 wanted to join in, he refused. “I do not want to,” he declared. “But I am curious.”
Now, months later, Olsson plops his jet-lagged body onto the
examination chair, puts on the video glasses, and inhales one of his last
nasal breaths for the next 240 hours. Beside him, Nayak twirls the steel
endoscope the way a heavy metal drummer handles a drumstick. “OK, lean
your head back,” says Nayak. A twist of the wrist, a crane of the neck, and
he goes deep. The experiment is set up in two phases. Phase I consists of plugging our
noses and attempting to live our everyday lives. W e’ll eat, exercise, and
sleep as usual, only we’ll do it while breathing only through our mouths. In
Phase II, we’ll eat, drink, exercise, and sleep like we did during Phase I, but
we’ll switch the pathway and breathe through our noses and practice a
number of breathing techniques throughout the day. Between phases we’ll return to Stanford and repeat all the tests we’ve
just taken: blood gases, inflammatory markers, hormone levels, smell,
rhinometry, pulmonary function, and more. Nayak will compare data sets
and see what, if anything, changed in our brains and bodies as we shifted
our style of breathing. I’d gotten a fair share of gasps from friends when I told them about the
experiment. “Don’ t do it!” a few yoga devotees warned. But most people
just shrugged. “I haven’ t breathed out of my nose in a decade,” said a friend
who had suf fered aller gies most of his life. Everyone else said the
equivalent of: What’ s the big deal? Br eathing is br eathing. Is it? Olsson and I will spend the next 20 days finding out.•       •       •
A while back, some 4 billion years ago, our earliest ancestors appeared on
some rocks. W e were small then, a microscopic ball of sludge. And we were
hungry. W e needed ener gy to live and proliferate. So we found a way to eat
air. The atmosphere was mostly carbon dioxide then, not the best fuel, but it
worked well enough. These early versions of us learned to take this gas in,
break it down, and spit out what was left: oxygen. For the next billion years,
the primordial goo kept doing this, eating more gas, making more sludge,
and excreting more oxygen. Then, around two and a half billion years ago, there was enough oxygen
waste in the atmosphere that a scavenger ancestor emer ged to make use of
it. It learned to gulp in all that leftover oxygen and excrete carbon dioxide:
the first cycle of aerobic life. Oxygen, it turned out, produced 16 times more ener gy than carbon
dioxide. Aerobic life forms used this boost to evolve, to leave the sludge-
covered rocks behind and grow lar ger and more complex. They crawled up
to land, dove deep into the sea, and flew into the air. They became plants,
trees, birds, bees, and the earliest mammals. Mammals grew noses to warm and purify the air, throats to guide air
into lungs, and a network of sacs that would remove oxygen from the
atmosphere and transfer it into the blood. The aerobic cells that once clung
to swampy rocks so many eons ago now made up the tissues in mammalian
bodies. These cells took oxygen from our blood and returned carbon
dioxide, which traveled back through the veins, through the lungs, and into
the atmosphere: the process of breathing. The ability to breathe so ef ficiently in a wide variety of ways—
consciously and unconsciously; fast, slow, and not at all—allowed our
mammal ancestors to catch prey, escape predators, and adapt to dif ferent
environments. It was all going so well until about 1.5 million years ago, when the
pathways through which we took in and exhaled air began to shift and
fissure. It was a shift that, much later in history, would af fect the breathing
of every person on Earth. I’d been feeling these cracks for much of my life, and chances are you
have, too: stuf fy noses, snoring, some degree of wheezing, asthma,aller gies, and the rest. I’d always thought they were a normal part of being
human. Nearly everyone I knew suf fered from one problem or another. But I came to learn that these problems didn’ t randomly develop. Something caused them. And the answers could be found in a common and
homely human trait. —
A few months before the Stanford experiment, I flew to Philadelphia to visit
Dr. Marianna Evans, an orthodontist and dental researcher who’d spent the
last several years looking into the mouths of human skulls, both ancient and
modern. W e were standing in the basement of the University of
Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, surrounded by
several hundred specimens. Each was engraved with letters and numbers
and stamped with its “race”: Bedouin, Copt, Arab of Egypt, Negr o Born in
Africa. There were Brazilian prostitutes, Arab slaves, and Persian prisoners. The most famous specimen, I was told, came from an Irish prisoner who’d
been hanged in 1824 for killing and eating fellow convicts. The skulls ranged from 200 to thousands of years old. They were part of
the Morton Collection, named after a racist scientist named Samuel Morton,
who, starting in the 1830s, collected skeletons in a failed attempt to prove
the superiority of the Caucasian race. The only positive outcome of
Morton’ s work is the skulls he spent two decades gathering, which now
provide a snapshot of how people used to look and breathe. Where Morton claimed to see inferior races and genetic “degradation,”
Evans discovered something close to perfection. T o demonstrate what she
meant, she walked over to a cabinet and retrieved a skull marked Parsee,
for Persian, from behind the protective glass. She wiped bone dust on the
sleeve of her cashmere sweater and ran a neatly trimmed fingernail along its
jaw and face. “These are twice as lar ge as they are today,” she said in a staccato
Ukrainian accent. She was pointing at the nasal apertures, the two holes in
the back of the throat that connect to the nasal passages. She turned the
skull around so it was staring at us. “So wide and pronounced,” she said
approvingly. Evans and her colleague Dr. Kevin Boyd, a Chicago-based pediatric
dentist, have spent the last four years X-raying more than 100 skulls from
the Morton Collection and measuring the angles from the top of the ear tothe nose and from the forehead to the chin. These measurements, which are
called the Frankfort plane and N-perpendicular, show the symmetry of each
specimen, how well-proportioned the mouth was relative to the face, the
nose to the palate, and, to a lar ge extent, how well the people who owned
these skulls might have breathed. Every one of the ancient skulls was identical to the Parsee  sample. They
all had enormous forward-facing jaws. They had expansive sinus cavities
and broad mouths. And, bizarrely, even though none of the ancient people
ever flossed, or brushed, or saw a dentist, they all had straight teeth. The forward facial growth and lar ge mouths also created wider airways. These people very likely never snored or had sleep apnea or sinusitis or
many other chronic respiratory problems that af fect modern populations. They did not because they could not. Their skulls were far too lar ge, and
their airways too wide for anything to block them. They breathed easy. Nearly all ancient humans shared this forward structure—not just in the
Morton Collection, but everywhere around the world. This remained true
from the time when Homo  sapiens  first appeared, some 300,000 years ago,
to just a few hundred years ago. Evans and Boyd then compared the ancient skulls to the modern skulls
of their own patients and others. Every modern skull had the opposite
growth pattern, meaning the angles of the Frankfort plane and N-
perpendicular were reversed: chins had recessed behind foreheads, jaws
were slumped back, sinuses shrunken. All the modern skulls showed some
degree of crooked teeth. Of the 5,400 dif ferent species of mammals on the planet, humans are
now the only ones to routinely have misaligned jaws, overbites, underbites,
and snaggled teeth, a condition formally called malocclusion. T o Evans, this raised a fundamental question: “Why would we evolve to
make ourselves sick?” she asked. She put the Parsee  skull back in the
cabinet and took out another labeled Saccar d. Its perfect facial form was a
mirror image of the others. “That’ s what we’re trying to find out,” she said. Evolution doesn’ t always mean progress, Evans told me. It means
change. And life can change for better or worse. T oday, the human body is
changing in ways that have nothing to do with the “survival of the fittest.”
Instead, we’re adopting and passing down traits that are detrimental to our
health. This concept, called dysevolution, was made popular by


 taste. In general sweet, bland and pungent are
considered to be Y ang in ef fect; while sour, bitter and salty have a Y in ef fect. Specifically the tastes are associated with certain actions and ef fects on the Qi. Sourness has an astringent actio n; it arrests dischar ge, promotes digestion
and has an overall concentrating  ef fect on the Qi. Hawthorne berries and lemons
are examples of plants with a sour taste. Bitterness is considered to be eliminative, anti-inflammatory and
detoxifying in action, with the  ef fect of dischar ging Qi dow nward. Mugwort
leaves, rhubarb root and cascara bark may be cited as examples of bitter taste. Sweetness and those substances that are bland in taste have a nourishing,
harmonizing an d tonic action, while tending to slow down the flow of Qi. Licorice root and dates are predominately of the sweet taste. Pungency or spiciness have bot h a stimulating and dispersing action that
raises and quickens the pace of Qi. Ginger root, prepared aconite root and
peppers are noted for their pungent taste. Saltiness has a softening and moistening action, with the ef fect of
dissolving Qi that has become congealed as, for example, in hard abdominal
masses. Most forms of seaweed typically possess a salty taste. T o understand a substance comprehensively both temperature and taste
must be  taken into account toge ther. For example, if two plants  are both hot but
possess dif ferent flavors (such as pungent and bitter), their actions will be
dif ferent in the body. Also substances are recognized to have particular af finities
to ce rtain specific Or gans and M eridians; these associations ar e usually derived
from empirical experience.Generally the direction of action is in harmony with a substance’ s taste and
temperature acco rding to their re lationship with Y in or Y ang. This is summarized
below:
The ascending and descending tendencies refer explicitly to a substance’ s
ef fect on  redirec ting the Qi eith er upwards or downwards. Floating has the main
ef fect of dispersing the Qi outward to dispel external Pernicious Influences. Sinking has a co ncentrating ef fe ct on the Qi, moving it inward and downwards;
this being specifically useful in promoting mental tranquillity. In the most general
sense, su bstances are used therapeutically to counteract the nature of the illness. Thus Y i n sympt om patterns are treated with substances that h ave a Y ang taste,
temperature and direction of action, and vice versa for Y ang diseases. Historically the configuration of a plant or mineral has also be en used in
Chinese medicin e to determine its appropriate use. Configuratio n refers to shape,
texture, color, moisture and its n atural environmental origins. A  good example of
this con cept is the ginseng root  that is shaped similar to the h uman body, with
head, arms and legs. This plant  is native to cold, mountainous  regions of north
China a nd Kore a. It has a long growth cycle that takes about 7 years to reach
maturity. Ginseng is said to be an excellent tonic that nourishe s and warms the
whole body, and also promotes longevity. In fact, the Chinese characters for
ginseng (or ren shen in pinyin) literally mean “man root". A unique feature of Internal Medicine is the highly evolved art of
formulation. A physician is not only required to know the individual substances,
but also the strategies of treatment and most importantly the complex ways in
which medicina l substances combine and interact therapeutic ally. Specifically
there are 8 gen eral strategies of treatment and around 20 types of formula
categories to select from. The traditional strategies of treatment in Internal Medicine include:
sweating, vomiting, clearing, d raining, harmonizing, warming, reducing, and
tonifying. Each strategy focuses on dif ferent key causes to ill health, principally:
sweating is utilized to dispel invading Pernicious Influenc es; vomiting is
ef fective in excess toxic conditions in the upper digestive tract; clearing refers to
loosening and de-congesting the Blood, Qi or Fluids; draining is useful to pur gethe lar ge intestine of accumulation; harmonizing denotes restoring balance
amongst the malfunctioning Or gans; warming dispels coldness and strengthens
the Y an g; reducing refers to lowering the body’ s temperature when there is
excess heat; and lastly, tonifyin g is used to build up the defici ent conditions of
Y in, Y ang, Blood or Qi. The form ula categories are extensions of these treatment strategies and
broadly or ganiz e the formulas according to their clinical pr esentation. Each
formula or prescription will normally contain four classes of ingredients arranged
in a hierarchica l fashion, being referred to as the chief, deputy, assistant and
envoy. The chief is the principal ingredient, specific to the patient’ s pattern or
illness and thus indispensable to the formula. The deputy either acts to strengthen
the principal ingredient’ s ef fect or serves as the main ingredient directed against a
co-existing pattern. The assistant helps to reinforce the ef fect of the chief and
deputy i ngredients or treats secondary manifestations of the disease pattern, or
contains ingredi ents that check the toxic side ef fects of the oth er ingredients in
the formula. The envoy direc ts the above to their appropriate site and/or
harmonizes the various actions of the other ingredients. Not all formula s contain the f ull hierarchy of ingredients, while others
contain a number of ingredient s in each class within the hierarchy. There are
hundreds of formulas of both classical and modern origins in use today. Ideally
each formula is tailored to meet the needs of a particular patient’ s condition,
although pre-made standardized formulas are now readily available. These
combinations of  medicines have a syner getic ef fect that is dif ferent from the sum
total of its ingredients. The medicines are administered in a wide variety of
forms: decoction, pills, powders, plasters, medicinal wines and syrups. Acupuncture and  massage therapy are considered more of a Y an g, external
form of therapy. The focus of these therapies is to remove blockages (especially
of Qi) in the M eridian System  so that Y in-Y ang, Substances and Or gans can
communicate an d function harmoniously. This idea is express ed in the axiom
found in  the Inner Classic:  “Where there is communication there is no pain;
where th ere is pain, communication is obstructed.” “Pain” here includes both
somatic and emotional suf ferin g. Acupuncture is not only ef fe ctive for painful
syndromes, but  also for all sort of illnesses like chronic indigestion or
gastrointestinal ulcers; menstrual problems; musculoskeletal co mplaints such as
lower b ack pain and tendinitis; mental depression and emotional disorders;
hearing loss; asthma; viral illne sses, such as chronic fatigue syndrome and viral
hepatitis; and so on.Acupuncture is the method of applying delicate thin needles to  pierce the
body at specific points. These n eedles were made classically of various metals
depending on their intended ef fect; gold, for example, has a tonifying ef fect,
while sil ver tend s to sedate. In modern times more durable stain less steel needles,
which have a neutral ef fect, are  most commonly used. The ef fect of needling is
also dete rmined by the method of insertion and manipulation o nce in place, the
breathing sequen ce of the patient, the intention of the practition er, as well as the
specific therapeu tic qualities of the Meridian and point selected. Needless to say,
acupuncture is a precise technic al science as well as an art tha t requires a great
deal of skill and experience to master. Moxibustion is an application o f heat to the chosen focal point. Mugwort
(artemisia vulga ris) is the herb of choice, even though others are also used. A
small po rtion of the dried ignited herb is placed on the skin  directly or held
slightly above the surface. The patient feels warmth at the fo cal point, and in
cases w here necessary the skin may sometimes be cauterized producing a
powerful ef fect to stimulate the flow of Qi and to tonify the body’ s Y ang. Other
adjunctive techn iques such as m icro-bloodletting on the acupu ncture points, or
cupping—a type  of localized su ction technique, may also be u sed under special
conditions. Interestingly, the written form of the term for Chinese medicine, “zhong
yi", is composed  of two charact ers, the first is “zhong"
    mea ning middle, as
in the Middle Kingdom, what we call China. The second  character “yi"
  s tanding  for medicine is, howev er, again composed of two, a root and a phonetic
character. The root character “yu"
    shows a jar which is used for keeping
fermented liquors (which could  be medicinal


1 tbsp (15 mL) chopped candied ginger or grated fr esh gingerr oot
1 tbsp (15 mL) salt
2 tbsp (25 mL) Curry Pickling Spice Blend  (stor e-bought), tied in a
cheesecloth bag
2 apples 2 pears
1. In  a lar ge bow l or pot, combi ne cauliflower, onions, green beans, yellow
beans, celery, peppers and carrots. Set aside. 2. Heat five 1-pint (2-cup/500 mL) jars in boiling water, and scald the lids,
lifter, funnel and tongs ( Boiling W ater Method, Step by Step ).3. In a Maslin  pan or canning kettle, combine vinegar, br own sugar,
granulated suga r, ginger and sa lt. Bring to a boil over high h eat, stirring
constantly. Add spice bag and vegetables and return to a boil. Boil gently,
stirring occasion ally, for 10 mi nutes. Core and peel apples an d pears and
slice int o the boiling vegetable mixture. Boil for about 2 minutes or until
vegetables are tender -crisp. 4. Fi ll ho t jars with hot vegetables, fruit and brine, leaving a 1/2- inch (1 cm)
headspace. Run a thin non-metallic utensil around the inside of the jar to
allow air to esca pe. Add more h ot brine, if necessary, to leave a 1/2-inch (1
cm) hea dspace. W ipe rims, top with flat lids and screw on m etal rings. Return jars to th e hot water ba th, topping up with hot water if necessary. Bring to  a full r olling boil and process jars for 15 minutes ( Boiling W ater
Method, Step by Step ). 5. Remo ve cann er lid and wait 5 minutes before removing jars t o a towel or
rack to cool com pletely. Check seals, label and store in a cool place for up
to 1 year. F r e e z i n g  C a u l i f l o w e r
1. Select Equipment:  Se lect suitable-size freezer c ontainers, bags or
Mason jars ( Freezing ). 2. W ash and blanch cauliflower. P ack into containers, leaving a 1-inch
(2.5 cm) headspace. Remove air, label and seal. Freeze for up to 12 months.C o r n
NA TIVE T O THE AMERICAS,  corn is the second most cultivated food
plant in the wo rld, after wheat. First Nations peoples called it maize,
colonists called it corn (from th e Anglo-Saxon for “small particles” or the
German for “wheat”), and its Latin name is Zea mays. Cor n he ld signi ficant
practical and religious importance for Incan, Mayan and Aztec cultures. Sweet corn is a general class of corn that is grown for human consumption (as opposed to “field
corn,” which is intended for livestock). W ith some exceptions, mostly in the Standard  group, nearly
all corn sold today is a hybrid. G o o d  P r e s e r v i n g  V a r i e t i e s
Standard:  The oldest type of sweet corn; sugar turns to starch at peak of
maturity, or harvest; best eaten f resh immediately (within hours of picking). These cultivars are not best for p reserving unless you grow or bu y them and
process within hours of picking. “Golden Cross Bantam” is a yellow
heirloom variety. Sugary Extender:  Has more sugar than Standard types; retains sweetness
for 2  to 4 days;  delicate texture, fine for preserving; the popul ar “Peaches
and Cream” variety belongs to this group.Supersweet:  The se varieties have up to thr ee times the sugar content of
standard and can be stored for up to 10 days without the suga r turning to
starch; varieties preserve well. Synergistic:  A new breed, c ombining gene tically dif fering kernels on the
same ear; fine for preserving. Augmented Supersweet:  Th e newest b reed, combinin g multiple gene
types on Supersweet ears; fine for preserving. Pur chasing/Storing
1 lb (500 g) cor n in the husks yields about 1 cup (250 mL)
kernels. Y ou will need about 3 lb (1.5 kg) for each quart (1 L) jar. Look fo r heavy  cobs with fresh  green leaves that have not turned yellow
and dried out. The silk, or fine strands at the top of the ear, should be moist
and full. The kernels should not be bulging or split because th is indicates
over -maturity. The sugars in eating varieties of corn begin to change into starch
immediately after harvesting, although some sweet corn hybrids hold the
sugars longer. Ideally, corn sho uld be cooked and eaten within hours of
picking. T ransport and store in t he husk, in a cool place until rea dy to cook. Bring a lar ge p ot of water to  a boil and remove the husk just before
plunging into the water. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. Good W ith
Herbs such as parsley, chives, rosemary, basil, bay, thyme,
chervil, dill. Spices such as cumin, coriander, chile powder, cinnamon,
cloves, nutmeg. Other vegetables, such as onions, potatoes, celery, carrots,
peas, peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, garlic. Chicken, beef, fish, seafood, pork, lamb.Milk and cream, especially in chowders. Pr eparation
Remove husk and silk; trim stal k ends to about 1 inch (2.5 cm). W ash ears
under cool running water. Blan ch whole baby corn “fingers” in boiling
water fo r 3 minutes for canning. Immerse in cold water for 3 mi nutes. Drain
and pat dry
Blanch whole medium-size ears in boiling water for 4 minutes, counting from when the water comes
back to the boil. Immerse in ice water for 4 minutes. Drain and pat dry. Remove kernels from the cob: Stand the ear on its wide stem end over a pie plate. Run a sharp knife
down the cob, cutting the kernels of f and letting them fall onto the plate. T o p repare cream-style corn: B lanch and cool for 4 minutes as directed
above. S et the ear over a pie plate and run a sharp knife down the cob,
removing the kernels at about one-half of their depth. T urn the knife andrun the blunt en d down the cob to remove the remainder of the  kernels and
collect the watery “milk” in the pie plate. Canning Corn
See detailed canning information, Preparing and Canning V egetables. 1. Pr epar e Equipment:  W ash and heat pint (2-cup/500 mL) or quart (1 L)
jars, and scald the lids, funnel, ladle and tongs ( Pressure Canner Method ). 2. For every 4 cups (1 L) cor n kernels or baby corn finge rs, bring 2
cups (500 mL) water or br oth to a boil. 3a. Pack corn kernels into jars either hot or raw. Make a Hot Pack:  A dd kernels (see previous page) to boiling water or
broth an d boil for 5 minutes, stir ring constantly. Remove from heat. Fill hot
jars one at a tim e with hot corn kernels and cooking liquid, leav ing a 1-inch
(2.5 cm)  headsp ace. Run a thin non-metallic utensil around the i nside of the
jar t o allow air to escape. Add corn or liquid, if necessary, to leave a 1-inch
(2.5 cm) headspace. W ipe sealing edge of jars with a clean, damp, lint-free
cloth. Position flat lids over the tops of jars and hand-tighten screw bands. OR
Make a  Raw Pack:  Fill  jars  with kernels (see previous page). Cover with
hot water or bro th, leaving a 1 -inch (2.5 cm) headspace. Run a thin non-
metallic utensil around the inside of the jar to allow air to escape. Add corn
or li quid to keep the 1-inch (2.5 cm) headspace. W ipe sealing edge of jars
with a clean, dam p, lint-free cloth. Position flat lids over the top s of jars and
hand-tighten screw bands. 3b. Pack cr eam-style corn into jars hot. Use only  1-cup (250 mL) or pint (2-cup/500 mL) jars and only  pack using
the Hot Pack Method. Make a  Hot Pack:  Add cream-style corn (see previous page) to gently
boiling water or broth and boil  for 5 minutes. Fill hot jars w ith hot cornkernels a nd cook ing liquid, leaving a 1-inch (2.5 cm) headspace. Run a thin
non-metallic ute nsil around the inside of the jar to


 their opinions. Be courageous about talking of your
own fears, and see if you are delaying for reasons that are only in
your head. By enlisting the aid of a confidant to help you with your
procrastination, you’ll have made it a joint effort. Soon you’ll dissip-
ate much of the anxiousness that goes along with procrastination
by sharing that as well. • Write a contract with your loved ones in which you will deliver
the goods you want to but which you may have been postponing. Have each party keep a copy of the contract, and build in penalties
for defaulting. Whether it’s a ball game, dinner-out, vacation, or
theater visit, you’ll find this strategy helpful and personally reward-
ing, since you’ll be participating in events that you also find enjoy-
able. If you want the world to change, don’t complain about it. Do
something. Rather than using up your present moments with all
kinds of immobilizing anxiety over what you are putting off, take
charge of this nasty erroneous zone and live now. Be a doer, not a
wisher, hoper or critic. 188 / Your Erroneous ZonesX
DECLARE YOUR
INDEPENDENCE
In any relationship in which two people become
one, the end result is two half people. Leaving the psychological nest is one of life’s difficult chores. The
dependency viper intrudes in life in many, many ways, and routing
it entirely is made more difficult by the numerous people who benefit
from another’s psychological dependency. Psychological independ-
ence means total freedom from all obligatory relationships, and an
absence of other-directed behavior. It means being free from having
to do something you would not otherwise choose, were the relation-
ship not to exist. The nest-leaving business is especially difficult
because our society teaches us to fulfill certain expectations in special
relationships, which include parents, children, authority figures and
loved ones. Leaving the nest means becoming your own person, living and
choosing the behaviors that you want. It does not mean
189breaking off in any sense of the word. If you enjoy your way of in-
teracting with anyone and it doesn’t interfere with your own goals,
then it is something you can cherish rather than change. Psycholo-
gical dependence, on the other hand, means that you are in relation-
ships that involve no choice, a relationship in which you are obliged
to be something you don’t want to be and that you resent the way
in which you are being forced to conduct yourself. This is the guts
of this erroneous zone, and it is akin to the approval-seeking dis-
cussed in Chapter III. If you want some kind of relationship, then it
is not unhealthy. But if you need it, or are forced into it, and sub-
sequently feel resentment, then you are in a self-defeating area. Thus,
it is the obligation that is the problem, rather than the relationship
itself. Obligation breeds guilt and dependency, while choice fosters
love and independence. There is no choice in a psychologically de-
pendent relationship, consequently there will always be indignation
and ill-feelings in any such alliance. Being psychologically independent involves not needing others. I didn’t say wanting others, I said needing. The moment you need,
you become vulnerable, a slave. If the one you need leaves, or
changes his mind, or dies, you are then forced into immobilization,
collapse, or even death. But society teaches us to be psychologically
dependent on a whole raft of folks from parents on, and you still
may be holding open your mouth waiting for the worms in many
significant relationships. As long as you feel that you have to do
anything because it is expected of you in a particular relationship,
and your doing it creates any resentment or your not doing it any
guilt, you can count yourself as having work to do in this erroneous
zone. Eliminating dependency starts with your family, with the way
your parents dealt with you as a child and the way you deal with
your own children today. How many psychologically dependent
sentences do you carry in your head today. How many of them do
you force on your children. 190 / Your Erroneous ZonesThe Dependency Trap in Child Rearing and the Family
Walt Disney produced a superb film some years ago entitled Bear
Country. It traced a mother bear and her two babies through the first
few months of the cubs’ lives. Mama-bear taught the cubs how to
hunt, fish and climb trees. She taught them how to protect themselves
when they confronted danger. Then one day, Mama-bear, for her
own instinctive reasons, decided that it was time to leave. She forced
them to scamper up a tree, and without even looking back, she left. Forever. In her own bear mind, she had completed her parental re-
sponsibilities. She didn’t try to manipulate them into visiting her on
alternate Sundays. She did not accuse them of being ungrateful, or
threaten to have a nervous breakdown if they disappointed her. She
simply let them go. Throughout the animal kingdom, parenting
means to teach the offspring the skills necessary to be independent
and then to leave. With us humans, the instinct is still the same, that
is, to be independent, but the neurotic need to own and live one’s
life through one’s children seems to take over, and the goal of raising
a child to be independent is subverted into the idea of raising a child
to hold onto him. What do you want for your children. Would you like them to be
high in self-esteem and self-confidence, neurosis-free, fulfilled and
happy. Of course you would. But how can you help to ensure such
an outcome. Only by being that way yourself. Children learn from
the behavior of their models. If you are full of guilt and unfulfilled
in your life, but telling your children not to be, then you are selling
a tainted product. If you model low self-esteem, then you’ll teach
your children to adopt the same attitudes for themselves. Even more
significantly, if you make your children more important than your-
self, you are not helping them, you are merely teaching them to put
others ahead of themselves, and to take a back seat while remaining
unfulfilled. Such irony. You cannot hand your children self-confid-
ence;DECLARE YOUR INDEPENDENCE  / 191they must acquire it by seeing you living the same way yourself. Only by treating yourself as the most important person and not al-
ways sacrificing yourself for your children will you teach them to
have their own self-confidence and belief in themselves. If you are
a sacrificer, you are modeling sacrificing behavior. And what does
sacrificing behavior mean. Putting others before yourself, not liking
yourself, seeking approval and other erroneous behavior. While
doing for others is sometimes admirable, if it is at the expense of
yourself, you are merely teaching the others the same kind of resent-
ment-breeding behavior. From the very beginning children want to do things for them-
selves. “I can do it myself. ” “Watch me, Mommy, I can do it without
any help. ” “I’ll feed myself. ” On and on the signals come. And while
there is a great deal of dependence in those early years, there is also
the distinctive push toward autonomy almost from the first day. As a four-year-old, little Roxanne will always come to Mommy
and Daddy when she is hurt or in need of an emotional support of
any sort. She pours out her soul when she is eight and ten years of
age. While she wants to be thought of as a big girl (I’ll button my
own coat. ”), she also wants the support of a caring parent. (“Look
Mom, I scratched my knee and it’s bleeding. ”) Her self-concept is
developing through the views of her parents and other significant
people in her life. Suddenly, Roxanne is fourteen. She comes home
crying because of a fight with her boyfriend, and she runs into her
bedroom, slamming the door behind her. Mamma comes up and
asks her to talk about it in her typically caring way. But now she is
told by Roxanne in no uncertain terms, “I don’t want to talk about
it. Leave me alone. ” Instead of Mamma understanding that this little
scene is evidence that she has been an effective parent, and the little
Roxanne who always told all her problems to Mommy is now
working on them herself (emotional independence), Mamma is
distressed. She is not ready to let go, to let Roxanne192 / Your Erroneous Zoneswork it out in her own independent way. She still sees Roxanne as
the same nestling that she was only a short time ago. But if Mamma
persists, and forces the issue, she will be in for a huge dose of resent-
ment from Roxanne. The child’s desire to get out of the nest is strong, but when own-
ership and sacrifice have been the lubrication for the family machine,
the natural act of leaving turns into a crisis. Nest-leaving in a psy-
chologically sound atmosphere involves neither crisis nor turmoil;
it is the natural consequence of effective living. But when guilt and
fear of disappointment color the nest-leaving, they continue
throughout life, sometimes to the point that the marriage relationship
becomes one of parenting, rather than of two individuals sharing
on an equal footing. What then are your goals of parenting, and of working out an


 drops of 5% Lugol’s solution (0.1ml) contains 5mg of iodine
and 7.5mg of iodide. Iodide is the reduced form of iodine which contains an extra electron. Dr. Lugol began treating many different infections with his solution and had great success. Dr. Lugol’s recommended dose for
a wide variety of problems was two drops per day of Lugol’s solution. This provided 12.5mg of iodine, which is very similar to
the physiologic dose of iodine for sufficiency of the entire body. Dr. Lugol’s solution was widely available at apothecaries and was
routinely prescribed for many different conditions. Figure 6: Lugol’s Iodine Solution
10% Potassium Iodide
5% Iodine
85% Distilled Water
IODIDE AND IODINE
As mentioned above, it is very difficult to get iodine into a solution that uses water as a solvent. Therefore, as Dr. Lugol
discovered, using the reduced form of iodine (iodide) increased the solubility of iodine. In order to do this, iodine must first be
reduced to iodide. For the science majors, this means that the molecule of iodine has gained an electron, which allows it to form a
salt with certain elements like potassium and sodium. In the case of Lugol’s solution, it is in the form of potassium iodide (10% in
Lugol’s solution). When there is a full complement of electrons in the iodine molecule, it is referred to as iodide. It was thought that the intestinal tract could easily convert iodine to iodide, but research has shown this is not true. 1
 Different
tissues of the body respond to the different forms of iodine. The thyroid gland primarily utilizes iodide while the breast tissue
concentrates iodine. To decrease the incidence of goiter, potassium iodide was added to table salt. Donald, 49 years old, had Hashimoto’s disease for ten years. Donald was found to be hypothyroid and to have many
nutritional deficiencies. He was treated with Armour
®
 thyroid, vitamins and minerals, and diet changes–I asked him to
eliminate refined carbohydrates and trans-fatty acids. “I am definitely feeling much better with the thyroid hormone. I
felt like I was dying before. But, I still don’t feel like myself. I still have brain fog and some muscle aches,” he stated. Iodine testing showed that Donald was iodine deficient. He excreted only 35% of a challenge test of iodine (normal levels
should be over 90%). Donald was initially treated with a form of iodide known as SSKI. He claimed, “I did not feel
worse with the SSKI, I just did not feel better. I still had the brain fog while on it.” Donald was switched to a mixture of
iodine and iodide (Iodoral
®
) and he noticed a definite change. Iodoral
®
 is a tablet form of Lugol’s solution. “Within one
week of starting the Iodoral
®
, my brain fog began to clear. I began sleeping better, my energy improved, and even my
libido picked up. I feel almost totally back to normal. Two months after taking

25mg of Iodoral
®
 per day, his iodine test
improved dramatically (94.4% excretion). Update on Donald: After eight years of taking Iodoral
®
, he reported, “I feel
fantastic. It still helps me feel better every day. I could not imagine being without it.”
The breasts, on the other hand, primarily utilize iodine. Studies have shown that iodine deficiency can alter the structure and
function of breast tissue. 2
 This can include dysplasia and atypia that is the forerunner for breast cancer. Animal studies have
shown that iodide (the form of iodine that is present in iodized salt) is ineffective at reversing the pre-cancerous lesions of animal
breast tissue, whereas iodine is much more effective. 3
 Research has also shown that iodine, not iodide, will decrease
lipoperoxidation of breast tissue. 4
Lipoperoxidation is a chemical reaction that can cause damage to the lipids of the cell membrane and mitochondria. This can
lead to many serious illnesses such as cancer and autoimmune disorders. Lipoperoxidation has been found to be elevated in
breast tumors and animal breast tissue exposed to agents that promote cancer. Iodine decreases lipoperoxidation in the body. This will be more fully explored in
Chapter 5
. Different body tissues concentrate different forms of iodine. As mentioned above, the breasts concentrate iodine. The
prostate gland concentrates iodine. The thyroid gland and the skin primarily concentrate iodide. Other tissues, including the
kidneys, spleen, liver, blood, salivary glands, and intestines can concentrate either form. With various body tissues responding to
different forms of iodine, it would make common sense that a greater therapeutic benefit from iodine will be achieved by using a
combination of iodine and iodide. My clinical experience has proven, beyond a doubt, that a combination of iodine/iodide (e.g.,
Lugol’s or tableted Lugol’s such as Iodoral
®
 or Iodozyme HP
®
) is much more effective than an iodide-only supplement (e.g.,
SSKI and most other liquid iodide formulations).Leslie, a 43-year-old nurse, suffers with fibrocystic breast disease. “My breasts always hurt and before my period, I
can’t even stand to have a shirt on. The rubbing of clothing is excruciating,” she said. Leslie had been to many doctors
and was told to change her diet. She said, “Eliminating caffeine and chocolate did help somewhat, but I am still
miserable.” When I saw Leslie, she not only had a severe case of fibrocystic breast disease, she also had cysts on her
ovaries. Leslie commented, “I kept thinking that there must be something wrong with me. Why would I be getting all of
these cysts in my body?” On examination, Leslie had an enlarged thyroid gland and many signs of an underactive thyroid
condition, including being very fatigued. Laboratory testing showed severe iodine deficiency with a 12% excretion on an
iodine-challenge test (normal levels should be above 90%). Upon taking iodine (in the form of an iodine/iodide
mixture—
Iodoral
®
), Leslie noticed a dramatic improvement in her condition. “Within two weeks of taking iodine, I had more
energy and within one month, my breast cysts began to fade. After taking the iodine for two months, my breasts were soft
and the lumpiness was gone. It no longer hurts to wear clothing. It feels like a miracle,” she said. The ovarian cysts
Leslie had struggled with also resolved. Repeat testing of iodine levels showed a normal excretion rate on a challenge
test (94% excretion). Leslie’s holistic treatment plan includes the use of vitamins, minerals, herbs, and natural hormones. Update on Leslie’s condition: Leslie has been on iodine for over three years now. “I am 100% better. There is no sign
of fibrocystic breast disease. I would like to tell everyone who suffers with this disease that there is a simple treatment—
iodine. No one should suffer from this illness,” she said. New 5
th

Edition Update on Leslie’s condition: At Leslie’s last visit, I told her I was writing an update to the iodine
book. She became excited and said, “You must let your readers know how much it has changed my life. I was miserable
before taking iodine. Every woman with fibrocystic breast disease should know about this.”
Leslie’s case is not unique. The treatment of breast cysts with iodine has been reported for over 50 years. Most patients with
breast cysts will significantly improve their condition with
iodine supplementation. Chapter 8
 contains more information on the
relationship between breast disease and iodine deficiency. FINAL THOUGHTS
I have used various iodide preparations for years, with mixed success. Although they are effective for certain conditions such
as sinusitis, there is clearly an advantage to using a combination of iodide and iodine together. The results that I have seen in my
patients have convinced me that using a combination of iodide and iodine is a much more effective and appropriate treatment than
using iodide alone. 1
 Thrall, K. Distribution of iodine into blood components of the Sprague-Dawley rat differs with the chemical form
administered. Fundamental and applied Toxicology. 15:75-81. 1990
2
 Eskin, B.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        • NATIONAL BEST SELLER •
New Edition • 3 New Chapters
IODINE
WHY YOU NEED IT
WHY YOU CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT IT
5th Edition
David Brownstein, M. D. For further copies of
Iodine: Why You Need It, Why You Can’t Live Without It, 5
th
 Edition
Call:
1-888-647-5616
 or send a check or money order in the amount


	label	many	of	today’s	chronic	diseases	as	being	of
“unknown	etiology,”	a	fancy	way	of	saying	“we	are	clueless	about	the	cause. ”
Actually,	many	new	disease	conditions	can	be	traced	back	(either	directly	or
indirectly)	to	environmental	toxins	that	bioaccumulate	in	tissues,	contribute	to
toxic	overload,	disrupt	cell	chemistry	and	cause	disease. The	Toxic	Truths	Inside	Your	Body
Although	we	are	accustomed	to	thinking	about	toxins	in	the	outside	world,
often	we	forget	about	the	powerful	toxins	produced	within	our	bodies. The	body
must	eliminate	internal	toxins	to	stay	healthy. Under	normal,	healthy	conditions,	the	body	is	designed	to	control	those	toxins
and	protect	us	against	harm. Under	other	circumstances,	however,	the	toxins
produced	internally	can	be	a	serious	problem,	worse	than	anything	from	theoutside	world. When	these	internal	toxins	are	produced	excessively	or	cannot	be
properly	detoxified,	they	build	up	in	the	body	and	cause	disease. In	almost	any
chronically	ill	person,	internally	generated	toxins	play	a	major	role. When	toxins	are	generated	in	the	digestive	system	(intestinal	toxemia),	they
enter	our	bloodstream,	and	if	these	toxins	are	present	in	excess	of	the	liver’s
ability	to	detoxify	them,	they	damage	cells	all	over	the	body. Intestinal	toxemia
has	been	associated	with	AIDS,	allergies,	asthma,	cancer,	cardiac	arrhythmias,
arthritis,	eye	problems,	high	blood	pressure,	mental	problems,	headaches,
various	gastrointestinal	conditions,	senility,	skin	problems	and	other	diseases. In
my	own	disease	process,	the	internal	toxins	I	was	producing	were,	indeed,	a
major	contributor	to	my	own	physical	and	mental	debilitation. Intestinal	toxemia	was	the	“mysterious”	ailment	plaguing	Michael,	who	had
just	completed	his	junior	year	at	Harvard	and	had	gone	off	to	Europe	for	the
summer	with	friends. As	he	was	traveling	around,	he	began	to	feel	ill,	dizzy	and
fatigued. He	went	to	see	a	physician	in	London	who	prescribed	a	drug	that	did
not	help. Michael	saw	other	physicians	in	Germany	and	Switzerland,	but	he
finally	returned	home—too	sick	to	remain	abroad. A	strapping	twenty-one-year-old	college	student	should	be	at	the	peak	of
health. Instead,	Michael	was	suffering	from	debilitating	fatigue,	he	was
lightheaded	and	dizzy,	and	he	had	visual	disturbances,	not	to	mention	various
aches	and	pains. After	many	thousands	of	dollars	worth	of	testing	(including	a
brain	scan	to	check	for	a	brain	tumor),	Michael’s	physicians	were	at	a	loss	to
explain	his	condition	and	referred	him	to	a	psychiatrist. Desperately	concerned
for	her	son’s	future	and	furious	with	a	medical	system	that	was	obviously	not
working,	Michael’s	mother	looked	for	other	options;	at	that	point,	she	called	me. As	with	any	sick	person,	I	knew	exactly	what	was	wrong	with	Michael:	his
cells	were	malfunctioning	because	of	a	combination	of	deficiency	and	toxicity. The	question,	as	always:	How	to	restore	his	cells	to	healthy	function. I	used	the
six	pathways	as	a	guide	and	eventually	discovered	that	digestive	toxins—a
critical	aspect	of	the	toxin	pathway—were	the	source	of	Michael’s	problems. Digestive	toxins	are	produced	in	a	couple	of	ways,	notably	by	an	abnormal
growth	of	bacteria	or	yeast	in	the	intestines	and	by	improperly	digested	food,
which	putrefies	in	the	digestive	system. Intestinal	toxemia	creates	highly
poisonous	toxins	as	well	as	nutritional	deficiency. When	bad	bacteria	and	yeasts
overgrow,	they	displace	the	friendly	bacteria	necessary	for	producing	nutrients
such	as	the	B-complex	vitamins,	vitamin	B
12
and	vitamin	K. Friendly	bacteria
also	help	to	obtain	the	nutrients	we	need	from	the	food	we	eat. Intestinal	toxemia
causes	deficiency	and	toxicity	in	most	of	us,	to	some	degree,	because	of	damagefrom	antibiotics. Michael	had	acne	as	a	teenager. His	dermatologist	had	prescribed	an	antibiotic
(tetracycline),	and	Michael	had	taken	this	drug	every	day	for	years. Antibiotics
were	developed	to	kill	bacteria. The	problem	is	that	helpful	bacteria	in	your
intestines	(normal	intestinal	flora)	are	needed	for	good	health. Years	of	taking
antibiotics	destroyed	these	helpful	bacteria	in	Michael’s	digestive	system. (Even
one	course	of	antibiotics	can	have	this	effect. ) This	situation	allowed	the
overgrowth	of	abnormal	intestinal	flora	and	a	yeast	called
Candida	albicans. A	yeast	infection	can	produce	toxic	chemicals	that	absorb	into	the
bloodstream;	also,	yeast	can	physically	invade	and	damage	the	intestinal	tissue
in	a	way	that	allows	other	inappropriate	materials	(undigested	food	particles,
toxic	wastes	and	yeast	byproducts)	to	pass	directly	into	the	bloodstream. This
condition	floods	the	body	with	dangerous	toxins	and	allergens,	causing	food
allergies	and	disrupting	the	immune	system. Some	of	these	toxins	are	neurotoxic
(causing	damage	to	the	brain	and	the	nervous	system)	and	may	produce
symptoms	such	as	fatigue,	headaches,	apathy,	depression,	anxiety,	mood	swings
and	memory	lapses. Intestinal	yeast	infections	also	impair	the	absorption	of
nutrients,	which	is	a	separate	but	equally	serious	problem. Disrupting	the	normal
ecology	of	the	gut	also	invites	infection	by	parasites,	which	further	disrupt	gut
tissue. In	Michael’s	case,	I	suspected	problems	with	internally	generated	digestive
toxins,	but	to	know	for	certain	one	must	measure. I	suggested	to	Michael	that	he
ask	his	physician	to	be	tested	for	candida. (Convincing	the	physician	to	do	the
candida	test	was	not	easy. Physicians	do	not	generally	look	for	such	infections,
and	his	mother	had	to	put	considerable	pressure	on	the	doctor. ) The	test	did
show	that	Michael	had	a	candida	infection,	which	he	was	able	to	get	rid	of
through	natural	methods	such	as	taking	high-quality	probiotics	and	grapefruit
seed	extract	and	by	reducing	dietary	sugar	(which	was	“feeding”	the	yeast
problem). Michael,	who	had	been	completely	disabled	by	his	disease	throughout
the	summer,	was	able	to	go	back	to	Harvard	in	the	fall,	complete	his	senior	year
and	graduate. Problems	such	as	Michael’s	are	common	in	America	because	of	the	excessive
antibiotics	that	our	physicians	prescribe. While	the	use	of	antibiotics	is	prudent
and	necessary	in	very	select	cases,	for	the	most	part	antibiotics	unnecessarily
damage	the	digestive	system	and	contribute	to	intestinal	toxemia. This	toxemia
often	subjects	us	to	far	more	toxicity	than	the	original	“germ”	that	the	antibiotic
was	supposed	to	kill. Unfortunately,	almost	everybody	in	America	has	taken
antibiotics	at	some	point;	these	d


 me I had something called
gastrointestinal interstitial cystitis. This was on top of other IBS problems, I was informed that part of my intestines had apparently pushed through part of my
colon and was causing all kinds of problems. Constipation, blockages and pain,
something called diverticulitis. They were talking about surgery, and even after
the operation (or perhaps because of it) then I would need  bags fitted front and
back all the time. That would be it for me for life, at my young age in my 40s. Needing bags to go to the toilet in for the rest of my life. Even with surgery,
having bags to go to the toilet in and going down the drug route, they were
saying this is the only option available to me. In short I wasn't exactly in the best of health; my energy levels were right
through the floor. I was not only feeling ill and in pain everyday but all kinds of
problems going to the toilet that meant I couldn't go out anywhere without
worrying about my problems. Many other health problems developed head aches
and pain everywhere. Feeling ill every day. My life on the health front was a
misery. It affected my work, my family life, going out with friends, everything. When you
are in pain and suffering with discomfort so much you are almost willing to do
anything to bring relief. I almost went through with the surgery and to start on
the road taking the drugs and having to go to the toilet in bags fitted that big
pharma push people on. I knew once on that road it's very hard, almost
impossible to get off it, having to take more drugs for the side effects and then
more drugs for those new side effects and so on. I wondered, just maybe is there a natural way to heal myself and bring relief
from the suffering, pain and discomfort. Is there any way that my wife could
have her old husband back, my kids could have their old dad back who was
actually able to play with them and take them out without getting so grumpy and
short tempered because of the intense pain and discomfort. I started reading books and doing research. One woman I found in my research
called Martha Christie had more severe health problems to me and wrote a book
called your own perfect medicine. She completely healed herself by drinking her
own orin. I reread the book and listened to her interviews then read and listened
to over 30 other orin therapy books, including the first one in modern times
called ‘The water of life’ by John Armstrong. All available for free download on my
friend Andrew Norton Webber’s website www. aquariusthewaterbearer. com well
worth reading. In fact if you are serious about your health then these books are
essential reading. As essential as listening to all of Andrew Norton Webbers
interviews and talks. Also researching for yourself the validity of how this therapy
works so well. There are thousands of testimonials of people curing similar things wrong with
them to what I was suffering with. These are real people that you can contact
today, and I did. I have spoken to many and am constantly in touch with
experienced practitioners. There are now large communities online who have a
broad range of knowledge about these therapies. I tried it straight away. To my
amazement, this perfect medicine worked far better than any big pharma drugs
that I almost went on. As shocking as it was, I was desperate and had nothing to lose. I know it went against my instincts at the time, I just had nothing to lose, I
was willing to try anything at this stage. I soon discovered through further
research that eating less, even getting down to one meal a day worked
exceptionally well with looping your own perfect medicine. These two therapies
together were what cured me and healed my body completely. And I do mean
heal my body completely. Within a short time I was able to go back to work and function normally. I didn't
need the surgery or to go down the big pharma drug pushers road at all. In fact
my next big scan showed my bowels and intestines had completely healed up
with no evidence that there was ever a problem. I did not have that surgery that
the doctors had previously told me that I absolutely needed, and now the scan
showed there was no need for it at all. I entirely avoided surgery. I honestly did
not have any operation; my body healed itself due to omad orin looping. Before omad orin looping I had terrible trouble going to the toilet many
unfortunate embarrassing incidents and taking an unusual long time being such
an uncomfortable unpleasant experience. I am now in the fortune position of being free from pain. My IBS has vanished
altogether and I'm no longer overweight. I eat once per day around 1700 hrs and
always have a good bowel movement the next morning soon after I wake. Leaving no crap in me at all, feeling so clean and empty and ready for the day. In
fact on the health front I'm now a very energetic happy camper. I'm in my 40s
but feel like I'm in my 20s all over again. I can return to my love of mountain
climbing from my younger days. My wife and I are even talking about having
another baby. I can fit back into slim fit jeans and tailored shirts and suits. There was a time
when I was in so much pain that just getting out of bed was torture, and walking
up the stairs left me ready to collapse and absolutely needing to lay down. Reaching the peak of mountains around 4000M was something I would never
ever believe I could do ever again. With the results of omad orin looping this is
exactly what I have done again and plan on many more even higher expeditions. Now I can do 600 full life salutes (burpies) in one hour. Believe me this is really
something that many people who consider themselves extremely fit could not
do. It’s only 10 per minute which doesn’t sound like much but try to keep this up
for an hour and you will see how impressive this is. My previous best at the height of my fitness was 450 in an hour, and that was
when I was in my 20s when I was in heavy training. I always wanted to get into
the 500 club, and dreamed of the 600 burpies in an hour club. Back then my
training got overtaken by other things in life and I never thought I would get
back to it again. Now 20 years later I'm thinking about trying to get up to the 700
or even 800 club because of omad orin looping. This would have been absolutely
unbelievable to me just before I started omad orin looping. I couldn't even do
one push up let alone full burpies due to my poor health and constant pain. Now
I'm in the best shape of my life even got my beach bod and six pack abs back, I’m so full of energy and I now understand why. Most incredible change is that I
now get so much more enjoyment out of good food and drink. My overall joy out
of life has gone up and I have eventually found happiness. You can too, believe
me, this is the secret that you will learn from this book. If I can do it then you
definitely can. I'm nothing special; it’s the omad orin looping programme that is
something very special. Chapter 1. What is the omad Orin looping protocol. Omad stands for one meal a day. Orin is
better name for urine. Looping means you keep drinking it again and again,
round and round it goes getting cleaner and better every time. There is more to
the programme which I will cover later. I know this is shocking to most people
who are new to urine therapy, but it is absolutely true. Urine is not a waste
product at all, it is an excess good stuff product and we are supposed to be
drinking it. This programme is based on nature’s principles. The body seems to like omad
orin looping more than anything else. Sure other diets and fads may work for you
in the short term, you may lose weight. You can make yourself thin by all sorts of
unhealthy ways. Just remember most heroin addicts are thin. What I'm trying to say here is that finding a good healthy system that you can
make a lifestyle choice, an eating lifestyle that you will want to keep doing for
the rest of your life. None of these fads that work initially but then make you put
on even more weight and are more unhealthy after it’s finished. Yes once you experience it you will want to continue. It will be something you
really want to do for the rest of your life. No more serial dieting. No more juice fasts, or calorie counting. No more losing
weight only to find it all comes back and then some. No more needing to cut out
any food at all. You can eat whatever you like on omad. Obviously the better
choices will have better results. But the point is you don’t have to worry about
ingredients, absolutely anything is ok occasionally on this programme. This is
something that can be done long term, and you will enjoy it, you will not feel it’s
a sacrifice or hardship. Keto diets and the like work in the short term, but the problem is if you ever go
back to eating carbs the body puts on even more weight. Same with juice fasts,
yes you lose weight but go back to normal eating and you


 aspects of all the elements
and stimulate all the subtle senses. The proper aromatic
oils bring favorable astral influences, like those of gods and
angels, into our psychic field and improve our psychic
environment. Aromatic substances have a harmonizing affect upon
the mind, aid in the balance of the three humors and the
three vital essences of Prana, Tejas and Ojas. They
strengthen the immune system, help counter negative bac-
teria and viruses, and remove stagnant air. They help clear
negative emotions and astral pathogens (including nega-
tive thoughts from others). They increase positive emo-
tions like love, joy and happiness and strengthen our moti-
vation, determination and creativity. They improve our
capacity for reception, perception and discrimination. Aromatic oils contain large amounts of Prana, the cos-
mic life-force, which they impart to us. They cleanse and
open the channels, allowing for the circulation of energies
in the nervous system, senses and mind. They serve as cat-
alytic agents to promote the right movement of the life-
force on all levels. As all disease involves some disturbance
or obstruction in the life-force through the Prana, aromas
help treat all diseases. However, used in excess, aromatic
oils can aggravate the humors (though less so than herbs). Incense
Aromatic oils can be made into incense. This is usually
the simplest method of aroma therapy and the one most
common in Ayurvedic books. All forms of incense can be
used for aroma therapy. Aromas derived from tree resins,
barks, or branches (like cedar, juniper or sagebrush) can be
burned directly or indirectly (as on charcoal for resin) as Ayurveda and the Mind
incense. Other aromatic oils require special processing to
turn them into incense. Incense can be used in various ways. We can directly
inhale the incense for stronger effect or just use it to puri-
fy and beautify our air and environment. The residue from
incense creates a protective film on a subtle level that
lingers long after the smell has dispersed. Some fragrant herbs can be specially burnt on different
sites of the body. This is the common method of moxibus-
tion in Chinese medicine, which uses mugwort in this way,
usually burnt on a slice of fresh ginger. Ayurveda uses
turmeric and calamus in a similar way. The essential oil of
the plant is able to penetrate by the power of the heat. Usage
Aromatic oils are usually applied externally. They can
be taken internally but generally only if they are diluted
properly. However, one should NEVER take the pure
essential oil of a plant internally. A teaspoon of almost any
essential oil, even mint, is enough to bum a hole in the
stomach and can be fatal. Essential oils are volatile, irritat-
ing and destmctive of the mucous membranes. They
should not be placed directly on the mucous membranes or
into the eyes. Externally, aromatic oils can be placed on special sites
on the skin. Most of these are on the head, like the third
eye, the top of the head (site of the crown chakra), the tem-
ples (for headaches), the root of the nose (for sinus prob-
lems), behind the ears, or on the neck — places where they
can be easily smelled. One can put a drop of the oil on the back of one's hand
or wrist and smell it periodically. The pure oil itself can be
used or it can be diluted with alcohol, water or a heavier Subtle Therapies 219
oil, like coconut or sesame. The powder of the herb may be
mixed with water and applied as a paste, like sandalwood
paste placed on the third eye or ginger paste on the tem-
ples. Other important points are the heart, particularly in
the center of the chest or the center of the back opposite it,
the region of the chest (for lung disorders), the solar plexus
(for digestive disorders or to strengthen the will), the
navel, and the point of the sex center below the navel (for
sexual debility). On such places we may not smell the oils,
but they will affect various organs, systems or chakras by
their penetrating nature. Ayurveda recognizes various sen-
sitive points (mannas), mainly in these areas of the body,
which can be treated through aroma therapy. Internally, oils are derived indirectly from herbal teas,
taken from the plant parts that contain the oils, like flow-
ers or leaves. Essential oils can be made into alcohol tinc-
tures, of which 10-30 drops can be taken internally with
wann water. Aromatic herbs can also be taken as powders
(though in powdered fonn their shelf life may not be very
long). Taken internally in the proper medium, aromatic oils
stimulate the mind and nervous system through the
tongue and sense of taste. For this reason, it is best to taste
the herbs and hold them in our mouths a minute before
swallowing them. In this way aromatic herbs can work
directly on the Prana in the head, just as when they are
inhaled. Flower Fragrances and Spicy Oils
Aromatic oils are essentially of two basic types: flower
fragrances and spicy oils. Flower fragrances, like rose or
jasmine, are usually sweet in taste and cooling in energy. Ayurveda and the Mind
Some are bitter-sweet, like jasmine or chrysanthemum. Generally flower fragrances decrease Pitta and Vata but
increase Kapha. They elevate the emotions and both calm
and gladden the heart, stimulating the heart chakra. They
increase Ojas, the underlying energy reserve of the body
and mind, though in a mild way. Many of them, like jas-
mine and gardenia, strengthen the immune system and in
their cleansing action have natural antibiotic properties. Flowers are an important part of anti-Pitta therapy because
they reduce hot emotions like irritability and anger and
clear heat and fire from the head. Spicy oils, like cinnamon or musk, are usually pungent
in taste and warming in energy. They decrease Kapha and
Vata but can increase Pitta. They clear the head, sinuses
and lungs, stimulate the mind and senses and increase
Tejas, clarity and power of perception. They improve nerve
function and many are analgesic (stop pain), like camphor
and mint. They help open the third eye, activate both the
circulatory and digestive systems and clear the channels. Such aromas are an important part of anti-Kapha therapy. Aromas which are purely pungent, like camphor or
sage, are best for Kapha. Those which are pungent and
sweet, like cinnamon, ginger or cardamom, are better for
Vata. Some bitter spicy oils also exist, like wormwood and
vetivert. They are good for Pitta and often possess refrig-
erant (strongly cooling) properties. As fragrant oils are light and strong in smell, in excess
they can aggravate Vata. They can cause feelings of light-
headedness, ungroundedness and hypersensitivity. They
are generally good for Vata only in the right dosage — one
that is not too high. Subtle Therapies 221 /C\
Oils for the Three Biological Humors
VATA: Warming and pleasant oils are best, but not
too stimulating. Strongly pungent oils like musk or
cinnamon are balanced with sweet and calming oils
like sandalwood or rose. Best oils are sandalw'ood,
lotus flower, frankincense, plumeria, cinnamon, and
basil. These are good for Vata conditions of fear, anx-
iety, insomnia or tremors. PITTA: Cool and pleasant oils are best, mainly
flower essences, though some cool spices or bitter
aromatics are useful. Best are sandalwood, rose,
vetivert, lemon grass, lotus, lavender, lily, saffron,
champak, gardenia, honeysuckle, and iris. These are
good for Pitta conditions of irritability, anger, or
mental conflict. KAPHA: Hot spicy oils are best. These include
essential oils and resins like camphor, cinnamon,
heena, cloves, musk, sage, thyme, cedar, frankin-
cense and myrrh. These are good for Kapha condi-
tions of attachment, depression, and mental stagna-
tion. Sweet flowers like rose or jasmine should be
avoided, as well as too much sandalwood, because
these can increase Kapha. 223
14. The Healing Power of Mantra
ound has a tremendous power to condition our
consciousness for good or for ill. In fact, most con-
ditioning occurs through the medium of sound,
particularly as words, from which derives the education
that structures our minds. Whether as words or music, no
other sensory potential has such a capacity to affect us. Sound moves the mind and heart, influencing us on sub-
conscious, conscious and superconscious levels. It can reach
deep inside and touch our core desires and aspirations. Our conditioning is nothing but the sound patterns to
which we have


, thereby
dissolving the images of negativity and pessimism, and two, to radiate
outward this higher “up” ener gy toward others who are believing in and
therefore living, lives of quiet desperation. Just by being in the presence of
your faster/higher spiritual ener gy others can be impacted by your spirit of
hopefulness and cheerfulness. In ef fect, you become a beacon of hope,
showing the way to let go of attachments to gloom, and despair. By raising
your ener gy, you make it impossible for those around you to hang on to
those false ideas of being separate from all that is good, i. e., God. BREAKING THOSE A TTACHMENTS T O GLOOM AND DESP AIR
It sounds absurd to say that anyone would want to be attached to his or her
gloom, yet that is precisely the case. A long conditioning process of feeling
that life is unfair, that someone else is responsible for my sorrows, that no
one truly understands, leads inevitably to habitual thoughts of despair. Hanging on to these ideas keeps a person fixed in self-pity, which
eventually turns to self-loathing. The reason for staying attached is that the
individual who lives in despair never has to take the risk of accepting
responsibility for their gloom, or to change lifelong patterns. It is a safe
haven in that it allows you to suf fer in comfort. It is extremely common for people to build their lives on the mistaken
notion that without certain things or certain people, they cannot be happy or
free. It’ s almost as if they are programmed to be unhappy. So, their attitude
is, without my things, without a particular person, without money, without
friendship I am destined to be gloomy. Thus they become conditioned to
believe that scarcity is an excuse for despair. We have all swallowed these
beliefs to some extent, and consequently we have developed varying
degrees of attachments. These attachments are the source of despair because
we justify gloom on the basis of what or who is missing. In fact, we
experience ecstasy when we attain an object; anxiety over losing it; and
despair when it is lost. In order to transcend this cycle of attachment we must remind ourselves of
the dif ference between our ego and our higher self. Ego’ s voice is always
eager to dominate with thoughts like “I am what I have, what I do, and what
others think of me. ” If you can remain quiet long enough, God’ s voice will
penetrate with messages such as “None of these things will bring you
happiness, they are only illusions, I am your only source of peace. This is
your highest self speaking, this is the spiritual solution to all problems
related to attachments. ”
In order to be genuinely happy there is only one thing to do. That is to
deprogram yourself and permanently get rid of those low ener gy
attachments. Now remember, an attachment is not a fact, it is a fantasy in
your head which you have come to believe is real. It is genuinely possible
to live in bliss without those attachments. Practice not saying or thinking
that you must have a certain someone or something in order to be free of
despair. Replace those phrases with the attitude you take to a sunset, a bird
in flight, a glorious garden of flowers. Y ou love them for what they are, you
release them from any demands you might make on them and you enjoy
them without clinging to them. Do this, and despair that depends on
feelings of not having what you need will be undermined and disappear. To
rid yourself of attachments you simply have to drop them. Y ou do this by
reminding yourself over and over that you falsely believe that the cause of
your unhappiness is that some one or some things are missing from your
life. Unhappiness and despair are ideas. You can keep and love all the objects of your attachments without
renouncing any of them. Y ou can love in an underlying way and feel
peaceful and unthreatened. This is precisely how God loves you. Unconditionally. No attachments. In short, the way to eliminate despair is to
drop those attachments and relax in the knowing that your highest fastest
vibrating self does not need  any thing or any one in order to be fulfilled. Moving into God’ s ener gy field of nonattachment provides you with the
hope of transcending despair. This means loving everything, including your
suffering. Why love suf fering. Because it of fers you the opportunity to
witness, rather than receive, despair. OBSER VING YOUR DESP AIROne of the great teachers in my life, Nisar gadatta Maharaj, once said, “As
long as you identify yourself with the body-mind, you are vulnerable to
sorrow and suf fering. ” My conclusion from this is that we must learn to be
a witness to our body-mind and to all its demands. When I stand back and notice myself I am no longer identifying myself
with the material world. Thus I am not vulnerable to the sorrow, suffering,
and despair that exist in the physical world. In this way I bring a sense of
hope and optimism to the illusion of despair. I observe my body-mind and
silently say something like this, “Just look at W ayne now, he is actually
believing that his despair is real. He acts as if this is really him going
through this, when in fact I am really him watching this entire plot emer ge. If he would only stop and reconnect to spirit, he would awaken from his
despair immediately. ” As the witness you are not vulnerable because you
see yourself from a dif ferent place. It is also possible to bring this attitude of the observer to help others who
are locked in the torment of their despair. Tell someone to take a step back
in his or her mind and to just notice what he or she sees. In this way, you
help that person shift from despair to observation. I find it useful to
persistently remind myself that I am the noticer rather than what I notice. This allows me to bring the higher/faster ener gy of spiritual awareness to
any scene in which despair is present. CAN I REALL Y LOVE MY DESP AIR. Think about this. Suf fering ends when you stop thinking of it as suf fering. In the words of the Indian saint Sivanda: “If you train yourself to rejoice in
suffering, if you think that everything is done by God for one’ s own
betterment and uplift, if you welcome pain as a messenger of God to make
you remember Him. then pain will not be pain anymore. Suf fering will
not be suf fering anymore. ”
As you ponder these words be sure to emphasize the conclusion. Pain and
suffering do not exist when viewed from the perspective of God. That is,
when you move into spiritual ener gy, the things you despair over dissolve. This thing you have called suf fering is really a wonderful blessing. Itteaches you to turn to God, or to raise your vibration up to the frequency of
spirit and to bring that loving spirit into the picture in the present moment. I can honestly say that most of the things that once caused me to despair
and suf fer in my own life were my greatest moments of growth and my
introduction to devotion. I had to learn that the purpose of what I then
called suf fering was to burn up my ego and become more purified in the
process. Those low points of my life provided me with the ener gy to propel
myself to a higher place. If we could know in the midst of our suf fering that
the experience was a necessary prelude leading to a spiritual advance, then
we could rejoice in that “suf fering” as Sivanda suggests. If you could stop right in the center of feeling despair and send love, you
would almost immediately know the reason for going through this despair. Even better, you would no longer think of it as despair. Voilà. You have
nullified the illusion of sorrow by bringing the frequency of love to bear on
the problem. In short, you are not here to moan and cry about the miseries
of the human condition, but to change them through love, strength, and the
vitality that is already present in you. This is bringing hope to despair. This
is actualizing a spiritual solution to the illusion of despair as a problem. For
many this sounds like a feasible cause of action. However, there are
millions of people who insist that this is impossible when one suf fers from
the ultimate despair, depression. ENDING DEPRESSION WITH HOPE
Relatively speaking, depression is a contemporary phenomenon. T oday,
more than ever before, there is a lot of talk about depression. I have seen
estimates that as many as twenty percent of the population of developed
nations suf fers from depression. And there are degrees of this phenomenon. Clinical depression is reportedly the most serious, where people cannot
function in their daily lives and are on suicide watches. All due to this
monster called depression. Yet depression itself does not exist. Y ou cannot bring home a container of
depression to examine, clean up, and eliminate from your life. There is no
depression per se, there are only people thinking depressing thoughts. Certainly there are people who are convinced that they suf fer from
depression. There is an entire pharmaceutical industry devoted to mass-
producing drugs to combat this diagnosis. In many cases medication
appears to reduce


 Berger tells.us, his
mother's life, but for his intervention, might have been lost because of her doctors'
mismanagement:
"She  had  come  only  days  away  from  being  pumped  full  of  the  most  lethal,
debilitating agents - drugs quite capable of crippling or even killing her, for a
cancer she never had... Her life could have been forfeited to delay, mismanagement, [and] the  needless
toxic interventions of a medical system run amok. I also know that the same is true of every man, woman and child who participates
in our medical system - and that means all of us. This sorry state of things is a
simple fact of American medicine, one that holds true for you, for your loved ones
and for your friends. The truth is that we are all at risk simply because of how our medical  system
functions. Or, to put it another way, because of what our doctors didn't learn in
medical school." Like many other conscientious doctors today, Berger urges everyone to  become
informed consumers. Just as Berger and thousands of us have experienced — your
life may depend on what you, not your doctors, know about medical therapies and
your own body. Another good book on the perils of modem medicine is Medicine on  Trial by
Charles Inlander, Lowell Levin and Ed Weiner. Lowell Levin is a professor at Yale
University School of Medicine:
57"Twelve of the thirteen chapters in this book are devoted exclusively to  evidence of
misconduct and mayhem perpetrated on an unsuspecting public [by the medical
profession]. 'Serious' is too tame a word… One has to wonder why the facts
presented in this book have not heretofore been put on public view forcefully. Why has the honorable profession of medicine kept the facts of its mistakes to
itself? Is the profession of medicine so venal that it is willing to risk the lives of
people whose trust it enjoys? Can the [medical] profession and its institutions be
so  cynical  as  to  treat  patients  and  the  public  at  large  as  incapable  of
understanding what is going on? People sense that physicians may not be the omniscient and totally dedicated care
givers that organized medicine's image makers have been advertising. Personal
experiences of family and friends drive home the reality of medicine's clay feet. There are growing signs that the public has had enough cover-up and outright
deceit. People are not fools, even though they may have been fooled, or more
likely, lulled, into believing that medical care has been on a steady course of
progress, from one medical miracle to another. The overselling and hype about
winning the war on cancer is an example... We have been fed a considerable
number of public relations releases about medicine's successes, with little or no
effort to portray its downside. Government studies now raise questions about the qualifications (or lack thereof)
of physicians...their misdiagnoses, unnecessary or incompetent surgery, errors in
medication, neglect and high hospital infection rates... Money, power, prestige and
egos conspire to hold reformists [inside the medical system] to marginal, largely
cosmetic changes." Anyone  who  is  currently  taking  any  doctor-recommended  and  supposedly
therapeutic drug of any type also needs to read the book, The  Informed Consumer's
Pharmacy, The Essential Guide to Prescription and Over-the-Counter Drugs by
Ellen Hodgson Brown and Lynne Paige Walker. This book is one of the clearest,
most comprehensive guides to therapeutic drugs available, and if you value your
good health, you'll definitely want to read it. As the authors of The Informed Consumer's Pharmacy  comment:
58“Overdosing on drugs is the most popular form of suicide, but drugs in lesser
amounts can kill as surely. Like time bombs, they just act more slowly. More
Americans are killed each year by drugs than by auto accidents. The American
Medical  Association  estimates  as  much  as  one-third  of  all  illness  may  be
'iatrogenic' — caused by drugs and other medical therapies aimed at a cure. It has also been estimated that 70-80 percent of the people who visit doctors have
nothing wrong with them that wouldn't be cleared up by a vacation, a raise, or
relief from the stresses of their lives. Another 10 percent have diseases for which
there is no cure. Only 10 percent would benefit from drugs or surgery. Yet 57
percent or more come away with prescriptions.”
The New York Times Medical Science section on August 17, 1993, reported that
new research findings show that as many as two-thirds of  patients who are treated
with placebos for health complaints improve after taking the placebo — that's
twice as many patients as originally calculated by researchers testing new drugs. A placebo is a sugar-pill or a drug that has no objective effect on the symptoms
being treated. One doctor quoted in the article suggests that all doctors should start
using the placebo effect to their advantage by giving patients drugs even though
the doctor does not know what the patient's illness is, or if the patient is actually
sick at all: "If a doctor believes in what he's doing and lets the patient know that,
that's good medicine." Studies show that the majority of Americans today are so convinced that their
"doctors know better" that they get better even when the drug substance they're
given has nothing to do with treating the disorder they're suffering from. So, in essence, your doctor may have selected an unnecessary or incorrect drug for
you to take, but you get better because psychologically you feel you should. Unfortunately, the health improvement may be imaginary, but the side effects of
the drug that show up later won't be:
"...However drugs are produced and distributed, a separate and equally  important
issue is how doctors prescribe them. As noted, physicians prescribe largely on the
basis of information from drug houses. If the packaging and copy are effective and
persistent enough, the physician will probably prescribe the product...
59[But] the disregard of contraindications for the use of drugs causes thousands of
unnecessary illnesses every  year"
— Betrayal of Health
Every  medicine  we  use  does  not  have  to  be  synthesized  and  commercially
produced in order to be effective and safe. And, as we've seen,  drugs and surgery
are the last forms of medicine that we should resort to, and not the first choice, as
they are for the majority of us today
As Hippocrates taught, nature first is the best health regimen. We all need to give
common sense health care and non-invasive medicines an informed chance before
we  rush  into  dangerous  chemical  or  surgical  therapies  that  can  create  more
symptoms and problems than they relieve. And many people are learning to think for themselves and not to take their doctors
bad advice lying down, as a recent article in The Wall Street Journal, June 16,
1993, demonstrates:
"Al Iglehart figures his doctors pegged him for a fool. They knew his heart disease was congenital, without mysterious complications. Still, they suggested  he  undergo more  tests,  even  repeat a  $1200 one he had
already passed. Thank you for the advice, Mr. Iglehart said. But absolutely not. 'The doctor just isn't God, and sometimes they're on autopilot,' says Mr Iglehart,
who is 44 years old and live on Long Island, N.Y. 'There was no reason for any
more tests. The biggest thing you can do [about medical treatments] is to be
informed as a consumer and ask questions.' Iglehart  is  among  a  growing  group  of  defiant  health-care  patients  who  are
questioning the costs [and effectiveness] of medical procedures..."
It isn't my intention to go into a lot of 'doctor-bashing' here, because  doctors, of
course, play a crucial role in medicine, but they have assumed, and we have given
them  an  impossible  role  and  responsibility  in  medicine  today. We  expect  our
doctors to behave like mechanics, to diagnose and to fix every possible thing that
goes wrong with us, as if our bodies were cars or machines that could be repaired
simply by pouring in some synthetic substance or replacing a part. 60But our bodies aren't machines, and our doctors should be relieved of their role as
mechanics that we run to every time we feel sick. Our bodies are immensely
intricate, sensitive, individually unique, living organisms that need gentle respect
and care, not the incessant and routine overkill of concentrated drugs and invasive
surgery. Doctors can certainly play an important role in urine therapy, especially in acute
illnesses where injections of urea or urine could be life saving, as is dearly seen in
one of the research studies in which jntravenoo,  urea saved the life of a patient
with severe cerebral edema  caused by a brain tumor (see next chapter ). Also,
natural  urine  therapy  could  most ,  definitely  be  enhanced  and  augmented  by
doctors' administrations of natural urine extracts or urea for serious illnesses. However, for most illnesses, we can treat ourselves with natural urine therapy and
save our valuable doctors precious time and effort. Learning to Care for Our Own Health
Unfortunately,


 e will begin
to recognize that part of our nature has always been willing and wanting to
for give, but we didn’ t dare chance it. W e thought we might appear foolish. W e thought we were punishing the other person by holding the resentment,
but we have actually been suppressing love. In the beginning, we may not
consciously feel this specifically about our friend, but we will begin to
notice that we do have this aspect to our personality. As we keep
surrendering our resistance to love, we will notice that within ourselves
there is something that wants to express itself through sharing and giving,
letting the past go and burying the hatchet. There is a desire to make a
friendly gesture; we want to heal the separation, to repair the wound, to
make good the wrong, to express gratitude, and to take a chance on being
thought a fool. The purpose of this exercise is to locate within ourselves that which
can only be described as greatness. Greatness is the courage to overcome
obstacles. It is the willingness to move to a higher level of love. It is the
acceptance of others’ humanness and having compassion for their suf fering
by putting ourselves in their shoes. Out of the for giveness of others come
self-for giveness and the relief of guilt. The real payof f we get is when we
let go of our negativity and choose to be loving; we are the ones who
benefit. W e are the ones who gain from the real payof f. W ith this increased
awareness of who we really are comes the progressive invulnerability to
pain. Once we compassionately accept our own humanness and that of
others, we are no longer subject to humiliation, for true humility is a part of
greatness. Out of the recognition of who we really are comes the desire to seek
that which is uplifting. Out of it arises a new meaning and context for life. When that inner emptiness, due to lack of self-worth, is replaced by true
self-love, self-respect and esteem, we no longer have to seek it in the world,
for that source of happiness is within ourselves. It dawns on us that it
cannot be supplied by the world anyway. No amount of riches can
compensate for an inner feeling of poverty. W e all know of the many
multimillionaires who try to compensate for their inner sense of hollowness
and lack of inner worth. Once we have contacted this inner Self, this innergreatness, this inner completion, contentment, and true sense of happiness,
we have transcended the world. The world is now a place to enjoy, and we
are no longer run by it. W e are no longer at the ef fect of it. When we utilize these techniques of relinquishing the negative and
surrendering resistance to the positive, sooner or later we come into a
sudden, comprehensive awareness of our true dimension. Once this has
been experienced, it will never be for gotten. The world will never
intimidate us again as it once did. There may be continued compliance with
the ways of the world out of sheer habit, but the inner drivenness, the inner
vulnerability, and the inner doubt is now gone. Outwardly, the behavior may
appear the same but, inwardly, the causes for it are now totally dif ferent. The end result of the conscious handling of emotions is invulnerability and
imperturbability. Our inner nature is now bullet proof. W e are able to go
through life with balance and grace. CHAPTER
4
A P A T H Y  A N D  D E P R E S S I O N
Apathy is the belief, “I can’ t. ” It is the feeling that we cannot do anything
about our situation and no one else can help. It is hopelessness and
helplessness. It is associated with such thoughts as: “Who cares. ”; “What’ s
the use. ”; “It’ s boring”; “Why bother. ”; “I can’ t win anyway. ” This is the
role exhibited by Eeyore, the glum character in “W innie the Pooh” cartoons
who says: “Oh well. W on’ t do any good anyway. ” Discouragement. Defeat. Impossible. T oo hard. All alone. Give up. Isolated. Estranged. W ithdrawn. Cut of f. Desolate. Depressed. Depleted. Unfulfilling. Pessimistic. Careless. Humorless. Meaningless. Absurd. Pointless. Helpless. Failure. T oo tired. Despair. Confused. For getful. Fatalistic. T oo late. T oo old. T oo young. Mechanical. Doomed. Negative. Forlorn. Useless. Lost. Senseless. Bleak. Blasé. The biologic purpose of apathy is to summon aid, but part of the
feeling is that no help is possible. Much of the world’ s population is
functioning on the level of apathy. For them, there is no hope that they will
be able to meet their basic needs, nor will help be forthcoming from
elsewhere. The average person is often apathetic in a number of areas in life, but
only periodically faces overwhelming apathy about their whole life
situation. Apathy indicates a lack of life ener gy and is close to death. This
was observed during the W orld W ar II blitz of London. Infants were
removed to nurseries and remote safe sections of England where their
physical, nutritional, and medical needs were well attended. However, theinfants developed apathy and began to fail; they lost their appetites and the
death rate was high. It was discovered that apathy resulted from a lack of
nurturing and emotional closeness to a mothering figure. It was an
emotional state and not a physical one. W ithout love and af fection, they lost
the will to live. In our country, we see depressed economic areas where an entire local
population goes into apathy. When people from such areas appear on the
television news, it is often with such comments as, “When the welfare
check runs out, I guess we just face starvation; there’ s no hope for us. ”
Feelings of apathy about the letting go technique itself may appear as
resistances. These may take the form of attitudes and thoughts such as: “It
won’ t work anyway”; “What’ s the dif ference. ”; “I’m not ready for this
yet”; “I can’ t feel”; “I’m too busy”; “I’m tired of letting go”; “I’m too
overwhelmed”; “I for got”; “I’m too depressed”; “I’m too sleepy. ” The way
out of apathy is to remind ourselves of our intention, which is to get higher
and freer, to become more ef fective and happy, and to let go of the
resistance to the technique itself. “I Can’t” vs. “I W on’t”
Another way out of apathy is to look at the payof f we are getting out of the
apathetic attitudes. The payof f may be in the face-saving excuses to cover
up what is actually fear. Since in reality, we are very capable beings, most
“I can’ ts” are really “I won’ ts. ” Behind the “I can’ ts” or the “I won’ ts” is
frequently a fear. Then, when we look at the truth of what is behind the
feeling, we have already moved up the scale from apathy to fear. Fear is a
higher ener gy state than apathy. Fear at least begins to motivate us into
action and, in that action, we can again surrender fear and move up to anger
or pride or courage, all of which are higher states than apathy. Let’ s take a typical human problem and trace how the mechanism of
surrender works to free us from an inhibition. Public speaking is one of the
most common inhibitions. On the level of apathy in this arena, we say: “Oh,
I can’ t possibly speak in public. It is way too overwhelming. Nobody will
want to hear me anyway. I don’ t have anything worth saying. ” If we remind
ourselves of our intention, we will see that the apathy is merely covering up
fear. Now, the thought of speaking in public is frightening, not hopeless. This brings about a certain clarity. The facts are not that we “can’ t,” but
merely that we are “afraid. ”As this fear comes up and is let go, we become aware of the fact that
we have a desire to do the very thing that we fear. Now when looking at the
desire, which is blocked by fear and perhaps compounded by some grief
over lost opportunities in the past, anger arises. At this point, we have
already moved from apathy, to grief, to desire, and up to anger. In anger
there is much more ener gy and capacity for action. Anger often takes the
form of resentment, such as resentment that we agreed to the public
speaking and now feel obligated to do it. There is also anger about our fear, which has blocked accomplishment
in the past, and the anger leads to a decision to do something about it. This
decision might take the form of a public speaking course. When we sign up
for a public speaking course