Year: 2010

Gawler Foundation-Grace Gawler on Vegan Diet

Hello – I am Grace Gawler – co founder of the Gawler Foundation and the visionary/inspirer for the Yarra Valley Living Centre. I need to correct the idea that a part of Ian Gawler’s cure was a Vegan Diet. As Ian’s care-giver I took sole responsibilty for the preparation of his food and nutritional program from 1975 until November 1997 – approximately 22 years. It is important to be factually correct with our story because many people are inspired to emulate our healing journey.
Unfortunately, the Gawler Foundation has been incorrectly reporting Ian’s veganism for some time and an article written for the Medical Journal of Australia (December 2008) also reported this error as fact. There were many other errors in The MJA which are currently being rectified. The MJA stated: “The patient has followed a Vegan diet throughout his illness, recovery period and life.” Firstly – it is important to define the content of a vegan diet and the difference between vegetarian, lacto-ovo vegetarian and a a vegetable based diet that includes fish and small amounts of animal flesh.{Note: According to Wikipedia, “Veganism” is a diet and lifestyle that seeks to exclude the use of animals for food, clothing, or any other purpose. Vegans endeavor not to use or consume animal products of any kind.}

The MJA report then quotes the adoption of a Vegan diet and such a diet’s relationship to lifestyle change associated with gene expression and tumour reduction. MY CORRECTION: Not so; Ian had never followed a Vegan diet. In fact the patient’s diet during the Gerson regimen consisted of fresh fruit, vegetables, juices, yoghurt, cottage and ricotta cheese and juice made from fresh calf liver twice daily. After a 3 month period, that diet was altered to include regular meals of fish, dairy in many forms, shellfish and eggs.
This note hopefully will put many of the queries about the “real” Gawler diet at rest. Balance in ALL things is my best advice and find someone who can individualise your program for you…avoid lots of supplements, practise possibility thinking!. Often, there is a lot more to each individuals recovery than is written about. If you want to read what we actually did during those all important years of Ian’s recovery – please go to Google books online where relevant parts of Grace, Grit and Gratitude – my memoirs, can be read for free; scroll to page 107.
If anyone needs assistance or if you have questions I am more than happy to help.
Yours in truth and healing
Grace

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/34950504/What-Oncologists-say-about-Women-of-Silence

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/34950504/What-Oncologists-say-about-Women-of-Silence

I wrote to ABC Compass when I saw they were running a  series on Ian Gawlerbecause the public deserves to be told the whole truth – lives of cancer patients depend on it

I am honoured to be the partner of Grace (formerly Gayle) Gawler – she is a gifted healer with extraordinary knowledge and skills. You cannot discuss Ian Gawler’s cancer healing journey without including Grace’s multi- year, 24/7 effort to achieve his cure.
Grace’s brilliance working with cancer patients or training therapists is legendary. Compass left out critical aspects of Ian’s healing and some of the chronology was incorrect. I had warned them prior to the show that it might be. There was a healer and a patient—no man could do this alone.
The TRUTH is there would be no Ian Gawler without Grace – period. For years she defied family, friends and medical authorities as they explored healing modalities
Compass has not only done the public a disservice but the implications that meditation and a vegan diet cured his cancer are inaccurate. The TRUTH – for the 22 years Grace was his care giver, he was never on a vegan diet! In Grace’s book, Grace tells how Ian deteriorated while attempting to meditate with Ainslie Meares. In the end he could not even sit up and they left the sessions after just six weeks with Ian close to death.
After their marriage Grace took Ian weighing just 40 kilos to the Philippines. He went there a man dying with cancer and returned out of pain, with weight back on his bones—a man living with cancer. What happened there bears investigation. Grace learned a technique there and gave Ian 3 hours of daily massage for many years. Even after his cure in 1978 he relied on these sessions because they energised him.
Grace’s book outlines a far more plausible hypothesis for Ian Gawler’s cure. Attributing his cure to intensive meditation, diet and positive thinking is an extrapolation of what is a very complex patient history. As a yoga and meditation teacher I value my inner quiet times but as Grace says, try to meditate a wrinkle or wart away first.
The immunological response that has in the past been attributed to intensive meditation may well have been caused by a course of BCG vaccine. It is notable that the patient had TB and cancer concurrently (as demonstrated by radiography at least over a 2 year period and reported by radiation oncologist Dr Alistair Robertson (Adelaide 1978).
Even the 1978 MJA abstract written by Ainslie Meares was seriously flawed in fact and chronology. Meares claims intensive meditation was associated with Ian’s cancer cure. A recent MJA report, (Dec 2008) written by Dr Ruth Gawler (Ian’s wife) and Professor Jalinek (Gawler Foundation employee) has many more errors. Both are currently being investigated with a view to refute. Doctors, oncologists and cancer patients rely on medical journal accuracy- misreporting of the Gawler healing story has already altered the way millions of cancer patients and their families plan their treatment strategies.
For 30 years Grace has been a lone voice trying to correct these errors. She is willing to debate this issue on TV or radio anytime and anywhere

Eckhart Tolle discussions on Oprah’s new webinar – this is my experience of living with presence

Last night I watched the latest of Oprah Winfrey’s presentations “A New Earth Web Event”; a forum that demonstrates the awesome use of technology and how consciousness-changing information can be instantaneously broadcast around the globe.

Oprah interviewed Eckhart Tolle; the discussion focussed around issues of presence and embodiment. I was delighted to see these two important qualities of human existence recognised as fundamental to our experience of life. They are imperative if not essential qualities for total health, healing and recovery from all ailments of the human condition from depression to cancer.
Like Tolle, I have also sat with, listened to, learned from and read the texts of many of the world’s great spiritual masters including J. Krishnasmurti, Fr Bede Griffiths, Sathya Sai Baba, Sogyal Rimpoche, to name a few. I mention these names not as a who’s who of spiritual hierachy, but to illustrate a point that it is not only the teachings given by great masters that lead to embodiment, presence and empowerment; but how we as individuals understand and apply those principals.
The teachings are the journey – your life experience is the destination. The teachings of the masters gave me the spiritual tools; I practised meditation, read philosphy, theosophy, anthroposophy. I understood the teachings intellectually, but it was not until my own crises and traumas descended that I really understood what embodiment was all about, what it felt like. I had to experience gross dis-embodiment in order to recognise embodiment. I needed to be aware when I “spaced out” in order to know how to “space in” – I had to learn how to surrender and how ”invite myself home“; then I knew I had embodied the teachings. When at home in my body, I was conscious of my inner and outer world, conscious of my boundaries and I was conscious of being.

Those qualities then generated presence. Before this time words such as still the mind, let go of all thoughts, turn your mind inwards, be mindful, be present to your thoughts….. were all just words with mind interpretations. In reality – what do words mean if you have never experienced these states before?
Great healers, are catalysts, secret agents for change. It seems that most humans need a wake up call to jump out of the mouse wheel and redesign their life. We don’t need a huge trauma – in fact any trauma will do. Trauma, illness, accidents can be reframed as opportunities; opportunities to discover a soul life – the life of a human being, rather than a human doing! As a fellow seeker I can also empathise with the personal journey of despair that brought Tolle to his own personal awakening. For seekers who want some direct and inspiring viewing and learning check the series out at Oprah.com
For those of you interested in practises of embodiment – please see articles about my GEM approach on the home page of this website. I hold regular MASTERCLASS trainings for practitioners who want to learn how to teach practises of embodiment for their clients as well as for their own self care.
Olivia Newton-John says: “I learned a technique from Grace Gawler which helps me to take little moments in the day for myself. Even if it’s just sitting in your car before you turn on the engine, take 10 seconds, take a breath and centre yourself. It’s like filling up a bank of energy and it works.” Australian Women’s Weekly November 2007

I filmed Grace during her GEM presentation at the ATMS meeting in Noosaville. I watched as 200 therapists sat attentively during her talk. As her partner and film man I’ve seen this each time she gives a wellness speech.

Grace trained with Australian herbalist legend, Dorothy Hall and USA body-psychotherapist luminary, Ilana Rubenfeld, and is, I believe, at the leading edge of the wellness field – in the world. Why else would hundreds of oncologists turn up to hear an Australian naturopath give an address in places like London?

GEM or Grace Energy Method is derived from Grace’s vast experience as vetinary nurse, prime carer of Australia’s famous cancer patient – Ian Gawler, her time working with Filipino healers, her distinction level training as naturopath, herbalist and body-psychologist, combined with knowledge she gleaned from working with over 12,000 cancer patients in Autralia and overseas. This remarkable life gives Grace a wonderfully broad base to work from.
And it shows – that is why audiences  lap up her every word – Grace could not do what she does at this level – without having the above life/work experiences combined with an extraordinary IQ, an incredibly scientific mind and a gigantic heart.Whether you are a cancer patient, or wishing to avoid being one, or a therapist keen to expand your techniques and in fact to go beyond technique, Grace is worth investigating.
As her partner I hear the  comments ranging from – “What you told/showed us – helped us more than all the other advice we got.” – or “After hearing Grace we knew we were not only going to survive cancer but we would thrive in life” or “Grace is the real deal, she told us more in one hour than we got from all the health professionals  we visited” – the comments go on and on.

I was there when Olivia Newton John said to Grace – “That is the best keynote on wellness that I have ever heard.”
What more can I say – the woman is a healer/angel – oh and she walks her talk at home too.

Pip Cornall

Women of Silence- Grace Gawler

Grace Gawler’s book Women of Silence is recommended by oncologists. It is known as the definitive breast cancer book with a proven track record since 1994, and still the only book that addresses the unspoken, in the breast cancer journey.
Women of Silence is a book ahead of it’s time. It is index in detail so that patients can read the material one section at a time, healpful when feeling overwhelmed and traumatised by diagnosis. The first edition, 1994 was a best seller for its genre and was re written, updated- including new chapters, when I was living in the UK in 2003 following groundbreaking bionic surgery that I had in Holland earlier that year.
Wearing the shoes of a patient with a life threatening condition, gave me even greater insights as to what is possible with regards to healing, how we can change, and how much we can change when deeply ensconced in life altering trauma. I learned that change is easier than we think – that effective recovery was about keeping it simple- targetted and utilising the less is more principle.

The vehicle for the information in Women of Silence is my experience of working with thousands of women going through breast cancer. Importantly the book is written by a woman for women. Long ago I recognised that the emotional side of healing and recovery from all kinds of illness, not only breast cancer was not addressed by male authors in the same way. The approach seemed to be more of a mental approach rather than an understanding of emotions. There are wiring differences, gender specific differences in the way we as women process information; particularly our emotional material.
Based on my experience I have also written a 30 page handbook A Helping Hand, for all people going through the cancer experience. This handbook is also based on the less is more principle….one page for each year I have been in practice! The handbook emphasises the important things that help us heal as human beings and can be used in conjunction – with no conflict with medical approaches. The handbook draws on my experiences with more than 12,000 people affected by cancer

Why Energy Matters – Training for Spa & Massage Therapists

Why Energy Matters?

E = MC2 and The Spa
As the Spa community looks towards a more holistic approach to client service while meeting client expectations; I invite you to explore the following seemingly not connected yet very connected worlds of quantum physics, energy medicine, practitioner self care and ordinary everyday energetic interactions between people. Energy is around us all the time.  As human beings we possess consciousness and the ability to express emotions. E-motions can be best described as energy in motion. Suppression of strong emotion can result in illness, just as expression of emotion can aid recovery. Knowledge of and conscious connection with our emotions and energy, point the way to self-mastery.
Exploring Zen
Zen or other meditative Spa practices are not uncommon within the Spa experience. However the view of many people is that such practices can only be understood and applied by those who have been involved in rigorous spiritual practice, that is regular meditators or spiritual devotees. For a moment think about the qualities for which Zen is known. Perhaps you have had a direct experience, observed someone practising Tai Chi or you may have seen a martial arts approach to life and being at the movies, such as Quentin Tarantino’s Hero with Jet Li. A few words that describe the Zen experience might be that you notice focus, flexibility yet containment, mindfulness, serenity, a feeling of altered time and space and empowered presence. What we can both see and sense is that a Zen practitioner or martial artist can demonstrate in a tangible form, their ability to be masters of their own energy. How and by what means are these qualities achieved? How can we, who have not dedicated our lives to a spiritual practise of Zen or martial arts, understand, learn from and apply some of this information to enhance the delivery of Spa care for our selves and our clients? Firstly let us think about simple ways that we might become more aware of how we use and direct our personal energy at work in the Spa and in other dimensions of our life.
Being a student of Tai Chi for the past 32 years has allowed me to deeply experience and become familiar with my energy system. As my understanding increased, I realised that there were many ways to provide my clients and students with small “taster exercises” using some universal but key principals that I had learned from martial arts. When I began teaching this way I found that once they knew in what direction they were looking, for example what being present actually felt like even for a brief moment; that their lives moved forward in positive ways. Change became a more easeful quest of discovery of their inner being, as once they had some awareness of how they used their energy, and had some direction; they were on their path of learning to master our own energies. When we become aware and understand why energy matters, we also recognise and appreciate the essential nature of self-care for all who practise hands-on therapies. In this context, self-care can be defined by all that we do for our selves to nourish our inner life or soul.
How we perceive energy in everyday living
Have you ever been invited to dinner and the couple have just had an argument, but pretend that everything is fine? Most people can sense that something is not right. There is something that resonates in your body that gives you information. Have you ever had the experience that someone is watching you, or if you are being followed by someone with ill intent? Have you ever had a gut feeling and found out that later you were correct even if you didn’t act upon the information? We now know that the brain actually does talk to the gut. There are receptors in the stomach that have a chemical relationship with substances put into circulation from our limbic (emotional) brain. We don’t always need our eyes to see and interpret information; our spine or our skin can act as a sensor in our environment and feedback information. The mechanism at play here is understood to be an extension of our nervous system including of course our brain. The appearance and fluctuations in our body’s energy has been able to be recorded in many ways and is well understood in practises such as acupuncture.
At least fifty per cent of people who come to my workshops ask about the necessity of religious/spiritual leanings when learning and applying “energy work” in the Spa or massage room.  Energy or vibrational medicine has been typecast as either deeply spiritual or a New Age philosophy, but these principals were known to ancient peoples and there is nothing new or wildly esoteric, only the names we call it. The human energy system is a natural phenomenon. Every day we notice energy and its movement or lack of it; ambience in a room, whether people around us are peaceful, sad, grieving, angry etc. States of feeling or emotion generate qualities of atmosphere that we automatically read and interpret. Intuition, gut feeling and sensing are all associated with how we read and interpret energy! Most of us innately possess these skills and in days passed, skills such as these would have been necessary for survival. Some have learned to develop their sensing skills more than others. Can it be taught? Absolutely. Does it have a place in Spa therapy? Absolutely!
The Spa Environment – the materials
A great deal of money and effort goes into Spa location, design, colour, building materials, equipment, fixtures Spa menus and ambience. All this helps to create a certain feel or emotional “space” for a client who enters the Spa. These aspects are quantifiable achievable and important in helping to create atmosphere.
The Spa In-vironment – the people
People are not so easily quantified. The first point of contact by phone or at reception is where a treatment begins, even though this person may not be involved directly, they set an important tone. The next contact is with a therapist who delivers a particular method or technique to the client. When a therapist is trained in not only technique but also how to deliver that technique or method; they are adding their energy to the experience. What makes a difference? Is the therapist present to the client or thinking about what they will do after work? The latter will be noticeable by the quality of their touch! Have they had an argument with a loved one or colleague that morning and are they taking that energy to the therapy room? Are they mindful and focused about how they are using their energy and intention? Are they taking short breaks between clients to recharge, centre and focus before the next client? Are they consciously in charge of their own energy? All of this and more will affect the quality and experience of a massage by both the client and the therapist. Importantly, when a therapist is not present to the client, there can be an unhealthy exchange of energy that can leave the therapist or client fatigued and vulnerable. To conserve energy it is important to be aware of your posture while delivering a treatment – to have a table at the correct height for your size, and to use smooth and flowing movements. Seemingly small tips but they will help to contain the integrity of your energy throughout the day. When you know your own energy, you know how to care for it.
A therapist can take away a clients pain. The client feels relief but the therapist can feel drained and can acquire the pain. Lack of attention and awareness to self-care factors may be why so many people in healing professions become ill.
Importantly therefore, this is why energy matters, particularly where we are practising hands-on therapies.
I studied sciences all through school after being inspired when I was eight years old by a man called Professor Julius Sumner Miller. His science television program was titled “Why is it so? He had a huge influence on my life and I have never stopped asking that question!  So when my own interest in this area was inspired by seeing and feeling first hand the power of psychic healers in The Philippines during the seventies, instead of saying this cannot be possible, I asked why and how can this happen? I have spent my life so far exploring what this all means in terms of how we exchange energy in any hands-on therapy and indeed, life! I encourage you to practise your life and work consciously with awareness and presence. The quantum physicists are now saying that consciousness is ultimately tied up with quantum processes i.e. how atoms behave. Perhaps this holds the key to why energy matters?
Benefits of knowing and understanding your energy
• Self care – avoid burnout
• Encourages work-life balance
• Knowing how to create healthy boundaries
• Increased awareness
• Not taking home some of the clients energy and vice-versa
• Adopting postures that enhance the delivery of your energy
• Avoid fatigue
• Adds a new dimension to your work and helps you to practise what you preach
• Enables you to develop personal presence
• Nourishes, inspires and uplifts consciousness

Grace Gawler is an Australian natural therapist, author, naturopathic philosopher, motivational speaker and healer and has developed training courses in energetic & vibrational medicine GEM (Grace Energy Method). She is founder of The Australian College of Supportive Medicine and in8potential – Based in Queensland with an international focus.