ABOUT THIS BOOK

Wisdom from an Empty Mind (Empty Mind, 2001 $12.95) is a compilation of one-page essays and accompanying quotes on topics ranging from awareness and healing to love, relationships, and children. It marks Dr. Liberman's first collaboration with his son, Erik, and has garnered rave reviews from Neale Donald Walsch, Ram Dass, Eckhart Tolle, Bonnie Raitt and James Redfield, among others.

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How It All Started

Twenty years ago, I was asked to give a one-hour presentation to a group of graduate students at a Florida university. I spent hours preparing my speech and made notes on about forty index cards.

As I walked to the podium on the day of my speech, I had a realization: I had perfectly prepared every sentence of a lecture about a subject I was supposedly an expert on!

Why had I prepared to talk about something I knew so well? I recognized in that moment that as far back as I could remember, my life had been a series of rehearsed announcements - an attempt to "look good," be accepted, and appear successful.

This realization was so shocking that my hand opened, allowing my perfectly prepared speech to fall all over the floor! It happened so fast that I had no time to pick up the cards - so I just stepped behind the podium and tried to collect myself.

After what seemed like an eternity, I took a deep breath and shared with the audience what had happened. Without a moment's pause, the entire group and I sighed in unison as if the weight of the world had been lifted from our shoulders.

My one-hour presentation on learning disabilities turned into a three-hour informal discussion about learning without effort. I was never so unprepared for the miracle that occurred that day! I learned that I never had to prepare anything again, as long as I shared only what I knew by heart.

Now whenever I speak in public, I show up empty- handed and allow life to guide my expression. In the process, I've discovered that true wisdom has nothing to do with us, but with how much of us is not there.

The more present we become, the more life communicates through us.

True wisdom lies in not knowing.

Jumping In

I didn't think I was smart most of my life, and though I tried very hard, school was never easy for me. I didn't read much, and thought for sure that meant I was stupid.

When I got to college, I did everything I knew how to do to get into a professional school. After all, who would think someone with a doctorate was dumb? I needed some way of proving to others that I "knew something," even though I didn't feel very smart.

I earned degrees, made money, bought the house that I wanted and drove a fancy car, but life still felt empty. It was still a mystery! When I finally realized that wisdom had nothing to do with the degrees I had earned, I gave away all my books, notes, and research, packed away my diplomas, and set off to discover who I really was.

I showed up for life every day without preparation, even though I felt like I was doing the wrong thing over and over again. Even though I was frightened and felt like I was falling apart, I kept coming back. In having the courage to jump into life - not knowing if I would succeed - I grew.

You cannot see a new point of view from an old one.

Perspective

Imagine there are one hundred people, each standing on different floors inside the Empire State Building. When the person on the bottom floor looks out as far as they can, they may only see a few blocks away. That is their present view of reality, and anything beyond that, you might say is "the future."

The person on the second floor, because they are a little higher, may see a bit farther - their "present" is the future for those below them. With each successive floor, the observer's view expands. Thus, the person's view on top of the building - all the way to New Jersey! - is not even within the field of possibility for those on the lowest floors.

This is how awareness functions. We believe that we all see the same things, and often cannot imagine how others interpret things so differently. In reality, however, we all see things from our own perspective - or as the Talmud states, "We don't see things as they are. We see them as we are."

When the "I" stops looking, the eyes start seeing.

Seeing Holographically

Suppose for a moment that you don't see with your physical eyes - that you have no single "point of view," but can see clearly from all places at once. While meditating twenty-five years ago, I actually slipped into this indescribable state - and experienced a miraculous change in my vision.

Although my eyes were closed, I could "see" myself sitting there in meditation - only I couldn't tell where I was seeing myself from! It was as if the room was filled with eyes, and I was looking through all of them.

When I finally opened my eyes, my vision had undergone a profound change - from barely being able to see the eye chart, to seeing better than normal - and it has remained so to this day. Since I was a practicing optometrist at the time this shift occurred, it forced me to reconsider everything I had ever been taught about vision.

I realized that it is our insight, and not our eyesight, that must be healed if we wish to see clearly - and that only by seeing beyond our beliefs can we truly change our vision.

Seeing is not believing...

Believing Is Seeing!

Once in Seattle, I gave an evening talk as part of a weekend workshop on vision. The next morning, I asked if anyone had experienced anything unusual during the night.

One participant replied, "I have been wearing contact lenses for twenty-six years. When I woke up this morning and opened my eyes, everything was blurry - like it always is before I put in my lenses.

"Then I looked at the ceiling, blinked, and suddenly realized I hadn't taken out my lenses the night before. At that moment, my vision cleared!"

Change is constant until you label it.

A Watched Pot Never Boils

One of the fundamental laws of quantum physics is that nothing changes while you're looking at it - a watched pot never boils. You can take a subatomic particle, put it into an unstable state, and as long as you are observing it, it will not change. In the East, they say that the appearance of things changes only when God is blinking.

For years I have said, "It's not the disease that kills you, it's the diagnosis!" The moment we label anything, we stop its natural process of change. We are on a journey where nothing is fixed, but when we label something, we lock it into place.

We think we need to "work on things" in order to change them, but change is continuous. If you're "trying to change," you're actually swimming against the flow of life! Change is the essence of life. We notice it most when we look for it least.

Instant Healing

One Saturday afternoon, I had an impulse to check my throat in the mirror. I opened wide, and in the back of my throat I saw what appeared to be a brown growth I had never noticed before. My mind instantly went back twenty-five years, when my father was diagnosed with a cancerous growth in his throat.

I kept checking my throat, and every time I looked, the brown growth seemed larger. My heart rate accelerated, my blood pressure elevated, and my head and brow were drenched in sweat. My arms and legs turned cold, and I had a sudden attack of diarrhea.

The moment before, I was living in bliss, and now I was dying. My mind filled with the scenario I had always feared. Tomorrow - Sunday - I would be in the hospital, receiving the fatal diagnosis. By Monday my life would be over, and everything I had worked for would be meaningless.

After dwelling on this for a while, I picked up the phone and called a doctor friend. He asked, "What's wrong?"

"Stephen, I'm terrified. Both of my parents had cancer when I was a kid."

"I don't understand - what's the problem?"

"My parents are both alive and healthy now, but cancer has always been scary for me, because we never spoke about it openly."

"I still don't understand what's wrong."

"Well, I looked in the mirror this afternoon, and there was a brown growth in the back of my throat. It looks like a mole or something."

He asked me a few more questions, then told me to feel the bump with my finger. When I finally managed to squeeze my hand back there and pull it out, on the tip of my finger I found a little piece of the chocolate macaroon I had eaten for lunch.

Is there heaven or hell,
or do we just create them with the mind?

You Are What You Think

After going through a traumatic separation and divorce in the late 1970s, I fell apart. For eight years my life was a struggle, as I experienced thirty to forty massive anxiety attacks a day. Sometimes I was so frightened, I didn't know if I would survive. My world view dissolved in front of my eyes, and it seemed like every time I had a thought, it instantly translated into a bodily sensation - as if my mind and body were one.

Now, more than twenty years later, it is scientifically known that every state of mind we identify with manifests as a chemical messenger, telling the body what to do, when to do it, and to what degree. These "molecules of emotion" not only guide the body's biological functions, but also alert everybody around us as to what our body is feeling and thinking.

The degree to which the mind influences the body, however, is determined by how much we identify with its chatter. In other words, are we the thinker of our thoughts, or the one noticing the thoughts? Only in recognizing that we are the noticer, and not the thinker, can we stop interfering with life's natural flow towards health and wellness on every level.

Our ideas determine how we see - not only molding our physical eyesight and mental outlook, but the way our entire body works. The same constriction in our view of reality also constricts our kidneys, our heart, our liver, and our blood vessels. So when we talk about "expanding consciousness," that expansion supports every organ in our body, as well as every thing in the universe!

Your body is the living canvas of your thoughts.

The degree to which we are real, ordinary human beings,
is the degree to which we influence others.

Mensch

During a workshop in Switzerland, one of the participants began to share about her life. As she spoke, it became apparent that she was very angry with the men in her life, and that she projected that anger onto all men. Almost every sentence began with "Men are . . ." or "Men always . . ."

Since she trusted me, I asked if she would share with the group her first response to a question I had. She closed her eyes and I asked her, "Am I a man or a woman?" She paused for a moment, then answered, "You're a mensch."

In German, mensch means human being. In Yiddish, however, when someone says, "You're a mensch," it means that you define what it means to be human, to be humane. To be a mensch is to be sensitive, loving, and caring. It speaks of a quality irrespective of gender, race, religion, or any of the other ways we separate ourselves from the oneness of life.

Rather than being a man or woman, black or white, Jewish or Christian, consider just being a mensch.

When you begin to wake up,
you see how often you were asleep.

The Mirror of Life

Each time you forget that life is a reflection of your actions, you get a reminder. When it shows up, don't go into the mind searching for excuses - just be grateful and move on.

Imagine you're speeding down the road and a police officer pulls you over. Notice how your mind automatically comes up with all sorts of excuses and reasons for speeding. Have you considered that another vehicle may have been approaching at high speed just around the corner, and the officer may have just saved your life?

When you get the message, you rarely need the ticket. But when you don't get the message, you always get the ticket!

Meltdown

My son called me one night to share some things he was going through. As I listened, I noticed that whatever was going on for him was escalating. He got increasingly upset, and it was clear that he wanted me to "jump into the cesspool" with him. Nevertheless, I just remained present, and noticed as his energy got louder and louder. Finally he became angry and hung up the phone.

The next morning he called back and said, "Dad, you beautiful man."

I said, "Erik, what's going on?"

He said, "Well, last night I was really going through some stuff, and I didn't realize until afterwards how much I wanted to hook you in! I didn't like the place I was in, and I didn't want to be there alone. I wanted someone else to feel the way I did, but you didn't jump in, you just kept loving me. After I hung up, I realized that I was left with exactly what I came in with. It was like trying to climb a steel wall that had oil on it. I couldn't grab onto anything, so I was left with me. And as I sat there feeling the pain and frustration, something just melted down. Thanks. I love you."

This is what happens when we no longer engage with someone who is triggered about something. It's not about knowing how to defuse a situation when some- one is angry. It is about noticing how, with presence, the things that used to "hook us in" no longer do, and life's problems take care of themselves.

Misery loves company.
Bliss doesn't need any.

A Near-Life Experience

I once had a "near-death experience." I was reminded of it recently while eating a bowl of lentil soup. As I lifted the spoon, my eye fell on a large bay leaf, and instantly I was back in 1979 in the dining room of the Mutiny Hotel in Miami. They had a dinner show, and their specialty was French onion soup with lots of cheese, which I really loved.

Without looking, I took a big spoonful of cheese and swallowed it. I didn't notice the large bay leaf embedded in it, but immediately I knew something was wrong. One moment I was enjoying the show; the next moment I was lying on the floor, gasping for air. The room was dark, and all of the other diners were focused on the performance.

In an instant, my entire life passed through my awareness at the same speed I had originally experienced it. I didn't miss a detail. I saw everything I had ever felt, and everything anyone else had ever felt in response to me. Nothing was rushed, yet it all took less than a few seconds.

Before I knew it, a doctor at the next table did the Heimlich maneuver on me and forced the food out of my windpipe.

How was it possible for me to review my entire life at normal speed within a few seconds? Yet ask anyone who has ever had a near-death experience, and they'll tell you the same thing: Every detail of your life flashes before you - not just your actions, but the consequences of your actions, spreading through the vast network of everyone who has ever been touched by your existence.

Why wait for a near-death experience to realize the impact that everything you do has on everything that exists?

Your every intention, thought, and action
touches all of existence.

Everything we experience is part of our journey.
God makes no mistakes.

The Mystery of Life

If we have gained anything at all from our journey, it is to recognize that life is a mystery nobody understands. None of us knows how any of this happens, yet life always takes us where we need to be.

We sometimes like to think we are in charge - but we are not. We are just part of this big movie called life, and no matter what we do, we always get where we need to be! Whether the ride is smooth or bumpy has only to do with the journey our spirit is on . . .

And if we just stay present with it, everything eventually smoothes out. Like an ocean after a storm, life becomes a still lake that gently lullabies us to sleep and whisks us away into the night.

A tremendous potential for self-discovery lies within every
moment of life, if we could just stop and recognize it.

Is There Any Moment But Now?

With every new scientific breakthrough, the worlds of quantum physics and metaphysics grow closer - another indication that the day is fast approaching when we will once again "see the Light."

As we look towards that day, it is important to recognize that it will come much faster if we rise to meet it. As the old saying goes, "When you take one step toward God, God takes ninety-nine steps toward you . . ."

We can begin ushering in this new era by practicing a more expansive way of being. This is neither a scientific nor spiritual philosophy, but simply a way of living and relating that is accessible to anyone who wishes to unite joyfully with life in each moment.

Mystics seek the meaning of life in meditation, and physicists pursue the same end with equations and experiments - and the everyday person, who is neither seer nor scientist, also has a means of discovering the secrets of life, health, and happiness.

The beginning...

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Jacob Liberman's visionary insights and accomplishments over the past 25 years have created a new paradigm of seeing, healing, and living. Erik Liberman is an award-winning actor and writer living in Los Angeles.

Originally trained as an optometrist, Dr. Liberman's life changed in 1976 when his poor eyesight instantly cleared during a profound meditative experience. From that moment on, he began questioning the standard beliefs and practices of vision and general health care. His search for a new model of healing led him to the field of light and color therapy - and to the realization that light could be used not only to heal our bodies, but to heal our lives.

In 1991, Jacob's first book, Light: Medicine of the Future (Bear & Company) established him as an authority in the field of light and color therapy. Now in its fifth printing in paperback and third in hardcover, the book has been translated into nine languages. It is considered a classic in its field.

His second book, Take Off Your Glasses and See (Crown, 1995) was inspired by the miraculous healing of his own eyesight, and offered a radically new approach to understanding and healing our vision.

For his pioneering work in the fields of vision and light and color therapy, Dr. Liberman has received three doctorates and the endorsement of such leading health and consciousness figures as Deepak Chopra, Bernie Siegel, Gary Zukav, Dan Millman, Louise Hay and John Gray. Now he shares his teachings of practical wisdom and grounded spirituality in lectures and workshops around the world.

Jacob maintains an active speaking schedule, conducting seminars and workshops around the world. He has addressed more than 2000 live audiences, and has been interviewed on hundreds of radio and television programs. For up to date details of Dr. Liberman's current lecture schedule, please check out his website at www.jacobliberman.com or call 1-800-81-LIGHT.