Spontaneous Healing

I often feel like I run from healer to therapist to doctor to psychic trying to find answers and hoping for miracles. I have found many guides in my healing journey of severe autoimmune deficiency and learned a lot. I hope to teach what I have learned soon.

A doctor can treat a symptom, therapists help us process, 12 step programs help us get connected to God. Some healers can remove illness completely (still searching for those!).

One thing that has been important to me is that permanent self healing must occur on physical, emotional and spiritual levels. No single person no matter how talented can heal the cause that starts somewhere in my soul and the only physician that heals at that level is my higher power. That does no mean I don’t treat on the other levels but I do it from a perspective that everything I do is simply to return me to a state of wholeness so my body can heal itself spontaneously

“The healer does not “do” or “give” something to the healee; instead he helps him come home to the All, to the One, to the way of “unity” with the universe, and in this “meeting” the healee becomes complete and this in itself is healing”
Lawrence H. LeShan Ph.D

Our Attitude has a Role in Spontaneous Healing

There are basically two metaphysical thoughts behind spontaneous healing. The first is that each individual has the ability to muster psychological principles, such as courage, faith, hope, prayer, optimism, etc., that seem to play a role in the spontaneous recovery of some cases.

The second thought is where the individual simply seems to surrender and plays no role in the healing process at all. Surprisingly, when the individual just gives up, resigns himself, and lets fate take its course, a mental shift occurs that allows the healing process to work. For unknown reasons the immune system “kicks in” and the patient’s health improves. Research shows attitudes have more effects on healing than medicines.

In reality, the second thought is much like the first in that “surrender to a higher power” implies trust in the same psychological principles discussed in the first school of thought. Simply put, the second cases reflect the Grace of God within us as the true healer.

Physical Healing

If one cuts a finger, there is an intelligence built into the cells of the body that causes the blood to form a clot and to begin mending the skin and other tissues. This type of physical healing is referred to as one of the lowest forms of spontaneous healing since humans do not play a role in this process. In fact, all life forms have the ability to heal or repair themselves to some extent.

Many believe that the power to heal is within every person and that the body will heal itself if the illness is brought to a level where the immune system can take over the healing.

There are physical activities that we can do to aid the natural healing process. They include:
• healing nutrition, natural supplements, sufficient sleep and hydration
• avoiding various emotional and environmental toxins
• mindfulness practices, stress reduction, exercise and meditation
• nurturing physical contact

We can participate in the healing process by doing certain things but this physical participation has very great spiritual significance in terms of willingness to heal.

Psychological Healing

Techniques such as therapy, hypnosis, placebo, biofeedbacks, meditation, visualization and faith healing prove the power within the mind affects the healing process. Research has shown the power of hypnosis in removing warts and placebos have been used to cure all types of illnesses.

It is known that if the mind embraces certain principles such as faith, hope, belief, and prayer that the mind will aid in this spontaneous healing process, no matter how hopeless the situation may look from a physical standpoint.

Expressing feelings and reducing emotional stress is a critical component of healing. It is repressed emotions that actually cause much of our illness. Support groups and families of origin or of our own creation are essential to emotional healing and well-being. Research further shows social interaction as a healing nutrient and having supportive relationships builds our immune system.

Spiritual Healing

Spiritual healing is the healing of the soul, which no doctor or medicine can heal. It comes from faith. We can open our minds to faith through developing a conscious contact with a higher power and exposing ourselves to miracles and possibilities. By keeping people of faith around us and reading about miracles to give us hope.

If you’re into the Bible, it does say “…thy faith hath made thee whole.”

Article based on the work of Dr. Lee E. Warren, B.A., D.D. See http://www.plim.org

References

Dossey, Larry, M.D., Meaning & Medicine
LeShan, Lawrence H., Ph.D., The Medium, the Mystics and the Physicist
Metzner, Ralph, Ph.D., Opening to Inner Light
Samuels, Mike, M.D., and Samuels, Nancy, Seeing with the Mind‘s Eye
Siegel, Bernie, M.D., Love, Medicine and Miracles
Rachel Naomi Nemen, M.D., Bill Moyers, Healing and the Mind
Weil, Andrew M.D., Spontaneous Healing

NeoNeuro, A New Order

If there is a fine line between genius and insanity, I suspect the location of the line is dependent on where you view it from. Recently I saw that fine line from the wrong side when I got the results of four weeks of neuropsych testing and was told informally that I had a thought disorder like schizophrenia as well as a somatization disorder.

Only the week before I was on the genius side of the line. I had the extreme pleasure of spending a week with about 30 doctors, nurses, therapists and healers studying the brain and learning medical intuition. It was led by the brilliant and hysterically funny Dr. Mona Lisa Schulz, a prominent neuropsychiatrist and medical intuitive that hangs around with people like Christiane Northrup and Carolyn Myss and can be heard on HayHouse Radio.

In the class I felt very knowledgeable and talented though I have little education compared to my classmates. I was ably to have healthy social interactions and make some great new friends. One of my readings was brilliant and I thought I might have a promising career as a medical intuitive. I came home on top of the world.

Then the next week the world fell on top of me when I went for the test results and I crossed the fine line from genius over to insanity. After schizophrenia, the doctor added on PTSD, Anxiety, Depression, and Bi-Polar which I knew about. I was just getting used to being asperger-ish and ADD-ish and feeling good about my neurodiversity and this sent me into the despair of feeling crazy, a place I’ve spent a lot of time in.

The doctor also said that though my intelligence was exceptionally high in the 95-99% range, my processing speed was very low in the 3% range in some cases. I’ve always said I was an amazingly smart person who did incredibly dumb things. I understand quantum physics but have problems with simple stuff like using a blender and following directions.

All I heard was I’m a retarded schizophrenic and my physical illness is all in my head.

I think I was especially upset because as a child I did seances and my friends said I was crazy when they worked. In my mid-20s my parents tried to put me in Florida State Hospital, a horrible coo-coo’s nest. I talked my way out and into therapy. Over the course of 30 years of treatment for severe depression hospitalization has often been recommended and even shock treatment was suggested at one time. I did neither because I don’t trust doctors have a deep fear of being constrained and many visits to friends in locked wards have been enough to keep me out of them on sheer will alone. Today I take none of the 12 medications I once needed to survive.

So I processed this info over the week by getting depressed and frightened first but then angry. I asked all my support people and my therapist if they honestly felt I was schizophrenic and though I have had and do have many problems, this does not seem like one of them. I met with my Woo Woo Sisterhood, a group of powerful female ministers with psychic gifts and they did Renegade Reiki and covered me with Mermaid Armor. I went to 12-Step meetings and shared about it. And shared about it some more.

I read the subtext of thought disorder and actually liked some of the characteristics described that can often be misdiagnosed Aspergers’ Syndrome like the use of Neologisms, making up words. So I made up two new words…BenePsychotic, beneficial psychosis, and NeoNeuro, a new higher brain order.

I designed a logo and an affirming t-shirt for myself, as this is how I channel my anger, with creativity and humor. I watched the Hans Christian Anderson’s story about the Ugly Duckling who was really a beautiful swan and spent time with other swans, gifted people and those with psychic gifts and dubious psychiatric diagnoses.

I did research to get other opinions on where this fine line of sanity lies. I felt really uplifted when I saw my thoughts were in line with Dr. Mona Lisa as shown in her book Awakening Intuition:

“Through Disorder into Order - Some people have brains that are organized differently or function differently from the general population. Usually these people are said to have a brain disorder which is a slightly different word for “disease”. Very often they also have unusual gifts of intuition. In that light, the choice of “disorder” is interesting. You could say that disorder is what intuition creates. Intuition doesn’t adhere to protocol or practice restraint… The disorder it creates is unsettling. But by working through disorder, we can often achieve a new, possibly better order.“

Prof Michael Fitzgerald, a psychiatrist and expert in Asperger’s Syndrome (which I more likely have some of) which affects social relationships but not intellect, claims that people with Asperger’s can have exceptional artistic creativity and genius. Genius cannot exist without mental disorder, according to his study that names George Orwell, LS Lowry and Lewis Carroll among 21 artists who suffered this form of autism.

The most imaginative minds in history claim to prove the link between madness and greatness. Einstein, Beethoven, Mozart, Hans Christian Andersen and Immanuel Kant are among them.

Being crazy is a huge fear for me. My deepest. I’ve been having visions and hearing voices for a while but I know better than to tell a shrink from now on. I’ll tell my psychic friends and my therapist who is intuitive.

A long week later I got the official written report in the mail which not only did NOT say I was schizoid but in fact said there was “no sign of any formal thought disorder.” I spent a week of hell felling like I was “crazy” for nothing. She was mistaken or my processing issues are worse than we thought and I heard wrong. And now she’s on maternity leave for months so I can’t find out.

Either way, I learned a lot about myself and got to work on a very old issue and got a great t-shirt out of it. As long as I spend time with swans, I’ll stay on the right side of that fine line.

Ultimately, I have to trust myself, my family, friends and therapist. All of them see me as gifted not gelded. It is important that I use these diagnoses to create strategies for health and not see them as labels that disable.

Celebrate Neurodiversity

Get Neo-Neural t-shirts and gifts now at SpiritualiTees.net

Hope Can Happen in a Moment

I have been reading an amazing book called 60 Seconds, One Moment Changes Everything by Phil Bolsta which contains dozens of short stories, mostly by famous people like Deepak Chopra. In each a moment in time changed their lives. Everything from magical manifestations from Sai Baba for Carolyn Myss to visions and visitations. From children’s deaths to near fatal accidents fro sports figures. In each story, an event, often tragic, changed their lives for the better and in many, made them who they are today.

Each story has made me weep, sometimes almost violently, they are so moving. Some are very upsetting. All however are hopeful.

Today I was reading another book, Molecules of Emotion by Candace Pert, a groundbreaking mind-body healing leader and neuroscientist who was cheated out of a Nobel prize by an Old Boy network in the 70’s. Her anger prompted a highly-criticized and publicized exposure of the experience and caused her great cost professionally but the incident prompted her to start Women in Science (WIN) for women to support each other and she has done a lot to move women forward in science and change lab environments from competitive to nurturing. She would not have done this if not for her experience and her anger about it and how she used it positively for change.

I found my self thinking her story is my story. I may in fact be losing my faculties due to my illness. I was devastated by the events 2.5 years ago when I nearly died from medications, was rejected by my church, lost my faith, my wife was fired and we nearly lost our home and our marriage. I feel deeply damaged by my childhood of abuse and how it still effects my life today. I’m worn out but my ongoing health issues and dealing with 25 years of chronic depression.

Yet I saw this morning how tragedy, loss, suffering, illness and pain can be transformed into good, even greatness. How it seems almost to go hand-in-hand with creating a life of magnificence. They call this hope and I have not felt it for years. Thank you God for this moment.

Was Jesus a psychic?

I recently did a reading with Psychic Su Walker and read the Andre Chronicles about a man who can do psychokinesis (moving objects with his mind), telekinesis (reading minds), and energy projection. He can heal people or knock them down, he can create an image in a persons mind by touching them that is so convincing, they have a spiritual experience. He sometimes feels very lonely and different.

I was so moved by this thought: If Andre lived 2000 years ago, or even 1000, he would either be deemed the messiah or burned as a witch. Most likely both. I have had mixed feelings about my psychic gifts and share them here.

Andre has many of the same gifts Jesus had. He can tell the future, read minds, heal by touch, destroy without touch and create illusions in the minds of others. Sri Sathya Sai Baba in India supposedly can materialize gifts and food so these “miracles” are not exclusive to Jesus or that time period.

Some of the unauthorized gospels like that of Barnabus indicate very clearly Jesus just wanted to get his message out but people would not listen unless he did miracles. Even then, he asked people not to tell anyone, which of course they did. He lived in a time where people expected miracles from divine beings and prophets or they did not listen to them.

Today such public miracles would attract a swarm of investigations and endless attempts to discredit them and the doer of such miracles. I can see why there are few “famous” psychics yet so many gifted people exist and are used by police departments all over the world.

As for my own abilities…

When I was 8 John F. Kennedy was killed on my eighth birthday and I held a séance in my back yard (an odd idea for an eight year old). The moon was full and the wind blew the leaves and the letters JFK appeared clearly in my hands. My friends screamed and ran away. I have never forgotten that reaction and for many years had few friends. I had a gift then but I called it a curse and did all I could to quiet it. Many psychics say all kids have a natural gift which will whither if discouraged but flourish if cherished. Mine withered and when it did show up as empathic feelings, nocturnal visions and hearing people call my name when alone, I thought I was psychotic and kept it to myself. I developed a fear being locked up.

Two years ago I nearly died from a combination of 12 medications and I began to search out alternative healers and do psychic readings and my fears began to dissipate as I learned about psychic abilities. Last year I got trained in Reiki by a Psychic Healer but even before I began training I found I had a gift removing small growths and pain by touching, curing myself of viruses and cancerous moles. I immediately had past life flashbacks of being burned at the stake, crucified and hung because of my healing gifts. Once stigmata from these past lives appeared on my arms and I got discouraged again.

I would watch the tabloids and see what they do to innocent people and decided to discontinue my training as a healer fearing a modern day tabloid crucifixion.

During our training sessions things in the room moved around. Small teddy bears set next to each other on a pillow would be hugging when we took a break later. The first time I laid hands on someone for healing I did it with two other healers and one began talking in tongues and felt I was the conduit. This had only happened to her once at Stonehenge.

I also have a lot of psycho kinetic energy that caused a lot of problems until I learned to ground and use crystals. If I get upset, all the computers, printers and cell phones start to act up, crash, lose connections, etc. I can drain a fresh cell phone battery in 20 minutes when I’m pissed and we spend a fortune on light bulbs.

I related to Andre’s feelings of being “different.” I have nowhere near his gifts yet I feel I spend my life dumbing down, as my gifted friends call it, so I can live in a muggle (non-magical in Harry Potter’s world) world and not freak people out with my stories of miracle healings, stigmattas, voices and visions. It is only in the last year that I have begun to develop more psychic connections with people who are more like me.

One of the greatest gifts of technology is that someone like me, can sit at a computer and find blogs and forums where we can communicate with other people and maybe help each other turn a curse into a gift.

Read about Andre http://www.suwalker.com/learntelekinesis.html

The Trusth About Eating and Water

With serious health issues I worry about the things I do every day almost without thinking, like drinking water. Water is the source of life and you might as well learn about it. Here is some valuable info.

1. To avoid the dilution of your food, enzymes, and acids with very watery (or worse, carbonated) drinks, please refrain from drinking such liquids within 2 hours after a meal (and 15-30 minutes before the meal). If you happen to be very thirsty around mealtime, you can drink water 5-10 minutes before you eat. Animals in Nature almost never eat and drink at the same time (they definitely don’t do a bit of each interchangeably as humans do). Eating foods that are not excessively salty or spicy, fried, processed, refined or highly heated (in other words, eating mostly wholesome foods) will dramatically reduce the urge to drink during the meal.

2. Nature almost always provides us with average-temperature water, especially in the tropics and subtropics (the cradle of human civilization). Unlike the resilient external skin that contain protective dead layer of cells, our internal mucous membranes (in the mouth, esophagus, and stomach), contain exposed, unprotected living cells, which are unprepared for significant stress. Since water has very high “specific heat” (it requires a lot of energy to increase or decrease its temperature), extreme temperatures of ingested liquids are very stressful for our cell membranes as a result of significant energy exchange, leading to direct damage, abnormal changes in cellular fluid volume, and destruction (or temporary damage) to functional cells lining the mucous membranes. These functional cells produce enzymes, acids, lubricants, and hormonal secretions that are crucial for our digestive function.

How an ENTP Agnostic sees God

The word Hallelujah rolls around my mouth like sweet honey. Jesus crosses my lips like a lover’s kiss. The Holy Spirit takes me and washes the pain from my soul like spring rain. I weep when I sing Kumbayah as “Hear me praying Lord, come by here”.

Are these the feelings of an agnostic? Why not? Can’t I have these spirit-filled experiences and not know the meaning or the source? Can I live in uncertainty and unknowingness and still have faith and feel God?

These are questions that rattle me sometimes. When I claimed Agnosticism for my belief I felt a huge relief. I have spent a few years making the rounds of churches from new thought to Pentecostal never feeling like I fit anywhere. I love being “in the spirit” at charismatic churches. I am so moved by their faith, conviction, and outright certainty of the existence of God. I just don’t agree with their theology.

I feel more at home with the teachings of New Thought, but I still feel polemic, argumentative. Is there one God? Is he/she/it omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient? I cannot seem to reconcile the problems of this world with a God that is good all the time because frankly, he is not. I sometimes think God set the Earth in motion creating it pretty much perfect with a few flaws, particularly in the area of human beings, then took off for another universe.

Other times think the world exists like the movie The Matrix, a hologram, generated by our minds but we are Mr. Smith, the enemy within, and it is run by prankster.

All this may be true or none of it but I love not knowing or having to figure it out. In typology the P of the ENTP is a perceiver, needing to organize life with open doors and endless options. NTs are explorers, inventors, visionaries. You have to stay open for thes gifts.

Hanging around churches one might think it odd that I seem to have a lack of faith but in fact, I have plenty. If you define it as Google does: “a strong belief in a supernatural power or powers that control human destiny” I believe strongly in the supernatural: psychic abilities, mystical experiences, visions, spirits, etc. I just can’t be definite about the meaning of it or the source or if this is God. I just don’t know anything.

I think this is a good place to be. Firmly planted in unknowingness.

Jesus Saves, the Movie

When I moved to Crown Heights Brooklyn the graffiti “tag” Jesus Saves was everywhere. I began to photograph it almost compulsively. I took 30 or 40 photos of the tag from all over Brooklyn and made dozens of prints, though I never seemed to sell them. I set up a CafePress store with 30 products and never sold one t-shirt. I did not know if it was one of my autistic obsessions or a cry to actually be saved. After about two years I was selling at a street fair and finally sold a print to a friend of the artist who did the tag. His name is Rubin and he became a dear friend of mine. Rubin was a drug dealer who wanted to clean up his act. He went to his supplier and said he was out of the game. The dealer said, “Sure, let’s share a joint over it.” He laced it with poison and put Rubin in a coma he was not expected to come out of. In the coma Jesus called him back and since then he only does the “Jesus Saves” tag. He has been arrested several times and last year he was put in a criminal psych ward for repeated graffiti offenses. I made a movie of these images which you can see HERE.

Psychic or Psychotic?

I was reading a topic on psychforums.com called “Social anxiety or psychosis?” where a man shared he was hearing people’s thoughts on the subway when close to a lot of people. Many people responded they thought it was psychosis. I did not so in his defense, I posted the following.

Dear Distorted,
I took a Spiritual Depth class at One Spirit Interfaith, a seminary I applied to. I was rejected because of social problems so I took a class to see if I could get along in an educational setting.

While everyone was having an experience of the divine, I was taking a journey in to hell. During meditation I saw disturbing visions. When I relaxed and had fun I had severe shoulder/neck pain and say past lives of torture. One day we did an exercise where we sat across from another student and discussed some feelings. There was a noisy hub-bub in the room. Next we were instructed to share our feelings again, but silently. I heard the same hub-bub and got angry at the people who didn’t listen to the instructions. I looked around to glare at the violators and realized their mouths were shut. It was very upsetting and I thought I must be mad. Luckily the teachers were pretty hip, one was a shrink, two were therapists. They did not find it unusual.

I had some friends who are psychics and they did not think me nuts. I often “sense” other’s thoughts very clearly. I especially know when people fear me, which is more often than I would like. When I have an issue like this I do not let ANYONE diagnose me. I get several opinions from people I trust, some doctors, some not. What is “crazy” in a shrink’s office might be “gifted” in a psychic’s. It is important for me to tell someone professional and get a few opinions then trust my gut. I recommend reading The Holographic Universe by Talbot for a perspective on the incredible possibilities and Carl Jung.

NOTE: There is much discussion about the Anti-Psychiatry Movement and the opposition to forced treatment and hospitalization as well as the belief that Psychiatric Medication does more harm than good. This has been my experience. If I would have told my shrinks “yes” when they asked if I heard voices or saw visions, I would still be in a locked ward today.

Say no to meds.

I took many of the meds on the market and saw some of the top shrinks in NYC for 15 years from the age of 25 to 50. I self-medicated for the first 25 years of my life and did a better job. I gained 100 lbs and lost my libido and still had chronic depression. It was my last doctor’s opinion that if I was not suicidal, I was doing ok. I did not know what was me and what was a side effect. When I was diagnosed with ADD and added those meds, I went to 13 pills in my cocktail for depression, anxiety, cholesterol and thyroid. One day I got a migraine from insomnia and preservatives. My shrink added Ambien and I had some weird reaction that nearly killed me. I spent 6 months recovering and getting off meds and began to work with a nutritionist and medical intuitive. A year later I do not recognize myself. I’ve lost 70 lbs, my ADD is nearly non-existent, my depression has been sorted out into more manageable diagnoses like autoimmune deficiency, Asperger’s Syndrome, Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome and being a Highly Sensitive Person. Instead of an identified patient in my family I am the healthy, sane, calm one. I still have tons of issues, some health related, many of them spiritual and social, but I can work on these myself. Once in a while I take an aspirin, but not often, because I do a lot of stress management. I know when I was depressed I could not take the care of myself I do today. It was not easy so I went to a lot of 12-step programs and got a lot of support. So I’m definitely anti-meds not just because they just didn’t work for me but also because they cover symptoms and did not allow me to find the cause.

This is from my post on psychforums.com at http://psychforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=16417&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=10

Going to School with Asperger’s Syndrome

When I realized I had Asperger’s syndrome, one of several autism spectrum disorders characterized by difficulties in social interaction, I was quite relieved to have a socially acceptable disability I could name and claim that would explain my behaviors without making excuses. I’ve often felt a wall around me socially as I watch others interact pleasantly, make and keep friends, and generally keep from offending or even frightening others.

This has never been the case for me. Though I crave contact, possibly more than most people, I just feel clueless how to do it. I’m petrified of people and most of them say they feared me when they met me. I’ve been feared by the head of the Hell’s Angels who gave me a wide berth, great spiritual leaders who have banned me from their classrooms, and tough business men who have been in prison.

I don’t know when people are joking, I take things literally, I go off on tangents, I talk too much and sometime speak so fast people’s eyes glaze over. I spent 6 months training with an ADD coach just to learn how to watch people for signs boredom, embarrassment or discomfort. I have to be conscious all the time of what I say so I don’t hurt people. I have to edit my emails over and over often reducing a full page down to one question or comment. I’m highly extroverted but I really can be draining to be with people. I feel like I watch them on TV trying to see where and if I can fit in. I “dumb down” my thoughts to where others will understand me and try to keep to “safe topics” socially.

With individuals I do better than groups but I don’t seem to ever develop friends. I call them but they never call me. I’m intense and get bored with people who are ordinary. I’m drawn to dramatic personalities but they usually are not the best relationship people.

I try not to compare myself to my NT (Neurotypical) wife who still gets visits from high school chums at the old age of 63. I really love being with people and sometimes I really get tired of making “new” friends who think I’m so interesting but fall away after a few weeks. I get depressed when I spend time alone so I wander into Brooklyn delis striking up conversations with loose cigarette dealers and alcoholics.

I’ve been thinking about going to seminary for years and the closer I get, the more anxious I feel. I’m petrified of ongoing group activities. I’ve taken classes before and dropped out because I could not process auditory information during lectures and could not connect with my group in experiential activities. The teachers and books often bored me and I could not seem to follow through on assignments. I went to an orientation last Sunday and I an amazing time and was all set to join and then I asked a few questions. I felt like I could not communicate my concerns and freaked out when I thought someone was making fun of me. I have not left the house for a few days since.

If anyone with social problems has gone to school, or seminary and has any advice, please share it!