Faith, Hope and Healing: Inspiring Lessons Learned from People Living with Cancer - Hardcover

Siegel, Bernie; Sander, Jennifer

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0470289015 ISBN 13: 9780470289013

Publisher: Trade Paper Press, 2009

Synopsis

faith, hope & healing

Inspiring Lessons Learned from People Living with Cancer

""Bernie Siegel is one of the greatest healers of our time. The stories he shares in Faith, Hope, and Healing demonstrate the healing effect of treating cancer not just with conventional medicine but by changing the way you think about your disease, the way you act toward those who love and care for you, and the way you feel about yourself. The mind is the most powerful tool you have for fighting back.""

-Deepak Chopra, author of Jesus: A Story of Enlightenment

Praise for Bernie Siegel

for Prescriptions for Living

""Bernie Siegel is a brilliant beacon broadcasting a message of hope. When high-tech medicine is supplemented with love and compassion, we have not only curing but also healing, which is what Siegel's message is all about.""

-Larry Dossey, M.D., author of Healing Words

for Help Me to Heal

""If you or a loved one have to go through major medical care . . . this book can be . . . life-saving and soul-saving.""

-Andrew Weil, M.D., the New York Times bestselling author of Spontaneous Healing and Eight Weeks to Optimum Health

for 365 Prescriptions for the Soul

""Bernie Siegel dispenses spiritual medicine that's good for you, and feels good too! I highly recommend these daily doses of eternal wisdom.""

-Marianne Williamson, author of Everyday Grace

""Bernie is one of the world's most respected doctors. I would pay close attention to any prescription he offers. I read from this each day.""

-Wayne Dyer, author of Getting in the Gap

""Dr. Siegel's soul medicine is dispensed in perfect doses to uplift, inspire, enlighten, and heal you. As always, Bernie's wisdom and love gave me goosebumps, or should I say god-bumps. Buy a carton of this medicine-in-a-book and administer it to everyone you love.""

-Joan Borysenko, Ph.D., author of Inner Peace for Busy People

for Love, Magic, and Mudpies

""Dr. Bernie Siegel has been my mentor and friend for many years. His wisdom has been a beacon of healing and humor. Love, Magic, and Mudpies is as funny, wise, and practical as its magical author. Every parent needs this book.""

-Christiane Northrup, M.D., author of Mother-Daughter Wisdom

""Love, Magic, and Mudpies is a wonderful, wise, and very funny antidote to the No-Parent-Is-Perfect-Enough school of parenting. Bernie Seigel's delightful new book could only have been written by a seasoned father and grandfather who is also a pioneer of holistic medicine.""

-Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D., author of Kitchen Table Wisdom

""Dr. Bernie Siegel is a living demonstration of the healing power of commitment, compassion, and love. What he offers the world in Love, Magic, and Mudpies is a testimony of his wisdom. No matter what ails you, a dose of Bernie Siegel and his work is sure to work magic in your soul.""

-Iyanla Vanzant, author of One Day My Soul Just Opened Up

for Peace, Love & Healing

""Bernie Siegel [is] a doctor who loves. In this age of massive, impersonal medical technology, his advocacy of human caring is a necessity.""

-Larry LeShan, Ph.D., author of Cancer as a Turning Point

""I was enthralled with this book. [This] truly great book ... combines sound thought with captivating humor.""

―Norman Vincent Peale

About this title

About the Author

Bernie Siegel, M.D., speaks and runs workshops across the country and is devoted to humanizing medical care and medical education. His books Love, Medicine, and Miracles; Peace, Love, and Healing; and How to Live between Office Visits are classics in the field of healing.

Jennifer Sander and her writing have been featured on CNBC, CNN, The View, USA Today, Fortune Small Business, and Fox News, among other media outlets.

From the Back Cover

In his monumental bestseller, Love, Medicine, and Miracles, Dr. Bernie Siegel broke new ground by revealing the powerful role the mind can play in fighting illness. His dramatic stories of seriously ill patients whose sheer will, determination, and love helped them survive against the odds inspired countless readers to consider the possibility of participating in their own healing. This new companion volume to Dr. Siegel's timeless classic takes the journey further.

Faith, Hope, and Healing presents the remarkable stories of what happened to patients who followed Dr. Siegel's advice. You'll meet courageous women and men who have not only been cured of cancer, but have also found deeper faith, hope, joy, and healing by coming to terms with their own mortality.

Grouped into sections on faith, hope, and healing, these first-person accounts and Siegel's insightful commentaries encourage and help you to develop a survivor's attitude and personality traits. They also offer proven strategies for getting through difficult times and discovering the gifts-true gifts-that illness can bring into your life.

Among the survivors who tell their stories here, you'll find a woman who discovered on the same day that she had lost her battle for the custody of her three sons and that her breast cancer had returned. In the midst of utter catastrophe and defeat, with no hope in sight, she discovered a love of life she had never known before. You'll also meet the woman who asked, "Why me?" when she was diagnosed with cancer, and was surprised when a little voice inside her answered, "Why not?" And, a successful veterinarian reveals how his throat cancer taught him things about pets that he had never learned in school.

All of the stories in this deeply supportive collection help you discover what Dr. Siegel calls the "side effects" of cancer: the wake-up call that urges you to begin your life anew, a heightened understanding of what really matters to you and what doesn't, and the courage to take control of your own healing process as you work with caregivers to cure your illness.

For more than twenty years, Dr. Siegel has been educating cancer patients on the importance of the spiritual life in facing and recovering from cancer. In Faith, Hope, and Healing, he helps you learn from the experiences of others how to recognize the disease as a wake-up call that leads you to seek nourishment for yourself and your life, start building a more authentic and fulfilling today, and keep it going for many years to come.

From the Inside Flap

In his monumental bestseller, Love, Medicine, and Miracles, Dr. Bernie Siegel broke new ground by revealing the powerful role the mind can play in fighting illness. His dramatic stories of seriously ill patients whose sheer will, determination, and love helped them survive against the odds inspired countless readers to consider the possibility of participating in their own healing. This new companion volume to Dr. Siegel's timeless classic takes the journey further.

Faith, Hope, and Healing presents the remarkable stories of what happened to patients who followed Dr. Siegel's advice. You'll meet courageous women and men who have not only been cured of cancer, but have also found deeper faith, hope, joy, and healing by coming to terms with their own mortality.

Grouped into sections on faith, hope, and healing, these first-person accounts and Siegel's insightful commentaries encourage and help you to develop a survivor's attitude and personality traits. They also offer proven strategies for getting through difficult times and discovering the gifts-true gifts-that illness can bring into your life.

Among the survivors who tell their stories here, you'll find a woman who discovered on the same day that she had lost her battle for the custody of her three sons and that her breast cancer had returned. In the midst of utter catastrophe and defeat, with no hope in sight, she discovered a love of life she had never known before. You'll also meet the woman who asked, "Why me?" when she was diagnosed with cancer, and was surprised when a little voice inside her answered, "Why not?" And, a successful veterinarian reveals how his throat cancer taught him things about pets that he had never learned in school.

All of the stories in this deeply supportive collection help you discover what Dr. Siegel calls the "side effects" of cancer: the wake-up call that urges you to begin your life anew, a heightened understanding of what really matters to you and what doesn't, and the courage to take control of your own healing process as you work with caregivers to cure your illness.

For more than twenty years, Dr. Siegel has been educating cancer patients on the importance of the spiritual life in facing and recovering from cancer. In Faith, Hope, and Healing, he helps you learn from the experiences of others how to recognize the disease as a wake-up call that leads you to seek nourishment for yourself and your life, start building a more authentic and fulfilling today, and keep it going for many years to come.

Reviews

In this collection of first-person accounts, doctor and author Siegel (Love, Medicine, and Miracles) brings together almost three dozen cancer patients (or close relations of) to share their stories and the lessons they've learned. Many entries tackle the moment of diagnosis (the first, from survivor Angela Passidomo Trafford, opens with the line, "How many times do I have to have cancer?!"), while others pick up at the moment the diagnosis first hits home; still others focus on the end, like Ann Martin Bowler, whose sick brother passed days after a reinvigorating near-death experience. Lynn Zeller contributes a list of the "eight practices" she discovered through cancer that have led to a "wonderfully expanded experience of life" (including a focus on gratitude, mindfulness, and the idea that the universe "is in a conspiracy for my good"); Edwina Ford focuses on her afflicted husband's admiration, and efforts on behalf, of Lance Armstrong's post-surgery Tour de France comeback. For each piece, Siegel provides a reflection and a moral ("Life's difficulties are what teach us to grow") that clarify and encourage. Anyone struggling with cancer will find many relatable voices and, in Siegel, a compassionate expert commentator.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Faith, Hope and Healing

Inspiring Lessons Learned from People Living with CancerBy Bernie Siegel Jennifer Sander

John Wiley & Sons

Copyright © 2009 Bernie Siegel and Jennifer Sander
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-470-28901-3

Chapter One

God Handed Me a Gift

Angela Passidomo Trafford

How many times do I have to have cancer?! I stood in the center of my living room with the phone receiver still dangling in my hand and raged against God at the total unfairness and tragedy of my life. I'd just received two phone calls within minutes of each other. The first coldly informed me that, after years of international courtroom battles with my first husband, I'd lost custody of my three beloved boys. The second call, almost as cold, was from my doctor informing me that my breast cancer had returned.

What were my options? I had no money to continue fighting for custody. I didn't even have the money to go and see them. I saw no reason for a future, and I was in so much pain that I could no longer stand to be inside my own body. Suicide was an option. I realized in a moment of truth, though, that threatening suicide was yet another attempt to manipulate God to my own ends. My ego admitted defeat, and I got down on my knees in my living room and admitted that I wanted to live. I also admitted that I did not know how to live, that all my attempts at living life had ended in tragedy, pain, and illness. I let go of my life and asked God to show me how to live.

Without knowing exactly where I was going or why, I got into my car and began to drive aimlessly in a haze of fear and suffering. Fully alive to the realities of my life for perhaps the first time, I spotted a fortune-teller's sign and turned into the driveway. When this woman answered the door, she took one look at my face and said, "I don't know what has happened to you, but this will all turn around for you in the next few years." I hung on to her words as I headed back to the car and continued my aimless journey.

I ended up at the public library in my town, a spot I'd never before visited. As I wandered along the shelves, my eyes too glazed to pick out the titles of the books in front of me, the librarian approached me. In her hands she held a book-Love, Medicine, and Miracles by Bernie Siegel, M.D. She said, "Have you read this book?" I shook my head, no, I hadn't, and took the book she handed to me. However had she known that was what I needed at that moment? It was an amazing beginning to a journey of healing.

I wept as I read the book at home. Here were the answers I'd been seeking, and I knew this was the response to my prayers. God had handed me a great gift, he had answered me. The humility and gratitude were a welcome relief, a balm to my soul. It was a joy to look to God for help now instead of having to bluff my way through life, pretending to know it all. In the next few weeks, with the help of God, I began to take charge of my life and my health. My scheduled biopsy was three weeks away, and I planned to make real changes to myself before then.

I began rising at dawn and watching the first pink rays of sunlight sweeping the sky. I reached inside and thanked God for each new day, releasing tears of gratitude, which were followed by an immense rush of energy that was none other than the healing energy of hope. I'd take bike rides, fully alive to the moment like a child. After riding I would sit on my couch and practice the meditation and visualization exercises that Bernie had recommended in his book.

To my amazement one day, a visualization came forth from within myself of little birds eating golden crumbs; the little birds were the immune system cells and the crumbs were the cancer cells. I visualized the cancer in the form of golden crumbs, buttery and rich. I would follow this visualization by imagining a white light coming down through the top of my head, flowing throughout my entire body and healing me.

One morning after almost three weeks of biking and meditating, I sat down on the couch to begin my routine. As I began my visualization of the little white birds, something different happened. All of a sudden I felt the white light flow through the top of my head with tremendous force and energy. I can remember the exact experience-it was the experience of my duality as a human being. My heart pounded wildly as this tremendous heat and energy entered me. My rational mind was saying, "Get up! You are having a heart attack!" I ignored it calmly, not thinking of anything but simply letting myself go to the experience. I chose to let go and allow my being to become one with that beautiful light, that powerful energy.

Moments later I lay slumped on the couch. What a feeling-for the first time in my life my mind was free of all thought. For the first time in my life I experienced a deep, silent peace. It was like a smile in my heart. I knew, I just knew, that something wonderful had happened.

When my husband returned home that day, I told him what had happened and then shared with him my secret belief-that if another mammogram was taken, it would be clear. "They won't find anything there," I told him confidently.

I kept my doctor's appointment later that week. Before we began, my doctor came in with the previous mammogram in his hand, placing it on the light board so that I could see the cancerous dark shadow that lurked within. I said nothing about my healing experience to him, but I expressed no fear at the sight of the film. I was in a state of balance with myself, and I knew how it would turn out. The doctor left, I undressed, and the technician took a mammogram. I dressed again and waited for the doctor to come back and discuss the new pictures. But it was the technician who returned: "The doctor wants just one more mammogram."

Actually, the doctor wanted eight mammograms that day, before finally acknowledging what I already knew deep inside-that the cancer was gone. He was happy and excited for me, but mystified. I told him about the little birds and the golden crumbs. I told him about the powerful white light. He looked into my eyes, took both my hands in his, and said with true sincerity, "Call it little birds, or call it what you will, but you are a very lucky woman."

BERNIE'S REFLECTION

Everything in the universe is subject to change, and everything is on schedule. I would say Angela is not a lucky woman, she is an exceptional woman. Why call it luck? Why not give her the credit and learn from what she did and share her story with other patients? Between a painful custody battle and a life-threatening illness recurring, she saw very little in her life worth living for. It is only natural to feel this way. It was truly a miracle that Angela was able to find inspiration at the lowest point in her life. Rather than choose to lose her physical life, she chose to eliminate the life that was killing her, and in so doing she literally saved her own life. I always encourage people to never give up or forget the blessings that life still has to offer. To spend time thinking about what you are grateful for each day can help you survive. Your body needs to receive a "live" message so it, too, will fight for your life. We are capable of making genetic changes, as are bacteria, viruses, and plants when they are affected by antibiotics, vaccines, and droughts, and are still able to survive. Of course, it is easier for them to choose life because they do not have all the stress and problems people have.

Angela was more than lucky to achieve her outcome and survival. She did something powerful that made a difference in her healing. She accepted herself, her divine origin, and the power of inner peace to heal her life. She chose life rather than death despite cancer and divorce. As a result, her disease was cured as well. The doctor would have learned something powerful if he had asked Angela to tell her story so he could pass it on to other patients as a source of encouragement and hope.

After reading Love, Medicine, and Miracles, Angela began the journey of healing her body by healing her mind. The book may have inspired her, but she did the work that made the difference. We can coach others, but they need to show up for practice and rehearsals, or the best coaching in the world is ineffective. With her strong, positive attitude and faith in God, she found an exercise that helped to change her life. Angela's image of the birds feeding on the cancer gave her the reassurance she needed to know that everything was going to be all right. This peaceful image was not about killing the enemy and fighting a war, but about nourishment and healing.

I suggest you find a visual image that feels comfortable for you and provides you with hope and empowerment. I know a woman who had no results when she saw her white cells as vicious dogs eating her tumor, but when the tumor became a block of ice in her visualization, God's light melted it away.

Remember to live each day to the fullest, and like Angela did, take pleasure in simple activities that most people take for granted. When you listen to your inner self, all will be made clear to you.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Faith, Hope and Healingby Bernie Siegel Jennifer Sander Copyright © 2009 by Bernie Siegel and Jennifer Sander. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Edition details

• Publisher: Trade Paper Press
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0470289015
• ISBN 13: 9780470289013
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240