Cancer Quick Facts

Amy Ettinger, who inspired readers with her life-affirming essays on dying – Jewish Telegraphic Agency (jta.org)

Amy Ettinger would have turned 50 on May 15, and wrote beautifully about how she had no regrets about how she had lived her life. She had a history of embracing creative risk and adventure and wrote how putting friends and family first allowed her to face her terminal cancer diagnosis with a deep gratitude for the life she loved.

Amy’s approach to life inspired her friends, her writing community, her students, and her readers. As her husband Dan wrote, Amy was “flooded with responses,” to her first Washington Post essay, “which essentially asked: What would your life look like if you cared much less about what other people think of you? Could life be ‘a series of moments,’ and not the endless pursuit of stability over bliss, or working for some long-delayed dream of post-retirement fulfillment?” 

“I’ve always tried to say ‘yes’ to the voice that tells me I should go out and do something now,” Amy wrote. “Even when that decision seems wildly impractical.”

Amy embodied that philosophy when she rode in a clunking old ice cream truck through the streets of Bensonhurst as part of her country-wide investigation into America’s favorite dessert in her 2017 book, Sweet Spot: An Ice Cream Binge Across America. And she showed that spirit when she packed up her bags and took her husband and daughter on an impromptu trip to a goat farm in central Oregon to see a solar eclipse. Her credo was this: “Money always comes back, but if you miss out on an experience, the opportunity may never come back.” 

It brought Amy immense joy when she saw others taking chances, choosing adventure and happiness, making the most of their lives. In honor of her, and in the hope of keeping the inspiration she shared with all of us while she lived, let’s share how we plan to Live Like Amy.

Amy Jordana Ettinger, a beloved Bay Area author and writing teacher, died Monday morning at her home in Santa Cruz. She was 49. The cause of death was leiomyosarcoma, a rare form of cancer. Only 1,200 cases are reported in the United States per year. She was born May 15, 1974, in Rochester, New York. Her family moved to Cupertino in 1978. She attended Cupertino High School, where she was involved in the drama program and orchestra before she finally found her calling with journalism. 

While still in high school, Ettinger was selected as one of the five “Our So Called Lives” columnists for the San Jose Mercury News, detailing the angst and struggles of Generation X. She was an alumna of UC Santa Cruz (Merrill ’95, American literature) where she majored in American Literature, and later received her Masters degree in journalism in Northwestern University in 1999. Ettinger worked as a daily news reporter for the Monterey Herald before becoming a freelance writer, contributing work to the New York Times, the Washington Post, New York Magazine, Salon, CNN, Newsweek, AARP, and many other high-profile publications. 

Her nonfiction book Sweet Spot: An Ice Cream Binge Across America was published by Penguin Random House in 2017. The book is an experiential, historical and reporting project that looks at ice cream makers and the ice cream industry from across the United States. In a laudatory review, The Wall Street Journal described Sweet Spot as “a surprisingly serious, impressively thorough treatment of ice cream’s cultural significance.” 

Ettinger has been interviewed on NPR Marketplace, All Things Considered, Here and Now, and on KQED FM. For the past seven years, Ettinger has worked as a creative writing instructor at Stanford Continuing Studies, teaching essay writing and nonfiction book proposal writing, and helping her students get their work placed in national publications. She stayed busy until the end, teaching her final Stanford course in late February just before starting hospice. 

 Ettinger began teaching in the Stanford Continuing Studies creative writing program in 2019 and continued teaching after she was diagnosed with leiomyosarcoma, a rare and incurable form of cancer. During her time at Stanford, she taught 14 non-fiction writing classes, including courses like CNF 75: Creative Nonfiction Book: From Idea to Proposal and CNF 76: Pitch and Publish Your Nonfiction Stories. 

Her final story for the Washington Post appeared in print on Tuesday, March 19, just one day before she died. She is survived by her daughter, Julianna, and her husband, Dan White, (whom she met while both were working at the Santa Cruz Sentinel,) She is also survived by her brothers Mark and Steve, her uncle Kenny and aunt Mary. A Funeral Service will be held at Los Gatos Memorial Park on Monday, March 25th at 1:30pm. In Lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Hospice of Santa Cruz County.

“Amy graciously and generously shared her love of writing with students who gravitated to her for her energy, enthusiasm, and unflagging support,” said Malena Watrous, the creative writing coordinator at Stanford Continuing Studies. “She wanted them to know that being a published writer was within the realm of possibility for anyone who was willing to pursue a story and put in the work of getting it on paper and revising it until it shone.”

Ettinger taught two courses in the program until she began hospice care.

She wrote about her experiences with a terminal illness in two pieces for the Washington Post – her final story published in print the day before she died – in which she reflected on some of the meaningful moments during her final months. One of the highlights she shared was teaching at Stanford to the very end of her life.

“Amy had a generous spirit. She never did anything in half measures, whether she was writing a personal essay for the Washington Post or teaching her writing classes at Stanford,” said Ettinger’s husband, Dan White. “She cared very much about her students, and she was so proud of the work they did.”

Helping students find their own sweet spot

Ettinger was an accomplished writer herself.

She began her career writing for the Monterey Bay Herald before becoming a freelance journalist. Her pieces appeared in national outlets including the New York Times, the Washington Post, New York Magazine, Salon, CNN, and Newsweek. In 2017, Ettinger published her own nonfiction book, Sweet Spot: An Ice Cream Binge Across America (Penguin Random House).

“Amy loved to connect to large audiences with her writing, but teaching added a whole new dimension to her career,” said White. “She loved the idea of helping students demystify the process of getting published and writing proposals, or removing some of the fear factor and help them consider the perspective of the editors and publishers who would be looking at their work.”

Ettinger encouraged her Stanford Continuing Studies students to find their own sweet spot. Ettinger’s classes filled with both new and returning students, including Alyssa Lauren Stone who took two courses with Ettinger in 2022.

Within months of working with Ettinger, Stone published her own work in well-known news outlets. She credits her early success to working with Ettinger, particularly her advice on pitching compelling ideas to editors.

“Amy had a real knack for knowing what stories editors like,” Stone said. “Amy was a generous teacher who did not hold back from sharing her tools for success.” Ettinger was also a mentor to another instructor in the Stanford Continuing Studies creative writing program, Gregg Wrenn.

“Amy was an extraordinary creative nonfiction instructor who gave me the emotional support and editorial expertise I needed to finish my memoir,” said Wren. “Her work touched hundreds of students just like me who will miss her deeply.”

Amy Jordan Ettinger Obituary – Santa Cruz, CA (1974-2024) (santacruzsentinel.com)

I am dying at age 49. Here’s why I have no regrets.© Family photo

Story by Amy Ettinger   • 10mo

When I found out I had Stage 4 uterine leiomyosarcoma, a rare and aggressive cancer. Doctors said I may have just a few months to live. Treatment could buy me a little extra time, but not much. My disease was advanced and incurable. My prognosis had left me shocked, sad, angry and confused. I wake up some mornings raging at the universe, feeling betrayed by my own body, counting the years and the milestones I expected to enjoy with my family.

I am leaving behind a husband and 14-year-old daughter I adore, and a writing and teaching career I’ve worked so hard to build. I’ve been thinking a lot about my life, and in addition to the horror, a surprising feeling has taken hold: I am dying at age 49 without any regrets about the way I’ve lived my life.

I learned that lasting love is about finding someone who will show up for you

In my teen years, I fell hard for a boy who broke my heart, not just once, but half a dozen times. It was an obsessive first crush, the kind that made me stop eating and sleeping. He broke up with me and we got back together many times in high school.

The feeling was addictive, although it made me miserable. Even after I graduated, I could not get him out of my head. His story ended tragically — he took his own life at age 21. His death was heartbreaking, but my fraught relationship with him, and the traumatic aftermath, taught me what I ultimately wanted in love — safety, support, fun and adventure.

I needed a partner who would help me feel good about myself, someone steady, reliable, and free from all that romantic drama. A few years later, I met my future husband, who was insecure and grappling with his own worries. Dan was smart, bookish, funny and kind. 

His love for me was constant and never in question. He was a writer, but instead of being competitive with me, he supported my career. Dan and I have been together 25 years, never having broken up or even separated, even for a day.

I pursued my dream career with passion

“No one can make a career out of writing.” It was a statement I heard from almost everyone I knew, from teachers to parents to concerned friends. I was told I would face a life of rejection and begging for late paychecks. To ease my depression, I volunteered to help dying people

But I knew I could not survive waking up each day to the morning commute and heading to a 9-to-5 office job under fluorescent lights. I like to be in charge of my own life and schedule. When I wanted to write a reported history about ice cream in America, some people laughed. “I can see it as a magazine story, not as a book,” one agent wrote me.

Vanilla, Chocolate, Strawberry and … Oyster? A Year of Ice Cream | KQED

And yet I went on to land a contract with Penguin Random House to travel the country, eating ice cream, gathering research, interviewing Jerry from Ben & Jerry’s, and riding around on the back of an ice cream truck through the streets of Bensonhurst, N.Y. The book contract was lucrative, and the publication of “Sweet Spot: An Ice Cream Binge Through America” opened up opportunities I never expected, like being on NPR and teaching creative nonfiction writing.

Family adopts abandoned babies, learns years later they’re biological siblings

In the last few years, I have been able to mentor and coach dozens of promising writers. In return, these students, with their sincerity and soaring ambitions, helped revitalize my own writing, reminding me why I went into this business in the first place.

I have never had a bucket list; instead I said ‘yes’ to life

I’ve always tried to say yes to the voice that tells me I should go out and do something now, even when that decision seems wildly impractical. A few years ago, with very little planning, my family and I got in a car and drove 600 miles to a goat farm in central Oregon, where we camped out for four days to watch a solar eclipse. I once jetted off to Germany on two days’ notice, spending a week exploring Dresden and hiking through the Black Forest.

Amy Ettinger and her daughter waiting for the eclipse in 2017.© Dan White

“Money always comes back, but if you miss out on an experience, the opportunity may never come back.” This has been my mantra since I met Dan. Even when our bank account was low on funds, we decided to move to New York City to pursue our writing dreams. It was ridiculously hard at first, but it worked out because we gave ourselves no other choice.

I’m a good saver but things like retirement accounts were never important to me. When given a choice between taking a family trip to Kauai or squirreling money into a 401(k), I always chose to head for the islands.

Amy Ettinger and Julianna White at an Elton John concert in October 2022.© Dan White

I found people in my life who can accept me as I am.

I don’t try to hide who I am or apologize for it. I am a bit of a hermit. I am sure I have hurt people’s feelings with my behavior from time to time by ducking out of parties early or choosing not to go to Happy Hour. I have spent very little time worrying about it. I think it’s more important to find people who get me and accept me than want to change me. I have done my best to avoid people who come at me with unreasonable expectations. And because I don’t have to spend any time covering up my real self, my friendships are genuine. Since my diagnosis, I’ve had a chance to tell my friends how much I love them. They’ve told me that, too, and I deeply feel it.

Amy Ettinger on her most recent birthday, May 15, 2023.© Dan White

I live where I want even though the numbers never add up

I love spending time in the redwoods and by the ocean. Just a few months ago, I was walking four miles a day along the sweeping ocean coastline at West Cliff Drive where I could see surfers and otters frolicking, and humpback whales lunge-feeding just off the shoreline. This became my everyday routine.

My favorite spots are within a 10-minute drive of my house, and most are still accessible even as my energy continues to drop off as the cancer spreads through my body. The flip side of this dream life is the cost. My family and I live in one of the most unaffordable places in America.

Dan and I have talked dozens of times about uprooting, but my friends and our writing community are in Santa Cruz, and my daughter loves her friends and her school, so my husband and I have chosen to stay. My family will never own a house — at least not in my lifetime — but at least I am dying around people who love me and are bringing me meals when I need them. These are people who are willing to show up for me no matter what. And I know they will show up for my husband and daughter, even after I am gone.

The end of my life is coming much too soon, and my diagnosis can at times feel too difficult to bear. But I’ve learned that life is all about a series of moments, and I plan to spend as much remaining time as I can savoring each one, surrounded by the beauty of nature and my family and friends. Thankfully, this is the way I’ve always tried to live my life.  Amy Ettinger was an author and creative writing instructor living in Northern California.

Ettinger was an occasional contributor to Kveller, the Jewish family website that is a Jewish Telegraphic Agency partner. There she wrote about her mother’s kugel recipe (“light brown on its crispy top, and the color of milky coffee in the middle”), and how she, as a “non-observant Jew,” marked Yom Kippur — which in 2013 happened to fall on her 10th wedding anniversary.

“Like Yom Kippur, a wedding anniversary is a time to take a step back from your daily life — to weigh the good and bad, to contemplate your triumphs and missteps, to make a vow to do better individually and as a couple,” she wrote.  Articles by Amy Ettinger’s Profile | Business Insider, HuffPost, The Washington Post Journalist | Muck Rack

Opinion: A California mom asks, what will remain for our kids after the storm? | CNN

My terminally ill mom taught me 5 life lessons before she died. She saw death as a gift to live to the fullest. (msn.com)

100 Year-Old Nutrition Professor: 7 Keys to Longevity | Dr. John Scharffenberg (youtube.com)

‘My Husband Was Hospitalized, I Didn’t Tell People Why’ – Newsweek

Golden State Plate: Rocky Road Ice Cream’s Bumpy History | KQED

PressReader.com – Digital Newspaper & Magazine Subscriptions

Articles – Amy Ettinger

Pictured Above Robb and His Wife Ada Owen 

Brad Power | June 26, 2024

“Blueprint to Beat Cancer” – Robb Owen (youtube.com)

“It was not what I expected. I just wanted to survive it. I never expected to be able to walk out of it, knowing exactly how I was able to beat this cancer.” – Robb Owen

“Once I started filling all this stuff out, it jumped off the page. It’s a synergistic mix of everything together. The two prescriptions they gave me had key components in this. It wasn’t just all-natural. It really was an integrative mix between natural and conventional. I firmly believe that if you follow this path, the treatment can be reduced to three weeks versus a seven-week treatment plan.” – Robb Owen

“Half of my patients are up here behind me. I had to go through that same thing coming up with something novel. This is why it didn’t stress me out in what I did. I’ve had battles before with all kinds of doctors before with my own health where I’ve often been correct. So, I’ve had enough training in my background to put my mind at ease to make decisions that are not considered typical.” – Robb Owen

Meeting Summary

“Engaged patents get better outcomes” is one of our core beliefs at The Cancer Lab Youtube’ – Search (bing.com). But what does a very engaged patient look like? We encourage advanced cancer patients and caregivers to get very involved in educating themselves about their disease so that they can be copilots with their medical team in making complex testing and treatment decisions. Some patients and caregivers take it a step farther by leading their care decisions, sometimes disagreeing with the advice of their medical team, and carving their own path. If they are successful in controlling their disease, they are seen as “citizen scientist” role models by many.

Cancer Patient Story – Robb Owen (youtube.com)

Local man shares his cancer journey | Journal Review

Consider the story of Robb Owen.

He’s a mechanical engineer by education and profession. He is an artist, writer, and cancer patient “citizen scientist” activist by passion. He had never dabbled in the medical sciences until he got a diagnosis of stage 4a (metastatic) head and neck squamous cell carcinoma last October. He had heard of squamous cell carcinoma but knew very little about the disease. Two of his cousins had experienced head and neck cancers with one having a near identical incidence like his. He used his cousins as reference points in advance of his treatment, then dove in and learned everything he could about squamous cell carcinoma in a few months from extensive reading of the medical literature available. 

He realized during his treatment that he was progressing remarkably better than his reference points. He began to ask direct questions of his oncologist. The multiple oncologists and medical team’s typical responses were, “Sometimes we see this, and sometimes we don’t, and we don’t know why.” He didn’t like these answers, so he decided to solve this mystery on his own. He began studying the details of the blood markers the doctors used to track his progress, then studied his head and neck squamous cell carcinoma biochemistry.

He had implemented a strict regimen plan including vitamins, minerals, hyper-hydration, drugs, stress mitigation, and exercise based upon a typical regimen he had utilized for several years.  Once he added the modified chemoradiotherapy program into his regimen, the tumor resolved in two weeks, and he ended chemoradiotherapy after three weeks, showing no evidence of disease (vs. the seven-week standard protocol).

During his chemoradiotherapy treatment, he began cross-referencing how each component from his personal treatment plan interacted with components of the immune system and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. He realized that the synergistic benefits of this plan were the reason for his remarkable recovery.

He had battles with his oncologist over his proposed treatment regimen.

His radiation oncologist had read a preliminary case study Robb had written about his plan and couldn’t dispute any of the findings, but did tell him, “You haven’t proven anything yet.” He then told him, ”You are risking your life by ending treatment now.” Robb responded, “I am risking my life more by remaining in the treatment because you are now treating a cancer-free healthy patient,” and stood his ground, ending the prescribed protocol. His primary care doctor told him, “You are putting out radical ideas,” but did remark that, “This treatment plan may be a cure for this disease or at worst, a better way to treat it.”

A follow-up visit after the post treatment PET scan with his osteopathic doctor, Robb asked, “How often have you seen people respond to treatment like I had?” His doctor responded that he saw it often, but stated, “The only difference between those patients and you is that you stopped treatment so early. 

All patients previously either stopped portions of the treatment due to its debilitating effects on their body or they were terminal and wanted to live out the rest of their lives as normally as possible. I’ve never seen a patient stop their treatment on their own accord with the success that you’ve had.” His team is the group that submitted Robb’s case study to Mayo Clinic for review.

During his chemoradiotherapy, he didn’t experience the typical side effects of standard chemoradiotherapy — he did not throw up or lose any functional ability, and he was able to eat normally without taste issues with a modified Mediterranean diet and minimal side effects from the radiation (EBRT). 

Robb wrote a 109-page technical case study about his experience that he has shared with Mayo Clinic, Ascension St. Vincent’s Oncology and ENT tumor clinic, and oncologists and doctors around the globe. He has written a book about his problem-solving method that is currently in an editing phase. He is writing a patent for an oral and IV version of the treatment solution to be used prior to and concurrently with standard chemoradiotherapy protocols.

What does Robb believe caused his exceptional response?

• A combination of traditional medicine (chemotherapy, radiation, and steroids) with complementary therapies (nutrition, exercise, hydration, stress reduction, and supplements)
• An unusual ability to heal faster than typical patients from a strong immune system, specifically a more robust fibroblast system (fibroblasts are cells in the tumor microenvironment that secrete factors which influence cancer progression), due to a combination of genetics and his lifestyle and supplements
• The ability to handle anxiety and uncertainty in his chosen treatment based on previous experiences in fighting resistance to innovation
• A model derived from research literature of how each treatment component (the standard therapies like radiation and chemotherapy, plus various supplements and superfoods, such as zinc) reacted with squamous cell carcinoma and with the immune system, then self-experimented with his cancer treatment; he used lymphocytes and the neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio to measure the strength of his immune system
• His intuition and listening to his body’s cravings for specific foods during his treatment, which he believes helped his immune system fight his cancer

What can we learn from Robb’s story?

• Advocate for yourself: Patients and caregivers should be willing to challenge their doctors.
• Consider holistic approaches: incorporate nutrition, exercise, stress reduction, and supplements along with the standard treatments (e.g., chemotherapy and radiation)
• Find a peer community: Connect with others who have gone through similar experiences to get a sense of community and support.
• Run experiments: try things and measure it against an intermediate endpoint, e.g., the strength of your immune system
• Strive to find your minimum viable dose vs. the maximum tolerated dose: if you have a measure of your disease status (e.g., through a blood test), tune your treatment to get the effect you want, and maybe you will need less treatment than the standard dose (usually the maximum tolerated dose), thereby avoiding toxic side effects 

What can you do to learn more about integrative practices?

• Study Robb’s spreadsheet with his treatments and their methods of action
• See our conversations with others who have talked about integrative oncology:
•  Mark Taylor, Bapcha Murthy, Nasha Winters, and Donald Abrams.
• Read the Society for Integrative Oncology guidelines here

What can you do to learn more about being a citizen scientist with your care?

• Read the research on citizen scientists by Eric von Hippel of MIT, such as “When Patients Become Innovators”
• See our conversations with others who have talked about their experience as empowered citizen scientists: “A Cancer Hacker Solves His Own Needs and Helps Others Access the Best, New, Personalized Tests and Treatments” (Mark Taylor), “How I Am Running Experiments on Myself to Control My Prostate Cancer – Using Bipolar Androgen Therapy” (Russ Hollyer), and “A Patient Uses Novel Testing Services to Guide His Treatment” (Brad Power).

The information and opinions expressed on this website or platform, or during discussions and presentations (both verbal and written) are not intended as health care recommendations or medical advice by Cancer Patient Lab, its principals, presenters, participants, or representatives for any medical treatment, product, or course of action. You should always consult a doctor about your specific situation before pursuing any health care program, treatment, product or other course of action that might affect your health.

For a transcript of the conversation, please see here.

For the video recordings and the matrix of treatments and effects, please see here.

If you would personally like to checkout Robb Owens Facebook Group

Blueprint to Beat Cancer | Facebook

BONUS: Man 27 Beats Glioblastoma Brain Cancer Twice (survivornet.com)

The man, who died for 7 minutes, recounted his experiences of the “other side” on Reddit

Man who died for 7 minutes shares insights from ‘the other side’

Story by Paige Freshwater & John O’sullivan

An academic who “died” for seven minutes has shared what he saw on ‘the other side’. Speaking about the incident, the man, who’s been deep into astrophysics PhD studies for 40 years plus, revealed a near-death experience due to a lung hemorrhage in March that resulted in a code blue – medical emergency call.

Through Reddit, he shared his story: “It took the doctors seven minutes to get my heart started again. During that time, I had a stroke due to the lack of oxygen in my brain.” Upon gaining back consciousness after two days of a semi-conscious state, he posed the question: “What happened?”

‘The actual correlation was something of a challenge to comprehend but he got the hang of it eventually, reports the Mirror. His experience during those collapse moments extinguished his dread of death. He quipped: “I’m not scared of dying, not in the least. Afraid of what comes before, sure, but nature makes dying easy.”

Further detailing his vision, he noted: “I saw a series of three oval ellipses, one at a time, just suspended in a black space. The ellipses were all upright, as though they were suspended by a string (but they weren’t), and they all had a thickness to them, like a ring. On the inner and outer surfaces of the first ellipse, I saw mountains, streams, forests, and clouds.

“They were beautiful at first, but then they began to sour as their colors took on a yellow tinge. It faded away, and was replaced by a second ellipse that was a hot ring of iron, so hot that pieces of iron were slowly crumbling from it.” He remembered the smell of iron, which he later realized could be the scent of blood, suggesting that his physical surroundings influence his visions. He continued: “I now take it that this is when I was in cardiac arrest.

Suddenly the scene brightened to reveal the third ellipse that was covered with beautiful clouds that were light pink and blue, like from the most beautiful sunrise or sunset.

That, I believe, is when my heart started beating again.

When I regained consciousness, those three ellipses remained firmly fixed in my memory. When I was told days later about my cardiac arrest and stroke, it all began to make sense to me.”

In an attempt to understand his visions, he explained how he had been studying German astronomer Johannes Kepler’s  Astronomia nova – Wikipedia  and trying to comprehend how Kepler determined that the orbits of the planets are ellipses rather than circles. He believes that during his cardiac arrest, this concept was still on his mind, causing him to “latch onto that shape” subconsciously.

“That’s all I saw. No tunnel of light or happy deceased family members welcoming me.

I think that dreaming, and dying reflect what happens to be most accessible in your mind during that time. Your mind tells you a story about it. I was never afraid during my ordeal, I was just a dispassionate observer. Amazingly, the only lasting effect of my seven minutes of code blue is a slightly diminished capacity of my short-term memory.” Your senses will shut down in a specific order when you’re about to die (msn.com)

Dr. Anthony D. Cicoria: The Story of One Man’s Profound Near Death Experience (1/2) (youtube.com)

Indeed, Dr. Tony Cicoria’s experience was remarkable. Struck by lightning in 1994, he found himself outside his own body, witnessing a woman performing CPR on him. Then, surrounded by a bluish-white light, he felt an enormous sense of well-being and peace. However, he abruptly returned to life. His near-death encounter aligns with what experts like Dr. Sam Parnia has studied: death is a process, not a black-and-white moment1. Fascinating, isn’t it? 

Learn more 1allthatsinteresting.com 2newsweek.com 3en.wikipedia.org

All of the world’s civilizations throughout human history have contemplated what happens when we die, both scientifically and spiritually — and the answers have always varied quite a bit. According to Dr. Sam Parnia, who has studied near-death experiences for years, Cicoria’s encounter was not an uncommon one.  – Search (bing.com)

“Death is a process,” Parnia added. “it is not a black and white moment.”

In recent years, doctors like Parnia and close-call survivors like Cicoria have helped deepen humanity’s understanding of what happens when we die.

What Science Says About What Happens When You Die

While we may not fully understand the feeling of dying until we experience it for ourselves, we do know what happens to our bodies right before and after death.

At first, according to Dr. Nina O’Connor,  a person’s breathing will become irregular and unusually shallow or deep. Their breath can then begin to sound like a rattle or a gurgle, which happens because the person isn’t able to cough up or swallow secretions in their chest and throat.

“All of it comes from the process of the body slowing and shutting down,” she says. This sound has been fittingly called “the death rattle.”

Then, at the moment of death, every muscle in the body relaxes. This may cause the person to moan or sigh as any excess air is released from their lungs and into their throat and vocal cords.

PEOPLE ARE AWESOME 2012 HD AWOL nation Sail (youtube.com)

Body Farm Evidence Of What Happens After You Die at the University of Tennessee. – Search Videos (bing.com)

Meanwhile, as the body relaxes, the pupils dilate, the jaw may fall open, and the skin sags. If the person has any urine or feces in their body, these will then be released too. But as Parnia suggested, death doesn’t happen in an instant and some researchers assert that  our brains can operate up to ten minutes after our hearts stop beating.

Within the first hour after death, the body begins to experience the “death chill” or algor mortis. This is when the corpse cools from its normal temperature to the temperature of the room around it. After a couple of hours, blood will begin to pool in the areas of the body that are closest to the ground due to gravity. This is known as livor mortis.

If the body stays in the same position for several hours, these body parts will start to look bruised while the rest of the body grows pale.

Limbs and joints will then begin to stiffen within a few hours after death during a process called rigor mortis. When the body is at its maximum stiffness, the knees and elbows will be flexed and the fingers and toes may appear crooked.

But after around 12 hours, the process of rigor mortis will start to reverse.

This is due to the decay of internal tissue and it lasts between one and three days.

During this reversal, the skin begins to tighten and shrink, which can create the illusion that the person’s hair, nails, and teeth have grown. This skin tightening is also responsible for the illusion that blood has been sucked from the corpses, which in turn inspired some of the vampire legends of medieval Europe that we still know today.

What Happens to Your Body When You Die – Search Videos (bing.com)

According to some physicians, death can feel like either a great depression or the need to poop.

Aside from the science of death and decomposition, humans have always also sought to know what the sensation of dying feels like. Because most of us, unlike Cicoria, won’t ever have a near-death experience, we are simply left wondering: What does it feel like to die?

And according to general practitioner Dr. Clare Gerada, death can sometimes feel like having to use the bathroom.

“Most people will die in bed, but of the group that don’t, the majority will die sitting in the lavatory. This is because there are some terminal events, such as an enormous heart attack or clot on the lung, where the bodily sensation is as if you want to defecate.”

If a person doesn’t die from a terminal event, however, and instead passes on more slowly from a long-term illness or old age, dying may feel a bit like depression. Toward the end of their lives, people tend to eat and drink less, which results in fatigue and a lack of energy. This causes them to move, talk, and think slower.

Dr. O’Connor adds that “the physical fatigue and weakness [of people near the end] is profound. Simple things, like getting up out of bed and into a chair could be exhausting — that could be all of someone’s energy for a day.” But because it’s so often difficult or impossible for dying people to express how they’re feeling during the event, the question of how it feels when we die remains largely shrouded in mystery.

What Happens To Your Body When You Die – Search Videos (bing.com)

While the more ineffable matters of what it feels like to die may always be fuzzy, what’s very clear is what happens to the body in a practical sense after death. But how we handle our dead bodies and what ceremonies and rites we perform still varies greatly around the world.

Typically in the West, bodies are embalmed after death. The process of embalming dates back to the ancient Egyptians — and even earlier — when some cultures mummified their dead in the hopes that their soul could one day return to the corpse. Aztecs and Mayans likewise had a history of mummifying their dead, as did many of the world’s most studied civilizations in the pre-modern era.

But as for modern, Western practices, embalming in the U.S. only became popular during the Civil War as a means of transporting fallen soldiers back to their families to be buried. Modern embalming is a meticulous process. As soon as a doctor has certified that a person is dead, the body is transported to a coroner who may request a postmortem examination.

This process requires a pathologist to complete an external and internal examination. For the internal examination, the pathologist removes every organ of the body, from the tongue to the brain, and then inspects them and places them back in the body. Next, the body is drained of all its fluids, which are replaced with a preservative like formaldehyde. Meanwhile, the throat and nose are packed with cotton wool.

The mouth is stitched or glued closed from the inside. The hair is washed, the nails are cleaned and cut, and cosmetics are applied to the face and skin. Plastic caps are applied under the eyelids to help them hold their shape. Finally, the body is dressed and placed in a coffin. From here, it can be buried or cremated, depending on the person’s preference, culture, or religion.

What Really Happens After You Die — From People Who’ve Been There

Setting aside what happens to the deceased’s body after they die, what happens to them, to their very being and their soul? While the world’s cultures and religions can offer some possible answers, so can survivors of near-death experiences.

In 1988, actress Jane Seymour went into anaphylactic shock. As her body began to shut down, her mind stayed aware. – Search (bing.com)

“I had the vision of seeing a white light and looking down and seeing myself in this bedroom with a nurse frantically trying to save my life and jabbing injections in me, and I’m calmly watching this whole thing,” she said, describing a scene common in reports from those who have almost died.

Dr. Sam Parnia recorded this phenomenon with multiple survivors during his 2014 study of near-death experiences. One patient could recall what was happening in the hospital for a full three minutes after his heart had stopped.

“The man described everything that had happened in the room, but importantly, he heard two beeps from a machine that makes a noise at three-minute intervals,” said Parnia. “So we could time how long the experience lasted for. He seemed very credible and everything that he said had happened to him had actually happened.”

While not every survivor that Parnia spoke with had an out-of-body experience, as many as 40 percent of them do recall having some sort of “awareness” when they were declared clinically dead. Even after flatlining, many survivors recall seeing a bright, welcoming light, or their deceased relatives, or the doctors and nurses working on them in the hospital.

What’s more, many of the people who experienced consciousness after death remember not wanting to return to their bodies. However, many scientists remain skeptical of these reports and attribute them to everything from lucid dreaming to a lack of oxygen in the brain.

While more research needs to be done before we know for sure what happens when we die, perhaps it is at least comforting to think that our consciousness floats on as our bodies expire.

Source What Happens When You Die? What Scientists Think Happens In The Afterlife (allthatsinteresting.com)

Scientists Find Surprising Differences in the Blood of People Who Live Past 90 (msn.com)

I’ve studied more than 5,000 near death experiences. My research has convinced me without a doubt that there’s life after death. (msn.com)

I Always Knew I Was Different. Still, I Was Shocked To Hear My Doctor Say These 4 Words To Me. (msn.com)

Death Doesn’t Exist And May Just Be An Illusion, According To Quantum Physics (msn.com)

Death Doesn’t Exist, It’s Just an Illusion According to Quantum Physics (msn.com)

Weird Things People See When They Have A Near-Death Experience (msn.com)

Can We Choose When We Die? What We Know (msn.com)

The person you want to become will require you to..


Recognize that nothing changes unless you do 

Take responsibility for your life circumstances & understand that your life is a reflection of your inner world

Let go of the person that you have been 

Which means:

—Transforming the belief systems that keep you anchored into a mindset that doesn’t match who you truly want to be

—Healing the emotional patterns that cause suffering & chaos in your world

—Releasing the trauma stored in your body that keeps you stuck in negative subconscious patterns that repeatedly attract unwanted circumstances into your life

The change you want to see in your life must first happen within you. 

Listen, you’re not wrong. You are not at fault for what hurt you..

But you are responsible for healing it

You’re not the one who caused the wound..

But you will be the one to perpetuate the pain cycle if you choose not to heal it

And the beautiful truth is, the wisdom and power you cultivate in your healing process becomes your medicine to the world

Your struggle becomes your wisdom 

Your pain becomes your POWER ️

The people who hurt and challenge you most in your life are your master teachers, because they teach you how to give yourself what they wouldn’t give to you

The people who didn’t love or respect me taught me how to love and respect myself 

We can blame the people who hurt us

Or we can learn how to give ourselves the love, respect and support that they couldn’t, and take the lesson as a blessing

When you blame you hand your power away

When you take responsibility for your circumstances, you now have the power to change them

This doesn’t invalidate the very real presence of pain or trauma that may exist, but it does give you the foundation to begin your healing process when you recognize that the power to heal and change is yours 

This is one of the deep layers of trauma healing, and subconscious rewiring we address inside of the Sovereign Reclamation — 8-week 1:1 Rewiring Mentorship. 

Are you ready to peel back the layers, and come home to the power to transform from within?

That ego-mind running rampant in your head is blocking your connection to your heart

(↓ Save this for the next time you need to move through some heavy negative energy, or get out of your head ↓)

Let me preface by saying that there’s nothing inherently BAD about the ego-mind, it’s actually an incredibly powerful and important tool

But the design of the ego is to PROTECT

Which means that it is operating from a place of fear- it’s always looking out for potential danger

And you can’t get mad at the ego, it’s just doing its job
You just don’t want to give it the keys to the car

Here’s the switch—

The HEART exists in PRESENCE, and connects us to love consciousness 

It has an electromagnetic field that is actually 5,000x STRONGER than the mind, meaning that when we’re connected to the heart our magnetism (which attracts similar vibrations to us) is amplified

But most of us don’t know how to even ACCESS the consciousness of the heart because we never train our ego-mind to sit the f*ck down

→ So here are 3 things I do to get out my head, and into my heart: 

• Take a pause (many times throughout the day) to check in with how you feel, place your hands over your heart and intentionally breathe deeply into your chest, then hum with your exhale and feel the vibration of your voice in your chest

— where awareness goes, energy follows, so this brings immediate life force energy into your heart’s electromagnetic field

• EFT (tapping) — use your fingertips to gently tap rhythmically just below your collarbones

— this helps to move and clear stagnant or dense energy from the heart space

•  Ho’oponopono – forgiveness prayer: – Search Videos (bing.com) “I’m sorry, Please forgive me, Thank you, I love you”

— this is a traditional sacred Hawaiian heart healing prayer that clears karma. 

I use this prayer any time I’m struggling with feeling angry or hurt in a relationship.

Shifting from ego-centered consciousness rooted in fear and INTO heart-centered consciousness rooted in presence is a key to reclaiming Sovereignty 

Experience this liberating shift inside of my 8-week Trauma Healing & Transformational Rewiring Mentorship program, The Sovereign Reclamation 

One of the fastest & easiest ways to CHANGE our energy is… The 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩 

Our breath is our primary source of 𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘢 -life force energy 

There are 2 types of breath: the breath of survival mode & sympathetic nervous system — and the breath of presence & parasympathetic nervous system.

The nervous system controls bodily functions like digestion, heart rate, and immune system. The sympathetic nervous system carries signals that put your body’s functions on alert — whereas the parasympathetic nervous system carries signals that relax those systems.

Anxiety comes from the breath of survival mode, when we’re in this state of breath the ego mind is spiraling & searching for potential danger.

When we’re born into this world, we naturally breathe into our bellies. 

You see it in infants & children — This is the breath of presence.

But growing up in a world that conditions us to live through the ego, and function in survival mode due to the constant rushing, competing and defending, eventually causes most of us to 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘵 how to breathe.

When we breathe into the belly the diaphragm expands, stimulating the vagus nerve, which is the main nerve of the parasympathetic nervous system.

You are not your emotions.

You are a human being, experiencing the beautiful, wonderful, and divinely innate guidance system & internal compass that lives within you.

When we step back and allow ourselves to listen & be guided by this internal compass, we step into alignment with our true nature – our Dharma – or in my interpretation, our Botanic Body. 

And what a blessing, to hold this magnificent guidance system that will ALWAYS lead us in the direction of our truth.

__________________

Is it my intuition, or is it just anxiety? 

Anxiety is the expression of fear energy stuck in the body

Intuition is a subtle sense of knowing that comes from within

The key difference is this:

Anxiety comes from a place of fear
Intuition comes from a place of deep presence

Anxiety stems from the mind, feeling like panic
Intuition arises from the body, feeling like a peaceful knowing

So when you’re wondering, is this intuition or anxiety? Ask yourself this:

Am I stuck in my head? Is this coming from a place of fear?

If you’re able to get grounded into your body’s senses in a deep state of pure presence and that feeling is still there, that’s more likely your intuition.

The other piece of this is that fear IS stored in the body,

so that anxious feeling WILL also be felt in your body.

This is why having regular practices of feeling and processing emotion, and moving energy through movement like yoga or dance, is SO important. 

A body that is not stuck in old emotional energy is connected to a state of grounded presence, and inevitably, peace.

This is the way to Sovereign Reclamation 

Anxiety does not have to be a crippling force~ you have the power to cultivate peace from within by simply training your body to regulate through your breath. 

Breathe consciously into your belly, and extend the exhales longer than the inhales. Practice this for 60 seconds to start your morning to bring your nervous system into rest & digest. Come back to this any time you need it.

 in bio to tap in with me, love you 

Let’s stand in solidarity with the indigenous peoples of the Amazon, whose very culture hangs in the balance. The relentless encroachment of the meat and dairy industry threatens to strip them of their ancestral lands and livelihoods, reducing them to mere migrant workers, displaced and vulnerable. Without the sanctuary of the forest, their cultural identity and sacred traditions face extinction.

 They risk becoming slaves to industries that value profit over people and the planet. By boycotting all animal products, we can help safeguard not only the Amazon but also the rich tapestry of indigenous cultures that call it home. Let’s act now to ensure that their voices are heard, their rights respected, and their future secured,  Krysten ✧ Holistic Healing Guide (@ethericyogini) • Instagram photos and videos

✧ Krysten ✧ Holistic Healing Guide ✧ – Search (bing.com)

Alternative & Holistic Health Service

✧ Reclaim your Sovereignty 
 Retreat around the world with me
✧ Here to show you that all you need to heal + evolve is already within you 

Krysten ✧ Holistic Healing Guide (@ethericyogini) • Instagram photos and videos

Listen, you’re not wrong. You are not at fault for what hurt you..

“The Ultimate Healing power is believing in your research…” 

Some of the best advice is through Group Chat and YouTube Comment Section.

The majority of the baking sodas sold on the market are chemically made and legally allowed to be labeled as “pure. Real baking soda is sourced from one mineral called *nahcolite. It is sourced from lake beds in specific parts of the Midwest.

There are a select few brands that stick to outsourcing the natural mineral and use WATER extraction processes.

Bob’s Red Mill is one of them.

Simplicity it is!

Edit: Gentle reminder, stay on topic and do not move away from the goal— well being and education.

If your argument’s about “chemicals” and how this brand and other brands are the “same”, then your argument does not exist.

We’re not arguing about misinformation on baking soda having aluminum NOR arguing that Bobs is the same as other commercial brands.

If you want to make the argument, the argument CAN be about the PROCESSING.

Bobs use water extraction— dass it

Regular baking soda uses 2-3 chemicals in a factory to create the SAME BICARBONATE that is found in nature already.

Stick to that kinda argument. Peace ”

Shared Detox Dameby Sol Divine!

I take 1/2 teaspoon in water every night before bed. I have digestive issues which aggravates my stress induced urine retention. I also take dandelion root for my kidneys and bladder. It helps keep everything flowing properly. I had 5 kids in 7 years, so I also do breathe work to help relax my bladder, and strengthen my pelvic floor.     

Cathy Brogden

 crap that too. I’m so exhausted from it. Everything’s poisonous, everything you can’t even drink a glass of water without getting poisoned.

Samantha Kleckner

I feel the same way. I’m so sick of everything I eat ends up being tampered with with some kind of chemical, and then I changed that and then something else popped up, it is so destroying and exhausting. I totally agree with you about the drinking water, we pay for that water and they still put chemicals and stuff in that that is poisonous. I go around Kids all the time saying no you can’t have that poison. No, you can’t have that. It’s poison, and other people think I’m crazy. I do have an amazing water machine that gets rid of all the rubbish and realizes my water so I’m super grateful for that because at least I know one of the main things that I’m consuming and everybody needs is actually actually pure and good

Francesca Bilaniv

Lol this is entirely false. The processing methods are BOTH physical in nature (including water extraction among other steps) not chemical. No chemicals are used in processing except if they use a synthetic method of creating soda ash which leading brands of other baking sodas do not! Regular baking soda comes from trona, CO2, water, and physical processing. BRM comes from nahcolite and plenty of processing as well, quite similar to the trona process actually. The only “chemical” added to trona is CO2, which is quite literally the reason why nahcolite exists- because the evaporated lake beds where it’s mined from is high in it. There are 3 regions in the world where trona is mined, primarily in Wyoming. Also- BRM has a higher chance of trace contaminants like aluminum due to their processing and sourcing, for the record. So please explain what “2-3 chemicals” in a factory are believed to be used because that’s simply untrue.

Alyssa Culver Timone

Francesca Bilaniv What brand do you recommend?

Francesca Bilaniv

Alyssa Culver Timone Arm & Hammer works just fine. As long as they use trona and not synthetic soda ash you’re avoiding any extra chemicals

Na’dair Anclos

Fun fact. It’s all chemical. Even water.

Yvette Smith Lowry

Na’dair Anclos Exactly! Ths scare tactic ppl use by saying ‘chemicals’ is just sad. Pretty much everything is a chemical except like sunlight and wind. Lol. And the fact ppl like the op doesn’t even care to learn true scientific facts says everything.

Robert Wozney

I’m just learning more about this recently though I would share some links. Emf is causing lots of problems near me. Many are sick and dying around me in areas they cranked up the 5g towers. Unjabed are sick, sore, achy and many of the jabed are getting turbo cancers and rare cancers so many people with lumps on their backs It’s scary.

Sandy Duncan

Robert Wozney you might be interested in Sabrina Wallace videos on rumble, nonvaxer420, Ryan Velli … pulling down 5g towers will not necessarily help. 

 Clearing Radiation: A Detoxification Bath from (drkaayladaniel.com)

Jennifer Annette Lawrence

I thought sodium bicarbonate was made from trona.

Chandra Lundy

There’s baking powder which the argument is aluminum in. This is baking soda like an arm and hammer, separate things but now made complicated once again.

Sarah Kos

That butterfly non gmo symbol has been proven ineffective. You want it to say USDA ORGANIC. That product still has pesticides in it  

Mary Dylan

Sarah Kos Organic products have pesticides in them. Non-gmo means it wasn’t created using genetically modifying organisms. Stay clear of any product containing the warning label “contains BIOENGINEERED ingredients” which are ingredients that contain genetic material that has been modified through laboratory techniques and cannot be found in nature or obtained through conventional breeding. which is just about everything that doesn’t have the non-gmo/organic labels on them. All of your Big Corporation candy bars, HERSHEY’S, Nestlé,, soups, Campbell’s, ice cream, Friendly’s Ice Cream, Ben & Jerry’s, etc

Kelly Jackson

Sarah Kos I’ve been a farmer my whole life, I guarantee you that organic uses pesticides. I have 2 organic farms within half a mile, I see them spray their crops every year.

Carol Voogd

Really interesting! I recently found Bob’s on sale. Using it has produced a better rise in baked goods with no alum. Hence its 3 times the price of a non aluminium bicarb products

Beth Thoele Huston

I Love Bob’s Red Mill baking soda. I can tell such a difference in a good way from those other brands.

Virginia Gale Yanke-Friedman

Ted Bond ingredients R NOT ALL clean….I just checked their brownie mix… NoNoNo

Jonathan Kloud

PROTIP : anything made in a lab is going to be a lot purer than anything you find out in nature. you’re not eating this shit unless you’re bottling your own water. The cheaper, lab-made stuff is not only better, but this “non gmo” hippie packaging screams “buy me, you’re a tool and you know it!”   The Benefits of Using Distilled Water, Baking Soda, and Sea Salt for Your Health – sodafountainofvenice.com

My Cancer Journey ~ Shannon Knight – Search (bing.com)

From Personal Blog www.shannonknight.com

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment”  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Since my initial diagnosis of stage 3 breast cancer in 2006, 

I’ve likened my journey through cancer survival to various experiences. Still, none has resonated with me as profoundly as The Wizard of Oz. Watching it as a little girl, I found personal metaphors within its story that still hold significant meaning. My battle began in 2006, and by 2011, I had fully recovered.

However, in 2010, I faced a daunting recurrence: stage 4 breast cancer. Facing stage 4 was a test of courage. Despite the UCLA oncologists’ prognosis that I had only 3-12 months to live and that nothing more could be done, I was determined. Such a definitive declaration could either break you or fortify your determination to battle more fiercely for your existence.

If someone told me I would survive and live through it, I wouldn’t believe them because I was so scared. I moved forward anyway, with one step in front of the other, never knowing the outcome of any decision I made.

CMN Hospital Alternative Cancer Treatment (youtube.com)

I still had a lot of fight left in me, so Instead of giving up, I chose to leave my country and go to CMN Hospital in San Luis, Rio Colorado, Sonora Mexico, for advanced alternative cancer treatment. When I found CMN Hospital, I felt hope. And my God-given intuition said this was where I needed to go.

I had to raise the money because insurance would not cover the alternative cancer treatments. It took five months. 

When my friends and I reached our goal, I dug my heels into the ground with excuses.

It was February, my birthday, and Valentine’s was the 14th, and I told my friends I wanted to wait until after those holidays. My best friend snapped me out of it. She said if I didn’t go to CMN hospital, they would give the money they raised to someone else who is ready to fight for their life. I got the message loud and clear. Thank you, Heather Rayburn, for being a best friend who demonstrated tough love when I was too afraid of the unknown. You grabbed a hold of me often and reminded me of my worth.

I felt like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. 

At the film’s beginning, the tornado swoops up Dorothy’s house and spins it out of control. That’s how I felt when UCLA said I was out of time. When her house landed in munchkin land and she stepped out taking her first steps into the unknown. She wanted to be back home safe in her familiar life.

She was now in a land of spectacular color. She wasn’t in Kansas anymore! My life felt dark and dreary, like the muted sepia color that filled the screen for the first part of the movie.

Some of my worst fears came to life in my bedroom as I lay sick in my bed, especially at night. I was afraid of dying. My mind needed to calm down and faith had to be the only thing I clung to.

The moment I entered CMN Hospital, a burst of color and hope flooded back into my life; I was far from California now! My world was brighter than it had ever been. In the film, Dorothy headed out on a quest to return home.

Similarly, I yearned to reclaim the health I once enjoyed; I felt frightened and adrift. Glinda, the Good witch, advised Dorothy to follow the yellow brick road to also seek the Wizard of Oz’s aid in the Emerald city to return home.

‘The Wizard Of Oz’: This Is The Cast In Real Life | Watch (msn.com)

Alternative medicine represented the mysterious land of Oz onVimeo —

a new realm awaiting exploration and the journey toward my healing.

When I hear the song “If I Only Had a Brain” by the Scarecrow

I am reminded of everyone who thinks they have to do what their doctor says, those who don’t trust their instincts. I trusted mine, and it was never easy. I vacillated back and forth, over and over again, with my decision sometimes because I thought, “Who am I? I’m not a doctor.” I didn’t know I had the smarts to make the right decisions, even though all I had to do was follow my intuition. It turns out I was smart after all because here I am, completely healthy going on 14 years.

Hearing the Tin Man’s song “If I Only Had a Heart” – Search (bing.com)

Resonates deeply, reminding me of the self-compassion and love I needed to embrace on my journey. Initially, I was my own harshest critic, but over the years, I learned the importance of treating myself with gentleness. This shift required time, deliberate practice, and heightened self-awareness to recognize and alter how I treated myself, especially realizing I was kinder to others than myself. This realization became a turning point, particularly after my divorce in 2012, propelling me towards significant personal growth.

Hearing the Cowardly Lion’s song “If I Only Had the Nerve” – Search (bing.com)

Ah, the iconic song  “If I Only Had the Nerve” from The Wizard of Oz!  It’s a delightful tune performed by the Cowardly Lion, played by Bert Lahr. Let me share a bit more about it: You can actually watch Bert Lahr’s rendition of the song in the original film here. It’s a classic moment that captures the Lion’s longing for courage. 

Shannon Knight Twins beat breast cancer (youtube.com)

When the cowardly lion sings the song “Nerve,” I think of my twin sister, who also battled breast cancer five years after I had my victory, and her words remain in my memory forever. She said I’m not as brave as you, sis! I don’t have the strength you do to fight this. Just like the cowardly lion had courage all along, so did she. it’s hard to see sometimes when you’re in it so thick with fear. People around you see it later on; when you get to the other side and look back, you see it too.

Now… How about Dorothy’s ruby red slippers. She had the solution the entire time to get home with three simple clicks of her heels. How many of us walk around with the answer right there for us but we complicate our life because of our own manifestation of fear.

Through this process, I gained invaluable insights and became a certified life coach supporting other women facing similar emotional challenges. I discovered a typical pattern among women: the tendency to direct harsh criticism towards themselves, the kind they would never dream of unleashing on a friend or child. This journey taught me the power of changing the narrative we tell ourselves.

Looking back, I have often wondered if cancer was my fault, and I will never know. I know that traumatic events happen in life, and we have to learn how to cope and maintain self-respect. Self-compassion was the most crucial lesson in my life.

A Kansas farm girl dreams herself into a magical land where she must fight a wicked witch to escape.

My favorite song in the movie was “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” where Dorothy shares her dreams and how more life and goodness were meant for her. Somewhere over the rainbow, bluebirds fly if birds fly over the rainbow. Why, then, oh, why can’t I?

What an inspirational song of hope!

I thought of others who had miracles happen for them, so why couldn’t I? Those ruby red slippers represent that she had the answer all along but didn’t realize it until she went through the journey along the yellow brick road.

Dorothy had to face the Wicked Witch of the West and evil flying monkeys. I had to face a diagnosis of stage III cancer in 2006 and then a recurrence of stage 4 cancer; while, my ex husband physically assaulted me.

No matter what path we take for any cancer treatment, I would never know until I got to the end of my yellow brick road if it would save my life. Like with cancer’ ~ Dorothy’s nemesis, The Wicked Witch of the West was determined to thwart any chance of her getting home and even captured Dorothy, holding her prisoner in her castle.

She threatened Dorothy’s life and gave her only a short time to live.

Top 10 Things Only Adults Notice in The Wizard of Oz | Watch (msn.com)

My nemesis was “time.” I could relate to the sands of The Wicked Witches Hourglass in the movie. Time was running out. UCLA doctors told me I only had months to live. The witch emphasized that Dorothy only had until the hourglass emptied to the bottom. She warned Dorothy, “You see that! That’s how much longer you’ve got to be alive!” I couldn’t escape the hourglass that appeared whenever I closed my eyes.

Dorothy’s friends try to help her escape, but the Wicked Witch grabs a torch and lights the scarecrow on fire. Dorothy spots a bucket of water nearby and swiftly hurls it over him to extinguish the flames. When the water splashes onto the witch, she suddenly begins to melt. The defeated witch’s final words were, “Who would have thought a good little girl like you could destroy my beautiful wickedness!” Dorothy conquered her fear, and the witch failed with her death sentence on Dorothy.

RELATED: 50 Behind-The-Scenes Secrets: The Wizard Of Oz (msn.com)

I narrowly avoided death by refusing to give up and seeking treatment at CMN Hospital in Mexico. It was a period filled with fear. In those months, I faced skeptics whose views filled me with anxiety. Some skeptics were genuinely concerned, driven by fear and a sense of care. They lacked belief in the healthier choices I pursued. They offered their opinions and advice, but ultimately, I was the one who would have to live with the consequences of my decisions—no one else.

Cancer didn’t win; it couldn’t claim my life—I triumphed and healed! 

Despite my full recovery, the lingering fear of its return haunted me, especially since The American Cancer Society deems stage 4 survivors incurable. Yet, I believe in the immense power of our minds. It was crucial to maintain faith in my 2011 healing journey.

When questioned about the duration of my remission, I avoid the notion that I’m merely in remission. Instead, I assert that I have been healed or cured, recognizing the profound impact of the words we choose to use.

Every day, I continue to pray and express gratitude.

When people reach out, I offer prayers and try to inspire and lift their spirits. I’ve adopted numerous strategies to manage my fear and anxiety. Embracing the significance of savoring each day, spreading more love, and shifting my focus from my mind to my heart has been transformative.

Looking back, I’m thankful for the challenges I’ve encountered. They’ve offered a new perspective and have been instrumental in shaping me into the woman I am today. Throughout this journey, I’ve deepened my empathy for others and gained insights into the workings of our hearts and minds. It only takes a small measure of faith—a few drops from our bucket—to dissolve the formidable witch of fears, paving the way for us to craft our own happy ending.

Having loved ones who support your journey on that yellow brick road is necessary. While sick, I wrote out compassionate and loving affirmations and taped them on the walls. I read inspiring books, primarily faith-based, which gave me hope. I prayed daily. I know this helped me heal emotionally. My life’s purpose is to continue learning and teaching self-compassion.

Navigating the Crossroads of My

Cancer Journey

Cancer presents a daunting yet profoundly enlightening path with its myriad of crossroads. This journey, unique to each who walks it, has been a crucible of transformation for me, offering lessons wrapped in challenges and moments of profound insight amidst trials. I write this post to share my story and extend a hand of empathy and hope to others navigating their cancer journeys.

The First Milestone

Acceptance

Acceptance was my first, most challenging milestone. The diagnosis felt like a storm, uprooting normalcy and planting seeds of uncertainty. Yet, in this turmoil, I found an unexpected gift—acceptance. Accepting my diagnosis wasn’t about surrender; it was about acknowledgment. It was a crucial step that shifted my perspective from one of fear to one of proactive engagement with my treatment and future.

The Power of Gratitude

Gratitude became a sanctuary, a refuge on my most challenging days. It might seem counterintuitive to feel grateful in the face of cancer, but gratitude illuminated the richness of my life, even in the smallest moments. The warmth of a cup of tea, the comfort of a loved one’s presence, the serene beauty of a sunrise—these experiences took on new depth and significance. Gratitude didn’t negate the hardship but brought balance, reminding me of life’s dual nature—its sorrows and joys.

Finding Strength in Vulnerability

Vulnerability was an unexpected source of strength. Sharing my fears, hopes, and the raw truth of my experience brought healing and empowering connections. It taught me that vulnerability is not a weakness but a courageous openness that invites support, understanding, and genuine companionship on this journey.

The Role of Faith and Hope

Faith and hope have been my guiding stars:

Lighting the path through the darkest nights. I had faith in God in good times and through some of the most frightening moments when things don’t turn out as you hoped. the expertise and compassion of my medical team, in the love and support of my family and friends, and in my own resilience. Hope became the vision of a very possible future of more time with lived ones. Cancer was a chapter in my life surrounded by potential defeat and where doubt crept in I knew I had to keep yurning towards hope becauseI just couldn’t let this be the last chapter ending the entire story of my life.

Empathy and the Shared Journey

Through this experience, I’ve become part of a dear community bound by shared challenges, vulnerability and triumphs. The empathy and understanding within this community have been a source of immense comfort and motivation. It’s a reminder that no one walks this path alone and that together, we can face the uncertainties with courage, wisdom, heart and hope.

The Ongoing Journey

I am entirely healed from cancer, but the cancer journey is ongoing, marked by the reflection of all my victories and setbacks, moments of clarity, and periods of doubt. But each step forward was a testament to the human spirit’s resilience. The crossroads of this journey have taught me about the depth of my strength, the power of hope, and the value of faith in every moment.

To those on their cancer journeys, please know that your feelings are valid, your fears are shared, and your hopes are supported. If you turn away from hope you know what you will find and it is terrifying and dark. May you find strength in vulnerability, peace in gratitude, and a lit path always paved with faith and hope. Remember, this road is not walked alone; every step, no matter how small, is a victory.

The two most important days in your life are the day you are born

and the day you find out why.” – Mark Twain.

All of America Needs to Know!

Who has been acting as our Commander in Chief!?

Reminds me of the story, The Emperor’s New Clothes- one child pointed out the truth.

There are many more people who also want to know but they are afraid to ask.

We should all be very concerned because the government works for us.

I know the rest of the world and their LEADERS are at least wondering about our country. That is an important question.

 I see these thoughtful apathetic posts, encouraging us to all just get along. Well, if it means to do what we were forced to do during the pandemic all we did was become divided within our families and friends and we were silenced.

We were trained well weren’t we-to keep our mouth shut! 

Getting along, doesn’t mean accepting things as they have been. On the contrary it means more than ever before we need to unite because this is not that time to be apathetic. (to just get along).

It’s happened again, this time to someone else I know and love. 

Previously, it happened to another friend and to myself on the 18th. We were all sharing the truth about our personal health journeys. Google owns -> Youtube- Alphabet (Pharma) keep digging from there, more screenshots.

Shannon Knight and Chris Wark (rumble.com)

CENSORSHIP OF THE TRUTH

On Monday, June 18th, 2024, YouTube removed my interview with Chris Wark, Chris Beat Cancer originally recorded in December 2014. The video, where we discussed overcoming stage 4 breast cancer without the use of chemo and Chris also sharing his personal journey of defeating cancer without chemotherapy was a genuine intention to allow our experiences to bring hope to others.

Think of this, CMN Hospital.saves my life with Alternative Cancer Treatment in 2011 after UCLA gave me a horrific prognosis saying to me I only had months to live. Chemo wasn’t an option for me due to a compromised immune system and the doctor was incorrect; death was not imminent.

Google is doing the censorship because they own YouTube since 2006. Google, and Alphabet/Verily partnered (also teaming up with Pfizer). I posted screenshots that highlight their unmistakable connection.

I can’t remain silent because of censorship. We cannot be silent.

To those who’ve overcome cancer without chemotherapy and want to share, there is also Rumble because Vimeo as of April hired Philip Moyer as New CEO, Former Google Cloud Executive.

It’s good to inspire hope in others who want an alternative to chemotherapy. And this is not going to stop their own written agenda in my screenshots. Alternative medicine is considered medical misinformation now along with all of those against the Covid vaccine. It’s public and easy to find.

I am happy I still have the mp4 file of this interview.

We need to stand together united and demand some answers of what’s been going on with our country the last few years.

We HAVE been lied to., I’ve transitioned to Rumble!

I need only 20 Rumble Followers to build my channel!

 (I did it actually in 2020 but now I am transferring everything over from YT to Rumble !

After being accused by YouTube of spreading medical misinformation for a video with Chris Wark discussing our cancer survival without chemotherapy, I decided to leave the platform.

Our video was a sincere exchange about our alternative healing paths.

I’ve documented the incident from June 18th’s censorship Facebook. Truth (rumble.com)

#TRUTH  #censorshipoftruth#wizardofoz#shannonknight#breastcancerwarrior

With love and hope, 

Shannon Knight

In the Pledge of Allegiance it does not state, ” and to the Democracy for which it stands.” 

When was the last time you heard the pledge of Allegiance recited like the great late Christian comedian Red Skelton?

Give it a listen ! Red Skelton’s Pledge of Allegiance (youtube.com)

By Michael Ryan

Michael Ryan is Executive Editor of The Lion. A Kansas City native, he’s been an award-winning reporter, editor and opinion writer at newspapers in Kansas, Missouri, Georgia and Texas.

I write this today with compassion and concern welling up within me: 

Liberal leaders in politics and their misleaders in the media seem to be in the throes of an unbreakable, feverish distemper that threatens the very existence of this republic.

What appears to be a rabid, insatiable lust for power is driving the far-left to whip up blind rage among its followers, and to censor, sue and imprison its opponents – and now to suggest impeaching judges and imploding institutions that stand in its way.

All, quite perversely, in the name of “saving democracy.”

America isn’t perfect. But it’s the best, freest, most welcoming place on Earth. Yet, the left carries on as if the nation is irredeemably malevolent and its institutions must be burned to the ground for something pure – a collectivist utopia as yet unprecedented in human history – to rise from the ashes.

An anger-fueled Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-New York, famously disgorged his venom – not just for America, but for Israel – in a profane pre-election rant that, truth be known, may have accelerated his career’s death spiral. He lost, but the damage was done, the hatred spread among his faithful.

During Supreme Court consideration of abortion in 2020, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer   threatened two justices by name at a pro-abortion rally just outside the court, warning them, “You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”

Then, in June 2022, just weeks after the leak of the decision that would overturn Roe v. Wade, a man was arrested outside the home of Justice Brett Kavanaugh and charged with attempted assassination.

Difference between Democracy and Republic – Search Videos (bing.com)

The main difference between democracy and republic is1234:

• In a democracy, the people directly participate in making government decisions and voting on legislation.
• In a republic, citizens elect representatives to make decisions and pass laws on their behalf.
• Democracies are ruled by the majority, which means the majority of citizens have the power to make decisions.
• In a republic, a group of people (the electorate) choose representatives to govern on their behalf.
• The delegation of the government is to a small number of citizens elected by the rest in a republic2.

On Monday – as another of Trump’s supporters was escorted to jail – the left perceived the U.S. Supreme Court was letting Donald Trump off its legal meat hooks, with a reasonable, necessary decision protecting all presidents from legal attacks over official acts. It sent the left into full rabies mode, attacking the court’s conservative majority as alleged dangers to democracy.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, railed ignorantly, “Today’s ruling represents an assault on American democracy. It is up to Congress to defend our nation from this authoritarian capture. I intend on filing articles of impeachment upon our return.”

In actuality, the courts exist precisely to prevent “authoritarian capture.” And any cool and coherent mind knows that threatening a court with impeachment because it doesn’t rule the way you like is, itself, the very definition of a threat to democracy.

Then, most ominously, the president used his position’s primetime powers Monday night to issue a full-frontal assault on the credibility and independence of the judiciary because he disagrees with its ruling against his political rival.

That’s the stuff of banana republics.

Biden’s loathsome rant is even more dangerous and reprehensible than it is shameless and shameful. In five deplorable minutes, this president set back the cause of justice and eroded his followers’ paltry remaining respect for our vital third branch of government.

Moreover, some believe the decision in the presidential immunity case, on the heels of President Biden’s disastrous debate performance last week, will put ever-more pressure on the New York judge to put former President Trump in jail on July 11 – and perhaps, explosively, leave him there during the very Republican National Convention at which he will be formally nominated.

You can’t get more incendiary – or more Third World – than that.

“Rage has again replaced reason as commentators misrepresent the [presidential immunity] opinion and race to the bottom in reckless rhetoric,” writes George Washington University School of Law Professor Jonathan Turley – who is, notably, an avowed Barack Obama voter.

“Within minutes of the Supreme Court’s decision on presidential immunity, liberal politicians and pundits seemed to move from hyperbole to hyperventilation,” Turley added in a New York Post column.

“Democrats have become the very threat the court was meant to resist.”

All this, after having tried to frame Trump as a Russian asset and then launching a multiyear, multimillion-dollar sham investigation of what turns out to be their own handiwork; then the paper-thin impeachments; then the intelligence community’s lie that the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation in order to protect President Biden just before the 2020 election; and now all the criminal and civil cases having materialized after Trump filed to run again.

What won’t the left do to consolidate its control over the government?

What won’t it do to our country in its rabid, single-minded pursuit of a one-party state – which, elsewhere in the world, is known as communism and despotism?

All I know to do – other than write plaintive warnings about the existential crisis the left is igniting, and to perform my own individual civic duties – is to pray. Hard.

I implore all Christians and conservatives: Pray fervently for our country, and for any of our liberal friends who are being unduly and treacherously misled, at high velocity, toward rank authoritarianism – the likes of which we have only witnessed from afar.

It’s been 248 years since ‘we’ declared independence from Great Britain:

  The Roots of Independence – FrankSpeech

Lyme disease is the most commonly reported vector-borne disease in the United States. 

 Lyme disease: Why it is on the rise and how to protect against it (msn.com)

Prevention is the Best Medicine

When discussing potentially harmful pests, a common one you’ll often hear about is ticks. These strange creatures latch onto a host through physical contact. You might be out enjoying nature and inadvertently come in contact with them in the grass or by brushing against one on a tree branch. These opportunistic pests can also be transferred onto you by another person or your pet.

Unfortunately, these pests can negatively impact your health. While mosquitoes are known to carry certain diseases like West Nile or Zika, infected ticks can transmit Lyme disease, which can cause serious health issues for many people. The thought of ticks may have you asking the question: Where did Lyme disease originate? To help you better understand Lyme disease and its origin, the pest control experts at Mosquito Joe® have some valuable information to share.

What Is Lyme Disease?

Lyme disease is a product of the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, commonly found in ticks in the United States. While you can get Lyme disease from a tick bite, not all ticks carry the disease. But you should take extra precautions, especially when walking in areas that are heavily wooded or have a lot of tall grass.

Symptoms of Lyme Disease

Symptoms of Lyme disease can vary between individuals who are infected, and symptoms don’t always show up immediately. Lyme disease skin manifestations and other symptoms can begin to appear anywhere from 3 days to a month after the initial bite.

If you have be bitten by a tick or suspect you have Lyme disease, here are some critical signs to look for:

Stage One

• A standard bug bite: Most people won’t know they’ve received a bite from a tick because they won’t feel the initial bite. Tick saliva has a chemical that acts as a local anesthetic. The chemical numbs the bite area, which often results in a bite going undetected. However, things can change by day three.
• Rash: Rashes are common Lyme disease skin manifestations. They may not hurt, but they’ll be warm to the touch. It’s best to stay away from scratching it. The tell-tale sign of a tick bite is a bulls-eye rash that appears around the bite area. The rash is red in the center and has additional red rings of red around it, which may increase in size over time.
• Fever, headache, chills: In addition to a rash, you may also experience a high fever, headache, and/or chills.

If you experience any of these symptoms after a tick bite, it’s important to seek medical attention as soon a s possible.

Stage Two

Failing to treat stage one of Lyme disease can lead to more severe symptoms in stage two, such as:

• Widespread rashes over your entire body.
• Extreme muscle soreness and weakness.
• Facial weakness on one or both sides of the face.
• Pain in lower limbs.

Once again, if any of these symptoms appear, you should seek help from a medical professional.

Stage Three

Stage three of Lyme disease includes many of the symptoms in stage two. However, a person may experience more pain and swelling in localized areas, such as the knees and other joints. You may also experience arthritis in certain joints.

FAQs About Lyme Disease

How Is Lyme Disease Diagnosed?

Lyme disease is tricky to diagnose because it shares similar symptoms with many other medical conditions. However, if you have been bitten by a tick or suspect that you may have Lyme disease, a blood test should be taken to confirm any presence of the disease.

It’s important to note that depending on when the test is administered, blood tests for Lyme disease are not always 100% accurate. During the early stages of the disease, a blood test may come back negative. However, if you receive positive results from your first blood test, you’ll be asked to submit another to determine the severity of your Lyme disease.

How Is Lyme Disease Treated?

Additional research still needs to be done to improve Lyme disease treatments. It is currently treated with antibiotics While this treatment is effective in the early stages, many people report experiencing long-term effects like fatigue and muscle pain.

Can You Get Lyme Disease From Mosquitoes?

When you hear that one pest has a disease, it’s not far-fetched to think others may carry the same disease. While mosquitoes can carry insect-borne illnesses, according to the CDC (Center for Disease Control), the answer is no.

There’s currently no evidence that indicates you can get Lyme disease from mosquitoes. Additionally, mosquito bites are typically very brief, whereas ticks must hang onto their host for hours or days to fully transmit Lyme bacteria.

Long-Term Complications of Lyme Disease

As mentioned above, if you don’t address the symptoms of Lyme disease during the initial stages, it can lead to longer-term complications. Even after treatment, some people still experience side effects of the disease, such as:

• Bodily aches
• Arthritis in knees and other joints that don’t seem to go away
• Lethargy

You could also face some neurological effects of Lyme disease that can impact your memory, facial muscles, and the muscles around your neck.

Related: Beware Ticks In These States (msn.com)

Ways To Protect Yourself From Lyme Disease

Lyme disease can be very debilitating for those infected, but this doesn’t mean you should never venture outside again. There are steps and precautions you can take to mitigate the risks. Follow these simple steps when visiting heavily wooded or sparsely populated areas, especially areas with tall, unkempt grass:

• Use tick repellants: Spray tick repellant on your clothes and shoes before going to a grassy or wooded area. It’ll keep them away while you’re outdoors.
• Wear light-colored clothing: Ticks and other pests are attracted to dark colors. Wear lighter colors to reduce the risks and to help someone spot one on you.
• Dress for protection: Although it might be warm during the summer, you’ll still need to wear the proper clothing when venturing outdoors. Avoid wearing open-toed shoes in areas where ticks may lurk. Also, wear long-sleeved shirts and/or pants for the time you’re outside to avoid a tick latching onto your legs.
• Hire service professionals: Rather than waiting to find out if you have ticks on your property, be proactive and hire a professional service. A barrier spray treatment provides a protective shield around your property, keeping pests out and away from your family and pets.
• Check for ticks: Always check for ticks if you’ve been engaging in an outdoor activity. Have someone inspect your clothing or use a mirror to check yourself and areas you cannot easily see.
• 

Protect Yourself From Ticks and Other Annoying Pests

Insects are innovative, adaptable creatures, which explains why they have been in existence for so long. Protecting you, your family, and pets from the dangers of ticks requires a proactive approach. If you enjoy the outdoors, take preventive measures to keep ticks and other pests off your property.

For ultimate peace of mind, call on the professionals at Mosquito Joe®. Our tick control services are developed to protect your property from potentially harmful insects. We offer a range of pest control services. that are all backed by the Neighborly Done Right Promise™, which ensures your satisfaction. You don’t have to spend all your time indoors, because Mosquito Joe is making the outdoor fun again! Request a free quote today!

The symptoms of those suffering from Lyme disease are different but the cause of the illness is the same: infected ticks. These celebrities give visibility to Lyme disease and advocate for treatment and a cure.

While it’s important to be mindful of ticks when camping and hiking, they can also be found in parks, walking trails, and even our own backyards. Tick prevention can start at home by eliminating places where ticks like to hide. Keep your yard mowed and trees trimmed. If you are in an area where ticks are active, make sure to wear long sleeves and pants and apply a tick repellent with DEET or Permethrin.

Mosquito Joe knows what a pest ticks can be, that’s why we offer tick control as one of our signature services. We target bushes and shrubbery, which helps keep ticks out of your yard and creates a barrier around your property, protecting you against the risk of tick-borne illnesses. Call us today at  or request a free quote on our website.

To learn more about Lyme Disease or other illnesses that are caused by outdoor pests, visit our learning center.

Lyme disease is one condition that doesn’t care whether or not you’re a celebrity or a normal person. In fact, there are a plethora of stars who have spoken out about their own lifelong struggles with the condition. There are over 30,000 cases of the tick-borne illness reported each year. Among those are celebrities we frequently see on TV or on magazine covers; others are sports icons and some are Grammy award winners.

 How to Survive Tick Bites (youtube.com) Bing Videos

You’re hiking in the woods. Suddenly, you feel something extremely itchy. You scratch it, and find a rash like a red bull’s eye on your body. Looking closely, you see a small hole. And it’s painful. If you don’t act quickly, your life could be in danger. What to do if you find a tick on you? How long does a tick need to be on you? How do you remove a tick that is embedded?

Note: This video is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or another qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have seen on this channel. If you think you may have an emergency, call your doctor, the ambulance or the police immediately. Underknown does not recommend or endorse any specific tests, physicians, products, procedures, opinions, or other information that may be mentioned in this video. Reliance on any information provided by Underknown is solely at your own risk.

An Underknown show: <a href=”https://underknown.com#howtosurvive“>https://underknown.com#howtosurvive</a> #ticks #tickprevention #tickbites #tickremoval

Ben Stiller

Ben Stiller contracted Lyme disease while in Nantucket, Mass., a few years prior to October 20111. . He went to his doctor complaining of persistent knee pain, but it took lots of tests and time to determine that Stiller was dealing with the condition.

  He was tentatively diagnosed with Lyme in 2010 when a lingering knee injury became increasingly painful and wouldn’t go away2. He was treated and is now symptom-free123. 

Lyme disease can remain in the body indefinitely3.

 Thankfully, the star reports that he’s been symptom free after treatment. Ben Stiller health: Star’s ‘arthritic’ Lyme disease symptoms – ‘it’s a really tough thing’ – Worlds Family Medicine (wfamilymedicine.com)

Shania Twain’s song about lyme disease – Search (bing.com)

Shania Twain

The country singer opened up about her struggle with Lyme disease in July 2018, stating she suffered from dysphonia which affected her vocal cords. The disease kept her from touring and even singing. “I never thought I would sing again,” Twain said. Thanks to physical therapy and vocal training, Twain has released a new album and resumed touring.  Shania Twain – Giddy Up! – Lyrics (youtube.com)

Shania Twain, the renowned country music superstar, faced a challenging battle with Lyme disease. In 2003, she was bitten by a tick while horseback riding, which led to this tick-borne infectious disease.  the condition left her in such bad shape that she struggled to continue singing.  If left untreated, Lyme disease can affect the joints, heart, and nervous system1.

Twain’s symptoms were quite alarming: dizziness, balance issues, and even millisecond blackouts while performing on stage. It took several years for doctors to connect her voice problems to Lyme disease. The infection caused nerve damage that affected her vocal cords, resulting in a condition called dysphonia. Although her voice was permanently impacted, she feels fortunate that the disease didn’t attack another part of her body, like her heart. Despite the challenges, Twain now owns her different voice and continues to inspire fans worldwide23. 

 Shania Twain feared Lyme disease destroyed her voice | Daily Mail Online    

Alec Baldwin

 Alec Baldwin, the talented actor and comedian, has been dealing with Chronic Lyme disease for approximately 20 years. His experience with this tick-borne illness has been challenging, and he has faced intense joint pain and soreness1. The first time he battled Lyme disease, he felt like he was going to die. But it wouldn’t be the last time the two would face off. The flu-like symptoms hit him suddenly, leaving him bedridden and sweating through his sheets. He described it as if someone had snapped their fingers and put a spell on him2. Nearly 18 years ago, the actor was bitten by an infected tick.

The result was numerous bouts of severe Lyme disease symptoms.

Because of his struggle, Baldwin is vigilant in checking his children for ticks after they’ve been outdoors. “I want my kids to grow up riding horses and bikes and enjoying themselves every day and not have to spend every day with us going over them with a magnifying glass to make sure they don’t have any ticks on their body or their dogs, but that is part of the lifestyle of where I live,” he said.
Since then, Baldwin has been cautious about letting his six children play outdoors in the Hamptons, an area known for ticks. He and his wife, Hilaria, are vigilant about tick prevention, especially during mild winters when ticks become more active1.     

In an interview with People magazine he revealed that he was bitten and contracted the disease 17 years ago–and that a few years later he was bitten and infected again.  Alec Baldwin on Dealing with Years of Lyme Disease Pain (people.com) 

Debbie Gibson

Debbie Gibson got her start in the music world in the 80s and she’s had a solid career ever since. However, in 2013 she began experiencing scary symptoms without any discernible cause. “I was at a stop sign in my home town and literally didn’t know if I was turning right or left, but I was aware enough to know I didn’t know, which was really scary.” Her condition was eventually diagnosed as Lyme disease, but Gibson says she still struggles with some persistent symptoms, even years after the fact. Debbie Gibson, the ’80s icon and singer, has been living with Lyme disease for six years12. Lyme disease is a bacterial illness primarily transmitted by ticks and causes flu-like symptoms, joint/muscle pain, fatigue, and weakness13

Justin Bieber 

Pop sensation, Justin Bieber, announced his battle with Lyme disease in January 2020. “It’s been a rough couple years but getting the right treatment that will help treat this so far incurable disease and I will be back and better than ever,” Bieber said. The singer plans to use his voice to create content on YouTube about chronic illness.

Members of the Hadid Family

Yolanda Hadid, of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills fame, has been vocal about her battle with Lyme disease. Yolanda has published a book chronicling her experience living with the illness entitled “Believe Me: My Battle with the Invisible Disability of Lyme Disease.” Recently, the former model admitted after nearly a year of remission, her symptoms have returned. At the Global Lyme Alliance, Yolanda said she realizes “the higher purpose of [her] journey is to continue to bring awareness to this awful disease until the change is made.” Her children, Bella and Anwar Hadid, also have the chronic illness.

Avril Lavigne – Head Above Water | Greatest Hits Tour (youtube.com)

Avril Lavigne

In a letter to fans, Lavigne revealed she had been fighting Lyme disease. The singer started The Avril Lavigne Foundation in 2010 to support causes such as Race to Erase MS, Special Olympics, and UNICEF, in addition to Lyme disease. In October 2018, Lavigne joined the Board of Directors for the Global Lyme Alliance. Her most recent album, “Head Above Water,” addresses her battle with the chronic disease. “This is me and my fight. This album tells my story,” Lavigne said.

Kris Kristofferson

Kristofferson’s doctors originally told him his deteriorating memory was due to Alzheimer’s disease. After many years of strenuous testing, it was clear the singer had been misdiagnosed; after a positive test for Lyme disease, his symptoms were correctly identified. With the proper treatment, Kristofferson’s condition improved. A friend said of the iconic artist, “Kris is as sharp as he’s been in the past 20 years because of his treatments.”   

4 Lesser-Known Lyme Disease Symptoms That Doctors Say May Deceive You (msn.com)  

Celebrities That Have Lyme Disease and Their Experience – Business Insider

The Anatomy of a Tick and How Permethrin Works on Them (youtube.com)

15 Things About Ticks Everyone Should Know (msn.com)

List of Famous People with Lyme Disease (ranker.com)

How to Survive Tick Bites | Watch (msn.com)

Tick Bite Symptoms (msn.com)

The progress of science in the last 400 years is mind blowing. 

Who would have thought we’d be able to trace the history of our universe to its origins 14 billion years ago? Science has increased the length and the quality of our lives, and the technology that is commonplace in the modern world would have seemed like magic to our ancestors.

For all of these reasons and more, science is rightly celebrated and revered. However, a healthy pro-science attitude is not the same thing as “scientism,” which is the view that the scientific method is the only way to establish truth. As the problem of consciousness is revealing, there may be a limit to what we can learn through science alone.

Perhaps the most worked out form of scientism was the early 20th-century movement known as logical positivism. The logical positivists signed up to the “verification principle,” according to which a sentence whose truth can’t be tested through observation and experiments was either logically trivial or meaningless gibberish. With this weapon, they hoped to dismiss all metaphysical questions as not merely false but nonsense.

These days, logical positivism is almost universally rejected by philosophers. For one thing, logical positivism is self-defeating, as the verification principle itself cannot be scientifically tested, and so can be true only if it’s meaningless. Indeed, something like this problem haunts all unqualified forms of scientism. There is no scientific experiment we could do to prove that scientism is true; and hence if scientism is true, then its truth cannot be established.

In spite of all of these deep problems, much of society assumes scientism to be true. Most people in the UK are totally unaware that “metaphysics” goes on in almost every philosophy department in the country. By metaphysics, philosophers don’t mean anything spooky or supernatural; this is just the technical term for philosophical, as opposed to scientific, inquiry into the nature of reality. 

Truth without science

How is it possible to find out about reality without doing science? The distinguishing feature of philosophical theories is that they are “empirically equivalent,” which means you can’t decide between them with an experiment.

Take the example of my area of research: the philosophy of consciousness. Some philosophers think that consciousness emerges from physical processes in the brain—this is the “physicalist” position. Others think it’s the other way around: consciousness is primary, and the physical world emerges from consciousness. 

A version of this is the “panpsychist“ view that consciousness goes all the way down to the fundamental building blocks of reality, with the word deriving from the two Greek words pan (all) and psyche (soul or mind).

Still others think that both consciousness and the physical world are fundamental but radically different—this is the view of the “dualist.” Crucially, you can’t distinguish between these views with an experiment, because, for any scientific data, each of the views will interpret that data in their own terms.

For example, suppose we discover scientifically that a certain form of brain activity is correlated with the conscious experience of an organism. 

The physicalist will interpret this as the form of organization which turns non-conscious physical processes—such as electrical signals between brain cells—into conscious experience, whereas the panpsychist will interpret it as the form of organization which unifies individual conscious particles into one larger conscious system. Thus we find two very different philosophical interpretations of the same scientific data.

If we can’t work out which view is right with an experiment, how can we choose between them? In fact, the selection process is not so dissimilar from what we find in science. As well as appealing to experimental data, scientists also appeal to the theoretical virtues of a theory, for example how simple, elegant and unified it is.

Philosophers too can appeal to theoretical virtues in justifying their favored position. For example, considerations of simplicity seems to count against the dualist theory of consciousness, which is less simple than its rivals in so far as it posits two kinds of fundamental stuff—physical stuff and consciousness—whereas physicalism and panpsychism are equally simple in positing just one kind of fundamental stuff (either physical stuff or consciousness).

It could also be that some theories are incoherent, but in subtle ways that require careful analysis to uncover. For example, I have argued that physicalist views of consciousness are incoherent (although—like much in philosophy—this is controversial).

There is no guarantee that these methods will yield a clear winner. It could be that on certain philosophical issues, there are multiple, coherent, and equally simple rival theories, in which case we should be agnostic about which is correct. This would in itself be a significant philosophical finding concerning the limits of human knowledge.

Philosophy can be frustrating because there is so much disagreement. However, this is also true in many areas of science, such as history or economics. And there are some questions on which there is a modest consensus, for example, on the topic of free will.

A tendency to mix up philosophy with a growing anti-science movement undermines the united front against the real and harmful opposition to science we find in climate change denial and anti-vax conspiracies.

Like it or not, we can’t avoid philosophy. 

When we try to do so, all that happens is we end up with bad philosophy. The first line of Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow’s book “The Grand Design” boldly declared: “Philosophy is dead.” The book then went on to indulge in some incredibly crude philosophical discussions of free will and objectivity.

If I wrote a book making controversial pronouncements on particle physics, it’d be rightly ridiculed, as I haven’t been trained in the relevant skills, haven’t read the literature, and haven’t had my views in this area subject to peer scrutiny. And yet there are many examples of scientists lacking any philosophical training publishing very poor books on philosophical topics without it impacting their credibility.

This might sound bitter. But I genuinely believe society would be deeply enriched by becoming more informed about philosophy. I have hope that we will one day move on from this “scientistic” period of history, and understand the crucial role both science and philosophy have to play in the noble project of finding out what reality is like.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Provided by The ConversationThis story was originally published on Phys.org. Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest sci-tech news updates.

How Close Is Science to Solving the Problem of Consciousness?  

© Provided by Discover Magazine

One of the most difficult problems in neuroscience and philosophy is the study of consciousness. How does consciousness arise from physical matter?

In a 1995 paper, philosopher David Chalmers dubbed this question “the hard problem.” The “easy” problem, he said, is figuring out how the brain does things like see, learn, think and make decisions.

While not exactly easy, at least these questions can be approached scientifically and, given the right techniques and technology, might eventually be solved. The “hard” problem, according to Chalmers, is figuring out why and how, when we see, learn, think and so on, we have a subjective experience.

Some experts think we’re getting close to solving that problem. Others think it might never be solved.  

Competing Theories of Consciousness

Kristina Krasich speaks on ‘solving the problem of consciousness’ with Discover Magazine | Today at Elon | Elon University

Katrina Krasich is a neuroscientist at Elon University and a two-time winner of the Neurophilosophy of Free Will World Wide Competition. Krasich says there has been considerable progress in recent years on the “easy” problem.

“We’ve been at least able to assess what I will call enabling conditions,” she says, “what allows consciousness to emerge, or at the very least, what conditions prevent consciousness from occurring.” Much of this progress, Krasich says, is due to better technologies for studying the brain in action.

That still doesn’t tell us how we get from meat to mind, but many people in many different fields of study — neuroscience, philosophy, information science, mathematics, linguistics, psychology, physics and more — are working on it.

Read More:  Brains Might Sync As People Interact — and That Could Upend Consciousness Research  

Integrated Information Theory

One of the most promising current theories of consciousness is integrated information theory (IIT), developed by Giulio Tononi, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin. Consciousness, according to IIT, requires the integration of a huge amount of information. 

Consciousness emerges in a system — in any system — when that information is sufficiently integrated. It’s not enough for a system to possess loads of information (as does your phone); it has to connect all that information meaningfully. And the more that information is integrated, the more conscious the being that integrates it.

IIT has received a lot of criticism because it allows for the possibility of consciousness, or at least a very rudimentary form of consciousness, in places we normally wouldn’t expect to find it — in a proton, for example. It’s somewhat like a neuroscientific version of panpsychism, the idea that consciousness is inherent in all matter.  

Global Workspace Theory

A competing theory is known as Global Workspace Theory (GWT), first developed in the 1980s by Bernard Baars. GWT holds that consciousness is formed in an internal “workspace” as the brain processes information. According to GWT, consciousness is a byproduct of the information processing that underlies behavior. 

Others are studying the workings of the brain using modern technologies, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and transcranial magnetic stimulation, in attempts to unravel the conundrum of consciousness. Some, including Chalmers, now co-director of NYU’s Center for Mind, Brain and Consciousness, are even probing the connection between consciousness and quantum mechanics.

So, where do we stand? 

Read More: Can Quantum Physics Explain Consciousness? One Scientist Thinks It Might   

The Quest for Neural Correlates of Consciousness

Much of today’s study of consciousness is focused on finding the neural correlates of consciousness — neural patterns in the brain associated with specific conscious experiences or states. – Search Videos (bing.com)

While attending the annual meeting of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness (ASSC) in Bremen, Germany, in 1998, Chalmers and Christof Koch, a neuroscientist and champion of IIT, went out for drinks one evening and got to talking about the future of consciousness science.

Koch bet his friend a case of wine that within 25 years, science would have found clear (note the word ‘clear’) neural correlates of consciousness. Koch now insists he was genuinely convinced that science would meet that deadline, even if some of that conviction was due to youthful exuberance.

This June, at the 2023 conference of the ASSC — 25 years after the wager — the bet was settled. Experiments using fMRI and implanted brain electrodes looked at the brain patterns of human patients, and compared those to the conscious experience the patients reported when looking at pictures of faces and other objects. The results — presented at the conference — seemed to support some of the predictions of both GWT and IIT. However, the results were anything but clear.

Koch admitted that these results showed that no clear neural correlates had been found. 

He graciously presented his friend with six bottles of 1978 Madeira. (Chalmers says he was delighted — he’d expected a 1998 vintage.) Koch also asked for a rematch, double or nothing. Within another 25 years, Koch wagered, clear evidence would be found. Chalmers didn’t hesitate to take the bet but says he’ll be happy if he loses this time and thinks that the chances he will lose are better now, owing to improved technologies for observing the brain.

However, neither of the wagers requires solving the hard problem. Nailing down the neural correlates of consciousness, even if it can be done, won’t necessarily show how consciousness emerges from matter. That question has philosophical implications that may or may not be amenable to science. 

A New Generation of Consciousness

In 25 years, Chalmers will be 82 and Koch 92. Krasich, who is far younger than both men, is part of a new generation of scientists working on this problem. She describes herself as having a “bright-eyed and bushy-tailed approach,” perhaps not confident that the problem will be solved but hopeful. She expects that continued development of technology and more scientific discovery will lead to progress. “But,” she adds, “it’s really unclear if we’ll be able to answer with certainty how consciousness emerges.”

She is confident of one thing, though. Any progress will be the result of an interdisciplinary approach. “I don’t think that my field of study will have the answer. I don’t think that computer science will have the answer. I think that it will be an interdisciplinary answer.” There may well be more wagers to come as teams of scholars continue to tackle the perplexing problems of consciousness, both “hard” and “easy.”

Read More: Why Do Some People Always Remember Their Dreams, While Others Almost Never Do?

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Christy F. | American Lung Association

My story is a testament that love is everything, prayers are answered, and miracles do happen. Christy’s resilience and determination are truly inspiring.

Despite her ongoing battle with lung cancer, she continues to embrace life with courage and zest. Her story reminds us all to cherish each moment and find joy even in the face of adversity. 

In 2006, I didn’t feel well. I was really tired, had shortness of breath, chest pain, back pain, a constant, wheezing cough. I would later discover these are five symptoms of lung cancer. I always did small things to stay in shape, but after walking up a flight of stairs and not being able to breathe, I decided it was time to go to the doctor.

My primary care physician checked my heart, my spine and tested me for asthma. She said everything looked normal, to take Prilosec for 30 days, and schedule a follow-up visit. That was on a Tuesday. That Friday, I received a call that the X-ray technician had found several spots on my lungs.

At the time, I was only 38. I’d never smoked a day in my life, I’d been a lifetime athlete, attending college on a basketball and track scholarship, and we didn’t have any cancer history in my family.

In September 2006, after three months of testing in five different hospitals, I received a call from my doctor that he wanted me to come in to go over my test results. So, my husband Rich, my family and I met at the doctor’s office. The doctor shared that he and his team reviewed the results and that it was stage IV lung cancer. Everyone in the room began to cry.

By the time I was diagnosed, the cancer had spread to both of my lungs, my neck and I had a tumor the size of a golf ball in my chest. As the doctors shared the news, they explained I only had a 2% chance of living and that most with my diagnosis die within the first year. They were basically telling me I was going to die.

I never believed I would die. To me, thinking that way would be a waste of time. I heard the 2% living, not the 98% dying. So, when I got the news that day, I didn’t cry and I didn’t ask “why me?” I couldn’t go back in time and change anything, so why dwell on it? I set my sights on where I wanted to be and decided to spend my time living my life. All I could do was control the future and what I was going to do next. I knew it was time for me to put on my game face and that is exactly what I did! I looked at my diagnosis as a challenge or a competition that I was going to win. There was no way I was going to allow cancer to beat me.

At that point, my only chance of surviving was with chemotherapy because the cancer had spread throughout my body. About a month later it was time for me to start chemo. I was full of energy and determination, but the thought of putting poison in my body was something I needed to deal with.

So, I dealt with it my way. I went to the ladies’ restroom, locked the door, got down on my knees and prayed for God to take care of me and give me the strength I needed.

I immediately felt the urge to dance, so I did. I stood at the ladies’ room mirror and sang really loud and danced really hard. It was what I needed; I was then ready to start chemotherapy.

Every other week for 17 months, I’d show up for chemo.

They’d stick a needle in the top of my hand, and I would sit there for an hour and a half while they pumped my body with medicine that I knew was going to make me feel awful. And every day afterward, I would get up and go to work. No way was I going to let the cancer win.

I took control of the situation. I didn’t let cancer define me. My hair fell out, so I wore cute baseball hats. I gained 20 pounds, so I bought new clothes. I made sure my personal calendar came first, and my medical calendar came second.

We bought a motorcycle, we went on a hot air balloon, we went parasailing, and we traveled to so many places. Also, during this time my niece Keagan Christy aka Little C came into the world. I continued to live my life to the fullest despite my situation. After nearly a year and a half of chemotherapy, I was cancer free for the first time.

In 2013, the cancer returned. During a routine checkup, they found a tumor the size of a walnut in my chest. In June of 2013, they opened my chest and breastbone and removed my thymus and pericardium, a procedure that was almost unheard of for a stage IV lung cancer patient. I now have a seven-inch scar on my chest from the incision. I’m not ashamed of my scar and I don’t try to hide it. After six weeks of recovery from my surgery, I was cancer free for the second time.

I had always wanted to run a half marathon.

After winning against stage IV lung cancer twice, I decided to go after that goal. Six months after my open chest surgery I began training and in April 2014, I ran my first half marathon in 2 hours and 26 minutes. But just a week later, at my routine checkup, I found out I had stage IV lung cancer for the third time.

In May of 2014, the doctors determined I had several tumors in the lining of my lungs.

I went after round 3 just like I did with rounds 1 and 2—with drive and determination. And, as you might have guessed, I danced! And I did all the other things I loved to do.

I went to the World Series and a Fleetwood Mac Concert. I traveled to Key West, New Orleans and Costa Rica. I took my dad to an Indiana Colts football game and got to be a Coin Toss Captain at a Chiefs football game. I didn’t allow cancer to control my life, instead I was in control.

A year and 17 rounds of chemo later, the doctors decided to take me off the chemo to monitor me. In February 2017, I received fabulous news that I was cancer free for the third time.

But in October 2017, the doctors discovered two spots on my lungs.

After a needle biopsy, I was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer for the fourth time. The good news is that although the cancer is active, it is stable and there are no signs of new disease, so no treatment is needed at this time.

As always, I’m facing round 4 by continuing to live my life to the fullest. We went to Aruba and the Virgin Islands. We saw Hank Williams Jr. and Bob Seger in concert. I took my niece to see Ariana Grande in concert. I took my dad on a helicopter ride.

We moved to the Lake of the Ozarks where every day I get to wake up to a beautiful sunrise, watch eagles fly, listen to the birds sings, and look up and see a million stars in the night sky.

I ran the Lake of the Ozarks 10K. As I approached the third mile, I looked over at the incredible water and then up at the sky and thanked God for the wonder of it all.

When Rich and I met over 28 years ago on the dance floor at a sports bar, he had no idea that his wife would be faced with the deadliest form of cancer. I’ve always wished better for him. He didn’t sign up for this. But God knew our plans and that’s why he put us together. I wouldn’t be here today without Rich. I’m so very blessed that he’s mine.

My dad doesn’t like talking about me having cancer, but he did eventually share one story with me. He said that the day I called and told them I had cancer, he got in his truck and turned on the radio. The first song he heard was “Live Like You Were Dying” by Tim McGraw, which is a perfect example of what this is like. But I don’t live like I’m dying.

I live like I’m alive.

A friend of mine describes my story as my “Victory March” and I like that. Throughout my “Victory March” I have leaned on what I learned from my parents and from my coaches.

I continue to listen to my inner voice saying, “You can do it,” “Don’t give up” and “I’m strong.”

If I had one wish, it would be for everyone to experience what I have. Not the cancer, but the power of love, prayer and the desire to live life to the fullest. If I hadn’t been diagnosed with cancer, I would never have experienced and felt the love, support, and friendship that has been given to me from so many people.

I don’t spend any time thinking about the fact that I have cancer. Instead I focus on being happy and alive! I feel truly blessed. I know that God has chosen me to provide hope and strength to others that will be diagnosed with this disease.

Cancer will be part of my life for the rest of my life.

I’m proud of that. I have had the privilege of participating in countless research trials.

I always say yes! This research could potentially save lives by providing better medicines and treatments for future patients.

 I have also raised over three million dollars to support defeating lung cancer. To me, that’s what it’s all about—being happy and making a positive difference. On September 26, 2019, l celebrated being a 13-year stage IV lung cancer survivor. My doctors call me a miracle. That day, I opened the windows and sunroof of my car and drove down the highway with the sun in my face, with the wind in my hair, and my arms up in victory!

So now I’m going to listen to my music really loud and dance in front of my mirror until I’m out of breath. But I’ll keep going because I won’t quit.

Over 13 years ago they told me I would die within the year and—look at me now!

Christy has been battling lung cancer for over 13 years, but she never let it prevent her from living life to the fullest. – Search (bing.com)

Christy F Shares her Voice for LUNG FORCE (youtube.com)

Christy’s Story of Hope (youtube.com)

Christy F. | American Lung Association

Blog last updated: June 7, 2024

Author, Michael Lloyd Surviving Lung Cancer – Search Videos (bing.com)

Surviving Lung Cancer – A Patient’s Guide (lungcancercenter.net)

lung cancer center

 Do you have Lung Cancer?

Download a FREE copy of the book “Surviving Lung Cancer” now.

In the book you will discover:

 Exactly How The Author Has Survived Lung Cancer For Over 22 Years And Counting
 Conventional & Non-conventional Medicine Secrets
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 The Secrets To Minimizing Stress
 Secret Foods & Drinks For Lung Cancer Survivors
 Secret Mind Hacks For Healing Your Lung Cancer
 What To Do After Finishing Conventional Treatments

Click here now to get your free copy >> https://book.lungcancercenter.net/

How to Survive Lung Cancer – A Practical 12-Step Plan: Lloyd, Michael: 9781435704718: Amazon.com: Books

Surviving Lung Cancer – A Patient’s Guide (lungcancercenter.net)

Michael Lloyd Books | List of books by author Michael Lloyd (thriftbooks.com)

Beating Crazy Odds – A Powerful Cancer Survival Guide Kindle Edition

by Michael Lloyd (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

Beating Crazy Odds – A Powerful Cancer Survival Guide – Search Images (bing.com)

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars   2 ratings

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Beating Crazy Odds – A Powerful Cancer Survival Guide is written by a lung cancer survivor who beat a 1.2% survival rate and teaches other cancer patients how he did it!

The book arms patients with vital tools, essential knowledge and powerful mind-body-spirit exercises that complement conventional treatments to help win the fight against cancer, while at the same time developing the skills needed to prevent a re-occurrence.

Endorsed by a Senior Physician at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, author Lloyd augments what the doctors tell you with critical information they don’t tell you.

It’s a MUST READ for anyone fighting cancer.

The body reacts to our state of mind. By taking a proactive approach, patients learn how to minimize stress, dispel fear and stay positive in the face of adversity in order to help the body heal. Patients also learn how to create their own breathing and visualization techniques to help dissipate tumors by directing the mind, body and spirit to clean and clear specific areas where a tumor exists.

Visit: www.BeatingCrazyOdds.com for chapter summaries.

How to Survive Lung Cancer – A Practical 12-Step Plan

by Michael Lloyd

Written by a lung cancer survivor who understands what it takes to beat the odds, this book offers unparalleled hope and direction for anyone facing this illness. It is filled with specific exercises and techniques to promote healing and reverse side effects by taking a proactive approach in helping to restore your mind, body and spirit to an optimum state of health. Endorsed by a Lung Cancer Specialist and Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School, this book combines what the doctors tell you with critical information they don’t tell you. 

Visit www.SurviveLungCancer.com for chapter summaries.  

I am very lucky to have survived such a severe case of lung cancer but it was not by accident. Without a clear path to follow, I had to search through a great deal of material and pull from a variety of sources to assimilate knowledge and develop the skills that I needed to survive.

As I overcame the illness and returned to the cancer center for checkups, I would speak to other patients and family members, explaining what I did, in addition to the chemotherapy and radiation. I cannot begin to express the look in their eyes as they hung on every word. They were starving for direction and extremely grateful to receive advice from a survivor.

It was through these experiences that I realized what I had to offer, not only in the way of hope, but with specific techniques and exercises to help others heal. So I decided to write my first book on the subject, How to Survive Lung Cancer – A Practical 12-Step Plan, published in 2007. Since that time, I have been asked by a number of patients and professionals to expand the book in order to benefit not just lung cancer patients but all cancer patients.

Throughout this period, I also coached individuals and family members with various types of cancer who contacted me for additional help. I co-authored papers with doctors at the University of Virginia and have been asked to speak on several occasions, leading to extended Q&A sessions. The feedback I received helped me to write this new book and teach all cancer patients more clearly how to beat the odds and live a much healthier life, filled with love and joy.

Live Well – LVNG With Lung Cancer

“[This book] will be helpful to other patients.”

David J. Kwiatkowski, MD, PhD

Thoracic Oncologist, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School