Count Your Blessings By Dr John F. Demartini (Book)

Count Your Blessings was my very first encounter with Dr Demartini and I nearly didn’t make it! A friend had recommended the seminar and I thought it would be good to read one of his books in preparation. As I looked at the local library, this was the only one available (probably not the best selection criteria!) so I went for it!

I had done a bit of research on Dr Demartini on the internet (including YouTube) and can’t say that I was entirely convinced. The book didn’t really help. The introduction and the first chapter were so cheesy I would have stopped reading if it wasn’t the personal recommendation. The cheesiness of the book seemed to tie in with the slick pictures of Dr Demartini I had seen on YouTube…. I didn’t really get him at all!

But as I kept reading Count Your Blessings, a few topics sparked my interest: mainly the health aspect and the experiences John draws on from when he ran a Chiropractic Practice. A basic theme of the book is that your psychology influences your state of health and your body. For instance, if you hold a grudge deep inside for years, or you are always bitter, you might develop cancer. So John’s theory is that if you dissolve your grudge (or any other emotional charge) you will heal again.

I am not sure it is that simple, but then again, many of us never know until we experience a serious health condition ourselves. Only recently I read an interesting article about a medical practitioner who is a pioneer in the area of evidence-based medicine. When she developed an aggressive, terminal cancer, she turned mainly to alternative medicines (including Yoga, meditation, certain nutritional concepts) and is still alive, a year after her initial diagnosis (she writes a blog for a medical journal). But I definitely believe that we can be healthier when we are grateful, don’t hold any grudges and see all facets of the situation we are in.

As in all of his books, at the end of every chapter, John includes Affirmations and certain exercises for the reader to complete. Most of these exercises focus on gratitude, and as the title suggests, counting our blessings. The underlying theme is, the more we are grateful for, the more we receive to be grateful for. The Attitude is Gratitude!

Of course I completed the exercises (more or less involved) and at the time I had pulled a muscle in my leg. I had been to the physiotherapist numerous times without any improvement. One of the exercises required the reader to focus on the positive aspects of their illness / problem.

If you have ever completed any of Demartini’s exercises (such as the Collapse Process), you know that it’s not as easy as it sounds. You are often asked to come up with reasons or justifications and that doesn’t mean just two or three. The minimum requirement is normally 20-50 reasons (if not more)! The reasoning behind this is so the reasons are not only logical, but become emotional as well. You feel gratitude, rather than think gratitude. And I am convinced that this method (feeling rather than thinking) makes a difference!

So I completed this exercise and afterwards I kind of forgot about it. But after a few days I noticed that the pain my leg was entirely gone! I couldn’t pinpoint when, where or how it happened, whether it had anything to do with Demartini’s exercise or the physio, all I knew was that it was gone! I know this is a measly example, especially compared to Demartini’s claims that he has cured cancer patients with this method.. But experiencing something first hand, not matter how small, makes a totally different impact! And it definitely led me to finishing the book.

You can check out Count Your Blessings at Amazon.

Audio Books / CD Sets

I really don’t like fiction audio books, but when a friend lent me a few CD sets from different speakers, I thought I should give it a go.

I always wondered how these sets sell so well and now I totally understand! The difference of listening to fiction or non-fiction is like day and night!

For me, reading fiction is about getting lost in the moment, about imagination and creativity. I can only get to that state if I am the one interpreting the book, if someone else interprets the words, the intonation and the characters I loose the connection to the text.

But reading, or listening to non-fiction is a totally different game! It’s about learning, logical thinking, and applying someone else’s theory to our own lives. And I enjoy listening to this just as much as I enjoy reading it.

And the convenience! I love listening to tapes on the bus or in the car, when I am going for a walk or a run, while I am cooking. Hooray for multitasking!

The Breakthrough Experience with Dr John F. Demartini (Seminar)

Apparently John Demartini came to mainstream fame because he was one of the people interviewed in the film The Secret. I wouldn’t know, I haven’t actually seen The Secret and from what I can gather I wouldn’t really like it.

So, how did I happen to go to his seminar? On the recommendation of a trusted friend, I decided to take a leap of faith and attend the seminar.

I met all sorts of people at this seminar, an Art teacher, who went to the introductory session and just ‘had to learn more’, a Melbourne couple who flew to Sydney to attend the seminar as they couldn’t make the Melbourne session, and a lot of repeaters who had attended the same seminar previously but wanted to attend again, including a lady who had been to the seminar in Auckland, NZ the previous weekend but couldn’t get enough.

These seemed very high credentials for a seminar that only goes over two days. Initially I thought “Didn’t they pay attention the first time around? Why do they have to come again?” But this is the difference with The Breakthrough Experience. Some seminars advertise that you never have to come back, once you have been. With this one you could do 20 seminars and still learn more each time!

Let me explain:

The first half day we learnt the basics. John’s main concept that the whole world exists in equilibrium: for every good there is a bad, for every nice there is evil, for every white there is a black. The basis of this concept is quantum physics in which there is a positive for every negative. This theoretical stage of the seminar is intellectually challenging and, funnily enough, I enjoyed it while half of the complex, theoretical talk went straight over my head. I was kind of wondering what I had got myself into!

But the backbone of the seminar is the afternoon / evening of the first day. We completed the collapse process with John’s Demartini Method. The idea behind this process is to collapse the emotional associations you have with certain persons or events. This could either be an extreme positive association, like infatuation, or a negative association, like resentment. The idea is, that after finishing the process, one would let go of any emotional charge, thus returning the person or event back to their natural equilibrium.

We started the process at around 2pm with about 130 people in the room. There was no talking, everyone was concentrating intently on their collapse and qualified facilitators walked around, helping anyone who got stuck by themselves. You only hear whispers and the occasional weep, people are crying with joy, fear, relief.

But let me tell you, this is difficult and some people were so resistant that they left and did not return to the seminar at all!

About three to four hours into the collapse process, I had hit a few walls, was ready to give up because I thought it was silly, being lightly prodded by the facilitators if they saw me drifting of in my thoughts. And then I had a really exciting and illuminating moment: we attract in others what we suppress in ourselves.

The theory is based on the fact, that we all have all character traits. Due to circumstances, societal influences, or personal decisions, we may decide that we do not like a certain trait, we despise it. This is our ‘disowned’ part: although we still possess this trait, we suppress it. But since everything exists in equilibrium, we attract our disowned parts from our environment: our spouse, children, brother, sister, boss, work colleague.


Through the collapse process you accept that you own this trait just as much as the next person, it won’t bother you anymore. You won’t despise it anymore. By the way, this also works the other way around, you can collapse a trait you admire in others, but you think you lack. Through the collapse process you can see that you also own this trait that you admire. This can be extremely powerful and the John actually recommends to collapse everyone you admire, such as mentors and idols, so you can realise that you have the same traits.

Underlying questions during the collapse process are “What would it be like if the person / event were the exact opposite?” and “What would the world be like if the person /event was how I wish they were?” By answering these questions, we can recognise more than ever that things happen for a reason, that whatever happened in the past, has made us who we are today, and that we should be grateful for that.

Ideally the collapse process results in letting go of emotional charges and seeing the person or event in its natural state, with pure love and gratitude rather than prejudices and preconceptions imposed by society. As a result people reported relief, better sleep and even improved physical condition such as less chronic pain.

Most people, especially the first-timers like me needed a lot of encouragement from the facilitators to get through. Some people gave up and left the seminar altogether, some may have pretended to conclude the process, but the majority of people were in tears of gratitude and joy by the end of the night, after an exhausting 10 hours of letting go of emotional charges.

The second day of the seminar builds on the collapse process from the previous night and John explains how to use the method to deal with grief and loss. The afternoon concludes with a future projection of goals and purposes, and where we want our life to be. Due to the time pressures, I didn’t find this as useful and beneficial as the colapse process. But then again, there is only so much you can squeeze into two days. Which is why at the end of the seminar, the company organising these seminars, Global 1 Training, delivers the typical sales presentation of ‘advanced courses’ that are available.

I haven’t signed up for any additional courses, the cost being a major prohibiting factor, but can definitely say that thoroughly enjoyed everything I learnt at this seminar.

One of the major advantages is the ability to take away the Demartini Method, or collapse process and being able to do them over and over again. With promises that the process becomes easier when often practiced, John recommends doing one collapse process a week. I have to admit, I haven’t kept up the collapsing, it would take a lot of patience, motivation, determination and time. Which is exactly why you see so many people return to this seminar!

Review Your Life!

Many of us think about this every day – we may be stressed because there is too much to do, or we may be bored and unmotivated because we are lacking inspiration. Where do you turn to for answers? I read. Anything I can get my hands on!

I soak up every interesting concept I can find that seems applicable to my life – it may be health and fitness related, it may be finance related, it may be related to the environment, or simply a concept about life itself!

So I decided to share my thoughts with you. What concepts I have come across and how they have affected my life – how I think, do, act. And which books should stay on the shelf forever…

Why don’t you take the opportunity to review your life? What have you always wanted to learn? What have you always wanted to change? What I have you always wanted to do? Do it now!

I bet also in your life there are areas in which you haven’t reached your potential. Areas which you can improve and become better than you ever imagined!

Why not reassess how you have been doing things, learn something new, and change your way? Remember the classic saying “If you always do what you’ve always done, you will always get what you have always got!”

Your comments and feedback on my whole blog are welcome! My opinions are by no means the be all and end all. Maybe you have read the same book or been to the same seminar and had a totally different take on it!

Feel free to send me reading suggestions, your favourite books, tapes and speakers as well. Whatever has inspired you is certainly worth a review!