How Cancer Saved My Life.

My name is Dan, and I am a 64-year-old male. For the last several years, I have been 50 pounds overweight with high blood pressure that required daily medication. Over the past five years, I have had several painful episodes of gout in my feet, and repeatedly developed large kidney stones. Under anesthesia, I had four laser lithotripsy procedures to break them up. Those were relatively painless procedures, but the ureteral stents that followed were more excruciating than the stones. At one point, a stone that wasn’t moving created a serious kidney infection. I remember calling my wife from the urologist’s office to tell her I had to be hospitalized immediately. After my first words, she thought the call had been dropped because she didn’t hear me say anything else. In truth, I had stopped talking because I couldn’t say more without breaking down. The news was that shocking and frightening for me. I went into emergency surgery and was in the hospital for four days. I had pain, chills, vomiting and generally a miserable time. Later, the urologist said that I had been very close to going into sepsis, meaning that life-threatening toxins would have gotten into my blood stream and been very hard to treat.

 

On January 22, 2018, the urologist informed me that I had prostate cancer. I knew that he had been watching my climbing prostate-specific antigen (PSA) scores after each blood draw but had no idea it had gone that far. Although the cancer wasn’t advanced, he said, I had to do something – surgery to remove my prostate or a radiation treatment called “Cyberknife” – and I had to do it soon. My immediate future now involved talking to doctors in those two fields and deciding about which treatment, both with undesirable side effects, to undergo. What was happening to my body?

 

In 2010, I had retired from over thirty years in the Maryland education system and a job I loved. I was a high school crisis counselor and most days saw 20 to 30 kids. I frequently ran into former students in the community, and many told me what a difference I had made for them. Some even said I had saved their lives. I was reluctant to leave, but my wife had been offered a dream job (and a much higher salary) at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, so off we went to Memphis, TN.

 

At first, I thought I was adjusting to being retired and in the new (and very different) community, but I became increasingly unhappy. Although I saw a few private practice clients, I was constantly frustrated trying to find a new purpose, and thoroughly discouraged with my body and the extra pounds. I had initially been excited about writing a book about energy psychology and the dream of one day opening a holistic wellness center, but I quit writing and played video games for hours on end. I also started to drink more every day.

 

When the urologist gave me the cancer news, I was listening to him explain the options when an internal voice suddenly said, “What a beautiful opportunity this is”. What? Really? I realized right then that this cancer was doing me an incredible favor. It was my trumpet-blowing wake-up call to reclaim my body, my purpose, and my life. It was time to put my money where my mouth was and do for myself what I had done with many of my clients. I told the urologist that I was going to heal my cancer with different energy psychology techniques. He promptly looked at my wife, who thoroughly understood what I was saying and nodded in approval. He didn’t seem too thrilled with that declaration, but said I had six to eight weeks to “do my thing”. We agreed that I could retake the PSA test after that time, and if the results were improved, he would agree that no treatment was necessary. I also agreed to visit the doctors who would do the cancer treatments just in case I failed. Let the games begin!

 

I had another blood draw on March 20, 2018, and got the results one day later. My PSA score, the nurse reported, had gone down, and I no longer needed surgery or radiation. I had also lost 40 pounds and my blood pressure was no longer high. So, how did I do it? These are a few of the more important steps I took.

 

Muscle Testing

 

I used “muscle testing” every day to determine the best practices to reverse and heal the cancer. I believe that our bodies have a built-in intelligence that is as powerful as a super-computer, that their natural state is wellness and optimal health, and that they’re willing to communicate with us about how to achieve that. Sometimes that communication is through intuition and dreams, but it can also be accessed immediately using muscle testing. (I have a full description of how to muscle test on one of my blogs at www.danlohrman.com.)  Every morning I muscle tested this question: “Do I have prostate cancer?”, and on day fourteen, my body said “No”.

 

I Loved My Cancer

 

What? I “loved” the evil disease that terrifies us and takes over our lives? Yes. Remember, I had realized that its presence created a fantastic opportunity to get my life back. How could I hate and fear something that was actually working in my best interests? What if those cells were calling the highest version of me to love and appreciate them, instead of my defeated self continuing to barrage them with anger, disappointment, frustration and disillusionment? So, I acknowledged, appreciated, and accepted those cells that were a part of my super-intelligent body. I did this through meditation and “heart-mind integration”. The process went like this: I meditated for twenty minutes using a mantra, then I repeated carefully chosen words very slowly, over and over, for another 15 minutes. I repeated: “happiness, celebration, appreciation, gratitude, compassion, inner peace, inner light, inner strength, finest prostate, finest blood pressure, finest body weight”. I did all of this twice daily. I first heard about this exercise from Gregg Braden’s Missing Links series on www.Gaia.com (S1; EP 11). He does a wonderful job explaining how all of this works. A shorter version of this practice comes from the HeartMath Institute (www.heartmath.org). They recommend sitting still, closing your eyes, taking a few strong inhales and exhales, touching your heart, and repeating these words for three minutes: appreciation, gratitude, compassion, and care.

 

Fasting, EFT, and a New Diet

 

I did four water fasts in which I drank only bottled purified water for five days at a time. This provided me with two benefits: rapid weight loss and the opportunity to resolve a lot of my negative emotions and feelings about myself. Fasting tends to bring these feelings to the surface very quickly. When they arose, I used an energy psychology technique to process them called the “The Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)”.  EFT is a form of Chinese “acupressure” that can be used as a “do it yourself” method for reducing physical pain and healing negative emotions. It involves tapping your fingers on different upper body parts while you say positive affirmations. Tapping for just five minutes at a time allowed me to quickly work through and eliminate the negative beliefs I had about myself, which in turn allowed me to reclaim my natural state of happiness, love and wellbeing. You can get more information on EFT (including a free EFT manual) at http://www.eftuniverse.com.

 

I also started the ketogenic diet between fasts, which kept me in a constant state of ketosis. This diet first caught my eye when I watched a video of neuroscientist Dr. Dom D’Agostino discussing how ketosis can starve cancer cells. He states that our bodies usual fuel of glucose feeds cancer cells and switching the body’s fuel to ketones will help starve them. In addition, ketones fight inflammation in the body. So, instead of a diet of meat, potatoes, chips, alcohol and sweets, I switched to the plan of 75% healthy fats, 20% proteins, and 5% carbohydrates. I now eat organic eggs, cheeses, low carb nuts, fish, poultry, and green vegetables cooked in ghee, avocado, or coconut oil. With fasting and my body using ketones to burn fat, I lost 40 pounds in about two months. To find out more about this diet, watch the YouTube video “Starving cancer: Dominic D’Agostino at TEDxTampaBay”.

 

Daily Exercise and Stretching

 

Although I did a moderate workout almost daily, I upped my game after the prostate cancer diagnosis. I spent 45 minutes in the morning on an elliptical machine and another 30 minutes on the treadmill before dinner. I also incorporated some yoga stretching and used a tennis ball to roll away the tension and aches on different parts of my body, especially my lower back and upper legs. It was uncomfortable at first but got easier each day and left my body more refreshed, relaxed and flexible. I also took a hot bath each morning before my workday.

 

Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)

“NLP may be the most powerful vehicle for change in existence.”

Modern Psychology Magazine

 

There is a lot I could say about NLP and how much of a difference it has made over the years for my clients and now finally for myself. NLP is the study of how our minds work. NLP techniques give us access to our body’s innate intelligence quickly and easily, and allow us to create personal change in mere minutes. It’s like a very advanced form of muscle testing which I like to call “body talking” (not an NLP term). One of the basic principles of NLP is that everything that happens in our body, be it a headache, pain, anger, anxiety, depression, etc., has a well-meaning purpose. When you are willing to tune into that communication and discover the purpose, you get answers that will guide you back to your natural state of health and wellbeing. You can ask your body anything, and it will respond by giving you pictures, words, or feelings. Because I lean toward physical/auditory learning, my body uses feelings and words to communicate with me. My wife is a visual/auditory learner and she receives pictures and words in response to her questions. That internal voice at the urologist’s office and my insight into the purpose of my prostate cancer is my best example of how our super-intelligent bodies communicate with us. And, NLP is a highly effective tool for facilitating that communication. (More information on NLP can be found on the internet and YouTube.)

 

Thank you for letting me share my story with you. Being given a diagnosis of cancer started a wonderful eye-opening, life-changing experience for me and I hope my telling you about it has made a difference for you. I have gone back to writing my book on energy psychology and the techniques I described above. I’ll let you know when it’s finished! For now, I leave you with the words that are my guidelines for daily life:

 

Forgiveness

Acceptance

Love

Perfect Body

Perfect Health

 

Creating a New Declaration of Independence

Do you know, or have you read about, someone who seems to have had the perfect childhood,  full of unconditional love, support, and encouragement?  That sounds wonderful, doesn’t it?  What if I told you that you can create that for yourself?  “Wait, Dan, what?!”, you’re going to say.  “I’m fill in the blank years old and my childhood is over!”   But I am telling you that it is not too late.  It is possible to eliminate childhood traumas, disappointments, pain and unfulfilled expectations.  It is possible to deliver all of your unexpressed emotions and feelings to those who hurt you the most.  It is possible, it doesn’t take months or years to accomplish, and it is perfectly safe.

The process is called a Core Transformation, and you go through it with my guidance.  When you have helped your “inner child” to eliminate his or her negative experiences and express the emotions that surrounded them, you will find that you have no basis for any current negative self-beliefs.  What becomes available, then, is one of the five “core states” of Being: happiness, inner peace, love, OK-ness, or oneness.  After your inner child has created one of these core states, you go back in time and “redo” your childhood just the way you always wanted it to be.  And when you do that, something magical happens!  Your subconscious mind accepts it as real and your experience of your life transforms.  It becomes the life you have yearned for.  Am I implying that all of the love and happiness you have wanted for years is already within you, and possible to access?  Yes, I am.

As we celebrate independence in our country, I invite you to be free of your childhood and to have a life you love.  You can take the first step by contacting me and asking for the Core Transformation process.  I would be delighted to assist you. 

Happy Fourth of July!

A New Approach to Old Allergies

Are you tired of stocking up on antihistamines, paying for doctor’s visits, or avoiding certain food, places or pets in order to relieve your allergic symptoms?  What if I told you that your allergies can be eliminated  (yes, eliminated, not just reduced) in one session using Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)?  Would you believe me? 

Most experts agree that allergies are an abnormal response of the immune system.  But why does your immune system have that abnormal response, while others around you don’t?  At some point in your life, the specific substance that now gives you such trouble (plants, pollen, pets, nuts, etc.) was paired with an emotional upset that you have probably forgotten about.  In that moment, your body began to react in a hypersensitive way to the substance, and, according to NLP, it became “an unconscious threat to your survival”.   Since then, whenever you encounter the pollen, animal dander, or food, your body kicks in to high gear to rid you of the offending substance and save your life.  The process that paired the substance with an emotional event is called anchoring, and we all have multiple instances of this in our lives.  Anchors can be positive or limiting, and will last a lifetime if not altered.  

The NLP Allergy Strategy works by retraining your immune system through the deliberate use of anchoring.  For example, let’s say you want to eliminate your dairy allergy so that you can have all the ice cream you desire.  To start, we would anchor a “positive resource state” that you already have.  To figure out which one, I may ask you if you are allergic to soy milk, which you probably are not.  When you drink soy milk, your body does not have the abnormal response.  So we would use the established soy milk response to retrain your immune system, and show it how to act toward cow’s milk.

How long does it take for your immune system to change?  Minutes!  I recently worked with a client who eliminated several allergies in a one-hour session.  But don’t take my word for it.  Muscle test and ask your subconscious if Dan can eliminate  your allergies.  If you forgot how to muscle test, go to my blog at www.DanLohrman.com and re-read that article.  Remember that, for any issue, you can see me in person or via Skype, and the results will be the same. 

My next blog will be about Motivation!

How to Muscle Test

One very simple way to communicate with your subconscious mind (or, your innate intelligence) is through muscle testing. Do you want to know what is causing your allergies, a headache, those extra pounds? Maybe you want to know if starting a new project or particular diet is in your best interest, or where you left your keys or cell phone. Your subconscious already knows these answers, and muscle testing will access them quickly and easily.

There are several muscle testing methods, but I most frequently use the one in which I stand up and ask a yes or no question. I know I am getting a “yes” response from my subconscious when my body involuntarily tips slightly forward, almost like an invisible force has moved me. I know I am getting a “no” response when my body sways or pulls gently backwards. Easy! But is it really that simple to communicate with my higher self? Yes it is! Are you ready to try?

Stand up with your feet about shoulder width apart. Relax your knees and arms, and close your eyes. Make a request (silent or out loud) that your subconscious move you forward for a “yes” response and backwards for a “no” response. Now, ask yourself (internally or out loud) a yes or no question for which you know the answer. For example, “Is my name (your real name)?”, or “Do I have a dog?”, or “Am I a man/woman?”. Stay relaxed and notice what your body does. Did it move forward? If it did, congratulations! You have just tapped into your innate wisdom. If it did not, you may be slightly dehydrated, which will affect the answers. Take a few sips of water and try again. If this method still did not work, you may be feeling a little nervous or frightened at the idea of communicating with your subconscious mind. Most people are the first time they try this technique. Your conscious beliefs about what you can and cannot do may prevent your subconscious mind from playing along. In this case, tell your subconscious that you are willing to hear it, and then try the exercise again.

Practice communicating with your subconscious in this way until you became comfortable and confident with the answers you get. Once you are confident with this technique, you can move on to questions for which you do not already know the answers. Remember that every experience you have ever had is stored in your subconscious mind, so it knows where you left that cell phone! Trust me (and trust your subconscious) – you’ll find it!

Healing the Child Within

Did you know that, no matter how old you are, you still have a child within you? Don’t believe me? Close your eyes and ask your inner child to step forward. What do you see? How old is the child? Do you see her in a particular scene? Is she happy, sad, angry, or frightened? This inner child is the secret to your happiness, success, prosperity, and health. Why? Because your inner child holds the keys to all of your subconscious beliefs, thoughts, and feelings. You can actually interact with and heal your inner child very quickly. And when you do, your present life will change immediately. For this reason, inner child work is perhaps the most important work you will ever do in your lifetime. And you can start right now. Are you ready?

Sit quietly, close your eyes, and visualize, hear or feel that child again. Allow yourself to connect with her. Introduce yourself and explain that you are from the future, you are magical, and that you have come to help. Ask the child for permission, then step forward and hold, hug, and love her. Notice the child’s reactions to your love. Did she accept it? Or is she afraid, suspicious, shy, or indifferent? Then notice your feelings to her response. Next, ask your inner child questions about her life. How is her mommy and daddy, or brothers and sisters? Does she feel loved and supported by them? Does she think that she is a good kid, or bad? What other beliefs does she have about herself or others? Does she feel like the world is a safe place?

By asking these questions, you will discover the subconscious beliefs you hold about yourself, your worth, your family, and your world. All of them were formed at a very early age, but still influence the decisions that affect your happiness, success, health, and relationships. So, your inner child is still calling all the shots! Can you imagine how your life would be different today if you had felt completely and totally loved and honored as a child? It is not too late.

Make a commitment to take some time each week to go within and work with your inner child. All you have to do is sit quietly, connect, then love and support her. You may find that traumatic or stressful situations replay themselves. Remember, I said that you are magical, so you have all the power you need to change those situations and take your child in a direction that is different than the one you experienced. You have the power, within your own imagination, to give that child anything she needs or wants. You can take her to the beach or Disney World, or allow her to get angry or sad. You can help her stick up for herself or defend herself if necessary, because you are big and powerful and by her side. You can intervene to prevent misunderstandings and painful experiences from ever happening. And you can heal your father and mother so that she is raised by the parents you have always wanted. Is this really possible? Yes. You can do anything in this creative state, and your subconscious mind will believe that it is real. Just give it a try!

The work you do with your inner child is priceless. When the inner child is loved and fulfilled, you will feel loved and happy. What an extraordinary gift to give yourself this holiday season.

Wishing everyone a joyful inner child and wonderful holidays!

The One Word to Eliminate from Your Life

Don’t fail.   

Don’t get upset.  

Don’t lose.  

Don’t strike out.  

Don’t worry.  

Don’t mess up.

Do any of these phrases sound familiar? Does one or more of them go through your head on a regular basis? Then I want to tell you how the very simple, and very common, word “don’t” actually creates the opposite of what we want in life. Once you understand this concept, you can use it to create success instead of failure whether you are working, going to school, or raising a family.   

Remember that we have said that it is your subconscious mind that is really in charge of your behavior, relationships, and life choices. It contains information about everything you have ever done, seen and heard, along with beliefs and programs that you downloaded early in life from your parents, family, and educators.  It is your subconscious mind that really runs the show. And your subconscious mind registers and understands the external world very differently than your conscious mind. In a nutshell, your subconscious mind does not comprehend negative statements. This is because it understands and thinks in pictures. Let’s take the example of me telling you NOT to think about a pink giraffe. What just happened internally? You thought of a pink giraffe. This is because in order to understand the statement “Don’t think of a pink giraffe”, your subconscious mind had to create the image. Because there is really no picture for the word “don’t”, it could not comprehend it, and it never registered on the subconscious level. Now that you know the key concept, do you think you can beat it? Then please do not think about a purple sea.  What just happened?  Thought so.

This concept is so important to grasp because your body will automatically respond to the image in your subconscious mind. If you go back to the words at the beginning of this blog, you can now see that the statement “Don’t fail” gets interpreted subconsciously as “Fail”. If you are playing baseball and say to yourself “Don’t strike out!”, your subconscious mind creates the image of striking out and your body follows those instructions. Parents, have you ever told your child “Don’t spill your milk!” at the dinner table?  What did you quickly program her to do? That’s right, her little brain created the picture of spilling the milk, her muscles obeyed, and there went the milk all over the table. How many times have we told ourselves or our loved ones not to worry, don’t get upset, don’t be late, don’t screw this one up, don’t interrupt, don’t get sick, don’t be rude, don’t slouch, or don’t make a scene? How about “Don’t drink and drive”? Wow! Can changing the way we communicate really make that much of a difference? Yes, it can.

The change that will make all the difference is to use positive statements instead of negative ones. If you are at bat, tell yourself that you are going to hit a home run. If you are presenting at a critical business meeting, tell yourself that you will deliver the presentation smoothly and that it will be well received. If your little girl has those little hands on a big glass of milk, say, “Honey, hold that glass really tight!”. If you are a teacher giving a test, tell your students to relax, remember everything they have studied, and to visualize themselves getting the grade they want. If you are a coach, tell your players to sit down, relax, and visualize playing their game perfectly. If you are the parent of a teenager going to a party, tell him to have a good time and be safe.

By saying and thinking only positive images, we program our subconscious for success. I will leave you with a quote that hangs in my office:

Watch your thoughts,

They become words.

Watch your words,

They become actions.

Watch your actions,

They become habits.

Watch your habits,

They become character.

Watch your character,

for it becomes your destiny.

Eliminating Student Test Anxiety

Does your child come home from school and say that he forgot or could not remember important test information that you know he studied the previous night?  He may say that shortly after the test, he started to remember what he had studied, but by then, it was too late!  This is a perfect example of test anxiety.  We have all been anxious about taking a test, but why do some kids have such a hard time recalling the information?  Their anxiety has to do with the “fight or flight response”.  Think about a time when you were very anxious, then think about a situation in which you were very relaxed.  It is easy to feel how those two states create very different outcomes for both our mental and physical health.  They also have a direct effect on our memory.  Let’s take a look at how that works.

The term “fight or flight” describes our body’s automatic response when it perceives danger in our environment.  It is a survival mechanism that prepares us to run, fight, or freeze in place to protect ourselves.  Imagine that you are strolling through the woods and suddenly come upon a very large bear.  In an instant, your adrenalin starts pumping and blood quickly leaves your major organs to rush into your extremities so that you can run or fight.  One of those major organs losing blood is your brain.  It instantly provides at least 50% of its blood supply to the arms and legs.  With that blood loss, your usual high level of brain power is diminished, and you do not have the resources to ponder, decide, or debate about what to do in your predicament.

So what does this have to do with test taking?  The student who is experiencing test anxiety is experiencing the automatic fight or flight response.  But what is the threat in that environment?  Generally, it is an internal dialog that is created by the child when he thinks about the test.  The most common thought is something like, “I need to get a good grade on this test”.   Whenever we think that we “need” something, our subconscious mind puts that desire into the same category as needing water, food, shelter, or safety for survival.  It sounds the alarm and the fight or flight response is triggered.  The way to eliminate the text anxiety, then, is to teach the child to go into a relaxation response instead of the survival response.  Let’s break this down into steps.

After I explain the fight or flight response to a student, I discover his unique internal process in order to know exactly what triggers his anxiety response.  I ask him to close his eyes and think back to the last time he experienced this anxiety.  Then I ask him to tell me, step by step, what happened.  For example, he might say, “I walked into the classroom and sat down. I remembered my dad saying that I had to get a good grade or I wouldn’t be allowed to play sports.  I started thinking, I really need to ace this one”, and so on.  The words he was hearing just before the anxiety set in are the key.  Once the phrase is identified, I have the student repeat it several times, and notice (or ask) if that increases his anxiety.   Once we are sure of the anxiety-provoking phrase, I have the student repeat it ten times, but replace the word “need” with the word “want”.  Why this change?  Because “I want to ace this test” will not trigger the survival-mode, fight or flight response.  To be sure, I ask the child if he feels anxious, or notices any tenseness in his body as he repeats the new phrase.

Next, I ask the student to tell me about an activity he loves to do, and to give me some examples of the positive thoughts and phrases he experiences while doing it.  For example, a guy who loves to play baseball might think, “I love being on this field”, “I’m really good at this”, and “I’m going to hit it out of the park!”.  I then have him close his eyes and think of the test-taking scenario again. But this time, I instruct him to image himself saying the positive phrases.  For example, I ask him to imagine that he walks into the classroom, sits down, remembers his dad saying he had to get a good grade, then he says to himself,  “I love this”, “I’m going to hit it out of the park!”, and “I’m really good at this and am going to remember everything I studied!”.  I then ask him to imagine the rest of the school year, and to hear himself saying the positive phrases each time he sits down to take a test.  Then, I ask him to look into the future and see what grades he is getting on each test.  Because the fight or flight response is not triggered, every student will see himself acing tests and getting high marks.  Finally, I have him write down the new positive phrases on an index card, which he can read just before taking a test.  This is a great tool to ensure that none of the anxiety-provoking phrases slip back in.

In my next blog, I will share with you what other words and phrases we should eliminate from our vocabulary because they trigger the flight or fight response.

Dan Lohrman

http://www.danlohrman.com