-IBIS-1.7.0-
rx
imagery
truth being told
psychospiritual approaches

definition

image: Close your eyes. Breathe in and out three times. Discover that within your imagination, you are on a mountainside. It is a bare and forbidding place with little grass or shrubs and no trees. There are many large rocks however and there is one in particular that seems to attract you not far up the slope. See this particular boulder clearly and then feel yourself climb up to where it sits. Notice that it has a peculiar color, somewhat different than all the stones around it. There is one more unusual thing about this boulder. Someone has chiseled a message into its face at an angle that only you could see for some reason. The message says "I am your spleen, dead and turned to stone. Tell me a secret and tell me how very much you care, that I may live again and save your life!" There is something vaguely disturbing about this message and you climb farther up the slope where yet another rock seems to attract you. Here again you find a message cut into the bolder. "I am your bone marrow, dead and turned to stone. Tell me a secret and tell me how very much you wish to be you, that I may live again and save your life." Something about this message is even more disturbing than the last and you fairly run up the mountainside until you come upon a shallow cave where you stop to rest. As you are resting you notice a large pebble beside you upon the cave floor. When you lift it to your eyes, you see inscribed upon it: "I am your thymus gland, shriveled, dead and turned to stone. Tell me the secret that you would tell no other and tell me how very much you love your living self, that I may live again and save your life." Somehow, this is the most disturbing message of all and you begin to run. This time you head down hill, as if to leave the mountain entirely. You don't get many steps before you discover how much harder it is to run safely down hill and you fall. You tumble and roll, bruising your body among the stones but unable to stop until you go over a cliff. Now you know that you will surely die if you strike bottom and you are afraid. Tumbling in mid-air, you clench your fists as if to grab a rope that you wish were there and discover that the pebble is still within your grasp. Quickly before you hit, you bring your hand to your mouth and whisper the secret that the inscription asked for and then tell the little stone just how very much you love your living self, just as it had asked. Instantly the pebble blossoms into a gigantic flower, arching over your head and catching the wind like a parasol. Within moments you are set down beside the boulder whose inscription declared it to be your marrow. Having told your secret once, it is far easier to speak it quietly once again. And to say the words "I very much wish to be me" seems so natural and good. Instantly the boulder becomes a home and much of the nearby mountainside is covered with grasses and trees. Taking a few minutes to rest in the home provided to you and to eat the food that is waiting for you within it, you begin to wonder about that last stone. Going outside again you look down hill to the oddly colored boulder that is just within sight and you call to it loudly. You shout out your former secret and the statement:" I very much care about my self and about my world, about my work and about my friends!" Suddenly it is sunrise of the best morning of your live. You feel exhilarated and satisfied and purposeful. You take a moment to savor this delicious feeling and then you allow your eyes to open once again. (Chavez)

uses: AIDS, Chronic fatigue syndrome, cancer, immuno-deficiencies of all kinds.

footnotes