JEFFREY REDIGER

Jeffrey Rediger on the

Science of Miraculous Recoveries

by Sandra Yeyati

Board-certified psychiatrist Jeffrey Rediger is an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and medical director of McLean Southeast Adult Psychiatry and Community Affairs at McLean Hospital, near Boston. He holds a Master of Divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary. For almost two decades, Rediger has studied spontaneous healing, pioneering the use of scientific tools like CT scans and lab tests, as well as personal interviews, to investigate surprising recoveries from incurable diseases. His findings are documented in his bestseller Cured: Strengthen Your Immune System and Heal Your Life, and have been discussed on The Oprah Winfrey Show, a TEDx talk and numerous public engagements.

How do you define spontaneous healing?

Science calls these events spontaneous remissions, and doctors are taught they have no medical or scientific value. On the spiritual side, they’re called miracles. These terms haven’t been examined with the tools of science. The word spontaneous in this context means without cause. Most doctors see inexplicable healings. To assume that there’s no cause for remission is mind-boggling. Everything has a cause. We just aren’t asking the right questions.

From your studies, who beats the odds and why?

I broke down recoveries into four pillars of healing and well-being that were present in most cases: nutrition, healing the immune system, healing the stress response and healing identity and beliefs.

Can you describe key elements of the first pillar—nutrition?

People who got better when they weren’t supposed to seemed to have a common understanding of nutrition that centered around whole, plant-based foods and the elimination of processed foods and sugar. In Western countries, we’re taught that most people suffer from over-nutrition and obesity, rather that malnutrition. I believe we have massive malnutrition because of processed foods. When sugar crystals coarse through the bloodstream at high levels—as we see in U.S. diets—it causes little cuts which immune cells repair over and over, creating scab upon scab until you end up with atherosclerosis.

What about the next pillar— healing the immune system?

We need to honor the science of both Louis Pasteur, who proved that germs exist and play a role in disease, and Claude Bernard, who explained that if we take care of the inner terrain (what we now call the microbiome) we won’t get sick. We’re continually surrounded by millions of pathogens, bacteria, viruses—inside and outside of our bodies—that become invaders when something breaks down in our terrain. We overuse medicines, many of which suppress the immune system. So, we need to emphasize

the magnifi cent 30-year research about the microbiome and take care of our bodies to avoid leaky gut and other conditions that act as entrance points for disease.

What about the pillar related to stress?

Most of the people I studied learned to eliminate certain stresses so they could maximize the quality of their remaining time. Th is led to healing. We have to widen our window of tolerance for stress so it doesn’t keep us in fi ght, fl ight, freeze or fawn, and to diff erentiate between “challenge stress” and “toxic stress”. Running a marathon can be a challenge stress that helps you reach your higher self, expand your understanding of what you can achieve and prompt a repair response for muscles. But if every day you’re told you don’t matter or are unappreciated at work, that toxic stress can wear down your understanding of your value.

Th e deep chasm we’ve created between mind and body doesn’t exist. Doctors are taught to fi nd symptoms, make a diagnosis and start a medication. But whether a patient comes in for back pain, a heart attack or an autoimmune fl are-up, it’s critical to ask them what has been stressful lately and try to get the story of the illness. Usually, that will prompt a cathartic recount of stresses that relate to what’s going on physically. Helping people understand the deeper story of their illness and fi nd a path to healing around that can be life-saving.

Gabor Mate says, “If you don’t know how to say no, your body will eventually say no If we experience ourselves and others as human beings who have value and bring beauty into the world, that’s very diff erent from feeling alone, defective or not good enough. How a person feels at a deep, conscious or unconscious level about themselves and the universe is a massive factor in terms of their vitality and health.

for you.” Our hospitals are full of people who spent their entire lives taking care of everyone else and being confl ict-avoidant. Th e body keeps the score and tells the story. We can learn to listen to what our bodies are telling us about honoring the dignity and value that we bring into the world; set up a life and boundaries that support that; and educate therapists and the public about what trauma is and how to recover from it.

Can you explain the fourth pillar—healing identity and beliefs?

Th is is the big one, which people said was the reason they were grateful for their illnesses. When people are diagnosed with an incurable illness, although they’re terrifi ed, many (more than you would think) are also relieved. Th ey’ll say, “If I only have six months to live, then I don’t have to take over the family business like dad’s pressuring me to do.” Th at preparation to die oft en becomes a doorway into a diff erent life. When you decide to focus on what you need and want, that death of the false self allows the birth of a more authentic self that becomes its own journey to healing.

How does spirituality aff ect healing?

Spirituality has to do with how we feel about who we are, how we experience our value in the world and what kind of universe we live in. Is the universe friendly and caring or unfriendly and uncaring?

What can people learn from your research?

Take compassionate and fi rm charge of your minds, bodies and life. Doctors teach patients to be passive recipients of care, but the possibilities of healing come from within. It’s not about taking a medication as much as understanding our value, assertively taking steps to create a community of people who care about us and developing a path towards healing that’s rooted in an understanding of our deeper story.

In Western culture, if someone has a medical problem they’re sent to a physician. If they have a psychological problem, they see a psychotherapist. If they have a spiritual problem, they’re sent to the priest, rabbi or imam. Th at’s helpful, but we also need to stand back and look at the big picture. Th e people I studied got better because they brought mind, body and spirit together and integrated it into an empowering meaning that made sense to them. Th e spiritual piece can’t be partitioned. It animates the whole.

Sandra Yeyati, J.D., is a professional writer and editor. Reach her at SandraYeyati@ gmail.com.

COMING IN JANUARY Are you an empath?

If you struggle with overwhelming emotions, I can help you.

▲ Enjoy healthy relationships ▲ Transform limiting beliefs ▲ Incorporate your metaphysical & spiritual beliefs into legitimate therapy ▲ Release traumatic energy ▲ Release traumatic energy Caroline Hofmann

Call for a free consultation

How Should I Wear My Hair?

IntroducIng

Facial Symmetry analySiS

A half hour long beauty consultation that analyzes a series of facial measurements to help determine

the moSt Flattering hair Style that you can wear now.

Betty Ann Murphy

• Master Stylist • Color Expert • Advanced Volumation Eyelash Extension Expert Trained and certified by Xtreme Lash

bam0309@gmail.com 501 Goodlette Road, Suite B-104 Naples, FL 34102

ENERGY SPA

by Lisa Marlene

Zel Rau, owner of Energy Spa, in Naples, was captivated by reiki from the fi rst time she tried it a decade ago. Fascinated by the results she felt from reiki sessions—more focus, more energy and more balance—Rau decided she wanted to know more about the gentle, but eff ective alternative healing therapy. She took classes, got certifi ed and began practicing reiki on friends and family. Opening Energy spa in Naples is the fulfi llment of a dream for Rau, who later became certifi ed in other forms of energy work that she tried. “I always used myself as an experiment fi rst. When I saw that the therapy proved eff ective, I got trained to facilitate them,” says Rau, who off ers many diff erent energy healing and balancing modalities. Reiki restores the fl ow of energy to the body and has been known to reduce pain and stress, speed up recovery, induce relaxation and balance energy centers. It also can remove energetic blockages that can turn into illness or disease. Starting in December, Energy Spa will be off ering limited sessions of Sunset Reiki on the balcony. Biofi eld tuning rejuvenation is a healing modality that uses tuning forks in the body’s energy fi eld. Th is therapy, which affects accumulated trauma in the body, can alleviate pain, stress, anxiety, depression and more. Th is service is off ered in person or remotely via Zoom.

Th e Bio-Well wellness scan is a state-ofthe-art, scientifi cally proven device that gives a visual view of the energy centers (chakras) alignment, the location of energy blocks, and how high or low specifi c parts of our body/organs are energetically supported. Science has shown that disruption starts

Zel Rau fi rst in the energy fi eld before the physical body gets sick. Th erefore, the healthy energetic fi eld will always equal a healthy body, free of disease and emotional imbalance.

With this session, clients get a customized sound fi le generated to help balance their energy centers. In addition, they will receive a practitioner-suggested energy healing modality and a Bio-Well-generated report for their personal use. Bio-Well does not diagnose, but monitors the bodies energetic fl ow. Energy Spa also off ers crystal light therapy, using crystals invented by Marcel Vogel, who shaped his fi rst crystal according to the tree of life. All services are meant to relax, balance and rejuvenate the body and mind. Rau doesn’t diagnose, but rather acts as a guide for the client’s best health.

Energy Spa is located at 7935 Airport Rd., Wellness Ste. 214, in Naples. To book an appointment, visit ZelRau.com. See ad, page 18.