Zero Limits

I love you

I am sorry

Please forgive me

Thank you.

I first read these words, part of a Hawaiian shamanic ritual called ho ‘oponopono, in a book by Masaru Emoto. The author, researcher, photographer and entrepreneur claimed that human consciousness has an affect on the molecular structure of water. His books, illustrated with exquisite before and after photos, made perfect sense to me.

So if human consciousness can affect the molecular structure of water, can it also impact the molecular structure of our reality?

Dr. Joe Vitale, of The Secret fame, thinks so. In a 2006 article, he wrote: “Two years ago, I heard about a therapist in Hawaii who cured a complete ward of criminally insane patients–without ever seeing any of them. The psychologist would study an inmate’s chart and then look within himself to see how he created that person’s illness. As he improved himself, the patient improved.”

When Vitale first heard this story, he figured it was an urban legend. “How could anyone heal anyone else by healing himself? How could even the best self-improvement master the cure for the criminally insane?”

The Hawaiian therapist, Ihaleakala Hew Len, worked at Hawaii State Hospital for four years. The ward where the criminally insane were kept was hardly a work environment conducive to employee satisfaction. Psychologists quit every month, the staff frequently called in sick or just quit. People who walked through the ward did so with their backs to the wall. They were afraid of being attacked.

Then the therapist went to work on himself in order to heal these patients. “After a few months, patients that had to be shackled were being allowed to walk freely. Others who had to be heavily medicated were getting off their medications. And those who had no chance of ever being released were being freed.” The staff enjoyed coming to work, absenteeism dropped off, turnover ended. Today, that ward is closed.

Vitale, understandably, was in awe and finally asked Dr. Len what he was doing within himself that caused these patients to change.

“I was simply healing the part of me that created them,” he said.

Vitale didn’t understand, so Dr. Len explained that total responsibility for your life means that everything in your life – just because it is in your life–is your responsibility. This means everything from the global to the personal. “In a literal sense,” Vitale writes, “the entire world is your creation. If you take complete responsibility for your life, then everything you see, hear, taste, touch, or in any way experience is your responsibility because it is in your life.”

Think about this for a moment. It means that anything you experience and don’t like becomes your responsibility to heal. “The problem isn’t with them,” Vitale says. “It’s with you and to change them, you have to change you.”

So how did Dr. Len go about healing himself? What was he doing when he looked at the patients’ files?

Len replied, “I just kept saying, ‘I’m sorry’ and ‘I love you’ over and over again.”

Incredulous, Vitale asked, “That’s it?”

That’s it.

So Vitale decided to try Len’s method. One day he received an email that upset him. Instead of reacting like he usually would, “ by working on my emotional hot buttons or by trying to reason with the person who sent the nasty message,” he kept silently saying, I’m sorry and I love you. He didn’t say it to anyone in particular. “I was simply evoking the spirit of love to heal within me what was creating the outer circumstance. Within an hour I got an e-mail from the same person. He apologized for his previous message. Keep in mind that I didn’t take any outward action to get that apology. I didn’t even write him back. Yet, by saying I love you, I somehow healed within me what was creating him.”

Imagine what sort of world we could create by repeating these powerful words repeatedly throughout the day.

Vitale wrote this article in 2006 and in 2008, he and Dr. Len published Zero Limits.I just finished the book and loved it! Since I wrote this post, I’ve read four more of his books. What I really like about them is his conversational tone, the stories he uses to illustrate his points, and how he has lived the stuff he writes about.

Many of us understand these tenets about the law of attraction – which even Carl Jung believed in!- but Vitale’s material moves beyond it into a realm that is practical, simple, effective.