Reflections on the Power of Clearing
by Sandy Levey-Lunden
My philosophy in the way I live my life is the foundation of the power of Clearing process. The core of my thinking comes from Lesson 153 in A Course in Miracles (ACIM), entitled, “In my defenselessness my safety lies.” (Workbook pg. 284). This lesson has become the essence of how I respond to whoever, and whatever, is going on.
I do not think about a boundary between you and me. I know you are one with me. If you ask me for something or say something to me, I know I have attracted you and what you are saying to me somehow. Therefore, I strongly consider how I can say “yes” to your request. If something happens that I react against, I know I have something to release, and I want to release what is in the way of us coming together in alignment. If I react negatively, I know I have something to clear in my mind.
We all make up our lives, like a movie or story, and we all have to work within that story. I do not ignore my fears and worries. Instead, I take responsibility for them. Whenever I have anxiety or worry, I go back to the truth of ACIM and tell myself that I made up everything that I feel, think, or believe about it. Therefore, I will then do the 3-part Clearing process on my fear or anxiety. This process always leads me back to peace.
I work with the meaning I give to what happens in my life or my environment. When something in my experience triggers me, I will still clear my upset and find the root of my lack of peace in my mind from my past. I will then look to the beliefs I made up from three or four childhood traumas that I remember.
ACIM says: “I am never upset for the reason I think.” (Workbook pg. 8 Lesson #5). Everything I am upset about has its meaning in some attack on myself in the form of a negative belief. For example, I may be upset that no one left me any birthday cake, which may seem trivial, initially. This upset may occur because I always believed I am not good enough—no one sees me, no one cares, no one wants me to be around, or no one hears me. So, ultimately, everything I am upset about has to do with my evaluation, blame, judgment, or a believed fear about myself. That is why I wrote the following two examples in the forgiveness part (Step 2) of the Clearing process: “What I want you to forgive me for is thinking you didn’t want me to come to your house, which means I’m not wanted or lovable enough.” Finally, I have to forgive what I perceive every belief says about me. The second example of forgiveness in Step 2 is, “What I want you to forgive me for believing is that you do not value me because I’m not good enough.” All responses to these questions are: “Thank you. That is not the truth. You are more than good enough, and you are totally loved for who you are, which is love.” These Big Truths are answers to any issue at hand.
I am constantly using fear and guilt to keep me away from Love. These are my barriers to love, and we are here to clear the blocks to being, feeling, and receiving love. Our greatest fear is the fear of receiving love. When we are genuinely giving love, we are receiving love at the same time. Otherwise, it is sacrifice.
For example, when people phone me, including telemarketers, I know I have created them calling me and have attracted it at some level, whether consciously or unconsciously. Therefore, I always communicate deeply with the caller and focus on a higher purpose for our conversation. Since they are in my path, I work with them in my mind by looking at what I would need to clear in myself about this experience with them, especially if their call irritates or annoys me.
If I do not like someone, I ask myself, “What do I not like about this person, precisely?” and “Who do they remind me of from my past?” Then, I would use a sentence in my mind that removes the projection on them: “What I see in them (name of the person) that I don’t like about myself, my mother, or my father is...” For example, if it is about myself, “...that I constantly lose my patience if I feel hurt, or frustrated.” If it’s about my mother or father, “…that my mother or father constantly lost their patience.” In the end, I bring the projection I made back to myself because ultimately, there is no one else to clear here except myself. When I fall in love with a person I did not like initially, I know I have cleared the projection I placed on them based on someone in the past. I would be clearing my way through my thoughts and feelings about them until I am in Oneness with them. I would not push them away or cast them out of my life. Instead, I go through clearing my mind. They are a gift to me by triggering me to clear an aspect of myself that needed healing.
Another example might be if I do not want to have you over for dinner or sleep at my house, my resistance means I have something to clear in my perception of you because I am projecting a character from my past.
Each person we meet, we are destined to meet and have a Holy Relationship with, whether for a moment, a month, a year, or a lifetime. We have both come to teach and learn with each other. It’s important to discover the inherent purpose of our relationship. There must be a purpose or we would not have come together in the first place, even if only for a moment. Out of the millions of people in the world, we are participating together. I always ask myself, “What is this relationship for?”
Eventually, what we have each buried deeply in our unconscious will emerge as we relate further in our relationship. In the beginning, we fill each other with happy, joyous moments. Then we will get into the nitty-gritty of what we get to clear in our relationship. It is helpful to have a tool or a method to clear our upsets, projections, or negative feelings. Everyone needs a set of tools, in any relationship, to clear and heal any upset can arises in their ego minds. When they come to an upset in their lives triggered within a relationship, they can use these methodologies to move to a higher level of consciousness, clearing the past in the process. Without these tools, they will always get stuck in the same circular pattern and, like a maze, have no way out. Relationships will always bring up anything unhealed from the past to be healed now, in the present. If left incomplete, it will repeat itself in another form, perhaps with another person, different face, same scenario, playing itself out over and over and over again, until we end the cycle.
We can always get rid of the other person. We can tell them to go away or ask them to move out. Alternatively, we can choose to work with ourselves to clear at the deepest level of our upset what has triggered us in our minds. Most people want to do the former, which is the easiest ego method of defense. If I feel abused physically, mentally, or emotionally, I will ask them to stop. I must be clear in my mind of what I want and what I do not want. If there is a real present threat to my safety or anyone else, either physically or emotionally, I will still ask them to leave. Even if they leave, my negative belief to clear will still be in my mind. If they stick around, it is not okay for them to continue to abuse me, including any emotional abuse that implies I am damaged in some way, less-than, stupid, or unworthy. The allowance of this treatment will not be beneficial for the abused or the abuser.
Whenever anyone is angry, there is the energy of guilt present. Anger is a projection of guilt. To release the anger in me, I can ask myself, “What am I feeling guilty about?” Usually, it would be something irrational that I made up that has nothing to do with me in truth. If your partner, or your friend, is angry, you can ask them, in a very peaceful, loving way, “May I ask you, is there anything you are feeling guilty about?” If you have an intimate connection with them, they will receive the question as support rather than an attack. You must have developed that intimacy to ask this kind of question. In a Holy Relationship, we want to have this mutual support to help each other to clear. A Holy Relationship is an equal partnership, a teaching-learning situation, in which both of us are teachers and learners with each other. We both recognize that we can learn and share. Therefore, the relationship has an opening dimension, a non-competitive dynamic. There is no power struggle for who is more intelligent or has more to learn from the other. A Holy Relationship is one of the most exciting adventures one can have in life for advanced and quick movement into aliveness, passion, purpose, and clarity.
We are constantly going back to the inner child’s perceived traumas and feelings about things that happened to us, primarily from before we were seven years old. It is the perceived negative meaning that we gave these incidents about ourselves, life, love, and the world, in our negative core beliefs, that we are releasing. For example: “Life is a struggle. I have to work hard to get people to listen to me. No one sees me. No one cares.” I made up my world and what the characters are doing as evidence to prove my negative ego beliefs.
No amount of evidence will ever make true something that isn’t, such as “I’m not good enough” or “I’m not worthy of love.” I could have countless incidents where my ego proves this negative core belief to be correct, and it will never be true. It may also feel true, but that is not the ultimate Truth in any way. The stronger the negative feeling, the more strongly the ego may try to convince you that it’s the truth. In this situation, it’s good to remember another of my favorite sayings: “I choose to wake up now.” I’m waking up from the dream that there is something wrong with me, and therefore, you will always reject me. If I continue to have this negative core belief that there is something wrong with me and someone will always reject me, at a conscious level, I will react to it and continuously repeat this situation, until the core belief is transformed.
Many people have deep-rooted issues about money—having, receiving, creating, or spending it, resulting from deep survival fears at a very early age. I noticed the beginning of the ego in my two grandchildren when they were aged two and four. I also see how readily they communicate their fears when I am open to listen and receive them. When I stop everything that I’m doing and stay in the present with them, they can easily let go of their fears. My primary focus is always to see them as infinite, eternal beings rather than in the box called “children.”
Watch a child under three and see how sensitive they are, how easily they cry. Since from an early age we generate so many ego thoughts in a continuous circle, relationships are a challenge to us. We want to release the ego thoughts we have about each other because they stand in the way of us joining. The ego’s purpose is to defend us from being hurt, which then creates separation from ourselves and others. That is why a “holy instant” is such a revelation because we have so many separating thoughts to clear in ourselves. A holy instant is a moment in which we join entirely in the ultimate or Big T Truth. It is the moment we are in Oneness, which is pure bliss.
When you observe your thoughts and do not become your thoughts, you will see how your ego is continually projecting fear, guilt, and separation onto others, the world itself, thus ultimately coming back to you like a boomerang.
What ego thoughts, feelings, or beliefs can you let go of to be fully present? What can you let go of to be one hundred percent present in this moment, for your process, the day, an experience with a friend, a love affair, a child at play or your time at work? Acknowledge them with complete sentences. For example: “I have to let go of believing that you didn’t return my email because you don’t like me and, therefore, I can’t be present or open with you now.” Or: “I have to let go of thinking about my mother. I have to let go of wondering if she’s okay at home by herself right now. And, I have to let go of wondering whether I need to be there with her or that I will be guilty of leaving her alone if anything bad happens to her.”
I teach that there are three essential rules in the training that anyone can apply to their life. Firstly, when you hold space for someone in the Clearing process, you must see this person in their true nature, as Love, Peace, Joy, no matter what they are saying to you, from their ego. Secondly, it is essential to be fully present to receive what they are communicating about their ego thoughts fully and let them go, without judgment, condemnation, or collusion. Lastly, honestly recognize your triggers while holding space for this person.
According to our original belief system, the ego mind is constantly misinterpreting what others say or do. Therefore, we have little accuracy in reporting anything because our past colors it. When you hold the space for someone in the Clearing process and are present with them, you give them the greatest gift of all, which is the chance to release their ego barriers or negativity, thus freeing themselves now. You can only do that by seeing them in their authentic self—Divine Being, Love, or Oneness. You are holding them in this Oneness, no matter what they are doing or saying in front of you, thus enabling them to see and know their innocence beyond any guilt they may be perceiving.
By walking your talk, you are fully authentic to yourself and others. With everything you say to someone as advice, guidance, or support, with their permission, ask yourself whether you live by what you say. To teach is to demonstrate. We demonstrate our teaching by how we live—our actions and deeds—not by what we say. If you are not attending to your own healing first, you will end up feeling unfulfilled, and be “an unhealed healer.” (Please see Glossary.)
It is essential to be aware of every word you speak and listen to your self, as ultimately, you are only teaching yourself to become totally aware of what you are saying. There is no one else “out there” to teach. Every person we meet is an aspect of our Self, and if we attract them into our lives, we are to work with that part of ourselves that they are mirroring or bringing up within us.
To become proficient at the Clearing process, you must use it repeatedly to see, know, and understand how your mind works. If you do not use the Clearing regularly or practice it often, it will just be an intellectual exercise. You can use it any time you feel uneasy, worried, or no longer present in the moment. The greatest gift we have is to live and be in the present. Only in the present can we truly experience true love, peace, and joy. We cannot do it in the past. Many people review their negative and positive past, possibly thinking that the past is better than the present and future. When you become proficient at the Clearing process and recognizing your ego (thought, feeling, and belief), you can clear any fear in the way of freedom. When you become upset by feeling annoyed, irritated, angry, frustrated, worried, fearful, guilty, paralyzed, stubborn, confused, lost, rejected, or isolated, you have something to clear at the root of the feeling. Therefore, if you are familiar with the Clearing process, you can seek out a coach to do the 3-part method or do it yourself with your eyes closed or looking into a mirror. You will always go deeper in your Clearing process when you have a trained Power of Clearing coach facilitating you to look at the upset in different ways and to hold the sacred space for you, with no judgment or feedback. Trained as a Power of Clearing Certified Coach (POCCC), this person will have excellent knowledge of the Clearing process. By being present for one or more of the twenty-four On Purpose training sessions I provide, they will have learned how to clear others and have experienced how to clear themselves. This person has the clarity to hold the space for you while you empty all your ego thoughts, feelings, and beliefs in this structured 3-part Clearing process. The ego-mind hates structure and always wants to change the words of the Clearing. In the second step, rather than saying, “What I want you to forgive me for thinking, feeling, or believing is…” the ego would rather say, “What I want to forgive you for is…” which implies that you have done something against me and hurt me in some way. The principles of the Clearing state that since part of me is all-knowing, no one and nothing can hurt me because my true nature is infinite and untouchable. That is ultimately the Big T Truth, specified in Step 3 of the process, returning one to their true nature.
In every training, we have a session where people can share what’s going on in their minds or bothering them in their lives. For example, a woman brought up her ex-boyfriend. She had a traumatic experience with him that originated from the real source of her pain. In the Clearing process, she was able to go back into her past experiences with her mother and father and clear the buried feelings, which were standing in the way of her being fully present in her relationship. As a result, she let go of the fear brought up by old pain patterns with her ex-boyfriend.
One workshop participant shared: “I’m afraid to stand on my own.” She noticed that she was constantly attacking herself with the thought that she could not stand on her own. Our self-talk and our language can easily become our reality. When we acknowledge our ego thoughts to ourselves as they arise, it becomes obvious what we need to clear, especially when we share them with another person. The other person merely witnesses without collusion (meaning, agreement with the ego mind). When we try to block, deny, or suppress them, they persist more strongly, irritating us. When we leave negative ego thoughts alone in our minds without recognizing and clearing them, they move into our bodies, where they can become a condition, which we usually refer to as a dis-ease. In the 1970s, the famous teacher, Werner Erhard, founder of the EST training, coined the phrase, “What you resist persists.”
To think that something could happen to you against your will is the definition of the ego-mind that manifests in many versions for people. From a fear of the government to social uprisings, attacks of all types in wars and shootings (including police), global warming, racism, COVID-19, going broke, dying suddenly, or any act of nature, like a hurricane or earthquake. Many believe that what they experience as abusive power will harm them by creating subservience, uncertainty, and confusion. On the other hand, we also have the opposing side, with people out of control doing irrational acts of terror on others. These demonstrations of separation have become much more frequent lately. There has never been a time in our lives with such a multitude of world phenomena that people could get upset about and have to clear. Thus, many people are in total ego-fear and shock from witnessing horrific TV news and incidents, locally and globally, so much so that we have become accustomed to living in a state of emergency; freeze, flight, or fight mode. Some people believe that anyone can take their power away because someone who professes to have the answer or a way out can easily manipulate them. This time in our history has become such a state of uncertainty, producing complete fear, anxiety, and pain, in turn, causing an increase of stress, addictions, and suicides to escape the ego completely.
The ego-mind is like a puzzle. the Clearing process puts the puzzle pieces of what happened to you in the past into a structured container or process in which you can then quickly release your past ego pain. It is incredible how the Clearing can put pieces of your mind and life back together—seemingly unrelated that you would never have known are impacting your present life. Many people have called the Clearing, “turbo” therapy because the pieces fit together so well. In many clearings with people (and I have done thousands of them), I am still surprised how the various pieces fit together. When we close our eyes, a scene from our past, especially from before age seven, may appear like ripe fruit ready to be seen, felt, acknowledged, and released after being held by the subconscious mind for years as evidence of little-t truth. If nothing emerges, that’s fine also. Nevertheless, if an image emerges, it could be the piece that clarifies the puzzle of realizing what we think, feel, and believe, and its source. Sometimes, we make sense out of someone’s entire life in only two hours of a Clearing. In most cases, when someone is willing to do the Clearing process, they are speaking directly from what the subconscious mind usually hides unless there is an opportunity to be revealed in a safe, structured process like this one.
In many cases, I’ve witnessed people come up with scenes that they never revealed before nor remembered. Now their subconscious is ready to reveal it. When the image shows itself, we deeply bring it to life at this moment with all of our senses. If no image emerges, the subconscious mind is still holding the trauma. Even then, the Clearing will be effective.
When we acknowledge our fears as they arise in our mind and within our body sensations, we become genuinely aware of them. Instead of running from our fears, we hear them, feel them, acknowledge them totally and allow the fear to flow through us completely, embracing rather than resisting them. “What we resist persists.” We are then able to let them go consciously.
Before beginning the Clearing process about any person (family member, for example) or subject (body, money, health), it is best to set an intention or purpose for the Clearing to directs where the Clearing will go (the result). “My intention is to release my anger toward my mother and to feel peace and love when I think of her.” Next, you and your coach can call in divinity, higher power, or universal consciousness to align with you and support you in all aspects of your thinking, feeling, and believing pertinent to the intention you have established. It is a kind of prayer or request for support from a higher consciousness.
In Step 1 of the advanced Clearing, our coach provides a safe environment for the declaration and sharing of the ego mind on a specific subject—everything said or expressed is relevant to the ego-mind process. This step is an opportunity to report all negative ego thoughts, feelings, and beliefs on a person—mother, father, sibling, boss, friend, or the government, a situation—fired from a job, evicted, loss of a loved one, or expectations thwarted, or issue—betrayal, abandonment, or rejection. The person clearing says: “What I want you to know is that I think, feel, or believe (current ego thought, judgment, attack, accusation, experience) … which makes me feel … (express the feeling which arises) … just like when” … (recount a scene from the past which comes to mind).
Step 2 of the advanced Clearing is forgiveness or correction of misperceptions about ourselves based upon the ego’s evidence in Step 1 of examples of thinking, feeling, and believing.
In Step 2 we can direct the forgiveness to a specific character in our life and also say the same statements of forgiveness about ourselves for more emphasis. Ultimately, we are always forgiving ourselves. There is no one else to actually forgive because we made up our perception of the situation and what it says about us, which is how the ego is using it against us.
“What I want you to forgive me for thinking, feeling, or believing is … (for example) that you didn’t want me, which means I am… (for example) not good enough to be wanted.”
The coach holding space says, “Thank you,” which means “I’m listening” and “I hear you, and I make no judgment.” It does not mean “I agree with your ego belief or thought.” You will have a few forgiveness statements in Step 2 to match what you brought up in your ego thoughts in Step 1.
Step 3 in the advanced Clearing is affirming the Big T Truth, the final step. The only true things are the Big T Truths, which is evident from reading ACIM and other spiritual books. In the Clearing process it is the Big T Truth chart. Finally, we remember our Eternal Truth (the Truth of who we are) that we temporarily forgot. The person clearing says: “What I want you to forgive me for (name), is for forgetting is that I am …. (Say one at a time, to give it more power) Love, Truth, Divinity, Oneness, Awake, Free, Sovereign, Joined, One with you, at Peace,” or your chosen words (Big T statements).
Leaving the treadmill of seeing the essence of your pain as the world abusing you is when you realize that you may be telling yourself a story that constantly causes you to suffer. Then you can release yourself from the story and stop telling it to yourself. Drop your attachment to the meaning the pain has for you—such as “I am not good enough,” “I am not worthy,” and “I am not lovable.” For many people, they are addicted to this final judgment of themselves. It is vital to clear the idea that your suffering is someone else’s responsibility and they are to blame for how you feel. The Clearing disconnects you from this blame on others and ultimately shows you that you can choose another way for how you see yourself. “I am good enough,” “I am worthy,” and “I am lovable.”
“The holiest of all the places on earth is where an ancient hatred has become a present love.” (Textbook pg. 562). When you have accurately done the Clearing process in its entirety with someone from your past (such as your mother or father) or perhaps someone you hated, you may now be able to view them with total love. If you do not feel this peaceful, loving feeling after a Clearing, you may need to go deeper with the support of a certified Power of Clearing coach. There is no place or space where Spirit is not present.
In my lifetime, I trust that I will see this holiness in many locations around the world, which are currently in discord, war, and separation, transform into affinity, love, and joy. I do envision that right now. Will you please join me in that vision of total peace and harmony? I will always be hopeful for this miracle of peace to be present in Israel, especially the holy city of Jerusalem.
Sandy Levey-Lunden is an Internationally Acclaimed Workshop Leader, Life Coach, Counselor, Creator of the Clearing™ process, ACIM-Based Real World Results Achiever, Matchmaker, Networking Maven, Proud Grandma, and Dog Lover.
* Research has shown that 73.9% of counsellors and psychotherapists have experienced one or more woundings, leading them to their career choice.
“Reflections on the Power of Clearing” by Sandy Levey-Lunden copyright, revised January 2022
onpurpose@sandylevey.com website: sandylevey.com phone: 360-527-2796 Pacific time zone
No one can use any part of the article without the written permission of the author.
“Reflections on the Power of Clearing” (under Resources at sandylevey.com) was originally edited by Ian Patrick and published in the Miracle Network magazine in 2012 is updated and offers additional insights into how Sandy lives the power of Clearing process each day.