HEALTH IS A STATE OF CONSCIOUSNESS. It has nothing to do with age, illness, or even the health of the body or mind. Whether we are aware of it or not, every step we take towards healing is a step towards consciousness. Everything we do in life is part of our healing journey towards the ultimate health of our true nature.

Only consciousness can heal our pain and suffering. Each moment contains an opportunity to awaken from the suffering of the ego-mind into the health of consciousness. Our bodies are full of suppressed thoughts, emotions, fears, desires, insecurities, and judgments. These create and sustain our ego-mind. In our unconsciousness, we keep our identification and attachment to our body, emotions, desires, and the world. Many unconscious thoughts and emotions are stored layer upon layer as patterns hardwired into our body's cells. These patterns create energetic blocks in the body and cause physical and psychological pain and suffering. We heal into consciousness by peeling away these layers.

Healing into consciousness is the most arduous task that can ever be undertaken. There are many fears, obstacles, and ups and downs along the way. We need courage and trust to face the darkness of our unconscious. If we persevere and stay committed to our awakening, the journey will become easier and we will even begin to enjoy it and be excited by it. No matter how intense our pain and suffering, if we stay devoted to our healing journey, we will undoubtedly come face to face with the miraculous that abides within our own existence.

Where Am I?
The Seven Stages of the Healing Journey

For those of you who are beginning your healing journey consciously, and for those of you who are already on your way, it might be helpful to think of your healing journey as a kind of "school of life," a process similar to our educational system. The school of life can be divided into seven stages that correspond to Pre-school, Elementary, High School, Undergraduate University, Graduate University, PhD Student, and finally Professor. Unlike the school system, however, this process is not linear, and the stages are not distinct, but rather subtly blend into one another. The stage at which you start your healing journey depends on the level of self-awareness you bring from your previous lives and your understanding of the journey itself. As you progress through the school of life, your awareness of yourself and the world increases and your consciousness expands. Depending on your choices and level of consciousness, you may move through some stages faster than others.

Stage 1: Pre-school
Your attention and awareness are primarily focused on healing your physical body. You have no understanding that you are here on Earth to know yourself and evolve into consciousness. When you experience physical pain or illness, your attention moves into your body. You go to a physician and try to fix your problem with medication or surgery. Allopathic medicine temporarily treats or suppresses the symptoms of your ailments, but because it does not heal the psychological root cause hidden in your energy, your physical "problems" resurface.

Stage 2: Elementary School
At this stage, you know through experience that medication alone will not fix your problems, and due to its side effects, may even be making you sicker than before. You explore alternative healing methods such as physiotherapy, chiropractic, traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture, naturopathy, and others. You understand that to improve your physical health you need to take care of your body by exercising, changing your diet, and using supplements. You take relaxing baths, spa treatments, have massages, and listen to soft music. You engage in yoga, qigong, or tai chi practices purely to take advantage of their physical benefits. In this stage, your focus primarily remains on your physical well-being. Your physical condition improves, but you soon realize that you are still unfulfilled and that something more meaningful is missing in your life. You re-evaluate your life's priorities and begin to explore other options to find happiness and contentment.

Stage 3: High School
After realizing that physical health alone does not make you happy, you begin to focus on your mental and emotional well-being. You try to understand your psychological problems and heal your mental and emotional wounds through counseling, psychotherapy, and personal development groups.

You realize that your mental and emotional health affect your physical health and you try to change your negative thoughts and behavior patterns. You read psychology and self-help books, and practice positive thinking and affirmations. Your life begins to change, and you temporarily feel better, but a point comes where you feel that you are still unfulfilled and are missing something. You finally understand that you cannot find happiness and your life's purpose with your mind, and you begin to explore the dimensions of spirituality and religion.

Stage 4: Undergraduate University
In this stage, you recognize that to find true healing you need to find a spiritual connection to the divine. You explore different spiritual paths, such as Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism, Sufism, Kabbalah, and others. You read spiritual books, attend lectures and workshops given by spiritual teachers, join spiritual groups, meditate, pray, and devote yourself to a spiritual path. You investigate the paranormal, past lives, the tarot, psychics and psychic healers, near-death experiences, channeling, astrology, and other occult practices. You experiment with visualization, chanting of mantras, and tribal ceremonies. You try to be a better and more loving person, and to bring more peace into your life and the world.

Most people get stuck at this stage, believing that they now "know" the truth. When life continues to challenge you with more difficulties, and you are not able to maintain your inner peace and contentment, you realize that you haven't yet explored your own inner truth and haven't found your own authentic being. You start to question who you are and what you are doing on this planet. You begin to understand that the only way to find the answers is to do the hard work of going in and looking into the darkness of your unconscious.

Stage 5: Graduate University
After all the seeking outside of yourself for healing and salvation, you finally understand that the only person who can save you is you, and you can only do it by taking the responsibility of facing and surrendering your ego-mind. You work hard to understand and disidentify from your mind and emotions. You begin to meditate not simply to feel better, but to find who you truly are. Through meditation and witnessing your body, thoughts and emotions, you begin to see how your ego-mind creates all your problems and keeps you in suffering.

As you move deeper into yourself, a time comes when you are forced to decide if you are willing to continue facing and exploring the agony and pain of your own mind. Many people stop their introspection here because the pain and fear of facing the unconscious darkness intensifies. It now becomes more difficult and painful to confront the ugly faces of the ego and disidentify from them. It also becomes more difficult to remain a detached witness to the deeply ingrained behavior patterns related to past lives. Cultivation of the inner witness becomes crucial in order to continue moving into the unconscious darkness.

To pass through this challenging stage of your development, you need to take full responsibility for all your own pain and suffering. Observe both your beautiful and ugly faces, and understand that you are neither. Through detached observation, your sense of self-identity begins to break down, and what you thought you knew about yourself no longer seems as clear and true as before. You may feel more confused and recognize that the more you know, the less you know. Life begins to feel like a meaningless dream. You realize that you need a guide, someone who has passed through the darkness of their own unconsciousness, to help you move through your own darkness and take you beyond it. Consciously or subconsciously, you begin to search for a teacher or master who can point you in the right direction and guide you to liberation.

A teacher is someone who may or may not have experienced the truth of his own being but tries to help others through speaking about the truth and taking them as far as he or she has gone. A master is someone who has fully awakened from the illusion of the ego-mind and knows how to help others also wake up.

As you search for a guide, you first must face the challenge of discriminating between a false and a true teacher or master. A false teacher or master may promise to liberate you from your ego-mind and in doing so creates a relationship of dependency. A true teacher or master will never allow you to become dependent on him because he knows that he can only point to your own unconsciousness. Ultimately, it is your own courage, effort, and surrender to the will of existence that will liberate you.

To know the difference between a false and a true teacher or master, listen to your own inner knowing and intuition and be absolutely honest with yourself about your motives. If you can't discriminate between the false and the true within yourself, you will not be able to discriminate between the false and the true in others.

Once you find a teacher, or, if you are fortunate enough, a master who will take you on, you face another challenge: trusting him or her and surrendering to his or her guidance. It is not easy to follow a true master because he or she will use any situation to help you become aware of your own ego-mind. You need to stay alert and be aware of any judgment, blame, or neediness you might project on to this person. If you can stay in your innocence and heart, you will be able to see and surrender your ego-mind and eventually experience true liberation and awakening.

Stage 6: PhD Student
In this stage, you deepen your personal meditation practice and start to feel more at peace with yourself. As you pass through your personal unconscious in the previous stage, you purify yourself of your past unconscious actions. You understand that all your "problems" (physical, mental, and emotional) were there to teach you something about yourself. You cultivate trust, and your fears no longer have a hold on you. You master your ego and are no longer a victim of your mind and emotions. You transcend fear of the unknown and live more and more in a state of acceptance and surrender.

You now move into the collective and cosmic unconscious, which includes the collective human beliefs and behavior patterns as well as your animal survival instinct - all of which fuel the illusion of separation of your being from existence. Every step you take in facing and becoming aware of the collective and cosmic unconscious allows you the freedom to move higher in consciousness. You now have enough clarity, awareness, and inner strength to support your guide in his or her work of raising individual and collective consciousness. You are ready to unconditionally share your gifts and the light of your consciousness with others.

Stage 7: Professor
You are liberated from your ego-mind and have transcended your fear of death and the unknown. You have broken through the veil of illusion created by the mind. You now know through your own experience that you are one with everything that exists within the universe. You have experienced the universal Joy your guide was pointing to. You welcome and celebrate the emptiness of your being and your oneness with the boundless universe. You feel grateful to the Earth for sustaining and nourishing you and for everyone you have met along your journey, whether they have helped or hindered you. Most of all, you feel grateful to your master and to all the awakened beings who have guided you through your many lifetimes of trials and tribulations. You now understand that the journey is endless and is the goal in itself. You surrender your ego-mind to the universe and become a vehicle through which it can express itself, guiding those who are still searching for their way out of suffering.

NOW is the Time and YOU are the Place

Our body is a gift from the universe. Without it, we cannot heal into consciousness. Like a rechargeable battery, the body has a limited life span. In the same way that we recharge a battery with electricity, we recharge the body with food, sleep, and rest. After a while, like an old battery, it can no longer be recharged and inevitably dies. When the body is young and healthy, we often neglect it and take it for granted. We usually wait until it is sick or old to start our healing journey.

Don't wait! Life is short! Start healing into consciousness when you are young and have plenty of energy, vigor, and enthusiasm. The later you start your inner search, the harder it becomes because you will have less energy and be burdened with more responsibilities. When you invest a lot of time and energy on things that are impermanent and can never fulfill you, you miss many opportunities to discover the ultimate joy of your eternal being. The sooner you transform your unconsciousness into consciousness, the sooner you can start enjoying life, and the more fulfilling and joyful it will become.

Eliza Mada Dalian is a self-realized teacher and internationally acclaimed
master healer. To learn more about her teachings and healing method,
self-awareness intensives, on-line courses, audio and video clips,
visit www.MadaDalian.com!

Also check out these online video clips for more insight:
The Needed Step to Enlightenment
Evolutionary New Healing Method
Healing From Thought to No Thought

Check back next month for an excerpt from Chapter Two!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Eliza Mada Dalian is a visionary, mystic, medical intuitive, spiritual guide, and the founder of a groundbreaking new healing method – DHM (Dalian Healing Method), which can quickly identify the root cause(s) of energetic blocks, physical, mental and emotional problems, and effortlessly and miraculously heal the body and transform energetic blocks into health and consciousness. After her awakening experience at age 33, Mada has dedicated her life to helping others towards healing and spiritual awakening.

For more information visit, www.madadalian.com.
To see when Eliza Mada Dalian might be in your area please see her calendar of events.