Introduction

Spinestraightener is a website created to inform on a journey of alternative healing from a life long spinal disorder of scoliosis.

When I was 13 I first started having allot of pain in my back. I went to a Medical Doctor, he took a x-ray of my back and told me I had scoliosis. He gave me a brace and said do not do anything to aggravate it, basically he wanted me to lay on my back for months. I wore the brace the doctor gave me for a couple of years, it didn't make me any straighter and in my opinion any back brace worn over a long period of time will weaken your back and stomach muscles. I consulted a orthopedic surgeon who wanted to fuse the vertebrae in my spine, he said the only thing I couldn't do for the rest of my life was to jump off a diving board! That didn't sound quite right so I declined surgery. In my teens and twenties whenever my back would start hurting I would try a chiropractor for some relief from the pain, who were of little to no help. I probably went too twenty different chiropractor's over the years. I went to a few more Medical Doctors in my twenties with a few basic questions. Why does my back curve? Why are my hips uneven? Are my legs different lengths, tilting my hips and causing the scoliosis? No one was ever able to answer any of these questions.

MRI of my spine in 1991



In 1991 I was 31 and my spine had enough and went into some major spasm, I could hardly walk and was in extreme pain for months, that's when the MRI was taken. I saw a Medical Doctor who said their were three nerves bulging in my spine causing the pain, and he was not sure witch of the three were causing mine. He could only offer surgery witch I declined, and physical therapy witch I tried. I had a robust female physical therapist laying on top of me trying to force my spine straight by using her arms and weight, I guess she thought she could wrestle my spine straight, but it was no use. I then saw another chiropractor who told me to put a 1/4 inch lift in my right shoe, every time I went back to the chiropractor she told me to put more lift in my shoe, when there was no more room for my foot in my shoe I went to shoe repair store and had them build up the outside of my right shoe. The first couple of months I put a 1 and 1/2 inch lift and as my back settled I realized I put to much lift and went to 3/4 of inch. The 3/4 inch in my right shoe made it much easier to walk and my back stopped hurting for a while, I convinced myself that my right leg was shorter than my left and that was the main cause of my problems. A few years later my cervical spine (neck) started giving me lots of problems. I was constantly pinching nerves in my neck witch was extremely painful and it was progressively getting worse.

In 1997 I went to a orthopedic surgeon at UCLA for a consultation, when he looked at my MRI, he said I had the spine of 70 year old man someone twice my age and the only thing he could do was surgery on my cervical spine to relieve the nerve pinch. I went to another orthopedic surgeon and asked him if could measure my legs to see if they were really different lengths, he did a scanogram and said yes they were 1/2 inch off and why was I wearing a 3/4 lift. I had tried to take 1/4 inch out prior but it was to hard on my back, so I put the 1/4 lift back in. At this point I felt totally hopeless, way beyond depressed, I did not no what to do. I was in constant pain, I had the spine from hell that twisted like a corkscrew. I had a 3/4 inch lift in my right shoe supporting the twist. I had no life, no future just an existence in pain and depression. No one could tell me what was wrong with my spine, why it curved or what if anything I could do to heal it. When I had a seizure in 1997 I started to wonder if I would ever make it to fifty. I was having a extreme life crisis, and then I went to my first Vipassana retreat in June 1998 and is wear my journey of alternative healing started.

After years of integrating Bikram yoga with Alternative Medicine, I am now able at the age of 48 to stand straighter than I have ever stood in my entire life. This website is not a blog it's a autobiography of my spine straightening journey. The first Chapter starts in 1998 and goes through to 2009.

Doing Time Doing Vipassana

In 1998 Vipassana meditation found me at exactly at the right time in my life. I had pinched a nerve in my neck and was in extreme pain for months on end. One night I was flicking channels on the TV and stopped on a movie on PBS, Called, Doing Time Doing Vipassana, it was about a prison in India that was using a ancient meditation technique to help the prisoners rehabilitate. I enjoyed the movie and the story about the prison warden trying to rehabilitate the prisoners using vipassana, and the descriptions from the prisoners about the vipassana course, but what caught my attention was at the end of the meditation course, was how relaxed the prisoners body language was, you could see the physical affects from the meditation course. At the end of the movie their was a website address that I scribbled on a piece of paper and threw it on my desk. Weeks later still in pain and depressed, I found the piece of paper and went on the website. I found out it's ten days long, no charge or pre-donation, and there is a meditation center in North Fork CA, so I signed up never having done any meditation in my life. When I got there I had no idea what I got myself into, how hard it is going to be, or how much this was going to change my life, my views and my belief system.

The first four days were the hardest for me, they teach you a technique call ana pana, you observe your breathing and focus your mind on the area between your upper lip and nose. My mind was always drifting off and it was a constant battle concentrating on the meditation. After four days your mind quiets down and you are ready for the vipassana technique.

I had pretty bad insomnia during the course and was totally out of it, in my own very little world by the fourth day. The daily schedule is different for the vipassana teaching on the fourth day, they post the change in schedule, however I did not see any of the postings and as I was sitting on my bed wondering where everybody was, the course manager had to come find me at my residences and said " hey everybody is waiting for you, whats going on!". I have always felt a little embarrassed on later courses because their are notes everywhere about the schedule change, if there was a giant neon sign with my name on it about the schedule change I still probably would not have seen it!

The best part for me was changing the way my mind reacted to pain, let me explain, when ever my neck would hurt from pain, my natural reaction was to tighten up in reaction to the pain, this tightening would cause more pain creating a cycle. During the Vipassana course you slowly train your mind to observe pain and to not react to pain, thus breaking the cycle, and allowing your body to heal much quicker. After my first course my neck felt so much better, I could hardly believe it, the pain was not gone, but had drastically reduced.

Here is the Vipassana website: www.dhamma.org

Grasping at Straws

When I was in chronic pain, I tried anything and everything to relieve the pain. Through the years I have tried many different kinds of supplements and health products like, grape seed extract, apple cider vinegar, alpha tablets, chondroitin and glucosmine, acupuncture, Chinese herbs that you boil in water and then drink a bitter tea from the reduced water, Chinese herbs with a ionizer that was supposed to dissolve bone spurs. I had a traction device that I would hang over my door, massage machines, cold packs for the neck, info commercial product it had little wheel spikes on a bar that you rolled across your skin, a total waste of money. I had a hard time telling if any of these things were helping or not and sometimes I felt I was grasping at straws to get out of pain. However I tried not to get to disappointed when something did not work, just keep trying what else could I do. What I have learned is the only way you will ever know if something can help is to try it your self. Everybody is different and responds differently to different things. I am sure their is lots of people who will testify good results to the above mentioned but for me I knew I had to keep tiring different things as these did not seem to be helping.

One day in 1998 I was scanning a local flyer in San Diego and spotted a small ad that said only "the real arthritis cure" and a phone number. I called the number and talked to someone who told me a little about CMO, and said at present you can only can get CMO at our clinic in Mexico. Not really knowing what the stuff is, just that I was in allot of pain and willing to try anything. I drove down to Mexico and bought a bottle at their clinic, I read the instructions and took some that day, the next morning my pain was not gone, but had reduced enough to know I was finally on to something that was working for me.

What is this stuff? (cerasomal-cis-9-cetylmyristoleate) Beef tallow extract a natural substance, How does it work? Arthritis is a auto immune disease that is your own immune system the t-cells attack the body. What happens is a small piece of soft tissue or cartilage breaks off and circulates in your body, your t-cells find this cartilage and mistake it for a foreign invader and attack it. The problem is now all your memory t-cell's attack all your cartilage is a foreign invader and is unable to regenerate cartilage. CMO stops this process it's called a immuno-modulator and lets your cartilage regenerate. I have taken probably eight bottles of sixty pills over the years and have gotten good results every time. It is now sold in the US in health food stores and on the Internet, I prefer the net and recommend buying CMO with the Vestalcare logo on it. I bought another brand, witch did not look like anything like the Vestalcare pills, nor did I get the same results.

Here is where I get mine: www.cmorelief.com

Yank your Chain

JD is a surfer friend from work, he keep telling me "You should go see Rainbolt and have him yank your chain". Whenever JD would say that, I thought to myself who the hell is Rainbolt and my neck hurts enough why would I want anybody yanking on head. It's strange how the universe works because Butch who was another surfer friend from work introduced to his friend Eric and Eric introduced to his friend Trey who does not know JD. One day I was hanging out with Trey and she said I think you should meet a friend of mine and drove me to meet Steve Rainbolt at his office. The Universe wanted me to meet Steve Rainbolt as San Diego is a fairly large city and I knew only a few people and but two of the them were directing me to Steve Rainbolt.

Alphabiotics is method of rebooting the brain, you lay on a angled table and the practitioner holds your head and pulls your head up out of your body in a swift motion, similar to a chiropractic adjustment, this re balances the brain hemispheres witch leads to greater well being. The first few times I had an Alphabiotic adjustment I could really feel a difference, I felt better and more whole, my brain function improved,however with my severe situation I needed allot more help with my spine. Steve also does acupuncture witch we tried but at that time my body was so locked up it was not much help, however Steve's office is where I was directed into pathways of healing. I still like having alphabiotic adjustments done when available. Steve Rainbolt is a great guy and he gave me Lot's of healing love and validation at a time in my life when I really needed it and is still a good friend.

Here is Steves Website :alphabioticcenterofsandiego.com

Here is the Alphabiotics Website:http: alphabioticsinternational

In Introduction to Alphabiotics with Virgil Chrane



KGTV News interviews Steve Rainbolt and Alphabiotics



Alphabiotic Testimonials for Steve Rainbolt by Don Boyer

Winning the Lottery

I had been doing Iyengar yoga for about a year and had pretty much given up on it. I would gain a little flexibility and a teacher would try to convince me to do a posture my body was in no way ready for like head stands or deep back bends. I would decline doing the posture and the teachers would always try and talk me into attempting the posture. The three times that happened the results were always the same, I would pinch a nerve and would be back in pain for weeks or months.

The day after my third Vipassana retreat I went down too share my experience with my new friend Steve Rainbolt at at his office, Steve however was out of the office, but Petra Oslender a massage and bodywork practitioner who shares his office was there. Since I had just gotten back from a ten day retreat where you can not talk I thought I would sit down and have a chat with Petra. Petra Started telling me about a patient of her's who was making incredible progress on his flexibility doing hot yoga. I thought that's what I need. I lived about three blocks from the studio and had driven by many times and had seen the big blue sign on the outside Bikram's Yoga College of India what the hell is a Bikram's Yoga College of India I wondered.

Petra said hey their is a class at 4:30 and since I knew where it was I drove directly there. Jim Kallet was my first instructor, my first question was do I have to do headstands Jim said their are no headstands in the Bikram series,I then told him about my leg length difference and the Iyengar studio gave me a 3/4 inch board to put my right foot on during the standing series. Jim said your legs are probably not different lengths witch kinda pissed me off because I had totally convinced myself they were different lengths, but he said just do the best you can. I put a wash cloth under my right foot for the standing series for about a month.

The class consists of 26 postures done in the same sequence, two breathing exercises done in a room heated to 105 degrees and is a hour and a half long. All I can remember about my first class was at the end of class you lay in savasana or dead corpse pose with your eyes closed. I got so relaxed when I heard footsteps and soft voices, witch was the next class coming in the room. I thought who is coming in my bedroom while I am sleeping, when I opened my eye's for the first few seconds I did not know where I was and had too remind my self I am at a Bikram Yoga College of India.

I pinched a nerve in my neck the first week of Bikram yoga so I stopped going for a couple of days, When I returned the postures that caused any pain in my neck I skipped doing until my neck no longer hurt. After a couple of weeks of doing Bikram yoga everyday my nerve pinch in my neck stopped hurting completely. I was so happy I found something that I could do to heal myself at my own pace. I felt like finding Bikram yoga was better for me than winning the lottery.

Bikram Website:

bikramyoga.com

Bikram San Diego, Jim Kallet's Studio
www.bikramyogasandiego.com

Bikram Yoga - CBS 60 min

Laughing Brick Massage

Since I was 14 I have seen many different chiropractor's over the years, most were of no help with my situation. Some would tell me to put a 1/4 inch lift in my right shoe, others would tell me to take it out. Most just wanted to crack my back and to ignore the other problems with my tight roped up muscles, or what was really causing my spine to curve. When ever I would ask them about working the muscles, their reply was all ways the same, once we relieve the nerve pinch through manipulation of the spine, the muscles will release their tension, sounds good but never happened for me. I lost faith in all chiropractors by the time I was in my thirties. In 1999 My friend Steve Rainbolt who was doing alphabibotics and acupuncture on me, he keep bugging me to see a friend of his Brett Smith a chiropractor, finally after a few months of Steve pestering me and me saying I was done with chiropractors, I caved in and made an appointment.

Steve was right as Brett Smith was so much different than anybody I had seen previously. Brett was the first to work with my skeleton and muscles in a integrated way. He would test my muscle strength, and then try to activate the muscles that were inactive, by deep tissue massage witch can be painful. At first I was reacting to the pain by all the facial expressions and noises one makes when they are in pain. Brett said "it's going to hurt more by doing what your doing with the faces and noises, why don't you go the other way with it". At first I thought, the other way, what are you talking about, this hurts like hell and then I thought I will try make myself laugh, and it diffidently helped deal with the pain, the harder I can laugh the less it hurts. Theres lots of science behind that statement if you watch the video. I have gotten some strange looks over the years from different people who were working on men a similar painful way as Brett.

Brett also got me to see a massage therapist at his office. The poor guy was sweating and really trying hard to massage my back and shoulders said afterward " massaging you is like tiring to massage bricks". That was the unfortunate truth about my body at the time and I did not take that statement personally, I was actually very thankful for him being so honest with me.

Their are a very few good chiropractors. My advice when seeing a chiropractor is, ask allot of questions and find someone who works with whole body in a integrated way.

If you are in San Diego here is Brett's number.

Brett Smith, DC
842 Washington St Suite B
San Diego, CA 92103
Phone: (619) 297-3465

Bow Leg Fetish

Jim Kallet was my first Bikram instructor, he always has a inspiring dialogue and is still one of my favorite teachers. One day he walks in class all fired up says with this yoga you can do amazing things like bending bone, you can even straighten your spine with this yoga, when he said that I knew he was referring to me. My first thought great another charlatan telling me something that's impossible. Jim saw me roll my eyes in disbelieve and immediately said, hey how do you think cowboys got bowed legs. I had seen old pictures of cowboys with bowed legs and had all ways wondered how they got so curved. I tried to picture the process of a cowboy getting on his horse everyday and slowly torquing his legs. My mind works in strange ways sometimes so when I got home I started thinking if I was some nut who had a bowed leg fetish and wanted to bow my legs how would I do it and how long would it take? I thought if I sat on saddle for a couple of hours a day would that do it, probably not enough torque, how about on a horse walking, still not enough torque but when a horse is galloping their is lots of torque all that bouncing up and gravity forcing you down. So if I bought one of those bull riding machines and set it so it would bounce like a horse galloping and ride it two hours a day I could probably bow my legs in 8 to 10 years.

Jim Kallet planted the seed in my mind that it was possible to straighten my back by doing Bikram yoga. At the time I thought about how long it might take me and figured it would probably take me twenty years, because I had to fight all the forces that were causing my spine to curve in the first place.

Bikram interview

Total Recall

I had been working with Brett Smith a chiropractor for quiet awhile, and had realized that Brett had helped me as much as he could with my condition and had made an appointment only to ask Brett to write me a doctors letter, so I could take two months off work and attend Bikram's teacher training. When I went to see Brett he did I few adjustments on me, signed my letter and did some balance tests on me. Brett then recommend I try neurocranial restructuring with a friend of his as he thought it might help me with my condition. When I asked Brett what NCR was like, Brett compared it to the movie scene in Total Recall, where Arnold pulls the probe out of his head through the nose, but in reverse. As I thought about that scene, that looks painful as hell, who needs that, I got my letter for work, maybe when I get back from Bikram's teacher training will I do it. When went to a next yoga class I looked at myself in the mirror and thought who are you kidding you need all the help you can get. I called Brett's friend Glenn Frieder in Solona Beach and made an appointment. The first thing Glenn did was show me my face in mirror and pointed out where my nose, lips and chin were and how they do not line up. He then did three neuroCranial restructuring balloon inflation's and then showed me how my nose, lips and chin were now more lined up. The treatment is done by placing a balloon in one of the three sinus cavities and blowing up the balloon witch shifts the skull via sphenoid bone. One treatment is done over four days with one to three inflation's per day. On the the third day Glenn did one intense inflation, when I got up, I felt really different, hard to describe, my balance was so much better and I felt much more grounded. Glenn said the hole world is different know, I said how did you know, he laughed and said it's all over your face and eyes.

If you have had skull trauma, bad balance or have bad posture I recommend you check out their website.

This is from the NCR website:

"In the cranial structure, the sphenoid bone sits in the center. It is in contact with almost all the other bones of the skull, which interlock. It is impossible to move any single bone of the skull without moving the bones adjoining it, eventually affecting them all. The sphenoid bone is the strongest, the most difficult to get manual contact with, the most difficult to move, the most resistant to change. Without moving the sphenoid bone, no other cranial bone movement can last. It is only by moving the sphenoid bone that all the bones of the head can be moved because of the sphenoid bone's central location. And it is only by moving the sphenoid bone in a pattern that is proprioceptively correct, that the sphenoid bone can be moved in a lasting way."

Here is the NCR site: www.drdeanhowell.com

If you are in San Diego area here is Glenn's site: www.acaciahealth.com/


New Healing Modality NCR



Neuro Cranial Restructuring



Neuro Cranial Restructuring

Shawshank Redemption

I watched the Shawshank Redemption about five times on TV because it was a good story of hope and courage and was constantly being played on TV, before I saw the metaphor for my yoga practice. I love the Morgan Freeman narration in the escape scene, about geology is the study of pressure and time, that's all it takes pressure and time. That sounded familiar because my yoga practice too straighten my spine is also a study of pressure and time. Having any sort of physical limitation is like being in prison in your own body. Bikram yoga is that rock hammer, Everyday I do Bikram's yoga, I am chipping away at my escape tunnel, some people like me are in hard granite cells and have to do years of hard labor chipping away everyday, and others are in bamboo cages that open easily and have absolutely no idea what it's like to be stuck in the granite.


Bikram Yoga

Explorers of Transylbarbara

When I was young my biggest hero's were all the great explores and adventures of the past, I loved to read books and watch movies about all their adventures, like Marco Polo, Columbus and Lewis and Clark. I was always impressed how these people could overcome great obstacles and endure many hardships and to keep going, That they always had other people telling them that it was impossible or that they were crazy lunatics, but they went and did it anyway, that they had always listened to their own intuition.

When I moved to Santa Barbara in 2001 I decided to start doing more neuro cranial restructuring with Peter Levy, who I located on the NCR website. The treatments were painful during and after, and convincing myself that this was worth doing was always hard, when you are already in pain and then doing something that will cause more pain, you will have to look at it as a long term strategy to get out of all pain completely. When I was driving too Peter's house I would start to get nervous, my palms would sweat, It was never an easy drive to his house were he worked. I thought about all my hero's and what they had to go through, now it's my turn, except my adventure is a internal one of straighten my spine, and I better buck up and endure my hardships. Or I sometimes felt I was going to a Santa Barbara version of a mad scientist's or Dr Frankenstein's house. The house is on a narrow private road, on a little hill with a grassy knoll in front, Peter is a great guy he is just a little more animated than most, plus I would usually walk in stoned out of my mind, Peter would be all excited, hey I talked to my friend about you, I am going to try putting blocks under your hips or grab your leg during the inflation. I had complete confidence in what I was doing due to the results I was getting. I would do a round of NCR and then go do yoga and I always was able to track somewhere on my body slightly more open.

I told my family and friends about what I was doing witch was a big mistake. Most of the them said I was brainwashed, your skull plates are fused and do not move, you are going to hurt yourself, a few even laughed in my face!! Having contact with people who don't have the capacity to symbiosis with my condition or why I was prepared to due whatever it took to straighten my spine was totally pointless. I was in way to much pain to associate with the non believers especially when my head hurt like hell. I am sure all the explorer's who had people telling them they were brainwashed avoided these negative people like the plague.

I think I did a total of five sessions with Peter. The last session was the hardest and I was starting to feel like I hit a wall with NCR as my skull seemed to stop moving and the inflation's became more painful and harder. My intuition told me to it's time to integrate another healing modality and the fall of 2002 was my last NCR treatment.

This is the drive up to Peters House, I was always really nervous and as stoned as I possibly could be and felt like I was going to my own little Helter Skelter.


This is a article peter wrote about healing old wounds I found on the Internet click here

If you are in Santa Barbara here is Peter's number on wellness website click here

Trench Warfare

When I started doing Bikram yoga I was so stiff and tight that I could barley do any of the posture's. Bikram says you only need to know what to do, and how to do it, doesn't matter if you can't do it perfectly what matters is you get the most benefit from each posture.

Regaining your flexibility back is battle with your body. You fight for micro millimeters in each posture in a back and forward motion, that feels like a battle from a World War one trench line. In World War one trench's you probe the enemies lines, looking for a weakness along the line, waiting for the enemy to make a mistake or get lazy, then you attack that weak portion of the line and push the enemy back as far as you can. The enemy counter attacks and reinforces the position you have just attacked and tries to push you back. Now the real battle begins only by reinforcing the new position, bringing up supplies, fresh troops, moving the artillery do you own the new real estate you captured.

My strategy is similar everyday I do Bikram's 26 yoga posture's I am probing all of my bodies tendon's, joints, ligaments and muscle's, waiting for my body to open up.
When I feel my body opening up a little in a posture, I attack and go as deep into the posture as I possibly can, even if it means I have to sit the next posture out due to nausea or fatigue. I keep doing yoga, especially the days when you I am tired and sore and don't really feel like doing yoga, these are usually the days that I will be able to go deeper into a posture than ever before, because my muscles will have less resistance due to their fatigue. There are usually a few phase's I go through during or fallowing a opening in my body. First I have lots of nausea and spend more than half the class laying on my back, this means my body has opened up and the toxins from those areas of opening are releasing into my system causing the nausea. Next phase is I have no strength or stamina, this means my body is renewing the neural connections from my brain to the areas of my body that have been in cold storage. Next phase my body is incredibly tight and I can barley do any postures due to the inflammation and tightness in my joints, this is where I make permanent changes to my body, when I work through the inflammation and tightness is when I own the flexibility in my body. Through years of experience this is when I am reinforcing the new opening, it's when I own the flexibility, it just takes time to work through the tightness. I then repeat the cycle, probe, attack and reinforce.

In the World War front there are defences in depth, meaning there are many lines of trench's. A first line trench system, a second line trench system, and a third line trench system. That way if the first line is overrun, the soldiers have someplace to retreat too and defend the second line of trench's. Your body is very similar in that you have a front line of flexibility and usually during a yoga class you will only go to the front line of flexibility. About once a year I have a yoga class where my body lets me breakthrough the first line into the second and third lines of flexibility. It took me six years before I could touch my knee to my forehead in standing separate leg head to knee. One day out of the blue in 2005 it just happened, I went into the posture and my forehead was touching my knee, I remember thinking wow I can scratch my forehead with my knee this is great, however it took another two years of yoga before I could get my forehead to touch my knee constantly. I never know when I will have a major breakthrough class nor can I explain why my body lets go for the that one class.

I do BIkram Yoga six to seven days a week for about 6 weeks to 8 weeks then take a week or two off and then let my body rest. You have to be your own general and plan your own strategy.

Yoga Oasis Hot YOGA part bikram 1

Medicine Wheel

In 2002 I was living in Santa Barbara and went to lecture put on by the Santa Barabra City College called Mind Supermind. The lecturer was a native American medical doctor who talked about the medicine wheel and how the native American tribes used it to heal their members. What I liked the most was the description of how when a member of the tribe is sick they are placed in the center of the wheel, that the whole tribe is involved in the healing of the sick person, and receives healing from all the directions and aspects of the medicine wheel, mental, emotional, spiritual and physical. When I left I thought that's what I need to heal myself, and since I don't have a tribe a will create my own. I took a photo copy of my MRI and put it on a bulletin board and placed business cards from the various people that had been working with me around my MRI in a circle, it became my symbolic medicine wheel of group healing.


Santa Barbara City College website for listing of mind/supermind lecture schedule fall and spring only: www.sbcc.edu

Snowboard Seizure's

I was in Mammoth Mountain snowboarding on new years eve 2002 with my friend Kevin. After snowboarding all day we went to take a hot tub. When I was in the hot tub I started to feel really strange, so I got out, sat on the decking and lost consciousness. When I regained consciousness the other people at the hot tub, said I was having a seizure, as I was shaking allot and the ambulance is on it's way. I got up and talked to the paramedics who asked me a few questions and let me leave as I did not want to go to the hospital.

That was my second seizure in five years, I had a worse one in 1997. Having any kind of seizure were you lose consciousness is a very scary thing, you are between the living and the dead. Sometimes it takes something scary and bad to really motivate me to search for a cure. When I got home I did not know what had the caused the seizure, but I did have sinus problems for a long time. The inside of my nose was always really dry and I was constantly getting sinus infection's. I thought that it might be part of the cause for the seizure. The first thing I did was see a Medical Doctor who gave me antibiotics, witch did not help at all. Second I went to a Chinese herbalist who I had seen before, he gave me some Chinese herbs witch helped a little, I could feel a little moisture in my nose but not enough. Third I called Peter Levy and asked him what he recommend for sinus infection, he said try snorting powdered cayenne pepper, witch burned a little, not as bad as it sounds, or snort hydrogen peroxide witch was pretty bad not recommended. I tried a few different kinds of nose drops. I bought a Netti pot and used that for a while. Still my nose was really dry and my intuition told me to keep trying, but what?

One day while I was relaxing on reclining chair that someone had brought to my office at work and wondering what to try next, and then I remembered a herbal shop I had seen while I was going to rent a video in downtown Santa Barbara. I called information, got the number and called the Herbal Spirit and started telling Coco Bergen about my plight, he said come on down and he would fix me up. Coco sold me a bottle of herbal oil extract full body cleanse with some extra stuff for my dry nose, witch cleans all the internal organs and blood, you mix the oil with water and sip it all day. Within two days I started to feel some moisture come back to my nose. After drinking the entire bottle of oil extract witch lasts about three weeks my nose never felt better and was I very happy.

The oil cleanse is pretty easy you just mix a bottle with water and sip it all day. I previously tried the ten day lemonade cleanse, you fast for ten days drinking only lemon water with a little cayenne and maple syrup, eat some pills to help with bowel movements that I got from Peter Levy who recommended it and a colonic on the last day, I am glad I tried it to compare with oil cleanse witch works better for me.

I also bought a nebulizing diffuser it vaporizes essential oil into the air, my favorite oils are eucalyptus and spearmint.

Coco also got me into coral calcium, just mix it with water. The theory is that in a healthy person, body fluids are alkaline with a high pH reading and high in oxygen levels, whereas in a sick person, body fluids are acidic with a low pH reading and low in oxygen levels. The body should have an oxygen-rich alkalinity of around 7.5, making it incapable of hosting diseases like cancer. The coral calcium keeps your body at 7.5.

Coco also talked me to taking far infrared sauna. Got this from the net {Far infrared technology has the ability to mobilize more toxins and in a safer manner than is possible in sweat resulting from just heat or activity. No other technology for removing toxins from the body can address both lipophillic (fat-stored) toxins and toxins already in the blood stream.}. On one sauna treatment when I got home I felt pretty good, so I went too a Bikram yoga class witch was a big mistake, when I got back from yoga I was so wiped out I could not move for over twenty four hours, I over did it a little.

Here is a video about essential oils



Using Young Living Essential Oils



Here is the Herbal Spirits info, No website, Coco is old school, however he does do mail order.

Herbal Spirit of Santa Barbara
11 West Victoria Street Suite 18
Santa Barbara, CA, 93101

Phone: (805) 962-9921

Connective Tissue Manipulation

Structural Integration with Ida Rolf



In 1993 I was living in Ventura, my neck was starting to hurt allot, so when I saw Sara Soltau's ad for Rolfing in the Santa Barbara Independent weekly newspaper, I thought their is something I haven't tried yet. I called Sarah and made an appointment. In 1993 I was wearing a 3/4 inch lift on my right shoe and I was really tight all over. When Sara first started working on me it was a big challenge for her, she always spent a good amount of time looking at my body and asking questions, this is really important because the Rolfing needs to be targeted and focused to do the most good. What impressed with Sara is when I would leave the top of my head would hit the ceiling of my car witch it never did on the way there. When I moved to San Diego in 1996 I tried a couple of different Rolfers, they were cheaper than Sara but seemed to only go through the motions of Rolfing, where Sarah would use her knowledge and intuition to find and target the muscles that were holding me in position. Like just about everything in life there are some good and some bad Rolfers.

In 2003 after I did my last session of nuro cranial restructuring, my intuition told me I needed some body work done, so I called Sara again and made an appointment. I had taken all the lifts out of my right shoe about a year before and my body and walking gate were fighting the transition. Sara was able to get allot of release in my body, I remember walking to my car and my teeth and jaw chattering uncontrollably witch is a good sign something is releasing from the body. After a few months my body stopped responding to the Rolfing, It was like my body had turned to rubber and Sara was unable to get any release due to the energetic trauma I was holding in my body.


I got this from the Rolfing website

"Rolfing is a comprehensive system of hands-on, connective tissue manipulation and movement education which releases stress patterns in the human organism."


here is the Rolfing website:

http://www.rolf.org/

If you are in Santa Barbara here is Sarah's Website

http://www.sarasoltau.com/index.htm

Rolfing® Structural Integration and the Vikings



Introduction to Rolfing - CMS

Waking the Tiger

In 2003 I was working with Sarah Soltau a Rolfer in Santa Barbara, one day she suggested I should see someone in Los Angeles, she thought could really help me. By this time in my life I didn't even give it a second thought, nor did I care it was a 90 minute drive one way, so I called Raja Selvam the next day and made an appointment not really knowing what he exactly does. When I first met him he recognized me right away, I thought theirs nine million people in this city, I only know a few you must be mistaken, then he said do you know a women named Kelly from Bikram's teacher training, sure enough I do, and then I remembered Kelly had introduced us at the Teacher training party in 2000, Kelly came up to me, saying something like "you really need to meet my friend Raja", introducing him and shaking his hand. Imagine that, it still amazes me, two women, three years apart directing me to Raja Selvam.

After my first session with Raja my body started to really shake and shiver all over, and I knew from the begging I was really on to something! After a few more sessions Raja started explaining the therapy and that I was going to have to start feeling some of the pain I had stored in my nervous system from the trauma I had experienced. At first I told Raja that their is way too much pain in my body, that I am afraid to feel any of that pain as their is just too way much. Raja reassured me we would take little bits at a time.

Somatic Experiencing is a new technique that release traumatic energy from the body. Peter A Levine is the founder who wrote an excellent book on the subject called Waking the Tiger, he describes post traumatic stress disorder like this. You are hiking in the woods enjoying nature, the sunshine, the birds, the plants and suddenly you hear a rattlesnake, all of your attention narrows to the snake, you have tunnel vision on the snake and have forgotten everything else, you have become hypervigilant. Hypervilgilant people are keyed to a state of intense alertness at all times. This is how people with post traumatic stress disorder go through life with a nervous system stuck in hyperarousal. This hyperarousal manifests itself in the body with many different symptoms such as constriction, insomnia, constipation, panic attacks or a freezing state. Somatic Experiencing releases the energy trapped in your nervous system by having a therapist help you track the energy and slowly release it by letting the body shake and shiver witch is nature's way of releasing the traumatic energy, ever watch a nature show and see a gazelle escape a predator and what is does after the attack, It's able to shake all the adrenalin and trauma out of it's system, it's automatic for them, humans are much different some people are able to naturally release the energy and some need outside help, that's why some war veteran's have post traumatic stress and some don't.

When you have Post traumatic stress disorder you get fixated on things easily, when I started working with Raja and read the book Waking the Tiger, I learned what cause's PTSD and what the symptons were. I started to fixated on the amount of trauma I have had, that my parents probably have PTSD, my grandparents probably had PTSD, that the egg and sperm the created me had PTSD. Raja was able to convince me verbally and non verbally no matter how much trauma my body has been through even if it was prenatal, before I was born, that all humans bodies have the wisdom for perfect health, it just takes some time, patience and knowledgeable therapists. I have had allot of physical and mental trauma over the years and it helped me tremendously.


Here is the trauma healing website:http:www.traumahealing.com/

Here is a interview with Raja on Somtic Expercening, Click here

Here is Raja Selvam's number in L.A. 301-306-1462.

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Mayan calender

In 2002 I started listening to the aware show about half way through an interview with Ian Lungold who was talking about the Mayan calender. Ian was talking about how the Mayans were tracking the evolution of consciousness on the planet with their calender. Ian said if you look at history, you will see changes in consciousness were taking place throughout the planet at the same time, that the European Renaissance was not the only place where changes in consciousness were taking place. That same night I was watching a program on TV about scientist's who had found unique Buddhist art that they had uncovered in Asia, and were dating the art to the same time frame as the Europeans Renaissance. That was signal for me that I should pay attention, two people were making reference's to same event in history on the same day. The next day I found the Mayan calender website and bought the book, lecture tape, and calender conversion chart. When I read Carl Calleman's book things really started to make sense, I have always been fascinated by history and reading the book gave me a new insight into history. The Mayan calender makes sense to me, I do not believe the worlds going to end in 2011, I believe a new golden age is going to begin in 2011.

Here is Ian's website: mayanmajix.com

Here is Carl Calleman's website:calleman.com

Deferred Dental Maintenance

When I was a teenager I had a quite few cavities with mercury fillings in my teeth. I also had some bad dentist's, one gave me a root canal, only to have that same tooth come out on it's own 6 months later. Over the years I hardly ever went to a dentist for a check-up, mostly on a as needed basis, whenever something cracked or hurt is when I went to a dentist. In 2003 I was listening to the Aware show on the radio. they had a dentist Alireza Panahpour on talking about biological dentistry. Alireza talked about his practice and said something that impressed me coming from a Doctor, he said you can never stop learning.

When I went to my first appointment and told him I wanted all my mercury filling out and that I had not seen a dentist in four years. I felt like my teeth were a group of wounded solders and Dr Panahpour was doing triage he had his assistant taking notes and was calling out Numbers, 22 is number one priority, number 18 is number 2 priority and so on, I had allot of deferred dental maintenance. I never had a dentist pray to save my tooth witch must of helped because he was able to save that tooth. I took about six months to get all the mercury fillings out and replace them with porcelain crowns.

Here is Dr Panahpour website:

www.alternativedental.com


Dr. Alireza Panahpour - Treating TMJ and Sleep Apnea



This is a good video on biological dentistry

Egg Shaman

In 2003 I listening to a radio show called the Aware show on KPFK public radio. I like listening to the The Aware show because they have different guest's on who talk about health and spiritual topics. The guest was Kuichy a Peruvian shaman who was going to have a two day retreat in California at the Serra Retreat center in Malibu. During the radio interview Kuichy talked about using an egg to diagnose health and spiritual matters and was going to teach how to do this technique. I signed up as he had sparked my curiosity, Kuichy said it was the shape of the egg that picked up the energy from the body. You rub the egg all around someones body and then break it into a clear glass half full with water and you can then read the yolk for the body and white for spiritual growth, he tried to teach us the basics but it seems pretty complicated and you probably need years of instruction and practice. Kuichy was spot on when he read my egg for health and spiritual matters.


This is a scene from the movie The Alamo 2004


The Aware Show Website:www.theawareshow.com

The Serra Retreat Center Websitehttp: www.serraretreat.com

The Agape Church who sponsored the Kuichy Retreat: www.agapelive.com


Kuichy at Serra Retreat Center, Malibu CA

Masai Barefoot Technology

In 2003 Bikram had a yoga exposition at the Los Angeles convention center where I found the Massi Barefoot booth. I had never seen or heard of the shoe's before the expo, so when I walked by the booth the only thing I recognized was the name Masai tribe in Africa, what do they have to do with shoe's?

I got this from MBT internet site.

MBT, Masai Barefoot Technology, was invented by Swiss engineer Karl Müller. During a visit to Korea he made the startling discovery that walking barefoot over paddy fields alleviated his back pain. Back in Switzerland, Müller began to develop a footwear technology that would make the natural instability of soft ground such as Korean paddy fields or the East African savannah accessible also to those, who have to walk on hard surfaces. In 1996, after years spent on research and development, Masai Barefoot Technology was mature enough to be launched on the market. MBTs are now available in over twenty countries, and approximately one million pairs of this revolutionary footwear technology are sold every year.

This is from the ryn shoe site.

It is impossible to find medical troubles in old Masian tribesmen who walk over 30,000 steps per day without getting tired. As a nomadic tribe who likely eat high fat, high quality protein food, it is surprisingly impossible to find any health problems due to the Masai method of walking. Masai tribe walking is like walking on a cloud and is the best exercise which mankind has ever created. Normal walking focuses the weight of the body into each step putting stress on your joints and back because the heel and toe touch the ground at the same time. The reason the Masai Tribes do not feel tired or suffer from backache, even though they have been walking all day long, is due to their unique walking style, because they roll their foot from the heel to the centre (or arch) to toes during their step. The load is distributed so that it does not put stress on the feet, joints, back and hips. This method of walking also straightens the lower body and helps prevent arthritis, backache, waist ailments and spinal disc herniation. The walking exercise, known as the safest exercise of all, can cause musculoskeletal disorders when you walk incorrectly.

This makes sense for me as the human race has been walking on flat surface's for only a couple hundred years and have been walking on uneven surfaces for thousands of years. I really like these shoe's it makes walking and standing so much easier for me. The shoe's are pricey, they cost around $220.00 but a good investment in your bodies well being

Here is their website

http://www.swissmasaius.com/

I also found another company with similar shoes. I am not sure if they sell in U.S.

http://www.rynshoes.co.uk/information.php?info_id=1

Video showing the difference in walking with MBT shoes




Masai Barefootin' Shoes - Introduction

Vertigo Yoga

In 2003 Raja Selvan recommended a I see a friend of his Cherionna Menzam who lives in Santa Barbara, and does Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy. After my first session with Cherionna, I really felt different and knew I was on to something that would help with my spinal curve. When I was working with Raja he had done some work with my head, witch made it hurt for weeks, when I told him about the pain, he said that was to much on your system and we will take it really slow and work slowly up to your head. I told Cherionna about this when we first started working together, I think she listened a little, but in the back of my mind I knew that she was going to have to learn in her own way, that this is just a part of healing, letting this very powerful healer learn about my system. After a few more sessions I got vertigo, I couldn't move my head up or down vertically without getting really dizzy. I totally lost it at first, I was expecting pain in my head not having Vertigo. I called Raja after a few days and asked him what did your friend to do me, he said call Cherionna and tell her what's happened. When I went to see her, she knew exactly what to do and relieved it within seconds. I should have seen her sooner rather than wait a week with the vertigo. I even tried to do a Biram yoga class with the vertigo, what an experience, all of one legged postures in the standing series were completely impossible, witch made me laugh. Living a life with a twisted spine I find humor in strange places!

After that Cherionna has been really careful and has not given me vertigo again. I really love what she has done for me, and has been one of my biggest contributors to the healing my spinal dysfunction.


Here is her website:cherionna.com

Here is the craniosacral therapy website:www.craniosacraltherapy.org

Here are some video's on craniosacral therapy: