I just dropped my youngest, Annika, off at the airport where she’s about to embark on a  trip to a small village in Peru. She spends the night in Lima, then wakes up really early to take an 8 hour bus ride to the village. Can’t remember the name. There, she’ll dress up in scrubs and a white coat, follow doctors and medical students, learn to give injections, suture and other things. I think the hardest thing for her will be living without Internet. They have a few Internet cafes, but otherwise, she’s off the grid. I have a feeling the experience will be life-changing. How quickly they grow up. Wasn’t it just last week that I was changing her diapers and kissing her boo-boos? I feel like it’s pretty safe for me to say this since, without Internet, she won’t be reading this. 

Tonight, I plan on going out on a girl’s night with my friend, Stacy, Robert and hopefully my daughter, Michelle, who could probably use a break from the baby. The rest of the weekend will involve CE related work, pruning and other things on the honey-do list. The weather is supposed to be nice, so I’m hoping to spend most of it outdoors. 

Last night’s radio show went very well. You can listen to it by clicking on the appropriate icon on the right side of the homepage, or you’ll also be notified when it uploads to the CE app for iPhones and Androids. You can also listen to it here! 

This Best of Erik is my last (I think?) bit about various common diseases and their spiritual basis. The first is through Jamie, and the last is through Jeannie. 

Me: Okay. What about AIDS/HIV?

Erik: Several things here. One is disrespect.

Me: Disrespect toward a group?

Erik: Disrespect toward the individual, disrespect toward life.

Me: Oh, the individual who has the disease is being disrespectful?

Erik: Yes, sometimes that’s the case. They can be disrespectful of their own life. Also, AIDS has helped people come together, respect each other’s bodies, respect the emotion, respect intimacy.

Me: Okay.

Erik: And it’s not like, “Almighty God came down to smite all those who wanted to have sex.”

Me: Oh, no, of course not!

Erik: Hell, no, it’s not that! But back then, it was a time in the world where sex wasn’t appreciated and respected. It’s just about appreciation and respect, not about punishment.

Me: Yeah, promiscuity was the thing back then.

Erik: Yep, everybody was a lil’ ho. Esackary.

Jamie and I laugh.

Me: Okay, oh, one more thing. Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia.

Erik: I LOVE people with dementia!

Me: Huh?

Erik: I do, Mom! Look at the people who get it! They lead these incredible lives whether they’re mean or not mean—whoever they were—and they get to a certain age, and they’re given the gift of being a child again.

Me: I bet they long to go Home, though.

Erik: Yeah, desperately. The neat thing of it is that you become humble. You get to ask for help again.

Me: Is that sometimes a lesson for them?

Erik: Oh, yes! And sometimes that’s a lesson behind a few of the cancers, too.

Me: Oh!

Erik: When you hang on for months and months on end, but you can’t totally take care of yourself,  you have to be humble enough to rely on everybody else to keep your ass alive.

Me: Yeah. (Pause) It probably can be a lesson for the caretaker, too, huh?

Erik: Completely. They learn to distinguish helping someone out of love rather than duty.

Me: So each disease can have so many possible spiritual roots.

Erik: Yep.

Me: Okay, how do we cure all of these illnesses?

Jamie (laughing): Erik does: this “game show host” kind of a thing, like, you know, you hit the big red button. “The question of the day!” But he’s loving it.

Erik (with pretend theatrical self-importance): And how DO you heal these diseases?

Me: Oh my god.

Jamie: He’s being a ham. But in the state of him being a ham, he makes a good point. It’s not about looking at WHAT they’re doing to the body, because what the disease is doing to they body is the side effect of that disease.

Erik: It’s like watching a fire take off through a meadow. You can see the path, and you can say, “Okay, here is where it’s been and here’s what it’s done, where it’s going, so what do we do?” In doing that, you completely turn your back on what’s igniting the fire. It’s really about getting to Source. Your own Source inside of you.

Me: Yeah, so spiritually diagnosing what’s going on is important.

Erik: Spiritually, emotionally, mentally and physically. Get all four in the same room! You know what? If it requires you to have your psychotherapist, your physical doctor—

Me: Your Reiki masters, your energy healers, yep.

Erik: Yeah, you might need them to all be in the same room, figuratively. If that’s what it takes, then… Unfortunately, the United States isn’t too keen on that kind of crap.

Me: Oh, that would b so awesome if we could have some sort of integrated team approach.

Erik: Yes! If we could have the ability to orchestrate and have our health care system provide that full compass of support like they often do in Asia.

Here’s the session with Jeannie.

Me: Well, I know you’re well on your way, Sweetie. Oh, and I want to jump back to the spiritual basis for disease because I forgot to ask about obesity. You know, there’s so much obesity in the world now. Why is that? What’s the spiritual basis for it?

Erik: I really like these questions about health, Mom. I’d like to, at some point, help you in your work, like bring some humor and healing in.

Me: Okay!

Erik: That’s what I’m learning a lot about. Now on obesity, it can be from different things. Sometimes it’s karmic. Let me give you an example of someone I know. At one time, she was like a Polynesian Princess, and it was part of their culture that the heavier you were, the more powerful you were. So, she carries that with her now, afraid to lose the weight.

Me: Wow, interesting!

Erik: Others have been abused, as you probably know, so the weight is a way of protecting themselves from looking too sexual. There’s always a reason, Mom, always, for that person to carry that weight. It’s all emotional.

Me: Yeah, and maybe, uh, I’m wondering if it’s like in the case of AIDS that there might be a component of a broader lesson—to teach the collective not to be prejudiced—to love unconditionally. So many people who are overweight are just treated so inhumanely, and it breaks my heart. After all, they’re souls like everyone else!

Erik: Yeah, and that also can be a reason. Some come in as overweight just for that reason and that reason only. They want to bring love and compassion into the world.

Me: I thought so. Ah, they’re sacrificing a lot.

Jeannie: Yes they are.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!!