As adults we’re sometimes the same with illnesses and surgeries. They make us feel special. They become badges of honor. We act somewhat like a friend I had who broke his neck and though he healed, subsequently referenced everything to before or after his accident.

We, too, are prone to “hang on to” such personally important events. We need to feel important.

The various ways in which this need is met are rather significant. In fact, knowing how a person gets that feeling of importance tells us a great deal about the person.

I heard about a mother who, at a Little League ballpark, told her son, “I do everything else for YOU. You’re going to play baseball for ME.” In this case, her sense of importance was wrapped up in her child.

It makes you wonder how she'll fill the void when the child grows up.

Then, at last, I did meet what I was looking for!  Thru a friend & fellow actor, Bennett Cooperman, I learned about Aesthetic Realism, I came to New York & soon began to study in consultations & I got the comprehension & kind criticism of my contempt I was thirsting for.

I had thought my biggest desire was to be accepted, applauded, but I seemed to achieve that & I still felt bad.  Therefore, I'd come to feel that the world was an unfair, crazy place because it gave you what you wanted but you still weren't happy. 

Thank goodness this mistaken logic was questioned in consultations, because if it hadn't been, I'd have gone by it for the rest of my life.

In an early consultation, when I told my consultants I felt like I was in a never-ending fight w/things, they asked, "Do you think it's hard to be very taken by this world if we feel we're too good for it?" 

And they asked: "Do you feel it's hard to yield center stage - do you resent it when someone else is the center of attention?"  That hit the nail on the head! 

For the first time, I began to ask: What is my self & what is really going to make me important?  I learned that my greatest purpose, like that of every person, is to like reality honestly, to respect the people & things of this world, see them w/the importance they deserve.

In one consultation, I told my consultants & I said it like this: "I feel like if something is really deep, I cry."  They said jocularly, "Every time you have to respect something, you should weep, because it means you're not superior!"  And they asked me:

Do you get excited about anything if you're not praised?  You sound as if giving attention to anything where you're not central hurts you.  There is that in a person that feels, "I should be the one important thing in the world!"

This was so true!  I began to see that feeling I should be the one important thing in the world was really ignorant conceit & against my own nature!  Mr. Siegel said that a person's mind was made to know everything. 

I'd crippled my ability to know by trying to be important thru lessening other things & people; it had dulled my mind & made my heart cold.

Studying Aesthetic Realism, I saw that my true importance arises from seeing other things as important.  I began to read more -including the newspaper; I read Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë & Mr. Siegel's great lecture on that novel, as a means of studying good will between a woman & man; & I fell in love w/the book & Jane Eyre's beautiful sweetness & toughness, her true care for Mr. Rochester. 

I saw it was a love based, not on herself being made important, but on seeing great meaning & value in another person & wanting him to be as good as he could be.

The inner lives of other people - including characters in plays -became more real to me & tremendously interesting. This made me kinder & also gave me an ease at auditions I'd never felt before & I began to get more work as an actress. 

I wrote every day the Aesthetic Realism assignment about one thing in the world I liked & saw the opposites in things & my relation to them. One day I wrote:

I like the violet flowers so much. They're lean & beautifully graceful, also rich & heavy. They're proud & they also bend & curve gracefully, humbly. They don't begrudge each other's existence. They're more beautiful because they're together, more interesting. Their stems intermix harmoniously & there's room for all of them.

And what I had despaired of ever happening, happened: I fell in love w/a man, Kevin Fennell & married him!  It amazes & moves me to say Kevin & I are the parents of a 8 year-old daughter, Sara. 

The 3 of us are studying Aesthetic Realism, which we know to be the most important, needed education in the world; & I thank Eli Siegel, Ellen Reiss & our dear colleagues for our happy, useful lives.

In the midst of painful & confused feelings, we can ask ourselves whether we would be better off w/out feelings.

• Does my anxiety serve any purpose?
• Does my depression have meaning, or is it just biological bad luck?
• What benefit can there be to obsessive love, unrelenting guilt, repeating seasons of grief?
• Why do feelings have to be so painful & last so long?

As we seek answers to the problems posed by our feelings, it may be helpful to appreciate the positive role feelings are meant to play in our life. The more we can align our feelings w/a positive understanding of what they can do for us, the more we can try trusting them to carry us forward in our lives.

Feelings help us to survive.  Feelings evolved in humans for the purpose of alerting us to everyday threats to our survival. We constantly scan our environment for dangers & opportunities, to satisfy our most basic needs.

We get a constant body-mind report about the state of the world thru our feelings. They give us a quick assessment about whether something is good for us or bad for us & they motivate us to take action accordingly.

Ask yourself: In what way are my feelings trying to protect me or help me to survive? If you can understand & acknowledge this positive role of feelings, then you can reason w/your feelings about how best to accomplish your goals.

Feelings promote emotional attachment & social interaction. What are the dangers we face? What are our survival needs? Our experience as infants offers the earliest answer to these questions. The most basic need of a human infant is to engage its parents in an emotional attachment that will serve as the foundation for care, comfort, stimulation & interaction.

Without emotional attachments, infants fail to thrive & die. This danger is never far from our minds at any age. Are we being abandoned? Who will care for us? Is our human environment intellectually & emotionally stimulating? Are feelings accessible for interpersonal connection & interplay? Are people available enough that being alone can be pleasurable?

Ask yourself: What are my feelings telling me about my relationships? Do I feel like I could be abandoned or not loved? Do I feel like I have to earn love? Are the major people in my life trustworthy or treacherous?

Feeings support growth.  It's clear that infants feel enjoyment as they practice & master new skills while exploring their environment & their interpersonal world. They're incessant learners & not because they "have to be."

It's what they do spontaneously, spurred on by feelings of accomplishment. It's amazing to watch a baby progress toward crawling & then walking. It's as if the next stage of life is pulling them forward.

If they're blocked, they become emotionally upset. This enjoyment of growth is available to us at any age. We can keep exploring, challenging ourselves, mastering & enjoying new competencies.

Ask yourself: Am I allowing my feelings a chance to support new growth & learning in my life? Toward what new challenges in life do my feelings want to take me?

Feelings move us toward health & more life. Beyond their origins in the infant’s experience, feelings emanate from adult sources:

• the energy of health
• the satisfaction of exercising our full adult capacities
• the enjoyment of our sexuality
• the integrity of ethical living
• the pride of parenthood
• a deepening sense of the intergenerational succession of family life
• the payoffs of work that produces useful products & supports family & community life
• the evolving appreciation of wholeness & wellness & holiness

If we trust that the deepest movement & motivation of all our feelings is toward health & "more life," then we can access & rely on their intelligence & wisdom.

Ask yourself: How are my feelings guiding me to better health? How are they encouraging me toward the adult satisfactions of a mature life? What deep emotional intelligence is evolving thru my experience?

Feelings reinforce creativity. Humans enjoy creativity. Our brains have evolved the marvelous capacity to interweave many different sensory inputs & to register their emerging patterns. These patterns can evoke other patterns we have stored as images, fantasies & memories.

The mixing of patterns can generate "super-patterns" that can be fashioned into new images & linked together into new narratives. Language & movement provide avenues for conveying these narratives into the world, where they can stimulate & gather responses that fuel the evolving creative process.

Feelings motivate & guide this creative process at each step. Furthermore, all of this is enjoyable - whether at the level of a child’s impromptu game or at the level of planning the weekend or developing a business strategy.

Ask yourself: What do my feelings tell me about the creative processes that are gathering momentum in my life & in my relationships w/others? What new patterns seem to be emerging?

Feelings connect us w/all living beings. Feelings have evolved over millions of years & across a whole range of species. They're our most ancient of characteristics & our deepest commonality w/all living beings. When we see an amoeba suddenly contract, we can sense the cellular beginnings of fear. When we see an elephant trying to revive its dead comrade, we can be affected by this moment of grief.

When we're greeted or even comforted by our dog, we feel such a marvelous bond. When we see whales breaching, or hear birds singing, or catch a glimpse of a doe & her fawn, we intuit something of joy & pride & love.

Beyond this sense of emotional connection, we're now learning more about the amazing similarity between the biology of our feelings & the biological processes in other species, including even the simplest of organisms. This biological similarity supports our sense of connection w/all living beings.

Ask yourself - How are my feelings similar to those experienced by all living beings? Am I wrapped up in myself? Can I experience my feelings wanting to break out to achieve a sympathetic & compassionate connection w/others?

Feelings are continually refined by our consciousness. In the evolution of feelings, one of the most remarkable developments has been the partnering of feelings w/the expanded consciousness of human awareness.

For most of us, awareness of feelings is initially experienced as a "mixed blessing." We fight against awareness of painful & upsetting feelings. We try to ward off "dangerous feelings." We want to cling to "good" feelings.

One of the challenges of maturation is to stop fighting against certain feelings & to stop trying to cling to other feelings. Only then can a whole new level of feelings emerge - feelings that have been refined by consciousness.

Do you know someone who, thru years of experience, has achieved a new sense of love, a strength of character, a wisdom about anger, a sensitivity to suffering, a mature appreciation of responsibility & guilt, a pervasive happiness?

Their smile glows w/a soft strength. They're so welcoming & kind. They seem so deeply & wonderfully human. They give us a hint of how feelings can evolve, beyond serving simple survival & beyond the immature confusions w/which we all start life, to a fullness of being.

Ask yourself: How are my feelings becoming more refined? What would be a "wiser" version of my present feeling state? Can I feel the difference it would make to welcome feelings that are unwelcome in my life now?

Or what it would be like to release the feelings I continue to hold inside? How would it feel to be less hung-up, less "stuck?" How would the adventure of emotional growth carry me toward a fuller & more vital life experience?

Many people view friendships as a luxury - that it really isn’t a problem if a child has no friends. We believe that peer relationships are very important! Friends provide teens with a variety of benefits, including:

• Opportunities to learn about how to end a fight so both people stay friends. These skills are valuable throughout life. Adults need to know how to resolve conflicts with co-workers, spouses, family members & friends.

• Recreation & companionship. Friends provide fun & excitement for teens! Teens report some of their most positive emotions when they're with their friends.

• Someone with whom teens can talk about their problems. In this role, friends can give advice on many topics - from views about which accessories go with an outfit to help in figuring out how to live with a new stepparent.

• Loyal allies in troubles that may come up at school or in the neighborhood.

• One trait that teens say is important in friends is loyalty.

• Although this quality is not as vital for younger children, teens value it highly.

• Stability during transitions or times of stress. This may be true particularly during the transition to a new school or to adolescence in general.

• Having a friend nearby who is going thru the same trials can ease many anxieties about new situations.

9 Really (Really) Important Principles - By Bill Harris

I've just returned from our latest Centerpointe Retreat. These retreats are always an incredible experience for everyone. Somehow, we've created a space where people become very intimate & very trusting in just a few days.

People generally feel so safe, their deepest fears, problems, concerns & traumas come out & in return they're supported, nurtured & loved as they work thru healing as much of it as they're ready to heal. (Of course revealing anything about oneself is entirely voluntary at these retreats; people do so because they feel totally safe & because they can see that the staff is incredibly skilled at helping them to create positive change.)

Providing this experience for the people at the retreats is very satisfying for all of us on the staff. We're quite frankly amazed each time when we see what happens for people, even though we intentionally created the space where it could happen.

When I returned, I decided I wanted to improve our ability to create the same kinds of changes thru our Telephone Hotline staff. These people are incredibly skilled & do a superb job with callers, but I realized we could do even better.

But what, I wondered, were the retreat participants getting that the callers were less likely to get?

I could think of a number of things (some of which we just can't give over the phone), but one that stood out was the information we give at the retreat. By the end of the retreat, I've taught people a series of principles I believe can really change a person's life, if adopted & mastered.

While we discuss these principles with callers, I realized we haven't done it in a very organized way, so I decided to try to put them down on paper as a way of codifying them so we can zero in on them in our Hotline calls.

Every presenting problem we deal with, I believe, can be traced back to a "violation" (if you want to call it that) of one or more of these principles. If someone is following all of these principles (& I reserve the right to add more as I think of them), life goes along pretty nicely, with a lot of happiness, a lot of inner peace & a lot of personal power.

Some of them overlap each other, but that's okay. They're different facets of the same diamond. I hope they're helpful to you. Some take time to "get" but I hope you'll try them on & see how they fit.

So here are my "9 Principles for Happiness & Healing":

1. The Principle of "Letting Whatever Happens Be Okay"

The amount a person suffers in their life is directly related to how much they're resisting the fact that "things are the way they are." If there's suffering or discomfort, there's resistance. Addictions or attachments to things being different than they are need to be upgraded to preferences, so when "what is" isn't what you want it to be, you don't suffer over it & your happiness & peace are therefore not controlled by forces outside of your control.

To the degree a person is willing & able to let whatever happens be okay, they don't suffer. People with many rules about how things are suppose to be suffer more because no matter how much care they take to protect their rules & see that they & the world follow their rules, these rules are often going to be violated.

This doesn't mean a person can't be goal oriented & work toward making things they way they want; however, the emotionally healthy person prefers the outcomes they seek rather than being addicted to them.

The key, then, to handling challenging situations, thoughts & feelings isn't in resisting them, but rather becoming as fully accepting of them as possible. Accept what happens to you & what you think & feel, even if it's uncomfortable. Though it looks as if the discomfort is created by the thing we're resisting, in actual fact the discomfort we feel is 98-99% from our resistance to it & only 1-2% from the thing itself.

When we stop resisting, the discomfort stops also. Thru acceptance, you empower yourself to heal, transform, or release any unresolved mental or emotional material. When you sense resistance, meet it with acceptance.

Ironically, once you stop resisting, you're much more effective in creating any external change you may have a preference for (not an attachment to).

2. The Principle of Threshold

Every person has a personal threshold for what they can handle coming at them from their environment, based on their personal map of reality. When a person's map (their concept of who they are & how they relate to the rest of the universe) can't handle its environment, stress is created and the person begins to deal with that stress by exhibiting various coping mechanisms learned during childhood.

These include:

• anger
• depression
• anxiety
• fear (& greater & lesser degrees of these)
• substance abuse
• overeating
• plus a number of other coping mechanisms considered more "healthy"
• such as exercising
• talking with friends or counselors
• isolation
• & thousands of others

All dysfunctional feelings & behaviors are really coping mechanisms designed to deal with the stress of being pushed past this threshold, & therefore the "cure" for dysfunctional feelings & behaviors is to raise that threshold, which is what Holosync® does.

Dysfunctional feelings & behaviors aren't caused by the environment or other people regardless of how it seems. People with a high threshold for what they can handle coming at them from the world remain happy, peaceful & centered even when they're around difficult people or in difficult situations.

When people suffer trauma in their childhood, this threshold doesn't mature in the same way it would have had the trauma not happened. These people have a lower threshold than "normal" people who didn't experience any trauma, or who didn't have as much.

This means interaction with their environment pushes them past their threshold (which is lower) much more easily & they're caught in dysfunctional feelings & behaviors more often.

It's the raising of this threshold as a result of using the Centerpointe program that causes dysfunctional feelings & behaviors to gradually disappear, because the threshold eventually becomes so high very little can cause a person to be pushed beyond the point where these feelings & behaviors are triggered.

3. The Principle of Chaos & Reorganization

Chaos always precedes growth. Therefore it's a GOOD thing.

The coping mechanisms mentioned above (dysfunctional feelings & behaviors) are really an attempt to keep one's internal map of reality (which is really what's being stressed when one's personal threshold is exceeded) from falling apart, i.e., from going thru the natural process that happens when our map of reality can;t handle its environment.

This natural process, based on Nobel Prize-winning research, involves the map going into temporary chaos in response to too much input, finally falling apart when the chaos becomes so much the old map can't hold itself together & then almost simultaneously reforming itself at a higher level that CAN handle the
environment that was previously too much for it.

This reorganization is a natural process & always results in a new system / map that can handle what the old system / map couldn't handle. It's helpful in this process to recognize when you're in the initial chaos state & to remind yourself that this is the prelude to positive change - if you know how to get out of the way & let it happen.

4. The "Map is NOT the Territory" Principle

There's a tendency to try to protect the old map (which is really a person's concept of who they are & how they relate to the rest of the universe) when you go into this initial chaos stage of growth.

This attempt to hold the old map together comes from the mistaken idea that this map is who we are - that "the map
is the territory" - rather than a convenient tool used to navigate thru life.

This map is often called the ego by western psychology & is your concept of who you are & what your relationship is to the rest of the universe. It's the limitations of this map (its inability to adequately "map the territory" or otherwise deal with the situation one is in - whether psychological, emotional, relational, mental, or spiritual) that creates the "over-threshold" experience & the resulting dysfunctional feelings & behaviors (i.e., suffering).

Therefore, letting the map go thru the evolutionary process of going into chaos temporarily & reorganizing at a higher level results in relieving the problems & limitations of the old map & a new ability to deal with what was previously stressful or overwhelming.

It's very helpful to learn & recognize your favorite methods of trying to save the old map, which again is based on the mistaken idea that when the old map falls apart, you're falling apart, rather than just getting a new & better map.

5. The Principle of Responsibility as Empowerment

You're responsible for every feeling or behavior you have, in the sense that it is either your chosen response to something that happens, or an automatic unconscious response based on the way your internal map of reality has been structured.

This is very different from saying you are to blame for every feeling or behavior you have. Taking personal responsibility is not about blame but rather about personal power. If someone or something outside of you is the cause of how you feel or behave, you are relatively powerless - a victim. If you, or at least your unconscious processes are at cause, you have power & can do something to change
the situation to one that is happier and more peaceful.

Things outside of you may be a stimulus for you, but how you respond comes from you, either consciously or unconsciously.

6. The Principle of Conscious Change

It is impossible to consciously do something that isn't good for you or is in
some way non-resourceful (destructive) to you. You can do something destructive
to yourself (feelings, beliefs, values, behaviors, etc.) over and over as long as
you do it unconsciously (without continuous conscious awareness), but once you
begin to do the non-resourceful feeling, behavior, belief, value, etc.
consciously, it will begin to fall away.

The trick is remaining conscious, and we have many ways of going unconscious so
as not to deal with what we are feeling or how we are behaving: eating, drugs and
alcohol, projection and blaming, spacing out, and countless other distractions.
To become conscious, it is necessary to identify our favorite ways of going
unconscious, be vigilant in noticing them, and be committed to gradually facing
ourselves by stepping outside ourselves and watching what we are doing, feeling,
etc. instead of allowing ourselves to be unconscious, automatic response
mechanisms. Use of Holosync® over time creates and increases the ability to
remain conscious and deal with things consciously. When this happens, many
non-resourceful feelings, behaviors, and approaches to life fall away and are
replaced by healthier approaches that bring happiness and peace to one's life.

7. The Principle of Witnessing

When faced with a feeling that is uncomfortable (and is therefore the result,
either consciously or unconsciously of not letting "what is" be okay), the best
course of action is to mentally step aside and, with great curiosity, watch
yourself have the feeling or behavior, perhaps saying to yourself: "There I am,
doing ___" or "There I am feeling ____". This stepping aside to watch helps make
you conscious of what is happening and, because it takes part of you out of the
feeling or behavior, makes it difficult to continue the suffering. This needs to
be done, however, without attachment to the outcome. In other words, you are
doing it to objectively and curiously watch what is happening, not to change
anything. The ability to step aside and watch yourself as you feel and act is an
acquired skill and takes time and practice to develop, but it will totally change
your life. Using Holosync® naturally develops your ability to do this.

8. The Principle of "Good & Bad" Generalizations

Based on our early life interactions with our primary caregivers, we all develop
generalization about who we are and what our relationship is to the rest of the
world. These generalizations (part of our "map" of reality) divide different
aspects of us and the qualities we may have into two categories, those that we
think are "good", or acceptable, and those we think are "bad" or unacceptable. To
keep from experiencing the shame or other uncomfortable feelings regarding the
"bad" things, we either 1) repress them into our unconscious mind to keep them
out of conscious awareness, or 2) project them onto others (this results in
extreme emotional reactions to others who exhibit the characteristics we believe
are "bad" or unacceptable about us). In many ways, emotional healing involves
"unlearning" these old generalizations and making new, healthier ones. In
reality, there is nothing about any of us that is innately bad. Holosync®
facilitates this healing.

These generalizations, especially while we are still relatively unconscious, seem
so real and true the idea that they are not true may seem ridiculous. Any
generalization about yourself that is painful to you, however, is probably not
true.

9. The Principle of the Neutral Universe

Everything in the universe is neutral. The old saying "Nothing is good or bad but
thinking makes it so" is true. We interpret everything we come in contact with as
being either good or bad (or somewhere on the spectrum in between these two), or
in some other way give it meaning. This good/bad interpretation, or assigning of
meaning, becomes part of our map of reality. Then, we tend to "forget" that
nothing has any intrinsic meaning and that we assigned these qualities and
meanings to the people and things in our lives (or they were assigned for us when
we were too little to know any better).

This is why different people find different things to be good or bad, and can
assign completely different meanings to the same thing. It is the ultimate reason
why you have the ability, once you learn to exercise it, to create whatever kind
of world you want just by assigning meaning to things in your life in whatever
way you like. Make everything good, and the world is good; make everything bad,
and the world is bad. In most cases, the way we assign good and bad and other
meanings to the things in our life is not something we chose, but rather
something chosen for us by our primary caregivers and other cultural influences.
We can, however, realize that these assignments of meaning are arbitrary, and
that we can reassign them in any way we want.

A wise man once said "It's okay to play Hamlet, but don't fall into the trap of
thinking you are Hamlet." If you think you are Hamlet, your life is a tragedy,
because everyone dies by the end of the play. If you know you are just playing,
you can have fun with it. Similarly, if you know everything is innately neutral
and that you have assigned all the meaning (including good/bad) to everything in
life, you are playing, and you can therefore be the creator of your own
experience; if, however, you forget and think things are innately good and bad -
or have certain innate meanings taught by you when you were too small to question
them - you become a victim, you are not the creator of your life, and you will
create suffering. Again, Holosync® gradually creates the awareness that allows a
person to step back from thinking that meaning is innate rather than created by
you.

This is NOT a way to say that a person has no obligation to act responsibly or
honestly or that anything you do is okay because "there's no right or wrong."
Behaving toward others as you would want them to behave toward you is always the
best policy. What you put out toward others does come back to you.

I hope these principles will be helpful to you. When you are in distress, check
to see if you are violating any of these principles or if viewing the situation
through the filter of these principles creates a shift for you.

As always, we are here to help you grow. Let us know how we can help.

Be well.

Bill Harris, Director

***

Glowing Testimonial of the Month

Hello! I just received and read Letter #4. Thank you for another great,
informative and supportive letter.

I want to say that I have never had such amazing results from any other program.
Over the years, I have tried many things, having been a seeker since a very young
age. I have experienced some emotional upheaval, some physical discomfort (not
much) and much deep thought. A subtle shift is taking place in me. I no longer
use food, reading and television to escape from problems or responsibilities. I have set up an exercise program and I am sticking to it. You don't know how big this is. I am sticking to it with pleasure. Go figure!

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

**

I wanted to send you the summary for my first month, but am just now getting around to the task. Next week will be 2 months already. My how time flies when you're having fun.

And...I am having fun. Right from the start I was impressed with the depth of the meditation & the sense of centeredness I felt during the meditation. After the first couple of weeks I noticed that I felt like I had more bottom. (NO, I don't mean that my behind got bigger, God forbid.) I mean that I feel as if I am standing on a broader platform from which to "do" my life.

What's interesting to me, is that I felt this in a very profound, but subtle way as an inner expansion and never dreamed that it was anything that anyone but me would notice. One night at art class, our instructor, who is a friend of mine, said she felt I was a completely different person from the woman who had started the class several weeks earlier. Who knew?

When I asked her to elaborate, she said she could only explain it in terms of how she felt in my presence. She said she felt more confident & resourceful & she felt it was a reflection of me. Pretty heady stuff..!!! I was impressed!

In addition to that, I am amazed at how attached I am to doing the meditation EVERY day.

Especially, since I have to get up at 5am to do it. I've never been able, in the past, to get myself up at that hour to do anything else, no matter how much I wanted to. Not only do I get up at 5am to meditate, but I am exercising for an hour from 6-7 & so am starting every day with 2 Hours of Power as (as Tony Robbins would say).

Believe me this is a righteous way to start the day. By the time I get to work I am feeling invincible.

I've noticed some fluctuations in my moods. I had a couple of crappy days, but in light of the positive benefits already realized, I cannot complain. I have lots of tools for dealing with that from 20 years on the personal growth trail.

It's my intention to run my brain in ways that foster more love, joy, passion, compassion, health & prosperity. Holosync is certainly helping me to do that in a BIG way.

I've already ordered the next level & had a fabulous time writing out my affirmations. I can hardly wait to get them recorded. Thanks immensely for realizing your purpose on earth in this work, so that I can better realize mine.

In great joy & appreciation.

Glen M.


***

Book Review

How to Know God The Soul's Journey Into the Mystery of Mysteries By Deepak Chopra
Review by Scott Spencer-Wolff

To learn more about or purchase this book, click here:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0609805231/wwwcenterpoincom

I'll admit it. I'm overwhelmed. Just the thought of writing about "Knowing God" reminds me of trying to review Ken Wilber's "A Brief History of Everything." Too much. Compound that with some intensive discussions I have had in the past few days about knowing God, and an overly fertile ground of being in myself (the usual byproduct of a Centerpointe retreat) and I'm "verklempt".

This morning I received an e-mail from a program participant in the UK, a person who is very special to me, asking for help. After reading the e-mail I tried to call my friend but he wasn't home. For a few minutes I rested in God with him (I'm not sure how to exactly describe that, but it sounds like what I did). I just wanted to be with him, and the best vehicle or method I could come up with for doing that was to return to the God space both of us share. That is knowing
God.

A long time ago when I was interviewing for some job with the Church, someone asked me if I believed in God. I thought about the question for a moment (perhaps the first time I had thought about it) and responded, "No."

I didn't stop there (fortunately) but went on to say that while I didn't
"believe" in God, I experienced the reality of God throughout every day in of my life. God, to me, was not someone or something to be believed or not believed, but someone or something to be experienced as a reality. An organizational reality. I understood that clearly.

"Belief is a non-experiential way of knowing," Werner Erhardt said in EST, and I definitely got that.

So, I was very comfortable with Deepak Chopra's presentation of God not as a person or a thing, but rather as a process -- a process anyone can engage in regardless of "faith, religious teaching, innate goodness, luck or some other mysterious factor. " Dr. Chopra explains: "Our brains are hardwired to find God."

This hardwiring is deftly explored as Chopra lists the seven ways humans know God and how they correspond to the anatomy of our human brains. He devotes a chapter to each of the seven visions of God: "Protector," "Almighty," "God of Peace," "Redeemer," "Creator," "God of Miracles," and "Pure Being--I am."

In every chapter he asks and answers the same questions for the readers: "Who am I?" "How do I fit in?" "How do I find God?" His answers provide a great deal of potential for reflection. I found myself reading this book slowly and prayerfully to be able to not just think about what he had to say, but to move towards an experience of what he was saying

People ask all the time if Centerpointe is a religious organization. It is not - we don't espouse any particular religious perception or ideology. This doesn't mean that we do not have our personal views and preferences, but we recognize the very diverse traditions our many participants are drawn from, and (again) come from the place that what a person believes about God or religion is less important
than what they experience of God or religion.

That said, I am beholden to go on to say that one cannot establish a serious meditation practice for any length of time without being forced to ask some questions about the nature of one's being, the reason for one's existence, and the big scheme of everything. It simply isn't possible.

As we meditate we more towards this quiet space, and in that quiet space we find ourselves more awed, more in touch than perhaps ever before with a transcendent reality. How that transcendent reality looks varies widely from person to person. How the transcendent reality is experienced will depend on your personal filters.

If you want to learn more about those personal filters so that you can begin to develop a real awareness or consciousness of what they are and how they effect your experience of the Divine, this book is a wonderful first step.

One of my few regrets with this book was that I read it through, and now it's time to write about it. I know I need to spend another couple of weeks with it to really get all that Chopra has to offer -- and he has a great deal to offer.

This is a book for people who flunked out of Sunday school. Do you want to think outside of the box about the infinite? Who is God? Are you God? Can you experience God directly?

This is also a book for people who have found deeply enriching lives within the context of a spiritual community (and got "A's" in Sunday School) and who want or intuit that there is something more than what is so casually preached and taught every Sunday. For people who have begun to experience the love and compassion available by moving beyond themselves, this book offers powerful models of insight and awareness.

Regardless of what religious point of view you prefer, How To Know God is really about getting to know ourselves. God is the mirror in which we reveal ourselves to ourselves.

Deepak Chopra shows that we can't have an angry righteous God without being governed inwardly & unconsciously by fear. Likewise if we have a loving God we ourselves have a visionary sense of our own infinite potential.

These are important insights & prove to be one of the most powerful tools Dr. Chopra uses throughout the book. Knowing God is knowing the self. Knowing the self allows us to be in love with the entire dance we call life.


To learn more about or purchase this book, click here:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos
/ASIN/0609805231/wwwcenterpoincom