The Phyllis Krystal method
This method is based on the idea, that we all have two other parts to our mind, in addition to the conscious mind that we use all day long. However, the other two aspects are also very important, though generally overlooked.
One is the subconscious part, which, as the name implies, is below the level of our consciousness. This part is like a data bank in a computer, where everything that has ever happened to us, from birth until now, is stored. Its language, by which we can communicate with it, is in the form of pictures or symbols, as in many ancient languages as well as in dreams. The Chinese have a saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”
The other part of the mind is often referred to as the superconscious, that is, above our conscious level of awareness. As with the subconscious, we are not usually aware of it, except when we receive occasional unexpected insights, such as hunches, premonitions and through dreams.
The Phyllis Krystal Method uses techniques, rituals and symbols which are capable of impressing positive messages on the subconscious mind in order to offset some of the negative conditioning that may have been received earlier in life. In this way, changes in life of men become possible much better than just working on a conscious, cognitive level.
This method enables a person to liberate from all the various sources of false security to become an independent and whole human being, relying only on the inner source of security and wisdom which is available to everyone who seeks its aid.
Quelle: “Cutting the Ties That Bind” & “Minibook”
Accessing the Higher Consciousness
Interview with Phyllis Krystal by Dunja Müller
Phyllis Krystal was born in London in 1914. She graduated from university in education and taught at high school level for three years before moving to the United States.
In 2004, at the age of 91, she moved to Munich, Germany and at the age of 95 moved again to Zurich in Switzerland. In December 2016 she died at the age of 102 in England.
In the late 1950s, Mrs Krystal and a close friend embarked on an experiment to make regular contact with an inner source of wisdom, which they called the Higher Consciousness (Hi C). Since then, by consulting the Hi C, a visualization method involving the use of symbols has evolved. These techniques can be used to help those who wish to be released from attachment to any outer security or control, thereby freeing the individual to seek help and guidance from a Higher Source rather than from these outer sources.
Phyllis Krystal gave seminars in many countries to share the method. Her first book, Cutting the Ties that Bind, was published in 1982, followed by Cutting More Ties that Bind. A workbook to accompany these two books was also published. Her other books include Sai Baba: The Ultimate Experience, an account of her experiences with the Indian Master Sri Sathya Sai Baba, to whom she was very dedicated.
Phyllis Krystal stresses that this is not a “quick fix” method. Help is possible only if each person is willing to concentrate on bringing about the necessary changes and growth in him/herself, instead of trying in vain to change someone else. Dunja Müller met Mrs Krystal on an intensive teaching course in June 2013 and interviewed her for Share International.
SI: For more than 50 years you have developed a method where people can become free from old habits and painful experiences from the past. Can you please explain how this method works?
PK: We have been given a method with which we can release ourselves from the control of anything or anyone. If we are really honest and look at our life, we will see that not only other people or memories or habits control us, but we also control other people. So the first thing that was given to us was the “Figure Eight” (8) where each person occupies his/her own circle and the two together form the Figure Eight. We practise this Figure Eight to temporarily stop the control of either one over the other. And it works so well. Children particularly adore it. So many children these days are suffering from problems, even in kindergarten, where other children are very aggressive. They find when they do the Figure Eight – with themselves in one circle and the other child in the other – the aggression stops. That, in a nutshell, is how we began it. SI: And how did you come up with this method?
PK: A friend of mine and I were having lunch one day and chatting about our lives, as we were housewives and mothers. In those days of course, we were not allowed to work – it was not the fashion, although we had both graduated from university. We thought there must be something more than just those two roles. And we discovered that sometimes, when we had a problem and we tried our best with our conscious mind to solve it, we just couldn’t find a solution. But then sometimes when we got exasperated and let it go, and said it’s hopeless, we would either have a dream that night with the answer, or we woke up the next morning with a very clear answer. So we decided that there must be some part of our mind that had the answers and we wanted to get in touch with it. We met quite regularly – first to tune in to whatever this other part of our mind was. We vaguely knew about the “subconscious mind”, the “conscious mind” and “superconscious mind”. We tried to reach the superconscious which we were only vaguely aware of. And it worked – and that’s how the method started and how we were taught.
SI: The visualization exercises you describe in your books sound quite easy. In some of your seminars participants share their experiences about how the method has changed their lives – it even solved deep traumas from their childhood. What is the mechanism that works between these simple visualization and the deep underlying healing that is obviously going on?
PK: It has to be in very simple steps, exactly the way it was given to us: small steps at a time. And first we were shown how to do the Figure Eight. Then we were shown that our parents are always the ones who controlled us at certain stages. We were referred back to the old puberty rituals – where ancient peoples were smart enough to put the young people through it when they reached puberty. They took the girls to what they called a ‘longhouse’ and the boys to another longhouse. Then the wise women taught the girls and the wise men taught the boys how to be independent from their parents and become successful and free members of the group. In some parts of the world people still practise this. Many books have been written on territorial rights because animals protect their rights; they are more mature in that way than we humans are. If you have a dog or a cat you know that, especially when you have more than one animal. Each pet has its own place in the house. And if the other animal dares to go in that space, there is a fight. But we human beings are not aware of it. This is why we do the Figure Eight – to start with this method. That is described in my first book Cutting the Ties that Bind – it is also very clearly described in the workbook. The ritual of Cutting the Ties that Bind is quite a long one. It takes about an hour. It is very thorough – and that’s where we start: cutting the ties with our parents, then other people in our lives who “control” us. The second book Cutting more Ties that Bind allows us to become free from other kinds of control, like habits, addictions and all kinds of non-human factors.
SI: In your workshops you always recommend participants to connect to the “Higher Consciousness” at the beginning of the visualization. What do you mean by the “Higher C”?
PK: The Higher C is the soul or the spirit. The man and woman in the street finds it very hard sometimes to even think of a Higher Consciousness. We have a little booklet which gives about 7 or 8 of the symbols. In that booklet I outline the fact that we have a conscious mind, which we use all day long, and a subconscious where all our memories are stored. And then we have this superconscious; but the booklet is just about using the symbols, showing how this approach can help us. There is also a second small booklet for the readers with no background in these matters. In it we introduce the rest of the symbols, all of which show how to connect with the Higher Consciousness. The Higher C is our real Self, that part of us which does not die when the body dies.
SI: Once I heard you saying in a training session that this method might become the “Psychology of the New Age”; can you tell us more about that?
PK: You have probably heard of Sai Baba. It was He who insisted that I write books about this work. And I was certainly never going to write a book, it never occurred to me. He said: “You must write a book.” So, I started to write in His presence, when we were sitting there, and He told me to bring the manuscript back to Him so that He could bless it. When the manuscript had been blessed, He told me to have it published because this method should reach as many people in the world as possible. Sai Baba explained later in another interview, that this would be a method that could help people to change themselves – so that together we can form a much more loving, more compassionate and cooperative world. He always called it “The Golden Age”, and explained that there are four Yugas, and we are just finishing the fourth one, which is the most negative. We are entering the most positive Yuga now. The method gives us the opportunity to cut the ties to negative habits or situations, or whatever prevents us from fitting into the “New World”.
SI: If we look at the huge number of problems in the world now: the ecological crisis, world hunger, nuclear waste and so on, does your method help to bring the world into a more balanced state?
PK: This method helps people to change themselves. And the world is made up of people. And so when individual human beings change in big enough numbers – that automatically will change the world, because eventually the “Positive Forces” will outnumber the negative ones – and more and more people will be free.
SI: As a positive role model for so many people you are still working so much to spread this work around the world. How can you find the energy at the age of 99 to deal with such a challenging schedule?
PK: Only by keeping in touch with the Higher C! And because Sai Baba told me to get it to as many people in the world as possible. That is the only reason I am willing to do this.
SI: Do you have a personal wish for how your “life’s work” should continue?
PK: I think as more people are willing to open up to this method, which connects each one of them to that which we call the Higher C, it will eventually be more generally adopted.
Dunja Müller is a coworker of Share International in Regensburg/Ratisbon.
(from: Share International, October 2010)
Reprinted with the kind permission of © Share International