BOOKMARK4

A guide to healthy life

By Manju Gupta

The Presence Process, Michael Brown, Jaico Books, Pp 305, Rs 295.00

This book provides a guided journey through practical techniques and perceptual tools required to extract our attention from the trappings of a time-based mentality and allow us to gradually re-enter the present moment in which our experience unfolds.
The author, a music journalist who developed an acutely painful neurological condition for which conventional medicine had no cure nor relief and who practiced self-healing process to cure himself, says it was in 1996 in the Arizona desert where he reunited with his beingness and experienced the profound radiance of such communion. It is his beingness to which he refers as the Presence.
The Presence Process is a journey we take into ourselves. It takes us through forgotten memories and into unfamiliar emotional territory. As it does so, it equips us to reintegrate the suppressed fear, anger and grief that seep into our daily experiences. “This emotional terrain may at first appear alien to us, but it is this forgotten energetic landscape that reunites us with our inherent innocence, joy and creativity,” says the author.
The first part of the text assists us in realising and awakening us to the Presence. Though we may not know where we are heading right now or how we are going to move in this direction, it is an aspect of our beingness that does know because it knows everything. The author advises that we should allow ourselves the space to integrate what we read as this gives us the quietness and space to physically, mentally and emotionally take in the contents we are reading, along with digesting the experience this text sets in motion, so that we absorb the nutrition it offers.
The author has given two levels of entry in the book – one is introductory and either is exponential. The first level is entered simply by reading the text. The second level involves an exponential procedure that gradually unfolds over a period of ten weeks. Part 2 aligns us with the overall intent of The Presence Process, opening the door and pointing the way.
The author shows us how to step beyond our physical, mental and emotional afflictions and addictions and empowers us to facilitate ourselves into wholeness by taking a bold step into a new paradigm of healthcare. Since this reviewer has not tried it, one cannot vouchsafe for it but according to the author, the text draws us into a “transformational experience that automatically grounds us into the vibrant radiance of the Present Moment Awareness – where we find our liberation, our healing, our innate wisdom.”
An interesting feature of the book is a free CD which gives a six-session audio retreat by teaching how to deepen the moment to moment realisation of one’s essential nature – the unified consciousness that lives in all things. This is provided by the spiritual teacher, Eckhart Tolle, who is author of The New York Times bestseller, The Power of Now.
(Jaico Publishing House, A-2 Jash Chambers, 70 – A Sir Phirozshah Mehta Road, Fort, Mumbai – 400 001; www.jaicobooks.com)