Dr Sir John Whitman Ray Anniversary Message
2012
Hello everyone.
21st April 2012 marks 11 years since Dr Sir John Whitman Ray, founder of Body Electronics, died, and so once again I take this opportunity to reflect on his contribution to humanity. Body Electronics is an incredible teaching that continues to delight its true students. Who are these “true” students? They are those who, although they may not understand every nuance of every principle, are yet dedicated, in their way, to applying what they have, while searching for more.
There are two pitfalls for the sincere student:
1. “Forever learning but never coming to a knowledge of the truth,” which, as Christ indicated, can reflect a lifetime wasted looking for intellectual satisfaction before being willing to stand up and apply what one already has. It is especially true in Body Electronics that application at whatever level you are at outranks knowledge unused, for a small amount of knowledge put to work in faith will produce fruits far beyond any idle genius. It isn’t what you’ve got, but how you use it, that counts.
2. “I have enough; I need no more,” which seals one from illumination by the Light of God. When one feels one has “arrived” and thus requires no further effort to acquire more, then one has ceased seeking, asking and knocking and therefore cannot expect the flow of spiritual blessings to attend one. This person may be well versed in the principles, but because they have closed their eyes to wider possibilities has ceased in their growth. Whatever understanding we may feel we have, especially that derived from our own intellect, we are truly ignorant without the Light of God, which alone illumines the mind and warms the heart. No matter what one has attained to in the past, without this Light, all will become lost. A human understanding can be awesome but we do not comprehend more than a small fraction of what can be understood through the spiritual eye.
So what of it?
The student who feels they are never ready and the student who only thinks of themselves as the master are both missing out.
Opportunities for All
You may ask if there is also the student who genuinely would apply themselves in a particular direction if only they had the opportunity. However, I have learned that we always have an opportunity. Never are we left destitute of an opportunity to apply the law and thereby receive its blessing, although we will often feel this way and may be able to point to many “reasons” why no such opportunity exists: “I’m too busy,” “There’s no time,” “I haven’t got the right space,” “There’s no-one to help me,” “I don’t know what to do,” “I haven’t got the money,” “It’s Monday,”...
In point of fact, not a second goes by when we don’t have an opportunity to apply a principle. In a casual conversation we can take a non-judgemental position; at the bus stop we can express gratitude for a little shelter; in the car we can be patient with other drivers; at dinner we can bless our meal; when our boss is shouting at us we can be compassionate for those who have not learned that emotions can be transmuted. We don’t need a stage, a fanfare, and an audience to do the right thing, but somewhere we have to learn how to do it. Often, we need a little practice room where we can rehearse the principles so that we can be ready when out on the stage of life...
A pointholding group is thus a precious thing. I have observed that the majority of pointholders seem to hold the idea that, apart perhaps from their nutritional programme, Body Electronics ends when the session ends.
We could better say that really the end of the session is the beginning of Body Electronics. In fact, the only difference between pointholding and daily life is that with pointholding you can see your pointholder and tell them to back off when it gets too painful. Does a monk spend an hour in prayer so he can go out and be angry at the world? Do you wash your car so that you can drive through some mud? Does a workman lay out all his tools with no intention of ever using them?
A monk may well have trouble controlling his anger, you may well hit a puddle of mud in your nice clean car, and a workman may never get a job. The difference is not in what happens, but in one’s attitude towards it – are you making an effort, are you trying to be a better person and are you only doing it when it suits you – on the table, say?
To put the effort in on the table and then walk off with no intention to love is a mistake, but one that is perhaps innocently enough made. For example, if you go to a doctor or a massage therapist and you receive “a treatment”, you expect a result from it. If you take your car to the mechanic, you expect it to run better. For many people this is just what they do – car breaks down, get it fixed; sore shoulder, get it rubbed, but then without any thought about driving the car (or your body) more conservatively or with more skill. I see many people curious about Body Electronics with the same initial mindset – what can Body Electronics do for me? Ask not what Body Electronics can do for you, but what you can do for you.
This said, pointholding, particularly the regular (perhaps weekly) pointholding group variety, provides an excellent opportunity to do two things:
1. “Recharge” your batteries.
2. Figure out how to get more out of your batteries so they don’t need recharging.
A Goal of Pointholding
A reasonable goal for pointholding is not to need it – if you can make the pointholder and facilitator redundant you’re doing pretty well. All too often we see the opposite, where pointholder and facilitator are setting themselves up for a dependency relationship – a treatment. The value of skilled individuals can’t be underestimated, but at the same time the end game of pointholding must always be individual empowerment, responsibility and skill.
After every session we should be doing a personal debrief – what could I have done better, is there something I didn't do right, is there something I should be putting on my List? Not that you should be analysing the session or getting everyone’s opinion, but you want to pick up from where you left off, if not take a step forward, in the next session. Consider the difference between being coached towards a goal versus just running around the track again.
The pointholding session should be approached like a class – what can you take out of it and what can you apply? It’s not just about what happens during the session. You’re trying to build your aptitude for pointholding and your aptitude for the challenges of life. After all, all the stuff on the table did happen in real life at the time and the skills you’re using on the table could have been used in real time – it doesn’t all have to be retrospective. In fact, this is really the point: you don't want more karma to go back and fix up later; you want to at least be “karma neutral” from now on, if not also resolving karma.
You can achieve an awful lot at a Body Electronics Intensive or at a Body Electronics Instructor’s Seminar. In the late ‘90’s I used to equate the value of a 5-6 week Instructor's Seminar, including a cranial, to at least one full year of weekly pointholding. It’s not so much the number of sessions, or the points done, but the momentum of the work. I was later able to equate 1 week of meter work to 1 year of weekly pointholding, including an Instructor’s Seminar and cranial.
However, a lesson I didn't get until some years later was that it’s the weekly pointholding group that sets you up for these kind of results. Otherwise, it’s a bit like going for a run without doing any warm up or cool down stretches – you have to be a little wise when taking on a hard-out event.
Another Role of Pointholding Groups
The pointholding group plays another role as well. We have built some rather large edifices in our lives – false idols, you might say (belief systems, relationships, places of trust, and the like) – and we need to be chipping away at those things on a regular basis, because in the absence of this, we tend to continue building up the edifices out of habit. Dr Ray used to talk about “turning off the tap, not just pulling out the plug or bailing some water out of the bath.”
Ultimately, we are looking for the fundamental root that underpins each of these edifices, but it may take us a while of axe sharpening and hacking away before we strike the decisive blow – but in the final analysis, every blow counts. I’m talking about edifices like how we see ourselves in this life, the environment we’ve drawn to ourselves, the people who’ve become our friends, the job we have, our self-made limitations, etc. If you know anything about Body Electronics and consciousness change you’ll know that blowing out a duality can totally change how you see things, how things are, and how others see you.
So the weekly pointholding group sessions are where you sharpen your axe and where you may cast a few haphazard blows, all the while refining your technique, but also where the pointholding is working somewhat as a pressure relief valve for the emotionality you are as yet unable to deal with on the spot. You may, for example, spend weeks, months, or years dealing with unconsciousness on the table, but how would you ever deal with or access the apathy, grief, fear, anger, pain and enthusiasm without doing that first? And yes, there are some exceptions to this general rule.
Anger coming up on the table? Guess what? It probably comes up in your daily life also, unless you’re just stuffing it. Your awareness, if not transmutation, of every little bit is a step in the right direction.
Consistency Thou Art a Gem
“Consistency thou art a gem,” was one of Dr Ray’s favourite latter day quotes. Whether you think of the tortoise and the hare or “the race isn't to the swift but to those who endure unto the end,” matters not. Whatever we each want may be different, but when we all seem to want it is NOW! For most of us there is a great deal of value in having to work for what we receive – we learn responsibility for one thing, and we earn what we get – we come to deserve the blessing we seek. Diligence, as expressed in the Ten Steps to Perfection, is the ultimate form of consistency – continual application of the Law of Right Action from a position of faith. The weekly pointholding group is a great testing ground for building this consistency.
To consider the attributes of God for a second, we may imagine “some guy in the sky” with a magic wand who just so happens to be all-powerful. In our own pursuit of Godliness, hopefully we’re not just trying to qualify to receive our own autographed magic wand to wave whenever we feel like it. What we’re looking for is a cultivated, pure and continual Diligence, wherein we no longer need a magic wand to do the wonders we’ll be able to perform. We’re not really trying to earn a tool; we’re working on becoming that One who needs no tools.
It’s often said that we become tools in the Hands of God, but we miss the point of this apprenticeship if all we see are the Works of God. If we are to become these tools, then it is to learn the appropriate use of such tools through example and practice, to go beyond the need for tools (or works) as we perceive them today.
With Body Electronics you often don’t know when a certain change will happen, but you know that every session brings an opportunity. “Consistency, thou art a gem.”
Know Any Good Body Electronics Practitioners?
I’m often asked who I think the good Body Electronics practitioners are and I’m reminded of one of Dr Ray’s stock responses about trusting your pointholding to someone who is also working on themselves. Let’s face it, not too many embodied Saints amongst us (that we know of for sure). I think this is a pretty good guideline – you probably don’t really want someone who isn’t interested in their own progress.
The only caution I’d sound is how you intend to go about assessing that. Dr Ray’s common yardstick was a person who holds points and gets their points held. First, you want someone who can relate to your situation, but you also want someone working on their own stuff as well so they remain or become more effective. There are many kinds of “work”, so I think you also want someone who is experienced and with an open mind. Sounds a bit like my description of a “true student” doesn’t it? Do they have to be “on the programme” every day and pointholding 6 times a week? I think not, but it also shouldn’t have been just “at a seminar once.”
Sure, you want good advice and an experienced hand, but you can’t put it all on the practitioner – you’ve got to do your bit on the table, before you get there, and after you leave. You have to educate yourself – spoon feeding doesn’t teach you self-reliance and, frankly, you will find what you need to know if you earnestly seek it. Finding a teacher or practitioner who has the gift of telling you what you need to hear, rather than what they want to say, is not an easy job. There are few of them, but Dr Ray was such a man.
So, again, I’d like to express my gratitude to Dr Ray on this occasion, but continue to do as I’d believe he’d do, which is to exhort everyone within reach to reassess their own priorities and find a way to get actively involved with a regular pointholding group and find someone to educate them. The opportunity is here now and should be taken while it is.
Blessings to all of you in your endeavours with Body Electronics.
In Love, Light and Perfection,
I AM
Graham Bennett
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