Self-Healing: a Neat, Deep, and Miraculous Technique

Freedom depends on our ability to give space to any feeling.”

In the Spring of 2010 I spent two weeks on the island of Mull, off Scotland’s western coast, receiving Bio-dynamic Craniosacral sessions from Leena. This transformative, explosive, rhapsodic interlude on a magical, sheep-stoical, daffodilly isle gave me grounding in a stillness deep enough to allow me to get out of my own way in meditation; to see, then, what Just Happens By Itself. (This had always been a problem – Osho had scolded me again and again for too much Doing! Yet I’d been powerless to desist.)

Later, a goofy, wild, high-powered healer in Kansas City, with a few touches of his finger on acupressure points, sent me spinning off into depths of forgotten emotion that I needed desperately to have a way to effectively metabolize, process, release. Dynamic has always been my favorite method; but the spaces I was hurled into were so poignant, so paralyzing, that only stillness would do.

And so gradually a new way of healing myself was born; and I am so joyous about it, so thrilled that this has come through, that I want to share it. It is a clear and succinct method, with definite steps; the unconscious, when evoked, loves a safe structure in which to reveal itself. It loves a deft, and yet respectful, hand on the reins. When something painful is to be encountered, it likes the objectivity of a structure which will signal ‘beginning’ and ‘end’ for that meeting. And the superconscious, when evoked, loves a clear question to draw its luminosity out.

The beauty of this method is that you can do it alone, wherever you are. If you find yourself, as I do, in a place where there are no friends to exchange sessions with, or therapists you want to go to (the abovementioned healer being the radical exception, but he’s a good distance away from my little Bible-Belt town, and he works in indications, not the subsequent processing) – and no money to pay them with either – you have everything you need anyway, in your own two hands.

The technique works for physical ailments, emotional discomforts, spiritual aches. I’ve healed myself of a beginning flu, just by following the steps laid out below; I’ve uncovered, and brought finally into soft joy, innumerable sorrows, questions, confusions. Would you like to try it?

What you will need

2 small pillows
A rolled towel
A blindfold or scarf
Plenty of uninterrupted time. Allow two hours, just in case.
Your own two hands
The willingness to relax deeply and allow great stillness

The Method

Lie down in bed on your back with the rolled towel under your neck. Let the thickness of the roll be what is most comfortable for you. The small pillows are placed under your elbows. The scarf or blindfold goes over your eyes. Adjust the bedclothes so that you are as comfortable as possible – neither too warm nor too cold, with no uncomfortable pressure anywhere. I like to do this work in the morning when I first wake up; but sometimes too I do it in the middle of the night when sleep is not arriving and I feel restless and wakeful. Your timing will be your own.

Place your hands on your body wherever they want to go – where the pain is, the ache, the difficulty. (If the sorrow is emotional or spiritual, I often end up with both hands on my heart.) Take some time now to just relax. Let your mind wander and do whatever it wants. When you feel that it has roamed about as much as it wanted, commenting on this and that; and you are ready to settle, begin to notice the sensations in your body where the difficulty is. Just allow them. There is nothing that your mind has to do – so you can just keep coming back to the feelings. Let them be as they are, not trying to change a thing.

If you find that you want to avoid the feelings, just take note of that and let the avoidance be part of all that is going on.

Eventually you will reach a sort of plateau, or gap, where you have faced the feelings/sensations, and are ready to begin exploring. Don’t rush it – this gap will arrive in its own time.

The Nine Questions

Now you can begin with the questions. You will need to peek at the list of them at first, but will soon memorize them as your body joyfully recognizes the steps. (If you have someone to exchange with, you could try having them ask the questions at first, to help you get aligned with the process and remember the steps.)

1. Show me a safe place in my body.
Just trust whatever arises in response to this question. It might be a picture, a feeling, a sound. This is a place you can come back to if you become frightened or worried. For example, I often see a stout tree-trunk in my right thigh, or my abdomen, with leaves here and there.
The image can change, either subtly or drastically, each time you ask the question.

2. Show me the Core of Health.
The Core of Health is a Cranio concept which I find very beautiful; it means that each of us has a healthy interior somewhere, or we could not be alive. By connecting with this healthy core we begin with Health, with the affirmative acknowledgement of our center. You can come back to this, too, at any point during the Self-Healing. When you ask this question, just trust whatever arises in response. I often see a skeleton in me made of emerald…or fire…or white crystal. It can be anything…If you are not particularly visual, it might be a feeling in a certain place.

3. Where is the Silence in this?
This is an interesting question. Most often when I ask it I do not see Silence at all; I see all that is not Silence: the noise, the difficulty; more explicitly, more outlined. I usually ask this question over and over again for a while, so that I can give the best chance to the Silence and also to the problem to show itself.

Here you will be feeling the pain of your issue. As far as possible, face it. You don’t have to do anything with it – please don’t – but you will have to allow it to be there, in all its awfulness / pain / wincing dread. These are emotions and feelings you have wanted to avoid. They are inconvenient, uncomfortable, embarrassing, even excrutiating. But now is your chance to face them, squarely and cleanly, as best you can. The results will be worth it; but that is not the point right now. Just – face what you have not faced. The finer the nuances of your noticing, the better. The real prize is when you notice an energy that has been right under your nose all along and you had never recognized it before. That is freeing! Energy often then will rush wholesale up to the crown and out the top of your head….Sometimes the body will jerk or adjust itself or sigh when this occurs.
The Silence might also be felt as a mysterious background to the pain. Life is complicated, paradoxical, ornate… you can encompass both.

If you cannot find the Silence after much asking and experiencing whatever comes up, you can acknowledge, “I can’t find the Silence in this.” (No disgrace attendant!) This helps make space to move to the next step.

4. Take me to the Root.
Allow whatever comes. Just trust what arises, and then face it, experience it, without Doing anything. I often see a picture from my childhood here; something that reminds my unconscious in some way of the current situation. No need to question what the unconscious comes up with – just allow it. Allow, face, be with. Just be with the pain of whatever scene is before you, that you find yourself part of. Nothing to do, nowhere to go – just be with it as it is, not escaping. Notice minutely. Eventually you will feel satisfied with your deep awareness of the scene, and a gap appears. Then you are ready to move to the next layer. (If you try to move prematurely it will not work – you’ll be pulled back to go on facing till it’s faced!)

5. Take me to the Real Root.
Allow whatever arises. If you see a picture from some time or place you don’t recognize from this life, don’t stand in its way – let it be. Face it exactly like you would something from this life. It’s no different… Face the feelings, allow the story to be seen, don’t Do. Rest and allow… take note of the understandings which arise.
It is the mind’s nature to doubt; it might say, Oh, this can’t be a past life, I am full of B.S., what rubbish is this? A picture of a haystack on fire, and me, a little boy, running away, and the barn catching too – no, how absurd! Let it doubt, but stay with the living energy of the picture/feeling. It has reality in your inner world, and that is enough. Let it unfold, unroll. Face the pain of it. Don’t run away. Allow it just as it comes to you. Although you are lying still your whole body is alive to the happening, the memory. The more raptly still you are, the more complete the experience and the comprehension.
You might then ask yourself, What did I learn from that life?

6. Take me to the Deepest Root.
Here I often find myself in cave-man times, involved in a drama of survival or some such. These are our roots. It is at this level, often in a very simple scene, that I find the deepest understanding of the nature of my difficulty. When the saber-tooth tiger had me backed up against the wall of the cave, what did I learn? What was my decision? But sometimes I’ll be in an incident from this life, or a recent past one. Whatever comes…. Allow the Knowings which will arise as you see yourself trying to survive, or whatever is going on….
When you feel complete with this – when you have seen and allowed and learned from the Deepest Root, when you feel ready to go on:

7. Show me the Key.
Here you have no idea what will come. Something will show itself – a key of what is the best thing to do here, with this symptom. In the case of a cold or flu, you might see a picture of some forgotten herbal remedy you have in the fridge. In the case of an emotional difficulty, you might see that the only key is to face it, face the feelings, allow them – no matter what the agony of it while it is happening. This too will pass…but cannot be avoided. To avoid pain is to avoid the joy that would come after as well. …Or, you might see a glass of water – drink more water! Or who knows what…The resourcefulness of the Knowing deep within you is amazing. Trust whatever shows itself…Often what I see here is just that I am to do what I am already doing: experience, to the best of my ability, the full breadth and depth of the dis-ease.
When you feel that you have become cognizant of the lesson, the Key, there will come a gap…

8. Show me the Healing.
This will bring you a picture/feeling/knowing of the Healed State. You might find big breaths releasing as peace comes in, and soothing…As you see what the healed state looks like, you see a flash of what the dis-ease was; now that it is gone…and now the healing takes over, soft and sure. It arises from the work you have just done, it is a consummation, a wholeness, a living flow. Enjoy….

9. Show me the Light.
Who knows what will arise? Transcendence suffusing the state of Health – illuminated and uplifted. The cosmos can bring down its joy and levity to you. You lie in grace…Ahhhh…..And you have earned it, and you have not Done anything. Just used a small excavation tool, and Faced what Is, and watched it transform.
Bathe in this beauty….
Thank you, Guides.

Say that, or Thank you, Invisibles, or whatever…you can find your own Whoever to thank. I always namaste, from my lying-down position .
And you are ready to rise.

A word, here, about your hands: They are neutral – you are not doing anything with them. You may move them about if you feel to – if one place feels finished you may start over at a new place – or change the position for more comfort or energetic relevance. The reason I’ve used the word ‘miraculous’ in my title is because these neutral hands can become something truly astonishing and full of grace: a conduit, a channel, for the healing to pass from the cosmos to you; or from you to you – who knows which? The hands then are finally the loving and cherishing you are giving yourself – so lightly, yet with such tender power coming through that you have neither ‘done’ nor intended. This process is a way of loving yourself so dearly… This is delicious. You love you, by being passive and paying close and rigorous attention – yet somehow something bigger is loving you.

This love acknowledges, too, that I will take the time and space out of this busy world to observe in minutest detail the merest breathings of my inner landscape / seascape / skyscape. Love comes out of this… and a feeling of empowerment: I can do all this alone, with just my own two hands!

It makes me love these hands – innocent, hard-working, slender, wrinkled, nimble, unadorned – for, when they get out of the way, all grace and sensitivity can pour through them. They are utterly relaxed and at ease, resting lightly on the place of pain.
That place, then, too, is caught up in the intention of non-doing healing. And it gives up its secrets and its old burdens, and joins the dance.

All in silence. How amazing!

Here is a list of the nine Questions so that you might, if you like, experiment with this. I would enjoy feedback from anyone who tries it, for…maybe it is just I who fit so well with it? No! I don’t think so. But I would love to hear!

The Nine Questions

1. Show me a safe place in my body.
2. Show me the Core of Health.
3. Where is the Silence in this?
4. Take me to the Root.
5. Take me to the Real Root.
6. Take me to the Deepest Root.
7. Show me the Key.
8. Show me the Healing.
9. Show me the Light.

Thank you, Guides.
And with gratefulness to Leena, who was the Door, and who tells me now that this is something worth sharing, that is not simply Cranio rehashed! And to the Kansas City wizard, who insists that God taught it to me and that God said, “She will heal herself.” And of course to Osho, without whom… well, I cannot bear to think.

Text and illustrations by Madhuri

If you would like to receive these instructions as a PDF file to print out you can write to us…

Madhuri’s forthcoming book, Healing Trilogy, is about how this method evolved for her; and how she has been employing it during her long exploration of creativity, awareness, and life-passion, in an indifferent land.

Update: This healing technique has been included in the Appendix of her memoir, ‘Mistakes on the Path‘