The 12 Stages Of Healing
- Vanessa Wood
- 5 hours ago
- 36 min read
Exploring the relationship between the mind, body, and emotions and the 12 distinct "stages of consciousness" that individuals experience during personal transformation and healing. A must-read for those on a spiritual journey of conscious evolution.
INTRODUCTION
Since recording the previous episode of my podcast, I’ve read a book that's expanded my outlook on the stages of the healing process and it’s inspired me to write this post and add a bonus episode to my podcast ‘The Resonance Revolution’. The book is called The 12 Stages of Healing: A Network Approach to Wholeness by Donald M Epstein and Nathaniel Altman.
In episode 4 of my podcast called: ‘The 6 Stages Of Healing’, I stated that: “While these 6 stages are useful to describe the phases of healing we go through on a physical level, they’re not an adequate representation of the stages of spiritual healing or personal growth, which as we saw in the previous episode, is far more complex.”
In a stroke of Divine Timing, Epstein’s book landed in my lap and has provided me with the words to describe those stages of spiritual healing I was talking about. I’m so glad the book came to me when it did, because it allowed me to finish season 2 of my podcast with this extra information, nicely filling in some blanks and completing the picture.
I especially love that the 12 stages of healing are relatable to the 12 stages of the hero’s journey. Healing yourself is an act of heroism, so it makes complete sense to me that the stages of these two archetypal journeys resonate with one another.
I’m going to talk briefly about each of the 12 stages of healing Epstein mentions in his book in the hope that it encourages you to read the full book for yourself.
In his work as the Founder and Developer of Network Chiropractic, Epstein discovered that the healing process is made up of a sequence of 12 basic rhythms or stages of consciousness we pass through between “hell” and “heaven” in this lifetime. After observing thousands of people over a 10 year period, he discovered that each stage helps us reunite with aspects of ourselves that have been injured, ignored, or not forgiven.
Although the stages are interconnected and interdependent, each one is also distinct, with its own rite of passage, which is often a chaotic experience known as a healing crisis.
Epstein says that the key to mastering the lesson of each stage is to get into its rhythm rather than to try and get out of it. You need to learn the lesson of that stage - not rush your way through it or deny your way out of it. You need to recognise that your experience, whatever it may be, is valid, even if you do not understand it at the moment.
The stages of healing can be seen as a spiral path wide enough for both ascent and descent. Each stage has a rhythm that inputs wisdom, and you will naturally progress to the next stage once you have fully experienced the stage you are in. Each stage unfolds from the healing you have done, since you cannot heal what you have not yet dealt with.
STAGE ONE: SUFFERING
Suffering is often linked with pain, yet they are not the same thing. Pain is an awareness of discomfort on a physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual level. By contrast, suffering involves the experience of dishonouring, denying, or alienating our “true self,” the core of our being, the wellspring of our awareness and self-expression.
This dishonouring is often activated by painful experiences and our reactions to them, which often involves a gradual process of numbing, armouring, and escape. Over time, this distorted view of ourselves and the world around us sets the stage for.. you guess it, more suffering.
Like pain, suffering is a built-in warning mechanism, an important wake-up call to tell us that something needs to change. During suffering we experience a ‘knowingness’ that something in our lives is wrong, which activates a raw place deep within our being: we feel paralysed, helpless, victimised and obsessed with getting out of ‘it.’
Epstein describes suffering as a by-product of a distorted sense of self. Our inner wisdom is telling us that something doesn’t work anymore, that a perspective - a point of view - we have lived with is no longer real. Suffering is a way for our inner wisdom to remind us that we need to alter our perspectives.
However, in stage one, we cannot perceive it as a wake-up call because there appears to be no reason why we should be enduring such suffering. We will not realise this until the later stages of healing, when we become aware that we have dishonoured our true essence by failing to recognise it.
During the suffering stage we are given the opportunity to allow the old tired perspectives and attachments that prevent us from moving forward to die. Dying in stage one involves surrendering to the suffering we feel without trying to escape from it. It is not an easy process, but we have no alternative. If we try to avoid suffering it often becomes more intense, sometimes showing up uninvited in different areas of our lives with more vengeance than ever, and lasting much longer than would otherwise be necessary.
As we’ve discussed in previous episodes, every cell of the body has a consciousness of its own, and every cell shares the consciousness of the body’s community of cells. When we are suffering, a regional, distorted, or alienated consciousness is calling for our attention. We often have a vague perception that some aspect of us is dying and we feel a sense of urgency to save the suffocating part.
Our fear, anger, and other unresolved feelings call out for attention through our biology and often manifest as physical pain or disease.
In stage one we are not yet whole enough to recognise a distinction between our sense of self and our suffering. This often brings with it a sense of solitude or separation, which may cause us to withdraw from people. I personally believe this natural urge to withdraw can be beneficial, because it can help us focus and reach the next stage of our healing faster.
Epstein says when you simply surrender to the stage of Suffering and allow suffering to happen, an important shift in consciousness takes place. As you stop fighting and give over to the suffering, it envelopes you, it encases you. You may feel you are about to die, and you may feel totally abandoned in despair. You may imagine you are surrounded by chaos and feel a sense of disruption or loss of who you were.
Here Epstein quotes Bernadette Roberts author of ‘The Path To No-Self’: “Here begins the cauterising, the burning through to the deepest centre of your being, which is painful and shattering to all aspects of self. The deep deterministic reins of self control have been taken away and the willpower that glued together this fragile unity has dissolved. From here on, the reins of destiny are in a greater power.”
Like a Frankenstein monster we are trying to live a whole, unified life, yet we do not have the ability to reconcile the parts that are isolated from each other and separated from the essence of who we really are. We want them excised, removed and taken from us now. The struggle that ensues is what suffering is all about.
During stage one it is sometimes necessary to remove pain and suffering through medication, surgery, and other procedures. Sometimes the simple act of acknowledging a person’s suffering can help the sufferer begin completion of this stage.
If we find ourselves shaking, rocking, twisting and holding the affected parts of our bodies, we need to let this happen. It’s like listening to a musical composition without thinking about it or trying to figure it out intellectually. We simply immerse in it. After a while we become one with the rhythm and get to know its theme.
At that point, an important shift takes place in our being and we advance to another stage of consciousness. We may feel raw, disheveled, vulnerable and hurting, but we now perceive that we broke through a barrier that had kept us imprisoned. We now begin to enter into the second stage of healing.
At the end of each chapter of his book, Epstein provides helpful exercises and declarations to help the reader move through each stage of healing.
Summary of Stage One
Different from pain, suffering is marked by a profound awareness that, “Something is wrong.” Parts of our being have been separated from our Inner Self - the core of our being. This especially occurs when we are confronted with a traumatic or chaotic event or loss. The lesson of this stage is the acceptance that nothing works at this time; we are presently helpless.
STAGE TWO: POLARITIES & RHYTHMS
In the early part of stage two, rather than being a person who is overwhelmed by the endless suffering of stage one, we now have a greater sense of “I” who makes judgements and evaluations about ourselves and life around us. We still experience the separateness of our body parts rather than experiencing these as aspects of a fluid, interacting whole. We do not yet realise that this alienated consciousness is the source of our suffering.
If we consider that the mind and the body are inseparable, any consciousness that has not yet been fully acknowledged or has not been truly seen, will make its claim for attention, and in many cases, it will eventually manifest as a chronic disease we can no longer ignore.
Early in stage two it’s common to commit to medication and surgery. The problem is that the removal of the apparent source of their suffering, e.g. a diseased gallbladder, or uterus, do not resolve the memories, feelings, and patterns that may have contributed to the physical problem.
This is not to say that surgery is wrong or inappropriate, on the contrary, it could save their life. But the point is, true healing comes when a person is able to resolve the underlying issues.
In stage two, we have not yet connected the dots and realised our role in our own situation and often look for someone or something to blame. We do not realise a projection is occurring.
Although we are moving in a direction toward empowerment and wholeness, our physiology is not developed enough to accept the power of our own self. Instead, we believe that someone or something outside of us will lead us out of our desperation.
In the early part of stage two we often use outside agents, authority figures, law and order, to substitute for the inner power we have not yet claimed.
We are often tempted to seek a miracle cure from a magical genie character who we hope will save us. The genie could be a physician, surgeon, or religious leader, a new job, or a new relationship that will provide us with the reassurance and fulfilment we crave. In many cases we attract the people and situations that also resonate with this stage of healing.
Western culture makes it easy for us to seek power from outside ourselves. Much of the advertising we see around us is geared to stage two individuals.
For others in stage two, the magical answer may come from gaining information: through a new gadget that tracks our health status, or getting the newest and most extensive diagnostic test.
It appears that life is a roller coaster; always fighting, correcting or being corrected, saving or being saved, all by outside authorities, events or procedures. Sometimes we question whether we have become “dramaholics” because extremes appear to dominate our lives.
Epstein describes what happens next as a bifurcation point. When the medication or surgery, new job or relationship does not bring the inner peace we had hoped for. We discover that what we thought were the causes of our problems weren’t totally responsible after all. It’s common for us to feel confused, angry, resentful, distrustful and blame the physician, surgeon, therapist, our job or our partner.
Upon reaching this juncture, we can choose one of two paths.
One path involves looking for a new magical gene.
The other path we can take involves looking more closely at the situation and asking ourselves whether a pattern may be involved in our suffering. We begin to see a connection between our life circumstances and our ailments. We may say to ourselves, “Hey, I went through this kind of suffering the last time my boss fired me.”
Epstein notes that during his long career as a chiropractor he has observed that most people get stuck in a vicious cycle of suffering and looking for magical solutions
for most of their lives, and they do not use their experience as stepping stones to help activate aspects within themselves that could give them greater wholeness.
Epstein also states that chronic illness does not cause a lack of wholeness, it is a consequence of the body-mind striving for wholeness.
An important part of healing in stage two involves the awareness that there is a polarity or discrepancy between the whole body and an individual part that needs unification and an incongruous or dissonant rhythm or pulse in one or more parts of the body that needs harmonising.
The pulse of life itself is one of cycles and rhythms which change over time like a Universal symphony. Universal intelligence is the wisdom that organises the universe into all of its rhythms, cycles and patterns. The same Universal intelligence governs the rhythms of our bodymind and guides us through our evolution on all levels.
Suffering is what makes us aware that our actions, thoughts and beliefs are not in harmony with the Universal intelligence that guides our lives.
Suffering has a cycle or pattern of its own. We may find that our stomach cramps are more intense whenever we try and repress our anger. Instead of being totally engulfed by suffering as we were in stage one, a sense of déjà vu will creep in and open our eyes to see a pattern of what is, or what is not working. We realise we are involved in that cycle. We ask ourselves, “What is the rhythm to this pattern?”
Toward the end of stage two we become more aware of how judgment and polarities tend to manifest in our thoughts and conversations. We also begin to perceive how our actions can trigger certain responses in other people. Over time, we begin to see the dynamic of cause and effect in several areas of our lives and understand that we have a role in this process. With this new awareness, we have embraced the central lesson of stage two.
Summary of Stage Two
The awareness that suffering involves cycles, polarities, and patterns is the essence of this stage. It begins with the search for the “magic genie” who will save us from our distress, pain, or crisis. We try to gain power over our helplessness through external authorities, procedures, and treatments. Eventually, as we heal, we see that our genie is not so magical. We become aware of our rhythms and polarities, and discover that we are partially responsible for our distress.
STAGE THREE: STUCK IN A PERSPECTIVE
As we enter stage three, we still feel that the old injury, disease or trauma is the cause of our current problems. Often we will have an uneasy feeling that, “My body or mind is holding onto something," or “I want to move ahead, but just can’t.” In other words we are stuck in old ways of seeing things, or stuck in a perspective. This may occur gradually or suddenly.
In this stage we recognise the patterns and polarities we observed in state two are somehow connected to how we perceive life, adapt to life, and recover from life’s events. We develop a stronger sense of self, along with the strength that allows us to assume a greater degree of responsibility toward our situation.
As a chiropractor, Epstein has observed that the nervous system acts as a conduit for the expression of Universal Consciousness (or our innate wisdom) and it’s the nervous system that establishes who we are and how we deal with the world. What our body feels, not necessarily what we are consciously aware of, actually changes the way we perceive the world. If the nervous system is stuck in one perspective, the messages it will send and receive will reflect that perspective.
Health, well-being, vitality, and wholeness are functions of a nervous system that is free from interference. Some of the external factors that produce interference include medications, drugs, alcohol, environmental pollutants and chemicals in the food supply. Electromagnetic radiation from electrical appliances, computer screens, power lines and cellular phones, can also create interference.
When combined with a physical or emotional trauma, these external interferences can result in a spine that becomes limited in its flexibility and a nervous system with a limited ability to reset itself after stress.
I can totally relate to this. There have been times during an osteopath appointment or an exercise session when my spine has been adjusted and there’s been a whoosh of energy and emotional release, which has brought me to tears of relief. Often I’ve been able to pinpoint when those emotions had become trapped in my nervous system because of the flashbacks that come with the release.
This is why I’m such a huge advocate of flexibility exercises. I believe the more flexible your body is the more flexible your nervous system is, and therefore freer your mind is.
Stage three is very powerful because it serves as a bridge between being in suffering and doing something about it. By the time people usually reach this stage of healing, they have probably tried conventional medical interventions and found them no longer helpful.
Here in lies a bit of a conundrum. On the one hand, receiving a medical diagnosis may give a name to a set of symptoms and offer a patient peace of mind. On the other hand, that same diagnosis may prevent us from seeing past the symptoms, which can distract us from the true healing process.
Epstein observes that the clients with the most flexible and adaptable nervous systems, are the ones who move through stage three the easiest. Individuals who are body, movement, or breath centred, like athletes, dancers, and those involved in yoga, stretching, hiking aerobics, and other forms of exercise, move through stage three with minimal intervention.
He quotes Alexander Lowen, MD, the developer of Bioenergetics, “The person who is out of touch with his body doesn’t know that he is closed off.” In his book ‘Depression and the Body’ Lowen wrote, “The patient must be brought into touch with reality, the reality of his life situation, the reality of his feelings, the reality of his body. These three realities cannot be separated from one another. The person who is in touch with his feelings is also in touch with his body and life situation. By the same logic, the person who is in touch with his body is in touch with all aspects of his reality.”
As we surrender to the dynamics of stage three, we automatically get in touch with the natural rhythm of our body-mind and feel the region of stuckness as though it were a large rock blocking the flow of a stream.
For those people who realise they are stuck in a perspective, stage three offers a perfect opportunity to seek the guidance of a holistic practitioner whose goal is to facilitate the healing process, rather than focus on symptoms. Those who work on energetic blocks are particularly beneficial at this stage.
Summary of Stage Three
This stage of healing involves the recognition that our distress is associated with being stuck in a perspective. Our concepts or physiology have been fixated. We don’t need to know why we’ve been stuck, or what to do about it. We just need to have the simple awareness that we’ve been stuck.
STAGE FOUR: RECLAIMING OUR POWER
Stage four is a major doorway to reclaiming our personal power and affirming responsibility for our healing. The statement that best expresses this stage is “I’m not going to take this anymore!” In other words, we have been disconnected to our inner essence and we no longer wish to remain this way.
Stage four is one of the more interesting stages of healing because it offers a variety of challenges that can divert us from healing. At the beginning of this stage, we again arrive at a bifurcation point, or a fork in the road.
The path most commonly chosen is to separate ourselves from our distress by actively rejecting our symptoms, our pain or the apparent source of our suffering. We may leave a relationship, undergo surgery, quit our job or put the house up for sale.
The other path, the one less often chosen, involves a different stage of awareness. Rather than wanting to separate from the apparent external cause of our suffering, we assume a greater degree of responsibility for the deeper, less obvious factors that may underlie our situation.
Stage four represents a dynamic phase in the healing process. We have now achieved a sense of self strong enough to realise that we have dishonoured our inner essence and we decide to turn our backs on our suffering and move in a new direction.
This is the most common stage when we seek out a holistic practitioner whose goal is to foster self empowerment. As we receive the care we need to remove the energy blocks from our biofield, and interference from our nervous systems we become more in touch with our internal communications system and natural rhythms. As a result, we become more aware of ourselves and have a clear idea about what the next step in our healing journey consists of. Our ability to create order out of chaos is a sign of growth and development.
Summary of Stage Four
This stage of healing is one in which we realise that the ‘script’ determined by the previous three stages is no longer desirable or no longer works. Initially, we are angry that we have lost our power and are determined to not let it happen again. As we progress through this stage, we no longer choose to dishonour ourselves.
STAGE FIVE: MERGING WITH THE ILLUSION
The fifth stage of healing involves merging with the fears, pains, illusions, and concerns behind the suffering. It is a rite of passage that calls upon us to confront these aspects of ourselves from a place of strength and from the sincere desire for wholeness we developed in stage four. Separation from either your light or your dark side produces suffering. With merging, the part of our nature we have alienated, disliked, or ignored is integrated into the rest of our being.
For many people, stage five will be a time to merge with their dark side or shadow. Others have spent a considerable amount of time with their shadow and are all too familiar with it. For this group of people, stage five will be a time to move past the illusion which kept them from their light.
Merging is generally not supported or practiced in modern Western culture, but still is in sacred ceremonies among many of the native peoples throughout the world. These sacred rites and vision quests are often misunderstood by Westerners who don’t get why anyone would want to put themselves in an uncomfortable situation on purpose.
Stage five involves revisiting the place where our suffering began, where we can not only observe the process behind the suffering, we also experience the process with a stronger sense of self. We know that we are separate from our distress or the source of our suffering as opposed to being the suffering, as we were in stage one. As a result, we can merge with the illusion of suffering without taking it personally.
Merging with one’s suffering, excuses, or illusions, as opposed to competing with them, is the antithesis of the therapeutic model practiced by most physicians, psychologists and other symptom-oriented practitioners, who are primarily geared toward moving away from the chaos and toward restoring “order” through drugs, surgery and psychoanalysis.
Epstein points out that perhaps the only socially acceptable ways of merging in our Western culture is through the process of natural childbirth, or strenuously working out at the gym.
During natural childbirth, the mother breathes deeply and moves WITH the rhythm of the contractions and eventually merges beyond her pain as she brings forth new life. The mantra “no pain, no gain” is often spoken by gym bunnies who merge by pushing themselves past the illusions of their physical and psychological limits to reach their fitness goals.
Those of us who reach the fifth stage of healing need to work with the experience of suffering, pain, or chaos rather than competing with it. To truly heal, we must look at what is BEHIND the chaos and invest our energy into getting to know it better. By the time we reach this stage, we are able to merge with our source of discomfort and discover what it has to teach us. We realise that we have been living an illusion and have a new sense of empowerment.
Behind the suffering we often find a hurt child consciousness that has not grown up with the rest of our being. When we merge we invite that hurt inner child to grow up and become part of the whole. In this way stage five offers the opportunity for that fragmented aspect of ourselves we have not served well to be viewed by the whole being. As we observe that consciousness, it observes itself and helps to set us free.
Much of our resistance to merging with suffering has to do with fear. Many of us have been conditioned to fear chaos and celebrate order, as if chaos is evil and order is good. But both order and chaos are two sides of the same coin, you can’t have one without the other. Think about it, you can’t transform anything without a messy stage.
The aspects we are not ready to merge with often sabotage our relationships, rob us of our power and trust and impair our health. Yet, when we surrender ourselves to the rhythm of what we are going through, there can be no fear. Fear is usually connected to the illusion of what we think will happen, rather than to the reality of the situation. We can disempower the illusion by merging with it, which changes our relationship to it and neutralises fear.
Summary of Stage Five
This stage is associated with having a strong enough sense of self to merge with the illusion which keeps us from our ‘light’ or our ‘shadow’. With merging, the part of our nature we have alienated, disliked, or ignored is integrated into the rest of our being to create more wholeness.
STAGE SIX: PREPARATION FOR RESOLUTION
Stage six is both an action and transitional stage. It helps the bodymind become more flexible so we can discharge and resolve trapped energy, information, memories, perspectives and patterns. These aspects of our being are no longer able to adapt to our new and stronger sense of self and therefore must be released.
During this stage our body-mind is aware of the gradual buildup of tension, anticipation and energy needed for the discharge, and an awareness of the need to move through it, a lot like when a powerful sneeze is coming on, or giving birth. So, it’s important to centre and ground ourselves in preparation for the release to follow.
For many people this build up can feel uncomfortable and cause them anxiety, prompting them to modify or thwart it with tranquillising agents like medication, drugs or alcohol.
It's important that those people are supported by a practitioner that understands the holistic healing process and doesn't automatically treat symptoms to make them comfortably numb. Stage six calls for a practitioner who can support us in further movement through the chaos, which is an essential feature of stage seven.
Remember impending chaos is not to be feared. Although it often involves moving beyond our comfort range, chaos is absolutely necessary for meaningful change and healing to take place.
In many cases we may be able to resolve our dissonant or alienated aspects without a forceful discharge.
This release will typically occur at the discretion of our innate wisdom, when the nervous system becomes free of interference and our body mind becomes flexible enough to accommodate major change.
Stage six provides us with the momentum we need to allow changes in our lives to occur. It provides a timely window for us to change our lifestyle habits and commit to an exercise program and other wellness practices like meditation, which will now feel more like a pleasure rather than a task.
Our passage through stage six can be both exciting and purposeful and to many it can feel magical, because it’s the stage when serendipity begins to appear. It's not that serendipity didn’t exist before, but now the body mind is both open and flexible enough to accommodate the opportunities that are in alignment with our benefit that appear unexpectedly.
As stage six progresses we become more flexible and energised on all levels in preparation for stage seven: Resolution.
It is one of the most dynamic stages in the healing process and can often be moved through quickly.
By the time we move from stage five, we have gained an awareness of what is behind our illusions, even if this awareness is not conscious. At the same time, our sense of self has been strengthened because we have gone into the belly of the whale or have been eaten by the big bad wolf and merged with our fear to move beyond it.
Summary of Stage Six
In stage six we build momentum and flexibility. The alienated, traumatised, denied or redirected consciousness or energy is being prepared for discharge and resolution. We feel the tension building within ourselves as this process advances and find ways to create change and improve flexibility to continue the process.
STAGE SEVEN: RESOLUTION
Stage seven resolves the buildup of tension experienced in stage six and the result is…you guessed it… resolution.
What most people consider to be sickness is the body trying, through discharge, to release something it doesn’t want in order to achieve an improved level of health. A release could manifest as many things, including mucus, vomit, a bowel movement or bladder elimination, a fever, or passing kidney or gallstones.
Whenever we interfere with the process out of fear, often what we create is more of what our body is trying to eliminate. The goal of conventional medicine is to control or eliminate symptoms and make the patient comfortable, so they can be brought back to their “normal” levels of functioning. This type of intervention can prevent resolution from occurring.
Epstein goes on to say that despite the fact that the medical community sees being in control as the basis of health, we must realise that we cannot be healthy unless we go out of control, the very process of which enables us to create change in our lives. Being out of control is necessary so that we can reconnect to our bodymind. For example, when I went through stage seven of my gallbladder crisis, I emerged with an absolute trust in the sovereignty of my own healing wisdom and power.
Successful discharge involves our bodymind’s system going from higher tension to lower tension, from a state of distress into a state of ease, relaxation and relief. Discharge is a natural, automatic process that most people take for granted. It can be subtle, like a long sigh of relief, or it can be dramatic like crying, screaming and breaking objects.
However, if the body is determined to eliminate the toxic event at whatever the cost and is unable to fully do so, this can create a dangerous situation. Medical or other therapeutic intervention may indeed be necessary. Remember it’s not the discharge that’s dangerous, it's the lack of resolution or recovery from the discharge process.
Knowing when to get medical intervention is key. I had been through the previous six stages of healing and had been preparing for discharging the gallstones naturally, so I was pretty certain I could reach a resolution without having surgery. The difference would be if I hadn't gone through those previous stages and done the preparation and didn’t think my body was flexible enough to push out those gallstones.
Epstein says that conventional medicine has few accepted means of determining which discharges are physiologically normal and which are pathological. Fortunately many of today' s holistic practitioners understand that the discharge process is not necessarily an indicator of disease, but may be part of a healing process involving resolution.
What is resolution? Resolution is the state of consciousness that produces feelings of calm, accomplishment, success, and a sense of freedom and peace. This state implies that integration has occurred between an alienated part of ourselves and the rest of us. Our dissonant aspects have had the opportunity to merge with the basic rhythm of wholeness characteristic of stage five.
Summary of Stage Seven
This stage may involve a discharge of the muscular system, such as a movement of the extremities, or processes such as a fever, coughing, sneezing, crying, screaming, and laughing. When the discharge process occurs after the previous six stages, and a sense of accomplishment, peace, and inner strength accompanies the process, then resolution has been achieved.
STAGE EIGHT: EMPTINESS IN CONNECTEDNESS
This is the stage of emptiness, gratitude, vulnerability, and possibilities. Emptiness is the portal that leads us to higher states of awareness, in which we are more aware of our wholeness and experience our connectedness with the world. After the discharge of stage seven, the emptiness in stage eight may feel calm, light and filled with gratitude.
In stage seven we release much of our armour, which could leave a lingering sense of vulnerability. It may also feel lonely, as if the dissonant sounds of a construction crew working outside our house, which had become a constant companion, have suddenly completed the job and gone home, leaving a deafening silence. This may feel unsettling at first, but these feelings set the stage for deeper exploration and movement, because now our own insights and rhythms can finally be heard.
In stage eight we are in transition, like a trapeze artist that has not yet grabbed onto the next bar. But the void in between bars is not empty space, but rather, it’s full of potentials. You could say that this kind of emptiness is more like a state of readiness, in which we are poised to discover new possibilities and manifest new realities.
In stage eight there is an awareness of connections among parts of yourself that formerly had not been connected. We can sense communication taking place between the new vulnerable areas and the strong, supportive rest of us.
Although all stages of healing offer many blessings, those discovered in stage eight are usually more pleasurable than those found in the previous stages. This stage provides us with the opportunity to truly embrace our right nature and nurture ourselves without reservation. This is the stage when we are more likely to have a transcendental experience, firmly grounded in the strength and stability gained from the lessons learned in the previous stages.
Keeping with the trapeze metaphors, this stage also provides us with the leap of faith we need to guide us to the next stage of healing
Summary of Stage Eight
After the resolution and discharge are emptied, this is not a space of nothingness, but instead a place of possibilities. We enter into a state of gratitude, vulnerability, and connection with our external rhythms, and alignment with events around us. We expect serendipity to be available for us as a natural way of life.
STAGE NINE: LIGHT BEHIND THE FORM
Stage nine begins with what many people would call the transcendent stages of the healing process. Although we are acutely aware of the physical forms around us, we begin to perceive that life is more than the outward physical manifestation: it is also the energy, the life force and the light behind the form. And this broader perspective initiates our ability to view ourselves playing a small but significant role in planetary healing.
As in stage eight, prayer, chanting, and reciting mantas can be effective in activating the stage nine experience. Meditation, deep breathing techniques, vigorous exercise and yoga can be used to more fully experience this healing stage.
Stage nine can be experienced in a variety of ways, such as feelings of warmth, light, or vitality. It can also manifest in our body as a tingling sensation, a wave or pulsation. Experiencing this energy provides us with the knowledge that is real, powerful, pure, true, connected and somehow related to joy, beauty, excitement and vitality, which naturally brings about feelings of gratitude. Childlike feelings of naiveté and awe, as well as the rush of excitement are also characteristic of the rhythm of stage nine.
With our inner sight, we begin to experience a greater perception of light, within ourselves and sometimes in others. When we begin to see it, we realise it’s been there all along, but somehow we were blocking its radiance. We become aware that we can always draw more on this energy as a resource for our continued healing, wholing and understanding.
Because the experience of life force energy is outside the ‘norm’ of the conventional medical model, in most cases stages nine to twelve require a healing facilitator instead of a symptom focused “curing-type” practitioner.
Epstein adds a note of caution to this stage. He states, that if stage nine is not the natural result of moving through the previous stages, for example if its artificially brought on by psychoactive drugs, or a kundalini event induced by deep breathing or yoga postures, there is a danger of having the energetic experience without the joy, love, the rhythm, and the strengthening of one’s sense of self.
Without having experienced the previous healing stages, this energetic awakening may be associated with fear or pain. If a person has not been grounded in a secure sense of self, the experience can involve further physical, emotional, or psychological trauma causing them to move to the lower stages of healing, especially stages one and two.
I can confirm this to be true, because I’ve worked with clients who have been physically, psychologically and energetically harmed through experimenting with strong psychedelics while seeking a spiritual experience. It can warp a person’s basic grid, which, like the chassis of a car, is not an easy thing to unwarp.
Epstein goes on to say that individuals who have experienced physical, emotional or sexual abuse may feel uncomfortable when experiencing this energy flowing through them for the first time.
In my opinion, modalities like Biofield Tuning are very effective for preparing the nervous system for stage nine’s energy flow, even for trauma survivors, because nervous system interference can be reduced gradually over a course of sessions, which allows integration to happen at a safe pace.
Summary of Stage Nine
From our place of emptiness and gratitude, we become aware of our fullness of light and energy. We experience that we are more than our physical body, and actually become aware of the flow of life force energy through and around us. We may even experience our energetic connection to others. This occurs in conjunction with awe and joy for the process.
STAGE TEN: ASCENT
In stage nine, we experience the life energy and felt ourselves filled with light, intelligence and love. The stage ten experience dissolves our sense of self as separate from the rest of the world. The tenth stage of healing is not the highest stage of healing, but it’s the most sought after.
Ascent is the stage that mystics, gurus, and other religious leaders from both Eastern and Western traditions have long spoken about. This stage of consciousness has aspects similar to neer-vee-KAHL-pah samadhi in Hinduism, nana samadhi in Zen, and the stage of effortless insight culminating in nirvana in Buddhism. The Christian mystics call it the ‘Christ Consciousness’ and transpersonal psychologists sometimes refer to it as “transpersonal integration.”
I love this quote from Aminah Raheem from her book ‘Soul Return.’ “A sense of separateness - from oneself, others and the environment - is replaced by an inner attunement to a great natural Order. Surrender to that Order…becomes possible and appealing. A sense of well-being and integrity will automatically accompany these knowings."
For those of us seeking spiritual enlightenment, healing or a sense of connectedness with all of creation, the consciousness and rhythms of stage ten are usually the highest expression of what we are seeking. For those of us who have moved through the previous stages of healing, stage ten is the ‘reward’ for our efforts. It is the stage when we relinquish our sense of self and merge with Universal Consciousness. As a result, we open ourselves up to new realms of existence.
In this stage we transcend time and space. There are no more polarities or dualities. We feel our connectedness to the Earth and everything around us. This can bring about feelings of intense love and waves of ecstasy. There is no greater excitement, containment or fulfilment. It feels as though we have come home.
But stage ten is not always blissful. In fact we can still have disease symptoms and experience stage ten. At times this mystical stage provides insights into our existence that reach the very depths of our soul.
It is important to surrender to the stage of healing you are in as opposed to striving to reach a higher stage.
This advice is especially important regarding stage ten, because this is the stage most people want to experience and remain in forever. Striving for stage ten can actually become a distraction and hinder our movement through the earlier stages, making it less likely to experience more than a glimpse of stage ten before we are returned to an earlier stage to do more learning.
Surrendering ourselves fully to the stage we are in empowers us to move to whatever stage is necessary for our healing at exactly the right time, even if that means moving back to an earlier stage. Remember, that the experience of a Universal Intelligence occurs when our nervous system is open and flexible enough to merge with it.
In stage ten, we are no longer our normal self because we have expanded beyond this boundary and our self now includes other realms of possibility. This is the stage where people often receive wisdom from other realms. Religious texts are full of examples.
Sometimes this process is considered channeling, in which people in a light trance are reassured by another presence and may speak or write words that move spontaneously through them.
The lesson we learn from the rhythm of stage ten is about our connectedness to all existence. This experience forever changes us and expands our consciousness spectrum. After this connection, what we do with the insights is of great importance.
When sharing the wisdom that comes through when we are in this stage we should be careful. Not all who hear it will be ready to receive it. Take for example Jesus, who shared the wisdom given to him and he was viewed by many as a dangerous revolutionary and crucified.
Not all who share their stage ten insights are ready to do so without consciously or subconsciously filtering their words or altering their message. The translation of a divinely inspired message can get distorted through our own biases. This is why resonance is so important. If a message doesn’t resonate or ring true for us, then it’s most likely not something that is complete, fitting or timely.
When stage ten insights are shared in a pure and loving way, and received by those ready to hear it, it resonates powerfully inside us like beautiful music which inspires healing, imagination, action, creation, change, growth, transformation and paradigm shifts.
Summary of Stage Ten
There is an awareness of Being - not as an intelligent being, but as intelligence itself: not as housing a Spirit, but as Spirit itself. We experience our union with the creative force of the Universe. We transcend all limits, boundaries, language, judgement, and our existing sense of self. We receive the gift of knowing the oneness of all creation, and gain immense wisdom during this stage.
STAGE ELEVEN: DESCENT
After experiencing the grace of stage ten, we know that the source of power, love and consciousness is Universal. It does not come from us; it does not come from others, it does not depend on the outer events or circumstances in our lives. Instead of a conceptual understanding of our oneness with the Divine Source, we know it to be true at a cellular level. We incorporate this understanding into the deepest aspect of our being.
Like the varied experiences in Odysseus’ voyage, each of the twelve stages is a temporary place of learning on the healing journey towards home or wholeness. And like Odysseus’ visit to the Land of Light, we cannot remain in stage ten forever.
In stage eleven, we descend into our lives with new perspectives, more energy, and greater understanding. As a consequence, we no longer feel separated from Source.
We become a tree that is steadfastly rooted to the ground, whose branches reach to the sky. We begin to live from the experience of being one with the Source of unlimited consciousness and we strive to act accordingly in daily life.
In the words of renowned meditation teacher, Jack Cornfield, “You have to live your spirituality day to day, at home, at work, in your car. Otherwise, it won’t transform you, and in the end you won’t benefit and transform the world around you.”
In stage eleven our relationships change. We no longer compete with others for their energy or attention by being possessive or jealous.
One of the challenges of this stage is to live in a world where everyone is at different stages, like a school where all the levels of learning are in one big classroom and everyone has to learn to get along. We need to find a way to share our new gifts and knowledge with grace and compassion with those who are not yet at our level of healing and understanding. And it’s important to do so from a place of groundedness and humility, because we are the ‘way showers’ who inspire others to move forward on their individual healing journeys.
In the descent stage, our intuition brings us more into alignment with life’s natural rhythms.
A basic lesson of this stage is to sustain gratitude and remain in awe of the miracle of life while we perform our daily activities. To the degree that we are able to function from our true self and natural rhythms (as opposed to reacting to the alienated, dissonant aspects of our nature, as in the earlier stages), we can serve as powerful agents for service and healing in the world. This affects us individually, and it can have a profound impact on our relationships with others and the greater community.
In stage eleven we realise that we are responsible for the expression of the energy we receive and how it affects our lives and the environment. Being aware of our distortions and transforming them in our lives is part of this healing stage.
As in stage eight, in stage eleven we attract people, events and circumstances that offer opportunities to liberate ourselves from old perspectives and help us further our growth and evolution, but now we are even more aware that life is attracting them to us.
We also become more aware of how we have distracted ourselves throughout our lives by our concepts, comparisons, analyses and attachment to habits.
You may have heard the phrase; ”You can’t solve a problem with the same thinking that created the problem.” In this stage we experience a liberation that allows us a new way of thinking. Often called ‘magical thinking,’ it’s the ability to see a problem from a multitude of perspectives rather than our old limited perspective. Plus we now have divine inspiration accessible to us for those flashes of genius, and our lives become strongly guided by this thinking.
One of the challenges of this stage involves avoiding involvement with trivia; the background noise in our consciousness, the old ways of thinking, the projections of contemporary society and the adherence to old images and situations that had caused us distress in the first place. In stage eleven, we are more conscious than ever before that by indulging in old perspectives, we lose our connection with the network of intelligence that connects us to everything. We are strongly reminded that the way we think can affect our health.
As we descend into the “lower” realities of daily life, we are able to clean up remaining interference. We do this with the awareness of our inner potential and commitment to this consciousness. We realise we can exist on the Earthly plane while knowing that true existence is not of this world.
For many who move through stage eleven, the circumstances we experience in daily life still remain. As we move through these life situations with greater awareness, we often revisit one or more of the earlier stages of healing, and continue to heal those aspects of our being that are interfering with the expression of stages nine through eleven.
Returning to these earlier stages offer us opportunities to reevaluate many of our beliefs, relationships, lifestyle habits, and aspects of our lives we once thought were important. Revisiting earlier stages is an integral part of the healing process because it creates a stronger sense of humility and compassion. So when we encounter the same kinds of circumstances we encountered before, we can no longer react the same old way, with the same old triggers, therefore we can change the way we experience the world.
In stage eleven you wish to give your blessing to everything and everyone, as well as yourself. You recognise that whatever you focus your magical thinking on you will manifest more of it. So this is a good time to focus your magical thinking of bringing more peace and beauty into the world.
A Sufi master once said, “A candle is not here to illuminate itself.” Now we come to realise that we need to move to the next stage of healing, which involves becoming aware that the light we are filled with is not meant for us alone.
Summary of Stage Eleven
In this stage we are renewed beyond our limits and sense of self and enter into the world again. We know that we are part of all we perceive and responsible for what we know. We live without being attached to our situations. We love and serve life and others. We communicate with ourselves and others through our wounds instead of from them.
STAGE TWELVE: COMMUNITY
In stage twelve, we realise we are no longer passive observers. We find that healing is associated with our active participation in life.
Our primary community is that of the bodymind. We are made up of trillions of cells which are organised into functions with roles to fulfil. When this vast internal community works in harmony, we grow, heal and fulfil our tasks in life. I call this relationship with our bodymind our ‘Primary Life Partner’ or PLP for short. It’s the most important relationship we will ever have and it’s a life long one. The quality of this relationship will largely dictate our quality of life.
Going back to community. Community extends to our family members, who may or may not be biologically related.
Community may also include a relationship with another human partner. Not only do we experience community with our life partner, we also experience community with their family and friends as well.
We also have community with those we learn and work alongside, or share our interests and hobbies with. It can manifest as a spiritual community. It can also manifest as communing with Nature.
Ex Vice President Al Gore sums up community perfectly: “And just as the false assumption that we are not connected to the Earth has led to the ecological crisis, so the equally false assumption that we are not connected to each other, led to our social crisis.”
Epstein goes on to say it is impossible to create a well-working community that is based on incorrect, in adequate, or incomplete beliefs. Any concepts of science, economics, sociology, religion or healing that does not create joy, compassion, humility, love, and a sense of personal responsibility for our choices, are not truly valid. Any social system that separates people from each other is not resonating with the later stages of healing and must go through a transformation towards wholeness.
People who are disconnected from Source do not perceive themselves as dishonouring others because their actions are reflections of their own dishonour. In other words, acts of dishonour occur because we do not feel our connection to the world around us, which is impossible to feel unless we feel our connection to Source within us. The more we honour ourselves and our internal rhythms, the more this honour will extend to the larger rhythms of the world.
In community, we find the places in ourselves where we have lost our participation. To the degree that if we do not participate with ourselves as a community, we are unable to participate in the world around us. We need to awaken from our sleep so our reality can once again be transformed through our participation in the world.
In stage twelve, we become participatory scientists in every aspect of our lives. We come more aware of the illusions , fabrications, and distortions that keep us from being in touch with the larger reality around us.
As we continue to heal, we notice that community has always been present; it is only our degree of participation in the community that has varied. And only by our involvement in the laboratory of our individual healing can we truly experience our inherent community. When we observe the cooperative relationship among all the body parts, we recognise that the body itself is an amazingly exquisite community. And we see that illness occurs whenever a dysfunctional state exists within us.
In stage twelve, we feel compelled to share our gifts with our community, including the wisdom and understanding gained through healing our wounds. It’s also the stage in which we continue the process of learning and discovering through interaction with others.
As we move through the twelve stages, our perspectives broaden and our circles of community expand to include more people, more beliefs, and even other life forms. Like the healing process, expanding our perspectives in an ongoing, never-ending process.
In stage twelve, we identify challenging situations being related as divergent energy, and rather than ignore it, compete with it, or repress it, as we may have done in the past, we can ask ourselves these questions:
What is the opportunity that has been created?
How can I maximize this opportunity?
Who in the community can offer their gift to resolve the situation so that all of us are involved and enriched?
In our stage twelve consciousness we discover that divergence is necessary for us to grow sufficiently so that we recognise that all people have gifts to offer, regardless of how obscured they may be. Divergent energies are necessary for successful communities because it’s only through challenging our patterns and perspectives that we can learn to live more deeply within ourselves, move past our wounds, and relinquish old, less functional ways.
In stage eleven, we realise that a major task of humanity is to channel energy constructively. We also understand that the life force is a precious gift and we want to use it wisely. In the twelfth stage, we strive to find ways for how we may best focus and express this energy - to further unity, respect and planetary healing.
In the context of the body's inner community, we are our medicine. In the contact of a larger community of people, we are each other’s medicine. Studies have shown that the interpersonal support found in human community helps keep us healthier and live longer.
Summary of Stage Twelve
We experience our involvement with humanity and recognise that wholeness comes from bringing our gifts of individuality into community. We recognise that all our choices are spiritual ones and affect everyone on the planet. Eventually we realise that the limits of what we can bring to community stems from our own lack of wholeness. Therefore we seek to re-experience the rhythm of the earlier stages.
To Summarise: The 12 Stages Of Healing
In our healing journey, we must move through all the different stages. Once we have journeyed through all of the stages in order, we may revisit any stage out of sequence.
If we cannot resolve our connection with the rhythm of the stage of healing we are in and move back to stage one, this should not be interpreted as a failure. There are times when repeated experiences are necessary to achieve deeper understanding and enrichment.
Remember that holistic healing is simply an expression of life unfolding towards a higher order of complexity and consciousness. When it becomes natural and effortless for you to be at any stage of consciousness, to be one with its rhythms, you’ve gotten the hang of life. Your rhythm is your truth and your truth will set you free!
Do you need help navigating the 12 stages of healing? Remember that Biofield Tuning is a very effective modality for assisting the nervous system through these 12 stages.
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