A Conversation with Tonia and Sergio Reis-- from 2000

I just came across this. it is an interview I conducted with a husband and wife --Brazilian lawyers. It is fully relevant today!

3-23-00 Reading some months ago about a conference titled "Practicing Wisdom: Our Common Work", I saw that the conference was "designed to explore a powerful vision of a positive, sustainable, life-affirming future and what it would mean to act as a "Wisdom Society." Not everyone knows that the profession of law, in large part, is experienced by lawyers as life denying, painful, and at times unbearable. (There is much inherent drama in law, as in medicine. And multiple television programs show law in an attractive light--one, which has no bearing on the real World!) Among lawyers nationally, rates of divorce and suicide are high, and practitioners are seeking a way out of the profession.

Some have chosen to stay in law, as a calling, and change their own lives, and in so doing, perhaps help to heal the profession. These people, I suspected, may be seeking this same vision as that of this conference. I interviewed Tania and Sergio Reis, two holistic lawyers and members of the IAHL who live and practice in the state of Bahia, Brazil

The question which I asked Sergio and Tania is "where does holistic law fit, here?" How do we, as lawyers and holistic lawyers, practice law with wisdom, to as to create a sustainable professional life, a life affirming professional life. (Sergio's answers were translated by Tania.)

SERGIO; The practice of “Wisdom” in law has a great deal to do with the “Holistic Vision”, because its main goal is to redeem Law’s ethical and philosophical essence, setting formalism and bureaucracy aside and trying to reach true Justice by solving conflicts in a peaceful and non – distressful way.

I’ve been researching and working on a project for about 10 years (actually, it is the subject of a book I'm working on) investigating all moral and spiritual basic essences of the most important existing religions. They might serve as example of conduct rules used in society materializing the Divine Justice, which laws are inexorable, opposing to Human Justice, that hasn’t been providing the necessities for a peaceful and fraternal world culture.

CARROLL: Given that Jesus admonished his followers (in the Sermon On The Mount), (Matthew 5:25) to "agree speedily with [their] enemies-why, do you suppose, is a non-adversarial and mediative approach to law seen as "new" or "radical?"

SERGIO: I understand that the meaning/essence of Christ’s thought shows the way of conflict resolution through mediation. Always trying to reach a point of balance between the two involved (the “Win -- Win” negotiation). By the way, Gandhi was a lawyer that actually practiced this holistic principle.

CARROLL: yes, it seems very few people realize this. I know I didn’t for many years after I had been practicing law! We need more role models like this, I think.
What do you have to add, Tania?

TANIA: Sergio and I have an example of how this can work, from our practice here in Brazil. This is one such story: (Bear in mind that the culture of Brazil is noticeably different from ours in America-- Ed.)

Mary, wife of John and an associate in his company, received a call from her John to stop her car in front of a certain specific drugstore, supposedly buy a medicine for him. She did stop there, only to be kidnapped by Sue, John's mistress. Sue (the mistress) then insisted that Mary drive some 100 km from Salvador (our home town), to arrive at Sue's family home in City of Fear. Sue was threatening to kill Mary with a knife, and telling her all the details of her affair with John, as they drove along.

To add to the drama, Sue's brother Paul decided to come to Salvador, to make Sue give up her plan. All of them [they were not career criminals!] were very nervous and Mary was trying to convince them to let her go, because of her two children. Still deeply involved in her upset, Sue decided to take Mary to the apartment she shared with John to show her all the pictures they had taken together during vacation trips for years.

Seeing all this and naturally feeling betrayed, Mary promised to divorce John and share all properties (they were very rich persons) if Sue would take her back to her family. A deal was seemingly struck and Sue released Mary to drive home.

So far, so good. But John was surprised to see Mary, when she arrived back home, and she told him of everything. He tried to convince Mary of his innocence, but not surprisingly, Mary made an appointment (with Sergio, luckily) for divorce procedures.

When she came in to the office, Sergio explained to Mary how he solves such cases, and sent Mary to our Institute of Self-Healing for spiritual treatment and to work with the kind of energetic influences she was exposed to. That is, the betrayed wife was visibly so emotionally and energetically distressed that we invited her for a "check up "at our Sanctuary Light and Life. (See Sergio’s description of this below.)

During the treatment the healer identified a block on her solar plexus (abdomen- umbilical chakra) and another blockade on her heart chakra, like an etheric knife stuck into her cardiac region. [A knife through the heart! Ed.] Through energy work we undid the blockade.

When this happened a “bad” or “lower power” spirit was sensed by the Medium/Channeler. This spirit explained that had been hired by the lover to kill the wife through black magic (voodoo-macumba, which has a following here in Brazil.) After that the bad Spirit was calmed down-- was taken to a spiritual hospital by the Sanctuary Masters, according to this tradition. The client and her husband were harmonized and free from the spiritual siege. Also the husband promised Mary never more see the lover. So she decided remain married and try to build a happier family. (The marriage later ended, Tania tells me, but one hopes the process was more peaceful and all were spared unnecessary suffering. Ed)

SERGIO: As Tania has just illustrated, in our Holistic Law practice we try to help our clients not only advising them in their particular legal problem, but also by more direct “healing”, helping to rebalance emotions, energies and thoughts through Aura Cleansing/Purification, meditation, profound respiration process. I explain this in my book “Holistic Vision of Law”, (recently published in English).

If we are dealing with a critical, difficult case we invite this client/patient for a “check-up” in our “Spiritual Cure Center” (non – profit organization) where we work for free every night (6:30 to 10 P.M.) With 30 other collaborators and alternative therapies (Reiki, massage, chromotherapy, phytotherapy) and spiritual therapies (through Medicinal medicine, acupuncture and small surgeries.) A client who has reached a place of peace and well being is far better able to work through the legal and practical aspects of his or her situation.

CARROLL:I completely agree, Sergio, and await the time this is recognized here in America.

Marianne Williamson is speaking and writing about Spiritual (or Holistic) Politics, saying that spiritual laws are "universal and inescapable." Arnold Patent, a former lawyer (and friend of the IAHL) writes about Universal Law. Andrew Weil, M.D., and others are writing and speaking about integrative medicine. Even Steven Keeva, the Senior Editor of the American Bar Association Journal has written a book addressing the need for lawyers to do inner work, to find meaning in the practice of law. (Transforming Practices: Finding Joy and Satisfaction in the Legal Life, ABA Press, available on Amazon.com)

This subject is beginning to gain ground, but so little has been said about the need for integrating deep truths about the human condition with the formal professional approach to disputes -- thank you all for taking the time to elaborate on how lawyers can help heal deep wounds as we all move into the new millenium.