by Annette Baker
If all of these articles, reports, and stories suggesting that Universal Medicine is a cult, and that by direct association I am therefore ‘in’ a cult, were not so offensive and insulting, I would be laughing.
It really is absolutely laughable that these very simple, practical teachings – teachings I have chosen to implement as a support to best live my life – are being ridiculed and slandered… not to mention the other grossly misleading connotations that pervade these false reports.
Rather than exist through life in depression, which is where I was at and certainly where I was continuing to head (as are so many in the world today, evidenced by the huge rise in the prescription of anti-depressants); I felt my way with the presentations from Serge Benhayon and other practitioners and discovered a very simple, uncomplicated way to live. I slowly and steadily made the decision and choice to dump a few (unnecessary) extras from my life – alcohol, gluten, dairy and emotional drama – all in my own time, according to my own revelations as to how these things were no longer working for me.
And what I found was, as I eradicated these things from my life, the clarity with which I could feel what my body needed and didn’t need became increasingly evident. And through this process, the depression I had so regularly slipped into, slowly started to dissipate from my life. Not without struggle – I had of course identified with the idea that this was me – my lot, if you like.
I had been neither diagnosed nor medicated as I didn’t need someone to tell me what I was feeling, and I certainly didn’t need something to numb me from feeling! I was doing a good enough job of that myself. Mine was not a depression born out of a life of abuse or misery or hardship or tough times or neglect or loss, it was seated in the ever-present feeling that there had to be more to life; that what was out there as it, was not it!
Upon hearing the presentations Serge Benhayon was delivering, I discovered they were the missing link I had been longing to find. Of course now I understand and know very well that this ageless wisdom lives inside me too: it is not something only Serge can ‘give’ me, it is something he shares and it is inside us all to access for ourselves.
So the very strong and evident suggestion that something is going on here that is harming people absolutely blows me away: in fact and in truth, it is exactly the opposite. The sharing of this information – which we can, through right living, convert to our own wisdom – is totally harmless. And when lived with truth and commitment brings no harm to another… which is why these stories are so offensive and ridiculous. And may I say, I am not one to be easily offended. So it amazes me that we can be surrounded by so much that claims to be love when it is not, and then when something comes along that is love, we write it off as not love!
Watching highlights of the Olympics – a great Research and Development exercise – a commentator, speaking of one of the young athletes, reported that this athlete had had some troubles this year with her health, “…an ovarian cyst that burst or something”. He went on to say that it had “interrupted her training” – yet we call it love that she is out there on the blocks swimming for “all Australians”.
How wrong are our priorities when we see an issue like that as “an interruption to training”? And why is a very young woman having a problem like this in the first place, when she is seemingly so fit and healthy? Why is this question not being asked? Why is this not being investigated? Why doesn’t anyone feel there is something wrong with that picture? And how many other lesser issues were ignored in her body as ‘nuisances’ before it got to that?
Achievement before health and TRUE well-being is so acceptable in our society, but at what cost?
We see reports like these daily in the news, and in life: some hardship that has befallen someone, some ill that apparently came out of nowhere. Are we really so naive and ignorant as a species that we think we can live how we like, push, abuse or neglect our bodies however we like, and then be shocked and alarmed when our health ‘betrays’ us and then expect our ‘pushed to the brink’ health system to fix us, and come up with all the answers?
It really is ironic that that which is presenting to us how to be true love for ourselves, and therefore for others, is labelled as ‘not love’. Now THAT is harming, and THAT is not love! The irony will of course be lost on those making these claims, for as any true student of their own love knows, how can one know love if they are not first love themselves?
If they continue with these reports maybe I’ll come to my senses, go back to how I was living before, and get myself a magnetic wrist-band. That should fix everything.
And this is the crazy thing: there are so many products and modalities available that are apparently ‘good for us’, yet never ask the user or participant to take responsibility for how they are living. Why? Because it’s easy, it’s comfortable, and it doesn’t challenge how we are living. Yet when something of truth comes along it is viewed with disdain, scepticism, concern and fear.
The commentators of the Olympics would have me celebrate as “…a champion” a female athlete who “… came into the games with torn hip tendons” to run the 42km marathon. From how I live now this is not something I can celebrate. To me it is sad that we can be in so much disregard of ourselves, yet be convinced that it is something heroic; with total neglect and ignorance of the harm this is causing.
I feel certain that the inconsistencies of how we are living will one day be noticed, and felt, for the ills, harm and pain they are causing. It will however take a big change for humanity as a whole to accept that it is us who need to take that first step, and then successive steps towards our own true well-being, and realise and come to the understanding that we cannot just live how we like and expect someone else to do the fixing. THAT will be a day to celebrate!
For now I will continue to live with the most care and love I can each day, and celebrate in the knowing that there are others around me doing the same.
The Truth about Universal Medicine 
Universal Medicine just tells it like it is, you can like it or not, it’s up to each and everyone to discern.
Thank you Annette, as it is silly that we do not question ourselves or each other with truth, most of the time we take all else that is happening as accepted — as if there is no other way. This question of yours is beautifully put: ‘Are we really so naive and ignorant as a species that we think we can live how we like, push, abuse or neglect our bodies however we like, and then be shocked and alarmed when our health ‘betrays’ us and then expect our ‘pushed to the brink’ health system to fix us, and come up with all the answers?’
This is what happens everywhere everyday, this is where we need to discover our true form of intelligence again, as the current one is not actually helping us.
As a society we have a strange perception to celebrate people harming and abusing their body claiming it is done in the name of raising funds for cancer, or to show no fear or to show dedication to an event or an invested training – but why do we celebrate something that wrecks the body? This does not make sense! And so when you have an organisation that comes along to restore a more respectful and loving way of being with the body, it is laughable that they are labled as a cult – in fact they should be used as a world wide model to support our current health care system!
Hear hear Annette – I love every word you have written here and could not agree more whole heartedly and stand by what you have shared with my whole body. What has been presented is an amazing simple and harmless way to live, something that has transformed my life completely and which I am so blessed to have come accross and chosen to embrace.
We all choose what and to whom we associate with. When you realize that you had a long standing relationship with depression and you want to break that association, that is a step forward no matter what. If the people that you associate with are of help in that move, you cannot have but appreciation for them. This is true irrespective of what other people may say. Moreover, this only shows how ill informed, irrelevant and harmful what they say is. It helps no one, starting with those that have also associated in detrimental ways to patterns, the body and others.
Spot-on Annette. It is crazy how hurting yourself to show you are ‘better’ than another is glorified while being loving of yourself and others is demonised
We definitely as a global race need to take responsibility for our health and wellbeing. There is such a pervasive belief that what happens healthwise in our body is unrelated to how we live, that it’s random or genetics for example. But every single choice we make does indeed have a big impact on our health and wellbeing, from the gentle or rough way we move through our day, our thoughts and emotional reactions, our diet, sleeping patterns, and the way we exercise all have an impact. Even our relationships have an affect on us. There is really no area of life we can’t take responsibility for ourselves in by truly and honestly listening to and honouring ourselves and how we feel, and honouring our body and what it communicates.
So true – achievement and recognition at the expense of our well-being, and how that is still championed in the face of the very obvious increase in the number of people who are unwell physically/mentally/emotionally is beyond belief. It really is worth stopping and taking a deeper look at the way we are choosing to live.
I agree that it is unfortunate that humanity has been so degraded and worn down by the lack of love lived in the world, that even when the real deal comes along they won’t and can’t see it and instead choose to attack or ignore it, mostly because true love puts the power in our own hands to make the changes, rather than relying on something outside to save or rescue the situation.
It’s like we champion the ability to push through whatever the body develops that gives us a chance to stop. We celebrate the ability to keep going regardless. But eventually no medical profession can fix the more severe conditions. It’s going to take time but thank God for Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine, ahead of the trend in listening, honouring and cherising the wisdom of the body. Life is far richer together than against the body.
I agree Annette – the changes I made from being inspired in presentations by Serge Benhayon have served my body, health and wellbeing beyond measure. Far from perfection, but it is clear what is not working for my body anymore.
“I slowly and steadily made the decision and choice to dump a few (unnecessary) extras from my life – alcohol, gluten, dairy and emotional drama – all in my own time, according to my own revelations as to how these things were no longer working for me”.
When we begin to start taking care of our body according to our ‘own revelations’ of how our normal is no longer supporting our health and wellbeing, we correspondingly deepen our relationship with ourselves which brings much understanding and grace to our daily lives regarding both ourselves and the world around us.
Annette your article brings so much for us to contemplate, to override and not take stock of any illness we have is totally irresponsible yet many are championed for making such remarkable recoveries within the sporting world, totally oblivious to the true harm they are doing to themselves.
Oh dear, the irony indeed. You brilliantly illustrated just how upside down and inside out we are living as a whole. We are not asking the right questions, we’re just avoiding them with all the immediate gratification we can get, whether it be supporting an olympian to feel good about ourselves and our country, or buying stuff for some retail therapy, to playing nice, to avoid rocking the boat, to simply keeping our blinkers on and letting someone else deal with the mess. No sense made here.
Living from our essence and sharing the gorgeousness of this with everyone is to be celebrated. To applaud people who are hurting themselves for me rubs against the fact that their innate preciousness is being put aside for a level of personal recognition and positioning in life. We are already amazing why not put that level of skill into what serves humanity as a whole?
Isn’t it amazing how in letting go of certain behavioural patterns there can be the simplicity of living just as you are.
Beautifully said Shami, just such a shame that this is being labeled as a cult when it is our future for a society to re-learn how to care and respect ourselves.
Yes it is ironic that such simple and practical answers to so many of life’s ills are being rubbished or worse when they are giving so many the tools to address the many issues that are besetting mankind at the present time.
Reading this blog again I realised how easily I can be caught up in seeking an answer – ‘there’s a problem here, so I must get into seeking mode’, I say to myself. But going into seeking mode is just another way of not being who I am – it is seeking who I am. So, today I am called to simply connect and be all that I am…no seeking required…just the choice to be all that I already am.
OMG I love what you shared Annette – the reality of where people are at, priorities and responsibilities have changed and people still don’t get it.
It’s ok for a car part to go wrong or break down, just take it to the mechanics – they’ll fix it but why did it break down on the first place, does anyone ever question this? Whether it was neglected or abused it’s understandable it is going to break down. So why don’t we apply this principle to our own bodies?
Presenting the truth at times is received with some form of attack or label. One of my experiences in the work environment when truth was presented was perceived as that I was a ‘whinger’. They didn’t want to hear the facts, and be it sugar coated or band aided the truth will only emerge somewhere else……
Living with self-care is a way of life to be honoured, and not ridiculed as the media have done with the teachings of Serge Benhayon. Despite their false reports, many people continue to live and develop with love and self-care as central tenets of their life.
Well said Annette, there are hundreds of students worldwide who have transformed their lives in amazing ways and often reversed many health conditions with the support and true love of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine. To label this organisation a ‘cult’ without researching the facts just shows how low some are willing to go because it suits them to blame others for their life’s woes rather than take any responsibility at all.
It can be amazing what we believe because it’s been that way for years and so we just follow in line of what has gone before us. Sport is one of those, as more and more I am seeing everyday people seriously injure themselves playing local sport. Everything from broken bones, torn muscles, ligaments, operations, exhaustion, fatigue etc etc. I am not saying or taking away someones choice to do what they want but I am just looking at the people rolling in and their injuries and asking how can this be good for us. I am a supporter of exercise absolutely but sport that involves extremes and huge physical contact for entertainment doesn’t make sense anymore and it’s hard to watch at times. To me we are still missing the point of why we are here and in that we have made a way of life that is just accepted because we have done it before and yet if we take a step back or even just a stop we would see how little it is actually truly supporting us.
Why does society accept the denigration of teachings that help to lift people from very low to a point that they can feel pretty amazing? Isn’t it ridiculous? Each one is free to try the way it chooses and to realize which one works for them and which ones do not. If the Universal Medicine way works for some, why does it have to be denigrated via false accusations? Does this serve society?
Thank you Annette for telling it like it is, when we make life all about function and become identified with that function, abuse becomes a way of living until we become aware of choice and consequences which when we become awakened to the fact that we are responsible for the situation we find ourselves in then and only then can true change occur.
Hear, hear Annette, great blog. . . you say it all. It seems that people will do anything for recognition and to avoid taking responsibility for their own health and well being. I know I am still identifying areas that I am needing to look at and I am prepare to look. Universal Medicine has completely changed my outlook on life. I can no longer blame anyone and anything but my own choices for where I am today. And today because I have being able to make different choices I am in a much better place than I EVER, ever would have been otherwise.
I have found it difficult to understand why as a society our propped up heroes are those that are willing to push through any physical symptoms their bodies are giving them to drive themselves to run the race or compete all in the name of sport? Sport that has a huge influence over our collective children I might add.
But this we consider normal ?……. while on the other hand, educated and very switched on members of the general public who attend Universal Medicine presentations and consider the way we live life to be a form of medicine and that maybe, just maybe we have a part to play in our own health and well-being are thought of as weird and are branded as brainwashed cult members?
This seems pretty bent out of shape and corrupt to me not to mention extremely convenient.
What is being presented by Universal Medicine is not new, it has come through many teachers and philosophers since the dawn of time. It seems to me that the angle the media is taking is also not new, indeed some might liken it to the tactics the catholic church used when it was in power many years ago trying to squash anything that might expose it.
It is up to each reader to feel the energy of the people that are writing these types of blogs and it’s up to each community member to speak in person with these so called “cult” members and make a call for themselves as to the truth of any allegations and then stand up and say what they feel about the lies that are being spread. Its time we made our own news, for what I read in the papers these days does not seem to be what is actually going on in the world but rather what will sell and what will generate more income.
When I hear attacks on Universal Medicine I look around at the community of people that I know and I marvel at the many amazing miracles I see before my eyes. Hundreds of people who have transformed their lives and now have amazing lives thanks to the inspiration of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine and the choices each person has made. It can be very cheap and easy to throw stones- but seriously show me where in the world something else like this is happening- where people are truly improving their life in all ways.
“I will continue to live with the most care and love I can each day, and celebrate in the knowing that there are others around me doing the same.” And there will always be those who are jealous and think that the choice to live with love is not possible for them so they choose to reject and denounce it.
The irony is that when we become ill courtesy of making lifestyle choice after lifestyle choice that had led to its manifestation we claim to be surprised.
If we keep life on a temporal, physical level none of this makes sense – why would people get ridiculed, told that are in a cult and have family members concerned when clearly they are making healthier lifestyle choices? To go from depression to being an engaged active member of society is no mean feat, yet this is not celebrated but attacked. Clearly there is more at play here as why does that get attacked?
Thank you Annette for your honest words. I only can agree as I was a person who did a lot of sports and I got ill from it because I was simply harming myself instead of loving myself. It took me a while to understand that the way how I did sport – the way I moved my body – the purpose why I did sport was a weapon against myself. Since I have chosen to have first a loving relationship to myself I would never do sport in that way and imagine now I am a healthier person.
I was recently watching some news items where an ex-olympic swimmer was struggling with a mental breakdown. Other swimmers came out and said it was hard to find a purpose in life post the olympics. If this was truly the success that we champion it as, that person should be very content and full within themselves. Why is it then the norm that after a successful olympic career many athletes are having breakdowns- this clearly shows it is not the answer and it is not truly the pinnacle of success.
Thanks Annette, just reading this through again and enjoying the simple truth you express, Universal Medicine has a lot to offer many people, and those who choose to listen up, take stock and apply as they feel appropriate to them, are the ones currently standing out from the crowds.
“For now I will continue to live with the most care and love I can each day, and celebrate in the knowing that there are others around me doing the same.” And this really all that is needed. Others may not understand the way I live which is absolutely cool. But the way I choose to live is my choice as is the way anyone else chooses to live theirs. Free will is a central law of the Universe. So for me to see and know others who choose to commit to re-learn to live a simple and loving life, in brotherhood, is indeed a celebration and an immense support at those times when I feel my old patterns and self-abusive ways come trying to make headway again. The power of reflection of one who is choosing to live a life of Love is powerful and not always easy to be around, but if we can stay steady and look back at the reflection, we see it is us and know we too have this Love within.
“Yet when something of truth comes along it is viewed with disdain, scepticism, concern and fear.” We all hold the responsibility to discern what is true or not. It’s our right and given to be that and to express that. To be irresponsible and not look into and feel for yourself if something is harming or not is feeding the same lie where all this harm comes from. It creates a great stop to even consider let alone feel what is harming in this world and what is healing. “The irony will of course be lost on those making these claims, for as any true student of their own love knows, how can one know love if they are not first love themselves?”
It is ridiculous beyond words that the sort of sensible, healthy, down-right commonsense things that so many Universal Medicine students have found to make such a difference to the quality of life they can live, are held up as cultish and harming. Coming from a naturopathic background I can attest to the fact that I (and most of my fellow students back in those years) did MANY things that actually were harming, all in the name of so-called health. Consuming all sorts of weird things, doing enemas, drinking clay, urine, moon-water… wow! Now going to bed at 9pm and cutting out gluten and dairy… THAT’s really weird!!
Being inspired by another has been bastardized by these examples of championing others who have stopped listening to their bodies and pushed on regardless of the pain and injuries they have. We aren’t even inspired by people who are living without this need for recognition, excitement, roller coaster or struggling kind of life. We are being pitted against each other to compete, who can have the most issues, drama and health problems amongst a family, work place or group of friends. While we are in competition with each other over who is the most unloving and needing this…. loving choices will be ignored or boo booed. Showing another consistent loving way supports lifting the cloud of abuse from peoples eyes.
Celebrating the love and care we can bring to our lives, into a world that has been designed to abuse and champion disconnection is not easy but it does deliver everything that we aspire to in the other way of living. No amount of recognition can surpass the feeling of true love and care. No ideal can ever be as satisfying as acceptance of who we truly are. Thank you for this reminder Annette.
And others will be inspired by you Annette.
Thank you Annette for a great article, it is amazing how ignorant the world at large is in understanding the body and the responsibility we have in our everyday choices. When illness or disease befall someone there is shock and a feeling that this should not be happening so off to the doctor to fix what is happening with little or no thought as to how they are living in their day to day life that has contributed to this behaviour.
‘When something of truth comes along it is viewed with disdain, scepticism, concern and fear.’ Spot on Annette, some of the Media’s response to Serge Benhayon’s teachings was just that. Some media reacted so strongly to the truth and tried everything in their power to destroy Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon’s impeccable reputation. Throughout this time it has been very inspiring to watch Serge Benhayon go from strength to strength and deepen the love he holds for himself and to consistently offer humanity the wisdom and truth it desperately craves.
It is so true Annette the inconsistency is baffling. We celebrate pushing our bodies to the point of failure, putting pressure on a health system to then undo our self abuse. We indulge in foods and drinks that our body struggles to digest and process all in the name of enjoying life, yet we have to take responsibility for those choices. It is not to say don’t have them if you want them but take responsibility for your choices, pay for your own consequences and healthcare. From what I have experienced in my body, the medicine we struggle with so much is honesty and responsibility.
It is ridiculous, if not downright offensive that because you and I have chosen to implement a way of life that includes self-care, a clean diet, exercise, and great sleep, we are criticised and scorned. The world needs to wake up to what is on offer with Universal Medicine, for it is nothing short of miraculous for many many people.
Beautifully said Annette thank you. Somehow we seem to have come to a point where we as humanity see the body’s ability to self-heal as a green light for abusing it. Yes, the body does have a remarkable ability to heal itself but this leads me to ponder how it would be if we live in harmony with the wonderful innateness, rather than fill its days with the need to eliminate unnecessary junk, fix our unnecessary injuries and compensate for our unnecessary fatigue. How amazing might life be if we choose to honour the wisdom of our bodies and live from its very impulses rather than against them? How might it be if all the energy it currently uses to heal our unhealthy choices, is instead utilised in choosing self-loving options? Worth a little exploration in my view.
Well said Annette. Truth is feared by those not yet willing to live it. Hence the comfort (numbness) that is chosen to offset the consistent pull from within, that forever calls us back to the love that we are. We are each made of love but for the most part we shun it, blinded by our search for it ‘out there’ in the world and lost in the irony of this.
I am celebrating with you Annette, to live life with my love has deepened the care I have of myself and holds me as I now feel love and a deep connection with others. In all the days I have lived, never before have I felt the exquisite beauty I feel when I love another as I love myself.
A society that glorifies winning at all costs; pitting one against his fellow man, and one country against another and then points the finger at someone who is taking really good care of themselves and calls them brainwashed is a society with problems.
Well said kathleenbaldwin. Another thing I have noticed is the ease in which ridiculing or putting another down occurs. This makes for feelings of superiority and makes the other wrong. It seems this is happening more and more in everyday conversation, often masked as a joke.
One thing you cannot stop in life is people misinterpreting others through their own perceived bias. What the media did to Serge Benhayon is inexcusable – the way they arrogantly decided to typecast Universal Medicine as some sort of destructive cult – all without any proper research, or interviews with people who have known Universal Medicine for a long time. It was one sided, biased beyond compare, and surely yet another low in journalism in this country. That all being said, the media will always do what they do best – create a sensationalist narrative in order to feed their own coffers and boost sales of their dwindling readerships. All we can do is call it out, but most importantly continue to live what we know to be true, reaping the benefits of a life dedicated towards philosophy, religious contemplation, true self care, and transparency with all.
How can anything that feels so right be denigrated. Serge Benhayon and the Ageless Wisdom teachings are simply commonsense. What is commonsense about putting your body through such trauma and self-abuse for a few minutes of glory and recognition. It’s a sad fact that this is seen as heroic and applauded when so many pay the consequences for their sport not only at the time, but also further down the track in their lives with their old sporting injuries. Imagine if the money put into these sporting activities and fields was spent in a way that would truly support humanity becoming unified, instead it appears we choose to support sports that applaud comparison, competition, and division. Really is it that much different to war? This is what is really ridiculous and this is what we truly need to question.
Annette, you are spot on – how can we celebrate another person’s decision to do more harm to themselves? The answer is quite simple: we can only celebrate that if we have not really allowed ourselves to feel or connect to what is really going on. When we announce to an olympic stadium that someone is there against all odds after a ruptured cyst or torn hip tendons, it not only asks to celebrate an abuse, but it sets the example for others to do like wise – for others to ignore their body, push on beyond what they know to be true for themselves, and to live towards an image or an ideal that is harming rather than deeply caring for themselves. What example are we setting up for society.
And as you have so well pointed out – there is an irony in the fact that when someone present true and deep self care, love and tenderness, then that has to be shut down in favour of what we have just mentioned above. Serge Benhayon does present such truth and is a true role model – yet this is not what people want because it asks us to be more responsible, it asks us to actually assess what we are doing in life that is working and is not working. Taking responsibility scares people off. But how different would our world be if people actually took responsibility? for example what if people actually too responsibility for their health? Could this mean true ‘Responsible drinking’ (which really means NO alcohol, not one drop!?); could this mean no more smoking or recreational drugs? Could this mean people would eat more healthily and leave out the sugar, the soft drinks, the excessive carbs and sweeteners etc? This list goes on…how much would the world change then? We live in opportunistic times, which means there is much change we can bring. The question is what change are we bringing – that of true and deep self care or not?
It’s not until someone says “what is going on” that we begin to ask questions ourselves on the ridiculousness of how we are choosing to live. The example you give Annette is a very stark one and shows how when the body is communicating something to us, we still do all we can to ignore it. We even give ourselves a really hard time for being sick or having an injury, like it’s a fault within our make up. However this is so far from the truth. Being sick is not a punishment or inconvenience…it’s a huge opportunity to reflect on all of our choices and accepting that we are not here to do anything alone.
When we wake up to the fact that we are totally responsible for how our lives are unfolding we begin to crave a simpler and more basic way to live our everyday and the emotional dramas, patterns and reactions and the subsequent games and antics they feed not only become an optional extra but an unnecessary and unsavory complication that we no longer wish to indulge. Fabulous blog Annette.
I remember hearing my first presentations by Universal Medicine on self care, they made so much sense and were so easy, simple and practical I could not understand why I hadn’t been aware of these things before! Reading about the Olympians really summed up for me the pervasive culture of “heroism” we live in that celebrates conquering the body to achieve some outer goal, usually for the rather empty reward of recognition. We can see the body as less than the mind, yet it’s the mind deciding to fill the body with junk food, drugs and alcohol, and push the body beyond its limits in everything from work, study, sport, relationships, and day to day activities. The simplicity of listening to the body and caring for it with love makes so much sense, and it works to truly bring about good health and wellbeing. It’s amazing that we would never treat our car with such disregard knowing it would end up needing expensive repairs, yet we push and beat our body and then act like we don’t understand how we ended up sick!!
When so many people appear to be overriding the truth they feel, it is lovely to read you exposing the ridiculousness of what we have settled for and made normal. From my experience, the body only allows you to live with blinkers on for so long before it offers you truth… sometimes uncomfortably so, to make sure you listen.
It is very crazy when we as individuals have made our own choices to live in away that nurtures, we fed ridiculed to be called that we belong to a cult. We have chosen to put ourselves first and love ourselves more, this is more loving to us all, how can it be harming and part of any cult.
‘It really is absolutely laughable that these very simple, practical teachings – teachings I have chosen to implement as a support to best live my life – are being ridiculed and slandered…’ I agree Annette, it’s crazy that actually supporting yourself to live a more vital, healthier and more loving life lands you in what is so wrongly called ‘a cult.’ It makes no sense at all!
One of the biggest ‘flaws’ we have as collective on our planet is just as you have said Annette: “we can be surrounded by so much that claims to be love when it is not, and then when something comes along that is love, we write it off as not love!”. Our world is so full of untruths and things that are clearly not supportive to us, so it may indeed appear strange that when a true truth gets presented, such as that presented by Serge Benhayon and the teachings of Universal Medicine, then this is poo pooed and not accepted for the blessing that it is. I feel this comes from the fact that we have been living in a way and making choices that have incrementally allowed less and less truth in our lives, so that we gradually get blinded to what is true and what is not. And if, or when, we then re-awaken from this fog and confusion, we get to see (often with horror) that which we have chosen which was not true. And so the lesson lies in the fact that the more we allow and choose to see truth, then the more we can be discerning of that which is and which is not. And hence we don’t throw the baby out with the bath water!
Yes Suzanne so many practical tools for a truer way of life. Life can actually be a celebration and not an endless struggle.
l was forced into years of Judo specifically designed to harden me up for lifes knocks.
Now l have been unravelling this fiction from my body and l have never felt better. l am realising it is my vulnerability that strengthens me and l can drop the protection.
Thank you Annette, love the way your blog says it as it truly is.
Indeed, it is completely ironic that Universal Medicine has been labeled a cult when it is in fact, the absolute, totally, complete polar opposite of anything that resembles cult… It is ironic… Universal Medicine erroneously described in a way that deliberately summons emotions that generate a reaction opposite to love, and this reaction, is what the handful of people who are disseminating this smear campaign want, as they want people to associate this negative reaction when they next hear the name Universal Medicine. It is deliberate and calculated disseminating of false information and an age-old tactic.
This ‘taking one for the team’ mentality I see championed through out sport. The idea of sacrificing oneself for the good of the team is seen as incredibly noble and honourable – a quality people admire and hope is emulated in wider society. But what this ‘team’ brings is never questioned. I choose to not be part of championing other people being in grave disregard of themselves. Not a ‘team player?’ I know the connection we all have with one another is there in how we are with each other in daily life. Team sport pretends to offer connection but it comes laced with disregard and competition. I accepted its terms growing up because it seemed the nearest thing to connection, something we all feel the truth of.
This happens everywhere, we are championed for how much effort or drive we put into a project, musical performance, a dance recital or how many hours we worked overtime to take one for the team and then gloat and be proud that we are at the end of our tether and completely exhausted. We need to look at what we are not only condoning but adding to by going along with any form of disregard.
Brilliantly said Angela Perin. That Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine are criticized for presenting a truly harmonious way to live, that makes sense of the non-nonsensical way in which we destroy our health and our lives on a daily basis, evidences something is deeply at odds with humanity that we, as a collective, are buying into.
I loved reading this, Annette. Your sharing has many levels for comment but what stands out for me today is how we worship sports people who do “well” in their sport but they are often injured and then return to do exactly what caused the injury in the first place. We seem to equate fitness with being healthy but this is so not true and is evidenced by the huge injuries that happen to sports people and the many chronic issues they have in late life such as arthritis. I watch the NZ All Blacks ( revered throughout the world) who go out on the field with strapping on every part of their body and yet no one questions this. They are put out there for our children to worship and be like them. We really have blinkers on when it means to actually living a healthy life. So when a person like Serge Benhayon actually shows us a better way of living and he is condemned for this we really need to take a good look at our society and what actually is really happening here. It does not make sense.
I agree Mary, most people do not stop and consider if how they have been living has played a part in their illness or disease. Nobody makes the link between our choices and ill health clearer than Serge Benhayon. As it stands there is no part of conventional health care currently equipped to support this line of enquiry either, but when it does Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine will have a tried and tested model ready at hand.
I definitely recall at the Olympics seeing some small European country so excited to be getting a fourth position on the podium, their first and only medal, only to be pipped at the end by another country, so they were in fifth place with no medal. Their smiling ecstatic faces turned downward with tears of dismay, they had worked so hard and it wasn’t good enough. Such competition between countries feels aggressive and harsh. There feels to be no positive outcome for people to push themselves so hard to beat others, either they win and feel better than others, or the rest all lose. The gain is a false short-lived victory and the loss can be devastating.
And I will continue with saying that this blog is brilliant on other levels too…Annette, you have exposed the sports industry by showing that the push and the drive of athletes puts national standing and reputation well above and beyond their own health and well being. When we have elite athletes that continue to compete despite a burst cyst or with torn muscles or tendons this sets up an ‘example’ for others to follow. So as role models athletes are essentially promoting people to disregard their body, put themselves at greater risk and put a huge amount of pressure on the medical system to ‘fix’ them so that they can continue to be disregarding of their own body! And of course this is aided by the media in their role of promoting such choices in the light of something to be celebrated. The media’s responsibility would really be to point this out as an alarming choice that really needs to be looked at – and the real question is: why is it that we have such a strong need to damage ourselves at such deep levels? Is it possible that, like Annette talked about in the beginning, there is a level of depression that can be there, not because of a traumatic or abusive childhood as such, but because people know that there is more to life than what can be seen, that there is more to life that fulfils us? Could it be that this begins with caring for the self, the body and nurturing and resting and loving yourself?
Annette, this blog is brilliant on so many levels! For starters you expose the fact that depression does not have to be due to a life of abuse of trauma. As you have said: “Mine was not a depression born out of a life of abuse or misery or hardship or tough times or neglect or loss, it was seated in the ever-present feeling that there had to be more to life; that what was out there as it, was not it!” – people need to read this and hear this, for there is a huge amount of depression that I believe stems from this, and people are excusing themselves from it by not validating what they feel – the fact that something is missing from their lives and this something is the deeper connection with themselves – they know that life is not complete as an empty game of box ticking.
I also had this depression you speak about Annette, the one that arises from the tension of ‘there must be more to life than this’. And in sheer illusion I looked outward, forever searching for the riches I now know lie within. We have created a way of living here on Earth that blinds us to the way things truly are. Those who truly seek the truth of all things, do so with their hearts and eyes wide open.
All very well said Annette. What is NOT love we call ‘love’ and in doing so champion a way of living that sees us living far less than the truth of who we are. In this diminished state, we then look at everything that IS love and deem it not to be love, for in its reflection, our lesser way of living is laid bare. We run from love not because we are scared, but because we cannot handle the responsibility that comes with living true to our essence.
It continues to amaze me that when someone who realises that the way they are living is not working and begins to make changes, they are suddenly looked at very suspiciously, as if something is wrong with them and often considered weird. Not only that, if they give up eating gluten or stop drinking, for example, others will constantly try to get them to have “just one -it won’t hurt you”. Perhaps it is the reflection from the one making the changes that is unsettling the other, as somewhere inside they know that these changes would benefit them too, but this knowing is quickly ignored as they choose to remain living in the way that they have always known and consider “normal”, even though it is making them sick. As you say Annette “The irony of it all”
Wow I am astonished an Olympic commentator said that a burst ovarian cyst ‘interrupted’ a woman’s training. It really does demonstrate to the highest degree how we actually choose to put things, like sport, above our own health and well-being, I’m sure the placing of importance on everything else ABOVE our bodies cannot ever truly work.
Spot on Meg – the body is seen as a nuisance, as a bother, as something that is worthless if it does not perform or function as we want or need it to do at that moment in time. Putting it in those words exposes the utter arrogance and cold hardness of the consciousness that drives so many athletes. But the reality is that it is not just something we see in athletes alone, for we see this on many other levels too in life. This is a sad state of affairs for our world – perhaps we will one day be ready to see it in a different light.
Before I began learning to really care for myself I definitely used to see my body as a nuisance too, and in the extremely careless way I treated it all the time it was pretty uncooperative. You are so right there is a massive arrogance and hardness in the way almost everyone treats their bodies, not just athletes. It has become normal when it’s so far away from normal – taking true care of ourselves should be the norm.
True care should be our norm, Meg, well said! Another situation I am familiar with is when I have been unwell for a while and then this is followed by the recovery phase – I often find an impatience in allowing the body to catch up to where I feel I want to be. This is another level of arrogance when we ‘get going’ too soon after illness. There are those moments when the body still needs healing and rest, but the being feels amazing and energised and wants to get going. These are times to beware of as it can set us back. So the lesson for me has been to put the body first. This is a lesson, I admit I am still learning!
Great distinction “I used to think athletes and sports stars were super healthy but now realise they regard their body as a purely functional thing.” I have been trained as a Sports Massage Therapist and it is clear to me that ‘function’ is often the priority over true health, this is one big cloak of illusion that society wishes not to see, being an athlete is not supportive of the body, it pushes it, puts strain on it and can result in serious long term health issues. Exercise is fabulous, how we do it and why are the point here however. Again irony, those that are often lorded as the most healthy in society often have just as many health issues in the long term as someone of has decided to sit on the couch a lot and watch them….The truth is very different from what is often chosen and promoted in the media and in our culture.
This is a big issue in society, Serge Benhayon has presented on Self-care it is ground breaking in the potential it has to change lives…we often seek results over our health…’Achievement before health and TRUE well-being’ Fundamentally it makes good sense to have a foundation of good health and well-being established, it supports us to deal with what life offers, we won’t be off sick from work as much, we won’t be as stressed, we will have more contentment and we will not seek refuge in the comfort of food, drugs and unhealthy relationships. Success in a true sense.
There is a deep irony in the misrepresentation of what is offered by Universal Medicine, Serge Benhayon, his family, its practitioners and students. Something I am becoming aware of is to discern what I feel the truth is for myself, and I also have observed that often what is being presented as ‘truth’ or ‘the way things are’ is often in fact the opposite of the ‘true truth’. Just using the students of The Way of the Livingness as an example, some of the people I have meet on courses have been the most independent, courageous, discerning, honest and aware people I have ever meet, the picture attempted to be painted about this ‘follower’ idea is ludicrous and completely oppositional to the true facts. This is way discerning for ourselves is so important, feel the quality of what we experience not just the story that is being told.
There are many complementary and alternative therapies out there and almost all are there to offer escape not true healing. “And this is the crazy thing: there are so many products and modalities available that are apparently ‘good for us’, yet never ask the user or participant to take responsibility for how they are living.” A practitioner who is not willing to continue to heal themselves, to live a life of responsibility and to walk what they talk can only offer so much, the potential healing is limited or expanded through their choices.
What a fantastic blog, a voice calling out the irony of what we as a society, champion what we consider to be loving when we are actually harming our body, and the ..”Achievement before health and TRUE well-being is so acceptable in our society, but at what cost?…” Salute to you Annette, for putting pen to paper to voice what needs our attention to question.
“To me it is sad that we can be in so much disregard of ourselves, yet be convinced that it is something heroic; with total neglect and ignorance of the harm this is causing.” I agree Annette, it doesn’t make sense to me for us to champion someone who is hurting their body, quite seriously and unnecessarily. Surely the most loving thing to say to her would be that actually it doesn’t matter if she runs the race – her body needs to heal and she needs to give herself space to do that..
“realise and come to the understanding that we cannot just live how we like and expect someone else to do the fixing”….Bam and the truth be told. This is how so many of us are living at the moment and it is time for us to take greater responsibility in how we are living and looking at what part we play in the world.
Suzanne I can relate to what you say about ‘coming to your senses’. There was a level of numbness and unawareness I was living in that I had no idea about. Listening to Serge Benhayon and applying what he shared made so much sense, so much so that I had to question why I had not even considered much of it before. That is the numbness, to realise that this awareness is right there and yet inaccessible because of how I was choosing to live. The beautiful thing is that this awareness and depth of feeling keeps growing and growing, constantly inspiring me to explore more.
Dear Anne this is so true. I join You 🙂
All that you have said Annette is true. it is crazy to hound people who are sincerely caring and loving themselves and taking responsibility for their own bodies, pinpointing any hint of self abuse and being as truthful as they can. How terrible this must be for the world, to have responsible people in it? Society’s values are askew. What they champion is not true health – what they appear to fear is responsibility.
Annette, this is a great article and you raise some really important points, I can very much relate to this, ‘Achievement before health and TRUE well-being is so acceptable in our society, but at what cost?’, I notice this in schools, that children hurt themselves regularly and quite badly in sports and yet the game continues, it is very much a case of getting up and getting on with it, self care does not seem to come into it, the game finishes when one of the teams has won, not when someone really hurt themselves, no-one seems to say – stop children are getting hurt, this is not ok.
What we champion in sport is something that I now view very differently than before, I can see no bravery or honour in battling through an event and “overcoming odds” to achieve so called “success” when the body is so badly injured. It no longer feels like bravery to me but instead a desperation, a need to be someone through the recognition sport give us. What happens to the athlete after the sport is gone, what other distraction is taken on to relive the glory, for the need to be filled up doesn’t go away, it is an energy that just takes on another guise? This is why we see so many athletes suffer depression and mental health problems in, or in some cases take on crazy athletic challenges after their sporting days end, all in the name of charity and all because the sport was just a mask, a fix to numb the feelings and the emptiness that need to be felt if it is ever to be addressed.
“And this is the crazy thing: there are so many products and modalities available that are apparently ‘good for us’, yet never ask the user or participant to take responsibility for how they are living.” A further irony is that a keystone of a cult is that members follow prescriptive rules but Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine present for it is for everyone to take responsibility to discern the truth and take responsibility for oneself.
It really is crazy how Universal Medicine can get so much grief thrown at it where other organisations are simply over looked. It’s as though people know instinctively that this is the right way of living and their jealousy, or something, inspires hate as they are not prepared to make the same choices for the better.
This is a great down to earth no nonsense blog and I love it. Change for the masses has got to come at some point and it is guiding lights like you Annette that will inspire people to do so and take responsibility for themselves.
What is ridiculous is that we choose a complicated way of living over one of loving simplicity.
This baffles me too Deborahmckay. It seems like there is an underlying fear that tries to control everything but because the energy is of fear in the first place there is a desperation too and motives become self-centred in the worst possible way.
This is a brilliant and much needed article Annette. It was obvious to me when it was brought to my attention just what it was I’d been putting my body through and yet I’d been under a haze of cloud when it came to caring for my own body and wellbeing thinking nothing of punishing my body through sport, foods that weren’t suitable for my body, alcohol, sugar, etc. After hearing Serge Benhayon present on the ways we abuse our bodies yet think it’s somehow normal the cloud lifted and it was like “of course, that makes absolute sense”. Everything became clear. I’m so appreciative of Serge for being prepared to stand up and speak the truth so that I – and many others – have been able to have the “aha” moments. I love that I’m now living in a much more loving way with myself and those around me and appreciate my choice every day that lead me to being a member of the student body of Universal Medicine, one, I might add, that I’m free to come and go from as I please.
I absolutely get this, I had a very similar experience “After hearing Serge Benhayon present on the ways we abuse our bodies yet think it’s somehow normal the cloud lifted and it was like “of course, that makes absolute sense””. I continue to look at how I treat my body and it is an ongoing refinement, but having heard this spoken from someone who had lived it changed my life, it was not longer just words, Serge Benhayon has walked this path back to self care and self nurturing and so he is an awesome inspiration.
Beautifully said Annette, it is absolutely crazy that people point the finger at Universal Medicine students and say we are in a cult because we are making loving choices that truly support ourselves and everyone around us. Many people have been inspired by our choices and others dig their heels in and defend their lifestyle choices that are harming their bodies – one day this will change, until then we continue to live and express love to everyone equally.
The world does seem upside down sometimes – the points you raise Annette make me feel even more so. I used to admire sporting greats but when I see the great cost to the physical being it actually quite saddens me, the striving and self-abuse to suffer for a piece of gold or silver. Any life lived with self-care and self-nurture deserves to be celebrated.
Great expansion on the subject Angela.
I do very much agree, we as a humanity live very lovelessly and yearn for this true true love so desperately yet when it comes along we can’t bear it as we have lived so long without it and rather turn away from it and ‘write it off as not love.’ There is so much cynicism and coldness that we have gotten used to that we do not know anymore how to open our hearts and live without all the heavy armour and walls that we have put up.
I for myself have felt the love that was there and have through the teachings of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine learned to step by step let go of the hurts that keep me from living in the fullness of me that life can be. How I feel and live today I do not want to miss and do as you Annette ‘continue to live with the most care and love I can each day, and celebrate in the knowing that there are others around me doing the same.’
This is a really well thought through blog Annette. It brings to the forefront the urgency for us to ask ourselves as readers some very serious questions about the state of our health, our whole well-being and the state of our world. Questions that are very rarely asked.
“If they continue with these reports maybe I’ll come to my senses, go back to how I was living before, and get myself a magnetic wrist-band. That should fix everything.” hahaha or hopefully the rest of the world will come to their senses.
A great blog, full of sense and wisdom, exposing the absurdities we have accepted as being normal and in stark contrast, the way in which real truth in life gets too easily run through the mill until we’re ready to take full responsibility for our actions and for our own wellbeing.
Annette what you have written makes so much sense to me, how can we celebrate the fact that as a society we value sporting achievements that come at the expense and well-being of the people achieving them. It seems illogical. As does the desire by some to claim Universal Medicine is a cult or is unloving, when it does nothing but present the reflection that it is we who have a choice through our actions to make our life more self-loving. I for one appreciate the fact that Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon have brought to my attention the importance of taking true responsibility for the choices I make like, as it is these choices that dictate whether I live a life based on truth and love or not.
Annette what you have shared has the potential to completely change people’s lives. If our choices in how we live come from the love we have for ourselves and listening to our bodies, it supports our emotional and physical wellbeing and, as I have found, our love for other people. All this from embracing the amazing teachings of Universal Medicine!!
There is no harm possible from any association with Universal Medicine except for that which comes from those who throw labels and accusations around in absolute ignorance of what Universal Medicine actually presents and the foundation of self-responsibility and love upon which they stand.
Awesome blog thank you Annette for sharing. To be abused for standing up and delivering the truth is not a new behaviour, to question how someone chooses to live is confronting, and wars have been fought over upholding beliefs and ideals.
When the truth is expressed in full, those that are willing see the lie as the nonsense it is, are held in the love the truth offers. And for others – who choose to always make it about comparison, competition, jealousy – will eventually feel the truth in time through ill health, whereby their body won’t be able to support the lie they live and accidents and so called ‘bad luck’ happen through lack of conscious presence in their life, as they look out and see a way of health vitality and joy in those that have chosen truth.
We are all love, even when not choosing to live it, and when the truth is reawakened in us, it is our responsibility to express it in full with the love we are all equally so, answering the call of the soul.
Great blog Annette. I love how you claim a true day of celebration when humanity finally “accept that it is us who need to take that first step, and then successive steps towards our own true well-being, and realise and come to the understanding that we cannot just live how we like and expect someone else to do the fixing.”
Meanwhile I am with you in living with the most care and love showing that this is possible and feels amazing!!!
Awesome blog, and this line is super Annette: “Achievement before health and TRUE well-being is so acceptable in our society, but at what cost?” because it also extends right into the realm of work and jobs too, where so often promotion occurs through self-abuse via job fatigue, stress, exhaustion or illness to make it up the career ladder. Where those promoted become role-models, and thus the cycle of abuse gets perpetuated, and considered as ‘the norm’ in many offices. This is neither effective leadership, nor true success, because as you say it is not LOVE.
Great article Annette where you ask some really important questions. Just today a colleague and I were discussing this and she raised similar questions. We do have an attitude of living how we like and expecting others to fix it and we have a whole society that we have set up that way where help is always at hand through many statutory services. What we are now seeing is how unsustainable this is as national health services and other government organisations struggle to cope with the high demands due to rising ill health including obesity, worklessness and relationship breakdown to name just a few areas in decline. What Serge Benhayon and Universal present and teach is worldclass. Serge shares a deep understanding of why we are in the mess that we are in and that as individuals we CAN take responsibility for our own lives and make the change. Witnessing people take responsibility for their health and well-being including their relationships has been wonderful to watch. Seeing people who have attended the courses and workshop of Universal Medicine blossom (including myself) is remarkable against the backdrop of the general decline in the way that we are living. The other beautiful thing is that those of us who have made the change are so willing to give back and engage in community life. How can people who are living with more energy and vitality and an increased commitment to life be ridiculed? It makes no sense what so ever and it would make more sense to celebrate this rather than trash it.
Great article Annette.
‘I certainly didn’t need something to numb me from feeling! I was doing a good enough job of that myself.’ Hilarious, as I can so relate! Once living a life full of drugs and alcohol, yet at the same time refusing a panadol if I had a headache?! Go figure.
What is lived and shared by Universal Medicine practitioners is not only ‘not harming’ but is, in truth (and when applied and lived for oneself), deeply healing!
A beautiful blog, Annette that offers us so many opportunities to live life in a more loving and honouring way.
It feels very revealing when I begin to look at the true motivators in my life and realise that they are so far from self-loving and only part of a constant drive to succeed and gain recognition. What my body truly wants and needs is love and to live that love in a way that is sustaining and offering the world a reflection that will support others.
Its indeed crazy that all those people who don’t take care of themselves to make an achievement are seen as hero’s, but on the other side people who are truly loving to their bodies and live a life full of joy and energy are spoken of as being a cult. People don’t like the reflection of that what they feel to be true as well, and I understand it is sometimes difficult to be truly honest with what I am doing.
It certainly is strange that taking care and responsibility for your life and making healthy life choices are being labelled as a cult? I mean really? On what basis? Has the expectation/conditioning of ‘pushing through’ a burst ovarian cyst to be in the Olympics taken a hold that strongly?
So true! We live in a world where great truths are often not appreciated at the time they are first presented and by the time they are they often have been corrupted by those in power. We are looking everywhere for the cures to all our out of control illnesses but not looking at how we choose to live. Sure diet and exercise get a look in but how we live, the emotions we hold on to still are not considered yet it seems so obvious.
Maybe it’s because we are surrounded by so much that is very far from love, that we reject something truly loving when it is presented. It’s understandable if we have just tried too many times and been hurt so much that we put up the fight anyway, what ever comes along saying it’s love. Basically that means we’ve given up, stopped ourselves from the chance of finding another way, and excepted the unloving way we now have, we’ve got comfortable with it and figured out a way to get by… but is that really what we want?
It’s magic to feel others around you expressing the same love. It’s what institutionalized religions try to copy, it’s what Mantra-chanting, sports, football-games etc try to copy . But for me this all was actually sharing emptiness. Being part of Universal Medicine and sharing projects with people all across the world as true brothers and sisters – this is it.
Beautifully said, Annette* The real deal is and true non harming way to live is to live in a way of self responsibility. And well, our human life is based on competition and success. That’s maybe why people sense a self responsible and loving way as harming, cause it is exposing where this way of living is not loving. It’s there to capture the way of profit.
A great article Annette. I agree with you where you say “it amazes me that we can be surrounded by so much that claims to be love when it is not, and then when something comes along that is love, we write it off as not love!” Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine demonstrate a way to live that inspires true love and self-love in those who choose to ‘give it a go’. I have chosen to be inspired and my life is a joy to be living and so much more simple.
I will choose to celebrate with you Annette and one day soon I hope many others will join us.
So clearly articulated Annette! What I loved was how you explained how those menacing Universal Medicine and the Ancient Wisdom Teachings must be advocating for what is ‘not love’, if what is love is so abhorrent to them! Keep writing!
This is a brilliant article Annette, I love how you so clearly speak truth and don’t hold back, I completely agree with what you have written here, ‘there are so many products and modalities available that are apparently ‘good for us’, yet never ask the user or participant to take responsibility for how they are living.’ I spent years trying many different modalities and nothing changed, well apart from becoming more arrogant and giving my power away more. I now look after and care for myself and this is so simple and lovely, and I have made many loving changes in my life as a result of being inspired by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine, so I agree, to accuse this man and this organisation of not being loving and all the other wild accusations, really is crazy.
Lots of things to consider here. I love the bit about this sense of incredulity and betrayal we have when our bodies finally flag up, loud and clear, the damage we have done through our choices over years. Would it not be more intelligent to let that moment be an opportunity to reflect and take responsibility, implementing changes that turn around, rather than exacerbate, our ‘condition’.
Here, here Annette. Spoken from the heart with truth and wisdom.
As you say, “now I understand and know very well that this ageless wisdom lives inside me too: it is not something only Serge can ‘give’ me, it is something he shares and it is inside us all to access for ourselves”.
Strong blog, thank you Annette. I can relate with everything you say. And love you sentence:
‘Achievement before health and TRUE well-being is so acceptable in our society, but at what cost?’
Indeed how crazy is the world we live in. No animal would do the things we put on ourselves and on our bodies.
I deeply appreciate your expression in this blog Annette. This message ‘achievement before health and well being’ needs to be on the front page of the news paper. I can feel your love of humanity and how much you are not sold out to the forceful ways of the harmful ‘norm’. And yes the irony is that achievement before health and true well being is actually costing the people/country more than we are financially achieving!
‘The irony of it all’ says it all. We have so many of our priorities wrong in the world today. Considering illness as an inconvenience to be fixed so then one can get on with life, used to be my way of thinking too. Now, listening to my body’s messages and responding appropriately, and getting to the root of an issue is more important than plastering over the cracks. Why are people, especially sports personalities, applauded for performing despite injury, consuming pain killers so that they can compete? And at what cost to their bodies in the future?
What is utterly ridiculous is that many of us continue to be ridiculed on a daily basis, simply because we have implemented changes in our lives that let us feel great each day! What on earth is going on in the world where people who choose to adapt a way of life that supports their health and wellbeing get abused as being in a cult? Crazy…
Bravo Annette! You have covered off everything i.e. the truth with beautiful efficiency. Thanks for articulating what I have come to see as truth.
Such a deeply important article Annette; you have delivered such truth on the disabling ways we as a society have our priorities all wrong. Your exposure on this is golden.
I agree Annette, that as a human race we champion what we can do and what we can ‘achieve’ much more than our health and well being, and we like to be irresponsible with our health assuming that there will be treatment or a solution that can fix it so we can carry on with our way of living. So no wonder when a man comes along and says that it is about being more responsible about how we live every day, it gets attacked and ridiculed. We find responsibility hard to stomach but it is the only way we are going to overcome our escalating health crises.
It is true that what is presented by Universal Medicine is to see that we have a choice. We can stay in comfort and keep living the lives we are used to and have experienced that it does not work, if true love and joy is what you look for in your life. Or how we can take responsibility for how we live and experience another way that is in respect of our body with a true vitality and harmony. And what is being ridiculed and slandered here is the fact that we are being asked to look at why we choose to stay in comfort and a way of living that is not true and step up and take responsibility for the way we live.
It is sad to read the stories of the Olympic athletes and how that kind of deep disregard is championed. How crazy is it that when something (Universal Medicine) comes along and presents about loving ourselves and taking care of our bodies so that we can then be more love in the world, it is branded by some as being damaging and imposing. Perhaps the idea of self responsibility is just too much for them to handle.
This is a great blog, as it shows how we think going far lengths and abusing our bodies but have succes is better than one living a normal daily life who lives from a deep care for him or herself.
A few years on and we are now wiser to understanding that these events in the media were constellated to reflect to us the true state of the world. The true irony being that these articles in the papers are a cry for help from humanity – a call to shake us from our comforts of living an improved life, to stepping up to truly claiming all of who we are and living this unashamedly, so every day to offer this reflection to a world in desperate need of seeing the truth that confirms what they feel within.
Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon are offering an amazing opportunity for all to be responsible in a world that is anything but. This is certainly the irony of it all. That they can be called a ‘cult’, and in turn I am called a ‘brainwashed cult member’, is beyond ludicrous. When all I am doing, with support from Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine, is to deeply love myself through self-care and taking responsibility for my own health and well-being. Which I can say has certainly improved my health and feeling of vitally on a daily basis, enormously so. There is definitely an irony to be felt here.
Annette, your blog highlights how crazy it is for us to put ‘achievement before health’ and how so few of us take responsibility for how we are living, thinking we can just abuse ourselves and then take something to ‘fix’ it. We get used to feeling not fully vital, depressed or anxious and get ‘identified with the idea that this [is] me’. How great to have someone point out that it doesn’t have to be this way – that there is another way. Why would anyone want to oppose that?
Thank you Annette, such a great blog. I too have been appalled by the ridiculousness of these reports and stories suggesting that Universal Medicine is a cult. It is laughable, as you say, because the truth is the absolute opposite. It’s sad that humanity is in such a momentum that when someone dares to step out of it by bringing more awareness to themselves and their life, they are ridiculed for it. That’s what’s going on here.
Thanks Annette, I loved your frankness and could feel the power in what you have re-claimed as you live today. The Truth is so clearly and simply said and I couldn’t agree more.
It’s true Annette we have got our priorities wrong, so much so that we champion those that are willing to push their bodies way beyond what is natural and loving. I agree with Anne Hart, the wrong story is being reported in the media; there are hundreds of examples throughout the student body of Universal Medicine that the media could choose from to report what true health and well being looks like.
Annette your blog says it all and well said too. It seems so obvious to us as students of the livingness and we find it amazing that other people don’t get it too. People are so quick to put down or dismiss what they don’t want to see or understand, fortunately they will have to one day take responsibility.
Love this blog Annette, irony indeed – when I first came to Unversal Medicine I had completely given up on life and was merley existing. Through these teachings I have learnt to take responsibility for the choices I make in my every day life and most of all to deeply care for myself and that has completely turned my life around – I am just one of many people who have experienced something similar, an everyday miracle. Yes – there are definitely stories to be told here, stories that could potentially hugely benefit the public.
Yes it’s true Eva, there are so many of us now who have gone from Zero to Hero as Ray mentions above by being more self-responsible, loving and exercising more common sense in life. We are anomalies to a growing trend of prolific poor health worldwide.
So how completely backward that Universal Medicine has been mislabeled when in fact it has introduced to hundreds of people a way to live that is truly empowering and self sustaining.
Annette you summarise and illustrate the situation regarding health in our society very clearly, thank you.
Dear Annette, I so love how you so very simply bring forward the message that being responsible for ourselves, how we express and care for our bodies, is the key to our health. There in lies true healing for all.
Thank you Annette and Leigh, I agree, responsibility in allowing our body to feel again through true healing.
Responsibility is our ability to respond to the love that we are. Far from a chore, it is a great and endless joy.
The examples you share with us from the Olympics highlight just how far from true wellbeing and love we are. I’ve often watched these so-called great sporting events with disbelief as I watch what people put their bodies through to compete for recognition and fame, supported by their whole country. Now in talking about cults, this seems like a cult to me. Serge Benhayon shares simple and practical information on how to bring self-care and self-love to your life and hundreds of people can attest to the benefits. I’ll continue to choose self-love over self-abuse.
Very true Michelle. What is the definition of a cult? Where you no longer think for yourself? Surely, when you are so consumed and pressured by and for achievement, you are no longer thinking rationally or for yourself. There are many examples where this is the case – here people subscribe to a set of beliefs then fit within that seemingly benign things that have become so acceptable in society and sports achievement is one such example.
It is a great analogy, the Olympics, just how far people are willing to go to ‘join a club’ be a a part of something even when it is detrimental to them, their health. Yet, when something is great for you, increases your wellbeing, improves one’s life, there is a label of cult, or follower, which is so incredibly ridiculous.
I love this punchy thought provoking blog – thank you Annette. It is so ironic that so many of us search outside of ourselves for the answers to our emotional and physical dis-ease as we know what is out there is not it. As you say – when we are presented with the truth most shoot the messenger with cynicism, disdain, ridicule and even campaign to get them out of the picture. Perhaps this is from a major reaction in those who dont want to feel and look at the ill choices they have made to get themselves in their present day dis-ease. I especially love the part about the many treatment modalities out there that:
‘ never ask the user or participant to take responsibility for how they are living. Why? Because it’s easy, it’s comfortable, and it doesn’t challenge how we are living. Yet when something of truth comes along it is viewed with disdain, scepticism, concern and fear.’
Hello Annette and where has this blog been? This account is spot on for many people including me and I love how you have broken this down. It is the fact the world is back the front and we celebrate the ‘champions’ that are actually further hurting themselves and yet here we have men and women who have truly turned some serious life conditions around and they are attacked and pigeon holed. With all that is out there and that goes on in the world one would have to ask why such an extreme focus on Universal Medicine and yes you can be tagged by words but if you really look there is nothing more than people further committing to life through a healthy dose of self responsibility. Maybe that is it, the fact that Universal Medicine asks you to look at yourself first before you look anywhere else, maybe the ones that are so critical are the ones that have the most trouble looking at their life in this way. From experience if you take the self responsible way to your life, it will change as mine has and as Annette has explained. We aren’t just 2, there are many who have significantly changed their lives, from zero to hero.
I love what you say here Ray and I love the from zero to hero 🙂
Annette, it doesn’t make sense at all. I was in a conversation the other day where a woman had just completed a 260km bike ride over 2 days. She was sharing how she took pain killers to keep going, didn’t enjoy it and 2 days after was in pain and exhausted. What stunned me was all the other women congratulating her about her achievement. I simply asked them if they could see how crazy this was.
And how did they respond to you asking them how crazy it was Sandra?
The woman who did the ride acknowledged that it was crazy…she was in pain so her body was telling her how crazy it was. The other women didn’t say anything – what could they say when they know deep within themselves that this is not the way.
Hear hear Annette, so beautifully expressed. We are forever at the mercy of being the victim to ill health when we live with disregard and contempt to our ill lifestyle choices and lack of personal responsibility.
As a culture we have become complacent and given up, and accepting of beliefs and behaviours, that you have clearly spelled out Annette, make no sense at all. In fact they are abusive. I appreciate every day that I found Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine, and that I have taken on board responsibility for my health and well-being. The choice to let go of old emotional patterns requires discipline, but it is so worth it!
Seeing and feeling the responsibility that you have for the first times can feel like a shock. But once you commit to taking them in full, there is so much learning and beauty in it. That big issues might still bring up reactions, but these reactions do not feel like a confrontation anymore, but like a blessing, as they offer you a chance to look at how you are living and what you have chosen, and with that deep knowledge you can make different choices and truly evolve.
Well stated Annette with great self authority. Call out the ridiculous as ridiculous. My life is following the same steps as yours. In my environment I feel like the fish swimming against the tide. Call it a cult, call it strange, call it not normal. Call it what you like, but my body and life like the change since the logic of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine came into it.
I am fascinated at the irony of the reactions when you choose to take care of yourself as opposed to the justifications of when you are not. Off to Mcdonalds, going out to get drunk or smoke a joint creates much less of a reaction in people and is accepted as a norm than the choice to be gluten and dairy, sugar, caffeine and alcohol free, to go to bed early and get up early. We all know fast highly processed food, alcohol and drugs are not okay for us, so why are people who are making a different choices ridiculed and attacked?
The world is truly back to front, in how it conceives and perceives what is love… I was completely part of that too…medicated to the hilt, not with prescription, but with choices to check out from what was really going on. Thanks Annette for putting it so simply.
“The commentators of the Olympics would have me celebrate as “…a champion” a female athlete who “… came into the games with torn hip tendons” to run the 42km marathon.”
Highlighting the degree of our priorities, that it is more important to win a race than to keep the body we live in everyday in it’s optimal health. Instead bringing it to the edge of destruction.
The logic here is some what warped.
“The inconsistencies of how we are living” – a revealing description of so many things going on in the world, which do not support us one bit, to be consistent in love or joy or harmony. Like Annette, I have felt that we really have an amazing wellspring of love within us and therefore, what else is to be done, once having experienced this, other than live it? The reality that such a loving and non imposing way of living would draw extremely negative attention, even from a small group of people, simply reflects how powerful true love is. It exposes what is behind the worst of those inconsistencies in life, that seek to deny us from simply living the love that we are.
Annette you highlight how in current society irresponsibility in our living and ignoring our health are considered ‘normal’, or in the case of your example, even applauded as ‘heroic’, whilst illness and disease are pandemic. Meanwhile the improved health of yourself and many, many others clearly demonstrates that the Universal Medicine simple recipe for healthy living is bucking the trend. Sure looks like the wrong story is being reported in the media.
Yes, I can remember that old feeling of there has to be more to life, that what was out there was not it. Like you finding Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon was the missing link. What a difference bringing true love and care is making to our lives.
Dear Annette, I agree before I heard a gentle breath meditation, heard any presentations by Serge and attended any events by Universal Medicine, my life was going down the drain so to speak. It might have looked like everything was okay, but it was not, I was miserable and unhappy. I has suffered bouts of depression on and off since being a teen, was going from job to job searching for something to fulfill me, trying all the new age modalities, was becoming a so called successful yoga teacher but all of this did not feel right, there was something huge missing in my life – and that was me. If I had not met Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine I would have no doubt I would be in a worse place, looking for a relationship or another person to meet my needs, still chasing life outside of me, still chasing emotions and drama to fill the empty space, still never feeling truly full-filled. But …… Having been presented with the truth, not told what to do, but simply offered ‘wait a minute there is a another way’ I now know what real true joy is and I can feel it and live it (not consistently every day … yet :-). I know what love is, real love and what love feels like inside of me, I feel so much clearer, I know when I do, say, or think things that is not me. I know what it is to be love and feel true love from another, I know and have felt what harmony and stillness is and true joy, and love for all of humanity. This I would never change for the world, it is something that is evolving each and everyday. And most of all I know who I am, I know what is is to live, love and feel the real me. There is no more searching outside of me looking for everything else to make the changes I so longed for and needed in my life. I now know that is down to me. And all this is because one man was and is willing to stand up and speak the truth and offer us all another way to live, one that is in true harmony, with such love and care for all of humanity. To be labelled a cult is so far from the truth of what Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon could ever be. I am no wash over at all, and very much know and can smell out exactly what is right and not right so to speak, and would not ever go near a cult or anyone who tried to control me.
Since discovering Universal Medicine I no longer treat my body as a machine, expecting it to get me through life. Learning to respect, honour and even love it has been a life changer for me, all through making some simple lifestyle choices. How anyone can attack people who choose to live a healthier life style is beyond me. When the world is getting sicker and the old ways are not working, surely changing the way we choose to live is a healthier option.
Exposing the absurdity of it all – I love your style Annette. Your draw attention to the sheer craziness of a consciousness that keeps the masses entertained and distracted with more and more ways to disconnect from our bodies and our inner wisdom, like a magician with an endless supply of slight-of-hand and rabbit tricks. I for one no longer choose to unconsciously roll up to the circus.
It really is all so backward championing those that fight through their body’s pain just to ‘win their race’, and slander those compelled to live lovingly with them self and others. Simple to see there is but one way forward.
Annette, your blog claims the irony of the way we are living in this competitive world of trying to ‘do’ better than everyone else without any degree of regard as to how this attitude is harming our own amazing bodies. If every person stopped to answer the following question truthfully: “Are we really so naive and ignorant as a species that we think we can live how we like, push, abuse or neglect our bodies however we like, and then be shocked and alarmed when our health ‘betrays’ us and then expect our ‘pushed to the brink’ health system to fix us, and come up with all the answers?” How our world would change! Would having everybody on this planet take personal responsibility for the way they are living make for a one BIG WORLDWIDE CULT? Hardly, but the irony is plain to see – I am dammed if I do, and I am dammed if I don’t take on my own responsibility of caring for myself through dumping all the unnecessary extras – alcohol, gluten, dairy and emotional drama from our lives and to live a consistently loving and nurturing way of treating our own bodies with respect.
Annette, great call out of how we avoid responsibility and thus real love but embrace many fads which do nothing but of course don’t ask us to change. How can it be ok to celebrate someone putting themselves in severe pain – that’s crazy yet we do it all the time, indeed we do the same with work and school, cramming and stressing ourselves out to get back job done / exam passed. We react to real love and self care often because we can see when another does that, that we no longer have an excuse – we can do it too, but we’re not honest enough to say we don’t want to and would rather mock those making those self-loving choices.
Awesome article Annette. ‘Achievement before health and TRUE well-being is so acceptable in our society, but at what cost?’ A cost that is evident in our skyrocketing statistics of illness and disease perhaps??
I’m celebrating with Annette, there is no other way I want to live or be. Yesterday I heard Serge speak at a presentation and he said that good health has nothing to do with health but everything to do with responsibility. So yes, it is a big step for people to admit the disregard and really feel how they have treated their body. My son plays football and they are regularly told to ‘put their body on the line’ – and it is championed when someone does this. For now, this is considered ‘normal’…yet it is inevitable that the scales will tip and one day this will be seen for the self-abuse that it is.
We must be challenged with how we live, in order to evolve from the comfort we have to not serve others. Me very much included. Thanks Annette (:
A blog with much to consider. Your example of the Olympic athletes does highlight how we are, I feel, misguided in championing extreme exercise and sport as healthy and heroic. I also now see nothing to celebrate in someone suffering to achieve a challenge that leaves them in a state of pain and distress. The irony does indeed run deep that an organisation that champions health and vitality for all, Universal Medicine, is ridiculed while sporting pain is celebrated and glamourised. Go figure on that one?
Well said Stephen – go figure.
A blog with much to consider, your example of the Olympic athletes does highlight how we are, I feel, in being misguided in championing extreme exercise and sport as healthy and heroic. I also now see nothing to celebrate in someone suffering to achieve a challenge that leaves them in a state of pain and distress. The irony does indeed run deep that an organisation that champions health and vitality for all, Universal Medicine, is ridiculed while sporting pain is celebrated and glamourised. Go figure on that one?
Annette, I love what you have written, it makes so much sense. How far have we come when we champion abuse and see true love as harming? The world seems to me – and I know it does to many – upside down and not making any sense. It is time that we take responsibility over our lives, each one of us, and stop blaming the world for our woes.
Annette ,what you are saying here is awesome. We think nothing of injuring our bodies with sport and just carry on as competing/winning is the goal. This is prevalent in sport from school age and the majority see it as okay. Yet, as you say, when something is presented that is so loving and makes sense, as Serge Benhayon’s presentations do, he and his work are condemned and vilified- that does not make sense. How come taking responsibility for our health is now such a “bad” thing!
Awesome Annette, there is something very wrong here if we are to champion people pushing their bodies to the limit, and to their own detriment. We should have an Olympics where people show how amazing and self-loving they can be – and everyone is a winner!! 😉
Thank you Annette for a very powerfully written blog. You only have to watch the BBC news to see how many reports during the week are health related and that there is a rise in medical conditions, such as diabetes, mental health, cancer and heart disease – so it makes no sense to brand a group of people a ‘cult’ for looking deeper into the root cause of these medical conditions, which starts with making healthier choices.
It defies logic how as a society of so called intelligent beings we can be so quick to poo poo simple, practical teachings which truly support health and wellbeing… And instead champion athletic feats that require one to be in extreme disregard of the obvious signs their body is giving them to take heed of.
Annette you are so solid in your writing. Your blog pointed out so much truth that needs to be heard, and what needs to be heard is what a lot of people don’t want to hear. Which is what has happened with these accusations. People trying to silence the truth of how we are living, which you put perfectly, nothing to celebrate. The Way of the Livingness is something to celebrate, a true loving choice is something to celebrate, love is something to celebrate; choosing to make life about love is something to celebrate.
it is true that these attacks on Universal Medicine are so ludicrous, when we know that the essence of the teachings of Universal Medicine is the complete opposite; there is the presentation of a true way of living but never an imposition on anyone. I loved to read the choices you’ve made Annette, and I am making similar choices with my living too.
When we live in a world that is so constructed and formed in a way that says ‘what you do is more important than you’ it’s no wonder that when Universal Medicine came around and presented ‘it is about who you are NOT what you do’ it naturally rocked all the boats at once. But the beauty of what Serge Benhayon presents – should one be willing to brace themselves for a life changing boat rocking – is that we can handle the rocking, we do know, deep down that life doesn’t make sense and that common sense is sadly not as common as it should be. And if we stop reacting and championing how life has been made to be there is a lot of joy and love to be experienced. I cannot say that my boat is completely cleared of ‘how life should be’ but I can appreciate having come across Universal Medicine and Serge Behayon who are always there to say ‘you are love, you know you are, choose to be that over and above what life has told you to be and you will know you are love’. Never by direction, only offering that choice.
Thank you Annette, this is exactly what I wanted to read. You have voiced the Irony of it all… voiced exactly what we have felt, for us all.
I agree Annette “if suggesting that Universal Medicine is a cult and that by direct association I am therefore in a cult were not so offensive and insulting I would be laughing”. To reflect on the way my life was going full of emotional ups and downs, guilt and self abuse, to how my life is today, by choosing to take responsibility for myself and to change those patterns has been the best decision I have ever made and it is thanks to what Universal Medicine has presented and continues to present.
Yea Annette, I agree. It is super weird that we can champion someone continuing with sporting events even though they are in a tonne of pain, yet we ridicule people for taking time and caring for themselves. definitely shows us where the world is at today.
I agree Emily, how strange that we champion people pushing their bodies to breaking point, yet find it strange when people make self loving and nurturing choices. There really is something very wrong when this is where we’re at.
Spot on Dragana, we’ve adopted a ‘blame’ culture to avoid true responsibility. In a blame environment the ills just keep perpetuating, and the fingers keep getting pointed everywhere else but to ourselves. And then when someone like Serge Benhayon comes along and speaks of true responsibility, the finger gets pointed at him as well! Utterly crazy…
Annette I’m right with you in living this way; a way that is a loving and caring and not championing great feats of competitiveness as more important than our health and well-being.
You call a spade a spade, Anette. I like it. Ironic is almost an understatement for what you describe here, it exposes one big contractiction, ‘love is called not-love’. I share in that warm feeling of knowing that we are not the only ones loving this, that there is a whole body of people who recognise that love for what it truly is – love.
You totally nailed the point Annette. Why do we NOT consider the obvious abuse to the body as experienced, by the woman you mentioned, as ridiculous for they in truth are and yet consider the obvious truth and way of life as presented by Universal Medicine as ridiculous and ‘cultic’. Now that is worth a front page story.
Such great points and irony’s you bring attention to Annette. It is very true that Serge Benhayon brings nothing but truth and love to be chosen by any and all who choose it. This paragraph is also very true and all too real “And this is the crazy thing: there are so many products and modalities available that are apparently ‘good for us’, yet never ask the user or participant to take responsibility for how they are living. Why? Because it’s easy, it’s comfortable, and it doesn’t challenge how we are living. Yet when something of truth comes along it is viewed with disdain, scepticism, concern and fear.” It’s seems very reasonable that the way many people live in neglect of their bodies has to change, because bodies aren’t meant to hide the truth.
What a pleasure it was to read this blog. There is so much to comment on but I will start with the following: “Are we really so naive and ignorant as a species that we think we can live how we like, push, abuse or neglect our bodies however we like, and then be shocked and alarmed when our health ‘betrays’ us and then expect our ‘pushed to the brink’ health system to fix us, and come up with all the answers?” What an exposing question and one that we really ought to consider most deeply.
Yes well said Elizabeth, for many of us live any way we want and expect there to always be a safety net available to save us.
Annette society definitely feels like it’s ‘inside out’ by living from the outside in but in time we shall all live from the inside out and then we shall be the right way round x
Thank you Annette for this very powerful and clear blog.
What I can relate to very much is in how far we as humans are willing to override what our body is telling us and feel even proud or heroic for doing that. It is so easy to override the feeling of pain and even be proud of it – like for example having a herniated disc and continue to work until your foot is numb just because you „had“ to finish this project.
For me this is a good example where Western Medicine and Esoteric Healing could be a powerful support – Western Medicine to attend to the severe condition and physical side of it and Esoteric Healing for finding and healing the energetic root cause with that everything started. But what is the beginning is our commitment to truly care for ourselves.
Well said. I often listen to comments made, as you say, of athletes or someone who has ‘pushed’ themselves to great ‘achievements.’ I wonder why they cannot see how this is harming their bodies and so they keep going. But then I think back to when I did the same thing, maybe not in sport but in other ways, not realising I was hurting myself, being in disregard and not taking full responsibility for my health in every way I could. It may take a long time for us all to come to the realisation we do it all to ourselves. A hard pill to swallow.
AMAZING blog Annette. Thank you.
“Are we really so naive and ignorant as a species that we think we can live how we like, push, abuse or neglect our bodies however we like, and then be shocked and alarmed when our health ‘betrays’ us and then expect our ‘pushed to the brink’ health system to fix us, and come up with all the answers?”……great question….and from looking around at the current situation I think the answer is yes. That is where the cyber-bullyings should be putting their attention – not at the only organisation I know around that is truly supporting people to look at how they are living and what happens to our health is in a direct relationship to how we live.
I agree Sarah. It’s completely crazy that an organisation that supports people to live responsible and vital lives is targeted and abusing and pushing our bodies to the limit is glamorised. Annette’s article is an exposing reflection of where we are at.
Many things in life are very contradictive: we walk away from the thing we want most: love, consistency, being truly met, feeling healthy. Strange to think that all is available and still….
I agree – it actually makes no sense that the things we want the most are things we walk away from the most… What is going on?
Annette, you are certainly not one to be easily offended nor are you an easy person to fool. These allegations of ‘cult’ are born from not only a lack of understanding but also from a fury of not choosing a simpler and more true way to live. Because the simple way is avoided, the complication streams in, the depression, the striving, the avoiding, the trying, the doing, the EVERYTHING that takes us away from our true selves (love). To then look at love from this space void of it and call it ‘not-love’ requires a great evil – evil here being the absence of love – irony certainly not lost! Thankyou Annette for your words, your power, your clarity, your wisdom and most of all, your love.
Yes I too appreciate the way in which Annette has expressed herself here, she sums up so much in this blog. I too agree that when a young woman pushes herself so hard that an ovary ruptures, then we have to stop championing her return to competing in record time, and ask, what is going on that she has pushed her body that far, and ignored all the warning signs?
Time we reassessed our priorities as a human race, there has got to be another way.
It is great that you are highlighting the ridiculousness of calling Universal Medicine a cult… I find it quite amazing that people feel threatened by other people taking responsibility for their health and well being by taking care of themselves. You have got to scratch your head and say that this makes no sense at all.
Yes I too wonder how this can be so twisted and viewed as a threat. We live in a world that isn’t solving its own problems, it’s at least worth considering, could there be another way?
Totally agree Kathleen, it is ridiculous but I have found myself in the past almost apologizing for looking after myself. Not anymore though.
Annette you have put into words beautifully the Universal Medicine recipe for a self nurturing and Loving Life.
It is a great way to live Annette I agree. Mind blowing that there are some who cannot, or refuse to see that – they are missing out big time.
Such a great, powerful blog Annette- I LOVE IT ! It so doesn´t make sense how the world functions and thinks it is “normal” . All these brilliant questions you asked should be asked in politics, sports, psychotherapy ..EVERYWHERE. That people wake up to what truely would change ills, deseases and well-being.
Annette you wrote in 2012 “If they continue with these reports maybe I’ll come to my senses, go back to how I was living before, and get myself a magnetic wrist-band. That should fix everything.” – and for me it looks like they have continued with the reports (now 2015). But I saw you just a few days ago and there was no magnetic wrist-band. Not at all. But what I saw with you was shining celebrating eyes for every human being, the enormes radiance of beauty and the breath of god shining through every cell. Seams to me that to “continue to live with the most care and love I can each day, and celebrate in the knowing that there are others around me doing the same” brought up the amazing, expressing-love, power-woman I met. Thank you very much.
Wow Annette – this is a really beautiful and personal story about what has been true for you.
Yes, it is ironic that we put our bodies through so many hurdles and expect it to be OK and not react with illness and disease. We’ve lost the connection to how our bodies really feel, and placed much more importance on societies pressures of proving and doing.
But it is brilliant to read you now see yourself as a student of your own love. What a huge change.
It is quite insane how we put achievement before the health and wellness of our body’s, how disconnected have we become as a humanity, to not only allow this, but to champion it, celebrating those who achieve the most abuse, such as, but not restricted to the Olympics.
Thank you for your humorous article on a serious matter, Annette.
This line stood out for me too Amelia. Hear hear to living a life with the most care and love that I can and in so doing reflect that living a life of vitality, care and simplicity is accessible to all.
It is true Annette, our society on the whole, applauds people who drive to achieve at the expense of and with no regard to the physical, emotional and psychological bodies, and often those achievements mean very little in the grand scheme of things. The person gets left broken and bruised on many levels, and will at some stage need to recuperate and heal. A costly exercise in the name of recognition and achievement. The championing of this practice is not the support or encouragement that members of our society need.
You are on fire Annette. I loved reading every word. It is so true, people overriding their bodies like walking a marathon with torn hip tendons (what?!) are celebrated yet someone who makes loving changes to their way of living by taking responsibility and speaking truth of that is not so popular, to say it lightly. I stand with you living with the most care and love for myself and others as I can.
You’ve really summed it up in your last line Annette – “For now I will continue to live with the most care and love I can each day, and celebrate in the knowing that there are others around me doing the same.”. The work of Serge Benhayon and presented teachings of the Ageless Wisdom are for me too a way I have connected to living the most care and love I can in each day. It’s as simple and beautiful as that.
I love how you write that we are students of our own love – so true.
Yes, how crazy has the world become when we champion the struggle and pain as love and dismiss the true love as cult-like. Give me a simple, clear life any day over the recognition and accolades of winning a marathon with torn tendons!
Well said, Annette. These stories about the athletes and the level of disregard that endorse them as heroes make such sense. There’s no love there.
Well said Annette! There are so many things that are ‘normal’ that are deeply wrong!!
I agree with everything you say in this article Annette. When people are not willing to accept responsibility for themselves in the way they care for themselves in every way then they often label those that do as ‘weird’ or ‘a cult’ as they feel left out. The truth about Universal Medicine is that it does not impose anything on anyone but invites us all to look at the choices we make and make life about love, love for yourself, love for everyone you meet and love for humanity. From the inspiration of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine I have found true love.
That’s the truth of it Mary, ‘The truth about Universal Medicine is that it does not impose anything on anyone’, there is nothing cult like about it, everyone is repeatedly encouraged to feel for themselves and make their own discerning decisions about everything in their lives, Universal Medicine included.
Why is it still that Serge Benhayon, Universal Medicine and the student body are continued to be labelled a cult, brainwashed etc along with many other false and derogatory names when there is a much bigger picture going on? Why are not the questions being asked about the state of our health and our society? What is it that society at large does not want to face the reality of life today? Excellent questions to ask Annette and a great point that you make.
Your blog Annette was my bed time story for tonight and oh what a good one it was.
Someone that runs a 42km marathon with torn hip tendons is socially celebrated. Someone who starts incorporating insights in her life to live more lovingly is attacked as being part of a cult, hence a social menace. The world is upside down.
Spot on emfeldman. You make the ridiculous sound outright crazy.
This article exposes how society champions those who push their bodies through the pain barrier to achieve in sport, but ridicule and shun those presenting True love and well-being for oneself.
When people, and myself years ago, are met with what Universal Medicine presents it just shows how upside-down the world really is, where as long as we can reach a set target, regardless of the affects to ourselves and others, it is worth having. And all the while ignoring that once at that reached point you are not forever more satisfied but sent on another long stretch to achieve. It’s like cheering and celebrating a car’s radio still works after a serious crash – never mind that the car will never move ever again and be set to the scrap heap – the radio still works! To actually be presented the fact that we can celebrate and love ourselves without doing anything can sound a little crazy if the rest of the world around you is saying that this is not the way to feel love or to be love.
Yes I agree Leigh, great analogies you have going here. It is all quite bizarre. I feel like the wool has been so pulled over our eyes that until we choose to lift it off and see what is truly happening here, we go on thinking that up is down and down is up.
Annette, I love your blog, it absolutely exposes the ridiculousness of how we live and how we celebrate that which is not love and yet somehow that which is love is ‘wrong’. I feel that we actually do know what love is but many are not ready to see and feel that they have a part to play (there’s a part in us all which doesn’t want to have to face to consequences of our actions) – I know I’ve joked in the past that I’d love a fairy godmother to magic up something or other for me. The truth in that moment being I didn’t want to face where my choices had taken me and wanted someone else to take them away; this is such an illusion but a strong one I and many hold, that we can get away with our choices or somehow circumvent their consequences. However we’re fooling ourselves and leaving ourselves at the mercy of something out there, it’s truly dis-empowering. True freedom comes when we recognise that we hold in us the power to choose, the power to change and the power to take true care of us, then we begin to know what love really is; challenging yes, worthwhile absolutely. It’s the only path to choose, and one I’m learning more about each and every day.
Monica, I just love this sentence…
‘True freedom comes when we recognise that we hold in us the power to choose, the power to change and the power to take true care of us, then we begin to know what love really is; challenging yes, worthwhile absolutely.’
Taking responsibility for your life truly is liberating and not a burden as some may believe, but true freedom.
I loved reading this, thank you Annette. You really exposed the craziness behind the false allegations and reports about Universal Medicine.
Dragana – you’re spot on with the “I’m untouchable attitude”. Along with that would go: invisible, bullet proof, tough, even ‘have to’ type pressure/expectation to continue doing things to a body that at some point will say enough. Whether it is a severe allergic reaction, accident, acute illness, disease, it is very clear from the health figures of the world population that what we do to our bodies matters. Imagine if we took a fraction of the responsibility for preventative medicine, what we would save our ourselves and societies in the long term. If someone needs proof may I suggest visiting an Aged Care facility to appreciate what our bodies become ‘after the point’ of neglect and disregard in the way we live.
Yes it is incredible Annette that living with self-responsibility and in harmlessness to everyone can be manipulated into something awful. Mean while as you say people are very good at numbing and ignoring the cause of problems and handing over the responsibility to another.