Monthly Archive for June, 2008

Hello everyone,

Some time has past since I last wrote to you. I kind of scared some of you, but some of you really connected from your own life story with me, and that was beautiful.

As some of you know, this past Monday I had a brain intervention. This was done in a acupuncture clinic and the method of the intervention was assigned by Dr. Sun Beck, a physician who grew up in Tibetan monastery where he learned aoubt acupuncture, herbology and chi gong. It was him that designed this brain treatment for MS. It was done then by a master teacher in Evanston who is a friend of mine, and has been helping me for the last 15 years, John Neighbors.

The treatment started at 9am and was supposed to last 5 hours. In the treatment plan, 1500 pyramid-shaped piles of herbs (moxa) were burned on 5 points of my skull, relating to the elements. We started with metal, burned 300 there. I was able to use my yoga breathing to make it through those 300, and had incredible experiences of energy/heat being pushed through the folds of my brain (I call them worms). I experienced the opening of those folds and it was quite colorful.

As we then moved on to the other 4 points, since the first one took 5 hours, John Neighbors lit all 4 points at the same time. There was no chance I could follow the experience through my brain, because it was sooooo painful. When I “hissed like cobra” John made smaller pyramids, and I had a relief for 3 or 4 rounds. Sometimes I thought I wouldn’t make it, because it was just too painful.

I had gone through days before the treatment of knowing I wanted and needed to do this, linked to fear. I didn’t know how I would make it through 5 hours of sitting, if I had to pee! Yes, I did end up buying Depends for that day. But the sphincter muscles, during the treatment, actually contracted, so I didn’t need to depend on Depends.

The last 80 rounds of burning, I asked my partner Ted (who was there throughout), not to count up anymore, please, so he started to count down from 80. What a relief! And during those 80, my first thought was, I shall reach 80 years old in this life. I had always thought I’d die before that since my parents both passed on younger. And every number thereafter was a revalation of where I would be at that age in time. When I came to 47, my present age, I felt like I was reborn, and could count down from then on, letting go of all that had happened in my life, from bad relationships, to my own anger and resentments and jealousies, that I have housed in my brain. When I came to 19, when MS started for me, I felt I could let go of a bad dream. From then on, all I was thinking about was that I would be coming back to teh state of a brain of a baby, untainted. And that I would never, ever, let anyone walk on my brain again, abuse me, control me.

I was so tired when the treatment ended at 7pm that I fell right into bed, fell to sleep, but when I woke up I felt a lot of energy. My walking, my gait had normalized 100%. Many things felt better. The day after, I was teaching one class, and fell into deep sleep thereafter. So the recovery is now also one of a baby having learning to walk and then being dead tired from teh exertion of being alive.

much love and joy,
Regula

PS from Ted: The bathroom is down a long hallway from the acupuncture studio in this particular office, and the first break we took, Regula needed my help quite a bit, to even make the trip. Throughout the day, however, every time we made that walk, Regula needed my help less and less. By the end, before than last 80, I could hardly keep up with her, walking down that hallway. I’ve never experienced her walking quite so quickly before. Today we walked to lunch, to a place we often walk to. And again, sometimes it was hard to keep up with her.

Yes, in many ways, I experienced this burning of herbs on her head as quite surreal. “What the fuck is this?” I thought. And yet, the results speak for themselves.