As a graduate of the Barbara Brennan School of Healing I had always viewed diseases that are incurable by modern medicine as ideal candidates for energy healing.  One such disease is cancer.  However, over the past 10 years I’ve come to a deeper understanding of what healing means.  I used to think of healing as “curing” or “fighting off” of the disease.  But that thinking presumes that healing means fixing.

I’ve come to see that whatever sickness that afflicts us or results in our death is going to be a reflection of the wounds we have struggled to heal in this life.  So from a healer mindset I’m now less likely to seek the cause of the sickness or cause of the death in order to find a “cure”.  I am now more interested in witnessing the story a brave soul has lived in relation to the wounds.  So, whoever or wherever you are suffering from serious illness, I honor and send compassion to the journey you have made and the gift of you.  And to those who have died as a result of the illness I make contact with you back in time to say I honor and love the gift of you.  The more I can offer my presence to witness this — that becomes the healing response.

In the past 10 years I’ve also come to learn many things about cancer but mostly have come to know how so  little most of us know about cancer.  First of all cancer is NOT a single disease.  There are hundreds of different kinds of cancers with different prognosis and treatments.  Cancer is a grouping of diseases which have some similar properties but often treated with very different methods.

Cancer is not an external invading disease that you must “fight” off.  Cancer consists of cells coming from one of your bodies organs going into a state of disorder where they 1) have abnormally fast growth 2) fail to mature into the original function of the organ they came from 3) tend to avoid aging and dying like normal cells and 4)  eventually spread to other parts of the body.  Modern western medicine still mostly thinks of cancer as something to overcome and fight off.  Most people think of fighting a war against cancer, but since the cancer cells come from you, in this war you are kind of at war with a part of yourself.

Some state that we all have some level of cancerous cells it’s just that our immune system is able to respond to remove them.  And when a scenario is reached where cancerous cells can no longer be recognized and defended by our immune system we start to get cancer symptoms, eventually detectable cancer cells and then a diagnosis of cancer.

Once you’ve been diagnosed with cancer, doctor’s will share the prognosis, recommended modes of treatment and monitor progress of cancer progression.  If the cancer decreases it’s declared as going into remission.  Remission means that the signs and symptoms of your cancer are reduced. Remission can be partial or complete. In a complete remission, all signs and symptoms of cancer have disappeared.

If you remain in complete remission for 5 years or more, doctors may declare that you are cured.  Still, some cancer cells can remain in your body for many years after treatment. These cells may cause the cancer to come back one day.  For cancers that return, most do so within the first 5 years after treatment. But, there is a chance that cancer will come back later.  For this reason, doctors cannot ever say for sure that you are cured of cancer.  So it would be misleading to ever declared cured.  The most they can say is that there are no signs of cancer at this time. At best you can state you’re cured for now. Because of the chance that cancer can come back, doctor’s will still have to monitor you for many years and do tests to look for signs of cancer’s return.

I started to wonder if the properties of what makes a single “normal” cell turn “cancerous” became the behavior of a person.  What if the cancer properties of 1) abnormally fast growth, 2) Unwillingness to behave with maturity 3) wanting to stay forever young and live forever and 4) wanting to constantly expand their footprint became the persona of an entire human being.  Such a person would have an unceasing demand for more, want no responsibility in life, want to never grow up, and want to stay forever young and never die. I believe the irony is that a person endowed with the cancer persona would be most terrified with getting cancer.  They would be most terrified of getting cancer.  Yet the cancer itself would seem to be governed by the very thing they so dearly wish in life, which is to have everything they want in life with no trade-offs or compromises.

In spirituality one asks about the purpose of life.  One explores the purpose of life when in the end we all will get sick and we will all eventually die.  It has been said that the deepest wounds in our lives are actually our greatest gifts.  And I said earlier that I have come to see diseases and disorders a reflection of our wounds.  So then the disease and disorders in our lives must somehow be reflections of our gifts.

I read a quote about death from Marc and Angel Chernoff’s book Getting Back to Happy.

“Ultimately, we grew to appreciate that although death is an ending, it is also a necessary part of living.  And even though ending like these often seem ugly, they are necessary for beauty too — otherwise, it’s impossible to appreciate someone or something, because they are unlimited.  Limits illuminate beauty, and death is the ultimate limit“.

And so death is the ultimate illuminator of beauty.

I’ve read many stories of people claiming miraculous spontaneous being “cured” from cancer and have not been able to come to a conclusive reason why.  To prove that you had been “cured” I will have to witness the entirety of your life as being completely free of cancer symptoms until the day you die and the cause of your death must not be from cancer.  So let’s just say that some people are able to claim miraculous complete remission from cancer.

I’ve spent many years searching out some common theme among those who have experienced a miraculous remission and I’ve only maybe found a very sketchy common theme.  I’ve found that those who have experienced any form of miraculous remission have often gone through a stage where they fully accept their mortality and fragility.  They have a bit more of an ease and acceptance of what is very likely to occur, their death.  There is a level of surrender even maybe the ability to see the gift of the cancer.  Sometimes a community gathers around and prays for that person, sometimes not.  And then a miraculous remission happens.  But then again sometimes it doesn’t happen and they die anyway from cancer.  So in the end I can offer no prescribed means that assures long lasting remission.

In the end maybe I can only offer anyone who is diagnosed with cancer or wanting to avoid getting cancer is to consider adopting a state of being that is of a not of the cancer persona.  Furthermore, I propose adopting this persona just because regardless of whether or not cancer is being considered.  Can you and are you willing to hold a persona that says the following?

1) I am willing to grow at the pace I’m meant to grow.

2) I’m dedicated to expanding my maturity as a healthy adult supporting the betterment of all.

3) I accept the natural course of aging and my time to eventually die.

4) I am enough and I have enough.

So I come back again to only say to those diagnosed with cancer is that I honor the gifts that you had been delivering, are delivering now and have yet to deliver.  I honor your challenging and unique journey.  I bow to your humanity.  Let me pull up a chair and listen to your story.

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