Beginning to Focus...

I write to you on this profoundly important topic from my own experience (both personal and professional). I know disease well and have been transformed by and through it. Diagnosed early in the HIV/AIDS pandemic I faced a plethora of serious chemo and HIV induced infections, one causing a near-death experience followed by paralyzing depression.

	" Even the greatest skeptic must now admit that a wealth of evidence exists to prove in the most stringent scientific terms that functions of the mind do influence the health of the body and... affect our moods and emotions through molecules and nerve pathways. This level of proof of the myriad connections between the brain and the immune system was needed before the two cultures - the popular and the scientific - could begin to respect and talk to each other ." Esther M. Sternberg, M.D., Director, Integrative Neural Immune Program, National Institute of Mental Health/National Institutes of Health, Rheumatologist and Author

I have had two rare forms of aggressive and usually fatal cancers, and more recently, had a heart attack and triple bypass surgery. This is all an addition to my earlier struggles with the disease of addiction. Thus the concept of Immune Restoration has inevitably been my daily companion for over twenty years. It is awesome, humbling and amazing that my life today is vital and that I have the privilege to share in this way with you.

In my quest for health, I have employed (though often reluctantly) almost all that medical science has offered. When I was strong enough to identify my deepest instincts and follow them, I have also declined medical protocols such as the drug AZT in its early years. Fine physicians saved my life several times, while well-meaning physicians came close to ending it on more than one occasion. I have appreciation for yet also abhor certain practices of clinical medicine.

Through all my illnesses, I incorporated ancient, spiritual and popular non-clinical disciplines. These healing practices are sheltered under the Institute's rubric of Authentic Process Healing (APH). Their potency has transformed my life and every fiber and cell of my being knows it is because of the combination of treatment options I am able to write to you today. The warm and nourishing experience of Authentic Process Healing carried me through often "cold" clinical treatment. And throughout this journey I discovered hidden messages and truths crucial to my personal healing.

Invisible Realities Come to the Rescue

In his book Healing Into Immortality, psychiatrist Gerald Epstein, M.D., explains that during the healing process the messages and truths that surface to guide us along the way are spiritual and invisible realities, not wishful imagination. These surfacings are the key to the remarkable power of APH; it's something already inside you. Epstein coined the term "mind medicine" and explains: "Mind medicine...moves us in the direction of spirit, of the invisible reality. It is a medicine of truth and love...[where we] experience vertical reality...a timeless realm, the experience of the eternal moment or instinct." Dr. Epstein's book, like so many of the resources you find in this "doorway" have been central to the healing journeys of many people, including my own. I hope they will become a part of yours as well.

Sadly, quite sadly, this has been a lonely journey for me. I hope that through the IAPH it is less lonely for others in the future. When I was sick, weak and confused I was forced to create parallel paths of healing that did not support or respect one another-the allopathic and the holistic. Unfortunately, this is often the case with those visited by disease, and not everyone is as fortunate as I have been. I am certain that needless deaths and suffering have occurred because so many people have not been blessed with the resources that came my way. Happily, this is beginning to change.

And through the APH perspective these changes lead to new experiences and understandings of Disease Transformation and Immune Restoration.

Disease Transformation

Disease Transformation is a personal metamorphosis we go through after being diagnosed with a serious illness. It is a process of accepting, feeling, and relating to a disease in a manner that shifts our perception of the illness from one of disaster to one of neutrality or even respect. This movement allows us to expand our healing opportunities with an enhanced sense of well being and hope. In this process, we are moved from fear and anxiety to resilience, clarity and then empowerment. We come to recognize there are universal energies that run through us allowing us to transform pain (physical and psychic) and disease through integration and acceptance. We become at once surrendered and empowered over both our desires and our reality. We find that love, passion and compassion, on a molecular level, diminishes pain, suffering and dis-ease in real and tangible ways. Our illness becomes our teacher.

Synergy in global or organic expressions means "to work together..." Synergy in an organism is the essence of life, and it is intimately related to health. When for some reason synergy drops and the organism as a whole does not receive the full support of its many parts, it becomes ill.
-Peter Russell

Immune Restoration

Immune Restoration is the awakening and strengthening of the immune system. This occurs through integrating medical intervention and Authentic Process Healing (APH) into your daily life. The immune system is awakened when physical and psychic stress is reduced through varied APH methods. It is strengthened as repressed, frozen in the body energies, from historical or illness related trauma, start to thaw. Transformation of these repressed energies gives the entire human organism a "lift," reducing stress on the immune system and activating a natural, organic healing process.

I sometimes envision those of us involved in the healing process as a flower--show us the sun and we will naturally grow toward it. As a flower needs the sun, our healing needs a powerful vision to draw from. Esther M. Sternberg, M.D. presents a scientific view of such a healing vision in her book The Balance Within: The Science Connecting Health and Emotions. She writes of interconnectedness, communication, energy, patterns, and a partnership of medical and popular wisdom.

As Director of the Integrative Neural Immune Program at the National Institute of Mental Health/National Institutes of Health, rheumatologist, and author, Dr. Sternberg studies the interplay of emotions and stress responses on our health. To comprehend our complex immune system, she trusts that: "By focusing on the minute connections between each part, and at the same time looking outward to the emotions and beyond, scientists and physicians will be able to work out in intricate detail how the cogs and wheels fit together." And in support of the body's defense against disease, Dr. Sternberg believes it is crucial for scientists and physicians to understand the many ways the brain communicates with the immune system.

In exploring the energy and interactive patterns in disease, Richard Gerber, M.D. focuses on the play of emotions and relationships with ourselves and each other. In his new book Vibrational Medicine for the 21st Century he examines how Addiction, Cancer, HIV, Heart Disease, Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia, MS and most other organic diseases are at least in part caused by unhealed pain and trauma. Dr. Gerber examines how cultural and generational patterns dull our stress response and contribute to disease. I have experienced the reality of this first hand in my own life story and the stories of so many others. Thus, I know how essential it is for APH to wholeheartedly tend to connectedness, communication, energy, patterns, and our inborn wisdom.

This important doorway of Theinstitute.org is only superficially touching on many dimensions that are significant for Disease Transformation & Immune Restoration. The integration of medicine and APH is approaching its adolescent stage. To do more justice to these areas, hang in with us as this doorway develops. The Institute for Authentic Process Healing is committed to supporting this maturing process and your experience and wisdom contributes greatly to our growth.

We invite you to:

• Browse the website and book resources to your right.
• Check out the links off this page as we continue developing them.
• Explore the eight other doorways on this website.
• Fuse our exploration with your own if you are a practitioner, student or researcher.

When you look into each of the above use your intuition and your bodies' felt senses to lead you. As you awaken to your complex and mysterious healing process other doorways on this website can support you. Trust your own inner intelligence and the trustworthy powers of example here on this site and in your lives to guide you to the invisible realities and truths you can know and respect.

We also invite our physicians, scientists, students and researchers to join with Authentic Process Healers for the advancement of integrated healing.

• Share with us on the Discussion Boards
• Email your own wisdom
• Express your needs for healing practices in your work.

Connected to each other with vision and intention we can advance Disease Transformation and Immune Restoration for all of us and the generations to come.

FOR FURTHER RESEARCH NEWS: Dr. Sternberg is Chief of the Section on Neuroendocrine Immunology and Behavior at the National Institute of Mental Health and National Institutes of Health. She superbly articulates the urgent need for medical scientists to incorporate the language and needs of the popular culture. To read more of her work here.

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