As I mentioned in the preceding chapter, on Saturday of a typical weekend Rebirthing training, I always make certain to spend at least an hour or two talking specifically about how to run a Rebirth business.

Like many of the other suggestions about money that I make at Rebirth workshops, many of these ideas about running a Rebirth business are ones that I have taken over, in great gratitude, from either Leonard Orr or Phil Laut, the two acknowledged money experts in the Rebirthing world.  If you have money issues you haven’t let go yet—or by the end of this chapter—I recommend you get in touch with them.  (Give them a hug from me, too.)

All of the ideas that I speak about and get people in my workshops to agree to practice are designed not only to handle common problems encountered when running a Rebirth business, but also to improve general money consciousness.  If you have ever run a successful business of your own, you probably have already taken care of most of these details and followed these procedures.

Before opening your practice as a Rebirther, it makes sense for you to have business cards, and for you to have a brochure prepared that you can send out to people who call you for information about what Rebirthing is.

Get yourself some really nice looking business cards, ones that you are happy to hand out to people.  Be sure your card states that you are a Rebirther, so when you hand such a card to another person you have the opportunity to explain what Rebirthing is about, carrying on a brief impromptu Rebirth seminar.  I carry such cards along with other cards which identify me as a licensed clinical psychologist and which include my state license number.  I use such cards when sending information to the people referred to me by two therapists who believe their patients will be put off by the term, “Rebirther.”

Make sure that you have a brochure because—while a little Rebirth seminar is OK when you’re talking with someone face to face, and a very short one is OK on the telephone in answer to a query from some stranger—you don’t wand to spend the majority of your day repeating these same elemental thoughts about Rebirthing.  You need some explanation in the form of a brochure which you willingly and freely send to anyone who asks.  I don’t monkey around with asking them to send a stamped, self-addressed envelope or to pay for the brochure.  I simply print it at my own expense as proud proof that I have something that I’m selling, that I want everyone to know about.  I present it attractively and give it to anyone who calls to ask about Rebirthing, even people who already lots about Rebirthing, paying the postage myself.  It’s part of the cost of doing business.

I find, much to my surprise, that many people who say they’re Rebirthers fail to get either business cards or brochures or letterhead stationery indicating that they are involved with Rebirthing.

That’s such an unbusinesslike attitude!  Maybe such scarcity consciousness is a reflection of resentment over putting money out for something they haven’t made any money from doing yet.

But I  believe this kind of reluctance to print cards announcing Rebirth services is related to other money negatives.

Why would people cheat themselves and be chintzy about acknowledging and making open the claim that they are indeed Rebirthers?  I can only conclude it’s because something about Rebirthing seems shameful to them.   Until breathing releases such shames, I say, “Stay out of Rebirthing!”

Many people object to the name, “Rebirthing,” because it might be mis-interpreted as something connected to a religious conversion like being a Born-again Christian.  So what?  You can explain the difference in your brochure or face-to-face.  You can also call Rebirthing “Conscious Connected Breathing.”

I seek to convince every person attending my workshops to open a Rebirthing business, even if only for a few hours a week.  It improves life in every regard.

Breathing is something you do anyhow, right?  Every minute of your life you’re breathing in and out.

The more fully and freely you breathe, the healthier you are, the more alive you are, the more in the Now you are.

So certainly every individual should greet every opportunity to practice breathing freely and fully, to carry out a nice, conscious, connected breath.

The time I spend Rebirthing somebody isn’t time that I lose.  Instead, it’s time I gain to practice my Breathing, while working and helping others.

In addition, it’s something I like to do.  I enjoy hearing from other people about themselves, learning their stories.  I enjoy listening to people talk about themselves.  I enjoy talking about myself.  What I’m doing is something I would probably be doing anyhow.

So, you not only get this chance to practice your breathing and to peek in on the lives of other people, but you also get to have your own life brought into consciousness in some particular regard.  Whatever your Rebirthee is talking about always evokes some response inside you in that connection.

Making Rebirthing your profession has lots of other benefits as well.  The other person feels good about talking to you about himself, he knows you’re really listening.  And, of course, after he has practiced the breathing with you and has started using the affirmations, he really gets benefit from it and from you and your ministrations.  So he’s definitely being helped and he’s really grateful to you.  All in all, he is quite happy about paying the reasonable fee that you’re requesting he pay.

So Rebirthing has all those positives to it.

There is another whole dimension of positivity to being a Rebirther that comes into being as people let go their negatives, especially the ones that have kept them disapproving of their parents and have kept them believing that they were unfortunate from birth.  As they let go all of that stuff—that life is something terrible, life is cheating them, they’ve been hurt—they come into greater consciousness of good, of Good in its absolute sense.  They witness and become a part of the great beauty and generosity of creation.

If all that is, is God, then that God is good!

And so, as you’re practicing being a Rebirther, and your client is receiving the benefits of the practice of Rebirthing, both of you are coming into a closer relationship with the good of the universe, the godliness.  You are being spiritually uplifted and verified in a sense.  The rightness, the union between you and everything else, is being restored.

Among the many ideas that I got from Phil and Leonard is the idea of deciding in advance when I want to see people and how much I want to charge them (how much I want to make, how much I’m open to receiving), then buying an engagement calendar and blocking out the time I’m willing to set aside to do the Rebirths that I’m going to be charging for.  So far, that’s nothing new.  Everyone in business for himself does this.  What is new is that I pledge to myself either to use that time only to concentrate on the Rebirth client who has come to fill the time and pay me the fee I’m charging, or else to use that time to concentrate on letting go whatever negatives about making money or being a Rebirther I may be running that are keeping clients away.

So, in your calendar, set aside a certain time to earn the money you’re receiving for Rebirthing.  If you don’t have a client during that time, spend time working with affirmations and Rebirthing yourself.  You’ll find out something about your old negatives as soon as you do.  Money is almost never a consideration, certainly seldom the prime consideration.

Another idea from Phil and Leonard is that, since my consciousness always creates my money picture, there are many times when my negatives about all the other work I want or need to do will “mysteriously” limit the number of Rebirths I am scheduled for during a particular stretch of time.  Sometimes that means that I don’t have anybody coming to sessions with me for a week or two while I do some other things that I want to do, like work on this book or take my older sister camping.  Fine!  It doesn’t mean that no one wants me or that I’m becoming a lousy Rebirther.  It just means that since my first priority is to serve, the only way I can have time for myself is if nobody wants me to serve them.  So that’s what happens.

The issue of time limits is one of the big birth-connected belief systems.

People ask what to do in private practice: run on a schedule or have unlimited sessions?  My reply is, “What do you want to do?”

I try to keep the time scheduled for a session within limits that allow me to handle the call for my services.  In Los Angeles, typically I don’t have more than two or three people a day wanting to Rebirth.  So it’s easy enough for me to schedule Rebirth sessions four or five hours apart.  That way, I have plenty of time for the session, as well as time to relax in between sessions and do other things.

When I’m on the road, it’s a different matter completely.  At some places, ten people have wanted to do individual Rebirths in a day with me.  They were scheduled an hour and a half apart, and I worked really hard for the days I was there.  This isn’t something I’d do in Los Angeles, however, where there’s no reason to schedule so closely or even to work so hard.

So, suit yourself about the length of your sessions in private practice.  As mentioned previously, I know of good Rebirthers who have good training, fine backgrounds, and top reputations who work on a one-hour breathe basis.  They have their clients come in and breathe for an hour, then leave, with very little conversation having taken place.  Their clients meet as a group on a weekly basis to talk—about their Rebirths and their lives.

As I’ve said previously, I prefer to talk first, to get an idea of what a person wants to change, and to get an idea of how he feels about what I think is connected to what he’s complaining about.  That takes more time, but it’s worth it to me.  Otherwise, I feel I don’t know my Rebirthees very well.

Another idea I got from Phil and Leonard was that whenever I find myself having any negatives about Rebirthing other people, I need to explore what kind of scarcity consciousness I’m running about money, work, and time.

As described in Chapter Sixteen, the negative I have come up with each time is that I’m not charging enough to be satisfied.  As soon as I’ve recognized that, I’ve reminded myself that it’s all right for me to increase the amount of money that I’m charging for my Rebirths.  I deserve to acknowledge how much I want to get paid.  How much I have asked has steadily risen through the years as I have realized how much of my time goes into it.  After all, it’s my job to sell my time for a wage that pays me an amount that is in accord with my own self-concept.  As I’ve said previously, if there’s somebody I want to Rebirth or want to have in my workshop who can’t afford the fee or the tuition, it’s also all right for me to provide my services at a level that’s affordable to that person. 

At almost every workshop I have led outside of the USA, someone has asked me when I think it’s okay for new Rebirthers to start to charge for Rebirthings.  Usually these people have accepted restrictions set up by some so-called authority in their area who has told them that, for example, until they have Rebirthed fifty people without getting paid, they aren’t entitled to ask for any money!

My reply to when to charge is essentially my general reply to any permission type questions: “Whenever you want.  You don’t need anyone’s permission to do anything you do.  Do it out of your own free will.  When you feel ready to Rebirth others and ask them to pay you for it, do it!”

I remind them of the other benefits I’ve mentioned previously, for example, you don’t have to get dirty doing it.  You don’t have to lift any heavy weights doing it.  There’s nothing dangerous about it.  You don’t need any special equipment.  You don’t need special training.

All you need is somebody else who is willing to lie down in your presence and practice the conscious connected breath.

So, deciding to run a Rebirth business is and should be easy as can be.  You don’t need to do anything to do it except announce that you are in business.  And my feeling, my attitude about that, is announce it proudly!

People often ask whether they should give up their steady job and go into Rebirthing on a kind of a sink-or-swim basis, making all of their time available for Rebirthing.

Again, my own response is, “Do whatever you want.  Just be sure you’re operating from an abundance consciousness.”

I know several people who’ve given up extremely lucrative jobs to open Rebirth practices which were highly successful.  Those people all had savings they could fall back upon; it wasn’t as if they were really going to be living hand to mouth, minute to minute, not ever really knowing where the next meal was coming from or whether they could pay their next month’s rent.  Leaving their jobs to start Rebirthing full-time didn’t create an immediate scarcity consciousness.

So, if you have lots of savings and you really don’t like the job that you’ve been doing full-time, and you love the thought of entering into Rebirthing on a full-time basis, go for it.

Be sure to give yourself some time limit: a Rebirthing place will be selected and outfitted by so and such time, so many people will be coming to see you for so many sessions per week by another time limit, so much of a profit will be made by another time limit.

If you don’t meet those limits, agree in advance that you’ll immediately, without hesitation, put your Rebirthing on a different basis or go back to making your living doing something else again.

That’s one OK way to do it, even though it has some qualities of the crisis personality about it (it might have something to do with people who get born precipitously, for all I know).

It wasn’t my style, and, fortunately, I didn’t need it to be my style.  As I’ve said before, I was teaching college and running a Primal practice when I first encountered Rebirthing.  I loved teaching full-time, which only involved fifteen hours of lecturing a week, and I had no desire to stop teaching on that full-time basis.  Just as with my Primal work, I had plenty of time to see people for Rebirthings the one morning of the work week when I didn’t teach, and I also had every afternoon and evening, as well as the weekend for sessions.  So running a Rebirthing practice and teaching college never were in any kind of conflict at all.

It wasn’t until a couple of years ago that I began to desire to have a freer schedule, primarily because I enjoyed myself so much when I traveled around, leading Rebirth trainings all over the world: England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, France, Spain, Holland, Belgium, Poland, Sweden, South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia.  I got tired of trying to squeeze all of the foreign travel for workshops into summer vacation, or into Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter vacations from school.  I found that I wasn’t seeing my grandchildren as much as I wanted to, and I wasn’t seeing them for important holidays.  Also, I never actually just got a chance to hang out in my own back yard, looking at the garden grow and the bunnies frisking around. 

So, in ‘91 I decided that I would retire from college teaching in ‘92.  Since then, I have had the leisure to travel whenever and wherever I wanted to, and that has been fine.

Whatever you decide, be sure you don’t do anything from a sense of scarcity.  If you don’t have enough savings to know that you can live well for the time you think it will probably take for you to establish a thriving Rebirthing business, I suggest that you keep your current job and fit Rebirthing in during the evenings and weekends.

Of course, that approach may be just as dependent on a scarcity consciousness as any other act is.  It’s up to you to determine where your sense of scarcity lies, and then to act in accordance with the higher spiritual thought. 

For example, I have never actually made Rebirthing the sole source of my income.  Does that mean I don’t have enough faith in my ability to generate an immense income from Rebirthing?  I don’t know and—for once—I don’t care to know.  Because of my college teaching, I haven’t needed to.  Since I haven’t needed to and won’t need to, I haven’t done it, and I won’t do it.

Rebirthing for me can always remain something that provides the glorious opportunity to meet marvelous people in all reaches of life all over the world.  It’s my comfort in my older age.  It’s my fun.  It’s my hobby.  It’s my pastime.  It’s my consuming passion.  It’s what I do.  And it’s just really nice that I also make a part of my living from it.  I think I would be missing this joy if I had given up teaching during the sixteen years I was Rebirthing before I retired from college.  For what?  Just to prove I could rely on myself?  Who else has been supporting me since I was 13 years old?  So for me, the higher spiritual thought was, “I’ve already proved I can take care of myself—that’s what I’m doing.  Now I’m free to be easy on myself.”

Some people are extremely adventurous and totally confident that the universe is there to support them.  So they start a Rebirthing business even though they don’t have savings.  They find people who will support them as they get started at Rebirthing. I’ve known several people who moved in with somebody else so they didn’t have to handle paying a large rent, and who then started Rebirthing practices, mostly on a shoe string.  Most of them have done well.  So that can be done.

You can do it however you want.  Whatever makes you most comfortable should be the determining factor as you decide how many times each week you must sell sessions and at what price in order to meet your bills and give yourself the standard of living you’re open to having.

Remember to practice generosity toward other Rebirthers, too.  I recommend you share your expertise and your resources.

For example, as a businesswoman running a Rebirth practice, I have always given my mailing list to whoever asked me for it.  I have also shared whatever information I have about Rebirthing with anybody who has asked for it, and I have never done anything to try to prevent them from gaining the benefit of my experience, as well.  To do elsewise seems to me proof positive of a really giant scarcity consciousness.  I have also invited other Rebirthers to come to my Rebirth trainings and workshops at reduced or no fee, so they have the opportunity to see what I do and how I do it.

When I think about how to run a Rebirth business.  I think about service, first, and income, second.  I feel I need to give away a certain amount.  I urge other people to have that same attitude, too.  Give away a certain amount of your time, whether it be Rebirthing others or leading Rebirth trainings or organizing Rebirthing trainings for other people.

I urge you to act from a sense of generosity and not from any desire to make a lot of money doing very little, especially when organizing, because with that attitude, you’ll probably begrudge the amount of work that goes into getting a bunch of people together to pay to attend a workshop.

So regard yourself as worthy of spending money on to get your business started.  Remember that Rebirthing really isn’t only a business, it’s also a medium of spiritual exchange and a way you show your love to your community. 

The profit is not always in dollars and cents.  We pay for an education.  We pay for therapy.

When we run our Rebirthing business, we’re getting educated and we’re getting healed.  We’re getting something marvelous and precious.  So, let’s not begrudge what it costs us.

In addition to seeing Rebirth clients in your Rebirthing business, organizing for others can be profitable, and it certainly is fun.  Follow the suggestions in Chapter Eighteen and see for yourself what you really think about organizing for another Rebirther.  Organizing for others is a great tool for improving your consciousness, especially if you’re jealous or withholding.  You’ll certainly come up against your old negatives when you’re counting how many people you’ve gotten to attend the event you’re organizing for another Rebirther.

Organizing for yourself is another item completely because it brings up other negatives about worth and calling attention to ourselves.  We need to be willing to spend money on sensible advertising for ourselves.

My view is that it’s a waste to spend money, effort, and time on trying to gain credibility by soliciting mental health professionals.  Rebirthing at this time is not an “accepted” form of therapy, and most psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers are not likely to welcome you and Rebirthing until Rebirthing is either substantiated by sound research or is picked up and advocated by some generally famous person, in or out of the mental health professions.

Therefore, don’t waste money singling the mental health pros out trying to get them to acknowledge that Rebirthing works and to use it themselves.  They will arrive for their own individual sessions eventually, usually at the urging of either a friend or patient.

As I said in Chapter Eighteen, I have found that organizing workshops for myself in Los Angeles is quite comfortable and easily done with very low cost, so long as I focus on the people who are most likely to want to join my workshop.  In my experience, these are mainly the people whom I have recently been Rebirthing, people who have seen me a few times, and who know that Rebirthing works for them.  A few of these people are interested in using Rebirthing as a technique they can teach to friends and acquaintances, or who want to use Rebirthing as a source of income.  The majority attend because they want to experience the group energy and benefits.

When I organize for myself in Los Angeles, I generally send out a flyer or a notice card announcing the workshop, its dates, its times, the topics that will be covered, and the cost.  I send that out to everyone I have Rebirthed in the past half year and to each and every one of the people who have phoned in the past six months to ask about Rebirthing.  Usually that’s about 150 or so people.  It doesn’t take me very long to affix stamps and drop that many notices in the mailbox.  I don’t need to hire anyone to do it for me.  And it isn’t expensive.  The total cost is well below what one attendee pays.

I used to hire a few Rebirthers to make follow-up phone calls to the Rebirthees I sent notices to, to find out how they were doing and what their plans were for attending.  That kind of soliciting almost always paid off, because people appreciated having such personal contact.  But when the Rebirthers who had worked for me moved on to greater adventures, I found I didn’t want to replace them and I don’t like my calling my Rebirthees myself.  So I’ve simply abandoned follow-up phoning as a technique that I use here in L.A. to get people to come to my workshops.  I recommend it for other organizers, however.  If I’m organizing for someone else as leader, I definitely make follow-up phone calls to everyone I’ve sent an announcement to.

Since late 1994, I’ve been considering telling people, when I start Rebirthing them, not only to plan to have about four individual Rebirths with me at the rate of about one per week, but also to expect to attend a weekend workshops the third weekend of the month, either while they’re going through their individual sessions or immediately after. 

I want to convince each individual Rebirthee that attendance at a workshop is just as important as the individual sessions, primarily because certain negatives come up in a group that almost never come up in an individual one-on-one situation, for example, sibling rivalry, the negatives about having to share attention and about having to wait or compete for a turn, and all of the prudish negatives about exposing and revealing ourselves.  Further, most of us believe that such issues can’t be talked about in public without making us feel uncomfortable.  So dealing with all that stuff which comes up primarily only during a workshop and not usually during individual sessions is very important.  Attending a workshop isn’t only an opportunity to become close to other people who are into Rebirthing.  And it isn’t only an opportunity to get Rebirthed three times for the same cost as I’m currently charging for an initial individual Rebirth.

So far, although I’ve been considering it, I haven’t seen my way clear to insisting that at least one weekend workshop is mandatory.  Anyhow, how could I possibly enforce such a requirement, especially with those of my patients who are famous people for whom the group would be especially valuable just because they don’t get my undivided attention and because they’re exposing themselves.

So I continue to offer the workshop as an experience complete in itself, although I truly regard it as a necessary step in the healing my Rebirthee seeks.

So far, the major reason people attend my workshops has been that they have wanted to learn to Rebirth others and make Rebirthing their profession.  My Rebirthees who have stable, satisfying, financially successful careers tend to avoid the groups and opt for one-on-one sessions instead.

Running your Rebirth business is a marvelous way of earning all or part of your living at the same time that you’re “working on your case.”

As you let go old mistaken beliefs about what constitutes success, your Rebirth business reflects your greater abundance consciousness, and your thought is, “I always have enough.  I always get enough.”

For example, a weekend workshop even with only three or four people attending here in Los Angeles is a perfectly acceptable way of spending the weekend.  I spend as much time in a workshop as I would spend seeing four new Rebirthees and I make about as much.  When more than that attend, it’s additional income, it’s a profitable profit on my time.