An experience at the dentist yesterday filled me with such gratitude that I had to share it with as many people as possible, but a little background is necessary.

When I grew up, visits to the dentist were ALWAYS painful and traumatic. As I grew in awareness of the power of mind, I realized that the PAST was what colored my perception of the present, and consciously tried to see only the NOW.

While living in Hawaii in the 1970's, I found a dentist who was SO GOOD, so dedicated to his craft, so diligent, so caring, that I actually looked FORWARD to going to the dentist. It was watching an artist perform, and it was always totally painless. We became fast friends, enjoying a social as well as a professional relationship.

When I moved to Las Vegas in 1981, I was referred to a dentist who turned out to be a BUTCHER (in my humble opinion). The pain on every visit was so intense that, after five years, I would go into shock the minute I sat in his chair (no exaggeration). Though I KNEW what was happening, and tried with all my ability to use my mind to overcome the fear and pain, I couldn't succeed (this from a guy who had root-canal surgery using self-hypnosis and no anesthetic years before). After my last visit, when a wisdom tooth was pulled, he left a sharp bone spur protruding through the gum, which would not heal for more than two weeks. After numerous complaints, he smoothed it to allow healing. I never went back after that.

After five years of avoiding dentistry altogether, my teeth were in such bad shape that I was FORCED to find another dentist, and found one that was as diligent and caring as the one in Hawaii. I told him my story, and he assured me that he would overcome my mental block. After three visits, I no longer went into shock, and after five, rarely even used Novocain.

Despite my ease with the new dentist, his hygienist was a different story. Though very pleasant and personable, she was (in my opinion) a little overly diligent, and cleanings were painful, including *tests* to see how deeply a probe could be inserted under the gums!!! After the last session with her over a year ago, when she suggested that an oral surgeon could perform an operation to lift the gums to clean even DEEPER, I realized that she was obsessed with her profession, and making the body far too important for my comfort.

A switch to the other hygienist in the office was made, and her ministrations were gentle and painless, as I experienced again yesterday. As she was cleaning my teeth, I realized that her caring for others, her love for our One Self, made it IMPOSSIBLE for her to hurt another. Though she is just as diligent as the other one in doing her job, she also has the added awareness of love, thus making it easy and painless for both of us.

And I realized that she is JUST LIKE ME, for when I am caring, extending love to another who has suffered emotional pain, there is NO WAY that I could hurt that other, that God guides me perfectly, and I am so aware of the emotional state of that other that it becomes impossible to extend anything but the pure love that IS.

(For related material - see Love Can't Hurt)