Compassionate Presence: Covert Training Invites Subtle Energies Insights
Posted: January 20, 2025 Filed under: attention, healing, meditation, mindfulness, relaxation, Uncategorized | Tags: being safe, compassion, energy, Energy healing, healing, reiki, spirituality, therapeutic touch Leave a commentAdapted from: Peper, E. (2015). Compassionate Presence: Covert Training Invites Subtle Energies Insights. Subtle Energies Magazine, 26(2), 22-25. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283123475_Compassionate_Presence_Covert_Training_Invites_Subtle_Energies_Insights
“Healing is best accomplished when art and science are conjoined, when body and spirit are probed together. Only when doctors can brood for the fate of a fellow human afflicted with fear and pain do they engage the unique individuality of a particular human being…a doctor thereby gains courage to deal with the pervasive uncertainties for which technical skill alone is inadequate. Patient and doctor then enter into a partnership as equals.
I return to my central thesis. Our health care system is breaking down because the medical profession has been shifting its focus away from healing, which begins with listening to the patient. The reasons for this shift include a romance with mindless technology.” Bernard Lown, MD, The Lost art of healing: Practicing Compassion in Medicine (1999)
Therapeutic Touch healing by Dora Kunz.
I wanted to study with the healer and she instructed me to sit and observe, nothing more. She did not explain what she was doing, and provided no further instructions. Just observe. I did not understand. Yet, I continued to observe because she knew something, she did something that seemed to be associated with improvement and healing of many patients. A few showed remarkable improvement – at times it seemed miraculous. I felt drawn to understand. It was an unique opportunity and I was prepared to follow her guidance.
The healer was remarkable. When she put her hands on the patient, I could see the patient’s defenses melt. At that moment, the patient seemed to feel safe, cared for, and totally nurtured. The patient felt accepted for just who she was and all the shame about the disease and past actions appeared to melt away. The healer continued to move her hands here and there and, every so often, she spoke to the client. Tears and slight sobbing erupted from the client. Then, the client became very peaceful and quiet. Eventually, the session was finished and the client expressed gratitude to the healer and reported that her lower back pain and the constriction around her heart had been released, as if a weight had been taken from her body.
How was this possible? I had so many questions to ask the healer: “What were you doing? What did you feel in your hands? What did you think? What did you say so softly to the client?”
Yet she did not help me understand how I could do this. The main instruction the healer kept giving me was to observe. Yes, she did teach me to be aware of the energy fields around the person and taught me how I could practice therapeutic touch (Kreiger, 1979; Peper, 1986; Kunz & Peper,1995; Kunz & Krieger, 2004; Denison, 2004; van Gelder & Chesley, F, 2015). But she was doing much more and I longed to understand more about the process.
Sitting at the foot of the healer, observing for months, I often felt frustrated as she continued to insist that I just observe. How could I ever learn from this healer if she did not explain what I should do! Does the learning occur by activating my mirror neurons (Acharya & Shukla, 2012).? Similar instructions are common in spiritual healing and martial arts traditions – the guru or mentor usually tells an apprentice to observe and be there. But how can one gain healing skills or spiritual healing abilities if you are only allowed to observe the process? Shouldn’t the healer be demonstrating actual practices and teaching skills?
After many sessions, I finally realized that the healer’s instruction to to learn was to observe and observe. I began to learn how to be present without judging, to be present with compassion, to be present with total awareness in all senses, and to be present without frustration. The many hours at the foot of this master were not just wasted time. It eventually became clear that those hours of observation were important training and screening strategies used to insure that only those students who were motivated enough to master the discipline of non-judgmental observation, the discipline to be present and open to any experience, would continue to participate in the training process. I finally understood. I was being taught a subtle energies skill of compassionate, and mindful awareness. Once I, the apprentice, achieved this state, I was ready to begin work with clients and master technical aspects of the healing practice – but not before.
A major component of the healing skill that relies on subtle energies is the ability to be totally present with the client without judgment (Peper, Gibney & Wilson, 2005). To be peaceful, caring, and present seems to create an energetic ambiance that sets stage, creates the space, for more subtle aspects of the healing interaction. This energetic ambiance is similar to feeling the love of a grandparent: feeling total acceptance from someone who just knows you are a remarkable human being. In the presence of a healer with such a compassionate presence, you feel safe, accepted, and engaged in a timeless state of mind, a state that promotes healing and regeneration as it dissolves long held defensiveness and fear-based habits of holding others at bay. This state of mind provides an opportunity for worries and unsettled emotions to dissipate. Feeling safe, accepted, and experiencing compassionate love supports the bological processes that nurture regeneration and growth.
How different this is from the more common experience with health care/medical practitioners who have little time to listen and to be with a patient. We might experience a medical provider as someone who sees us only as an illness (the cancer patient, the asthma patient) instead of recognizing us as a human spirit who happens to have an illness ( a person with cancer or asthma). At times we can feel as though we are seen only as a series of numbers in a medical chart – yet we know we are more than that. People long to be seen. Often the medical provider interrupts with unrelated questions instead of listening. It becomes clear that the computerized medical record is more important than the human being seated there. We can feel more fragmented, less safe, when we are not heard, not understood.
As one 23 year old student reported after being diagnosed with a serious medical condition,”/ cried immediately upon leaving the physician’s office. Even though he is an expert on the subject, I felt like I had no psychological support. I was on Gabapentin, and it made me very depressed. I thought to myself: Is my life, as I know it, over?” (Peper, Martinez Aranda, P., & Moss, 2015).
The healing connection is often blocked, the absence of a human connection is so obvious. The medical provider may be unaware of the effect of their rushed behavior and lack of presence. They can issue a diagnosis based on the scientific data without recognizing the emotional impact on the person receiving it.
What is missing is compassion and caring for the patient. Sitting at the foot of the master healer is not wasted time when the apprentice learns how to genuinely attend to another with non-judgmental, compassionate presence. However, this requires substantial personal work. Possibly all healthcare providers should be required, or at least invited, to learn how to attain the state of mind that can enhance healing. Perhaps the practice of medicine could change if, as Bernard Lown wrote, the focus were once again on healing, “…which begins with listening to the patient.”
References
Acharya, S., & Shukla, S. (2012). Mirror neurons: Enigma of the metaphysical modular brain. Journal of natural science, biology, and medicine, 3(2), 118–124. https://doi.org/10.4103/0976-9668.101878
Denison, B. (2004). Touch the pain away: New research on therapeutic touch and persons with fibromyalgia syndrome. Holistic nursing practice, 18(3), 142-151. https://doi.org/10.1097/00004650-200405000-00006
Krieger, D. (1979). The therapeutic touch: How to use your hands to help or to heal. Vol. 15. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. https://www.amazon.com/Therapeutic-Touch-Your-Hands-Help/dp/067176537X
Kunz, D. & Krieger, D. (2004). The spiritual dimension of therapeutic touch. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions/Bear & Co. https://www.amazon.com/Spiritual-Dimension-Therapeutic-Touch/dp/1591430259/
Kunz, D., & Peper, E. (1995). Fields and their clinical implications. In Kunz, D. Spiritual Aspects of the Healing Arts. Wheaton, ILL: Theosophical Pub House, 213-222. https://www.amazon.com/Spiritual-Aspects-Healing-Arts-Quest/dp/0835606015
Lown, B. (1999). The lost art of healing: Practicing compassion in medicine. New York, NY: Ballantine Books. https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Art-Healing-Practicing-Compassion/dp/0345425979
Peper, E. (1986). You are whole through touch: An energetic approach to give support to a breast cancer patient. Cooperative Connection. VII (3), 1-6. Also in: (1986/87). You are whole through touch: Dora Kunz and Therapeutic Touch. Somatics. VI (1), 14-19. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280884245_You_are_whole_through_touch_Dora_Kunz_and_therapeutic_touch
Peper, E. (2024). Reflections on Dora and the Healing Process, webinar presented to the Therapeutic Touch International Association, Saturday, December 14, 2024. https://youtu.be/skq9Chn-eME?si=HJNAhiUsgXSkqd_5
Peper, E., Gibney, K. H. & Wilson, V. E. (2005). Enhancing Therapeutic Success–Some Observations from Mr. Kawakami: Yogi, Teacher, Mentor and Healer. Somatics. XIV (4), 18-21. https://biofeedbackhealth.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/edited-enhancing-therapeutic-success-8-23-05.pdf
Peper, E., Martinez Aranda, P., & Moss, E. (2015). Vulvodynia treated successfully with breathing biofeedback and integrated stress reduction: A case report. Biofeedback, 43(2), 103-109. https://doi.org/10.5298/1081-5937-43.2.04
Van Gelder, K & Chesley, F. (2015). A Most Unusual Life. Wheaton Ill: Theosophical Publishing House. https://www.amazon.com/Most-Unusual-Life-Clairvoyant-Theosophist/dp/0835609367
[1] I thank Peter Parks for his superb editorial support.
Compassion supports healing: Case report how a “bad eye” became an “amazing eye”*
Posted: April 11, 2023 Filed under: behavior, cognitive behavior therapy, healing, health, mindfulness, Pain/discomfort, self-healing, stress management, Uncategorized, vision | Tags: compassion, self-image 3 CommentsErik Peper, PhD and Dana Yirmiyahu
“I completely changed my perception of having a bad eye, to having an amazing eye. After two months, my eye is totally normal and healthy”
When experiencing chronic discomfort or reduced function, we commonly describe that part of our body that causes problems as broken or bad. Sometimes we even wish that it did not exist. In other cases, especially if there is pain or disfigurement, the person may attempt to dissociate from that body part. The language the person uses creates a graphic imagery that may impact the healing process; since, language can also be seen as a self-hypnotic suggestion.
The negative labeling, plus being disgusted or frustrated with that part of the body that is the cause of discomfort, often increases stress, tension and sympathetic activity. This reduces our self-healing potential. In many cases, the language is both the description and the prognosis-a self-fulfilling prophecy. If the description is negative and judgmental, it may interfere with the healing/treatment process. The negative language may activate the nocebo process that inhibits regeneration. On the other hand, positive affirming language may implicitly activate the placebo process that enhances healing.
By reframing the experience as positive and appreciating what the problem area of the body had done for you in the past as well as incorporating a healing compassionate process, healing is supported. Our limiting beliefs limit our possibilities. See the TED talk, A broken body isn’t a broken person, by Janine Shepherd (2014) who, after a horrendous accident and being paralyzed, became an acrobatic pilot instructor. Another example of a remarkable recovery is that of Madhu Anziani. After falling from a second floor window, he was a quadriplegic and used Reiki, toning, self-compassion and hope to improve his health. He reframed the problem as an opportunity for growth. He can now walk, talk and play the most remarkable music (Anziani and Peper, 2021).
When a person can focus on what they can do instead of focusing on what they cannot do or on their suffering, pain may be reduced. For example, Jill Cosby describes undergoing two surgeries to replace her shattered L3 with a metal “cage” and fused this cage to the L4 and L2 vertebrae with bars. She used imagery to eliminate the pains in her back and stopped her pain medications (Peper et al., 2022). The healing process is similar to how children develop, growth, and learn–a process that is promoted through playfulness and support with an openness to possibilities.
Healing only goes forwards in time
After an injury, most people want to be the same as they were before the injury, and they keep comparing themselves to how they were. The person can never be what they were in the past, butthey can be different and even better.. Time flows only in a forward direction, and the person already has been changed by the experience. Instead, the person explores ways to accept where they are, appreciate how much the problem area has done for them in the past, and continue to work to improve. This is a dynamic process in which the person appreciates the very small positive changes that are occurring without setting limits on how much change can occur.
A useful tool while working with clients is to explore ways by which they can genuinely transform their negative beliefs and self-talk about the problem to appreciation and growth. This process is illustrated in the following report about the rapid healing of a 15-year problem with an eye that had become smaller following severe corneal abrasion.
Case report
On January 18th, 2023, I attended a workshop/ lecture by Professor Erik Peper.
During the break, I spoke to him and expressed my concern regarding my right eye. 15 years ago, the cornea of my eye was accidently scratched by my 3-year-old daughter. The eye suffered a trauma and was treated at the hospital. In addition, I had a patch over my eye for 3 weeks and suffered extrusion pain during the first 2 weeks. A scar remained on my eye, and doctors were not able to say if it would be permanent or whether the eye would heal itself eventually. An invasive operation was also suggested, which I refused. The trauma affected my eyesight for a few months, but after a year, the scar was gone and physically no permanent damage has remained.
Although it was certainly determined that my eye had healed completely, it didn’t feel that way at all. I always considered it ‘my bad eye’ and suffered irritation and pain every time I experienced tiredness, anxiety, or any other emotional discomfort. My eye was the first and only organ to reflect pain/itchiness/irritation. Over time, my eye ‘shrank’ as well. It became visibly smaller and it felt tense at all times.
For 15 years, that was my reality! I coped with it and haven’t thought of it much, until January 18, when I attended the workshop.
Professor Peper asked me to the front of the stage when we returned from break and conducted an exercise with me, where I used my imagination and words to comfort my eye and embrace it rather than call it ‘the defective/bad eye’. He pointed out that if you only describe your children as bad or evil, how can you expect them to grow? Then, he explored with me a few exercises such as evoking self-healing imagery. The self-healing imagery did not totally resonate; however, I felt I just needed to hug my eye. I thanked my eye for its being and stroked it gently in my mind. On stage and during the rest of the lecture I felt a sense of comfort. I felt if the muscles around my eye had finally loosened–a feeling I haven’t experienced for years. I continued to follow the instructions I got at the workshop for a couple of days, but unfortunately, I did not persist, and the negative sensations returned.
On a follow-up zoom meeting 10 days after the lecture with Prof. Peper, I received additional tools to practice ‘eye physiotherapy’ as well as mindfulness regarding the eye. This practice consisted of closing my eyes and covering the non-problem eye and then as I exhaled gently and softly opening my eyes, opening them more and more while looking all around. I completely changed my perception of having a bad eye, to having ‘an amazing eye’. At first talking to it didn’t come naturally to me but as I persisted it became easier and easier. I did it in the car, before going to sleep and when waking up in the morning. In addition, I practiced the exercises I got over zoom, where I covered my left eye (the undamaged one) and had my right eye look up and down to both sides.
It has been about three months since this zoom meeting and I am awed by the results. My eye has opened more, and no longer feels shrunk and small, I rarely feel negative sensations in it and when I do, I immediately know how to handle it.
I can say that attending this workshop has definitely been a life-changing event for my amazing right eye and for me.
Why did the healing occur?
The “bad eye” symptoms were most likely caused by “learned disuse”; namely, the chronic eye tension was the result of the protective response to reduce the discomfort after the injury to the cornea (Uswatte & Taub, 2005). After the injury and medical treatment, she would have unknowingly tensed her muscles around the eye to protect it. This process occurs automatically without conscious awareness. This protective response became her “new normal” and once her eye had healed, the bracing continued. The bracing pattern was amplified by the ongoing self-labeling of having a “bad eye.” By accepting the eye as it was, giving it compassionate caring and support, and following up with simple eye movement exercises to allow the eye to rediscover and experience the complete range of motion, the symptoms disappeared.
What can we take home from this case example?
Listen to the language a client uses to describe their problem. Does the language implicitly limit recovery, growth and hope (e.g., I will always have the problem)? Does the language inhibit caring and compassion for the problem area (e.g., I’m frustrated, angry, disgusted)? If that is the case, explore ways to reframe the language and emotional tone. A useful strategy is to incorporate self-healing imagery: the person first inspects the problem area, next imagines how it would look when it is healthy, and finally creates self-healing imagery that transforms what was observed to become well and whole. Then, each moment the client’s attention is drawn to the problem, he or she evokes the self-healing imagery (Peper, Gibney, & Holt, 2002). In many cases, combining this imagery with slower breathing to reduce stress promotes healing.
References
Anziani, M. & Peper, E. (2021). Healing from paralysis-Music (toning) to activate health. the peper perspective-ideas on illness, health and well-being from Erik Peper. Accessed March 22, 2023. https://peperperspective.com/2021/11/22/healing-from-paralysis-music-toning-to-activate-health/
Mullins, A. (2009). The opportunity of adversity. TEDMED. Accessed March 22, 2023. https://www.ted.com/talks/aimee_mullins_the_opportunity_of_adversity?language=en
Peper, E. Cosby, J. & Amendras, M. (2022). Healing chronic back pain. NeuroRegulation, 9(3), 165-172. https://doi.org/10.15540/nr.9.3.164
Peper, E., Gibney, H. K. & Holt, C. (2002). Make Health Happen. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall-Hunt. pp. 193-236. https://he.kendallhunt.com/make-health-happen
Shepherd, J. (2014). A broken body isn’t a broken person. TEDxKC. Accessed March 20, 2023 https://www.ted.com/talks/janine_shepherd_a_broken_body_isn_t_a_broken_person?language=en
Uswatte, G. & Taub, E. (2005). Implications of the Learned Nonuse Formulation for Measuring Rehabilitation Outcomes: Lessons From Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy. Rehabilitation Psychology, 50(1), 34-42. https://doi.org/10.1037/0090-5550.50.1.34
*I thank Cathy Holt, MPH, for her supportive feedback.
Behave: The biology of humans at our best and worst
Posted: February 24, 2018 Filed under: behavior, emotions, Evolutionary perspective, Pain/discomfort, Uncategorized | Tags: compassion, evil, goodness 2 CommentsHow can people be so caring and sometimes cruel? What are the evolutionary, genetic, epigenetic, developmental, familial, tribal, community and cultural determinants that allow human beings to be heroic and give their own life for others or be killers and unbelievably cruel. Stanford biology professor Robert Sapolsky‘s book, Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst, explores what drives human behavior. It is a remarkable tour de force to explore and explain why we do as we do. Watch his February 6, 2018 lecture at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco.
https://www.jccsf.org/arts-ideas/ondemand/2017-2018-season/robert-sapolsky/
Training Compassionate Presence
Posted: November 22, 2015 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: compassion, Dora Kunz, Energy healing, healing, Kawakami, Medicine, mindfulness, Muramatsu 3 Comments“Healing is best accomplished when art and science are conjoined, when body and spirit are probed together. Only when doctors can brood for the fate of a fellow human afflicted with fear and pain do they engage the unique individuality of a particular human being…a doctor thereby gains courage to deal with the pervasive uncertainties for which technical skill alone is inadequate. Patient and doctor then enter into a partnership as equals.
I return to my central thesis. Our health care system is breaking down because the medical profession has been shifting its focus away from healing, which begins with listening to the patient. The reasons for this shift include a romance with mindless technology.” Bernard Lown, MD, The Lost Art of Healing: Practicing Compassion in Medicine (1999)
I wanted to study with the healer and she instructed me to sit and observe, nothing more. She did not explain what she was doing, and provided no further instructions. Just observe. I did not understand. Yet, I continued to observe because she knew something, she did something that seemed to be associated with improvement and healing of many patients. A few showed remarkable improvement – at times it seemed miraculous. I felt drawn to understand. It was an unique opportunity and I was prepared to follow her guidance.
Three remarkable healers: Dora Kunz, Mitsumasa Kawakami and Norihiro Muramatsu.
The healer was remarkable. When she put her hands on the patient, I could see the patient’s defenses melt. At that moment, the patient seemed to feel safe, cared for, and totally nurtured. The patient felt accepted for just who she was and all the shame about the disease and past actions appeared to melt away. The healer continued to move her hands here and there and, every so often, she spoke to the client. Tears and slight sobbing erupted from the client. Then, the client became very peaceful and quiet. Eventually, the session was finished and the client expressed gratitude to the healer and reported that her lower back pain and the constriction around her heart had been released, as if a weight had been taken from her body.
How was this possible? I had so many questions to ask the healer: “What were you doing? What did you feel in your hands? What did you think? What did you say so softly to the client?” Yet, she did not help me understand how I could do this. The only instruction the healer kept giving me was to observe. Yes, she did teach me to be aware of the energy fields around the person and taught me how I could practice therapeutic touch (Kreiger, 1979; Kunz & Peper, 1995; Kunz & Krieger, 2004; Denison,2004; van Gelder & Chesley, F, 2015). But she was doing much more.
Sitting at the foot of the healer, observing for months, I often felt frustrated as she continued to insist that I just observe. How could I ever learn from this healer if she did not explain what I should do! Does the learning occur by activating my mirror neurons? Similar instructions are common in spiritual healing and martial arts traditions – the guru or mentor usually tells an apprentice to observe and be there. But how can one gain healing skills or spiritual healing abilities if you are only allowed to observe the process? Shouldn’t the healer be demonstrating actual practices and teaching skills?
After many sessions, I finally realized that the healer’s instruction to observe the healing was an indirect instruction. I began to learn how to be present without judging, to be present with compassion, to be present with total awareness in all senses, and to be present without frustration. The many hours at the foot of this master were not just wasted time. It eventually became clear that those hours of observation were important training and screening strategies used to insure that only those students who were motivated enough to master the discipline of non-judgmental observation, the discipline to be present and open to any experience, would continue to participate in the training process. It was training in compassionate mindfulness. Once apprentices achieved this state, they were ready to begin the work with clients and master the technical aspects of the specific healing art or spiritual practice.
A major component of the healing skill that relies on subtle energies is the ability to be totally present with the client without judgment (Peper, Gibney & Wilson, 2005; Peper, 2015). To be peaceful, caring, and present seems to create an energetic ambiance that sets stage, creates the space, for more subtle aspects of the healing interaction. This energetic ambiance is similar to feeling the love of a grandparent: feeling total acceptance from someone who just knows you are a remarkable human being. In the presence of a healer with such a compassionate presence, you feel safe, accepted, and engaged in a timeless state of mind, a state that promotes healing and regeneration as it dissolves long held defensiveness and fear-based habits of holding others at bay. This state of mind provides an opportunity for worries and unsettled emotions to dissipate. Feeling safe, accepted, and experiencing compassionate love supports the biological processes that nurture regeneration and growth.
How different this is from the more common experience with medical practitioners who sometimes have too little time to listen and to be with a patient. We might experience a medical provider as someone who may see us only as an illness (the cancer patient, the asthma patient) instead of recognizing us as a human being who happens to have an illness (a person with cancer or asthma). At times we can feel as though we are seen only as a series of numbers in a medical chart – yet we know we are more than that. People long to be seen. Often the medical provider interrupts with within the first 90 seconds with questions instead of listening. It becomes clear that the computerized medical record is more important than the human being seated there. Sometimes the patients can feel more fragmented and less safe, when they are not heard, not understood. In this rushed state, based upon “scientific data,” the health care provider may give a diagnosis without being aware of the emotional impact of the diagnosis.
As one 23 year old woman reported after being diagnosed with vulvodynia,”I cried immediately upon leaving the physician’s office. Even though he is an expert on the subject, I felt like I had no psychological support. I was on Gabapentin, and it made me very depressed. I thought to myself: Is my life, as I know it, over?” (Peper, Martinez Aranda, P., & Moss, 2015; Martinez Aranda, P. & Peper, E., 2015)
What was missing for this young woman was compassion and caring. Sometimes, the healthcare providers are unaware of the effect of their rushed behavior and lack of presence. They can issue a diagnosis based on the scientific data without recognizing the emotional impact on the person receiving it.
Sitting at the foot of the master healer is not wasted time when the apprentice learns how to genuinely attend to another with non-judgmental, compassionate presence. However, this requires substantial personal work. Possibly all allied healthcare providers should be required, or at least invited, to learn how to attain the state of mind that can enhance healing. Perhaps the practice of medicine could change if, as Bernard Lown wrote, the focus were once again on healing, “…which begins with listening to the patient.”
References
Denison, B. (2004). Touch the pain away: New research on therapeutic touch and persons with fibromyalgia syndrome. Holistic nursing practice, 18(3), 142-150.
Krieger, D. (1979). The therapeutic touch: How to use your hands to help or to heal. Vol. 15. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Kunz, D. & Krieger, K. (2004). The spiritual dimension of therapeutic touch. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions/Bear & Co.
Kunz, D., & Peper, E. (1995). Fields and their clinical implications. in Kunz, D.,(ed). Spiritual Aspects of the Healing Arts. Wheaton, ILL: Theosophical Pub House, 213-222.
Lown, B. (1999). The lost art of healing: Practicing compassion in medicine. New York, NY: Ballantine Books.
Martinez Aranda, P. & Peper, E. (2015). The healing of vulvodynia from the client’s perspective.
Peper, E. (2015). Towards the end of suffering: The contributions of integrating mind, body and spirit by Mr. Kawakami. In: Kawakami, M., Peper, E., & Kakigi, R. (2015). Cerebral investigation of a Yoga Master during Meditation-Findings from Collaborative Research. Fukuoka, Japan: Showado Publisher, 7-13.
Peper, E., Gibney, K. H. & Wilson, V. E. (2005). Enhancing Therapeutic Success–Some Observations from Mr. Kawakami: Yogi, Teacher, Mentor and Healer. Somatics. XIV (4), 18-21
Peper, E., Martinez Aranda, P., & Moss, E. (2015). Vulvodynia treated successfully with breathing biofeedback and integrated stress reduction: A case report. Biofeedback, 43(2), 103-109.
Van Gelder, K & Chesley, F. (2015). A Most Unusual Life. Wheaton Ill: Theosophical Publishing House.
Notes:
- I thank Peter Parks for his superb editorial support and encouraging me to publish it.
- This blog was adapted the following two published articles, Peper, E. (2015). Compassionate Presence: Covert Training Invites Subtle Energies Insights. Subtle Energies Magazine, 26(2), 22-25; Peper, E. Sitting at the foot of the master-Covert training in compassionate presence. Somatics, 18(3), 46-47.
the peper perspective 