Healing Power

Healing Power
Ten Steps to Pain Management
and Spiritual Evolution

Dr. Phil Shapiro
Founder and Director
Northwest Institute for Healing Power

Integrative Medicine

 Separate tracks
 Healing principle in health care
 Community Psychiatry
 Healing principle in religion
 Spiritual Seeker
 Single track
 Dr. Herbert Benson
• Integrative Medicine
• Mind-Body Medicine
 Personal, private spiritual experience becomes
medically relevant


 Biological high-tech medicine
 Has great power but alone can be
reductionistic, often leading to symptom
management without getting to the root
causes of disease.
 Integrative medicine
 Includes biopsychosocial and spiritual aspects.
 Look for the root causes of disease and
healing here.


 Four evidence based healing universes
1. Biological
a. Traditional Medicine
b. CAM: Complimentary and Alternative Medicine
2. Psychological
3. Social
4. Spiritual
a. Mind-Body Medicine

Mind-Body Medicine

 Mind-body Medicine
 The spiritual aspect of cognitive-behavioral
therapy
 Belief systems impact disease and healing.
 The mind can be used for:
1. Expansion of healing power
2. Pain control
3. Spiritual evolution

Mind-Body Medicine
Evidence-based: The Data
 People with an active faith or belief system have
better outcomes in medicine, surgery, mental
health, and addiction
 Includes cancer, coronary artery
disease, cerebrovascular
disease, hypertension, asthma, COPD, infections
disease, kidney disease, and more.
 Lower medication rates
 Lower length of stay
 Higher quality of life
 Much more

Mind-Body Medicine
Evidence-based: The Data
 Suggested reading
 Herbert Benson M.D., Timeless healing
 Jeff Levin PhD: God, Faith and Health
 David Larson M.D.
 Larry Dossey M.D.
 Dale Mathews M.D.
 Harold Koenig M.D.
 James Gordon M.D.
 Deepok Chopra M.D.

Mind-Medicine
Evidence Based: The Data
 What the data tells us:
 There is no separation between mind and
body.
 The mind is connected to every cell in the body
through electromagnetic and chemical waves.
 In some yet to be determined way, thoughts
have leverage in the inner workings of our cells
having to do with disease and healing.

Mind-Body Medicine
The Mechanism
 Community: support from like-minded people
 Behavior: good habits such as no
smoking, drinking, or drugs; healthy diet
 Thought: the power of positive thought--
faith, hope, belief, optimism, and much more
 Feeling: the healing power of positive emotion—
peace, love, joy, compassion
 Spiritual practice: expansion of healing power
from yoga, meditation, mindfulness, and prayer

Mind-Body Medicine Principles

 The scientific connection between spirituality
and healing has been made.
 Spiritual belief systems have a role in healing
mind, body, and soul.
 When we activate or intensify our spiritual
belief systems, healing power expands.
 There is healing power on the table.

Healing Power
 Healing Power
 A magnificently intelligent healing power
operates every cell in the body.
 It is incomparably brilliant.
 We know how to make it grow and shrink.
 We know where the leverage points are.
 The key leverage point: how we manage our
pain.

Pain Management
 Skillful pain management
 To tap into the expanded reservoir of
healing power, we must become more
skillful pain managers.
 How we manage our pain determines
whether we move forward, backward, or
stay stuck in this life.

Pain Management
 Pain Management
 The fear factor: we are afraid of
suffering, disease, disability, the unknown, and
death.
 This mental distress slows down healing and
makes the pain worse.
 When disease persists, we can teach people to
slow down and relax so they can stay in charge
and get their lives back.

Pain Management
 Pain Management
 Often we cannot take disease away but we can
always help with pain management.
 Pain is both physical and psychological.
 All pain is experienced in the mind and can
therefore be modulated by the mind.
 We can contain and reduce or expand and magnify
the pain.
 We can control pain so pain does not control our
lives.

Spiritual Evolution
 Spiritual Evolution
 If we manage our pain skillfully, healing power
expands and we evolve spiritually.
 Spiritual qualities such as
compassion, understanding, forgiveness, pat
ience, peace, love, and joy grow.
 We feel better.
 We become better people.


 When we activate or intensify our spiritual
belief systems, we harness the untapped
power of the mind for:
1. Expansion of healing power
2. Pain Control
3. Spiritual Evolution
 This is very good news but there are many
barriers.

Problems Entering the Spiritual
Domain
 We don’t work with Spirit.
 We are not comfortable talking about religion.
 We have no language or map.
 We ignore or refer to spiritual counselors.
 Lack of training.
 Belief systems are personal, intimate, complex.
 Many have a traumatic religious history.
 Fierce feelings and defensiveness.
 Fear of unravel to the abyss (The Cheeseburger)
 Enormous variation and level of commitment.
 There is no time-brief appointments, paper work.
 How to enter without losing life, limb, or property.

Guidelines for Approaching
Belief Systems
1. Access: we need models that give us
safe, efficient, and effective access to the
territory of belief systems.
 Map: how to get there.
 Language: how to talk to each other and our
patients about religion and spirituality.
 Keys: to enter the territory of belief systems so we
can get in and out safely and effectively.
 An efficient delivery system: so we can help our
patients learn how to do this work when we are
already too busy.

Belief Systems
2. Universal and inclusive
 Look for universal or near-universal spiritual
healing principles, methods, and qualities.
 Design models that can work for as many as
possible.
 Include atheist, agnostic, religious, and
spiritual persons.

Belief Systems
3. Individualize
 Stay in religion of origin and expand practice
 Build your own program
 Cafeteria of options
4. Root cause and solution
 Look for root causes and solutions to our deepest
suffering.
5. User-friendly
 Remain user-friendly and non-invasive as possible

Belief Systems
6. Biopsychosocial-spiritual
 We think of high-tech medicine as real and mind-
body principles as touchy-feely. This is
reductionistic and wrong.
 We are biopsychosocial and spiritual beings. A
disturbance in any one of there leads to a
disturbance in the others.
 Therefore, comprehensive treatment planning
includes biopsychosocial and spiritual
interventions.

Belief Systems
7. Self-help and Skills Training
 There is an explosion of knowledge and models
having to do with healing in each of the four
domains: biopsychosocial and spiritual.
 There is no time to do it all: managed care, fifteen
minute appointments, paper work and so on.
 How can we activate healing power in all four
domains given the limitation of time and system
problems?
 Good news: it can be done through skills training
and self help.

Belief Systems
 Self-help: much of the healing in the
psychosocial-spiritual domain is self-help.
 Skills training:
classes, groups, books, manuals, tapes, CD’s,
DVD’s, Internet
 Self-healing: we can teach people how to
increase healing power while in the comfort
of their own homes or during the day while
performing their routine activities.
 There are many ways to do this. No one way
works for all people.

Universal Spiritual Healing
Models
 I will present two models
Brutal Reality and the Illusion of
1.
Safety, Security, and Immortality (1980)
2. Healing Power: Ten Steps to Pain Management
and Spiritual Evolution (2005)

Personal Spiritual History

 Before discussing the models, a brief personal
history
 From personal to universal
 To enter the spiritual domain, we need to learn
how to move with facility from our personal
religious or spiritual experience to the universal.
 In that light, I will share with you a very brief
history of my religious-spiritual journey as it
relates to professional work.
 As you listen, find yourself and your patients in
these stories and models.


 Seventh month of fetal life: an early
introduction to brutal reality
 Conservative Judaism
 The dynamics of unraveling a belief system
 The Cheeseburger
 The Chess game: The King goes down.
 The Abyss: the unknown, the great mystery of life


 Whether we stay in our religion of origin or
not, belief systems remain monumentally
important.
 The meaning and purpose of life
 Story and metaphor
 Cultivation of spiritual qualities
 Inspiration
 Protection and guidance
 Truth
 Healing
 Community and service
 Much more


 The Seeker
 Mining the great religious fields for pearls
 Studies in
Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Nativ
e American Spirituality, others
 Review the lives of
saints, sages, teachers, masters, gurus
 The scientific method in metaphysics: direct
personal experience
 Develop a spiritual practice:
meditation, mindfulness, affirmations, prayer

The Scientific Method in
Metaphysics
 We can decipher spiritual fiction from fact.
 How to do this without lab tests or x-rays?
 We can put profoundly important questions to
the test of direct personal experience in the
laboratory of life.
 Does compassionate service to humanity give us
peace of mind and strength?
 Does meditation work?
 Do higher states of consciousness actually exist?
 Does the body-temple harbor the God of the universe?

The Scientific Method in
Metaphysics
Test a theory by practicing a spiritual method.
1.
Assume the agnostic position.
2.
 Do not accept of reject the theory.
 Stay open and receptive.
The body is the test tube.
3.
The experiment is on the life force
4.
itself, consciousness, energy, thought, feeling, desire, and
behavior.
Prove or disprove it to yourself through direct personal
5.
experience.
If a method or concept works, we keep it and teach it to our
6.
patients. If not, discard it.
We trust our ability to tell the difference.
7.

Safety, Security, and Immortality

 Dual Diagnosis process group at Harlem
Hospital
 The emergence of a model
 Criteria
 Brutal reality and higher states of consciousness
 Connect the dots between pain and healing
 AA meetings and psychotherapy
 What do you do when you are in pain?
 Healing power: where is the leverage?


1. People
2. Activities
3. Belief System
4. Self-knowledge
5. Brutal Reality
6. The Illusion of Safety, Security, and
Immortality

Belief Systems

 Spiritual, religious, political, national, cultural, ra
cial, familial, psychological, personal
 Mechanism of perpetuation in health or disease
 Thought repetition with denial and repression of
conflicting data
 The Cheeseburger Effect: a single countervailing
thought or action has the potential to unravel an
entire belief system, thrusting the individual into the
unknown, the abyss. This is equivalent to
psychological annihilation or death.

Belief Systems

 Defense and resistance
 The Living Room
 Simple fixed belief systems
 Eclectic synthetic belief systems
 The abyss between simple fixed and eclectic
synthetic systems
 Intra-psychic battle for healing

A Universal Prescription for Any
Problem, Pain or Symptom
 Tell your patients they can enhance healing
when these four domains are active and
positive:
 People
 Activities
 Belief System
 Self-knowledge
 You can prescribe these with confidence.
Each is evidence based.

A Quick Assessment for the Busy
Practitioner
 A quick, efficient, and safe entry into the
psychosocial and spiritual domain for the
busy practitioner:
People: Who is in your life that you can really
1.
talk to?
2. Activities: What is your day like?
3. Belief system: Do you have a spiritual activity
such as church, prayer, personal system, etc.
4. Self-knowledge: How do you handle emotions
such as anger, depression, fear, and guilt?

Exercise
1. Describe how the six components weave the
fabric of your life.
 Focus on how you use people, activities, belief
system, and self-knowledge to shift from brutal
reality to a feeling of safety. You might want to
use the handout to help you diagram your story.
2. Describe how the six components drive the
lives of
patients, family, friends, strangers, and
enemies.

Mind-Body Medicine
Herbert Benson M.D.
 Conference in Chicago on spirituality and
healing in medicine
 Day one: science
 Day two: religion
 Day three: applications

Mind-Body Medicine
Herbert Benson M.D.
 Day one: scientific proof
 People with an active faith or belief system
have better outcomes in
medicine, surgery, mental health, and
addiction.

Mind-Body Medicine
Herbert Benson M.D.
 Day two: religion
 Rabbi, priest, Hispanic Pentecostal, Florence
Nightingale mystic, Tibetan Buddhist PHD—
former secretary of the Dalai Lama, Islamic
professor and teacher
 Each discussed healing principles, methods, and
qualities from their great faith traditions.

Mind-Body Medicine
Herbert Benson M.D.
 Day three: application
 Extract and organize healing principles from the
great faith traditions into cognitive behavioral or
mind-body medicine practices.
 Practice these ourselves and teach them to our
patients.

Cascadia: Spirituality and
Healing Group
 Clinic survey
 Create a group and manual using the criteria
described earlier.
 Two groups:
 One was consumer run
 The other is ongoing at the Northwest Institute
for Healing Power
 The Ten Steps

Healing Power: Ten Steps to Pain
Management and Spiritual Evolution
Deconstruct: religion into discrete pieces
1.
Eliminate: dogma, ritual, and other non-essentials.
2.
Extract: the wisdom of the ages—the elegant essence
3.
of religion.
Organize: into doable practical steps and tools
4.
• Ten steps, 12 methods, 100 spiritual qualities
• Cafeteria of options
Any person: atheist, agnostic, religious, spiritual
5.
Anywhere, any time: home, work, play
6.
Any problem: physical, mental, emotional, spiritual
7.
Self-help
8.
Self-Healing
9.

Healing Power: Ten Steps to Pain
Management and Spiritual Evolution
 Some advice as you listen
 Take what you need and leave the rest.
 Nuke offensive language and substitute your own.
 The Higher Power as you understand it
 God, Buddha, Consciousness, Mystery
 Stay in your own lane.
 Do not proselytize.
 Discuss without debate.
 Reform yourself, not others.

The Ten Steps

1. The Core Drive 6. The Seeker
2. Duality and Brutal 7. Soul and Spirit
Reality 8. The School of Life
3. The Compromise 9. Spiritual Practice
4. Habits 10. Spiritual Experience
5. Tools Become
Barriers

Ten Steps

 Steps 1-5  Steps 6-10
 The evolution of  Spirituality and
suffering healing
 Unskillful pain  Skillful pain
management management
 Descend  Ascend

Ten Steps

 Follow the pain
 Pain management is the swing point between
descent and ascent.
 How you manage your pain determines
whether you move forward, backward, or stay
stuck in this life.
 Turn the tables on the pain: use the pain to
heal.

Step 1: The Core Drive

 We want:
 Unlimited peace, love, joy, and safety
 No suffering
 Immortality: more time
 This is our motivation whether robbing a
bank or serving the poor.

Step 2: Duality and Brutal
Reality
 Life on the physical plane is dual and brutal.
 Duality
 The ups and downs of life
 Pleasure and pain, good and evil, health and
disease, success and failure, wealth and poverty, gain
and loss, praise and blame, joy and sadness, love and
hate, war and peace, and so on
 Brutal Reality
 Death, pain and suffering, and the unknown
 The down side of duality

Step 3: The Compromise

 There is a collision between the core drive
and duality.
 We can’t get everything we want on the
physical plane.
 We compromise by creating the illusion of
safety through relationship and activities.
 In the compromise, we may feel comfortable
and safe.

Step 3: The Compromise

 However, suffering is unavoidable.
 Often we do not accept the inevitable
suffering of life.
 Instead, we make a desperate attempt to
eliminate all of our suffering through faulty
mechanisms such as the cultivation of bad
habits.

Step 4: Habits

 We seek eternal love and safety in a world
where impermanence and limitation are the
rule.
 In a mighty but misguided effort to eliminate
suffering, we develop bad habits.
 Bad habits have a profound effect on our
health and our response to health care
interventions.

Step 4: Habits
Work Alcohol
Codependency Drugs
Activity Sex
Materialism Power
Computers/Internet Gambling
TV Money
Food Violence
Shopping Crime

Step 5: Tools Become Barriers

 We use six tools to achieve the core drive
 While these tools are useful in helping us find
some measure of peace, love, safety, and
pain relief, they become problems
themselves and add to our suffering.


The six tools are:
1. Mind
2. Emotion
3. Desire
4. Body
5. Activity
6. Ego

Step 5: Tools in Alignment

1. Mind: when positive, calm, and focused, it is
brilliant at solving problems and shaping
meaning.
2. Emotion: a source of self-knowledge
3. Desire: health, prosperity, and love
4. Body: engage life, the doer of all of our
activities, the source of our potential liberation
and enlightenment
5. Activity: work, recreation, culture, hobbies
6. Ego: establish our place in the world of work
and relationships.

Tools Become Barriers
The Ego
 The ego is the CEO of physical plane
consciousness.
 It’s job is to satisfy the core drive.
 To do this, the ego surreptitiously takes over the
control rooms of thought, feeling, desire, body
and activity.
 It uses these tools in its desperate search for
unlimited peace, love, joy and safety, more
time, and no pain.
 The search is in vain however as the ego runs
into the brick wall of limitation and inevitable
suffering on the physical plane.

Tools Become Barriers
The Ego
 But the ego does not give up so easily.
 It counters with an insatiable desire for
success, power, money, recognition, and things.
 The ego’s desperate attempt to achieve the core
drive on the physical plane is like driving a car
into a ditch.
 It tries to get out by pressing harder on the
accelerator which only serves to heat up the
motor, spray mud around, and dig a deeper rut.
 With the ego in charge, the tools go out of
alignment.

Step 5: Tools out of Alignment
Reactivity
 The six tools out of alignment=reactivity.
Mind: restless, relentless, a life of its own
1.
Emotion: high emotional reactivity
2.
Desire: excessive material desire resulting in
3.
attachments and bad habits.
Body: heavy, tired, hurts, disability, death
4.
Activity: hyperactivity
5.
Ego: separation, selfishness, territorial, self-
6.
important

The Ego
 The six tools out of alignment:
 The universal problem: does anyone not have
this?
 Fixation: pin us to the mat of the status quo
 Root cause: the root cause of much of our
suffering
 Add on: the suffering that we add to the inevitable
suffering of life

Getting the Tools Back in Alignment
 We can get the six tools back in alignment by
developing a spiritual practice (step 9)
 This is where the leverage is.
 We do the work here.
 Spiritual backbone-spinal column
 Spiritual chiropractor
 Day to day, hand to hand combat (9 to 5)
 Grind it out spiritual work
 Soul qualities slowly replace the ego.

Summary of Steps 1-5

 Two levels of suffering
 The inevitable suffering of life: steps 1-3
 The six helpful tools spin out of control:
step 5
 We cannot control duality and brutal
reality—the inevitable suffering of life.

Summary of Steps 1-5

 However, we can control how we respond.
 We can intervene at step 5.
 A comprehensive program must address step
5.
 The great religions tell us how.
 This is very good news as we add a lot of
suffering to the inevitable suffering of life.

Step 6: The Seeker

 Step 6: The Seeker
 The two layers of pain comingle.
 Our pain deepens.
 We may develop symptoms that invade
functioning.
 Our suffering leads to a period of questioning.
 We recognize the need to get help.
 We become seekers.

Step 6: The Seeker

 Our search takes us to spiritual belief
systems.
 World religions delve into the heart of the
mystery of life and suffering and emerge with
a prescription for our difficulties.
 We can heal ourselves, religion teaches, if we
learn how to manage our pain more skillfully
by developing a spiritual practice.
 But first, we must define the nature of the
soul and spirit.

Step 7: Soul and Spirit

 Soul or Higher Self
 Spiritual qualities: religious traditions point to
spiritual qualities as the nature of soul and Spirit
and recognize these as the goal of all spiritual
work.
 Spiritual alphabet
 Periodic table of spiritual elements


 Soul or Higher Self
 Extract the essence from the texts and stories of
the sacred traditions and summarize in one-word
qualities
 Perfume: The Elegant Essence of Religion
 Call it
Love, Truth, Power, Wisdom, Knowledge, Soul, Th
e Buddha, Atman, The Image of God, Higher
Self, Spiritual Qualities, or whatever you prefer

Spiritual Alphabet
Acceptance 16. Devotion 30. Generosity 45. Joy
1.
2. Appreciation 17. Endurance 31. Gentleness 46. Justice
Balance 18. Energy 32. Gratitude 47. Kindness
3.
4. Beauty 19. Enthusiasm 33. Harmony 48. Knowledge
belief 20. Equality 34. Healing 49. Laughter
5.
6. Changelessness 21. Eternity 35. Honesty 50. Light
Cheerfulness 22. Even- 36. Hope 51. Listening
7.
mindedness
8. Clarity 37. Humility 52. Loyalty
23. Faith
9. Community 38. Humor
24. Fearlessness
10. Compassion 39. Immortality
25. Forbearance
11. Confidence 40. Infinity
26. Forgiveness
12. Contentment 41. Integrity
27. Freedom
13. Courage 42. Interconnected
28. Friendship
14. Creativity 43. Introspection
29. Fun
15. Desireless 44. Intuition

Spiritual Alphabet
Mercy Positive- Service Truthfulness
53. 66. 78. 92.
thought
Mindfulness Silence Unconditional
54. 79. 93.
Power love
67.
Mystery Simplicity
55. 80.
Practicality Understanding
68. 94.
Non- Sincerity
56. 81.
Pure Unity
attachment 69. 95.
Spaciousness
82.
awareness
Non-injury Usefulness
57. 96.
Stillness
83.
Pure
70.
Oneness warmth
58. 97.
Strength
consciousness 84.
Openness Will
59. 98.
Success
85.
Purity
71.
Order wisdom
60. 99.
Surrender
86.
Receptivity
72.
patience 100. Witness
61. Sweetness
87.
Reverence
73.
Peace 101. other
62. Tenderness
88.
Rhythm
74.
Perfection
63. Thoughtfulness
89.
Safety
75.
Perseverance
64. Tolerance
90.
Security
76.
Play
65. Trust
91.
Self-control
77.


 You have an army of 100 spiritual qualities.
 The jewels of this life
 The habits of a sage
 The healers
 Broker and buffer the pain
 USA: unconditional, spontaneous, automatic
 As these slowly grow to USA, the locus of
control shifts from outside to inside.


 Spirit or Higher Power
• Atheist, Agnostic, Spiritual, Religious
1. The God of your understanding
• Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omnipresent
• The God of Love
• Christ, Buddha, Krishna, Rumi, Bal Shem Tov
• The Infinite Mysterious Unknown
• Many other concepts, images, aspects
2. Higher states of consciousness
3. Higher or true self
4. Higher meaning and purpose

Step 8: The School of Life

 Turn the tables on the pain and make it
work for you.
 When pain comes, school is in session:
1. Life is school.
2. Pain is the teacher if we let it be.
3. Lessons have to do with the cultivation of
spiritual qualities.

Step 9: Spiritual Practice
External
 Synagogue, church, mosque
 Rituals
 Sermons, singing, chanting
 Organizational work, committees
 Social gatherings
 Community service

Step 9: Spiritual Practice
Internal
Affirmations 7. Prayer
1.
2. Habits 8. Mindfulness
3. Breathwork 9. Practicing the
Presence of God
4. Progressive muscle
relaxation 10. Service
5. Contemplation 11. Yoga
6. Meditation 12. The Transformation of
Emotion

Spiritual Practice
Step 9
 Recall the purpose of spiritual practice
• Reduce reactivity
• Getting the six tools back in alignment
1. Mind: positive, calm, strong
2. Emotion: self-knowledge
3. Desire: contentment, satisfaction
4. Body: a temple housing God/Consciousness
5. Activity: stillness, silence, serenity
6. Ego: replaced by soul qualities
• Discipline, life long practice
• Persevere and the reward is great

Step 10: Spiritual Experience
 The Promise: Spiritual Experience
• Cultivate spiritual qualities
• Feel better
• Become a better person
• Negative → Positive → Stillness → Higher States
of Consciousness
• Conquer the inner world
• Become master of yourself

Step 10: Spiritual Experience
Expansion of spiritual qualities in four stages:
1. No change is noticeable. Spiritual qualities are
expanding but the increase is subtle and
imperceptible. Many people quit here.
2. You feel better. There is a tangible experience of
ever-expanding
peace, love, strength, courage, compassion, and
other qualities from the spiritual alphabet.
3. Transformation of consciousness: the peace that
surpasses understanding pure love, ecstatic
joy, intuitive wisdom, a feeling of oneness with
everything, and other wonderful expressions of
Spirit.
4. Mastery: a sustained state of superconsciousness.

Key Principles of the Ten Steps

 Steps 1-3: We want permanent love and safety in
an uncertain world where suffering is inevitable.
 Steps 4-5: We manage our pain poorly and make
it worse.
 Steps 6-7: The wisdom of the ages found in the
world’s great religious traditions offers a solution
to this dilemma.
 Step 8: Religions teach us how to use the
inevitable suffering of life to cultivate
peace, power, and strength.


 Step 9: Pain is the route to healing if we
develop a spiritual practice.
 Step 10: Spiritual qualities such as
love, compassion, courage, strength, and
humility are the healers. They help us broker
and buffer the pain of this life.
 Steps 1-10: Through a series of painful
lessons, life teaches us that the
peace, love, and joy we seek in the outer
world, can and must ultimately be found
within.


 Spiritual work results in a shift in the locus of
control from the outer world of
people, places, and things to the inner world of
peace, power, and strength.
 Skillful pain management (step 8) and spiritual
practice (step 9) lead to the discovery of the soul
and Higher Power (step 7) as the peace, love, and
joy we crave (step 10) (Universal Wheel).
 Step 10 is The Core Drive resurrected, but now
we understand that getting the peace, love, and
joy we crave, necessitates a shift in the locus of
control from outside to inside.

The Car

 Build a car worthy of the spiritual journey.
 The Car
 Body of the car:
atheist, agnostic, religious, spiritual
 Universal Wheel: problem, method, quality
 Traction Devices: the stuff of the religions.

The Universal Wheel
Problem, Method, Quality
 The Universal Wheel
Problem: any problem of body, mind, or soul.
1.
2. Method: choose any one or combination of the 12
methods.
3. Qualities: choose any one or combination of 100
spiritual qualities in response to your problem.
 Example:
1. I am anxious.
2. I practice meditation and mindfulness.
3. I cultivate peace of mind.

The Universal Wheel

 The Universal Wheel
 The essence of spiritual work
 Cannot reduce any further
 Buddhism
 Necessary and sufficient
 Roll the wheel

The Universal Wheel

 For many the universal wheel is:
 enough
 least invasive, threatening, or toxic.
 there is no theology here.
 addresses the root cause of much of our
suffering.
 For others, the universal wheel is not enough.

Traction Devices

 Some people need theological traction
devices
 The stuff of the religions
 Story, metaphor, language
 Concepts, images, aspects
 Rituals

Traction Devices

 Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omnipresence
 The God of Love
 A personal God as
Father, Mother, Friend, Beloved, Teacher, Gui
de, Protector, Confidant
 Saints, sages, masters, teachers, and gurus
 Christ, Buddha, Krishna, Rumi, Bal Shem Tov

Traction Devices

 An impersonal God as
peace, love, joy, power, wisdom, or other
combinations of spiritual qualities
 Nature, reason, the subconscious
 Collective unconscious and archetypes
 The Mystery

Traction Devices

 Karma and reincarnation
 Grace
 Mystical experiences: eternal peace, pure
love, ecstatic joy, intuitive
wisdom, protection, guidance, prophetic
dreams, many others
 And more

Inclusion and Individualization

 One person’s traction device is the next
person’s gag reflex.
 Take what you need and leave the rest.
 Don’t let language knock you out of the
game.
 Nuke offensive language and substitute your
own
 Inclusion: all of the options cited above are
referred to in the ten-step model.

How to Use the Book
Overview
 The book is an instruction manual for
developing a spiritual practice.
 There are ten steps, 15 methods, and 100
 10 qualities have their own chapter.
 The first 89 pages set the stage for the rest of
the book.
 Chapter 3-6: The Ten Steps

Getting Started

 Chapter 7: eight suggestions p. 50
 The ego versus the soul p. 27 & 53
 A battle between the ego and the soul for
control over
thought, feeling, desire, body, and activity

Getting Started

 Soul: tools in
 Ego: tools out of
alignment alignment
 Thought  Thought
 Feeling  Feeling
 Desire  Desire
 Body  Body
 Activity  Activity

The Serenity Prayer

 Will and Surrender p. 59
 Will: How to develop will power—from spark
to bonfire p. 60
 Surrender: learning to live with what we
cannot change p. 67
 Managing problems with will, surrender, and
a combination of both p. 70

A Universal Method

 A ten-step method for working with any pain
or problem p. 75
 Will and grace
 The mystery of evil and suffering
 4 options p. 83
 The formula for success p. 85
 Define your Higher Power p. 85
 Install the image for duality and brutal reality
 A constant no matter what the world or body does

A Universal Method

 One pointed calm concentration p. 87
 All your heart, mind, might and soul
 24/7 for all techniques
 Stay in the present p. 87
 Start slow p. 88
 Continuous practice p. 88
 Pace yourself p. 88
 Do your best and leave the rest p. 89

Spiritual Practice

 The purpose of spiritual practice
 Reduce reactivity
 Getting the six tools back in alignment
1. Mind: positive, calm, focused, resilient
2. Emotion: self-knowledge
3. Desire: contentment, satisfaction
4. Body: a temple housing the actual God of the
Universe or higher states of consciousness
5. Activity: stillness, silence, spaciousness, serenity
6. Ego: replaced by soul qualities

Affirmations

 The power of thought
 We are always affirming something.
 Thoughts are like glasses through which you see the
world.
 Framing and reframing
 The Subconscious
 Lipstick on a pig
 Technique p. 99
 JapaYoga p. 100
 Note cars p, 101
 One word affirmations p. 34 the spiritual alphabet

Affirmations

 Creating powerful and effective affirmations
• Individualize
• Visualize
• Feel
• Intensity
• Practice
• Persist
• Manifest

How To Eliminate Bad Habits

 Habits rule destiny
 Cocaine addict
 Householder
 Spiritual seeker
 Highly conscious sage
 Change your habits and you change the
course of your life.

How to Eliminate Bad Habits

The thought manifests as word.
The word manifests as deed.
The deed develops into habit.
And habit hardens into character
So watch the thought and its ways with care,
And let it spring from love
Born out of concern for all beings.
The Buddha


 The needle of attention
• Attention feeds the habit
• Activates the brain groove
• Releases
thought, impulse, fantasy, feeling, desire
, and action.
 Brain groove and neurocircuits


 The brain is malleable.
 We can form new brain grooves that hold
new good habits:
1. Constructive meaningful activities
2. The habits of a seeker
 Twelve spiritual methods
3. The habits of a sage
 100 spiritual qualities

Habits

Assume a virtue if you have it not.
Refrain tonight,
And that shall lend a kind of easiness
To the next abstinence, the next more easy;
For use almost can change the stamp of nature,
And either lodge the devil or throw him out
With wondrous potency
Shakespeare, Hamlet

Morning, Evening, and Day
Program
 Morning and evening program
program Mindfulness
1.
Progressive Muscle Practicing the
1. 2.
Relaxation presence of God
Breath work Service
2. 3.
Contemplation Yoga
3. 4.
Meditation The Transformation
4. 5.
of Emotion
Prayer
5.

 Daily activity

Morning and Evening Program

 Progressive Muscle Relaxation p 121
• Energize and relax the body
 Breathworkp. 127
• Using the breath to heal mind, body, and soul
 Contemplation p. 133
• Letting wisdom catch up with you

 Meditation
• Stop the world
• Stop the body
• Stop the senses
• Stop the mind
• The Room of Stillness
• Burn up problems in the Room of Stillness
• Wait patiently
• The door of stillness opens
• The Ocean of Stillness
• Ecstasy
• Other worlds


 Prayer p. 153
• Communion with your Higher Power
• Will
• Action
• Surrender
• Grace
• Peace

Day Program

 Mindfulness p. 163
• “I am awake”
• Ordinary consciousness: mindlessness
• Spiritual consciousness: mindfulness
• Place the needle of your attention here:
1. Witness
2. School
3. Service
4. Warrior
5. Entertainment
6. Ritual
7. Create your own: focus on any aspect of Spirit

Day Program

 Practicing the Presence of God p. 177
• A personal relationship
• The sacred meaning of story
• Phenomenon
• Have a conversation with God
• Hide and seek
• Find and keep
• If everything is God, how would you behave?
• If I am Buddha and you are Jesus, what would
change?

Day Program

 Service p. 191
• Adding our light to the sum of the light
• The Bodhisattva’s Vow
• Love and service in a daily routine
• Maintaining balance

Day Program

 Yoga p. 201
• BhaktiYoga: devotion
• Karma Yoga: service
• JnanaYoga: wisdom
• Raja Yoga: stillness
• Eight steps of Patanjali
• Chakras and prana
• Material consciousness: energy down and out
• Spiritual consciousness: energy in and up

Day Program

 Yoga
• Raja Yoga
• Be still and know that I am God.
• God is stillness.
• God is in the stillness.
• Stillness is the doorway between this world and the
next.
• God is beyond the stillness
• The Yogi in the school of life

Day Program

 The Transformation of Emotion p. 213
 The Guest House: Rumi
 A technique for converting emotional pain to
self-knowledge
• Let the story unfold
• Spiritualize the story

Deep Inner Work

 The two deepest inner program
1. The Transformation of Emotion: Self-
knowledge
2. Meditation: stillness
• These two work together
• Some cannot do this

Change Your Destiny
The Cultivation of Spiritual Qualities

 Perfume Bottle
 The elegant essence of religion
 Wake up a Buddha, Christ, or Krishna

Spiritual Qualities

 Love  Forgiveness
 Peace  Truth
 Humility  Intuition
 Faith  Oneness
 Courage  Healing

Change Your Destiny
A Balanced Healing Program
 When you are in pain, check the alignment of the
six tools:
1. Thoughts: repetitive, negative, relentless, a
life of its own
2. Emotions: highly reactive
3. Desires: attachments and bad habits
4. Body:
heavy, hurts, tired, disabled, disease, death
5. Activity: hyperactivity
6. Ego: fear, insecure, worry, doubt

Change Your Destiny
A Balanced Healing Program
 Develop a spiritual practice
 Drive your car up the spiritual mountain
 Roll the Universal Wheel
Problem: any problem of body, mind, or soul
1.
Method: any one or combination of 15 spriitual
2.
methods
 Horizontal Axis 1-3
 Vertical Axis 3-15
 Horizontal → Vertical → Horizontal
Quality: cultivate one of a combination of 100
3.
qualities from the spiritual alphabet

Change Your Destiny
Spiritual Evolution

 No matter what the world or your body does, you can
respond by cultivating any one or combination of 100
 When you fill the body temple with
love, compassion, understanding, forgiveness, patience,
courage, and peace,
 You feel better.
 You become a better person.
 Negative → Positive → Stillness → Higher States of
Consciousness
 Superconsciousness: The door of stillness opens
→ expansion → ecstasy

Change Your Destiny
Spiritual Evolution

 Service
 Quiet anonymous acts of gentle humble service to all
whom you meet
 Bring your love to brutal reality. Serve there.
 Superconsciousness → Service →
Superconsciousness → Service →Mastery
 Mastery
 Even-minded under all conditions
 Ocean/Wave: In the deep still ocean no matter how
stormy the waves

Summary
 You do not need a religion or theology.
 All you need is a spiritual practice.
 Drive your car up the spiritual mountain and you
will
 Expand healing power
 Become a more skillful pain manager
 Evolve spiritually
 Shift the locus of control from outside to inside
Negative → Positive → Stillness →

Superconsciousness
 Quiet anonymous acts of gentle humble service to all
humanity

Conclusion

 Healthcare professionals: can teach the ten steps
to their patients in hospitals and clinics.
 The ten-step model supplements the healing
practices of all medical specialties.
 Self-help groups: The model is suited for self-
help groups in the community.
 Individual Study: we do not need a group or
teacher. We can do this work at home alone.

Group Rules

 We do not promote a particular religion.
 We do promote your individual approach.
 We have respect and tolerance for the great variety
of ways to understand and practice spirituality.
 We do not proselytize.
 We engage in discussion without debate.
 Take what you need and leave the rest.
 We avoid giving advice or trying to fix other people’s
problems.
 We are not here to change others.
 We are here to change ourselves.

Exercise: Finding Yourself and Your
Patients in the Ten Steps
1. Are you satisfied with your spiritual life?
2. What is the next step in your spiritual
development?
3. Are you ready to take that step?
4. Are you willing to do some work?
5. What is your core drive?
6. How does step 3, The Compromise, play itself
out in your life?
7. What are some examples in your life of how
desire led to attachment and a bad habit or
two?

8. Would you like to be able to control your
mind but don’t know how?
9. Do you fill your waking life with continuous
activity?
10. Do you have built-in periods of retreat and
solitude for rest and regeneration?
11. Describe how your ego gets you into
trouble.
12. Has your suffering led you to search for
meaning and purpose.

13. What is the meaning and purpose of your life?
14. Describe how your belief system gives you
meaning and purpose.
15. What is your concept of soul or higher self?
16. Do you have a Higher Power?
17. What is your concept of Higher Power?
18. If life is school, how would you describe some of
the classes you are in at this time? What lessons
are you learning?

19. Do you have a spiritual practice?
20. What spiritual methods do you use?
21. Would you like to expand your practice?
22. Review the list of spiritual qualities. Which of
these would you like to grow?
23. Have you had a spiritual or superconscious
experience?
24. Discuss pain as a stimulant for the growth of
spiritual power.

25. Build your own car.
 Universal Wheel: choose a
problem, method, and quality.
 Body of the car:
atheist, agnostic, spiritual, religious
 Traction devices

Where Do We Go From Here?

 Healthcare professionals: if not interested of don’t have
enough time, refer patients to self-help books or skills
trainers.
 Those who are interested can follow the data from two
sources:
1. Scientific studies on spirituality and healing
2. The scientific method in metaphysics: spiritual
practice leads to direct personal experience.
 These two work together.

Where Do We Go From Here?

 “Heal Thyself”
 The Bag Lady
 Healthcare professionals and
consumers, seekers, individuals in crisis, all
people
 Develop a spiritual practice
 Form study groups
 Follow the scientific method in metaphysics

Change Your Destiny
Some Final Advice
 Spiritual work is not easy.
 It takes time to dissolve barriers.
 Quick fixes are usually not real.
 However, if you are patient and diligent, the
rewards are profound.
 For most it takes crisis and pain to start a
practice but don’t wait.
 Do your homework now.
 Begin building your morning, day, and evening
program.

Change Your Destiny
Some Final Advice
 Practice one or a combination or spiritual
methods every day.
 Work on cultivating one or a combination or
spiritual qualities every day.
 Even if you are very busy, try to read one or a few
pages of sacred text every day.
 Above all, remain compassionate, patient, and
gentle with yourself.
 Conclusion: The Great Physician prescribes Love
p. 330

Discussion

 Integration: personal and professional
practice
 Cases

Northwest Institute For
Healing Power
 This is a self-help model.
 You can and must ultimately do the work
alone.
 For those who might want ongoing support
and guidance, consider forming a study
group.
 You can also attend classes at the Northwest
Institute for Healing Power

Northwest Institute for
Healing Power
 Classes: Monday evening 6:30-8:00 pm
 Workshops
 Personal instruction 1:1
 Group supervision
 Northwest Institute for Healing Power
 Portland, Oregon
 PhilipShapiro.com
 PJLPW@comcast.net

Healing Power

Empfohlen

Empfohlen

Weitere ähnliche Inhalte

Was ist angesagt?

Was ist angesagt? (20)

Andere mochten auch

Andere mochten auch (13)

Ähnlich wie Healing Power

Ähnlich wie Healing Power (20)

Kürzlich hochgeladen

Kürzlich hochgeladen (20)

Healing Power