My "Meeting Aesclepius" Exercise Experience

Hi everyone

           This week I would like to talk about my “Meeting Aesclepius” Exercise experience and answer some course questions in Part One. In Part two, I will answer some course questions from the Consciousness & healing book.

Part One

My “Meeting Aesclepius” Exercise Experience      

           Before we started the exercise the narrator told us that we should “know that it is the wise healer who resides within each of us who will help guide us through the preparations and the integral process itself” Dacher (2006). The ancient Greeks called this sensible person, Aesclepius. It seemed like it was fitting for us to call on our inner healer as we started our voyage on the way to integral health. So I did as the narrator had instructed. I found a comfortable chair, closed my eyes, and I visualized the image of a very sensible, caring man. This is someone that I have respected and honored for years and I believe I can feel a special sense of connection to him. The image I had visualized was that of my Church Pastor. I steadied his image in front of me and observed all of the details about him. I sat in communion with him and felt his presence. I reflected on his qualities and characteristics, peace, wisdom, compassion, love, and joy as the narrator had instructed. I made his image become my focus and as I stayed with it, my understanding got deeper.

          When I steadied his appearance in my mind, I let a solid beam of white light form at the top of his head. Then I permitted this solid beam of white light that proceeded from his mind come into my mind. I let this energy cleanse and refine my thoughts, feelings, and images. At that point I gently altered my mind as if it was his mind. It took a little time for this alteration to completely happen. Then I permitted one more beam of light to form and proceed from the throat of this sensible person. I allowed this energy to cleanse and refine my speech. Then, I grabbed on to the abilities of loving, wise, and sensitive speech so that my speech became like his. It also took a little time for this alteration and refinement to take place. At this point, I permitted an additional beam of light to surface from the heart of this sensible man and I allowed it to come into my heart. It cleansed and refined my heart with kindness, love, and compassion, changing it into the heart of this sensible person. Of course, this alteration took some time to happen.  I understood my mind, voice, and heart as I took on the abilities of this sensible man. It’s was as if I was becoming this person.

          The next thing that happened is that I allowed the whole appearance of this sensible person dissolve into a bright white light. I permitted the light to come into my body at my forehead and little by little fill my total being, from my cells to my organs, as the narrator had said, so that it seemed like I completely turned out to be like this sensible person. The narrator asked these questions – “What does this feel like? What will it be like for me to have the wisdom and support of this sensible inner healer to help me in my integral journey” (Dacher, 2006)? I took some time after she asked those questions to understand what it would be like to be this kind of a person, to be able to accept myself as a sensible and loving healer in body, mind, and speech.

         At that point I was thinking about some of the things the narrator had mentioned. This opportunity, this nature, has always been within me. I just wondered why it seemed easier to see this sensible and pure side of myself on the outside of another person instead of being familiar with it as being my own core. I visualized this sensible and caring person I first saw outside of myself as another person who had been a great mentor to me over the years. But this exercise was not about that person. It was only at the closing moments that I came to understand that Asclepius was the normal and sensible core of my heart and mind. I continued on for few minutes more in this normal and honorable spirit. As I got to the point that I felt whole, I gradually came back to the time and place of the area in my home I chose for this experience. I couldn’t help but think of the fact that my omnipresent inner healer will always be there to support and lead me in the direction of integral health. How awesome is that?

Explain how mindfulness or meditation has fostered an increase in your psychological or spiritual wellness.

           Meditation (mindfulness) has fostered an increase in my psychological or spiritual wellness because it has been helping me to climb the steps of the psychspiritual ladder. It helps me get to the “Witnessing Mind” where I can observe the disturbing mental chatter and not reach out for it and in this way I can calm my mind. When I do that I am able to enter the “Calm-Abiding Mind” where my mind is still and serene. This is where I can get prepared to move into the “Unity Consciousness” where I can find wisdom for me and my life. I do have to say that I have a long way to go but the process is proceeding and step by step I am seeing some progress. So far I have been able to do all of the exercises, of course with plenty of mental issues to bust through. The one I had the most trouble with was the Universal Loving-Kindness exercise. I went through that one three times before I knew it went well. I went through the “Meeting Aesclepius” exercise experience twice and it was awesome.

How can you continue to apply these practices in your life to foster greater health and wellness?

           I can continue to apply these practices in my life to foster greater health and wellness by making sure to set aside time each day to go through the different practices. It seems to me like I need to do a relaxation exercise first to settle down my stress before I can actually be relaxed enough to be able to deal with all of the mental chatter before being able to get to the “Witnessing Mind” level. Another thing is that I will have to constantly read up about these exercises because I seem to have a retention problem on many occasions. All in all, I am progressing in the direction of integral health.

Part Two

Describe the saying: "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself” (P.477). How does this apply to the health and wellness professional? Do you have an obligation to your clients to be developing your health psychologically, physically, and spiritually? Why or why not? How can you implement psychological and spiritual growth in your personal life?

          

           It is essential to us as providers, or, in my case as a future provider of health care to frequently evaluate and run through our personal spiritual development to truly experience what the integral model signifies. I am thinking of how I would be able to teach patients or clients things that I have never experienced myself. I believe this is what is meant by the statement "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself” (Schlitz et al, 2005).

         

           This applies to the health and wellness professional because we all need to become integrally informed and engage in an integral practice. As this happens we can bring this fresh consciousness to the practice of medicine and in doing so, change the doctor in such a great way that it brings back the delight of the doctor-patient association (Schlitz et al, 2005).

            I would say that I definitely have an obligation to my future clients to be developing my health psychologically, physically, and spiritually. It comes down to the thought that if I am not following the steps to my own integral health what kind of an example can I be to them. How can I expect them to follow the action plan I am giving them if I am not even using it myself? So I have to eat right and exercise my body physically, and do the mental exercises for the psychological and spiritual part but it would not hurt for me to go to Church and worship God for those areas also (Schlitz et al, 2005).

          

           The way that I can implement psychological and spiritual growth in my personal life is to look at my integral health by taking a holistic view of my situation. I need to see my integral health through the four quadrant method that shows all aspects of human life. All of these are affected when there is an illness so when one is off I have to attend to all parts of my being to take care of the issue. I need to keep up with the mental exercises and contemplative practices to make sure I am clearing the psychological chatter from my mind so that it could become still and tranquil (witnessing mind) and I can see things as they are and not what I perceive them to be. When I get to the level of the calm-abiding mind it prepares me for the unity consciousness where the wisdom of my life can be found (Schlitz et al, 2005).

Craig S Aronoff