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Steve Jobs and cancer
Look, I am a massage therapy student, just now undergoing training in the usage of Shiatsu and three of the hundreds of Traditional Chinese Medicine therapies. So, I don't claim expertise in any form of massage therapy or bodywork. However, I am alive, and inquisitive, and try to be well informed.
You're all aware of the recent death of Steve Jobs. For several years he tried to fight pancreatic cancer with alternative medicine treatments--herbs, prayer, Shiatsu, meditation--you name it, he might have tried it. His doctors claim that his form of pancreatic cancer could have been cured with a combination of surgery and drugs and radiation. Supporters of complementary and alternative medicine as loudly proclaim that, well, the odds were long against him all along; that, for whatever reason, his body fell out of alignment with chi, the universal life force.
However, cancer is not an imbalance of chi. Cancer is a growth. Cancer is cell metabolism out of control. A normal cell will in essence kill itself when it can't perform its duties. A cancer cell violates its "programming" and refuses to die; it replicates itself, and its offspring cells replicate themselves, a process that soon inhibits one or more organs' ability to fulfill their functions, eventually killing the entire body.
Chi is vital life force: all gases, all liquids, all solids, all forms of energy seen and unseen are chi. Chi flows constantly throughout the Universe, it is everywhere at once. Nothing happens on the other side of the Universe that does not immediately happen here on our little planet. But cancer is a blip in the ebb and flow. Cancer is aberrant, it is a rogue star in the inner universe of one tiny, insignificant being on one tiny insignificant planet in one corner of one tiny universe surrounded by billions of other universes.
Cancer is different, because cancers are not natural to the Universe. The man-made chemical admixtures that cause cancers are foreign to the Universe. Cancers are incapable of surrendering to chi... of being reordered by chi, because they are foreign to chi. It's analogous to a creature from the depths of the sea trying to survive on the planet's surface.
Therefore, it is foolish to rely on the power of chi to cure cancer. Man created the cancer; Man must treat the cancer, by killing or excising the cancer. When the cancer has been removed, and the body organism begins to walk the long road to recovery, chi can again flow unimpeded throughout the body's 100 trillion cells as it travels unimpeded through the Universe's 100 trillion planets and suns.
If you have a cancer, or love someone who does, I urge you to accept allopathic medical treatments. Because Man created the cancer: must must kill it.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Brian James on
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What about cancer mutations, cancer genes, and cancers caused by things that are obviously part of the "Universe," like viruses and sunlight? What material things exist that are not part of the "Universe?"
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Permalink Reply by Gary W Addis, LMT on
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Brother Brian, you are coming into the thread rather late. In a reply to another poster made days ago, I admitted my error in using the inclusive word "all." However, the gist of my argument stands. That for obvious reasons, a massage therapist is ethically and legally required to refer patients who display visible cancers (or reveal internal cancers on intake forms) to allopathic medical practitioners. This will remain our moral responsibility, as well, until the day that scientific proof is presented that Therapeutic Touch or Acupuncture or--name your favorite energy modality--or NMT or Swedish Massage destroys a cancer and saves a life. Until then, the wise and caring therapist will advise his cancer-ridden patient to submit to allopathic medical treatments.
We can perform what seems like miracles, Brian. However, we are not Jesus. We cannot grow a new heart in a client, we cannot excise a brain tumor the size of a golf ball.
We can, however, enhance the body's innate ability to heal itself, to withstand oncology treatments and surgery. We should be partners with all other medical practitioners; we should not antagonize the medical establishment by making unprovable claims that we can cure cancers with a few needle pricks or with hovering hands.
I would dearly love for someone to submit proof that even one person has been completely cured of a metastasized cancer without the usage of radiation or chemotherapy-- they kill cells indiscriminately, the doctors hoping that the cancer will die before the patient does. But a miracle cure has yet to be discovered. I believe that TCM/Shiatsu/Jin Shin Do can restore the proper flow of chi, which probably slows or halts the progression of cancer. Sadly, no form of MTB can revive dead cells, can transform cancerous cells into the needed, specialized cells they once were--when the damage is done, it is done.
And to those who insist that cancer is totally natural to the Universe (as I agree it is), perhaps we should consider the possibility that for whatever reason the Universe itself has decided the cancer victim should die-- I say this though I have lost my mother and two brothers and far too many friends to cancer. After all, no life is meant to live forever.
Brian James said:
What about cancer mutations, cancer genes, and cancers caused by things that are obviously part of the "Universe," like viruses and sunlight? What material things exist that are not part of the "Universe?"
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Permalink Reply by Daniel Cohen on
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I would add that while we are legally responsible for advising a client to see a Physician for diseases such as cancer, we do not diagnose and we must respect the client. If they have seen a doctor and have a diagnosis we, as MTs, have a legal and ethical responsibility to get a release from the doctor for massage. But what if the client has not seen a doctor? Would you send them away, refusing massage until they see a doctor?
We learn the contraindications for modalities. This varies greatly modality to modality. I would consider the persons complaints and contraindications and draw from my tool box the massage I think suits them. At the same time I would be encouraging them to see a doctor while respecting their decision not to. There are many reasons people do not go to a doctor. Among these are religious belief, finances, and fear.
This is a good reason to study a wide variety of modalities both modern & traditional, mechanical to energetic. The more you have the more you can do.
The most common answer clients get today from the doctor when asking if they can get a massage is; "I don't know" followed either by "it can't hurt" or "I wouldn't risk it". They just don't know enough about us. An option then becomes talking with the doctor directly about it. A patient has the right to reject the doctor's decision. Patients have rights that must be respected. If the client chooses to disregard doctor's instruction, you then have the decision to make of going along with it. In terminal situations usually the doctor will go the "can't hurt" route. Again it is your choice. I have worked with this and made the final months much more comfortable and active. I have broken up lumps and reduced fibrosis after which doctors canceled biopsies or exploratory surgery. There is much that can be done with our tools.
There is much to do while following protocols of law and ethics. Most of all respect the client and yourself.
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I believe that you are absolutely right in everything you said. Steve Jobs had the right to the treatment option of his choice. And there's idiots and charlatans in all fields, including the AMA.
For instance, doctors who remove the 1st rib and scalene to alleviate TOS; doctors who operate on the spine and replace hips and knees needlessly-- as we know and the AMA admits, 80+% of surgeries are unnecessary, even contraindicated. All those extraneous surgeries due to greed for the big fees?
As you pointed out, Daniel, we need to be careful about using the word "all" when "some" is more appropriate. Also as you point out, "some" of them just don't know any better. Because they are very skilled with a scalpel, they can arrogantly but honestly believe that surgery is the best cure for even a common cold, if only they knew where to cut-- okay, over the top, but some sure seem to be that arrogant.
MTs can also become arrogant about their particular skill set. Surgery for TOS, for instance. A percentage of people are actually born with an extra rib up top, and as we age, a scalene muscle can maybe, conceivably, grow thicker for no reason we know about. But they ought to try NMT first.
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Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on
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This is a little bit off the subject.. but not really.. I never try to play doctor..Reguardless of their presenting symptoms or history or diagnosis from smart people... All I do is find where they are sore.. Palatable sore areas. And work on making those sore areas not sore. And I have a lot of tools in my massage armamentation to do that....The weird thing is, Im able to help more people then not...Muscle pain is responsible and involved in a lot if not all pain problems...There is a high percentage of people we can help just staying within the paramaters of our license.. We dont have to fully understand or be doctors to help or cure. I have a HIGH ART. I'm a Massage Therapist.
Daniel Cohen said:I would add that while we are legally responsible for advising a client to see a Physician for diseases such as cancer, we do not diagnose and we must respect the client. If they have seen a doctor and have a diagnosis we, as MTs, have a legal and ethical responsibility to get a release from the doctor for massage. But what if the client has not seen a doctor? Would you send them away, refusing massage until they see a doctor?
We learn the contraindications for modalities. This varies greatly modality to modality. I would consider the persons complaints and contraindications and draw from my tool box the massage I think suits them. At the same time I would be encouraging them to see a doctor while respecting their decision not to. There are many reasons people do not go to a doctor. Among these are religious belief, finances, and fear.
This is a good reason to study a wide variety of modalities both modern & traditional, mechanical to energetic. The more you have the more you can do.
The most common answer clients get today from the doctor when asking if they can get a massage is; "I don't know" followed either by "it can't hurt" or "I wouldn't risk it". They just don't know enough about us. An option then becomes talking with the doctor directly about it. A patient has the right to reject the doctor's decision. Patients have rights that must be respected. If the client chooses to disregard doctor's instruction, you then have the decision to make of going along with it. In terminal situations usually the doctor will go the "can't hurt" route. Again it is your choice. I have worked with this and made the final months much more comfortable and active. I have broken up lumps and reduced fibrosis after which doctors canceled biopsies or exploratory surgery. There is much that can be done with our tools.
There is much to do while following protocols of law and ethics. Most of all respect the client and yourself.
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