What's Happening -- Newsletter from the Center

—1999 Newsletters
 

—Spring 1999
                            Getting Out of Ego

    As a prominent and prolific Western voice on Spirit, Carlos Casteneda called it the 1000 headed dragon that must be slain. Ancient healing traditions called it the “mistake of the intellect.” It was important for us in our childhood lives but wears us down in our adulthood.

    Ego is the greatest obstacle to spiritual unfoldment because it blocks us from the  experience of the witness, the one who presides over our inner cosmos. From ego’s perspective, people, situations, circumstances and things gives us our identity. I am this profession or I am that relationship. But ego creates a need for approval, need for control and need for power. I identify with my thoughts, feelings and emotions.

    It is because of ego that the mind stays as a habitkeeper. It becomes safe to stay with past conditioning which dictates what we will do in the future. We become like the dog in the Pavlovian experiment, salivating when the bell is tinkled irregardless of whether food is present or not.  But our reality can be much richer than being stuck in the same wellworn ruts. And in order to escape this entrapment of the mind and break free is to consistently identify with that domain of our existence that we call our own awareness or spirit.

    By accessing that inner stillness through meditation we have direct experiential knowingness of the eternal presence that is the real me. The real me is the witness, the one who is having the experience. When we identify with the one who has access to an infinity of choices, then we become free to  break out of our prison of past conditioning.

    But what does this have to do with health?  All disease begins in the mind. If we continue to eat the same way day after day, then there is potential that coronary heart disease, cancer or stroke will be the result. If we become numb to the voice that says exercise today, our bodies are less responsive to the challenges of the day. If we continue to experience anger and resentment in our internal dialogue, the physiological consequences are predictable.

    Ego enslaves us to the past and keeps us in the same habits that will potentiate poor health. The way out of ego is to continually identify with the plane of our existence that is the witness to the experiences that we have on a day to day basis. The most expeditious way to do this is through meditation. Then we automatically begin to  become creative about solutions to get out of those same wellworn ruts.

    The process that I am talking about is a holistic nonlinear process and hence is difficult to understand from an analytical approach yet it has profound implications if people are to become responsible for their own health.

    “I don't have enough time for meditation,” is the common refrain. Can you afford not to??
 
 

—Summer 1999
                            Detoxification

We are all familiar with antioxidants, free radicals and their scavengers that are discussed openly in today's health circles. These discussions deal with toxins and Western science is beginning to understand toxicity as we study diseases such as Alzheimer's. Recent evidence shows that the accumulation of amyloid leads to the sludging of the neuronal processes that lead to the signs of dementia.

However to fully understand the concept of toxin, I believe a shift must occur in how we view the biological model. Presently our materialistic model states that the molecule does the work. In contrast a more contemporary consciousness based model says that the energy field does the work. The importance of this paradigm shift is underscored when we discover that buried emotions can lead to as much toxicity as something that we ingest. Perhaps one of the final common pathways is free radical production. It is difficult if not impossible to equate the morbidity and mortality with the inhalation of an asbestos fiber (associated with lung cancer) with the grief stricken emotion occurring with the passing of a spouse (increased incidence of death after a spouse dies). From a materialistic perspective there would be a great deal of argument but from an energy model vantage point, it is entirely plausible. In this way we may be more readily able to accept physical and emotional detoxification.

So the detoxification of this flux field of energy that I call myself must necessarily take into consideration the clearing of physical and emotional stresses. As I wrote in an earlier newsletter our bodies take care of toxins during sleep cycle. Between 10 pm and 2 am the body goes through a physical cleansing. The mind goes through cleansing of emotional stresses during dream states recognized as REM sleep. Dreams are merely an aid in the release of accumulated emotional toxicity.

There are many programs urging consumers to undergo physical detoxification, all requiring varying levels of will and fortitude. These range from simple dietary modification to bowel cleansing with enemas. The scope belies space availability here but release of toxicity at the physical level can lead to an unarguable clinical complex, much like the flu, implying that some physiological process is occurring.

Emotional cleansing is every bit as important because the mind is the source of all disease processes in the mindbody. By far the most effective and efficient way to cleanse the emotional body is by meditation. Emotional turbulence can be managed with conscious and transcending techniques. We are all familiar with conscious techniques such as counseling and therapy. But meditation can be an effective adjunctive method in removing deep rooted stresses and emotional turbulence. This is because these stresses are often hidden from us deep in the subconscious by judgment and denial.  Meditation dissolves denial and judgment and allows the liberation of emotional toxicity that we don't even realize we have because of denial.

Living a Day in Balance is a simple way to begin the daily process of detoxification to prevent the accumulation and begin the dissolution of long standing blocks that prevent the free flow of the impulse of intelligence that is you.
 

—Fall 1999
                          Changing Perceptions

How many of us feel like the stress of the day can just be too much?  To the point that we need a vacation or at least a break, right?  But unfortunately we all have bills to pay and so we continue to take the stress.  What I would like to offer to you is a paid vacation every day for the rest of your life (and it's not called retirement).

Please consider this with me for a moment.  After observing myself and other physicians in the harried daily schedule, I have come to one immutable conclusion.  The schedule never changes but one's perception of it definitely does.  In fact I'll go one step further and suggest that YOUR perception creates your reality.  You see, no one puts any stress on you or does anything to you- it's YOUR interpretation of reality, of the world out there.

So what, you say?  Sounds philosophical and no way out of my issues.  But if I were to suggest a way to change your interpretation of the world out there so that everyday could be perceived as a vacation wouldn't that be worth something?

What I'm suggesting in the use of meditation on a regular basis is the effect that it has in changing YOUR perception of the world out there.  There is a great deal of study about the practice of meditation that I don't have space to cover sufficiently but, the value is life changing because of the way it changes your perception of reality.  You no longer view the world as threatening and because of that you stop worrying.  A second consequence as we talked in our last newsletter is that your begin seeing meaningful coincidences in your day to day activities.

Many have concern over the time that is spent.  Thirty minutes morning and evening seems so much that the commitment cannot be made.  The only thing I can say is to trust the process, be committed and see what happens (somewhat analogous to marriage, isn't it?).  What you may find, as did I, was that the time that I spent in meditation was more than recouped in becoming more focused, more efficient and less redundant in whatever I did.  Meditation is just a tool.  A tool for the mind to quiet itself.  That's all it is.  In so doing, it develops more creativity, greater attention span, more learning ability and better memory retrieval.  Furthermore, it has allowed me to become a witness to all the silly control dramas that I play.

If you'd like an introductory sheet that we give patients the center would be happy to send you a copy to get started.  Just give the office a ring.  Also take advantage of the camaraderie that you can create with group meditations.  You can start your own group or join at the group meditations that we have in the area.
Then everyday can become a Vacation!!
 

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