Resources for Extraordinary Healing: Schizophrenia, Bipolar and Other Serious Mental Illnesses. Emma PhD Bragdon PhD
This book can save lives. It has much to offer our modern world of education.”
--Kent Ferguson, Co-Founder and Headmaster, Santa Barbara Middle School;
Co-Founder and Headmaster, The School Down Under (New Zealand);
Trustee; consultant; advisor to various public and independent alternative, progressive, Waldorf, Montessori, and therapeutic schools.
Dedication
This book is dedicated to helping all those who suffer with mental illness and yearn for mental health.
Acknowledgements
Grateful acknowledgement to the authors and publishers who allowed us to quote from their published works and the photographer Karen Leffler, who contributed photos:
Karen Leffler Photography, www.johnofgodphotos.com
Singing Dragon Press, for excerpts from Spiritism and Mental Health, ed. by Emma Bragdon, 2012.
NIMH, for excerpts from the “Final National Institute of Mental Health Report: Grants Number R12MH 20123 and R124H 25570,” prepared by L. Mosher, R. Valone, and A. Menn.
Author: Richard A. Kunin, MD for excerpts from “Principles That Identify Orthomolecular Medicine: A Unique Medical Specialty.”
Author: Andrew Feldmar, PhD for excerpt of “Minute Particulars,” previously published in the newsletter “In a Nutshell.”
Author: Susan Musante for excerpts from “Business Plan for Start Up and Sustainability Submitted to the Alaska Mental Health Trust for FY 2008 and FY 2009: Soteria-Alaska: An Alternative to Hospitalization for People Diagnosed with Serious Mental Illness.”
Peter Lehmann Publishing for excerpt of Judy Chamberlain’s “Preface” to Coming Off Psychiatric Drugs (2004).
The authors who have contributed to this book are extraordinary people who are pioneers in the arena of integrative health. I feel blessed to know them and collaborate with them, and am happy to provide a vehicle through which their work can become more well-known.
Deep gratitude to those who contributed stories of serious mental illness and the loved ones and practitioners who are part of their stories. Through your experiences, I trust others will be helped. May you all have everything you need to find balance in this life.
The great choreographer has led me to meet people from all continents of the world, to help me rise above the cultural constraints of my birthplace, North America, and broaden my perspectives. I am very grateful to all the people I have met who have contributed their viewpoints, skill and knowledge. I am especially grateful to the people I have enjoyed in Brazil who continue to help me explore the resources of Spiritism, and those in the USA who encourage me to bring back to my homeland what I have learned abroad. Special thanks in that regard go to Leah Harris at the National Empowerment Center, Mark Foster, DO, Toni Merrick, Gina Starr, Logan Roth, Kent Ferguson, and Laura Delano. My copyeditor, Leonard Rosenbaum, is an angel.
About the photo on the cover: We’ve come a long way since Herman Melville published Moby Dick in 1851, romanticizing the fierce hunt for whales, to dominate and butcher the beasts and render their oil as a source of energy and light. One hundred and fifty years ago, whales were the enemy, feared because of their size and their physical potential to wreck whole ships, sending crew and captain to their deaths.
Today, we recognize the gentleness of whales, and we can sometimes make benign and quite extraordinary connections with them. The photo on the cover of Marco Queral snapped by an unidentified fellow diver came to me in an email with the story of a 50-ton humpback whale that had been caught up in nylon crab trap lines that immobilized her at the entrance of San Francisco’s Bay in 2005. Divers went out to carefully cut her free, swimming close to her in the water, often touching her. Afterwards, the whale swam to each diver and made contact, seemingly to express her gratitude, before she swam away to her freedom. The diver who cut her head free, James Moskito, said, “the whale had her eye on me the whole time, watching, as if grateful. I will never be the same.”
Not long ago, we also held spirituality at arm’s length, as well. We wanted to make use of the power of the Spirit, and we supplicated so that our prayers would be answered. We were taught to fear the power of the Spirit. We were taught about the judgmental nature of God and about God’s capacity to punish us for our sins. Priests were given the authority to mediate between us and Spirit--as if Spirit was too vast and powerful to connect with personally. Fearing the power of Spirit, we even treated those who said they personally talked to God as crazy. Their reports of contact were at least “blasphemy,” as most believed no one could talk to God but Christ or, possibly, one of his apostles. Earlier in our history, during the Inquisition, as the Christian Church was positioning itself to be dominant in legal and spiritual affairs, millions who claimed they had a personal relationship to the Spirit were killed in public--burned at the stake or drowned. This reinforced the idea that only those endorsed by the Holy Mother Church Fathers could have the privilege of a personal relationship with God.
Currently, research scientists have shown that those who can personally move into and sustain transcendent consciousness--feeling the presence of God, angels and higher beings—are the ones most likely to experience extraordinary healing, also called “spontaneous remission.” This is how to disrupt the hold of illness, recall our innate intelligence, and recover balance.
We start by developing a personal relationship with the spiritual realms, whatever that means to each one of us. Prayer, yoga, meditation are all avenues. The attitudinal steps are to nurture forgiveness, gratitude, compassion, and appreciation for life. They help us recover both meaning and purpose.
Notice in the photo--that love and a desire for kindly connection have replaced fear.
Want to know more? The film Whale Rider explores the beliefs of the Maori of New Zealand, who respect the whale as an elder, a guide, and a deeply spiritual entity.
Introduction
“The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave.”
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
Those having extreme states of emotional turbulence (also known as mental illness), and their loved ones seeking care for them have few resources to turn to for help outside of conventional care. Psychiatrists and hospital psychiatric wards usually base their treatment on psychiatric medications but there are other ways of treating extreme states that can be more effective than psychiatric drugs. This resource book is for people touched by serious mental illness in themselves or their loved ones and the health providers wanting to know more about resources for integrative models of effective care. “Integrative” implies that treatment programs are woven together from the most effective treatments available, including psychological, and spiritual—not just biochemical. You will find information in these pages in a language that is straightforward and accessible.
Readers interested in studying the history, philosophy and the practical applications of the spiritual side of mental health--please refer to Spiritism and Mental Health (2012). This groundbreaking book, a collaboration of health professionals in Brazil, the United States, and Britain, describes the way in which Brazilian Spiritists view the origin and treatment of mental health issues, as well as the way Spiritist treatments are used outside Brazil. The book you are now reading is a companion book—offering practical resources to a general audience.
Why is the phrase “extraordinary healing” in the title? Today, the most typical or “ordinary” treatment for mental disturbance in the USA today is psychiatric medication. The resources for healing that we describe here are out-of-the-ordinary treatments, primarily involving psychosocial and spiritual protocols, as well as nutritional supplementation and bioenergy work (e.g., acupuncture, Reiki). These are considered complementary to what conventional medicine offers, and they fit well into an integrative medical treatment plan. These