 Healing
Allowedby
Alan Cohen While I was presenting a program at a long-established
spiritual retreat center, several participants and I were eating lunch
at a picnic bench next to a snack bar. As we finished, one of the
participants stood behind me and began to gently massage my neck and
shoulders. I, of course, was delighted to receive this gift. I sat at
the bench with my eyes closed, soaking it up. Suddenly
I was jarred by a deep voice booming, “No healing allowed here!” I
was certain this was another student playing a joke, and I opened my
eyes to see who it was. To my surprise, the retreat center security
guard was standing behind us. He looked the part: burly, a close-shorn
crew cut, and a well-substantiated gut brimming over his belt. His
name badge said “George.” I looked at George in disbelief.
“I’m sorry,” George uttered authoritatively. “No healing is
allowed on the campus except in the healing temple. If you want to be
healed, you have to go there.” I
looked around at my friends and we cracked up. We thought this was a
practical joke. After all, who would make a rule against someone being
healed? We looked again at George and realized this was no joke. The
student removed her hands from my shoulders and sat down. After lunch
I walked back to my room for a siesta. By that time I decided the
situation was quite funny. Who, then, do you think I encountered along
the way? You guessed it, Officer George. I decided I would have some
fun with George. “Sorry about that healing back there,” I told
him. “I can’t imagine what came over me.” George
remained quite serious. “I hope you understand. If I let you do
healing there, before you know it, people will be healing all over the
place!” I
had to muster all the will power I could to keep a straight face. I
told George, “And that’s the last thing we would want to see
happen, isn’t it?” “That’s
right,” he answered. I
dashed to my room, closed my door, and roared. This was too strange to
be true. Then I remembered a Bible story that put my experience in
perspective. Jesus
was admonished by the Pharisees for healing on the Sabbath. Now, if
you value healing, you would love to see anyone who needed healing,
receive it, right? My God, if you were in pain and someone came along
who could help you feel better, you would jump at the opportunity. But
not the Pharisees; they had rules, you know. Later Jesus chastised
them, “You pay more attention to the letter of the law than the
spirit. You strain over a gnat, and miss the whole camel.” Now
I’m sure George was a very nice man, and he was just doing his job
to the best of his ability. I took the experience as a lesson I cannot
afford to miss the Big Picture because I have gotten caught in the
details. And
what about other ways we push healing away? What about the various
actions we believe are prerequisites for healing? Do you believe you
need to attain a certain level of spiritual purity before you can be
healed? Or quit smoking? Or meet the right guru? Or master your sexual
desires? Or be a vegetarian? Or have the right mate? Or earn enough
money to have the right medical treatment? Or lose 10 pounds? Or? Or?
Or? Healing
can happen anywhere, in any way, under any circumstances, through any
person or avenue. The universe is always trying to deliver well-being
to us. There are no obstacles outside of us. The only obstacle is our
own resistance to it. No external condition, whatsoever, is required
for healing. The only conditions are internal. What makes or breaks
healing is our belief, our desire, our willingness, our openness, our
readiness. One thing is for sure: the moment you are ready and
willing, the healing must come. A
Course in Miracles tell us that all that is required for
healing is “a little willingness,” and that “the real doctor is
the mind of the patient.” We choose doctors or external agents who
tell us what we want to hear. If you want to be healed, you will find
a doctor who will tell you that you can get better. If you hold some
investment in staying ill, there are plenty of doctors who will agree
with you. When
my mother was seeing an oncologist, one day I accompanied her to his
office and asked him about my mother’s prognosis. He told me it was
not good. When asked if there was anything he could do, he answered,
“We are not the masters of biology.” Right
then and there I knew he and I had nothing to talk about. He believed
cells are in charge of the universe, and I believed souls are in
charge of the universe. End of conversation. My
mother, you see, was ready to leave. A few months later she passed
away, but before she did, she told me that she was ready to go. She
told me she had led a good life, she was very proud of me, and she had
done everything she had wanted to do. It was her choice to move on.
Interesting, isn’t it, that she picked a doctor who agreed with what
she intended to do anyway? There
are many cancer patients who are not ready to go, and they find Bernie
Siegels and Andrew Weils and others who say, “You have a choice. If
you choose to be alive and well, I can help you to do that.” These
doctors would be the first to admit that they are not the source of
healing; they are the agents chosen by the patients to assist them
with their intentions. Patients realize spirit is the master of life,
not biology. Healing
is allowed here. Healing is allowed wherever it is chosen. |
