Questions and answers about the 5 Step Process
Q. What's new about the 5-Step Process that makes it special?
A. In a way, this process is perhaps the least new thing on the face of this planet! What the process highlights are the key laws of consciousness that create healing, integration and empowerment in the human mind. Laws of consciousness are like laws of physics. They have been with us right from the start. This process has been discovered and rediscovered all through the history of humanity. These laws of consciousness are the core of ancient philosophies such as Buddhism to modern philosophical thought such as the powerful self-help material that is available today. One of the problems of our new age interest in personal/spiritual development is that we are too busy searching for something "new" to give us the answers when all the while the path is right in front of us.
The important factor about such laws of consciousness is that they never change. This is what makes them natural laws. For instance, when you sincerely, on a daily basis, treat yourself with loving kindness in the form of self-acceptance in regards to the way you think about yourself and the way you act toward yourself, you are going to experience predictable positive results. This applies to everybody. This natural law of consciousness has a predictable and inevitable positive result on a mind that is in conflict with itself. There are two fundamental laws of consciousness that all positive states of mind flow from and they are: Unconditional Love and Total Personal Responsibility. These laws are like Yin and Yang where consciousness is concerned. It is the foundation of every process. What is new is the perspective I offer. I help people tap into the power that is contained within their consciousness in a way that is easy to understand and easy to achieve. When approached in the right way, healing, awareness and personal development are inevitable.
Q. How long does it take for the 5-Step Process to take effect in my life?
A. This process is not a quick fix, it is a way of life, although positive results do come quickly. Through counseling, reading, journaling, meditation, group work, and being a part of a community of people putting this way of life into practice, thus actively caring for themselves and those around them, you learn how to enter into the journey of personal growth where your problems are turned into opportunities. The power of this process is in the fact that you learn life-skills that stay with you and continue to grow in you for the rest of your life. It become your process. Imagine having this to pass onto your children.
Q. How much does it cost?
A. There is a standard fee for counselling, but at the Inner Harmony Center, we do our best to cater for everyone. If you really want to put in the effort and grow, we will find a way to help you do that in a way that will suit your budget. It is a matter of priorities also. How much is health and harmony for the rest of your life worth? How important is this to you? Is it worth rearranging your life a little bit to accommodate this opportunity? At the end of the day, like all things, you will get out of it what you put into it.
Q. You say group work and being part of a community is an important part of learning the 5-Step Process. Is this just another "cult" people are going to get caught up in?
A. Cults promote emotional dependency on a particular leader and tend to restrict freedom of thought. There is a tendency for the people in the "cult" to see themselves as special and to be cut off, frightened and suspicious of the rest of the world. The loose community that forms around the Inner Harmony Center is the direct opposite to this. Our goal is to help people become emotionally independent and self-empowered. We actively encourage freedom of thought. We also encourage and help people to connect to other resources in the wider community. We are about loving and accepting life, all life. Goodwill and cooperating amongst all people is our objective. We simply understand the importance of being part of a genuine community of like-minded people where we feel free and comfortable to be ourselves, even while we are going through emotional difficulty. Having fun together is another important feature of this conscious community. The way to access this community is through my weekly meditation and self-awareness group.
Q. Is the 5-Step Process just another doctrine – just another teaching to confuse us with.
A. I have studied many teachings and looked at many doctrines. I have found they all have something to say, but basically they are all saying much the same thing. I am not very interested in doctrine – by doctrine I mean things we are expected to believe because some authority says so. My only interest is in what works to bring health and well being into people's lives. What I have done, therefore, is boiled them all down to a set of basic principles, or "laws" of consciousness, that seem to apply to everyone, a bit like the law of gravity applies to everyone. By applying these natural "laws of consciousness" to our life, our ability to overcome our problems and confusions increases proportionately and we gain a genuine feel for how life works. I have been practicing these principles for the last 20 years or so and have helped and watched others do the same. I have experienced the benefits first hand. I see these principles or laws in action wherever there is good will and harmony amongst people.
Therefore, the 5-Step Process does not really replace any particular teaching. What it does is bring clarity to what you are already learning. Of course it can be used as your main teaching. I have more than enough material on hand at the center to keep you going for as long as you need.
Q. Do I need any special abilities to learn the 5-Step process?
A. No, but there are some requirements that apply to learning anything. For one you need to give it a chance. We are searching for such a process because we want to improve our lives. We may be suffering from emotional difficulties and confusion. It will naturally take a little while for us to get a feel for what the process is about. It is not realistic to expect to understand the process in one counselling session or for miraculous changes to occur in your life in one month. That is like expecting to get a university degree in one month. We tend to forget that life is the biggest lesson we have. We don't tend to learn it because we simply don't apply ourselves. It is an unfortunate tendency in human nature to think love and life-skills should just magically occur to us, and yet we spend years learning maths and English, or studying for a career. Meanwhile the life-skills that ensure that we have loving and harmonious relationships with our partners and our children get little time and effort.
We all have trouble accepting that we didn't gain all of these skills in our upbringing. In reality, few of us actually do. The world is the way it is for this very reason. The sooner we accept this important fact and accept the responsibility for doing what it takes to learn these essential life-skills, the sooner this world will be a much happier place. It all starts with our own self. The best thing about the time we live in today is that all the answers are available to us now. It is just a matter of applying them in the right way.
Therefore, what it takes to learn this process and gain the marvelous benefits of it, is to give it your time and effort. This is how we learn anything.
Q. What will I get out of learning the 5-Step Process? How will it benefit me?
A. Few of us realize how poorly we care for ourselves and what little regard we have for ourselves. However, a little honest self-reflection soon reveals the true picture, which comes as a bit of a shock to many. We are usually not aware of this because we are too caught up in our busy-ness and problems and the difficult circumstances around us. We can blame those circumstances for how we are feeling, and in some ways there is validity in this. However, if we look at it squarely, we have to admit that our directions in life are determined by the decisions we make, by the ways we keep thinking. The decisions we make are determined by how in touch with ourselves we are and how well we care for ourselves. We may not be able to control certain factors around us, but we all have the potential to choose how we are going to think and feel about it. Our own peace of mind is ultimately in our own control. The 5-Step Process first and foremost shows us how to build a loving and caring relationship with ourselves. My experience has shown that everything else falls into place from this. The benefits are all the good things that we want - love, peace, balance, self-respect, integrity, empowerment and so on.
Q. Self Acceptance and Self-care sounds like something for beginners. What use is this philosophy for those who have been traveling the path of consciousness for some time?
A. When it comes to higher levels of self-empowerment and self-realisation, there are no limits to the power of Unconditional Love and Total Personal Responsibility (Wisdom). It is important to keep in touch with the fact that the master is always a student. When the master ceases regarding himself or herself as a student, the master ceases being a master. The human being is a microcosm of life itself. The more you learn to master yourself, the more you will master life. The fundamental problem that prevents the human being from achieving this goal is self-condemnation - however subtle this may be, which cuts us off from Love/Life-Force. What results from this is fear and its counterparts of pride, greed and ignorance etc... With each level of self-mastery achieved, a deeper, more subtle layer of self-condemnation is revealed, at first without us being aware of it. Personal growth and self-mastery is achieved in a spiral like fashion, like the growth of all living things, where we repeatedly cover similar paths with ever increasing consciousness. The degree of self-acceptance here needs to be at the level of knowing that you are Love, that you don't just serve Love, you are Love, even though you are still expanding your consciousness. You are learning to need nothing, because you have it all already. You are learning to put fear and suffering behind you.
As we grow in consciousness and therefore self-empowerment, serving humanity becomes a natural desire. Serving humanity is a challenging activity because helping others raise their consciousness throws you continually up against the resistance of their habitual unconscious survival mind, which is afraid to step out into freedom. Such a challenge tends to undo the unwary who think he or she has "made it" where personal/spiritual growth is concerned. We think that because we now have this great gift to give, we will be welcomed with open arms. More often than not we are ignored or even attacked. Service requires an even higher degree of consciousness and a greater attention to self-acceptance and self-care. Setbacks and disappointments are frequent when it comes to serving humanity. The reward for serving must come from your own knowing and constant gratitude that you have everything worth having already, otherwise your foundation will not be solid enough to support you in this more demanding level of being. Our ability to turn these so-called problems into opportunities must grow with us.
The philosophy of the 5-Step Process, being born from the fundamental laws of consciousness, are simple in their nature, but this simplicity is the simplicity of ultimate consciousness. It is not simplistic. It is the simplicity of that mysterious Oneness. This simplicity, therefore, confronts every confusion in our human mind and so the potential for expanding our consciousness is unlimited.