Ilchi Lee, Healing Society

The history of humanity has been a constant progression toward the limits of rational thought. Through our ability to judge, analyze, and plan, we have gone a long way toward controlling the vagaries of human existence. In some ways we have tamed the uncontrollable, mysterious aspects of life on this planet. In doing so, however, we have introduced imbalance, both in our own personal lives and on the planet. The effect of imbalance on the Earth is becoming obvious, and the effects on our health are becoming clear as well.

Modern life essentially puts us each at war with our own brain stem, says Ilchi Lee in his new book Brain Wave Vibration, as we suppress the prerational, subconscious side of ourselves in favor of rationalistic obsession. Our educational system currently favors those whose gifts are in analytic, left-brain activitites, like reading and mathematics. Psychologists acknowlege that there are many forms of intelligence, including interpersonal, emotional, and creative intelligence, but these are not the talents that usually earn the accolades. We do not educate the whole brain; rather, we develop and reward the prefrontal cortex nearly to the point of excluding the rest. The same continues throughout life as congnitive-based skills usually earn greater money and status within society.

Of course, Ilchi Lee adds, the other parts of the brain keep working for us, but we do not educate ourselves to use them well. The thinking mind has become so central to our lives that it often carries us away from ourselves into patterns of negativity. Constantly judgin everything that comes our way, we send our bodies into a state of continual alarm and lack of equilibrium.

Many recent studies have shown the beneficial effects of meditation, Ilchi Lee says, which is essentially the practice of slowing, or even stopping, the thinking mind. The physical benefits occur because meditation gives our brain a much-needed rest from the constant mental chatter that keeps us stressed. Thinking is not necessarily bad, but at times we need to find ways to move beyond thinking, for our own health and for the health of others.

Miracles are really not so extraordinary. Actually, just the fact that all your bodily functions keep going as they do is a miracle in its own right. Ilchi Lee says “When we say something is miraculous, to me it only means that someone has managed to tap into a power that was already within his or her brain, waiting to be discovered.”

One of Ilchi Lee’s students had sustained an injury to her tailbone that caused her constant pain. She went to many doctors, but they told her the problem could not be fixed. She came to a Dahn Yoga center in Arizona to practice Brain Wave Vibration, hoping she could find some relief. She was a doctor herself, a dentist, so she remained skeptical that she would ever find permanent relief. At best, she thought, she could lessen the pain to some degree. To her surprise, her pain completely disappeared after only three months of practice.

Ilchi Lee is not telling you this story so you can be impressed with Brain Wave Vibraion; it is a very simple activity that requires little effort. Rather, he is telling you this story so you can be impressed with the marvel of the human body. He believes this woman was able to heal because the subconscious part of her brain, the brain stem, already knew what it needed to do to create wholeness in her body; she just needed to get out of its way, which is what Brain Wave Vibration allows. The body contains a wonderful intelligence that surpasses our current understanding of the human body. This is the intelligence of the brain stem, a part of the brain that orchestrates things so complex that our thinking brain can only begin to grasp them.