 simply, the resurr ection is the overcoming or surmounting of death. It is a reawakening or
a rebirth; a change of mind about the meaning of the world. It is the acceptance of the Holy
Spirit’ s interpretation of the world’ s purpose; the acceptance of the Atonement for oneself. It is
the end of dreams of misery, and the glad awar eness of the Holy Spirit’ s final dream. It is the
recognition of the gifts of God. It is the dream in which the body functions perfectly, having no
function except communication. It is the lesson in which learning ends, for it is consummated
and surpassed with this. It is the invitation to God to take His final step. It is the relinquishment
of all other purposes, all other interests, all other wishes and all other concerns. It is the single
desir e of the Son for the Father. * (MT -68)
AT THIS HIST ORIC time of phase transition, an entire era of human history is
passing away. What this period will be replaced by is complete ly up to us:
things will either get very dark or very light. Accumulated layers of fear—
evidenced politically, economically, and socially—have now reached a
point where they will destroy us if we do not intervene on our own behalf. While free will is always operative, there is a limit beyond which our
wrong-minded attitudes and behavior simply become unworkable. We are
called upon now to be both death doulas to a world that is no longer
working and birth doulas to a world that is struggling to be born. Nothing
less than fundamental pattern disruption will lead to a sustainable future. Many are diagnosed today with an “anxiety disorder.” An anxiety
disorder isn’t just an individual’ s diagnosis, however; it’s the state of the
world today. Looking at this only as an individual’ s problem distracts us
from the larger issue of spiritual suffering, not just on the part of an
individual but on the part of our society. All of us are influenced by the fear-based thinking of the world, but
seeing ourselves as victims of it only perpetuates the insanity. The world issaturated by the ego’s malignant mentality, and without the medicine of
spiritual understanding, it easily crawls into our psyche. There’ s nothing new there. We know what the ego has to say; now it’s
time for the ego to hear what we have to say. Crucifixion allud es to our
madness, and the resurrection is the return of sanity. It is a change of heart
among us so powerful that the world itself will be transformed. The world we live in today is an anxiety disorder, for the very reason
that love does not guide the world. It is not the organizing principle for our
civilization. The ego’s thought system is allowed to run roughsh od over the
human heart, a constant generator of fear and anxiety, and the only solution
to the problem is the dismantling of this thought system. Jesus  is a model
for and guide to right-minded thinking, sending ego thoughts back to the
nothingness whence they came. I have asked audiences around the country if anyone in the room had
either said, or heard a young person say, that under normal circumstances
they would consider having children but that the state of the world today
makes them hesitate. In every audience, a significant numbe r of people
raised their hand. This should not be considered normal. Perhaps if we face
the malfunction ing of the world we have made for ourselves, we might
consider whether God has a better way. Millions of people, perhaps more, have held Jesus at bay because of the
traditional religious constructs that have grown up around him. But as we
take an evolutio nary stride toward an enlightened view of the world, we are
beginning to see him with new eyes. His resurrection is not just some
theological dogma. It is the activation of new life within us. The mind when unaligned with God is the cause of all suffering; the
mind when aligned with Him is the cause of suffering’ s end. Jesus is a
portal to a field of unspeakable love and power. Yet the portal means
nothing if we don’t walk throug h it. The aspiration of the miracle worker is
to lift our consciousness so close to God’ s that we become masters, not
slaves, of the mortal world. We gaze into the eyes of Jesus that he might show us another world. OceanofPDF.comThe Alchemy of Easter
Such is your resurr ection, for your life is not a part of anything you see. It stands beyond the
body and the world, past every witness for unholiness, within the Holy, holy as Itself. * (WB-279)
The meaning of Easter is what happens in any moment when love and
forgiveness overcome the fear -laden powers of the world. There’ s an obvious intensification on the planet now of both darkness
and light, both forces of planeta ry destruction and planetary enlightenment. The question of how to break the chain of darkness could not be more
relevant than it is today. Environmental degradation, rising
authoritarianism, and endless war are the stuff of our collective crucifixion. The air is so saturated with toxicity now that our minds, our bodies, our
entire civilization is feeling the dis-ease. Even those of faith, of serious and
committed spiritual practice, are having to work overtime to keep a
creeping despair at bay. Humanity can’t stop the madn ess, because humanity is the madness. What is needed on the planet now is a collective resurrection, a divine
intercession from a thought system beyond our own. So what will happen now? Will darkness and fear, or light and love, win
the struggle for the future? If we simply give up and surrender, darkness
most certainly will win. But if we stand up and fight back, then darkness
might also win. As long as we fight, then we’re stuck in the fight. Is there
any other option? Interestingly enough, yes. The other option is resurrection, the evolution
of the human race. This isn’t just about Jesus; it’s about us. Resurrection two thousand
years ago was an overcoming by one man; resurrection today is an
overcoming by each of us, and by the entire species. We ourselves must
become the change, and that is the resurrecti on. God cannot do for us that
which He cannot do through us. We must be willing to be reborn into ahigher version of ourselves if we’re to achieve the miracle of planetary
transformation. The world as it now exists is a reflection of who we have
been; the world of the future will reflect who we choose to become. We can
have the overcoming, but not if we hang on to the cross. Whether it be our attachment to the past, or to our addictions, or to our
judgments, or to our victimizatio n, or to our violent behavior—w e can have
those, or we can have a survivable future. Only if we work to rid the
darkness from our own hearts can we become the conduits of miraculous
change. The resurrection  is the revelation of God’ s eternal imprint on every
moment, in every life. It is the potential for light that exists within even the
deepest darkness. It is the reason to hope when all hope seems lost. It is the
possibility for a new beginning that seems impossible when all has gone
wrong. As a principle, resurrection does not require our recognit ion to exist. But as a pract ical reality, it requires our willingness to become fully
activated in human affairs. Salvation begins when we consider the
possibility that there might be better way* (T-22). This opens the mind to
divine illumination, to a new kind of experience we become less and less
willing to deny. At Easte r, we celebrate our ability to rise above the consciousness of
darkness, ignora nce, and death. Something begins to change within us; our
openness to the deeper meaning  of the resurrection opens doors within the
heart. Jesus died, and then he rose. Now it’ s our turn. We too can radically transform. The crucified self can be transmuted
and turned to light. On this day, may we each rediscover at the deepest level
the meaning of “Hallelujah” and the reason to praise God. In the words of the Course, “Let us not spend this holy week brooding
on the crucifixion of God’ s Son, but happily in the celebration of his
release. For Easter is the sign of peace, not pain”* (T -425). The resurrection is a description of how the universe operates, how it
self-corrects, how life always reasserts itself even when forces of death and
darkness have temporarily prevailed. Like a tiny flower growing through
cracks in broken cement, peace of mind can emer ge at last after periods of
grief have ravaged the heart, and people can fall in love despite having
experienced the cruelest predicaments. Time and time again, love reappears
after even the most crushing events. To embrace the resurrection means torecognize what’ s true; it’s the way of the universe that God will always
have the final say. That is why we cleave to God; because we want to transform our own
circumstances and find victory in our own lives. Spiritual realization affects
us physically, emotionally, and psychologically because it


. Gradually by a process of what may be termed mental and spir itual
osmosis, the impression was made on his subconscious mind, and the
expression automatically came forth. The sales manager sub sequently
called him up to San Francisco, con-gratulated him, and gave him  a
new assignment as Division Sales Manager over one hundred men
with a big increase in salary. He changed his concept and est imate of
his boss, and the latter re-sponded accordingly. • Becoming emotionally mature
What the other person says or does cannot really annoy or irritat e
you except you permit him to disturb you. The only way he can a nnoy
you is through your own thought. For example, if you get angry, you
have to go through four stages in your mind: You begin to think ab out
what he said. You decide to get angry and generate an emotion of rage. Then, you
decide to act. Per-haps, you talk back and react in kind. You s ee that
the thought, emotion, reaction, and action all take place in your mind. When you become emotionally mature, you do not respond
negatively to the criticism and resentment of others. To do so would
mean that you had descended to that state of low mental vibrati on and
become one with the negative atmosphere of the other. Identify
 171 yourself with your aim in life, and do not permit any person, pla ce, or
thing to deflect you from your inner sense of peace, tranquility, a nd
radiant health. • The meaning of love in harmonious human relations
Sigmund Freud, the Austrian founder of psychoanalysis, said that
unless the personality has love, it sickens and dies. Love incl udes
understanding, good will, and respect for the divinity in the other
person. The more love and good will you emanate and exude, the
more comes back to you. If you puncture the other fellow’s ego and wound his estimate of
himself, you cannot gain his good will. Recognize that every man
wants to be loved and appreciated, and made to feel important in the
world. Realize that the other man is conscious of his true worth, a nd that,
like
yourself, he feels the dignity of being an expression of the One Life
Principle animating all men. As you do this consciously and
knowingly, you build the other person up, and he returns your love
and good will. • He hated audiences
An actor told me that the audience booed and hissed him on his fi rst
appearance on the stage. He added that the play was badly writ ten and
that undoubtedly he did not play a good role. He admitted openly t o
me that for months afterward he hated audiences. He called them
dopes, dummies, stupid, ignorant, gullible, etc. He quit the stage  in
disgust and went to work in a drugstore for a year. One day a friend invited him to hear a lecture in Town Hall, N ew
York City, on “How to Get Along With Ourselves.” This lecture
changed his life. He went back to the stage and began to pray sincerely for the
audience and himself. He poured out love and good will every night
 172  before appearing on the stage. He made it a habit to claim  that the
peace of God filled the hearts of all-present, and that all p resent were
lifted up and inspired. During each performance he sent out l ove
vibrations to the audience. Today, he is a great actor, and he lov es and
respects people. His good will and esteem are transmitte d to others
and are felt by them. • Handling difficult people
There are difficult people in the world who are twisted a nd distorted
mentally. They are mal-conditioned. Many are mental delinquents,
argumentative, un-co-operative, cantankerous, cyni-cal, and sour on
life. They are sick psychologically. Many peo-ple have deformed and
distorted minds, probably warped during childhood. Many have
congenital deformities. You would not condemn a person who had
tuberculosis, nor should you con-demn a person who is mentally ill. No one, for example, hates or resents a hunchback; there are m any
mental hunchbacks. You should have compassion and understanding. To understand all is to forgive all. • Misery loves company
The hateful, frustrated, distorted, and twisted personality is out of
tune with the Infinite. He resents those who are peaceful, happy, and
joyous. Usually he criticizes, condemns, and vilifies those who have bee n
very good and kind to him. His attitude is this: Why should they b e so
happy when he is so miserable? He wants to drag them down to hi s
own level. Misery loves com-pany. When you understand this you
remain unmoved, calm, and dispassionate. • The practice of empathy in human relations
A girl visited me recently stating that she hated another girl in her
office. She gave as her reason that the other girl was pre ttier, happier,
and wealthier than she, and, in addition, was engaged to the boss of
the company where they worked. One day after the marriage had
 173  taken place, the crippled daughter (by a former marriage ) of the
woman whom she hated came into the office. The child put her a rms
around her mother and said, “Mommy, mommy, I love my new
daddy! Look what he gave me!” She showed her mother a wonderful
new toy. She said to me, “My heart went out to that little girl, and I kne w
how happy she must feel. I got a vision of how happy this woman
was. All of a sudden I felt love for her, and I went into the offi ce and
wished her all the happiness in the world, and I meant it.”
In psychological circles today, this is called empathy, which s imply
means the imaginative projection of your mental attitude into t hat of
another. She projected her mental mood or the feel-ing of her heart into t hat
of the other woman, and began to think and look out through the other
woman’s brain. She was actually thinking and feeling as the oth er
woman, and also as the child, because she likewise had projected
herself into the mind of the child. She was looking out from that
vantage point on the child’s mother. If tempted to injure or think ill of another, project you rself mentally
into the mind of Moses and think from the standpoint of the Ten
Commandments. If you are prone to be envious, jealous, or angry,
project yourself into the mind of Jesus and think from that stand point,
and you will feel the truth of the words Love ye one another. • Appeasement never wins
Do not permit people to take advantage of you and gain their poin t
by temper tantrums, crying jags, or so-called heart attac ks. These
people are dictators who try to enslave you and make you do the ir
bidding. Be firm but kind, and refuse to yield. Appeasement never
wins. Refuse to contribute to their delin-quency, selfishness, and
possessiveness. Remember, do that which is right. You are her e to
fulfill your ideal and remain true to the eternal verities a nd spiritual
values of life, which are eternal. 174  Give no one in all the world the power to deflect you from your
goal, your aim in life, which is to express your hidden talents  to the
world, to serve humanity, and to reveal more and more of God’s
wisdom, truth, and beauty to all people in the world. Remain true to
your ideal. Know definitely and abso-lutely that whatever contrib utes
to your peace, happiness, and fulfillment must of necessity bles s all
men who walk the earth. The harmony of the part is the harmony of
the whole, for the whole is in the part, and the part is in the whol e. All
you owe the other, as Paul says, is love, and love is the fulfilling of the
law of health, happiness, and peace of mind. • Profitable pointers in human relations
1. Your subconscious mind is a recording machine, which re-
produces your habitual thinking. Think good of the other, and you are
actually thinking good about yourself. 2. A hateful or resentful thought is a mental poison. Do not think  ill
of
another for to do so is to think ill of yourself. You are the only
thinker in your universe, and your thoughts are creative. 3. Your mind is a creative medium; therefore, what you think and
feel about the other, you are bringing to pass in your own experi ence. This is the psychological meaning of the Golden Rule. As you wou ld
that man should think about you, think you about them in the same
manner. 4. To cheat, rob, or defraud another brings lack, loss, and limita tion
to yourself. Your subconscious mind records your inner motivations,
thoughts, and feelings. These being of a negative nature; loss,
limitation, and trouble come to you in countless ways. Actually, what
you do to the other, you are doing to yourself. 5. The good you do, the


 and x-ray, and that there is an enor mous increase in the interest of the public in
this disease, and an increase in willingness  to attack the disease, the gross mortality
from cancer has increased year by year. We have cured many more cancers each year,
but the death rate from cancer has gone highe r and higher. The reason for this apparent
paradox is that while we have brought local external cancer under partial control, internal cancer has increased at a rate which not only offsets the cured cases, but has
nearly doubled the whole mortality from the disease in the last twenty years. Cancer of the brain, which fifty years ago was a very rare finding at autopsy, is now
one of the commonest forms of cancer. Some brain surgeons rank it as third in
anatomical location. Internal forms of cancer, then, must have the soil in which cancer
may grow. This brings up the results of postmortem examinations and the findings in
early symptomless cancer. They are always found to be growing in an area which has
been previously infected. The infections whic h provide the cancer soil in these internal
parts--kidneys, liver, pancreas, ovaries, br ain, glands, muscles, bones, etc.--must
necessarily come from the outside through the blood stream. As previously explained, showers of  microorganisms frequently spread through the
blood stream. This occurs when a person catches cold, and it may occur in intermittent showers or as a continuous st ream in cases where there are abscessed teeth or badly
diseased mouths, or abscesses such as occur in sinus or tonsil disease. In the cases
where a small continuous stream of microorganisms flows into the blood stream, the
bad effects may manifest themselves as rheu matism of joints, or neuritis. Rheumatic
pain--pain due to colonization of microorganism s in the fasciae--is usually referred to a
muscular rheumatism. In these cases, the pain is not in the muscle, but in the thick sheaf
of fascia around the muscle. Muscular movement is painful because the movement disturbs and brings pressure on the infected area. Muscle tissue itself is very poorly
supplied with sensory nerves. It  is practically insensible to pain. Physicians and laymen
alike have been prone to give undue importance to the areas in which pain is present. It must be remembered that the same blood stream which deposits microorganisms in the
structures around joints, thereby producing pain, is at the same time bombarding the
heart, the blood vessels and the glands of internal secretion with the same chronic, low
grade, slow, poison. These are each responding in their own peculiar way, not by pain, but by alteration of function. The continuous bombardment of vital centers--brain, joints, heart, and endocrine
glands--produces a disease which is not just a call for aspirin or codein to numb the nerves crying aloud for relief. It is also lessening the life processes in every vital center
and every body cell, and the bringing about of premature old age. The fact that cancer
may develop in one of the areas in which microorganisms have been so deposited from
the blood stream simply shows that in a completely diseased organism one area has
been so irritated that a certain group of cells have proliferated as a response to the
invading infection. We should expect that this chain of circumstances would sometimes produce multiple
cancers, or that cancers of different type s and kinds may be produced in the same
individual. The finding of such multiple cancers is becoming more and more common. In one case four different kinds of cancer inside of the skull were found in one individual. (Dr. Sachs, of St. Louis.) It is quite probable that in the past multiple tumors
and cancers in the same individual were not found with as great a frequency as they now
are because at post mortem examinations they were not suspected and not looked for. There are many kinds of tumor growths that are not cancerous which undoubtedly
spring from the same or nearly the same factors as cancer. These benign tumors are much more common than malignant tumors (cancers). In the case of the benign tumor,
there is in the beginning a distinct urge to grow. This urge to grow is undoubtedly
brought about by irritation from locally deposited microorganisms. The benign tumor
reproduces cells of the organ or tissue in wh ich the growth starts. It grows for a time
and then stops; or it may not have completely stopped, but continues at an exceedingly slow rate of growth. This distinguishes it gr ossly from cancer, as cancer continues to
grow steadily and with relative rapidity. In benign tumors the cells become mature before dividing. In cancer they divide while they are still baby cells. Since the internal forms of cancer follow exactly the same pattern as the external
forms, in that they must have a suitable infected soil on which to grow, the disease may be classed as one of the forms in which infection may terminate. The pathologist teaches us that infection may terminate as scar tissue or as calcification. We must add to
this that infection may terminate as tumor or cancer. CHAPTER VIII
NUTRITIONAL TREATMENT OF ANEMIA
   Diseases of the blood which are definitely deficiency diseases are the iron anemias
and pernicious anemia. Pernicious anemia is due to an unidentified food factor which is
supplied by eating liver, but which undoubtedly exists also in other foods. A lack of this
factor interferes with the proper manufacture of  blood. Before the discovery of liver as a
remedy, these patients ran a typical course which always resulted in death. At the
present time, the use of liver in the diet  will bring the blood-making organs up to a
relatively better condition. The patient is never cured, but by the use of liver and liver
extract he is permitted to continue his life in a rather subnormal way. The person with pernicious anemia gets along on this regime for a few years. The
liver treatment has had the effect of somewhat extending the life period, but this is the
best that may be said for it. The sufferer from pernicious anemia is suffering from a lack of more than one food factor. The usual medical treatment followed considers only one
single deficiency and pays no attention to other subclinical deficiencies which are also
present but in a lesser degree. In the usua l treatment of this disease one outstanding
function which has caused the alteration in the blood is treated, the others are neglected,
and the neglected parts of the problem eventual ly cause death at an earlier time than if
the whole problem were properly considered. This same principle is true but in a much more obvious way in connection with the
iron anemias. The person suffering with an iron anemia has the anemia as an
outstanding symptom of a multiple symptom complex. A lack of iron carrying the
oxygen in the blood stream has caused symptoms to build up which throws all other
signs and symptoms into the background. It is really a multiple deficiency but the doctor sees only the need for iron, and gives only iron as a therapeutic measure. The result of this is that many persons go about with partial disease, relying for relief
only on iron. The only point considered by the average physician is, which kind of iron should be given in this particular case? and which kind of iron is most economical for
the patient to use? Volumes have been written on the relative merits of different kinds
of iron in treating the iron anemias; but no at tention whatever is given to the associated
deficiencies that afflict patients with iron anemias. In some cases physicians have departed in some degree from treading a narrow path in
these secondary anemias, and discovered that the patient who refuses to get better with
just iron alone will immediately become much better if vitamin B is added to the iron. The blood picture and the general condition will improve.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        The fact that
these go through ordinary cooking without complete destruction seems to sustain the
idea that they do exist in ordinary diets in sufficient quantities. The chief sources of
these vitamins are wheat germ (which is discarded in the flour mills), liver, heart, kidney and muscle meats, and yeast. That they are deficient in the ordinary diets is well
proved by the prevalence of pellagra and pellagra-like symptoms, and the fact that the
average person will have much better endur ance, appetite, digestion, and freedom from
aches and pains when sufficient sized doses of these vitamins are taken. Subclinical pellagra exists in the north, while advanced pellagra exists in the south. The advanced pellagra does not escape detection, and so comes under treatment. The
milder subclinical pellagra presents a varyi ng complexity of symptoms; is the subject of
many professional errors, and seldom recei ves the right vitamins and minerals in
sufficiently large doses to be completely cured. As pellagra is a disease which strikes at the skin, the lining of the digestive tract, and
the brain, the symptoms of the subclinical varieties may predominate in any individual case. Clinical tests on the nutrition of persons suffering neuroses, irritability and other
forms of nerve and mental disease show that a great number of them may be improved
by taking nicotinic acid, which is considered the specific treatment for pellagra. This indicates that many cases of insanity are on a deficiency basis, and that the persons who
are insane from pellagra are not the only group suffering insanity because of inadequate diet. The effects of vitamins are not as


. DNA is the
source for all the proteins that repair cells, build new ones,
replace missing or defective pieces of the genetic code,
heal cuts and bruises, and so forth. Without bothering to invent a new class of chemic als, the
DNA has ﬁgured out another use for its familiar raw
materials, the amines, amino acids, and peptides. Once
again, it is just the ability  to make these diﬀerent products
that is crucial. There is nothing special about the molecules
themselves, even though their discovery by a molecular
biologist may be special to science. Where does the ability to make the neurotrans mitters
come from, then? Perhaps we should look to the
contribution made by the mind. After all, it is not really the
adrenaline molecule that makes a mother rush into a
burning building to save her child or an endorphin
molecule that protects her from feeling the ﬂames. Love
makes her rush in, and single-minded determination
protects her from pain. It just happe ns that these attributes
of her mind have found a chemical pathway that the brain
can follow to talk to the body. Now we have arrived at the heart of the matter. Mind by
any deﬁnition is nonmat erial, yet it has devised a way to
work in partnership with these complicated comm unicator
molecules. Their association is so close, as we have seen,that mind cannot be projected into the body without such
chemicals. Yet these chemicals are not mind. Or are they? The whole paradoxical situation was wittily summ arized
several years ago when the eminent English neurologist
and Nobel Prize winner Sir John Eccles was asked to
address a conference of parapsychologists, who were
discussing the usual topics of ESP, telepathy, and
psychokinesis—the ability  to move physical objects with the
mind. If you want to see real psychokinesis, he told his
audience, then consider the feats of mind-ov er-matter
performed in the brain. It is quite astonishing that with
every thought, the mind  manages to move the atoms of
hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, and the other particles in the
brain’s cells. It would appear that nothing is further apart
than an insubstantial thought and the solid gray matter of
the brain. The whole trick is somehow done without any
apparent link. The mystery of mind-over-matter has not been explained
by biology, which prefers to push on to more and more
complicated chemical structures operating at ﬁner and
ﬁner levels of the physiology. It is still obvious that no one
is ever going to ﬁnd a particle, however minute, that nature
has labeled “intelligence.” This is all the more apparent
when we realize that all the matter in our bodies, large or
small, has been designed with intelligence as a built-in
feature. DNA itself, although ackn owledged as the chemica l
mastermind of the body, is made up of essentially the same
basic building blocks as the neurotransmitters it
manufactures and regulates. DNA is like a brick factory
that is also made out of bricks. (The great Hungarian
mathematician John von Neumann, besides being a founder
of the modern computer, was interested in robots of all
types. He once invented, on paper, a truly ingeniou s
machine, a robot that could build robots identical to itself—
in other words, a self-reproducing machine. Our DNA hasaccomplished the same thing on a grand scale, since the
human body is nothing more than variants of DNA built by
DNA.) You may ﬁnd it easy to think of DNA, with its billions of
genetic bits, as an intellig ent molecule; certainly it must be
smarter than a simple molecule like sugar. How smart can
sugar be? But DNA is really just strings of sugar, amines,
and other simple components. If these are not “smart” to
begin with, then DNA couldn’t become smart just by
putting more of them together. Following this line of
reasoning, why isn’t the carbon or hydrogen atom in the
sugar also smart? Perhaps it is. As we shall see, if
intelligence is present in the body, it has to come from
somewhere, and that somewhere may be everywhere. —
If we follow the next step of the neurotransmitter story, we
ﬁnd ourselves faced with another quantum leap in
complications, but surprisingly, the relation between mind
and matter actually begins to clear up. The areas of the
brain that mediate our emotions—the amygdala  and the
hypothalamus, which is also known as “the brain’s brain”—
were both found to be particularly rich in all the substances
in the neurotransmitter group. This implied  that where
thinking processes are abundant (meaning that many
neurons are tightly clustered), so will be the chemicals
associated with thinking. At this point there was still a
rather well-d eﬁned divisio n between chemicals that jumped
the gap between brain cells and those that traveled from
the brain down the bloodstream. (In my ﬁeld,
endocrinology, one of the deﬁning qualities of a hormone is
that it ﬂoats through the blood, a process that is generally
much slower than the transmission speed of a nerve cell,
which has been clocked at 225 miles per hour; a signal sent
from head to toe takes less than l/50th of a second. )Just when science thought it could isolate brain
chemicals and categorize their sites, the body cropped up
with its own complication. Researchers at the National
Institute of Mental Health found receptors in equal
abundance at other sites outside the brain. Starting in the
early 1980s, receptors for neurotransmitt ers and
neuropeptides were discovered on cells in the immune
system called  monocytes. “Brain” receptors on white cells
in the blood?—it would be hard to exaggerate the
signiﬁcance of this discovery. In the past, it was thoug ht
that the central nervous system alone relayed messages to
the body, rather like a complicated telephone system
connecting the brain to all the organs it wanted to “talk” to. In this scheme, the neurons function like telephone lines
conveying the brain’s signals—that is their unique  function,
shared by no other system in the physiology. Now it was seen that the brain does not just send
impulses traveling in straight lines down the axons, or
trunks, of the neurons; it freely circulates intelligence
throughout the body’s entire inner space. Unlike the
neurons, which are ﬁxed in place along the nervous system,
the monocytes of the immune system travel through the
bloodstream, giving them free access to every other cell in
the body. Outﬁtted with a vocabulary to mirror the nervous
system’s in its complexity, the immune system apparently
sends and receives mess ages that are just as diverse. In
fact, if being happy, sad, thoughtful, excited, and so on all
require the production of neuropeptides and
neurotransmitters in our brain cells, then the immune cells
must also be happy, sad, thoughtful, excited—indeed, they
must be able to expres s the full range of “words” that
neurons do. Monocytes can be thought of in eﬀect as
circulating neurons. With this one discovery, the concept of the intelligent cell
took on full-ﬂedged reality. One kind of localizedintelligence was already well known, that possessed by the
DNA in every cell. Since Watson and Crick  mapped the
structure of DNA in the early 1950s, investigation had
proved that this remar kable, almost inﬁnitely complex
molecule encoded all the information necessary to create
and sustain human life. But the intelligence of genes was
seen primari ly as ﬁxed, because DNA itself is the stablest
chemical in the body, and thanks to that stability, each of us
is able to inherit genetic traits from our parents—blue eyes,
curly hair, facial patterns, et cetera—and prese rve them
intact to pass on to our children. The know-how carried by the neurotransmitters and
neuropeptides represented something else altogether: the
winged, ﬂeeting, sentient intelligence of the mind. The
wonder is that these “intelligent” chemicals are not only
made by the brain, whose function is to think, but by the
immune system, whose primary role is to protect  us from
disease. From the standpoint of a brain chemist, this
sudden expa nsion of messenger molecules adds a new
order of complexity to his work. But for us, the discovery of
“ﬂoating” intelligence conﬁrms the model of the body as a
river. We needed a material basis for claiming that
intelligence ﬂows all through us, and now we have it. Anyone can see that his mind is ﬁlled with a bewildering
ﬂood of impressions that are far too amorphous to pin
down. To describe it, psychology is reduced to equal ly
amorphous terms like the famous phrase stream of
consciousness. Today, as if to ﬁll that stream with water you
can actually see and touch, brain researchers have found
cascades of brain chemicals.


volunteer as enlightened or to discuss what their
experiences were. Religious backgrounds were diverse,
spanning Eastern and Western faiths, yet most of the
subjects had done some kind of spiritual pract ice—they
wanted to be in a higher state of consciousness. Curiously,
around 14 percent had done nothing of this kind. They hadspontaneously popped into higher consciousness or, more
typically, drifted into it. They reporte d being in their new
state anywhere from forty years to as little as two or three. Martin’s research base has expanded to more than a
thousand subjects, which means we must ask ourselves if
“normal” isn’t a ﬁxed state but a spectrum, with
consciousness evolving much further than anyone has
previously predicted. At the very least, higher
consciousness has become much less exotic. It’s no longer
the province of sadhus and yogis in the Himalayas. Martin’s
study focused on body, emotions, sense of self, and
thoughts, which are value neutral, making his work
acceptable in the academy. But he found that the spiritual
dimension had also opene d up. Some subjects reported the
kind of open, clear, silent awareness associated with
Buddhism; others experienced the bliss I discuss in this
chapter. Still others had no idea what to make of their state
of awareness. But they were amazed at the amount of
wellbeing they were experiencing, and this grew as they
moved furth er along the spectrum. (Paradoxically, in
Location 4, all emotion  fell away, even love, and the
richness of bliss was replaced by what Martin calls
complete freedom. Yet his subje cts report that they don’t
miss the experience of emotions and bliss, because in
freedom they have found the very highest state of
wellbeing. ) If it is startlin g to realize that enlightenment is all around
us, and that it’s a natural progression, even more intriguing
is the prospect that enlightenment is personal. The way
that you create your own reality doesn’t suddenly  come to
an end; enlightenment isn’t like jumping oﬀ a divin g board. There are as many kinds of enlightenment as there are
people, one might suppose. In a word, evolution itself is
evolving, like everything else. “Normal” won’t be valid until it broadens to include
everyone on the spectrum of consciousness. We will also
need to revise the old deﬁnitions of enlightenment, in fact,
to conform to the present age. The West has almost no
formal institutions, outside monasteries and convents,
geared for people who want to pursue higher states of
consciousness or who have already arrived there. Here’s
what “normal” should encompass. Feeling unbounded
Being at peace
Having a loose attachment to your personal history
Living in the present
Becoming free of negative thought forms and emotions
Breaking away from traumas and wounds from the past
Accepting that higher consciousness is natural, part of
the human continuum
Experiencing more and more self-awareness as you
evolve
Living in a state of wellbeing that continues to grow and
deepen
A venerated  spiritual teacher was once asked,  “What
does it take to be enlightened. ” His reply: “You no longer
have a personal stake in the world. ” If you identify with the
boundaries erected by “I, me, and mine,” this sounds like a
death sentence. Having a personal stake in the world is
what life is all about, isn’t it. But with a longer view, across
the entire spectrum of consciousness, the opposite is true. When you no longer identify with “I, me, and mine,” you
are ushered into a new world of experience that transcends
the individual. This is the second birth that the Vedas extol
as the true beginning of life. Finally, I ﬁnd it very touching that Martin’s enlightened
subjects, as amazed as they were by their new state,
thought that nothing could be better. “This is as real as it
gets” was a common reaction. But they were wrong. Reality
is inﬁnite, and what makes it inﬁnite isn’t the edge of the
universe racing away faster than the speed of light. The
universe matches human aspirations, and its inﬁnity
reﬂects the inﬁnity inside  us once we wake up and realize
that it exists. * Adapted from Robert K eith W allace’s The Physiology of Consciousness  (M. I. U. Press, 1993). OceanofPDF. comIf asked for an exact deﬁnition of quantum healing, I would
say this: quantum healin g is the ability of one mode of
consciousness (the mind) to spontaneously correct the
mistakes in another mode of consciousness (the body). It is
a completely self-enclosed process. If pressed for a shorter
deﬁnition, I would say simply that quantum healing makes
peace. When consciousness is fragmented, it starts a war in
the mind-body system. This war lies behind many diseases,
giving rise to what modern medicine calls their
psychosomatic component. The rishis might call it “the fear
born of duality,” and they would consider it not a
component but the chief cause of all illness. The body will send many  signals to indicate that a war is
going on. Recently a young French-Canadian woman came
to see me suﬀering from Crohn’s disease, a severe
intestinal disorder characterized by chronic and
uncontrollable diarrhea, accompanied by painful
inﬂammation. Although the cause of Crohn’s disease is
unknown, it strikes mostl y among young adults and may be
connected to a deﬁciency in the immune system. What iswell known is that the intestinal tract is highly sensitive to
emotional states; in this patient’s case, it was not
surprising to hear that she worked long hours under the
high pressure of a downtown Boston advertising ﬁrm. After talking to her for a while, I discovered that she had
learned to meditate several years before. I asked her if she
still kept it up. No, she answ ered, there wasn’t much time
for it; when she did sit down to meditate, it didn’t do much
good, because she usually fell asleep in a few minutes. I then asked if she had adjusted her diet to help her
condition, slowed down the pace of her life, or considered
moving on to a job with less stress. Looking somewhat
impatient, she said no again—she wasn’t going to allow her
disease, which caused her many diﬀiculties, to rule her life. “Look,” I said, “you have  a very serious condition. If this
inﬂammation persists, you may have to have parts of your
intestine surgically remo ved. What are you going to do
about that. ” She was quite knowled geable about her
disease, and I didn’t have to tell her that some grim choices
lay ahead. The surgery in question  involves considerable
disﬁguration, since with part of the intestine removed, a
tube has to be extended  out of the abdomen to handle
elimination. Even then, the disease is not cured and tends
to recur in other parts of the intestine. “That’s why I’m here,” she answered. “I want a mental
technique to help me continue to lead a normal life. ”
I was seeing  the result of what the rishis called Pragya
aparadh,  the mistake of the intellect. This woman’s body
was crying out for healin g, and it was telling her so every
time she had an attack. She couldn’t even close her eyes to
meditate without her body desperately grabbing some
relief in the form of sleep. Yet, her mind interpreted these
attempts at healing as either irrelevant or troublesome. She insisted on leading a “normal life” of high stress that
her system wasn’t equipped to cope with. “This is not the kind of disease you can ﬁght,” I said,
“because there’s no one on the other side but you. ” I
explained that the same neuropeptides that registered
stress in her brain were produced in her intestines. When
she felt fear, frustration, and worry, the identical emotions
were being experienced in her abdomen. I told her that in my opinion she didn’t need any new
mental techn ique—she needed to let her body do what it
wanted to do, which was to get well. The best way to
cooperate with that was to give her body the rest it was
demanding, continue to meditate, change her diet, and
realize that no rewards from her job could possibly
outweigh the danger she had put herself in. Nature was
trying to tell her something very important, and once she
paid attention, her problems would correct themselves. “In a case like yours,” I said, “you already have the best
medicine you could possibly hope for—it’s your own
attention. Right now, the quality of that attention is fearful
and tense, which is why you aren’t getting better. But as
soon as your awareness becomes settled and loses its fear,
your body will recover—it’s up to you. ”
She listened to me with interest, but I sensed that she
resented hearing these things. The mistake of the


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


 of your life. You
run constantly into problems and repeated patterns that have their
origin in your attempt to reproduce the childhood situation so as to
correct it. This unconscious compulsio n is a very strong factor, but is
so deeply hidden from your conscious understanding. The most frequ ent way of attempting to remedy the situation is in
your choice of love partners. Unconsciously you will know how to
choose in the partner aspec ts of the parent who has particularly
fallen short in aection and love that is real and genuine. But you
also seek in your partner aspects of the other parent who has come
closer to meeting your demands. Important as it is to nd both
parents represented in your partners, it is even more important and
more dicult to nd those aspects that represent the parent who
has particularly disappointed and hurt you, the one more resented
or despised and for whom you had little or no love. So you seek theparents again—in a subtle way that is not always easy to detect, in
your marital partners, in your friendships, or in other human
relationships. In your subconscious, the following reactions take
place: Since the child in you cannot let go of the past, cannot come
to terms with it, cannot forgive, cannot understand and accept, this
very child in you always creates similar conditions, trying to win
out in the end in order to nally master the situation instead of
succumbing to it. Losing out means being crushed—thi s must be
avoided at all costs. The costs are high indeed, for the entire
strategy is unfeasible. What the child in you sets out to accomplish
cannot ever come to realization. The Fallacy of this Strategy
This entire procedure is utterly destructive. In the rst place, it is
an illusion that you were defeated. Therefore, it is an illusion that
you can now be victorious. Moreover, it is an illusion that the lack
of love, sad as that may have been when you were a child, is indeed
the tragedy that your subco nscious still feels it to be. The only
tragedy lies in the fact that you obstruct your future happiness by
continuing to reproduce the situation and then attempting to master
it. My friends,  this process is a deeply unconscious one. Of course,
nothing is further from your mind as you focus on your conscious
aims and wishes. It will take a great deal of digging to uncover the
emotions that lead you again  and again into situations where your
secret aim is to remedy childhood woes. In trying to reproduce the childhood situation, you unconsciously
choose a partner with aspects  similar to those of the parent. Yet it is
these very aspects that will make it as impossible to receive the
mature love you rightfully long for now as it was then. Blindly, you
believe that by willing it more strongly and more forcefully, the
parent-partner will now yield, whereas in reality love cannot come
that way. Only when you are free of this ever-continuing repetition,
will you no longer cry to be loved by the parent. Instead, you will
look for a partner or for other human relationships with the aim ofnding the maturity you really need and want. In not demanding to
be loved as a child, you will be equally willing to love. However,
the child in you nds this impossible, no matter how much you may
otherwise be capable of it through development and progress. This
hidden conict eclipses your otherwise growing soul. If you already have a partner, the uncovering of this con ict may
show you how he or she is similar to your parents in certain
immature aspects. But since you now know that there is hardly a
really mature person, these immaturities in your partner will no
longer be the tragedy they were while you constantly sought to nd
your parent or parents again, which of course could never come to
pass. With your existing immaturity and incapacity, you may
nevertheless build a more mature relationship, free of the childish
compulsion to recreate and correct the past. You have no idea how preoccupied your subconscious is with the
process of reenacting the play, so to speak, only hoping  that “this
time it will be dierent. ” And it never is. As time goes on, each
disappointment weighs heavier and your soul becomes more and
more discouraged. For those of my friends who have not yet reached certain depths
of their unexplored subconscious, this may sound quite preposterous
and contrived. However, those of you who have come to see the
power of your hidden trends, compulsions, and images will not only
readily believe  it, but will soon experience the truth of these words
in their own personal lives. You already know from other ndings
how potent are the workings of your subconscious mind, how
shrewdly it goes about its destructive and illogical ways. Reexperiencing the Childhood Hurt
If you learn to look at your problems and unfulllment from this
point of view and follow the usual process of allowing your
emotions to come to the fore, you will gain much further insight. But it will be necessary, my friends, to reexperience the longing and
the hurt of the crying child you were once, even though you werealso a happy one. Your happiness may have been valid and without
self-deception at all. For it is possible to be both happy and
unhappy. You may now be perfectly aware of the happy  aspects of
your childhoo d, but that which hurt deeply and that certain
something you greatly longed for—you did not even quite know
what—you were not aware of. You took the situation for granted. You did not know what was missing or even that there was anything
missing. This basic unhappin ess has to come to awareness now, if
you really want to proceed in inner growth. You have to
reexperience the acute pain you once suered but you pushed out of
sight. Now you have to look at this pain conscio us of the
understanding you have gained. Only by doing this will you grasp
the reality value of your current problems and see them in their true
light. Now, how can you manage to reexperience the hurts of so long ago. There is only one way, my friends. Take a current problem. Strip it
of all the superimposed layers of your reactions. The rst and most
handy layer is that of ration alization, that of “proving” that others,
or situations, are at fault, not your innermost conicts that make
you adopt the wrong attitud e to the actual problem that confronts
you. The next layer might be anger, resentment, anxiety, frustration. Behind all these reactions you will nd the hurt of not being loved. When you experience the hurt of not being loved in your current
dilemma, it will serve to reawaken the childhood hurt. While you
face the present hurt, think back and try to reconsider the situation
with your parents: what they gave you, how you really  felt about
them. You will become aware that in many ways you lacked a
certain something you never clearly saw before—you did not want
to see it. You will nd that this must have hurt you when you were
a child, but you may have forgotten this hurt on a consc ious level. Yet it is not forgotten at all. The hurt of your current problem is the
very same hurt. Now, reevaluate your present hurt, comparing it
with the childhood hurt. At last you will clearly see how it is one
and the same. No matter how true and understandable your present
pain is, it is nevertheless the same childhood pain. A little later you
will come to see how you contributed to bringing about the presentpain because of your desire to correct the childhood hurt. But at
rst you only have to feel the similarity of the pain. However, this
requires considerable eort, for there are many overlaying emotions
that cover the present pain as well as the past one. Before you have
succeeded in crystallizing the pain you are experiencing, you cannot
understand anything further in this respect. Once you can synchronize these two pains and realize that they
are one and the same, the next step is much easier. Then, by
perceiving the repetitious pattern in your various diculties, you
will learn to recognize the similarities between your paren ts and the
people who have caused you hurt or are causing you pain now. Experiencing these similarities emotionally will carry you further on
the particular road toward dissolving this basic conict. Mere
intellectual evaluation will not yield any benet. To be fruitful and
bring real results, the process of giving up the recreatio n must go
beyond mere intellectual knowledge. You have to allow yourself to
feel the pain of certain unfulllments now and also the pain of the
unfulllment of your childhood, then compare the two until, like
two separate picture slides,  they gradually move into focus and
become one. Experiencing the pain of now and the pain of then, you
will slowly come to understand how you thought you had to choose
the current situation becaus e deep inside you could not possibly
admit “defeat. ” Once this happens, the insight you gain, the
experience you feel exactly as I say here, will enable you to take the
next step. It goes without saying


  correlate to
major nerve ganglia branching out from the spinal column,
levels of consciousness, arch etypal elements, developmental
stages of life, colors, sounds, body functions and more. Some people reportedly see the  chakras, de scribing them as
spinning wheels of light and color located along thebackbone, going from the base of the spine to the crown of
the head. Each of the seven  chakras  has a physical, an emotional, a creative
and a spiritual c omponent (see chart overleaf). Colin Hall, the spa
manager at the Ananda, likens the spine to an elevator shaft of
ener gy and the  chakras  as the various floors in the building of our
body from which to view and e xperience life. When we rise from
one floor to another within our consciousness, our perspective
changes and expands. “Based upon the area of consci ousness that it influences, each
chakra  has its own purpose in the body,” he explains. “In simple
terms, we have a  chakra  for each issue that we commonly think
about.” He goes on to say that our thoughts have a direct
relationship with our state of h ealth. For example, love and faith
based thoughts result in a smoot h ener gy flow through the  chakras
and thus the physical body. W orry, obsession and fear based
thoughts af fect the  chakra  that relates to the issues we are thinking
about, th us caus ing a blockage o r restriction in the flow of ener gy to
that part of the body. Chakra  therapists note that each  chakra  is found next to or
near a hormonal gland in the body, so the  chakras  have the ability
to push life ener gy or  prana  through the body to ensure vit ality. These ener gy centers receive and radiate ener gy constantly, acting
as storeh ouses and transmitters of universal ener gy as well. T hey
say that it is nec essary to balance the  chakras  from time to time to
ef fectively regulate this flow. According to yoga masters, disharmony on a physical, mental or
spiritual level may be corrected by certain postures that concent rate
the brea th on the abdominal are a.  Pranayama  is especially active
on the  chakras, while the A yurvedic therapy o f pouring medicated
oils on to the  chakras  (chakradhara ) also ef fectively regulates the
proper flow  prana. “It is particularly useful for people who have
improper lifestyle habits,” explains A yurvedic physician, Dr
Sreenarayanan, also of Ananda. “Their  chakras  are bloc ked as a
result of  stress, tension, bad diet, lack of exercise and so on. The
therapy acts on the immune system, releasing ener gy flows,
reducing anxiety and allowing the mind to become still and quiet.”Furthermore,  chakras  may be balance d by placing th e hands
gently over them, a few inches above the physical body. In this
process, the recipient may be receptive to a flowing or w arm
sensation believed to be the transmission of universal ener gy. Known as Reiki in the W est, practitioners say it helps harmonize the
body’ s biological and emotional systems. As universal ener gy is
received, the “doors” for self-he aling are opened — and people  use
it for pain manag ement and stress-relief as well as for more spiri tual
goals.A  chakradhara  session at Ananda, in the Himalayas, concentrates on the fifth
chakra, the one that is related to creativity and communication. Chakradhara  is
often recommended after a period of  panchakarma  (see pages 46–49), for
patients with high cholesterol or diabetes and for those who suffer from anxiety
and stress.Some of the wold’ s principal oyster  beds lie along the coasts of India, so
references to mother-of-pearl and pearls are abundant in the Indian epics. They
are potent when applied to the skin — as a powder or whole — especially on the
chakras.A Reiki master lays his hands above a client at Mandarin Oriental Dhara Devi. Both calm ing and spiritual, Reiki involves the laying of hands on, or above, the
body’ s  chakras  to balance and heal. THE SEVEN CHAKRASChakra Seven:
Thought, universal identity, oriented to self-knowledge
The crown  chakra  relates to consciousness as pure awareness. It is
our conn ection to the greater world beyond, and, when develo ped,
brings knowledge, wisdom, understanding, spiritual connection and
bliss. Chakra Six:
Light, archetypal identity, oriented to self-reflection
The brow  chakra  or third eye cen ter is related to the act of seeing,
both physically  and intuitively. As such, it opens our psychic
faculties and gives us greater understanding of “the big picture”. Chakra Five:
Sound, creative identity, oriented to self-expression
The throat  chakra  is related to communication and creativity. By
experiencing the world symbolically through vibration (ie the
vibration of sound representing language), a healthy fifth  chakra
results in expressiveness and erudition. Chakra Four:
Air, social identity, oriented to self-acceptance
The heart  chakra  is the middle  chakra  in the system of seven. It is
related t o love and is the integra tor of opposites in the psyche: mind
and body, male and female, per sona and shadow, ego and unity. A
healthy fourth  chakra  allows us to love deeply, feel compassion
and experience a profound sense of peace and centeredness. Chakra Three:
Fire, ego identity, oriented to self-definition
Located in the solar plexus, this  chakra  is known as the power
chakra. It rules  our personal power, will and autonomy, as well as
our metabolism. When healthy, it brings ener gy, ef fectiveness,
spontaneity and non-dominating power. Chakra T wo:
Water, emotional identity, oriented to self-gratification
Located in the abdomen, lower back and sexual or gans, the second
chakra  connects us to others through feeling, desire, sensation and
movement. Ideally, this  chakra  brings us fluidity and grace, depth
of feeling, sexual fulfillment and the ability to accept change. Chakra One:
Earth, physical identity, oriented to self-preservation
Located at the base of the spine, this  chakra  forms our foundation. It is rela ted to our survival instincts, our sense of grounding an d tothe physical plane. When healthy, this  chakra  brings health,
prosperity, security and dynamic presence.nattu vaidya
the barefoot doctor
Throughout India, people re ceive medical help from both
qualified and non-qualified practitioners. As we have no ted
previously, there are four traditional systems practiced in
India — A yurveda, Siddha, Unani and T ibetan medicine —
all of which are based on humoral pathology. Since
Independence in the 1940s, each has built up a solid base of
medical colleg es imparting education in five-and-a-half y ear
programs. They have been joined by a fifth: the study of
Naturopathy. C urrently, only  graduates of such recognized
medical schools are legally entitled to practice medic ine,
and it is believed that th ere are around 600,000 such
licensed practitioners. Be that as it may, there are, in addition, literally hundreds of
thousands of nonqualified healers servicing the health and welfare
needs of  India’ s huge population. Often, they comprise families that
have pra cticed their individual skills for centuries — and are well
known in the co mmunity. Some such practitioners may have s ome
rudimentary education as well, but economic and other factors may
have res ulted in their medical t raining being cut short. Others are
completely unqu alified on paper, indeed they may even be illiterate,
but they are th e recipients of countless generations of hea ling
knowledge. As such, they are hugely skilled — and a vital part of any
community.There are numerous examples of such traditional healers, all of
whom fall into a category that can loosely be termed the “bare foot
doctor” or  nattu vaidya. The village midwife :
Each vil lage has  at least one traditional birth attendant known as a
dai. T hese women are skilled in de livering not only healthy babies,
but have  knowledge of breach births, stillborn fetuses and ba bies
with um bilical cords round their necks. Often coming from a family
of m idwives, they are skilled i n ante-natal and post-natal care as
well. A sign by the door of Mysore-based Mohammed Khasim’ s practice. The son of
Abdul Gafar, a renowned bone specialist who treated the Maharajah of Mysore’ s
family, his skills have been handed down from father to son.Even though there are thousands of Unani doctors, more than 100 medical


 and  com pass and in later  practice  has the abilit y to
reflect  light. When it is fully  develope d, it can  see the true light  of
creation  and will guide  the spirit  back  to the  place  of its origin. (Fig. 6.8)
(B) Pituitary  Gland Chi
   From the pineal  gland  the sensation  descends  into the next  gland
along  the hormonal  path way the pituitary  gland,  situated  at the  hind
part of the  third  eye energ y center. This gland  has a  wide range  of
effects  upon  growth, metabolis m and  other  functions  of the  body. Taoists believe  the pituitar y gland  governs  intelligence,  thoug ht and
memory. The pituitary  is the  master gland  from  which all other
glands  are activated. (C) Thyroid  and Parathyroid Gland s’ Chi
    As the  energy  continues  to descend  the hormonal  path way the
thyroid and parat hyroid glands  become activated. The thy roid gland
is situated  on either  side  of the trache a, or windpipe, close to  the
larynx and arising  from the  sam e tissue,  and almost from  the sam e
spot,  as the  anterior  of the pituitar y gland. Opposite  the C-7 point,
the thyroid gland  corres ponds to the C- 7 energ y center. It is the
gland  that is vitally  important  to gro wth. Heavier  in the  female than
in the  male, this gland  beco mes enlarged  during  sexual excite ment,
menstruation,  and pregna ncy. The Taoists  consider  this an energy
gland,  regulati ng the me tabolism  of the  cells in the  body, and one
of the  most im portant  centers  because  it controls  the growth and
development  of the  body  and mind. It is also consider ed the great
link bet ween the brain  and the reprod uctive  organs. (D) Thymus Gland Chi
   Next in  the descen ding order  of the  hormonal  path way is the
thymus  gland,  or gland  of rejuvenation,  located  at the gland  of
- 148  -Chapter  VI
When fully develope d, the
Pineal Gland beco mes the
compass gui ding the sp irit to
the pr imeval Tao. Fig. 6.8 Activating the Pineal Gland
- 149  -Orgasmic Upward Draw
 heart  ener gy center  and descending  from, covering  and overlap ping
the upper  portio n of the heart. This is a l ymphoid  organ  (related  to
the lymphatic  glands  which reaches  its greatest  size at the  beginni ng
of puber ty and gradu ally diminishes  in side  and activity  as time
goes  on. The Taoists consider  this to  be a  gland  that,  when prope rly
activated  and harmonized  with the energ y from the  pituitar y gland
energy  center  and the genera tive force  of the  sexual  organs,  can
reverse  the aging  process. (E) Pancreas  Gland Chi
   The energ y then  descends  to the  pancre as, located  betw een
the lower part of the  stomach betw een the liver  and spleen. The
pancreas  is a gland  that maintains control  over  digestion,  body
temperatur e and blood  sugar  levels. (F) Adrenal Glands Chi
    Next, in  descendin g order  are the adrenal  glands  situated  atop
the kidney s at the  adrenal  glands’  energ y center  or T-11. The adrenal
glands’,  or energ y glands’,  function  is to  support  the kidney s, but
they are also the  major producers  of adre nalin  in the  body. Adrenalin
is a hormone  which stim ulates  the heart,  thymus gland,  liver spleen
and pancreas. In addition,  the adren al glands  suppo rt the functions
of the  kidne ys, spine  and nervous  system, brain,  bones  and bone
marrow. Stimulation  of the adre nal glands  adds  strength  and
alertness  to both  physical and mental activity. (G) Sex Gland s Chi
   Stimulation  of the  kidney s occurs  when the kidney  meridian
running  through  the breasts  is ma ssaged. In turn,  all the other  glands
beco me stimulated  until  finall y the sexual orga ns, last in descendin g
order  of the  hormone  path way, beco me energized. Horm one
secretions  from the  sex glands  are responsi ble for sexual  respons e,
sexual  energy  and reproducti on. The sex glands  include  the vagina,
uterus  and breasts,  but it is the  Ovarian  Palace  which houses  the
woma n’s sexual  energ y center. All other  ener gy now is aw akened. Balancing  and raising  the energy  level  of the  glands  in the  body
is an important  part of the  Taoist w ay of developi ng, healing  and
strengthe ning the physical body. This is crucial to the  higher  levels
of practice  in which all the  glands  provide  nourishment to  the
formation  of a spiritual  body. - 150  -Chapter  VI
(2) Organ  Chi Arousal
  With the glands  activated,  a respons e can be felt in  the organs. This response  will have  physical and mental manifestations
described  as follo ws:
(A) Lung and Large Intestine  Chi (Fig. 6.9)
   The first  Chi that  can be felt  is the  Chi of the  lungs  and their
associated  organ,  the large  intestine. The prope rties of the  lungs
are dryness and coolness:  their  virtue  energies  are courag e and
righteous ness. The feeling  of righteousn ess can be as differe nt as
each  person. It might feel  straight  or tall, or like a bright  white color
pure,  fresh  and uplifting. Feel  this ener gy gener ate from the  lungs. The negative  emotions  of the  lungs  are sadness  and grief. The
feelings  can be experience d as flat, or  like a collapsed  ball:  they
can be gra y, musty, cold  and low, with no force:  dow ntrodden. Since
you do not  like to  feel this w ay, cultivate  good  virtue  and connect
yourself with the good  feelings  of the lungs  mentioned  above:  pure,
fresh,  uplifting. Bring  these  good  feelings  to the breasts. The lungs’  Chi readin ess is ma nifested  physicall y by faster
breathin g and copious  saliva, w hich you feel mu st be  swallowed
quickly. These  signs  indicate  that the Chi of the  lungs  is read y to
come forth. (B) Heart and S mall Intestine  Chi (Fig. 6.10 )
   Second  is heart  Chi: the  heart’s  associated  organ  is the  small
intestine. The heart  contains  hot energ y. Its virtues  are hono r;
respect,  joy and happiness. These virtues  are man ifested  in feeling
straight  and open:  they  are bright  red, warm, full, comfortable,
secure  and satisf ying. The negative  manifestations  of heart  and
small intestine  Chi are  impatience,  hastiness  and cruelty. This can
feel spiny  or sharp,  muddy,  burnt,  noisy, irregul ar and irritating,  all
feelings  that you do not like  to have  in your system. The ph ysical manifestations  of heart  energy  are revealed  by
observing  the tongue  becoming mobile, saliva seeming to  overflo w,
and a gro wling sound  emanating  from the  throat. These  are signs
that the Chi of the  heart  is prepare d.
- 151  -Orgasmic Upward Draw
Lungs
Large Intestin es
Ovaries
Fig. 6.9 Lung s and Large Intestine  Chi
- 152  -Chapter  VI
Heart
Small Intestines
Ovaries
Fig. 6.10  Heart and Small  Intestine Chi
- 153  -Orgasmic Upward Draw
Stomach
   Spleen
Pancre as
Ovaries
Fig. 6.11  Spleen,  stom


Special Notes ................................................................................................
Bread .........................................................................................................
Yogurt .......................................................................................................
Sweeteners ................................................................................................
Washing Fruits and Vegetables.............................................................
Baking .......................................................................................................
Cooking Time/Serving Size ...................................................................
Special Soup or Hippocrates Soup........................................................
Recipes...........................................................................................................
Dips ...........................................................................................................
Appetizers.................................................................................................
Dressings ..................................................................................................
Salads.........................................................................................................
Soups ......................................................................................................... 3
Vegetables and Potatoes.........................................................................
Desserts..................................................................................................... 9
Preparing Food and Juices—
The Basic Rules
A first-rate soup is more
creative than a second-rate painting. —Abraham Maslow
ssuming that your kitchen is now fully equipped for your healing
Gerson routine, and that you have banished from your home all
forbidden foods and substances, the moment has come to find out aboutthe all-important task of food preparation. The rules are simple, butthey must be observed faithfully to secure the best results. All food must be organic and as fresh as possible. Ideally, we should
be able to gather fresh, living food from our own organic gardens;unfortunately, this is not an ideal world and we must compromise. Thenext best thing is to shop frequently for salad and leaf vegetables insmallish amounts so there is no need to keep them for any length oftime. Apples, pears, oranges and root vegetables can be stored for awhile without significant loss of quality. The two most important basic rules of food preparation are the
following:
• All foods must be prepared with great care in order to pre-
serve nutrients as much as possible. Cooking must be slow,using low heat; high temperatures alter nutrients in vegetablesand cause them to be less easily absorbed. Vegetables shouldA
$PPLCPPL5 he Gerson Way
not be peeled—valuable nutrients are contained in or immedi-
ately underneath their skins—and only washed or well
scrubbed. Except for potatoes, corn and whole beets, which
have to be boiled in sufficient water, vegetables are cooked
with the minimum of water or soup stock (see “Special Soup
or Hippocrates Soup,”) or on a bed of sliced onions and
tomatoes, which release enough moisture to keep the vegeta-
bles from burning. Remember that oxidation, with loss of
nutrients, sets in as soon as you cut into a vegetable or fruit;
only start chopping when you are ready to cook. •Food must be tasty, varied and enjoyable to make up for being
very different from the so-called normal Western diet. Varietyhelps to stimulate appetite. It also supplies a wide range ofminerals and trace elements needed by the body to heal.Remember the importance of eye appeal! Salads in particularcan be made truly tempting by mixing green leaves withchopped tomatoes and multicolored peppers, adding radishes
and a smattering of chives. A small vase of flowers on the dining table can work wonders in mak-
ing the meal taste even better. The Gerson diet strikes a fine balance between raw and cooked foods. The ample main meals may suggest to some patients that much of their
food is cooked, but this is not the case. Meals begin with huge helpings
of raw salad and end with raw fruit, and the daily ration of 13 glasses of
freshly made juice is as raw as can be. Cooked foods are necessary. Dr.
Gerson’s experience showed that patients do not digest well if given
only raw foods along with the juices. In fact, cooked foods provide addi-
tional variety and enable patients to eat more than they would on an
exclusively raw diet. They also supply soft bulk, which promotes thedigestion of the raw foods and juices. The most popular item on the list of cooked foods is the “Special
Soup or Hippocrates Soup” that helps to detoxify the kiEOFZT
and is highly comforting, especially in cold weather.  All cookedPreparing Food and Juices—The Basic Rules
foods serve as a kind of “blotting paper” in the stomach, helping to deal
with the constant intake of large amounts of juice. Even so, cookedfoods only account for some 3 to 4 pounds of the patient’s daily con-sumption, while raw foods, mostly made into juices, represent some 17pounds! THE ALL-IMPORTANT JUICES
Only four kinds of juice are used in the treatment of all categories ofpatients, except for a few minor exceptions. The basic juices are:
• Apple/carrot juice• Carrot-only juice• Green juice• Orange juiceOccasionally, for special cases, a different juice may have to be substi-
tuted. For example, diabetics receive grapefruit juice instead of orangejuice, since grapefruit contains less sugar; sometimes a fruit juice, suchas apple juice, is given to patients with collagen diseases who should notdrink citrus juice. Apple/Carrot Juice
Use approximately 8 ounces each of carrots and apples. Wash and brush(do not peel), grind to a pulp and place in a cloth supplied with thepress-type juicer to press. Serve and drink immediately. Carrot-Only Juice
Use approximately 10-12 ounces of carrots. Wash and brush (do notpeel), grind to a pulp and place in a cloth supplied with the press-typejuicer to press. Serve and drink immediately. $PPLCPPL5IF  Gerson Way
Green Juice
Use romaine, red leaf lettuce, endive, escarole, two to three leaves of red
cabbage, young inner beet tops, Swiss chard, a quarter of a small greenpepper and watercress. Add one medium apple when grinding. Procureas many of these materials as possible. If some of the above items are notavailable, do not  use substitutes, such as spinach or celery. Grind the
material to a pulp and place in a cloth for pressing. This juice must bedrunk immediately since its enzymes die quickly. Orange (or Grapefruit) Juice
Use only a reamer-type juicer, electric or hand operated. Do not squeezethe peel of the fruit. The aromatic oils contained in the skin are harmfuland would interfere with the treatment.Recipes
ast, but far from least, this chapter contains a treasury of recipes
that add variety, pleasure and super-healthy nutrition to Gerson-
style meals. However, there are some important points to remember:
•Study and learn by heart the basic rules for food preparation
described in, “Preparing Food and Juices—The  Basic
Rules”. • If you are a Gerson patient, newly embarked on the full inten-
sive therapy, you need to limit your food intake to the basic
recipes for the first three months  and eat no dairy products
for the first six to 10 weeks. • After three months, you may introduce some variety by using
different salads, dressings and vegetable courses. •The “Special Soup or Hippocrates Soup” and the  baked
potato are essential parts of the healing diet and must  not be
omitted. If you are not ill but wish to improve your health and well-being by
switching to the Gerson lifestyle, you may of course enjoy the recipes
freely. Please use the slow, low heat, waterless or minimum-water cook-
ing method, in order to preserve precious  nutrients. L$PPLCPPL5IF(FSTPO8BZ
SPECIAL NOTES
Bread
You will find no recipes for bread or other flour-based baked goods in
this chapter. The only acceptable bread—unsalted, organic 100% ryebread—is available at good health food stores, so there is no point inbaking bread at home. Patients are allowed two small slices of bread aday, but only after eating the complete Gerson meals consisting of salad,soup and potato with vegetables and fruit. Bread must not take the placeof any of these items. Yogurt
Yogurt, when permitted, must be certified organic and fat free (orextremely low fat). A few recipes refer to “yogurt.” To make this, hangsome regular yogurt, placed in several layers of cheesecloth, over thesink or in a cheesecloth-lined strainer over a bowl, and allow it to drainovernight
Sweeteners
The only permitted sweeteners are:
• Organic raw brown sugar, which is available in various shades
ranging from light beige to dark brown
• Organic clear honey• Organic maple syrup• Unsulph


?”
a discip le once queried his guru. “Yes,” his master replied, “but you see
yourself in the world, I see the world in myself. This minor perceptual shift
makes all the dif ference between freedom and bondage.”
All of us are in bondage to the disorder we create by seeing ourselves as
separate and isolated. The perfect example is the Type A personality with
its driven, frustrated behavior, its constant sense of being pressured by
deadlines. Unable to relax into any kind of acceptance or flow, such a
person nurtures his past hurts as anger; this repressed turmoil gets projected
into the environment as hostility, impatience, blame, and unacknowledged
panic. Endlessly  trying to control others, such a person reacts to minor
stresses with harsh criticism of both self and others. In the act of creating so
much chaos, the Type A person, particularly in the business world, is
deluded into thinking that he or she is competing successfully. In actuality,
the level of efficient work is very low, and as frustrations mount, the
feedback the Type A personality receives from his or her extended body
creates more havoc within the physical body. Cholesterol and blood
pressure rise; the heart is subje cted to needless stressful arousal, seriously
increasing the risk of a fatal heart attack or stroke. Type A is an extreme example  of the harm created by not interacting
harmoniously with one’s extended body. As we will see, perceiv ed stress in
the environment is directly related to most of the age changes that overtake
everyone. What makes us old isn’t the stress so much as it is the perception
of stress. Someone who doesn’ t see the world “out there” as a threat can
coexist with the environment, free of the damage created by the stress
response. In many ways, the most important thing you can do to experience
a world without aging is to nurture the knowledge that the world is you.8. Time is not absolute. The underlying r eality of all things is
eternal, and what we call time is r eally quantified eternity. Although our bodies, and the whole physical world, are a display of
constant change, there is more to reality than process. The universe was
born and is evolving. When it was born, time and space came into
existence. Befor e the instant of the Big Bang, time and space didn’ t exist as
we know them. Yet the rational mind finds it nearly impossible to ask
questions such as “What came before time?” and “What is bigger than
space?” Even Einstein, when he was a young physicist working out
quantum principles for the first time, held on to the old notion, embraced by
Newton, that the universe existed in a steady state—time and space were
eternal constants, never born and never dying. This steady-state version of reality is still the one our five senses report
back to us about. You cannot see or feel time as it speeds up or slows down,
even though Einstein proved that time does this; you cannot sense space as
it expands or contracts, yet this too is part of a rhythmic universe. To go
even further, to imagine those dimensionless regions where time and space
are born, requires a radical shift in perception. This shift is forced upon us
because the universe had to have some kind of timeless source—and the
same holds true for us. You perceive yourself as existing in time because your body is composed
of change; to change, one must have a flow or sequence. In this sequence
there is a before and after—before this breath was the last breath, after this
heartbeat will be the next heartbeat. But theoretically, if you had the time
and the equipme nt, you could make an EKG of all the heartbeats someone
has had in a lifetime, and by holding the printout in your hands, you would
have past, present, and future contained in one place. You could look at it
upside down or backward; you could fold it in half so that the last heartbeat
and the first one were next to each other. This kind of manipulation is what quantum physics reveals about the
most basic space-time events in Nature. As they exchange energy states,
two particles can move backward in time as easily as forward; things that
happened in the past can be altered by energy events in the future. The
whole notion of time as an arrow shooting inexorably forward has beenshattered forever in the complex geometries of quantum space, where
multidimensional strings and loops carry time in all directions and even
bring it to a halt. The only absolute left to us is the timeless, for now we realize that our
entire universe is just one incid ent springing forth out of a larger reality. What we sense as seconds, minutes, hours, days, and years are cut-up bits
of this larger reality. It is up to you, the perceiver, to cut up the timeless any
way you like; your awareness creates the time you experience. Someone
who experience s time as a scarce commodity that is constan tly slipping
away is creating a completely different personal reality from someone who
perceives that he has all the time in the world. Is your day full of time
pressure? Do you suffer the breathless, panicky symptom s of “time
sickness,” whic h the body translates into rapid or irregular heartbeat,
distorted digestive rhythms, insomnia, and high blood pressure? These
individual differences express how we perceive change, for the perception
of change creates our experience of time. When your attention is in the past or the future, you are in the field of
time, creating aging. One Indian  master who seemed remarkably young for
his age explained this by saying, “Most people spend their lives either in the
past or the future, but my life is supremely concentrated in the present.”
When a life is concentrated in the present, it is most real, because the past
and future are not impinging upon it. At this instant, where are the past and
future? Nowhere. Only the present moment exists; past and future are
mental projections. If you can free yourself of these projections, trying
neither to relive the past nor to control the future, a space is opened for a
completely new experience—the experience of ageless body and timeless
mind. Being able to identify with a reality that is not bounded by time is
extremely important; otherwise there is no escape from the decay that time
inevitably bring s. You can catch a glimpse of timelessness with a simple
mind-body exercise: Choose a time of day when you feel relaxed and
unpressured. Sit quietly in a comfortable chair and take off your watch,
placing it nearby so that you can easily refer to it without having to lift it or
move your head very much. Now close your eyes and be aware of your
breathing. Let your attention easily follow the stream of breath going in andout of your body. Imagine your whole body rising and falling with the flow
of each breath. After a minute or two, you will be aware of warmth and
relaxation pervading your muscles. When you feel very settled and quiet inside, slowly open your eyes and
peek at the second hand of your watch. What’ s it doing? Depend ing on how
relaxed you are, the second hand will behave in different ways. For some
people, it will have stopped entirely, and this effect will last anywhere from
one to perhaps three seconds. For other people, the second hand will
hesitate for half a second, then jump into its normal ticking. Still other
people will perceive the second hand moving, but at a slower pace than
usual. Unless you have tried this little experiment, it seems very unlikely,
but once you have had the experience of seeing a watch stop, you will never
again doubt that time is a product of perception. The only time there is is
the one you are aware of. You can learn to take your awareness into the region of timele ssness at
will—meditation is the classic technique for mastering this experience. In
meditation the active mind is withdrawn to its source; just as this changing
universe had to have a source beyond change, your mind, with all its
restless activity, arises from a state of awareness beyond thought, sensation,
emotion, desire, and memory. This is a profound personal experi ence. In the
state of timeles s or transcendent awareness, you have the sensation of
fullness. In place of change, loss, and decay, there is steadiness and
fulfillment. You sense that the infinite is everywhere. When this experience
becomes a reality, the fears associated with change disappear; the
fragmentation of eternity into seconds, hours, days, and years becomes
secondary, and the perfection of every moment becomes primary. Now that meditation has entered mainstream Western cultural
experience, researchers have applied scientific measureme nts to the
subjective experience of silence, fullness, and eternity. They have
discovered that the physiological state of meditators under goes definite
shifts toward more efficient functioning. Hundreds of individual findings
show lowered respiration, reduced oxygen consumption, and decreased
metabolic rate. In terms of aging, the most significant conclusio n is that the
hormonal imbalance associated with stress—and known to speed up the
aging process—is reversed. This in turn slows or even reverses the agingprocess, as measured by various biological changes associated with
growing old. From my experien ce with studies on people using  meditation,
it has been established that long-term med