february/march 2012
Vol. 28 No.2
With life as short as a half taken breath, Don’t plant anything but Love. Rumi
Cancer Support Association of WA www.cancersupportwa.org.au
Connect with the CSA community online We have created a new facebook page for our members and friends which we update daily with cancer news, inspirations and the latest CSA events and programs.
every moment of life is offering us the possibility of renewal, growth and upliftment.
Facebook / Cancer Support Association
wellness news
editorial
is the monthly online magazine of the Cancer Support Association of Western Australia Inc.
Wellness News e-magazine is published online twelve time a year and distributed free to members of the Cancer Support Association. An annual print edition of Wellness News is produced at the end of each year and posted to all CSA members. Wellness News magazine is dedicated entirely to publishing informative, inspiring and helpful articles related to wellness and healing. The magazine is for people with cancer or serious health issues; for people who are well and want to maintain their good health naturally; and for complementary, alternative and integrative health professionals.
editorial & production... Editor & Designer Mandy BeckerKnox mandy@cancersupportassociation.org.au Marketing & Promotion Ester Gomez
online at...
www.cancersupportwa.org.au Wellness News magazine is published by the Cancer Support Association of WA Inc (CSA). The contents of this magazine do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the CSA and should be not be construed as medical advice. CSA encourages readers to be discerning with information presented and make treatment, dietary and lifestyle choices in consultation with a team of health-care professionals. © Copyright of all articles and images remains with individual contributors.
cleansing, renewal & deep healing... Dear members and friends, CSA has been providing cancer support services for 26 years – which is quite an amazing feat for any charitable organisation, particularly an organisation which was started by a small group of people with a simple but profound vision of providing a sanctuary of support and healing for people journeying with cancer. This vision of support and healing is still at the heart of CSA. After all this time, we continue to hold this vision close to our hearts and everything we do as organisation is about supporting people with cancer, their families and communities to achieve wellness and healing and to ensure that our cancer wellness centre is a sanctuary where anyone can come to be supported through the ups and downs of cancer, to be given the resources, guidance and opportunities needed to achieve wellness, healing and peace. CSA’s new Board and management acknowledge that vision and 2012 has already been a time of accelerated change as we leave behind aspects of the past which no longer serve us and focus on creating an abundant, sustainable future. This involves changes to our internal practices, returning our focus to service delivery and meeting our member’s and the community’s needs, and planning and preparing for integration into the Cancer Wellness Centre on the Wanslea site which is due for completion mid-2013. Anyone on a cancer wellness journey will recognise that making fundamental changes on every level of being is part of the healing process and integral to restoring wellness and equilibrium. In this way, CSA is on a similar wellness journey to many of our members! Part of CSA’s healing is to create a sharing and supportive community and we invite our members to share in a vibrant and meaningful future with us. We are already taking major steps towards creating this future through our new programs, including Meeting the Challenge, the development of new 5 Week Wellness Courses and our Guest Speaker program. We are also extending our support services to regional WA and looking at ways to reach the people that need us most in their own communities. We recently hosted a unique Sound & light Healing Show on the grounds of Wanslea featuring OLEM Sound Healing Collective, and also Mitchella and Vivienne from Waljin Consultancy in the South West who welcomed, blessed and cleansed all in attendance with a traditional smoking healing session. This was a beautiful event and for the CSA wellness team affirmed that 2012 is truly the year for cleansing, renewal and deep healing on every level. F Peace, Mandy
beliefs
contents CSA Weekly Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 What’s on at CSA this month. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Meeting the Challenge Handbook. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 7 In the news: How vitamin C stops cancer; Does vitamin C really work?; Aspirin’s role in cancer treatment (9). . . . . . . . . .8 Article: When Cancer Disappears
In the infinity of life where I am all is perfect, whole and complete. I accept perfect health as the natural state of my being.
The Curious Phenomenon of “Unexpected Remission”. . . 10
I now consciously release any
Article: The Healing Power of Stories and Consciousness. 16
mental patterns within me
Sharing Your Story at CSA. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 19 Interview: Mother Maya. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
that could express as dis-ease in
Article: Love - A Daily Oracle for Healing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
any way.
Article: Cancer Support in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Article: Emotional Freedom Technique Integrative Healing For Cancer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Recipes & Food News: Sprouts - Nature’s Healing Foods; Health Benefits & Chemoprotective Properties of Sprouts (33) . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 32
I love and approve of myself. I love and approve of my body. I feed it nourishing foods and
Pictorial: The brave faces of cancer. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 35
beverages.
Inspiration: the Sound of Light; Love All . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Gawler Foundation Bursary Program. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
I exercise it in ways that are fun. I recognise my body as a wondrous and magnificent machine, and I feel privileged to live in it. I love lots of energy. All is well in my world. An affirmation by Louise Hay
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CSA Weekly Program Monday
Meditation Made Easy: Ongoing Lessons ................................ 9.30 - 11.00am
TUESDAY
Exercise for Cancer Program (by appointment)...................... 7.30 -10.30am Cancer Wellness Walking Group.....................................................8.00 - 9.00am Meet at Blue Duck Cafe, North Cottesloe. Open Cancer Support Group......................................................10.00 - 12.00pm Reiki Healing Sessions......................................................................12.15 - 1.30pm Counselling Sessions (by appointment) ......................................1.00 - 4.00pm
TUESDAY EVENING
5 Week Absolute Beginners Yoga Course...................................6.30 - 7.30pm Dates: 6th March, 1st May, 5th June, 24 July, 28th Aug, 16 Oct, 20 Nov Guest Speaker Program......................................................................6.00 - 8.00pm 1st Tuesday of each month (see website for guest speakers) Guest Healer Program.........................................................................6.00 - 8.00pm 3rd Tuesday of each month (see website for guest healers) Reiki Healing Sessions (appointments not required)..............5.00 - 8.00pm
WEDNESDAY
Gawler Foundation 12 Week Cancer Wellbeing Course.......10 - 12:30pm (check website for 2012 dates) Reflexology Sessions (by appointment)..............................10.00am - 2.00pm Laughter Yoga.....................................................................................10.45 - 11.45am Chinese Medical Healthcare Qigong.....................................1.00pm - 2.30pm Counselling Sessions (by appointment).......................................9.00 - 4.00pm
WEDNESDAY EVENING
5 Week Cancer Wellness Course (bookings required).............6.00 - 8.00pm Dates: 7th March, 2nd May, 6th June, 25 July, 29th Aug, 17 Oct, 21 Nov
THURSDAY
Exercise for Cancer Program (bookings required).................. 7.30 -10.30am Yoga for Healing (Gentle yoga and relaxation)......................11.00 - 12.15pm Grief Support Group (last Thursday of each month).........1.00pm - 3.00pm Writing Your Story (Writing Therapy/Meditation)................10.30 - 12.00pm Arts for Healing (Art Therapy)............................................................1.00 - 3.30pm 5 Week Eating for Cancer Recovery Course.................................1.00-3.00pm Dates: 3rd May, 7th June, 26 July, 30th Aug, 18 Oct, 22 Nov Counselling Sessions (by appointment) ......................................9.00 - 4.00pm
THURSDAY evening
Men’s Cancer Support Group (starts 1st March).......................6.00 - 8.00pm 5 Week Introduction to Meditation (bookings required)......6.30 - 7.30pm Dates: 3rd May, 7th June, 26 July, 30th Aug, 18 Oct, 22 Nov
FRIDAY
Meeting the Challenge 1 Day Cancer Wellness Seminar.....9.30 - 4.30pm 1st Friday of each month. Free for new members.
meditation made easy with Bavali Hill Meditation is a safe and simple way to balance a person’s physical, emotional, and mental states. The use of Meditation for healing is not new. Meditative techniques are the product of diverse cultures and peoples around the world. The value of Meditation to alleviate suffering and promote healing has been known and practiced for thousands of years. In these weekly lessons at CSA, Bavali guides participants through various healing meditation techniques and gives notes and handouts to support home practice.
counselling Individual, Family & Group Ongoing counselling sessions with a caring, compassionate professional could help you deal more effectively with the many issues, fears and emotions which arise on the cancer journey; gain clarity to make treatment decisions; give you the insight to grow from your experiences; and the peace of mind and heart needed to heal. Sessions can be booked with our qualified counsellor Mike Sowerby, and are also available online for those unable to make it in to our Cottesloe premises.
laughter yoga with Kimmie O’Meara Laughter Yoga is a revolutionary idea developed by Dr. Madan Kataria, a Physician from Mumbai, India. It is a complete wellbeing workout combining Unconditional Laughter with Yogic Breathing (Pranayama). Anyone can Laugh for No Reason, without relying on humour, jokes or comedy. Laughter is simulated as a body exercise in a group; with eye contact and childlike playfulness, it soon turns into real and contagious laughter. The concept of Laughter Yoga is based on a scientific fact that the body cannot differentiate between fake and real laughter. One gets the same physiological and psychological benefits of laughter regardless of the source.
what’s on at CSA be part of the csa community by joining the groups, courses and wellness activities at our premises in Cottesloe
Meeting the Challenge 1 Day Cancer Wellness Seminar Life Changing Information for people with cancer and their carers. Led by Cathy Brown, this seminar provides wellness information, wellness strategies, new resources (such as nutrition, treatment options, meditation) and sharing with others on a healing journey. There is also a focus on accessing cancer information online. Held monthly at CSA on the first Friday of every month from 9.30am-4.30pm. Free for new CSA members, bookings are required.
cancer support groups with Angela Ebert & Mike Sowerby Support groups enable people to discover new ways of coping; share the experience with others going through something similar; exchange information and resources; develop a holistic approach to healing; be inspired by others on the journey to regaining wellness.
“If you travel alone, you can probably go faster. But the journey will never be as rewarding, and you probably won’t be able to go as far.” ~ John Maxwell
yoga for healing with Madeline Clare Yoga for Healing classes bring the joy of yoga to people with cancer and those who may need a nurturing space to practice. CSA yoga teacher, Madeline Clare, takes inspiration from both Iyengar and Vinyasa approaches to yoga with an emphasis on relaxation, breath awareness, gentle movement and meditation. A balanced yoga practice has the capacity to heal, shift energy blockages and bring the body into physical, emotional, mental and spiritual alignment.
reiki clinic
every Tuesday & every 2nd Tuesday evening
CSA offers an open cancer support group for people with cancer and their carers. This weekly group is facilitated by Angela Ebert and Mike Sowerby. We also offer a Carers’ Support Group and a monthly Grief and Loss Support Group.
CSA offers a weekly reiki clinic staffed by qualified volunteers. Gold coin donation. Reiki is a Japanese energy-based therapy that promotes healing and overall wellness. A trained reiki practitioner uses his or her hands to transmit energy to the recipient. Reiki has been proven to help with pain management, relaxation, and side effects of cancer treatment.
mens’ cancer support group
exercise program
with Mike Sowerby Mike Sowerby is starting a Mens’ Cancer Support Group from 1st March on Thursday evenings (6pm8pm) from February 2012. The dedicated men’s group is open to all men with cancer and also to men who are caring for loved ones with cancer. The group provides a caring environment for men to safely and confidentially share with others and gain support. For more information contact Mike at CSA on 9384 3544.
every Tuesday & Thursday An exercise program for people with cancer faciliated by exercise physiologists from Notre Dame University.
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New 5 Week Courses... CSA have developed a series of practical, informative and inspiring 5 week courses to help you on your wellness journey... 5 Week Cancer Wellness Course This course introduces participants to the key areas of the wellness approach to cancer including: how to cope with cancer; lifestyle medicine; diet and nutrition; developing personal and practical resources; meditation and exercise; integrating natural medicine and complementary therapies. Informative, practical sessions and demonstrations with notes and home practices (weekly 2 hour session)
5 Week Eating for Cancer Recovery Course An introduction to the principles of eating for cancer recovery. Course includes information and practical demonstrations of juicing, sprouting, raw food preparation. Includes juices, sprouts and food! Recipes, notes given (weekly 2 hour session)
5 Week Absolute Beginners Yoga Course
(suitable for people with cancer) Always wanted to try yoga? A gentle, systematic, introductory yoga course designed for: absolute beginners; people with cancer or other medical conditions which may prevent them from joining regular classes; anyone wanting an understanding of the fundamental and underlying principles of yoga. Emphasis is on safely stretching, strengthening, relaxing and activating the body’s healing potential. Notes and home practices given (weekly 1 hour session).
5 Week Introduction to Meditation Course A structured course where participants learn and practice simple techniques to help them concentrate better, meditate deeply, replenish energy levels, counter stress, cultivate inner peace and promote healing. Notes and home practices given (weekly 1 hour session).
Bookings are required for Courses. You can book easily online: www.cancersupportwa.org.au or by phone 9384 3544.
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writing your story with the harmony harp as part of your healing with Kate Faraday
Unfold your healing journey in a supportive environment through guided imagery, reflection, colour and sound, relaxation and discovery, with the soothing harmonic vibrations of the hand-carved Harmony Harp. Kate Faraday, holistic wellbeing facilitator, with over 25 years’ natural health facilitation experience, leads an open group of relaxed journal writing sessions in a nurturing environment to
cancer wellness walking group with CSA staff & volunteers CSA hosts a weekly morning walking group along North Cottesloe beach beginning and ending at the Blye Duck Cafe, North Cottesloe for a refreshing juice, tea or coffee. Members of the CSA Wellness Team including volunteer counsellors will be present for the walk and can chat with participants one-toone while getting fresh air and exercise.
qi gong with Alan Donelly Qigong is a traditional Chinese mind-body practice that uses meditation, breathing control, and movement to balance the flow of energy (qi) through the body to help healing to occur. CSA offers qigong to complement cancer therapies and help with the symptoms of cancer. In this setting, qigong is not used as a treatment for cancer per se, but as a method of easing cancer symptoms such as fatigue.
sound healing sessions with Julian and Silke Sound healers Julian Silburn and Silke, provide fortnightly sound healing sessions at CSA.
reflexology with Udo Kannapin Reflexology is the application of pressure, stretching and movement to the feet and hands to trigger corresponding parts of the body. It complements standard medical care by relaxing the body and reducing stress.
NEW CSA members can attend free!
CSA General Manager Mandy BeckerKnox
Meeting the Challenge Handbook The Cancer Support Association has produced an important new resource for people diagnosed with cancer to help them through the challenges of cancer from diagnosis to recovery. It is now widely acknowledged that lifestyle plays a major role in cancer prevention and recovery. The Meeting the Challenge Handbook presents a holistic cancer wellness strategy which can be used alongside conventional cancer treatment to improve general wellbeing and cancer outcomes. Anyone diagnosed with cancer will benefit from the immediate strategies in the handbook, as it outlines what you can do yourself to recover from cancer and provides information to help you adopt a lifestyle conducive to good health, healing and happiness. It is about learning self-help strategies and strengthening personal resources, discovering supports and health information to positively deal with, or prevent serious diseases such as cancer. CSA is distributing the handbook free of charge to members and the wider community – to ensure that we can get the wellness message to as many people with cancer as we can. The handbook supplements our Meeting the Challenge 1 Day Seminar and our new 5 Week Cancer Wellness Course starting in March. The 1 day Seminar is an introduction to the wellness approach to cancer. The Cancer Wellness Course is structured to give participants practical experience of the wellness and lifestyle strategies which may increase wellbeing and improve cancer outcomes. For more information about the handbook and our new courses contact the Cancer Support Association on (08) 9384 3544. All members should have received a copy through the post. Hard copies are available upon request or you can download a pdf suitable to read on iPads and electronic devices from www.cancersupportwa.org.au.
Meeting the Challenge! one day cancer wellness workshop First Friday of every month between 9.30am-4.30pm at CSA, Cottesloe Life Changing Information for people with cancer: • The Wellness approach to cancer • Nutrition for optimal health • Power of the Mind • Introduction to Meditation • Natural & Complementary Therapies To book ph CSA 8384 3544 online: www.cancersupportwa.org.au February/March 2012
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How Vitamin C stops cancer Vitamin C is a well known and commonly used cancer therapy. What is the sicence behind vitamin c and does it really work?
Nearly 30 years after Nobel laureate Linus Pauling famously and controversially suggested that vitamin C supplements can prevent cancer, a team of Johns Hopkins scientists have shown that in mice at least, vitamin C - and potentially other antioxidants - can indeed inhibit the growth of some tumours - just not in the manner suggested by years of investigation. The conventional wisdom of how antioxidants such as vitamin C help prevent cancer growth is that they grab up volatile oxygen free radical molecules and prevent the damage they are known to do to our delicate DNA. The Hopkins study, led by Chi Dang, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine and oncology and Johns Hopkins Family Professor in Oncology Research, unexpectedly found that the antioxidants’ actual role may be to destabilize a tumour’s ability to grow under oxygen-starved conditions. Their work is detailed this week in Cancer Cell. “The potential anticancer benefits of antioxidants have been the driving force for many clinical and preclinical studies,” says Dang. “By uncovering the mechanism behind antioxidants, we are now better suited to maximize their therapeutic use.” “Once again, this work demonstrates the irreplaceable value of letting researchers follow their scientific noses wherever it leads them,” Dang adds. The authors do caution that while vitamin C is still essential for good health, this study is preliminary and people should not rush out and buy bulk supplies of antioxidants as a means of cancer prevention. The Johns Hopkins investigators discovered the surprise antioxidant mechanism while looking at mice implanted with either human lymphoma (a blood cancer) or human liver cancer cells. Both of these cancers produce high levels of free radicals that can be suppressed by feeding the mice supplements of antioxidants, either vitamin C or N-acetylcysteine (NAC). However, when the Hopkins team examined cancer cells from cancer-implanted mice not fed the antioxidants, they noticed the absence of any significant DNA damage. “Clearly, if DNA damage was not in play as a cause of the cancer, then whatever the antioxidants were doing to help was also not related to DNA damage,” says Ping Gao, Ph.D, lead author of the paper. That conclusion led Gao and Dang to suspect that some other mechanism was involved, such as a protein known to be dependent on free radicals called HIF-1 (hypoxia-induced factor), which was discovered over a decade ago by Hopkins researcher and co-author Gregg Semenza, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Program in Vascular Cell Engineering. Indeed, they found that while this protein was abundant in untreated cancer cells taken from the mice, it disappeared in vitamin C-treated cells taken from similar animals. “When a cell lacks oxygen, HIF-1 helps it compensate,” explains Dang. “HIF-1 helps an oxygen-starved cell convert sugar to energy without using oxygen and also initiates the construction of new blood vessels to bring in a fresh oxygen supply.” Some rapidly growing tumours consume enough energy to easily suck out the available oxygen in their vicinity, making HIF-1 absolutely critical for their continued survival. But HIF-1 can only operate if it has a supply of free radicals. Antioxidants remove these free radicals and stop HIF-1, and the tumour, in its tracks. The authors confirmed the importance of this “hypoxia protein” by creating cancer cells with a genetic variant of HIF-1 that did not require free radicals to be stable. In these cells, antioxidants no longer had any cancer-fighting power. F
From: Science Daily. The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health. Authors on the paper are Dean Felsher of Stanford; and Gao, Huafeng Zhang, Ramani Dinavahi, Feng Li, Yan Xiang, Venu Raman, Zaver Bhujwalla, Linzhao Cheng, Jonathan Pevsner, Linda Lee, Gregg Semenza and Dang of Johns Hopkins.
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Does Vitamin C really work? A small study focused on the big question of whether intravenous Vitamin C fights cancer has yielded “somewhat encouraging findings,” some Thomas Jefferson University researchers conclude. Many alternative medicine practitioners are firmly convinced that ascorbic acid infusions work, based on anecdotal cases of remissions and cures. But the evidence remains inconclusive. In the new study, nine patients with advanced pancreatic cancer received intravenous C plus two standard chemotherapy drugs for eight weeks. CT scans showed eight of the nine patients had shrinkage of their pancreas tumours. That’s unusual with chemo alone, the researchers say. “This is a horrible disease that doesn’t respond to much. We wanted to see if we at least got an efficacy signal,” said study leader Daniel Monti, director of Jefferson’s integrative medicine center. “And we did.” But the shrinkage did not change the patients’ grim prognosis. On average, their disease progressed in three months, and they died in six months comparable to studies of chemotherapy alone. Vitamin C was ardently championed as a cancer therapy 35 years ago by two-time Nobel laureate Linus Pauling. His theory was scorned after two large, federally funded trials found no benefit - and he began touting ascorbate for ills from colds to mental illness. Newer research suggests those trials had a fatal flaw: The patients took Vitamin C in pill form. Mark Levine, a nutrition researcher at the National Institutes of Health and senior author of the Jefferson study, has published lab and animal studies showing that Vitamin C is toxic to cancer cells - but only at very high blood levels, which can be achieved only by putting ascorbate directly into a vein. While he has long called for new trials, Jefferson is among the few institutions willing to revisit the C controversy. As expected, the new study - published last week in the journal PLOS One - showed ascorbate plus chemo was safe. Given that, plus the tumour shrinkage, Jefferson has launched the next step: a trial in which 35 advanced pancreatic cancer patients will get 16 weeks of C plus chemo. F
By Marie McCullough. From: The Inqurier, January 23, 2012.
Aspirin’s role in cancer treatment Scientists from the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute in Melbourne say they have made an important discovery about how cancer spreads. Researchers have known for years that common drugs like aspirin can help cancer patients, but they were not sure why. Now they have found a link between drugs like aspirin and the ability for cancer tumours to spread in the body. The institute’s associate professor Steven Stacker says the discovery unlocks a range of potential new pathways for treating cancer. “Hopefully this insight is going to be very important to understanding how these drugs may work and in fact how the lymphatic vessels may really contribute to a tumour metastasis,” he said. Professor Stacker says scientists have learned more about how the lymphatic vessels in the body’s circulatory system function. Those vessels are often “hijacked” when a person has cancer. “The blood vessels can be a conduit for cells to leave the primary tumour and go to other sites. The discovery we’ve found is that for the first time the major lymphatic vessels are seen to play their own individual role in this process,” he said. Scientists found these vessels expand in the process of metastasis, increasing their volume and therefore allow cells and fluid to be transported more readily, a bit like a highway for cancer cells. The researchers have discovered that drugs like aspirin, known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs), can play a role in shutting down the dilation of these lymphatic vessels or cancer highways, effectively closing off a tumour’s supply lines. “It does provide an opportunity now to try to inhibit that protein or inhibit that process, reduce the dilation of those lymphatic vessels and potentially reduce metastatic spread,” he said. The researchers also think their findings could lead to an early warning system to help doctors work out if a tumour is likely to spread. The study was published on the 14th February 2012 in the journal Cancer Cell. F
http://au.news.yahoo.com, 14 Feb 2012
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When Cancer Disappears The Curious Phenomenon of “Unexpected Remission” By Kelly Turner, PhD
We’ve all heard a story like this one. After trying all that Western medicine has to offer, a person with Stage 4 cancer is told there is nothing more the doctors can do and is sent home to receive hospice care. Five years later, that person strolls into the doctor’s office feeling great, with no further evidence of cancer. In the medical world, this kind of case is referred to as a spontaneous remission, which is defined as “the disappearance, complete or incomplete, of cancer without medical treatment or with medical treatment that is considered inadequate to produce the resulting disappearance of disease symptoms or tumour.”1 Many researchers, including myself, believe that the word spontaneous is a misnomer and should be changed to unexpected or unlikely. We feel this way because few things in life are truly spontaneous - occurring purely by accident. It is more likely that these remissions have a cause - or two or three - that science has not yet identified.
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Background Regardless of what we call them, unexpected remissions do occur, and more than one thousand cases (across all types of cancer) have been published in medical journals. Thousands more have most likely occurred but not been published, because most doctors don’t take the time to write up a report and submit it to a journal – which unfortunately is currently the only way of tracking these kinds of cases. Based on what has been published, unexpected remissions are estimated to occur in one out of every sixty thousand to one hundred thousand cancer patients; however, the true incidence rate is likely higher than that due to underreporting.2 Over the past century, there has been a steady flow of published case reports along with flashes of increased interest in this topic. For example, in the 1960s, the first two scientific books on unexpected remission were published, which led to a sharp increase in the number of case reports submitted to medical journals.3 After awhile, however, interest in the topic lulled again until the late 1980s when the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) launched the Spontaneous Remission Project, which culminated in the publication of a comprehensive bibliography of documented cases.4 Since then, approximately twenty new cases of unexpected remission are published each year, and there still has been a noticeable lack of formal research into why these remissions might occur. It’s understandable, in a way. How do you begin to research something you cannot explain? Many conventional doctors feel threatened by these “miraculous” cures and don’t wish to talk about them – much less research them – for fear that they will give “false hope” to their other patients. In fact, most of the unexpected remission survivors I have studied are thrilled to have finally found a professional who is interested in learning how they healed. They often lament, “My doctor didn’t even ask how I did it.”
The Present Research
“...cancer thrives under certain, suboptimal conditions in the bodymind-spirit system and that to remove cancer, those underlying conditions must change.”
Perhaps because I am a qualitative researcher and not a medical doctor, I have always been fascinated by cases of unexpected remission. When I began studying them during my doctoral studies at the University of California at Berkeley, I was disappointed to see how little research had been done on this topic. The first problem I saw was that there was no database where I could easily find and analyze these cases. The second issue I noticed was that two groups of people had been largely ignored in the research: the survivors themselves as well as nonallopathic healers. It seemed odd that in an effort to explain unexpected remissions, we weren’t asking the opinions of the people who had actually healed. I also couldn’t understand why, when trying to explain a remission that is by definition not a result of allopathic treatment, we weren’t seeking out hypotheses from nonallopathic healers. As a result, my dissertation research involved collecting hypotheses from these two previously ignored groups about why unexpected remissions may occur. More specifically, I spent ten months traveling the world in search of fifty nonallopathic cancer healers. My research led me to interview healers in the United States, China, Japan, New Zealand, Thailand, India, England, Ireland, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Brazil (translators were used when necessary). When I returned from this amazing trip, I found twenty unpublished cases of unexpected remission and conducted phone interviews with the survivors. I purposely sought out unpublished cases first, in order to see if the
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underreporting issues were true – which they were. I am grateful to the American Cancer Society for providing partial funding for this study. My seventy hour-long interviews resulted in more than three thousand pages of transcripts, which I analyzed multiple times to find recurring themes. I identified more than seventy-five “treatments” for cancer, six of which were “very frequent” among all seventy subjects. Underlying beliefs about cancer also emerged from the interviews, of which three were very frequent. I am happy to share these results here in an abbreviated form. Please remember that these are hypotheses only, not facts.
Belief #1: Change the Conditions under which Cancer Thrives The majority of my interviewees believed that cancer thrives under certain, suboptimal conditions in the body-mind-spirit system and that to remove cancer, those underlying conditions must change. Healer #21 from Hawaii explained it this way:
Art: Glenda Dietrich
“any illness including cancer - represents a blockage or slowness somewhere in the body-mind-spirit system, whereas health occurs when there is a state of unhindered movement or flow.”
The most successful recoveries seem to be strongly associated with major mental, emotional, or physical behavioral changes among the people with the illness. What is major for one person, of course, may not be the same for another . . . I know of one success where a woman left her family, took up a different religion, changed her clothing and diet, and moved to a different country. Maybe she needed all of those changes or maybe not, but overall it worked for her. I know of another person, a man, who simply stopped trying to outdo his father, and that worked for him.
Belief #2: Illness = Blockage/Slowness; Health = Movement The majority of my interviewees also believed that any illness – including cancer – represents a blockage or slowness somewhere in the body-mind-spirit system, whereas health occurs when there is a state of unhindered movement or flow. FIELD NOTES: Healer #1 explained his theory of “bypasses,” which he described as psychological defense mechanisms that function to create a bypass around an energetic block. He said that this energetic block can be located at either the spiritual, mental, emotional, or physical level and that these bypasses become solidified over time. In his opinion, true healing only occurs when a person (1) stops bypassing and (2) releases the original blockage.
Belief #3: A Body-Mind-Spirit Interaction Exists, and Energy Permeates All Three Levels The third belief that the majority of my interviewees discussed was the idea that a body-mind-spirit interaction exists and that energy permeates all three of these levels. According to Healer #35, an American-born, Peruvian-trained shaman: You have to have mind, body, and spirit healing. . . Most of us who live in our physical bodies, we don’t even know about spiritual or emotional bodies. So we have to connect with all three of them. But you see, in the mountains of the Andes, [the Andean people] are already connected. In addition to these three underlying beliefs about health, there were also six treatments that the cancer survivors and healers discussed most frequently. These included physical as well as emotional, energetic, and spiritual “treatments.” They are listed below in alphabetical order.
Changing One’s Diet The majority of my interviewees believed it was important to change their diet to primarily whole vegetables, fruits, grains, and beans, while eliminating meat, sugar, dairy, and refined grains. Unexpected Survivor #16, who overcame liver cancer without conventional medical treatment, explains the major changes he made in his diet:
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[I healed] by just going on a basic, good, predominantly raw, vegan diet alone and supplementing it with lots of juices, like carrot juice, which of course is packed with nutrients. And the reason why the juices are so important is we have depleted basically all of our produce . . . That’s the reason for using juices as a supplement . . . All of a sudden the body says, Wow! It’s like watering the lawn when it’s dry.
Experiencing a Deepening of Spirituality The majority of my interviewees also discussed feeling – not just believing but actually feeling – an internal sensation of divine, loving energy. Some even had transcendent experiences, such as Unexpected Survivor #4, who healed from a Stage 3 lung cancer without conventional medical treatment: It was a ten-day, silent retreat, where you couldn’t speak, you couldn’t acknowledge other people in the room, and you just meditated for like fourteen hours a day. And I had this experience that I can’t explain. It was like all of a sudden there was a flash, and in my eyes I could see rivers of energy swirling around and at the same time felt that same thing through every cell of my body. And there’s a word for it, but I forget what the teacher said it was – but he explained that, “You felt your soul. You felt your true essence.” And I said, “Did I feel God?” And he kind of smiled and said, “Some people may call it that.”
Feeling Love/Joy/Happiness The majority of my interviewees also discussed the importance of increasing love and happiness in their life in order to help regain their health. FIELD NOTES: [Unexpected Survivor #5, who overcame a rare lymphoma without conventional medical treatment] said that the energy/spiritual healer that he saw flooded his lymph system with energy and that after the treatment he felt like “a teenager in love.” He felt love toward everyone and everything. He said the treatment made him realize that if he could only find a way to feel that level of unconditional love all of the time, then he would be healed from his cancer.
Releasing Repressed Emotions Because many of my interviewees believed that illness represents a state of blockage, they therefore believed that it was healthy to release any emotions they had been holding onto, such as fear, anger, and grief. Unexpected Survivor #19, who overcame pancreatic cancer without conventional medical treatment, explains her insight into this process: I believe that the energy stuck in my body that appeared to be a mass or a tumour, and which [my physicians] called cancer, had been caused by these patterns that I was describing to you that don’t get released, that are continually overlaid, over and over and over, wherever they are. So if it’s kidney cancer, it’s probably excessive fears; if it’s lung cancer, it’s grief of some sort that hasn’t been resolved. I mean, I think they can be very much tracked back to patterns, thought patterns, thought forms that are not releasing, and therefore they hold in the cell memory are not being released.
Taking Herbs or Vitamins Many of my interviewees also took various forms of supplements, with the belief that they would help to detoxify their body or boost their immune system or both. Here is how Unexpected Survivor #8, who overcame Stage 3 colon cancer, described it: Dr. Turner: Of all the things you just told me about, what do you think was the most influential for your healing, or are they all pretty equal for you? Unexpected Survivor #8: I would say, for my body, that would be the Wholly Immune [supplement] that I got . . . It has like about fifty different things in it . . . [A friend] researched it and said, “In that Wholly Immune, you’ve got seven cancer fighters. If you were taking them on their own, it wouldn’t be as potent.” He said that because they’re in combination, it acts as a cancer destroyer.
Using Intuition to Help Make Treatment Decisions Finally, many of my interviewees talked about the importance of using intuition to help make treatment-related decisions. For example, Unexpected Survivor #7, who overcame recurrent metastatic breast cancer after conventional medicine had failed to work, described how a healer’s intuition matched her own: [The Tibetan healer] took his finger and with a pinpoint accuracy touched every spot on my body where I had had cancer, or where I had cancer presently. It was amazing! He could see what scans couldn’t see. I had predicted my cancer four times. I had led [my doctors] to it with a pinpoint of accuracy before the scans could even pick up the collection of cells. [The Tibetan healer] could do what I could do with my own body. In addition to the six “treatments” listed above, which were common among both the healers and the unexpected survivors, there were additional treatments that were more frequent in one group than the other. For example, the following three themes were very frequent among the twenty unexpected survivors, but less so among the healers.
Taking Control of Health Decisions The vast majority of the unexpected survivors discussed taking a more active role in health decision-making, as opposed to passively accepting whatever their doctors told them. Unexpected Survivor #9, who overcame recurrent metastatic breast cancer after conventional medicine had failed to work, describes it this way: Once the panic and fear had subsided after the breast cancer returned for the fifth time, I felt as certain as I ever had been that the only person who could save me was the scientist within . . . For five years, I had done everything my doctors had advised and undergone all the treatments that they had prescribed . . . [This time] I decided that instead I would look at breast cancer in a detached way, as a natural scientist, and try to understand the disease as a type of natural phenomenon.
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...from previous page
Having a Strong Will to Live The vast majority of the unexpected survivors demonstrated a strong will to live. Unexpected Survivor #15, who overcame Stage 3 breast cancer without conventional medicine, demonstrates this willfulness: The doctor said to me, “After you get this surgery done and have the chemo and radiation, we can give you five more years to live.” And I thought, I want to live more than five years! So, when the doctor said that, I got mad . . . So I kind of went out with an attitude of this isn’t going to beat me. I’m going to do this.
Receiving Social Support Finally, the vast majority of unexpected survivors in this study described receiving positive social support during their cancer experience. Unexpected Survivor #13 describes the outpouring of love that she received:
Art: Ruth Greenup
“...anomalies such as unexpected remissions is neither easy, nor uncontroversial, nor immediately fruitful. However, I firmly believe that such research can lead us to a new paradigm of scientific understanding, and that by rigorously investigating unexpected remissions – as opposed to simply ignoring them – we can make significant advances in the war on cancer.”
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One of the things I truly learned [when I had cancer] is that I am valued . . . I was able to share the reality of my experience, and people resonated with that and just stepped in to do whatever was needed. It was a huge validation of the universe and that all life is valued. I wasn’t valued because I’m me, my person necessarily, but because my lifehas value. All life has value, and that includes mine . . . It’s a wonderful consequence of this disease, the outpouring of love. Well, maybe it’s the purpose There were two themes that occurred more frequently among the healers than the unexpected survivors: (1) healing, infusing, or unblocking energy and (2) strengthening or activating the immune system. You can read more about these, as well as further analysis of all themes, in my full dissertation.
Future Directions The results from this qualitative study provide some hypotheses as to why unexpected remission may occur. What is needed now is for researchers to study these hypotheses in clinical trials that can test first for safety, then for feasibility, and finally for causality. In addition, there is an immediate need for a central database of unexpected remission case reports, ideally one that is online. I am currently working on creating such a database and website, with the hope that survivors, doctors, and healers will be able to quickly submit their case reports so that researchers like myself can verify and analyze them. Eventually, this de-identified (anonymous) database will also be searchable by the public, serving not only as a portal for researchers but also as a source of inspiration for cancer patients who are currently battling the disease. If you know anyone who has healed their cancer either (1) without conventional medicine, (2) after conventional medicine failed, or (3) who used integrative methods to outlive a dire prognosis, please encourage them to submit their case at www.UnexpectedRemission.org (currently in beta). All submitted reports will be automatically de-identified unless specifically asked not to by the survivor. In closing, I would like to say that studying anomalies such as unexpected remissions is neither easy, nor uncontroversial, nor immediately fruitful. However, I firmly believe that such research can lead us to a new paradigm of scientific understanding, and that by rigorously investigating unexpected remissions – as opposed to simply ignoring them – we can make significant advances in the war on cancer.
www.cancersupportwa.org.au
One thing I learned (when I had cancer) is that I am valued . . . I was able to share the reality of my experience, and people resonated with that and just stepped in to do whatever was needed.
Recommended Supplements: Asian mushrooms
These contain strongly cancer-protective substances.
CoQ10 A natural antioxidant which has been shown to increase survival in some forms of cancer. Folic acid Can help reduce the risk of breast cancer. A vitamin B-complex Folic acid (with B12) can help
prevent cancer of the colon.
A balanced calcium-magnesium formula Can be an effective weapon against colon cancer.
Lycopene A powerful antioxidant that is particularly good at protecting against prostate cancer. Selenium Fosters healthy cell growth and division, and discourages tumour formation.
Vitamin D Reduces risk of prostate, colourectal and other forms of cancer. F Article from: Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) newsletter Issue Seventeen, December 2011. IONS website: http:// www.noetic.org. Kelly Turner, PhD, is a researcher, lecturer, and consultant in the field of Integrative Oncology. Her specialized research focus is the “unexpected remission” of cancer, which is a remission that occurs either in the absence of Western medicine or after Western medicine has failed to achieve remission. Her interest in complementary medicine began when she received her B.A. from Harvard University, and it later became the sole focus of her doctoral studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Her dissertation research included a year-long trip around the world, during which she traveled to ten different countries to interview 50 holistic healers and 20 “spontaneous” remission cancer survivors about their healing practices and techniques. Kelly is currently working on a book for cancer patients which summarizes her research findings, as well as a website that will continue to collect cases of Unexpected Remission. While Dr. Turner’s research focuses on anomalies, she is a strong proponent of Western oncology treatments and she consults on how to integrate them with complementary treatments.
the time has come to break all my promises tear apart all chains and cast away all advice disassemble the heavens link by link and break at once all lovers’ ties with the sword of death put cotton inside both my ears and close them to all words of wisdom crash the door and enter the chamber where all sweet things are hidden how long can i beg and bargain for the things of this world while love is waiting? how long before i can rise beyond how i am and what i am? ~ Rumi (from Essential Rumi) February/March 2012
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Street Art: Christian Guémy
The Healing Power of Stories and Consciousness by Leigh Fortson
Leigh Fortson is the author of a new book titled Embrace, Release, Heal: An Empowering Guide to Talking About, Thinking About, and Treating Cancer (Sounds True, 2011), which is full of healing journeys and inspiring stories. This is her story...
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cheered when I read Kelly Turner’s article on unexpected remission of cancer and promptly sent it to all my friends who know that there’s more to the cancer story than what’s being told through mainstream channels. Giving scientific time and energy to these “miracles” is long overdue, and those of us who have resolved our cancer in unorthodox ways are vigorously applauding her efforts and wondering with great anticipation where this might lead. According to Turner, “unexpected remissions are estimated to occur in one of every sixty thousand to one hundred thousand cancer patients; however, the true incidence rate is likely higher than that due to underreporting.” I couldn’t agree more. In fact, I’d bet that the rate is far higher than any of us imagine. Before I extrapolate, let me say that I am not a scientist or a medical researcher. I’m an author with a firsthand understanding of what it’s like to have cancer, go through the rigors of conventional treatments, and find myself deposited on a lonely and frightening island after those treatments didn’t work. Most of all, I’m a believer in the power of stories and how they are an integral component of consciousness and healing. I know this not only from my own story but also from the stories I heard as I healed.
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From Despair to Hope In 2006, I was diagnosed with anal cancer, right around the time Farrah Fawcett was diagnosed with the same. I was given a 90 percent “cure rate” using chemo and radiation. This was a hard course for me to follow because for years I had written or edited books on nutrition and alternative medicine and I wanted to take another path. But even doctors in Germany who offered more innovative treatments urged me to stay home, save my money, and do the conventional protocol since it was so successful. It was a brutal several months, and the radiation changed my body forever. My doctors said this was the price to pay to cure the cancer. But a year later they found another tumour requiring radical surgery that left me with a colostomy. My oncologist reassured me that I’d be back on my bike within a month of the surgery, but what my well-meaning doctors didn’t comprehend was how badly the radiation had destroyed my skin. I didn’t have enough healthy tissue to heal the surgery site, and I needed two subsequent operations and nine months of mostly prone rest before the wound came together. Again, my doctors reassured me that this was necessary to combat the disease. Three months after everything seemed back to normal, my radiologist, a very kind man, told me in the quietest and most telling voice that there was a small tumour near my sciatic nerve, which was spotted on a routine scan. This meant the cancer had metastasized; there wasn’t much they could do. This news grew in me and became the horror story of my end days. My husband and I spent weeks in the grip of terror, wondering who would help raise our two beautiful children. A first inkling of hope came from my therapist. She was reading Candace Pert’s The Molecules of Emotion, which explains the relationship between mind and body. My therapist urged me to harness the magnificent power of my mind to create a pathway to wellness. Catching her enthusiasm, I shored up my inner resources and decided that if the doctors couldn’t help, then it was up to me. I became a raw foodist, turned off the news, and refused to read sad books or watch violent movies. I gave myself completely to the belief that my mind and body make up an inseparable partnership that creates my emotional and physical well-being. I got my hands on everything I could about using the mind to heal and accessing whatever tools consciousness had to offer. I did undergo a progressive type of radiation called Cyberknife, which is considered less harmful than the “wide field” that was used on me after the first diagnosis. But I opted not to undergo the chemo that a specialist said “might do something.” It sounded like a dice roll at best. The choices I made during those months launched me on an empowering and fantastic journey, largely because of my dedication and clarity of mind to get well. Even so, I still had moments of panic that this “metastasized cancer” was going to defeat my best intentions. That’s when I realized that to truly and fully believe in my own healing, I needed to hear the stories of others. I decided to compile their stories, as well as those from doctors using cutting-edge cancer treatments, into a book.
Given months to live, Fortson decided to meet the challenge with courage, commitment, and a spiritual fire. And she found plenty of others doing much of the same - all of them with a story of survival.
An Unyielding Belief in Healing I thought I’d have to take out an ad in The New York Times to find people who are now cancer free despite a dire prognosis, but it didn’t take any advertising at all. Friends and clergy were both curious and supportive when they learned about my project, and they eagerly stepped up to help. They didn’t know I was writing the book to save myself, but they did know a distant cousin, a spouse of a client, a friend of a friend, or even someone from the local Lyon’s Club who had faced a death sentence after conventional treatment failed but was now thriving.
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...from previous page
Consciousness Matters
The first several interviews revealed the dualistic relationship these people had with their recovery. Most were intensely private about it, partly because they were finished with cancer and didn’t want to carry the cultural associations of having a disease or being a survivor. Some said friends or family didn’t consider their approach to healing legitimate because it was outside the box or believed the cancer would return or perhaps wasn’t even there to begin with. A handful of people disappeared from the lives of those I interviewed, uncomfortable with the mere notion that these things happen.
While conducting these interviews, I also soaked up what I could from various masters of consciousness (Jesus, Thich Nhat Hahn, Viktor Frankl, Eckhart Tolle, Deepak Chopra, Byron Katie, Gregg Braden) and learned all I could about how the mind impacts the body (Bruce Lipton, David Hawkins, Candace Pert, and others). I realized that using the power of our minds has less to do with will and might than most of us realize. There is a supercharged energy that accompanies us on quests of such clarity and intensity; I call it spiritual adrenaline. In that space, we are willful, yes, but we quickly learn that will is a product of a finite mind-set or ego-based reality. What happened for me is that I gave way to something much bigger than I could control or instruct. It propelled the wave of my intention as I stepped aside and allowed it to guide, heal, and soothe me. It was the most peaceful, accepting, loving, and powerful energy I have ever known. It was pure consciousness, in love with my desire for life.
The other reason interviewees were private about their stories is there’s no place to go with them. As Turner’s article points out, today’s pharmaceutically based medicine doesn’t track this stuff. I was told how doctors were mildly interested, stymied by the clean blood tests or scans, or critical and dismissive. Perhaps that’s why the people I spoke to lit up when I told them I was compiling a book about healing in unconventional ways – including how consciousness plays into the mix. Again, there was no scientific arm – or aim – to my interviews. I just wanted insights into the dimensions of mind that helped forge a pathway to good health. And indeed, there were many. Those I spoke with employed a vast menu of tools, including food and forgiveness; qi gong; creative visualization; prayer and meditation; Traditional Chinese Medicine; crystals and herbs. Plus, they engaged their consciousness – meaning that they understood their healing was ultimately up to them. It was not just a “think positively” fest. Depending on their personalities, they developed and refined their healing approach either intuitively or pragmatically, or both intuitively and pragmatically. It was work in every sense of the word, but it was the work they saw as right, true, and necessary to transform the cancer in both their mind and body. One thread seems to be common to every story: all of these people harnessed an unyielding belief that they would heal – or die trying. Most admitted that disempowering relationships, jobs, self-judgment, or all of these played into why they believe they got the disease, and so, most made significant life changes after getting cancer. All believed that consciously and deliberately making the choices that were right for them and committing to a new, more empowering life is partly why they healed. Some were more at peace than others with the fact that they might die in spite of their efforts. But they had no regrets about changing their lives for the better for as long as they were alive. Everyone fostered a new and infectious zeal for living. Hearing their inspiring stories, I became increasingly convinced that I could do it too. I could craft my own story to resolve my cancer. I was conscious of everything I ate and drank, everything I exposed myself to in my environment, and mindful of every strain or stress and where it was located in my body. I also worked with professionals and friends to know myself as deeply as I possibly could: the admirable parts, the unsavory ones, and those with self-destructive tendencies – however unconscious they may have been. In doing so, I healed layers of myself I didn’t even know existed. A year after the last tumour was detected, I was found to be cancer free.
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I believe we are in a unique and potentially liberating moment in the history of understanding health. While cancer rates are on the rise and the cost of allopathic treatments is skyrocketing, there is a fledging but rapidly growing public interest in new and more humanistic ways to treat this vexing disease. It’s clear, for example, that accepting disease as more than just a physical problem – by using our consciousness – is a wise and holistic prescription for approaching wellness. So let’s get busy spreading the news of research like Dr. Turner’s and the work being done at IONS. As they find the technology to scientifically prove that consciousness matters, that our photons emit light for miles away, that the field of energy we occupy mingles with the fields of every living thing on our planet and maybe even in our universe, those of us who have experienced something phenomenal will be the first to defend and announce that consciousness was part of our own healing process. Perhaps I may never be able to teach, measure, or prove in quantifiable terms what happened to me or the people I interviewed. Although there is living proof throughout the globe that remarkable recoveries occur (even if they are secreted away in silence), how do we capture the consciousness behind them to see how it happens? Perhaps that’s the new frontier of medicine that we’re only now dreaming up. So, for now, maybe the best thing we can do is to keep telling our stories; they are life-giving medicine all by themselves. F
Article from: e Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) newsletter Noetic Now, Issue Nineteen, February 2012. IONS website: http://www.noetic.org. Leigh Fortson has been writing and editing books about health and nutrition for decades. She is the author of Embrace, Release, Heal: An Empowering Guide to Talking About, Thinking About, and Treating Cancer (Sounds True, 2011). To learn more, go to embracehealingcancer.com.
sharing your story at CSA CSA is a place of wellness, healing and a place for expressing and sharing stories. We invite you to come along to the centre and participate in the various groups, activities and counselling which give all participants opportunities for sharing, self expression and deep healing
Support Groups CSA’s skilled support group faciliators guide participants to connect and share in a supportive group setting.
Counselling One-to-one sessions
Christian Guémy aka C215 believes that if you look deeply enough into a person’s face, you will see their life story unfold in front of your very eyes. The French street artist travels around the entire globe and meets all types of people, including tramps, beggars, and street orphans. With no regard for the law, he creates extraordinary stencils of them on the streets in their neighbourhood. After all, who better to represent the city than its own inhabitants. For more information on Christian’s street art: mymodernmet.com
with CSA’s cancer counsellors are opportunities to deeply explore your feelings, beliefs and express the stories which define who you are - leading to transformation and healing.
Arts for Healing (expressive art therapy) Our qualified art therapist guides participants to connect with their inner worlds and develop clarity and self-understanding through the medium of visual art.
Writing Your Story with the Harmony Harp (expressive writing) Write your story to the healing sounds of the harmony harp.
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Mother Maya It was our great honour to have hosted Sri Swamini Mayatitananda (Mother Maya) at CSA in January this year. Mother Maya is one of the few female gurus in the Indian Veda Vyasa lineage. She survived ovarian cancer in her teenage years and is now a healer, educator and head of Wise Earth School of Ayurveda in North Carolina. This is a transcript of an interview conducted by Rachael Kohn presented on the ABC Radio National show The Spirit of Things. hot ds came to CSA on a 80 members and frien r is year to meet Mothe January afternoon th ney ur gth about her own jo len at e ok sp o wh a ay M the wisdom of a life with cancer and shared It was a inspirational dedicated to healing. launch of our 2012 start to 2012 and the host m. Twice a month we Guest Speaker Progra r rs. Keep an eye on ou ke ea sp t es gu , ing pir ins guests! website for upcoming
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Hello, you’re with The Spirit of Things on ABC Radio National, and I’m Rachael Kohn. The ancient system of medicine, called Ayurveda, means the knowledge of life, and it derives from the Vedic religions tradition of India, going back thousands of years. Ayurveda’s texts are in Sanskrit, and its exponents are not only in India, but now in the West. Today, we meet two of them, female guru Mother Maya, was a young woman when she was diagnosed with cancer, and she believes her survival is owed to Ayurveda medicine. Later in the program, we’ll meet a practitioner here in Australia, Raman Das Mahatyagi who has a thriving Ayurvedic practice. In case you’re wondering, you haven’t tuned in to the New Age version of The Health Report, but back in 2000, it did report that about 50% of the population uses alternative medicine. And that’s largely due to people like my guests today. Mother Maya is called a nurturer, healer and educator, but most of all Swamini Mayatitananda teaches that the pursuit of health is about nurturing the whole self, including the spiritual life. Sri Swamini Mayatitananda, welcome to The Spirit of Things.
“when you have
Mother Maya: Thank you, Rachael, it’s great to be here. Rachael Kohn: Well it’s a bit of a mouthful for me, so I think I’m going to call you, ‘Mother Maya’ from now on.
a near-death
Mother Maya: I think that’s great.
experience...
Rachael Kohn: Well you’re one of few female monks in the Vedic tradition of Hinduism. Tell me about your lineage, and why you actually chose this path?
you are really
Mother Maya: I think path in spirituality chooses us. I doubt seriously that we really have much choice in the matter. I was born into a Brahmin family, out of India, in Guyana, South America. And when I came to New York to study, I was young and ran some distance away from the tradition, but it caught up with me. I had cancer at an early age, survived it, and then somehow found my way back into the traditional fold. This is called the Veda Vyasa tradition, it’s the oldest, most ancient most scholarly tradition in India for Vedic scholars, for the knowledge of the Vedas. Swami is simply a term for a male monk who has renounced the material world and lifestyle and concentrates in the studies and exploration of self-knowledge, consciousness. Rachael Kohn: Well renunciation is certainly a big call for a young person. Did you know that you were in for that? Mother Maya: Yes, I think in the birth it is written. I know that sounds strange but really in your astronomy or astrology of your birth some impressions are there that could lead you to that. This is not something that we choose really. I think that I tried to run from it in the earlier life because it was such a deep path and (I) wanted to be a modern young person. And discovered rather quickly, within a decade or so, that some things are written for us. It’s not that we can’t change our ancestral bearings, or that the path or purpose of any of our lives is really written in stone. But what tends to happen sometimes is the path is so deeply inscribed in the birth that it becomes you and every variation away from it brings you back in ways that you are not controlling.
understanding that there is a greater self than the physical body.”
Rachael Kohn: Well having had cancer, I think it was at the age of 18, would have made the issue of health kind of foremost in your mind, wouldn’t it? Mother Maya: Yes, it did, absolutely. Rachael Kohn: How did you survive it? What sort of a cancer was it? Mother Maya: It was ovarian cancer, and I went through the protocols, I was in New York City at the time; several different protocols of chemotherapy, radiation, the usual, along with about 13 major surgeries, and given up for dead. And what happened at that time is I was given an option to die with morphine or die with some painkiller, and I just decided, you know, it’s amazing how your traditional upbringing comes back in visible and invisible ways. But then this time it was very visible ways. I realised I couldn’t take drugs to die, and decided I wanted to make peace with my maker, and this is a 30 year old story, too Rachael. Just to put it in the context so that it didn’t happen
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...from previous page yesterday. And went back, we turned back to the woods. In New York, Vermont was always the safe space for me, it was the winter, it’s beautiful, snow was a novelty, even then for me as a young person growing up. And I retreated into a snowy white cabin to make peace with the Divine Mother, and decided that I was going to exit the life in a way that met some degree of eloquence and elegance for my spirit. And in so doing, I came back alive six months later. That was my story. And many things happened that shaped the journey in the last 30 years. For instance, that is an incredible period I think when you have a near-death experience, you hear this from many folks who’ve had an accident or teetering on the brink, so to speak, that you are really understanding that there is a greater self than the physical body, and the cosmic anatomy as I call it is suspended and physical, is almost attached to it but not quite, and you’re living in that in-between sphere of apparent reality around you and then the real reality of the infiniteness of it all. And it was in that space that I hung, not concrete memory of day-to-day having orange juice, brown rice, whatever-whatever, but in that space for six months, in which there were visitations from my father who was a Brahmin priest. He died since. And also from Devi, the Divine Mother. In the Hindu tradition we call her Devi for the Divine Mother nonetheless. Rachael Kohn: When you say visitations, you mean that these were apparitions? Mother Maya: Apparitions. The process of thought, but not thought belonging to physical mind. Coming into shapes and forms where the birds are in a draped form, and somehow knowing that your passage had begun, the journey had begun, but the journey to where I was, and I was entirely sure it was the journey back to being re-formatted in the re-birth of things. And that, as we know, we don’t believe in incarnation in Hinduism, but in re-birth. There’s a difference. Rachael Kohn: Tell me the difference. Mother Maya: The difference is in order to be re-anything, you have to be that in the first place, meaning incarnate in the first place, to be reincarnated again. It’s simply a language thing. Most people understand that reincarnation is re-birth, but the term ‘reincarnation’ was never really used in the Vedas, or in transcript. Rachael Kohn: Mother Maya, you mentioned New York, and of course you were in the woods in Vermont, so you had settled in New York City, is that where you do most of your work? Mother Maya: I settled in New York City for 18 years of my life, and moved on to the mountains of North Carolina. A very beautiful place. And most of my work is done in inner cities like New York still, but we have a school, a small monastery school in North Carolina as well, in which I train hundreds of Ayurveda practitioners, yoga practitioners, and those instructors who do this work of Ayurveda all over the world. Rachael Kohn: Well I think you need to tell me more about Ayurveda. I know it’s a traditional system of medicine, and it has some parallels with Western systems such as gaylan, you know, the idea of the humours of the body. But for many people it would seem to be let us say, surpassed by allopathic medicine, modern medicine, so what do you see as the great value of Ayurvedic medicine?
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Mother Maya: Ayurvedic medicine is ancient, and its resurgence is necessary because we do need the proper balance in our medical approach today. Ayurveda has been practiced in India and then also the East and other parts of the world; Greece, and other countries, for more centuries ago than we know of and has influenced almost all forms of medicine. It is an 8-branch system of medicine that the Vedic seers put together, had the first record of surgery etc., so it’s not just about nutrition or herbology, it has a unique tool for diagnosis, diagnosis of understanding the human constitution is different from person to person. Each one has a unique metabolic system. You could be that of the more fiery type, which would be the Pitta type, the air type which is Vata, or Kapha which is water type. And from the humours, these are called the humours, or prakriti in Sanskrit. What we would gather is for instance if someone had breast cancer, her prakriti would greatly influence the nature of that cancer, and so she couldn’t, even if it’s diagnosed the same sort of carcinoma that being a Pitta person, the water-type person, would have a different treatment and a different response to that. So it’s very important to know the constitution. It’s not difficult to figure out one’s constitution. What is interesting is that it shapes a certain amount of things we can do, and other things that are transgressive for us to do. For instance, if you’re a fire-type person and love spicy, oily, peppery foods, then we know that that humour is going to go out of balance, and it’s not going to serve you as well as more cooling foods like barley and fruits and other things. So it works greatly when we’re looking at the prevention of diseases, to be able to strengthen our physical, emotional and psychic bodies, and not only through the choices of food, but choices of the type of work we do. A Pitta type person, a fire-type person has more focus, they make great journalists, by the way, and do wonderful things in terms of long attention span and more mental or intellectual type work. Not that the other humours don’t have that capacity, they do, but we would find that the Kapha-type person which is water, earth, would be more sustaining. They can go on forever, whole weeks work of laborious work without losing their attention. So it depends. And the air-type person, like the element of air would be more scattered, erratic, hard to pin down, difficult on schedules, and they’re also more spiritually inclined, which is interesting, so there it is in a nutshell. The work that I do in Ayurveda is grassroots. It takes the work back to not so much a clinical model of Ayurveda which we also have, but also back to understanding that the human being has enormous resources in the power to heal. And in those resources lie things that we ourselves need to clear or feel. I always suggest to women to take time away from the norm. And that takes a lot of courage. Most people can’t do that, they can’t loose and run, and say, ‘Look, I’m going to just have an entirely new environment, devoid of all the habitual concerns of the day.’ And it’s very essential though that we do, because we’re in essence allowing our spirit to come to terms with all the conflicts that we build within ourselves. Disease is after all a conflict within the tissue itself. Memory fading within the tissue, conflict of our actions or thoughts, our lives are not seamlessly running together in some way for ourselves, and had not been for a long time before we get to the critical point of a disease.
Rachael Kohn: Mother Maya you are very focused on women’s health, and your book, Women’s Power to Heal Through Inner Medicine really draws all of that together. Do people come to you largely for their physical problems? Do they necessarily recognise that they have spiritual problems as well? Mother Maya: Yes, most people do. I’ve never met someone, men or women, and I see both, but mostly woman, that didn’t have a concise, undeclared understanding of the core of the problem. We know. And that is why physicians can’t really dictate our protocols. They can inform us to the extent that they can as to what would best serve us, because we’re not medical geniuses, no human being is, but intrinsically there is inside of each one of us, the knowing of what’s going on. And when people come to me, they come usually for spiritual blessings, they come for the heart to be opened, because if it’s not, we’re not going to be able to channel our way through the course, and I think that most people know that in any tradition, not just the Hindu tradition, of darshan and giving blessings through looking at the person, but in every tradition there is that understanding that something has to open within us before we begin to resolve our problems, and so it is at all levels that they come. Many people come because they know how Ayureveda works, and they also trust that they don’t want to go to the more toxic forms of medicine and experience. Some come to us because they trust only the allopathic forms of experiences, but they want something to alleviate the after-effects and side effects to make them healthier in order to go through those protocols, and some come to us because they absolutely know that they were driven to get there and don’t know why they come to us. So it’s really, the only way you can guide someone is to help them to consolidate their decision in a way that is comfortable for them. There is no way we can impose in Ayurveda as the only protocol. You really look to understanding someone’s psyche, and the choices that would best support them, and help to energetically open those areas of their being able to know that everything in life comes to us when our entire organism is clean and clear. It’s like a lake, and it is transparent, and the more we are cleansed of conflicts, all sorts of conflicts, the easier it is for us to use our energy in a way that attracts the immutable healing of it all. And it is as simple as that. We think that we have to do so many things, Rachael, and it’s unfortunate, entire modern society is besotted with the do-ables, we have to do this, we have to have a half-hour of yoga, an hour of meditation, 2 hours of this, and then 12 hours of work and non-stop electronic gadgets, gizmos etc. etc., and then go home and take care of the family, and then take the children to wherever, and you know what tends to happen is we do way too much. The society does way too much. One of the greatest things in healing is try for just one day to do nothing. Very difficult.
“intrinsically there is inside of each one of us, the knowing of what’s going on.”
Rachael Kohn: Well indeed, some traditions do teach that, that’s what the Sabbath is about and these days of course people don’t take the tradition seriously. However they might be willing to consider a new traditions teaching such as something coming from the East, Ayurveda, the latest guru, and that leads me to my question: there are so many gurus, and I’m certainly avalanched with many invitations to meet and speak to some of these guru, always promoted as the absolute best in the world. So I was actually a bit hesitant in meeting you; I thought, Another guru? As it turns out, we actually know someone in common from many years ago in Toronto. But are you comfortable with that term, guru? What does it conjure up? Mother Maya: I am a traditionalist, I’m not a conventional person, but I am a traditionalist in the true form of the word, in that your heart is opening, you’re absolutely there for everyone, the face of pain has no tradition, by the way, and in my tradition, a guru simply means the removal of darkness. It also is a Sanskrit word that means ‘heavy’, and we are heavy in knowledge, we hope. The guru is a tremendous tradition because it is a guide, it’s a guide to life, and we can guide energetically, we can guide in our thought, we can have a prayer that travels, you know, wonderful things. I’m extremely comfortable with it, but then I’ve never been uncomfortable with the host of modern gurus, and gurus of different motivations I should say, or different intentions. You know, we are moving into a time where it’s extremely commercial, but then I keep reminding those that I speak to that consciousness has no products, it really has no commerciality. But the commercialism of yoga, the commercialism of Ayurveda, the commercialism of guruism, is difficult. It’s difficult because it confuses, it confuses the general populations as to what this is all about, but yet those of us who are trained within a certain tradition, who when they trained from the ancestral gene bank, so to speak, it is fine, it’s not bothersome February/March 2012
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at all because we must live. Everyone must live, and everyone must express themselves, and must express themselves in the way of their karma. Rachael Kohn: Mother Maya, you say something interesting, and maybe your karma is unconventional. You said you were traditional, but unconventional. What does that means? Mother Maya: it means that I was not taken by surprise that I went right back to the heart of the tradition to become among the first females Vedic monks in the Veda Vyasa tradition, which is the ancient, most renowned, scholarly lineage of the leaders. My teacher, His Holiness Swami Dayananda Saraswati is a phenomenal scholar, and not a commercial-type guru, but an amazing master, and I saw in looking at the development of my own guru, or my own teacher (and that is another incredible word for guru, it simply means a spiritual teacher) that at a certain point, the physical transcends maternal, paternal, he has been more mother to me than a father, and a guide, an incredible spiritual guide, and so for us, the maleness or femaleness is irrelevant to it at a certain point.
“Convention has too many prejudicial restraints that we don’t even think about, we’re shaped by them. But unconventional is good, because what happens is the heart is open, it’s free, it’s non-judgmental.”
But conventional versus traditional. I think we use in America for instance, where I have spent the last many years, three decades and more, that a traditionalist can sometimes be looked at as someone who is a fundamentalist, or they can be looked at as someone with a very strict set of understandings of human nature. But a traditionalist in the Vedic tradition, is one who is open-hearted, who does not judge, there’s nothing to judge whatsoever, who understands the basic understanding and karma of all of it, and who basically helps when help is called for. And that is a traditionalist, in my opinion. A conventional person can be restrained by the prejudices of its tradition, of his or her tradition. Convention has too many prejudicial restraints that we don’t even think about, we’re shaped by them in terms of, let’s say, sexuality, in terms of this and that and many other examples. But unconventional is good, because what happens is the heart is open, it’s free, it’s non-judgmental. It’s not accommodating, but it’s embracing, there is a difference. To accommodate means it’s already condescending, you condescend to accommodate. To embrace is free, it’s totally free. Rachael Kohn: Tell me, do you find that you modernize Ayurvedic medicine for contemporary times? Because if one looks at some of the texts, you know they involve some interesting elements such as various lizards to be boiled down with all sorts of ingredients. Mother Maya: The lizards to be boiled down I think belong to our neighbour, China. The Chinese medicine system. In India we haven’t had the lizards because of animal life in it, but we have used the horn of the deer, or the accessories of the animal, but not in terms of animal because of our very, very major protocol of ahimsa, in the tradition which is non-hurting, non-killing of anything. But what it is, is you certainly can’t - actually a wonderful example you’d enjoy, Rachael, is when the person was not able, like a Ayurveda person, was not able to get into let’s say eliminating their bowels for instance because they were constipated or whatever, the old Veda, ancient Ayurveda physician would bring in, just to surprise them, a big snake into the room, and then within moments they would run to eliminate the problem. And of course we can’t do those things. Sometimes I wish we could, but we can’t. So yes, it is modernised. I don’t think of it as modernisation though because that word is also a tricky word. I look at it as you’re born in a certain time, your budvi, or the way to mind, or the psyche of it all, understands the time in which you were born, and so already information is adapted by the mind of a person born in a certain time, that’s why we’re so different from our parents, and our parents from theirs. And so we’re conditioned already by birth, into a time that we’re already adapted and everything becomes adaptable so it’s not so much a deliberate modernisation as it is a keeping up with the terms and still being faithful to the original sutra of basic core of that work. Rachael Kohn: Are women spiritual leaders different, fundamentally different from male spiritual leaders? Mother Maya: But of course. First of all, putting aside the spiritual leaders, women are different from men in major, major ways. I have found more courage in women than you could ever find in men, and I love men, in terms of father, brother, everyone, disciples, students etc. Yet men have certain powers of compassion that are hard-pressed to be found in a woman to that degree. And I know someone will take me up on this, to task with this, but I’ll explain it. We are constructed differently, cosmically differently, never mind the physiognomy, but the cosmic memory we carry within us. The purposes we serve, the things that drive us, the things that are important to us are basically different. And women spiritual leaders that I have seen
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in my time, have the feminimity within them and also attract a very different set of whatever comes to them. And that objective is not deliberate, it is what it is. Women come to me and would never tell a male guru the things that they tell me. Men come to me and would never besiege the male guru with some of the things that I hear. And that is because mother is mother and that is the phenomenal thing, it’s the most irreplaceable thing in the world because whether we’re an earthly mother or a spiritual mother, a divine mother, and everyone is divine by the way, we all have the power of divinity, the power of full consciousness, whether we are awakened to the potential of it all is a different matter. But yes, a very, very different journey. Rachael Kohn: Can I ask you what sort of questions for example, or comments or queries do men come to you with? Mother Maya: Men come to me with heart, things that relate to the heart, mostly, not just heart disease or - women mostly fear disease, but beyond it, the relationship, beyond the relationship, the children thing, beyond the children thing, the loneliness, beyond the loneliness, difficulty with their mother. You’d be amazed how many women have difficulties with their mother. Never knew that until I took to this path. Rachael Kohn: And that’s cross-traditional? Across religions? Mother Maya: Totally cross-traditional and I understand why. It’s difficult, it’s the mother who brings you through the birthing channel, it’s her beingness or physiognomy, her psyche, her entire spirit that brings the nurturance of the 9,10 months, and sends you through a channel, you’re held there in the claustrophobia of a womb with water surrounding, and then the breath, and then the first cry and then the darkness of journeying through that channel, and gosh, it’s going to be a lot to thank that mother for that. And so we carry that primordial thing, that primordial claustrophobia, we call it.
not sufficient opportunity to be who they are and sort of put into that straitjacket with the tie and the this, and all of the things that is really built like a straitjacket when you look at it, and tied up in a sort of a way where their purpose had to be slimmed down to just certain things, and function pared down to the linear, and it is very difficult for men, and they do come to me with that. They don’t express it like that, but they come to me with those things. Rachael Kohn: Can I ask you about the relationship you had with your own parents, your mother and father? Mother Maya: Yes. I was my father’s girl, like most of us are. You know. Rachael Kohn: The achieving women are so often their father’s girls. Mother Maya: The achieving women are their father’s girls, no doubt about it, honed by the revolutionary Brahmin father, youngest of his family and he was able to bridge that amazing gap between India, Guyana and the modern world, and so shaped our education. At the age 14, I had my A levels, at 16 my B.A., you know that sort of rapid learning, and it wasn’t unusual in Guyana by the way. But the father’s girl, yes, and a loving relationship with my mother who was only 15 years older than myself, but almost a younger sister as we were growing up because she was so innocent and so magnificent. But the relationship was definitely the shaping relationship, as in most Hindu homes, was with the father, and after my father’s death, I began to really know my mother, and that was an incredible thing. Rachael Kohn: But it must be also incredible to now inhabit the role of a mother that is not just a mother to her own few children, but a mother to thousands.
Rachael Kohn: Do you feel sorry for them?
Mother Maya: I’d never thought of it like that. I do remember though that my sisters telling me that they’d never leave their babies alone with me, because I’ll get to talking to some disciple and forget about the baby. And what it is, is really the psyche was always there, it was no accident, nothing that happens to us is an accident, Rachael. It was no accident that I lost my womb at the age of 18, and it almost reformatted my body, not into less of a woman, more into the male or anything like that, but with an incredible fine balance that made me a reasonable, logical, incredible devotee of the divine mother. I understood my purpose, but I did ever since I was very, very young. I always tended to the elders, looked at their pain, understood that the ancestral burdens they carried from being shipped in by the British in those years, to Guyana, was horrendous, and so I write a lot about ancestral memory, because I lived it as a young child, I understood their pain, and I think that an understanding of pain is probably the most decisive part of the education that makes me very good at what I do. And it was also through my own journey of five years of intense pain, 15 or 13 major radical surgeries, the chemotherapy protocol, a loss of hair and body tissue and all of that, and the radiation which sent the thing running all over the body into the lymph nodes and the absolute death of it all, and then the decision to go and die in peace, and come back alive. All of that was the entrainment that the divine mother demanded to do her work.
Mother Maya: I feel badly for them, not sorry, but badly, because I think they’ve been given poor breaks and difficult,
And I say this to women, and I say it over and over again, it’s not about lessons and obstacles, it’s about cleansing the karma
Rachael Kohn: Can I ask you, do you think that people see in you the mother they couldn’t quite relate to at home? Mother Maya: You bet. Rachael Kohn: So you’re the surrogate mother? Mother Maya: At one point I put on 20 pounds, because I thought it would be more comforting for them, for my women, because a skinny little model, you know, all skin and bones, there’s no huggability there. So at one point - and I still have some of that weight, and it’s wonderful, and I’m very happy that I did that because it is true. Once I understood what was happening, the first ten years I was sort of why are these women dumping on me? But you know, it wasn’t dumping, it is the envisioning, it is the mirror of every problem that we have, and spiritual mothers do and should deal with that. That is what it’s all about. And with men, it’s - I just feel so badly for men in our society. I love women, but I feel badly for the men. I love women because of their spirit, courage, and the things they go through in the process of family and life and then all the complexities and now the careers of the family and life and the whole thing. But I feel badly for our men in all of our traditions.
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so that we can walk our purpose as women. After all, what is the only thing we can control in life, Rachael? Rachael Kohn: Our bodies, I suppose? Mother Maya: Absolutely not. It descends despite ourselves, it ages despite ourselves. Rachael Kohn: Well, our mind.
“we have an individual purpose as a human being, a life to be lived to the fullest that has some relationship to the past, but more relationship to the presence of who we are in the present”
Mother Maya: And the mind is worse, because the nature of the mind is to jump all over the place, and it does, that’s why meditation is so important. No. It is our development, individual development of personal awareness. The development of personal awareness is the only thing the human person can control, and once we understand that, a lot of the appendages fall away, and we look at purpose and karma and not get besotted by the karmas of other people because we carry them from life to life and year to year and day to day. We don’t have to have the same diseases our mothers had, we don’t have to die of the same broken heart our grandparents died of. We don’t have to have the same alcoholic husband So-and-so had, we don’t have to fashion ourselves in the same way, but unless we know that we have an individual purpose as a human being, a life to be lived to the fullest that has some relationship to the past, but more relationship to the presence of who we are in the present, unless we know that, it’s very, very difficult to let go of those appendages. Rachael Kohn: And is that the sort of message that you bring in to the oppressed communities that you work with in New York and elsewhere? Mother Maya: Absolutely. It’s all about untethering to what doesn’t serve us, and there are ways to cleans those memories, and ways to cleanse those karmas, ways to understand them first and then cleanse them. Rachael Kohn: So does that assume that people’s destiny and their present suffering is something that really is an extension of their own rack of consciousness? Mother Maya: We wouldn’t say it like that, because it’s not right to say it. It’s like saying someone who’s not a vegetarian has no consciousness, and those equations are very, very cumbersome, difficult and murky. What we can say is that suffering comes from not understanding or a full potential or full powers within ourselves to heal, to nurture, to nourish. And all of this is coming not understanding that at one level, one life or another one level of life, it’s an amazing question because the suffering is there because there’s something we’re not understanding about our full divinity, and there are so many ways we could go into understanding. You know I was thinking, because I’m writing my current work is called ‘Abundance from Feast to Fast’ taking that day of fasting, understanding it to be the best feast for your spirit and self. And it occurred to me who would have thought that the greatest violence in our time would come through the food source? That’s a whole other thing, and that’s what that work is about. The greatest violence for ourselves, because you know, when we look at things as simple as food, it’s not about just nourishment and sustaining our life, it is really the seed of our ancestor. It is the heart of matter, it is the mind of memory, it’s the spirit of our children of family, or life, or community or land or rivers or sky. And so much of it is polluted. We look at living a life of non-violence is my message. I call it a life of ahimsa, a life of non-hurting. Who among us don’t want to have a life of non-hurting? Who wants to hurt? And there are ways, but before we understand how not to hurt, we must contribute to the peacefulness of it all, in that if we participate in any way, in anything that hurts, anything that involves killing and hurting, then we’re hurting ourselves because we’re not islands, we’re all connected regardless of tradition, and because of that we’re all connected. You know the whole divisiveness of it all is because of we think that the tradition exists unto itself, a set of people exists unto itself, they don’t. If you’re killing in Pakistan, you’re going to feel it in New York. If you murdered a poor animal, you know, and decorated as feast on the table, you are going to at some point or another understand how can it contribute to the nourishment of the spirit of it all. And you know, we can get heavy on that, it’s a bit about vegetarianism too. But I thought what a wonderful way to get the message across on that, because until we eliminate the mentality of violence, we will not find the harmony within ourselves we’re looking for. Rachael Kohn: Well Mother Maya, from healing the body to healing the world, I think that’s something we’re all interested in, and I thank you so much for coming on to The Spirit of Things, and shining a path on a way to achieve both perhaps. F
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love!
A Daily Oracle for Healing By Maya Tiwari Maya Tiwari is tha author of some profound books on healing. Her latest book titled The Oracle of Love, a handbook for healing, is a poetic reminder of the healing power of love and a beautiful response to the heart looking for guidance.
Book Excerpt:
For the past quarter century while living as a female Vedic monk, I’ve performed thousands of hours of prayers, chants, meditation, mantras, and blessings. Through this benign grace I was able to achieve great states of awareness, in which I’m continually enfolded in the embrace of the great divinity. I see this divinity in everyone, recognize that everything is God, and have witnessed the awesome miracle of God in myriad ways. One such miracle is the energy and blessing behind this profound, poetic work: The Oracle of Love. During my recovery from cancer, I was compelled to reach beyond my life’s breath to a greater force; a power I had grown familiar with through past experiences. Now, in a stunning course of events that occurred over the past two years, I have found myself recovering from a tragic crime but once again, the Miracle of Love rescued me from what could have been a devastating odyssey.
“During my recovery from cancer, I was compelled to reach beyond my life's breath to a greater force; a power I had grown familiar with through past experiences.”
Whatever may be the illness, challenge, difficulty, disappointment, or crisis in your life, hold on to this implacable truth: You are loved. And you have the power to perpetually refill that love from within. Even when the inner light grows bright, or dim; or love is fulfilled, or betrayed; or when we gain or lose a loved one, love can never be taken away from you. Because you are Love! I am Love! Every tissue, cell, and memory of our being is composed of the cosmically divine material of Love, just Love. How well we know this certainty about ourselves is the degree to which we will use the divinations in these leaves to heal and transform everything else in our lives. These blessings were scribed from a heart that was rescued while being ensconced in the grey miasma of poisoning. Once again, I was not alone. The Divine Mother issued her Seraph to my rescue. This angel’s entry was no surprise. Immediately, I recognized the presence of this extraordinary man as a divine messenger sent to aid me in my recovery. The love and kindness that my Seraph demonstrated brought me back into the blazing light, brighter than before! It took the vicious act of poisoning to blast my tissues wide open so that an ancient memory of love’s fulfillment of the heart could breathe again. Love is not a physical thing; the Seraph’s support as the brave warrior of love and kindness occurred through correspondence. Once again, I was guided to the blueprint for recapturing my soul in this awakening. I discovered how the in-pouring love made it easy for me to forgive those who had harmed me. In this forgiving, I felt an inner freedom that soared higher than ever before; it is a miracle that love heals us in the way that it does... F
All Mother Maya’s titles are available from her website mayatiwari.com February/March 2012
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Cancer Support in China By Dr.Niu
Cancer is a systemic disease with tumours as a local manifestation of the disease. Once Cancer occurs
In January this in a person, Cancerous cells will be found in the whole body. Hence, if only tumour resection is done, it will not cure Cancer. For example Breast Cancer, even though tumours have been removed in the early stage, can relapse even after twenty years. year, Dr Niu and Like hypertension and diabetes, Cancer is a chronic disease. The disease may take a few years to senior physicans manifest itself - from its occurrence until the appearance of the tumours. In some cases Cancer cells in the body may continue to exist in a stage of dormancy and never manifest themselves. from Fuda Cancer Our immune system plays an important role in controlling the development of Cancer. Cancer cells may either be killed by immune cells or if they are as strong as immune cells, it may lead to a stage of break nothing happens to the body. However, if the immune cells fall in number and their activity level Hospital in China and is reduced, or if Cancerous cells are able to evade the detection of immune cells (immune tolerance), the cancerous cells will prosper, grow and spread rapidly (metastasis) and become life threatening. visited CSA. Dr Niu then Influenced by various factors inside and outside our bodies, a series of genes mutate continuously so that the growth of the cells loses control and tumour is formed. Every Cancer patient even those suffering presented a talk from the same Cancer, has a different pathogenic factor and mutational gene. In that way, every tumour has its specific biological features - the heterogeneity of the tumour. Ignoring the heterogeneity is on the latest and the main reason that Cancer treatment doesn’t have an ideal effect. It will work better if treatment is prescribed more individually - aimed at the heterogeneity. most successful in the treatment of Cancer cancer treatments Principles 1. Performing surgical removal of tumours or Cryosurgical Ablation. Surgery and Cryosurgical Ablation are effective methods in terms of local treatments. available. 2. Conventional chemotherapy will damage the immune cells. In Cancer micro-vascular intervention, chemotherapy drugs are inserted into tumours resulting in a greater local treatment effect with minimal side effects. 3. Immunotherapy is a systemic therapy. The destruction of the last cancer cell is by immune cells and not by any other medicine. 4. Personalized therapy for Cancer is a brand new therapy utilizing the molecular biological differences between Cancer cells and normal cells to choose the appropriate drugs. The drugs will act on specific targeted Cancer cells which mean receptors, kinases and other proteins related with cellular signal transduction to specifically kill or control cancer cells.
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)is fundamental to cancer treatment programs in China Traditional and mainstream approaches in the field of Medicine in China are Surgery, Chemotherapy, Radiotherapy and TCM.
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In China, TCM is a standrad treatment for people, especially for Cancer patients. Many Cancer patients are suffering from unbearable pain, and acupuncture and massage is a solution to manage the patient’s pain. Recurrence, diffusion and metastasis all cause Cancer treatment failures and are the main cause of death. To prevent the spread of the tumour and transfer to other parts of the body and to enhance the curative rate, prolonging the survival time has very vital significance. Scientific research has found that Traditional Chinese Medicine is able to improve the bodies’ immunity, and promote Cancer dormancy, and kill Cancer cells directly. The purpose to achieve recurrence resistance is to prevent the metastasis. The goal of the Chinese Medical approach in the treatment of Cancer is to prevent recurrence and one of the effective means is to prevent diffusion.
The “3C+P” of Fuda Hospital’s Specific treatments includes: Personalized Cancer Therapy (PCT) Applying molecular diagnosing techniques to classify Cancers can not only identify the prognosis of the Cancer, but also allows us to choose effective targeted drugs based on the molecular marker of the tumour. In this way, having a molecular biology test will offer us a good reference for prescription. It can bring hope to Cancer patients by improving the accuracy in the treatment.
Cryosurgical Ablation (CSA) Using imaging guided techniques (Ultrasound, CT or MRI), Cryo-probes are inserted into tumours to lower the temperature of the targeted area to -160°C or below. Later the temperature is raised to 20 – 40°C. This is repeated two or three times to lead to complete ablation of the whole tumour.
Cancer Micro Vascular Intervention (CMI) One or several types of chemotherapy drugs are embedded to tiny particles or sealed in them using a special technology. Using an image-guided micro-catheter, these tiny particles containing minimal dose of chemical drugs are inserted into tiny capillary vessels supplying blood to the tumour. The chemotherapy drugs pass through the wall of the tiny capillary vessels into the tumour. As more and more chemotherapy drugs are released into the tumour, Cancerous cells are destroyed. Tiny particles cannot pass through the wall of normal capillaries which is compact. Hence, chemotherapy drugs embedded or sealed inside tiny particles will not cause damage to other parts of the body and the overall side effects to the body are reduced to a minimum.
Combined Immunotherapy for Cancer (CIC)
display heterogeneity indicated by the presence of different gene sub-types within the same tumour. They also show variability and instability. They mutate from time to time. In fighting cancer cells, the systemic immunological treatment mechanism must be multiple attacks and adjust its treatment strategy in time. CIC is the combination of several immune techniques to increase and stimulate systemic immune function. Some of them are to upgrade the function of T cells and /or B cells; some of them are to upgrade the function of DC, NK cells, macrophages and various kinds of cytokines. The combination is able to destroy or inhibit cancer cells regardless of what kind of cancer and the variability/mutation of cancer cells. CIC includes cytotherapy of dentritic cells (DC), cytokine induced natural killer cells (CIK), nonspecific multiple vaccines (MV), immune irritant (low dose Naltrexone, LDN), cytokines and TCM. They are applied jointly and sequentially. The beneficial effect of our “3 C+P” treatment mode is significant, mainly because they have the following advantages:
CSA • It is applicable to both small and large tumours. It can lead to ablation of a single tumour or several tumours; • Cryosurgical ablation will not cause damage to large blood vessels and trachea hence can be used to treat tumours at the nearby area; • Cryosurgical ablation will not cause any pain. Instead it helps to reduce pain. • The whole process of cryosurgical ablation can be monitored through imaging techniques such as ultrasound; • After cancerous cells have been destroyed by CSA, they are left intact. Dead cancerous cells will release antigens which will stimulate the immune system to eradicate any remaining cancerous cells and it will reduce recurrence of cancer.
CMI • High concentration of chemotherapy drugs within the tumour itself with very little systemic drugs in the remaining parts of the body • Rapid result. Solid tumours are rapidly softened, their size reduced and fast disappearance of staining of capillary blood vessels in tumours. • Very little side effects. Patients can return home 3-4 hours after treatment. No hospitalization is required; • When conventional chemotherapy and interventional chemotherapy fail, CMI provides as an alternative role. • CMI can be repeated without affecting quality of life
CIC • Very little side effect • Broad spectrum anti tumour effects • An effective measure for the prevention of Cancer relapses. F
Dr Niu is President , Chief surgeon, Oncology, Miniinvasive Surgery at Fuda Cancer Hospital Guangzhou, China. www.orienttumour.com3
CIC aims at raising and improving systemic immunological function of Cancer patients to fight against cancer. Cancer cells
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Dr Niu at CSA, January 2012
Fuda Patient’s Story:
10th of June 2010, a young Australian boy sent a mail to President Xu Kecheng. His name is Gianni Ciccotosto, the grandson of an Australian patient in ward seven (7) of our hospital. In the letter, he wrote down:”Dear Professor Xu. You are very friendly to my family and me…I have an important question to ask. Can I become a doctor and begin my study in your hospital now? I am willing to study and work hard…”This was written by a nine-year old boy. After reading his letter, Professor Xu could not remain calm for quite a while. Our job touched the heart of a child. Alberto Giglia was the grandpa of that child. He was from Perth in Western Australia. This city has produced two Nobel Prize winners specializing in Digestive diseases, Professor Barry Marshall and Dr Robin Warren. They discovered helicobacter pylori and brought about a revolutionary change in treatment of Digestive diseases and provided a new concept on the incidence of Gastric cancer. Alberto Giglia was suffering from gastric cancer. When he was diagnosed, the tumour was un-resectable. Chemotherapy had failed to control the disease. Alberto, a hotel owner, was seventy-one years old. He had three daughters and a son.September 2009, he came along with his two daughters and a grandson.This was the first time he came to Guangzhou, China. He was admitted into our hospital and his disease was under control after treatment. More than a month ago he was examined in Australia and discovered that the primary foci of Gastric cancer and metastatic lymph nodes had mostly disappeared. The whole family was very happy. He came back to our hospital for consolidation treatment. After the treatment, they went around Guangzhou to visit various places of attraction and to enjoy spectacular meals. Gilberto told us that his grandson was very smart. When he noticed that his grandpa was getting better and better each day, he had the fantasy of studying medicine in China. On the 26th of June, Gilberto was discharged and Professor Xu Kecheng met them at the hospital lobby. Ciccotosto hold Pro Xu’s hand and asked him to promise that we would let him study medicine in our hospital. In January this year when I visited Australia, I saw Giglia and his grandfather again. F
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“In a word, the treatment of a tumour is an integrated treatment. It is an artistic problem of how we use existing modern technology on our patients rationally and orderly in order to benefit them mostly.” ~ Professor Xu Kecheng
About Fuda Cancer Hospital Guangzhou Fuda Cancer Hospital (Thereinafter referred to as “Fuda”) is a hospital under Guangdong Provincial Department of Health. As a modern cancer hospital, the characteristic of Fuda is minimally invasive therapy on oncology. Professor Cao Zheyi, who is the former Vice Minister of Ministry of Health, vice-President of Chinese Medical Association and the famous expert in gynecologic tumour, is the honorary president of Fuda. Professor Xu Kecheng, president of FUDA, is a very famous Specialist of research on liver cancer, gastric cancer, pancreatic cancer, and other cancers. Fuda is focused on the treatments of Liver Cancer, Lung Cancer, Breast Cancer, Mammary Cancer, Nasopharyngeal Cancer, Brain Tumours, Colourectal Cancer, Uterine Tumour, Stomach Cancer, Esophageal Cancer, Hepatic Cancer, Tongue Cancer, Prostate Cancer, Cutis Cancer, Larynx Cancer and Lymphoma. We are insisting offering patient-centered service and personal Rx to our patients based on their different situation by using the three integrating: “integrating traditional treatment and new modern technology together; integrating Multimodern technology together and integrating traditional and western medicine together”. Besides traditional treatments like Surgery, Chemotherapy and Radiothermotherapy, Fuda introduce many modern techniques such as: Cryosurgery, Photodynamic therapy and Seeds Knife, Phonton Knife, Radio-frequency Ablation and Biological Immune Therapy.Now, many techniques in Fuda are at leading rank of China at Oncology treatment, fro example, Fuda already has more than 3000 clinical cases, the most cases in China, on cryotherapy cryoablation. Furthermore, Fuda is famous in east-south Asia countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippe and Singapore for its good services and technique.
Travelling to Fuda for treatment Worried about traveling overseas for treatment? Don’t be. To date, we have treated thousands of patients that come from outside China, and hundreds from western Europe. We have a full-time patient services department whose sole jobs are to translate, handle visas, book and alter flight tickets, arrange airport pickups, book hotel accommodations, and arrange finances. There is a step-by-step procedure to come to Fuda Hospital for cancer treatment outlined on the Fuda website. F
The Fuda Hospital website is at: www.orienttumour.com
Emotional Freedom Technique Integrative Healing For Cancer by Melanie Bowen
Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), healing touch, and intuitive massage
are energy therapies with huge benefits for cancer patients. They have definite advantages for people challenged by cancer in any form or stage – from skin cancers to mesothelioma, and every cancer in between. Emotional Freedom Technique is known by many different names; EFT tapping, emotional psychology, and psychological acupuncture are the most common ones. Using the same Chinese meridian system upon which acupuncture is based, EFT attempts to restore the balance of energy that cancer disturbed. In some circles, EFT is known as acupuncture without the needles. EFT therapy is a simple, easy-to-learn technique that involves a tapping procedure to stimulate meridian points. The process also involves suggestion and repeated affirmations, much like hypnotherapy. Addressing mind, body, and spirit, EFT frees the emotions and restores balance to the body’s energy system. This allows the mind and body to heal naturally.
EFT As Integrative Medicine Emotional Freedom Technique belongs to a group of holistic practices known as complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Most practitioners do not claim EFT as a cure for cancer. But as an alternative for traditional medical treatment that doesn’t interfere with surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy – the mind needs to heal just as much as the body. EFT is best described as complementary therapy, and it works best in combination with standard medicine and other holistic therapies. As integrative medicine, EFT can reduce the painful and awkward side effects of standard cancer treatments. It not only impacts the physical side of cancer, but it manages the emotional and spiritual aspects, too. While EFT can be used alone to complement medical treatment, many patients combine the therapy with other holistic methods. Other energy therapies, like healing touch and intuitive massage, work well with Emotional Freedom Technique. The combination encourages the most effective healing possible.
Improved Wellness And Quality Of Life As holistic cancer therapy, EFT has not been studied as extensively as acupuncture, yoga, and other CAM practices. So the scientific data is slimto-none. But the Web is filled with testimonies from cancer patients who have greatly benefited from energy healing.
Also known as “the tapping technique”, EFT is a simple and effective method for releasing pain, phobias, habits and trauma. By tapping on the endpoints of acupuncture points on the face… and chest while talking, one can achieve startling results in a very short time.
Many world-class treatment centers, like the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, now offer CAM therapies to complement conventional treatments. And agencies like the United States Department of Veteran Affairs are using EFT to treat other chronic illnesses, like posttraumatic stress syndrome (PTSD.) F
From: http://www.issseemblog.org. Isssem is an open online forum for scientific and intuitive exploration of integrated healing, applied spirituality and the subtle realms. For information on EFT in Perth contact CSA’s previous group facilitator and healer Christine Robbins: crobbins@westnet.com.au February/March 2012
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sprouts
nature’s healing food The health benefits of the sprouts are delivered by a number of factors, one of which is the sprouting biochemistry that transforms the seed into a plant. This process unlocks the resources stored in seeds so as to become available to the growing sprout and contains plant flavonoids (antioxidants), minerals, enzymes and proteins. Recipes using sprouts deliver these health benefits. Clover sprouts contain the most significant dietary sources of isoflavones of any sprout variety. Isoflavone is a plant flavonoid with the capacity to act as an antioxidant with anti-cancer properties, according to researchers. Clover sprouts dark green leaves indicate an abundance of chlorophyll and detoxifying and blood cleansing properties have been attributed to this ubiquitous plant molecule. It is interesting to note that hemoglobin (blood) and chlorophyll share the same molecular structure except for the central atom which in chlorophyll is Magnesium (Mg) and in hemoglobin is Iron (Fe). Alfalfa sprouts are a source of saponins, a compound that stimulates the immune system by increasing the activity of natural killer cells such as T-Lymphocytes and Interferon, according to Steve Meyerowitz. Some women have had relief from women’s health issues by daily consumption of these two leaf stage sprouts (clover and alfalfa) as they also contain phytoestrogens (a natural estrogen molecule). Old fashioned medicine tinctures generally had an awful taste. Some people dislike sprouts equally but realise the health benefits of them. An easy quick way to overcome this is to juice them to make a sprout shot and disguise the flavour with other additives of your choice.
Clover Sprout Shot I juice up clover as I am not fond of it and add a pinch of salt to the shot and it seems much better to the taste. A recipe that works well: Juice up the sprouts you want the health benefits of but don’t like. Add and juice 1 apple and 1 small piece of ginger Collect juice in a glass Toss down the hatch.
Broccoli Sprout Juice Research has indicated positive effects on cancer sufferers who consume 100gms of 3 day old broccoli sprouts daily. Any difficulty in consuming 100gms of broccoli sprouts daily is easily overcome by juicing. A broccoli sprout juice recipe: 1 carrot 1 celery stick 1 apple 100gms broccoli sprouts.
Mung Bean Sprout Hommus The China Study by Professor T Campbell outlines the positive effects on cancer sufferers by plant protein. Two day old mung bean sprouts (when the radicle and hypocotyl have just emerged) have approximately 23% protein. 400gms 2 day old mung bean sprouts 1 garlic clove 1 tablespoon of tahini lemon juice. A pinch of paprika. Put in blender and process until smooth. Place in taco shells. Add alfalfa sprouts to garnish.
Recipes By Paul Boroughs. Articles and recipes from: sprouts-as-medicine.com. Paul Boroughs is a long-term supporter of CSA and presenter on our new 5 Week Eating for Cancer Recovery Course.
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Health Benefits & Chemoprotective Properties of Sprouts Sprouts have many valuable attributes in relation to human health. Back in the 1920’s, an American Professor named Edmond Szekely put forward the concept and way of life of Bio-genic Nutrition.
He classified sprouted seeds and baby greens as the most beneficial foods and recommended that they make up 25% of our daily food intake, calling them life-generating Bio-genic foods which he claimed offer the strongest support for cell regeneration. In our daily life, various factors transpire to create free radicals within our bodies. Free radicals are highly unstable oxygen molecules needing an electron to stabilise their entropy (chaotic state). By stealing electrons from healthy cells the causal effects of this are the breakdown of vital biological structures and the alteration of DNA and RNA (a process called per oxidation). Once this has occurred, the affected cell will only reproduce the altered version.These superfoods are a powerful source of antioxidants (minerals, vitamins and enzymes) which assist in protecting against this damage. A healthy body is alkaline (i.e not acidic).Bio-genic foods have an alkalising effect on the body. Raw foods contain oxygen and regular consumption of raw bio-genic foods with their abundant oxygen is valuable to health. Double Nobel Prize winner Dr Otto Warburg found growth of cancer cells were initiated by a lack of oxygen and these cells, along with viruses and bacteria, could not live in an alkaline and oxygen rich environment. Bio-genic foods are a good source of essential fatty acids (the average western diet is generally deficient in these) which play a major role in the immune system defences and are one of the highest food sources of fibre. When these superfoods are grown to the chlorophyll rich two leaf stage, it has been shown they have been effective in overcoming protein-deficiency anaemia. Some women have found that daily consumption of these superfoods has given relief from hot flushes and supported hormonal function. The supply of vitamins (B complex and C) existing in seeds can be increased by the sprouting biochemistry over several days by 100% to 2000%. This biochemistry modifies the array of minerals in sprouts so that they are in a chelated form which is more easily assimilated in the body. It also denatures protein into the amino acid building blocks so that we can digest them in half the time of cooked foods. F
5 Week Eating for Cancer Recovery Course Thursdays 1-3pm. 2012 Dates: 3rd May, 7th June, 26 July, 30th Aug, 18 Oct, 22 Nov An introduction to the principles of eating for cancer recovery. Course includes information and practical demonstrations of juicing, sprouting, raw food preparation. Includes juices, sprouts and food! Recipes, notes given. WEEK 1 - Principles of Eating for Cancer Recovery WEEK 2 - Detoxification / Juicing WEEK 3 - Optimum Nutrition / Sprouting WEEK 4 - Whole food and raw food preparation WEEK 5 - Personalising Your Diet / Organic and Herb Gardening Weekly 2 hour sessions. Cost includes juices, sprouts and food, recipes. Cost is $200 / $150 (CSA members)Book online: www.cancersupportwa.org.auFebruary/March 2012
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the brave faces of cancer These pictures of cancer survivors from different countries around the world were put together by the BBC Russian Service to mark World Cancer Day held in February this year
Zanda from Latvia (above) is an active participant of “The Tree of Life”, a project designed to help cancer patients. A mother of two, she underwent breast cancer surgery and a number of further operations to reduce the risk of cancer recurrence. Photo: Anna Jurkovska, Latvia.
Kathy is a 58-year-old breast cancer survivor living in Cape Town, South Africa. She is still undergoing treatment to ensure that the cancer doesn’t return. This photo was taken in 2011 when she received the news that she was clear. Kathy is an amazingly strong and positive woman. Her strength was bolstered by the support she received from her husband, Ian, her three children and the rest of her family. Photo: Jeanette Verster, USA. Raphael Nzioka from Nairobi, Kenya, is 27-years-old and is suffering from colon cancer.
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Abdullah Dhaim (Abu Waleed) is 75, he was diagnosed with colon cancer a few years ago. Doctors have since removed 17cm of his colon. After he was cured he started to visit other cancer patients to educate them and lift their spirits. His wife has recently been diagnosed with liver cancer. Many women in Saudi Arabia say that when they were diagnosed with cancer, people stopped greeting them, eating with them or having any form of a physical contact with them. They believe this is because some people in Saudi Arabia think cancer is contagious or they are just very scared. Photo: Abduljalil Al-Nasser, Saudi Arabia.
Kathy Rymes (left) was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009. She encourages those with cancer to remember that they are not alone, and that finding someone to talk to is critical to the recovery process. Michelle White-Malcolm (right) was diagnosed with breast cancer the same year. Michelle says that patients should express their fears and let other people help. Photos: Scott Hussey, USA, as part of a book called Living Through Cancer.
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Sound & Light Healing Concert at CSA
the sound of light... The relationship between light and sound is most intriguing because both are measured as frequencies in cycles per second. Sound is measured from the ten’s to the ten of thousand’s of cycles per second. Light manifests as billions of cycles per second. Therefore, one way of viewing the relationship between sound and light is to assume that light is speeded up sound, or conversely, that sound is slowed down light.
CSA President Pat Ryan launches CSA’s 2012 program
Julian Silburn and guest play the didjeridu
The ancient Hermetic Principle of “As Above, So Below” is often quoted in regard to the relationship between sound and light. Mathematically, if you speed up a sound’s frequency by doubling it forty times, you come up with a frequency that is within the parameters of light. Conversely, if you slow down light’s frequency forty times, you have a frequency within the parameters of sound. The frequency of 518.7 cycles per second, which creates a note somewhat near what we call a “C” for example, when speeded up in this manner, falls within the range of what we see as a green. Or, when slowed down, this greenish coloured light that vibrates at approximately 570 billion cycles per second. becomes that note “C” – at least mathematically. Very dark red vibrates at a frequency of approximately 430 billion cycles per second, which when reduced by 40 octaves becomes 391.3 cycles per second., creating the note of “G”. The spectrum of violet goes from light violet at around 690 billion cycles per second (which equates to 627.8 cycles per second, creating a note somewhere around a Eb) to very dark violet at about 750 billion cycles per =second. (which when reduced 40 octaves manifests as 682.4 cycles per second, creating a note close to an F). The question is, while the above information is mathematically correct, is it true? To my knowledge, no one has ever succeeded in turning a sound wave into a light colour without the use of a computer or some other instrument which can easily effect the relationship between sound and light by having specific colours assigned to specific notes. This does not mean there is not a direct relationship between sound and light, but thus far, no one has figured out exactly what it is.
Waljin Vivienne (front) and Mitchella from sing. bles and e Consultancy doing a welcom
We are deeply grateful to the team of musicians, healers and behind-the-scenes volunteers who contributed to a magical night under the stars at CSA last week we hosted for our members. In particular the guys from OLEM Sound Healing Collective; Noel from Jandakot Lighting; Trojan John; Michella and Vivienne from Waljin Consultancy; and our dedicated CSA staff, volunteers and Board members.
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Within the last twenty years, the most common relationship found between musical notes and their colours matches the notes of one octave with the colours of the electromagnetic spectrum, starting with the note C. Red = C, orange = D, yellow = E, green = F, blue = G, indigo = A, and violet = B. This is a very different relationship than the octave doubling relationship discussed previously. It may be that colour and sound are two very different energy forms or it may be that there is a direct relationship of colour to sound. But it may be that this relationship is much more complicated than simply taking a note and bringing it up 40 octaves to the bandwidth of light. It may be that as sound goes up the electromagnetic spectrum, that as it changes energy, the mathematics become more complicated and different than simple doubling. Many years ago, I met a visiting scientist at MIT who was working on the relationship of sound to colour and had developed a formula 4 pages long on this subject. I don’t know whether this formula was correct, but it is another indication of the extraordinary possibilities inherent in relating colour to sound. Is there a direct one to one relationship between sound and light? Is it purely geometric (being based upon the doubling of one to another) or is there something else? Are sound and light similar but different energies that can synergistically work with each other-with any sound carrying any colour and visa versa? Or does a specific sound have to be matched with a specific colour in order for there to be an effect? F
From the blog of sound healer Jonathan Goldman: healingsoundsblog.com
love all Love is happiness. Love is life. Love is energy. Love is immortality. Love is wisdom. Love never fails. Love is success. Love is victory. Love is eternal sunshine. Love alone creates and unites. Love is the moving principle of all forms of fellowship. When you realise your oneness with a man, you can really love him whole- heartedly. The world can only be united for common welfare through unselfish, pure, divine love. Love dissolves hatred and animosity. Love promotes understanding. To love all as one loves oneself, is the succinct statement of dharma. Universal love is the mark of saintliness. Without love there is no life. God resides in all creatures. God is immanent in all forms. Therefore love all. Be compassionate to all creatures. This gives the greatest joy to God. Love all in the one love divine. Modern civilisation is complicated and artificial. Simple folk live in a world of love and peace. Let no one hate another or harm another. Look not at the defects of your neighbours. Look at your own shortcomings and imperfections. Love one another. When these principles govern an individual’s life, then man is happy, peaceful and joyful. Love is the basis of all real and permanent happiness, of all real and permanent peace. Love is the supreme gift; it is the greatest thing in the world. Love never fails. Perfect love casts out fear. Love lends impetus and incentive to life. It makes one daring, courageous and strong. Love makes one generous, unselfish, patient, merciful and forgiving. Love discloses the sublimest meaning and purpose of life. Love makes one have good-will towards his neighbour, loyalty towards his friends, and it gives compassion for the enemy.�
Attend the Gawler Foundation Bursary Program for West Australians to attend the Life and Living Cancer Self Help Program in Victoria The Gawler Foundation, through the generosity of the the Foster and Dorothy Brady Trust are able to offer substantial bursaries to people from West Australia who would like to attend the Foundation’s world renowed Life and Living cancer self help program in Victoria. If you or a family member have a diagnosis of cancer and you would like to attend the program please contact The Gawler Foundation on (03) 5967 1730 or email info@gawler.org The bursary can be used to assist you with fees, flights or having a carer come along with you to attend the program.
By the great yogi, Swami Sivananda February/March 2012
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about Wellness News mind-body healing integrative therapies lifestyle & environment inspiring personal stories current news & information nutrition & recipes inspirations
Wellness News is unique in that it is an extremely positive, uplifting, intelligent and beautiful publication focusing on wellness, healing and the environment. Wellness News is designed to offer hope and life-enhancing wellness strategies for people who may be seriously ill, and a broad spectrum of information for people interested in maintaining good health. Wellness News articles are commissioned or sourced from highly regarded international journals, publications and websites and are divided into seven key areas for complete cancer wellness and healing: mind-body healing; integrative therapies; nutrition and recipes; inspiring personal stories; lifestyle and environment; current news & information; inspirations. Topics covered are spirituality, healing modalities, complementary therapies, integrative medicine – balanced with inspirational stories, recipes and the latest nutrition and wellness trends, and also information on how the environment can impact on health and wellbeing. We place great value on personal cancer stories for their insight into how people manage in challenging circumstances. Also important to our balance of content is poetry and art for the healing potential of words and images. Visually, our magazine is harmonious and pleasing – designed to inspire the healing spirit.
In fond memory of those who have shared part of their journey with us... Verna Marr Marion Baker Fiona Beasley
Louis Coremans Sandra Radich Kirsten Hobbs
Do not stand at my grave and we ep. I am not there. I do not sle ep. I am a thousand winds that blow. I am the diamond glints on snow. 38I amCancer Association www.cancersupportwa.org.au theSupport sunlight on ripened grain. I am the gentle autumn rain...
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www.cancersupportwa.org.au The Cancer Support Association of WA Inc is a registered charity and non-profit organisation, formed to help people affected by cancer. The Association relies on donations, bequests and member subscriptions to continue its services. February/March 2012
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