Pain vs Pleasure – A Big A-Ha!

by Nancy Smeltzer

I’m a visual person, with two of my degrees being in art, so it’s not surprising that one of the first “psychic” skills that I taught myself was to be clairvoyant. As such, I often see my images behind my closed eyes as well as if my eyes were open. I’m also very much aware that these images, shown to me by the Divine, are often metaphors for what’s going on and not literal photographs of what I need to know. We three say that we’re enrolled in the School of the Divine, and are shown what we need to know when we need to know it. We are also very much aware of the vastness of knowledge that we have yet to access, and how really simple the Divine is trying to make our lessons. You wouldn’t explain nuclear physics the same way to a kindergartener as you would a graduate student, so we see what we’re being shown as metaphors or parables. In other words, what’s the important message being shown here, not the literal interpretation.

So, as I have often experienced chronic back pain, I’ve looked at many ways to view what does pain actually “look” like metaphysically? What I’m usually shown is a sine wave, since those are the type of waves I know best. (I also taught 7th grade science for 27 years before retiring.) The ones for pain have their up and down undulations pock-marked with jagged edges, as if they were playing a harsh melody. However, when I superimpose the wave that I see for pleasure, there’s little difference in the height, (amplitude) or width (wave length) and some of the special signatures in the two types. So for me, the old adage that there is often little difference between pain and pleasure is visually real for me.

Since I believe adamantly that we’re creating our own realities, I’ve had to come to grips with the fact that I’m holding on to the back pain. Why, would I choose pain over Pleasure, or Divine Ecstasy, which to my logical mind is really dumb? The answer that I keep getting is that to come fully into my own power and access my Divinity is way too scary. My take seems to be that it's much better to stay in pain, as that’s a familiar script. If I were one of our clients, I’d say that choosing pain is not a “shame or blame thing, it’s just an “is”, so let’s heal it!” If I were one of my clients, that would be easy to do. However, when an affliction or belief is one of your own core issues, it’s often hard to release.(Which actually is a belief, so I’ll add “healing yourself is hard to do” to my extensive list of things to work on.) I know that I’ve experienced the thrill of Divine Ecstasy, which is way more intense than any Tantric practice that I’ve been shown, and know that when I’ve fully cleared my issues, I can experience that state of being 24/7. I’ve worked on my chronic pain for quite a while with the help of Mary and Ceitllyn, and have gotten its intensity, duration, and degree of incidence down to about 20% of what it used to be. However, in the middle of the night, when you’re awakened by pain, it’s often hard to concentrate on ones achievements! However, with each passing day, we move closer and closer to an answer. I know that I will be able to do so completely at some point, so stay tuned to this blog page and our web site (see below for updates).

Love to your hearts,
Nancy

http://www.renaissanceheart.com
http://www.hearthealing.net

Why Renaissance of the Heart?

By Mary Pellicer, MD

When Nancy and I began our healing practice (Ceitllyn joined us a bit later), we faced the decision of a name—what to call ourselves and our healing practice. One of the main reasons we were out on our own was that we had been called very strongly to focus on the heart as the center for our healing. Though this seems totally obvious to me now, at the time it wasn’t and much of the healing work we had been doing was much more mind centered though we did not realize it. I thought and thought about the perfect name and wrote down lists and searched out words in the dictionary and thesaurus (notice how mind-centric this approach was). Nothing seemed quite right.

Then I had a dream—one of those incredibly vivid dreams that I have had only very, very rarely. In this dream I was shown the world and each sphere of society—education, business, government, religion, family, etc. I realized that each sphere of society was full of human beings who, like me, were largely governed by their minds—that thinking, rational, logical part of our consciousness that we humans prize so highly. Thus, each sphere of our society is also in essence mind centered. What if, I was asked in my dream, what if each of these spheres of society was heart centered? What would that look like? ….And there before me the world changed.

The first thing to go was war. War is not possible if the majority of people govern their lives from a heart centered place, from a place that accepts others and forgives. Then the schools changed and the companies and corporations and the government and even the churches. If the majority of us were running our lives governed by our hearts, all of our endeavors would change. Kindness and patience and care and respect would be the order of the day and much of what plagues our institutions would vanish. Wow! And then I was given our name. What this world needs, I was told, is a renaissance of the heart—A rebirth of our heart centers as the governing force of our lives. So, we became Renaissance of the Heart, a group dedicated to doing our small part in guiding people back to their hearts, back to their centers.

This is not to say that the other parts of our consciousness, our minds and our bodies, are not important and do not have very important roles in our lives. However, within us we need a conductor of the orchestra, a leader for all the various parts of our consciousness that pull us this way and that. That is the role of our heart center, the part of us whose job it is to connect with other people and to connect with the Divine.

An interesting exercise to try: look at various situations that you find yourself in and see if you can tell if your actions are being governed by your mind your heart or your body. Notice the consequences; see if you can imagine how things would be different if you were governed in that situation from a different part of your consciousness. Next time I'll explore more about how to tell if you're in your heart. Have fun playing.

From my heart to yours,
Mary

Creating My Own Reality

There has been a lot written in many current books, media, and web sites about the concept that we are creating our own realities. It took a while for me to wrap my rational brain around that concept, as one of the main facets of my reality is chronic pain. I’d ask myself…”You mean that I’m creating the incredible physical pain that I’m in? You don’t understand! I’d do anything to get rid of this pain!” …I’d cry out. Then I’d exclaim, “You’re just blaming the victim!” and write off the “heartless” person telling me that message.
Yet I found through personal experiences time and time again that I was indeed creating my pains. If you refer back to my posting on the Triune Brain theory on August 21, 2009, you’ll find more information on the various consciousnesses in our bodies. It’s often the Body Brain or the unconscious part of us that is running the show. During research work with my partners, Mary and Ceitllyn, I’d find a core issue of mine and start working on it. All of a sudden, I would be in excruciating pain, making it very hard to concentrate on the work at hand. As we worked through the issue and healed it, or at least the part that I was able to access that day, the pain level would instantly drop.
While the pain was very real in my body, I began to realize that one or more of my consciousnesses, usually the body brain, was so terrified of what might surface, that pain was better than facing the issue at hand. Certainly not a logical response, but then this work is not about the conscious or Mind Brain part of us. The good news is that by staying with the issue and healing it, the pain does abate.
There are two good books that I’ve read recently with regard to creating chronic pain in our bodies and how to relieve it. The first, Healing Back Pain, The Mind-Body Connection, by John Sarno, is a classic on the subject of back and body pain. Sarno’s major premise if that much of our pain is due to repressed emotions, especially anger. Allow the emotion to surface, and the pain subsides. The second book is Somatics: Reawakening The Mind's Control Of Movement, Flexibility, And Health by Thomas Hanna. It's major concept is that the area which is sore has muscles that have forgotten how to relax. The constant tension in those areas pulls bones and joints out of alignment. The book has simple exercises which are a little hard to follow as the pictures aren't great, but VERY effective at releasing pain in just a few days of doing the exercises every day.
So, my take for creating a reality that is pain-free for me currently involves exercises to realign and strengthen the body, and deep inner work to heal the underlying issues that are holding much of the pain in place. I invite you to return often to this blog to see what other new discoveries we make as the Divine continues to unfold and impart knowledge to us.

Love to your hearts,
Nancy

http://www.renaissanceheart.com
http://www.hearthealing.net

What’s a nice doctor like you doing in a place like this?

By Mary Pellicer, MD

When I was eight I lived in Africa where my father worked for the Peace Corp. I was exposed to some of the health ravages that are often seen in third world countries. There were beggars with horrible deformities on the streets and Moms with babies slung on their backs—the babies had matted eyes and the flies buzzed relentlessly. I remember deciding then and there that I wanted to be a physician so I could help.

What I realize now is that was the first time I heard my calling as a healer. So I studied hard and chased my dream of becoming a physician. After my Family Practice residency, I went to work for a Farm Workers clinic in the States and sometimes saw third world type situations right here. I helped the best I could with what I had been taught.

Even though it is great for some things, I eventually grew frustrated with conventional medicine—seeing that for many of the chronic problems my patients had, I was way too far downstream to help and the tools I had learned in medical school were often just band-aids. I left the clinic and helped develop a Healthy Community program for a local hospital before being drawn into a journey through the realms of alternative healing. On that journey, I have seen many types of healing and met many different types of healing practitioners; I now know beyond a doubt that there is much more to healing then I learned in medical school.

My journey eventually brought me here, to this place in time and space we call Renaissance of the Heart. Together with Nancy and Ceitllyn, I continue on this journey into the depths of human consciousness, seeking to learn all the things about healing that my professors couldn’t teach me in medical school.

Certainly, some will think me unscientific for diving into the world of alternative healing modalities. However, I have seen and experienced too many things that the current science of conventional medicine can’t explain to stay inside the box. Since I believe that the purpose of science is to produce useful models of reality, I find the need to go exploring beyond the bounds of currently held conventional scientific knowledge. I have found many brilliant researchers and teachers to lead the way and excellent companions to make the journey fun.

What an exciting ride; why don’t you come join us?

Mary

P.S. Don’t forget to leave all preconceived notions at the door, they tend to make one queasy.

That’s Why I’m Often in Inner Conflict! – Triune Brain Theory

One of the major tenets of our healing practice, Renaissance of the Heart, is that we exist on multiple levels. This concept is known as the Triune Brain Theory.
Expanding on the work of James Papez, Dr. Paul MacLean who worked at NIH in the 1960s, called it the “triune brain model”, and associated his discoveries with the different parts of the anatomical brain. For us, the three major parts of our being are composed of the Mind, Heart, and Body consciousnesses. The Mind consciousness, or primate part of our brain, is located in our physical brain. It’s involved in understanding and uses the language of thoughts usually composed of words to get those ideas across to others. Our Heart consciousness, located in our physical heart, is part of our mammalian brain. It’s “job” is connecting with others and uses the language of emotion to convey its information. The third consciousness, our Body brain, is derived from the reptilian part of our physical brain. Its metaphysical location is in our lower belly, and has the job of maintaining our survival. This part of our consciousness communicates its concerns to us with body sensations such as headaches, body aches and pains, nausea, and limited range of motion. To complicate matters further, the Body or reptilian brain, has the rational capability of a two year old, so it wants what it wants when it wants it. NOW! Just like many two year olds, when your body consciousness isn’t heard, it ramps up the volume of the body sensations until it may be “screaming” at you with debilitating pain or other bodily afflictions to get your attention.
Notice that each of these parts of our being communicates in a different language…thoughts, emotions, or body sensations. These differing communication styles often result in our assorted brains “talking past each other” with their different languages. To complicate matters further, in western society, the language of rational thought is given priority status by many educational disciplines, with any other means of communication being demeaned. Most of us also haven’t been taught to interpret the languages of emotions and body sensations, so we’re often unaware that any information is trying to access our awareness. The result is often like dealing with a dysfunctional family within ourselves. An example would be that someone might be interested in another person who really isn’t in their best interests. The Body brain may have unconsciously associated that other person with some primitive survival need. The Heart consciousness might be trying to communicate its fears, joys, guilt, or sadness about that other person. Meanwhile, the rational Mind brain is saying to yourself that you’re crazy to be interested in that other person, so no wonder many of us wander around in inner conflict.
Learning about Triune Brain Theory and how each of these parts of our consciousness
operates was a real eye opener for me, as I had ignored my Body brain so much that it only knew how to get my attention by screaming at me. The various physical ailments that resulted from ignoring these unconscious messages led to many surgeries for myself. These procedures would alleviate my symptoms for awhile, but they’d return often in the same place where various organs had been removed, since I had not healed the issue that my Body brain had been trying to tell me.

Nancy Smeltzer

www.renaissanceheart.com
www.hearthealing.net

Paying Heed to Our Inner Voices

Each of us has a different way of getting intuitive information. Some people “see” things, while others are “told” things. Others talk about following their “gut instincts”, or something just doesn’t feel right. The English language is full of phrases such as “female intuition”, or “That leaves a bad taste in my mouth”. Often, these phrases are descriptive of various body sensations, which are usually connected with the more primitive parts of our brain.

These knowings, coupled with our body sensations and emotions, have a bountiful supply of information to convey. Unfortunately, in most western societies, we’re not taught how to interpret these body bulletins, and focus entirely on the Newtonian principles of scientific ways to know. While these methods have a wealth of data that, depending on what’s being sought, can communicate volumes, a soul dependence on that way of knowing leaves our spiritual souls bereft.

I’m talking about what starts off as those subtle nigglings that something isn’t right….I don’t like that…that doesn’t feel OK. Unfortunately for me, I very early on, learned to squelch my inner voices, so that my body could only get my attention by screaming at me with painful body sensations. As a result, after numerous surgeries and medications, I began to pay attention to those more subtle voices instead of waiting for the “clue by four” between the eyeballs…”So you gonna pay attention NOW?”

An acquaintance once asked me why people couldn’t just part ways as friends, instead of going through the painful, spiteful brawls of separation and divorce. My take is that people of good intentions, instead of listening to those inner voices early on that were telling them that the relationship wasn’t right, pile on often years of connections and then get hurt and angry when they’re not honored. My invitation to you is to cultivate an active connection with your inner voice, listen to it as your own best mentor, and quit over-riding your early warning detection system.

So, Who’s Really Doing the Healing?

So, Who’s Really Doing the Healing?

Well, that one’s easy…you are…with the help of the Divine. What Mary, Ceitllyn, and I do is act as catalysts to set events is motion. In fact, the work we do would be impossible if we didn’t have your permission on a soul or unconscious level. This unconscious part, which we call the body brain or consciousness, is often running a script that is counter to what we are aware of in our mind or conscious brain. That’s why someone might say, on the mind or conscious level, that they really want to get rid of an issue in their lives, but are never able to manage it, not matter how much time, energy, and money they spend on the effort.
So, then what are Mary, Ceitllyn and I doing that makes our work successful for our clients? For starters, we state the intention(s) that we’d like to see happen, and then turn over the actual outcome to the Divine. Since the Divine has the Big Game Plan, and knows what you really, really want in your heart of hearts, our take is why limit yourselves to anything that our little human minds could contrive. Perhaps there’s something way bigger and better waiting around the corner. So, while what is being asked for is usually what happens for the client, often times there are some amazing surprises for all of us involved in the process.
Having set the healing process in motion, we then each sit back and wait to be shown what to do next. I’ve taught myself to be clairvoyant and clairaudient, so my intuitive information is usually visual or auditory. I interpret what I’ve been given and then execute what I’ve been told. It may involve putting the client into a metaphysical chamber to receive extra energy boosts. I may be called to use my body as a crystal that collects the healing energy coming through me and flashes it out of my heart like a laser to certain parts of the client’s body. Perhaps the client’s heart center, or Sacred Heart, needs opening, as very early on in their lives, they boarded it up to protect themselves from the hurt and anger in their lives. Recently, I’ve been asked to go into a “chamber” inside of me, and just “be”. It’s quite effective, but I’ve had to surrender any need to know what I’m doing. (More to be written about this at a late time.)
The result is that my brain waves are at such a slow rate that I’m not really aware of what I’m actually doing, and often don’t remember much afterwards, except that I could kinesthetically feel waves of energy roll off the person I’m working on as their issue is cleared. It feels to me as if I had been at the beach, out where the ocean waves break, and felt the power of the water roll past me. (That’s why it’s so helpful that Mary is taking notes on the other end of the phone.) Oftentimes, all I know is that at the session’s competition, when we check back in with the client with whatever way we were tracking progress, the numbers just about always drop. It’s very gratifying to “see” an issue that has been bothering a person, sometimes for years, shrink away until finally there’s just calm, peace, and light(ness), like a backpack has been taken off of one’s shoulders. It’s very gratifying to be able to do this work for others and that’s what keeps the three of us constantly searching for more answers.

Nancy Smeltzer - 3 July, 2009