Principles of Healing: A Discussion

[Aion]

So I realized that there will be many discussions in here regarding peoples' paths of healing as well as many different modalities but I thought that first I would open a 'general' thread so that there can be a wider discussion of the principles of healing.

The reason for making this thread in particular is to do a couple things. First the intention is to make a space where there can be some debate and discussion that is contained within its own thread. The idea here is to keep the 'drama' of debate and 'technical' discussion between all the different types of modalities or approaches in an area where there is 'neutral ground'. In otherwords, this is so threads about modalities or techniques can focus on those modalities themselves, rather than every thread turning in to a place for comparison. This is the place for comparisons and general discussion on healing principles.

Secondly, this is intended to make more space for personal healing threads and as such to give any such debate that might come up in those threads a place to take place so as to not derail those personal healing threads which may often include sensitive feelings, traumas, hurts or fear. As such, if you want to have a discussion about a healing modality that someone is suggesting in a thread you can bring the topic here to analyze rather than to distract from what may be an emotional discussion. The intention here is to give a place for people to bicker over details if that is what they feel they need to do. Of course, if your thoughts are framed within the context of the thread then all is well.

Thirdly, discussion! This thread is to talk and to open communication about the principles of healing in general.

So, to start with that, let me ask you - what do you believe are the core principles involved with healing and how can one go about defining and utilizing this concept?

Many blessings to you all, in peace.

[AnthroHeart]

I think healing is the smoothing out of distortion. I usually do this through offering a higher (or different) vibration that one's field can resonate to.

[Aion]

What do you think that means in the day to day life?

[sjel]

I have a question.

Can you heal others when you yourself are not fully healed? Is your capacity to heal only as great as the extent to which you are personally healed? If the intent to heal is pure, does it matter what state you are in?

[Aion]

I do not believe it is possible to heal others at all. The idea of 'healers' is kind of misleading. The only one who can heal is oneself. Others can only aid in providing a condition or a configuration which one may accept for oneself. Thus, I would not correlate one's own healing with the healing of others.

I would also make this point that healing is often treated as a sort of miraculous idea. While a surgeon or doctor may provide the remedy or the configuration it is through your choice to approach the doctor that actually is the root of the healing itself. Kind of like "when the student is ready, the teacher will appear", I think that when the self is ready to heal, 'healers' will appear to help facilitate that. For myself, I am currently awaiting surgery. I know the surgeon will 'do the physical work' on my body, but it was up to me to pursuit the long path to surgery and it will be up to me to heal my body in the process. The surgeon however will help to place me in a configuration whereby healing will be much easier. That is the benefit of the healer, in my opinion, is to catalyze the healing process.

I think it is important to not be attached to the outcome. To get it in your head that you can 'heal' people is to set yourself up for a lot of pressure and disappointment because healing is almost never instant and miraculous. Now, you can absolutely provide healing space, energy and intention - but ultimately the task of healing is up to the one who is healing. Asking for help may be a big step in this journey for many people and helping someone doesn't mean curing them like Jesus but sometimes just a bit of compassion and support in the moment can go a long way.

I think of the many stories of individuals who have been about to commit suicide when someone suddenly decides to approach them and engage them. One small act of kindness can save a life. You don't need to be a saint, you just have to care a bit.

[AnthroHeart]

What do you think that means in the day to day life?

You mentioned it in your recent post above. To have compassion. That is something I am working on myself. Learning how I can be more compassionate to others.

[Aion]

For me, the principles of healing revolve around the concept of 'wholeness', which is where the word 'health' actually comes from. Health and Whole essentially mean the same thing. This is because if you are whole, then you are One and if you are One then you are the Creator. The healing journey then comes to 'an end' when one is 'healthy', but that is only for the self. Usually individuals once they heal themselves fully they offer themselves either to help heal others or they pursue some other personal pursuit. The whole concept of healing revolves around 'being healthy', which means to be whole. The whole concept of the Law of One is thus tricky this way because if you look at it as a way of reaching healing which is the process of becoming healthy, you have to be willing to look at the opposite of health; illness.

I think this is where healing has been a difficult field for many people because so many people just want to be healthy but also that they suffer very much so from their dis-eases. Many people have sought after the understanding in the Law of One because they feel it brings healing, but I can also attest through my long period of time on this forum and interacting with people that it doesn't always end well. Not everyone swallows the "Law of One" pill right away.

The reason I bring this up is because I feel there is a lot of pain that has come from the distortions which have spread from the concepts in this material and that healing needs to be approached from a wider perspective than just the concepts offered therein.

I think that healing as an idea exists with 'the many'. It isn't something that is necessary or relevant in 'the One'. So, why does it need to come up in the discussion? Admittedly I think it does little more than distract. I do like the Ra Material, I do, but the healing modality that might be discerned from within it is actually quite shallow, despite the profundity of the words. I apologize to any who might be offended by my saying that and some may certainly disagree, but while it presents some very deep ideas, it does not excavate them to any meaningful degree without the influence of the individual.

This is my key point is that healing is about the individual, not the modality, or technique or tradition. So these things are not actually at all relevant to the principles of healing, in my opinion. Instead I think healing is an outgrowth of emotional and creative expression, which may take many different forms, as well as the will to live. The willingness to live causes one to seek out healing and repair opportunities and to act upon them. This is why mental health can be so totally devastating and the body can deteriorate under such mental conditions, there is a disconnect from the will and desire to live.

I think that in some way all illness, disease and thus healing is related to death. Whether it is spiritual, physical, mental or emotional death, it is something that terrifies many. Healing and health in the traditional sense are related to the physical body and thus the desire to keep the body running for as long as possible was seen as the desire of health. There are also many cultural layers to health. For example in a society with many traditions they may view individuals who are more related in terms of beliefs and mind as being more healthy, with those with differing beliefs being sick or ill or corrupted. Health has become a currency in a manner in that it has become something of a commodity to be traded, exploited and capitalized upon.

So, I think you kind of have to scrap all of that. Go in to silence, and find for yourself what healing means to you. Ask yourself first if you even need it, or if you are already whole.

[Diana]

This is my key point is that healing is about the individual, not the modality, or technique or tradition. So these things are not actually at all relevant to the principles of healing, in my opinion. Instead I think healing is an outgrowth of emotional and creative expression, which may take many different forms, as well as the will to live. The willingness to live causes one to seek out healing and repair opportunities and to act upon them. This is why mental health can be so totally devastating and the body can deteriorate under such mental conditions, there is a disconnect from the will and desire to live.

I agree with you here. However, there are a couple of things to consider.

One is that the belief systems in one's subconscious, which may be derived from programming by media or culture, in other words, based on untruths, may conflict with "knowingness" of self. The underlying authentic self may understand the true nature of distortions or disease, but the subconscious mind may believe certain things such as a pill from a doctor will fix something (a rather exaggerated example).

Another is that we do have physical bodies which operate within a construct here; so if you ingest poison you become poisoned. But to that, there is the possibility of overcoming that poison much like the Bene Gesserit in Dune, even physically. But is that efficacious to depend upon? Why not optimize health in 3D physicality first and respect the construct we agreed to be part of? Or perhaps we are here to bust the system open; or, to transcend the physical.

Just throwing in some ideas to widen the conversation.

[Diana]

I have a question.

Can you heal others when you yourself are not fully healed? Is your capacity to heal only as great as the extent to which you are personally healed? If the intent to heal is pure, does it matter what state you are in?

This is a great question.

My opinion is that trying to heal someone without being healed one's self, derives from a desire to heal. This desire is in place because healing is needed for self, and so empathy is highlighted for others as well. 

In my opinion, the greatest healers would be those who have no desire to heal. They are healed. And their healed energy translates itself to others. It's not that they don't have empathy or compassion—what I mean is that they have no desire to fix anything. They simply exist as healed entities who by their energetic examples, lift the whole, or by their nature translate a healing state to those who recognize it and are attracted to it.

Being of service to others can be difficult when coupled with free will. Here is a simplistic example. A friend has cancer. The friend wants to live (in his/her conscious state). But the friend's chosen life path is to balance some karma by suffering through cancer. That path may end with healing or not, depending on how things unfold. So here is my point—the desire to heal the friend may be in conflict with the friend's soul journey. So in my opinion, compassion and unconditional support are best—not trying to heal the friend. And by being around the friend unconditionally, the health you have will be an energhetic field that the friend can access, and in that way you have provided all that is needed. This is my working theory anyway.

[sjel]

In my opinion, the greatest healers would be those who have no desire to heal.

Aha! That is a great point. One of those nice paradoxical truths that clicks.

[David Junior]

I have a question.

Can you heal others when you yourself are not fully healed? Is your capacity to heal only as great as the extent to which you are personally healed? If the intent to heal is pure, does it matter what state you are in?

This is a great question.

My opinion is that trying to heal someone without being healed one's self, derives from a desire to heal. This desire is in place because healing is needed for self, and so empathy is highlighted for others as well. 

In my opinion, the greatest healers would be those who have no desire to heal. They are healed. And their healed energy translates itself to others. It's not that they don't have empathy or compassion—what I mean is that they have no desire to fix anything. They simply exist as healed entities who by their energetic examples, lift the whole, or by their nature translate a healing state to those who recognize it and are attracted to it.

Being of service to others can be difficult when coupled with free will. Here is a simplistic example. A friend has cancer. The friend wants to live (in his/her conscious state). But the friend's chosen life path is to balance some karma by suffering through cancer. That path may end with healing or not, depending on how things unfold. So here is my point—the desire to heal the friend may be in conflict with the friend's soul journey. So in my opinion, compassion and unconditional support are best—not trying to heal the friend. And by being around the friend unconditionally, the health you have will be an energhetic field that the friend can access, and in that way you have provided all that is needed. This is my working theory anyway.

is does help to be in a good state for you must be free flowing without any blockages for that energy must FLOW FROM ONE HAND TO THE NEXT without interuption  to unblock the one being healed.

[Agua del Cielo]

I have a question.

Can you heal others when you yourself are not fully healed? Is your capacity to heal only as great as the extent to which you are personally healed? If the intent to heal is pure, does it matter what state you are in?

That would depend on the, lets say method of healing!

In the case of "energy healing", I would say being healed completely would not be required.
I have to say though, that I am not familiar with stuff like Reiki for example, so my experience is limited on that.

The kind of healing I found most effective on my path, would be different, i will outline it shortly:

What I mean is a therapeutic or maybe shamanic approach. (I am NOT talking about psychoanalysis, which many think about when talking about therapy).
In short, this requires ultimately getting to the very root of the issue, distortion or how you want to name it.
You are going back to the very situation the issue developed.
In the case of lets say sexual abuse in childhood, you are re-experiencing (it takes quite some time to get there) the very situation when this happened in your early life.
But this time you are experiencing it consciously with support from a therapist or shaman.

by doing this, you release the energy that created the blockage, and additionally you replace the "bad experience" by a new, better experience.
Just to outline this very short...

The therapist or healer does create a space of absolute safety and unconditional love, where the client can let go of control and suppression.
ultimately the little child will show and be in the original traumatic situation.
Under now circumstances may the client, which is a little child now, be left alone, neither on a physical nor a heart-level, otherwise a re-traumatization will occur!

In a work such as this, it is ABSOLUTELY necessary, that the therapist has already healed the issue in question in him/herself.
If thehealer hast healed this, he would resonate with the energy and emotions arising in the "client".
As long as thehealer has not been ready to face this energy in himself, he cannot allow the client to get to this emotions and would either have to keep the client from getting there (by unconscious manipulation) or has to cut the connection (heart-connection) to the client.

This would mean, under no circumstamces should a work such as this be performed, when thehealer hasnt resolved these emotions. When thehealer still believes, he even doesnt have theseissues in himself, it is even worse, because then dissociation and denial in the healer would be even greater!

A side note:
This is exactly what happens, when people go on psychoactive substances and are neither prepared nor accompanied by a reliable person. The trauma can arise, but not be healed, so a retraumatization occurs.

[Agua del Cielo]

Not sure if i should post this here:

Many have expressed the need for safety here, i guess smc brought this up.

I would say the very first thing would be to make this forum be members-only accessible.
When we're talking about healing, practical healing, not sharing theories, things will get extremely personal.
For the person asking for help, these issues will be very difficult and intimate, no matter how others might view this.
Creating a safe environment and a space where one can express freely would be the very first thing to do!
I would even say, this is the very first principle of healing

A forum accessible by whoever stunbles across the site is not what i would consider safe.

[AnthroHeart]

Not sure if i should post this here:

Many have expressed the need for safety here, i guess smc brought this up.

I would say the very first thing would be to make this forum be members-only accessible.
When we're talking about healing, practical healing, not sharing theories, things will get extremely personal.
For the person asking for help, these issues will be very difficult and intimate, no matter how others might view this.
Creating a safe environment and a space where one can express freely would be the very first thing to do!
I would even say, this is the very first principle of healing

A forum accessible by whoever stunbles across the site is not what i would consider safe.

Good idea. I would recommend PMing B4th_Austin or B4th_Plenum about securing the Healing forum, and see what they have to say.

[Aion]

Not sure if i should post this here:

Many have expressed the need for safety here, i guess smc brought this up.

I would say the very first thing would be to make this forum be members-only accessible.
When we're talking about healing, practical healing, not sharing theories, things will get extremely personal.
For the person asking for help, these issues will be very difficult and intimate, no matter how others might view this.
Creating a safe environment and a space where one can express freely would be the very first thing to do!
I would even say, this is the very first principle of healing

A forum accessible by whoever stunbles across the site is not what i would consider safe.

That's actually not a bad idea, feel free to suggest it to the mods if they do not catch it here.

[Aion]

I have a question.

Can you heal others when you yourself are not fully healed? Is your capacity to heal only as great as the extent to which you are personally healed? If the intent to heal is pure, does it matter what state you are in?

This is a great question.

My opinion is that trying to heal someone without being healed one's self, derives from a desire to heal. This desire is in place because healing is needed for self, and so empathy is highlighted for others as well. 

In my opinion, the greatest healers would be those who have no desire to heal. They are healed. And their healed energy translates itself to others. It's not that they don't have empathy or compassion—what I mean is that they have no desire to fix anything. They simply exist as healed entities who by their energetic examples, lift the whole, or by their nature translate a healing state to those who recognize it and are attracted to it.

Being of service to others can be difficult when coupled with free will. Here is a simplistic example. A friend has cancer. The friend wants to live (in his/her conscious state). But the friend's chosen life path is to balance some karma by suffering through cancer. That path may end with healing or not, depending on how things unfold. So here is my point—the desire to heal the friend may be in conflict with the friend's soul journey. So in my opinion, compassion and unconditional support are best—not trying to heal the friend. And by being around the friend unconditionally, the health you have will be an energhetic field that the friend can access, and in that way you have provided all that is needed. This is my working theory anyway.

Yes, this comes back to the idea of a 'natural' state which you so often see. I think that 'health' and thus wholeness is actually the natural state and sometimes part of the difficulty in getting in to a healthy state is convincing ourselves we ARE whole. Not just that we CAN, but that we ARE, right now. This is, however, more difficult with physical issues. I have had physical difficulties for quite some time now and I do also believe that sometimes or maybe often we induce our own dis-ease through our own actions and choices, however removed from the actual cause. There have been many humbling lessons in injury and illness and a greater compassionate viewpoint has grown in some cases, while in others I have come to know the darker sides of emotion.

I do agree that thinking that you can heal anybody is probably shooting yourself in the foot. Instead, I think it is more practical to think in terms of how can you support their healing of themselves. This is more how it works I think. Sometimes it has to be mutual it seems. Mutuality might have more to do with it than we suspect. In a way, people might be drawn together as a natural function of the healing process.

I think healing can be viewed from two perspectives - microcosmic and macrocosmic. Microcosmic healing is that of our body, mind and souls in the incarnation and the manifestation. That is the ongoing balancing process of our complexes. Macrocosmic healing is the process of the Creator as it perceives and explores the density by division and gradually returning to a perspective of wholeness and completion. These two are tied together of course, with the microcosmic healing acting as the 'gears' of this sort of giant mechanism and the macrocosmic healing acting as the body and chassis. It is through the work of many lives 'brought to wholeness' and completion that the greater healing of the Creator returning unto itself is accomplished without needing to be accomplished.

[Diana]

What I mean is a therapeutic or maybe shamanic approach. (I am NOT talking about psychoanalysis, which many think about when talking about therapy).
In short, this requires ultimately getting to the very root of the issue, distortion or how you want to name it.
You are going back to the very situation the issue developed.
In the case of lets say sexual abuse in childhood, you are re-experiencing (it takes quite some time to get there) the very situation when this happened in your early life.
But this time you are experiencing it consciously with support from a therapist or shaman.

I know a little about shamanic work—soul retrieval for instance, and inner child work. I'm wondering, from your experienced point of view, is this something that must be done in person with the shaman/therapist or can it be done long distance? And, if a person does this inner work by one's self, do you know of ways to get to the blocked-off trauma and support one's self when actually re-experiencing the trauma?

[Diana]

I do agree that thinking that you can heal anybody is probably shooting yourself in the foot. Instead, I think it is more practical to think in terms of how can you support their healing of themselves. This is more how it works I think. Sometimes it has to be mutual it seems. Mutuality might have more to do with it than we suspect. In a way, people might be drawn together as a natural function of the healing process.

I agree. And this seems to be the mechanism in place behind many things—the law of attraction if you will. Sometimes there may be "contracts" in place between individuals to meet and play out various life experiences, but as we go along in this realm, we have a complex array of energy signals which may "line up" with others' and so they are attracted. I think this sort of energy alignment is what underlies many dynamics of life, and is also related to "being asleep." If one is, for example, anesthetized by the media, then one may not speak with a homeless person though the energy signals are lined up, or talk with that overweight person, or go to that 3rd-world country, and so on, artificially avoiding the energetic attraction which is seeking balance. Balance seeking happens in nature automatically and can be observed everywhere, which is a clue to the underlying natural processes of this existence.

You also mentioned that wholeness is the natural state. I think this is demonstrated easily by recalling any sickness and subsequent healing. When one is "better" and healed from any illness, even if it's just a cold, one feels like one's self again. And further, when one is ill, one is forced to deal with that illness—and you gave some good examples of how this experience can inform beyond the physical—but when one is healthy, one doesn't think about illness at all because it feels "right" to be healthy, it feels like one's self. Yikes, this is difficult to articulate.

[Aion]

When you are in an illness, you don't really know what it feels like to be healthy. I think that is an important flip-side there. There is an idea in regular medicine which is called homeostasis and this refers to the overall balance of the functions of the body. Good homeostasis = good function = good health, as the idea goes. I would extend this concept beyond the body to also the mind, emotions and 'spirit'. There is a holistic homeostasis which is a balance between all the functional elements of the self, inner and outer, and so the process of healing usually leads to some balance struck between all these elements. Keep in mind these might not all work to the same capacity in different people. Some people may have less energy in one element and so balance it with more in another, it is unique to each person and situation.

Also, life is full of surprises. If you break your leg somehow there are physical steps you should take first before you get focused on the metaphysical. This was something I learned in my previous experiences with 'metaphysical first aid' is that you should always treat physical symptoms and issues first and then after that work to stabilize a person metaphysically. I think this is also part of the 'healing' approach of someone who wants to aid others. Be concerned about all their needs, not just the ones you think they should be concerned about. If there are physical needs, see what you can do about those first. Then work with mind, emotions, etc. This is also a hard one to follow through because it means using your time and energy directly.

[Agua del Cielo]

I know a little about shamanic work—soul retrieval for instance, and inner child work. I'm wondering, from your experienced point of view, is this something that must be done in person with the shaman/therapist or can it be done long distance? And, if a person does this inner work by one's self, do you know of ways to get to the blocked-off trauma and support one's self when actually re-experiencing the trauma?

edit: a quick note for clarification
you obviously dont start with accessing the core of the trauma, but begin with surface, the parts that are already accessibla and work your way through over the years

This is very hard to answer in a little post, but i'll try to give a rough overview:

For this kind of work a real-life person-to-person contact is required, for several reasons

- the client will regress to the little child he was in the situation in question. This means, it is possible that she ends up in a baby-state, where she cannot be reached by language, thought-based communication and so on.
in many cases, body-contact or even skin-to-skin comtact is the only way to make a connection
- the client will be in an extremely stressful situation, not being able to focus on anything else than her experience at that moment, no way to lead a phone call then
-catalyst: these experiences are buried very deep, you will need a physical presence that serves as a catalyst and triggers the buried experience
-trust: most trauma happened with a human counterpart when you were in a helpless state, you will need a reliable (!) human (!) counterpart that 1) creates an atmosphere of being safe and protected 2)can make a connection to the client in that helpless state


many issues/blockages/ traumata can not be healed alone! eberything that developed through being left alone for example can only behealed, if you are NOT alone. your system will not allow this experience to arise, if there is no reliable human countepart.

Once this has been done (concerning one special issue, for example contactlessness) this serves as an initiation that makes yourself a reliable cou terpart for yourself, after this initiation, you can do the rest of this specific healing alone.

The same is true for inner child work in general, it is extremely helpful, if not required, to experience at least one iniational healing with a reliable human present. After that, a lot of work can be done alone!

For better understanding it is helpful to understand the "realmess" of the immer child as well as the mature of trauma:

lets say you experienced heavy violence when you where a couple weeks old.
It is impossible to process this experience the moment it happens.
This is actually where most of our "beliefs" stem from, the root of them.

There is no way to chamge this belief, "i cannot survive this" unless you are IN the very situation.

The consequence is, you wont let it arise. this little child is active ALL the time and blocks the experience ALL the time, you just dont have access to it.
When you get closer, you rebert to this child, imcluding its beliefs, so if its convinced it cant survive because its alone, it blocks the experience in order to survive.
The little child is the one who decides, if the situation is reliable and safe, not the adult!

Secondly, in trauma, the energy involved is beyond imagination, some here might have experienced this.
Many people "remember" a part (!) of a traumatic situation, for example the fact that it occured.
Usually, a tiny part of the emotions involved still are experienceable.
But this is only a microscopic part of the original energy.

So, without at least an iniation experience, you simply will leave yourself alone , in case such emotions arise.
Be aware, each time you do not experience a present emotion fully, you leave the imner child alone!

Which leads to the second part:
Dealing with these emotions ultimately "only" requires to be as present as possible with them, being fully in the "now" and experiencing them consciously.
This takes constamt practice, you learn to stay present with more and more difficult emotions and you learn to hold more and more energy.
You cannot access or unblock trauma from zero to full, you work your way through so to say.

Almost all of my older posts suggest methods for this kind of work by the way.

If the preliminary work has been done, many methods like breathwork and/or many if not most methods to enter altered states of consciousness ( for example shamanic drumming) can help to access these buried experiences.

But, remember, there is a tremendous amount of fear involved, tjis fear, although you might not feel it, keeps you from accessing these energies and ultimately creates the blockage!
So, only working against the blockage and trying to "break it open" does not work, you have to acknowledge and reduce the blockages that block the blockage first

i hope this wasnt too confusing, and did answer the question at least a bit!

I will share, in a dedicated thread, more of these methods in a more in-depth way!

[AnthroHeart]

Quantum Touch is one of the most powerful methods I've seen for healing. I did it to myself once and my whole body felt like a live electric wire.
It's been said that Quantum Touch can shift bones fluidly.
It uses breath work too. I have a book somewhere on it, but nowadays I prefer my own methodology that is much more gentle.

[Diana]

i hope this wasnt too confusing, and did answer the question at least a bit!

I will share, in a dedicated thread, more of these methods in a more in-depth way!

I think you explained it very well in a synopsis, and it makes sense. Thank you. I will definitely be interested in more in-depth information.

[Diana]

Also, life is full of surprises. If you break your leg somehow there are physical steps you should take first before you get focused on the metaphysical. This was something I learned in my previous experiences with 'metaphysical first aid' is that you should always treat physical symptoms and issues first and then after that work to stabilize a person metaphysically. I think this is also part of the 'healing' approach of someone who wants to aid others. Be concerned about all their needs, not just the ones you think they should be concerned about. If there are physical needs, see what you can do about those first. Then work with mind, emotions, etc. This is also a hard one to follow through because it means using your time and energy directly.

This is why I prefer naturopathic medicine. But, referring to dealing with the physical issues first, certainly this is sometimes where allopathic medicine can excel, which is in acute and trauma cases (like a broken bone, a suicidal person etc.). But this is ideally followed up with healing on all other levels.

I went to a chiropractor once after being in a minor accident. It was totally my fault. I was on my way to a lunch meeting with a client and I was primping my hair in the rear-view mirror in heavy traffic (yes I know—how stupid and superficial, but I was very young) and everyone slammed breaks on and I hit the car ahead of me. The woman driving the car I hit was screaming at me that I ruined her car (a new BMW). There were all sorts of emotional things going on around this accident. The chiropractor asked me to recall what I was thinking about when I hit the car, and suggested that I wouldn't heal until I forgave anyone involved, including anyone I may have been thinking about at the time of the incident. This makes sense when you consider it because of association alone.

[Agua del Cielo]

This might be pretty obvious, but since its the crucial part in healing, i thought i'd mention it anyway:

All blockages, all distortions derive from the inability to process the emotions imvolved.
So, being able to deal with emotions would be the most crucial part in healing, since that would be what unblocks the blockage!

[Aion]

Hmm, I agree to an extent with that statement, but not completely. For example, no amount of emotional processing is going to fix a broken bone or a herniated disc, but it may help to ease the process. I think there is a tendency for each different system to focus upon a particular element of the human being and suggest it is the 'main' thing involved, but 'holistic' and wholeness to me always suggests something that takes place across the whole being. Together everything works.

This is actually one of the 'issues' I have with a lot of traditional psychotherapy and techniques is the focus on this 'feel it out' aspect which I think is very important but then you need to start to change the mental patterns. That doesn't always happen automatically, in my experience. Someone very close to me who has experienced a lot of abuse has also had this experiences where they have been given many tools to cope with the emotional waves that come from her traumas, but found they offered few tools to make concrete changes in the mind. I am all for the 'natural healing process', but I think that the mind is similar to the body in that it needs to be 'trained' to follow new patterns. Thus, I don't think it is enough to simply process and purge emotions, but one also has to make the effort to balance one's viewpoint to be more healthy or whole.

I have encountered numerous people who have 'burnt out' their emotions but have become so habituated to their internal thought patterns that even having worked through the emotions they are unable to move forward because of their pre-constructed patterns. They need to do something different besides just 'feel it' at the stage of healing they are at. The emotional stage of healing is very important and usually needs to come 'first' or early on, but by no means do I think it is the sole crux of healing.

[hounsic]

but I think that the mind is similar to the body in that it needs to be 'trained' to follow new patterns. Thus, I don't think it is enough to simply process and purge emotions, but one also has to make the effort to balance one's viewpoint to be more healthy or whole.


Any recommendations on creating new patterns?

[Aion]

Well I think a good first step is to try and recognize your patterns, the habits and routines which provide you with emotional comfort and act as the ongoing 'bandage' for your thoughts. So, it doesn't have to be anything super special, just break your regular routine. I used to take long walks without any direction in order to develop self-trust, as an example. One of the things I would pay attention to is my feelings towards taking different directions. If I 'felt' like I wanted to go in one direction, or like I was 'supposed to', I would instead go the opposite direction towards my discomfort. After walking through my discomfort many times I gained a lot of self-confidence and learned that my discomfort doesn't always mean there will be negative results. Tuning oneself out of the 'negative expectation' is an enourmous work which can take years and years. This is just one tool for breaking the negative expectation by placing oneself in a situation of simple yet relatively nonthreatening discomfort and working through it, thereby building within oneself experiences of accomplishment which can help to balance negative feelings towards the self which are often involved in healing. This is just one example, of course.

Note, this is for after the 'emotional release' phase of healing, during which emotional comforts may be essential.

[Agua del Cielo]

Hmm, I agree to an extent with that statement, but not completely. For example, no amount of emotional processing is going to fix a broken bone or a herniated disc, but it may help to ease the process. I think there is a tendency for each different system to focus upon a particular element of the human being and suggest it is the 'main' thing involved, but 'holistic' and wholeness to me always suggests something that takes place across the whole being. Together everything works.

This is actually one of the 'issues' I have with a lot of traditional psychotherapy and techniques is the focus on this 'feel it out' aspect which I think is very important but then you need to start to change the mental patterns. That doesn't always happen automatically, in my experience. Someone very close to me who has experienced a lot of abuse has also had this experiences where they have been given many tools to cope with the emotional waves that come from her traumas, but found they offered few tools to make concrete changes in the mind. I am all for the 'natural healing process', but I think that the mind is similar to the body in that it needs to be 'trained' to follow new patterns. Thus, I don't think it is enough to simply process and purge emotions, but one also has to make the effort to balance one's viewpoint to be more healthy or whole.

I have encountered numerous people who have 'burnt out' their emotions but have become so habituated to their internal thought patterns that even having worked through the emotions they are unable to move forward because of their pre-constructed patterns. They need to do something different besides just 'feel it' at the stage of healing they are at. The emotional stage of healing is very important and usually needs to come 'first' or early on, but by no means do I think it is the sole crux of healing.

yes, sure, I agree on all levels!

It was just a two-line-post which didnt cover my healing approach indepth really

First of all, i was referring to the spiritual aspect of healing.
If i have a broken bone, i would go to the hospital first and later deal with the deeper aspects, obviously.

In otjer words, all our "bodies" and aspects are connected in multiple ways, and although ultimately the body follows the mind (to simplify this), it is important to adress all parts of the system and most of all, to always adress that part that can be accessed th easiest and promises the greatest effect!

As for the other part, that it a complex issue, and please bare in mind that i simplify here:

generally speaking, i would say unprocessed emotions are what creates a blockage or distortion, on the deep level of our being.
Also, on the surface level we are dealing with emotions mostly (or we are not dealing with them...).

So, developing an attitude of willingness and a method as well as just practice with handling the emotional part would be one of the first ressources one should develop on the healing as well as the spritual growth part.

What you adressed is what i would call "emotional addiction", which would be an "addiction" to an emotional state (no matter how unpleasant it might be). I would say that something like an energetic/emotional identity evolves around that. Even if the underlying issue has been healed completely, one still sticks to the "pattern" and keeps on creating it again and again.

This is very hatd to dissolve, it requires the willingness and capacity to face the emotional content (since its close to impossible to discern if an unhealed portion arises or if the addiction is active) as well as the will to make a clear decision, deciding to not feed this "entity" anymore.
The difficulty lies in the fact, that this can easily be used (unconsciously) to avoid unwanted issues...i guess you know what i mean. Very tricky thing!

Other aspects of that decision/feeling through thing would be, ulti,ately (really ultimately) when you reach the deepest possible point, the point of seperation from oneness, you are at the same time feeling the most intense pain possible, but at the same time realize it is an illussion and at that very point the decision for unity can be made.
So, one would need to have developed both ressources, the capacity to feel whatever is AND the ability to make a powerful decision. Both is ultimately very important.
On the way "there" it is different from case to case.

Sometimes you have to make a clear decision, otherwise you can neither grow nor heal and stay stuck, at other times it is not even possible to make a decision, simply because you have to face the emotion first, to be in a place of authority and be able to decide.

Although this is in no way complete, i hope it illustrates my point a little more!

[Aion]

I feel like that was a reiteration and reflection of what I was saying, so yes, I agree more or less.

I don't quite agree still that emotions are the 'deep core' but rather traumatic emotions can keep one from connecting to the deep core which I consider to be beyond all such 'personality' characteristics. I think it's a slight distinction but it is meaningful.

I think that the self can be approached from multiple avenues and there is no 'universal approach', for sure.

[Stranger]

Agua, it's exciting to find someone else using similar methods. For people who haven't experienced it first-hand, it's hard to understand the immense transformative power of healing old distortions. I've cleared out stuff that, for countless lifetimes, has held me back and made life more unpleasant. It's amazing to clear out something and know that even after this life ends, I'll be more free and joyful. It's very satisfying to help other people discover their inner world; help them understand why they react to certain situations the way they do; and help them heal and find more peace and freedom from inner emotional tyranny. Broken bones are important but less so, in the grand scheme of things, in the same way that the physical body is less important long-term than one's polarity or inner harmony, for instance.

I think the question you and Aion have been discussing is a very important one. What is the relationship between old emotions and current choices? As far as I've been able to discern, old emotions are triggered by current stimuli and then predispose us toward old patterns of reacting, the way emotions do - e.g., if a situation triggers an old fear, one experiences more intense fear than he/she would otherwise; this makes it more likely that he/she will react by attempting to avoid/escape whatever the current situation is.

When the old fear is healed using the process we've both been using, then there still seems to be a force of habit that continues to predispose avoidance/escape, even when the fear is no longer present. Does that tendency dissipate on its own, in your experience?

There's another scenario I've been trying to figure out. When someone is experiencing acute distress, or continues believing in (i.e., accepting as valid) the distorted perspective of old emotions, they seem to be actually adding to their store of distress rather than healing it. The intensity of the emotion makes it harder for them to find the calm perspective from which healing of the emotion can be achieved. I'd be very interested to hear what your approach has been to these types of scenarios.