My Recovery from Rheumatoid Arthritis

My Story​
Many students and friends have asked me to tell the story about my struggle to heal crippling rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and numerous chronic diseases. It was this struggle that led to the development of the Alchemical healing process, and the excellent health I now enjoy. 

Hopefully, this sharing of the lessons learned helps inspire others who wrestle with chronic or “incurable” disease, and the confusion, fear, and despair that often accompany their suffering.

The Beginning
I didn't start this journey with much confidence.  In my late twenties, living in a basement in a dilapidated Russian River resort, daily life was constant pain and bedridden with swollen knees, shoulder, and back.   Doctors said RA was incurable, that there was little hope of walking normally again. Even my parents said, "Your aunt has had this all her life… and she's married to a doctor."  So of course at the time I often lapsed into doubt and a level of despair that exceeded the physical pain.  How could I survive the near homelessness and poverty and the weakness of this crippled condition?  One nutritionist declared my starved body was allergic to every food he tested.  I was afraid even to eat.  Both the physicians and my parents reiterated there was nothing to be done to reverse this progressive condition that had crippled me at 28 years old! This was in 1978, well before many modern and effective RA treatments, at a time when RA was a life sentence of chronic pain.

Learning from my Inner Healer
Feeling that all else had failed, I turned to my inner healer.  My inner healer, the Angel Michaela, had come to me in a shamanic experience during my college years.  She was always an important guide but I had never considered her to be the profound healer that she turned out to be.  Michaela showed me how to heal my body, and gave me hope.  She literally got me on my feet.

One thing I learned from my inner healer was that judging myself for being scared and doubting just made life more miserable. I learned from her to be kind to all the frightened feelings sick people are prone to experience and that acceptance of any terror and despair is a fundamental part of recovery.  Nor do we need to say to ourselves, "This negative attitude will just make it worse!"  It proved much easier to heal while embracing the tears and despair, instead of spending my fragile energy trying to keep smiling. Instead, all my despair was laid in the lap of my inner healer while trusting her to transmute its poisons. She did not shame any feelings! That frankly surprised me.  The messages I’d experienced from the exterior world was to keep up a smile, or face the failure that comes with emotional weakness.  Her complete acceptance of weakness and despair was the perfect medicine for my pain.

Next she encouraged me to defy the conventional wisdom propounded by all the experts. If you suffer from a chronic illness, most health professionals will route you toward the pharmaceutical and surgical solutions called "standard of care".  I did not at the time understand the terrible risks that may be involved with some of these treatments.  For many health conditions, the mainstream medical community offers excellent treatment protocols and outcomes.  

Understanding "Standard Care"
In the case of many chronic diseases (especially those of the immune system) the term “standard of care” nowadays means a descending future, even with recent advances in internal medicine.  Sufferers today still face increasingly painful symptoms, increasingly toxic treatments, and the loss of quality of life.  Physicians provide a frightening but to them realistic prognosis, such as, “You have to live with chronic pain.”  I was told this by my physician in 1978.

This was the kind of advice my inner healer advised me to studiously ignore.  The inner healer instead taught me that for the most effective recovery, the patient has to be a critical ally within their health care team, and be prepared to make daily lifestyle changes, and in-depth inner work.
Even more importantly, she reminded me that no external expert, even the most gifted team of specialists, nutritionists or healers can be counted on to sort out all the individual variables of an effective treatment program.  Only by contacting and trusting my own inner healer could my own unique body chemistry and genetic hard wiring find the right match in a treatment regimen.

Here's just one example of this principle from published medical research:
Recent discoveries in drug physiology have determined that the same dose of the same drug for the same disease could sometimes have highly variable results.  However while some patients might find this a good solution others found the treatments completely ineffectual or a source of adverse side effects, depending on the genetic tendencies of the individual person.  Doctors rarely have any protocol for testing even the most toxic drug regimens on a particular body before treatment begins. Generally, close communication and patient monitoring can reveal and remedy many of these problems.  However, conventional medicine now understands that many patients will thus be poorly served by the mainstream “standard of care” because of this patient variability.
Every patient needs an inner healer to help them sort out the amazing variety of treatment options for minimum toxicity and maximum effectiveness, in both standard care and alternative medicine.  Only thus can we beat the odds of recovery preached to us by the experts, and be confident in that recovery.

Listening To My Body's Wisdom
Prior to consulting within with the inner healer, my searches for healing through the fields of nutrition and alternative medicine were equally confusing.   I was buffeted by exotic diet regimens which sometimes worked for a while, and sometimes didn't.  Juice fasting had its limits. Vegan diets left me exhausted.  And who would have guessed that raw fish and dark chocolate (foods I never liked) would become a mainstay in my recovery.  These accurate suggestions for dietary changes came via my inner healer, who not only shared clear advice on nutrition but also lifestyle, and medical and alternative treatments. 

When returning the crutches and wheelchair to the doctor I said, “I won't end up like your other patients. I'm listening to my own body's wisdom and choosing to follow my inner healer’s plan. “

The doctor had no response to my restored health.  And no interest in pursuing the subject.  While many doctors are passionate patient advocates, other doctors are not as devoted to the healing of patients as they are devoted to maintaining the medical status quo.  It isn’t hard to tell the difference if we are paying attention.

Learning Patience and to Pay Attention 
One of the most incredible gifts of the inner healer during my recovery was learning to do daily spiritual surgery, a process that helped reduce the swelling in my joints, and stopped the inflammatory process.  I was absolutely amazed after only a few treatments from the inner healer, to trade crutches for a cane, and go on a short backpacking trip!  Over two days, while sitting on a cold windy ridgetop, I was too tired and sore to move much.  My inner healer placed her warm hands on my swollen knee, channeling energy into my knee through my hands.  I felt it wiggle and stretch, painlessly.  I’ll never forget throwing away my cane as I walked out of the wilds in March of 1979!

My healing was not over. The journey continued with up to six joints effected at times, over the next 6 years.  To all of the clients I now work with, goes this reminder:  Be patient!  Long term conditions created by long term habits don’t generally go away overnight.  But if we pay attention we DO see a long term pattern of improvement behind a relapse, as long as we stay focused on the process of healing and continue to comply with our inner healer’s instructions.  In a society obsessed with instant miracles, slow and steady can win the race with respect to chronic illness.

My last arthritis attack was thirty-three years ago, in June of 1984.  I was teaching a class of 15 hypnotherapy students how to use the spiritual surgery process with their clients.  The students used me to practice the protocol in class, and it worked perfectly.  It is now 2017.  I have been symptom free and an active outdoorsman ever since.

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As I write this today, it seems outrageous that much of the government support for affordable health care may soon disappear.  However this can also been seen as an opportunity to renew our own health through connection with our own ever-present inner resource:  our own inner healer. The inner healer can help sort through the crazy and conflicting treatments jungle!

If you want to reverse the progress of chronic disease in your body or your loved ones, a strong connection to your inner healer can guide you to learn what your unique body chemistry requires.   (See the other articles on our website for numerous stories of miracles of recovery using this inner healer and Somatic Healing technologies:  http://www.alchemyinstitute.com/healing.html )

And for anyone who is ready to start a journey to take charge of healing your body:  I offer private sessions in person or by phone, retreat packages, and training for professionals.
http://www.alchemyinstitute.com/private-hypnosis-appointments.html
http://www.alchemyinstitute.com/heal-your-body.html
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For clients:  In the 4-session healing retreat package you will do much more than connect with your inner healer.  You will experience and learn how to:
·         Use the inner healer's wisdom every day to heal your body and your life in all the ways described above.
·         Explore the underlying causes of your health conditions from this and previous lives and clear these underlying causes.
·         Discover the power of spiritual surgery as you learn to make this energetic healing process a part of your daily recovery.
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Call me for details. 707-888-8403.  I offer a free 15-minute phone consultation prior to setting up your appointment. 
David Quigley, January 2017