They see the world as one of sin 
and suffering, which indicates what kind of God in 
that context would rule over a world of endless 
suffering and sin. The consequences of sin in the 
collective consciousness field would be that God is 
our ultimate destroyer. He punishes with earth­
quakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, pestilence, and 
more. God has created the world of sin and suffering 
in which we are destroyed, and our soul is thrown 
into hell forever.That is the worst possible scenario. As one's consciousness rises to the energy field of 
Apathy at 50, which is the level of hopelessness and 
loss of energy, the world and life in it are seen as rela­
tively hopeless. As a result, there are some famous 
philosophers who said that man is nothing, God is 
dead, and this is a hopeless world. The view of God 
from that level is that God is dead, or at least cruelly 
indifferent to suffering. Ifwe raise our level of consciousness and advance 
our awareness, we then move up to the level of Grief, 
which offers a negative view of the world and our­
selves. The emotions are regret, loss, feelings of 
despondency, and being dispirited. A person holding 
the energy field of Grief sees this as a sad world as 
they walk down the street.When this person looks at 
older people, they see how sad it is that they are old. When they look at children, they think how sad is 
what these poor, innocent children are going to have 
to experience in life.When they open the newspaper, 
they see the sadness of all that goes on in the world. 290 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
The kind of God that would fit that sadness would be 
a God who ignores them. Out of this, the person is 
worthless, so they say, "I am just a worm, and God 
couldn't possibly have any interest in me. IfHe exists 
at all, He would just be a God who ignores me." What about the fearful person who holds the 
energy field of Fear? We see that they are the creator 
of that, the owner, and the source. The emotions of 
worry, anxiety, panic, and the deflation of self-esteem 
lead them to see this as a frightening world. As they 
walk down the street, they see danger everywhere. They open the newspaper with alarm and read about 
bankruptcy and murder. They walk down the street 
and see automobile accidents and the potential for 
starvation. The God ofa frightening field of conscious­
. ness would be a very punitive one who really sort of 
hates them and throws them into the world of an end­
less nightmare. The creator of such a nightmare is a 
very punitive God of revenge and retaliation and 
becomes the punisher. As we move up into Desire at 125, the area of the 
solar plexus, there are craving, wantingness, and what 
makes Sammy run, and there is no satisfying it. No 
matter what the person gets, it is not enough.The mil­
lionaire has fifty million dollars and is going for sixty 
million. He has sixty and is going for seventy. He never 
gets to the end of the road for there is no end.When 
he is old, his fmgernails are long, he lives on a yacht, 
he is paranoid and thinks the world is against him, 
and he does not understand why he cannot fmd hap­
piness. But happiness is at level 500, not at 125. The person is trapped by wanting and craving WORRY, FEAR, AND ANXIETY 291 
more and more and therefore sees the world as frus­
trating. If one is always wanting, then the world is 
always holding back from that person.As one looks at 
the jewelry-store display cases, that cravingness 
comes out-one wants, wants, wants those jewels. They want the wantingness. If they get the jewels, 
they will feel a satisfaction but not happiness.There is 
a temporary satisfaction, but what kind of God would 
hold back from a person what they desire? Then the 
person feels separated from God, if there is a God at 
all.There is the person, and then there is God, but the 
two of them have no relationship. The exasperation of this frustrating world of 
desire leads to anger, resentment, hatred, grievance; 
war, and murder. There is the overexpansion of the 
angry person, which shows in the protrusion of the 
blood vessels, and the angry animal within flares up 
with anger. The angry person sees this as a competi­
tive world. When somebody opens up another used­
car lot next to him, he is angry and thinks the person 
is going to take his business away. He has not moved 
up to a world of cooperation which knows that the 
more there are used-car lots nearby, the greater the 
business because they draw people from everywhere. But he would not even think of cooperating; instead, 
he thinks of competition and becomes polarized. It is 
he against them. Therefore, he sees a competitive 
world and a retaliatory God who, out of angriness, is 
very punishing, retaliatory, and seeks revenge. "I am a 
jealous, vengeful God who will get you. I'm out to get 
you," so God is his enemy, out to get him. How can he 
relax and reach any kind of awareness in that kind of 292 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
angry energy field? From Anger, we move up to pridefulness. Pride at 
level 175 carries with it the downside of denial, arro­
gance, and contempt. The process in consciousness is 
one of being inflated. This person lives in a world of 
status. When he walks down the same city street, he 
sees not only your Cadillac, but also the year and 
model. I did not even realize they came in models. I 
thought a Caddy was a Caddy. No sir, I have discovered 
that there are different models of Cadillac- I forget 
their names, but whatever they are, one has more 
status than the other-so the interest of that person 
in other human beings is in their position. "Oh, he's 
president of so-and-so," or, "He's only a blue-collar 
worker." It is not the money but the status that money 
gives them. What kind of a God can that person see from the 
level of pridefulness? There are probably two options. Because of denial and intellectual arrogance, one can 
say that the left brain denies that there is a God, or, 
one can say that their position is the right one, and 
therefore everybody else is wrong; thus, they end up 
with skepticism or bigotry.This is the source ofall the 
religious wars. "My view of religion is right; therefore, 
yours must be wrong." Pridefulness leads one into a 
polarized position of"me right, you wrong. "The anxi­
ety that accompanies this puts the person on the 
defensive because he lives in a world of win-lose. As we move up to Courage at level 200, there is 
appropriateness for the first time. The person is able 
to face, cope, and handle, and they become empow­
ered because they have begun to tell the truth about WORRY, FEAR, AND ANXIETY 293 
themselves. The person from the level of Courage 
walks down the same street and sees a challenging, 
exciting world of opportunity. It is a thrilling world of 
growing, learning, expanding, and watching others 
grow. There is an inner joy that comes from expand­
ing one's own space. Courage settled the United Sates 
of America and the West. It created all the industrial 
empires and scientific enterprises. It got us to the 
moon. It is the world of growth and expansion. What kind of God is the God of that level of con­
sciousness? The person on that level of consciousness 
has an open mind for the fIrst time. He does not pride­
fully presume that he has the answer. He is not 
aligned with vengeful negativity. He says for the fIrst 
time, "I wonder if there is such a being. I wonder if 
there is something greater than the personal self. I am 
open to learning about this." He then treats the God 
question the same as he does the world question, as 
an exciting opportunity for exploration, and discovers 
that spiritual research is eXciting, and the things that 
are discovered are intriguing and benefIcial. The next energy fIeld, Neutral at level 250, results 
in being unattached. This person says it is okay if they 
get the job and okay if they do not. They are unat­
tached and not run by the world.Their power greatly 
.increases because they are no longer a victim. The 
world does not control them anymore. They say, "If 
this person stays in my life, great; if they don't, I will 
fInd somebody else to be with. "They no longer live in 
fear, they have moved up to a certain okayness, and 
. their view of the world is now okay. The God of an 
okay world would be a God offreedom to expand and 294 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
explore. "If there is a God, it's okay with me, and if 
there isn't, that's okay with me. "There is an inner fair­
ness about God. "If there is a God, He will be fair, and 
I will learn about it when the time comes; if there 
isn't, that is okay with me, too." At the level ofWillingness at calibration level 310, 
the person now declares an intention and says "yes" to 
life. "I join; I align myself; I agree with things." The 
person begins to experience a willingness to be of 
service, along with a certain happiness, and views the 
world as friendly. When one is willing, the world is 
friendly. Now the person walks down the street and 
sees potentially friendly people. All one has to do is 
walk up to an old lady and say, "Hi, what a beautiful 
day." She says,"Hey, nobody has talked to me all morn­
ing. Isn't this nice? "The world is a friendly place, and 
God perhaps becomes a promising and hopeful con­
cept. The God of a friendly world would become a 
friendly God. Even if one does not believe in Him, one 
begins to trust Him. If one does not have a belief in 
God, at least the friendly person says,"Well, if there is 
one, he will be at least as kindly as my grandmother. He is going to understand human nature and is not 
going to throw me into the pit fires of hell for being 
human. He created me as human; I'm his handiwork. What is He going to do? Condemn His own creation?" Therefore, there is a certain trust in a God. As we move up to Acceptance at calibration level 
350, we have begun to own ourself as a source of our 
own power. We are the creator of the happiness in 
our own life now, and that transformation in con­
sciousness brings a feeling of adequacy and confi­WORRY, FEAR, AND ANXIETY 295 
dence; the view of the world now is harmonious. When we walk down the street, we see the subtle, 
beautiful naturalness of how everything interacts, 
how everything is really where it should be, and that 
everybody wants to be what they are.The bag lady is 
there because she wants to be a bag lady; nobody has 
forced her to be that. She has chosen to be that which 
she is.We stop blaming things, and we begin to expe­
rience that the world is expressing harmony to the 
degree to which we are willing to own the truth 
about ourself and express it.The whole movie is har­
monious, and God now begins to look like a merciful 
and forgiving God of a harmonious world. With the quieting of emotionality that is conse­
quent to acceptance, the way is now clear to facilitate 
the use of reason, discernment, and the intellect 
without interference from stressful feelings, such as 
fear of survival, anger, and the rest. Free of the distor­
tions and distractions, the mind becomes clear enough 
to utilize logic and the benefits of education and higher 
learning, including academic study and abstract 
thought, which is the level of mind that includes the 
calibration range of the 400s. This is also the realm 
of science, which is based on the Newtonian para­
digm of proof, evidence, and the laws of cause and 
effect. The 400s include the Great Books of the 
Western World, as well as celebrated geniuses, such as 
Newton, Einstein, and Freud. In the 400s, personal power increases markedly by 
maximal use ofthe prefrontal cortex ofthe brain with 
which fear, worry, and anxiety can be handled with 
the tools of logic and reason rather than just raw emo­296 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
tion.The world therefore looks less fearful because its 
risks are comprehended from a higher, more mature 
level rather than from the raw emotionality of the 
child. The mind thus discovers safeguards and limits 
in order to arrive at a balance and the capacity for 
rational judgment and reality testing. Via good will and a rational worldview, inner anxiety 
diminishes, and the shift in brain physiology, plus 
intention, allows for the emergence of Love as a dom­
inant life principle at consciousness calibration level 
500.At this level, the nurturance of relationships and 
the welfare of others become predominant in con­
trast to lower levels of consciousness that are the con­
sequence of domination by the narcissistic core of 
the ego. With further evolution, the level of Love becomes 
unconditional at 540, and the way is paved for con­
sciousness to evolve to the higher spiritual levels that 
calibrate at approximately 600, which is the level of 
spiritual Bliss and Peace. As we move up in our willingness to be of service 
to this world, our lovingness emerges as 
Unconditional Love to nurture and support life. We 
are willing to forgive, and beginning revelation 
occurs. Due to the release of endorphins, we begin to 
see the lovingness that is everywhere. We see it in 
nature and in the animal world.We see the naturallov­
ingness of the child within everybody. The loving 
heart of the child is still alive in everyone. Ifa person 
does not experience that, it is beCause they do not 
know how to tune in to it, but the innocent, loving 
heart of the child is in everyone. It can be appealed W0 RR Y, FEAR, AND AN X lETY 297 
to, and that is why the merciless killer in the presence 
of a loving person can become harmless. In contrast, 
in the presence of a fearful person, it creates the 
space for him to attack, and he does attack.The loving 
person then experiences a safe world, and God must, 
of necessity, be at least at the same level of conscious­
ness as he is and therefore be unconditionally loving. The experience of the truth of this brings the 
person into a joyfulness. Joyfulness brings about a 
transfiguration in consciousness. It brings one into 
compassion. The inner serenity of the compassionate 
person begins to see the perfection of creation. The 
unconditional love of the Creator creates a oneness. The person begins to experience the oneness of all 
beings. Therefore, all of life in all its expressions is 
sacred.There is a beginning awareness of the sacred­
ness of life and a merging into an illumined and 
enlightened state of blissfulness and infmite peace in 
which the total oneness of Creation brings an aware­
ness of God as the essence of beingness itself. As I stood on top of the mountain in the presence 
of the rattlesnake, what was it that entranced and 
flXed both of us into a state of infmite peace and one­
ness? I could not really say in that state of aliveness 
that the life of the snake and my life were two differ­
ent lives because it seemed as though they were one. The two were being controlled by the nature of the 
One-that which brought what seemed to be the two 
of us together as one experience. There was really 
only one experience occurring. One might say that 
the one experience was being experienced through 
the two, or, the two were experiencing their oneness. 298 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
Therefore, no thought of attack arose because the 
energy field of that experience had already arisen. The feeling of infmite peace is often called the Peace 
of God. There are certain teachings that say there are really 
only two emotions-love and fear-and all the nega­
tive feelings below Love are nothing but variations of 
fear. We can see all of these expressions of fear-fear 
of moral wrong, fear of the inability to survive and 
exist, fear over the loss of the source of one's hap­
piness, and anger over the intrinsic fear that 'not 
getting' brings to· a person. Therdore, we could say 
that these are forms of fear. There are really only two expression ofemotion­
love, which starts at 500 and becomes infinite in its 
expression, and fear, which begins at 100 and goes 
ever downward in its expression. Therefore, the 
handling of all the negative feelings arises out of the 
willingness to accept that we have the power within 
us to handle this inner fearfulness, to recognize that 
we are the source of it, and to stop projecting it onto 
the world or God. No one created a fearful world; 
there is no such thing.The fearful world is within us. We carry it with us and thus we can let it go. We can 
let the fear of the fear go, as well as fear itself, and 
move into the presence of Love. CHAPTER 10 
Pain and Suffering 
This chapter will cover the subject ofthe alleviation of 
pain and suffering. The world thinks that they are the 
same thing, but we will show how suffering and pain 
are actually different from each other. We will look at 
the relationship between the physical, mental, and spir­
itual aspects of the experience of the body. It is said that all diseases, illnesses, and human 
problems are physical, mental, and spiritual, but what 
does that really mean? As a physician for more than 
fIfty years, I have learned about the physical aspects; 
as a psychiatrist, I have learned about the mental 
components; and in consciousness and spiritual 
research and experience, I have learned about the 
spiritual dimension. What is meant by spirit? Is it a fantasy, or is it some­
thing real that we can work with? Is it something that 
is only useful for religious people?What do we need to 
know about 'spirit' in order to experience the truth of 
it for ourselves, and how can we utilize this knowledge 
for the alleviation of our personal problems and those 
of the people we love? We will learn how to handle acute and chronic 
pain, and even more importantly, how to be with that 
pain. There are two problems to address: The frrst is 
how to handle the symptoms specifIcally and discover 
what part hypnosis, acupuncture, and other modalities 
play in the alleviation of pain.The second is to look at 
the levels of consciousness and how they relate to the 
experience. of pain. Again, we will be referring to the 
Map of Consciousness, which shows the calibrated 
299 300 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
levels of energy, their relative power and direction, the 
emotional component of each level, the process going 
on in consciousness at each level and how that influ­
ences our view of the world and of God, and how the 
problem is resolved ifwe do not have a belief in a God. There will be clinical examples of problems I have 
personally experienced and worked through using 
these techniques, along with examples that have 
worked for others.With these clinical experiences, we 
can demonstrate certain principles of consciousness 
that offer a benefit for our lives as a whole. What we 
learn in studying one specific example then has other 
applications, so we will be turning lemons into lemon­
ade.We will learn how to transform something that the 
world considers to be awful, such as pain, and how to 
derive benefit from it and have our life prosper as a 
result of the knowledge gained from the one specific 
experience. In order to do this, we need to know some­
thing about the nature of consciousness itself and how 
that will help us in our lives in general. What is the nature of human experience? Where is 
experience experienced? We will again look at the rela­
tionship between body, mind, and spirit. Everybody 
uses that phrase,"body,mind, and spirit,"butwhat does 
it mean in a practical way? I became a scientist with a 
skeptical, pragmatic mind. I am very impressed by 
what works and am very unimpressed by the hypothet­
ical and the theoretical. I am very interested in what 
brings about results and what one can replicate 
through one's personal experience. As said previously, the first thing to realize is that 
the body has no capacity to experience itself.This is a 301 PAIN AND SUFFERING 
surprising thought because we tWnk we are experienc­
ing our body-we all tWnk we are our body. How does 
the body get experienced? For example, the arm has no 
way of experiencing its armness; the leg cannot expe­
rience its being a leg. These parts are experienced 
through sensations, as is the whole body. We do not 
experience the body but experience the sensations of 
the body. And where are these sensations of the body 
experienced? They are experienced in the mind. Without a mind, we cannot experience what is going 
on in the body, and we cannot experience the sensa­
tions that tell us about the body.The experience ofthe 
body is not occurring in the body; it is occurring in the 
mind.That is the flfSt surprising thought to get used to. The next surprising thought is that the mind can­
not experience itself.A thought cannot experience its 
thoughtness; a feeling cannot experience its feeling­
ness; and a memory cannot experience its own memo­
ryness. The mind has to be in something greater than 
itself in order to know what is going on in mind.And 
what is that? One knows what is going on in mind 
because of consciousness itself. The content of mind, and what is going on in 
mind, is known through consciousness; therefore, all 
experience is occurring in consciousness. One's 
awareness of what is happening is occurring within 
one's consciousness. For example, if a part of the 
brain is cut, then that part of the mind is no longer 
operative in the physical domain. If the area cut out is 
the sensory region, then the opposite side of the body 
is no longer experienced. Therefore, the body is expe­
rienced by the mind via the brain. 302 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
We know that if consciousness is eliminated, there 
is no awareness of what is going on in the mind.That 
is the purpose of anesthesia. Interestingly, conscious­
ness itself is experienced from an even greater 
domain.As this progresses, one realizes that the lesser 
is always experienced from that which is the greater. The greater encompasses and allows the experience 
of the lesser. Consciousness is then experienced in 
the greatest domain, which is the one without limit 
that includes awareness. It is the nature of awareness 
being itself to know what is going on in conscious­
ness. It is the nature of consciousness to know what 
is going on in mind. It is the nature of mind to know 
what is going on with sensations, and it is the nature 
ofsensations to know what is going on with the body. It is important to know that all ordinary experience 
is going on in consciousness alone.Where is that con­
sciousness when we experience something? Where do 
we experience it? Is there a place where consciousness 
is located? Does it have a specific space or location? It is important to know that consciousness has no 
particular space, no physical area, and no limitation. The common fantasy is "I experience things in my 
head." Actually, we do not experience them in the 
head.Where do we experience a thought? We experi­
ence a thought nowhere; there is no specific location 
or space in which we experience a thought. The 
nature of consciousness is that it has no particular 
form; it is without form. Its content is with form, but 
the field of consciousness itself is like space, having 
no particular locality. This will be important later 
when we discuss one of the techniques for handling 303 PAIN AND SUFFERING 
pain, which can be handled both locally and generally. There are several ways to handle pain and the spe­
cific sensation and experience of it.Where we are as 
a being with the experience of pain, and how we 
evolve in our own consciousness, will determine 
whether the pain involves suffering or not.The pain is 
one thing, and the suffering is another. The first thing to eliminate is the belief system 
that pain equals suffering because that sets up a 
whole series of programs that need to be undone. Pain is one thing, and it is quite possible to be with 
pain yet be totally indifferent to it. It is possible for 
pain to exist in the body and yet have relatively little 
or no experience of the pain or suffering with it at all 
because of an analgesic or altered (e.g., hypnotic) 
state of mind. It is as though the pain is still present, 
but one is not connected with the pain. The pain 
exists on its own but without the person being at the 
effect of it. In other words, it is not necessary to be 
the victim of the pain. One can be with the pain in 
such a way that does not involve suffering or any kind 
of agony.To realize that this is possible is the first step 
that leads one out ofit. It is the letting go of the belief 
that pain and suffering are the same thing. An example is the belief that going to the dentist is 
necessarily painful.At one time in my life, many years 
ago, going to the dentist was agonizing. I remember 
that I always put off going because my pain threshold 
was so low. I literally had to have analgesia to get my 
teeth cleaned; I was pain prone. What is it that sets our pain threshold or our readi­
ness to experience pain?As the years went by, I learned 304 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
various spiritual and consciousness techniques and 
began to apply them to pain. The experience of pain 
began to diminish, and much to my surprise, I could go 
to the dentist and experience only moderate pain 
instead of agony. Gradually the pain became mild and 
then only just a discomfort. When I go to the dentist 
now, I don't even notice any discomfort. It seems as 
though I am in the chair for only a minute, and then I 
am out and say, "Are you done already? I can hardly 
believe you are done already!" At the end of this chapter we will discuss some 
self-hypnosis techniques, a kind of autosuggestion, 
that will reinforce what we have learned, such as how 
to utilize a somewhat altered state of consciousness 
on our behalf, how to come from a suggestible space 
to learn more quickly, how to relieve pain, and how it 
is a medium for quickly educating ourself. When you 
next go to the dentist, you may not have much time to 
learn these techniques, so we share some ways to 
speed them up. The first thing to address is the handling of acute 
pain. A person is walking along and suddenly sprains 
an ankle, resulting in agonizing pain; or they break 
their leg or suddenly have a gallbladder attack, renal 
colic, or a coronary; or they just have an ordinary acci­
dent, such as barking the shin, or hitting the head on 
something, and there is that stunning moment of pain. How does one handle that acute situation? We will 
reveal a technique to use in dealing with a variety of ill­
nesses as well as in healing both acute and chronic pain. There is a shock when we suddenly ftnd ourselffac­
ing an accident, such as scalding ourselfby pouring hot 305 PAIN AND SUFFERING 
water on our hand, or burning ourself on the stove.The 
technique that we will get a lot of mileage from is the 
whole concept of letting go of resistance. We want to 
look at the benefit of letting go and compare it with 
what the mind usually does.The mind normally resists 
an experience out of the expectation of suffering. It 
already has a program set up: "Pain means suffering, 
and I'm going to resist it." The fantasy is that if we 
resist it, we will eliminate it. The first thing we have to know is that the relief 
of pain and suffering comes rapidly by going 180 
degrees in the opposite direction-by capitulating 
and letting go of resisting the pain. How does this 
work in everyday life? We will provide some clinical· 
examples of rapid healing resulting from techniques 
that are completely different from those ordinarily 
used by the mind in an average situation. To let go ofresistance means to completely be with 
the event and totally surrender to the sensation. It 
means to ignore the thoughts that we may be having 
about it. Instead of thinking about it, we go right into 
the direct experience ofthe sensation and totally let go 
of resisting it. For example, if we get burned by acci­
dent and let go of resisting the sensation, at first it will 
be like an overwhelm. We open the doors, the pain 
rushes in, and we totally surrender to it and let go of 
resisting it. The way to do this is to say, "More, more, 
more' The way to hold this in mind so that this is 
acceptable is to know that there is only so much pain 
in any experience. We open the door to it and let it run 
out rapidly. "I let go ofresisting this experience. I let go 
ofresisting being with it. I ignore the thoughts because 306 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
the thoughts are not going to be useful. Instead I total­
ly surrender and allow myself to experience it totally." Itis as ifthe doors open, there is a rush, and the pain is 
totally experienced out rapidly in a very few minutes. I remember twisting my ankle in San Francisco. It 
was a severe twist that ordinarily would have required 
seeing an orthopedist, getting the ankle taped, or 
maybe even having a cast put on for six weeks or so. Instead, I sat down on a park bench, just closed my 
eyes, and surrendered to it. It came in waves of excru­
ciating pain. IfI had resisted it, I would have ended up 
in a cast. In other words, ifone resists the pain, it'turns 
an acute pain into a chronic condition. I just sat down 
on the park bench and let it swamp over me. I surren­
dered to it and waves of pain came over me. Yet, curi­
ously enough, it was devoid of suffering because I was 
choosing to experience the experience. In doing that, 
I was the master of the experience and no longer the 
victim. I was the one saying,"I choose to experience it; 
give me more of it." As a result of that, the amount of 
suffering involved was really minimal.The alleviation of 
pain was very rapid, and within three to four minutes, 
I was up and walking again.The pain had decreased to 
a very minimal level, and as I continued walking, I kept 
letting go of resisting the pain. At a later date when I broke my left foot, I did the 
same thing.When I was chopping wood, a huge oak log 
fell on my left foot and crushed all the bones across the 
top of it. A short time later, at Christmas, I was back 
dancing in the ballroom. My foot was never in a cast; I 
did nothing about it except consciously choose to let 
go of resisting the experience.After that, I had an injury 307 PAIN AND SUFFERING 
that resulted in an amputation. Again, there was the 
same shock of the experience and then the knowing of 
how to handle it by letting go of resisting the experi­
ence, constantly letting go of resisting the sensations. As I did that, what the world would call miraculous 
happened right before my eyes. The ftrst thing I did 
after inadvertently cutting my thumb off with a circu­
lar saw was to instantly stop resisting the experience. I 
just stood still and allowed the experience to sweep in 
over me, and as I did that, within seconds the bleeding 
stopped. I have the piece of board that I was cutting, 
and there are just eight drops of blood on it. By letting 
go of resisting the experience, the digital artery that 
had been severed should have pulsated in a grotesque 
manner, but no such thing happened. A friend who severely burned himself in the 
kitchen just stood still and consciously chose not to 
resist that burn; the pain of the burn was gone in a mat­
ter of a minute or two. Later, there was no blister at all. Ordinarily, it would have become a big water blister 
and taken months to heal, but the only thing that hap­
pened was a discoloration. One time, a cabinetmaker in one of my classes 
burned both of his hands. He followed the same tech­
nique, instantly letting go of the resisting. His hands 
would normally have been covered with blisters and 
been in bandages for weeks; instead, he said that in a 
matter of three or four minutes, the pain was gone and 
there never was any blister formation. These are just a 
few examples of instant healing which demonstrate 
that the body knows how to heal itself the minute we 
let go of resistance. 308 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
Why should this be so? There is no magic involved; 
anybody can experience the truth ofthis.This has been 
a common teaching for thousands of years.Those who 
have tried Zen meditation know that the first thing 
taught is the handling of discomfort of the physical 
body by letting go of resisting the experience, cancel­
ing out thoughts about it, and becoming one with it, 
thereby disappearing it. . In consciousness work, the process is called'dis­
appearing'. By totally letting go of resisting some­
thing, we disappear it out of our experience. One can 
see that the experience is prolonged by resistance. As 
long as we resist a thing and hold it, it continues its 
existence. Resistance gives it the power over us, and 
we then become the victim of that. We are at the 
effect ofthatwhichwe resist.The minute we let go of 
our resistance and become one with it, it disappears. This also means letting go ofall associated images and 
their accumulated energy. The reasons for this can be understood from refer­
ring to the Map of Consciousness. As stated earlier, 
each of the levels of consciousness has been calibrat­
ed mathematically to show its power relative to the 
other levels.The arrows indicate whether the energy 
is in a negative or a positive direction, which is very 
important in determining the way that we experience 
things.Those things in a negative direction are expe­
rienced as pain and suffering and are detrimental and 
destructive to our lives. The various energy fields influence our emotions 
and are indicators of a process going on in conscious­
ness. They influence how we see and experience the 309 PAIN AND SUFFERING 
work as well as how we experience our relationship to 
something that is greater than the personal self, which 
the world calls a Deity. It is a relationship to a greater 
field of consciousness and the powerful fields that 
come about at the higher levels. The only reason to review this is to understand 
what happens in the technique of handling acute pain. Resistance to pain is a negative energy field that cali­
brates at about 150. Ifone tries to control the pain or 
use will power against it and resist it, a negative energy 
field that calibrates at about 150 occurs within the self. This would be about the same level as the emotions of 
resentment or grief where we resent the pain and are 
angry about it. If we move up to letting go of resist­
ance, ifwe have the courage to use the technique and 
are unreservedly willing to try it, then we move up to 
the field of 250 called Neutral. Moving into Neutral 
means being in a positive, detached energy field where 
"It's okay with me, and I'm willing to experience this 
thing out." Willingness moves us up to an energy field 
of 310 where we say yes to life and its experiences, 
where we agree and align with it, and where life 
expresses itself as a positive intention. Instead of resisting life, we go with life and surren­
der it to God. This is the wisdom of the Tao, which 
teaches that the willow tree bends with the wind, but 
the oak tree, which resists it, breaks. Instead ofresisting 
what has occurred when barking our shin, we just 
become like the willow tree and go with it; we let go 
of resisting it. We allow that experience to flow 
through the self. By doing that, we move out of a nega­
tive, painful energy field full of resentment, anger, and 310 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
fear. Fear is at the negative level of 100, a low energy 
field and far away from joy.The higher the number, the 
greater the feeling of happiness. We can then actually 
choose, be willing, and even accept that it is what is 
necessary to handle this, which moves us all the way 
up to 380, a very high energy field. When we choose to go with life, whether it is run­
ning across a rattlesnake or some other challenging 
event, and surrender to that experience, we invite and 
bring forth from within ourselves a greater power, a 
higher energy. Those people who have utilized this 
technique end up calling it a higher power, and we will 
hear them say, "I called upon my Higher Power. "Those 
who have not heard that expression may say, "It is not 
real to us, so how can we make the experiences real?" We can make them real by doing them. It is actually 
through the doingness of it that these things become 
real. By doing this exercise, we then begin. to experi­
ence that something other than the personal self is 
handling the experience, and within moments, what 
was agonizing is now very bearable. We are out of the 
resistance and fear ofthe suffering. We want to avoid or 
bypass the negative energy field of a lower energy 
power and instead move up to a higher one, because, 
as we move up to higher energies such as love, we are 
then in the energy field of 500. When we move into unconditional lovingness at 
level 540, the field has the capacity to heal; it is the 
level of healers.The field that healers generate calibrates 
at 540 and up. It is an immensely loving field, and the 
emotion is experienced as lovingness-that desire to 
be with life, to say yes to it, and to let go of resistance. PAIN AND SUFFERING 3II 
The healing from acute pain that results automati­
cally from using this technique can be experienced by 
anyone. I have used it over and over again as have the 
people who have tried it. Many people have had the 
opportunity. I remember describing the technique to a 
Sunday night class, and during the week, several mem­
bers had acute injuries where this information was life­
saving for them. It literally enabled them to carry on 
through the terrible experiences. Not long after, a big, 
burly friend visited me and gave me a hug,which broke 
three ribs. I felt them snap but did not say anything 
about it because he would have felt guilty. The ribs 
healed, but later that winter, another friend gave me a 
hug and broke three ribs on the other side ofthe body. Needless to say, I did not mention that either (so much 
.for my 'rib karma'). How can this technique be utilized in handling 
chronic pain, which is different from acute pain? We 
handle it in the same way as used for acute pain; how­
ever, it is done in a somewhat different manner.As we 
said before, all experiences are being experienced in 
consciousness. We look to see where the pain is being 
experienced, such as in the thumb that got cut off. First, we could say the pain is in the thumb. Actually, 
where is the pain being experienced? It moves our 
attention away from the thumb. If one says,"I move the 
focus ofattention to the top of my head," then,from the 
locus of the top of the head, we look at the area of the 
thumb and experience the painfulness of it, but where 
is the painfulness of the thumb occurring? When we 
do that,we begin to notice that the painfulness is being 
experienced everywhere-all around the body and the 312 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
energy fields of the body-it is really sort of occurring 
everywhere. Most everyone has experienced the pain that 
makes one sick to their stomach and feel flip-floppy 
and weak in the knees.We experience it everywhere. If 
we go into the top of the head, just as an exercise that 
we do, from that point we begin to experience the 
pain.We notice the pain as being everywhere and then 
use the same technique that was used in handling the 
acute pain.We let go of resisting what is being experi­
enced everywhere; it is not going on in any specific 
place. It is desirous to clearly differentiate the feeling, sen­
sation, or experience from the thoughts. We are going 
to be going on with all of life's problems, especially 
with physical illnesses, with an absolute sensation com­
ing in of what is really being experienced. The mind 
then elaborates about the experience, labels it, and 
puts concepts on it. For instance, one cannot experi­
ence an ulcer or a sprain.Those are labels, concepts, or 
diagnoses. 'Pain' is a concept as is the word 'sensation'. The experiential phenomenon is beyond words, con­
cepts, or labels. What is a person actually experiencing? Experiencing what the world calls an 'ulcer' is a sensa­
tion in the abdominal area, 'right here'.Then the mind 
says,"Well, ifI can't call it an ulcer, I'm going to say it is 
burning. "That again is a concept.We have learned what 
that means and that it is a thought form. We are not 
actually experiencing a burning; instead, we are going 
inside to an experiencing of the experience, which has 
no words.We go beyond the words to the experiencing 313 PAIN AND SUFFERING 
of the experience. When the animal experiences it, it has no words 
about it; it is just what is going on.Why do we not call 
up our animal nature and just be with what is being 
experienced without saying anything about it? It is 
because all these thoughts bring in complicated pro­
grams and belief systems, and we then become subject 
to the effect ofthese thoughts.IfI say to myself,"1 have 
an ulcer," then a group of programs arises that go with 
'ulcer'. Because of the nature of the mind, we begin to 
experience all the programs because of the power of 
the mind. The most difficult concept for people to 
grasp when they enter research work in the field of 
consciousness itself is the realization of the power of 
the mind and how influential it really is.We just cannot 
be careless about our thoughts. Once we understand the power of the mind and 
the nature of thought, we begin to realize that one of 
the principles of consciousness is that we are subject 
only to what we hold in mind.This one sentence is the 
key to the healing ofall illnesses, pain, and suffering. We 
are subject only to what we hold in mind.The mind 
is extraordinarily powerful. The great .difficulty that 
people have is in comprehending how powerful the 
mind is.Therefore, in dealing with pain or suffering of 
any kind, it is first necessary to discontinue, let go, and 
cancel all our belief systems about that. Research has 
shown that it is the belief system itself which literally 
creates the experience.The incident is an expression of 
that belief system. It is as if the mind justifies what it 
believes to be true. We can know if this is true by beginning to cancel 314 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
the belief that pain and suffering are the same thing. In 
handling pain, either acute or chronic, we have to can­
cel all thoughts since they are really belief systems. Instead, we have to go for radical truth, radical in that 
we release everything except the wordless experienc­
ing of what is literally being experienced and let go of 
the resistance to it. When we do that, we will experi­
ence relief from the suffering, and curiously enough, 
we will reach a point ~here we do not care whether 
the 'pain' is present or not. That may be a difficult thing to accept in the begin­
ning because the mind wants to be rid of the pain.This 
therapeutic approach is to accept it instead, to let the 
sensations be present but move away from them. In 
other words, it is like the pain is circumscribed, and 
now we begin to disengage from that localized pain. It 
is the same as when we experience morphine with the 
pain ofa broken ankle.The pain is present, and then we 
begin to feel ourselves move away from that pain. It is 
no longer us or ours. In that example, the narcotic does 
what we are explaining can be done by consciousness. The narcotic does not actually do it, but it enables our 
consciousness to make this very move. However, we 
can learn to make this very move without being trig­
gered by a narcotic. In the past, I have had to do that. I have been 
severely allergic to any kind of analgesic, narcotic, or 
anesthetic for many years, and over those years, I have 
had all kinds of severe illnesses and accidents, plus sur­
gery without anesthesia. Out of necessity, instead of 
resorting to those usual methods of treating pain, I 
have had to investigate and discover the capacity and 315 PAIN AND SUFFERING 
power of consciousness itself. I found that all the anal­
gesics did was allow consciousness to exercise its own 
power.Therefore, we can own thatwe have the power 
within our own consciousness to achieve the same 
results without the analgesic. We begin to move away from the pain by letting go 
of resisting it and not wanting to change it. We just let 
the sensations be present and then shift our way of 
being with them to the pOint where we do not care if 
they exist. It may sound amazing that we do not even 
care if they are present. It is very simple.We have been 
upset over many things in our lives. We have felt that 
we have to do something about them, but suddenly at 
one point, we let them go and are indifferent to them. For example, there might have been a problem in the 
back yard that ~as driving us crazy, and one day we 
said, "Oh, the heck with it." Suddenly, we moved' from 
trying to do something about it, to control it, to change 
it, and exert our will, to just letting it be there. (When 
we try to change people, places, or circumstances, we 
see that we are up against the impossible, and the only 
thing we create is suffering). The minute we just let it 
be, our experience of it disappears. We move up to a 
state of painlessness in the presence of pain. The sensations coming from a painful injury are 
going on, and who cares about it? The sensations from 
the amputation are going on, but I do not care about it. It makes no difference. Ifthey are there, they are there, 
and if they are not there, they are not.That all comes 
about through the very simple practice in which we 
are totally indifferent. Most of the pain I have experi­
enced in my own life eventually disappeared of its 316 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
own. It may take minutes in the case of an acute injury, 
or it may take months for chronic pain. Other people 
have reported the same experiences from using this 
technique. I had one illness that took well over a year of con­
stantly letting go, constantly releasing, and constantly 
surrendering before it finally disappeared, so I know 
that the sensations will eventually disappear, but I am 
not doing these things to try to achieve that. That 
would be trying to change it and get rid ofit. I do know 
as a matter of clinical observation that as a person lets 
go of resisting the pain, there comes a point where 
they don't care ifit is there or not, and then suddenly 
one morning they wake up and it is gone.We don't let 
go of resisting it in order to get rid of the pain-that is 
a happy side effect. When we reach the point where 
we do not care whether the pain is present or not, then 
what difference does it make, because at that point,we 
are immune to the pain. It is very good to know that our mind has this 
power and capacity, and that all we need is someone to 
point it out to us and encourage us to try itsowe can 
see that it works.There is no need to be in a state ofsuf­
fering over pain of any kind. Pain is one thing; suffering 
is another.We have to say that over and over to ourself 
and begin to utilize these techniques. Then we will 
experience there is a 'me' that is separate from the 
pain. It is like we are not connected with it anymore, 
and we are something even greater than and beyond 
that which is painful. What is the meaning of life's experiences? The 
meaning determines how we experience them, how 317 PAIN AND SUFFERING 
we feel about them. Isn't that so? It does not make any 
difference at all what happens in the world if we can 
be with it in a certain way. It is not what is happening 
out there but how we are with it. People who are quite 
evolved can be with situations that look dramatically 
tragic and yet be unaffected by them. One of the things we can do about pain is to con­
sciously progress in the movement and growth of our 
own consciousness. Pain proneness comes about as a 
result of holding a lot of negative thoughts and feelings 
within ourselves. Spiritual work and evolution have an 
overall value.The whole process offorgiveness was not 
really heard about much except within religion, and 
now it has become almost a social phenomenon. When 
we.go about our social life now and somebody brings 
up a resentment, the other people will look at the 
person because they know the next step for them is to 
learn how to forgive it, or they will be at the painful 
effect of it. All pain and suffering come about as a result of 
what we are already holding in mind. Why are some 
people so susceptible to pain and suffering, and for 
others, it is very transitory? The pain and the suffering 
go through the surface of them but not into their core. They can get extremely upset over something, but who 
they really are within remains unruffled. Somehow 
there is a differentiation between who one is and the 
experience. The true Self is totally unruffled and allows 
the experience to flow through the self. The upset, 
such as emotional conflict or whatever it happens to 
be, may last for hours, but the true inner Self does not 
even participate in the upset. That is the differential 318 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
between what is one's real self and what is being expe­
rienced. It is the letting go of the habit of identifying 
that one is the experience. One is that in which the 
experiencing is happening, but one is not the experi­
ence itself. How can we bring about this evolution and growth 
in ourselves? That takes us back to the Map of 
Consciousness to fmd how we re te to chronic pain in 
order to transcend it and no 10 ger be in a state of 
suffermg about it. Near the bottom of the chart is the energy field of 
Guilt at calibration level 130. Pro onged and excessive 
guilt, for example, makes us pron to sickness, accident 
injury, pain, and suffering. The vi w of the world that 
comes out of this guiltiness resuI s in a constant habit 
of sin and suffering and brings bout self-hatred. The 
process in consciousness is on of self-destruction 
arising from the self-hatred.As a r suit, one ofthe belief 
systems to give up is that guilt a d suffering have any 
particular value.As we go up the energy fields, we can 
see· that those who approach t e fields of the saints 
and the great beings are gettin closer to God and 
farther from guilt, pain, and sufferIng.As we experience 
the Ultimate Reality, we go thrhugh the doors of a 
progressive lovingness becaUS!love increases and 
expands as one moves up throu joy and ecstasy to a 
state of peace. We have to give up worshipin the god ofsuffering. Christians have to give up solelyl worshiping the God 
of the cruciflxion, the Christ of the cruciftxion, and 
move on to the Christ ofthe resurrection. The message 
was not that of death, sin, and suffering. People who 319 PAIN AND SUFFERING 
identify themselves as a body-the strict materialists­
look at the Christ on the cross as a body and come out 
with pain, sin, guilt, and suffering. Was that the mes­
sage? Is that what Christ died for, to teach everybody 
that we are a physical body? Or was his message the 
direct opposite? His message was that we are not limited. We have to substitute our confused ideas and begin to 
look at moving towards a lovingness and a higher state 
of consciousness to learn that the message was the 
Christ of the Resurrection. Now we have to give up the belief that penance, 
guilt, sin, and suffering are somehow of enormous spir­
itual benefit. Frankly, all the thousands of people I have 
clinically treated over fifty years who had chronic pain, 
guilt, sin, and suffering were the most selfish and self­
centered persons I have ever met. Chronic pain and 
suffering does not make people enlightened, loving 
beings. It usually makes them cranky, horrible, selfish, 
and self-centered, which brings them up to the next 
level-that of self-pity. Most people with chronic pain 
are into self-pity, grief, 'poor me', and the endless fear 
ofthe continuation ofthe state,wondering ifit is going 
to get worse. They continually resist it and have the 
constant desire to get away from it. The bottom area of the Map of Consciousness 
reflects the negative energy fields. The people are 
very, very angry. The anger of the people in chronic 
pain is enormous. They are stuck in it. Some are even 
proud of the fact that nobody has been able to help 
them.They grimly tell about all the doctors they have 
seen, all the treatments they have had, and how all of 
those things have not worked. 320 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
It is necessary to move up to Courage, which con­
tains the capacity to look at the fact that something can 
be done about the way we can be with the pain.The 
way to be with it is by using the simple 'letting go of 
resisting' and having the willingness to do so. Are we 
willing to try something? Do we have the courage to 
try letting go of resisting the pain and ending up at 
least detached from it in order to move out ofthis state 
of suffering? The lower energy fields are all negative 
states of suffering. The arrows ofthe energy fields above 200 all point 
upwards. This means there is less and less sufferin~ as 
we move up into Joy. How can we be with that chr6niC 
condition? Can we be willing to be with it and let go of 
resisting it? Can we begin to differentiate and accept 
that we are that which is with the pain? Can we accept 
our capacity to be with it in a state of nonsuffering? When looking at the emotions that go with the 
energy fields below 200, we can see those that go with 
chronic pain. There are self-hatred and the feeling of 
being a victim.The process going on in consciousness 
is a destructive one of hopelessness. We think nothing 
can be done about our condition. It is worth remem­
bering the nature ofthe power of the mind-that what 
we hold in mind literally creates our experience. The 
person who says, "My condition is hopeless" then 
creates a condition that is hopeless and resistive to 
treatment. If the person in Grief moves up to Apathy, they are 
in a constant state ofregret, with the feeling ofloss and 
despondency. These are feelings that are only human. They are not feelings that anyone wants to feel guilty 321 PAIN AND SUFFERING 
about; they are feelings people want to understand. Through understanding, they become resolved. When I cut my thumb.off, I went through all these 
feelings. First was the feeling that I was somehow 
being punished or attacked by the forces of retribution 
or something similar.The pain was acute, and I looked 
at it and felt hopeless. I felt despair that the thumb 
could never be replaced, and so on. I went into grief 
and mourning, as though I had lost a loved one.There 
was a fear of the consequences and a fear that the pain 
and suffering were going to continue. I felt myself 
resisting the desire to get away from the injury, the dis­
ability, the pain, the suffering, the surgery, and the rest 
of it. I was feeling angry-angry at life, at fate, and at 
myself. These feelings are understandable-they are 
onlyvery human.Then there was the moving into Pride 
that I was going to do something about it, and then into 
Courage to begin to look at the techniques that I knew 
work in this kind of circumstance. Next arose the will­
ingness to begin utilizing them and let go of resisting, 
and then using that technique to eventually move up 
into the acceptance of it so that ifit is there, it is okay, 
and ifit is not there, that is okay as well. Neutral is an interesting energy field, the one in 
which we say it is okay either way. When we totally 
release our resistance to the pain, we do not care ifit is 
present or not. There are the willingness to be forgiv­
ing and the desire to eventually move into compassion. There is acceptance of the human condition and the 
human protoplasmic experience without being resent­
ful about it, without going into self-pity, without being 
angry, without being prideful and going into a 'make 322 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
wrong', and without attacking ourself. If we do this, 
then we can move up to an energy field called Love, or 
even joy. I can only go back to my personal experience 
ofwhat is possible. When somebody shares theirexpe­
rience with us, we learn what is possible in human con­
sciousness. As I moved through this experience, I began to call 
on the Power greater than myself. I kept surrendering 
the pain, turning it over to that Power. 1 remember 
going to the emergency room and informing them that 
1couldnot take anesthesia oranalgesia ofanykind.The 
surgeon was somewhat perplexed about how this was 
going to be handled, and 1 said, "I have my own ways." He relaxed, feeling that somehow the pain was being 
handled. 1 went within myself, detached, and let go of 
resisting. I called upon the God ofmy own understand­
ing,that aspect ofmy greater Self.We can believe there 
is some energy field greater than the personal self that 
has unlimited power. So I constantly surrendered to 
God throughout the procedure. When we are in a situ­
ation like that, overwhelmed by excruciating pain and 
suffering with all ¥e props pulled out, this is when we 
realize what we r~ally believe in; it is a great opportu­
nity for growth. I 
As 1 surrendertd and let go of resisting the experi­
ence, suddenly it tas as though I was lifted out of my 
body, and I went fto a state of profound inner peace, 
an incredible state! of stillness, exquisite inner serenity, 
and joy. 1 realized! that something other than my per­
sonal self was han~ling the experience and the pain. What we have learned to do with chronic pain is to 
surrender it to G@d, or to whatever one believes in 
i PAIN AND SUFFERING 323 
(e.g., angelic beings) to handle the pain for them.When 
this is done, there is the experience of something 
greater than the personal selfthat handles the pain. My 
personal experience was that some great energy came 
in and handled it for me. We call it a great energy 
because we can verify the existence of it. As I said, 
"God, I can't do it; you do it for me," I surrendered my 
burden and allowed that which is in the universe to 
handle it for me. For those of you to whom this may seem like an 
outlandish experience, we will look at if from a level 
that would be understandable. At the level of about 
540, healing begins to take place, and there is a release 
of endorphins within the brain, They are the neuro­
chemicals that are also released by narcotics. Subsequent to this experience, I was aware that 
within me something was automatically handling the 
pain which did not involve my personal self at all. As 
the intensity of the pain increased, within me was an 
energy field that expresses itself on the physical plane 
through the release of endorphins. The power of that 
field was automatically handling the pain.The pain and 
suffering were completely and totally released, and in 
their place was a state of infinite inner serenity and 
peace. How can we augment our endeavors in these direc­
tions? Certainly, we can do spiritual work, but all those 
processes, such as forgiveness, take a period of time. In 
the meantime, what can we do? Are there ancillary pro­
cedures, suchas acupuncture and hypnosis, that playa 
part in the alleviation of pain? We know that acupuncture can be extremely 324 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
effective. We said that all forms of illnesses, pain, and 
suffering are physical, mental, and spiritual. We have 
just described how they are handled from the spiritual 
level. Previously, we described how they are handled 
on the level of consciousness itself through the mind. Certainly, at the same time, we want to do what we can 
on the physical level. In my personal experience, 
acupuncture has been extremely effective. I had duodenal 
ulcers for about twenty-five years that were intractable 
and incurable. I had received every treatment known 
to medical science, and it was only a matter of time 
before it would be necessary to have a subtotal gastrec­
tomy and reparative gastrointestinal surgery, a major 
procedure. I then tried acupuncture, and by the third 
treatment, the pain and suffering left, and x-rays 
revealed that the chronic duodenal ulcers had healed. (They never recurred.) As a result, from personal experi­
ence, I would certainly suggest acupuncture for a 
chronic, intractable condition. We know that the reliance on analgesics has two 
negative effects. First, because it is such a magical, 
short-term solution, one never grows in consciousness. One gives away their power to the pill, the power that 
is really of one's consciousness. When one gives the 
power to the pill, personal growth stops. The second 
negative effect is the progressive dependency on the 
analgesics or narcotics, which creates and compounds 
the whole problem with a challenge that may be more 
severe than the original situation. Another useful technique is hypnosis. Alternative 
medicine is now very interested in hypnosis as well as 
acupuncture. The most useful form of hypnosis is self­PAIN AND SUFFERING 325 
hypnosis. It is advisable to learn it for oneself rather 
than needing to seek it from another, for reasons hav­
ing to do with the advancement of consciousness. It is 
a very simple process. One can use the hypnotic state, 
which is really only a state of high suggestibility, to 
learn the very things described previously. Ifone goes 
into an extremely relaxed state and begins to experi­
ment and experience the truth of what has been pre­
sented above, the learning is much faster. In my experi­
ence with self and,others, the value of self-hypnosis is 
that it enables one to reach a level of concentration 
that is not otherwise accessible. In that suggestible 
state, one is capable of degrees of concentration not 
available in an ordinary mental state. There is a simple technique that people who have 
any chronic physical condition can learn to use. Instead of the word 'hypnosis', which has all kinds of 
associated beliefs and meanings, we will talk about 
extreme relaxation in a state of heightened suggestibil­
ity and capacity to concentrate. Just sit or lie down in a 
very comfortable position and start to progressively 
relax. Picture yourself walking down a series of ten 
steps and then say, "Level l."That announces that we 
are about to do this procedure. Then say, "Level 2" and 
go deeper into relaxation. The tIrst step initiates the experience, and the next 
step allows some time to relax all the, muscles in your 
head. As you do that, you will notice the soreness in 
your face and jaw muscles reflecting the tension of the 
day.Your cheeks are actually sore-just poke them and 
you will find that is true. Why are they sore? It is from 
the chronic tension of resisted feelings. 326 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
Allow yourself several minutes to relax your head; 
Then say, "Level 3." Now relax your neck. Relax all the 
tension in your neck and upper shoulders. Then say to 
yourself, "Level 4;' and move and relax your back and 
chest muscles. As you say "Level 5," just continue to 
progressively relax, starting with the biggest muscles 
and then moving to the smallest-the shoulders, the 
upper arms, the lower arms, the hands, and then the 
fmgers. Say "Level 6" and allow your chest and torso to 
relax. With "Level 7," move into the lower abdomen, 
relaxing all the tensions you have been holding there. Say"Level 8," move into the hips and buttocks area, and 
allow the deep relaxation.At "Level 9," allow that relax­
ation to flow down your legs. Now say "Level 10" and 
allow your feet to relax. Next say "I am at level 10." Using that letting go of resistance, allow yourself to let 
go ofall resistance to this profound state of relaxation. Surprisingly, it will be discovered that no matter 
how seemingly complete the state of relaxation seems 
to be, there is yet another, even deeper level. By going 
through progressively deeper levels, it is discovered 
that one has never really, really been totally relaxed in 
their entire lifetime while awake. In this profound state of relaxation, now tell your­
self the things you want to know and then let go of 
resisting them. Let go of resisting the thought that pain 
is one thing and suffering is something else.There is no 
such thing as suffering in pain when that pain is not 
resisted. In that profoundly relaxed state now, go back 
to the previous information to deal with chronic pain. Notice that the pain is everywhere, and notice that you 
can let go of your resistance to that pain.You can open 327 PAIN AND SUFFERING 
the door and let it happen without its affecting that 
which you really are. In it, you can begin to move your­
self up to a lovingness for yourself and a compassion 
for your intrinsic beauty as a human being. At an ener~ field of about 500 to 540, the loving­
ness comes forth.We know that it has happened when 
we become lighthearted about the situation and can 
laugh at ourself. There is the energy field of humor, 
which is higher. The fact that humor heals has been 
reported in books by celebrities who have healed a 
physical illness through the constant use of laughter. The choosing of laughter and humor and putting our­
self in a loving, laughing energy field that is over 500 
tends to bring healing out of its own nature. There is 
the capacity to laugh at the misfortune, which means 
that the experience is one thing, and that which we are 
in truth is something else. We are not the experience 
nor at the effect of it.We are no longer the victim and 
have stopped struggling with it and resisting it.
_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:

        They see the world as one of sin 
and suffering, which indicates what kind of God in 
that context would rule over a world of endless 
suffering and sin. The consequences of sin in the 
collective consciousness field would be that God is 
our ultimate destroyer. He punishes with earth­
quakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, pestilence, and 
more. God has created the world of sin and suffering 
in which we are destroyed, and our soul is thrown 
into hell forever. That is the worst possible scenario. As one's consciousness rises to the energy field of 
Apathy at 50, which is the level of hopelessness and 
loss of energy, the world and life in it are seen as rela­
tively hopeless. As a result, there are some famous 
philosophers who said that man is nothing, God is 
dead, and this is a hopeless world. The view of God 
from that level is that God is dead, or at least cruelly 
indifferent to suffering. Ifwe raise our level of consciousness and advance 
our awareness, we then move up to the level of Grief, 
which offers a negative view of the world and our­
selves. The emotions are regret, loss, feelings of 
despondency, and being dispirited. A person holding 
the energy field of Grief sees this as a sad world as 
they walk down the street. When this person looks at 
older people, they see how sad it is that they are old. When they look at children, they think how sad is 
what these poor, innocent children are going to have 
to experience in life. When they open the newspaper, 
they see the sadness of all that goes on in the world. 290 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
The kind of God that would fit that sadness would be 
a God who ignores them. Out of this, the person is 
worthless, so they say, "I am just a worm, and God 
couldn't possibly have any interest in me. IfHe exists 
at all, He would just be a God who ignores me. " What about the fearful person who holds the 
energy field of Fear. We see that they are the creator 
of that, the owner, and the source. The emotions of 
worry, anxiety, panic, and the deflation of self-esteem 
lead them to see this as a frightening world. As they 
walk down the street, they see danger everywhere. They open the newspaper with alarm and read about 
bankruptcy and murder. They walk down the street 
and see automobile accidents and the potential for 
starvation. The God ofa frightening field of conscious­. ness would be a very punitive one who really sort of 
hates them and throws them into the world of an end­
less nightmare. The creator of such a nightmare is a 
very punitive God of revenge and retaliation and 
becomes the punisher. As we move up into Desire at 125, the area of the 
solar plexus, there are craving, wantingness, and what 
makes Sammy run, and there is no satisfying it. No 
matter what the person gets, it is not enough. The mil­
lionaire has fifty million dollars and is going for sixty 
million. He has sixty and is going for seventy. He never 
gets to the end of the road for there is no end. When 
he is old, his fmgernails are long, he lives on a yacht, 
he is paranoid and thinks the world is against him, 
and he does not understand why he cannot fmd hap­
piness. But happiness is at level 500, not at 125. The person is trapped by wanting and craving WORRY, FEAR, AND ANXIETY 291 
more and more and therefore sees the world as frus­
trating. If one is always wanting, then the world is 
always holding back from that person. As one looks at 
the jewelry-store display cases, that cravingness 
comes out-one wants, wants, wants those jewels. They want the wantingness. If they get the jewels, 
they will feel a satisfaction but not happiness. There is 
a temporary satisfaction, but what kind of God would 
hold back from a person what they desire. Then the 
person feels separated from God, if there is a God at 
all. There is the person, and then there is God, but the 
two of them have no relationship. The exasperation of this frustrating world of 
desire leads to anger, resentment, hatred, grievance; 
war, and murder. There is the overexpansion of the 
angry person, which shows in the protrusion of the 
blood vessels, and the angry animal within flares up 
with anger. The angry person sees this as a competi­
tive world. When somebody opens up another used­
car lot next to him, he is angry and thinks the person 
is going to take his business away. He has not moved 
up to a world of cooperation which knows that the 
more there are used-car lots nearby, the greater the 
business because they draw people from everywhere. But he would not even think of cooperating; instead, 
he thinks of competition and becomes polarized. It is 
he against them. Therefore, he sees a competitive 
world and a retaliatory God who, out of angriness, is 
very punishing, retaliatory, and seeks revenge. "I am a 
jealous, vengeful God who will get you. I'm out to get 
you," so God is his enemy, out to get him. How can he 
relax and reach any kind of awareness in that kind of 292 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
angry energy field. From Anger, we move up to pridefulness. Pride at 
level 175 carries with it the downside of denial, arro­
gance, and contempt. The process in consciousness is 
one of being inflated. This person lives in a world of 
status. When he walks down the same city street, he 
sees not only your Cadillac, but also the year and 
model. I did not even realize they came in models. I 
thought a Caddy was a Caddy. No sir, I have discovered 
that there are different models of Cadillac- I forget 
their names, but whatever they are, one has more 
status than the other-so the interest of that person 
in other human beings is in their position. "Oh, he's 
president of so-and-so," or, "He's only a blue-collar 
worker. " It is not the money but the status that money 
gives them. What kind of a God can that person see from the 
level of pridefulness. There are probably two options. Because of denial and intellectual arrogance, one can 
say that the left brain denies that there is a God, or, 
one can say that their position is the right one, and 
therefore everybody else is wrong; thus, they end up 
with skepticism or bigotry. This is the source ofall the 
religious wars. "My view of religion is right; therefore, 
yours must be wrong. " Pridefulness leads one into a 
polarized position of"me right, you wrong. "The anxi­
ety that accompanies this puts the person on the 
defensive because he lives in a world of win-lose. As we move up to Courage at level 200, there is 
appropriateness for the first time. The person is able 
to face, cope, and handle, and they become empow­
ered because they have begun to tell the truth about WORRY, FEAR, AND ANXIETY 293 
themselves. The person from the level of Courage 
walks down the same street and sees a challenging, 
exciting world of opportunity. It is a thrilling world of 
growing, learning, expanding, and watching others 
grow. There is an inner joy that comes from expand­
ing one's own space. Courage settled the United Sates 
of America and the West. It created all the industrial 
empires and scientific enterprises. It got us to the 
moon. It is the world of growth and expansion. What kind of God is the God of that level of con­
sciousness. The person on that level of consciousness 
has an open mind for the fIrst time. He does not pride­
fully presume that he has the answer. He is not 
aligned with vengeful negativity. He says for the fIrst 
time, "I wonder if there is such a being. I wonder if 
there is something greater than the personal self. I am 
open to learning about this. " He then treats the God 
question the same as he does the world question, as 
an exciting opportunity for exploration, and discovers 
that spiritual research is eXciting, and the things that 
are discovered are intriguing and benefIcial. The next energy fIeld, Neutral at level 250, results 
in being unattached. This person says it is okay if they 
get the job and okay if they do not. They are unat­
tached and not run by the world. Their power greatly. increases because they are no longer a victim. The 
world does not control them anymore. They say, "If 
this person stays in my life, great; if they don't, I will 
fInd somebody else to be with. "They no longer live in 
fear, they have moved up to a certain okayness, and. their view of the world is now okay. The God of an 
okay world would be a God offreedom to expand and 294 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
explore. "If there is a God, it's okay with me, and if 
there isn't, that's okay with me. "There is an inner fair­
ness about God. "If there is a God, He will be fair, and 
I will learn about it when the time comes; if there 
isn't, that is okay with me, too. " At the level ofWillingness at calibration level 310, 
the person now declares an intention and says "yes" to 
life. "I join; I align myself; I agree with things. " The 
person begins to experience a willingness to be of 
service, along with a certain happiness, and views the 
world as friendly. When one is willing, the world is 
friendly. Now the person walks down the street and 
sees potentially friendly people. All one has to do is 
walk up to an old lady and say, "Hi, what a beautiful 
day. " She says,"Hey, nobody has talked to me all morn­
ing. Isn't this nice. "The world is a friendly place, and 
God perhaps becomes a promising and hopeful con­
cept. The God of a friendly world would become a 
friendly God. Even if one does not believe in Him, one 
begins to trust Him. If one does not have a belief in 
God, at least the friendly person says,"Well, if there is 
one, he will be at least as kindly as my grandmother. He is going to understand human nature and is not 
going to throw me into the pit fires of hell for being 
human. He created me as human; I'm his handiwork. What is He going to do. Condemn His own creation. " Therefore, there is a certain trust in a God. As we move up to Acceptance at calibration level 
350, we have begun to own ourself as a source of our 
own power. We are the creator of the happiness in 
our own life now, and that transformation in con­
sciousness brings a feeling of adequacy and confi­WORRY, FEAR, AND ANXIETY 295 
dence; the view of the world now is harmonious. When we walk down the street, we see the subtle, 
beautiful naturalness of how everything interacts, 
how everything is really where it should be, and that 
everybody wants to be what they are. The bag lady is 
there because she wants to be a bag lady; nobody has 
forced her to be that. She has chosen to be that which 
she is. We stop blaming things, and we begin to expe­
rience that the world is expressing harmony to the 
degree to which we are willing to own the truth 
about ourself and express it. The whole movie is har­
monious, and God now begins to look like a merciful 
and forgiving God of a harmonious world. With the quieting of emotionality that is conse­
quent to acceptance, the way is now clear to facilitate 
the use of reason, discernment, and the intellect 
without interference from stressful feelings, such as 
fear of survival, anger, and the rest. Free of the distor­
tions and distractions, the mind becomes clear enough 
to utilize logic and the benefits of education and higher 
learning, including academic study and abstract 
thought, which is the level of mind that includes the 
calibration range of the 400s. This is also the realm 
of science, which is based on the Newtonian para­
digm of proof, evidence, and the laws of cause and 
effect. The 400s include the Great Books of the 
Western World, as well as celebrated geniuses, such as 
Newton, Einstein, and Freud. In the 400s, personal power increases markedly by 
maximal use ofthe prefrontal cortex ofthe brain with 
which fear, worry, and anxiety can be handled with 
the tools of logic and reason rather than just raw emo­296 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
tion. The world therefore looks less fearful because its 
risks are comprehended from a higher, more mature 
level rather than from the raw emotionality of the 
child. The mind thus discovers safeguards and limits 
in order to arrive at a balance and the capacity for 
rational judgment and reality testing. Via good will and a rational worldview, inner anxiety 
diminishes, and the shift in brain physiology, plus 
intention, allows for the emergence of Love as a dom­
inant life principle at consciousness calibration level 
500. At this level, the nurturance of relationships and 
the welfare of others become predominant in con­
trast to lower levels of consciousness that are the con­
sequence of domination by the narcissistic core of 
the ego. With further evolution, the level of Love becomes 
unconditional at 540, and the way is paved for con­
sciousness to evolve to the higher spiritual levels that 
calibrate at approximately 600, which is the level of 
spiritual Bliss and Peace. As we move up in our willingness to be of service 
to this world, our lovingness emerges as 
Unconditional Love to nurture and support life. We 
are willing to forgive, and beginning revelation 
occurs. Due to the release of endorphins, we begin to 
see the lovingness that is everywhere. We see it in 
nature and in the animal world. We see the naturallov­
ingness of the child within everybody. The loving 
heart of the child is still alive in everyone. Ifa person 
does not experience that, it is beCause they do not 
know how to tune in to it, but the innocent, loving 
heart of the child is in everyone. It can be appealed W0 RR Y, FEAR, AND AN X lETY 297 
to, and that is why the merciless killer in the presence 
of a loving person can become harmless. In contrast, 
in the presence of a fearful person, it creates the 
space for him to attack, and he does attack. The loving 
person then experiences a safe world, and God must, 
of necessity, be at least at the same level of conscious­
ness as he is and therefore be unconditionally loving. The experience of the truth of this brings the 
person into a joyfulness. Joyfulness brings about a 
transfiguration in consciousness. It brings one into 
compassion. The inner serenity of the compassionate 
person begins to see the perfection of creation. The 
unconditional love of the Creator creates a oneness. The person begins to experience the oneness of all 
beings. Therefore, all of life in all its expressions is 
sacred. There is a beginning awareness of the sacred­
ness of life and a merging into an illumined and 
enlightened state of blissfulness and infmite peace in 
which the total oneness of Creation brings an aware­
ness of God as the essence of beingness itself. As I stood on top of the mountain in the presence 
of the rattlesnake, what was it that entranced and 
flXed both of us into a state of infmite peace and one­
ness. I could not really say in that state of aliveness 
that the life of the snake and my life were two differ­
ent lives because it seemed as though they were one. The two were being controlled by the nature of the 
One-that which brought what seemed to be the two 
of us together as one experience. There was really 
only one experience occurring. One might say that 
the one experience was being experienced through 
the two, or, the two were experiencing their oneness. 298 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
Therefore, no thought of attack arose because the 
energy field of that experience had already arisen. The feeling of infmite peace is often called the Peace 
of God. There are certain teachings that say there are really 
only two emotions-love and fear-and all the nega­
tive feelings below Love are nothing but variations of 
fear. We can see all of these expressions of fear-fear 
of moral wrong, fear of the inability to survive and 
exist, fear over the loss of the source of one's hap­
piness, and anger over the intrinsic fear that 'not 
getting' brings to· a person. Therdore, we could say 
that these are forms of fear. There are really only two expression ofemotion­
love, which starts at 500 and becomes infinite in its 
expression, and fear, which begins at 100 and goes 
ever downward in its expression. Therefore, the 
handling of all the negative feelings arises out of the 
willingness to accept that we have the power within 
us to handle this inner fearfulness, to recognize that 
we are the source of it, and to stop projecting it onto 
the world or God. No one created a fearful world; 
there is no such thing. The fearful world is within us. We carry it with us and thus we can let it go. We can 
let the fear of the fear go, as well as fear itself, and 
move into the presence of Love. CHAPTER 10 
Pain and Suffering 
This chapter will cover the subject ofthe alleviation of 
pain and suffering. The world thinks that they are the 
same thing, but we will show how suffering and pain 
are actually different from each other. We will look at 
the relationship between the physical, mental, and spir­
itual aspects of the experience of the body. It is said that all diseases, illnesses, and human 
problems are physical, mental, and spiritual, but what 
does that really mean. As a physician for more than 
fIfty years, I have learned about the physical aspects; 
as a psychiatrist, I have learned about the mental 
components; and in consciousness and spiritual 
research and experience, I have learned about the 
spiritual dimension. What is meant by spirit. Is it a fantasy, or is it some­
thing real that we can work with. Is it something that 
is only useful for religious people. What do we need to 
know about'spirit' in order to experience the truth of 
it for ourselves, and how can we utilize this knowledge 
for the alleviation of our personal problems and those 
of the people we love. We will learn how to handle acute and chronic 
pain, and even more importantly, how to be with that 
pain. There are two problems to address: The frrst is 
how to handle the symptoms specifIcally and discover 
what part hypnosis, acupuncture, and other modalities 
play in the alleviation of pain. The second is to look at 
the levels of consciousness and how they relate to the 
experience. of pain. Again, we will be referring to the 
Map of Consciousness, which shows the calibrated 
299 300 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
levels of energy, their relative power and direction, the 
emotional component of each level, the process going 
on in consciousness at each level and how that influ­
ences our view of the world and of God, and how the 
problem is resolved ifwe do not have a belief in a God. There will be clinical examples of problems I have 
personally experienced and worked through using 
these techniques, along with examples that have 
worked for others. With these clinical experiences, we 
can demonstrate certain principles of consciousness 
that offer a benefit for our lives as a whole. What we 
learn in studying one specific example then has other 
applications, so we will be turning lemons into lemon­
ade. We will learn how to transform something that the 
world considers to be awful, such as pain, and how to 
derive benefit from it and have our life prosper as a 
result of the knowledge gained from the one specific 
experience. In order to do this, we need to know some­
thing about the nature of consciousness itself and how 
that will help us in our lives in general. What is the nature of human experience. Where is 
experience experienced. We will again look at the rela­
tionship between body, mind, and spirit. Everybody 
uses that phrase,"body,mind, and spirit,"butwhat does 
it mean in a practical way. I became a scientist with a 
skeptical, pragmatic mind. I am very impressed by 
what works and am very unimpressed by the hypothet­
ical and the theoretical. I am very interested in what 
brings about results and what one can replicate 
through one's personal experience. As said previously, the first thing to realize is that 
the body has no capacity to experience itself. This is a 301 PAIN AND SUFFERING 
surprising thought because we tWnk we are experienc­
ing our body-we all tWnk we are our body. How does 
the body get experienced. For example, the arm has no 
way of experiencing its armness; the leg cannot expe­
rience its being a leg. These parts are experienced 
through sensations, as is the whole body. We do not 
experience the body but experience the sensations of 
the body. And where are these sensations of the body 
experienced. They are experienced in the mind. Without a mind, we cannot experience what is going 
on in the body, and we cannot experience the sensa­
tions that tell us about the body. The experience ofthe 
body is not occurring in the body; it is occurring in the 
mind. That is the flfSt surprising thought to get used to. The next surprising thought is that the mind can­
not experience itself. A thought cannot experience its 
thoughtness; a feeling cannot experience its feeling­
ness; and a memory cannot experience its own memo­
ryness. The mind has to be in something greater than 
itself in order to know what is going on in mind. And 
what is that. One knows what is going on in mind 
because of consciousness itself. The content of mind, and what is going on in 
mind, is known through consciousness; therefore, all 
experience is occurring in consciousness. One's 
awareness of what is happening is occurring within 
one's consciousness. For example, if a part of the 
brain is cut, then that part of the mind is no longer 
operative in the physical domain. If the area cut out is 
the sensory region, then the opposite side of the body 
is no longer experienced. Therefore, the body is expe­
rienced by the mind via the brain. 302 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
We know that if consciousness is eliminated, there 
is no awareness of what is going on in the mind. That 
is the purpose of anesthesia. Interestingly, conscious­
ness itself is experienced from an even greater 
domain. As this progresses, one realizes that the lesser 
is always experienced from that which is the greater. The greater encompasses and allows the experience 
of the lesser. Consciousness is then experienced in 
the greatest domain, which is the one without limit 
that includes awareness. It is the nature of awareness 
being itself to know what is going on in conscious­
ness. It is the nature of consciousness to know what 
is going on in mind. It is the nature of mind to know 
what is going on with sensations, and it is the nature 
ofsensations to know what is going on with the body. It is important to know that all ordinary experience 
is going on in consciousness alone. Where is that con­
sciousness when we experience something. Where do 
we experience it. Is there a place where consciousness 
is located. Does it have a specific space or location. It is important to know that consciousness has no 
particular space, no physical area, and no limitation. The common fantasy is "I experience things in my 
head. " Actually, we do not experience them in the 
head. Where do we experience a thought. We experi­
ence a thought nowhere; there is no specific location 
or space in which we experience a thought. The 
nature of consciousness is that it has no particular 
form; it is without form. Its content is with form, but 
the field of consciousness itself is like space, having 
no particular locality. This will be important later 
when we discuss one of the techniques for handling 303 PAIN AND SUFFERING 
pain, which can be handled both locally and generally. There are several ways to handle pain and the spe­
cific sensation and experience of it. Where we are as 
a being with the experience of pain, and how we 
evolve in our own consciousness, will determine 
whether the pain involves suffering or not. The pain is 
one thing, and the suffering is another. The first thing to eliminate is the belief system 
that pain equals suffering because that sets up a 
whole series of programs that need to be undone. Pain is one thing, and it is quite possible to be with 
pain yet be totally indifferent to it. It is possible for 
pain to exist in the body and yet have relatively little 
or no experience of the pain or suffering with it at all 
because of an analgesic or altered (e. g. , hypnotic) 
state of mind. It is as though the pain is still present, 
but one is not connected with the pain. The pain 
exists on its own but without the person being at the 
effect of it. In other words, it is not necessary to be 
the victim of the pain. One can be with the pain in 
such a way that does not involve suffering or any kind 
of agony. To realize that this is possible is the first step 
that leads one out ofit. It is the letting go of the belief 
that pain and suffering are the same thing. An example is the belief that going to the dentist is 
necessarily painful. At one time in my life, many years 
ago, going to the dentist was agonizing. I remember 
that I always put off going because my pain threshold 
was so low. I literally had to have analgesia to get my 
teeth cleaned; I was pain prone. What is it that sets our pain threshold or our readi­
ness to experience pain. As the years went by, I learned 304 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
various spiritual and consciousness techniques and 
began to apply them to pain. The experience of pain 
began to diminish, and much to my surprise, I could go 
to the dentist and experience only moderate pain 
instead of agony. Gradually the pain became mild and 
then only just a discomfort. When I go to the dentist 
now, I don't even notice any discomfort. It seems as 
though I am in the chair for only a minute, and then I 
am out and say, "Are you done already. I can hardly 
believe you are done already. " At the end of this chapter we will discuss some 
self-hypnosis techniques, a kind of autosuggestion, 
that will reinforce what we have learned, such as how 
to utilize a somewhat altered state of consciousness 
on our behalf, how to come from a suggestible space 
to learn more quickly, how to relieve pain, and how it 
is a medium for quickly educating ourself. When you 
next go to the dentist, you may not have much time to 
learn these techniques, so we share some ways to 
speed them up. The first thing to address is the handling of acute 
pain. A person is walking along and suddenly sprains 
an ankle, resulting in agonizing pain; or they break 
their leg or suddenly have a gallbladder attack, renal 
colic, or a coronary; or they just have an ordinary acci­
dent, such as barking the shin, or hitting the head on 
something, and there is that stunning moment of pain. How does one handle that acute situation. We will 
reveal a technique to use in dealing with a variety of ill­
nesses as well as in healing both acute and chronic pain. There is a shock when we suddenly ftnd ourselffac­
ing an accident, such as scalding ourselfby pouring hot 305 PAIN AND SUFFERING 
water on our hand, or burning ourself on the stove. The 
technique that we will get a lot of mileage from is the 
whole concept of letting go of resistance. We want to 
look at the benefit of letting go and compare it with 
what the mind usually does. The mind normally resists 
an experience out of the expectation of suffering. It 
already has a program set up: "Pain means suffering, 
and I'm going to resist it. " The fantasy is that if we 
resist it, we will eliminate it. The first thing we have to know is that the relief 
of pain and suffering comes rapidly by going 180 
degrees in the opposite direction-by capitulating 
and letting go of resisting the pain. How does this 
work in everyday life. We will provide some clinical· 
examples of rapid healing resulting from techniques 
that are completely different from those ordinarily 
used by the mind in an average situation. To let go ofresistance means to completely be with 
the event and totally surrender to the sensation. It 
means to ignore the thoughts that we may be having 
about it. Instead of thinking about it, we go right into 
the direct experience ofthe sensation and totally let go 
of resisting it. For example, if we get burned by acci­
dent and let go of resisting the sensation, at first it will 
be like an overwhelm. We open the doors, the pain 
rushes in, and we totally surrender to it and let go of 
resisting it. The way to do this is to say, "More, more, 
more' The way to hold this in mind so that this is 
acceptable is to know that there is only so much pain 
in any experience. We open the door to it and let it run 
out rapidly. "I let go ofresisting this experience. I let go 
ofresisting being with it. I ignore the thoughts because 306 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
the thoughts are not going to be useful. Instead I total­
ly surrender and allow myself to experience it totally. " Itis as ifthe doors open, there is a rush, and the pain is 
totally experienced out rapidly in a very few minutes. I remember twisting my ankle in San Francisco. It 
was a severe twist that ordinarily would have required 
seeing an orthopedist, getting the ankle taped, or 
maybe even having a cast put on for six weeks or so. Instead, I sat down on a park bench, just closed my 
eyes, and surrendered to it. It came in waves of excru­
ciating pain. IfI had resisted it, I would have ended up 
in a cast. In other words, ifone resists the pain, it'turns 
an acute pain into a chronic condition. I just sat down 
on the park bench and let it swamp over me. I surren­
dered to it and waves of pain came over me. Yet, curi­
ously enough, it was devoid of suffering because I was 
choosing to experience the experience. In doing that, 
I was the master of the experience and no longer the 
victim. I was the one saying,"I choose to experience it; 
give me more of it. " As a result of that, the amount of 
suffering involved was really minimal. The alleviation of 
pain was very rapid, and within three to four minutes, 
I was up and walking again. The pain had decreased to 
a very minimal level, and as I continued walking, I kept 
letting go of resisting the pain. At a later date when I broke my left foot, I did the 
same thing. When I was chopping wood, a huge oak log 
fell on my left foot and crushed all the bones across the 
top of it. A short time later, at Christmas, I was back 
dancing in the ballroom. My foot was never in a cast; I 
did nothing about it except consciously choose to let 
go of resisting the experience. After that, I had an injury 307 PAIN AND SUFFERING 
that resulted in an amputation. Again, there was the 
same shock of the experience and then the knowing of 
how to handle it by letting go of resisting the experi­
ence, constantly letting go of resisting the sensations. As I did that, what the world would call miraculous 
happened right before my eyes. The ftrst thing I did 
after inadvertently cutting my thumb off with a circu­
lar saw was to instantly stop resisting the experience. I 
just stood still and allowed the experience to sweep in 
over me, and as I did that, within seconds the bleeding 
stopped. I have the piece of board that I was cutting, 
and there are just eight drops of blood on it. By letting 
go of resisting the experience, the digital artery that 
had been severed should have pulsated in a grotesque 
manner, but no such thing happened. A friend who severely burned himself in the 
kitchen just stood still and consciously chose not to 
resist that burn; the pain of the burn was gone in a mat­
ter of a minute or two. Later, there was no blister at all. Ordinarily, it would have become a big water blister 
and taken months to heal, but the only thing that hap­
pened was a discoloration. One time, a cabinetmaker in one of my classes 
burned both of his hands. He followed the same tech­
nique, instantly letting go of the resisting. His hands 
would normally have been covered with blisters and 
been in bandages for weeks; instead, he said that in a 
matter of three or four minutes, the pain was gone and 
there never was any blister formation. These are just a 
few examples of instant healing which demonstrate 
that the body knows how to heal itself the minute we 
let go of resistance. 308 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
Why should this be so. There is no magic involved; 
anybody can experience the truth ofthis. This has been 
a common teaching for thousands of years. Those who 
have tried Zen meditation know that the first thing 
taught is the handling of discomfort of the physical 
body by letting go of resisting the experience, cancel­
ing out thoughts about it, and becoming one with it, 
thereby disappearing it. In consciousness work, the process is called'dis­
appearing'. By totally letting go of resisting some­
thing, we disappear it out of our experience. One can 
see that the experience is prolonged by resistance. As 
long as we resist a thing and hold it, it continues its 
existence. Resistance gives it the power over us, and 
we then become the victim of that. We are at the 
effect ofthatwhichwe resist. The minute we let go of 
our resistance and become one with it, it disappears. This also means letting go ofall associated images and 
their accumulated energy. The reasons for this can be understood from refer­
ring to the Map of Consciousness. As stated earlier, 
each of the levels of consciousness has been calibrat­
ed mathematically to show its power relative to the 
other levels. The arrows indicate whether the energy 
is in a negative or a positive direction, which is very 
important in determining the way that we experience 
things. Those things in a negative direction are expe­
rienced as pain and suffering and are detrimental and 
destructive to our lives. The various energy fields influence our emotions 
and are indicators of a process going on in conscious­
ness. They influence how we see and experience the 309 PAIN AND SUFFERING 
work as well as how we experience our relationship to 
something that is greater than the personal self, which 
the world calls a Deity. It is a relationship to a greater 
field of consciousness and the powerful fields that 
come about at the higher levels. The only reason to review this is to understand 
what happens in the technique of handling acute pain. Resistance to pain is a negative energy field that cali­
brates at about 150. Ifone tries to control the pain or 
use will power against it and resist it, a negative energy 
field that calibrates at about 150 occurs within the self. This would be about the same level as the emotions of 
resentment or grief where we resent the pain and are 
angry about it. If we move up to letting go of resist­
ance, ifwe have the courage to use the technique and 
are unreservedly willing to try it, then we move up to 
the field of 250 called Neutral. Moving into Neutral 
means being in a positive, detached energy field where 
"It's okay with me, and I'm willing to experience this 
thing out. " Willingness moves us up to an energy field 
of 310 where we say yes to life and its experiences, 
where we agree and align with it, and where life 
expresses itself as a positive intention. Instead of resisting life, we go with life and surren­
der it to God. This is the wisdom of the Tao, which 
teaches that the willow tree bends with the wind, but 
the oak tree, which resists it, breaks. Instead ofresisting 
what has occurred when barking our shin, we just 
become like the willow tree and go with it; we let go 
of resisting it. We allow that experience to flow 
through the self. By doing that, we move out of a nega­
tive, painful energy field full of resentment, anger, and 310 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
fear. Fear is at the negative level of 100, a low energy 
field and far away from joy. The higher the number, the 
greater the feeling of happiness. We can then actually 
choose, be willing, and even accept that it is what is 
necessary to handle this, which moves us all the way 
up to 380, a very high energy field. When we choose to go with life, whether it is run­
ning across a rattlesnake or some other challenging 
event, and surrender to that experience, we invite and 
bring forth from within ourselves a greater power, a 
higher energy. Those people who have utilized this 
technique end up calling it a higher power, and we will 
hear them say, "I called upon my Higher Power. "Those 
who have not heard that expression may say, "It is not 
real to us, so how can we make the experiences real. " We can make them real by doing them. It is actually 
through the doingness of it that these things become 
real. By doing this exercise, we then begin. to experi­
ence that something other than the personal self is 
handling the experience, and within moments, what 
was agonizing is now very bearable. We are out of the 
resistance and fear ofthe suffering. We want to avoid or 
bypass the negative energy field of a lower energy 
power and instead move up to a higher one, because, 
as we move up to higher energies such as love, we are 
then in the energy field of 500. When we move into unconditional lovingness at 
level 540, the field has the capacity to heal; it is the 
level of healers. The field that healers generate calibrates 
at 540 and up. It is an immensely loving field, and the 
emotion is experienced as lovingness-that desire to 
be with life, to say yes to it, and to let go of resistance. PAIN AND SUFFERING 3II 
The healing from acute pain that results automati­
cally from using this technique can be experienced by 
anyone. I have used it over and over again as have the 
people who have tried it. Many people have had the 
opportunity. I remember describing the technique to a 
Sunday night class, and during the week, several mem­
bers had acute injuries where this information was life­
saving for them. It literally enabled them to carry on 
through the terrible experiences. Not long after, a big, 
burly friend visited me and gave me a hug,which broke 
three ribs. I felt them snap but did not say anything 
about it because he would have felt guilty. The ribs 
healed, but later that winter, another friend gave me a 
hug and broke three ribs on the other side ofthe body. Needless to say, I did not mention that either (so much. for my 'rib karma'). How can this technique be utilized in handling 
chronic pain, which is different from acute pain. We 
handle it in the same way as used for acute pain; how­
ever, it is done in a somewhat different manner. As we 
said before, all experiences are being experienced in 
consciousness. We look to see where the pain is being 
experienced, such as in the thumb that got cut off. First, we could say the pain is in the thumb. Actually, 
where is the pain being experienced. It moves our 
attention away from the thumb. If one says,"I move the 
focus ofattention to the top of my head," then,from the 
locus of the top of the head, we look at the area of the 
thumb and experience the painfulness of it, but where 
is the painfulness of the thumb occurring. When we 
do that,we begin to notice that the painfulness is being 
experienced everywhere-all around the body and the 312 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
energy fields of the body-it is really sort of occurring 
everywhere. Most everyone has experienced the pain that 
makes one sick to their stomach and feel flip-floppy 
and weak in the knees. We experience it everywhere. If 
we go into the top of the head, just as an exercise that 
we do, from that point we begin to experience the 
pain. We notice the pain as being everywhere and then 
use the same technique that was used in handling the 
acute pain. We let go of resisting what is being experi­
enced everywhere; it is not going on in any specific 
place. It is desirous to clearly differentiate the feeling, sen­
sation, or experience from the thoughts. We are going 
to be going on with all of life's problems, especially 
with physical illnesses, with an absolute sensation com­
ing in of what is really being experienced. The mind 
then elaborates about the experience, labels it, and 
puts concepts on it. For instance, one cannot experi­
ence an ulcer or a sprain. Those are labels, concepts, or 
diagnoses. 'Pain' is a concept as is the word'sensation'. The experiential phenomenon is beyond words, con­
cepts, or labels. What is a person actually experiencing. Experiencing what the world calls an 'ulcer' is a sensa­
tion in the abdominal area, 'right here'. Then the mind 
says,"Well, ifI can't call it an ulcer, I'm going to say it is 
burning. "That again is a concept. We have learned what 
that means and that it is a thought form. We are not 
actually experiencing a burning; instead, we are going 
inside to an experiencing of the experience, which has 
no words. We go beyond the words to the experiencing 313 PAIN AND SUFFERING 
of the experience. When the animal experiences it, it has no words 
about it; it is just what is going on. Why do we not call 
up our animal nature and just be with what is being 
experienced without saying anything about it. It is 
because all these thoughts bring in complicated pro­
grams and belief systems, and we then become subject 
to the effect ofthese thoughts. IfI say to myself,"1 have 
an ulcer," then a group of programs arises that go with 
'ulcer'. Because of the nature of the mind, we begin to 
experience all the programs because of the power of 
the mind. The most difficult concept for people to 
grasp when they enter research work in the field of 
consciousness itself is the realization of the power of 
the mind and how influential it really is. We just cannot 
be careless about our thoughts. Once we understand the power of the mind and 
the nature of thought, we begin to realize that one of 
the principles of consciousness is that we are subject 
only to what we hold in mind. This one sentence is the 
key to the healing ofall illnesses, pain, and suffering. We 
are subject only to what we hold in mind. The mind 
is extraordinarily powerful. The great. difficulty that 
people have is in comprehending how powerful the 
mind is. Therefore, in dealing with pain or suffering of 
any kind, it is first necessary to discontinue, let go, and 
cancel all our belief systems about that. Research has 
shown that it is the belief system itself which literally 
creates the experience. The incident is an expression of 
that belief system. It is as if the mind justifies what it 
believes to be true. We can know if this is true by beginning to cancel 314 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
the belief that pain and suffering are the same thing. In 
handling pain, either acute or chronic, we have to can­
cel all thoughts since they are really belief systems. Instead, we have to go for radical truth, radical in that 
we release everything except the wordless experienc­
ing of what is literally being experienced and let go of 
the resistance to it. When we do that, we will experi­
ence relief from the suffering, and curiously enough, 
we will reach a point ~here we do not care whether 
the 'pain' is present or not. That may be a difficult thing to accept in the begin­
ning because the mind wants to be rid of the pain. This 
therapeutic approach is to accept it instead, to let the 
sensations be present but move away from them. In 
other words, it is like the pain is circumscribed, and 
now we begin to disengage from that localized pain. It 
is the same as when we experience morphine with the 
pain ofa broken ankle. The pain is present, and then we 
begin to feel ourselves move away from that pain. It is 
no longer us or ours. In that example, the narcotic does 
what we are explaining can be done by consciousness. The narcotic does not actually do it, but it enables our 
consciousness to make this very move. However, we 
can learn to make this very move without being trig­
gered by a narcotic. In the past, I have had to do that. I have been 
severely allergic to any kind of analgesic, narcotic, or 
anesthetic for many years, and over those years, I have 
had all kinds of severe illnesses and accidents, plus sur­
gery without anesthesia. Out of necessity, instead of 
resorting to those usual methods of treating pain, I 
have had to investigate and discover the capacity and 315 PAIN AND SUFFERING 
power of consciousness itself. I found that all the anal­
gesics did was allow consciousness to exercise its own 
power. Therefore, we can own thatwe have the power 
within our own consciousness to achieve the same 
results without the analgesic. We begin to move away from the pain by letting go 
of resisting it and not wanting to change it. We just let 
the sensations be present and then shift our way of 
being with them to the pOint where we do not care if 
they exist. It may sound amazing that we do not even 
care if they are present. It is very simple. We have been 
upset over many things in our lives. We have felt that 
we have to do something about them, but suddenly at 
one point, we let them go and are indifferent to them. For example, there might have been a problem in the 
back yard that ~as driving us crazy, and one day we 
said, "Oh, the heck with it. " Suddenly, we moved' from 
trying to do something about it, to control it, to change 
it, and exert our will, to just letting it be there. (When 
we try to change people, places, or circumstances, we 
see that we are up against the impossible, and the only 
thing we create is suffering). The minute we just let it 
be, our experience of it disappears. We move up to a 
state of painlessness in the presence of pain. The sensations coming from a painful injury are 
going on, and who cares about it. The sensations from 
the amputation are going on, but I do not care about it. It makes no difference. Ifthey are there, they are there, 
and if they are not there, they are not. That all comes 
about through the very simple practice in which we 
are totally indifferent. Most of the pain I have experi­
enced in my own life eventually disappeared of its 316 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
own. It may take minutes in the case of an acute injury, 
or it may take months for chronic pain. Other people 
have reported the same experiences from using this 
technique. I had one illness that took well over a year of con­
stantly letting go, constantly releasing, and constantly 
surrendering before it finally disappeared, so I know 
that the sensations will eventually disappear, but I am 
not doing these things to try to achieve that. That 
would be trying to change it and get rid ofit. I do know 
as a matter of clinical observation that as a person lets 
go of resisting the pain, there comes a point where 
they don't care ifit is there or not, and then suddenly 
one morning they wake up and it is gone. We don't let 
go of resisting it in order to get rid of the pain-that is 
a happy side effect. When we reach the point where 
we do not care whether the pain is present or not, then 
what difference does it make, because at that point,we 
are immune to the pain. It is very good to know that our mind has this 
power and capacity, and that all we need is someone to 
point it out to us and encourage us to try itsowe can 
see that it works. There is no need to be in a state ofsuf­
fering over pain of any kind. Pain is one thing; suffering 
is another. We have to say that over and over to ourself 
and begin to utilize these techniques. Then we will 
experience there is a'me' that is separate from the 
pain. It is like we are not connected with it anymore, 
and we are something even greater than and beyond 
that which is painful. What is the meaning of life's experiences. The 
meaning determines how we experience them, how 317 PAIN AND SUFFERING 
we feel about them. Isn't that so. It does not make any 
difference at all what happens in the world if we can 
be with it in a certain way. It is not what is happening 
out there but how we are with it. People who are quite 
evolved can be with situations that look dramatically 
tragic and yet be unaffected by them. One of the things we can do about pain is to con­
sciously progress in the movement and growth of our 
own consciousness. Pain proneness comes about as a 
result of holding a lot of negative thoughts and feelings 
within ourselves. Spiritual work and evolution have an 
overall value. The whole process offorgiveness was not 
really heard about much except within religion, and 
now it has become almost a social phenomenon. When 
we. go about our social life now and somebody brings 
up a resentment, the other people will look at the 
person because they know the next step for them is to 
learn how to forgive it, or they will be at the painful 
effect of it. All pain and suffering come about as a result of 
what we are already holding in mind. Why are some 
people so susceptible to pain and suffering, and for 
others, it is very transitory. The pain and the suffering 
go through the surface of them but not into their core. They can get extremely upset over something, but who 
they really are within remains unruffled. Somehow 
there is a differentiation between who one is and the 
experience. The true Self is totally unruffled and allows 
the experience to flow through the self. The upset, 
such as emotional conflict or whatever it happens to 
be, may last for hours, but the true inner Self does not 
even participate in the upset. That is the differential 318 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
between what is one's real self and what is being expe­
rienced. It is the letting go of the habit of identifying 
that one is the experience. One is that in which the 
experiencing is happening, but one is not the experi­
ence itself. How can we bring about this evolution and growth 
in ourselves. That takes us back to the Map of 
Consciousness to fmd how we re te to chronic pain in 
order to transcend it and no 10 ger be in a state of 
suffermg about it. Near the bottom of the chart is the energy field of 
Guilt at calibration level 130. Pro onged and excessive 
guilt, for example, makes us pron to sickness, accident 
injury, pain, and suffering. The vi w of the world that 
comes out of this guiltiness resuI s in a constant habit 
of sin and suffering and brings bout self-hatred. The 
process in consciousness is on of self-destruction 
arising from the self-hatred. As a r suit, one ofthe belief 
systems to give up is that guilt a d suffering have any 
particular value. As we go up the energy fields, we can 
see· that those who approach t e fields of the saints 
and the great beings are gettin closer to God and 
farther from guilt, pain, and sufferIng. As we experience 
the Ultimate Reality, we go thrhugh the doors of a 
progressive lovingness becaUS. love increases and 
expands as one moves up throu joy and ecstasy to a 
state of peace. We have to give up worshipin the god ofsuffering. Christians have to give up solelyl worshiping the God 
of the cruciflxion, the Christ of the cruciftxion, and 
move on to the Christ ofthe resurrection. The message 
was not that of death, sin, and suffering. People who 319 PAIN AND SUFFERING 
identify themselves as a body-the strict materialists­
look at the Christ on the cross as a body and come out 
with pain, sin, guilt, and suffering. Was that the mes­
sage. Is that what Christ died for, to teach everybody 
that we are a physical body. Or was his message the 
direct opposite. His message was that we are not limited. We have to substitute our confused ideas and begin to 
look at moving towards a lovingness and a higher state 
of consciousness to learn that the message was the 
Christ of the Resurrection. Now we have to give up the belief that penance, 
guilt, sin, and suffering are somehow of enormous spir­
itual benefit. Frankly, all the thousands of people I have 
clinically treated over fifty years who had chronic pain, 
guilt, sin, and suffering were the most selfish and self­
centered persons I have ever met. Chronic pain and 
suffering does not make people enlightened, loving 
beings. It usually makes them cranky, horrible, selfish, 
and self-centered, which brings them up to the next 
level-that of self-pity. Most people with chronic pain 
are into self-pity, grief, 'poor me', and the endless fear 
ofthe continuation ofthe state,wondering ifit is going 
to get worse. They continually resist it and have the 
constant desire to get away from it. The bottom area of the Map of Consciousness 
reflects the negative energy fields. The people are 
very, very angry. The anger of the people in chronic 
pain is enormous. They are stuck in it. Some are even 
proud of the fact that nobody has been able to help 
them. They grimly tell about all the doctors they have 
seen, all the treatments they have had, and how all of 
those things have not worked. 320 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
It is necessary to move up to Courage, which con­
tains the capacity to look at the fact that something can 
be done about the way we can be with the pain. The 
way to be with it is by using the simple 'letting go of 
resisting' and having the willingness to do so. Are we 
willing to try something. Do we have the courage to 
try letting go of resisting the pain and ending up at 
least detached from it in order to move out ofthis state 
of suffering. The lower energy fields are all negative 
states of suffering. The arrows ofthe energy fields above 200 all point 
upwards. This means there is less and less sufferin~ as 
we move up into Joy. How can we be with that chr6niC 
condition. Can we be willing to be with it and let go of 
resisting it. Can we begin to differentiate and accept 
that we are that which is with the pain. Can we accept 
our capacity to be with it in a state of nonsuffering. When looking at the emotions that go with the 
energy fields below 200, we can see those that go with 
chronic pain. There are self-hatred and the feeling of 
being a victim. The process going on in consciousness 
is a destructive one of hopelessness. We think nothing 
can be done about our condition. It is worth remem­
bering the nature ofthe power of the mind-that what 
we hold in mind literally creates our experience. The 
person who says, "My condition is hopeless" then 
creates a condition that is hopeless and resistive to 
treatment. If the person in Grief moves up to Apathy, they are 
in a constant state ofregret, with the feeling ofloss and 
despondency. These are feelings that are only human. They are not feelings that anyone wants to feel guilty 321 PAIN AND SUFFERING 
about; they are feelings people want to understand. Through understanding, they become resolved. When I cut my thumb. off, I went through all these 
feelings. First was the feeling that I was somehow 
being punished or attacked by the forces of retribution 
or something similar. The pain was acute, and I looked 
at it and felt hopeless. I felt despair that the thumb 
could never be replaced, and so on. I went into grief 
and mourning, as though I had lost a loved one. There 
was a fear of the consequences and a fear that the pain 
and suffering were going to continue. I felt myself 
resisting the desire to get away from the injury, the dis­
ability, the pain, the suffering, the surgery, and the rest 
of it. I was feeling angry-angry at life, at fate, and at 
myself. These feelings are understandable-they are 
onlyvery human. Then there was the moving into Pride 
that I was going to do something about it, and then into 
Courage to begin to look at the techniques that I knew 
work in this kind of circumstance. Next arose the will­
ingness to begin utilizing them and let go of resisting, 
and then using that technique to eventually move up 
into the acceptance of it so that ifit is there, it is okay, 
and ifit is not there, that is okay as well. Neutral is an interesting energy field, the one in 
which we say it is okay either way. When we totally 
release our resistance to the pain, we do not care ifit is 
present or not. There are the willingness to be forgiv­
ing and the desire to eventually move into compassion. There is acceptance of the human condition and the 
human protoplasmic experience without being resent­
ful about it, without going into self-pity, without being 
angry, without being prideful and going into a'make 322 HEALING AND RECOVERY 
wrong', and without attacking ourself. If we do this, 
then we can move up to an energy field called Love, or 
even joy. I can only go back to my personal experience 
ofwhat is possible. When somebody shares theirexpe­
rience with us, we learn what is possible in human con­
sciousness. As I moved through this experience, I began to call 
on the Power greater than myself. I kept surrendering 
the pain, turning it over to that Power. 1 remember 
going to the emergency room and informing them that 
1couldnot take anesthesia oranalgesia ofanykind. The 
surgeon was somewhat perplexed about how this was 
going to be handled, and 1 said, "I have my own ways. " He relaxed, feeling that somehow the pain was being 
handled. 1 went within myself, detached, and let go of 
resisting. I called upon the God ofmy own understand­
ing,that aspect ofmy greater Self. We can believe there 
is some energy field greater than the personal self that 
has unlimited power. So I constantly surrendered to 
God throughout the procedure. When we are in a situ­
ation like that, overwhelmed by excruciating pain and 
suffering with all ¥e props pulled out, this is when we 
realize what we r~ally believe in; it is a great opportu­
nity for growth. I 
As 1 surrendertd and let go of resisting the experi­
ence, suddenly it tas as though I was lifted out of my 
body, and I went fto a state of profound inner peace, 
an incredible state. of stillness, exquisite inner serenity, 
and joy. 1 realized. that something other than my per­
sonal self was han~ling the experience and the pain. What we have learned to do with chronic pain is to 
surrender it to G@d, or to whatever one believes in 
i PAIN AND SUFFERING 323 
(e.
A God who ignores them.
What kind of God would a person see if they hold the energy field of Grief?
A God who holds back from them, making them feel separated from God.
What is the nature of the God seen by a person at the level of Desire?
Letting go of resistance and accepting the pain, allowing it to flow through without judgment or reaction.
What is the key to handling chronic pain, according to the author?
The body does not experience anything; the mind experiences sensations, and the experience is happening within consciousness.
What is the relationship between the body and the mind, according to the author?
The mind is incredibly powerful, and by letting go of resistance and beliefs, one can handle pain and suffering and move towards healing.
What is the author's opinion on the power of the mind in relation to pain and suffering?