 appetite, irregular
elimination, heartburn, gas, and spasmodic pain of the stomach and
intestines. Volatile Liver Qi rushes  up against the descending Lung
Qi, jamming movement in the throat, chest, and diaphragm. This
results in tightness of the larynx and esophagus, pain between the
ribs, and shallow breathing or wheezing.
When Liver Qi is exhausted, movement, excitation, and pulsation
dwindle. Spleen Qi  sinks and stagnates. Lung Qi  tightens and shrinks.
Without the mobilizing force of the Liver, the Moisture  of the Spleen
collects, turning into edema, and the Moisture  of the Lung congealsand turns into phlegm. The muscles become heavy and sti,
circulation becomes sluggish, and Cold and Wind  penetrate easily,
leading to aches and pains of the joints and tendons.
In the psyche, a distorted Liver-Spleen  relationship engenders
conict around  the need for change and stability, adventure and
continuity, hyperactivity and inertia, and between impulsiveness
and indecisiveness. Dissonance between Liver-Lung  foments a
struggle between expressiveness and self-restraint, fervor and
indierence, spontaneity and reserve, chaos and order.
Because she’s a Wood  type, Sally is predisposed to unbridled Liver
Qi, which generates excess pressure and tension to produce
hyperactivity, heat, spasm, and volatility. Eventually overwork, lack
of proper nutrition, and prolonged emotional intensity deplete Blood
and Moisture, leaving Sally reactive, dry, fatigued, restless, sullen,
and depressed, especially before her period.
The therapeutic strategy needed to assist Sally in recovering her
equilibrium includes relieving pressure, dispelling Heat, relaxing
spasm, and replenishing Blood  and Moisture. Exercise that includes
stretching and softening muscles will relieve pressure and spasm
and equalize circulation between her extremities, chest, and
abdomen. This cools her head while warming her hands and feet.
Appropriate herbs and foods will nourish Blood, restore Moisture,
encourage circulation, and dispel Heat and Wind. Acupuncture will
foster the ecient function of her internal organs by modulating the
movement of Qi and Blood, quieting her mind, and tempering her
mercurial moods.
Sally tends to use up all her available energy and to rest only
when she is exhausted, rather than sustain adequate reserves. Her
pacing and timing are critical—activity and work need to be
balanced by adequate leisure, and she must learn to be comfortable
with the feeling of energy without experiencing a compulsion to
expend it immediately.
WOOD: Liver  PatternsHarmonic
Collapsed
Exaggerated
Harmonic  and Dissonant Patterns
In the harmonic Liver  pattern, the Kidney  and Heart  maintain stability
while the Spleen  and Lung provide the tension necessary for
movement and adaptation. In the exaggerated Liver pattern, the
Kidney  and Heart  become hyperactive, and the Spleen  and Lung
become hypersensitive and erratic. In the collapsed  pattern, the
Kidney  and Heart  become drained and weakened while the Spleen
and Lung become overbearing and congested.
Whereas Sally is a composite sketch of a Wood  type, acting out
exaggerated  and collapsed  scenarios, Dan is a real patient who sought
help for a very particular problem. Dan ts the Wood  pattern
because his talents and style of operating as well as the problems he
experiences under duress correspond to the mode of action and the
character of the Liver Network. Like Sally, he has the strengths and
weaknesses of Wood.
DAN: HOW COME I’M NOT BETTER YESTERDAY?
Dan marches into the clinic as if he owns the place. Dropping his
coat and briefcase on a chair, he spreads out onto the couch. By
bellowing that he’s arrived, he commands immediate and total
attention.
Dan complains of needing to eat every few hours to avoid feeling
weak, dizzy, and congested in his chest and throat. This congestion
obstructs his free access to air, provoking anxiety, which then
triggers rapid breathing and feeling faint, hot, and nauseated. His
physician has told him that he has hypoglycemia and food allergies.
Dan declares, “I’ve been all over the place and done all the tests. I’m
fed up with not getting results. I hear you’re good, and I want you to
cure me. Which room do you want me in? I have another
appointment in an hour.”As Dan lies down on the treatment table, he says, “I’m thirty-ve,
I’ve lived in numerous cities, and started many businesses. Six years
ago I could run all day, go without a meal until dinner, and work all
night. Now I not only have to sleep, but I have to get up in the
middle of the night for a snack. If I wait too long, I wake up with a
headache poun ding in my temples. This thing is interfering with my
freedom. I can’t just go to any restaurant because if I eat the wrong
foods, my chest tightens up and my head gets stuy. I’ve had to
forgo even an occasional drink over business. Fix me. By the way,
there’s one other little problem. Sometimes I can’t get it up, and
when I do, boom it’s over. I never used to have any trouble in that
department.”
Dan’s body is well proporti oned and muscular. He points to a
midri bulge that is another  recent acquisition, which he attributes
to his craving for the abunda nt carbohydrates that keep him going.
He has been told to eat a lot of protein, but beef often causes
allergic reactions.
TREATMENT
Dan’s tongue is enlarged and pale with greasy yellowish-white fur
and a red line that goes from the tip along both edges. His face and
neck are slightly ushed. His pulse is quick and taut, as well as
weak and soft in the positions that correspond to the Spleen  and
Kidney. Dan begins to look anxious and fearful of the acupuncture
needles and wants to know how long this treatment will take. In
response to his temerity, I choose three points: between the thumb
and forenger on the Large Intestine  meridi an; between the rst and
second toe on the Liver meridian; and above the inside ankle on the
Spleen  meridi an. Dan feels every needle strongly, even with mild
stimulation. Slight perspirati on forms on his upper lip, palms, and
feet.
Within ten minutes after the needles are in place, Dan falls into a
deep sleep with slow, regula r breathing and a serene expression on
his face. After twenty minut es the needles are removed, and Dancomments that he feels mellow but a bit uneasy being so relaxed
since he’s accustomed to operating at a fast pace.
He gets back into his tie, jacket, and shoes without rushing,
announcing, “I feel great. So is this it, or do I need more treatment?”
I let Dan know this is the beginning of an ongoing process that
requires more acupuncture, herbs, and a modication of his diet.
Total reliance on convenient carbohydrates like bread and pasta for
quick energy must be replace d by more complex carbohydrates like
rice, protein-rich legumes, and fat-free animal foods that will
generate and sustain energy without creating stagnation. High-ber
foods, both raw and cooked, will help to disperse Qi by stimulating
intestinal activity; steamed and boiled foods will help to disperse
phlegm and at the same time moisturize and eliminate Heat Dan
needs to avoid greasy, spicy, and creamy foods, which tend to create
congestion of Qi and Moisture  and accumulation of Heat and phlegm.
Since he has lost the ability to regulate his own metabo lism, his
body requires reeducation. Success will depend on modifying his
diet, work style, and sleep pattern, as well as receiving acupuncture
and herbal treatments. Acupuncture enables Dan to experience how
it feels to function eectively without always being in “overdrive.”
He agrees to try this approach for a while and leaves the clinic with
herbs that disperse Qi and Moisture  and tonify the Spleen. He takes
these herbs before eating to improve his assimilation, help him last
longer between meals, and lessen his allergic reactio ns. In the
morning and evening he takes a constitutional formula that
harmonizes the Liver and Spleen. This relaxes the Liver, activates the
Spleen, eliminates Heat and Wind, and both nurtures and distributes
Qi and Blood.
INTERPRETATION AND  STRATEGY
Erratic intensity and hyperfunction characterize Dan. He has been in
overdrive for so long that he cannot slow down without feeling
unnatural, even threatened. He becomes bound up and volatile
without the constant opportunity for discharging his nervousness.This exaggerated Liver pattern oppresses the Spleen, resulting in an
inability to accumulate reserves, demonstrated by his major
complaint—the inability to endure too long without eating.
The dynamic of the Liver dominating and overstimulating the
St


	to	concentrate
fixedly	on	a	technique	or	spiritual	exercise	with	commitment	and	dedication.
Thus,	there	is	a	resolution	of	purpose	and	a	willingness	to	let	go	of	everything
or	anything	based	upon	one’s	profound	belief	and	faith	in	a	spiritual	teaching
or	truth.	In	general,	there	is	a	willingness	to	forgive	and	love	rather	than	to
hate	and	condemn.	There	is	a	willingness	to	forsake	the	lesser	for	the	greater
and	a	desire	to	understand	rather	than	to	judge.	The	reason	people	with
spiritual	interests	seem	to	congregate	is	because	they	have	a	preference	for
peace	and	tranquility	over	stimulation	and	excitement.	Perhaps	the	most
useful	tool	is	the	capacity	for	humility	and	the	realization	of	the	limitations	of
ordinary	consciousness	and	their	consequences.	To	ensure	the	validity	of
one’s	direction	of	endeavor,	it	is	crucial	to	calibrate	the	level	of	truth	of	every
teaching,	teacher,	guru,	or	spiritual	group.
Historically,	it	can	be	seen	that	mankind	stumbles	on	blindly,	much	likeships	did	in	the	unmarked	oceans,	without	a	compass	or	maps.	Literally
hundreds	of	millions	of	people	throughout	time	have	been	destroyed	for	lack
of	a	simple	technique	to	overcome	the	mind’s	incapacity	to	tell	a	sheep	from	a
wolf	in	sheep’s	clothing.	Whole	nations	have	gone	down;	whole	civilizations
have	died	from	following	propaganda,	slogans,	and	belief	systems	that,	when
muscle	tested,	make	one	go	weak.	Although	the	muscle-testing	technique	may
sound	simple	and	crude,	so	was	the	discovery	of	the	lodestone	for	use	as	a
compass.
Most	people	on	the	planet	today	owe	their	survival	to	things	that	were
once	thought	unscientific	and	crude,	such	as	the	dirty-looking	growth	of	mold
on	a	petri	dish	that	was	observed	to	be	able	to	kill	bacteria.	This	little
discovery	led	to	antibiotics	and	thereby	increased	mankind’s	quality	of	health
and	expected	longevity.
The	naïve	seeker	is	fair	game	for	any	and	all	would-be	captors	via	various
ideologies	through	the	sheer	influence	of	numbers,	persuasion,	and	charisma.
Peer	pressure	for	the	gullible	is	also	prevalent	so	that	finding	one’s	way
through	the	thickets	of	profuse	religious	and	purportedly	spiritual	teachings
becomes	hazardous	and	problematic.	It	requires	some	inner	conviction	and
means	of	guidance	to	not	follow	the	throngs	of	worshippers	because	the	herd
instinct	is	strong.	Surely,	one’s	mind	says	to	itself,	“All	those	millions	of
people	could	not	be	wrong	or	be	misled	by	error.”	To	find	the	answer	to	this
paradox,	we	merely	need	to	examine	the	makeup	of	those	throngs	of	often-
zealous	believers.	That	human	error	is	not	only	possible	but	also	certain	and
probable	becomes	evident	from	the	fact	that	seventy-eight	percent	of	the
world’s	population	calibrates	below	the	level	of	200,	the	level	of	Truth	and
Integrity.
The	muscle-testing	response	is	determined	solely	by	the	response	of
universal	consciousness	to	either	truth	or	falseness.	On	an	arbitrary	scale	(see
Appendix	B
),	that	which	makes	one	go	strong	is	calibrated	at	the	level	of	200.
That	which	is	false	or	destructive	calibrates	below	200.	(From	zero	to	200,
one	discovers	the	levels	of	Shame,	Guilt,	Remorse,	Fear,	Hate,	Greed,	Pride,
Avarice,	Anger,	etc.)
At	the	level	of	Truth	and	Integrity,	the	body	goes	strong,	and	these	levels
go	up	through	Courage,	Neutrality,	Willingness,	Capability,	Lovingness,	Joy,
and	Peace.	The	positive	levels	are	then	calibrated	from	200	up	to	a	possible
1,000.	Love	is	at	500,	the	Intellect	is	in	the	400s,	and	Capability	and
Willingness	are	in	the	300s.	That	seventy-eight	percent	of	mankind	calibrates
below	the	level	of	200	means	that	most	of	society	assumes	that	falsehood	is
truth.	Only	twenty-two	percent	of	the	world’s	population	is	even	capable	of
understanding	what	truth	is,	and	of	that,	only	four	percent	of	the	world’spopulation	calibrates	at	500	or	over,	which	is	the	level	of	Love.	Farther	up	the
scale,	the	number	of	people	at	the	top	of	this	pyramid	of	humanity	dwindles
rapidly.	Enlightenment	calibrates	at	600,	where	duality	dissolves	into
nonduality.	The	700s	are	the	realm	of	the	great	spiritual	teachers,	gurus,	and
saints.	Few	can	be	identified	in	the	800s	or	900s.	The	energy	field	at	1,000	is
the	maximum	that	can	be	tolerated	by	the	human	body	and	nervous	system,
and	it	is	the	rare	level	of	the	great	avatars	of	history.	No	human	has	ever
existed	who	calibrated	beyond	1,000.
The	value	of	all	these	realizations	is	merely	to	describe	a	means	of
discernment	because	human	consciousness	lacks	the	innate	capacity	to	tell
truth	from	falsehood.	It	is	therefore	imperative	to	know	the	calibrated	level	of
truth	of	any	teaching	or	teacher.
With	this	awareness,	we	begin	to	understand	the	great	myths	of	mankind,
which	are	always	about	the	vicissitudes	of	the	seeker	who,	in	the	classic	story,
becomes	besieged	by	challenges,	seductions,	snares,	traps,	beguilements,	and
savage	beasts.	There	are	always	dragons,	fires,	swamps,	bodies	of	water,	and
other	hazards	to	be	overcome.	In	the	legends,	success	depends	on	knowing	a
single	secret	or	a	mystical	bit	of	information,	which	becomes	the	key	to
progress.	Without	help	from	on	high	or	‘high	helpers’,	the	hero	or	heroine
becomes	lost	and	is	finally	saved	by	divine	goodness	in	some	disguised	form,
such	as	a	bird	that	signals	or	shows	the	way.	Muscle	testing	then	is	such	a	bird
and	prevents	the	painful	stumbling	into	a	morass	from	which	it	is	often
difficult	or	impossible	to	escape.
The	spiritual	quest	is	classically	likened	to	a	pathway,	a	journey,	or	a
venture.	Unfortunately,	the	naïve	seeker	often	goes	unprepared	on	a	difficult
journey	without	the	necessary	tools.	In	the	ordinary	world,	we	depend	on
many	safety	measures.	We	wear	seatbelts,	get	inoculated	against	epidemic
diseases,	and	accept	that	there	are	hazards	to	be	guarded	against	and
overcome.	Thus,	caution	comes	from	wisdom,	not	from	fear.	Prudence
requires	awareness	of	the	pitfalls	to	be	avoided.	If	enlightenment	were	easy	to
come	by,	it	would	be	a	common	phenomenon.	However,	statistically,	the
chances	are	less	than	one	in	ten	million.
There	is	also	the	common	thought	held	by	seekers	that	there	are	only	two
alternatives,	either	enlightenment	or	painful	entrapment	by	the	ego.	Actually,
each	step	forward	brings	new	joys	and	a	jump	in	consciousness	that	calibrates
at	even	only	a	few	points	higher	on	the	Scale	of	Consciousness.	Because	it	is
a	log


. Those
with Lupus (L.E.) are especially strongly afﬂicted with allergies (19).
Therefore, a raw-food cleanse combined with dental sanitation will not be sufﬁcient to overcome an autoimmune disease if there is
also a systemic fungus problem or mycosis.
Patients ﬁrst need to sanitize the intestines by restoring the dominance of lactobacteria, avoid foods that cause allergic reactions, and
clear the blood and mucous membranes of mycoses. This can be done with a strict antimicrobial program that eliminates or greatly
reduces not only fungi but also pathogenic bacteria, viruses, parasites and pleomorphic organisms, all of which may be present to
some degree and complicate matters.
Sanitizing the gastro-intestinal tract involves killing harmful bacteria and fungi with a dose of a suitable microbicide, and before
ingesting any carbohydrates using a high dose of probiotics, preferably as a self-made ferment of lactobacteria. Strongly acid
ferments, similar to strong fruit acids, will need to be largely neutralized (e.g. with bicarbonate) to minimize inﬂammation and pain.
Antimicrobial treatment requires strong remedies and needs to be done at least for several weeks. My favourites are psyllium with
bicarbonate in addition to high-dose iodine as Lugol’ s solution or Iodoral for about 3 weeks followed by a further period on acidiﬁed
sodium chlorite known as MMS (20). If MMS is not available or if it causes strong side-ef fects, also high doses of wormwood and
extract of pau d’arco or olive leaf may be used in addition to other antimicrobial remedies.
In addition the immune system may need to be improved with speciﬁc nutrients, especially selenium, zinc, magnesium, iodine,
vitamin D (sunshine) and in some cases also colostrum.
Before starting this program I suggest to make a simple Saliva T est as follows:
Immediately after rising before you eat or drink anything ﬁll a clear glass with water at room temperature. Spit some saliva into the
glass of water. Then check from time to time for up to an hour to see what happens to the spit. If fungi are present, you will see one of
three things, or a combination of these.
1. There may be strings like legs extending down into the water from the saliva ﬂoating on top
2. Cloudy saliva will accumulate at the bottom of the glass
3. Cloudy bits will remain suspended in the water
The quicker and stronger the strings grow and the sooner the saliva sinks, the more Candida is in the sample. If there are no strings
and the saliva is still ﬂoating after one hour, you probably do not have a systemic mycosis but may still have a localized problem in
the intestines or vagina, and you may still have dysbiosis and other pathogenic microbes.
However, regardless of its outcome the ﬁrst step in the quest to overcome an autoimmune disease should be intestinal sanitation and
a systemic antimicrobial program.
The Problem with Anti-Inﬂammatory Drugs
Inﬂammation causes much of the discomfort with autoimmune diseases, and prednisone is a strong anti-inﬂammatory drug. The
problem is that the immune system works by producing inﬂammation. By suppressing inﬂammation these drugs also suppress the
immune system, or in other words, these drugs prevent the immune system from healing the diseased gland or organ. In addition to
other side-ef fects they keep patients permanently diseased and gradually deteriorating.
Natural therapy is designed to activate the immune system to overcom e whatever attacks the body. The immune system works by
causing a “healing inﬂammation” in the affected area. This allows immune cells to easily move into the combat zone and kill and
remove the invaders so that diseased cells can now be replaced with healthy cells.
Therefore, prednisone and other immune-suppressant drugs work directly against the effort of natural therapy to enhance the
immune system and do its duty. But the price for healing the body is a temporary increase in inﬂammation and discomfort. However,
there is a way to avoid this problem.10/30/24, 4:19 PM Health-Science-Spirit - Chronic & Autoimmune Diseases
https://health-science-spirit.com/Diseases/How-to-Overcome-Autoimmune-Diseases.html 3/7Commonly pain and inﬂammation disappear within about 3 days on a raw-food cleanse. This cleanse is so effective because it
removes the cellular waste, the very cause of the hyperactivity of the immune system.
After the antimicrobial therapy and any dental sanitation you may already gradually reduce anti-inﬂammatory drugs until inﬂammation
becomes again a problem, and then you slightly increase the dose to a bearable level. After the third day on the cleanse you may
start reducing the amounts of drugs still further each day until after about three weeks you have completely eliminated them.
However, if inﬂammations and pain increase with this schedule then increase again to a level where the situation is bearable and
after a few days start reducing at a slower rate. In addition try natural anti-inﬂammatory remedies, such as antioxidants, ginger and
omega-3-fatty acids.
Furthermore, the more acid the body is the more inﬂammation and pain are generated. Therefore make every effort to alkalize the
body as with spirulina, juices or powders of cereal grasses and green vegetables or alkaline ionized water. You may also neutralize
fruit acids with dolomite, magnesium oxide or bicarbonate, or just take bicarbonate on its own or with magnesium chloride or with
psyllium in water. Temporarily half a teaspoon of bicarbonate may be taken in a glass of water up to seven times daily on an empty
stomach or 2 to 3 hours after meals. As a general rule if there is pain alkalize the body.
It is advisable to remain on a cleansing diet or a semi-cleanse until drugs and especially prednisone have been fully eliminated.
Alternatively, if this is not possible, then you may use repeated shorter cleanses. In long-standing and severe cases the whole
healing process, including dental sanitation, may last for several years.
The Raw-Food Cleanse
The healing effect of live or raw foods is being supported by traditional research. For instance Dr Israel Brekhman demonstrated that
the endurance of animals with raw foods was 2-3 times greater than with the same foods after they had been cooked (21).
Another problem with cooked food is that it causes digestive leukocytosis. This is an increase of the number of white blood cells after
eating cooked food but not after eating raw food. Leukocytes increase when the immune system senses a threat to the body, and it
may well be that this response to cooked food makes the immune system hyperactive while raw food keeps it strong but relaxed (22).
Dr Edward Howell did the pioneering work to demonstrate the importance of enzymes in raw food for increasing our lifespan, for the
health of our immune system, and for preventing and curing autoimmune and other degenerative diseases (23).
Studies of calorie restriction on the gene expression of animals showed a 400% increase in the activation of anti-aging genes with
40% calorie restriction. Most of these beneﬁcial changes occurred in just a few weeks after starting a calorie-restricted diet, and the
majority of age-related degenerative changes in gene expression were reversed. This led to a decrease in inﬂammations and stress
while the liver regained the ability to detoxify drugs and other chemicals (24).
This research conﬁrms the central role of a raw-food cleanse for overcoming autoimmune and other degenerative diseases. The
immediate purpose of this cleanse is to remove protein debris, toxic metals and damaged fats from cells. Therefore the diet should be
low in proteins and fats to allow protein-digesting and fat-digesting enzymes to be used for this purpose rather than for digesting
additional proteins and fats from the daily food. It also helps to use additional enzymes as supplements or enzyme-rich foods, such
as pawpaws.
This means the cleansing diet consis ts mainly of carbohydrates, and it needs to be low in calories so that no surplus is converted into
fat. Therefore, instead of meals have only snacks whenever hungry. Furthermore, experience shows that cleansing food needs to be
high in vitality, meaning that it should be fresh, raw and preferably organic. Also be aware that the vital energy is mainly in the liquid
phase, the juice, and not in the solids or nutrients.
Individuals with autoimmune diseases have weak digestive systems. This means food needs to be easily digestible, such as fresh
fruit, fresh vegetable juices, blended raw leaf vegetables, sprouted seeds, and suitable fermented food.
All this is not easy to organize, and most individuals will need a fair amount of help and support from relatives and friends. Preferably
cleanse in the warm season when there is fresh food available. Best buy or borrow a low-revolution juice extractor or try a high-speed
blender. The normal cleansing duration is three weeks but you may precede this with a series of short cleanses of 2 to 7 days
duration.
The energy level during cleansing tends to be rather low, and much of the time you may just rest, preferably outside on the veranda
or in the garden. Commonly the second day is the worst, and after that the energy may increase again. It is common to get
headaches or nausea and feel weak during the initial stages of cleansing. If necessary you may


allowing the viewpoints or information of others to alter your inner world.
You know what you wish to become and what you would like to manifestfor yourself. Now keep your imagination so aligned and feel it in your body.
Using your subjective attention will produce the desired conditions.
Three Suggestions
— Become conscious of objec tive efforts designed to persuade you to
abandon the ideas and ideals you have tucked away in your imagination. As
your awareness intensifies, practice a subjective alternative to those
objective efforts. Whenever your attention is drawn to negating what you
are in the process of manifesting, close your eyes, sit quietly for a moment,
and repeat your I am to yourself over and over until you feel it
reverberating within your body. Be on guard—ready and willing to dismiss
any objectified information that conflicts with your inner vision. The more
you practice this, the less your old mind viruses will impact you. Soon there
will be a new embedded trust in your ability to manifest the life you desire.
— Use what I call the super glue method for placing intentions into your
imagination: Imagine you have a substance that’s so strong it can’t weaken
or break. This is the stuff you dab on your I am as it is placed in your
private inner domain. It’s equivalent to saying, “Nothing external to myself
has the power to remove what I place on my inner screen.” When you say,
“I am healthy,” “I am prosperous,” “I am happy,” or any other I am, you are
using the name of God, which is inviolable as far as you’re concerned. This
is a spiritual decision on your part to become the ideal that you know deep
within you is your calling. The super glue metaphor will remind  you to use
only your subjective attention when your wishes fulfilled intentions are
visible to others.
— Inner intentions are a private matter between you and your Source of
being. Inviting others to support  or consider your intentions is an invitation
to their objective attention. Responses are often designed to convince you
that your intention is an impossible dream. You’ll be in the position of
defending (or at the very least, explaining) yourself. This is an invitation to
ego, who will leap at this opportunity to shift your inner intentions and
dispute the external, supposedly  logical or scientific facts that are coming
your way.Manifestation is a spiritual exercise. Thus, it defies logic, facts, past
experiences, scientific evidence, and all sorts of objective opini ons. Keep it
a private matter in the spirit of Neville: “Therefore, when you know what
you want, you must deliberately  focus your attention on the feeling of your
wish fulfilled until that feeling fills the mind and crowds all other ideas out
of consciousness.”38
Keep your intentions private—avoiding the necessity of deflecting well-
meaning opinions from external forces.
I end this chapter with the words of Saint Paul in his letters to the
Philippians. This is one of my favorite verses in the New T estament:
“I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content
whatever the cir cumstances” (Philippians 4:1 1).
This is the ultimate use of subjective attention.
OceanofPDF.comCHAPTER EIGHT
THE FIFTH  WISHES  FULFILLED  FOUNDA TION :
NOW I LAY ME DOWN T O SLEEP
“In a dr eam, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men, while
slumbering on their beds, then He opens the ears of men, and seals their
instruction.”
— JOB 33:15–16
It is in sleep that you enter the world of your subconscious mind, and it is
here that you will be makin g your impression and receiving your
instructions, as indicated in this biblical quote from the book of Job. I
would like you to think about the nature of your subconscious mind, which
has been programmed by your conscious mind to act habitua lly; that is,
without thinking  about what you are doing or not doing. You, no doubt, will
have recollections like the one I just had.
I recall being 15 years old, learning to drive a standard-shift car. I was
using my conscious mind to practice a seemingly endless list of maneuvers
with a thought process that went something like this: I have a car here with
three foot pedals, and I only have two feet to work with. I must push my left
foot down on the clutch pedal, and with my right foot on the accelerator
pedal, slowly—and I mean very slowly—let the clutch pedal out while
simultaneously pushing down on the accelerator pedal with the same
amount of pressur e with my right foot as the pressur e I’m releasing with my
left foot on the clutch pedal. Too much gas, or not enough clutch, and the
car will stall … and then there’s that third pedal for braking, which I have
no idea how to use, as the car keeps lurching forwar d. Which  foot? How
much pr essur e?
On and on went my consciou s mind, trying to master this seemingly
impossible task of learning to drive without jerking the car and stalling the
engine. Then came the time when I was on a steep incline of a hill waiting
for a red light to turn green—while I sat there with one foot on the clutch,one foot on the brake to keep the car from rolling backward down the hill
into the car behind me, and no feet left over for the all-importa nt gas pedal
to move forward!
My point is that my conscious mind was sending impressions and
instructions to my subconsciou s mind until ultimately I no longer needed
my conscious mind to drive a standard-shift car. It all became  automatic,
and my habitua l subconscious mind took over and did it all for me. This
subconscious mind of mine didn’ t care how I was feeling, how much time
had passed since I’d previously  driven, what I believed, what  others said
about the difficulty of driving a standard-shift car—all it did was react to
the programmin g I had offered  it, and then took over the act of driving
smoothly and ef fortlessly without my ever having to think about it again.
Thirty years passed, and I took my family to Italy for a two-week tour.
When we rented a car in Milan, the only one available was a Fiat with a
clutch, brake, and accelerator pedal. I hadn’ t driven a standard-shift car in
three decades, yet my subconsc ious mind knew precisely what to do and
took over the driving for our entire time in Italy. Much like the ice-skating
story I wrote about earlier, that habitual mind of mine had been sufficiently
trained and need ed no further reminders in order to take on the present-day
task. The subconscious mind is forever imprinted once it has been
sufficiently programmed and received its instruction—it simply takes over,
and the conscious mind is seldom needed.
Your subconscious mind hand les about 96 percent of all that you
undertake in your life. It is as if you are placed on automatic pilot for
almost everythi ng that you do each and every day of your life. The
examples of learning to drive a standard-shift car and ice-skating bring it
home clearly in the dimension of your physical body. You train it to act
automatically once the conscious mind is no longer needed. This same
programming functions success fully in every area of your life, including
your ability to manifest a wishes fulfilled life.
Preparing for Sleep and Y our Subconscious Mind
Sleep is the time when your conscious mind leaves the world of your five
senses and joins in with your subconscious mind. Your subconscious
habitual mind is uninterested in changing your conscious beliefs  or feelings.It simply responds to what has been programmed into it. Neville reminds us
that “The unconsciousness of sleep is the normal state of the
subconscious.”39 You spend one-third or more of your entire time here in
this incarnation in this normal state of the subconscious mind. This is where
you receive instructions for how the other two-thirds of your life can
unfold. Here is where you receive instructions for running your life
smoothly, effortlessly, and miraculously.
It’s similar to the mode of consciously learning to drive a stick shift,
master the computer, knit a sweater, swim, dance, hit a golf ball, and all the
other multitude of activities you perform in your waking moments, usually
without having to think about how to do them. Including what you are
doing right here in this moment: reading a book!
The most significant thing that I want you to capture and apply from this
chapter is not so much what you do while you are dreaming and sleeping,
but how you prepare yourself for entering into your unconsci ous state of
sleep.
Sleep is the natural state for your subconscious mind, which rules about
96 percent of your waking life. The last five minutes of your day before you
enter into your sleep state are the most important five minutes of your day if
you are going to begin living a wishes fulfilled life. In this brief portion of
your day, you are going to tell your subconscious mind how you feel and
what wishes God (the universal  one subconscious mind) is to fulfill upon
awakening from  your deep slumber. This five-minute segmen t of time in
your bed, about to enter into your subconscious and marinate for the next
eight hours or so, is the most crucial segment of your entire 24-hour day.
You


, but mor e gently. Many people associate a
spiritual life with a grade B movie, but God doesn’t get rid of
all the drama in our lives. He just gets rid of the cheap
drama. Ther e is no higher drama than true personal gr owth.Nothing could be mor e genuinely dramatic than boys
becoming r eal men and girls becoming r eal women.
Something amazing happens when we sur render and just
love. W e melt into another world, a r ealm of power alr eady
within us. The world changes when we change. The world
softens when we sof ten. The world loves us when we choose
to love the world.
Surrender means the decision to stop ﬁghting the world,
and to start loving it instead. It is a gentle liberation fr om
pain. But liberation isn’t about br eaking out of anything; ‘it’s
a gentle melting into who we r eally ar e.’ W e let down our
armor, and discover the str ength of our Christ self. A Course
in Miracles  tells us that although ‘we think that without the
ego, all would be chaos, the opposite is true. W ithout the
ego, all would be love.’
We are simply ask ed to shif t focus and to tak e on a mor e
gentle per ception. That’s all God needs. Just one sincer e
surrender ed moment, when love matters mor e than
anything, and we know that nothing else r eally matters at
all. What He gives us in r eturn for our openness to Him, is
an outpouring of His power fr om deep within us. W e are
given His power to shar e with the world, to heal all wounds,
to awak en all hearts.
OceanofPDF.comCHAPTER 5
Miracles
“Your holiness r everses all the laws of the world.
It is beyond every r estriction of time, space,
distance, and limits of any kind.”

1. FORGIVENES S
“Befor e the glorious radiance of the kingdom,
guilt melts away, and transfor med into kindness
will never more be what it was.”
“Miracles occur naturally as e xpressions of love.” They
reﬂect a shif t in how we think, r eleasing the power of the
mind to the pr ocesses of healing and cor rection.
This healing tak es many for ms. Sometimes a miracle is a
change in material conditions, such as physical healing. A t
other times, it is a psychological or emotional change. It is a
shift not so much in an objective situation—although that
often occurs—as it is a shif t in how we perceive  a situation.
What changes, primarily, is how we hold an e xperience in
our minds—how we e xperience the e xperience.The world of the human storyline, of all our concentration
on behavior and all the things that occur outside us, is a
world of illusion. It’s a veil in fr ont of a mor e real world, a
collective dr eam. A miracle is not a rearrangement of the
ﬁgures in our dr eam. A miracle is our awak ening fr om it.
In asking for miracles, we ar e seeking a practical goal: a
return to inner peace. W e’re not asking for something
outside us to change, but for something inside us to change.
We’re looking for a sof ter orientation to life.
Old Newtonian physics claimed that things have an
objective r eality separate fr om our per ception of them.
Quantum physics, and particularly Heisenber g’s Uncertainty
Principle, r eveal that, as our per ception of an object
changes, the object itself literally changes. The science of
religion is actually the science of consciousness, because
ultimately all cr eation is e xpressed thr ough the mind. Thus,
as A Course in Miracles  says, our gr eatest tool for changing
the world is our capacity to ‘change our mind about the
world.’
Because thought is the cr eative level of things, changing
our minds is the ultimate personal empower ment. Although
it is a human decision to choose love instead of fear, the
radical shif t that this pr oduces in every dimension of our
lives is a gif t from God. Miracles ar e an ‘inter cession on
behalf of our holiness,’ fr om a thought system beyond our
own. In the pr esence of love, the laws that gover n the
normal state of aﬀairs ar e transcended. Thought that is no
longer limited, brings e xperience that is no longer limited.
We are heir to the laws that gover n the world we believe
in. If we think of ourselves as beings of this world, then the
laws of scar city and death, which rule this world, will rule us.
If we think of ourselves as childr en of God, whose r eal homelies in a r ealm of awar eness beyond this world, then we will
ﬁnd we ar e “under no laws but God’s.”
Our self -perception deter mines our behavior. If we think
we’re small, limited, inadequate cr eatur es, then we tend to
behave that way, and the ener gy we radiate r eﬂects those
thoughts no matter what we do. If we think we’r e
magniﬁcent cr eatur es with an inﬁnite abundance of love
and power to give, then we tend to behave that way. Once
again, the ener gy ar ound us r eﬂects our state of awar eness.
‘Miracles themselves ar e not to be consciously dir ected.’
They occur as involuntary eﬀects of a loving personality, an
invisible for ce that emanates fr om someone whose
conscious intention is to give and r eceive love. As we
relinquish the fears that block the love within us, we
become God’s instruments. W e become His miracle work ers.
God, as love, is constantly e xpanding, ﬂourishing and
creating new patter ns for the e xpression and attainment of
joy. When our minds, thr ough focus on love, ar e allowed to
be open vessels thr ough which God e xpresses, our lives
become the canvases for the e xpression of that joy. That’s
the meaning of our lives. W e are her e as physical
representations of a divine principle. T o say that we’r e on
the earth to serve God, means that we’r e on the earth to
love.
We wer en’t just randomly thr own onto a sea of r ocks. W e
have a mission—to save the world thr ough the power of
love. The world needs healing desperately, lik e a bir d with a
broken wing. P eople know this, and millions have prayed.
God hear d us. He sent help. He sent you.
To become a miracle work er means to tak e part in a
spiritual under ground that’s r evitalizing the world,participating in a r evolution of the world’s values at the
deepest possible level. That doesn’t mean you announce
this to anyone. A member of the F rench under ground didn’t
walk up to a Ger man oﬃcer occupying P aris and say, “ Hi,
I’m Jacques. F rench R esistance.” Similarly, you don’t tell
people who would have no idea what you’r e talking about,
“I’m changed. I’m working for God now. He sent me to heal
things. The world’s about to shif t big time.” Miracle work ers
learn to k eep their own counsel. Something that’s important
to know about spiritual wisdom is that, when spok en at the
wrong time, in the wr ong place, or to the wr ong person, the
one who speaks sounds mor e like a fool than a wise one.
The Course tells us of God’s plan for the salvation of the
world, called ‘the plan of the teachers of God.’ The plan calls
for God’s teachers to heal the world thr ough the power of
love. This teaching has very little to do with verbal
communication, and everything to do with a quality of
human ener gy. “To teach is to demonstrate.” A teacher of
God is anyone who chooses to be one. “They come fr om all
over the world. They come from all r eligions and fr om no
religion. They ar e the ones who have answer ed.” The adage
that “many ar e called but few ar e chosen ” means that
‘everyone is called, but few car e to listen.’ God’s call is
universal, going out to every mind in every moment. Not
everyone, however, chooses to heed the call of his own
heart. As all of us ar e only too awar e, the loud and frantic
voices of the outer world easily dr own out the small still
loving voice within.
Our job as a teacher of God, should we choose to accept
it, is to constantly seek a gr eater capacity for love and
forgiveness within ourselves. W e do this thr ough a
“selective r emembering,” a conscious decision to r emember
only loving thoughts and


, though
cloaked in obscure and som etimes impenetrable symbology. This
suf fering is inflicted not by God but by humans on themselves and on
each other, as well as by certain defensive measures that the Earth, which
is a living, intelligent or ganism, is going to take to protect herself from
the onslaught of human madness.
However, there  is a growing number of humans alive toda y whose
consciousness is suf ficiently ev olved not to need any more suf fering
before the realization of enlightenment. Y ou may be one of them.
Enlightenment t hrough suf fering  — the way of the cross — means to be
forced into the kingdom of heaven kicking and screaming. Y ou finally
surrender becau se you can’ t sta nd the pain anymore, but the pain could
go o n for a long time until this happens. Enlightenment consciously
chosen m eans to relinquish your attachment to past and future and to
make the Now the main focus of your life. It means choosing to dwell in
the state of pres ence rather than in time. It means saying yes to what is.
Y ou then  don’ t need pain anymore. How much more time do y ou think
you will need before you are able to say, “I will create no more pain, no
more suf fering”? How much more pain do you need before you can
make that choice?
If you think that you need more time, you will get more time — and
more pain. T ime and pain are inseparable.
THE POWER T O CHOOSE
What about all those people who, it seems, actually want to suffer? I
have a friend whose partner is physically abusive towar d her, and her
pr evious r elation ship was of a similar kind. Why does she choose such
men, and why is  she r efusing to get out of that situation now? W hy do so
many people actually choose pain?

I k now that the  word choose  is  a fav orite N ew Age term, b ut it isn’ t
entirely accurate in this context. It is misleading to say that somebody
“chose” a dysfunctional relationship or any other negative situation in hisor her life. Choice implies consciousness — a high degree of
consciousness. W ithout it, you have no choice. Choice begins the
moment you disidentify from the mind and its conditioned patterns, the
moment you become present.  Until you reach that point, you are
unconscious, spi ritually speaking. This means that you are compelled to
think, fe el, and act in certain wa ys according to the conditioning of your
mind. T hat is why Jesus said: “For give them, fo r they know not what
they do.” This is not related to intelligence in the conventional sense of
the word. I have met many highly intelligent and educated people who
were als o completely unconscious, which is to say completely i dentified
with their mind. In fact, if mental development and increased knowledge
are n ot c ounterbalanced by a corresponding growth in consciousness, the
potential for unhappiness and disaster is very great.
Y our friend is st uck in a relation ship with an abusive partner, and not for
the first  time. Why? No choice. The mind, conditioned as it is by the
past, alw ays see ks to re-create w hat it knows and is familiar with. Even
if it is p ainful, at least it is fa miliar. The mind always adheres to the
known. The unknown is dange rous because it has no control over it.
That’ s why the mind dislikes and ignores the present moment. Present-
moment awaren ess creates a gap not only in the stream of mind  but also
in the past-future continuum. Nothing truly new and creative can come
into this world except through that gap, that clear space of infinite
possibility.
So your  friend, being identified with her mind, may be recreating a
pattern learned in the past in w hich intimacy and abuse are inseparably
linked. A lternatively, she may be acting out a mind pattern learned in
early childhood according to w hich she is unworthy and deserves to be
punished. It is possible, too, tha t she lives a lar ge part of her life through
the pain-body, which always s eeks more pain on which to feed. Her
partner has his own unconscious patterns, which complement hers. Of
course h er situation is self-created, but who or what is the se lf that is
doing the creating? A mental-em otional pattern from the past, no more.
Why m ake a self out of it? If you tell her that she has chosen her
condition or situation, you are reinforcin g her state of mind
identification. But is her mind p attern who she is? Is it her sel f? Is her
true ide ntity de rived from the past? Show your friend how to be the
observing presen ce behind her thoughts and her emotions. T ell h er aboutthe pain-body and how to free h erself from it. T each her the art of inner -
body awareness. Demonstrate to her the meaning of presence. As soon as
she is able to ac cess the power of the Now, and thereby break  through
her conditioned past, she will  have a choice.
Nobody chooses  dys function, conflict, pain. No body chooses  insanity.
They happen because there is not enough presence in you to dissolve the
past, not enough light to dispel the darkness. Y ou are not fully h ere. Y ou
have no t quite woken up yet. In  the meantime, the conditioned mind is
running your life.
Similarly, if you are one of the m any people who have an issue with their
parents, if you still harbor rese ntment about something they did or did
not do, then you  still believe th at they had a choice — that they could
have act ed dif ferently. It always looks  as if people had a choice, but that
is an illusion. As long as your mind with its conditioned patterns runs
your life, as long as you ar e  your mind, what choice do you have? None.
Y ou ar e not even there. T he mind-identified state is severely
dysfunctional. It is a form of insanity. Almost everyone is suf fer ing from
this illne ss in varying degrees. The moment you realize this, there can be
no more  resentment. How can you resent someone’ s illness? The only
appropriate response is compassion.

So that means n obody is r esponsible for what they do? I don’ t like that
idea.

If you are run b y your mind, although you have no choice you  will still
suf fer the consequences of your unconsciousness, and you will create
further suf fering. Y ou will bear the burden of fear, conflict, problems,
and pain. The suf fering thus created will eventually force you out of your
unconscious state.

What yo u say about choice als o applies to for giveness, I suppose. Y ou
need to be fully conscious and surr ender befor e you can for give.
“For giveness” is a term that has  been in use for two thousand y ears, but
most people have a very limited view of what it means. Y ou cannot truly
for give yourself  or others as long as you derive your sense of self from
the past. Only through accessing the power of the Now, which is your
own po wer, can there be tru e for giveness. This renders the past
powerless, and you realize deeply that nothing you ever did or that was
ever don e to you could touch even in the slightest the radiant e ssence of
who yo u are. The whole concept of for giveness then becomes
unnecessary.

And how do I get to that point of r ealization?

When y ou surrender to what is  and  so become fully present, the past
ceases to have a ny power. Y ou do not need it anymore. Presence is the
key. The Now is the key.

How will I know when I have surr ender ed?

When you no longer need to ask the question.

N O T E S

1  Arth ur K oestler, The Ghost in the Machine  (London: Arkana, 1989), p.
180.
2  Zbigniew K. Brzezinski, The Grand Failur e  (New Y ork: Charles
Scribner ’ s Sons, 1989), pp. 239–40.
3  A Course in Miracles  (Huntin gton St ation, NY : Foundation for Inner
Peace, 1975), introduction.
4  Ruth L. Sivard, W orld Military and Social Expenditur es 1996, 16th
Edition  (W ashington D.C.: W orld Priorities, 1996), p. 7.A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S

I am  dee ply than kful to Connie Kellough for her loving support and her
vital par t in transforming the m anuscript into this book and bringing it
out into the world. It is a joy to work with her.
I extend  my gratitude to Corea Ladner and those wonderful people who
have contributed to this book by


you digest, assimilate, and metabolize the food you eat depen ds on how
balanced your pachaka pitta is.
Ranjaka Pitta
Ranjaka means “that which colors.” Your biggest organ — the liver —
is governed by this subdosha. So are the spleen and stomach. Therefore, therich red color of your blood and its healthy and toxin-free flow are
functions of ranjaka pitta.
Kapha Subdoshas
Tarpaka Kapha
The word tarpaka  is derived from tripti,  which means “contentment.”
Thus, tarpaka kapha means the form of water that gives contentment. This
subdosha nourishes the nose, mouth, eyes, and brain. It is responsible for
good lubrication of the nostrils, eyes, and cerebrospinal column. As an
extension of these responsibilities, tarpaka kapha also influences emotional
well-being.
Bodhaka Kapha
Bodh  means “awareness,” therefore bodhaka kapha means the form of
water that helps  us perceive taste — the first stage of digestion. Bodhaka
kapha is the subdosha that helps us discriminate the strong and subtle
flavors that our taste buds enco unter. A “metallic” taste in the mouth is a
typical symptom of a weakened bodhaka kapha.
Kledaka Kapha
Kledaka kapha means the form of water that moistens. Lubrication is an
important part of the digestive process. Without the enzymes and juices that
go to work on food, there would be no digestion at all. Kledaka kapha
makes sure these juices are in rich supply.
Avalambaka Kapha
Avalamb  means “support.” Therefore, avalambaka kapha means the
form of water that gives support. Indeed, all other subdoshas depend on the
support of avalambaka kapha for moisture. The very plasma inside a cell is
made of this subdosha, which also protects the heart, strengthens the
muscles, and looks after the health of the lungs.
Sleshaka KaphaSleshaka comes from the root word slish,  which means to be moist or
sticky. Stiff, creaky joints are often the result of a disturbed sleshaka kapha.
This subdosha is located in the joints as the synovial fluid and is responsible
for holding them together and promoting ease of movement.
who’ s the moodiest of them all?
Again, the above list of subdoshas was just to introduce you to them. When
you are new to Ayurveda, you need only concern yourself chiefly with the
three parent doshas:
•   Vata, which governs movement
•   Pitta, which rules metabolism, and
•   Kapha, which looks after structure and frame
If there were an “ideal quantity guide to the doshas” — that is,
something like thirty units each of vata, pitta, and kapha for perfect health
— we would have by now found  a way to tell exactly how many units short
or in excess we were. But not only are the doshas not quantifiable, they are
also invisible. Therefore, trying  to tell which one of them is acting up can
be tricky.
However, there are clues. One major generalization vaidyas have been
able to make is that most disea se stems from a disorder in one particular
dosha. Can you guess which one it is?
The logical answer, of course, is vata, which combines the restless and
volatile energies of air and ether. Therefore, people whose vata dosha is
dominant from birth are prone to suffer many more health problems than
the other two dosha types. Restlessness, anxiety, poor digestion, fatigue,
aches, and pains — a disturbed vata can produce a plethora of symptoms.
On the other hand, this knowledge poses the danger of misdiagnosis.
Let’s say you have stiff joints. While excess vata can indeed cause joint
stiffness, it is kapha that is responsible for joint lubrication — and your
condition could mean that your kapha dosha is weak. Now, if you jumped to
the conclusion that your problem is vata related, some of your vata-balancing measu res could actually worsen the kapha disorder, making those
joints even stif fer.
There’ s more. Often, two doshas will go out of control at the same time
or close upon each other ’s heels. If you are unable to sleep because you are
deeply angry with someone, both your vata and your pitta are not in
equilibrium. And a disease like asthma takes root when all three doshas are
out of balance.
the mind and the doshas
In Western medicine, you are as healthy as your last clinical exam. That is,
as long as your cholesterol level s and blood pressure are normal, your X ray
is clear, and your heartbeat is regular, you are considered to be in good
health. The standard checkup does not measure or assess the quality of your
mental and emotional health. That is why the exam is called a “physical” —
and, of course, there is no such thing as an annual “mental.”
But because Ayurveda is equally concerned with the health of body and
mind, its healers have studied the dosha-mind connection in great detail.
Take depression. First of all, the triggers of depression in all three dosha
types are very different. Secondly, each dosha type experiences depression
differently. Vatas tend to get depressed as a result of excess strain, fear,
shock, grief, or addiction. Pittas are likely to suffer depression  when they
drive themselves too hard, harbor resentment or anger toward someone,
expect too much from others and fail to get it, or become fussy
perfectionists. Kaphas, who are normally calm and unruf fled, can go into
deep depression if their relationships are not fulfilling enough. Kapha is by
nature possessiv e, and can become clingy and dependent if unbalanced.
Also, kapha cannot easily accep t change, so major changes in people and
things make a kapha type of person feel forlorn and pessimistic.
As you can see, taming the doshas by trying to tabulate their whims is
not a great idea. They are too complex for that. But at the same time, the
whole idea in A yurveda is to help oneself. So what does one do?Plenty! There are three things you can do — and understand — at this
point:
1. Go to a vaidya who, through training in pulse diagnosis, will make
an accurate assessment of your dosha type and your imbalances.
Keeping all the varied factors in mind — your personality, the
environment, the seasons — the vaidya will give you the gist of his
findings. This will not only point out the specific areas that need
attention, but will also give you practical solutions to get your
systems back into harmony.
2. Call upon your invaluable intuitive powers to guide you toward
balance. It’s easy; nature is helping you do it anyway. When it is
cold, you switch on the heater. If it is summer, you feel more thirsty
and drink more liquids. All you have to do is obey nature more
often. If you are hungry, put work on hold and eat. If you are
stressed, don’ t get angry — get refreshed.
3. There is such a thing as a single recipe for perfect balance without
worrying about the intricacies. What’ s more, it is something you will
love doing. Whatever the circum stances or season, you can please all
your doshas by doing just one simple thing: follow a nature-friendly
routine.
What is a “nature-friendly” routine? It’s a routine that imitates both
nature’ s daily rhythm and its seasonal rhythm: day-night, spring-summer -
fall-winter, birth-and-death. The ancient sages who studied A yurveda saw in
that rhythm something more than a pattern; they found in it the key to
human happiness.
We shall unlock the best of those happy secrets in the next chapter.
OceanofPDF.comICHAPTER 6
routine matters — and how!
And if tonight my soul may find her peace in sleep, and sink in good
oblivion, and in the morning wake like a new-opened flower then I have
been dipped again in God, and new-cr eated.
— D. H. Lawrence
f I had to choos e the most important chapter in this book, I would pick
this one without hesitation. The reason is: if you read no other chapter but
this one, you will have learned how to “do” Ayurveda. Regardless of your
dosha type, prakriti or vikriti, you can follow the advice here to achieve that
elusive thing — balance — in your life with the utmost ease.
Let me start by telling you about a man I used to know — a man who
lived a life very close to the A yurvedic ideal.
an ordinary manAs children, we often spent the summer vacation with our grandparents,
who lived in a lovely little earth-scented village. Every night, I would
resolve to watch the dawn, which Grandpa told me was breathtaking against
the cornstalks. I am ashamed to say that I always woke up long after


 are the
metal.’ Fire for the furnace was also produced by the
male-female interaction in the two ‘rubbing sticks’ which
brought forth  the vital spark; the ﬁre was latent in the yin
wood but was ignited by yang  action.
In Shama nism, when working magic and
transformations the shaman has his ‘celestial wife’ who
acts as an instructor and protects and helps him. He is
also assisted  by a woman in the ‘ascent to heaven,’ or
some symbolically feminine object can take her place. It is
the female inﬂuence which not only helps him on his
journey but enables him to emerge victorious. Also, apart
from the wu and hsi female and male magici ans, Chinese
legend is full of magical and alchemical arts being taught
by a female spirit or goddess. Here, again, we are
reminded of the Yellow Emperor and his Three Immortal
Maids and the daughters of the Emperor Yao, who taught
the Emperor Shou (2258-2208) the magical art of ‘ﬂying
like a bird.’  In the West the alchemist had his female
assistant, his soror mystica, to help him in his work.
Pictures of the two working together appear frequently in
alchemical texts and the ores on which they worked were
produced by the union of the two powers of sulphur and
mercury. The Emerald Tablet states: ‘Sulphur, solar power,Mercury, lunar power, are the “father and mother” of the
alchemical embryo.’
In western alchemy, in the imperfect state, the two
powers work  against each other, just as the contraries in
life can be in conﬂict and produce dire results until they
work together in unity. As Burckhardt says: ‘Here we have
the analogy of the love contest between man and woman;
it is the feminine fascination which dissolves the
“solidiﬁcation” of the virile nature and wakens its power. It
is suﬀicient to remark that it is this fascination, spiritually
canalized, which plays a certain part in Tantric methods.’
This ‘love contest’ appears also in western astrology in
Venus and Mars, the Pair of Lovers, who complement each
other in their signs, the old symbol for Mars being the
circle surmounted by the cross
, with Venus as the circle
above the cross
, both being a perfect union of the male-
female powe rs. Burckhar dt points out that the alchemical
meaning of the planetary signs is identical with the
astrological: ‘Each planet possesses two adjacent
“houses,” a left and right, or feminine and masculine, with
the exception of the moon and sun which have only one
house each and rule respectively the feminine and
masculine halves of the Zodiac.’ The concept of the two
great powers appears in many civilizations. In Egypt Isis
and Osiris are the lunar and solar powers that brought
forth all things, and the doctrine of the contrary powers,
the positive sulphur and negative quicksilver, working on
each other, is present in all alchemy. Zosimus writes of
their interd ependence: ‘Above celestial things, below
terrestrial things, by the male and the female the work is
accomplished,’ and in Le Texte d'Alchymie  we read:
‘Sulphur cannot be without Mercury, and Mercury cannot
be without this Sulphur which is intimately united and
incorporated with it, as the soul is with the body.’ Nicholas
Flamel says: ‘In the second operation thou hast twoconjoined and married natures, the masculine and the
feminine; and they are fashioned in one sole body, which is
the androgyne of the ancients.’ This is the conjunctio, the
union of sulphur and quicksilver, sun and moon, king and
queen; the two together combining the blind strength of
the male with the subtle intuition of the female, of action
and thought, method and wisdom, of all the opposites
which together bring mankind back to the primordial unity
and perfection.
In the interplay between the two, sulphur eﬀects the
coagulation of the body in dryness and hardness,
masculine qualities, and therefore requires modiﬁcation
and puriﬁcation in the dissolving and softening qualities of
quicksilver, the feminine power, which helps sulphur to rid
itself of its undesirable features and to reveal its noble
aspect; this is the Tantric play of the feminine on the
masculine which wakens  its active power. Sulphur also
symbolizes the rigid, rational and theoretical outlook of
knowledge which is sterile until dissolved by the
intuitional, instinctive feminine understanding symbolized
by quicksilver. In Hinduism, Purusha, the male,  the
contemplative intelligenc e, is ‘the great impotent one’ who
needs Prakriti, the female, generativ e, intuitional, to
activate it. A similar interaction is found in Buddhism.
Though the western religious-philosophical thought,
based largely on Aristot elian dualism, asserted that the
two powers were initially in conﬂict, the yin-yang
symbolism of the East had no such dichotomy; the two
powers are held in harmonious tension, and though called
opposites they are, as Pu Cheng said, ‘incapable of mutual
negation.’ The dualism of Heaven and Earth was resolved
into the unity of the Parent, spoken of as the Father-and-
Mother of all creatures. In a Great Declaration, at the
beginning of the Chou Dynasty (1122 BC), it was stated:
‘The Heavens are repre sentatives of divine majesty, theEarth is representative of divine care: the former teaches
paternal authority, the latter the more-than-maternal love.’
Confucius, in the Li Chi, said: ‘Man is the product of the
attributes of Heaven and Earth by the interactions of the
dual forces of Nature, the union of the animal and
intelligent souls.’ Humanity is frequently spoken of as ‘a
miniature Heaven and Earth,’ a product of the powers of
yin and yang, a microcosm which is a reﬂection of the
macrocosm. Like Heaven and Earth, the two great powers
cannot be separated; one implies the other, they cannot be
thought of in total separation. The two opposites, contrary
but complementary, bind and neutralize each other
without a diminution of either; together they produce
perfection, which is gold in alchemical terms and in
classical Taoism ‘the Return to the Source,’ union with the
Tao.
The fact that each sex is only half accounts for the
universally expressed need, often amounting to an acute
longing, to ﬁnd the complementary partner, the ‘other
half,’ a comp letion, the regaining on the personal  level of
union and wholeness. From the alchemical aspect, the
union is spiritual rather than sexual, it is metaphysical in
signiﬁcance, transcendin g the personal and emotional
state and unifying on a higher level. Each individual has
also the two powers within; in the unregenerate state of
the base metal they are in conﬂict and are in the position
of a kingdom divided against itself. In this disharmony the
yin and yang  are out of balance, not only in the individual
but in the world in general, which is, naturally, only as
good as the individuals of which it is composed. The old,
base nature must die and much of alchemical symbolism
deals with death; everything must die before it can be
renewed, a theme found in all initiatory traditions. In
alchemy, the minerals die in the stove or athanor, to be
fused and ultimately united; this is also the ‘marriage’ ofthe metals and marriage  is also associated with death in
dying to the old life in which each partner ‘gives up’ to the
other. In the fusion of sulphur and quicksilver each loses
its individua l identity to take on the united character of
both. But death is always  a reunion, body to earth, soul to
the realm of spirit; it is a transmutation and
transformation.
Continuing the marriage symbolism, Burckhardt writes:
‘Man and woman, who in natural fashion incarnate  the two
poles of the alchemical work, sulphur and quicksilver, can
by their mutual love—when this is spiritually heightened
and internalized—develop  the cosmic power, or power of
the soul which operates  the alchemical dissolu tion and
coagulation;’ or, again as Artephius wrote: ‘They will
embrace in such a way that never again will they be
separable one from another. Then indeed will the spirit
unite with the body in perfect harmony, so that together
they become an immortal thing.’ The male-female
symbolism employed is merely a support for the esoteric
understanding of what is involved in the work: the
supreme aim being that of unity and return to primordial
perfection.
OceanofPDF.com– 17 –
THE REAL ALCHEMY
That the real alchemy was concerned with


 stale food. For instance, in winter deer eat acorns that have
become moldy and rancid and these deer are at times found to have a little
arteriosclerosis. Likewise fish contract it in mild form from eating various decaying
matter floating in the water.
   Practically all farm livestock including poultry have atherosclerosis to some degree,
but only garbage fed hogs have it in a severe form similar to the human disease. The
finely ground stale grains, dry hay, and other stale materials used in farm feeds are responsible for the disease in livestock. The extent to which the fatty rubbish in fresh
livestock meat causes arteriosclerosis in humans is uncertain, however it does not
appear to be very great. Fatty rubbish does not seem to occur to any serious extent in fresh milk and eggs. This general area ne eds further research for clarification,
however in later sections I have describe d how superior livestock products can be
obtained.
   The stale foods are also very poor in general nutritive content, for most of the high
quality constituents which are needed to st rengthen us and protect us against disease
have deteriorated and become unavailable.

6. FRESH FOOD — THE CURE FOR ARTERIOSCLEROSIS
   Stale food being the source of the fatty rubbish which causes arteriosclerosis, to
prevent the disease we have only to stop eating stale food, and eat fresh food  instead
according to the diet chart herein.
   But what about the fatty rubbish already clogging our systems? Fortunately Nature
has taken care of this, by designing into the body an efficient house-cleaning system
in which non-living material is attacked and gradually removed. Few people even among doctors seem to know famous scientists have long ago proven that arteries
have their own natural cleansing system. That each arterial deposit tends to go
through a natural cycle wherein it grows, becomes mature, then shells out and heals.
This self-cleansing action can be easily seen by anyone viewing the deposits in a
choked artery, wherein some are obviously new and growing, some fully mature, and others shelled-out craters or fully healed s cars. It is evident that this action would
result in clean arteries if formation of new deposits were somehow stopped.
   Medical scientists of worldwide reputation have been saying for years that
arteriosclerotic deposits tend to be self-cleansing. (Drs. L. N. Katz, Ruth Pick, Ira
Gore, Richard Jones, Campbell Moses, H. Bredt, and others.) Their writings may be
read in ethical medical books as follows: "Atherosclerosis" by Schettler & Boyd, pub.
by American Elsevier, 1969. "Evolution of the Athero. Plaque," by R. J. Jones, pub. by University of Chicago Press, 1963. "Atherosclerosis" by Campbell Moses, pub. by
Lea & Febiger, 1963.
   Many such keen-minded scientists have long predicted that if the formation of new
deposits were stopped, the arteries would in time clean themselves. Practical results of
the Fresh Food Diet have fully vindicated their prediction, at last providing a way to
stop formation of new deposits so the arteries can become clean in a few months.
   As of September 1971 this booklet has been on sale 2½ years, and over 100,000
copies have been sold under guarantee. Less than 1% have been returned for refund.
More than 1,000 people are so happy with results they have re-ordered more copies to
give away, many by the dozens and some by the hundreds. People joyfully tell us
such things as "I avoided a major operation" or "I am able to work again." A few
medical doctors are regularly prescribing the Fresh Food Diet, and are seeing improvement in their patients. The Fresh Food Diet really works, and is rapidly
gaining followers throughout the world.
   Anything which will help build up the general health will speed the cleaning process
and vice versa, so I have included in this book every general health aid considered reliable.

7. THE CHOLESTEROL THEORY — A TRAGIC BLUNDER
   Cholesterol in its natural form is one of the main building blocks of healthy animal
and human bodies, the solid matter of our brains for instance being over 80%
composed of it. It is absurd to say that something we are largely made of would be
harmful for us to eat. And it is not harmful unless it is changed from its natural state by staleness. Cattle and goats develop arteriosclerosis on hay and grain with never a
bit of food containing cholesterol. People ar e dying by the thousands from heart attack
and stroke while on "low cholesterol" diet. The cholesterol theory, now falling by the wayside, was originated in Russia by Dr. N. Anitschkow and S. Chalatow in 1913. These scientists deserve honor for their well-intentioned work, however their finding was one of those unfortunate half-truths which only served to mislead. They fed their
experimental rabbits pure crystalline cholesterol dissolved in vegetable oil, resulting
in the rabbits developing arteriosclerosis. Their mistake was in failing to recognize
that crystalline cholesterol is an unnatural stale substance now known as oxy-
cholesterol, which is not found in fresh food or in the healthy human body. Similar mistakes have been made countless times by other scientists, using various unnatural
mixtures of stale processed foods in feeding trials for testing purposes, and then
assuming the choked artery results were typical of cholesterol foods. The cholesterol
theory for practical purposes is untrue, and its formulation was most unfortunate
because it deceived the world for fifty four years and indirectly caused untold deaths and misery by delaying discovery of th e true cause and cure. Many people have
needlessly been deprived of meat and eggs because of diets based on the deceptive Russian theory.

8. EFFECTS OF FRESH FOOD ON HUMANS
   It has been demonstrated that people adopting the fresh food diet have experienced
many benefits. Even though eating much meat, fat, eggs, and fresh raw milk every
day, blood cholesterol content has dropped  to levels usually found in young children.
High blood pressure has dropped  to normal or below. Signs of arteriosclerosis in the
eyes, etc., have disappeared. Arthritis ha s been cured. Ear noises and high tone
deafness have been corrected. Enlarged pr ostate gland and fibrous enlarged womb
have returned to normal. Tooth decay and dental calculus or tartar have been stopped. Youthful vigor and appearance have been partially restored. Excess fat has been reduced and posture improved. Remarkable improvement in growth and health of
children has been obtained. For example:
   A fifty eight year old black man was prematurely aged, with a bent posture,
shuffling gait, irises of the eyes nearly c overed by the light gray atherosclerotic haze
called "arcus senilis," and skin the color of ashes. Given fresh food and fresh milk,
this man began to straighten up within ten days, and within a month was dramatically
improved. In two months his eyes had nearly cleared up so the natural brown color
was revealed, his skin was a smooth rich br own color, and he walked straight and
strong. Previously scorned as a worn out ol d man, he bought stylish new clothes, grew
a sharp mustache and sideburns, cut a swath among the ladies and had some fights. He told me they said "What is Mr. Ford doing to you? You are young  again!"
   A fourteen year old boy was put on good fresh food after a previous life on stale
food. Initially this boy was chalky pale, had poor thin hair, pimples, narrow shoulders and was a mouth breather with thick half closed eyelids. Receiving fresh food and
new raw milk, in a few months this boy was growing rapidly, had clear ruddy skin
and thick hair, alert eyes and kept his mouth closed. He soon developed a broad
shouldered herculean virility seldom seen in these times, with a muscular six foot two
hundred pound physique of awesome power. He attracted favorable comment wherever he went and was called the "jolly pink giant." But on going away to school
and eating stale food again, this young Hercules became pale and fat, his teeth decayed and he developed a hernia.
   A three year old child who was very th in and wretched, with a sad wizened face and
twisted jaw, was given an unlimited daily supply of new raw milk from a cow eating
green young oat and rye grass. On tasting the milk, this child refused all other food
and drink for several days and drank milk by the quart. Within a few weeks she grew so fast she had to have a whole new set of clothes, and became ruddy, happy and
robust. Upon sighting me even 100 yards away, she would shout "I love your milk, I
love your milk." Previously hardly leaving her mother's arms, this child turned into a
jumping jack. Her jaw straightened up to normal and she became an outstanding child in every way.

9. EXCESSIVE FATNESS IN HUMAN BEINGS
   Normal fat is a fluid oil stored in tiny living fat cells, is springy and well distributed
over the body producing an attractive appearance. But in modern people eating stale
foods, abnormal fat is developed in which many of the fat cells are dead and large
amounts of deteriorated fatty substances accumulate outside the cells as junk material. This is the type of fl


 Do we have “black holes”
into which matter and energy disappear forever? Yes—we
call it forgett ing. Do we speed  up time and slow it down, as
a space traveler does in the event that his rocket can
accelerate to near the speed of light? Yes again, for a writer
can think up in an instan t a story that may take hours of
normal time to set down on paper; conversely, you can
spend half an hour trying  to retrieve someone’s ﬁrst name,
which comes instantly once you ﬁnd the timeless zone,
called memory, from which it must be retrieved.
—
Whenever any mental event needs to ﬁnd a physical
counterpart, it works through the quantum mechanical
human body. That is the secret of how the two universes of
mind and matter associate with each other without
mistakes. No matter how diﬀerent  they appear, mind and
body are both soaked through with intelligence. Science
tends to be skeptical in the face of any claim thatintelligence is at work in nature (this is a strange historical
anomaly, since every generation before us has accepted
without ques tion some kind of universal order). However, if
there is nothing outside ordinary reality to hold things and
events together, then one is led to a set of impossibilities.
We can see this in the law of gravity. Common sense says
that two objects separate d by empty space should have no
connection with each other; in the jargon of physics, they
occupy their own “local  reality.” But the Earth revolves
around the sun, held in its orbit by gravity, even though the
two bodies are separate d by a void of 93 million miles.
When he discovered this violation of local reality, Newton
was shocked and refused to speculate on how it happens.
Since then, local reality has taken one beating after
another. Light, radio waves, lasers, and all other
electromagnetic forces travel through empty space; matter
and antimatter seem to exist in coordinated universes that
have no physical contact; subatomic particles have spins
that are matched to one another, and it doesn’t matter how
far apart in time and space the particles are—their spins
can be matched at opposite ends of the universe.
What this implies is that the commonsense idea of local
reality is true only at a certain level. The whole of reality, as
explained by quantum physics, lies deeper. A famous
mathematical formula, known as Bell’s theorem (after its
author, the Irish physicist John Bell), holds that the reality
of the universe must be nonlocal; in other words, all objects
and events in the cosmos are inter-connected with one
another and respond to one another’s changes of state.
Bell’s theorem was formulated in 1964, but decades earlier,
the great English astron omer Sir Arthur Eddin gton had
anticipated inter-connec tedness by saying, “When the
electron vibrates, the universe shakes.” Physicists now
accept inter- connectedness as a ruling principle, along with
many forms of symmetry that extend across the universe—for example, it is theorized that every black hole may be
matched up somewhere with a corresponding “white hole,”
though none has actually been observed.
What kind of explanation would satisfy Bell’s requi rement
for a totally inter-connected, nonlocal reality? It would have
to be a quantum explana tion, because if gravity is present
everywhere at the same  time, if black holes know what
white holes are doing, and if a change of spin in one
particle causes an equal but opposite change instantly in its
partner somewhere in outer space, it is obvious that the
information going from one place to the other is traveling
faster than the speed of light. This is not permitted in
ordinary reality, either by Newton or Einstein.
Contemporary theorists such as British physicist, David
Bohm, who has worked extensively with the implications of
Bell’s theorem, have had to suppose that there is an
“invisible ﬁeld” that holds all of reality together, a ﬁeld that
possesses the property of knowing what is happening
everywhere at once. (The word invisible  here means not
just invisible to the eye but undetectable by any measuring
instrument.) Without going deeper into these speculations,
you can see that the invisible ﬁeld sounds very much like
the underlying intelligence in DNA, and both behave very
much like the mind. The mind has the property of holding
all our ideas in place, in a silent reservoir so to speak,
where they are precisely organized into concepts and
categories.
Without calling it “thinking,” we may be watching nature
think through many diﬀerent channels, of which our minds
are one of the most privileged, because the mind can create
its quantum reality and experience it at the same time.
Witnessing a quantum event in the ﬁeld of light waves may
seem completely objective, but what if quantum reality was
just as present in our own thoughts, emotions, and desires?
Eddington once ﬂatly stated his belief as a physicist that“the stuﬀ of the world is mind-stuﬀ.” So the quantum
mechanical body, as a formation of intelligence, has a
plausible place in nonlocal reality.
The beauty of such a simple picture is that intelligence is
simple; the complications arise when one tries to track
down the incredibly complex machinery of the mind-body
system. The brain-wave patterns of a psychotic and a poet
look the same on a roll of EEG paper as it come s oﬀ the
electroencephalograph, no matter how sophisticated the
analysis. Thinking about the thousands of hours it would
take to scientiﬁcally describe the chemical conseq uences of
one cell’s daily life, a neuroscientist friend of mine
remarked, “You have to conclude that nature is intelligent
because it’s too complicated to be called anything else.”
He could just as easily have said “too simple.” A human
brain that changes its thoughts into thousands of chemicals
every second  is, after all, not so much complicated as
inconceivable. In ancient India, it was supposed that
intelligence existed everywhere; it was called Brahman,
from the Sanskrit word  for “big,” and was just like an
invisible ﬁeld. A saying from thousands of years ago holds
that a man who has not found Brahman is like a thirsty ﬁsh
who has not found water.
Our whole physiology can be transformed as quick ly as a
neuropeptide, which is an integral part of the quantum
mechanical body. Because we can change like quicksilver,
the ﬂowing quality of life is natural to us. The material body
is a river of atoms, the mind is a river of thought, and what
holds them together is a river of intelligence.
—
It may seem that the quantum mechanical body is involved
only in life-or-death situations, but that isn’t so. We live in
it, casually and without thinking, just as we live in the bodyas a whole. I have a patient who glimpsed this fact while
sitting on the grass eating French bread and listening to
Mozart. She had been a frustrating case for more than two
years. She suﬀered from a combination of nagging
symptoms, including irritable bowel, headaches, fatigue,
insomnia, and depression, that humbled every attempt to
cure her. None of these conditions was fatal, but they made
her life miserable nonetheless. Conventional treatment
with anti-depressants and tranquilizers had done her little
good; neither had anything I did using A yurveda.
Then one day she went to Tanglewood, the summer home
of the Boston Symphony  and an idyllic place to have a
picnic. She spread out a check ered cloth, lay in the sun
listening to music, and peacefully ate her lunch. These
things made  her very happy, and that night she slept
soundly for the ﬁrst time in years. However, she was so
used to being sick that this new event did not register on
her. Another year of misery passed, until it was time for her
to go to Tanglewood again, and the same thing happened—
all her symptoms disapp eared for the day, and she slept
beautifully that night.
This time it registered. She came to see me jubilantly
waving a sheaf of reprints from medical journa ls on the
SAD syndrome. The initials stand for “seasonal aﬀective
disorder,” referring to a condition in which patients become
seriously depressed every winter without appare nt cause.
Now we know that the cause has to do with the pineal
organ, deep inside the skull; this small, ﬂat, oval endocrine
gland, although surrounded by brain matter, responds to
changes in sunlight, being the source of the “third eye”
that everyon e wants to look through in the New Age (some
lower animal s such as the lamprey do possess a literal third
eye). In certain people, insuﬀicient exposure to sunlight in
the winter throws oﬀ their pineal secretions; the glandstarts to produce too much of a hormone called melatonin,
giving rise to depression.
“See,” she said, “I’ve had SAD all along, and by sitting in
the sun, I’ve got a normal pineal gland again.”
“I’m sorry


 Is it your d iet? Have you been exercising your whole life? Have you
avoided tobacco? Do you drink alcohol?” The intent of these questions, of
course, is to identify common principles that could help us all live longer,
healthier lives. Surprisingly, none of these questions clearly reveals the
secret to longevity. The most common explanation that our most senior
citizens of fer for their long life is their ability to let go.
Long-living people have flexibility and resiliency when facing the
inevitable challenges in life. If y ou live to be a hundred years old, chances
are goo d you have experienced challenges and losses, yet these super
seniors have been able to move through adversity and get on with their
lives. They relinquish their hol d on experiences that do not serve them.
They let go and move on.
From a n A yurvedic perspecti ve, this ability to deal with what is
happening but not incur residua l damage is a symptom of strong digestive
power, known in Sanskrit as Agni. The expression “digestive power” is
applied not just to the ability to digest foods but to digest all experiences in
life. Agni is the root of the English word ignite, referring to the power of
fire to metabolize things. When your digestive force is power ful, you arecapable of extracting the nourishment you need from any experience and
eliminating whatever is not serving you. A strong Agni enables you to
digest what life presents without carrying unprocessed residues, which
inhibit your ability to fully embrace life. A strong digestive power is an
essential feature of people who live long, vital lives.
Learning to let go is necessary because life is a process of continual
change and transformation. Att empting to stop change by ho lding on is
fighting the natural force of evolution. Ultimately, nature will h ave its way,
and your struggle against the river of life will exact its toll on your
physiology. Th e wear and te ar born of resistance accelerates aging.
Relinquishing your resistance and embracing change reverses aging.
Learning to let go does not mean relinquishing your intentio ns. Y our
intentions and desires orchestra te the course of your life and catalyze the
experiences you  need to evolve to higher levels of awareness. Flexibility
does not require letting go of intentions. Flexibility does, however, require
letting g o of your attachment to a specific outcome. Y ou cannot control the
outcome of a si tuation, and holding rigidly to your idea about how things
should b e leads to strain, stress, and aging. Whenever it appears that your
intended outcome is not the one manifesting, bear in mind the following
expression, which we heard from a spiritual teacher:
When things don’ t seem to go my way, I let go of my
attachment to how I think they should be, trusting that
I am not seeing the big pictur e. If I knew the big pictur e
I would understand that ther e is a r eason for things
unfolding the way they ar e, and that the cosmos has a
plan for me much grander than anything I have conceived.

Letting go and d etaching from outcome is the essence of genuine power
and of fers the on ly real possibility of security. Detachment from  a particular
outcome derive s from trust in the intelligence of the universe and your
connection to it. It implies a will ingness to step into the unknow n—the fieldof al l po ssibilities. This is the re al meaning of flexibility. Attachment to the
known is attachment to the pas t. The past is stability. The past is inertia.
The past is entr opy. The past is stagnation. Attachment to th e known—
attachment to the past—accelerates aging.
Most people spend their entir e lives seeking security through their
attachments. Attachments are usually to positions and possessions. Because
these att achments rarely bring security or happiness, people often believe
their pro blem is that they need greater positions or more possessions. The
internal conversation sounds like this: “If I just had more money... if I just
had a better job ... if I just ha d a more passionate relationship... then I
would fe el secure and happy.” M oney, positions, possession, and titles are
symbols of security. Symbols of security cannot substitute for real security,
which can only come from within.
Paradoxically, finding genuine and lasting security comes from
surrendering to the wisdom of uncertainty. It means cultivating an inner
attitude of curiosity and acceptance. It means detaching from a particular
outcome and developing the mind-set that whatever occurs is the most
evolutionary out come at the tim e. This state of flexibility, in which you are
able to embrace the unknown and detach from a particular outcome,
reverses the aging process.
Relinquishing your r esistance and embracing change
r everses aging.

PRESENT -MOMENT A W ARENESS
The Buddhists have an expression: “Nothing should be clung to as me or
mine.” Nothing you identify wi th can really be called yours. Although you
may con sider th e physical vehicle you inhabit as your body, you know by
now that every atom comprising it is only on temporary loan from yourenvironment. W ithin a year, alm ost every atom that you currently call yours
will no longer b e within the boundaries of your skin. Y our thoughts are not
really yo ur thou ghts. They are p art of the collective mind. A hundred years
ago, you could not have had the thought “I am flying on a 747 jet to Las
V egas,” because  these concepts were not yet a part of the collective mind.
Y our emotions are not your emo tions. Every emotion you have ever had—
elation, despair, joy, frustration, ecstasy, jealousy—has been experienced by
people s ince the  beginning of hu manity. Not a single molecule, not a single
thought, not a si ngle emotion you have ever had is uniquely yours. Y ou are
part of a lar ger scheme. Y ou ar e woven from a few strands in the infinite
cosmic web of ener gy, transformation, and intelligence.
“Nothing should be clung to as me or mine.” Underlying this pre scription
is the recognition that all stress in life results from either grasping or
aversion. When you hold on to anything, be it a material object, a position,
or a relationship, you constrict your awareness and accelerate aging. Y ou
accelerate aging because, at a su btle level, every attachment is accompanied
by fear—fear of loss, fear of losing control, fear of losing approval. When
you evoke fear you set into motion the physiology of stress that accelerates
biological aging. Y ou must let go of this fear in order to reverse aging.
The incl ination of the mind is to lean toward something that you hope
will brin g pleas ure or away fro m something that you fear will  bring pain.
As a  res ult of this tendency, of t his inclination, you are unable t o remain in
the present moment.
When y ou find yourself out of t he present moment, ask yourself, “What
is w rong with this moment?”  Y ou will see that there are only two
possibilities: either you are resisting it or you are just not in it. If you are
resisting it, consciously surrender to the here and now. If you are just not in
it, gently  bring yourself back to the present. Open yourself to the infinite
possibilities that the present moment of fers.
Y ou can cultivate present-mome nt awareness through the practice of alert
witnessing—shifting your attention from that which is observed to the silentever -present witness to the observation. In the midst of observation, come
back to the self.
Y our observations change on a moment-to-moment basis. If you identify
who you are wi th your observations, your identity has no permanence. It
becomes a moment-to-moment fabrication. When you identi fy yourself
with the objects of your perception, which are in constant flux, you sacrifice
your tru e self for the objects of your self-image. If you identify yourself as
the presi dent of a company, as the owner of a luxury car, as the manager of
an a rtist or mu sician, your sense of self is dependent upon an external
source. This is sometimes kno wn as agency power because your power
derives from attachment to an external agency, be it an or ganization, bank
account, or relationship. The problem with agency power is th at when the
attachment ends, so does the power and your sense of self.
The opposite of agency power  is self-power, which comes fr om your
inner connection to Spirit. Underlying all your observations and
experiences in life, underlying all your attachments to people, situations,
and circ umstances, is a domain of ever -present witnessing awareness. This
is your true self; this is your Spirit.
In alert witnessing you shift your attention from goal orientation to
process orientation. Y ou become  completely flexible. Y ou are unattached to
outcome. Y ou are comfortable in the realm of uncertainty. When Spirit is
your int ernal ref erence point you neither anticipate nor resist—you simply
allow. When you walk a certain road, you have the intention to reach a
particular desti nation, but if more interesting