Greetings,
My dear friend, colleague, and mentor, Larry LeShan, died on November 10, 2020.
He was 100 years, 2 months, and 2 days old.
I feel his presence so strongly in my life.
Larry “was” 100…
It’s funny to say “was” as I still feel him here beside me as I write this. He may no longer be in his physical body…but for me…he is still here in “spirit.”
I met Larry in 1996 at The Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY. He was teaching a workshop there on SUPERVISION for “seasoned” psychotherapists.
I knew of Larry because I used to teach workshops and a 3-year healing school, “Perceive and Heal the Human Energy Field,” in the 80s and 90s downtown on Canal Street. On the shelf there I saw a book by Lawrence LeShan, Ph.D….Cancer as a Turning Point. I read the back flap and it said that Larry had helped more than 50% of his patients with terminal cancer to survive 10 years or more. It seemed to state this statistic in a matter of fact way… very understated I felt.
How did the world…the mainstream…not know of his work. These results were phenomenal from my perspective! And I loved and respected RESULTS…especially miraculous results! Of course, I wondered if it were really true and if so, how did he do it? Could I get these results as well? I tried to find Larry and at the time was unable.
At some point in the 90s I began teaching “qigong+” workshops for people with cancer. Realizing my interest, a colleague gave me two audio tapes by Larry … Mobilizing the Life Force. She told me “I bought these tapes, but I think they were for you.” I listened to them right away. It was about Larry’s work with people who had late stage cancers…and I felt in complete agreement with EVERYTHING he said!
I agreed with all of his ideas on healing! If you know me, you know that never happens!
Well this time I found Larry. He was teaching at Omega and I signed up for his workshop on supervision.
I was late that first morning and walked into his class. Larry stopped everything and with a booming voice asked me, “Why are you late”?
I said, “I just got off of my first ever out-patient dialysis treatment early this morning in Stony Brook and drove right here.” Larry responded, “That’s the best excuse I ever heard.” We seemed to have instant rapport!
During the workshop Larry did a demonstration with a woman who had cancer.
He sat opposite her in the front of the class … he instructed us very strongly… that we were not to interrupt their session in any way. In essence, we were watching a private session … and it did feel like that … it felt completely like that…like we were watching something sacred through a one way mirror.
Now it seemed like they were just talking, but that was not the truth. Something was happening deep inside of this woman … in the deepest center of her being … her LIGHT began to increase … a faint spark inside of her began to glow brighter.
I was completely intrigued by the demonstration. They were “just talking” but this was completely different from anything I had ever known. He wasn’t doing anything to her!? He wasn’t doing anything … except having a conversation. It appeared completely natural and easy.
As they continued, the women’s light glowed brighter and brighter and started to expand from the deep center of her being.
Then as they progressed, her WHOLE ENERGY FIELD underwent a complete reorganization around this NEW DEEPER CENTER. This was way way beyond anything I could have imagined… ever. HER WHOLE FIELD REORGANIZED ITSELF AS IF BY MAGIC WITH A COHERENCY I HAD NEVER SEEN BEFORE!
Again for emphasis …the coherency of her light was more profound than in any healing I had ever seen before … and I had been around and seen a lot.
(Fritz Albert Popp, a research physicist who demonstrated that our cells produce a low level of light and coined the term for that light as “biophotons,” said that cancer is a lack of coherent light. So it’s no wonder Larry had such amazing results working with people with late stage cancers.)
And then her energy … her whole being … blossomed in front of my eyes! And she just glowed.
Now I have seen similar energetic phenomenon … but nothing like this!
It was different because the woman did the work herself … she made the choice … it was her DRIVE to more wholly fulfill the potential of her own soul that was awakened by their conversation.
I want to emphasize this! It was her DRIVE that was awakened…her drive to be a more fulfilled unique individual. To fulfill more of the potential that she was born for! In my experience, this is beyond what can be accomplished with a technique; it is not something that can be achieved by trying to “fix” someone. It must come from inside of a person. I believe that is why it is so deeply healing.
Now many people reading this may not like what I am about to write next. My intention in writing what follows is to help healers, coaches, therapists, and other health practitioners to open up to the possibility that there is more to what I am saying…more than they already know. And that they could potentially learn how to do this as well and to help people even more.
You see, when both Larry and I have explained this idea to other practitioners. the most common response is … that they are already doing that. And so far I have NEVER found that to be true. The telltale sign that someone is doing this (or similar) work is that the client’s SUBTLE ENERGY GEOMETRY undergoes a significant change and their light becomes more coherent (brighter if it is dimmed or softer if it is too bright). Their “sound” becomes more harmonious and they begin to sing their own song in life more!
That woman continued to glow for the whole workshop.
That demonstration did not leave me with the feeling that Larry was an exceptional healer…it left me with the feeling of appreciating how courageous this woman was!
This attracted me even more to this work. Could I learn to do it, I wondered.
I connected well with Larry and we began to meet in the city at his apartment.
These meetings soon turned into weekly (every Wednesday) events. We would meet for about 4 hours, usually from 7:00 to 11:00 at night. There was no parking in front of Larry’s building from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm, so I would try my best to end with my last client at 6:00 so I could get there early and wait in my car until the parking was legal. Then I would go to the deli and call Larry and ask him if he wanted anything. He would always ask … “are you getting anything?” … and I would always say ‘yes’ so he would feel free to tell me what he wanted. Often it was coffee with 3 Sweet’N Lows and some crumb cake or a sandwich … typically cheese, tomato, and mayo. No lettuce … nothing green! I once suggested Larry eat something green and he said “you wouldn’t eat green meat would you? “
We met almost every week for 18 years, then a bit less frequently after that and this past year, due to COVID, we were limited to phone calls.
Hey, Larry lived to be over 100 and he told me the men in his family didn’t survive much past 40. So it wasn’t his genetics and it definitely wasn’t his diet! I believe the secret to his longevity was him being deeply centered in his soul and living his life being true to himself. The coherency of his energy …there is that coherency of energy thing again!
When Larry and I would get together we spoke of our work with clients and did supervision—mostly he supervised me and on occasion I did the same for him. In the first many years I would also do a hands-on healing for Larry. We spoke of ways to deepen and improve our work and projects and of workshops we wanted to do either individually or together. There really was no chit chat … we just got right down to work!
Larry’s primary training was as a research psychologist and mine was as a physical therapist that could see and feel and work with subtle energies. We were both fascinated by consciousness and personal transformation. I was continually amazed by how “clear” Larry was … so clear … when he spoke about our work … and I was especially amazed he could be so clear because he couldn’t “see” energy … or so that’s what he said. Ha ha!
When I first started working with Larry I would ask him—“What do you do when you work with someone?”—hoping to get some insight into his inner process that might help me to learn more.
His response? “I just fly by the seat of my pants”
I remember groveling/muttering something like “Gee, That’s really helpful Larry” in a sarcastic and loving tone. Probably we both laughed. We laughed together and at ourselves a lot when we got together. Especially when, for a moment, we might think that now we really know what we are doing! I remember some of those moments laughing together…so sweet…as tears come to my eyes.
Larry not only researched/wrote books/and worked with people with cancer, he also did research around meditation. His book How to Meditate sold over 500,000 copies over many years. He researched psychics and healers as well and wrote about it.
In the early days I would tell Larry about books I read about spiritual healers … for example Olga and Ambrose Worrall …or Katherine Kuhlman … and I would be amazed that he knew them … personally. He did research with many of them. He seemed so “straight laced” to me and I was afraid to share some of those things with Larry early on … thinking he would judge me as some new age flake.
Larry had started in his 20s in the U.S. army … and created a program for injured soldiers that had aphasia from head wounds. Larry explained to me that it was new because in World War I they didn’t have antibiotics so soldiers with aphasia didn’t survive. It was a highly successful program and he taught others to continue on with the work.
Many times after I met with Larry, I would wish the meetings had been recorded for all to hear.
I am beyond grateful for my time with Larry LeShan … I wanted to share a bit of how much I love and admire Larry with you!
Larry was forever working to make this world/universe of ours a better place…
He was charming in the most authentic way one could imagine…
He loved James Bond…
Ok, I will stop here.
So in honor of Larry, and how inspired he was when he heard of Aristotle’s explanation of Telos (the drive of an acorn to become a giant mighty oak tree), 2021 WILL be the year I complete my documentary film, about this healing transformational work, and bring it out into the world … and the year when I will write my book about my work which I have already outlined.
I will send out excerpts from my chapters as I write them, so stay tuned.
I do miss teaching workshops and I look forward to teaching again when we can meet in person.
It’s just so hard – the idea of leading workshops without people hugging each other and hugging me.
Whoever invented the HUG must have been a very evolved soul!
Blessings and love,
Rob