Nutritionally Speaking: Depression and the Sedona Method

Dear Dr. Meinig: Since a recent illness I have been very depressed. Although I’m a retired, successful man, have a wonderful family, nothing seems to make any sense. A friend told me about the Sedona Institute. He suggested I take their course as it was supposed to help lift day to day troubles and give meaning and direction to one’s life. I feel a little silly considering such a course without knowing more about it. Are you familiar with the Sedona Method? If so, I would like your opinion about it. – S.D.

 

Dear S.D.: A couple of years ago my friend, Dr. Jerry Mittleman, a well-known, highly respected New York dentist, strongly recommended readers of his monthly newsletter take the Sedona Seminar. Along with his talented wife Bev, they took the course in 1981. He was very enthusiastic about how life’s burdens were lifted, and the way negative feelings of grief, fear, illness, anger and guilt, etc., were dispelled. Jerry said, “The course literally changed our lives,” and, “I don’t say that lightly.”

Because of his recommendation, I contacted the Sedona Institute. To date, my busy schedule has prevented my attending their seminars, even though there are plenty of available dates in the Los Angeles area and elsewhere. I have, however, read the book written by the Institute’s Director of Training, Virginia Lloyd, and from that feel the course would be worthwhile.

It is difficult to review and do justice to the scope of their work in a short article. The Sedona Method grew out of Mr. Levinson’s own severe depression, very similar to yours. Lester Levinson, a successful businessman, engineer and physicist, had driven himself from one stressful situation to another until a massive heart attack nearly killed him. During the deep depression that followed, he went back over his life, exploring the meaning of its significant events.

As with you, many questions troubled him. Questions galore. Even such a basic one as, “What is life, and what is it that I have been looking for?”

Was seeking happiness what life was all about? He looked for the dictionary definition of happiness and life. Then he went to Freud’s books and found no answers. Then to Watson’s Behaviorism; to Jung and Adler. From there, his search included all the great philosophers, but they also brought no answers. He said to himself, “Lester, you are stupid!”

This challenge to his integrity suddenly made him realize that the answers he had been seeking all his life were not to be found in the conventional places, but actually were problems within himself—in his own body, mind, and emotions. He looked upon his body as a laboratory and for a month let his thoughts and questions bounce back and forth in that lab.

Then he explored again, “What is happiness?” Does it come when you are being loved? Is it a result of successful performance in school, at work, in love relationships, in business deals, on vacations, or of being with good friends?

After long hours of sitting and pondering, questioning himself and answering back; long walks, and much troubled sleep, it became clear to him that being loved was not the answer. That unless he felt love in return, he was not going to be happy. And so at last the answer, simple, pure and complete, seemed to unfold: happiness came when he was loving others. When his feelings and actions were loving, they always produced happiness in himself!

Lester Levinson felt these conclusions provided the answers he was seeking, but again, his scientific background forced him to review his past and all his happy times, and all his unhappy ones. He soon saw that when he was sad he had expected others to make him happy. When he thought he was being loving, he realized that all too often he had been demanding and possessive. His pride, stubbornness and self-sufficiency had always made him sure that he never needed anyone or anything. On the one hand, he was denying a need for love, but in reality he was dying inside for lack of it. Then it came to him that if happiness came when he was feeling love for another, it meant that happiness was a feeling within him.

At this point Lester Levinson decided to try to turn negative, unhappy situations into positive, loving ones. He found when he changed his feelings of resentment, anger, hostility, hatred and annoyance, he was able to dissolve all negativeness with feelings of love. He eventually became so adept that no matter how annoying or negative the situation, he could maintain his feeling of love. (Somehow all this reminded me of Abraham Lincoln: he always seemed like the kind of person who met every person and situation with love and gentle humor.)

Lester’s method is sometimes called the “Positive Thinking Technique.” Though similar, there is a big difference. The positive thinking technique appears to work quite well at times, but often depends on the suppression of negative thoughts. The Sedona Method speaks of freedom—meaning to be–free of negativeness, not to leave it buried in the subconscious, ready to bubble up again at any time. Psychiatrist David Hawkins referred to the Sedona Method as “The missing link in psychoanalysis.”

These inspiring excerpts from Virginia Lloyd’s book appeared in Dr. Mittleman’s letter:

“…By the time he had finished these experiments, he had proven for himself that the source of all objective physical phenomena was the mind; that the mind has no limits except those one mentally imposes upon himself; and that this is true for everyone, with no exceptions. Inherently, each person has the ability to have, be, or do whatever that person wills or desires…

“…We can continue to be provoked, bothered, motivated, and driven by our negative feelings of anger, grief, fear, guilt, and so on…Or we can choose to let go of all that and be happy, motivated only by what we wish to accomplish and by what is correct and appropriate in each individual circumstance…

“You can have, be, and do whatever you will or desire. The only thing stopping you is the accumulation of negative thoughts and feelings which you are subconsciously holding. Remove those, and you remove the blocks to your accomplishing whatever you wish in life.

“Remove those, and you will find happiness, satisfaction, and joy beyond your wildest dreams.

“Remove those, and you are free.”

Lester Levinson’s new approach in no way suggests that we should become easy victims for domineering people; nor that we should be spineless “yes men” in difficult situations. He does show that there is a positive, loving way to deal with anything that comes our way, and with everyone we meet–no matter when or where.

Virginia Lloyd’s book, Choose Freedom, describes the complexities of Lester Levinson’s life and the development of his “method” in a simple, straightforward manner. His big, “insolvable” problem is one that most of us have met with on a smaller scale from time to time. And many, many people have been overwhelmed as he was, by the hopeless feeling that “life is too much for me and there is no solution.”

This book leaves us feeling that a real enlightenment has unfolded for him, and that it can keep on unfolding, both for him and for us. You may order Choose Freedom from the Sedona Institute—2408 Arizona Biltmore Circle, Suite 115, Phoenix, AZ 85016. Send a check for $12.70 ($9.95 plus $2.75 for postage and handling).

When we first become aware of the role of nutrition in the development of the degenerative diseases, and in their prevention, it is easy to be carried away, and to believe that proper nutrition cures everything. But we now have good scientific evidence that good health depends as much on emotional and mental states, as on diet and exercise.