Healing from the Body Level UpSM (HBLUSM) is a holistic psychotherapy system that reproducibly clears mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual blocks to success. Developed by Judith A. Swack, Ph.D., HBLUSM, integrates the best of biomedical science, psychology, spirituality, applied kinesiology, hypnosis, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, and other energy psychology techniques with her original research on the structure of complex damage patterns. Thus, HBLUSM is a unique way to get unstuck and eliminate struggle by clearing unconscious patterns that cause self-sabotage. In addition to healing, HBLU is a valuable modality for facilitating personal growth, spiritual evolution, and self-actualization. In this paper we first describe the underlying HBLUSM philosophy followed by a description of how we do HBLUSM and how it works.

THE BIG PICTURE: Judith Swack's Philosophy and World View.
I believe that we all have a soul that is radiant and beautiful. Our souls are currently embodied in human form on the planet earth. The question is, why?

I believe that there are two reasons for this. 1. We are embodied in order to manifest our soul mission/personal contribution to the world. The ability to manifest our mission is what makes our lives feel meaningful and deeply satisfying. When we die, we can look back on our life and see that the world was a better place for our having been here. 2. We are here to experience the fullness of life and all that it has to offer. We are tourists here. This means eat, drink, be merry, learn, love, travel, experience emotional ups and downs, learn about your body and other life-forms on the planet, etc. Life is fascinating!

THE UNITED NATIONS OF SELF
The next question is: what is a human being? We are a complex mixture of many different levels of being including our body, our conscious and unconscious minds and our soul. That means that we have the wisdom and knowledge of several “minds”, each a different country in language, customs, and values:

• The conscious mind. This mind is the land of rational, concrete, linear, logic. It is very literal. For example, the chair is blue. I have $200 in my wallet. I am consciously aware of these facts. I am consciously aware that I am reading this paper. I am consciously aware that I want to reach certain goals, yet may be unsure of all the reasons I seem unable to reach them (unconscious of the blocks).

• The unconscious mind. The unconscious mind is the land of emotion (which is not rational), imagination, memory, creativity, poetry, and metaphor. It thinks in images, sounds, feelings, tastes, smells, and sensations. It is not literal like the conscious mind. It makes associations and broadens meaning and understanding. For example, the blue chair reminds me of the one we had in our living room that the cat used to sleep on (feeling of happy nostalgia). I have $200 in my wallet and I feel rich. I’m enjoying imagining all the things I could spend it on. I feel safe knowing I have money in my pocket in case I need it.

• The body. The body is the land of physical survival and reproduction. It values safety, good health, comfort, strength, food, sleep, rest, cleanliness, nurturing touch, sex, etc. The body values providing a good home for the soul so that the soul can live in the material/physical world. Our physical bodies are a symbiotic combination of human cells and bacteria. For example, bacteria live in our gut, sinuses, and skin. Bacteria help us to digest food, make vitamin K for blood clotting, and protect our bodies from disease-causing organisms. We actually could not live without our bacteria! Our bodies also record everything that happens to them and store body memory, both pleasant and traumatic, so when we think of a happy time, we get a good feeling in our body. When we think of an upsetting event, we may feel sick to our stomachs or tense in the shoulders, even if it is years after the event.

• The soul. The soul is the land of soul mission and connection with God/source energy/higher power and all life on this planet and in the universe. The soul values making a contribution and living a full and meaningful life as long as the mortal body lives.

The soul knows that in order to make a difference in the physical world, it has to become physical by living in a body. Souls do not care about reproduction or physical survival. Souls know that they are immortal, and when this body dies, the soul can choose to reincarnate in another body or do something else depending on what one believes.

SELF-PEACE, WORLD PEACE
As so often happens between countries, we find ourselves fighting between the different levels of our being. In the United States, we are taught that the conscious mind is the only thing that exists or matters. How then do you explain the common phenomenon, “I didn’t do it on purpose.” Which “I” is he referring to? This person probably means that he did not do the problematic behavior with conscious intention. If not, then the conscious mind is clearly not in control. The fact remains that the client did the behavior. So which level of his being was actually in charge at the time, and does the fact that he didn’t consciously intend to do this erase or excuse the fact that he did it?” (Are you following me?)

Other popular unhelpful conscious attitudes towards the unconscious mind and body:
• “I don’t believe in that”
• “It’s not real (it’s a dream, or something I imagined) so I can ignore it/it doesn’t really bother me.”
• “I can’t (logically) explain why I feel this way (intuition), so the feeling/insight is not valid.”
• “It’s my religious or political philosophy that sex, meat, money, etc. is bad, so I should suppress my physical urges and go without it.”

Your unconscious mind and body are not going to like or cooperate with these attitudes because these attitudes violate the values of these levels of your being.

If we are to have world peace, I believe we have to start with self-peace. To that end, I have developed Healing from the Body Level UpSM methodology to 1. Teach people how to understand and communicate clearly with all levels of their being, and 2. Heal any parts of them that are not optimally serving the whole being. This allows us to align/coordinate all levels of our being so that our intentions match our behaviors and all parts of us work together to accomplish our life goals.

DIFFERENT LEVELS OF YOUR BEING CAN HAVE INTERFERENCE
If you are not on track with your soul mission, or you feel uncomfortable/not getting the desired results in some area of your life, then there must be some type of interference pattern that is causing a misalignment at some level of your being. The next question is: what type of interference can be there? I see three major categories of interference. The first two categories, Life Experience and Personality Structure are internal to you. The last category, External Interference, is external to you, yet affects you.

The first major category is LIFE EXPERIENCE. The damage in this category occurs during life experience and imprints in the conscious mind, the unconscious mind, and the body levels. Examples of damage patterns at the conscious level include misinformation or lack of information and skills. Examples of damage patterns at the unconscious level include bad habits we pick up from our parents or other people and limiting beliefs such as “I am not worthy” or “I am bad”. A limiting belief is a belief that you feel is true, but hope is not. Examples of damage that we pick up at the body level include physical injuries/illnesses and emotional traumas.

The second major category of interference is PERSONALITY STRUCTURE. This is your ego structure or operating system (like Windows is a computer operating system). When your soul decides to come to earth, it needs a personality so it can interact with all the other embodied souls. The personality structure sets your sense of self and your world view. It is the filter through which you process all incoming and outgoing information. If you have "bugs" in your operating system it interferes with large areas of your life. For instance, if you are a perfectionist, you may be so focused on perfection, that you are unable to appreciate people and life experiences you do not deem perfect. There are many models of personality structure. I use the Enneagram model because I find it very useful to not only understand one’s worldview but to transform these personality bugs that interfere in people’s lives, achievements and relationships.

New age ideas to the contrary, I don't believe that we create or control everything that happens to us in the universe. Thus, the third major category is EXTERNAL INTERFERENCE. Examples of external factors that interfere with us are natural disasters, malicious people with free will, and negative energies real or perceived. Even though these interferences are not about or from us, they still interfere with us in very real ways.

HOW DO DAMAGE PATTERNS INTERFERE WITH US?
Damage patterns cause negative emotions. Emotions are energetic sensations felt in the body. (That is why they are called feeling, because we feel emotion in the body). Emotions have more energy than thoughts and therefore influence/run behavior more than logic or reason runs behavior. This explains the common phenomenon of "I know I shouldn't be doing X" while the person is doing X. Again, the conscious mind is not in charge. Thus, damage patterns adversely influence our perceptions, reactions, and behavior in such a way as to make it difficult to achieve our goals. So the most important issue here is to identify the type of interference, locate the negative emotions in the body, and use a technique/tool to clear out the pattern. My criteria for techniques is that they be effective, work in minutes, be practically painless, and clear the damage at the conscious, unconscious, body, and soul levels permanently.

ADOPT ATTITUDE, AWWWWW, NEEDS HEALING.
Information from the unconscious, body, and soul levels may be new to you consciously. You may be surprised at what's coming up, and even experience the discovery of a damage pattern as painful. No one really likes to discover limitations. You may need to take 10-60 seconds to react and wince, but as soon as possible move into an attitude of at least neutral acceptance if not downright compassion. Say to yourself (or out loud), "AWWWWW, needs healing." You don't need to love your damage, but you do need to accept that it exists before you can address it enough to focus on and heal it. Self-acceptance is easier said than done, but do your best to hold the attitude. Self-acceptance as its own topic is so important that you may even want to use it as a goal.

STARTING THE WORK
We start the work by consciously establishing clear communication with our unconscious minds, bodies, and souls. The first thing you need to do is notice when something is not working properly for you. It is important to evaluate behaviors, beliefs, attitudes, emotional reactions and end results according to whether or not they really work for you in the service of your highest good and purpose. I suggest that people focus less on whether something is true or not and focus more on whether something is useful to them or not. For example, when I moved to Washington D.C., somebody told me that it would be difficult for me to find a boyfriend because the ratio of women to men was 5:1. That might be statistically true, but not useful. I decided to believe that I could always find someone right for me if I were open to all possibilities, which turned out to be the case. So, if you notice that what you are doing or experiencing is not working for you check your beliefs, emotional reactions and behaviors and question their usefulness.

The first place to question is your unconscious mind. Remember, the unconscious mind does not use rational reasoning, arithmetic or logic. It uses metaphorical, poetic logic. It is the land of dreams. Therefore, it is important to understand the communication style of the unconscious mind and recognize consciously when and how it is communicating. The first step is to go inside your head and ask an open-ended question about the problem. "The part of me that is doing this, or not doing this, or reacting like this, etc., what are you doing for me, trying to tell me, etc." Send the question echoing throughout your whole body and wait for a response.
The response will come quickly and take the following forms:
1. Visual; a picture, a memory, a dream that you can see,
2. Auditory; a thought in words, a piece of music, a tone of voice,
3. Kinesthetic; a physical or emotional sensation felt in the body.
(Sometimes there is a taste or smell response.)

It's easy to interpret an auditory response in words. You will have to dialog more with the pictures or feelings in order to understand better what they are telling you.

There is a layer of information stored in the body that is difficult to access mentally. We get this information by using an applied kinesiology technique called muscle testing. Muscle testing is based on the same principle as lie detector testing i.e. the body will register true or false answers to questions. We can get this same information without the expensive equipment by testing the difference in muscle strength on true and false statements. We usually do this by holding out the arm and pressing it after asking a question. You can also self-test by using your fingers or what we call a standing tilt test. Muscle testing allows us to get information from the unconscious mind, the body, and the soul just by specifying which level you are asking the question of. For example, "From the body level, do you have any physical injury trauma in this muscle?" "From your soul and deepest wisdom, is this the best plan of action in this situation?" "Do we understand accurately this message from your unconscious mind?"

One of the features that makes HBLU so novel is that once you have established communication with all the levels, your deepest wisdom dictates all of the goals, directions, and healing steps that we do during a session. Your deepest wisdom tells us what is interfering with you, where it is located in your body, and which interventions you want to use to clear it. The only trick is to know the right questions to ask. What your therapist brings to the work is knowledge of the structure of the damage patterns, the quickest approach to healing them completely, and a menu of interventions that work efficiently and at all four levels.

This work is basically a two-step process:
1. Interview all the levels to find, name, and locate the damage pattern,
2. Use a technique to move negative energy and clear the damage pattern.

IN SUMMARY:
I believe that the effectiveness of HBLU is due to four factors. First, the process of asking the client’s deepest wisdom to identify the priority goal and the priority interference pattern, then having the client explain the pattern consciously, and finally locating the negative energy/feelings in the body allows all four levels to focus on and clear the problem simultaneously. I call this aligning the levels. The second factor is a comprehensive menu of damage patterns and knowledge of their structures. From my research, we know that a pattern such as a trauma has predictable components including limiting beliefs and negative emotions that are always present as a result. Knowing these specific components means we can systematically check and make sure each layer of trauma is thoroughly resolved at all levels. The third factor is a comprehensive menu of techniques. My criteria for including therapeutic techniques in my menu is that they be effective, work in minutes, be as painless as possible, and permanently clear the damage at the conscious, unconscious, body, and soul levels. The fourth factor is specificity. By choosing the priority interference pattern from menu A and matching the appropriate intervention from menu B, each session is tailor made for that individual.

WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT FROM HBLU SESSIONS?
Many people start to feel better on some level after their first intervention (each session may include 1-4+ interventions). Most people start to feel significantly better after 5-6 sessions. For most people, it takes 8-12 sessions to resolve a long-standing problem completely, 100% at all levels. It may take longer if it is a severe problem. Your therapist may be able to give you an estimate on recovery time after the first two sessions when s/he sees how the interference is structured in your being. For example: some people can heal a fear of public speaking in 1-2 sessions if it codes on the belief level “I can’t speak in public”, for others, it may code in at the personality/ego level and require more sessions to heal. HBLU allows us to figure out exactly how the pattern is held in place so we can match the method for healing it to its structure.

WHAT TO WATCH OUT FOR
1. Withdrawal. HBLU work is very fast, but it is not trivial. After a session, if you processed a lot of damage, you may experience sensations of spaciness, fatigue, trance, or confusion. This indicates that you are still digesting and processing the healing. You can finish this integration process in minutes by doing an intervention called Unwinding Frontal/Occipital Holding (UF/O Holding). Place one hand across your forehead and one hand across the back of your head, and allow your head to move however it wants to while concentrating on the unfocused feeling. Your head will stop automatically when you are done, and you'll feel like you're back in focus. Then write down what else you learned.

Alternatively, you may not need an intervention to finish digesting the work. You may need to sleep/dream on it, or just contemplate quietly while chewing your cud. This method takes a few hours to a few days to finish the processing.

2. Sometimes, clients report feeling overwhelmed by new problems that seemingly arise after a session. What is happening here is that once your unconscious mind and body experiences the work, the parts of you that have waited years for healing get excited about the prospects and start talking all at once. It is important for you to establish order by acknowledging every part that speaks to you and promise it that you will heal it in order of priority. Write down what it is telling you and tell it that you will bring your list in to the next HBLU session so that it does not have to nag you.

3. While unlikely, if you are having an emotional or physical reaction about anything that you feel needs immediate attention, call our office at 949-916-1100 and your therapist will return your call within a day.

For further reading and study, see www.GetCentered.net under the “Resources” button or ask our office for a reference list of information about muscle testing, energy psychology techniques, and neurolinguistic programming.