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SDA survey idea from a Brazilian friend

Hey there folks. There's a cat in Brazil that contacted me yesterday. He's been on the forum for several months but hasn't written in because he feels his English isn't good enough. He has what I feel is a great idea. Having people report on their experiences with practicing the SDA exercises and what practical benefits they have obtained. Just give the date you started with the Looking and the SDA exercise and any experiences you have had since then that you feel has come from the Looking and practicing the SDA exercise. I think this is an excellent idea as it will help new people who come to JOL. I have found one of the absolutely most powerful ways to promote a teaching is to have as many testimonials and peoples' experiences with the teaching as possible. So, if this sounds like a good idea to anyone as well, please write in! Ok, well I'll start then:

Lex Samu, 42 male, Queens, NY USA:

Date I was introduced to JOL - End of April 2017.

I had found John Sherman's first book on Amazon and the synopsis resonated with me so I bought it. For the first few days I didn't know about the SDA exercise, so I just did the looking. I started the SDA exercise a few days later after going to the JOL website and finding out about it. At first, I did it quite a lot every day. I found it was bringing up a lot of emotional issues too quickly for me, so I backed off to doing it a couple of times a day. I think I stopped for about 6-8 weeks at the end of the summer to early fall as I felt it wasn't doing anything. But, then, I decided to give it another try. I had been doing it usually 1-2 times a day. Most recently, I have upped that to 3-5x a day usually, as I started to feel I was receiving some practical benefits in the last couple of months.

I have definitely gotten a lot better at SDA since I started at the end of April. I still feel I can go a long way to strengthening my attention though. What I have noticed in the last couple of months is that thoughts that cause me suffering do tend to come up less and less. There are actions that I take, or have attempted to take, in my life that I would like to change, because I feel I am doing them out of the fear of life. The SDA hasn't yet effected these actions, but I am hoping at some point they will. I am encouraged to keep going strongly with this practice now from the results I have already started to see with thoughts causing me suffering 'coming in' less throughout the day. Also, recently, during the SDA, sometimes I get a tremendous sense of well-being that comes over me. Intuitively, I am now strongly feeling that, if I continue with the SDA, I will start seeing more and more benefits in my practical life.

OK, I'm game...

Amy Duncan, 76, female, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Date I was introduced to JOL - End of April 2017, by my fellow jazz musician, Lex

Lex turned me on to John's first book and the website. I went to the site and immediately did the looking. I did both types"¦"direct" and "childhood." I found the childhood one particularly powerful, but in any case I had no doubt that I had accomplished the looking.

It seemed that there was no "honeymoon" experience for me and that I went straight into recovery, although it was hard to tell because my suffering before and after doing the looking seemed about the same.

I started SDA soon after the looking. I was pretty excited about all of it, but then I went into a downward spiral where I found myself unable to let go of my many, many years of spiritual and religious involvement. I actually "dropped out" of JOL/SDA for awhile, although I continued to do the SDA sporadically.

I got caught up in a lot of different therapy methods"”spiritual, mind/body, psychology, etc., because I was convinced that JOL couldn't possibly solve my complicated problems!

After a struggle of several months, I finally stopped vacillating and woke up to the fact that none of the things I was doing was helping me at all. Interestingly, I was still doing the SDA, more regularly now.

Now I'm doing the SDA twice or three times a day and have been for a few months. The changes in me have been very noticeable. I'm now able to see the complete insanity of some of my reactions, emotions, ways of thinking and acting, etc., and am increasingly able to turn my attention from them. Overall, I feel more settled and confident. I'm convinced that JOL/SDA is the way to go, and my gratitude to John and Carla knows no bounds.

Thanks for sharing JR!

"It seemed that there was no "honeymoon" experience for me and that I went straight into recovery, although it was hard to tell because my suffering before and after doing the looking seemed about the same."

This was exactly my experience as well. I had done the childhood looking exercise years ago when studying nonduality and neo-advaita but I don't think it had much of an effect on me then because it was within spiritual belief paradigms that I was holding.

I haven't done spiritual practice in several years, coming to the same conclusion that John talks about in regards to what many label as 'spirituality'. I have been focused on alternative healing practices for physical, psychological, and emotional well-being. For me, this is mainly focused on raising my love consciousness. Becoming a more loving person overall. The most powerful healing modality and healer I ever encountered has focused on this combined with very strong emphasis on cultivating stronger attention. I feel John's SDA exercise, and the intention around it, is a direct evolution of this fellow's practice. The SDA exercise has been helping me direct my attention in a more focused way to this cultivation.It's one of the things that immediately appealed to me strongly when I encountered John's teaching and his emphasis on focused attention. There was a time when, for several years, I drove up and down the east coast with medical doctors who would give free lectures on love and focused attention and how this led to healing of all kinds - I wish I had known about John and the SDA exercise then! It would of been immense help to people. I am currently especially focused on cultivating a love for life and use my strengthened attention to do so. John seems to have an automatic love for life brought about by JOL/SDA. So I am hoping this type of 'automatic cultivation' will eventually happen for me as well.

Ljazztrm

There's a cat in Brazil that contacted me yesterday. He's been on the forum for several months but hasn't written in because he feels his English isn't good enough.

Hey, Ljazztrm, This is really a great idea! There are many reports from people at https://www.justonelook.org/testimonials.php but is is a great to have brief reports like yours and jazzrascal's here in the forum. We hope many more forum members will add their JOL stories here in this thread.

Please ask your friend in Brazil to post in the forum in Portuguese. We'll add an English translation under his posts. We would love to hear from him!

Thanks Carla! Yeah, when Rod (the Brazilian friend) contacted me about this idea, I really thought it was great. I think SDA is quite a challenging exercise and you usually have to be motivated by a lot of emotional suffering to be motivated to practice an endeavor such as this. Fortunately (well, that's not exactly the right word!), there are a lot of seekers I find who suffer quite a lot emotionally. Still, I think it really helps for people to hear about other peoples' experiences practicing the SDA exercise. I think that can be motivating for others. I agree with John where he talks about everyone having their own unique experiences, but I think there are certain general effects that happen that are similar for everyone. I think the more reports we can get of peoples' experiences, the more this teaching will spread.

Ok, I'm going to write to Rod to tell him to write in! Thanks again and all the very best, Lex

 

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