Stage 5-Merging with the Illusion

Swimming in the Current

Merging Past the Illusion

Merging Beyond the Wall

“So if you think your life is complete confusion

Because you never win the game

Just remember that it’s the Grand Illusion

Deep inside we’re all the same

Someday soon we’ll stop to ponder what on Earth’s this spell we’re under

We made the grade and still we wonder who the hell we are”

–Styx, “The Grand Illusion”

Nice touch, eh?  Although the song is more about becoming rich and famous and remembering that even though we have money, we still go through the same stuff, I think it can apply to discussing Stage 5.

Stage 5 is the time to confront the fears, pains, and illusions–the “shadow self”– that lurk BEHIND the suffering from your place of strength that you gained in Stage 4.  You may find you confront your “light self.”  Any part of you that you were keeping yourself hidden from will now come to the forefront.

You create a new sense of empowerment for yourself because you were able to use your own resources and break through that haze/film/nebulous barrier that was keeping you blind to the hidden parts of yourself.  “I know there’s something more to this…”

You KNOW there is something behind the barrier, although you are not always aware of what it is exactly.  This is the time to observe the illusion itself not necessarily what’s behind it.

Be careful you don’t enter Stage 5 until you are READY!!!  Many practitioners bring you to this stage to confront situation when the Bodymind is not ready for it.  Effective merging cannot be forced.

Stage 5 is essentially about moving to a deeper level of WHOLENESS.  To do that, you need to see those parts of you that have been remain hidden by the illusion of a barrier.  Before, the barrier seemed solid; the more you work with the knowledge and understanding of yourself, the more you realize it’s really just a smoke screen and can easily be swiped away…”Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!” 🙂

In this stage of healing we revisit our alienated self.  We are now strong enough to own it, to merge past the illusion of self.  We know there is more to our body sense or symptom than just physical pain.  It seems like there is an emotion or an energy that must be recognized.  We want to hold our body or part and ask it, “What do you want?”  It seems as if there is a film or haze between what we are experiencing and a deeper level of ourselves.  That divide or membrane is scary, but we have a sense that we must penetrate it, because it is an illusion.  We know that past any potential discomfort we will be okay.  We must see what is on the other side of the illusion.  In this stage, we literally merge with the illusion of self, towards more wholeness.

–SomatoRespiratory Integration Workbook