Way of the Heart

45

WaWaWaWWaWaaayy y y of theee H H HHeae rt

445454554454555

BY CLIF SANDERSON

Nor does it have any consideration for time

and circumstance. Love is beyond all

human understanding; yet it is, by far and away,

the most compelling force in our lives. I still marvel at

the improbability of it all; that somehow, in one of the darkest moments in modern

Russian history,...

Just two days before I was due to leave Russia, I received a call from a worried mother who desperately wanted to believe I could help her very ill son. She had learned of my Deep Field Relaxation (DFR) work in Moscow hospitals and the Russian Ministry of Health with Professor Stranadko and felt compelled to contact me.

Even though my visa had expired and I left her country, hope did not die within her. Three months later she found me in New York and called to say she had a sponsor ready to pay for my accommodation if I would come to Belarus, work with her seven year-old son and with the children in the main hematological hospital who were dying from the effects of the Chernobyl disaster. There is still no medical protocol to treat radiation-related sickness and although teams of conventional doctors had come from many countries, the local doctors and the mothers saw little benefit from their efforts. If these children were to be helped, some other approach was clearly needed.

Love knows no boundaries.

Russian history,...

Just two days before I was due to leave Russia, I received a call from a worried mother who desperatelywanted to believe I could help her very ill son. She had learned of my Deep Field Relaxation (DFR) work in Moscow hospitals and the Russian Ministry of Health withProfessor Stranadko and felt compelled to contact me.

Love Struck

DFR works in nonlocal realms. That is, it does not treat the human body through the local biomechanical or biochemical approaches of conventional medicine. Rather it works to normalize the energy flows through our far more subtle bioelectric fields. At that time, I was lecturing and giving interviews on Russian television, it was considered revolutionary in the extreme to even allow anyone to speak of working on the level of the soul. Yet, somehow this lady resonated with my message and she “knew” that it was important that we connect.

I like to think of myself as a pragmatic sort of person and the idea of voluntarily venturing into such a potentially life-threatening situation should have been cause for pause.

I had long ago realized that only way to find

your passion was, when confronted with any decision, simply say

‘Yes’ and allow the rest to unfold...

It took little more than a second to agree to come.

Never in my life could I have imagined that for more than five years I would be involved emotionally, spiritually, and physically with the Communist countries of Russia, Belarus and Siberia. The first morning I arrived in Minsk the chief doctor,

Olga Aleinikova, welcomed me with deep resignation. Her hopes had been crushed so often that she had no response other than a slight shrug and a tired nod for me, another foreigner here to provide a few moments of false hope.

Then fate stepped in, and two days after my arrival she suffered a terrible headache. Her colleagues insisted she try my method of deep relaxation; within moments her head cleared. Still somewhat reluctant to believe in new possibilities, she said, “Well, that pill I took must have finally worked.” She was gracious enough, however, to stop doubting my work.

The wards in the children’s hospital were spotlessly clean, one child to each bed with nice pictures on the walls. But that was offset by a constant, gut-wrenching screaming of children following the spinal puncture procedures. Their bodies were often puffed up from steroids, their lips dribbling with purple stain; the ubiquitous drips hampering their movements. Some were tied to their beds. One was left with the pervading feeling that at any moment another of them would die.

Many of the children suffered explosive nosebleeds. I saw t-shirts and school books covered in blood. The doctors attributed it to eating radioactive food. Mother’s were crying in anguish as they watched their children slowly lose their energy for life, and then die. In some instances medicine only seemed to add to the struggles of these hapless children.

And yet, in this world of suffering and death, something else emerged. I could feel a kind of inner strength floating through the wards from the energies of these amazing children.Perhaps because of my silence and my ability to detach from the results of the work I was doing – a form of loving-kindness – a wave of serenity began to flow from the children so strong that helped calm their desperate and frightened mothers. And once the children realized I was not going to cause them any pain or harm, they began to laugh and play with me. I still had no conversational Russian to share so we would make silly faces at each other, I’d tickle the young ones, give them a little hug, or a gentle flick on the ear. They dubbed me the ‘Summer Santa’, pulled at my long red beard, and waited for the sweets they knew would appear magically from my pockets.

One morning, a deep insight arrived. I realized life had brought me into this hostile environment to create a “space” where adults and children – and perhaps some of the doctors and nurses – might experience loving-kindness for the first time in their lives. The old Soviet Union wasn’t known for warm fuzzies.

For many, life within its borders was an austere

and emotionally deprived existence.

Some of these children – aged one to 14 – seemed completely ready to accept dying, they were almost serene and content, yet others struggled. It seems like such an incredible thing to say, but by the simple

4646

Way of the Heart

“ Som

ehow

this

lady

reso

nate

d w

ith m

y m

essa

ge a

nd

she

“kne

w”

that

it w

as im

porta

nt th

at w

e co

nnec

t. ”

act of touching these kids in large numbers, it was possible to see that some of them knew they only needed to be here for a short visit before leaving, having completed their cycle of lifetimes.

It is challenging to describe what I was sensing. What was incredibly touching was that when I explained the process and vision to the parents, almost all seemed to suffer less for they could somehow see the process and spiritual vision too.We felt these souls had found a way to come to this difficult world for a brief time, and through that agreement were able to avoid re-entering the whole cycle of human suffering.

Of course, not everybody was able to understand the kind of work I was up to. Rumours – many of them fairly damning – were rife. An orthodox priest who crossed and prayed over every child spat at me, declaring my work a heresy.

Meanwhile the doctor’s research quickly showed that since I arrived, the number of deaths was reduced from ten to fifteen per week to two or three. On the basis of this evidence it was not long before the doctors began asking me what sort of prognosis I would offer for each child and they found that I could predict an approaching illness several days before their technology could diagnose it.

And there, in the midst of all the tragedy, love gave me its

personal blessing.

Each moment that I spent in hospital wards, I was never alone. My tireless translator/manager, Galina, spent hour after hour walking right beside me. She negotiated with the doctors and conveyed a language of healing and love to the 70 or more children and mothers receiving DFR treatment every day. Yet, amongst all this intensity, surrounded by unspeakable suffering and doubt, we would find time to spend time after work to talk of other things. We’d walk back to the hotel together in the growing dark of the Russian winter. And in the hotel, we braved the suspicious eyes of the staff that were certain we were

not meeting to discuss our work. In time, it turned out that their suspicions were well founded.

Galina later told me it wasn’t really love that made her feel so safe but the serenity, inner peace and lightness of breath she experienced working around me. Incredible as it was then, in the impossibility of it all, a love that has lasted 17 years was born.

Compassion spread like a cloak of light over the kids; the passion of doing exactly what we were born for shone through; the love for each other was tangible despite the daily challenges of the Gorbachev regime replete with the old brigade of spies and petty jealousies. We kept our connection under a tight rein. Fortunately, long before we had met, Galina had arranged a visa to visit the United States to raise money for the Chernobyl Children’s Appeal. That was became another blessing, and created a route for escape.

Now, as we look back on our time in Chernobyl, we see the whole story, including the myriad intrigues and the threats against my life, as an improbable espionage movie. Upon arrival in the United States we were given three month’s free stay in the royal suite at a major hotel in Manhattan, and less than 90 days after we met, we were married at New York City Hall on the very first day of the Desert Storm war.

Our love has been tested numerous times by our intensive travel to conduct research projects in remote parts of Russia, Belarus and Siberia; hardly the “… and they lived happily ever after,” ending of traditional fairy tales.

We cherish our quiet moments, and remain in awe of what God has blessed us with: two people able to follow their bliss. We are as different from one another as the ice melting in the fjords of my native New Zealand and the scorching sun of the Uzbekistan desert where Galina was born.

Like the children of Chernobyl, we’ll stay here – spreading love wherever we can – until our time is called. As Virgil, the epic Roman poet, reminds us,

“Love conquers all; let us surrender to Love.” ❂

Clif Sanderson

Clif Sanderson is an author and philosopher, internationally renowned for his work in the field of consciousness and subtle

energies. Born in New Zealand, he has spent more than 40 years working at the forefront of research into the use of Intention

as a powerful healing force. His Deep Field Relaxation method includes the use of subtle energy of the Universal Field and the

integration of modern physics and mysticism. His research has been acknowledged by the award of the Albert Schweitzer Prize,

and, the Russian Ministry of Health Award for Service to Medical Science. His “Mind Music” CD allows people to experience the

deep feeling of inner peace, and of his latest best seller, Knowing Nothing, Living Happy.

His website is www.deep-field-relaxation.com © Clif Sanderson 2008

4747