Markus Kasunich, a spiritual healer from Laguna Hills, Calif., visited Lake House Health & Learning Center on Tuesday to speak about his personal spiritual journey and spiritual ideas and their applications to everyday life.
The title of the presentation of this kindred spirit who was the topic of a previous blog: “Practical Application of Spiritual Principles -- Making The Universal Laws Work in Everyday Life.”
Kasunich’s story is compelling. He grew up in Canada and suffered abuse as a young person. He tried to numb his feelings with drugs and alcohol and later became a seeker of learning and personal understanding, first at a three-year college of alternative health in Montreal, Quebec, where he learned energy healing and other approaches.
He became disillusioned with some of the so-called “new age” trappings that he found in many people and places and ventured alone into the deep forests in the wilds of rural Canada – where he quipped that American draft dodgers still live – to find his purpose in life.
Getting very physically ill after several months, he returned to civilianization to quickly stumble across the name of a master teacher at an ashram in California.
Though the past 10 years he has studied and learned from a number of teachers of mind, body and spirit approaches, including Reiki, cranialsacral therapy, pressure point therapy and energy work, among others. He spoke of one teacher whom he desperately wanted to study with; the teacher said he would take Kasunich a learner only if he agreed first to take baths every day for three weeks.
Kasunich didn’t understand, or even like, the assignment, but he gamely gave it a try. The first day he sat grumpily in the bathtub, watching the clock. On the next day, he decided to make the experience more interesting, adding a sprinkling of bath salts. Next time, he put on music he enjoyed and relaxed and listened. On another day, he added candles, slowly realizing that the teacher’s lesson focused on the importance of caring for and nurturing the self.
During Tuesday night’s informal presentation at Lake House, participants asked his views about after-death experiences, reincarnation and other spiritual questions that have been debated for centuries.
Kasunich asked instead, “What do you think?” and “What do you believe?” Rather than handing over a line of dogma, he encouraged each person present to walk on his or her own spiritual path and discover what is “right” for them.
Here’s quick snapshot of his gifts to the group:
Gratitude is a powerful prayer in itself.
Be grateful for misfortunes in life – the illness that you have, the spouse who left, the fender-bender car accident – as all carry important life lessons.
Identify the “fear filters” that keep you stuck and paralyzed.
Practice self care. Keep in mind that “self care” means self-nurturing and is different than “self-indulging.”
Study with and learn from many teachers – not just one – each may have a different way of communicating important ideals in a way that you can hear and integrate.
