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Health, Disease and Spirituality:
An Interview with Michael Bernard Beckwith
Interview by Matt Laughlin -- Fall 2008, Vol 4, Issue 13
Michael Beckwith discusses the many ways one can integrate spirituality to improves one's health and wellbeing, recover from disease and grow through challenges...
UH (Unified Health): As the founder and director of
Agape International Spiritual Center, and in many other roles
over the course of your life's work, you have spoken about
the significance of spirituality in all aspects of one's life. In
what way do you speak of health and healing, and the significance
of disease, pain or health problems?
MB (Michael Beckwith): When we take into consideration
that all aspects of our life are a reflection of our intrinsic
Wholeness as spiritual beings having a human incarnation,
we are less inclined to make distinctions between our physical,
mental and emotional health. We realize that they are interconnected,
that one aspect impacts another in this relationship of
mutuality. So as we bring one aspect into harmony, we freely
circulate more vitalizing energy, more life-force, which results
in that which we call “health.” Pain, dis-ease — these are
feedback from the innate intelligence within our body telling
us there is something we need to pay attention to.
The body does not have a label for any diseases. That’s
something humans created in their attempt to understand its
mysteries. I personally don’t believe there is an incurable
disease, and that conscious, significant strides can be made
towards restoring health.
UH: Since that may not necessarily mean a physical
healing occurs, would you speak to the notion that one can
still “heal” or grow spiritually without necessarily improving
physically?
MB: That’s an important question and I’m glad you
asked. As paradoxical as it may sound, there is something I
call a ‘healing disease’, for lack of a better word. A healing
disease is a wake-up call, and very often you will hear individuals
express gratitude for a physical form of suffering
because it compelled them to wake up, to pay attention, to
get conscious about how they are living their life. It compels
them to begin a spiritual practice, or to deepen their existing
practice, or evolve into another practice. So although it may
look tragic on the physical level, to the human mind and eye,
in some cases it’s really an impetus for people to really dive
deeper into a greater discovery as to who and what they
really are.
So even if a disease does not yield to prayer or other
healing modalities, a person may heal inwardly.
UH: In my own experience, I had a couple ankle surgeries
and several years of physical limitations. While the physical
problems were comparatively not as significant as other diseases
people experience, it really did compel me to go within.
Today, even though I can hike again and am much healthier,
I joke that I have been so grateful that I can’t go running anymore.
(Laughter) I’ve come to see that the whole experience
compelled me to run the inner race, so to speak.
MB: Then you understand what I mean. Maybe you’re
familiar with Steven Hawking, a famous theoretical physicist,
who shared in an interview that he didn’t do his best work
until he became physically debilitated. Someone had mentioned
that interview to me and I think that speaks to what
we’re talking about.
UH: It seems to me that there may be a lot of misconceptions
regarding the interface of spirituality and health and
disease; for instance, if you get sick, you’re therefore guilty.
What are some misconceptions you have helped people
transcend with regard to the relationship of health, disease
and spiritual growth?
MB: I frequently encounter this common misconception
you describe. My response to individuals who talk to me
about their sense of personal blame and guilt is one of compassion,
of encouraging them not to be harsh with themselves.
Taking the malady as it appears to be; how can it be
worked with skillfully, compassionately? Instead of asking
disempowering questions, ask empowering ones such as:
What is trying to emerge in my life right now? What blessing
is trying to happen in my life right now? What is the feedback
I’m receiving from the universe in this circumstance?
As an individual applies constructive self-inquiry, the energy
shifts within and around them. They may actually bring about
improved health, or they discover that the limitations in the
body temple do not prevent them from living their vision, like
Steven Hawking and many others have done.
UH: In preparation for this interview, I had an opportunity
to read a chapter of your upcoming book, Spiritual Liberation:
Fulfilling Your Soul’s Potential. In it, you wrote about a
woman who suffered from a rare form of kidney disease.
Would you share that story now?
MB: Sure. Donna was a student in one of my class
series. At the end of a class on the healing power of prayer,
I asked if any of the students wanted to request prayer about
a specific aspect of their life. Donna asked for us to pray that
she be moved up on the list for a kidney transplant. I suggested
that we begin with praying about the kidneys that she
already had. Donna indicated that hers was a rare kidney
disease, one that her doctors told her was seldom, if ever,
healed.
I said, why don’t we try anyway? She insisted it would be
a fruitless effort on our part! I suggested that since we were
waiting anyway, why not experiment and see what might be
done? I instructed the class that we begin giving thanks for
the way our own kidneys function healthily, and that every
time we urinate to pray for Donna. We called it the PWP
prayer--praying while peeing. (Laughter)
I also asked Donna to read a chapter in The Science of Mind
textbook by Earnest Holmes, paying particular emphasis to
what he wrote about healing the kidneys. We were all profoundly
moved when, a couple months later, she informed us
that her kidneys spontaneously began working again. That
was a few years ago and she’s still doing well.
She answered this wake-up call by making health a priority
in her life. She lost over 140 pounds. So Donna became for
us an example of the power of intention in action, of what can
happen when we empower ourselves to make the changes
our body, mind and spirit are calling forth.
UH: It isn’t that she ignored the value of the physical
level, or discontinued her conventional medical approaches.
MB: Absolutely. She practiced both/and. The allopathic
medical model is valuable in diagnosing symptoms. And, in
working with these symptoms, we also apply metaphysical
healing principles that work directly with the Love-Intelligence
governing the cosmos, and present within our bodies. Donna
continued seeing her doctors and continued to follow their
instructions. They were quite shocked that her kidneys started
working again.
UH: How about yourself? Would you comment on any
health struggles along your path, and their significance from
a spiritual context?
MB: Fortunately, at this time in my life, I enjoy great
health. I have tremendous energy, stamina and flexibility. I
have a physical routine that I do every day, along with my
mediation practice. But I will share a story from the past with
you. A number of years ago I went to my doctor about a
numbing pain in my right side. He did some tests and
announced that it looked like they identified some cancer
cells in my liver. I was incredulous.
Fortunately for me, my doctor is a very intuitive man. He
said, you know, I’m not going to do anything right now. I really
believe that you have the power to change this around. Come
back in a month and we’ll see what’s going on. I was
shocked.
I went home, and during a time of self-reflection, I realized
I was holding on to some lingering resentment within me
towards someone. I intuitively felt that there was a connection
between harboring this unconscious trace of resentment
that had become manifest in my body. I then entered a deep
state of prayer, compassion for all concerned, and genuinely
wished for the highest for this individual. It was not manipulative
lip service. It was a genuine sense of love for this individual.
Anyway, when I went back to the doctor about a month later; whatever symptoms that had been present were
cleared up. When I did my inner work, the body responded.
UH: That’s consistent with much of the holistic health literature
correlating emotional states such as anger/resentment
with the different organ systems, such as the liver.
MB: Yeah, and as soon as he told me that, my intuition
said, this is exactly what it is! (Laughter)
UH: It’s as though it can take that kind of event to bring
up unconscious positionalities and resentments in order to be
released or processed.
MB: Absolutely.
UH: That reminds me of a central idea you often elaborate
on - that all improvement in one's life, all spiritual growth,
is consequent to letting go of something and not to gaining
something. Would you comment on this? Does this also
apply to health and wellness?
MB: It does. I teach that all spiritual growth is about letting
go, because at our ground of being, we’re already whole.
There is nothing missing, nothing lacking within us. Every
single individual is really a field of infinite possibility, a unique
hologram of the Universal One.
What happens is we pick up the dust and the grit of the
journey, which includes conceptual beliefs and opinions that
become fixed reference points, fixed points of view that
become condensed in our consciousness as habitual patterns.
These hard held and often cherished beliefs take the
outer form of our experiences, including physical disease,
mental disharmony, premature aging—the list is endless. So,
awakening to our true nature is really about letting go of the
misconceptions and projections we have about ourselves
and life.
The same is true where the body temple is concerned. A
disease may be about releasing inner toxicity. That toxicity
can come, of course, from the pollution that we are living in
our highly industrialized society. It can also be the food we
eat, the thoughts we think, the beliefs we hold, the habits we
have. Our body temple is just a wonderfully designed healing
mechanism. It can heal most anything when toxicity is
removed.
UH: Another popular topic in health and spirituality is
meditation. Given all the attention that meditation receives in
the media in recent years, and the advent of "mind/body
medicine," and related research, I would love for you to
comment on meditation as a spiritual practice. I recalled
your description of the essence of meditation as being a matter
of "sincerity and earnestness", and less about a specific
technique.
MB: Yes. After many years of meditation practice, I’m
convinced there are many techniques that may be considered
genuine meditation practice. But I believe that the
techniques accelerate our growth when they are fueled by
sincerity and earnestness. If the meditation practitioner is
purely motivated by the desire to realize his/her oneness with
life, oneness with God, to wake up, then that person will sit
regardless of what is going on in their life; they won’t give
themselves an “out” and this level of sincerity has its own
merit. It touches the heart of the Ineffable which is constantly
cheering us on.
Such a practitioner says, I may not feel like it, but I am
going to do it anyway. This is similar to a world-class athlete
who must consistently train. I imagine they wake up and
sometimes say, you know what, I really don’t feel like swimming
one more lap. Today I’m just going to relax. However,
when they are earnest, really committed, they realize the
trickster mind is up to something and then practice anyway.
So I think that if people apply sincerity to their meditation
practice it will fire up whatever technique they have learned.
UH: This reminds me of another teaching comment you
make that “Your pain pushes you until your vision pulls you.”
Would you comment on that, and whether vision and
earnestness work hand in hand?
MB: We human beings seem to respond to being goaded
by pain and suffering, what some spiritual masters refer to as
the great awakener. So the pain pushes us. However, once
we catch a vision for our life, the purpose of our existence,
which is why we’ve shown up on the planet, we begin to walk
in that direction. Then pain plays less and less of a role as
an awakener. The less aware person is pushed, while the
mature person is pulled.
UH: In the chapter I read in your upcoming book,
Spiritual Liberation, another sentence struck me. You write,
“A theme that is repeated throughout this book is that everything
you need to fulfill your highest purpose on the planet is
already within you.” Would you elaborate on this?
MB: A simple way of saying this is “you’re all right
already.” We’re fully equipped with all that it takes to wake
up. In other words, we’re all equal candidates for enlightenment.
The truth is everything that we see in the world – the
earth, the solar system, the galaxies – all of that power, all of
that immensity is within us. Yet, many traditions teach us that
we are intrinsically flawed. So we consciously or unconsciously
look at ourselves through the wrong lens of reality.
We push all of the good away by thinking we have to deserve
it, earn it, when if we would but turn within we would discover
our true nature – what is classically referred to as the Self.
That, I think, is a foundation of any authentic spiritual
teaching. First, you discover and commune with the power
that is within you, and then you release it, you allow it to
express as the gifts, talents and skills you have come to give
to our world.
UH: That reminds me of another balancing act you write
of, which you described as living on the razor’s edge
between mortality and immortality. What do you mean?
MB: This is about having the courage to remain on the
razor’s edge. If you go too far to an awareness of mortality—
that you have a limited time on the planet and motivate yourself
by the thought of death—then you become subject to
fear You end up feeling as though there is nothing we can do
about the problems here. Or you can be caught up in sympathizing
with all of the negativity that is going on in the world
and become so overwhelmed by it that you become of no
earthly good. At the other extreme, you understand that
you’re an immortal being, that you were really never born,
and you’ll never die, it’s all such an illusory existence so why
bother? You can go so far to that extreme that you become
no earthly good.
The thing to realize is that you are a spiritual being having
a human incarnation. As a spiritual being, you are immortal.
You were never born, and you will never die, and everything
you need is within you. You fully accept that you have limited
time on this planet. But while you’re here having a precious
human incarnation, you work it. You grow in compassion and
wisdom and genuinely strive to alleviate suffering, to bring
about beauty, to release your talents and your gifts.
I see that as bringing eternity into time; bringing love into
your human incarnation; bringing peace into your human
incarnation. An individual who has learned to walk the
razor’s edge develops a reverential alertness. They are alert
and respond to opportunities to love, to serve and to bring the
joy of the eternal into the temporal.
UH: This alertness seems to speak to the value of having
a vision of your life. What compels one to grow spiritually
when pain isn’t necessary as a dominant motivator?
MB: A conscious spiritual practice, such as meditation.
Then you live your life more from inspiration than perspiration.
Selfless service, like meditation, is also a practice that
expands your heart and brings you to realize that all other
beings long for the same happiness that you do. Being part
of a spiritual community invites you to practice more deeply
because you are also supported by the energy of practicing
together. So then instead of being pushed by pain, you’re
pulled by inspiration and a vision that is bigger than the world
you would ordinarily be living in.
UH: With these kinds of spiritual practices, this takes on
a life of its own.
MB: Exactly. Practice ultimately becomes more than just
another habit; it becomes your way of life. In the beginning
you may have to break some habits in order to accommodate
your spiritual practice. Then, your practice becomes your
habit. I really don’t think about my mediation and my physical
routine as something I have to make myself do. In a sense, it
now does me! I have my meditation, I have my physical workout,
I have my yoga, I maintain a level of alertness with
endeavor to keep it fresh, as if I’m doing it for the first time,
which is a practice itself. That becomes the challenge.
UH: The other program I got to listen to in its entirety
before speaking is your audio program called Life Visioning.
How would you describe the core of that program?
MB: The Life Visioning Process is a powerful six-CD
compellation that takes people from living in a state of victimhood
that blames others and circumstances outside of themselves
for the way they experience their life. As they learn to
consciously apply the Visioning Process, they grow through
four stages, the last of which is a life lived in communion with
one’s highest purpose: self-realization.
UH: I found it very inspiring. I also work as a psychotherapist,
and ever since I listened to the program I have found
myself recommending it to some of my clients who seem to be
struggling to discover or realize a sense of vision for their life.
Rather than give them a vision, per se, it really seems to help
them discover their own sense of vision within, in whatever
way that is expressed.
MB: Oh, thank you very much. I recorded these CDs
because when people found out that Agape came to be
through the Visioning Process twenty-two years ago, they
wanted to apply its principles to calling forth their own highest
vision for a meaningful life.
UH: What’s wonderful about it is that it seems so accessible
to people of various orientations, whether agnostic,
Buddhist, Christian or otherwise. This, it seems, is also at the
heart of your mission to found Agape as a “transdenominational”
spiritual center.
MB: That is true. Agape is definitely a trans-religious
community ranging from outright atheists, agnostics, to
Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, Sufis and Christians. There are
also people who approach the evolution of their soul from a
scientific vantage point.
UH: In some of your work, you have spoken about your
own inner struggles with despair, or what has been classically
referred to as The Dark Night of the Soul. Is this something
that you discuss in your new book?
MB: Yes. Spiritual Liberation begins by presenting the
core of my teaching and concludes with a chapter that deals
with traversing the Dark Night of the Soul. It lets people know
about the rich luminosity that can be known even in the
darkest times of our life, when we are literally or metaphorically
on our knees wondering if we can make it through the
night. The book is written for those who are launching their
spiritual practice, and for those with considerable mileage
on their chosen path.
UH: In what way do you discuss the Dark Night of the
Soul, or darkness along the spiritual path in general?
MB: I basically tell people that when you study the lives
of the mystics, you notice that there was always a level of
darkness that they went through. In the darkness, the ego, or
the egoic structure, loses control. The moment the ego loses
control, surrender occurs, allowing a receptivity to the possibility
of inner growth and fulfillment. There will also be a CD
included with the first edition of the book, and one of the areas
that I cover in it are the different meanings and ways of skillfully
working with the Dark Night.
For example, the Dark Night may be considered to be a
moment of gestation; a new inner realization that is gestating.
Just as a seed needs to be in the darkness before it breaks
into the light, there are spiritual realizations gestating within
us. We may be giving birth to something, so it doesn’t feel
comfortable.
Then, there is cleansing; there are times in our life when
we are going through deep and profound spiritual prunings.
While that is occurring, you’re releasing things that no longer
serve the next step of your evolution.
There is also a darkness that happens when you have a
sudden insight; it is so much light that your present egoic
structure can’t hold that light. Just as when you stare at the
sun long enough you’re temporarily blinded, so also does
your egoic structure become blinded as you move into a new
paradigm of spiritual clarity. It’s important for practitioners to
understand that the Dark Night is not negative; it is a significant
step in your evolution
UH: And the new book with the CD is released on
November 11 of this year?
MB: That’s right, during the month of Agape’s 22nd
anniversary.
UH: I look forward to reading it. Thank you for your work
and taking the time out of your full schedule to interview with
us!
MB: It’s been a pleasure, and I thank you and your staff
for producing a powerful vehicle of understanding through
Unified Health. Stay true to your vision!
About Michael Bernard Beckwith
Michael Bernard Beckwith is the founder and spiritual director of the Agape
International Spiritual Center, and founder and president of the University of
Transformational Studies and Leadership located at the Los Angeles headquarters
of the Agape Movement. Dr. Beckwith is an international speaker and teacher of meditation, affirmative
prayer, and is the originator of the Life Visioning Process. He is the
author of Spiritual Liberation: Fulfilling Your Soul’s Purpose, Inspirations of the Heart, Forty Day Mind Fast Soul
Feast, and A Manifesto of Peace. He has appeared in the film and book The Secret, and has been a guest on
The Ophra Show and Larry King Live. Visit Agapelive.com to learn more
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