No one is free from them ever. So either you decide to work with these illness rules or you will constantly bang into them.

The choice is yours.

1> ILLNESS ALWAYS HAS A PURPOSE - IT IS ALWAYS PERSONAL

The first thing anyone asks once they have contracted a serious illness is "Why me?" The question gets asked without the person expecting the answer. Yet there is an answer and it is "you agreed to it in advance for your own growth". This is directly contrary to the strongly held societal belief that illness is something that "happens to us", that somehow it is outside ourselves.

The truth is that your illness has everything to do with you. Your illness has been directed at you by spirit. Usually you agreed to it before you incarnated here. Or more often you contracted it while you were "down here" because you strayed from your path. Your illness is meant to propel you on a journey of self-discovery. If you cannot accept this, then your illness will be harder than it has to be.

2> ILLNESS REFLECTS A STATE OF DIS-EASE WITH YOUR LIFE

If you have ever noticed that most people seem to be in a perpetual state of complaining about their lives, it is because they have "forgotten" why they are here. People are here on Earth to learn lessons and, in general, have chosen to accept experiences that are harder than they can handle - hence the complaints.

This usually manifests as a profound state of dis-ease with their life. This feeling of dis-ease, if deep and long standing, manifests as illness. Thoroughly joyful, ecstatic people are usually in great health. If they do have serious illness, it is because they have chosen it at the level of spirit to advance their learning (and they know it!).

3> ILLNESS=IMBALANCES IN GIVING/RECEIVING LOVE

When we are babies, most of us are bathed in love. Babies are totally focused on getting and giving love every moment of every day. Often, they get touched, hugged, and kissed more as babies than they will for the rest of their lives. In return, babies are absolutely not afraid to give love or to get it.

As we grow older, we are taught to fear getting or giving love. Love becomes associated with pain and we narrow the circle of those we allow to come close enough to us to exchange love. Yet love is as important to our health as the air we breathe or the food we eat. When we are chronically unable to give or receive love, the lack of this vital nutrient always manifests as illness in our bodies or minds.

4> ILLNESS=LACK OF/DERAILING LIFE'S PURPOSE & MEANING

Even when we are receiving and giving our minimum daily requirement of love, we still can be starved for another vital nutrient. This is the inherent need in each one of us to find purpose and meaning in our lives.

At some point as we grow older, we must ask ourselves: "Am I leading the life I want to lead?" and "Am I the person that I want to be?" If the answers to these two questions are "No", this never fails to induce a profound state of dis-ease in our lives. Either we take the action that is needed to turn those "No-s" into "Yes-es" or illness will manifest in our bodies-minds.

5> ILLNESS=RESULT OF HOW YOU HAVE LIVED YOUR LIFE

It is amazing how readily when can accept that this is true for other people and not for ourselves. It makes sense to us that women we know, who cannot accept their femininity, contract breast and/or ovarian cancer or that men who, struggle with their masculinity, contract prostate cancer. Or that those who have been inflexible all their lives manifest the rigidity in their bodies as arthritis. Or that those who have difficulty speaking up for themselves end up with throat cancer.

Yet, we all have a blind spot when it comes to ourselves that keeps us from seeing how our conduct is helping or harming our overall health. The truth is "the fault lies not in our stars, but in ourselves..."

6> ILLNESS=CHRONIC PATTERNS OF SPEAKING & THINKING

Everything you think and speak, in essence, is a command to the universe. So if you are always thinking and saying "I'm tired", then you should not be surprised when you always are. Of if you are always thinking and saying "I'm going to die before my time", then you will. So watch your thoughts and your words for these are your spiritual commands that will manifest in your body-mind.

7> ILLNESSES ORIGINATE AND HEAL IN YOUR ENERGY FIELD

Unless you are on the brink of death, before you seek a cure by chopping (major surgery), burning (laser/radiation), or poisoning (hard "drugs") your body or mind, first give peace a chance. You owe it to yourself to seek cures that work with your body and mind instead of against them.

Do energy work, meditation, visualization - anything you can - to avoid the drastic measures that chopping, burning, and poisoning present. Since you are all energy, the problem and the solution healing to your illness begin and end in your energy field. For more, see the "Rules for Healing!"

8> ILLNESS CURED BY ACCEPTING & MASTERING IT'S LESSONS

If you are looking for a miracle cure, here it is: "Choose to love at every moment: forgive everyone, everything." This magic cure will speed you through whatever lessons you have to learn. When you have learned your lessons, the clouds of illness hanging over you will magically part - with one important exception. That is where death has been deemed as the ONLY way for you to learn. Yet we are all creators here so anything is possible. See the "Rules for Being Human!"

9> MORE SERIOUS THE ILLNESS=GREATER NEED FOR CHANGE

In the spirit worlds, those on the Earth plane with serious illnesses are called butterflies. This is because illness has put them into a cocoon of survival. To keep on living, the "butterfly" must struggle and force it's way out of the cocoon by learning the lessons that life has to teach. The more serious the illness, the greater the need to change ways of life that no longer serve the individual.

10> ILLNESS STAYS WITH YOU IF YOU IGNORE IT'S LESSONS

Illness used to be the greatest excuse in my arsenal for not living. As long as I ignored it, illness clung to me. Once I "listened" to it, my illness fell away. So no excuses: just choose to live!!! For more, see the "Rules for Recovery!"

11> IGNORANCE OF ILLNESS FEEDS IT'S POWER OVER YOU

The saying the "ignorance of the law is no excuse" is never more true than when it comes to illness. Illnesses run like trains on a predefined track with predetermined timetables. While you choose to ignore the illness, it keeps going, chugging on schedule down the track. Ignoring it never stops the illness train. What stops it is a conscious desire on your part to switch to a safer length of track.

12> ONLY YOU CAN REALLY KNOW YOUR ILLNESS

You are the only one who lives inside your skin: 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. When it comes to diagnosing and treating your condition, the difference between you and your doctor/healer is that they have read more books than you have and they have more practical experience with healing dis-eases than you have.

When it comes to caring about and understanding your condition, never forget that only you really care and only you really understand because only you are living with it. You can always learn more about your condition but your doctor can never live inside your skin. So until they do, you will always know best. So listen to the doctor but be sure to follow your heart and your gut.

If you are not covinced that these rules are for real, see how they relate to the Top 10 Causes of Death... take a few minutes to save your life.