Reply To: Long Story Short

[BeckyL]

Hi, Mickey! I did the New Age thing too – Shamanic journeying and the like. I was also involved in energy healing, first as a Christian and later as part of my pagan practices. I was told that I was particularly gifted as a healer, but I stopped when it was apparent that it wasn’t doing anything to help my mother with cancer. (She initially got better, but when they changed her chemotherapy due to side effects, she became much worse and later died. There is no doubt in my mind that the chemotherapy was responsible for her improvement and that stopping it led to her death. My woo-woo efforts didn’t do shit.) I still do yoga and meditation, although I no longer do them for spiritual reasons. Instead, I use them for joint flexibility/strength and to relax. (Sam Harris is a proponent of meditation for secularists and has some guided meditations on his website which are great for stress reduction. http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/mindfulness-meditation )