RB Book by Eve Jones Excellent

In Truth, Simplicity, and Love,
Eve Jones, Ph.D.

140 South Norton Avenue
Los Angeles, California 90004
1-(323) 461-5774
The Logic of Magical Thought and The Dance of the Breath
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER ONE
The Ideal Breath
CHAPTER TWO
The Difference Between Rebirthing and Hyperventilation
CHAPTER THREE
The Difference Between the Ideal Breath And Yogic Breathing
CHAPTER FOUR
The Difference Between Rebirthing And Primal Scream Therapy
CHAPTER FIVE
The Biology of Imprints
CHAPTER SIX
Food and Consciousness
CHAPTER SEVEN
Rebirthing and Bodywork Therapies
CHAPTER EIGHT
Rebirthing and Conventional Rsychotherapies
CHAPTER NINE
Rebirthing and Neuro-Linguistic Programming
CHAPTER 10
Affirmations
CHAPTER 11
The Parental Disapproval Syndrome
CHAPTER 12
Time, Work, and Money:
Consciousness and Abundance
CHAPTER 13
Sex and Loving Relationships
CHAPTER 14
Physical Immortality
CHAPTER 15
Ethical Consideration
CHAPTER 16
Individual Rebirths
CHAPTER 17
Group Rebirthings
CHAPTER 18
Organizing Trainings and Workshops
CHAPTER 19
The Standard Rebirth Training
CHAPTER 20
Running a Rebirth Business
CHAPTER 21
Rebirthing Organizations

INTRODUCTION
The Logic of
This book covers many topics different from Magical Thought
the ones discussed in other books already and The Dance of
written about Rebirthing. In addition, it gives the Breath
my personal views about some of the topics
these other books discuss.
INTRODUCTION
In my first few months of involvement with
Rebirthing, I studied with its innovator, Leonard CHAPTER ONE
Orr, and with such other early and famous The Ideal Breath
Rebirthers as Sondra Ray, Phil Laut, Bob
Mandel, Fred Lehrman, Bill Chapell, Bobby
Birdsell, Diane Hinterman, Lucy MacDowell, CHAPTER TWO
C.W. Light, Usha Sunshine, and Steven and The Difference
Trina Kamp. I learned lots from all of them. Between Rebirthing
And I have read all the books written by and Hyperventilation
Rebirthers, especially by Leonard Orr, Sondra
Ray, and Phil Laut. I've learned lots from all
these books, too. CHAPTER THREE
The Difference
But these other Rebirthers were very young Between the Ideal
people when I first met them, and they were all Breath And Yogic
people whose experience and training were Breathing
radically different from mine. Unlike them, I'm a
well-trained psychologist and psychotherapist,
scientist, teacher, and writer-and I'm also a CHAPTER FOUR
much older person The Difference
Between Rebirthing
However well-known and well-loved they And Primal Scream
may be, and however interesting and attractive Therapy
their ideas about Rebirthing are, most other
Rebirthers lack the formal, academic,
professional credentials that tend to CHAPTER FIVE
substantiate anyone's claims about Rebirthing. The Biology of
So skeptics, especially the huge audience of Imprints
therapists and educators, have remained
unconvinced that Rebirthing is effective and CHAPTER SIX
safe.
Food and
I want everyone who deals with human Consciousness
development to know about and to give
serious consideration to Rebirthing, to using it CHAPTER SEVEN
to heal their clients and teach to their students. Rebirthing and
Bodywork Therapies
Writing this book is an extension of that
purpose, presenting my ideas of what works
and what doesn't work in Rebirthing. I seek to CHAPTER EIGHT
answer questions and clear up confusions Rebirthing and
about Rebirthing, the logic of Positive Thought, Conventional
and the basis for effective healing. Rsychotherapies
I hope everyone reading this book will be CHAPTER NINE
as fascinated by the process that Rebirthing
initiates and sustains as I have been. Rebirthing and
Neuro-Linguistic
I want you to enjoy thinking about the Programming
connection between the breath and the spirit.
CHAPTER 10
I hope you respect my opinion enough and Affirmations
trust my judgment enough to be not only
actively curious about Rebirthing, how it works,
why it works, and what it can do, but also to be CHAPTER 11
inspired to experience and practice it yourself. The Parental
Disapproval
I came to Rebirthing after more than Syndrome
twenty-five years of practicing professional
psychology. Fortuitously, my pre-Rebirthing CHAPTER 12
scientific and professional experience in Time, Work, and
physiology and psychology is all directly
related to understanding and teaching Money:
Rebirthing, evaluating its effects, and Consciousness and
extending its theoretical base to psychological Abundance
and philosophical considerations.
CHAPTER 13
My earliest academic training in physiology Sex and Loving
and biochemistry and my teaching specialty,
physiological psychology, all enable me to deal Relationships
with questions about how Rebirthing works,
biologically. I still keep up to date in the fields CHAPTER 14
of neurophysiology and psychopharmacology Physical Immortality
on new findings about what goes on in the
body, especially the brain, when a person is
doing what we call thinking and feeling. CHAPTER 15
Ethical
So I'm in a good position to offer an Consideration
informed opinion about what's happening
biologically during Rebirthing. CHAPTER 16
Individual Rebirths
After getting a B.S. in Chemistry from the
University of Chicago and doing research in
endocrinology, I trained as a clinical CHAPTER 17
psychologist and received my Ph.D. from the Group Rebirthings
University of Chicago in 1953. As a graduate
student, I had the opportunity to be an CHAPTER 18
analysand in classical psychoanalysis for Organizing Trainings
several years. I also had the privilege of
learning from and working with several leaders and Workshops
in humanistic psychology, especially Dr. Carl
Rogers, and became well-acquainted with CHAPTER 19
client-centered, non-psychoanalytic therapy. The Standard
Rebirth Training
Immediately after receiving my doctorate, I
spent a year as Chief Psychologist at Dr.
Bruno Bettelheim's Orthogenic School, CHAPTER 20
working with psychotic children. I then did a lot Running a Rebirth
of management psychology, as well as Business
teaching at the University of Chicago for seven
years, until moving to Los Angeles where I
CHAPTER 21
practiced crisis therapy for several years. I
taught at UCLA for a year, then at Los Angeles Rebirthing
City College for twenty-six years, retiring in Organizations
June, 1992.
So I feel well able to compare Rebirthing

with other traditional psychotherapies. In 1971,
I first became involved with feeling therapy and
with body work. I worked with Dr. Arthur Janov
at the Primal Institute for a year, and then
spent the next seven years using Primal
Therapy in my private practice. I then became
involved with Rebirthing.
During these past nineteen years of being a

Rebirther, I have continued to study other
innovative forms of psychotherapy, including
Neuro Linguistic Programming, Voice
Dialogue, and Holotropic Breath Work, the
form developed by Dr. Stanislav Grof.
I have also studied and experienced many

different forms of body work, including Rolfing
(Structural Integration), Postural Integration,
Trager work, Orthobionomy, Shiatzu, and
Feldenkrais work.
So I feel well able to compare the

innovative feeling therapies as well as the New
Age bodywork therapies with Rebirthing.
I also believe my personal experience of

giving birth to my three daughters and my son
and participating in the natural births of two of
my eight grandchildren adds immensely to my
understanding of many of the forces involved
with birthing and Rebirthing.
This book deals with how birth is connected

with later life experiences in love, work,
parenting, and health. It deals extensively with
how to use affirmations, usually referred to as
Positive Thought. I have also included detailed
information on running a Rebirth business,
servicing individual clients, conducting group
Rebirths, and organizing and leading
workshops and trainings.
To make this a complete book about my

years with Rebirthing, I have included several
articles of mine that have been published,
even reprinted, before, identified as such and
located in the Appendices.
Throughout, to make the distinction

between child and mother clear, I refer to the
infant as "he." I hope this won't disturb you or
make you think I'm some kind of chauvinist-I'm
not.
I like using the Socratic method of making a

point by analogies, metaphors, and stories.
Please forgive me if I seem to be rambling-I'll
come back to the point eventually. Remember-
as I was told by a very old lady on a bus in
India- "The lesson is always Patience."
Those of you who know me know that I'm

earnest, well-intentioned, good fun, willing to
listen to an argument, and always willing to
think a new thought in order to follow
someone's argument. I'm what is called a fair-
minded person. So, please feel free to write to
me with any comments or arguments you want
to share with me. I welcome the opportunity to
examine new ideas, and I'll do my best to reply
to you.
Also, if you have any questions about

Rebirthing not covered in these pages that you
think I might be able to answer, please feel
free to write or phone me at my home address.
I look forward to hearing from you.
I hope after reading this book that you'll

answer, Yes, to the question the Beatles once
asked: "Will you still love me, will you still need
me, when I'm 64?"
Only change that to 74.
In Truth, Simplicity, and Love,

Eve Jones, Ph.D.
140 South Norton Avenue
Los Angeles, California 90004
1-(323) 461-5774

CHAPTER ONE
THE IDEAL BREATH The Logic of
Magical Thought
To me, our way of breathing is a metaphor and The Dance of
symbolizing the way we relate to reality. the Breath
Our inhales reveal how much we’re willing
to take in from the universe around us, how
much we’re open to, how effortlessly we are INTRODUCTION
open to it, and how satisfied we are when we
get what we want. CHAPTER ONE
The Ideal Breath
Our exhales reveal what we think the
universe does: Does it accept our old, stale, CHAPTER TWO
used substance? Does it reject us? Do we
have to fight to get rid of something? Dare we The Difference
Between Rebirthing
get rid of anything? and Hyperventilation
What I regard as the ideal Rebirthing breath CHAPTER THREE
metaphorically expresses some simple
thoughts: The Difference
Between the Ideal
 I can effortlessly and with great Breath And Yogic
pleasure and satisfaction receive from Breathing
the universe everything that I want.
And, I can, with no effort at all, let go CHAPTER FOUR
of anything that’s stale, that I no The Difference
longer have any use for.
Between Rebirthing
There are some simple rules about
And Primal Scream
obtaining satisfaction from the breath: Therapy
Any breath that is quick is unlikely to be CHAPTER FIVE

satisfying. The Biology of
Imprints
Any breath that is shallow is unlikely to be
satisfying.
CHAPTER SIX
Any breath that is furtive, especially a
Food and
breath where the in and the out breath are very Consciousness
short and shallow, with a long pause between
them, is unlikely to be satisfying, nourishing. CHAPTER SEVEN
Rebirthing and
So the ideal breath is slowly drawn, is Bodywork Therapies
deep, and is conscious and connected.
CHAPTER EIGHT
 I am alive as I breathe, and the
more I breathe in a conscious
Rebirthing and
connected fashion, the more fully alive Conventional
I am. Psychotherapies
If I, indeed, spend a great deal of time not CHAPTER NINE

breathing, instead staying still between my in Rebirthing and
and out breath or between my out and in
breath, then during all that time what am I
Neuro-Linguistic
doing? Am I living fully? I don’t think so. Programming
Instead, I’m probably consolidating some CHAPTER 10

old stale thoughts and feelings of anxiety or Affirmations
dread or rage or pain or any of the other
negative feelings which so often intervene
between our in and out breath. I may be
CHAPTER 11
yearning for a repetition of something I The Parental
previously enjoyed, wasting time in idle revery. Disapproval
But, whatever it is that I’m doing, I’m not living Syndrome
in the Now, in the moment. In a sense, I’m not
actually living—I’m just re-living old events.
CHAPTER 12
When I connect the in and out breath and
Time, Work, and
make certain that I’m either breathing in or out, Money:
Consciousness and
I am, instead, living in the moment, Right Now, Abundance
and I can bring to bear in my dealings with
reality all that is Right Now within me.
CHAPTER 13
If I don’t make my inhales consciously deep Sex and Loving
and satisfying. I"m not living in the Now. I’m Relationships
operating instead with some old mistaken
ideas about being satisfied. CHAPTER 14
I must stay conscious of the depth of
inspiration, the degree of satisfaction felt with
each inhale. CHAPTER 15
Ethical
I may need to make an effort, at first, to Consideration
take in as much as I can, to stretch for the
sensation of satisfaction, of fullness, of CHAPTER 16
completion, with each inhale. To open my Individual Rebirths
inhale, I sometimes start thinking of my inhales
as yawns, as full, deep, slow, gentle, satisfying
yawning breaths, because when I yawn, CHAPTER 17
there’s an instant when I have taken in enough Group Rebirthings
air and I know I’m satisfied.
CHAPTER 18
My reason for stressing satisfaction with Organizing Trainings
each inhale is that I see the inhale as a perfect
symbolic representation of how we receive and Workshops
from the universe.
CHAPTER 19
I want to get what I want to get. I want to The Standard
get it now. I want to get as much of it as I can Rebirth Training
get or at least as much of it as I want until I’m
satisfied that I’ve gotten enough.
CHAPTER 20
I manifest that reality in my life by Running a Rebirth
demonstrating that relationship in my Business
breathing. I breathe in a fashion that allows me
to be satisfied, allows me to get all I want, CHAPTER 21
allows me to receive all that’s available. I don’t Rebirthing
resist accepting and receiving.
Organizations
Another important quality of the perfect,
satisfying breath, in addition to depth and ease
of respiration, is the matter of where in the
lungs the air is being placed.
Most men breathe abdominally. When I

watch men sitting and doing something, I
usually notice their bellies going in and out
while their chests and their shoulders
essentially remain unmoving.
By the same token, if I watch women sitting

and working quietly, generally I’ll notice that
the breath is placed in the bodice, the area
between the nipples and the waist, and that
the ribs are doing a lot of work, as is the
diaphragm. But the shoulders aren’t moving
very much and the upper chest isn’t filling.
Apparently, most of us hold on to our old

negatives in the top portions of our chest,
where they not only depress respiration, but
they even interfere with the free movement of
our heart as it’s pumping and circulating.
I suggest to my Rebirthees, "Make a real

effort, focus consciously on bringing the breath
up into the areas of your chest above your
nipples, into the top third of the chest."
As we make an effort to take the breath up

into the top part of the chest, we’re actually
changing the conditions that surround the
heart. There are many important physiological
reflexes that allow the heart to fill with more
blood and make a stronger beat when the
lungs are inflated fully. It’s as if by opening the
ribcage to get more air into the alveoli, we are
also opening a little extra space for the heart to
fill into. Such statements as, "My heart soared
like a lion," or "I felt my heart jump for joy,"
describe this sensation.
It’s truly important to promote such

sensations by bringing the inhale up into
the top third of the lungs. Such full breaths
and heart action are the way we mediate
and feel love and forgiveness.
I want to feel full of love. I want to love

everyone around me, and I want everyone
around me to love me. I want to know love, to
receive it, and feel it, without barriers.
When I do feel like that, I have a sensation

of fullness in my chest. That satisfaction is
connected with breathing deeply so that
cardiac function is improved. When my heart is
filled, I am satisfied.
Many people find that placing the inhale

high into the top third of the lungs is, indeed,
an effort, a strain, and initially they dislike it.
But after a few sessions of practicing inhaling
in a full, gentle, slow, satisfying manner and
making certain to bring the inhale into the top
third of the lungs, not just down into the belly
or into the bodice, most people find such
inhales not only easy to do, but desirable.
They find themselves enjoying taking a full
breath, filling more of their lung space than
they’ve filled, probably, since they were born.
A fourth aspect of the inhale that I stress is

slowness and gentleness. Muscles that are not
practiced, that aren’t moved very often are
generally relatively weak muscles and tend not
to respond very promptly.
When I breathe in quickly, I’m not able to

take as much air up into the top third of my
lungs as I can when I simply take more time on
the inhale. My intercostal muscles, the
muscles that attach one rib to the next rib (the
meat that people eat when they buy ribs at a
barbecue), can’t respond promptly or work
very hard if I inhale rapidly. Unless I give my
intercostals time to respond fully, which they
do only during a slow inhale, the fullness of my
inhale itself is diminished.
In addition to these characteristics of the

ideal inhale, there are several important
dimensions of the exhale.
The qualities that mark the ideal exhale are

effortlessness and satisfaction. Just as I don’t
want to struggle to get what I want, I don’t want
to struggle to get rid of any stale, used,
outmoded thoughts and feelings. I want to let
such old negative stuff go just as quickly as I
can. It’s no longer of use. I want the exhale to
demonstrate that. I want the exhale to be
effortless, I don’t want it to be forced.
As discussed in greater detail in the chapter

on Rebirthing and Hyperventilation, I don’t
want my Rebirthees to push on their exhale
because they may promote the state of
hyperventilation with its sequels of
restlessness, dizziness, and anxiety, and,
ultimately, of tetany and spasm and pain
and numbness. None of that discomfort is
necessary to produce the good effects of
Rebirthing.
So, I ask people that I’m Rebirthing simply

to let go enough old air so that they feel that
they have room to take in some new air, not
making an effort to empty themselves at all,
not pushing the exhale until the lungs are
collapsed and empty.
People who push past the level of the

residual, tidal volume of air that’s normally left
in the lungs, who squeeze themselves to get
the last of their old breath out, very often are
people who feel that they must have nothing
before they can go for something more. They
need that goad of anxiety, of panic, before they
are prompted to go for more.
When I watch people who persist in
collapsing their lungs with each exhale, I’m
reminded of the kind of person who waits until
he’s absolutely starving before he thinks about
getting something to eat, or the person who
doesn’t save anything, but spends whatever
funds he has, and never has anything at all to
fall back on, no emergency funds. Another kind
of crisis personality is the person who waits
until the last moment to start working on a
project, who only feels capable of handling it if
he waits until the last moment.
People like that reveal that same kind of

characteristic pattern when it comes to their
breathing. They empty themselves. They sigh
long, long sighs, until there’s nothing left, and
then they wait empty like that, until they finally
frantically must gasp in their new inhale.
I don’t want people to live in a state of

constant anxiety lest they fail to survive, so
that they’re almost on the brink of death before
each inhale, having nothing to rely on, no
resources, because they’ve pushed it all out.
By making the exhale ideal, by showing the

universe that I’m willing to let go of anything
that I’ve already had because I’ve already and
had it, I know there’s more, I’m demonstrating
what I regard as an abundance
consciousness, as well as what I call a safety
consciousness:
 The Universe exists to support

me.
Anything that I want to let go of can be

accepted by the Universe and will ultimately be
recreated into something new and good. This
is the symbolic image of the Hindu Lord, Shiva,
who is the Great Destroyer of all form, who
takes whatever was and turns it back into
perfection, recycling it to the Hindu God,
Brahman, the Creator of all things.
Another breathing pattern that reveals

negative thought is guarding the exhale. How
can I show that I really believe that the
Universe is out there to accept me, to receive
me, to support me, if I’m even afraid of letting
go my exhale? Sometimes I watch people
who, instead of laughing openly, put their
hands across their mouths and titter into their
hands as if they would offend the very air
around them by opening their mouths and
laughing openly. I often see people do the
same with their tears. And I see people do the
same thing with their voices—holding back
everything that comes out as if it would offend
someone. Many times I’ve watched people
with colds who, breathing through their
mouths, keep their lips barely parted, so that
they’re straining each little bit of air through a
tiny hole between their parted lips, as if there
were something uncouth and vulgar and
wrong, maybe even sinful and immoral, about
breathing through their mouths.
When I have a patient who’s breathing like

that, sometimes I’ve challenged, "How come, if
your nose is so plugged up with your cold, you
just don’t let your jaw hang slack and breathe
freely in and out through your mouth?"
Usually the reply is some silly response

like, "I’m afraid that I’ll attract the flies."
But of course that’s not true, and they know

it’s not true. They are actually manifesting with
every exhale their fear that someone is going
to chastise them for letting go, for making too
much noise, for calling attention to themselves
with their breath or their voice, or indeed even
with their tears.
Sometimes I see people who are unusually

thin, who have no breadth to their skeletal
structure, who seem to be walking around with
chests the size of a 10-year-old child, who look
as if their shoulder girdles simply didn’t
develop and enlarge when they went into
puberty. Many of these people take what I call
"bird breaths," tiny little gasps for the inhale,
followed by furtive little exhales, and then an
extremely long pause.
Such people combine all the worst features

of the crisis individual with those of the I-am-
not-entitled-to-get-enough individual. They
don’t get much and they don’t get the little they
do get very often. Their lives generally reveal
that attitude: Most often these are the people
who come to me with the compliant that they’re
tired of not getting anything out of life. When I
ask them what do they get, I find them saying
that eating and sex and other physical
pleasures aren’t very important to them.
So, much as you would luxuriate in

taking a slow, leisurely, full yawn, show the
Universe by your deep, full, satisfied
inhales that you’re really open to getting as
much as you want.
And show the Universe by your effortless,

careless exhales that you trust it, you know it’s
out there supporting you, ready to receive
whatever you let go and throw away, knowing
that you have never wanted to harm anyone or
offend in any way. Stale, used stuff needs to
be let go of, and you know the Universe
understands that and doesn’t blame you for it.
Another one of the old causes of the type of

constrained, depressed breathing that is static
and unsatisfying is the fear of being offensive.
It may well be that people who exhale furtively
were often criticized, especially when they
were being diapered or crying loudly. Maybe
they have concluded that anything coming out
of their body will offend people they need
approval from. Maybe they are afraid of having
breath that smells bad. These may be people
who flush the toilet or run the water faucet as
they’re using the toilet so that no one outside
of the toileting space will be bothered by the
sound of their toileting activities. They’ve
learned to hold back, including holding back
their exhales.
When I notice bad breath, I say so, matter

of factly. I ask if the person has something
wrong with his teeth or tonsils or sinuses. If
not, I point out that the major reason people
smell bad is because they’re eating dead
animals. The cure for offensive breath and for
offensive bowel movements is to eat a diet that
is mostly fresh fruit and vegetables, raw nuts
and seeds. Herbivores have sweet breath.
Anyone who’s been downwind from a cow
knows how sweet the hay smell from the cow’s
mouth is. And anyone who’s been around
rabbits or any other herbivores knows that, by
and large, their feces and urine are not at all
as bad smelling as the waste products from
carnivores, cats and dogs, for example. So I
suggest a person with smelly body emanations
switch to the diet that the Diamonds called "Fit
for Life," a diet which is essentially 80-85
percent raw fruit, vegetables, nuts, and seeds.
The ideal Rebirthing breath combines

relaxation with satisfaction. It’s like the
behavior of an infant when he has taken
enough milk: he takes an almost convulsive
inhale, almost shuddering a little on the exhale,
and then generally lets the muscles of his neck
relax so that his head nods down on his chest
or against the shoulder or arms of whoever’s
holding him.
We are inherently rhythmic creatures. We

became accustomed to rhythmic stimulation
when we were in the womb. The pattern of our
mother’s breathing, the pattern of her
heartbeat, the pattern of her pelvis moving
forward and back with each step when she
walked—all of these provided us our first
understanding of rhythmic stimulation. Hearing
our own heartbeat and paying attention to our
own respiration confirm our basic
understanding that there is a rhythm in the
universe, a tide to all things.
When I’m teaching the ideal breath to

people who’ve had musical training or who are
into dancing, I ask them to discard and put out
of mind any thought that the good Rebirthing
breath is a militant breath, like a march, with
four beats to a measure and each breath, in or
out, taking one beat. Living is not a military
exercise—it is, instead, rapturous rejoicing and
acceptance.
So, I ask my Rebirthee to conjure up the

mental image of birds soaring, pulling down on
a strong power beat and then gliding as they
recover.
I ask him to think about how the waves roll

up on the shore, approaching for a couple of
beats and then receding amazingly quickly.
I ask him to think of breathing in a waltz

rhythm, with the inhale taking two beats,
and the exhale, one beat, so it’s in, in, out,
in, in, out. After that’s mastered, I usually
suggest he go to a 6/8 rhythm, breathing in
to five counts and breathing out for one
count, so it’s in, in, in, in, in, out, in, in, in,
in, in, out.
When my Rebirthee has mastered the 3/4

waltz rhythm or the 6/8 rhythm, there is no
longer any likelihood of pushing on the exhale
and hyperventilating. There is luxury and
satisfaction in inhaling, and the exhale is an
effortless dropping away of old stale air.
I acknowledge that everyone who breathes

in the conscious connected fashion, whatever
the rhythm or amplitude, does achieve
Rebirthing.
However, in the years that I’ve witnessed

people Rebirthing, I have seen many people
who are still struggling with the same problems
that they spoke of nineteen years ago,
although they say that their lives have changed
considerably and that they’re significantly
happier now that they’ve been into Rebirthing.
How come? Isn’t Rebirthing working?
My answer is, If you’re not getting what you

want, if you’re still complaining about the same
things you were complaining about before you
started Rebirthing, then you probably are not
breathing correctly. You need to change your
breathing. You need to let go old negatives so
you regain your power. Then you can create
for yourself the life that you consciously desire.
You need to change especially from the
effortful huffing and puffing that I see even
many famous Rebirthers practice to the kind of
breathing that I’ve been talking about in this
chapter. I see it work. I don’t see the struggling
breath work as well.
So, in summary, the two parts of the

breath, the in and the out breath, need to be
connected so that you are as alive as
possible. They need to be effortless and
unforced, so that you are not pushing
beyond normal limits and are not provoking
the state of hyperventilation. The breaths
need to be slow and gentle, so that your
relatively unresponsive, untutored
intercostal muscles have sufficient time to
respond. And the Rebirthing breath needs
to be brought up into the top third of the
chest, both to open up previously unused
alveoli and also to permit the sensation of
the heart filling more fully. NO PAUSES NO
HOLDINGS!!
Try it, teach it to your clients, practice it

yourselves, see if I’m not right.

CHAPTER TWO
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN The Logic of
Magical Thought
REBIRTHING AND and The Dance of
HYPERVENTILATION the Breath
Many people, hearing that Rebirthing is a

breathing technique, incorrectly assume that it INTRODUCTION
is a revival of the practice of hyperventilation
which enjoyed a brief vogue many years ago in
psychotherapeutic circles. So, I want to draw CHAPTER ONE
attention to the significant differences between The Ideal Breath
Rebirthing and hyperventilating and to set at
rest any apprehensions about Rebirthing which CHAPTER TWO
may result from confusing it with
hyperventilation. The Difference
Between Rebirthing
Remember-as described in Chapter One- And Hyperventilation
Rebirthing is a breathing exercise which
keeps the inhale and exhale connected, CHAPTER THREE
without any pauses or holdings. I ask my The Difference
Rebirthee to "pull on the inhale and let go
with a sigh." The inhale is to be as full and Between The Ideal
deep and high in the chest and as gentle as Breath And Yogic
possible, with continuing consciousness of Breathing
taking it in. And the exhale is to be simply
the short burst of released breath which CHAPTER FOUR
results as the intercostal muscles that
raised the rib cage are relaxed and the The Difference
diaphragm is allowed to snap back up, Between Rebirthing
pushing the short exhale out. And Primal Scream
Therapy
Essentially, no matter how long and full
and deep the inhale is, the exhale is almost CHAPTER FIVE
always a very short, unforced, uncontrolled
release of just enough air so that the next The Biology of
inhale can be pulled in. Imprints
After breathing in this connected manner CHAPTER SIX

for approximately an hour, the typical new Food and
Rebirthee finds his consciousness leaving Consciousness
the focus of his breathing pattern to move
instead to reviewing-almost re-
experiencing-former events in his CHAPTER SEVEN
individual past-often ones which involved Rebirthing and
negative thoughts and feelings. Bodywork Therapies
I encourage my Rebirthee to continue the CHAPTER EIGHT
good Rebirthing breathing pattern, not to
push on the exhale. As the Rebirthee Rebirthing and
complies, he experiences having the old Conventional
negatives dissolve and disappear, just as the Psychotherapies
exhale does. He also finds his mind open to
new conclusions about the same old events,
CHAPTER NINE
so that he takes in new, good ideas, just as he
takes in the inhale. He finds life more satisfying Rebirthing and
as he takes fuller inhales, too. Neuro-Linguistic
Programming
Thousands of perfect Rebirths have been
conducted without the Rebirthee's getting into CHAPTER 10
hyperventilation, which is the consequence of Affirmations
an entirely different breathing pattern.
CHAPTER 11
Hyperventilation occurs when the person
chronically forces his exhale, so that he The Parental
blows off excessive amounts of carbon Disapproval
dioxide. People who might be afraid of their Syndrome
old feelings and thoughts often seek to
push on the exhale, as if they were ridding CHAPTER 12
themselves of something bad. This alters
the acid-base balance in the blood stream. Time, Work, and
In turn, the acid-base balance in the blood Money:
stream adjusts by changing the Consciousness and
concentration of calcium ion in the blood. If Abundance
the person continues to force the exhale, a
condition known as alkalosis develops,
characterized by muscular tremor. CHAPTER 13
Eventually, the biochemical adjustments Sex and Loving
create spasm, called tetany, which often Relationships
progresses to the point of producing
intense pain in the strained joints and CHAPTER 14
muscles.
Tetany also produces intense panic
because the person feels breathless. And, CHAPTER 15
indeed he is breathless, for the forced Ethical
exhales have lowered the concentration of Consideration
carbon dioxide in the blood reaching the
special center in the brain stem which is
known as the inspiration center. This CHAPTER 16
center only triggers off the next inspiration Individual Rebirths
automatically when the partial pressure of
carbon dioxide in the blood (the pCO2) goes CHAPTER 17
above the threshold for stimulation.
Group Rebirthings
It takes even more time than usual for CO2 to
accumulate to threshold levels if the person CHAPTER 18
has previously been blowing off excessive Organizing Trainings
amounts of CO2. If, during the breathless time, and Workshops
the person reacts to his panic by straining to
inhale, he experiences it as short and
CHAPTER 19
unsatisfying, for, of course, his body doesn't
yet "think" it really "needs" that next inhale. The Standard
And that's likely to compound his panic, for he Rebirth Training
now concludes that he can't breathe!
CHAPTER 20
Often, a person in such difficulties is rushed to Running a Rebirth
a hospital where he is usually treated by being
Business
taught to breathe into a closed container, for
example, a paper bag or his cupped hands. As
he breathes stale air that already has a high CHAPTER 21
partial pressure of CO2, his respiratory center Rebirthing
becomes properly stimulated, he stops being Organizations
breathless, his panic passes, and he's over the
"attack"-until the next time he re-creates the
same situation by his habitual forcible exhales.
In the Rebirthing session, a Rebirthee who

responds to old negative feelings and thoughts
by putting additional emphasis on his exhales
is reminded by me to resume the Rebirthing
breathing pattern in which the exhale is not
forced. (Specific techniques for changing the
exhale are described in detail in Chapter
Seventeen.) Sometimes the Rebirthee doesn't
respond to my urging, so he produces the
hyperventilation syndrome in the midst of
his Rebirth session. When that happens, he
is not treated by being told to breathe stale
air or to hold his breath. Instead, he is
encouraged to trust his breath, to
surrender to his knowledge that breathing
is safe. And as he does so, he finds the old
fears and tensions leaving and the painful,
frightening spasms relax completely.
In effect, Rebirthers have discovered an

entirely new treatment for the hyperventilation
syndrome: Breathing! The previously
anxious individual who customarily reacted
to increased anxiety by pushing on the
exhale until he caused the appearance of
the hyperventilation syndrome now, after
Rebirthing, breathes deeply on the inhales,
especially when he's stressed, and lets the
exhales go without any effort. Rebirthing
eliminates the breathing pattern that produced
hyperventilation.
It's true that Rebirthing does involve breathing

more than was customary before Rebirthing,
simply because the Rebirthing individual is
actually breathing either in or out all the time.
That usually isn't true for someone who hasn't
learned the Rebirthing pattern of breathing.
Instead, the average un-Rebirthed person
spends less time breathing (total time for the
inhale plus total time for the exhale) than he
does holding at the end of the inhale plus
pausing again at the end of the exhale. Most
people breathe in by gasping and breathe out
by pushing the exhale, after which there's
another long pause.
So, Rebirthing is a way of breathing that

produces ventilation all the time. It's "super"
ventilation-not to be confused with
hyperventilation.
By pointing out these differences, I have

reduced doubt and reluctance to experience
Rebirthing. It is safe and is usually painless
and enjoyable. It doesn't necessarily involve
hyperventilation at all. Moreover, it's a
remarkably effective technique for letting go all
sorts of old negatives, including the ones from
our births that have, themselves, been
distorting the natural healing rhythm of the
breath.
I believe that breathing is living and that the

more fully and freely I breathe, the more fully
and freely I live. I wholeheartedly recommend
Rebirthing because it teaches us how to
breathe truly fully and freely. As we let go all
the old negatives, we exist more fully and
freely in the Here and Now, living Truth,
Peace, Simplicity, and Love.

CHAPTER THREE
THE IDEAL BREATH AND Magical Thought
YOGIC BREATHING and The Dance of
(PRANAYAMA) the Breath
In the past eighteen years, traveling

around and doing lots of Rebirth trainings and INTRODUCTION
seminars as well as even more individual
sessions, I have become more and more clear
in my mind about the effectiveness of CHAPTER ONE
surrender to the Rebirthing breath, compared The Ideal Breath
to drifting off into different-though similar-
methods of psychological or spiritual healing
CHAPTER TWO
involving the breath.
The Difference
The Vedas, the ancient texts of early Between Rebirthing
Yoga, are said to refer to the "simplest breath", And Hyperventilation
which is stated to confer "physical immortality"
on those who practice it. Many Rebirthers CHAPTER THREE
have assumed the Rebirthing breath is what is
The Difference
being referred to, and have mistakenly
concluded that, when they engage in the Between The Ideal
conscious connected breath of Rebirthing, they Breath And Yogic
are actually engaged in Pranayama, the Breathing
breathing techniques developed through
countless centuries of Yoga.
CHAPTER FOUR
The Difference
But, the breath of Rebirthing is Between Rebirthing
unique and is not at all like the controlled And Primal Scream
breathing rhythms of Pranayama.
Therapy
Significant differences exist, especially
in aim and also in symbolic values. CHAPTER FIVE
The Biology of
The aim of Yogic breathing is to Imprints
devote consciousness to the breath so that
as the person progresses through fixed CHAPTER SIX
attention (dharana) and through
contemplation of the breath (dhyana), he Food and
can finally achieve complete concentration Consciousness
on his breath (samadhi). As he achieves
total identification of his consciousness with his CHAPTER SEVEN
breath and enters samadhi, he is in union Rebirthing and
(Yoga) with Universal Spirit (Brahma).
Bodywork Therapies
Yoga breathing disciplines usually
involve measured breathing rhythms: The CHAPTER EIGHT
inhale is taken for a given number of beats, Rebirthing and
then the breath is held for a measured number Conventional
of beats, then the exhale is released to a Psychotherapies
specific count, followed by another hold for
another number of beats. This cycle is
repeated over and over until attention is totally CHAPTER NINE
withdrawn from the surroundings and from the Rebirthing and
internal condition of the Yogi. The exhale is Neuro-Linguistic
generally pushed, so the lungs are Programming
deliberately and consciously pressed to
near emptiness. As the Yogi becomes better
able to do so, he may consciously alter the CHAPTER 10
amplitude of the inhale and may also speed up Affirmations
or slow down the frequency with which breaths
are drawn. Thus, for example, one exercise is CHAPTER 11
to cut the time taken for a given number of
breath cycles in half for another such number The Parental
of cycles and then in half again, and again, Disapproval
until the breath is drawn so quickly and so Syndrome
shallowly that there is no perceptible breath at
all.
CHAPTER 12
Time, Work, and
Some Pranayama exercises are
calculated to evoke specific negative emotions Money:
and associated memories, with the aim of Consciousness and
releasing these through "appropriate" Abundance
behavior. Thus, for example, Rajneesh
advised devotees to breathe the rapid, forced
CHAPTER 13
pattern called the Breath of Fire, evoking rage
and frustration that can then be "released" by Sex and Loving
screaming or weeping. Relationships
Eventually, the Yogi proves his control CHAPTER 14

over himself (Mastery) by being able to Physical Immortality
produce all sorts of measured breathing
patterns, each differing in amplitude and
frequency, without any interruption from CHAPTER 15
Ethical
emotion, thought, or body sensation. Consideration
Yogic breathing is aimed at mastery CHAPTER 16
and control. It is an exercise in Self discipline.
Individual Rebirths
To me, instructors in Yoga sometimes
sound like drum majors, calling out the CHAPTER 17
changes in the breath to an obedient student Group Rebirthings
who promptly changes his breathing patterns
as ordered. CHAPTER 18
Organizing Trainings
As I experience it, Yogic breathing
is complicated and unnatural in its pauses and Workshops
and in its measured breath excursions.
CHAPTER 19
Thus Pranayama stands in total The Standard
opposition to the breath of Rebirthing Rebirth Training
which is the natural surrender to the
breath, and the assignment to the breath of
the task of throwing out old garbage. CHAPTER 20
Running a Rebirth
This is especially apparent when the Business
exhale is examined. Once the nerve signals
causing inspiration stop, tension is no longer CHAPTER 21
produced by the intercostal muscles which Rebirthing
raise and spread the ribs or by the diaphragm
as it contracts down into the abdomen. At that Organizations
point, the exhale starts.
The Rebirthing exhale is simply the

consequences of the increased pressure on
the inflated lungs produced by the collapse of
the ribs and the snapping back of the
diaphragm when the inspiration stops. There
is no forcing of the exhale nor is there any
slowing down or control of the exhaled air
stream. The Rebirthing exhale is almost
purely a consequence of the reduction in lung
space as the ribs and diaphragm let go and
collapse the chest.
The Rebirthing exhale can thereby be

seen to conform to the laws of material nature.
The natural reaction of something which isn't
supported is for it to drop-as Newton showed
us with his apple. As the ribs drop and the
diaphragm snaps back, there is no longer a
vacuum created in the chest into which the
lungs are drawn as they inflate. Therefore,
they deflate. Nothing simpler or more natural.
Whether the lungs are fully inflated or

not, the ribs and diaphragm collapse at
essentially the same rate, as Galileo showed
us. So most unguarded exhales are about the
same length. The exhale is usually a very
quickly accomplished matter, as the lungs
push the exhaled breath through the open
throat which offers almost no resistance.
The inhale, at least in the beginning of

Rebirthing, may seem less simple and natural-
but only because of the influence of old belief
systems which may influence the Rebirthing
individual to take less than a full breath. If
such belief systems are not operating, the
Rebirther breathes in fully and freely and
deeply and gently, very naturally.
The Rebirthing breath is an adventure

in surrender to what is simple, spontaneous,
and natural-more like natural childbirth than a
C-section by appointment. It is not a
Pranayama exercise, even though
Herakhan Baba is said to have called
Rebirthing "the highest form of Kriya
Yoga".

CHAPTER FOUR
REBIRTHING AND PRIMAL Magical Thought
SCREAM THERAPY and The Dance of
the Breath
In a sense, Rebirthing is saying the
same thing as Primal. They're both saying we
need to get back to our earliest imprints. But, INTRODUCTION
Rebirthing rests on the metaphysical assertion:
Thought creates. Primal regards that assertion
as nonsense. CHAPTER ONE
Rebirthing is saying we go back to birth The Ideal Breath
imprints so that we can see if our imprints still
serve us in the Here and Now. If they don't,
CHAPTER TWO
we can and must change our minds about
them and let go old pain so we can think The Difference
positive thoughts and thus create the positive Between Rebirthing
life we strive to realize. And Hyperventilation
It's really rather foolish to believe that
your earliest thoughts are your best
CHAPTER THREE
thoughts, especially if you suffered the The Difference
typical Western hospital birth. To the extent Between The Ideal
that you have your life being dictated to by
unconscious, birth-related, negative thoughts Breath And Yogic
that you arrived at when you were younger, Breathing
dumber, less aware, and more ignorant than
you ever will be in your entire life since then, CHAPTER FOUR
you will probably continually create negatives. The Difference
Thought is both conscious and
unconscious. Both kinds of thought, Between Rebirthing
conscious and unconscious, are Creative. And Primal Scream
But, most unconscious Thought has Therapy
strong negatives associated with it,
otherwise we wouldn't be so anxious to CHAPTER FIVE
keep it out of our consciousness. And that
negative unconscious Thought creates The Biology of
negative manifestations in our life. As we Imprints
further react negatively to those negatives our
unconscious Thought has created, we CHAPTER SIX
perpetuate our grievances. Then we react Food and
further and thus create more negatives. It's a
negative, self-perpetuating cycle. I believe the Consciousness
reason life doesn't work perfectly for most
people is simply that so much negative thought CHAPTER SEVEN
persists in the Unconscious. Rebirthing and
When I first met Leonard Orr, back in 1978, Bodywork Therapies
he told me he believed former Primal patients
were the hardest people to Rebirth because
they generally preferred to go into the CHAPTER EIGHT
melodrama of whatever was being brought up Rebirthing and
in them by their connected breathing-crying, Conventional
yelling, and forcing out their exhales-rather
Psychotherapies
than continuing with the connected breathing
that could simply and effectively allow them to
let go the old negatives underlying their old CHAPTER NINE
pains. Rebirthing and
Since then, I've learned that Leonard's point Neuro-Linguistic
of view was essentially correct: People,
Programming
especially former Primal patients, who insist on
"expressing negatives" by "carrying on" during
the Rebirth are actually cheating themselves of CHAPTER 10
the relief available if only they would trust the Affirmations
breath to let go their old negatives.
Why don't they?
I think it's because pain is safe for them.
CHAPTER 11
They trust themselves to suffer. It's part of The Parental
what they believe keeps them alive. Their Disapproval
willingness to suffer shows they're still stuck in Syndrome
their birth negatives.
Occasionally, I still run into old Primal CHAPTER 12
patients, some who were at the Primal Institute
as long as back in 1971 when I first started
Time, Work, and
working with Art Janov, who are still trying Money:
to make their lives work better by feeling Consciousness and
their old negative feelings. They still Abundance
haven't gotten what they wanted, but they
are convinced they will, once they suffer
enough.
CHAPTER 13
Sex and Loving
Only a week before I wrote this chapter, a Relationships
fellow who has been a Primal patient for
almost a full decade cheerfully announced to
me, "Well, I only need to get into my feelings CHAPTER 14
and feel really bad for two days of the week, Physical Immortality
then I have five days when I'm not into feelings
and when my life is going along pretty well." CHAPTER 15
I find that strange. Isn't he really still Ethical
unhappy during the five days of the week he's
enabled to deny the reality of his innermost Consideration
feelings by virtue of venting them two days of
the week? CHAPTER 16
If Primaling isn't letting him let go of the old Individual Rebirths
negatives, what is it accomplishing? On a
psychological level, it seems to be just a
displaced expression and catharsis with no CHAPTER 17
fundamental healing really taking place, the Group Rebirthings
equivalent of someone's going out and
drinking and getting into a bar fight and beating CHAPTER 18
the living hell out of somebody he doesn't
know.
Many students have asked me, "Well, if and Workshops
what's important is getting back into the peri-
natal state that we were in when we CHAPTER 19
established our basic belief systems, doesn't The Standard
that mean that something like a Primal Scream Rebirth Training
approach is more likely to work than just this
Rebirthing breathing? Also, shouldn't we try
to recreate womb conditions so we can more CHAPTER 20
easily re-experience our Birth Primal?" Running a Rebirth
My reply is that duplicating the setting and Business
action is just melodrama it doesn't put you in
the same physiological state you were in when
you formed your basic imprints. Thus it
CHAPTER 21
doesn't make you fully conscious of them and Rebirthing
in a position to revise them. Organizations
So, for example, if you confine yourself in a
small dark place where you become restless
and frantic, you are still not back in the
consciousness you experienced in the womb.
Even if you deliberately choke yourself, you
are not back at the state of consciousness you
were in before taking your first breath.
And even if you convince your mind that
you are re-experiencing old events, you are
still only focusing on whatever you believe was
wrong when you were in the womb or taking
your first breath. Thus, if Thought Creates,
you aren't doing yourself much good.
I have many questions I want to ask of
those people who believe that it's necessary to
be miserable in order to arrive somehow or
other at a state of peace and contentment and
joy.
* Has it worked?
* Aside from the time you've spent
crying and screaming about your grievances,
has your life changed?
* Are you getting what you want?
* Are you the kind of person you want to
be?
* How long will you continue to make
yourself miserable about these old
grievances?
* When you don't think about them, are
your old pains still hurting you?
* Does feeling your pain over and over
serve you?
* Do you come out from the pained
state with a lasting attitude of increased love
and forgiveness and joy?
* Are you really getting over old pain?
Why should anyone believe the Mind heals

differently from the Body?
Sincerely, I believe the Primal process
involves getting so bored with one old
grievance that you finally turn your back on it
and find something else to make yourself
miserable over, like a child with two scabs, one
on each knee, who after a while, gets tired of
picking on one and starts picking on the other
leg.
Picking at a scab doesn't improve healing.
In fact, it delays it. We all know that. You
don't keep pulling apart a wound each day to
find out if it's healing. You don't pull out the
stitches on a surgical incision and open up the
cut to make it heal faster. The best thing to do
is to keep the severed flesh in contact with
itself and to keep it clean. It will heal itself.
Healing is a constant capacity of all of our
cells, of our entire being. If we get out of the
way and let healing go to work, it works, and it
works very quickly.
By "get out of the way," in connection with
psychological disease, I mean if we don't
produce within us the negative reactions like
rage, resentment, and resistance, that mitigate
against healing reactions.
Certain desires characterize everyone I
have ever known, including everybody who
was a patient in psychoanalysis when that
filled my life for 25 years or who was a patient
in Primal Therapy when that filled my life for 7
2 years:
* Everyone I knew wanted to get more
fun out of life.
* They wanted to get what they wanted
to get.
* They wanted to stop feeling rotten.
* They wanted to be able to have
happy, spontaneous relationships.
They did not want to understand why they
were neurotic. They didn't want to understand
how being neurotic served other neurotic aims
inside of themselves. They certainly didn't
want to learn how to compromise, how to put
up with disappointment and with half a
measure, instead of a full measure.
Unfortunately, the best they got, most of the
time, was indeed only a half measure. In all
those years, I never knew a single person-
either analyst or Primal Therapist or patient-
who was getting what each wanted out of life.
Essentially what I saw them leading
were lives of compromise and resignation.
They rightly believed such lives were indeed
better than lives filled with negatives crucially
felt, but their lives still weren't what they
wanted. Everyone was really super "mature"
in saying, "Well, you can't expect to get what
you want out of life. You can't expect
everyone to love you. You can't expect to get
something without having to pay more than it's
worth for it."
The theory of Primal work rests on the
thesis that the more we feel our primal
pain, the more we give up any hope that life
will ever be anything other than what it is,
the more we finally acknowledge that our
early experiences have damaged us
irrevocably and irreparably, the more we
accept that we will always be in the pain
that we're in, the sooner we'll at least stop
wasting our efforts trying to become happy,
trying to make life better. We will just
acknowledge that this pain is what life is-
nothing-just a crock. But at least we will be
"real," we'll feel our pain, and at least not
be in denial of it.
When I first started with the Primal process
at Janov's Primal Institute, I thought, "Ah,
here's finally some way I can get rid of all
those terrible things that must be inside of me
which have made it so easy for people to take
advantage of me."
In the very first session, I found an
immense, immediate relief. Instead of being
told how foolish I was to cry over not getting
what I wanted, I was at least being allowed to
cry. In fact, I was being encouraged to cry,
even being provoked to cry, and cry and cry
and cry.
For me, the relief of finally not having to try
to be anything other than damaged goods was
an immense relief. Less effort went into trying
to live up to the expectations of others. I
became more authentic and more real.
However, I didn't become happier-at least
not in the sense of being able to get things that
I hadn't been getting or in the sense of not
being faced with the same old conflicts and the
same old problems.
I just was relieved of whatever private
shame and grief I had been trying to keep
others from learning about through all the
years before I got into Primal therapy.
Most of the people I knew who went into
Primal therapy did so because they felt they
didn't have any real friends and no one had
ever really liked them. They wanted to be
accepted in ordinary society. They wanted to
be just like the rest of the "kids on the block."
They didn't want to be strange. They didn't
want to be awkward or clumsy. They didn't
want to be too this or not enough that. They
wanted to be OK, and to have everyone else
who walked around thinking he or she was OK
think that they were OK, too (even though"OK"
generally means being thoughtless and
careless and essentially turned off and
indifferent to both life's joys and life's pain).
But that didn't happen.
Instead, what they got from doing Primal
therapy was the opportunity to hang out with
other people who also felt they had never had
any real friends and didn't really know how to
have a good time socially.
They didn't become people who were able
to take their place (or what they had thought
should be their place) in the ordinary world of
happy-go-lucky people.
Some Primal patients did manage to forge
different lives for themselves that certainly
were improvements over the lives they'd been
creating before they got into doing Primal
process work. But they didn't get what they
had wanted when they entered Primal
Therapy.
And after all, isn't that what life is about?
Don't we really feel happiest when we've
gotten what we wanted? Isn't that what we're
trying to do?
Now that I'm into Rebirthing, I can
understand the reason Primal makes people
feel better about feeling bad, but doesn't
usually lead to a fulfilled, satisfied life.
Primal is saying the "Cure for Neurosis"
(as Janov subtitled his first book) is to feel
our feelings. We need to go back to our
earliest imprints because they're connected
with our Primal Pain and we need to feel
that Pain. If we go on denying it, we'll need
to go on being neurotic. We're healthy only
to the extent that we feel our previously unfelt
feelings, even if we spend all our time feeling
bad over past bad events in our lives.
But doesn't that seem strange and illogical?
How can Health be Pain? Isn't health the
natural absence of pain? Wouldn't you sooner
feel good?
Please understand that I'm not mocking
Primal. I'll always be grateful to Arthur Janov,
just as I'll always be grateful to Siegmund
Freud. I'm simply delineating the differences
between it and Rebirthing.
So, as a Rebirther, I believe the reason life
doesn't work for most Primal patients the way
they hoped it would before Primal is not only
that most of their unconscious Thought is
negative, but also that they're deliberately
occupying their conscious Thought with their
Pain. Since making unconscious Pain
conscious doesn't actually make it less painful,
their Thought is still negative, and it is still
Creating more negative manifestations in their
life. The concept, Thought Creates, explains
the inherent fault connected with Primal work
and explains why it doesn't help Primal
patients get what they want.
By contrast, I believe the reason life starts
to work for people into Rebirthing is that the
Rebirthing breath clears out old negatives from
consciousness, and the emphasis on using
affirmations fills conscious Thought with
positives-so the more highly positive Mind
creates a more beneficent life.
Rebirthing says, You, through your
Thought, have created the Universe you exist
in. The way people treat you is the way you, in
both your conscious and unconscious
Thought, need them to treat you in order for
you to feel safe and alive.
If the metaphysics are correct, if it is true
that your Thought creates your Universe, then
by changing your early negative thoughts and
correcting them to positive thoughts about
creation and your place in it, you can change
your life and get what you want.
Several years ago, in answer to a query
from an individual writing a book about
Rebirthing compared to Primal, I wrote the
following letter:
Dear Nicholas,
The Rebirthing breathing is a
process where the inhale and the
exhale are connected-there are no
pauses, there are no holds. The type
of breathing that is done is not the
kind that produces hyperventilation, in
other words, it is not a forced exhale.
It's not a way of lowering the partial
pressure of carbon dioxide. Instead, it
is simply a way of enlarging the inhale.
So, you are in error when you say
that it is a form of breathing similar to
hyperventilation.
The logic escapes me of Art
Janov's saying the use of affirmations
is like Ellis' Rational Therapy and his
reporting that a Primal patient who
had undergone Rational Therapy said
it was like pretending to feel
something you didn't feel. So what?
What does this have to do with, other
than Art Janov's opinion about what
affirmations are and his patient's view
of Rational Therapy?
I think that, indeed, he has missed
the essence of it.
The point is that with affirmations
we are training our minds to think only
positive thoughts.
Yes, Rebirthing is definitely a
positive, simplified and spiritualized
technique, but it is not a version of
Primal therapy. That's like saying that
cleaning up a room is a variation of
getting it dirty.
So, clear up your logic because you
want people to read your book and
respect you for it. There's no point in
making illogical statements and
certainly no point in your making ones
that are inaccurate.
If you are going to continue to
pursue the relationship or the
similarities between Rebirthing and
Primal, then you need to keep in mind
that, within the Rebirthing philosophy,
all of the psychoanalytic traumata are
simply regarded as variations on the
birth trauma. Similar happenings
would have no emotional charge for a
child who hadn't already laid down the
basic scenario through the birth. Also,
of course, they wouldn't be happening.
I find it preposterous that Janov
states traumata are more likely to be
found during infancy than at birth.
This goes against all psychogenetic
theory and common-sense
experience, and I think it may be just a
testimony to Arthur's inability to deal
with his own birth Primal and to let it
go.
If you haven't already done so,
please be sure to do a Rebirthing
session so you can actually
experience it. It's really silly to talk
about something if you haven't,
indeed, experienced it, especially
when it is so easily available.
First, Primal yourself: get into
your current emergent negative feeling
and let yourself feel it intensely until
you lose consciousness of it. Then do
a Rebirthing session. Then you'll be
in a position to compare them-to see
what kinds of effects each session
has.
I think that would be more
intellectually honest than quoting this
person and that person.
The reason I'm a Rebirther is that
I'm completely convinced of the
validity of the philosophical proposition
that our Thought creates our
universe. So that's why I don't deal
with hallucinatory drugs for therapeutic
purposes. It's also why I don't
encourage people to dramatize their
old negative feelings.
Anyhow, I wish you the best of
luck with your paper, and thanks for
calling on me. If you have more such
specific questions, please feel free to
write to me.
In truth, simplicity and love,
Eve Jones
I think this letter explains my basic point of

view.
As mentioned earlier, Janov sub-titled his
first book on Primal, The Cure for Neurosis.
Leonard or some other expert

Rebirther, ought to write a book called,
Rebirthing: The Cure for Primal Therapy.

CHAPTER FIVE
THE BIOLOGY OF IMPRINTS The Logic of
Magical Thought
and The Dance of
the Breath
Questions that come up very frequently INTRODUCTION

at workshops are:
"Exactly what is the underlying biological
basis for Rebirthing?" CHAPTER ONE
"What's going on in the body when a The Ideal Breath
person does this particular kind of breathing?"
"What about Rebirthing allows the body to CHAPTER TWO
empower the Mind to be aware of itself and to The Difference
change itself?" Between Rebirthing
and Hyperventilation
I wrote an article about this in 1983
and published it as a little pamphlet with the
title of "An Introduction to Rebirthing for Health CHAPTER THREE
Professionals." It is reprinted in this book as The Difference
Appendix A. I wrote it primarily to give Between the Ideal
Rebirthers a vehicle for approaching health Breath And Yogic
professionals in their communities so that they
could invite them to experience a Rebirth Breathing
session and, hopefully, then become ardent
fans of this process. CHAPTER FOUR
The Difference
In fact, that's why I made the pamphlet Between Rebirthing
so short and terse and therefore so And Primal Scream
inexpensive to print. I hoped that all
Rebirthers would buy, say, 50 of them, and Therapy
once a week would send one with a covering
letter to some health professional in their CHAPTER FIVE
community with an invitation, "Please read The Biology of
this; I'd like to take you to lunch and hear your Imprints
reactions to it."
My primary purpose in that pamphlet CHAPTER SIX

was to briefly talk about what Rebirthing is and Food and
what kinds of medical or health problems it has Consciousness
served to help heal or eliminate or ameliorate.
I also included a few brief paragraphs on what CHAPTER SEVEN
I believe is the underlying biology created by
the conscious connected breath. Rebirthing and
Bodywork Therapies
This present chapter is a more
comprehensive discussion of the facts on CHAPTER EIGHT
which I base my speculations about how and Rebirthing and
why Rebirthing works. (Please note, these are Conventional
still speculations, not yet confirmed. Even
now, thirteen years after I wrote that Psychotherapies
introduction of Rebirthing to the world of
psychotherapy and health care, there has still CHAPTER NINE
not yet been any basic physiological research Rebirthing and
performed on the process of Rebirthing!) Neuro-Linguistic
Programming
I believe all Rebirthers, even those not
disposed to be interested in biology, should
know this information, since it is a fairly CHAPTER 10
complete biological explanation of how Affirmations
Rebirthing probably works,
neurophysiologically. CHAPTER 11
The Parental
I hope you won't skip it, even if it's
technical. I think it would be paradoxical to be Disapproval
involved in a process that promotes greater Syndrome
consciousness in the Here and Now, yet
refuse to increase conscious understanding of CHAPTER 12
that process. So give it a chance. I believe Time, Work, and
you'll find the following description of how the
Money:
body works interesting and revealing. Consciousness and
Abundance
To discuss my speculations about how
Rebirthing works, I'll subdivide this discussion
into answer to specific questions. I have first CHAPTER 13
to review some of the basic physiology of the Sex and Loving
brain and nervous system. Relationships
What Part of the Brain Does Rebirthing CHAPTER 14

Affect? Physical Immortality
By the very nature of the physical and
psychological changes that Rebirthing brings CHAPTER 15
about, I'm led to conclude that the connected Ethical
breathing alters the physiological processes Consideration
occurring in the limbic system, allowing us to
revise the imprints we have stored there from CHAPTER 16
our earliest experiences, especially birth.
Individual Rebirths
The discovery by such prominent
neurophysiologists as Alvarez and Maclean CHAPTER 17
over thirty-five years ago of the limbic system Group Rebirthings
was not only a major contribution to our
understanding of neurophysiology, but of CHAPTER 18
psychology as well. The limbic system
stores our basic belief system, our Organizing Trainings
imprints. These imprints are our almost- and Workshops
immutable Thoughts about Life and the
Self. Imprints determine our fundamental CHAPTER 19
associations between our perceived inner The Standard
states and our abstract philosophical
values. These beliefs comprise what we Rebirth Training
believe life is all about, what we believe
must or must not be for our survival itself. CHAPTER 20
So for Rebirthing to permit old imprints to Running a Rebirth
be revised, it must be affecting the limbic Business
system.
What Part of the Brain Involves the Limbic CHAPTER 21

System? Rebirthing
Organizations
The limbic system is a system
comprised of nuclei in the brain tissue
lining the surface of the lateral ventricles,
the fluid-filled hollow cavities within the left
and right front parts of the brain. Some of
these nuclei lie within the telencephalon,
the top "brain," the brain we usually think
of when we think of a thinking brain. Other
limbic nuclei lie in the diencephalon, the
next-lower "brain," which includes the
centers for control of our drives states and
of the emotional display and reaction
connected to the state of our drives states,
all mediated through the Autonomic
nervous system.
How is the Limbic System Related to the

Whole Brain?
Prior to the discovery of the limbic

system, the brain was conceived of as
essentially five separate and mainly
independent "brains," which each evolved in
turn through our evolution. Most functions of
the brain are controlled by systems confined to
a single such "brain." But the limbic system
runs within and between the "top" two, the last
two to evolve. It is thus even anatomically well
designed to allow for programming Belief-that
almost instinctive conviction that establishes
our ingrained rules for life.
The base "brain," or

rhombencephalon, which includes the brain
stem and the pons, is the lowest, most
primitively evolved "brain." It contains vital
centers that automatically control breathing,
heartbeat, coughing, sneezing, and vomiting
reflexes. It is not a thinking brain, so it isn't
open to much learning. It simply reacts in
order to maintain the basic homeostasis of the
body. It's like a hard-wired computer. We can
only assert our Will over the centers of the
brain stem to a limited extent. For example,
we can control some autonomic functions like
heartbeat and body temperature through the
use of Yogic techniques, but such control
takes years of practice to achieve. The
rhombencephalon is ordinarily autonomous.
The "brain" above it, the second brain,

called the metencephalon, is a brain which
evolved quite early in the development of
vertebrates. It's simply the center for balance
and sense of position and place, the
knowledge of where we are, moment to
moment. Most of it is the cerebellum, which is
like a large computer constantly keeping track
of where the different parts of the body are in
space. The cerebellum continually sends a
Aprintout" of this information to higher brain
centers in the top "brain", the telencephalon.
Such centers are involved in both voluntary
and involuntary motion, so our movements are
coordinated. Like the rhombencephalon, the
metencephalon is not a thinking brain, and we
usually are completely unconscious of its
functioning. We can overcome it, as we do
when skating or skiing, and we can train it, as
we do when dancing, but mainly it's another
autonomous brain.
The next "brain" to evolve, the

mesencephalon, can best be thought of as a
switchboard that makes interconnections with
between vision, motion, audition, and the other
senses. The mesencephalon, for example,
relays messages so the head turns
automatically toward the source of a sound.
The mesencephalon itself does very little in the
way of selecting out circuits to switch on or off,
although, it, too, can be trained, as, for
example, when a hunter keeps his eyes on his
prey, not allowing himself to be distracted by
extraneous sounds. Like the
rhombencephalon and the metencephalon, the
mesencephalon is not a Thinker and it's
primarily outside the effects of our Will, our
Self.
The next brains, the diencephalon

and the telencephalon, are the top two
"brains," the brains that handle what we
call thinking and feeling. As pointed out
before, the limbic system is located in both
diencephalic and telencephalic tissues.
How Does the Brain Direct Emotional

Reactions?
As I mentioned previously, the

diencephalon contains the control centers
for feeling reactions, specifically, for
object-related emotions, the emotions we
have about objects which are involved in
satisfying our drive states: thirst, hunger, the
desire for sleep, the desire for activity, and the
desire for sex.
These emotions differ as our drive

states change. And these changes are
mediated by the two divisions of the Autonomic
nervous system, one called the
parasympathetic nervous system and the other
called the sympathetic nervous system.
How Does the Autonomic Nervous System

Operate?
When we're hungry, anything that

looks like food seems desirable. But once we
are full, the sight of food being served to the
table next to us in a restaurant is disgusting.
Those feelings of desire and disgust are
mediated by the Autonomics.
All drives are cyclic kinds of desires.

There's a natural rhythm to them. Satisfying
them once doesn't mean they're satisfied
foreverCthey continue to need to be satisfied
as they continue to arise. Certain emotions
are also usually attached automatically to
events which disturb rhythmic satisfaction, and
such emotions are also mediated by the
Autonomics.
For example, we need to breathe

about a dozen to a dozen and a half times per
minute, and anything that interferes with our
breathing has a striking, highly charged
negative emotion attached to itCeither rage or
fear.
We need to eat. Even someone who

has been unconditioned by social expectations
around him feels the need to obtain
nourishment and to replenish energy supplies
once every day or two. (Most people like to
eat more often than once a day, but much
such hunger is probably habitual.) Rage at
first and then forlorn feelings of depression
typically result when hunger isn't satisfied.
Rest and activity are also drives. We

all know how we feel when we're fully rested-
we wake up and we're ready to go. If instead
we find out that it's very early, and that we
need to stay in bed lest we wake other people,
we find ourselves feeling very restless and put
upon, with tension and irritability (anxiety or
rage) quickly developing. In fact, a pretty good
way to promote a panic state in many people is
just to immobilize them, and keep them from
being able to move when they want to. Most
will instantly oblige you by going into a major
panic or rageCemotions that I believe are
directly connected with birth reactions, as I will
show later on.
If something tries to take away a

source of satisfaction from us, we get angry
and fight. Sometimes we become afraid and
we flee. Sometimes we become so afraid that
we are paralyzed in our tracks by our fear
itself.
The Autonomic nervous system, run

by nuclei in the diencephalon, regulates and
coordinates all the reactions going on in the
body that we call emotional reactions. All of
these involve changes in heart rate and the
amplitude of the heartbeat, breathing rate and
the amplitude of the breath itself, circulation
and where capillary beds are opened or where
they're closed down, and digestive activity in
terms both of the mobility of the gut itself and
the secretion of the glands that are present
within the gastrointestinal tract.
The Autonomic nervous system,

through its two divisionsCthe parasympathetic
and the sympatheticCcontrols all these visceral
reactions, which are different for the different
drive states and for different object-related
emotions.
When our reactions and emotions

are appropriate, we're psychologically healthy.
When they aren't, we aren't.
Most visceral organs have dual

antagonistic autonomic innervation. So, for
example, where the parasympathetics make a
particular gland secrete, the sympathetics
prevent it from secreting or cause it to secrete
a different substance. Another example is that
while the parasympathetics may cause a
segment of the gut to constrict or to push, the
sympathetic innervation to that same segment
of gut causes it to stay still.
The parasympathetics slow heart

action and breathing while the sympathetics
speed up both circulation and respiration and
also increase their strength. So, instead of the
contented, rhythmic, effortless breathing of
peace and satisfaction, mediated by the
parasympathetics, we have the vigorous,
immense breath and heart action of rage, or
the completely stilled, paralyzed breathing of
fear, each mediated by the sympathetics.
Sometimes both the sympathetics and

the parasympathetics work together. For
example, the gasping and breathlessness that
precedes sexual orgasm involve the
sympathetics. But as the final tension of the
orgasm mounts, the parasympathetics release
the breathing explosively, leading to full deep
breaths and forceful but slow heartbeats as the
orgasm rolls on to quiet completion.
What Do the Parasympathetics Usually Do?
Essentially, when we're happy,

content, satisfied, just breathing and digesting
and enjoying life, contemplating whatever is in
front of us peacefully, our Autonomic nervous
system is working through its parasympathetic
nervous system division. The parasympathetic
nervous system is a system of nerves that
mostly emerge from the brain stem in the
cranium and are thus called cranial nerves,
although the parasympathetic nervous system
also includes a few other small nerves in the
sacrum; these nerves go to the genitals.
The cranial parasympathetic nervous

system is made up mainly of just one large
nerve, the Vagus, which wanders throughout
the body sending branches to the lungs, to the
heart, to the kidneys, to all aspects of the
digestive tract, and to the genitals. (This one
nerve, the Vagus, was given the Greek name
for Awanderer" because it wanders through so
much of the body.)
All neurons communicate through

the production of particular chemicals that are
called synaptic substances or neurohumoral
transmitter substances. Adrenaline, nor-
adrenaline, acetylcholine, serotonin, histamine,
and melatonin are some of these substances.
Each works in a special way at a specific kind
of synapse, the place where one nerve stop
and another nerve starts. The
parasympathetics communicate using
acetylcholine.
When the parasympathetics are

functioning, the nervous impulse goes on down
through the nerve fibers of the Vagus, down to
the ends of its various branches in the different
organs that it affects. Then there's a
microscopically tiny space between the Vagus
and the post-ganglionic neuron. The space is
called the synapse. Acetylcholine is made at
the synapse and stimulates the second
neuron, the post-ganglionic neuron, that's also
part of the parasympathetic nervous system.
Then the second neuron sends the

impulse on down through its axon to another
space or synapse, where more acetylcholine is
made to stimulate the piece of smooth muscle
that that particular branch of the Vagus is
innervating.
The Vagus promotes peristaltic

squeezing and squishing and pushing of the
gut by sending its branches to every single
segment of the gastrointestinal tract. The gut
has within its walls second neurons which
when stimulated by branches of the first
neuron, the Vagus, stimulate the smooth
muscle of the gut to contract and to push the
food on down its 20-foot-long tube.
The nice thing about having one nerve

like the Vagus be in charge of so much is that
it enables a really well-coordinated, sequential
movement and coordination between the
various organs it innervates. It usually works
extremely well. In the gastrointestinal tract, for
example, food is squished down at regular
intervals after it's had an opportunity to be
squeezed and mushed around with the
different digestive juices in the different parts
of the gastrointestinal tract: the stomach, the
small intestine, and the large intestine.
Generally, food isn't moved along too quickly,
so our gut usually has an opportunity to absorb
the digested food products. And food also isn't
kept stagnant in one area of the gut for too
long, promoting a toxic state in the body that
we call indigestion or constipation.
Fortunately, everything in most

instances works nicely even though we're not
paying any attention to it. We chew our food
and we swallow it. From that point on, without
our paying any conscious attention to it, it gets
digested, absorption takes place, and
elimination of the ultimate waste products and
leftover bulk of the food proceeds in an orderly
fashion.
The parasympathetic nervous system

takes care of making sure that appropriate
digestive juices are secreted into the lumen or
passageway through the gut, the long tube that
runs from our mouth to our anus. And the
parasympathetics coordinate peristalsis with
secretion at appropriate times, so intestinal
juices are produced just in time, for example,
to meet the food that's being moved out of the
stomach and is about to be needing to be
digested by those enzymes in the intestinal
juice. Everything's nicely coordinated and
generally the body is at peace.
Breathing and circulation are

coordinated and are relaxed during digestion.
As we breathe full breaths of satisfaction,
opening our chest, we make more room for our
heart to receive oxygenated blood back from
the lungs and nutrition-rich blood back from the
liver, and we say our heart is full of happiness.
We are, as the Greeks put it, sanguine.
What do the Sympathetics Do?
When something comes along to

threaten this happy state of satisfaction, the
parasympathetic's action is suspended and the
second division of the autonomic nervous
system, the sympathetic nervous system, goes
into action, into fight, flight, or fright.
In people, the action that the body

instinctively takes usually is to attack whatever
it is that's threatening it. We call this
"fighting."
In order to fight effectively, the skeletal

muscles of the body need to have an ample
supply of nutrition and oxygen and there has to
be sufficient circulation flow so that waste
products of muscle effort are taken away
immediately. Otherwise the muscles can't
work efficiently without cramping and getting
weakened.
So, in rage, the sympathetics open up

the capillary beds in the skeletal muscles and
blood is switched from the gastrointestinal
mucosa to the opened capillaries in the
skeletal muscles of the body, the muscles
which move us as we fight. As blood flow to
skeletal muscles is increased, the heart beats
become bigger and quicker.
The sympathetics also increase

breathing amplitude, ensuring an ample supply
of oxygen to the working muscles and ample
elimination of most of the water and carbon
dioxide that are waste products of muscle
metabolism. We all know how good it feels to
breathe when we're really truly angry or when
we push ourselves to exercise strenuously,
because the breath becomes extremely large,
very vigorous. We feel generally pumped up,
which is exactly the state that the body needs
to be in, in order to fight effectively. The
sympathetics are orchestrating all these
changesCand moreCas they over-ride
parasympathetic quiet, consummatory,
contented activity.
From Mother Nature's point of view,

there's no particular sense in digesting food in
an orderly fashion if the entire organism, the
whole individual, is being threatened. So
when a person feels that his satisfaction in life
is being threatened, he goes Aoff his feed," as
the English phrase it. The sympathetics stop
the gut from making digestive juices and from
pushing the food along. Everything digestive
essentially comes to a halt.
Elimination of urine and solid wastes

from the body is also suspended. Perhaps the
loss of fluid through urination and defecation
would otherwise be a danger to the fighting
organism, since the body needs to hold on to
all of its available fluid in case of severe
bleeding.
For whatever evolutionary advantage,

the sphincters of the gut and bladder are
closed down and all gastrointestinal secretion
stops. If, because of social training, we try to
continue to eat in the face of some emotional
crisis, we usually find it very difficult. The
mouth stops making thin watery saliva and it
becomes almost impossible even to swallow a
small mass or bolus of food.
Some of the other phenomena that

accompany rage have greater merit in animals
other than man. For example, the large
muscle that covers the back of most four-
footed animals from behind the ears all the
way to the tail, called the platysma, gets
spastic and tightens to make an almost
impenetrable shield over the back of the head,
the neck, the shoulders, and down across the
lower back. When it tightens like that, it
protects the spinal cord and the vertebral
column from attack, for teeth and claws can't
easily get through this leather-like armor
across the back.
In man, this muscle is a very small

triangle at the upper back and lower neck, part
of the ones linking the head to the shoulders.
The tightening of these muscles in people
when they are tense doesn't protect them from
injury, instead it usually leads merely to the
common headache that is portrayed on
television ads as the Excedrin #2 headache.
Another phenomena accompanying

sympathetic nervous system arousal, one
that's very noticeable in other animals but not
so much in man, is the appearance of goose
bumps. Goosebumps make the skin surface
tighter and tougher, so it's better protected
from the claws and teeth of the aggressor. As
each little pilomotor muscle at the base of each
hair tightens, the hair rises and gives a larger,
more frightening contour to the body. Looking
bigger like that might be enough in some
animals to frighten off an attacker. At least
having the hair stand out makes it harder for
the attacker to bite or scratch through to the
skin and draw blood. Having the hair stand up
on end also increases body temperature, so
that muscle metabolism can occur more
efficiently.
But in people, the appearance of

goose bumps combined with the tightening of
the neck muscle is often associated with
sexual stimulation or fear, rather than with
being enraged. This is probably because of
negative imprints connected with birth, the
ultimate sexual act.
We all have heard such common

idioms as "He's a pain in the neck," "He makes
my hair stand on end," "I can't even swallow
what he's saying." These are all body-
language idioms that reflect sympathetic
changes. For example, a person who is
constantly annoyed by minor trivia of daily life
is called "pissy." And sometimes, if we're
vulgar enough, we say, "That jerk's full of
shit." All these idioms in direct body language
describe exactly what takes place when the
parasympathetic state of peace is threatened,
and the body instead proceeds to go through
the changes that are mediated by the other
part of the Autonomic nervous system, the
sympathetic nervous system.
How Do the Parasympathetics and the

Sympathetics Differ Anatomically?
The sympathetics and the

parasympathetics differ from each other both
in topological and anatomical characteristics,
and these differences lead to important
differences. Both divisions employ a top
neuron communicating to a next neuron which
then communicates with smooth muscle cells
in the viscera. As I mentioned previously, the
first neurons of the parasympathetic emerge
through the cranial and cervical areas of the
spinal cord as the Vagus nerve, and also from
the sacral area as several pelvic nerves.
The very long, very complicated first

neuron of the parasympathetics only meets
with the microscopically-small second neuron
when it finally synapses at the visceral organ
that's being affected. So control and feelings
of satisfaction are very discrete and pin-
pointed. We're making biological sense when
we say, "Ah, that really hits the spot."
By contrast, the first neurons of the

sympathetic nervous system emerge at regular
intervals out of the spinal cord. From the
beginning of the thorax, at the base of the
neck, down through the sacrum. They go
about half the distance from the diencephalon
to the visceral organs being affected which
are, for the majority, the same organs the
parasympathetics affect, but usually in an
opposite way. After emerging from the cord at
the thoracic and lumbar areas, the sympathetic
first neurons meet the second neurons, which
travel the other half of the distance to the
visceral organs they innervate. All the second
neurons of the sympathetics are connected
with each other, like a ladder. So anything that
bothers us causes a generalized upset.
What Makes the Sympathetics Work?
Like the parasympathetics, the

sympathetics make acetylcholine at the
synapse between the first and second
neurons, but the sympathetics make a different
neurohumoral transmitter at the synapse
between the second neuron and the smooth
muscle of the visceral organ being affected.
The synaptic substance being made there by
the sympathetics is either adrenaline or nor-
adrenaline, originally called "sympathin."
Unlike acetylcholine which is destroyed almost
instantly, as soon as it's made, the adrenalins
stay around in the blood stream for minutes or
hours, keeping us charged up as long as
they're present. We're excited in both states,
not satisfied. It takes a long time to feel
peaceful again afterwards.
Both nor-adrenalin and adrenaline, two

different substances, are made by the
sympathetics at the same synaptic junction,
even though they have radically differing
effects.
Nor-adrenaline mediates what I regard

as constructive or productive action, normal
behavior. The effect of nor-adrenalin is
essentially to open the body up for momentary,
vigorous activity, that is, for fighting or for very
fast and skillful pursuit of prey or escape from
a predator. Nor-adrenaline quickly
metabolizes in our bodies, so such arousal is
short-lasting, over almost as soon as the fight
or flight is finished.
Adrenaline, however, seems to come

into operation when we think we're trapped
and we feel helpless. It mediates non-
productive, abnormal reactions. Adrenaline
changes conditions in the body the same way
nor-adrenalin does, but adrenaline affects
respiration and circulation in very different
ways. Instead of improving our ability to fight
or flee, adrenaline stops us dead. Our
breathing is stilled almost to the point of total
breathlessness, our heartbeat is stilled down to
a bare minimum, just enough to keep
circulation going, and our extremities become
cold. We remain still, hopefully stilled to such
an extent that we may escape threat by being
unnoticeable. If noticed, this helpless, almost
dead appearance probably serves as a life-
preserving tactic for creatures in the wild, since
many of the major predators will only attack a
living creature and will have nothing to do with
carrionCor with what seems to be already
dead.
Because adrenalin is metabolized

differently from the way nor-adrenalin is broken
down, the arousal it produces lasts for several
hours, during which the individual can easily
misinterpret his situation, leading to further
inappropriate reactions, and thus bring about a
further state of arousal. Emotional dis-ease is
the consequence.
How Do Conditioned, Trained Reactions

Affect the Autonomics?
These autonomic nervous system

reactions, mediated through the sympathetic
nervous system when we're threatened and by
the parasymphathetics when we're at peace,
take place whether the emotion that we're
feeling is realistically connected with a drive
state within us or not. Exactly the same
reactions of action-oriented rage or
helplessness occur when the emotion is
concept-dominated, that is, if it's a reaction we
have been taught to experience in conjunction
with certain things or even symbols, like a
particular word, act, gesture, tone of voice,
posture, or dress. Generally, our concept-
dominated emotions are learned. They are
adhered to by us in our effort to win approval
from others. We store some of these ideas
about "right" and "wrong" in our telencephalon
which then influences the diencephalon to
discharge the Autonomic nervous system as if
these ideas were necessarily so. They aren't-
we're just trained to think so.
We're taught what to like and what

not to like, what to be disgusted by, what to
be afraid of, what not to be interested in,
etc., etc. These learned prejudices mark
our social accommodation to the group, so
that we end up liking what the people
around us like and not liking what they
don't like. We are therefore a member of the
group, accepted in good standing, ready to
receive approval from the other members of
the group for being such a good group
member.
So, for example, most of us have

learned to be disgusted by feces, although
initially, young children apparently have no
such reaction of disgust to their own feces.
On a more advanced level, some of us

have highly detailed, meticulously articulated
concepts of what we will and what we will not
love. I've heard lots of men talk about the size
of a women's breasts or how long her legs are
as if these characteristics were the prime
requirements for a stable, happy, loving sexual
relationship. And I've heard many women say,
"I couldn't love him, he's too short," or "Oh, I
don't like dark-haired men."
In any case, whatever the source may

be for the feeling, whether it comes from
concepts we have learned or whether it comes
from the satisfied or dissatisfied state of our
own drive states, all emotion is always
mediated through the Autonomic nervous
system by the production of the
neurohumoral chemicals, acetylcholine,
adrenaline, and nor-adrenaline. Whether or
not the rage, fear, or love is appropriate in
the Here and Now, our autonomics make
the transmitter substances connected with
our emotion, and the changes these
transmitter substances create are what we
identify as rage or fear or love.
When are Negative Emotions Appropriate?
Generally speaking, once we

become adult, there are very few things that
we need to get enraged about or frightened of.
As people living in a law-abiding, civilized
state, we are seldom attacked, and very
seldom is our survival itself threatened (outside
of the dangers in traffic). Most of the things
we're afraid of actually can't hurt us, like talking
at a group meeting, or have never existed, and
will not, like ghosts. Most fear is inappropriate.
So is most rage. Most of the time

when we get angry, we get angry over some
minor challenge to some fancied personality
characteristic which we believe we must
maintain in order to be ever able to win
approval and get the love we constantly seek.
So, for example, people get very angry when
someone doesn't speak to them "properly,"
although the tone of voice and the words
themselves and the stance, postures,
gestures, eye contact, etc., of the person
speaking in themselves cannot harm the
survival of the person who's getting angry over
such aspects.
So, most of the things that we're

angry about aren't really hurting us.
Frequently, most matters we get angry about
don't even concern us or are about
inconsequential matters. Often we get angry
about matters over which the person truly is
not responsible since they involve another
individual. (By the way, when I talk about
"responsibility" here, I'm using the word
the way we use it in ordinary, rational,
scientific, objective reality. I don't mean
spiritual, metaphysical responsibility. In
the metaphysical world, only the individual
whose Thought is creating that spiritual
and metaphysical space has free will; and
everyone else must play the part they're
being assigned in the scenario this
individual has "dreamt up.")
If we approach emotions from a

logical, philosophical point of view, fear is
definitely appropriate only in a situation where
the best thing you can do is just sit still and be
still and suffer, hopefully only temporarily.
Clearly fear with its accompanying reactions is
an important feeling for us to feel when
something that might hurt us and that we have
no control over happens to us. We could
simply otherwise be wasting our energies by
trying to resist or become free.
A paradigm, a perfect model, for this

circumstance is the time during the birth
process when the child is essentially trapped in
the pelvis and has not yet emerged. If the
child or mother were to try to make vigorous
movements, they would disrupt the orderly
procession of the rest of the baby down the
cervical canal, into the pelvis, where the baby
then can impel himself out through the vaginal
orifice.
Following the same kind of logic, rage

is important as a reaction when something is
within our capacity to handle. When
something we can do something about is
hurting us, rage helps us push the bother away
or helps us move abruptly away from whatever
is bothering us. Hence the beautiful
connection between the feeling of rage and the
empowerment of the large skeletal muscles
which are what we strike with and what we
move our body away with. Fortunately, in
most of our lifetimes most of us don't have to
fight for our life. We're not being either prey or
predator in the feeding chain that marks the
existence of all other animals.
The prototype in every human's

experience for an appropriate use of rage is
that time at the end of term when the child is
not getting nutrition quite as fast as he did
originally because circulation is impede by the
pressure of the large-sized child against the
placental membranes. His waste products
aren't being taken away so quickly, either.
Mama can't breathe enough and circulate
enough for baby to go on being happy and
contented, growing away inside of her. And
so, impatiently, he seeks to move away from
this noxious environment. As he makes a
vigorous move, he causes small tears and
separations in the placenta. His anger thus
starts the birth. Nervous impulses from the
torn placental membranes travel up to Mama's
brain, causing the release from her
diencephalon of the posterior pituitary
hormones that cause her uterus to contract
and push to expel its contents. Rage also
operates once the infant is fully down in the
pelvis, helping him move on out of the vagina.
So rage and fear have their prototypes

in our birth experience, in the uterus'
contracting and pushing, and in the baby's
vigorous resisting and thus increasing the
effect of the uterine contraction, up to the point
where stillness is a better approach than
vigorous activity.
Rage and fear also have their

appropriate place in our life experience, once
we're out of the womb, but that place would be
far more limited than we usually experience if
we could only ordinarily change our birth
imprints easily.
Both kinds of emotional responses,

object-related and concept-dominated, may be
altered by circumstances. But imprints, which
also involve emotions, are singularly
immutableCordinarily.
What is Imprinting?
Imprinting takes place primarily during

our first two years of life. As previously
mentioned, imprinting is what takes place in
the limbic system, a system comprised of
nuclei in the Thinker-Doer, the telencephalon,
and nuclei in the Feeler-Reactor, the
diencephalon.
Imprinting is an automatic assignment

of a particular positive or negative charge to an
event. The rules for how these charges are
assigned are very simple: We give a plus
charge, a positive, to all the events occurring
when we are born and survive; these primary
imprints label certain events as "good." We
give a negative charge to an event that's the
logical opposite to our first experiences.
These secondary imprints label events that are
the opposites of the primary imprints as "bad."
In essence, these are the "Thou Shalt" and the
"Thou Shalt Not" ideas we associate with
survival.
Primary imprints are based on what

was happening physiologically and
psychologically when we were conceived,
carried, and born. Whatever the physiological
and psychological conditions were, we imprint
them as vitally necessary and thus safe and
desirable. In the primary positive imprint nuclei
of the limbic system, we store the belief that
these conditions are attached to survival. We
believe we must have these conditions to be
alive and to feel love. Even if, from a rational,
objective, intelligent, better-informed approach,
those conditions are noxious, on the basis of
imprints we still believe they are good for us.
We don't sensibly turn away from them to seek
what rational, objective, informed intelligence
tells us would truly be good for us.
We don't turn away because the

secondary negative imprints are dictating that
we feel our survival is threatened by everything
that's the logical opposite of the conditions
characteristic of the primary positive imprints.
Thus we automatically resist and are

anxious about and seek to get away from
everything that's the logical opposite of all that
we imprinted primarily.
In a state of perfect nature, the

automatic process of imprinting practically
guarantees the happy survival of the individual.
For example, the baby chick imprints

in its primary limbic nuclei whatever moves
across its field of vision as it emerges from the
shell. Since ordinarily the movement would
come from the mother bird, everything works
out well. The chick Abelieves" the mother is
vital to its survival, so it seeks to be near
herCas she moves away, the chick
automatically follows. The mother only moves
where it's safe for her survival, so the chick
experiences safety as it follows her. It doesn't
Alearn" what to do, it develops the appropriate
behavior as it does what its imprints dictate it
should experience.
But, in an unnatural state, like

civilization, problems may ensue. Eckhart
Hess showed that imprints which are not of
service and have no survival value whatsoever
to the young chick can also be formed during
hatching under special circumstances. So, for
example, if a string is attached to a football
and the football is pulled across the field of
vision of the newly hatched chick, the chick
imprints the moving football. He becomes
attached to it and follows steadfastly wherever
it is pulled. It's as if the chick mistakenly
"believes" the football is Mama. Mama herself
will have little or no effect on the chick.
When he happened to move across its

field of vision, the former Chancellor of the
University of Chicago and Noble Prize Winner,
George Beadle, for example, inadvertently
became the "mother" of a hatching duckling
being used by psychologist Eckhart Hess in
experiments on imprinting. Unless confined,
the duck thereafter followed Dr. Beadle around
campus.
In the state of perfect nature, the

secondary imprints, dictating what is to be
avoided because it's the logical opposite of
whatever was imprinted in the primary,
"positive" limbic centers, also serve the happy
survival of the individual.
In the case of the emerging duck,

appropriately and positively having imprinted
its solicitous and wise mother, the secondary,
negative imprints keep it from "trusting" and
therefore exploring or tolerating anything that's
unlike its mother-a dog, a cat, or even a
human. In a sense, it "knows better" than to
let you get your hands on it.
How Do Birth Imprints Influence Human

Behavior?
In the unnatural state that we people

live in, many problems can occur because of
imprints.
Unfortunately, the events happening

when we survived our conception and birth
may not always have been events which, in
our conscious adult mind, we would usually
evaluate as positive.
For example, breathing obviously has

definite survival value, but our first breath is
often stimulated by being spanked or having
our noses twitched, our ears or fingers flicked,
or being dipped in cold water, techniques used
to get a child to breathe when he's not starting
to breathe on his own, spontaneously.
The child whose first breaths are
accompanied by being forced through pain to
reflexly catch his breath may for the rest of his
life be unable to initiate anything for himself
unless he is first hurt or threatened to be hurt.
His Autonomics have to be aroused, but the
arousal is always inappropriate.
No wonder so many of us are so

mixed up!
Even worse is the fact that the reverse

or the opposite of whatever is given a plus
imprint is automatically given a negative
imprint. So the child who is manhandled and
hurt in order to be delivered, who is painfully
stimulated into taking his first breath may, for
the rest of his life, respond well when prodded
and hurt, but may be unable to tolerate a
situation in which he's being given plenty of
time to do what he wants to do and is not
being threatened or forced.
Unfortunately, most hospital births

involve violence, impatience, and
alienationCall causes of mixed-up imprints.
This result of modern birthing practices

has immense consequences. I believe it
accounts for the great increase in domestic
violence, for example. We all know women
who stay attached to men who treat them
badly. Maybe such a woman was manhandled
by the doctor at delivery in his effort to help her
come alive. Thus such pain preceded being
received by her loving Mama. That child's
imprints require that she later accept being
hurt by men; if not, she may die, unloved. She
knows she's nuts to stay with someone who
hurts her, but if she leaves the pain he gives,
she won't be able to get to being loved as her
Mama loved her.
The woman who has a loving

relationship with a man who abuses her and
terrorizes her, in my opinion, is not necessarily
what we call a masochist. She isn't someone
who wants to be hurt. She doesn't need to be
hurt in order to feel alive. But-given her
imprints that being alive means having been
abusedCwhen she isn't being hurt, she feels
unsafe. The negative imprint centers in her
limbic system make her feel highly anxious
and totally threatened when she isn't hurt.
Something's wrong when nothing is wrong.
Many of us have this reaction.

Every style of birth leads to imprints
that may cause trouble. For example, the child
who is born quickly and easily has primarily
imprinted ease and quickness. So, if
something comes along that he can get done
easily and quickly, he will do it. That's "good."
On the other hand, such a child has negative
imprints about patience, endurance, the long
haul, and effort. So that child, when faced with
a situation that requires continued effort, may
feel totally unable to perform, and may give up
without even making an attempt to perform. In
his mind, making an effort and waiting for
results signifies the opposite of being alive,
thus, efforting signifies dying. So he gives up,
impatiently and anxiously. That's "bad."
When imprinting was discovered, it

was recognized that it has immense survival
value for lower animals under ordinary
circumstances, as previously discussed. We
now know that imprinting has enormous effects
on people-unfortunately, not often beneficial.
In our highly unnatural, artificial birth

circumstances, unfortunately, imprinting is not
always of great service.
Perhaps the worse characteristic of

imprinting is that imprints apparently are
beyond our conscious comprehension and we
cannot re-arrange these values by making
deliberate choices for ourselves.
So, for example, I have apparently

imprinted the idea that cleanliness is of
immense survival value-probably because I
was washed clean immediately after my birth,
even before I was given to my mother to be
nursed. Her later emphasis on cleanliness
further supported that imprint. So, I have no
choice whatsoever: I must be fastidious, I must
be horrified by dirt, I must be disgusted by
anything that looks like sloppiness and
disorder.
These reactions may make me stiff

and rigid and unrelenting and, generally
speaking, a bother for other people to be
around. I may waste an immense amount of
my energies and time as I struggle to keep
things well dusted and to put things back in
their place. But, because in my mind
cleanliness equals survival, such compulsive
cleaning, in fact, relieves me of survival anxiety
and other negative emotions. Even knowing
that I should control my tendencies to be super
clean and neat doesn't do me any good,
because in the effort to become more sloppy I
create for myself immense anxiety about
survival. My limbic system imprints are
dictating: Thou must be clean or thou wilt be
extinguished.
Unless I change my basic imprints, I

must continue to put time and energy into
cleaningCtime and energy that might better be
put into other activities more likely to gain me
other, more significant rewards.
How Are Our Imprints Related to Neurosis?
Most conventional psychotherapy is

unproductive for most people because it's
difficult to change behavior without also
changing the underlying imprints that comprise
our belief systems. Neurosis, fundamentally,
is having imprints which don't serve us. Worse
yet, we create as much anxiety by our
conscious effort to resist our neurosis as we
feel because of our unconscious neurotic
behavior. Thus, we're "stuck" with our
inappropriate fears and anxieties.
Sadly enough, belief systems are not

available for conscious inspection and
change. We can't get at our imprints by
talking. We can't remember the circumstances
in which we formed our imprints because we
were in a remarkably different state then and
such memories are what is called "state
dependent." We can only recall such
memories when we re-establish a similar
internal state.
Of course, this doesn't mean creating

similar external circumstances, as is done
when a Primal patient locks himself in a coffin
to simulate being trapped in the pelvis at birth.
That's just melodrama.
Leonard has urged that people play

around with their diet, consciously, to put their
consciousness into an altered state, to
recapture former states by, for example, going
on an all-milk diet for a weekCeven an all-milk
diet drunk from a baby bottle! This altered
state is not at all the same one we experienced
as nurslings, however.
What is "State-Dependency"?
State-dependency means that certain

memories only become available for current
conscious inspection and alteration when your
body is in the same physiological state that it
was in when you formed the thought you are
now trying consciously to remember.
A simple example of this is with regard

to what college students can remember when
they cram for exams by taking amphetamines
to keep themselves awake. It is true that a
person on amphetamines learns more quickly
and reacts more quickly. So, it's an ideal drug
for cramming. However, unfortunately, what is
learned when a person is on amphetamines is
only easily recalled when a person is still on
amphetamines. If a student crams using
amphetamines, but then goes to the exam
following a good night's sleep and a fine
breakfast, no longer "up on speed," he will
probably find that he can't access the
information he crammed. He can remember
studying the material and he knows he has
perfect notes about it; he also knows he
understood it completely when he was
cramming. But he can't remember what he
crammed. Had he instead taken the exam
while still on speed, he probably would have
remembered the material he crammed.
Not all drugs determine state-

dependent memories. Some drugs facilitate
learning and don't seem to tie the memories up
to that drugged state. For example, caffeine
seems to keep people alert and to facilitate
learning at a faster rate, but it isn't really
necessary for the person to have caffeine in
his system in order to remember what he has
learned on caffeine.
What Unusual Conditions Are Present at

Birth?
The physiological state of the healthy

infant at normal delivery as he emerges into
life in this world (as opposed to life in the
uterine state) is highly peculiar. Specific
characteristics of his blood will soon change
and will not usually ever again be re-created in
his later life. Outstanding among these birth-
related characteristics is the number of red
blood cells in his blood stream.
He's in a state of having an immense

abundance of red blood corpuscles carrying
their oxygen charge around in his blood
stream. In fact, never again in our lifetimes do
we have such a super abundance of red blood
cells in our blood stream. (We lose millions of
these red blood cells in the days following birth
and delivery. As these blood cells
disintegrate, their biopigments get into the
blood stream temporarily, and most healthy
children end up with a kind of coppery or
bronze jaundiced look which disappears in a
few days, especially if they are exposed to
sunlight, which fades these biopigments.)
The only ordinary condition in later life

that even approximates this peri-natal state is
when a person gears up for fight or flight under
the direction of the sympathetic nervous
system. Then we pour into our body the
noradrenaline that's characteristic of the
awakening of the sympathetic nervous system,
and the spleen releases into our blood stream
it's "reserve" red blood cells, so we have extra
red corpuscles carrying their kind of
oxyhemoglobin around in our bloodstreams.
The extra red blood cells can help maintain
oxygen delivery to brain cells in case the
person is wounded and starts to leak these
important formed elements of the blood.
Obviously, this has great evolutionary value.
Another effect of sympathetic arousal

is to increase respiration and circulation so that
the "extra" red blood corpuscles carry more
oxygen to the skeletal muscle and pick up
more carbon dioxide from the skeletal muscle.
All of this works out very nicely when the
person is exercising and he's metabolizing
more and faster.
Most of us recognize that we feel good

when we have been vigorous, simply because
of this added nourishment and increased
effectiveness of elimination of wastes,
especially the ones eliminated by breathing
and perspiring.
In addition to the question of how

many red blood cells are travelling in the
general body circulation at a given time, the
level of oxygenation in the blood is important in
defining the state that imprints are dependent
on. A given red blood cell, in its journey
through the lungs, can only carry back into the
body one unit of oxygen attached to its
hemoglobin. It can't carry two units.
So, if a person at sea level is breathing

fully and the air he's breathing is ordinary air
with its ordinary partial pressure of oxygen, a
given red blood cell's reduced hemoglobin can
only be oxygenated to the same extent.
But not all the red blood cells get

oxygenated in their trip through the lungs. The
time taken by the blood as it travels through
the alveoli of the lungs may be just too short
for every red blood cell to get oxygenated.
Shallow breathers have lots of red blood cells
carried around in the body holding onto an
"old" load of reduced hemoglobin that won't be
exchanged until a later breathCor a later one,
or never.
Depth of ventilation, the acid-base

balance of the blood, and blood pressure are a
few of the factors that affect the rate at which a
given red blood cell can exchange its reduced
hemoglobin for oxygenated hemoglobin.
I always ask my Rebirthees to make

their inhales as slow and full as possible, so
that a maximum amount of exchange can take
place between the red blood cells and the air
in the alveoli.
How Can We Re-Create the Birth State So

We Can Access Our Imprints?
We can create in our body these same

physiological conditions without increasing
waste products by simply increasing
respiration consciously while not moving
around otherwise. When we do this, we come
close to the physiological state that was
present during our birth deliveries, when the
extra red blood corpuscles were hanging
around, providing a cushion between the time
when a child was receiving its oxygen from
Mama through the placenta and the time when
the infant begins breathing independently.
For some of us, umbilical circulation

lasts long enough so that we're still on this
maternal support system when we start
breathing on our own. Our first breath is thus
taken in ease and without urgency or anxiety.
In such a situation one of our earliest imprints
is : "Being alive is easy and satisfying."
Another imprint in such circumstances

is: "I always have enough. The Universe
supports me."
For some of us, however, there may

be a moment when the placental membranes
have separated or the cord has been cut and
the child is no longer getting what he needs
from Mama, but hasn't yet taken his first breath
in this world. This moment can be the
paradigm for immense anxiety in later life, due
to the imprints formed during the time before
the infant breathes.
Until such a baby takes his first breath,

he's alive only because of the oxygen he
receives from the "extra" red blood cells
characteristic of birth. Whatever his early
imprints may be, they are formed in the
presence of the high oxygen titer in the blood
provided by the extra red blood cells. If the
oxygen these extra cells carry is almost all
used up before the infant breathes, he may
well imprint the Thought: "Living is difficult. I
can't get what I want. No one supports me."
Whether this safety cushion of extra

red blood cells is needed or not, it exists in us
at the time that we form the majority of our
basic belief systems, at the time when we
imprint the conditions of our survival.
Thus we need to get back into a

similar state in order to make available for
conscious scrutiny the memories and beliefs
that we charged and stored in the limbic
system centers at that time.
An easy way to do that is to increase

respiration, provoking a sympathetic discharge
and response, without performing any
muscular action whatsoever: lie comfortably in
a relaxed condition on the floor, not moving,
not thrashing, not emoting, not into our old
feelings; simply breathing and allowing the
mind to play itself back through time until it
arrives at the early images which form the
foundation of our basic belief system.
Just like a Rebirthing session.
I think the predominant effect of

Rebirthing is to increase respiration and thus
bring about the physiological state in which our
basic belief systems were instituted. If these
imprints are, as I believe, indeed state-
dependent memories, we need to duplicate the
physiological state present at birth to be able
to change our minds about them.
Can Imprints Be Altered Easily Once

Original States Are Re-established?
Changing our minds isn't a very

difficult thing to do so long as the thoughts that
we want to change are accessible. Every time
you've learned something, you've changed
your mind. It is simple and takes almost no
effort whatsoever. For example, all of us went
to school not knowing arithmetic. When we
learned to add and then multiply, all of us
made mistakes, and all of us easily corrected
ourselves.
Correcting our mistakes wasn't a

major psychological event. We didn't need
psychiatric care to change our minds. Nothing
had to happen except the teacher put a mark
on your paper which said, "2 X 3 is not 5, 2 X 3
is 6," and then you realized, "Oh, I thought that
multiplication sign was an addition sign."
You learned you'd better look at an

arithmetic problem carefully, to see if it's an X
or a +.
You're constantly changing your mind

quite easily, even when emotions are
involved. For example, someone says
something and you think he said something
offensive. You say, "How come you said that
to me?"
He says, "Oh, that's not what I said. I

said so-and-so."
Once you hear clearly what he said,

and you can hear its relationship to what you
believe you heard, it's no trouble at all for you
to change your mind and let go all of the
feelings that were involved in your mistaken
initial perception.
Changing our mind is made even

easier when someone apologizes. We're
usually open to such persuasion, willing to
change our mind, willing to let go our rage and
our humiliation, and instead go into gracious
forgiveness so we can start having a good
time.
In most of our interactions, we don't

hold the Past against the Now and refuse to
acknowledge the Now because we're holding
on to the Past.
That's because these types of

"mistaken" beliefs aren't connected with
survival. We can correct these kinds of
mistakes without risking losing our lives.
I think that's an extremely important

point for people to keep in mind: We don't
hold on to our pain because we love it; we
don't hold on to our negatives because we like
them so much.
We hold on to our negatives only

because we're afraid if we change our mind
that we won't survive.
And so, when you run into something

in yourself or in another person where sweet
persuasion, honest talk, and reasonable
discussionCor even great physical painCmake
no change whatsoever in attitude and
behavior, you know that you're dealing with
something which is beyond Reason. You're
dealing with something that is beyond ordinary
consciousness.
It's probably some imprint that lies in

the limbic system, some thought that's part of
our basic beliefs regarded as necessary for
survival.
How Can We Determine What Our Imprints

Are?
I love one of Leonard Orr's phrases:

"Your results are your guru."
If you want to know what you've been

thinking, and what your thinking has produced,
just look at the universe around you and see
what you have.
See what is supportive, what is loving,

what is forgiving, what is joy-giving, and know
that you've created it. Your positive Thought
has been creative of a positive life.
And also see what is offending you,

what is troubling you, what is disappointing
you, what is upsetting you on any level, and
know that you have created that, too. Know
that you're still carrying around negatives of
that sort, imprints which have created your
negative circumstances. To change your life,
you must change your imprints.
Look at what you've got around you

and from it deduce what kinds of negative
messages you've been sending out. They're
most likely based on your imprints.
How Can We Change Our Imprints?
Changing our behavior through

deliberate acts of will usually does nothing
positive. We just submerge the imprints
deeper into our unconscious. Conscious or
unconscious denial doesn't keep our thoughts
from being "broadcast" at all; denial and
repression just keep broadcasting the imprints
on a frequency band that we're not picking up
on, but that the universe is responsive to.
So what can we do about changing

imprints? How can we change these
memories if they're not available for conscious
change?
There aren't many ways to make

fundamental changes in basic belief systems,
in imprints. In fact, there are only a handful of
such techniques.
Diet can be a tactic for altering the

effects of imprints. But dietary changes seem
to work more by bringing into dominance in the
conscious mind the up-to-date positive
attitudes, causing old negative ones to be
submerged rather than eliminated and revised.
So a clean diet doesn't necessarily produce a
benign Universe. More about diet and
consciousness is discussed in the next
chapter.
Another force that usually produces

fundamental changes is a life-threatening
catastrophe. If you are placed in a life-
threatening situation from which you are
miraculously rescued at the last moment,
generally speaking, you can count on having
the catastrophe change your mind in a lot of
really important ways. You just won't care
about the same things any more after such an
experience. As the old song goes, "I'm gonna
change my way of livin' and if that ain't
enough, I'll even change the way I strut my
stuff."
That's what happens to people

rescued from drowning or who survived air
crashes. It also happens to people who were
thrown into a wilderness, who were stranded at
sea on life rafts or in lifeboats, who by a
solitary effort protected themselves from the
environment and lasted until they were finally
rescued. Even people who were almost lost in
the depths of a life-threatening illness and who
then miraculously survived usually change in
fundamental ways.
When these survivors report their

stories, usually they report two phenomena:
One is, "I saw my whole life pass in front of
me, as if it were a motion picture film that I was
witnessing."
And the other is a significant change of

heart. "I realized how foolish I was to have
had all those negative thoughts, and I vowed
that if I ever lived through all that, I would be a
finer, more loving, more forgiving individual
than I have ever been."
Another force that seems to allow

people to alter their basic imprints is the force
of religious conversion. Something about what
people call Divine Love experienced in the
form of a felt connection through love with God
results in a person's being able to change
fundamental behavior patterns which seem to
rest on basic imprints.
I'm sure that receiving God's grace is a

marvelous, life-changing event. However, like
a cataclysmic event, it's not something that
can ordinarily be arranged for. At least I don't
think so, although firm believers may have
different thoughts.
Once I asked The Honorable Geshe

Kyatso, the spiritual leader of the University of
Tantric Buddhism in Ulverston, Cumbria,
England, why Tantra Buddhists persist with the
chanting and muddras and other Buddhist
practices and rituals which have been being
performed for 2500 years. His reply was, "Ah,
but we know this will work, if not in this lifetime,
then in another."
So convinced was He of His

connection with past incarnations, so
convinced is He of the reality, the rightfulness,
the utter predictability and reliability of His
having another future life if He doesn't become
"enlightened" in this one, that this lifetime itself
seems less important to Him than I think it is to
me in my framework. I don't have such
feelings of certainty of coming around again or,
if I should return, of being able, at that point in
the future, to know who I have been this time
around.
So, leaving aside the possibility that it

is indeed true, that through steadfast practice
of religious rituals a person can encounter God
reliably, for most of us such practices aren't
indulged in. So this avenue for changing our
imprints becomes one we can earnestly hope
will happen to us, but not one that we generally
do much to promote.
Along with cataclysms and conversion

experiences, another experience which does
seem to alter basic imprints is the kind of
change in consciousness which accompanies
the use of psychedelic drugs. All thought is
the consequence of a pattern of distribution of
biochemical agents on the matrix of our brain,
and psychedelic drugs alter that pattern.
Psychedelic drugs are called mind-blowers, for
a good reason: They blow your mind. They
open up your current consciousness to a
reflection upon other thoughts and feelings that
you've been keeping submerged inside of
you. And some of these are directly connected
with our basic imprints.
Used wisely by insightful, conscious,

directed individuals, psychedelic drugs have
been an immense help in allowing people to
alter basic imprints and become more
psychosexually mature individuals, living in the
present, here and now, free of judgment, free
of expectation, free of the need to understand.
People like Stanislav Grof and Timothy

Leary and Ram Dass (Richard Alpert) who
consciously used psychedelics to change
imprints are people for whom I have immense
respect and love. I'm thankful that they existed
and devoted much of their lives to the study of
these substances.
However, many people find the use of

psychedelic drugs abhorrent. They don't want
to alter their patterns for fear that they will be
changing some innate Self which they believe
is not itself a consequence of the pattern of
distribution of biochemical agents on the matrix
of the brain they used to have when they were
younger, but is instead somehow an "intrinsic
self." They believe they'll stop being
"themselves" if they change their old mistaken
thoughts!
Additionally, of course, psychedelic

drugs are illegal for use in many parts of the
world. So their illicit use is accompanied by a
paranoia of sorts: the user isn't always sure
that what he's using is a pure substance, he
doesn't really know the dose level that he's
getting, and, furthermore, he has to be
rightfully and realistically paranoid about the
possibility of revealing to legal authorities that
he is using this drug-and/or of being betrayed.
In addition, probably more importantly,

most people using psychedelic drugs use them
to promote "good trips," to have more fun
doing whatever they're doing: going to
Disneyland, going surfing, making love,
listening to symphonies, whatever. Taken in a
hedonistic framework and attitude of mind,
psychedelics haven't done much to change the
basic imprints of most users.
Anyhow, for these many reasons,

psychedelic drugs are out for most people, just
as cataclysmic events and religious
conversions are.
There remains one last avenue to the

imprints, the royal road to consciousness of
imprints, and that is this interesting breathing
exercise that has been called Rebirthing.
Many people doing this kind of

breathing find consciousness altered as they
go back in time to reexperience the events of
their conception, their carriage, their delivery
and their early, early postnatal experiences.
If the changes are sufficiently

profound, we call this, "enlightenment."
Several Tantra Buddhist monks and nuns, as
well as several advanced practitioners of other
religious or spiritual rituals have told me the
experiences of their enlightenments were
essentially identical to the experiences of their
Rebirth sessions. In each case, they were
enveloped in white light and felt perfect love.
So it seems Rebirthing can provide
enlightenment, recognized as such by people
who practice other techniques that also lead to
it.
How Do I Know That Rebirthing Works to

Alter Imprints of "Ordinary" People?
Most of the people I've worked with as

a therapist, since 1978, with whom I have
utilized this Rebirthing breathing exercise,
have transformed their lives.
My belief is that their lives could not

have transformed unless they had changed
their minds, on so deep a level, so profound a
level, in so radical a way, that their imprints
were changed.
In summary, I think Rebirthing "works"

because it allows us to re-institute the state of
having the high-oxygen titer of the blood
characteristic of the newborn. When this state
is re-created, we gain access to our imprints.
Using our conscious mind, intelligently aware
of the Here and Now, we can access and
revise previously inaccessible imprints which
have been creating our reality. We can let go
old mistaken negative thoughts. We can truly
affirm,
My Thought creates a

Perfect Universe in which I
am totally safe, breathing
Fully and Freely, Here and
Now.

CHAPTER SIX
FOOD AND CONSCIOUSNESS The Logic of
Magical Thought
Connected with the question of how and The Dance of
Rebirthing works on the brain are several the Breath
questions of how the brain's conditions affect
the operations of the Mind.
What's going on in the brain when the INTRODUCTION

Mind works optimally, on a positive level?
CHAPTER ONE
If Thought Creates, what does the The Ideal Breath
brain need so its Mind thinks positive thoughts
and thus creates a positive Universe? CHAPTER TWO
The Difference
Are the conditions of the brain affected
by how foods influence energy level? Between Rebirthing
Does the brain react to certain foods,
directly, as allergens? CHAPTER THREE
The Difference
These questions are important Between the Ideal
because they lead to the fundamental Breath And Yogic
question: Can our Thought create a positive
Universe even though we eat foods that Breathing
usually upset the brain and thus lead to
disordered thought? CHAPTER FOUR
The Difference
I believe that until your life is running Between Rebirthing
the way you want it to run, until you have all And Primal Scream
the energy you need to do everything you want Therapy
to do, until you're working at a job you enjoy
that's making you the money that you need,
until you have a satisfying love relationship, CHAPTER FIVE
until you typically feel vigorous, healthy, and The Biology of
pain-free, you shouldn't put any food into your Imprints
body that isn't healthy for you! It will simply
distort your mood and attitude, it will affect CHAPTER SIX
your energy level, and it will make getting real
satisfactions from work and life even more Food and
difficult. Consciousness
When I first became involved in CHAPTER SEVEN

Rebirthing, I was very amazed, actually Rebirthing and
dumbfounded, to see Rebirthers eating foods Bodywork Therapies
that are really not awfully nourishing as they
intoned various affirmations, like "Everything I
eat turns to perfect beauty, health, and CHAPTER EIGHT
energy." Rebirthing and
Conventional
Leonard, for example, often joked Psychotherapies
about how happiness is eating a pound of
chocolate chip cookies every day or eating a
pint of licorice ice cream every day, and he did, CHAPTER NINE
indeed very often, eat things that most of us Rebirthing and
agree would qualify as junk. Neuro-Linguistic
Programming
I well remember another Rebirther
who still had an extremely bad case of what is CHAPTER 10
known as teenage acne, although he was in
his late twenties. He routinely ate a great deal Affirmations
of dairy products each day and made a point,
in fact, of having a hot fudge sundae or a CHAPTER 11
malted milkshake at least once a day. The Parental
Disapproval
I finally asked, "Tim, don't you think Syndrome
that that much dairy stuff is bad for you, not to
mention the sugar and the chocolate?"
CHAPTER 12
His reply was, "Only if I think it's bad Time, Work, and
for me. My thought is creative, and so long as Money:
I don't think that eating a chocolate malted Consciousness and
milkshake hurts me, it doesn't." Abundance
My reaction to all that is somewhat
scornful. I'm not especially tolerant of these CHAPTER 13
ideas because I believe they're on par with Sex and Loving
whistling in the graveyard. We're deluding Relationships
ourselves.
CHAPTER 14
Were we each of us, indeed, Masters Physical Immortality
in the sense of the few Hindu and Buddhist
saints who apparently are Masters, we might
be able to exist on a diet of only sugar candy CHAPTER 15
or even on a diet of only air, without suffering, Ethical
illness, or distorted thought. Consideration
But I know I'm not a Master. Not in CHAPTER 16
that sense. And I also know that I'm unlikely to Individual Rebirths
become a Master in that sense so long as I'm
walking around with negative thoughts and
feelings inside of me, negatives which cause CHAPTER 17
me to resist doing what "works" re diet and Group Rebirthings
exercise. I'm essentially condemning myself to
keep such negatives operative if I insist on CHAPTER 18
putting junk food, non-nutritious substances, in
me, so that I'm not truly nourishing my brain Organizing Trainings
and I'm not maintaining a high energy level. and Workshops
Rather than abuse the power of CHAPTER 19

affirmations by saying something untrue, The Standard
scientifically, I urge you to use affirmations to Rebirth Training
support and further your willingness to take
good care of yourself.
CHAPTER 20
So, rather than affirming something Running a Rebirth
silly like, "My body thrives on junk food," or Business
AThe more chocolate I eat, the healthier I
become," let go your underlying scarcity CHAPTER 21
consciousness and low self-esteem by
affirming, "I totally enjoy nourishing myself on Rebirthing
a diet that's 85 percent raw fruit, vegetables, Organizations
nuts and seeds."
You deserve to nourish yourself so

you can develop your highest spiritual
qualities. Give yourself the energy you need to
keep your thought positive!
If your brain is subject to sudden

arrests of its energy or raw materials for good
thoughts, it may re-experience similar pre- or
peri-natal lacks and go back into its old
negative scarcity thoughts.
To keep your Thought pure and

positive, your brain has to have a constant
supply of the energy and nutrients it uses in
manufacturing thoughts and it has to feel
secure that that supply comes from an infinite
abundance. The satisfied brain experiences a
balance between intake and output of energy
so that Thought remains consistently positive.
And the single item that most easily provides
such balance is your diet. When you decide
what to put in your mouth, you're essentially
deciding if you want to think positive thoughts
or negative ones.
So, if energy is a problem for you,

change your diet! I recommend you read and
follow the book, Fit for Life, written by Diamond
and Diamond. Take care of your energy
problems by putting foods into you that you
don't need to use a lot of energy to digest.
That way, you end with a surplus of energy to
devote to making your life what you want it to
be by making your Thought positive.
Negatives about food are part of our

earliest imprints. They're a major part of our
Parental Disapproval Syndrome, and they are
also often thoughts our mothers had about
eating when they were pregnant or even when
they conceived (we shared those thoughts as
the neurohumors basic to those thoughts of
hers entered our placental circulation).
One such negative is the idea that I

can't get enough of any pleasure to be
satisfied. And another such negative is the
idea that I need certain artificial pleasures to
make up for not being able to get other
important and real gratifications. Tastes and
certain quantities of special foods are often
such pleasures that are misused as
substitutes.
I see scarcity consciousness behind

the idea that junk foods are okay to eat
routinely. I see the Parental Disapproval
Syndrome and the refusal to do what's good
for me. I see all kinds of confusions between
necessary nutrition and addictions or
compulsions.
For example, the overweight woman

who has a love affair with her refrigerator and
gets up twenty times in the course of an
evening to go get a little snack, especially a
junk food snack, is not eating a fully nourishing
diet. She may also be feeling a lack of contact
and gratification in her personal relations. She
may be trying to make up to herself for what
she regards as a state of love
deprivationCperhaps she thinks if she had
somebody she thought she loved, who loved
her, she would be too excited in her infatuation
to eat or she would be better inclined to stay
away from food addiction.
Whatever her motives may be, by

eating junk food, which is addicting, she
condemns herself to the addicted compulsion
to consume more. And she probably won't get
other satisfactions she wants until her thought
is cleared of her addictions. She's cheating
herself by indulging herself. She won't stop
wanting until she stops using.
One of the scientific truths in

psychology and physiology is that one
satisfaction can't make up for another.
For example, if I suffer from not taking

in enough calories, if I'm hungry, I can drink
water, lots of water, enough water to distend
my body and fill it, but that still isn't going to
undo my hunger. It isn't going to satisfy my
hunger. I need to put calories in in order to
satisfy hunger.
Similarly, if I am getting tired and

sleepy, if it's been twenty hours or more since I
last slept, then I may be able to drive myself, to
push myself, especially if I put some high
calorie foods in to give me a boost of quick
energy, but ultimately the only thing that's
going to satisfy my craving for rest and
unconsciousness is sleep. Beyond a certain
level of intoxication with fatigue products,
eating won't do it and even moving around
won't do it, although it's true that we can
temporarily change our energy distribution by
moving around. (If you're finding yourself
getting sleepy or bored before your customary
bedtime, stand up and do a couple of quick
deep-knee bends. Nobody needs to see you
doing them. You can look as if you're picking
a pencil up, as if you're looking for something
on the floor. The little bit of exercise is enough
to stir up your liver, to release some glycogen,
which gets converted to glucose and moved
into the cells, and all of a sudden you have
energy to do things with. It's energy you've
withdrawn from your Asavings account" in the
glycogen stores in your liver.)
Most people who don't have enough

energy to do what they need and want to do
are eating a diet of manufactured foods, foods
that are cooked, foods that are created out of
other basic raw products. When you mostly
eat cooked foods, especially a diet high in
flesh foods and refined carbohydrates, your
energies fluctuate up and down. Your brain
reacts to these changes, affecting your mood
and your attitude so you may find it really hard
to get things started or to keep at them until
you get them done.
In that connection, for those of you

who think that refined carbohydrates are a fast
way of getting an energy fix, let me point out
that you pay the price for that quick fix in a
rebound phenomenon that ends up lowering
energy further, and you're also assaulting the
integrity of your pancreas and your liver.
Why do that to yourself?
Get your energy from natural sources,

not from man made sources. Pieces of fruit or
a handful of nuts and seeds provide energy
that you can take in at a slower rate than a jolt
of sugar; they don't disrupt the normal
physiological functioning of your pancreas and
your liver.
By simply changing your diet to one

where eighty to eighty-five percent of whatever
you eat is raw, fresh fruit, vegetables, nuts,
and seeds, you will find that you have an
immense amount of energy available at your
disposal.
Probably because of pre-natal imprints

as well as later ones, many Westerners
habitually operate in crisis consciousness and
also are highly concerned with physical
appearance. Many such people decide that
the only way they're going to make their lives
start "working" is by becoming slim and
beautiful and stylish. So they go full tilt at a
weight loss diet that will be abandoned once
the desired weight level is reached. While
losing weight, their Thought is often pre-
occupied with scarcity, with not getting enough
food, with being hungry. Then, typically, once
weight goals are reached and new clothes are
bought, these people go back to the same
former eating habits that originally led to
undesirable weight gain. As they gain the
weight back, their Thought is often pre-
occupied with scarcity, with not being attractive
enough to deserve or get enough love.
As I've traveled around the world, I've

been especially struck by how slim and erect
people are in must Asian countries where flesh
foods are not eaten as heavily as they are by
Westerners and where grains are used
differently. They eat mostly natural foods
instead of processed ones. The medical
conditions associated with junk diets and
subsequent overweight aren't a big problem in
those countries, for example, they don't have
the same incidence of heart disease or of
certain cancers as is found in Western
countries. Also, overweight does not seem to
be a problem for most AsiansCeven those who
aren't too poor to buy much food. Their
customary diet is closer-to-natural and is
sufficiently satisfying so they don't overeat in
the effort to gain some missing nutrient.
Every time I've flown back from Asia

either into one of the western European
countries, especially the United Kingdom, or
into an American airport, I've been just
amazed by how many ugly, fat people I've
seen. I'm not talking about a certain amount of
plumpness, maybe ten or twenty pounds of
extra weight. I'm talking about the people who
waddle past weighing a hundred or more
pounds more than their frame is built to carry
healthilyCpeople who are almost grotesquely
overweight. I can't believe they're happy and
satisfied with life.
They are probably allergic to certain

foods that Westerners usually eat daily,
addictively, so that they wouldn't feel Afed" if
they didn't get themCfoods like wheat, eggs,
milk and cheese, pork and beef, and sugar.
Like all addictions, the more they eat, the more
they want, so they become gross over-eaters.
Desire for these allergenic foods can only stop
after they're no longer consumed and the
withdrawal symptoms have passed.
When new patients first come to me,

usually during our first hour or two together, I
ask if they have such symptoms as fatigue,
joint pain, restriction of motion, or frequent
panic states or mood swings. If so, I suggest
they consult a physician or laboratory that
does good, reliable, highly scientific testing for
delayed food allergies to determine if certain
foods contribute to such physical and
psychological problems. They can then
eliminate from their diet all offending foods to
which they're allergic and create a diet which
genuinely nourishes then so they can keep
their Thought positive.
I often recommend Immuno

Laboratories in Fort Lauderdale, FloridaCThey
have an excellent and comprehensive
diagnostic testing program and provide prompt
service on mailed-in blood samples.
I usually check up on that at

subsequent sessions, asking if they have
contacted the doctor to determine delayed
food sensitivities yet. Once they know which
foods are offenders, I ask if they're staying on
a clean diet, and I encourage them to give
themselves at least six weeks of strict
compliance before taking even a minor break.
I often prepare special affirmations for them
like the ones in Appendix J. I firmly believe we
can't think straight if we don't eat straight.
I have not yet met any individual who

is conscious and sensitive and happy, yet who
consumes a rich diet and uses caffeine,
nicotine, and sugar. The people I know who
eat junk food and mostly cooked foods every
day are generally chronically lamenting the
state of their life. The only happy people I've
known have been abstemious and simple in
their food choices, leaning toward living food,
and avoiding the common household poisons,
especially sugar.
You need healthy energy to think

positive thoughts that will re-create your life.
So be good to yourself and stay on a healthy
diet.
When people argue that that's going

against the idea that thought is creative, my
response has to be essentially the same as
before:
We are not yet any of us Masters.
So let's give ourselves a break and

give ourselves a chance. Eat right. Eat only
the foods that are nourishing to your body, not
foods that ultimately offend your body, not junk
foods that you are most allergic to.
Mind you, these may be "perfectly

decent foods." But if you're allergic to them,
they're not for you. Most people in the U.S.A.
are allergic to wheat, eggs, milk and cheese,
corn, oats, peanuts, citrus fruit, and the family
of vegetables that includes the tomato and
potatoes and eggplants and peppers. If you
don't want to pay a lab for a comprehensive
test for your specific delayed food reactions, at
least try to eliminate these foods for six weeks
and see how much better you feel and how
much happier you are with your life.
Finding out what foods you are allergic

to and eliminating them from your diet is
probably the easiest, fastest way to change
your mind.

CHAPTER SEVEN
REBIRTHING AND BODYWORK The Logic of
THERAPIES Magical Thought
and The Dance of
Rebirthing is successful to the extent the Breath
that what you're doing with your body permits
you to breathe fully and freely. In the final
analysis, your Body and Mind are one, and
your Body and Spirit are one. Your Body INTRODUCTION
shows you what you're thinking and feelingCor
still holding on to from your past. CHAPTER ONE
The Ideal Breath
For example, if you were always
apprehensive as a child, your shoulders are CHAPTER TWO
probably chronically hunched. If you were
always at the ready to become violent, your The Difference
arms may be character- istically held out from Between Rebirthing
your sides. If you were always ashamed to and Hyperventilation
look anyone in the eye, your gaze is probably
always cast down with your head shrunk down
CHAPTER THREE
toward your chest. If you're always in a rush to
get somewhere, being forceful and assertive The Difference
and aggressive, your body is probably bent at Between the Ideal
the hips so that the top part of the body is Breath And Yogic
leaning forward like the woman who used to be Breathing
portrayed on the Old Dutch cleanser can. Or if
you're reluctant to step forward into your future
and you're still clinging to your past, you're CHAPTER FOUR
probably leaning back with your legs going The Difference
forward, while the upper body is actually at a Between Rebirthing
backwards slant, like the `Keep on Trucking' And Primal Scream
sign.
Therapy
Your success with Rebirthing is
dependent upon your breathing musculature's CHAPTER FIVE
being able to relax. If you've got your The Biology of
shoulders hunched and your chest caved in Imprints
and your belly stuck out, for example, you're
certainly not going to be able to draw a really
CHAPTER SIX
full breath into your chest. Various bodywork
therapies can help change such habits. So I Food and
wholeheartedly recommend all the forms of Consciousness
body therapy that help you breathe bigger.
CHAPTER SEVEN
During the past thirty years, many Rebirthing and
forms of holistic treatment have been Bodywork Therapies
introduced to the public. Most of the new,
Western forms depend upon hands-on
movement and manipulation of the body. CHAPTER EIGHT
Rebirthing and
Probably the first one to gain a great Conventional
deal of recognition was Structural Integration, Psychotherapies
developed by Ida Rolf and thus usually called
"Rolfing". It is based on the assumption that CHAPTER NINE
when a person habitually feels a certain feeling
or is habitually demonstrating a particular Rebirthing and
attitude, by his posture, he holds certain Neuro-Linguistic
muscles tense and immobilized. As he keeps Programming
these muscles from relaxing and moving
fluidly, the fascial sheathes that surrounds CHAPTER 10
each muscle group, as well as each individual
muscle cell, shorten and tighten, and this Affirmations
fascia may even, in fact, develop adhesions to
neighboring fascial sheathes. The result is CHAPTER 11
that there is less fluidity to movement and The Parental
more block-like stasis of the body. Also, the Disapproval
bodyCand thus the mindCcontinues to
experience the emotions that gave rise to the Syndrome
habitual stance.
CHAPTER 12
Whatever the body habitus might be, Time, Work, and
Rolfing seeks to alter it by forcibly stretching Money:
and separating the fascial sheathes around the Consciousness and
major muscle groups in the body. As the
Rolfing strokes open up the body, the Abundance
associated emotional blocks are also opened.
The Rolfing program is usually a series of ten CHAPTER 13
sessions, each concentrating on one part of Sex and Loving
what Wilhelm Reich called the "body armor." Relationships
The first session works on the diaphragm and
the intercostal muscles, as well as the muscles
of the waist, to free up the breathing. The CHAPTER 14
second session concentrates on the Physical Immortality
abdominals that have been held tight,
especially by people who have trouble eating
CHAPTER 15
too much or not eating enough. Subsequent
sessions work on the muscles of the legs, the Ethical
arms, the pelvis, the shoulder girdle, etc. Consideration
Rolfing is a painful process. It may CHAPTER 16

cause soreness, even bruising. Most Rolfers Individual Rebirths
still believe that it is important to feel the pain
so that it "can be integrated into
consciousness," whatever that term means. CHAPTER 17
To me, such pain has been essentially Group Rebirthings
meaningless.
CHAPTER 18
I often wondered if it wouldn't be Organizing Trainings
possible to anesthetize an individual and do
the Rolfing session on him successfully while
and Workshops
he was totally unconscious. Since it's the
muscles and fascia that presumably are CHAPTER 19
holding the old negative thought and feeling, The Standard
not the Thinker, what difference could it Rebirth Training
make? But I was always told that doing
anything to reduce the pain was a no-no, and
that the pain of Rolfing was part of what made CHAPTER 20
it a therapeutic process. Running a Rebirth
Business
I myself "did" several series of ten
Rolfing sessions. In fact, moving from my first CHAPTER 21
Rolfer to a second and third, I bought myself Rebirthing
almost one hundred hours of physical torture.
I still believe that whatever benefits I received Organizations
came from the freeing up of my fascia, not
from my putting up with the intense pain from
the strokes.
Another body therapy that gained wide

recognition shortly after Rolfing was first
introduced is the form of joint manipulation that
was developed by Dr. Milton Trager. Unlike
Rolfing, Trager work is generally not at all
painful. Indeed, it's often quite playful and
pleasurable.
Trager work seeks to alter the body's

stance, posture, etc., by gently moving, almost
playing, with each joint, increasing its
movement. So, for example, the head, while
supported in two hands, is bounced back and
forth so that the atlas and axis develop more
and more freedom of movement.
In a complete session, the Trager work

goes from the neck across the shoulders,
down the arms, up the legs, across the back,
across the abdomen, up into the chest, and up
into the head again. The person gains an
increasing sensation of greater fluidity and
greater expansive movement. He can use his
body more effortlessly. Subsequent sessions
go over the body entirely, too, each time
increasing its mobility.
I'm not certain that consciousness

during the Trager session is important at all. It
seems to me that if passively moving the joint
allows it to relax and develop greater freedom
of movement, then consciousness is not
necessary. I know that Dr. Trager has indeed
worked on people who were anesthetized.
Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais was the

innovator of another bodywork which involves
not only hands-on work by the Feldenkrais
practitioner, but also self-conscious movement
by the patient. Such self-awareness is
extremely effective in helping people with birth-
related neuromuscular problems like spastic
paralysis.
Of all forms of "Western" bodywork, I

most enjoy Ortho Bionomy, a form of body
work that was developed by Arthur Lincoln
Pauls. Ortho Bionomy seeks to readjust
posture and stance by supporting the preferred
position rather than trying to alter it. As such,
there isn't very much movement to it and there
is almost no discomfort or pain. It enables the
portions of the brain concerned with posture
and movement, especially the cerebellum, to
readjust the amount of tension held in
particular muscles, which in turn hold the
skeleton in certain positions. Having the
shoulder supported in the preferred tense
position, for example, seems to allow the
cerebellum to "decide" that the shoulder's
habitual tension is too great. When the Ortho
Bionomist stops supporting a specific muscle
group or joint, the cerebellum readjusts and
goes back to ordering a normal amount of
tension which is experienced as immediate
relaxation.
Whatever the cause of the held

tension may be, we maintain the chronic
position because the metencephalon centers
"regard" that posture as normal or necessary.
For example, it's as if our cerebellum

were a thermostat that has decided that a
certain amount of tension in our shoulder
muscles is normal. Thus, although we know
intellectually that our shoulders are tense and
hard to the touch, we cannot voluntarily relax
the shoulder muscles. Being stretched by
Rolfing allows them to relax. Being played
with through Trager work allows them to
develop greater flexibilities and more
relaxation. Deliberately and consciously
moving in the Feldenkrais patterns improves
movement, too. And, as just described, Ortho
Bionomy also re-sets the muscular tension and
creates greater flexibility.
Other forms of bodywork like

Reflexology, Applied Kinesiology, Touch for
Health, acupressure, and acupuncture all work
on the philosophy that there is some
disturbance of the flow of energy up and down
what are referred to in Eastern medicine as
meridians. If that energy can be re-routed so
that all meridians are receiving a normal flow
of energy, then the organs of the body,
including its skeleton and its musculature, will
start performing on a homeostatic basis, an
holistically healthy basis.
All of these Eastern bodywork forms

work. I don't object to any of them. I think
they're all great. But I have difficulty
understanding what the meridians are. An I
also can't understand how we can ever keep
our energies going correctly if just rubbing an
arm, for example, in one direction rather than
the opposite way can seriously disrupt the flow
of energy. What happens if we brush against
someone in a crowd? Or rub ourselves the
"wrong" way when we use a towel? This isn't
to say I think these bodywork forms that are
based on energy flowing in the meridians are
hokum. I don't. I like them and enjoy them. I
just can't understand them.
People often ask, "Is it all right to get

involved with bodywork therapies while we're
also involved with Rebirthing?"
And I reply, "Of course, there's no

antithesis between them."
I see all these bodywork techniques as

working together with Rebirthing. I don't see
them as opposed to each other in any way.
I recommend to most of my Rebirthing

clients that they get involved with Trager work
or Ortho Bionomy or Touch for Health work in
order to allow their ribcage to open up more
fully so that they can take even bigger, more
satisfying breaths, more effortlessly. For
people with severely distorted and restricted
chests, I recommend Rolfing, although I think
that forcibly stretching a muscle isn't as good
as getting that muscle to relax because the
mind lets it.
Every so often, somebody wants to

Rebirth while simultaneously being Tragered
or having a Touch for Health session. I don't
go along with that.
I'm not saying that's wrong. I'm just

saying it's confusing and difficult.
After experimenting with myself and

several dozen patients, I finally concluded that
it's much easier to simply do one therapy or
treatment at a time, with one closely following
the other.
I think it's much better to have the

sessions back to back rather than having a
body session one day of the week, then a
Rebirthing session another day of the week.
To the extent possible, I have people who are
involved with bodywork do their body session
just before they do their Rebirthing session
with me. I see the bodywork primarily as
facilitating the breathwork.
For quite a while, I offered to clients a

lovely way to combine therapies by having
them come first to have a bodywork session
with Louis or any of the other body therapists
that I work with most closely. Then, once they
felt relaxed and open, we started the breathing
segment, using the ideal Rebirthing breath,
breathing for an hour. I found that people
simply blossomed and thrived with that
approach.
Another combined approach that I

offered consisted of three sessions: first, a
conference session with me for an hour or two,
in which we worked on establishing specific
affirmations to handle the client's negatives;
this was followed by a bodywork session with
Louis who, being extensively trained in all the
bodywork forms mentioned in this chapter,
could be eclectic about which technique he
used on the client's outstanding restrictions of
chest movement; and third, a wet Rebirth
session in my hot tub. The people who came
on the weekends when such a Athree-ring
circus" was offered all enjoyed it hugely and
felt they received immense benefits.
In this connection, I have found that

sending Rebirthing clients to bodyworkers who
are not involved with the breath or clean diets
doesn't seem to work well.
The bodywork therapists that I refer

Rebirthing clients to are people who have
Rebirthed extensively and are well acquainted
with Rebirthing, and also are people who
acknowledge that diet is a major factor in the
production of tension and pain in the body.
This doesn't mean that I only make

referrals to people who are vegetarians or
people who are primarily committed to the Fit
for Life diet. But it does mean that I won't
make referrals to therapists who do not
acknowledge the effect of delayed allergic food
reactions on the musculature and joints.
So first I recommend that before you

become involved with bodywork, you pay
attention to what you're eating. Make sure that
you're putting living foods that are not
allergenic, offending foods into your body at
every meal.
It's really easy for

me to stay on a diet of
foods that are good
for me.
Then get yourself some bodywork so

you can breathe as fully and freely as possible.
It's really easy for

me to maintain a
healthy posture that
allows me to breathe
fully to the top of my
chest.
Then practice the Rebirthing breath

and change the way you think by correcting
your primary negative thoughts with
affirmations that, if necessary, you force
yourself to use habitually, so that you're
training your Thinker to think differently.
The more fully and

freely I breathe, the
more positive my
Thoughts are.

CHAPTER EIGHT
REBIRTHING AND CONVENTIONAL The Logic of
PSYCHOTHERAPIES Magical Thought
and The Dance of
The major difference between traditional the Breath
methods of talk therapy and Rebirthing is well
illustrated in the following scenario:
INTRODUCTION
A man has been stabbed; the knife is
still in his body, hurting him with his every CHAPTER ONE
breath. He holds the protruding knife to keep it The Ideal Breath
from wounding him even more as his body
shakes in agony.
CHAPTER TWO
One of his friends, seeking to provide The Difference
aid, asks solicitously, "How did it happen?" Between Rebirthing
The friend listens compassionately as
the victim describes in exact detail the CHAPTER THREE
circumstances leading up to the stabbing.
They talk back and forth until the victim has The Difference
fully communicated what happened, has given Between the Ideal
his ideas about why it happened, and has fully Breath And Yogic
explained how the knife still prevents him from Breathing
breathing or moving freely.
CHAPTER FOUR
Still, after all the talk and explanation,
the knife remains in place and the victim The Difference
continues to suffer. Between Rebirthing
And Primal Scream
That's conventional psychotherapy-it Therapy
concentrates on the negatives.
CHAPTER FIVE
Another friend comes to help. His The Biology of
questions are different. Not concerned about
how the stabbing came about, he instead asks,
Imprints
"How do you feel about being stabbed? How
do you feel about the person who stabbed CHAPTER SIX
you? Have you ever felt like that before?" Food and
Consciousness
They, too, talk back and forth until the
victim has thoroughly ventilated his feelings
about having been stabbed. But, the knife is CHAPTER SEVEN
still in him and he still suffers. Rebirthing and
Bodywork Therapies
That's expressive, emotion-release
therapy. CHAPTER EIGHT
Rebirthing and
Finally, a third friend comes by and Conventional
asks, "What are you doing with that knife still
stuck in you? Why don't you get rid of it?"
Rsychotherapies
He, too, listens patiently while the CHAPTER NINE

suffering man explains that the knife hurts so Rebirthing and
much he doesn't dare move it and he has to Neuro-Linguistic
keep it in place. The friend points out that the Programming
knife will drop out once the victim stops holding
onto it and encourages him to let it go,
whereupon the knife clatters to the floor. The CHAPTER 10
wound bleeds a little, but that's part of the Affirmations
natural healing which immediately starts to
take place. In a relatively short time, even the CHAPTER 11
memory of the incident is forgotten as the man
rushes to get back to having fun. The Parental
Disapproval
That's Rebirthing. Syndrome
Like the first two friends in this CHAPTER 12
scenario, traditional psychotherapies are
concerned with epiphenomena, like deciding Time, Work, and
how you were hurt, why you were hurt, how Money:
your hurt still affects your here-and-now life, Consciousness and
etc. Such considerations don't stop the pain. Abundance
They merely give you a comfortable intellectual
understanding of your pain and your
adjustment to it. You isolate yourself from your CHAPTER 13
pain as you intellectualize, even as you Sex and Loving
engage in dream interpretations and free Relationships
associations. But you don't eliminate the pain
or its source. CHAPTER 14
Most so-called successful
psychotherapy merely results in the patient's
being able to divorce himself from his CHAPTER 15
problems sufficiently to perform and act like Ethical
other people who, presumably, don't have Consideration
such problems.
CHAPTER 16
I know that my former colleagues who
still practice traditional talk therapy are well- Individual Rebirths
trained, compassionate, sensitive, and devoted
to the form of psychotherapy being practiced. CHAPTER 17
I've never known a therapist who was Group Rebirthings
indifferent to the costs in money and time and
painful discomfort spent by the patients
consulting him for help. CHAPTER 18
Yet most continue to practice the and Workshops
technique they settled upon in their late
twenties and scorn most innovations including CHAPTER 19
even diet and nutritional supplement The Standard
approaches to mood, energy, and other
personality variables. Rebirth Training
I imagine something about the old CHAPTER 20

mode resonates with the early imprints these Running a Rebirth
therapists established, so changing their minds Business
about therapy is as difficult as giving up any
other convictions based on early imprints.
CHAPTER 21
It's almost as if therapists are afraid Rebirthing
they may jeopardize their safety if they change Organizations
their basic beliefs.
That's why I urge people, especially

therapists, to engage in a Rebirth session
before deciding they don't approve of it.
In a sense, traditional talk

psychotherapies are like the use of tranquilizer
drugs that blot out human consciousness
along with alleviating anxiety, or the use of
psychosurgery and convulsive shock that
interrupt normal brain function. These all
either cover up or prevent old negatives from
determining the patient's behavior on the
superficial level of today's acceptable social
behavior, yet the problem may still operate,
determining private feelings and thoughts,
interfering with healthy basic bodily reactions.
By contrast, Rebirthing appears to

eliminate tension and disease (dis-ease). The
client becomes healthy and positive
automatically as a consequence of letting go
the negative feelings and thoughts and bodily
reactions which characterize his disease. No
longer is there a split between private and
public, between the symbol and the reality.
What is revealed in the Rebirther's social acts
is a direct enactment of the consciously
perceived Self.
All people recapitulate the

circumstances of their birth in everything that
they do. They develop their ego mechanisms
on the foundation of the outstanding factors of
their birth. Their consciousness is closely
related to the pre-natal, peri-natal, and post-
natal states that had the greatest charge for
them.
Dr. Stanislav Grof delineates a limited

number of such states of consciousness:
First, there is endless oceanic bliss,

the sort of feeling that a wanted, happy infant
experiences from the time of conception
through his first few months of womb
existence. Everything is being provided to the
enlarging, growing fetus, who's exploding into
life. All the waste products are being taken
away as promptly as they're created. The
baby is just in Bliss.
Other people later in life may still be

lost in their efforts to return to this stage, the
only state of bliss they have ever experienced.
In their search for such autistic satisfaction,
they may become opiate addicts, alcoholics,
over-eaters, or withdrawn psychotics. Mood
disturbances accompany their failure to
achieve the bliss they cling to from the first
stage.
Other people are trapped in the

second stage of womb existence where there
is increasing discomfort due to the increasing
concentration of waste products not carried
away fast enough, and the increasing sense of
deprivation as food, energy, and oxygen aren't
provided at the same previously high rate. The
discomfort becomes increasingly greater until
finally the child seeks to escape from that
uncomfortable state through initiating the
process of birth, which leads to a third state of
existence.
People arrested in this second pre-

natal stage generally experience life as
threatening and overwhelming. They may
become aggressive as they project their
impotence or simply reveal their doubt and
weakness in paranoid and obsessive
behavior.
In the third stage, the first post-natal

state, freedom from the old constraint of the
womb is achieved, but at the price of
experiencing chaos. A lot of different
sensations assault the newborn child, not only
light and sound and temperature changes, but
also touch and weight. Most importantly, if he
is to succeed in staying alive, the newborn
child must breathe for himself and must
receive nourishment, support, nurturance, and
succorance from those around him. Because
all this may be fraught with struggle, this third
stage may very well be regarded as a
continuation of the birth struggle, perhaps
made psychologically worse because the
infant's rejection of the womb has brought this
third stage about. His independent decision to
leave the womb hasn't brought him the relief
he seeks. Compulsions, impulsivity, and
hysteria are developed as the individual seeks
to handle the anxiety of dealing with the many
sensory assaults and needs accompanying
this third stage.
And then, finally, there is the fourth

state of existence. This is where the person
no longer seeks that blissful oceanic union that
characterized the first stage, and where the
person no longer feels the increasing
discomfort, alienation, isolation, and separation
that are part of the second stage or the
incessant need and struggle of the third stage.
In the fourth stage, everything is integrated.
Otto Rank called this stage "the state of being
a true artist"in the experience of life. True
artists in living can create bliss and satisfaction
for themselves.
A person who is still holding on to his

grievances from the first three states is not and
cannot be psychologically mature and healthy.
One way or another, he's stuck in his birth.
He's emotionally ill. Whatever the symptoms
of his illness may be, his illness is always the
same: he hasn't left his birth behind.
For me, just as the illness is always

the same, the cure is always the same: Let go
old birth-related negatives that you've been
carrying around and holding onto in your body
and your thought and your feelings and your
spirit and your being, and think positive
thoughts that allow you to create an ongoing
positive, supportive reality for yourself.
What your old negatives are doesn't

matter. Getting rid of them is all that counts.
As Leonard Orr put it, "You don't need to sort
through the garbage to find out what stinks.
You just need to throw it out." The breathing
will get rid of them.
And of the several ways already

described for letting old negatives go, I
recommend Rebirthing.
Rebirthing is not an analysis of

whatever is involved in perpetuating the painful
condition. Rebirthing is a healing of birth.
Rebirthing easily and promptly moves

people through their birth and through the
uncomfortable post-natal stages. They are
thus in a position to create post-natal bliss for
themselves, to have the constantly new,
satisfying life of the artist that Rank and Grof
both spoke of.
When I first got involved with

Rebirthing and started to study it, I realized
that there are an immense number of
connections between Rebirthing and the
theories of perception that were formulated in
experimental psychology by the early
scientistsC the Gestaltists, people like Kafka
and Kohler. These extremely objective
experimentalists discovered the very basis of
Rebirthing: "Keine Gestalt ohne Gestalter,"that
is, "There is no pattern without the pattern-
maker."
When we translate that from the world

of experimental psychology into the realm of
ordinary interaction in life, it is still valid and
true. I, by my Thought, am constantly creating
the life that I am interacting with. To heal
myself, I must change my Thought. I won't
progress by concentrating on my grievances. I
must stop thinking my negative thoughts.
We all know that the very same activity

or event can be regarded in different settings
with at least two totally different kinds of
appreciation. For example, I don't take offense
if I'm walking down the street and suddenly a
friend I haven't seen for years runs over to me,
turns me around, punches me in the arm and
says, excitedly, "Goddammit, you son of a
bitch!"
My reaction is to grab him in

exchange, thump him on the back as I hug
him, and to say, "Goddamn you son of a bitch!
Where have you been? I haven't seen you in
ages!"
My reaction is not one of pain. Being

thumped and grabbed doesn't hurt me at all.
Instead I feel exaltation and joyful surprise.
Imagine another example: I just

brought in the winning run, I've just come
across home plate, my team has just won the
World Series, and now we are acknowledged
as the world's best baseball team because of
me!
What's going to happen to me? Why,

the minute I come across home plate,
everybody on my team is going to run over and
pile on top of me, hitting me, thumping me,
grabbing me, twisting me, tossing me around,
cursing and yelling. And with all that, it's going
to be a moment of great triumph and joy for
me, not pain.
By contrast, if I'm walking down the

street and some stranger moves against me
and I have the impression that he didn't notice
me or care about brushing up against me, I
may well take offense. When I look at my
body later, I may even find that I actually got
scratched or bruised by getting bumped
against, however innocently the person
bumping me might have been contacting me.
Anybody who has done the firewalks

or boardbreaking has learned, quite definitely,
that thought controls reactions of the body. It
is truly mind over matter.
Strangely enough, apparently this has

been ignored by most psychotherapists. What
talk therapists have failed to acknowledge is
the effect of the talk therapy process itself.
The majority of the time spent in

conventional therapy is spent analyzing and
discussing grievances. We spend our
sessions complaining about things that were
wrong, how we were harmed, what we did
wrong, how we hurt other people, how we've
screwed up, how our life has been screwed
up. The focus is always on the negatives.
No wonder most people find that talk

therapy doesn't work, that their lives simply
don't improve!
That's because Thought is Creative.

What we think about enlarges.
As the Bible says, "As a man thinketh,

so doth the man live."
If this idea is correct, it's easy to

understand why traditional therapies usually
fail to benefit the patient: he is constantly
concentrating on what was wrong in his life,
and so he is constantly creating more
grievances for himself!
Most of the people I see as Rebirth

clients have been in some form of conventional
psychotherapy before coming to me. Usually,
they have been involved with some form of
therapy that depends on talk, like
psychoanalytically-oriented psychotherapy,
Rogerian client-centered, non-directive
therapy, Gestalt therapy, psycho-drama, or
play-therapy. A few patients were even in the
newer forms like Zen therapy or Primal therapy
which depend on expressing and dramatizing
emotions, rather then on developing new
insights and cognitions with regard to life, as
the older, more traditional talk therapies do.
But whatever the form of conventional

talk therapy or the form of expressive therapy
was that they were involved with, such
therapy, generally speaking, was ineffective. It
took many months and years and it cost a
great deal, but the changes were not
significant.
If those therapies had worked, these

people wouldn't be coming for Rebirthing!
They come, still searching, because their other
therapies haven't worked to enable them to
create the lives they have wanted.
I've listened to many therapists say that
finding satisfaction is not the aim of therapy.
These other therapies, when they've been
regarded as successful, must have based their
criteria for "success"on something other than
happiness. Instead they talk about how it's
important for people to adjust to their
limitations, to stop having unrealistic
expectations, to acknowledge that they are
damaged. But I question, "Important for
what?"
Certainly not for happiness and

satisfaction. At the end of many years of hope
for change and the expenditure of immense
quantities of money, time, and effort, though
the typical patient may understand exactly why
he's as unhappy and sick as he is and why his
life is as bad as it is, and though he may at
least feel free to feel bad about it, his life still
hasn't changed!
Some therapies even make

acceptance of unsatisfying lives the very basis
of the therapy. Janov, for example, made a
big point in Primal Therapy, when I was
involved with it, in getting people to
acknowledge and accept the fact that they had
been damaged, they were ruined, there was
nothing that would ever happen to them that
would make life any better, they were crippled.
They had to accept that and acknowledge that
and orient their life around that. They had to
abandon all hope of ever being able to be
different. They stayed unhappy and
apparently incapable of being happy. So, of
course, they didn't get well.
After more than fifty years as a clinical

psychologist, ardently studying many
therapies, including client-centered and
Gestalt, and diligently practicing, first,
psychoanalytically-oriented psychotherapy,
then Primal therapy, and finally Rebirthing, I
conclude that talking about your troubles
doesn't help much and neither does getting
into your feelings.
From my point of view, the big problem

with conventional talk therapies, as with the
expressive, emotion-release therapies, is that
by concentrating on the negatives, they
perpetuate the negatives. Thus they don't
produce prompt healing.
I was certainly pleased with I first

moved into Rebirthing and found that it was
possible to concentrate on the breath and
concentrate on positive thoughts. As I did that,
they enlarged, and my life transformed.
People often ask me if I don't believe

that conventional therapy is nevertheless
necessary for people who are extremely
disturbed. They challenge by saying, AYou
couldn't use Rebirthing with someone who is
psychotic, could you?"
And my general reply is as follows:
A) First of all, most talk

therapies also don't work very well, if at all,
with people who are what we call psychotic.
The very few dedicated psychoanalysts, like
Sechehaye and Rosen for example, who dealt
with psychotic people, spent immense
amounts of time, years, with each individual
patient. Even then, while they may have
produced some significant results, by and
large their patients never became what would
be regarded ordinarily as normal people.
B) Secondly, of course I use

Rebirthing with psychotic people! I use it with
everyone and anyone who asks for help.
Indeed, the distinction between what is

psychotic and what is not becomes a
meaningless distinction once personality
development is placed into the birth
framework.
To say that one person who is caught

in one part of his birth process is "crazier"than
another person who's stuck in another part of
his birth process seems to me to be pretty
silly. I see people who are labeled
"psychotic"as just manifesting some aspects of
birth consciousness and pre-natal
consciousness that are different from the ones
that people who are regarded as "neurotic"are
manifesting. Diagnosis no longer involves
labeling the disease state on the basis of
which later psychosexual development stages
symbolically represent the birth stage in which
a patient is stuck-all that matters is that the
patient is stuck and the connected breathing
pattern enables him to let go his attachment to
whatever birth stage most caused his failure to
progress into living in reality.
I've also taught many attendants,

nurses, psychiatrists, and residents in mental
health hospitals how to use Rebirthing, and
there have been several programs that
involved the routine use of Rebirthing with
psychotic people. All those programs resulted
in great, good, prompt positive effects.
Although such Rebirthing programs have all
been suspended after being used successfully,
the reasons for stopping have always been
political, rather than because Rebirthing
doesn't work with severely disturbed
individuals.
Several studies have been done in

hospitals, using Rebirthing as the treatment of
choice for randomly-selected new entering
psychotic patients. Such studies show that
Rebirthing is effective with psychotics. After
two or three Rebirth sessions, many thus-
diagnosed people came back in contact with
reality to such an extent that they were
discharged promptly from the mental health
hospitals in which they had been incarcerated.
Yet, because of the usual unfortunate politics
and economics of hospitalization, Rebirthing
has not yet replaced conventional talk
therapies in such situations.
Most of my fellow mental health

professionals readily agree that the traditional
methods of treatment for emotionally disturbed
people have failed to help even a bare majority
of the people receiving such care. Even so,
my friends and colleagues who still practice
conventional therapies are almost always
angered by my stating that talk therapies don't
work well even for the few who are helped who
still aren't enjoying lives they want to live.
However, my friends and colleagues

who study clinical outcome generally agree
with me that conventional talk therapy is
usually ineffective. Hans Eysenk, who has
done many outcome studies, has found that
conventional talk therapy seems to be helpful
for only four out of ten people. For the other
six out of ten, talk therapy is essentially an
expensive, but non-productive activity.
When I used to lecture to my college

classes about this, I always pointed out that
the population that conventional talk therapy
works for is very select, and even so, talk
therapy only works after a great expenditure of
time, effort, and money.
I, myself, was involved in a two-year

study that was conducted in the early 50s by
Carl Rogers and many other members of the
Counseling Center at the University of
Chicago. By many measures, it seemed as if
all those clients who were involved in Rogerian
client-centered, non-directive therapy were
improving. Still, by any measures of change in
effective use of healthy ego-mechanisms, very
little was accomplished.
My own experience with most of my

friends and colleagues who've been in talk
therapy is that it has been an almost endless
process and it has not resulted in significant
changes in their life patterns. Freud rightfully
called the process Aanalysis interminable."
By contrast, Rebirthing works

marvelously with any psychopathological
problem, regardless of age, language, culture,
or intelligence, especially when the breathing
is combined with a decent, non-allergenic,
non-addictive, diet that isn't confounding the
issue by disturbing normal, healthy
physiological functions.
Unlike other psychotherapies,

Rebirthing is independent of intellectual level,
ability to verbalize, motivation, or other
qualities thought to determine if a given
individual is a likely candidate for that therapy.
As a Rebirther, I can accept for

treatment almost any individual seeking help,
not just a few carefully selected individuals. I
have effectively Rebirthed many people in
many different parts of the world without any
communication other than directions given
through a translator on how to breathe. I still
receive mail from several people in China, for
example, whom I Rebirthed a dozen years
ago, telling me how well their lives are working
and how they're still continuing to do the
Rebirth breath.
Unlike patients in other

psychotherapies, my Rebirthees are not
dependent on me or on my judgment of their
progress. They know how well they can carry
on the connected breathing without my
supervision, and they usually perceive the
changes in their personalities and lives well
before I can. So they judge independently and
accurately when Rebirthing is healing them
and meeting their expectations of
improvement. And they decide when to stop
seeing me.
As a consequence, transference and

resistance are minimized, and I don't need to
be artificially separated socially from my
Rebirthees. I can Rebirth friends and relatives
and intimates as easily as I can Rebirth
strangers.
Because it works and works quickly,

overall the total cost of treatment with
Rebirthing is significantly smaller than
traditional talk therapy. Rebirthing is even less
expensive than short-term crisis treatment that
starts with the understanding that there will be
only a limited time period for treatment.
This lower cost of Rebirthing appears

to reflect not only the absence of psychological
dependency between client and therapist and
the many fewer sessions required to produce
noticeable positive changes, but also, in part,
the fact that the professional training of most
Rebirthers is much less expensive and drawn-
out than the training of conventional
psychotherapists, so that the Rebirther has
less need to recover years of costly education
from each hour spent with a client. Usually,
the total cost of treatment can be accurately
predicted at the beginning of treatment; and
the total cost is seldom more than an average
patient might willingly consider spending on an
annual vacation.
I use conventional interviewing

techniques only at the beginning of a Rebirth
session to try to find out what it is that the
person is thinking, what he is doing with his
Thinker that is perpetuating his problems. A
non-professionally trained, but clear-headed,
Rebirther can ask, just as well as I do, "What's
wrong with your life?"or "What changes do you
want in your life?"
After the first session with a person, I

fundamentally have no use for their old
complaints any longer. We've heard them,
we've discussed them, and we've constructed
affirmations that will correct those negative
thoughts. It's now up to my Rebirthee to use
those affirmations and to discipline himself so
that he uses his Thinker to think positive
thoughts, not to ruminate on old negatives.
While I still call myself a clinical psychologist,
it's more a habit than an attitude. What I really
am is a Rebirther.

CHAPTER NINE
REBIRTHING AND NEURO- The Logic of
LINGUISTIC PROGRAMMING Magical Thought
and The Dance of
Just as significant differences exist the Breath
between Rebirthing and other conventional
psychotherapies (including the expressive
primal-type sorts of therapies), significant
differences also exist between Rebirthing and INTRODUCTION
Neuro-Linguistic Programming. Significant
similarities also exist. CHAPTER ONE
The Ideal Breath
Like Rebirthing, Neuro-Linguistic
Programming allows people to decide how CHAPTER TWO
they want to be and enables them to develop
ways to be like that, on call. So Neuro- The Difference
Linguistic Programming (which from now on Between Rebirthing
Icm going to call NLP), obviously exercises the and Hyperventilation
Will and expands and empowers it.
CHAPTER THREE
Like Rebirthing, too, NLP techniques The Difference
work quickly, in fact, even more quickly and
indeed more surely in their immediate effects Between the Ideal
than Rebirthing. Breath And Yogic
Breathing
But I have some serious objections to
NLP that lead me to prefer Rebirthing as the CHAPTER FOUR
therapy I practice. The Difference
Between Rebirthing
One objection involves my
relationships with the people who practice And Primal Scream
each of these approaches. I feel a radical Therapy
difference between my ties to them, even
though in both cases, the people are lively and CHAPTER FIVE
seem to be enjoying themselves, exuding an The Biology of
aura of self-confidence and joy in life, a feeling
of personal power. Generally speaking, also, Imprints
they're very good-looking: most people at
meetings of Rebirthers or NLP'ers are normally CHAPTER SIX
well-fleshed and healthy looking: there are Food and
very few people who are slovenly,
Consciousness
undernourished, or outrageously obese. Both
Rebirthing and NLP seem to produce or attract
people who are excellent manifestations of CHAPTER SEVEN
physical health. Rebirthing and
But I feel there's an immense Bodywork Therapies
difference between Rebirthers and NLP'ers in
the quality referred to on the streets as
"heart." There seems to be a major difference CHAPTER EIGHT
in the amount of compassion and feeling of Rebirthing and
identification with others produced by the two Conventional
approaches. Rsychotherapies
This difference was apparent to me CHAPTER NINE
after my first weekend workshop involved with
NLP, contrasted with my first weekend Rebirthing and
workshop involved with Rebirthing. Neuro-Linguistic
Programming
Following my first Rebirthing
experiences back in 1978, I found myself CHAPTER 10
extremely closely tied to a couple of dozen Affirmations
people who had been strangers less than a
week previously. I really cared about them
and I felt that they really cared about me. We, CHAPTER 11
as Sondra has said, looked on each other with The Parental
eyes of love. After all these years, I still feel Disapproval
that same closeness. And not only with the Syndrome
people I met then, but also with the thousands
of people all over the world who have attended
my workshops or Rebirthed with me on a one- CHAPTER 12
to-one basis. Time, Work, and
Money:
By contrast, following my first NLP Consciousness and
weekend workshop, I felt absolutely no Abundance
connection whatsoever with anyone in the
room. Instead I felt even more contained
within myself, actually more distant even from CHAPTER 13
people I had previously felt close to than Sex and Loving
before the weekend started. I never made any Relationships
new friends through NLPCneither through that
workshop nor through the several NLP
workshops and training programs which I CHAPTER 14
attended over the following year. Physical Immortality
Of course, it's possible that my desire CHAPTER 15

for a close-knit loving, supportive, forgiving Ethical
society (which I do find in Rebirthing groups) is Consideration
itself a manifestation of some old yearning for
union which I haven't adequately dealt with.
Who knows? Time will tell. CHAPTER 16
Individual Rebirths
I don't want to seem to be doing a
disservice to NLP, for I have an immense CHAPTER 17
respect for it and for its teachers. Yet it also
Group Rebirthings
seems to me as if the NLP technique is less
likely to alter imprints. Instead, it seems
similar to learning to be or becoming a very CHAPTER 18
good actor: The person decides on the role he Organizing Trainings
wants to portray, how he wants to appear to and Workshops
others and to be in his own self; and then, by
employing triggering techniques within himself,
establishes that state of being whenever he CHAPTER 19
The Standard
Wills. Rebirth Training
This is despite the persistence of CHAPTER 20
imprinted tendencies which mitigate against
his spontaneously being that which he is Running a Rebirth
Willing himself to be. It is the difference Business
between a studied and a spontaneous
production. CHAPTER 21
Rebirthing
Thus, to me, the results of NLP are Organizations
less profound, less "real," than Rebirthing.
The exercise of the Will in NLP seems to be in
opposition to previously learned or
programmed tendencies. It doesn't seem to
alter the deepest aspects of belief systems, the
imprints from pre- and peri- and immediately
post-natal periods of a person's lifetime
experience. It seems instead merely to allow
the individual to behave as if those imprints no
longer exist, when indeed they still do, at least
on some level.
I think the NLP'er is maintaining both

positive and negative simultaneously, although
one is in the ascendant and is being
expressed, while the other is being suppressed
or repressed and isn't apparently manifest.
The easiest analogy is the difference

between washing your face to get old dirt off
and then putting on makeup or simply putting
on new makeup, covering up the old dirt.
Obviously the question is, which do you want?
Do you want to be clean or do you want to
look good?
I'm an inherent of that old clean-but-

neat school which said that if you're clean and
healthy, you look better than if you're all
painted up. But, of course, that's not
necessarily true. And there really is no
necessary contradiction between being clean
and neat and healthy, and using some makeup
to point up the special characteristics of the
self that you want to dress up a little. So
please forgive a somewhat poor analogy.
My point of view is that, whatever it

takes to change your mind is okay. If it's truly
changed, everything is fine. However, nothing
is improved if you're simply deluded into
believing and manifesting something without
simultaneously letting go the old negative. I
don't see how there's any significant
improvement over all of the societal
structuring, the education, the modeling, the
dictating that have already been present. I see
NLP'ers just using a better technique for
covering over the real self with its mistaken
belief systems, not allowing those negatives to
come through, but not having corrected and
eliminated them.
Along those lines, I wonder what

people who have been in NLP for ten years
are like, and I wonder what they'll be like in
another ten years. I want to know if NLP
ultimately ends up increasing neurotic tension
or not, since its techniques seem so similar to
the usual ways in which the ego learns to be
defensive and to keep down libidinal
negatives.
The people I know who have

abandoned Rebirthing for NLP certainly seem
to be happy with their lives. Generally
speaking, they're vivacious, they're occupied,
and they seem to be happier than they were
when they used to be limited by their old fears
and other negatives.
So, my objections to NLP as a short

cut for getting you to where you want to go
may eventually have to be set aside if it turns
out that this way of changing the self, in terms
of behavior and inner state of being, doesn't
produce any increase of neurotic tension.
I often use some NLP techniques with

my Rebirth clients, particularly in helping them
reinforce specific affirmations. I frequently use
NLP techniques to help my Rebirthees anchor
a particular positive thought to their breath, so
breathing becomes the trigger for thinking that
affirmation and consequently arriving at a
particular positive state.
For example, let's say I have a

Rebirthee who complains about feeling stupid
and not knowing as much as he ought to,
feeling generally inferior even though he has
had an adequate education and is performing
at a reasonable success level.
He wouldn't be feeling stupid and

inferior if he felt he knew what he needs to
know to deal with his life. My aim, therefore, is
to help him feel as intelligent and capable as
he appears to be.
So I use the Rebirthing breathing as a

trigger in a way that's highly similar to what the
NLP'ers do.
I give him first the affirmations:
 My
breath is my
connection to
Infinite
Intelligence
and Wisdom.
And:

Every time I
breathe in a
full, satisfying
fashion, I feel
empowered to
be intelligent
and wise.
Then I give him such affirmations as:
 The
more fully and
freely I
breathe, the
more
intelligently
and wisely I
size up a
situation and
understand
how to solve
problems.
Or:

Breathing fully
and freely lets
me see what
needs to be
done and how
to go about
doing it.
Another affirmation is:
 My
connection
with Infinite
Intelligence
and Wisdom
enables me to
see clearly
what a
problem is
and how to go
about solving
it.
And:
 As
soon as I
understand
what it is I
need to do, I
set about
doing it in an
intelligent
manner.
Such affirmations connect consciously

breathing a full breath with a desired thought in
the mind, a thought which empowers him to
proceed intelligently and wisely and with
dispatch, so that he handles his problems as
they come up, and he ordinarily feels satisfied
with his progress through his daily life.
But I don't use state dependency the

way an NLP'er does. For example, going back
to the person who says he feels stupid and
generally inadequate, an NLP'er working with
him would ask him to recall a time in life when
he felt very confident and knew he was acting
intelligently and wisely. The NLP'er then
would ask that person to enlarge on that state,
would ask him to pay attention to how his body
feels and acts, and to remember being in that
state of intelligence and wisdom. Then, while
the individual maintains that state, the NLP'er
would have the individual establish a trigger by
making a gesture or touching some part of his
body. He would have him tell himself that
hereafter, whenever he touches that spot in
that way, whenever he activates that trigger,
he will reinstate the same state. He will feel
intelligent and wise.
So, for example, having gotten the

individual to recall a time when he was totally
competent, really proud of his intelligence and
of how wisely he had acted, the NLP'er might
have him touch his right ear with his right
forefinger. From then on, whenever the
person starts to feel inadequate, all he has to
do is touch his right ear with his forefinger of
his right hand and he'll instantly shake off that
old feeling of incompetence, and, equally
instantly, he'll reinstitute and reinstate the state
of feeling completely in charge of himself and
of the situation.
Hypnotists might say that in each case

what the person is doing is giving himself a
post-hypnotic suggestion which allows him to
feel a certain way so long as he's carrying out
a specific actionCin one case, breathing fully
and freely, in the next case, touching his
earlobe.
But I see a big difference.
The big difference is that with

breathing fully and freely, the person is actually
empowering his Mind/Body and not merely
tricking it, especially if he uses release
affirmations, for example:

With every
breath I let go
all old
negatives I've
been storing
in my body,
mind, heart
and soul.
And:

With each
breath, I
deepen and
widen and
perfect my
connection
with Infinite
Wisdom and
Intelligence.
So I believe the Rebirther isn't simply

covering up an old inadequate feeling with a
new positive feeling. Instead he is putting in a
new positive feeling and directing his mind to
let go the old negative feeling. He is replacing
one with the other.
I always tell my Rebirth students about

NLP techniques and I give them a quick
demonstration of how these work and can be
used. I suggest that they use NLP techniques
to make it easier for themselves and their
clients to use affirmations and to do the
breathing, since, obviously, however good a
technique may be, if it's not utilized it's not
going to produce any results.
(In the same way, to me, people who

say they are Rebirthers but who don't do the
breathing strike me as being something other
than Rebirthers. And something similar could
be said about people who say, "Well, I just
believe in the breathing. I don't like using
affirmations. I don't want to have to change
my mind that way.")
In summation, I don't mind using

NLP techniques to enhance and facilitate the
Rebirther's use of the breath and of
affirmations, but I am unwilling to abandon the
spiritual foundations of Rebirthing in favor of
the purely practical, pragmatic base of NLP.
I prefer to think of myself as a Will

directing my Thinker which in turn creates my
emotions and my life. I don't want to function
on the more superficial level of having my
emotional state, my feeling state, determine
my behaviorCeven when I get to choose that
emotional state. I still believe we can't be
healthy on "top," while we still harbor our
grievances "below." That's too much like the
way a successful neurotic operates. I prefer to
clear out the old stuff and enjoy discovering
the new.

CHAPTER TEN
AFFIRMATIONS The Logic of
Magical Thought
Now, after all these years of dealing and The Dance of
with affirmations, I regard their use as being as the Breath
important and integral to healing as is the use
of the breath. But it's important to make
certain the affirmation deals with the imprint-
connected Thought underlying the negative INTRODUCTION
reality which Thought has created.
CHAPTER ONE
It's easy to determine what that The Ideal Breath
specific imprint-connected Thought is-just look
at the negative reality you're objecting to and
CHAPTER TWO
ask yourself, "What negative must I be thinking The Difference
to have created exactly this? What scarcity Between Rebirthing
thought?"
As Leonard has said, "Your results are
always your guru." CHAPTER THREE
The Difference
When someone asks me how to Between the Ideal
change the way he behaves, my reply always Breath And Yogic
is, "You're going to have to change your mind, Breathing
change what you really think."
The way you feel is related to what

CHAPTER FOUR
you think. The world that you create for The Difference
yourself is a manifestation of what you think. Between Rebirthing
And Primal Scream
So, to change the world you're Therapy
reacting to so that it becomes supporting and
loving, forgiving and joy giving, or to change
your own reactions so that they become
CHAPTER FIVE
forgiving and loving and trusting, you have to The Biology of
change your mind, you have to change your Imprints
thought, you have to change what you're
thinking about, you have to think about good, CHAPTER SIX
positive things, you have to use affirmations!
Food and
In this chapter, I won't be repeating the
Consciousness
material reprinted as Appendix B, the pamphlet
I wrote several years ago about using CHAPTER SEVEN
affirmations. Instead, I want to call attention to Rebirthing and
a few special considerations I didn't include in Bodywork Therapies
that pamphlet about how best to facilitate their
usefulness.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Probably the most important thing is to Rebirthing and
realize that affirmations do actually work. Conventional
Rsychotherapies
Logically, once the fundamental idea
that Thought Creates is accepted, however CHAPTER NINE
tentatively, it becomes increasingly easy to
accept the results in reality of obtaining the Rebirthing and
desired effects of positive thinking. Neuro-Linguctic
Programming
Of course, there's really no way to
"prove," one way or the other, if an affirmation CHAPTER TEN
has brought about some desired change in the Affirmations
universe or if that change is merely a
coincidence. Actually, I'm not sure it matters,
since thinking positive affirmations always has CHAPTER 11
at least one good effect, namely, it makes The Parental
people feel good to think positive thoughts. Disapproval
Syndrome
But the juxtaposition of becoming open
to receiving some desired benefit and its
appearance shortly afterwards happens with CHAPTER 12
such great regularity that I have no hesitation Time, Work, and
in claiming that Thought does, indeed, Create, Money:
however much others may want to call these Consciousness and
results merely coincidence. Abundance
When I first read Rebirthing in the New
Age in May, 1978, the day before I first met CHAPTER 13
Leonard Orr, I was amazed that he actually Sex and Loving
seemed to believe that affirmations "work." Relationships
Scornfully I read what he and Sondra Ray
wrote about them, and hurried past the CHAPTER 14
discussion about affirmations to get to the
parts that dealt with the conscious connected Physical Immortality
breath. I knew from my Primal work, which I
was doing at that time, that breathing brought CHAPTER 15
up feelings. So I was fascinated to read the Ethical
accounts of how Rebirthing dealt with such Consideration
feelings. But I regarded everything they wrote
about affirmations as anecdotal denial.
CHAPTER 16
The next day, I went to a meeting Individual Rebirths
about Rebirthing organized by Drs. Linda
Thistle and Steve Johnston, and for the first CHAPTER 17
time heard Leonard Orr talking about positive Group Rebirthings
thought and Rebirthing. As I listened, I
wondered what it all does for you.
CHAPTER 18
I wanted to know what good is Organizing Trainings
accomplished by all this positive thought these and Workshops
Rebirthing people are trying to brainwash
themselves into? And anyhow, how has my CHAPTER 19
thought created the minor problems which
occupy my days? The Standard
Rebirth Training
I scoffed at what Leonard was saying,
and argued with myself: CHAPTER 20
Running a Rebirth
If I create everything in my universe, Business
how come I don't make everything comfortable
and simple?
CHAPTER 21
Why do I have car and parking Rebirthing
problems? Organizations
How come I create rust, mildew, and

other pestilential condition on my hundreds of
rose bushes, making it necessary for me to go
out to the garden when I'd just as soon sit
inside, and get hot and sweaty and tear up my
arms and ruin my shoes and have to spray my
rose bushes with toxic substances that I don't
approve of at all, because otherwise I'm afraid
my roses will die?
So I challenged Leonard by asking two

questions:
1. Does it get you a parking space in front of
where you're going to?
2. Will it get rid of the rust on my roses?
Leonard smiled and replied, "Well,

why don't you try using affirmations and see if
they work for you."
I regarded his reply as an evasion,

barely tolerable.
Later that evening, at the beginning of

my first Rebirth, my Rebirther, Kathleen
Raintree, asked me what I wanted changed in
my life. I told her I was quite content and
satisfied, by and large, and that I was trying
the Rebirthing to see how it differed from
Primal. It turned out that she had also done
Primal work, so we talked about that for a
while. I told her that, before Primal, I had
always thought of myself as weak because I
could never turn down a plea for help, I
couldn't say, No. My first insight, the first day
of Primal, was that the reason so many people
could take advantage of me was because I
was so very strong and successful that I had
the resources for helping them. If I had really
been weak, they wouldn't have been able to
get help from me. As we talked about how I
felt about getting along without help from
others, I told Kathleen I certainly became very
hurt and angry when a person I had done a lot
for didn't promptly oblige on the infrequent
occasions when I asked for help. I wasn't
pretending to be a saint.
That's when Kathleen suggested I use

affirmations to change the reality I was
creating.
I snorted in derision and expressed

surprise that she "really believed" affirmations
"work." She ignored my response and
suggested I try using them anyhow, then she
gave me my "first" affirmation:
I always care for

myself first, and as
well as I care for
anyone else.
When I heard that, I objected and said,

"But that's not true--I take better care of others
than I do of myself. Anyhow, that's a terribly
selfish idea-that makes me as bad as the
people I complain about."
As we discussed that further, I even

wept over having done so much for so many
ingrates, yet now, instead of being honored for
being so good, here I was being told to put
myself first!
She insisted that my basic negative-

that others' needs matter more than mine-
could be altered by her affirmation. Finally,
reluctantly, I agreed to use the affirmation she
had said, though I continued to doubt that
positive thought "mattered." I was convinced,
if Rebirthing worked, that it was because the
breath brought up old negative feelings which
then could be reacted to. I didn't think Thought
mattered.
Even so, I found it very difficult to

"pretend" to think something so outrageously
self-centered as:
I always care for

myself first, and as
well as I care for
anybody else.
In fact, my existential guilt over her

affirmation was so great that I rushed to add a
mitigating sequel:
The more I care for

myself, the better I
care for others.
How daring it was, after a few weeks

of Rebirthing, as my self-esteem became more
clearly high and positive, when I went one step
further and enjoyed the thought:
The more I care for

myself, the more
others help me.
That felt so good! I knew the instant I

thought it that I had certainly changed.
That first affirmation certainly works. I

wholeheartedly recommend it to everyone.
Now, if the phone rings just as I'm leaving my
desk to go use the toilet, I simply let it ring.
While I continue walking to the toilet, I once
again say to myself, with great satisfaction:
I always care for

myself first.
I believe these "selfish" affirmations

work because they go to the fundamental,
imprint-related negative thoughts I must have
been holding.
As I mentioned in preceding chapters,

my birth was long and difficult. I felt as if
nothing anyone was doing was helping me.
Furthermore, I felt my first responsibility was to
stop hurting my mother by any of my efforts to
help myself. I had no right to become "free" if
that meant hurting her.
Until Rebirthing, although I yearned to

be like the other women I knew, the ones who
were taken care of by their families and
husbands, I was always the one taking care of
myself and taking care of many other people
besides myself. I had been earning my living
since I was 13, but I hadn't known how to get
others to care for me. I hadn't suffered terribly,
and I was usually healthy and materially
successful, so I hadn't minded a lot-until
whenever I found myself really just wanting to
concentrate on my needs or actually hoped
and asked for help. Then, when such help
wasn't forthcoming, I went back into the old
negative birth thought: "I can't get anyone to
help me, no matter how much I do for them.
Nothing I do is enough."
And beneath that was the thought: "I

must not take care of myself until I take care of
everyone else."
Kathleen's affirmation directly

confronted these imprinted birth-related
negative thoughts I had been holding.
As her affirmation brought up my

negative feelings about "selfishness," my
breath was letting them go, until I finally
achieved the goal of caring for myself, first,
and as well as I cared for anyone else. As
Maimonides said, "If I am not for myself, who
then? And if not now, when?"
My answer to both of my original

questions to Leonard now is, "Yes!"
I usually get a parking space directly in

front of the place I'm going to. I don't think
about it. I just know:
The universe is out

there to support me.
After all, I'm a little old lady, and I want

to make my life easy for me so that I can go in
and out of a store without an immense amount
of struggle (I get my exercise in other ways).
So the universe gives me good "parking
Karma."
The same thing is true for fungus

diseases on my roses. Whenever I notice that
the roses are developing rust or mildew, I trim
off the diseased portions while I acknowledge
that I've been resenting the time the roses
take. Then I look in my notebook under
"gardening" and find my first affirmation about
all this:
The more I care for

my possessions, the
easier it is for me to
take care of them.
As I reflect on how much I love my

roses, how much I truly care for them, I realize
it's not a problem to spend one or two hours
every few days being out there in the garden
taking off deadheads and snipping crossing
stems or ones growing towards the center. I
enjoy doing it. It's really a pleasure, not a
chore. And it's good for me to be outdoors in
full illumination for at least an hour or two
every day-I might not if it weren't for the roses.
Now I don't spray the roses very often

at all! So long as I care about them while I'm
taking care of them, matters seldom get to the
point where I need to resort to the miracles of
modern chemistry instead of the miracles of
positive thought.
As you may remember from Chapter

Five, when something happens that upsets us,
the sympathetic nervous system is alerted.
That arousal is felt as a negative emotion, as
rage or fear or another bad feeling keeping us
aroused while we're taking appropriate action
to deal with whatever upset us.
The chemicals we make when we're

alerted help us construct a correct memory of
what's happening so we can learn from it
whatever will be of use in the future.
But frequently, an upsetting event

leads not only to the initial sympathetic
response, but also to a further reaction
because of its similarity to an imprint. Then we
find ourselves reacting to responding.
We don't do ourselves any good if we

react negatively to being aroused, if, for
example, we feel angry or afraid over feeling
angry or afraid in the first place. These
reactions usually take the form of judgments or
grievances.
First it's: "Hurry up! Get out of the

street! There's a car coming!"
Then the judgmental complaint takes

over: AI hate drivers! I wish I could get rid of
all automobiles."
Negative thoughts like these

unnecessarily prolong the original negative
emotional reaction, and worse yet, confuse the
issue, making it difficult to define the problem
accurately and take appropriate remedial
action-or learn anything useful for the future.
Prohibiting cars isn't a solution to

dawdling or not paying attention to traffic.
Affirmations work best when they're

directed clearly at the basic, underlying
negative, not the confusing imprint-connected
reactions.
I always pay
appropriate attention
to safety, especially
when crossing
streets.
I am always safe,
even crossing the
street during daytime
traffic.
These affirmations make sense of the

problems, other don't-that's why they don't
solve the problem. What possible good could
come from affirming "Drivers always slow
down so I can cross the street," or AI forgive
all the lousy drivers"?
Using affirmations allows us to

discharge negative reactions that get in the
way of healing, physically or physiologically.
Usually, the best thing to do when

you've hurt yourself is to take appropriate
steps to handle the wound, and then let your
negative reactions go. Distract yourself, fall
asleep, or use affirmations. You can get your
negative consciousness gone without resorting
to pain-killers. Modern medicine is teaching us
there isn't much advantage in trying to
eliminate pain by the use of analgesics since
they seem to interfere with the healing
process. We're much better off if we can
simply get our mind off the pain, if we
transcend the pain. As Fritz Perls said about
psychological negatives, "Embrace the pain
and make it yours."
For example, with a broken leg,

instead of using pain-killers, just breathe "into"
the leg and remind it that it knows everything it
needs to know about how to heal itself as
quickly as possible; wiggle your toes or do
whatever you can to make sure the circulation
is as good as it can be, and breathe in the
connected pattern. If you do all that, you may
heal very quickly-even at almost miraculous
rates.
Perhaps this is the secret of success

for those yogi masters who are able, for
example, to cut themselves and yet, within an
instant, after only a very little bleeding, show
no sign at all of the wound.
Is it all trickery? I don't think so. I

think it's all mind control at the level of ultimate
basic consciousness.
Thus, if on that deepest level, I don't

think the knife cutting me is harming me, then I
can cut myself and heal myself almost
instantaneously. On the other hand (sorry for
the pun), if I am afraid of what it will do to me
and I feel angry about its hurting me, those
negatives are going to promulgate the
negativity of the wound and keep it from
healing quickly.
How can I feel secure in the face of

pain? I can if I know I'm loved and that the
people who love me will not let me be harmed.
In the best case,

what we imprint in the
primary, positive
centers is Love.
We all start as little infants inside of our

mothers. Whatever is happening we imprint in
our limbic systems as "Positive." We feel
"love." We "love" her. Everything we
experience in her is what "love" means to us.
That's our connection with her. It is a positive,
totally trusting, dependent relationship.
Everything we get, we get from her and
through her. Everything we are is totally
bathed in the chemicals mediating her
thoughts and feelings.
Essentially these imprints are the

foundation, the bedrock, of what in our later life
we're going to call "love" and "safety."
Now, in reality, what is it that we

actually did imprint in the world of our birth?
What are those conditions? How did Mama
feel about getting us in her? How did she feel
about having us in her? How did she feel once
she knew she'd gotten us in her? How did she
feel as she gave birth?
These are all important dimensions of

what determines "love" and "safety" in us.
So, let's imagine the ideal case: your

mother joyously made love with your father.
With great anticipation of being immensely
thrilled and satisfied, she sought and enjoyed
sex from your father, knowing she loved him,
knowing that he loved her. And your father's
reactions were equally joyous, exuberant,
loving, tender, protective, teasing, etc., etc. (I
don't want this to sound like the makings of a
cheap pornographic novel.) That's just fine!
Since you were conceived in an

atmosphere of joy, of love, of intense
satisfaction, you have imprinted being fully and
best alive with being happy and satisfied,
orgiastic ally excited and thrilled by life.
You know that the

whole world rejoices
in your being here
now.
These are perfectly marvelous

imprints! They were established while you
were in a state of total receptivity and love and,
from an objective rational point of view, they
actually are what I believe characterizes a
healthy person's sense of being alive and
loving life.
Remember, though, that even if the

conditions of your conception were radically
different, you still "love" your mother. You also
still have imprinted in those basic primary
"plus" nuclei in your limbic system the
characteristics of those circumstances in which
you were conceived.
Whatever they were, they will be

given positive accord in your view of life. On
them rests the deepest, fullest, most real love
relationship you have ever had, namely your
relationship with your mother in the months
before your delivery into this world.
What if your mother was

uncomfortable about sex and childbirth, though
she loved your father and wanted to give him
the child he hoped for?
You might imprint her thought that she

needed to do something she didn't enjoy or
was afraid of in order to produce a good
result.
You then might operate your life on the

imprint, AI can never get anything I want
unless I suffer for it."
What if your mother thought that your

father felt it was her fault she became pregnant
and thought she was stupid and didn't know
anything?
You might spend a lot of your life

learning a lot of things so that no one could
ever think you were stupid or ignorant, and you
might feel inordinately guilty whenever you
make any error. You would be doing it
because you loved your mother so much that
you took over her thoughts and feelings and
they became a part of your basic earliest
"positive" imprint system.
I had a Rebirthing client whose

parents were in their very early teens when he
was conceived.
His mother didn't know the facts of life-

she was an ignorant girl who was afraid to say
"No" because she was afraid her boyfriend
would think she was ignorant. Then, later,
when he blamed her for letting herself get
pregnant, she hated her state. Worse yet, they
were both removed from junior high school,
forced to marry, and required to work on his
father's farm. So they both hated the baby.
They both raged at their son constantly,
beating him so severely and so often that he
finally ran away from the Midwest farm to
come to Los Angeles at the age of thirteen!
After a few years of keeping himself alive by
being a street hustler, a prostitute, he was able
to attend school daytimes. When he first came
to me, he was attending a local college where
he was extremely intent on getting a Master's
degree in psychology.
That Rebirthee loved his mother so

much that throughout his life he had been
running her program, feeling her feelings of
fear of being found out to be ignorant.
Consistently, he seemed more willing to
jeopardize his well-being by doing something
foolish and dangerous than to say, "I don't
understand what you want and I don't want to
understand it either. It doesn't interest me."
Something like that would probably

have been the closest to an honest response
his mother could have come up with from the
depth of her thirteen-year-old being if she had
known how to be honest and straight with the
person who was his father, with the boy who
was his father.
My patient made a great deal of

progress when he used the affirmation:
I totally forgive my
parents for being
young and ignorant. I
forgive my parents for
their ignorant ways of
showing me their
love.
I totally recommend this affirmation to

everyone who blames his parents for his
troubles.
Many people I've worked with have

seemed to have an almost idiopathic
depression of mood, a feeling of constant
sadness and underlying sorrow that doesn't
seem to be related to especially bad events in
early childhood or even to especially bad
events at the birth delivery. In such cases, that
sadness may reveal the way their mothers felt
during their pregnancies.
In a large number of such cases, the

mother had lost one of her parents or another
close relative or friend during her pregnancy.
So, during much of the pregnancy the mother
was herself depressed and in mourning.
The child then imprinted this condition:

being alive, surviving, growing and developing,
being and becoming, is tantamount to being
sad.
Such a person has a hard time

because no matter what such a person does,
no matter what success, what joy is achieved,
underneath it all there is this nostalgic
weltschmertz which says, "What's the use of it
all? Nothing really lasts."
Whatever the mother experiences

during her pregnancy is shared by the child.
Sometimes these imprints don't

operate until puberty duplicates the mother's
sexually mature state.
I was struck by the similarity in

background of several anorexic women that I
worked with a few years ago. (The article I
wrote about these experiences is reprinted as
Appendix D.) What was characteristic for
these women was that their mothers had not
dared to reveal their pregnancies. In the effort
to prevent the obvious display of the
pregnancy through increasing size, their
mothers had starved themselves. Thus, for
these women, sexuality led to pregnancy and
weight gain which they tried to "handle" by not
eating.
When their daughters who were my

patients reached sexual adulthood at puberty,
they became anorexic, as if sexuality would
necessarily lead to pregnancy that could only
be prevented by not eating. For these
anorexic girls, it was important to use not only
forgiveness affirmations but also ones like:
I feel totally safe

eating until I'm
satisfied.
or
Eating is safe.
Looking at life through the birth

explains why so many of us walk around
believing something terrible is going to
happen.
When we are in love, many of us

apprehensively dread separation and loss.
We worry as soon as we love someone that
something will happen to them.
In fact, that very concern is, of course,

a part of the matrix of a mother's concern for
her newborn infant. She worries that
something might happen to him. She's afraid
that he will stop breathing. She's afraid that
she will drop him and hurt him. She's afraid
that she will fail to understand what he wants,
that she won't know what to give him that he
needs.
Right along with love, comes this

dread, this concern, this worry, this nervous
anticipation of something bad that's going to
happen.
Something terrible does happen, of

course, eventually. We end up killing
ourselves and leaving this lifetime.
As I discuss more extensively in

Chapter Fourteen, devoted to a discussion of
what Leonard Orr refers to as Physical
Immortality, Leonard says that every death is
really a suicide, that the reason we die is that
we project our fears and they manifest
themselves. Those fears are our fears from
our birth: they are the fears of our mother
during her pregnancy, and they are the fears of
our parents immediately after our birth. They
are also the fears of all of the people who were
near, who were around when we were getting
born and when we were being cared for during
our earliest moments.
Added all up, if there's an immense

amount of fear and dread and worry, the
child's basic idea about life is that it is
something you have to worry about, it doesn't
just spring up spontaneously out of God's love,
and, worse yet, it's something which is likely to
leave forever if we make the wrong mistake.
People with such imprints are highly

anxious, very dreading, very unrisking, and
unfortunately, very unsatisfied by the limited
life they construct for themselves, a life which
is usually so entombed, so narrow, so
reclusive, that, in fact, with a little dressing, it
could look like a stage set for mama's womb,
come again, a dark hole into which people
retreat so that they don't have to worry about
the other bad things that might happen to
them.
For our comfort in the face of trouble,

we go back to the last time when things felt
good. For many of us that was about the time
when mama was three to six months pregnant,
and was reconciled to being pregnant, when
there still was plenty of nutrition for us and
plenty of room for us to thrive and grow and
explode into more and more life and
development. But that time passed quickly,
giving way to restriction and deprivation,
followed by separation. No wonder so many of
us imprint the idea that good brings about bad.
Whatever the source might be,

whatever the characteristic qualities of the
earliest imprints might be, any person having
trouble with life in the here-and-now is
operating with negative imprints which are
producing a negative attitude toward life.
Whatever else we may try to do, these
imprinted thoughts are constantly being
broadcast. They coagulate the protoplasm of
life around us so that it becomes unsupportive,
unloving, unforgiving, unjoygiving.
Our thoughts are

creative.
The Universe
supports us
completely.
The clearest kinds of imprints are the

ones that the child establishes because of his
knowledge-on a continual physiological,
biochemical, neurohumoral level-of his
mother's thoughts and feelings. (Remember,
when she thinks a thought, she makes
neurohumoral transmitter substances that
circulate in her bloodstream and have an effect
through the placental membrane on the child's
internal environment.)
But, our imprints don't only come from

our experience of our mother's thoughts and
feelings. Early imprints also result from
contact with the father. There certainly is
plenty of good scientific proof that the child is
connected with father if the father is a
continuing presence in the child's prenatal
existence.
Sometimes a client seems to have

been so completely, almost indelibly, imprinted
that even several Rebirths don't seem to have
made a difference. In such cases, the earliest
imprints probably include certain unique
physical as well as psychological states the
mother was experiencing. Such special
physical conditions thus are part of the state in
the infant in which he established his basic
positive imprints, so they may need to be
reproduced in order for the breathing and
affirmations to be effective in altering his
imprints.
For example, the most anxious person

I think I've ever dealt with as a Rebirther, and
perhaps the most anxious person I've ever
dealt with as a psychologist, was a man who
had done an immense amount of self-work and
was still doing everything in his power to stop
feeling frequent anxiety attacks throughout the
day. Yet nothing seemed to have helped.
He had taken to heart and put into

action comments that I had made at a meeting
which he had attended the previous year. I
had talked about the necessity of eating a
clean diet, a healthy nutritious diet which
doesn't challenge the body. So he had
stopped eating any refined carbohydrates and
was essentially eating a diet that was
predominantly raw fruit, raw vegetables, raw
nuts and seeds, with some cooked grains.
Though he was feeling milder attacks of
anxiety, they were still nevertheless happening
with the same frequency.
Even several Rebirths with a well-

known Rebirther in his country hadn't changed
the frequency of his many anxiety attacks.
I never have any reason to doubt the

effectiveness of any particular Rebirther,
because I know that it's the breathing that
matters, not the person present while you're
breathing. So I had no reason to believe that
this fellow hadn't had "good" Rebirths. And yet
here he was, after dozens of Rebirths, still as
anxious as ever!
As we talked, we went over the usual

things that he had previously discussed with
his first Rebirther. His parents had married
just at the beginning of the Depression. They
hadn't wanted to have children. Love making
was very satisfying, but they were very anxious
about the possibility she might conceive.
Since anxiety about possible conception was
present at every act of intercourse, it was of
course present at the act of intercourse in
which he was conceived.
During previous Rebirths, he thought

he had let go his negatives about not being
wanted and had forgiven his parents for not
wanting him, for being afraid that they wouldn't
be able to support a child. Yet his anxiety
wasn't lessened.
He had worked at forgiving himself for

his mistaken thought that anything they did
had hurt him in any way. Yet his anxiety
attacks still occurred every few hours.
He was even able to forgive himself for
his mistaken thought that the way he was was
wrong. He could Rebirth with the thought in
mind, AI now let go all thoughts which I
mistakenly used to hold that there's anything
wrong at all about my being nervous
constantly."
And yet that hadn't allowed him to

lessen the frequency of his anxieties.
The solution came when I asked,

"Well, how was it that they were able to have
you and support you? What were they doing?
What kind of a job did your father have?"
He told me that his parents ran a little

seashore stand where they sold salt water
taffy, a product made almost entirely of sugar.
They were so broke that frequently all they
could eat were the candies that they hadn't
been able to sell before they went stale. He
said his mother often told him she loved him so
much because he was so sweet from all the
sugar she ate during the time that she carried
him.
Well, that put another dimension into

why this imprint of AI must be frantic
periodically throughout the day in order to feel
alive," still remained as an essential portion of
his basic thought programming, despite his
many Rebirthing sessions and his use of
affirmations to eliminate such thoughts.
So I discussed with him how his

mother probably had frequent hypoglycemic
attacks during the day as the taffy bounced her
blood sugar high and then led to a reactive
lowering of blood sugar level when the
pancreas kicked in with too much insulin for
the assault of so much sugar. With his
consciousness alerted to this possibility, he
could make his affirmations highly specific.
With every breath I

let go all old patterns
which were related to
my mother's
hypoglycemic,
hysteric, anxiety
attacks.
In a few more sessions, he was able to

do some much more tranquil breathing and to
become more peaceful in himself.
To facilitate letting go the negatives
that were imprinted during a client's first nine
months of live, from his conception through to
his birth, I ask him to remind himself of some
obvious truths.
I am not my mother.
I do not have my
mother's thoughts and
feelings.
I am not my father.
I do not have my
father's thoughts and
feelings.
I do not need to
have my parents'
thoughts and feelings
in order to show them
I love them.
I forgive myself for

my mistaken belief
that anything my
parents ever did
harmed me in any
way.
To facilitate letting go negative

imprints that were established at birth, I ask my
client to think about some other obvious truths:
I forgive everyone
anything they did in
their effort to keep me
alive.
I forgive everyone
present at my birth
knowing that no one
there consciously
wanted me hurt or
disappointed in my
life.
I forgive everyone
completely for all the
ways I mistakenly
thought they harmed
me.
I totally forgive
myself for my ignorant
attitudes towards my
parents.
And to help him eliminate the earliest

imprints which underlie his disapproving
attitudes toward his parents-what Leonard
calls the "'Parental Disapproval Syndrome"-I
suggest that my client think about some other
ideas which, if not yet true, are nevertheless
ones he wants to have become true. They're
good thoughts to think about, if only to see if
they are still strange, if he still produces a
reaction against them, or if they finally reflect
the matter-of-fact thought, "Yeah, that's how I
think, that's how I am."

my ignorant attitudes
toward my parents.
I forgive my parents
for their ignorant ways
of showing me they
loved me.
I know that
everything everyone
has ever done to me
they have done to
show love to me and
to win my love and
approval.

ever blaming others
for my own ignorance.
Most of us think in polarized fashion:

'The is the Me, the Self, the I, the person I am;
and then there's Everything Else that isn't. So
long as I'm still operating within victim
consciousness, believing that Everything Else
out there is going to harm me, or has harmed
me, or has let me down in some way, I have a
grievance against it."
Some affirmations which I ask clients

to think about, and apply to this force outside,
are:
God wants me to be
satisfied.
When I realize I'm

troubled I remember
God always serves
me.
I surrender to the
will of God.
I surrender to the
love of God.
I forgive God.

ever blaming God for
my ignorance.
God loves knowing

I'm happy.
God doesn't make

mistakes.
Such affirmations are especially

helpful to someone who doesn't "believe" in
God, for they force him to consider who's to
blame for his messed-up life.
By the time the average individual is

approximately two years old, basic
identifications have been established and the
imprint centers have been filled. From that
time on, whatever is learned is learned
according to the laws of association that apply
to conditioning, to linear learning, to the kind of
learning we do in classrooms at school: When
we're rewarded for doing something, we tend
to repeat doing it; when we're punished for
doing something, we stop doing it. The more
often a lesson is taught to us, the more
completely we learn it. Gradually our behavior,
our attitudes, our thoughts, our feelings are
controlled and conditioned, programmed by
what society around us permits and doesn't
permit.
As conditions change, we change.

The only times we can't change to fit current
conditions are when we're operating from
imprints, not conditioning.
Even the occasional highly charged

event which is strikingly in contrast to all the
rest of our experiences generally has no effect
whatsoever unless it happens to jive with one
of our earliest imprints.
So, if you have tried, without success,

to change your behavior or attitudes by
conscious practice, you're probably dealing
with imprints, not conditioned thoughts.
Use affirmations that deal with the
prevailing negatives to change them, as you let
the old negatives go through your breath.
You'll know immediately when you've

touched on the basic negatives because your
life will change. If it doesn't, you haven't.
We aren't healed until we fully

acknowledge that nothing was ever wrong
except our mistaken belief that anything can
be wrong.
Whatever is, is perfect.

CHAPTER ELEVEN
THE PARENTAL DISAPPROVAL The Logic of
SYNDROME Magical Thought
and The Dance of
Whenever anyone Rebirths, thoughts the Breath
about several specific topics typically come up into
consciousness. Some of these are about material
scarcity, some about sex and love, some about
dying, and some about the Parental Disapproval INTRODUCTION
Syndrome. These topics are also the focus for the
main seminars held during Rebirth workshops. CHAPTER ONE
Negatives about each of these topics must be let The Ideal Breath
go in order for the Rebirthee's Thought to create a
good life.
CHAPTER TWO
Since we all have had parents and most of The Difference
us are or will be parents, the Parental Disapproval Between Rebirthing
Syndrome (PDS) is probably the topic that comes and Hyperventilation
up most often during Rebirths. It seems central to
our thoughts about money and work, as well as
CHAPTER THREE
sex and loving relationships. So healing our PDS
and preventing it in our children is of primary The Difference
importance. Between the Ideal
Breath And Yogic
Resting on the negatives derived from the Breathing
birth itself are the negatives that form what
Leonard Orr has called the Parental Disapproval CHAPTER FOUR
Syndrome. These are whatever we dislike about The Difference
our parents, about how they treated us, about their
attitudes toward us, about how they treated each Between Rebirthing
other, and about their attitudes towards such And Primal Scream
things as work, money, and time, and sex, love Therapy
and God.
CHAPTER FIVE
The grievances you continue to hold The Biology of
against your parents, connected with how they
dealt with your oral, anal, and phallic psychosexual Imprints
development, altogether creates the Parental
Disapproval Syndrome. CHAPTER SIX
Food and
Most conscious PDS revolves around how Consciousness
our parents disciplined us, that is, how they got us
to do what they wanted us to do or kept us from
doing what they didn't want us to do. But CHAPTER SEVEN
unconscious PDS about our birth needs healing Rebirthing and
too. Bodywork Therapies
When people ask me what's the value of CHAPTER EIGHT

having children, I usually reply, "Experiencing your Rebirthing and
own PDS in the course of raising your children is
the second great reason for being a parent- Conventional
experiencing unconditional love is the first." Rsychotherapies
The only opportunity we ever have to CHAPTER NINE

experience unconditional love is in the parent-child Rebirthing and
relationship during the earliest months of post- Neuro-Linguistic
natal life.
Programming
Every other love relationship in our life is
conditional: "I'll love you if you do what I want." CHAPTER 10
Affirmations
But the tie that earliest bonding consists of
has no if's in it. The mother "loves" her infant- CHAPTER 11
usually the instant she first holds it. The Parental
Disapproval
AI love you and I'll do everything I can to
make you happy." Syndrome
The only time a person has the opportunity CHAPTER 12

to experience unconditional love, so far as I can Time, Work, and
tell, is during that time right after a baby's birth Money:
when the parents do everything to try to make the Consciousness and
baby happy, to satisfy him, to meet his needs.
They do not only love him when he's quiet, they do Abundance
not only love him when his diaper is dry and clean,
they love him, anyhow, anyway. And, as a result CHAPTER 13
of loving him, they comfort him when he's Sex and Loving
unhappy, they clean him up when he has messed Relationships
his diapers, they play with him, and they rejoice in
every single burgeoning sign that this infant is
becoming aware of them and of the world around CHAPTER 14
them. Physical Immortality
Such unconditional love usually becomes CHAPTER 15
highly conditional once the baby starts getting into Ethical
things, once the baby can talk and claim attention,
once the baby can protest with words and even Consideration
with aggressive movement. Then the parents go
back into a more "normal" stance with their child. CHAPTER 16
They love him, but they won't tolerate his behavior Individual Rebirths
any more. They now start expecting him to
behave "properly."
CHAPTER 17
But, as the parent goes through that Group Rebirthings
transition, he runs into elements of his own PDS
case. For example, he remembers how much he CHAPTER 18
hated his mother for nagging him to say Hello Organizing
when he came into the room. And so maybe he Trainings and
doesn't make that requirement of his child,
because he doesn't want the child to hate him, and Workshops
to have such memories of having learned manners
under duress and through compulsion instead of CHAPTER 19
through some loving identification with others. Or The Standard
maybe, although he insists that his child says Rebirth Training
Hello, he is reminded of his mother nagging him to
become a polite, social person, and he resents his
child for "causing" him to behave like his mother. CHAPTER 20
Running a Rebirth
Whatever he does, he reveals his PDS. Business
Once unconditional love leaves, the CHAPTER 21

parents feel their old feelings about their parents Rebirthing
and act out their old programs related to their
Parental Disapproval Syndrome. They no longer Organizations
are willing to "do anything" to make their baby
happy. Now they expect the baby to do what they
want, to behave in a certain way. When he
doesn't, neither is satisfied.
In turn, the baby feels bad about not

pleasing them, and, eventually, disapproves of his
parents for not loving him the way they used to.
As he withdraws his loving approval of them, he
establishes his lasting grievances, his PDS.
Witnessing where there are highly-charged

negatives and struggles between you and your
children gives you an on-the-spot opportunity to
discover and ultimately heal your PDS case, as
well as to prevent it in your children.
As parents, we all make "mistakes" that

our children resent, but mutual forgiveness is lots
easier when we start off "right" by being there for
our children at their first moments of post-natal
life. So, if you're a woman still in the position of
creating a family, be sure to exercise your right to
choose to deliver via natural childbirth. Don't
deprive yourself of the triumph of feeling your body
doing what it was designed for or cheat yourself of
the great joy of greeting your emerging baby in full
consciousness. Whatever you may have heard
from exaggerating alarmists, the pain and effort
aren't more than you can bear, and the prize is an
immense sense of high self-esteem.
In addition to ensuring that the birth itself is

healthy, you can prevent your child from having a
heavy PDS case by following certain simple
guidelines. (My views on this today are essentially
the same as they were years ago when I wrote
Natural Child Rearing, a book later re-issued as
The Intelligent Parent's Guide to Raising Children.
Your library should have a copy you can consult
for specific information about how to handle
particular topics.)
The First Guiding Rule for child rearing is:

"In any interaction between you and your child,
he's the boss if it has to do with his own inner
biological needs, and you are the boss when it has
to do with those things we generally call social or
cultural."
Let your child be the one who decides

what he needs and when about things concerning
his body's private needs and satisfactions, such as
sleep, eating, bowel movements, and body
exploration.
But you are the one who must decide and

teach about social conventions and family routines
like table manners, going to bed, and washing
regularly; and you must handle the matters which
have to do with his safety or with the legitimate
comfort and safety of, first, those who live with
him, then, later on, playmates, teachers, and
family friends.
My attitudes undoubtedly rest on my own

birth: my mother's belief was that I could get born
on my own, without anesthetics or surgical
procedures, and I labored for three days to do
exactly that. So I grew up with that idea of self-
determination. But I have never regretted being
able to take care of myself, and my aim in
parenting, in partnering, and in psychologizing has
always been to promote independence. I think it's
better than dependence and I hope you do too.
Have faith in the ability of your child to lead

the way for you so that you will satisfy his private
needs easily and completely. You can-you have
the capacity to satisfy his real needs. When you
do this consistently, you will be making it easy for
him to learn and follow the social rules he needs to
follow in order to take his place in grown-up life
later on.
The Second Guiding Rule is:
Never use physical punishment. It only

hurts-it doesn't teach your child how to behave
properly. Whatever you do to relieve your anger
at your child, make sure you keep your hands to
yourself. Don't hurt!
A child stops hearing the noise the instant

his parents stops yelling, whereas if he were hit,
his pain lasts-usually longer than his parent's
anger. Since pain disrupts clear thinking, it isn't a
wise way to teach. Calm exposition and clear
explanation are more likely to teach reasonable
behavior to our children than painful intimidation. I
know my children disliked my yelling and probably
feared I might freak out and hurt them. But at least
they have to give me credit for never punishing
them physically in cold calculation. I'm sorry I
wasn't more what they thought they wanted a
mother to be, and I hope they're better at parenting
than I wasCthat will show they've forgiven me for
everything I used to do that they didn't like.
Your child will do what he can as soon as

he's ready. There's no point in disapproving of him
for not being ready yet. Just wait and set a good
example.
Until he's able to do something, help him

out by doing it. So, for example, bathe him until he
can run the bathwater safely and can soap and
use the washcloth. After that, let him take baths
by himself. Your responsibility stops with
reminding him to do what you know he can do.
As for the essentials of manners, teach by

example and then, later, by directions. Always ask
please. Always thank your child for everything
you'd thank a friend for. Greet hello and bid
goodbye when you come and go from the house.
Be sure to tell him you're sorry when you upset
him and say excuse me when appropriate.
Once he's old enough to talk, he's old

enough to use these six magic phrases (Please,
Thank you, Hello, Goodbye, Excuse me, and I'm
sorry) consistently-remind him when he doesn't.
Check what you do with your children

against your own complaints about your parents.
The lists of affirmations in Appendices N, O, and P
can be used to remind you about what you're
happy they did and you copied, as well as actions
you've avoided because you used to have
grievances toward your parents about similar
behavior.
Including mine, so many good books exist

on child rearing that there's no point in trying to
review them here. Go to your library and read a
few, then follow their suggestions as best you can.
Just be sure to avoid all books that recommend
punishment or that seek to perpetuate child-
rearing techniques that you know wouldn't work if
you applied them to your interactions with friends.
For example, you don't remind your friends to go to
the toilet before you leave the house-don't do that
with your child. Similarly, you don't insist your
friends eat everything you serve them-don't do that
with your child either.
Rebirth yourself whenever you find you're

into some unresolved struggle with your child.
Some old negative is present, creating the
situation you're finding uncomfortable. Try to let
go that negative before doing anything about the
situation you're objecting to-you'll probably find that
it has altered as soon as you've let the old
negative go.
Rebirthing your child is one of the nicest

things you can do-it brings the two of you back to
the unconditional love you felt at the beginning of
your parent-child relationship. So learn to Rebirth
your children by attending a Rebirth workshop.
Then Rebirth your infant by holding him in your
arms or next to you while you carry out the
connected breathing. Infants usually Rebirth to the
point of a breath release in five to ten minutes.
(For an explanation of the term, >breath release,'
read Chapter 16.)
Rebirthing your older child is just like

Rebirthing anyone else you've Rebirthed at
workshops. If your child wants to, let him Rebirth
you, first, so your negatives are reduced before
you Rebirth him.
Remember to encourage him to use

affirmations to help him handle problems with
friends or school. They'll help him bring up the
negatives he's holding on to that are creating the
problem. For example, if he's having trouble with
algebra, have him see what comes up when he
plays with the affirmations:
I total enjoy algebra.
It's easy for me to

understand algebra.
I like being the kind of

person who handles
algebra successfully.
Ultimately, your child reflects you, so the

best way to prevent his developing a heavy PDS
case is for you to let go yours. Use the lists of
affirmations contained in Appendices N, O, and P
to help yourself let go your old PDS numbers.
Remember, if you still have a grievance

against your parents, first work at forgiveness
affirmations. Such affirmations imply that they
were wrong, but at least forgiveness is a higher
spiritual relationship to them than blame.
Next, develop an attitude of gratitude

towards them for whatever they did that you used
to blame them for-at least they showed you what
not to do and what you don't want to be like.
Eventually, you can honestly be thankful to

them for teaching you so much, and you can be
proud of yourself for being a good parent. Once
your behavior with your child springs from your
positive attitudes and beliefs, only, instead of from
your efforts to "get back" at your parents for what
they did to you, you can be confident your child is
being raised in love and forgiveness and is not
developing a heavy PDS case.
My child and I love each

other completely.
Rebirthing's dealing with PDS comprise

what I regard as its most outstanding unique
contribution to psychology.
Many spiritual and psychological

techniques have used breathing techniques, so the
breath is not unique to Rebirthing.
And certainly all psychologies that rest on

the idea of psychogenesis agree that birth has
something to do with later personality problems
and development, so the focus on birth is not
unique to Rebirthing.
But the concept of the Parental

Disapproval Syndrome (PDS) and the way that
Leonard interprets the relationship between
parents and child is unique to Rebirthing, and in
my professional opinion, is his most creative,
innovative, radical, and brilliant thought.
The crucial difference between Leonard's

PDS and Freud's ideas about the
schizophrenogenic or neurotogenic parent is that
Leonard sees the child's disapproval of the
parents as central to the child's neurosis, whereas
Freud regarded the neurosis as an automatic
consequence of the parents' failure to satisfy the
child's different needs as he passes through the
several psycho-sexual stages of personality
development.
Putting it simply, Freud and all other

psychogenic psychologists have essentially been
saying that if parents do not satisfy a child's
biological needs appropriately at the time that
these are the central processes in the child's
personality development, then the child will forever
after suffer from some distortions of the ego
mechanisms that develop at each of these psycho-
sexual stages. The parent who does not take care
of the child's autistic, oral-dependent, oral-
assertive, anal-aggressive, anal-conservative, and
phallic needs will inevitably produce a neurotic
child. (By neurotic, I mean to include all variations
of psychopathology; whether the child later
becomes psychotic or neurotic or psychopathic is
not my concern at this point.) He will be disturbed
because his parents didn't give him what he
needed when he needed it in order to develop
healthfully.
Within the Freudian psychodynamic

framework, the best that can happen for a person
as he proceeds through therapy is that he can
reconcile himself to these injuries, these damages
to his ego. He may go so far as to see some virtue
in the damage that has been done to him. He may
even be able consciously to cultivate particular
behavior that might otherwise have grown
automatically as a consequence of healthy
development of ego mechanisms at each stage.
For example, I recall one patient who had

started conventional therapy feeling extremely
bitter toward his parents because they had
frightened him so about sex that he remained a
virgin until he was in his late 20s. It didn't help him
much to realize that being a virgin through all
those years had at least preserved him from such
possible and probable problems as making a bad
marriage at an earlier age, contracting venereal
diseases, having to deal with getting someone
pregnant with a child and not wanting to marry her,
etc., etc. He tried to make the best of a bad
bargain, but he still felt ripped off by his parents.
And he still had an unsuccessful love life.
But within the framework of Leonard Orr's

philosophy, much better things can eventuate. As
soon as that patient forgave his parents for
frightening him about sex with their ignorant
beliefs, his own sexuality blossomed and he
proceeded to have a successful loving
relationship.
Rather than seeing the relationship

between the parent and the child as one of the
parent doing something to the child without the
consent of the child, something that damaged the
child, Rebirthing sees that what truly makes the
difference is the child's refusal to continue to love
and trust the parent who didn't give him what he
needed at the time that he needed it.
Through the Rebirthing breath and the use

of specific affirmations, once the child gives up his
grievance towards his parents, he once more can
come back into a loving relationship with them,
and his neurosis, his damaged behavior, can be
changed consciously without a great deal of effort
on his part.
So, although the best a person can do in

Freudian psychoanalytically-oriented
psychotherapy is to reconcile himself to what has
happened to him and to make the best of what he
did get from his parents, with Rebirthing, the
person can, by letting go his old grievances toward
his parents, actually come back into a conscious
healthy relationship with himself as well as with
them.
In Appendix N I have made a list of

forgiveness affirmations to let go the grievances
connected with the most common complaints that
I've heard in the past 50 years from patients and
that I, myself, have made about how my parents
treated me. It's a pretty complete list. Probably
everyone reading this list will find that most of
these complaints are ones he, himself, has made
over and over.
I have prefaced the list with the comment

AI forgive my parents completely for:" and then the
list proceeds. Just getting into forgiveness, even
forgiveness that is merely voiced, without any
sincere intention on the part of the person uttering
the words, makes an immediate difference. I have
found the change in mood and attitude following
pure lip-recital of a forgiveness affirmation to be far
more positive and immediate than the
consequences of the analysis interminable of
parents' faults and how they have damaged the
person. And I have found forgiveness affirmations
far more therapeutic than getting lost in the
emotions of that time when the person believes he
was damaged.
So, if you're having any problems with

your parents (or children), I suggest you look down
through that list, and also make up your own.
Write down a list of everything that you've ever
complained about about your parents. Write at the
top of your list the heading, AI forgive my parents
completely for:" Then just say that, everyday,
going down your list. It won't hurt you, and it does
change your mind.
Moving from thinking that something has

happened to me without my consent, which has
harmed me and which I can't overcome-the
position which traditional psychotherapy places the
individual in-to the position of forgiving my parents
and experiencing whatever relief and benefits
forgiveness produces is a significant progression.
However, Rebirthing can even go one step

further than that. It can enable you not only to
forgive your parents, but actually to be grateful to
them for having done whatever they did.
For every action there is an equal and

opposite reaction. That's one of Newton's Laws of
Motion. It has truth and validity when it comes to
psychological behavior as well. Whatever it is that
they did to you (if for a moment we're going to
pretend that they actually did anything to you
without your consent), however bad it might have
seemed, had to have produced some equal and
opposite positive reaction in you. Perhaps that
reaction has not been realized until now. Perhaps
the most that it did was make you vow to yourself
that you wouldn't be "bad" the way your parents
were. Whatever. The point is that when you start
to forgive them, you also find yourself realizing
your feelings of gratitude to them for whatever it
was that they did.
All of that is unique to Rebirthing. I know

that, of course, within certain religious frameworks,
people are told to be loving and forgiving and are
encouraged never to condemn or judge or
criticize. But generally speaking, the whole
attitude of forgiveness has been relegated to
spiritual and religious approaches to life, and has
not played a very large part, if at all, in the
approach of any major psychotherapy.
So, by making forgiveness a conscious act

and placing the burden of forgiveness on the
person with the grievance, Rebirthing has
essentially turned upside down traditional
psychotherapeutic views of the parent/child
relationship.
To stress it again, let me point out that

Rebirthing is saying it isn't what happens to the
child that matters, it is that the child still holds a
grievance about that old stuff as a later adult, and,
as a consequence, has cut himself off from the
loving relationship with his parents that was his at
the beginning of his life before he started holding
such grievances.
After using forgiveness affirmations, the

next thing to do is to make up a one-to-one
positive that changes each one of your grievances
into the basis for the statement AI am grateful to
my parents for...."
In Appendix O, I have listed most of the

matters you can be grateful to your parents for.
You can add more.
Making up a list of affirmations which

involve the concept of gratitude toward parents for
what they did to us is an important step in healing
our grievances and letting them go completely.
Whenever I make this suggestion at a

workshop, I'm reminded of one of the people
attending one of my workshops in England. His
father had thrown him out of the house at the age
of thirteen, once the father had determined that the
boy was homosexually inclined. The boy suffered
greatly, but eventually left his native country,
arrived in the UK, and prospered. When I told him
he would prosper even more if he forgave his
father, initially he only joked about it, saying, AI am
totally grateful to my father for giving me an early
opportunity to experience complete
independence."
But after the attitude of forgiveness grew

and the attitude of gratitude grew, he suddenly did,
indeed, realize he no longer felt any grievance
toward his father, and that everything that had
happened had been what he would have wished.
That man, twenty years afterward, was able to
regard being thrown out of his home at the age of
13 as a beneficial event in his life. Had he stayed
with his father, had he been a "good boy," he
would have married someone his father would
have picked out for him, and lived a life of duplicity
and secret shame in that small town, in a country
that today, even, is still regarded as the most
backward of the Western European countries. So,
he certainly was better off for having been thrown
out.
Beyond the effect that our parents had on

us and our attitudes towards them, of course, how
our parents treated us has an effect upon how we
ourselves behave as parents. In many cases, our
parents were the perfect bad example. I well
remember one workshop I did where every single
person in the room except me had had an
alcoholic parent or a drug addict as a parent, and
where, by the end of the weekend, each one of the
people attending the workshop fully recognized
that because their parents had been such perfect
bad examples, they themselves, each of them, had
practiced the self-discipline necessary to avoid
being drug and alcohol users.
Another example is the many people

who've had brutal, physically punitive parents, who
resolved never to strike their children, and who, as
a result, were better parents than their own
parents had been. They might not have learned
such an important lesson if they themselves had
not been mistreated as children.
So, another step in recovering from the

effects of whatever it was that your parents did to
you is to look at yourself as a grown-up, especially
as a parent, and see how you are proud of
yourself.
Write down everything that you did and still

do with your children as a consequence of your
reactions to the treatment you received from your
parents. Then head your list with the phrase, AI
am proud of myself as a parent for helping my
children grow healthfully by..."
See Appendix O for a list of behavior most

good parents can be proud of-add yours as well.
By putting the shoe on the other foot,

Rebirthing has enabled the people using
Rebirthing and affirmations to get out from under
the burden of having been "permanently damaged"
by ways their parents treated them at a time when
presumably they couldn't do anything about it.
Especially in connection with PDS, Rebirthing has
given people back their power to heal themselves.
It also has given them the basis for considering
how they, themselves, probably constructed the
events that they used to hold grievances over, so
that they could benefit in ways they now can
delineate to themselves.
As a Rebirth training leader, my

experiences with organizers and with people
attending the workshops have often reflected our
combined or respective PDS numbers. Some of
them have been extremely striking. For example,
one of the ways in which I was most totally hurt by
either of my parents was by my father's death
when I was just 10 years old. The loss alone was
a significant one, of course, and any child has a
right to be unhappy over the loss of a parent. In
addition to that, my mother's reaction to my father's
death was a very severe depression. In some
sense, I felt as if at that point I had lost both
parents. Although she continued to function and
was a very lively and happy woman from time to
time, my own feeling was that I was never, nor
were my sisters ever, of importance enough to
make her really happy with life once my father had
died. Her grieving over that, her mourning for him,
persisted until she died, many, many, many years
later.
So did mine. In analyzing the reason for

my almost lifelong daily mourning for my father, I
can see that it was due in part to the loss, plus the
changes in my mother's behavior, and also to a
generalized kind of guilt that any child feels when
something goes wrong-"If I'd done everything I was
supposed to do exactly the way I should have
done it, then my father wouldn't have died."
It may even have been due to some

philosophical belief that so long as I remembered
my father and grieved for him and mourned for him
and ached for him, he was in some sense still
alive.
That's a heady combination with a lot of

reasons to keep a kid crying practically every day
for years over the death of her father. In any case,
I started mourning when I was ten and a half years
old, when my father died, and that feeling of grief
for him and loss still remained with me
approximately fifty years later, until Babaji's death.
Even that prolonged grieving for my father

had beneficial aspects, however.
One day, I found myself leading a

workshop in the West of England that was
attended by a man who said he was most unhappy
over the death of both of his parents in an
automobile accident. For two days, I listened to
him mourn them and watched him cry, and then
thought to ask how recently they had died. It was
the year that he had left home to go to college.
Suddenly it dawned on me that the accident had
occurred more than twenty years earlier, since he
was certainly a man well into his forties!
I asked him, "Is it so? Is it true that you're

still crying about the death of your parents, a death
that occurred over twenty-two years ago?"
And he said, "Yes, that's true."
Suddenly I found myself laughing , almost

uncontrollably, as I thought of how foolish that man
was (and how equally foolish I had been).
As I continued to laugh, he stopped his

crying, stood up and walked across the room to
stand over me, not menacingly, but nevertheless
that was our position vis à vis each other, and he
said, "Madam, do you laugh at me in my grief?!
Are you mocking me?"
My reply was, "Yes, of course. It's silly.

You know it."
Everyone in the workshop was silent for a

few minutes, and then the tension disappeared as
he smiled and agreed it was time he "got off it."
I asked him to work on the affirmation, AI

forgive my parents for leaving me so suddenly."
Then I asked him to go a step further and

say, AI am grateful to my parents for staying alive
and being my parents until I was old enough to
take care of myself."
Then I asked him to work with the

affirmation, AI forgive myself for having blamed
myself for my parents' death. I forgive my parents
for having left me. I forgive all of us, knowing that
none of us wanted to hurt each other."
By that time, his grief was fairly well

healed.
The root to healing a PDS case goes

through being willing to forgive them, then forgiving
them, seeing the benefits and being grateful for
them, and then finally acknowledging how you are
the better for whatever it was that happened.
Several times during workshops I've had

extreme difficulty convincing people attending the
workshop that it was vital and necessary for them
to forgive their parents for the harms they had
been previously blaming them for.
The most prolonged such a struggle took

place during the next-to-last day of a workshop I
led in Wales with the people who later formed the
musical group Prana.
My position was that we weren't anyone of

us going to go to sleep until everyone in the room
truthfully could say that they were willing to forgive
their parents for all of the harm they'd previously
been blaming them for. They didn't need to have
forgiven completely, but they needed to be willing
to.
Everyone went along with the program

except one fellow. We spent from midnight until
four in the morning, trying to get him to, as I put it,
"let his mother off the hook."
Each time he started even to think of

forgiving his folks, he instead came up with some
more grievances, other things they'd done to hurt
him, other things he still hadn't forgiven them for.
It was a great relief for everyone in the

group when this one holdout finally was willing to
say, AI am now willing to forgive my parents for all
of the things I used to blame them for."
Another man, I well remember, this time in

South Africa, kept yelling, "I'd sooner die than
forgive my father. He was a bastard. He was a
sonofabitch. He had no right to treat me the way
he did. I'll always hate him. I'd sooner die than
say I forgive him."
And all I could say in reply was, "If you

don't, you will. You'll just die."
It took almost three hours before that man

was willing to take the first step and say, AI am
willing to forgive my father for everything I ever
used to blame him for."
The PDS discussion is always a big time

at my trainings and workshops. And it always
plays a big part in the relationship between me and
the members of a workshop I'm leading. Usually
the relationship is between me, the "mother," and
them, the "children."
The presence of my friend, Louis, at a

workshop is always a further catalyst for a large
number of PDS cases on the part of the people
attending the workshops. Often, what they bring
out in reaction to Louis and me also reveals some
aspect of my underlying belief with regard to Louis
as well. So, everyone's PDS is operating.
A very clear example of that was an

episode at a Dutch training held at an oceanside
resort, where, within the space of one hour, two
different people attending the workshop came up
to see me in my room during our after-lunch break.
The first came up to tell me that I had no

right to treat Louis the way I treated him, that I
ordered him around and bossed him just the same
as her mother had bossed her father, and she had
always hated her mother for that. That gave us a
great opportunity to get into getting her to forgive
her mother for being bossy and to forgive herself
for being bossy as well.
It also gave me the opportunity to let go

whatever guilt I might have been feeling about
telling Louis what to do. Our relationship has often
taken on the I'm-the-mama-telling-the-son-what-to-
do role. And I always resent having to be the
authority over him, telling him what to do when he
knows perfectly well what he ought to be doing,
and he's quite capable of taking care of his own
responsibilities. My resentment is apparently what
brought that girl up to my hotel room.
Right after she left, another girl came up to

my room to tell me that she thought I deserved
better, and I asked her what did she mean and she
said, "Oh, you are so loving and so good and so
kind, and it's terrible the way that Louis treats you.
He just takes advantage of you, and I don't think
he cares for you at all, and that's just how my
father was with my mother. He made her go to
work, and he sat around drinking and he had other
women and I have always hated him for that, and I
hate my mother for not getting rid of him, and I just
wanted you to know I'm so sorry for you."
Well, that was her PDS number, but it also

reflected how I felt too, from time to time.
For example, I relatively often find myself

thinking that Louis should make more money so
that he always has money of his own to spend on
things and I don't have to keep track of what I'm
loaning him and make sure he pays me back. But
when I think about that, I have to ask myself, what
would he need to do in order to make more
money? And the answers to that question are
fairly obvious. He would have to work more
steadily and he'd have to charge more for his
services. He'd have to become "important." As I
think about all that, I realize that's not what I really
want. I want him to be able to go on a trip with me
when such an opportunity comes up. I don't want
him to be so tied down to his work that he can't
leave. And I also don't want him charging so much
for his services that he practically can't afford to
take time off because it will cost him too much.
Even more, I don't want to play handmaiden to the
King, so I'm really happy he's not "important."
So, every time I feel sorry for myself

because of my relationship with Louis, my more
rational mind comes up with sensible objections,
and I find myself changing my mind. Hopefully,
sooner or later, my negatives will be all gone and
the relationship will change.
All of those thoughts ran through my mind

as these two different people at the Dutch training
came up with their objections to my relationship
with Louis. And those objections, of course, quite
obviously, were pure projections of their own
Oedipal relations with their parents.
"Why didn't Daddy get rid of Mommy and

just take me, and we could have been so happy
together?"
"Why didn't Mommy get rid of Daddy and

just be with me, and she and I could have been so
happy together?"
A perhaps more striking example of how

PDS rears its ugly head happened once when
Louis and I needed to find a place to stay at in
London. We had arrived there one night in the
midst of an immense snow storm to learn that the
furnace at the place where we were originally
supposed to stay had broken down and the place
was at below freezing temperature. So the people
who were supposed to put us up made
arrangements for the two of us to go over to the
house of one of the fellows there in London who
knew us very well and always had enjoyed us.
The year before he had fallen in love with

an American strip-tease dancer who had come to
one of the workshops that I did in England which
he also attended. He had been a brilliant student
at the University, he spoke many languages, he
was involved with mathematics and computer
work, he was strong and healthy, but, although he
was quite attractive physically, he had been so
studious as a young man that he had never really
dated much and hadn't had much in the way of
sexual experience. Falling in love with this girl was
a great adventure for him. He was happy as could
be! She was beautiful and intelligent and exciting,
she was different, she was emotional; with her, he
could feel and do things that he'd never even
dreamt of doing previously, so he was very happy.
And he was getting laid regularly. I was happy for
him, too. But one day he asked me what I thought
about his getting married to her.
Just about anyone, of course, knows

better than to say anything negative about the
loved one of another person who's asking you for
advice. The only wise thing to say is, AI know you
will make the best choice, I know you know what
you're doing, and please, don't even ask me to
offer an opinion, because only you can offer a valid
opinion."
But I was stupid. And so I said, "Well, I

don't think that's a very smart idea."
"Why not?"
"Well, she's hardly the kind of girl that you

would ordinarily take home to meet your parents,
isn't that true?"
By that, I meant that what I knew about his

parents was that they were upper middle class,
intellectualized Jewish people, traditional and
conservative. By contrast, his lady-love was a
"wild" American strip-teaser, Protestant, divorced,
and, furthermore, was in England because she'd
tried to kill her former husband by running over him
in her car, not once, but twice! I didn't think it
would thrill his parents to meet her. And I certainly
didn't think that they would be very pleased if he
told them that he wanted to marry her. So, honor-
bound, as I usually feel I am, to answer truthfully
when he asked me why not, I detailed those
differences. And his manner towards me cooled
immediately and drastically. However, we left UK
and I forgot about the entire incident.
Then, lo and behold, several weeks later

there we were taking a cab in the middle of the
night through the blizzard to his really nice home.
When I asked him how she was, I learned that
they had broken up.
I was afraid that he blamed me for their

breaking up, that, because I had said something
negative about her, those thoughts created her
leaving him. But we really didn't have much
chance to talk about it because we all wanted to
get some sleep.
He put Louis and me in his bedroom,

insisting on giving us his bed, while he went
upstairs to the guest room. Because we had just
arrived back in England, we were on a different
time sense. So Louis and I didn't fall asleep
immediately, but, instead, stayed awake talking in
bed.
All of a sudden, at about 5:00 A.M.,

approximately an hour or so after we'd gone to
bed, our host pounded on the door and said we
had to leave, that he hadn't been able to get any
sleep at all because all he could think of was the
two of us making love downstairs, and he just
couldn't put up with it!
I asked him please to re-consider. I said
we had not been making love and I was sorry our
talking had bothered him. I asked him please to
forgive us for bothering him. But he was having
none of it; he wanted us to leave immediately. So
there we were, for the second time in less than half
a dozen hours, getting on the phone to try to locate
a place to stay. Fortunately, Rhagava welcomed
us and even drove through the snow to pick us up.
I feel sorry that I was never able to resolve

the issue with our friend who threw us out of his
house. I think he was projecting a PDS number,
probably some anger over the fact that his parents
kept their sex life secret from him, whereas his
recent sex life hadn't been. He never again came
to any of my workshops or parties or anything I
was present at, in all the many times I returned to
England in the years since then. And he didn't
reply to two notes I sent or to several messages. I
think what happened was that he simply moved his
PDS off of his parents and put it on me, making it
my fault that he wasn't able to marry the woman
he'd wanted. And I must have been projecting
some resentment of my children for something
similar, maybe for their fairly constant objecting to
my playing the piano or singing or dancing.
Well, if he or his friends recognize him

from reading this, I do want him to know that I wish
we could be friends once more. I hope by now
some of all this old stuff is long since a dead issue
for us both.
I know how to lie, of course, but I'm not

always very good at hiding my reactions to other
people. So my honesty about a lot of things has
certainly gotten me in trouble throughout my life. I
don't want to make this seem like a virtue because
it isn't always a virtue. Lots of times, it's just that
I've been too dumb to have been able to dissemble
or put on a different face fast enough so that the
people I'm dealing with don't catch on to my real
feelings. That form of social lying is not something
I'm good at-it's not something I want to be doing
very much either.
It certainly brought up intense PDS when

Rebirthers in U.K. and Europe used to ask me
about what I had heard about Sondra, Phil,
Leonard, or the other "Certs." Many times, stories
that I've told in answer to such questions have
resulted in the people listening becoming enraged
at me!
When such stories have involved sexual

escapades, I've always thought they were cute,
and I've always told them as funny stories.
Generally speaking, I don't hold anybody at fault
for making love with anybody, or for feeling sexual
desire and acting on it. It's not something I have
any kind of prudery about. Sexual behavior has
always been something for me to wonder at and
joke around about. I don't talk about these matters
to be passing on such gossip, to be vicious and to
malign their character, because I don't think it has
a damn thing to do with character at all.
So I'm not putting anyone down when I

say something like, "Can you believe it. So-and-so
slept with this many women in one week while he
was leading a workshop!"
I'm really saying, "Can you believe it? So-

and-so slept with so-and-so many women in the
course of a week while he was doing a workshop.
Isn't that amazing!"
But I well remember one night when, in

answer to questioning, I was talking about the
sexual escapades of one of the reasonably well-
known Rebirthers. One of the people sitting at the
table eating supper with me became so angry that
she actually stood on the table to walk past the
man whose chair was blocking her movement
away from the table out into the general aisle of
the restaurant! As she jumped down on the floor,
she said, AI hate you! I'll never talk with you
again!"
She was furious at me, apparently

because I had tarnished the image of someone
she had been holding up as an ideal. I imagine
that, at least in the scheme of her PDS number, an
ideal Daddy doesn't have sex with people other
than the ideal Mommy, his wife.
PDS is revealed in non-sex-related

matters, too, especially in connection with money.
I have found my PDS definitely aroused by my
involvement with Rebirthing.
For example, very shortly after I first

became involved with Rebirthing, Leonard asked
me to arrange a meeting of Rebirthers and to ask
the "most important" Rebirthers in Los Angeles to
comprise a panel, talking to the audience about
their views on specific aspects of Rebirthing. He
told me that each of the participants would share
equally in the overall profits of the meeting.
Well, I called the busiest, best-known

Rebirthers here in the city and arrived at a great
panel of speakers. Each of them was told that he
or she would receive an equal proportion of the
evening's profits.
I proceeded to send several hundred

invitations and to engage a large hall that cost a
few hundred dollars. Everything was all set for the
big event to take place on Saturday evening, the
night after Leonard gave a talk here in Los
Angeles. At that Friday night meeting, much to my
surprise, he announced that he was more than
willing to meet with anybody and everybody the
following morning at the venue I had arranged for
the following evening. He said that all were
welcome to come to talk with him about any aspect
of Rebirthing, and no charge would be made!
Well, of course, as soon as they learned

that they could come Saturday morning for free, a
lot of people came up to me to tell me that they no
longer intended to come in the evening and pay $5
for the privilege.
More than a hundred people showed up

Saturday morning for the freebie. Most of them
didn't come back that evening. So, when Saturday
evening came to be, the audience was about a
hundred fewer than I had expected and we took in
at least $500 less.
In any case, the evening meeting was a lot

of fun, people were excited, they were well-
dressed, they enjoyed seeing each other, and the
panel was stellar. Everyone gave a very fine
presentation. It was a great opportunity for the
audience to see various approaches, just in
personality and behavior, on the part of these
Rebirthers who were talking to them about what
Rebirthing is all about.
When the evening finally was over,

Leonard came to me to say that he wanted to give
everyone on the panel their share of the money.
Because our audience had been so drastically
reduced by his offer of the free meeting that
morning, once costs were deducted, there was
only $50 to distribute between the six people on
the panel! Not a hell of a lot for their efforts for the
evening. When they seemed upset, he pointed out
that they had had an opportunity to come to the
evening free, and so that repaid them in part for
their appearance. Anyhow, he split the money up
between them.
But he forgot to give me any! It had all

been a great learning experience, but I hadn't even
made $5! I found myself trying hard not to feel
injured.
It was as if Leonard, by being so good and

generous to other people, had forgotten about me.
In an instant, I realized that that had been

true of my father, too, and I must always have
been resenting that. At my father's death, he left
nothing of his considerable estate to me or my
sisters. Instead, he had left it all for my mother,
who, because of her ignorance about money
matters and her innocent trust in one of my
cousins, ended up turning over control of my
father's factory and all of our material substance to
that cousin. Essentially we became paupers, for
he gave my mother only $50 a week for only a few
years. If, instead, my father had remembered us
in his will and had put part of the estate in trust for
us girls, at least there would have been some
money later on for us to go to college on, without
having to work our ways through.
As I thought that thought, in the few

minutes or seconds following my telling Leonard
that there wasn't anything left for me, I realized,
well, I might as well let that go, and made a quick
affirmation, AI forgive my father for not leaving me
anything in his will."
In that instant, Leonard handed me $50

which someone in the audience had just given to
him as an extra tip or gratuity for the evening. So I
ended up making some money after all out of
organizing that entire workshop. And I also had
the opportunity to let go another one of the
negatives that I still was holding against my father.
Operating on the philosophy that as soon

as I let go old negatives, my reality changes
automatically, it has been interesting for me to
observe the changes that have occurred, for
example, in the course of my many interactions
with Leonard about money. I think our changing
money-related dealings reflect a progressive
change in the negative charge on my grievances
toward my parents with regard to money.
I was especially pleased when I found

myself finally taking responsibility for paying close
attention to the words used in money
arrangements when I organized for Leonard. I'm
not intimating that I needed to be more careful of
Leonard than of others or that he was out to take
advantage. Rather, I learned mainly with him
simply because most of the organizing that I did for
other Rebirthers was for Leonard. (I have
organized for a few other Rebirthers in my role as
the representative of what was called Rebirth
America. That was an organization Leonard
conceived of and got going about 1980 or so. His
aim was to have at least two Rebirthers in each
state of the union organizing a week long
workshop in that state at least once a month, and
to have a team of Rebirth trainers who would move
from state to state doing a workshop every single
week. I was the Rebirth America organizer for
Southern California. And so, in that guise, I did
organize for many other Rebirthers. But
predominantly, my organizing efforts were as an
organizer for Leonard Orr.) And each one of those
experiences has taught me something about
money and taught me something about my
relationship to my father with regard to money.
So I was especially delighted the last time

I organized a workshop group for Leonard-not a
One Year Seminar group, but a workshop-that I
did pay careful attention to the wording that
Leonard used when he had me sign up to be the
organizer for him on a new effort of his. He
wanted to do what he called an intensive
workshop, with no more than twelve people
attending. He sent me a detailed two-page
contract that stated that as organizer, I was to
receive 10 percent of all monies collected and to
attend the workshop free, and each one of the
people attending the workshop was to pay $300 in
advance. He would confirm the date once I sent
him $3,000.
So I got ten other people to agree that they

wanted to attend, and I collected their $300, each,
and sent the $3,000 to Leonard. Then I got his
firm confirmation of the date, and everything was
all set to go.
The night before the workshop was to

start, I received a phone call from a man in Hawaii
who wanted to attend, so there were now eleven
people besides me who were attending. I
assumed the $300 that the last man paid me was,
essentially, 10 percent of the money collected and
was pretty close to the amount which I was to
receive.
Everything was just as Leonard had said

he wanted it to be: There were only 12 people in
the workshop, everyone but me paid, and I had
received my 10 percent.
On Thursday of the week-long workshop,

the day that Leonard left (although the workshop
continued the next night as well) he asked, "OK,
well, did so-and-so, the fellow from Hawaii, did he
pay? Where is his money? You didn't send that to
me."
I replied, "It said in the contract you sent

me that organizers go free, and that they get 10
percent of what was collected, so I took his $300.
It was my 10 percent of the money collected."
Leonard looked at me and looked at me.

While he was looking at me, I searched my soul.
Nowhere inside of me could I find any negative
whatsoever! I certainly didn't feel any guilt, and I
didn't feel that I had done anything wrong by
pocketing the last fee paid. It all seemed to me as
cut-and-dried as Leonard's contract. That's what
Leonard had said. That's what I had done.
Everything was exactly as it should be.
So I just continued to smile back at

Leonard. At some point, he dropped his gaze and
said, AI guess you're right. That's what I agreed
to," and walked away.
I think that was the first time I realized that

I must have actually let go two big money
grievances, one, the grievance toward my father
for not leaving any portion of his estate to me or
my sisters, and the even greater grievance toward
my cousin and his father, my uncle, for taking the
factory and, in a sense, robbing a widow and her
children.
As I concentrated on forgiving my cousin

Arthur for everything that he did, I found it possible
finally to ask him, on my next visit to see him, more
than forty years after the fact, why he did it. I
learned that, from his point of view, he never
robbed my mother of anything. Instead, he
believed he took over and saved a factory which
would otherwise have become defunct instantly
without my father there to run it. My cousin
explained he had paid my mother for the factory at
the rate of $50 a week for as many years as it took
to pay off my father's contribution to the initial
capitalization of that factory, several years before
his death.
Of course, Arthur got a thriving company

for the small amount of money my father had put in
at the factory's start up. But, from Arthur's point of
view, he didn't rob or cheat anybody. He paid my
mother what my dad had originally paid for the
same thing. He paid her back.
Maybe it was all just a total

misunderstanding and a misfortune. Something
my father could have planned for better? I don't
know. It doesn't matter any longer. I know that I
forgave my cousin, and went back into being very
close to him, especially in the years before he
died. And I know that I certainly forgave my
father. I also know that it no longer happens that
men who ought to be protecting me and taking
care of me, instead, cheat me and take from me,
at least not to the extreme extent that used to
happen previously. That PDS number of mine has
been let go of. At least in part.
I'm still not being supported by the "man in

my life." He's not financially responsible for me.
But that's OK. Maybe the only way I could ever
have had the feeling of independence and self-
determination that I do have is to have been the
primary one who has supported me through all my
years, as has been true. I look at other women
who've accomplished more than I have, and I
think, sometimes, with a certain modicum of
dismay that I might well have been able to
accomplish more if I had had more financial
support and hadn't had to spend so much of my
time doing things like painting the walls and
repairing the electrical appliances and doing other
things to save money because I didn't have the
money to spend on getting professionals to do it.
Maybe if I'd been married to a man who supported
me, things would have been different. But then I
would never have been able to say, along with
Frank Sinatra, AI did it my way."
Quite obviously, the way each of us relates

to all authority in our life is reflective of how we still
relate to our parents. To the extent that we still
disapprove of a parent for doing thus-and-so, we're
likely to create a boss who does the same.
Sometimes the PDS case comes through

not from parents but from older sibs. For example,
I know that my pre-Rebirth reactions to my older
sister were instrumental in creating for me a series
of lady bosses who treated me essentially exactly
the same way my older sister had treated me
when I was a little girl. She bossed me around,
teased me, confused me, hurt me, and put me
down. Letting go my grievances toward her,
forgiving her, resulted in my finally getting
benevolent Department Chairs my last few years
of teaching.
So, when you're looking at the lists of

affirmations on PDS, remember to include older
sibs as well. It's not all just parents. We create
our bosses out of our disapproval of all the people
who once were authorities over us, including older
sibs and other relatives,
As you're thinking over the specific

grievances that you have about your parents, your
sibs, and other relatives, remember that a lot of the
interactions sprung from what could be called, in
the words of my good friend, Barbara Bellows-
TerraNova, "a confused make-wrong situation that
separates the mother and the child." The example
that Barbara brought to my mind was the example
of toilet-training, where the parent enforces toilet-
training before the child grows old enough to
develop the sphincter control and the large muscle
control that enables him to sit on a toilet and strain
to defecate and urinate to will. That parent has
created a negative. So has the parent who makes
the child take laxatives or who gives the child
enemas or who uses suppositories with the child.
They're all saying to the child in all of these ways,
"You can't be trusted to do what you're supposed
to do, without my direction."
This whole issue of trust versus control is

a central issue in parenting, and so it is central to
our grievances regarding our parents. Did they
believe that you could be trusted? Did they act on
that? If they did, then they nursed or fed you when
you signaled that you were hungry, and they didn't
make you eat when the clock said it was time to
eat or prevent you from eating when the clock said
it wasn't yet time to eat. Also, they didn't make
you eat anything you didn't want to. (I think it's
wise to ask a child to take one bite of everything,
and maybe, as he gets older, to ask him to take
three bites of everything, so that he develops more
catholic tastes and stops being afraid of anything
that looks or smells different from whatever he has
known in the past, but that's another issue.)
If parents trust their child, then when the

child is cranky and unhappy, rather than saying,
"Oh, he's trying to control me, I'll show him, I'll just
make him cry himself to sleep," such parents,
instead, say, "Oh, he needs to be comforted. I
don't know what it is that's wrong, but at least I can
hold him and rock him and talk with him and
soothe him."
Parents must trust their child instead of

seeking only to control him and train him. They
must understand that as he grows and develops,
he will develop and grow the capacities that are
needed in order to end up being an independent
person who can take care of himself. He doesn't
need to be pushed or required to do these things
when he's small. Parents just need to wait until
the child has shown that he truly has developed
the capacity to handle some particular activity on
his own, and at that point, he only needs to be
given the go-ahead and the wherewithal.
The distinction between trust and need to

control shows up in almost every interaction
between the child and his parents. A trusting
parent knows when the child pulls on his shirt as
the parent is trying to pull it over his head, that that
child is showing he's beginning to get the idea of
how to handle his clothing. Trusting parents
encourage him, they don't instruct or criticize or
prohibit him from trying to do whatever he can.
When he's very tiny, they simply proceed to wash
and dress him, explaining what they're doing, and
allowing him to "help." A less trusting parent who's
more interested in controlling her child might
regard his clumsy efforts to wash and dress
himself not as helping, but as interfering. A
trusting Momma doesn't say, "Oh, you're putting
that on backwards," or "Don't try to put your hand
through the neck hole, that won't work." She
doesn't ridicule the child, she doesn't instruct him.
Trust and the issue of control play a major

role in how the child develops the capacity to take
care of himself. When he wants to sit up, he
shows that by moving his head and his neck and
shoulders forward. He doesn't need to be sat up
or pulled up by his parents. He'll develop the
capacity to sit when he's ready to. Somewhere
between three months and nine months, he's
going to sit independently, because that's
something that human beings do. Sitting, like
grasping and walking and talking, isn't something
people need to be taught to do. These human
behaviors are something we do without instruction,
simply because of the way the our bodies are
structured and "hard-wired."
We humans all grab and grasp. Gradually

that is refined to the point where, instead of
making a fist and holding something in our fist, we
pronate our thumb and forefinger and rest the
weight of whatever we're holding on the middle
finger. We become deft and adroit. The pronated
grasp we use holding a pencil to write is a human
capacity. We are the only creature that can
pronate the thumb and forefinger.
Just so, sitting is human, and standing on

two feet is human. A few other animals do stand
on two feet and walk, but only for very short
periods of time. For example, bears can be
trained to do it, but they lumber around. They're
not at all skillful or well-balanced, and they need
frequent pauses in the walking stunt to get back
down on all fours and relax their back muscles and
spine. So do the few primates that actually run on
their hind legs for perhaps fifty to one hundred
feet, from time to time. Baboons and chimpanzees
have been photographed running across meadows
as they leave the protection of the tree cover on
one side of the meadow to go across. But their
customary method of getting around is not
walking-it's climbing or jumping with all four limbs.
We don't need to make our children walk
or show them how to walk. We simply need to
encourage them and congratulate them when they
do it. Walking is something human beings do by
their very nature.
So is talking. We know how to speak.

Even children of deaf parents who do not
communicate with speech are heard to babble and
coo, developing the human capacity of speech.
What you say, how do you word the meaning of
the idea that you're trying to get across, is
something we learn. We learn languages. But we
don't learn to speak.
The same with toileting. There are only a

very few tribes of people throughout the entirety of
the history of the world who have not toileted in a
particular spot, in a particular way. Those few
tribes are nomads. The group that comes to my
mind are the Masai, who live and travel with their
cattle. The cattle are, of course, defecating and
urinating at will. And I guess, if you're running
barefoot through a lot of cow turds, you might as
well defecate right along with them, rather than try
to set aside some part of the territory for toileting,
especially since they're constantly on the move.
So these human capacities are all ones

that develop. Parents who trust the fact that their
baby is a human being know that the child will
gradually grow and develop human capacities to
handle more and more of the tasks that are
involved in taking care of himself. As he learns
how to grab and to hold, for example, he can hold
a sponge or a washcloth and can make a gradually
increasingly skillful effort to wash himself. The
same with feeding himself and with putting clothes
on. The same, too, with using play toys, not only
such simple toys as dolls and stack toys and
banging toys, but more complicated playthings,
like games and bicycles and roller skates.
Children learn to use these kinds of play
equipment by using them. We've all seen a child
on a bike, keeping his feet on the pedals, being
held up by Mommy as she pushes him around the
block on the bicycle. That won't teach him any
balance. Ultimately, he will only learn to ride a
bike by getting on it and riding it. A few falls may
occur, but the child learns from each one.
John Dewey said many, many years ago,

close to the turn of the century, that we learn
through doing. And that's what it's all about with
children. We must trust them to learn. We must
give them credit for being human beings. We have
to give them the equipment and the wherewithal to
practice, but that's all that we really need to do.
I used to use an analogy in my classrooms

when I would talk about child development. I
would point out to my students that when we plant
a radish seed, we don't go out every week and pull
the radish up and yell at it because it hasn't yet
turned into a nice big fat red radish. First of all, it
would kill the radish, and secondly, the radish
doesn't need to be told how to be a radish. It
already has within itself the blueprint for its
becoming a perfect radish. All it needs to do that
is get water, be in the sun, and have decent,
nutritious soil.
So do our children. Each one of them has

within him the DNA blueprint that essentially
determines the rate at which he develops different
capacities, and that also probably affects the
amount of charge each new ability has. Some
children are more robust and muscular, more
ready to be active and run around and do things
with their bodies. Some children have warm
hearts and soft feelings, and they're into emotional
reactions to the world and the things in the world.
Some children are more cerebral and thoughtful
and mindful and intelligent or intellectual than
others.
Each of us had within each of us as

children the plan, the program, for our being. And
parents must remember this, above all, when they
are dealing with their children.
Helping the child grow and develop is the

fact that all children want to be like the grownups
around them. Through identification and
introjection, they take on the characteristics of the
people around them, the people that they are
closest to. If Mommy and Daddy eat nicely with
proper table manners, the child is going to be
eating pretty much just like Mommy and Daddy,
holding his fork and his knife that same way, as he
develops his grasp. If Mommy and Daddy ask
Please and say Thank You when they're dealing
with the baby, the baby also develops this same
habit. If Mama and Papa are kind to people,
thoughtful, concerned about them, it's altogether
likely that their child also will be.
I don't mean by this that parents should

never instruct their child or never order their child
to do something, because sometimes commanding
is appropriate. For example, when a child starts to
play too rough with a pet, it's appropriate that the
mother or the father says, "Stop that! You're
hurting that dog! That's not nice. You wouldn't like
it if somebody pulled on your ears. Now play
gently or leave the dog alone."
Something of that sort happens

frequently. Children need to be told a lot of the
social rules of what goes and what doesn't go. But
fundamentally they do not need a parent to put
them in a bind where the parent is expecting them
to do something they're not yet capable of.
Another aspect of the same topic of good

parenting is actually the reverse, and that is
parents must make certain that they don't keep a
child from doing something that he is already
capable of. I know that in many cultures, children
aren't allowed to crawl. They're held by their
parents until they're old enough to walk.
Leaving aside the problem that the failure

to crawl produces in hand-eye coordination and in
general motor coordination, which may later show
up as reading problems, there is a much more
important problem with this. That is, that the child
is being denied the opportunity to be independent
and to explore on his own. He's being forced into
remaining passive when he is already beginning to
develop a great capacity to be independent.
I see many parents making that mistake.

Because the baby is messy holding a spoon, the
parent persists in feeding the child long past the
age when the child is quite capable of getting most
of the food into his mouth. I see parents who
prevent their child from dressing himself because
they don't want him to put the clothes on
backwards or button up the buttons with one
missing. They don't let him have the experience of
dressing himself because he isn't doing it right.
And yet, if we go back to John Dewey, how can he
possibly learn to do it right if he isn't doing it
wrong?
Parents err this way especially in dealing

with the child's responsibilities. I often watch
parents tell children to go clean up the mess the
child has created before he starts something else.
But the child doesn't. Then the parent complains
and scolds and tells the child, in effect, what a
worthless child he is because he doesn't clean up
his things. But then the parent goes ahead and
cleans up! Does the scolding somehow "pay back"
doing the child's task?
We can never learn to be responsible for

ourselves if we're not responsible for ourselves.
And I think the whole art of parenting is
constructing situations which make it mandatory
that a child do what is the responsible thing to do,
for example, clean up his mess before playing with
anything else, going back to close a door, turn off
the water, or turn off the lights, pausing to say
Hello or Goodbye-whatever. All of those things
need to be done by the child. Maybe he's helped
with a reminder from the parents to do it, but
certainly he's not helped if the parent does these
things for him. He's only learning how to get other
people to do his work.
A friend of mine, an eminently eligible

bachelor who makes a fine living, is a very
pleasant person with a lot of interests. He has
asked me, "What's the purpose of getting
married? It doesn't last. Most marriages break up
within a year after the marriage. And what's the
value of having a child? Why do people need to
have children? Is parenthood supposed to make
you psycho-sexually mature?"
Of course, statistically, it is true that most

new marriages break up within a year. Also
certainly, most parents are far from being mature
psychologically.
But marriage and parenthood are unique

because both involve the element of commitment.
When you are in a committed relationship, there is
an imperative, a necessity to handle the negatives
that the relationship brings up. You can't walk
away from them. Marriage and parenthood are
more than traps-they are unique opportunities.
I see many parents who, I believe, are

actually rationalizing some fear of encountering
their child's disapproval and also perhaps are
simply operating out of lassitude and laziness. For
example, these parents often don't insist that their
children learn proper social behavior. They tell me
that their children will learn from others, and that
it's much better for their children to learn proper
manners and thoughtful social behavior from their
peers rather than from parents operating in an
authoritarian manner.
Well, I don't know about that. Many of the

children that I see who have not been required to
say Hello, Goodbye, Please, Thank you, I'm sorry,
Excuse me, never do it. They grow up to be
boors, nasty unsociable people, people who walk
in and interrupt a conversation because no one
has ever told them to wait their turn, people who
behave in a manner that's indifferent to the comfort
of others. Their childhood thoughtlessness seems
to have remained a lifelong habit in them. If they
do occasionally practice what could be called
thoughtfulness, generally speaking, it's always in a
manipulative framework, where they're being nice
to somebody because they want something from
them, not because they want to show the other
that they care for him.
So, all in all, the matter of the PDS is

tantamount to the matter of the parenting.
Everything you do with your children brings up
everything you did with your parents. The
happiest, easiest parents are the ones who have
forgiven their own parents. Every grievance that
you still hold onto toward your parents is going to
dictate that your children manifest the elements of
that grievance, giving you another opportunity to
let it go. For example, if you hated your mama
because she walked around the house looking
messy and slovenly, then you may not feel too
kindly toward your child when he wants to dress
himself and doesn't do a perfect impeccable job of
it. As you fuss at your child, you're bringing up into
your consciousness your own feelings about your
mother and your incapacity to have made a
difference to her habitual style of dressing during
the daytime when she was playing housewife.
Today, as I was opening my mail, taking a

break from working on this chapter, I picked up
and opened a newspaper, to see an article entitled
To Forgive is Divine. The column told the story of
Esau and how his brother who had cheated Esau
out of his birthright saw Esau coming toward him
twenty years later with a mighty army. Recalling
how he had previously duped his brother and
cheated him, Esau's brother fell on his knees,
begging Esau to forgive him. But Esau came over
and embraced him and paid dutiful younger
brother obeisance to his older brother. Esau had
truly forgiven his brother for everything that his
brother had ever done to him.
As I was reading the column, I

remembered the adage "To err is human, to
forgive is divine." Well, our parents erred. Our
parents made lots of mistakes. They made them
because we also made mistakes, because we
dealt with our parents in a manner that constrained
them to do whatever it was that they did. We can't
foist off on them our responsibility for having
created our own universe, even all the way back
then.
I know that this is an esoteric attitude, and

that it makes a lot of people angry when a
Rebirther like me says, "But you chose your
parents. You chose the circumstances of your
life. You chose everything that's happened to
you. Nothing has ever happened to you without
your consent. Everything has been a construct of
your thought, and if you want to blame others for
things that you say they did to you without your
consent, then you have given away your power.
You're much better off acknowledging that you
made some mistakes. To err is human."
But there's no way of getting around it-our

Thought creates our Universe-from the very get-
go.
The thing to do, of course, is to let go the

grievance. You can do that really easily: First,
you go through the process of saying, "I'm willing
to let go of my grievance."
Then you can say, "With every breath, I

have been letting go this grievance."
Then you can say, AI no longer feel this

grievance. I now forgive [that person] for the
things I used to feel aggrieved about."
And then you can go to the final step

where you say, AI am grateful that what I used to
call a grievance happened to me because I now
am much better off."
You now have made a full circle in your

mind. You have taken responsibility for what
you've created. You see what is perfect in it,
rather than seeing the imperfections and blaming it
all on some other guy-especially the super
scapegoats, your parents.
The essence of handling your PDS is to do this

divine thing.
Forgive!

CHAPTER TWELVE
TIME, WORK, AND MONEY: The Logic of
CONSCIOUSNESS AND ABUNDANCE Magical Thought
and The Dance of
the Breath
Some of the most fascinating manifestations of
the negatives involved in our birth imprints and our
Parental Disapproval Syndrome are our
characteristic attitudes about time, effort, strength, INTRODUCTION
work, and money.
CHAPTER ONE
Basically, these attitudes can be summed up The Ideal Breath
either as scarcity consciousness or abundance
consciousness. Both rest on what our conception, CHAPTER TWO
carriage, and birth were like-followed by how and
what our parents taught us by example and The Difference
precept. Between Rebirthing
For many people their first introduction to New
Age philosophy comes in the form of a money CHAPTER THREE
seminar or a workshop on prosperity. Some of the The Difference
best of these that I've had the opportunity to
experience were ones led by Phil Laut, Leonard Between the Ideal
Orr, Susan Skye, or Jerry Gillis. I wholeheartedly Breath And Yogic
recommend to all my readers that they take Breathing
advantage of any opportunity to join with any of
these prosperity experts in their money CHAPTER FOUR
workshops. I also recommend books by Og
Mandino, W. Clement Stone, or Napoleon Hill. The Difference
After all, the idea of positive thinking goes back Between Rebirthing
forty, fifty years to their books on salesmanship, And Primal Scream
and a lot can still be learned from reading these Therapy
earlier works.
CHAPTER FIVE
In this chapter, I want to discuss mostly some
new ideas that these people may not have The Biology of
presented in their writings and workshops. All of Imprints
the thoughts that I'm about to discuss aren't
necessarily only mine, but they're really good CHAPTER SIX
thoughts about scarcity which I want to share with Food and
everyone.
Consciousness
Keep in mind that, if there was any highly-
charged scarcity surrounding your birth, your CHAPTER SEVEN
current reality probably mirrors such scarcity Rebirthing and
thoughts-complicated by all your other old PDS Bodywork Therapies
negative reactions.
CHAPTER EIGHT
You may feel you don't have enough-not
enough time, not enough strength, not enough Rebirthing and
motivation, not enough reward in the form of Conventional
money or recognition. Rsychotherapies
In reaction, you may become a schnorrer, the CHAPTER NINE

Yiddish word for somebody who never has enough Rebirthing and
and who's always begging or borrowing from other
people. As a result of such scarcity thought Neuro-Linguistic
patterns, the schnorrer not only never thinks he Programming
has enough, but he never gets enough either,
because people begrudge giving to him when he CHAPTER 10
begs from them or `borrows.' Affirmations
I have met many schnorrers in the Rebirthing CHAPTER 11
movement. The Parental
Disapproval
They mistakenly believe that Rebirthing will
enable them to get without giving. That without
Syndrome
offering enough to get enough, you can still get
enough, simply by being open to receiving it. CHAPTER 12
Time, Work, and
Please understand, I have no objection to just Money:
receiving God's Grace and being fortunate enough Consciousness and
to win a lottery or have an old, forgotten, distant
relative die and leave me a fortune, etc. I also
Abundance
don't have any objection to having everyone in the
world know that everyone around them loves them CHAPTER 13
completely and supports them and they are loved Sex and Loving
enough. But, as I pointed out in the preceding Relationships
chapter, I highly value work and independence.
Rebirthing seems to attract lots of people who CHAPTER 14

think the breath and affirmations will save them Physical Immortality
from having to take responsibility for letting go their
scarcity thoughts. It attracts schnorrers who hope CHAPTER 15
they can use affirmations to create, directly, a Ethical
higher income, a better job, more energy, more
time, even more skill for themselves. I object if Consideration
they're unwilling to work for such benefits.
CHAPTER 16
I remind them to do abundance affirmations. Individual Rebirths
 My breath CHAPTER 17
is my connection Group Rebirthings
with Infinite Time,
Money, and
Energy. CHAPTER 18
 The more I Organizing
breathe fully and Trainings and
freely in the Workshops
connected
pattern, the more
Time, Money, and CHAPTER 19
Energy I receive. The Standard
Rebirth Training
Until we let go our birth negatives, we are all
schnorrers, one way or another. I've never met a CHAPTER 20
new potential Rebirthee who didn't complain on
one level or another about not getting or having
Running a Rebirth
enough: enough energy, enough time, enough Business
money, enough acknowledgment, enough
opportunity. CHAPTER 21
Rebirthing
I'm sure that the root negative is not enough Organizations
love. If we start with enough love, we can always
create something positive for ourselves. An infant
who was lovingly, deliberately conceived by
passionate, affectionate parents who took good
care of him up to his birth probably imprints even a
lengthy difficult birth quite differently from the way
an unwanted unloved infant does, even with an
ostensibly easy birth. For the first, the loved child,
any birth is an opportunity, a challenge. For the
second, everything is always a struggle.
My purpose when working with a person who

makes either of these complaints-not enough
money, not enough love-is to point out to him
where the negative in his consciousness lies that
is preventing him from receiving all the love, as
well as all the abundance and financial success,
that he desires.
I prefer to get down to the essence of

prosperity: Positive Thought about the elements-
time, energy, and skill-that lead up to True
Financial Prosperity. I prefer the thought:
 I always do enough, well

enough, to receive an abundance.
Many of the people I've Rebirthed not only

initially believed they didn't get enough love, but
also seemed to believe they deserved love even if
they, themselves, weren't considerate or
responsible, even if they weren't reliable, decent,
ordinary people whose word can be counted
upon. Fundamentally, they acted as if they didn't
care about anyone else in their life.
If they got to the deeper and larger negatives

that they were walking around with, their complaint
would have changed from, "No one loves me as
much as I want them to love me," to, "I'm afraid I
don't really know how to care for anyone, and so I
may never, in turn, inspire love in others."
Their major negative wasn't, "I am not loved

enough." It was really, "I don't love enough."
Connected to that complaint might be another

scarcity thought, for example, "I don't have enough
time to show others I care for them," or, "I don't
have enough money to put out showing other
people I care for them."
So I ask my clients to think with affirmations

concerning these points:
 I have all
the time I need to
be loving and
considerate.
 I have all
the energy I need
to be loving and
considerate.
 I already
know everything I
need to know in
order to do
everything I want
to do.
 I feel safe
being loving and
considerate.
In my effort to flesh out my client's

understandings of his negatives so he can develop
an attitude of compassion toward himself and his
parents, I usually direct attention to such things as
how many other children there were in his
childhood home, what his parents were doing, how
much time and opportunity he actually had to do
what he needed to do in order to show how much
he loved his parents, and how much chance his
parents had to show him how much they loved
him. I always remind my client that, basically,
every child loves his parents so much that he does
anything and everything he can in order to be what
they want him to be, so that he can show them
how much he loves them.
So, for example, some children learn that the

only time their parents spend with them is the time
spent calming them and comforting them or taking
care of their material needs. Some parents don't
play much with their children, interacting with them
and hanging out with them. Only negative
behavior gets attention. Unless the children are
naughty, upset, or sick, the children are ignored
and neglected.
The parents, themselves, may not have enough

time or energy to play with the child and to show
the child how much they love him or to have him
show them how much he loves them. Busy
parents often fail to encourage a child to do things
for them, just as they often don't let the child do
things for himself. Impatiently, because they can
do it faster and better, they don't make time for
such display. A child brought up in such
circumstances may later, as a parent himself, in
turn, believe he doesn't have time enough to
spend just playing and being with his child so they
can show each other how much they care for each
other. Thus, the circle of "not enough" is
perpetuated.
Sometimes this is expressed by the hard-

pressed, hard-working parent in terms of time.
"Leave me alone, don't you see I've got things I've
got to get done. If you want to have supper
tonight, you've got to leave me alone and stop
wasting my time. I've got other things to do
besides play with you, I've got to do some work.
When you grow up, you're going to have to work!"
Sometimes this is phrased in terms of energy

instead of time. "Listen, I'm so tired I don't have
enough strength to even finish my work and you
want me to read to you? Leave me alone, go read
to yourself! Go play by yourself!"
Sometimes parents are sickly and they actually

do lack in strength. The child may be cautioned by
the healthier parent, "Watch out! Don't be so
rough, can't you see that your mom isn't feeling
well? Now go away from her. You know she loves
you, but just leave her alone. She doesn't have
enough strength to pay attention to you right now."
Sometimes the parents have weird working

schedules and the child is told, "Be quiet! Your
father is sleeping and if he can't get his sleep he
won't be strong enough to go to work and if he
can't go to work, he can't earn a living, and bring
home food, and then you'll be unhappy, won't you."
One way or another, a Rebirthee must forgive

the people he thinks didn't give him enough so he
can eliminate his scarcity consciousness.
Then he needs to start obeying the Four Laws

of Money I first heard of from Leonard Orr and Phil
Laut.
These Laws concerning money have to be

obeyed if your money picture is to be a positive
one. These Laws concern the various activities
that money is directly involved with. The First is
the Law of Earning. Then come the Law of
Spending, the Law of Saving, and the Law of
Giving.
When it comes to the Law of Earning, the most

important factors are your outstanding negatives
about earning. How do you make your money?
How do you want to make your money? What do
you do that you do well enough so that people
benefit from it enough so that they're willing to pay
you a handsome amount of money for doing it,
frequently enough so that you can live by doing
what you like to do?
Quite obviously, if the way you're earning a

living is something that bothers you, that makes
you feel bad, at least two further negatives come
up: one, you won't like to do it enough to do it
really well, and two, no matter how much you earn
from that activity, the money will never suffice.
The typical case is the common enough story of

someone who works at a job he hates, working for
people he dislikes, doing something he doesn't
like. He does all that for fifty weeks of the year, so
that he finally has enough money saved up so he
can go off and do something he likes to do for two
weeks (if, of course, he saves enough to do what
he really likes). On that basis, the person is living
less than four percent of the time, because he's
only living during his vacation time; otherwise he's
suffering and simply existing.
So it's vital to think about what you like to do.
The first Law of Money, the Earning Law, says

you have to earn your living doing something you
like to do, that you do well, something that's legal,
and, preferably, something good for others.
Generally speaking, people who do something

very well get paid better than the people who do
something not so well. And, generally speaking, a
person is more likely to do something well if he
enjoys doing it. So the starting point for any
prosperity consciousness seems to lie in the
consideration of what a person likes to do.
Let's assume that you're a person whose major

complaint about life and whose major reason for
wanting to Rebirth is that you're poor and you're
tired of being poor. You believe that if you can
develop a positive attitude about money, you will
then be in a better position to receive large sums
of money.
I generally start working with a person like you

by asking, "Well, what do you like to do?"
I explain that it's really important to know what

you like to do, not in terms of doing such things in
an eventual job, but just what kinds of activities
you like.
If you have problems with money, I suggest

that, until these problems clear up, you take a few
minutes every day to sit down and write down ten
things you really like to do. Start a new page
every day. If you write fast enough, it shouldn't
take more than a minute, for example:
"Ten things I really like to do are talking, writing,

explaining my point of view, cleaning, making love,
listening to music, dancing, getting stoned,
smelling my roses, looking at my bunnies, thinking
about God."
It took me several years to realize that the thing

I like to do more than anything else at all,
apparently, was cleaning! I have kept my husband
waiting for me to go to bed to make love with him
while I finished cleaning up something that could
have waited for the morning, but I didn't want to let
it wait. When my children were little and wanting
something from me, I often kept them waiting while
I finished cleaning something up. And I have
certainly worn myself out temporarily to the point of
almost total exhaustion by making myself finish
cleaning something instead of leaving, doing
something to replenish my energies, and then
coming back to it at some other time.
When I finally realized that one of the strongest

drives in my life is to clean things up, I began to
recognize that a lot of that had to do with some old
imprints about dirt. Perhaps my mother was afraid
of getting dirty when she was carrying me for fear
that I might get infected in her womb. I don't know.
All I know is that, With every breath, I now let

go any old negatives about dirt.
And in the meantime, of course, my job allows

me to clean everyone's act up at the same time
that I'm cleaning my act up. And so, I am still
expressing my old desires.
What is true for a lot of people is that they have

never once asked themselves what they like to
do. They've missed the boat on reaching into the
deepest parts of themselves for their own self-
determination. They have instead taken the
opportunistic point of view and have asked
themselves what can I do? What do people
want? What kind of jobs are open for people like
me?
That doesn't work.
It has to start with you.
Once I have a person starting to think along

the lines of doing what he wants to do, I ask him to
think about what might prevent him from doing
these things now that he's got them acknowledged
and can see them clearly. At that point, frequently,
the person tells me that he doesn't have the time
or the energy to do the things he wants to do!
So, I'm back at reminding him that he, in his

universe, is the only one with self-direction, with
free will. If indeed he no longer wants to "pretend"
that he'd doing things that he has to do, but which
are things that he really doesn't want to do, then
he can simply change his mind. He can re-mind
himself:
 I always
serve myself first
and as well as I
serve others.
 I serve
myself best by
doing those things
which I want to
do.
 I handle
the mechanics of
living so that I
have the time and
the energy to do
those things
which I want to
do.
Speaking personally, I have found, as I look

back over my more than seventy years of life, that
I've always had the feeling that, before I could pay
attention to what I wanted to do, first, I had to do
anything that everyone else wanted me to do,
unless what I wanted to do was clearly marked as
"'work that had to be done." Even then sometimes
I put off my appointed task to help someone else.
I find that, as I review my life, mostly I've been
open for whatever interruptions have come my
way. I have believed that I always have all the
time I need and all the energy I need to be there
for anyone else whenever they want me.
Typically, I set aside what I'm doing for myself
because I believe that, indeed, I always have
enough time and energy to do everything I want to
do for myself.
That's true. And I have gotten a lot of my

personal goals accomplished, and a lot of them
have been in the nature of personal expression as
well as even just plain self-indulgence.
One of my neighbors, in the effort to make sure

that she improves my life somehow or other, got
me to commit to her that after I retired from
teaching college every day, I would spent at least
an hour a day writing a book about Miracles and
Babaji and the Magic of Rebirthing and what I
know about Rebirthing and other therapies. So I
made that commitment to her and I promised I
would spend at least an hour each day writing.
When I retired from college teaching three

years ago, I kept my promise. I have been writing
this book since then. But each day, first I
straighten the house and handle the laundry, feed
the bunnies, deadhead the roses, open and
answer the mail, shop for and prepare dinner,
answer phone calls, pack and ship orders for cards
and tapes, and see clients. First!
As I've said before, fortunately, I really like

working-at anything. It was not for naught that I
took three days getting born...
The Law of Earning seems strange to many

people when they hear it for the first time.
People who are having money problems often

laugh when I tell them they must first consider
what they like to do. They snort in derision, "How
can I possibly expect to make money doing those
things?"
My reply is that the emphasis in this exercise,

the focus, the value, is not primarily derived from
thinking of ways to make money doing things that
you like. Instead, it derives from finally actually
consulting yourself, your Will, and deciding what
you like to do.
Most of us, when we think of earning a living,

think of what we can do to make a living. We don't
think of what we like to do. Yet that is basic to
developing a feeling of satisfaction, as well as to
succeeding. If you are doing something you like to
do, you tend to do it often, and you tend to get
better and better at doing it every time you do it.
The better you are at doing something, the more
likely it is that someone will pay you, frequently
and handsomely, to do just exactly that.
So, when I see a person who's dissatisfied with

his job, with his way of earning money, I tell him
the first thing he must do is get into the habit of
consulting himself, consulting what he will and
what he will not like doing, without concern for
whether or not money can be made from doing
those things.
Sometimes a person asks me what to do if

there are more than ten things that he really likes
to do and he can't decide which to put down. I tell
him, "Limit yourself to ten. That's all there is to it.
You're not signing a contract-you're just asking
yourself what you like in order to get into the habit
of consulting your Will."
If the list changes from day to day, fine. If you

find that some of the things you've been putting
down almost habitually or automatically aren't
really as satisfying as other things that you do,
change your list. Just keep working on it, day after
day after day. Write down, "Ten things I really like
to do are... one, two, three, four, five, six, seven,
eight, nine, ten."
Don't write more than a few words each line.

Get down to the essence.
Your are consulting your Divine Intelligence,

putting it at the service of your Will.
After a couple of weeks of practicing this simple

exercise every morning, select one-any one of
them (a different one each day preferably)-and
write down three ways (only three ways) that you
can make money doing that. Not a living, just
some money-even if only a dollar. Then practice
this exercise for several weeks.
Everyone I know who has followed these

instructions has developed a startlingly different
focus to their concerns about earning. Usually,
without any struggle at all, they have improved
their earning circumstances, either by finding a
different job completely or by focusing on different
aspects of the job they already have. In many
cases, they have improved their earnings by
adding some activity to the ones that they were
already carrying out, or they've started charging for
an activity they were already engaged in on a non-
paid basis.
In any case, the Law of Earning says you must

do something that you really like to do so you do it
often enough to get good at it. If you are good at
something you like to do, someone will pay you for
it, especially if what you're doing is something that
is uniquely of benefit to them.
If, in addition, what you're doing is in

accordance with high moral purposes, with highest
spiritual aims, then you can feel that you are
joining in an intimate, profound union with all the
Good in the universe. Being a Rebirther provides
just such satisfaction to me.
The Law of Earning, once obeyed, allows you

to enjoy what you're doing to make a living. At that
point, the amount of money that you're earning for
doing what you enjoy doing becomes subordinate
to your pleasure in the activity itself.
Therefore, even if you only get two weeks of

"vacation" a year, fifty weeks of the year are spent
in enjoyable occupation, and after all, that's what
satisfaction is all about. Your work is your play.
Sometimes I work with someone who keeps

himself from greater financial success because of
fear he will lose his parents' love and approval. He
worries about being more successful than they
ever were, or he fears they disapprove of money
as such. In such cases, it helps to remember: The
whole world, especially my parents, enjoy my
being a huge financial success.
The other three Laws of Money, the Laws of

Spending, Saving and Giving are very simple: Put
10 percent of your after-tax income into each.
Discipline yourself and practice these Laws

automatically. Save 10 percent of your after-tax
income by depositing that amount into your
savings accounts. Give 10 percent to charities.
And spend 10 percent on things and activities you
don't regard as necessities to be budgeted for and
paid for with the remaining 70 percent.
If you haven't been completing some or all of

these three money transactions, if it's all you can
do to cover your bills for necessities with your
entire income, you need to make changes to
reduce your usual expenditures for necessities.
Putting the same thought into different words, you
have to keep your costs for shelter, food, clothing,
health-care costs, transportation, and other
necessities within 70 percent of your after-tax
income-even if it means moving to less expensive
housing, cooking for yourself and eating a
healthier, fresher diet that doesn't include more
costly prepared meals or snacks and junk food,
simplifying your wardrobe, or even selling your car
and using cheaper public transportation.
Because such consciousness always manifests

itself, don't even allow yourself to think "No matter
how much I make, it isn't enough."
All Thought Creates-including money worries.

If you don't think abundance thoughts, you can't
create abundance. You have to make thought
changes if you don't have any savings, if you don't
generously contribute to charities, or if you don't
have any money to spend on anything except daily
necessities.
Make sure you do the hardest one first and

before you deal with your ordinary bills!
So, if you never have anything to spend on

yourself, as soon as you receive your check,
before paying your bills, saving any money, or
donating money to charities, take 10 percent of it
and give it to yourself to spend on anything that
you want-just so long as it isn't something that is
regarded for budgeting purposes as a necessity.
It's got to be an "extra." Ten percent may not be a
lot, but it's fun to spend it on yourself.
If that brings up a lot of anxiety or confusion,

great! Just breathe those negatives, those old
scarcity thoughts, away.
If you don't know how to spend money on

yourself, you have to practice spending.
Be sure to think abundance thoughts:
 I always
have enough.
 Ten
percent is
enough.
 I always
have enough to
spend on myself.
 I take care
of myself first and
as well as I take
care of anybody
else.
If your main money negative is that you don't

have anything to show for your work, you have no
savings and you have no major investments, then
you must again practice the same simple
discipline. Before paying your bills, spending
anything, or giving money to charities, take 10
percent of your income and put it into the variety of
savings and investment accounts that Phil Laut
describes in his book, Money is My Friend. It's
exciting to practice saving 10 percent of your after-
tax income before you take care of your bills. And
necessary.
Phil Laut's book is full of all kinds of great ideas

about savings accounts, of one sort or another.
Follow his instructions. When I read his
instructions I enjoyed, much to my surprise, finding
out that I already had such savings accounts
going-not labeled as such, but there they were.
And, by-and-large, my money picture has been
okay. It's been sufficient for me to live a very fine
level of typical college-proof lifestyle.
If you don't know how to save, you have to practice

saving.
The same thing applies to giving. I'm often

surprised when I do fund-raising for my old
university, the University of Chicago, or for a
couple of Jewish organizations. Many people I
contact who have really good earnings, who are
what is known as wealthy people, actually make
no provision whatsoever to give. They tell me, AI
don't have enough to give anything to charity."
I doubt that such a statement is true. I wish

they would be honest enough to say instead, "I
don't want to give, I'm afraid I won't have enough."
I generally advise people to practice giving

before taking care of saving or spending because
it makes such a perfect affirmation:
 I have
such an
abundance of
money that I can
give it away even
before I pay my
bills!
 I have so
much money that
I can afford to
give it away and
still have enough
to handle
everything else I
want to do with
my money.
By the way, Leonard Orr says charity is when

you give money to people who need your help,
and generosity is when you give money to people
who have enough.
Try generosity! It is very instructive to take

money and give it to somebody who has more
than you or who doesn't "need" it. It begins to put
money into a proper perspective in your life. It
ceases to be only a measure of worth and value.
It goes back to being the medium of exchange that
it actually is, only this time Money ' Love. Love
and compassion are what you're actually
exchanging.
Practice charity and generosity. Don't

rationalize, AI take plenty of people out to lunch
and dinner and I always buy really great presents
for people on their birthdays and I'm tired of
enabling people who can't function in this modern
society to go on. If they can't figure out how to
make a living, then tough, let them go on welfare.
It's not my job to give them anything. I don't want
to enable them to be bums."
Well, that's a fancy rationalization, but I

sincerely believe that's all it is. The purpose in
giving money to others is not to help them. The
purpose in giving money to others is to show to
your consciousness that you know, with certainty,
that you have plenty of money.
At least until you have no major money

problems, don't spend more than 10 percent, save
more than 10 percent, or donate more than 10
percent. Otherwise, you're being a fool or a miser,
and you're not letting yourself experience your
abundance.
People usually deny being cheap or stingy-

whether it's about money spent on others or on
themselves. They need to learn not to cheat
themselves.
I had a woman at a workshop who told me she

couldn't afford the full fee, so I let her attend for
half. Imagine my surprise when, during the money
seminar, she boasted about saving 40 percent of
her salary. Imagine hers when I said I didn't think I
should support her being a miser, and I wanted her
to pay full rate for my services!
Another woman attending that same workshop

who had also appealed to me for a reduction to
half and had received it said she gave a fifth of her
income to her church. I reminded her the Bible
says a workman is worthy of his hire, and that I
deserve full support for doing what I consider just
as much God's work as anything else is.
They both agreed, figured out exactly when 50

percent of the workshop time was finished, then
left. They didn't want to stay if they had to pay.(!)
never understand why. Was it PDS making

them want to "get" something extra from
"Mommy"? PDS keeping them from feeling they
deserved to spend money on themselves? PDS
making them resent giving me my fee? PDS
making them angry at "Mommy" for calling them on
their money cases?
Whatever-I think they cheated themselves.
Please be assured that these Four Laws of

Money are not a profligate, careless, slap-happy
approach to the important topic of money. They're
a simple, practical guide to how to handle money.
Reducing costs, making small sacrifices, is a

time-honored way of developing an abundance. If
70 percent of your income doesn't stretch to cover
the budgeted items, then you need to investigate
where you are misusing your income, and then
you must make changes.
Amazingly enough, many people struggle in a

relative state of poverty because they want to have
a good address or they want the particular space
that they've been living in. Some people I know
pay almost half of their monthly income for rent or
house payments. They say, AI don't have enough
money to do anything except pay my rent." or "It's
all I can do to pay my monthly mortgage
payments."
They're so strapped for other necessities of life

that they are constantly in a feeling of scarcity.
And scarcity thoughts prevent abundance.
If that's so for you, either figure out a way of

sharing the rent with somebody else, refinance
your mortgage, or leave the place that you are
renting currently and find a place that is less
expensive, or whatever else you can imagine will
help.
Once you start exploring the possibility of

reducing the outlay just for rent or house costs,
you may find that you can, without needing to
move to a different address or needing to sharing
living space. For example, maybe you can rent
out part of your space as daytime office space or
as storage space, and from that make enough to
cover part of your housing costs, as well as being
able to deduct a proportionate amount of your total
housing costs on your Schedule E.
When it comes to making or rearranging your

budget, I suggest that you go to your public library,
to the section that contains books on how to
budget living expenses. You'll find that hundreds
of people have written books on how to handle
money. Almost all of them have a formula that
says something similar to: no more than 25
percent of your monthly income goes for shelter,
no more than x percent goes for food, x percent for
transportation, x percent for clothing, x percent for
insurance, etc.
Check your actual expenditures against these

guides. This requires that you keep track of where
your money goes. That in itself is helpful.
Most standardized budgets include some

percentage for entertainment. Don't cheat yourself
by economizing on that. After all, If you're not
enjoying the money that you make, what's the
point of making it? So, be sure to plan to go out. I
know that lots of pleasures are available free; for
example, parks and community centers often
present free plays and concerts and, of course,
you can see plenty of movies on TV. But you
deserve the thrill of actually spending money on
yourself. So be sure to do it. Don't break the Law
of Spending!
A lot of people who have come to me for

Rebirths make excellent incomes, but live in a
perpetual poverty consciousness because most of
their money goes for items that are part of the
display process.
Don't symbolically spend in order to prove that

your income is sufficient. A one hundred dollar
meal proves that you can pay for a $100 meal. It
doesn't prove that you "have enough." A new
outfit every single week only proves that you
spend plenty of money on clothing; it doesn't help
you find real satisfaction and comfort, ease, or
pleasure, even in the way you distribute your
income to handle your bills and your expenditures.
One unmarried woman I know, for example,

who makes close to a quarter million a year, had
minimal savings and investments and didn't own
any property other than a few personal items when
she first came to see me. She did have, however,
a wardrobe that fills an entire normal-sized
bedroom! Rack after rack are filled with beautiful
clothes, all sorts of leisure as well as work outfits.
Because there are so many of them, many have
been worn only once or twice and have then hung
on the racks, not worn again. For her, shopping
substituted for eating, and clothes for food. Her
habit at lunchtime was to buy something
expensive, showy, and very vogue.
After many efforts, she was finally able to limit

such impulse spending on clothing to 10 percent of
her gross. Such discipline enabled her to
accumulate property and develop an investment
and savings program that will be of great benefit to
her when she finally decides that she wants to
reduce the number of hours she works each week
in her own self-employment. Now she has some
savings to fall back upon. That's better than a
room full of unworn clothes.
Another single man I know who makes close to

$100,000 a year also owns no property and has no
savings for retirement laid aside other than the
pension to be provided to him by his company. In
essence he has nothing to show for all the work he
has been doing for his entire adult life.
By disciplining himself so that he has breakfast

at home before he leaves for his office, and by
reducing the number of times that he goes to
restaurants for evening meals each week, he has
succeeded in investing several thousand a year
into mutual funds, and is currently developing an
annuity program.
For some people, the cost of eating out isn't the
major consideration. Instead, it's the cost of
drinking when they're eating out.
For such people, I suggest that if they don't

want to choose cheaper wines or less expensive
mixed drinks because of display desires, that they
simply cut out drinking completely. They would be
better off saving that outlay or donating it. Alcohol
is generally not necessary for peace of mind-it's
essentially a way of tuning out rather than turning
on.
In addition to people who spend more than they

should on the simple necessities of life, there are
also people who have made no provision
whatsoever for the vagaries of life, like age or
illnesses or accidents, that might seriously reduce
income.
"I'm not worried about having any savings set

aside because I'm going to be able to work until I
drop dead" and "Nothing will ever hurt me."
I think their unwillingness to take care of

themselves by providing emergency funds for
themselves bespeaks some negative, some
underlying poverty of thought. I don't think it
displays immense faith and trust in the Universe.
Some of them are afraid to think about getting old.
Others are keeping themselves chained to the
daily work routine because they're unable to
conceive of life as being anything else. They may
be afraid to explore the possibility of enjoying life
without earning a living, determining their own
activity from the start of the day to the end of the
day, day after day.
The same poverty of thought may apply to

people who can but who refuse to retire. Maybe
they're workaholics, caught up in their functions
and work processes, to the exclusion of any other
roles. They may be afraid to face a life without
getting the daily dose of the regard from others
that they've been receiving for the past fifty or
more years. They may worry that everything will
fall apart if they're not there.
Remember:
 You have
enough.
 You
always have
enough.
 Your
breath is your
connection to the
Infinite
Abundance of
your economy.
And it is infinitely abundant. Sometimes it may

not seem to be well distributed, but it's always
there. As soon as you acknowledge that, you can
connect with it through your breath and through
your Thought. That Abundance is available to you.
So, practice obeying these laws.
Always keep in mind that money and energy

and time are interconnected. Your scarcity
thoughts, which can be manifested in how you
handle your money, can also be functioning in how
you handle your time and energy, manifested by
your capacity both to work and to play.
Money and energy and time are all Infinite.
The only one that seems to be limited for most

of us is time. We think we only have twenty-four
hours in the day. But that's not true, per se,
because how much time we have is relative to
what we're doing. As Einstein said, "To a man
sitting on a hot stove a minute is an hour; but to
that man sitting on a park bench next to the girl he
loves, an hour is a minute."
 We always
have enough time
to do everything
we want to do.
We can always make conscious choices that

enable us to enjoy our time more. That way, we
have lots of time.
Just as we need to budget money, we need to

budget time and energy. I believe we also need to
make certain that we take time to do the things we
like to do that don't necessarily produce income.
Some money advisors suggest the opposite,

and suggest to their followers that they arrange
their activities so they can charge for almost
everything they do, including such things as
sharing meals, sailing, or just talking together. To
me, that seems not only ungenerous and money-
grubbing, but it means the person is always
performing, is always working. I deserve just to
waste time.
Sometimes, people tell me, AI don't have any

time to waste. By the time I get home and finish
fixing supper, all I can do is watch TV for an hour
or so and then go to bed."
If you don't have all the time you need to do

everything that you want to do, then you're not
managing your time right. Don't spend your time
at activities that you don't especially enjoy (like
mindless TV watching). Limit time-wasting
activities like idle phone calls, so that time no
longer slips away, the way money goes through
the fingers of a spendthrift. If there's a lot of down
time for you, change! Generally speaking, you'll
find you have many hours each week which have
previously been absolutely empty, vacant wastes
of time but which you can now alter simply by
choosing, for example, to read a book while you're
waiting in checkout lines or in traffic. Make waiting
satisfying.
In this connection, I'm struck by the generalized

difference in attitude, mood, and energy levels and
by the amount of fearfulness and irritability and
violence that I see in such places as luggage
arrival areas in airports. I think it all goes back to
how we're born in the East compared to the West.
Westerners seem to be extremely worried

about how soon they're going to get their things. I
guess they want to get their luggage quickly, so
they can get out to the front of the line, so that they
can get the first taxi, so that they can get to where
they're going quickly. To do what? Usually it's so
they can get a regular night's sleep!
Easterners seem to act different. When I watch

them, I see a generalized kind of excitement and
anticipation, as if the routine of having baggage
delivered were a source of fun, breaking up the
day. That Time Consciousness which seems to
press so heavily on the average Westerner doesn't
seem to be so present in the East. I conjecture
that this may well have something to do with the
fact that more births in the East occur naturally,
rather than with the artificial aids of anesthesia and
forceps, the surgical deliveries so prevalent in the
West.
Time in the West is given a great deal of

importance during birth. How long are the labor
contractions? How frequent are the contractions?
How long has labor been going on?
Most hospitals and individual doctors have

limited beliefs about these time questions. For
example, many USA hospitals limit labor to eight
hours-after that, hospital rules insist a Caesarian
be carried out.
There is no natural reason at all that I have

discovered why the labor should be routinely
terminated at eight hours. If the labor is
proceeding naturally and there's nothing wrong
with the child, what significant difference does it
make whether a baby is born after eight hours of
labor or after ten hours of labor?
The reasons that are given in American

hospitals and western European hospitals for
intervening in the birth process at the end of eight
hours of labor seem to derive from statistics and
the threat of malpractice suits.
Statistically, most babies who have birth-related

difficulties or defects are born after eight hours of
natural labor. Should anything be wrong with the
baby after a longer, protracted labor, parents are in
a position to sue the hospital and the physician for
malpractice in not delivering the baby earlier.
So the hospitals seem to have simply taken that

fact and turned it into a routine procedure: "We
can't permit a mother to labor for longer than eight
hours. We must intervene and therefore preclude
her being able to say that we didn't take
appropriate precautionary or intervening
measures."
Women in Third World countries have a kind of

plow horse attitude toward birthing. They figure it's
got to be done, it's going to be a drag, it's going to
take time, and eventually it's going to be over and
the baby will get born. They're not seeking some
way of avoiding being conscious and present
during the birth. (Of course, many anesthetic
techniques aren't available to them, either.) A
mother is given plenty of time and support, usually
loving support from people she knows and trusts,
while she's giving birth, and she typically regards it
as another thing she does that's completely all-
engrossing. She might as well relax and be
fascinated by what's happening. Not a single one
of us, even my grandmother who had fourteen
children, goes through the experience of childbirth
so often that it becomes mundane and boring. It's
always an all-engrossing kind of activity. It
certainly claims our attention if we're aware of the
process. So why shouldn't we give it that?
In any case, I am impressed by what I regard

as a realistic attitude about time that's manifested
by people who have been born naturally after an
ordinary labor. They don't seem to resent having
to effort and they don't seem to resent having to
wait. Their fundamental attitude toward life seems
to be one of acceptance, without anxiety to push
and shape and make things be the way they
believe they ought to be. They seem to trust that
life is perfect.
Giving birth naturally, consciously, seems to be

an extremely important way for a mother to allow
her child to experience safety and patience in
regard to work, time, and money.
Phil Laut says that the single greatest reason

people remain poor is PDS-they are unwilling to
give their parents the pleasure of having helped
them succeed.
A person who remains poor or unhappy is

making an implicit accusation against the parents,
"See, if you hadn't ruined me the way you did, I
would be able to make plenty of money and I'd be
enjoying life. But you ruined me by doing thus-
and-so or so-and-such."
People who refuse to allow themselves to be

cheered up or to be swayed or coaxed or appealed
to may still be acting out their resentment towards
their parents. It's as if they are still very young, in
suspended animation in the high chair or on the
potty, disliking their parents for trying to get them
to eat or use the toilet.
PDS is also linked to our sexual and loving

behavior. In her many books, Sondra Ray
frequently reminds us that a healthy loving sex life
depends on letting go the negatives that comprise
our PDS. The next chapter discusses this idea in
detail.
We must not begrudge our parents the joy of

seeing us succeed in both work and love. To do
otherwise is tantamount to cutting your nose off to
spite your face. More importantly, such self-defeat
isn't satisfying, because what we want
fundamentally is to forgive our parents and have
them forgive us, we want to come back into a state
of harmony and love with them.
So, use affirmations to change your PDS-Money

case:
 I totally
forgive myself for
ever mistakenly
believing that
anything my
parents did to me
ever harmed me
in any way.
 I am
grateful to both
my parents for
treating me the
way they did so
that I am able to
make a fine living
for myself and
enjoy all aspects
of my life.
 I enjoy
making my
parents proud of
me by being such
a total success in
life.
See Appendices N, O, and P for more affirmations

to help you let go your PDS case.
Be sure to pay serious attention to how you work,

how you spend your energy.
Decide for yourself how you really are. Are you
the kind of person who prefers to produce and
construct, or are you the kind of person who
prefers to spend your energy competitively?
Everyone has their style. Once you cotton on to
your style and you start arranging your activities so
that your stylistic requirements are satisfied, you
will find life is infinitely more enjoyable.
Several days ago a person I know, a close

acquaintance, said, "You have an infinite capacity
for hard work, Eve."
To which my reply was, "Well, no, I don't put

out any more energy in gardening and fixing up the
house than you spend swimming each day or than
my neighbors spend going to the gym each day
and working out for a couple of hours."
Her reply to me was, "Yes, but you're much

more productive. You have something to show for
your effort."
Well, that's just an attitude. I could argue, "Yes,

but you have all the fun of competing and winning,
and I'm not getting any of that competitive pleasure
directly out of how I put out my energy."
A great number of people waste an immense

amount of their time and effort on activities which
depend upon certain scarcity thoughts, ones that
have probably been present since birth, which is,
after all, when we first get the idea that there isn't
enough time, there isn't enough energy, I don't
have enough room, I can't get enough air,
whatever. Whether these were our mother's
thoughts and feelings or the doctor's or our own as
we were going through the birth process, it doesn't
much matter, because we absorbed their thoughts
and feelings. And we continue to manifest these
thoughts.
Birth is about time and energy. It's called labor

because energy is spent by the baby and by the
mother in the squeezing and pushing that is the
birth process. Our attitudes about time and energy
come from the particular circumstances of our
births.
As you look at how you handle money and work

and time, you can see manifested the fundamental
ideas you have been holding on to since your birth.
People who had long arduous births, generally

speaking, are marvelous workers and get a lot
accomplished. But they don't know when to quit,
and that may be a problem.
People who had almost effortless births, say,

after less than an hour's worth of contractions on
the mother's part, are usually great at receiving
and don't even have to wait for birthdays or
Christmas in order to get presents. On the other
hand, they may not know how to use their own
energies to make something happen for
themselves and work productively.
For example, many of the ten or eleven new

Primal patients that I took each year for the seven
years I was a Primal therapist had been delivered
by Caesarean section without any trial labor. A
relatively large percentage were people who were
inept and ineffectual in terms of running their lives.
Often, someone else supported them. They didn't
muster their energies in their own behest.
I suggested to one of these Primal patients that

he practice doing things which automatically
regulate breathing so he altered how he handled
his physical energies. He was one of those people
who constantly was complaining of being unable to
cope with life. He almost never really finished
anything and he lived off of an inheritance and the
good-will of a former lover. He often walked
around literally throwing his hands up in the air,
saying, AI don't know what to do. I can't find a
good job, I can't..."
My suggestion to him was that he start going to

a gym every morning, and working out for at least
an hour at rhythmic activities with the machines. I
suggested that it was not only so he could prove to
himself that he did have the musculature, strength,
and energy that he needed in order to work out,
but also because, as he was moving weights up
and down and as he was jogging on the track, he
was being compelled to breathe in a rhythmic
fashion. Working out also forced him to breathe in
deeply. As he breathed in deeply, he started
getting more satisfaction from the act of breathing,
and, in a fairly automatic way, proceeded to alter
his life activities so that he was doing more other
things that he enjoyed. He started working at an
enjoyable job and stopped his previous pattern of
moving from one job to another every few weeks,
hoping that something would capture him.
As a teacher I found that students who didn't

turn in their last term paper or didn't show up for
the final exam very often turned out to have been
born either with high forceps or with a late C-
section, where they may have worked, but they
didn't get the payoff, which is the birth. They didn't
emerge on their own. Someone else had to bring
them out. They didn't know how to finish up for
themselves.
Whatever our own peculiar idiosyncratic

attitudes about money, work, and time may be,
they are all, so far as I can see, determined by
qualities and characteristics of our birth.
Your breath is connected with your use of

money and energy and time. As you practice what
I maintain is the ideal Rebirthing breath, you also
will find yourself practicing habits that will result in
your getting more and having more than you did
previously. As you concentrate on making certain
that your inhale is full and satisfying, you're also
bringing into consciousness old dissatisfactions
which now, with your present intelligence and
power, can either let go of through breathing or
alter by taking some direct action.
I always get enough.
Keep in mind the story of Goldilocks and the

Three Bears. The attitudes or the characteristics
of each of those bears is how you use money, how
you work, how you use time. You can do too
much, you can do too little, or you can do just the
right amount. Take a look at your life, decide what
is wrong with your money picture, what is wrong
with your work picture, what is wrong with your
time picture. Come up with the affirmations that
will fix those things.
 I always
earn enough.
 I always
enjoy my work.
 I always
have enough time
to do everything I
want to do.
 I always
have enough
money to do
everything I want
to do.
 I always
have enough
energy to do
everything I want
to do.
 I
automatically
manage my time
and energy and
money so that I
always have
enough to do
whatever I want to
do.
 My breath
is my connection
with Infinite
Wealth.
 The more
fully and freely I
breathe, the more
open I am to
receiving great
wealth and
abundance.
 My breath
is my connection
with Infinite
Energy.
 The more
fully and freely I
breathe, the more
energy and
strength I have.
 My breath
is my connection
with Infinite Time.
 The more
fully and freely I
breathe, the more
clearly I see that I
always have
plenty of time to
do everything I
want to do.
Such affirmations help us put time, work, and

money in perspective and separate them from our
old birth negatives.
Those old negatives come from your birth.

Since you've been out of the womb for a long time,
it's certainly time to let those old negatives go.
They are of no value in your life of today any
longer.
Whatever your negatives might be about

money, work, and time, you can be certain they're
connected to your birth and to your reactions to
your parents when you were a young child. You
can also be certain that by changing your thought
through use of affirmations, and by practicing the
Rebirthing breath that proves you are open to
receiving abundance, you can change those
circumstances.
 It's easy
for me to make a
living doing what I
like to do.
 I feel really
good about myself
whenever I give
money to other
people.
 I enjoy
paying my bills.
 I enjoy
contributing to
charitable
organizations.
 I enjoy
spending my
money providing
pleasure to other
people, especially
close friends.
 I enjoy
using money to
give pleasure to
other people,
especially people
who are total
strangers to me.
 I now have
all the money,
energy and time I
need to live my
life completely
enjoyably and
exactly the way I
want to lead it.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
SEX AND LOVING RELATIONSHIPS The Logic of
Magical Thought
As you already know from reading the and The Dance of
preceding chapters, your breath and your thought the Breath
are conditioned by the circumstances of your
conception and birth, all connected with your
parents' attitudes about sexuality. Since birth
negatives and PDS are the major causes of any INTRODUCTION
and all negative thought, creating any and all
"wrongness" in your lifespace, they are the CHAPTER ONE
ultimate sources of anything you especially don't The Ideal Breath
like about sex, about love, and about sexual loving
relationships.
CHAPTER TWO
One of the original Rebirthers, Sondra Ray, is a The Difference
marvelously prolific writer who has written many Between Rebirthing
concise books about sex and loving relationships. and Hyperventilation
In this chapter I won't even make an effort to
summarize what she's had to say or to repeat it. I
CHAPTER THREE
simply recommend you read all her books, starting
with I Deserve Love. In this short chapter, I'll only The Difference
stress a few ideas Sondra hasn't detailed very Between the Ideal
much. Breath And Yogic
Breathing
Remember, until we have let go our birth
negatives, our sexual loving relationships will CHAPTER FOUR
continue to manifest the negative aspects that
The Difference
were present at our conception, through our
gestation, and during our birth, as well as the Between Rebirthing
negatives that characterized our childhood And Primal Scream
interactions with our parents. Therapy
To the extent that our conception differed from CHAPTER FIVE
the Ideal, to the extent that the way things went The Biology of
when our mama was carrying us differed from the
Imprints
ideal, to the extent that our birth itself differed from
the Ideal, and, of course, to the extent that the way
our parents treated us differed from the Ideal, our CHAPTER SIX
breath and thought will differ from the Ideal and Food and
our sexual loving relationships will also differ from Consciousness
the Ideal.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Was your conception Ideal?
Rebirthing and
The Ideal starts with your father and mother Bodywork Therapies
feeling safe with each other, loving each other,
agreed that they want a baby, and enjoying every CHAPTER EIGHT
aspect of sex. They both love balling and joyfully
embrace their orgasms. He is tender, he is potent, Rebirthing and
and he is patient. She is trusting and she Conventional
surrenders to the sensations she's feeling. When Rsychotherapies
they find out that she has become pregnant, they
love each other even more and they love the baby CHAPTER NINE
and eagerly look forward to the birth. That is an
Ideal conception. Rebirthing and
Neuro-Linguistic
Was yours? Probably not. Programming
Terrible but true. CHAPTER 10

Affirmations
Most women don't like sex. Nine out of ten
women never experience orgasm during CHAPTER 11
intercourse. Quite obviously, they have The Parental
grievances about sex, and their babies certainly Disapproval
weren't conceived in joy and passion. (While I
have often heard that sex can be satisfying even Syndrome
without orgasm, it's a little hard for me to believe. I
know, looking back on the first years in my first CHAPTER 12
marriage when I didn't come when I made love Time, Work, and
with my husband, I didn't feel satisfied. I didn't feel Money:
good about sex at all, or even about myself. I felt
inadequate. And I'm certainly glad that those Consciousness and
years have long been gone!) Abundance
An immense number of women engage in CHAPTER 13

sexual intercourse, not out of freely felt desire, but Sex and Loving
out of all sorts of negatives: fear that they will Relationships
enrage their lover, their husband, whoever, if they
refuse; a sense of duty or obligation; a desire to
get something in exchange, etc. For them, balling CHAPTER 14
has almost always been a negative experience. Physical Immortality
And a lot of men use sex as a tool of CHAPTER 15

domination or as a tension release for tensions Ethical
that have nothing to do with their partner but may Consideration
come from their work, their money picture, their
health, whatever.
CHAPTER 16
Individual Rebirths
So most acts of intercourse are not the
mutually rapturous act I describe as the Ideal.
CHAPTER 17
Similar surveys show that most women, again Group Rebirthings
80 to 90 percent of most samples, fear pregnancy
and childbirth. They believe all sorts of negatives CHAPTER 18
about what childbirth will be like for them. So your Organizing
mother probably dreaded your approaching Trainings and
delivery.
Workshops
Furthermore, even in a world where condoms
CHAPTER 19
are widely advertised and available, nine out of ten The Standard
pregnancies are "accidents," not desired events. Rebirth Training
It's highly probable that your parents were
unhappy to learn you were on your way into their
lives. Again, not the Ideal. CHAPTER 20
Running a Rebirth
Nor is the prospect of parenting. Business
The vast majority of women, asked how they CHAPTER 21

felt about becoming pregnant, giving birth, and Rebirthing
raising children, have said that they dreaded all of Organizations
them. Ann Landers received hundreds of
thousands of replies to a survey several years ago
asking her readers how they felt about having had
children. Ninety-five percent of those replies said
if they had to do it over again, the couple would
never have had children! Most of them said young
children seriously damaged their marriages, and
they didn't enjoy their grownup offspring either. So
the odds are that you and your parents didn't get
along very well. Maybe you still don't.
You know enough about your parents to form a

fairly reliable opinion about whether or not they
were happy when you were conceived. You have
some idea of their age, their financial
circumstances, their relative safety at the time,
how long they had been married, for example.
From those few facts you can construct a
reasonably accurate view of how they felt about
sex, conception, and your birth.
You also know what you observed as you grew

up, whether they treated each other lovingly and
whether they really still cared for each other or not
once you were born.
Add that all up and you can fairly accurately

contrast your probable conception circumstances
with the ideal.
You can also contemplate what you know

about your birth and compare your birth to the
Ideal described by Dr. LeBoyer and Leonard Orr,
among many. I recommend you read Birth
Without Violence by LeBoyer, as well as Leonard's
books.
I won't repeat what they say, but I want to add

a few details they don't cover. First, as mentioned
in the preceding chapter, there's the importance of
length of labor. Less than a couple of hours isn't
long enough for the baby's adrenals to wake up
and make the substances that coat the lung
spaces and allow him to breathe easily. So a baby
born in less than two hours may have trouble
breathing. And more than eight or ten hours
generally results in some exhaustion of the
mother's adrenals as well as of the infant's. So a
baby born after a very long labor may also have
more difficulty breathing than otherwise.
In addition to thinking about how long your

mother was in labor when she had you,
contemplate other things like where did she give
birth? Was your father there? Who helped her?
Was she wide awake? What happened to you
right after you were born? Were you treated like a
commodity that was weighed and measured and
cleaned up and wrapped and placed with other
little bundles in a nursery? Or were you joyfully
grabbed by your mother and put to her heart and
breast to feel her warm love again?
If you know that there were special

circumstances surrounding your birth, think about
what they probably made you feel like. Don't take
them for granted. If any or all of this were
happening to you today, how would you feel?
Extrapolate back to what it probably made you feel
like as a child. For example, if you were put in an
incubator, think about what it must have felt like to
be in a hot, brightly lit box, completely surrounded
by plastic and other miracles of modern science,
having at least three different nurses care for you
every day, as opposed to having been in a womb
where everything's soft and warm and organic.
If your first days or weeks or months or even

years had a lot of physical pain involved in them, if
you had surgery, if you were very ill, think about
what that made you feel like. Don't just chalk it up
and say, "Yeah, well, you know, I had pneumonia
three times before I was one year old," or "Yeah,
they had to do an emergency operation on me
-cause there was something wrong with the way
my intestines were built."
Think, too, about the Ideal first few months,

especially with regard to feeding satisfaction.
Think about an Ideal mother who is competent and
loving, and who cherishes her baby and is there
for him, nursing him when he shows he's hungry,
and ready to help him learn to stretch out his
digestive rhythm so that he learns to take more
and more milk with each nursing, and so that
there's enough time between each nursing for him
to fully digest his last little tummyful.
Think about how it was for you during your first
months after birth. Did you have a mama who was
so convinced that you no right to bother her more
often than once every four hours that, unless it
was "time," she refused to offer you any comfort
either from her arms and her voice or from offering
you a bottle or even a pacifier? Some mothers,
afraid their babies look silly or will harm
themselves sucking on pacifiers, refuse to give
them to their babies. Babies don't harm their
dental arch or develop bad habits from sucking a
pacifier. It just satisfies their lust to suck.
Breastfeeding mothers have a hard time

withholding the breast from a crying baby because
the high-pitched sound of the baby's cry
automatically makes the mother produce a
hormone called milk let-down factor which brings
the milk from the breast tissue where it's made
down to the nipple. So, since her nipples will be
leaking milk when she's around her crying baby
anyhow, she is usually tempted to nurse as often
as her baby cries. That's one of the reasons why
breast-feeding mothers tend to go to extremes in
the opposite direction and offer the breast
whenever the baby cries. This may have "bad"
consequences because the baby doesn't easily
learn to tolerate any kind of delay or discomfort
and may grow up impatient and demanding.
In any case, what do you think? What was

your mother like? Was she the kind of woman
who comforted you and picked you up and fed you
and loved you and reassured you? Or was she
afraid to "spoil" you, not even giving you any
comfort by rocking you and crooning to you? Was
she emotionally cold? Was she dominated easily
by authority, especially authority in the form of a
male doctor? He may have told her, "Don't you
feed that baby any more often than every four
hours," so she didn't go with her intuition and her
desire, but instead sat by helplessly watching you
suffer. Was she harassed? Did she have so
many other duties or such low energy that she
couldn't be there for you?
What about your dad? Was he a loving dad

who cradled you and took care of you and played
with you? Or did he usually ignore you completely
or even resent you? Did he treat you like a toy?
When he played with you was he gentle or was he
perhaps a little too rough with you?
Inside yourself, you know what these people

were like when you were growing up.
You know. Think about it! What was it like for
you to be their baby?
The Ideal is that they gave you whatever you

needed when you needed it, and they brought you
up with good examples and gentle guidance, not
with punishment.
Compare how it was for you with the Ideal. All
you've got to do is concentrate on it a little in order
to flesh out the form, and all of a sudden you'll
have an authentic picture of how it was when you
were a child: You'll probably remember how you
resented them and hated them and feared them.
You may recognize what you still disapprove of
them for and haven't forgiven them for.
All of this is important because, as Freud

observed, our bodies are one large sensual entity
with special areas that are most intensely erotic:
our mouth, our hands, our bladder, our bowels,
and our genitals. So we experienced intense
pleasure or pain as our parents took care of us,
feeding us, cleaning us, touching us.
Was your body usually bathed in pleasure or

was it frequently subject to pain inflicted on it by
authorities who disapproved of what you were
doing, who were so feared, you couldn't even
complain to them?
Did they spank you? Did they punish you

physically? When did they wean you? How did
they clean you? How did they teach you to use
the toilet? Did they frighten you with stories about
hell and sin and God punishing you? Did they lay
a guilt trip on you? Did they tell you silly stories
instead of the truth and not give you a straight
answer when you asked questions, especially
about sex? Did they ridicule and embarrass you?
What were your parents like? How did they

treat you? How did you react? Were they people
you had a hard time feeling any affection and
respect for? What do you still hate them for?
What have you never forgiven them for?
Sometimes it's difficult to put ourselves in our

parents' place, to understand their thoughts and
feelings at our conception. Many a mother wishes
to shield her child from realizations of how bad her
life was like when she found out she was pregnant,
and what it was like when that child was born. She
paints a pretty picture of it and hesitates to "mark"
her child by telling him the likely truth: "No, I didn't
like your father, I didn't want to make love with him,
I hated it when I found out I was pregnant and I
wished to God that you'd die. But once you were
here, I couldn't help but love you! You were so
totally adorable! The minute I first touched you, I
realized that whatever had happened up to then
didn't matter. I want you to know that I loved you
completely the instant you were born, and I've
always loved you since then."
For most mothers, that's all true. Despite the

negatives that happened before the birth,
hormones that get made during the birth make the
mother love the child. We bond instantly, as soon
as we hold that little piece of life in our hands. The
hormones flow and they make us want to be
protective and good to that infant.
Thank God for our posterior pituitaries and the

hormones they secrete at birth!
But no wonder so many of us believe romance

and sadness are necessarily connected, that
something about really loving involves sadness
and resignation and loss. I think this is because
we imprinted our mother's sadness and her
bewilderment, her lack of joy in knowing that she
was pregnant, her fear of the approaching
delivery. All of this is part of our earliest
experience of love. And then, it's confirmed by the
events of birth themselves because, after all, what
is birth but a total separation of the self from all
that surrounded it which it loved and was a part
of? We all of us experience and mourn that loss.
Anything involved with your conception, with

your birth, and with your childhood treatment by
your parents has an especially immense effect
upon you as a loving person once you're reached
sexual adulthood and start having the different
kinds of interpersonal relationships that come
about with adulthood-especially loving, sensual
ones.
Once sexuality becomes a genuine

phenomenon within us as we arrive at puberty and
become sexual adults, everything that was
connected with all our erotic zones and with our
parents becomes manifested.
When sex becomes that reality for you,

everything that was connected with sexuality for
your parents is manifested in your attitudes and
behavior. No wonder you may not be enjoying a
healthy, mutual sex life with your loved partner if
your mother was repelled and disgusted by sex or
if your father used sex as a terrorist tactic!
Just as your conception was a sexual act, and

birth is a sexual act, everything connected with
your parents is, in a sense, a sexual act.
Basically, until you truly separate yourself from

your parents and honor them with not even a tiny
hint of negativity and disapproval, you can't have
the kind of sexual loving relationship that we all
want, that is Ideal. What you will have will,
instead, manifest some of those old negatives.
They'll be right there, in bed with you, influencing
your every sexual experience.
For most people in the United States and in

most of the U.K. and Western Europe at least, the
most persistent sexual loving relationship is that of
marriage. In some societies, premarital and
extramarital sexual adventures are admitted and
accepted. In others, they happen but they're not
talked about, people deny their existence. But in
very few cultures is the relationship of marriage
devoid of its sexual and loving overtones. Even in
eastern societies where marriages are arranged,
so that love and sexual attraction are not the main
impetus for marriage, it certainly is expected that
once the marriage has occurred, sexual
intercourse between the partners will take place.
And it is also assumed that sooner or later, as a
result of how they deal with each other and with
the added "cement" of sex, the two people in the
couple will develop a loving tie to one another.
Here in the USA, what's the psychological

purpose of marriage? It provides the opportunity
for sex (sexual security), the presence of someone
else in your life on a relatively regular basis (social
security), and whatever benefits are available to
having two people working and providing for each
other (material security).
But is there anything else, perhaps of even

greater value?
My answer to that question is Yes. The

commitment involved in being married to
somebody brings up your old PDS issues,
especially the Oedipal ones. How did you
disapprove of your parents for not loving you as
much as they loved each other? How did you
disapprove of them for how they dealt with
sexuality and how they dealt with you and your
sexuality? All of that comes up in marriage, in a
committed relationship.
In an uncommitted relationship, you're together

only so long as you please each other. When it
gets to be too uncomfortable, you're easily free to
chuck it and say Goodbye to each other. In that
kind of a relationship, it's not easy to resolve your
parental issues, because you can avoid having to
resolve them. You don't have to deal with them at
all. You can simply leave the field.
If you're ever going to grow up, however, you

need to stop being lost in your childhood and your
grievances towards your parents. So I would
answer to people that the major psychological
purpose of marriage is to provide an arena in
which the results of these old battles can finally be
let go of.
I'm always puzzled and amused when people

say they don't know how to find someone who
likes them and wants to marry them. I think the
solution to such a problem is obvious. "Give them
what they want." Don't try to change them so
they'll want what you want to give them. Simply
give them what they say they want, within the
framework of whatever standards you set for
yourself, what you're willing to do and not do.
If you find that what a person says he wants

goes against the grain of all of your principles and
thoughts about what you believe is appropriate in
life, say No.
I'm not suggesting you act on your negative

and end the relationship. Instead, I urge you to
use it as a teaching and make an affirmation that
will let you let go that negative.
 Old
negatives only
come up so that I
know that I'm still
holding onto
them, not so that I
can act on them
as if they were
ever true.
Once your negative is gone, the offending

person usually, and without your interfering, either
changes or leaves. You only need to clear your
consciousness. Breathe-don't act out.
Please understand that anyone who

comes in your life so wholeheartedly negatively
that you find it impossible to say anything good
about him is a powerful teacher. Such people are
showing you how much of an old negative you're
still carrying around. Take the opportunity to
breathe and let go that old load of negative
thought.
From what I can see, the keys to finding

and making a love that is joyful and satisfying are
to practice breathing fully and freely in the
connected pattern and to practice using
affirmations that keep your thought pure and loving
and forgiving. That's what Rebirthing is all about,
and that's what being alive is all about.
 I am not my
mother.
 I am not my
father.
 I don't have my
parents' thoughts
and feelings,
especially about
sex.
 I don't need to
have their
thoughts and
feelings in order
to win their love or
to show them that
I love them, or to
have a satisfying
sexual loving
relationship.
 I am here to enjoy
life.
 God has given me

this banquet and I
would be a fool
and an ingrate if I
said, "Oh, no
thank you. I don't
want to receive
it."
 I am here to
honor and extol
and praise and
glorify God in His
creation of my
fellow man and
myself.
The next time you make love, remember to

breathe in the connected pattern. Accept, receive,
rejoice. Don't strain. Rebirthing lets us make love
with God and the Universe. What better way to
experience God's grace than through loving,
sexual union?
Om Namahah Shivai.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Physical Immortality The Logic of
Magical Thought
Thoughts about death comprise the final major and The Dance of
category of ideas that come up into consciousness the Breath
during the Rebirth.
Very few of us actually believe we're going to die,
yet we spend most of our lives afraid we will.
INTRODUCTION
For me, perhaps the greatest benefit of
Rebirthing is that it allowed me to stop being CHAPTER ONE
constantly afraid of dying. The Ideal Breath
That had been one of my main goals in first
seeking psychotherapy back in 1946. But I had
failed to achieve such freedom either through CHAPTER TWO
lengthy psychoanalysis, through Primal therapy, The Difference
through hypnosis, or through the use of Between Rebirthing
consciousness- altering chemicals. My anxiety and Hyperventilation
lessened as I eliminated coffee and cigarettes and
lots of sugar from my intake, but never
disappeared-until I Rebirthed. CHAPTER THREE
The Difference
Specialists in Learning Psychology insist we Between the Ideal
cannot be afraid of something we haven't Breath And Yogic
experienced, at least in part. Yet throughout all Breathing
those previous forms of therapy, I wasn't ever able
to remember or even imagine anytime in my life
when death seemed imminent, when I had been CHAPTER FOUR
so sick or injured that my life was at stake. The Difference
Between Rebirthing
But I also couldn't remember a time in my life And Primal Scream
when I hadn't been afraid of dying. Therapy
I worked hard at trying to connect all sorts of CHAPTER FIVE
events in my life with dying. I ran around the
mental mulberry bush of agreeing with my analyst The Biology of
that I was afraid of death because I was afraid to Imprints
surrender to sexuality. But, however attractive that
symbology might be, the fact was that for years I CHAPTER SIX
had always had at least one vaginal orgasm during
Food and
intercourse, and I didn't think I was unwilling to
surrender to sexuality, even if I wasn't being a Consciousness
"properly submissive wife" in other regards.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Yet I was still chronically afraid of dying. Until Rebirthing and
1978. Bodywork Therapies
That May, after I had Rebirthed a few times, I
realized that my life-long anxiety wasn't present
anymore! CHAPTER EIGHT
Rebirthing and
Apparently, as I had let go my old birth-related Conventional
fears, I lost what I had regarded as my fear of Rsychotherapies
death. Suddenly, it made sense: fear of death is
actually old fear that was part of our birth. CHAPTER NINE
The closest most of us have come to death was
probably during the instant immediately upon our Rebirthing and
birth-if the umbilical cord had been cut and we Neuro-Linguistic
were no longer on the placental support system, Programming
yet we hadn't yet taken our first breath to become
independent, self-supporting individuals. CHAPTER 10
Affirmations
The imperative at the time was very simple:
Breathe! Or die.
CHAPTER 11
We may well have taken that first breath in an The Parental
atmosphere of intense anxiety. We then, Disapproval
mistakenly, associated breathing with fear and, Syndrome
mistakenly, concluded that breathing was
dangerous.
During a Rebirthing, the closer the breathing CHAPTER 12
brings us to that terrifying moment associated with Time, Work, and
our birth, the more afraid we become we will die Money:
right then and there. Consciousness and
Abundance
Until we have let go our old thought that
breathing can kill us, how can we dare to keep on
breathing? CHAPTER 13
Sex and Loving
But how can we breathe enough to let go the Relationships
old birth fears if we're still running the thought that
breathing is connected with dying? CHAPTER 14
That's when thinking about the concept of
Physical Immortality pays off. After all, Thought
Creates. If we think we won't die, we're willing to CHAPTER 15
breathe in the face of our fear that breathing will Ethical
kill us. It also helps to acknowledge that since we Consideration
survived our births, we can survive remembering
them. CHAPTER 16
We are continuously experiencing our own
immortality because we are always conscious of Individual Rebirths
Self until we no longer retain consciousness-and
then we don't have anything to worry about-or CHAPTER 17
with-any longer. Group Rebirthings
We also constantly experience our physical CHAPTER 18
continuity-my hands are mine, still at the ends of
my arms, even though they have become worn Organizing
and wrinkled while I wasn't watching. Trainings and
But despite our constant experience of our own Workshops
immortality, we don't believe in it. "Common
sense" tells us that everything dies, and we will
CHAPTER 19
too. The Standard
Rebirth Training
The more we embrace the concept of creating
our destiny with our thought, the more we can
accept the concept of immortality, even of physical CHAPTER 20
immortality. Running a Rebirth
Business
After all, if my Thought Creates, theoretically:
-Nothing ever happens to me without my consent. CHAPTER 21
Rebirthing
Then, since I enjoy being fully alive, Organizations
-I'm here to stay until I decide to move along.
Especially since,
-The more fully I breathe, the more alive I am.
Theoretically, I can even rejuvenate my body as

I let go limiting beliefs about death being
mandatory.
Consequently, although probably the spookiest
aspect of Rebirthing for people to encounter is the
idea of Physical Immortality, it helps people dare to
come to grips with their basic imprints, so that they
can change them, so that they can change their
life by letting go their fear of death.
We may regret death, but we don't need to fear it.

-I'm safe, breathing fully and freely.
-Of my own accord, I dare enter into spaces in my
thought which I used to think threatened my
survival.
-I know my old negatives don't threaten my
survival.
-I am willing to approach my fears.
When I have a Rebirthee who cuts down his

breath, who doesn't dare breathe, I remind him
that whatever happened to him at birth, he
survived. Birth didn't kill him.
He may have thought that it almost killed him.

He may have been told time and time again that
he was born dead and had to be revived, or that
he almost died and it was just because of the
doctor's heroic actions that he was able to be
rescued. But whatever the circumstances were
(and remember they were always of his own
contrivance, they were always manifestations of
his thought), whatever they were, he did survive.
As mentioned earlier, logically, for most of us,

our basic concept of death comes from that brief
period of time in between the time when we were
still fully supported by the placental system and the
next instant when the right side of the heart starts
to pump blood through the lungs, when breathing
starts, when we became capable of independently
supporting our life functions of circulation and
respiration.
For most infants, this in-between time is, of

course, only a brief instant-a matter of less than a
few seconds. Also, there is an abundance of
intrinsic physical support, too, as I mentioned
before. First of all, he has a huge superabundance
of red blood cells, still oxygenated from the
umbilical circulation. Secondly, in the first six to
eight hours of labor, he has made plenty of
corticosteroids that have now had an opportunity
to line the alveoli of his lungs, so that they will
open fully during the inhale and then stay partially
inflated during the exhale phase of breathing,
ready to function now that the wall between the left
and right sides of the heart has closed, and
circulation now goes through the lungs instead of
through the umbilicus to and from the placental
membranes.
So the child is physiologically well equipped to

handle this brief instant of suspended animation
(or animated suspension, however we want to
think of it). Whatever it is, it's the closest to death
most of us ever experience. And to go back into a
breathless state is, in the unconscious mind,
viewed with apprehension because this is flirting
with death.
Now, for almost everyone during the Rebirth

session, there comes a time when, having
breathed continually for about fifty minutes in a
connected fashion, with big, broad, satisfying
inhales and effortless exhales, with no pause in
between, he "forgets" to breathe and goes into a
state that seems to be like the prenatal states.
For some people I've Rebirthed, this period of

breathlessness lasts for several minutes, usually
much longer than most people can consciously
hold their breath.
During that time the countenance of the Rebirth

client sometimes undergoes remarkable
transformations. Generally, the face relaxes and I
find my focus becoming decentralized. I find it
easy to "see" different faces, one after another
after another, replacing, flashing across the face
and head of the person lying in front of me,
sometimes accompanied by flame-like radiance or
a general shimmering veil of color around the
person.
Please note I'm not a person who ordinarily

claims to see or feel auras. It's only in the
Rebirthing situation that I've ever had this
experience. I've experimented with the lighting and
background to see if I still notice these visual
manifestations when, for example, the person is up
against darker walls or lighter carpet. None of it
seems to make much difference. At some point
toward the end of the Rebirth session, I usually
have difficulty focusing on that face which I know is
the face of the client in front of me. Instead, what I
see is a rapid alteration of countenance.
(Other Rebirthers have suggested that what I'm
seeing are the faces my patient wore during other
lives that patient lived in former times. I have no
way of supporting or authenticating that idea. And I
don't regard it as extremely important, merely
fascinating.)
Let me remind you of how Stanislav Grof has

spoken of these pre-natal states of being. The first
state, present for the first six months of pregnancy,
is one of oceanic bliss, the child feels limitless,
feels everything is coming its way, is happy, is
blissful. The second state is one of tension, of
increasing confinement, of increasing lack, the not-
enough-room, not-enough-food, not-rapid-enough
removal-of-waste- products. This period of
increasing discomfort during the last three months
culminates in the chaos of birth, then ends with the
instant when the child takes his breath for the first
time and comes into his post-natal life.
So, for Rebirthing to take consciousness back

to the first pre-natal state where nothing was
wanting, where the mind was free to dip into the
ocean of its thought and feeling and regard them
with a peaceful reaction, the Rebirthee must go
through that tense second state where he fears
death.
The idea of physical immortality, even only partially
embraced, can provide a foundation of comfortable
reassurance to the Rebirthee, encouraging him to
persist with the connected breathing pattern until
he has approached and unraveled his birth
negatives. As strange as the idea of physical
immortality may seem at first, it gradually becomes
increasingly acceptable, until it seems like an
adorable idea, one that brings cheer.
When I first met Leonard, he gave me a plastic

token, much like a poker chip, on one side of
which is written one of the cutest affirmations I've
ever known:
-I am alive now, therefore my life urges are
stronger than my death urges.
-Every breath I take increases my life forces and
decreases my death forces, so all I need to do to
stay alive forever is breathe.
Another Physical Immortality affirmation I enjoy is:
-God wants me to stay alive forever in my current
physical body.
I suggest Rebirthing always be aimed at letting
go old fear of death and at letting go all the old
negatives connected with it, rather than focusing
on eliminating death itself. People who Rebirth
with the idea of promoting their physical
immortality may be operating out of an old
negative: fear of death.
We use the concept of physical immortality as a

tool enabling you better to Rebirth away old
negatives so your current life becomes fulfilling.
My aim is to have a good life, not to have life
forever, although I always am willing to keep that
option open.
I've had several amusing adventures connected
with the issues of immortality and reincarnation.
One concerned a funeral I witnessed in Bali.

The Balinese custom is to bring a person's body
back for cremation to the place where he was
born, so his soul will be with those of his
ancestors. The Vice-President of Bali had died
shortly before we arrived in Bali, and, as custom
dictated, his body was brought back to be
cremated in his home town-the place we had just
arrived at for a few days' vacation. The ceremony
was to take place the next day.
It turned out that the cremation area was

immediately next door to the place where we were
staying, so we heard the gamelins playing until late
that night and watched all sorts of booths being set
up. Very early the next morning, the gamelins
started playing again as the entire funeral
procession moved from far down the road, passing
right by the porch to the cottage we were lodged in
and then on into the grounds where the funeral
pyre had been built.
So all day, we were able to sit on our porch in

relative comfort, watching the hundreds of groups
of Balinese walking by, each group dressed
differently in matching sarongs and lungies,
carrying beautiful arrangements of fruit and
flowers. Late in the day, the immense black bull
made of papier-maché which was to be the
container for the body during the cremation was
brought by, and then the body itself, wrapped in
white cloths, was also brought by. A smaller black
bull came next, as well as some platforms on
which there were many other white cloth-covered
bundles.
As the end of the procession moved past us,

we hurried into the back yard so we could witness
the cremation itself from the relative ease of the
enclosed yard, rather than out in the cremation
area just beyond the fence where hundreds of
people were jostling each other to get better views.
Several of the other Westerners lodging in our
collection of cottages watched with us. Eventually
we started to talk with each other as we watched
the body being placed in the belly of the black bull
and then observed the widow and other relatives
and dignitaries climbing up the 20-foot ladder to a
platform around the top of the bull, where they
placed beautiful scarves and other valuable gifts
over the body.
Then we all watched as the fire was set and as the
sarcophagus started to burn, consuming the body.
One of the Brits watching with us commented that
it was all over at that point, but I said I understood
the body had to burn until the skull popped,
because that was supposed to be the moment
when the soul escaped from the body and was
thus free to seek reincarnation.
So we dutifully stood next to the fence until a

loud explosion happened that was greeted by an
immense amount of sound from the gamelins and
cheers from the crowd. We stood solemnly for a
while, talking quietly about death, and then we
started to leave.
As we moved away from the fence, suddenly there
were lots of explosions, happening at the
frequency of popcorn popping. At first, we were all
frightened, and then we all started giggling like
schoolchildren as one of the Brits turned to me and
jokingly said, "So much for your theory of the soul
leaving."
That evening, I learned what caused all these

extra explosions. The Balinese custom is to bury a
body temporarily in the home village if the relatives
don't have enough money to pay for the expenses
of cremation, with its attendant lavish ceremonies
and celebrations.
But when, eventually, someone from that

village who had been wealthy enough to provide
for the cremation celebration dies, all the
temporarily buried bodies are exhumed, to be
placed into the fire under the container in which
the big shot is being burned.
It had been twenty-two years since the last funeral
in that town, so dozens of buried bodies of the
people who had died during those years had now
been exhumed and were finally being cremated.
The many explosions we heard were the sounds
made as the many skulls of those people exploded
and their souls were finally liberated.
For years afterwards, whenever I heard a car

backfiring or some other kind of explosive sound, I
giggled and reminded myself that it was probably
the sound of another soul leaving to go get itself
another body.
Another story I find funny is about a person we

met our first visit to Nepal. Louis and I were eating
supper in the hotel restaurant when we noticed a
Westerner moving around from table to table with
a bottle in his hand from which he drank often. I
was truly hoping that he wouldn't notice us, but he
did. He came over and pulled out a chair and sat
down, introduced himself as Martin, from
Rotterdam, then asked us why we were there.
Louis replied that we had come up to Kathmandu
for just a few days before returning to India to go
see Herakhan Baba, and asked, in turn, why
Martin was there.
He told us that he had been in India with his

guru for three years, witnessing the rituals his
Master performed. He asked us if we knew of the
Nectar of Life, and I recalled something about a
Yogic practice that involved stimulating the back of
the hard palate with the tip of the tongue rolled
over itself. That was supposed to get the
hypothalamus and the anterior hypophysis to
secrete more hormones which, in turn, improved
health and longevity. Some Yogic Masters believe
this practice confers immortality.
He said his guru had spent many years

perfecting a different technique for stimulating the
palate. Instead of folding His tongue on itself to try
to get the tip back in His throat, He worked at
pulling His tongue out forward from His mouth,
stretching it and eventually pulling it almost entirely
around His head. All that was so He could be able
to put it back into His mouth without bending it, so
the top of the tip would be tickling the palate
instead of the bottom of the tip.
I started laughing when Martin said it was very

difficult to understand what his guru was saying
because His tongue always hung out of His mouth,
having been stretched so much.
When I asked Martin why he was there instead of
with his Master, and why he was getting drunk,
Martin started to weep. He said that he had been
in Nepal for two weeks, drunk continually, because
his immortal Master had died, choking himself on
his tongue.
I couldn't stop laughing. So much for that way

to promote immortality.
Death continued to dominate our time with

Martin.
When we finally parted that night, Martin invited

us to go with him early the next morning to a place
about ninety miles north of Kathmandu he called
Kalikuchi. Martin said blood sacrifices were still
carried on there, but since Westerners like us were
going to be present, sacrifices would probably be
limited to just small animals, no people. I assumed
he was joking.
I rose in time to see the sun rising over the

distant mountains. It was one of the most beautiful
sunrises I have ever seen. Then we had a
marvelous ride for many hours over the terraced
rice and barley fields.
As we drew near to our destination, we saw

straggling small groups of people dressed in
maroon robes, looking like Buddhist priests,
hurrying along the road with cages and bundles. I
puzzled over why people dedicated to harm no
sentient beasts would engage in animal sacrifice.
Then I remembered that the Buddhist priest I knew
in Bangkok, like other Thai priests, ate meat if that
was what was put into his begging bowl, and I had
also been told that the Tantra lamas in Tibet ate
meat in the cold weather. So the rules about killing
and about eating flesh are apparently somewhat
flexible for certain Buddhists and Hindus.
It was extremely hot on the hilltop where we got

out of the car to walk down to the temple where
the sacrifices were taking place. The sun was
blazing and there were hundreds of people rushing
to go down the steps to witness the ceremonies.
There were files buzzing around constantly and
the whole place smelled of blood and excrement. It
smelled so very bad that I covered my nose and
mouth with a handkerchief, wishing that I hadn't
come.
Just as I took my camera and started to climb
down the stairs that led to the temple, a man
dressed in a saffron-colored dhoti, carrying a long
staff with the prongs of Shiva on the top, walked
up them toward me. He was the perfect depiction
of a Shiva devotee, and nodded when I
pantomimed asking Him if I could take His picture.
The crowd seemed to thin momentarily, and He
was just letting me take a photo of Him, smiling at
me, when suddenly, it started to rain heavily.
There was only one small cloud in the sky, right
above us! Even though I was getting wet, I was
extremely thankful as the rain washed away the
terrible smell in the air and made the flies go away.
In only the time it took for that sunyatzen to

finish climbing the steps, only a few minutes, the
rain stopped! I took my last picture of the Shiva
sunyatzen, and we continued on down to the
temple.
A little boy about ten years old, speaking
English, attached himself to me, offering to be
what he called my "guide." When we got down to
the top of the wall around the temple, he told me I
had to stay up there with the other women. So I
gave my camera to Louis to take pictures with and
he left with Martin to go down to where the men
were and the sacrifices were taking place. I found
that I could look down into the inner sanctum and I
could see them both down there when I finally
summoned my courage to look.
The walls of the inner sanctum were completely

covered with bright red blood, splashed higher
than could be reached by a man standing on
tiptoes. The priests were cutting a calf's throat
when I first looked, and I didn't really want to look
anymore. I was very shaken by the entire scene.
How strange to think that the Giver of Life is
impressed by sacrifice of His living creatures.
People were rushing back and forth, offering

living animals or holding bleeding, dying ones. I
didn't want to stay, so I walked away to go climb to
a shrine I saw high up a neighboring hill. My guide
was disappointed that I wanted to leave, but
dutifully, he accompanied me to the shrine in
which was a murti of Ganesh, the elephant-headed
deity who is the remover of obstacles. I saw that it,
too, was splashed with blood. I felt repelled by all
the commotion and excitement that I interpreted as
pure blood lust.
I was further repelled when my guide showed me
that far down the hill toward a stream, the bodies
of the sacrificed animals were being skinned and
disemboweled. My guide explained that only
Untouchables performed this job. He showed me
where the carcasses were being roasted on spits
over fires higher up the stream, and he urged me
to go with him to the top of the hill for what he
called "peekneek." He was upset when I said I was
a vegetarian and didn't want to go.
When we finally returned to Kathmandu late

that night, Martin once again went back into his
mourning for his guru, and asked me, since I was
a well-educated teacher, to explain why I thought
his Master had died. Almost without thinking, I
answered, "To bring you to this moment, right
Here, right Now."
Martin thought about it for a while and then said

he'd like to Rebirth with me, so we arranged it for
the next morning, early enough for Louis and me
to make our plane later that day back to India.
Many months later, I received a letter from

Martin who had returned to his home in Rotterdam
and was living an ordinary life. We corresponded
for a year, then I didn't receive a reply to my letter
telling him we were soon going to be in the
Netherlands, inviting him to attend one of my
workshops. I wasn't able to locate a phone number
for him when I visited his home town, and we
never heard from him again. But I have always
remembered the magical quality of that sunrise I
saw only because of him and the blessed rain that
came just exactly when I most wanted it, and I
often marvel over the feeling of certainty I felt
when I answered his question.
To be Here. Now.
That's what it's all about. If this is the only real
moment of time, since the past is already dead
and the future hasn't yet appeared, the only way to
be truly alive is to be here now. Living completely
in this only real time is, itself, immortality. Don't you
agree?
Often, I have been asked if people who have

Rebirthed and who believe in Physical Immortality
have ever died. My answer is, "Yes."
I know several people who have died, including

several people who were very, very dedicated,
very earnest Rebirthers who Rebirthed frequently,
and who had been Rebirthing over a long period of
years.
One of the Rebirthers who died was an

Englishman who had a strange lymphatic condition
that caused him a great deal of pain, especially in
his legs. Despite his earnest use of the breath and
of affirmations, his condition was getting so bad
that it was going to make his occupation as a long-
distance lorry driver no longer possible. Doctors
regarded his condition as incurable.
He Rebirthed at a group Rebirth in London one
evening and told the group he had had a
marvelous blissful experience; then he kissed and
hugged everybody in the group, left, and walked
out on the street where he was killed in an instant
by a lorry speeding down the road.
Why did that happen? Was it really an

"accident?" The people watching were sure he
didn't throw himself in front of the truck.
People present told me they thought that he felt
completely at peace with himself as he concluded
his Rebirth, and left.
Somehow, his Thought created the truck that
removed him from his pain.
Another person I know who was also a

Rebirther and who is now dead was a woman who
had fairly advanced cancer when she participated
in a week-long intensive Rebirth training that I
organized with Leonard as the leader. Following
her individual Rebirth with Leonard in the middle of
that week, she came to me and said that she
wanted to say goodbye, that she was totally at
peace, and that she wasn't going to be attending
the remainder of the workshop because she'd
gotten what she came for.
Since I wanted to be certain of that, I queried her
further about it, and she said, "Don't worry about it,
you don't owe me any rebate. I've enjoyed every
minute of it. Believe me. I've gotten what I came
for."
Then she hugged me and left.
Shortly afterwards, Leonard came down into

the living room where I was and said, "You know,
that woman just wants to die. No matter what I did,
I couldn't get her to believe in physical immortality."
Her close friends said that following that

workshop she told her children that she didn't want
them to struggle, she didn't want them to be in
pain, that she had recognized that it was her time
to leave the body, and that she was quite open to
that, that she'd made her peace with God, and she
wanted them to forgive her, but that she had no
desire to struggle against her disease any longer.
I learned that she died very soon thereafter and

that her death had been peaceful and essentially
painless and swift. Did Rebirthing at least enable
her to die in peace? I hope so.
I ask the same question about Jamie Burke, an
extremely handsome, strong, vigorous young man
who served as the pujari at the Aarti held to Babaji
twice a month at my house during 1993 and 1994.
He had been diagnosed HIV positive ten years
earlier, yet was otherwise apparently healthy and
vibrant.
One day in late summer of 1994, at a yard sale

to raise money to send to the ashram in Crestone,
he was bitten by a spider. His immune system
collapsed and he never recovered.
I spoke with him just before he left Los Angeles to
go back to be cared for during his decline by his
mother and sister. He laughed bitterly and said, "If
Babaji doesn't heal me after all I've believed in
Him, well. . ."
I was glad to hear that he told his folks he was

totally reconciled, however, by the time of his
death.
Maybe Rebirthing at least enabled these three
friends to accept death.
Another Rebirther who has died was my very

dear friend, Rhaghava, who left England to go live
in Spain on the Costa Sol, where she would be
warmer and more comfortable than in England.
She was looking forward to continuing to teach
Yoga, something she'd been doing for twenty to
thirty years.
When I first went to England to lead Rebirth

workshops, she was one of the three people that I
Rebirthed there who were the best breathers I had
ever Rebirthed! They breathed deeply and fully,
they kept the breathing connected, they kept their
consciousness on their breath, they didn't trance
out. It was a great pleasure for me to Rebirth each
and every one of them. I felt especially close to
Rhaghava and I really enjoyed being with her.
Whenever I went to England to do workshops, two
or three times a year, I had the pleasure of staying
in her marvelous, big home on the north side of
London, eating good vegetarian food, watching her
lovingly care for her huge Bouvier dog, Bach, and
then, after his death, for a young parrot she said
would at least outlive her, since parrots live 100
years.
This marvelously strong woman who practiced

her Hatha Yoga exercises every single day, who
taught Yoga for hours each day, who was in such
great condition, slipped on the floor in her new
home in Spain, broke her hip, developed
pneumonia, and died! I'm still almost surprised and
still greatly saddened to remember she's gone.
Why would her Thought have created such an
end? Hadn't she let go her death urges?
Years ago, when I first started Rebirthing, I

Rebirthed one of my dearest Los Angeles friends,
Bill Silman. I Rebirthed him just once, shortly after
his mother's death. He was extremely depressed,
not only because of her death, but because he
wasn't working and his love relationship was very
tense, filled with negatives. We talked a lot about
his promise to his mother to say Kaddish, the
Jewish prayer for the dead, twice daily for the next
year. He had jokingly promised her as she was
dying that he wouldn't kill himself until he had
completed the year of mourning, but he now felt so
bad he didn't think he could last that long. I
reminded him how proud of himself he could be
because he had taken such good care of her
through the many months she had been ill. And he
agreed to breathe and let go his depression so he
could keep his promise to carry out the Kaddish
ritual for her-and for his own self- respect.
Over the next few weeks, he didn't return
several phone calls left on his message machine. I
worried he was angry about that Rebirth, but other
friends said he was working very long hours at a
new job and would call when he could see me.
I was away from Los Angeles for most of the

next half year, so it was almost one full year later
before I finally heard from him. I asked him if I had
offended him in any way, and he remonstrated
that, to the contrary, he had been so busy going to
prayers twice a day plus becoming successful at
the new job he unexpectedly took the very day
after that Rebirth that he hadn't had much time for
socializing, and that, anyway, I had been away
from Los Angeles every time he had tried to reach
me. He said his one Rebirth had led to his being
really happy all year and he felt his life had been
perfect-until three days earlier when his cat had
died. He said he felt as empty and in pain as he
had the year before, right after his mother died.
I offered to Rebirth him over the weekend, but

he said it would have to wait until the next week.
As we closed the conversation, he reported again
that he wanted to thank me for the Rebirth that
changed his life. He said he listened to my
affirmation tape often and he loved to hear my
voice. In fact, he was so warm in telling me how
much he had treasured our friendship over so
many years, that I laughed and joked that he
sounded as if he were delivering a goodbye
speech.
Indeed he was.
Driving home two days later, following a

marvelous dinner of foods he totally loved, he died
of a sudden heart attack. Thoughtful to the end, he
managed to pull out of traffic on the freeway in that
instant so he didn't cause an accident. He was
dead before his car hit a wall.
He didn't kill himself. He didn't die of drugs.
He died a good son, a successful businessman,

full of pork chops and halvah.
Did he figure his life was complete? Is that the

message he was really sending me when we last
talked together? Didn't that one Rebirth really
matter?
It would be wonderful to believe that even just

one Rebirth could help a person profoundly.
Occasionally, I hear from people I Rebirthed only
once, many, many years ago. Their comments
always include the phrase, "That one Rebirth
absolutely changed my life."
But still the question remains: Does Rebirthing

eliminate the death urge?
Leonard Orr says that since physical

immortality is achievable, all deaths are suicides.
That was definitely true of another person who,
with his wife, attended a weekend workshop that I
led in Scotland. He reported that he had always
been continually preoccupied with thoughts of
death. His mother had died giving birth to him. He
had led a dour life as a motherless child growing
up in the very North Country of Scotland, with no
neighbors, almost no schooling, with nothing to
relieve the gloom and depression and grayness
and coldness of life up there. Self-taught as a radio
repairman, eventually he left his father and took a
job in Edinburgh, where he met the American
woman who became his wife. They had had a few
happy months, but were lately having problems
because she wanted to have a child, but they
couldn't afford to have her leave her better-paying
job.
The last day of that weekend workshop happened
to be his birthday. So, following the group Rebirth,
I brought in a birthday cake and everyone sang
Happy Birthday to him.
He cried with tears of joy, saying that that had

been the happiest day of his life, and that he had
never known he could be so happy. He also
reported that while he had been Rebirthing in the
group Rebirth that evening, he had realized that he
and his wife could work out their financial
arrangements if he did more of his work at home
while watching over the baby: then she would only
have to take time off to give birth. With the
announcement that they could finally start the
family that she had been wanting to have for so
long, everyone in the workshop, especially his
wife, was overwhelmed with joy.
The next day I left Scotland and went down to

England to lead another workshop. On the second
day of the workshop, I received a long distance
call from his wife telling me that she had returned
from work that day to find that her husband had
hung himself from the chandelier in their sitting
room! She wanted me to know that she didn't
blame me or Rebirthing in any way. In fact, she
wanted to thank me again because he had been
so remarkably happy as they had made plans for
her becoming pregnant. She said Rebirthing had
at least allowed him to have one marvelously
happy day before he ended his life. I still feed bad
that Rebirthing didn't stop his depression.
Ultimately, the issue about death seems to

revolve around the matter of choice. I want to live
as long as I want to live. I don't want to die until
I've lived as much as I want to.
A nun in Belfast summed the matter up

perfectly.
In Belfast a few years ago, I led a workshop at

a Catholic retreat during Holy Week. It was
attended by several Catholic nuns, who all said
they hoped to die so they could be with their Lord
Jesus. We had a very long, very intense
discussion about it, with none of them changing
their minds. The argument ended only when the
nuns left to put on clean habits to attend the
Passion Play that evening of Good Friday.
After they dressed, they came back to the

group to say goodbye. As we said goodbye, the
youngest nun embraced me and said in her Irish
brogue what I say to you in closing, "May the Good
Lord let you live forever if that's what you truly
want."

CHAPTER FIFTEEN
ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS The Logic of
Magical Thought
Before going into details about the process and and The Dance of
practice of Rebirthing, it's important to discuss the Breath
some ethical or moral considerations, especially
because the idea that there are no victims, the
idea that nothing ever happens without our
consent, might seem to mitigate or excuse sexual INTRODUCTION
or even violent interaction between Rebirther and
Rebirthee. CHAPTER ONE
The Ideal Breath
The topic of seduction, of having sex with
somebody who has been or is a Rebirthing client,
CHAPTER TWO
has come up for discussion repeatedly through the The Difference
eighteen years that I've been involved with Between Rebirthing
Rebirthing, not only because the topic itself is
fascinating, but because it goes directly to and Hyperventilation
fundamental theoretical issues: Can anyone
seduce another? Is anyone in control of the CHAPTER THREE
behavior of another one? The Difference
Between the Ideal
Please understand that I am not questioning Breath And Yogic
Rebirthing someone with whom you are indeed
intimate. I think it's marvelous when lovers Rebirth Breathing
each other, or when parents Rebirth their children
and vice versa, or even when close friends Rebirth CHAPTER FOUR
each other, because this is how we extend the The Difference
loving community that truly exists, spirit to spirit. Between Rebirthing
And Primal Scream
I'm talking about seduction or including sex with
the breathing session. Therapy
This topic came up again the night before I CHAPTER FIVE
wrote this chapter, when I was holding a meeting The Biology of
of people who are involved with Herakhan Baba, Imprints
Babaji, and/or with Rebirthing.
CHAPTER SIX
One of the "old timers" was reminiscing: "How
lovely it used to be before AIDS appeared, when Food and
people would get together, lie down and breathe, Consciousness
get into a warm, loving, forgiving state of heart and
state of mind, and then would form a couple with CHAPTER SEVEN
somebody who was also at the meeting and of a Rebirthing and
like state of mind and heart and go out and make
love-how carefree and enjoyable it all was!" Bodywork Therapies
Then another person started talking about a CHAPTER EIGHT

Rebirther who routinely "talked" the women that Rebirthing and
came to him for Rebirths into having sex with him. Conventional
Many of the Rebirthers in Los Angeles condemned Rsychotherapies
this individual and, in fact, said that they didn't
believe such a person should be allowed to be
called a Rebirther. CHAPTER NINE
Rebirthing and
Then we joked about a popular Rebirther who Neuro-Linguistic
encouraged his pretty female Rebirthees to make Programming
themselves "more comfortable" and allow their
breath to be "more open" by taking their clothes
off. And I talked about some female Rebirthees CHAPTER 10
I've heard of who have set their cap for a particular Affirmations
male Rebirther by using such ploys as "Would you
mind if I take my brassiere off so I can breathe CHAPTER 11
more easily?" The Parental
Disapproval
Whatever the particular variation on this
general theme of `let's have fun and games' may Syndrome
be, the point is that the reason an individual is
involved with Rebirthing is for his own spiritual CHAPTER 12
progress, and that's not likely to come from getting Time, Work, and
laid. Money:
If getting laid were the royal road to success in Consciousness and
spiritual enhancement and purification, then we all Abundance
know who would be the people who would be the
most "psycho-sexually mature" individuals in our
society. They would be the prostitutes. And it CHAPTER 13
obviously is not so. Sex and Loving
Relationships
So I suggest that people essentially keep a
clear distinction between their professional life as a CHAPTER 14
Rebirther and their personal lives, especially their
sex-lives. Physical Immortality
I don't think it's an especially positive approach CHAPTER 15

for a Rebirther to use Rebirthing as a seductive Ethical
ploy. Consideration
In this, I'm reminded of the suggestion of one of
my colleagues a few years ago, who met me in the
hall at the college where I taught, and said, "I have CHAPTER 16
a great idea for a whole new career for you after Individual Rebirths
you've retired."
CHAPTER 17
I said, "Yeah, I have my own ideas about my Group Rebirthings
brand new career for myself after I retire, but
anyhow, what is it?"
CHAPTER 18
And he said, "Well, you'll open a grieving Organizing
service, a service for men in their late sixties or Trainings and
early seventies who have just lost a spouse and Workshops
who need help with the grieving process."
CHAPTER 19
I was dumbfounded by his suggestion and The Standard
asked him why on earth would I want to focus on
such a population in my practice. And he replied, Rebirth Training
"It's really simple. You'll just keep meeting these
men who are newly bereaved until you find one CHAPTER 20
who really turns you on, who thinks that you're Running a Rebirth
attractive, and then that's that. You get married Business
and give up the business, and you'll be happy for
the rest of your life."
CHAPTER 21
Maybe such an approach works with Rebirthing
Rebirthing, too. But I think it always rests on a Organizations
scarcity consciousness.

I think that, generally speaking, a Rebirther who
has his life under control, who's getting what he
wants out of his life, doesn't need to be sexually
attracted to a client who comes to him for
Rebirthing.
I also recommend, if a Rebirther does find

himself sexually attracted to a Rebirth client, that
he do some Rebirthing and find out what the
scarcity thought is that underlies this attraction. It
may well be that he wants to be in control. It may
well be that he doesn't think he's good enough for
someone to love just for himself alone-they can
only love him if they need him or are grateful to
him for his help. Straightening out old negatives
should quickly restore ordinary professional
distance between Rebirther and client.
As for nudity, generally speaking, I suggest that

my clients keep their clothes on, and I keep my
clothes on while I'm Rebirthing them, even in the
hot tub. Although I usually use my hot tub for
myself nude, I wear a swimsuit and I recommend
bathing suits for all Rebirthers conducting wet
Rebirths. I recommend to people who come to my
workshop to train to be Rebirthers that they do the
same.
I also strongly recommend that there be essentially
no touching and fondling during the Rebirthing. A
breathing session isn't an occasion for a deep
body massage. It's not a time for cradling and
rocking.
It's a time for a person to find out that he can
surrender to and can trust his breath. He can only
do that if he breathes and entrusts himself
completely to the breath.
Your job as a Rebirther is to get your clients to

give up their grievances and to let go of their
negative consciousness, so they can create a
good life for themselves instead of a life that's
muddied by the manifestations of their negative
consciousness.
Getting caught up in sex play with any of them
probably isn't therapy. More likely, it's just another
manifestation of negative consciousness.
Scarcity thoughts about sex probably lie at the

foundation of all sexual acting out. I think such a
scarcity thought was operating when one well-
known Rebirther, for some strange reason I can't
even imagine, took his client into one of my
bathrooms and balled with her in the bathtub, fully
clothed. His shoe kicked one of the porcelain
faucet handles and broke it. The first thing I knew
of it was when he later came into my living room,
with the broken handle in his hand, and said, "You
could be cited for this, you know-it's against the
revised building code!"
By the way, that Rebirther had sex with two

other women in the four days he attended that
particular workshop-not a new indoor record by
any means, but still very active. And all indicative, I
believe, of his underlying PDS grievances. He
could have balled with every one of these women
elsewhere, outside of the training. Why do it in my
home? What a naughty boy he was being!
Another "cute" story involved the daughter of a

former Catholic nun, brought to one of my
weekend workshops by one of my patients who
had been having sex with her. This young woman
somehow managed to partner for the first round of
Rebirths with a young man who, though old
enough to be a college graduate, was still virgin.
By the time we gathered as a group to start the
next morning, she had managed to alter his virgin
status. Then, that second evening, she partnered
with a different young man who, though married,
was also apparently quite willing to have sex with
her-and also open to discussing their adventure
the next morning when we started our Sex and
Love seminar. She puzzled me by saying that her
mother had given her a healthy attitude towards
sex (something I find hard to believe of her mother
who had, after all, originally chosen to have been a
nun), but that, of course, she wasn't promiscuous.
"It isn't as if I have sex with a different man every
day."
That was too much for me to swallow. I said, "But
that's exactly what you have been doing, isn't it?
You balled with A just before he brought you here
and then you balled with B after your first Rebirth
and with C after your second Rebirth. That's three
different men in two days, isn't it?"
Hysteria was rampant! She cried, then sulked-

and my Rebirth client who brought her was totally
mortified to learn that this woman he had treasured
enough to pay for her weekend had shown so little
loyalty. They stopped seeing each other soon
afterwards.
In essence, we need to distinguish between
acting-out neurotically and reacting genuinely.
Lots of long-lasting lover relationships and

marriages have resulted from meetings at Rebirth
workshops-in fact, my 18-year-long tie with my
friend, Louis, was the outcome of his attendance at
a workshop I organized for C.W. Light. Obviously, I
think that's OK.
But when it comes to making a practice of

concluding professional Rebirth sessions with
seduction and sex, I hesitate. Somehow, it seems
as if the Rebirther is being opportunistic. But who
knows? Maybe not.
Ultimately, you'll have to make up your own

mind. While you're thinking about it, remember to
breath and to remind yourself:
 My connection with Infinite Wisdom lets

me understand the difference between
Love and Lust-and I choose Love.
Another ethical question is whether anyone

who Rebirths has gone crazy or caused harm to
others.
Yes, I know of at least two Rebirthers who have
been convicted of committing murder.
One case served me immensely in dealing with

forgiveness.
In Spring, 1981, about ten days before Louis

and I were due to leave on our first round-the-
world trip, which included our first visit to India to
see Babaji, I received a phone call from a
Rebirther I knew who lived in upstate California. I
hadn't heard from him for a year. He was
somebody I had met at Campbell Hot Springs
several years earlier, and I had enjoyed working
with him and admired his calm and very gentle-
appearing nature. In fact, I had appreciated his
approach to groups and Rebirthing to such an
extent that I had even invited him down to Los
Angeles for a day in Fall of 1978 to help lead and
organize a One Year Seminar.
I didn't hear from him again until one day, in

early Spring of 1979, when I was in San Francisco.
I ran into him at a restaurant with a group of other
Rebirthers I knew. They invited me to join them,
and I sat opposite him. I asked him how things
were going in his life and learned, much to my
great surprise, that he had spent most of the
intervening time in jail, having been accused of
murdering his wife! He had been released because
the police did not have sufficient evidence to
charge him. The dinner party that night was to
celebrate his release which had just happened.
I thought everyone was joking, so my response

when he looked me in the eye and told me that he
had been suspected and held for the murder of his
wife was, "My God, I'd sure hate to be on your shit
list."
Everyone at the table laughed, no one seemed

to take offense, and the moment passed by.
I hadn't seen or talked with him since, until that

phone call just before Louis and I were ready to
leave on our round-the-world trip in February,
1981. He phoned and said that he was thinking of
giving up his teaching job and that he wanted to
talk with me. Could he come on down to Los
Angeles and spend a day or two?
I told him we were leaving the next week for a

trip around the world and that life was pretty hectic,
so I might not have a great deal of time to spend
with him. But, of course, he was welcome to come
on down, and I'd see if I could help him make
whatever career decisions he was facing.
When he arrived, we had many pleasant

conversations, but throughout I was mindful of two
facts. One is that he had been educated in
Germany and had lived in Germany during World
War II. And the other fact was that he was a man
who had been accused of killing his wife.
I went back in my memory to the day in the Fall

of 1978 that he had spent with me in Los Angeles,
meeting people and discussing the formation of
the One Year Seminar. I remembered that, late
that evening, after we had returned from having
dinner with my son, he had talked about how he
and his wife weren't getting along well, and how
he, no matter what he did, couldn't make her
happy any longer.
He said that their life together had been fine

until he had had a very bizarre airplane accident a
few years previous which he said involved the gas
line parting in his airplane and the plane's plunging
some 18,000 feet. He was with his good friend and
with his little son at the time. He told me that he
had concentrated on envisioning white protective
light surrounding his son and his friend as the
plane fell down to the desert ground.
The results of that accident were rather

miraculous in themselves. His son was completely
uninjured and was able to leave the site of the
crash, walk down the road for a mile or more, and
summon help. His friend's leg was broken. And my
friend only suffered from a piece of metal pushed
into his forehead. He was hospitalized with his
head injury for quite a while following the accident
but made a total recovery, presumably.
However, that Fall night in Los Angeles, at the

end of the One Year Seminar day, he told me that
ever since the accident, he had been in a continual
state of bliss which made such things as sex no
longer especially desirable. He far preferred to
stay in the psychological bliss state that he was
constantly experiencing. His indifference to sex
was annoying his wife and making their marriage
less than the happy one it had previously been.
As he was talking, I had a sudden intuition that

he was really very angry, not only at his wife, but
possibly at all women. Equally suddenly I became
aware of the fact that here was a person who was
large enough to have played semi-pro football and
who seemed to be accessing a level of aggression
and violence and strength that could be
dangerous.
Immediately, I thought of how much of my life I had
been the lightning rod, the conduit, for other
people's violent negativity. Usually, in "dangerous"
situations, I have allowed either my curiosity or my
refusal to reveal my fear to overwhelm my good
sense, and I've stayed around to find out what was
going to happen. That's how I've been hurt. As I
thought about that, I reacted impulsively, out of
fear. I abruptly interrupted what he was saying and
said, "Excuse me, but I'm really very tired, so I'm
going to sleep. You'll be staying in the back
bedroom, and you've got clean towels in your
bathroom. I'll get up early in the morning to drive
you to the airport so that you can get back to San
Francisco in time for the One Year Seminar that's
starting there at 10 in the morning."
I was in such a hurry to leave him, lest somehow
or other he erupt on me, that I actually took the
first flight of stairs up to my second floor bedroom
two steps at a time, something I hadn't done in
many, many years! And I locked my bedroom
door, something I have never otherwise done,
before or after.
The next morning, I awoke early and drove him

to the airport so that his plane would get into San
Francisco with plenty of time for him to drive to
wherever the One Year Seminar there was
meeting.
That had all happened the year before.
In between was the murder.
Then came my meeting him at the restaurant

after he was released from jail without being
charged.
And now, here he was in my house asking for my
help.
Not only help, but company, for, as he heard

our plans for our round-the-world trip, he asked if
he could accompany us at least as far as India. He
had decided definitely to resign from his teaching
job, and he wanted to go to India to meet Babaji.
How could I refuse?
Over the next two days, Louis helped him

locate the Federal Building where he busied
himself getting a new passport. Louis also
accompanied him in shopping for things like a
money belt. The day after he went for his passport,
when they returned to the house, he told me that
his van had been broken into and that everything
had been ransacked, but that everything was in
place and nothing was missing that he could tell!
I thought that was bizarre, and actually didn't

believe him. I thought he was mistaken.
Two evenings later, the two of us, this fellow

and I, were the only ones sitting in my living room.
Other people who had spent the evening at my
house were leaving, getting into cars at the curb
on the street.
As I sat looking at him, he smiled and said to me,
"You know that I did it, don't you?"
As I continued to look at him, wondering if I had

truly heard what I believed I had heard, he added,
"You still love me though, don't you?"
I suddenly needed to urinate, so I replied,

"Excuse me, I've got to go upstairs. I'll be right
down."
As I sat upstairs in my bathroom pondering this

revelation, this acknowledgment on his part that he
had, indeed, committed the crime of murdering his
wife, I wondered why had he told me that? What
did it mean?
I spent a lot of time pondering why I had

"created" him in my life. I was especially mindful of
the fact that he was the only person I had ever
been so afraid of that I'd removed myself from his
presence.
By myself up in my bedroom, I thought about all

this and about his request to accompany us on our
trip to India. It suddenly dawned on me that I had
probably created him and those circumstances to
lead me to let go whatever lingering elements of
grievance I still felt toward men who had been
physically violent with me.
And I further realized that his Germanness was

confronting me with the issue of how to find
perfection in the Holocaust, the Nazi massacre of
millions of Jews, Poles, and gypsies.
As I pondered that, I thought about the

affirmations:
 Everything is Perfect in God's Perfect

World.
 God doesn't make mistakes.
And I pondered the questions of evil and of

reincarnation. Are our souls immortal? Do we go
through life after life after life, being reincarnated,
to learn new lessons each time? If those lessons
are always ones of forgiveness and love, do we
gradually perfect ourselves and finally realize our
goodness, our Godliness?
A possible and reasonable purpose for

reincarnation (if I indeed believed in it, and I hope
I've made it clear that I am by no means absolutely
convinced) would seem to be that we each of us
continually, through many lifetimes, become as
purely loving and forgiving as we consider and
want God to be. We're here in our mortality, in our
humanness, to achieve a closer and closer
relationship with God, to become more and more
like God, therefore to become more forgiving and
loving.
In almost every religion, Western and Eastern,

God is completely forgiving of everyone if they
perform certain activities. God is good, God
forgives all sinners.
In Catholicism, for example, if you make a

sincere act of contrition, and you properly atone by
completing your penance, then God must forgive
you.
In Judaism, as another example, if on the Day of
Atonement, Yom Kippur, you settle all of your
accounts, material and emotional and spiritual, as
best you can and then ask God to forgive you for
anything that hasn't been completed, again God is
required to accept your atonement and to forgive
you and to clear the slate for another year of life.
Also, in almost every religion, it is acknowledged
that we are all part of God, and so long as we
interact with each other on that level, all our
interactions are positive.
The Hindu, for example, meeting another

individual, says, "Namaste," and pranamms to that
individual. The word, "namaste," incorporates the
concept, "I bow to the God within you. I salute the
God within you."
So there I was, sitting up in my bedroom,

thinking about why, just as I was about to leave on
a trip to faraway places where I might visit Babaji
and other Holy Personages, had I brought this
person into my life? He had scared me by his
implicit, covert violence. He had been suspected
and accused of murdering his wife, and if I could
believe my ears, he had just confessed to the
crime to me! Maybe he shared the common
Teutonic or German values or belief in the
Superman, the Ubermensch. He might even share
the Nazi attitude toward Jews, that we're inferior
and, in fact, not even human, and can and should
be disposed of to purify the Aryan race.
I confronted myself with questions: "Why have I

created him here at this time? Why have I even
created his desire to accompany me and Louis on
our first trip to India to see Babaji? How does this
have anything to do with love and forgiveness?
What is the teaching? Where is all this going?"
And I then suddenly had an insight which made

me recognize that I had created him to show me
that I could and did still feel affection even for
someone who had apparently, at least by his own
acknowledgment, killed his wife!
If I could feel affection and forgiveness for him,

certainly there was no reason why I should go on
carrying any grievance against my husbands or
other lovers who had lost their tempers and
resorted to physical violence against me.
In an instant flash, I forgave all of them, this

time completely-not just on the `okay, let's forgive
it, let's forget it,' sociable, affable, bluff, hearty level
that had characterized my meetings with the
fathers of my children when we met at
graduations, weddings, and other state occasions.
I saw clearly in that instant that I wanted to and
was completely open to letting go all animosity that
I had ever felt toward them. I wanted to forgive
them all, not only to be relieved of the burden of
my old negative feelings, but also because I did
not want such negative thought in me to result in
the metaphysical creation of any other individual
who might go even further with his violence,
towards me as well as others.
And so, I sat by myself, thinking about forgiving,

letting go completely any negatives I had ever felt
toward any man who'd ever acted violently toward
me, including the doctor who had delivered me-for
whatever he did to make me come alive probably
was violent. I'm sure a brand new, soft, tiny little
baby feels almost every touch as a violent assault-
being held upside down and being tweaked or
spanked or whatever can't be pleasant for a little
baby. And resentments pile up whenever
somebody does something to us that we find
unpleasant.
So I thought about forgiving Dr. Foster Meyers

and forgiving my father, blessed be his name, and
my uncles, cousins, boyfriends, husbands, lovers,
even my son (although he had never struck me, he
had gotten violent and kicked the kitchen stove
one day when he was an adolescent).
All of that accrued animosity that I felt toward

them seemed to be washed out of me as I willing
agreed:
 I forgive every single man I've ever known
for everything I've ever had any grievance
about.
As soon as I had thought that thought, my mind

became caught up in my question of what does
this fellow's Germanness, his connection with
Nazism, have to do with me?
I thought about how, at almost every workshop

that I have led or participated in, someone has
scoffed at the affirmations:
 God doesn't make mistakes.

 Everything is Perfect in God's Perfect
World.
"How can you say everything is perfect? The

corollary of that thought is that there must be
perfection, somehow, even in something like the
Holocaust. How can you say the Nazis and the
Holocaust are perfect? Your Rebirthing philosophy
is a pile of crap if you believe something foolish
like that."
I suddenly realized that instead of thinking of

the six million Jews who were killed by the Nazis
as victims, it was more appropriate to use the term
that is used at Yad Vashem, the memorial in Israel
to the six million Jewish people who died in the
Holocaust. Yad Vashem is called a memorial to
martyrs, not to victims. A martyr chooses to suffer
his fate rather than change his behavior or his
belief system. A martyr is a saint. The saints of the
Catholic Calendar of Saints, for example, are
people who willingly gave up their lives in order to
persist in their public acclamation of Catholicism.
They didn't recant. They didn't agree to pretend to
believe something that they didn't believe just
because they wanted to save their lives. Their faith
in God as they contemplated and believed in God
was more important than their lives. Saints,
martyrs, all give up this life to maintain their belief
system because they have faith that God is good,
God will not forget them, God creates everything
that happens.
Next, my mind jumped to the question, "How can
anyone know that he really believes something,
that he really has faith, if he's not put to the test?"
The Ten Commandments comprise the law

within which an observant believing Jew functions
constantly. He seeks not to lie, to bear false
witness, to covet, to commit adultery, to steal, to
mock God or take God's name in vain; he seeks to
observe the God-given rest called the Sabbath, to
honor his parents, and not to kill.
For most of the history of Judaism, that

commandment, "Thou shalt not kill," has been
interpreted to mean that Orthodox Jews are what
we now call "pacifists" or "conscientious objectors"
who must not participate in military service.
During World War II, I was personally

acquainted with several people who claimed
conscientious objector exclusion from the draft
because they were Orthodox Jews and, therefore,
according to the commandment, were not allowed
to kill.
That extend of the meaning of that idea has not

only occupied the consciousness of modern
people here in America, but even more so the
consciousness of the Orthodox Jewry of Germany
and Western and Eastern Europe.
If you're not allowed to kill, then you're not

allowed to kill to save yourself, you're not allowed
to kill to save your wife and your children, you're
simply not allowed to kill!
Had the Jews slaughtered during the Holocaust

chosen to die?
As is well known, millions of Jews went to their

deaths without struggle, without making any effort
whatsoever to harm or murder their murderers.
Hannah Arendt even wrote a book about this,
condemning the Jews for their failure to bear arms
and to fight against the Nazis. She blamed the
Jews for allowing themselves to be victimized.
But sitting in my bedroom that evening, I saw

clearly that they weren't victimized. They were
martyred. They maintained their belief. Singing the
praises of God, they marched into the ovens.
I agree that's a romantic picture. Obviously, in

their frenzy, in their anxiety, in their desperate fear,
in their horror of pain, Jewish people resisted the
Nazis. All Jews didn't go to their deaths like meek
little lambs. In fact, even meek little lambs have to
be pushed and prodded and forced to go into the
slaughtering pens.
But this view of Jews as willing martyrs suddenly
created a healing within me that I could feel as a
warmth up and down through the core of my body,
as if some place that had been frozen and
shriveled and frightened and empty were suddenly
filled with light and warmth, as if love had once
again descended into me.
As I thought these thoughts, I realized that my
attitude toward the six million Jewish victims of
Nazi persecution had now changed. Instead of
pitying them and actually, in a sense, being angry
with them because they hadn't resisted more, I
found myself honoring them. They weren't poor
schmucks who didn't have enough sense to fight
back. They were God-loving, God-fearing people,
who knew that God would never desert them. They
went to their deaths as martyrs to their faith, a faith
which I share.
It was as if I had come back into an approving,

loving, accepting relationship with six million of my
relatives, meine ganze meshpuche. By changing
my mind, from the term victims, to martyrs, I had
just given myself an immense number of people
that I could love and honor, instead of aching for. I
felt pretty good about that!
Then another thought came to me: There was

indeed perfection in the Holocaust, but it could
only be seen if a person accepts the concept of
purposeful, repetitive reincarnations, the idea that
in each lifetime we are destined to confront certain
issues, certain negatives where we believe that
what is happening is wrong, that it goes against
God's will, that there is no God, that God does not
love, etc. And as we confront those issues and
surmount them and go back to forgiveness, we
become as forgiving and wise as God, and we've
completed that particular job in that particular
lifetime. We die. We get to hang out with God for a
while, being one with that energy. Then, since we
have other tasks to handle, we assume our form in
another lifetime. And we go through that lifetime,
or perhaps we even go through several lifetimes
dealing with a new particular issue. Eventually we
finally get to where we've dealt with all possible
negative issues, we've seen the perfection in all of
them. Then we can stay with God and merge our
consciousness in God consciousness completely
without needing to assume human form again.
Presumably, we're each of us born in order to
increase the good in the universe, in order to
promote love and forgiveness.
Well, I'm not certain that I actually believe all

that. But at least it's an internally consistent kind of
philosophy, assuming that you're willing to accept
the initial few premises.
Mind you, all these thoughts went through my

mind as I sat in my bathroom for probably no more
than 10 minutes.
After having these insights, I went back

downstairs, to find that the Rebirther from up North
was ready to leave; he was going to drive back up
to his home and make final arrangements for
storing his vehicle and securing his home. He told
me that he would try to arrive back early enough
two days later to go with us to the Los Angeles
airport. But in any case, he already had his ticket
and his passport, and so, if necessary, he would
meet us at the airport to get on the plane to leave
for our trip around the world.
All my four grown children happened to be in town
that particular weekend, and they all met me and
Louis at the airport to bid us bon voyage. We
looked all around the departure hall, but couldn't
find the fellow from up North. Finally the time came
for us to get on the plane and he still wasn't there.
So, we flew off to Hawaii and Japan and

Thailand without knowing a thing about where he
was. I figured he had decided to change his ticket
and travel with Leonard, in Leonard's coterie. He
probably hadn't had time to send us a message to
tell us that his plans were changed. I figured we
would probably run into him in India.
But, when we got to India, he wasn't there and

none of the Rebirthers traveling with Leonard and
staying at Anjali House knew anything about
where he might be.
After leaving India, Louis and I went to Egypt

and Israel and then to Greece and Italy and
France and finally to the United Kingdom.
Eventually we came back to Los Angeles after
several months of traveling.
There were still no messages from the fellow from
up North, no explanation. He had just vanished!
Where could he have gone? He had been a
catalyst for some thinking on my part that I still felt
extremely pleased about. Yet, as suddenly as he
had entered my life that week before I left for my
trip, he was gone.
I wrote him, but my letter was returned, "No such
person at this address."
Well, several months passed. I finally learned

what had happened from Susan, a nurse I'd first
met in 1978 at Campbell Hot Springs. It turned out
that when that fellow had driven back to his home
in Northern California the night of my big
forgiveness insights, he had been arrested!
Apparently some evidence had been located which
the police felt was sufficient so that they could
arrest him and charge him with the murder of his
wife. Not only that, but he had been tried and he
had been convicted and he was actually in prison
at the time that I spoke with the nurse who knew
both of us! That really blew my mind.
I asked the nurse what evidence had been
found. Was it in his van? What were the findings at
the trial? How had his wife even been killed? What
was it all about?
She didn't know anything about the trial. She

only knew that his wife had been found murdered
on the day that he had returned to San Francisco
from being in Los Angeles for the One Year
Seminar. And that he had arrived at the San
Francisco One Year Seminar several hours late.
He had explained that I'd gotten him to the airport
too late for him to make the early flight that would
have gotten him there on time for the beginning of
the San Francisco One Year Seminar.
My mind went "click-click," because I had definitely
put him on a plane that would have reached San
Francisco a little after 8 in the morning that
Sunday. Yet he told the One Year Seminar he
hadn't arrived in San Francisco until afternoon.
Just in that instant, I had a vision that after

arriving in San Francisco at 8, he had gone out to
his home, a couple of hours away from San
Francisco, stabbed his wife, put her body in their
freezer, so that the signs of death would be
delayed, returned to San Francisco, participated in
the One Year Seminar, and then returned to his
home late at night to report to the police that he
had found his wife murdered on his return.
Susan didn't know whether his wife had been

stabbed or if she had been put in the freezer-those
were parts of my vision, and to this day I don't
know any more about it.
I still believe I had indeed tuned in on his rage

over his wife on that night so long ago, rage which
less than 24 hours later led to her murder.
Over the next two years, I received several

letters from him asking for small sums of money so
that he could buy some conveniences in jail. He
also asked if I would be willing to testify at an
appeal or some other court proceeding. In fact, I
had several phone conversations with his lawyer
about that, and told him there was really nothing I
could testify to that would be especially helpful to
his case. I said, "If I were asked questions about
when he had been in Los Angeles, and when he
had gotten on the airplane, I would have to report
that, so far as I knew, he got on the plane to San
Francisco so early on Sunday morning that he
would have had no difficulties whatsoever getting
to the One Year Seminar on time-or getting to his
home, murdering his wife and then getting to the
One Year Seminar at the beginning of the
afternoon."
I also told his lawyer about his strange verbal

confession when he said, "You know I did it, don't
you? But you still love me, anyhow, don't you?"
After several conversations, the lawyer agreed
with me that I should not be called to serve as any
kind of witness.
After a couple of exchanges of letters and my

twice sending small amounts of money for two
Christmas collections from which shoes and
toiletries were bought for him, the nature of his
correspondence changed. In his next letter, he
berated me for being afraid of him and made the
strange remark that I was somehow or other not
courageous because I was Jewish.
I never replied to his last letter. Even as I think

about it while I'm writing right now, I feel my
interaction with him was complete and finished. It
taught me the value of trusting my intuition.
When I spoke of this with a friend once, that
person said, "Aren't you afraid of what he'll do
when he gets out of jail?"
All I could say in reply was, "No, that hasn't

been my concern. I would imagine that if he
spends a long time in jail, he'll have other things on
his mind when he gets out. And there's no real
likelihood that we will meet again, since I seldom
go to San Francisco, and he would have no reason
to come down here."
That's the story of one murder involving a

Rebirther.
The other murder was committed by a client of

a Rebirther I know in England. He left her following
a very excellent Rebirth-according to both of them,
as they shared following its completion-went back
to his home, and murdered his housekeeper! I
don't know any more about it.
Why do I write about such terrible things?

Primarily because I think that it's foolish to hide
facts that seem to cast a negative light on
Rebirthing.
How do I account for two murderers? I can't.
Can you get into a murderous or self-

annihilative fervor and act on those negative
impulses, even if you've done a lot of breathing
previously? Well, the answer, apparently, is Yes.
Should I fault their Rebirths? Should I say they

never really Rebirthed the right way? Of course
not.
Does that mean that everybody who gets into
Rebirthing and has his murderous impulses
brought up has to be afraid of what he may do?
Of course not. They can breathe and let rage

go. And most of us don't have such murderous
rage within us, anyhow. It takes immense repeated
abuse to produce a killer. Fortunately, most of us
haven't had such abuse.
If you are conscious of keeping your breath

connected and you open yourself up to your
breath, and surrender to it, it heals you. It
completes you. You don't go riding off full tilt on the
steed of your rage and your old stale negatives.
Rebirthing can save you. It allows you to let go

old negatives. But it doesn't work if you don't do it.
Rebirthing works only if you work Rebirthing.
Although it may have allowed you to have made
many constructive changes in your life, your life is
always created by the net forces operating within
your conscious and unconscious mind.
If you still have a lot of old negatives and you

fear you're about to act them out, you must stop
yourself long enough to take a breath and
remember that those old negatives are not real.
What do you Will? To breathe or to act-out?

If you don't do the breathing, if you abandon the
higher spiritual thought, if you will act on your
negatives, you will produce ultimate negatives.
By and large, my experience is that people who

come to Rebirthing workshops are seeking to be
loving and forgiving, and they don't have a big,
huge, inner store of murderous rage. So they don't
really need to be afraid of what will eventuate if
they start opening up the unconscious, letting old
negatives rise into consciousness momentarily as
the breath is releasing them. If six or maybe even
a dozen people out of hundreds of thousands who
have Rebirthed have killed themselves or have
killed someone else, I imagine it's still well below
the ordinary statistical average expectation. Who
knows? Maybe these acts completed their life
tasks, giving others the opportunity to forgive and
love.
In this connection, I'm reminded of a workshop I

led in southern Indiana, which is where the home
office is of the Ku Klux Klan. I think this hate-
mongering organization is almost as bad as the
Nazi party. Several people attending the workshop
were the children of Klan members. They had
been brought up knowing that their parents,
especially their fathers, hated black people and
committed criminal acts against black people. The
people attending my workshop hated their parents
and hated the Ku Klux Klan. They came to the
Rebirth training in hopes of being able to forgive
their parents and to reconcile with them, to let go
the negatives they have about their KKK activity.
Anything else would only have perpetuated hate.
I'm also reminded of some of the children of

Nazis that I have worked with in workshops in
Europe. They, too, sought to let go rage and
shame, not to act out.
Everything that I know about Rebirthing indicates
to me that it makes us more alive, that it makes us
more loving and more forgiving. I'm terribly sorry
for everyone who has chosen death rather than
life, including Babaji. I devoutly wish that it be
indeed true that we return again and again and
again and that it is possible to have knowledge of
these previous lives. I think that'd be great! I'd love
to believe in reincarnation. I would love to believe
in the immortality of the soul. I would love to
believe even more in the concept of physical
immortality, and to believe it completely.
As I said in the chapter on physical immortality, it
is an adorable thought. It's one devoutly to be
wished to think.
But the truth is, I'm not absolutely certain about
it. Right now, also, I'm not even concerned enough
to focus on illuminating my negatives.
Does this mean that you as a Rebirther need to

be worried and concerned lest you Rebirth
somebody who does have such an immense store
of repressed rage that he might become suicidal or
murderous? Is it your responsibility and obligation
to scrutinize your clients and make certain that no
such dangers are likely? If yes, how?
I think the answer comes from your intuition.
I have refused to Rebirth a few people,

following an hour or more of talking with them at
no charge. Each time I've realized that something
about the amount of anger that they were feeling
frightened me, and I did not want to put myself in
the path of that rage.
And so, I explained that I didn't want to Rebirth
them, that I didn't feel I could do a competent job,
and I offered to refer them to other Rebirthers, if
they were interested.
At those times, I relied on my own intuition. I

realized that I was uncomfortable with them, that I
was afraid of them, that I didn't want to be with
them. I acted on that intuition, just as I had acted
on a similar intuition that night long ago when I ran
upstairs to lock myself in my bedroom before going
to sleep to wake up to take the fellow to the airport
to... etc., etc., etc.
I tell people before they start to Rebirth they need
to remind themselves of the important affirmation:
 I am a totally sensitive, intuitive, intelligent,

competent and successful Rebirther.
I remind them that they will always know what

their Rebirthees are feeling because they share
those tensions and feel them in their own bodies.
All they need to do is pay attention to how they
feel.
All the people I've asked to leave and refused

to Rebirth came to see me when I was all alone.
What I perceived to be their violence level was
more than I wanted to handle all by myself. I
haven't had to refuse to Rebirth some other people
who affected me the same way because I wasn't
alone when they came for their sessions. In those
instances, I went find Louis outside in the
treatment center, and told him, "Listen, I'm going to
go start a breathing session right now, and I don't
feel really good about this person, so I don't want
you to go away. I want you to be around, and I
want you to be sort of alert in case I yell. I want
you to come and save me, okay?"
Having taken such precautions, I've felt safe

enough to proceed to Rebirth these people and
help them to let go some of the major charges of
their rage. I've worked hard at such sessions to get
them to go into forgiveness toward parents for
whatever outstanding grievances they've been
holding onto. In a sense, I've pulled the plug on the
quantity of rage they were struggling to contain,
and I think that has helped the Universe out.
So I suggest if you are afraid of someone who

has asked you to Rebirth him, try to structure an
atmosphere of increased safety around you-have
somebody else around and have them be
available in case you need them.
Finally, in connection with thinking about the

Holocaust and the whole issue of forgiveness, I
want to tell a couple of stories.
One is about a workshop, a one evening

workshop, that I conducted in Amsterdam in the
early '80s on Kol Nidre, the beginning of the Day of
Atonement, Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the
year for Orthodox observant Jews. I thought that if
Rebirthing promotes forgiveness, then it's
appropriate that it be dealt with on that particular
night. And I especially wanted to work with people
who felt that they had been harmed by the
Holocaust when the Nazis invaded Holland.
To my surprise, there were none. They were all

too young! But one of the women in the workshop
told me that she had had a very lengthy love affair
with a member of one of the Palestinian liberation
organizations, one that was especially filled with
what I would call terrorists. Dealing with her
defense of her relationship with him brought me a
whole new understanding of forgiveness, even of
Palestinian terrorists.
It was a great evening, and everybody had

really excellent Rebirths during the group Rebirth.
Great things came from it, too. One person, in
particular, is a very well known oncologist who, as
a result of that Rebirth, stopped smoking, an
activity he'd been engaged in on a daily basis ever
since he was seven years old (children in Holland
used to start smoking when they first started going
to school, and he was one of them). He has since
engaged in highly positive research involving the
use of Rebirthing by his cancer patients. And he
has also married and named his daughter after
me, so I have a Dutch namesake-redheaded as is
my other namesake in Salt Lake City.
Another event that brought up this whole

business of the Holocaust and my thinking about it
was my recent trip to Poland to lead workshops
there. We went to Auschwitz, where all of the
members of my father's family who still lived in
Poland-and there were dozens of them-were killed,
and where whatever few little remnants of my
mother's family who still were alive were also
killed.
I was very surprised when the psychiatrist who

had organized a workshop for me in the South of
Poland asked me, "Why do you want to go to
Auschwitz? Why do you want to go to this place
that has such bad feelings in it?"
I believe my first thought was that maybe she

didn't think there was anything wrong with
Auschwitz. Maybe she thought the Nazis were
good. After all, her parents survived in Poland
during that time, and maybe they were part of the
Polish population that didn't resist the Nazis, that
survived because they were accomplices in the
murdering of their fellow countrymen, Jew and
non-Jew alike.
Also, maybe she hadn't realized that I'm

Jewish-after all, Jones isn't a very Jewish name
and my eyes are green and my hair dark blonde
and grey.
In any case, I didn't want to get into that with her.
We were having a hard enough time
communicating without going into her own
personal philosophy. Obviously, if she truly were
anti-Semitic, I didn't want to have to deal with it
right then, and I preferred to believe that that
wasn't true.
So I was silent in response to her question for a

couple of minutes as I thought through my various
thoughts, and then I said to her, "I think everyone
in the world should go there. I think everyone
should go. It's true. There is so much negativity
stored there, it will dissipate only if each of us goes
and takes a little of the burden and feels some of
that pain, and forgives. I think everyone in the
world should go there, not so that they will
condemn the Nazis again, but so that they will feel
compassion for the poor people who were
destroyed there at Auschwitz, who became
martyrs."
Om Namahah Shivai. I surrender to the Will of

God.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN
INDIVIDUAL REBIRTHS The Logic of
Magical Thought
FIRST CONTACT, FEES, AND SCHEDULING and The Dance of
New Rebirth clients come to me generally either the Breath
because a friend or a business associate has
recommended me and Rebirthing, or because
they've seen my name in some of the New Age
publications, especially books by Bob Mandel, INTRODUCTION
Funnell Minett, or the Brooks, Sondra Ray, or
listed under "Psychologists" in the phone book. CHAPTER ONE
Almost all new clients initially contact me by The Ideal Breath
phone.
When a person first phones me to ask CHAPTER TWO
questions about Rebirthing, I typically respond by The Difference
saying, "I'll be pleased to talk about it for a few
minutes and I also want to send you a brochure Between Rebirthing
that explains what Rebirthing is and answers most and Hyperventilation
questions most people have about it. Once you've
received the brochure, I'd love to hear from you CHAPTER THREE
again and answer any specific questions you may The Difference
have about either Rebirthing or about your life."
Between the Ideal
I then ask the caller to give me his name and Breath And Yogic
address, which I fill out on an index card to keep in Breathing
my mailing list file, and which I also copy over at
that instant on to an envelope containing my CHAPTER FOUR
brochure, "Rebirthing-Questions and Answers," The Difference
(Appendix A) and a business card. Immediately, I
seal and stamp it so that it can be mailed off Between Rebirthing
promptly. Even if the caller is not new to And Primal Scream
Rebirthing, I usually send him my brochure simply Therapy
because I want him to be clear about the variety of
services that I offer to people coming to me for CHAPTER FIVE
individual Rebirth sessions.
The Biology of
Once I've filled out the envelope, I usually Imprints
proceed to say, "Rebirthing is simply a breathing
exercise that allows people to change their CHAPTER SIX
consciousness about whatever difficulties they're Food and
facing in their life. What do you want changed in Consciousness
your life?"
Then I spend enough time talking with him so I CHAPTER SEVEN
get a beginning idea of what's troubling him and Rebirthing and
how I feel about working with him. Bodywork Therapies
If the person phoning me tells me that he is in CHAPTER EIGHT

therapy with another psychotherapist, I ask if he Rebirthing and
has spoken with his therapist about wanting to try
Rebirthing or try me, and I suggest that he be very Conventional
clear about that with his therapist. I explain that I'm Rsychotherapies
a clinical psychologist with all of the professional
ethical responsibilities that my licensing in the CHAPTER NINE
state of California requires of me, and that I don't Rebirthing and
want to be regarded as being professionally
unethical, as I would be if I saw somebody else's Neuro-Linguistic
patient. Programming
If the caller has already Rebirthed with some CHAPTER 10

other Rebirther, either years ago or currently, I Affirmations
also generally ask, "Why don't you return to such-
and-such?"
CHAPTER 11
I usually refrain from further comments or The Parental
questions. Most often, I find the caller Rebirthed Disapproval
many years ago, in another city, and doesn't even Syndrome
recall the name of the Rebirther. Usually he adds
that he felt good and he felt his life benefited, and CHAPTER 12
he'd like to get back into it now.
Time, Work, and
I explain that during a first session, we'll Money:
probably spend a couple of hours talking about his Consciousness and
life, what he knows about his birth, and what he
wants changed. We'll be discussing appropriate Abundance
affirmations that I want him to think about, and
then we'll spend at least an hour doing a breathe, CHAPTER 13
plus spending some time after the breathing Sex and Loving
session is complete while we talk about what went Relationships
on during the session.
So, I ask him to allow a good four hours so that CHAPTER 14
neither one of us needs to feel rushed. He can Physical Immortality
choose whichever best suits his schedule: a
morning appointment that would run from about CHAPTER 15
9:00 to 1:00, an afternoon appointment from 2:00 Ethical
to about 6:00, or an evening appointment from
7:00 to about 10:30, 11:00. I try to be as flexible as Consideration
I can be to meet his needs, so I'm open to setting
the session time for his first appointment either in CHAPTER 16
the morning, the afternoon, or the evening, and, if Individual Rebirths
necessary, even on the weekends.
CHAPTER 17
I also suggest that he not have a heavy meal
right before the session, simply so that he can feel Group Rebirthings
alert and comfortable lying down flat doing the
Rebirthing breathing, without needing to be CHAPTER 18
propped up. Organizing
Trainings and
I make certain that we discuss my fees during Workshops
the first phone conversation, whether or not we
make an appointment. My current charge is $260
for the first session, which usually lasts about four CHAPTER 19
to five hours, and $160 for subsequent sessions, The Standard
which are usually shorter, about three to four Rebirth Training
hours. I explain that I collect my fee from him
directly at the beginning of our appointment, but
that I will be agreeable to billing his health CHAPTER 20
insurance plan if it covers mental health care, for Running a Rebirth
eventual reimbursement to him. Business
I also point out that I see most of the people I CHAPTER 21
see only between three to seven times. I explain
Rebirthing
that my aim is to teach my client to do the
Rebirthing breath by himself, without needing to be Organizations
prompted or supervised by anyone, and that
generally my client learns how to breathe very well
by himself after about three to seven sessions. So
the overall total cost is very modest, especially
compared to conventional talk therapies.
If asked, I explain that I only make one

appointment in advance and I don't require any
certain number of appointments. I want my client
to feel free of ties. He need not feel any fear of
being trapped into some treatment commitment.
He can take it one at a time. After all, the umbilical
cord that was indeed severed between him and his
mother doesn't even exist between him and me, so
why should I try to tie him to me?
I don't want to take money from anyone who

doesn't want to give it to me. So, if there is any
sign of dissatisfaction on the part of my client at
the end of the session, and if he doesn't believe he
got full value from the session, I give him back his
money immediately.
I make the same provision with regard to

workshops and trainings. My relationship with
money is such that I only want to get paid happily
and willingly for what I do, where the person
paying me believes I deserve my wages. I don't
want to get paid for not doing something well.
Being a psychologist, my job is to help the other

person; I believe that if that person doesn't feel
helped in the immediate sense, right then and
there, at the end of the breathing, that person
shouldn't have to pay for being again disappointed.
I know psychologists using other therapies can't
operate on a satisfaction guaranteed basis, but
being a Rebirther, I can and do.
If asked, I explain I am not interested in negotiating
the fee (although some Rebirthers that I know,
notably Phil Laut, actually center the first session
with a new client entirely around the topic of the
fee for the session, making negotiating that fee the
central issue).
I simply deal with the issue of the fee on an

ordinary professional basis, stating what I charge
and leaving it up to the patient or client to accept
or decline the invitation to use me as a therapist or
as the teacher of the breathing exercise.
I have reacted in a variety of ways when

someone calls me who wants very much to
Rebirth, but who cannot afford my fee.
The very first year that I Rebirthed people, I

was quite agreeable to allowing them to come to
see me without needing to pay. That particular
year I found that only one out of seven people I
Rebirthed actually paid me for the session at my
fee at that time, $35 for a session. That meant I
was making an average of $5 per session, at an
average of a little more than a dollar per hour! On
an hourly rate, I was severely cheating myself.
At the conclusion of the year, I realized that I

was not making enough money from my practice
to enable me to continue to live in the style that I
had been enjoying with my two youngest children
who were still with me, so I increased my fee up to
$45 per session. Lots of negatives came up for
me, but I did my best to ask people to pay
"something" even if they couldn't pay the full fee.
By being a little more adamant than I had been
about needing to get paid, I was able to convince
one out of three patients to pay me at least
something for the session that second year, and
that made a significant improvement in my own
financial picture.
Mind you, my salary for my position as a full

college professor, teaching a full schedule of
psychology classes, fifteen hours a week, is what I
was living on primarily, not my private practice,
whether it was talk therapy as it had been in the
60s, or Primal Therapy as it was for most of the
70s, or Rebirthing as it has been since 1978. The
money made from my private practice has mainly
been my "extra" money, not the money that I
budgeted my life around. And it still is, although
now I budget on a monthly retirement pension
that's about half my former salary.
The third year of my activity as a Rebirthing

teacher brought about a significant change in my
financial picture simply because of a rather
interesting exchange in talking about this entire
matter with Leonard Orr.
I was at a workshop that Leonard was teaching,

and I was participating essentially as an unpaid co-
leader, volunteering my time handling some of the
seminars. When Leonard called upon me to talk
about what my money problems were, I said, "My
only major problems with money are simply, first,
that a lot of people still don't pay me for their
Rebirth sessions, and second, a lot of Rebirthers
who borrowed money from me with promises of all
sorts to pay me back in the very near future have
been liars and simply have not paid me back.
Otherwise, I don't have any problem living and
handling all my bills and doing things that I want to
do. I enjoy my work and I make an abundance of
money for myself, working and teaching."
Leonard's response took care of my second
problem first. He asked, "Are you in the loan
business?"
"What do you mean?" I asked, puzzled by his
question.
And he replied, "Well, do you run a loan

agency? Is that what you're doing? Are you a
banker or a loan person?"
And I replied, with some exasperation,

"Leonard, you know perfectly well I'm not. I'm a
college professor, I'm a clinical psychologist, I'm a
Rebirther. I don't make my living by loaning money
to people!"
And he smiled and said, "Well, then don't do that."
Again I asked him, "What do you mean?"
He explained that when somebody asked me to

loan them money, I could simply say, "Look, I'm
not in the loan business. If I wanted to give you the
money, I would simply give it to you, and not
necessarily expect you to pay it back. But I don't
really want to give you the money. And since I'm
not in the loan business, I'm not going to loan you
the money. But I'll do my best to help you figure
out some way of getting the money yourself, either
from other people who are in a more favorable
position to give you that money, or else, by
creating the money for yourself out of your own
efforts, doing some work."
Well, that was an interesting suggestion. It pleased
me, because it was logical, but not unkind. And it
was honest.
I had an opportunity to practice that approach

only one day later, when a Rebirther I like ever so
much phoned to ask if I would loan him several
thousand dollars so that he could take the "Loving
Relationships Training" Rebirther Training. I used
the opportunity to say to him, "You know I love
you, and you know I think it's really great that
you're going to be doing the LRT Rebirther
Training, so I'd like ever so much to help you. But I
simply don't have that amount of money to give to
you and that's all there is to it. And since I'm not in
the loan business, it wouldn't make any sense for
me to try to loan it to you, even if I had that money
available to put out to loan, anyhow. So, all I can
do is give you my loving support and to ask you if
you've spoken with people who are in a much
better position to give you large sums of money."
We then talked about several people we both
knew, and I suggested that he speak with them
about borrowing money from them and making
arrangements for paying them back. I said I was
sure they were very open to such requests. A few
days later, he called to tell me that he had been
able to borrow all the thousands of dollars that he
needed in order to do the LRT training from one of
the people I suggested he call! So Leonard's
approach to that issue of loaning money worked.
Leonard's approach to my first issue of people

asking for "freebies" also worked. Leonard asked
me, "How many people have you seen that didn't
pay you?"
I estimated how many hundreds of people I had

Rebirthed during the first two years that I was
involved in it, and told him that figure. And he
asked, "Well, where is my tithe from all of those
people?"
And I said, "Wait a minute, Leonard, I have sent
you a 10 percent tithe for all the people that paid
me."
And he replied, "Yes, but you didn't send me
anything for the people you didn't collect a fee
from."
I exclaimed, "You mean you want me to have

sent you ten percent of what they should have
paid, but didn't pay? You want me to pay you for
the privilege of Rebirthing these people free?"
And he said, "Yes!"
Well, I thought about that for an instant, and

then quick as a whip and witty- like, I said, "I tell
you what! I will do my very best to collect at least a
dollar for you from every single person that I
Rebirth from now on, okay? If I get $100 a session,
which I would like to be charging and receiving
from every person that I Rebirth, that's fine, I'll
send you your 10 percent. But if I don't get my
usual fee, I'll still send you at least a dollar for each
person I Rebirth. And you're going to have to just
forgive whatever debt you think I owe you on the
people that I haven't sent you a dollar on, all those
who didn't pay me anything."
Leonard laughed and that was that.
During the next year, when people came to see

me and told me that they weren't in a position to
pay anything, and asked if I would be willing to see
them free, I told them, "No, I'm willing to see you at
a reduced fee, but I'm not willing to see you for
nothing at all. I've promised to tithe to Leonard.
And I want to give him at least $10 for every
person that I Rebirth. Since I certainly care for
myself at least as much as I care for Leonard, I'm
really obligated to ask for at least $10 for myself as
well."
Generally speaking, after I made such an

explanation, most of the people asking for freebies
that I spoke with those years were agreeable to
paying me at least twenty dollars, and many of
them upped it a little by five or ten dollars.
In any case, by 1981, after three years of

Rebirthing people, I was generally charging $100
for a session and was receiving it most of the time.
I had by that time conducted several dozen
workshops, teaching people how to Rebirth. So I
had a large number of former trainees that I could
refer patients to when they first called, especially if
they lived at a considerable distance from my
office in my home. I told callers during our first
phone conversation that if they could not afford to
pay my fee of $100 for each session, I would be
happy to refer them to other Rebirthers who had
less experience than I and who would probably
charge much less, but who were excellently
trained. And I proceeded to do that.
I made a separate list of the people who had

attended my workshops at a very reduced fee or
for free, and I referred people who couldn't pay me
anything to them. I figured that people who couldn't
pay me anything might just as well do their
Rebirthing with other people who couldn't pay me
anything so they could both work on their money
negatives. Within a year or so, I found that almost
everybody I was Rebirthing paid me the full fee for
the Rebirth session, although I still was
occasionally allowing a few people to come to
workshops free here in Los Angeles.
In 1986, I became restless about spending so
much time with each patient for $100. I recognized
either I needed to stop spending so much time with
each person or else I needed to increase my fee.
Since I found it much easier to increase my fee,

it became $125 for a first session. At the rate of
four to five hours per session, that meant I was
making $25 an hour, a far cry from the
professional fee that most clinical psychologists in
Los Angeles usually charge and make, but an
hourly rate which certainly beats making even less
than the minimum wage, as I had been doing. I
continued to charge $100 for subsequent
sessions.
In 1989, I once again found myself tending to

feel sorry for myself for not making more money
per hour, so I raised my fee for the first session to
$150 and for subsequent sessions to $125. That
kept me very content for the next four years.
In 1993, I realized that I was putting as much

effort and time into one individual at a first session
as I would generally do at a workshop, for which
twice the amount was being charged. So I raised
my fee in the middle of '93 to $260 for a first
session and $160 for subsequent sessions,
explaining to people on the telephone that even at
those rates, it was highly unlikely that they would
be spending more than $1,000 to get to where
their life took a dramatic turn for the better and
they could Rebirth themselves without me.
Currently, almost every person referred to me

by someone who knows me personally makes and
keeps a first appointment after our first phone
conversation. People calling me who learned
about me from such impersonal sources as the
phone or advertisements in New Age publications
have been less likely to make appointments unless
they have had previous Rebirthing experiences.
But overall, I'm contented with my practice and its
rewards.
PROCESS
When a new client first appears at my front
door, I invite him in, of course, and ask him to sit
down on one side of large partner's desk which I
have in my office. Sitting opposite to him, I wait
until it seems as if he's physically comfortable and
then I ask, "So what is it that you want to change in
your life?"
As people talk about their problems with their

job, their health, their relationships, their parents,
with sexuality, with energy, with whatever it is that
troubles them, I generally listen carefully, asking
questions to make certain I understand all
complaints. I do not take notes or record the
session. Occasionally I contribute some anecdote
about a similar occurrence, either in the life of
someone else I've Rebirthed or in my own life.
After about a half an hour to an hour of such

talk, I ask my new client what he knows about his
birth: how long was labor? was his mother
anesthetized? was his father present? which child
in the birth order is he? were there any unusual
complications that he's heard of? And I start
explaining to him how the facts that he's speaking
of might well be related to particular negative
thoughts which need to be changed if he is to
change the reality he has been creating for
himself.
If he's new to Rebirthing, I next usually spend
about a half hour discussing basic theory and the
use of affirmations.
I generally ask my new client to take some

paper from the drawer immediately in front of him
to write down affirmations I give him. I explain
these affirmations will completely correct the
problems he has been describing if he thinks the
new positive thoughts as continuously as he has
been thinking the old negative thoughts. And so
we spend another hour or more writing affirmations
that are specifically tailored to this particular
individual's "case," as Leonard calls it, to the
circumstances that he seeks to alter to improve his
life.
After such discussion, the new client has a

good idea of how new thinking can alter the way
he creates his life, and he's ready to try the
breathing, to let go the old thoughts and feelings
that he has been storing in his body, mind, and
spirit.
Before we leave my office to go to my
Rebirthing room, I collect my fee. I regard all the
talk that's led up to that point as free, for I charge
only for teaching the breathing.
Approximately a half dozen times in the last

sixteen years, as I mentioned in the preceding
chapter, I have gotten to that point and then
realized that I didn't want to Rebirth the person I
had been spending time with.
When that happened, I explained that I really

didn't think that it was going to work very well for
me to Rebirth them, that I hoped they weren't
terribly disappointed, but that I didn't want to
Rebirth them. I also explained that there was no
fee being charged for the session to that point. If
they wanted, I referred them to someone else with
whom I believed they would get along better.
In two of those six cases, I was about to tell the

person that I did not want to accept the check he
was writing because I really did not want to Rebirth
him when he stopped writing his check and said, "I
don't really want to do this, I don't want to work
with you, and if you don't mind I don't want to pay
you anything."
We agreed and they left.
My refusal to Rebirth some particular person

has never been cause for their taking offense or
feeling hurt. This has never seemed to be a
rejection and it has never been reacted to as a
rejection. Generally speaking, only relief on both
sides has been felt.
After collecting the fee and entering the amount

in my account book, we then repair to different
bathrooms, empty our bladders, and then meet at
the Rebirthing room, which is, in my case, on the
second floor of my home.
My Rebirthing room has two large windows, set

at corners to each other, so there's great
ventilation there. I always have at least one
window partially open, even during cold weather. I
explain we want to be open to fresh air, to new
spirit. On the carpet on the floor I have placed
several foam rubber pads and a thinsulite pad,
with a lamb's wool pad and sheet on top, and
pillows and a King-size comforter. The Rebirthee
lies down and places pillows under his head or
knees to make himself comfortable, and then I
cover him if he wants. I offer the blanket even in
the warmest weather because I believe that people
feel very vulnerable lying uncovered on the floor.
I explain to my new Rebirthee that we work on

the floor so that he need not have any concerns
about rolling and falling off of a mattress or a bed.
This way he can focus his consciousness
completely on keeping his breathing connected
and on witnessing whatever is going on inside of
him as he does the connected breath.
I usually sit down on the floor facing the north

window, near the client's right side, so that I can
lean forward easily to tap him or shake him with
my right hand if he starts to drift away from the
regular breath.
After I sit down, I say, "Okay, now let's make a
deal. I'm going to pay total attention to you for the
next hour, to remind you to breathe and encourage
you to breathe bigger and fuller and softer or
whatever it is that I think needs to happen to tune
your breath so that it becomes a really good
Rebirthing breath. Your part of the deal is that you
promise to do your very best for the next hour to
follow my promptings, so that if I ask you to
breathe more gently, for example, you'll do your
best to try to do that. OK? Is that a deal?"
After the person agrees, I also say, "If there's any
indication that you have completed a full Rebirth
cycle before an hour has passed, then I'll say
something about that to you, and we'll renegotiate
at that point, all right?"
After my client agrees to that as well, I then

conclude by saying, "I won't leave you at the end
of an hour. I will stay with you so long as you're
doing your breathing, if you're connecting your
breath, but at the end of the hour I'm going to stop
prompting you about your breathing. I won't nag
you to remember to breathe, I won't ask you to
breathe more fully or more slowly. I'll just sit here
and be with you. Is that all right with you?"
After my client agrees, we start the Rebirthing

session.
I almost always ask my client to breathe in and

out through his mouth, because there is much less
resistance in the air passages that way and he can
much more easily take a really full, satisfying
inhale.
I know that other Rebirthers, especially Leonard
Orr, believe that it's extremely important to breathe
in and out through the nose. They assign several
virtues to such breathing, especially that as the air
goes past the sinus passages, it cools the base of
the brain, and this is supposed to have some
healing effect.
I don't know anything about that. I just know that
until a person can breathe in a connected fashion
so that almost every breath is quite satisfying and
effortless, breathing through the nose is very
difficult, and I don't want to put that impediment in
front of a new Rebirthing client.
I watch my client's breath without making any

comments at all for the first few minutes, because I
want him to relax and not feel self-conscious about
having his breathing observed. After approximately
five minutes, I start asking him to take bigger
breaths or slower breaths or whatever it is that I
think needs to be done so that his breathing
becomes optimal.
Sometimes, people want to talk during the
breathing session rather than concentrate on the
breathing. After years of struggling to keep
"talkers" quiet and to get them to trust the breath to
make the changes they're seeking to make in their
lives, I have finally decided that I'm not interested
in such a struggle. So, for the last several years, I
have permitted people to talk, even to interrupt the
breathing to talk, when I think what they're saying
is important information they have just realized and
is not simply a dodge to stop from continuing with
the breathing. That calls for a clinical judgment on
my part, and I probably have been wrong as often
as I have been correct. But, in my opinion, it really
doesn't much matter, because anything that
happens once a person lies down and commits to
doing the Rebirth is healing. Occasionally, the
breathing session has been completely suspended
in favor of continued ventilation of thoughts and
feelings. In such situations, I usually arrange for
"just a breathe" at another time, at no further cost.
I operate with the assumption that on some level
my consciousness is hooked into the
consciousness of the person I'm Rebirthing.
Therefore, anything I notice happening in my body
is probably also happening in that other person's,
too. So, if I notice anything happening in my own
body while I'm Rebirthing another person, I usually
ask questions about the same parts of the
Rebirthee's body, like, "How are your feet feeling?"
"How are your hands feeling?"
If the Rebirthee says he's feeling a tingle or a
numbness in his hands or his feet, I usually
suggest he pay particular attention to making his
inhales very long and full and slow and gentle, so
that he can feel the energy moving from the area
of his chest down his arms into his fingers or down
his body and legs into his feet.
As he pays attention to making his inhale

sufficiently long for that kind of an energy journey
to take place, he is automatically correcting the
effortful extra blowing-off of carbon dioxide that is
probably what has been making his hands and feet
become numb or filled with "pins-and-needles." So,
by changing the focus of his attention to the inhale,
he relieves the mistaken emphasis on the exhale
that has been causing uncomfortable symptoms in
his body. When necessary, I caution my Rebirthee
to put the emphasis on his inhales and not to push
the exhales or empty himself completely.
I usually notice a change in my Rebirthee after
forty-five or fifty minutes of concentration on
keeping the breath connected, keeping the inhales
as long, full, gentle, and satisfying as possible, and
letting go the exhales effortlessly. He seems to be
sinking away into himself and going "somewhere
else." If he sinks into breathlessness, I prompt him
to breathe and try to bring him back to an
awareness of his breath once or twice. After two or
three such efforts, I usually say, "I'll remind you to
breathe the next time you drift off, but the time
after that, if you want, we could just see where you
go, what happens when you drift off. I won't prompt
you. Is that all right with you?"
With very few exceptions-only one or two

people amongst a hundred- everyone says Yes,
he wants to be allowed to drift off.
And so, I keep my word: I prompt him and

remind him to breathe the next time he drifts off.
But the time after that, I don't prompt him to
breathe. I simply sit back and relax and pay
attention to my own breathing.
He may remain in a state of breathlessness that

lasts for several minutes. After two or three
minutes of such breathlessness, I often very gently
and softly speak out loud, reminding him that:
 It is safe to breathe fully and freely.

 Breathing feels good.
 Breathing is safe.
 I am safe.
Very often, when a Rebirthee returns to

breathing after a few minutes of breathlessness
and absentness, his reaction is one of frantic
anxiety. He may grab the air or even reach toward
me. He may groan or exclaim loudly, "Oh my God!"
or "Help, help!"
I raise my voice so that I can be heard, and say,
"You are totally safe, breathing fully and freely.
You are safe. Breathing is safe."
Gradually, he calms himself down. Usually by

this time we've spent a little more than an hour at
the breathing, and the person is bubbling with the
desire to tell me what was experienced during that
last extended period of breathlessness, especially
what was experienced as he came back into the
breathing.
I ask how his body is feeling. If it is back to feeling
ordinary, I suggest that we decide at that point that
the breathing session is complete. Then I ask him
to repeat the affirmation:
 Anything which has come up into

consciousness which I have not let go
completely during this session will be
handled during my next long sleep.
I suggest that he slowly sit up, propping himself

on an elbow or on his hands, so that in case he
feels dizzy, he will feel that support.
And then, facing each other on the Rebirthing

floor, I hear from him what happened, what he
remembers of the session.
During the past two or three years, I've taken to

writing affirmations that apply to the person I'm
Rebirthing while I watch that person Rebirth. I write
whatever comes into my mind appropriate to that
person. By the end of the breathing session,
usually there are two or three pages with perhaps
six affirmations per page. Recently, I have been
closing our session by asking my Rebirthee to
read these affirmations out loud, taking a full, deep
breath in between each one. There is almost
always some further discussion about the wording
and the appropriateness of the thought to my
Rebirth client's particular situation.
Very often, as a Rebirthing session nears

completion, I notice that my body experiences a
sudden filling of my bladder, an immediate urgency
to urinate that may be so intense that I have to
excuse myself. In that case, I lean over my client
who is still engaged in the breathing and say, "I
have to go next door because I need to pee, and
I'll be right back with you. You are totally safe,
breathing fully and freely. I'll be back with you in
one minute. Just keep your mind concentrating on
the connected breath."
Then I run next door to my bathroom.
I noticed this reaction soon after I first

Rebirthed. It surprised me that my bladder filled
after only an hour or so, even though I had made a
point of emptying my bladder before we started the
breathing session itself. I was especially surprised
because I can generally lecture for several hours
or engage in a consultation for many hours in a
row without needing to urinate. I have concluded
that my bladder is a channel through which flow
the old negatives that my Rebirth client is letting go
with each breath. Apparently it's my job to dump
them. I figure the Rebirth is just about finished
when that sensation of bladder fullness happens
inside of me.
Another phenomenon that I experience in my

body, generally just after my client sits up at the
close of the session, is one very abrupt hiccup.
Again, I don't know why this happens. Perhaps the
symbolism is that I'm "fed up" with all the old
negatives that I've been absorbing or "swallowing."
Perhaps my diaphragm contracts to facilitate my
releasing them. I don't know. But again I think it's
interesting.
So far as I can tell, neither of these phenomena

has anything to do with my posture or position
while I'm Rebirthing a client. Usually, I sit cross-
legged with my back unsupported. Occasionally I
lean back against a pillow against the wall.
Sometimes I stretch my legs out and lean on one
elbow. But whatever my position may be, it seems
as if I usually need to urinate and then hiccup
when my client's Rebirth is complete.
On a few occasions I haven't yet had those

sensations when my client has said, "Okay, I feel
finished, I'd like to stop now, I really feel finished."
If close to an hour has been spent breathing in the
conscious connected pattern, I go along with the
client's statement. But not if only a half hour or so
has passed.
Phil Laut has a saying about this which I think

deserves to be repeated: "Whenever somebody
tells you that he's finished breathing before an
hour has passed, that's your signal to know that he
needs to breathe for at least another ten or fifteen
minutes."
So, if I feel a general lack of completion, I usually
say, "Well, I tell you what, how about your
breathing for another five or ten minutes, just so
we can both be certain that this session is really
completed?"
Usually, when the Rebirthee agrees to do that,
something very profound happens in the next five
or ten minutes. Many times, he has a very
complete re- experience of his actual birth.
All told, approximately four to five hours are

usually occupied at a first Rebirth: I spend two or
three hours talking with the person about himself
and drawing up some affirmations before we
breathe, I spend at least an hour with him on the
breathing, there's a little down time for toiletting
before and after the session, and then we spend
another half hour or more discussing what
happened during the session.
If I'm Rebirthing somebody who is well-

experienced with the Rebirthing breathing and with
the theory that Rebirthing rests upon, a first
session can take only little more than an hour and
a half, because we can get down to cases
immediately.
That's also usually true when I travel to other

cities or other countries where appointments for
individual Rebirths have been set up in advance by
my organizers who usually schedule appointments
an hour and a half apart. In those circumstances, I
don't need to explain the connections between
birth, the breath, and Thought. So I say, "Okay, tell
me one or two things that are wrong in your life
right now that you really want to change and let's
concentrate on them."
My Rebirthee tells me whatever those aims are,

I ask him how this might be connected with what
he knows about his birth, and I help him develop
his further understanding of that connection. Then,
we set up some affirmations, and within about a
half hour we are prepared to start at least an
hour's breathing.
While my overseas clients have always said that
they were very satisfied with their experiences, I
haven't always been, predominantly because of
the time constraints that have kept me from
knowing very much about each new client. I don't
like becoming so intimate with him that in many
cases I'm sharing his body sensations or even his
mental imagery, yet he's almost a total stranger to
me. So, where I have my "druthers," as of course I
do in my home practice in Los Angeles, I try to
allow at least three to four hours per person.
Sometimes a client is late or other events occur

that prevent us from starting the session promptly,
but usually that doesn't affect the session itself.
Unless the client wants to re-schedule, we go
ahead per usual. I try to time our talking to leave a
good hour for the breathe.
If a later client shows up while the earlier one is

still on the floor breathing, I have found that it
works perfectly well to leave my first Rebirthee
while I go downstairs, open the door to my arriving
client, and explain that I'm still Rebirthing a
previous appointment and that we should be
completed in less than a half hour or so. My
second client is free either to sit down and wait
and read, go out in the yard, play with my bunnies,
go back in his car, whatever, while I'm delayed. To
date, I have never had anyone take offense to that,
and so I find that my time anxiety with regard to
individual sessions is handled essentially exactly
the same way I handle it when doing workshops.
 I always have plenty of time to do

everything I want to do.
 Everyone always loves to hear everything I
have to say.
I have total content integrity and some time

integrity. I guarantee that we will complete the
Rebirth before we stop, and I like to start on time.
But I can't always guarantee that we will finish by a
certain time, so if my client absolutely needs to
leave on the dot, I do my best to make sure we
stop our discussions so we have time for the
breathe. Otherwise, we re-schedule another time
for a breathe, at no more cost. When that's not
possible, I make the client responsible for keeping
track of the time to start the breathe.
As you have probably recognized by now, most

of what I do during an individual Rebirth session is
done because it allows me and my patient to feel
the greatest degree of comfort and security.
On a very few occasions, perhaps a half dozen

times, I have even stretched out and concentrated
on my own Rebirthing when I have been
Rebirthing someone who is a truly expert, well-
experienced Rebirthee. There's intense pleasure in
connecting our breathing so that we're both
breathing at the same rhythm and depth.
A few times in all these years people have been

upset about talking about their lives. They have
wanted just to lie down and breathe while I watch
them. When they have heard my way of
conducting a Rebirth, some people at trainings and
workshops, especially in other countries, have
asked, "Why do you need to know any of this?
Why do you even talk about any of this with your
clients? Why isn't it all right for me to have people
come to me and just lie down and do the
breathing? It's their privacy, it's their concern, it's
whatever goes on. I don't need to know anything
about it. They don't need to discuss it with me
afterwards or beforehand. All they need to do is do
the breathing. What's wrong with that?"
My response to that usually is, "Probably

there's nothing at all wrong with that. I just don't
like it as much. Maybe there's a large negative that
I'm still running that accounts for why I don't want
to do it that way. Or maybe it's just a habit from all
my years of being a psychologist. But I like to be
acquainted with the person I'm Rebirthing. It's your
choice. You do whatever you need to do to be
comfortable."
I don't need to run my practice on an hourly

schedule. I have enough time so that I can spend it
with my client, getting to know him as a human
being.
Other people operate differently. I know of several
Rebirthers who conduct their Rebirth practices by
having people coming at regular weekly times for
one-hour sessions. Their patients come in, lie
down, and start the connected breathing. The
Rebirther is present, coaching the client, prompting
him to breathe. At the end of the hour, the
Rebirther spends a few minutes learning what
transpired during the breathing session, then that
client is on his way, and the next individual comes
in for a similar session. The Rebirther in such
practices usually has had several face-to-face talk
sessions before starting the breathing sessions, so
that he at least is acquainted with the ongoing life
of his client. One one-hour Rebirther I know meets
weekly with the group of his Rebirthees, for an
entire evening, so they all have that additional time
together.
None of the things that I've talked about so far

are crucial-only the breathing is. For example, I
had the experience of Rebirthing people in China
and Japan; these were people who did not speak
any English at all, where the translator who was
present told them, "She wants you to lie down and
breathe the way she tells you to breathe."
With those people, I knew nothing about their

background, I knew nothing about their troubles.
All I knew was that they wanted to Rebirth. (At
least, that's what the translator told me.) Even so,
with those people, the connected breathing
practiced for an hour led to amazing psychological
phenomena, experiences which the people
seemed to have been quite happy with. I still hear
from a few of them and they have all been
remarkably successful in their careers and
marriages-well beyond their expectations before
they Rebirthed that once.
Since I don't make my main living from

Rebirthing people, I don't have to run them through
the Rebirth experience as quickly as possible, so
that I can collect as many fees as possible during
the day, in order to support myself. (Mind you, I
don't know if that is the motivation of the people
who do schedule hourly sessions. I am simply
saying that since I usually have no necessity to
push people through at a rapid rate, I don't.)
I enjoy spending time with my Rebirthees. I

enjoy it as much as I enjoy anything else that I do
that's enjoyable (with the possible exception of
making love or a few other extremely pleasurable
experiences). Reading an interesting book is no
more refreshing and pleasurable than listening to
someone talk about his or her life. And watching
somebody breathe, prompting them to make the
breath as full and satisfying as possible, is as
fascinating and pleasurable to me as being with
my grandchildren, being outdoors, watching my
bunnies play, looking at a sunset, listening to
music, or doing other things that are ordinarily
regarded as satisfying, pleasurable experiences.
After all these years, Rebirthing is still totally
enjoyable and fresh.
Doing my work of teaching people about

Rebirthing doesn't wear me out. So the only
reason that I would have for wanting to compress
the amount of time that I spend with a particular
individual would be that there are other such
individuals wanting to work with me. Where that
pressure is absent as, essentially, it is in Los
Angeles, I don't put any artificial time constraints
around the session itself.
As a Rebirther, you'll decide for yourself how

best to do things for yourself. There are no rules-I
even know someone who Rebirths people while
jogging with them. (Now that's really running a
Rebirth practice.)
Be certain that however you conduct your
Rebirths, you operate from an abundance
consciousness, which includes such thoughts as,
 I always have all the energy I could

possibly need to do the work I want to do.
 I always have time to do everything I want
to do, including completing Rebirthing the
people who come to me for Rebirths.
Don't come from scarcity thoughts, like, "I have

to make a living, I can't spend that much time with
one person," or " I don't want to take up too much
of their time because they won't come back to me."
If you feel better running your practice from an

office that you pay overhead on, keeping a
sizeable clientele you see frequently over an
extended period of time, do it. I'm sure that the
people who Rebirth with Rebirthers who manage
their practices that way have been completely
satisfied, just as the people who come into my
more laissez-faire way of functioning have also
been satisfied.
I have Rebirthed with dozens of other well-

practiced Rebirthers. I have always done my best
to breathe the way they want me to breathe, and to
operate within whatever time limits they have been
using.
So I have observed many differences in

individual Rebirthing styles, and I've had some
experience with several variations.
I have also watched many other Rebirthers

Rebirthing other people, and I've had many such
opportunities to observe how different methods
seem to elicit different responses.
With the long, gentle, satisfying inhale I

advocate, I find little drama comes up. Whatever
pain the person experiences is quickly relieved by
the next breath, and he experiences with me the
opportunity to feel that letting-go old negatives is
safe and effortless.
With many other Rebirthers, I notice that the

line between breathing to let go old, stale, useless
negatives, and dramatizing those old negatives is
very thin, indeed.
So, when a person who has Rebirthed with

another Rebirther who elicits drama comes to me
for Rebirthing, I may need to remind him that my
philosophy is that it is the breathing, not the talk or
drama, which allows an individual to let go of, get
rid of, and finish with old negatives. Conjuring
them up into mind again to be responded to as if
they had ever been true and real is a mistake. And
so I seek to convince them to try my way.
Generally speaking, whatever desire they have

to cry or groan has been expressed while we've
been talking face to face in the office. When the
feeling of the desire to cry comes up during the
breathing session, it's reasonably simple for me to
tell my Rebirthee, "You can cry, here's a tissue, but
you must keep your breathing going! It's really nice
to weep and breathe at the same time, then you
really let go. But don't sacrifice the breathing for
the crying, because it doesn't work. If it worked,
every person in the world who's cried a bucket of
tears would be a completely emotionally-mature
individual, and you know that's not true. So
breathe!"
I find that the more completely committed I am

to the use of the breath as the vehicle through
which we remove our old negatives, the less
drama people who come to me for Rebirthing get
into. They don't feel any implicit or explicit
encouragement of the drama of emotional
expression. It has truly been years since I've had
anyone thrash around, throw himself around, and
cry or scream more than a very little bit.
Such behavior did occur fairly often during the

first couple of years that I was into Rebirthing.
Perhaps that was because I still had some
allegiance to the whole idea of expression of
primal pain. Perhaps, also, that was because I was
following the example of most of the Rebirthers I
had watched Rebirth others. They seemed to illicit
a great deal of emotional expressiveness. But as
I've thought through more about how Thought is
Creative, I've certainly had to acknowledge that
there's no point in paying attention to the old stuff
that's being dredged up. The faster you go on to
the next breath and let the old stuff go, the faster
you're making progress in your life.
Several years ago, I was Rebirthing someone who
wanted to curse and yell and thump the floor. I
kept urging him to concentrate on the breathing
instead, but without much success. I finally
resorted to leaning over and saying, "Listen, I don't
think that expressing your emotions this way is
very therapeutic. However, I do have a very lovely
primal room in the back which is completely
soundproof. If you want, we can go back there and
we'll close the doors, and then you can scream
and yell as loud as you want without my having to
be concerned about your troubling the neighbors."
He started to respond, "Oh, yeah, that's exactly

what I want."
Then I went into the second part of my slightly

rehearsed speech, saying, "Of course, you
understand that I used to charge a great deal as a
Primal therapist, far more than you're paying me
right now. So, if you want to move into doing
Primal Therapy with me, then we're going to have
to have a whole different set of time commitments
and you'll have to pay me my usual Primal fee.
Either that, if you want, or else lie down now, stop
the drama, and concentrate on the breath. After
all, there's no point in talking about surrendering to
your breath, if you don't trust it enough to even do
it without interrupting it with frequent shows of
emotion."
He stopped the thumping immediately and

breathed the way I asked. He had a good Rebirth,
but I found out later that he did, indeed, go back to
Primal therapy where he could act out as much as
he liked.
For the last several years I have had almost
nobody who has been unwilling to trust the
breathing. I recommend to all Rebirthers that they
focus their attention on keeping their clients
committed to the breath and to constructive,
affirmative thought, not drama.
When a client asks to make his next

appointment, I pencil it into my desk calendar. If
not, I say, "Why don't you call me in a few days to
let me know how you're doing, and we'll see about
setting up another appointment."
My aim is to provide total freedom of choice, for

him and for me. I think that's better than settling
the next date firmly immediately after a session.
After all, he may find that he is completely

healed-so why try to keep him coming?
Also, my way makes certain I'm not operating from
scarcity consciousness.
A ritual that I've adhered to absolutely at the

conclusion of every individual Rebirth I have ever
performed is to hug my client when we part. A very
few Rebirth clients have been almost
embarrassed, but no one has ever refused the
embrace. Generally they seem to welcome the
opportunity to express affection through the
medium of a long hug, very much the sort of hug
that passes between me and my children or my
grandchildren-warm, affectionate, no kissing, no
suggestion of any sexuality.
As mentioned previously, my aim is to teach a

client to breathe fully and to think positively. Once
he has shown that he can keep his breath
connected for forty- five minutes or more without
my prompting and coaching, once he has worked
successfully with affirmations, he doesn't need me.
Usually I see a client three to seven times

before he gets to where he can Rebirth himself. I
have no set number of sessions he must complete
before he stops coming to me for Rebirth sessions.
Everyone heals in my presence-and some

people seem to do that in just one session.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
GROUP REBIRTHINGS The Logic of
Magical Thought
Group Rebirths are significantly different in and The Dance of
many ways from individual Rebirths. The Rebirther
generally spends very little time, only fleeting
the Breath
moments, or maybe none at all, with each person
during the group Rebirth. Group Rebirths are
generally much less expensive than individual INTRODUCTION
Rebirths, and, equally so, generally highly
profitable for the Rebirther for the outlay of a short
period of time. CHAPTER ONE
The Ideal Breath
But, most of us were single births, so I
recommend that people have their first CHAPTER TWO
experiences of Rebirthing in private, individual The Difference
sessions, not in groups. I believe we deserve to Between Rebirthing
have the completely undivided attention of one
trained Rebirther when we first do the connected and Hyperventilation
breathing and re-experience our births. Being even
momentarily ignored, neglected, unsupported, or in CHAPTER THREE
any way isolated from constant loving attention is The Difference
not a healing experience-it's just a repetition of old Between the Ideal
negatives. I think we're better off saving the group
Rebirth until after we've let go most of the Breath And Yogic
negatives that surrounded our births. Then we can Breathing
create a genuine support group with the breath.
CHAPTER FOUR
Even more important is that the group Rebirth The Difference
is more than just an expedient to permit lower Between Rebirthing
fees. It's an opportunity to experience old
negatives which can only come up in groups, like And Primal Scream
sibling rivalry and other kinds of competition. Therapy
Another characteristic of group Rebirths that CHAPTER FIVE

makes them an important, significant experience, The Biology of
one that each person involved in Rebirthing needs Imprints
to be open to having, is that the energy generated
by every person in the room while they're doing the
breathing is being shared. On some level, CHAPTER SIX
everyone is affecting everyone else. Everyone is Food and
healing everyone else in the room. Consciousness
My fundamental feeling about group Rebirths is CHAPTER SEVEN
that they're nice things to do with a bunch of
people who are experienced Rebirthers, Rebirthing and
committed to the breath, not drama, and who know Bodywork Therapies
each other and have spent time together recently
with each other. I love to close weekend or week- CHAPTER EIGHT
long Rebirth workshops or trainings with group Rebirthing and
Rebirths. They seem to solidify the community
feeling of love. Conventional
Rsychotherapies
I think the ideal group Rebirth is one associated
with something like the One Year Seminar. I like it CHAPTER NINE
when people complete a Rebirthing workshop Rebirthing and
together, and, loving each other and trusting each Neuro-Linguistic
other, agree to meet together once a month for a Programming
year and always Rebirth at those meetings. That's
fine. A group Rebirth under those circumstances
makes a great deal of sense to me. It continues to CHAPTER 10
allow everyone in the group to feel increasing Affirmations
affection for each other, and it has the virtue of
being essentially economical of time. CHAPTER 11
The Parental
I don't like conducting group Rebirths if they are
essentially drop-in groups, where anyone who Disapproval
wants to Rebirth comes over, pays twenty or thirty Syndrome
dollars for the experience, lies down for an hour
and breathes, and then we have a little sharing CHAPTER 12
before everyone leaves. I especially dislike drop-in Time, Work, and
group Rebirths if I haven't had a pre-existing
Rebirthing relationship with the people coming to Money:
the group Rebirth. When I occasionally allowed Consciousness and
group Rebirths to be drop-in groups, I didn't find Abundance
Rebirthing such groups of strangers at all pleasant,
not only because of their biff-bam- thank-you- CHAPTER 13
ma'am characteristics, but because I think people
come to them who don't want to handle their Sex and Loving
issues about money and don't think that they Relationships
deserve to do or can afford to pay for individual
Rebirths. Since my own Rebirthees seldom felt CHAPTER 14
that group Rebirths with strangers present offered Physical Immortality
any advantage over self-Rebirths (which are, of
course, free) I no longer run drop-in group
Rebirths. CHAPTER 15
I am open to receiving suggestions from any Ethical
readers who have had the experience of operating Consideration
a regular drop-in group Rebirth. I'd like them to
share their experience with me. Maybe I can figure
out a way of making it work better. It would be nice CHAPTER 16
if it could be arranged. It would be like going Individual Rebirths
swimming: I can have a good time going to the
pool every week; the same people or even the CHAPTER 17
same number of people aren't in the pool, but
there usually are some people I know, and,
Group Rebirthings
anyhow, what I really like is the swimming. It would
be great if that attitude could be carried over to CHAPTER 18
drop-in group Rebirths. Organizing
Trainings and
All this may be my limited belief system coming Workshops
out, though, because I freely admit I've had great
times when I have attended some group Rebirths
which involved dozens or hundreds of people who CHAPTER 19
didn't know each other especially well. I don't The Standard
believe that I have ever experienced extremely Rebirth Training
profound Rebirths in groups. But I have
experienced sustained bliss.
CHAPTER 20
Once was at an event that Sondra Ray
Running a Rebirth
organized for an exhibit of angels that had been Business
constructed by Los Angeles set-designer and
decorator, Tony Duquette. The exhibit was set up CHAPTER 21
in the beautiful surrounding of a Gothic-style Rebirthing
church, with lovely lighting and soothing music. We Organizations
listened to Charlton Heston talk about angels while
we did our breathing together. That was very
dramatic and very blissful and pleasant. Another
great group Rebirth was at the 1981 Certification
Training. I recall it as being filled with
quintessential joy and bliss.
But such fine group Rebirths have been far and
few between in my experience. Usually I've been
acutely aware of my reactions to the sounds and
behavior of the people around me. For example, I
have witnessed myself moving from interest to
irritation to compassion to indifference within a
matter of a few breaths while listening to someone
who was next to me crying, or choking, screaming,
or thrashing around, rather than breathing. Group
Rebirths often entail high drama with people
almost competing to see who can cry the hardest,
who can breathe the most forcefully, who can
groan the loudest, who can thrash back and forth
the most vigorously, who can hold his breath the
longest.
When I first started doing group Rebirths, I used to
have assistants who would walk around and deal
with individual Rebirthees, handing out additional
tissues and helping anyone who had gone into
tetany or who'd stopped breathing. But I find that
without the assistants, I also don't have the tetany
and the hysteria. Not that they were producing it,
but that they were there because, on some level of
my consciousness, I was operating with a scarcity
thought that I wouldn't be able to give enough
attention to everyone so that they all felt safe and
secure and could concentrate on keeping their
breath connected, full, and satisfying.
As mentioned before, I always do a group

Rebirth at the conclusion of a workshop or training.
I have people lie down in the room so that their
heads are arranged so that I can easily move
around and get to each person. If the room is large
enough, what I much prefer is that everybody put
their feet toward the center of the room so that
there is a maximum distance between one
breather and the next, with plenty of room for me
to walk around the outside of the group.
I ask everybody before we start to make certain

that they're comfortable and warm, and that they
feel physically supported, with pillows and
blankets. I don't want anyone tolerating even minor
discomfort at the beginning of the group Rebirth
because that discomfort is just going to become
enlarged as the breathing leads to becoming more
aware and sensitive. There's no sense to being
uncomfortable.
?I never put up with anything if it isn't what I want.
I make sure the windows are open so there's
plenty of fresh air and I tell people that the
windows will stay open. So at the very beginning,
they need to make whatever adjustments they
need to make in order to feel safe and warm. I also
ask everyone to have a supply of tissues near at
hand.
I tell people that I'm going to let them find their
own breathing rhythm for the first five minutes or
so. I also tell them that I then am going to play my
tape of my 108 Perfect Affirmations for them to
listen to while breathing. The affirmation tape runs
for forty-five minutes. I tell them that after the tape
is finished, they'll have ten more minutes, at least,
of silence, to stay with their breathing, and then I'll
put on a different tape to signal that the full hour
has elapsed. I announce that if they have
completed a Rebirthing by that time, they can just
relax or very quietly get up to go out into the hall or
go to the bathroom. I tell them that I don't want
them talking with each other until the group post-
Rebirth sharing.
I also tell people that, if they are still breathing

at the end of the hour, they can continue to stay in
their Rebirth and they need not necessarily stop,
but that, in about another ten or fifteen minutes, we
will all be getting together, sharing our Rebirth
experiences. Probably by that time, they will have
wanted to bring their own Rebirth sessions to a
close.
I have often found that, in some countries, the

desire to let go and be histrionic and dramatic is
very strong. That desire is often shared by other
people in the group who immediately assume the
role of ôHelper.ö Recently, at the end of the hour,
after leaving the group room to use the toilet, I
returned to find five people surrounding someone
who, rather than breathe, had decided to carry on,
crying and screaming and holding her breath! They
had all abandoned their post-Rebirth bliss to try to
comfort her!
So now, when I start group Rebirths, I remind

people that their job during the group Rebirth is to
lie down and concentrate on their own breaths,
and allow whatever happens to pass through.
They are not to try and comfort or in any way
"help" other people in the group. Each person is
there to find what he or she finds for himself. I
remind them we all know that thought is creative,
and that breathing lets you let go old negatives. So
there's no point in trying to keep a person from
feeling feelings, and there certainly is no point in
encouraging someone to get into their feelings!
What we're going to do is to breathe. I've
essentially eliminated most melodrama as a
problem in group Rebirths by that particular
technique.
During their breathing, I often bend down, squat

down, or kneel down to talk with someone and
remind him about breathing, or to offer him more
tissues to blow his nose if he has been crying
heavily, or to suggest that he bend his knees or
put his arms down or caution him to let go all
throat sounds. I remind him simply to concentrate
on the breathing, not on the other noises in the
room.
Every so often, I've had an experience of having
one or two people in my group start to laugh, and
then other people start to laugh. The people who
are into their breathing, not into laughter, or even
more so, people who are into their weeping and
not into laughter, then become annoyed.
Once in England I had about twenty laughers.

The thirty non-laughers in the group were getting
increasingly upset, it seemed. So I finally asked
everyone who was laughing to leave that room and
go into another, so all the laughers were in one
room and all the weepers and breathers were in
another room. I don't know if it made much
significant difference to anybody except me. At
least I didn't have to worry that anyone would hate
me for not keeping the others quiet.
I, myself, am loathe to try to squelch somebody

who's laughing. On the other hand, I also know
that laughter is a clever way of avoiding having to
deal with keeping the breath regular and
connected. It's a forced exhale, an emphasis on
the exhale, just the same as yelling is. And I want
my people who are Rebirthing to emphasize the
inhale. So laughing isn't really good.
Often at the beginning of a group Rebirth, I will

say, "Please remember, you're here to breathe,
you're here to surrender to your breath, you're here
to share the spirit which each of you is generating,
creating for each other. You're not here to weep,
you know better than that, and you're not here to
laugh. We'll laugh afterwards."
I find that that kind of caution has mostly

obviated the "problem," if it actually was one.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
ORGANIZING TRAININGS AND WORKSHOPS The Logic of
Magical Thought
This chapter is about how I organize for others and The Dance of
and how I recommend people organizing for me
handle their functions. These are my own specific
the Breath
attitudes, ideas that have worked well, but I
recognize that other leaders have other needs and
other procedures. INTRODUCTION
Fundamentally, almost all my ideas about how to
have an organizer arrange a workshop for me rest
on my unwillingness to entertain thoughts of CHAPTER ONE
scarcity. The Ideal Breath
I don't ask for a guarantee in advance. I don't set a
minimum number of people who must be CHAPTER TWO
committed to the workshop. I don't ask my The Difference
organizer to pay for my ticket in advance.
Between Rebirthing
Essentially, what I do ask is very simple: After I and Hyperventilation
tell an organizer I'll be able to do a workshop on
particular dates, I usually make my travel CHAPTER THREE
arrangements and pay for my travel costs myself, The Difference
and we agree that she will repay the portion of my Between the Ideal
transportation costs we agree upon (it depends on
how many other trainings I'll be doing in the Breath And Yogic
reasonable vicinity on a tour), she'll provide my Breathing
lodging (usually a room in the home of either my
organizer or someone attending the workshop), CHAPTER FOUR
and she'll pay me 50 percent of the fees collected The Difference
from the fully-paying trainees plus whatever I
negotiate from anyone paying less than full fee. Between Rebirthing
From her 50 percent of the fully-paying trainee And Primal Scream
fees, in addition to paying me back my travel Therapy
costs, she will spend whatever she chooses on
costs for the venue for the workshop and on CHAPTER FIVE
publicizing, promoting, and recruiting.
The Biology of
The remainder is her profit. Imprints
Long before the organizer knows how many CHAPTER SIX
people actually are committed to attend the Food and
workshop, she is able to know what my travel Consciousness
costs will be. She can then set limits for the cost of
the venue and for costs of advertising and
recruitment so that she is likely to make at least a CHAPTER SEVEN
Rebirthing and
reasonable profit from the number likely to attend. Bodywork Therapies
When an organizer is just starting out organizing
and is worried about how much money she's
investing and what the likely return is going to be, I CHAPTER EIGHT
suggest she keep her scarcity consciousness Rebirthing and
limited by keeping costs limited and sensible and Conventional
safe. Rsychotherapies
I point out that almost anybody can get at least CHAPTER NINE
one person to come to a training. And she'll be
attending as well. So, if she keeps the cost of the Rebirthing and
venue below the amount of her half of one Neuro-Linguistic
person's attendance fee and she keeps the costs Programming
of promotion to the same amount, she only needs
to generate my travel costs to be even. Since CHAPTER 10
that's an amount she knows in advance, she can
easily target in on how many people she wants Affirmations
and needs to attend. Once she has commitments
from that number, she can expand if she wants CHAPTER 11
and find a larger venue or spend more on further The Parental
promotion. Disapproval
Syndrome
Sometimes my organizers have been
remarkably proficient at getting immense groups to
attend meetings, well in the hundreds. Sometimes CHAPTER 12
even previously highly successful organizers have Time, Work, and
only brought a handful of people to a workshop. Money:
Apparently, consciousness determines what will Consciousness and
happen-scarcity or abundance.
Abundance
The areas she can easily economize in are the
costs of the venue and the money spent on CHAPTER 13
promoting the workshop; these are costs which the Sex and Loving
organizer controls. And aside from some negative Relationships
consideration like snobbishness, they are costs
she can keep most modest, so far as my desires
go. CHAPTER 14
It's funny how scarcity thoughts reveal
themselves. For example, sometimes, to reduce CHAPTER 15
the tension an organizer may be feeling about her Ethical
costs, she asks me to buy a non-refundable, non- Consideration
exchangeable ticket because such tickets are
immensely much cheaper than ones that can be
returned for a full refund, but I prefer air tickets that CHAPTER 16
are changeable and refundable if canceled. The Individual Rebirths
total ticket cost may be higher, but the flexibility is
worth it. Several times, buying the unreturnable
CHAPTER 17
ticket has led to increased tensions.
Like Leonard Orr, I'm willing to carry out a Group Rebirthings
workshop or seminar even if only person attends,
namely, my organizer. However, if she calls me CHAPTER 18
and tells me she doesn't think anyone is going to Organizing
attend and she wants to cancel, I'm agreeable if
the transportation tickets can be cancelled and
Trainings and
refunded. If not, we might as well go ahead. At Workshops
least we'll be able to work on whatever our
combined scarcity thoughts have created. CHAPTER 19
In any case, if the ticket cannot be exchanged The Standard
or refunded, or if my itinerary for a tour is Rebirth Training
established and can't be changed, I suggest we
continue and see what the universe will provide.
CHAPTER 20
I usually make time to exchange Rebirths with Running a Rebirth
my organizers wherever I travel. That, of course, is Business
without charge, without any exchange of money,
just as our way of showing each other that we love CHAPTER 21
each other. If there isn't time for both of us to get
Rebirthed, I've been willing to sacrifice my Rebirthing
opportunity to get Rebirthed by my organizer to Organizations
make certain there is at least time for me to
Rebirth her.
I do my best to mitigate any loss my organizer
seems to be facing if not enough people seem
likely to attend the workshop. I like to do all the
following, anyhow, just to help promote all my
events:
I usually suggest that my organizer invite people
over in the evening on the day I'm due to arrive
just to meet me, talk about Rebirthing, and have a
party. Some of the finest get-togethers have
involved potluck dinners where everybody brings a
dish and we sit around and eat and socialize; then
afterwards, while people are drinking and smoking,
everyone gets to ask me whatever questions he
wants to ask, about me, about Rebirthing, or about
themselves. We just go around the room until
everyone has had a chance to ask whatever he
wanted to ask. Sometimes the organizer charges a
very small fee for the evening and I always enjoy
receiving half of whatever's collected.
Generally, if twenty or thirty people come to a

party like that, I can usually stimulate at least a half
dozen to come to the workshop. This approach
always works very well for the organizer, who still
gets her half of everyone I recruit.
Another effort that I've made that has been

successful in pulling a profit out for the organizer
has been to give impromptu evening talks in a
school auditorium or church meeting hall.
Generally, a few people attending the inexpensive
or free talk become interested in attending a
weekend or week-long workshop.
For example, following a lightly attended

Sydney workshop I will talk more about shortly, I
traveled to four or five cities along the Sunshine
Coast, giving evening talks to twenty to thirty
people who came after only a day or two phone
notice given by local chiropractors, midwives,
childbirth nurses, and physicians. Following each
evening, three or four people asked to join the
weekend residential training scheduled for the
following weekend. Ultimately sixty-two people
attended the weekend training that had, on my
arrival in Australia the week earlier, only had my
two organizers signed up for!
From a total financial disaster, we moved into

great abundance!
And in all situations, whatever is happening can

be used to clear the mind of negative
considerations-mine or my organizers.
For example, the first time I traveled to Sydney,

Australia, the ticket had to be bought at
considerable cost because the arrangements were
decided almost at the last minute. My organizer
assured me she would have a large group for me,
even with only two weeks advance notice.
I arrived to find only one person besides my

organizer attending an introductory evening
meeting in a hall that seats 200! That one person
wanted to attend the upcoming weekend
workshop, but she could only pay a very greatly
reduced fee. She also had a friend who wanted to
attend, but who couldn't pay at all.
With my organizer, we four were the weekend

workshop!
In the past, I had led the biggest week-long

training in the history of Rebirthing (495 fully
paying trainees!) and had myself organized the
biggest training Leonard ever led (143). So I knew
I was open to leading record-breaking large groups
and receiving immensely large remuneration. My
usual workshop averaged between twenty and
sixty people.
As I pondered over why our collective

consciousness had only managed to materialize
these three people for my workshop, I suddenly
saw clearly that the number is always perfect.
What seems to be most important in

determining the number attending a workshop I'm
leading is the fact that I'm there to help each
trainee handle his specific case.
I'm not there to make a fortune off of Rebirthing,

although that's nice and I enjoy it when I do.
I'm not there to convince people that Rebirthing
involves a great organization around which they
can arrange their social lives, although most of my
dearest friends are Rebirthers and theirs will
probably be too.
I'm not there to establish continuing control over
the trainees who proceed to become Rebirthers,
for I despise that attitude-I much prefer to believe
that everyone who leaves one of my workshops is
a competent Rebirther.
I'm there to help each individual attending attain

the goals they have set for themselves.
I usually have around sixty people in a

workshop. Very few workshops have had less than
20. When the group is this size it seems to be
mainly people who are "easy" cases, so I have
always managed to give each of them sufficient
individual time during each of the seminars to
handle their cases.
But occasionally, a workshop is very small, like

the one in Sydney.
When only a small group attends, it's because

each person in the group needs extensive
attention in order to get off some old negative. I
believe that if any small group I've ever led were to
have been any larger, I probably wouldn't have
been able to put out the effort and time required to
help every person attending be satisfied and
transformed.
On two occasions, both in Los Angeles, where

I'm my own organizer, I only had one person
attending a workshop. In one instance, I had even
set that particular date for the workshop after
people from six different cities all over the USA
had asked me to hold one that weekend because it
was the only time they could come to LA to do a
training with me. Yet, not a one of them appeared!
But someone else quite unexpected did, also from
out of town. As in the other situation when only
one person arrived to attend my LA workshop, I
suggested she move into my guest bedroom and
we spent the weekend together.
On both occasions, I spent the same amount of

time with just that one person that I would
otherwise have spent with a larger group; 7:00
P.M. to 10:00 P.M. on Friday evening, 10:00 A.M.
to 10:00 P.M. on Saturday, and 10:00 A.M. to 7:00
P.M. on Sunday.
In all three situations, the one in Sydney and the
two in LA, I felt that every bit of my skill as a
teacher and therapist was used to accomplish my
aim of helping my clients get what they wanted.
 The number of people attending any

Rebirth training which I'm leading is
exactly the number I can handle well and
comfortably, given those particular people.
Another insight that I realized at the beginning

of my stay in Australia is that, unlike a lot of other
people, the money I make from individual Rebirths
and from leading Rebirthing workshops or
seminars doesn't determine my lifestyle. I make
enough money from my pension for teaching
college for twenty-six years to live on, the way I
want to. So I can come to a small training of "hard
cases" and feel free of the need to have made
more money from it than I have.
My money picture also enables me to be

generous with people who want to be trainees, but
who can't pay much. I don't need to convince them
to pay the full fee. I only do try to do that when I
believe the person does have the money to spend,
but is trying to get out of that responsibility.
Generally speaking, as my own money picture

gets clearer and clearer, and I find myself having
fewer and fewer negatives about money, I find
most of the people coming to my workshops able
and happy to pay the full fee. Most of my
organizers have now also developed an
abundance consciousness, so they usually
manage to attract people who can afford to and
are happy to pay the full fee.
In the USA, I currently ask that each trainee

pay $260 for a weekend workshop and $300 for a
week-long Monday through Friday workshop.
Outside of the USA, I leave the decision of how
much a reasonable fee for that country is up to my
foreign organizer. She knows more about what's
appropriate in her economy that I do.
When I visit another city or country to do

workshops, it's more like taking residence than
being a tourist. I get to live in a "real" home and
live the way my organizer lives. And, although I'm
not taking a vacation when I travel to other
countries, I always set aside a little time to go to
tourist attractions like castles and palaces and
museums, and that compensates as well. So even
if I'm not making much money sometimes, I'm
always benefiting. I feel compensated by having
the opportunity to meet people and share their
everyday lives, in the context of their country.
Sometimes the price set for the workshop is

very low because of a particular country's
economy, so I can't make very much money even
with a very large attendance. In such situations, I
do my best to help my foreign organizer change
her money thoughts, so she asks for a higher
enough fee the next time. Then we'll all be
satisfied with the money itself.
I have always told my organizer that I want to

be involved in all final negotiations with anyone
paying less than the full fee, unless all reductions
come from the organizer's half. If she wants to let
friends or relatives she cares about deeply come
to the event paying only my half of the fee because
she thinks she serves them well that way, that's
fine with me. In that case, I still receive my half,
and she's in the position of being generous, giving
away her half. I don't ask to be included in such
decisions.
My organizer and I usually handle requests for

a reduction from other people by talking together
for a few minutes just before the start of the event.
I'm willing to negotiate with anyone who is poor
and who, I think, will benefit from the training.
Generally speaking, if I have enough fully-paying
people already signed up so that I feel good about
how much money I'm going to be making for the
time I'm spending on the workshop, I have no
hesitation about letting others join the training at a
reduced or even no fee.
My next-to-"worst" ratio on this, by the way,

was 20:1, where twenty-one people attended a
workshop at my house in LA, and only one person
paid the full fee, which at that time was $200.
Many of the other people attending were people
who had taken a workshop previously, and in
those days I didn't ask repeaters to pay to repeat
the training. A few others were so down-and-out
that I felt they really needed to try to get their
money cases together by plugging into and
undoing their old money negatives, based on the
scarcity consciousness which they had established
at birth. When George, the one person who had
paid, asked why he was the only one paying, I
replied, "Because you're the only one in this group
who has his money together enough to be able to
pay."
He still reminds me of that, ruefully.
Unless my organizer agrees, I don't ask her to

sacrifice her portion.
I learned how important this is when I first

organized for Leonard, shortly after I first started
organizing for other Rebirthers. Leonard
announced that anyone wanting to negotiate about
the fee needed to speak with him. Almost every
one of the 143 people attending lined up. Leonard
said he didn't want anyone paying him for the
training after the end of the week. He said he
wanted the psychic umbilical cord cut, not hanging
on, still attached. So, if anyone asked to pay later,
Leonard told him to just come free. In a matter of a
couple of hours spent interviewing these many
people, Leonard gave away the entire training free
to 128! Not only his half, but mine as well! That
was my worst ratio of payers to non-payers.
I didn't think Leonard was "wrong" not to ask

my agreement as he gave away my part of the fee,
but I was disappointed about making so little. I had
a sudden insight on the fourth day of the training,
when Louis, my friend and helper, pointed out to
me that I had paid for so much printing of materials
that Leonard wanted distributed free to everyone in
the workshop that my half of the fees collected
from the fifteen people who were paying had all
been used up. So, I wasn't going to be making any
money having this circus in my home!
That morning the training didn't start on time.

Everyone was waiting for Leonard to get out of the
bathtub in my guest cottage behind my house
where he was Rebirthing himself. I waited upstairs
in my sitting room, crying at first, then
concentrating on what I was hurting about. In a
flash, I realized what was wrong. So I went
downstairs, jumped into the center of the circle and
said I wanted to make an announcement.
I said, "I'm sure that Leonard's thoughts are

spiritually higher than mine and I certainly agree
with him that anyone who wants to take a Rebirth
training should be allowed to. I also agree that it
was very good of him to tell people he didn't want
them owing him for the training, that when he left
for San Diego at the end of the week, he didn't
want anyone to feel obligated to send him any
money."
"But I'm staying here, and I want you all to

know that I'm open to receiving my half of the fee
from any of you who can pay me later on. Right
now, I've only received one half of whatever has
been paid by the fifteen of you who have paid
anything at all. And I've had to spend all that on
printing costs for the papers you've received free.
So if anyone wants to pay me, I'll be happy to
accept it."
The group seemed amazed that so few were

paying. After a few minutes of buzzing about that,
one person said he would be happy to pay me on
Monday, but he wanted to be certain that I didn't
plan on splitting whatever he paid with Leonard. I
replied that Leonard had given away my half of the
fees when he had told 128 of them they didn't
need to pay if they couldn't pay by Friday, and that
I had already paid him his half of the fifteen who
had paid within his time limit. Since he had made
his decisions unilaterally, I felt entitled to make my
decision unilaterally, too, and I didn't intend to
collect any more for him.
In the two weeks afterwards, I received my full

half from about 10 people, so that at least I not
only cleared the costs of all the printing Leonard
had had me give free to everyone attending, but I
even had enough left over to cover the phone bill
when it came in with over $200 worth of long
distance calls placed by trainees, without my
knowledge or permission. (For several years
afterwards, whenever I organized a workshop for
any other Rebirther in my home, I kept the
downstairs phones locked so only incoming calls
could be received. Fortunately, as I worked on my
money case, that people never take more than
they give back, that problem evaporated. Also, I
mainly stopped organizing for others, so strangers
with no personal connection to me weren't in my
home.)
Please notice that I don't ask my organizer to
guarantee to me a certain minimum. I don't say,
"You have to have at least ten people who have
paid their deposits ready for the workshop five
weeks in advance or I won't keep the date
booked."
I know that would be "good business" in the

realistic world, but I don't think it makes sense in a
world where consciousness dictates results.
What this amounts to is that I have let go scarcity
notions which I think underlie a lot of the
expectations with which many other Rebirth
trainers operate.
?I am always able to do whatever I want to do.
?I know that everything is perfect in God's perfect
world.
So I don't need to worry about scarcity. I don't

need to dictate how reality will organize itself.
I'm willing to be surprised by what the universe
sends to me. I'm willing to learn from what the
universe gives me. After all, my results are always
my guru.
So if I only get a few people at a training, I have to
accept the obvious conclusion which is, "I only
want to work with these few people who are going
to take just as much skill and time and energy as I
would ordinarily spend on a large group of people.
This is perfect-just the way it is. There's nothing
wrong with it at all."
Once I recognized that I'm here to handle the

hard cases, I no longer needed to feel bad when a
group was less than a dozen. I stopped worrying
that the reason a group might be small was that I
was running some old number like, "I really want to
be rejected and humiliated and mortified over not
making any money and not attracting many
people."
Many people who plan to exist on the income

they make organizing Rebirth trainings have had
conflicts about my attitude. They say, "All I have to
sell is my time and I have to make enough money
from that time to make it `worthwhile' for me."
My reply is, "Enough for what?"
"'You've covered my transportation and lodging

and your other costs, so you're not out any money.
And in exchange for your time and effort, you're
having a great opportunity to learn a valuable
lesson, free, about whatever negative
considerations have prevented you from creating a
large, lucrative workshop filled with easy, loving,
fun-filled, practiced Rebirthers."
As I see it, an organizer always benefits from

organizing no matter how large or small a group
she brings in. Certainly I have always learned
something of immense value every time I've
organized. I lost $200 several times, but I got the
training free and learned. If I hadn't been the
organizer, I would gladly have paid the tuition to
attend, and that was usually $200. So it all evened
out.
I know organizers, very successful ones, who

spend weeks in advance of a workshop writing
affirmations like, "I am now open to having fifty
fully-paid trainees at this workshop."
They believe that by establishing their aims in

this very definite affirmative fashion, they are doing
something good for their consciousness, raising it
and simultaneously controlling reality. And, of
course, they do more than just write affirmations:
They phone, they help people they solicit clear up
their negatives about attending.
My aim is to let go all expectations, all

limitations on my own consciousness and,
therefore, on whatever it produces.
 I'm here to serve, the best I can.

 Whatever is, is perfect.
Sometimes, I have very large groups where

almost everyone is really open to the Rebirthing
philosophy and practice, except for a few people
who aren't. Those few, instead, are really stuck in
their negatives and their interpretations of
Rebirthing ideas. When that's happening, I believe
I wouldn't have been able to have handled these
few people without the aid of the entire group. I
needed the psychic and real help of everyone else
in the group to deal successfully with those few
'hard case" people's problem.
An example is what happened in the case of a

fellow at a very large workshop in England, with
over fifty trainees. Apparently he didn't wash or
change his clothes. Several people complained to
me that he smelled very bad and they didn't want
to sit next to him. I steadfastly tried to resist
automatically falling into the role of good mother,
ready to do anything to save her little children from
discomfort. I suggested each of them needed to
deal with the situation directly by talking about it
with him. But each chose simply to sit elsewhere,
instead. I waited to see what was going to happen.
Finally, on the fourth day of the workshop when

we were talking about sex and love, the smelly
fellow spoke up, complaining, "'m a virgin. I know
how to strike up a conversation with a girl and I
know that I'm nice-looking and interesting and
she's attracted to me. But somehow or other when
we start to get close, she backs away and she
won't have anything to do with me. I think it must
have something to do with something I do I'm not
aware of."
I remarked, "It's more likely something you don't

do-like take a bath or change your clothes. Several
members of the group have told me you smell bad
and they don't want to be near you."
The whole room sat in stunned silence at first,

and then a few giggled.
I was surprised by his reaction. He explained

that he thought that keeping clean and ordinarily
attractive would be trying to earn love, and he
believed love should be given freely and
unconditionally. Then he focused his negatives on
the idea that the group had failed him. "Anyhow,
why aren't people honest? They should tell me if
I'm offensive."
I tried to move him away from that position, but

even a half hour of vigorous argument didn't bear
results. He insisted unconditional meant
unconditional and politeness was dishonest.
Finally, an older man said, in a strong brogue,

"For Heaven's sake, mon, ye're not a wee little
bairn that needs to be taken by the hand to the
bath. Grow up and stop making it difficult for
people to like you. They'll never love you
unconditionally if you stink so much they never
want to get near you."
That got through to him.
The discussion ended right then as that fellow,

as well as two others, left the meeting, without
saying anything.
I thought the three of them were offended and

hurt, and I worried they wouldn't come back.
But within an hour, all three returned, with still-

wet, newly-shampooed hair, bathed bodies, and
clean clothes!
We took a break so everyone in the group

could hug these three.
The next morning, another member of the

training who kept clean but who looked unkempt
appeared with his previously scraggly beard
shaved off completely and his long, unkempt hair
trimmed to above his ears. No one even
recognized him!
I know that, alone, I would not have been effective
in changing the attitudes of these fellows because
they were plugging all their PDS stuff into me, as
the representative of all the mothers who have
ever nagged children about getting cleaned up. I
needed the whole huge group to make an inroad
on these heavy PDS cases.
Getting back to the issue of letting people

attend trainings without paying, I operate the way I
do because I want to develop within myself and
others the highest spiritual concepts.
The concept of service, free of the mundane

necessity of getting paid for providing that service,
is a purer and higher spiritual concept, I believe,
than one which is attached to getting paid.
Mind you, I'm not saying that a person doing

spiritual work, which Rebirthing certainly is,
shouldn't receive pay. Of course not! I deserve to
be paid for my services. And my organizer
deserves to make a profit, too. But I don't want to
be in the bind of rationalizing my pressuring
someone who wants to receive my services into
forking up the money for them by claiming that I
need to be paid. Or by rigidly refusing to allow
anyone to attend unless the full fee is paid
because I say they will always find the money if
they really want to attend.
Need is no justification. Not mine. Nor the

trainee's.
In this connection, I'm reminded of a fellow from

"Down Under" who felt he truly needed to attend a
workshop in the USA run by another Rebirther I
love very much who almost never allows anyone to
attend without paying the full fee. In addition to the
tuition for the workshop, he needed money for his
overseas travel to the workshop. He didn't have it
because he spent his fairly low wages as soon as
he was paid. He couldn't attend the workshop
without paying for it. So he "needed" to get the
money from other people.
He squeezed and pressured his friends into
loaning him whatever they would, until he finally
had the several thousand dollars he needed. Then
he quit his job and left for the workshop.
He told me he was operating with the concept

that no one is ever a victim; he believed that
everyone who had loaned him money wouldn't be
hurt if he didn't pay it back. After all, they all knew
him. They knew he was fairly incompetent at
making a living for himself. So they must have
known that he wasn't intending to pay them back.
His belief was that if people were willing to loan
him money in the face of everything they knew
about him, surely it was his duty to take the money
from them.
A thief's logic.
This is just another manifestation of scarcity

consciousness. In essence, his belief is, "I don't
have enough. I can't get enough unless I con other
people into providing for me."
There's no difference between that

rationalization and the one every psychopath in the
world has used to justify harming someone else in
order to avoid working to get what someone else
has and he seeks to take.
Maybe he could have done otherwise if he could
have attended that workshop at a reduced rate. I'll
never know.
In any case, I'm open to making

accommodations, so long as I'm not encouraging
people to be lazy, stingy, etc.
As I've mentioned previously, many people go

into Rebirthing because it looks like an easy way
to make money. You don't do anything. Your job is
essentially effortless. You don't have to lift heavy
loads or deal with dangerous machinery. It's clean.
You don't need any special equipment or even a
special place-you can Rebirth anywhere, indoors
or out. You don't even need to have much training.
All you have to do is convince someone to pay you
to sit watching him breathe.
In essence, Rebirthing seems like an ideal job

for someone who can't or won't do much work, in
conventional terms. It appeals to people who have
not succeeded in other endeavors because it
seems easy to learn and to do.
Many of these people are "broke."

So lots of these people ask the organizers to let
them get Rebirth trainings free.
I usually say, "Okay, let them have it. It can't

hurt me to give it to them and it won't hurt them to
get it free. And I'd sooner have them come free
than coaxing or conning their friends and relatives
out of the money to pay me."
But organizers sometimes argue, "If they get it

for nothing, it won't have any value at all. They
won't think it's worth anything. You should make
them pay. You shouldn't give anything away."
I don't agree. I don't want these "takers" in my

world, so I'm open to helping them become
"givers" instead.
I believe that attitude of not letting anyone

come to a training free rests on several negatives
and limiting thoughts (besides greed on the part of
the trainer or the organizers).
One is that people who can afford to pay are

coming to meet and be with people like
themselves. They won't come to a workshop if they
know there are going to be people at it who don't
pay; they don't want to be around "bums'' or
"losers."
In addition to the obvious lack of compassion in

such an attitude, I don't like it because I'm not
running a group for people to practice the social
dating-game routine in.
I'm running a Rebirth training to help people get

rid of whatever is keeping them from loving
everybody. I want them to know that everyone is a
divine creature of God. Everyone is totally
loveable.
External considerations like how people dress,

what job they have, how much education they
have, and whether or not they can "do you some
good" in your business are not the considerations I
want coming up when someone is thinking about
attending one of my workshops.
I'm willing to have déclassé people in my

workshops. It makes for interest and excitement
and fun. I don't want a homogeneous group of
yuppies coming because consciousness-raising is
a current fad-and because they hope they'll meet
someone in the group they can start dating.
I want people to come because they're serious

about knowing God and getting as close to God
Consciousness as they possibly can.
Another reason for not wanting a homogeneous

group of yuppies or a group of wealthy wives of
any such similar group of people all paying the full
fee, is that people in such workshops simply truly
cannot see themselves; they're always looking in
the same clouded mirror. Unless they are
challenged by other viewpoints, they may simply
support each other in their neuroses.
Very often, it's because I have an extremely

heterogeneous group of people-yes, even
including bums and losers-that certain problems
can be aired and shared. After all, there's nothing
like having a perfect bad example right there with
you in the workshop so you can see clearly the
dimensions, the shape, the coloration of your own
craziness.
So, I don't put any limitations on who may

attend, and I make certain my organizers
understand and agree. We don't struggle to
exclude people who can't pay the full fee.
About every third workshop, on average,

people ask if they can bring children. I say, yes.
Even very young children are fine. I once had a
workshop in the Netherlands with sixteen adults
and twenty-three children! It was an excellent
week for all of us. Nurslings and toddlers are
generally no disruption at all.
People also ask if there's an upper age limit.

No-I've had people well into their eighties at
workshops, and not only have they benefited, but
so have all the other people in the group. I'm sure
the anti-old-folk attitude prevalent in some
Rebirthers back in the late 70s rests on a lot of
PDS. Occasionally, I've noticed that some young
Rebirthers still have a prejudice against older
people.
The sooner I let go an old negative, the sooner

I arrive at bliss.
Besides the questions of how many attend and
who, the organizer also has to deal with
establishing the venue for the workshop.
Many Rebirthing trainers demand to work in

hotel conference rooms which may cost their
organizers a great deal. Perhaps they believe that
by setting such high standards for the venue, they
can predictably attract the fancy clientele they
want to work with. My previous comments apply.
Usually, I urge my organizers to think in homely

terms about the venue, rather than hiring a venue
at large cost.
I think organizers are better off not setting such

hurdles for themselves. I urge my organizers to
make it easy for themselves to develop the
workshops profitably. I suggest they locate several
venues: the home of one of the attendees if the
group is very small, an inexpensive meeting room
at some place like a church, library, or bank for a
group of fifteen to twenty, and a large and
generally expensive conference room in a hotel or
school only once they have received deposits from
a larger group.
I suggest they make their agreements as flexible
as possible, so that, for example, any deposit on
the hotel conference room will be fully returnable if
the booking is cancelled a week in advance of the
date set for the workshop. Or that they make the
booking at a hotel which is likely to be empty
anyhow, so a deposit may not even be required.
The great thing about all this is that if an

unexpectedly large group shows up, there's almost
no trouble accommodating the group.
Even if a hotel conference room hasn't been

booked, other large venues can be tentatively
engaged. In one city where the hotels were closed
because the tourist season was over, and where
fifty people "unexpectedly" showed up in addition
to the six that had committed in advance for the
weekend, we ended up moving the furniture out of
a suite of rooms used as a clinic during the week
by one of the trainees, and that worked very well.
Sometimes organizers operate with the same

lazy, negative attitudes as the ones held by people
seeking freebies. What they may call "Trust in the
Universe" is probably a great excuse for expecting
something for nothing or becoming lost in highly
unrealistic expectations.
Back in 1981, one organizer rented an

extremely expensive, immense hotel conference
room, mailed two thousand engraved invitations to
local psychologists and psychiatrists (who tend not
to go to non-medical conferences), and ordered a
fruit buffet for 200 laid on for the first morning. He
chose that hotel and that room and that buffet
because he knew they were used by a very
successful "motivator" who always commanded
huge audiences for lectures. I think he thought that
just making grandiose plans would be enough for
them to be realized. He forgot to take care of his
negatives toward doing the work of contacting
each of the strangers he had invited and trying to
convince them to come. He never even phoned
the people on his mailing list to confirm that
anyone at all was going to accept his "invitation" to
pay $200 to learn about something they had never
even heard of from some woman named Eve
Jones whom they didn't know either.
A dozen people attended, almost all of them

friends of mine, and there wasn't a single "shrink"
among them.
He ended up going over $2,000 in the hole

simply because of the cost of the room and the
buffet. What a price to pay to learn to be less
grandiose. . .
When the workshop is residential, with the trainees
moving into the place the training is taking place, I
ask the organizer to set it up so that trainees pay
for their board and room separate from the
workshop fee, and so that they pay for their
lodging to the institution directly. That way, they
can clearly understand what they're paying for, and
the organizer doesn't have to do the institution's
collection work.
Residential trainings afford a really marvelous

opportunity for carrying on the workshop for long
hours, arriving at an intensity of sharing that is
extremely productive for everyone concerned.
Even though it's more expensive to go away to
some resort area or retreat area for the workshop
rather than staying in the big city, it's well worth it
because of the added value received.
If necessary and possible because they live

nearby, it's all right with me if a few people come to
a residential training and don't stay in residence. In
England, for example, where distances are so
small, many times I've had several people join a
residential workshop as day students, leaving at
the end of the evening session to return to their
homes, thereby saving the costs of rooms. In
residential trainings, though, I still expect everyone
to be together for meals.
So far as my lodging goes, I ask my organizer

to be sure I have a bed in a pleasant, clean room,
alone, with a toilet nearby. It's easiest if she has
room for me in her place. If not, I suggest she find
someone in the training who will exchange
accommodations for me for receiving a reduction
of a portion of the training fee. Only as a last resort
do I suggest a hotel since putting me up in a hotel
costs her more than finding me a place in
someone's home, and thereby increases the
pressures on her scarcity consciousness,
I've had some marvelous accommodations in
homes all over the world. If my thought is pure and
my heart is filled with love and forgiveness, then
the universe is always here supporting me.
If, instead, I find when I get to the workshop

that I've got unbearably uncomfortable
accommodations, I know that I'm running some old
birth number again-it's up to me to learn my lesson
and do something about such negative thoughts. I
don't have to tolerate difficult conditions more than
one night. Whenever I have sought to make
rooming changes, very positive results have
occurred.
For example, one night I found myself being

given a sleeping bag in which to sleep on the cold,
dirt cellar floor in a house which had no heating
anyhow. The toilets and bathrooms were three
floors up-a very long trek to make in the middle of
the dark night, especially since I didn't know my
way around the house at all.
I spent the night shivering and breathing, letting go
the old negative birth thought, "The world is cold
and hard and inhospitable."
The next day at the workshop, I simply asked,

"Is there anyone here who has a warm place for
me to stay? I'm not used to sleeping through a cold
night and the room I now have doesn't have any
heating."
I was promptly offered a beautiful warm suite

of rooms by one of the workshop attendees, and
that was that. My consciousness changed my
universe because I changed my consciousness
about the universe.
And I once again confirmed that the universe

always provides for me when I ask. Had I told my
organizer in advance that I must be given a room
with an adjoining bath and toilet, if I had stipulated
how I wanted my needs and desires met, I would
never have learned the particular lessons I was
able to learn through these circumstances.
For similar reasons, I'm not awfully interested in

dictating the behavior of my organizer (or anybody
else, for that matter), so I don't ask my organizer to
wear certain kinds of clothes other than clean-and-
neat ones. I'm not out to impress anyone with my
stagecraft.
I want my organizer to feel comfortable, coping

with a minimum of pressures, especially the worry
that she's investing in something that might not
pay off.
I want my organizer to know that I'll feel
comfortable leading a workshop with only a half
dozen trainees in the living space of one of them
who is attending for only part of the fee in
exchange for providing the venue.
I know that if I don't make requirements about

the venue, if I don't ask for flowers or a certain type
of music at a certain time or a certain kind of
refreshment for me at certain times, if, in short, I
don't act like a prima donna, whatever does
appear is usually even better than whatever I
might have demanded. As I said earlier, I like
being surprised. And the universe surprises me
pleasantly frequently. Every workshop or lecture I
have ever led anyplace has been a great, positive
adventure.
The only other necessary expense for the

organizer, beyond my travel, lodging, and the
venue, is the cost of recruiting attendees.
Many organizers think of recruitment in terms of

large-scale advertising to the general public. Like
the costs of the venue, high costs of advertising
may not be justified by increased attendance.
The easiest and least expensive is if the

organizer contacts only people she knows,
preferably people she has Rebirthed. She already
has total creditability with them, so if she tells them
she thinks they will gain a great deal from
attending my workshop which she is organizing,
they are very likely to attend. Writing to clients,
then phoning, is generally extremely inexpensive,
and is likely to bring very high returns.
As an organizer in Los Angeles, for myself or for
another Rebirth trainer.
I usually send out an announcement about a

coming workshop to everyone I've Rebirthed in the
past year, including everyone who has attended
any workshops, as well as to everyone who has
inquired about Rebirthing in the past year. I usually
keep my costs for postage and for printing to well
below $100. I try to keep the announcement
sincere and clear, rather than attempting to
construct a flashy, commercial announcement.
Lately, I have been printing the notices on 4" x

6" card stock, rather than on letter-size paper. The
card is mainly a brief announcement of the
program schedule and place, telling the recipient
to phone for further information about price and
about what to bring. Cards are easier to mail since
they don't need to be folded and sealed, and they
each cost 12Š less than letters to mail. More
importantly, they are easily scanned and are more
noticeable.
I always send a page of information to

everyone who responds to the initial notice. This
contains a brief program detailing which topics will
be handled and when, and when the Rebirths will
be conducted. It also tells what each trainee needs
to bring along: a sleeping bag or blanket and pillow
for the Rebirths, a sack lunch for each day (for I
don't want meals to interfere with the flow of the
workshop itself, if we're not in a residential setting
where we all eat together anyhow), and tissues,
snacks, and anything else they think they may
need to be comfortable. I also include a special
notice that I would prefer it if no one wears scented
aftershave or perfume, etc. I like to smell fresh
unscented air, whenever possible.
Many Rebirthing organizers publish their

notices of a coming workshop in New Age
newspapers, magazines, or newsletters that are
distributed to a select mailing list by a particular
organization. Full page ads in Breathe, the
quarterly publication of the British Rebirthers
Society, have been very productive for several of
my organizers, for example, and are very
reasonably priced.
Sometimes organizers have spent very large

amounts of money on ads in general circulation big
city newspapers.
If my organizer is part of an entity that

advertises in newspapers frequently, and I'm only
one of the events that that organization is
sponsoring, the cost of the ad is averaged out over
all the events, and the cost of the ad would be
being borne by my organizer even if my event
weren't scheduled. So such ads are free of scarcity
considerations, and are usually quite successful.
However, my experience is that, unless my

organizer advertises in a general circulation
publication continually, once a week, for example,
all year long, a single advertisement in a major
newspaper for a special event usually doesn't
seem to do more than, at best, pay for itself, in
terms of trainees recruited.
A few organizers have told me such ads gave
them greater notoriety and credibility because
readers were impressed that a local Rebirther was
"sponsoring" an event with a visiting Rebirther,
especially a well-known one. Even if such ads
don't directly result in many workshop trainees,
they usually more than pay for themselves
because of inquiries made to the organizer which
she can then convert into appointments for
individual Rebirth sessions. So sometimes such
ads use the "talent" as a come-on for the producer.
I was, indeed, very thrilled to see an ad for me and
my workshop in one of the world's great
newspapers, but I bet my organizer wasn't awfully
thrilled when only one person came to the
workshop because of that ad.
Posters sometimes seem to be an effective means
of publicizing a Rebirth training. But most posters
that are printed commercially are very expensive,
and, in most small localities, there aren't enough
places to post them to reach a varied audience. So
I suggest that organizers not put their money into
commercially printed posters unless they're in
large communities where there are many places
where such posters might have effect-New Age
places like health food stores, vegetarian
restaurants, and metaphysical bookshops are all
fine for posters.
Organizers do best, I believe, to concentrate

lots of effort on arranging newspaper, radio, and
TV interviews for the time I'm in town before a
workshop begins. I am absolutely believable
because I tell the truth, and that comes across
easily in interviews. So they have always been
very successful in drawing people to talks and
workshops.
I advise organizers to make every effort to

arrange interviews of me by reporters for the local
general circulation newspapers. Such stories have
always elicited a very good response. I typically
invite the reporter to attend the workshop free, so
he can add a follow-up story afterwards. People
often save the clippings and phone for
appointments months later, so my organizers
always benefit from such stories.
Probably the biggest response comes from radio
and TV interviews. One grandmother in South
Africa who heard me on radio was so impressed
that she took her granddaughter who had a
presumably incurable condition out of the hospital
to bring her to a week-long residential workshop.
(I'm proud to have the girl's letter to me, written a
year afterwards, in which she says that she had
not had any recurrence of her former terrible
malady ever since she first Rebirthed the first day
of the workshop.)
As mentioned before, local organizers always

increase their clientele sizably when I come to their
towns, especially if I appear on local TV or radio.
In Auckland, for example, my organizer arranged
appointments for individual Rebirths with close to
two dozen new clients following just one ten-
minute noontime radio interview I gave the day I
left. There, as elsewhere, people phoning the
station for information about Rebirthing were
referred to the local Rebirthing organizer, and, in
the course of her initial conversation with each
caller, she converted their inquiries into
appointments for sessions.
So, the broadcast media work-and they're free.

They may be a hassle to arrange, but they're
always productive.
That's all of it-that's what the organizer needs to

do to be successful.
With only two exceptions out of many

organizers for hundreds of workshops and
lectures, my organizers have always been regular
members of the regular workshop group activities,
attending all the group meetings. I want my
organizers to take care of matters like collection of
fees or assignment of rooms outside of the group
meetings. I don't want them leaving the group for
anything, including handling meal preparations or
clean-ups. When that hasn't been possible, I've
usually made such Karma Yoga a group activity,
so it gets done fast and so we're still together.
Having the organizers be regular members of the
group, not administrative figures, has allowed
them, as well as me, to have the group support
and intelligence when it comes to handling our
respective cases.
I have found that my organizers, like most people,
in fact, are generally quite open to sharing their
thoughts about their PDS cases and their sex and
love and God cases. But there has often been
greater constraint, even tension, about their money
cases-especially in connection with the payoff to
them for organizing and to me for what I've been
doing.
Getting the payoff for lectures or workshops,

especially outside the USA, has also, of course,
brought up different facets of my own money case,
changing almost every time.
At first, the issue was in connection with my

sense of worth and that of my organizers in
relation to the number of people who paid to come
to one of my events.
Everything was fine whenever huge numbers of

people came to everything I did-my organizers
were pleased with me and I loved having them feel
good. We eagerly made plans for additional
lectures and workshops the next time, on my
return trip. We all believed the "proof was in the
pudding," so we must all have let go lots of money
negatives and handled our money cases
successfully-otherwise my events wouldn't have
been so successful.
Occasionally, however, the universe provided

for our higher spiritual good by arranging the worst
winter storms in recorded history, for example, or a
transit shutdown, or some other barrier to good
attendance. At such times, a lot of PDS re money
is brought up-eventually to be breathed away. A
low attendance simply gave my organizers and me
plenty of time to go through our money stuff.
By the way, some of the highest moments of

my life have occurred in connection with receiving
my share of the tuition from workshops that I've
led.
One especially memorable time was in
Johannesburg, South Africa, when I went to do a
Rebirth while my organizers were having a
pancake breakfast. I had been there for two
weeks, working every day, but somehow I had the
impression that the very well-attended lectures I
had given almost every weekday and most
weeknights had been free to the public in the effort
to educate people about Rebirthing. I had already
received a goodly number of rends, the South
African currency, for my residential workshop, so I
didn't feel bad about working free-and I certainly
valued the opportunity to go to South Africa. After I
completed the Rebirth, I went into the dining room
to say Goodbye because I was about to leave for
the airport to go back to England. I saw a napkin-
covered stack on a plate and everyone insisted
that I sit down to "have a bite," even though I had
told them I almost never ate breakfast. To be
polite, I sat down, took the napkin off the plate, and
saw, to my great surprise, not a pile of pancakes,
but, instead, a huge pile of rands. What a great
feeling it was to learn that every person who
attended any event at which I spoke about
Rebirthing had paid the full attendance fee, so I
had made more in two weeks than I usually earned
from college teaching for two months!
As the years have gone by, I've become more

and more comfortable about being open about
dealing with my money issues in the group. In fact,
for the past few years, I have even made a small
public ceremony of receiving my share of the
receipts, using it as an example of one of the many
enjoyable aspects of running a Rebirthing
business.
This has led to a series of funny happenings,

each one an advance, spiritually, over the previous
one, each one a "teaching," each one bringing up
different negatives.
Initially, through the first seven or eight years of

leading workshops, I waited until the workshop
was over to meet with my organizer to receive my
share privately. I generally took the cash or checks
without looking at them, and never even checked
payments against the names of the people
attending. I felt it would be insulting to check the
payments and count the cash in front of my
organizer. So far as I know, my organizers were
always honest.
Of course, I always counted the money and

made a note of the amount received immediately
upon returning to my room, so that I had good
records for my dear Internal Revenue Service.
Whenever I sold someone a book, tape, deck of

affirmation cards or whatever else I was providing
for sale to people attending the meeting, I
immediately wrote down the amount received and
the item sold. I always tried to be present and
conscious about money, and my system worked
well, I thought.
Once in England, when someone claimed he had
given me a certain currency bill for an item, but
that I hadn't given him his change. I was able to
show that I didn't have that size currency and my
total amount of cash was the total I had written
down-there wasn't any excess, much less the
amount he claimed I hadn't paid him.
We had an extremely interesting discussion in

front of the huge group. It was recorded and is
almost comical to listen to, especially as several
people in the audience ran up to give me money,
but refused to give it to him.
Anyhow, his failure to count his change taught

me that my way of "trustingly" handling receiving
the money from my organizer was actually a way I
was using to stay unconscious about money. I
realized that my organizer deserved the attention
and respect involved in actually counting out the
money as it was received by me. I felt this was
progress, an indication that I had let go some of
my unconscious negative belief that there must be
something "wrong" about money.
Making public receiving my payoff came about

shortly after, as I realized that keeping this a
private transaction was also, somehow, connected
to some negative thought about money.
I realized, further, another way that I was

neglecting to have a fully sensible attitude toward
my money when one day I received my payoff
during the group meeting. It was counted into my
hand, I carefully wrote down the amount, and then,
as usual, I put everything into my knitting bag
under a chair, not to be looked at again until I
returned to my lodgings many hours later. Imagine
my shock when I realized that several thousand
dollars were not in the knitting bag!
At first I thought that I was making the error

because that country's currency was unfamiliar.
So, I spent a good hour re-counting the money that
still was in my bag before I truly grasped that the
money was missing. Then I spent more time
kicking myself as I wondered who in the workshop
could possibly have stolen from me. I finally had
enough sense to phone my organizer. It was then I
learned that she had indeed counted out my
proper amount, but in putting a rubber band
around it as she took the pile from my hand, she
had deftly taken back money so she could pay her
personal bills!
Eventually, of course, she did send me the full

amount. But the whole hassle of my worrying
about having been stolen from needn't have
happened if I had made a practice of taking better
care of my money. Also, she would have had time
to find a better way to deal with her money
problems.
So from then on, I not only made a public

ceremony of receiving my money, but I kept my
hands on it and immediately excused myself to go
lock it up safely.
I think the biggest problem new organizers

have is simply the negatives they have about
asking for the money, especially if most of their
community hasn't yet heard much or anything
about Rebirthing.
Once, in Madrid, my organizer spent a great deal
of time talking with me about how he hoped that
Rebirthing would stimulate more attendance at his
center where all sorts of New Age activities took
place regularly. He said he had lots of money
problems and was barely managing to break even
financially. He looked forward to making money for
his center through Rebirthing.
He had arranged for me to give a lecture that

evening, and a very large crowed showed up,
although, in accordance with Spanish custom,
most of the people didn't arrive until close to
midnight! I finally stopped my talk and discussion
at 3:00 AM.! Then, after almost everyone left, I
spoke to him as he was seated at his desk,
counting the names of the people who had signed
the attendance list. I said, "Well, that was certainly
successful. You must have taken in at least a few
hundred dollars, even if you only charged $3 a
person."
That was when I learned what his biggest

problem about getting money really was: He hadn't
charged for admission!
So that taught me to ask, up front, what an

organizer is charging for an event. And it gave me
a valuable story to tell at workshops when we talk
about running a Rebirthing business. I remind
everyone that the first thing they have to do if they
want to handle their money problems is very
simple: Ask for it!
As I hope you can see from reading all this, I try to
be easy to work for, and with. I'm certain that just
as I have loved every one of all my many
organizers, they have loved me completely, too.
Why not? I'm certainly lovable. I'm a little old lady
who's lively and intelligent and compassionate and
fun to be with.
I wish that every Rebirthing organizer would

organize for me, and that all my previous
organizers were still organizing for me.
In some cases, they stopped because they

made so much money from my workshops that
they moved away from their home countries and
are living out their life dreams elsewhere. Several
former organizers have become workshop leaders
themselves or they have become exclusive
organizers for another Rebirther or someone in the
LRT or in Vivation.
In some cases, though, I have lost an organizer

who was disappointed because not many people
attended a particular workshop. A few organizers
have even come close to failing to break even on
their expenses (in addition to the "fruit buffet"
fellow mentioned earlier).
When I learn that my organizer isn't making a

profit, I do my best to mitigate the situation.
First of all, instead of tithing to whoever or

whatever I was planning to tithe to, I give that 10
percent to the organizer. In almost every case, that
has been enough for the organizer to turn a profit,
albeit a small one.
When my return to her of 10 percent of my half of
the total fees collected still isn't enough for my
organizer to get out of the red, into the black, I
have told the entire workshop the state of affairs
openly, and I've asked for donations to the
organizer. I have also asked freebies to pay at
least something to her. I usually make certain to
buy meals we eat together for my organizer so
she's not out that cost. In one instance, I ended up
paying a "reasonable rate" for my lodging in an
organizer's home and contributed heavily to her
car costs-but she made a profit, by hell...
That leads to the question of what is the difference
between being charitable and generous to one's
organizer and being an abettor, an enabler,
helping someone avoid the consequences of her
mistakes?
I don't know the answer. I've just done whatever
seems to feel best for me at the time. I have tried
very hard to make certain that no one loses money
organizing workshops for me. And whenever
someone has told me that she has, I have worked
very hard with her and with myself, to find out how
that can possibly have happened and to mitigate
the loss.
To me it seems quite obvious that unless she

has done something highly unusual, my organizer
is bound to at least clear her costs. When an
organizer claims to be losing money, I sometimes
find she has charged as "event costs" items that
are part of her "cost of doing business" or
performing her usual duties.
For example, one organizer typed out the

workshop notices on her own computer and then
handled the mailing. But then she charged, as part
of the event costs, a portion of the capital cost of
the computer, and she also charged for her time
as a typist, and as a folder, stamper, and mail-box
depositor. In effect, she had already been paid, at
least on paper, for doing what organizers usually
do for their portion of the receipts. In such a
situation, of course she's not going to make any
money being an organizer because she's putting
herself out as a typist or general office help.
I said to her, "Do you expect to get paid for

typing though you're really an organizer? I
guarantee you'll make your typing wages-but you'll
go broke as an organizer. It's as if you've closed
the door on your open account with the universe.
Scarcity! Do the scud work free, leaving yourself
open to receiving an abundance as an organizer."
Another example of what happens with scarcity

consciousness is when people who send out
regular newsletters from their organization have
then apportioned a certain amount of the cost of
that regular newspaper as a cost of advertising a
workshop that they were organizing for me. That
doesn't work, for essentially the same reason.
Instead of being organizers, essentially they're
hiring themselves out as printers, as newsletter
circulators, as typists, as computer owners, as
telephone message makers, as letter folders and
sealers. All of that is a legitimate part of being an
organizer, from my point of view, and should not
be costed in.
I know that Time is Money and you're supposed

to charge for your time and you've got to be as
severe with yourself as you are with anybody. But
don't confound the issue. All those activities are
how you discharge the duties of an organizer, for
which you will be rewarded by receiving tuition
from lots of trainees.
Padding the costs is more appropriate to some
kind of presentation to the tax man than for
presenting to your conscience. Allow yourself to
have the satisfaction of having done a good job as
an organizer. And think of yourself as an
organizer, not an office worker.
Another suggestion is to think of the money you're
spending to put on a workshop as money you
would be spending to do whatever you do that isn't
strictly essential. In other words, regard organizing
a workshop the same way you operate a party, a
week-end trip, or anything else that's
entertainment or instruction.
Think about the ways you like to "waste" money

enjoyably, without feeling sore. For example, some
people really enjoy taking a hundred dollars and
going out and eating a splendid meal with a good
friend. Some people like to go to an expensive
play or concert. Other people would take the same
hundred dollars and would go somewhere to see
sights, the memory of which they really enjoy
having. Other people are willing to take the
hundred dollars and gamble at a casino.
How do you give yourself pleasure that's

evanescent? You may remember it and treasure
that memory, but you don't have anything to show
for it.
You need to figure out your style. Ask yourself, "If
organizing is going to be a "waste" of time and
money, how can I do it and feel good about it?
What else do I do that I really enjoy that takes time
and money?"
I, for example, feel very good about the money I

give to charities. Every time I write a check for a
hundred or two hundred or five hundred dollars
and send it to some organization, I feel really good
about myself. I know that I'm showing other people
that I love them and care for them and hope that
they have as much joy and nochas as I have in my
life. It is a blessing that I can perform, an act of
goodness that I can give to my community. So, I
don't mind giving money away at all. But I mind
buying a really expensive meal! I'm not the kind of
person who generally goes out and spends a big
bunch of money for a meal just to be in a stylish
and overpriced place.
So, for me to be an organizer, one attitude that
really works is if I think of myself as willing to
spend my time and money to try to get something
organized for another person, just as I'm willing to
give a similar amount of money to the community
at large through a charity. I'm giving to support
someone I think is going to benefit everybody, just
as I might otherwise give to some organized
charity.
As mentioned previously, I suggest that

organizers keep their costs within whatever can be
realized from their share, their 50 percent share, of
the tuitions and fees received from two or three
people attending. So if you're going to charge $300
for a workshop and you're going to make $150 for
each person, keep your costs down to $300 to
$450. Then you know you're going to make your
costs back, you're not going to lose.
When I think about how to run a Rebirth business,
I think about service, first, and income, second. I
feel I need to give away a certain amount. I urge
organizers to have that same attitude, too. Give
your time and energy.
I urge you to act from a sense of generosity,

especially when organizing, and not from the
desire to make a lot of money doing very little. If
not, it's very easy for you to begrudge the amount
of work that goes into getting a bunch of people
together to pay to attend the workshop.
Probably the best attitude to take with regard to

organizing a Rebirthing event is that it's like
throwing a big party. It's going to cost you a lot for
the food and for the decorations and the flowers.
It's going to be a lot of work and a lot of effort and
a lot of mess. But you're going to have a
fantastically marvelous time, and you enjoy
spending your money on something like that.
What a marvelous thing it is when, with such an

attitude, you find that you get the party for nothing,
or even better, that you have made money out of
giving this party for people! I think that's a
desirable, constructive, positive attitude about
organizing.
The payoff at the end of a tour is always a big
payoff, psychologically, if not financially-and it's
lovely when both my organizer and I get both.
Regard yourself as worthy of spending money

on to get your business started. Remember that
Rebirthing really isn't only a business, it's also a
medium of spiritual exchange and it's the way you
show your love to your community. So, the profit is
not always in dollars and cents. We do pay for an
education. We do pay for therapy, whether it be to
a physical therapist or a psychotherapist. As with
education or therapy, with organizing we're also
getting something marvelous and precious. So,
let's not begrudge what it costs us.
For me to reach people, I need organizers.

If you'd like to try your hand at organizing for me,
give me a call or write. You already know the
terms.
I give great value, and my workshops are
magically transformative, even if sometimes I help
someone learn more about himself than he
thought he wanted to know.
Remember, though, I am not a high-tech, slick

performance commodity. I don't have state-of-the-
art huge speakers breaking up the workshop
tension with rock music, and I'm not dressed in
flowing chiffon gowns. I still dress in the suits I
wore to teach college in or in jeans and tops (plain
but clean).
So if you don't have a lot of PDS about your

momma enjoying herself, I invite you to think of
trying to organize for me. We can have fun
together. But remember, I've been known to swear
and to smoke grass, and I haven't always been
married to the man living with me. If all that
bothers you, organize for me only if you're ready to
change your views. I'll be glad to help.
I'm out to help people use the tool of Rebirthing

to enable themselves to get what they want. I'm
here to encourage them to want to develop their
highest, finest spiritual selves, so we can all walk
through the gate together, as we must if any of us
is to arrive at Heaven on Earth. I'm eternally
grateful to every one of the dozens of organizers
who have helped me fulfill these aims.

CHAPTER NINETEEN
THE STANDARD REBIRTH TRAINING The Logic of
Magical Thought
Before discussing the form and content of my and The Dance of
typical weekend training, I first want to explain
some of my reasons for doing things my way.
the Breath
These points are trivial, but I believe they all go
towards making everyone as comfortable as
possible. INTRODUCTION
For example, although I generally work CHAPTER ONE
someplace where there are enough blankets and
pillows so that everyone can be provided with The Ideal Breath
them if necessary, I usually ask people coming to
a training to bring their own individual blankets and CHAPTER TWO
pillows or sleeping bags. That's so that they can The Difference
feel comfortable using familiar bedding. Between Rebirthing
As mentioned before, in my announcements
and invitations, I also ask people not to wear
aftershaves, perfumes, hair sprays, or other CHAPTER THREE
scented preparations to Rebirth trainings. It is The Difference
much easier to breathe clean air that isn't scented, Between the Ideal
especially since the base or carrier for most Breath And Yogic
commercial perfumes may be irritating to many
noses. Breathing
Another reason is that scents have nostalgia CHAPTER FOUR

value. I'm not especially fond of Rebirthing The Difference
someone who has a specific agenda in mind, so, Between Rebirthing
I'm not especially in favor of someone prompting And Primal Scream
his unconscious with specific smells in order to call
up specific negatives which he then intends to let Therapy
go with his breath. I prefer he surrender to the
breath, letting Divine Intelligence determine what CHAPTER FIVE
comes up and is let go of by the breathing. The Biology of
Imprints
And a third reason is that I want people to think
of a Rebirth training, whether it's a Rebirth
weekend or a Rebirth one-day seminar, as a place CHAPTER SIX
to get real, not a place for putting on phony Food and
facades and trying to attract someone. I don't want Consciousness
people operating from the scarcity thought that
they, themselves, are not enough, that they have CHAPTER SEVEN
to do something extra besides being themselves to
Rebirthing and
make people want them. Bodywork Therapies
And, as I've said in earlier chapters, I don't want to
run a dating game.
CHAPTER EIGHT
I don't think the most important thing we do in Rebirthing and
our lives is to attract someone sexually and get Conventional
them to commit to us, so that we stay in a long- Rsychotherapies
standing, loving, sexual relationship.
CHAPTER NINE
I think our important relationship is with Rebirthing and
ourselves and with God and with Reality. My
workshops are aimed at stimulating people to think Neuro-Linguistic
about that. Programming
So I ask people to come to trainings clean and
neat (I don't want a repeat of my Scotch-English CHAPTER 10
smelly feet number), wearing comfortable clothes Affirmations
and little or no make-up. I ask them to leave
themselves unadorned, to be the person that God
sees when God looks at them. (I don't think God is CHAPTER 11
deceived by elaborate hairdos, expensive The Parental
perfumes, beautiful up-to-date fashionable Disapproval
clothing, etc., but then, who knows what God does Syndrome
or doesn't do? But if God is what I create, my God
goes for clean and neat.)
CHAPTER 12
If food isn't being provided, I ask people to bring Time, Work, and
to a workshop their own bag lunches so that we Money:
don't need to go and buy food, prepare it, clean- Consciousness and
up, etc., or break up the group to go out to get Abundance
meals. Whenever possible, I try to do trainings
where the meals are provided already prepared,
so that we only need to take a break to go to be CHAPTER 13
served. Sex and Loving
Relationships
This isn't the same in other people's trainings.
Some leaders want to give trainees a chance to go CHAPTER 14
off by themselves for meals and digest or integrate
whatever they've been hearing or thinking about. Physical Immortality
Others think that a good finish of a day's training is
for everyone to go out together for a large meal at CHAPTER 15
a restaurant. Ethical
Consideration
But my own feeling is that we've come together
for a very short period of time, to get a lot done,
and I like doing it. (Outside of the workshop, I'm CHAPTER 16
always open for a party, as people who know me Individual Rebirths
personally know is true.) I like the idea of staying
together as a group dealing with the Rebirthing CHAPTER 17
process and Rebirthing topics continually, without
Group Rebirthings
any interruption for mealtime breaks or rest. Given
my choice of several hours spent dining together
or several hours spent discussing our cases, I CHAPTER 18
almost always opt for having extra time for case Organizing
work. Trainings and
Workshops
In this regard, I might add that, during my
workshops, I do, indeed, go all day long, for very
CHAPTER 19
extended periods of time, paying close attention to The Standard
at least one other individual constantly. My Rebirth Training
attention isn't wavering. I'm not daydreaming
during workshops or sessions. I am connecting
with some other person's consciousness every CHAPTER 20
instant, as much as possible. I've been "on" from Running a Rebirth
seven in the morning until midnight, working like Business
that, for as long as forty-two days, six full weeks
without a day off, several times, at no pain or cost
to myself. CHAPTER 21
Rebirthing
I am pleased I can provide service for a large Organizations
number of people that way. Breathing fully and
freely allows me to have all the energy I need to do
anything I want to do without any effort
whatsoever. I believe that's true for everyone.
After all, we're dealing with the most interesting

topic of all: who we are.
So I am very clear, right up front at the

beginning of the workshop, that I am not
responsible for keeping anyone else's energy level
high. It's up to each person to take care of routine
matters like toileting, standing up for a stretch, or
eating a snack. I don't have breaks because I have
no scarcity of energy, and I know that the people in
my trainings actually don't either. We all are
connected to Infinite Energy.
Although other training leaders plan breaks to

replenish energy one way or another, I believe the
people who attend my workshops can certainly
keep going without having to take breaks every
hour to stand up and dance, or every hour and a
half for a little snack, or every few hours while I go
and bathe and change my clothing. And, certainly,
there's no sense, as I see it, to needing a break to
go smoke a cigarette.
In connection with smoking, I want to be very

clear.
I know many Rebirthers who smoke tobacco.

They're people I love, people with good
reputations, who sincerely believe that it doesn't
harm them.
Well, I was also a cigarette smoker for years, long
before I became involved in New Age therapies.
And I can't agree. Leaving aside purely physical
problems like lung cancer or emphysema that are
caused by tobacco, the drug, tobacco, itself has
psychological effects that oppose the desired
effects of Rebirthing. Tobacco brings people down.
If nothing else, it helps them collect themselves
and keep from feeling out of control.
Yet the essence of Rebirthing is to surrender to

the breath, to trust that being out of control is safe
if your Thought is pure, since, in fact, we are
always totally in control.
So, I suggest to people who are smokers that a

Rebirthing training is a superb time for them to
stop smoking. Since they're going to be doing a lot
of breathing, they might as well anchor some new
thoughts in on that too:
 The minute I crave a cigarette, I take a

deep, full, satisfying breath and let the
craving go.
 The more fully and freely I breathe, the
less I desire to take into my lungs anything
that can harm me, especially tobacco
smoke.
If they can't refrain, it's up to them to go out and

smoke when they want, and they'll just miss that
part of the discussion, or if the group objects to
their coming and going, they'll have to wait to
smoke until the group disbands. Only twice have I
changed my position on this matter.
In Valencia, Spain, most of the people in the

workshop were so heavily addicted to tobacco that
many frequently left the discussion to go smoke
their cigarettes. This got to be enough of a
distraction and interruption so that I finally set ten-
minute smoke breaks every hour. At least that
way, everyone was always present for the entire
discussion.
I made a similar concession during a workshop

in Paris, France, where most of the men attending
one workshop were people from North Africa who
were apparently even more addicted to tobacco
than the people in Spain. They also weren't
extremely thrilled to be in a workshop led by a
woman, so they didn't seem disposed to follow my
requests that they refrain from cigarettes until we
took breaks at the end of each hour. Either they
were rebelling or were so addicted to constant
smoking that they lit cigarettes without even
thinking about it.
Fortunately, the room we were using was

usually used for dancing and exercise classes; it
had a very large square area, very high walls, and
a skylight that comprised most of the ceiling and
that could be opened to the outside air. So I finally
surrendered to reality and told the group that
people could smoke while sitting in the group
discussion, but only if the skylight were open at all
times. When people objected that it was winter and
the heat would leave the room, I gave them their
choice: smoking or warmth. We spent the last
three days of the workshop bundled in our winter
coats, covered in blankets, while just about
everyone but me smoked and smoked and
smoked.
In this connection, people addicted to nicotine

argue, "If your thought creates your universe and
you don't believe that cigarettes hurt you, then they
won't."
And I reply, "That's true, but only if you're a
Master."
I have no doubt in my mind that there do exist on
this earth people who can transcend the ordinary
limits of matter. There are many yogic activities
that people with great control of their bodies and
minds are able to perform. For example, I've been
told there are gurus who have boundless energy
and who have survived for years on what is by
ordinary accounts an exceedingly inadequate diet,
eating nothing but refined sugar. I have been told
stories about gurus who have taken poisonous
quantities of substances in order to show that they
had power beyond such substances and remained
unharmed. I well remember being told thirty-some
years ago by a urologist friend of mine that, while
attending a urology conference, he watched a
yogic practitioner put his penis into a glass of milk
and draw the milk up into his bladder, then release
it later on. I have seen people lie on knife-edges
holding a construction brick on their stomachs with
someone striking the brick, cleaving it with a
mallet, and yet they were able to keep their weight
distributed in such a fashion that they didn't get
cut. There are also reputed to be several people
who, probably by slowing down their metabolism
and breathing rate, can be locked into a very
limited airspace for periods of time significantly
longer than people normally could last, yet emerge
unharmed. Such body and mind control exists in
people called "Masters."
I believe that everyone who's ever attended any

workshop I've ever been involved with has truly
been a divine creature, and I seek to find the
divinity in everyone I meet. But I do not for an
instant believe that most of the people I've been
training are indeed yet Masters, in the sense of
being able to transcend normal, everyday ideas
about energy and health.
Anyhow, a true Master can "take it or leave it."
Conscious choice to indulge in a pleasure is only
proved if habit and need are not constantly
operative.
So, I ask people at trainings not to use any of the
legal common household drugs, like nicotine,
caffeine, sugar, or alcohol. I also ask them to
abstain from the use of any other drugs that would
close down their consciousness or diminish their
consciousness.
That opens the way, of course, for someone to ask
if I am willing to let people use drugs that expand
their consciousness while they're Rebirthing.
My reply generally is that I have no objection,

but until they've Rebirthed a few times and have
experienced what happens with the breath alone, I
suggest they refrain from using marijuana or other
psychedelic substances during their Rebirth
sessions or at workshops and trainings. Unless
they are experienced Rebirthers, they are clouding
the issue by confusing and confounding the two.
Now let's proceed to discuss my standard

training.
My usual weekend workshop covers specific topics
in a certain order over a period of approximately
25 hours.
Typically, I schedule a weekend training to run

from 7:00 P.M. to at least 10:00 P.M. Friday, from
10:00 A.M. to 10:00 P.M. Saturday, and from
10:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M., Sunday. Week-long
trainings follow the same order but differ because
more time is available for our topic of the day and
for more individual Rebirths. Since weekend
trainings are most common, the following
description is based on them.
Once the tuition has been collected and the time to
start the workshop has arrived (7:00 PM, Friday
evening), I ask all of us to take the notebooks I and
my organizer provide and write down the aims
we're hoping to accomplish for ourselves in the
course of the workshop. I always have attendees
do this, whether the workshop is only a six-hour,
one-day meeting or whether it's a week-long
training.
I ask them to write their aims as simply as
possible, and I give them about five to ten minutes
in which to write their aims down, preferably in the
form of an affirmation, so they're immediately
practicing constructing affirmations. For example,
instead of writing, "I want to make up my mind
about leaving my husband," the person writes, "I'm
now open to deciding on my course of action with
regard to my husband."
Once aims have been written, I ask everyone to

take a moment to think about what they know
about their births and what they know about their
parents at the time of their conception and birth:
Were they in love with each other? Were they
married? Did they want children? Were they
happy, cheerful, juicy people, accepting and
rejoicing in sex and love and family? or what?
I also ask them to think about what their

involvement with Rebirthing has been: Have they
been in other trainings? Have they been Rebirthed
before? Was that in groups or in one-on-one
sessions? What happened?
After that, I tell everyone, "OK, now we'll go

around the group and I want each of you to take a
few minutes to introduce yourself. Tell us your
name, where you come from, what you do for a
living, what your involvement has been with
Rebirthing, and what you know about your birth;
then I want you simply to read out loud the aims
you've just written down. Don't elaborate or
editorialize-just read your aims the way you wrote
them down."
I like to use each person's brief report as an

opportunity to discuss, also briefly, some important
point about Rebirthing, especially if what the
person is saying about her birth or her parents
seems to have direct and obvious relationships to
the aims that she has. So, typically, these
introductions take several hours.
Even if the group is very large, I believe it's

absolutely vital to the workshop for people to learn
about each other in our first get-together. If the
group is about sixty people, however, I limit the
introductions to name, job, and aims-sometimes I
even limit people to their three most important
aims. I also don't make many comments about a
person's specific case.
I know that in many countries, especially in

England, what a person does for a living is
regarded as his privacy. But I'm an American, I
teach mostly Americans, and I'm teaching them an
American technique. In America what a person
does for a living tells a great deal about him, since,
generally speaking, people in America earn their
living because of their own capacities and training,
not because they inherit jobs because their family's
been doing something particular for centuries.
Once all the trainees have told who they are
and what their backgrounds in Rebirthing have
been and what they want to get out of the
workshop, I talk for a short while about my
background and my personal aims. Then I discuss
my role and the course of the workshop. I usually
say something like, "My concern is that you get
what you came for, that you learn what Rebirthing
is, that you feel competent as Rebirthers, and that
you get what you personally want for yourself,
because that's why you're here. It's my
responsibility to tell you my best ideas about
Rebirthing and to help you see how you can apply
these to your own specific case and learn how to
use Rebirthing with other people. I'm willing to
spend as much time and effort as needed for each
of you to attain those aims. We definitely will start
on time, and I want us to stay together until we
complete the topics for each period. I have great
time integrity, but it's not always manifested in
ways that some people expect, for example, by
closing at a set time. I don't care if we go over our
time limit. If you can't stay past the announced
closing time, be sure to let me know so we can
handle your case early."
I also announce that I want to make certain that

each person gets what he wants from the
workshop. If not, I'll give him back his money. I
can't give him back his hopes, dreams, or time, but
I can certainly do my best to make sure he gets
what he says he wants from the workshop. If not,
at least he's not out his money as well.
Then I talk very briefly about the Ideal breath

and about the process of Rebirthing. I remind them
that Rebirthing someone else is simple and safe.
Essentially it consists of sitting next to the
Rebirthee, breathing in the connected pattern, and
prompting the Rebirthee to take the fullest, most
satisfying inhale possible, and to let go the exhale
as effortlessly as possible. That's all it is.
I ask everyone to agree to keep to a one-hour

breathe session contract between the Rebirther
and the Rebirthee during the training, and I explain
what that entails:
As the Rebirthee, each trainee openly agrees to

make every effort to breathe as fully as possible in
the connected fashion, lying on her back with her
arms by her sides and her legs spread naturally.
She agrees to breathe as her Rebirther suggests,
to follow her promptings for an hour.
Each trainee also openly agrees that, as the

Rebirther, she contracts to observe her Rebirthee's
breathing closely and continually for an hour, and
to prompt gently and with as much inspiring quality
as possible, so that her Rebirthee is encouraged to
breathe correctly.
I ask people at trainings to agree to start

individual sessions promptly and to remind each
other of when the hour is up, and to stop the
session soon after. I explain that our Thought
Creates, so a Rebirth can be completed in an hour
if that's intended and agreed upon. I also remind
them to close with the affirmation:
?Any old negatives which have come up into
consciousness during this Rebirthing session that
have not been dealt with, can be dealt with fully
during the next extended sleep period.
By dealt with I mean either re-submerged back

into the unconscious or let go of through the
conscious use of the breath. I use and recommend
this closing affirmation so the Rebirthee doesn't
feel hung over or incomplete.
I limit the individual Rebirths to an hour

because I don't want the training schedule radically
disrupted while one particular individual goes off
on a five-hour breathe, essentially imprisoning her
Rebirther into watching this extended breathe
period.
At some trainings I've attended led by other

Rebirthers, there were no time limits when people
went off to do their one-on-one Rebirths as
couples. Because they got started late or kept
going well past an hour, very often people came
back to these workshops hours after everyone else
had shared or after some particular topic had been
discussed. I find such erratic attendance
disturbing. There's nothing necessarily "wrong"
with having people coming in "late," but I think it's
easier to work within time limits and to have the
group back all together at the topic discussions,
called seminars.
After answering a few other questions about

Rebirthing as a process, I stop the discussion in
time for the trainees to choose up partners to go
Rebirth with and to have time to complete at least
one Rebirth that evening. I stress that this first
Rebirthing partnership is only going to last for one
Rebirth exchange. I want people to know that
clearly, so no one feels "stuck" with someone else.
Thanks to our introductions, everyone knows

enough about each other to have some
preferences. So choosing partners is relatively
easy. At most workshops, some people have
Rebirthed previously while others have never
Rebirthed before. I let the ones who have never
Rebirthed choose from amongst the "experts," and
everyone usually seems to feel comfortable about
that.
If only very few or even none of the people in

the workshop are experienced Rebirthers, all we
can do is trust divine intuition-and, of course, it
always works. So, in that case, I allow the group
as a whole to decide how they want to choose
partners. Whatever the group wants is OK with
me. Sometimes, it has been just on the basis of
every woman picks a man or every woman picks a
woman, or every old person picks a young person,
or every old person picks an old person, or
whatever. Sometimes they draw lots.
Sometimes people don't speak up fast enough, or,
one way or another, get "left behind." People who
haven't picked a partner or who haven't been
selected by anybody else thus get to be partners
for each other. They can work on each other's
reluctance-to-commit cases.
If somebody comes up to me to complain

privately that he doesn't want to Rebirth with the
person he's partnered with, I usually say, "Well,
this is your mind's creation, you are the one who
"chose" to have him. There must be some real
purpose being served in this. I hope you won't
insist on getting a different partner. I want you to
go with him and find the perfection in it."
Sometimes funny things happen at trainings as

people get worried about the consequences of a
New Age level of intense honesty, and revert back
into social games which cost a lot of effort and
really don't pay off very well. An example is the
smelly fellow at the training in the United Kingdom
several years ago previously discussed.
Before everyone leaves to go start the first

individual Rebirth, I say something short about the
perfection of this process of choice. It's always a
teaching. A whole lot of negatives can get taken
care of and discharged in the course of dealing
with why each person makes a specific choice and
how each feels about the person chosen.
So, picking a first partner is always an

important decision, one that can lead to much
growth.
After people have chosen their first Rebirth
partner, we figure out what time we'll reconvene
and then I wish them a Bon Voyage and give them
their perfect affirmation to keep in mind:
 I am a totally competent, sensitive,

intuitive, intelligent, and successful
Rebirther.
Then they go off, two by two, to Rebirth each

other. When we next meet together, everyone in
the group has been Rebirthed and everyone in the
group has Rebirthed at least one person.
Often, at this point in the training, people ask

me, "Aren't you going to go around and check on
us and see how well we're doing?"
My reply is, "You don't need me to supervise or

intercede. If anything comes up, remember it's only
a manifestation of your own old negative thought.
Breathe and remind yourself of the truth, which is
that you are good and you know what you're doing.
Carry on."
Sometimes people ask, "What will I do if I have

an emergency, if the person stops breathing?
Where will you be in case I need you?"
I always reply, "Breathe! Keep on breathing,

keep prompting, stay there, and sooner or later
your Rebirthee will breathe. Keep in mind that
everything "negative" that comes up during a
Rebirth is a manifestation of your old, deep
negative thoughts. This is your opportunity to let
go of your negatives at the same time that you're
keeping an eye on another person who is taking
the opportunity to let go his old negatives. You
can't prevent anyone from reaching their highest
spiritual purpose, ever, and especially not by
Rebirthing. Nothing bad can happen."
Lots of times, people say that they don't feel

competent and that, after all, they've been
computer programmers or cartoonists or
something that doesn't even necessarily involve
working with people. They aren't psychologists,
they're not teachers, they're not mothers, etc. Don't
I think that they should have more training before
they do something as involved and complicated as
Rebirthing someone else?
I say to these insecure people, "No! Rebirthing

is easy. If your Rebirthee is breathing in fully,
great! Everything's fine. If he's not, ask him to take
in more air. If he's letting his breath go effortlessly,
without making a big production of it, not guarding
it, not pushing it out, not exhausting the air in his
lungs, etc., but simply letting go, then you're doing
it right, and you can just sit there doing a breathe
yourself. If he's efforting, you'll hear him and you
can ask him to stop puffing or moaning or
whistling. You can ask him to take less time on his
exhale and just let it go without guarding it and
trickling it out. You can do whatever you feel you
need to do, keeping your focus on his breath.
Anyone can do it. All you have to do is watch his
chest or listen for whether the air is going in or out.
You can easily tell if someone is breathing in fully
or breathing out effortlessly, as well as keeping the
inhale and exhale connected. You don't need more
special training or experience to be a good
Rebirther."
In this connection, I think it's interesting that the

first person who ever picked me to Rebirth him (or
does anybody ever pick us, don't we always guide
someone to go for us?) was an individual who was
absolutely stone deaf without his hearing aid
which, unbeknownst to me, he had removed. He
didn't respond when I asked him to breathe
because he could not hear me! I finally resorted to
touching his shoulder to bring him back to his
breath.
But I stick by what I say. There is nothing
complicated at all about Rebirthing.
I hazard the guess that I have trained as many

Rebirthers as anyone in this world, with the
possible exception of Leonard Orr, Sondra Ray, or
Phil Laut. I have been leading trainings year after
year after year all over the world, and many of
them are extremely well attended with sometimes
hundreds of people in a weekend or week-long
training.
Furthermore, at this point, I have over fifty

years of professional clinical experience as a
psychologist, which I know is more than anyone
else in the entire Rebirthing movement has.
From the width and breadth of all my

experience and training, in and out of Rebirthing, I
know that the process of Rebirthing, while the
most profound process I have ever been involved
with, surely, nevertheless is, itself, a simple thing
to teach and monitor and encourage in the next
person.
Thank God for that! Even little children can be

and are excellent Rebirthers. Even very aged and
disabled people can be and are excellent
Rebirthers. Even people who don't have up-to-
normal intelligence can be and are good
Rebirthers. You don't need any clinical training.
You don't even need any Rebirth training. You
don't even need to know anything about the
person you're Rebirthing.
Of course, we all enjoy finding out about other

people. As a psychologist, I've been listening
professionally to people talking about themselves
since 1945, and I'm always fascinated as I find out
what happened that led to what's happening. So I
ask lots of questions and I always make up unique,
personalized affirmations based on the information
transmitted as people talk.
But, by and large, such talk is mainly only a

way to become more intimate with each other. In a
sense, it's only gossip. It can be dispensed with, if
necessary, because whatever the special
characteristics of a specific individual's life may be,
all people have generalized negatives about their
conception, their birth, their first breath, and their
relationships with their parents. Thus, all people
can benefit from the use of such generalized
affirmations as:
 I forgive my parents completely for any

negatives that were present at my
conception and birth.
 I forgive everyone present at my birth for
everything I ever used to blame them for.
 I forgive my parents for their ways of
showing me they loved me.
And, of course, even affirmations can be

thought of as part of the drama, not of the
essence. I'm convinced that while anyone is doing
the breathing, he lets go at least some or all old
negatives, especially the ones connected with his
birth and parents. So his Thought becomes
continually purified as he breathes.
It can therefore be argued that a Rebirther only
needs to teach the breathing-she doesn't need to
use affirmations at all. So she doesn't need to
know anything at all about the person she's
Rebirthing. Following that logic, all talk is
unnecessary. It's only social noise.
Pressed thusly by logic, I'm forced to declare

my choice: I mainly only like to Rebirth people I
know. Also I still believe it's necessary to establish
rapport between me and my Rebirthee.
I suppose all complaint and explanation could be
dispensed with by some renowned healer or
teacher who's so awesome and impressive that
everyone coming to her for help feels sufficient
trust to do the breathing in a relaxed, confident
manner without needing to do more than present
himself and follow her directions. But I'm not that
renowned.
Also, I find, for myself, that I like to hear the
specific "gossipy" details of a Rebirthee's life-I feel
I then understand him, and that fosters more
exchange between us, helping us both relax into
really good breathing. So I talk.
But I always emphasize that it's the breath that

does the healing.
The Rebirthing breathing works, even without

lots of reliance on affirmations. And that conscious
connected breath can be successfully taught by
anyone. In order to Rebirth someone, you only
need have the ability and willingness to sit down
and commit yourself to the task of prompting your
Rebirthee, so that he breathes as fully and freely
as possible in the connected pattern for at least an
hour.
I know, by saying all of that as explicitly and clearly
as I have just said it, that I'm challenging
statements made by many other people in
Rebirthing who seem to want to make Rebirthing
professionally demanding. Some of these training
criteria are almost as stringent as the internship
requirements that must be met in some states by a
graduate Ph.D. in clinical psychology before he's
allowed to take the state's licensing exam! Such
trainers seem to act as if Rebirthing were
complicated and perhaps dangerous. And they
seem to believe that extended supervision is
necessary. Several people in countries outside of
the USA even sincerely believe it's important to be
a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and to work under
the supervision of an experienced "certified" or
otherwise acknowledged Rebirther for two years
before taking private clients and making money off
of it!
But I know it isn't. Rebirthing may be more

profound than other existing psychotherapies, it
may be the best healing technique ever yet
devised, it may be better than anything any clinical
psychologist does. I'm not disputing any of that. I,
in fact, would declare such statements not as
maybes, but as truths.
But that doesn't mean that you need any

academic psychological training whatsoever in
order to be a "good" Rebirther. Or that such
training could produce "better" Rebirthers.
I think the people who say that to be a

Rebirther you need extensive psychological
training and academic credentials are operating
from a concept of scarcity. Perhaps on one level
they are interested in maintaining a power
relationship and a supervisory, controlling
relationship over others or at least a critical,
selective one. Maybe they believe that because
they did Rebirthing first, they do it best, and so all
others should learn from them.
Hardly true.
When I explain my point of view, some people,

still holding on to this interesting thought that you
have to have special advanced professional
training to be a good Rebirther, say, "Well, you
only think it's easy because you've had so much
clinical training. You call your sensitivity "divine
intuition," but I believe that what it is is a
consequence of extensive psychological training.
You're so into symbolism automatically that you
don't think that you're doing anything that other
people can't do just as easily and just as well. I still
believe that if a Rebirther is going to understand
her Rebirthee, she needs extensive psychological
training."
Well, of course, that is not so. Each of us is

certainly capable of seeing the obvious, and
frankly, I don't think anything is much more
obvious than our own personal law. We're sending
it out constantly, like radio transmitters. Our brains
are constantly vibrating, sending out some kind of
an electromagnetic pattern that can be received by
others who pay attention. The kids of today know
that. That's why they talk about the "vibes" and
being "in tune" with each other.
As for interpreting the symbolism of the breath,

to me it's obvious that no special training is needed
either. We all know the full, easy breath of
confidence just as we all know the cramped breath
of fear. Whenever we talk about such symbols,
we're almost talking art, the art of the breath's
dance, and we are each of us capable of
appreciating that artistic experience.
Perhaps some of these other trainers have

such high requirements because they think such
standards make sure that kooks and flakes and
freak's don't become Rebirthers and give
Rebirthing a bad name.
But how could that happen?
It is impossible to give Rebirthing a bad name.

Rebirthing is nothing but a breathing exercise, a
dance of the breath, easily witnessed.
The Rebirthee's Thought creates the

circumstances of his Rebirth session. If someone,
somewhere, teaching a client to Rebirth, does
something which the client doesn't like, this is in no
way a reflection whatsoever on Rebirthing or even
on that particular Rebirther, since after all, only the
client has free will in the client's world.
Some people object to this logic. As already

discussed, they ask what about a Rebirther who
tries to seduce his client?
All I can reply is, "Everything is a teaching."

Why would a client choose a Rebirther who seeks
to seduce her? This has to be something she's
throwing out in her Thought.
So, this is now her opportunity to deal with

seduction in a manner that's of service to her,
instead of in the same old pattern that apparently
has never served to let go her grievances
associated with seduction, especially seduction
from a so-called authority figure.
Many people have asked if I don't want to form

an organization of Rebirthers that will keep out
people like Mr. So-and-So who always balls with
the pretty girls who come to him for Rebirths.
No, I don't believe it's my job to set up

exclusionary organizations to make sure that every
acknowledged Rebirther is operating ethically and
morally. In my universe, everyone does. That's
how the people I train are. I don't ball with my
patients and I don't have social friends amongst
people who do, so far as I know. Also, I know that
whatever happens always happens with
everyone's consent, and, as mentioned previously,
I, myself, can't make a judgment as to whether or
not balling with somebody you've Rebirthed
corrupts or distorts the experience, or enhances
and completes it.
(In fact, I don't even know if I can really make

the judgment that balling with anyone could
possibly be harmful in any way, except for the
obvious biological consequences of disease and
unwanted pregnancy-and these are also affected
by thought, too.)
Anyhow, how can any Rebirthing organization

force people to follow certain moral principles?
One way or another, that's how I deal with the
objections that people come up with about not
being trained enough, not having enough
experience to Rebirth someone just a few hours
after a training starts. I'm usually successful in
encouraging trainees to go off with the partners
they'll exchange Rebirths with, to find out how
easy it really is to Rebirth others. In all these
years, actually, I've only known of one person who
refused to Rebirth her partner after she got
Rebirthed-and that was at one of Leonard's OYS's
in LA, not at one of my workshops.
In any case, my trainees do, indeed, leave to

go off and do unsupervised Rebirths when we
have been together for only a few hours. As they
leave, I remind them to think, not only:
 I am a totally sensitive, intelligent, intuitive,

competent, and successful Rebirther.
but I also remind them to keep in mind:
 With every breath I receive more and more
life and pleasure.
 With every breath I let go old negatives
I've been storing in my body and in my
heart and in my mind and in my spirit.
On a typical weekend training, it generally takes

two to three hours to write down our aims, make
our introductions and share our aims with each
other, select our Rebirth partners, and be ready to
go off to do the Rebirthing. That's the close of the
pre-Rebirth part of the evening.
Generally speaking, I try to finish the seminar-

discussion part of the evening before 10:00 P.M.
so the two Rebirths can be done before midnight.
If a couple doesn't want to do both Rebirths back-
to-back that evening, the second Rebirth can be
done early in the morning the next day, before we
meet as a group at 10:00 A.M., Saturday, to share
our Rebirthing experiences.
I try to find a venue for the training that has

many separate rooms in which each couple can
exchange Rebirths privately. But sometimes it has
been necessary to have more than one couple
Rebirth in one room. When that's so, I always ask
that the couples be turned away from seeing each
other and that they lie down as far away from each
other as possible. I urge them to open the windows
extra wide. I know that's a hardship in a cold
country, but fresh air-new spirit-is what we want,
isn't it?
In this connection, I've had the experience of

Rebirthing people in air- conditioned, enclosed
spaces, and my feeling is that it has never been as
clear and definitive a Rebirth experience as when I
work where windows are open or, better yet, when
I work completely out in the open air.
Sometimes, especially when the training is non-

residential, people who live nearby go off as pairs
to Rebirth in their own respective living spaces.
That's fine with me. Remember, I don't supervise
them anyhow. I trust that they can Rebirth each
other successfully and perfectly wherever they go.
On Friday evening the travel time doesn't matter,
and on Saturday we just adjust the schedule to
give the couples time to go to and come back from
where they choose to Rebirth.
I always remind people that I think they're much

better off if they do their Rebirthing on the floor,
with the Rebirthee lying on pads on the floor, while
the Rebirther sits next to him or behind him. That's
much better than Rebirthing on a bed with the
Rebirther either lying next to her Rebirthee or
sitting on a chair near the bed.
Such a suggestion has nothing to do with

mystic concepts about being grounded. It comes
simply from an ordinary, common-sense
evaluation of the circumstances.
People often feel somewhat dizzy when they

start to breathe fully, and then become
apprehensive if they are on a surface from which
they can fall or roll.
If they're already down on the floor when they say
they're feeling dizzy, at least they don't have worry
about falling down.
Obviously, also, if some people are concerned

about the implications of the intimate relationship
between the Rebirther and the Rebirthee and
whether it should or shouldn't spill over into a
seduction episode, everyone is certainly better off
if we're just not on beds, which automatically carry
several confusing connotations: one of enforced
immobility, one of sexual intimacy, and one of
illness and weakness.
The floor for me!
Furthermore, I know from practical experience

(after all, I've been working on the floor essentially
since 1971 when I started my seven and a half
years of doing Primal) that if you are on a hard
surface, your sacrum knows what to do with your
spine, so that you don't get a back- or neck-ache.
If, however, you're on a yielding surface (and that
can be as little as an inch of padding underneath
your sit-upon), your back usually gets tired in short
order.
So, I believe Rebirthers are better off down on

the floor; a floor with a thin carpet on it is ideal. I
work on a floor that is carpeted, but not padded,
and to make sure that my client stays warm, I use
a foam slab plus a thinsulate pad covered with a
fleece for him to lie on. Then I cover him with a
king-size Orlon comforter. I wash the fleece and
the comforter frequently. I use several different
pillows under his head and knees, and I change
pillowcases between each client.
For me it's imperative that the surroundings be

clean. And I like my surroundings to be pretty, as
they are in my own Rebirthing room. I have seen
Rebirthers who use a grungy and smelly sleeping
bag into which each one of their Rebirth clients
crawls to Rebirth. I imagine the people who
choose to Rebirth with somebody using a dirty
sleeping bag are people who had mothers with
intense, deep feelings of shame about their own
sexuality. If you come from a lady who thinks sex
is dirty, and that the part where sex is felt is the
filthiest, smelliest place of all, then I imagine when
you get Reborn you've got to recreate those
circumstances. I'm really glad my mom didn't think
that.
Sometimes, when I'm conducting a workshop or

training in my home, people gather together in my
living room or hot tub at the end of Friday evening
after Rebirths are finished. I ask that everyone
keep the conversation away from their Rebirth
experiences because those will be discussed the
next day when we're all together in session.
If both Rebirthings aren't exchanged Friday

evening, the second Rebirth takes place early
Saturday before the group meeting starts.
I'm always struck by how every workshop I

have ever led has had what seems to be a central
theme, reflective of the consciousness of the
members of the group. This is especially notable
when I consider how the people who attend may
come from several different countries and from a
very wide variety of life styles. As the very first
introductions are being made during the first
meeting of a workshop, such a central theme
becomes evident.
Such a "coincidence" occurred when an old

Primal patient of mine, very drunk, came over
unexpectedly during a workshop being held in my
house, but not led by me. I had to teach my
college class that afternoon, so I didn't arrive home
until the whole episode was finished. I came back
to find a very disturbed group of people. I was told
that Jim had asked if he could join the group and
he was allowed to, but he kept interrupting to ask
far-out questions and also to go outside to smoke.
When the workshop leader had asked him to

leave because he was being disruptive, Jim
launched into a strong criticism of what he called
the hypocrisy of the group for rejecting him while
they were talking about seeing the divinity in
everyone. I was told that the leader and Jim almost
came to blows, narrowly averted when my friend
Louis enticed Jim to go outside with him to drink
the bottle of Southern Comfort I had least seen on
my dining room sideboard.
After I had been told what had happened, I

commented, "Someone here must have a really
strong negative about people who drink too much."
It turned out that every single person in the
workshop except me had had a parent who was an
alcoholic! No one in the group had ever felt
protected from the verbal and physical abuse of
those drunken parents. That workshop certainly
gave them all a great opportunity to look at their
issues about drunks and to let go their negatives
about not only the parent who drank, but the other
parent who didn't protect them.
At another workshop I was leading out of town,

everyone was talking about their individual sex-
and-love cases in such an unspecific and clouded
way that I finally commented it seemed as if
everyone was keeping some secret.
It turned out that all but two had been molested
sexually as a child-the exceptions were one man
who tearfully confessed to having molested his
daughter and one woman who was afraid that her
husband was molesting their daughter!
Because a central theme of a workshop group

emerges so regularly, I have offered workshops
from time to time that are dedicated to a specific
topic. Generally, however, I have found there is
more spirit in a group that "finds out" every
member shares a significant negative with the
others than in a group which establishes itself
around one particular issue from the get-go. But
that's just how I feel-obviously other Rebirthing
workshop leaders have been very successful with
meetings that address a specific problem.
The second day of a weekend training is

usually scheduled to run from 10:00 A.M. to 10:00
P.M.. We typically start with a few minutes devoted
to having everyone having the opportunity to bring
up anything he wants to clear, but no discussion is
held, no response, no defense, just a "Thank you
for sharing."
Then we go on to share what it felt like to be a
Rebirther, and to deal with questions or concerns
that came up, and whatever else happened during
each Rebirth. As much time as anyone wants is
spent on this sharing.
Usually, we complete the sharing while we're

eating lunch. We spend so much time mainly
because I usually use each case to elaborate on
various points about Rebirthing.
After sharing, we get to PDS, as discussed in

Chapter Eleven. Each person shares his
outstanding grievances against his parents, and
we all join in constructing affirmations to correct,
heal, and eliminate these negatives. We generally
end with a rousing chorus of:
 I am not my mother.
 I am not my father.
 I don't have my parents' thoughts and
feelings.
 I don't need to have my parents' thoughts
and feelings in order to show them I love
them or to win their love.
By late afternoon, we move naturally from PDS

to the topics of money, work, and time, as
discussed in Chapter Twelve.
I am constantly amazed by the variety of
negatives that emerge when we talk about these
issues. Every workshop I've led has brought up
some new issue or some new twist on an old
theme. Every workshop has produced a greater
abundance consciousness, not only in the
trainees, but in me and my organizer.
Usually, while I'm explaining simple ways of
handling money that increase consciousness of
abundance, I reflect on whether or not I, myself,
have been applying my own advice. Reminding
myself to be my own guru has sometimes made an
immediate change in my money picture-so quickly
that it could almost be called magic or a miracle.
One such change happened during a workshop

I was conducting in early December, 1988. I had
returned to regular full-time college teaching in
October, following a sabbatical during which I had
taken both Louis and my son, Tom, on a trip to
India. The costs of the trip had seriously depleted
my easily accessible savings, and I had only
received half pay while on sabbatical. Then, during
the summer vacation which followed the end of my
sabbatical, I received no income at all from the
college. So my money flow seemed tight to me,
despite the fact that I had earned lots of other
money early that year.
I had made lots of money while I was out of the
country because one of the movie studios rented
my house for two months to make a movie called,
"Say Anything." However, I had spent that money
immediately on a new roof, new walks and a new
driveway, and on having my house exterior
completely repainted. So, while my house looked
great, my checkbook balance didn't.
I knew I was going to have to do something to

generate more money immediately or I was going
to have to stall and pay only part of my routine bills
the coming month, a state of affairs I had last
experienced fifteen years earlier, well before I had
first embraced the Rebirthing philosophy.
I know there is always an abundance of

material wealth and that I usually enjoy that
abundance. So I wondered what negatives were
interfering. I considered cashing in part of the
annuity which constituted my long-term savings,
but I didn't like to pull money out from it because of
government rules that caused a loss of interest on
such a withdrawal. So I was casting about, trying
to generate other funds to handle my current lack-
a temporary lack that would be made up as soon
as I received my next regular paycheck from my
college teaching.
I had a serious "think" about what was

happening with my money thoughts, but rather
than locating the negative considerations which
were hampering my money flow, my mind jumped
to thoughts about remedies, and I came to the
conclusion that one solution was to conduct a
workshop, even if only for the few new Rebirthees
I had seen since returning to Los Angeles.
Of course, since I was feeling and thinking

scarcity, not abundance, the workshop was
sparsely attended and didn't generate enough
money for me to handle all my bills completely.
But it did generate the insight and changes I am

about to describe.
As we were discussing money problems, I

described a "trick" to play with money:
"Take the largest denomination currency bill

you can afford to keep out of circulation and put it
into your wallet; then vow that it will be circulated
only in case of an emergency which can't be met
by other money available to you, and that you will
replace it as soon as possible. So long as it rests
in your wallet, you are never "broke." That change
in the realities of your consciousness generally
produces a positive change in your finances."
As I spoke, I suddenly realized that I had

broken that vow myself!
For years I had followed this advice by keeping

in my wallet a $100 bill I had originally received
from Leonard Orr during a training at Campbell's
Hot Springs in the late 70s.
He had held it up in his hand and said, "I'll give

this hundred dollar bill to anyone who gives me a
good excuse for giving it to him."
Almost everyone in the training came up with a

sad story about how they needed the money for
their rent or to pay their dentist, etc., etc.
But Leonard didn't loosen his hold on the $100

bill. The atmosphere was beginning to get sticky
and I wanted to get on with something else, so
finally, impatiently, I raised my hand and said,
"Leonard," if you give me the hundred dollars, I
promise I'll spend at least a hundred and fifty
dollars before the day is over."
Leonard stayed silent for a while, as if

analyzing my offer, and then replied, "Well, I'd
certainly be happy to give a hundred dollars to my
mother."
And I said, "Well, I'm old enough to be your

mother, and I'd be happy to be regarded as your
mother, if that's what you want."
Leonard smiled and said, "That sounds good."

Then he handed me the bill which I promptly put
into a side pocket of my wallet. Later that day, in
keeping with my pledge, I spent $50 on a
Feldenkrais session, then spent another $50 on a
Rebirthing session, and finally gave $50 to
someone in the workshop who had lost his wallet
in the woods and was totally without funds. But I
kept the $100 bill that Leonard had given me. It
reposed in my wallet for almost ten years before I
finally reach an impasse where I had to spend it.
That event took place following a five-day stay I
spent in Burma before leaving first for Nepal and
then for India.
I had already experienced some unexpected

money problems in Burma. Our hotel and meal
costs had been prepaid in Los Angeles even
before we received permission back in Los
Angeles to enter Burma, so I didn't need cash for
living. And because we were told that we couldn't
buy hard currency with any remaining Burmese
money on leaving the country, on arrival in
Rangoon, I exchanged only a small amount of
USA money to pay for any Burmese souvenirs I
might purchase. So far as I knew, I still had a few
USA dollar bills in my wallet, along with several
$1,000 traveler's checks.
On our last day in Burma, just before leaving

Rangoon for Bangkok, I phoned my son in Los
Angeles. We had last been in contact many weeks
earlier, and he had asked me to phone him that
day to make sure he could leave in time to meet us
in India a few days later.
The call finally went through just before we

were due to leave with our tour guide for the
airport. I talked with Tom only long enough to
ascertain that everything was OK, then I hung up
and went to pay the hotel proprietor the $15 I had
been told by the guide was the cost of a call to the
USA.
Much to my shock, the hotel proprietor insisted

the phone call cost was $45, not $15, and it had to
be paid in USA dollars. He angrily refused to take
the Burmese money I had saved for the call and
for a tip to our guide. Since I didn't have enough
USA money, I rushed to the one-and-only bank in
Rangoon to try to cash one of my $1,000 traveler's
checks, only to be told they could only give me all
Burmese money, and not any dollars. That meant
that I would lose more than $950 just to satisfy the
hotel proprietor, and I wasn't about to do that.
So I went back to the hotel and tried again to

convince the hotel proprietor to take my remaining
Burmese money as pay for the phone call. He
became so angry that he brought in the police and
for a while I thought I was going to miss my flight
to Nepal and instead was going to go to a
Burmese jail. Fortunately, in exchange for the few
USA dollars I still thought were all I had, the tour
guide finally convinced the hotel man to accept my
Burmese money, along with one of my blouses
which the hotel owner and his wife wanted. As I
left for the airport, I remembered selling my saris to
another hotel owner in India years before, and
thought how I, apparently, could get around Asia
without money so long as I still had clothes to
trade.
When we arrived in Nepal, I confidently went up

to the currency exchange to change one of my
traveler's checks, but to my dismay, I was told that
the currency exchange in Kathmandu couldn't
cash a $1,000 traveler's check either and that no
banks would be open until the end of the weekend.
So for a while it looked as if we were going to have
to spend almost three days in Kathmandu without
any money at all.
Then, suddenly, I remembered that "Leonard's"

$100 bill was still safely tucked away in my wallet. I
had never used it. I triumphantly pulled it out and
was easily able to exchange it for enough
Nepalese rupees for us to enjoy a great
abundance during our stay in Nepal. Leonard's bill
served me well, and I was glad I hadn't
remembered I had it back in Burma after all, where
I was sure the tour guide would probably have
figured out a way to get all of it and split it with the
hotel proprietor.
In the fullness of time, we left Nepal, spent our

weeks in India, then went on to China and to Hong
Kong, and finally back to Los Angeles. Later in the
summer, I went to the East Coast to do some
workshops, then drove my son's auto all alone by
myself from D.C. to Toledo and Chicago, then to
New Orleans, on to Dallas and Albuquerque, and
finally back to LA in time to start the Fall semester
and to struggle with my bills-until the time when I
was talking about money in my December LA
workshop.
As I was considering what negative

considerations about money might have been
interfering with my cash flow, I suddenly realized
that, in all the time I'd been back from overseas, I
hadn't remembered to replace the $100 bill in my
wallet!
So, that Saturday afternoon, I told my trainees I

needed to take a short break to go to the bank. I
zoomed over to the bank and withdrew $100 from
my very low checking account, and put the five
$20's I received back into the side pocket hiding
place in my wallet. (On Monday, I converted them
into another crisp $100 bill that stayed in my wallet
for many more years.)
Now, at least, I was square with my

conscience, keeping my promise to keep $100 in
my purse only for the next emergency.
The minute I did that, my money problems

dissolved.
I arrived home to find two marvelous messages

on my phone machine. They gave me a great
opportunity to prove to my workshop that Thought
creates.
The first message was from the movie studio,

asking to use my house again the next two weeks
for some re-shoot's and offering to pay me
considerably more than previously because of the
inconvenience. As soon as I heard that message, I
knew my temporary money problems were solved.
The second message may have led to my

solving my money problems even more
permanently, and certainly led to my solving time
problems, so I think it merits further discussion
before getting back to the topic of the standard
Rebirth training. The call was from a woman I had
never met who said I received excellent references
from several Rebirthers she knew, and that she
wanted to take me as her cabinmate on a free
seventeen-day cruise on the Cunard Princess if I
would Rebirth her every day! The cruise was to
start the following Friday.
With permission from the workshop, I phoned

her back and we talked enough so it seemed to
me we could get along. I told her I'd love to accept
her invitation, but that I would have to ask my
Department Chairperson to allow me to take off
the time. Because it was just before the Christmas
break, I wasn't sure I could get permission.
However, when I talked about it with my Chair the
next Monday, she said I'd be a fool not to accept
the offer and reminded me that I could always take
unpaid personal leave.
So I did.
I arranged for the movie studio to start work at

my house that week, and four days later, I met my
roommate for the first time.
The cruise went from Los Angeles to Acapulco

and Cabos San Luco along the coast of Mexico, to
Costa Rica, then through the Panama Canal up to
Columbia, then to Grand Canyon in the Caribbean,
and finally to Fort Lauderdale.
My roommate and I got along marvelously, and

I did, indeed, Rebirth her every day for seventeen
days straight. I learned a lot about her life in
Palestine before World War II and then afterwards
in Israel during its wars. Her discussion of the
conflicts in her marriage reminded me of mine with
my first husband, and I found myself letting go lots
of the grievances I apparently had still been
holding on to.
During our last Rebirth, I had a very clear

intuition that her husband would prevent her from
having anything more to do with me or with
Rebirthing once she returned to Los Angeles.
My Rebirthee and I spent another week

together in hotel rooms and in a rental car I drove,
seeing the Everglades, the Florida Keys, and then
Epcott Center. We finally parted as I delivered her
to a friend of hers on Northern Florida and boarded
the plane to go to D.C., New York, and Boston to
see my family.
Despite her hugs and kisses and tears and thanks
when we parted, I haven't heard from her again,
although I sent her invitations to workshops
through the next year, as well as a New Year's
card the following Rosh Hashanah. I wonder if my
intuition was correct or if other reasons accounted
for her not staying in touch.
But, at least for me, the trip wasn't just a

vacation.
Away from my classes, my house, the mail, and
the telephone, with the Captain's permission for
two hours every afternoon to use a nearby
uninhabited cabin in which passenger's luggage
was stored, and with my roommate's agreement to
spend that time away from her, I finally had time to
begin writing this book.
I wrote this story about the $100 bill sitting in an
empty cabin on board the Princess.
Was replacing the $100 bill the magical key that
opened the door to extra money from the studio
and leisure to work on this book? Was restoring
my honesty to myself to keep my vow about the
money in my wallet the miraculous correction of
my scarcity thoughts?
I'd like to think so.

If nothing else, it stimulated me to think about
money magic.
That afternoon I thought of a new exercise for

my trainees to complete. Here's mine:
MONEY MAGIC
Ten things I'm willing to do to be a financial
success:
1. Write this book and get it published.

2. Lead Rebirth workshops all over the world.
3. Help Rebirthers all over the world develop

a wide clientele for individual sessions and
One Year Seminars.
4. Create, produce, and market additional

specialized Affirmation cards.
5. Fill all orders for Affirmation cards and

tapes and handle all Rebirthing
correspondence promptly.
6. Accommodate my daily schedule so I can

Rebirth clients when it's convenient for
them.
7. Set my fees for individual sessions and for

workshops at a high enough level to attract
a very large clientele of reasonably
wealthy people who are pleased to pay my
full fee.
8. Continue to live within my budget on my

pension fund, so far as necessities are
concerned.
9. Continue to use all my income from

Rebirthing activities to support anything
extra that I like and want to do or get, for
any reason at all-travel, gifts, new creative
enterprises, new things, whatever.
10. Make sure my Will includes bequests to all

the people outside of family I want to know
I've loved and am grateful to for being in
my life: Barbara, Louis, Pat, David, Hilary,
Jan, etc.
When we're dealing with PDS and Money,
Work and Time, I always like to tell my groups
some of the funny stories concerning money I've
experienced, especially how money travels.
Lots of times, money I've earned from a

Rebirthing event has passed from me to another
Rebirther to another, performing little miracles of
consciousness with each change of ownership.
One series of such exchanges started with the

objection of one of my workshop organizers in
England to letting my friend Louis, who was
traveling with me, attend the workshop without
paying anything. So I paid her her portion of the
half fee that was the organizer's due. The several
other organizers of that workshop said they didn't
object to Louis' being in the workshop free. We
both had the opportunity to deal with some of our
similar issues about being with men who weren't
earning their livings. I realized I had dealt with the
role reversals between men and women relative to
who provides the main support for the family by
acknowledging that I have the choice of supporting
myself and saving my excess to leave to my
children or supporting myself plus Louis and
saving less. Clearly my children won't be harmed
by my spending more of my income giving myself
the congenial company of Louis. Realizing all that
was well worth the cost of the organizer's fee.
At the end of the workshop, as I was driving

back to London with another of the organizers, he
said that a mistake had been made in the
accounting, and that exactly the same amount of
money was still due me. So I happily accepted it.
That led to my determining to change my ways
and start at least looking at the accounts of fees
received, instead of accepting my share blindly. So
that was a double benefit: the extra payment and
the new resolution.
The next day, we attended a holiday dance in

London given for all Rebirthers and friends,
organized by the same organizer who had asked
Louis to pay for the workshop. At the end of a
really great evening, it turned out that not enough
money had been collected at the door to pay the
band's charges as well as the cost of the hall. The
amount needed was exactly the same amount,
once again! Since that was the amount I had
planned to give to my organizer as a tithe, I explain
that, instead of giving that amount to the organizer,
I would pay the band. The organizer then used the
evening's receipts to pay the cost of the hall rental.
I've puzzled about all those transactions many

times, trying to figure out if anyone lost out in any
way.
The way I look at it, everyone won. I certainly

did.
So much for stories-let's go back to the workshop.
On the typical weekend workshop, we usually
finish working on everyone's money case by
supper time, then we go out together for our meal.
During supper, I talk about such aspects of running
a Rebirth business as getting Rebirth clients,
setting and collecting the fee, organizing for
others, and the relations between Rebirthing and
the LRT or Vivation.
When we get back from eating supper together,

everyone chooses a new Rebirth partner and the
couples go off to exchange the second round of
Rebirths.
By the time the first of this second round of

Rebirths is finished, many people want to close up
shop for the night, so they generally make plans to
complete the other Rebirth the next morning, give
hugs all around, and leave. If people congregate
after the Rebirthing is finished, conversation is
again kept away from talk about the Rebirth
experiences themselves.
The next morning, Sunday, we start again at

10:00 A.M. with clearing, then a quick share about
the second Rebirth and Rebirthing experience. I
draw connections between the reported events
and what had been said about PDS.
We finish by lunch, which we eat together

again. Then we start with Sex and Loving
Relationships, as discussed in Chapter Thirteen.
Everyone describes his current primary sexual

loving relationships and what changes are desired.
The balance between fear of abandonment and
fear of entrapment is discussed, and everyone is
encouraged to work on appropriate affirmations.
 Everyone, especially sexual love partners,

stays with me as long as I want.
 The more intimate and loving I am with my
sexual partner, the more free I feel.
 By this time, we know each other fairly

well, so the give and take between these
new Rebirthers is very energetic. People
usually feel safe enough to reveal
previously closely-held secrets, and again,
curative affirmations are constructed.
 I totally forgive myself for everything I ever

was ashamed of or blamed myself for.
Before we start the group Rebirth which will

complete the weekend, we talk about Immortality
and Babaji. Everyone has the chance to speak
about their outstanding negatives about the
concept of Physical Immortality. There's also
plenty of time to share and ask about Babaji and
other gurus.
I usually invite people to come see slides of

India, especially of Babaji and the ashram at
Herakhan, that evening, after the workshop proper
is completed, or on the following Monday evening.
We carry out the group Rebirth in a well-

ventilated large room. I like to play my affirmations
tape for the first 45 minutes. I often play parts of
the Herakhan Mahadevi tape when the full hour is
up, as people start to stir back into this ordinary
world.
We have a very quick share of what the group

experience was like for everyone, then I ask each
person to read aloud the list of aims he wrote on
Friday evening and to check off which ones were
accomplished. The members of the group often
join in, commenting on each person's evaluation
as well.
I remind them of my money-back guarantee, and I
ask them to be sure they feel satisfied. I can't
remember anyone who has completed a workshop
who has said he wasn't satisfied-though I well
recall a few who left just before the first round of
Individual Rebirths because they disliked my
comments on "drama versus letting-go."
I said, "You don't need to feel an old negative in

order to let it go. Remember, it's only coming up
into consciousness so you can know you're still
holding on to it, not so you can act on it as if it had
ever been true and correct."
They objected. They insisted it was necessary

to feel pain, to embrace the pain, etc., etc.
I reasoned, "Now listen, you have to agree with me
that you feel better feeling good than feeling bad,
don't you?"
They answered, "No!"
A classic exchange...
Anyhow, by the time everyone in the workshop

is finished reviewing our lists of aims, it's time to
end. I remind everyone to hug everyone else and
to be sure to get all their gear. Then we say
goodbye.
I have often wished I could dream up some way

to close the workshop that would be sweetly
solemn and compelling, or that I could feel natural
using ceremonies I have participated in in
workshops led by other Rebirthers or even in my
own workshops outside of Los Angeles, where my
organizers have managed very pleasing closing
ceremonies. I haven't yet. So usually we just hug
and part. No circles, no special songs.
As with everything, there is a close similarity

between my way of closing a workshop and my
way of closing my own birth: It goes on and on and
on and then, suddenly, it's all over, there's chaos
and a tremendous sense of loss.
There is a large difference for me between

leaving a training anywhere else in the world and
being left when I give a training here in LA at my
home. Often, in LA, some people have left as soon
as their lists have been reviewed, not waiting until
everyone is complete. So, unlike residential
workshops where some partings are very tearful,
weekend non-residential workshop finishes in Los
Angeles are often hasty and emotionally
abstracted as local residents and out-of-towner's
rush to start their journeys home.
It's the old birth story all over again: abandonment
versus freedom, entrapment versus union.
I almost always feel that a weekend non-
residential training isn't long enough, that it's
rushed. I feel a weekend residential training is
much more luxurious, so far as time goes,
because we have two nights to stay up late, in a
hot tub or around a campfire or a kitchen table,
socializing and discussing Rebirthing. The
program, the order is the same-just the time
constraints are loosened.
The "best" format, I believe, is the five-day

residential training, usually referred to as a "week-
long" training.
The program for a week-long workshop calls for

a round of individual Rebirths each day of the first
four days, and a group Rebirth at the very end of
the last day.
We have time to complete both Rebirths for

each couple in one day and to share immediately
afterwards.
Before breaking up for the individual Rebirths,

we have time to spend a full day on each major
topic:
 Conscious Connected Breath and

Affirmations
 Parental Disapproval Syndrome
 Money, Work, and Time
 Sex and Love
 Physical Immortality
During a week-long workshop, the daily time

schedule usually goes as follows:
 7:00 A.M. to 9:00 A.M. breakfast,

meditation
 9:00 A.M. to Noon clearing, topic of the
day
 Noon to 1:00 P.M. lunch
 1:00 P.M. to 2:00 P.M. time out for

sightseeing or whatever
 2:00 P.M. to 5:00 P.M. topic of the day
 5:00 P.M. to 9:00 P.M. supper and

individual Rebirths
 9:00 P.M. to 11:00 P.M. sharing of

Rebirthing experiences
 11:00 P.M. to 7:00 A.M. party, sleep,

bathe, whatever
People stay up all night and let go their scarcity

number about energy. People form profound ties
with one another. People have a good time.
This is how I run a workshop. Other Rebirthers
have different approaches. You can run your
workshops any way you want. However you do it, I
guarantee that each person attending will receive
immense benefits, as will you.

CHAPTER TWENTY
RUNNING A REBIRTH BUSINESS The Logic of
Magical Thought
As I mentioned in the preceding chapter, and The Dance of
on Saturday of a typical weekend Rebirthing the Breath
training, I always make certain to spend at least an
hour or two talking specifically about how to run a
Rebirth business.
INTRODUCTION
Like many of the other suggestions about
money that I make at Rebirth workshops, many of CHAPTER ONE
these ideas about running a Rebirth business are The Ideal Breath
ones that I have taken over, in great gratitude,
from either Leonard Orr or Phil Laut, the two
acknowledged money experts in the Rebirthing CHAPTER TWO
world. If you have money issues you haven’t let The Difference
go yet—or by the end of this chapter—I Between Rebirthing
recommend you get in touch with them. (Give and Hyperventilation
them a hug from me, too.)
All of the ideas that I speak about and get CHAPTER THREE
people in my workshops to agree to practice are The Difference
designed not only to handle common problems Between the Ideal
encountered when running a Rebirth business, but Breath And Yogic
also to improve general money consciousness. If Breathing
you have ever run a successful business of your
own, you probably have already taken care of
most of these details and followed these CHAPTER FOUR
procedures. The Difference
Between Rebirthing
Before opening your practice as a And Primal Scream
Rebirther, it makes sense for you to have business Therapy
cards, and for you to have a brochure prepared
that you can send out to people who call you for
information about what Rebirthing is. CHAPTER FIVE
The Biology of
Get yourself some really nice looking Imprints
business cards, ones that you are happy to hand
out to people. Be sure your card states that you CHAPTER SIX
are a Rebirther, so when you hand such a card to
another person you have the opportunity to explain Food and
what Rebirthing is about, carrying on a brief Consciousness
impromptu Rebirth seminar. I carry such cards
along with other cards which identify me as a CHAPTER SEVEN
licensed clinical psychologist and which include my Rebirthing and
state license number. I use such cards when
sending information to the people referred to me
by two therapists who believe their patients will be Bodywork Therapies
put off by the term, “Rebirther.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Make sure that you have a brochure
because—while a little Rebirth seminar is OK Rebirthing and
when you’re talking with someone face to face, Conventional
and a very short one is OK on the telephone in Rsychotherapies
answer to a query from some stranger—you don’t
wand to spend the majority of your day repeating CHAPTER NINE
these same elemental thoughts about Rebirthing.
You need some explanation in the form of a Rebirthing and
brochure which you willingly and freely send to Neuro-Linguistic
anyone who asks. I don’t monkey around with Programming
asking them to send a stamped, self-addressed
envelope or to pay for the brochure. I simply print CHAPTER 10
it at my own expense as proud proof that I have
something that I’m selling, that I want everyone to Affirmations
know about. I present it attractively and give it to
anyone who calls to ask about Rebirthing, even CHAPTER 11
people who already lots about Rebirthing, paying The Parental
the postage myself. It’s part of the cost of doing Disapproval
business.
Syndrome
I find, much to my surprise, that many
people who say they’re Rebirthers fail to get either CHAPTER 12
business cards or brochures or letterhead Time, Work, and
stationery indicating that they are involved with Money:
Rebirthing. Consciousness and
Abundance
That’s such an unbusinesslike attitude!
Maybe such scarcity consciousness is a reflection
of resentment over putting money out for CHAPTER 13
something they haven’t made any money from Sex and Loving
doing yet. Relationships
But I believe this kind of reluctance to CHAPTER 14
print cards announcing Rebirth services is related
to other money negatives. Physical Immortality
Why would people cheat themselves and CHAPTER 15

be chintzy about acknowledging and making open Ethical
the claim that they are indeed Rebirthers? I can Consideration
only conclude it’s because something about
Rebirthing seems shameful to them. Until
breathing releases such shames, I say, “Stay out CHAPTER 16
of Rebirthing!” Individual Rebirths
Many people object to the name, CHAPTER 17

“Rebirthing,” because it might be mis-interpreted Group Rebirthings
as something connected to a religious conversion
like being a Born-again Christian. So what? You
can explain the difference in your brochure or face- CHAPTER 18
to-face. You can also call Rebirthing “Conscious Organizing
Connected Breathing.” Trainings and
Workshops
I seek to convince every person attending
my workshops to open a Rebirthing business,
CHAPTER 19
even if only for a few hours a week. It improves
life in every regard. The Standard
Rebirth Training
Breathing is something you do anyhow,
right? Every minute of your life you’re breathing in
and out. CHAPTER 20
Running a Rebirth
The more fully and freely you breathe, the Business
healthier you are, the more alive you are, the more
in the Now you are. CHAPTER 21
Rebirthing
So certainly every individual should greet Organizations
every opportunity to practice breathing freely and
fully, to carry out a nice, conscious, connected
breath.
The time I spend Rebirthing somebody

isn’t time that I lose. Instead, it’s time I gain to
practice my Breathing, while working and helping
others.
In addition, it’s something I like to do. I

enjoy hearing from other people about themselves,
learning their stories. I enjoy listening to people
talk about themselves. I enjoy talking about
myself. What I’m doing is something I would
probably be doing anyhow.
So, you not only get this chance to

practice your breathing and to peek in on the lives
of other people, but you also get to have your own
life brought into consciousness in some particular
regard. Whatever your Rebirthee is talking about
always evokes some response inside you in that
connection.
Making Rebirthing your profession has lots

of other benefits as well. The other person feels
good about talking to you about himself, he knows
you’re really listening. And, of course, after he has
practiced the breathing with you and has started
using the affirmations, he really gets benefit from it
and from you and your ministrations. So he’s
definitely being helped and he’s really grateful to
you. All in all, he is quite happy about paying the
reasonable fee that you’re requesting he pay.
So Rebirthing has all those positives to it.
There is another whole dimension of

positivity to being a Rebirther that comes into
being as people let go their negatives, especially
the ones that have kept them disapproving of their
parents and have kept them believing that they
were unfortunate from birth. As they let go all of
that stuff—that life is something terrible, life is
cheating them, they’ve been hurt—they come into
greater consciousness of good, of Good in its
absolute sense. They witness and become a part
of the great beauty and generosity of creation.
If all that is, is God, then that God is good!
And so, as you’re practicing being a

Rebirther, and your client is receiving the benefits
of the practice of Rebirthing, both of you are
coming into a closer relationship with the good of
the universe, the godliness. You are being
spiritually uplifted and verified in a sense. The
rightness, the union between you and everything
else, is being restored.
Among the many ideas that I got from Phil

and Leonard is the idea of deciding in advance
when I want to see people and how much I want to
charge them (how much I want to make, how
much I’m open to receiving), then buying an
engagement calendar and blocking out the time
I’m willing to set aside to do the Rebirths that I’m
going to be charging for. So far, that’s nothing
new. Everyone in business for himself does this.
What is new is that I pledge to myself either to use
that time only to concentrate on the Rebirth client
who has come to fill the time and pay me the fee
I’m charging, or else to use that time to
concentrate on letting go whatever negatives
about making money or being a Rebirther I may be
running that are keeping clients away.
So, in your calendar, set aside a certain

time to earn the money you’re receiving for
Rebirthing. If you don’t have a client during that
time, spend time working with affirmations and
Rebirthing yourself. You’ll find out something
about your old negatives as soon as you do.
Money is almost never a consideration, certainly
seldom the prime consideration.
Another idea from Phil and Leonard is that,

since my consciousness always creates my money
picture, there are many times when my negatives
about all the other work I want or need to do will
“mysteriously” limit the number of Rebirths I am
scheduled for during a particular stretch of time.
Sometimes that means that I don’t have anybody
coming to sessions with me for a week or two
while I do some other things that I want to do, like
work on this book or take my older sister camping.
Fine! It doesn’t mean that no one wants me or that
I’m becoming a lousy Rebirther. It just means that
since my first priority is to serve, the only way I can
have time for myself is if nobody wants me to
serve them. So that’s what happens.
The issue of time limits is one of the big

birth-connected belief systems.
People ask what to do in private practice:

run on a schedule or have unlimited sessions? My
reply is, “What do you want to do?”
I try to keep the time scheduled for a

session within limits that allow me to handle the
call for my services. In Los Angeles, typically I
don’t have more than two or three people a day
wanting to Rebirth. So it’s easy enough for me to
schedule Rebirth sessions four or five hours apart.
That way, I have plenty of time for the session, as
well as time to relax in between sessions and do
other things.
When I’m on the road, it’s a different

matter completely. At some places, ten people
have wanted to do individual Rebirths in a day with
me. They were scheduled an hour and a half
apart, and I worked really hard for the days I was
there. This isn’t something I’d do in Los Angeles,
however, where there’s no reason to schedule so
closely or even to work so hard.
So, suit yourself about the length of your

sessions in private practice. As mentioned
previously, I know of good Rebirthers who have
good training, fine backgrounds, and top
reputations who work on a one-hour breathe
basis. They have their clients come in and breathe
for an hour, then leave, with very little conversation
having taken place. Their clients meet as a group
on a weekly basis to talk—about their Rebirths and
their lives.
As I’ve said previously, I prefer to talk first,

to get an idea of what a person wants to change,
and to get an idea of how he feels about what I
think is connected to what he’s complaining about.
That takes more time, but it’s worth it to me.
Otherwise, I feel I don’t know my Rebirthees very
well.
Another idea I got from Phil and Leonard

was that whenever I find myself having any
negatives about Rebirthing other people, I need to
explore what kind of scarcity consciousness I’m
running about money, work, and time.
As described in Chapter Sixteen, the

negative I have come up with each time is that I’m
not charging enough to be satisfied. As soon as
I’ve recognized that, I’ve reminded myself that it’s
all right for me to increase the amount of money
that I’m charging for my Rebirths. I deserve to
acknowledge how much I want to get paid. How
much I have asked has steadily risen through the
years as I have realized how much of my time
goes into it. After all, it’s my job to sell my time for
a wage that pays me an amount that is in accord
with my own self-concept. As I’ve said previously,
if there’s somebody I want to Rebirth or want to
have in my workshop who can’t afford the fee or
the tuition, it’s also all right for me to provide my
services at a level that’s affordable to that person.
At almost every workshop I have led

outside of the USA, someone has asked me when
I think it’s okay for new Rebirthers to start to
charge for Rebirthings. Usually these people have
accepted restrictions set up by some so-called
authority in their area who has told them that, for
example, until they have Rebirthed fifty people
without getting paid, they aren’t entitled to ask for
any money!
My reply to when to charge is essentially

my general reply to any permission type questions:
“Whenever you want. You don’t need anyone’s
permission to do anything you do. Do it out of your
own free will. When you feel ready to Rebirth
others and ask them to pay you for it, do it!”
I remind them of the other benefits I’ve

mentioned previously, for example, you don’t have
to get dirty doing it. You don’t have to lift any
heavy weights doing it. There’s nothing dangerous
about it. You don’t need any special equipment.
You don’t need special training.
All you need is somebody else who is

willing to lie down in your presence and practice
the conscious connected breath.
So, deciding to run a Rebirth business is

and should be easy as can be. You don’t need to
do anything to do it except announce that you are
in business. And my feeling, my attitude about
that, is announce it proudly!
People often ask whether they should give

up their steady job and go into Rebirthing on a kind
of a sink-or-swim basis, making all of their time
available for Rebirthing.
Again, my own response is, “Do whatever

you want. Just be sure you’re operating from an
abundance consciousness.”
I know several people who’ve given up

extremely lucrative jobs to open Rebirth practices
which were highly successful. Those people all
had savings they could fall back upon; it wasn’t as
if they were really going to be living hand to mouth,
minute to minute, not ever really knowing where
the next meal was coming from or whether they
could pay their next month’s rent. Leaving their
jobs to start Rebirthing full-time didn’t create an
immediate scarcity consciousness.
So, if you have lots of savings and you

really don’t like the job that you’ve been doing full-
time, and you love the thought of entering into
Rebirthing on a full-time basis, go for it.
Be sure to give yourself some time limit: a

Rebirthing place will be selected and outfitted by
so and such time, so many people will be coming
to see you for so many sessions per week by
another time limit, so much of a profit will be made
by another time limit.
If you don’t meet those limits, agree in

advance that you’ll immediately, without hesitation,
put your Rebirthing on a different basis or go back
to making your living doing something else again.
That’s one OK way to do it, even though it

has some qualities of the crisis personality about it
(it might have something to do with people who get
born precipitously, for all I know).
It wasn’t my style, and, fortunately, I didn’t

need it to be my style. As I’ve said before, I was
teaching college and running a Primal practice
when I first encountered Rebirthing. I loved
teaching full-time, which only involved fifteen hours
of lecturing a week, and I had no desire to stop
teaching on that full-time basis. Just as with my
Primal work, I had plenty of time to see people for
Rebirthings the one morning of the work week
when I didn’t teach, and I also had every afternoon
and evening, as well as the weekend for sessions.
So running a Rebirthing practice and teaching
college never were in any kind of conflict at all.
It wasn’t until a couple of years ago that I

began to desire to have a freer schedule, primarily
because I enjoyed myself so much when I traveled
around, leading Rebirth trainings all over the world:
England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, France, Spain,
Holland, Belgium, Poland, Sweden, South Africa,
New Zealand, and Australia. I got tired of trying to
squeeze all of the foreign travel for workshops into
summer vacation, or into Thanksgiving, Christmas,
and Easter vacations from school. I found that I
wasn’t seeing my grandchildren as much as I
wanted to, and I wasn’t seeing them for important
holidays. Also, I never actually just got a chance
to hang out in my own back yard, looking at the
garden grow and the bunnies frisking around.
So, in ‘91 I decided that I would retire from
college teaching in ‘92. Since then, I have had the
leisure to travel whenever and wherever I wanted
to, and that has been fine.
Whatever you decide, be sure you don’t do

anything from a sense of scarcity. If you don’t
have enough savings to know that you can live
well for the time you think it will probably take for
you to establish a thriving Rebirthing business, I
suggest that you keep your current job and fit
Rebirthing in during the evenings and weekends.
Of course, that approach may be just as

dependent on a scarcity consciousness as any
other act is. It’s up to you to determine where your
sense of scarcity lies, and then to act in
accordance with the higher spiritual thought.
For example, I have never actually made

Rebirthing the sole source of my income. Does
that mean I don’t have enough faith in my ability to
generate an immense income from Rebirthing? I
don’t know and—for once—I don’t care to know.
Because of my college teaching, I haven’t needed
to. Since I haven’t needed to and won’t need to, I
haven’t done it, and I won’t do it.
Rebirthing for me can always remain

something that provides the glorious opportunity to
meet marvelous people in all reaches of life all
over the world. It’s my comfort in my older age.
It’s my fun. It’s my hobby. It’s my pastime. It’s my
consuming passion. It’s what I do. And it’s just
really nice that I also make a part of my living from
it. I think I would be missing this joy if I had given
up teaching during the sixteen years I was
Rebirthing before I retired from college. For
what? Just to prove I could rely on myself? Who
else has been supporting me since I was 13 years
old? So for me, the higher spiritual thought was,
“I’ve already proved I can take care of myself—
that’s what I’m doing. Now I’m free to be easy on
myself.”
Some people are extremely adventurous

and totally confident that the universe is there to
support them. So they start a Rebirthing business
even though they don’t have savings. They find
people who will support them as they get started at
Rebirthing. I’ve known several people who moved
in with somebody else so they didn’t have to
handle paying a large rent, and who then started
Rebirthing practices, mostly on a shoe string.
Most of them have done well. So that can be
done.
You can do it however you want.

Whatever makes you most comfortable should be
the determining factor as you decide how many
times each week you must sell sessions and at
what price in order to meet your bills and give
yourself the standard of living you’re open to
having.
Remember to practice generosity toward

other Rebirthers, too. I recommend you share
your expertise and your resources.
For example, as a businesswoman

running a Rebirth practice, I have always given my
mailing list to whoever asked me for it. I have also
shared whatever information I have about
Rebirthing with anybody who has asked for it, and
I have never done anything to try to prevent them
from gaining the benefit of my experience, as well.
To do elsewise seems to me proof positive of a
really giant scarcity consciousness. I have also
invited other Rebirthers to come to my Rebirth
trainings and workshops at reduced or no fee, so
they have the opportunity to see what I do and
how I do it.
When I think about how to run a Rebirth

business. I think about service, first, and income,
second. I feel I need to give away a certain
amount. I urge other people to have that same
attitude, too. Give away a certain amount of your
time, whether it be Rebirthing others or leading
Rebirth trainings or organizing Rebirthing trainings
for other people.
I urge you to act from a sense of

generosity and not from any desire to make a lot of
money doing very little, especially when
organizing, because with that attitude, you’ll
probably begrudge the amount of work that goes
into getting a bunch of people together to pay to
attend a workshop.
So regard yourself as worthy of spending

money on to get your business started.
Remember that Rebirthing really isn’t only a
business, it’s also a medium of spiritual exchange
and a way you show your love to your community.
The profit is not always in dollars and

cents. We pay for an education. We pay for
therapy.
When we run our Rebirthing business,

we’re getting educated and we’re getting healed.
We’re getting something marvelous and precious.
So, let’s not begrudge what it costs us.
In addition to seeing Rebirth clients in your
Rebirthing business, organizing for others can be
profitable, and it certainly is fun. Follow the
suggestions in Chapter Eighteen and see for
yourself what you really think about organizing for
another Rebirther. Organizing for others is a great
tool for improving your consciousness, especially if
you’re jealous or withholding. You’ll certainly
come up against your old negatives when you’re
counting how many people you’ve gotten to attend
the event you’re organizing for another Rebirther.
Organizing for yourself is another item

completely because it brings up other negatives
about worth and calling attention to ourselves. We
need to be willing to spend money on sensible
advertising for ourselves.
My view is that it’s a waste to spend

money, effort, and time on trying to gain credibility
by soliciting mental health professionals.
Rebirthing at this time is not an “accepted” form of
therapy, and most psychiatrists, psychologists, and
social workers are not likely to welcome you and
Rebirthing until Rebirthing is either substantiated
by sound research or is picked up and advocated
by some generally famous person, in or out of the
mental health professions.
Therefore, don’t waste money singling the

mental health pros out trying to get them to
acknowledge that Rebirthing works and to use it
themselves. They will arrive for their own
individual sessions eventually, usually at the
urging of either a friend or patient.
As I said in Chapter Eighteen, I have found

that organizing workshops for myself in Los
Angeles is quite comfortable and easily done with
very low cost, so long as I focus on the people who
are most likely to want to join my workshop. In my
experience, these are mainly the people whom I
have recently been Rebirthing, people who have
seen me a few times, and who know that
Rebirthing works for them. A few of these people
are interested in using Rebirthing as a technique
they can teach to friends and acquaintances, or
who want to use Rebirthing as a source of
income. The majority attend because they want to
experience the group energy and benefits.
When I organize for myself in Los Angeles,

I generally send out a flyer or a notice card
announcing the workshop, its dates, its times, the
topics that will be covered, and the cost. I send
that out to everyone I have Rebirthed in the past
half year and to each and every one of the people
who have phoned in the past six months to ask
about Rebirthing. Usually that’s about 150 or so
people. It doesn’t take me very long to affix
stamps and drop that many notices in the mailbox.
I don’t need to hire anyone to do it for me. And it
isn’t expensive. The total cost is well below what
one attendee pays.
I used to hire a few Rebirthers to make

follow-up phone calls to the Rebirthees I sent
notices to, to find out how they were doing and
what their plans were for attending. That kind of
soliciting almost always paid off, because people
appreciated having such personal contact. But
when the Rebirthers who had worked for me
moved on to greater adventures, I found I didn’t
want to replace them and I don’t like my calling my
Rebirthees myself. So I’ve simply abandoned
follow-up phoning as a technique that I use here in
L.A. to get people to come to my workshops. I
recommend it for other organizers, however. If I’m
organizing for someone else as leader, I definitely
make follow-up phone calls to everyone I’ve sent
an announcement to.
Since late 1994, I’ve been considering

telling people, when I start Rebirthing them, not
only to plan to have about four individual Rebirths
with me at the rate of about one per week, but also
to expect to attend a weekend workshops the third
weekend of the month, either while they’re going
through their individual sessions or immediately
after.
I want to convince each individual

Rebirthee that attendance at a workshop is just as
important as the individual sessions, primarily
because certain negatives come up in a group that
almost never come up in an individual one-on-one
situation, for example, sibling rivalry, the negatives
about having to share attention and about having
to wait or compete for a turn, and all of the prudish
negatives about exposing and revealing
ourselves. Further, most of us believe that such
issues can’t be talked about in public without
making us feel uncomfortable. So dealing with all
that stuff which comes up primarily only during a
workshop and not usually during individual
sessions is very important. Attending a workshop
isn’t only an opportunity to become close to other
people who are into Rebirthing. And it isn’t only an
opportunity to get Rebirthed three times for the
same cost as I’m currently charging for an initial
individual Rebirth.
So far, although I’ve been considering it, I

haven’t seen my way clear to insisting that at least
one weekend workshop is mandatory. Anyhow,
how could I possibly enforce such a requirement,
especially with those of my patients who are
famous people for whom the group would be
especially valuable just because they don’t get my
undivided attention and because they’re exposing
themselves.
So I continue to offer the workshop as an

experience complete in itself, although I truly
regard it as a necessary step in the healing my
Rebirthee seeks.
So far, the major reason people attend my

workshops has been that they have wanted to
learn to Rebirth others and make Rebirthing their
profession. My Rebirthees who have stable,
satisfying, financially successful careers tend to
avoid the groups and opt for one-on-one sessions
instead.
Running your Rebirth business is a

marvelous way of earning all or part of your living
at the same time that you’re “working on your
case.”
As you let go old mistaken beliefs about

what constitutes success, your Rebirth business
reflects your greater abundance consciousness,
and your thought is, “I always have enough. I
always get enough.”
For example, a weekend workshop even

with only three or four people attending here in Los
Angeles is a perfectly acceptable way of spending
the weekend. I spend as much time in a workshop
as I would spend seeing four new Rebirthees and I
make about as much. When more than that
attend, it’s additional income, it’s a profitable profit
on my time.
I no longer seek to have giant groups here

in Los Angeles that in some magical way validate
my existence, “proving” that I’m a really super-
duper “good” Rebirther. I’m not competing on that
level any longer. The number of people attending
a workshop is not an index of how good I am at
what I do. In fact, no external parameters seem to
be.
Ultimately, the only proof comes from my

feelings of satisfaction. That applies to the size of
the group appearing for a workshop or a training, it
applies to the numbers of people who come for
some regularly scheduled group Rebirth, it applies
to how many new people have appeared to start
Rebirthing, and it applies to how many old
Rebirthees return for additional sessions.
Profit, numbers, notoriety: none of it
means a thing.
The purpose of running a Rebirth business

—as a Rebirther, as an organizer for events led by
other Rebirthers, or as a leader of your own
Rebirth seminars, workshops, and trainings—is to
come in touch with negatives you’re still holding on
to so you can let them go.
That’s all. It’s just to allow us to Realize,

to become, who we really are: perfectly divine
individuals.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
REBIRTHING ORGANIZATIONS The Logic of
Magical Thought
In the years that I’ve been involved with and The Dance of
Rebirthing, several Rebirthing organizations have
come and gone. Some of these have been
the Breath
national or international groups. Others have been
One Year Seminars that have become well-
established and essentially perpetual. A few are INTRODUCTION
still sustained in their original form with the people
who were originally involved.
CHAPTER ONE
The first centralized Rebirthing organization that The Ideal Breath
I learned of was Leonard Orr’s group called
Rebirthers International. CHAPTER TWO
The Difference
So far as I know, anyone involved with Between Rebirthing
Rebirthing was free to join that organization upon and
payment of the annual membership fee, which was Hyperventilation
something in the nature of $100 a year. The
organization published an annual Rebirthers
Directory that indicated what kind of Rebirth CHAPTER THREE
experience the person had had and what his status The Difference
was. Essentially, anyone who had done a Rebirth Between the Ideal
training with Leonard, Sondra, Phil, Steve Kamp, or Breath And Yogic
any of the other earliest Rebirthers was listed as a
“Rebirther.” Anyone who customarily Rebirthed Breathing
people for a fee outside of workshops was listed as
a “Professional Rebirther.” Anyone who conducted CHAPTER FOUR
trainings and workshops or organized them was The Difference
given an additional appropriate listing as a “Rebirth
Trainer.” Any member who presented himself for Between Rebirthing
“Certification” and who was voted for unanimously And Primal Scream
by the others was “Certified.” Therapy
After a couple of years, the organization was CHAPTER FIVE

revamped because the “Certified” Rebirthers at the The Biology of
time argued that other requirements had to be met
for people to join. It was no longer enough to have Imprints
taken a Rebirth training, especially only one. Some
of the requirements were relatively poetic, like CHAPTER SIX
watching the full moon all night. Some of them Food and
involved changing a person’s diet to put him back Consciousness
into more childlike experiences, for example,
drinking only milk for a week or going on a juice
diet for a week. Others dealt with requirements CHAPTER SEVEN
like: Must have Rebirthed a certain number of Rebirthing and
times. Must have done a full Rebirth in cold water. Bodywork
Must have done a full Rebirth in hot water. Must Therapies
have Rebirthed a certain number of people a
certain number of times.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Oftentimes, the requirements seemed to me to Rebirthing and
be about as significant as the requirements in high Conventional
school for joining a particular sorority or fraternity. Rsychotherapies
Maybe they got to the issue of how much trust in
the universe a person experienced, but they
seemed more just hurdles for a person to jump, CHAPTER NINE
proofs of willingness to put up with nonsense in Rebirthing and
order to belong. I don’t honestly know if they had Neuro-Linguistic
other merit. Programming
Eventually, people who wanted to be CHAPTER 10
Rebirthers, plain or Certified, were given a set of
approximately twenty requirements that they had to Affirmations
meet, and presumably they did their best to meet
them. No one checked up on them. If anyone felt CHAPTER 11
that a particular requirement was nonsense, he The Parental
may not have met that requirement, although he Disapproval
may have said he did. The number of Certified
Rebirthers rose to approximately twenty. It didn’t Syndrome
matter. The whole business of Certification was
just another opportunity to find out what old CHAPTER 12
negatives were still being held on to. Time, Work, and
Money:
At the meeting when these “criteria of Consciousness and
excellence” were first proposed, a lot of discussion
about the validity of such requirements took place. Abundance
How can you possibly determine whether some
particular Rebirther is “good” or “not good”? CHAPTER 13
Sex and Loving
As I’ve said before, I have had children as Relationships
young as four years old be in Rebirthing trainings
and have had the people those children Rebirthed
say that they had marvelous Rebirths with them, CHAPTER 14
that they could feel their young Rebirther’s childlike
innocence and purity. Obviously children don’t Physical Immortality
have a lot of prior experience in life and they don’t
know “from nothing” about psychology and
personality difficulties, interactions, relationships, CHAPTER 15
etc. And they probably know even less about Ethical
metaphysical and spiritual matters. Consideration
So it appeared to me that the Certification CHAPTER 16

requirements were interesting, but silly. At the last Individual Rebirths
Certification training attended by Leonard and all
the old Certs, I missed out on being voted a
“Certified Rebirther” because some brand new CHAPTER 17
Rebirthers, people who had only Rebirthed once, Group Rebirthings
wanted me to wear makeup and re-style my hair.
Even so, I thoroughly enjoyed being acclaimed CHAPTER 18
“Certified Rebirth Training Leader.” The only one,
ever, so far as I know. Organizing
Trainings and
My feeling at the time I first started Rebirthing Workshops
was that I wanted to belong to Rebirth
International. I wanted to support Leonard and the CHAPTER 19
rest of everybody in the Rebirthing community. I The Standard
saw Rebirth International’s Directory as a way to Rebirth Training
stay in touch with people that I met at jubilees and
at workshops, and to keep track of who was doing
what and where. I didn’t see Rebirth International CHAPTER 20
as a “professional” organization especially, just Running a Rebirth
more a social group. Business
When Leonard separated himself from the other CHAPTER 21
Certs in the early 80s, Rebirth International began
to become defunct. Rebirthing
Organizations
About 1985, Leonard Orr gave up running
Rebirth International completely and turned it over
to Phil Laut, but that lasted for only about a year, as
I recall. Soon thereafter, as Phil started working
with Jim Leonard and developed his concepts of
Vivation, Phil changed the named of Rebirth
International Associated Vivation Professionals to
which I belonged for years. So far as I know,
Rebirth International then ceased to exist until
Leonard resurrected it a few years ago, primarily as
a support group for Campbell Hot Springs, the
place in the Sierras of Northern California Leonard
called the Rebirth Training Center. It’s hard to
know how viable the organization still is, following
Leonard’s removal from CHS first to Chico and
then to Virginia. Rebirth International hasn’t even
issued an annual directory of members since 1990,
although the organization still exists as of 1996 and
I still send membership dues each year.
About the time that Phil started his Vivation

organization, Sondra Ray started a directory of
Rebirthers who had taken her Loving Relationships
Training and had worked with Rebirth Training
trainers she approved of and had dealt with. These
people were called “LRT Rebirthers.” (Although I
was grandmothered in on the original list, I have in
fact, received almost no referrals from being listed,
and I don’t even know if I’m still listed on that
roster.)
In late 1995, the LRT was disbanded. Shortly

after, a meeting was called by Leonard, inviting
East Coast Rebirthers to come to his place in
Staunton, Virginia, to meet with Bob and Mallie
Mandel and other LRT people to consider a
restructured organization combining both groups. I
haven’t yet heard what happened (although I was
in Falls Church, Virginia, at the time, a ten-inch
snowfall kept me from driving the 300 miles to the
meeting).
I have always felt bad that there has been such
a schism here in the United States. A lot seemed
to have to do with social status. To me it seemed
that the Rebirthers who belonged to Leonard’s
organization were generally not as young, beautiful,
wealthy, or dynamic as the people who were
affiliated with the LRT. And the people who
branched off into the AVP were regarded as
another thing, apart completely, not “real”
Rebirthers, in fact. So I hope a united organization
soon comes about.
Whenever I have completed a Rebirthing

training, I have suggested to the people who have
attended that they agree to meet again a month
later to form a One Year Seminar. They can thus
continue to meet each month as a group to
consider a specific topic and to Rebirth each other
and continue to make progress on what is referred
to in New Age talk as “their process.” Several One
Year Seminars have been very stable, lasting much
longer than the larger, centralized organizations,
probably because they all formed from people
already bonded by a specific group training. Many
of the OYS’s that were started as long ago as
thirteen years ago are still intact, meeting regularly
and presumably benefitting the members involved.
Some of these organizations are what I call
inclusive and some of them are what I call
exclusive. In most cases they tend to reflect the
prevailing personality of the countries in which they
were formed.
For example, in Sweden, there are lots of

requirements which are very carefully monitored
where people must be observed and Rebirthed by
their supervisors over an extended period of time—
two years is my recollection—and are only allowed
to become members when they finally win the
approval of these other people sitting in judgment
over them. That kind of exclusive approach is
moderated somewhat for the British Rebirth
Society. Although it has certain kinds of
requirements and does involve having the
petitioners achieve the approval of its members for
entrance, I don’t have the sense that the BRS is
trying to keep otherwise qualified people from
calling themselves Rebirthers. I just see it as a
manifestation of the typically British attitude that
certain qualifications have to be met in order for a
person to be regarded as a particular kind of
individual. OYS’s that exist in other countries that
I’ve visited, in Australia, New Zealand, or Spain, for
example, all have varying requirements.
Fundamentally, my predominant feeling with

regard to most exclusive rosters or groups is that
they are control organizations, based on ideas of
dominance and submission: Certain people are in
charge and restrict the practice of Rebirthing to
people that they approve of. I believe that some
variation on the theme of scarcity consciousness
underlies all these exclusive organizations.
In Los Angeles, especially during the first half

dozen years that I was involved with Rebirthing, I
made several attempts to create OYS’s from the
people attending a weekend training. Possibly
because I didn’t require a year’s membership fee to
be paid in advance, they all fell apart after the
second meeting.
A few years ago, a friend of mine and myself

finally succeeded in organizing two OYS’s that
lasted the full year. We convinced Leonard to
travel to Los Angeles once a month to lead a One
Year Seminar which we organized for him. The
first group had about fifty people at its first meeting
and the second had about fifteen. However, only
the three of us who were present at the first
meeting made each of the meetings and actually
attended the last meeting with Leonard at the close
of the year. Further, even we three had no desire
to contract with Leonard for another year. Since
then, there hasn’t been a Los Angeles OYS.
I have always acknowledged the material,

practical value of some kind of central registration
of people who are involved with Rebirthing, so that
other individuals who are seeking to make a
connection into Rebirthing can find them.
To that end, I formed an organization about

fifteen years ago, which I call Rebirth Associates of
Los Angeles. That organization is listed in the
phone book, both as a separate organization and
also as a referral organization for psychological
services, and at least one person a week calls to
ask about Rebirthing as a result of seeing that
listing in the general pages of the phone book. At
one particular time, many people belonged to
Rebirth Associates, and when queries were made
for Rebirthers in a particular area, the referral was
made to whichever Rebirther was closest.
Essentially its primary purpose was just to provide
a rubric under which people could locate Rebirthers
in Los Angeles.
I’ve twice requested that the companies that

turn out the phone directories have a separate
listing for Rebirthers, but unfortunately, even in the
megalopolis of Los Angeles, there are not enough
Rebirthers making enough money from doing
Rebirthing to pay the bill to have a separate listing
in the phone book as Rebirthers. And so, that
separate listing has yet to exist.
Since 1978, Rebirth Associates of Los Angeles

has held a meeting every Monday evening from
7:00 P.M. to 9:00 P.M. Anyone can attend. The
meeting enables people to ask questions about
Rebirthing, share reports of their own experiences
with Rebirthing, and generally explore their
relationships with Rebirthing and with Babaji. For
periods during most of the past several years, an
Aarti to Babaji has preceded the meeting, or else
alternate Monday evenings have been the Aarti
service only, with no general discussion about
Rebirthing at all.
I’m sure there are many ways of dealing with

the whole thing, but what I have wanted to do has
been to provide a space where Rebirthers and their
clients and their friends could come together and
talk about Rebirthing, regularly, without anyone
having to rent a hall to do it or put out expensive
flyers, etc.
So, my attitude about these informal evening

Rebirth seminars has been pretty consistently to
donate the service, gratis. When people have
asked to give a donation, I’ve told them I’m always
open to receiving money, but I’ve generally shied
away from soliciting.
By contrast, Leonard believes that one should

always charge for the Rebirth seminar, and yet not
make paying for it a condition of attendance.
If a Rebirthing Center existed, perhaps such

regular introduction seminars would be profitable.
But Rebirthing Centers, like OYS’s, have also been
transient and short-lived, at least in Los Angeles.
One of the aims of several Rebirthing groups

here in Los Angeles, was to provide a genuine
Rebirth center, a place where people could come
and, bringing or meeting their clients, could even
Rebirth them, and also a place where trainings
could be held.
In the absence of any significant endowment,

unfortunately, every time such a center has been
rented and renovated and established, it has fallen
apart for lack of funds and for lack of interest—
usually within a matter of one or two months.
Rebirthers in Los Angeles that I have spoken with
all want to continue to Rebirth people in the space
in their homes that they have already established
as a Rebirthing space. They haven’t wanted to
drive across town. They haven’t wanted to pay
extra rent for something they didn’t really believe
would benefit them.
In other parts of the world, Rebirthing Centers

have worked out more successfully.
I know of one successful center in London that

operated as a Rebirthing center for quite a while,
and I also know of one in Sydney, Australia, and
one in New York City. But, by and large, the same
problem seems to be present wherever this
approach has been tried. There hasn’t been
sufficient capitalization to ensure staying in
business long enough to start being automatically
thought of as the Rebirth Center by the community
of local Rebirthers.
Leonard originally had his training center up at

Campbell Hot Springs in the center of the High
Sierras in Northern California. He claimed that
there was at least one Rebirth training going on at
Campbell Hot Springs every week of the year, and
that anyone who wanted to learn Rebirthing could
go there anytime and would find a training going
on, even if only for him.
When I first experienced CHS, it had been

running on that basis for about a year and a half,
and it continued to run on that basis for many more
years of its existence. But it should be mentioned
that during the coldest months, the trainings often
consisted of only the two or three people who
happened to be spending the winter in residence
up at CHS. Until there was a great deal of
renovation in the mid-80s, the lodge at CHS was
prohibitively cold during the freezing weather. It
never became a real Rebirthing “university” people
attended year round for advance scheduled
instruction.
There is a Rebirthing center in Poland which

seeks to become essentially such a university,
such a training center, such a Rebirthing Center,
but as yet it also is not off of the ground.
Symbolically, I find all this chaotic

disorganization ideal. I think that the process of
Rebirthing is the essence of individuation and
individual empowerment. So it’s almost internally
inconsistent that a person involved with Rebirthing
would also be interested in subordinating his
behavior to the control of someone else who
presumes to know more about being a powerful,
self-actualized individual. That’s poppycock. I
don’t think that a restrictive, exclusive organization
of Rebirthers can possibly be vital, because the
more fully and freely each member of such an
organization breathes, the more fully an individual
each person becomes, and the more free of the
dominance of other people’s expectations and
requirements he also becomes. Just as anarchists
can’t form an International Anarchy Society that
has regular meetings, I can’t see Rebirthers
forming societies to do anything other than support
each other and publicize the whole process of
Rebirthing.
As mentioned earlier, I hold a Rebirth seminar

at my home every Monday, and if I’m in Los
Angeles, I’m always present. Many times, only one
other person shows up to discuss Rebirthing.
Often two or three old friends show up and we
spend the evening mulling over things that we have
talked about dozens of times previously, then we
get in the hot tub for more talk and relaxation.
It really doesn’t matter.
After all, Rebirthing is a technique for perfecting

oneself. It doesn’t exist to turn someone into
another person who’s important or wealthy or
idolized or acclaimed or whatever.
So I, myself, am not terribly disappointed that I

don’t belong to a strong Rebirth organization which
has all kinds of qualifications for membership and
makes certain that everybody tows the line and
takes a yearly updated training, etc. I already
belong to the American Psychological Association,
which has all sorts of such rules and regulations.
And I already am licensed by the State of California
with its continually revised requirements for
Continuing Education in order to renew biannual
licensure. I have in the past belonged to other
organizations. Mostly, I’ve maintained such
memberships only to meet licensing and insurance
requirements, so I may bill my time.
I’d much prefer that Rebirthing establishes a

central organization that allows everyone who is
interested in Rebirthing to be represented in a
directory, and that provides some form of
networking and some form of publicity. To date, no
such organization has emerged, but that’s not to
say that such a group won’t have materialized even
before the time that you read these words.
From my point of view, anyone who wants to

become a Rebirther only needs to practice the
breathing and the use of affirmations to become
better and better and better as a Rebirther, as well
as, of course, better and better and better as a
person. Such a person probably wants to
associate with other like-minded people. So it’s
wholesome and useful for such a person to
“belong,” to join a weekend training or a week-long
training every few months, to meet with colleagues
in a One Year Seminar, and to set aside quality
time for Rebirthing. I think it is a good thing that all
such people can be recognized by the public at
large as being such people, so I support a central
organization as a referral service. But not on any
selective or exclusive basis whatsoever. I would
love to see a regular newsletter, preferably
monthly, that contains contributions from all and
any people who are interested in making such
contributions. Anyone who wants to say whatever
it is he wants to say about Rebirthing ought to have
a forum or an arena in which to do that and ought
to have a guaranteed audience. But, all of that
takes people who are willing to spend their time
and money taking care of the Rebirthing
community. Up to now, most of the whole
Rebirthing movement has essentially been running
on a shoestring, and not enlarging itself. The
British Rebirth Society turns out an excellent
journal, called “Breathe,” four times a year that has
been appearing for 66 issues! I recommend that
everyone reading this join immediately so Breathe
can continue its excellence.
I occasionally still entertain visions of setting up

an organization here in Los Angeles, run on a
volunteer basis, that people would tithe to, giving it
its material foundations. Churches do this, and do
it very well. Charities do this, and, again, do it very
well. Rebirthing hasn’t done it, and when it has
tried to do it, it hasn’t done it very well.
Whatever suggestions you have about how to

form such an organization will be cheerfully
received by me, and I’ll be happy to help us
network. In addition to welcoming your
suggestions and plans, I’m also open to
safeguarding and receiving vast amounts of
material support to be used to run such a
Rebirthing center here in Los Angeles. I’d be more
than happy to work with other people to get such a
center established and functioning here in Los
Angeles.
Rebirthing is such a jewel, such a precious

jewel in everybody’s life! What a shame that we
haven’t yet provided a setting for it, a secure
foundation that would help it to flourish.
At my age, I’m no longer especially interested in

being the instigator of such a nationwide group.
But I make this public pledge: I’m am quite
agreeable to tithe a full ten percent of my annual
income into an escrow account awaiting the
amassment of a given specific threshold amount of
money needed to start and maintain such a place
by an organization here in Los Angeles that fulfills
the aims that I’ve just spoken of. Until a sufficiency
has been pledged and paid, my money will just sit,
accumulating interest, safely.
My guess is that such an organization will only

proceed as there becomes an increasing number of
older, stable people involved with Rebirthing.
Young people who are still knocking themselves
out to earn a living, to keep themselves alive, seem
to have trouble when it comes to sharing. Their
natural mode is exhibitionist and competitive,
especially about sex and money and power.
So, in any case, here’s my open invitation to

anybody out there who wants to support a Los
Angeles Rebirther center. I propose that it will be
run on a business-like basis and will be a not-for-
profit organization. Aside from paid clerical work
and printing, it will be maintained through voluntary
labors of love by members of the Rebirthing
community itself. I’m not at all interested in
throwing my money down the drain to provide
space for a bunch of flakes to hang out, using
Rebirthing to save themselves from having to learn
how to earn an honest living. The people involved
must be secure, stable business people.
If you are someone who wants to help

establish a Rebirthing Center, write me a letter, tell
me what you propose, how much you think you
could contribute right now to the escrow fund, and
when you will make additional contributions.
Maybe we could actually get such a show on the
road. Wouldn’t it be fun?
Sometimes I feel really lonely and ache to

be with other Rebirthers more often, dealing with
Rebirthing. The bond I feel with Babaji devotees is
one I experience with Rebirthers whenever we’re
together. It’s the same bond I feel with other rose
gardeners or with my University of Chicago alumni
group. I dearly hope that within the next few years,
such an organization of Rebirthers materializes
here in Los Angeles so that I can soon have the joy
and pleasure of participating in a true community of
my peers.

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What are the main topics covered in the book?

What are the main topics covered in the book?

What are some differences between rebirthing and other therapies discussed?

What are some differences between rebirthing and other therapies discussed?

In Truth, Simplicity, and Love,

Eve Jones, Ph.D.

The Logic of Magical Thought and The Dance of the Breath

So I feel well able to compare Rebirthing

During these past nineteen years of being a

I have also studied and experienced many

So I feel well able to compare the

I also believe my personal experience of

This book deals with how birth is connected

To make this a complete book about my

Throughout, to make the distinction

I like using the Socratic method of making a

Those of you who know me know that I'm

Also, if you have any questions about

I hope after reading this book that you'll

Only change that to 74.

In Truth, Simplicity, and Love,

Any breath that is quick is unlikely to be CHAPTER FIVE

If I, indeed, spend a great deal of time not CHAPTER NINE

Instead, I’m probably consolidating some CHAPTER 10

Most men breathe abdominally. When I

By the same token, if I watch women sitting

Apparently, most of us hold on to our old

I suggest to my Rebirthees, "Make a real

As we make an effort to take the breath up

It’s truly important to promote such

I want to feel full of love. I want to love

When I do feel like that, I have a sensation

Many people find that placing the inhale

A fourth aspect of the inhale that I stress is

When I breathe in quickly, I’m not able to

In addition to these characteristics of the

The qualities that mark the ideal exhale are

As discussed in greater detail in the chapter

So, I ask people that I’m Rebirthing simply

People who push past the level of the

People like that reveal that same kind of

I don’t want people to live in a state of

By making the exhale ideal, by showing the

 The Universe exists to support

Anything that I want to let go of can be

Another breathing pattern that reveals

When I have a patient who’s breathing like

Usually the reply is some silly response

But of course that’s not true, and they know

Sometimes I see people who are unusually

Such people combine all the worst features

So, much as you would luxuriate in

And show the Universe by your effortless,

Another one of the old causes of the type of

When I notice bad breath, I say so, matter

The ideal Rebirthing breath combines

We are inherently rhythmic creatures. We

When I’m teaching the ideal breath to