by Bernie
Siegel http://berniesiegelmd.com/
(I give Kathleen O’Keefe-Kanavos permission to use
and post my blog on her sites. Dr. Bernie Siegel.)
Dr. Bernie Siegel is my guest blogger today in the
fourth of our series of shared blogs for October’s Breast Cancer Awareness
Month, that have flowed into November due to popular demand. Have you met your
spirit-guides or had a near death experience? Bernie shares some amazing stories of both....
In 1978, nearly a decade before retirement, Bernie
launched ECaP—Exceptional Cancer Patients, in which he and his wife and
co-worker, Bobbie, remain active today. ECaP is a therapeutic approach Bernie
calls Carefrontation that helps patients interpret their drawings, dreams and
images to express their feelings about the healing process.
The physical,
spiritual, and psychological benefits that emerge strengthen the immune system,
a direct response to the power of the Mind-Body Connection about which Bernie
has written and spoken extensively. He is currently working on other books with
the goal of empowering patients and teaching survival behavior to enhance
immune system competency. Bernie believes that in the next decade, the roles of
consciousness, spirituality, non-local healing, body memory, and heart energy
will all be explored more intensively as scientific subjects.
toy-phone
When I was four years old I was home in bed with one
of my frequent ear infections. I took a toy telephone I was playing with and
unscrewed the dial and put all the pieces in my mouth as I had seen carpenters
do with nails which they then pulled out to use. The problem was that I
aspirated the pieces and went into laryngospasm. I can still feel my
intercostal muscles and diaphragm contracting forcefully, trying to get some
air into my lungs, but nothing worked and I was unable to make any sounds to
attract help. I had no sense of the time but suddenly realized I was not
struggling anymore. I was now at the head of the bed watching myself dying.
I found it fascinating to be free of my body and a
blessing. I never stopped to think about how I could still see while out of my
body. I was feeling sorry my mother, who was in the kitchen, would find me dead
but I thought it over and found my new state preferable and intellectually
chose death over life.
Then for no apparent reason the boy on the bed
vomited and all the pieces came flying out. He began to breathe again and I was
very angry as I returned to my body against my will. I can still remember
yelling, “Who did that?” My thought as a four year old was that there was a God
who had a schedule and I wasn’t supposed to die now. So an angel apparently did
a Heimlich maneuver on me is the way I would explain it today.
I really do believe there is a schedule we create
unconsciously because of later life experiences. Twice I have had my car
totaled by people driving through red lights and once I fell off our roof when
the top rung on my wooden ladder snapped off. In none of these incidents did
any significant injury occur to my body. Someone told me it was because I had
an angel and he knew his name. I asked what it was and he asked, “What did you
say when the ladder broke?”
“I said, Oh Shit!”
He said, “That’s his name.” I will add he always
shows up when I call him in an impassioned way.
Olga
Worrall
My next experience was with the healer Olga Worrall.
I had injured my leg training for a marathon. It was very painful and not
responding to rest or therapy. At an American Holistic Medical Association
conference Olga was a guest speaker. My wife told me to ask her to heal me. I
was embarrassed to ask and very frankly a non-believer. Never the less my wife
pushed me forward and Olga sat me down in a chair and placed her two hands on
my leg. The heat from her hands was incredible. I remember putting my hands on
the opposite leg to compare the heat sensation. There was no sense of warmth
from my hands coming through the dungarees. When Olga was done I stood up and
was completely healed. The pain was gone and I could walk normally.
Another time Olga and I spoke at the funeral of a
mutual friend. After the ceremony we were standing in a deserted hallway when
she asked, “Are you Jewish?”
“Why are you asking?”
“Because there are two rabbis standing next to you.”
She went on to tell me their names and describe their garments, which included
their prayer shawls and caps. Her description of them was exactly what I saw in
my meditation and imagery sessions when I had met these figures while walking
on my path.
Another evening after I gave a lecture, which felt
like someone else was giving it and I was simply verbalizing it for them, a
woman came up to me and said, “Standing in front of you for the entire lecture
was a man and I drew his picture for you.” Again, exactly the face and features
of my inner guide. I still have the picture hanging in our home.
My next experience came when I was telling a friend
about how busy I was and she said, “Why are you living this life?” Her
intention was to get me to slow down and travel less but her question sent me
into a trance and I immediately saw myself with a sword in my hand killing
people. My first thought was that I had become a surgeon in this life to use a
knife to heal and not kill.
I spontaneously went into a trance again a few days
later and saw myself living the life of a knight who killed because he feared
his lord and what he would do to him if he didn’t carry out his commands. I
killed my wife, in this life, and her dog and was devastated by the experience.
But at the same time it revealed to me why my wife’s face has always had a
hypnotic effect upon me and why I am so involved in rescuing animals.
Ultimately it taught me about having faith in the
true Lord and like Abraham, Jesus, Moses, Noah and others to understand that
what our Lord asks of us is for the greater good and that if I had said yes I
would have not been asked to kill anyone.
Most recently one of our cats disappeared when a
door was left open. After several weeks with no sign of her I was sure she was
killed by a predator. A friend I had made, Amelia Kinkade, is an animal
intuitive who lives in Los Angeles. We live in Connecticut and Amelia has never
been to our home or near it. I pestered her to tell me where the cat was and
one day I received an email, without even sending Amelia a picture of the cat,
and it detailed the house, yard, other animals and people who were involved in
the cat’s life. The next day I went out and found the cat exactly where Amelia
said it was hiding.
She told me in the email, “The cat is alive because
I can see through its eyes.”
If that doesn’t make me a believer nothing will. I
totally believe that consciousness is non-local and not limited to the body. I
also have experienced this through the drawings and dreams of patients I have
cared for which allows them to know their diagnosis and what the future holds
for them. As Jung said, “The future is unconsciously prepared long in advance
and therefore can be guessed by clairvoyants.”
I believe it is this unconscious awareness which we
each bring with us when we are born. So I do not believe we literally live many
lives but that we bring with us the experience of previous lives. Thus the
wiser we get the better the future will be for those who follow us.
I wish to thank Bernie for sharing his amazing blog of
true-life miracles with my readers. It just proves that we are born with Spirit–Guides/Guardian
Angels, we are their job and they take that job seriously. Meet your guides in
your dreams.
Guest Bio: About Dr. Bernie Siegel: Bernie, as he
prefers to be called, was born in Brooklyn, NY, and attended Colgate University
and Cornell University Medical College. He graduated with honors and holds
membership in two scholastic honor societies, Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Omega
Alpha. He trained to become a surgeon at Yale New Haven Hospital, West Haven
Veteran’s Hospital and the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. In 1989, Bernie
retired from Yale as an Assistant Clinical Professor of General and Pediatric
Surgery to speak to patients, their families and caregivers.
Bio: Kathleen O’Keefe-Kanavos, Intuitive Life Coach,
survived three breast cancers missed by the medical community, wrote SURVIVING
CANCERLAND: Intuitive Aspects of Healing (Cypress House, Jan 2014) websites:
Surviving Cancerland & Access Your Inner Guide, Hosts Living Well Talk
Radio , Cancer Q&A columnist CapeWomenOnlineMagazine, Dream Queen
columnist- Wellness Woman 40 & Beyond, Your Dream Interpretation
http://www.yourdreaminterpretation.com/about-us/ ,WakeUpWomen; R.A. BLOCH
Cancer Foundation Hotline Counselor. Represented by Steve Allen Media
