NEWS - From Kate
Below are excerpts from Sandra Ingermans' August 2011 and September 2011 Transmutation News. http://www.sandraingerman.com/2011tnenglish.html
Sandra Ingerman's August 2011 Transmutation News!
I have some incredibly exciting news to announce!!
In 2004 I co-partnered with the University of Michigan School of Integrative
Medicine to do a pilot research on how Medicine for the Earth practices could
help people who have suffered a heart attack.
Dr. Sara Warber was the primary investigator.
There were three randomized study groups. There was one group of participants
who took a four day workshop with me on Medicine for the Earth. I was
assisted by Kate Durda who is an amazing teacher in Michigan listed on
www.shamanicteachers.com.
Another group participated in a Life Style Change Program where participants learned about the importance of nutrition, physical exercise, and stress management. They learned how to practice meditation and yoga.
The third group received usual medical care.
The results of the study are now published by Explore Journal of Science and Healing. This is such an exciting study as we were able to show the benefit of practicing Medicine for the Earth work for people who have suffered heart attacks.
The manuscript of the Healing the Heart study can be downloaded for a fee by
clicking on the following link:
http://www.explorejournal.com/article/S1550-8307(11)00099-1/abstract.
I do hope you will download it and read the paper. It has taken many years for
the paper to finally be finished and published. I do trust that the timing is
now right to share the power of healing that comes from the Medicine for the
Earth work.
In the September Transmutation News I will write about some of the practices that we did in the four day workshop. All the practices came from my book "e;Medicine for the Earth: How to Transform Personal and Environmental Toxins"e;.
2011 February Update: We are happy to announce that "e;HEALING the HEART" manuscript has been accepted for publication in 'Explore: the Journal of Science and Healing' The publication date is sometime in late Summer, 2011. We will post the article here once it is published!
2010 October update:
Collaboration with Sandy Ingerman and with the University of Michigan in a pilot study of Heart Attack Survivors and the Medicine for the Earth work resulted in a paper submitted for publication in October!
"Healing the Heart: a randomized pilot study of a spiritual retreat for depression in acute coronary syndrome patients"
We are also planning future research! Stay tuned!!
Sandra Ingerman's September 2011 Transmutation News!
Last month I said I would write more about the Healing the Heart
study I conducted with University of Michigan Integrative Medicine.
The study was published in the July issue of Explore: The Journal of
Science and Healing.
The manuscript of the Healing the Heart study can be downloaded for
a fee by clicking on the following link:
http://www.explorejournal.com/
Heart patients who participated in a four-day Medicine for the
Earth retreat that included techniques such as meditation, guided
imagery, drumming, journal writing and outdoor activities saw
immediate improvement in tests measuring depression and hopefulness.
Those improvements persisted at three- and six-month follow-up
measurements.
The study was the first randomized clinical trial to demonstrate an
intervention that raises hope in patients with acute coronary
syndrome, a condition that includes chest pain and heart attack.
"The study shows that a spiritual retreat like the Medicine for the
Earth program can jumpstart and help to maintain a return to
psycho-spiritual well-being," says study lead author Sara Warber,
M.D., associate professor of family medicine at the U-M Medical
School and director of U-M's Integrative Medicine program. "These
types of interventions may be of particular interest to patients who
do not want to take antidepressants for depression symptoms that
often accompany coronary heart disease and heart attack."
The retreat group was compared to two other groups: one received
standard cardiac care and the other participated in a lifestyle
change retreat run by the U-M Cardiovascular Center that focused on
nutrition, physical exercise and stress management.
The study used a number of standard mental and physical benchmarks
to assess the success of the program.
The spiritual retreat group went from a baseline score of 12 on the
Beck Depression Inventory, indicating mild to moderate depression,
to an improved score of 6 immediately afterward, a 50-percent
reduction. Their scores remained that low half a year later. The
lifestyle group saw their scores drop from 11 to 7 and remain there.
The control group's score started at 8 and went down to 6.
Participants also showed marked improvement in their scores on a
test measuring hope. Scores on the State Hope Scale can range from 6
to 48, with higher scores indicating greater hope. All three study
groups started with average scores between 34 and 36. After the
Medicine for the Earth retreat, participants' average scores rose
and stayed at 40 or above, while the other two groups' averages
remained significantly lower, ranging from 35 to 38, three and six
months later.
"Our work adds an important spiritual voice to the current
discussion of the importance of psychological well-being for
patients facing serious medical issues, such as acute coronary
artery disease," Warber says.
The workshop I taught was based on what I wrote inMedicine for
the Earth. I taught the workshop in Michigan in 2004 and the
majority of participants were very religious and would not be open
to working with helping spirits or shamanic practices.
In teaching the workshop in Michigan all the practices were very
powerful for our group. I just adapted my vocabulary to match the
vocabulary that the participants could understand and work with.
This in itself is a powerful teaching. We oftentimes get so attached
to feeling a need to use certain vocabulary when we teach spiritual
practices. We must be flexible with our words to reach a broader
audience with the work.
After the workshop in 2004 I wrote How to Heal Toxic Thoughts and
then a couple of years later How to Thrive in Changing Times.
In both these books I was able to share the Medicine for the Earth
work in ways that I felt could be understood by an audience of all
beliefs and religions.
I know that these books are not all available in the languages that
the Transmutation News is translated into. To get a book published
in another language requires an interested publisher. At least one
of these three books is published in almost all the languages.
If you are interested in teaching the Medicine for the Earth (MFTE)
work to others in your community you might consider reading these
books and adapt some of the exercises and practices given.
Below is a list of just some of the principles and practices we
worked with:
We worked with the formula for transmutation and transformation:
intention + love + union + harmony + concentration + focus +
imagination = transformation.
Our perception creates our reality. If we believe we can create a
life filled with good health then we will and can. As we learn how
to appreciate the beauty of life our life reflects back that
beauty.
We can perceive a person as healthy or ill. Spiritual teachings
share when we perceive a person in their perfect health we help to
lift them into a state of perfection.
Everything in our physical world starts in the invisible realms.
This means our train of thoughts effect our health on all levels.
The words we use also create the world we live in. Thoughts and
words are "the as within" that create "the as without".
When one looks at creation stories from around the world you can
observe that most cultures believe that the world was created from a
sound or word. And words are seen to have great creative power.
We used meditation to breathe through our hearts and to learn how to
observe our thoughts and state of being. We used meditation to
disidentify from our emotional triggers.
We used journaling to write out thoughts, words, and decrees we
wished to focus on throughout the day to lead us to our desired
outcome.
We worked with creating a state of well being by using our
imagination engaging all of our senses to see, hear, feel, taste,
and smell the experience of the life we wish to create. In our
workshop I had participants use their imaginations to see, hear,
feel, taste, smell the experience of a life where they were healthy
and happy. If you need more information on how to do this please
read the May
2011 Transmutation News.
We used guided imagery to help participants discover their own story
of creation so that they could understand the principle of union
with the divine. An exercise to do this was written in the October
2010 Transmutation News.
We focused on how being out in nature helps us to regain a sense of
well- being as we are connected to nature. And the earth, air,
water, and the sun give us life. We went outside to sit with a tree
as a time to relax and feel our connection with the heartbeat of the
earth. And then we took short walks in nature while appreciating all
that the earth, water, air, and the sun give us so that we may
thrive.
We meditated on our life as a garden. We reflected on the thoughts
and words we seeded our garden with. To have healthy lives we need
to plant seeds in our inner garden of hope, inspiration, and love
with our thoughts and words.
We asked for a healing dream before going to bed at night.
We learned how to transfigure into our divine light.
With the work that we did in the MFTE group we did a simple ceremony
to imagine ourselves traveling deep into our bodies until we
experienced our inner spiritual light. Then we experienced the flow
of our spiritual light and radiated it out to the other members of
our circle. In this way we experienced everyone in the circle in
their divine perfection feeding the health of each participant in
our circle.
One easy method I write about in How to Thrive in Changing Times is
to imagine our body and mind being a beautiful coat over our spirit.
Just unzip your coat and step out as pure divine light. Once you
have had the experience zip back up your coat remembering the truth
of who you truly are.
Another simple way I write about is imagine yourself merging with a
star in the night sky. A star is light and radiates that light
effortlessly for millions of miles. Imagine yourself being a shining
star in the night sky.
After the four-day workshop, participants were encouraged to keep up
a daily practice of transfiguration and also to keep perceiving
everyone who was in our group in their divine light. And also each
person was encouraged to feel the love of the circle throughout each
day.
And I also encouraged the group to take in all the elements as
light. Participants were taught to breathe in air, drink water, eat
food, and take in the sun as love and light.
Participants were asked to create sacred space in their home and office by bringing in special objects. Decrees, words, inspirational images, flowers, candles, etc. can be placed in our space to remind us of our divinity.
Each person in our circle was amazed at the depth of the growth and healing that came from the practices they were taught during this four-day workshop. But they were also so touched by the love and support of the circle, and this was a new and life changing experience for them.
There were so many personal stories filled with emotion when we shared how the practices touched each person during and after the workshop when we continued our follow up.
At some point I hope to be able to pull together these wonderful stories to share with others as a source of inspiration. For as we know the heart filled stories shared by participants speak to the results in a deeper way than statistical data.
Healing the Heart Pilot Research: Background Information by Kate Durda
Beginning in February,2004, I participated in a collaborative research study with the University of Michigan Integrative Medicine Department, and Sandy Ingerman on the influences of Medicine for the Earth work with survivors of heart attacks. I was privileged to assist Sandy with the 4 day MFE workshop, which was very exciting! I also personally did follow-up phone counseling every two weeks with group members, for a three month post-intervention period, to support them in the Medicine for the Earth practices!
The results are soon to be finalized. We have very positive preliminary data, and are very excited about this work. This is groundbreaking research, and those of you who have done the MFE practice know how powerful it is. STAY TUNED for more!! I will write more about the study when the results are finalized.
See http://www.med.umich.edu/umim/research/rccahih.htm
For now.. here is the official research abstract from the University of Michigan's website.
Healing the Heart: A Pilot Research Study
Time period for subject recruitment (start/end dates):
This study completed recruitment in April 2005.
Abstract:
The study will examine the effect of Medicine for the Earth or a Lifestyle Change Program on depression, anxiety, stress, quality of life and cardiovascular health of patients who are recovering from heart attack. Research participants will be randomized into one of three groups:
Medicine for the Earth: facilitated by Sandra Ingerman; Individuals in this group will participate in a 4-day weekend workshop learning ancient spiritual practices to help reconnect with the spirit of nature and improve overall health.
Lifestyle Change Program: Individuals will participate in a 4-day weekend workshop learning the importance of nutrition, physical exercise, stress management, and group support to overall health.
Control group: Individuals will continue with their regular treatment. At the end of the study, participants from this group will have the option of joining another Medicine for the Earth workshop.
Outcomes of interest include depression, quality of life, anxiety, social support, and interconnectedness. Participant self report on a variety of validated scales will be assessed at baseline, immediately following the interventions, at 3 months post intervention and at 6 months post intervention. A sub-sample will have blood taken at all time points for measurement of lipid profiles and C-reactive protein.