Giving Love a Voice

Our experience in the Philippines is difficult to put into words. To say it was life altering would be an understatement. Nothing about our life has been the same since. We find it interesting that some of our friends and acquaintances have remained just that but wish to avoid discussion of the trip to Baguio City. Others have avoided us, I think, because they think there is something just too spooky about it. There are relatives that believe the whole thing is made up. These same relatives obviously have no concept of unconditional love. They hold in hate and judgment toward other family members for decades on end. Those that choose to think this way have illness in their own lives and will not discuss forgiveness or removing the conditions attached to what they think is love. There are far too many people in this world that do not love themselves and therefore cannot love others. Then there are those who love to hear the story, want to discuss it and wish they could have been part of it. Teaching about love and the healing power of love is a good job. Jill and I like it. Spiritual healing methods, such as psychic surgery, are illegal in the U.S. The American Medical Association has a tremendous amount of pull with lawmakers and has seen to it that the competition is eliminated. Healers who come to the U.S. are most certainly going to be jailed if caught. Interesting, isn’t it that, to my knowledge, no person has been harmed by one of these spiritual healers, while thousands and thousands die needlessly in hospitals every day due to negligence, mistakes and a host of other unnecessary reasons. The hospitals are legal and the healing rooms are not. This will be the case as long as lawmakers can be bought. It is indeed a sad state of affairs. We have lost touch with the healers. Our tour guide, Joy Mae, still lives in a remote area of Alaska. She is very close to her ninth decade now, and we still stay in touch. We can never thank her enough for getting us to the ashram and the healers there. She was an angel to many, many people. This would be the start of an entirely new life, the start of a whole new learning experience. Teaching what we learned would not begin for many years, as there was much more to learn. During our stopover in Hawaii, Jill was able to walk from where we were staying to the beach. It was about two long city blocks, and she made the walk with some help when it came to walking in the sand. She was able to sit, talk and read. Just to observe that gave me great pleasure. It was, however, necessary to get the car to bring her home as she was too tired to walk. Before the trip to Baguio, she had slept at least 16 hours a day. I mention this to let you know she was vastly improved, but she still needed time and work to compete the healing process. She was doing better every day, and based on what had happened at the ashram, we felt sure that a completely normal, functioning body was not far off. Through it all she looked simply beautiful; it was just that her beautiful body failed to function. We have spent time with many different healers for well over a quarter-century since March of 1983, and each one has added to our backpack of tools in our quest for perfect health. We left a car at my parents’ home in Pioneer during our trip to the Philippines. On our return, we landed in San Francisco and transferred to a commuter to Sacramento where Brother Dan, once again, picked us up and drove us to our destination, our parents’ home in Pioneer. After a short visit with them, where the conversation skirted the whole devil thing, we set course for home — Incline Village and the Castle. As luck would have it, less than an hour’s drive up Highway 88 and right on the way, is Silver Lake, where we shared our first date and it all started. We were driving from the west and as the lake came into view, the shadows were long on Thunder Mountain, just east. It was much earlier in the day as this was March. We sat in the car at the water’s edge as this is a high mountain lake and there was a lot of snow. The lava cliffs on the west side of Thunder were very black against the snow, and the blue sky was a sharp contrast to the deep blue of the water. We sat and talked for a while about out time together since we enjoyed our first and only date, in the same spot, just over 10 years earlier. “If you knew then what you know now, would you make the same decision?” she asked. “Absolutely. I told you that day I would take care of you and your children as long as I live, and I meant it. I told you commitment is really important to me. I trust you now understand how important.” “I do. When I first listened to you tell about how your father left his family when you were not yet 6, leaving your mother to raise five children by herself, and your vow to see things through when you make a commitment, I had no idea how that would play out in my life. I think I can thank your father for being who he was. Had he not been, you may have opted for the easy way and taken that doctor at his word and found an institution for my body.” I wrapped her in my arms. “The thought never occurred to me. I have a gut feeling we are going to be together a very long time. We have not as yet run on Kailua Beach and my vision is still clear, so that is in our future. Based on the past two weeks, I believe illness is in our past. I’m really looking forward to a whole new life together. I think our next issue to tackle will be in the realm of finances. At this moment in time, I’m not just sure what our financial future holds. Right now it’s looking a bit grim.”