Interview with Dr.Gladys McGarey
Gladys Taylor McGarey, MD, MD(H)
Founder, Pioneering Physician
Dr. Gladys Taylor McGarey is internationally recognized as the Mother of Holistic Medicine. Dr. Gladys, as she is affectionately known, is board certified in Holistic and Integrated Medicine and has held a family practice for more than sixty years. She is the co-founder of the American Holistic Medical Association, as well as the co-founder of the Academy of Parapsychology and Medicine. She was the first to utilize acupuncture in the U.S. and trained other physicians how to use it.
Dr. Gladys is a pioneer. She has tirelessly pioneered work in holistic medicine, natural birthing, and the physician-patient partnership. Among Dr. Gladys' innovations for natural birthing was the Baby Buggy Program founded in 1978, featuring a fully-equipped paramedical and emergency transport vehicle for home deliveries. In 1970, she co-founded the A.R.E. Clinic in Phoenix, Arizona, where she and her former husband pioneered the integration of allopathic and holistic medical practices, laying the groundwork for the cultural shift of recent years that recognizes alternative and holistic medical modalities. Her efforts worldwide continue to receive international acclaim.
Temple Beautiful: Here I am in Virginia Beach, attending the conference on the Edgar Cayce treatments at A. R. E. Dr. Gladys McGarey is one of the speakers, so I have the honor of interviewing Dr. Gladys.
We met around 1994, and I invited you to come to Tokyo to give a lecture in 1999. This lecture started the publication of your book "The Physician Within You" in Japanese.
For people who don’t know about you, could you please tell us how you got to know about Edgar Cayce first?
Dr. Gladys: In 1955 we moved to Phoenix, Arizona and Bill McGarey, my husband got the book “There is a river”, so we were reading that. Once we got into that we were really interested in what was coming along. So the first introduction that I had to Cayce was the book “There is a river” which I know that your brother translated.
Q:Several years ago, you told me that you felt awkward when Bill McGarey started to believe in reincarnation after reading the Cayce readings, because of your Christian faith. But you must have been familiar with the idea of reincarnation since you were born and raised in India. Did you not believe in reincarnation before you came to know about Edgar Cayce?
See, I was born and raised in India with the whole Hindu culture. But when I began hearing about reincarnation, I thought, "Oh, I don’t know about this." And as we got into it more, it made more and more sense. But my first reaction was to back off from it. But then it made more sense, it answered a lot of questions for us. The work that he had done with sick people was so important. So that’s how we got in. We got passed the block that I had originally, that I didn’t want much to do with it. But then I got very interested in what he had said and written and all that.
Q: When Bill started speaking about Edgar Cayce and reincarnation, how did you feel about it?
At first I thought this was Hindu religion. But when I begun looking into it, there is a lot in the Christian religion that fits right into it too. It wasn’t something that I was against so I was able to accept that.
Q: Did you attend a church in India when you were little?
Yes.
Q: I assume being a Christian it must have been hard to believe in reincarnation and considering that Edgar Cayce was expelled from his church. Do you think church members and fellow doctors looked at you in a different way, maybe they thought you were weird?
In my own family, they did not feel that this would fit into the Christian concepts, but I did. Just like Edgar Cayce was Christian and he taught Sunday School in the church here all the time. He read the bible throughout his life, so he felt very much like this could be part of the whole idea. And so for us, after my first "not wanting to really look into it", then really finding out more, I found nothing wrong. It was nothing that I felt that was un-Christian, you know.
Q: So, were you practicing western medicine as a doctor then? Did anything change in your practice after you discovered Edgar Cayce?
Yeah, except that my Mother and Father were osteopaths and my Dad was an MD too. And then growing up in India, understanding the importance of what you eat, what you think and what your ideals are, made the difference on one's conditions. So the Cayce concepts didn’t necessarily fit with what conventional medicine was talking about, but I thought that’s how medicine should be.
The Cayce readings don’t specifically work with diseases, they work with people. And so people have diseases, not diseases have people, you know. So, where conventional medicine says this is the way you treat asthma, this is the way you treat diabetes, this is the way you treat breast cancer, Cayce does not do that.
He says this is the person who has asthma and these therapies would help that person. So his work is for the individual person, not the disease. Ok, so if you're treating the disease, the patient is left out of it. When we understood that his reading is actually working with individual people and how they would relate to the disease and how they would relate to the therapies, then we were able to get working with the disease. We started with Castor oil.
Q: So, you gradually changed your thoughts on how to treat people?
We had to look at the total person, body, mind and spirit. It could not just be you have a broken leg… You have a broken leg that effects how you walk. And that effects who you are. That effects the way you think and all of what’s going on in your life. I mean all of this is effected by the physical, but it effects the emotional, spiritual and mental aspects of the person too.
Q: Have you discussed the Cayce remedies with any coworkers or doctors?
At first most of the doctors didn’t understand, but there were a few who had gotten interested in the Edgar Cayce material or had gotten interested in alternatives. Sometimes it was nutrition, sometimes they were interested in hypnosis. But there were different avenues. We were just making friends with people and finding out what we could talk about and what we agreed on. And with that we began to build trust. But for years and years I was a very strange person. People thought I was a very strange person… they called me a witch doctor.
But a funny story is, a couple years ago, one of my patients had gone to see another doctor. And she came back to see me and she said that when she went to see him, somehow she mentioned my name. And then he leaned back on the chair and said, “Oh I know about her.” He said, “When I was doing my residency, we would go into the doctors’ human resources and say 'What have you heard about that crazy McGarey now?’ The baby buggies and, now it's acupuncture and now it’s this and that. We would laugh and say 'That’s a crazy business.'” And he said “I want to know what she’s doing now.” So it took years for other doctors to understand…
Q: Why do you think he changed his mind?
People began talking and things changed. “Holistic” is no longer a bad word. It was a really bad word, but it isn’t anymore. Isn’t that amazing?
Q: When did you notice things were changing and people began accepting the holistic concept and remedies?
Just little by little. Here a person there a person, and then they began to ask me to come and talk. But before that, it was just with patients. I would go and talk to doctors and doctors would have to say “well, something has changed”, you know. So it was just an educational process, little by little, one person at a time.
Q: We heard that you and Dr. Shealy created the word Holistic…
We started the American Holistic Medical association.
What happened was… there were five of us who had been friends, Norm (Dr. Norm Shealy), Bill and I, Doctor Evarts Loomis and Gerry Looney (Gerald Looney). We met in California one day and said, “We need to start this organization.” So we thought, "Ok, there are five of us so let’s get going with this."
Norman was the first president and I was the first vice president. Then we all had positions for friends of ours who understood what we were talking about. In 1978 we met and sent out letters to our friends. All five of us. We sent letters to different doctors and about 250 of them came from all over the country. We met in Denver and started the American Holistic Medical Association (AHMA). That’s what we decided to call it then and it’s still active now.
Q: So, it started with those 250 doctors. Do you know how many people there are now?
I don’t know. It’s not big, but the ideas are spreading. People don’t know where these ideas come. It took us two years to decide whether to spell the word Holistic with an “H” or a “W”. And the reason we decided on the H is because the root word is coming from Holy, Health, Healing and all of that. Whereas the word Wholistic with a “W” just means whole.
Q: So, before then the word holistic did not exist?
Yes, there were a few people using it, but we started using it with medicine.
Q: We are very involved with Cayce remedies, so I’d like to know more about Castor oil. Could you please tell me how you first started using it?
When we began working with the Cayce Material, it was hard for us to understand how the Cayce material worked with medicine. And Hugh Lynn Cayce would come around and say to us, “Why don’t you do something with physical readings?” And we would say, “Hugh Lynn, your Dad was a psychic… he changed things all the time, we can’t understand that.”
So Hugh Lynn will go away and come back the next year and say, “Why don’t you do something with Cayce readings?” And we would, “Hugh Lynn, your Dad was a psychic, he changed things all the time. We can’t understand that.”
So this went on for about three years. And finally, we began working with castor oil and saw that it worked with people… with different problems and so on. And then we realized what happens with castor oil.
When you put it on the skin, it gets and carried to the deeper lymphatics and cleans out the tissues. So when you’ve got a clean environment, the cells work better. Just a simple idea like that changed things because then we could see how it would help with the liver. It could help with the sinus, it would help with the kidneys, the swollen ankle. It just helped with many, many different things and we began using castor oil. Bill wrote the booklet “Edgar Cayce and Palma Christi” which was talking about the whole concept of how castor oil works.
But it was castor oil that helped us understand the Cayce readings. Because then we knew the other modalities that he used were for specific physiological processes. Things like the liver and the kidney coordination, the bowel and the skin coordination. Those kind of things don’t just work as one thing, they work as a coordination process.
Q: I often get asked by our customers what elements of castor oil are effective, and how and why it works on our bodies.
It’s the oil of the castor bean. So it’s that specific oil that’s important. Like olive oil which is important, but peanut oil for arthritis. It works better than castor oil for arthritis. There are different oils that the skin take to the deeper tissues and work. So it’s just the oil itself. It’s just pure oil and best kind is cold pressed castor oil. So it is not heated.
I explain to the patients that it’s picked up by the lymphatics of the skin, it’s carried to the deeper lymphatics and cleans out the tissues.
Q: Could you share some stories about patients using castor oil?
Like with a broken ankle that is sprained, putting a castor oil pack on that without heat. Just putting it on takes the swelling right down and allows for the healing. It really is very helpful for that.
For women with severe menstrual cramps, putt the castor oil pack on the tummy where the pain is or on the back if the pain is back there or both places. The heat helps with that but also the castor oil helps with that too. Because it relaxes the muscles, it reduces the swelling and keeps the lymph from pooling and helps it flow again.
So there are all sorts of things, like with a sore neck like it’s so stiff and your neck is tight. Taking a cloth and soaking it in castor oil, putting it on your neck… and then leaving it there for a long time you don’t need the heat with that so much, it really helps. You can use it on any part of your body.
Q: Could you share some stories of actual cases?
G: With a pregnancy, I had this one mother. When she was seven weeks pregnant she began spotting, and I had her go home and put the castor oil pack on. She had lost five pregnancies before this at about seven weeks. This time she went home and put a castor oil pack on. The bleeding stopped and she carried the pregnancy through to term. What happened was that it settled in and the baby was great.
Another time I had a patient who had spotting in about seven weeks, and we put a castor oil pack on. When the baby was born, the baby had a harelip scar all the way through under the nose. I looked at it and said, "This was a great surgeon that repaired this in the uterus!" Because, if there was a scar, there was a defect that was forming. Well, with the castor oil pack, that scar was healed. The baby had a scar but no other sign of defect. It was the castor oil that did that.
A person with a bad tooth. When you may not be able to get to see the dentist, if you put the castor oil pack on your face, it will reduce the pain and swelling. Breast Lumps that are not a cancerous kind, the breast cyst, you put a little piece of cloth with castor oil on it and stick it in your bra and wear it there. These will go down. So they’re not a problem. What else… there are so many stories. With eyes, just putting castor oil on your eyes helps with dry eyes, helps with having an infection on the lids and so on. It helps that.
Q: How do you use castor oil packs in your daily life?
G: At times when I’m using it on a regular basis, I use it over the liver for three consecutive days a week and I stop for four days, then another three days. During those times I use it with heat for various reasons, like if I’m having constipation or something that will help with that. Or abdominal pain, it helps with that. It helps get the liver working better… the whole liver, which is in this area.
Every time I get any kind of an injury I put castor oil on it. A bug bite, put castor oil on it and it takes the pain away immediately. So, that again opens up the lymphatics and clears that up. I use it so much and have it all the time.
Q: You told me before that you want to have writing on your gravestone about castor oil pack.
My children say they are going to put on my tombstone.“Here she lies in spite of castor oil.”
You know my daughter Analea, when she was in college her face broke out. I had told her to use castor oil but she didn’t want to. She tried the other things but they didn't work so finally she began putting castor oil on her face and it all cleared up. So other girls began using it too.
Q: What do you do daily to maintain your good health other than use the castor oil pack?
Keeping my mind clear. Walking, sleeping, eating properly. Having a lot of friends and just keeping busy. Well, I’m happy.
Q: Now you are 92 years old (as of this interview in June 2012). What does aging mean to you?
Hopefully it’s wisdom… getting more wise… But aging into health… you know, why not? Get healthier as you get older. I have things that are better now than they were when I was younger. I have things that are not good now, but that’s just a trade off.
Aging to me is not by the calendar, it’s by what is going on with what’s in my mind and in my heart. And hopefully my prayer is that I am wiser than I was when I was 40. There are things that I’ve experienced when I was 40, or whatever that time was, things that meant a lot to me then don’t mean anything to me now. There are other things that are more important… it’s a shift and hopefully with age we get wiser.
Q: Some people say that we should not do or wear certain things according to our age. This feels like limiting ourselves… What you think about this?
I love being this age. I can wear anything I want. Who’s going to tell me not to wear something I like? They can’t take anything away from me, because I don’t have anything… You do not gain anything or lose anything, you just grow.
There is a word in Hindustani; Joho-Soho, this means “what happened has happened”.
My Mother taught me something. My sister and I were together a few years back and when we’d be talking we would do this . We would talk a little while longer and we would do this, and I said to Margaret, “Why do we do that?” She said, “I don’t know.”
So we thought about it awhile and we said, “Who do we know that used to do that all the time?” We said, “Our Mother did that!” And we said, “Why did she do that?” We thought about it for a while and we realized that she would say “oh, Kuchi Pruwani” which in Hindustani means “oh, it doesn’t matter”.
When something would happen and she couldn’t do much about it, she would just do this saying “oh, Kuchi Pruwani”, which basically is taking what was coming towards her in the palm up of her hand. She did not know what she was doing but she was not doing this like I don’t want that… taking it then just swaying and letting it go..
So when something happens, like something that will hurt you or your feelings or whatever, I know that I have a lot of stuff in my life, but I was just doing this. I did not even know what I was doing… but basically I was doing a Taichi movement. Taking it and just letting it go, you know. Having your palm open accepting it and just letting it go.
People don’t know that you are doing that. Something happens and you do this and go on and talk, taking care of it instead of feeling, “Ah it hurts.” You are just taking it and letting it go. Because it doesn’t matter.
Q: You are still working as a doctor. In your lecture that I attended yesterday, you said that western medicine is “killing medicine” but what you want to do is “living medicine”. What is the meaning of “living medicine” and when did you start to feel that way?
I think I really started thinking about that in the 1970s. I remember specifically one time I was waiting for a lady to deliver a baby. A friend of mine who's another doctor was also waiting for a lady and we were talking.
He said… this was in the early 70s… he said, “The problem with medicine now is the fun has gone out of medicine.” And I thought that I knew what he was talking about. Because what we went into medicine for didn’t seem to be there. He wasn’t talking about ha-ha-ha fun things, he was talking about the real reason we went into medicine. The reason for working with medicine. And for years I thought about why the fun had gone out of it.
Then I got to thinking that, well, everything that we are taught is about killing and it’s about getting rid of. There’s no fun in killing. There’s not fun in getting rid of something.
Then I was talking to some friends, this was years and years after that. I thought about this for years and thought that even our language is against life itself. We talk about antibiotics, anticonvulsants and anti-aging, I mean like we are not supposed to get old. I’m talking now about “aging into health” which is very different from being against. Everybody wants to look younger.
As I was thinking about that and talking to some friends of mine about it, I stopped suddenly and I said, “Instead of killing medicine, what we really need is living medicine.” I said, “Thank you! I’ve been waiting 81 years for that.” Because if we are alive, we’re going to have a pain, we’re going to be born, we’re going to die, we’re going to have diseases, but we’re going to be living.
We are not going to become the disease. We are living who we are. So it’s completely shifted. I thought about what our focus was even in the area of herbal medicine, to get rid of something instead of enhance the body so that it can get rid of it.
Q: So you don’t have to kill to live?
It’s a different thing… because I’ve watched people, individuals get well but their disease has not been cured. And I’ve watched diseases get cured and patients not get well, you know. So it is not the same thing. Curing a disease does not necessary heal a person. On the other hand, healing a person, does not necessary get rid of a disease, so.
Q: I personally cannot imagine “killing bad cells”; I don’t want to kill anything even in my imagination. Sometimes holistic books recommend us to visualize “killing bad cancer cells”, but this idea made me feel uneasy and strange. I understood why when I heard your lecture.
After you changed from killing medicine to living medicine, how did you change your approach to patients?
Let me tell you one story that epitomizes it. I had this patient that had lung cancer. She was dying of lung cancer; she had all the therapies and so on.
She called me up and said, “They tell me that I need a blood transfusion, but I don’t want it.” I said, “Why not?” She was afraid the blood transfusion would give her AIDS or hepatitis. And nothing I said would let her understand that the chances of that were very, very slim and what was really going to happen. She was really afraid of it. And fear stops everything.
So finally I said to her, “Well, maybe you could look at it this way. There is somebody in this world that who gave his blood, so that you could have his blood. It was an act of love that allows you to have the blood transfusion.” Then she was able to shift from the fear of killing, and all the disease to getting the blood transfusion with love. She was able to get the blood transfusion.
So it’s when you are working with life, and with love, and with healing and so on. It’s different than killing… and getting rid of. When she was able to shift, she was able to get the blood transfusion. She did die three months later with the cancers. But she had three months in which she lived, not where she was just waiting to die.
Q: So your words could turn it around.
Turned around so that she was focused on living until she died. Not on the fear of what could happen… It would just shut everything down.
Q: So do you think that the way you explain to your patients makes a big difference?
That’s right. It gives them some hope, it gives them something to live for.
Q: That is your unique way of approaching your patients which I understand now. Let me tell you about my brother's experience with a blood transfusion.
One of his friends had a baby and the baby got sick. The baby needed blood transfusions, so they asked many friends to share their blood. Many gave blood, but none was good enough to stop the baby's bleeding. The baby’s condition got worse to an emergency state, so they called my brother for his blood.
He went to the hospital but he was so skinny that the doctors refused to take his blood. However they tested to see its quality just in case, and they found that it was very good and healthy. So they decided to take maximum amount of blood from him to give the baby.
As soon as the blood transfusion started, the bleeding stopped and the baby survived. Apparently, the friend still calls my brother "the savior of my child".
When I heard this story I thought his blood must have healing qualities because he prays and meditates every night and day. And so his blood was able to save the baby. So if I ever needed a blood transfusion, I would like to get it from a person like him. Or at the very least, from someone who eats a healthy diet.
That’s living medicine. What you’re doing is focusing on life. You’re giving life and love, they go together and the body knows what to do with it.
Q: What is the way of living holistically?
It’s making the balance of the body, mind and spirit. Bringing those in tune with each other, so that your spiritual self, your mental self, your emotional self and physical self all are doing the same thing.
If you are thinking bad thoughts while you’re fixing dinner for the family, it affects the dinner. If you are sitting at a meal and saying “I shouldn’t be eating this”, then the body says, “Why is she doing this to me?”, “Why am I eating this if I shouldn’t be eating it?”
On the other hand, if it’s something you really feel like you should be eating or you want to eat, or maybe it’s something you shouldn’t be eating, but you say, “That’s going to be good for me”…ha ha… Then it could be good for you, not bad for you. It depends on what your mind is doing. So your gastric juices are going right and your stomach is taking the food and doing what it should be doing, not saying, “Aaah!”
Q: You mean, have a good attitude?
Absolutely! And accepting and being grateful. It’s why people who have no food can eat almost anything and it’s good for them because they’re so grateful for food. The body could use what it can use.
Q: How can we help people to understand these concepts?
Well, sometimes telling people a story. They can understand that way. I think that films and movies and different things like that can get people to understand things.
When you talk one on one they don’t really understand, but it gets into the unconscious mind and they begin to understand. And when they see how you live, the very example of what you do and how you live, that makes a difference. And they see you as a person who is functioning well in this world, then they want to know and they begin to ask.
Also it depends on the person and how they are asking, but you kind of have to listen to what they are asking. Because a lot of times people will really want to know “this question” but they ask “that question”.
So you have to really listen to what they are asking and try to answer just as best as you can. You need to be totally honest with them and what you know. And share with them the best you know, because sometimes what you are saying and what they understand are two different things. Because it’s interpreted “Up here”. Because you care about what they understand and they are looking for something, and you may not get it across.
Your words say this, but the spirit of the words come together at another level and they understand what it is you are trying to say. Maybe not in the same words, maybe not even in the same concept, but they get what they need…
For example, people would say to me “When you said such and such it meant all the world to me”, and I know that I didn’t say “such and such”. I know that I said something else, but what they got was “such and such”. When we put it out there in a feeling of love and caring for the person that we are talking to, what comes is what they need. And they interpret what you are putting out there in a way they can use… And it may not even be anything you even thought would be useful.
When you come to a person who is asking and looking for something with a feeling of love and caring, you’ll know what to say. Because you have studied it and it has become part of your life and you’ve known these things, so you’ll know what to say. Whereas if you try to read it out of a book and then tell them out of a book, that doesn’t mean anything to them. If it comes from your heart that means something.
Q: How much time do you spend with each patient to be understood?
It depends. One time I had this patient and it took 30 years. It doesn’t happen all at one time. She just kept coming back and coming back. It just takes time and time again. And other times, they just get it.
Q: A very serious nuclear accident happened in Japan on March 11th, 2011. Could you give us some advice on dealing with radiation effects?
I don’t know, it’s such a bad situation… You do the best you can and try not to live in fear. Because fear just makes it worse… so do the best you can with what you’ve got and pray for your government to open up. Because governments can get so difficult, and actually, the trouble between nations is the trouble between the governments and not between the people. But with this situation, there are a lot of people around the world praying for you. I know we are. So, that helps.
There are forces that can be used to dissipate it and transform and change it. And mother nature herself, as long as we don’t keep doing it, will ultimately take care of it. But do the things that you know are safe and work with the things that you know are safe. Just bless what you do get, like I was saying earlier, taking something in and saying “It will be bad for me”, then the body knows that. So bless it and let the body know what it can do for it.
Q: I’ve been feeling Japan is creating more karma for the world by spreading radiation into the water. But as an individual, I don't know how I can help… Do you think we can pray to inspire our government?
Yeah, and ourselves. We do the best that we can so that we as individuals become points of light. You know that we bring light into the world and not darkness. If we get afraid then we buy into the darkness, but if we stand up and be points of light then that helps. It helps nature to do what it can do.
Q: At the same time, we can live normal everyday lives in Tokyo as long as we don’t watch bad news. However, many people are still suffering from radiation effects or tsunami in Fukushima and the Tohoku area. So I can't help feeling guilty for having an easy life.
Send them love. Send them love and blessings, because that reaches them in ways we can’t. You know that you’re not there to help them, but you wouldn’t be of any help anyway… but at levels where we meet at, a spiritual level, that’s where the real healing will come from in a situation like that. So when you think about them, think about them with love and send love to them. So at least the Universe is supporting them.
I think your job is to put more energy on the good parts. Cayce said to “magnify the virtue, minimize the faults”. So when you get the fears, just put them on a shelf. You can’t get rid of a fear because it’s there and it’s all around you and you are immersed in it. But if you focus on that, then that becomes bigger because you feed it. If you focus on what is on the brighter side, on the hope that is there, then that becomes bigger.
Q: I can't help feeling guilty for looking at the bright side when there're so many people suffering.
Oh yeah, 3 o’clock in the morning is when it gets you. In the middle the night, it gets you, you know, and then you wake up in the morning feeling … ugh!
It takes a conscious working on putting your energy and not condemning yourself, because it's natural. So it’s not being a bad person. It’s natural that you do that. But then, it’s like the food that you feed your body… What you feed your emotions is what it grows on. So if you are feeding your emotions fear, it’ll grow on that and if you are feeding your emotions hope it grows on that.
Q: Having to be born in Japan and experiencing Tsunamis and earthquakes, makes me feel that I have some purpose. Yet I am not of any use and I can't help feeling shameful.
Let me tell you a story. My older brother Carl - he was a doctor. And he started the department of international health at Johns Hopkins University. One time, some friends of his who were from Bhutan asked him to come over and look at their health conditions, because they were having a lot of problems and stuff. And so he went and stayed with them for a month and he saw that every day, every household had either a priest or a monk come in and spend some time with them. It’s all they did, they just came around to each house and spent some time with them and went on.
And my brother thought that if they knew something about hygiene, if they knew something about nutrition, if they knew something about these simple things, then they could teach the people that and that would help. So he told his friend and doctors what he was thinking, and his friend said, “Oh that’s a great idea, we will talk to the Great High Lama.”
So they set up an appointment and my brother Carl said that they went higher and higher up the mountain until they came to this house. When they came in the door they had to get down on their faces and move forward, and at the end of the hall there was a man sitting on a “Dias”. Carl said you couldn’t tell if he was dead or alive—he was just sitting there.
And for the longest time they were down on their faces, and then he said all of a sudden… he came back and he spoke to the people. He said to my brother Carl, “You have a question?” and Carl said, “Yes.” And he told him this idea of having the priest and the monk know something about nutrition and so on. And the Lama said, “It’s a great idea. I’ll take it to meditation.” And then he was gone again for the longest time. I don’t know where my brother was in the high Himalayas.
They waited and waited and finally, he was back. He said, “It’s a great idea, but the time is wrong.” He said “right now” in 1972, before John F. Kennedy, before Martin Luther King, before all of that. He said, “Right now, the forces of evil are gathering and if I opened up one place to where the monks and the priests are doing their work, which is spiritual work, and I change that to physical work or mental work, I would open up a hole in the universe, which would allow these forces and evils to come in.” He said, “The time will come when we can do that, but right now the time is wrong.”
So everything that you do in the way of prayer and healing has an effect just like those monks… everyone of them. What the Lama was saying was if I took one of those monks away from what his job was, which was basically to pray for the people, then that would open us up to the universe.
And to me that’s the one of the most important lessons because each one of us has our own special job right where we are. And it’s much greater than anything that we can imagine. What you are doing in Japan, praying for people, sending them love and concerns and so on is keeping those forces of evil back, you know. It’s holding them off basically until the time is right for the other things to happen.
But right now, it’s a critical time, you are in a critical place… a specific place, which happens to be Tokyo. This is so that you can hold a point of light and be that person who holds us together. Because you know, if you have a sweater and you have a hole in one place then the whole thing unravels. On the other hand, if you keep that tied together it can’t unravel, so our job as individuals is to do what we can do where we are, be who we are, and let the universe keep itself together like this.
And it’s huge, it’s a huge job that you have there. You feel like you are doing nothing, but remember those monks, those individual monks doing what they can do. 15 years later they were able to do as Carl suggested, but at that point it was not the time to open up. And the right time will come and you will see what will happen, like the doctor that said to a patient of mine, “What is she doing right now?”. It took him 30 years…
Q: Perhaps I don't completely believe in the power of individuals… Right now in Japan, there are conflicts between the people and the government, even within the political parties or among activists who are working to stop nuclear power plants. I feel like I am being exposed to those energies of conflicts when I am in Tokyo.
…We have that here too. It is all over the world. People are frightened and they don’t know what’s happening.
I’d like to tell you about my aunt. When I was 15, she said this to me. She said, “When the Lord… God is working like this, the devil is working like that, but always remember the Lord is a little bit ahead.” So… it’s that kind of a hope. It looks so horrible, but the good is still there.
And another thing to remember is that a little bit of light gets rid of darkness. Darkness cannot get rid of light. Light gets rid of darkness. You go into the darkest place and light a match and it lights the whole place up. Like right now… darkness cannot get rid of light… light can get rid of darkness and even the slightest bit of light. So we have to trust that.
Q: I'm hoping to grow spiritually but under these circumstances I find it very hard. And I don't know if I'm doing good enough to be that light.
The problem with guilt is that there is seldom one person guilty, we are all guilty. I’m as guilty as you are. We are all guilty of not maintaining the highest state, because we are human and we have all kinds of karmic stuff that we have brought on and all of that.
So… Oh! I just remembered a story. I was talking to a Pakistani man who was talking to me about Ayurvedic Medicine. He said that they believe that when we come into life, we don’t come in as clean souls. We come in with a huge karmic load and our life time is for getting rid of that karma. This was a completely different thought for me.
So, with that in mind, we are guilty. We have this guilt that we carry. We either move through it and get rid of it and let it move back or we build on to it. To me that was a complete new thought. I don’t know if I totally agree with it, but it’s a new way of thinking about things, so the guilt is there…
I can take on that guilt too, because it’s part of the way we all humans have created this world. We let things happen. Or continue to build on that guilt and say I’m sorry for what’s happened. But not build on it and let that go and move on, and move on, and move on… And leave the guilt behind. It’s like your shadow. You know as you move forward your shadow is behind you. It’s passed, it’s done. You can’t change that, but you can change where you’re going.
Q: Thank you so much. I feel that your words touched me deeply so that I can move on now. Lastly, could you tell us what we can do for people who were the victims of 3.11?
First, you just need to hold their hands… you just need to be there for them. It’s like when somebody dies in your family. Words don’t say anything… You can take some food over or something, but basically you need to be there for them and let them know that you care about them. There is not much else you can do, because what’s happened has happened. And the earth has been scarred and it’s there… But it isn’t any one person or one group of people, it’s happened in Japan.
It has happened in Chernobyl, and we are doing terrible things in our country, just awful things. And we are all in this together. We are all brothers and sisters in this… nobody’s ahead of the other people in guilt or anything else… it’s a global problem that we are working with.
