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Death
sentence
Consider a
young female who discovered a small lump in her breast. Suddenly she realizes
that she carries an evil disease, and the lump is her death sentence. Actually
she is healthy.
The
lump does not pose an immediate threat to her, and she has many years of good
life in store. Nevertheless she is wretched. It is not cancer that causes
her misery, but the society that promotes the crab metaphor.
Consider
also a young male suffering form a heart attack, caused by arteriosclerosis.
He is really in great danger, and struggles for his life. While
recovering, the cardiologist approaches him with a smile: "Your
pump is damaged, yet don’t despair, we shall fix it in no time.
Soon you will resume your daily schedule. You might consider improving
your fitness, and if you persist, you may be able to participate
in one of the Cardiac Marathons." The patient knows that his illness
is not over. Arteriosclerosis is on the rise, and he may face additional attacks.
Yet he is hopeful. Believes in his capability to control his
disease, and that his prospects are bright.
Two dangerous diseases. One is accompanied by hopefulness, while the other
is accepted as a death sentence. Why can't the oncologist encourage his patient
in the same way as the cardiologist did? Saying:" You got this malignant
lump in your breast, yet Don't despair, we shall fix it in no time. Soon
you will resume your daily schedule. You might consider improving your.
. ." Here he stops, and loses his speech, since he is unable to suggest
what to improve?
While the heart can be strengthened, the cancer patient is helpless.
Medicine simply ignores the fact that also in cancer resistance can
be boosted. After reading Sontag's book I undertook to change this
state of affairs, but how? Now, twenty years later, I found how
this may be accomplished.
Cancer Yogi
I decided also to complete the unfinished
sentence of the oncologist: "You got this malignant lump in your breast
. We shall fix it in no time. Soon you will resume your daily schedule.
But this is not enough. From now on you ought to become responsible for
your cancer, and learn how to control it. Your mission is to become a
Cancer Yogi." Cancer Yogi is a metaphor for your capability
to live with cancer in peace and harmony. It alludes to the spiritual powers
of the Hindu yogi, who
controls involuntary functions of his body. Otherwise this metaphor is unrelated
with Yoga. It was created to replace the crab metaphor. The best would
be to eliminate the crab metaphor all together, as Susan Sontag suggested.
Yet this is not realistic. I decided therefore to tame the crab metaphor
by linking it up with the yogi.
Many
cancer yogis live among us,although
we may not be aware of it. I first encountered this phenomenon when studying
cancer survival of American women with breast cancer (2). 3369
white women were first diagnosed in the fifties of the previous century. In
all of them the tumor spread to axillary lymph nodes. The breast was
removed, and some women were irradiated. None received chemotherapy since
at that time it was not available. 24%
of these women lived
at least 20 years! Other lived
longer. All that time they felt healthy and then the disease flared
up and they died.
From this point of view an athlete is
also a yogi, Muscle-Yogi. An acrobat is a Circus-Yogi, whose feat is as incredible
as that of the Cancer-Yogi. There exists also a Cigarette-Yogi. An old
timer who smokes four packs of cigarettes a day in excellent health. While
medicine regards him as lucky, he actually proclaims an important message.
He controls successfully cigarette poison . Might his secret help cancer patients
to control poisonous carcinogens that caused their cancer? I would not advise
to anybody to attempt to become a Cigarette-Yogi but we cannot ignore our
capability to control poisons.
The Yogi attribute is a characteristic of all life forms.
Assisting animals in their survival. Take for instance microbes, that survive
in the harshest conditions on earth. Last century they had an unpleasant
surprise. A new enemy, penicillin, threatened to eliminate them from earth.
As time passed they learned to resist it, and transferred this knowledge to
their kin. Soon they will become Antibiotic-Yogis, resisting all antibiotics.
In this confrontation medicine is definitely the loser. Soon will the
antibiotic era be over. Are we doomed? Not at all. We ought to train ourselves
to become Microbe-Yogis and live in peace even with the most dangerous microbes.
There are many ways to achieve this goal. Some are known to medicine.
Shin-Ichiro Terayama
Is
a Japanese physicist who cured himself from cancer and now heads an institute
for holistic treatment (3). What was his secret? Since the tumor was created
by his body, his own organ you might say, he decided to love it as its
own, and the tumor regressed.
He applies also other holistic methods, yet he highlights love as most effective.
It sounds odd, but it worked. Was he lucky, or he discovered a new way to
put his cancer to sleep? Mr. Terayama was my second Cancer-Yogi. In the good
old days doctors would gather around him in order to find his secret.
Today he is regarded as odd and dismissed.
Avner Shilo investigates cancer
One day I received a pamphlet by Avner Shilo describing how he got rid
of his cancer. I called him, told him about the Cancer-Yogi metaphor, and
asked him whether he sees himself that way? He agreed. I told him also that
his pamphlet convinced me that he might regard himself as a cancer researcher.
He looked at me puzzled: "I don't have the slightest idea how cancer
is studied. How do you publish results based on observations in one patient,
that me?"
I answered:" Some great minds took the same route. Think of Sigmund
Freud who studied his own neurosis. He was a neurotic, who learned to
help himself. Freud was a Neurosis-Yogi, who succeeded to pass on his
discoveries to other neurotics. You might try the same with your cancer.
Study yourself and I shall translate your findings into the language of medicine."
"Where shall we publish?" asked Avner.
I answered: "First let's win over
to our cause all cancer patients in Israel, and then publish our findings
in the Internet."
"Today we are honored to greet among us six cancer-yogis,
particularly, Mr. Terayama who will now describe their experience."
Epilogue
Let's return to the young female who discovered a small lump in her breast.
No more a death sentence, but an invitation to take up a new mission.
To become a Cancer-Yogi.
References
1. Sontag Susan http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/sontag.htm
2.
Zajicek G. Long survivors with metastases
3. Terayama Shin-Ichiro President, Terayama Consultants Holistic Management.
E-mail shintera@dream.com
4. Shilo Avner E-mail avner_shilo@hotmail.com
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Cancer Yogi - medical interpretation