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41
THE EMOTIONAL CLEARING PROCESS / Re: Vipassana retreat and Emotional Clearing
« Last post by Dean on January 11, 2023 »
I was recently turned away from a 10-day vipassana retreat owing to my lifelong history of depression.  I had intended to try vipassana as a complement or "in addition to" the EM clearing approach. 

As a 10-day vipassana retreat is not available to me now, I feel the need to invest more into my EM clearing practice.  As vehicles towards improvement on a psychological/spiritual continuum, perhaps vipassana is "good" and EM clearing is better. 

This reminds me of guidance to do physical exercise.  Questions arise, such as will I get more benefit if I do my exercise in the morning?  Another question is what type of physical exercise is best:  should I swim, should I jog, should I ride bike, should I run, etc?  Experts advise that whatever exercise you yourself will do, at whatever time you yourself will do it, is the best exercise.  In other words, yes there are varying degrees of benefit based on what time of day you exercise or what kind of exercise you do.  However, the main thing is that you're doing exercise. 

This analogy helps me make sense of vipassana vs EM clearing.  Now let me extend the analogy further.  I had hoped a vipassana retreat would afford me space for focused dedication, as well as specific teaching.  John's books are great teaching, and sure I could set up a 10-day retreat on my own.  But I had hoped to get things from a vipassana retreat that I don't get from John's books, CDs, or my daily practice.  Said differently, sure I can run and lift weights on my own, but if my means allow it, hiring a personal fitness trainer to instruct me and keep me motivated helps.

It helps me to think of a 10-day vipassana retreat analogous to hiring a personal trainer to help me exercise.  No personal trainer knows everything; they are usually trained in only specific aspects of exercise and may not even be aware of higher quality exercises you may do.  I now think of vipassana retreat leaders, and even S.M. Goenka himself, in this way.  There are different paths to spiritual enlightenment, and while not all paths are equal, perhaps the first and foremost thing is that a person is following a path.

So, this is how I personally make sense of vipassana and EM clearing.  I offer it here in case someone reading this forum finds benefit in it.  I know I find benefit in reading how others who have made their way to this forum are processing EM clearing for themselves.





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THE EMOTIONAL CLEARING PROCESS / Re: Activating the Witness and increasing capacity
« Last post by Dean on January 11, 2023 »
James -

I believe we both share an interest in comprehending EM clearing more fully.  Your description of witnessing, as used in EM clearing, as increasing one's trauma capacity makes sense to me. 

A metaphor that comes to my mind is like afterburners that boost a jet to faster speeds.  John does seem to describe witnessing as something that boosts a person's ability to process adverse subconscious material better.  And, that would be an increase in one's trauma capacity.

But I am a lay person.  Hopefully John will respond.

-Dean
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THE EMOTIONAL CLEARING PROCESS / Synergy between a practice of focusing on breath at nostrils, and EM clearing
« Last post by Dean on January 11, 2023 »
Hello John:

Could you elaborate on the synergies (if such exist) between the practice of focusing on the breath coming in and out of the nostrils, and EM clearing?

Background:

I recently was turned away from a 10-day vipassana retreat because of my history of depression.  Since that option is not available, I am dedicating myself more fully to daily EM clearing sessions.

10-day vipassana retreats treat breath focus, what they call anapana, as a prerequisite to vipassana.  I was advised to practice it daily for 6+ months, then reapply to a 10-day retreat.  My lay person understanding is that anapana cultivates a mental state of non-egoic concentration necessary to detect and stay with the subtle body sensations in vipassana practice. 

This makes sense to me.  Body sensations run through me 24x7, constantly morphing.  One moment it's tension in my nose, the next it's a pinching sensation in my throat.  In EM clearing I often try to "catch" one of those sensations and stay with it.  I see these sensations as a type of echo, revealing emotional energies pent up in my subconscious.  But to follow these echoes to their source in my subconscious requires a special mental state that differs from normal waking consciousness

Your alpha-state induction helps achieve the necessary mental state.  But would I be right that a daily anapana practice would also aid here?  The meditation section in "Deep Clearing" seems to imply this, specifically in the section about samadhi.  I'm not sure I understand what samadhi is, but I think anapana is a technique for getting the mind into samadhi.

Right now my daily practice is 15 min anapana, followed by a 45-minute emotional clearing session.  I have your CDs, and as 45 minutes is the length of each track, it works out well.  I think pairing like this has synergies, and so I intend to keep at this 15+45 min practice and make it as ingrained a habit as I can.  If you agree with my assessment of the synergies, that would encourage me to continue to devote the effort.

Thank you,
Dean
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THE EMOTIONAL CLEARING PROCESS / Activating the Witness and increasing capacity
« Last post by jambonsambo on December 14, 2022 »

Hi John,

Within trauma healing spheres I have come across this idea of "increasing capacity" .  The language around it is a little obscure at times but I have taken it to mean an approach that increases the capacity of the nervous system to deal with more and more difficult degrees of trauma and deeper types of emotional pain without disassociating or falling into compulsive addictive behaviors.

I like the analogy I read of upgrading a person from only being able to handle a 30watt charge of emotion trough increasing capacity to being able to handle a 50watt charge and so on.

With your Em Clear approach in mind I see a parallel between this concept of increasing capacity and the idea of activating the witness in the third eye location as you describe it in your book with that dual witnessing approach where you both feel the intensity of an emotional charge but still are in touch with that higher perspective.

So I am wondering if increasing capacity and evolving more and more witnessing capacity are one in the same thing although framed differently. Is witnessing capacity something that you can always build upon? I mean can you develop the ability to witness deeper and deeper and thus handle more and more difficult subconscious material. Does it work like that?

Thanks for Reading,

James

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THE EMOTIONAL CLEARING PROCESS / Re: Challenges with the relaxation audio
« Last post by John Ruskan on December 12, 2022 »
It's just a matter of practice and developing right-brain meditative skills.

Negative emotions and feelings are perceived as painful and distressful. When we work with the Light, we are bringing in a protective energy that has the power to dispel superficial negative energy that may accumulate around us, but the main thrust of EC work is to extend acceptance and experience to what we normally think of as undesirable emotions and feelings so they can integrate and release from being trapped in the subconscious. The Deep Clearing book explains this in detail.
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THE EMOTIONAL CLEARING PROCESS / Challenges with the relaxation audio
« Last post by milli on December 11, 2022 »
Hello John,

Last night I tried the relaxation audio. Thank you for making this available to use for free.

I had several challenges with the process.

1.) I've rarely been able to visualize on demand. I can lie in bed and visualize the various details of my apartment, because I see them everyday. But when a guided meditation asks me to visualize something I haven't had direct experience with before--such as white light entering the top of my head, or a ball of light moving or expanding, or energy being sent down into the Earth--I am unable to do this. The best I can do (to stay relaxed and avoid trying to force something) is to listen to the voice narrating the meditation and hope that my inner self is creating the experience for me.

Do you have any suggestions for people like me who have trouble visualizing?

2.) Another challenge was with the word negative. From reading the website, I understood that this method is about becoming aware of and accepting our negative emotions, allowing them to clear. I was confused by being asked to use white light to get rid of negative energy.

Can you share what you mean in this context by the word negative?

3.) I was unable to feel deeply when asked to, such as when the meditation directed me to deeply feel the masculine qualities and then the feminine qualities. I didn't feel anything during those parts, except dismay that I wasn't feeling them deeply. I was also unable to feel the witness.

My most noticeable experience during the meditation was becoming very relaxed. But when your voice came back on suggesting I could come back from outer space, I was dismayed because, even by that stage, I was still aware of being in the room.

Is there a way to develop the capacity to feel these things deeply when right now I don't feel them at all?

Thank you,
Milli

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THE EMOTIONAL CLEARING PROCESS / Re: Perception Shift and Confusion
« Last post by jarrodgötze on November 19, 2022 »
Hi John, Thanks a lot for the reply. I have to say, I'm stumped. You dedicated a whole chapter in your new book to 'reframing' and the importance of it but now you've labelled reframing as a "completely ignorant travesty"? Slight contradiction but not to worry. I'm guessing I should just disregard that chapter then. Also, both of your books are full of other mental reframing examples. Even the concept of 'acceptance' is reframing your attitude towards emotions (you change your perception of them from 'bad' to neutral/good. You purposely choose to reframe your attitude about life by believing in a higher self, afterlife, reincarnation etc instead of just processing feelings related to having a lack of purpose/emptiness. 'Taking responsibility' for emotions is also an example of reframing. It's not been made clear about where to draw the line.

It's true that I probably haven't gotten to a core feeling yet, that's an interesting point! I assumed regret was a core feeling but I guess you're right. Thanks again John.
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THE EMOTIONAL CLEARING PROCESS / Re: Perception Shift and Confusion
« Last post by John Ruskan on November 18, 2022 »
You have a good understanding of the principles, but I don't agree about 'reframing' emotions even though you say you were helped by doing so while you were also using the EC Process. Reframing, or seeing things differently, is what CBT relies upon, which I consider a completely ignorant travesty that has evolved psychology backwards, in line with the current backward evolution of society in general as technology advances. Reframing may spontaneously occur after feelings have been successfully integrated, but it is not part of the EC protocol. The whole thrust of the EC Process is to go beyond the mind and be present with the energetic experience of the feelings.

What I'm seeing here is that you may have been processing regret, but this is only a first-level emotion, and not a core feeling. (Similar to guilt and shame being first-level emotions, but the core feelings behind need to be addressed.) You have not indicated that you have been working with a core feeling, which would be something like insignificance, worthlessness, failure, not being good enough, etc., relating to the solar plexus Significance center. The core feeling is part of a dualistic syndrome such as accomplishment/insignificance. Striving for the positive will never bring the suppressed negative into balance, hence, the need for EC work.

Regarding your other question, I think you have a point, but once awareness realizes that it may be ok to live with some degree of confusion, it becomes a personal judgment call about when to allow confusion or seek to understand.
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THE EMOTIONAL CLEARING PROCESS / Perception Shift and Confusion
« Last post by jarrodgötze on November 17, 2022 »
Hello again John.

I have a question about interpretation/ a shift in perception as a technique to use alongside processing emotions. For example, in Deep clearing {which, by the way, I wrote a review for on Amazon only for them to tell me that I had not spent enough money on my amazon account to write a review! So I will keep it saved and post it once I've spent enough}, you spoke about 'reframing your experience'- making a conscious decision to perceive a negative event/emotion as an opportunity to clear suppressed contents as opposed to seeing it as a burden. This was a really interesting part of the book and made me think about this topic in more detail. You also talk about how shame & guilt are unnecessary because they can be resolved with a reframed perception of why it is you feel shameful (bringing your understanding to a spiritual level and seeing the bigger picture). Both of these are examples of the importance of reframing your mindset instead of ONLY processing emotions with no mental involvement.

I was meditating on 'regret' and other emotions relating to feeling as if I had wasted my potential and fallen behind other people my age in terms of success and accomplishments and found it to be quite overwhelming, even though I was applying acceptance and witnessing correctly. I then tried to reframe my perception of these problems- I reminded myself that everyone has a unique, incomparable life path and that these feelings of regret and sadness are not actually steeped in any accuracy. I did this whilst simultaneously processing the feelings {witnessing the feelings but at the same time, realising that they don't resemble the truth} and I found it to be much more tolerable and pleasant. I also felt I had successfully released a significant amount of those particular feelings after doing it every day for a week. In the same breath, I was worried that I was not FULLY experiencing the emotions because I am conscious of the fact that EC is very cautious around using thoughts to wash out negative emotions.

It also reminded me of the famous Roosevelt quote "Comparison is the thief of joy". What do you think of this approach?

Also, another quick question if I may. It's about confusion. This forum is a brilliant platform and helps to resolve confusion for a lot of EC followers, but do you think sometimes we (the human race in general) are too quick to ask detailed questions in exchange for detailed answers as opposed to accepting and experiencing the confusion and maybe frustration around not having everything 'figured out'? This is relating to page 112 of deep clearing where you label 'confusion' and 'distress' as valid  emotions to process instead of "Overemphasizing logical thinking as a means to resolve issues." So when do we draw the line between getting a good understanding of a topic and processing the confusion as a valid emotion?

Thanks John, I hope these questions are somewhat interesting.
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THE EMOTIONAL CLEARING PROCESS / Re: friendly questions
« Last post by Kat on November 17, 2022 »
John,

Many thanks for your great answer! I got it all. Especially like the part about "The goal of the philosophy of dualistic awareness is always to transcend attachment to the positive and aversion to the negative. In so doing, we evolve past being trapped in any particular lower self dualistic syndrome."

Now: Do you have any ability to "divine" winning lottery numbers? If not, I won't think any less of you. . . .  :D 

Until next time,

Kat
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