I’ve been hearing about The Sedona Method® for several years now. However, until recently, it has never quite caught my attention.
Perhaps it was the way it was introduced, but it just seemed so simplistic.
In fact, you may have heard of it. It is the method that has these three questions:
- “Could you let it go?”
- “Would you?”
- “When?”
When I first heard of these, I thought, “What good is that? I can’t just let go of resistance by asking myself to.”
However, recently I was led to check it out more deeply. First I got their Quick Study Course, and then I decided to pick up the book: The Sedona Method, by Hale Dwoskin.
Right up front, I’ll tell you, at risk of sounding hyperbolic, that this is quite possibly the best spiritual / personal development book I have ever read, and I’ve read a large number of books.
My predominant thought as I was reading, first was, “I’m sorry I passed this over all this time,” and second, “I can’t believe I got all this content for $10.”
The book is over 400 pages, and could easily probably be split into several books.
I realized that what I thought was The Sedona Method® before was just barely scratching the surface of what it can really do.
Yes, those are the basic three questions. But unless you know how to really apply them, they seem completely useless.
Enough about that, though. I want to introduce the background of this method, first.
Lester Levenson: The Founder of a New System of Awakening
I could honestly write an entire blog post about Lester Levenson himself. His story is fascinating, and I highly recommend his autobiography, No Attachments, No Aversions: The Autobiography of a Master, to learn more about him.
But basically, he used to be an atheist. Over the years, the stresses of the world added up, compounding more and more, along with a deep sense of unhappiness. He started getting migraines, ulcers, and myriad other medical conditions.
Finally, in 1952, at the age of 42, it all came to a head, when he had a severe heart attack. The doctor told him that he could die any day, and not to do any more physical activity as was necessary.
Severely depressed, Lester went home, and started pondering the nature of happiness. He just could not accept that this was it—that after a life of outward successes, he had never really found happiness.
So he started to think about happiness, and when he was the happiest. He realized that it was when he was feeling love.
So, he endeavored to transmute all non-love feelings within himself, regarding every situation throughout his entire life. If he felt even a bit of resentment, anger, frustration, or anything else, he endeavored to change that to a feeling of love.
His second realization was that we are responsible for our lives. He realized that every thought is materialized in outer reality. He didn’t have the words back then to call it the law of attraction, but that’s essentially what it was.
And he saw that our resistance—the negative feelings, thoughts, and beliefs we hold in our subconscious—keeps us creating what we don’t want.
So, he took full responsibility for every part of his life.
And his final realization was that we are infinite beings. We are not the ego we believe we are, but what he called Beingness: the Essence that underlies and supports all apparent things.
After only three months of going through this process, he had reached what you could call enlightenment. He saw through the ego stories, to the Light of Beingness. If any non-loving feeling came to the surface, he now knew the way to dissolve that into perfect Love.
And, along with his awakening, he had also completely healed his own body. He went on to live another 42 years, to spread this method to others.
So, Lester Levenson is the source of The Sedona Method®. One of his students was Hale Dwoskin, who carried on his legacy after his death.
Why Should You Care?
All right, so, great, Lester Levenson was enlightened. What’s it matter to you?
It matters for two reasons:
First, because The Sedona Method® leads you effortlessly on the path to enlightenment, if indeed there is a path. It shows you where you are holding negative feelings, thoughts, or beliefs, and allows you to release them. And the more you release them, the more the Light of Beingness can shine through. Practically speaking, this means that the more you release, the happier and freer you are.
Second, because The Sedona Method® helps you to manifest your desires. It shows you where you are resisting your own manifestation, and allows you to release that resistance, clearing the way for your manifestation to enter your life.
In essence, these two reasons are really the same, which I’ll discuss a bit in this post, but much more in upcoming posts.
The Way to True Happiness
As I said, The Sedona Method® leads the way to true happiness.
When you release, you are not only releasing the individual resistance that arises. You are ideally releasing from the root.
The Sedona Method® holds that every single thought and feeling has its source in four basic wants:
- The want of separation
- The want of security
- The want of approval
- The want of control
These four wants cause you to push against or cling on to reality.
You push against things you don’t want in your experience, and cling on to things you do want in your experience.
You are constantly either running away from or towards various experiences.
You are doing anything but looking within.
These four wants, and the feelings they evoke, start to cover over the Light of your true nature.
Because of the want of separation, you start to feel separate from the world.
Because of the want of security, you start to seek security in outside things. Without these things, you feel insecure.
Because of the want of approval, you seek love from others, because you feel you lack it yourself.
And because of the want of control, you feel you need to control your world, so it will give you all the approval and security you need.
But the thing the ego doesn’t know is that you are really lacking none of these things.
You have security, approval, and control as inherently part of your nature.
But, you seek for it on the outside. And even when you do find it, you fear losing it, which causes you to cling on to it.
With releasing, you let go of these basic wants. And the more you release them, the more the Light of Beingness can really shine through.
And once that Light shines through, you can begin to see who you really are.
Living fully in yourself, you feel perfectly secure, loved, and in control.
You have unconditional peace and happiness, because you require no outside circumstances to allow you to be who you are.
Perhaps this sounds lofty, but even just a bit of releasing can help you to have less stress and anxiety, causing you to be happier overall.
Happiness is a fact of life. By removing your resistance, that happiness can shine through effortlessly.
It’s like if you were to draw heavy curtains over the windows, and despair that there is so much darkness.
You don’t need to create light. You just need to open the curtains, and the sun will happily shine through.
Releasing is the process of opening the curtains and letting what has always been there, to shine as it was meant to.
Manifesting Your Desires
This one is a bit more complicated, and I definitely want to expand this into its own post. However, I will go through the basics here.
Most people who are trying to use the law of attraction, well… really aren’t using it. And I’ll show you why.
Remember above when I said that one of the four wants is the want of control?
In other words, the want to have your world as you want it to be?
Does that sound familiar at all?
Like, maybe the want to make your goal manifest?
Now, I’m not saying you can’t manifest your goal. You definitely can, and I have manifested countless things in my life.
However, most people approach it from this perspective of the want of control.
They feel threatened without their goal, so they want to try to manifest it into existence.
Perhaps you feel it’s not okay the amount of money you have now, so you need to manifest more money.
Hint: The stronger that want for money, the more you’re just demonstrating that want of control.
You are doing what I said above: pushing against what you don’t want, which is the lack of money.
We all know that this is LOA 101, but it is so subtle and insidious, that it can be really hard to catch.
Here’s the litmus test to know whether you want your goal because of one of these four wants—i.e., for what you think it can give you—or whether you truly just want the goal for the sake of having it:
Ask yourself: “Would it be okay if I didn’t have this?”
If the answer is “no”, then you want it out of a place of lack, either from want of security, approval, or control. Separation is a sort of special case that is beyond the scope of this post.
The louder and more resounding that “no”, the more resistance you have to your goal.
I’ve been saying for a while now that the key to manifesting your goal is pure detachment. It’d be great if it came, but you really don’t care.
This goes against what a lot of common wisdom in the LOA community says, I know, but I’ve put this to the test many times now.
So, coming back to The Sedona Method®, it can help you to release your resistance to your goal.
It can help you to become what they call “hootless” about your goal.
And when you’re okay whether it comes or not, then and only then will the path be cleared for the goal to be manifested in your reality.
There are many stories of people manifesting many, many things with The Sedona Method®.
Just myself, here are some of the things I’ve manifested since using this method:
- A trip for Christine and me to get away
- An unexpected refund
- A better, more accessible, and less costly webinar option
- Unexpected money
- More sign-ups for my free membership
- More comments on blog posts
For each of these things, I got to a place of detachment, and things just worked out.
So, it does definitely work. And really, the reason is obvious: it is basically a highly effective form of Step 1 of the Effortless Manifestation Process.
I’ve always said, Step 1 is everything. Clear the resistance, and the rest will take care of itself, as long as you have a clear vision of your goal.
The Key Is Here
The Sedona Method holds the key to releasing all your resistance.
Not only on your particular manifestation, but on everything.
The first part of the book gives you all the theory behind the technique, plus some general releases.
The second part shows you how to apply this technique in several different areas of life, including:
- Overcoming anxiety
- Overcoming guilt/shame
- Breaking habits
- Achieving happier relationships
- Attaining greater wealth
- Achieving health and well-being
Finally, the last two chapters of the book show you my favorite two methods of releasing: the holistic release, and what is simply called, the 5th way.
I know I skimmed the surface a lot in this post, but honestly it was necessary. I will be going into much, much more detail in future posts, applying these ideas to my own teachings.
But, I highly recommend you go and pick up this book now, if you want to learn the method itself.
By the way, if you’re interested in learning more about releasing resistance to manifest your desires, I recommend you register for this weekend’s free webinar, Practical LOA. During this webinar, I’ll be demonstrating how to manifest whatever you desire, using a client who has volunteered to do a live session. I’ll be accepting your questions throughout the webinar, so it’s a great opportunity to learn more.
Click here to Register Now for Free
How About You?
Now it’s your turn. Have you ever tried The Sedona Method®? If so, how did it work for you? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
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That Lester guy is a perfect example of how resistance can destroy one’s body. I feel this so much. I find it ironic that while we can have an easy and effortless life after releasing a lot of resistance, so many of us just have so much trouble with releasing it and making peace with where we are now. It takes ignoring the physical symptoms and a lot of other procedures. Surely, when I look back at where I was before learning about LOA, I see how much I have released, and how my character has changed for the better. On the other hand, it feels like I have only scratched the surface, because the majority of the awful things have remained the same. I really wish the Universe had a much easier setup. After everything I’ve released, I should be one of the happiest people in the world. And yet, I’m far from it. I know I have to make peace with this if I were ever to move forward, but it’s such a hard thing. It is kind of optimistic that Lester’s life changed drastically for better after only 3 months, but I am wondering if only certain people can do that. Just like only certain people are geniuses that can solve complex problems.
Hi Z,
Thanks for your comment.
Yes, it takes a lot of releasing. However, I don’t think only certain people can do it. I think it takes someone who’s dedicated, which he was, because he thought he was going to die any day.
He spent literally all day every day just releasing all his feelings.
Not saying we need to do that, though one of the steps of the method says to release constantly. But it doesn’t have to be dedicated releasing where we do nothing else.
I would look at the progress you have made, and celebrate that. It sounds like you’ve come far.
If you want to learn more about releasing, I suggest coming to tomorrow’s webinar. I’ll be demonstrating it live, and will be accepting questions.
You can register here: http://www.darkascent.org/library/webinars/practical-loa-1-neighbors-annoying/
I’d disagree that you have to ignore your physical symptoms. They are there and part of your reality. I’d more say that you have to shift your perspective about those symptoms. I’ll be writing a post about this soon: whether you should face reality, or turn away from it.
Thank you, I have already registered, and hopefully I’ll be able to come. As for the physical symptoms, I think that I have been a bit wrong about this. The impression I got from Abraham was, that we should ignore the physical symptoms (what is), and focus on where we are going (in this example, it would be a healthy body). If we were to focus on our symptoms, that would just be beating the drum of what is, and bringing more of that. However, after reading your words, I guess that what Abraham meant was to not keep talking about the physical condition and pushing against it. Do you think that focusing on a healthy body should be done simultaneously with surrendering to my current symptoms? Actually, isn’t that the same as what you wrote recently in your article about 4 stages of a manifestation? I focus on the healthy body, and when the pain comes, I accept it, and still concentrate further on the healthy body? The resistance here are not thoughts, but the actual physical pain.
Here is one Abraham’s recording on youtube (around 12 minutes) about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12YBiDB4-uo
Yes, you seem to have it. 🙂
I will say that I differ with Abraham on many points, so you may find some different perspectives in what I say.
I don’t think focusing on the symptoms in itself is bad. As I said when replying to your other comment about pain, there are two elements of it:
If you focus on your judgments, your stories, your resistance against those symptoms, then yes you’ll create more of that.
But if you release the resistance, and just acknowledge that the symptoms are here, and be okay with that, then you’ll be in a better place to create something different.
The way you do that is basically what you said: accept what is, by releasing resistance, and then turning your attention to the way you want things to be.
Brandon, a great post. I am sure I read this book years ago but back then I wasn’t at the right stage of my life to use and implement the methods. Time now to look out the book again or to repurchase it. I think that when I start to tackle the bigger LOA topics I will need to do a lot of releasing. I have just signed up for tomorrow’s webinar.
Hi Tim,
Yeah, I really recommend it. Let me know if you have questions about how it works. You’ll be seeing a bit of it tomorrow at the webinar. Very glad you registered. 🙂
One of the things Lester said was that the only reason we don’t manifest big things is because we are afraid to dream big. I’ve been doing very well at the LOA, but my next goal is to take it to the next level—to start dreaming big, as he said. I feel like a lot of us have subconscious resistance to dreaming big. But, with releasing, we can clear that up and then anything is truly possible.
Thanks for your comment.
That Lester guy is a perfect example of how resistance can destroy one’s body. I feel this so much. I find it ironic that while we can have an easy and effortless life after releasing a lot of resistance, so many of us just have so much trouble with releasing it and making peace with where we are now. It takes ignoring the physical symptoms and a lot of other procedures. Surely, when I look back at where I was before learning about LOA, I see how much I have released, and how my character has changed for the better. On the other hand, it feels like I have only scratched the surface, because the majority of the awful things have remained the same. I really wish the Universe had a much easier setup. After everything I’ve released, I should be one of the happiest people in the world. And yet, I’m far from it. I know I have to make peace with this if I were ever to move forward, but it’s such a hard thing. It is kind of optimistic that Lester’s life changed drastically for better after only 3 months, but I am wondering if only certain people can do that. Just like only certain people are geniuses that can solve complex problems.
Hi Z,
Thanks for your comment.
Yes, it takes a lot of releasing. However, I don’t think only certain people can do it. I think it takes someone who’s dedicated, which he was, because he thought he was going to die any day.
He spent literally all day every day just releasing all his feelings.
Not saying we need to do that, though one of the steps of the method says to release constantly. But it doesn’t have to be dedicated releasing where we do nothing else.
I would look at the progress you have made, and celebrate that. It sounds like you’ve come far.
If you want to learn more about releasing, I suggest coming to tomorrow’s webinar. I’ll be demonstrating it live, and will be accepting questions.
You can register here: http://www.darkascent.org/library/webinars/practical-loa-1-neighbors-annoying/
I’d disagree that you have to ignore your physical symptoms. They are there and part of your reality. I’d more say that you have to shift your perspective about those symptoms. I’ll be writing a post about this soon: whether you should face reality, or turn away from it.
Thank you, I have already registered, and hopefully I’ll be able to come. As for the physical symptoms, I think that I have been a bit wrong about this. The impression I got from Abraham was, that we should ignore the physical symptoms (what is), and focus on where we are going (in this example, it would be a healthy body). If we were to focus on our symptoms, that would just be beating the drum of what is, and bringing more of that. However, after reading your words, I guess that what Abraham meant was to not keep talking about the physical condition and pushing against it. Do you think that focusing on a healthy body should be done simultaneously with surrendering to my current symptoms? Actually, isn’t that the same as what you wrote recently in your article about 4 stages of a manifestation? I focus on the healthy body, and when the pain comes, I accept it, and still concentrate further on the healthy body? The resistance here are not thoughts, but the actual physical pain.
Here is one Abraham’s recording on youtube (around 12 minutes) about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12YBiDB4-uo
Yes, you seem to have it. 🙂
I will say that I differ with Abraham on many points, so you may find some different perspectives in what I say.
I don’t think focusing on the symptoms in itself is bad. As I said when replying to your other comment about pain, there are two elements of it:
If you focus on your judgments, your stories, your resistance against those symptoms, then yes you’ll create more of that.
But if you release the resistance, and just acknowledge that the symptoms are here, and be okay with that, then you’ll be in a better place to create something different.
The way you do that is basically what you said: accept what is, by releasing resistance, and then turning your attention to the way you want things to be.
Brandon, a great post. I am sure I read this book years ago but back then I wasn’t at the right stage of my life to use and implement the methods. Time now to look out the book again or to repurchase it. I think that when I start to tackle the bigger LOA topics I will need to do a lot of releasing. I have just signed up for tomorrow’s webinar.
Hi Tim,
Yeah, I really recommend it. Let me know if you have questions about how it works. You’ll be seeing a bit of it tomorrow at the webinar. Very glad you registered. 🙂
One of the things Lester said was that the only reason we don’t manifest big things is because we are afraid to dream big. I’ve been doing very well at the LOA, but my next goal is to take it to the next level—to start dreaming big, as he said. I feel like a lot of us have subconscious resistance to dreaming big. But, with releasing, we can clear that up and then anything is truly possible.
Thanks for your comment.
Another great post. There’s so much material in the book; I am looking forward to seeing more posts about these ideas and related topics. Like Tim I read this book a long time ago, but it didn’t resonate with me at the time. Later I remembered the basic technique and started using it with pretty good results.
Like Z I have a little trouble with telling the difference between noticing feelings or symptoms and feeling them too much. It’s hard to tell when I am just allowing, say, a sadness to come up, versus when I am wallowing or experiencing it too deeply when it comes up. How much do we need to “feel the feeling” before letting it go? I think a lot of times when I wait for the feeling to resolve itself on its own (sitting with it until it’s ready to move), I am actually just wallowing or re-intensifying it.
I’m also looking forward to the post on big dreams that Brandon mentioned. Sounds exciting!
Hey Lisa,
Thanks for the comment.
Yes, it can be a very fine line between sitting with the feeling, and wallowing in it.
All suffering is caused by our attachments and aversions. We push away what we don’t want, and cling on to what we do want.
You can’t feel a feeling too much. I’d ask yourself, “Am I pushing away this sadness?” And, “Do I want to change how I feel?”
If the answer is yes, then you aren’t allowing it fully.
But, if you feel you are stuck in the sadness, then I might ask yourself, “What are my attachments to this sadness?” In other words, you are keeping it around for some reason.
A feeling, when fully allowed, and neither pushed away nor clung on to, will usually pretty quickly dissipate.
If you aren’t experiencing that, then the answer is one of the following three options:
Only you can tell which of the above it is. But the truth is, as long as this feeling is repressed in your subconscious, it is creating in your reality.
I hope that helps.
Another great post. There’s so much material in the book; I am looking forward to seeing more posts about these ideas and related topics. Like Tim I read this book a long time ago, but it didn’t resonate with me at the time. Later I remembered the basic technique and started using it with pretty good results.
Like Z I have a little trouble with telling the difference between noticing feelings or symptoms and feeling them too much. It’s hard to tell when I am just allowing, say, a sadness to come up, versus when I am wallowing or experiencing it too deeply when it comes up. How much do we need to “feel the feeling” before letting it go? I think a lot of times when I wait for the feeling to resolve itself on its own (sitting with it until it’s ready to move), I am actually just wallowing or re-intensifying it.
I’m also looking forward to the post on big dreams that Brandon mentioned. Sounds exciting!
Hey Lisa,
Thanks for the comment.
Yes, it can be a very fine line between sitting with the feeling, and wallowing in it.
All suffering is caused by our attachments and aversions. We push away what we don’t want, and cling on to what we do want.
You can’t feel a feeling too much. I’d ask yourself, “Am I pushing away this sadness?” And, “Do I want to change how I feel?”
If the answer is yes, then you aren’t allowing it fully.
But, if you feel you are stuck in the sadness, then I might ask yourself, “What are my attachments to this sadness?” In other words, you are keeping it around for some reason.
A feeling, when fully allowed, and neither pushed away nor clung on to, will usually pretty quickly dissipate.
If you aren’t experiencing that, then the answer is one of the following three options:
Only you can tell which of the above it is. But the truth is, as long as this feeling is repressed in your subconscious, it is creating in your reality.
I hope that helps.
These comments, particularly Lisa’s re feeling a feeling and the fine line between sitting with the feeling and wallowing in it and then Brandon’s three examples of options if you aren’t able to get the feeling dissipated. What if it’s a little of all three options? Sometimes things aren’t so black and white. I’ve been having a lot of experiences lately with sad feelings coming up and those three options really struck a nerve because I’ve been experiencing a little of all three quite frequently. Will wait to hear the webinar before I get further into commenting on this. But it is fascinating even as it is challenging to me.
No matter what the feeling is, you just have to ask yourself if you can welcome it fully, without trying to change it. That’s the only thing to do, really.
These comments, particularly Lisa’s re feeling a feeling and the fine line between sitting with the feeling and wallowing in it and then Brandon’s three examples of options if you aren’t able to get the feeling dissipated. What if it’s a little of all three options? Sometimes things aren’t so black and white. I’ve been having a lot of experiences lately with sad feelings coming up and those three options really struck a nerve because I’ve been experiencing a little of all three quite frequently. Will wait to hear the webinar before I get further into commenting on this. But it is fascinating even as it is challenging to me.
No matter what the feeling is, you just have to ask yourself if you can welcome it fully, without trying to change it. That’s the only thing to do, really.