Awakening the Inner Healer: Lessons from Tom Laughlin

Barbara McNeely

Oct 11, 2024

Transcript

In today's episode of Self Powered Healing, I'm going to tell you about a man who worked with cancer patients and Inexplicably saw many of their cancers go into remission.

You may know Tom Laughlin's name because he was the co-writer, director, and star of a 1971 movie called Billy Jack. In his later life, he became a psychologist schooled in the principles of Carl Jung, and he specialized in working with people who had been diagnosed with cancer.

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I read about Tom Laughlin and his work in a book called The War of Art, by Steven Pressfield. Some of what I talk about today will be directly read from that book. Pressfield starts with

"The moment a person learns he's got terminal cancer, a profound shift takes place in his psyche. At one stroke in the doctor's office, he becomes aware of what really matters to him. Things that 60 seconds earlier had seemed all important suddenly appear meaningless. While people and concerns that he had till then dismissed at once take on supreme importance.

"Maybe, he realizes, working this weekend on that big deal at the office isn't all that vital. Maybe it's more important to fly cross country for his grandson's graduation. Maybe it isn't so crucial that he have the last word in the fight with his wife. Maybe instead, he should tell her how much she means to him and how deeply he has always loved her.

"Other thoughts occur to the patient diagnosed as terminal. What about that gift he had for music? What became of the passion he once felt to work with the sick and the homeless? Why do these unlived lives return now with such power and poignancy?

"Faced with our imminent extinction, Tom Laughlin believes, all assumptions are called into question. What does our life mean? Have we lived it right? Are there vital acts we've left unperformed, crucial words unspoken? Is it too late?

In talking of Laughlin's work, he talks about the Carl Jung model of the psyche. Jung defines the Ego as a part of the psyche that we think of as "I". It's our conscious intelligence, our everyday brain that thinks, plans, and runs the show of our day to day life. And the Self, which is the greater entity. It includes the Ego, but also incorporates the personal and collective unconscious.

"Dreams and intuitions come from the Self. The archetypes of the unconscious dwell there. It is, Jung believed, the sphere of the soul."

Pressfield continues in the book, "What happens in that instant when we learn we may soon die, Tom Laughlin contends, is that the seat of our consciousness shifts.

"It moves from the Ego to the Self.

"The world is entirely new, viewed from the Self. At once we discern what's really important. Superficial concerns fall away, replaced by a deeper, more profoundly grounded perspective.

"This is how Tom Laughlin's Foundation Battles Cancer. He counsels his clients not to just make the shift mentally, but to live it out in their lives. He supports the housewife in resuming her career in social work, urges the businessman to return to the violin, assists the Vietnam vet in writing his novel.

"Miraculously, cancers go into remission. People recover."

That part bears repeating. Miraculously, through Laughlin's work with terminal cancer patients, their cancers go into remission. They recover.

"Is it possible, Tom Laughlin asks, that the disease itself evolved as a consequence of actions taken or not taken in our lives? Could our unlived lives have exacted their vengeance upon us in the form of cancer? And if they did, can we cure ourselves now by living these lives out?"

I've read the chapters talking about Tom Laughlin and his work many, many times, looking for the answer to questions that I have. Why does it take a person to get to a terminal diagnosis before they decide to change their life? What would it take to make that shift otherwise? What would it take for us to decide to look at our lives and examine where we are and where we want to be and what we've missed? And what we wish we had done and do something about it to make that shift, not just mentally, but to live it out in our lives.

How can we make that shift from the Ego to the Self? So it really is a shift in consciousness there from the Ego to the Self. And in reality, if you think on it, the Ego is the brain, which is concerned with self preservation.

And the Self is the heart, which of course aligns with love. Basically, you're making a shift to love. I believe that we were designed to have the Self in control. If you could see Laughlin's diagram, he shows that the Ego is a small part of the overall Self.

Do you know that it's been shown that the heart has its own brain? They found brain cells in the heart, and it's also been shown through heart transplants that memories are stored in our hearts. And, if you look at the human embryo, the heart develops before the brain, which says to me that perhaps we were designed to be more concerned with heart and love than the Ego.

Do you remember Anita Moorjani? I talked about her in the first episode and about her spontaneous healing from end stage lymphoma. Well, I gave a copy of her book to a friend of mine; a friend who was going through some real challenging health conditions. While she was reading the book, she had a question that she asked me.

She said, how did Anita heal?

And I didn't have a good answer. Spontaneously is not really a how, but that's what happened. It seems that it was just spontaneous healing. I went back to Anita's TED talk that she gave talking about her near death experience. And in there she gave her five biggest lessons from her NDE.

The first one was to focus on love. Second was to live life fearlessly. The third is to embrace humor and laughter and joy. Number four was to realize that life is a gift. Even when there are challenges or chores, it's still a gift. And to always be yourself.

Yesterday I had another conversation with the same friend. She had received some good news on her health and the conditions were not near as dire as the original diagnosis had suggested. She had finished reading Anita's book and told me that she found the answer to her question. And it's in the last chapter of the book, chapter 17. That's titled, Allowing and Being Yourself.

I'm going to read a little bit from the book. Anita says,

"I now live my life from joy instead of from fear."

"Before, without even realizing it, everything I did was to avoid pain or to please other people. I was caught up in doing, pursuing, searching, and achieving, and I was the last person I ever took into consideration. My life was driven by fear of displeasing others, of failing, of being Selfish, and of not being good enough. In my own head, I always fell short."

I don't know about you, but I can certainly identify with that part. She goes on:

"Since my NDE, I don't feel that I came back to accomplish anything. I only came back to be me. Because of this, everything I do comes from love. I don't worry anymore about trying to get things right or complying with rules or doctrines. I just follow my heart and know that I can't go wrong when I do so. Ironically, I end up pleasing more people than my old self ever did. just because I'm so much happier and more liberated!

"This has a big impact on my health as well. Since I now see myself as an infinite being, the physical takes care of itself because it's only a reflection of what's going on within my soul. Unconditional self-love increases my energy tremendously and the universe acts in kind."

There's much more in that chapter and if you get a copy of the book, I encourage you to be sure and focus on that chapter for sure. My friend summed it up this way in what she's doing in her life. She's loving herself and living without fear. And that's a good place for all of us to start, don't you think?

And always remember this, you are a magnificent being with powerful innate healing ability.