No. 6 Achieving Integration & Wholeness through Rebirthing

The reality of our experience is that we can only ever be said to ‘possess’ the present moment. But the present is so fleeting that we are generally only aware of it after it has passed. We can only examine our experience through the lens of memory. This is because examination involves comparison and judgment – and these are all linked to memory. The process of remembering and comparing has its roots in reality, but it is only the play of consciousness with itself – quite literally, it is all in our minds.

We can appreciate this by observing ourselves in the act of thinking, feeling and sensing. We can both do these things and be aware that we are doing them – we can watch ourselves. In fact, whenever we seek to improve our performance, we use this capability. We watch ourselves and others and make comparisons on the relative efficiency and effectiveness of our behavior. So the role of the Observer serves a useful function in life and it is one that we can choose to adopt at any time we like.

The role of the Observer becomes vitally important during rebirthing. As the circular breathing raises our internal energy this highlights patterns of energy in our bodies that need to be re-integrated. We generally experience these patterns as discomfort. We may become aware of them as thoughts, feelings and sensations. Now the role of the Observer is simply to watch the patterns of energy that emerge, to watch them in great detail and in a state of non-judgmental awareness; rather as we would watch the currents swirling within a flowing river.

This neutrality with respect to our negative material is a necessary pre-requisite for integration to take place. The patterns of energy that we perceive with discomfort are still patterns of our energy – they are not ‘negative energy’, they are not something that needs to be expelled, pushed away or got rid of. We need all of our energy to meet the demands of living. Integration is a process of re-absorption, of taking back, and harmonizing the flow of all of our energy.

The alternative would be to become involved with or ‘hooked up on’ our thoughts, feelings and sensations; this would be the same as simply re-living them. Inevitably, we would end up reacting and tensing up once more. In other words, the exact opposite of integration would take place.

The present moment is not only all the time we have, it is all the time there is or will ever be. The experience of high levels of energy in our body is naturally ecstatic. When, through our Observer, we can enter a state of non-judgmental awareness and become wholly engaged in the enjoyment of the present moment; not only does the pain and trauma of the past effortlessly dissolve itself but we begin to glimpse a way of being in the world and yet not chained to it that is the hallmark of higher dimensions of consciousness.