Welcome to the Additional Material page for The Energy Of Forgiveness, Chapter 8.
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Think about a serious disease that someone you know has or has had recently, and write it down. What part of the body did it affect? Now think about the personality of the person. Does the personality, character, or attitude of that person have traits that would affect that part of the body? How might the disease be symbolic of the emotions and attitudes of the person? Does the disease correspond symbolically with the persons habitual behavior or thinking?
Here’s an example. A relative passed recently from liver failure. As far as we know, he did NOT have a drinking problem. He was observed having an occasional beer, but never in excess, and he never appeared to be “under the influence,” never had alcohol on his breath and so forth. And, since I “don’t drink flammable liquids,” I can smell it on someone’s breath 10 feet away. But, he had a very negative attitude pretty much all his life, complaining about politics, things he didn’t like going on at work, and so forth. When he called to “visit,” that’s what he wanted to talk about – all the things wrong with the world. It was like he was always looking for something toxic to be upset about. Now think about the function of the liver. Among other things, the liver detoxifies and metabolizes toxins in the blood. So if a person is constantly immersing themselves in toxic thought patterns, does it make sense that the liver would suffer? Do a google search for “metaphysical cause of liver problems” and compare the results to this example. misahopkins.com wrote: “A toxic liver represents a person’s fundamental fear of life itself. … Fundamentally, this is denial of one’s value.” insightstate.com writes: “The liver is related to anger, particularly frustration or repressed anger.” You might find other references that would also make sense in this context, especially if you also think about “if this person had these attitudes, what other emotions and attitudes would they likley have” and see if that correlates symbolically to the metaphysical roots of liver problems.
I’ll use myself as another example. There was a point in time in my life that I had an ongoing issue with eye styes. A stye is an infection of an oil gland in the eyelid – the medical term is “hordeolum.” At least in my experience, what would happen is that an oil gland would get plugged and distended, then the infection would set in. It was painful, and it wasn’t pretty. I had my opthamologist clean one out one time, it even grossed her out. Now, think about the symbolism of clogged and infected glands in the eyelid: what do you think that would represent? At the time, I “saw” many things around me in a negative light. Much of what I saw was problems and things I didn’t like, especially with other people. I also didn’t release the negative emotions. Ann would tell me I needed to cry more. The opthamologist prescribed little scrubby towlets to clean my eyelids and hot compresses – a washcloth soaked in hot water. They helped, but the styes kept coming back. When I learned to have a more positive attitude, the styes went away. I haven’t had one in many years now.
Think about any negative emotions you may be harboring. Write down two or three of them. Now, for each of those two or three you wrote down, think about those emotions symbolically. What parts of the body might be affected by those emotions? Are you having discomfort or dis-ease in any of those parts of your body? Think about what effects those negative emotions might have on your relationships – with yourself, with others, with God? If you are having discomforts or dis-ease in the parts of your body that might be symbolically related to the negative emotion, have you sought medical help for them? Were you prescribed any medications for them? Did the medications get rid of the symptoms, or did they return at some point? Which do you think would be more effective in the long run – to treat the discomfort, or to treat the underlying emotion?
What do you think you could do to help your body be healthy and whole?
An exercise that Myrtle Fillmore used was to focus her mind on each part of her body, and then tell that part of her body how wonderful it was, how wondrously made it was, how grateful she was for the function of that part of her body. If you have aches, pains or other issues that you recognize you may have caused through abuse, neglect, or harboring negative emotions, then apologize to that body part. Try doing that exercise now, and keep it up for at least a week. Start from your toes and work up, or start from the top of your head and work down, it doesn’t matter.