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Healing with Love: An Overview
By Susana Measelle
"At the highest levels of awareness, people realize that we are all one." Oneness is our natural state and birthright. We are all connected to every living person and thing through resonant bonds of loving energy which grace us with deep understanding of our world. To be aware of — and live by — this truth is to be whole.
On October 15th, 1997 Leonard Laskow, M.D. spoke on the subject of wholeness and its potential for healing. Wholeness, he explained is the ultimate healing. The two words come from the same root, which signifies a sense of being one with ourselves, others, and with the world. To the extent that someone does not have a sense of wholeness it can manifest as some form of physical or mental stress or illness.
Unfortunately, the most common reaction to illness of any sort within our society is to focus treatment solely on the symptoms. The understanding that people are more than just their bodies is not integrated with their treatment. The idea that people respond in profound ways to the positive and negative energy around them, let alone the concept that one's own body can be influenced by one's own mind, has fallen into disrepute in Western culture until recently. In contrast, rational perspectives have been most highly regarded and accepted as the path to truth. This perpetuates the illusion of separation between ourselves and all other living beings-the misperception that we are not one but only many. The consequence of this illusion is that many people continue to suffer unknowingly or struggle against pain and illness with limited resources for healing.
Holoenergetic Healing
Based on his twenty-five years as a practicing physician and surgeon and his own understanding that everything is interconnected, Dr. Laskow has created a healing method which dismantles this illusion. Holoenergetic healing is his term to describe this method, which helps dispel the illusion of separateness by reawakening people's awareness and helping them experience the inherent energy bonds that unite us all. The energy that Dr. Laskow finds most effective in healing comes from evoking unconditional love. Love is the oldest form of natural healing and has recently been scientifically demonstrated to stimulate the body's own natural restorative processes.
The role of love and connectedness...
Dr. Laskow's perception of love as healer began while at a spiritual retreat. During a deep meditative state one early morning, a presence he had never before experienced spoke to him and said, "Your work is to heal with love." He knew by the impact the quiet voice and stillness had on him that it was the truth. Tucked away in his thoughts, this message didn't become integrated into his professional work until several years later, when he attended a conference. The man with whom Dr. Laskow was assigned to share a room had lung cancer. In the middle of the night the man awoke in extreme pain and labored breathing and asked Leonard to do "anything" to help. Dr. Laskow's response was spontaneous and intuitively guided. "I put my hands on either side of his chest and visualized a ball of light above my head and felt it descend to the center of my chest and out through my arms. I recreated the ball of light between my hands." Within minutes the man's pain stopped and his breathing returned to normal. He felt so good the next morning he said, "You know Doc, you're a real healer."
Dr. Laskow did not have any medical explanation for what he had witnessed, but he was unable to deny that some profound interaction had transpired between himself and this man. From that point he went on to experiment with bacteria using a technique similar to what he had used with his roommate.
Inspired by his positive experiences both in and out of the laboratory, Dr. Laskow began integrating this approach within his professional work. The more he exercised his new-found skill, the more he realized that the key was to establish a loving and healing presence to connect in a heartfelt way with that which you want to change. Love, Dr. Laskow defines, is "an awareness of connectedness that impels you to merge with that which you are aware of." Deep appreciation, caring, gratitude, and the joy of being totally present in the moment are ways to tap the wellspring of love within. It takes enormous energy for someone to maintain the illusion of separation. Most people have compartmentalized painful emotional wounds by suppressing the part of themselves that is highly aware and imbued with the energy of love. If a person could release the sense of separation, then that person would have that much more energy available to heal themselves and others.
The Four R's: Steps in Holoenergetic Healing
Holoenergetics provides ways to identify and understand people's limiting patterns and beliefs, release them, and replace them with life-affirming feelings of safety, nurturance, and love. It is a model of conscious transformation consisting of four basic steps: Recognition, Resonance, Release, and Reformation-otherwise known as "the four R's of Holoenergetic healing."
Step 1: Recognition
The first step, recognition, is divided into rational and intuitive recognition. Dr. Laskow explains that this step is used to recognize and gather information on the symptom or quality we want to change. This includes asking ourselves, "Why do I want to change now? What does this illness or issue in my life allow me to do, be or have...and what does it keep me from?" This step calls for deep relaxation so that we can become intuitively aware of our bodies and the pressure, tension, or tingling we may feel in association with the focused issue.
Step 2: Resonance
The second step entails "following the feeling to enhance energetic resonance with what we want to change." Here, we sense into the problem or memory and imagine entering inside it to discover that there are positive life-force qualities or messages which it has to offer. Then we transform these positive qualities into a symbol which becomes our healing image.
Step 3: Release
The third step uses forceful breath, intention, and imagery to withdraw oneself from the original image associated with the problem and release the painful feelings it has created. Strong exhalations are used to physically and symbolically expel debilitating and harmful energy patterns. In this step, one can also choose to forgive and let go of attachment to the person or thing they hold accountable. As difficult as it may seem, forgiveness is, for many, the most effective way to release wounds from the past. By forgiving ourselves and others, we free vital energy within that has been trapped in blaming and judging. This liberated energy is now available for self-healing and inner growth.
Step 4: Reformation
The fourth and final step brings closure by reforming the void created by the release of painful wounds with a more expansive and uplifting image. When the negative image is replaced with the positive healing image and held with intention, body and soul begin to heal.
When we participate directly in the healing process we become more self-empowered and aware. We learn to draw aside the veil of conditioning and beliefs that limits us, to reveal, at last, the unconditioned unity called love that is our essence.
Originally published in Pathfinders on the Health and Fitness Highway, newsletter of the Mt. Diablo Hospital Foundation, Spring 1998. Modified by Leonard Laskow, M.D..
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