Relaxation Therapy

Recently I was present while a woman, her eyes rolled up, re-experienced having a tooth out as a five-year-old. She said to me after­wards, “It was strange, I even re­membered the dreams I had while under anaesthetic.” Her body had moved spontaneously into the posi­tion she had held as a child under gas – even to the rolled up eyes.

What may seem even stranger to many is that the woman was not hypnotised; she was not under the influence of LSD or any similar drugs, nor had she done anything of this nature before.

Another woman I watched go through what looked like the move­ments of giving birth. Her body tensed and pushed quite by itself. Afterwards she explained what she had experienced. “Some years ago,” she said, “I did something I had not thought of since. I lived in Spain, had an affair with a man and became pregnant. Already having three children, I had an abortion. Just now it was as if I gave birth to that child. Life seemed to speak to me from within and said, ‘When you aborted, you hurt me.'”

From what she went on to tell me “Life” did not then condemn her, but went on to complete the inner cycle she had cut off and wounded all those years ago. Seeing thus how we wound Life or God in us, and how we can be forgiven and healed, I cannot help but compare such ex­periences with Christ’s words – “I come not to condemn, but to re­deem.”

Like the first woman, this person was not on drugs or under hypnot­ism. Both of them were simply relaxing. In doing so, using the technique given in Relaxation Therapy, they experienced spontaneous healing of past shocks, pains, wounds to the soul, childhood traumas, or inner conflicts. Such people also often seem to realise Life talking to them, explaining, teaching, and strengthening. Other people are led from within to experience body movements to heal some physical illness – or re-experience past lives as they are cleansed  of  previous  pains  or mistakes – or find songs of love and praise pour from them.

How can all this arise from the simple act of relaxation? Is it in fact some new form of meditation?

To answer those questions, let me remind you of a few facts you per­haps take so much for granted you have most likely forgotten.- They are, after all, such basic truths you have in all likelihood overlooked them and built your life on things more complex.

First of all, our body is self regu­lating. In other words, it spontan­eously grows from conception to maturity in all its fantastic complex­ity. Blood pressure, heartbeat, body salts, size, shape, circulation, diges­tion, healing, etc., etc., etc., etc., are all dealt with by this same spontan­eous self regulatory system. This is accepted by doctors and physiolo­gists as the very foundation upon which all else exists in physiology and medicine.

As for the mind, Dr. J. A. Hadfield says in Dreams and Nightmares, “there is in the psyche an auto­matic movement towards an equi­librium, towards a restoration of the balance of our personality. This automatic adaptation of the organ­ism is one of the main functions of the dream, as indeed it is of bodily functions and of the personality as a whole.

‘This idea need not cause us much concern for this automatic, self re­gulating process is a well known phenomenon  in  physics  and  in physiology.”

What a statement! The most basic law of our being need not concern us? Because of this attitude, most doctors,  therapists,  psychologists, and laymen have in fact done just that – overlooked  the greatest power in our being.

Let us look at some of the basic facts now known about dreaming. Laboratory  tests  which  stopped people dreaming in a few days led to the subjects becoming mentally and physically ill. As Hadfield says, the dream is one of the ways self regulation occurs. If we block it we become sick in body and soul. But other research has shown that even in sleep and dreams we block this self regulatory activity to a large extent. Moral rigidities, guilts, a sense of sin, fear, intellectual rigid­ness, all influence our dreams. Freud found that because of shame and an idea of sin in regard to sex, sexual desires in dreams have to be dis­guised or only partially expressed.

But what is it that regulates us. Well, people have called it different names. Something unites our thousand billion body cells into a single organism. Something grew as from two sex cells. Something matured our personality from infancy on wards.  Something keeps all our organs and systems working. Some. thing unites the various soul functions  such as emotions, desires thoughts, intuition. What is it? Well, we exist, therefore it is. We can call it the Unifying Principle or the Self.

We can gain an idea of this from an analogy. A tulip bulb extrudes leaves,  stem and flower in the spring. This flower, these leaves have never existed before. They are unique. When they fade and wither they have gone never to return. But the bulb draws back the essence from the leaves. Next spring another stem arises and a flower blooms. This flower too is unique. It has never existed before, will never exist again. But if it looks deep into its source, it finds the bulb from which it grew, and therein finds a con­nection with all the other flowers which bloomed in past years.

The Self is like the bulb. Our present body and personality are like the flower which flourishes and dies. Yet our essence is withdrawn into the Self, and will give rise to further “lives”.

Dr. Wilhelm Reich found that a force or energy created our body and flowed through it uniting all the cells, organs, systems and consciousness into a vital union. If we block this life force through guilt, muscular tensions, or if past shocks or hurts have introduced subtle patterns of tension, this flow is disturbed and disease follows.

Now perhaps we can answer the questions – How can this arise from relaxation? and is this a new form of meditation?

Relaxation Therapy simply re­leases muscular tensions and self regulation is allowed to function with less interference. The factor behind dreams and life in general is thereby released into consciousness.

In other words, we are helped to consciously hand our being over to the Self. Healing, teaching and grow­ing then emerge as spontaneously as our heart beat, or our growth from babyhood. It is not new, it is as old as life. Part of this process of growth and healing is that all our fears, hates. pains are thrust out. Most people are shaken up quite a lot as these come out. And I am reminded once more of Jesus casting out demons, causing the person to shake and cry out. This is exactly what happens; not from any outer power but from the simple fact of self regulation. Or should I say Self regulation?

Relaxation Therapy has no secrets, no teachings, no copyright, no train­ed therapists, for there is only one therapist, one teacher, one secret -the Self. Any person who totally surrenders to God is practising Re­laxation  Therapy.  Anyone  who comes daily to Life – the Overself -the Unifying Principle – what­ever you like to call it daily in com­plete surrender will have exactly the same experiences. Read the auto­biography of St. Theresa where she has spontaneous body movements-read about India’s saints, Rama­krishna and Mother, who danced when led from within, or were cleansed in this way. Read of Franz Mesmer and his spontaneous cures as people experienced spasms and healing  crises.  Read  about  the powerful body shaking as the power of God moves through those healed during a Kathryn Kuhlman miracle service. Read Dr. Wilhelm Reich’s descriptions  of  patients  moving spontaneously as he helped them to release the “life force”. Read about Subud and its exercises. Read about Zen archery or fencing. No, it is not new, just another name for the oldest relationship man knows and yet for­ever fights shy of – surrender to God.

After all that you may still be asking what Relaxation Therapy is. I can now put it very simply. It is a technique  used  to  relax  blocks against the self regulating process. Initially one is helped to do this, but then the whole action is between yourself and your Self. After this initial help people usually start ex­periencing such things as described earlier. Although no further outside help is needed after this initial re­lease of self regulation, most people practise in groups, but not all. This is for several reasons, one being simply for mutual support, as the experiences are often very intense and perhaps unlike anything ever experienced before. Having others with us travelling the same road is a tremendous support. Those who have had more experience than our­selves can sometimes be helpful in other ways also.

Although self regulation is like electricity – open to anybody in any country, of any race, skin or belief-there are only comparatively few people in the world consciously using it as yet. Although God has been mentioned, no belief is necessary to gain release of self regulation. After all, atheists and blasphemers still breathe and live. Self regulation is everybody’s support, and all can re­lease this power to consciousness. But like the act of movement some people bring such grace and joy to it there is a world of difference between their gesture and that of another. So, too, the quality of trust, patience, perseverance and surrender we bring to self regulation gives to some a fuller experience than to others.

I have since renamed Relaxation Therapy to LifeStream – Opening to Life – People’s Experience of LifeStream.