Here are some sharings from some spiramed listmembers, published with their authorization.
The words which are in bold and underlined have been selected for a lecture on Internet and Medicine, given in Jerusalem on September 17, 1997, during a meeting organized by the Israeli Association of French Speaking Medical Doctors.
You are welcome to send your own opinions concerning the spiramed list. Please send your message to the listowner, Jean-Marc Mantel, M.D., jmm@essence-euro.org. Note "spiramed goldenbook" in the subject frame. Your commentaries will be added to the Spiramed Golden Book. Be kind to precise if you wish that you name and/or email addresses would be kept. The negative opinions and criticisms are also welcome and will be published.
Hi Jean-Marc:
I have only been in the group a few months. However, being on the list has had some effect.
The group helps me to understand that:
Thanks for your requesting our input.
Bob Riley in northwest Illinois, USA. From "A Course in Miracles,"
2nd ed., p. 28: "I am here only to be truly helpful. I am here to represent
Him Who sent me . . . I will be healed as I let Him teach me to heal."
For me Spiramed has assisted me in a number of ways:
Love to you all today!
Tony D-J
--
Anthony S. Dallmann-Jones, Ph.D.
Author, PRIMARY DOMINO THINKING ~ Create The Life You Want ~Released July 3, 1997
PLEASE help by calling your local bookstore(s) and requesting that they stock PRIMARY DOMINO THINKING so we can get the message/method out there that Misery Is (Indeed!) Optional!
Namaste -
I appreciate the responses that I got from my previous post regarding my MSW internship. In many ways, it was healing for me simply to have confirmed the fact that I am not alone in grappling between my knowledge/beliefs about healing and reality and those notions of healing and reality held by the medical model and Western mainstream.
At any rate, I am feeling better and deeply appreciate the caring of those who responded, both on and off list, to my original post. My resolve is that I need to continue to clarify my own, personal growth which keeps me in balance. From that place, I am in my own alignment and of greatest help to clients, and other staff for that matter even if much of my work is as quiet witness, grounding the light/love/god(dess), holding a larger possibility for all of us. . .
So, it is truly with gratitude and humility that I say hello and thank you to this list today.
JOHN-MARC, the value of this list, to me, is its ability to bring like minded individuals together to support, learn from, and enjoy one another; to provide a forum and means for us to not feel so alone; and to realize the connections and effects that we have on one another, even if we are miles removed. In these ways, this list manifests the (mostly) unseen web that connects everything. I think it heralds a wonderful shifting in the world that these connections be manifested on the physical plane at all! (Feel free to quote anything that you deem useful and palatable to your audience!)
Love and best wishes,
Michelle
___________________________________________________________
Michelle D. Garner
"The simplest questions are the most profound." - Richard Bach
Dear Dr. Mantel:
Congratulations on you award from Mental Health Net. You definitely deserve it. I have only been on your list for one month. During this period I have received over 300 e-mails on a variety of topics. The information that has been passed along is excellent and no one seems to be judgemental. You have an eclectic group of people who are willing to share. The benefits are limitless as long as one is open-minded enough to be accepting of other peoples point of view.
Thank you for an exciting and stimulating adventure,
Vernon
Jean Marc,
Through Spiramed I have made friends from all over the world. I have found an international family and community not available to me in the past. I have found that the belief systems I hold to be true are also held by others in countries I have never been to. I have made friendships that will last the rest of my life. Also, I have been able to cross cultural barriers and find the common denominator that all humans share. It has been a evolving, educational experience that continues every morning I sign onto my computer. Thank you for making this possible.
Tasha
====================================================
Tasha K. Taylor,
Suzzallo Library, Box 352900 Fiscal Specialist, Budget
Office, University of Washington
email:tktaylor@u.washington.edu
====================================================
Hi, Jean-Marc!
Here's an account of my own Spiramed experience. Hope it helps. My involvement with the Spiramed forum has widened and deepened my spiritual growth in a way that would not be possible in a face-to-face-type venue. For one thing, the experience of being in contact with so many faces at one time would be overwhelming, and my poor little spirit would probably want to go hide in the nearest corner!! In this list format, we can distill our collective knowledge on topics which interest us into a digestible concoction from which it is easy to take what we need, leave what isn't meant for us, and move on from there. In my own experience, I have met a wonderful teacher and spiritual guide online. I have gotten some book recommendations which led me to some new trailheads, some of which I continue to follow. I have developed some wonderful and unique relationships. And I have become more skilled in the art of listening.
Alex
Alexandra Soltow
pamra@rockland.net
<*><*><*><*><*><*>
Madness takes its toll. Please have exact change.
Since I have been on this forum almost since its inception, I have been through a number of "stages" of experience with Spiramed. I sometimes wonder if there is enough material for a small novel in my relationship with the list and its members <g>.
Personally, in the beginning my participation on the list helped me to find my voice. When I first signed on, I was quite intimidated by knowing that whatever I said went out around the globe and was stored archivally somewhere "forever". Today, I have little difficulty voicing my opinion when I choose to and I am not concerned about it being "available to the universe". On this list, I have made some significant bonds with people that I know will last a lifetime. The experience of getting to know people at a soul level without ever meeting them has given me a new appreciation for the written word, for communication, and especially for the challenges of making and exchanging meaning with others. The list has sometimes shown me an unwelcome mirror; it has often given me an opportunity to release long-held pain.
Professionally, everything I've said above naturally makes me "better" in my work. The less wounded I am, the more I can witness the woundedness of others.
There have been many instances when I've sought the collective wisdom of this group. One I recall vividly is when I was under stress in a hospital social work field placement (in fact, I was working with a group of people who sound quite similar to the people who will be listening to your talk - professionals in the health care field with no spiritual orientation). Spirameders freely gave me their time and energy to help me through that time. I was able to get concrete, specific feedback on a particular case from a wide range of perspectives. Often in our professional life, "instant" access to other professionals is unavailable. Here, it is always available. As well, on this forum we are able to get up close and personal with people who, in RL (real life), might very well be our clients. The mingling of "professional" and "consumer" is at a level generally difficult for us to achieve in RL - here it is, indeed, generally impossible to tell the "patients" from the "doctors" - knowing this is, imho, always a professional benefit.
In the future, I imagine we will all be dealing much more in our professional lives with the "fallout" from cyberlife in the lives of our clients.
In this forum, I have had an opportunity to witness the power of the internet - in the heated debates, in the caring RL/imagination journeys such as Jim's brain surgery, in the close connections I've made with people I've never "met". We've made up our own brand of virtual reality on Spiramed - jet plane rides, parties, mansions by the sea, healing rooms. Observing and experiencing cyberlife in this forum has made me more equipped to deal with cyber issues in the lives of my clients.
As far as list "leadership" is concerned, I believe that you have consistently given the group the kind of quiet, open, support that leads to personal and professional growth of its members. I am aware that from time to time, issues of conflict arise within the group and some listmasters in other forums step in and make their presence known. You have always shown us a gentle presence, tolerant and accepting of all views - a model for us all, really.
See what I mean about having found my voice????? :-))))))
Thank you, Jean-Marc and my fellow Spirameders.
Love,
Helen
Bonjour Jean-Marc,
Voici ma contribution concernant ta conférence de septembre. Mon contact avec les listes ou les forums de discussion est relativement récent. J'en ai observé quelques uns concernant surtout les approches alternatives en médecine, de même qu'en rapport avec les arts martiaux et je dois dire que je fus plutôt insatisfait.
Spiramed a réussi à m'accrocher mais je ne saurais encore vraiment dire pourquoi. Je pense qu'il est important, à l'intérieur de groupes semblables, de pouvoir y ressentir une certaine communauté de pensée et une ressemblance que l'on peut imaginer dans le vécu des membres. Pour moi, la beauté d'Internet réside dans le fait que je puisse entrer en communication avec un habitant de l'autre bout de la planète qui partage des idées semblables aux miennes. Cela est néanmoins une question d'exploration, d'essais et d'erreurs. Je tends à remarquer que certaines personnes avec des intérêts très pointus ne trouveront pas nécessairement à leurs côtés des gens avec qui échanger. Ce n'est pas toujours un trouble de communication. A mon sens, les forums ont cet avantage d'élargir le bassin des gens potentiellement intéressés à ce que l'on fait ou pense.
Ces groupes m'ont ouvert d'autres horizons, fait connaître de nouvelles choses. Par l'entremise d'Internet, j'ai d'ailleurs fait de "vrais connaissances" avec qui j'entretiens de "vraies" relations. C'est vrai que l'on peut se perdre dans le "virtuel" mais il y a aussi beaucoup à y gagner.
Je pourrais difficilement me passer de cet outil maintenant.
P.S. Etant donné l'ambiance de cette liste, j'ai pris l'initiative de te tutoyer.
Prière de me dire si cela ne te convient pas.
Amicalement,
Claude Fournier
e-mail: fouc5606@globetrotter.qc.ca
Dear JM,
Having experience on individual and group psychotherapy for over twenty years I have seen how total most of my clients (in Finland) view themselves as a biological, emotional and spiritual being.
There are a lot of people from different backgrounds, different educations and different professions - also unemployed - who have had religious, spiritual or transpersonal experiences. In many cases my clients have told to me how they avoid telling these experiences to the average doctors and psychiatrists because of their denial or a lack of listening and understanding.
Also I have personally had dozens of different transpersonal experiences and states of consciousness.
When I come on this forum, to share my experience, to ask a question or to give a request for references, there is no judgement. No one say to me: "Do you really believe in that?" Also it has been a pleasure to give own experience and help.
For example, last winter I had very odd experiences on shame and a "smell of an old ashtray", strange vibrations in my back, and they lasted for few months. This is a safe place to have a discussion. Oh, and also a good forum to share humor (not gender one). This is one of my favorite, which I brought here:
- - - - -
From the Prince George's Journal Vol. 59, No. 95 of May 18 1997:
"An unidentified bus driver in Zimbabwe was transporting 20 mental patients from the capital city of Harare to Bulawayo Mental Hospital when he stopped at an illegal roadside liquor store. According to South Africa's Financial Mail, he returned after a few drinks to find that all the mental patients had escaped. He stopped at a regular bus stop and offered free rides to several people, then delivered them to the mental hospital. It took the abducted passengers three days to convince hospital personnel of the switch."
- - - - -
Warmly,
Olli
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Olavi Noronen, therapist E-mail: scorpitos@pp.kolumbus.fi
Phone: +358 2 2539650
Address: Scorpitos, P.O.Box 536, FIN-20101, Turku, FINLAND
<http://www.weppi.fi/scorpitos/> (Partly in English)
** SCORPITOS - From The Deepest Cave To The Open Sky **
------------------------------------------------------------
Spiramed has played a key role in supporting me in changing my life. One of my earliest adventures here was getting supportive msgs when I was feeling very unhappy at work, but had been trying to "make it work." In hearing others' reactions to my situation, and stories of their own situations, I was able to attain a different perspective on what was going on - the role of the situation in my own growth became more clear, at the same time that I was reassured that I wasn't being unrealistic to believe that I didn't have to continue to put up with an unhealthy situation.
I have learned about many interesting resources (websites, books, etc.). I probably wouldn't have just taken Reiki training if I hadn't heard about it here, especially from John V. I learned about Kaballah from Marilyn and Jackie. These are just examples, of topics that happen to be on my mind at the moment (because I just finished the Reiki training) - if I started to name all the people here who have taught me things, I would be typing all night!
I discovered that you can make real friends on the internet.
Through this list, I have met people who I feel that I know and care for on a deeper level than I do many people who I've known in RL for 10 or 15 years. There are a lot of spiritual paths, and a lot of people who aren't on any - so this list provides a place to find people who are on a similar path, when one's own small town might *never* provide access to such a person.
And I have had such an experience, here, of love when we come together as a group to offer help to people who are in trouble. I hope Jim doesn't mind being mentioned as having provided the focus for the most intense one of those efforts - the connection that we produce when we join together is amazing, moving, invaluable, irreplaceable, in giving me a solid *experience* of our links to one another on the non-physical level.
In terms of your leadership of the list, it seems to me that what you have provided is a model of calm, reflection, and acceptance. You have shown trust that people will work out their differences, and have been notably non-controlling. Because you don't become upset, that helps keep things in perspective.
I realize that this may sound melodramatic, but Spiramed is one of the things in my life that gives me hope for the world.
Jane
Jane and Helen,
I'm also glad you said that, and I second that comment! I agree.
Smiles,
Shirley
--
Shirley E. Kaiser, M.A. mailto:skaiser@skdesigns.com
SKDesigns http://www.skdesigns.com/
Website Development, Consulting, Marketing, Training
Internet Resources http://www.skdesigns.com/internet/
HI Jean-Marc,
Being on Spiramed is a priceless gift for me. When I suffered a brain injury last year I started my brain working again by writing at the computer. Severe physical limitations continue to prohibit my spending time with friends--at a time when I most need support and unconditional love--the kind that abounds on this list.
In the past year, when my world was turned upside-down--, I have gone a complete transformation in my personal and professional life. I am a psychotherapist who could not find the comfort I needed in conventional therapy. My healing came as the result of the spiritual quest ignited by all had lost of myself with the injury. What fueled my quest was this list and the info garnered from some discussions about energy and spirituality versus psychology. I no longer find it comfortable to think or talk in psychological terms. I have decided to become a healer. The key turning point was when I replaced my therapeutic touch work with Reiki--something I felt led to explore because of conversations with John. The people I have met since I made that decision are replacing the former friendships since they are traveling a path similar to mine. I still value my friends--and now I see that I am teaching them, gently yet steadily, to look at this new path and to explore their spirituality. So I am both a healer and a teacher of metaphyscis--a far cry form being the psychologist I had thought I wanted to be! I still help people change their lives but now everything moves faster because we work at a different plane--or so I see things that way!
While this list cannot replace real life encounters--when one is physically limited as I have been, then cyber friendships take on a new meaning and dimension.
Thank you for maintaining this list. For me it is a life saver.
Light and Love,
Ali
Dear Ali,
Thank you for your beautiful testimony of how such a forum can participate to the inner transformation of a being.
Of course, it cannot replace the direct physical contact, but really prepare the ground.
I felt it before I started to be involved in such an activity but now I know it from the experience.
So thank you again and very best wishes for your new life.
Vibration is the secret, sensing the tool and listening the way.
Jean-Marc
Well I started to write earlier in reply to Dr. Mantel's letter and then decided against it because I'm not a professional, in fact I don't even have a job, but since I've been mentioned several times already, I really should explain what Spiramed means to me.
I have been hanging around here for some two years now and I've seen a lot of strange things happen. The first time I tuned in to Spiramed I admit I was skeptical. People were discussing subjects either over my head or strange or both. Subject such as Love and its healing properties, Angels, multi-dimensional lives, the power of prayer and focused energies, meditation and its varied forms and uses, therapies of all kinds from Freudian to Holistic, Conventional Medicine to Shamanism, Religious beliefs ranging from Christianity and Wicca to Atheism. And the amazing thing about it was that no matter what one person's belief system was, they were able to set it aside and discuss rationally (for the most part) the different and sometimes opposing ideas of others. I think that was the main reason I stayed on the list.
And I'm glad I did too for it is an astounding place to not only learn, but to learn how to open your mind up to new horizons of knowledge.
And I haven't even begun to mention the supportive nature of this group and the special relationships with people that otherwise I would have never known.
Spiramed is always there if you have a crisis great or small and never fails to send it healing energies and positive thoughts and just plain well wishes to any of us who are ill or anyone that knows of someone who is ill.
I happen to have Parkinson's Disease and went to Atlanta to have brain surgery (a pallidotomy). Helen submitted my name to the group and am I ever glad she did. I was in a motel room scared to death prior to surgery and someone delivered a dozen ballons. I couldn't figure out who knew I was in Atlanta motel until I read the tag. It was of course from Spiramed and when I went into that operating room it was with the love of hundreds of Spirameders. Unbeknownst to me then Marilyn was presiding over a healing vigil along with other Spirameders, and during the operation I was calm, relaxed and at ease with the procedure which was performed for the most part while I was awake.
Now I am prone to panic attacks so you can imagine my hesitation at this procedure but according to the doctors I was one of the most relaxed patients that had undergone this surgery. The procedure couldn't have gone any better and I have benefited greatly from its effects.
Spiramed continues to be an important part of not only my life but of many other peoples lives they have touched. This group whose love, diversity seems to hold together will be in my life for a long time to come.
Jim
I actually remember signing up on Spiramed in early July, 1995 (I went back and checked saved messages Jean Marc).
I wrote to Jean Marc privately, but now want to share with the whole list the impact this family has had on me.
From the moment I signed on, I was concerned that I, who was also not a professional practitioner, would not belong in this group, however, I was instantly reassured that every person was an equal.
Although I work as an Accountant at a major research library, my avocation is that of spiritual counselor, I have had a support group meeting in my home for over 11 years. We help each other through our problems and tribulations. Sharri Lorraine has been a member all these years also.
This online family has been an extension of that group.
From Spiramed, I have learned how spiritual concepts are being integrated into medical and psychological practices as we know it today.
From Spiramed, I have learned that the beliefs I hold to be true are not just unique to my small circle of friends, but to others in my country, and different countries, and cultures around this planet.
From Spiramed, I have been able to reach and send healing loving energy to people all over the planet, and I have learned that that energy does indeed touch the individuals I have sent it to.
From Spiramed, I have learned what it is like to be loved and accepted for who you are, and not what you do. My favorite mentor has always said, "It is not what you do, but the energy in which you do it that matters"
(JannWeiss, 1985).
From Spiramed, I have learned that we as individuals can change the planet with our loving care and concern for one another.
I want to thank everyone in this family for being here for me in the last two years as I have struggled and grown through a variety of challenges. When my coworker died last January, all of you were my rock of Gibraltar as I went through my grief.
I once again thank Jean Marc for his loving presence and acceptance of each of us as we are. Like any family we have learned to grow up together. Jean Marc, you have been the wisest of fathers, in allowing us the space to find out who we are. Such freedom is rare and deeply appreciated.
Spiramed allows to walk our talk, and learn to implement the spiritual concepts we hold to be true in our hearts. We are learning to integrate spirituality into our everyday lives.
I value every person I have met through this group. Hey... you guys are GREAT!!!!!
Tasha