The Guru Who Doesn’t Care To Be One
Not long ago a friend who is a homeopath asked me to accompany her to a “workshop” that Howard Lee, “the energy doctor,” was to give in London. I was enthused by the idea. Lee is the creator of a new system that deals with psychological and emotional disorders. He was the teacher to whom the shamanic anthropologist, Carlos Castaneda, and his apprentices went for years, as well as every day people, and renowned personalities from the world of Hollywood showbusiness and other areas. “I want to express my admiration and gratitude to an exceptional teacher, Howard Lee, for having helped me to recover my energy and for having shown me an alternative way that leads to abundance and well-being.” This is how Carlos Castaneda expresses himself as he dedicated one of his most beautiful books to him, “The Fire from Within.” And on another occasion he wrote: “A Chinese proverb says: a sifu (teacher) for a day is worth a father for a lifetime. Howard Lee is that type of sifu: a teacher and a guide towards the light. His extraordinary power and ability with energy make him the most admired and respected practitioner in the art of wielding energy. I am proud of having been one of his disciples.” Affable and discreet, Chinese-born Howard Lee, sixty years old in March, with the physique of an athlete, saw me on a Tuesday afternoon in his studio in the City of Los Angeles. “In the last thirty years I’ve never left Los Angeles, now I see it is the time to change,” and he comments that in September he will be in Buenos Aires. People come and go as the interview begins informally.
You have worked as an acupuncture doctor and Kung Fu teacher for over thirty years in Los Angeles. What is the difference between that and the energetic work you do now?
It’s very different. In those days when I practiced Chinese medicine and acupuncture I also used energy, I channeled it for the purpose of, let’s say, making it more effective. But with time, I gradually eliminated the traditional techniques and I concentrated on the diverse energy points.
You’ve developed a method, but how did it come about?
Everything has been a process of awakening and remembering. During my life I have been able to remember things intuitively and I have practiced on my own. You could say that I went to school by myself, within myself, for a few decades. It’s a whole body of knowledge that I have totally recovered. It’s the work of a lifetime. Usually I see the need for my students and for people in general, to be able to turn off the internal mental “chatter” which consumes a great deal of energy and is distracting. I myself was this way until the age of nineteen, when I suddenly transformed into someone quiet, in other words, my internal cerebral activity quieted down. Since then, gradually I began to remember and to put into practice what I was remembering. After years of self-discipline, I finally remembered the whole process towards energy. Naturally since this process begins with me and is not part of a long tradition or institutionalized structure, people wanted to know what to call it, they wanted a name. I don’t remember exactly where the name came from, except that someone said the phrase “The Light of Life,” and it came from there.
What effects does this discovery have, is it for physical equilibrium, health, longevity or just for those who are interested in some form of spiritual development?
The physical body is the weakest part of the multidimensional being, that’s why it requires so much care. In general, the physical body looses cohesion as it ages. This is why when people reach the age of forty of fifty they not only gain weight, they also expand in structural terms. They loose cohesion, this is how sickness appears. But there is an energetic background to all of this energetic loss. And it happens due to what we spoke of before, mental chatter and certain habits. Access to this energetic frequency permits the recovery to physical coherence, it reverses the process of expansion. This is a transformative energy, which originates from more abstract planes and which acts at a multidimensional level. It is an energetic process and a very powerful knowledge which not only serves to cure, it also awakes creativity and elevates consciousness. People who have been practicing “The Light of Life” for a period of time have experienced many changes. Not only physical and emotional transformations, but transformations in relation to personal needs which are individual to each person. Since these transformations are not dictated by dogma or religious belief there are no limitations.
Carlos Castaneda is very well known in Argentina. What was your relationship to him?
Well, I met him in 1974 when he came to my studio. He had a very serious health problem. I worked on him. At that time I didn’t know who he was, although he had mentioned that he was a disciple of a certain Indian sorcerer doctor, if I recall correctly, who was teaching him about power. I don’t like to question people beyond what they wish to tell me, also for the person to be honest. So I never knew who he was, in other words, someone who had written famous books. Until twelve years later, when he acknowledged my help in one of his books. He brought me all of his books and I read them. They have profound value in terms of their teaching.
Recalling the days of Castaneda’s apprenticeship, was he a good student?
Carlos was very respectful and attentive. He was consistent in practicing Kung Fu in class. He had some coordination limitations, but that happens with many people. More than a student, he was a friend. A few years later he told me he had known about me before he came to see me. But he never learned the “The Light of Life” process because he left before I remembered how to induct others to the energy.
I think it is still very difficult, even today, with all the scientific and technological transformations in the last fifty years, to get away from the criterion of materialism. Nevertheless, and others have also expressed the same thing to me, the practice of the “The Light of Life” movements generate a type of expansion of the energy field, is that right?
Well, the words used today such as “energy field” and many others have many meanings. We live simultaneously on different planes. It’s not that the physical body expands, it’s that you come in contact with the other planes of your being. In general, people have different experiences. Truthfully, it is difficult to explain, I don’t think there is yet the language to do so, but there are certain equivalents in the physical world. For example in the scope of communications we have the transmission of information through light with fiber optics. Well this is important because it allows us to explain the energetic phenomena which we are speaking of, without the need for dogma or other belief systems.
Did you see the film “The Matrix"? The concept seems to be emerging in popular culture and can be seen in the film industry with the manipulation of images, and a renewed interest in dealing with and explaining phenomena which would otherwise be limited to the spiritual and religious world. Do you think this type of film helps us to understand energetic phenomena?
Yes, but in a different way. Film is important in relationship to the subject of how we partially live in the illusion. This is what many mystics and religious people have said, that life is an illusion. But that is not so, life is not entirely an illusion. With regard to that film, the problem is that life is something real and not real at the same time. Everything that we can imagine on this plane of existence is already present in the universe, in this way the world is an illusion, a deja-vu. We have the freedom of choosing. What happens is that we have to get rid of a number of habits and baggage which condition us and limit development in terms of knowledge, clarity and conscience.
Mr. Lee, are you are a guru, the leader of a new spiritual and religious movement?
No, I am not, nor could I be a guru. That role is part of the old paradigm, part of an old way of thinking. On the contrary, what I propose is for people to retake control of their own lives. Sometimes people need help. Like when you have problems with your house and you call a plumber. But today there is no need to ask another person to to tell us how to manage our own lives. There are people who ask me why I have this knowledge and ability with energy. Well, it’s like asking why Mozart had the ability to compose. I don’t know if its a privilege or not, because its not a question of ego. We are all co-creators of this reality, some people bring certain things and some bring others, and some enjoy without bringing anything (he laughs). We are all part of the matrix.
After your workshops in Europe, you’re going to Argentina. What do you plan to do in Buenos Aires?
The purpose for my presentations is to share the knowledge. This will help people to make changes in their lives, beyond the belief systems and lifestyles of each person, since the induction I do occurs on a plane that is neither physical nor mental. It is an opening of perception, of the conscience, when one goes “baaa", so to speak, in this energy. This is what is important. Because chatter, words, concepts, serve to entertain the rational mind, to fragment with dogmas, fears and preconceived ideas. But for example, in terms of self-healing, consider all the things that could be done by merely quieting the mental chatter. Just that alone, without teachers, without anything. The possibilities which manifest are enormous and they exist.
12 September 1999 for La Prensa (Buenos Aires) this interview © copyright Luciano Zubillago 1999
