This article is inspired by Soulwork, as taught in Poland by Martyn Carruthers. When training, Martyn continually demonstrates whatever he teaches, and provides many examples and exercises. However, Martyn's articles are technical, condensing huge amounts of information into few lines.

In "Accelerating Healing", Martyn wrote, "I interviewed people who had spontaneous remissions from serious disease, and hypnotically investigated their healing process. Many times, in many ways, I heard people say, "The disease became my friend", or "The pain became my teacher". It seemed that a person could create a disease to provide important benefits, and if a disease was fully accepted and the benefits found in more enjoyable ways, the disease might vanish."

Let's break that paragraph into pieces. Martyn wrote:

1. People can spontaneously heal disease.
2. A disease can become a friendly teacher.
3. A person can create disease to provide important benefits.
4. The benefits of a disease can be found in more enjoyable ways.
5. A disease might vanish if the benefits are found in other ways.

1. People can spontaneously heal disease

The question here is why do some people take medicine with no cure and others take no medicine and a disease disappears. What is the difference? What is the process for healing a painful and debilitating disease?

I carefully observed disease in my friends, my clients and myself, and found that there are two groups of benefits. There are direct benefits for the person, and indirect benefits for the person's relationships. Each group of benefits includes gaining something important - and avoiding something important.

If a person can find the benefits of a disease spontaneously, directly or indirectly, and obtain those benefits in some other way, a disease appears to heal spontaneously. Often, however, a small percent of the disease symptoms remain - perhaps as a warning.

2. A disease can become a friendly teacher

When I am sick, I am careful to minimize pain and prolong periods of feeling good. In this way, pain, and the absence of pain, guide my behavior. Often, disease symptoms "make" us do what we anyway need to do - whether or not the symptoms are comfortable.

Many lessons have to do with a balanced life. A common cold "makes" us rest, a migraine "makes" us stop work, arthritis "makes" us slow down. If we balance our lives - the frequency and severity of disease quickly drops.

It may seem impossible to so fully accept a horrible disease, yet this is where Soulwork leads - with the idea that even horrible disease is Soulful communication.

3. A person can create disease to provide important benefits

The benefits of diseases refer to all levels of person's activity. There are benefits for the physical body, emotional benefits, feelings benefits, beliefs and values benefits and mind benefits Most often these benefits are unconscious. When a benefit is conscious, it creates a possibility to heal disease quickly. Generally, replacing the benefits of diseases require activity on some important level for the person (e.g. understanding, realization of a project) or avoiding some disliked activity (e.g. telling your desires to another person).

When a disease motivates an activity, the activity often helps to accelerate integration with qualities that we have lost or forgotten (e.g. patience, playfulness, creativity). When a disease allows us to avoid something, this often means that a disease protects us from disintegration - from losing access to our qualities.

In relationships, a disease may show us where we are immature, irresponsible and manipulative. Some examples of personal benefits for accelerating integration:

Now that I'm sick:

• Body benefits - I can rest
  
• Emotional benefits - I can do what brings me joy
  
• Feelings benefits - I can learn to be empathic
  
• Beliefs benefits - I can start to believe in God, or other spirit part of the world for help
  
• Values benefits - my disease opens my eyes for new qualities!
  
• Mind benefits - I can learn and understand a lot!

Some Examples of Personal Benefits for Avoiding Disintegration:

Now that I'm sick:

• Physical benefits - I can avoid working too hard for my body
• Emotional benefits - I can avoid meeting someone I feel badly about
• Feelings benefits - I can avoid hurting someone
• Beliefs benefits - I can avoid changing my beliefs on less supporting
• Values benefits - I can avoid violating my values
• Mind benefits - I can avoid exhaustion of intellectual work

Some Examples of Relationship Benefits

Now that I'm sick:

• Maybe someone will treat me like a child
• Maybe someone will fulfill my responsibilities
• Maybe my family will stay together
• Maybe the world will see how bad this situation is

A sick person is often connected with other people in such a way, that they participate in a disease. This is the basis of Hawaiian and other aboriginal healing - that a person's relationships can create disease.

4. Disease benefits can be found in more enjoyable ways

When a person recognizes the benefits gained through disease, that person can discover that these special benefits can be obtained IN OTHER WAYS! This can be a turning point for disease! Why suffer for a wish, when there is a happier way to fulfill the wish?

Looking for new ways of achieving benefits is one of most creative and enjoyable steps of Soulwork. The person recovers his or her own creativity, finds both forgotten qualities and new abilities, and often changes some limiting beliefs about himself or herself. "I can!" is an important new belief.

When a person know the benefits of a disease, (s)he can choose to discover more enjoyable ways to accomplish these benefits, and learn to use these new ways in everyday live. What else to do? See a disease as a signal of a stupid universe? For what OTHER benefit might we cling to sickness?

Here is the second turning point for healing. Assume that some part of the person, in the wisest way it can, has chosen the disease symptoms to provide certain benefits.

If the person avoids accepting a disease (denial) it can mean that the person refuses to acknowledge his or her own choices. Fully accepting disease means that we honor ALL our ways to develop, all our aspects; even those aspects that may seem illogical! In this moment, our door to Soul is open. We are ready to integrate!

5. A disease might vanish

Other people have successfully healed diseases - why not us? To use Accelerated Healing successfully we need to:

1. Accept the disease - as a way of accepting yourself!
2. Recognize the benefits of the disease
3. Find supportive, creative and enjoyable ways of reaching these benefits
4. Explore how to use these new ways everyday (what kind of ability, what different emotions, what new beliefs, what things we need - all this is done in Soulwork very quickly)
5. Make adult decisions about using new ways of fulfilling benefits. (This means that a person can decide, consciously, to use disease to enrich this benefit in the future.)

(c) Terenia Marciniak, July 2000. E-mail:

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