The Sedona Method

This system of therapy and self-development has existed for longer than half of
a century, but it
became really popular in the last 10 or 15 years. Lester Levenson was forced to
developed it
because of his greatly disturbed health. When he was 42, in 1952, he had a strok
e, a sick liver,
kidney stones, spleen troubles and perforated ulcers. Medical doctors sent him b
ack home to die.
He became deeply depressed. Meditating about his life and seeing traumatic exper
iences he had,
Levenson got a very deep insight that the cause of his illneses were his emotion
s. The other
insight had a practical value if we release emotions which limit us we will have
a sound and
calm life. He used those two insights for a period of three months. By the end o
f that period, he
became totaly healthy again.
So those were the insights from which he developed his Sedona method of emotiona
l
release. The quintessence of his method, he expressed with these words: "The key
which will give
you the permanent happiness is the knowledge of how to release your accumulated
negative
emotions. Releasing them, you will get a stronger feeling of happiness and other
things important
for you in your life will be better: Money, health...absolutely everything."
The basis of all our experiences is emotional, Levenson said. Negative emotions
start
corresponding thoughts, and negative thoughts push a person to the wrong activit
y or force such
one to retreat from useful activities. Watching people around himself, Levenson
noticed the main
types of behavior caused by negative feelings: suppressing unpleasant emotions,
expressing them
and releasing them or letting go of them.
Suppressing has the worst consequences as smoking, alcohol, drugs and other comp
ulsive
activities. Not only are people supressing their own emotions, they are often su
pressing emotions
of their children. In the therapy circles, there is a popular joke: In the first
two years of childs
life, everyone around them is trying to get them to walk and talk, and for the n
ext eighteen years,
everyone is trying to get them to sit and to shut up.
Another way we try to handle unpleasant emotions is through their expression. Th
ere are
some methods which try to attain human wellbeing through expression of unpleasan
t emotions.
Workshop leaders of such methods tell participants: Share with others whatever y
ou feel toward
them, that is the way to set yourself free from such emotions. Such a catharthic
approach does not
give a permanent positive solution, however, because with such behaviour the per
son is likely to
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hurt others around him/her. It causes guilt feelings, and relationships with the
closest people
around become aggravated.
Only the release of negative emotions gives permanent results and leads to wellb

eing and
good relationships with surrounding people. Levenson supposed that removal of ne
gative
characteristics will automatically bring about positive states, but this has not
proved to be true in
practice. Consequently, his followers perfected the system. Basically it was the
same as
Levenson made it for simple negative emotions, but for deep negative feelings an
d negative
beliefs, they use todays more complex procedures. That means the Sedona method is
not a
rigid one. It accepts contributions of followers and that is the reason it is in
constant
development. It is logical that such a constantly developing system can not bypa
ss the polarities
which make the fundament and arena of human life. Recently (in 2003) Hale Dwoski
n, one of the
most eminent practitioners of this system, published the book "The Sedona Method
," which
presents as a very worthy practical manual.
One of the main ways for people to cause misfortune and disappointment is holdin
g onto
their own limited beliefs and feelings. The opposite attitude, we would say the
opposite polarity,
is to let them go or release them. Holding for something and letting it go are c
omponents of the
natural process of living. "Such understanding is the basis of the Sedona Method
," writes
Dwoskin in his book, which is evidently emphasizing the polar nature our world.
The process of letting go or releasement of emotions has a few definite steps.
First step
Concentrate on the unwanted emotion which you feel in yourself in the present mo
ment
and let yourself feel it completely.
Second step
Ask yourself one of the following 3 questions:
Could I let this feeling go?
Could I allow this feeling to be here?
Could I welcome this feeling?
These questions are intended to ask yourself whether you could take one of these
actions.
Both "yes" and "no" are acceptable answers. Very often a man will release an emo
tion
although now he answers with "no".
Third step
It does not matter which question you started with, now ask yourself: "Would I d
o that?"
In other words, it means "Am I willing to let go/release that emotion?" If the a
nswer is
"no", or if you are not sure, ask yourself: "Would I rather feel this feeling or
would I rather
be free of it?"
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Forth step
Ask yourself, "When?" This is really an invitation to let it go now. You will se
e that in this
phase of the process it is easy.
Fifth step
Repeat the preceding four steps as often as needed until you feel free of that e
motion.

Practising this simple procedure will cause the person doing it to have more and
more
internal freedom. Applying the Sedona Method on himself, Lester Levinson discove
red that
people are able to cast off the yoke of their past when they clear four fundamen
tal needs which
appear as polarities:
Wanting to control others Wanting to be controlled by others
Wanting approval/love Wanting to give others approval/desire to love others
Wanting security/survival Wanting to die
Wanting to be separate Wanting to be One with others
The final goal of the Sedona Method is the freedom to decide what to be, to do,
and to
have, and what you don t want to be, don t want to do, and don t want to have. I
t is the natural
state of Being when we are not able to be disturbed with what happened in our pa
st.