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Posted: February 6th, 2007 at 1:39am By: Janet Conner
We all know a thing or two about physical laws. Even the least scientific of us picked up a smattering of knowledge about things like gravity, photosynthesis and atomic structure in high school biology, chemistry and physics classes — or in auto repair, drafting and home economics. (Especially home economics. Cooking, as Alton Brown of the Food Network's "Good Eats" proves each week, is nothing more than chemistry at work. And what glorious work it is!)
We learned in science class that every physical law is provable, testable and repeatable. Physical laws may start as theories, but at some point they gel into something firmer. Over time and testing, a theory morphs into something we label a "law." Slap the word "law" on an idea - say, the law of gravity — and suddenly it's irrefutable and non-negotiable. It becomes the Truth, with a capital T.
On the other hand, we hear the words "spiritual law." Spiritual laws are laws, too, but we don't learn about them in school. We pick them up wafting out from religious pulpits or we discover them deep in the pages of interesting spiritual books.
Spiritual laws are presented as irrefutable, too. The spiritual law of giving, for example, is the natural exchange of something given for something received. Give and you shall receive. Release and you shall get the same — or more. Or the spiritual law of the power of thought. Think fearful thoughts and — ta DA! — you feel afraid.
Well — doh! — Homer Simpson could figure that one out. Or the spiritual law that's on everyone's lips right now: the law of attraction. Your world — your experiences, successes and failures — is created by the magnetic power of your mind and heart. If you are convinced that you are poor, for example, or that life is hard, or that you'll never find someone to love, well then, lo and behold, you get to experience what you already believe to be true. You radiate out those beliefs, and the world simply complies with what it perceives to be your requests. This spiritual law is a bit more complex. Maybe Homer wouldn't get it right away. But Lisa would.
Physical law and spiritual law. They sound like two different things. One of the real world. One of the intangible. One taught to us as children. One we have to seek out as adults. One belongs in school. One is relegated to church. One realistic. One mystical. Two sets of laws explaining two different principles about two different realms. But are they? Are they two different things?
Let's use the ordinary experience of journaling as an example. Science, it turns out, has plenty to say about the power of writing to heal. Dr. James Pennebaker, chair of the psychology department at the University of Texas at Austin, has devoted his career to studying how expressive writing relieves stress, heals emotions and improves physical health. In hundreds of experiments, each following the scientific method, his teams proved over and over again that the simple act of writing about a traumatic experience in a reflective, emotionally honest way had a positive impact on such physical markers as lowered blood pressure and heart rate, heightened immune functions, more active T-lymphocytes (cancer fighters), and improved emotional markers such as increased positive outlook, reduced anxiety and depression and even — I love this one! — better grades. (If parents knew this, they'd be all over their kids to pick up a journal and start writing.)
If you'd like to know more about the link between writing and healing, read "Opening Up: The Healing Power of Expressing Emotions" by James W. Pennebaker, The Guilford Press, 1997.
Dr. Pennebaker makes it clear that he is not a therapist and did not set out to develop a self-help system. He is a scientist who stands squarely in the realm of physical law. In his recent book, "Writing to Heal: A Guided Journal for Recovering from Trauma & Emotional Upheaval" (New Harbinger, 2004), Dr. Pennebaker says, "I'm a research psychologist who accidentally discovered the power of writing during an experiment I conducted in the mid-1980s. In that original study people were asked to write either about a traumatic experience or a superficial event for four consecutive days, fifteen minutes a day. To my surprise, those who wrote about their traumas needed less medical attention in the following months than they had previously; and many said that writing had changed their lives. Ever since then I've been devoted to understanding the mysteries of emotional writing."
All perfectly clear. All perfectly scientific. But listen to his next sentence: "I still am not exactly certain how or when or why expressive writing is beneficial."
Well, I too "discovered the power of writing during an experiment." But it was a different kind of experiment. I wasn't in college or wired to any machinery. I was alone in my living room desperately trying to live through another day in a terrifying divorce. I picked up a pen and started to write. Just like Dr. Pennebaker suggests, I wrote about what was happening and how I felt. I wrote and I wrote and I wrote. But I did one thing Dr. Pennebaker never suggests and has not studied: I wrote to God. I wrote to God every day for two and a half years.
And what happened? I healed myself, my family and, I think, my ex-husband. I came through a severe trauma with no physical disease or repercussions. I created a life of peace and strength from the shambles of anger and fear. I rebuilt my finances from debt to prosperity. Looking back, I see that I applied the spiritual laws of giving, thought, attraction and many more.
The glorious results of my personal experiment lead me to a new theory: Is the physical act of writing, when it merges with the spiritual intention of connecting with God, the bridge between physical law and spiritual law? If physical law is true — and Dr. Pennebaker's research clearly indicates that writing impacts the body and emotions positively — then, isn't writing to God an incredibly simple vehicle to access and unleash the power of spiritual law?
We all know about the body-mind-spirit connection. But I think there's an even tighter connection. The hand-God connection. Pick up a pen and try for yourself. Write "Dear God," at the top of the page, and holding a conscious intention to have real dialogue with Spirit, tell God your story and ask for guidance.
Maybe, if enough of us do this, we can ask Dr. Pennebaker to measure what happens and test the theory. In the meantime, keep walking that bridge. It's a pretty spectacular view.
(Next week: The answers are in the questions — every time.)
— — —
Janet Conner, S.E. (Spiritual Explorer), is the author of the Spiritual Geography series and is currently writing "Dear God: The Conversation That Changes Everything." The Spiritual Geography books are available through Amazon or Spiritual Geography. Reach Janet at {email janetconner@tampabay.rr.com}janetconner@tampabay.rr.com{/email}.© copyright 2007 by Janet Conner
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We all know a thing or two about physical laws. Even the least scientific of us picked up a smattering of knowledge about things like gravity, photosynthesis and atomic structure in high school biology, chemistry and physics classes — or in auto repair, drafting and home economics. (Especially home economics. Cooking, as Alton Brown of the Food Network's "Good Eats" proves each week, is nothing more than chemistry at work. And what glorious work it is!)
We learned in science class that every physical law is provable, testable and repeatable. Physical laws may start as theories, but at some point they gel into something firmer. Over time and testing, a theory morphs into something we label a "law." Slap the word "law" on an idea - say, the law of gravity — and suddenly it's irrefutable and non-negotiable. It becomes the Truth, with a capital T.
On the other hand, we hear the words "spiritual law." Spiritual laws are laws, too, but we don't learn about them in school. We pick them up wafting out from religious pulpits or we discover them deep in the pages of interesting spiritual books.
Spiritual laws are presented as irrefutable, too. The spiritual law of giving, for example, is the natural exchange of something given for something received. Give and you shall receive. Release and you shall get the same — or more. Or the spiritual law of the power of thought. Think fearful thoughts and — ta DA! — you feel afraid.
Well — doh! — Homer Simpson could figure that one out. Or the spiritual law that's on everyone's lips right now: the law of attraction. Your world — your experiences, successes and failures — is created by the magnetic power of your mind and heart. If you are convinced that you are poor, for example, or that life is hard, or that you'll never find someone to love, well then, lo and behold, you get to experience what you already believe to be true. You radiate out those beliefs, and the world simply complies with what it perceives to be your requests. This spiritual law is a bit more complex. Maybe Homer wouldn't get it right away. But Lisa would.
Physical law and spiritual law. They sound like two different things. One of the real world. One of the intangible. One taught to us as children. One we have to seek out as adults. One belongs in school. One is relegated to church. One realistic. One mystical. Two sets of laws explaining two different principles about two different realms. But are they? Are they two different things?
Let's use the ordinary experience of journaling as an example. Science, it turns out, has plenty to say about the power of writing to heal. Dr. James Pennebaker, chair of the psychology department at the University of Texas at Austin, has devoted his career to studying how expressive writing relieves stress, heals emotions and improves physical health. In hundreds of experiments, each following the scientific method, his teams proved over and over again that the simple act of writing about a traumatic experience in a reflective, emotionally honest way had a positive impact on such physical markers as lowered blood pressure and heart rate, heightened immune functions, more active T-lymphocytes (cancer fighters), and improved emotional markers such as increased positive outlook, reduced anxiety and depression and even — I love this one! — better grades. (If parents knew this, they'd be all over their kids to pick up a journal and start writing.)
If you'd like to know more about the link between writing and healing, read "Opening Up: The Healing Power of Expressing Emotions" by James W. Pennebaker, The Guilford Press, 1997.
Dr. Pennebaker makes it clear that he is not a therapist and did not set out to develop a self-help system. He is a scientist who stands squarely in the realm of physical law. In his recent book, "Writing to Heal: A Guided Journal for Recovering from Trauma & Emotional Upheaval" (New Harbinger, 2004), Dr. Pennebaker says, "I'm a research psychologist who accidentally discovered the power of writing during an experiment I conducted in the mid-1980s. In that original study people were asked to write either about a traumatic experience or a superficial event for four consecutive days, fifteen minutes a day. To my surprise, those who wrote about their traumas needed less medical attention in the following months than they had previously; and many said that writing had changed their lives. Ever since then I've been devoted to understanding the mysteries of emotional writing."
All perfectly clear. All perfectly scientific. But listen to his next sentence: "I still am not exactly certain how or when or why expressive writing is beneficial."
Well, I too "discovered the power of writing during an experiment." But it was a different kind of experiment. I wasn't in college or wired to any machinery. I was alone in my living room desperately trying to live through another day in a terrifying divorce. I picked up a pen and started to write. Just like Dr. Pennebaker suggests, I wrote about what was happening and how I felt. I wrote and I wrote and I wrote. But I did one thing Dr. Pennebaker never suggests and has not studied: I wrote to God. I wrote to God every day for two and a half years.
And what happened? I healed myself, my family and, I think, my ex-husband. I came through a severe trauma with no physical disease or repercussions. I created a life of peace and strength from the shambles of anger and fear. I rebuilt my finances from debt to prosperity. Looking back, I see that I applied the spiritual laws of giving, thought, attraction and many more.
The glorious results of my personal experiment lead me to a new theory: Is the physical act of writing, when it merges with the spiritual intention of connecting with God, the bridge between physical law and spiritual law? If physical law is true — and Dr. Pennebaker's research clearly indicates that writing impacts the body and emotions positively — then, isn't writing to God an incredibly simple vehicle to access and unleash the power of spiritual law?
We all know about the body-mind-spirit connection. But I think there's an even tighter connection. The hand-God connection. Pick up a pen and try for yourself. Write "Dear God," at the top of the page, and holding a conscious intention to have real dialogue with Spirit, tell God your story and ask for guidance.
Maybe, if enough of us do this, we can ask Dr. Pennebaker to measure what happens and test the theory. In the meantime, keep walking that bridge. It's a pretty spectacular view.
(Next week: The answers are in the questions — every time.)
— — —
Janet Conner, S.E. (Spiritual Explorer), is the author of the Spiritual Geography series and is currently writing "Dear God: The Conversation That Changes Everything." The Spiritual Geography books are available through Amazon or Spiritual Geography. Reach Janet at {email janetconner@tampabay.rr.com}janetconner@tampabay.rr.com{/email}.© copyright 2007 by Janet Conner
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