Whispers in the Wilderness: Finding Treasures of the Heart

By Judy Leighton

After suffering terrifying flashbacks of fear and pain for decades, Judy Leighton, pain and stress consultant, was facing death for six months with an energy-sapping illness with no known cure. One night she prayed and received an answer that helped her develop a healing method. Using this simple-to-use method, her flashbacks vanished after ten daysthe fear and pain from her memories were gone. After two more weeks, her illness also disappeared.

Judys mission is to share her healing method, and she has authored three books. In this book she tells her surprising healing journey and relates numerous spiritual adventures, showing how ordinary days unfold into the extraordinary.

Her method answers why so many people have made unhealthy or unwise choices, even when they knew better. This book presents a method for people to recognize and release themselves from barriers to making wise and healthy choices.

Truly inspiring, offering hope and therapeutic techniques

Dr. David Baron, professor and vice chair, Dept. of Psychiatry, Keck School of Medicine, USC

A wonderful story of faith, hope, and trust

Francis Marcolongo, PhD, MFT, STL

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 9, 2002
• ISBN: 9781477178980

Judy Leighton

Judy Leighton, pain and stress consultant, continues her invitation to experience the Sunshine Methodthe healing method she developed that removed the fear and pain from her memories. At age forty, Judy was losing strength each day for seven months as she suffered a serious and painful rare illness with no known cure. She also had suffered terrifying flashbacks most of her life and was close to deaths door. During this time, she prayed and was led to develop a method that unexpectedly released her from these flashbacks in only ten days. Two weeks later, she also experienced a total remission from her illness. She wrote down how she healed and shared her methodology to quickly release fear and pain from memories with psychiatrist Dr. David A. Baron (former deputy director of the National Institute of Mental Health and currently professor, Department of Psychiatry, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California). Since 1987, Dr. Baron has served as her consultant as she has presented her healing method in medical centers, public seminars, and in private sessions. Judys mission is to share her healing method to eliminate suffering. She tells in this book how she became a concert pianist and gave this up to focus on helping people learn about her method.

Book preview

Copyright © 2002, 2012, 2017 by Judy Leighton.

First Edition, 2002. Revised Editions 2012, 2017.

www.apathtolight.com

Library of Congress Control Number:   2001117013

   Softcover   978-1-4010-0362-3

   eBook   978-1-4771-7898-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

NOTICE: The method presented in this book is a complementary method. It is not a substitute for other methods, including counseling and medical advice or treatment.

Rev. date: 12/26/2017

Xlibris

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

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CONTENTS

WHISPERS IN A WILDERNESS (POEM)

INTRODUCTION

AUTHOR’S FOREWORD TO THIS REVISED EDITION

AUTHOR’S INTRODUCTION

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

1.    MYSTERY OF THE FLEUR-DE-LIS PIN

Unresolved Fear, Pain, and Guilt

Reading Comprehension Problems

Beginning Solutions in the Library

Releasing Unnecessary Fear, Pain, and Guilt

My Background

Finding My Future Husband

From Death to Life (poem)

2.    MIDDLE OF NOWHERE EVERYWHERE?

The Willow Lake

Lost Is a Place Too (poem)

3.    CRYSTAL BELLS

Goals and Attitudes

Visualization

Spiritual Guidance

Meeting the Master Teacher

4.    MYSTERIOUS GIFTS

Gift Through the Air

Became Ill

Gift of Peace and Inner Healing

Another Aspect And Benefit

Gift of Piano Lessons

Gift of Peace

Gift of Good-Will

Gift of Awakening

Ideas That Affected My Healing Process

Maintain Healthy Habits?

Even Though It’s Good For You

Relaxation Exercise

Silent Thoughts

5.    PROMOTING HEALING AND PEACE

Opening Blossoms (poem)

Divine Timing (poem)

6.    HEALING WATERS

First Trip to Lourdes Spring, France

Yamabuki-no-Omizu Spring, Japan

Contact in Japan

Trip to Japan

Concert

Second Trip to Lourdes

Burnout

Symptoms of Burnout

The Way Back to Myself and Others

Variables in Healing

7.    SPIRITUAL SYNCHRONICITIES

8.    PLEASE TO COME TO WHERE I ARE

Love’s Prayer (poem)

Judy’s Story

Tom’s Story

Brief description of some double binds

Somewhere in Time (poem)

9. ILLUMINATING MOONLIGHT

Maintaining New Healthy Habits

Continue Even Though It’s Good For You

Focusing on a Pulse

Jewels (poem)

10. RETURN TO SANTA MONICA

11. WONDERING PATH

Returning (poem)

Healing Treasures (poem)

RENASCENCE (poem)

12. THE BIRTHDAY GIFT

Gladly Stay (poem)

The Willow Lake (poem)

A Path to Light (poem)

13. WE ARE THE TREASURE SAFE TO KEEP

You Stay (poem)

We are the treasure safe to keep.

14. THANKSGIVING PRAYER ANSWERED

Heavenly Walk (poem)

Divine Light (poem)

Lofty Surprise

Miracle Magi

15. TWINKLING MEMORIES

Path of Bliss (poem)

Let There Be (poem)

Twinkling Memories (poem)

16. PATHS TO CHANGE

Barriers to Release

Other Possible Factors In Healing

Effects In and On Memory

Some Solutions

Because We Have the Gift of Life (poem)

17. PATH OF DISCOVERY

1. First Light—Revealing Answers

2. A Paradox Of Safety

What Is Safety?

The ‘Feeling Safe’ Mode

3. Safe To Know And Be Wise

Not Like A Robot!

4. Think, Feel, And Be Valuable

Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD)

Schizophrenia

5. Evidence For Your Worthiness

6. Untangling Contradictions With Grace And Compassion

7. How To Stop Hurting Yourself And Others

It’s Very Simple—

A Crucial Piece Of The Puzzle Had Been Revealed To Me.

My Mind Was Then Open To Receive Other Positive Messages.

when Healthy For Me And/Or Us

I Am Always Safe?

8. Being Safe

Self-Protection

Safe Even With My Car

9. Let Go Of Fear, Pain, Guilt, And Punishment

Comfort And Immune System

Justification For Letting Go

10. How To Think And Feel Safe With Grace And Compassion

Silent Communication

Frequent Questions

All People Deserve Rehabilitation And Healing.

APPENDIX

For People Who Think They May Be In A Crisis Or Emergency Situation

Message For Food Or Appetite Issues

Basic Messages For Safety

Main Messages To Invite Sunshine In

Healthy Self-Worth

Instructions For The Self-Worth Exercise

I. Focusing On Your Own Worth

II. Focusing On The Worth Of Others

Self-Worth Exercise

Instructions For The Self-Evaluation For Peace And Inner Healing

Self-Evaluation For Peace And Inner Healing

My Method And Differences And Similarities With EMDR And Another Method

INDEX

Dedication

To Tom Leighton, my son and daughter,

parents, relatives, and friends.

Because of Tom’s help and his support for my books, as well as the loving support of my son and daughter, we give this story to you.

Whispers in a Wilderness

Whispering peace … reflections …

winging love … returning to see …

grace healing …

finding joy—each other …

dawning hearts free.

Compassion, abysmal pain,

and false light within our pasts—

why so blindingly we could not see to be,

now see at last.

Forgiving …

unknowingly lack knowing …

innocent emptiness …

bridging chasms …

calmly crossing through emerald wilderness.

Glowing, radiant sunshine;

illumined grace and love appear …

misty confusion of doubts, fear, and pain virtuously clear—

always giving warmth and vision when we’re unable to see;

perpetually understanding …

growing souls in crowning harmony.

(Written 1993)

INTRODUCTION

W HISPERS IN THE WILDERNESS is an autobiogra-

phical self-help book well worth the read.

The book documents the personal path of Judy Leighton, Pain & Stress Consultant that led to the development of her method of inner healing. The Method addresses double binds (mental/emotional traps), and gives techniques that provide healthy alternatives in problem solving. Like every good life story, this one focuses on career, love, finding a spouse, and destiny.

This text shares highly personal spiritual experiences, and how Judy receives hints of the future leading her on surprising paths. She highlights the positive impact of her self-help method of letting go of depression, fear, pain and suffering, and for defusing violence. She presents the method through the use of numerous clinical vignettes from her private consulting and weekly public seminars in medical facilities, as well as her own life experiences. The text is truly inspiring, offering hope, and therapeutic techniques to others suffering from various life traumas.

I have had the pleasure of knowing Judy for over thirty years. She is an empathic consultant, gifted musician, and lover of life. Her warmth and compassion for others is a gift she shares with the reader of this touching manuscript.

Enjoy it!

David A. Baron, MSEd, D.O., DFAPA

(Distinguished Fellow American Psychiatric Association)

Assist. Dean, International Relations,

Keck School of Medicine, USC, Los Angeles

Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Psychiatry

Psychiatrist-in-Chief, Keck Medical Center at USC

AUTHOR’S FOREWORD

I N 2002, I FINISHED AND PUBLISHED the first edition of Whispers in the Wilderness: Finding Treasures of the Heart. I wrote it at the same time I wrote A Path to Light: How to Not Not Make Healthy Choices , which I published first in 2000.

In 2017, I took portions of A Path to Light and added new material to produce Journey into Light: Experience the Sunshine Method. This easy-to-read book is a grand invitation to experience the healing method I developed in 1985 (informally called the Sunshine Method).

I also, in 2017, considerably reworked A Path to Light to appeal to more readers. In it I add further explanations about how the Sunshine Method works as I continue the invitation to more fully experience this healing method.

Readers are invited to begin with Journey into Light and then read A Path to Light or Whispers in the Wilderness.

In this revised edition of Whispers in the Wilderness, I have included an index at the back which serves as a brief overview.

I have left the book largely as I wrote it (including my poetic effusions) to give readers a feel for my enthusiasm of finding a way out of the darkness and bleakness of the first 40 years of my life. At age 40 I was delivered from my recurring flashbacks of fear and pain and my life-threatening illness. Because I had escaped relentless suffering, my heart was filled with joy and immense compassion to help others out of their suffering.

For the next 15 years, I diligently devoted time and effort to share my healing method. I worked with hundreds of people, sharing with them a rapid way out of their suffering. I also wrote down case studies of many of these people and received numerous testimonial letters, which I draw from and quote from in my books.

The healing method I developed works silently and from the inside out and on many fronts at once. Anyone who can silently repeat words in their mind can benefit from the Sunshine Method.

The healing method I developed is simple to use yet powerfully effective in helping people heal mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually so they can run smoothly on all four of these cylinders.

From my work with people and my extensive reading as I wrote A Path to Light, I documented how huge and monstrous the tangled web is in people’s minds, hearts, and bodies.

In the first edition of A Path to Light, I endeavored to explain how the Sunshine Method works beautifully to make a nice slice through all the whole tangled web, freeing people one by one from the fear, pain, guilt, punishment, depression, etc., they were stuck in because of their countless interwoven mental and emotional traps.

Whispers in the Wilderness also shows how a number of these traps work and how the Sunshine Method slices through them.

I don’t know why God gave me the Sunshine Method. I am an ordinary person in so many ways, yet what God gave me is extraordinary. I just asked God for what was missing in the minds of people who don’t do what’s best for themselves and others, and He gave me the simple, profound answer that healed me and so many others.

I especially have enjoyed being led step by step by God to develop this healing method. In this book, I share some of my spiritual adventures, providing examples of how God and angels guided me by small, simple messages. I reveal also what unexpectedly and gloriously unfolded as I followed these messages.

I invite readers to be open to be led on their own spiritual adventures.

As I said, in this book I share my enthusiasm for the healing method God gave me. I invite you to experience your own mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual healing so you can enjoy life more, running smoothly on all four cylinders.

AUTHOR’S

INTRODUCTION

M y first book, A Path to Light: How to Not Not Make Healthy Choices, documents my healing method. It addresses mental/emotional traps, and often removes fear and pain from traumatic memories quickly. Letters and studies using my method were included. My method also may prevent violence. T his book, Whispers in the Wilderness, tells my surprising adventures as I searched for healing. The healing process I developed that unexpectedly worked is presented.

In 1965, when I was 21, I wanted to know how to get off the merry-go-round of the depression, fear, pain, guilt, and repetitive flashbacks that I had since childhood. Forgiving others was not an issue, and I began my search in therapy. At 40, I discovered how, after being diagnosed with a mixed-connective tissue disease and was facing death. My unique confrontation with death gave me the safety to ask a relevant question, and received an answer.

One evening before falling asleep, I asked, What is missing from the minds of people who don’t do what is best for themselves and others? In the middle of the night, I was awakened with an answer. This assisted me to understand how other conflicting issues were related—interwoven, and see more answers on how to resolve them. With these answers, I developed a simple healing method (A Dissociative Method to release Psychobiologic Binds—The Sunshine Method) to deal with my overwhelming emotional and physical fear and pain.

Using my method, surprisingly, just 10 days later my depression, together with my longstanding unnecessary fear, pain, guilt, and flashbacks had gone—disappearing permanently from my memories. I still had my factual memories, but without the pain associated with them.

My process includes new interpretations and perspectives in logic, and tools that I applied using language and logic to safely release myself. My inner work directly addressed some previously hidden interwoven and interlocked mental/emotional traps. These traps had created a false safety that was, in fact, hurtful, yet had helped me cope with past and present circumstances. A tangled web of traps had also prevented me from thinking of other alternatives. The result was what I call the Circular Disposition Syndrome, which I was able to transform into new dispositions.

Release from these traps included addressing, resolving and then safely releasing some conflicts and old fear and pain. This was within my personal, collective subconscious, and unconscious, and within the realm of spiritual issues through a particular process. Part of the process is how to safely and immediately have a healthy self-worth, and how to be more constructive without the need for unnecessary fear and pain as a protective defense. This is a mental/emotional anti-depressant process—the Sunshine Method, including a mental exercise program. I learned how to be safe in a new way, even while taking wise and healthy risks.

After doing this method for two more weeks, my physical pain also disappeared. I hadn’t been able to write, drive, walk (only limp), or exercise. The illness was in remission. Without belief or even the will to live, I had gained a high degree of inner peace. For me, this contributed to quickly transforming my mental and physical health. Because of this, I gained greater clarity, and was able to make many more wise and healthy choices. This included choosing a healthier balance. Retelling the story of the events from my past was not necessary to achieve this transformation.

One reason why my method worked so quickly is because I addressed and solved many interwoven mental/emotional traps at the same time. Also, I added new thoughts with persistent repetition including them in my relaxation exercise, with focusing on a pulse.

After healing, I wrote a short booklet about my experience and was invited to present my method. It was a complicated task to explain the concept of interwoven and interlocking traps and how and why my easy-to-use method works.

In 1985, my method was recognized by psychiatrist Dr. David Baron, who became my consultant and later wrote the introduction for two of my books. In 1987 I began presenting my method as a Pain & Stress Consultant in medical treatment centers. Dr. Baron became the Deputy Director of the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, MD (1987-92).

From Dr. Baron I learned that I had developed a healing method which included creating a form of cognitive restructuring with behavioral intervention that focuses on basic control issues.

My healing method offers some added tools to release yourself from mental/emotional traps and heal. The process begins by silently focusing on messages found in the Appendix and includes weekly working through the Self-Worth Exercise and the Self-Evaluation for Peace and Inner Healing. Instead of reinforcing the old mental/emotional traps, these tools can help you safely let go of the old painful feelings, allowing them to vanish through disuse. More about my healing method is in Journey into Light: Experience the Sunshine Method and A Path to Light: How to Not Not Make Healthy Choices.

This is done by using some similar and different words, creating new different overlapping constructive thoughts. The process is like a train switching tracks at a junction and then traveling on a new track with new interpretations and language. The baggage of your painful feelings or numbness may be left behind on the old track, and may disappear like a path that is no longer used. I still retained my memories, but without the unnecessary painful emotions associated with them. Also, I had new constructive feelings appear, along with some formerly repressed positive feelings.

With greater clarity, I’m better able to know what I want to do in life, and how to participate in creating a more constructive future. For me, there were also many unexpected connecting events that occurred (sometimes thousands of miles away), that were seemingly beyond my conscious knowledge, intuition and creation. Many of these are mentioned in this book. One such exciting event is how at the age of 53, I mysteriously met my future husband in a most unusual setting under extraordinary circumstances. Some of my poetry, written many years earlier, is included, which seems to have been a herald of my future—a healing method, and finding my husband to aid me in sharing with others. Some of my experiences just seem beyond the beyond.

As a consultant for doctors in medical treatment centers, I presented my healing method privately and in weekly group public seminars to people with cancer, arthritis, other chronic illness, physical pain, depression, addictions, and problems in everyday life. The Appendix includes tools to begin using my healing method, such as the Self-Worth Exercise and the Self-Evaluation for Peace and Inner Healing.

You may be unknowingly trying to protect yourself by obeying a destructive self-protection program (e.g., hurting people to keep them from hurting you) or doing it out of habit. You may even continue your hurtful thinking and behavior after you know you’re hurting yourself and others. This is one reason many people have had difficulty making wise and healthy choices even when they knew better.

You may be aware of your unnecessary fear, guilt, anger, sadness, and flashbacks, or you may be gutsing/charging through life with your feelings stored safely below your level of awareness. Either way, my method may give you a safe way to deal with those feelings to gain your release. Also, you may gain confidence that you can deal with whatever problems you are facing, which may even include assistance from others.

Being in a greater state of harmony, through this healing method, may provide you a safe new way to "feel and be safe with healthy comfort and safety."

Creating new healthy thought and behavior patterns does require using the tool of discipline. When you may lapse, just begin again. Healthy nutrition, which may include taking supplements and daily exercise (when possible) may contribute to your well being. Also, intermittent movement throughout each day, safe adequate sunlight and natural hormone replacement may be other factors in healing.

Research studies demonstrate that relaxation and exercise programs benefit general health (p. 118).

After healing, you may continue focusing on and using the messages of this method which may aid you in maintaining your healing, and further strengthening yourself.

In today’s fast-paced world with so much tension, sadness, anger, and violence, there are times when you may feel overwhelmed with conflicting information and confusion. This simple-to-use healing method may be vital for quickly releasing unnecessary barriers, confusion, and pain—to be safe with safety. This aids in greater clarity and confidence to make many more wise choices and stick with them. Also, my healing method can be compatible with other methods and beliefs.

Meaningful, productive lives and healthy relationships can reach beyond ourselves to affect our human family and our environment—ultimately creating and radiating greater dignity, peace and harmony for everyone.

Judy Leighton,

Pain & Stress Consultant

If you want to jump in and begin your healing process, you may skip to the Appendix, read the instructions, and begin using the tools there. If you have problems with your appetite, you can focus on the messages there. To learn more about my healing method, read Chapter 17. For details on focusing on a pulse to aid relaxation, see pages 73-74. To follow the tale of my adventures, naturally, begin at the beginning.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

M Y FATHER AND MOTHER gave me the childhood experiences of living in Japan from 1948-51 and then Germany from 1953-56, as well as travel to various countries and to different states in the United States. Meeting kind, loving, and constructive people in all these places made it possible for me to experience the universal oneness of us all.

I’m very grateful to my sister, grandparents, many relatives, and many friends for their love and encouragement.

I thank my son and my daughter, a mental health counselor, for the rewarding times we had editing the book jackets and my author introduction.

Dr. David A. Baron, psychiatrist, made it possible for me to be a guest