of vitamin D is accompanied by some sort of low-grade infection, we do
not know. Apparently the disease produced by lack of vitamin D is purely a chemical reaction; but while vitamin D has been thought of as simply a protector of bone and
teeth, its effect is apparent in other parts of the body. Undoubtedly there is a relation
between this vitamin and protection from infections. This was one of the earliest facts
discovered in connection with vitamins. It is now well known that exposure to sunshine protects the individual from
tuberculosis. Exposure to sunshine is the best way of getting vitamin D. The short
waves of light from the sun acting on the ergosterol in the skin produce vitamin D.
These short waves penetrate the cornea and the other transparent structures of the eye;
impinge directly through the transparen t blood vessels of the retina, and produce
vitamin D by direct action on the blood stream in that manner. So even with the body completely covered up with clothing, a person outdoors in sunshine will receive some
vitamin D through the eyes. Tuberculosis is a virulent and stubborn infection. However, early cases treated with
vitamin D alone (exposure to sunshine) may be cured. Apparently the only persons who
do develop tuberculosis are those who are lacking in vitamin D. We must conclude,
then, that the effect of vitamin D is not comple tely a chemical effect, but that it is also a
highly infection-resisting life element. In the breaking up of the vitamin B complex, several new vitamins. have been
discovered. The first of these is riboflavin. It has been found to be necessary for the existence of every cell in the body. Clinically, the reduction in the amount of riboflavin
results in sores developing in and around the mouth. These sores are actually small
ulcers, and are associated with infectious mi croorganisms. In other words, infections of
the lips and mouth occur in the persons who are deficient in riboflavin. Some kind of a
barrier has been broken down in the person who is deficient, which allows these germs to flourish and to produce ulcers and sores in this part of the anatomy. Here again is
illustrated in a specific way infection intruding itself immediately when the general resistance is lowered. Another part of the vitamin B complex is niacin (nicotinic acid) which relieves the
symptoms of pellagra. The insanity is relieved; the digestive symptoms are improved, and the skin inflammation disappears. The person who is afflicted with pellagra and
who has an inflammation of the skin has this infection as a result of the resistance of the
individual's skin being lowered. His brain function is disturbed because resistance has
been lowered. His digestive tract is diseased because resistance in this part of the body
has been lowered. The taking into the body of a certain amount of niacin-amide raises the general resistance of the individual to this particular type and kind of infection, so that the symptoms disappear. Here again is demonstrated in a spectacular way a lack of
resistance to certain specific infections coincident with a lack of a certain vitamin. For many years it has been known that the effects produced by yeast and liver extract
can not be completely duplicated by giving the then known elements of vitamin B 2
along with vitamin B 1. It was apparent that there we re undiscovered vitamins which had
the ability to produce profound effects in the human organism. In dealing with
laboratory animals, it was known that the combination of riboflavin, vitamin B 1 and
niacin-amide would not provide the animal with as good health as when the whole B
complex, as represented by yeast, was used. Drs. Jeans and Zentmeyer, of the
University of Iowa, found that animals could be made so ill that their hair turned gray or that bald spots could be produced while giving all the synthetic vitamins and necessary
minerals, but leaving out the undiscovered part of vitamin B
2 complex. For a time this mysterious element in the vitamin B 2 complex which had to do with
the color of hair (gray or not gray) and which also had to do with the glossiness and
beauty of hair, in some cases producing baldne ss, was referred to as the filtrate factor
(or factors). It was not known whether this was a single or a multiple vitamin. Recent
work has shown the filtrate element to be pantothenic acid. In nature it is found associated with vitamin B
6, since identified as pyridoxine. Apparently pantothenic: acid has a relati vely specific effect on the hair, nails, and the
skin epithelium, and the integrity of the nervous system and brain. In the animals well
supplied with pantothenic add, the skin glands appear to remain in better health, and the
skin does not take on the wrinkling and aged appearance which occurs in those who are deprived of this vitamin. In human subjects, the same thing seems to be true--that a
good appearance of skin, hair, and nails is s preserved in those who have a sufficient
amount of pantothenic acid in the diet. It has been called the vitamin which prevents old
age; but this statement is of course in error. No one vitamin prevents old age. Earlier in our studies of vitamins, Sherman of Columbia University was convinced
that the vitamin which we now call riboflavin was an important element in preventing
old age. Only by a judicious combination of all vitamins, combined with sufficient
minerals, do we have the answer to the problem of old age. The vitamin which had first been called B
6 and is now referred to as pyridoxine has a
pronounced effect on the nervous system. Animals who are deprived of this vitamin are
unable to sleep; are extremely nervous and irritable. The same symptoms occur in
human subjects in whom the amount of pyridoxine is restricted. In addition to these, the
human subject has difficulty in walking, weakness, and abdominal pain. These
symptoms manifest themselves in a decided manner in persons who are starved for pyridoxine, even though all of the other vitamins and minerals be given in sufficient
quantities. The symptoms mentioned are very quickly relieved on taking sufficient doses of this vitamin. In considering the substance formerly known as vitamin B, the first division was one
which was thought to explain the chemistry of the vitamin, and the terms used were vitamin B
1 and vitamin B 2. Vitamin B 1 was later found to be an entity which could be
manufactured in the laboratory. The accepted name for vitamin B 1 at the present time is
thiamine. A vast amount of work has been done on vitamin B 2. It was broken down by chemists into vitamins B 2, 3, 4, 5  and 6. Vitamin B 2 has come to be called riboflavin. It
may be manufactured artificially in the laboratory. Vitamin B 3 now bears the name of niacin. Niacin as a chemical entity is not new. It
has been known for many years, but the identity of niacin as a vitamin is new. It also may be produced synthetically in the chemical laboratory. Vitamin B
4, formerly called the filtrate factor or factors, now known as pantothenic
acid may be artificially produced in the laboratory. Vitamin B 5 is a still unknown factor, and may be single or multiple. It has to do with
the health of the skin in chicks. This means that it has something to do with the
resistance of the skin to infections. Vitamin B 6, pyridoxine, may be produced in the laboratory. A study of the chemistry of the vitamin B elements shows that all but one are now
well understood, and this one may turn out to be plural instead of singular. We must
depend on extracts from yeast, or liver, for this unknown substance. The administration
of the synthetic elements as stated - thiamin, riboflavin, niacin-amide, pantothenic acid,
and pyridoxine--does not give the optimum result in treating vitamin B deficiencies. Although the amounts may be measured with great exactness, there exists in extracts
made from the wheat germ and extracts made from yeast a certain unknown factor or
factors which cannot be disregarded in vitamin therapy, and which we must classify as
one of the essential needs of the human organism. An attempt to provide treatment by
simply using the synthetics in the vitamin B group cannot furnish optimum results. The
unknown vitamins still have a dominating influence in the picture. Pyridoxine is the most effective remedy  in the rather common disease of old age--
Parkinson's disease


opsies on cadavers, examining tissue slides
under a microscope, and analyzing blood, urine, and other
isolated by-products of the body, the majority of medical
knowledge has been obtained. True, patients are examin ed
when they are alive, and tests can be run on many isolated
functions in their bodies. But the knowledge so acquired is
rudimentary compared to the volumes of super-
sophisticated data devoted to death. The poet Wordsworth
wrote this memorably terse line: “We murder to dissect. ”
No truer statement has ever been made about the
limitations of medical research. The ﬁrst thing that is killed in the laboratory  is the
delicate web of intelligence that binds the body together. When a blood cell rushes to a wound site and begins to
form a clot, it has not traveled there at random. It actually
knows where  to go and what to do when it gets there, as
surely as a paramedic—i n fact, more surely, since it acts
completely spontaneously and without guesswork. Even if
we break down its know ledge into ﬁner and ﬁner bits,
looking for the secret in some minute hormone or
messenger enzyme, we will not ﬁnd a protein strand
labeled “intelligence,” and yet there is no doubt that
intelligence is at work. Part of this intelligence devotes itself to healing, and it
seems to be a very powerful force. Every fatal disease has
its mysterious survivors, not just cancer. Although I know of
no spontane ous cures of AIDS, there are long-term
survivors—those who remain alive after ﬁve years—whose
immune systems have somehow defended themselves
against a disease that under normal conditions is totally
devastating. Researchers tend to approach such
extraordinary physiologie s as biochemical freaks of nature. By taking samples of their blood and isolating any unusual
components that can be detected in the immune cells,
molecular biologists hope to discover the unknown
ingredient that is protecting these people. If that can be
accomplished—it is an extremely tedious, diﬀicult task,
given the complexity of the immune system—then after
years of testing and millions of dollars, a new drug may
emerge that can beneﬁt the population as a whole. Yet, what everyone really  needs is the ability to make this
wonder drug himself, just as the person who ﬁrst produced
it did, and that ability cannot be synthesized. Isn’t buying
the drug as good as making it. Not by a long shot. The so-
called active ingredient in a man-made drug contains very
little know-how compared to the original chemicalproduced by the body. It would almost be fairer to call the
drug an inert ingredient. The reason for this lies at the level of our cells. The outer
membrane of each cell, or the cell wall, is outﬁtted with
numerous sites called receptors. The cell wall itself is
smooth, but these receptors are “sticky”—they are made of
complex molecular chains whose last links are open-ended,
each one waiting for another molecule to come along and
bind with it. In other words, receptors are like keyholes
into which only very speciﬁc keys will ﬁt. For a drug to
work—whether morphine, Valium, digitalis, or almost
anything else—it must be the key that ﬁts some precisely
chosen receptor on the cell wall and no other. The hormones, enzymes, and other biochemicals
produced by our bodies  have superb knowled ge about
which receptors they should ﬁt into. The molecules
themselves actually seem able to pick and choose among
various sites—it is uncanny to follow their tracks under an
electron microscope as they make a beeline to where they
are needed. Also, the body can release hundreds of
diﬀerent chemicals at a time and orchestrate each  one with
regard to the whole. If you hear a hot rod backﬁre on the street outside your
window and jump in your chair, your insta ntaneous
reaction is the outcome of a complex internal event. The
trigger for the event is a burst of adrenaline from your
adrenal glands. Carried into the bloodstream, this
adrenaline signals reacti ons from your heart, which starts
to pump blood faster; from your blood vessels, which
contract and force up your blood pressure; from your liver,
which puts out extra fuel in the form of glucose; from your
pancreas, which secretes insulin so that more glucose can
be metaboliz ed; and from your stomach and intestines,
which immediately stop digesting food so that more energy
can be shunted elsewhere. All this activity, happeni ng at a furious pace and with
powerful eﬀects everywhere in your body, is coordinated by
the brain, which uses the pituitary gland to guide many of
the hormonal signals just described, not to mention various
other chemical signals that go racing down your neurons to
focus your eyes, prick up your ears, jerk your back muscles
upright, and swivel your head in alarm. To make this whole react ion happen and then to make it
go away again (for the body, unlike a man-made drug,
knows how to reverse every one of these processes just as
neatly as it began), the same key-in-the-lock mechanism is
employed everywhere. It is all so deceptively simple, yet if
you attempt to duplicate this event with a drug, the results
are nowhere near as precise, orderly, and beautifully
orchestrated. In fact, they are chaotic. Injecting adrenaline,
insulin, or glucose separa tely into the body gives it a crude
jolt. The chemicals immediately ﬂood all the receptor sites
without coordination from the brain. Instead of talking to
the body, they assault it with single-minded insistence. Even though the chem ical make-up of adrenaline is
identical no matter where it is derived, the critical
ingredient of intelligence must be present; other wise, the
drug’s action is a mockery of the real thing. Here is a related example to show the complicated
results of giving a drug that seems simple. Hypertension
patients are generally told to bring down their elevated
blood pressure with diuretics—drugs that take water from
the cells and pass it out of the system through urination. This is exactly what the kidneys do all the time as they
delicately monitor your blood chemistry to make sure that
the balance of water, waste products, and the necessary
salts, or electrolytes, is precisely maintained. A diuretic,
however, has only one idea in mind, and obsessed with that
one idea, it careens through the body, demanding, “Water. Water. ” from every cell it meets. The result is that the ﬂuid tension in the blood vessels is
reduced, which is what the doctor wants to happen, but the
water level everywhere else is aﬀected at the same time. The brain may be forced to give up some of its water, which
under normal conditions it does only in the direst
emergency, causing the patient to feel dizzy and drowsy. In
many cases nothing more  serious happens, but sometimes
other brain functions may also then be thrown oﬀ,
especially in older patients: if they happen to drink alcohol,
even in moderation, these people can become so confused
that they forget to drink  enough water or to eat properly. This can lead to malnutrition combined with severe
dehydration. In the view of some endocrinologists, the
dehydration induced by diuretics in the presence of alcohol
or tranquilizers is the leading cause of death among older
Americans. All of these consequences, whether mild or severe, are
usually called the undesirable “side eﬀects” of diuretics,
but that is not an accurate name. They are just its eﬀects—
the good and bad ones necessarily come together in the
same package. A diuretic basically work s by latching onto
sodium atoms, causing the body to discard excess  salt, and
this in turn indirectly brings down the water level in the
tissues, since  water is bound up with salt in our bodies, just
as in sea water. The diuretic cannot help it if too much salt
is taken where water is still needed. Since potassium is
close to sodium in its atomic structure, the diuretic also
causes it to be depleted, leading to weakness, fatigue, and
leg cramps. (Less-adverse eﬀects are generally noticed by
the leaching  of other trace elements, such as zinc and
magnesium. ) Besides these common signs of potassium
deﬁciency, there can be other complications—digitalis, the
drug commonly given to heart patients to strengthen their
weak heartbeat, becomes more toxic if the body is low on
potassium. Ironically, a potassium deﬁciency is nowsuspected to be a causal link in high blood pressure, which
means that the diuretic may be promoting the very
condition it was meant to cure. The frustrating reality, as far as medical researchers are
concerned, is that we already know that the living body is
the best pharmacy ever devised. It produces diuretics,
painkillers, tranquilizers, sleeping pills, antibiotics, and
indeed everything manufactured by the drug companies,
but it makes them much, much better. The dosage is


ifying phenomenon, because it’s
needed as a crucial part of the healing system (bringing
extra blood to the disea sed or injured area, triggering a
cascade of complex chemical interactions at the site) while
in its most acute state, such as the inﬂammation that
occurs during severe burns, it can be fatal. The most troubling kind of inﬂammation is chronic and
low level, which is one reason it took medical science so
long to identify it as a culprit. But the internal war I wrote
about is chronic, too, whether we are speaking of
inﬂammation, stress, or imbalances that lie below the level
of producing  symptoms. (In my view, inﬂamed emotions are
likely to be just as damaging to cells.) Western medicine is
catching up with Ayurveda in this regard. Thousands of
years ago Ayurvedic physicians focused on subtle
imbalances that pushed the body out of its natural balance
and ease. Saying that your body needs to be aligned with Nature
sounds very nonmedic al. It’s more like homespun
philosophy. In the ﬁfteen years I practiced endocrinology
before lookin g into meditation and alternative therapies, Iwould have shrugged oﬀ this piece of advice. Thirty years
later, it resonates very deeply. I see the human body as
having cosm ic implicatio ns. It is the interface between a
single individ ual and Nature as a whole. In the early part of
the twentieth century a poor boy from India named Jiddu
Krishnamurti was scooped up by spiritually minded
Westerners and for a time declared to be the next “world
teacher” after Buddha and Jesus. Krishnamurti’s life story is fascinating, because although
he renounced the grandiose title being foisted upon him, he
seems to have been some one Jeﬀery Wright would  place in
Location 4, where consciousness becomes free of
boundaries. At the very end of his long life—he died in
1986, at age ninety—Krishnamurti became a public ﬁgure
for a second time. Now he was a white-ha ired ﬁgure of
wisdom, an image that ﬁt a little awkwardly. He was too
tart and impatient, too rational and inquisitive, to be
anyone’s idea of a comforting, otherworldly guru. You can see a YouTube video* from Madras, India, in
1980 where a very frail but alert Krishnamurti is asked a
written question. “You often switch over from mind to
brain. Is there any diﬀere nce between them?”
Krishnamurti’s reply begins with an apology. If he used the
words mind  and brain  interc hangeably, it was a slip of the
tongue. He muses for a second before answering the
question with a question. “Is the mind something
untouched by the brain? Is the mind not the result of time,
while the brain is?”
In a nutshell  he has described the mystery of time and
the timeless. As creatures  of the brain, human beings live
in the realm of time, and yet our minds keep returning to
the timeless. Quantum physics oﬀers one lens for
examining how spacetime came about, but ultim ately, the
investigations of science run into a contradiction. The
brain, in trying to examine the quantum ﬁeld, is itself aquantum phenomenon. Every atom in the brain is reducible
to a quivering vibration in the quantum ﬁeld, and each
wave vanishes into multi dimensional Hilbert space, whose
existence is purely mathematical. In other words, relying on a quantum object to explain
quantum reality is like asking a robot to build itself from
scattered parts lying around the ﬂoor. You have to have a
plan—instructions, a blueprint, a conception—for the robot
to follow before it can do anything. If someone produced a
robot that could build itself from scratch, the machine
would be a hoax or a delusion. Somewhere behind the
physical apparatus, a mind must set the agenda. The same
is true of the brain. It is just a thing in a world of things,
with no privileged position. The atoms in your cerebral
cortex aren’t  smarter than the atoms in a lump of sugar or
in the dust picked up by a vacuum cleaner, because atoms
aren’t smart to begin with. Only mind is. It’s not hard to grasp that a robot can’t build itself from
scratch without instructions, but the human brain doesn’t
come with a manual, and we witness it doing all kinds of
things on its own, like a player piano that produces the
inﬁnite variety of music without anyone touching the keys. For this reason, neuroscience will continue to be
materialistic for quite a while longer; it’s much easier to
take apart a player piano than to explain the invisible
pianist. Krishnamurti, like the ancient Vedic sages, found a way
beyond the duality of mind and brain. It begins with self-
awareness. If you look at how your brain is operating, he
says, you’ll see what a narrow groove your thinking follows
and how mechanical it is. Our education and careers, the
perspective of science and engineering, our mem ories—all
contribute to conditioning our thoughts. (In a wry aside,
Krishnamurti remarks that neuroscience is beginning to
view all of life as conditioned by the brain, “which  we havebeen talking about endlessly.” He spent decades trying to
get his listeners to break away from the conditioning of the
brain, but few understood what he meant.) “A thought is a material process. There is nothing sacred
about thought,” Krishnamurti points out. When you go to a
temple, when you project a happy future, when you
entertain idealistic hopes, all of this is a material  process. Saying such things is quite ruthless. Krishnamurti’s
audiences frequently found themselves squirming under his
barbed challenges. Perhaps it was futile for someone who
had arrived at the freed om and clarity of Location 4 to
explain what he saw to people who hadn’t even
experienced Location 1. Yet in the simplest everyday words,
he wanted them to see what was really happening:
“thought has created the architecture and everything
inside the building.”
If we are aware of this, he says, we must move in a totally
diﬀerent direction. The past is constantly being repeated in
the present. Tradition, however noble, oﬀers no help. “If we
accept tradition, it makes the mind extraordinarily dull.”
Imagine the shock to audiences who thought that
Krishnamurti himself belongs to the tradition of Hinduism
and gurus and enlightened sages—he swept all of that
away. With so much pain, disorder, and chaos in the world,
he says, how can we simply turn to tradition? He even
torches the sacred Bhagavad-Gita: Reading it is repetitive
and convenient, but meanwhile the brain becom es dull,
routine, and stupid. So what was his totally diﬀerent direction? Taking the
mind to its source in the timeless. This begins by observing
your own actions and behavior. In a word, Krishnamurti
asks his listeners to stop looking at the content of their
consciousness and instead at consciousness itself. In the
Gita, Lord Krishna declares, “Curving back on myself, I
create again and again.” To understand this passage, youmust substit ute “pure consciousness” for “Lord Krishna,”
and then a seemingly religious statement makes universal
sense. The whole of creation is consciousness working
within itself. It never stands apart from its creation. How
could it? There is nowhere else to go. This realizat ion, the very foundation of Eastern wisdom
traditions, has recently become a hot idea in cosmology,
under the name of panpsychism, which holds that the
universe is conscious. If you accep t panpsychis m, you no
longer have to explain how matter learned to think. You
aren’t limite d by the notion that consciousness is a late
arrival in the cosmos, coming on the scene only when the
human brain  evolved. A host of dilemmas is solved when
mind is everywhere. But a nifty theory that has caught
everyone’s fancy doesn’t meet the challenge posed by
Krishnamurti: How do we deal with a world in chaos and
disorder? There must be peace at every level—body, mind, and
world—for healing to be complete. When you’re sick,
getting well isn’t theoretical. The same holds true in a
Middle East battle zone or in a conﬂicted soul. “Is love, is
compassion, the product of thought?” Krishnamurti asks at
the end. By implication, it isn’t, but he wants every listener
to look inside and discover this truth on their own. Accepting it blindly amounts to no more than another nod
to tradition, which dulls the mind. Every spiritual tradition
extols love and compass ion, but we don’t live in a world
where they’ve taken root to defeat hatred and discord. For the truth to set us free, it must happen one person at
a time, through a journey of self-awareness. The g


, dried
1 teaspoon marjoram, dried
One 10-ounce package silken tofu, low-fat, firm or extra
firm
¼–½ cup vegetable stock
1 tablespoon arrowroot dissolved in 1 tablespoon water
 In a lar ge sauté pan, heat 1 teaspoon of ghee. Lightly sauté potatoes until just browned on both
sides. Remove from the pan and set aside. Heat another teaspoon of ghee in the sauté  pan and put the
leeks, pepp er, basil, sage, and 1 teaspoon Braggs into sauté. T ry to keep the leeks in rings. Sauté until
golden bro wn. Remove from pan and set aside. If you are using fresh spinach, hea t the sauté pan
again and briefly sauté the spinach until wilted. Remove from the heat. In a mixing bowl, place the
cooked or defrosted s pinach. Add the herb s and toss together. In a blender, begin to blend the tofu,
adding the stock slowly as the tofu becomes smooth. Add the arrowroot that has been dissolved and
the re maining teaspoon of Braggs. Blend u ntil a light, smooth consistency is achieved. If the mixture
is too thick, add a little more stock. Add ½ cup of the tofu mix to the spinach. Mix together well. T o assemble: Place the sautéed lee ks on the bottom of t he refrigerated tart pan, spread a layer of
the spinach mixture on top of the leeks. Pour the tofu mixture on top of the spinach. This layer should
just cover the spinach and be about ¼ inch thick. Reserve any extra for another use. Arrange the
potatoes on top of the casserole in a circular or rectangular design. Sprinkle paprika, dill, and nutmeg
on top of t he tart for color. Bake at 350 de grees for 35 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out
clean from the middle of the tart and the potatoes are golden brown. Braised Green Beans Amandine
1 teaspoon ghee
2 lar ge handfuls green beans, fresh and or ganic
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
¼ cup almonds, sliced and toasted in the oven
vegetable stock

In a sauté pan, heat the ghee and add the green beans. Add the cumin and continue to simmer. If
the beans get too dry add 1 teaspoon of v egetable stock. Simmer until the green beans are almost
tender. Just before serving add the balsamic vinegar. T oss the green beans around in  the pan to coat
with the vinegar. Sprinkle the almonds on top of the individual portion or in the serving bowl. Swiss Chard and Arugula with Lemon T arragon Dressing
1 bunch red swiss chard, washed
1 cup arugula, cleaned and stems removed
¼ cup vegetable stock
2 tablespoons Lemon T arragon Dressing
Heat a dry sauté pan and add the chard and the arugula. Allow the greens to wilt. Only add stock to
the pa n if it is too hot and the greens begin to brown. T oss the finished greens w ith the Lemon
T arragon Dressing. Lemon T arragon Dressing
¼ cup parsley, chopped
1 green onion, chopped
¼ cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon tarragon
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon Braggs Liquid Amino Acid
¼ cup apple juice
¼ cup olive oil

Combine everything but oil in a blender. Slowly add the oil as the blender continues to run. Continue to blend until the dressing begins to thicken slightly. Poached Pears with Blackberries
1 can apple juice concentrate, or ganic
2 Bosc or D’Anjou pears, cut in half, peeled, and cored
½ teaspoon cloves, whole
2 cinnamon sticks
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons cranberries, dried
One 10-ounce package blackberries, frozen and or ganic,
or 1 box, fresh in season
1–2 tablespoons maple syrup
Cinnamon or nutmeg for garnish

Heat the apple juice concentrate in a sau té pan. Add the pears, cloves, cinnamon sticks, lemon
juice, and the cranbe rries. Allow the pears to simmer in the juice until the pears a re tender. If the
liquid is absorbed and the pears become uncovered, add more apple juice or water. T he pears need to
remain sub mer ged. In  a separate heated sauté pan, place the blackberries and begin to sauté. Reduceheat and allow the blackberries to break down and create juice. Add a little apple juice if needed to
create som e liquid. Add the maple syrup just before serving. Adjust the amount by th e tartness or the
sweetness of the berries. T o serve: Remove the pears from the liquid (reserve the liquid for another
use). Place  a pear in the middle of a desse rt plate. Spoon on the berries and some of the juice from
the berry sauté. T o garnish, sprinkle with cinnamon or nutmeg. AMERICAN BISTRO CUISINE
Carr ot Coriander Soup
Roasted V egetable Barley Risotto
Cranberry and Sweet Potato Chutney
Or ganic Field Gr eens with Apple V inaigr ette
Cocoa T ofu Mousse with Almond Praline

Carrot Coriander Soup
1 teaspoon ghee
1 cup leeks, chopped
1 tablespoon ginger, fresh, chopped
1 teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon red chili flakes
1 tablespoon Braggs Liquid Amino Acid or tamari sauce
3 cups carrots, cubed
¼ cup golden raisins, chopped
2 teaspoons coriander, dried
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon asafetida
4–5 cups vegetable stock
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup low-fat coconut milk
2 tablespoons cilantro or parsley

In a soup pot, heat up  the ghee and add the leeks and the ginger. Add the pepper, chili  flakes, and 1
teaspoon of Braggs. Add the carrots and the raisins. Sauté for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the coriander,
cumin, asa fetida and the rest of the Braggs. Continue to sauté 3 to 5 minutes. Sauté until lightly
browned. If the mixture gets too dry, add a little broth. Add vegetable stock to cover and bring to aboil. Cook  the soup u ntil carrots are soft. Puree soup with a food processor or a han d blender. Add
lemon and coconut milk just before serving. Garnish with freshly chopped cilantro or parsley. Roasted V egetable Barley Risotto
Barley
1 teaspoon ghee or olive oil
3 medium-size leeks, chopped
6–8 cups vegetable stock, made flavorful by adding herbs
and leeks
1 teaspoon Braggs Liquid Amino Acid or tamari sauce
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon basil, dried
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 cups pearl barley, or ganic

In a heated  braising pan, heat ghee and add the leeks. Sauté 1 minute, add 2 tablespo ons vegetable
stock, Braggs, vinegar, basil, and pepper. S auté until the leeks are clear. Add the barley. W ith a lar ge
spoon, toss the barley  around in the pan to brown. Don’ t let the barley get too dry. Add ½ cup of
stock, if necessary. Sa uté until the barley becomes golden brown or caramelized. Co ntinue to add ½
cup of stock at a time when the mixture becomes dry. Always add enough stock to cover the barley as
it cooks. Keep a lid h andy to use during the cooking process. Continue to check an d stir the barley
every few minutes to make sure enough liquid is in the pot to cover the barley. This will take up to 30
minutes at a rapid boil. Roasted V egetables
2 carrots
2 zucchini
1 medium-size eggplant
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon Braggs Liquid Amino Acid or tamari sauce
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon Italian herbs
 Remove the ends from the carrots, zucchini, and eggplant. Cut each in half. Slice each into ¼-inch
slices. Set aside. Combine the oil, Braggs, vinegar, pepper, and Italian herbs in a lar ge bowl. Whisk
together with a wire whisk. Add the vegetables and coat with the marinade. Remove from the bowl
and lay out on a spra yed sheet pan. Roast  in the oven for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Y ou can also
cook them on an outside grill. Remove from oven and cool of f.
T o Assemble
½ cup roasted red pepper, fresh or from a jar
1 cup white beans, cooked, or 1 can, rinsed
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh mint, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh basil, thinly sliced
1 cup tomatoes, chopped
¼ cup parsley, chopped

As the barley continu es to cook, and the l iquid absorbs, keep adding the stock until the barley is
tender to the taste. Be careful not to overcook. Slice your roasted vegetables into 1-inch