THE MIND AND GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF SOUL THERAPY - revised

THE MIND AND GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF SOUL THERAPY A Psycho-Spiritual Approach to Healing

By Leonard Burg – Soul Therapist

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THE MIND AND GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF SOUL THERAPY Contents

OVERVIEW

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The Healing Power Of Truthfulness

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The Dangers Of Denial And Suppression

Page 6

Positive Thinking

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Positive Thinking And The Verb "To Be"

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Negative Thinking and Possessive Speech

Page 8

Right Use of Mind and Meditation

Page 8

Appendix: The Imperialistic Approach To Healing .

Leonard H. Burg - Brief Biography

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THE MIND AND GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF SOUL THERAPY A Psycho-Spiritual Approach to Healing

By Leonard Burg1 October 2008 It is fashionable today, especially in books like “The Secret”2, to extol the power of thought using “The Law of Attraction” to manifest things in one’s life. It is summed up in popular sayings such as, “As a man thinketh so is he….what a man can conceive he can achieve… you are what you think”, etc. But there is much more to this “secret” than meets the eye.

However learned you are, you can never hope to have a complete technical understanding of the mind and its power to manifest (both good and evil) without a deeper comprehension of the science of the soul. In the spirit of the true meaning of education3, may the reader , like the great Greek philosopher/ mathematician Euclid, treat this booklet and its tenets as a “Working Hypothesis” . Hopefully it ignites a spark of illumination.

OVERVIEW Soul Therapy is a form of psycho-spiritual consultation that treats body/mind “dis-ease” at its roots in consciousness. It promotes “curing” the spirit of body/mind ailments that afflict it. Soul 1

Over the last 37 years "Len" Burg has worked professionally as an international spiritual activist, educator, and community program director. Currently he is working actively as a co-founder of the USA branch of an international interfaith organization working with the United Nations, and Student Success Administrator of the Office of Student Success at Pace University, NYC campus.

2 http://www.barnesandnoble.com/collection/index.asp?r=1&pid=18071&z=y&cds2pid=19312&popup=0 3 To lead out of students that which is already within them (From the root of the word “educate” as found in the On Line Etymology dictionary - http://www.etymonline.com/ - 1447, from L. educatus, pp. of educere "bring up, rear, educate," related to educere "bring out," from ex- "out" + ducere "to lead") 3

Therapy uproots the unique emotional, mental and spiritual patterns underlying particular physical symptoms. As a result of Soul Therapy, stubborn and chronic body/mind dis-ease conditions more readily yield to appropriate treatment modalities, or, in some cases, go into spontaneous remission.

“Dis-ease” is defined as any physical, emotional, mental or spiritual complex or set of conditions (or conditioning) which affects one, causes pain, discomfort or upset, or which causes one to experience dis-equilibrium of body, mind or spirit. From, the point of view of Soul Therapy the Dis-ease is the cure! 4 It is an attempt of the indwelling spirit to restore equilibrium (consciousness) and heal the organism by eliminating morbific matter; thus making the organism more fit to fulfill its divine purpose. The aim of the healer is to cooperate with this natural healing process.

Unfortunately, many contemporary practitioners - including mainstream or pop psychologists and even conventional or holistic healers - do not significantly address the role of consciousness in dis-ease. They gloss over the underlying psycho-spiritual factors that perpetuate dis-ease. Therefore, treating clients becomes like mowing lawns. The dis-ease symptoms keep growing back.

Soul Therapy is a way of using one’s consciousness of perceptions, thoughts, words and deeds as “medicine;” one re-impregnates oneself with ideas, thoughts, emotions and movements that act as remedies for the conditions that lead one to seek a consultation. It is a method of divesting oneself of ideas, thoughts, and emotions that perpetuate dis-ease, so that one may continue to evolve in consciousness, and grow or develop spiritually.

Soul Therapy is not a prescription to suppress a specific dis-ease condition or set of symptoms. Nor is it a substitute for proper medical, psychiatric or psychological care. Rather, it is designed to complement and work synergistically with other appropriate treatment modalities. It is also effective in counteracting the negative effects of inappropriately suppressive modalities, whether they are allopathic (conventional/medical) or claim to be “natural/holistic.”

This monograph is for practitioners or lay people who are interested in self-healing and the practical application of spiritual principles to advanced psychotherapeutic or counseling methods.

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When an entity does not take the time to live more holistically, the organism’s inner attempt to eliminate resulting morbific matter is blocked; and disease is both the result and the “cure”: NATUROPATHIC HEALTH CARE”; http://www.drbarrytaylor.com/about_naturopathy.htm ; “The natural state of the human organism is health, homeostatic balance. In this state, the human organism has the innate ability - the vitality to word off diseases and heal itself. Vitalistic medicine maintains that when disease occurs, this self - healing ability has been blocked.

Disease Symptoms (fever, rashes, this etc) are not simply caused by an "evasion" of external agents or germs, but are manifestations of the organism's attempt to defend and heal itself. The "disease" is the cure.” A physician's task, then is to help remove the agents blocking that healing process, bolstering the patient's own healing capacity, and this restore homeostatic balance; health.

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You will find that Soul Therapy is consistent with principles inherent in Analytical Trilogy5, Homeopathy, Chinese medicine, Ayurvedics, Psychosomatic medicine, Psycho-neuro immunology, Neurolinguistic Programming, mind science, prayer, positive thinking, meditation, Surat Shabd Yoga (the Science of the Soul), and numerous other methods of body/mind healing.

The ultimate divine purpose of all these disciplines is hopefully the liberation of the soul and its unification with its creator.

It is the author’s fervent hope that Soul Therapy may contribute to the coming together and cooperation of practitioners and students of all of the above disciplines for the benefit of humanity, in the search for truth, planetary healing and the realization of God or the Higher Intelligence responsible for our existence.

The Healing Power of Truthfulness In both secular and religious thought the fundamental efficacy of being truthful has been invoked. Said William Shakespeare (Hamlet) "This above all: to thine own self be true." Or the gospel of St. John (Bible: John 8:31 – 32) "…know the truth and the truth shall set you free."

The great Brazilian Psychotherapist Norberto Keppe uses truthfulness as a prime tool in his therapeutic practice. He has said, “What attracts us most to a healthy person is the love of truth that he manifests, and although we may not fully understand what it is, our intuition grasps it.”6 Keppe has done a great deal of work analyzing the relationship between the collective psychology and political oppression - the psycho-social pathology of people with power7.

In this vein, at the end of this monograph on Soul Therapy is an appendix discussing an “Imperialistic Approach to Healing” – a positivistic and reductionistic way of thinking that contributes to denial of the spiritual side of reality8 and to the denial of truth.

Nevertheless it is spirit and consciousness that connects man to a Higher Power that epitomizes and is synonymous with truth, however difficult it may be for man to realize Its omniscience.

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A scientific theory and methodology created by Brazilian psychoanalyst Nortberto R. Keppe, Ph.D., which unifies the fields of science, philosophy and theology. In the individual this corresponds to the unification of feeling, thought and action that results in full consciousness. http://www.analyticaltrilogy.org/glossary.html 6 Dr. Keppe pioneered “Analytical Trilogy”, a psycho therapeutic technique that integrates philosophy, psychology and religion (http://www.trilogiaanalitica.com.br/english/html/body_glossary.html) 7 http://consciousnesscanadabookclub.blogspot.com/2008_04_01_archive.html 8 Positivism is the theory that theology and metaphysics are imperfect modes of knowledge in comparison to knowledge based on the empirical sciences. Reductionism theorizes that simple physical laws may explain all biological processes.

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Like Dr. Keppe,. Soul Therapy enjoins the client to be honest at all times about what you’re are sensing (physically), feeling (emotionally), thinking (intellectually), or intuiting (spontaneously). To acknowledge (pay bare attention to) or be aware of (conscientize) what you perceive in the sphere of awareness is proper and curative.

To conscientize does not mean you are feeding, identifying with, or indulging your perceptions. Nor are you maintaining that your perception is necessarily "truth". You are simply being "in the moment". Honestly conscientizing perceptions, opens you up to the revelation of absolute truth. And, it is the truth that "sets you free" (heals you and brings higher consciousness).

The Dangers of Denial and Suppression In the name of mind science, many people are making themselves sick by denying and suppressing the truth of what they are actually sensing, feeling, thinking, or intuiting.

As if being honest about one's perceptions, especially the "negative" ones (pain, anger, etc.) is harmful.

It is not conscientizing negative perceptions that begets negative conditions. It is INDULGING, IDENTIFYING WITH OR SUPPRESSING THEM THAT MAKES YOU SICK. It is the habitual denial or suppression of the truth of what you are actually sensing, feeling, thinking, or intuiting inside that actually causes "dis-ease". Far from freeing you from the bondage of negative perceptions, denial (inconscientization) ATTACHES you to the very ideas, thoughts, feelings and sensations that you are suppressing!

Inconscientization AND/OR indulgence is what attracts or perpetuates physical symptoms that you experience as dis-ease. The dis-ease is a perfect out-picturing or reflection of suppressed (or indulged) perceptions (some of which may be built into the genetic or hereditary blueprint you entered the world with). In fact, suppressing perceptions is a way of indulging, strengthening, or attaching oneSELF (soul energy) to one's impressions.

On the other hand, when you conscientize (honestly acknowledge the truth of) what you are intuiting, thinking, feeling or sensing --- without identifying with or dwelling on the perception --- it helps release you from attachment that leads to dis-ease.

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The release of attachment to perceptions is a release of blocked soul energy. It tends to undermine or pull the rug from under the dis-ease condition, thus igniting cure.

Thereby, the soul energy may be redirected to ideas, thoughts, feelings and sensations in a way that is in harmony with one's quest for self –actualization or God Realization.

Positive Thinking Positive thinking is NOT the act of suppressing or denying negative thoughts.

Denying the truth of what you really perceive is actually NEGATIVE thinking. It is just as dangerous as openly indulging negative thoughts.

On the other hand, it is NOT dangerous to conscientize thoughts or feelings that happen to be painful or "negative". In fact, it is healing to truthfully acknowledge or pay what some Buddhists call "bare attention" to so-called negative thoughts. Thereby, you don't not allow them to secretly undermine your energy, and you allow them to gently be released.

IT IS ONLY WHEN YOU AUTOMATICALLY OR INSISCRIMINATELY IDENTIFY WITH ANY THOUGHT OR PERCEPTION THAT IT BECOMES 'NEGATIVE".

Positive Thinking and the Verb "to be" One of the keys to positive thinking is the use of the verb "to be". Learn to strictly monitor what you think, feel or say, "I am". Because, what you insist "I am" is what you become --- what you manifest in your life. What you habitually, automatically, "unconsciously' keep saying, "I am", through indiscriminate use of the verb "to be", is the seed you are sowing that is bearing (or perpetuating) the fruit or conditions you are experiencing.

In most cases you should substitute verbs such as "intuit", "think", or "feel" when speaking or perceiving (especially when you are describing another person). Instead of saying, "I am sick", say, "I feel sick". Instead of saying, "You are bad", say, "You should behave better", etc. What you identify others as being, by thinking and speaking of them using the verb 'to be', is what you help cause them to be. Thereby, you share their 7

"karma". And, if they are strong enough to repel such thoughts, the words boomerang back to you tenfold.

In the long run, the only things worth saying "I am" or "you are" are those ideas and feelings that when out-pictured result in the achievement of your highest ideals. For many people, the highest ideal is the unlimited, eternal state of Self and God Realization, the knowledge and realization of Self as pure spirit. This is the ultimate possession you have -- your spiritual nature.

Negative Thinking and Possessive Speech Conscientizing and right use of the verb "to be" is a way of using language that enables you to be truthful without identifying with or creating negative states or conditions.

Another such technique is the proper use of possessive pronouns.

The constant wrong use of the possessive pronouns "my", "your", "his", "hers", "ours", etc. is another way of thinking negatively, thereby perpetuating dis-ease conditions.

Instead of saying, "my" headache, say, "the" headache. Instead of saying, "your" stinginess, say "the" stinginess.

Proper use of possessive pronouns, like conscientizing and right use of the verb "to be" is a way of separating the essence of a person from their behavior or material condition. Why identify them with a negative, limited condition? Why not refer to people and self in a way that is truthful but that also acknowledges that our true identify is divine?

Right Use of Mind and Meditation Healing and higher realization is enhanced by proper use of the mind. The mind is a good servant but a poor master. When the mind is in charge, so too is the ego, opening you up to negative influences. When you conscientize the spirit is in charge opening you up to positive influences. Negative influences are those that limit you to the material, temporal dimension. Positive influences are those that open you up to the experience of higher states of consciousness and ultimately God Realization.

The most powerful right use of mind comes with the practice of meditation, especially under the guidance of an enlightened one, thus establishing the primacy of soul over mind. At its highest levels, meditation takes one's consciousness and spirit above and beyond the regions of mind to the eternal regions of God. It enables one to contact 8

the Holy Spirit or “Word” of God, which is what transports the soul consciousness to the higher spiritual regions.

Soul Therapy helps prepare one to experience the process of meditation, which when practiced properly under the guidance of one who has mastered it is the epitome of Soul Therapy.

In this context “Therapy” - as states any common dictionary - connotes “nursing” or “curing”; to nurse or cure the soul is to enable it to achieve “Yoga” or union with God by receiving curative “Divine Revelations”9 --- the divine nectar that guides and protects the meditator in everyday life, in the process of realizing one’s divinity.

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yoga is the connection of the soul with its divine origin through revelations. Incessant or "uninterrupted" yoga refers to the stage of spiritual practice at which the connection with the stream of divine revelations has become constant so that it governs all actions of the person concerned”; “The Sacred Scriptures- A Shared Treasure, Circular Seven, January February 2001; http://centreworldreligions.org 9

APPENDIX The Imperialistic Approach To Healing To Imperialistically “heal” is to be content with an undo focus on aborting or suppressing symptoms by the use of drugs and other such modalities. It is killing germs as if they are the “enemy" or treating malfunctioning body parts as if they are superfluous. It is like taking a legitimate emergency room operation and making it a vehicle of primary care, something it is not meant to be. This approach does not cure the patient, because it does not address the root causes of illness in consciousness, nor does it sufficiently address the patient’s responsibility in healing and disease.

The germ theory of disease and the tendency to view drugs and surgery as a first resort rather than a last resort is part and parcel of a left-side-of-the brain oriented approach to reality.

It is the approach that speaks of “the war on cancer”, or “beating the disease”, instead of realizing that the disease is the cure, and should be managed in such a way as to cooperate with what the body is trying to do. This mindset is in complete contradiction to the teachings of the father of western medicine, Hippocrates, who advocated “food” as the medicine of first resort, saying let "food be your medicine and let medicine be your food.” 10 The imperialistic approach to healing is a signature of western world national and political orientation based on the core theories of “positivism” and “reductionism”. Positivism is the theory that theology and metaphysics are imperfect modes of knowledge in comparison to knowledge based on the empirical sciences. Reductionism theorizes that simple physical laws may explain all biological processes.

Positivism and reductionism are left brain dominant orientations, which overemphasize verbal, “intellectual”, linear or segregative thinking, and negate the validity of right brain, intuitive ways of seeing the world. They reduce everything to something you can see, touch, measure or control (using the mind operating through the senses of perception). Whatever cannot be understood or manipulated is the enemy to be conquered, repressed, feared, dominated, controlled and, in some cases, enslaved. Often whole races of people are viewed as being alien to the left brain orientation and are therefore expendable.

It can also be legitimately said that there is a counter school of thinking that deifies right brain, feeling, and emotional, instinctive ways of behaving at the expense of left brain 10

“Action Steps for Treating the Cause”; http://www.drlenlopez.shoppingcartsplus.com/action.html 10

awareness. These two schools of thinking are akin to the two brain hemispheres, the “developed” versus “Third World” cultures of the world, and the “modern” or conventional versus the “traditional”. The conventional often ignores the traditional (customary ways of being) and the traditional often perpetuates customs and mores that are no longer useful.

The solution is a whole brain approach using the left, right and frontal parts of the brain.

This places a focus on the primacy of cause versus effect and direct first hand inner experience as a guide to external, material experience. It refuses to masquerade left brain intellectualism as “science” or right brain psychism as “mysticism”. It integrates use of the left and right hemispheres in concert with the forebrain.

Usually, anyone who espouses the whole brain approach is liable to offend both the conventional and the traditional. In addition, many left or right brain dominant people are masquerading as “holistic”, “alternative”, “complementary”, etc. when in reality they are completely devoid of a real spiritual understanding or orientation.

A true spiritual understanding realizes that there is a real causal world beyond the senses and the mind that can be accessed to bring about and understand effects in the material world. There is a science of technology of how to do this, which even the pseudo religious, holistic, and spiritual charlatans are not aware of. Literally one must “lose one’s mind” to be successful. That is, one must understand that beyond the finite, temporal, mortal level of being is an infinite, eternal, immortal realm of being that we as “the crowns of creation” can have access to. However, to do so requires transcending the ego “I” which thinks it is a supreme creator God. #############

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LEONARD H. BURG -- BRIEF BIOGRAPHY

Over the last 37 years "Len" Burg has worked professionally as an international spiritual activist, educator, and community program director.

Currently he is working actively as a co-founder of the USA branch of an international interfaith organization working with the United Nations, and Student Success Administrator of the Office of Student Success at Pace University, NYC campus.

In his UN related work, since 1998 Mr. Burg has served as Vice President and International Coordination Liaison of A Centre for the World Religions (ACWR) - http://centreworldreligions.org/. ACWR is an international Interfaith Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) having official consultative status with ECOSOC, the economic and social council of the United Nations. It holds peace forums at the UN for UN delegates, staff, and NGOs, and promotes Meditation and interfaith dialogue focusing on comparative analysis of the sacred scriptures of diverse religions.

As a Holistic educator, beginning in the 1970’s, Leonard learned natural healing techniques from many different indigenous healers. He has practiced as a holistic consultant in the Harlem, NY area, educating people on making transitions into more natural lifestyles. This has included teaching and demonstrating Acupressure/ Reflexology, massage therapy, guided fasting, and astro-cycology. His work culminated in the development of Soul Therapy™, a form of psycho-spiritual counseling. It was inspired by all of what he has learned in his professional career, including meditation, mysticism and cosmogony. And it represents an effort to infuse his mundane, professional work with the highest principles of universal, non-sectarian spirituality.

Mr. Burg’s community experience includes over 30 years working in New York City and Harlem, as a director of various community programs serving children, youths and senior citizens, including the Mini Institute on the campus of City College, the National Urban League Youth Division, East Harlem Interfaith and other organizations. In his present position as Student Success Administrator at Pace University, Leonard facilitates university efforts to improve systems and processes that impact student services and affect student retention.

Mr. Burg is available for lecture/demonstrations in meditation, or Soul Therapy. To contact Mr. Burg call 212-283-7569; email Lburg@CentreWorldReligions.org or LennyBurg@yahoo.com; or write to 626, Riverside Dr., # 4-O, New York, NY 10031.

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