 you’r e bad, but
wher e you’r e wounded. But no matter who or what caused
the wound, it’s yours now and you’r e responsible for it. The
only person who can bring it up and r elease it is you. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter wher e you got your character
defects anyway. They’r e yours now. You can’t live with a sign
around your neck saying, “It’s not my fault. My par ents wer e
diﬃcult.” Y our only way out of your conundrum is to tak e
total r esponsibility for those defects. Your character defects ar e the way you self -sabotage, the
way you hurt yourself and others. That’s why you have to
look at them. Until you tak e complete r esponsibility for your
own e xperience, you can’t change it. But once you’ve truly
looked at yourself, you can start healing. Y ou’ve opened
your eyes and now you see. “I see that I did that. I admit it. I
get it. I atone for my er ror. I am willing to mak e amends. I
am willing to mak e it right. And I pray to become a better
person now.”
In the moments when you acted out of your shadow, you
didn’t wak e up that mor ning and say, “I think I’ll be a jerk
today.” You didn’t go into a meeting and say, “I’m going to
say and do things that mak e people r eject me.” No, in those
moments, you didn’t r ealize you wer e doing it. Y ou wer e at
the eﬀect of the shadow. The shadow cast you into
darkness, and you wer e blinded to the light. And so you
suﬀer ed.The shadow leads us to do something stupid and then
punishes us savagely for having been so dumb. The shadow
has no mer cy, but God does. Hell is what the shadow
creates her e, and love is what delivers us fr om it. Atonement is an aspect of God’s love. As we atone, we ar e
freed fr om our dysfunctional patter ns and the trajectory of
events they pr oduced. This is the miracle of personal
transfor mation. Having deliver ed our wr ong-minded past
decisions to God, we can say, with a line fr om a prayer in A
Course in Miracles,  “I will not feel guilty, for the Holy Spirit
will undo all consequences of my wr ong decision if I will let
Him.” Once you atone with a sincer e and humble heart, you
are released fr om the k armic maelstr om of your shadow
drama. Once we have owned who we ar e in the shadow, we can
continue our jour ney back into the light. W e don’t heal by
pouring pink paint over our issues, pr etending they’r e not
there or blaming them all on other people. W e heal by
knowing that whatever shadows hide our light ar e
headquarter ed inside our own minds. It is our r esponsibility
to admit that they’r e ther e, open the door to God, and let
Him shine them away. He always has, and He always will. FORGIVE Y OURSELF, FORGIVE THEM
Someone might have hurt you ﬁf teen years ago, and you’r e
still not shutting up about what that person did to you. But if
you’r e honest with yourself, you might have hurt someone
else ﬁf teen years ago and you haven’t even look ed at it for
the last fourteen. W e’re very big on seeing what other
people did to us, but we’r e not so big on looking at what we
might have done to others. The shadow has no pr oblem focusing on the shadow—as
long as it’s the shadow in other people! “That person is
acting out of his shadow, and that person is acting out ofher shadow, and all those other people ar e acting out of
their shadow—but me? What shadow?” Mor e damage is
inﬂicted by people who think they have it all together than
by people who have been humbled by the r ealization that
they pr obably do not. P eople who have look ed deeply into
the shadow know that it’s not just a little thing or a trivial
mistak e—it’s a cosmic counterfor ce to the goodness of the
world, and it tak es any opportunity pr esented it to wr eak
havoc on the human heart. Nothing is a gr eater opportunity
for the shadow than our thinking that all our pr oblems lie in
other people. A projection of guilt onto others is endemic to the mortal
world. From the moment we’r e bor n, we’r e taught a belief
system that r einfor ces our sense of separateness: “I’m in
my body, and you’r e in yours. And God is outside us both.”
More fractur ed per ception emanates fr om our sense of
separation than fr om any other thing. First of all, if I’m separate fr om God, then I am separate
from my sour ce, and I feel traumatized the way a baby is
traumatized if ripped away fr om the mother. This trauma
induces fear, and I am then lik ely to be trigger ed by any
person or situation that seems to be taking fr om me what I
think I need—even if that’s not the case. My shadow would
likely manifest as paranoia or neediness. Second, if I’m separate fr om the r est of the world, then I
feel powerless, given that I am so small and the world is so
huge. This sense of separation leads me to believe that I am
weak, when in fact, as a child of the divine, I have inﬁnite
resour ces of str ength within. My shadow would then lik ely
manifest as my playing small and being too fearful to stand
in my own str ength. Third, if I’m separate fr om other people, then I am
separated fr om the e xperience of love and unity that is my
birthright as a human being. I cannot help but feel a deep
existential loneliness instead of the joy that I am meant to
feel in the company of other people. My shadow would lik elymanifest as either overattachment or under -attachment to
others, a superiority or an inferiority comple x, manipulative
behavior, defensiveness, or a domineering or contr olling
personality. Last, all of the above aspects of separation involve a
sense of separation fr om self, fr om which all other for ms of
shadow emer ge. If I am separate fr om myself, and my true
self is love, then I am separate fr om love. My shadow would
likely manifest as anything seemingly not-love towar d
myself or others, fr om substance abuse to violence. Since all shadow manifestations ar e rooted in thoughts of
separation, then healing the mistak en thought that we ar e
separate fr om the r est of life—fr om our Cr eator, fr om other
people, and fr om other cr eated things—is the ultimate
solution to the pr oblem of the shadow. This r econciliation of
mind and spirit, the soul’s r eturn to its divine knowing, is the
point of illumination that casts out all darkness. And what is the light we see, when our minds ar e
reconciled to truth? W e see not only that we ar e one with
others, but also that all of us car ry seeds of the divine. W e
were created by God, in the image of God, in the lik eness of
God. W e are perfect, as all His cr eations ar e. We deserve
from ourselves and fr om each other the same mer cy that
God shows to each of us. And when we r emember this—
when our minds ar e healed of the delusion that our shadows
deﬁne us—then showing mer cy and for giveness comes
naturally. What is important is not the for m your shadow tak es. The
point is that your shadow developed for one r eason and one
reason only. In a moment, love lef t—or so you thought it did. It doesn’t matter if it lef t in the for m of a mother’s
abandonment or a father’s anger. What matters is that in
that traumatic, primal moment you lost conscious contact
with the e xperience of God’s love. And you went temporarily
insane. Now, every time that trauma is trigger ed, you go
insane again. The issue is not what caused the trauma. Itdoesn’t ultimately matter what mortal drama led up to it. What matters is that your spirit be r estor ed. What matters is
that you r econnect with love now, that your mind be healed
of its insanity now, that you for give yourself and others now. Forgiveness does not mean that you see the darkness, but
then give it amnesty. Rather, it means that you see the
darkness, but then choose to overlook it. And you overlook
it not because you ar e in denial, but because you


useofdomesticatedanimals. Consequently,therewasnoneedtosetasideextratimeintheday
toexercise,andpeopleintheseculturesweregenerallymorefitthan
thoseofourmodernsocieties. Ifyouareextremelybusy,walkingisagoodwaytoexerciseand
usethistimetolistentomusicoreducationaltapes,socializewithfriends,brainstormideas,orevenconductbusinessmeetings. Ihave
oftenheldmedicalmeetingswithseveralclosecolleaguesandfriendswhilewewerewalkingthroughscenicnaturetrailsinHawaii,where
Ilive. Ifyoucanfindcreativewaystoincreasetheamountoftime
youwalk,andmakewalkingapartofyourdailyroutineandlifestyle,
yourhealingsystemwillautomaticallybenefitfromanotherwisethoroughlyenjoyableactivity. Ti~psforWalking
oChooseatimeofdayandspecificdaysoftheweekthatwork
bestforyou. Trytowalkthreetofivedaysaweekifthisisyouronlyexercise. StrengtheningandFortifyingYourHealingSystem 85
*Wearcomfortableclothing,especiallycomfortable,supportiveshoes. Ifyoulivenearthebeach,anditisnottoocold,considergoingbarefoot. •Findasafeplacetowalk,hopefullywithinterestingscenery. This
placecouldbeoutsideinnatureorevenindoorsinalargemall. •Avoidheavilytraffickedareasifpossiblebecauseexhaustfumes
areunhealthytobreathe,andthenoiseanddistractionofthe
carsmayinterferewithyourconcentrationandrelaxation. IWalkwithafriendorfamilymembersoyouhavecompany. Alternatively,youcanusethistimetobealone. •YoumaywanttolistentomusicoreducationaltapeswithaportabletapeorCDplayerasyouwalk. Ifyouareoutofshapeandhaven’tdoneanyexerciseinquite
awhile,startwithjust10tol5minutesadayonaflat,evensurface. *Walkatapacethat’scomfortableforyou. Recentresearchindi
catesthatitismoreimportanttowalkregularlythantowalkbriskly. Youdonotneedtoforceorstrainorbeuncomfortable
inanyway. •Ifallgoeswell,afteronetotwoweeks,add5minutesperweekso
thatyoucaneventuallybuildupto30to60minuteseachday. BicyclingBicyclingcanbeanenjoyablewaytoexercisewhileyougetoutand
seetheworld. Bicyclingisoftenconsideredeasieronthejointsthanrunningorotherexercises. Thisexercisehelpstobuildupthelargestmusclesinyourbody,yourlegsandlowertorso,whileitalsoimprovesyourcardiovascularhealth. T:psforBicycling
•Avoidheavilytraffickedareasthathaveexhaustfumes. •Startatacomfortablepaceandtrytoridefor15to30minutes
atatime. •Makesureyourbicycleandseatareadjustedtotheproperheightforyourlegs. 86 YourExtraordinaryHealingSystem
aUnlessyouareanexpert,avoidstrappingyourfeetintothepedals. oMaintainproperpostureasyouridesothatyourbackandknees
arenotstrained. ~Toprotectyourheadfromafall,wearahelmet. Useprotectiveglassesoreyewearforyoureyes. Swimming
Ifyouhaveaccesstoapooi,pond,lake,orocean,swimmingcan
beawonderfulformofexercisethatprovidesallofthecardiacandcirculationbenefitsofwalking. Swimmingisespeciallybeneficialif
youhavebackorkneeproblemsbecauseitisanon-weight-bearingexercisethatisgentleonthejoints. TipsforSwimming
oStartoutslowlyandincreaseyourlapsgradually,addingonelapeachtimeyouswim. oBuilduptoatleast20to30minutesofswimmingeachday. aAlternatestrokestogivedifferentmusclesinyourbodyamorethoroughworkout. oMakesureyouarecomfortablewithyourbreathingasyouswim,andthatyouarenotforcingorstraining. aItisbettertoswimslowerandlongerthanfasterandshorter. If
youmakeitenjoyable,thelikelihoodthatyouwillcontinuetoswimregularlyismuchgreater. WeightLiftingThankstothemanycolorfulcharactersintheworldofprofessionalbodybuilding,weightliftinghasbecomeincreasinglypopular. Pump
ingironandweighttrainingcanincreasemusclestrengthandimprove
youroverallphysicalhealth. Itcanalsorelievementalandemotionaltension,andeffectivelystrengthenandfortifyyourhealingsystem. TzpsforWeightL~fèing
aStartwithlightweightsandmovethroughthefullrangeofmotionoftheexerciseyou’redoingtoensurepropermovement
ofthemusclesbeingexercised. StrengtheningandFortifyingYourHealingSystem 87
oBalanceyourworkoutsoyouarenotworkingallthesamemusclegroupsatonetime. oFocusmoreonthelowerbody,includingyourlegsandback,becausethesemusclesarethelargestandmostimportantmus
clesinyourbody,andtheyusuallyaretheonesmostneglected. oStretchin-betweenandafterweight-liftingexercisestoavoid
stiffmusclesandjoints. aBreatheproperlyasyouworkout. Itisphysiologicallymorecor
recttoexhaleasyouliftormoveaweight,asifyouwereblowingairintotheweight. oBesmartandacceptthehelpofapersonaltrainertoorientyourselfonanewmachineorwhileyouarelearninganewroutine. oIfyourmusclesaresorethedayafteraworkout,waituntilthe
painiscompletelygonebeforeyouworkthesesamemusclesagain. oRememberthatmusclesneedresttogrowandbecomestronger. Itispossibletoovertrainandinjuremusclesifyoudonotallow
ingadequaterestbetweenworkouts. oNeverforceorstraintothepointthatyoufeelpain. Although
mostgymsencouragethesaying“Nopain,nogain,”fromamedicalperspective,ignoringpaininyourbodycanresultinaninjury
AerobicExercise
Aerobicexercisedescribesanysustainedexercisethatincreasesyourbreathingandheartrateandhastheabilitytomakeyoubreaka
sweat. Aerobicexerciserequiresincreasedairdeliverytoyourbody,whichresultsingreateroxygenationofyourtissues. Youcanachieve
theseresultsinnumerouswaysandsettings,frombriskwalking,running,calisthenics,hiking,biking,swimming,aerobicdancing
andexercises,tosports,games,andotherfunexercises. Aerobicexercisemayalsoincludetheexerciseyougetwhileworkingonyour
jobifyouperformmanuallabororareregularlyinvolvedinactivi
tiesthatrequirethesteadymovementofyourarmsorlegsoveracontinuousperiodoftime. 88 YourExtraordinaryHealingSystem
TzpsforAerobicExercise
oTake5tolOminutestostretchandwarmupbeforeandafterexercising. oIfyouhaven’texercisedinawhile,startslowlyanddoonlyabout10tol5minutesatatimeforthefirstweek. oMakesureyouarenotforcingorstrainingyourmusclesorjoints,andthatyouarenotgaspingforairwhileyouarebreathing. Slowlybuildupspeed,distances,andlengthoftimeexercising,untilyoucando30to60minutesatatime. oIfyouexperiencepainthatpersistsinanypartofyourbody,
easeoffyourexercisingpaceandintensity-. Ifthepainpersists
evenwithlessexercise,considerstoppingaltogether. Tryingtoignorethepainorforcethroughthepaindoesnothelp. Doing
thisishowseriousinjuriesandproblemscandevelop. oRemembertorestandallowsomedowntimebeforeyoumake
atransitiontoyournextactivity-. StretchingStretchingcanprovidetremendoussupportforyourhealingsystem. StretchingisbecomingincreasinglypopularintheUnitedStates
andEuropewiththeacceptanceandintroductionoftraditionalori
entaldisciplinessuchasyogaandtaichiintoWesterncultures. Even
giantSumowrestlersinJapanstretchaspartoftheirpre-matchwarm-upsandrituals. Stretchingisalsomakingitswayintothemedicalestablishmentandisgraduallybecomingacceptedasafirst-lineinterventioninthefieldsofrehabilitation,sportsmedicine,
andphysicaltherapyforthetreatmentandpreventionofneuromusculardisordersandinjuries,includingbackpain,post-surgicalrehabilitation,andmanyformsofarthritisandotherjointdiseases. Whendoneproperly,stretchingfeelsgood. Stretchingissomethingthatmostanimalsdonaturally. Whendogsorcatsawakenfrom
anap,thefirstthingtheydoisstretch. Childrenalsonaturallystretch
andassumeallkindsoftwisting,flexible,andtopsy-t


ourhealingsystembeginsto
comeintoview. oAsyoubegintogetthefirstglimpsesofyourhealingsystem,allowwhateverimageisdevelopingtoformonitsown. Thereis
norightorwronghere,sothereisnoneedtojudgeanythingabouttheimage. Ifanimageformsthatistotallyunexpected,whichisoftenthecase,welcomeit. Doyourbestnottoreject
orbeafraidoftheimageofyourhealingsystemthatyourimaginationpresentstoyou. oAllowtheimageofyourhealingsystemtocomeintoclearerfocus. Noticeallyoucanaboutitsshape,dimensions,color,tex
ture,andwhetheritismovingorstill. oYourhealingsystemmayevenappearintheformofaperson,animal,orsomeothercreature. Itmightevenhaveafaceora
name. oWhenyouhaveafairlyclearpictureofyourhealingsystemin
yourmind,allowyourselftocomecloseenoughtoitsoyoucanhaveaconversationwithit. Oritmaybesopowerfulthatyou
aremorecomfortablesteppingbackandcreatingdistance. Find
thedistancethatfeelsbestforyou,andadjustyourpositionto
theimagesothatyouarecomfortable. oJustasyouwoulduponmeetinganewfriendforthefirsttime,introduceyourselftoyourhealingsystem. Oryoumayfeelasif
youaremeetinganoldfriendafteralongtime,andyouarereintroducingyourself. AdditionalMethodsandTechniques 361
~Youmaywanttotellyourhealingsystemhowyoufeel. Ifyou
areinpain,youmaywanttosharethis,oryoumaybeangrywithitbecauseyouthinkit’snotbeendoingsuchagoodjobofprotectingyourhealth. Tellitthis. Oryoumayfeelmorecomfortableaskingyourhealingsystemmorequestionsandgetting
toknowitfirst,beforeyoutellithowyoufeel. •Ifyouareinpain,youmayaskyourhealingsystemhowitcan
healyourpain. Ifyouaresickorhaveanillness,youmaywant
toaskithowtohealandgetbetter. •Askyourhealingsystemwhetheryoumightbedoingsomethingthatisinterferingwithitswork. Askwhetherthereissomething
youareneglectingtodotokeepyourhealingsystemstrongandvibrant. Askhowyoucanimproveyourlifestyleandyourdailypersonalhealthhabitsinsupportofitswork. •Askyourhealingsystemhowyoucangettoknowitbetter,and
whatitneedstobehealthyandstrong. •Continuetoaskasmanyquestionsasyoulike. •Remembertolistenattentivelytotheanswersthatwillbeforthcoming. Theremaybeaslightdelayinreceivingtheinforma
tion,sodon’trushtheresponses,orbeinahurry. •Whenyouaredone,remembertosay“Thankyou”toyourhealingsystem. •Findoutwhenyoucanmeetagain. •Scheduleanappointmentforthenexttimeyouwillmeet. Doingthisisveryimportanttohelpyoustayaccountablefor
yourroleinthisongoinginternaldialoguewithyourhealingsystem. Becauseyourhealingsystemispunctualandalwaysavailabletoyou,itwilldefinitelyshowupatwhatevertimeand
dateyouspecify,butyoumustbespecific. •Whenyouarefinished,say“Goodbye”toyourhealingsystem. Afteryouhavecompletedthisguidedimagery/visualizationexercise,takeafewmomentstoreflectontheexperience. Takeapenandnotebookandwritedownasmuchinformationabouttheexperienceasyoucanremember. Whatnewinsightsdidyougain. Make
362ActivatingYourHealingSystemWhenYou’reSick
anactionplanbasedonnewideasorinformationthatyourhealingsystemhassharedwithyouinyourimagerydialogue. Nowitisuptoyoutoimplementtheseideasinyourdailylife. So,whatareyouwaitingfor. Doittoday. Ifyoustayintouchwith
yourhealingsystem,you’llseethatitwillfunctionbetterandworkhardertokeepyouhealthyandstrong. RESOURCES
RecommendedReading
GeneralHealingBatmanghelidj,E,M. D. YourBody’sManyCriesforWater. FallsChurch,VA:GlobalHealthSolutions,Inc.,1998. Bennet,HalZina. TheDoctorWithin. NewYork:ClarksonN. Potter,1981. Bennett,Cleaves,M.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>
Q: What is the recommended duration for the breathing exercise at the beginning?,
A: 3 to 5 minutes at a time, and not more than four times a day.
Q: What should you do if you are in pain, according to the text?,
A: You may want to share your feelings with your healing system, and ask it how it can heal your pain.
Q: What is the purpose of the guided imagery/visualization exercise?,
A: To activate, strengthen, and fortify your healing system.
Q: Can you force or judge the image of your healing system during the visualization exercise?,
A: No, you should not force or judge the image, and allow it to come into focus on its own.
Q: What is the recommended frequency of the breathing exercise?,
A: In the beginning, it is recommended to do the exercise 3 to 5 minutes at a time, and not more than four times a day, but you can increase the duration and frequency over time.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>30 Pearls of Wisdom from
Eckhart Tolle
Eckhart Tolle is a world-renown spiritual teacher and the author of the
books “The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment” and “A
New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose”, both of which have sold
in the millions.His work, which has been influenced by a wide range of spiritual
teachings, is centered on the recognition that the now is all that there is. Here are 30 pearls of wisdom from Eckhart Tolle:
1. Instead of reacting to the content that arises in your life—thoughts,
external events, other people, the scenery, and so on—, allow the content
to be. That is, instead of identifying with what arises in the now, become
aware of the now itself, beyond the phenomena that arise in it. To become
aware of the now itself means that you become aware of the stillness that
underlies everything. 2. Becoming aware of the now also means realizing that you are the now,
or noticing the “observer” that witnesses life’s events with detachment,
and without being possessed by them. 3. The underlying stillness is underneath and between all of your
thoughts. In fact, it surrounds all of the content in your life. 4. Meditating in the morning will help you to begin the day in the
undercurrent of stillness. 5. Most people are not aware of the field; they’re only aware of what
happens in the field. In fact, it’s not just that they’re only aware of what
happens in the field, but they identify with what happens in the field in
their search for self. 6. Fear of loss is when you identify with part of the content—withsomething in the external world–, and you think that if you lose it, you’ll
lose part of who you are. For example, when you tell yourself that without
this or that, “I’m no one”. 7. You’ll live in a state of continuous joy, no matter what arises, when you
realize that what arises isn’t that important. What arises is just
consciousness playing with form. 8. Become a participant in the play of form by creating without self-
seeking; when you create without self-seeking, you’ll create beautifully. However, when you create and there’s self-seeking in it—when you tell
yourself “I need”, “I want”, or “I must have”–, then you infuse the
creative energy that is flowing through you with negativity. 9. The power of consciousness flows through you, and it loves to create;
simply let it flow. 10. Think of the last time you were in a traffic jam; you felt stressed
because you needed to be at “X” place, but you weren’t moving. However,
the same spaciousness that is easy to become aware of when you’re
contemplating nature, for example, surrounds even this event which we
call a “traffic jam”. Shift your awareness from “traffic jam” to
spaciousness. 11. You find the spaciousness surrounding any event simply by allowing
that moment to be. Say “yes” to anything that happens, instead offighting or resisting what is. What’s the point of saying “no”, if it is? Simply tell yourself, “It is what it is”. When you do this you become aware
of a dimension that is deeper than the event that’s taking place. 12. If you get angry about something that’s happening around you, do the
same thing; simply say, “Here’s the energy of anger; it is what it is”. Of
course, it’s much easier to notice the stillness that surrounds something
such as a flower, than it is to notice the stillness that surrounds anger. However, the stillness surrounds everything, even strong emotions such
as anger. 13. True


	by	“heartburn.”	An	abnormal,	tightly
closed	mouth	shows	that	a	person	suffers	from	disorders	of	the	liver,	gallbladder,	and,
possibly,	the	kidneys. If	the	lower	lip	is	dry,	peels,	and	splits	easily,	there	may	either	be
chronic	constipation	or	diarrhea,	with	large	amounts	of	toxic	acids	prevalent	in	the	colon. This	condition	is	accompanied	by	advanced	dehydration	of	the	colon	cells. Swollen,	sensitive,	or	bleeding	gums. Any	of	these	symptoms	occur	when	lymph
drainage	from	the	mouth	area	is	inefficient	as	a	result	of	intestinal	lymph	congestion. The
blood	has	an	overload	of	acid	compounds. Inflammation	deep	in	the	throat,	with	or
without	swelling	of	the	tonsils,	is	also	caused	by	lymphatic	blockage. Tonsillitis,
	which
often	occurs	among	children,	is	a	sign	of	constant	retention	of	toxins	contained	in	the
lymph	fluids	and	back-flushing	of	waste	from	the	GI	tract	into	the	tonsils. Tooth	problems
	are	generally	caused	by	nutritional	imbalance. Poor	digestion	and
overconsumption	of	refined,	processed,	and	highly	acid-forming	foods,	such	as	sugar,
chocolate,	meat,	cheese,	coffee,	soda,	and	so	forth,	deplete	the	body	of	minerals	and
vitamins. Adults	usually	have	thirty-two	teeth. Each	tooth	corresponds	to	a	vertebra	of	the
spine,	and	each	vertebra	is	connected	to	a	major	organ	or	gland. If	any	of	the	four	canines
are	decaying,	for	example,	it	indicates	the	presence	of	gallstones	in	the	liver	and
gallbladder. A
yellow	color	of	the	teeth
,	and	of	the	canines	in	particular,	indicates	the
presence	of	toxins	in	the	organs	located	in	the	midabdominal	region,	that	is,	the	liver,
gallbladder,	stomach,	pancreas,	and	spleen. Bacteria	are
not
	the	cause	of	tooth	decay. They
only	attack	tooth	tissue	that	already	has	an	unbalanced	acid-alkaline	ratio. Proper	saliva
secretions	also	play	a	major	role	in	the	protection	of	the	teeth. Truly	healthy	teeth	last	a
lifetime	and	are	maintained	by	a	healthy	digestive	system. Hands,	Nails,	and	Feet

White,	fatty	skin	on	the	fingertips
	is	a	sign	of	dysfunctional	digestive	and	lymphatic
systems. In	addition,	the	liver	and	kidneys	may	be	forming	cysts	and	tumors. An	excessive
discharge	of	fats	may	occur,	seen	as	oiliness	on	the	skin. Dark	red	fingernails
	point	toward	a	high	content	of	cholesterol,	fatty	acids,	and
minerals	in	the	blood. The	liver,	gallbladder,	and	spleen	are	congested	and	underactive,
and	all	excretory	functions	are	overburdened	with	waste	products. Whitish	nails
	indicate
the	accumulation	of	fat	and	mucus	in	and	around	the	heart,	liver,	pancreas,	prostate,	or
ovaries. This	condition	is	accompanied	by	poor	blood	circulation	and	low	hemoglobin
levels	(anemia). Vertical	ridges	in	the	fingernails
	generally	indicate	poor	absorption	of	food	and	the
disruption	of	important	digestive,	liver,	and	kidney	functions. There	may	be	general
fatigue. Strong	vertical	ridges	on	the	thumbnails,	possibly	with	split	ends,	show	that	a
person’s	testicles	and	prostate	or	ovaries	are	not	functioning	properly. This	is	caused	by
the	ineffectiveness	of	the	digestive	and	circulatory	systems. Horizontal	indentations	in
the	nails
	show	unusual	or	drastic	changes	in	dietary	habits. The	changes	can	be	either
beneficial	or	harmful. White	dots	on	the	nails
	appear	when	the	body	eliminates	large
amounts	of	calcium	and/or	zinc	in	response	to	excessive	consumption	of	sugar	or	sugar-
containing	foods	and	beverages. Sugar	has	highly	acid-forming	properties	and	leaches	out
these	minerals	from	the	bones	and	teeth. A	hard	protrusion	at	the	ball	of	the	foot. This	condition	shows	progressive	hardening
of	the	organs	located	in	the	middle	of	the	body,	including	the	liver,	stomach,	pancreas,	and
spleen. It	points	to	the	accumulation	of	numerous	gallstones	in	the	liver	and	gallbladder. A	yellow	color	of	the	feet
	indicates	the	accumulation	of	many	gallstones	in	the	liver
and	gallbladder. If	the	color	of	any	part	of	the	feet	is	green,	then	spleen	and	lymph
functions	are	severely	disrupted. This	may	lead	to	cysts	and	to	benign	and	malignant
tumors. Hardness	at	the	tip	of	the	fourth	toe	or	a	callus	in	the	area	under	the	fourth	toe. This	symptom	shows	that	gallbladder	functions	are	stagnant. General	rigidity,	a	bent
condition,	and	pain	in	the	fourth	toe	imply	a	long	history	of	gallstones	in	the	gallbladder
and	liver. Curving	of	the	first	toe. If	the	large	toe	curves	inward	toward	the	second	toe,	it	showsthat	liver	functions	are	subdued	owing	to	the	presence	of	gallstones	in	the	liver	bile	ducts. At	the	same	time,	spleen	and	lymphatic	functions	are	overactive	because	of	the
accumulation	of	toxic	residues	from	inadequately	digested	foods,	metabolic	waste,	and
cellular	debris. White	color	and	rugged	surfaces	on	the	fourth	and	fifth	toenails. This	indicates
poor	performance	of	the	liver	and	gallbladder,	as	well	as	of	the	kidneys	and	urinary
bladder. The	Constitution	of	Fecal	Matter

The	stool	or	fecal	matter	emits	a	sharp,	sour,	or	penetrative	odor. This	indicates	that
food	is	not	being	digested	properly. Fermented	and	putrefied	food	and	the	presence	of
large	quantities	of	“unfriendly”	bacteria	in	the	feces	give	rise	to	an	abnormal	odor	and
sticky	texture. Normal	stool	is	coated	with	a	thin	mucus	lining,	which	prevents	the	anus
from	being	soiled. Dry	and	hard	stools
	are	an	indication	of	constipation,	and	so	are	sticky	stools. Diarrhea	is	yet	another	sign	of	weak	performance	of	the	digestive	system	and	the	liver,	in
particular. The	feces	look	pale	or	clay-colored. This	is	still	another	indication	of	poor	liver
performance	(bile	gives	the	stool	its	natural	brown	color). If	the	stool	floats,	large	amounts
of	undigested	fats	are	contained	in	it,	making	it	lighter	than	water. Conclusion

There	may	be	many	more	signs	and	symptoms	indicating	the	presence	of	gallstones	in	the
liver	and	gallbladder	than	those	listed	above. Pain	in	the	right	shoulder,	tennis	elbow,
frozen	shoulder,	numbness	in	the	legs,	and	sciatica,	for	example,	may	have	no	obvious
relation	to	gallstones	in	the	liver. Yet	when	the	gallstones	are	removed,	these	conditions
usually	disappear. The	body	is	a	network	of	information,	and	every	part	influences	and	communicates	with
every	other	part. Seemingly	insignificant	marks	or	signs	on	the	skin,	in	the	eyes,	or	on	a
toe	may	be	the	harbingers	of	serious	health	issues. When	you	recognize	them	and	cleanse
your	liver	and	gallbladder,	in	concert	with


er e ther e was
none befor e, new ener gy bursts forth fr om deep inside us. The world never gives you per mission to shine. Only love
does that. I r emember being a cocktail waitr ess and walking
into work one night thinking, “ Oh, I get it. They think this is
a bar. ” As A Course in Miracles  student, I now saw it
diﬀer ently. “This isn’t a bar, and I’m not a waitr ess. That’s
just an illusion. Every busi ness is a fr ont for a chur ch, and
I’m her e to purif y the thought for ms, to minister to the
childr en of God. ” W e can tak e our own lives seriously,
regardless of whether or not anyone else does. No job r eally
has any mor e potential impact on the planet than any other. We’re always impacting the world in which we live, thr ough
our pr esence, our ener gy, our interactions with others. The
question is, what kind of impact ar e we having. I once knew a woman who wanted to be an actr ess, but
wasn’t getting work. In the meantime, she was working as a
personal assistant to a pr ofessional writer. He ador ed her
work and wanted her to travel with him all ar ound the
country, doing book tours, setting up lectur es and helping
him in various ways. Although she told me that she found
working with him very e xhilarating, she didn’t want to leave
Los Angeles because she felt she needed to be available in
case ther e wer e acting jobs her e that she might audition for. “Nothing would be better for your acting car eer,” I told
my friend, “than that you would start star ring in your ownlife. ” The r eason many people want to be actors is not
because they ar e truly called to the art, but rather because
they want so desperately to cr eate something beautiful in
their own lives. Show up. Be enthusiastic. P ut some ener gy
into the life you’r e living now. How will anyone ever be
impressed by your starlik e quality if you’r e waiting to
cultivate that quality until you become a star. How would a miracle work er decide whether to go on the
trip or stay in L os Angeles. W e mak e decisions by asking
that the ‘Holy Spirit decide for us. ’ Ther e are always so
many factors in life that we can’t know. ‘We mak e no
decisions by ourselves,’ but ask how we might be most
helpful in car rying out His plan. The moral authority that this
attitude gives us cr eates a starlik e quality. It is our humility,
our desir e to be of service, that mak es us stars. Not our
arrogance. An ego thought that tempts a lot of people is the
insistence that “I don’t do windows. ” Ther e’s an old Zen
tradition of disciples spending years dusting the altars of
their masters as part of their pr eparation and training. The
apprentice lear ns from being in the pr esence of the master,
from serving him, and in time will surpass him. As the I
Ching says, the universe ﬁlls up the modest and cuts down
the pr oud. In modesty, we allow things to blossom. W e’re
not ashamed to admit we’r e still in pr ocess. The ego
emphasizes the goal rather than the pr ocess by which we
achieve it. This is actually the ego’s way of sabotaging us. We become pr oud and har dened, and ther eby less
attractive. Ther e is nothing lik able about false pride. It
doesn’t help us get work, or to get mor e successful. Our job is to tend to our own gr owth as people, our grace
and integrity and humility. We need no other goal. The cor e
of our being then gr ows into a substantial power, e xternallyas well as inter nally. Our ministry becomes a dir ect line of
creation, fr om God thr ough us to all mankind. 6. NEW HEAR TS, NEW JOBS
“Child of God, you wer e created to cr eate the
good, the beautiful and the holy. Do not for get
this. ”
The ego says, “Y our value is based on your cr edentials. Y ou
need a Ph. D. or its equivalent befor e you can get a good
job. ” But some of the best and brightest of our generation
were educated mor e by life than by school. Ther e’s a mass
of talent in our society who have been everywher e and done
everything, but have few cr edentials to show for it. Our
achievements have been mainly inter nal. Our ministries—our new car eers—will r eﬂect these
internal achievements. They will e xpress a new integration
of mind and heart. They will e xpress the consciousness of
people contributing their individual r esour ces to a general
healing tide. These car eers will be cr eated as individual
reﬂections of our unique talents. W e will not “ﬁnd” these
jobs; we will cr eate them. Ther e are no ads in the “ Help
Wanted” section of newspapers for world saviors or miracle-
work ers. New for ms of employment ar e emer ging in
response to new ener gies. Carl Jung advised people to look closely into whatever
fairy tales or myths particularly attracted them as childr en. When I was a child, I was enchanted by a fairy tale called
“The Girl in the P atchwork Dr ess. ” In this story, the cr own
prince of a kingdom is going ar ound the country looking for
a bride. In one town, a huge ball is being held so that the
Prince can have a chance to meet all the young ladies wholive ther e. One girl wanted very much to go to the ball but
she didn’t have enough money to buy the material she
would need in or der to mak e a beautiful ball gown. So she
did what she could. She pick ed up scraps of material fr om
other girls’ worktables, and put together a patchwork dr ess. On the night of the ball, she enter ed the party and gr ew
embar rassed when she saw how beautiful all the other girls’
dresses wer e. Feeling ashamed, she hid in a closet. The
prince came to the party, danced with all the girls ther e,
and at a certain point, he had had enough. He was bor ed
and he was going home. But as he was leaving, he noticed a
piece of cloth sticking out of a closet door. He or dered his
guards to open the door, wher e they discover ed the girl in
the patchwork dr ess. The prince danced with her, found her
more inter esting than any of the other girls, and he mar ried
her. When I thought of that story as an adult, I knew why it
had meant so much to me as a child. It r evealed a
signiﬁcant ar chetype in my own life. I would ultimately taste
a little bit of just about everything life had to oﬀer. This
would never ear n me a degr ee in anything, but it would ear n
me a kind of overview. That vision of things would become
the basis for my car eer. A lot of people among us ar e like
the girl in the patchwork dr ess. W e have a little bit of this,
and a little bit of that. But you can’t get a Ph.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>
Q: What is the source of creativity and abundance?,
A: God; it is not the ego.
Q: What is the key to a successful career?,
A: Not working for money, but for love and serving others.
Q: What is the problem with the ego's perspective on money?,
A: It is an illusion, and it blocks our ability to receive abundance.
Q: What is the issue with setting specific goals?,
A: It can be limiting and distract us from our true purpose, and it is not the same as asking God for guidance.
Q: What is the source of healing?,
A: The Holy Spirit, which is a divine physician within us, and our willingness to surrender to its guidance.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>It will
be as though millions of us ar e stopped at that r ed light,
recognizing our lovelessness and asking that we be healed. When the cur e for AIDS is ﬁnally found, we will give prizes to
a few scientists, but many of us will know that millions and
millions of prayers helped it happen. 4. SA VING THE MIND, SA VING THE BOD Y
“Only salvation can be said to cur e.”
The e xperience of illness is a call to a genuinely r eligious
life. In that sense, it is for many people one of the best
things that ever happened to them.One of the pr oblems with illness is that it str ongly tempts
us to obsess about the body at the very time when we need
most to concentrate on spirit. It tak es spiritual discipline to
turn that ar ound. Spiritual practice


 bear  fruit immediately. Unti l it does — do not resist what is. If there
is no action you can take, and you cannot remove yourself from the
situation either, then use the situation to make you go more de eply into
surrender, more deeply into the Now, more deeply into Being. When youenter this timeless dimension of the present, change often comes  about in
strange w ays without the need fo r a great deal of doing on your part. Life
becomes helpful and cooperative. If inner factors such as fear,  guilt, or
inertia prevented you from taking action, they will dissolve in the light of
your conscious presence. Do not confuse surrender with an attitude of “I can’ t be bothered
anymore” or “I just don’ t care anymore. ” If you look at it clo sely, you
will find that such an attitude is tainted with negativity in the  form of
hidden resentme nt and so is not surrender at all but masked resistance. As you surrende r, direct your a ttention inward to check if the re is any
trace of resistance left inside you. Be very alert when you do so;
otherwise, a pocket of resistance may continue to hide in some dark
corner in the form of a thought or an unacknowledged emotion. FROM MIND ENERGY T O SPIRITUAL ENERGY
Letting go of r esistance is easie r said than done. I still don’ t see clearly
how to let go. If you say it is by surr endering, the question r emains:
“How. ”

Start by acknowledging that there is  resistance. Be  the re when it
happens, when the resistance ar ises. Observe how your mind c reates it,
how it labels t he situation, yourself, or others. Look at the  thought
process involve d. Feel the ener gy of th e emotion. By witnessing  the
resistance, you will see that it s erves no purpose. By focusing all your
attention on the Now, the uncon scious resistance is made conscious, and
that is the end o f it. Y ou canno t be conscious and  unhappy, conscious
and  in nega tivity. Negativity, unhappiness, or suf fering in whatever form
means that there is resistance, and resistance is always unconscious. Sur ely I can be conscious of my unhappy feelings. W ould y ou cho ose unhappiness. If you did not choose it, ho w did it
arise. W hat is its purpose. Who  is keeping it alive. Y ou say tha t you are
conscious of your unhappy feelings, but the truth is that you are
identified with them and keep the process alive through co mpulsive
thinking. All that  is unconscious. If you were conscious, that is to say
totally present in the Now, all ne gativity would dissolve almost instantly. It could not survive in your presence. It can only survive in your
absence. Even the pain-body ca nnot survive for long in your presence. Y ou kee p your unhappiness aliv e by giving it time. That is its lifeblood. Remove time through intense pr esent-moment awareness and it dies. But
do you want it to die. Have yo u truly had enough. Who would you be
without it. Until yo u practice surrender, the spiritual dimension is something you
read about, talk about, get excited about, write books about, think about,
believe in — or don’ t, as the case may be. It makes no dif ference. Not
until you surrender does it becom e a living reality in your life. W hen you
do, the ener gy t hat you emanate and which then runs your life is of a
much hi gher vibrational freque ncy than the mind ener gy that still runs
our world — th e ener gy that created the existing social, political, and
economic structures of our civilization, and which also continuously
perpetuates itself through our educational systems and the media. Through surrend er, spiritual ener gy comes into this world. It c reates no
suf fering for yourself, for other humans, or any other life form on the
planet. U nlike mind ener gy, it does not pollute the earth, and it is not
subject to the law of polarities, which dictates that nothing can exist
without its opposite, that there can be no good without bad. Th ose who
run on mind e ner gy, which is still the vast majority of the  Earth’ s
population, rem ain unaware of the existence of spiritual ener gy. It
belongs to a dif ferent order of reality and will create a dif ferent world
when a suf ficien t number of humans enter the surrendered sta te and so
become totally free of negativity. If the Earth is to survive, thi s will be
the ener gy of those who inhabit it. Jesus referred to this ener gy when he made his famous prophetic
statement in the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the gentle; they
shall have the earth for their possession. ” It is a silent bu t intense
presence that dissolves the unconscious patterns of the mind. They may
still rem ain active for a while, but they won’ t run your life anymore. Theexternal conditions that were being resisted also tend to shift or dissolve
quickly through surrender. It is a powerful transformer of situations and
people. If conditions do not sh ift immediately, your acceptance of the
Now enables you to rise above them. Either way, you are free. SURRENDER IN PERSONAL RELA TIONSHIPS
What about people who want to use me, manipulate or contr ol me. Am I
to surr ender to them. They are  cut of f from Being, so they unconsciously attempt to get ener gy
and pow er from  you. It is true that only an unconscious person will try to
use or manipulate others, but it is equally true that only an unconscious
person can  be used  and manipulated. If you resist or fight unconscious
behavior in others, you become unconscious yourself. But surrender
doesn’ t mean that you allow yourself to be used by unconscious people. Not at all. It is perfectly possible to say “no” firmly and cle arly to a
person or to walk away from a situation and be in a state of complete
inner no nresistance at the same t ime. When you say “no” to a pe rson or a
situation, let it come not from reaction but from insight, from a clear
realization of what is right or not right for you at that moment. Let it be a
nonreactive “no, ” a high-quality “no,” a “no” that is free of all n egativity
and so creates no further suf fering. I a m in a situation at work that is unpleasant. I have tried to surr ender to
it, but I find it impossible. A lot of r esistance keeps coming up. If you cannot surrender, take  action immediately: Speak up or do
something to bring about a change in the situation — or remove  yourself
from it. T ake re sponsibility for your life. Do not pollute your b eautiful,
radiant inner Being nor the Earth with negativity. Do not give
unhappiness in any form whatsoever a dwelling place inside you. If you cannot tak e action, for ex ample if you are in prison, then you have
two choices left: resistance or su rrender. Bondage or inner freedom from
external conditions. Suf fering or inner peace. Is no nr esistance  also to be practiced in the external conduct of our lives,
such as nonr esistance to violen ce, or is it something that just concerns
our inner life. Y ou only need to  be concerned w ith the inner aspect. That is primary. Of
course, that will also transform  the conduct of your outer life, your
relationships, and so on. Y our relationships will be changed profoundly by surrender. If you can
never accept what is, by implication  you will not be able to accept
anybody the way they are. Y o u will judge, criticize, label, r eject, or
attempt to change people. Furt hermore, if you continuously make the
Now into a means to an end i n the future, you will also make every
person you encounter or relate with into a means to an end. The
relationship — the human being — is then of secondary importance to
you, or of no im portance at all. What you can get out of the rel ationship
is primary — be it material gain, a sense of power, physical pleasure, or
some form of ego gratification. Let me illustrat e how surrender can work in relationships. When you
become involved  in an ar gument or some conflict situation, perh aps with
a pa rtner or som eone close to yo u, start by observing how defen sive you
become as your own position is  attacked, or feel the force of your own
aggression as you attack the other person’ s position. Obs erve the
attachment to your views and opinions. Feel the mental-emotional
ener gy b ehind y our need to be right and make the other person wrong. That’ s t he ener gy of the egoic mind. Y ou make it conscious by
acknowledging it, by feeling it as fully as possible. Then one day, in the
middle of


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 of stress
and strain. Others, the less discerning, who saw the
results but were either incapable of or unwilling to follow
the Way, might assume that the mystic had some hidden
secret of success or long life and so might look for short
cuts in drugs, recipes and elixirs—an attitude still evident
today in those who seek spiritual or psychic experiences
through the medium of drugs: the lower alchemy. This lower alchemy appealed to all the least desirable
qualities in human nature: greed of gold, envy, unhealthy
curiosity, vanity. The true alchemy led to the exact
opposite, the recognition of the need for improvement in
oneself and the lot of others; it was the ‘hidden work’
which humbly sought for illumination and the
transmutation of the base leaden qualities into the gold of
the True Man, a work carried out away from any publicity
in the solitariness of one's own soul. In the West, societies
allied to alchemy, such as masonry and rosicru cianism,
were also insistent that the majority misunderstood the
true work and taught that: ‘Moreover the objec t of our
guiltless guild is not the making of gold... Rather we
remove the erroneous opinion from them [the disciples] in
so far as they are infected with it, even on the ﬁrst steps to
the temple of wisdom. They are earnestly enjoined against
these errors that they must seek the Kingdom of God and
his righteousness.’2
The Taoist aim was to become the True Man (chen jen),
‘true’ in the sense of puriﬁed—in alchemical terms, ridding
oneself of the dross of the base metals, which then
become' true.' The True Man is beyond the hsien ; he is the
fully realized individual who has attained enlightenment
and is beyond the need for, or the idea of, ‘powers’ and
personal immortality.OceanofPDF.com– 3 –
H S I E N
Running through popular Chinese alchemy was the belief
that it was possible to attain a bodily immortality; that the
body could be so rareﬁed that it took on the attributes and
possibilities of a spirit. It was not merely a matter of
arresting the normal processes of ageing and decay but,
through a lifetime of practices, creating a new subtle body,
capable of ‘ﬂying on the wind,’ of being in more than one
place at once, immune from harm from ﬁre, water or
weapons and able to assume invisibility; in fact having all
the supernatural powers. To achieve this was to become a hsien. The word is
usually translated as Immortal or Genie, but neither takes
on the whole meaning, so the term is best left
untranslated. As Giles says, it is ‘a word which in its
written form is a character composed of two pictographic
elements, “man” and “mountain,” thus it appeared that the
name was originally applied to men who had retired from
the world in order to live a hermit's life in the mountains. Their activities were mostly conﬁned to the gathering of
certain herbs and roots which, when eaten, would not only
cure disease but also rejuvenate the body and lengthen its
life beyond the normal span.’ Though, for the most part
hsien  were associated with the mountains, there were also
hsien  of the sea connected with the remote Isles where the
Immortals dwell and where the herb of immortality grows. But as Ko Hung says: ‘They simply make their abodes
wherever they prefer.’Supernatural powers also developed as a result of these
experiments with herbs and fungi—powers of
transformation, passing through solids of ﬁre, walking on
water, and so on. The reasoning behind the cult was that if
one became suﬀiciently in accord with the Tao, which was
eternal, it should be possible to become one with this
immortality. The material body was to be reﬁned away
gradually, made more and more subtle by diet, breathing
and other yogic exercises until it became wholly
etherealized. Nor is this belief dead, for John Blofeld, in
his travels in modern but pre-communist China, met a
Taoist recluse in a monastery, a highly erudite man, who
was seriously intending to transmogrify his body into a
‘shining, adamantine substance, weightless yet hard as
jade.’
The powers of the hsien  parallel those of the Theravadin
Buddhist disciplines as set out in the Satipatthana Sutra;
that is, that the yogin will attain the ability to become
invisible, or to ‘become many,’ i.e., appear in several
places at once, to pene trate solids, ﬂy through the air,
walk on water or plunge into the earth. Other acquisitions
are the ‘heavenly ear,’ that is, being able to hear both
terrestrial and celestial sounds, near or far oﬀ, and being
able to see into other people's minds. These powers were,
naturally, used in an entirely benevolent way for the good
of humanity as well as for the hsien  him or herself. This
ability to transcend the elements was used by the hsien
not only in daily life but also in alchemical work; the earth
yielded its secrets to him and the powers of travelling in
supernatural realms conferred a knowledge of life and
death and abolished all fear of death. The techniques for achieving hsien -hood all aimed at
eliminating the factors which caused disruption and
degeneration in the individual. Diet, herbs or medicines,
and exercises were all used for arresting the ageingprocess, while emotional and psychological control and the
cultivation of ease of mind and peace of spirit would
confer freedom from the destructive tensions of life. Once
physical and mental balance and harmony had been
attained the disease-inducing and wearing-out inﬂuences
would be eliminated or slowed down. Above all, it was the
ability to live in harmony with Nature that was the goal
and means of attaining realization. Also, the hsien  would
be a true Taoist in refusing to take himself or life too
seriously, believing with Chuang Tzu that ‘I and the
universe are one,’ and that life and death were part of that
one and therefore both equally acceptable. The light-
hearted, gamin spirit of Taoism was seen in the poetry of
Li Po, who was called the ‘banished hsien ’ and who met a
characteristically hsien  end to his life by being borne
heavenwards on the back of a whale! There are, however, other positive qualities and
attributes necessary for achieving the state of the hsien. This is illustrated in the story of the hsien  Shao Chün,  in
the Han dynasty, who had found the secret of the elixir and
was summoned to the presence of the Emperor who
wanted to share it. Shao Chün told him:
So long as your Majesty cannot make an end of pride
and extravagance and renounce the allurements of
the senses; while smiting and killing go on unchecked
and the passions of joy and anger are not overcome;
while in your dominion there are spirits that are not
submissive and in the market place there are
executions and bloodshed, the great secret of the
celestial drug cannot be mastered. Like all true hsien  Shao Chün did not die a conventional
death but disappeared from his coﬀin leaving only his
clothes comp lete and fastened ‘like the slough of a cicada,’
having ‘undergone voluntary transformation.’ Hisconnection with alchemy is shown in his further
instructions to the Emperor to
sacriﬁce to the Furnace  and you will be able to
summon up the spirits. Having summoned up the
spirits you may transmu te cinnabar into pure gold. When you have produced pure gold, make it into
eating and drinking vessels, and you will prolong
your span of life. If your span of life is prolonged, you
may behold the hsien  who live on the Island of P'eng-
lai. When you have seen them and performed the
sacriﬁces of Heaven and Earth, then you will become
immortal. This is what happened to the Yellow
Emperor. Arthur Waley, commenti ng on this passage, suggests
that the statement that having prolonged your life you may
be able to see the hsien  implies that hsien  are only visible
to those who have increas ed their span of life to something
approaching the immortal; in other words, only like can
see like. This type of homoeopathy also seems to hold in
the recipes used in the Ts'an T'ung Ch'i  where it says: ‘The
way to make oneself a hsien  lies in the use of drugs of a
nature similar to oneself ... Things that are similar in
nature go together, strange things cannot be reconciled.’
Ko Hung said: ‘No man ever got ﬁne grain without tilling
the soil and no man can ever attain hsien -hood without
diligence.’ So there are endless passages giving the
necessary preliminary qualities. One must be kind and
aﬀectionate, practise the


for as a man thinketh, so is he. The alcoholic has a deep sense of
inferiority, inadequacy, defeat, and frustration, usually accompanie d
by a deep inner hostility. He has countless alibis as to his  reason for
drinking, but the sole reason is in his thought life. • Three magic steps
The first step: Get still; quiet the wheels of the mind. Enter into a
sleepy, drowsy state. In this relaxed, peaceful, receptive state, you are
preparing for the second step. The second step: Take a brief phrase, which can readily be graven
on the memory, and repeat it over and over as a lullaby. Use the
phrase, “Sobriety and peace of mind are mine now, and I give thanks.”
To prevent the mind from wandering, repeat it aloud or sketch i ts
pronunciation with the lips and tongue as you say it mentally. This
helps its entry into the subconscious mind. Do this for five minut es or
more. You will find a deep emotional response. The third step: Just before going to sleep, practice what Johann von
Goethe, German author, used to do. Imagine a friend, a loved one in
 196  front of you. Your eyes are closed, you are relaxed and at pea ce. The
loved one or friend is subjectively present, and is saying to you,
“Congratulations!” You see the smile; you hear the voice. You
mentally touch the hand; it is all real and vivid. The word
congratulations imply complete freedom. Hear it over and over again
until you get the sub-conscious reaction, which satisfies. • Keep on keeping on
When fear knocks at the door of your mind, or when worry, anxiety,
and doubt cross your mind, behold your vision, your goal. Think of
the infinite power within your subconscious mind, which you can
generate by your thinking and imagining, and this will give you
confidence, power, and courage. Keep on, persevere, until the day
breaks, and the shadows flee away. • Review your thought power
1. The solution lies within the problem. The answer is in every
question. Infinite intelligence responds to you as you call upon it with
faith and confidence. 2. Habit is the function of your subconscious mind. There is no
greater evidence of the marvelous power of your sub-conscious t han
the force and sway habit holds in your life. You are a creature of habit. 3. You form habit patterns in your subconscious mind by repeating
a thought and act over and over again until it establishes trac ks in the
subconscious mind and becomes automatic, such as swimming,
dancing, typing, walking, driving your car, etc. 4. You have freedom to choose. You can choose a good habit or a
bad habit. Prayer is a good habit. 5. Whatever mental picture, backed by faith, you behold in your
conscious mind, and your subconscious mind will bring to pass. 6. The only obstacle to your success and achievement is your ow n
thought or mental image. 197  7. When your attention wanders, bring it back to the con-templation
of your good or goal. Make a habit of this. This is called di sciplining
the mind. 8. Your conscious mind is the camera, and your subconscious mind
is the sensitive plate on which you register or impress the picture. 9. The only jinx that follows anyone is a fear thought re-peated ov er
and over in the mind. Break the jinx by know-ing that whatever you
start you will bring to a conclusion in divine order. Picture  the happy
ending and sustain it with confidence. 10. To form a new habit, you must be convinced that it is desirable. When your desire to give up the bad habit is greater than y our desire
to continue, you are fifty-one per-cent healed already. 11. The statements of others cannot hurt you except through your
own thoughts and mental participation. Identify your-self with your
aim, which is peace, harmony, and joy. You are the only thinker in
your universe. 12. Excessive drinking is an unconscious desire to escape. The
cause of alcoholism is negative and destructive thinking. The cure is
to think of freedom, sobriety, and perfection, and to feel the t hrill of
accomplishment. 13. Many people remain alcoholics because they refuse to admit it. 14. The law of your subconscious mind, which held you in bondage
and inhibited your freedom of action, will give you freedom and
happiness. It depends on how you use it. 15. Your imagination took you to the bottle; let it take you to
freedom by imagining you are free. 16. The real cause of alcoholism is negative and destructive
thinking. As a man thinketh in his heart [subconscious mind], so is he. 17. When fear knocks at the door of your mind, let faith in God and
all things good open the door. 198  19
How to Use Your Subconscious Mind to
Remove Fear
One of our students told me that he was invited to speak at a
banquet. He said he was panic-stricken at the thought of speaki ng
before a thousand people. He overcame his fear this way: For  several
nights he sat down in an armchair for about five minutes and said t o
himself slowly, quietly, and positively, “I am going to master this fear. I am overcoming it now. I speak with poise and confidence. I a m
relaxed and at ease.” He operated a definite law of mind and overcame
his fear. The subconscious mind is amenable to suggestion and is controlled
by suggestion. When you still your mind and relax, the thoughts of
your conscious mind sink down into the sub-conscious through a
process similar to osmosis, whereby fluids separated by a p orous
membrane intermingle. As these positive seeds, or thoughts, sink  into
the subconscious area, they grow after their kind, and you become
poised, serene, and calm. • Man’s greatest enemy
It is said that fear is man’s greatest enemy. Fear is b ehind failure,
sickness, and poor human relations. Millions of people are af raid of
the past, the future, old age, insanity, and death. Fear is a  thought in
your mind, and you are afraid of your own thoughts. A little boy can be paralyzed with fear when he is told ther e is a
boogieman under his bed that is going to take him away. When his
father turns on the light and shows him there is no boogieman, he i s
freed from fear. The fear in the mind of the boy was as real as if there
really was a boogie man there. He was healed of a false t hought in his
mind. The thing he feared did not exist. Likewise, most of your fear s
have no reality. They are merely a conglomeration of sinister shadows
and shadows have no reality. 199  • Do the thing you fear
Ralph Waldo Emerson, philosopher and poet, said, “Do the thing
you are afraid to do, and the death of fear is certain.”
There was a time when the writer of this chapter was fill ed with
unutterable fear when standing before an audience. The way I
overcame it was to stand before the audience, do the thing I was afraid
to do, and the death of fear was certain. When you affirm positively that you are going to master your fea rs,
and you come to a definite decision in your conscious mind, you
release the power of the subconscious, which flows in response to the
nature of your thought. • Banishing stage fright
A young lady was invited to an audition. She had been looking
forward to the interview. However, on three previous occasions, s he
had failed miserably due to stage fright. She possessed a very good voice, but she was certain that when the
time came for her to sing, she would be seized with stage frig ht. The
subconscious mind takes your fears as a re-quest, proceeds to manife st
them, and brings them into your experience. On three previous
auditions she sang wrong notes, and she finally broke down and cried. The cause, as previously outlined, was an involuntary autosuggestion,
i.e., a silent fear thought emotionalized and subjectified. She overcame it by the following technique: Three times a day s he
isolated herself in a room. She sat down comfortably in an arm chair,
relaxed her body, and closed her eyes. She stilled her mind and body
to the best of her ability. Physical inertia favors pass ivity and renders
the mind more receptive to sug-gestion. She counteracted the fe ar
suggestion by its converse, saying to herself, “I sing beautif ully. I am
poised, serene, con-fident, and calm.”
She repeated the words slowly, quietly, and with feeling from five to
ten times at each sitting. She had three such “sittings” ever y day and
one immediately prior to sleep at night. At the end of a we ek she was
 200  completely poised and confident, and gave a definitely outstand ing
audition. Carry out the above procedure, and the death of fear is
certain. • Fear of failure
Occasionally young men from the local


 canning. Factory canned foods cont ain good quantities of vitamin C if it is
originally present in the food. Home canned f oods are deficient in this element. Vitamin
B
1 is killed by ordinary cooking temperatures if the temperature is kept up for a long
enough time. Short cooking kills a relatively small amount of vitamin B 1. Long
continued cooking kills practically all vitamin B 1. Vitamin B 1 is destroyed also
according to the temperature of the cooking. A relatively low temperature--220 degrees-
-may be kept up for a longer time than temperatures around 400 or 500 degrees. If subjected to exceedingly high temperatures, as are most goods put up in packages, such
as breakfast cereals, the food is practically devoid of vitamin B. In most such so-called cereal foods the empty package has more intrinsic value than the contents. The presence of acid helps to preserve the integrity of vitamin B
1. Foods that are
highly acid go through canning with very little such loss. Canned tomatoes are almost as
good food as raw tomatoes. However, few foods have the acid protective qualities of tomatoes, so we may say that non acid canned fruits or vegetables are to be condemned. Vitamin B
1 does not exist in any great concentration anywhere in nature. Its richest
sources are the germs of seeds, yeast, and liver. Throughout all nature, every living thing--plant and animal--is in a constant struggle for more vitamin B
1. The first part
wild animals eat of their victims is the vitamin rich liver. Birds eat seeds containing the
germ, while rejecting the polished seeds fro m which the germ has been removed. Rats
and other laboratory animals will fight to get a solution of thiamin (B 1) while rejecting
tasty concoctions containing sugar, meat, or honey. Plants that are injured immediately move the thiamin contained in the plant to the injured place, evidently in an effort to
promote better healing. Horticulturists have found that the addition of small amounts of
thiamin to growing plants very decidedly stimulates their growth. We may consider thiamin, then, as a scarce, very precious natural element. It exists only in sparse quantities in ordinary foods. Living things cons tantly struggle to get more of it. It is
suicidal that the human animal should throw this valuable element away as is done in
milling white flour or destroy it by the heat incident to cooking and canning. Any person eating canned meat, fruit, or vegetables should remember that he is eating
a food which formerly did contain vitamin B
1, but in the process of canning, this
precious element has been largely destroyed. He must look forward to some lowering of his resistance against infection, and to the development of some kind of disease, along
with a lessened ability to do work and a greater liability to fatigue and shortened life, if he persists in eating canned foods of any non-acid kind. It must not be inferred that canning destroys all of the vitamin B 1 in ordinary foods;
but it reduces the vitamin B 1 to such a degree that the inf ection-fighting elements in the
food are very greatly reduced. The canning of foods is therefore to be condemned, and
all civilized persons should be encouraged to eat their meat, fresh vegetables and fruits
in a fresh or previously frozen state. Frozen foods do not have the vitamin deficiencies
to be found in canned foods; so in any case where fresh food is not available, frozen
food should be the choice of the individual. There is one class of canned foods that may be eaten without fear in cases where the
fresh food of this type is not available. This is sea food. The main benefit from sea
foods (oysters, lobsters, shrimp, and salmon) is from the iodine they contain. The iodine is present in the canned as well as the fresh sea food; so while it is desirable to eat fresh
sea food, no great harm will be done if the canned article is substituted. All canned goods and packaged foods, with the exception of the canned acid fruits and
vegetables and sea foods, should be condemned as food unfit for consumption by
civilized communities. Other classes of food such as meat and milk should, if possible, be consumed fresh; but apparently meat does not suffer any great loss in ordinary
refrigeration, and milk does not suffer much loss in pasteurization. Some kinds of meat,
such as pork, carry parasitic disease. In these cases, the harm done by cooking is not so great as that which might be done by eating the meat rare. Cheese, cream, eggs, and butter are good, acceptable foods, and their c onsumption should be encouraged. Pastries
and desserts of all kinds should be prohibited,  since these are mostly composed of sugar
and white flour. Ordinary cake is perhaps the most pernicious food of all. The argument
has been brought forward that cake contains eggs and milk; but the quantities of these
are so small that they amount to nothing. Ice cream would perhaps be very much
improved and would become an acceptable food if sweetened by honey instead of sugar. As long as it contains the large amount of sugar it now contains, it must be considered
an unacceptable food except in relatively sma ll quantities. Ice cream could be prepared
with honey, the honey to be put in after all cooking or heating is over. The regime we set forth as acceptable would provide all the need of the optimum in
civilized diet. Fresh, whole grains, meat, honey, milk, eggs, butter and cheese are
fundamental foods elements. As the population of the United States and every other
civilized country which has consumed large quantities of sugar, white flour, and canned goods, is a definitely diseased group, having a history of years of subnormal living,
something must be done to make up for past deficiencies. A return to normal food alone
will never bring health up to a normal standard. A return to normal food will improve the condition of any person suffering from years of food deficiency, but will not give him the optimum. In order to reach the optimum, he must have a well-balanced mineral and vitamin intake, and to provide for past de ficiencies we must resort to so-called drug
store vitamins (concentrates). A proper mineral intake may be supplied by milk and cheese for calcium; a plentiful
supply of fresh meat for iron, and sea food for iodine. To make up for past dietary sins, concentrated vitamins should be taken for six
months to two years, in order that the individual may reach a point where, with his reserves restored, he can carry on with a balanced diet. The vitamin intake essential for the treatment of a deficiency disease is naturally
higher than the requirement for preventing a de ficiency. For this reason it is impractical,
if not impossible to adequately treat a defici ency disease by merely correcting the diet. In the selection of a concentrate, it is important to remember, first, that the original
deficiency is invariably multiple in origin. The diet has usually been deficient in not one or two, but in many or all of the vitamins. This is being further established every day, in
both the research laboratory and in clinical practice. It is essential that the concentrate contain all of the vitamins, both known and
unknown. Undoubtedly many of the vitamins essential in human nutrition have not as
yet been identified or synthetically reproduced. For this reason no synthetic preparation can completely replace the vitamins in which the average person may be deficient. Such
foods as yeast, liver and wheat germ are ex cellent sources of not only some of the
known vitamins, but also many of the unidentified naturally occurring associated factors
which are just as important in human nutrition as the fractions already known. A
millionth of a milligram of biotin may be as important in the daily diet as three milligrams of thiamin. In the selection of any vitamin concentrate bear in mind the need
for its containing as many of the vital vitamins as are found in our foods. Only natural
sources of the vitamins should be employed for synthetic mixtures alone cannot afford a
complete complex of the required factors, and without the so-called "unknown or unsynthesized" factors, few if any deficiency disorders can be cured. A new condition more serious than the one being treated may develop as the result of imbalance. The
great mass of people suffering from digestive disorders, heart symptoms, rheumatic
pains and aches, and fatigue will notice improved health conditions very soon after the
beginning of such a regime. A reversion in appearance to a younger age group will soon
be apparent. The skin will be brighter; the hair more nearly like the hair of a well fed animal, with a richer luster than before, a nd the ability to do physical and mental work
will be greatly enhanced. Those cases where actual organic change has taken place, of
course, need further medical or surgical attention. This means crippled hearts, distorted
and misshapen colons and scarred stomachs, the actual incidence of tumors, loss of
teeth, etc. A badly nourished person is never beautiful. The well nourished person cannot escape some degree of beauty, as health and beauty are inseparably bound
together. There is also need for a better, clearer understanding of how to judiciously choose a
diet which will contain the factors the body so desperately needs. Diet is a scientific
subject. An appeal to nothing but taste is a wrong approach to one of the most vital problems in health. Normally we tend to overeat on carbohydrate foods, for they have no selflimiting action on the appetite. A rich, natural food, such as honey will be tolerated only in reasonable quantities, and is self-limiting. Several


 Our DNA hasaccomplished the same thing on a grand scale, since the
human body is nothing more than variants of DNA built by
DNA. ) You may ﬁnd it easy to think of DNA, with its billions of
genetic bits, as an intellig ent molecule; certainly it must be
smarter than a simple molecule like sugar. How smart can
sugar be. But DNA is really just strings of sugar, amines,
and other simple components. If these are not “smart” to
begin with, then DNA couldn’t become smart just by
putting more of them together. Following this line of
reasoning, why isn’t the carbon or hydrogen atom in the
sugar also smart. Perhaps it is. As we shall see, if
intelligence is present in the body, it has to come from
somewhere, and that somewhere may be everywhere. —
If we follow the next step of the neurotransmitter story, we
ﬁnd ourselves faced with another quantum leap in
complications, but surprisingly, the relation between mind
and matter actually begins to clear up. The areas of the
brain that mediate our emotions—the amygdala  and the
hypothalamus, which is also known as “the brain’s brain”—
were both found to be particularly rich in all the substances
in the neurotransmitter group. This implied  that where
thinking processes are abundant (meaning that many
neurons are tightly clustered), so will be the chemicals
associated with thinking. At this point there was still a
rather well-d eﬁned divisio n between chemicals that jumped
the gap between brain cells and those that traveled from
the brain down the bloodstream. (In my ﬁeld,
endocrinology, one of the deﬁning qualities of a hormone is
that it ﬂoats through the blood, a process that is generally
much slower than the transmission speed of a nerve cell,
which has been clocked at 225 miles per hour; a signal sent
from head to toe takes less than l/50th of a second. )Just when science thought it could isolate brain
chemicals and categorize their sites, the body cropped up
with its own complication. Researchers at the National
Institute of Mental Health found receptors in equal
abundance at other sites outside the brain. Starting in the
early 1980s, receptors for neurotransmitt ers and
neuropeptides were discovered on cells in the immune
system called  monocytes. “Brain” receptors on white cells
in the blood. —it would be hard to exaggerate the
signiﬁcance of this discovery. In the past, it was thoug ht
that the central nervous system alone relayed messages to
the body, rather like a complicated telephone system
connecting the brain to all the organs it wanted to “talk” to. In this scheme, the neurons function like telephone lines
conveying the brain’s signals—that is their unique  function,
shared by no other system in the physiology. Now it was seen that the brain does not just send
impulses traveling in straight lines down the axons, or
trunks, of the neurons; it freely circulates intelligence
throughout the body’s entire inner space. Unlike the
neurons, which are ﬁxed in place along the nervous system,
the monocytes of the immune system travel through the
bloodstream, giving them free access to every other cell in
the body. Outﬁtted with a vocabulary to mirror the nervous
system’s in its complexity, the immune system apparently
sends and receives mess ages that are just as diverse. In
fact, if being happy, sad, thoughtful, excited, and so on all
require the production of neuropeptides and
neurotransmitters in our brain cells, then the immune cells
must also be happy, sad, thoughtful, excited—indeed, they
must be able to expres s the full range of “words” that
neurons do. Monocytes can be thought of in eﬀect as
circulating neurons. With this one discovery, the concept of the intelligent cell
took on full-ﬂedged reality. One kind of localizedintelligence was already well known, that possessed by the
DNA in every cell. Since Watson and Crick  mapped the
structure of DNA in the early 1950s, investigation had
proved that this remar kable, almost inﬁnitely complex
molecule encoded all the information necessary to create
and sustain human life. But the intelligence of genes was
seen primari ly as ﬁxed, because DNA itself is the stablest
chemical in the body, and thanks to that stability, each of us
is able to inherit genetic traits from our parents—blue eyes,
curly hair, facial patterns, et cetera—and prese rve them
intact to pass on to our children. The know-how carried by the neurotransmitters and
neuropeptides represented something else altogether: the
winged, ﬂeeting, sentient intelligence of the mind. The
wonder is that these “intelligent” chemicals are not only
made by the brain, whose function is to think, but by the
immune system, whose primary role is to protect  us from
disease. From the standpoint of a brain chemist, this
sudden expa nsion of messenger molecules adds a new
order of complexity to his work. But for us, the discovery of
“ﬂoating” intelligence conﬁrms the model of the body as a
river. We needed a material basis for claiming that
intelligence ﬂows all through us, and now we have it. Anyone can see that his mind is ﬁlled with a bewildering
ﬂood of impressions that are far too amorphous to pin
down. To describe it, psychology is reduced to equal ly
amorphous terms like the famous phrase stream of
consciousness. Today, as if to ﬁll that stream with water you
can actually see and touch, brain researchers have found
cascades of brain chemicals. But unlike a stream, these
cascades have no banks; they ﬂow anywhere and
everywhere. They never cease this ﬂow, either, for the
smallest fraction of a second. A brain scientist in eﬀect
stops time to examine a cascade’s components. The
chemicals he wants to ﬁnd are extremely minute—it tookthree hundred thousand sheep brains to yield a single
milligram of the molecul e the brain uses to stimulate the
thyroid. Nor are the cell receptors easy to grasp. They
constantly dance on the surface of the cell walls and
change their shape to receive new messages; any one cell
may contain hundreds or even thousands of sites, only one
or two of which can be analyzed at a time. Science learned
more about brain chemis try in the last ﬁfteen years than it
knew in all of previous history, but we are all still like
foreigners trying to learn English from scraps of paper
found in the street. —
No one has yet been able to grasp how the cascade of
chemicals exactly patterns itself to do all the things a mind
can do. Memory, recollection, dreaming, and all the other
everyday activities of the mind remain a profound mystery
as far as their physical mechanics is concerned. But now
we know that the mind and body are like parallel universes. Anything that happens in the mental universe must leave
tracks in the physical one. Recently brain researchers have found a way to
photograph a thought’s tracks in 3-D, like a hologram. The
procedure, known as PET (positron-emission tomography),
is done by injecting the bloodstream with glucose whose
carbon molecules have been tagged with radioisotopes. Glucose is the brain’s sole food, which it uses much faster
than do ordinary tissues. Therefore, when the injected
glucose reaches the brain, its marker molecules of carbon
can be picked out as the brain uses them, and thus pictured
in three dimensions on a monitor, much the same way a
CAT scan is produced. Watching these marker molecules
shift around while the brain thinks, scientists saw that each
distinct event in the universe of mind—such as a sensation
of pain or a strong memory—triggers a new chemicalpattern in the brain, not just at a single site but at several. The image looks diﬀerent for every thought, and if one
could extend  the portrait to be full-length, there is no doubt
that the whole body changes at the same time, thanks to
the cascades of neurotra nsmitters and related messenger
molecules. As you see it right now, your body is the physical picture,
in 3-D, of what you are thinking. This remarkable fact
escapes our notice for several reasons. One is that the
physical outline of the body does not change drastically
with every thought. Even so, the whole body quite
obviously projects thoughts. We literally read other
people’s minds from the constant play of their facial
expressions; without marking it, we also register the
thousandfold gestures of body language as a sign of their
moods and intentions toward us. Films made by sleep
laboratories disclose that we change position dozens of
times during the night, obeying commands from the brain
that we are unconscious of. Secondly, we don’t see our bodies as projected thoughts
because many physical changes that thinking causes are
unnoticeable. They involve minute alterations of cell
chemistry, body temperature, electrical charg e, blood
pressure, and so on, which do not register on our


 conception,
and it’ s a total m ystery to everyone on our planet. In compari son to what
there is to know, we are only e mbryos. Keep this in mind whenever you
encounter those who are absolu tely certain that there’ s only on e way to do
something. Resist being a pessimist. Resist with all your might, because we hardly
know anything at all in compar ison with what there is  to know. Can you
imagine what a pessimist who lived only 200 years ago would think about
the world we live in? Airplanes, electricity, automobiles, television, remote
controls, the Internet, fax machi nes, telephones, cellular phones, and so on. All bec ause of that spark of open-mindedness that allowed progress,
growth, and creativity to flourish. And what of the future and all of your  tomorrows? Can you picture faxing
yourself back to the 14th century, flying without machines, te lepathically
communicating, demolecularizi ng yourself and rearranging yourself on
another galaxy, or cloning a she ep from a photograph of a sheep? An open
mind allows you to explore and  create and grow. A closed mind seals of f
any such creative explanation. Remember that progress would be
impossible if we always did thin gs the way we always have. The ability to
participate in miracles—true mir acles in your life—happens when you open
your mind to your limitless potential. The Miracle
Mind-set
Refuse to allow yourself to have low expectations about what you’re
capable of creating. As Michelangelo suggested, the greater
danger is not that your hopes are too high and you fail to reach them; it’ s
that they’re too low and you do. Ha ve within y ou an imaginary candle
flame th at burns  brightly regardless of what goes before you. Let this innerflame represent for you the idea that you’re capable of manifesting miracles
in your life. In every  single case of a person experiencing a spontaneous healing or
overcoming som ething that was considered to be impossible, the individual
went thr ough a complete reversal of personality. They actually rewrote their
own agreement with reality. T o experience Godlike spontaneous miracles,
you mus t have a sense of your self as Godlike. The Scriptures say, “W ith
God all things ar e possible.” Now tell me, what does that leave out? A mind
that’ s open to everything means being peaceful, radiating love, practicing
for giveness, being generous, respecting all life, and most important,
visualizing yourself as capable of doing anything that you can conceive of
in yo ur mind an d heart. Whatever universal law that has ever b een utilized
to m anifest a miracle anywhere, any time, and in any person is  still on the
books. I t has never been repea led, and it never will be. Y ou possess the
same ener gy, the same God-consciousness, to be a miracle worker—but
only if you truly believe and know it within yourself. Understand that  what you think about expands (“As a man thinketh, so is
he”). If your tho ughts are filled w ith doubt and you have a closed mind, you
will of necessity act upon those closed-minded doubts, and you’ll see
evidence of your thinking virtually everywhere you are. On the  other hand,
should you decide (make no m istake about this, it is  a choice) to have a
mind that’ s open to everything, then you’ll act upon that inner ener gy, and
you’ll b e the creator as well as the recipient of miracles where ver you are. Y ou wil l experience what W alt Whitman meant when he wro te, “T o me,
every cubic inch of space is a miracle.”
What Being Open to Everything Means
Everything  me ans just what it says. No exceptions. When someone
suggests something to you that conflicts with your conditioning, rather than
responding with, “That’ s ridiculous; we all know that’ s impossible,” say,
“I’ve ne ver cons idered that before. I’ll think about it.” Open yourself up to
the spiritual ideas of all people, and listen with an open mind to crazy
schemes and ideas that at first seem to be outrageous. If someone suggeststhat crystals can cure hemorrhoi ds, that natural herbs can lower cholesterol,
that peo ple will eventually be able to breathe underwater, or that levitation
is possible—listen, and be curious. Let go of your attachments to what you’ve been trained to believe. Open
your mi nd to all  p ossibilities, because whether you believe something is
possible or impossible, either way you’ll be right. How can that be true? Y our agreement  with reality and all that’ s possible determines what you’ll
become. If you’re convinced that you can’ t become wealthy, famous,
artistic, a professional athlete, a great singer, or whatever, you will act upon
that inne r conviction that prevents you from manifesting what you’d really
like. All that you’ll get from your ef fort is being right. When you need to be
right, yo u’re att ached to your co nditioned reflex of the way thi ngs are and
always have been; and you assume they will always be. Releasing Y our Attachments
This first secret has two components: (1) a mind that is open to
everything, and (2) a mind that is attached to nothing. Y our atta chments are
the s ource of all your problems. The need to be right, to possess someone or
something, to win at all costs, to  be viewed by others as superior—these are
all a ttachments. The open mind resists these attachments and consequently
experiences inner peace and success. T o r elease attachments, you h ave to make a shift in how you view
yourself. If your primary ide ntification is with your body and your
possessions, you r ego is the dominant force in your life. If you can tame
your ego  suf ficiently, you’ll call upon your spirit to be the guid ing force in
your life. As a spiritual being, you can observe your body and be a
compassionate w itness to your existence. Y our spiritual aspect sees the folly
of a ttachments because your spiritual self is an infinite soul. Nothing can
make you happy or successful. These are inner constructs that you bring to
your world, rather than what you receive from it. If you think pea ceful thoughts, you’ll feel peaceful emotions, and that’ s
what you’ll bring to every life situation. If you’re attached to be ing right orabsolutely need something in order to be at peace or to be successful, you’ll
live a life of striving yet never arriving. It’ s poss ible to have a burning desire yet not have attachments. Y ou can
have an inner vi sion of what you intend to manifest and still deta ch yourself
from the outcome. How? Consider this observation in A Course in
Miracles:  “ Infinit e patien ce produces immediate results.” It sounds like a
paradox, doesn’ t  it? Infinite patience implies an absolute certainty that what
you’d lik e to manifest will indeed show up, in perfect order, and  exactly on
time. The immediate result you receive from this inner knowing is a sense
of p eace. When you detach from the outcome, you’re at peace, and you’ll
ultimately see the fruits of your convictions. Suppose you had a choice between two magic wands. W ith W and A, you
can have  any physical thing you  desire by simply waving it. W ith W and B,
you can have a sense of peace for the rest of your life regardl ess of what
circumstances a rise. Which would you pick? A guarantee of st uf f, or inner
peace for the rem ainder of your life? If you opt for peace, then you already
have W a nd B. Simply have a mind that is open to everything but  attached to
nothing. Let it all come and go as it will. Enjoy it all, but never make your
happiness or success dependent  on an attachment to any thing, any place,
and particularly, any person. In all of your r elationships, if you can love someone enough to allow
them to be exactly what they choose to be—without any expecta- tions or
attachments from  you—you’ll know true peace in your lifetime. T rue love
means you love a person for what they ar e, not for what you think they
should be. This is an open mind— and  an absence of attachment.T h e  S e c o n d  S e c r e t
Ther e is just one life for
each of us: our own. — Euripides
A musician must make
music, an artist must
paint, a poet must write,
if he be at peace with
himself What a man
can be, he must be. — Abraham Maslow
D o n ’ t  D i e
w i t h  Y o u r
M u s i c  S t i l l
i n  Y o u2
T h e  S e c o n d  S e c r e t
Dont Die
with Y our Music
Still in Y ou
The world you l ive in is an intelligent system