The progression in my life from a NDE to
family medicine to hospice to integrative medicine
to Tai Chi seems natural to me, but I am often
asked about my career path. Behind
that question I sometimes sense another question,
"Can't you make up your mind what you want
to be when you grow up?" Perhaps when you
finish reading this article, you'll agree with
me that my path has been a natural one given
my values and interests and experiences.
When I had my NDE
at age six, I realized that this life on
earth was a small part of the much longer life
of my soul. Like other NDErs, I came to
value loving connection with other people, time
in nature, and time to be in stillness. I was
not particularly interested in material possessions
or in achieving positions of power. With no
fear of death, life becomes much lighter. There
is enormous freedom in having no fear of death
and in having no need to amass material possessions.
Hence I chose medicine because it was a
way to be helpful and to deeply connect with
other people. After I was in family practice
for awhile, I was drawn to hospice work through
my talks about NDEs and through my counseling
of people in grief. People in the last few weeks
and months of life come to see that what really
matters is our connection with other people
and ourselves. Material possessions and social
standing hold little interest for us as we approach
death. With my NDE values, I felt right at home
with the hospice patients.
In serving hospice patients, I saw that
the complementary therapies such as music, art,
gentle touch (healing therapy), acupuncture,
and aromatherapy were very helpful in their
physical, emotional, and spiritual care. I
began studying these modalities in order to
be a better caregiver and to be a champion in
bringing those modalities into the hospice setting.
I found that the integrative medicine (a blend
of conventional allopathic medicine and complementary
modalities) allowed people to be much more comfortable
and in touch with their feelings so that their
quality of life in the last stages was greatly
improved.
In studying the complementary modalities
with hospice in mind, I found that they were
helpful at all stages of life. I became
intrigued with the question of what effect it
would have on a community if integrative medicine
were the standard of care. I became the Medical
Director of Mercy Medical Center in order to
combine complementary therapies with the excellent
conventional medical care that in-patients were
already receiving. We have developed a Touch,
Love, and Compassion (TLC) team that brings
music, aromatherapy, massage, and healing touch
to the bedside. It is used widely throughout
the hospital and has been the model for several
other hospitals developing their own programs.
In the community, we have been teaching Healing
Therapy to nursing homes, public health, physical
therapists, counselors, etc. with the intention
to have it be widespread throughout the community.
One of the complementary modalities that
I explored was tai chi. Tai chi is a balancing
tool that brings the intellectual and spiritual
person into their bodies, often for the first
time. It is a balancing tool that allows people
who live primarily in the physical to feel something
of the peace and stillness of meditation and
prayer. It allows sedentary people to begin
to move and explore their bodies without doing
injury. It allows each of us to become friends
with our bodies—to gently notice what is
different from day to day in our bodies. It
encourages us to become stronger, more flexible,
more upright, more still—not only in our
bodies, but in our daily lives as well.
From my perspective, this really is a career
path with a logical progression. The next
step is to share what I have learned through
my website, writing, lectures, workshops, and
consultations. Thank you for joining me in this
life adventure.
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