Back from Beyond: Anita Tells All

Dear Friends,

Since my recovery experience I have been attracted to the healing stories of others. In several cases I have found the recounting of NDE’s (Near Death Experiences) to have much in common with the lessons I have learned from my relationship to Parkinson’s Disease (as well as from other life challenges). The annex at the end of my book, “Reboot and Rejoice”, includes one such title and author: “Proof of Heaven” by Eben Alexander 111, MD. Just recently I found another such work, “Dying To Be Me: My Journey From Cancer to Near Death to True Healing” by Anita Moorjani.

Something I share with this author is a sense of purpose to bring a message of hope, happiness, and healing. The charge here is to to do this in an all-inclusive, non-dogmatic way- a charge made difficult from the simple limitations of language. By selecting certain words or examples, am I not excluding others? So I do the best I can with my linguistic toolbox, hoping the sentiments will resonate, and perhaps refresh some perspectives, and bring some further along on their healing path.

In Chapter 15 of her book, Moorjani addresses a question she often asked: Why do you think you got cancer? Her one-word answer: fear.

“What was I afraid of? Just about everything, including falling, being disliked, letting people down, and not being good enough. I also feared illness, cancer in particular, as well as the treatment for cancer. I was afraid of living and terrified of dying…Fear is very subtle, and it can creep up gradually without our even noticing it. Looking back, I see that most of us are taught from a very young age to be afraid, although I don’t believe we’re born this way…One of the things I believe is that we already are what we spend our lives trying to attain, but we just don’t realize it!” (Moorjani, Ch.15)

This is the beginning of many affirmative thoughts presented about self-acceptance and self-love. I know that it is only as I begin to accept, trust, and love myself that I see fear as a detour taking me away from life, and challenging myself as a way to exercise my own vitality and to empower myself. Why am I now doing what I was afraid to do before? I no longer worry about failure or imperfection. Those thoughts
are limiting. My job is to expand: myself, my energy, my life. I realize my message may be difficult for some to absorb, but that is not my concern. My mission is to share my message, realizing that some are now ready to receive it, and others may be ready later. After all, there was a time when I would have thought Bianca and her story far to woo-woo to be significant. I would have been afraid to share an experience or an opinion considered to be outside the norm. Now I know that outside the norm is often where the real work and the real fun begin. Haola!