"As the report continued,
I saw how I had used imagination
to help others heal."

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In the late 90s, Christina Maslach and Michael Leiter studied a variety of professionals, including social workers, nurses, and others in "helping professions," reporting:

"Burnout is the index of the dislocation between what people are and what they have to do. It represents an erosion in values, dignity, spirit, and will--an erosion of the human soul. It is a malady that spreads gradually and continuously over time, putting people into a downward spiral from which it's hard to recover ... What might happen if you begin to burn out? Actually three things happen: you become chronically exhausted; you become cynical and detached from your work; and you feel increasingly ineffective on the job." 
– Maslach & Leiter, p. 17,  The Truth About Burnout (1997, Jossey-Bass Publishers).

The Body, Mind, and Spirit provide a natural feedback system that accesses stress levels for Self-actualization when the individual knows how to interpret its signs. Stress is a neutral state of being which in part categorizes all living beings. Unmanaged stress produces chaos leading to mental incoherency, emotional breakdown, and physical trauma. Managed stress opens the door to mobilize creative power toward the fulfillment of goals, resolution of limitations, and achievement of objectives. The difference is in the level of conscious wakefulness and engagement.

Learn how to integrate the three dimensions of intuitive Self-realization: idealism, rejuvenation, and sustainability through the longevity secrets of centenarians from Sardina to Okinawa to Loma Linda. Sign up today!

by Jonathan Duerbeck

I never thought of myself as being a healer, and it wasn’t a specific ideal for me. I did want to help people, so I had directed a healing class in the Columbia, Missouri School of Metaphysics and had given a couple lectures there about healing. A friend of mine had attended the Healing for a Higher Purpose session two years ago, and he learned that he could be a healing presence for anyone in all kinds of situations. I made this my purpose for attending. I wasn’t sure if I belonged there so I resolved to contribute as much as I could and bring back lots of learning to pass on and use, especially in teaching metaphysics.

On Friday night, I saw that the reason being a healer was not part of my identity was that I had a shrunken picture of what healing is. Dr. Laurel, our mentor for the weekend, had us begin by drawing our vision of health and wholeness. I grabbed some markers and filled my paper with images. They were expansive pictures of how a whole person is part of a whole group, a whole community, a whole planet, and a whole universe, how healing the world starts with healing ourselves, and how it all came from alignment with LIGHT. As I let my imagination expand, I saw that healing is so much more than the stereotyped image of a physician and patient, or a disappearing disease. It is a universal process going on in everyone and everything. It is moving into greater harmony with the Divine. Anyone can be a healing influence. In fact, only two of us at the weekend were in, or entering, a healing profession.

For several of us, the highlight of everything we learned and experienced that weekend was hearing the Healer’s Portraits. In this intuitive report, the conductor directs the reporter to "search for the outstanding pattern of understanding significant to this one’s present capacity for healing and wholeness." Understandings are permanent learning stored in the subconscious mind or soul, gained from our lifetimes of experience. They are a part of who we are. To be a powerful healing influence you draw on the qualities and understandings that are part of you. I believe that our understandings are our greatest wealth and the greatest gift we can give. Knowing what you have to give helps you see how wealthy you are and sparks a stronger desire to give. I believe we all experienced this as we contemplated our reports.

We heard our Healer’s Portraits on Saturday morning, in an atmosphere of anticipation and intense curiosity. As the participants at the session heard their reports, some learned the value and uniqueness of a trait they took for granted. For example, one person discovered that his most significant understanding for healing was "attentiveness." This was obvious to me, having lived with him for nearly a year at the College of Metaphysics. He was constantly noticing needs to be met and attending to them. He would sprint around a table to answer a phone, drop what he was doing to greet a visitor, or give much needed attention to the five-year old child at the College. For others, the Healer’s Portrait was a revelation of an inner treasure they weren’t even aware of.

Together, the reports from this and previous sessions show that many different understandings are elements of healing and wholeness, from integrity to inspiration to independence. These are universal elements needed to fully heal anyone or anything. I also saw more of how every person is a unique world of hidden wisdom and understanding, and what greatness is potentially in people. That’s true for the reports in all the sessions.
Mine was last. I never guessed I’d hear anything like what I heard....

This would be in the capacity to imagine. This is most strong within this one and we see that it is a skill and an art that is required to bring about wholeness and healing. There is the very real element to healing whereby there is the discernment of what can be. It is this discernment of what can be that is the catalyst by which healing then begins to take place..Without it, things remain the same.

Imagine? I had often heard that I rely on memory too much, and I’d also had difficulty with visualization exercises, so I thought imagination was something I needed to build!

Discernment of what can be is a great definition of imagination. What can be is positive thinking. What can’t be is negative thinking. A positive picture is needed to create any change. A negative picture simply tells you what to prevent or avoid and leaves you where you are with nothing to move toward. This is one example of the universal truths presented in these reports.

There is a very strong capacity within this one to move energy in directions that are innovative, that are creative, that are new. There is a need within this one to recognize the value of this and to begin to pair it with a sense of vision, a sense of ideal, so that this one’s incredible way of moving energy can be employed toward most productive and constructive ends. This would be a large healing influence (not only) within his own existence, but within the existence of all around him.

I had felt a need to have some kind of deeply inspiring ideal or set of ideals for a long time and I often tried to pick a few out of the many ideals that attracted me, but I would find they didn’t fill me with the inspiration I wanted. I was reminded that I need to keep working at this and form ideals that I would "find desirable enough to bring about." In fact, I learned that "the care with which this one selects ideals which this one will seek to manifest is most important and is indeed the controlling factor for this one in bringing this capacity [for imagination] to maturity."

As the report continued, I saw how I had used imagination to help others heal.

There have been many lifetime experiences where this one has brought forth this capacity to see what is not existing, and therefore it has brought this one again and again into a position of being a counselor or being an advisor to those who require such capabilities but lack them in...themselves." (3112000BGC9)

I recalled how over the years my sister often poured out her troubles and questions to me and asked me for advice. I remembered a few months earlier when she felt worried and hopeless and didn’t know what to do she called me. Now I could see why: I helped her see her own potential when she needed to. I remembered late evenings listening to a friend who was very emotional and got upset often, and giving her a picture of what she could do. Instead of using imagination to move forward, I had often worried myself into the same position my friend was in. In fact, "attachment to worry" was the greatest mental disorder described in a health analysis I’d received a few months earlier. It therefore made perfect sense when the report said that productive imagination would be a great healing force for myself and others. It seems that any ability is neutral, and the will controls whether it will be used to heal or to cripple.

I felt very fortunate. I knew how to stay positive and I felt a powerful sense of "I can." I have been more optimistic and felt more in control of myself ever since that weekend. I am replacing self-criticism with imagining how I want to be different and believing I will change. I have had much more energy as a result. I am a more positive influence on the people around me. I am seeing how what I imagine I am becomes who I am, and when I believe I can still my mind and be creative and understand, I can.

I’m looking forward to inspiring people with vision!•

©2000 Thresholds Vol. 18 No. 1