Elson M. Haas, MD, is an integrative family medicine practitioner with more than 40 years of experience as a physician. In the first half, he discussed his concept of "Peace Medicine" and how happiness and spirituality are important to good health. When someone is ill, it's often said they are fighting disease, or attacking germs as though a storm or war was going on in the body. But Haas' notion of Peace Medicine looks at the idea of using illness as an ally rather than something we 'fight' against. "We don't get good results when we have a war... there's damage that happens," he noted. So, what he recommends is asking the body what's going on, and working to bring it into balance and harmony.
Instead of taking medicine to knock something out, he suggests tuning into the body and learning to integrate active and receptive components. He further outlines the Peace Medicine approach in his article Politics, Medicine and War. Haas cited the advantages of exercise as it activates neurotransmitters that improve one's mood, and deep breathing, which can help alleviate anxiety or fearfulness. He also finds that being out in nature has benefits for the body. He practices a series of stretching exercises called the Eight Elementals in his backyard every morning, enhancing balance and longevity. He'll be offering a free class in Peace Medicine on Saturday, August 6th.
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Divorced mother of three and a law lecturer, Louise Hamlin, lived a conventional life with no particular beliefs about the afterlife. In the latter half, she revealed how her beliefs were transformed after the death of her second husband, Patrick. The sheer volume and amazing nature of the signs, coincidences, and connections opened her eyes to the knowledge that the spirit survives bodily death. After Patrick was diagnosed with Stage 4 bile-duct cancer, he died within three months. She decided to write a book about her bereavement process and the strange signs that transpired after his death. Hamlin said she discovered many people who have lost loved ones receive signs but don't dare to tell anyone for fear of being thought crazy.
In one instance, she was in bed and thinking about Patrick when she heard a loud thump. A book had suddenly flown off the bookcase on the half-landing outside her bedroom. The most provocative indicator that Patrick was trying to communicate with her took the form of gibberish words that appeared inside the conversation box on her WhatsApp phone app. Among the nonsensical words, the phrase 'darling, it's me' showed up several times. Then later, she discovered after returning home that two groups had been mysteriously created on WhatsApp – one with her and Patrick, and the other, with her, Patrick, and his daughter. During her grieving, what helped her cope was trying to live in the moment, meditating, and going to mediums. Some of the mediums zeroed in on very specific information, she marveled, such as details about a cornflower, which Patrick had worn in his buttonhole for their wedding.
News segment guests: Catherine Austin Fitts, John M. Curtis