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Foreword
I first met Margot Maurice in
1995 on a trip to the south west of Western Australia. I was immediately struck
by her positivity and get up and go. In the late 1990s my wife and I lived in
the region for two years and developed a friendship with Margot and her partner
John. It was during this time that I became aware of Margot’s remarkable story
and her indefatigable sense of humour. To be told
you have very little time left to live is a devastating thing especially when
this prognosis comes from a respected physician. The fact that Margot
immediately chose not to believe in this death sentence, choosing to trust in
her own sense of her life instead is a testament to her character. For many
people this would be very difficult. Becoming empowered enough to direct one’s
own destiny through the maze of ‘experts’ that surround us is a worthy
challenge. To do so when one’s very life is at stake is an advanced test. The
‘placebo effect’ has long been recognised as a powerful positive influence
that a doctor’s approach can have on their patient’s healing. The ‘nocebo
effect’ is a term that has recently been coined to describe the opposite of
this. Margot’s situation is one that is fraught with potential dangers in
terms of this nocebo effect. If she had believed in the six months to live
prognosis I doubt very much that she would still be with us today. The truth is that breaking bad news is a daunting prospect for any doctor, especially if one feels there is nothing more that one can offer. Many of my colleagues are very concerned about not imparting false hope, particularly medical specialists who feel the responsibility of being the expert at the end of the line. Unfortunately in their circumspection they may unwittingly remove hope altogether. As a counselling General Practitioner (GP) I have seen on occasion people with life threatening illness returning from specialist consultations under the shattering influence of this hope-removing nocebo effect. While I respect the importance of not belittling the gravity of a serious diagnosis I believe that there is always room for hope. If hope dies,
the will to live dies. Medicine
relies on the law of averages when giving prognoses. Yet we are all as unique as
our fingerprints and have our own particular genetic codes and paths to take.
While I make no claims about this being the ideal way to handle such a situation
my own approach went something like this: “…As you
have been told as far as current medical knowledge is concerned most people with
your condition will not live beyond six months. This said you are unique and we
cannot possibly know exactly how long you have. What’s more there are things
you can do for yourself that can switch on your body’s self-healing
capabilities. On the one hand these things may help improve both the quality and
the length of your life. On the other hand you may not live any longer but you
are likely to feel better during the time you have left. So by doing these
things you can’t really lose.”
I would
always make this statement with a real sense of optimism and in my experience it
would restore hope. My patients would then inevitably ask me “what can I
do?” What followed would be a very individual exploration and together we
would construct a self-healing program. For
many giving themselves permission to do what they loved most was an important
key. Whether it was spending more time in the garden or gathering supportive
friends around it impacted positively on their health. Taking time out for
regular deep relaxation or meditation proved to be another key strategy. For
each person the approach they would end up taking would be different. Some, like
Margot, would reprioritise their lives, change their lifestyles, explore
non-medical treatments and go on to make remarkable recoveries. Others would
often reach a greater sense of contentment in the time they had left. Regardless
of the result or the specifics of what they chose, when they were empowered to
do something for themselves they felt better for it. When I
presented this hope-preserving approach to medical students during lectures and
tutorials I gave at Monash University in the mid 1990s it received a mixed
response. While some students seemed to embrace it others were still fearful
that it was giving false hope. Perhaps restoring hope in a frightening situation
can only sincerely be done when one has personally come to appreciate the
opportunities that can arise on the flipside of hardship. In this respect,
Margot is a wonderful teacher. Throughout her story she is always seeing her cup
as half full, not as half empty. In the past, people like Margot who defied the
odds were quick to be labelled and dismissed with terms such as ‘spontaneous
remission’. Qualitative research now suggests that these people have
characteristics in common. Like Margot, they are actively involved in promoting
their self-healing. Let me further suggest that these so-called exceptions to
the rule have much to teach us. But is there more of a scientific basis for
this? “Belief
becomes biology,” said Norman Cousins author of Anatomy of an Illness. We now
know this is very true. Mind-Body Medicine and the science of
Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) has confirmed what older societies than ours have
known for millennia. The mind and body are inextricably linked. Our thoughts,
feelings and beliefs do influence our health. Chemical messengers previously
considered only to be released in the brain have now been found to be both
released and received by cells throughout the body. These messengers carry our
thoughts and feelings and have influences on all body systems including our
cardiovascular, endocrine and immune systems. Our entire body appears to be
highly intelligent with all parts interacting with one another. Hence promoting
self-healing can be as simple as having a good laugh as Norman Cousins so aptly
demonstrated in his book. A happier person quite literally has a ‘happier’
better functioning immune system. This research
into PNI may also be giving us a clue as to how the placebo and nocebo effects
are exerting their influence. Other research has shown the importance of
psychosocial factors on many things including the death rates of people with
heart disease. There are now books full of Mind-Body Medicine research on all
manner of illnesses. They give us hope that through our attitudes and personal
efforts we can positively influence our health even when faced with serious
disease. Perhaps we are simply rediscovering what is patently obvious to our
common sense. Applying this rediscovery in an integrated and purposeful manner
within our health system is our current challenge. Margot
laments the scarcity of doctors who are open to complementary therapies (CTs).
In this, she is no doubt not alone. As she experienced, CTs can enhance and
strengthen our body’s self-healing capabilities and can often integrate well
with medical approaches. Yet times are changing. The most recent Australian
Medical Association (AMA) position paper on CTs presented a marked shift in
attitude with openness expressed towards evidence-based CTs. The Australian
Integrative Medicine Association (AIMA), an organization representing the
increasing number of doctors who do integrate CTs within their medical practice,
now has a growing representative voice and influence amongst mainstream
medico-political and educational bodies. While the ‘old school’ doctors are
still in the predominance new medical graduates have been exposed to CTs in
their training and many have a greater openness to them. Hopefully this augurs
well for a more cooperative and integrated health care system in the future. To me,
Margot’s story embodies the key attributes of self-healing. While using the
expertise of others she never totally gives herself over to them. She takes
personal responsibility for promoting her health while her attitude and sense of
humour in the face of extreme adversity is nothing short of inspirational.
Guiding her journey all the way is her intuition. This along with her openness
to other inputs seems to attract amazingly timely insights and synchronicities.
It brings a wondrous fascination to her story and reminds us there is so much
more than our logical minds alone can ever fathom. She is an inspiration to me,
let her inspire you. Dr Steven J Sommer M.B.,B.S
FRACGP Past President Whole Health
Institute of Australasia February 2004 PROLOGUE “Go home
and put your affairs in order. You have about six months to live.” They were the words I heard at my first consultation with cardiologist Dr Chung. I vaguely remember saying to him, I thought he was wrong and I wasn’t going to die, but he repeated his diagnosis. “You have cardiomyopathy. That’s the condition for which we do heart transplants but you’re out of the age group for which the transplants are being done at present. As your heart is only about twenty five per cent of normal strength I wouldn’t expect you could live any longer than six months.” “The condition will improve,” I said hopefully. “Cardiomyopathy doesn’t improve. The best we can hope for is that it stabilizes, then you may get a few months more.” ‘This can’t be me he’s speaking about,’ I thought. ‘I can’t be going to die. I have too much to do and besides I’m just starting to get my life together after all this time.’ As I drove home I had time to think about the diagnosis and how I was going to break the devastating news to my partner, John and my family. I also started to think about all the related and unrelated incidents that had led up to me needing to experience this traumatic moment… Chapter 1. (part sample)March 1984. I was walking home after my regular early morning exercise on a beautiful early autumn day. It was my ritual, to take an hour’s walk down into the gully and back up the steep hill at the back of my Blue Mountains home in New South Wales, Australia. This was my 'thinking time' in an otherwise very hectic day. I was the
proprietor and principal of a busy music school where I employed several
teachers as well as teaching groups and individuals myself.
I also conducted music therapy programs in two institutions for
intellectually disabled, two days each week and acted as a community educator,
conducting workshops for the State Health Department when called upon. I was and still am considered to be an intuitive having clairvoyant, clairaudient and clairsentient abilities, something that has been a part of me my whole life. It’s important for the story’s sake that I distinguish the subtle difference between the three. The Oxford Dictionary explains the following: Clairaudient - the supposed faculty of perceiving, as if by hearing, what is inaudible. Clairvoyant – the supposed faculty of perceiving things or events in the future or beyond normal sensual contact: Exceptional insight. Clairsentient
– the supposed faculty of sensing, that which is untouchable. However, at
the time to which I’m referring, my psychic talents were kept to a minimum and
restricted to receiving ‘clear’ messages for myself from a source I
recognised as my Spirit guides, guardian angels or even as referred to in
Pinocchio’s story, my conscience. When it was something of importance I
would receive these messages and yet funnily enough always question
whether it was right and not just my imagination. Why I would doubt the messages
is quite beyond me as time and again they had been found to be correct and with
meaning. On this particular morning as I walked up the steep hill on the way home, a message came loud and clear. “Have your heart checked.” My immediate reaction was one of doubt. There’s nothing wrong with my heart, I told myself. I’m perfectly healthy. The fact I’m slightly out of breath walking up hill is purely because I’m out of condition. Throughout my
life I had always exercised and enjoyed what I considered to be a healthy diet,
so working hard and working long hours was the obvious cause for being currently
‘out of condition.’ For three
consecutive mornings on my return uphill trek, the same message came loud and
clear. “Have your heart checked!” Knowing my guides' insistence must be for a reason, I phoned my friend Isabel, a homoeopath who worked with radionics. Radionics is the practice of making an analysis of distortions in a patient’s energy fields. The practitioner uses a pendulum to register signals from the unconscious mind, giving the answer to the conscious mind. Isabel had a sample of my hair from previous consultations and so was able to check my health conditions without me actually being there. Isabel’s question was, “ Do you think there’s something wrong with your heart?” “No. I don’t, but I won’t get any peace from my guides until I at least check this out.” Isabel phoned me next morning and said there was nothing showing up on my chart but due to the insistence of my messages, suggested I see my General Medical Practitioner and ask for a full medical just to be on the safe side. As I thought about the prospect of fitting in a doctor’s appointment in my busy twelve hour working day, I was perplexed as to how this could be done, but thought I’d better put time aside for an appointment, just to be sure. The result of my thorough albeit standard medical check determined I was healthy with no sinister conditions lurking. ‘So there,’ I thought. My guides were actually wrong this time. I was healthy. However I made the decision to enrol at a gymnasium as soon as possible to improve my fitness levels. In the ensuing weeks, the thought of working out at the gym was replaced with other things. My business partner John Gallagher and I decided to set up house together. We also discussed starting another music school and employing one of the teachers to manage the Blue Mountains school. To enable us to ‘think over’ these business decisions John and I decided to go to the Gold Coast in Queensland for our Easter break. As we strolled around the streets of Surfers Paradise, I saw a health machine outside a chemist. For a bit of fun I put in a coin for which I would get a health analysis in return. The needle immediately swung to an instruction: “Have your heart checked by your doctor!” I said to John, “The machine’s mad. I’ve already checked that out, so it’s wrong.” A little further down the street we spotted a coffee shop displaying a sign that read: Teacup readings today. “Let’s go in and I’ll have my tea cup read while you have a cup of coffee,” I said to John. I booked my time, finished my tea and presented my cup to the clairvoyant. After her predicting some interesting details about my future she suddenly stopped and said, “ Do you have a heart problem?” “No I don’t,” I confidently said. “I’ve recently had it all checked out so I know I’m alright.” “Well if you’re sure,” she said hesitantly. “It must be someone very close to you because it’s here in your cup. You are really sure?” she reaffirmed. I was of course totally confident all was well and told her this. To
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