Timing- We have often witnessed some type of synchronicity in the healing process. Patients may tell us they attended one of our classes or read an article we wrote two or three years before. Healing is not an urgent issue for them. They file us and the idea of natural healing somewhere in their brains. Then a pressing health issue arises for them and they call. This is the time their motivation level is the highest. Sometimes everything in our lives, including our health, falls apart simultaneously. Or we think our health is great and we're diagnosed with cancer or some other serious illness. We have found consistently that the timing of these events is no accident. As we do hypnosis to help our patients explore the underlying reasons for their illness, time and time again they discover what particular purpose their symptoms or life circumstances are serving and what lessons they can learn from their experience.

Illness often occurs at just the right moment to force a dramatic change in one's life. One of our patients is an internationally renowned sculptor. Though his motives were originally pure, he found that the more his fame increased, the more materialistic he became. He pushed himself to work as quickly as he could to create marketable pieces and travelled frequently to show his work. He spent more time with superficial acquaintances rather the close friends he had before. He became quite wealthy. A mutual friend confided in me that the last time she saw him, she was shocked. The old Peter she knew was gone. She found him to be arrogant and egotistical and, literally, never cared if she saw him again. His life was moving faster and faster. Than a tragic accident occurred, or so it seemed. He was riding his motorcycle on the freeway and a car hit him. He was in a coma for weeks. His doctors weren't sure if he would live or die. With time, he came out of the coma, but as a different person. It took him over a year to recover and in the process he found a joy and simplicity in life that he had lost. He went back to his sculpting, but at a slower pace. He found a deeply meaningful relationship and reconnected with his old, dear friends. In the process of nearly losing his life, he again found his real reason for living.

We received a letter yesterday from a patient we had treated for cervical dysplasia, which we can usually treat quite successfully. Her Pap smear had improved but not completely normalized when we last saw her. There was a certain sense of disappointment for her as well as for us. The healing hadn't occurred as fully and completely as we had expected. She wrote in her note that her Pap was now normal and that she was so grateful for our patience in her healing process.

The Universe had a lslightly more gradual timing in mind for her healing.

Karma- Karma, literally, means "action" and corresponds to the Western principle, "As you sow, so shall you reap". In cultures such as Hinduism and Buddhism, which believe in reincarnation, it is commonly accepted that our circumstances of this life are direct results of our actions in former lives. To our way of thinking, karma means that there are certain experiences we have had in the past, either this life or previous lives, which influence our current lives. For example, we have had exposure to a variety of different healing methods and traditions. The moment we started reading about homeopathy years ago, it rang remarkably true to us. Similarly, we feel right at home when we practice Ayurvedic Medicine because of our strong connection with India. It feels very familiar, as if we had known it before.