Yogi and Cancer (Alfredo Delregato)
This email is for you only.
This medical condition was first detected while in my last trip to India a little over 2 years ago. There was a slight ulceration at the bottom of the heel of the right foot. The tumor was not visible because of the thickness of the callus in that area. Since then I have found several people around the world, men and women, with the same condition, who, like me, procrastinated because of the poor visibility due to the callus layer. This is what gets people. It was first misdiagnosed as a plantar wart, with further waste of time and a mistake by a podiatric who poked into it with a scalpel. A final biopsy showed it was melanoma.
And what is this melanoma? One of the most aggressive forms of cancer which is becoming an epidemic in the US among people in their 30s and 40s, accounting for the first cause of death for these age groups. When caught early on, and excised through surgery, Clark 1 or 2, Stage 1, it is usually the end of it. When it grows further, as in my case because early detection was not there, it rapidly spreads throughout the body. When mine was excised, it was already Clark 5 (the highest), meaning also the thickest, already in contact with lymph and blood. At this stage – Stage IIIb - it is already, microscopically, literally everywhere. To give an idea of the virulence of this cancer, it wipes out people in no time, often in months. When people have prostate cancer, I simply laugh, I would trade that cancer, and similar others, for this one in no time, ha, ha. A little Rastafarian hesitation of not mutilating his body – cutting off a toe – shortened the life of Bob Marley. Similarly for your friend Tirtha Swami. There are other examples. One thing I am convinced, which runs contrary to medical advice, is that this cancer has nothing, or little, to do with exposure to sunshine. There are other factors.
Origins of this disease: Of my 4 grandparents, 3 were very longevic, living into their 90s, no cancer at all, and one, Eugenio Hermida, from the little town of Bande, Ourense, in Galicia, northern Spain, who emigrated to Cuba as a youngster, died of colon cancer at the age of 59 (about my age now). It happens that I resemble him like a drop of water to another. I was also very fond of him. So, there is probably a genetic predisposition in this regard. However, a predisposition is never final, and there could be other precursors, such as chemicals, pollution, etc, and I was exposed to several carcinogens, such as Cr+6, Nickel 3+, Cd, and tetrachloroethylene, for the period of 9 years that I worked in the 80s as an electroplater/finisher in the aviation industry. At that time OSHA regulations were non-existent or very incipient, and protection scant. Then comes the occult factor. This is a big factor. Occult toxicity. In my case, and for reasons that I do not want to disclose at this time, I allowed certain negative forces to enter and possess me, and they created havoc in my inner being, precipitating several factors that fueled the grow of this cancer. As they say in Spain, with these mules, I have to plough.
Healing a disease: Once a disease sets in, there are 3 factors that intervene in a possible healing. 2 of them are within the control of the individual, a 3rd is mostly out of his control. The 2 under the possible control of the individual are faith and will. It does not mean that diseased people will always be able to use these 2 factors to their favor, not so easy, it means that they are available if the diseased person can, or is allowed, to become conscious of them and exercise them to his advantage. It means that in order to heal one must have faith in the healing, better total faith, and then must be able to apply a will to that effect. It goes without saying that the consummation and concatenation of these 2 favorable factors are quite difficult to attain, for there are many drawbacks to their manifestation. Then to the 3rd factor, which comes from “above”. This is mostly beyond our control. Some people have named the origin of this factor, Fate, Providence, Time, Karma, and other similar names. When this force from above is present, the disease can be healed, otherwise no. Alas, even without faith and will, if this 3rd element is there, the disease may be healed. Although it is mostly out of our control, it is still worthwhile to understand this 3rd factor before leaving, and explore the possibility of promoting its manifestation.
What I did and did not do: Being accused of strong individualism and innate distrust of the present medical establishment, and contrary to the advice of several family members, faced with the grim statistics that the doctors have given me even with the treatment they recommended and the awful side effects of it, inclined to Ayurveda, alternative medicine and natural cures since early age, I disregarded the treatment proposed – further surgery to remove inguinal lymph nodes and one year of Interferon. So I attended an alternative medicine clinic and did other things on my own. They did not fully work, and a year later had to had an inguinal lymph node removed. Again not enough, and recently the cancer has spread to several places on the skin of the right leg and a few location in the lungs as well as one location near the tail bone. So far, so bad. Nearing the end of the rope, I decided to give a try to conventional medicine, so I have had some radiation in the groin and the foot, and have also taken 3 rounds of an immunotherapy treatment called Interleukin. This is not chemotherapy, which is designed to kill cells, Interleukin is one of the markers of a natural immune system, the idea is to boosts this system to take care of the cancer. Unfortunately, total responders to this treatment (meaning the cancer totally disappears) are about 6%, with partial responder (some of the cancer disappears) hovering around 20%, so the numbers are not in one’s favor. Chemotherapy is bad…right? Mainly because of lingering side effects, but this Interleukin treatment, which usually takes a stay of 5 days in the hospital, has few side effects afterwards, but during the treatment itself you are lucky to survive intact, a good way to describe it, is that they put half of you inside the hole (tomb), to finally pull you out right on time before you fall in, that bad it is. After 3 of these bouts, they test, and that should happen tomorrow. I know already, by observation, that I am not a full responders for although the spreading on the skin of the right leg has stopped, some lesions are still growing slowly. Will see what’s happening in the inside this coming week.
Highlights of alternative medicine: I mention this as it could be important to others. After trying an alternative clinic for cancer, as well as several approaches using supplement, strict diets and similar factors, I am convinced today that what works for one person to cure or even heal cancer may not work for another, and that the majority of these alternative treatments are basically futile in essence, but become powerful only when a given person gives them power for a particular reason that applies to him alone. Moreover, I am also convinced that the cancer alternative medicine field, which constantly criticizes and harasses the conventional, allopathic, cancer treatments, is as full of it, or, more specifically, fuller than that they criticize, for if allopathic medicine indeed commits many blunders, the other field often uses lies, subterfuge, innuendo, half-lies, bend statistics, and all this while taking advantages for money of sick people that are normally vulnerable by the depressive stage that the specter of cancer brings. Take for example the use of black salve. The proponents of it says it takes care of skin cancer 100% of the time, but it is simply not true. I tried it myself successfully in some locations, but others were stubborn as well, in the meantime the cancer spreads out internally, so today I can’t blame the FDA, as I did before, for chasing this guy out of this country, and am more careful nowadays when criticizing the FDA. This same occurred with this clinic I went when the doctor committed a big mistake in diagnosis, which made me lose several months, and this is quite common.
भिनिवेशः/ ‘bhiniveśaḥ: As you wisely pointed out is your commentary of the Sutras, problems with disease, as a rule or normally, do not affect those yogis who have attained the state of samadhi. Since I have not attained that state, but am placed in the lower rungs of the ladder, I am affected, thus, at one point, perhaps facing death close by, the question of Abhinivesha (clinging to life at all costs, fear of death) must be entertained and analyzed. Is that what I am doing? Let’s see, but before that allow me a word of advice for those who, like me, are below the level of samadhi, before they say anything, for them to please wait till the Grim Reaper is close by, and then we will talk. For them, please do not boast, just hold your judgement. So again, let’s see, I am an ascetic who at 60 has very few material clingings, practically no social commitments, bent on celibacy and for whom the only main desire left is the practice of yoga and become conscious of who I am and advancing as much as possible within this practice, thus my clinging to life so far is not inadequate because I still feel great and the practice has never been better nor I have felt this strong before, cancer or no cancer, I don’t care.
Is this cancer good or bad for me: 100% good and what I needed. What the “doctor” prescribed. I have learnt more about myself and other important things in this 2 years than ever before. Not only that, the priorities are now lined up properly while before they were not. I have heard, or read, that in the causal realm, the Psychic Being plans ahead, perhaps meticulously, certain experiences that are needed, I often wonder about this. However, I don’t give power to the illness whatsoever, or dwell on it, but live on and do my best. I practice yoga like there is no tomorrow and that is great.
In the near future: This coming Wednesday I am going alone for a few weeks’ stay in a remote location of the Peruvian Andes. There, I will be working with a Shaman, using both San Pedro and Ayahuasca, to peruse into the 3rd factor of healing elucidated above. Here I owe an apology, which I will forward in time, to both Surya and devaPriya because I chastised them both for using Ayahuasca or for promoting its use, it is better to keep the mouth shut most of the times. When I return, I will be a couple of weeks in the Bahamas where a personal vaccine against cancer is available which has been quite successful for advanced melanoma, they use your urine to isolate tumor markers and create a vaccine that you inject twice a week for 16 weeks, trying to promote an avalanche of dendrite cells in the immune system. It is expensive, but I have the money and more, money is surely not my problem, so what the heck.
