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 ill in return for shelter and food. He would move onto the next town as soon as the local medic, dentist or priest took offence to his unconventional healing art and brought the heavy hand of the law crashing down on him. Fabrication and lies of the established hierarchies were charged against him and he was jailed on many occasions. Upon release, he would walk or beg a ride to a new city and so start his quest again. For many years he lived the vagabond lifestyle. After gruelling and punishing persecutions, he sought refuge in military barracks at Brasília as a civilian tailor (his father's profession). He traded many a year in the barracks, healing the sick and their families in return for protection. After nine years, the entities spoke to him, insisting that he could not limit himself to healing so few. With this guidance, he departed the safe environs of the barracks and used the money he'd saved to purchase a piece of land. The land purchased was extremely prosperous and contained emeralds, the worth of which allowed him to establish his centre in Abadinia and begin a sanctuary of healing – the Casa de Dom Inácio.

Casa de Dom Inácio

The design of Casa de Dom Inácio (the House of St Ignatius Loyola) was inspired and named by João's principal entity: Dom Inácio. It resembles a small hospital and is simply decorated. The simplicity of the decor masks the truly amazing healing energy of the place. The choice of site is due to many things: the natural energy of this part of Brazil, the solitude and also the fact that it is built on land rich in natural quartz, which in itself is a powerful energy source. The location is `a source of fantastic energy which represents accumulations of pure energy where health and vitality is strengthened'.

The house of Dom Inácio is open three days a week – Wednesday, Thursday and Friday – and opens at 7.30 a.m. on each of these days. The morning proceeds with a small introductory talk on the rules, regulations and protocol of the day. After the talk, a number of queues are formed (first-time queue, second-time queue, revision, and those with previously arranged operations) and the crowds disperse into their respective queue. Before the orientation talk, many shuffle to a number of blue-coated individuals outside, who help them translate their respective wishes into Portuguese to aid and facilitate a smooth flow of foot traffic before João de Deus.

The house is divided into a number of rooms that are all synergistically employed to aid and assist healing. The first of these rooms is the recovery room, where patients are taken after treatment for care and observation until they are strong enough to leave. This room contains twelve beds and the nurses are volunteers who provide compassionate care until the patient is well enough to vacate. Adjacent to the recovery room is the first of two `current' rooms. Inside these rooms, there are rows of people sitting on pews, lost in meditation and helping to raise the vibration and energy to assist João in doing his work. (In Edgar Cayce's Atlantis, there is reference to this type of combined energy as used by the Atlantians to achieve their extraordinarily advanced civilisation.) In the second room, there are more mediums and people meditating to raise the current in order to help João with his work. João also resides here in a chair as patients go before him for spiritual consultation. As soon as you enter the second current room, a powerful charge of energy courses through you for a split second as João scans your eyes and, with that, a snapshot synopsis of your lives (past and present) and well-being is taken. You are then directed whether you are to go for surgery, return to meditate or go for herbs. The final room of the Casa is the intensive operations room where those requiring long-term healing remain in a curative coma and where those who request invisible operations also go.

The Road to Abadiânia

Improvement makes straight roads; but the crooked roads without improvement are roads of genius.

William Blake

Four airports, a twenty-plus hour plane trip and a two-hour taxi ride and the destination of a small town high on the Goiás plateau of central Brazil, Abadiânia, is reached. Thousands flock daily to this beacon of hope and healing – the sick, the lame, the `incurable' and the medically discarded – in search of a life free of suffering or illness. I joined this band of brothers and sisters and opened my heart, body and soul to the miracle of the Casa de Dom Inácio.

My first day before João de Deus was one of excitement, nervous churning and significance. My first visit was on 17 September 2003, my twenty-fifth birthday, a significant cornerstone and the start of a new chapter of health and enlightenment in my life. I remember the energy of nerves coursing through me, and the thoughts and hopes about the possible repercussions of the trip on my health. I'd read about the protocol, listened to many people speak about their experiences, viewed the websites and much more. However, it still did not prepare me for what I felt and bore witness to – a surreal healing environ surrounded by a congregation of people donned in white, early on the opening morning of the Casa and all united under the umbrella of compassion, love and light. The morning kicked off with an orientation followed by a powerful uniting of hands in saying the Lord's Prayer. The energy of the room beamed. Then we moved into our respective queues to go before João de Deus.

I remember passing through the first current room, full of people meditating and lost in a trance, facing their own inner battles and demons, while providing current and energy to João. Some faces were contorted with anguish and sadness; others were tinged with joy and serenity; while others lost their body to dance and swaying. A kind of cathartic cleansing was taking place for each and every one. The energy radiated throughout the first and second current room, feeding and energising the work that was to take place over the next couple of hours. The endless stream of people in their respective queues passed through the middle of the pews as each individual was spiritually prepared to meet João-in-entity.

Within seconds of entering the second current room where João-in-entity resided, a `blueprint' of my physical and ethereal bodies was scanned. A sweeping sensation penetrated my body. It was like an instant snapshot, viewing my life (past and present), my current situation, my illness and my spiritual awareness.

As I approached João de Deus, the moment was incredibly fleeting he wrote my prescription in a flowing foreign script and instructed me to go for surgery the next morning.

The next morning came quickly and with it the same protocol of moving into our respective queues. This time I entered the line for surgery. I was ushered past the two current rooms into a third room: the intensive operations room. This room has the dual purpose of caring for the long-term convalescents and also for those requesting invisible operations. Around the wall of this room was a line of beds where the long-term ill rested while an entity performed operations invisibly – paraplegics, leukaemia sufferers, AIDS sufferers and serious cancer patients were all being treated. Across the middle of the room, there were rows of benches, on which those requiring invisible operation sat, eyes closed, hands resting on their laps in meditation. Seated on the pews, I was given the instruction to close my eyes and uncross my legs and arms. For the entities to do their work, we were instructed to place our right hand over the area we wished to be operated and worked on. João entered the intensive operations room and, in one divine statement, he called for the operations to be completed. He declared the following: `In the name of Jesus Christ, you are all operated. Let what needs to be done be done through me in the name of God.' At this time all operations necessary were completed internally, without visible surface scarring. Following these invisible operations, X-rays have shown that there are often small incisions and internal stitches.

Though not physically probed, sliced or diced, a sweeping, pre-med fatigue came over me. I remember holding the wall for support after the invisible surgery; my legs felt weak and my only thoughts were to get into my bed and stay there for the next twenty-four hours, as instructed. It is important to adhere to rest after invisible surgery, even more so than after conventional surgery. Due to the fact that many do not always feel the procedure completed, they think, to their folly, that they can continue free of rest. To disobey the importance of rest will result in the cessation of the healing process and, in some cases, worsen the condition.

My experience caused absolute fatigue and I was bedridden for the full twenty-four hours. The following morning I awoke afresh from my slumber with renewed hope and vigour, ready for the start of a new road to health. Several thoughts ran through my mind after this invisible surgery. Was this spiritual nirvana a `window of opportunity' that had opened for me to start new beginnings? Then I began to think of the preposterous vicissitudes that life without cystic fibrosis might conjure. Would my character change? Would my approach to life change? Was I ready for this after years of surrendering to allopathic medicine? With this line of questioning, I knew that I was going down a path of great change. Being present there wakened me to view my illness not as an inconvenience to be suffered, but as a signal of growth on my spiritual path.

The upward spiral of well-being that I've felt since Brazil cannot be dismissed. My time in Abadinia opened my eyes, body, mind and soul to the doors that I feel are continuously open to all of us – sick and healthy. Some embrace and face the life change with passion and energy that brings them closer to their soul; others retreat, masking their soul and kidnapping it from expression. Medical treatment and drug use soothes and relieves the suffering but never addresses the cause. Too oft en we shift our power of control over to a plethora of others, who take care of our ailments and ills in a palliative way. Facing the true causes of pain is too difficult. A lot of people crave the 'instant fix' and gratification without putting in the hard yards of unmasking and discovering themselves. (Continues...)

Excerpted from A PATH LESS CONVENTIONALby Michael E Morrison Copyright © 2012 by Michael E Morrison. Excerpted by permission of Balboa Press. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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