There once was a millionaire that, more than anything else, wanted to be happy. He lived in a mansion, drove the finest cars, ate the best foods, and took drugs, alcohol, gambling and sex to the limit. Still, he could not find happiness. A vision came to him one night in a dream. If he could buy and wear the shoes of a happy man, he would then know true happiness. He called his attorney, his stockbroker, his doctor, and the vice presidents of his corporation to share his quest. Later the same day they returned with the happiest man they could find. He was a simple farmer....with no shoes.

Martin Seligman, past president of the American Psychological Association, has rallied colleagues to what he has coined as "Positive Psychology." This involves concentrating on a person’s strengths instead of weaknesses. Not so much focusing on defective genes, the diseases of addiction, and healing sick minds, but enhancing life and cultivating general wellness through spirituality, optimism, proper diet and exercise in a non-threatening environment.

Dr. Seligman points out that "decades of studying depression has helped millions become less sad, but not necessarily more happy. The best you can ever get to is zero." When the nation is not in turmoil over hijacked planes flying into tall buildings, the "body politic" lies awake at night suffering over "how to get from plus two to plus eight in life".

Barbara Fredrickson, a psychologist at the University of Michigan says that "good feelings broaden thinking and banish negative emotions. Mindfully approaching sources of good feelings can be more lasting than seeking instant gratification. Distinctions can disappear… Eating ice cream and shopping can get lumped in with spending time with your family and pursuing an interesting activity." People with addictive tendencies need to consider if the pleasure in a substance will outlast the craving. Could they find a more intense and lasting pleasure in music, art, or a satisfying career move?

The Seattle film festival recently showed a documentary called The Laughing Club of India. Featured were hysterically happy inmates in Bombay’s Arthur Road Jail. There are no jokes or use of humorous props (except each other). Through a technique developed by Dr. Madan Kataria in 1995, the inmates practice the "lion laugh" by locking eyes, sticking out their tongues, and using their hands as "paws". The spontaneous laughter that also promotes deep, healthy breathing, helps release the tension and the stress of even incarceration.

From the Native Way of Honoring and Living the Sacred, by eclectic Indian spiritual writer Gabriel Horn, comes the following excerpts. These passages reflect the "conduit for the power of healing" at the Oasis Mountain experience:

He was stretched out on his back, lying on an Indian blanket. His eyes were shut, and he was thinking about everything that had gone on to bring him to this point. Throughout it all, the pain in his side had worsened. His knees ached, and the surface of his skin around his knees and his side burned to the touch with the same kind of intensity as the fire that flickered from the flames of several candles placed around the room. The smoke of sweetgrass and the sweet scent of cedar mingled in the air, enveloping him. "Relax… relax. Exhale the negative energy. Breathe in the good."

"But stay true to your heart," she said, "no matter what befalls you or how hard you may fall from the path. Continue to listen to your heart and to trust in the balance." While she placed the end of the sweetgrass braid in the fire of the nearest candle, she told him she imagined everyone grows weary of the struggle… Some even leave the path of the heart and loose their way. She said we were allowed to get lost along the path of the heart, but only seven times. And finding the way back is not easy. And it only gets harder the longer one stays away".

Now, stretched out on his back, eyes closed, he knew that it had come to this, that his life was in danger, that it was threatened by an illness sustained at the most basic level of his existence. "I am not going to tell you that I will heal you," she said. "I don’t presume to have the power to do that, but if you are willing, and with your permission, I can serve as the conduit for the power of healing and perhaps that power will flow through my hands into you, and it will help you. It will work with the medicine of the root and help you heal… But that’s only part of it… the other part is within you".

"Watch the animals and the birds. They live in natural time. Pay attention to the trees and plants. Listen to your body and know that you are connected to the natural rhythms of time and mystery… Try not to let the darkness of another take away your light… If we allow too much of our light to escape or to be absorbed in the shadow of another, we become weakened, and our spirit light dims."

Then she was quiet, pondering something, and then she said it was getting harder for her to gather medicine, and she hoped someone would come along soon to learn these things from her… He felt the energy to stand, on shaky legs at first. They stood together on the porch in front of her houses. She gestured gracefully with her long arms, pointing to the cloudless blue sky. "Can you see the stars?" she asked. Of course he couldn’t, even as he strained to see beyond the sunlight... "Stars during the daylight burn just as steadily, even if they aren’t visible." She looked up with her old eyes. "The universe burns just as brightly without our knowledge or our witness".

As he watched her disappear, he could feel the child awaken within him again, the world became like new again, and he felt himself dancing through the dream of his own healing and into a consciousness, an awareness, that he’d almost forgotten… dancing again on a hope and a prayer, dancing again on the path of the heart.

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