Shared Transformation

Reviews

Love & Survival: The Scientific Basis for the Healing Power of Intimacy by Dean Ornish, M.D., HarperCollins, 1998. ISBN 0-06-017213-4

Dr. Ornish is famous for his non-invasive approach to heart disease. He has written other books outlining the success of his low-fat diet, exercise and meditation program for heart patients. In 25 years devoted to this work, he came to realize that the most overlooked part of his program was in fact the most important: supportive relationships.

Early in his career, Ornish had established patient support groups as a way of helping them to stick to the strict lifestyle changes needed to recover from their heart disease. His patients were soon reporting unexpected benefits from the support groups; they were sharing their feelings, which led to greater closeness to others and enhanced self-acceptance.

As time passed, Ornish became more interested in this facet of the treatment plan. He found mounting evidence of the phenomenal healing power in just this kind of nonjudgmental love and intimacy. To his dismay, the medical field has largely ignored this research, instead focusing on quantifiable health risks such as poor diet, lack of exercise, tobacco and alcohol use, heredity, high cholesterol, and so forth. Yet myriad studies show that none of these factors predispose a person to serious illness and early death a fraction of the way loneliness and social isolation will do! People who follow medical fitness guidelines to the letter but who have no one they can really open up to (or who don't know how to open up to anyone) are practically guaranteed to be afflicted with serious disease by midlife. People who live alone and have no close friends are most vulnerable to major illnesses. Even those with a large number of social contacts - - but no one they can share their full range of feelings with -- are still highly susceptible to sickness.

The flip side of this coin is that anything which increases love and intimacy in our lives adds to our physical as well as our spiritual and emotional wellbeing. Having a loving and beloved partner tops the list, but lacking this (or even with this), we can improve our health by forming friendships, becoming involved in supportive communities, having a loving relationship to a pet, and doing work/service based on love. Anything which connects us to something more than ourselves in a way that we come to know our value to others is healing. Spiritual experiences that connect us to God/Goddess (or the universe) work this way as well... Reading this book was wonderfully affirming to me. I cried with joy when I read that anything that helps people to feel less alone and allows them a safe place to express their feelings and experiences -- even in written words -- is one of the most healing things possible. This was a description of what we do with ST newsletters! Often I have felt very sad that so many of us are suffering from severe Kundalini difficulties and I have wished we were able to offer more concrete help to people.

Ornish made me see that we are helping each other in the newsletter far more than we know. Not only are we giving each other support; we are actually helping to heal each other physically and spiritually, just by the sharing we do on these pages! It's not so much the proffered "solutions" that matter, but the simple act of caring about one another that makes the biggest difference. It is especially important that people going through the vast changes of Kundalini have a place where they can freely tell of their experiences without fear of being negatively judged, because any problems we are having are made worse when we are forced to keep them secret.

It is not necessary for healing that the people we trust agree with us on everything, but it is essential that they accept us and allow us to express ourselves without trying to change or fix us (unless we specifically ask for help to change).

Ornish points out that psychology has overemphasized the need for personal independence at the expense of healthy relationships. His work has greatly improved his private relationships. For instance, he learned that being close to someone means curbing the impulse to criticize, which usually makes people feel attacked and causes them to emotionally withdraw, which is the opposite of intimacy. Instead, he has come to a deeper and gentler appreciation of his wife, understanding that she is quite literally the key to his lasting health and happiness, as he is to hers.

Awakening Intuition: Using Your Mind-Body Network for Insight and Healing by Mona Lisa Schulz, M.D., Ph.D., New York: Harmony Books, 1998. ISBN 0-517-70758-6

If you're struggling with illness, this book can help you decipher what your body is telling you. Schulz, a medical intuitive and neuropsychiatrist, says that the body speaks to us "through symptoms of health and disease, through dreams, and in the form of visions and voices, body sensations, and emotions." Presenting a wealth of insight into the meaning of bodily symptoms, Awakening Intuition is filled with illustrations of the mind/body link through Schulz's highly accurate psychic readings of clients.

Schulz (who has studied under Christiane Northrup, Louise Hay and Carolyn Myss) embraces the paradox in which much of what occurs in our lives is mysterious and possibly fated, while we simultaneously have power to influence what happens to us. She addresses health problems relating to each chakra level, and divides each level according to the power and vulnerability issues it entails. Excesses in power or vulnerability at any level plays out in specific health ailments as well as outer world difficulties. At one point, Schulz gives a brief test for readers to gauge their overall power/vulnerability balance. To my surprise, I scored exactly even in both. Schulz says she scored over ten times higher for power than for vulnerability, meaning "I find it easy to be out in the world, but I have difficulty forming close relationships with all the inherent feelings of vulnerability and dependence that involves." To me, it's endearing that she is very open about her own array of health problems. It was through these crises that she learned that "disease is a message we need to receive so that we can reevaluate some aspect of our lives and, most probably, change it." Yet she admits to having trouble altering some of her own behavior traits that are mirrored through her symptoms. As a result, she doesn't make readers feel like failures for not immediately "getting it" and triumphing over every quirk in their psyches. She is also careful to point out that while certain illnesses are statistically linked to particular emotional characteristics, there are no universal blueprints. It can help to read the profiles to see if what they describe is relevant to our health situation, yet we need to listen carefully to the unique dialect of our own body language to hear what it is expressing.

Although the main principles Schulz presents in this book were not new to me, I learned a lot from her, and got deeper understanding of things I had already suspected from my various symptoms. Schulz is a master intuitive, and being able to eavesdrop on her mental processes in Awakening Intuition can open our inner ear to the amazing voice of the body/mind.

The Mozart Effect: Tapping into the Power of Music to Heal the Body, Strengthen the Mind, and Unlock the Creative Spirit by Don Campbell, Avon Books, 1997. ISBN: 0-380-97418-5

A leading educator on the connection between music and healing, Don Campbell is among a growing number of modern teachers who are reviving the lost knowledge of the ancients. Writes Campbell, "The use of music for healing goes back to Pythagoras, David, and the abbess Hildegard of Bingen." Actually, it goes back a lot further than that! Music in the form of drumming and other forms of instruments, as well as singing and chanting played a crucial role in sacred rituals and healing ceremonies in all cultures. Campbell was able to help heal himself of a life-threatening cerebral blood clot using a technique called toning, which means "to make sound with an elongated vowel for an extended period."

While many forms of music have healing potential, the book's title refers to the universally beneficial effect of Mozart's music. People from all cultures and background, including those who did not enjoy classical music, were found to have positive mental, emotional and physical responses to Mozart. Dr. Alfred Tomatis said that in his fifty years of clinical and experimental research, "the powers of Mozart, especially the violin concertos, create the greatest healing effect on the human body." The Mozart Effect is filled with stories of treatments and cures including medical miracles resulting from music therapy. Although the cases presented are of the more normal variety of ailments, this information may prove invaluable to anyone trying to work on a vibrational level with their Kundalini imbalances.

The Revelations of Ho: An Adventure in Self-Realization, Dr. James Weldon, Sunstar Publishing, 1997. ISBN 1-887472-09-6

When Kundalini poured uncontrollably through the author's body, he shouted "HO." Weldon explains that Ho "is one of those words like laughter that is built into our mind and body," which he sees as "an exclamation of wonder, surprise, joy and delight." A born mystic, Weldon had transcendent experiences since early childhood. The Revelations of Ho is his spiritual autobiography, detailing the progression of his mystical experiences against the backdrop of his alienation from worldly life. Weldon's path led him to connect with several renowned Eastern teachers and saints who helped him along the way. He worked for many years as a meditation teacher and healer before his Kundalini awakened full force, precipitating a quantum leap in his awareness. While he experienced dramatic kriyas and other overwhelming Kundalini phenomena, he went through only a brief period of physical illness. Speaking of the healing power of Shakti, he writes: "My experience is that impurities in the form of anger, greed, fear, worry, ignorance, as well as physical toxins, are consumed by this energy. Occasionally in meditation I burn with this energy from head to foot. Subtle flames dance everywhere throughout my body and mind." The Revelations of Ho is both the unique story of one man's spiritual passion and the archetypal story of the seeker. It is a tale of continuous unfolding, setbacks and breakthroughs, fed by an unending hunger for union with the Divine. If you hear echoes of yourself in this quest, you'll find Weldon's book a meaningful accompaniment on your own journey home. Proceeds from the book go to the Prison S.M.A.R.T. Foundation for "furthering the work of teaching advanced yoga breathing techniques and meditation" to North American prisoners.

The Unfolding Self: Varieties of Transformative Experience by Ralph Metzner, Origin Press, 1998. ISBN: 1-57983-000-5

A pioneer in the study of consciousness, Ralph Metzner has compiled universal themes and metaphors describing the stages of spiritual transformation. The radical restructuring of the psyche, he writes, "has been variously referred to as mystical experience, ecstasy, cosmic consciousness, oceanic feeling, oneness, transcendence, union with God, nirvana, satori, liberation, peak experience, and by other names." While Metzner devotes only a small section to Kundalini per se, the entirety of the book relates to the process of Kundalini awakening. Many of the topics we've covered in Shared Transformation newsletters are explored in depth in The Unfolding Self, as evidenced in the chapter headings: Awakening from the Dream of Reality, Uncovering the Veils of Illusion, From Captivity to Liberation, Purification by Inner Fire, From Fragmentation to Wholeness, Reconciling with the Inner Enemy, On Dying and Being Reborn, From Darkness to Light, Integrating the Inner Wild Animal, Unfolding the Tree of Our Life, Journey to the Place of Vision and Power, and Returning to the Source.

In addition to explaining myriad concepts which relate to the journey, Metzner does a great job of sorting through the subtlties and paradoxes of awakening. For those of us who seem to be endlessly plodding along without much to show for our efforts, The Unfolding Self gives credible answers to the burning question: "What's the point?" More than this, it provides insight into the symbols and rites of passage that announce themselves in our dreams, visions and daily events, enabling us to see that no matter how strange, confusing, painful or overwhelming our experiences may be, they are integral to the holy mission of our souls.

Like all "living" core religions (in contrast to the codified institutional forms), mystical Judaism is a very beautiful path. For those drawn to reestablish a connection to their Jewish heritage, or those wishing to widen their exploration of spiritual traditions, the following two books are luminous gates.

Minding the Temple of the Soul, by Tamar Frankiel and Judy Greenfeld, Jewish Lights Publishing, 1997. ISBN: 1-879045-64-8

Minding the Temple of the Soul offers a variety of prayers, meditations and physical exercises to align the body, mind and soul. The Tree of Life of the Kaballah is shown to coincide with chakra areas in the body. These energy centers, called sefirot, differ somewhat from the seven (or more) Hindu wheels, but overlap with other systems, most strikingly with the Japanese path called Ninpo. In both, the throat and head chakras are depicted as a single energy field; also, the feet and knees are recognized as an energy vortex.

As in all traditions, the purpose of life in the Judaic system is spiritual evolution, and "Our main task is to clear the way for the soul to manifest itself, which means moving the ego aside in daily life." The Judaic solution to the problem of the ego is more holistic than most of the Eastern teachings. In Minding the Temple of the Soul there is a story illustrating this inclusive approach: A Talmudic sage, believing the lure of the self-seeking ego (yetzer hara) too strong for humans to overcome, prayed to God to help the world by eradicating yetzer hara. His sincere request was granted. "The sage woke the next morning, expecting to see nothing but happiness and bliss. Sure enough, people seemed happy. But then it was discovered that the chickens were not laying eggs, and ewes were walking away from their bleating lambs, since they were no longer interested in nursing them. Sudden the sage realized that the yetzer hara, though often destructive, was also the passion that kept the world going. The issue is not to eliminate it, but to turn its energy to good use." There is a deep humility in Jewish lore, reflected in the inutterable most sacred name, YHVH, which is an acknowledgment that the Great Mystery cannot be fully comprehended by man. Earthly incarnation, according to Jewish wisdom, is intended to teach the soul both humility and compassion: "By learning about the profound difficulty of being human, it gains a respect for humanity. When the soul leaves this life, it will have learned things it could not have learned in the highest world of souls. It will know not only that God is in what is good and great, but also that God is in the very worst and the very small."

God and the Big Bang, by Daniel C. Matt, Jewish Lights Publishing, 1996. ISBN: 1-879045-48-6

In God and the Big Bang, Daniel Matt draws parallels between the physicist's and the mystical Jewish theories of creation. For example, the Zohar of the Kabbalistic tradition begins with this passage:

A blinding spark flashed

within the concealed of the concealed

from the mystery of the Infinite

a cluster of vapor in formlessness...

Under the impact of breaking through,

one high and hidden point shone.

Beyond that point nothing is known.

So it is called Beginning.

Matt goes on to say "As emanation proceeds, as God begins to unfold, the point expands into a circle. Similarly, ever since the big bang, our universe has been expanding in all directions." This book is far more accessible than others of its ilk (like Capra's The Tao of Physics), particularly if you happen to be a physics dunce like me. Matt not only reconciles splits between religion and science; he builds bridges where other cultural rifts exist as well.

Offering a modern view of the sacred Torah, Matt follows the rabbinical tradition of regarding the written scripture as a work in progress rather than Absolute Truth. He advises us to "take tradition seriously enough to challenge it, wrestle with it, help it evolve." Troubled by sexism in both the religious and secular worlds, Matt speaks with reverence of the feminine aspect of God, Shekhinah, who appears as ocean, well, garden and apple orchard. He risks heresy by empathizing with the feminist Mary Daly, who has protested: "As long as God is male, the male is God."

Addressing the catch-22 between mystical experience and religious dogma, he observes: "Religion is based on revelation. Revelation leads inevitably to tradition, but new revelations threaten tradition. By nature, religion is conservative, and revelation, revolutionary." Because each of us is a portion of God, not only are we incomplete without the Divine, but the Divine is also incomplete without us. Spiritual awakening is a reciprocal process whereby we become aware of our Source/Self while, by evolving through each one of us, God also becomes aware of Itself. As Matt puts it: "... the self discovers it is no longer merely an isolated fragment, but rather a unique expression of the Self of the universe... Yet God -- the Self behind all selves -- is not a passive object of our budding spiritual awareness. By evolving through spacetime, by organizing Itself into the complex variety of existence, God grows and learns endlessly, discovering awareness through each of us -- God's countless, inimitable selves."

-- El Collie

Return to ST Newsletter

RETURN TO ST HOME PAGE