As a person born with cystic fibrosis, though not defined by his illness, Michael E Morrison knows better than most how Western medicine works. In the midst of his daily, very painful treatments, not surprisingly he found himself asking, "Is Western medicine the best way forward"? In this well researched and detailed exploration of alternative medicine, Morrison looks at the work of João de Deus at the Casa de Dom Inácio in Brazil; the method and benefits of Buteyko breathing; the use of energy medicine; the importance of nutrition; and the use of emotional freedom techniques (EFT)as well as other alternative treatments. He compares the results of Western medicine to those of alternative therapies and finds that, often, getting back to nature and listening to our bodies can be the best way forward in leading a healthy, fulfilled life.

A PATH LESS CONVENTIONAL

By Michael E Morrison

Balboa Press

Copyright © 2012 Michael E Morrison
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4525-4649-0

Contents

The Miracle Man: João de Deus.................................................1Buteyko Breathing: The Art of Breathing Less and Living Longer.....................11Energy: Medicine of the Future.....................................................23Nutrition..........................................................................37Emotions...........................................................................49Conclusion.........................................................................57Appendix...........................................................................63Resource Guide.....................................................................79Bibliography.......................................................................83

Chapter One

THE MIRACLE MAN

João de Deus

For those who believe, no words are necessary; for those who do not believe, no words are possible. Dom Inácio de Loyola

Medicine today is not about cure; it is a band-aid approach to healing – chemically treating the body with antibiotics and following the Newtonian pharmacokinetic (and surgical) approach to healing.

Disease will never be cured or eradicated by present materialistic methods, for the simple reason that disease in its origin is not material. What we know as disease is an ultimate result produced in the body, the end product of deep and longing forces, and even if material treatment alone is apparently successful this is nothing more than a temporary relief unless the real cause is removed. The modern trend of medical science, by misinterpreting the true nature of disease and concentrating it in materialistic terms in the physical body, has enormously increased its power, firstly by distracting the thoughts of people from its true origin and hence from the effective method of attack, and secondly by localising it in the body, thus obscuring true hope of recovery and raising a mighty disease complex of fear, which should never have existed.

I think that as so many of us don't want a cure, relief is the menu of choice – for to face a cure means to face yourself. Too oft en, the constant state of activity of our daily lives and the cacophony of noise deafens our ability to see ourselves or be ourselves. Relief, on the other hand, means continuously bypassing the problem and numbing ourselves, allowing our hectic, manic-paced lives to continue under the veil of well-being. When we are in a good, healthy state in our world, we never notice how well we are. Only when illness comes does it shake us to the core and challenge everything about us. In my case, illness took centre stage for the summer of 2003. It unmasked everything and exposed me to the elements of Western healing. I missed out on everything that summer – work, holidays and the general frivolity of the hazy, lazy days of summer. The time was one of reflection and angst at the vacuous void of this approach. I wondered, Why this is happening to me? What would my life be like free of medicines? What is the reason for all this? What is the cause? In these questions lies an inherent problem: today, we only look for the causality in healing. With causality, we end up a blind alley with only more causes being sought after.

In the causal view of things, after all, every manifestation ultimately has a cause, and so it is not only permissible, but actually essential, to try to discover the cause of the cause ... but what it never leads to is any final conclusion. The ultimate cause of causes cannot be found.

So, if the pursuit of cause is the road well trodden, how should we approach illness? Pursuing healing through the causality approach is, in fact, abdicating the responsibility to others, so that they may tell you what the problem is, and thus masking the real reason behind our state – using causality to hide from ourselves. Instead of looking at the cause, the more important area to be looking at is the information and intention of illness. This requires a deep introspective evaluation of yourself and everything about you. When suffering from an illness, it can seem like all the windows of light and opportunity are closing in and darkness has taken up residence in your life. It tests your character and every fibre of your being.

After my time in hospital undergoing treatment for cystic fibrosis, a lot changed in my thoughts towards health and how we are seduced by the quick- fix, instant panacea to remedy our bodies. We consume myriad health potions and pills to maintain vitality and never think any more about it. For so long, I was a passenger on this highway of health, hitch-hiking a ride from doctor to healer to physiotherapist to the next doctor. I was continuously hoping that someone would wrestle the presenting problem, and that is when it dawned on me – no one other than myself would cure me.

You can have all the treatments, take all the remedies and medication and visit all the top consultants in the world with no result. This leaves us feeling empty and castigated upon the rack of this cruel world. By looking at illness in this manner as something outside our control that has singled us out, that we must battle and resist despite its menacing, magnetic mayhem – all we are doing is feeding it, and the illness refuses to leave. On the other hand, it is of utmost importance that you do not pigeonhole and box yourself in, or use illness as your ID card. I have never once classified myself as a person with cystic fibrosis, and I know that not doing that has helped me maintain my health at the level it is at. When you do not see illness as a foe, an important change takes place.

When we learn to see our illness as companion or friend, it really does change the way the illness is present. The illness changes from a horrible intruder to a companion who has something to teach us. When we see what we have to learn from illness, then often the illness can gather itself and begin to depart.

Edward Bach elaborates on this point further.

Disease is in itself beneficent, and has for its object the bringing back of the personality to the divine will of the soul; and thus we can see that it is both preventable and avoidable, since if we could only realise for ourselves the mistakes we are making and correct these by spiritual and mental means there could be no need for the severe lessons of suffering.

These realisations were the building blocks that laid the foundations for my own healing.

When one flower blooms, it is spring everywhere.

A Zen monk

After a summer of seismic shifts, a ticket and trip to Brazil awaited me. A couple of months earlier, I had received a letter (see appendix) from Tony Clarkson, my godfather, regarding a healer called João de Deus. The letter spoke of amazing feats of healing that defied Western medical science. The seed of intent had been germinating since the letter had arrived, and this seed flowered and bloomed before me after my elongated stay in hospital. The letter, allied with the frustration of the summer just past, prompted me to act, and this saw Tony and I make our way to the small town of Abadinia in central Brazil to seek this healer's help.

João de Deus (John of God)

A troubled youth tortured by a miraculous gift, João de Deus spent much of his life as a homeless person, travelling from one town to the next, helping the sick and...