The problem of charity – a practitioner’s dilemma

In our last article on being a practitioner I discussed the question of what is a healing worth? My answer, it will come as no surprise, is “a lot.” I speak as someone who has personally spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on healing and personal growth. The return on this investment has been great in terms of my health, relationships and ultimately abundance. Every area of my life has changed as I have transformed myself over the last 7 years. I am often told that I am unrecognizable to people who studied with me just 6 months before.

This talk about how much healings are worth raises a different “problem.” What about people who simply cannot afford to pay? How do we help them?

Let me start by saying that I simply don’t have all the answers. In today’s blog I want to ask some of the right questions, raise some issues, share my experience and tell you what I do about it.

I really want you to share today - what do you do to help those less fortunate? What kind of help would you like to receive? Do you think that charity (in the form of discounts) is the right way to go or a patronizing gesture that rarely helps in the long term?

The problem:

In a nutshell, the problem is that whatever price you place on your services, there will be really deserving, good people who can’t afford it.

Solutions:

Here’s a range of ideas:

work on a donation basis;
price your services by what they are worth to each client;
have different prices for different people;
let poor people have your services for free;
payment plans, exchange agreement, etc.

In an idealistic world you might think that the best way to pay for services is according to what people can afford to pay. For instance millionaires could pay thousands for a transformational session (which will help them earn more millions), and homeless people wouldn’t have to pay anything. I love that idea.

In practice, it rarely (or never) works.

I know plenty of healers who work on a donation / exchange basis. All of them have massive abundance blocks and many live below the poverty line. It doesn’t work for the obvious reason that the healer is valuing their time enough to attract clients who will do so. No millionaire is going to see them, and if they did, they probably wont pay more than dinner.

During 2009 I did an experiment: when people asked me about healing something I asked them “what’s it worth to you to have this healed?” Essentially I asked people to name their price for the session. The results: no one gave a value higher than what I had in mind (my usual fee of Au$200 ph / Eur 135 / USD 165). I would have been happy if half paid over and half paid under, but basically the experiment failed.

As much as I love the pay-what-you-feel-its-worth-to-you idea, I have not managed to make it work.

What’s going wrong?

I have tried basically all the ideas I mentioned above. It has only given us grief. Let’s look at some of the problems.

People who have done the courses for free have usually (70-80%) not respected the content. People just don’t seem to value what they don’t have to pay for.
People that we have gone out of our way to help have seemed to hurt or betray us in ways that we have never experienced with paying customs.
People who do the course for free / discount take up a disproportionate amount of the teachers’ and assistant teachers’ time – more than 5 times the average student. There seems to be no way to say “you can come for free if you are silent in the corner” (that isn’t realistic on personal development courses).
We used to offer generous 3-4 month payment plans but stopped when we realised we were writing off more than $20,000 in bad debts. Sadly the dishonesty of some people stopped us extending this opportunity to others.
If you the practitioner / teacher feel undervalued / disrespected you end up (at least unconsciously) resenting the client and cannot be there for them 100%.

On the plus side we’ve had 1 or 2 examples (out of say 1,500 students) where gifting them the course has resulted in an extraordinary breakthrough and enabled them to make massive shifts. It’s tempting to say that that makes it all worth it, but it doesn’t really compensate for the hurt, losses and disrespect we’ve incurred in trying to help people.

Clearly some of this is “our stuff.” Our poor boundaries and judgment have tended to attract this problem. I get that 100%.

Possible solutions

What we are looking for is a solution that helps those who need help, while really respecting the value of the work you offer.

On both the Landmark Education courses and also NLP intro I took with Christopher Howard, I heard the same story: that they refuse to give discounts or concessions because they find that the breakthrough that people need to make to get the money together to do the course is bigger than the breakthrough they get on the course.

To put that another way – to give the person the course for free is to buy into the same poverty story that caused them to need the course for free. By asking them to pay in full, those who are committed will climb mountains to be there – and in doing so will see what they can achieve and will have a massive personal breakthrough (before even turning up to the course).

I completely agree with this philosophy – in theory. In practice it’s a bit harsh and I think you need to offer some flexibility.

I will say this: we stopped offering payment plans in 2009 because we were losing too much money in bad debts. Once we started saying “no” to people who wanted payment plans, all but one out of the 20 people who have asked came back with the money for the course! My heart still goes back to that 1 person though, and I am not sure that we did the right thing by her. But for the 19 out of 20 we did do the right thing and had a win-win outcome.

There is no easy answer – in fact I’m hoping some of you can give me ideas. What I’ll offer you is a list of some of the things we do to help people who can’t afford our services.

What we do to help

Sometimes people (with massive abundance blocks) accuse us of being in this for the money or of charging too much. I have to laugh when I hear this – did you know I donated RPT to charity?

So, here’s a list of just some of the things we do to help people who can’t afford our usual rates.

Each application for a concession or special consideration is individually considered and the person’s circumstances are taken into account.
We donate a lot of our time for free helping people through our public forum at www.rptforum.com.
We have free healing clinics at each of our Level 3 courses where members of the public can come for free.
Time permitting we help people for free over the phone (but only where it really feels right and only where it’s our offer – not the person’s demand).
Simon shares a LOT of information for free on this blog to help a wide range of people who could or would never pay for a course or consultation.
Simon donates a lot of his time to the charities he supports. In this way he can help a wider range of people than just through RPT.
We provide a wide range of practitioners with a wide range of prices for their services. Whilst a session with Simon is expensive to some people, we do have new graduates who would work for a small fee for the experience. Whilst they aren’t on our website, we can refer people to them when asked.
Perhaps most importantly – we significantly undercharge for our work. I know that our courses provide more effective methods than say an NLP Master Practitioner program costing $10,000 or more. But I would never charge that much for a course.
I think a session with me or a top RPT practitioner is worth far more than the $5,000+ that top NLP coaches like Christopher Howard charge, but we would never charge that. We offer instant permanent results, for a fraction of what this might cost. We keep our prices really low to keep the work affordable to the widest range of people possible.

Is this perfect? No. I know for sure that there are good people who have been excluded from the work because of price. Can I help everyone? No. But I don’t have to help everyone. I just chose to help enough people to create a global shift in consciousness.

Your input

Please share your thoughts. What would you do to help people? Should we do more? Do we charge too much or too little? What have you found that works for you? How could we make this work more accessible without devaluing our teachers’ business (we can’t give everything away)?

Please share your thoughts here.

20 Comments

May 25, 2010 by Simon Rose in Being a Practitioner
Tagged alternative healing, charity, does charity work, free, free gift, free healings, healing consultations, healing modality, reference point therapy, simon rose

20 Responses

Reply

kryon
May 25, 2010 at 3:40 am

Hi,

Meaningful discussion of this topic.

I think my ways of handling it is by “Let others do their work too”
For example, I have been teaching tarot for years.
I charged a fairly low price for the course, just hoping more people can learn it.
And if a new student need guidance, I will sure there for support.
But if there is another advanced student present at the spot, I will surely ask the advanced student to help. because I found through helping the new student, the advanced student learns how to teach, and I am able to learn how to teach “how to teach” to the advanced student. In this case, I am enriching myself, the advanced student and the new student. It maybe much better then I just go helping the new student directly. It is fast, but may not empower everyone as much as the other method.

So, I think the point is: Charge as much as you want, and provide opportunities to “less advanced / experienced ” practitioner in helping for those are not able to afford you.

in other words, if you charge 1000 per hour
then focus helping those who can afford it.
and people that can afford 1000 ph for your help,
can help those who can only afford up to 900 ph
and those who can only afford up to 900,
can help people that can only afford to 800

Sure, it is not implanted strictly, only a general rules that can help everyone have a chance to contribute. Btw, I dont think we need a “Saint” that do all the helping work, but we all are “Saint” that helping at our comfort zone and level of experience.

Look forward to hear how other think on this topic
thanks raising this question to us.

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grego
May 25, 2010 at 10:21 pm

Simon,

If it helps you feel any better, I’ve experienced all of those in my business from “poor” and “special” clients, too!

**You can’t save everyone in the world. In fact, many people don’t want to be saved!

**I have seen free healings work–(often by) those who can’t pay, often “pass it on” in some way or another. One way to do an “exchange” or discount is through case studies/ testimonials/ permission to film/ etc. –not just a typical one, but more in-depth and with follow up, and maybe their own comments on the situation and healing–up to what the cost would have been for their sessions.

**For those who can’t pay, there is the option of referrals–”every three sessions from your referrals, you get one free” (or whatever, depending on you, them, etc.).

**As you said, you can contribute money/ materials/ other to charity instead of services and time to those who seek charity in this way. There will usually be someone out there who will do it for cheaper, hopefully because they are ok with it, or don’t provide as much value for some reason or another…

**Some practitioners use last year’s tax form or this year’s W-2 as a sliding scale basis. There are many legalities to this if insurance is involved, and maybe even otherwise.

**My friend has a breakfast store. She has beggars wanting hadnouts, during open hours. Solution? Simple. “Come back when all the customers have left (gives them a time) and whatever food is leftover that I’m going to throw out, I’ll divide it up for you all.” Everyone wins. Best way? I don’t know, but she feels much better about it all…

**Some other things to consider: How great really is the need? What are they trying to do with their life? What have been they been through? How much has the person tried other things? How much has the person tried themself? How much time, money, effort? (I think most of us would be much more willing to help someone who’s put in a lot than someone who hasn’t.) Who else is dependent on them? (I think most of us would be more willing to help someone with children who are going to bear the brunt of the problems, than someone who doesn’t have or want children.)

**Many people won’t be honest (in whatever form). Get over it! Ok, they were fake/ lied/ took advantage of you–this is more bad karma they will have to deal with. Once you know them, however, you don’t have to continue supporting their bad habits! Here is part of a post I wrote a while back on beggars and religion, much of which can be applied to this situation that might hopefully help some:
“We often worry about whether the person begging is in real need or is cheating us, just trying to take our [services/] money for nothing. Hey, we earned it, it’s ours, we don’t want to just give it away for nothing. In business and energy work it’s the concept of “fair exchange”. So we are often hesitant. We also know that we can’t just give everything to everyone. We also know it’s often not good to give plain money to others, but maybe food, clothes, a ride, etc. instead; or in exchange for work, or even a chance to listen to their experiences or such.
In this desire to be good stewards, however, I imagine we often cut off those who really do need our things, especially the material things, because of a fear of being cheated. Pres. Joseph F. Smith, I believe, said something like it was better to be cheated 9 times by false beggars to make sure the 1 true beggar that needed our help got it, than to not be cheated by the 9 false beggars and miss the 1 true beggar who needed it.
Our money, our food, our cothing, our _, whatever–it’s not ours. It’s all God’s. We really are only stewards of it all. Yes, maybe we worked hard for it–using God-given blessings, such as a body, air, food, etc.; and we were blessed and received. We of course want to be good stewards and manage them accordingly. But we have a special commandment in this case. We must use these things we are stewards over, things we have been blessed with, according to the way that God tells us to use them; and there have been explicit instructions–to give to beggars.
If we use these things as directed, to give to the beggar, we are promised blessings–that our pleas to God won’t go unheard and unheeded, either. So, either we learn to live in abundance from God through us to others (and ourselved being ok in the middle), or we similarly learn to live in scarcity, because we don’t have faith that if we give (and even if we are cheated), God can and will still provide for us. That is the reason for our substances will perish with us. We won’t give to others, and therefore God won’t give to us.
Does that mean we need to send our bank account number to Africa when we get the next email from a good general who wants to give us millions of dollars to help him save his country’s money? No. We need to be intelligent; we need to be wise; we need to be careful; we need to be resourceful; but when it comes to a person in front of us who seems to be in need, who’s asking for daily bread or such, it might be hard to judge sometimes, and it might be better to judge mercifully than not. Remember that while it might be a cheater, it might also be an angel (yes, literally). Or, if you believe, the Savior himself.
If a “beggar” (or anyone, for that matter) cheats us, will it bless their lives, in the long run? It won’t.
If we are cheated by a beggar (or anyone, for that matter)–especially because we want and try to do good, love others, and obey the commandment to give to the beggar–will we be cursed for it, even temporally? We can’t and won’t be, unless we cut ourselves off from those blessings. Or if we have faith, will God–who gives freely to his children that ask–make up for it, and maybe even more? I believe so.
Now, a little more about “cheating beggars”… Have you ever cheated God? Have you ever disobeyed any commandments, yet expected the blessings that came from obeying them? Did you even ever get angry when you didn’t receive those blessings? Have you ever prayed for mercy, expecting to receive it, yet treated others unmercifully? Have you tried to get something for nothing from God, with the intent to use it in a less-than-Godly way? And if we on top of doing all these things also withold His things from others against his commandment, aren’t we also hypocrites?
We are beggars with God; unprofitable servants, and some of us not even servants, just unprofitable enemies to God. We are given stewardship, and we must also realize that there is a difference between being a wise steward and a greedy steward. Let’s be wise stewards.”

**I think Kryon has two great ideas.

Inexpensive materials vs. expensive sessions/ DIY (for those with time but not much money) vs. professional helper (for those with money but not much time).

The part about based on the skill of the practitioner seems to work for hairstylists, lawyers, etc. Practitioners get better help, teachers can oversee the practitioners much better, and client gets cheaper price but also expects that it might not be the best, that the teacher might need to step in and help a little/ “tidy up”/ redo and explain to the student at the time, etc. Pay for the professionalism, so to say.

grego

P.S. These “business” articles have been great! Thanks.

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simonrose
May 25, 2010 at 11:35 pm

thanks Kryon and Grego. You have both made excellent points which I left out of my article.

I do have to say that I have had some excellent exchanges doing exactly what Grego said. For instance basing the exchange on referrals or the right to video the session etc. Yes, that has worked for me because I was getting just as more (or even more) value than if they paid the normal price.

Evette asked me to mention that she had a client last year who was very sick and had little money. Evette really wanted to work with this client herself and not refer her to a less experienced / less expensive practitioner. They reached an exchange which involved the woman baking some really awesome cakes for us. That was a win-win exchange (except for our waist-lines).

I think that finding a suitable exchange is a much better option than giving something away.

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grego
May 26, 2010 at 11:12 am

Simon,

I’ve noticed a few practitioners/ teachers here who might be interested in a hands-on training/ internship type of program, as it seems they want to venture out on their own, but aren’t confident/ trained enough–though maybe if they had a little help and surety to back them up, they could.
Having someone they could turn to for advice and counseling who was more experienced, skilled, and knowledgeable, would likely help them feel more confident in their abilities and skills and finally “get out there” after a time.
They would also get to listen in on the teachers’ sessions, and be able to ask questions afterwards.
Maybe help out at a seminar.

It could be set up through the forum, or otherwise; it could be low-pay, volunteer (with the understanding that the student would, in turn, become the teacher to another student), or even a larger internship fee; or a combination (X pays upfront, then after X finishes the program and is going, X helps Y complete Y’s internship; then X gets the fee back)–a revolving fee internship.

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Renee Hawkins
May 26, 2010 at 1:34 pm

Hi Guys,

I think value is the key here.

I only have my own life experiences to draw on for this. For example:

-The people I have worked on for free have not valued what I had to give and therefore never recieved any benefit.
-The people I have worked with, and for whom I have allowed to choose the exchange (usually a swap of some kind), I have been left feeling ‘ripped off’ and not valued.
-When I have made a clear agreement with someone regarding the value being exchanged, that benefits both parties, everything goes wonderfully.
-I have lived under the poverty line for a huge part of my life, but I have always found the money if I really wanted something. It might haven taken me longer to come up with it, and I generally had to sacrafice other things in my life, but if I valued what it was that I wanted, then it was more than worth it. So I agree, to an extent, with Landmarks position. I have valued myself greatly for finding the money and that helped to increase my self-worth and abundance.
-The more charity/free sessions I give, the more ‘desperate’ people I seem to attract, to a point where I feel totally hopeless with humans potential to live happy, healthy, abundant lives.

So the solution that has helped me the most is always based on equal value exchange. Like cakes, or testimonials, or referals, or work exchange or whatever works best at the given time.

Love and Light.

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simonrose
May 26, 2010 at 1:44 pm

thanks Renee for sharing, I could not agree more with everything you stated. I had exactly the same experiences as you with “freebies” and “letting the client decide the exchange”.

So seriously now, you live near Byron Bay, Australia’s capital for first rate health resorts. Why aren’t you offering premium rate RPT “rejouvenation” sessions at the country’s top spas?

I know you can do it and I value you, what’s stopping you?

(and yes, it’s my job to nudge you to get out there.)

Simon

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Oya Erdogan
May 27, 2010 at 10:50 pm

Hi over there,
I would like to add the other side to this discussion, the side of the client who is in need of a treatment.
I know from personal experience that often it is a long way and difficult to find the core of a problem, to find the proper healing method and the proper healer.
I have been to many doctors, especially alternative therapists, always accepting their charge as a respect to their educational skill, experience and work, even if it was nearly unaffordable to me. In that cases I lent money because I really wanted to be cured. I put a lot of trust in their work, tried to cease any doubts, as i wanted to support the healing process. Unfortunately the treatments helped only some-time on the surface but never did solve the problem itself. I found myself in so-called healing crises that put me down again, doubt and distrust making me looking for other methods and in the end I had the same problems as before enriched with a lots of debts, a circle winding downwards.

So I want to say: This is extremely exhausting! And irritating. Anybody having similiar experiences will hesitate just to try out and set money in the air. I appreciate following possibility: It is very important to find the healers we trust in, and it’s natural to look always for the best ones. A get-to-know-session, or a free session is a good solution. My osteopath, who is really good and expensive (for me) offers two free sessions a week – there is a long waiting list, but it is worth waiting. So it’s possible to get a notion if a practicioner/method is good for oneself. I still will have to look for the money if I want to continue, but at least I trust in the process and know it’s worth the efforts.

One reason I trust in RPT is that it enables a person to work on himself. This is not only healing work, it is also widening the conciousness, understanding links and root causes, it’s a life philosophy. There is much I can do by myself. For the rest that I fail or don’t dare I have to take sessions with experienced teachers who know how to unlock the difficult issues. I am deeply grateful to the ones that offer me this possibility. I know – as I get healed in return I too would do anything I am capeable of if asked for, this is gratitude, and later when I practice RPT professionally I will definitely offer free sessions like my ostheopath.

I do believe also in the model of exchange that might be known from literature, e.g. from the novel Don Quichote: it’s the natural model, the model of circular exchange. It is not about (linear) benefit I give to a person which will /have to be rewarded by him. This person might share this benefit with an other person (unknown to me) while I might get benefits from again a different person, from a different source, unexpectedly! This means to give by heart, this is pure. It seems to be the way how nature, how we all are linked together in a divine way.

Thank you Simon for this blog – it is a good example for this pure exchange, it is like a blossomed rose spreading its perfume to everybody, to anybody from beggar to king, who is open and aware of its scent.

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simonrose Reply:
May 27th, 2010 at 11:02 pm
thankyou Oya for sharing your wisdom and experience.
I believe you have provided an excellent example of why some form of guaranteed results are needed – or some form of quality control at least. There are, as I have written above, too many healers who are quick to value your time, but too slow to value the actual results the client gets. I think you are an excellent example of what we spoke about in the video.
I hope that with RPT you get the results you are seeking.
Our thoughts are with you,
blessings
Simon

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Ben Ralston Reply:
May 29th, 2010 at 6:21 am
Oya, you said:
“It is not about (linear) benefit I give to a person which will have to be rewarded by him. This person might share this benefit with an other person (unknown to me) while I might get benefits from again a different person, from a different source, unexpectedly! This means to give by heart, this is pure. It seems to be the way how nature, how we all are linked together in a divine way.”

You put it very well. It’s exactly what I feel. It’s called ‘spreading the love’ right?

I am a healer, using RPT. And it’s quite a dilemma I can tell you – I want to heal people for free, or for exchange, but as Simon and others have said, it sometimes doesn’t work so simply.
I decided to be very discerning, and to evaluate each request purely on it’s merits. Because of what you wrote I’d like to offer to work with you. If you want to take me up on it, contact me through my email.

Ben

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Ben Ralston
May 29, 2010 at 6:28 am

It’s such a tricky one. I totally understand the client dilemma of: I’ve spent X much money of healing that didn’t work, why should I trust you. But what are we to do about that as healers? It’s not MY fault that you went and gave your money to people that didn’t help you is it?!
I WANT to work. I want to heal. It gives me joy. But there is nothing worse on the other hand than GIVING your time and energy to someone who doesn’t respect it enough because they are not paying anything for it – and I really believe that (most) people usually don’t value what they can’t see, and value it less if it’s free!
I’m working with a guy at the moment who pays me 20€ per session. He says he’ll pay me handsomely when he starts seeing results. We’ll see, and I’ll let you know!
As I said to Oya above, I think as healers the only way to do it is have strong boundaries, and evaluate each case on it’s merits.

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Sherri Sneddon Reply:
June 14th, 2010 at 5:46 am
Interesting Ben – Just one thing makes me uncomfortable or wary – your client says he will pay you handsomely when he starts seeing results – this feels more like blackmail. Did you guys agree on what results ahead of time? What is your definition of results compared to your clients? It’s almost like he’s challenging you or daring you or daring the process to NOT work. Interesting – hopeit all turns out well for you both!

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simonrose Reply:
June 14th, 2010 at 11:16 am
I agree – I’ve been in the same situation several times for instance with people trying to sell a house or business and offering me a % if it sold for the price they want. It never worked… I think they had an incentive for it to not work by the deadline.
Simon

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Ben Ralston Reply:
March 22nd, 2011 at 1:40 am
Just to give you some feedback on this – my client (mentioned above) had about 10 sessions with me, and reported many successful results. He asked me how much I wanted. I asked him for 10 x 80 euros (in other words, the amount he would have payed if he’d payed up front, like everyone else).
Later, he told my brother in law that he had never been so ripped off in all his life, and that I had just taken his money and done nothing much for him!
Strange experience, but it’s made me decide to be very, very careful (should have listened to you in the first place Simon!) about these situations…

Simon Rose Reply:
March 22nd, 2011 at 1:20 pm
That’s bizarre – but also preventable as you indicate.
It’s bizarre because he said he’d pay when he started seeing results, so why would he pay if he didn’t see the results, and why complain later? Strange.
On the other hand, 10 sessions is a lot to have to pay for at once. Very few people need 10 sessions (I’m not doubting that he was stuck and needed a lot of help etc). But since you weren’t really valuing your time in full upfront, to hit him with the full price down the track was too much. Unfortunately he didn’t have the boundaries to discuss and negotiate it with you so he did the coward’s relief – paid you and then bitched to everyone about it afterwords.
What are the lessons here? Many, such as value yourself up front, offer a refund if the client isn’t happy but never ever an extra payment if they are happy (it’s sabotage), be really clear upfront about what the maximum cost will be – never afterwards say “I’d normally charge X.”

Sounds like it was a great learning for you Ben, and hopefully your procedures are much clearer now.

Would you consider contacting that client to discuss what he said to your BIL. He may have simply “forgotten” how much you helped him due to the Apex Problem.

cheers
Simon
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Joan
June 6, 2010 at 6:00 am

I agree that there should be an exchange for the most part. Sometimes I provide sessions because it is just the right thing to do. I offer reiki to staff and patients at my mother in laws nursing home at no charge. It makes me feel good. I know why I am doing it and I limit the time that I contribute. This is one way for me to give back. You need to be very clear as to why you are allowing someone a reduced rate or free learning and clearly communicate it to them.

When I am looking to gain experience or become more comfortable with a new technique I offer a session to a few select people in exchange for their feedback and written testimony that I can use in the future. I also ask them to tell 3 people about the session. I also let them know what the value I place on it is. This also helps me to get comfortable with telling someone my fees and sets up boundaries for future sessions. Works for me 99% of the time. Thanks for these discussions. They give me a lot of food for thought and clearing…………

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Sharon
March 30, 2011 at 12:54 am

It is interesting to read everyones ideas and experiences and explore and challenge your own. In my experience from a client/therapist persepective often if you can figure out how to make a shift to come up with the money,you can make to shift to solve the problem. I also agree with earlier comments that the cycle of charity and povity can be closely linked and perpetuated.
As a therapist I call on the RPT and my first contribution for this person is to acknowledge their situation for them and allow a shift -while asking them to take time to reflect on what it is worth to them and what they can contribute. I have only done this a few times but results have been good. I think there is room for improvement which lies with me and my expectancy.

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revive ramesh
June 13, 2011 at 4:22 pm

While you are at it – you may want to consider the way KARMA ( action) works and also the idea of not feeling guilt when the the “teachings” are soft and elusive. The finer things in life sometimes are like that. And sorry to point out – in the title of this blog – dilemma is spelt wrong!

[Reply]
Simon Rose Reply:
June 13th, 2011 at 5:29 pm
thanks “Revive”, I appreciate your contribution. Remarkable that hundreds of readers didn’t notice (or were too polite to mention) the typo. Oops. Fixed now thanks.
About Karma – well that’s an interesting topic! I’ve very clear that I don’t believe in the New Age idea of “good karma” and “bad karma.” I’ve often heard that doing free healings is “good karma” but that’s just New Age twaddle. Now the Hindu concept of Karama is quite different (not stuck in duality of good and bad), and I admit I don’t fully understand it because I have my own different interpretation of why things happen, to do with ancestors rather than past lives.

I simply don’t know the karmic implications to do with healing work from a Hindu perspective. If you have any thoughts on this please share them.
Blessings,
Simon

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George Duisman
June 15, 2011 at 7:45 pm

CHANGE THE PARADIGM:
Yes, it looks like a challenging problem. There are some good suggestions here, but the best ideas are out of the box, and I believe you have the ability to get out of the box fairly easily. Here are some wonderful potentials that I see.

DEVELOP GREAT INTUITION:
I have a wonderful intuition that mainly happens with the important things in my life. I obviously still have some trauma’s blocking my using it much more often. Nevertheless, it’s REALLY wonderful when it comes and I know that it can be improved dramatically. We all have this ability and much more, we just have traumas that block it. With RPT these traumas can be released easily. Isn’t that right?
So, if you release the traumas that block your intuition, you won’t need to guess who to help and who to say no to, you will just know. It will just “feel” right. You won’t have to try and figure out how to create an acceptable balance. You will also likely be able to use your intuition to find those people that would benefit you and RPT hugely. How about
“I pretend that I know how to powerfully enhance my intuition.”
“I pretend that I know the core trauma(s) to heal, to powerfully enhance my intuition.”

I have two people that have obtained a body signal that is highly accurate and involuntary. Involuntary, means that the conscious mind can’t get in the way. With most other methods of getting deep mind guidance, like muscle testing, remote viewing, dowsing, psychic readings etc. the conscious mind often gets in the way and changes the answers. This is different, but the unresolved traumas still seem to often stop the signal. With RPT, I expect that these kinds of signals can be obtained and cleaned up completely for total accuracy.

THE NEXT STEP:
The next step out of the box as I see it, is to manifest the way to not need any clients etc. to pay your bills. That way you can focus your attention completely where your intuition guides you to joyfully make the optimum beneficial impact on the world as a whole. I’ve done this in a minimal way (I don’t need any clients to pay my bills), but I could still use a big boost to my intuition. This empowers me to spend my time where I think it will produce the best results for me and the world as a whole.
When this is accomplished for each of your RPT teachers, it seems to me that it should be easy to scrap the agreement that you made that keeps you from putting RPT training out on the internet. I see nearly limitless possibilities when key traumas are released. Grant McFetridge has on his website two really simple and wonderful statements. As I see it, great intuition is one of many possible peak states.

Anyone can have peak states permanently; it’s just a matter of eliminating the correct type of trauma.
&
Any effective trauma healing technique can be used to get peak states, once you know what to heal.

RPT seems to be one of the most effective trauma healing techniques.

KARMA:
One way of looking at karma (a bit simplistic), it is an aspect of how we operate and learn. If one does nasty things to other people, then one gets to feel FULLY both sides of that interaction in the life review after physical death. So, we know on a deep level that we will get “pay back” at least at the end of our life. It’s better to manifest a smaller pay back earlier in life and learn ones lessons before we do the “wrong” too much and the pay back builds up and gets out of hand – thus karma. You make it for yourself subconsciously.

[Reply]
Simon Rose Reply:
June 15th, 2011 at 8:40 pm
hi George and thanks for the detailed contribution

I’ll make some observations

intuition

Yes clearing trauma (e.g. with RPT) is an amazing way to improve your intuition and clarity.

The concern I have – not major but we are trying to be clear – is that you never know when your intuition isn’t clear. I wrote an article on this 2 months back called the danger of gut instincts. I mention this in the context of knowing who to help. The reality is that “stuff” (whatever is unresolved) can cloud the judgment, but you don’t always know it at the time. I’ll give a relevant example.

On our courses I always use my intuition to work out who is the best candidate for a demonstration. I have gotten pretty good at it but sometimes I get it spectacularly wrong. It’s an intuition failure. Afterwards I always do a healing with Evette and work out what was the block. A good example – since resolved – is an ego block that lead me to choose the hardest person in the room to work on. I was still listening to my intuition but perhaps the “wrong one.” OK I’ve cleared that, and now as a double precaution Evette and I both ask the intuitive question of who to do the demo on and in the rare case that we get a different answer, we know there’s a healing to do.

My point here – clearing your intuition isn’t something you do once and then get on with life. It is an evolving journey. It keeps getting better and better.

Who to help

You seem to be suggesting that after the practitioner has healed their trauma they know who to help. Basically, as I read your question, you are coming from the philosophy or paradigm of “healing the world.” IE the archetype of the healer who goes out healing and who would thus benefit from knowing who to heal.

Look that’s fine, but I’m not that person, and RPT doesn’t train those people.

My philosophy has always been to help those who come to me for help. I have had nothing but bad experiences where I tried to help people that I thought needed help but who hadn’t approached me.

If you want to clear your intuition so you know who to help, that sounds find, but I suggest using your intuition to ask for people “who are ready to be helped and who want to receive help FROM ME, NOW.”

I hope you understand where I’m coming from, which is quite a different philosophical and moral standpoint than “finding people to help.”

Re “THE NEXT STEP”

Not sure if you misunderstood me, but clarifying for anyone else reading this. One of the key aspects to the “Practitioner’s dilemma” was why we don’t give the healings away for free – why it’s never appreciated. It’s not that we need the money, it’s that the client needs to “pay” something (not always money but energy).

For that reason I don’t agree with:
 When this is accomplished for each of your RPT teachers, it seems to me that it should be easy to scrap the agreement that you made that keeps you from putting RPT training out on the internet.

Well firstly, improving the abundance of our RPT teachers is a fantastic idea, something that all the RPT teachers would love. But I am still not convinced that putting something out there for “free” is the right idea.

I am familiar with the EFT model – where the founder told everyone who bought the material to make 100 copies for their friends, etc. It sounded crazy but became a great business model.

My 2 objections – which might just be my “stuff” and which I’m happy to discuss are:
1) People valuing the work – for instance I think that the level 3 course should be charged at about 3 times the current price. Many graduates have told me this (comparing it to costs of Level 3 courses). The reason I keep it so inexpensive is because of where the economy is at and making it affordable. However the problem is that people just aren’t valuing it enough. I suspect I might get MORE people on the course at $10,000 instead of $2,600, it’s just that they would be different people.
2) RPT is pretty simple but it’s not as easy as EFT (tap tap tap). In my view EFT is the world’s simplest healing technique (it’s been proven that even if you tap the wrong places it still works). RPT is much more effective – you get permanent results in one session instead of year’s of tapping. However it is simply not as simple. I’m not convinced that people can learn it safely from an online video.

Here’s what you don’t know – a year or 2 ago I put very detailed videos and instructions for RPT online. (They are still online, merely out of date.)
Then we started getting people emailing us telling us about side effects from “RPT sessions” with a non-practitioner who learned the technique on the internet. Even though this was not our legal responsibility, we still ended up helping these people (for free) to protect the good name of RPT.

We have never had this problem with people who have learned RPT from a teacher, only people who watched a video, read instructions and tried to figure it out.

So in conclusion – for a range of reasons – no, I don’t think just giving “it all” away for free is a good idea. Instead I subscribe to the “freemium” economic model which drives successful blogging. Give enough valuable information away for free that people keep visiting, and charge for the “real deal.” That has always been my philosophy.

As I said, this could just be “my stuff” and I’m happy to discuss.

Best wishes
Simon

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