Book Review: Defy Gravity, Healing Beyond the Bounds of Reason
Hay House sent me Defy
Gravity for free to review on my web page.
So, this is my second book they gave me for free.
The first one was from Steve Pavlina through Hay House, but this book came to me directly from Hay House...how cool is that!!! :D Dear Hay House...I love all your books...and I will review them for the free book (for now anyway).
Defy Gravity is a metaphor for any number of ideas that really describe miracles that heal or help but can't be explain by a rational explanation.
"Because I direct readers to leave their reason at the door, so to speak, and enter the realm of mystical consciousness--not just for healing but as a way of life--I choose the title Defy Gravity. The word gravity comes from the Latin gravis, meaning "serious" or "weighted"; thoughts and emotions with weight, in other words, generate emotional, psychological, and intellectual gravity. Mystics, by nature, defy gravity: a mystic is someone who "perceives" life through the eyes of the soul, who experiences the power of God rather than speaks or debates the politics of God, and who understands the reality of mystical laws--laws that I discuss in depth in Chapter 6."
Defy Gravity: Healings started
happening
While Caroline was lecturing for a previous work titled Entering the Castle people began to report being healing. Some people were healed during the lecture, and other people were healed days or weeks later.
This was the first time such reports of healing came forth, even though she has written several other books and lectured and worked shopped those works as well.
"I realized that healing was not a matter visualizations, sacred oils, processing wounds, lighting candles and all the rest. Ultimately, healing is the result of a mystical act of surrender, an awakening that transcends any religion. It is an intimate dialog of truth between the individual and the Divine"
Defy
Gravity: Chapter One
Healing in the Age of Reason
...so while speaking a group of about 800 people on a promotion tour for Entering the Castle, Caroline decided to break an "iron clad rule" against praying...
"So I told the audience that the journey into the interior castle required prayer and grace--not the ordinary prayer, as in prayers of petition or repetition, but the type of prayer that withdraws your attention from external distractions and from your five senses. The audience was more than willing, and so for the first time in my career, I led 800 people on their maiden journey into their interior castle."
I guess I have been praying for years (I called it something else too!), but praying works for me while trying to impress my intentions onto the stuff of the universe and co-create my reality...I also use prayer to heal myself...now I know I can try to use it to help and heal others...Sweet! :D
Defy Gravity has more in Chapter one...this was my favorite part...
Defy Gravity: Chapter Two
The First Truth:
You Can't Reason will Illness, Crisis or God
The First Truth:
You Can't Reason will Illness, Crisis or God
This chapter discusses the limitations blocks to healing that are created by people attempting to use reason to discern the truth in matters that are essentially mystical in nature.
Questions like..."Why did I get sick? Am I being bad?" No. You aren't being bad, but at some level...many people might think they are being judged negatively by God...
Letting go of thinking that 1) God judges us (I don't think so) 2) we need to know why we are sick or in crisis in order to heal or to end the crisis and throughly discussed and Caroline suggests a great list of questions to ask yourself (which I really love by the way) to help you surrender to the truth that illness, crisis and God happens to everyone...
"Healing does not require that you master the unreasonable side of your reason. Nor does healing require inner perfection of any order. A common trait shared by people who have healed is that hey cease being unreasonable in ways that no longer matter in the greater scheme of life. Against the scale of life or death, how important is winning an argument? How important is holding a grudge? How important is anything other than how well we love others, how deeply we regard the value of the gift of our life, and what we do with our life that makes this world a better place?"
Defy Gravity: Chapter Three
The Second Truth:
Connect with Meaning and Purpose
The Second Truth:
Connect with Meaning and Purpose
Ah the hero's quest for meaning and purpose...the noble quest to transcend the ordinary and seek the mystical answer to all the burning questions...it seems that we are wired for this journey...
"...the ancient texts from a multitude of traditions reveal that human natures has this fundamental design: we are made to pursue the mythic course of one's our own [sic?] lives, to seek out and follow our own greatest quests."
This chapter in Defy Gravity details many personal stories of healing and transformation guided by the search for meaning and purpose in life.
Another central idea in this chapter is the idea that people don't connect to meaning or purpose until they are faced with a crisis...
...I know this is true...it reminds me of seeing old family friends walking in the evenings in my home town when I was a kid...and being surprised. I was surprised because these frequent walks, were totally new behavior for them.
When I asked my parents why they were walking these days...one of them said "Oh that's because Don had a heart attack, and the doctor told him to walk everyday....or he would die."
To the child version of me, this answer was all well and good...but when I think back, I now think it's crazy to wait until AFTER one has a heart attack to start exercises!!
Defy Gravity: Chapter Four
The Third Truth:
Courageously Navigate the Dark Night of the Soul
The Third Truth:
Courageously Navigate the Dark Night of the Soul
This is a very interesting chapter divided into parts...a discussion of the "dark night of soul" and how to navigate this mystical journey through it's fundamental elements.
Next, Caroline discusses the 7 Dark Passions (aka the seven deadly sins) in turn and relates each passion to a chakra from the Indian tradition. I love that!
Probably my favorite dark passion to give in to is sloth or laziness...but, hey I AM writing this web page...ok very late :D
Defy Gravity: Chapter Five
The Fourth Truth:
Rely on the Power of your Graces
This
was a new idea that was refreshing...each dark passion has a grace on
the other side of the "center" line...so in each moment we are really
choosing between a dark passion...and grace...or just to remain in the
center (i.e. accept NOW as is).The Fourth Truth:
Rely on the Power of your Graces
"The seven graces also have their origin in Scripture: Paul in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10 offers a list few the "gifts of the Spirit," as does Isaiah 11:2-3."
These graces are not as well known as the big sevens "sins" or dark passions, so I will list them here for you:
- Reverence
- Piety
- Understanding
- Fortitude
- Counsel
- Knowledge
- Wisdom
Defy Gravity also relates each grace to a chakra...
"I have partnered the seven graces with the seven chakras, using the same structure I created for the seven dark passions. By understanding the currents that flow through each chakra, you can better connect grace to areas of your life and your physical body that are in need of healing."
I like tables and charts to see ideas...so I made this...I hope Caroline doesn't mind:
Graces/Chakras/Dark Passions
From Defy Gravity by
Caroline Myss
|
Grace |
Chakra |
Dark Passion |
|
|
|
|
|
Wisdom |
7 |
Sloth |
|
Knowledge |
6 |
Envy |
|
Counsel |
5 |
Gluttony |
|
Fortitude |
4 |
Wrath |
|
Understanding |
3 |
Luxury (Self-Entitlement and Sexuality) |
|
Piety |
2 |
Avarice |
|
Reverence |
1 |
Pride |
Defy Gravity: Chapter Six
The Fifty Truth:
Defy Gravity and Learn to Reason Like a Mystic
The Fifty Truth:
Defy Gravity and Learn to Reason Like a Mystic
"Both the Buddha and Bodhidharma, the Indian patriarch associated with establishing Zen Buddhism in China are said to have remarked: 'I am but a finger pointing to the moon. Don't look at me, look at the moon." The implication of this often repeated saying is that the wise master was aware that his followers would look upon him as the ultimate manifestation of the truth, and he cautioned them to bypass him for the more authentic target of their own inner enlightenment."
This chapter guides us in our journey toward living like a mystic ourselves. It challenges the reader to take up their own inward quest to the interior castle...and live life on a heroes quest.
"Although full enlightenment or divine realization can be difficult to define, one way to imagine this level of consciousness is to consider that it embodies the precise harmony of the laws of the universe: energy precedes the creation of matter and cause precedes effect. Attaining this perfected harmony of soul and matter, truth free from illusion and love without limits, transformed the souls of Buddha and Jesus into fully awakened cosmic forces and could defy gravity. The resided in physical form and were certainly subject to the vulnerabilities of the physical world, yet their unlighted souls also knew how to draw on the higher governing laws that commanded their interior reality. And so, when Jesus declared, "Be healed," a physical disease yielded to his command and the individual was immediately cured."
She goes on to say that their mission was not to perform miracles but to:
"...disprove the need for them by demonstrating that you could become a source for miracles in this world, if you understood the true nature of your soul and how to open fully to that power."
Caroline then turns to a discussion of the five mystical laws...sounds like a list!
- There is only now (Love that!)
- The Necessity of Forgiveness (Amen sister!)
- All is Illusion (I keep telling people that!)
- Trust in Divine Paradox, Irony, and Synchronicity (...!...)
- Maintain Spiritual Congruency
...that's life!!
Embracing these personal inner truths with a sense of courage and joy is the path of the heart...any choice that is incongruent will lead you away from power, drain your energy and ultimately teach you where you went astray.
I can freely admit that this year (I turned 40...so it's not really a surprise) that I have been dancing with my dark passions. In the past, I would notice the cost of say a night of indulgent drinking...
...Now, I can feel how the ego "seeks" the pain. The pain of a hang over is intense and exquisite...just what the ego loves...my soul laughs...
...I think about adjusting my behavior (I'm stuck in the middle with ME :D)
Defy Gravity: Chapter Seven
Beyond Illness: Field of Grace
Beyond Illness: Field of Grace
In this Chapter Caroline asks us to shift our consciousness (sweet!) and ask ourselves some questions about how we perceive life.
"Making that one shift in consciousness--from perceiving life as energy to seeing life surrounded by grace--would not physically alter one thing in your world. Yet that one shift in perception would open up your inner vista to the realm of mystical intelligence and reasoning, because the space surrounding every living creature would pulsate with the creative potential of grace."
...basically she is asking if we can learn to reside in the world as a field of grace instead of visiting grace in times of great need.
Three thumbs up!!! Defy Gravity is a great book...I will have to read all of Caroline's other books now and figure out if I can see her in person some day.
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