I worked for two years in the Hai Shan Clinic of Heiner Fruehauf, Ph.D., and in that time saw many chronic Lyme disease patients. In my own Onkodo Clinic in SE Portland, OR this continues to be the case. At the Hai Shan Clinic when a new chronic Lyme patient came in, we told them to expect to come for 3 years or more, that they would improve slowly over that time. This was in most cases accurate. Quick turnarounds of the condition were uncommon. The borrelia spirochete is one tough invader, and it is no simple matter to help a patient back to health once the infection is well established.
Ever since I first started to treat chronic Lyme patients I have tried to stay informed about the various treatment approaches available. This would include the Zhang protocol, Stephen Buhner’s work, the Nutramedix product approach, Rife machines, and standard ILADs antibiotic protocols. And there are many more treatment ideas that one can find easily online, but the ones I’ve named above are quite popular. I’ve even seen patients who first tried all of these different methods before coming to Hai Shan. The strategies used at Hai Shan are outlined in the 1997 Journal of Chinese Medicine article on Gu Syndrome that Heiner Fruehauf wrote. It caused quite a stir at the time and continues to generate interest. Since that time his research has continued, and the treatment method has evolved.
What I want to write about today is something that really astonished me in its ability transform the lives of chronic Lyme patients: changing unhelpful beliefs. That’s right, simply changing beliefs that do not support our highest good. I realize it is not in our scope of practice to work in a counseling sort of role, and I am not advocating that here, but I do want to make you aware of an idea that seems to work remarkably well in conjunction with Chinese Medicine.
One chronic Lyme patient who had made reasonably good progress with my treatments (but not astonishing by any means) came to my clinic one day and said she was working with changing her beliefs using the Dynamic Neural Retraining System (DNRS) system. I had never heard of this program but found it easily online and read a bit on their website. She really felt she was seeing significant changes in a short time; after I had evaluated her pulse and abdomen, I had to agree that there had been a positive shift. The DNRS system required a daily investment of a few hours, but she was able to manage it, as she was only working part-time.
I was immediately interested in this idea of the important role of beliefs, because I had some years earlier volunteered for a month at the Option Institute in MA. One part of the Institute is the Autism Treatment Center of America and the other part is The Option Institute, a personal growth center. In both programs they utilize what they call the Option Process Dialogue. This dialogue process is quite remarkable to witness. The simple questions offered by a “mentor” trained in the process seek only to reveal to the “explorer” core beliefs that were operative in their lives, many times unbeknownst to them. In Option Process Dialogues no advice is ever given, (I find this aspect so refreshing) and there is no teaching about what enlightened or healthy beliefs might look like. The person investigating their beliefs is trusted as “their own best expert.” At that point, the person has a chance to choose if they want to continue to hold the belief or if they want to work to change it, ideally to something more empowering and life-affirming. It does take significant work to actually change a long-held belief, but it is doable. Examples of beliefs people commonly hold might be about self-worth, ability to manifest their dreams, their value as a person, and so on. These can all be changed, and when they are changed, surprising and significant shifts occur. I saw deep changes in many people using this dialogue system, so I became forever attuned to the power of beliefs to change a person’s life.
My patient was doing essentially the same thing but was using a different system, and it seemed to be working. I later learned a British M.D., Ashok Gupta, has developed a somewhat similar system that reports some success with chronic fatigue and chronic Lyme. Dr. Joe Dispenza, D.C. teaches a method that also sets its sights on transforming beliefs; I have one chronic Lyme patient who has gone to his intensive retreats and uses his daily meditation to good effect.
Then I had another patient, an even tougher case of chronic Lyme who started to use the DNRS system. She met someone at a family wedding who had been bedridden with chronic Lyme and who had totally recovered using DNRS. My patient came back from the wedding and researched the program online. She then attended a training in Texas (a difficult trip for someone with chronic Lyme), developed a relationship with a program coach, and came home to do her daily homework. In short order I could not believe the change in her, and as I reflect now, it still surprises me. At this writing it is now 18 months later, and her improvements continue to amaze. She no longer bears any resemblance to the very sick Lyme patient of not so long ago. She exercises hard every day, has learned scuba diving and is taking harp lessons. She is active all day long, which would have been unthinkable a few years ago—all really from altering core beliefs she had held for a long time. Her son, also a chronic Lyme patient, now manages a full load in an osteopathic program; he also uses DNRS. So many changes in these people just from adjusting how they operated in life psycho-spiritually, you might say.
I write this blog not to promote DNRS, the Dr. Gupta approach, the Option Process Dialogue, or Dr. Joe Dispenza. I am more focused simply on beliefs, and the key role they play. I am sure there are many ways to tackle changing our beliefs, but we are not led in our culture to accept that beliefs are this significant. We seem to be still in a “nuts-and-bolts” era in which tracking lab numbers seems the only important thing. In pointing this out I am NOT saying lab values are unimportant; I am merely making the point that there is more to healing than managing numbers.
For us as practitioners as well it is important to examine our beliefs. Do you not enjoy the practice you want? Do you struggle with money and setting a fair price for your work? Are your treatments not of the caliber you desire? You might also benefit from an inspection of beliefs that could be hindering your progress. It is not all that easy to change our entrenched beliefs, but the benefits can be life-altering.
Kind regards all around,
Bob Quinn