It was this Sunday Times article in January 1998 that prompted me to experience the Journey Process for myself. Then in the following year I commenced training as a therapist.
SHED THE BURDENS OF A LIFETIME
by Suzy Greaves
I sat in a room with 100 people, my face shining. It felt like I had finally let go of a lifetime of pain, anger and hurt. My being felt healed, whole. I had suddenly become aware of colours and sounds in the room. It was as if I was looking at the world through a new set of eyes. I wanted to dance, sing and celebrate, which was most unlike the stressed out cynical hack that I'd come to know and love.
It was the end of the second day of the Journey workshop, run by American mind-and-body expert Brandon Bays, and I'd finally cracked. Throughout the first day I sat resolutely unimpressed, as she explained how we can all free ourselves from past traumas and limiting belief systems and resolve any emotional blocks that restrict our happiness and progress. Yeah, sure, I thought. Here we go, another blonde Californian personal-development guru with perfect teeth telling us how to live our lives. I sat with my arms folded, determined not to listen to her psychobabble.
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Daily Express - Dec 10th 2001 -PRITI GUDKA reports
Nine years ago, self-help guru Brandon Bays was diagnosed with cancer. Refusing to accept any medical help, she decided to heal herself. Now, her self-healing process is being taught in workshops and has helped not only cancer sufferers but also people with other medical problems.
A FTER doctors found her uterine tumour, Brandon Bays put her belief in the body's ability to heal itself to the ultimate test. She put her life on the line for it. Having studied iridology, hypnosis, acupressure and running self-help workshops for most of her life Brandon, 47, had witnessed the power of self
She adopted a different lifestyle which included meditation, a raw vegetable diet and a mental process which she called The Journey. Soon she found the pain and fatigue caused by the tumour started to dissipate. Six weeks later, Brandon returned to her doctor for a check to be told it had vanished. It has never returned.
Brandon's Journey is based on the idea that there is a direct link between our emotional and physical selves. She believes negative thoughts, feelings and anxieties can transform themselves into disease if they are left to fester. It is only by facing up to what we're feeling that we can hope to rid ourselves of problems such as cancer.
Read the rest of the article here
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I sat in a room with 100 people, my face shining. It felt like I had finally let go of a lifetime of pain, anger and hurt. My being felt healed, whole. I had suddenly become aware of colours and sounds in the room. It was as if I was looking at the world through a new set of eyes. I wanted to dance, sing and celebrate, which was most unlike the stressed out cynical hack that I'd come to know and love.
It was the end of the second day of the Journey workshop, run by American mind-and-body expert Brandon Bays, and I'd finally cracked. Throughout the first day I sat resolutely unimpressed, as she explained how we can all free ourselves from past traumas and limiting belief systems and resolve any emotional blocks that restrict our happiness and progress. Yeah, sure, I thought. Here we go, another blonde Californian personal-development guru with perfect teeth telling us how to live our lives. I sat with my arms folded, determined not to listen to her psychobabble.
It was the people around me that planted the first seeds of doubt in my mind. They were not the usual workshop-junkie crowd trying out the latest therapy so they'd have something to talk about at their next dinner party. They were people from all walks of life -- from managing directors to the unemployed -- who had simply decided that there had to be something more to life than the routine they were experiencing. Why had they come to this particular workshop? Because the Journey’s mission was to put people in touch with the best part of themselves, they said. No longer willing to wallow in past pain and complain about their lot they wanted to move on and explore their highest potential.
It was their bravery that touched me the most. They were taking a good, honest look at themselves and were willing to delve deep inside to discover what was holding them back. Their openness and courage discomfited me and I spent most of the introductory day popping out to smoke yet another cigarette, snarling at anyone who came in my direction.
On the first day of the workshop, after several meditation exercises, we all paired up and were sent to quiet corners of the room. With a carefully worded script, we were guided through a simple, step-by-step process that Bays claimed would not only free us from repressed emotions, but would also guide us to our "inner wisdom".
"It is a place of 'no mind', known by a variety of names." says Bays. "Athletes call it the zone, scholars call it the universal intelligence, quantum physicists call it the quantum soup. It's who you are at the deepest level. It's all the same -- and tapping into this is the source of all the answers and all genius."
I didn't want to tap into genius, l just wanted to be left alone. I bullied the partner I was paired with into going first. As I read my script and took him through the Journey process, I watched in wonder I saw him "drop through" intense feelings of anger and pain into what he called a white light, which he recognised as his true self. He felt safe, he said, for the first time in his life. It was terribly moving.
Bays believes it is also extremely healthy. She believes that emotional blocks turn into physical ones and can be stored as "phantom memories" in our bodies, which can then develop into illness and disease.
Bays talks from dramatic personal experience. She was a model of vibrant health and success, with more than 20 years' experience at the cutting edge of the human growth and potential field, travelling the world and giving seminars to thousands of people, when, five years ago, she discovered that she had a tumour...
...Immediate surgery was prescribed as the only course of action. She refused. "I had spent my whole Life working in the field of mind-and-body healing. There was no way I was going to allow a surgeon to cut me open without trying to heal myself first" she says.
Bays hibernated for six weeks, nourishing herself with the best foods, resting completely as she tried to uncover the emotional root of what she believed was causing the disease in her body.
Six weeks after the initial diagnosis she walked back into the Cedars Sinai hospital in California for her follow-up tests. She was pronounced perfectly clear. The tumour had completely disappeared without medicine or surgery, and Bays now teaches her personal healing process in her seminars.
She grimaces at any suggestion that she is a healer. "I'm a facilitator who merely offers people the tools with which they can commence their own healing journey. I don't want them to feel great for a weekend and then go back to their old ways. I want them to continue their inner transformation. This is a journey, not a sticking plaster."
After the workshop there are free monthly follow-up meetings for those who want to use their newly learnt skills to address other issues in their lives in a supportive environment.
During the seminar Bays saw that I was struggling and invited me to work with her on a one-to-one basis. With my best cynical sneer, I agreed. She chatted to me before the process and I found myself warming to her. She seemed funny, intelligent and completely authentic. There was no new-age nonsense with Bays.
Chat over with, it was my turn to do it. Bays led me through a process where I uncovered pain, anger and repressed grief that I thought I'd safely packaged away years ago. My feelings of fury and abandonment over the death of loved ones were so great that I found myself shaking. It was extremely emotional but also very liberating to resolve the grief that I'd nurtured for so long. And I finally reached that place of peace. Mine wasn't so much a white light, more of a glow that seemed to warm me to my very bones.
I opened my eyes and felt as if I'd been washed from the inside out, as if someone had just wiped me clean. I had always assumed that cynicism was sophisticated: I had never laid myself open, never allowed myself to be vulnerable. On finishing the process, I didn't feel exposed or self-indulgent. I didn't even want a cigarette. I merely felt curiously light, a little bit shiny and finally free.
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Daily Express - Dec 10th 2001 -PRITI GUDKA reports
Nine years ago, self-help guru Brandon Bays was diagnosed with cancer. Refusing to accept any medical help, she decided to heal herself. Now, her self-healing process is being taught in workshops and has helped not only cancer sufferers but also people with other medical problems.
A FTER doctors found her uterine tumour, Brandon Bays put her belief in the body's ability to heal itself to the ultimate test. She put her life on the line for it. Having studied iridology, hypnosis, acupressure and running self-help workshops for most of her life Brandon, 47, had witnessed the power of self
She adopted a different lifestyle which included meditation, a raw vegetable diet and a mental process which she called The Journey. Soon she found the pain and fatigue caused by the tumour started to dissipate. Six weeks later, Brandon returned to her doctor for a check to be told it had vanished. It has never returned.
Brandon's Journey is based on the idea that there is a direct link between our emotional and physical selves. She believes negative thoughts, feelings and anxieties can transform themselves into disease if they are left to fester. It is only by facing up to what we're feeling that we can hope to rid ourselves of problems such as cancer.
"There is a chemical expression for every emotion we feel," says Brandon. "At a purely chemical level, consciousness and emotions are affecting our cells. The Journey is about cellular healing. It is about getting to the root or core of an emotional issue or physical block really uncovering it in the deepest part of the being resolving it and letting go. This means the body can go about the process of healing."
Brandon came to the conclusion that the same part of her that had created the tumour could kill it, too.
The Journey, which Brandon has been teaching at workshops and seminars all over the world, has already changed the lives of thousands of people. Here, we meet three of them.
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In March last year, KAREN GILL, 43, a housewife from Exeter, Devon, was diagnosed with breast cancer. Ten weeks after she first studied The Journey, her lump disappeared and has not returned. Karen is married to Chris, 55, a university professor. They have four sons, Ross, 17, Jack, 15, Harry, 13, and Ralph, eight.
Ever since I can remember, I've had small lumps in my breasts that came and went. It was only when I found one the size of a walnut and it didn't go away, that I saw a doctor and, shortly afterwards, I was diagnosed with cancer.
As well as starting chemotherapy, I decided to become a vegan and started to help boost my immune system by taking vitamins and minerals. Before I became ill I had always been sceptical about alternative therapy but now I was desperate.
I started having regular massages which made me feel a lot better about myself It was then that a friend, who had also fought cancer, gave me a copy of Brandon's book The Journey, which she thought might help me.
In May, I decided to attend a workshop. It began with general meditation to relax and prepare our bodies for healing. We then had to sit alone and imagine telling our mother sister, friend or whoever had caused us pain, how they made us feel. Brandon then told us to forgive them.
It brought back a lot of negative memories I wasn't even aware were bothering me. I was surprised at how powerful they were. The workshop helped me to get in touch with the source of my problems and not let them fester.
I felt the cancer leaving my body a~ though a huge weight had been lifted. It was an extremely overwhelming experience.
Two days later, I could no longer feel my lump. My next mammogram confirmed it had gone and after two sessions I gave up my chemotherapy. The cancer has never come back. I feel The Journey saved my life.
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KAREN LYNCH, 37, a holistic therapist Tom South Brent, Devon had suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome (ME) for more than three years. It was so severe she was forced to give up work. Six weeks after studying The Journey, Karen has seen a dramatic improvement in her health and has returned to work part She and her partner Kevin, 36, who is also a holistic therapist, have a seven daughter, Tenielle.
Most mornings I would wake up with chronic pain all over my body. I was often too exhausted to get out of bed and was stuck in a cycle of pain and depression. I tried every kind of medical and complementary treatment in an attempt to help myself but to no avail. Even though I had a background in general and psychiatric nursing with holistic therapy, I couldn't find a solution. In the end, I was forced to live on a State disability grant, which made me miserable.
Attending The Journey weekend workshop was my last resort. It helped me access the memory of a painful emotional incident that had haunted me prior to me becoming ill. I was sure it was part of the reason for my ME and I knew I needed to face up to what had happened. Brandon helped me to do that. Within a week, I felt renewed. Within six weeks, my energy levels returned and I decided I was well enough to start working again one day a week.
I now feel I have so much to give and I can truly believe in myself again. I consider myself to be free of ME. I feel as if I am back in control and can do something to help myself feel better.
ALISON RIVA, 40, a film production and set designer from North London, and her partner Mark, 31, a TV executive, had been trying for a child for more than a year. She also suffered from chronic backache. Two days after attending The Journey workshop, her pain disappeared; she is 22 weeks pregnant.
I've always suffered from back pain and have tried everything from massage and osteopathy to acupuncture to ease it, but nothing worked. It was on my mind all the
time and my constant suffering began to affect all areas of my life. My body felt restricted and I never felt totally relaxed. We'd been trying for a baby, but it wasn't happening, which was adding more stress. I was desperate and willing to try anything.
A friend gave me Brandon's book and I decided to go to one of her workshops. The Journey made perfect sense to me and seemed like a practical way to help myself. Brandon encouraged me to explore the source of my problems using visualisation techniques. Often the feelings that came up were frightening, but because I was in a very nurturing environment I felt safe which enabled me to explore parts of my past I had locked away.
I felt the effects instantly. It was like something within me had been released. Not only did it help to get rid of my backache, I feel it played an instrumental part in me getting pregnant.
Just two weeks after I had finished The Journey, I conceived. Mark and I are ecstatic and I have no doubt that Brandon is partly to thank for it.
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