Life and Death

Reading an interesting book called ‘The War of Art’. In it, it talks about a movie called “Billy Jack” starring Tom Loughlin.

Any of you remember that movie? The film has had sequels, all on cable now. Anyway, Tom right now is doing some really interesting work.

He’s a lecturer and author and a Jungian school psychologist who especially is working with people who have been diagnosed with cancer.

Here’s something that he said that I read about in a book that I found really fascinating. “The moment a person learns he’s got terminal cancer, a profound shift takes place in his psyche. At one stroke in the doctor’s office, he becomes aware of what really matters to him, things that 60 seconds earlier seemed all important suddenly appear meaningless, while people and concerns that he had until then, dismissed at once, take on supreme importance.”

Maybe he realized working this weekend on that big deal at the office isn’t all that vital. Maybe it’s important to fly cross country for his grandson’s graduation. Maybe it’s important to tell people who he loves that he loves them. Other thoughts come in.

Tom says that faced with the imminent extinction, he believes all assumptions called into question. What does our life mean? Have we lived it right? And there are vital acts we’ve left unperformed, crucial words — are there vital acts we’ve left unperformed, crucial words unspoken? Is it too late?

He says, “it’s fascinating, we’re so much in ego all the time”.

Every day our conscious intelligence — every day our brain thinks, plans, and runs the show of our day-to-day life.

So what happens in that instance when we learn that we may soon die?

According to Tom Laughlin, the seat of our consciousness shifts and moves from ego to the self.

He goes on to say that the world is entirely new, viewed from the self, and once we discern what’s really important, superficial concerns fall away, replaced by deeper, more profoundly grounded perspective.

Here’s what’s really fascinating. This is how his foundation battles cancer.

He advises patients to focus on the self, to pursue their passion, not just mentally, but to live it out in their lives. Now, here’s what’s really fascinating. Miraculously, a lot of cancers go into remission, people recover. Is it possible?

Well, think about what cancer is. Could cancer be our unlived lives that have exacted a vengeance upon us in the form of cancer?

Think about all the unlived passion that you have inside you right now.

Think about all the unlived desires that you have. Literally think about the superhero version of yourself that you’ve always wanted to let out.

Think about that for a second. How does it make you feel? Think about the life you’re living and now think about the life you want to live.

Do you feel some stress building up right now around the things that you think are unattainable?

Do you feel that anxiety feeling, the cortisol releasing into your body, that stress hormone?

Every time we have a thought, a thought that we can’t do something, or a thought that maybe we can’t have the life that we choose to live, we build up stress inside our bodies, probably causing cancer to grow.

When I read this book, it resonated with me in a lot of different ways. But this section really resonated with me because I truly believe that our mind creates thought. Our thoughts create beliefs, and our beliefs create things that we do to our body. Careful what you tell yourself.

If every day you’re telling yourself that you can’t meet women.

If every day you’re telling yourself that you can’t get the job you want.

If you’re telling yourself that women don’t like short men.

Or, that you don’t deserve to have a great hot girlfriend like your friend Joe, what you’re doing is you’re creating cancer throughout your entire body. Negative thoughts, negative beliefs. Think about the way you feel when you say these thoughts. You feel more worn down, more tired.

You feel almost wiped out. That you want to take a nap, because that’s what you’re doing. You’re causing these negative thoughts. It’s your ego that’s saying this.

When you get deeper into self and realize that self has unlimited possibilities, then you really start thinking into a deeper consciousness, a deeper way of thinking.

It’s amazing how many times you read a story about somebody who is dying of terminal disease, and they never started living until they were diagnosed with terminal disease.

It’s not fault of our own. We’re so caught up in our ego. We’re so caught up in being validated. We’re so caught up in not living a life we were meant to be, because we’re caught up in the fear of life.

Write down some of these things today that your superhero version of yourself wants to experience, and then start doing some of them day by day. Start getting more into the consciousness of the heart instead of the consciousness of the ego.