12 Stages of Healing

The following guideline briefly describes various stages of physiological and emotional shifts, which occur during healing processes. The foundations of this work, AKA SomatoRepiratory Integration, developed out a form of subluxation based chiropractic, Network Chiropractic/Spinal Analysis; developed by Donald Epstein, DC. For more information regarding the studies of The 12 Stages of Healing, please contact
Innate Intelligence, Inc. (Wiseworld Seminars) :
444 N. Main Street
Longmont, Colorado 80501
303.678.8086

Each stage has a rhythm of its own. No one stage is better than another. We can not think or figure our way through any stage. Each stage represents one of the 12 rhythms of consciousness of humanity. Be with the stage that your are in. Don’t resist the stage, honor it. The stage will come to completion as you have gained the information within its rhythm.

Many people never fully experience most of the 12 stages, spending their lives within the first few. Maintaining a clear nervous system helps to move consistently through the stages more rapidly.

Your breath and movements guide you through each of the 12 Stages of Healing. Go with your flow. Even your distress has a "story" to tell you. Let your peace teach your distress to heal.

Stage1: SUFFERING: Different from pain, suffering is marked by a profound awareness that something is wrong. Parts of our being are disconnected. The awareness of this disconnection is usually made as we draw more upon our consciousness and energetic resources. This especially occurs when confronted by a traumatic or chaotic event or loss. The lesson of this stage is the acceptance that nothing works at this time, and that you are presently helpless.

The talented French artist,
William Bouguereau (1825-1905),
expresses similar emotional turbulence,
within the human psyche.

My soul is full of whispered song,— My blindness is my sight; The shadows that I feared so long Are full of life and light. ~~ Dying Hymn

Stage 2: POLARITIES AND RHYTHMS: This stage begins with the search for the magic genie, who can or has been identified as the savior from our distress, pain, or crisis. We project from the alienated, isolated, traumatized, hurt, shamed, or ignored aspects of our being. These parts try to gain power over our helplessness through external authorities, procedures, treatments, etc. As we heal, we eventually discover that what we blamed or projected as being so wrong, is not so bad. Or we see that our genie is not magical. We begin to become aware of our rhythms and polarities and discover we are somehow involved in a process, and are partially responsible for our distress.

Stage 3: STUCK IN A PERSPECTIVE: This stage of healing involves the recognition that our distress is associated with the fact that we have been stuck in a perspective. Our concepts and/or our physiology have been fixated. We do not yet know why we’ve been stuck, or what to about it. We just need to be with the simple revelation that we’ve been stuck!

Stage 4: RECLAIMING OUR POWER: This stage of healing is one in which we realize that the "script" determined by the above three stages is not longer desirable or no longer works. Initially, we are angry that we had lost our power, and we are determined not to let it happen again. As we progress through this stage, we choose to no longer dishonor ourselves, because we deserve more.

"…And said firmly, "I wish to go back to my place and see my beast again."

This stage is associated with having a strong enough sense of self to turn back onto our own alienated "shadow" or "light" to heal the illusion and create more wholeness; while merging with the fears, pains, illusions, and concerns behind the suffering. At this major stage of healing, we can appear on the other side or our illusionary self. For many of us, the alienated, isolated, abused, ignored, denied, or redirected aspect may be one of "light", or "goodness", or "pure child". Merging does not mean we have to face our Beast, but rather, it means allowing us to merge behind the consciousness, which was generated by the creation of our separateness.

When we merge with our illusion, we feel a new sense of personal empowerment on intellectual, spiritual, and emotional levels. This strength comes from discovering the truth about certain aspects of our being that lie beyond the veil of illusion. Most of the time this "knowledge" is not cognitive.

Merging may not be forced. It can only safely occur when the bodymind is ready for it. Merging comes about naturally, as interference in the spinal system and the connective tissues of the body is removed.

Becoming consciously aware of what is behind the illusions, which produced the suffering, does not occur in the Stage 5 of healing. Here, we observe ourselves during our interaction with our pain and suffering.

Stage 6, PREPARATION FOR RESOLUTION: This stage of Healing represents a point of increasing momentum and flexibility of the bodymind in preparation for the discharge and resolution of trapped perspectives, memories, information, energy, and patterns. Here, there is awareness that the energy behind the dissonant aspect of our life is about to be relinquished. This may be the type of feeling or sensation that we may feel, when we become nauseous, or before we actually throw up. It may remind us of how we feel just at the point of having a powerful sneeze, or at the point when we are about to make a change in our relationship.

Stage 6 involves more than preparation for the discharge and resolution that takes place in the next stage, Stage 7, Resolution. We may be able to resolve the dissonant or alienated aspect in this stage, without having to experience a forceful or violent discharge.

The essential rhythm in Stage 6 involves centering and grounding the bodymind’s energy, so it is prepared in the event that discharge is necessary. This centering brings with it an awareness that discharge is a welcome and appropriate event in the healing journey. Knowing that there is a buildup of tension that must be released, while experiencing that there are dissonant rhythms within, which must eventually resolve themselves, is a very important aspect of healing.

Stage 7, RESOLUTION: Discharge of bio-electric energy is associated with a discharge of mechanical energy. Successful discharge involves the bodymind system going from higher tension to lower tension. This may be discharge of the muscular system, such as movement of the trunk or extremities. Processes such as fever, coughing, sneezing, or vomiting are common forms of discharge. Crying, screaming, and laughing are also discharge phenomena. When the discharge occurs after the previous six stages, resolution can occur with the discharge.

When a sense of accomplishment, peace, and inner strength accompanies the process, the resolution has been achieved. This implies that integration, and ultimately, peace, has occurred between an alienated part of ourselves and the rest of us. The dissonant aspect of ourselves has had the opportunity to merge with the basic rhythm of wholeness, characteristic in Stage 5. With the information gained in Stage 5 (Merging) and the momentum built up in Stage 6, we have become grounded, flexible, and adaptable enough to grow from the isolated or limited aspects of our being to a greater sense of wholeness.

When discharge occurs at earlier stages of healing, we often focus on what we have lost, which results in increased tension between our true self and the alienated aspects of our being. While in Stage 7, however, the focus is primarily on the "wholeness" of our being eliminating something we no longer need. As a result, it is a welcome event that we have prepared ourselves to expect.

Stage 8, EMPTINESS IN CONNECTEDNESS: After the discharge of Stage 7, we are emptied. Rather than a space of Nothingness, we find ourselves in a place of Possibilities. We enter a state of gratitude, vulnerability, connection with our external rhythm, and alignment with events around us. Emptiness is the door between our usual, customary state of feeling and being in states of consciousness where we are aware of our wholeness, and experience our connectedness with the world around us. Emptiness is the portal that leads us to later states of awareness. Stage 8 is the first state of be-ing.

"And as you reach new plateaus of thought…

And old friends drop away,

Fear not loneliness.

For there is a silent communication between those

at the same level of awareness.

And for the first time, you will not be lonely…."

Stage 9: LIGHT BEHIND THE FORM: From our place of emptiness and gratitude, we can truly appreciate our energetic fullness. In the earlier stages of healing, we are largely unconscious of the presence of the vital Life force, and may actually deny its existence. Now, we experience that we are more than our physical body, and actually become aware of the flow of Life energy, through us. This energy may manifest itself as warmth, vitality, vibration, color, or light. We more fully experience our connection to others.

The noted biochemist Rupert Sheldrake spoke about the nature of the vital force of Life in his book, "The Rebirth of Nature":

"Energy is indeed present in all living things. Living organisms draw it from their environment, as plants take it from the sun in photosynthesis and animals take chemical energy from their food through digestion and respiration. They accumulate it in their bodies, and use it to power their movements and behavior. When they die, the accumulated energy in their bodies is released to continue on its way in other forms. The flow of energy on which your body and your brain depend at this very moment is part of the cosmic flux, and the energy within you will flow on after you are dead and gone, taking endless new forms."

Stage 10: ASCENT: We experience our union with the creative force of the Universe. We transcend all limits, boundaries, languages, judgments, and our existing sense of self. We gain the wisdom of knowing the oneness of all of Creation during this stage. Stage 10 is the most sought after, even though two more stage exist beyond this point of healing.

This stage of Ascent is the level of healing that mystics, gurus, rabbis, and other religious leaders from both Eastern and Western traditions have long spoken about. Similar states of consciousness have been known as "nirvikalpa samadhi", in Hinduism, "knana samadhi nvdanta", in Zen, or the stage of "effortless insight" culminating in nirvana in Buddism.

Our sense of Self can be viewed as a candle. Up to this point in the healing process, we may have a very bright candle, shining with the light of our being. As we moved through Stage 9, we became aware that there was a bright light outside, and it was coming into the room. Suddenly, we realized that our candle did not appear as bright as it did before.

If we walk outside into the brilliance of the noon sun, it would appear that our candle is no longer lit. This is the concept of how our sense of self has been relinquished or lost in the vast brightness of the Universal Consciousness of Stage 10.

In Stage 9, we experienced being filled with energy or consciousness. In Sage 10, rather than experiencing intelligence or consciousness expressing itself through us, we become the consciousness. As opposed to feeling the love within us, we become the love.

Stage 11: DESCENT: We are renewed beyond our limits and sense of self and enter into the world again. We know that we are part of all we perceive and are responsible for all that we know. We live without being attached to our situations. We love and serve. We know that the source of power, love, and consciousness is Universal. It does not come from us, it does not come from others, nor does it depend on the outer events or circumstances that occur in our life. Instead of a conceptual understanding of our oneness with this Divine Source, we know it to be true at a cellular level. We no longer feel isolated from the Source, which was experienced in Stage 10. We incorporate this understanding into the deepest aspects of our being.

"It is right in the midst of life that we have to develop and express all that is beautiful and perfect and divine in our souls." ~Pir-o-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan

Stage 12: COMMUNITY: In Stage 12, we experience our involvement with humanity and recognize that wholeness comes from bringing our individual gifts into community. This occurs in our internal and external communities. We receive gifts from within ourselves and from others. We recognize that all of our choices are spiritual ones and affect all beings. Eventually, we recognize that our limits stem from our own lack of wholeness.

In this Stage 12, our relationship to everything becomes sacred, including our wounds, we continue the ongoing cycle of healing. Consequently, we seek to re-experience the rhythm of stage one; however, this time we are accompanied with a greater awareness from experiencing and healing through the first eleven stages.

"The modern quest for community is a quest for one’s personhood…. The essence of community is wholeness…that meets my needs and those of the greater whole of which I am part. Community is a deeper reality within which I move and have my being. It is one of the names of God. Community is a gift of myself, what I give in endless participation with my world." ~David Spangler

Our primary community is that of our own bodymind. We are made of quadrillions of cells having a unique task to accomplish and a gift to give. These cells are organized into tissues, and these tissues are organized into organs and organ systems. When this vast internal community works in harmony, we grow, heal and fulfill our tasks in life, with each part giving its gift and receiving gifts from the rest. A freely flexible and responsive nervous system helps to maintain health and vitality within all Life processes.

The 12 Stages of Healing ©