Reflections on The Power of Clearing

Reflections on The Power of Clearing was published in the Miracle Network magazine in 2012 (updated in 2024) and offers additional insights into how Sandy lives The Power of Clearing Process each day. Sandy Levey-Lunden is an Internationally Acclaimed Workshop Leader, Life Coach, Counselor, Creator of The Clearing Process™, ACIM-Based Real-World Results Achiever, Matchmaker, Networking Maven, Proud Grandma, and Dog Lover.

A Summary of The Clearing Process and How it Works

The philosophy of The Power of Clearing Process is the essence of how I live my life. The core of my thinking comes from A Course in Miracles (ACIM) lesson entitled, In my defenselessness my safety lies. (ACIM, W-153) This lesson has become the foundation for how I respond to whomever and whatever is going on in my world.

I do not think about a boundary between you and me. I know you are one with me. If you ask me for something or say something to me, I know I have somehow attracted you and what you are saying to me. Therefore, I strongly consider how we can be in agreement. If something happens that I react negatively against, I know I have something to release, and I want to release what is in the way of us coming together in alignment. When I am triggered, I know I have something in my mind to clear.

Taking Responsibility for Our Reality

We all create our reality, like a movie or story, and then we work only within that story line. I choose not to ignore my fears and worries. Instead, I take responsibility for them. We create our world and what the characters are doing as evidence to prove our negative ego beliefs. “No amount of evidence will ever make true something that isn’t true anyway.” Even if with countless incidents where my ego proves this negative core belief to be correct, such as “I’m not good enough” or “I’m not worthy of love,” it will never be the Truth of who I am. It may feel true, but it is not the ultimate Truth. The stronger the negative feeling, the more strongly the ego may try to convince us that it’s the Truth. If I continue to hold the unconscious negative belief that something is wrong with me or I will always be rejected, I will repeatedly react to it until I transform the core belief.

Applying the 3-Step Clearing Process

Whenever I have anxiety or worry, I go back to the truth of ACIM and tell myself that I made up everything that I feel, think, or believe about it. Then I will do the 3-step Clearing Process on my fear or anxiety. This process always leads me back to peace.

I work specifically with the meaning that I give to what happens in my life or my environment. When an event triggers me, I will clear my upset and find the root of my lack of peace within my mind. When I look at the beliefs I made up to survive childhood traumas, I gain perspective on the root of my projections on current relationships, which is an opportunity for healing incomplete neuropathways.

Understanding the Root of Our Upsets

ACIM says: I am never upset for the reason I think. (ACIM, W-5) Everything I am upset about has its meaning in the form of some attack on myself in the form of a negative belief. For example, I may be upset that no one left me any birthday cake, which may seem trivial initially. This upset may occur because I always believed I am not good enough—no one sees me, no one cares, no one wants me to be around, or no one hears me. So, ultimately, everything I am upset about has to do with my evaluation, blame, judgment, or a believed fear about myself.

Projections and Healing in Relationships

If I do not like someone, I ask myself, “What do I not like about this person, precisely?” and “Who do they remind me of from my past?” I would then use a sentence in my mind that removes the projection on them: “What I see in (name of the person) that I don’t like about myself, or my mother, or my father is...” If it’s about my father, “…that my father constantly lost his patience.” Or, if it is about myself, “...that I constantly lose my patience if I feel hurt, or frustrated.” Ultimately, I bring the projection I made back to myself because there is no one else to clear here except me.

If I come to love someone who I did not like at first, I know I have cleared the projection I placed on them based on someone from the past. I would be clearing my way through my thoughts and feelings about them until I am in Oneness with them. I would not push them away or cast them out of my life. Instead, I go through clearing my mind. They are a gift to me by triggering me to clear an aspect of myself that needed healing.  

Another example might be if I do not want to have someone over for dinner or sleep at my house, my resistance means I have something to clear in my perception of them because I am projecting a character from my past. Begin by holding awareness of every word you speak; mindfully listening to yourself provides a powerful insight into your beliefs and thought patterns. Ultimately, you are only teaching yourself to become aware of what you are manifesting through your thoughts and words; there is no one else “out there.”

According to our original belief system, the ego-mind constantly misinterprets what others say or do. Therefore, we have little accuracy in reporting anything because our past colors it. When you hold the space for someone in The Clearing Process and are present with them, you give them the greatest gift: the chance to release their ego barriers of negativity, thus freeing themselves. You can only do that by seeing them in their authentic self—Divine Being, Love, and Oneness. You are holding them in this Oneness, no matter what they are doing or saying in front of you, thus enabling them to see and know their innocence beyond any guilt they may be perceiving.

Exploring Anger and Guilt in the Clearing Process

Whenever anyone is angry, there is an energy of guilt present. Anger is a projection of guilt. To release my anger, I can ask myself, “What am I feeling guilty about?” Usually, it would be something irrational that I made up that has nothing to do with me in truth. If your partner, or your friend, is angry, you can ask them, in a very peaceful, loving way, “May I ask you, is there anything you are feeling guilty about?” If you have an intimate connection with them, they will receive the question as support rather than an attack. You must have developed that intimacy to ask this kind of question.

The Power of the Holy Relationship

In a holy relationship, we want this continuous support to help each other clear illusionary thinking. A holy relationship is an equal partnership, a teaching-learning situation, in which both of us are teachers and learners with each other. We both recognize that we can learn and clearly communicate our vulnerabilities. Therefore, the relationship has an opening dimension, a non-competitive dynamic. There is no power struggle for who is more intelligent, has more to learn from the other, or needs more from the other.

A holy relationship is one of the most exciting adventures one can have in life for advancing movement into aliveness, passion, purpose, and clarity. In the beginning, we fill each other with happy, joyous moments. Eventually, what we have each buried deeply in our unconscious will emerge as we relate further in our relationship. Then we will get into the nitty-gritty of what we get to clear in our connection.

Finding Purpose in Every Relationship

Each person we meet, we are destined to meet and have a holy relationship with them, whether for a moment, a month, a year, or a lifetime. We have both come to teach and learn with each other. Therefore, it’s essential to discover the inherent purpose of our relationship. There must be a purpose, or we would not have come together in the first place, even if only for a moment. Out of the millions of people in the world, we are participating together. I always ask myself, “What is this relationship for?” Every person we meet is an aspect of our Self, and if we attract them into our lives, we are to work with that part of ourselves that they are mirroring or bringing up within us.

Tools for Navigating Conflict in Relationships

It is helpful and important to have a tool or a method to use when triggered to clear our upsets, projections, or negative feelings that come up in any relationship. Without these tools in relationship, people will always get stuck in the same conflictual patterns and have no way to achieve a higher level of consciousness. Relationships will always bring up anything unhealed from the past to be healed in the present. If left incomplete, it will repeat itself in another form, perhaps with another person, a different face. Yet, the same scenario plays itself out over and over and over again until we end the cycle.

Clearing Deep Emotional Triggers

When triggered in a big way, we can always get rid of the other person from our lives. We can tell them to go away or ask them to move out. Alternatively, we can choose to work with ourselves to clear at the deepest level of our upset that is activated in our mind. Most people want to do the former, which is the easiest ego method of defense.

If I feel abused physically, mentally, or emotionally by someone, I will ask them to stop. I must be clear in my mind about what I want and what I do not want. If someone is a real threat to my safety or anyone else’s, physically or emotionally, I will leave the situation. If I choose to continue working on the relationship with them, it is not okay for them to continue to abuse me, including any emotional abuse that implies I am damaged in some way, less-than, stupid, or unworthy. Allowing this treatment will not be beneficial for the abused or the abuser. Either way, my negative beliefs will still be in my mind to clear until I take the steps to clear them.

Healing Our Inner Child

We constantly react to our inner child’s perceived traumas and feelings about what we experienced, because it’s buried within our unconscious mind. Our goal is to release the perceived negative meaning we gave these incidents. The core negative beliefs affect our feelings about ourselves, our life, and the nature of love and the world. For example: “Life is a struggle. I have to work hard to get people to listen to me. No one sees me. No one cares.”

Observing the Ego in Children

I was blessed to notice the beginning of the ego in my two grandchildren when they were around age two to four. I also see how readily they communicate their fears when I am open to listening and receiving them. When I stop everything that I’m doing and stay in the present with them, they can easily let go of their fears. My primary focus is always to see them as infinite, eternal beings rather than in the box called “children.” Watch a child under three and see how sensitive they are and how easily they cry. From an early age, we generate so many ego thoughts in a continuous circle that relationships are a challenge to us, therefore, we want to release the ego thoughts about each other because they stand in the way of us joining. The ego’s purpose is to keep us safe, but it ends up with us defending ourselves from being hurt, and creating separation from ourselves and others.

The Three Principles of The Power of Clearing

In all of The Power of Clearing trainings, I teach three essential principles that apply to life. 

1. Firstly, when you hold space for someone in The Clearing Process, you must see this person in their true nature, as Love, Peace, and Joy, no matter what they say to you during The Clearing Process from their ego. 

   
   

2. Secondly, it is essential to be fully present to receive what they are communicating about their ego thoughts without judgment, condemnation, or collusion (agreement with the ego-mind). 

   
   

3. Lastly, recognize with honesty if you are triggered while holding space for the other person and determine if you can proceed with clarity and peace enough for all. 

The Importance of Practicing The Clearing Process

To become proficient at The Clearing Process, you must use it repeatedly to see, know, and understand how your mind works. If you do not use the Clearing regularly or practice it often, it will become simply an intellectual exercise. You can use any part of it whenever you feel uncomfortable, worried, anxious, or distracted. Living and being in the present is the greatest gift where we can truly experience Love, Peace, and Joy. We cannot find it in the past. Many people review their negative and positive history, possibly thinking that the past is better than the present or future. When you become proficient at The Clearing Process and recognize your ego (thoughts, feelings, and beliefs), you can clear any fear in the way of your freedom. When you become upset, irritated, frustrated, fearful, ashamed, confused, paralyzed, rejected, or isolated, you have something to clear at the root of that feeling. If you are familiar with The Clearing Process, you can expel your ego beliefs by writing or speaking to yourself, or you can arrange a session with a coach to complete the 3-step method.

The Role of a Certified Clearing Coach

You will always go deeper in your experience of The Clearing Process when you have a trained Power of Clearing coach facilitating you to look at the upset differently and hold the sacred space for you with no judgment or feedback. Trained as a Power of Clearing Certified Coach (POCCC), this person will have excellent knowledge of The Clearing Process and philosophy. By being present for one or more of the 24 On Purpose training sessions I provide, the coach will have learned how to clear themselves and have experienced how to clear others. This person has the clarity to hold the space for you while you empty all your ego thoughts, feelings, and beliefs in the 3-step structure of The Clearing Process. The ego-mind hates structure and always wants to change the words of the Clearing. For example, in the second step, rather than saying, “What I want you to forgive ME for thinking, feeling, or believing is…” the ego would rather say, “What I want to forgive YOU for is…” implying that you have done something against me and to hurt me in some way.

Facing Ego Thoughts and Embracing Forgiveness

Facing our ego thoughts and embracing forgiveness takes courage, and that’s why many people prefer to blame external factors for why they’re feeling bad. However, when we recognize the potency of problems that persist, we realize our best choice is to begin healing our minds by witnessing our thoughts, clearing our inaccurate ego beliefs, and reclaiming our power through forgiving (pardoning) ourselves. Forgiving is taking responsibility for our thoughts, perceptions, and actions to clear the way forward.

Clearing the Barriers to Giving and Receiving Love

Constantly using fear and guilt to keep me from receiving Love may also become a barrier to giving Love. We are choosing to clear the blocks to being, feeling, and receiving Love because our greatest fear may be the fear Love. When genuinely giving Love, we are receiving Love at the same time; otherwise, it is sacrifice.

The Impact of Disempowerment on Our Lives

When we have the impression that bad things are happening to us against our will and we have no power to prevent it, that is a function of the ego-mind. A person or group who claims to have the answer to a problem can easily manipulate a person who believes they have no power. In deep states of disempowerment, with rampant fear, anxiety, and pain, there is increased separation, stress, addiction, and radicalism. Thinking of killing oneself or another appears to be an attempt to escape relentless ego thoughts but only creates more ego separation.

The Clearing Process: A Tool to Heal

The ego-mind is a tangled mess of a puzzle. The Clearing Process puts the puzzle pieces of what happened to you in the past into a structured container, providing a safe opportunity to recognize and release the inaccurate beliefs formed in early life that create present pain. As a result, seemingly unrelated pieces fall together, and occasionally, we make sense of someone’s entire life in only two hours of a Clearing.

Acknowledging and Embracing Fears

When we acknowledge our fears as they arise in our mind and within our body sensations, we become genuinely aware of them. Instead of running from our fears, we hear them, feel them, acknowledge them, and allow the fear to flow through us completely, ultimately embracing rather than resisting them. When we can let them go consciously, we are no longer in resistance to the flow of life.

Preparing for The Clearing Process

It is essential to be fully present to prepare for The Clearing Process. For example, be sure both of your feet are flat on the floor and you are comfortable. Ask yourself, or if you have a coach, or friend, they can ask the following questions for you to release any obstacles in your mind or body. “What do you need to let go of to be 100% present?”  This question can be asked to fully release anything holding you back.

You can also repeatedly ask this question to prepare for your day, for an experience with a friend, a lover, a child at play, or time at work. The answers are the first step in acknowledging what is holding you back from being fully present in your life. Start sharing with trusted loved ones and be as transparent as possible. Use complete sentences, for example: “I have to let go of believing that you didn’t return my email because I’m not important enough and, therefore, I can’t be present or open with you now.” Or: “I have to let go of thinking about my mother and wondering if she’s okay at home by herself right now,” or “I have to let go of wondering whether I need to be there with her,” or “I have to let go of feeling guilty about leaving her alone.” When you observe your thoughts and do not become your thoughts, you will see how your ego continually projects fear, guilt, and separation onto others and the world itself.

Before beginning The Clearing Process, it is best to set an intention or purpose for the result of the Clearing. For example, “My intention is to release my anger toward my mother and to feel peace and love when I think of her.” Next, you and your coach can call in divinity, higher power, or universal consciousness to align with you and support you in all aspects of your thinking, feeling, and beliefs pertinent to your declared intention. It is a kind of prayer or request for support from a higher consciousness. 

Step 1: Declaring and Sharing the Ego-Mind

In step 1 of The Advanced Clearing, your coach provides a safe environment for declaring and sharing your ego-mind about a person (mother, father, sibling, boss, friend), or a subject (money, body, health, the government). Everything felt, said, or expressed is relevant to the process. Step 1 is an opportunity to report all negative ego thoughts, feelings, and beliefs about said person or subject and all related situations and issues. For example, fired from a job, evicted, losing a loved one, or expectations thwarted, bringing up feelings of betrayal, abandonment, or rejection—and then relating that feeling to something familiar in the past, especially in your early childhood, if possible.

In the structure of step 1, the person clearing closes their eyes and says, “What I want you to know (name), is that I think, feel, or believe (current ego thought, judgment, attack, accusation, experience), … which makes me feel … (express the feeling which arises), … just like when … (recount a scene from the past which comes to mind).”

The coach holding space says, “Thank You,” which means “I’m listening” and “I hear you, and I make no judgment.” It does not mean “I agree with your ego belief or thought.”

In Step 1, we identify a feeling so that when we close our eyes and the coach asks, “just like when?” a scene from our past (especially before age seven) may appear. People often come up with scenes that they never before remembered until their subconscious was ready to reveal it. Then the feelings can be seen, felt, acknowledged, and released after being held by the subconscious mind for years as evidence of little t truth. Otherwise, you may not know that the meaning you attached to the event has been affecting your life until now as a source of what you think, feel, and believe. Sometimes no image from the subconscious comes up, although a memory feeling or sensation will arise, offering significant insight. Regardless, the Clearing will still be effective.

Step 2: Forgiving Misperceptions

Step 2 of The Advanced Clearing is the forgiveness or correction of misperceptions about ourselves based upon the ego’s evidence brought up in step 1 statements. Now we consciously forgive ourselves for these misperceptions or mistaken beliefs. We could choose to forgive another person, but ultimately, the purpose of the clearing is to forgive ourselves. There is truly no one else to forgive because we made up what the situation meant about us. Our ego used that meaning (for example, being unworthy) and searched for evidence against our true nature. The truth is that we are all Worthy without conditions.

In the structure of step 2, the person clearing says, “What I want you to forgive me for, (name), is for thinking, feeling, or believing … (a little t feeling), which means I am… (a little t judgment of oneself) ….”

The coach says, “Thank You. That is not the Truth. That is a story you made up. You are … I love You.”

You will have several forgiveness statements in step 2 to match what you brought up in your ego thoughts in step 1. The Coach will confirm it is not the Truth of who you are, and will affirm your true nature.

The essence of the Clearing is based on our true nature being all-knowing, abundant, and eternal: the Big T Truths. Therefore, Step 3’s purpose is to remember our Eternal Truth (the Truth of who we are) that we temporarily forgot.

Step 3: Remembering the Big Truth

The final and most impactful step in The Advanced Clearing, affirms the Big T Truths, based on A Course in Miracles and other spiritual books.

The person clearing says: “What I want you to forgive me for, (name), is for forgetting that I am…. (Say one at a time in each statement to give it more power), for example, I am Love” (Innocent, Free, Whole and Complete, Joined with…, Pure, Safe, Peace, One with…, Unlimited, Eternally Connected, Divine), or ideally your chosen Big T Truth words that correct your misperceptions. These Big T Truth words must match and align with what you said in steps one and two for it to be most effective. For example, if you forgave yourself for feeling unworthy in step 1, your step 3 statement would be, “What I want you to forgive me for is for forgetting that I am Worthy.”

The coach affirms what the person clearing said by affirming the Truth and allowing them to receive it into their heart by saying, “Thank You. That is the Truth. You are Worthy. And I love You.”

Letting Go of Misperceptions

When you stop telling yourself the storyline of misperception that the world is against you and drop your attachment to the meaning the pain has for you—such as “I am not good enough,” “I am not worthy,” and “I am not lovable,” then you are free and fully present. It is vital to clear the idea that someone else is responsible for your suffering and they are to blame for how you feel. The Clearing disconnects you from this blame on others and ultimately shows you that you can choose another way for how you see yourself, such as “I am good enough,” “I am worthy,” and “I am lovable.”

Real-Life Examples of Clearing

In every training, we have a session where people can share aloud what’s going on in their minds or bothering them in their lives. The whole group of participants in the training room hears and witnesses them. For example, a woman brought up a perceived trauma that she experienced with her ex-boyfriend but originated from past pain. So, in The Clearing Process, she could clear buried feelings toward her mother and father that were standing in the way of her being fully present and feeling safe in a relationship. As a result, she let go of the fear brought up by old pain patterns with her parents and ex-boyfriend and was able to be present in her current relationships. 

Witnessing Ego Thoughts

Another example is when a workshop participant shared that she constantly attacks herself with the self-talk of, “I’m afraid to stand on my own.” The language we speak to ourselves can quickly become our reality. When we acknowledge our ego thoughts out loud to ourselves or to another, it becomes apparent, by hearing what we say, what we need to clear as we speak these words. The other person merely witnesses without collusion. When we try to block, deny, or suppress ego thoughts, they persist more strongly and continue to irritate us. Further, when we don’t recognize negative ego thoughts and leave them alone in our minds without clearing them, they can become a state that we commonly refer to as dis-ease, mental illness, chronic conditions, or general disagreeableness. In the 1970s, the famous teacher Werner Erhard, founder of the EST training, coined the phrase, “What you resist persists.” 

Viewing People with Love After Clearing

When you have accurately done The Clearing Process in its entirety with a character from your past (such as your mother or father) or someone who you despised, you may now be able to view them with real Love. However, if you do not feel this peaceful, loving feeling after a clearing, you may need to clear subsequent deeper layers with the support of a certified Power of Clearing coach.

Spirit is Present Everywhere

There is no place or space where Spirit is not present. The holiest of all the spots on earth is where an ancient hatred has become a present love. (ACIM, T-26.IX.6:1)

Vision of Total Peace

In my lifetime, I trust that I will see peace transform many people and locations worldwide that are currently in discord, war, and separation—a complete transformation that includes Love, Joy, Abundance, Freedom, Safety, and Compassion for all. I do envision that right now. Will you please join me in that vision of total peace and harmony for everyone worldwide?