MPNforum Magazine

by Patricia Wagner

Today we recap where we’ve been and where we’ll be going within the Mind-Body-Spirit column. . .
Another door was opening for me, although I didn’t realize it at the time, when my hematologist, Dr. Ruben Mesa, called me at home. The last time a doctor called me at home, it was to tell me that I either had a slow leak in a blood vessel within my brain, or I had blood cancer. My heart skipped a beat at the thought that doctors don’t call just to say “hi”, but Dr. Mesa surprised me by asking me if he could give my name to the Public Broadcast System for a TV show about myelofibrosis.
It had been over sixteen years since I’d been in the public eye, other than within small and sympathetic gatherings, but I proceeded through my fears to do this. Subsequently, I did an additional shoot for Mayo Clinic’s network. This led to my first set of articles for the Mayo Patient Network blog site.

I’ve been in a slow recovery from a brain stem stroke, which was caused by uncontrolled counts in 1997. Since then, I’ve been dealing with the aggressive and unpredictable myeloproliferative neoplasm which was the cause of this event. With the stroke, I lost much of my speaking ability, couldn’t walk unassisted without toppling, and read from back to front, suddenly a dyslexic. I was in constant pain with neuropathic disorders, caused by the stroke and my medications. I communicated with doctors and those in my world primarily through written notes. My verbal communication was limited, and it took all morning to write four or five lines. It was difficult to pull thoughts together in a cohesive way, as I saw only right-brain symbols and images floating by, not words.

Now, years later, utilizing a holistic mind-body-spirit approach, I have experienced magical and inexplicable improvements to my life. I feel so privileged to have access to this forum, in order that I might share this with fellow patients. I am most grateful and humbled by all that has occurred, both the bad and the good (which I actually no longer view in such dualistic terms). Blessed with the opportunity to reach you in this way, I am hopeful that there will be stories and discoveries from my journey which will lead to your own epiphanies.

    Our community has shared often and long about how to cope with phlebotomies, toxic drugs, hemorrhages and strokes, the “spent phase”, and such. We’ve also said slow goodbyes to our fellow travelers and have mourned every loss along the way. However, except during such sad moments as this, we’ve been reticent, nay even discouraged, from discussing our issues beyond those which are physical in nature. Amongst other things, this column is intended to break all barriers, spur conversation, and make us whole.

Although my personal orientation is like Ezekiel, in that my heart of stone has now been transformed to a heart of flesh, I felt that groundwork inclusive enough to reach atheists, agnostics, and those with orientations predominantly from the mind, need first be laid. We are in fact all very much like one another, sharing the same dreams and fears. But our orientations and learning styles, our very curiosities and proclivities vary.

Not wanting to leave anyone behind, I therefore began writing this column from the scientific rather than the spiritual perspective. I hoped that when I eventually moved the focus into that realm of the Universal Infinite that many choose to call God, that I would offend no one, just as I wished to offend no one by not calling upon either a personal or an impersonal Creator sooner than I ultimately did. In one form or another however, with differences between us on the particulars and the vernacular, it is possible now to state that Spirit is the Life, Mind is the builder, and Physical is the result (quoting Edgar Cayce). It can further be stated that, like the timeless maxim, “Life is in the eye of the beholder.”

We began to establish this thesis with two columns detailing the little known facts surrounding the DNA myth. In fact, since 1963, we’ve known that RNA can flow backward and alter DNA. In other words, the acquired mutation that may be a factor in our disease can be reversed by sending an upstream signal back to the DNA. Our genetic code is mutable. In 1990, the Human Genome Project further established that environmental signals are what trigger such changes in DNA. Even the National Cancer Institute now agrees that the majority of all cancers are due to environmental causes — it is the environment that is the trigger.

The new field of epigenetics goes further to establish that DNA is not what controls the operation of the human cell — DNA is a map, and has no innate intelligence. The “brains” of our cells are nestled within the cell membrane. In little gates on this membrane, which are called Integral Membrane Proteins (IMPs), malfunction both enters and departs, and it is the environment that affects the signaling which passes through the IMPs.

Simply put, the cell is the structural equivalent of a computer chip, and it is programmed by intelligence outside of the chip itself. This intelligence, which comprises the cell’s environment, is primarily the subconscious mind, transmitting instructions along the many pathways linking our internal systems to every cell and passing through its IMPs.
If we are to affect our cellular programming in ways other than those recommended by Western Medicine, which is to say through drugs, this must be done through understanding the manner in which the environment of our subconscious minds and energies operate, and then to work on those variables.
Over 95% of our daily life experience is controlled by the subconscious. Our subconscious repositories of memory and feeling were essentially built, without our conscious control, by the age of 12, due to stimulus-response programming as we’re being raised to the age of reason. Our bodies and minds are now driven by “garbage in – garbage out” logic.

We will continue to offer starting points in this column for effective change of this logic, with the goal of improving our health. We began with a “how to” and an online workshop on mindfulness meditation. This has hopefully served to reduce stress, anxiety, physical pain, and beyond this, to increase your awareness of your subconscious tapes. Next, we used the energies of the Winter Solstice, Hanukah, and Christmas to announce the call to prayer for ourselves and others. Through this, you may now openly acknowledge that there is both a personal and impersonal aspect to the Lord of the Universe, the Source, or whatever you choose to call it. You may now feel free to discuss how faith and beliefs affect your ability to reconcile and heal (with no proselytizing, please).
We’re only at the start of many more discussions and “how to” articles during this New Year. I assure you that it is possible to deprogram yourself of any prior impressions you hold that you cannot fight the inevitable, and to move instead toward total health and vitality. I offer my personal story in this regard, but above and beyond the things I’ll share, I hope to convey my enthusiasm and confidence to you, while using this medium of writing which was once such a challenge to me.
Although I once could not form thoughts into words, I am now entranced by their divinity and power, and the ease with which those words flow from me when I move my personal thoughts aside. Living now from the heart, rather than my former deep embrace of mind, I find that this state encompasses all of me and all being Itself.

   I now feel whole, and in that sense I am certainly healed. Nothing is impossible betwixt will and faith. With discernment of truth, and a settling into that truth with love and laughter, one’s reality can change from uncertainty and discomfort to serenity, beauty and joy.
If, perhaps, you already think this way, you are in good company. From Plato to today’s neuroscientists and neuropsychologists, from Hermes to today’s Wisdom Schools, from the Sepher Yetzirah to the writings of modern metaphysicians, from Akhenaten to today’s energy workers, we know that there are so many additional approaches to the creation of health.
To avoid all but the Western medical approach is to deny oneself the opportunity to heal holistically via these additional modalities. I do not suggest that you change your current practices – only add to them.
And so, over time we’ll bring ever more subjects up for your consideration.

Next month we’ll begin studying a practice which is both a meditation and a prayer: the art of creative visualization. We’ll start with the methodology and move on to effective practices, all while sharing the vision of seeing ourselves well.
Blessings, until then

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© Patricia Wagner and MPNforum.com, 2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Patricia Wagner and MPNforum.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.