This is a beautiful and hopeful time to be alive. We are at a turning point, and your contribution to the world is needed more than ever. All of your struggles, all the struggles of your ancestors, all the struggles of all life have led to this moment right now. You are the culmination of life’s great earning; you are the hope of the world.

I would like to propose that direct, positive experience of and interaction with nature is essential to your health. Since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, humankind has become increasingly disconnected from the Earth that sustains us, and the effect has been regrettable. In the most obvious ways, human health is currently threatened by environmental problems, such as pollution and ozone depletion. But I would also like to suggest that the effects of this go deeper, that disconnection from nature is essentially a spiritual problem that subsequently leads to problems of the body and mind as well.

Author Richard Louv, in his book Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, suggests that many of the mental and emotional problems that have become increasingly prevalent in children are linked to their decreasing amount of direct contact with nature.

Medical science has confirmed that infants begin responding to sounds around them long before they are born. When you were developing in your mother’s womb, your ears were practically the only sensory organs taking in information. Your skin could sense the warmth of your mother’s body, but it was a consistent, unvarying temperature, and you were suspended in the amniotic fluid, an environment with very little variety of texture. Your eves were closed to the dark interior of your mother’s body and your mouth had no food to taste.

You lived alone in a dark world where the unceasing rhythm of your mother’s heartbeat was your constant companion.

You will learn to trust your intuitive feelings in this regard. When something feels right, you will know it is right. When it is in accord with your true self, you will recognize it as truth; when it is not, you will also recognize that. David R. Hawkins has shown in his studies that the body can perceive truth and falsehood intuitively. If in doubt, just ask your brain— not the thinking brain but the intuitive brain. It always knows and is ready to share its wisdom.

I believe that there is a link between disease and the health of our brain waves, and the health of our brain waves is determined by the quality of information we possess.

The Consciousness Connection

The level at which your brain waves resonate could be equated with the level at which your consciousness resonates. Hawkins. Another tendency of the ego is to collect information just for the sake of stockpiling an impressive array of knowledge. Knowledge can be a helpful tool, but hording it only clouds the mind and distracts you from your highest intentions.

One student of mine was a reporter, and he was constantly bombarded with negative information because he was in charge of reporting all sorts of negative news—accidents, crime, and the like. He was soon plagued with health problems, including deep fatigue and unnatural hair loss. On top of that, he smoked and drank too much to relieve the stress. Now his health has improved because he uses Brain Wave Vibration to clear away the negative information from his mind.

To determine consciousness levels, Hawkins uses a process called kinesiology, which shows the connection between the body, the brain, and its various states of consciousness. He determines the level of a person or object by testing its effect on human musculature. A lower consciousness level will cause muscle to go weak, while a higher consciousness level will strengthen the muscle. Even when the subject is not aware of the object used in the test, consciousness levels calculate consistently. For example, if pictures of Mother Teresa and Adolph Hitler are placed in envelopes, the subject will still demonstrate a higher level of consciousness with the first.

What I do know is that whatever your mission in life, you will be of great service to humanity. I believe that every person has a great internal desire to find a harmonious way of living on the planet and to contribute something of value to the world. In Korean we call this the Hong-ik ideal, which refers to the desire to be beneficial, not just to you but also to all of humanity.

This sort of mind-set can be a great source of continual hope in your life. People who have a clear sense of purpose are never hopeless because they always know they can make a difference, even if just one step at a time.

There is a natural progression to life that unfortunately many of us have stepped away from. It is like many of us are caterpillars who have decided not to become butterflies. Or maybe we have just forgotten that we are able to become butterflies.

Develop a Wide-Benefit Brain

The best thing you can do to bring a sense of hope to your life is to discover a sense of purpose. But how can you know your real purpose? Maybe you have searched for that for thirty or forty years and have never found the answer. I cannot answer that question exactly for you because it is ultimately up to you.

If you find yourself unable to concentrate, perhaps you will agree that not only children can fall victim to nature-deficit disorder. I would contend that part of the reason adults are increasingly stricken with anxiety, depression, and other forms of psychological distress is because they are simply not grounded.