One of the most embarrassing moments of my life happened when I had just moved from Australia to New Zealand. I was due to meet a very significant Maori leader, who also happened to be a gay man. I hadn’t yet learnt of the Maori custom of “hungi” where two people rub noses as a greeting, a little like an Eskimo kiss.

So I arrived a little nervous for the meeting, only to be greeted by the sight of the man’s face heading straight towards me. Now I had no idea what he was doing. A handshake seemed appropriate for a first meeting; maybe a kiss on each cheek for a more European flavor, but this really threw me.  I panicked. Without even thinking, I puckered up and kissed him smack on the lips. Yes, that’s right. I didn’t offer my cheek or move in for a back slapping man-hug. I landed a sloppy one right on his mouth. He was very kind about it, laughed and gave me my first lesson in Maori greetings.

Transformative Greetings

The hungi is a greeting that has its origins in the deep spirituality of the Maori people. This is a bodily merging of the breath of life that is in every person. As Genesis used the poetry of creation coming from the breath of the nostrils of God, so the meeting of two people is a new beginning, a new expression of the creativity of God.

Many cultures and spiritualities have bodily traditions, stories and greetings to indicate the God like power that erupts when two people meet with openness and optimism.

Hinduism teaches the concept, shaktipat, shakti for healing and pat for touch. Students access enormous spiritual power from their teachers or gurus, by touch, or by simply gazing at or being in the presence of great teachers. There are even stories of mighty transfer of energy taking place from a distance.

In the Sufi tradition of ecstatic dance, Rumi was said to have removed his shirt on occasion, while dancing, and rubbed his chest on his disciples. In doing this, he transferred the power of bliss to his students.

The Indian saint, Amma (M?t? Amritanandamay? Devi), is considered by many to be one of the most peace filled human beings alive. Amma is the hugging saint. She travels the world, speaking, greeting, meeting and healing the world one hug at a time. People travel to be in her presence, to be near her, hopefully to hug her and many have reported an inner peace radiating through their bodies after hugging Amma.

In today’s gospel story, a woman who had been ill for 12 years experienced a shaktipat with Jesus. There are some important details in the story:

1. The woman suffered from a bleeding condition. According to Hebrew custom, this made her socially outcast and spiritually inferior on top of having to endure physical discomfort.
2. She had seen many doctors, presumably trying many different forms of medicine. None had helped, her money was drained and the text indicates her experience of the health system was predominantly negative.
3. She had trouble getting to Jesus because of the crowds, but persisted and made it.
4. She found healing in the presence of a great teacher after touching just the cloak or hem of his garment.
5. Jesus didn’t actually “do” anything. After the fact, he sensed an energy exchange, but until then didn’t know she was there.
6. When the woman approached Jesus, she used a fascinating phrase- translated as “she told Jesus the whole truth.”

Touching the Hem of Spiritual Power

Maybe you’ve heard this story too many times to allow it to speak to you. Consider the wealth of imagery and how it might relate to your life.

Like the woman, you live with your own peculiar illnesses and stigmas. Like the woman, you have had mixed experience with the system, tried different doctors and different forms of therapy. Like the woman, your battle isn’t just with the physical pain, but the emotional and social stigmas of illness. Most importantly, like the woman you have access to enormous healing power if you look in the right places, both within and beyond.

Your body, mind and spirit dance in rhythmic balance. This is the garment of your divine power.
May you touch the hem of your own spiritual power, reaching out to touch the universal source of love and compassion. Even with your fingertips, may you touch the radiance of your own sacred potential.

So often there are crowds that need to be silenced before you can access this power. There are the voices within telling you that you cant get well, telling you that this is as good as it gets for you, that maybe you deserve to be sick or maybe the voices are literal and they are telling you to take your pills and be quiet. Maybe the crowds represents the red tape of the health system, or the poor bed side manner of a physician making you feel rotten on top of feeling sick. Like the woman, may you persist in minimizing the influence of the crowds and get to the heart of healing, which is your own belief in life and your own strength and courage.

Notice in the story that Jesus says. “Your faith has made you well.” This might be more accurately translated as “Your faith has made you whole.” He doesn’t specify faith in him or faith in anything in particular, just faith. He also doesn’t specify the nature of this wholeness. You know that the whole truth includes the fact that sometimes you aren’t healed, but that even if you are living with chronic or terminal illness, you can experience a wholeness that transcends your situation. Faith is the belief that life can be better, meaning more whole, more connected, more gentle. When you touch the hem of your spiritual power, you know that your life is so much more than your illness.

This is a powerful story, and I hope that you might sense the power of the story in your own life. Your life is a powerful story, if you would just realize that truth and minimize the influence of the crowd of voices telling you that you are defined by your outer appearance or by physical health.

Wellness is not the absence of illness, but the presence of all that makes life whole.

Opening Your Eyes to Empowerment

The formula for wholeness is self-empowerment and interconnectedness. There is a latent power within and you may not have done any more than scratch the surface of this power. But now you choose to embrace it more fully and more boldly. This is the path to freedom. But there is also power that is gained in your interactions with other people; family, friends, physicians, therapists, body and energy workers of various sorts, spiritual teachers and so many other sources.

How do you measure if your interactions with other people are making your life more whole? Are these interactions increasing your faith? By this I mean, are they making you feel empowered to take control of your life? Are they assuring you that you are more than your physical condition? Are they telling you the whole truth, opening up a full array of options and possibilities for healing? Are they making you more accepting of life as it is arising, and optimistic that you can persist through the dark times? Are you coming away feeling rich with love and goodness, no matter what your circumstances?

There is a Sufi story about a man who was very poor. He was materially poor, but more significantly he was poor in spirit. He lived a life of pity and scarcity. He complained that it was because people weren't good to him -- people conspired against him, he wasn’t dealt good cards in life, his parents failed him.

The Sufi teacher said to his students, "This man always complains, and doesn’t realize that he creates his own destiny." The teacher then picked the wealthiest of his students and he said, "Bring me a bag of gold. Put it in a sack." The man said, "Yes sir," and came back with the bag of gold. And he said to another one of his students, "Go, bring the poor man to me. Tell him I'm waiting on the other side of the main bridge in town, and we'll all gather at the end of this bridge." And then he said to the wealthy man, "I want you to take that bag of gold and leave it in the middle of the bridge, and let's see if the man finds this tremendous wealth, this wealth that would literally leave him financially independent for the rest of his life." Sure enough the poor man comes across the bridge, and he walks right past the gold, and he comes up to the teacher and he bows to the teacher and says, "Yes sir, what do you want with me?" And the teacher says, "Didn't you notice something on the bridge?" And the man says, "Well no, I didn't, because I've been over that bridge so many times. I thought, wouldn't it be amusing to cross it with my eyes closed this once?"

There is a bag of gold within if you keep your eyes open to your own wealth of resources and strength. The role that we each play is to empower others to realize this abundance.  That’s the whole truth; at least as best I can explain it.

Placebos in Health and Belief

Placebos are a curiosity in both medicine and religion. I have a very particular interest in discussing placebos today, and it’s not to raise any doubt over the usefulness of any particular medication.

You should feel no shame if you use medications. If they help to make your experience of life more powerful then I’m thrilled for you. I do believe that in some cases, with a realization of the whole truth, after touching the hem of spiritual power, that for some people medication would become less necessary. But you need to be the judge of that alongside health professionals and trusted friends.

My interest in raising the issue of placebos is not to caste any doubt over the usefulness of medications.  My interest is in the fact that placebos point to a wider truth. The effectiveness of placebos, rather than the ineffectiveness of some medication for some people, is my point. The fact that placebos work suggests something far broader at work; the power of the mind, the power of persuasion and the power of faith.

This relates to health and it relates also to belief. You know that you have held certain beliefs in your life long even though you no longer believed them to be literally true. They were beliefs that gave comfort or made your life more meaningful. Like medication, I have no interest in taking away your beliefs. My point is this- realize the power of your mind to craft beliefs and worldviews that make your life more meaningful and purposeful. How wonderful! If the realization that certain beliefs are placebos in your life leads you to hold a little less firmly to beliefs in general then you will discover liberation from belief in belief, and instead believe in your ability to create meaning.

If you hold beliefs to be metaphors where once they were literal dogma because the metaphors enhance your experience of life and connect you with timeless truths, then that is reason for celebration.

Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not encouraging you to pretend or play mind games. If a belief holds no truth in a literal or a metaphoric sense, then by all means give it up.

If a belief holds no literal truth, and it distracts you from a life full of love and empowerment, then give that up too.

If a belief is life denying, whether you hold it as a literal truth, or not, then give it up.

Life denying beliefs are also called nocebos. Nocebos are the evil twin of the placebo. The word “placebo” is from the Latin I will please. Nocebo is from the Latin I will harm.

For too long, Christianity has operated according to a nocebo mentality. It's time to move beyond fear and step into faith. As of this moment, consider yourself liberated from the jagged pill the church has force-fed you for so many years.

Your Faith Makes You Whole

Live in love and faith, and not in negativity and fear.

1. Have faith in yourself. You have more mind, body and spirit power than you have ever imagined. The mystery of the placebo effect, at the very least, points to the power of your ability to persuade yourself and to be persuaded to think positively.

2. Have faith in others. The Pygmalion effect is often applied in education settings where students perform at a higher level when they are expected to do so. This is a partial truth as high performance that is not self-motivated may be short lived. However consider the concept of the Pygmalion effect in relation to wellness and faith. If you believe in the power of those around you, they just might live into that power.

3. Have faith in the evolutionary journey of life. Life is evolving as it needs to, for now. You are learning all the necessary lessons and strength from your life. Trust yourself to handle whatever life brings to you.

Today I declare this community to be a free hug zone. Free hugs all around. Consider the mutual exchange of energy and power in the hugs. Consider the hugs our form of shaktipat or hungi.

In the shadow of the latest school shooting this past week, let’s join the spirit of Amma and heal the world one hug at a time.

Your body, mind and spirit are dancing in rhythmic balance. They are the garment of your divine power. May you touch the hem of your own spiritual power, reaching out to touch the universal source of love and compassion. Even with your fingertips may you touch the radiance of your own sacred potential.

Wellness is not the absence of illness, but the presence of all that makes life whole. The whole truth be known, your faith has already made you whole.