I am a woman who, through trust in inner sources of love and acceptance, has transcended a crippling and supposedly fatal disease to achieve complete health and wholeness. Throughout most of my life, I suffered from Anterior Horn Cell disease, a progressive, degenerative neurological condition originating in the gray matter of the spinal cord, which doctors told me would leave me completely crippled by age twenty-five and end my life by forty. Physically, this meant I was locked inside a body slowly collapsing inward, losing muscle mass in my arms and pulling the tendons of my hands into the shape of claws. After eighteen surgeries, I made a decision to step out of the medical box and explore energetic healing modalities. I was guided through that experience by remarkable healers. I understood the possibility of healing lies in the psyche and takes root where disunion between mind and body ceases to exist. Many others who face physical challenges stemming from emotional injury, as I did, might recognize themselves in my story.
One of my initial healing experiences was with Jon, who became a healer refusing to believe doctors who predicted he would be a paraplegic following an accident, and who healed himself through the practice of Qigong, a powerful Chinese system of energy medicine. He told me that my spine looked like a train wreck. Apparently I had suffered an injury to my brain when I was around five years old, which was likely the cause of the ongoing problems with my hands. My first healing session with him ultimately led to me to believe that the disease located in my spinal cord wasn’t what the doctors had said it was. And rather, it had to do with deep-seated issues of abandonment and fear. And the healing messages were clear: as I healed my soul, I would heal the phenomenon with me that had caused my hands to shut down. Jon also told me that I would not only heal but I would bring healing to others.
At the beginning of our next session, Jon asked me what I wanted to do in my life. He suggested I keep the door open to all opportunities, even those I hadn’t considered. After the session he asked me a great question: “What are you going to do to open the door? Let the universe know you want to serve others, and it will happen. Just open the door, and stop trying to figure everything out rationally. In other words, get out of your head.”
(Excerpt from Unlocking the Invisible Child: A Journey from Heartbreak to Bliss by Laura Mayer, copyright 2012)