The Dr. Dale Experience

Last night was interesting. My practice day ended with a conversation with on of my practice member who is a song writer in a song writing class. We were discussing the difference between a "custom-songwriter-for-hire" and an artist. Basically, a custom-songwriter-for-hire will listen to the person hiring them and give them near exactly what they are asking for. An artist does it differently. An artist hears and idea or gets an idea and interprets it in their own way in an attempt to expand consciousness as they see it.

Now, one is not better than the other. They both have benefits and they actually both overlap a bit. An artist has some custom-songwriter-for-hire qualities and a custom-songwriter-for-hire has some artist qualities. The thing is, I see this in my work as well.

I have been a custom-healer-for-hire, who specializes in restoring function to the body. I have really helped a lot of people in this way. People with back pain, hand problems, neck problems, digestive problems, etc., etc., have all been helped.

What my work has evolved into is artistry. My focus has become expansion of the soul. With this comes restoring of health and function, but my focus is bigger. What I am doing is creating an experience where I used to create an event.

I went home last night and watched a show called Classic Albums. The Classic Album they were featuring was Graceland by Paul Simon. I once again saw many parallels in this story to my practice evolution.

If you have not heard Graceland, here is a little bit about it. Paul Simon heard a tape of some interesting music while he was having a very hard time in his life. He eventually fell in love with this sound and had the record company track down where the people on this tape were. He found out that they were in South Africa. He decided to go to South Africa and record some music. When he arrived, it was the height of apartheid and the black community was not treated well. But what he heard was amazing music and he began forming jam sessions to capture it.

He recorded and jammed with these performers for months. The record companies did not understand what he was doing at all. There were no songs. Usually when an artist goes into a recording studio, they go in with songs. What Paul was doing was totally unorthodox.

One thing that Paul Simon said struck me. He said, "I decided not to focus on the terrible conditions of the Africans and the bad treatment of the people. I decided to focus on the beauty."

Why this was interesting to me is that I don't like to focus on the pain and symptoms that people come in with. I like to focus on the beauty of the individual and I work to bring self-awareness of this to them.

Back to the story...

So Paul Simon returns home with this incredible African music jam sessions and begins to cut and paste these together to form songs. He gets to the part where he has an entire album of music and he is so blown away with the music, that he is afraid to put words to it. If you don't know who Paul Simon is, he is one of the greatest song writers of our time and he is afraid to write.

Anyway, he starts to work with the music and sing along and it all comes together. He completes the record and it sounds like nothing that has ever been produced in pop recording (or any recording). Now it came time to present it to the record execs. They had no idea what they would say. It was SO different.

Philip Glass, a friend of Paul Simon's and composer, put it this way...

"You have to have the confidence in the work to carry it right through to the end. Even though in point of fact, you don't really know (what the end will bring). That was especially true for Graceland."

The execs listened to it and really did not know what to do. Needless to say, they released it and it became one of the best records of all time. It won the Grammy for best album of the year and the rest is history. Now I get to watch Evan dance to that amazing music that has never been duplicated since.

What I learned is this. When someone comes to me for my help, my work has evolved to the point that, I am no longer focused primarily on what got them in the door. I am focused on how can I give them an experience that will expand their soul? How can I help them to experience the beauty of their beingness? How can I help them express their beauty within and sing their special song?

My work is unorthodox. My work is an experience. If you go with it and let go, your life will transform and expand. Your experience of life will expand. Life will grow from you. You will awaken to the beauty of it all. Oh, and your symptoms will go away.

"One of the really good things about art is that it shouldn't be there to educate. It should be there to evoke." - Linda Ronstadt

What I do is an experience. I can't really explain it. I don't even know where it will lead us. What I do know is that I have confidence in the work, and if you hold on and open up to the possibilities, your life will transform and open up to beauty. This is my gift and I am grateful. It is the Dr. Dale Experience.