In Part 1 one of this series, I shared some of my insights on the benefits of using visualization and being highly observant on a daily basis. I will repeat here that Arthur Lincoln Pauls, D. O., was one of the most observant people I have every met. All of his Ortho-Bionomy techniques were a product of being highly observant, and being highly observant is necessary to carry out all of his techniques. The beauty of being generally observant is that you can do it anytime.
Just take a moment to scan the room you are in right now, even if it is familiar, notice where your attention is drawn, and let yourself be impacted by what you see. Notice how your body feels in this moment.
This is a simple way to get into the present moment anytime that Dr. Pauls used everyday. He knew that the mystery of how the universe worked was all around us if we just opened up our eyes to see it. The more you do this simple technique, the more value you will see in it, and it will eventually become the way you are in the world. It this way, you can model a key aspect of Dr. Pauls and become a little more like him.
In this Part 2 installment, I will present some ideas on the importance of connection and how it can bring us all together and allow us to transcend time and space. I will offer some solid evidence for this, through the time-tested field of spiritual psychology, to support the concept of distance healing and reinforce the significance of our shared humanity. For those of you who have been trained in Phase 7, this article may supplement your work. All others may be inspired to study Phase 7 and practice these simple skills in daily life.
Carl Jung (1875-1961), renowned contemporary of Sigmund Freud and inventor of Jungian Psychoanalysis and Depth Psychology, was responsible for adding a spiritual dimension to Freudian psychology, which was based solely on primitive animal instincts coming into conflict with higher aspects of mind. Jung observed that all indigenous cultures used symbols to represent the fundamental aspects of human life and spiritual life. The spiral is represented in virtually every culture, but varies in meaning and usage (i.e., meaning is tied to usage). This leads me to believe that it is not the symbol, but what the symbol represents that is universal. Symbols are icons of encoded information that evoke a deep response and stimulate the process of imagery. For example, a cross could symbolize church, prayer, the divine, Catholic guilt, or something totally different if you were raised differently, or nothing at all if you had never been exposed to a cross as a symbol. Yet we all have an innate sense of the divine. Jung stated that this shared state of the divine and all the other fundamental common aspects of being human exist in a shared virtual psychic spaced he named “the collective unconscious.”
Examples of these shared experiences include: love at first sight, Déjà vu, creative experiences of artists, spiritual experiences of mystics of all religions, near death experiences, mythical figures that live in our minds, and archetypes that appear similarly in myths, literature, dreams, fantasies, and fairy tales in every culture.
Jung’s work was focused on helping his patients to evolve spiritually and bring forth their goodness, rather that removing their pathology. He felt that a natural process of spiritual evolution started at age 40, and that the ideal state of being was to have a conscious awareness somewhere between the conscious and unconscious minds. For myself, I prefer the term deep mind to the term unconscious mind, because the unconscious mind is not permanently unconscious. It is a deeper part of us waiting to be discovered.
Our personal meanings are tied to our shared meanings, and our shared meanings can be represented symbolically. Take the sand dollar logo for instance: It represents everything of our work encoded into one symbol. You may look at it and think of everything you like about Ortho- Bionomy, or you may look at it and have an instant deep experience. In doing the later, you are probably tapping into the collective unconscious. Finding an avenue for a shared experience with clients is an important key to turning our work into creative, expansive play, and turning any relationship into a meaningful contact. In my experience, it is my level of authentic connection in any relationship that will determine the success of that relationship, whether it is with clients or others. My practice affords me the opportunity to meet lots of different people and try to forge a connection, but the benefits of making a connection apply to everyone and to my unification with life itself.
While Carl Jung’s spiritual psychology and Fritz Pearls’ Gestalt Therapy (referred to in Part1, April 2017, Vol.27 No.2) are older references, they are foundational to the way we see things today, and were around during the time Dr. Pauls was developing his work. Both Jungian Psychology and Gestalt therapy are still practiced today. According to modern brain research, the amount of information the conscious mind can hold and process is a fraction of a millionth of what the deep mind can hold and process. In watching Dr. Pauls work with Phase 6 and Phase 7, it was clear to me that he was engaged in some form of relaxed, unified presence, and was obviously in touch with his multifaceted deep mind. He was doing much more than could be taught through words.
When we engage in visual imagery with a unified state of being, our deep mind believes what we are visualizing, and this is what gives imagery its power. If this imagery is in service of another, this power is not power over the other, but is a power based on communion through tapping in to the collective unconscious. A shared meaning can lead to a shared experience, which can lead to positive changes. The healing phenomenon is one example of this kind of shared experience. Dr. Pauls had complexity, artistry, and mastery to his work that could only have come from being in touch with his deep mind. I have never seen anyone else possess his level of intuitive mastery. But to him, Phase 7 was completely effortless which was both frustrating and inspiring for those of us trying to figure out what he was doing. These articles are designed to provide some answers to what Dr. Pauls had at his disposal, which allowed him to seemingly work miracles. In summary of that, I can say for a fact that he 1) was definitely in touch with his deep mind, 2) was highly observant, 3) had a deep trust in his instincts, and 4) knew how to connect with people on a very deep level. The rest just happened.
Let’s take a look at how lack of connection can interfere with the imagery process. Trying to impose imagery on yourself or others without a connection is like trying to play soccer on a basketball court. There may be a concept of a goal but it does not match the actual goal, and the odds of hitting it are very low; maybe your soccer cleats will mess up the basketball floor, or you will slip and fall on your head. From my point of view, we can work with goals in Ortho-Bionomy, but the goal and any imagery that ensues must come from a true connection and be a collaborative goal. To put it more simply, my goal is to connect. The rest flows.
To summarize Parts 1 and 2, in the act of expansion out of our self- absorbed state to a self-aware state, we naturally expand into our environment through observation, presence, and connection. Paying attention to our surroundings with curiosity will free us from our prison called the self-conscious mind and paradoxically connect us to our deep mind. Our deep mind is inside us and outside us at the same time because it is part of the collective unconscious. Imagination and imagery occur naturally in our deep mind to further the life process. Healing is the result of a shared experience of a collaborative goal to remove some impediment to the life process moving forward. As we share in this process, we all get healed, because we are coming into contact with our deepest levels of humanity that have sustained us since the beginning and will be with us for all time.
Our mission is to help people to use Phase 7 principles as a life-mastery process to alleviate suffering, improve relationships, improve health, and achieve success. To this end, we offer private tutorials, ongoing online classes, and live workshops on Phase 7 principles for Life Mastery.
