Dr. Leonard Laskow's medical practice was mainstream allopathic - Fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, former Chief of Ob-Gyn at the Community Hospital, Monerey Peninsula, Carmel, California, post-doctoral fellowship in Psychosomatic Medicine and faculty member at the University of California, San Francisco  -  until a series of remarkable experiences revealed to him in no uncertain terms that his vocation was to heal in an entirely different modality.

The word healing comes from the same root as wholeness  -  a sense of connectedness, of being one with ourselves, other people, and the world around us.
In my 25 years as a physician and surgeon, I have come to view illness as separating, and healing as the restoration of our natural state of wholeness.
Our individualistic, highly rational society encourages the illusion of separation  -  the belief that our minds are somehow separate from our bodies, and that people are isolated from one another. It takes energy to maintain separation, energy which is often experienced as pain or illness.
I have coined the term holoenergetic^TM  healing to describe a method that allows us to dispel the illusion of separateness and to heal using the awareness and energy of the whole.
Unconditional love, for self as well as others, is a crucial element of this method. Love isn't just the stuff of poets and mystics. It's also a profound tool for facilitating the body's natural healing processes. I have done laboratory experiments which suggest that focused loving energy can create results not dreamed possible … it may affect bacterial growth in test tubes, unwind and entwine DNA molecules, and inhibit the growth rate of tumour cells in tissue culture.

Return to Source
Holoenergetic^TM  healing is certainly not intended to replace Western medicine. The medical practices developed by Western society are of tremendous value in treating acute illness, serious infection, trauma, and other disorders. But these practices represent only part of the healing tools available to us today. We can benefit greatly by making use of both approaches.
The holoenergetic^TM  model allows us to go beyond relief of symptoms and connect with the fundamental source of separation. This is frequently a long-past, deeply troubling experience, which we interpreted in a way that initially helped us to cope...but ultimately cut us off from a part of ourselves.
For example: Someone who was punished and humiliated as a child for something they didn't do may have carried into adulthood the unconscious belief: "No matter how hard I try, I'm bad and deserve to suffer". One way she expresses this loss of faith in her right to happiness is through the physical pain of illness.
Other common themes that may be expressed through illness include difficulties in accepting love, receiving pleasure, expressing anger, forgiving and trusting.
Holoenergetic^TM  healing gives us a way to identify and understand these limiting patterns and beliefs, release them, and replace them with life affirming feelings of safety, nurturance, and love.
This model of conscious transformation consists of four basic steps, which I call the Four R's of Holoenergetic Healing: Recognition, Resonance, Release, and Reformation.
Integrated with these four steps is the energetic component which requires the use of hands and breath, which profoundly enhances the "tracing" process described below. It is recommended that you take the process through to its completion.

Step 1a
Rational Recognition
With this step, we gather information about the symptom or quality we want to change. We draw on the insight of the rational mind (later, we'll access the intuitive mind as well) by entering into a state of relaxation and asking ourself these questions:
· What is it that I want to change or heal?
· Why do I want to change now?
· How do I see myself contributing to the present circumstances?
· What does having this illness or issue in my life allow me to do, be or have...and what
  does it keep me from doing, being or having?
· What outcome - both inner experience and outer result - do I want to create?

Step 1b
Intuitive Recognition
Drawing on the non-rational, intuitive aspects of the mind can help us rediscover the source of limiting patterns...the times in our life when we unconsciously made significant decisions that influenced or blocked our later health and well being.
The process: Close your eyes, breathe deeply, and focus your attention on the symptom you want to change.
Keeping this idea in mind, allow yourself to notice where in your body your awareness is drawn. Focus your attention on that area and become aware of any sensations there, such as pressure, tension, tingling, throbbing.
Example: With a migraine headache, the attention might be drawn to a throbbing spot behind the temple. Give that sensation a shape, such as a bright red ball, or any other form that seems appropriate.

Step 2: Resonance
In this step we follow the feeling to enhance energetic resonance with what we want to change.
Imagine yourself entering inside the shape. As you penetrate this image with your mind, deep emotions are likely to come up. Allow yourself to feel these emotions...and to travel back mentally to an earlier time when you had similar feelings. Begin to explore the beliefs and emotional patterns you formed around this issue.
Delve even more deeply inside to discover the positive value of this pattern. This might include messages or warnings the pattern has for you...the security it provided...other legitimate needs that you would now like to meet in healthier ways. Give this positive intention a symbolic form, such as a sun, rose, waterfall, or spiritual figure.

Step 3: Release
This step uses breath, intention and imagery to break up the undesirable pattern.
Until now, you have been imagining yourself inside the shape of your troublesome physical symptom. Now it is time to withdraw your mind from inside the form, but keep in your mind's eye the new image of your positive intention.
Release the old dysfunctional form by taking a deep breath and expelling it forcefully - and with it, your picture of the symptom (that bright red ball). Imagine the old form collapsing like a ruptured balloon.
Move your hands forcefully away from your body as though to extract the energy. Inhale and expel one more clearing breath. Experience the feeling of freedom from your old pattern.

Step 4: Reformation
By releasing the old form, you have created a void, which you can fill with positive energy during this step.
Focus your attention on the healing symbol you created for your positive intention in Step 2. Visualize that area of your body that has been giving you trouble and draw the healing image into that area with your next incoming breath. You may also wish to fill the area with the image of health-looking organs or tissue...or new, healthy beliefs about your self.
Complete the healing process by experiencing the gift of unconditional love. Become aware of a sense of pure, nonjudgmental, boundless love for every fibre of your being.
Feel this love as light radiating from your heart, filling your whole body an flowing out the top of your head like a rainbow fountain. Know that love is your essence.

Reprinted with permission from Vitality Magazine