Why People Don't Heal and How They Can: A Practical Programme for Healing Body, Mind and Spirit by Caroline MyssMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Carolyn Myss on “Why People Don’t Heal and How They Can.”
Miss Myss gets critical comments from some readers for lacking scientific evidence for her ideas. By scientific I image these folks mean randomized double blind trials with thousands of participants. Myss needs to be read in the manner of poetry or scripture, with spirit, not with mechanical reductionist formalism of the scientist. Psychology and theology are not scientific fields because their essence is dealing with human will.
A few of her words that are particular useful for me are:
Page 150, second paragraph, she says “In fact, reaching a detached state of mind for even five minutes a day is so valuable it can infuse your body with the equivalent energy of six months of living in genuine hope.” She suggests prayer or a mantra to attain detachment. [My preference is Meister Eckhart’s treatises “On Detachment.” A person does not need to believe in a god to learn from the arguments and tools of theology.]
Page 191 first paragraph, she provides a daily practice of paying attention to your energy that is facilitated by [and facilitates] detachment. [Preliminay exercises for feeling my energy are feeling, occupying my body, my feet, legs and so on up and out. Eventually, maybe months, years of practice, awareness of energy comes.]
My only criticism is that she does not discuss how truly difficult and challenging it is to hold onto detachment or energy awareness for more than a fleeting moment.
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