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An interview with Dr Richard Sandore by Emma Bragdon, PhD. from her book: |
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Spiritual Alliances: Discovering the Roots of Health at the Casa de Dom Inacio |
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In the summer of 1992 Richard was sitting by his swimming pool at his country home, his Porsche parked in the garage, his attractive wife by his side, his business partner totally committed to their successful private practice. In materialistic terms, he had made it. However, he felt despairing. He saw that thirty more years of this kind of life would not make him happy. In fact, he surmised he would feel that life had passed him by, if he stuck to the routines of being the physician he was trained to be. Richard and I sat together on the tiled interior court of the inn where he was staying in Abadiania on September 18, 2001. Nine rooms on two levels in back of us were occupied by people how had come to visit the Casa de Dom Inacio with Richard as their guide. Facing us was the apartment of Martin and his family. Martin, who owns the Pousada, is also head of the team of translators at the Casa and takes care of the special needs of people who come from all around the world to consult with Joao. Just outside of the courtyard door was third world Brazil: dry, poor, simple, trafficked with horse-drawn carts, occasional cars, and adults bicycling to work. Two stray mongrels, one black, the other white, had adopted Richard and lay at his feet.
(RICHARD) It was a critical moment when I realized that summer day that I still didn’t know who I was, where I came from, what I was doing on earth and where I was going. I had to find a way to answer these questions as soon as possible. Within six months I turned my life around. I started studying shamanic tradition from numerous healers, especially those connected to South America. In June 1998, I was working for a non-profit organization bringing medial care to an area of the Andes Mountains, so I could simultaneously work with healers in Peru. That was the year I found out about Joao de Deus and spent a week at Casa de Dom Inacio. A year later I brought seventeen people here to visit. This week, my seventh trip here, I am purchasing a home in Abadiania. My main interest here is to develop a relationship to the entities associated with the Casa de Dom Inacio. I have not been working on any personal physical problems. I have been asking questions about my path in life and the answers come to me when I am “in current.” I have acquired much more confidence and faith in my work. I have also developed a whole different standard on which to judge healing. In medical school and in private practice I judged my success as a doctor on whether a disease process would go away. If the person was symptom free, then I felt like I was a success. If the patient still suffered from symptoms, I felt like I was a failure. Now I feel that my success as a healer depends on whether the patient feels more whole and more at peace. I want to hear from them that they perceive their world as being all right as it is. I want them to feel that they are perfect just the way they are. This may include accepting the illness they have or being symptom-free. Reaching this state of mind is the kind of health I am helping my clients achieve.
(EMMA) I asked Richard, “How is your practice as a healer different from your practice as a physician?” Relaxing back into his white molded plastic chair, he replied.
(RICHARD) Using my intuition has become central to my work. I did not learn this skill in medical school, in fact, we were not taught to honor our intuition in school or residency. We were also not taught to honor the individuals who were our patients, and to consider their values. Now, I use my intuition to feel the nature of her person in front of me. I can be more empathic as a result. This enhances our connection. The patient feels heard and respected and, as a result, he or she feels safe to reveal more of the essence of the problem. I also feel more at ease asking blunt questions. Our relationship is founded more on trust and faith in ourselves as two individuals, rather than the patient abandoning him or herself and just placing faith in the doctor. I remember one woman who was in the final stages of cancer when she came to me. Her husband was beside himself with worry. He didn’t want to lose her. I asked the woman what she wanted. She told me she was ready to die, that she was satisfied with her life and could leave it behind. She didn’t have a problem with dying. Most doctors are trained to do everything they can to save the patient, but, in this case, I felt it was important to let the woman die peacefully and turn my attention to her husband. He was really the one with the problem. He was suffering far more that his wife, in this case. Medicine in its inception was recognized as an art. People are multi-faceted. Our values and our perspectives are in flux. Our doctors need to be attentive to who the patient is at any given moment, and not to treat the patient as a disease. People who are ill or in pain are on a healing journey. The journey pushes their comfort zones and makes them develop new perspectives. They need allies on the journey. Our conventional practice of medicine is being reduced to reading computer programs, where you write in your symptoms and the program matches them with a disease and treatment program. There is no possibility for empathy, compassion, and the most healing force of all: love.
(EMMA) As Richard and I settled into the interview, I began appreciating his steady warmth and humanness. At forty, Richard retained a youthfulness, accentuated by informal clothes, a five-inch ponytail, and a ready smile. As we sat down with the tape recorder on, I was feeling relieved to have a distraction from the disastrous events of the last week. Terrorists had used airplanes as missiles to destroy the World Trade Center and a portion of the Pentagon. Those of us in Brazil were wondering when the airports would open again for international travel and if our country would soon be at war. Although we began by sharing our deep concerns for the world, Richard gracefully shifted to the present moment – enjoying the interview and what was positive about ‘now.’ I asked Richard to consider what the physicians might learn by traveling to the Casa.
(RICHARD)
Physicians can learn many things by coming to Abadiania and participating in the activities of the Casa. First, nothing is impossible. Therefore, we have to put aside our statistics and not give someone a prognosis which has them believe they will soon be dead. The mind is powerful. If someone believes they will soon die, they can persuade the mind to create that as a reality. The limits we put on ourselves or our patients are determining factors in their ability to heal. Our attitudes and our beliefs about our patients may being them to better health or erode what health they have. I am learning more and more that the patient knows what he or she wants and needs. Sometimes, that person needs to sit quietly and get in touch with his or her truth. It may not be contained in any book. But, it is within them. I have come to respect this as the most important part of health. Every person’s journey is individual and unique and should be respected as such. When I visit the Casa, I am always impressed by the compassion and understanding that is offered people as individuals. Also, people have very different experiences when they sit in the current – or talk to the Entity. Physicians learn how inappropriate it is to treat patients as holders of a specific illness, with a statistically determined outcome. We learn to open up our ability to treat people as individuals on unique journeys. I have noticed that doctors cannot open to this level of connection with their patients until they open to this level of connection with their journey within themselves. They need to be willing to give up the role of being a God on a pedestal. They need to learn more skills in connecting to people, respecting others, having faith in others, honoring others. They need to learn more about trusting themselves.
(EMMA) Richard is so enthusiastic about the value of visiting the Casa de Dom Inacio, I asked him if he suggested coming here to everyone who might be interested. He replied,
(RICHARD) I like to invite people to come. Then, I suggest they follow their intuition. They know in themselves if there is something at the Casa which will be of value to them on their own journey. 99% of the people I have brought here feel it has been a positive experience. The only person who had been displeased was a doctor who was not open to giving up his perspective on health and healing. He was not interested in being at peace, or facing his Creator. I feel that there is something here for everyone, providing someone is open and willing to learn something new, to learn new ways of seeing and being. The text of this interview has been reprinted here with the permission of Dr Bragdon. It is copy written. No part may be reproduced without the permission of the author, Dr Emma Bragdon.
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| A few thoughts by Dr Sandore Emma Bragdon has done a wonderful job in her book, Spiritual Alliances: Discovering the Roots of Health at the Casa de Dom Inacio. Spiritual Alliances is not a book that paints everything in a spiritual world of light and love, nor is it a book that tries to reduce everything to something understandable in our hard sciences. Instead, it is a refreshing and enlightening look into a world that we will never truly understand - the realm of the true answers to the great questions - and makes that world just a little more comprehensible to us while helping us understand the greatest force in the universe - Love. I highly recommend it. A special thank you to Dr Bragdon for permission to reprint the interview here. Emma Bragdon can be contacted at: www.emmabragdon.com ebragdon@aol.com Her book can be ordered from the distributor by contacting: |
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