This is a partial transcription of the workshop’s first lecture. To listen to the entire workshop, visit the lecture page.

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For students of Dennis who have an interest in prayer, this partial transcription of his Healing Meditations workshop describes a form of hygienic prayer that Dennis taught as a ritual of healing. Unlike some rituals and prayers that have unknown origins, Dennis shows how the five statements of this prayer correspond precisely to the five parts of the Christian Mass: 

• Invocation
• Intention
• Purification
• Offering
• Communion

Dennis intended this as a ritual of wholeness, a ritual of healing, something you can do for yourself as a bodhisatva in training.

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I’d like to tell you a story about the work of healing rituals. A number of years ago, there was a tribe of Native Americans who came through this area when the Waldorf School was going through a struggle. The Native Americans set up a tepee on the soccer field, and they invited everyone who wanted to participate to come. They had a campfire, and those who came stayed up all night around the fire and had a vigil. 

Then in the morning, a shaman came and performed a ritual of healing and purification. He had a buffalo horn, and he went through a process of what we would call the Mass. He called into the buffalo horn, and his voice reverberated in it to call the Great Spirit. 

He began the ritual with an invocation. Then he spoke into the horn again about the intention of coming together, about the gathering of the people, about the work that was done by staying up all night for the vigil. So he spoke to the Great Creator and gave the hopes and intentions for the ritual.    

Then he spoke about this great intent that everyone was offering to the spiritual world to be awake to each other. He made an offering. 

Then he opened the space for people to share their experiences of how this struggle came about and their hopes that it would be resolved. We gave a communion to each other. 

Then he ended with thanks to everyone who came, to all the spirits who came, and to all the ancestors who came. And that was the end of the ritual.

I tell this story because this was a Native American shaman, and he went through the process of the Mass. So when I refer to a healing ritual or the sequence of the Mass, I’m not referring to any religion. But I am referring to the religious impulse. The religious impulse transcends any particular religion. It comes out of the heart of people as a way of approaching the Deity to be clean about the help that they need. 

There is great confusion today about affirmations…if I just affirm what I want, I’ll get it. Well, you might get it, but it may not be what you need. It may just be what you want. This is very confusing for New Age teachings, especially the reality of suffering and challenges and disappointments. It may be that the thing you are suffering through is the great gift you are being given in order to purify yourself so that you can go to the next level so that you can help your brothers and sisters. 

This is really the intention of the spiritual world: that we help each other. And we can learn to do that only when we are able to become vulnerable to the other person. If we can’t become vulnerable to them, it is because we are holding on to a belief that is preventing us from growing.  

In a nutshell, that is the issue of a healing ritual. The process of going through it is so that we can protect ourselves, while at the same time approaching a spiritual being in a way that is lawful for a human being because a human being has the seed of becoming a god. We’re in the school for little gods.  

When we finally get there, we will have become the tenth hierarchy, and our domain will be the earth as a star. That will be our field of action. It will be a star in a new cosmos in which the beings that incarnate there will have to deal with a cosmos of love rather than a cosmos of freedom because we will have done that. We will than pass that on to the animals and plants. As we move up in the spiritual hierarchies, they will move into human embodiments, facing challenges that we can’ve even imagine.  And we will be their mentors, as the angels and archangels mentored us. 

We are part of a large picture of evolving consciousness that involves a feeling for the religious, whatever the persuasion, whatever the belief, whatever the deity that you invoke. Rudolf Steiner said that in the next round there will be no differences in religions. But until that happens, there will be much bloodshed around the illusion of religious differences, until people awaken to the fact that we all want the same thing, which is to be connected to our brothers and sisters in wholeness, in a healing way. Being connected to our brothers and sisters in wholeness is the divine plan for humans .. easier said than done, but we’re trying. 

It is not easy because we have inherited what Rudolf Steiner calls the fall of the spirits of darkness. There is a book with that title. If you’re interested in this issue, I recommend it because the fall of the spirits of darkness is the key. The picture of the fall comes from old Saturn, where there was a drama in the spiritual world that has been passed down through the hierarchies. The beings who fell on old Saturn were the Archai, when they were in their human condition. That is always the place where the fall is visited in order to be transformed. 

The archangels had their fall on the Sun. The angels had their fall on the Moon. We are having our fall on the Earth. The animals will have their fall on the next round. And the plants after that. That’s the idea. It’s not that we’re bad because we’re fallen. It’s part of the plan. 

However, we have freedom. And the freedom is to pursue health or illness. Because on Earth what is good or bad on the other side is health or illness. Rudolf Steiner said that in reality, there is no good or bad. There is only health or illness. Health means wholeness, to become whole. What is not whole is that there are parts of myself that I cannot allow to become part of me because I have made vows that I have forgotten. 

I’ve told these parts of myself, “Later. I’m busy suffering now. I’m having a lot of fun suffering, so you need to wait.” They are destined to come to me because I am a star being. Paracelsus says there are star beings. Their whole life body is consolidated starlight. But they forget that. 

The remembering of that is to member back in the parts that I have forgotten. I need to re-member the parts that I have left hanging. But as above, so below. And as below, so above. So the darkest parts of my life are connected to the brightest capacities that I have. So hidden in all of the things I don’t want to remember is my re-membering. But humans remember through the glass darkly. They don’t remember their shining being. They remember their hurts. That’s okay because it is just being human. It is part of the fall. 

If you look at “The Fall of the Spirits of Darkness,” the issue is hanging on to pictures that should be given back to the Gods. That is what the Archai were tempted with, and they fell. And the Archangels fell. But the Seraphim helped them. And the angels fell, and the Cherubim helped them. And we’re falling, but we have beings like Michael and the Black Madonna to hep us. 

It happened in kind of an automatic way for the angels and archangels. But now there has been an evolution since Golgotha, so there is freedom. And you have to pick up your bed and walk. It’s not going to happen automatically for us like it did for the angels. The angels don’t understand freedom because they didn’t have it.So they can’t give it to us. And the wouldn’t give it to us because they realize that anything we do that we haven’t asked for is against our freedom. That is our great gift. But it is also a deep dilemma.  

So religion means relinking, and what we are relinking to is our wholeness. And when we do that, the hierarchies are willing to let us have the keys to the kingdom.

The Native Americans had a religion; it was called give away. But it became polluted by mystery wisdoms of power, counting coup.  At the end of this course, I will give a picture of native American lore because this is our continent, and we live here. 

Religion or re-linking is not “churchianity “ Whatever your persuasion is, go for it. But this process that I will describe, which we could call a ritual of wholeness, a ritual of healing, is something you can do for yourself as a bodhisatva in training. Part of this ritual of wholeness is a relinking to the souls that you’re struggling with. Because much of the source of illness that you’re struggling with is related to the karma that we have to face with other people. 

Those feelings that you have with your brothers and sisters, the issues that you have with them, are karmic connections where you want to separate them out and exclude them. Sometimes we have to do that for self preservation. And that’s okay because we’re just human. However, it’s not progressive. It doesn’t lead to wholeness. 

Community doesn’t mean that you have a lot of potlucks. Or meetings where everyone sings songs and holds hands. Community means that you trust someone. That’s huge. Community happens between people that trust each other – even if it is just two people. It doesn’t have to be the whole mob. 

The consciousness of a group always gravitates to the lowest common denominator. That’s how mob rule happens. You go to a protest in Seattle, and you’re bringing your righteousness about the new world order. And then someone with an agenda throws a brick through a store window. And there you are. What is your intent for being there? The road to hell is paved with good intentions. 

People meeting each other, touching each other and trusting each other, even if it is one to one, is the seed of new community. If two people trust each other, they can meet another one, and another one. If you have three people, you have probably the biggest functional committee that works. Anything over three people on a committee is spinning wheels in the sand because everyone has to have their say, and it just goes around and around.

You can’t just share what you think. You have to be invited to do that; you can’t do it without an invitation. This is a deep occult law. You can’t answer a question until someone asks it. You may see something, understand something, but it’s not received if it wasn’t invited. 

We have inherited the remnants of Roman law, and we think that we need to tell everybody, “I see your aura, and it’s ugly.” As people become more clairvoyant, this will become more of an issue. Rudolf Steiner said the capacities will come from gifts from Ahriman. 

In order to survive, humans have to be able to trust each other. In order to be able to trust each other, we have to prepare the space beforehand. You can’t with your clairvoyance just make declarations, because they are not going to hear it. 

So we need a ritual to find the brothers and sisters we can trust, so we can build relationships that can survive mistrust and anxiety. Then the organizations we build will be based on trust and utility. If we do that, we’ll be able to weather the storm.

If we wish to do that, we need an organ in our heart that knows whom to trust. It’s as simple as that. Does my heart trust you or not? If it doesn’t, we’ll never get to a spot where I have your back. 

I’d like to explain the healing ritual from two sides: this side and the other side. Our whole physiology is based on this polarity between the stuff here that I want to control and the stuff over there that I can’t control at all. The tension between those two is the issue of learning how to trust. I can’t control you. So I need to either build a lot of walls or learn to trust you. If I trust you and you do stupid things, we can work it out. If I don’t trust you and and you do stupid things, I pull up the drawbridge and fill the moat. We all know the feeling.

So there are two sides to the invocation. I say to a Deity, “I have to work on something, and I don’t feel whole. Could you be here as a guarantor? Could you be present to witness my working? That is the invocation. 

On the other side, there is a Deity who becomes aware of my attention. The thing that bridges this side and the other side is attention. The bridge is built through attentiveness. The coin of the realm on the other side is attentiveness. Everything there is structured in attentiveness. Here we project attention at things: events, people or goals. Here attention is locked to things. There attention is. Beings there are attentive to everything. They are embedded in a vast sea of attentiveness. 

Here, we are capable of paying attention. They don’t understand that because their attention is universal. So when there is an attention that comes across the threshold to them, particularly if it is regular. Attention fundamentally is light. And when I have a regular rhythm, I make out of that light a laser. It becomes coherent. Like a laser that can burn holes through steel. 

If I have a practice where I am invoking again and again, the being on the other side begins to see a perceptible light from a place where a being has freedom not to that. But it is doing that, paying attention in a rhythmic way. 

Here walking across campus, it was all dark, and somebody had a candle in the house over there. What would you do? You’d go over and look at it. Well, here is a Deity noticing that light; it’s reaction would be to move towards it. 

But it’s not just the attention today. It is the repetition of it that makes it perceptible and powerful enough to be recognized by the being on the other side. It’s just physics. 

Hidden in the invocation is the intent. In the Mass, it is sometimes called the Credo, the Creed. The Creed says this is what I would like to do. This is what I’m aligning myself with. In the Native American practice that I mentioned, the credo was to connect to all of the ancestors and to bring healing and wholeness to the community. 

The best intent is to work on wholeness so that all of those who are estranged from me can connect to me, to build a relationship to the brothers and sisters in the spirit. To work on my own wholeness for the good of the whole. If I achieve wholeness for myself, then it is possible for those who I am estranged from to also experience wholeness. 

In the context of that intent, if I go to the other side, I appear as a human who is not just saying, “Lord, give me a Mercedes Benz.” But is doing this work for the whole. All religions talk about this. It is the future paradise where we’re all on the same page with each other. There may be differences, but we own the misunderstanding. If two parties own the misunderstanding, then there is always a piece left over that nobody wants to own. Then you have to negotiate. But if you’ve owned what you can own, and each side has owned what it can own, then they become more whole in owning the part of the misunderstanding. And you can trust the negotiation.  

The part of you that opposes wholeness is excluded from the ritual. Because I don’t want to deal with the part that opposes wholeness. That’s from this side. 

So I make an offering and a purification. I offer to do the work of wholeness. And I will sponsor you as the person I have been struggling with. My work is also for you. I invoke to apply the work that I do to you. To the part of you that wants to be healed. 

The Bodhisattva offering of this is that I ask that this person receive the parts of them that will allow them to experience wholeness. I’m asking, not saying what they’re going to do with it. It is for the whole. And if I’m struggling with someone on the other side, the part that does not want to be whole, is not them. It comes from another tribe of beings that have invaded that person like a parasite. And they are creating on this side ugly things. So on the other side, for me to exclude that part of them is just saying to the demons that are doing it that they are not part of the package. You are trying to address the higher part of the person that wishes to be united with the part that is here. Basically, you’re doing an alchemical wedding. 

An audience member asked if there is a way to integrate the demons rather than exclude them. Dennis said that would be a manipulation. And they would not want to be integrated. This is a big issue because if you go to Communion without this purification, you will get very confused about Communion, and eventually you will shut down. You will find yourself praying for this person but holding something back. That’s probably not healthy. From this side, it may seem that I am excluding something. But from the other side what I am doing is excluding the karma of all of the negative beings that have been passed down through the family.

The real issue is that with the work I am doing, I am designating a fund for this person through the deity I have invoked, asking that it be made available to them. I don’t want the negative beings to get the energy. I want this person to get the energy. This is surgical soul work. 

Basically, I’m setting up an account such that if my account makes $X, you get a percentage. 

On the other side, it is very clear that humans have around them beings that are dead set against their development. That is their role. So you don’t want to integrate those beings into this ritual. 

When I do the purification, I make an offering to the other person through the intercessor (deity).  

An audience member asked, if you exclude the demons, will they come after you sometimes? Dennis replied, not if you say I exclude my self from these beings. 

Another name for this is creative suffering. If you have a headache, you can designate that suffering for the benefit of another being. Nothing is lost. No good intent is lost. 

More truth comes out of error than confusion. If you are protecting yourself and designating and you make an error, you can correct it. But if you are just opening yourself to all kinds of beings, you have a sign on your back that says, “Eat At Denny’s.” You’re just lunch. You’re babes in toy land. 

We still have to get to Communion because through Purification and Offering, we haven’t done anything yet. In Communion I have to actually open up my heart. And it’s always good to remember your benefactor (Deity) when you go to do that because you become very vulnerable. 

Main Exercise

The five steps to this healing ritual are:

1. The Invocation. Invite the deity or benefactor that you wish to address, for example, Jesus, or your guardian angel, or the Buddha, or the Great Spirit, by saying for example, “Great Spirit, I invite you to join my (insert the name of the meeting, social gathering, or ceremony that you wish the deity to join)”
2. The Intention. State your intention for the meeting or gathering. For example, if the meeting is a job interview, your intention would be to get a job offer. In that case, you would state, “My intention is to receive a job offer.” Note that the intention is separate from the invitation. This is designed to make your request more “hygienic.”
3. The Purification. Say, “I exclude those parts of myself that are opposed to my wholeness. I include those parts of myself that support my wholeness.” 
4. The Offering. Say, “I offer this up for those parts of ______ that support their wholeness.” (Here you name someone that you designate to receive grace from this ritual. This could be a family member or a co-worker or a friend, who is a kind of third party beneficiary of this ritual, someone not necessarily involved in the main part of the ritual.) 
5. The Communion. Here you would physically attend whatever meeting or social gathering you invited the deity to join. 

Typically, the ritual would only take a minute or two and would typically be said a few minutes before the social gathering begins.

Ritual

1. “_____(benefactor), I invite you to join my ____ (event)”.
2. “My intention is ____ (your intentions for the event)”.
3. “I exclude those parts of myself that are opposed to my wholeness. I include those parts of myself that support my wholeness.”
4. “I offer this up for those parts of ______ (beneficiary) that support their wholeness.”
5. Attend the event.