I am much blessed to be a psychotherapist. I have the opportunity to join, join deeply, with another human being. And as the prayer in the Course in Miracles proclaims, "I will be healed as I let Him teach me to heal," I am carried to the heights and depths along with my patient. Here are two examples of how a patient and I participated in a mutual Supermind.

Healing the Self through Self-Hypnosis

Attending a meeting of the hypnosis society, I viewed a wonderful presentation and demonstration by pediatricians in Rochester, New York, dealing with children from the early pre-verbal times till the age of 16. The pediatricians believe that all hypnosis is self-hypnosis, and so do I. They demonstrated that the natural tendency of children to live in imagination lets them focus in a sort of soft way, thus to enter into the higher regions of mind and self. These very talented pediatricians entered into that realm along with the children, making a game out of their imaginations, thus forming a platform of mutual discovery -- and mutual empowerment of the mind of the child.

There were instances in which, by making faces, the pediatrician was able to engage the rapt and intense focus of a pre-verbal child. The child was wide-eyed and absolutely enveloping the doctor, while at the same time, an injection was able to be administered without disturbance.

For a somewhat older child who suffered from bed-wetting, the pediatrician drew a picture of a boy, of the brain, of the bladder, and told the boy that the brain and bladder could talk to each other. The more they would talk to each other, the friendlier they would become. Then he asked the boy, "Can you see that, can you do that?" And the boy said, "Yes." Then the doctor said, "And when you are about to go to bed, you can have your brain talk to the bladder and say, 'Bladder, when you want to empty yourself, then just tell me to get up.' And you can have your bladder talk to your brain and your brain talk to your bladder several times during the day. Can you do that?" And the boy said, "Yes." "And you can make a chart, and you can have a chart in which very dry is three, and almost dry is two, not so dry is one, and a real wetness is zero. And you can tell your bladder to get those number threes. Can you do that?" And the boy said, "Yes."

In all of this engagement with the boy, there were principles at work, not only principles of hypnosis and self-hypnosis and healing (for the boy's bed-wetting was indeed corrected, healed), but for all transactions of human beings with each other, for all entries into the higher mind for the use of its healing powers. I will specify about that.

When anyone gets into a relaxed state, and when people look at each other with this kind of dismissal of personal and selfish agenda, they are surrounded by a kind of large envelope. They have a mutual transaction and a great understanding. But this is on a high level -- a level of soul-to-soul. As such there is not only a great understanding and great friendliness, but also an invocation of the higher powers of mind and spirit. When that boy practiced having his bladder talk to his brain and his brain talk to his bladder every night before he went to bed and several times during the day, he was entering into the high mind. He was using self-hypnosis.

There are many other instances in which this transaction took place. There was this healing; and the injection by needles without pain; the sewing of wounds without pain; the healing of migraine.

There was also a sixteen-year-old young man who had suffered from asthma. By entering into this mutual transaction he was able to imagine himself breathing very, very comfortably, especially on the soccer field, for he loved to play soccer. Not only did his breathing become better, but one day he decided that maybe he would imagine himself scoring a goal this time. In his imagination, he accomplished this -- but so also on the soccer field! And then he thought he would repeat this, and he did repeat it. Each time that he did, he scored a goal. This is no magic; it is a contract between body and high mind. Entering into the high mind through the use of self-hypnosis is available to all of us all of the time. Entering into self-hypnosis is not only a healing of the self, it is also an advancing of the self into a higher and higher mind.

Self-hypnosis, meditation, deep prayer are all the same. They are a relaxation of our attention and fixation to this material, rush-a-day realm, a floating up, if you will, while floating inward to the deep self, into the high realms of relaxation of mind, of power of mind, of universal self, of joining the self with All -- all in activity, all in the universal web of human-kind.

Further Examples

A man in his advanced years asked me about my work with athletes. For whatever reason, I gave him a little book called Zen in the Art of Archery, saying, "This is will improve your game." I had met him where he stood, a man who was interested in golf. Later, to my surprise, my great surprise, he said, "Well, this man who studied archery had a guru; where can I get a guru?" I thought long and hard, and didn't know where to find him one. Then I decided, maybe I should send him another book, Golf in the Kingdom. It languished awhile, but then he returned from a golf vacation, all enthusiastic. He had literally devoured the book and in playing this most difficult golf course, he was able (from time to time) to forget himself. The shots that he made were beyond his belief, this man who was so encrusted, you might say, in a mental world which partook of the concreteness of the mind. In his enthusiasm, he wants to learn more. So the latency of the Spirit of God was brought forth, and he entered a portal which God had opened though his interest in his sport.

And then there is another example: A younger man, so gifted in his artistry in architecture, his desire to serve, so inspired in his visions, so beautiful in his production. The sweetness of his spirituality shines through in his dedication to his product. But there is a hard edge to his personality. When something gets in the way of the flow of his product, he becomes overbearing, hard, and bitingly supercilious. He was telling me the other day about the evolution of a vision for the simple transformation of a bathroom into a room of mirrors and light. I could see the vision not only in his mind but in the high places where they exist, and I could see the evolution, the materialization of the product as he described the visionary plane and its step by step-by-step production and overcoming of difficulties. But -- at a certain point, he decried the sloppiness of one of the laborers he had employed, calling him names and making imprecations. I said to him, "I have listened to you with great fascination in all the details you have laid out -- but this is the first time that ego has gotten in your way." He looked surprised and wondered what I meant. I said, "As you described your vision and your product, you were really bringing me into the high realms. But with your anger and cursing of this man¹s sloppiness, in your superciliosity, there was an entry into the lower part of yourself. Not that you should surrender to something which is less than it can be, but rather that you should recognize the flow of things, and measure people as they are, and move on without the entry of the superiority of your former self." At this point, he suddenly realized and absorbed, and there was a moment of mutual triumph, for it was this very point that I had been trying to convey to him for the longest while. He entered the door which was opened to his opportunity and his vision, his desire to save and to grow.

All of this illustrates what is written in Aurobindo and in every fundamental religious text: to forget the small self and to enter into the large Self which we contain, which hovers over the scene, which guides us, which unites us, which flows through us, which sweeps us along into the beauty and unity and love of all, which is the true entry into God's world.

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