Earnie Larsen - The Healers Way: Bringing Hands-On Compassion to a Love-Starved World

About the Authors

Earnie Larsen is a pioneer in the field of recovery from addictive and unwanted behaviors, and the originator of the process known as Stage II recovery. He has written more than 60 books and 40 motivational self-help tapes. He lives in a suburb of Minneapolis, MN. Carol Larsen Hegarty is Earnie's sister and long-time collaborator. She lives in northern California.

Chapter 1

The Secret

Chapter 2

AS THE TREE IS BENT

Chapter 3

THE HOOP

Chapter 4

SpiritualityI Would Know of God

Chapter 5

Doing Socrates

Chapter 6

You First

Chapter 7

So Strong Is Love

WHAT AM I DOING UP AT 2:30 IN THE MORNING?!

Whenever I am emotionally at war over something, I slam awake, always about this same hour. Once awake, I might as well get up and do something because I'm sure as heck not getting back to sleep.

So what is it this time?

To tell the truth, I've been dragging my feet over starting this set of pages for weeks. Why am I hesitating? What I feel is mostly fearfear and an overwhelming sense of incompetence. There's nothing I want more than to communicate truth to you, at least truth as I have experienced it. That was all Kurt asked of me. The trouble is that this truthdealing with the human condition, healing the human spiritis infinitely greater than I, or than all of us put together. We human beings are just tiny twigs sweeping by in the River of Life. The River, of course, is eternal; we are but momentary. As I sit here in my chilly little home office, surrounded by memories swirling out of the darkness, even thinking of capturing these truths in words seems a hopeless cause at best, an insult at worst. In a way, it's a crown of thorns to the heart.

Not that all of life is so painful. It is not. Your involvement with the human condition may thrust you into the depths of hell, but it will also lift you so high your wings will brush the very face of God! Perhaps you will find, as I have, that too much beauty can also bruise the heart. That's the pointthe big picture is just too much for us. Our pockets are so small, the treasure so vast!

I feel like a character in one of those delightfully mysterious scenes from a Disney movie. The wrinkled old shaman pulls some magical powders from his pouch and throws it into the fire. Fantastic forms immediately arise out of the smoke, visions of what was or will be, perhaps hidden in memories no longer retrievable except through the shaman's magic. Having opened the door to the world beyond, the old shaman patiently sits there, watching the shadows dance on the walls of his cave.

I've often reflected that each of us lives in the cave of personal existence, fashioned from what we have drawn from our experiences. I envision that the cave has a door that gives access to the magic within. We need only enter to tap into the mysteries. So I urge you to open the door and wait. Be patient. Like the old shaman, throw your magic grains on the fire and then sit back and greet whatever responds to your invitation. Even if it scares you, it will be the truth, the beckoning light you must follow to find your waywherever it leads. The path my well surprise you. However well you think you know your destination, the light will invariably lead you elsewhere, perhaps to a strange place you never knew existed. Just summon the courage to greet whatever comes through the door.

I sit here at my old typewriter on this dark, early morning and cast my herbs on the fire. The shadows are dancing. I hear murmuring all through the cave. So many faces begin to materialize! They all want to talk to you, my friend. They want your earand your heart and soul. They would carry you off. Not away into their world, but more deeply into your own. That is where the journey always leadsdown, down, down into your own depths. You can reach out as healer only to the extent that you are willing to reach in. It's about essence, my friend, always essence before action. Actions can lie nearly as well as words, but essence speaks only the truth. So many are here, asking for you.

Yet I know I must be careful. All these dear people who would speak to you are my most prized possessions. I feel like a goofy grandparent (and I am one) who at the drop of a hat produces dozens of pictures of his grandkids with no explanation other than I love them. I could fill a thousand pages with storiesgreat stories that deserve to be toldbut I don't want to do that. I'd rather stitch just some of the stories into a pattern. No matter how pointedly storytellers tell their tales, however, I realize that listeners always take away what they will.

But I am on a mission, and I want to lead you in a specific direction. As best I can, I want these stories to serve as reference points, as examples of the pattern I will explain. That is what Kurt asked foron your behalf, for all I knowand that is what I will do my best to give you.

Once you hear what I have to say, we will meet and talk. At that time you may well say, I heard you, but I do not agree. It is not as I have experienced it. Great! Then we will get up on the table and dance! What truth has the healing way revealed to you? When you tell me, we will both be richer. But for the time being, please listen with your heart as well as your ears. Try on what Iand my friendsshare with you, as you would a warm coat on a winter evening. Wear it. Merge it with your experiences as you walk more deeply into our world. Try it out first. Then we will talk.

A last word about goofy grandparents. I thought this was funny. A friend of mine once said, You think your grandkids poop ice cream. Probably true. In much the same way, I believe that the people you will meet in these stories poop ice cream. Each one of these people and their stories is precious to me. (Doesn't every one of us need a few people around who think we poop ice cream?)

It's best if you read these pages deliberately, for this isn't a novel or trainer's manual. The people I'm presenting to you are willing to share their secrets because they seek a relationship with you, and as with all relationships, it takes timetime and respectfor the parties to get to know one another. I have no idea what they will tell you. That is between you and the keeper of your soul. Whatever their message, you may not hear it until you visit them a second or third time. So often we hurry right past unrecognized diamonds! But if you make a friend of silence and grow accustomed to waiting before your open door, rest assured that you will learn to listen to your own messengers, who will surround you in dizzying abundance. As you listen and learn, what they say will become who you are. Then, one marvelous day, it will be your turn. You will recognize your soul in the fresh face of another who will ask you, as Kurt asked me, to walk side by side through the shadows. It is a good thing to go in company, for the healing way, though grounded in beauty, is difficult and dangerous.