Is my emotional signature only gone once I banish the physical symptoms?

Q: The basic question is this: do I need to keep working with an issue until the physical discomfort is gone? The story: I woke up sick one morning and assumed it was emotional. Learned some fascinating things, feel much better emotionally, but still feel somewhat physically sick. Can I do enough presence work to banish the physical symptom right away, or is that too much to expect (and I'll use other healing methods)?

A: The fact you use the word "banish" means you still are missing the point of this work. This work is not about "banishing" aspects of our experience as if there is something wrong - it is about embracing all aspects of our experience as if they are all required. This is why I no longer use the word "heal" or "healing" in my vocabulary. I no longer seek to heal any aspect of my experience - however, it is my intent to integrate it all.

When doing emotional integration work it is recommended we take care of any manifesting symptom. This is obvious. We take care of our body-vehicle. However, it is important we do not try to force any physical, mental, or emotional outcome we assume necessary - because then we cannot be functioning "without condition" - which is required for authentic integration.

When an emotional signature is integrated - its physical manifestation has no foundation and thus is neutralized. However, we cannot be the judge of this, as emotional signatures are multi-dimensional. Often their symptomatic manifestations return so as all dimensions of the imprint achieve full integration. Until we have developed full felt-perception capacity, we cannot absolutely know that an imprint is completely integrated. To use our physical experience as a barometer of whether an emotional signature is integrated is therefore not reliable. To take this approach is to become result-orientated, destination-conscious, and conditional.

To focus only on "getting rid of the physical symptom" causes us to subtly enter a manipulative stance - and then before we know it - we are again controlling or sedating our physical experience [with the best of intentions of course] in an attempt to "heal ourselves". Most self-professed "healers" are actually practicing "manipulation" - especially if they are in any way invested in the removal of physical symptoms as a barometer of their efficiency.

Emotional integration work is not about healing - or about feeling better. It is about engaging with our life experience in a responsive manner - one which gradually trains us to become responsible for the causality of the quality of our experience regardless of whether we are in physical discomfort or not.

This requires getting better at feeling, not focusing on feeling better. While we remain fixated by the physical manifestation of our emotional charges - this level of ongoing responsibility is seldom attained.

If having physical discomfort is the only reason we behave responsibly - then our behavior is not responsible at all - it is actually reactionary. We are responsible for how we feel whether we are physically uncomfortable or not.

My suggestion is you stop trying to "heal yourself" and rather focus on becoming integrative.

I cannot get through the tiredness, what do I do?

Q: I understand the essence of TPP to be: you feel your feelings fully, and also feel any resonance that comes up from earlier in your life; eventually, these feelings will integrate. As I wrote to you not so long ago, I have been experiencing periods of tiredness, even weakness, while doing TPP. The gist of your reply, as I understood it, was to feel the tiredness fully. I have tried to do that, and have gone through some definite shifts of consciousness, but still the tiredness and weakness persist -- so much so that I am having difficulty doing my jobs as well as doing my part for the family and the house. I talked this situation over the other day with a friend of mine who is an intuitive healer. She could see that my feelings were not getting released, so she recommended that I consciously release them. I did this (to the violet fire) and immediately felt better. But the tiredness came back the next day. Today I released again, and some of the tiredness went away, but I can feel that there's plenty more left. In your experience, can feelings ever be consciously released, or would you always recommend sitting with feelings and waiting until the periods of tiredness subside? Any other advice?

A: First of all, your tiredness is not tiredness, it is unconsciousness. It is deeply suppressed emotional content - which when surfacing - expresses itself in our waking state as tiredness. So, stop calling it tiredness, because this misrepresents what you are going through.

Everyone to some extent experiences this when processing unintegrated emotion - and as you are testimony to - some more than others. The only way out is through. Which means, keep doing your emotional integration work and calm down about it. It is going to take as long as it takes. Some of our emotional imprints are 1000's of years old, and we, in our impatient, fast-food-mentality, assume we can process them all in a couple of weeks. So, continue your work and be patient.

If you do wish to move more deeply at an accelerated pace - and sincerely feel this is what you require - then go to the link on the menu column of my website and click on "Personal Facilitation". Through this you can find a Transformational Breath Facilitator or one of their workshops where you can be facilitated through Breathwork into accelerated integration. They are an international organization and so will assist you to find someone nearby.

Secondly, there is a difference between release and resolution. Release assists us to feel better, while resolution requires we get better at feeling. Release is screaming into a pillow, while resolution is being with the feelings of anger without any outer projection of them. Release is a deliberate outer expression of suppressed emotional content, while resolution is the conscious containment of suppressed emotional content. Most of us begin with release-work - just to let off some steam and create some breathing room within our experience - and then we move on to resolution and the art of alchemy through containment.

You may still require release - so scream into a pillow once a day for about 15 minutes for about seven days - but do not get addicted to the high of it. It is only release, and although you may feel better afterwards - it will not assist you to get better at feeling.

In your entire question I saw no indication that you are yet aware of the emotional signature underlying your experience of unconsciousness. Tiredness is not an emotional signature. My sense is you are annoyed, which means you are angry. This is most likely because you are a mentally-transfixed individual new to emotional work. Intend to tap into and feel this anger as fully as possible. Underneath it is grief. What you require is a good sob for no reason at all - which will be hard for you as you will most likely currently also want to know how/when/where/what/who and why you are sobbing to allow it to happen. Be patient with yourself.

Also, make sure you have listened to the audios on the website of the breathing technique so that you are doing the consciously connected breathing correctly.

The more mentally-transfixed we are, the more likely we are to feel this unconsciousness as we attempt integration of emotional imprinting. Let go all the thinking about this work. This "violet fire" stuff you talk about, that your healer friend suggested, is called metaphysics - and all metaphysics is simply mental-physics. When it comes to emotional resolution [as opposed to release] it accomplishes nothing authentic, because the mental body is not the causal point of the human experience. It is a great tool to use for release - but nothing authentic comes about when using it in this manner. You can waste your time in the mental realm for 100's of years - or you can stop all the thinking, visualizing [pretending], and all other make-belief stuff the mental body loves and start feeling what is without condition.

The unconsciousness you feel is real. It has come to assist you with integration. Stop trying to get rid of it so as to arrive somewhere else. Be where you are now within your experience as fully as possible - this moment you are in, just as it is, is the portal to all else. While you still try to manipulate it to accomplish something you "want" - you remain stuck.

How do I integrate the experience of being gang raped and having been a heroin addict?

Q: My question is this : how would you frame abuse? In particular I've been gang raped, held against my will etc in my life as a heroin addict. I've been clean and sober now for 18 years. Still struggle some with those issues. I'm starting to see that the people (almost all men) who did these things were confused about how to get their own needs met. However, it still leaves me with an exaggerated sense of fear. I've been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.

A: Firstly, extract your attention from the event and the story you tell about this. It only keeps you in victim and victor mentality - which although may for a while feel empowering - accomplishes nothing causal. You extract your attention from these aspects of the experience through entering unconditional felt-perception of the residue.

When entering Present Moment Awareness, what becomes clear to us, is that if something happened - it was required. Asking why at this point of the game is futile.

Whatever happened within our past is the consequence of previous experiences we had - experiences often occurring well before the perceptual borders of our current life experience.

If you only believe in "one life" - like some religious people do - then you are stuck in a world of meaningless and chaotic activity - one in which there is a vicious God who does things for absolutely no reason at all. However, when we realize we live forever - and that this current experience is one of countless - we also realize that this life experience is full of incidents which make no sense if this current life experience is the only barometer from which we measure "consequence".

However, realizing this experientially is not necessary in order to impact the causality of our experience. The fear you feel now is the causality. Underneath it is anger, and underneath this is grief. Your only task is to be with this fear without condition through direct felt-perception. Drop the event, and story about the event, as having any relevance within your intent to integrate this experience. We cannot integrate through understanding, blame, or revenge.

Consuming heroin and for being gang raped was 100% required. You simply cannot yet perceive the causal activity which unfolded, possibly over many life experiences, to eventually manifest such an event. In another experience you may well have been a heroin pusher and a gang raper. At this point in the game we have all been everything - this is why judgment is futile and ridiculous. We have moved through the darkness as willingly as we have moved through the light.

Our only choice now is drama, or dharma. To access the dharma, we feel without condition the arising emotional states within our life experience right now. There is no requirement for mentally investigating the past - such activity is useless to us now. The past is forever present within the felt-resonance of our current experience. We therefore engage with it not mentally, but through direct, unconditional, felt-resonance.

Any other path leads us out of the moment and into a time-based mentality - which is madness. Feel your fear unconditionally - it will transform into anger - feel your anger unconditionally - it will transform into grief - feel your grief unconditionally - and then you shall know the meaning of the teaching: "Blessed are those who mourn - for they shall be comforted."

This is not turning out the way I want it to - what now?

Q: I just completed the process for the second time. Although I had many insights, I am still missing a real sense of achievement/accomplishment/shift in my life.

A: Be with this feeling of "missing" - because if this is happening - it is required. You obviously have some agenda about what is supposed to happen, and being with this feeling of disappointment without condition will assist you to integrate the emotional charge related to this agenda. The intent of The Presence Process is to initiate an experience. Whatever experience it initiates is valid. The procedure then teaches you how to interact consciously, responsively, to the experience you are having. This conscious response integrates the charges within the emotional body. However, when you think you are supposed to have a specific experience, and keep perceptually aiming for that - you completely miss the experience you are having right now. So, be with the experience of feeling you have missed what you were expecting - and being with this unconditionally will assist you to integrate the charge driving you into false expectation.

Q: I have two questions to you: 1. I was not sure how to handle my noisy mind during the breathing sessions. Is it necessary to fix my attention on my breathing, or is this not important?

A: Reread the instructions in the book - they are clear. The mind within the context of The Presence Process constitutes all our physical, mental, and emotional experiences. The physical, mental, and emotional are the trinity which makes up the mind. What you are inquiring is whether your mental body should be controlled while breathing. No. All manipulation is futile. As recently suggested on the website - it is recommended we use the conscious response - "I AM HERE NOW" for all our breathing sessions. And yes, of course the focus is on keeping our breathing connected - the book is very clear about this. However, there is no instruction to control what the mental body is doing.

When we connect our breathing we accomplish causal impact. When we are still mentally transfixed, this causal impact arises into our awareness as increased mental activity. If we are physically transfixed, it arises into our awareness as physical sensation. When we have developed some level of felt-perception - it arises into our awareness as emotional states. This arising of either physical, mental, or emotional consequences is simply a sign there is now movement within the emotional body. To now try and stop this physical, mental, or emotional activity in any way is self-defeating. Be with the mental body activity you are experiencing while breathing without condition. If it gets too busy in there - to the point you cannot focus on connecting the breathing - which is our primary responsibility while doing the breathing practice - then use the conscious mental response - I AM HERE NOW.

Q: I feel my energies and determination running low at this point. Do you have any advice for a third go?

A: Yes, reread my first answer and apply it to this feeling too. Your experience is valid. No matter how it unfolds, it is valid. This means it is required. You do not have to understand why. You do not have to fix it or change it or perceptually aim yourself toward another experience you assume you ought to be having. Your only choice is response, or reaction. In my first answer to you I describe response. Reaction is behaving as if what is happening to you is not supposed to be happening, and then doing something to change your current experience into something you think should be happening. This is pointless and leads to drama. Reaction is manipulation. Response is embrace. So, my suggestion as you enter this procedure again - have no agenda, no assumption, no point of perceptual reference toward which to aim yourself. Just be with whatever happens and engage it as valid, and therefore required. By responding this way you receive and achieve whatever is required.

I have thyroid cancer, does The Presence Process help with this specifically?

Q: Day 3 of the 1st week of the second time I’m doing the PP: I found out I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Shouldn’t be life-threatening, but will entail a lot of stuff – pain and discomfort, lost days of work that will not be compensated, etc. etc. I’m grateful that I’ve been doing this practice, and am clear that I am someone having this experience, and that it’s an opportunity to continue to integrate patterns and feelings and false belief stuff. I’m just wondering – is there anything in your writings that specifically addresses this kind of experience? I’m not seeing it… and that probably makes sense, in that it is just another experience that the practice can assist with. If there is anything, though, could you let me know? And if not, I’m not asking you to reply.

A: We do not address specific symptoms in this work because our attention is causality. However, it is important when manifesting symptoms to nurture oneself by lovingly attending to the body-vehicle. I am sure you can find lots of literature on the Internet about conscious treatment specifically for thyroid cancer. You ought read it and see what inspires you. But, in conjunction with this, take yourself to the moment of diagnosis - and the period unfolding shortly after that. What was your emotional response? Attached to this initial experience of realizing you have thyroid cancer there shall be an emotional signature. It may surface when you awake early in the morning and your mind wanders into the consequence of your condition. It is not even necessary to name this emotional signature - but simply to engage with it directly through felt-perception without any attachment to outcome.

By engaging with the felt-aspect of the emotional signature you relate to thyroid cancer without condition you are entering causality. By engaging with it every day for a few moments - and being present whenever it naturally arises within your awareness - this causal activity generates consequences. These consequences unfold as events, insights, chance meetings, realizations, etc. within your daily life experience - all deliberately designed to assist you to integrate the emotional charge related to this specific predicament. You don't know what these consequences will unfold as - so your task is to embrace your daily life experience - and all the unfolding events and encounters it contains - as being required - and therefore valid.

When approaching your thyroid cancer in this manner, you behave as if all of this is intended - is part of your current journey - and is designed to lead you into the next phase of your personal evolution. Then you are being truly integrative: You are taking care of the body-vehicle's symptoms - and you are tending to the causality of the surfacing condition. As such, you are being responsible for the quality of your experience.

Will The Presence Process help my angry son?

Q: I have been through The Presence Process once and it has made my life more peaceful and clear. My 16 year old son has Asperger and is very angry and unhappy. Our life is very stressful living together. Will my continued work help heal my son? He is unwilling to make any changes at this point.

A: As long as you find where this anger of his is felt within yourself, and be with it without condition. If his behavior triggers you emotionally in any way - it is because it is reflecting your unresolved emotional charge. How were you feeling at 16?

It is not up to your son to make changes - it is up to you to integrate what he is reflecting. It only takes one in the family to integrate the family imprint. However, we do not enter any of this work in hopes it assists another. Then we cannot be unconditional toward own discomfort.

You are to enter this work as a responsibility to your own process - and when you are authentic about this intent - then it energetically impacts him. If you do it for him - you are using this work to manipulate him. That would anger anyone. Where are you feeling frustrated at the moment? Are you brushing these feelings aside - or attending to them?

Let him have his own experience - you rather be responsible for yours. Where are you feeling angry right now? Are you feeling this anger within your body-vehicle without condition?

Careful not to polish the mirror in an attempt to rid what its reflection reveals. Honor your son's experience by realizing that if he is angry right now - it is valid and therefore required. By responding to him [feeling what he triggers within you without condition], rather than reacting [telling him, or behaving as if he should be feeling something other than what he is], you reveal to him how best to integrate such experiences.

Telling others what to do in relation to this work is fatal. It simply manifests resistance. Revealing through example is the way - it takes longer - but its impact is causal.

Is this happening to anyone else?

Q: I am in emotional pain (sometimes quite deep pain). As long as I can remember I have felt a ball of anxiety at the pit of my stomach to one degree or another (like a constant underlying nervous energy). I have recently begun taking 15-20min a day to be with my 10 things. I have noticed that I mainly feel them at the pit of my stomach, or in my chest area. They also seem to intermingle at times and they turn into one big lump of emotions making it hard to decipher one from the other. Also, during the day "negative" emotions (mainly anxiety or feelings of loneliness) will arise for no reason. My body immediately reacts to them and my mind will try and attach a bad or sad "story" to them. My question is this: Are my experiences common?? And is it important to try and untangle the emotions in order to digest them individually? Thank you.

A: Your experience is valid because you are having it - not because others may be having it too. Feel what arises, when it arises, without telling any stories about it, or having agendas about what is supposed to happen. This is all that is required. Whatever happens as a consequence of engaging with your own experience this way is also required. Validating your ongoing experience by engaging with it this way is all that is required.