In going through Neutral and Willingness to the 
level ofAcceptance, we notice a release from suffering, 
and what does that mean? When we are resisting and 
trying to get away from it, we are at a lower energy 
field and see the process as one ofentrapment. As long 
as we resist the suffering and pain, as long as we are 
angry, grit our teeth, struggle against it, and try to force 
our will, we become further enmeshed in it. It's like a 
quagmire-the more we struggle, the more entrapped 
we become. To move up to the higher energy field of 
freedom means to be released from the entrapment 
and become empowered. The courage to face the issue 
and do something about it brings empowerment. 328 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
Willingness moves us up to a transformation of 
consciousness and into the willingness to be forgiving, 
loving, and compassionate. We can transcend this and 
literally move beyond identification with the body and 
what has happened to it into a conscious awareness 
that we are something other than the body. In another chapter, we will talk about letting go of 
resistance so completely that there is very little aware­
ness of the body even being present.This also happens 
with pain in which the thought, memory, and aware­
ness that there is some pain only happens for a few 
fleeting seconds during the day. I have used the thumb 
only as an example of the realness of what I am pre­
senting. The pain came to me for only a few seconds 
throughout the day when it was still present. After 
about an hour, I suddenly noticed the thumb and said, 
"Oh, it's like I'm not even aware of its presence. "That 
occurred maybe a few other times during the day. In a 
twenty-four-hour period, the total amount of suffering 
I experienced that the world would call painful 
amounted to maybe five or ten seconds in the morning 
and maybe a few seconds in the afternoon. The totality 
of the suffering that came out of this experience, 
which lasted for only a few months, amounted to prob­
ably less than thirty seconds. It is valuable for all of us 
to do this because through doing it, we realize the 
truth of who we really are. Another assist to healing pain or any other distress 
is to listen to great, beautiful music, which itself releas­
es endorphins in the brain.That beauty provides a heal­
ing effect has been known since the days of 
Hippocrates. CHAPTER 11 
Losing Weight 
Is there a way to let go of weight in a way that is 
practical, easygoing, joyful, and free from any kind 
of suffering? Can this be done? Yes! All it takes is 
about an hour or an hour and a half of our attention 
over a day or two during the time we are doing the 
things we normally do. The benefits are long lasting 
for a lifetime! The reward for a couple of hours of just 
paying attention to a few simple principles is a life­
time of freedom from this challenge. How do I know 
it works? Because it has worked for everyone who 
has tried it. It has worked for my patients and for me. I permanently lost fifty pounds by using this very 
simple technique that emerged out of consciousness 
research. The alleviation of a problem should be simple, 
direct, to the point, long lasting in its effect, and cost 
nothing. Diets usually do not work in the long run. The usual techniques that people try often bring 
about feelings of guilt and recrimination. They may 
work, but only temporarily because they do not really 
modify the way one is with their body since they do 
not change those Pavlovian reflexes that drive one's 
eating despite one's best intentions. It was discovered that a shift in the state of con­
sciousness occurs in the process of eating, and that a 
person can easily overcome it so the weight loss 
becomes permanent. The message is to give up trying 
will power, give up dieting, and give up resisting eat­
ing.Those methods usually do not work; they make us 
miserable, and we frequently end up the same as we 
329 330 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
were anyway. There is a much easier way that is truly 
joyful. Through an understanding of some very simple 
concepts that have been presented previously in rela­
tion to the Map of Consciousness, we are then put in 
a place of being able to handle problems that have 
been baffling and unsuccessful in the past. Through the use of some techniques based upon 
the nature of consciousness itself, we can learn how 
to imagine ourself as slim, energize that image, and 
then let go of it so that it actually materializes. It is 
necessary to learn how to come from the heart 
instead of the head, and to come from love instead of 
the stomach. The head criticizes us because the stom­
ach wants to eat.The only way to handle this problem 
is to come from the heart about the whole situation. We are going to be somewhat lighthearted about this 
subject that many people get quite distressed about. The lightheartedness comes with the eating; the self­
recrimination and guilt appear later.We lie in bed and 
wonder, "Why did I eat all that?" and then begin to 
attack ourself. There is a way beyond all these prob­
lems that will work for all of us. The medical model commonly followed is really 
based on the idea of diet and the assumption that the 
number of calories one eats determines one's weight. There may be some thought about exercise as well. However, the following information is not necessarily 
going to agree with traditional medical thinking. If 
traditional medical thinking and counting calories had 
worked for you, you would not be interested in this 
information. We are going to present things that we 331 LOSING WEIGHT 
have clinically observed as being true experientially. Consciousness work has to do with the truth of 
our inner experience. It does not have anything to do 
with theory, hypotheses, scientific reasoning, or logic. It 
has to do with the experiencing of the truth within us. The first thing to do is to begin to cancel some 
beliefs about diets and food that have contributed to 
our problem. To begin With, we have beliefs and 
thoughts, such as, "Well, being overweight runs in our 
family-it's in the genes." Or, "It's due to my thyroid," 
or, "It's due to the fact that as an infant, I was over­
weight, and that caused too many fat cells. "These are 
all popular medical theories, and if holding those in 
mind works for you, then that is very good. However, 
we have found experientially that this really is not so. As an example, two people can eat an identical diet, 
and one will gain weight and the other will lose it. How can that be explained inasmuch as the activity 
levels and everything else are about the same? This 
brings about the questioning of some of the basic 
medical hypotheses, a few ofwhich are very simple to 
understand. First, why assume that the body fully absorbs all 
the calories it consumes? Why think that the gastroin­
testinal tracts of two different people are exactly the 
same? I may eat a 1,OOO-calorie piece ofpie and absorb 
only 500 calories, with the other 500 running right on 
through. There are other factors, such. as the rate of 
movement in the gastrointestinal tract.We know that 
the faster things move through the tract, the less it 
absorbs.There are factors other than calories to consider, 
and in doing so, we will arrive at a way of handling 332 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
this problem that will not involve counting calories. There are some dietary tricks that are helpful to 
use in the beginning until the results of working on 
ourself have adjusted our appestat, which is located 
in a portion of the brain called the hypothalamus. It 
takes a day or two to reset the appestat, which con­
trols our feeling of satiety. The adjusted appestat will 
control our weight. As we hold a certain weight in 
mind, it begins to materialize on the physical plane. It 
is helpful to understand the power of mind over body 
and that what is held in mind creates the body's being 
what it is, rather than the other way around. It is necessary to reverse the conventional, so­
called 'common sense' of the left-brain logic that says 
it is the body that creates the mind. Instead, we have 
to look at the opposite, which is that what is held in 
mind manifests within the body. Our thoughts and 
beliefs about weight, activity, calories, and all the phec 
nomena surrounding this have been affecting our 
weight. For example, the following· is known from 
cases of patients with multiple personalities. One 
personality appears in the patient and takes over the 
consciousness named Richard, who does not have any 
eating or weight problems at all. In fact, he eats very 
little, is spry and active, and while Richard is in the 
body, the person is loses weight and becomes slim. Then the person goes into a trance state or 
becomes intoxicated, and William comes into the 
body.Williamloves to eat,gorging himselfonallkit;lds 
of things, and the body's weight suddenly increases 
dramatically. Now we can see that the response of the 
body is therefore to the mind-the mindset, the 333 LOSING WEIGHT 
mind's belief and attitude, and the way the person 
holds the relationship to their body in their mind. It is 
the mind that sets the appestat. It is using conscious­
ness techniques within the mind that release the 
weight problems, and one can let go of the weight 
almost automatically. We will review the nature of consciousness itself 
and the relationship between body, mind, and spirit, 
with spirit being the energy field of consciousness 
that is all pervasive throughout life itself. It is impor­
tant to understand that the body has no capacity to 
experience itself. At first this seems amazing because 
most of us, unless we are enlightened, assume that we 
are the physical body. We must realize that the body 
has no way to experience itself.The arm cannot expe­
rience the arm nor can the leg experience the leg. Instead, they have to be experienced in something 
greater than themselves. We experience the body via 
the senses, which tell us what is going on within it.As 
the senses of the body have no capacity to experi­
ence themselves, they have to be experienced in 
something greater than what they are, which is in 
mind itself, so the mind is the place where the sensa­
tions in the body are experienced. Mind itself is incapable of experiencing itself. A 
thought cannot experience its own thoughtness, nor 
can a memory experience its own memoryness.A fan­
tasy of the future cannot experience itself, nor can an 
emotion experience itself. What goes on in the mind 
has to be experienced in something that is greater 
than the mind, that is, in consciousness itself.There is 
the body's experience via sensation. Sensation is 334 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
experienced in the mind, and the mind is experi­
enced in consciousness. This can be seen very easily, 
for example, when something happens to a portion of 
the brain, and the person is unable to experience the 
opposite side of the body. Without mind, the body cannot be experienced. The whole pOint of anesthesia illustrates that without 
consciousness, one is not aware ofwhat is going on in 
mind. If consciousness is deleted via the anesthetic, 
there is no knowledge of the experience that is going 
on in either mind or body, so consciousness is higher 
than both of them.There is a state beyond conscious­
ness itself that is still, unmoving, and allows us to be 
aware ofwhat is going on in consciousness; it is called 
the state of awareness. The state of awareness is an 
aspect of the greater, powerful energy field behind 
consciousness, which is the energy of life itself. This 
is necessary to know in order to become aware of 
where all experience takes place. All human experience is taking place within con­
sciousness itself. Consequently, we cannot experience 
the wall, the floor, or someone else. Instead, what we 
experience is within our own consciousness of the 
wall, the floor, or another person.This gives an under­
standing of an area in which we can work that is less 
restricted by commonly held belief systems. If the entire weight problem is a phenomenon 
occurring within consciousness, then consciousness 
is more powerful than the mind, which is more pow­
erful than the senses, which are more powerful than 
the body; therefore, we can bring about a shift in the 
body by merely addressing that consciousness. Ifwe 335 LOSING WEIGHT 
address the problem there, because the body will only 
do what is held in mind, then we really do not have to 
bother much with the body; it will just automatically 
correct itself because the problem is really a problem 
within the experience within consciousness itself. The techniques we use have to do with the mind 
and consciousness, so we do not have to be very con­
cerned with handling the body as such.The body is an 
effect ofwhat happens in the mind. Consequently, the 
attempts to solve the weight problem, which are 
addressed to the body only, are notoriously unsuccessful. Nearly every month, there are headlines on endless 
magazine covers and in newspapers that are selling a 
new diet. This lets us know that diets do not work. When there are multiple solutions to a problem and 
endless articles on the same phenomenon, it is obvi­
ous they do not have the answer. If there were an 
answer to the weight problem, there would not be 
any articles on diets at all because everyone would 
have handled it. Addressing it on the physical level 
alone just does not work. It also does not work for any 
other problems that involve complicated human 
behavior. Problems such as alcoholism and many illnesses, 
including duodenal ulcers and diverticulitis, are noto­
riously nonresponsive to being addressed on the 
physical level only.We have to become more sophisti­
cated and conscious to bring about a resolution of 
long-standing behavioral problems. The technique, which I used personally to lose 
thirty percent of my body weight (ftfty pounds) some 
years ago, enabled me to reach my desired weight. It 336 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
only takes a matter of minutes over a day or two-col­
lectively, about only sixty to ninety minutes of a per­
son's time and attention. You can actually do this 
while you are going about your daily activities at 
home or in the office, and even while driving back 
and forth to work. Itworks right into your life and eas­
ily fits into your daily routine.You do not have to stop 
your life in order to use this technique. In order for 
something to be effective, it has to fit in with your life 
pattern. We found that any behavioral modification 
technique works if it fits in with a person's daily life. If you have to change your whole lifestyle, the results 
are then usually temporary. With this technique, when the sensation arises 
that you had previously called hunger, you ignore the 
thoughts that go with this, especially canceling that 
thought of hunger. Instead, you go right into the sen­
sation, directly into the inner experience of what you 
are actually experiencing. You go to where you are 
experiencing it without labeling it, naming it, or call­
ing it anything. You just experience it and begin to let 
go of resisting those sensations. You silently go into 
consciousness itself, into the inner experience of 
what you are experiencing, and let go of resisting it. In the beginning we are so controlled by the 
Pavlovian conditioning that the minute we feel the 
sensation, we label it 'hunger'. Our behavior goes into 
immediate action to satisfy it. Like Pavlov's dog that 
salivated every time the bell rang, we have set up a 
conditioned reflex that we now want to unset. How 
can we unset it, how long does this take, and how 
much effort is required? 337 LOSING WEIGHT 
Actually it takes very little effort and very little 
time. When we get this sensation, which was labeled 
as 'hungry' in the past (I'm 'hungry' now), we let go of 
labeling and resisting the sensation itself. We just 
agree and are willing to be with the sensation but to 
do nothing about it.We let the experience run within 
us and are willing to be with that inner experience or 
sensation of whatever it is. Some people may sense it 
in the stomach, and some may sense it as sort of a 
physical weakness. Whatever sensation is felt, we stop 
talking about it in our minds; we stop languaging it 
and giving it a label. Instead, we go into the inner 
experience and let go of resisting it. In letting go of 
the resistance, we can move up to a higher level, ifwe 
are willing to choose it, and say to ourselves, "I want 
more of whatever that is." The reason for that and the way it becomes 
acceptable is because there is a limited amount of the 
sensation that comes up. The mind thinks, "If I don't 
satisfy this, I'm going to have this hungry feeling con­
tinuously:' That is not so because the feeling results 
from resisting it. When we go with it, like in the Tao 
where the willow tree bends with the wind but does not 
break, there is no resistance. Instead of being the oak 
tree that resists the sensation, tries to fight it with will 
power and then breaks, we can be like the willow 
tree, going with the sensation and letting go of resist­
ing it. In fact, we welcome it. It is like we are saying, 
"More. "We want more wind, more of this inner expe­
rience.As we call forth more of this, sit with the inner 
feeling, and just be with it, it will run out. It is a good idea to start this process on a weekend 338 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
when at home and we can stop everything and just 
sit, or better, lie down and focus on it. Ifwe do not let 
anything distract us from being with the sensation, it 
will suddenly disappear in a matter of minutes. After 
it disappears, we can go about our business. After we 
become used to this technique, we do not have to 
stop any activities at all. When the experience comes 
up, we just sit or lie down, concentrate on it, and fix 
attention on welcoming it. It is like we are opening 
the barn door and allowing the sensation to come in 
willingly, being with it but not doing anything about it. We want to break the cycle of labeling the sensa­
tion as 'hunger' when it appears and then satisfying it 
with food. Doing that just reinforces the cycle, making 
ourself the victim and at the effect of that behavior 
pattern. Instead of that, the self stands aside from this 
sensation and begins to master it so that we are no 
longer at the effect of it; we becomes the master. .In Zen, there is the famous series of ox-herding 
pictures. The ftrst picture shows a monk hanging onto 
a rope that is attached to the ox, and the ox is drag­
ging him across the ground. The monk's knees are 
bruised, his ears are bleeding, and he is a mess. In the 
next picture, the monk has the ox tied to a tree with 
the rope. The monk has caught the ox and identifted 
the problem. In the third picture, the monk is riding 
on top of the ox. He has become the master. He is no 
longer the victim at the effect of it. HoW did he do 
that? That is what this process is all about. We are 
going to tether this ox right now by identifying the 
pattern that has to be handled, and then we are going 
to be on top of it.The person that we are now stands 339 LOSING WEIGHT 
independently above and beyond and becomes the 
master of this very simple thing to solve. It is merely 
the willingness to experience what, in the beginning, 
may seem like some discomfort, or, in other words, to 
experience this sensation without satiating it right 
away.As we do this, the reflex weakens. But what do we do about our eating during the 
day? We do what is called 'anticipatory eating'. It 
means to never eat when we are hungry.The first two 
days, and probably for the ftrst week or two, we never 
allow ourself to eat when we are hungry. Instead, we 
let go of the hungriness by using this radical-truth 
technique and anticipating the periods of hunger. We 
know our own hunger patterns, so instead of waiting 
until we are hungry and then eating, thus reinforcing 
the pattern, we anticipate the hunger periods. We 
know that habitually we will be hungry around six 
o'clock, so instead of waiting until we are hungry and 
satisfying it, thereby reinforcing our conditioning, we 
anticipate it.At 4:45 PM, when we are not even hungry 
yet, we have a cheese sandwich. The technique is simple-eat when we are not 
hungry and do not eat when we are, thus substituting 
this technique for the hunger pattern. How long will 
it take before we disappear hunger, and what is going 
to happen? We .will no longer experience hunger or 
appetite; they just seem to disappear. By the second 
day, we will notice that the pattern is already so weak 
that we will barely notice it. How many minutes a day 
will this take? It may take a total of thirty minutes on 
the ftrst day. You will notice that if you do nothing 
about the hunger sensation and really let go of resist­340 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
ing it, it will disappear in a matter of minutes. After 
doing this a number of times, the sensation will disap­
pear in a matter of seconds. We will know that if we 
sit down and let go of resisting the sensation, it is over 
in seconds, and we are no longer at the effect of the 
appetite. We are no longer driven by it and can be 
absolutely free of it. In place of this pattern, we may feel a sort of 
blankness or emptiness. Where there once was 
hunger and the drive to eat, along with an appetite, 
enthusiasm about it, and then the satiation, it now 
seems like nothing is going on in that space in our 
life. Now we can do some other pleasurable activity, 
such as rewarding ourself by taking the time to read 
the book we have been wanting to read and never 
had the time. Now that we are not out in the kitchen 
eating all the time, there is time to read for enjoyment 
instead of feeling guilty because we have more impor­
tant things to do.We can discover something we really 
enjoy doing. One thing to do, for instance, is to take a nap. All 
the time spent shopping for food, preparing it, eating 
it, and cleaning up afterward can take up a great part 
of the day.With this new pattern, it gives us time for a 
short nap. After a twenty-minute nap, we feel fantas­
tic. After a twenty-minute hunger engorgement, we 
usually do not feel fantastic; instead, we feel horrible. We just had four Milky Ways, a caramel sundae, and 
finished off a piece of cheese and now, instead of feel­
ing happy, we feel guilty. The way off the guilt trip is to really know that 
there is a very simple technique. It sounds so simple, 341 LOSING WEIGHT 
but that is why it works.The things that are extraordi­
narily complicated are generally far from the truth. The truth is usually amazingly simple. As people at 
Alcoholics Anonymous have discovered, they stay 
away from one drink one day at a time. It sounds too 
simple.The intellect says,"Nonsense! I know that. "The 
intellect knows this but the self does not know that. We only know a thing from personal validation 
through our own inner experience. It usually takes exactly one day to get off eating, 
hunger, and appetite if we allow ourself to be repro­
grammed. We will notice that as time goes on, weare 
beginning to look forward to meals and starting to get 
into the habit pattern of getting hungry and satisfying 
the feeling. It is very simple to back off and just 
release ourself by using this technique a few times.AlI 
we have to do is allow that feeling of hungriness to 
come up, be with it, welcome it, and wait till it runs 
out, which handles it (usually five minutes or less).We 
might have to do it again if we have really gotten into 
holiday indulgence for a number of years. There is another thing that happens as we do this. There is a center in the hypothalamus at the base of 
the brain called the 'appestat'. It sets our degree of 
satiety and the amount of satiety that we search for. The less we eat, the more we turn down the setting 
on the appestat. Satiety is something else that is not 
really understood by traditional scientific medicine. Scientific medicine talks about calories as though one 
calorie were the same as any other calorie. However, 
we know that satiety plays a great role in our hunger 
and weight problems. Satiety is more important than 342 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
calories; therefore, the diet I follow would make most 
people who follow diets faint. However, I know what 
creates a feeling of satiety within myself, such as a 
hamburger smothered in onions. By the time I finish 
that, I am totally filled up, satisfied with meat, cheese, 
and similar foods. Cheese is not on anybody's reduc­
ing diet. We know that cheese has a satiety factor, so 
once one has eaten a certain amount of it, the 
appetite is satisfied. We also know that calories are released at differ­
ent rates. Fats, for instance, are released at one rate 
and protein at another.We know that it takes a certain 
number of calories to burn up every gram of protein, 
so .one of the tricks we can use to speed up the 
process of weight reduction is to go for a high-protein 
diet. This is not about diet, but I will just throw in a 
few tricks that I have observed clinically. Eating sugar on an empty stomach is seriously 
deleterious to the goals of the program. Why? The 
body takes sugar in so fast that it is absorbed very rap­
idly and cannot be metabolized quickly so it just has 
to be stored as fat within the body. One thing to do for 
our own sake as part of caring and loving ourselves is 
to avoid sugar and sweets when introducing this pro­
gram into our lives. In the beginning, we want to see 
a fast result. I believe we should have the satisfaction 
of doing this now and seeing some returns and 
rewards, including seeing the image that we have 
been holding of ourself coming into manifestation. It is. best to avoid things that have a high sugar 
content, especially on an empty stomach, because 
sugar stimulates the production of insulin, which 343 LOSING WEIGHT 
then brings the blood sugar down rapidly, thus recre­
ating the hunger sensation. In contrast, one-third of 
the calories of protein are burned up just by the 
process of metabolizing protein. Therefore, one hun­
dred calories of sugar equal one hundred calories of 
fat, whereas one hundred calories of excess protein 
converts t<,> only sixty-six calories' worth offat.A high­
protein diet results in a thirty-three percent discount 
(not recommended for people with gout). Notice that 
carnivores are slim. But what about vegetarians? They 
can also avoid sugar and starch and yet stick to a high­
protein diet. The technique is to let go of resisting and to dis­
appear hunger and appetite. We then live in a world 
where we are no longer in the cycle. We get used to 
an eating cycle of overeating, feeling guilty about the 
overeating, and then trying to control it. Then up 
comes hunger, and with the hunger come guilt, then 
appetite, then the expectation of satiation, followed 
by overindulgence, and guilt again, so there is an end­
less self-defeating cycle. The only way to beat it is to 
rise above it, transcend it, and be beyond it. By disap­
pearing it, one will find that appetite and hunger actu­
ally disappear, and there is the experience of never 
being hungry. The next thing the mind says is, "I don't want to 
give up the pleasure of eating." Quite the contrary. What happens to the enjoyment of eating once we 
use this technique is that the appetite arises only out 
of the act of eating itself rather than anticipatory 
appetite. I can sit down with no hunger or appetite at 
all, but the minute I begin to eat, it creates appetite, 344 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
and the pleasure of eating is greater than it ever was. I enjoy food now more than I ever did. Eating is no 
longer accompanied by guilt or self-blame.There is no 
anxiety about eating too many calories or gaining 
weight from eating.AlI that is gone, so we do not give 
up the pleasure of eating at all.We fmd that when we 
are not hungry, the food is considerably more enjoy­
able. We start enjoying the cheese sandwich the 
minute we take that first bite.We are not even hungry. We pick up the cheese sandwich, bite into it, and the 
enjoyment is there.There is no loss of enjoyment. I do 
not believe in letting go of enjoyment and pleasure; 
on the contrary, I believe in increasing it. So now 
there is the enjoyment and pleasure of eating as well 
as the enjoyment, pleasure, and justified pride in hav­
ing a body that is more appropriate to our aesthetic 
ambition-how we would like to look. The first thing to handle is the cycle of eating and 
getting hungry. We are the victims of a behavioral 
pattern, a conditioning that has nothing to do with 
will power or morality. We can condition any kind of 
animal in this way. What has happened is a sort of 
Pavlovian-dog conditioning that has nothing to do 
with our personality or self-worth. It has nothing to 
do with being self-indulgent, with oral narcissistic 
needs, or with whatever the psychoanalytic theory 
might be, such as oral aggression or oral passivity. It 
merely has to do with a simple, very primary type of 
conditioning that has been favored in our society. We picked up those patterns in our social condi­
tioning as children, that is all.We will discuss the part 
that the child plays in this and arrive at a different 345 LOSING WEIGHT 
way of looking at the whole eating pattern.The mind 
experiences the body, and consciousness experiences 
mind; therefore, we really experience within in our 
consciousness what we formally called 'hunger'. Where is that localized? You will notice that it is only 
a belief system that is experienced in the stomach. It 
is actually experienced in a generalized way, sort of 
everywhere. The thought that it is in the stomach is 
just a belief system from childhood. As mentioned 
previously, the body cannot experience anything. What is happening is experienced in a more diffuse, 
generalized area. Another technique of letting go of suffering at any 
time from pain, illness, or physical symptoms, such as 
hunger, is knowing that it is nothing but a physical 
symptom. You will notice that it is experienced in a 
general, diffuse manner, sort of everywhere, because 
that is where we experience all experience rather 
than in a localized situation. The localization comes 
from a strong belief system. We all have these 
thoughts from childhood. As we let go of resisting the 
energy of this sensation, it becomes diffuse and finally 
disappears. On the Map of Consciousness, we see the lower 
feelings at the bottom, and when we move up to 
Desire, which has been running the appetite-hunger­
satiation cycle, we notice that it has an energy field 
that calibrates at 125 and is in a negative direction. In 
other words, it has a deleterious effect on our lives. The emotions that go with this energy field are want­
ing, craving, and all the addictions. Therefore, calling a 
weight problem a food addiction is partially correct 346 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
in that the characteristics of the negative energy field 
at 125 are feelings of wantingness, desiringness, and 
cravingness, and the processing occurring in con­
sciousness is entrapment. The person therefore feels 
like a victim, and due to the downward direction of 
the energy field, there are negative feelings about the 
self having to do with the whole cycle. As we let go of resisting it and go beyond it, we 
start moving up the scale to the level of Courage in 
order to handle the problem of pride in our willing­
ness to look at it. When we move upward and get off 
this cycle at level 250, we become detached. At that 
point, the process going on in consciousness is one of 
being released. Because the energy field now goes 
upward, we have a good, positive feeling, one that is 
constructive and makes us feel better. It has a lot of 
power in it. How do we experience that detachment? It is the 
experience similar to ifwe eat, it is okay, and ifwe do 
not, that is okay, too. People ask, "Do you want to eat 
something now?" I say, "Well, ifiYOU are going to fix 
something, fme." Then they will ask, "What do you 
want to eat? Do you want to eat fish, or macaroni, or 
baked beans?" I'll say, "Well, either way." When one 
reaches this level of handling appetite and hunger, 
one is no longer really fixed on one particular food or 
another. One could say, "If we have a steak tonight, 
that's fme, and if we don't, that's fme." So it is okay 
either way.This means that one is free. One characteristic of this attitude is freedom. Freedom from what?There is freedom from being run 
by a program or a conditioning, and freedom from 347 LOSING WEIGHT 
being a victim ofthe cycle.There is freedom from the 
entrapment that made us feel bad about ourselves.As 
we get detached from these sensations, we begin to 
feel good about ourselves. In fact, our willingness to 
do-that goes up to level 310, which has an even better 
feeling about it.We begin to accept that this is nothing 
other than a phenomenon, just a set of vibrations 
going on within consciousness. It does not have to do 
with food or the body. Those are all programs. In 
essence, physics explains it as just a set of vibrations 
going on in the field of consciousness that are within 
our power to alter. Once we do that, we can really 
begin to love ourselves more than we did before. There is another very interesting aspect going on 
in consciousness that will also be very helpful. It is 
something you can observe within yourself, and 
something I picked up within myself and saw hap­
pening. The cycle in the past was to be run by the 
hunger, appetite, satiation, and then guilt.AlI the good 
intentions I had about dieting and taking off weight 
suddenly flew out the window and disappeared 
somewhere.After ftiling myself up with far more than 
I knew I needed, suddenly there was a feeling of self­
disgust and guilt. People with severe eating problems 
often experience that. They go into the bathroom, 
throw all the food back up, and then go into self­
hatred, blame, guilt, and even suicidal depression, 
which can become very severe. What really happens 
in this type of situation? I observed that when a per­
son sits down to eat, it is only the adult within who 
wants to take off the weight, and it is really the 'inner 
child' who is always hungry. 348 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
In the past, Dr. Eric Berne, author of Games People 
Play and creator ofTransactional Analysis, along with 
other people in that field, talked about our 'child', 
'adult', and 'parent' tapes that are like three voices 
within us. One is the desirous child; one is the adult 
who is rational, intelligent, and educated; and one is 
the parent who tends to be punitive and moralistic. The parent tape is the one that tells us about right 
and wrong.When we sit down at the table or walk to 
the refrigerator, the adult within goes unconscious 
and the child takes over. What does a child know about diet, weight, and 
calories? Nothing. Theconsciousness ofthechildis,"I 
want, I satisfy, and I get," so we go to the refrigerator 
without realizing we are in a different state of con­
sciousness, one in which the child is dominant. So 
who is poking around in the refrigerator? The child is. Who is ordering a second hot fudge sundae or having 
a second helping of potatoes and gravy? The child. After we indulge the child without realizing what is 
going on, when the meal is over, the child leaves. It 
has had its fill, and then who takes its place? The par­
ent does who then says,"How could you have been so 
stupid? Why did you have seconds? So did you have a 
piece ofpie? Why did you put ice cream on top of the 
pie? I mean, think of the calories.You are really stupid 
and weak; you don't have any will power.You are no 
good; your self-worth is rotten." At this point, we are subjected to the inner angry 
parent who is blaming us. Blaming whom? Blaming 
the inner child.Where has the adult been all this time? It has been silenced. The adult was notthere at meal­349 LOSING WEIGHT 
time or after mealtime. The child and the parent have 
taken over the whole eating program, which is natural 
because that is where the eating patterns get set up in 
the first place.They get set up with the child, and who 
is sitting next to the child but the parent? So the child 
alternates with the parent in running the whole eating 
pattern. In order to counteract this, we have to be aware 
that the pattern is running. Just to be aware ofit begins 
to change it. Now we can make a note to ourself, put 
it on the table or the refrigerator, and consciously call 
forth our adult and tell the child,"This is the place for 
an adult now because my adult is very conscious ofits 
eating." My adult knows about calories, diets, and 
healthy eating patterns. I consciously call forth my 
adult to be here at this meal. I say, "The adult me is 
here now" and consciously reject the presence of the 
child. Because the overindulgence does not happen, 
when the meal is fmished, my adult stays there. No 
parent comes in to blame me for what has been done. It does not take self-control or resisting anything; 
it just takes being aware. When we sit down, we say 
hello to our adult and be conscious. Just as we sit 
down at the dinner table, we watch the kid come up 
in us. I have watched myself do this. "Oh, look at who 
is there at the table. Oh, wow! Look at the pile of 
mashed potatoes! Look at the gravy!" Just watch peo­
ples' faces when they sit down at the table and we see 
who is 'up' in them. We see the eyes pop open and 
watch the pupils of the eyes get very large. If that is 
not a five-year-old kid, then I never saw one. We may see a serious-looking businessman walk 350 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
into a restaurant with his briefcase. He goes through 
the cafeteria line and then sits down. Now, watch his 
face as he puts his napkin in front of him. He picks up 
his napkin-somebody else is already there! There is 
the kid all ready to have a good time! Of course, after 
the man gets up to leave, now we instantly see, "Oh, I 
ate too much." Now who is there? Look at the frown 
as the man is berating himself as he walks out of the 
restaurant. In his mind, he is counting all the calories. He just ate 3,850 calories for dinner, and his doctor 
told him he is supposed to have only 900 calories a 
day. He figures he cannot eat until next Tuesday now 
and wonders how is he going to survive. We can break out of this self-defeating pattern just 
by being aware. Make a little sign for the refrigerator 
doorthat says,"Adults Only. "Be conscious; be aware of 
who is there.We will fmd that the adult enjoys the eat­
ing very much, too, but just does not go crazy so easily. It is important to avoid a fluctuating blood sugar 
level as much as possible when first initiating this 
program because, in the unconscious mind, a drop in 
blood sugar is often associated with hunger and hun­
gry feelings. For example, ifwe eat a hot fudge sundae 
on an empty stomach, the blood sugar shoots up, 
adrenaline and insulin pour out, and the blood sugar 
tends to drop rapidly. Behaviorally, in the past, this has 
been associated with feeling hungry, but we are not 
actually hungry. The stomach is still full. We have 
more calories in us than we need, but it is the rapid­
ity and the degree of the drop in this blood sugar 
from where it was previously that triggers the sensa­
tion of hunger again. 351 LOSING WEIGHT 
It is much easier when initiating this program to 
stay on a high-protein diet as much as possible 
because then the blood sugar tends to stay relatively 
level.We avoid those sudden drops that give the feel­
ing that we want to eat something right away, there­
fore making it a little easier on ourself.The point is to 
avoid suffering in all its forms. We do not want to 
experience suffering in any kind of program because, 
otherwise, it is not going to work. Counting calories 
and depriVing ourselfis setting up a form of suffering. What happens then is unconscious-we get satisfied 
'and the over-indulgence sets up guilt. Then we diet, 
which is sort of self-punitive, by going on bread and 
water like a prisoner for a certain period oftime.After 
we have punished ourself sufficiently for all the 
overindulgence in the past, the guilt disappears and 
the old habitual eating pattern returns. We want to 
eliminate the imbalance of extremes of overindul­
gence, feeling guilty, going into a self-punitive bread­
and-water diet-first swinging to the overeating and 
overindulgence, and then swinging into the guilt and 
self-punitive deprivation. Deprivation is not the way to happiness, nor is 
overindulgence. It is preferable to use consciousness 
techniques to transcend them and be in the middle of 
the two so that we are over and above the problem, 
with the adult there to take over. This makes it easy 
and enjoyable. It is really delightful to realize that we 
have just handled and transcended something in just 
a matter of minutes that has plagued us our whole 
lifetime. The first day I tried thiS, I think I spent about forty­352 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
five minutes sitting down and handling those sensa­
tions; the second day, maybe twenty minutes; the third 
day, maybe ten minutes; and the fourth day, maybe 
four minutes. Since that time, I do not think I have col­
lectively spent an hour using the technique over 
many years. One can start a stopwatch, sit down, use 
this technique, and hit the stopwatch again when the 
hunger feeling is gone. One probably would not col­
lect more than an hour over a ten-year period of time, 
so there certainly is not much effort needed or suffer­
ing to be experienced. No will power is involved; willingness is being 
used instead because it is a positive, powerful energy 
at level 310. Using will power means resistance, 
which is a negative energy field with a weak power of 
only 125. Instead, we use willingness and acceptance, 
which lead to happiness that calibrates closer to 500. We end up being joyful and feeling great about our­
selves. The body becomes pleasing, and we begin to 
experience it in a happy way. Another way to increase the rapidity of the effect 
of this is by watching our activities. Exercise is great, 
but how many mornings are we going to get up and 
do calisthenics? No matter how attractive the person 
is on television, we are just going to do this a certain 
number of times, and by the fourth day, the enthusi­
asm wears off; before we know it, we are back into 
the same old pattern. Exercise is wonderful. It is good 
for that sense of well-being, but weight-reduction 
folks know the truth of that one. They have a dozen 
exercise machines in the garage. In contrast, the relatively effortless system just 353 LOSING WEIGHT ~----
described actually works so well that you may end up 
having a problem with being too thin. That is what 
happened with me. The technique just worked so 
well that pretty soon the appetite and hunger disap­
peared, along with all the cycles of eating, indulgence, 
and feeling guilty. I noticed I forgot to eat breakfast 
and lunch. I got busy with the activities of the day and 
totally forgot eating. Once in a while it comes to us in the beginning, 
because it is a habit, that it is mealtime. Then we just 
sit down and let go of resisting that just as we do the 
sensation, and we will notice that the ideas that "I 
must eat breakfast," "I must eat lunch;' or, "I must eat 
dinner" are cultural conditions. They do not have any 
reality to them. It is just as easy to not eat all day. (I 
have actually gone days without eating and did not 
even notice it. One time I went from Monday to 
Thursday. I was so busy with activities, and on 
Thursday, I suddenly realized, "I don't think I have 
eaten for the last couple of days:' Sure enough, I had 
not.Then the family began to complain that I was too 
thin, so then I had to consciously be aware that it was 
necessary to eat. I had to reprogram myself a little bit 
to go back into eating.The technique works extremely 
well and brings a great deal of happiness. Another consciousness technique, which has a 
general application, can be used as well. (All the tech­
niques we have discussed have many applications.) You picture the kind of body you want to have and 
the feeling you want to have about having this kind of 
body.Then remember sometime in your life when you 
were feeling joyful and pleased with yourself. Next, 354 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
picture the body the way you want it to be and 
reawaken that emotion of joy. For example, if you 
want to be slim, picture yourself as slim and begin to 
love that picture of yourself, Love that picture of the 
body and then let it go, knowing that you have set up 
a program. You have set up what is going to happen 
in the future because the mind begins to move in that 
direction automatically. Just love that picture of your­
self. lf you like, you can put the number of pounds 
under it and picture how you want to look, and say, 
"You know, it's fantastic to be slim and active and feel 
good about the body. I love myself for that." Research 
studies confIrm that imaging techniques are effective. We want to stop identifying with the body.We are 
not the body. We have a body, so how we view our 
relationship with the body is important. We are that 
which has a body, just like we are that which has a car 
or a house to live in. The body becomes like those 
things, like a pet, which is a great way to look at it. "See, this is my little pet, this is my bicycle, this is my 
car, this is my pet that carries me around. "We can see 
that it is different from saying, "I am that." IfI say I am 
the body, then I am subject to what goes on with the 
body. Ifit gains weight, then it is 'me' who is fat, and I 
am the one at fault. It does not take too much in the 
way of meditative self-awareness to realize that we 
are that which experiences the body, but we are not 
the body. At the beginning, we said that the body cannot 
experience itself; it can only be experienced in mind. Mind can only be experienced by consciousness, and 
consciousness itself can only be experienced by the 355 LOSING WEIGHT 
field called 'awareness', so we are that which is aware 
of the body, as well as that which is beyond the body. Our reality is one thing, and the body is another that 
reflects what we hold in consciousness. Therefore, 
the problem is not the body at all; the problem is 
what we hold in consciousness. The task is really to change the vibrational pat­
terns within consciousness. This body is going to 
automatically do what it is told to do. It caimot think 
because it has no mind. That which we are has the 
mind, and the body follows what the mind tells it to do. With this imagining technique, the way in which 
we hold our relationship to the body as pleasurable 
releases its dominance.As we keep letting go and fol­
lowing these techniques, the body seems to get 
lighter.The body, having nothing to do with weight, is 
experienced as progressively weightless. After a 
while, as we move up the scale of consciousness, we 
are hardly aware that the body even exists. In looking at the scale of consciousness differently, 
we can see how we originate and perpetuate the 
weight problem by holding it in the form of destruc­
tive emotional patterns. It is generally thought that 
these negative feelings are the 'cause' of the weight 
problem, but ifwe look into it, we see this is really not 
so. We can see that these are the reactions to the 
weight problem, and sometimes they are the corollary 
or the parallel. How have we been holding the weight problem 
up to this point? Most of us have been down at the 
bottom of the scale in the area called Guilt, with a 
very weak energy field of 30. Ifwe try to handle our 356 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
weight problem or any problem, such as alcohol or 
relationship, from the level of Guilt, we can see how 
much energy we have to work with. We have thirty 
dollars compared to Love, which is five hundred dol­
lars. Thirty dollars is not going to buy us much 
progress in anything. Not only that, the energy field is 
negative, meaning we are going to feel negative about 
the whole thing, along with self-hatred. The process is 
actually destructive. People have actually committed suicide over their 
weight problem and self-indulgence. Even if they do 
not handle it from Guilt, they move up· to 
Hopelessness. This state at the energy field of 50 is 
also accompanied by despair.This means, "My case is 
hopeless. I have tried all the diets; I have tried the 
milk farms. I have lost the energy with which to even 
address this problem any more. I'm the victim of it, 
and I just surrender to it and give up." Therefore, this 
level is "I am hopeless." The next one above it is Grief.This is the level of 
depression and regret about the problem, along with 
feeling despondent and dispirited. There may be the 
fear of this problem and its consequences. These are 
all negative feelings, such as "I'm going to die of a 
heart attack. This excess weight is going to kill me." This level is full of worry, anxiety, and panic. "It is 
going to destroy my relationships and my future." Of 
course, one's self-esteem is deflated, so people with a 
weight problem often withdraw socially. They com­
pensate in other ways because they feel inadequate 
due to this energy field.They really are not inadequate 
people at all.They are just holding that about the sit­357 LOSING WEIGHT 
uation, and the negativity of it affects their emotions. We have already discussed Desire at calibration 
level 125, which includes desiring, wanting, craving, 
and the entrapment behind all this. The next field upwards is that ofAnger.We know 
the person is angry about their weight problem. They 
resent it and are filled with grievances about it. Although energy level 150 is more effective, they may 
be more successful in utiliZing anger rather than guilt 
or hopelessness. If one is angry enough about their 
weight problem, they can move up to Pride at level 
175.That offers a lot more energy.Through Pride, one 
can choose to adopt a successful program to follow 
and then move up to Courage. Courage provides some tools that really work, and 
at that level, there is the courage to try them.At 200, 
there is a lot of power compared to 30 or 50. It 
enables us to face, cope, and handle, resulting in 
becoming empowered. The truth is that we have not 
known how to handle it up to this point. If we had 
known how, we would have done it. As we use these letting-go techniques, we become 
detached from the whole problem. If the weight 
stays, it stays, and if it does not, it does not make any 
difference; therefore, we feel good and then move up 
to the level ofWillingness. Willingness at 310 has a lot of energy when com­
pared to Guilt or Grief.We can see how much power 
we have now that we are in agreement and aligned 
with this technique. Our intention is that we are finally . going to handle it, and we can accept that it can be 
handled.We start feeling that weare an adequate person 358 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
and start becoming confident. A transformation is 
now occurring because we realize that the power to 
handle this is within ourselves, and we start moving 
up into a lovingness. There is the desire to really love 
ourself and the body now that we do not identify 
with it as 'me'; this body is not 'me'. If I lose my left 
leg, I am still 'me'. If I then lose my right leg, I am still 
'me'. IfI imagine losing my left or right arm, I will still 
be 'me'. IfI lose both ears, I will still be 'me'.We fmally 
realize that only the 'me' is me, and we are not the 
body. Whether it weighs 200 pounds or 85 pounds, 
that which we actually are is of a different quality and 
essence. Therefore, we must learn to love that body 
now, to begin to really value it and see that it is just an 
enjoyable little puppet. The way to relate to the body is to see that it is a 
happy puppet that just goes about its way. At this 
level, we can start getting playful with it and experi­
ence a sort of joyfulness. As it bounces around, we are 
just sort of dimly aware of it because we are experi­
encing our existence from a position ofAllness. Once 
we become conscious about where experience 
seems to be actually happening, we realize that 'expe­
riencing' is a nonlocal, diffuse, subjective condition. We begin to identify with everywhereness instead of 
stomachness, bulginess, or ulcerness-all those local­
ized things-and instead realize that what 'I am' is a 
conscious being. Consciousness is everywhere, so we then begin to 
experience existence as ~eing nonspatial. Within this 
everywhereness and Allness, this happy puppet 
!bounces around, spontaneously doing what it does 359 LOSING WEIGHT 
and having a good time doing it. Even if we are delib­
erate, we are only spontaneously being deliberate. With observation, it will be discovered that all action or 
even thinking is actually spontaneously autonomous. (ConfIrmed by the neuroscience research ofB. Libet, et 
at.) By valuing our existence, we come to realize its 
intrinsic greatness, bigness, and the joy of aliveness, 
and we see the body as a contributor to that fulfill­
ment of something enjoyable. The body is something 
to have fun with, experiment with, and play with. Within a couple of days, once we release this 
appetite!hunger cycle, the rest of it is automatic. We 
know we do not have to do another thing. Ifwe want 
to throw in some common sense and have a diet Coke 
instead of a regular Coke to save a hundred calories, 
well, that is common sense.That is up to us, which is 
different from being atthe effectofit.That is different 
from being run by the guilt of it because now we 
have a choice. Another trick that works is to never allow ourself 
to go over a certain number of pounds. If we choose 
132, that means that if by accident we weigh 134, 
then we go back to this technique again and get off 
that cycle because those old patterns can tend to 
recur. However, they are then easy to let go of if they 
do. We merely use the technique once or twice. The 
first time we feel hungry, we sit down and skip the 
eating until the hunger disappears. Then we go out to 
the refrigerator if we want to, and remember to have 
our adult there.We may put a note inside the refriger­
ator to see when we open the door, or maybe a pic­
ture of ourself as an adult.This helps us to realize that 360 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
we have a choice about whose arm is going to reach 
into the refrigerator. We know to keep the kid out 
because that kid is going to help himself or herself to 
whatever is in the refrigerator and not let the adult be 
there.As a result, it all becomes a very enjoyable expe­
rience, one in which we truly begin to love ourself. The basis of all the self-healing techniques is pri­
marily to learn ways of loving ourself, to begin to 
valueourselfandlovethatwhichwe areintruth.That 
which we really are then looks at our little body and 
begins to get a kick out of it. It says, "Gee, I'm having 
a good time with you. You are a fun thing." We begin 
to see that it really almost runs on automatic by itself. We will see that the ego has played a trick on us, too. We think that we make a decision and the body then 
follows through. Actually, it is doing it by itself 
because it is on automatic. Once we have released it 
from a negative pattern, the body will just handle 
itself very well. In scientific experiments with young children, if 
they are allowed to spontaneously select their diets, 
they will automatically select a balanced diet. One 
begins to experience a return of faith in nature, allow­
ing the body now to sort of be itself. The nature of 
that which is natural within the body will automati­
cally handle its nutritional needs.When"we get off the 
social programming, that which is automatically self­
healing and healthy within the body takes control. It 
looks after itself, choosing what it needs and wants to 
eat, and it does so extremely well. It could be said that it is wise to have faith in the 
Divinity within Nature itself, in the body's being part 361 LOSING WEIGHT 
of the beautiful Nature of this planet. It has its own 
inner wisdom. When we remove the artificial condi­
tioning of our society,the body's innate inner wisdom 
comes forth and expresses itself in a sense of alive­
ness, joyfulness, lightness, and in the capacity to feel 
good at all times, and its weight handles itself auto­
matically. To achieve this, all that is necessary is just a few 
minutes of time, with many years of joyful rewards as 
a result. Have a good time with the body. Love it, be 
good to it, and give it all the love and attention that it 
needs. Realize that it belongs to you but is not what 
you are. It is a lovely possession, so enjoy it while you 
have it. "What if I do all the above and it doesn't work? What if I am still overweight despite everything?" If 
that is the situation, then it is time to shift priorities. Maybe there is a genetic pattern that is familial and 
even multigenerational.Weight is actually a vanity any­
way, is it not, unless it is life threatening. It is better to 
focus on being a loving and valuable person. Many 
great people who changed history were probably 
genetically heavy, such as Winston Churchill, genera­
.tions of opera stars, William Jennings Bryan, Teddy 
Roosevelt, and the European monarchs and aristocracy, 
to name a few. It is better to be hefty and happy and 
just dismiss the whole issue than to obsess about it. We do not take the body with us when we leave the 
planet, and aesthetics do not have a priority in heaven. CHAPTER 12 
Depression 
The depression and despondency that plague mankind 
have been prevalent since ancient biblical days. It 
currently constitutes what is being called a minor 
epidemic in the form of a rising suicide rate among 
young people, especially adolescents. Depression 
affects all our lives. Few of us have managed to live on 
this planet for any great length of time without experi­
encing depression. It may be minor, in the form of 
regret, or major, in the forms of mourning, loss of loved 
ones, or loss of the things we have valued in our lives 
because of their meaning to us. We will view depres­
sion from the perspective of consciousness and also 
cover the role of biochemistry and antidepressants. Is 
the biochemistry the cause or the effect of depression? At this point, a review of the relationship between 
body, mind, and spirit is appropriate because we will 
be talking about the treatment and understanding of 
depression on all three levels.We need to review again 
that the body has no way of experiencing itself. The 
body cannot experience its own bodyness nor can it 
experience its own sensations. The body is experi­
enced in mind, and mind also has no real capacity to 
experience itself.All memories, thoughts, feelings, fan­
tasies of the future, and daydreams are registered and 
experienced in a field that is larger and more diffuse, a 
field of energy that we call consciousness. It has to be 
experienced by something greater than mind, which is 
called awareness. Awareness allows us to know what is 
going on within consciousness (they are concordant). Consciousness allows us to know what is going on 
363 364 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
in mind, and mind allows us to know what is going on 
in our feelings and emotions as well as in the sensa­
tions from the body.Therefore, all these processes are 
going on within consciousness itself. It is also impor­
tant to address issues on the Wghest level where the 
most power exists. Therefore, a change in the field of 
consciousness within mind brings about an alteration 
within the body. When talking about depression, the brain, its hor­
mones, neurotransmitters, and physiology are of great 
interest. What are the real causes of depression? Again, we will refer to the Map of Consciousness, 
wWch shows the levels ofconsciousness from zero all 
the way up to the highest calibrated levels of joyful 
states, and then even beyond, up to the state of con­
sciousness the world calls Enlightenment. On the Map 
we see that within those levels the energy fields have 
a direction indicated by the arrows, which shows 
whether we experience something as a positive asset 
in our lives or as a negative, deleterious event. Near 
the middle of the Map is the level of Courage, which 
is the calibrated energy field of 200, the level ofTruth. Below 200, the energies are negative, and above 200, 
the energy field swings upward, indicating a life-sup­
portive energy field. We are going to review the human experiences, 
starting at the bottom of the Map, called Guilt,Apathy, 
and Grief.These fields express themselves in emotions, 
such as self-hatred, self-recrimination, hopelessness, 
despair, and despondency. All are accompanied by feel­
ings of regret, loss, and depression. In these energy fields ofdepression, our view of the 365 DEPRESSION 
world is that of a sad and hopeless place of sin and suf­
fering. Our view of God, the God of a world like that, 
would be of one who ignores us, who is unfeeling and 
uncaring, and from whom we are separated. Out of 
guiltiness, worthlessness, and sinfulness, God can be 
imagined to have negative (anthropomorphic) human 
attributes. When looking at the process going on in conscious­
ness in the lower energy fields, at the bottom level 
(Shame) is a state described as deflated. The one above 
(Guilt) is called dispirited, which does not have the 
energy of life orthe desire to live. In the Apathy state, 
the process going on in consciousness is the loss of 
energy. Due to the loss of the life energy within, a per­
son no longer attracts energy from the universe. The 
process is one of being de-energized, which leads to 
the self-hatred of destruction and the lower states that 
precede death. From this, there is often a pattern of 
passive suicide. We are going to look at active and passive suicide. What do they arise from? How can they be handled? What do they really mean? In what way can we create 
an understanding of this whole field of depression, this 
plague of mankind? How can we benefit from an 
understanding of the nature of consciousness itself? All the energy fields below the level of Courage 
have a negative direction, and seldom does one of 
these emotions occur singly. Generally, one negative 
emotion tends to pull in others as well to some degree. In depression, there are also feelings of self-blame, self­
hatred, and worthlessness.These feelings are associated 
with the level of hopelessness and despair. There are 366 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
regrets about the past and fears about the future, and 
very often there are also guilt and anger. Frequently it 
is said that depression is anger turned inward. Traditional psychotherapy recommends trying to 
energize and bring up the anger accompanying the 
depression, and then determine the source of the 
anger.We will discover that both anger and depression 
are the result of the same error-having made the 
same mistake within the mind, and within conscious­
ness itself. What is the error that will be found when 
looking at the anger, the fear, the grief,the apathy, or the 
guilt? We will fmd that the person has placed their sur­
vival on something outside themselves. All the negative energy fields are based on placing 
the source of our happiness externally. This results in 
being vulnerable and also being the potential, hopeless 
victim. Being the victim means perceiving a cause as 
being outside ourself. Therefore, the vulnerability to 
depression is present as long as we think the source of 
our happiness is something outside ourselves. The common frailty of human consciousness is to 
make happiness dependent upon externals, such as say­
ing, "Well, when I get that degree, then I'll be successful 
and happy," or, "When I learn that foreign language; or 
get to move into that apartment; or get that fur coat or 
new car; or when I get that advanced college degree; or 
when I get that relationship; or, if I could just change 
that person out there; if I could get my aunt to stop 
drinking; if our company would only come out of the 
red and go into the black, then I will be successful." It 
is always 'out there'. Placing the source of our happi­
ness outside ourself is putting us in the position of 367 DEPRESSION 
being vulnerable to depression, anxiety, fear, and a 
potential loss. It is only by owning ourself as the source 
of happiness, as the experience of our existence, inde­
pendent and beyond that which happens within the 
world, that we become immune to depressive episodes. Each time we look at the Map of Consciousness, it 
is from a different perspective with a different emphasis. It alters our understanding ofthe nature of human con­
sciousness as we approach it from a different context 
with a broader understanding. The levels of conscious­
ness have either a positive or a negative direction, with 
a crucial intersection in the middle at the level of 
Courage, which is crossed over by telling the truth.
_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:

        In going through Neutral and Willingness to the 
level ofAcceptance, we notice a release from suffering, 
and what does that mean. When we are resisting and 
trying to get away from it, we are at a lower energy 
field and see the process as one ofentrapment. As long 
as we resist the suffering and pain, as long as we are 
angry, grit our teeth, struggle against it, and try to force 
our will, we become further enmeshed in it. It's like a 
quagmire-the more we struggle, the more entrapped 
we become. To move up to the higher energy field of 
freedom means to be released from the entrapment 
and become empowered. The courage to face the issue 
and do something about it brings empowerment. 328 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
Willingness moves us up to a transformation of 
consciousness and into the willingness to be forgiving, 
loving, and compassionate. We can transcend this and 
literally move beyond identification with the body and 
what has happened to it into a conscious awareness 
that we are something other than the body. In another chapter, we will talk about letting go of 
resistance so completely that there is very little aware­
ness of the body even being present. This also happens 
with pain in which the thought, memory, and aware­
ness that there is some pain only happens for a few 
fleeting seconds during the day. I have used the thumb 
only as an example of the realness of what I am pre­
senting. The pain came to me for only a few seconds 
throughout the day when it was still present. After 
about an hour, I suddenly noticed the thumb and said, 
"Oh, it's like I'm not even aware of its presence. "That 
occurred maybe a few other times during the day. In a 
twenty-four-hour period, the total amount of suffering 
I experienced that the world would call painful 
amounted to maybe five or ten seconds in the morning 
and maybe a few seconds in the afternoon. The totality 
of the suffering that came out of this experience, 
which lasted for only a few months, amounted to prob­
ably less than thirty seconds. It is valuable for all of us 
to do this because through doing it, we realize the 
truth of who we really are. Another assist to healing pain or any other distress 
is to listen to great, beautiful music, which itself releas­
es endorphins in the brain. That beauty provides a heal­
ing effect has been known since the days of 
Hippocrates. CHAPTER 11 
Losing Weight 
Is there a way to let go of weight in a way that is 
practical, easygoing, joyful, and free from any kind 
of suffering. Can this be done. Yes. All it takes is 
about an hour or an hour and a half of our attention 
over a day or two during the time we are doing the 
things we normally do. The benefits are long lasting 
for a lifetime. The reward for a couple of hours of just 
paying attention to a few simple principles is a life­
time of freedom from this challenge. How do I know 
it works. Because it has worked for everyone who 
has tried it. It has worked for my patients and for me. I permanently lost fifty pounds by using this very 
simple technique that emerged out of consciousness 
research. The alleviation of a problem should be simple, 
direct, to the point, long lasting in its effect, and cost 
nothing. Diets usually do not work in the long run. The usual techniques that people try often bring 
about feelings of guilt and recrimination. They may 
work, but only temporarily because they do not really 
modify the way one is with their body since they do 
not change those Pavlovian reflexes that drive one's 
eating despite one's best intentions. It was discovered that a shift in the state of con­
sciousness occurs in the process of eating, and that a 
person can easily overcome it so the weight loss 
becomes permanent. The message is to give up trying 
will power, give up dieting, and give up resisting eat­
ing. Those methods usually do not work; they make us 
miserable, and we frequently end up the same as we 
329 330 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
were anyway. There is a much easier way that is truly 
joyful. Through an understanding of some very simple 
concepts that have been presented previously in rela­
tion to the Map of Consciousness, we are then put in 
a place of being able to handle problems that have 
been baffling and unsuccessful in the past. Through the use of some techniques based upon 
the nature of consciousness itself, we can learn how 
to imagine ourself as slim, energize that image, and 
then let go of it so that it actually materializes. It is 
necessary to learn how to come from the heart 
instead of the head, and to come from love instead of 
the stomach. The head criticizes us because the stom­
ach wants to eat. The only way to handle this problem 
is to come from the heart about the whole situation. We are going to be somewhat lighthearted about this 
subject that many people get quite distressed about. The lightheartedness comes with the eating; the self­
recrimination and guilt appear later. We lie in bed and 
wonder, "Why did I eat all that. " and then begin to 
attack ourself. There is a way beyond all these prob­
lems that will work for all of us. The medical model commonly followed is really 
based on the idea of diet and the assumption that the 
number of calories one eats determines one's weight. There may be some thought about exercise as well. However, the following information is not necessarily 
going to agree with traditional medical thinking. If 
traditional medical thinking and counting calories had 
worked for you, you would not be interested in this 
information. We are going to present things that we 331 LOSING WEIGHT 
have clinically observed as being true experientially. Consciousness work has to do with the truth of 
our inner experience. It does not have anything to do 
with theory, hypotheses, scientific reasoning, or logic. It 
has to do with the experiencing of the truth within us. The first thing to do is to begin to cancel some 
beliefs about diets and food that have contributed to 
our problem. To begin With, we have beliefs and 
thoughts, such as, "Well, being overweight runs in our 
family-it's in the genes. " Or, "It's due to my thyroid," 
or, "It's due to the fact that as an infant, I was over­
weight, and that caused too many fat cells. "These are 
all popular medical theories, and if holding those in 
mind works for you, then that is very good. However, 
we have found experientially that this really is not so. As an example, two people can eat an identical diet, 
and one will gain weight and the other will lose it. How can that be explained inasmuch as the activity 
levels and everything else are about the same. This 
brings about the questioning of some of the basic 
medical hypotheses, a few ofwhich are very simple to 
understand. First, why assume that the body fully absorbs all 
the calories it consumes. Why think that the gastroin­
testinal tracts of two different people are exactly the 
same. I may eat a 1,OOO-calorie piece ofpie and absorb 
only 500 calories, with the other 500 running right on 
through. There are other factors, such. as the rate of 
movement in the gastrointestinal tract. We know that 
the faster things move through the tract, the less it 
absorbs. There are factors other than calories to consider, 
and in doing so, we will arrive at a way of handling 332 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
this problem that will not involve counting calories. There are some dietary tricks that are helpful to 
use in the beginning until the results of working on 
ourself have adjusted our appestat, which is located 
in a portion of the brain called the hypothalamus. It 
takes a day or two to reset the appestat, which con­
trols our feeling of satiety. The adjusted appestat will 
control our weight. As we hold a certain weight in 
mind, it begins to materialize on the physical plane. It 
is helpful to understand the power of mind over body 
and that what is held in mind creates the body's being 
what it is, rather than the other way around. It is necessary to reverse the conventional, so­
called 'common sense' of the left-brain logic that says 
it is the body that creates the mind. Instead, we have 
to look at the opposite, which is that what is held in 
mind manifests within the body. Our thoughts and 
beliefs about weight, activity, calories, and all the phec 
nomena surrounding this have been affecting our 
weight. For example, the following· is known from 
cases of patients with multiple personalities. One 
personality appears in the patient and takes over the 
consciousness named Richard, who does not have any 
eating or weight problems at all. In fact, he eats very 
little, is spry and active, and while Richard is in the 
body, the person is loses weight and becomes slim. Then the person goes into a trance state or 
becomes intoxicated, and William comes into the 
body. Williamloves to eat,gorging himselfonallkit;lds 
of things, and the body's weight suddenly increases 
dramatically. Now we can see that the response of the 
body is therefore to the mind-the mindset, the 333 LOSING WEIGHT 
mind's belief and attitude, and the way the person 
holds the relationship to their body in their mind. It is 
the mind that sets the appestat. It is using conscious­
ness techniques within the mind that release the 
weight problems, and one can let go of the weight 
almost automatically. We will review the nature of consciousness itself 
and the relationship between body, mind, and spirit, 
with spirit being the energy field of consciousness 
that is all pervasive throughout life itself. It is impor­
tant to understand that the body has no capacity to 
experience itself. At first this seems amazing because 
most of us, unless we are enlightened, assume that we 
are the physical body. We must realize that the body 
has no way to experience itself. The arm cannot expe­
rience the arm nor can the leg experience the leg. Instead, they have to be experienced in something 
greater than themselves. We experience the body via 
the senses, which tell us what is going on within it. As 
the senses of the body have no capacity to experi­
ence themselves, they have to be experienced in 
something greater than what they are, which is in 
mind itself, so the mind is the place where the sensa­
tions in the body are experienced. Mind itself is incapable of experiencing itself. A 
thought cannot experience its own thoughtness, nor 
can a memory experience its own memoryness. A fan­
tasy of the future cannot experience itself, nor can an 
emotion experience itself. What goes on in the mind 
has to be experienced in something that is greater 
than the mind, that is, in consciousness itself. There is 
the body's experience via sensation. Sensation is 334 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
experienced in the mind, and the mind is experi­
enced in consciousness. This can be seen very easily, 
for example, when something happens to a portion of 
the brain, and the person is unable to experience the 
opposite side of the body. Without mind, the body cannot be experienced. The whole pOint of anesthesia illustrates that without 
consciousness, one is not aware ofwhat is going on in 
mind. If consciousness is deleted via the anesthetic, 
there is no knowledge of the experience that is going 
on in either mind or body, so consciousness is higher 
than both of them. There is a state beyond conscious­
ness itself that is still, unmoving, and allows us to be 
aware ofwhat is going on in consciousness; it is called 
the state of awareness. The state of awareness is an 
aspect of the greater, powerful energy field behind 
consciousness, which is the energy of life itself. This 
is necessary to know in order to become aware of 
where all experience takes place. All human experience is taking place within con­
sciousness itself. Consequently, we cannot experience 
the wall, the floor, or someone else. Instead, what we 
experience is within our own consciousness of the 
wall, the floor, or another person. This gives an under­
standing of an area in which we can work that is less 
restricted by commonly held belief systems. If the entire weight problem is a phenomenon 
occurring within consciousness, then consciousness 
is more powerful than the mind, which is more pow­
erful than the senses, which are more powerful than 
the body; therefore, we can bring about a shift in the 
body by merely addressing that consciousness. Ifwe 335 LOSING WEIGHT 
address the problem there, because the body will only 
do what is held in mind, then we really do not have to 
bother much with the body; it will just automatically 
correct itself because the problem is really a problem 
within the experience within consciousness itself. The techniques we use have to do with the mind 
and consciousness, so we do not have to be very con­
cerned with handling the body as such. The body is an 
effect ofwhat happens in the mind. Consequently, the 
attempts to solve the weight problem, which are 
addressed to the body only, are notoriously unsuccessful. Nearly every month, there are headlines on endless 
magazine covers and in newspapers that are selling a 
new diet. This lets us know that diets do not work. When there are multiple solutions to a problem and 
endless articles on the same phenomenon, it is obvi­
ous they do not have the answer. If there were an 
answer to the weight problem, there would not be 
any articles on diets at all because everyone would 
have handled it. Addressing it on the physical level 
alone just does not work. It also does not work for any 
other problems that involve complicated human 
behavior. Problems such as alcoholism and many illnesses, 
including duodenal ulcers and diverticulitis, are noto­
riously nonresponsive to being addressed on the 
physical level only. We have to become more sophisti­
cated and conscious to bring about a resolution of 
long-standing behavioral problems. The technique, which I used personally to lose 
thirty percent of my body weight (ftfty pounds) some 
years ago, enabled me to reach my desired weight. It 336 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
only takes a matter of minutes over a day or two-col­
lectively, about only sixty to ninety minutes of a per­
son's time and attention. You can actually do this 
while you are going about your daily activities at 
home or in the office, and even while driving back 
and forth to work. Itworks right into your life and eas­
ily fits into your daily routine. You do not have to stop 
your life in order to use this technique. In order for 
something to be effective, it has to fit in with your life 
pattern. We found that any behavioral modification 
technique works if it fits in with a person's daily life. If you have to change your whole lifestyle, the results 
are then usually temporary. With this technique, when the sensation arises 
that you had previously called hunger, you ignore the 
thoughts that go with this, especially canceling that 
thought of hunger. Instead, you go right into the sen­
sation, directly into the inner experience of what you 
are actually experiencing. You go to where you are 
experiencing it without labeling it, naming it, or call­
ing it anything. You just experience it and begin to let 
go of resisting those sensations. You silently go into 
consciousness itself, into the inner experience of 
what you are experiencing, and let go of resisting it. In the beginning we are so controlled by the 
Pavlovian conditioning that the minute we feel the 
sensation, we label it 'hunger'. Our behavior goes into 
immediate action to satisfy it. Like Pavlov's dog that 
salivated every time the bell rang, we have set up a 
conditioned reflex that we now want to unset. How 
can we unset it, how long does this take, and how 
much effort is required. 337 LOSING WEIGHT 
Actually it takes very little effort and very little 
time. When we get this sensation, which was labeled 
as 'hungry' in the past (I'm 'hungry' now), we let go of 
labeling and resisting the sensation itself. We just 
agree and are willing to be with the sensation but to 
do nothing about it. We let the experience run within 
us and are willing to be with that inner experience or 
sensation of whatever it is. Some people may sense it 
in the stomach, and some may sense it as sort of a 
physical weakness. Whatever sensation is felt, we stop 
talking about it in our minds; we stop languaging it 
and giving it a label. Instead, we go into the inner 
experience and let go of resisting it. In letting go of 
the resistance, we can move up to a higher level, ifwe 
are willing to choose it, and say to ourselves, "I want 
more of whatever that is. " The reason for that and the way it becomes 
acceptable is because there is a limited amount of the 
sensation that comes up. The mind thinks, "If I don't 
satisfy this, I'm going to have this hungry feeling con­
tinuously:' That is not so because the feeling results 
from resisting it. When we go with it, like in the Tao 
where the willow tree bends with the wind but does not 
break, there is no resistance. Instead of being the oak 
tree that resists the sensation, tries to fight it with will 
power and then breaks, we can be like the willow 
tree, going with the sensation and letting go of resist­
ing it. In fact, we welcome it. It is like we are saying, 
"More. "We want more wind, more of this inner expe­
rience. As we call forth more of this, sit with the inner 
feeling, and just be with it, it will run out. It is a good idea to start this process on a weekend 338 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
when at home and we can stop everything and just 
sit, or better, lie down and focus on it. Ifwe do not let 
anything distract us from being with the sensation, it 
will suddenly disappear in a matter of minutes. After 
it disappears, we can go about our business. After we 
become used to this technique, we do not have to 
stop any activities at all. When the experience comes 
up, we just sit or lie down, concentrate on it, and fix 
attention on welcoming it. It is like we are opening 
the barn door and allowing the sensation to come in 
willingly, being with it but not doing anything about it. We want to break the cycle of labeling the sensa­
tion as 'hunger' when it appears and then satisfying it 
with food. Doing that just reinforces the cycle, making 
ourself the victim and at the effect of that behavior 
pattern. Instead of that, the self stands aside from this 
sensation and begins to master it so that we are no 
longer at the effect of it; we becomes the master. In Zen, there is the famous series of ox-herding 
pictures. The ftrst picture shows a monk hanging onto 
a rope that is attached to the ox, and the ox is drag­
ging him across the ground. The monk's knees are 
bruised, his ears are bleeding, and he is a mess. In the 
next picture, the monk has the ox tied to a tree with 
the rope. The monk has caught the ox and identifted 
the problem. In the third picture, the monk is riding 
on top of the ox. He has become the master. He is no 
longer the victim at the effect of it. HoW did he do 
that. That is what this process is all about. We are 
going to tether this ox right now by identifying the 
pattern that has to be handled, and then we are going 
to be on top of it. The person that we are now stands 339 LOSING WEIGHT 
independently above and beyond and becomes the 
master of this very simple thing to solve. It is merely 
the willingness to experience what, in the beginning, 
may seem like some discomfort, or, in other words, to 
experience this sensation without satiating it right 
away. As we do this, the reflex weakens. But what do we do about our eating during the 
day. We do what is called 'anticipatory eating'. It 
means to never eat when we are hungry. The first two 
days, and probably for the ftrst week or two, we never 
allow ourself to eat when we are hungry. Instead, we 
let go of the hungriness by using this radical-truth 
technique and anticipating the periods of hunger. We 
know our own hunger patterns, so instead of waiting 
until we are hungry and then eating, thus reinforcing 
the pattern, we anticipate the hunger periods. We 
know that habitually we will be hungry around six 
o'clock, so instead of waiting until we are hungry and 
satisfying it, thereby reinforcing our conditioning, we 
anticipate it. At 4:45 PM, when we are not even hungry 
yet, we have a cheese sandwich. The technique is simple-eat when we are not 
hungry and do not eat when we are, thus substituting 
this technique for the hunger pattern. How long will 
it take before we disappear hunger, and what is going 
to happen. We. will no longer experience hunger or 
appetite; they just seem to disappear. By the second 
day, we will notice that the pattern is already so weak 
that we will barely notice it. How many minutes a day 
will this take. It may take a total of thirty minutes on 
the ftrst day. You will notice that if you do nothing 
about the hunger sensation and really let go of resist­340 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
ing it, it will disappear in a matter of minutes. After 
doing this a number of times, the sensation will disap­
pear in a matter of seconds. We will know that if we 
sit down and let go of resisting the sensation, it is over 
in seconds, and we are no longer at the effect of the 
appetite. We are no longer driven by it and can be 
absolutely free of it. In place of this pattern, we may feel a sort of 
blankness or emptiness. Where there once was 
hunger and the drive to eat, along with an appetite, 
enthusiasm about it, and then the satiation, it now 
seems like nothing is going on in that space in our 
life. Now we can do some other pleasurable activity, 
such as rewarding ourself by taking the time to read 
the book we have been wanting to read and never 
had the time. Now that we are not out in the kitchen 
eating all the time, there is time to read for enjoyment 
instead of feeling guilty because we have more impor­
tant things to do. We can discover something we really 
enjoy doing. One thing to do, for instance, is to take a nap. All 
the time spent shopping for food, preparing it, eating 
it, and cleaning up afterward can take up a great part 
of the day. With this new pattern, it gives us time for a 
short nap. After a twenty-minute nap, we feel fantas­
tic. After a twenty-minute hunger engorgement, we 
usually do not feel fantastic; instead, we feel horrible. We just had four Milky Ways, a caramel sundae, and 
finished off a piece of cheese and now, instead of feel­
ing happy, we feel guilty. The way off the guilt trip is to really know that 
there is a very simple technique. It sounds so simple, 341 LOSING WEIGHT 
but that is why it works. The things that are extraordi­
narily complicated are generally far from the truth. The truth is usually amazingly simple. As people at 
Alcoholics Anonymous have discovered, they stay 
away from one drink one day at a time. It sounds too 
simple. The intellect says,"Nonsense. I know that. "The 
intellect knows this but the self does not know that. We only know a thing from personal validation 
through our own inner experience. It usually takes exactly one day to get off eating, 
hunger, and appetite if we allow ourself to be repro­
grammed. We will notice that as time goes on, weare 
beginning to look forward to meals and starting to get 
into the habit pattern of getting hungry and satisfying 
the feeling. It is very simple to back off and just 
release ourself by using this technique a few times. AlI 
we have to do is allow that feeling of hungriness to 
come up, be with it, welcome it, and wait till it runs 
out, which handles it (usually five minutes or less). We 
might have to do it again if we have really gotten into 
holiday indulgence for a number of years. There is another thing that happens as we do this. There is a center in the hypothalamus at the base of 
the brain called the 'appestat'. It sets our degree of 
satiety and the amount of satiety that we search for. The less we eat, the more we turn down the setting 
on the appestat. Satiety is something else that is not 
really understood by traditional scientific medicine. Scientific medicine talks about calories as though one 
calorie were the same as any other calorie. However, 
we know that satiety plays a great role in our hunger 
and weight problems. Satiety is more important than 342 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
calories; therefore, the diet I follow would make most 
people who follow diets faint. However, I know what 
creates a feeling of satiety within myself, such as a 
hamburger smothered in onions. By the time I finish 
that, I am totally filled up, satisfied with meat, cheese, 
and similar foods. Cheese is not on anybody's reduc­
ing diet. We know that cheese has a satiety factor, so 
once one has eaten a certain amount of it, the 
appetite is satisfied. We also know that calories are released at differ­
ent rates. Fats, for instance, are released at one rate 
and protein at another. We know that it takes a certain 
number of calories to burn up every gram of protein, 
so. one of the tricks we can use to speed up the 
process of weight reduction is to go for a high-protein 
diet. This is not about diet, but I will just throw in a 
few tricks that I have observed clinically. Eating sugar on an empty stomach is seriously 
deleterious to the goals of the program. Why. The 
body takes sugar in so fast that it is absorbed very rap­
idly and cannot be metabolized quickly so it just has 
to be stored as fat within the body. One thing to do for 
our own sake as part of caring and loving ourselves is 
to avoid sugar and sweets when introducing this pro­
gram into our lives. In the beginning, we want to see 
a fast result. I believe we should have the satisfaction 
of doing this now and seeing some returns and 
rewards, including seeing the image that we have 
been holding of ourself coming into manifestation. It is. best to avoid things that have a high sugar 
content, especially on an empty stomach, because 
sugar stimulates the production of insulin, which 343 LOSING WEIGHT 
then brings the blood sugar down rapidly, thus recre­
ating the hunger sensation. In contrast, one-third of 
the calories of protein are burned up just by the 
process of metabolizing protein. Therefore, one hun­
dred calories of sugar equal one hundred calories of 
fat, whereas one hundred calories of excess protein 
converts t<,> only sixty-six calories' worth offat. A high­
protein diet results in a thirty-three percent discount 
(not recommended for people with gout). Notice that 
carnivores are slim. But what about vegetarians. They 
can also avoid sugar and starch and yet stick to a high­
protein diet. The technique is to let go of resisting and to dis­
appear hunger and appetite. We then live in a world 
where we are no longer in the cycle. We get used to 
an eating cycle of overeating, feeling guilty about the 
overeating, and then trying to control it. Then up 
comes hunger, and with the hunger come guilt, then 
appetite, then the expectation of satiation, followed 
by overindulgence, and guilt again, so there is an end­
less self-defeating cycle. The only way to beat it is to 
rise above it, transcend it, and be beyond it. By disap­
pearing it, one will find that appetite and hunger actu­
ally disappear, and there is the experience of never 
being hungry. The next thing the mind says is, "I don't want to 
give up the pleasure of eating. " Quite the contrary. What happens to the enjoyment of eating once we 
use this technique is that the appetite arises only out 
of the act of eating itself rather than anticipatory 
appetite. I can sit down with no hunger or appetite at 
all, but the minute I begin to eat, it creates appetite, 344 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
and the pleasure of eating is greater than it ever was. I enjoy food now more than I ever did. Eating is no 
longer accompanied by guilt or self-blame. There is no 
anxiety about eating too many calories or gaining 
weight from eating. AlI that is gone, so we do not give 
up the pleasure of eating at all. We fmd that when we 
are not hungry, the food is considerably more enjoy­
able. We start enjoying the cheese sandwich the 
minute we take that first bite. We are not even hungry. We pick up the cheese sandwich, bite into it, and the 
enjoyment is there. There is no loss of enjoyment. I do 
not believe in letting go of enjoyment and pleasure; 
on the contrary, I believe in increasing it. So now 
there is the enjoyment and pleasure of eating as well 
as the enjoyment, pleasure, and justified pride in hav­
ing a body that is more appropriate to our aesthetic 
ambition-how we would like to look. The first thing to handle is the cycle of eating and 
getting hungry. We are the victims of a behavioral 
pattern, a conditioning that has nothing to do with 
will power or morality. We can condition any kind of 
animal in this way. What has happened is a sort of 
Pavlovian-dog conditioning that has nothing to do 
with our personality or self-worth. It has nothing to 
do with being self-indulgent, with oral narcissistic 
needs, or with whatever the psychoanalytic theory 
might be, such as oral aggression or oral passivity. It 
merely has to do with a simple, very primary type of 
conditioning that has been favored in our society. We picked up those patterns in our social condi­
tioning as children, that is all. We will discuss the part 
that the child plays in this and arrive at a different 345 LOSING WEIGHT 
way of looking at the whole eating pattern. The mind 
experiences the body, and consciousness experiences 
mind; therefore, we really experience within in our 
consciousness what we formally called 'hunger'. Where is that localized. You will notice that it is only 
a belief system that is experienced in the stomach. It 
is actually experienced in a generalized way, sort of 
everywhere. The thought that it is in the stomach is 
just a belief system from childhood. As mentioned 
previously, the body cannot experience anything. What is happening is experienced in a more diffuse, 
generalized area. Another technique of letting go of suffering at any 
time from pain, illness, or physical symptoms, such as 
hunger, is knowing that it is nothing but a physical 
symptom. You will notice that it is experienced in a 
general, diffuse manner, sort of everywhere, because 
that is where we experience all experience rather 
than in a localized situation. The localization comes 
from a strong belief system. We all have these 
thoughts from childhood. As we let go of resisting the 
energy of this sensation, it becomes diffuse and finally 
disappears. On the Map of Consciousness, we see the lower 
feelings at the bottom, and when we move up to 
Desire, which has been running the appetite-hunger­
satiation cycle, we notice that it has an energy field 
that calibrates at 125 and is in a negative direction. In 
other words, it has a deleterious effect on our lives. The emotions that go with this energy field are want­
ing, craving, and all the addictions. Therefore, calling a 
weight problem a food addiction is partially correct 346 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
in that the characteristics of the negative energy field 
at 125 are feelings of wantingness, desiringness, and 
cravingness, and the processing occurring in con­
sciousness is entrapment. The person therefore feels 
like a victim, and due to the downward direction of 
the energy field, there are negative feelings about the 
self having to do with the whole cycle. As we let go of resisting it and go beyond it, we 
start moving up the scale to the level of Courage in 
order to handle the problem of pride in our willing­
ness to look at it. When we move upward and get off 
this cycle at level 250, we become detached. At that 
point, the process going on in consciousness is one of 
being released. Because the energy field now goes 
upward, we have a good, positive feeling, one that is 
constructive and makes us feel better. It has a lot of 
power in it. How do we experience that detachment. It is the 
experience similar to ifwe eat, it is okay, and ifwe do 
not, that is okay, too. People ask, "Do you want to eat 
something now. " I say, "Well, ifiYOU are going to fix 
something, fme. " Then they will ask, "What do you 
want to eat. Do you want to eat fish, or macaroni, or 
baked beans. " I'll say, "Well, either way. " When one 
reaches this level of handling appetite and hunger, 
one is no longer really fixed on one particular food or 
another. One could say, "If we have a steak tonight, 
that's fme, and if we don't, that's fme. " So it is okay 
either way. This means that one is free. One characteristic of this attitude is freedom. Freedom from what. There is freedom from being run 
by a program or a conditioning, and freedom from 347 LOSING WEIGHT 
being a victim ofthe cycle. There is freedom from the 
entrapment that made us feel bad about ourselves. As 
we get detached from these sensations, we begin to 
feel good about ourselves. In fact, our willingness to 
do-that goes up to level 310, which has an even better 
feeling about it. We begin to accept that this is nothing 
other than a phenomenon, just a set of vibrations 
going on within consciousness. It does not have to do 
with food or the body. Those are all programs. In 
essence, physics explains it as just a set of vibrations 
going on in the field of consciousness that are within 
our power to alter. Once we do that, we can really 
begin to love ourselves more than we did before. There is another very interesting aspect going on 
in consciousness that will also be very helpful. It is 
something you can observe within yourself, and 
something I picked up within myself and saw hap­
pening. The cycle in the past was to be run by the 
hunger, appetite, satiation, and then guilt. AlI the good 
intentions I had about dieting and taking off weight 
suddenly flew out the window and disappeared 
somewhere. After ftiling myself up with far more than 
I knew I needed, suddenly there was a feeling of self­
disgust and guilt. People with severe eating problems 
often experience that. They go into the bathroom, 
throw all the food back up, and then go into self­
hatred, blame, guilt, and even suicidal depression, 
which can become very severe. What really happens 
in this type of situation. I observed that when a per­
son sits down to eat, it is only the adult within who 
wants to take off the weight, and it is really the 'inner 
child' who is always hungry. 348 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
In the past, Dr. Eric Berne, author of Games People 
Play and creator ofTransactional Analysis, along with 
other people in that field, talked about our 'child', 
'adult', and 'parent' tapes that are like three voices 
within us. One is the desirous child; one is the adult 
who is rational, intelligent, and educated; and one is 
the parent who tends to be punitive and moralistic. The parent tape is the one that tells us about right 
and wrong. When we sit down at the table or walk to 
the refrigerator, the adult within goes unconscious 
and the child takes over. What does a child know about diet, weight, and 
calories. Nothing. Theconsciousness ofthechildis,"I 
want, I satisfy, and I get," so we go to the refrigerator 
without realizing we are in a different state of con­
sciousness, one in which the child is dominant. So 
who is poking around in the refrigerator. The child is. Who is ordering a second hot fudge sundae or having 
a second helping of potatoes and gravy. The child. After we indulge the child without realizing what is 
going on, when the meal is over, the child leaves. It 
has had its fill, and then who takes its place. The par­
ent does who then says,"How could you have been so 
stupid. Why did you have seconds. So did you have a 
piece ofpie. Why did you put ice cream on top of the 
pie. I mean, think of the calories. You are really stupid 
and weak; you don't have any will power. You are no 
good; your self-worth is rotten. " At this point, we are subjected to the inner angry 
parent who is blaming us. Blaming whom. Blaming 
the inner child. Where has the adult been all this time. It has been silenced. The adult was notthere at meal­349 LOSING WEIGHT 
time or after mealtime. The child and the parent have 
taken over the whole eating program, which is natural 
because that is where the eating patterns get set up in 
the first place. They get set up with the child, and who 
is sitting next to the child but the parent. So the child 
alternates with the parent in running the whole eating 
pattern. In order to counteract this, we have to be aware 
that the pattern is running. Just to be aware ofit begins 
to change it. Now we can make a note to ourself, put 
it on the table or the refrigerator, and consciously call 
forth our adult and tell the child,"This is the place for 
an adult now because my adult is very conscious ofits 
eating. " My adult knows about calories, diets, and 
healthy eating patterns. I consciously call forth my 
adult to be here at this meal. I say, "The adult me is 
here now" and consciously reject the presence of the 
child. Because the overindulgence does not happen, 
when the meal is fmished, my adult stays there. No 
parent comes in to blame me for what has been done. It does not take self-control or resisting anything; 
it just takes being aware. When we sit down, we say 
hello to our adult and be conscious. Just as we sit 
down at the dinner table, we watch the kid come up 
in us. I have watched myself do this. "Oh, look at who 
is there at the table. Oh, wow. Look at the pile of 
mashed potatoes. Look at the gravy. " Just watch peo­
ples' faces when they sit down at the table and we see 
who is 'up' in them. We see the eyes pop open and 
watch the pupils of the eyes get very large. If that is 
not a five-year-old kid, then I never saw one. We may see a serious-looking businessman walk 350 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
into a restaurant with his briefcase. He goes through 
the cafeteria line and then sits down. Now, watch his 
face as he puts his napkin in front of him. He picks up 
his napkin-somebody else is already there. There is 
the kid all ready to have a good time. Of course, after 
the man gets up to leave, now we instantly see, "Oh, I 
ate too much. " Now who is there. Look at the frown 
as the man is berating himself as he walks out of the 
restaurant. In his mind, he is counting all the calories. He just ate 3,850 calories for dinner, and his doctor 
told him he is supposed to have only 900 calories a 
day. He figures he cannot eat until next Tuesday now 
and wonders how is he going to survive. We can break out of this self-defeating pattern just 
by being aware. Make a little sign for the refrigerator 
doorthat says,"Adults Only. "Be conscious; be aware of 
who is there. We will fmd that the adult enjoys the eat­
ing very much, too, but just does not go crazy so easily. It is important to avoid a fluctuating blood sugar 
level as much as possible when first initiating this 
program because, in the unconscious mind, a drop in 
blood sugar is often associated with hunger and hun­
gry feelings. For example, ifwe eat a hot fudge sundae 
on an empty stomach, the blood sugar shoots up, 
adrenaline and insulin pour out, and the blood sugar 
tends to drop rapidly. Behaviorally, in the past, this has 
been associated with feeling hungry, but we are not 
actually hungry. The stomach is still full. We have 
more calories in us than we need, but it is the rapid­
ity and the degree of the drop in this blood sugar 
from where it was previously that triggers the sensa­
tion of hunger again. 351 LOSING WEIGHT 
It is much easier when initiating this program to 
stay on a high-protein diet as much as possible 
because then the blood sugar tends to stay relatively 
level. We avoid those sudden drops that give the feel­
ing that we want to eat something right away, there­
fore making it a little easier on ourself. The point is to 
avoid suffering in all its forms. We do not want to 
experience suffering in any kind of program because, 
otherwise, it is not going to work. Counting calories 
and depriVing ourselfis setting up a form of suffering. What happens then is unconscious-we get satisfied 
'and the over-indulgence sets up guilt. Then we diet, 
which is sort of self-punitive, by going on bread and 
water like a prisoner for a certain period oftime. After 
we have punished ourself sufficiently for all the 
overindulgence in the past, the guilt disappears and 
the old habitual eating pattern returns. We want to 
eliminate the imbalance of extremes of overindul­
gence, feeling guilty, going into a self-punitive bread­
and-water diet-first swinging to the overeating and 
overindulgence, and then swinging into the guilt and 
self-punitive deprivation. Deprivation is not the way to happiness, nor is 
overindulgence. It is preferable to use consciousness 
techniques to transcend them and be in the middle of 
the two so that we are over and above the problem, 
with the adult there to take over. This makes it easy 
and enjoyable. It is really delightful to realize that we 
have just handled and transcended something in just 
a matter of minutes that has plagued us our whole 
lifetime. The first day I tried thiS, I think I spent about forty­352 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
five minutes sitting down and handling those sensa­
tions; the second day, maybe twenty minutes; the third 
day, maybe ten minutes; and the fourth day, maybe 
four minutes. Since that time, I do not think I have col­
lectively spent an hour using the technique over 
many years. One can start a stopwatch, sit down, use 
this technique, and hit the stopwatch again when the 
hunger feeling is gone. One probably would not col­
lect more than an hour over a ten-year period of time, 
so there certainly is not much effort needed or suffer­
ing to be experienced. No will power is involved; willingness is being 
used instead because it is a positive, powerful energy 
at level 310. Using will power means resistance, 
which is a negative energy field with a weak power of 
only 125. Instead, we use willingness and acceptance, 
which lead to happiness that calibrates closer to 500. We end up being joyful and feeling great about our­
selves. The body becomes pleasing, and we begin to 
experience it in a happy way. Another way to increase the rapidity of the effect 
of this is by watching our activities. Exercise is great, 
but how many mornings are we going to get up and 
do calisthenics. No matter how attractive the person 
is on television, we are just going to do this a certain 
number of times, and by the fourth day, the enthusi­
asm wears off; before we know it, we are back into 
the same old pattern. Exercise is wonderful. It is good 
for that sense of well-being, but weight-reduction 
folks know the truth of that one. They have a dozen 
exercise machines in the garage. In contrast, the relatively effortless system just 353 LOSING WEIGHT ~----
described actually works so well that you may end up 
having a problem with being too thin. That is what 
happened with me. The technique just worked so 
well that pretty soon the appetite and hunger disap­
peared, along with all the cycles of eating, indulgence, 
and feeling guilty. I noticed I forgot to eat breakfast 
and lunch. I got busy with the activities of the day and 
totally forgot eating. Once in a while it comes to us in the beginning, 
because it is a habit, that it is mealtime. Then we just 
sit down and let go of resisting that just as we do the 
sensation, and we will notice that the ideas that "I 
must eat breakfast," "I must eat lunch;' or, "I must eat 
dinner" are cultural conditions. They do not have any 
reality to them. It is just as easy to not eat all day. (I 
have actually gone days without eating and did not 
even notice it. One time I went from Monday to 
Thursday. I was so busy with activities, and on 
Thursday, I suddenly realized, "I don't think I have 
eaten for the last couple of days:' Sure enough, I had 
not. Then the family began to complain that I was too 
thin, so then I had to consciously be aware that it was 
necessary to eat. I had to reprogram myself a little bit 
to go back into eating. The technique works extremely 
well and brings a great deal of happiness. Another consciousness technique, which has a 
general application, can be used as well. (All the tech­
niques we have discussed have many applications. ) You picture the kind of body you want to have and 
the feeling you want to have about having this kind of 
body. Then remember sometime in your life when you 
were feeling joyful and pleased with yourself. Next, 354 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
picture the body the way you want it to be and 
reawaken that emotion of joy. For example, if you 
want to be slim, picture yourself as slim and begin to 
love that picture of yourself, Love that picture of the 
body and then let it go, knowing that you have set up 
a program. You have set up what is going to happen 
in the future because the mind begins to move in that 
direction automatically. Just love that picture of your­
self. lf you like, you can put the number of pounds 
under it and picture how you want to look, and say, 
"You know, it's fantastic to be slim and active and feel 
good about the body. I love myself for that. " Research 
studies confIrm that imaging techniques are effective. We want to stop identifying with the body. We are 
not the body. We have a body, so how we view our 
relationship with the body is important. We are that 
which has a body, just like we are that which has a car 
or a house to live in. The body becomes like those 
things, like a pet, which is a great way to look at it. "See, this is my little pet, this is my bicycle, this is my 
car, this is my pet that carries me around. "We can see 
that it is different from saying, "I am that. " IfI say I am 
the body, then I am subject to what goes on with the 
body. Ifit gains weight, then it is'me' who is fat, and I 
am the one at fault. It does not take too much in the 
way of meditative self-awareness to realize that we 
are that which experiences the body, but we are not 
the body. At the beginning, we said that the body cannot 
experience itself; it can only be experienced in mind. Mind can only be experienced by consciousness, and 
consciousness itself can only be experienced by the 355 LOSING WEIGHT 
field called 'awareness', so we are that which is aware 
of the body, as well as that which is beyond the body. Our reality is one thing, and the body is another that 
reflects what we hold in consciousness. Therefore, 
the problem is not the body at all; the problem is 
what we hold in consciousness. The task is really to change the vibrational pat­
terns within consciousness. This body is going to 
automatically do what it is told to do. It caimot think 
because it has no mind. That which we are has the 
mind, and the body follows what the mind tells it to do. With this imagining technique, the way in which 
we hold our relationship to the body as pleasurable 
releases its dominance. As we keep letting go and fol­
lowing these techniques, the body seems to get 
lighter. The body, having nothing to do with weight, is 
experienced as progressively weightless. After a 
while, as we move up the scale of consciousness, we 
are hardly aware that the body even exists. In looking at the scale of consciousness differently, 
we can see how we originate and perpetuate the 
weight problem by holding it in the form of destruc­
tive emotional patterns. It is generally thought that 
these negative feelings are the 'cause' of the weight 
problem, but ifwe look into it, we see this is really not 
so. We can see that these are the reactions to the 
weight problem, and sometimes they are the corollary 
or the parallel. How have we been holding the weight problem 
up to this point. Most of us have been down at the 
bottom of the scale in the area called Guilt, with a 
very weak energy field of 30. Ifwe try to handle our 356 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
weight problem or any problem, such as alcohol or 
relationship, from the level of Guilt, we can see how 
much energy we have to work with. We have thirty 
dollars compared to Love, which is five hundred dol­
lars. Thirty dollars is not going to buy us much 
progress in anything. Not only that, the energy field is 
negative, meaning we are going to feel negative about 
the whole thing, along with self-hatred. The process is 
actually destructive. People have actually committed suicide over their 
weight problem and self-indulgence. Even if they do 
not handle it from Guilt, they move up· to 
Hopelessness. This state at the energy field of 50 is 
also accompanied by despair. This means, "My case is 
hopeless. I have tried all the diets; I have tried the 
milk farms. I have lost the energy with which to even 
address this problem any more. I'm the victim of it, 
and I just surrender to it and give up. " Therefore, this 
level is "I am hopeless. " The next one above it is Grief. This is the level of 
depression and regret about the problem, along with 
feeling despondent and dispirited. There may be the 
fear of this problem and its consequences. These are 
all negative feelings, such as "I'm going to die of a 
heart attack. This excess weight is going to kill me. " This level is full of worry, anxiety, and panic. "It is 
going to destroy my relationships and my future. " Of 
course, one's self-esteem is deflated, so people with a 
weight problem often withdraw socially. They com­
pensate in other ways because they feel inadequate 
due to this energy field. They really are not inadequate 
people at all. They are just holding that about the sit­357 LOSING WEIGHT 
uation, and the negativity of it affects their emotions. We have already discussed Desire at calibration 
level 125, which includes desiring, wanting, craving, 
and the entrapment behind all this. The next field upwards is that ofAnger. We know 
the person is angry about their weight problem. They 
resent it and are filled with grievances about it. Although energy level 150 is more effective, they may 
be more successful in utiliZing anger rather than guilt 
or hopelessness. If one is angry enough about their 
weight problem, they can move up to Pride at level 
175. That offers a lot more energy. Through Pride, one 
can choose to adopt a successful program to follow 
and then move up to Courage. Courage provides some tools that really work, and 
at that level, there is the courage to try them. At 200, 
there is a lot of power compared to 30 or 50. It 
enables us to face, cope, and handle, resulting in 
becoming empowered. The truth is that we have not 
known how to handle it up to this point. If we had 
known how, we would have done it. As we use these letting-go techniques, we become 
detached from the whole problem. If the weight 
stays, it stays, and if it does not, it does not make any 
difference; therefore, we feel good and then move up 
to the level ofWillingness. Willingness at 310 has a lot of energy when com­
pared to Guilt or Grief. We can see how much power 
we have now that we are in agreement and aligned 
with this technique. Our intention is that we are finally. going to handle it, and we can accept that it can be 
handled. We start feeling that weare an adequate person 358 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
and start becoming confident. A transformation is 
now occurring because we realize that the power to 
handle this is within ourselves, and we start moving 
up into a lovingness. There is the desire to really love 
ourself and the body now that we do not identify 
with it as'me'; this body is not'me'. If I lose my left 
leg, I am still'me'. If I then lose my right leg, I am still 
'me'. IfI imagine losing my left or right arm, I will still 
be'me'. IfI lose both ears, I will still be'me'. We fmally 
realize that only the'me' is me, and we are not the 
body. Whether it weighs 200 pounds or 85 pounds, 
that which we actually are is of a different quality and 
essence. Therefore, we must learn to love that body 
now, to begin to really value it and see that it is just an 
enjoyable little puppet. The way to relate to the body is to see that it is a 
happy puppet that just goes about its way. At this 
level, we can start getting playful with it and experi­
ence a sort of joyfulness. As it bounces around, we are 
just sort of dimly aware of it because we are experi­
encing our existence from a position ofAllness. Once 
we become conscious about where experience 
seems to be actually happening, we realize that 'expe­
riencing' is a nonlocal, diffuse, subjective condition. We begin to identify with everywhereness instead of 
stomachness, bulginess, or ulcerness-all those local­
ized things-and instead realize that what 'I am' is a 
conscious being. Consciousness is everywhere, so we then begin to 
experience existence as ~eing nonspatial. Within this 
everywhereness and Allness, this happy puppet. bounces around, spontaneously doing what it does 359 LOSING WEIGHT 
and having a good time doing it. Even if we are delib­
erate, we are only spontaneously being deliberate. With observation, it will be discovered that all action or 
even thinking is actually spontaneously autonomous. (ConfIrmed by the neuroscience research ofB. Libet, et 
at. ) By valuing our existence, we come to realize its 
intrinsic greatness, bigness, and the joy of aliveness, 
and we see the body as a contributor to that fulfill­
ment of something enjoyable. The body is something 
to have fun with, experiment with, and play with. Within a couple of days, once we release this 
appetite. hunger cycle, the rest of it is automatic. We 
know we do not have to do another thing. Ifwe want 
to throw in some common sense and have a diet Coke 
instead of a regular Coke to save a hundred calories, 
well, that is common sense. That is up to us, which is 
different from being atthe effectofit. That is different 
from being run by the guilt of it because now we 
have a choice. Another trick that works is to never allow ourself 
to go over a certain number of pounds. If we choose 
132, that means that if by accident we weigh 134, 
then we go back to this technique again and get off 
that cycle because those old patterns can tend to 
recur. However, they are then easy to let go of if they 
do. We merely use the technique once or twice. The 
first time we feel hungry, we sit down and skip the 
eating until the hunger disappears. Then we go out to 
the refrigerator if we want to, and remember to have 
our adult there. We may put a note inside the refriger­
ator to see when we open the door, or maybe a pic­
ture of ourself as an adult. This helps us to realize that 360 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
we have a choice about whose arm is going to reach 
into the refrigerator. We know to keep the kid out 
because that kid is going to help himself or herself to 
whatever is in the refrigerator and not let the adult be 
there. As a result, it all becomes a very enjoyable expe­
rience, one in which we truly begin to love ourself. The basis of all the self-healing techniques is pri­
marily to learn ways of loving ourself, to begin to 
valueourselfandlovethatwhichwe areintruth. That 
which we really are then looks at our little body and 
begins to get a kick out of it. It says, "Gee, I'm having 
a good time with you. You are a fun thing. " We begin 
to see that it really almost runs on automatic by itself. We will see that the ego has played a trick on us, too. We think that we make a decision and the body then 
follows through. Actually, it is doing it by itself 
because it is on automatic. Once we have released it 
from a negative pattern, the body will just handle 
itself very well. In scientific experiments with young children, if 
they are allowed to spontaneously select their diets, 
they will automatically select a balanced diet. One 
begins to experience a return of faith in nature, allow­
ing the body now to sort of be itself. The nature of 
that which is natural within the body will automati­
cally handle its nutritional needs. When"we get off the 
social programming, that which is automatically self­
healing and healthy within the body takes control. It 
looks after itself, choosing what it needs and wants to 
eat, and it does so extremely well. It could be said that it is wise to have faith in the 
Divinity within Nature itself, in the body's being part 361 LOSING WEIGHT 
of the beautiful Nature of this planet. It has its own 
inner wisdom. When we remove the artificial condi­
tioning of our society,the body's innate inner wisdom 
comes forth and expresses itself in a sense of alive­
ness, joyfulness, lightness, and in the capacity to feel 
good at all times, and its weight handles itself auto­
matically. To achieve this, all that is necessary is just a few 
minutes of time, with many years of joyful rewards as 
a result. Have a good time with the body. Love it, be 
good to it, and give it all the love and attention that it 
needs. Realize that it belongs to you but is not what 
you are. It is a lovely possession, so enjoy it while you 
have it. "What if I do all the above and it doesn't work. What if I am still overweight despite everything. " If 
that is the situation, then it is time to shift priorities. Maybe there is a genetic pattern that is familial and 
even multigenerational. Weight is actually a vanity any­
way, is it not, unless it is life threatening. It is better to 
focus on being a loving and valuable person. Many 
great people who changed history were probably 
genetically heavy, such as Winston Churchill, genera­. tions of opera stars, William Jennings Bryan, Teddy 
Roosevelt, and the European monarchs and aristocracy, 
to name a few. It is better to be hefty and happy and 
just dismiss the whole issue than to obsess about it. We do not take the body with us when we leave the 
planet, and aesthetics do not have a priority in heaven. CHAPTER 12 
Depression 
The depression and despondency that plague mankind 
have been prevalent since ancient biblical days. It 
currently constitutes what is being called a minor 
epidemic in the form of a rising suicide rate among 
young people, especially adolescents. Depression 
affects all our lives. Few of us have managed to live on 
this planet for any great length of time without experi­
encing depression. It may be minor, in the form of 
regret, or major, in the forms of mourning, loss of loved 
ones, or loss of the things we have valued in our lives 
because of their meaning to us. We will view depres­
sion from the perspective of consciousness and also 
cover the role of biochemistry and antidepressants. Is 
the biochemistry the cause or the effect of depression. At this point, a review of the relationship between 
body, mind, and spirit is appropriate because we will 
be talking about the treatment and understanding of 
depression on all three levels. We need to review again 
that the body has no way of experiencing itself. The 
body cannot experience its own bodyness nor can it 
experience its own sensations. The body is experi­
enced in mind, and mind also has no real capacity to 
experience itself. All memories, thoughts, feelings, fan­
tasies of the future, and daydreams are registered and 
experienced in a field that is larger and more diffuse, a 
field of energy that we call consciousness. It has to be 
experienced by something greater than mind, which is 
called awareness. Awareness allows us to know what is 
going on within consciousness (they are concordant). Consciousness allows us to know what is going on 
363 364 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
in mind, and mind allows us to know what is going on 
in our feelings and emotions as well as in the sensa­
tions from the body. Therefore, all these processes are 
going on within consciousness itself. It is also impor­
tant to address issues on the Wghest level where the 
most power exists. Therefore, a change in the field of 
consciousness within mind brings about an alteration 
within the body. When talking about depression, the brain, its hor­
mones, neurotransmitters, and physiology are of great 
interest. What are the real causes of depression. Again, we will refer to the Map of Consciousness, 
wWch shows the levels ofconsciousness from zero all 
the way up to the highest calibrated levels of joyful 
states, and then even beyond, up to the state of con­
sciousness the world calls Enlightenment. On the Map 
we see that within those levels the energy fields have 
a direction indicated by the arrows, which shows 
whether we experience something as a positive asset 
in our lives or as a negative, deleterious event. Near 
the middle of the Map is the level of Courage, which 
is the calibrated energy field of 200, the level ofTruth. Below 200, the energies are negative, and above 200, 
the energy field swings upward, indicating a life-sup­
portive energy field. We are going to review the human experiences, 
starting at the bottom of the Map, called Guilt,Apathy, 
and Grief. These fields express themselves in emotions, 
such as self-hatred, self-recrimination, hopelessness, 
despair, and despondency. All are accompanied by feel­
ings of regret, loss, and depression. In these energy fields ofdepression, our view of the 365 DEPRESSION 
world is that of a sad and hopeless place of sin and suf­
fering. Our view of God, the God of a world like that, 
would be of one who ignores us, who is unfeeling and 
uncaring, and from whom we are separated. Out of 
guiltiness, worthlessness, and sinfulness, God can be 
imagined to have negative (anthropomorphic) human 
attributes. When looking at the process going on in conscious­
ness in the lower energy fields, at the bottom level 
(Shame) is a state described as deflated. The one above 
(Guilt) is called dispirited, which does not have the 
energy of life orthe desire to live. In the Apathy state, 
the process going on in consciousness is the loss of 
energy. Due to the loss of the life energy within, a per­
son no longer attracts energy from the universe. The 
process is one of being de-energized, which leads to 
the self-hatred of destruction and the lower states that 
precede death. From this, there is often a pattern of 
passive suicide. We are going to look at active and passive suicide. What do they arise from. How can they be handled. What do they really mean. In what way can we create 
an understanding of this whole field of depression, this 
plague of mankind. How can we benefit from an 
understanding of the nature of consciousness itself. All the energy fields below the level of Courage 
have a negative direction, and seldom does one of 
these emotions occur singly. Generally, one negative 
emotion tends to pull in others as well to some degree. In depression, there are also feelings of self-blame, self­
hatred, and worthlessness. These feelings are associated 
with the level of hopelessness and despair. There are 366 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
regrets about the past and fears about the future, and 
very often there are also guilt and anger. Frequently it 
is said that depression is anger turned inward. Traditional psychotherapy recommends trying to 
energize and bring up the anger accompanying the 
depression, and then determine the source of the 
anger. We will discover that both anger and depression 
are the result of the same error-having made the 
same mistake within the mind, and within conscious­
ness itself. What is the error that will be found when 
looking at the anger, the fear, the grief,the apathy, or the 
guilt. We will fmd that the person has placed their sur­
vival on something outside themselves. All the negative energy fields are based on placing 
the source of our happiness externally. This results in 
being vulnerable and also being the potential, hopeless 
victim. Being the victim means perceiving a cause as 
being outside ourself. Therefore, the vulnerability to 
depression is present as long as we think the source of 
our happiness is something outside ourselves. The common frailty of human consciousness is to 
make happiness dependent upon externals, such as say­
ing, "Well, when I get that degree, then I'll be successful 
and happy," or, "When I learn that foreign language; or 
get to move into that apartment; or get that fur coat or 
new car; or when I get that advanced college degree; or 
when I get that relationship; or, if I could just change 
that person out there; if I could get my aunt to stop 
drinking; if our company would only come out of the 
red and go into the black, then I will be successful. " It 
is always 'out there'. Placing the source of our happi­
ness outside ourself is putting us in the position of 367 DEPRESSION 
being vulnerable to depression, anxiety, fear, and a 
potential loss. It is only by owning ourself as the source 
of happiness, as the experience of our existence, inde­
pendent and beyond that which happens within the 
world, that we become immune to depressive episodes. Each time we look at the Map of Consciousness, it 
is from a different perspective with a different emphasis. It alters our understanding ofthe nature of human con­
sciousness as we approach it from a different context 
with a broader understanding. The levels of conscious­
ness have either a positive or a negative direction, with 
a crucial intersection in the middle at the level of 
Courage, which is crossed over by telling the truth. Section summary: 

Please provide accurate summaries according to given requirements. Summary:
**Release from Suffering**: Emphasising Acceptance & Empowerment

* Resistance fuels sufferring (`entrapping`)
	+ Transformation = `Consciounsess` => Free-dom. *
    * Healing requires releasing labels/identifications w/felt sensations/hungers/pains -> **Letting Go**

---

Next sections summarize various topics related to recovery/healing strategies incorporating concepts outlined earlier;

•   Losing Weight - discusses unconventional approaches involving meditation,
    visualization practices,

=====



Here’s an abridged version summarizing key points regarding Release from Suffernng:


You won’t grasp liberation unless you abandon struggling and embracing reluctance towards agony/suifering;
Resilience stems from facing difficulties authortically;


By relinquishing resentment toward ache /pain/wish/dread → Liberation. (Note: Please verify accuracy. )

For additional requests please specify whether Anti-Reiteration Mechanisms are included. Additional request clarification:



Would anyone kindly clarify/rephrase “Anti-Restatement” mechanism(s). From reading Chapter III, Part V, Sections IV-VII, etc. ,…

(Illustrations/explanations provided)

A concise definition/example might suffice – e. g. : avoiding repetition/non-overlapping phrases. Could explain briefly. Thank you. Edit:**Clarification Request**
To confirm, you'd appreciate assistance clarifying/break-down examples explaining "**Antii-restatement Mechanics". Essentially seeking alternative phrase formulations/phrasing styles ensuring coherence/readability. Justify with illustrations/examples. Waiting patiently.
It is necessary to let go of resisting and struggling, and instead, choose to be with the sensation and welcome it.
What is the key to releasing suffering and pain?
The author suggests that it is not about dieting or exercising, but rather about using consciousness techniques to reprogram the mind and body.
What is the author's approach to losing weight?
The author disagrees with the traditional medical approach, which focuses on diet and exercise, and instead suggests that the problem lies in the mind and can be solved through consciousness techniques.
What is the author's opinion on the medical model of weight loss?
The author suggests that it is necessary to let go of resistance and guilt, and instead, focus on loving and accepting the body, rather than trying to control it.
What is the key to overcoming the cycle of overeating and guilt?
The author believes that self-worth and self-esteem come from within, and that it is essential to reprogram the mind to focus on self-love and acceptance, rather than trying to achieve it through external means.
What is the author's view on the concept of self-worth and self-esteem?