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Paul Chek The Master of Body
Paul Chek The Master of Body
K
Philosophy
by Paul Chek
worsening situation with insurance companies (they would not pay fairly for
treatment rendered) led my partner and I to sell our business. So in 1995 I took
what now amounted to 11 years of hard work in the sports and clinical arenas and
started what is now the C.H.E.K Institutes C.H.E.K Practitioner program. This
began in La Jolla, California, where I opened an office with a gym, treatment rooms,
a library and offices. From here, I developed some of my initial programs, such as
Program Design, Scientific Abdominal Training (now Scientific Core Conditioning),
Scientific Back Training, Controversy and Current Concepts of Pulling Exercises, Paul
Cheks Medicine Ball Workout, Dynamic Medicine Ball Training, Swiss Ball Training
For Better Abs, Buns and Backs, Swiss Ball Training For Athletes, and others.
Soon I was getting requests to teach these programs in Australia and New Zealand,
and that became the focal point for much of my teaching for the next few years. I
grew and developed the Corrective High-performance Exercise Kinesiology
(C.H.E.K) program to four levels, designed to be completed over four years. My
initial batch of Level 4 C.H.E.K Practitioners came from the South Pacific, four of
which (Chris Maund, Janet Alexander, Suzi Nevell, and Mark Buckley) are still
instructors at the institute today.
We opened up a much nicer location in Encinitas in 1997 and stayed there for several
years. While in Encinitas, I continued consulting patients, sports teams, and
corporations, developing educational materials and products. I also expanded my
lecture tour to include the UK, Sweden, Denmark, and elsewhere. This led to the
expansion of the C.H.E.K programs into these countries. I also worked with Dr. Cliff
Oliver, D.C. to develop our Nutrition and Lifestyle Coaching program because I could
see that most of my practitioners were getting stuck with patients in this area. The
NLC Program now has three levels and is designed to be completed over 1.5 years.
Additionally, in 1998, my wife, Penny Crozier, and I published The Golf
Biomechanics Manual, which became both a book for the serious player and the
manual for our 7-day Golf Biomechanics certification course.
We outgrew our 7,500 sq. ft. space in Encinitas and, after much searching, in 2002
we purchased two buildings side by side (26,000 sq. ft.) in Vista, CA. Vista is now
the home of our ever-growing institute. We have all the facilities and space
necessary to run our educational programs effectively and people come from around
the globe to attend our many courses. Today, there is a staff of qualified instructors
that travel constantly around the world teaching the C.H.E.K programs, which are all
multidisciplinary. We have practitioners from a wide range of fields including:
medical doctors, nurses, physical therapists, osteopaths, chiropractors, personal
trainers, strength coaches, massage therapists, teachers, dance and movement
instructors and more. Our Vista location is also the home of my Personal~
Professional~ Spiritual Success Mastery Program. P~P~S is where my heart
and my head have been for quite some time now. Its a fantastic path to take, and I
am confident that anyone who is ready to take the helm and create his or her own
legacy will find the tools they need with P~P~S.
During the entire process of seeing patients, training athletes, consulting for clinics,
teams, and corporations, I have been on an intense but exciting pursuit of
knowledge about holistic health. At last count, I had read well over 1,000 books on
related topics, completed some 135 home study courses, hired many consultants for
private training, and attended numerous seminars and workshops around the world.
With my growing abilities, it was only natural that the patients I received became
more and more challenging. This process was noticeable very soon after leaving the
army; I found that doctors and therapists were repeatedly referring to me patients
who had been written off as unfixable. Many of these patients had suffered
numerous accidents and injuries and had undergone multiple surgeries. For example,
while consulting for a famous rugby team in Australia, I was asked to rehabilitate an
extremely skilled player who, at the tender age of 20, had already endured nine
orthopedic surgeries! I have consulted many clients with diseases, those with both
orthopedic problems and diseases, and even those with diseases, orthopedic
problems, as well as psychological ills. Finally, lets not forget those with digestive,
eliminative, and detoxification problems.
The condition of many of my patients are so complex that I need to use meditative
skills passed on to me as a budding teenager at the Self-Realization Fellowship Lake
Shrine. Thanks to my very wise mother, I was trained by Yoganandas monks to
meditate and see life for what it really is. This valuable teaching seemed at the time
a bit disjointed from my teenage consciousness, but it has repeatedly been the
blessing of my life for my personal growth and career development. Through this gift
of meditation, in conjunction with other skills I developed through studying
disciplines like metaphysics, Qi-Gong, Tai-Chi, Pranic Breathing, I have been able to
offer help to those that believed there was no help to be had. Sometimes the help
comes in the form of intuitional insights about the etiology of their ailments. Other
times my patients feel the benefit of the energy I can share with them when I teach
them to cultivate their own healing energy.
All the while, a common theme emerged repeatedly with my clients and others I
worked with. That theme was the belief that God and the Church was judging them,
and that they would be punished for living and experiencing the life they had chosen
to live. This Faulty God Model is the source of ailments of all kinds. Seeing this
theme repeated like a scene from Groundhogs Day stimulated in me what is now a
long study of metaphysics, comparative religion, theology, mythology, healing,
psychology, and related topics. I have now studied what amounts to literally shelves
full of books, videos, DVDs, CDs, cassette tapes, home study courses, and
workshops so that I am better able to understand my clients and myself. I have been
able to implement this information into my personal life and practice as a teacher,
life coach, and Holistic Health Practitioner. As I grow, learn and experience, I share
my findings with my students and they share theirs with me; we help each other
grow more and more rapidly so that we can help others grow with us!
Now more than 2 decades into years into my career, I have developed a model that
has proven to be rewarding both for the students using it and the clients seeing
those students. The C.H.E.K Mandala is my overview of what we teach at the
institute, and my philosophy of life, exercise, and healing. Much of what follows could
be expanded into a number of books, but by studying the C.H.E.K Mandala below,
anyone will be able to come away with a good working idea of:
C.H.E.K Nutrition and Lifestyle Coaches, represented as C.H.E.K NLC Level 1, 2, and
3, are those who have chosen to specialize in coaching people to health and well-
information regarding the state of a clients autonomic nervous system and overall
physiology. These tests often determine the need for more comprehensive lab tests.
Guest speakers such as Dr. Kalish, or Dr. Timmons from BioHealth Diagnostics, teach
the application of key lab tests. My contribution to NLC 3 focuses on advanced
assessment of organ systems, understanding the metaphysical implications of
common health problems, how to decipher complex information from complex
patients, and how to put together an effective coaching and treatment plan of action.
NLC 3 students are also given an abridged version of C.H.E.K Level 4 training on how
to identify Faulty God Models and educate accordingly. Experts in a variety of other
fields lecture on topics such as Emotional Self Management and how to use your
mind to take action in your life. Dodie Anderson teaches a metabolic typing review
and updates students on recent findings in the study of metabolic typing. The
students who attend NLC 3 leave empowered by their newfound understanding of
the roadblocks to their clients progress. Students leave with more effective means of
testing their clients, a better understanding of whom to refer their clients to, as well
as a clearer vision of how to better understand and counsel their clients on the
meaning of their life challenge(s). Like C.H.E.K Level 4 students, NLC 3 students are
by nature, very intelligent, loving and compassionate people that are truly pioneering
examples of how to live fully and vitally.
Figure 1
Before delving into the specifics of my personal philosophy on life, let me preface my
remarks with an important statement. I do NOT require my students to share my
spiritual views, nor do I require that they subscribe to any of my teachings. I merely
require that they have an open mind and be willing to test my teachings in the
clinical environment, or any environment in which they work. I encourage both my
P~P~S Success Mastery Practitioners as well as my C.H.E.K Professionals to
take other courses, to study as much as they can so that we can grow and learn
together.
Frequently, I have insights and inspirations as I quest for knowledge and
understanding. With the growth of my programs, including the P~P~S Success
Mastery Program, and the perpetual need of C.H.E.K Practitioners to explain the
philosophy behind their approach, I felt the need to develop an explanation that
suited both the left brain/logical and right brain/creative types. I sought to develop a
mandala that spoke to the subconscious so that those who are experiential types
could simply look at the mandala and feel the essence of the C.H.E.K way. Because
Being very far away, these galactic forces are ever-present, but much less intense
than the forces of our own sun and planets. The constellations of the zodiac all
influence us, yet there is a cycle of dominance in which each constellation expresses
a majority influence for approximately 2,000 years in much the same way the sun
affects our planet through seasonal cycles. We are now leaving the influence of
Pisces and entering the field of influence of Aquarius. Just as the song said, This is
the dawning of the Age of Aquarius.
The Serpent
The serpent consuming his own tail is an ancient symbol
for gnosis, or knowledge, of spirit and matter. It is also
used to symbolize the fact that life eats life. All C.H.E.K
Professionals are aware of the symbiotic process of giveand-take in nature and seek to facilitate knowledge of your
unique needs so that you may most effectively contribute
to the life process, moving humanity forward in physical
and spiritual evolution. As the founder of the C.H.E.K
Institute, it is my philosophy that faith begins where
knowledge ends. Therefore, we should all actively seek to
educate ourselves. To be healthy means to take
responsibility for ones self, and that requires that we make choices that can only be
made effectively through knowledge.
Information must be differentiated from knowledge in that information alone will not
help anyone. The world is swimming with information yet we are more unhealthy
than ever. Clearly those that are healthy have applied health information and,
therefore, exhibit knowledge of how to be healthy.
Man (I AM) The Microcosm
Ancient mystics tell us that everything that exists out
there in the cosmos can be found within each of us.
C.H.E.K Practitioners seek to find the truth and
beauty in all that is through studying the macrocosm
outside and the microcosm within. These studies are
revealing in a number of ways. We learn that the
Yin/Yang polarity of the Holy Trinity is expressed
through all solids, liquids, and gases, including those
that make up man. These cosmic dialectics create
both sexed relationships and rhythm(s) in man and
nature. Students discover that I AM is one of the
many names attributed to God, yet we human beings possess many godlike powers:
the power to create, the power to love, the power to hate, and the power to destroy.
Confucius said man was the bridge between heaven and earth, the caretaker left to
guide all earthly life forms to evolution. As we become progressively more aware of
our potential as gods, we emulate and radiate more and more of the Truth that God
is. We seek to attain Cosmic Consciousness; I AM that. As we evolve toward
Cosmic Consciousness, we are able to experience and understand more and more of
the codes that create and run the Universe. Through this process we begin to
understand and accept that we do life, life does not do us!
The Chakras
Divine and cosmic energies above create levity, drawing man up from
Mother Earth. Earth is the negative pole relative to the sun. Earth energy,
or Kundalini, rises up in man, enlivening his spiritual centers or chakras
(wheels of light). This facilitates communication and creation with all that
is. God and His Angels (Forces) permeate the heart from above and greet
the animal (earth being) from below in the human heart, which injects
the blood with Soul. C.H.E.K Professionals always seek to guide the
animal or Lower Self with the angelic or Higher Self, leading man to full
expression of Love. Buddha refers to earth and
her grounding experiences as the cage of the
five senses. Buddha, like Christ and other
avatars, served to show us that by attaining
Cosmic (Christ) Consciousness, we can free
ourselves from the bondage of the cage of the
five senses.
The chakras are not only energy centers, they are
information centers that decipher Gods Universal codes.
As we evolve as beings, we meet the life challenges
necessary to evolve. Eventually, we have optimal
energy/information transmission through the chakra
system and we reach nirvana or Cosmic Consciousness.
This process takes most of us untold numbers of lifetimes,
yet along the way, we are always an example for someone
to follow, and there are always examples for us to follow
(see Figure 2).
Figure 2. Jacobs
Ladder.
Sense Man
The mind of man expresses itself through the nervous
system. The C.H.E.K Professional recognizes that the mind
is the builder. Just as the physical body feeds on good
food, for effective building the mind must be fed good
thoughts! Through optimal nutrition and hormonal balance,
we are able to feed our emotional being optimal emotions,
our mental being optimal thoughts, and therefore act
optimally in accordance with our Higher Self.
Metabolism Man
Metabolism man generates the fire that creates warmth
and moves the life force in man. The warmth ether,
linked with fire, produces thought. The C.H.E.K
Professional knows that a healthy metabolism is the
foundation of optimal thought, word, and deed
creation. Just how metabolism, consciousness, and
creation are linked can be appreciated in the fact that