Revealing Wholeness with Barbara Klein-Robuck

When it comes to healing Ernest Holmes teaches that we are already whole, complete and perfect. By remembering our innate wholeness we come into a state of alignment with truth and live the life we were meant to live.

That’s a beautiful idea and sometimes we need help remembering or unraveling exactly what that means.

To learn a little more about how to live more completely from the energy level where wholeness resides, I checked in with Barbara Klein-Robuck MS, RN.

If you don’t know Barbara, she is one of the longest continuing members of our spiritual community. She started attending our center in 1977. Barbara immediately began taking classes, including all the practitioner training classes. She also took ministerial training but decided not to become a minister in the traditional sense. Instead, Barbara found her own way to minister within our community.

She is a registered nurse who has been studying energy healing for more than 30 years. Barbara offers Therapeutic Touch, Jin Shin Jyutsu, and Integrative Imagery in her healing room. In 1996, Barbara was named National Holistic Nurse of the Year by American Holistic Nurse's Association. As a self-employed business owner, she has found a way to merge Western medicine with metaphysical ideas of perfect wholeness and energy healing. Barbara offers counseling and energy sessions in her home.

When I asked her about energy she said, “We are all energy. It’s all there is. If you want to know how it works you need to ask God!” But thankfully our discussion didn’t end there.

She went on to give me her views on raising our consciousness and experience through full acceptance of the metaphysical teachings.

It’s an Inside Job

Barbara believes that healing  whether it’s healing the body or a life experience, comes from the inside. “All healing comes down to connecting to the wisdom within and getting out of our own way.”

She used an analogy I could totally relate to. “Remember Wonder Woman and how she had these magical bracelets that could deflect bullets? Our best defense against anything harmful is to be so grounded in knowing that God is all there is that things just bounce right off of us.” Barbara used the example of someone giving you the finger in traffic. You can let that sink in and disrupt your harmony or you can be so bullet proof in your self-knowingness that it just bounces right off.

“Acknowledging and claiming you are perfect, whole and complete is the best way to inoculate yourself from potentially disruptive encounters.”

Blended Healing

Barbara acknowledges that Western medicine and it’s prescriptions, therapies and surgeries have their place in keeping our bodies healthy, but we can co-create health  and healing by remembering who we are.

She considers herself a holistic healer, meaning she blends all the best things that western medicine and metaphysical healing has to offer. In her energy healing room, Barbara uses a process that asks questions to guide people to their own inner wisdom.

“I don’t like guided imagery because it puts ideas in people’s minds,” Barbara explains. “Instead I like to give a general suggestion, like ‘Go to a sacred space,’ and then ask questions like, ‘Where are you? What do you see?’ If we can create it, we can uncreate it. Sometimes we just need more clarity.”

“One time I asked a patient what she saw and she said a bed of violets. I asked God, ‘What do I do with a bed of violets?’ I got the guidance to have the patient  ask a violet to stand up and speak for the group.  When I did, the patient began to laugh. I asked her what the violet said. She responded, ‘Stop being a shrinking violet’ and that made so much sense to her and guided us to next steps in the healing process.”

It’s all Good and It’s All God

It’s true that Barbara can see energy and she believes that we are all energetic beings, but she doesn’t call herself an energy healer because there really is nothing to heal.

“There is no negative energy,” Barbara tells me. “It’s all just energy.”

In her practice, Barbara reads energy centers called chakras but believes the chakras can self-regulate. “It’s not for me to open or close someone else’s chakras. The chakras do what they do in order to protect and sustain the energetic balance in the body.”

So what do you do if you are walking into a situation where you feel overwhelmed or uncertain? “Tell your energy centers to keep you safe and do a quick prayer treatment. Remind yourself that God is all there is and claim the good you want in that situation.”

If you have the opportunity to spend time with Barbara, I recommend it. She is so clear in her understanding of the principle and completely committed to helping you claim it for yourself. To learn more about Barbara, visit her http://www.bkrwellness.com.

The Love Experiment

Can love truly heal all? All the great masters, including Jesus, believed that love is the greatest power in Universe. We’ve all experienced love, but have we accessed it’s power to create physical change in our circumstances?

Aidan Greaney, RScP and a trustee for our Center, found a common thread of wisdom in his spiritual studies that led him to test the power of love.

I sat down with him to find out more about this great experiment and how we can all test it for ourselves.

Q: How did you come up with the idea to affirm love to change your experience?

A: Well, a couple of years ago, I was sitting in a Prosperity Plus 2 class and remember watching Mary Morrissey tell the story about Raymond Charles Barker. She explained that Barker walked on stage and pulled out a huge wad of cash and began kissing it. He kissed it and said “I love you” to it. Then he told the crowd, “Whatever reaction you had to watching me is the attitude you have about money.” That made an impression on me and I realized the power in loving money.

Fast forward to December of last year. I was in a book study of Catherine Ponder’s Dynamic Laws of Prosperity. She too talks about loving money. I started to see a thread of wisdom and it related to love.

In mid-December I was having a challenge at work. I thought, “If Barker is right and Ponder is right, then maybe I could start affirming love for the things that are lacking in my life.” So, I started saying “I love…” affirmations for 10 minutes a day. By February, I had demonstrated exactly what I was affirming.

By saying “I love…” I was using spirit and law to change my experience.

Q: Did you change anything else in your experience to bring forth your demonstration?

A: No. I just used the “I love…” statements daily.

Q: If someone wanted to try this experiment for him or herself, what would you recommend?

A: To demonstrate  prosperity one might say:

I love money. I love prosperity. I love my finances. I love my customers, clients and financial partners.

To demonstrate health one might say:

I love my body. I love my health. I love my wholeness. I love my life.

To demonstrate connection one might say:

I love my friends. I love the people in my life. I love connecting with others.

“I love…” statements repeatedly impress on the mind what we want to manifest and there is no resistance to our good when we say “I love…” The God of love hears the words of love.

Are you intrigued? I know I am. Aidan and I would like to invite you to join us in The Love Experiment. Identify something you want to heal or manifest in your life. Come up with some “I love…” statement and say them for 10 minutes a day, then report your results. I would love to share them in our August or September Good News, so email me the story of your own love experiment.

Spiritual Wisdom: See the Truth in Yourself Too

When I asked Dr. Heather for some insight into this month's 100 Years of Science of Mind theme, Spiritual Wisdom and How to Follow It, she shared with me this beautiful story of enlightenment during her spiritual journey. It reminds us to give ourselves the same grace we give others and offers a simple question Dr. Heather asks herself when she needs a little more clarity.

From Dr. Heather:

The greatest piece of spiritual wisdom I can offer is that every person is a valued and a valuable expression of the Divine, starting with myself. 

It has always been easy for me to see the Divine potential in other people. I can easily forgive others who have made mistakes and still see their spiritual magnificence. It has not always been so easy to remember for myself.

The first time I became aware of the fact that I often leave myself out of the equation was in the 80’s at a spiritual class called “On Course” given by Michael and Paulette Sun. There were about fifty people in the course. We had been expressing our goals and the beliefs that were getting in the way of achieving those goals. 

I remember being deeply moved by each person’s sharing. I saw the light in each one of them. When it came to my turn to share, I could not see any of the beliefs I had about myself that had gotten in my way. I had lots of guilt about my mistakes and lots of blame about it too. 

Michael Sun said he had noticed how engaged I was in every person’s sharing. He said, “You really see the spiritual truth in all these people don’t you, Heather?” I readily agreed. Then he said, “But you don’t see it in yourself, do you?” Again I agreed. The next thing he said shocked me. 

He said, ”Do you have any idea how arrogant it is?” 

I was puzzled. He went on to say, “You believe that God is everywhere present except in you! That means that you believe that you are more powerful than God!” 

I wanted to hide, to run away or at least to protest, but after thinking about it, I realized it is exactly what I had been doing. I was awash with tears, good tears, the tears of awakening.

The technique I use to remind myself is simply to ask myself, “Could this belief  or behavior be true about God?” Almost always the answer is, “Of course not.”  So I adjust my thinking which puts me in alignment with spiritual wisdom

Spiritual Wisdom: My Answer Is Not Your Answer

When asked for some insight into spiritual wisdom for this month's 100 Years of Science of Mind theme, Rev. Pattie Mercado, the youth and family minister for our Center, responded with some wisdom that she received when her children were small. The wisdom works in all situations because we live our authentic life when guidance comes from within.

From Rev. Pattie:

The Spiritual Wisdom I want to share with everyone I received close to 25 years ago and I still use it today. I was married with two children and we really wanted to do a good job raising our kids. I took classes, read books and talked to other moms and teachers. The wisdom I got came during a parenting class from one of my amazing mentors.  The wisdom is, “I don’t have your answer, but I know you do.” 

The answer was completely dissatisfying at the time. I really wanted someone to tell me how and what, but this wise woman reminded me repeatedly: “my answer is not your answer and your answer is not my answer”. The faith to look within for my answer, no matter what the question has been a powerful tool for my growth. Over the years, I have relied upon this truth, dug in to find and know my answer, and stood witness to children and adults reminding them that their answer is within them.

Spiritual Wisdom: Everyone Is Playing Their Part Perfectly

This month's 100 Years of Science of Mind theme is Spiritual Wisdom and How to Follow It. I took this opportunity to check in with our ministers and get a little insight into Spiritual Wisdom. 

Rev. Karyn Allen is our creative arts minister. She shares her beautiful musical gifts with us often and finds herself not only on our platform, but also travels to other Center's sharing her wisdom in song. It's not surprising then that she found spiritual wisdom in Shakespeare's "All the world's a stage" dialogue.  

From Rev. Karyn:

One of the greatest pieces of spiritual wisdom I have received lately was from a ministerial colleague who recently made his transition.  His words forever resonate with me... "everyone is playing their part perfectly!"  To me, it brings up, and is so reminiscent of, Shakespeare's "All the world's a stage" dialogue from As You Like It. 

 All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

To remind myself and others of this wisdom is freeing.  It allows me to recognize that I need not judge the action of others.  I am to love them for their part in this world.

Spiritual Wisdom: Kindness Can Change the World

For this month's 100 Years of Science of Mind theme, Spiritual Wisdom, Rev. Carla shares how acts of kindness and caring in some of life's most uncertain moments gave her courage. It was in the kindness of others that she found Spirits universal wisdom showing up for her in moments of need.

From Rev. Carla:

What has been the greatest piece of spiritual wisdom given to me was by the people that have touched my life through the power of Kindness.  All these people still stand out in my mind today because of their beautiful acts of kind-heartedness.  

I recall traveling in Italy and trying to purchase a train ticket with a teller that spoke no English or attempting to figure out where to get off the train because the names of the cities were different than the ones in my travel book. In those moments, some lovely person stopped what they were doing just to help me out and gave me encouragement, making me feel safe. Then, there was the nurse in the operating room that took my hand while delivering my first born, and she said “you’re doing great, you got this” as she gently stroked my head.  I also recall that there were a special handful of people that stood by me after a serious operation showing me their care, their hearts and their love. Kind acts have taught me to be more present to how I show up in this world. 

What I know for sure is that Kindness can change this world and that kind people can be our greatest teachers.  

Spiritual Wisdom: Practice What We Preach

Rev. Judee Chapman, an assistant minister at our Center, is one of the most centered, confidant practitioners of the Science of Mind that I know. When I asked her about our 100 Years of Science of Mind theme for this month, Spiritual Wisdom, she went right back to the foundation of it all and reminds us that daily spiritual practices fill us up and then causes a ripple effect in the world.

From Rev. Judee:

Spiritual Wisdom is when we 'practice what we preach' and it shows up in our lives on a daily basis.

When we squeeze an orange, what comes out? Orange juice!

When WE are squeezed, what show's up? Understanding? Forgiveness? Compassion? Peace? Kindness?

Just like the old saying "You are what you eat," the same rule applies to your beingness. You are what you think about and what you allow into your consciousness.

Our world is one of incredible beauty and energy. As we increase our connection with this energy, the more beauty we see and the more we evolve as spiritual beings.

I receive "wisdom" from many places: Dr. Heather's Sunday talks, classes, music, reading inspiring books, gatherings with like-minded people, the Science of Mind textbook, etc.

Dr. Ernest Holmes captures in this quote what Spiritual Wisdom truly is...

"Come, Thou Great and Infinite Mind and inspire me to do great deeds. Acquaint me with Thy knowledge and in Thy wisdom make me wise. I would be taught of Thee, Inner Light, and inspired by Thy presence. I will listen for Thy Voice and it will tell me of great things to be done. I will be inspired from On High. O Wonderful Presence, flooding me, filling me with Thy Light, Thou dost inspired me! I feel the inspiration of Spirit."

Insight into Our Roots with Rev. Carla

This October, our Center is offering a field study into the Science of Mind roots. It's a five-day excursion to the New England coast, led by Dr. Heather and organized by Spirit Tours, to explore the place where Science of Mind all began. It's the place where Ernest Holmes grew up; where Emerson discovered his truths; and Thoreau found inspiration on Walden Pond.

I asked our own Rev. Carla, a frequent traveler with Spirit Tours and our Center's trip coordinator, a few questions to get some insight into this adventure. 

Q: The Roots tour is really an historic look at our Science of Mind history. As a SOM student and minister, what do you think or hope people who take the tour will come away with? How might it benefit them spiritually?

Rev. Carla:Traveling is a sensory experience that you can't get from a class, a book, or a teacher.  It is an opportunity to explore one's own soul on deeper and more reflective levels. As a serious student of Religious Science, the idea of steeping myself deeply into the time and life of Ernest Holmes is a treasured prospect and my hope is that it will bring yet another layer of understanding and insightfulness to my awareness of this philosophy. In my experience, I’ve witnessed that making discoveries in a group can be so impactful; it’s like setting an intention with the power of multiplication. Something special was unfolding in the consciousness of Holmes, Emerson, Thoreau, and Hopkins and I want to ride on the wings of that realization.  (special note: Dr. Heather will offer CSL Roots class credit to anyone who takes the tour.)

 Q: The transcendentalists movement and Emerson really inspired Ernest Holmes. What do you think travelers will discover by walking the same streets or visiting the same Walden Pond?

Rev. Carla: Thoreau built his cabin in 1845, on Walden Pond, as a place to write and reflect. He wrote in a continuing stream of consciousness there for 17 years.  I believe that energy is still there for all of us to experience, explore and practice by walking and breathing in the same places as our powerful teachers/mystics of New Thought did.  

Q: You have been a frequent traveler with Spirit Tours; what makes it different than another tour company?

Rev. Carla on a Spirit Tours trip to Bali

Rev. Carla: Yes, I have travel twice to Bali and once to Ireland with Spirit Tours.  Before Spirit Tours I had never traveled with a group.  The experience was truly a pleasant surprise as I did not travel the first time with my own CSL to Bali; it was with the Santa Rosa CSL and Dr. Edward Vijion.  We traveled with a large group of 32 persons, all uniquely individual, all interested in their spiritual growth and all eager to have a new experience together with other like-minded people.  What made the trip so satisfying was that we were in spiritual practice and mindfulness throughout our time there. Waking up every morning to a spiritual practice of chanting meditation, yoga, and then an informative meeting of what the day entail and what it may hold for us.  

Also, I think it's important to note that Spirit Tours offers a unique experience for those seeking a different kind of travel. They are founded on SOM Principles and practice the teachings of Religious Science, bringing a rich and diverse background with the ability to touch a traveler’s life in a profound and lasting manner.