Ways
of Knowing™ Symposium: Exploring Cultural Based Healing Traditions & Practices
Panel:
Facing
Health Care Challenges:
Lived Integrative
Care Stories
Moderator: Dr.Marilyn
Schlitz
Members: Atum
Azzahir, Cultural Wellness Center; Lorrie Eaton, D.C.,
Camp Camelot;
Selma Sroka, M.D.; Rev. Betsy Stang,
Wittenberg Center; Eric Utne,
Utne Institute
Eric Utne
Eric
Utne… Strange Growth on the Neck and Transformation
Eric
shared that as a young man he had a strange growth in his neck.
Doctors wanted to operate, but his mother resisted. In
pursuit of alternatives, Eric learned that you can be your own
doctor with food. Taken with these ideas and experiences,
Eric moved to Boston where he studied and practiced macrobiotics
and shiatsu. His health was restored, changing his view of health
and wellness forever. While on a trip to Findhorn, Eric was asked
to speak on macrobiotics. In the midst of explaining Chinese facial
diagnosis he realized the importance of emphasizing what is right
with you rather than what is wrong with you. This led him to abandon
his acupuncture studies and take up journalism, working with a
variety of magazines dedicated to personal and societal transformation. His
experience eventually led to the creation of the acclaimed Utne
Reader. In 2000 Eric’s self-evaluation lead him
to conclude that his marriage, his work, and his goals were a mess.
A trip to the wilderness where he spent time alone in nature reoriented
his life. He resigned from the magazine and dedicated himself
to work on behalf of personal, societal, and planetary healing. Eric
now leads the formation of local and national Community Earth Councils,
which bring together elders and youth to explore service for the
common good.
Lorrie
Eaton, D.C.
Lorrie
Eaton, D.C…Beating
a Terminal Diagnosis from Hep C
Health and healing
have been an interest of Dr. Lorrie Eaton’s
all her life. During during a routine physical required for riding
horses, she learned that she had Hepatitis C. Her case was
further complicated with a very painful case of vasculitis called
cryoglobulinanemia. The latter was so incapacitating that
she frequently couldn’t use her hands, walk, or bear it if
even a feather touched the inflamed area. Lorrie shared that in
the years preceding her diagnosis she knew that her living situation
was very toxic. Her thoughts were filled with anger, and
resentment,. She often said to herself, “I know these
thought are really toxic." In addition, the genocide
in Rwanda and Yugoslavia had undercut her spiritual faith. During
this dark night of the soul, Lorrie lost her faith in a caring,
beneficent, creative force . Lorrie’s personal and business
life began to fall apart.
At the time
of diagnosis, Lorrie was biased against allopathic care, so she
undertook many alternative care programs including vitamins & supplements, the Gerson diet, yoga. Her health
continued to deteriorate. She was hospitalized. She sold
her house to cover the uninsured medical expenses and moved in
with friends to reduce her costs. Eventually, she took interferon,
but was told that she only had a 20% of getting better. “Why
can’t I be in that 20%?” Lorrie asked herself and assembled
a healing team of an Erickson psychologist, an energy healer and
massage therapist, nutritional supplements, Tibetan exercises,
prayer and meditation. When the interferon cycle was complete
and could not be undertaken again because of neurological deficits,
Lorrie became deathly ill for about 2 months. She decided
to view this as a healing crisis and, she deeply felt “I
don’t believe that I am dying.”
Christine Harvey, who is like a daughter,
had a prophetic dream that she would be well again with a few
residual challenges in her legs. After a group meeting with her
friends, she went into the hospital again, where they were at
a loss to explain her illness and told her, among other diagnoses,
that but she was in liver failure, kidney failure or had bone
cancer. She did get plasmapharesis, a treatment that washed her
blood, but she was not a compliant patient as she insisted on
not taking a dangerous chemo drug in conjunction with the plasmapharesis.
She came home and felt much better. When, at a follow-up meeting, her world famous liver
specialist said that the disease would return and she would die, “I
felt like I was run over by a truck." Friends, including
Betsy Stang, insisted that she fire this doctor and she did. Years
later, Lorrie’s blood tests remain virus free.
Lorrie is among the 20%, is living the prophetic dream, and is
building a new life.
Selma Sroka, M.D.
Selma
Sroka, M.D….A
Physician’s Journey to Wellbeing
Dr. Sroka,
a family physician, went into medicine after three elders advised
her to do so. Although she had not dreamed
of becoming a physician, she realized this was the right course
for her. Like many others report, medical training was traumatic
for her. After she became a physician, Dr. Sroka made an
unusual choice—to broaden her understanding of health and
wellness. When she began attending weekly Saturday morning
meetings at Powerhorn Cultural Wellness Center in Minneapolis,
MN, Selma felt that she had found a place for herself. Although
it was often hard to be a Western physician at the Wellness Center,
Dr. Sroka stayed on and became part of community.
When
Angles Arrien and Michael Harner, leaders and teachers of shamanistic
principles, came to Minneapolis, Dr. Sroka felt called to Indigenous
teachings. She
attended a seminal ceremony at Gray Horn Butte and began learning about the
Lakota tradition. When she went to Bear Butte, South Dakota, she knew that
she “had found her way home.” She undertook a Native American vision
prayer staying out in nature for 1 night. Later Dr. Sroka learned that
she was committing to a process that required she would eventually spend four
nights praying for all life up on the hill. She began doing that, but a major
stumbling block occurred. Very close to the Native American family that had
taken her under the wing, Dr. Sroka was pained to learn that her elder had
behaved inappropriately and the relationship became estranged.
The next few years were very challenging. Dr. Sroka found
herself hating her boss, home, husband, etc. This period
of her life ended when she had a car accident. Four nights after
the accident (four is a sacred number in many Indigenous traditions
Dr. Sroka had a dream in which she heard a Native American female
elder saying, “"You're going the wrong way. You need
to turn around, NOW!" She recognized the truth of this
advice and began putting her life together again.
Integrative healers
were very helpful during this part of her journey. Recently,
Dr. Sroka was able to complete her commitment to her four nights
of prayer on the hill. When she looks back on her life, Dr. Sroka
states, “It took me 11 years to complete medical training
(med school and residency training) which I consider to be my education in
willpower, and it took 11 years to complete my commitment for Hanblache,
which I consider to be my education in faith.”
Rev. Betsy Stang
Rev. Betsy Stang…Story
of Inflammatory Breast Cancer
Four years ago,
Rev. Stang noticed a rash on her breast that wouldn’t
go away, looked up similar pictures online, and diagnosed herself
with inflammatory breast cancer. She immediately called a
local oncologist and a stage 4 diagnosis was confirmed within 1
day. Betsy’s physician gave her the terminally ill ‘speech.’ As
an interfaith minister, her first step was to request her friends
and colleagues pray and perform ceremonies. Within days of the
ceremonies, she was informed that there had been a mistake—she
was only stage 3c, not 4, although in practical terms, she was
assured that there was very little different in her prognosis.
She
decided that the only approach which was reflective of her nature
was wholistic—she would combine allopathic, complementary, and spiritual
healing. She assembled a team of an integrative oncologist, traditional
oncologist near her home, an Israeli healer, Shumei jyorei healing, Tibetan
healing, and Native American healers. Grandfather William Commanda, in
his 90s, came to her home from Canada, stayed for 4 days, and talked to her
local oncologist. Grandfather had been diagnosed with advanced cancer
decades earlier, so he was familiar with Betsy’s situation. He did healings
and came to be with Betsy during chemotherapy.
Betsy also worked with a circle
of prayers during chemotherapy, thanking the yew tree which provided
the root of the drugs, as a result during which the entire room
glowed green. Rev. Stang also had a wonderful team at
her insurance company that allowed her to do experimental treatments. She
also worked on her personal and spiritual transformation focusing
a great deal on gratitude. One day she had an out-of-body
experience, went up into the spirit world, and saw the elders she
loved. She was very happy, but
a spirited Hopi elder told her she had to go back. He indicted
that “Your
life should be like the grain seed that grows the grass which feeds
the animals that feed the people who make the children.” Betsy’s
tests indicate
no evidence of diease. She is on a low, maintenance dose
of chemotherapy. The traditional oncologist that she works with
now allows people to invite in the healers that they work with. He
invited Betsy to Feng Shui his office.
One important thing that
she learned is anyone who said, “You
can only do it this way and/or we have the answer,” could
not be part of her healing team. One chemo therapy, no matter
how recommended, made her so sick and depleted that she didn’t
want to live, she stopped it and requested another type if it was
available. She had to become her own advocate and researcher.
She was responsive to her body’s messages and alert to what
made her want to live. She also learned that “healing
is not the same as curing and that cancer can be a journey into
consciousness.”
Atum Ahazzir
Atum
Azzahir… Justice,
Love, and Response to Being Shot
Atum Azzahir opened
her remarks with greetings and gratitude and then said, “I myself am a Khepra, an enduring soul…a
soul that knows suffering.” As such, Atum Azzahir
establishes her relationship to the enduring souls of African Americans
who have infused the nation and the world with the rich literature
of jazz, blues, gospel, and rock ‘n’ roll. “My
heart, my mother, is also a Kemetic ritual; may it not stand up
to oppose me.”
Atum explained that she was born in
Mississippi of a father who loved people regardless of what happened
and a spirited mother who actively and judiciously opposed the
injustice that surrounded her. These two threads informed her life. “When I walked
with my father, who was a very tall man, he had his hand on my
head.” She explained that her head, the 19th part of
her, is where she is conscious of herself. Her upbringing
sowed the seeds of her perspective: the intelligence of her
heart will not allow her to hate. Therefore, in her work
at the Cultural Wellness Center and throughout her life she pushes
for recognition of the enduring work and contributions of black
people. Upon studying history, she asked of herself, “How
am I going to live in this world [a world of social, class, and
financial injustice].” The ancestors told her, “You
will.”
Today, she claims her direct heritage, her
relationship with the water, and the knowledge that the state
of perfection is here. In
1978, her husband shot her and then committed suicide. Lying
in the hospital, she recognized that there was no place for hate
and anger. The teachings of Kemet, ancient Egyptian teachings
that are of and from the African people, offer the explanatory
power of how people of African heritage can get back to the water. She
also learned that, “my heart is my only source of truth.”
Atum is graced with 4 sons, 5 granddaughters,
1 grandson, and a great grandson. One of her goals is to
be a source of strength and love for her family.
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Atum Ahazzir