by Judith McIntyre, Myocum, Australia

I understand that certain allegations have been made about Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine, in particular claiming that Serge and the practitioners associated with Universal Medicine are in opposition or in competition with conventional medical practitioners. This completely contradicts my experience as a cancer patient over the past year. I was diagnosed with cancer in early June 2011 and I have been associated with Serge and Universal Medicine since early August 2011. During this past year I have had continuous medical treatment, and also since early August, weekly sessions with Serge or other Universal Medicine practitioners. I am grateful to both my conventional and complementary practitioners for the caring support that I have received.

Before my diagnosis I had had chronic fatigue and chronic digestive symptoms. I had for years sought both medical and complementary advice and treatment. Generally there was not much either sphere could do to alleviate my symptoms. I had a strong preference for taking good care of myself in terms of diet, exercise, vitamins, regular check-ups, as well as massage, acupuncture and healing. I wanted to avoid needing any medical treatment if possible.

After I was diagnosed with breast cancer, I was shocked and terrified. I learned it was aggressive and I accepted that I could not avoid major and immediate treatment. I had an initial surgery in July which removed all the lymph nodes under my left arm and a lump from my left breast. I was advised that I would need chemotherapy and radiotherapy and hormonal drug treatment as well. When I considered chemotherapy I felt that in my debilitated state from years of low energy, I would suffer more than most people. I dreaded it and felt it might be the death of me before the cancer. The first surgery did not achieve clear margins around the lump and I was booked for a second surgery, a wide excision, in August.

Before the second surgery, although I rarely went out at this time, I attended the Byron Writers Festival for one afternoon. I went into a talk on words and energy by Serge Benhayon. He spoke of how people say they love coffee when they mean they need coffee. He said that if people were honest and said they needed the coffee, then they might ask themselves how they were living so that they needed coffee to get through their day. They might make better choices to improve their energy.  I appreciated his reasoning. He also spoke about the rising numbers of women getting breast cancer. I became very interested. I had not thought of myself as being part of a cohort. His comments about being true to ourselves as a way to be healthy made sense to me. I knew I had many times looked after others even when exhausted.

I first saw Serge for healing in early August before the second surgery. I talked to him about death and how I had been living my life for others rather than for myself. I could see how I had squandered my life energy and made myself vulnerable to cancer in spite of my ‘healthy’ lifestyle. From my first visit with him, the intense, exhausting emotion I had been living with reduced dramatically. I told him how I optimistically believed that I wouldn’t need a mastectomy although the surgeon had warned me that it was possible if the second surgery did not get clear margins. The surgeon had said I could choose a mastectomy this time instead of just another excision. I was shocked and said “No!”  Serge somehow communicated to me a sense that I would be alright, even if a mastectomy was necessary. He didn’t minimise the loss, rather he acknowledged the fear and sadness that I felt. After the second surgery I told him the results showed I would need a mastectomy. He told me that he was willing to see me throughout my cancer treatment.  He had clients who had reported coping well with the chemotherapy.

I had also heard this quite independently from a physiotherapist who was recommended by the hospital. She said that women who had the esoteric chakrapuncture treatment along with the same medical treatment that I had and would be having, did “remarkably better” than those who didn’t have this particular complementary treatment. She had seen a lot of breast cancer patients and had great respect for Serge and his work. She had attended some of his lectures.

Going into the third surgery, the mastectomy, I was almost calm, certainly accepting and even grateful, since my surgeon had told me that provided I had the recommended treatment, I had a very good chance of surviving. Beforehand I had some thorough cries over my breast. Since I emerged from the surgery, I never felt any further need to mourn it. My healing went well, and I was amused to have compliments from physios and nurses on my ‘beautiful’ scar.

I was given a month to recover from my surgery before I began chemotherapy. I was seeing Serge weekly for counselling and esoteric chakrapuncture and began to feel so well physically that I could take longer and more lively walks than I had been able to do for many months before my diagnosis.  I made other life changes and felt so positive that I told Serge that maybe I wouldn’t need chemotherapy. He said immediately that he would never advise that I not have the chemo. He simply encouraged me to keep looking at my life and my choices and feel for myself what was right. I cried over this because I definitely didn’t want to have chemo and had misunderstood and thought he might back that choice. Again, he gave me support through counselling and chakrapuncture and taught me to “rest deeply” as I went into my chemo sessions, fully choosing to be there since I had decided that I would have it.

I have told my oncologist about the esoteric chakrapuncture sessions and how helpful I find them. He has told me several times that I have been doing very well and even said “keep up the acupuncture”. As with the surgery, I found that I handled the chemo treatments well, having generally only fatigue and no vomiting or pain, and minimal side effects. I did make a choice after four months of chemo, to stop a little early from the second type because of side effects that suddenly got much stronger and could have been irreversible. I made this decision with my oncologist who said that I had had a lot of chemo and he didn’t think that the slightly shorter treatment would affect my life expectancy. I told Serge about this decision after I had made it.

After the chemotherapy treatment, I was due to see a professor of radiotherapy. Yet again I hoped that I didn’t need to have treatment but he said I did. I live alone and have not been well enough to manage without regular help. The radiotherapy treatment was nearly an hour’s drive from my home, five days a week for five weeks. I didn’t know how I could get myself driven back and forth and how I would cope with that much travel even if I had a driver. Universal Medicine provided me with a beautiful and nurturing space in which to stay within a short distance of the hospital so that I was able to drive myself to the treatment even though I was still tired and became more so. This accommodation and much of my sessions with Serge have actually been free of charge. Again, my treatment went easily and the main nurse who treated me said “you obviously heal well”.

At this stage, I am beginning to recover some energy after the radiotherapy but am still easily tired, probably because of the herceptin infusions that I still have every three weeks at the chemo ward. I am continuing to have weekly treatments at the UniMed clinic and always feel a profound sense of peace and rest at these times.

I have also had treatment from a physiotherapist at the UniMed clinic, who gave me simple exercises that immediately helped and within a couple of weeks completely relieved the cording that had developed in my left arm months after the lymph node removal. These gentle movements were somewhat different to those shown me by the other physiotherapist. The main distinction in her method was that it depended on beginning with and developing a deep connection with the body, not just mechanical movements while the mind might be elsewhere.

I hope it is obvious that Serge works very well with conventional medicine and is not at all opposed to it. In fact, he has often said that we have never had better medical treatment and he has particular praise for surgeons. I believe that his work is truly a complement to the conventional methods and when the two are combined, the patient is very fortunate indeed.

One of the most significant things to understand about Serge and other practitioners at Universal Medicine is that they first take great care of themselves. They heed the old dictum: “Physician, heal thyself.”