1. Body-Spirit

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Have you ever wondered at the intelligence of your body? I certainly have. Even as a child it struck me as miraculous that my body just knew how to do all the amazing things it did. And the older I got, the more I learned about the body, the more I marveled. At first I thought of the human body as a truly remarkable feat of biological engineering… as a very clever machine. Like a motor car… only organic and much, much more sophisticated. Then, as my attention deepened, I realised that I could no longer think of the body in this way. There is something so much more than a clever, organic machine going on here. I became aware that each of our bodies is responding to our thoughts and beliefs. That the body itself is conscious. And not as a function of my consciousness, but rather that my body has its own consciousness, independent of mine. If one thinks about what medicine calls psychosomatic illness then you realise that the body will actually get physically weakened and ill if we hold negative, destructive thought patterns in our minds. And the opposite is also true: if you can do something that you believe will make you well, it has a good chance of doing so. Medicine calls this the placebo effect. But even though medicine does recognise these two sides to the same coin, it is my view that we have not yet even begun to understand how very powerfully it is true that the body directly, consciously, intelligently reflects our choices and beliefs back at us.

I could give you an endless stream of examples of this from my own Soul Re-Integration clients . Most of my clients arrive seeking help for some psycho-spiritual problem or another. Very often, upon enquiry, they would report some physical ailment that they had not correlated with this internal struggle.

As an example, one of my clients (we'll call her Joan) found herself to be spiritually stuck and immobile. Joan felt as if she had accomplished much spiritual growth and change as a young person, but for the last many years had become blocked and stuck and could no longer find her way forward on her own. Joan did not think to tell me, until I asked, that she also suffered from joint pain and immobility. When I asked, she said that she thought she'd see me about the spiritual stuff and a Naturopath about her joints. Which, of course, is perfect except that, as stated, her body was directly reflecting the state of her mind back at her. If we are going to do more than just temporarily alleviate suffering, if we are going to actually heal the body, then we have to heal the psyche first. Or so I very much do believe! And this belief is strengthened over and over again in my own personal experiences and in my experience of clients like Jane who, after a number of sessions began to see the light within... and as she found her way past her own spiritual blocks, so her body began to reflect that back to her. She found herself becoming “miraculously” mobile again.

Now, I don't propose to be able to heal anyone's body in Soul Re-Integration practice. What I do offer is to catalyse spiritual healing. I work exclusively on my clients' inner landscape of their beliefs, choices and experiences. Perhaps we look into past-life experiences and see where some powerfully held vow was made that is now limiting their growth. Perhaps we release that vow and replace it with something much more liberating, loving and joyful. And perhaps, as a result, the client becomes aware of a part of Self (that other “past life”) returning to them. That is the kind of thing that happens in Soul Re-Integration. Why then is there so often a physical ailment that perfectly matches the spiritual ailment present? And how is it that the physical ailment seems to heal, either at the same time, or shortly after, without any kind of specific physical intervention?

Before we begin to seek answers to these questions, I'd like to share three more examples of healing, displaying this same body-mind connection.

Another of my Soul Re-Integration clients (we'll call him Larry) was holding onto his anger about past wrongs done to him. Admittedly, to hear him tell it, he had a pretty rough upbringing and there was all kinds of deeply unfair treatment of him as a child. These were the kinds of circumstances that would make anyone really hurt and angry and Larry was no exception. And so, as an adult, Larry found himself unable to let go of those past injustices, no matter how he tried to “reason them away” in his mind. As a result, Larry eventually found his way to me. In our first consultation, as Larry told me his story, he spoke of the wrongness of all the others in his life and how they were “shit” to him. He used that word a lot in reference not only to the behaviour of others in his life, but in reference to those others themselves. Larry felt like a victim and he was angry, resentful and very, very stuck.

When I asked Larry about his physical well-being, he was almost taken aback. It took him a moment to get to admitting to me that he had bad constipation. It took some more time to admit that it was really, really bad and had been so for most of his life. Larry told me that he had seen a variety of medical practitioners and alternative healing practitioners about this problem, to little avail. His colon was essentially completely impacted and the best anyone had been able to do for him was to offer slight, temporary relief. The underlying problem remained utterly intransigent.

So Larry and I began to work together and, very reluctantly, he began to see that the root of his spiritual pain was that he was holding onto emotions that did not serve him. I won't attempt to share the specifics of many hours of session here, but what I can tell you is that Larry found himself able to re-visit his most painful childhood experiences and, in so doing, to begin to process them. Instead of just holding onto them and keeping everyone wrong, Larry began to emotionally process. This of course lead to numerous emotional breakthroughs for Larry. He saw his story from a broader perspective and was even able to find compassion and understanding for those that had wronged him. In forgiving them and letting them go, Larry realised that all along he was actually most angry at himself for placing himself in that position. And then he realised that he was angry at God for allowing the injustice in the first place. With that awareness we were able process those feelings and eventually find loving forgiveness for all of the Self... right from the little ego-being to the Inner-Self to God and the Oneness of All. We really processed all the big issues that Larry had been holding onto for lifetime upon lifetime. And, of course, as Larry moved all of that... as he let go of all of “that shit”, so did his bowels begin to move. Larry didn’t come to me for his constipation, but healing his psyche allowed his body to find its way to its own most healthy balance.

So, I see this over and over again: Larry's body, your body, my body and every other body constantly seeks its highest expression of strong, healthy vitality. If we stop holding the blocked and broken patterns we do, the body is released to its desire to seek that greatest expression. How is it that this is so? Where does the body's intelligence derive from? And how is it so that it knows both to perfectly reflect our psycho-spiritual trauma to us and then how to find perfect healing when we do?

One more example before we address this...

Peter (obviously also not his real name) was another client who had regular problems with his knees. Again, this was not what he came to see me for… but in discussing his challenges, this physical issue arose. As did the fact that he had recently repeatedly suffered chest infections. Knees are all about mobility. From experience I know that problems with the knees very often means financial issues. If you feel limited by the resources at your disposal, you feel as if your energetic mobility is restricted. You can’t do what you want to do because you believe you don’t have the means to do so. Hold this belief in your mind long enough and, sure enough, you’re likely to pick up problems with your knees. And so it was with this client: not that he was in a difficult financial state, but he was clinging to an idea that he should be earning much more than he currently was. And this idea was in conflict with another idea that he should be following his heart more… living his passion more. So, on the one hand he could spend more time and energy on his job, which was not his passion, and make more money and, on the other hand, he could spend more time on the volunteering service that he loved to do. The latter fed his soul and made him happy but earned him no money. The former did not make him happy but paid the bills and could, if he worked at it, make him a good deal more money.

So it seemed to me that the body was mirroring his belief that he didn’t earn enough money with stiff knees. And it was mirroring his belief that he was not expressing enough love with chest issues.

Interestingly, for this Peter, there wasn’t really anything he needed to do differently to achieve healing. All he needed was awareness. When he stepped back and saw clearly what the issues were and how he was creating his own pain with his own beliefs, he simply made a choice: to love and appreciate his job as a means to earn sufficient money while also doing what he loves to do. He made the choice to open himself up to the awareness of where he could be giving more love and healing to those he interacted with in his job and he made the choice to love and appreciate himself more for the wonderful work he was already doing in his volunteering service.

Really, it was love and acceptance of himself that brought him a great deal of peace about his situation. And “miraculously” his physical afflictions began to improve soon after.

Some months later Peter dropped me a note to say that he had found an ideal resolution to his situation. After truly finding loving acceptance for himself in the situation he was in, he saw a way to turn his volunteering work into his vocation. An opportunity opened up and he grabbed it and was now full-time employed, doing what he loved to do. And, of course, his knees and his chest were perfectly fine!

The point I am making with the above examples is not that we can heal the body by healing the psyche first (though that is certainly true). The point is this: when we notice that the body does show us our psycho-spiritual ailments in these powerful and obvious ways, then we must begin to question: how is this possible?

How could a “biological machine”, no matter how sophisticated, be able to do this? Your motor-car does not develop a blockage in the fuel lines if you believe life is going too fast. It does not develop a radiator leak if you are overheating your thought processes. So how could our human “meat suit” do this? And how could it suddenly begin to repair itself as we change our beliefs about ourselves?

Assuredly the body does seem to be a very sophisticated machine. But, if this is all that it is, then these kinds of things could just not happen. And here is my contention: there must also be a very smart, very competent “someone” making sure that this amazing machine works exactly as it is meant to work… and that it malfunctions exactly as it is meant to as well!

Some years ago, as I first became aware of this, I realised that I needed to reach out to this “someone” that managed my body. I knew I needed to be in closer communication with this being to make sure that my body relationship moved ever more towards its most joyful, loving, optimal state.

And so, for a few years already, I have been in conversation with this being that I call my “Body-Spirit”. I have learned a great deal from my Body-Spirit and come to a far clearer understanding of him, of my body and indeed of myself as a result.

And now I find I wish to share some of what I have discovered with you. I would love to help you to understand and even to meet and converse with your own body spirit. I would love it if you would engage your Body-Spirit in conversation and enter into a loving relationship with this being and with your physical body too. And so I will be sharing a number of in-depth conversations with my Body-Spirit . In the manner of The Ascension Papers, I will be recording my conversations so that you can share in them. I do believe that much of what is true of my relationship with my body will be true for your relationship too. And so you will be able to gain insight in that way. But more important than these details is the concept itself and the inspiration that I hope to offer you to reach out to your Body-Spirit and to find yourself in a new, mutually trusting and loving relationship.

If you are ready for a life-changing paradigm shift in the way you think about and relate to your body, then this is the book for you!