The transcript of a talk I gave about my experience of “holding the space for cancer to visit me temporarily” was just published by The Radical Remission Project, as their featured Healing Story of the Month.
Archive of ‘Health’ category
My Response to Cancer
This is the text I read at the storytelling show produced by Spark Off Rose, in Los Angeles, on April 13, 2015. The audio recording of this can be heard here.
I don’t know what you were doing in November 2011, but I was in Bali, teaching a weeklong retreat based on my eighth book, The 5 Principles of Authentic Living. For six months prior to Bali, I had suffered from muscle spasms in my back that would buckle my knees, drop me to the floor, and blind me with pain. I could scarcely walk, but I had committed to teaching in Bali, so I loaded up on painkillers and flew from L. A. to the retreat site. When it was over, I was finished: exhausted, weak, sick, and in pain.
I knew I couldn’t make it back to L. A. Instead, I went to the much closer Australia, where I had recently lived for six years. I went downhill fast. Lying down, I couldn’t lift my legs; I could barely wiggle my toes. On December 24th, yes, Christmas eve, I was admitted to the ER of a local hospital. I didn’t know that I was entering a school that would soon transform everything I had ever known or been. (more…)
Reframing Cancer & Chemotherapy
(written in March 2012)
The notion flooded into me just moments ago, with great clarity, urgency, and force. With my chemotherapy 
sessions beginning tomorrow, I “heard” that I was to rename and reframe both the chemo and my cancer.
From this moment on, I will no longer use the word “cancer,” nor will I use the word “chemotherapy.” I have renamed them Shiva and Shakti, respectively.
Thus, “non-small cell lung cancer with EFGR mutation” becomes SHIVA, and Alimta Chemotherapy becomes SHAKTI.
Shiva, meaning “auspicious one” is the aspect of the Supreme Being that continuously dissolves to recreate in the cyclic process of creation, preservation, dissolution and recreation of the universe. Shiva is the destroyer of evil or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Though he is one with great power, he lives a life of a sage at Mount Kailash. Shiva is seen as the Supreme God and has five important works: creator, preserver, destroyer, concealer, and revealer (to bless).
Shakti, meaning sacred force or empowerment, is the primordial cosmic energy and represents the dynamic forces that are thought to move through the entire universe in Hinduism. Shakti is the personification of divine feminine creative power, sometimes referred to as “The Great Divine Mother” in Hinduism. Not only is the Shakti responsible for creation, it is also the agent of all change. Shakti is cosmic existence as well as liberation, its most significant form being the Kundalini Shakti, a mysterious psychospiritual force. Shakti exists in a state of svatantrya, being interdependent with the entire universe. (more…)
Six Months to Live
categories: Authentic Living, Health
It was November 2011, and I had just finished leading a week-long retreat in Bali.
I was scheduled to return to Los Angeles, but I was too sick and incapacitated to fly all that way. Instead, I flew to the much closer Australia, where I had lived from 2005 till May 2011.
I was experiencing chronic and acute pain in my back. I was progressively losing leg strength. I could stand only on crutches. Lying down, I could not lift my legs and barely wiggle my toes. From various chiropractors, physical therapists, and other holistic healers, I had received a general diagnosis of spinal disc problems. No therapy relieved the pain or symptoms.
On Christmas Eve 2011, I was flooded with the awareness that something was truly wrong and that I needed to go to a hospital immediately. A few hours later, I was admitted to the emergency room of a local hospital. (more…)
Holding Hands with Death
Myriam Negre writes of her experience with leukemia when she was 12 years old. It was our shared experience of holding hands with cancer that brought Myriam and I together in friendship and mutual admiration. She is a rare and beautiful being, who births each new artwork from her soul and whose every word comes from her heart. She lives in the hills outside of Barcelona, Spain with her husband and two daughters.
Myriam Negre’s backyard