The Renegade Doc Comments

In our last post we outlined three levels of life and the fact that the physical level is “merely” an expression of the deeper emotional and spirit levels.  Now let’s examine what that has to do with dis-ease and healing.

I believe we have the choice to live primarily at either of the three levels though the other levels will always have some influence at the same time.  Most of the time most of us live at the physical level primarily.  We spend our days earning a living, caring for our bodies, breathing, feeling our heart beat, handling physical objects, driving the car to get places.  When we experience a dis-ease we look for help from the doctor or some type of practitioner.  Many of us are totally committed to the world we call medicine with its drugs, surgery and radiation as its primary tools for solving our physical problems.  Some, and more all the time, are seeking once again for more natural means that include vitamins, food choices, herbs and similar less toxic approaches.  There is also the world of massage and bodywork therapy which offers the very physically focused techniques of Swedish massage and Deep Tissue massage where your body can feel touch and pressure and stretching to bring relief for many dis-eases.  Like Newtonian physics, these approaches can work all the time though they may be shortsighted and missing the deeper magic.

However, the question I had as a physician and still have as a massage therapist is, “Can this level of therapy really adequately solve the question of dis-ease when it is expressed physically?  Can we solve the physical problem by simply approaching it from the physical standpoint?”  And part of that question has to do with the role of the practitioner.  What does the therapist really do?  Are they really needed?

At the physical level the answer to those questions is that the practitioner is almost always needed to perform the physical tasks required to bring some modicum of healing.  Someone has to stitch up the cuts since you usually can’t do it yourself.  Someone has to spend the time to learn enough about what drug or herb or vitamin you need to help stimulate the physical healing process since you probably won’t have spent the time to do it yourself.  Someone needs to be able to step back and evaluate you objectively to help decide what is best for you.

Continuing on with our discussion, we also have the choice to live primarily at the emotional level and similarly we can approach dis-ease from a primarily emotional level.  As a practitioner/therapist I quickly discovered the value, power and effectiveness of doing so.  Asking dis-eased persons to look into their emotional issues begins to uncover hidden or even obvious underlying causes of what is expressed as dis-ease.  There are techniques that specifically do this.  In the medical world they include psychotherapy, psychology, and counseling of various types.  In the alternative there are techniques such as EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) or Bach Flower Remedies and perhaps some parts of Reiki or similar therapies.  This would include the work of Louise Hay, the Desire discussed by Napoleon Hill or Norman Vincent Peale’s Power of Positive Thinking.  The bodywork world can easily access emotions by virtue of touching and holding spots on the body where these emotions become “stuck” in tissue and in memory.  Though these techniques may have varying degrees of effectiveness, the point here is that the approach is primarily directed toward the emotional level.

At this level the answer to the question about what role the practitioner plays is that someone is usually and likely required to assist you in going to levels of your existence that you likely will not or would not go or desire to go if you were left on your own.  The practitioner/therapist offers insight and an energy that helps push you past your comfort zone and allows you to release old hurts, pains and disappointments which in turn brings a measure of healing into your dis-ease.

Finally, we have the choice to live primarily in spirit, to live from a sense of “knowing” who we are and what to do, on a daily basis.  Few of us can see or believe beyond the physical to get and stay here.  This is the deep place, the “deep magic” where the real core of our being and the root of our existence actually is.  This is the deep subconscious that forms our personalities and controls our responses to the people, events and circumstances of our life.  This is the place where we are most scared and hesitant to go and change, yet this is exactly where we need to go to make significant and lasting change.  Dis-ease here is what keeps us from becoming our true selves, is what keeps us poor and OK with being poor, is what keeps us locked into our fears and unable to get past them.  We may dream and wish for better but that is emotional and until we get to this deep level, nothing truly changes.

When applied to dis-ease, this is the root of all of our problem and lack of true health, yet so far we have discovered or used little or no means of approach and access.  The medical world has absolutely nothing to address this level and doesn’t even believe in it, though a few physicians are beginning to talk about “prayer”.  In the natural and bodywork world a couple of energy techniques such as Cranio-Sacral therapy and Reconnective Therapy are probably working at this level.

Mostly, however, I believe the real “technique” at this level is the simple presence of a practitioner tuned in to the whole concept of spirit.  First and foremost remember that our being and our body wants and has the ability to heal itself as we evidence when we suffer a cut, for example.  The only reason it does not, I believe, is because we put up a block to that healing at the deepest level.  For some reason, our fear or misperception about things makes us believe that the dis-ease is better for us than the healing of it.  That thought has to be changed at the deep level of spirit.  The aware practitioner can come and simply give permission for the dis-eased to let go of the fear and allow the self-healing to occur.  Consequently, all that is required of the practitioner is the permission of presence.  No special technique or movement or touching is necessary (though that is always good!).  The issue then becomes, will you let your self go to that deep place, let go your fear, your control, your comfort zone, and allow the healing to occur, to change you and thus your thoughts and behaviors and body?  You may have to give up the job or lifestyle and go do and be what you are meant to do and be.  Worse, and perhaps too frightening, you may have to give up your taught and practiced belief in who you are and become your true self.

So the question remains, how much healing do you want?

Do you want to limit treatment to the physical body and thus help the physical be better?

Are you ready to look at emotional causes of your dis-ease, to look at and admit and deal with what in your past and in your fear and in your emotions has deeply hurt and scarred and now expressed as physical symptoms?

Or are you willing to really go deep into your spirit core, really get vulnerable and naked with yourself and your therapist and allow your spirit to bring the deep healing, make the basic changes, do the “reprogramming” that will affect your entire existence and at the same time change the dis-ease symptoms?

It’s up to you.  You are worth the tough stuff, the deep work, the making of the champion.  You are an expression of Loving Father’s mind!  Go for the Gold!  Get Naked with yourself.  Go Deep.  Be truly well.

Blessings,

Dr Jon