Last month in Book Talk I said we would continue to explore the importance of personal choices. We will do just that as we discuss a new book by medical intuitive, author, lecturer, Caroline Myss: Invisible Acts of Power: Personal Choices That Create Miracles (Free Press, Simon & Schuster, 2004). Readers may be familiar with Caroline Myss from her previous best-sellers, Anatomy of the Spirit (Crown Publishers, 1996) and Sacred Contracts (Crown Publishers, 2001), both of which we have reviewed in earlier Book Talks (phenomeNEWS, May ‘97 and May ‘02).

In Anatomy of the Spirit, Myss focused on “energy medicine” and how various emotional, physical and psychological factors influence illness. She also introduced her model of the body’s seven centers of spiritual and physical power, the chakras, a model that forms the basis for all her books, including her newest one. Anatomy is still an excellent source for readers to develop an understanding of the body-mind-spirit connection.

In Sacred Contracts Myss presented a unique approach to spiritual development and healing that incorporated the chakras, astrology and the concept of archetypes. This work, while richly informative and inspiring, is quite a challenge for readers. It is helpful to have some background in psychology, Carl Jung, astrology, mythology and Joseph Campbell to be able to fully mine its rich mother lode of insights.

Myss’ newest book, Invisible Acts of Power, is, however, her most accessible work for the general public. While it is, once again, organized around the seven chakras, this organization simplifies and clarifies a very practical, real-life applicable work. It focuses on what we can all do: that is, serve our fellow humans in appropriate ways. This approach results from Caroline Myss’ 20 plus years of studying how people use their personal power. Her experience has led her to be convinced that we are all conduits or channels for divine grace, miracles or what she calls “invisible acts of power.” She says, “God frequently sends divine grace through human agents who perform nonrandom acts of kindness.” The span of such acts range from simple donations that help feed, clothe or house the needy, to helping someone change a tire, to smiling at a stranger, to saying a prayer for healing someone. It is not a mystical event she describes, but rather real things we can do.

Myss bases her teaching and writing on a philosophical belief that “we are all born here to go to Earth School. We’re on this planet to learn to be spiritual beings in a physical body, to gain consciousness of our greater purpose... learning to manage your power. So this book is a course in Earth School about managing your personal power in a way that enhances your own spiritual growth, while also contributing to the evolution of the people around you – and to the entire global soul.”

The book began when Myss “intended to write a simple examination of how we are called into action to help each other.” But then she asked readers on her website to send her stories about their own experiences with “grace,” either giving or receiving it. She reports her amazement at receiving over 1200 stories in six days, stories which clearly “demonstrate that we really can make a profound difference when we listen to our intuition and act on it.” Myss was equally surprised to discover as she worked to organize the stories that they fell into seven categories that corresponded to the seven chakras. All these reports confirmed Myss’ conviction that “the human spirit needs to develop generosity and compassion to be healthy.”

In Part One of her book, “The Stages of Power,” Myss sets the scene by defining and reviewing concepts and terms she uses throughout the rest of the work. She defines “grace” as having a spiritual quality infused with divine intention and as “the organizing force behind ‘coincidences,’ the synchronistic experiences of our lives.” She discusses intuition, power and the chakras. For readers unfamiliar with the chakra energy system, she reviews what those are, where they are and what each one represents. To clarify their connection to the theme of this book, she briefly introduces some of the acts of service that correspond to each chakra. This introduction makes it very easy for the reader to relate to the specific stories in succeeding chapters.

Caroline Myss makes the case that “service to others is not only a social ideal, it is a spiritual ideal and a spiritual necessity.” She points out that “virtually all world spiritual traditions tell us that we serve the divine through caring for other people.” As a medical intuitive, it is also her experience that “being of service... is a biological necessity,” When we serve others, we feel better ourselves, literally. Also as an intuitive, she describes real-life experiences that prove to her that each person’s energy fields not only reveal the physical, emotional and spiritual health of that individual, but also that each person’s energy field influences and affects everyone around them. Therefore it is important for us all to become aware that “Everything (we) think, say or do in some way influences (our) physical, emotional, mental and psychic environment.” Moreover, “The truth is that the more you empower (help, service) others, the more powerful you become.”

So let’s take a brief journey through the seven chakra energy centers and examine the kinds of service to others that Myss discovered from the hundreds of examples she received from her website readers. A point to remember is that we all are in different places in our spiritual growth, life experiences and the energy in our chakra centers. Some acts of service will just feel more appropriate to one person than to another; some will be easy, some more challenging. The main idea of the book, however, is for us to grow in awareness “that everything we do, say, think and feel matters.” As Helen Keller said, “I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; I will not refuse to do something I can do.” (Note: the book has many such beautiful and relevant quotations from famous people throughout its text.)

The first chakra represents our basic roots and security: our physical world, tribe, family, shelter, food, clothing, work and friends. It is easy to look around, especially in larger cities and certainly in Third World countries to see that thousands (millions) of human beings lack some or many of these basic necessities for survival. Likewise, many humans serve others through their participation in providing such help – shelter, food, clothing – where it is needed or even donating money to support those services. Crisis situations, such as currently in several places in Africa and the tsunami tragedies in Southeast Asia bring these needs into the awareness of the masses. But such needs are always among us. Caroline Myss shares a number of poignant stories of how immediate help at the time of dire need changed many people’s lives as well as their attitudes toward others and life in general. She points out how “love and personal attention are deeply healing.”

The second chakra relates to creativity, relationships and finances. Hence second chakra service usually means helping people financially, creatively or providing means of healing. It could be a simple loan to pay the rent or it could be the recommendation of a book to read at a time where that book might provide just the information or the support the person needs. Remaining calm in a crisis can be an act of service when the other person is trapped in some chaotic circumstance. Providing encouragement to someone to follow his or her creative talents and strengths is a lovely act of service.

The third chakra center, often termed the Solar Plexus, involves the emotions, one’s sense of self or ego and one’s self-esteem and personal empowerment. It is our “personal, individual sense of identity.” You might be noticing by now that as we move up the ladder of the chakras, the acts of service can become more challenging. For example, it is certainly easier to help build a home for someone (hands-on or by donation) than it is to know how to enhance another person’s self-esteem. You may not even know when you have accomplished such an act of service. It can, however, occur by simply acknowledging and appreciating another person, openly or publicly. All the great teachers of the world have encouraged us to give without strings attached. Such acts have life-changing effects and act to honor both others as well as our self. Myss points out that “we all must face the challenge of learning to offer our services and releasing the desire for recognition.” And we learn from the real-life examples in this book that “the simplest kindness can have more effect on a person’s well being than months and months of therapy.”

The fourth chakra involves gifts of the heart. As Mother Teresa said, “Love has to be put into action and that action is service... (and) it is not how much we do but how much love we put in the doing.” It is with this chakra that the more spiritually mature person can move beyond the more physical and emotional acts of service to work on a more subtle, spiritual level. It involves making “heart-to-heart” connections with other human beings regardless of their appearance or position in the world. It involves seeing the divine in every person we meet. Also, as we have been taught, “we must love and respect ourselves before we can unite in spirit with others.” Hence, fourth chakra acts of service may well include compassion, patience and kind non-judgmental treatment of ourselves as well as others. Some acts of heart service include bringing hope into someone’s life, giving surprise anonymous gifts with no strings attached, treating total strangers with kindness, holding a door open or phoning a grieving or disturbed friend when they need a loving connection. Forgiveness is a major act of service at this chakra level. Myss reiterates, “There is no such thing as an insignificant act of love.”

The fifth or throat chakra, involves will and acts of choice. Those acts require all the strength and energies provided by the previous four centers. Acts of service here often require courage and right intention. It is where “we take responsibility for the consequences of our actions.” It requires “right speech,” that is, the weighing of every thought and word, speaking honestly but with good judgment. Clearly, acts of service here require a conscious choice to act in some positive way for a good cause or reason. Sometimes that involves speaking up in difficult situations for a just cause or to protect someone. Equally, the service may be to hold one’s tongue and not to speak hurtful words or criticisms. Sometimes it involves speaking the truth to someone when they don’t want to hear the truth. That might occur with serious symptoms of illness that the person is ignoring or with denial of addictions of various kinds. Or sometimes it involves helping yourself or another to make life-changing choices. Eleanor Roosevelt said, “You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.”

The final two chakras, the Third Eye (6th chakra) and the Crown (7th chakra) relate to the most subtle connections to spirit and therefore to the most spiritual of the acts of service. The Third Eye relates to wisdom. Facts and knowledge can be communicated and learned, but wisdom is gained through life experience (or not). Myss says the Third Eye is our connection to intuition, which she says is “one way that we in Earth School experience divine intervention.” The way we choose to live and serve bring “synchronicities” into our lives that open doors to new opportunities. Myss says, “Perhaps the greatest act of service you can perform is the nurturing of your own spiritual path.” Where opportunities permit us to nurture others’ paths, that, too, is service.

The Crown chakra stories in this book all relate to situations wherein the individuals felt they had experienced divine intervention. Some believed their anonymous “helpers” were angels; others saw the help as coming from fellow humans who were divinely inspired to offer assistance. In nearly every case, the result was life changing and inspiring to the receivers. Myss especially notes that the key word for the 7th chakra is faith and its greatest “invisible act of power” is prayer. “Sending love and healing energy to others is wonderfully effective.”

As Myss says, “Millions of miracles occur each day... (and) go unnoticed.” One such miracle is the power of a smile. The universe is magical in how it “weaves us in and out of each other’s lives.”

Clearly this is a delightful book. Easy to read, filled with fascinating real-life stories and rich with practical, down-to-earth behaviors and actions that we can all do as acts of service to each other, this book is an inspired treasure-chest of insights for us all. Caroline Myss concludes her book with a chapter that reviews for readers some simple facts to remind us of “the great power (we) have with which to make a difference in the world.” It is certain that we all have the power to make “Personal Choices That Create Miracles.”

The Caroline Myss website is www.myss.com.

Gayl Woityra, a retired high school English and Humanities teacher, now resides in Arizona where she continues to pursue her eclectic metaphysical studies in consciousness, the Ageless Wisdom, astrology, flower essences, music, color and alternative medicine.