At age sev­
enty-six, my grandfather was up on the roof putting on 
a new one, and my other grandfather was dignified and 
elegant, so I looked forward to old age.That is the time 
when we can put on our spats and best hat, dress up in 
our best clothes, and live a really aristocratic, enjoyable 
life. For once, we can just be who we really are. It is 
going to be over before long, and therefore we do not 
have to cater to anybody any 10nger.We can really be an 
elegant and very loving, wonderful person, so to me, 
old age was not something ofa faltering decrepitude. It 
has been that way for other people, however, so we can 
see that there is an option. It is about whom we love 
and identify with. It is all the programming that we got 
from television and the movies, along with the image of 210 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
what aging means. The television commercials are 
designed to appeal to those fears of aging. Of course, what we fear we hold in mind, and 
what we hold in mind tends to manifest, so the fears 
of old age, the very things we begin to fear, are the 
very things that begin to manifest. It is helpful to 
return to the realization that there is an option to not 
buy any of these pictures. Whatever picture is bought 
is what is going to manifest in our life; therefore, we 
have to be careful about what we buy into. We 
become the guardian of our mind. We look at it and 
see what it does believe, and then we forgive it for 
what it picked up over the years. It did not know of 
its own innocence and therefore picked up all of the 
programs, stories, and scripts, and unwittingly, we find 
that we are beginning to act them out. If we want to know what life scripts we bought 
into, all we have to do is look at our own life and our 
physical self. The physical self is a reflection of what 
we have bought, and we may not even remember hav­
ing done so due to amnesia about remarks overhead 
throughout childhood. People look into their memory 
'and say,"I don't remember ever believing such a thing." Actually,we are unconscious most of our lives and have 
amnesia about most of it because of the millions of 
things we do remember. What we do not realize is how 
many seconds there are in one day. Do you remember 
what happened each second of each day? We are lucky 
if we can remember what we had for breakfast yester­
day.Therefore, a great deal of what went on in our life 
is operationally forgotten in that it is not available for 
immediate recall. In looking at the body, we can see 211 THE AGING PROCESS 
what programs were picked up; what its belief systems 
were; what was thought to be valuable or loved, or its 
reverse; and what it feared and brought about into 
manifestation because the fear was being held in mind. The patterns of aging also follow a certain class 
phenomenon, and in the picture of age and aging, there 
is increasing longevity. It is now very normal for people 
to live longer, and even though they live longer, they 
are energetic and functional into a very advanced age. They see old age as a time of increased stature and 
value. This can be contrasted with a different social 
view where power and value come out of physical 
strength, and the aging patterns are more rapid. For 
example, in the area of sports, a participant at age thirty­
two is already considered old, and at forty is considered 
to be an old man in the field. When certain classes of 
laboring people reach age sixty-five and retire, it is pret­
ty much over, and from sixty-five onward, there is the 
pattern of moving into Sunset Hills, along with indo­
lence and the loss of energy, interest and aliveness. There is the giving up of life as though retiring from a 
job means retiring from life. It is as if the job was the 
only thing that gave meaning and value to life, and now 
that the person is no longer classified as a 'worker', 
they no longer have value in the world. There is the failure to look at oneself in a more 
holistic, total way and see value as something other 
than productivity in the workforce and the capacity to 
bring home a paycheck every Friday. There is the fail­
ure to see oneself as something other than just a 
prOVider, or just the mother of the children. In women, the pattern of the aging process does 212 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
not really start until the children grow up and leave 
home. Suddenly, the mother joins her husband in the 
pattern of retiring from life.The father retires from the 
job, and the mother retires from raising the children. Both of them are now unemployed, with lessened 
value in their own eyes.Although they make a few spo­
radic attempts at being of some use in society, they do 
not really believe it. Therefore, the aging process can 
become progressively rapid and many people often die 
within a few years of retirement. It is important to look earlier in life and constantly 
. challenge these belief systems in order to discover 
something about our life that is of such value that, 
whether we work, bring home a paycheck, raise chil­
dren, or follow a traditional, solid middle-class-America 
way oflife or not, life still has value, and we see that we 
.are making a difference in the world and that our life is 
significant. There is the willingness to share our life 
with others, to be a source of enthusiasm, and to con­
tribute to the lives of those around us. We have to 
reevaluate the worth of our life and recontextualize it, 
adopt a different way of being with it, and view it dif­
ferently in order to give it a different value in our own 
eyes, thereby raising our own energy pattern conse­
quent to a more positive way of looking at life. Previously we indicated that one is subject to what 
is held in mind. We can identify these belief systems 
and patterns and know that we have the option to 
change them. The choice is up to each one of us. We 
can be very active and vigorous into old age, we can 
have a very significant and valuable life that is highly 
enjoyable, and our physical health can continue right 213 THE AGING PROCESS 
to the very end. Everybody has life-script fantasies and looks at the 
advantages ofdifferent programs. That is one ofthe rea­
sons we choose them. It is necessary to look at 
whether we are willing to let go of those that are not 
beneficial fot the gain and benefit that we would 
receive from doing so. Our life, our body, and what goes on in our life are 
projections of what we have been holding in our own 
mind. Over-experiencing is the projection of our own 
beliefsystemsinto the physical world.Whatwe hold in 
mind manifests, and we have a choice when we see 
thispattern.We begintorealizethatifwhatweexperi­
ence isthe resultofwhatwe hold inmind,thenwe can 
change what we experience by changing what we 
hold in mind. We have to exchange the beliefsystem we are hold­
ing for the truth that we are infinite beings and subject 
only to what we hold in mind. Every time negative 
beliefs come up, it is necessary to cancel them and 
insist on the truth. The collective consciousness, the 
energy field of the world, has to be constantly coun­
tered because the world reprograms us with it again. It 
may even return due to hearing a chance remark. It 
requires vigilance to undo all the belief systems within 
the mind. The same thing happened with vision and glasses. I 
wore bifocal glasses for fifty years. Of course, there is 
the belief system in our society that middle age brings 
about changes in vision. Many people start using read­
ing glasses during middle age, so when we think of a 
middle-aged person, we see them wearing reading 214 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
glasses. The people in magazines for retired people 
almost always wear glasses. It is just presumed that by 
middle age, a person is going to need them. Well, I already had glasses because I had the image 
in my mind of the intellectual bookworm, which I was, 
as wearing glasses. Part of the image of what I was as 
an adolescent included wearing glasses. Of course, if 
we already wear glasses, it is presumed that our vision 
is going to get worse by middle age, and that we are 
going to need bifocals. By late middle age, we are cer­
tainly going to need trifocals. It was during this trifocal stage that I was involved 
in this kind of research and study. One day I was shar­
ing with my class about all the physical illnesses that I 
had let go of using these consciousness techniques. There was probably a list of flfteen or twenty different 
diseases, and then somebody said, "Well, then, how 
come you are still wearing glasses?" I said,"You know, I 
never thought of that." I never thought of the fact that 
the eyeball itself and its capacity to see-the whole 
mechanism of vision-would be another manifestation 
of my belief systems about it. I looked at the belief systems and began to cancel 
them, saying that I am an inflnite being who is not really 
subject to any limitations such as the belief that I need 
glasses.The process took six weeks, and I could hardly 
see anything during that time because I was not wear­
ing my glasses. However, I never put the glasses on 
again, and during that six weeks, my mobility was 
somewhat limited by the inability to see anything more 
than a couple of feet in front of me. I was myopic as 
well as farsighted, and I also had ,astigmatism. I could 215 THE AGING PROCESS 
not read anything, nor could I see anything distant. After about six weeks of constantly and consistently 
letting this go, I fmally just surrendered to it and real­
ized that part of the technique is to let go of resisting 
what the belief system was. Then I said, "Well, God, if 
I'm never going to see again, I guess I am just never 
going to see again. "And then I just totally let it go, totally 
surrendering it to a higher power. And then I said, 
"Whatever your will is to be, I will agree to that." What is the will of God for us? The will of God for 
us is complete and total happiness, wholeness, and 
oneness. After surrendering to God's Will, suddenly, in 
one instant, the vision returned and was absolutely 
perfect after a lifetime of wearing glasses. It does not matter how long we have had a belief 
system.The belief system that was present throughout 
my entire life and literally limited my vision was surren­
dered many years ago.This example is just a demonstra­
tion of the prinCiple involved, which we experience in 
the level of consciousness itself. The body is a reflec­
tion of that which we believe, so if we address our­
selves directly to those belief systems, to the mind 
itself, and to where it is being experienced, we can 
undo belief systems.We have that freedom and option. Returning to the commonly held belief systems 
about middle age, aging, and old age, two things are 
occurring. There are the belief systems about what 
aging entails, and there is our position or the way we 
feel about it. In truth, it is not the events in life that 
have any importance, but their meaning to us. The 
importance of a fact or an event comes from how we 
feel about it, which creates a context. It creates a way 216 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
of being and decides in advance how we are going to 
feel about that event, decision, or fact. In referring to the Map of Consciousness, we can 
see there are various energy fields and levels of con­
sciousness. The bottom of the chart represents the 
most unconscious level, which is farthest from the 
truth and closest to death itself.At the top, because of 
increasing truth, there is an alignment with life, with 
truth, and with a sense of aliveness; in other words, we 
might say that at the top is God. Emotions reflect the energy field of a positionality, 
and out of that comes a certain view of the world as 
well as the view of a certain kind of God in that world. At the bottom of the Map are the levels of the lowest 
energy, which lead to almost passive suicide. Many 
deaths from old age are not due to old age at all but are 
forms of passive suicide, the result of having given up 
out of hopelessness. There is a sense of guilt, as though 
old age, its decrepitude, and illness are almost the pun­
ishment for one's sins or failures in life. It is as though 
one deserves all this, and out of self-hatred, the person 
chooses destruction. They see their life and the world 
as the experience of sin and suffering. They really fear 
dying because, out of their guilt, they picture God as 
being very punitive. There is a fear of old age as well, 
along with the view that it is a process of destruction, 
which comes from this belief system in their life that 
allows them to fall into the domain of this destructive 
viewpoint. An energy field somewhat above but still very close 
to passive suicide is that of just allowing oneself to die 
by not caring enough about oneself.This is in the field 217 THE AGING PROCESS 
ofApathy, with a calibrated level of 50. It is again a neg­
ative attitude, one of hopelessness and despair in 
which there is a loss of energy. In this view of old age, 
the whole situation is considered hopeless. It is as 
though the grim reaper-the skeleton riding on horse­
back and carrying a scythe-has the power over us, 
and it seems that old age and all its conditions and 
physical elements are hopeless.There is a loss of energy 
with this view of the world.The loss of energy means 
that, out of hopelessn~ss and despair, we do not have 
the energy to handle this life. Therefore, we see the 
personal life and life in the world as hopeless and see 
God as uncaring. The next higher energy level from which to look at 
middle or old age is that ofGrief.This is a very common 
view.There is sadness over middle age and seeing the 
absence of youth as a great and terrible loss-the loss 
ofvigor; the loss of one's sex life; the loss of one's phys­
ical attractiveness and seductive sexual abilities; and 
the loss of mental acuity; position, and power in the 
world. The endless grief over these perceived losses 
results in the emotion of regret, where one looks at 
middle and advancing age as decline. People become 
dispirited about their own lives and life in general. There is sadness at middle age. They look at life, the 
future, and progressive aging as sad. It seems as though 
God is ignoring them and does not really care about 
the aging process. The next higher energy level is that ofFear, and that 
energy can be utilized in a positive way. What people 
need to fear are the consequences of these negative 
belief systems, not old age. The danger is not in age 218 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
itself but in the negative belief systems that they have 
been holding in consciousness. However, the ordinary 
person fears old age itself and is full of worry and anx­
iety. Grief has to do with the past, and Fear has to do 
with the future. The mind looks at old age out of fear 
and holds worry and anxiety about the future; there­
fore, the world and the whole aging process look 
frightening. There does not seem to be any God they 
can rely on. Next comes Desire, and out of that, the intense 
craving and wanting to change all this. One aspect of 
that is becoming addicted to being young and seeing 
that life is where youth is.There is the resulting youth 
cult expressing its fear of old age in a frantic desire to 
hang on to that youth. Some people are unable to age 
gracefully, as expressed through inappropriate behav­
ior, because of their inability to let go of the desire for 
youth along with misidentifying youth as life. Life is 
present throughout. The same energy of life is in the 
child as well as in the 'old' person. The next energy level is that ofAnger.There is anger 
at the thought that one is subject to, at the effect of, 
and victim of the whole progressive aging process, and 
that the calendar has power over one's life. These are 
all negative energy fields, and in practice, they are usu­
ally mixed with other levels. Rarely is there just one 
level. Anger is also mixed with some sadness, some 
hopelessness, and some guilt, and all of them tend to 
occur together. There is the anger of old age and the 
frustration and resentment about it. People hate and 
resent the aging process and the loss of youth. There 
are many young people who have not had good expe­219 THE AGING PROCESS 
dences with their grandparents and hate older people; 
they don't want to be around them. Out of anger is a 
world of conflict and competitiorl, and the projected 
anger of God leads to an unconscidus guilt and the fear 
that God will retaliate. Denial is another way to be about aging, refusing to 
see the options mentioned above, and holding a certain 
arrogance and inflated position about the process.This 
would be a totally negative positionality. All these things have more to do with the truth, and 
to begin looking at them would then allow people to 
move out of these negative positions. They would be 
able to let go of resisting them, of being attached to 
them, of giving value to them. They could be released 
from these positions, thus allowing middle age and pro­
toplasmic aging to start to look okay. The God of that 
kind of experience would be a God of freedom. There 
would be the freedom and willingness to see that per­
haps they are the source of what happens in their life. They might say they will agree with that because their 
intention now is to fmd out the truth about the aging 
process. Now, middle age, aging, and the world begin to 
look friendly.The God of such a world is promising and 
hopeful. In moving up to the level of Acceptance, people 
begin to re-own their power.The willingness to accept 
the truth now shifts the energy field from negative to 
positive. The truth is that we are the source of what 
happens to us in our life.We are the source by virtue of 
buying into and owning these belief systems; we bring 
them into our life. The truth is that we have a choice. The minute we see that there is a choice and begin to 220 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
accept that, it all begins to look harmonious. The God 
of such a universe begins to look merciful. We can now move into a condition of lovingness 
and begin to take responsibility for really loving 
ourself. We can begin to nurture, support, and forgive 
ourself for falling into these thought patterns. Why do 
people fall into these thought patterns? It is done out 
of innocence and naIvete.We think that that is the way 
it is; there is no thought to question it. People have not 
been so conscious or aware. It is only by giving exam­
ples that one can say,"Wow, it looks like I have a choice 
here:' We stop saying, "Well, it must be that person's 
genetics:' Or, "If I were like that, I would be glad to be 
alive at ninety, too." We stop excusing it and begin to 
really accept that it is because of the patterns we have 
held in life. This comes as almost a revelation to us, a 
sudden opening of the mind. The way to avoid limitation is to begin to have an 
open mind and the willingness to look at the options 
and see that we do indeed have choices. Then the 
world starts to look loving.We now begin to love the 
prospects because we begin to see the advantages of 
middle age and old age. There are many people who 
look back and say, "Frankly, I wouldn't want to be 
young again. I mean I would hate the thought of going 
through the teens, the anxiety, the acne, the unknow­
ingness, the stumbling around, the awkwardness, and 
the endless social anxiety and self-consciousness. I 
don't think I would care for the twenties, either, won­
dering what I am going to be in this world and having 
terrible anxieties, such as, Will I make it through col­
lege? Then there is the struggle of the thirties, when 221 THE AGING PROCESS 
one is trying to establish a family and all those kinds of 
things." Instead of now saying that the past was better than 
the present, one begins to say, "Hey, right here, right 
now, in the present, I have some beautiful options:' It is 
like the whole world suddenly opens up anew. "I can 
become reborn at age sixty, so why not?" As we move from a negative energy field into a pos­
itive one, we get closer and closer to the truth and 
become progressively aware that we are the experi­
encer, and that the phenomena which have been going 
on through life have not really affected the experi­
encer. It is like we are the hardware of the computer 
and the experiences are the software. The hardware is 
not affected by the software; that which experiences is 
unaffected by the experiencing, so that which we are 
has remained unaged. It is not subject to aging. The inner experiencer has been unaware that a 
change has been going on in the body, which some­
times comes as a surprise. People look at us differently, 
and we wonder why. It is because that within, we have 
not experienced the passage of time.The real self, the 
true self, has not experienced anything such as aging. No such thing goes on within the truth of that which 
we are. This progressive awareness increases our free­
dom ofchoice and the way we wish to be with ourself. We realize, for instance, that sexuality in old age 
does not decline at all but remains active, very often 
until the very end of life. A personal friend of mine, a 
world-famous person who was seventy-six, said that his 
sex life was better than it had ever been at any time in 
his life; and that it had improved to a quality he had 222 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
never even thought of as a younger man. As a young 
man, he was interested in the calisthenics, the acrobat­
ics, and the performance, but as an older person with 
more maturity and greater wisdom, he was interested 
in the greater dimensions. He confided that, at age 
seventy-six, he had just discovered what sex was really 
all about, that it was incredible, and that he was just 
boggled by the quality of it and what he had discov­
ered about it. That brings us to some of the beliefsystems that are 
so common in our society having to do with what hap­
pens in one's sexual being at the time of male and 
female menopause. There was a clinical experiment in 
which a group of thirty women was given a placebo 
injection and told it was a hormone that would bring 
their periods two weeks earlier.The result was that the 
whole premenstrual syndrome,with the bloating, 
weight gain, belching, abdominal pains and colic-all 
the things the various women complained of­
occurred two weeks early because they all held in 
mind that it would happen. This demonstrates the 
intense suggestibility, the whole belief in the premen­
strual syndrome, and the symptoms that are supposed 
to go with middle age in both women and men. The 
belief of women in hot flashes and all the phenomena 
that are supposed to occur can be induced by hypno­
sis, which has been demonstrated repeatedly. A young 
woman is put into a hypnotic trance and told she is 
going through menopause. She is asked to report her 
symptoms, which are identical to the ones reported by 
women experiencing menopause.The menopausal syn­
drome varies from culture to culture, and from class to 223 THE AGING PROCESS 
class within each culture, and what occurs is what is 
held as the inevitable. It can be seen that the mind 
holds the woman as a victim. It is as though the mind 
says, "And this is how it is." The situation is hopeless. She can only give in to it, buy into it, and be at the 
effect of it, thereby giving away her power. There was the example of the middle-aged man and 
what is supposed to happen to him-the cold hands 
and feet, feeling tired and discouraged, loss of energy 
and libido, and the occurrence of the middle-age dis­
eases, including diverticulitis, gout, and all the other 
things associated with that age group. All these things are the consequences of the belief 
systems of a naIve mind. It is out of innocence that we 
buy into all these belief systems. By accepting our 
humanness, there arise compassion and a willingness 
to forgive ourselves for what we bought into. It is just 
that we did not.know any differently. The purpose of all this is to share what has been 
discovered-that we have an option, a choice, and that 
we are not victims. The way to move out of that is to 
choose to move up out of the bottom of the Map of 
Consciousness and realize that it is not hopeless. Just 
by education, by hearing and knowing about it, we 
begin to realize that life is not hopeless, yet the mind 
would also like to excuse its own responsibility. Ifwe look at the Map of Consciousness now from a 
slightly different view, people at the lower levels of 
consciousness value life and rate themselves and others 
based on what they have. Because that is aligned with 
survival, 'havingness' is important. A person's value of 
himself and others is based on what they 'have.' As 224 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
certain people get progressively older, they cling more 
and more to what they have in order to give them­
selves a sense of value.There are certain subgroups in 
our culture in which havingness is predominant. It is 
what one has and whether they have more millions 
than another person that really counts, and ifthey lose 
all their money, now they are out of that society. Moving up into the middle range, closer to the 
Truth and Courage, there is the energy field that sees 
life as opportunity. It is the part that settled America 
and created all the big industries. There is a powerful 
energy center coming out of this level where it is what 
we do that counts. Doingness is very important, and 
what we do is seen as cause. Since we are important 
because of what we do, there is therefore a great 
emphasis on doingness. We want to hold doingness as 
the effect rather than the cause. What we do comes 
from what we hold in mind, or the belief pattern, so 
doingness is a result and not a cause. It is not because of playing tennis that we are 
happy and healthy; it is because we are happy and 
healthy that we express that joy of our aliveness in the 
form oftennis.Therefore, the doingness that is so impor­
tant begins to fade out as we move and progresses in 
our level of consciousness. As we get closer to the awareness of what.we are, 
then it is who and what we are that become important. As we progress in life, it is what we have become.This 
is true in other cultural groups where it is what one is, 
what one has become,what one stands for in this, one's 
beingness. It is the beingness that counts, so spiritually 
sophisticated groups are not interested in or care 225 THE AGING PROCESS 
about what someone has. Everyone knows that 'having' 
is a result of doing, and ifone wants to work harder and 
more effectively, it will bring about havingness. They 
know that doingness is just a matter of exercising 
options. Someone can join the Board ofeverything and 
run themselves ragged; therefore, doingness no longer 
has status or value. . True value results from what we have become and 
the principles by which we live.These include commit­
ting ourself to the principle of becoming increasingly 
conscious and aware, committing to spiritual princi­
ples and those things that are universal and transcend 
the temporary, and, finally, identifying with the progres­
sive awareness of that which we truly are. With this 
progressive increase in consciousness, we are no 
longer at the effect of the world.We no longer need to 
'have'in order to realize the significance of our being­
ness. It is the awareness of that which we are. This proVides a different position from which to 
view the body. We can now look at what our relation­
ship is with the body and see that it is something we 
have, not something we are. It is something that 
belongs to us, and now we can begin to enjoy the body 
and see that we have an option.We can look at it as a 
fun thing that belongs to us and is there for our enjoy­
ment. If we let go of our identification with the body 
and realize we are not the body, we see that we are 
experiencing the body. That gives us options and 
choices.We can decide to enjoy it and see that it sort 
of bounces around happily, doing what it does with 
little effort. By letting go of all our negative belief systems 226 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
about sickness, we can be willing to let go of all those 
things, and as we get older, we can enjoy a progressively 
healthier body.The body that I·enjoy now is consider­
ably healthier that it was thirty years ago.With progres­
sive age, or what the world calls 'aging', the body has 
gotten increasingly better. I enjoyed the body much 
more at age sixty than I did at age forty. The body at 
forty was very tired because it had migraine headaches, 
ulcers, diverticulitis, colitis, hemorrhoids, swollen 
ankles, elevated cholesterol, and gout. I had to carry a 
cane around in the trunk of the car. So at age forty, the 
body was old. Now, at a much older age, I enjoy it greatly 
as all those illnesses are gone. With the letting go of 
those beliefsystems and limitations have come the pro­
gressive enjoyment of the body and being able to see it 
now as something with which to express one's happi­
ness. If we hold in mind that the passage of time auto­
matically means the progressive deterioration of the 
body, then we are subject to that. If, on the other hand, 
we view time as this space that gives us the freedom to 
grow, to become more conscious, and to become 
aware, then time becomes our friend. It is over the pas­
sage of time that these illnesses of the body of middle 
and old age disappear. We have the time in which to 
explore and to become aware that there are options for 
how we limit ourselves by belief systems. Recovery from many illnesses and personal human 
conditions can occur when these basic premises are 
consistently applied, but possibilities are limited by the 
general circumstances inherent to the human condi­
tion itself. Thus, the human body is protoplasmic and 227 THE AGING PROCESS 
inherits the human genome. Th~re are also karmic 
influences and propensities as well as programs that 
are inherent to the collective consciousness of 
mankind. CHAPTER 8 
Handling Major Crises 
All ofus are beset by the major crises oflife at one time 
or another, but how many of us know how to handle 
death, divorce, separation, disfigurement, injury, acci­
dent, catastrophe, and those other serious events that 
result in emotional overwhelm? What techniques can 
be utilized to handle these experiences? We will refer again to the Map of Consciousness as 
a point of reference for greater understanding of the 
question. This map is a mathematical model that repre­
sents the human ego, the self (with a small's'). Included are the various levels of consciousness and 
their names according to the common human experi­
ences of shame, guilt, apathy, grief, fear, desire, anger, 
pride, courage, willingness, acceptance, reason, love, 
and joy.As we move towards the top, we get closer to 
the truth.As we move toward the bottom, we get far­
ther and farther away from the truth. The Map shows that the numbers indicate the rel­
ative energy or power of the various levels. For exam­
ple, Apathy is far less powerful than Fear. Fear has 
much less energy than Courage, and Neutral has less 
energy than Love. The relative power of these differ­
ent positions reflects different points of view. As mentioned previously, the arrows below 
Courage go downward, indicating that the effect is 
destructive, does not support life, and is in violation of 
truth. At the level of Truth, which is denoted as 
Courage, the arrows are at neutraL They then go 
upwards as they move into areas oflovingness, indicat­
229 230 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
ing that these energy fields nurture and support life 
and are aligned with truth. In the time of acute catastrophic experiences, life 
abruptly becomes a nightmare, and one is suddenly 
overwhelmed by an emotional storm. However, tech­
niques are available to handle these acute events; to 
shorten their duration, to relieve the pain and suffer­
ing, and to diminish the stress to the minimum. All these major life experiences have something in 
common in that they all represent an acute catastroph­
ic loss to the mind and a threat to survival.They indi­
cate a major change and have in common the feeling of 
powerlessness due to their fmality and permanency. The mind perceives that it is stopped and cannot do 
anything about them. It is this phenomenon of the per­
manence of being stopped and that one is powerless 
and cannot change the event that contributes to the 
intensity of the acute upset. How to handle it will 
depend on one's orientation to the subject and one's 
knowledge of the whole field of consciousness. All these experiences unleash a storm of negative 
feelings, such as shock, disbelief, denial, anger, guilt, 
tenseness, self-blame, resentment, being undone or 
abandoned, rage at God and oneself, self-pity, rage at the 
world, and rage at the family. All these negative emo­
tions surface and come on at once, sometimes in 
sequence and sometimes in combination, but in gener­
al, there is the massive overwhelm of the negative emo­
tions of separation, loss, and intensity that all the expe­
riences share in common. First, there is the sequencing of shock and then 
resentment, disbelief, and anger. The sequencing of 231 HANDLIN G MAJaR C RI SES 
these emotions varies from experience to experience 
and from person to person; the exact sequencing is 
immaterial. The significance is that they unleash every­
thing at the bottom of the Map of Consciousness. The energy fields at the bottom of the Map are in 
a negative direction, and when one of these energy 
fields becomes strong, it tends to pull the rest below 
level 200 down with it.The grief over loss then seems 
to bring guilt with it, along with a sense of hopeless­
ness, a fear of the future, a desire to change the whole 
event, and anger. The whole negative energy field is 
unleashed in one giant emergency. The problem is 
really that of being disorganized by the massive 
unleashing of energies. The mind tries to use reason to handle these ener­
gies. It tries to think: its way out of the dilemma and 
looks for explanations and reasons. The mind cannot 
succeed in this because the energy-field overwhelm is 
so massive that the thoughts really become a reflection 
of the negativity of the field; therefore, the thoughts 
themselves become negative. Another characteristic common to all these experi­
ences is that they are all at the top of life-stress rating 
scaleS, which numerically rate the degree of stress of 
certain life events from zero to 100. The ones men­
tioned earlier are at the top of the list. The death of a 
spouse, a child, or family member, along with divorce, 
are at the top of that scale, so they are all the maximal 
catastrophes that we can face in our overall experience 
of life.The problem to explore is how to convert them 
into acute gains, how to maximize them, and how to use 
them as springboards for major leaps in consciousness. 232 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
It is necessary to again review consciousness itself 
and the relationship between body, mind, and spirit. What is the exact nature of that relationship and how 
can it help us to learn how to handle major crises? As 
mentioned previously, the body is unable to experi­
ence itself.The body just is, and it is actually insentient. We know where the body is because of sensations. We 
don't experience the body; instead, we experience the 
sensations of the body. Sensations themselves have no 
way of being experienced but are experienced in 
something greater than themselves, which is in the 
mind. Our awareness of what is going on in the body 
occurs because it is being reported and experienced 
within mind. ' Mind has no capacity to experience itself. That 
seems like a shocking thought, but a memory cannot 
experience its own memoryness, a thought cannot 
experience its own thoughtness, and feelings cannot 
experience their own feelingness. This is because they 
are experienced in something greater than mind, 
which is consciousness itself. Because of conscious­
ness, one is aware of what is going on in the mind. Mind then reports what is going on with sensations, 
and sensations report what is going on with the body. Therefore, the experiencing is several levels removed· 
from the body itself. In line with this, consciousness 
itself is unable to actually experience itself. It is 
because of the energy field of awareness that we are 
able to know what is going on within consciousness. It 
reports what is going on in sensations and then reports 
what is going on with the body. Therefore, where we 
experience experiences is considerably removed from HAN D LIN G MAJ OR eRr SES 233 
the physical body itself. ~ecause experiencing is going on within con­
sciousness, we can address the solution for human 
problems directly within the field of consciousness, 
thereby effectively shortening and relieving the 
amount of pain and suffering and bringing about a far 
more effective result.The results of this technique and 
approach were demonstrated in the handling of physi­
cal pain, sickness, suffering, depression, anxiety, and 
fear. The same technique will work in meeting these 
acute emotional catastrophic emergencies since where 
one actually lives is in the experiencing of one's own 
experiencing. A person thinks,"Well, I live in the world. I'm expe­
riencing the world," but what is really being registered 
is one's experience of that experience (e.g., the 'expe­
riencer'). We can handle anything if we address this 
exact focus. Ifwe focus on where we are experiencing 
experience, we can handle things with precision. In 
moments and minutes, we can handle things that 
would take weeks, months, years, and, in fact, even life­
times. We can handle within an hour something that 
others have been unable to handle over an entire life­
time. We know people who have experienced these 
catastrophic events in early life, and when we see them 
at an older age, it is still not over for them.The resent­
ment, bitterness, anger, disillusionment, rage, and the 
major decisions that come out of those negative feel­
ings are still with the person fifty years later. It is as 
though the event happened yesterday; it is still 
unhealed and undone, and the knowledge of how to 
handle the overwhelm has not been available to them. 234 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
We will relate how to handle the overwhelm at the 
level where it is being experienced.We look at the field 
of experiencing to be aware of where experiencing is 
happening. It is not happening out in the world, in 
one's foot, or in one's stomach. It is happening within 
consciousness. As one examines where one experi­
ences experience, one will fmd that it is everywhere. One does not experience things in a focal point; that is 
a belief system ofthe mind. For: example, I ask someone 
who is not aware of this, "Where do you experience 
your thoughts?" Out of habit the person points to their 
head and says, "Here." That is a belief system-one's 
thoughts about thoughts. One thinks their thoughts are 
in their head, but that is only a thought. Where does 
one actually think the thought that one believes is 
thought in the head? As one really considers this with 
a little contemplation and reflection, one will see that 
the actual experiencing is diffuse and going on every­
where. One could not put their fmger on any particu­
lar place where experience is happening. It is simulta­
neously everywhere and nowhere. Working with that point will reveal something sur­
prising which makes this kind of work precise. I know 
this because I have worked with it clinically for over 
fifty years, and because I have been through most of 
the major life crises. In fact, a few years ago, I went 
through a half dozen and will share my experience of 
the truth of these things because one can experience 
all of them within oneself. It is surprising that the only thing to be handled in 
these acute catastrophic events is the energy of the 
emotions themselves. Ifwe look at the experience, we HANDLING MAJOR CRISES 235 
see it is not the event that happened or we think hap­
pened in the world that is the problem but the way we 
feel about it.Who cares about facts? They do not mean 
anything in and of themselves. It is one's emotional 
reaction to the fact. The fact is only a fact, a 'nothing'. How we feel about the fact is therefore the only thing 
we really ever have to handle about the events in life. Our feelings come from our attitudes, beliefs, our 
way of being with them, and the way we view ourself 
in the world, thus giving variety to the emotions. However, in a state of overwhelm, the problem is the 
handling of just the emotional energy itself.We do not 
really even have to handle the emotions, just the energy 
of the emotions. "Yes;' one says, "but what about the 
events out there? What am I going to do now with no 
money? What am I going to do with no husband?" and 
so on. Surprisingly, the events are very eaSy to handle. There is no acute catastrophe. The events themselves 
are really just handled in a mechanical way once the 
feelings are set aside. There may be some reluctance, resentment, or 
regret,buttheseareminorthings.The handling ofthe 
actual issues within the phenomenal world, within 
one's daily life, is, in contrast, much easier. They are 
not the real problems.The thought that they are is just 
coming out of the energy field of negative emotions 
where they seem catastrophic, hopeless, unbearable, 
and insurmountable. Once a person comes out on the 
other side of it, life adjusts itself. Something else 
comes in to fill the vacuum, and life goes right on. Those issues were simple to solve once the emotions 
were out of the way. 236 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
Life presents the solutions to all problems. Necessity is the mother of invention, so whatever 
dilemma appears in one's life will resolve itself, and the 
energy of life resumes. Life goes right on no matter 
how major the catastrophe seems at the moment. Therefore, the problem is not handling the event 'out 
there' or the circumstances of life because they will 
handle themselves. Usually relatives or close friends 
will handle a situation for the person who is impaired 
by the overwhelm. The problem is handling the ener­
gies that arise. When one of these major negative energy fields 
starts to unleash itself, it tends to drag the rest with it. Rarely does one experience just grief alone. Guilt is 
almost always associated with it in blaming oneself. It 
may take the form of questions, such as, Why didn't I 
look as I went around the turn? Why didn't I put chains 
on? Why didn't I take her to the doctor sooner? Maybe 
we could have cured her cancer.Why did I bet on that 
horse? There is a sort of retrospective self-recrimina­
tion. There are also apathy and hopelessness-life is 
hopeless; life seems hopeless. It looks like we will 
never be happy again. It is like the source of happiness 
has left one's life. Of course, the grief is natural to the 
loss, and then there are the fears that arise-how will I 
live without whatever it is that I have lost? The constant, incessant desire drives us crazy to try 
to change it.What can we do? There is the bargaining, 
the trying to manipulate, the arguing with God, and the 
making bargains with God:"Oh God, ifyou will only let 
so-and-so live, I'll do this and that. "Then there are the 
anger, the rage at life and the nature of life, and the HANDLING MAJOR CRISES 237 
anger that is displaced onto the people of life-it is 
somebody's fault. All these negative energies usually 
unleash all at once, and from moment to moment, one 
or another may be dominant. At the same time, the 
mind is thrashing around wildly, trying to come up 
with explanations, trying to figure it out, and it is 
swamped by the overflow of energy. The problem is 
that the energy is just too much for the mind to 
process. It goes into disorganization, into adrenaline 
and stress-hormone biologic overwhelm, and that 
acute stress throws a person into a state of acute emer­
gency within consciousness itself. The problems are not handled on the level at which 
they seem to be occurring but on the next higher energy 
level. Higher energy means greater power.When dealt 
with there, they are handled automatically, which is not 
possible on the lower levels.All we have to handle are 
the energies of the emotional overwhelm. Does that 
seem surprising for a psychiatrist to say? Most people 
would expect a psychiatrist to begin talking about the 
psychology of the intricate relationship between the 
person and the events and what they mean symbolically, 
that is, the psychological components. In this instance, we are going to bypass all that and 
instead address the energy that the emotions release; 
whatever the psychology may be makes no difference. There is a massive release of the negative emotions, 
and it is appropriate to deal with the energy of those 
emotions.A very effective technique to use is to ignore 
the thoughts because the·mind will never figure them 
out for it does not have the capacity to do so. It is in a 
state of massive overwhelm. The issues are extraordi­238 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
narily complex, and it would take a lifetime to unravel 
them if a person really wanted to know the full signifi­
cance of each and every contribution from every level 
of one's psychological self to the total meaning of the 
experiences. It is not necessary to do that, and it is a 
very good thing to not do it. A person only has to go 
into the feeling itself. Notice ftrst that the feeling is being felt in a gener­
al way, and that there is an energy below it. It is as 
though consciousness works this way, as though there 
is a diffuse body of energy that really has no name. One 
might call it the energy of emotionalism, the energy 
behind feelingness. Given a moment of time, this 
diffuse, unnamed energy begins to take the form of, for 
example, grief, anger, rage, indignation, self-pity, or 
jealousy. This emotional fteld at frrst was diffuse and 
formless but now resembles the form ofgrief, but there 
is also some fear and anger in it. It is the energy of 
emotionality in general. When given a split second longer, it will take a 
greater form of a speciftc fear, for example. "How will I 
live now without money or something?" The fear 
begins to take form, and then thoughts begin to arise 
out of the speciftc emotion of fear. It is like a sequence 
of events and an ocean of suppressed energy. We are going to learn how to decompress that. If 
one can disconnect the fuse and pull the plug, then 
one is disconnected from the whole experience and 
left with an inner s~ate of peace. It will be helpful if one can accept the fact that one 
does not have to do anything about external events or 
even ftgure them out. A person cannot make any HANDLING MAJOR CRISES 239 
progress by looking at the thoughts because they are 
endless. One is not going to make much headway in 
handling the problem by looking at the specific emo­
tion, but there will be a very profound effect if one 
allows oneself to focus on the energy below the upset. As one catches the experience earlier and earlier, one 
will notice that the energy is diffuse and almost name­
less. It is like a container of pressurized gas that is 
seeking release. Its energy has been accumulating for 
a lifetime, and now it has a way out. The event that 
has happened in life has opened the sluices, the 
gates, the doorway, and now this container of com­
pressed, suppressed. emotional energy is using this 
opportunity to escape. Once the barn door is open, all 
the animals run out. How can one get out of the way of the running 
animals? One cannot; however, the experience can be 
cut through qUickly by accepting the fact that one 
cannot escape it.To try to escape will only prolong it. The mind will try to figure out ways to escape the 
emotional energy as though that will reduce the pain; 
however, the pain actually comes from resisting the 
experience.To handle this, one just sits down and lets 
go of resisting it, choosing instead to be with it. The 
faster one opens it up, the faster the energy is let out, 
and the quicker the experience will be over. The 
whole thing can be released instead of allowing it to 
drag out endlessly, agonizingly, through hours, days, 
weeks, months, years, or even a whole lifetime. Remember we said that when someone has an 
acute injury, such as a burn on their hand, if they will 
stop everything and use this same method ofletting go HEALING AND RECOVERY 240 
of resisting by just opening the door and welcoming it 
and saying,"In fact, I want more of it," more of the ener­
gy of that experience, and if they will ignore what goes 
on in mind-ignore the thoughts but allow the experi­
ence of the energy field-the mind will say, "Well, I'm 
experiencing grief. "That is a label, so we will say that 
all thoughts are labels and have no reality-in reality, 
none of these things exist. Ifa loved one dies, the mind 
automatically says "grief;' which is a label. Because the 
mind has power over emotions and the capacity to 
give them form, the belief that to lose someone causes 
grief gives form to the emotion. The energy field of the 
emotions is actually formless, but when one insists that 
.it is grief, it then takes the form of grief. If somebody 
holds a gun to our head, we are naturally convinced in 
mind that this calls for fear; therefore, the same energy 
now assumes a somewhat different form labeled "fear." It is preferable to decrease the form of the energy 
field and stop labeling it anything.We don't tell people, 
"You know,I'm going through grief; I'm going through 
fear; I'm going through an upset. "An 'upset' is closer to 
the truth. It is a general term because it is very hard to 
say what the emotion is in an acute upset. Initially, one 
usually experiences a sense of shock, numbness, and 
disbelief that this could have happened. That is the 
moment to begin this practice.A person is prepared if 
they know about the technique in advance. Several years ago, I went through such an experi­
ence and instantly began letting go of resisting the 
experience. I constantly canceled out the thoughts. For 
instance, the loss seemed like forever, a lifetime. It is 
not the loss of a lifetime that is the problem, it is the HANDLING MA] 0 R CRI SES 241 
energy of the emotion that comes up about that. Once 
the energy of the emotion about the loss dissipates, it 
becomes sort of a "So what? "The problem is the acute 
catastrophic emotionality, so one just has to be with it. The technique is to allow oneself to experience it. In 
fact, to get over it in a hurry, just ask for more! Say to 
yourself, "~ want more of it; I want more of it." We can eventually see that this is a major opportu­
nity.The cause of all pain and suffering is the accumu­
lation of this compressed energy field, and life events 
give us an excuse. It opens the gate so we allow our­
selves to feel some ofit. For example, somebody bumps 
the fender of our car.All the suppressed anger that we 
have accumulated over our lifetime now has an excuse 
to pop out. It gets angry over the dented fender; it gets 
annoyed and goes into self-pity and blame.The events 
in life are the excuses for letting go of the compressed 
energy. Because it becomes unbearable, the mind fmds 
a way to discharge it that is acceptable to us. A person who is familiar with this will feel the com­
pressed energy and begin to release it without waiting 
for the mind to create an excuse that justifies its 
release.The more sophisticated mind does not need an 
outside event to release its angriness. It just knows that 
it is building up some suppressed angriness and sits 
down and says,"I had better look at this:' It then starts 
letting go of the energy of it before the mind gets 
around and creates something 'out there' to relieve 
itself. It is as though the events in our lives are almost 
like safety or release valves, providing a way to decom­
press this energy tank. The technique is one of decompression. It is look­242 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
ing at the energy as it is being experienced. We do not 
have to handle the thoughts or the problems that the 
mind creates around this particular event.When a per­
son looks at any life experience, they will see that they 
live within their feelings about it.The life event itself is 
really a 'nothing'. In the morning, it may look cata­
strophic, but by noon, it might be amusing. The event 
has not changed at all. The dented fender, at the 
moment it happens, may be an outrage of indignation. The minute we think about it,we start to feel guilty.We 
know very well that we turned a little too sharply our­
self. Maybe an hour later we are feeling sorry for the 
other guy because now he has an insurance problem. We realize it really was not· his fault, and we have a 
desire to make it up to him. Now we are into feeling 
guilty and blaming ourself again.Then we think about 
it all again, and now we go back into rage.We see what 
we are living with.Are we living with a dented fender? The fact is that we never really lived with a dented 
fender; we only lived our own inner experience ofthat. How we are with that is what we are experiencing. People never experience the dented fenders in life, 
only their emotions about them. When we look at it from this perspective, it is not 
quite as bad an overwhelm. The only thing we are ever 
going to have to handle is the same energy, the subtle, 
inner feelingness, and then let go of resisting it, surren­
der to it, and welcome it. Saying yes to it releases its 
energy. After doing this for a few minutes, or maybe 
even an hour (it depends on how adept one is---'some 
people get it right away and some need a little prac­
tice), a person gets where it is and no longer has to HANDLIN G MAJ0 R C RISES 243 
even handle or experience the emotions as such.What 
was fear disappears and is not felt as fear any longer. Anger is not felt as angriness; guilt is not felt as guilti­
ness per se. The emotion is felt as an overwhelming; 
upcoming flow of a negative energy that is actually 
generic and nameless. When we stop naming, labeling, or calling the energy 
something, we no ~onger have to handle it. When we 
stop putting constructions and interpretations of the 
mind onto it, when we let go of wanting to make it 
right or wrong or the event or ourselfwrong, when we 
bypass all that, we then get the feelingness ofit and see 
that we do not have to handle all that.We do not have 
to handle the thought or even the emotions ofit.All we 
have to do is handle the same upcoming energy. Can we do that? Yes, we can because we are doing 
it all the time anyway. It is a more effective technique 
than wildly racing around in our mind trying to figure 
it out, or running around inside our feelings and trying 
to handle the catastrophic emotions because, at the 
same time, this letting go of the energy field is happen­
ing anyway. It is helpful to become conscious of it, to cut 
through the confusion and get right to the essential 
point of what is effective. Dealing with the thoughts 
and the events with all the reasoning, logic, and figur­
ing it out, and dealing with all the probing into the psy­
chological significances is entertaining but thoroughly 
ineffective. It is a waste of time and energy and really 
delays the recovery. The healing of an acute burn of the hand takes only 
a matter of seconds. How long should it take the bleed­244 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
ing to stop ifwe have cut off a thumb? It actually takes 
a matter of seconds. For example, when I unintention­
ally cut my thumb off, I instantly used this technique, 
and the thumb bled exactly eight drops. The instant 
releasing of it, the releasing of the pain, and the letting 
go of the resistance of the catastrophic overwhelm 
allowed the bleeding to stop instantaneously. Those people who have tried this technique have 
had the same experience on the physical level, demon­
strating the truth of this. It can be done with any emo­
tion. One goes into the emotion, then past the emotion, 
and stops calling it anything. One gets in touch with 
the generic energy of what is coming up. It seems to 
come right up through the solar plexus, or it seems to 
be everywhere. One goes right to where the experi­
ence is being experienced. One has to use a little disci­
pline with the mind and refuse to have the mind fool 
oneself. The person says, "Well, I'm experiencing the 
death of that person out there:' One is not experienc­
ing it 'out there'; one is experiencing it 'in here'.Where 
is that? It is the same place where one always experi­
ences experience-within the feeling self. The only problem is one's own feelingness.The real 
problem is not actually the death of someone 'out 
there'.A person is up against the energy of one's own 
feelingness, the overwhelm ofthe energy ofthat. Ifone 
directs their attention and focuses it there with preci­
sion, it aborts what could be a prolonged and very 
painful experience; it is brought to an abrupt end. What happens if we keep on letting go of this 
energy? What happens if we welcome it? What if we 
say, "What an opportunity to decompress all this"? HANDLING MAJOR CRISES 245 
What will be the experience then? It will be relatively 
brief compared to what it would be with an ordinary 
state ofconsciousness. Suddenly, the energy field stops. It is as though, when the pressure gauge on the com­
pression chamber reaches a certain point, the overflow 
stops, and then we experience a state of peace. Right 
out of acute catastrophe come profound states of 
peace. If someone has been through this, they under­
stand what is meant here. The core ofreliefis sur­
rendering the energy at great depth. Suddenly, all the agony stops and instead, there is 
almost a silence, an infmite presence, an infinite state 
of peace, something that may be greater than any expe­
rience a person has had in their life previously. They are 
not the same when they come out on the other side of 
it. From then on, they are lighter, freer, and less subject 
to pain within their own emotional experience. Clinically, what usually happens is that the person 
now sighs with relief.They realize that life is going to 
continue and they can live with it.As bad as it seemed, 
somehow they can survive. Peace continues for a vari­
able period of time, and then a wave of the emotional­
ity comes back. It tends to return in waves, with peri­
ods of relief in between. When the wave comes back, 
they welcome it again and try to release as much out 
of the pressure as they can before the valve closes 
again:They welcome it as a very valuable opportunity, 
and since it may not happen very many times in life, it 
is oneto be treasured. The value ofit comes onlywhen 
a person is really on the other side of the experience 
and can look back on it with the wisdom that has been 
gained and understand that the mind is not going to be 246 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
of any real help in the experience. This is because the 
mind looks in the wrong direction and says, "If I could 
only change the circumstances of the event out there, 
then I would feel all right. "There are some good clinical 
examples of that. There was the case of a woman who received a 
telegram saying her son was killed in Vietnam. As a 
result, she stopped talking, sat in a rocking chair near a 
window, and just kept rocking back and forth, staring 
numbly out the window. She was in the state called 
apathy,with complete loss ofenergy.The world looked 
hopeless, and to her, God was dead. She rocked back 
and forth in this hopeless state, not responding verbally 
to her family. She refused to eat, barely slept, with naps 
perhaps during the night, and just stared blankly out 
the window in a state of total apathy. We found that 
certain changes had taken place in her brain chemistry 
as a result of this, with the neurotransmitters being 
depleted. In the meantime, the family did not know what to 
do and was very disturbed. About ten days later, the 
family received another telegram from the U. S. 
Department of Defense saying that it was all a mistake, 
that the son had not been killed in action, that it was 
another serviceman with the same name and an ID 
number that was just one digit different, and there had 
been a computer error. The family told the woman, 
"Mother, Mother, he's not dead!" She went right on 
rocking, staring blankly out the window as though she 
did not even hear them. So, changing the circumstances in the outer world 
is not necessarily going to change the upset because it HANDLING MAJOR CRISES 247 
has started a process. It is the process that has to be 
handled. It is not the events that have happened out 
there that have to be accepted, because that is just 
what we cannot do. We cannot accept the circum­
stances that have happened in our life.What we can do 
is accept and surrender to the fact that one has to bite 
the bullet and be with the situation right now. For 
example, ifour leg is caught in the bear trap and there 
is no way out, we surrender to the experiencing 
itself-the necessity to sit through it, face it, handle it, 
and surrender to the experiencing of the experience, 
using the techniques already presented. To be effective, one pays little attention to the mind 
because the mind really has no solution to the prob­
lem. The mind says, "If only we could change those 
external circumstances. "This is where people's experi­
ences with prayer often come in. Not knowing what to 
pray for, they may come out of it with bitterness 
because they were praying in the wrong direction. Very 
often the prayer goes in the direction of "Please undo 
that, please bring joy back to life. Please bring my 
thumb back; please change what is happening out 
there." Prayer in that direction is very likely to be inef­
fective because the form of the prayer is like, "Dear 
God, please let me be one foot taller." Is the problem 
God's, or is the problem the lack of comprehension 
about how to pray? At this point, the prayer might be, "Please be with 
me; show me how to surrender and handle this experi­
ence," and ask for conscious awareness of the Presence 
of God.We would be asking God to take on the experi­
encing in place ofourself. Curiously, as we keep surren­248 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
dering the experiencing to the experience, as we let go 
of resisting and labeling it, we are progressively surren­
dering it. We have to refuse the attraction to pay attention to 
the thought and to 'do something' out there to try to 
change the situation. Then arises the willingness to 
surrender the labeling and cause the emotional energy 
to take form.The total surrendering to the energy itself 
takes us to an inner state as we keep getting deeper 
into the surrender that something is experiencing, and 
something is handling the experiencing of the experi­
ence for ourself. It is as though the personal self now 
withdraws, and all we can say is that the energy is 
being handled. Those who pray in that direction become aware of 
that which is handling the experience because, as one 
gets deep into the surrender of the experience, one 
realizes that it is being handled. It is as though some 
energy field, some infmite mode of existence, some 
aspect of beingness, is handling it.Then comes the sur­
prising realization that one was never handling it at all 
to begin with, that it was some kind ofillusion that was 
projecting oneselfinto it, giving it form, and identifying 
with what was causing the pain.The pain comes from 
resistance and the insistence that the personal self and 
all of its aspects have to handle it, that it must do some­
thing about the experience out there-sue somebody, 
change the house, or move to a different location-as 
it surrenders that along with its thinkingness. It surren­
ders wanting to control and change it. It surrenders to 
the inner experience and eventually sees it as a great 
gift but only when coming out on the other side of it. HANDLING MAJOR CRISES 249 
To those who are aligned consciously in their lives 
with spiritual work, what does spiritual work look like 
to you? What do you think of spiritual work? What is 
the nature of what you call spiritual, or consciousness, 
or dealing with your unconscious or your supercon­
scious? What does it look like to you? Some people who have spent many years at it have 
said they see a person kneeling down and praying, or 
they see a person in church. They see a person at a 
gathering with everybody holding hands .and saying 
"Om,"andtheyseelight inthe centerofthe circle.They 
picture themselves sitting with a book and studying 
late until midnight or 1:00AM. They see themselves lis­
tening to audiotapes of well-known spiritual speakers, 
or see themselves at convocations for 'body, mind, and 
spirit', or at healing services. This is a whole panorama 
of what the mind encompasses and calls 'spiritual 
work'. When faced with a life crisis, however, it does not 
seem like 'spiritlial' work.
_OceanofPDF.com_Healing_and_Recovery_-_David_R_Hawkins.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        At age sev­
enty-six, my grandfather was up on the roof putting on 
a new one, and my other grandfather was dignified and 
elegant, so I looked forward to old age. That is the time 
when we can put on our spats and best hat, dress up in 
our best clothes, and live a really aristocratic, enjoyable 
life. For once, we can just be who we really are. It is 
going to be over before long, and therefore we do not 
have to cater to anybody any 10nger. We can really be an 
elegant and very loving, wonderful person, so to me, 
old age was not something ofa faltering decrepitude. It 
has been that way for other people, however, so we can 
see that there is an option. It is about whom we love 
and identify with. It is all the programming that we got 
from television and the movies, along with the image of 210 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
what aging means. The television commercials are 
designed to appeal to those fears of aging. Of course, what we fear we hold in mind, and 
what we hold in mind tends to manifest, so the fears 
of old age, the very things we begin to fear, are the 
very things that begin to manifest. It is helpful to 
return to the realization that there is an option to not 
buy any of these pictures. Whatever picture is bought 
is what is going to manifest in our life; therefore, we 
have to be careful about what we buy into. We 
become the guardian of our mind. We look at it and 
see what it does believe, and then we forgive it for 
what it picked up over the years. It did not know of 
its own innocence and therefore picked up all of the 
programs, stories, and scripts, and unwittingly, we find 
that we are beginning to act them out. If we want to know what life scripts we bought 
into, all we have to do is look at our own life and our 
physical self. The physical self is a reflection of what 
we have bought, and we may not even remember hav­
ing done so due to amnesia about remarks overhead 
throughout childhood. People look into their memory 
'and say,"I don't remember ever believing such a thing. " Actually,we are unconscious most of our lives and have 
amnesia about most of it because of the millions of 
things we do remember. What we do not realize is how 
many seconds there are in one day. Do you remember 
what happened each second of each day. We are lucky 
if we can remember what we had for breakfast yester­
day. Therefore, a great deal of what went on in our life 
is operationally forgotten in that it is not available for 
immediate recall. In looking at the body, we can see 211 THE AGING PROCESS 
what programs were picked up; what its belief systems 
were; what was thought to be valuable or loved, or its 
reverse; and what it feared and brought about into 
manifestation because the fear was being held in mind. The patterns of aging also follow a certain class 
phenomenon, and in the picture of age and aging, there 
is increasing longevity. It is now very normal for people 
to live longer, and even though they live longer, they 
are energetic and functional into a very advanced age. They see old age as a time of increased stature and 
value. This can be contrasted with a different social 
view where power and value come out of physical 
strength, and the aging patterns are more rapid. For 
example, in the area of sports, a participant at age thirty­
two is already considered old, and at forty is considered 
to be an old man in the field. When certain classes of 
laboring people reach age sixty-five and retire, it is pret­
ty much over, and from sixty-five onward, there is the 
pattern of moving into Sunset Hills, along with indo­
lence and the loss of energy, interest and aliveness. There is the giving up of life as though retiring from a 
job means retiring from life. It is as if the job was the 
only thing that gave meaning and value to life, and now 
that the person is no longer classified as a 'worker', 
they no longer have value in the world. There is the failure to look at oneself in a more 
holistic, total way and see value as something other 
than productivity in the workforce and the capacity to 
bring home a paycheck every Friday. There is the fail­
ure to see oneself as something other than just a 
prOVider, or just the mother of the children. In women, the pattern of the aging process does 212 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
not really start until the children grow up and leave 
home. Suddenly, the mother joins her husband in the 
pattern of retiring from life. The father retires from the 
job, and the mother retires from raising the children. Both of them are now unemployed, with lessened 
value in their own eyes. Although they make a few spo­
radic attempts at being of some use in society, they do 
not really believe it. Therefore, the aging process can 
become progressively rapid and many people often die 
within a few years of retirement. It is important to look earlier in life and constantly. challenge these belief systems in order to discover 
something about our life that is of such value that, 
whether we work, bring home a paycheck, raise chil­
dren, or follow a traditional, solid middle-class-America 
way oflife or not, life still has value, and we see that we. are making a difference in the world and that our life is 
significant. There is the willingness to share our life 
with others, to be a source of enthusiasm, and to con­
tribute to the lives of those around us. We have to 
reevaluate the worth of our life and recontextualize it, 
adopt a different way of being with it, and view it dif­
ferently in order to give it a different value in our own 
eyes, thereby raising our own energy pattern conse­
quent to a more positive way of looking at life. Previously we indicated that one is subject to what 
is held in mind. We can identify these belief systems 
and patterns and know that we have the option to 
change them. The choice is up to each one of us. We 
can be very active and vigorous into old age, we can 
have a very significant and valuable life that is highly 
enjoyable, and our physical health can continue right 213 THE AGING PROCESS 
to the very end. Everybody has life-script fantasies and looks at the 
advantages ofdifferent programs. That is one ofthe rea­
sons we choose them. It is necessary to look at 
whether we are willing to let go of those that are not 
beneficial fot the gain and benefit that we would 
receive from doing so. Our life, our body, and what goes on in our life are 
projections of what we have been holding in our own 
mind. Over-experiencing is the projection of our own 
beliefsystemsinto the physical world. Whatwe hold in 
mind manifests, and we have a choice when we see 
thispattern. We begintorealizethatifwhatweexperi­
ence isthe resultofwhatwe hold inmind,thenwe can 
change what we experience by changing what we 
hold in mind. We have to exchange the beliefsystem we are hold­
ing for the truth that we are infinite beings and subject 
only to what we hold in mind. Every time negative 
beliefs come up, it is necessary to cancel them and 
insist on the truth. The collective consciousness, the 
energy field of the world, has to be constantly coun­
tered because the world reprograms us with it again. It 
may even return due to hearing a chance remark. It 
requires vigilance to undo all the belief systems within 
the mind. The same thing happened with vision and glasses. I 
wore bifocal glasses for fifty years. Of course, there is 
the belief system in our society that middle age brings 
about changes in vision. Many people start using read­
ing glasses during middle age, so when we think of a 
middle-aged person, we see them wearing reading 214 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
glasses. The people in magazines for retired people 
almost always wear glasses. It is just presumed that by 
middle age, a person is going to need them. Well, I already had glasses because I had the image 
in my mind of the intellectual bookworm, which I was, 
as wearing glasses. Part of the image of what I was as 
an adolescent included wearing glasses. Of course, if 
we already wear glasses, it is presumed that our vision 
is going to get worse by middle age, and that we are 
going to need bifocals. By late middle age, we are cer­
tainly going to need trifocals. It was during this trifocal stage that I was involved 
in this kind of research and study. One day I was shar­
ing with my class about all the physical illnesses that I 
had let go of using these consciousness techniques. There was probably a list of flfteen or twenty different 
diseases, and then somebody said, "Well, then, how 
come you are still wearing glasses. " I said,"You know, I 
never thought of that. " I never thought of the fact that 
the eyeball itself and its capacity to see-the whole 
mechanism of vision-would be another manifestation 
of my belief systems about it. I looked at the belief systems and began to cancel 
them, saying that I am an inflnite being who is not really 
subject to any limitations such as the belief that I need 
glasses. The process took six weeks, and I could hardly 
see anything during that time because I was not wear­
ing my glasses. However, I never put the glasses on 
again, and during that six weeks, my mobility was 
somewhat limited by the inability to see anything more 
than a couple of feet in front of me. I was myopic as 
well as farsighted, and I also had,astigmatism. I could 215 THE AGING PROCESS 
not read anything, nor could I see anything distant. After about six weeks of constantly and consistently 
letting this go, I fmally just surrendered to it and real­
ized that part of the technique is to let go of resisting 
what the belief system was. Then I said, "Well, God, if 
I'm never going to see again, I guess I am just never 
going to see again. "And then I just totally let it go, totally 
surrendering it to a higher power. And then I said, 
"Whatever your will is to be, I will agree to that. " What is the will of God for us. The will of God for 
us is complete and total happiness, wholeness, and 
oneness. After surrendering to God's Will, suddenly, in 
one instant, the vision returned and was absolutely 
perfect after a lifetime of wearing glasses. It does not matter how long we have had a belief 
system. The belief system that was present throughout 
my entire life and literally limited my vision was surren­
dered many years ago. This example is just a demonstra­
tion of the prinCiple involved, which we experience in 
the level of consciousness itself. The body is a reflec­
tion of that which we believe, so if we address our­
selves directly to those belief systems, to the mind 
itself, and to where it is being experienced, we can 
undo belief systems. We have that freedom and option. Returning to the commonly held belief systems 
about middle age, aging, and old age, two things are 
occurring. There are the belief systems about what 
aging entails, and there is our position or the way we 
feel about it. In truth, it is not the events in life that 
have any importance, but their meaning to us. The 
importance of a fact or an event comes from how we 
feel about it, which creates a context. It creates a way 216 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
of being and decides in advance how we are going to 
feel about that event, decision, or fact. In referring to the Map of Consciousness, we can 
see there are various energy fields and levels of con­
sciousness. The bottom of the chart represents the 
most unconscious level, which is farthest from the 
truth and closest to death itself. At the top, because of 
increasing truth, there is an alignment with life, with 
truth, and with a sense of aliveness; in other words, we 
might say that at the top is God. Emotions reflect the energy field of a positionality, 
and out of that comes a certain view of the world as 
well as the view of a certain kind of God in that world. At the bottom of the Map are the levels of the lowest 
energy, which lead to almost passive suicide. Many 
deaths from old age are not due to old age at all but are 
forms of passive suicide, the result of having given up 
out of hopelessness. There is a sense of guilt, as though 
old age, its decrepitude, and illness are almost the pun­
ishment for one's sins or failures in life. It is as though 
one deserves all this, and out of self-hatred, the person 
chooses destruction. They see their life and the world 
as the experience of sin and suffering. They really fear 
dying because, out of their guilt, they picture God as 
being very punitive. There is a fear of old age as well, 
along with the view that it is a process of destruction, 
which comes from this belief system in their life that 
allows them to fall into the domain of this destructive 
viewpoint. An energy field somewhat above but still very close 
to passive suicide is that of just allowing oneself to die 
by not caring enough about oneself. This is in the field 217 THE AGING PROCESS 
ofApathy, with a calibrated level of 50. It is again a neg­
ative attitude, one of hopelessness and despair in 
which there is a loss of energy. In this view of old age, 
the whole situation is considered hopeless. It is as 
though the grim reaper-the skeleton riding on horse­
back and carrying a scythe-has the power over us, 
and it seems that old age and all its conditions and 
physical elements are hopeless. There is a loss of energy 
with this view of the world. The loss of energy means 
that, out of hopelessn~ss and despair, we do not have 
the energy to handle this life. Therefore, we see the 
personal life and life in the world as hopeless and see 
God as uncaring. The next higher energy level from which to look at 
middle or old age is that ofGrief. This is a very common 
view. There is sadness over middle age and seeing the 
absence of youth as a great and terrible loss-the loss 
ofvigor; the loss of one's sex life; the loss of one's phys­
ical attractiveness and seductive sexual abilities; and 
the loss of mental acuity; position, and power in the 
world. The endless grief over these perceived losses 
results in the emotion of regret, where one looks at 
middle and advancing age as decline. People become 
dispirited about their own lives and life in general. There is sadness at middle age. They look at life, the 
future, and progressive aging as sad. It seems as though 
God is ignoring them and does not really care about 
the aging process. The next higher energy level is that ofFear, and that 
energy can be utilized in a positive way. What people 
need to fear are the consequences of these negative 
belief systems, not old age. The danger is not in age 218 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
itself but in the negative belief systems that they have 
been holding in consciousness. However, the ordinary 
person fears old age itself and is full of worry and anx­
iety. Grief has to do with the past, and Fear has to do 
with the future. The mind looks at old age out of fear 
and holds worry and anxiety about the future; there­
fore, the world and the whole aging process look 
frightening. There does not seem to be any God they 
can rely on. Next comes Desire, and out of that, the intense 
craving and wanting to change all this. One aspect of 
that is becoming addicted to being young and seeing 
that life is where youth is. There is the resulting youth 
cult expressing its fear of old age in a frantic desire to 
hang on to that youth. Some people are unable to age 
gracefully, as expressed through inappropriate behav­
ior, because of their inability to let go of the desire for 
youth along with misidentifying youth as life. Life is 
present throughout. The same energy of life is in the 
child as well as in the 'old' person. The next energy level is that ofAnger. There is anger 
at the thought that one is subject to, at the effect of, 
and victim of the whole progressive aging process, and 
that the calendar has power over one's life. These are 
all negative energy fields, and in practice, they are usu­
ally mixed with other levels. Rarely is there just one 
level. Anger is also mixed with some sadness, some 
hopelessness, and some guilt, and all of them tend to 
occur together. There is the anger of old age and the 
frustration and resentment about it. People hate and 
resent the aging process and the loss of youth. There 
are many young people who have not had good expe­219 THE AGING PROCESS 
dences with their grandparents and hate older people; 
they don't want to be around them. Out of anger is a 
world of conflict and competitiorl, and the projected 
anger of God leads to an unconscidus guilt and the fear 
that God will retaliate. Denial is another way to be about aging, refusing to 
see the options mentioned above, and holding a certain 
arrogance and inflated position about the process. This 
would be a totally negative positionality. All these things have more to do with the truth, and 
to begin looking at them would then allow people to 
move out of these negative positions. They would be 
able to let go of resisting them, of being attached to 
them, of giving value to them. They could be released 
from these positions, thus allowing middle age and pro­
toplasmic aging to start to look okay. The God of that 
kind of experience would be a God of freedom. There 
would be the freedom and willingness to see that per­
haps they are the source of what happens in their life. They might say they will agree with that because their 
intention now is to fmd out the truth about the aging 
process. Now, middle age, aging, and the world begin to 
look friendly. The God of such a world is promising and 
hopeful. In moving up to the level of Acceptance, people 
begin to re-own their power. The willingness to accept 
the truth now shifts the energy field from negative to 
positive. The truth is that we are the source of what 
happens to us in our life. We are the source by virtue of 
buying into and owning these belief systems; we bring 
them into our life. The truth is that we have a choice. The minute we see that there is a choice and begin to 220 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
accept that, it all begins to look harmonious. The God 
of such a universe begins to look merciful. We can now move into a condition of lovingness 
and begin to take responsibility for really loving 
ourself. We can begin to nurture, support, and forgive 
ourself for falling into these thought patterns. Why do 
people fall into these thought patterns. It is done out 
of innocence and naIvete. We think that that is the way 
it is; there is no thought to question it. People have not 
been so conscious or aware. It is only by giving exam­
ples that one can say,"Wow, it looks like I have a choice 
here:' We stop saying, "Well, it must be that person's 
genetics:' Or, "If I were like that, I would be glad to be 
alive at ninety, too. " We stop excusing it and begin to 
really accept that it is because of the patterns we have 
held in life. This comes as almost a revelation to us, a 
sudden opening of the mind. The way to avoid limitation is to begin to have an 
open mind and the willingness to look at the options 
and see that we do indeed have choices. Then the 
world starts to look loving. We now begin to love the 
prospects because we begin to see the advantages of 
middle age and old age. There are many people who 
look back and say, "Frankly, I wouldn't want to be 
young again. I mean I would hate the thought of going 
through the teens, the anxiety, the acne, the unknow­
ingness, the stumbling around, the awkwardness, and 
the endless social anxiety and self-consciousness. I 
don't think I would care for the twenties, either, won­
dering what I am going to be in this world and having 
terrible anxieties, such as, Will I make it through col­
lege. Then there is the struggle of the thirties, when 221 THE AGING PROCESS 
one is trying to establish a family and all those kinds of 
things. " Instead of now saying that the past was better than 
the present, one begins to say, "Hey, right here, right 
now, in the present, I have some beautiful options:' It is 
like the whole world suddenly opens up anew. "I can 
become reborn at age sixty, so why not. " As we move from a negative energy field into a pos­
itive one, we get closer and closer to the truth and 
become progressively aware that we are the experi­
encer, and that the phenomena which have been going 
on through life have not really affected the experi­
encer. It is like we are the hardware of the computer 
and the experiences are the software. The hardware is 
not affected by the software; that which experiences is 
unaffected by the experiencing, so that which we are 
has remained unaged. It is not subject to aging. The inner experiencer has been unaware that a 
change has been going on in the body, which some­
times comes as a surprise. People look at us differently, 
and we wonder why. It is because that within, we have 
not experienced the passage of time. The real self, the 
true self, has not experienced anything such as aging. No such thing goes on within the truth of that which 
we are. This progressive awareness increases our free­
dom ofchoice and the way we wish to be with ourself. We realize, for instance, that sexuality in old age 
does not decline at all but remains active, very often 
until the very end of life. A personal friend of mine, a 
world-famous person who was seventy-six, said that his 
sex life was better than it had ever been at any time in 
his life; and that it had improved to a quality he had 222 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
never even thought of as a younger man. As a young 
man, he was interested in the calisthenics, the acrobat­
ics, and the performance, but as an older person with 
more maturity and greater wisdom, he was interested 
in the greater dimensions. He confided that, at age 
seventy-six, he had just discovered what sex was really 
all about, that it was incredible, and that he was just 
boggled by the quality of it and what he had discov­
ered about it. That brings us to some of the beliefsystems that are 
so common in our society having to do with what hap­
pens in one's sexual being at the time of male and 
female menopause. There was a clinical experiment in 
which a group of thirty women was given a placebo 
injection and told it was a hormone that would bring 
their periods two weeks earlier. The result was that the 
whole premenstrual syndrome,with the bloating, 
weight gain, belching, abdominal pains and colic-all 
the things the various women complained of­
occurred two weeks early because they all held in 
mind that it would happen. This demonstrates the 
intense suggestibility, the whole belief in the premen­
strual syndrome, and the symptoms that are supposed 
to go with middle age in both women and men. The 
belief of women in hot flashes and all the phenomena 
that are supposed to occur can be induced by hypno­
sis, which has been demonstrated repeatedly. A young 
woman is put into a hypnotic trance and told she is 
going through menopause. She is asked to report her 
symptoms, which are identical to the ones reported by 
women experiencing menopause. The menopausal syn­
drome varies from culture to culture, and from class to 223 THE AGING PROCESS 
class within each culture, and what occurs is what is 
held as the inevitable. It can be seen that the mind 
holds the woman as a victim. It is as though the mind 
says, "And this is how it is. " The situation is hopeless. She can only give in to it, buy into it, and be at the 
effect of it, thereby giving away her power. There was the example of the middle-aged man and 
what is supposed to happen to him-the cold hands 
and feet, feeling tired and discouraged, loss of energy 
and libido, and the occurrence of the middle-age dis­
eases, including diverticulitis, gout, and all the other 
things associated with that age group. All these things are the consequences of the belief 
systems of a naIve mind. It is out of innocence that we 
buy into all these belief systems. By accepting our 
humanness, there arise compassion and a willingness 
to forgive ourselves for what we bought into. It is just 
that we did not. know any differently. The purpose of all this is to share what has been 
discovered-that we have an option, a choice, and that 
we are not victims. The way to move out of that is to 
choose to move up out of the bottom of the Map of 
Consciousness and realize that it is not hopeless. Just 
by education, by hearing and knowing about it, we 
begin to realize that life is not hopeless, yet the mind 
would also like to excuse its own responsibility. Ifwe look at the Map of Consciousness now from a 
slightly different view, people at the lower levels of 
consciousness value life and rate themselves and others 
based on what they have. Because that is aligned with 
survival, 'havingness' is important. A person's value of 
himself and others is based on what they 'have. ' As 224 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
certain people get progressively older, they cling more 
and more to what they have in order to give them­
selves a sense of value. There are certain subgroups in 
our culture in which havingness is predominant. It is 
what one has and whether they have more millions 
than another person that really counts, and ifthey lose 
all their money, now they are out of that society. Moving up into the middle range, closer to the 
Truth and Courage, there is the energy field that sees 
life as opportunity. It is the part that settled America 
and created all the big industries. There is a powerful 
energy center coming out of this level where it is what 
we do that counts. Doingness is very important, and 
what we do is seen as cause. Since we are important 
because of what we do, there is therefore a great 
emphasis on doingness. We want to hold doingness as 
the effect rather than the cause. What we do comes 
from what we hold in mind, or the belief pattern, so 
doingness is a result and not a cause. It is not because of playing tennis that we are 
happy and healthy; it is because we are happy and 
healthy that we express that joy of our aliveness in the 
form oftennis. Therefore, the doingness that is so impor­
tant begins to fade out as we move and progresses in 
our level of consciousness. As we get closer to the awareness of what. we are, 
then it is who and what we are that become important. As we progress in life, it is what we have become. This 
is true in other cultural groups where it is what one is, 
what one has become,what one stands for in this, one's 
beingness. It is the beingness that counts, so spiritually 
sophisticated groups are not interested in or care 225 THE AGING PROCESS 
about what someone has. Everyone knows that 'having' 
is a result of doing, and ifone wants to work harder and 
more effectively, it will bring about havingness. They 
know that doingness is just a matter of exercising 
options. Someone can join the Board ofeverything and 
run themselves ragged; therefore, doingness no longer 
has status or value. True value results from what we have become and 
the principles by which we live. These include commit­
ting ourself to the principle of becoming increasingly 
conscious and aware, committing to spiritual princi­
ples and those things that are universal and transcend 
the temporary, and, finally, identifying with the progres­
sive awareness of that which we truly are. With this 
progressive increase in consciousness, we are no 
longer at the effect of the world. We no longer need to 
'have'in order to realize the significance of our being­
ness. It is the awareness of that which we are. This proVides a different position from which to 
view the body. We can now look at what our relation­
ship is with the body and see that it is something we 
have, not something we are. It is something that 
belongs to us, and now we can begin to enjoy the body 
and see that we have an option. We can look at it as a 
fun thing that belongs to us and is there for our enjoy­
ment. If we let go of our identification with the body 
and realize we are not the body, we see that we are 
experiencing the body. That gives us options and 
choices. We can decide to enjoy it and see that it sort 
of bounces around happily, doing what it does with 
little effort. By letting go of all our negative belief systems 226 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
about sickness, we can be willing to let go of all those 
things, and as we get older, we can enjoy a progressively 
healthier body. The body that I·enjoy now is consider­
ably healthier that it was thirty years ago. With progres­
sive age, or what the world calls 'aging', the body has 
gotten increasingly better. I enjoyed the body much 
more at age sixty than I did at age forty. The body at 
forty was very tired because it had migraine headaches, 
ulcers, diverticulitis, colitis, hemorrhoids, swollen 
ankles, elevated cholesterol, and gout. I had to carry a 
cane around in the trunk of the car. So at age forty, the 
body was old. Now, at a much older age, I enjoy it greatly 
as all those illnesses are gone. With the letting go of 
those beliefsystems and limitations have come the pro­
gressive enjoyment of the body and being able to see it 
now as something with which to express one's happi­
ness. If we hold in mind that the passage of time auto­
matically means the progressive deterioration of the 
body, then we are subject to that. If, on the other hand, 
we view time as this space that gives us the freedom to 
grow, to become more conscious, and to become 
aware, then time becomes our friend. It is over the pas­
sage of time that these illnesses of the body of middle 
and old age disappear. We have the time in which to 
explore and to become aware that there are options for 
how we limit ourselves by belief systems. Recovery from many illnesses and personal human 
conditions can occur when these basic premises are 
consistently applied, but possibilities are limited by the 
general circumstances inherent to the human condi­
tion itself. Thus, the human body is protoplasmic and 227 THE AGING PROCESS 
inherits the human genome. Th~re are also karmic 
influences and propensities as well as programs that 
are inherent to the collective consciousness of 
mankind. CHAPTER 8 
Handling Major Crises 
All ofus are beset by the major crises oflife at one time 
or another, but how many of us know how to handle 
death, divorce, separation, disfigurement, injury, acci­
dent, catastrophe, and those other serious events that 
result in emotional overwhelm. What techniques can 
be utilized to handle these experiences. We will refer again to the Map of Consciousness as 
a point of reference for greater understanding of the 
question. This map is a mathematical model that repre­
sents the human ego, the self (with a small's'). Included are the various levels of consciousness and 
their names according to the common human experi­
ences of shame, guilt, apathy, grief, fear, desire, anger, 
pride, courage, willingness, acceptance, reason, love, 
and joy. As we move towards the top, we get closer to 
the truth. As we move toward the bottom, we get far­
ther and farther away from the truth. The Map shows that the numbers indicate the rel­
ative energy or power of the various levels. For exam­
ple, Apathy is far less powerful than Fear. Fear has 
much less energy than Courage, and Neutral has less 
energy than Love. The relative power of these differ­
ent positions reflects different points of view. As mentioned previously, the arrows below 
Courage go downward, indicating that the effect is 
destructive, does not support life, and is in violation of 
truth. At the level of Truth, which is denoted as 
Courage, the arrows are at neutraL They then go 
upwards as they move into areas oflovingness, indicat­
229 230 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
ing that these energy fields nurture and support life 
and are aligned with truth. In the time of acute catastrophic experiences, life 
abruptly becomes a nightmare, and one is suddenly 
overwhelmed by an emotional storm. However, tech­
niques are available to handle these acute events; to 
shorten their duration, to relieve the pain and suffer­
ing, and to diminish the stress to the minimum. All these major life experiences have something in 
common in that they all represent an acute catastroph­
ic loss to the mind and a threat to survival. They indi­
cate a major change and have in common the feeling of 
powerlessness due to their fmality and permanency. The mind perceives that it is stopped and cannot do 
anything about them. It is this phenomenon of the per­
manence of being stopped and that one is powerless 
and cannot change the event that contributes to the 
intensity of the acute upset. How to handle it will 
depend on one's orientation to the subject and one's 
knowledge of the whole field of consciousness. All these experiences unleash a storm of negative 
feelings, such as shock, disbelief, denial, anger, guilt, 
tenseness, self-blame, resentment, being undone or 
abandoned, rage at God and oneself, self-pity, rage at the 
world, and rage at the family. All these negative emo­
tions surface and come on at once, sometimes in 
sequence and sometimes in combination, but in gener­
al, there is the massive overwhelm of the negative emo­
tions of separation, loss, and intensity that all the expe­
riences share in common. First, there is the sequencing of shock and then 
resentment, disbelief, and anger. The sequencing of 231 HANDLIN G MAJaR C RI SES 
these emotions varies from experience to experience 
and from person to person; the exact sequencing is 
immaterial. The significance is that they unleash every­
thing at the bottom of the Map of Consciousness. The energy fields at the bottom of the Map are in 
a negative direction, and when one of these energy 
fields becomes strong, it tends to pull the rest below 
level 200 down with it. The grief over loss then seems 
to bring guilt with it, along with a sense of hopeless­
ness, a fear of the future, a desire to change the whole 
event, and anger. The whole negative energy field is 
unleashed in one giant emergency. The problem is 
really that of being disorganized by the massive 
unleashing of energies. The mind tries to use reason to handle these ener­
gies. It tries to think: its way out of the dilemma and 
looks for explanations and reasons. The mind cannot 
succeed in this because the energy-field overwhelm is 
so massive that the thoughts really become a reflection 
of the negativity of the field; therefore, the thoughts 
themselves become negative. Another characteristic common to all these experi­
ences is that they are all at the top of life-stress rating 
scaleS, which numerically rate the degree of stress of 
certain life events from zero to 100. The ones men­
tioned earlier are at the top of the list. The death of a 
spouse, a child, or family member, along with divorce, 
are at the top of that scale, so they are all the maximal 
catastrophes that we can face in our overall experience 
of life. The problem to explore is how to convert them 
into acute gains, how to maximize them, and how to use 
them as springboards for major leaps in consciousness. 232 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
It is necessary to again review consciousness itself 
and the relationship between body, mind, and spirit. What is the exact nature of that relationship and how 
can it help us to learn how to handle major crises. As 
mentioned previously, the body is unable to experi­
ence itself. The body just is, and it is actually insentient. We know where the body is because of sensations. We 
don't experience the body; instead, we experience the 
sensations of the body. Sensations themselves have no 
way of being experienced but are experienced in 
something greater than themselves, which is in the 
mind. Our awareness of what is going on in the body 
occurs because it is being reported and experienced 
within mind. 'Mind has no capacity to experience itself. That 
seems like a shocking thought, but a memory cannot 
experience its own memoryness, a thought cannot 
experience its own thoughtness, and feelings cannot 
experience their own feelingness. This is because they 
are experienced in something greater than mind, 
which is consciousness itself. Because of conscious­
ness, one is aware of what is going on in the mind. Mind then reports what is going on with sensations, 
and sensations report what is going on with the body. Therefore, the experiencing is several levels removed· 
from the body itself. In line with this, consciousness 
itself is unable to actually experience itself. It is 
because of the energy field of awareness that we are 
able to know what is going on within consciousness. It 
reports what is going on in sensations and then reports 
what is going on with the body. Therefore, where we 
experience experiences is considerably removed from HAN D LIN G MAJ OR eRr SES 233 
the physical body itself. ~ecause experiencing is going on within con­
sciousness, we can address the solution for human 
problems directly within the field of consciousness, 
thereby effectively shortening and relieving the 
amount of pain and suffering and bringing about a far 
more effective result. The results of this technique and 
approach were demonstrated in the handling of physi­
cal pain, sickness, suffering, depression, anxiety, and 
fear. The same technique will work in meeting these 
acute emotional catastrophic emergencies since where 
one actually lives is in the experiencing of one's own 
experiencing. A person thinks,"Well, I live in the world. I'm expe­
riencing the world," but what is really being registered 
is one's experience of that experience (e. g. , the 'expe­
riencer'). We can handle anything if we address this 
exact focus. Ifwe focus on where we are experiencing 
experience, we can handle things with precision. In 
moments and minutes, we can handle things that 
would take weeks, months, years, and, in fact, even life­
times. We can handle within an hour something that 
others have been unable to handle over an entire life­
time. We know people who have experienced these 
catastrophic events in early life, and when we see them 
at an older age, it is still not over for them. The resent­
ment, bitterness, anger, disillusionment, rage, and the 
major decisions that come out of those negative feel­
ings are still with the person fifty years later. It is as 
though the event happened yesterday; it is still 
unhealed and undone, and the knowledge of how to 
handle the overwhelm has not been available to them. 234 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
We will relate how to handle the overwhelm at the 
level where it is being experienced. We look at the field 
of experiencing to be aware of where experiencing is 
happening. It is not happening out in the world, in 
one's foot, or in one's stomach. It is happening within 
consciousness. As one examines where one experi­
ences experience, one will fmd that it is everywhere. One does not experience things in a focal point; that is 
a belief system ofthe mind. For: example, I ask someone 
who is not aware of this, "Where do you experience 
your thoughts. " Out of habit the person points to their 
head and says, "Here. " That is a belief system-one's 
thoughts about thoughts. One thinks their thoughts are 
in their head, but that is only a thought. Where does 
one actually think the thought that one believes is 
thought in the head. As one really considers this with 
a little contemplation and reflection, one will see that 
the actual experiencing is diffuse and going on every­
where. One could not put their fmger on any particu­
lar place where experience is happening. It is simulta­
neously everywhere and nowhere. Working with that point will reveal something sur­
prising which makes this kind of work precise. I know 
this because I have worked with it clinically for over 
fifty years, and because I have been through most of 
the major life crises. In fact, a few years ago, I went 
through a half dozen and will share my experience of 
the truth of these things because one can experience 
all of them within oneself. It is surprising that the only thing to be handled in 
these acute catastrophic events is the energy of the 
emotions themselves. Ifwe look at the experience, we HANDLING MAJOR CRISES 235 
see it is not the event that happened or we think hap­
pened in the world that is the problem but the way we 
feel about it. Who cares about facts. They do not mean 
anything in and of themselves. It is one's emotional 
reaction to the fact. The fact is only a fact, a 'nothing'. How we feel about the fact is therefore the only thing 
we really ever have to handle about the events in life. Our feelings come from our attitudes, beliefs, our 
way of being with them, and the way we view ourself 
in the world, thus giving variety to the emotions. However, in a state of overwhelm, the problem is the 
handling of just the emotional energy itself. We do not 
really even have to handle the emotions, just the energy 
of the emotions. "Yes;' one says, "but what about the 
events out there. What am I going to do now with no 
money. What am I going to do with no husband. " and 
so on. Surprisingly, the events are very eaSy to handle. There is no acute catastrophe. The events themselves 
are really just handled in a mechanical way once the 
feelings are set aside. There may be some reluctance, resentment, or 
regret,buttheseareminorthings. The handling ofthe 
actual issues within the phenomenal world, within 
one's daily life, is, in contrast, much easier. They are 
not the real problems. The thought that they are is just 
coming out of the energy field of negative emotions 
where they seem catastrophic, hopeless, unbearable, 
and insurmountable. Once a person comes out on the 
other side of it, life adjusts itself. Something else 
comes in to fill the vacuum, and life goes right on. Those issues were simple to solve once the emotions 
were out of the way. 236 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
Life presents the solutions to all problems. Necessity is the mother of invention, so whatever 
dilemma appears in one's life will resolve itself, and the 
energy of life resumes. Life goes right on no matter 
how major the catastrophe seems at the moment. Therefore, the problem is not handling the event 'out 
there' or the circumstances of life because they will 
handle themselves. Usually relatives or close friends 
will handle a situation for the person who is impaired 
by the overwhelm. The problem is handling the ener­
gies that arise. When one of these major negative energy fields 
starts to unleash itself, it tends to drag the rest with it. Rarely does one experience just grief alone. Guilt is 
almost always associated with it in blaming oneself. It 
may take the form of questions, such as, Why didn't I 
look as I went around the turn. Why didn't I put chains 
on. Why didn't I take her to the doctor sooner. Maybe 
we could have cured her cancer. Why did I bet on that 
horse. There is a sort of retrospective self-recrimina­
tion. There are also apathy and hopelessness-life is 
hopeless; life seems hopeless. It looks like we will 
never be happy again. It is like the source of happiness 
has left one's life. Of course, the grief is natural to the 
loss, and then there are the fears that arise-how will I 
live without whatever it is that I have lost. The constant, incessant desire drives us crazy to try 
to change it. What can we do. There is the bargaining, 
the trying to manipulate, the arguing with God, and the 
making bargains with God:"Oh God, ifyou will only let 
so-and-so live, I'll do this and that. "Then there are the 
anger, the rage at life and the nature of life, and the HANDLING MAJOR CRISES 237 
anger that is displaced onto the people of life-it is 
somebody's fault. All these negative energies usually 
unleash all at once, and from moment to moment, one 
or another may be dominant. At the same time, the 
mind is thrashing around wildly, trying to come up 
with explanations, trying to figure it out, and it is 
swamped by the overflow of energy. The problem is 
that the energy is just too much for the mind to 
process. It goes into disorganization, into adrenaline 
and stress-hormone biologic overwhelm, and that 
acute stress throws a person into a state of acute emer­
gency within consciousness itself. The problems are not handled on the level at which 
they seem to be occurring but on the next higher energy 
level. Higher energy means greater power. When dealt 
with there, they are handled automatically, which is not 
possible on the lower levels. All we have to handle are 
the energies of the emotional overwhelm. Does that 
seem surprising for a psychiatrist to say. Most people 
would expect a psychiatrist to begin talking about the 
psychology of the intricate relationship between the 
person and the events and what they mean symbolically, 
that is, the psychological components. In this instance, we are going to bypass all that and 
instead address the energy that the emotions release; 
whatever the psychology may be makes no difference. There is a massive release of the negative emotions, 
and it is appropriate to deal with the energy of those 
emotions. A very effective technique to use is to ignore 
the thoughts because the·mind will never figure them 
out for it does not have the capacity to do so. It is in a 
state of massive overwhelm. The issues are extraordi­238 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
narily complex, and it would take a lifetime to unravel 
them if a person really wanted to know the full signifi­
cance of each and every contribution from every level 
of one's psychological self to the total meaning of the 
experiences. It is not necessary to do that, and it is a 
very good thing to not do it. A person only has to go 
into the feeling itself. Notice ftrst that the feeling is being felt in a gener­
al way, and that there is an energy below it. It is as 
though consciousness works this way, as though there 
is a diffuse body of energy that really has no name. One 
might call it the energy of emotionalism, the energy 
behind feelingness. Given a moment of time, this 
diffuse, unnamed energy begins to take the form of, for 
example, grief, anger, rage, indignation, self-pity, or 
jealousy. This emotional fteld at frrst was diffuse and 
formless but now resembles the form ofgrief, but there 
is also some fear and anger in it. It is the energy of 
emotionality in general. When given a split second longer, it will take a 
greater form of a speciftc fear, for example. "How will I 
live now without money or something. " The fear 
begins to take form, and then thoughts begin to arise 
out of the speciftc emotion of fear. It is like a sequence 
of events and an ocean of suppressed energy. We are going to learn how to decompress that. If 
one can disconnect the fuse and pull the plug, then 
one is disconnected from the whole experience and 
left with an inner s~ate of peace. It will be helpful if one can accept the fact that one 
does not have to do anything about external events or 
even ftgure them out. A person cannot make any HANDLING MAJOR CRISES 239 
progress by looking at the thoughts because they are 
endless. One is not going to make much headway in 
handling the problem by looking at the specific emo­
tion, but there will be a very profound effect if one 
allows oneself to focus on the energy below the upset. As one catches the experience earlier and earlier, one 
will notice that the energy is diffuse and almost name­
less. It is like a container of pressurized gas that is 
seeking release. Its energy has been accumulating for 
a lifetime, and now it has a way out. The event that 
has happened in life has opened the sluices, the 
gates, the doorway, and now this container of com­
pressed, suppressed. emotional energy is using this 
opportunity to escape. Once the barn door is open, all 
the animals run out. How can one get out of the way of the running 
animals. One cannot; however, the experience can be 
cut through qUickly by accepting the fact that one 
cannot escape it. To try to escape will only prolong it. The mind will try to figure out ways to escape the 
emotional energy as though that will reduce the pain; 
however, the pain actually comes from resisting the 
experience. To handle this, one just sits down and lets 
go of resisting it, choosing instead to be with it. The 
faster one opens it up, the faster the energy is let out, 
and the quicker the experience will be over. The 
whole thing can be released instead of allowing it to 
drag out endlessly, agonizingly, through hours, days, 
weeks, months, years, or even a whole lifetime. Remember we said that when someone has an 
acute injury, such as a burn on their hand, if they will 
stop everything and use this same method ofletting go HEALING AND RECOVERY 240 
of resisting by just opening the door and welcoming it 
and saying,"In fact, I want more of it," more of the ener­
gy of that experience, and if they will ignore what goes 
on in mind-ignore the thoughts but allow the experi­
ence of the energy field-the mind will say, "Well, I'm 
experiencing grief. "That is a label, so we will say that 
all thoughts are labels and have no reality-in reality, 
none of these things exist. Ifa loved one dies, the mind 
automatically says "grief;' which is a label. Because the 
mind has power over emotions and the capacity to 
give them form, the belief that to lose someone causes 
grief gives form to the emotion. The energy field of the 
emotions is actually formless, but when one insists that. it is grief, it then takes the form of grief. If somebody 
holds a gun to our head, we are naturally convinced in 
mind that this calls for fear; therefore, the same energy 
now assumes a somewhat different form labeled "fear. " It is preferable to decrease the form of the energy 
field and stop labeling it anything. We don't tell people, 
"You know,I'm going through grief; I'm going through 
fear; I'm going through an upset. "An 'upset' is closer to 
the truth. It is a general term because it is very hard to 
say what the emotion is in an acute upset. Initially, one 
usually experiences a sense of shock, numbness, and 
disbelief that this could have happened. That is the 
moment to begin this practice. A person is prepared if 
they know about the technique in advance. Several years ago, I went through such an experi­
ence and instantly began letting go of resisting the 
experience. I constantly canceled out the thoughts. For 
instance, the loss seemed like forever, a lifetime. It is 
not the loss of a lifetime that is the problem, it is the HANDLING MA] 0 R CRI SES 241 
energy of the emotion that comes up about that. Once 
the energy of the emotion about the loss dissipates, it 
becomes sort of a "So what. "The problem is the acute 
catastrophic emotionality, so one just has to be with it. The technique is to allow oneself to experience it. In 
fact, to get over it in a hurry, just ask for more. Say to 
yourself, "~ want more of it; I want more of it. " We can eventually see that this is a major opportu­
nity. The cause of all pain and suffering is the accumu­
lation of this compressed energy field, and life events 
give us an excuse. It opens the gate so we allow our­
selves to feel some ofit. For example, somebody bumps 
the fender of our car. All the suppressed anger that we 
have accumulated over our lifetime now has an excuse 
to pop out. It gets angry over the dented fender; it gets 
annoyed and goes into self-pity and blame. The events 
in life are the excuses for letting go of the compressed 
energy. Because it becomes unbearable, the mind fmds 
a way to discharge it that is acceptable to us. A person who is familiar with this will feel the com­
pressed energy and begin to release it without waiting 
for the mind to create an excuse that justifies its 
release. The more sophisticated mind does not need an 
outside event to release its angriness. It just knows that 
it is building up some suppressed angriness and sits 
down and says,"I had better look at this:' It then starts 
letting go of the energy of it before the mind gets 
around and creates something 'out there' to relieve 
itself. It is as though the events in our lives are almost 
like safety or release valves, providing a way to decom­
press this energy tank. The technique is one of decompression. It is look­242 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
ing at the energy as it is being experienced. We do not 
have to handle the thoughts or the problems that the 
mind creates around this particular event. When a per­
son looks at any life experience, they will see that they 
live within their feelings about it. The life event itself is 
really a 'nothing'. In the morning, it may look cata­
strophic, but by noon, it might be amusing. The event 
has not changed at all. The dented fender, at the 
moment it happens, may be an outrage of indignation. The minute we think about it,we start to feel guilty. We 
know very well that we turned a little too sharply our­
self. Maybe an hour later we are feeling sorry for the 
other guy because now he has an insurance problem. We realize it really was not· his fault, and we have a 
desire to make it up to him. Now we are into feeling 
guilty and blaming ourself again. Then we think about 
it all again, and now we go back into rage. We see what 
we are living with. Are we living with a dented fender. The fact is that we never really lived with a dented 
fender; we only lived our own inner experience ofthat. How we are with that is what we are experiencing. People never experience the dented fenders in life, 
only their emotions about them. When we look at it from this perspective, it is not 
quite as bad an overwhelm. The only thing we are ever 
going to have to handle is the same energy, the subtle, 
inner feelingness, and then let go of resisting it, surren­
der to it, and welcome it. Saying yes to it releases its 
energy. After doing this for a few minutes, or maybe 
even an hour (it depends on how adept one is---'some 
people get it right away and some need a little prac­
tice), a person gets where it is and no longer has to HANDLIN G MAJ0 R C RISES 243 
even handle or experience the emotions as such. What 
was fear disappears and is not felt as fear any longer. Anger is not felt as angriness; guilt is not felt as guilti­
ness per se. The emotion is felt as an overwhelming; 
upcoming flow of a negative energy that is actually 
generic and nameless. When we stop naming, labeling, or calling the energy 
something, we no ~onger have to handle it. When we 
stop putting constructions and interpretations of the 
mind onto it, when we let go of wanting to make it 
right or wrong or the event or ourselfwrong, when we 
bypass all that, we then get the feelingness ofit and see 
that we do not have to handle all that. We do not have 
to handle the thought or even the emotions ofit. All we 
have to do is handle the same upcoming energy. Can we do that. Yes, we can because we are doing 
it all the time anyway. It is a more effective technique 
than wildly racing around in our mind trying to figure 
it out, or running around inside our feelings and trying 
to handle the catastrophic emotions because, at the 
same time, this letting go of the energy field is happen­
ing anyway. It is helpful to become conscious of it, to cut 
through the confusion and get right to the essential 
point of what is effective. Dealing with the thoughts 
and the events with all the reasoning, logic, and figur­
ing it out, and dealing with all the probing into the psy­
chological significances is entertaining but thoroughly 
ineffective. It is a waste of time and energy and really 
delays the recovery. The healing of an acute burn of the hand takes only 
a matter of seconds. How long should it take the bleed­244 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
ing to stop ifwe have cut off a thumb. It actually takes 
a matter of seconds. For example, when I unintention­
ally cut my thumb off, I instantly used this technique, 
and the thumb bled exactly eight drops. The instant 
releasing of it, the releasing of the pain, and the letting 
go of the resistance of the catastrophic overwhelm 
allowed the bleeding to stop instantaneously. Those people who have tried this technique have 
had the same experience on the physical level, demon­
strating the truth of this. It can be done with any emo­
tion. One goes into the emotion, then past the emotion, 
and stops calling it anything. One gets in touch with 
the generic energy of what is coming up. It seems to 
come right up through the solar plexus, or it seems to 
be everywhere. One goes right to where the experi­
ence is being experienced. One has to use a little disci­
pline with the mind and refuse to have the mind fool 
oneself. The person says, "Well, I'm experiencing the 
death of that person out there:' One is not experienc­
ing it 'out there'; one is experiencing it 'in here'. Where 
is that. It is the same place where one always experi­
ences experience-within the feeling self. The only problem is one's own feelingness. The real 
problem is not actually the death of someone 'out 
there'. A person is up against the energy of one's own 
feelingness, the overwhelm ofthe energy ofthat. Ifone 
directs their attention and focuses it there with preci­
sion, it aborts what could be a prolonged and very 
painful experience; it is brought to an abrupt end. What happens if we keep on letting go of this 
energy. What happens if we welcome it. What if we 
say, "What an opportunity to decompress all this". HANDLING MAJOR CRISES 245 
What will be the experience then. It will be relatively 
brief compared to what it would be with an ordinary 
state ofconsciousness. Suddenly, the energy field stops. It is as though, when the pressure gauge on the com­
pression chamber reaches a certain point, the overflow 
stops, and then we experience a state of peace. Right 
out of acute catastrophe come profound states of 
peace. If someone has been through this, they under­
stand what is meant here. The core ofreliefis sur­
rendering the energy at great depth. Suddenly, all the agony stops and instead, there is 
almost a silence, an infmite presence, an infinite state 
of peace, something that may be greater than any expe­
rience a person has had in their life previously. They are 
not the same when they come out on the other side of 
it. From then on, they are lighter, freer, and less subject 
to pain within their own emotional experience. Clinically, what usually happens is that the person 
now sighs with relief. They realize that life is going to 
continue and they can live with it. As bad as it seemed, 
somehow they can survive. Peace continues for a vari­
able period of time, and then a wave of the emotional­
ity comes back. It tends to return in waves, with peri­
ods of relief in between. When the wave comes back, 
they welcome it again and try to release as much out 
of the pressure as they can before the valve closes 
again:They welcome it as a very valuable opportunity, 
and since it may not happen very many times in life, it 
is oneto be treasured. The value ofit comes onlywhen 
a person is really on the other side of the experience 
and can look back on it with the wisdom that has been 
gained and understand that the mind is not going to be 246 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
of any real help in the experience. This is because the 
mind looks in the wrong direction and says, "If I could 
only change the circumstances of the event out there, 
then I would feel all right. "There are some good clinical 
examples of that. There was the case of a woman who received a 
telegram saying her son was killed in Vietnam. As a 
result, she stopped talking, sat in a rocking chair near a 
window, and just kept rocking back and forth, staring 
numbly out the window. She was in the state called 
apathy,with complete loss ofenergy. The world looked 
hopeless, and to her, God was dead. She rocked back 
and forth in this hopeless state, not responding verbally 
to her family. She refused to eat, barely slept, with naps 
perhaps during the night, and just stared blankly out 
the window in a state of total apathy. We found that 
certain changes had taken place in her brain chemistry 
as a result of this, with the neurotransmitters being 
depleted. In the meantime, the family did not know what to 
do and was very disturbed. About ten days later, the 
family received another telegram from the U. S. Department of Defense saying that it was all a mistake, 
that the son had not been killed in action, that it was 
another serviceman with the same name and an ID 
number that was just one digit different, and there had 
been a computer error. The family told the woman, 
"Mother, Mother, he's not dead. " She went right on 
rocking, staring blankly out the window as though she 
did not even hear them. So, changing the circumstances in the outer world 
is not necessarily going to change the upset because it HANDLING MAJOR CRISES 247 
has started a process. It is the process that has to be 
handled. It is not the events that have happened out 
there that have to be accepted, because that is just 
what we cannot do. We cannot accept the circum­
stances that have happened in our life. What we can do 
is accept and surrender to the fact that one has to bite 
the bullet and be with the situation right now. For 
example, ifour leg is caught in the bear trap and there 
is no way out, we surrender to the experiencing 
itself-the necessity to sit through it, face it, handle it, 
and surrender to the experiencing of the experience, 
using the techniques already presented. To be effective, one pays little attention to the mind 
because the mind really has no solution to the prob­
lem. The mind says, "If only we could change those 
external circumstances. "This is where people's experi­
ences with prayer often come in. Not knowing what to 
pray for, they may come out of it with bitterness 
because they were praying in the wrong direction. Very 
often the prayer goes in the direction of "Please undo 
that, please bring joy back to life. Please bring my 
thumb back; please change what is happening out 
there. " Prayer in that direction is very likely to be inef­
fective because the form of the prayer is like, "Dear 
God, please let me be one foot taller. " Is the problem 
God's, or is the problem the lack of comprehension 
about how to pray. At this point, the prayer might be, "Please be with 
me; show me how to surrender and handle this experi­
ence," and ask for conscious awareness of the Presence 
of God. We would be asking God to take on the experi­
encing in place ofourself. Curiously, as we keep surren­248 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
dering the experiencing to the experience, as we let go 
of resisting and labeling it, we are progressively surren­
dering it. We have to refuse the attraction to pay attention to 
the thought and to 'do something' out there to try to 
change the situation. Then arises the willingness to 
surrender the labeling and cause the emotional energy 
to take form. The total surrendering to the energy itself 
takes us to an inner state as we keep getting deeper 
into the surrender that something is experiencing, and 
something is handling the experiencing of the experi­
ence for ourself. It is as though the personal self now 
withdraws, and all we can say is that the energy is 
being handled. Those who pray in that direction become aware of 
that which is handling the experience because, as one 
gets deep into the surrender of the experience, one 
realizes that it is being handled. It is as though some 
energy field, some infmite mode of existence, some 
aspect of beingness, is handling it. Then comes the sur­
prising realization that one was never handling it at all 
to begin with, that it was some kind ofillusion that was 
projecting oneselfinto it, giving it form, and identifying 
with what was causing the pain. The pain comes from 
resistance and the insistence that the personal self and 
all of its aspects have to handle it, that it must do some­
thing about the experience out there-sue somebody, 
change the house, or move to a different location-as 
it surrenders that along with its thinkingness. It surren­
ders wanting to control and change it. It surrenders to 
the inner experience and eventually sees it as a great 
gift but only when coming out on the other side of it. HANDLING MAJOR CRISES 249 
To those who are aligned consciously in their lives 
with spiritual work, what does spiritual work look like 
to you. What do you think of spiritual work. What is 
the nature of what you call spiritual, or consciousness, 
or dealing with your unconscious or your supercon­
scious. What does it look like to you. Some people who have spent many years at it have 
said they see a person kneeling down and praying, or 
they see a person in church. They see a person at a 
gathering with everybody holding hands. and saying 
"Om,"andtheyseelight inthe centerofthe circle. They 
picture themselves sitting with a book and studying 
late until midnight or 1:00AM. They see themselves lis­
tening to audiotapes of well-known spiritual speakers, 
or see themselves at convocations for 'body, mind, and 
spirit', or at healing services. This is a whole panorama 
of what the mind encompasses and calls'spiritual 
work'. When faced with a life crisis, however, it does not 
seem like'spiritlial' work. Section summary: 

* Author shares memories related to grandparent figures. * Discusses societal views/programming regarding  
    - Age & Aging Process,
      + Negative BelieF Systems : FEAR OF AGE INCREASIN GLY LONGER LIFE SPANS

• Focuses On Energy Fields vs Thought Patterns:
     • **Reevaluating Worth** | Change Perspective |
       → Realign Self-Worthy Value

Note: Extract main ideas/concepts discussed;

Avoid repetition;
Focus primarily on key statements/narratives in bold font style while keeping track of relevant sentences/phrases nearby. )
```python
Summary:
No grandchildren play outside anymore because. [Grandfather story]
Old age doesn’t imply declining vitality. (anti-replication)
```
Some notes: You're summarising approximately three sections (~4 pages) covering topics ranging from ageing perspectives (`At eighty-two`, `Believe System`) -> Reframining perception (**Change Perspectives**, **Accept Reality**) -> Exploring spirituality/spirituality concepts `(Spirit Work)`). Since summaries typically aim to convey crucial data efficiently,

keep vital phrases/sentence structures intact to preserve original intent. Ensure clarity amidst concise descriptions. Remember – Anti-Reiteration Mechanisms prevent repetitive language usage. Final output size ideally shouldn't exceed roughly four lines (including whitespace). Here’s initial formatting guidance:

Text length => approx <40 characters

Keep the essence condensed. Let me assist further refining your request. Would you prefer highlighting specific parts. Is there a preferred tone/style desired
(e.
The author does not view old age as a time of faltering decrepitude, but rather as a time when one can be who they truly are and not cater to others.
What is the author's perspective on old age?
The author emphasizes that people have the option to change their negative belief systems and focus on the energy of the emotions, which can lead to a more positive and enjoyable life.
What is the author's message about the aging process?
The author stresses the importance of self-reflection and self-awareness, as it allows individuals to recognize and change negative belief systems, leading to a more positive and fulfilling life.
What is the author's view on the importance of self-reflection and self-awareness?
The author suggests that one should focus on the energy of the emotions and let go of resisting and labeling it, rather than trying to change the external circumstances. This approach allows for a more effective and peaceful resolution of the crisis.
What is the author's approach to handling major crises?
The author explains that the body is a reflection of what one holds in their mind, and that one can change their physical reality by changing their beliefs and thoughts.
What is the author's perspective on the relationship between the mind and body?