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118 Comments
Saul Hough
February 14, 2014Well said and written Phil. I will follow your website with interest.
Very best regards and good luck.
Saul
Phil Escott
February 14, 2014Thank you! So good to have you as my first comment… 🙂
Frank smith
April 4, 2014Fascinating read Phil, you’ve done all the research for us to read and you’ve simplified in it a way that keeps the read interesting , I’ll look forward to more Pure Activity
We’ll done to you thanks
Phil Escott
April 5, 2014Thanks a lot Frank! 🙂
Gabi
April 13, 2014Ha I also gave up converting others long ago too! Mine is for a slightly more selfish reason… there is a hell of a lot less oxygen on this earth than there was, and I’d rather conserve my breathing of it to talk to people who want to listen! Love the blogs X
Phil Escott
April 14, 2014Ha ha! Thanks Gabi! 🙂
Markus K
April 14, 2014Excellent overview Phil, I am impressed! Really good to have it all put in context so clearly. I am bookmarking this and I intend to keep coming back to it, in my attempt to fix things I know I can fix and that make total sense to me. I agree that we have greatly disturbed the balance and everything we can do to help redress that balance will help our body and our higher self to do what it is always trying to do – keep us healthy and happy and keep us progressing. Thanks Phil! 🙂
Phil Escott
April 14, 2014Glad you found it useful Mark. It’s all about returning to before we messed things up! 🙂
Meidi Goodson
April 14, 2014Phil I love this post, such a clear explanation. Your writing is always inspiring. I look forward to the next blog.
Thank you
Meidi
Phil Escott
April 15, 2014Thanks Meidi. Just squashing it all together in one lump… 🙂
Mags
April 24, 2014Very interesting – I am eager to learn more
Mags
April 29, 2014Wow – what can I say – daft thing is that I have suspected all of these have been having a deleterious effect on my health for some time – so difficult in this day and age to get the balance right but I am going to change as much as I can do in light of my hectic lifestyle
Phil Escott
April 29, 2014Yes, Mags, I know it’s hard. I suspect that a lot of the effects of these things can be lessened by any little tricks that we can come up with to fool our bodies that they are still back in a time that we are genetically adapted to. Things have changed so fast in these past hundred years that our confused bodies have not had time to catch up. Perhaps if we survive as a species, in several hundred thousand years we will thrive on EMFs and high fructose corn syrup, but we have a lot of adapting to do. 🙂 I think the better course is to step back and realise that we have become far too clever for our own good and get in touch with the planet and our past again!
Markus K
June 23, 2014Great article Phil. I was hoping for a bit of controversy! Thanks for putting Maharishi’s quote in. I love that one. I found the ‘official’ transcript for you:
A reporter once asked Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, “How does the world look in the highest state of consciousness?” “You see that everything is exactly as it should be,” said Maharishi. The reporter hesitated before asking, “But why then, are you working so hard to improve the situation?” Maharishi smiled. “Because that is exactly as it should be.”
Markus K
June 23, 2014I am tempted to add many things. So much to try and say about that which cannot be caught in words.
One little addition, from my own ‘seeker’s misconception’. You pose the question what the benefit of awakening is.
I would suggest that the benefit is completely on the level of experience. The world might seem the same to others, yet your experience will be that of bliss first and foremost. Everything else is secondary. “Even a little of this delivers from great fear”.
So, in the first instance, you might experience confusion on the outside, but the inside is immovable, eternal, because you have come to realise that your true nature is beyond anything relative, and that therefore, you cannot be harmed. You have come home.
That is what I ‘understand’ as awakening. I don’t consider myself an awakened man at all, so please correct me if I am barking up the wrong tree. In my case, I am experiencing a gradual increase in bliss and a gradual fading of fear. What I enjoy most is an increasing trust in what I call my ‘higher self’. Things simply ‘sort themselves out’, without me having to do anything. That is what keeps me going in what I feel is the right direction.
For me, being a capricorn, and not comfortable with too great a leap (coz you might fall down the slope), it is the daily practice of TM that I see as the main catalyst of this growing experience of bliss, coupled with Maharishi’s explanations and descriptions that can then suddenly open doors in my perception.
It keeps me going in that direction, even though you very rightly point out that there is no direction. You are totally right of course, I am already enlightened. However, just saying that doesn’t do it for me. I need to experience it.
I very much look forward to that full awakening when it presents itself, or rather, when I can fully surrender to it. There are periods, when I experience clear samadhi in my meditation, that I feel I am very close. And then ‘stuff’ gets in the way for a bit. Until the time when this samadhi doesn’t get lost and I have constant access to it, I will keep dipping the cloth. It is my daily ‘surrender’ and it helps to soften things.
With love, and by the way you are an exceptional musician when you let your intuition guide you. 😀
Your friend
PS again, great article, gave me lots of brain cells sparking. 😀
Markus K
June 23, 2014I just noticed, my reply is almost as long as your article! Sorry about that….
Phil Escott
June 23, 2014Thank you, Mark, and thank you for your transcript of the Maharishi quote. I’m always too lazy, being a Gemini, to bother about actual facts! 🙂 Since you told me about it the other day though, I knew I’d have to include it in my own inaccurate way!
Don’t apologise for the post being so long – there is some beautiful stuff in there. You are so right about the bliss – it is definitely a very frequent companion, and that is one of the most wonderful things about the whole business. I was just trying to take the emphasis away from the bliss because a surefire way to make sure the bliss eludes us is to chase it, eh? 🙂 If we have huge expectations of bliss, we are focusing on the honey rather than the bees, so to speak. Take care of the bees and the honey will flow automatically. 🙂
Reading your reply, I feel like I should have made more of the process of fear disappearing by gradual stages, and the subtle fears that can still trap us and need to be dissolved. This is such an important point, but you have made it so beautifully so I’m happy with that. 🙂
There are so many ways that the process happens for people – some it seems have a sudden flash and some are more gradual, or “oozers” as I’ve heard it called, and it sounds like that’s what you are experiencing. It’s just as valid as the classic bolt of lightning that everyone imagines, but which is probably actually rather rare. I think so many people are actually much further along that imaginary “path” than they think.
Thanks also for your lovely comment about how I play when I follow my intuition. It’s a new experience for me. You have been an inspiration for me there, because you have played that way for a lot longer than I have! 🙂
Lots of love…
Michael Kinnaird
June 23, 2014Enlightenment is oneness with Being, which flows: love in action. Like a child, spontaneous, but now with a heightened self-awareness and self-control. Unity (yoga) means the reconnection and harmonious functioning of the whole self.
So the ego is a separation of the whole self, the cause of a disconnection from the larger part which now cannot function correctly and so creates fear and dysfunction in the disconnected and isolated ego.
The ego is a self-limiting entity because it creates pain, which builds to an intolerable level and so causes the sufferer to seek an instinctive exit in the now as happened to Byron Katie and Eckhart Tolle as you mentioned. Since intense awareness of now also means withdrawing attention from habitual past-future thoughts infused with a sense of self, there is a re-blending of the whole self. The mind is then fully available to the larger part which can now function properly and create joyously, freely and spontaneously in the moment.
I disagree that old thoughts continue in the enlightened state. In my experience, old thoughts enter because of fluctuations in awareness which is difficult to maintain at first. Repressed emotions/thoughts do surface at first though and are then permanently burnt off. When awareness is intense i.e. the light is bright, no separation thoughts enter, and thought and action are one.
There is also the issue of complete death of the ego and the fear that creates as an obstacle, but just understanding what happens is enough to move through it gradually.
Enlightenment isn’t a single event which changes you forever, it’s a state. You are either enlightened (whole) right now, or you are not. We move into permanent wholeness as we fully realize and understand, and so apply our understanding to choose wholeness instead of fear, separation and dysfunction — because it dawns, that the egoic state is such a terrible burden, to carry, maintain and defend a false sense of self. And because we just want that pain to stop.
Awareness is the only thing we need to move into wholeness, and it can be done in seconds and maintained to the degree that the intention is there to do so.
Markus K
June 24, 2014Good morning Phil! I realise I have more to write! 😉 (and slightly disappointed that no-one else responded)
While I was dipping my cloth this morning, I realised I might both have been beating around the bush somewhat in my response. You write your article with some authority, and possibly insinuating your own awakening, but you never actually said anything like “since my awakening at 3.45am on the 1st of ….”. This leaves my dualistic mind pondering the question, and so I shall be bold and ask you outright: Are you enlightened/awakened? Am I even allowed to ask you this? If so, I would be very interested in a much more in-depth description of what happened and how it happened. And yes, there is a certain reluctance to ask you out-right, coupled with some skepticism (much like you describe in your article), since you are such a long-standing friend, and we have shared so many misconceptions in the past.
I realise that my skepticism partly comes from certain expectations I have about a full awakening, again, much like you warn against in your article. One of my recent reference points is the following very sweet and enjoyable talk by Peter Wallace (brother of the famous Keith, the first scientist to test the effects of TM on the body). I keep saying I will send you a link and that you will enjoy it, so here it is finally:
http://khoe.org/mp3s/Peter%20Wallace%20AA11_07.mp3
After what he describes as a week of Ritam Bhara Pragya (where all your desires are instantly fulfilled, from the realm of the sidhis), Peter Wallace spent some time with Ananda Moyi Ma. He got quite addicted to being in the same room as her, since he would immediately slip into samadhi in her divine presence. After some time, she sent him to Maharishi, who shared his time in silence with him, again with hours of samadhi. Talk about good karma! Maharishi then taught him his Transcendental Meditation technique, which freed him from his ‘dependence’ on others for his samadhi experiences.
Anyway, it is a very sweet and enjoyable talk by Peter, but I realise it might have strenghtened certain expectations and possible misconceptions about enlightenment, and the idea that you can have many glimpses and advanced experiences before you can call it an awakening. Also, that it is in fact a big deal (from a dualistic mind’s point of view) and that even after having had many experiences of samadhi, it is still not a given that you are fully awakened. Am I putting too much importance on the physical counterpart of enlightenment, a sort of ‘continuous’ samadhi?
Please know that this is in no means meant as any attack, just an honest response to your excellent article.
With love and the highest admiration for the way you managed to turn your serious health problems around to emerge an impressive new man!
Markus K
June 24, 2014Prompted by your private message, I watched the link to Rupert Spira’s video, and I must say I found it a little irritating. I sympathise with the woman and I don’t really think that Rupert’s attempt at giving her a mahavakya was actually very helpful, since it was clearly not doing anything for her. He was telling her to “knowingly be”, when she couldn’t. This is why I so appreciate Maharishi’s contribution to the world. Instead of focussing on word play, he gave us (and me) a technique for direct experience of being. It is back to dipping the cloth and taking it as it comes for me I’m afraid. 😀
Phil Escott
June 24, 2014Hi Mark and Mike.
I am really honoured that you have both taken this time to reply so fully. I will try to reply, but now it all gets a little sketchy to explain. It’s all very well when you’re on about what it’s not, but a direct question about what it is? I knew somebody would ask and I kind of planned to say that if anybody wants to ask that I will talk to them privately and not put it in print, but the fact that I know you have asked with love has inspired me to try to find the words. Having said that, all I can relate is my own experiences, which are at best a reflection of what’s happened, so don’t expect much. However, what I seem to enjoy the most now is personal histories rather than “instruction” so here we go…
I love Mike’s first sentence. As far as it goes, that’s nailed it, but does it mean anything to anybody who hasn’t had the experience? At different times of my life, it would have meant subtly different things, all good, and each one I thought I’d “understood”. Now all it does is bring a lump to my throat. As for disagreeing, Mike – go for it! ☺ The only thing I can say is that I never really disagree with anything now. I just know that I have no real idea. Because of what I do, people think I am fixed in beliefs, like paleo diet being the best for example, but all my life I’ve been a seeker and experimenter, and have been so wrong so many times, I cannot hold onto anything. Is the paleo diet the best? I have no idea. All I know is that if somebody has autoimmune, wheat and dairy cut from the diet seems to do wonders for reducing pain. If somebody comes to me with a far better way to do that, I’m excited. Sorry, I’m waffling, but I just want to stress that I have no real fixed opinions, however excited I might get at a new and often temporary discovery. Sometimes I’ve been caught, but now I know an opinion is just that – an opinion. I get excited when a new discovery helps somebody (and saddened when my method of delivery pisses them off), but I know that the following week I will have found something “better”.
So, I have no opinion about either of your experiences. To you they are the best you could possibly be having; of that I am sure. Everything is fine. So here are mine, from the beginning, which is something I’ve only put two and two together on recently… Sorry if it appears to meander, but it all ties in.
From about the age of four or five I’ve had glimpses spontaneously of something I couldn’t put a name to. I’m a big blabberer as everyone knows, but I never mentioned this to anyone. It was often while looking out of a window that everything fell away – the ego dissolved completely. It was only an instant each time, but I remember thinking, “What was that? Where did it go?” I have paused here to remember a feeling that came with it, but there was none. It was just something that I could not remember with my mind two seconds afterwards, but which I was still grappling for. I think we all have these glimpses, but the mind files them away. Without a doubt this was a peek at my essential nature – a glimpse of unity. No bliss, just pure unity.
From then on I became a seeker. I wanted to know what was going on, to chase that dissolving down and went down some very strange paths to discover it. Of course, I was just chasing my tail, but the burning desire was there. I never wanted to be an engine driver or a policeman; I wanted to know what was “behind the curtain”. I spent a long time believing that there is a curtain. I remember the first time I ever saw a picture of a yogi sitting in a cave in lotus and before even reading anything about it there was a huge recognition. Worldly things held no real interest for me – I wanted to find my Himalayan cave.
After the limitations of boarding school were over, the first really active attempt at discovering some magic was heavy hallucinogenic experimentation. I had read Carlos Castaneda and wanted to find my Don Juan. When I first arrived in the shitty caravan in Wales that was to be the scene of our daily diet of psilocybin from the neighbouring fields that had more magic mushrooms than grass, I did actually attend a TM intro talk. I decided, with great snobbery, that my guru wouldn’t wear a suit and tell housewives how to reduce stress; he would probably appear in a blinding flash of light and bestow shaktipat on me immediately. So, I declined learning to meditate and went back to the mushrooms. Funny the little forks in the road we take. ☺
So began some serious investigation into consciousness in the autumn of 1979. This time was not recreational for me and a lot of it was very heavy and disturbing, but I really felt something was rattling loose, so I ploughed on. I won’t bore you with tripping experiences, but about three weeks after the last trip I ever took, I was hitching home with my then girlfriend. We were in somebody’s car approaching the Severn Bridge Service station on the M4 and suddenly I was back again where I was as a child – the ego collapsed. Since I no longer had the innocent trusting awareness of a child, it was terrifying as my mind resisted it and told me I was going insane. There followed three years of pretty much full-on psychosis while I fought and fought against the feeling of “disappearing into the abyss”, as there was nobody to tell me what was going on. Doctors were useless, but if I had found a certain Dr David Gersten back then, who I now know has been helping people make sense of such experiences since 1976, things might have been very different. Any decent shamen would have probably sorted me out too, but where do you find a shamen in Windsor in 1980? ☺
As it was, I struggled away on my own, refusing medications. It subsided a bit, but was still in the background until I did finally learn TM in about 83/84, which definitely helped to settle me down. (I do remember though having a strong premonition that it would come back full bore when I was about 50…). In 1986 the TM-Sidhi course brought out the fear a bit again though, particularly one of the sutras, and I’d always approach that part of the programme with trepidation. One day I’d just had enough and totally surrendered, threw myself into the abyss and for the first time realised that there is no abyss. Because my wish was never to totally expand into the abyss (as, of course, and paradoxically, of course there is an abyss), as it was too frightening, I returned to an approximation of my previous “normality”, something I had so fervently desired to escape. A massive lesson in the limiting power of fear.
I went for years believing that TM had saved me, that drugs were bad, and that even if they give you a glimpse, it’s all very unnatural – much better to unfold consciousness with Maharishi’s gentle and predictable methods. So began my career as a “sidha” and the move to Skelmersdale where I met you, Mark. I really threw myself into being a yogi.
Come about 1997, I kind of got bored with it all and did a bunch of stuff up til 2006 that wasn’t very kind to my body or mind. I got fat, out of shape and the start of inflammatory illness was clearly there as I look back, but it’s funny what we become accustomed to and how we ignore the messages of the body.
Around 2006/7 I had just split with my girlfriend and I was in a life situation looking after my mother that I found incredibly stifling. I was a massive mess emotionally, and with the physical symptoms increasing it was the perfect storm. I decided to turn things around and get myself in shape again. The only thing that was bothering me about my plan was that I needed to start meditating again. I had moved next to the dome in 2004 and was feeling guilt that I had only been in once. The magic was gone, but I was actually subtly wracked with guilt that I wasn’t attracted to meditating any more. I remember one day just totally letting go of TM and all the guilt, and at that point something popped. There I was again back at that childhood glimpse, and it stuck this time and developed over a two-day period. I didn’t lose it this time. It utterly floored me. I cannot begin to describe it (see Mike’s opening lines again maybe – I can’t do better), but what really hit home was that it was NOTHING like anything my mind had constructed about it during my TM years.
It is because of this that I became unbearable around that time and I have no idea how Detta, a meditator herself (but not TM), ever put up with me. All I banged on about is how meditation doesn’t work; it’s all a matter of pure surrender in the moment and not to listen to any guru or do any practice. I guess I was just voicing my own bitterness about feeling that the TM movement had “wasted” 30 years of my life, much as I had adored it and had some wonderful experiences of samadhi etc. In hindsight, it was of course my own misunderstandings of Maharishi’s teachings that led me always towards indulging in experiences. Looking at them now, all those teachings (and all others from every discipline) make perfect sense.
I needed to know what was going on though, and while cruising YouTube discovered Tony Parsons, and suddenly things started to sound familiar. If you don’t know Tony Parsons, he’s one of the most radical of the “neo Advaita” teachers, never giving an inch on the “There is nobody and nothing ever happened” viewpoint. This is what I had running through my consciousness, but it was very confusing. Yes, there was a lot of bliss if I just stayed still (I never actually meditated again), but I started to feel that the bliss was just a last attempt of the mind to hang on. I had had enough bliss over the years – I wanted what was beyond, and the bliss was just a nuisance.
Let me stress here that any viewpoints I express while describing this “stage” are purely for the purpose of the story. They are not viewpoints I believe at all any more, but you will have to read on for that… ☺
I phoned Roger Linden, the only person who I had heard was awakened who I knew personally. I never even entertained that fact that he might be faking, as so many of the TM’ers seem to believe. I have always been very open to what people claim, so I trusted that he might have some answers. It turned out he had also been very influenced by Tony Parsons. He told me that it sounded like a true awakening, but not to get too cocky, as there might well be years of stabilisation. Little did I know how chaotic and painful that stabilisation would be. Unfortunately, the ego itself grabbed onto the (beyond) experience and made it its own, and I started to believe that “I” was enlightened. It was only years later when listening to a nine-hour audiobook by the wonderful Adyashanti called “The End Of Your World” about pitfalls after basic awakening (so rare that people write for the “awakened”; it’s usually for seekers) that the particular subtle trap of the ego busting in on the act became clear to me, and I can see what went on.
Looking back now, it is no surprise to me at all that I got so ill. I’m an only child, and although very generous and well-meaning I have often been very blind to the real needs of others, probably because growing up I was the centre of the universe – no slaps from big brothers or sisters to educate me. I won’t go on about it now, but I have a book planned to describe how emotional imbalances eventually turn into physical imbalances. It’s all very nice when people tell me how inspired they are by my story of healing, but in truth it was because I was such a fucking idiot that it went so far. I healed myself by pure determination to uncover the truth. I had seen more astonishing events in my life than somebody reversing arthritis, so I knew that the doctors were wrong. Pig-headedness and a total disrespect for authority made me look everywhere but conventional channels, and in the end I won out.
It took me three years of huge research and experimentation, just because I’m so stubborn… I suspect somebody who was less narcissistic would have just taken the nasty meds and gone to work and supported his family. However, I guess that’s just my dharma, and I have the best and most supportive partner, who can always see my good sides when everyone else would understandably just see the bad, so I owe it to her that I could make that journey.
I was in great pain a lot of the time, with some other awful symptoms on top of just joint pain, but did I lose that awareness? No. If I became still, it was always there, but often the symptoms were so severe that it was overshadowed. It was clearly shouting at me that I had some work to do. I’m a lazy bastard though, and I often thought of suicide, as the fear of death was gone as such, and probably would have ended it if I had been alone. I owe little Amelia my life for that – I just couldn’t leave a child.
Last year, after letting go of the diet angle, which is great, but in the end it’s just symptom control, I started to really start to understand the emotional work needed to unlock physical symptoms. I find that the TM “path” can sometimes sweep emotional work under the carpet, but eventually you have to face it to gain peace. People ignore it for a long time because their life is bearable – mine wasn’t. I needed to swallow my pride and my own view of myself as a great yogi who didn’t need psychobabble… I got into EFT etc and really got to the root of a lot of things. Then, one day, I used Byron Katie’s incredible “The Work” to address something that was still affecting me. It seemed to unpick a huge tangle of knots all in one, and I was pinned to the bed for about three hours in a hurricane of love and bliss. It felt like the heart had opened completely. It felt like the bland, basic awakening that I had experienced in 2006/7 was now integrated into the body and the ego was no longer fighting for control.
Since then, the bliss is pretty much constant, but I no longer see it as a distraction – I neither chase it nor reject it – just enjoy it. What is more important to me is the lack of resistance to anything, even resistance itself. I am with Mike that the ego and thoughts are burned out, but it can take some time, and the echoes are there, or we would just float away. Isn’t that laisha vidya that Maharishi used to talk about – the remains of ignorance necessary to maintain a human body? For some people the hard ego can be let go of easily, but for idiots like me it can be a big tangle.
Now I have no more questions or seeking to do. I am totally happy with conflicting views and paradox. I have no single point of view on anything. It feels like my ego is no more important than anyone else’s, nor is it any more personal, and from that comes universal love. If I get annoyed at anything, then that is also perfect – I no longer seem to resist or judge, and if the ego, say, falls back on certain patterns of judgment or resistance, that’s just “what’s going on” and can be looked at like you were watching a film of it… but, paradoxically, there is no sense that I am separate from the film.
So, that’s my long answer. Am I enlightened, you ask? Do you know, I have no idea. The whole concept makes very little sense to me as where “I am” now has absolutely nothing to do with any concepts I had when I believed that enlightenment was possible for the individual and I used to aim for it at some indeterminate point in the future. I have absolutely no judgment any more about people who meditate or people who don’t. For me, at one point it seemed like meditation was useless, but who knows? Maybe it prepared my physiology a bit for the experience (but I still had to suffer). Maybe it even stopped the experience killing me in 2007. I have no idea, really… none. Of course sometimes I play with ideas because it’s fun, but I find I hold on to none of them.
I have no advice for anyone except to follow their hearts. That’s what our hearts are for, to lead us to what will be the smoothest “path” on our evolution, and for everybody that “path” will appear to be totally different, and just as valid.
The greatest impression is that it is something that was ALWAYS there. I can understand why Ramana used to put such emphasis on the “Who am I?” mode of self-enquiry, as it’s the only thing that has always been exactly the same. Looking back, I cannot remember a single episode of my life when I can’t also indentify what I “experience” now. I just didn’t notice (even that misses the point).
I can totally understand how that Rupert Spira vid irritated you. At times it would have really pissed me off – nothing to hang onto. So annoying. Now, it’s exactly what makes sense to me. The more anything is impossible to hang onto, the nearer it gets to paradox and conflicting views in the same sentence, the more it delights me. Everything is “God”, even views that totally conflict with your own… if not, God would not be omnipresent, would he, and those conflicting views couldn’t exist? In that alone you can find the end to conflict and resistance… These days I even prefer the word God to enlightenment, but all are limited.
All I really want to do these days is listen to accounts of other people who have experienced this, which is why I love Rick Archer’s Buddha at the Gas Pump interviews – the stories are so addictive. Again, I cannot pass judgments on any of them – they all have such different experiences, but there is always a common factor – something that you can hear behind the words of their stories but that they can never explain, however eloquent they are. I feel such a delight in hearing them, and know that unless you realise it, there is no chance of any explanation getting close. As Huang Po (I think, what with my crap inaccurate quotes…) said, “There is never any point in discussing a single thing.” It’s fun trying though! ☺
To close, I will say that having said all this, it might still seem like some sort of an ego trip, but to maybe offset that mind-construction, another huge realisation that comes is that there is absolutely nobody who is more evolved than anyone else. Awareness does not care if an individual has no clear perspective of it, because in fact they all do. We whinge on and on about how we want to have bliss, love etc etc, and yes, they are beautiful, but somebody who has never even considered enlightenment or “waking up” are looking at EXACTLY the same thing that anyone who is a supposed teacher is looking at. To me now, it is actually hard to grasp the concept that there are individual people at all – we are all part of one cosmic computer, which I cannot pretend to understand in the slightest… but, again, paradoxically, that makes the experience of this body and this mind far more fulfilling.
Much as I love talking about it, I have no desire to categorise it any more. That makes no real sense. It’s sometimes a convoluted journey from here to here, even though the answer was here all along.
At the moment, I have all sorts of problems stacking up in the relative but have never been happier. I am delighted by every moment that passes, even if they are uncomfortable. THIS is the best film I’ve ever seen!
However, I really feel that it’s just the start. I’m like a baby in the world now, and I am going to enjoy all the unfolding that comes without fighting anything. I am not even completely sure that time is linear, as all the above experiences fold into one now, giving the ability to piece it all together as a story, ignoring irrelevant parts… but in the “future” with deeper insight, perhaps those irrelevant parts will be turn out to be the more important. I have no idea.
Sometimes I even burst into tears at the beautiful feeling of coming home and the niggling dissatisfaction of seeking having ended. Is that enlightenment? I have no idea!
I think that’s the best I can do. ☺
Michael Kinnaird
June 24, 2014Most people can understand love, can see the joy and spontaneity of a child playing. This can’t be put into words but can be understood easily… you are the Source of that, and you can align with unconditional love by meditation… simply Being, flow — love in action, choiceful thinking. These 3 are the modalities of sanity and wholeness.
It’s all very simple, I’m not a fan of too many words, it leads away from the goal. What can be said about honey that would give any experience of tasting it? Nothing at all, only “this is good, go taste, this is how.” Nothing else is needed. “Here is the reason for your pain, here is the solution.” Too many words confuse, make things worse because the intellect will try to build a picture, to image it, and become the image. And so you are still stuck in the dysfunction, in ego.
Align with love, good things happen. Separation = pain, wholeness = no pain. As Buddha said, enlightenment is the end of suffering.
Phil Escott
June 24, 2014Ha ha! Bang on, Mike. Love is the key… I have no argument at all, but neither would I if you gave a totally different view, as all views are part o the whole. Also, as for all the words in my last post, it surprised me too. I guess it was just time for it to come out… Something about the way Mark asked… and as I said in the email to you, I’ve got a tummy bug, so it’s verbal and “bottomal” diarrhoea – maybe that’s just the way today goes. 🙂 I guess the question just caught me on a day when I had little else to do. I like words, but i am under no impression that they are of any use at all. I just like constructing them – it’s almost as much fun as playing drums. 🙂
Michael Kinnaird
June 24, 2014Drumming is very Zen 🙂 When you looked out the window, it was a rare moment of simple presence, the mind very still, perception without comment. The challenge is to keep choosing it, by understanding it is a better way, and by training the mind to be in abeyance at will.
I like words too, especially ones that give absolute clarity about how to end suffering 🙂 When I needed answers so badly, there was nothing but confusion “out there.” That’s why I’m passionate about clarity about “what works.”
I hear you about opinions, I sometimes get the impression that God is lovingly amused at our floundering 🙂 I once read a great little story about Osho. He loved to go looking for beautiful stones and pebbles by the river, and had a collection of his lovely discoveries. Then one day his father, frustrated by his son’s wasting time, hired some men to collect thousands of stones and put them in his room. Osho said his father totally missed the point… it wasn’t the having that was the joy, it was the finding.
I think that’s what we’re all up to… the joy of finding pebbles.
Phil Escott
June 24, 2014Yes, Mike… beautiful… and the mistake some people make is thinking that they have found the ultimate pebble. The more pebbles we find, the more we can tune in to their subtle differences until we notice that every pebble we find is perfect. Diversity in unity. Another in a long line of paradoxes. 🙂
I am not sure that God as a whole is amused by anything, but when the small ego becomes fainter, the narrow channel of God that replaces it is certainly amused at our floundering. I know I constantly amuse myself with the crap that I spout! 🙂
Michael Kinnaird
June 24, 2014The narrow gate that leads to Life. I’m sure all your “crap” is just as it should be 🙂
Phil Escott
June 24, 2014Ha ha! …as is everything… 🙂
Michael Kinnaird
June 24, 2014“The miracle of love comes to you in the presence of the uninterpreted moment. If you are mentally somewhere else, you miss real life.” ~ Byron Katie
If there’s an ultimate pebble, this is it.
Phil Escott
June 24, 2014Nice! 🙂 I think Byron Katie is one of the clearest and least “mystical”, bridging the gap perfectly between emotions and the infinite and her crystal clear methods help millions. It’s certainly one of the shiniest pebbles I’ve ever seen and I’m definitely adding it to my collection, but the ultimate pebble, to the right person at the right time, could be anything – a smack with a big stick from a Zen master, or the sound of one’s own turd hitting the water (so the story goes…). 🙂
Michael Kinnaird
June 24, 2014ahahahha Sure it can be a turd if you’re really present with it 🙂
Phil Escott
June 25, 2014Yeah, there was that story wasn’t there, about the Zen monk who woke up with the “splash”? I seem to remember another about someone who was watching a cat watching a mousehole, and the pure presence the cat displayed pushed him over the edge too. I dunno… correlation does not imply causation… I think there must have been many times somebody woke up and then decided it was actually what was happening at the time, or what they’d been doing for years that triggered it and a whole movement grew up around that idea. I just have no idea any more what “causes” it. I think it’s largely out of our hands. 🙂
Michael Kinnaird
June 25, 2014I like the Zen tale of the student who asks “How do I enter zen?” The master says “Do you hear the trickle of the distant mountain stream, enter zen from there.” The student replied”Yes! I hear it, but what would you say if I couldn’t hear it?” Master: “Enter zen from there.”
All teachings point to alert presence as the way to align with the divine. Then the miracle of love comes in that uninterpreted moment. You could be looking out of the window or hear your turd splash 🙂
What is the sound of one hand clapping? What is the feeling “I AM”? What is the answer to “Who am I?” All ways to enter zen (which means meditation). The way I teach is to listen for the next thought to pop… akin to the cat watching the mouse hole you described. Stay alert, or the mouse will escape unnoticed for sure!
Habitually listening to turds splash, or any other activity or event is a way to set an alarm clock to remind you to be present. The mind has momentum that causes unconsciousness, so we need these alarms, habits, until we reach a place where we are naturally aware again, and don’t easily lose our grounding. Regular meditation has the same effect, or every time you come to traffic lights, that can be used as a reminder. Build house on rock — means stay awake, be grounded in who you really are, don’t build house on sand, by believing self to be a collection of thought forms.
Phil Escott
June 25, 2014Mike, you are a treasure trove of tremendous quotes, and that Zen one’s marvellous! 🙂
The rest is pretty good too! 🙂
Meidi
June 27, 2014Wonderful writing as always!
Phil Escott
June 28, 2014Thank you, Meidi! 🙂
Malorie
July 12, 2014This is the right site for everyone who wants to understand this topic.
You realize so much its almost tough to argue with you
(not that I personally will need to…HaHa).
You certainly put a fresh spin on a topic which has been written about for decades.
Excellent stuff, just great!
Gabi
July 19, 2014I started to think of subtle emotions creating physical ailments and realised how many there are! Excitement and nerves causing ‘butterflies in the stomach’; about to start an exam and needing a wee; major feelings of stress causing bowel urgency; imagining you’ve won the lottery causing a great big smile!!!
I truly believe that the higher vibratory frequencies permeate the lower – positive focused thought permeates into the tissues. Why is it when we hear someone raucously laughing do we start to giggle to ourselves – laughing is infectious! Our lighter mood gives us a spring in our step.
Many people tell their same story of ‘this happened to me and that happened to me’, ‘I have this illness and that ailment’. Change your story! Create a new version of yourself and enjoy the ride x
Gabi
July 19, 2014I once had a particular issue I was working on (well many really) of being a workaholic and discovering why the need was there to fill the void. It took a full 18 months of working on this one particular thing, and then one day I felt the issue had cleared. Looking back I realised that absolutely nothing had changed over the 18 months, other than my perception of it and a resolve just to let it go. When it dawned on me I had to laugh. Anything and everything can be changed in an instant and most of the time it involves a willingness, an openness and an ability to let go. These days I’m just a lazy-arse!
Phil Escott
July 22, 2014Yes, Gabi. Isn’t it lovely when a whole load of stuff just goes down like dominoes. We never know quite how close we are and early progress can seem very slow or nonexistent, but then suddenly… 🙂
Phil Escott
July 22, 2014Yes, yes! Lovely examples, and you’re bang-on… It’s all about the story. With our thoughts we create our reality! 🙂
Gabi
August 2, 2014Swaps? Your book for a promotional boost via natural practices? X
David Palmer
August 21, 2014Its all pointless. No point in talking about one’s suffering. When you see the suffering going on in the world on the physical level it seems selfish and ungrateful to mention one’s inner torment, which seems to have no real basis. Yet it is there. Seeking doesn’t get rid of it. Not seeking doesn’t get rid of it. Those of you lucky enough to have realised that you never really existed say its already there. When I was meditating regularly I felt I was making progress by gradually purifying the dross from my awareness. Now I’m just too lazy to follow a programme imposed from outside. So what hope is there for me? It just makes me feel like getting really really stoned.
Phil Escott
August 21, 2014Hmmm… Follow your heart… If your heart says that you feel you need to get really really stoned, then maybe you need to get really really stoned, David. Don’t forget to roll a fat one for me too! 🙂
Seriously, maybe it’s all part of the process of letting go of the guilt that you don’t want to meditate or the frustration that you feel it was no longer working for you as it should. From talking to you personally, I think you are in a transition time between a beloved spiritual practice and what comes next, whatever that is. Letting go of a spiritual practice can be as painful or even more painful than letting go of a long term relationship, even though we know that the practice or the relationship are not serving us any more. It can take a long time, and if in the meantime you fancy smoking a bit of gange, what the hell? It will probably not last and just be a bit of fun while you wait for the next “bus”. Maybe you will learn to appreciate the beauty of the bus stop while you’re there.
If God is omnipresent he’s certainly in gange too. 🙂
Sanjay
October 27, 2014Was nice to read this, as one can doubt the awakening even long after it happens. For me the experience crystallized when I listened (actually watched) this beautiful Youtube video of the Beatles’ song “Across the Universe”. The video had different processes of nature happening like the tide arising and subsiding, bees flocking to a flower, sunrise turning into sunset, and seasons changing. I realized very clearly that my mind and all the games it goes through as well as my body were just a part of this flow, and I had no control over it at all. The words of the song complimented this perfectly, if you know the song then you will know (it even has Jai Guru Deva OM!!).
Then I laughed. I laughed like I never had before and never had after, knowing that the thing I searched for so hard, not just thinking or hearing it, but *knowing* that it had always been with me and would never leave me. For me the awakening of the heart happened shortly thereafter, and I truly recognized my Guru as my Guru, having been the one whose knowledge inspired me to reach the point where I had reached.
Phil Escott
November 2, 2014Nice story Sanjay. So good to hear about awakenings. They are more widespread than most people think! And if they stopped believing their thinking, it would all become clear! 🙂
jill
April 3, 2015My goodness – all these rules…no wonder I left the movement for satsang 15 years ago…25 years of ayurvedic regulations was quite enough…
If we’re honest – we know that meditators and health enthusiasts suffer, get sick and die at the same rates as the general population…Perhaps it’s precisely the emphasis on the material body which perpetuates illness……All these ‘health’ rules are the result of an overactive mind… and self forgetting goes a long way..
The goal of life is to find out who we really are….to fall into the eternal Silent Mind….and then the body does what it does quite naturally – freeing itself of its burden of doership…as we realize we are not in charge of the healing..
No techniques or rules can take us Home…..It’s only when we realize our limitation as a persona and open to something greater than mortal mind – can Grace find an entry point….
The remedy for healing not only our separation, but all illness as well, is a right understanding of God as ALL THERE IS – and an unselfed Love..
Phil Escott
April 3, 2015Seems like a strange reply to this post, Jill. These are certainly not rules, just suggestions, and most of them are not derived from Ayurveda. They are just the cream of the hundreds of ways I tried to improve my sleep when I was very ill… and combined, they did a lot to return me to a place where screaming agony wasn’t uppermost in my mind and body, and I could again find a focus on the absolute.
Of course you are absolutely right in everything you say, but it seems slightly irrelevant to this post. Sometimes if we get very broken we need a little help up to the first rung of the ladder so we can climb easily… not that a ladder or even a rung exists… just another paradox.
I would much rather talk about just the absolute and not even bother with the details in the relative, but most people who are ill need to address all levels – physical, emotional and spiritual to heal again, and that is the focus of this site. To see where my heart really lies, perhaps you would be more interested in my other blog post on the misconceptions about “waking up” where I have addressed all that you say and agreed wholeheartedly… here is a link… https://pureactivity.net/misconceptions-enlightenment-waking/
Krishna
May 6, 2015Thanks Phil, it’s a great post. Both my parents have been insomniacs for a long time now. They stay up late and either watch TV or read a book / e-book hoping to fall asleep. They also eat late (probably because they stay up until late) which I suspect has played a role in causing acidity & other digestive disorders. After reading your post I realize that what they do to compensate for insomnia actually worsens it.
Several of your suggestions are easy to follow provided we make a conscious attempt which is a small price to pay for better quality of life. Once such basics like health are addressed, the ego could take up more spiritual pursuits (and hopefully succeed in the pursuit by destroying itself!)
Phil Escott
May 6, 2015Hi Krishna,
Yes, eating late can cause all sorts of digestive issues. I remember wrestling with massive heartburn when I used to eat late at night.
There are a lot of ideas in this post, but I’d still say that orange glasses to trigger melatonin production and not panicking if you do wake up are the most effective of the lot…
Thanks for getting in touch! 🙂
Susan
May 16, 2015Thank you Phil for this well written post. I’ve known all of it except the Paleo diet and the orange glasses. This is all very supportive. It’s scary sometimes for me to know so much and NOT be able to change some of the things I know are really harmful, but I take responsibility where ever I can.
I’ve been ill for seven years and I’ve always eaten organic, non-GMO, etc., AND from hearing your interview with Rick Archer and reading here, I’ve just cut out carbs, sugar and dairy. (I wasn’t eating much sugar)
To my surprise, I’ve noticed an instant change; no more bloating and all that comes with that. I’m hoping my gut might have a change to heal now. I’m looking into finding a lead-free slow cooker (haven’t been able to find one here in the US) to cook a turkey for bone broth as I can digest turkey.
Thank you or the reminder about computer screens at night. I knew this, but fell away from the importance to get off them at night regarding proper cortisol and melatonin production. Ahh!–I needed to hear that again! Thank you.
Much, much appreciation to you Phil,
Susan
Phil Escott
May 17, 2015Hi Susan. Thanks so much for dropping in and making such a lovely comment. I’m glad it has inspired and helped. It certainly did wonders for me. 🙂
Ric
May 25, 2015Hi
Very good post -I especially agree with the emotions and stress management trumping many other things. I live on the fifth floor of a building -4 or 5 wi-fi signals routinely are coming into my apartment from neighbors. I can’t do anything about this obviously. Do you feel this can be mitigated by being very good at many of the other areas you listed?
BK
May 25, 2015Is there any specific test you used to verify that distilled water was causing a zinc deficiency?
Audrey
May 26, 2015very, very nice Phil!
Audrey
May 26, 2015very nice Phil!
Phil Escott
May 26, 2015Hi BK… On reading about it, I got the impression that there is no reliable test for zinc deficiency apart from the zinc solution taste test, which I did, and which I “passed” with flying colours.
However, the facts that depletion of zinc causes loss of taste, distilled water is said to strip the body of minerals, and when I gave up the distilled water and dosed myself with zinc, my taste came back, it seems like a fairly good test. Can I be 100% sure? No, but there is very little we can be 100% sure of if we are honest. 🙂
Phil Escott
May 26, 2015Hi Ric. Yes, it’s hard sometimes to get optimal surroundings. I would look into earthing mats/sheets and also have a look at the products at http://shieldite.com
I am not usually a great fan of any gadgets, gizmos and snake oil type crystals etc, but there is science behind these and I have had good results. Jack Kruse seems to agree as well… There are more clues and fixes on his website.
I think if you are in a bad environment it can be offset massively by being in ketosis. It makes the body far more resilient to the resulting cellular damage and inflammation.
Thanks for getting in touch. 🙂
Phil Escott
May 26, 2015Thanks, Audrey. 🙂
Jeffrey
June 13, 2015hey Phil….well its not surprising the way things line up! Heard you on batgap and cant believe how parallel our experiences are….since all this inflammation/body pain ice baths have become my best friend, absolutely love them…actually think in some way it does something with our conciousness, shifts it into a much clearer state?
Day 5 on the paleo diet and cant believe how much better i feel already, its not a huge adjustment for me just eliminating some grains and eating meat after 25 years of being a vegetarian…wow I forgot how good meat was! Haha….anyhow, what can you say about Raw Reserve Superfood greens? Its a powder from Whole Foods I like but is there anything in there that isnt condusive to the plan
It has tons of greens, E3 Live algae etc but also some questionable stuff….any thoughts would help
Stay well and I will keep you posted, thank you for your full transparency on your process, nothing like sharing your true experience 🙂
Jeffrey ~*~
Phil Escott
June 14, 2015Hi Jeffrey,
Nice to hear from you, and thanks for the lovely words… 🙂
Yes, ice baths certainly kill inflammation and reset the nervous system and hypothalamus. It’s a while since I’ve done them, as I have healed so well, but I am getting back into the odd cold shower again…
Good to hear that you are having great results on paleo. As long as we don’t have the conditioning to feel that meat is in some way evil and inedible, it can be a great experience as the body laps up those missing nutrients again!
As for that green powder – I have experimented with similar in my time. I don’t know… I don’t suppose they do much harm, but are very expensive and I’m not 100% sure they do much good either. A 25 billion count on the probiotic side is a bit low too, and no telling how many are still alive. I’d go for actual seaweed and sauerkraut (where you get trillions of live cultures per forkful). Nature knows best, and we were given teeth for a reason! 🙂 I take no supplements at all any more and feel better than I ever have, but did those supplements work? Maybe some of them, but most probably didn’t. If you feel that it’s helping, then it probably is… I’m just not sure. I do know that people invent these “superfoods” when actual scientific analysis shows that there isn’t much difference between “supergreens” and ordinary veg, except for some clever marketing. 🙂
Andrew
June 23, 2015you can get cheap meters to measure emf, in fact emf from motors, electrical appliances or badly grounded mains wiring can be as much an issue as mobile phones !
my write up on sleep is linked in the header !
Andrew
June 23, 2015vitamin D3 is one of the best things for reducing autoimmunity ime !
Phil Escott
June 23, 2015Hi Andrew – yes, that’s a very good point and absolutely true, and I did mention it in passing. As for EMF meters, yes… We didn’t buy one but we did get a guy to come in and give the house a once over with a fairly sophisticated meter, and the results were staggering. We made a lot of changes on all fronts afterwards… I go more into the EMFs in my blog post on the five triggers for disease.
Phil Escott
June 23, 2015Andrew – yes, D3 is important, but of course best obtained from the sun rather than supplementing. This is one of the problems we encounter from our many disconnects with how we are genetically adapted to interact with the planet and its seasons. If you absolutely must supplement vitamin D though, make sure you have enough vitamin K to direct the absorption of calcium into the bones and away from the arteries etc, or you can get into more trouble than you would without it.
Andrew
June 23, 2015yeah i use the jarrow mk-7 ( a form of k2), and have built my own broadband uvb lamp which i use !
also i found you can irridate mushrooms with this lamp to get huge amounts of vitamin D2 in your diet !
i saw your video on batgap, you seem more real than most rick interviews and when looking up your pages was surprised to see a very similar approach to health problems !
the EMF problem is due to iron in the body being resonated by the magnetic field, so less iron in the diet and blood donation helps !
Phil Escott
June 24, 2015Cool! Mushrooms under the lamp! Lateral thinking there…
Thanks for your kind comment about the Batgap interview… it was fun to do…
As for the iron/magnetism etc… Have you ever looked into the work of Dr Jack Kruse? His ideas were huge in my own healing process, and I think he has really nailed the diet issues, but he gets quite deep into the science of things too. Here’s one that might be relevant…
http://www.jackkruse.com/energy-and-epigenetics-4-light-water-magnetism/
Andrew
June 25, 2015hi phil, my experience is everything, emf and diet is a constant process of approximation..
jesus got nailed for instance and i sure he rather wasn’t ! :o)
emf can be guessed at but it really needs a meter on site and they are not expensive !
the link below takes a technical look at the issue !
http://mueller_ranges.tripod.com/links/compendium/miscellany.html#magnetic fields
Andrew
June 25, 2015magnetic fields link in the nick for this post now gives the correct link
correct and not simply approximation i hope !
Andrew
June 25, 2015omg doomed to forevernever be linked, the true correct link in the nick and to make doubly sure
http://tinyurl.com/m9eywew
Phil Escott
June 25, 2015Interesting stuff… 🙂
john
July 17, 2015“Stop the attacks at a subtle level, and in time, like a large ship slowing gradually to a halt, the grosser level – the body – will also calm down and stop attacking its own tissues.”
this idea that it will take a long time could also be a misconception…see kam yuen (chiropractor, martial artist and author of ‘delete stress and pain on the spot’)
Phil Escott
July 21, 2015True, John. I’m sure there are ways it can happen instantly, but when, for instance, there has been inflammation in a part of the body for a prolonged time, it can take a while for the physical damage to reverse. If you take something like fibromyalgia, which has less of a physical component, you can get almost miraculous instant cures, but for arthritis etc, maybe it takes longer for the body to regroup, even if you do nail the cause. I’m not saying it’s not possible even for that, but it’s more common the other way. If you are always looking for a totally instant cure it can ruin the confidence that you are on a healing path and set you back by making you swap from one thing to another. It did to me… Now I think it’s more a matter of grace how fast you heal, even if you get it “right”. Some need longer with the (blessing of an) illness to learn what it teaches them at a deeper level. 🙂
Frances
August 26, 2015Great post Phil- I never knew about orange glasses! And it’s good to have a reminder to keep away from gadgets & gizmos. Thanks!
Phil Escott
August 26, 2015Hi Frances… Thank you, and I’m glad it was of some use. Yes, the orange glasses thing amazed me, but since then I have seen it coming out more and more in the mainstream. The science behind it is pretty solid and it really works! 🙂
Bil
April 9, 2018Hi all! I want to add something what I have heard from one of my friend who suffers from Wi-Fi radiation- this garments and fabrics are very popular between people who are really sensitive to EMFs: http://emfclothing.com
Mick
April 17, 2018Nice one mate
lea
June 11, 2018Nice Website and nice Chat! NoI know it’s been a while but I’ll post this anyway because you asked for stories of enlightenment. So here’s mine. 😉 It’s only about a month ago so I guess I’m still in the phase of stabilizing.
Well, how did it go? To start with: I had been doing Meditation and yoga now and then since I was 15 (10 years ago now). It helped relieve emotional pain and when I meditated daily, I was in a very more stable mood and so it did me good. Didn’t lead to enlightenment back then though.
Some time later, the real thing started: I was on the anti-baby-pill for 1.5 years which numbed my thoughts and feelings down to where it was possible for me to follow a normal routine of a medical Student. That was pleasant and welcome to me. It took away the thoughts of “this doesn’t really take me where my heart wants to go”. For my ego, those thoughts seemed very disruptive. 😀 I got severe health issues while on the pill, even more than before. So I decided to stop taking it. Almost immadiately it felt like my mind came back. I started being interested in shamanism, no idea where that came from. Dreams, maybe. The next following two weeks I read a lot on shamanism, witches, old healing practices and their beliefs. Belief itself had always been something almost ridiculous to me. I was the most logical and anti-religious person you could imagine, on the outside at least. There had always been a strong resistence, even fear, against “giving in” to the seemingly illogical madness of believing in some greater source of energy, god, whatever you will call it. Just like you described in your article, Phil.
Well I still can’t really figure out why it happened to me in the end, but in the midst of my shamanism – witch – nature healers – study it suddenly struck me how everything is one big conciousness, how ridiculous all my resistence, fear and hypocricity were/are and how I could have put something aside and pretend to not see it for a long time, something that was so very obvious and around/inside all the time. It struck me how blind I had been and how egoistic as well, not believing in belief when it was obvious that for so many people it’s very real. Once I had realised that, it all seemed really funny to me and just like that Sanjay who commented above I had to laugh a lot these days about the strange ways things go. The world still is very funny to me a lot of the time, people running around believing in what their egos tell them, the hustle and bustle that’s all good and still it all doesn’t really matter because in the end it just sums up to consciousness. Which doesn’t mean that it is unnecessary to do. It seems to be what we are here for if so many people are doing it. It just isn’t as important as everyone thinks I guess… Just my thought. 😉
It’s only been a month but I lost my fear of life and death and I’m just curious where all this is going to lead me and the rest of the world. I still have moments when I “forget” about it but it’s never for a long time and I can easily recall it just by thinking of it. So yep, I’m definetely curious and waiting to see what else will happen to me now once I woke up from being blind. Just trying to follow what comes along. 🙂
Thanks for your page and for that YouTube Video on carnivorism and spirituality, I really liked it. Greets!
Phil Escott
June 12, 2018What a lovely tale, Lea. Thank you so much for sharing that. 🙂 Keep me posted how it goes… 🙂
Arabella Horwitz
June 12, 2018Hi, just finished your book and found it informative. I’m seeing my doctor on the 15th June and would like to ask for the med you recommended; however, I can’t find it in the book. Could you tell me what it is. The doctor is recommending Prednisone, which I’m sure I don’t want. thanks.
Phil Escott
June 12, 2018Hi, Arabella. Glad you enjoyed the book. Yes, the only med I think is useful is Low Dose Naltrexone, which is very safe. The chances are the doc won’t prescribe it because its patent has run out, so nobody makes any money out of it and they want to push the latest expensive drugs, which, quite frankly, are all very dangerous. Prednisone is incredibly effective and very old, but it should really only be used in life saving circumstances like anaphylactic shock etc, not chronic conditions. Even docs know this.
I would say not to even bother with any meds. If I had known when I wrote the book what I know now, I would have healed very fast. I now know, through my own experience and through the work of Paleomedicina in Hungary, that the gut never quite heals unless ALL the plant material is taken out of the diet. Get on a 100% carnivore diet, sort out the artificial light at night to get your circadian rhythms back in synch, and it’s likely you will never need a doctor, or, god forbid, prednisone. Good luck with everything and if there’s anything else I can do… 🙂
Inaki Legorburu
December 15, 2019Hi Phil, I am experimentiing with carnivore. Are you suggesting to leave out the onion, garlic and tomato that I cook with my beef?
Phil Escott
December 16, 2019Hi, Inaki. If you like them and they have no effect on you, by all means eat them. That’s the same for any food… but if you are autoimmune for example, it’s common to react to all those foods. The only way you will ever know is to give them up and then reintroduce. See my recent video on reintroducing foods… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqmfNY1iE6k
Dawn-Dyanna Dhyanna
July 6, 2018Amen!!! I love this incredibly clear and articulate “rant”. THANK YOU so much for putting it out there. Tell it like it is, brother 🙂
Gratitude, love,
Dawn-Dyanna (Calif, USA)
Phil Escott
July 6, 2018Thank you so much, Dawn. Glad you liked it. 🙂
Kelly Roberts
September 16, 2018I just discovered this page after following zero carb doc Paul Mabry. I think I’ve found a long lost member of my tribe! So happy to have found you, Phil!
Kelly Roberts
September 16, 2018Thank you for this! I have always been an enthusiastic promoter personality, and I have only recently started to learn to wait to be asked for info, rather than vomiting my recent discoveries all over sometimes uninterested parties! I can so relate!
Richard Seekins
October 7, 2018Great read Phil. Thanks for putting the time and effort in. I work in a hospital and see this crap every day. The NHS is riddled with lies and poor advice. Just now I’m enduring the yearly flue jab campaign..groan 😆
Phil Escott
October 7, 2018Hey, thanks, Richard. Yes, my missus is a nurse and facing the same nonsense. All the ones with flu jabs get ill. 🙂
Elisabeth Sommerdorf
January 7, 2019how much is shipping to colorado? thank you.
Martin Franklin
January 9, 2019Hi Elisabeth,
Starting Carnivory is currently an ebook. It is downloadable from the site as soon as you complete your purchase. No shipping costs.
Len Winokur
January 28, 2019Great post Phil. More power to your elbow, and to your ongoing journey of healing and discovery.
We don’t even have to go as far as our Paleolithic inheritance – just look at contemporary indigenous populations such as the Masai and Aborigines, when the question can be framed as “What environment, including nutritional environment, is most compatible with our inherent constitution?”.
As I type this, I’m three hours away from completing my fifth day of an as-long-as-I-can-go water fast; I am however having one to three cups of instant or ground coffee (both of them organic kinds) per day. As well as autophagy and awakening stem cells in general, am hoping will help reduce some tendonitis in my left hand, the result of erstwhile overuse. To every drink I add Redmond Real Salt to taste. I have cut down during this time, though still continuing with, my intake of certain supplements. As an autoimmune-onset (so called ‘Type 1’) diabetic, I can confirm that the dogma that autoimmune-onset diabetics cannot fast is a gross fallacy, at least for those of us who have been following very low carb lifestyles and have become fat adapted. So much for the coventional wisdom of mainstream medicine – the dominant group, or, to put it more succinctly courtesy of the late, great Conrad Hal Waddington, COWDUNG.
Thanks for the reminder about vitamin K2. I’ve taken it ever since I started with supplemental vitamin D3 (which I gather is far more effective that D2). I understand K2 also helps with magnesium dynamics. Looking forward to the arrival tomorrow of my next supply of magnesium citrate powder. Concerning the mushrooms under the lamp trick for D2, I used to place mine on a sunlit indoor window sill.
Have recently taken to switching off all EMF and blue-wavelength emitters when I’m sleeping, and switching screens to eyesaver mode between sunset and sunrise. Except for my utility smart meters over which I have no control.
Bests, L.
Phil Escott
January 29, 2019Hey, Len. Great stuff. This is what’s going to educate the docs… Can you not get the smart meter changed back to a regular one? They often agree to this.
Baldrian O'Keefe
April 23, 2019What format is the ebook? Can I read it on an Amazon Kindle?
Phil Escott
April 23, 2019Sorry… it’s not on Amazon. It’s easy to download and read though. 🙂
Mickie Flynn
April 22, 2022Will your book ever come out in paperback?
Phil Escott
April 22, 2022I don’t think so, Mickie. It’s a bit short really to bother with printing. I do have a couple of books on Amazon though if you put my name in, and we have one and another soon to be published at theredpillrevolution.com though. 🙂
kate
August 24, 2019great podcast
Bernice Acosta
August 24, 2019How many sets? 1?
Phil Escott
August 25, 2019Definitely one set. If you could even think about two, you’re not going heavy enough. 🙂
Roni
August 27, 2019Just wondering what percentage of iodine you used? How many drops and if you used a carrier oil?
Phil Escott
August 29, 2019Kat says… ” I would say 3-4 drops of topical lugols 12%. Straight on skin above cyst should help.”
Phil Escott
August 29, 2019… and no carrier oil. 🙂
Andreas Pontvik
August 29, 2019This correlates to my experience so well hoho… Have still not found a form to really get to helping healing people though, unlcear why. Feels good to hear some of it, given that most of the information out there on diet would heavily oppose a high protein diet, as seems to be what is needed for proper grounding. would not work the same with cooked animal protein though that kinda hurts.
But without it it gets difficult maintaining proper grounding if i am to move around the world of people… :O
Thanks,
Bless yall.
Phil Escott
August 29, 2019Well, none of the keto or carnivore diets are high protein – they are high fat. Animal protein only hurts during the adaptation phase because our guts are so damaged from plants. Persevere. 🙂
Daniel O'Driscoll
August 29, 2019Thanks So much Phil!
I just put a sticker on the bathroom mirror Iam Grateful for …
And I’m enjoying greeting the Sunrise each day now!
Much love
D
Phil Escott
August 30, 2019Ha ha! Glad you enjoyed it. 🙂 Love to you too!
Barb
January 3, 2020Thanks Phil! Finally getting round to actually doing the Autoimmunity course I purchased last year! ( I’m slow…) I appreciate your response to that vegan’s clueless remark and your explanation of while not being a doctor, all the self education and experience you gained while being a patient, certainly earned the knowledge base of what NOT to do!…hence the subtraction method! I get it exactly…been there, got the t-shirt, too… I look forward to the rest of the course!
Barb….aka Sullivan Hollow on fb and Ichisan on you tube.
Phil Escott
January 3, 2020Hey, Barb! Thanks for dropping in. Finally, I know your name!! 🙂 Hope you enjoy the course. Keep me posted on how you do, and if you need any help, let me know. 🙂
Phil Escott
February 24, 2020Hi Phil,
I would like to talk to you to discuss an interview with you!
I look forward to your reply, thanks!
Sincerely,
Richard Sachs
Phil Escott
May 28, 2020My sincere apologies for not noticing your comment sooner, Richard. I’d be happy to chat. Please contact me by email at phil.escott@pureactivity.net
Carol Askhew
May 10, 2020Phil, what a great approach to physical symptoms!!! Thank you for this article!
Phil Escott
May 10, 2020Glad you liked it, Carol. 🙂
Jane Lehmann
September 8, 2021Thank you very much for imparting your experience and insight s of hypochondria in such a concise and easy way to understand.Thanks also for the practical advice,reading tips and encouragement to anyone out there needing redirection.
Eileen Foulkes
February 24, 2022Hi Phil , very interesting , learning a lot from you and the red pill guys. Met you last Saturday in Skelm after the Daz band gig Looking forward to your talk at New Horizons in March ,hoping to bring members of my family to hear you . Confused about a contact address on this blog Skelmersdale Yorkshire with a Wigan postcode .sincerely Eileen Foulkes
Phil Escott
February 24, 2022Hi Eileen. Thanks for dropping in. Wow… that’s an old blog post you’ve found! No idea what’s happened with the address. It’s Skelmersdale Lancs. 🙂
Phil Escott
February 24, 2022Ah, it’s not an old post of mine – it’s my friend Bart’s guest post. My mistake. 🙂
Lynda Poysor
April 3, 2022Hello. Just wanted to say how much I admire and appreciate all your hard work. Please, never quit and never give up; you are one of our few heroes. Thank you.
Phil Escott
April 3, 2022That is so kind of you, Lynda. Thank you so much! 🙂