by Eunice J Minford MBChB, MA, FRCS Ed, Antrim, N Ireland
Dear Heath,
I understand you have recently spoken with Serge Benhayon regarding a number of allegations concerning Serge and Universal Medicine. I would like to briefly share with you my experiences of Serge and Universal Medicine in light of those allegations, and in doing so it is as a doctor who has been working in Western Medicine/Surgery for over 20 years. Currently, I work full-time in a busy hospital in Northern Ireland as a Consultant General Surgeon. I have attended many talks and events presented by Universal Medicine in the UK and worldwide since 2007, and thus I feel I am able to comment on what Serge says or does not say in workshops/retreats etc.
Firstly, I can categorically state that Serge is PRO-MEDICINE and I would not be associated with Universal Medicine if that were not the case. I have heard him state this many times in workshops and I know for a fact that he supports and endorses Western Medicine.I know that Serge does advise people to attend their GP or Specialist and that he considers Western Medicine to be very necessary for the full care and wellbeing of humanity. I know he supports people having surgery/chemotherapy/radiotherapy etc for cancer and does not advise them to go against these modalities.Serge does not say that Doctors and Nurses cause more harm. Serge has always been 100% supportive to me in my work as a surgeon and has spoken openly of his support for Doctors and healthcare professionals. To say otherwise is clearly a mis-representation and mis-understanding of what Serge presents in his workshops and talks. In essence, what Serge presents involves us all taking responsibility for our health and, in effect, the way we are in the world. This is not limited to health care professionals. In simple terms it can be expressed like this: that in any interaction between people we can be healing or harming – that’s anybody, not specifically doctors and nurses. For example, someone who is angry impacts not just themselves but those around them. That is readily understood by most, if not all of us. Likewise, if I am arrogant in my interactions with patients and speak down to them, that is not providing a full healing presence and may even be harming – even though I could go on and do an operation that assists them physically to heal. In my opinion, the esoteric teachings as presented by Serge could significantly benefit medical students and doctors to cope with stress, to be self-aware, to understand and know what it means to be truly self-caring and how to be a healing presence for their patients. In other words, a “bedside manner” that is loving and non-judgmental is also important to the wellbeing of both the patient and doctor as are the operations they perform or the medicines they prescribe.A recent report (Boorman S. NHS Health and Wellbeing Leeds: Dept of Health, Nov 2009) stated that the health and wellbeing of doctors impacts patient outcome – and this is consistent with the esoteric teachings that the more we truly care for ourselves in every way, the more we are able to care for others in every way. I did not learn that at University, and practise in a profession where alcohol and stimulant abuse is unfortunately all too prevalent. The above report states that each individual is responsible for their health and is consistent with the esoteric teachings. It also calls for training in self-care for medical students and as I have mentioned above, the esoteric teachings are able to do just that. In addition, the College of Medicine in the UK has identified a ‘crisis in caring’ in healthcare with a stressed and demotivated workforce. In my opinion, the missing ingredient that could remedy this situation is the true understanding of love, the wisdom of the heart, such that people can come to know for themselves what it really means to be caring both for oneself and each other equally so. The teachings of Serge and Universal Medicine have the potential, in my opinion, to restore the caring and healing roots back to medicine (the word medicine means ‘the art of healing’) by bringing the full understandings of love and care back into the healthcare arena.Furthermore, the emphasis of Serge’s presentations is about empowering people to make their own decisions and choices regarding their lifestyle or way of living and being. It would be totally contra to, and inconsistent with, what Serge both presents and practises to tell people what to do. Serge emphasises regularly that he does not wish to impose, but merely present a way to live in love and harmony that has as its focus the well-being of ALL mankind, not just ourselves. We are all free, however, to do what we like with these teachings. However, no doubt people may mis-interpret what he says.I have worked for over 20 years in the NHS and in Western Medicine. It is clear to me (and many others) that Western Medicine does not have all the answers to the ills of humanity and there is certainly room for different ways of understanding the human condition, illness, disease and healing. Esoteric healing is NOT a replacement for Western Medicine and has never been presented as such by Serge or Universal Medicine. Rather, it is in addition to Western Medicine and brings to the table insights and understandings that complement mainstream ‘evidence-based’ medicine. For example, the World Health Organisation has stated that 3/5 people in the Western World will die from ‘largely preventable’ non-communicable conditions like heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer and chronic lung conditions.(World Health Organisation. Global Status Report on Non-Communicable Diseases 2010.Description of the global burden of NCDs, their risk factors and determinants 2011: Available from:
http://www.who.int/nmh/publications/ncd_report2010/en/index.html.)
It attributes these conditions to diet, alcohol, smoking and ‘lifestyle’ factors. Esoteric Medicine is about understanding in detail how our way of living and being in the world, how our ‘lifestyle’ in every way affects our health and wellbeing and how to develop a ‘lifestyle’ or way of living that is self-caring. It can help people to understand why they make the choices they make, why they smoke, why they drink excessively, why they eat the foods they eat, why they get stressed in certain circumstances, to understand what is driving those behaviours and how to resolve or heal them and live in a way that is harmonious for the body. I know for myself by putting them into practice that they do lead to a more caring and less stressed way of being and I have no doubt that they could benefit anyone who chooses to live them.I have attached a link to a pdf of an article I wrote which summarises my perspective on Western Medicine and Esoteric Medicine. In that article I express my view that Esoteric Medicine is not an alternative medicine but a complementary one that can work hand in hand with Western Medicine to assist people with healing. The fields of psychoneuroimmunology, epigenetics and psychosomatic medicine are three areas in particular where research is growing and supporting the esoteric understanding that how we live on a daily basis affects our health and wellbeing. For example, psychoneuroimmunology describes how thoughts/emotions can affect the nervous and immune systems to cause inflammation that ultimately results in illness and disease (Kiecolt-Glaser JK, McGuire L, Robles TF, Glaser R.Psychoneuroimmunology and Psychosomatic Medicine: Back to the Future.Psychosomatic Medicine. 2002;64:15-28). Inflammation is now recognised to be a significant factor in many diseases including heart disease, cancer and depression along with the more obvious inflammatory conditions like arthritis or colitis. Esoteric Medicine also explains how emotions like anger are harming for our health energetically and this harm is now being shown within Western medical research as well (Ziegelstein RC. Acute Emotional Stress and Cardiac Arrhythmias.JAMA. 2007;298(3):324-9).As a professional who is interested in understanding the root cause of illness and disease and providing true care for patients, I can only say that I have the utmost respect for Serge Benhayon and his work. Whilst I believe that, in the medical profession, there is an overwhelming desire on the part of most practitioners to help others, it is the love and integrity with which Serge lives his life and that he shares with others that assists and inspires us to make it a part of the way we live and share with others. As such, I have seen how to truly work for the benefit of mankind. His work, in my opinion, truly serves humanity and is much needed in the world.
Please let me know if you require any further information or clarification,kind regards,
Eunice
Eunice J Minford MBChB, MA, FRCS EdConsultant SurgeonN. Ireland
Medicine and Serge Benhayon 
“Whilst I believe that, in the medical profession, there is an overwhelming desire on the part of most practitioners to help others, it is the love and integrity with which Serge lives his life and that he shares with others that assists and inspires us to make it a part of the way we live and share with others. As such, I have seen how to truly work for the benefit of mankind. His work, in my opinion, truly serves humanity and is much needed in the world.”
I totally agree with what has been shared in this letter and this paragraph. What Serge Benhayon shares with the world has supported me to come to my own understanding that my
mental health issues were a result of me giving my power away as a child. I knew God absolutely but I allowed others to bully me in such a way that instead of holding what I knew to be true against all odds I gave in to a society that does not want to know about the truth of God, instead society calls for an energy that is all too eager to provide a life of distraction and checked outness which is what I chose over my connection to God. I allowed myself to become a walking advertisement to the rest of society that it was okay to be withdrawn, and checked out from life. I ‘thought’ I was a victim when actually there was a part of me that knew exactly what I was doing.
Having met Serge Benhayon and attended the workshops and presentations of Universal Medicine, I have turned my life around from misery to joy. It is possible and now I am overjoyed to be a walking advertisement of what is possible when we take back our power and live the truth of what we are, rather than give into the lie of creation.
It is really interesting how the esoteric medicine principles that Serge Benhayon presents, actually marry and concur with what much of the research into our current state of illness and disease is showing us as you have demonstrated here Eunice.
Serge Benhayon is definitely pro-medicine and having attended his courses and workshops for over twelve years I have seen quite a few people who had given up on western medicine come back and look at it from a different light. I know this from my own personal viewpoint, as I was one of those people. I’ve always been fascinated with medicine and somewhere down the line, I become disgruntled but now thanks to Serge I have a better understand and respect for what the medical profession does and can do, and how we can use it as a support when we need healing.
We know if we get angry or stressed it’s bad for our health, we just need to take it a step further and see that in actual fact everything we do effects our health. It really reminds me of how a podiatrist said to me once that everyone expects a problem to fix quickly that took 5 years or more of walking incorrectly – the thing I really took home with me was that problems with our body don’t randomly manifest – we actually day in and day out create them.
What you say makes sense Meg if we walk in a certain way day after day we compound the effect it has on our bodies. It is only since I have been exercising daily using Movefit as the exercise program of choice that I have discovered that I have held my body in such tension, bracing myself against life. Using MoveFit as an exercise program has supported me to loosen up so that when I walk there is more freedom in my body. As you say our bodies don’t randomly manifest – we actually day in and day out create them.
With so many people confirming what you have shared Eunice, there is an obvious agenda to once again dismiss the Ageless Wisdom and it’s teachings.
It makes sense to me that if we are truly scientific we will continue to explore and understand the human body and its being and how these two things interrelate and impact on our health and well-being.
Working in healthcare as well I have come to understand through Serge Benhayon how powerful self-care and self-love are in supporting not only my own ability to work but my overall morale, that of others and my willingness to support people. Bedside manner can be sorely lacking if that care isn’t there from the start with ourselves.
I have had some horror experiences with nurses and doctors when in hospital, I can tell you it adds to the shock and trauma of the experience and impacted badly on me for months afterwards. It also has a negative impact on the family and loved ones around the patient. Decency and respect to patients is crucial, as is true care.
Very true Melinda, the stuff that can be experienced in such settings can impact on people big time. I’ve found the more I care for myself the less I take on or quickly let go of from situations such as being faced with the suffering of others or challenging behaviour from another.
It has also been my experience that Universal medicine has been super supportive of medicine and medical practitioners and in fact I am one such professional that is more committed to my work and more caring in my work than I have ever been simply by putting into practice the simple presentations that I have been fortunate enough to attend by Serge Benhayon and universal Medicine.
In the years since this letter was written the link between lack of self-care and illness and disease has been more widely discussed but many are still struggling to find answers to the dilemma of why we have ended up with the constantly rising burden of caring for an increasingly overweight and disease ridden humanity. This letter offered a journalist the opportunity to rewrite his piece to bring the truth of what Serge has been sharing since 1999 and the numerous super practical tips of how to reconnect to ourselves and live from the truth of our bodies and how this, in conjunction with Western Medicine, offers us the possibility of turning the tide on our ill health statistics.
Serge Benhayon is definitely in favour of Western Medicine, and has presented on the importance of seeking medical advice whenever their is something that needs to be looked at, from my own understanding it is all part of taking responsibility for ourselves, and I have never heard him tell anyone what to do, we all need to be responsible for our own choices.
This is written with so much love, not in defense or justification, but love for the all to know the truth and have the clarity we deserve, and it’s all so clear and simple. I would have thought an article like this would make a journalist stop and go ‘What if?’ I wonder if journalists believe that once they tell a story there’s no turning back. The way they behave is like, in order to make a sense of their concocted story, they keep shifting the goalposts and painting and repainting the landscapes, even though it is a complete lie..
The combination of Western Medicine with Universal Medicine offers us complete medicine. One day this will be known and practised by all but until then, there will always be some who are so entrenched in the old, established ways of medicine that they view anything else with suspicion and try to bring it into disrepute. What they are really doing is pushing back on taking responsibility for themselves.
Serge is pro-medicine without question. He uses it himself, encourages clients to use it, and promotes it during his presentation. He has nothing but respect for it. However, Western Medicine on its own is not turning the tide if illness and disease, and quite frankly is creaking under the weight of so much illness and disease at the moment. Does it not make sense to explore other options as well, to take more responsibility as well. The current state of affairs is only going to change with some radical re-thinking and new ideas.
Yes Simon, as reality clearly shows, there is a missed piece in medicine that nowadays is needed to really cope wirh the rising health conditions that are affecting people all around the world. We as humanity are worth to explore the contribution that Esoteric modlities offer to Western medicine
This letter is not just a letter to Heath, it’s a letter which will go down in history. The Health Care Industry is approaching breaking point, there is only so much fixing that can be done, only so much taxes people will be willing to pay to fund people’s ill lifestyle choices.
“Non-communicable diseases are now the leading cause of death around the world, with developing countries hit hardest, according to a new report from the World Health Organisation”
Western Medicine has come so far and it is a huge support to us, but it’s time for us to stop putting so much pressure on doctors to fix us, we have to do our part but sadly most of us are not educated on what that looks like, Universal Medicine is there to bridge that gap.
From my own experience Serge Benhayon has been an advocate of western medicine, he has completely changed my life by introducing me to my own responsibilities of what I choose as my lifestyle choices and how they affect our health, he should be applauded not criticised for his work, which teaches us all that we have responsibilities.
Sally you have exposed the craziness of the lies that have been written about Serge Benhayon. Here is someone who is only suggesting that there is a different way to live so that we take full responsibility for the choices we make. Is it possible that we do not like the word responsibility? That someone has the audacity to hold humanity to account for the way we live is galling? Is it possible we do not want to be held to account we just want to be ‘fixed’ so we can go out onto the race track of life and continue where we left off. So we try to silence those people who speak up and out because we don’t like what they are saying because the truth of what they are saying is rattling the cage of our so called comfortable lives.
It makes no sense to report that Serge is not pro medicine when so many doctors would not support him if he was for they would be renouncing their profession. It is ridiculous that such bastardisations are allowed to be printed when the world needs to hearof the remarkable healing power of western and esoteric medicine combined, endorsed by some of the best practitioners in their medical fields.
Anyone who knows Serge Benhayon or has ever heard him speak knows how totally pro-medicine he is and what a true friend of medicine Serge is. Therefore to say he is not pro-medicine in itself is to be anti-medicine for it is damaging to true medicine and people’s access to it.
Such wisdom – that makes sense on every level… Thank-you Eunice.
And yet, irresponsibility in journalism still appeared to hold its sway on the part of the journalist here named. Our mainstream media has become a place for lies and corruption to go predominantly unchecked, regardless of the impact upon others, and the pictures of utter falsity that may be painted.
And so we have to ask, what drives such a machine? And, is there any part of us that fuels the thirst for the sensational? Is there any part of us that asks to be fed versions of reality that would have us live with far, far less awareness than which every single one of us is capable?
Well said Eunice, I have heard Serge Benhayon talk many times on medicine and I can back everything you say, he is a huge supporter and admirer of modern medicine and what is possible because of it. He simply adds that we also need to look at the cause and address the under-lying issue too…. which makes sense.