 importance of thoughts, thinking,
self-concepts, and imagination. These are all invisible formulations that you
enact. Your imagination and your concept of yourself are formless thoughts
that you can change. Recreate your thoughts—making your imagination
your own privat e inner territory—and ultimately you will act based on how
you’ve used this amazing power that you possess. Furthermore, allowing
your highest self to rule—thinking like God thinks—means all things are
possible. Neville’ s books and lectures reveal something that makes his
statement at the beginning of this chapter applicable to anyone seriously
intent on mastering the art of manifestation. That something  that Neville
stresses throughout all his work is the importance of feeling.
“So live,” he says, “in the feeling of being the one you want to be and that
you shall be.” This chapter invites you to realize the enormous  implications
this statement has for you. Beco me aware of the importance of feelings and
their crucial role in advancing you from someone who merely has wishes toexperiencing  your wishes in your present life. So many people remain
unaware of the importance of feeling that it’s almost as if it were a secret
ingredient to creating a wishes fulfilled life. The creative process begins with
an idea, which the earlier chapters explored, including how to change your
ideas about yourself and all that you are capable of achieving.
To summarize: the cycle of the creative process is first a thought, then a
feeling, then a hardening into a physical object, or ultim ately a new
volitional act.
The Role of Feelings in Y our Manifesting
To put it as plain and simple as I know how to make it: no assumption of
the feeling of the wish fulfilled, no fulfillment of your wishes. In other
words, it is absolutely imperative to learn how to assume, in your
imagination, the feeling of alrea dy having and being what you desire. Your
thoughts are without form. If we could find a location in space for these
thoughts, they would be in your head—but your head has boundaries, and
your thoughts do not have boundaries, so they could reside anywhere or
nowhere.
You choose the thought that you prefer, from the trillions of thoughts that
continuously flow through your mind on that never -ending conveyer belt.
You can pick one that suits you, put it back, and take another at any time.
Your imagination is the repository of thoughts that you opt to keep. Your
feelings, on the other hand, are experienced in your body—the place where
you do all of your living in this corporeal material world. Your feelings play
more of a role in your life than you realize.
In order to learn something intellectually, you engage in the practice of
mental discipline: studying, researching, memorizing facts, cogitating,
participating in discussions, and seeking expert opinions. Ultimately you
draw conclusions about what you’ve been analyzing. Y ou know the facts and
are confident you’ve mastered the subject through the thinking process.
Knowing something spiritually  is a very different matter altogether. Here
you can cogitate, ruminate, and analyze endlessly without accessing any
more enlightened awareness of what you are studying. In order to know
something spiritually, you must experience  it, there is no other way—you
cannot simply think  your way to a new awareness. You must experience it,and the only vehicles you have for directly experiencing a new and higher
vision for yourself are your feelings. What does it feel like in your body?
You may have placed a picture in your imagination of who you’d like to
be, but if you can’t assume the feeling of that wish fulfilled, you’ll find it
impossible to make your future dream a present fact. Yet you do have this
wondrous power  to take a thought that is in your imagination, live from that
place in your daily life, and then experience in your body exactly how that
feels and stay with this feeling.  These words I am now channeling for you
are among the most important you will read in this book, and perhaps in
your entire lifetime. Your feelings are where you live. If you have been able
to assume the feeling within your heart and genuinely feel the love that this
activity brings to you, you will, as Neville states, be in a place where your
wish must be r ealized— such is the power of your feelings.
Years ago, while teaching at several major universities, I’d ask graduate
students this question: “What do you respond to first—what you know, or
how you feel?” I wanted them to determine which domain captured their
primary attention. For instance, on the cognitive level—their analyzing
ability, mathematical prowess, mastery of the rhyming scheme of an
Elizabethan sonnet, or ability to memorize scientific formulas. On the
feeling level—loneliness, sadness, fear, heartbreak, anxiety, love, ecstasy,
joy, and so on. All reported that the feeling level was primary.
You most likely will agree that how you feel takes precedence over what
you know—ef fect rules over cognition. Formal educational experiences,
however, are almost exclusively devoted to the “what you know” aspect of
your being. I’m suggesting that you assume an entirely new approach. I want
you to get the full brunt of the message that the assumption of feeling of the
wish fulfilled will bring home to you.
Here is Neville Goddard, speaking on this subject in 1944:
Every feeling makes a subconscious impression and, unless it is counteracted by a more
powerful feeling of an opposite nature, must be expressed. The dominant of two feelings is the
one expressed. I am healthy  is a stronger feeling than I will be healthy. To feel I will be is to
confess I am not; I am  is stronger than I am not.  What you feel you are always dominates what
you feel you would like to be; therefore, to be realized, the wish must be felt as a state that is
rather than a state that is not.19
The words I am strong are simply cerebral abstractions. The feeling  of I
am strong is a sensation—and as Nevil le sums up: “Sensation precedesmanifestation and is the foundation upon which all manifestation rests.”20
Here you are being encouraged to feel only the state you desire to realize. By
literally feeling the reality of the state that you seek, which is firmly in your
imagination, you have the means of creating miracles. “A chan ge of feeling
is a change of destiny.”21 Keep this beautiful tidbit from Neville
omnipresent in your consciousness.
I have placed a thought in my imagination concerning the completion of
this book and having it published and available to large numbers of people,
including you. I have a picture of the completed book sitting in front of me,
even though I am only halfway into the first draft. Yet these ideas and
pictures are not the driving force that will allow my future dream to be the
obvious present fact that it is.
I have assumed  the feeling of the wish fulfilled, feeling the love in my
body as I imagine millions of people learning these lessons that have so
impacted my life. I look at the book jacket, I see the book as completed, and
most important, I feel love in action. My subconscious mind has been
programmed to act automatic ally on the desire I have placed in my
imagination. But the actual fulfillment of that desire comes about because,
and only because, I have assumed the feeling of the wish fulfilled within me
right now, even though it appears that it has not yet materialized. To impress
my subconsciou s mind with this desirable loving state I am currently
experiencing, I assumed the feeling that would have been mine had I already
realized my wish. This is really an exercise in discovering just how powerful
a role our feeling state sensations play in the process of mastering the art of
manifestation.
You are not engaging in an intellectual exercise, you are learning about
your Divine spiritual nature and how God works as you. You can look at
anything that you have declared  in your imagination as I am and access the
feeling of love in every cell of your body. You will in time impress your
subconscious mind with all that it needs in order to match your desires with
your reality.
Your Conscious and Subconscious Mind
Your conscious mind is private and it is always personal. It is the aspect of
you that makes decisions, chooses this or that, and remains aware of whatyou do and how your decisions impact your volitional activities.
As a young boy I learned how to ice-skate by becoming conscious of every
step along the way to be able to move and balance myself on a blade less
than a centimeter across while on a surface of slick ice. My conscious mind
kept correcting me, telling me to hold my arms out for balance, bend my
knees in a certain way, turn the blades on my feet to the side to come to a
halt, and so on. After spending time using my conscious mind to inform and
direct my body to keep from falling, I became an accompli shed hockey
player and practically lived on the ice throughout my teenage years. That
was my conscious mind at work.
Now fast-forward 40 years, and I’m staying at a home with a frozen-solid
pond in the back acre during a cold winter in Massachusetts. I purchase a
pair of ice skates, lace them up, and even though it has been  almost four
decades since I’ve been on the ice, off I go, skating as if I’d been doing so
every day.


 asking God to tak e away their desir e to drink. I had
never gone overboar d with any one particular dysfunctional
behavior. It wasn’t drinking or drugs that was doing me in; it
was my personality in general, that hysterical woman inside
my head. My negativity was as destructive to me as alcohol
is to the alcoholic. I was an artist at ﬁnding my own jugular.
It was as though I was addicted to my own pain. Could I ask
God to help me with that? It occur red to me that, just as
with any other addictive behavior, maybe a power gr eater
than myself could tur n things ar ound. Neither my intellect
nor my willpower had been able to do that. Understanding
what occur red when I was thr ee years old hadn’t been
enough to fr ee me. P roblems I k ept thinking would
eventually go away, k ept getting worse every year. I hadn’t
emotionally developed the way I should have, and I knew it.
Somehow, somewher e, it was as though wires deep inside
my brain had gotten cr ossed. Lik e a lot of other people in
my generation and cultur e, I had gotten oﬀ track many
years befor e, and in certain ways just never gr ew up. W e’ve
had the longest postadolescence in the history of the world.
Like emotional str oke victims, we need to go back a few
steps in or der to go forwar d. We need someone to teach us
the basics.
For me, no matter what hot water I had gotten into, I had
always thought that I could get myself out of it. I was cuteenough, or smart enough, or talented enough, or clever
enough—and if nothing else work ed, I could call my father
and ask for money. But ﬁnally I got myself into so much
trouble, that I knew I needed mor e help than I could muster
up myself. At twelve-step meetings, I k ept hearing it said
that a power gr eater than I could do for me what I couldn’t
do for myself. Ther e was nothing else to do and ther e was
no one lef t to call. My fear ﬁnally became so gr eat, that I
wasn’t too hip to say “ God, please help me.”
2. THE LIGHT
“The light is in you.”
So I went thr ough this grandiose, dramatic moment
wher e I invited God into my life. It was ter rifying at ﬁrst, but
then I kind of got oﬀ on the idea.
After that, nothing r eally felt the way I e xpected it to. I
had thought that things would impr ove. It’s as though my
life was a house, and I thought God would give it a
wonderful paint job—new shutters per haps, a pr etty portico,
new r oof. Instead, it felt as though, as soon as I gave the
house to God, He hit it with a giant wr ecking ball. “Sor ry,
honey,” He seemed to say, “Ther e wer e cracks in the
foundation, not to mention all the rats in the bedr oom. I
thought we better just start all over.”
I had r ead about people sur rendering to God and then
feeling this pr ofound sense of peace descend lik e a mantle
over their shoulders. I did get that feeling, but only for about
a minute and a half. After that, I just felt lik e I’d been
busted. This didn’t tur n me oﬀ to God so much as it made
me respect His intelligence. It implied He understood the
situation better than I would have e xpected. If I was God, I’dhave busted me too. I felt mor e grateful than r esentful. I
was desperate for help.
A certain amount of desperation is usually necessary
befor e we’r e ready for God. When it came to spiritual
surrender, I didn’t get serious, not r eally, until I was down on
my knees completely. The mess got so thick that all the
king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t mak e Marianne
function again. The hysterical woman inside me was in a
maniacal rage, and the innocent child was pinned to the
wall. I fell apart. I cr ossed the line between in-pain-but-still-
able-to -function-nor mally, and the r ealm of the total bask et
case. I had what is commonly called a nervous br eakdown.
Nervous br eakdowns can be highly under rated methods
of spiritual transfor mation. They certainly get your
attention. I have seen people have little mini-br eakdowns
year af ter year, each time stopping just short of getting the
point. I think I was luck y to get mine over with in one fell
swoop. The things I lear ned her e, I will not for get. As painful
as this e xperience was, I now see it as an important,
perhaps necessary step in my br eakthr ough to a happier
life.
For one thing, I was pr ofoundly humbled. I saw very
clearly that, ‘of myself, I am nothing.’ Until this happens,
you k eep trying all your old tricks, the ones that never did
work but that you k eep thinking might work this time. Once
you’ve had enough and you can’t do it anymor e, you
consider the possibility that ther e might be a better way.
That’s when your head cracks open and God comes in.
I felt during those years as though my sk ull had
exploded. It seemed as though thousands of little pieces of
it had shot into outer space. V ery slowly, they began to
come together again. But while my emotional brain was soexposed, it seemed to be r ewired, lik e I’d had some kind of
psychic sur gery. I felt lik e I became a diﬀer ent person.
More people have felt their heads crack open in some
way, than have admitted it to their friends. These days it’s
not an uncommon phenomenon. P eople ar e crashing into
walls today—socially, biologically, psychologically and
emotionally. But this isn’t bad news. In a way, it’s good. Until
your knees ﬁnally hit the ﬂoor, you’r e just playing at life,
and on some level you’r e scar ed because you know you’r e
just playing. The moment of sur render is not when life is
over. It’s when it begins.
Not that that moment of eur eka—that calling out to God
—is it, and it’s all P aradise fr om then on. Y ou’ve simply
started the climb. But you know you’r e not running ar ound
in cir cles at the bottom of the mountain anymor e, never
really getting anywher e, dreaming of the top and having no
idea how to get ther e. For many people, things have to get
very bad befor e ther e’s a shif t. When you truly bottom out,
there comes an e xhilarating r elease. Y ou recognize ther e’s a
power in the universe bigger than you ar e, who can do for
you what you can’t do for yourself. All of a sudden, your last
resort sounds lik e a very good idea.
How ir onic. Y ou spend your whole life r esisting the notion
that ther e’s someone out ther e smarter than you ar e, and
then all of a sudden you’r e so r elieved to know it’s true. All
of a sudden, you’r e not too pr oud to ask for help.
That’s what it means to sur render to God.
OceanofPDF.comCHAPTER 2
God
“You ar e in God.”

1. GOD IS THE ROCK
“There is no time, no place, no state wher e God
is absent.”
There have been times in my life—and they still happen
today, though they’r e mor e the e xception now than the rule
—when I have felt as though sadness would overwhelm me.
Something didn’t tur n out the way I wanted it to, or I was in
conﬂict with someone, or I was afraid of what might or
might not happen in the futur e. Life in those moments can
be diﬃcult to bear, and the mind begins an endless sear ch
for its escape fr om pain.
What I lear ned fr om A Course in Miracles  is that the
change we’r e really looking for is inside our heads. Events
are always in ﬂux. One day people love you; the ne xt day
you’r e their tar get. One day a situation is running smoothly;
the ne xt day chaos r eigns. One day you feel lik e you’r e an
okay person; the ne xt day you feel lik e you’r e an utterfailur e. These changes in life ar e always going to happen;
they’r e part of the human experience. What we can change,
however, is how we per ceive them. And that shif


 he only
animals that may occasionally experience something akin to negativity
or show signs of neurotic behavior are those that live in close contact
with humans and so link into the human mind and its insanity.W atch a ny plant or animal and  let it teach you acceptance of what is,
surrender to the Now. Let it tea ch you Being. Let it teach you integrity
— which means to be one, to be yourself, to be real. Let it teach you how
to live and how to die, and how not  to mak e living and dying into a
problem.
I ha ve lived wit h several Zen m asters — all of them cats. Even ducks
have tau ght me important spiritual lessons. Just watching them is a
meditation. How peacefully the y float along, at ease with themselves,
totally present in the Now, dignified and perfect as only a mindless
creature can be. Occasionally, however, two ducks will get into a fight —
sometimes for no apparent reaso n, or because one duck has strayed into
another ’ s private  space. The fig ht usually lasts only for a few seconds,
and then the ducks separate, swim of f in opposite directions, and
vigorously flap their wings a few times. They then continue to swim on
peacefully as if the fight had never happened. When I observed that for
the f irst time, I suddenly realize d that by flapping their wings they were
releasing surplus ener gy, thus preventing it from becoming trapped in
their bod y and turning into negativity. This is natural wisdom,  and it is
easy for  them because they do n ot have a mind that keeps the p ast alive
unnecessarily and then builds an identity around it.

Couldn’ t a negative emotion also contain an important message? For
example, if I often feel depr essed, it may be a signal that  ther e is
something wr ong with my life, and it may for ce me to look at my life
situation and make some change s. So I need to listen to what the emotion
is telling me and not just dismiss it as negative.

Y es, recurring negative emotion s do sometimes contain a messa ge, as do
illnesses. But any changes that you make, whether they have to do with
your wo rk, your  relationships, or your surroundings, are ultimately only
cosmetic unless they arise out of a change in your level of consciousness.
And as far as that is concerned, it can only mean one thing: becoming
more pre sent. When you have reached a certain degree of presence, you
don’ t need negativity anymore to tell you what is needed in your lifesituation. But as long as negativity is  th ere, use it. U se it as a kind of
signal that reminds you to be more present.

How do we stop negativity fr om arising, and how do we get rid of it once
it is ther e?

As I said, you stop it from arising by being fully present. B ut don’ t
become discouraged. There are as yet few people on the planet who can
sustain a state of  continuous presence, although some are getting  close to
it. Soon, I believe, there will be many more.
Whenever you notice that some form of negativity has arisen within you,
look on it not as a failure, but as a helpful signal that is tel ling you:
“W ake up. Get out of your mind. Be present.”
There is a novel by Aldous Huxley called Island, written in his later
years when he became very interested in spiritual teachings. It tells the
story of a man shipwrecked on a remote island cut of f from the rest of
the worl d. This island contains a unique civilization. The unusual thing
about it is that its inhabitants, unlike those of the rest of the world, are
actually sane. The first thing tha t the man notices are the colorful parrots
perched in the t rees, and they se em to be constantly croaking t he words
“Attention. Here and Now. Attention. Here and Now.” W e later learn that
the islanders taught them th ese words in order to be reminded
continuously to stay present.
So w henever you feel negativit y arising within you, whether c aused by
an exter nal facto r, a thought, or  even nothing in particular tha t you are
aware of, look o n it as a voice saying “Attention. Here and No w. W ake
up.” Even the slightest irritation is significant and needs to be
acknowledged and looked at; otherwise, there will be a cu mulative
buildup of unobserved reactions. As I said before, you may b e able to
just drop  it once you realize that you don’ t want to have this ener gy field
inside y ou and that it serves no  purpose. But then make sure that you
drop it completely. If you cannot drop it, just accept that it is there and
take your attention into the feeling, as I pointed out earlier.As an alternative to dropping a negative reaction, you can make it
disappear by imagining yourself becoming transparent to the external
cause of  the reaction. I recommend that you practice it with li ttle, even
trivial, things first. Let’ s say that you are sitting quietly at home.
Suddenly, there is the penetrating sound of a car alarm from across the
street. Irritation arises. What is the purpose of the irritation? None
whatsoever. Why did you create it? Y ou didn’ t. The mind did. It was
totally a utomatic, totally unconscious. Why did the mind create it?
Because it holds the unconscio us belief that its resistance, w hich you
experience as negativity or unh appiness in some form, will somehow
dissolve the undesirable condit ion. This, of course, is a delusion. The
resistance that it creates, the irritation or anger in this case, is far more
disturbing than the original cause that it is attempting to dissolve.
All this  can be transformed into spiritual practice. Feel yourself
becoming transp arent, as it were, without the solidity of a material body.
Now allow the noise, or whate ver causes a negative reaction, to pass
right through you. It is no longer hitting a solid “wall” inside y ou. As I
said, pra ctice wi th little things f irst. The car alarm, the dog barking, the
children screami ng, the traf fic ja m. Instead of having a wall of resistance
inside you that gets constantly and painfully hit by things that “should
not be happening,” let everything pass through you.
Somebody says something to yo u that is rude or designed to hur t. Instead
of g oing into unconscious reaction and negativity, such as attack,
defense, or withdrawal, you let it pass right through you. Of fer no
resistance. It is as if there is nobody there to get hurt anymore. That  is
for giveness. In this way, you become invulnerable. Y ou can stil l tell that
person th at his or her behavior is unacceptable, if that is what yo u choose
to do. B ut that person no longer has the power to control your inner state.
Y ou are then in your power — not in someone else’ s, nor are you run by
your mind. Whether it is a c ar alarm, a rude person, a flood, an
earthquake, or the loss of all you r possessions, the resistance mechanism
is the same.

I hav e b een prac ticing meditatio n, I have been to workshops, I h ave r ead
many bo oks on spirituality, I try  to be in a state of nonr esistance — but ifyou ask me whether I have found  true and lasting inner peace, my honest
answer w ould h ave to be “no.” Why haven't I found it? What else can I
do?

Y ou are still se eking outside, and you cannot get out of the  seeking
mode. Maybe the next worksho p will have the answer, maybe that new
technique. T o you I would say: Don’ t look for peace. Don’ t loo k for any
other state than the one you are in now; otherwise, you will set  up inner
conflict and unconscious resist ance. For give yourself for not being at
peace. The moment you completely  acc ept your no n-peace, your non-
peace becomes transmuted into p eace. Anything you accept fully will get
you there, will take you into peace. This is the miracle of surrender.
Y ou ma y have heard the phrase “turn the other cheek,” which a great
teacher of enlightenment used two thousand years ago. He was
attempting to convey symbolically the secret of nonresistance and
nonreaction. In this statement, as in all his others, he was concerned only
with your inner reality, not with the outer conduct of your life.
Do you know th e story of Banzan? Before he became a great Ze n master,
he s pent many y ears in the purs uit of enlightenment, but it elu ded him.
Then on e day, as he was walk ing in the marketplace, he ove rheard a
conversation be tween a butcher and his customer. “Give me the best
piece of  meat you have,” said the customer. And the butcher  replied,
“Every p iece of meat I have is the


•  Do I handle dif ficult situations calmly?
•  Do I have enough leisure time and do I make positive use of it?
•  Do I usually feel calm inside?
You may not have realized it, but this test also gave you a complete self-
exam; you actually checked out how your bodily and mental channels are
performing. The more often you do this quick check, the closer you will
come to knowing your body and mind.
catching ama early
The tyranny of stressful living makes it impossible to resist assault from
ama. But we can do the next best thing: slow it down and flush it out
regularly.
This is where your actions count; by choosing fresh fruit over a sugar -
laden donut and by giving your lunch priority over that pendi ng file, you
can refuse to let ama accumulat e in your body. Also, by drinking plenty of
water and gettin g adequate exercise, you can eliminate ama from your body
at regular intervals. The sweepin g action of water ferries toxins to their exit
points, keeping the channels clear. I think of it as making sure a kitchen
sink always drains well inste ad of trying to unclog a choked drain.Similarly, exerc ise improves circulation, thus helping the body flush out
toxins faster.
A good strategy  for keeping physical ama in check is to reassign the
roles played by your mind and your senses. It is easy and habitual to let
your senses control your actions. For instance, when you reach out for
onion rings in spite of your ulcer, you are ignoring the advice of your mind.
But if you give the reins to your mind, you will pass over those onion rings
and reach for a glass of water instead.
Tackling ama of the mind and heart requires a different approach. Most
of our abstract ama is generated when we pull the mind away from the
realm of tranquillity where it naturally wants to go. We chase ephemeral
material objects instead of realiz ing and fulfilling our own deep er needs. In
the bargain, all we really get is a heart full of sorrow and a mind empty of
joy.
It is, therefore, as important to nourish the mind as it is to feed the body.
Reading an uplifting book with your spouse, taking a sixty-second mental
vacation when you’re tired, giving more freely to others — these small
actions work like vitamins and minerals in your psyche, strengthening and
toning it.
While these general guidelines work well for everyone, regar dless of
gender or nationality, each of us is unique. Therefore, your strategy for
achieving freedom from ama should be devised in accordance with your
own nature.
how toxins become disease
All disease, according to Ayurvedic thought, progresses in six
steady steps:
1. Sanchaya:  the earliest stage of disease. At this point, toxic ama
starts to accumulate, hampering free circulation of the vital
energies.
2. Prakopa:  the disease enters its second phase, in which the
doshas are aggravated or excited, causing further channel
blockage.3. Prasara:  the accumulated ama moves from the digestive tract
into other organs of the body, impairing the doshas and their
energies even further.
4. Sthanasamsarya:  the moving ama settles in a localized area.
5. Vyakti:  the disease manifests itself and the sufferer feels its
symptoms.
6. Bheda:  untreated or neglected, the disease acquires chronic —
sometimes untreatable — dimensions.
OceanofPDF.comHCHAPTER 3
how ayurvedic
healing works
He has the healing touch — that magnetic thing which defies explanation or
analysis.
— Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
ave you ever sought a doctor ’s appointment just because you’re feeling
“sort of funny”?
Has your doctor ever outlined a new food plan for you just by looking at
your tongue?
Have you ever returned from seeing your doctor with the advice “take a
walk in the moonlight” on your prescription?
The answer to all the above questions can be “Yes” if your doctor is an
Ayurvedic one — that is, a vaidya.
meet the vaidyaA vaidy a does not go to Harvard, of course. A vaidya does not wear a white
coat, or even a blue one. A vaidya does not pull out a therm ometer or a
stethoscope, and doesn’ t write you prescriptions for drugs.
So what kind of a doctor is this vaidya?
A vaidy a is a fully trained holistic physician. To become a vaidya, a
person studies eight diverse branches of medicine for many laborious years.
These fields of study are called:
1. Kaya Chikitsa:  internal medicine
2. Bal Chikitsa:  pediatrics
3. Graha Chikitsa:  psychiatry
4. Shalakya T antra:  eye, ear, nose, and throat treatment
5. Shalya T antra:  surgery
6. Agad T antra:  toxicology
7. Rasayan T antra:  geriatrics (the study of old age and rejuvenation)
8. Vajikarana T antra:  aphrodisiacs and fertility
Vaidyas have studied these same branches of medicine for 1,500 years.
The difference between then and now is that Ayurvedic physi cians today
also learn about human anatomy, nutrition, and other aspects of modern
medicine. Thus, they combine ancient wisdom with cutting-edge medical
knowledge.
In India, becoming a vaidya requires six years of study in an Ayurvedic
college or unive rsity. In addition to academic education, many vaidyas have
acquired their knowledge of A yurveda from their families.
The story goes that when the Moguls invaded India, they burned down
the entire library of Ayurvedic books at the prestigious Nalanda University
in eastern India. To compensate for that loss, the vaidyas of that time
committed all of Ayurvedic knowledge to memory and passed it on to their
sons. These sons — now a select few vaidyas — received Ayurveda in their
very genes. Along with their formal training, the invaluable experience of
learning from and working with their fathers made them the best among
healers. I have the privilege of working with one of them — Vaidya
Ramakant Mishra, whose ancestors were physicians to the kings of India.the ayurvedic definition of a healer
Let us look further at the difference between the Western and Ayurvedic
approaches to healing. In the Western world, a healer is generally the doctor
or physi cian who treats you. A visit to the Western physician is usually a
formal affair. The well-appointed clinics, state-of-the-art diagnostic tools,
and often polite-but-detached advice (perhaps out of fear of lawsuits?) all
play their role in giving the modern physician the image of an automobile
mechanic. To be fair, not all Western physicians are aloof or detached, but
all too often this is the ambiance of W estern medical treatment.
Writer Anatole Broyard once said, “A doctor, like a writer, must have a
voice of his own — something that conveys the timbre, the rhythm, the
diction, and the music of his humanity that compensates us for all the
speechless machines.” To my mind, Broyard’ s words draw a beautiful
picture of the Ayurvedic physician. Because a vaidya perceives  the patient
as an individual with unique characteristics and unique problems,
Ayurvedic methods of healing resonate with “the music of humanity.”
In India, vaidyas have always enjoyed a high status. In my mother ’s
village, the local vaidyaji  (ji is a suffix added as a mark of respect) was
lavished with tokens of patients’  gratitude. My mother tells me that he even
played the role of general coun selor on matters such as marriage, buying
and selling property, and forecasting the weather.
This reverence dates back to a time when the vaidya was regarded as
not only a phys ician but also a sage. Knowledge of healing was said to
come directly to the vaidya by divine revelation. The erstwhile kings of
India had their own personal physicians, who not only kept the royal family
in good health but also performe d religious rites. The old treatises say that a
vaidya must possess enough knowledge, training, and experien ce to bring
the patient balance in body, mind, and soul. The leading light of Ayurveda,
Sage Charaka, ur ges the vaidya to “enter the body of a patient with the lamp
of knowledge and understanding.”
other elements of ayurvedic healingIn addition to the vaidya, there are three other — and no less important —
components of the A yurvedic healing process.
The Medicine
Ayurvedic pharmacology is called dravyaguna  (dravya  means “healing
ingredient”; guna  means “quality”). Ayurvedic medicines are prepared from
plants without isolating their active ingredients. Thus, Ayurvedic drugs
retain their natural syner gy and are lar gely free of side ef fects.
Sage Charaka identified 350 species of healing plants, then divided
them into fifty groups based on the actions — preventive or curative — of
the medicines that could be extracted from them. These medicines included
tonics for the heart,


 and hygiene which were
recommended for the yogin and alchemist are still
recognized today; for example, when Huang-fu Lung met a
Taoist Sage riding on a buﬀalo, the Sage made known to
him the following rules concerning ‘nourishing the spirit’:
‘If you desire to keep your body youthful do not workbeyond the limits of your strength. Do not eat fat or rich
food; use salt and spices with moderation. Abstain from
worry, curta il pleasures  and wrath, dismiss hurry and
bustle. See that your house is well prepared to withstand
the cold of Autumn and W inter and is well drained.’
All foods, like everything else in creation, have their yin-
yang  natur e and must be kept in balance to main tain
health. If that balance is disturbed sickness results;
medicine is then a matter of ﬁnding the cause of this
disturbance and restoring the balance physically or
mentally by diet and medicines of the right compensating
proportions.
The yogin and hsien  used massag e, and gymnastics were
also practised: ‘The human body requires toil and exertion,
only it must not be carried to excess. It is exercise that
enables the food to be properly digested, makes the blood
circulate through the veins and prevents the onset of
disease, just as the hinges of a door, being constantly in
motion, will never get rusty.’ This was said by Wu P'u, a
hsien  who was a pupil of the famous physician-surgeon
Hua T'o, who himself taught the Five Animal Antics. He
wrote:
The Immortals of ancient days, while performing the
inhalation process, passed their time like dormant
bears, looking about like owls, twitched and
stretched their limbs and joints in order to hinder the
advance of old age. I have an art, called ‘The Sport of
Five Animals,’ namely a tiger, a stag, a bear, a
monkey and a bird, by which illness can be cured and
which is good for the movements of the feet when
they accompany the process of inhalation...
Whenever you feel unwell, stand up and imitate the
movements of one of these animals.As for the ancient Taoist yoga of T'ai Chi Chuan,  it has
swept into the West and is now familiar in T'ai Chi classes
everywhere. The T'ai Chi, the Great Ultimate is all-
pervasive. ‘Every single human has T'ai Chi and every
single thing has T'ai Chi... for all things there is only one
T'ai Chi... but everything in the world is endowe d with it
and with the whole of it.’ This was said by a neo-
Confucianist, Chu Hsi. As the Great or Supreme Ultimate,
containing and contained in all things, it is represented by
the yin-yang  symbol representing the perfect balance of
the two forces in the universe, the two powers being
contained within the circle of totality, of cyclic revolution
and dynamism. T'ai Chi yoga uses rhythmic movement and
breath contr ol to bring the yin-yang  forces  into harmony
with themselves and the cosmos. Like all yogic practices it
requires long and persi stent application and cannot be
properly learned in short ‘courses’ or weekend ‘schools;’
nor can it be learned from books; it requires a competent
master.
The position adopted for sleep also imitates the natural
postures of animals, such as the curved position of a dog
or the coiling of a dragon. The correct position for sleep is
to lie on one side, it does not matter which, with one arm
bent under the head and the other stretching down to the
stomach; one leg is straight and the other bent, the eyes
should be closed and concentrated on each other.
Breathing is, naturally, controlled and rhythmic and
slowed down. Although Chuang Tzu speaks of the
dreamless sleep of the Sage, in yoga dreams are taken as
an indication of progres s until the state of perfection is
reached. Bad dreams are a sign of imperfection and
indicate that something is wrong; the Tan Ching  says that
the True Man is free from them.
In sleep the oblivion of death is experienced and death
itself must be understoo d before the new being can beborn. Alchemy in general, and its yogic branch in
particular, either aims at death, or total transformation,
which is the same thing; it seeks the death of the old life
and the birth  of the new. In the West this is the solve et
coagula  in which the opposites are dissolved and die
before rebirth in the ‘body of glory,’ or of the ‘diamond
body’ of Buddhism and the ‘jade body’ of T aoism. The solve
et coagula  can well be translated ‘puriﬁcation and
integration.’ Reference to the ‘ﬁxing’ or death of mercury
is, in India n yoga, symbolic of the activities  of the
conscious mind, from which the yogin is liberated and
therefore breaks through to the timeless state which is
immortality. The yogin who conquers time also conquers
death. As Eliade says: ‘Immortality cannot be gained
except by arresting manifestation, and hence the process
of disintegra tion... one must ﬁnd the primordial,
motionless unity, which existed before the rupture.’ The
dissolution of the metals in alchemy is the death of the ego
and the sensory life before being reborn as the selﬂess.
The soul has to be dissolved and freed of its conventional
closed-mind before it can become ‘open’ and receptive to
new states, possibilities and potentialities. This is also the
death and rebirth of initiation.
Taoist and Tantric yoga have much in common in the use
of sexual techniques for bringing about realization, but the
theory and practice of this yoga is far too complicated and
technical to be understood by any uninitiated westerner. In
the ﬁrst place it requir es a competent master;  it then
demands a total dedication and application only possible in
a monastic setting, since times of day, of months and
sexual cycles, must all be regularly and rigidly observed
over long years of practice. Sex yoga deals with the
generative forces (ching ) merging with the spirit (shen ) in
the vital force (ch'i). It is known as the White Tiger and
Green Dragon yoga, the White Tiger representing lead andthe semen and the Green Dragon symbolizing cinnabar
and the feminine ﬂuid, the yang  and the yin; the two are
combined and fused to produce the Golden Pill, the foetus.
The yang, male  ﬂuid is exhaustible; the yin, female, is
inexhaustible. This also introduces the inexhaustibility of
love. In Tantric Buddhist legend a Sage, shocked at
representations of Buddha surrounded by mistresses, was
told ‘women are the gods, women are life, women are
adornment, be ever among women in thought.’ This
feminine power represen ts the spontaneous aspect of love
and ecstasy which overcomes duality and is thus the great
unifying force; it is the archetypal feminine. If correctly
used the two forces create life-force or immortality; if
incorrectly used they are a sure way to early death. The
generative forces must be preserved, not dissipated in
ordinary sexual activity.
Based on the yin-yang  balance and harmony, each sex,
providing stimulus, draws forth and supports the power of
the other. Taoism parts company with Buddhism, except in
its Tantric branch, in regarding celibacy as unnatural and
therefore productive of imbalance and neurosis. The yogic
techniques are governed by times, seasons, lunar phrases
and astrology; they were kept esoteric to a large extent
and hidden under alchemical terms, since considerable
danger accompanies some of the practices, as it does also
with the breathing exercises. In Taoist yoga the woman
adept plays an important part, both sexes being necessary
to each other; but the yin power, as remarked, is the
inexhaustible force.
It was believed that the ‘reverted sperm’ nourished the
brain and one of the techniques was to hang upside down
so that ‘the essence of the sperm ﬂows to the brain;’ the
generative forces were thus to be translated into vitality in
the brain. Sexual techniques, according to Ko Hung, ‘may
be compared with water and ﬁre, either of which can slayman or bring him to life, depending solely on his ability to
deal with them.’
The marvellous powers attributed to the Taoist yogin,
the hsien, are the same as the Eight Great Powers of the
yoga of Maha-siddhi Buddhism. They are: (1) to make
oneself small  or invisible, (2, 3) to decrease or increase in
height, (4) to have the most distant objects at the tip of
one's ﬁngers, (5) all wish-fulﬁlment, (6) perfect body
control, (7) the ability to change anything in nature,


 e w  p e o p l e  w i t h  a  k i n d  a n d  f r i e n d l y  h e a r t.
E very me eting is according to divine assignment. May I see no
strangers, but only friends whom  I haven’ t met yet. May everyone who
comes into my presence feel a peaceful welcome from my heart to theirs.
May all my encounters be holy t oday as I open my heart to everyone.
May I bless eac h person in a room before I even enter it, and everyone
around me while I stand in their midst. Thus shall I experience the
miracles brought to me when my heart is open to love.
Dear God,
Please post Y our angels ar ound me
T o always r emind me
Of the beauty of Y our childr en.
May I never for get to bless them,
Regar dless of who they ar e.
May anyone in my pr esence
Feel Y our peace and love.
Amen.DA Y 337
K i n d n e s s  i s  t h e  g r e a t e s t  p o w e r,  w i t h o u t  w h i c h  I  a m
w e a k.
U nless I am kin d I am not aligned with love, regardless of my
intentions. Kindness is God’ s key that unlocks any door. W ith kindness I
work miracles, for kindness is the mark of love.
How easy it is to for get how fra gile people are, not only myself but
everyone. T oday  may I be kind to whomever I meet, that they might feel
the blessed touch of someone sensitive to their heart.
Dear God,
I know I’m on earth to be kind to others.
How easily I am swayed by the ego’ s insistence
That something else, anything else,
Is sur ely mor e important.
T oday I take a stand against the ego’ s insistence
And pray for an angel of kindness
T o touch my soul.
May this seed bear fruit, dear God,
And make me a kinder person.
Amen.DA Y 338
I n  a n y  m o m e n t,  i n  a n y  c i r c u m s t a n c e,  a  m i r a c l e  w i l l
o c c u r  i f  I  a l i g n  m y s e l f  w i t h  l o v e.
T here is no order  of dif ficulty in miracles. One is not harder or bigger
than ano ther. I am a child of God, and God works miracles naturally.
Miracles are built into the fabr ic of the universe, and I am e ntitled to
them because of who I am.
Remembering w ho I am, I will not struggle today about anything. I
release a ll cares, all burdens, and  all questions to God. I will not  constrict
my ener gy, but rather relax in to His loving arms. From the re, every
circumstance in my life shall be miraculously lifted to divine right order.
The mor e bur dens I carry, the mor e temptation I experience to
tighten, to worry, to contr ol, to constrict. Y et today I r emember to
do th e opposite. I r emember tha t miracles will occur in whateve r
situation I r elease to love. T oday I r elease them all.DA Y 339
I  a l l o w  e a c h  m o m e n t  t o  b e  e x a c t l y  a s  i t  i s.
I  r eal ize that my  only true probl em is separating myself from G od. Y et
how dif f icult it feels at times to truly trust that He is there. T oday I open
my heart and relax my mind, in order to experience His presen ce in my
life.
I a llow every m oment to be ex actly as it is. As I relax instead of
trying to  control, I see how all th ings get lifted to divine right order. God
is here and He is active in my  life, in any moment that I surrender to
Him. May every instant of my life be holy.
Dear God,
I seek to r elease contr ol today,
Loosening my tight grip
And surr endering my life to Y ou.
What I r elease fr om my hands, dear God,
Please take into Y our hands.
T ake all that I cannot contr ol
And make it beautiful.
Amen.DA Y 340
FOR REFLECTION
O n  F i n d i n g  Y o u r  C a l l i n g
O n th e spiritual plane, you h ave no competitors. There is no
competition for  your position, as you are a unique expression of the
Mind of God. Y ou not only have a place in the universe; you have an
essential function in the universe. Only you can do the job of being you,
and the universe  itself is incom plete without you. It is not arrogant but
humble to realize this, as you place yourself in service to the greatest
drama there is: the actualization of your own potential.
Y our hig hest fun ction is simply to be the person you are capab le of
being, and from that ef fort—t he development of your kindness and
positivity, your vulnerability and availability to life, your calling will
emer ge.DA Y 341
M a y  G o d ’ s  w i l l  b e  d o n e.
H ow easi ly the deeper truths reveal themselves when we allow
ourselves to see. May God’ s w ill (thought) be done (be manifest) on
earth (in my exp erience) as it is  in heaven (my abstract unders tanding).
Forever and ever (moment after moment after moment). Amen ( and so it
is).
T oday, I surrender all I think and all I do to the will of Go d, or
thought of love. May the love I  bring forth help cast out the fe ar of the
world.
May my mind be a channel thr ough which the thoughts of heaven
make their way into the world. May God’ s emanations of love
find expr ession thr ough me in a ny way possible. May God’ s wi ll
be done in my life and everyone’ s. Amen.DA Y 342
N o  m a t t e r  w h a t  I  t h i n k  o r  d o,  t h e  u n i v e r s e  k n o w s.
N o thoug ht is unrecorded in the ethers of the universe. The L aw of
Cause a nd Ef fe ct insures that w hatever I think will have an ef fect on
some lev el. As a friend once said to me, “The universe keeps a perfect
set of books.” T oday I seek right-minded thought, that only that which is
right shall be returned to me.
I s urrend er my mind to the spir it of God, that my thoughts might be
lifted to  higher places. May I for go blame and embrace blessing, for go
fear and  embrace love, for go v iolence and embrace peace. Thus may I
become a co-creator with God.
T oday I  pray my mind becom e an instrument of love and a
method of miracles. May my tho ughts be guided by the though ts
of G od, and tu rned into a ble ssing for myself and for all the
world.DA Y 343
M a y  m y  m i n d  b e c o m e  a n  o p e n  d o o r  t h r o u g h  w h i c h
m i r a c l e s  c a n  e n t e r.
N o mi racle is too big or too com plicated for God. It isn’ t limits to His
power b ut only limits to my lov e that keep miracles from heali ng every
problem in my life.
A loving  thought opens a door, thus attracting a miracle. An unlo ving
thought closes a door, thus deflecting one. May my mind be an open
door through which miracles can flow freely into my life.
Life is simpler than I make it, for all things fall into only tw o
categories: love  or fear. Wher e I love, may I choose to love even
mor e. W her e I fear, may I choose the love and for giveness tha t
cast it out. I will thus experience my power to work miracle s,
thr ough God’ s love that is in my mind.DA Y 344
I  w i l l  n o t  j u d g e  w h o m  a n d  w h a t  I  c a n n o t
u n d e r s t a n d.
O ften we have but a piece of information, a glimpse of someone’ s true
being,


akes, can detect
infrared light through specialized “pit organs” located in
their jaws, and so they “see” into a dimension entirely
closed oﬀ to human perception.
Conscious agents fascin ated me because the ancient
Vedic rishis were in complete agreement with the notion
that consciousness is the source of reality. They didn’t push
the everyday world of the ﬁve senses completely out of the
picture. Instead they gave it a lower status known as Maya,
a Sans krit word usually translated as “illusion”—it comes
up later in this book. Maya is the apparent reality “out
there” that all of us naïvely accept at face value, but which
turns out to be no more real than the movie projected on
the screen in a cinema. Consciousness serves as the
projector whose light casts these images while itself
remaining pure light, with no images at all.
Let me go into this subject a little more philosop hically
than I did in the original Quantum Healing. The ancient
sages of India, and all philosophers since then, explored the
mind by going inward. But in a scientiﬁc age, we have to
ask: How can thinking about the mind be better than
gathering hard facts about the brain?
Because data only has meaning given a certain way of
seeing it. This point was made in the one book almost every
college stude nt reads (if they read any) in the philosophy of
science, Thomas S. Kuhn’s The Structure of Scien tiﬁc
Revolutions,  published in 1962. Kuhn shattered the notio n
of objective progress in science by arguing that given their
starting assumptions, every scientiﬁc scheme for explainingNature—what he called a paradigm—is right on its own
terms.
This groundb reaking insight went back to 1947, when
Kuhn, then a graduate student at Harvard, was wrestling
with how wrong Aristotle had been. Aristotelian physics
was the ﬁrst systema tic explanation of Nature in
mechanical terms, the cornerstone of Western science that
made Copernicus, Newton, and Einstein possible. And yet a
brilliant mind like Aristo tle’s arrived at complete ly wrong
conclusions about such basic things as why objec ts fall to
earth or what heat is. Suddenly Kuhn had an epiphany:
What we call Aristotle’s mistakes in fact weren’t mistakes
at all. If you accept the starting assumptions behind
Aristotelian physics, its description of Nature was valid.
Kuhn seemed  to be saying that Aristotle was just as right
as Newton, which to most people, including probably every
physicist, makes no sense. In our time, the accepta nce of
scientiﬁc progress is all but universal, and the triumphs of
modern technology are undeniable. Yet no one has rebutted
Kuhn’s point that we view Nature through our own
paradigm, our worldview. The history of science is a
constant stream of shifting paradigms, one after another.
There is no way to step outside the paradigm you totally
believe in.
But what if the current paradigm happens to be
absolutely right? A Theory of Everything has been on the
horizon for decades, and we are told that it’s only a matter
of time before the theory  is complete. Kuhn’s point is that
an absolutely correct theory, no matter how much data you
feed into it, cannot be achieved. All you can achieve is the
fulﬁllment of the paradigm you believe in. Eventually
problems will arise that cannot be solved without
shattering the present paradigm so that a new one can be
formed.To a doctor, spontaneous remission from cancer  posed
just such a problem. As long as your medical paradigm
separated mind and body, no way existed for consciousness
(including beliefs, expec tations, fears, wishes, faith, and
hope) to inﬂuence the daily life of cells. Looking beyond
medicine, we have to consider consciousness as a whole. If
the mind can inﬂuence the body, what do we mean by
mind? If brain = mind, the answer to all ills should be a
host of super-pills that alter brain function, steering it in
the direction we want it to go. In eﬀect, this is where
neuroscience thinks it’s heading, because the old paradigm
says so. There is literally no room for consciousness being
the agent of change.
In the years since Quantum Healing  was ﬁrst published,
my own thinking has become more sophisticated about the
so-called hard problem of connecting mind and brain.
Anyone who ﬂatly says that brain = mind is turning their
backs on what the philosophy of science teaches.
1.Theories are right about what they include and wrong
about what they exclude.
2.No model of reality is big enough to explain reality.
3.Data has no meaning unless it is interpreted, and
interpretations are bound by the observer’s starting
assumptions.
In a word, everyone has a story, and everyone believes
their story. Even contradictory stories can be valid and ﬁt
the same data. This startling conclusion applies to everyday
life all the time. Competing stories are told in divorce court
when marriages break apart, in criminal court when
prosecution and defense do battle, and in the corridors of
medicine when two doctors have diﬀerent concepts of
healing. Sticking to your story convinces you that you’retelling the truth when in fact you are just defending a way
of seeing.
—
The story told by neuroscience, that brain = mind, is
particularly weak. There is absolutely no data to indicate
that neurons  can think; they merely light up on an fMRI as
thinking occurs, which isn’t the same thing. You could
construct a setup so that a 100-watt bulb lights up over
your head every time you have a bright idea, but that
doesn’t mean  the light bulb caused  the idea. Neuroscience
ignores this obvious ﬂaw when it arrives at the same false
conclusion, using neurons instead of a lightbulb.
The current state of total conﬁdence in neuroscience
requires thick blinders. Brain scientists don’t see the dead
end they are walking toward when they promise that
neurons are going to explain where thoughts come from.
Not just thoughts, but no color, shape, sound, taste, and
smell will ever be locate d in neurons, and what isn’t in a
neuron isn’t in the brain, either.
It would be pointless to tear down the old paradigm
without having somethin g better to oﬀer. In that regard,
Quantum Healing  pointed in the right direction. All the
things the brain is credited with actually should be
assigned to the mind. Once this shift is made,  enormous
untapped potential becomes available. Neuroscience will
continue to do valuable things, in particular ﬁxing the
abnormalities and disorders of the brain connected to a
wide range of diseases. You can’t play Mozart on a broken
piano. Yet the mystery of Mozart’s genius, like all mysteries
of the mind,  must be solved on a diﬀerent plane, beyond
the physical.
OceanofPDF.comRecently a young woman in her late twenties, a part-time
model, came  to my oﬀice  in Boston. After years of hiding
the fact that she had an eating disorder, her family had
ﬁnally persua ded her to seek treatment. Since adolescence
she had been obsessed with her ﬁgure, and over time this
concern had become more and more abnormal until it
blossomed into a double sickness, anorexia nervosa and
bulimia.
Looking at this attractive, bright woman, who to all
appearances was normal, I was not lulled into thinking that
her problem was easy. Despite extensive resea rch and
publicity in recent years, both anorexia and bulimia remain
highly puzzling. Why should young wome n, many of them
well educated and from high-income backgrounds, nurture
an uncontro llable obsession with diet and weight?
Anorexics develop a fear of food and a horror at the act of
eating. Conﬁned to a rigidly ritualized pattern of behavio r
that leads them to voluntary starvation, they will deny that
they are too thin, even to the point of death.The companion disease, bulimia, can be separate from
anorexia or can coexist with it, as in this woman’s case. In
bulimia, the horror of food takes a weird turn in the form of
bingeing. The secret food binges that a bulimic goes on are
often enorm ous—anywhere from 2,000 to 50,000  calories
at a sitting (2,000 calor ies is enough food to sustain a
vigorous 150-pound perso n for a day). This huge amount of
food is then vomited back up, causing tremendous stress on
the digestive system and the body as a whole.
This particul ar woman’s  disorder had advanced to the
point where she was vomiting every day in order to
maintain the normal but still low weight needed  for her
work. The very sight of a dessert, she told me, caused her
to break out in a cold sweat and sent her heart racing. She
was extremely


 slow moderately deep breath, and then close of f your r ight nasal
passage with your thumb. Exhale slowly through your left nostril, then
inhale sl owly th rough your left nostril, then close of f your left nostril with
your thi rd and fourth fingers. Exhale through your right nostril, inhale
through your right nostril, and then again close your right nasal passage,
exhaling through  your left. Cont inue with this pattern for five to ten minutes,
alternating the nostril after each  inhalation. After just a few cycles you will
experience your mind calming and your body relaxing.
Nadi Shodhana
Use these practices throughout the day to balance your mind and body.
Pranayama can ener gize you wit hout the need for caf feine, relax you without
the need for tranquilizers, and soothe you without the need for alcohol.
These natural techniques help to balance and nourish the fiel d of ener gy,
transformation, and intelligence commonly known as your body/mind.
Mind/Body Movement
T echniques such as yoga, tai chi, and qigong can be thought of as practice
sessions for establishing yourse lf in a state of body/mind/ spirit unity while
engaging in action. Each of these ancient practices enlivens the integration
between body and mind.REVERSAL-OF-AGING YOGA
It is a rare town in the W estern world in which you cannot find a yoga class.
This wo uld not have been the c ase twenty-five years ago, when the average
W esterner ’ s vision of a yoga pra ctitioner was an emaciated, loinclothed man
on a  bed  of nails. T oday, yoga has gone mainstream with classes  available in
shopping malls, YMCAs, and corporate fitness clubs. Y oga can help enliven
many aspects of mind/body fitne ss, serving to enhance relaxation, flexibility,
muscle tone, and strength.
The roots of yoga go back at least five thousand years, a testament to its
enduring value, independent of time or culture. Modern science has recently
begun to  pay attention to the m easurable benefits of yoga in a variety of
health d omains including arthritis, asthma, heart disease, and diabetes. Most
people do yoga because it help s them become centered and relaxed while
enhancing the comfort they experience in their bodies.
There ar e hundr eds of dif ferent yoga systems available in the world today.
Some are designed to build stren gth; others are intended more for flexibility
and rela xation. Regardless of the system you are attracted to, be certain to
perform your postures with full awareness in your body, heedin g the signals
of comf ort and discomfort that are generated. Practice your poses regularly
and consciously and you will se e steady improvement in your fl exibility and
mind/body integration.
The Sun Salutations
A s et of twelv e yoga positions known as the Sun Salutations are a
wonderful, balanced series of movements that can enhance flexibility,
strength, and even aerobic capacity, depending upon how they are
performed. W e recommend moving through a few rounds of the Sun
Salutations at least once a day, either early in the morning or in the lateafternoon, when the sun is rising  or setting. They provide a full stretch to all
the key areas of the body and awaken our intrinsic vitality.
1. Salutation pose
Stand with your feet firmly on the ground, eyes facing forward, with the
palms of your hands held together in front of your chest. Breathe slowly
and evenly with your attention in your body.2. Sky-r eaching pose
T ightening the muscles in your buttocks, reach upward with both arms,
looking toward the sky, while at the same time elongating your spine.
Inhale as your perform this posture.
3. Hands/feet pose
Slowly flex your body forward from your hips, relaxing your spine as
you bring your hands down alongside your feet. Relax your neckmuscles and bend your knees if necessary to place your hand on the
floor. Exhale during this pose.
4. Equestrian pose
Stretch your left leg backward, bending your right knee until you are
resting on the left knee and toes of your left foot. At the same time,
open your chest as you look forward. Inhale as you stretch back and up.
5. Mountain pose
Bring your left leg back even with your right and raise your buttocks,
with straight legs and arms. Stretch your heels toward the floor,
lengthening the back of your legs as your body forms a tent. Exhale
during this pose.6. Eight limbs pose
Gently lower yourself so your forehead, chest, and knees are touching
the floor while you maintain the bulk of your weight on your toes and
fingers. Breathe easily in and out during this posture.
7. Cobra pose
Allow your weight to rest on your pelvis while you lift your chest of f
the ground, gently arching your back. At first, lift only with the muscles
of the back. After you are comfortable, gently push up with your hands,
but do not overar ch. Inhale during this pose.
The final five poses repeat postures 1 through 5 in reverse order.8. Mountain pose
Return to this pose by again raising your buttocks in the air while you
exhale.
9. Equestrian pose
Bring your left leg forward, bending your left knee, leaving your right
leg extended behind you, inhaling while you open your chest.10. Hands/feet pose
Bring your right foot forward even with your left as you raise your
buttocks, keeping both hands on the floor beside your feet. Bend your
knees as you need to while exhaling.
11. Sky-r eaching pose
Slowly raise your body, leading with your hands until you are stretching
toward the sky; inhale as you straighten your spine.12. Salutation pose
Once again return to this resting pose with your palms together in front
of your chest, breathing easily.
These twelve postures constitut e one cycle. Do between four and twelve
rounds a t a time. Done vigorously, they can raise your heart rate  and provide
a ca rdiovascular  workout. Performed in a slow, relaxed manner, they will
have a calming ef fect on your b ody and mind. T ry using the Ujayi breath as
you are inhaling and exhaling during the poses. Keep your attention in your
body, re leasing a ny tension or re sistance you may feel. Listen to  your body’ s
signals while performing the poses for the optimal age-reversing mind/body
integration.
Sitting Sun Salutes
Y ou can perform a sitting variation of the twelve Sun Salu tations with
almost the same benefit as doing them on the floor. They can be done atwork in your of fice chair or in an airplane seat. They will stre tch and tone
you while increasing your circulation.
Sit comfortably on a firm chair with your feet resting solidly on the
floor. W ith your palms together in front of your chest, center your
awareness in your body, breathing easily.
Reach your arms upward, stretching your shoulders and upper back
while you inhale.Bend forward, relaxing your spine until your palms are on the floor
next to your feet. Rest your chest on your thighs as you relax your neck,
exhaling.
Raise your body up and grasp your right knee with interlaced fingers.
Straighten and arch your back as you extend your arms, inhaling.Flex your hip, bringing your knee up to your chest, while you roll your
shoulders, upper back, and neck forward. Partially exhale.
Releasing your leg, return both feet to the floor and again bend forward
with your palms on the floor and your chest resting on your knees.
Fully exhale.
W ith your fingertips dangling on or near the floor, raise your head and
arch your neck and upper back, partially inhaling.
Again raise your body, this time grasping your left knee with your
interlaced fingers. Arch your back as you apply downward pressure
with your knee, stretching your arms. Inhale.
Again, flex your hip as you bring your knee to your chest, partially
exhaling.For the third time, bend fully forward, placing your palms on the floor
next to your feet. Exhale fully.
Raise your chest fully upward, leading with your arms, until you are
stretching toward the sky. Fully inhale.Return to the original pose with your hands at your chest; feel the
sensations in your body with your full attention, breathing easily.
REVERSAL-OF-AGING T AI CHI AND QIGONG
The min d/body techniques of tai chi and qigong are centurie s old. Their
graceful slow movements im prove balance, flexibility, a nd strength,
enhancing both mental and phys ical well-being. Qi (chi) is the Chinese word
for life force. T ai chi is the proce ss of connecting with the supreme universal
force. Qigong is translated as “ener gy cultivation.” Both tec hniques are
closely related meditations in m otion, designed to awaken awareness in the
body with their fluid, centered movements. Millions of people perform tai
chi and qigong  in China whe re they are considered premier mind/body
fitness programs that cultivate relaxation in the midst of action.


. The inner experience of God is the greatest of all experiences
because it contains all desirable experiences.
This particular feeling experience might be called the cosmic
feeling. The cosmic feeling is not a theoretical understanding or a
feeling about  the cosmos. It is a true physical, mental, emotional,
and spiritual experience, which encompasses the entire person. I
cannot describe this experience adequately within the limitations of
human language.
The cosmic experience no longer splits o feeling from thinking.
It is feeling and thinking in one. This is very hard to imagine when
you have never had such an experience. But some of you may have
occasionally had a glimpse of it. The oneness is total. It is an
experience of bliss; the comp rehension of life and its mysteries; all-
encompassing love; a knowle dge that all is well and there is nothing
to fear.
In the state of cosmic feeling you experience the immediacy of the
presence of God within. The immedia cy of this incredibly powerful
presence is at rst shocking. The good feeling is shocking. It is as if
literally an electric shock went through your entire system.
Therefore the ego-personality has to grow suciently strong and
healthy so that it can acclimatize itself to the high vibrations of theinner presence  of God. This manifestation is then experienced as
your eternal reality and state, as your true identity.
The moment you nd yourself in this state you know in a most
profound way that what you now discover you have always known,
that you had only temporarily cut yourself o from the state of
feeling and knowing, of experiencing and perceiving life as it really
is.
This descriptio n is, of course, extremely limited, for words cannot
convey the experience. What you can do at this very moment to
gain an inkling of the reality is to pray to be able to perceive a taste
of it. Open your inner faculties, your higher self, to an
understanding on the deepest level, my friends.
The Eternal, Divine Laws
God’s love is not only personal in God-manifest within the human
soul, but also in the divine laws, in the being of the laws. The
apparently impersonal love in the laws that are—understand what is
implied in the words “that are”—shows clearly in the fact that they
are made in such a way as to lead you ultimately into light and
bliss, no matter how much you deviate from them. The more you
deviate from them, the more you approach them by the misery that
the deviation inicts. This misery will cause you to turn around at
one point or another. Some sooner, some later, but all must nally
come to the point where they realize that they themselves determine
their misery or bliss. This is the love in the law—this is the “Plan of
Salvation.” Deviation from the law is the very medicine to cure the
pain caused by the deviation  and therefore it brings you closer to
the goal: union with God.
God lets you deviate from the universal laws if you so wish. You
are made in God’s likeness, meaning that you are completely free to
choose. You are not forced to live in bliss and light, though you can
if you wish. All this expresses the love of God.
When you have diculty in understanding the justice of the
universe and the self-respons ibility in your own life, do not think ofGod as “He” or “She.” Rather think of God as the Great Creative
Power at your disposal. It is not God who is unjust; the injustice is
caused by the wrong use of the powerful current at your disposal. If
you start from this premise and meditate on it, and if from now on
you seek to nd where and how you have ignorantly abused the
power current in you, God will answer you. This I can promise.
If you nd the cause and eect in your life, you have no idea what
this discovery will mean to you. The greater the resistance to it at rst,
the greater the victory. You have no inkling how free it will make
you, how safe and secure. You will understand the marvel of the
creation of these laws that let you, with the power current  of life, do
as you please in creating your own life. This will give you
condence and the deep, absolute knowledge that you have nothing
to fear.
The universe is a whole of which humanity is an organic part. To
experience God is to realize oneself as an integral part of this
oneness. Yet in their present inner state of development, most
human beings can only experience God under the dual aspects of
spontaneously active consciousness and automatic law. In actuality
these two aspects form an interacting unity.
The aspect of spontaneous consciousness is the active principle,
which in human terms is called the masculine aspect. It is the life
force which creates; it is potent energy. This life force permeates the
entire creation  and all creatures. It can be used by all conscious
living beings.
The aspect of automatic law is the passive, receptive principle, the
life substance or feminine aspect, which the creative principle
molds, forms, and plays upon. These two aspects, together, are
necessary to create anything. They are the conditions of creation
and are present in every form of creation, whether it be a galaxy or
a simple gadget.
When speaking of God, it is important to understand that all
divine aspects are duplicated in the human being, who lives and
whose being rests upon the same conditions, principles, and laws as
those pertainin g to Cosmic Intelligence. They are both the same inessence, diere ntiated only by degree. Self-realization, then, means
activating the maximum potential of God in oneself.
God Is in You and Creates Through You
God, as deliberate, spontane ous, directing intelligence, does not
did for you but through  you, being in you. It is very important that
you understand this subtle, but decisive, dierence. When you have
an erroneous approach to God in this respect, you vaguely expect
God to act for you, and you resent the inevitable disappointments;
hence you conclude that there is no Creator. If one could contact an
outer deity, one could logically expect it to act for one. But waiting
for responses outside the self means focusing into the wrong
direction. When you contact God within the self, respo nses must
come and, what is more, you will notice and understand them. Such
manifestations of God’s presence within the self demonstrate God’s
personal aspect. They demonstrate active, deliberate, directing
intelligence, forever changing and fresh, adapted in innite wisdom
to any situation. They expres s the Spirit of God manifestin g through
the spirit of the human being.
When you discover yourself and, consequently, the role you play
in creating your fate, you truly come into your own. You are no
longer driven but are master of your life. No longer bound by forces
you do not understand, you can deliberately use these powers in the
most construct ive way, express more of the best of you, expand to
ever greater potentials, add more to life, and therefore derive more
from it.
You must discover this power and the freedom to master your life
by yourself. If life forced you into your true birthright in order to
save you from suering, you would never be a free creature. The
very meaning of freedom implies that no force or constraint can be
used, not even for good or desirable results. Not even the greatest of
all discoveries  on the road of your evolution would have any
meaning if you were compelled to experience it. The choice to turn
in the direction  that will nally yield true freedom and power mustbe left to each individual. Self-discovery—rst on the mundane, so-
called psychological level—when followed through, must lead to the
realization that you are master over the universe to the exact degree
that you master yourself. This self-mastery depends on a thorough
knowledge of yourself and on the depth and width of the concepts
your mind is capable of embracing.
Since you are created in the image of God, you, too, must create.
You constantly do so, whether you know it or not. You create your
life, your fate, your experiences. Every thought, every reaction,
every emotion, every response, every intent, every action, every
opinion, every motivation is a creative process. When one is torn in
contradictions and conicts between mutually exclusive
motivations, when one uctuates between automatic blind reexes
and deliberate action, the result of all this is one’s own creation.
Ideas, intent, thoughts, will, feelings, attitudes as expressed by
conscious beings are the greatest forces in the universe. This means
that the power of spirit is superior to all other energies. If this
power is understood and used according to its inherent law, it
supersedes all other manifest ations of power. No physical power can
be as strong as the power of the spirit. Since the human being is
spirit and intelligence, he or she is inherently capable of directing
all automatic, blind law. It is through this capacity that God is truly
experienced.
When you deliberately contact and request your higher self,
which contains all divine aspects, for guidance and inspiration, and
when you experience the result of this inner act,


. This same man who had lost his hair, not only regained it
during the second fast‐ his head was  rubbed  daily‐but instead of being
grey it assumed  its original  color… Many of my correspondents,  I may
add, report renewal of hair as the result of rubbing the head with old
urine as a daily habit.
Reports from  correspondents  on influenza,  pneumonia,  pleurisy and
appendicitis.
These reports show that as a general rule from three to eight days'
urine‐fast suffices to cure  influenza,  pneumonia  and pleurisy. The same
can be said of appendicitis.  In some cases of the latter,  one small meal a
day has been allowed, though all the urine passed  must  be taken. In
severe acute cases with fever, a complete  urinefast  is essential.   91
 And here  I would emphasise  the fact that to press food on a sick man  or
woman on the principle that strength, must  b.: kept up, is the height  of
medical folly.  To an invalid whose instincts and  organs  rebel against
taking nourishment,  food acts like a poison.
Cataract. Before  it became  illegal  for laymen to mention the fact that
cataract may  yield to treatment  without operation,  I found that in many
cases, 10 days'  urine‐fast  was sufficient  to dissolve the film that forms
over the eye. The longest required was a 28 days'  fast. Whether it is
against the now existing law for any layman to say that he has cured
cataract before the law was  passed, is a subtle point on which  I am not
qualified to pronounce.  But in case  the disclosure  should be illegal, we
must  assume that the cases cured had  been falsely ding nosed, since
the law implies  that no one save a qualifies oculist can cure  genuine
cases, namely with a knife Nevertheless,  it is only veracious  to say that
cataract is by no means always an isolated condition.  What we need to
remember  is that the eye is a part of the body, and therefore  in treating
the body as a whole for other  symptoms,  the local  condition  is apt to
cure  itself  without any direct attention.
Glaucoma. This, according  to orthodox Medicine  and even to naturop ,;
thy,  is a very serious  condition.  Oculists perform an operation,  but in
many cases the. patient sooner or later  merely  goes blind. In any event,
mutilation  can never be termed a cure. Patients  who have no been
tampered  with, I have known to respond  well  on urine‐fast  of about a
month's  duration. As against that cases which  have been surgically
interfered  with must  a: a general rule be considered  practically
hopeless.   92
 Rheumatism.  In this  country (England)  the weathe is often  blamed for
rheumatic  conditions  by persons wit) insufficiently  alkaline blood. But
were the blood  and (body free from acidity and  foreign matter,  the
weather or changes of weather would have, no effect.
With regard to the cure  for rheumatism  (of which  some doctors say
there  are 26 different kinds) I hav found chat patients always respond
well  to a urine‐fa,, of from 10 to 12 days, or even less in simple cases.
Th fast must  be attended with the urine‐rubbings  and urine packs.  After
the cure, revision of diet to a well  balance regime  is essential to avoid
recurrence.  Many cases hai even responded  to the one meal a day plan
(the foe must  be carefully chosen, alcohol and condimen  avoided) plus
the taking of autogenous  urine, the urin rubbings,  and uane‐packs.  Such
cases, if of not too long‐standing and severe, have usually cleared up
within a few weeks.
Arthritis. This painful and distressing  condition  is about as far removed
from rheumatism  as a severe attack of influenza from a slight  cold, and
is one of the very worst conditions  to tackle; notably because the
foreign deposits are largely  lodged in the bones. Even to cure  an
incipient case  I have found that it takes anywhere  from 12 to 40 days
on a very carefully selected diet, the taking of every drop of urine
passed, and  long daily rubbings  with urine. (These were cases where
the patients had  objected to or had  not found it feasible to fast.)
Nevertheless,  I regard such treatment  as only half  measures,  and
maintain that a complete  urine‐fast  of even 10 days does far more  to
help the victims than months of mere dieting and  the taking of urine.
But I must  emphasis  that where  the trouble has become deep‐seated, 93
 and the victim  is practically  crippled, there  is little prospect of obtaining
a cure.
I will now add a few cases kindly supplied by the naturopath  Mr. Oliver
Warnock‐Fielden
“Bronchial  Asthma. Mr. D.E., age 37. Discharged  from the Navy for
Bronchial  Asthma, from which he had suffered  since the age of 14. The
sea life seemed to make the trouble worse. Disturbed  each night  at
lean four times in order to use a medical spray,  also he dare  not go to
the theatre  without  it so that he could use it between.  the acts.  Within
three  months, during which  he drank urine up to


and start with something very simple. Imagine someone comes up to you
and asks, “Hi. Are you in there?” How would you respond? No one would
actually say, “No, I’m not in here.” That would be the ultimate non sequitur.
If you’re not in there, who responded? You’re definitely in there, but what
does that mean?
To isola te what “you in there”  means, imagine you’re shown three
different photog raphs. The photos are held up one after the other, and then
you’re asked, “Though the photo s changed, was it the same you who saw all
three of them?” Your response would be, “Of course it was the same me.”
Very good; that helps us get our bearings. From this simple exercise, it’s
clear that you in there are not what you look at; you are the one who’ s
looking. The pictures changed; you who saw them stayed the same.
It’s not hard to understand with photographs that you are not what you
look at, but there are some objects we identify with more than others. For
example, our bodies. We identify with our bodies enough to say, “I’m a
forty-three-year -old woman who is five foot six.” Is that really who you are
in there: a forty-three-year -old, five-foot-six-inch female body? Or is the
body something you in there are aware of? To sort this out, let’s start with
your hand. If you were asked whether you can see your hand, you would
say, “Yes, I see my hand.” Okay, but what if it got cut off? Don’t worry
about the pain; just for a moment imagine it’s gone. Would you still be
there? Wouldn’ t you notice that your hand is gone? It’s like the changing
photographs: When the hand was there, you saw it. When it was gone, you
saw it was gone. You in there who “sees” did not change; what you were
looking at changed. Your body is just another thing you see. The question
remains: Who is in there doing the seeing?
Note that we didn’ t have to stop with the hand. Surgery has become so
advanced that, with the help of a heart-lung machine and other medical
devices, surgeons could remove  a great deal of your body—and the samesense of Self would still be in there, aware of the changes. How  could you
be your body if it changed that much, and you in there stayed the same?
Fortunately, to help you realize you are not your body, we don’t really
need to go that far. There is a much simpler, intuitive way to approach this.
Surely you’ve noticed that your body didn’ t look the same when you were
three, ten, twenty, or fifty years old. It certainly won’ t look the same when
you’re eighty or ninety. But isn’t it the same you in there looking at it?
When you were ten years old and you looked in the mirror, did you see what
you see now? No, but wasn’ t it you looking—then and now? You’ve been in
there the whole time, haven’ t you? That’ s the core, the essence, of
everything we’re discussing. Who are you? Who is in there looking out
through those eyes and seeing what you’re seeing? Just like when you were
shown the three photographs, you were not any of the photos—you were the
one looking at them. Likewise, when you look out at the mirror, you are not
what you see—you are the one who sees it.
Little by little, through the use of these examples, we are reveal ing the
nature of Self. Your relationship  to what you see is always one of subject-
object. You are the subject, and what you are looking at is the object. There
are many different objects comi ng in through your senses, but there’ s only
one subject experiencing them— You.Chapter 2.
The Conscious Receiver
Once you recognize  that you’re in there, you’re going to notice that objects
around you tend to distract your consciousness. A neighborhood dog barks,
someone walks  in the room, you smell the aroma of coffee, and your
awareness is drawn to these objects. On a daily basis, you are so distracted
by exter nal objects that you rarely remain centered on You, the conscious
receiver of these objects. Let’s take a moment to exami ne the real
relationship between this consci ous receiver and the objects it is distracted
by.
To look at this scientifically, you are not even looking at the outer
objects. Right now, you are not actually looking out at what you see. What’ s
happening is that rays of light are bouncing off the molecules that make up
the outer objects. These reflecte d rays are hitting your eyes’ photoreceptors
and being transmitted back as messages through your nervous system.
These messages are then rendered in your mind as an image of the external
objects. Y ou are actually seeing the objects inside, not outside.
We are slowly peeling back the onion to see what it’s like to be you.
Things are certainly not what they appear to be. Even science backs that up.
It’s like you are sitting inside looking at a mental flat-screen monitor that is
imaging the world in front of you. You are obviously not the object you are
looking at; after all, you are not even looking at the actual object. If you
work your way back, the questio n becomes: “Who am I in here looking at a
mental image of what is in front of me?”
There was a great saint from India, an enlightened master named
Ramana Mahar shi. His entire spiritual path was to every moment
persistently ask: “Who sees when I see? Who hears when I hear? Who feels
when I feel?” Self-r ealization,  the term for enlightenment the yoga master
Paramahansa Yogananda used, means you have fully realized who you arein there. The entire spiritual journey back to the seat of Self is not about
finding yourself —it’s about realizing you are the Self. Even in a Judeo-
Christian sense, if somebody asks whether they have a soul, the correct
answer is, “No, you don’t have a soul—you in there, the consciousness, are
the soul.” Thus, “Who are you? ” becomes the quintessential question. You
can’t free yourself until you understand who it is that’s bound. Likewise,
you can’ t understand acceptance until you understand who is resisting.
Let’s continue our exploration of Self. Earlier we discussed that when
you were young, you looked out through your eyes and saw a certain
reflection in the mirror. Later in your life you saw a very dif ferent reflection.
From that point of view, how old are you? Not how old is your body. How
old are you in there who’ s looking out through those eyes at your body? If
you were in there when you were ten, if you were in there when you were
twenty, if you’re going to be in there on your deathbed noticing that you’re
dying, then what age are you in there? Don’ t answer that question, just let it
touch you at a very deep level. Are you willing to let go of traditional
concepts about your age?
Let’s do another interesting experiment. Imagine you’re looking  in the
mirror right after taking a shower. Do you see the reflection of a male or
female body? What if suddenly, via some mysterious power, it changes?
Somehow the body parts change. If you were a male, you’re now looking at
a female. If you were a female, you’re now looking at a male. Would it still
be the same you in there lookin g at that body? Would it still be the same
consciousness that has always looked out through those eyes now seeing a
very different body? You would probably be saying, “What happened?
What’ s going on here?” Nevertheless, it would be the same you having the
entire experienc e. So what gender are you in there? You in there, who has
no body  parts, can’t have a gend er. All you can have is awareness that when
you look out through your eyes, the body you’re looking at has a certain
form and shape. That form and shape might be male or female, but you who
notices are neither.
The question remains, who are You, the awareness that intuitively
knows you’re in there? Your body has an age and your body has a gender,
but those concepts are irrelevant to the one who notices the body. If you
look at a tall, one-hundred-year -old vase, does that make you tall and a
hundred years old? The same is true of race. Your skin may be a certain
color, but the consciousness that notices this has no color at all. You are notyour body; you are the one who notices the characteristics of your body.
You are the conscious awareness within that is looking at all of this. The
question is: Are you willing to let go of who you thought you were? Because
who you thought you were is not who you are. The same inner being is
looking at your body, your house, your car. You are the subject; all the rest
are objects of consciousness.
Let’s turn to something a little lighter. At night you go to sleep, and
you often dream. You wake up in the morning,


.This includes Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Lindora, Atkins,and gastric bypass. As soon as people get off any program theyhave followed, the weight tends to come back on. The reason isthat the underlying mechanism that created the fat in the firstplace is still there, whether it be an over-production of insulin,an under-active thyroid, producing too much estrogen, ortaking lipogenic (fat-creating) drugs.
If these factors are not addressed, your body will always be
creating too much fat. Throughout this book I have intro-duced you to a number of my patients who had a lifetime offrustration until these factors were taken into consideration.
A SIMPLE PHILOSOPHY
My method for successful, permanent weight loss is simple. It’s
based on principles that have been around for a long time andhave worked for many people. But it will not work unless thebody’s hormones are in balance.
Since hormone levels decrease as we age, the older you are,
the likelier it is that your hormones may need to be adjusted.For reasons discussed throughout this book, finding a doctorwho can balance your hormones successfully, using the naturalhormones that involve the fewest side effects, may not be easy.A compounding pharmacy may be able to direct you to aphysician who works with bio-identical hormones. And hope-fully this book will provide enough information, hints, andexamples to help you in your quest for proper treatment.175 PERMANENT WEIGHT LOSS  HUMAN GROWTH
HORMONE—HGH
chapter TWENTY– ONE
One hormone I have not mentioned until now is human
growth hormone (HGH). It regulates how the body grows,repairs itself, and burns fat.
Interest in HGH replacement therapy has been on the
increase ever since the publication of an article in the
New
England Journal of Medicine that showed HGH’s rejuvenating
potential. Daniel Rudman, M.D. documented the effects ofsix months of HGH supplementation upon 21 men aged 61to 81 years. The results were remarkable. Every area measuredshowed improvement—their body fat decreased, their leanbody mass increased, their skin became thicker, and their bonedensity increased. He said it was equivalent to undoing 10 to20 years of aging.
Now dubbed the “fountain of youth hormone,” HGH has
become a star feature at anti-aging clinics around the country.T oday more people are being exposed to HGH than everbefore, and it may possibly be of benefit when used correctly.
177QUESTIONS ARISE
However, as with any hormone, you must weigh the benefits
against the risks. The primary role of HGH after age 30 is tohelp the body repair tissues—the growth stage is over. Givinghigh dosages of a hormone that can promote the growth oftissue may lead to unwanted side effects: acromegaly(enlargement of bony tissue), enlargement of the heart leadingto congestive heart failure, carpal tunnel syndrome, andarthritis. As people get older, there is always the possibility ofcancerous tissue sitting somewhere in their bodies. HGH couldstimulate the growth of that tissue. (Note that when HGH isused in children to stimulate normal levels of growth it doublestheir chances of getting childhood leukemia.) HGH is notrecommended for people with diabetes.
HGH is the main hormone put out by the pituitary gland.
Taking inappropriately high doses, especially over prolongedperiods, can suppress the pituitary gland. It’s the master gland,which can affect all other endocrine glands in the body, so thismay create even more problems.
However, there are ways of elevating HGH levels without
giving HGH directly. This can be done through manipulatingother hormones or by giving supplements called secretoguesthat stimulate HGH production. This is a much less expensiveapproach than the usual high price tag charged by many anti-aging clinics for HGH injections.
OTHER CONCERNS
I have a lot of respect for nature. It seems to know what it’s
doing. When using hormones to alter the natural pattern, onemust always consider the logic of it. Giving high dosages of178 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  HGH at a time when the body no longer needs high levels may
be problematic.
The same is true with estrogen replacement. A woman
never stops making estrogen. It is produced, for instance, in fatcells, in skin cells, and in the adrenal glands. The high levelscustomarily given in hormone replacement therapy are neededonly when a woman is trying to get pregnant—not a likelyscenario in menopausal women. This is another situation inwhich the risks may far outweigh the apparent benefits.
One last thought to keep in mind: A major reason for the
popularity of HGH is the high level of interest in anti-agingremedies. HGH stimulates the production of IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor-1) in the liver. In fact, levels of IGF-1 areused to monitor HGH production. Recent studies indicate,however, that IGF-1 may actually speed up the aging process;it is considered the number two hormone to do this. Insulin,by the way, is number one.
Another concern is that high levels of IGF-1 are found in
the cancerous tissues of people with breast and prostate cancer.My feeling is that the jury is still out when it comes to usingHGH. It may possibly be administered safely with carefullycontrolled dosages and monitoring for untoward effects:edema, tingling in the fingertips, arthritic pains, and unwantedgrowths. However, the bottom line regarding the use of HGHis that it may be illegal to prescribe it. Congress passed a lawyears ago addressing the off-label use of HGH that declaresit illegal to use HGH as an anti-aging drug or for otherunsupported claims.179 HUMAN GR OWTH HORMONE—HGH  DOCTORS DON’T ALWAYS
LISTEN—SHIRLEY M. ’S STORY
chapter TWENTY–TWO
Before she came to see me at age 50, Shirley had suffered from
asthma and severe headaches for her entire adult life. Doctorswere unable to help her with either problem, or with theweight gain that started in her 20s.
As I helped Shirley master her weight I was able to remove
the cause of her asthma and headaches, too. I only wish shehad come to me earlier. She would have been spared ahysterectomy and the removal of her gallbladder. Medicalstudies have shown that 90 percent of hysterectomies may notbe necessary.
Shirley’s story should strike a familiar note with patients
who, when seeking help from the conventional medicalcommunity, feel they are being ignored and misunderstood.
For the first 21 years of my life I was healthy and skinny as a
rail. I weighed around 103 pounds. Although I developedasthma as a teenager, other than that, I didn’t have a lot ofmedical problems.
All of that changed after I had my first baby. That’s when my
weight began to fluctuate and I started experiencing painfulheadaches. I went from a size 3 to a size 13, and the headaches
181began affecting my ability to function. After my second pregnancy
I went up to a size 18 and the headaches got even worse. I triedliving on aspirin to control the pain, but it didn’t work.
At the age of 45 I hit a wall with my weight. I’d always
followed the Dr. Atkins diet to lose weight, but suddenly it didn’twork anymore. So I tried different things. I tried eating smallportions, eating low fat, low sugar, whole grains, fresh fruits andvegetables. I tried eating yogurt and popcorn and oatmeal. Ithought these foods were good for me and would help me, but allthey did was make me bigger.
As I got older my asthma attacks went out of control. It almost
seemed as though the more weight I gained, the worse the asthmagot. I started carrying my inhaler with me all of the time.
After my third baby I had gained so much weight I lost all the
muscle control in my tummy. I was pear-shaped. I had skinny legs,skinny arms, and a huge stomach. My doctor at the time told methat if I tried to carry another baby I’d probably drag it on theground so I decided not to have any more babies. I had my uterusremoved. That was in 1988.
I had other medical problems at that time as well. I had to
have a bladder operation—it seemed like everything was fallingout of me! One day I had an attack, doubling over in pain, avery sharp pain in the whole stomach. I was taken to a doctorwho diagnosed gallbladder and scheduled me for surgery.Unfortunately, after that surgery I had constant diarrhea. I alsohad high cholesterol. All my hormones had gone out of whack.
My doctor at the time prescribed Premarin for me and also
Meridia, a diet pill for weight loss (I was up to a size 20). In anattempt to understand my failing health, I was reading a lot, andI got hold of some literature that was critical of Premarin. I sharedit with this doctor. She told me it was nonsense. She said that sinceI did not have a uterus, I needed estrogen. She changed myPremarin to an estradiol patch, another type of estrogen.182 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  I began waking up every morning with headaches. It got so
that I dreaded going to sleep at night because I knew that when Iwoke up I’d have