karen

The metabolism is furiously gearing up to replenish the energy loss. It's not so much that your soul is lost, although various traditions have various beliefs about that. It's more that the blood is the carrier of the life force and the soul's individuality. You don't want to deliberately weaken that. But you can take remedies for the energetic disturbance that it causes, which will help you recoup. -Karen

It's not necessary to donate blood to get your blood typed. There are blood typing kits online that require only a finger prick. Here's one. Also if you've ever had surgery, the hosital would have the record of blood type.

IT's the phenomenon that explains how trance can be used. The law of similars is a law of nature that's operating when two similar entities (or states of mind) come together which are similar, and they cancel each other out. This is really the basis of hypnotherapy, NLP, and many practices we do without realizing that we're using the law of similars. Trances are just states of mind that we get attached to, ways we narrowly focus our attention. To release the pattern, we use other ways of focusing attention, which are themselves trances. (Like cures like). The example I like to use is of the kid who's running around the house slamming doors (taken from a true story by Milton Erickson, the founder of hypnotherpy).. Using the law of opposites would be to tell the kid not to slam the doors. Well, that's not likely to work. (Same as just telling yourself to do the opposite of a behavior you're trying to change-- if the behavior is not so deeply ingrained, that can work; but otherwise, not.). So you tell him to slam the doors even more. Suddenly the kid doesn't think this is fun anymore, and stops. There's a lot more to understanding how the law of similars is used, but that's just a simple example to illustrate the point. The trance was the original behavior. The similar trance that you induced was telling him to slam the doors more. The result is the release of the original pattern. Was that IT? -Karen

About trance, it's the law of similars - like cures like. Use trance to wake up from trance. Good article by Jack Elias on that.

Hi Steve, Yup, I resonate deeply with resonance . It has such a dynamic quality, not at all the passivity that the intellect thinks the alternative to force must be. When "the power is with you" (not the force ), you're like a dynamo. You have leverage, so it takes much less to achieve a lot more. Force really does require "wielding" - even the word makes me feel tired! Although that aspect of the life force does have a place, and there is a polarity between the two. When something is a matter of quantity - like we don't have enough vitamin C so we have to take vitamin C, then we use that quantitative energy to fill the deficiency or remove the excess to achieve balance. Put something in or take something away, less or more. I see a lot of people focusing on the quantitative side, asking what foods or supplements or practices should they do more or less of. But we also need to tap into this other capacity for resonance, to generate qualitative changes that we can't get by simply rearranging quantities of things. -Karen

Yes, and I have a suggestion here..meditate on the distinction between force and power. They come from two distinct energy sources. The life force is a polarity: Force comes from one aspect of the life force that's about quantity not quality, so it can't generate anything new. When we use that to try to generate something, we feel blocked and have to strain and struggle to try to get something done. That's the energy system that the false ego uses. Power comes from a higher power source. It comes from the generative life energy that if not blocked, creates resonant relationships for us in everything that we do, because our true desires (coming from the true self) are driving the energy. People often mistakenly think that if they don't use force, they can't get anything done. And if they do, the effort is strained. They get caught in the false either/or. The key is to tap into a whole different energy source, based on resonance, which is a much more efficient source! Mastering energy, in any form, means letting go of force and switching over to the higher power source. -Karen

Seaweeds are generally good for all blood types and body types, although dulse and wakame not so good for adrenal types. The naturally occurring fluoride as in seaweeds and green tea, is completely different from the toxic sodium fluoride compound used to fluoridate water and for dental applications. Sodium fluoride is an industrial waste product. And with foods grown naturally, there are so many synergistic nutrients that compensate for each other - otherwise we wouldn't be able to eat anything if we looked at each individual chemical constituent of foods and saw that this or that chemical was carcinogenic or toxic in some way! - especially with vegetables and herbs. -Karen

Hi upfromtheashes , The thyroid is a pretty interesting organ from an esoteric point of view - it relates to the astral body, which is opening up to allow us to evolve in consciousness, so the thyroid is very commonly under stress. To support the thryoid, there are approaches on different levels - on the level of nutrition, you want to avoid stimulants - sugar, processed foods (they mostly all have harmful sugars and hidden MSG), caffeine, alcohol, and table salt (use Himalayan crystal salt or Celtic salt). Avoid soy like the plague . Avoid fluoride in water and toothpaste. Avoid exposure to heavy metals (vaccinations, mercury dental fillings, etc.). Make sure you get iodine in the diet, not from iodized salt. On the emotional/spiritual level, the thyroid is about expressing yourself, giving voice to your truth. No wonder that fluoride, which inhibits the thyroid, is known to make people passive. -Karen

joeblast, Sounds like fasting may not be appropriate for you, even though the idea is appealing. The idea is really detoxification, which you want to accomplish safely and in accordance with your own individual metabolic needs. Meeting your individual needs is the way that you allow your body to naturally release toxins, not by imposing on it a one-size-fits-all approach which can create even more imbalances. For example, some people need to eat a high protein diet to get the metabolism functioning efficiently and balanced. Others can eat more lightly with salads and such during the day, and still be crusing steadily. I'm small and a relatively small eater, but I'm a high protein type who would run out of fuel and be miserable after eating a salad for lunch. What's really best for meditation is what's best for your metabolism as a whole, what keeps you burning fuel efficiently and steadily. Once things are stabilized, you might be able to cycle in semi-fasting periods. -Karen

They are yummy! They seem to me a lot like sesame seeds, but softer. Try www.nutiva.com to mail order.

It's not fasting per se. You eat non-starchy carbs like fruits and veggies, and some light protein if exercising. When an Adreanl types eats lighter during the day, it gives the thyroid and pituitary a boost when they need it, and gives the adrenals a rest when they need it. If an Adrenal type eats a big breakfast of heavy protein and fats, that stimulates the adrenals to produce more hormones to keep you hungry during the day. When an adrenal person overeats that way, they put on weight in the upper abdomen, which is the area that responds most to adrenal hormones. It's for normalizing weight for an Adrenal type. Metabolic functioning and the conditions that promote fat storage are different for different types. This eating pattern is a cycle of eating lighter during day and heavier in the evening, and the body responds to the cycle, not jut the undereating period. For other types, that cycle could promote fat storage, but for an Adrenal type it doesn't. Metabolism can become slowed because an adrenal type's thyroid needs more support. If you eat heavily during the day, that overstimulates and weakens the thyroid. If you eat more of the foods that are right for the adrenal type at the evening meal, and eat more lightly during the day, you generally shouldn't have hunger pangs or headaches, but there are always other factors to consider. Hunger pangs and headcahes can often be a need for water. Or you may be reacting to a withdrawal from the wrong foods.. or it could be that your body just needs time to adjust. There's also blood type to consider, and some people need to look at metabolic typing to see whether the oxidative system or the autonomic nervous system is dominant. What you describe as grazing on fruit and nuts, IS the fasting period . Nuts may be a bit heavy - try to eat seeds that aren't as fatty. Hemp seeds are great for good quality, light protein. If you're exercising, try some lean protein like chicken (ideally organic, free-range). Then the evening meal is the heavier one - emphasizing poultry or fish, veggies, good quality oils, some beans, some raw dairy. -Karen

Hi Christoph, I offer email consults on a more advanced level too . And I'm planning to put some more advanced material into a free email mini-course, to add to the one that's available now. (For most of my life, I needed what I'm offering ) -Karen

The constitutions of the ancients were much different from ours, which is why they didn't have detailed dietary systems and didn't need them! Even just a few hundred years ago, most people could implement a few simple measures to maintain balance. But our whole subtle energy physiology has changed, in a way that reflects where we're at in our spiritual development in modern times. We can use tools from ancient wisdom traditions, but we need to apply them in a different context now. -Karen

Hi Vortex, The cleansing/fueling distinction is certainly part of it. But people are rarely "clean" as if there is a static state of cleanliness that we can get into and stay in - cleansing is an ongoing cyclical process. The problem with most dietary advice is that it's looking at one leg of the elephant, so to speak, and there are many aspects that add up to the whole. Metabolism is extremely complex and depends on so many factors that differ among individuals. Even foods that are acid forming for one person will be alkalinizing for another, and vice versa. The diet typologies like blood type, body (glandular) type, metabolic type, Ayurvedic type, etc., cut through the complexity, but then you also have to consider which system of typology is relevant for a particular person, at a particular time - depending on their health status, the stress they're under, etc. Someone under a particular kind of stress might actually be more burdened by a cleansing diet, and that could actually destabilize them. But the common approach is to rush to get rid of toxins the minute we see signs of toxicity, without understanding the bigger picture. -Karen

Hi Mal, What you're describing is a spin-off of the Warrior Diet, www.warriordiet.com. There's quite a bit of research on that, and it's interesting to a point. It really suits people who have an Adrenal body type, meaning that their adrenal gland is their dominant gland, and they tend to be strong and sturdy and put on more weight on the upper part of the body rather than the lower. This is the type of person who can do well eating very little during the day and eating a large meal at night (controlled fasting/controlled feasting). The adrenal glands become more active later on in the day, so if a person with a dominant adrenal gland eats big meals earlier in the day, they'll be overstimulating that gland, leading to exhaustion. But other types do NOT do well with this regime, because they need more stimulation of the adrenals earlier in the day. The timing that's appropriate for you will depend on your body type. - this is an example of how the one-size-fits-all approach to diet doesn't work. -Karen

You're very welcome, seadog. I hope being "gobbed smacked" doesn't hurt too much. Blessings, Karen

Hi seadog, Thanks for the kind thoughts, and I'm really glad that what I wrote struck a chord. MS isn't a disease entity per se, but a description of symptoms that can stem from various diseases. A great reference for looking into the emotional underpinnings of chronic illnesses is the book Messages from the Body, by Narayan Singh. It gives a few paragraphs on each condition or part of the body and tells what emotional pattern is usually generating problems in that area. The author usually sums up by saying that everything comes back to the dysfunctional family, and I would just take that part with a grain of salt . Not everything is directly related to that. But the rest of what he says is food for meditation, not to be taken literally but to see if it resonates. The book is expensive and hard to find, so I'll summarize what he says for MS: 1. "Hardening of the attitudes." They have typically been oppressive and demanding in their pattern in past lives. They are inflexible because of fear. 2. "Exploitation-rage." They feel that there is no support and that they have to sustain everything by themselves, and are exhausted and resentful. They feel alienated and in despair. They are in effect wreaking revenge on those who they believe never loved them the way they wanted. 3. "Gotta take care of it myself!" They are into controlling people and situations, moralistically. They were the one in the family who kept it together emotionally, and they fear that everything will fall apart if they don't continue this pattern. 4. "Self straight-jacketing". Repressed emotions are expressing as physical rigidity. They repeat the pattern by being attracted to overwhelming situations and relationships like the original family. ___ In addition to processing the emotions, remedies can be used which remove the blockages and can allow the person to access and process the emotional content. The condition called MS often has roots in inherited predispositions or miasms, which are infectious diseases that have become chronic, including Lyme disease and others. They remain latent until triggered into action by traumas. Those miasms can be removed in a certain sequence, and people often get dramatic improvements, although it can take time to treat through all the layers of disease. There can be many levels of causes, which can be different for each person who has those symptoms. And because each person has had different types of traumas, treatment is going to be unique for each person. Sometimes MS-like symptoms are caused by neurotoxins such as aspartame and MSG. But not everyone reacts to those substances that way. Simply cutting them out can relieve or prevent symptoms for some people, but the underlying predisposition has to be removed. For understanding the deeper meaning of illness, and embarking on a healing journey for transforming the deeply held patterns into consciousness, there is no other system I know of that is more rational, comprehensive and effective than the Heilkunst medical system. It's not just another method among the many, but an umbrella over all of them, because it understands precisely where they all fit. And it provides a map of what needs to be accomplished in order for each person to transform disease into the truth of who they really are. For someone who wants to explore the spiritual aspect of illness and treat it at the same time, I would highly recommend treatment from the Hahnemann Clinic for Heilkunst, www.homeopathy.com/clinic. Rudi Verspoor and Patty Smith-Verspoor are the practitioners who I would refer someone to with a very complex, chronic condition. It really depends on the particular person's inclinations as to how consciously engaged in spiritual development they want to be. But the treatment meets the person right where they are. There are many resources I could point you to, if you could be more specific about what you're looking for? There are articles in the Resources section of the HCH website.. books, audios, etc. And I have articles on my website that are introductions to some of the basic principles of Heilkunst. If you're looking for more philosophical writings on the spiritual meaning of illness, there are many good references, but let me know what you're interested in. For those who are interested in an esoteric western approach, there is an amazing book on spiritual evolution and illness, called Blessed by Illness, by an anthroposophical doctor by the name of Mees. It doesn't go into the therapeutics, but has profound insight into the basis of illness. Really gives you some appreciation of what we're trying to work out when we express symptoms. Then the idea of simply trying to make symptoms go away seems pretty irrational . The reason to look to western knowledge--not material science but the deeper knowledge that comes out of a modern, western understanding--is because the types of chronic illnesses that we have in modern times are not the same ones that the ancients were dealing with. Our consciousness is different, and our relationship to the spiritual world is different. Our astral bodies are more open, which is why we have become susceptible to diseases, while the ancients were dealing more with imbalances. This is a big subject . But I hope that gives you something along the lines of what you were looking for. I wish you and your partner the best, Karen

Listen to Beethoven's string quartet opus 132. It's the hero's journey. Bach is more cerebral and stays in the cosmic realm, but the Romantics go down to the gritty depths to redeem the soul. Wayfarer, I agree on Birds of Fire! -Karen

Huge subject, but I'll see if I can summarize. This is a paradigm that you won't find anywhere in the natural health field except in Dr. Hahnemann's work, which has only been understood at the tip of the iceberg until recently. In order to diagnose disease, we first have to know what it is as a phenomenon, not just an abstract concept, and to distinguish it from symptoms, conditions, imbalances. And in order to know that, we have to understand the life force as a polarity, because disease has to do with one particular side of that polarity. Dr. Hahnemann described the life force as having "sustentive" power and "generative" power, two sides of a functional polarity. The sustentive power is what balances and maintains homeostasis. If you eat bad food and get sick, your sustentive power is creating a healthy reaction. If you're chilly, you use warming foods and herbs, and that balances the sustentive power. You work with the sustentive power to fill deficiencies and remove excesses - quantities. But Hahnemann also described the "generative"power, which is the aspect of the life force that makes qualitative changes, not just quantitative. When the generative power is disturbed, you have disease. It's rather like a pregnancy - no amount of boosting or shoring up the life force quantitatively will change that. Dr. Hahnemann described disease as a "dynamic affection," of this generative aspect of the life force. This means that the cause is nothing material, but it comes from an impulse within the energy bodies (specifically the astral impulse), It's a very specific kind of impingement on the life force, which imparts a unique state of mind. Symptoms and conditions are the results of disease, not disease itself. And imbalances aren't disease at all, but disturbances of the sustentive power. So first, when the practitioner is trying to identify a particular disturbance, we have to determine whether it's an imbalance that can be remedied with regimen alone (nutrition, exercise, sleep, drinking more water, energy balancing methods, etc.). If it's not a regimenal imbalance but a true disease, well, that's what I'm going to school for 4 years to learn how to diagnose . But I can give you an idea of the basic jurisdictions of disease, according to their cause: Traumas - physical and emotional, that have occurred throughout the person's life (dealth of loved one, divorce, accidents, poisonings, surgeries, etc.) Allopathic drugs (they create an energetic impingment on the life force) Acute infectious diseases (childhood illnesses, scarlet fever, cholera, etc.) Inherited predispositions (also known as miasms which we all inherit) False beliefs (which Hahnemann called the "highest" disease) Deepest fears (which has come to be called the "deepest" disease). It gets more complex. There are more polarities: idiopathic or primary diseases vs. secondary diseases that they may give rise to; chronic (protracted) vs. acute (self-limiting). But the simple kernel of truth that cuts through the complexity is that disease is an etheric, or supersensible entity that has eluded modern medicine because it's using the wrong mindset. You can't use the physical intellectual mind to recognize a supersensible entity. You have to develop your etheric mind, and then it becomes quite easy to see the states of mind that characterize the particular disease, just as easily as you can recognize a good friend even if they're wearing clothes you never saw them in before. There is an inner essence you can recognize beneath the outer appearances (symptoms), once you develop the capacity to see it. That's why my training involves watching a lot of movies , to practice identifying all these states of mind. Some diseases can't be recognized by their root cause, so we have to look at the symptom picture. But still, we're not treating the symptoms but the disease that the symptoms are an expression of. There are precise principles for doing that. With traumas, we take a history of the patient, asking them to write a list of all the traumas they can remember happening to them throughout their life, in sequence. This provides a guideline for knowing which diseases their life force will be expressing - it always expresses the most recent one, and when that's removed, it goes on to the next one going backward in time. Each of these traumas is a disease to be removed with remedies. When the case is complex and there are lots of diseases and lots of symptoms, we don't always know which symptoms come out of which diseases, but it's not necessary to know that. We can identify the diseases that are there, and treat them in the proper sequence according to laws of nature (Hering's law of cure). When the roots of the symptoms are removed, the symptoms disappear. Dr. Hahnemann made many other observations about the way in which diseases are expressed sequentially, according to laws of nature. So the system of diagnosis is based on true principle, not abstract concepts. In allopathic medicine, a bunch of people sit at a meeting and decide that a drug needs a certain market, so a new alphabet "disease" is created according to arbitrarily chosen groups of symptoms. PDD or ADHD or whatever Or they take a common symptom like joint inflammation, use the Latin name (arthritis), and call it a disease. Logically, something can't be the cause of itself! But they have no system for understanding disease in any real way, so they're just creating these abstractions. It's like worshipping false idols - outer appearances that have no connection to anything real. That's medicine based on authority, or princiPAL, not princiPLE . When the identification of disease is grounded in principle, we have a system of true diagnosis. Yes. It comes from an astral impulse, impinging on the etheric body. And Dr. Hahnemann clarified that even further. There are disease causing entities, which are supersensible and have an energy body. When the human energy body is susceptible, or receptive to that particular disease entity, then it can be penetrated by the disease causing entity, leaving an impingement, a particular type of disturbance. It's actually a kind of sexual act - disease is "engendered." Why we become susceptible in the first place, has to do with consciousness. If we didn't need to evolve in consciousness, we wouldn't be susceptible to disease. Disease is in a sense a divine cure, because we evolve in the process of overcoming it, like the way we strengthen muscles by working them against resistance. The etheric forces of growth need to be stopped in a way, to channel energy into consciousness, otherwise we wouldn't be able to think and reason. But it's that same astral impulse that's involved in disease. So the process of growing in consciousness involves susceptibilities that we're challenged to overcome, or master. -Karen

It's a big issue that's hard to make sense of without some fleshing out- see my article, The Meaning of Symptoms. Causes of diseases can be known quite easily, actually, by practitioners of medical Heilkunst-- what's impossible is to know the cause of the disease labels like schizophrenia, autism, arthritis, etc., because these are abstractions! They describe a set of symptoms which are effects, not causes. The cause of the symptoms of schizophrenia or ADD or asthma, etc., in one person will be different from others who exhibit similar symptoms. But conventional medicine, and to a large extent the natural medicine field, are all looking at the effects not the true causes. A true diagnosis means that you have seen through (dia-gnosis) to the inner reality of what is generating the disturbance. It discoloses the cause, not just describes the symptom. This can and is being done, but it takes a whole new understanding of what disease is. -Karen

Hi Kathryn, Body typing really goes back to ancient times, with the doshas of Ayurveda. Then I think it was around the 1960's and '70's, that Dr. William Sheldon described body types as endomorph, ectomorph and mesomorph. More recently in the 1980's, Dr. Abravanel related this to diet. First he found that most people have one particular endocrine gland more dominant than the others, and this accounts for the way the person is propoortioned and the pattern of fat distribution. Certain foods are stimulating to each gland, and these are the foods that we crave, so the gland eventually becomes exhausted. We crave the foods that give us the stimulation we need, although it's a vicious cycle - those are the very foods that keep weakening the dominant gland,and we're stuck in that downward spiral. When we start eating foods that support the dominant gland without stimulating it, and support the other recessive glands, we can break the pattern of food cravings leading to poor health. About blood type diets - they were made popular with Dr. D'Adamo's work, but Dr. Laura Power has given us a more scientific basis for it. Foods contain proteins that interact with each blood type - each blood type evolved around a certian type of diet (Type O being hunter-gatherers, and Type A being more agrarian, for example). Certain foods will cause your blood to agglutinate (clump) and set in motion a cascade of immune reactions, which can have far-reaching effects on health. The blood type diet is often just a matter of making a few strategic changes - like cutting out dairy products and wheat, for example. The Diet Therapy software integrates the systems so that you get a list of foods that are right for your blood type AND body type. It also can factor in any particular organs and systems you need to support, and particular health conditions that you want your diet to help with rather than exacerbate. If you have food intolerances, it would be good to not only eliminate the foods that give you obvious symptoms, but to start to support your body in a way that it won't need to be so reactive anymore. -Karen

Moral judgment is different from objective discernment of the situation. You engage with each situation in a living way - you "participate" the other person, so you don't need rules and moral judgments to tell you what's prudent in any situation. Instilling fear has nothing to do with prudence, but is programming that shuts down peoples' ability to discern anything for real. Someone or something might be dangerous to me, and I might be cautious without an ounce of fear. I'm not sure that "kind and trusting" is always appropriate. That's another form of programming, so that we don't have to be alive in the moment and respond dynamically to what's real. That's why there are a lot of followers of spiritual traditions who are shut down from their life force. Forcing peace and kindness is another kind of violence. Allowing it to arise naturally as it does, is another thing. -Karen

Hi Matt, I'd love to, and thanks for the great idea for an article for my website! - but it would take some time for me to write it, and there is already an excellent and thorough review written by someone I know who is a veritable scholar of Weston Price's research: "The Truth about the China Study" by Chris Masterjohn The agenda to get people to eat zero cholesterol (and have them take cholesterol lowering drugs) is a very dangerous one. Weston Price's research really showed the fallacy of the vegetarian agenda, and come to think of it, the article "The Myths of Vegetarianism" is another good read. Hope that helps! Karen