YOU CAN'T AFFORD THE LUXURY
OF A NEGATIVE THOUGHT

Part Three

Healing Memories

By means of an image we are often able to hold on to our lost belongings. But it is the desperateness of losing which picks the flowers of memory, binds the bouquet.

COLETTE

MRS. MALAPROP: Illiterate him, I say, quite from your memory.

RICHARD SHERIDAN
1775

Most of us have memories of past hurts, disappointments, and fears that keep returning. When this happens, we're letting a memory of something that happened then negatively affect us now. Fortunately, memories--like any other part of our being--can be healed.

Here's a simple technique for healing memories. Go into your sanctuary, making sure you pass through the white light at the entry way. You may want to ask your Master Teacher to join you. If so, stop by the people mover and pick up your Master Teacher. Have a seat in front of your video screen.

The white light surrounding the screen is off. On the screen, see the situation you feel upset about. Let it play itself out. Watch it as you would a movie. After it's over, go back and freeze-frame a moment you found particularly upsetting.

Imagine you have a large paintbrush full of black paint in your hand. Take the paintbrush and make a large, black X across the upsetting image on the screen. Let the image and the paint fade.

Now, the white light around the edges of the video screen begins to glow. On the screen, see the situation again, but this time let it happen exactly the way you would have liked it to happen. Remember, never lose in your imagination. Ask your Master Teacher for suggestions on winning big.

This process replaces the painful or fearful memory with a joyful, contented one. With some memories, you may need to repeat the process a few times; with others, once will do.

Healing Your Body

Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.

MOZART

The healing center of your sanctuary is a powerful place. There, healing can take place instantly. Some people like to have their Master Teacher come along when they go for healing. (Some people keep their Master Teacher with them all the time. Your sanctuary and Master Teacher are only a thought away.)

How to heal your body in your healing center islimited only by your imagination. You can be given the Miracle Shot (painlessly, of course), shot with the Magic Bullet (which cures whatever ails you), or cured with the Miracle Pill. You can have healers heal you by placing their hands on you. You can lie under different colors of light and be healed in that way.

In your healing center is an infinite supply of replacement body parts, especially stocked for your body. You can snap out any part that's not quite up to par and snap in a perfect part. It only takes a second. You can do it yourself or have a whole team--like the pit crew at the Indianapolis 500--do it for you.

If you know you're having trouble with, say, your liver, snap out the old liver and snap in a new one. Heart? Snap out, snap in. (You can also replace your whole circulatory system--blood and all--while you're at it.) Immune system? Easy. Snap, snap.

You might want to look at some color drawings of various organs and where they're located. The more vivid the image and knowledge of the replacement body part, the better. You may have to replace a particularly recalcitrant part a hundred times, but that's okay. Whatever it takes, right?

You can bring in for consultation, on your people mover, the greatest medical experts in the world (any world). They're always available, alwayshave plenty of time, and never charge a cent. You can invite healers from the past, present, and future--real and imagined--to do work and to give advice.

Some people like to have a Master Healer to organize the comings and goings of all the other healers. Some people like to imagine their Master Teacher in a white coat and stethoscope. Others like the variety of new and different experts.

It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well.

RENE DESCARTES
1637

Anytime you hear of a new healing method or technique that interests you, go to your healing center and try it out. Let it work perfectly for you. Create new techniques. And feel free to visit the healing center even when you're not sick. You don't have to be sick to enjoy getting better.

As I've stated before, none of the inner work you do should replace the outer work of proper medical treatment. If your outer treatment reaches an impasse, however, the inner work might help the outer along.

Some people ask their inner doctors for help in diagnosing certain "mysterious" ailments. When they go to their regular (outer) doctor next, they say, "Just for the heck of it, why don't you check out __________." It's amazing how often __________ has something to do with the ailment.

If you have any spiritual or religious beliefs, be sure to invite the healers of your tradition--via the people mover--into your sanctuary. And don't accept some assistant--go for the Top, the Head Honcho, the Big Enchilada.

You're worth it.

Visualize Health

When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.

EDMUND BURKE
1770

The technique of visualization I'm about to describe can be done in your sacred room, if you like, or in a special room of the healing center. You can, as always, have your Master Teacher come along. (The Master Teacher, naturally, has the ability to join you in any inner journeys you take; makes a great guide, in fact.)

The technique is one made popular by Dr. Carl Simonton. For years, Dr. Simonton has been using nontraditional methods for treating cancer patientswho were diagnosed as untreatable and "terminal." (When new patients enter his clinic for an initial consultation, Dr. Simonton looks them straight in the eye and asks, "When did you decide to die?")

You can receive a catalog of Dr. Simonton's books and tapes by calling 1-800-338-2360. Outside the U.S.: 1-817-575-2420

Imagine whatever is not healthy as the Bad Guys and your healthy body parts as the Good Guys. Then imagine them slugging it out. The Good Guys always, always, always win.

If, for example, you have cancer cells in your body, you can see those as, say, cowboy villains in black hats and your white blood cells as heroes in white hats. They meet at the OK Corral for a showdown. Much punching and gunplay later, the "black hats" are in jail or boot hill, and the "white hats" are riding off into the sunset or going upstairs with Miss Kitty or doing whatever your white hats enjoy doing.

Imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.

JANE AUSTEN

You can imagine the nasty cells being dog biscuits and the good cells dogs; whenever a dog sees a biscuit, naturally he eats it. Or imagine the good cells as Pac-Man (or Ms. Pac-Man) and the bad cells as the little white dots Pac-People devour. (Am I revealing my age by mentioning Pac-Man?)

The negative emotions often connected with life-threatening illness (fear, anger, guilt, blame, unworthiness, helplessness) can be visualized away.

You can see anger, for example, as a fire (or burning embers or fire-breathing dragon) and rivers (or fire hoses or waterfalls) flowing into the fire, extinguishing it at its source. Let the water form a beautiful inner lake (or pond or reflecting pool) surrounded by peaceful trees (or mountains or rolling hills or--don't be limited by my imagination).

Fear can be seen as an ice cube (or iceberg or icicle) melted by the sun (or blowtorch or sauna).

If a visualization seems to "go bad" (the polar bear you've been chasing turns and starts chasing you), change it at once. (You run into the annual gathering of the National Polar Bear Hunter's Club--thousands of hungry hunters who have spent the past week just looking for a bear.)

You see things; and you say, "Why?" But I dream things that never were; and I say, "Why not?".

GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

Never lose in your imagination.

Another option is to imagine the harmful cells in your body mutating into non-life-threatening ones. They mutate to a point where they no longer want to be in a human body and just leave. (There are all sorts of viruses, bacteria, and parasites that want nothing to do with the human body.)

If you have an organ that's not functioning properly--a heart, say--visualize it operating perfectly. See it doing its job flawlessly. In your imagination, hear and feel it beating with strength, regularity, and vigor. If you have, for example, clogged arteries, see them open, clear, and healthy.

The mind, in proportion as it is cut off from free communication with nature,
with revelation,
with God,
with itself,
loses its life,
just as the body droops when debarred from the air and the cheering light from heaven.

WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING

These visualizations can be done anywhere, anytime. Let boredom and impatience be the reminders to do some inner work. The checkout line at the supermarket or a dull passage on the radio can be the perfect time to heal yourself.

The options, as you may have noticed, are endless. Be creative. Have fun. If you learn to enjoy the process of healing, you'll find your health more enjoyable, too.

Listen to Your Pain

It would be a great thing to understand pain in all its meanings.

PETER MERE LATHAM

What if pain were really your friend? What if it were giving you important advice about your life and, once you listened to and followed that advice, the pain would go away?

We learned that guilt and resentment could be used to keep us from traveling down pointless and destructive pathways of negative thinking. The same is true of pain.

Let's define pain as anything in your mind, body, or emotions you wish weren't there. It might be a physical pain (headache, sore muscles, upset stomach), an emotional pain (hurt, anger, fear), or a mental pain (confusion, doubt, rigidity).

All you have to do is talk to your pain. Ask it some questions. Listen to the answers. If the answers seem to make sense, follow the pain's advice.

Go into your sanctuary--gathering your Master Teacher at the people mover, if you like--and go to the sacred room. Imagine the pain leaving your body and sitting in a chair opposite you. Give the pain some human characteristics. How would Walt Disney animate it? What kind of Muppet would Jim Henson make of it?

Then ask the pain some questions. Make them up as you go along. Here are some possible starters: Do I embarrass you by talking to you? What payoff am I getting from having you? How am I using you? Is there anything I avoid by having you around? Is there some excuse you give me? What other information do you have for me? What would I have to do in order to let you go? Do you have any other advice for me?

One word Frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That word is love.

SOPHOCLES
406 B. C.

You may be amazed how knowledgeable the pain is. After you've made note of the information, say good-bye to the pain and imagine it surrounded by a white light. See the pain disappear into this light, smiling and waving good-bye, newly freed energy, happy to be going on to other projects.

Then put the pain's advice in motion. If you do the things you've been avoiding, you'll probably find that the pain doesn't need to be there reminding you anymore.

When we've learned the lesson the pain was sent to teach, it generally goes. How do we know when we've learned the lesson? When the pain is gone. If it remains, there's probably more to learn--and to do.

If the pain is chronic, you've probably ignored lesser pains that could have given you the same information. When we need to change something, the messages telling us to get moving are like an alarm clock that keeps getting louder and louder until we finally wake up.

When you learn to listen to your pain and take corrective action at an earlier point--when it's just discomfort or annoyance or mild sensations--you can usually avoid the alarm clock's loudest rings.

Learning that guilt, resentment, and pain are our friends can be a powerful process. Could that mean that everything in our life is put here for our good?

Good question.

Meditate, Contemplate, or "Just Sits"

Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits.

SATCHEL PAIGE

In addition to visualization, you might like to try any number of meditative and contemplative techniques available--or you might just want to sit quietly and relax.

Whenever you meditate, contemplate, pray, do spiritual exercises, or "just sits," it's good to ask the white light to surround, fill, and protect you, knowing only that which is for your highest good and the highest good of all concerned will take place during your quiet time. You may want to do your meditation in your sanctuary.

Before starting, prepare your physical environment. Arrange not to be disturbed. Unplug the phone. Put a note on the door. Wear ear plugs if noises might distract you. (I like the soft foam-rubber kind sold under such trade names as E.A.R., HUSHER, and DECIDAMP.) Take care of your bodily needs. Have some water nearby if you get thirsty, and maybe some tissues, too.

Contemplation is thinking about something, often something uplifting. You could contemplate any of the hundreds of quotes or ideas in this book. Often, when we hear a new and potentially useful idea, we say, "I'll have to think about that." Contemplation is a good time to "think about that," to consider the truth of it, to imagine the changes and improvements it might make in your life.

Or, you could contemplate a nonverbal object, such as a flower, or a concept, such as God. The idea of contemplation is to set aside a certain amount of quiet time to think about just that, whatever you decide "that" will be.

Most of the evils in life arise from man's being unable to sit still in a room.

BLAISE PASCAL
1623-1662

Meditation. There are so many techniques of meditation, taught by so many books and organizations, that it's hard to define the word properly.

You might want to try various meditations to see what they're like. With meditation, please keep in mind that you'll never know until you do it. We may like to think we know what the effects of a given meditation will be by just reading the description, but I suggest you try it and then decide.

Breathing Meditation. Sit comfortably, close your eyes, and simply be aware of your breath. Follow it in and out. Don't "try" to breathe; don't consciously alter your rhythm of breathing; just follow the breath as it naturally flows in and out. If you get lost in thoughts, return to your breath.

Mantras. Some people like to add a word or sound to help the mind focus as the breath goes in and out. Some people use one or God or AUM (OHM) or love. These--or any others--are fine. As you breathe in, say to yourself, mentally, "love." As you breathe out, "love." If you don't like synchronizing sounds to breath, don't. It doesn't matter.

It's not so much the sound, but the meaning you assign to the sound. You may use a mantra such as "Ummmm" just because it sounds good--satisfying and relaxing. Or you may say "Ahhhh" represents the pure sound of God. Because you say it does, it will.

Affirmations. Brief affirmations can be used in meditation. My favorites include "God is within me" and "I love myself."

Some people think meditation takes time away from physical accomplishment. Taken to extremes, of course, that's true. Most people, however, find that meditation creates more time than it takes. Meditation is for rest, healing, balance, and information. All these are helpful to attain a goal.

One of the primary complaints people have about meditating is, "My thoughts won't leave me alone." Well naturally--that's what the mind does; it thinks. Rather than fight the thoughts (good luck), you might listen to the thoughts for nuggets of information. If a thought reminds you of something to do, write it down (or record it on a tape recorder). Then return to the meditation.

A powerful agent is the right word. Whenever we come upon one of those intensely right words the resulting effect is physical as well as spiritual, and electrically prompt.

MARK TWAIN

As the "to do" list fills, the mind empties. If the thought, "Call the bank," reappears, you need only tell yourself, "It's on the list. I can let that one go." And you will. It is important, however, to do the things on the list--or at least in a nonmeditative state to consider doing them. If you don't, you will continue to think about them, again and again.

When finished meditating, not only will you have had a better meditation, you will also have a "to do" list that can be very useful. One insight gleaned during a few minutes of meditation might save hours, perhaps days of unnecessary work. That's what I mean when I say--from a purely practical point of view--meditation can make more time than it takes.