DEEP CLEARING: Balance Your Emotions, Let Go Of Inner & Outer Negativity, Shift To Higher Consciousness: A Radical Inner Process

I've struggled with depression and various emotional up's and down's all my life. I've tried many different modalities to achieve inner peace. Each has had varying degrees of effectiveness, but none 100%. Six weeks ago I came across this book and it resonated with me. I have felt negative emotions inside myself that I wanted to release, and this book promised an approach for doing just that. I've now read the book, purchased John's audio CD's, and have done an emotional clearing session of approx. 45 minute most days over the last 4 weeks. I intend to continue the practice into the foreseeable future. I like John's belief that thoughts arise from emotions rather than the other way around. It seems to me that talk therapy has value when one can put their inner experience into words. When one can't, I think something else is needed. Eight years ago I was introduced to use of meditation as a tool of emotional health. At the time, I thought it was the "something else" needed when I could not put inner experience into words. After an 8 week MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction) class and a 13-week class introducing meditation, I began meditative work with a PhD psychotherapist having 25 years of meditative experience. Eight years ago I was taught to relax and allow internal feelings to arise, watching them with detachment. The idea was that doing so would gradually implement equanimity into my internal emotional landscape. It backfired. Very badly. I meditated 20 minutes a day on my own, and once a week with a sangha. Every single time, intense bodily sensations arose. Every single time, I tried to let those sensations arise and just "sit with them." I would shake, I would cry, I would feel pressure from my scalp to my toes. I kept at it for 9 months until a meditation teacher told me that staying in a state of mind filled with angst for long periods was not good. I then realized I was hardwiring an agitated internal state into myself and I stopped cold turkey. I immediately noticed that my disposition in life got much better. However, some troubles soon arose and in the midst of the storm I ended up with 2 inpatient psychiatric stays back to back. For this review, I'll say the meditation and the "storm" were related, but not go into more detail. My point is that 8 years ago I tried a method very similar to John Ruskan's method and instead of making things better it made things a lot worse. Ever since then I've wrestled with why. It felt to me that meditative "arts" have so much to offer, but I could not understand why my earnest attempt led to such horrible results. In the 8 years since I have read some research about trauma and meditation. I've heard stories of people going on 10-day vipassana retreats hoping for a better state of mind but instead ending up in a mental hospital. There's much I don't understand about how such things work. What I do know is that when I discovered "Deep Clearing" 6 weeks ago, the same internal emotions I felt 8 years ago were still there, but at an intensity less than 10% of what they were 8 years ago. John's approach offered something different from what I experienced 8 years ago, and it's what is different about his approach that has caused me to go down the path. Those differences mean a great deal to me. Perhaps to you, dear review reader, may benefit from hearing what those differences are as you evaluate whether to purchase John's book. First, John starts with deep relaxation. He talks about getting the mind into "alpha" (technically defined as 8-12 hz on an encephalogram) as the first step. Another way he describes "alpha" is as a feelings-oriented right brain state instead of a thought-oriented left brain state. In my own experience, the emphasis on getting into this state prior to emotional processing is just as powerful as John says it is. It does seem that I'm able to better handle the onslaught of difficult internal states after I've invested 5 - 15 minutes getting into a deeply relaxed state. Second, John adds visualizations I was not exposed to 8 years ago. One is a beam of light coming in through one's head and radiating out from the solar plexus to form a sphere around oneself. A second is a connection to the earth. A third is not so much a visualization as a technique. Opening the 3rd eye appears to be a way of entering a state of consciousness akin to a state of calmness deep in an ocean whilst emotional waves churn violently at the surface. There's eastern wisdom going on with these visualizations that I don't have much knowledge about. All I can say is that the 3 aforementioned items seem to help me process emotions better. Third is the sequence of steps. For some time I've used John's audio CD's to orient me to the steps, but now I'm practicing doing it on my own without his CD's, which is what John recommends. I go through the steps of 1) deep relaxation 2) awareness 3) acceptance 4) direct experience 5)witnessing during a 45 minute session. I did not have such a structured framework 8 years. Having the 5-step framework from John's book seems to help me. As I bring this review to a close, let me iterate something you hopefully already know. "Deep Clearing" is not a book read for intellectual knowledge alone. It is a "how to" manual, and to gain benefit from it one must commit to a practice. Be sure you're willing to make some commitment to putting the book's ideas into practice before purchasing it. In my review I've emphasized my personal experience with the practice described in the book, and tried to demonstrate ways in which it seems to be working for me when a similar practice I tried 8 years ago failed. I've intentionally not reviewed writing style nor the strengths and weaknesses of the intellectual content of the book. That is because I believe "Deep Clearing" is a book not to be judged in such ways. In my opinion, the pathway it offers to greater emotional health is the proper subject of review. I have some experience with different pathways for emotional health. Deep Clearing's pathway has appeared valid enough in my experience to commit 45 minutes a day to it now for about a month, with plans for continuing to do the same for the foreseeable future.

This book has given me really amazing concepts and techniques in order to continue with my inner work. I've had many "aha" moments, such as that what we call the subconscious is what it is known as karma in the eastern philosphy. Another important concept is that love equals acceptance, and therefore, in order to truly accept ourselves, we must accept our "negative" feelings and emotions. Also, as a therapist, understanding that my real work is to make my client aware of this love-equals-acceptance concept. All the techniques I may apply should only be directed to that. So, a good therapist is someone who teaches the client how to love and accept himself, above any other thing. Another key concept was that the importance of integrating feelings. For instance, I have some friends that are rich and still obssessed with money, and they will be like this forever unless they start integrating the feeling of insecurity. Same applies to all feelings. This is contrary to many techniques that try to avoid feelings by chasing the opposite. In other words, in order to overcome insecurity, we must integrate it and not pursue security. The last one will come naturally only after integrating the first one. Additionally, and as I work with the natural hygiene approach that trusts in the body's abilities to heal itself, I noticed that psychic healing follows the same mechanism than physical healing. When we try to heal ourselves emotionally AND/OR physically, there are detox symptoms which are “uncomfortable”, there may be some pain, but we have to accept and experience them in order to transcend them, and after experiencing them, we feel better, and lighter. Last but not least, I'm one of those that want to trascend into a higher level of consciousness. Because of that, I've read many books and tried many techniques, trying to understand everything that's going on inside me. But Ruskan's approach is quite different. He says that we don't have to try to understand every feeling or emotion that we have; he says that the key is to FEEL, not to understand. If you are feeling fear, it doesn't matter what actually caused that feeling in the first place, or when it happened (last week, 30 years ago, in a previous life maybe...), the important thing is that the feeling is happening right now; therefore, in order to trascend it, we have to open to the feeling right now. The Emotional Clearing Process is NOT a discussion, it's an experience, the experience of the suppressed subconscious in the Alpha state.

I am very grateful to John Ruskan for writing this book and his previous book, Emotional Clearing, which are both excellent and deep regarding the spiritual and psychological importance of releasing emotions, primarily that the negative charge of unprocessed emotions hugely influence our lives, often on a subconscious level. It was eye-opening for me, and very persuasive; John's previous training as an engineer really comes through in his logical, yet personal and poignant, presentation. It is obvious he is living his work and this is the result of his lifetime exploration. HIs sincerity and candor are very much appreciated. As for the Emotional Clearing method itself, it requires some degree of right-brain capacity, mainly the ability to feel feelings/emotions. John helps with breathwork and visualization to induct a more alpha state suitable for processing feelings but i personally have had some trouble with getting into that state, even with the aid of his audio. I know it is because of the trauma held in my nervous system, which tends to repress and numb feelings. i imagine it would work with many people who don't have similar difficulties and i know i need to work on my right-brain capacity some more. Regardless, i firmly believe John's work is extremely valuable, especially with regards to the releasing emotions and avoiding spiritual bypassing. A deep and spiritual work, that is at the same time, very accessible and clear. Highly recommend!

Great book

I read the original work by John Ruskan, "Emotional clearing" and it is PHENOMENAL! I am in the middle of reading "Deep Clearing and it looks to be even better! I am a licensed therapist and I have read many psychology and self help books and taken many advanced trainings. This book gets to the core of inner work in a clear, practical way that is helpful to everyone but retaining the depth and nuance that would satisfy someone who has experience in working with feelings. No matter what type of inner work, psychology, energy/spiritual work interests you, this book is critical. It gets to the heart of any method that works, Awareness and acceptance of feelings and the ability to experience them as parts of you but still not identified with them as the core you and finally processing them to release and transform them. I cannot emphasize how much I love this book and appreciate how fundamental it is. For any therapist out there as well, this book will crystallize and conceptualize all the skills you have learnt into a clear coherent philosophy that will help your practice tremendously and enable you to see your clients in a different light

I have dealt with chronic illness for the last 5 years; addiction, PTSD, emotional & childhood traumas as well. I originally bought this book because I've been on a path of alternative healing for my chronic pain, since modern medicine has failed. I've had some success in changing my diet and lifestyle and incorporating a spiritual practice. But reading this book has taken me to a whole other level. It is not a quick fix (however, SOME results can be felt immediately), but a long term solution. One that requires daily effort, and which will eventually provide complete healing. Everybody deals with pain (physical or emotional), and everybody could benefit from learning the emotional clearing process defined in this book. Anybody who is capable of getting out of the mind/ego and getting into the physical or psychic body can do this. In fact, anybody who is simply willing to learn how to feel the self inside the body can quite possibly do this process! I plan on incorporating the techniques in this book for the rest of my life.

So far so good. Im not even on the second chapter yet and so many of my underlying anger and overall negativity has been discovered and will be resolved due to the methods explained. I’ve learned so much so far. This book has given me the hope and answers i have been looking for to pursuit lasting happiness. I’ll add more when i finish the book.

I really wanted to like this book. Unfortunately, right from the beginning, the author makes it very clear that he thinks VERY highly of himself and that most others are below him - he states, "there are none who have more strongly heard the call to consciousness", in referemcr to himself. It's clear that he very much believes this to be true, but it's a silly, self absorbed thing to say (not to mention it's highly unlikely.) He then goes on to say that he has "avidly studied several spiritual traditions" (and goes on to name yoga, Buddhism, theosophy, and metaphysics...yes, JUST four "traditions") but that none of them provided guidance on feelings beyond their dismissal with the "goal" being to "get somewhere else, to a blissful, loving, higher, positive, “spiritual” consciousness, which would obliterate the bad energy." That statement is mostly where he lost me, as it made it very obvious that he did not "avidly study" yoga, Buddhism, theosophy, or metaphysics. The goal of most spiritual practices is to get to a "better" spiritual place, but all of those philosophies and practices ACTIVELY address feelings, emotions, pain, negativity, etc. The fact that this guy has ZERO background or education in literally any field psychology. His one and only degree is in mechanical engineering, which he acquired in 1964. He spent time as a yoga-practicing musician and decided, one day out of the blue, to write a book about the theories that apparently just came to him as he went along trying to figure out his "anger, sexual compulsiveness, drive for success, and artistic burnout." It took him two years to come up with this stuff, write a book about it, and then self publish it in 1993. This dude spent almost 30 years after college playing music and looking for "alternative ways" to make money, and he found it by writing this book and pretending to be a psychotherapist. He now makes his money by training "emotional clearing facilitators" though his "school" where he teaches people how to do whatever it is that he does for $1,000 per course. John Ruskan has zero qualifications for helping anyone work through emotional healing, but I'll give him this: he sure did figure an alternative money making venture that works for him and I'm sure that's made many of *his* emotional issues much easier to deal with.

I first came in contact with John Ruskan's Emotional Clearing work when his first book Emotional Clearing was recommended to me by a friend. At that time I was struggling with a lot of unacknowledged grief around a childhood bereavement. I was also feeling very victimized and was deep in a blame mentality, believing my lot in life to be the result of the way my parents had abused me and how society was structured. John's book was a huge paradigm shift for me. I learned how to develop a set of emotional clearing skills which enabled me to step out of a victim mentality and begin to witness and experience core feelings, allowing their negative energies to finally integrate. This inner shift eventually reflected outward. In one of many ways my experience changed was that I was finally able to become close to another person without my inner pain rising up to hijack the relationship. Deep clearing builds even further and digs even deeper than John's Previous work . The book is structured into sections each section going further into the depth of the mechanics behind human suppression of the subconscious and the ways in which we can approach working to re integrate the energy we have pushed out of our experience so that it does not rise up through projections or call for our attention through illness or the attraction of catastrophe. A powerful tool of illustration in this book are the case studies where by way of actual transcripts of Therapy sessions in which you can see clients implement the skills taught in the book to work with the natural tendencies to push away negative feeling and instead allow it to be witnessed and experienced. I really feel that this emotional feeling work that John teaches here is where the rubber meets the road with regards to spiritual and self development. Many Contemporary spiritual teachers touch off this subject such as Eckhart Tolle and his concept of the pain body , but in my experience they do not go into this shadow or uncomfortable aspect to any great degree and they do not offer clear approaches to working with these energies. The skills offered in this book are almost like spiritual superpowers in a sense. Once you have begun to see the mechanism of suppression , projection and the acting out of negative energies in yourself and in others you cannot unsee it once more, your journey has begun and it becomes easier to step out of reactive addictive behaviours and sit with the discomfort driving them. I feel that this is a very complete book and is the product of a wisdom earned through John's years working as a Therapist and his own study of both Eastern and Western approaches to human suffering.

I think this book is potentially life changing. I read Johns former book a year ago and it made a huge impression on me. But I think this book is better structured and more easy to understand. John explains very clearly why it is so important to valid all emotions. Like Michael Brown says in 'the Presence Process': it is about getting better in feeling, not about feeling better'. This book is much more than just a book about mindfulness and goes much deeper than that. What I also appreciate is that the author does not ask you to adapt his world view and that this still works when you have another world view. This book and 'The Presence Process' of Michael Brown are the best books I have ever read about this subject. And it works. My life is so much better now than before I discovered this stuff.

John has already created an effective method in Emotional Clearing and in this his latest book Deep Clearing, John brings Emotional Clearing into even sharper focus at a time when the need for such a perspective is so relevant. Infused with rich case studies and stories through an accessible framework for anyone wanting to benefit from Emotional Clearing. Concepts are brought to life with John’s clear articulation and easy to understand examples. There is a lot of narrative out in the world today about transformation, emotions and personal growth, alongside many ‘quick fixes’ yet, from my experience, many appear to fall short on facing into the more difficult aspects that can enable us to transform and transcend so as not to fall back into our old cycles and patterns. This book and the Emotional Clearing process upon which it is founded provides a clear, accessible and proven set of principles, concepts and processes to enable deep and lasting personal transformation.

I am not quite sure how I came across this book or bought it when I did, but I have found the experience of reading and practising the processes quite profound. It is the first time I have been able to systemise a proper practice of meditation and sitting with emotions. I plan to deepen and grow in the method, trusting in the guidance given. I also love the real life experience and honesty expressed by the author, John, in living the human life. Plenty to relate to there!

A deeply , soul changing book something that can change your mind if you allow it to - you must be willing to be flexible to it .