If the Buddha Got Stuck_ A Handbook for Change on a Spiritual Path - Charlotte Sophia Kasl [88]
Allowing yourself to feel empty is akin to staying open on your journey so that something new can be born within you. Your role is to notice where your aliveness takes you and be a gracious host—even if it comes by surprise or in a series of unanticipated events, as was the case for Harold McCoy.
When Harold McCoy, born and raised in Arkansas, came back from twenty-five years of military service he was, in his words, a country redneck drinking twelve beers a day and smoking two packs of cigarettes. He settled back into a predictable life with his family and nearby relatives. He didn’t know he was stuck because he was living the only life he knew, patterned after his culture, family, and the military social system.
Shortly after his return, Harold got involved with a group of dowsers* who had been family friends since his youth. This is how Harold described it: “The dowsing came naturally—every community had an old water witcher who helped people find where to dig a well. I had seen it as a child, and I had found out I could do it too. Everyone believed that kind of stuff happened.
“The day I started the dowsing group was the first time I ever helped heal anyone. Thirty-one people had just arrived when my wife fell on a step and cracked her ankle. It got real swollen and was hurting her. Something led me to put my hands on that ankle and sit with her, and it was down to normal in a couple of hours. I was totally surprised. Something took over and I was just the conduit. I didn’t know what the heck I was doing. I did it and it worked.
“I started experimenting with people’s aches and pains and there was no lack of people wanting help. Eventually, I would close my eyes and start seeing images of someone’s brain and where there was congestion or emotional pain, or things weren’t attached properly. Then I’d have an image of a table beside me with the tools I’d need to connect the circuits, or clean out the rough places. It usually helped, and people started healing from all kinds of illnesses, so I kept on doing it, and pretty soon people wanted me to teach them. I feel I was picked to do this.” He added, jokingly, “I just do what I’m told to do. I had good training for taking orders in the army. Now I take direction from a higher source.”
Looking back now, as the founder and director of the Ozark Research Institute and traveling throughout the country to give weekend trainings on the the power of the mind to heal, he muses on the vast changes in his life. “Sometimes it seems like the powers that be are going to get you where they want, even if they have to hit you over the head to get you there. The universe kept trying to wake me up—I had something important to do.”
Harold continued, “When you get your heart totally into something like this, it’s amazing how it attracts other people. You wouldn’t believe the gifts we’ve received and the help that’s literally walked in the door.”
I asked Harold what he believed to be helpful for those who wanted to expand their inner world and make change. “Partly, it’s the luck of the draw. But people who get stuck are often pessimists and don’t believe much of anything. You’ve got to understand that we don’t understand anything, so you’ve got to be open. I know I work with a higher source. I think that’s what we all do. You have to get over those limitations you put on yourself—get past the nay-sayers inside. So many people blame others and make up excuses. ‘Someone broke my heart. I’m wounded.’ Only you are responsible for your happiness. If you get in that mind-set, everything changes.”
No more cigarettes and beer. Harold and