Recently in Healing Category

The Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York, has announced that the famous Brazilian healer John of God is coming to conduct workshops October 1-4. The first day is already sold out. This will be his only visit to the U.S. in 2007.

John of God was the subject of an ABC special several years ago. The network's online write-up here doesn't conclude JofG was fake or insincere, but the producers clearly struggled with buying into his mysterious methods. As I recall, the show was a bizarre mix of gushing testimonials in no way undermined by reports that John owns an impressive Brazilian cattle ranch, despite the fact he charges no fees.

As to his abilities, John himself is modest. He is only a vehicle for God's divine love and healing power, he says. He dispenses special herbs to his clients, and performs "psychic" surgery when necessary (that involves no knives). Some of his manual procedures are performed up the nose where he may somehow be influencing the pituitary gland.

I've met people who swear John of God changed their lives and resolved major health issues. By profiling five people who've sought his healing assistance, ABC's producers revealed he has a surprisingly good track record.

Whatever's the case, I'm confident that Omega's workshops will be hugely popular, memorable events. If you've ever considered traveling to Brazil to see him in action, you might consider this New York venture an easier way to go.

Do you know anyone who has met with him? I'd love to hear your stories.

The July-August Utne Reader publishes four articles on soy, attacking the hot subject from different angles. Starhawk, aaugh, I don't want to shake your faith or heavy soy habits, but, really, take another look. None of these articles make me want to eat much more than my trusty bowls of miso. Soy milk manufacturers must be calling emergency staff meetings, the assessments of it are so negative! Here's the lead piece by Mary Vance, reprinted from Terrain. And here's an excerpt from Vance's interview on soy with clinical nutritionist Kaayla Daniel:

What health problems do you see in your practice that can be traced back to overconsumption of soy?

I work mostly with midlife women, and they're likely to eat a lot of soy and drink a lot of soy milk. They're taking soy isoflavone supplements because they've heard that it's going to help them through menopause. A lot of these women are very intelligent and educated, and, unfortunately, they get this idea that if a little of something might be good, then they should do a lot of it. They start gaining weight, feeling fatigued; they get lethargic and depressed, and when they go to a regular doctor, they're told "Well, what do you expect, you're getting old," and that this is typical of menopause. In fact, the symptoms are almost entirely coming from that change in their diet, which had to do with soy.

Here's an excellent paper written by Gisela Webb, a comparative religion scholar, on the spiritual dimensions and lessons of Alzheimer's--for sufferer and caretaker.

I have learned from the Alzheimer's ward the value of realizing that we all are going to die -- that, indeed, we are dying -- and so long as we are conscious, we are creating our heaven and/or hell, our peace and/or our suffering. The time to get rid of our own baggage (grudges, ego, and emotional wounds), get things in order, and strive toward a state of peace, forgiveness, and "self-forgiveness" is now -- before one cannot will to change oneself any further. That stage of Alzheimer's disease prior to death can be a timeless hell or, perhaps, a place where surrender and a kind of peace can prevail. I have come to believe that there is a kind of threshold crossed in the Alzheimer's process, where the experience of the Alzheimer's patient is the crystallization of life's actions, motivation, intentions, habits of thought, and memories. However, because there seems to be perception/awareness beyond the mind level, of a deeper self -- quite perceptible -- despite the limitations and distortions of mind and brain caused by the disease, there is the potential, the space, for therapeutic healing...

Meet Mark Patterson. He opens his mouth, and sounds come out.

Patterson knows his sounds soothe. Now he's beginning to research how his sounds might heal.

Patterson has no training in music or Tibetan throat singing. The sounds, he says, just move through him. He writes: "I was given the ability to heal others through sound during a near-death experience in the February of 1986 when I was a teen." He was subsequently influenced by a 1993 "Flower of Life" workshop he took with Drunvalo Melchizedek, and an event he attended featuring Barbara Marciniack. (Here are her books.) Then in 1995, Patterson received a phone call in the middle of the night from a stranger, a woman whose voice he didn't recognize. She told him that his future would reside in sacred geometry and healing sound. That sealed the deal.

In the past seven years, guttural sounds similar to those of Tibetan monks, and other tones with powerful frequencies, have come through him, and he's come to believe that his voice has the capability to "clear" a room of negative energy. His voice can also calm people down to such a degree that they fall into a sleep state.

When I first heard Patterson's vocalizations on his website, I couldn't believe he was naturally producing them. I contacted him, we exchanged emails. He's in the process of researching the effects of his sounds on other peoples' brain wave patterns.

Hear Patterson for yourself by clicking the audio buttons on these pages: Here's what I think is his most soothing segment. His technicians must run the sound on a loop since you hear he's taking no stops for breathing.

Scroll down to the bottom of this page to hear more (the chant also might spring on automatically). And here is Patterson amplified by the accoustics of an Egyption temple.

For the sake of comparison, here are the guttural mantra chants of Tibetan monks . Click around and tell me what effect these sounds have on you!