I am aware of the allegations against Universal Medicine (UniMed) and quite frankly I am in absolute disbelief as my personal experience has been quite the opposite of all that is being said.
I first came across Universal Medicine and the work of Serge Benhayon eight years ago. At that time I had been through several life threatening illnesses and was suffering undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder after the Thredbo landslide which occurred across the road from where I was then living. I knew that there had to be another way to live that was more loving and joy-full, and that I was so far away from that despite all my worldly successes and the thrills of my recreational sports.
My Medical Conditions
To expand a little on my conditions: I experienced relatively little illness until I reached 50 when I was diagnosed with cancer, and underwent a radical hysterectomy and had the lymph nodes in my right groin removed as they were matted with cancer. I was told that I had a 25% chance of living for more than 2 years even after undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatment. Having served on a university council for many years I was used to reading research documents, so I studied all that I could find on cancer and came to understand it on the physiological level (refer Otto Warburg’s research, which was largely ignored despite Warburg being awarded a Nobel prize in 1931 for his research). I changed many aspects of my life-style and have been cancer free ever since.
Four years later I collapsed with tachycardia while skiing in Italy and was diagnosed with sick sinus syndrome. Shortly after returning home to Thredbo, the village experienced a landslide and I was at the site soon after it happened. I lost 17 friends in one night. A few months later my heart deteriorated and I had a pace maker fitted.
The following year I collapsed again and this time was clinically dead for over 10 minutes. I was hospitalised, my pacemaker was removed and replaced with a pacemaker / defibrillator.
During this time I was also dealing with a number of family issues including the death of both parents, a family member becoming a paraplegic as the result of an accident, a family member with drug addiction, another with a gambling addiction, a husband who wrote off two cars in the space of 2 years, and a major fire on our 240-acre property. Needless to say, this all left me a little traumatised!
Three years later I was hospitalised in Canada with Strep C blood infection (streptococcus dysgalactiae equisimilis) and was in the intensive care ward for ten days and close to death for most of that time. I was also diagnosed with infective endocarditis and polyseptic arthritis. The doctors advised that I may not walk again as my left knee had been badly infected, and that I had vegetations on my mitral valve. After a 12-week hospitalisation I was allowed to travel home in a wheel chair (and a plane).
In 2004 I had surgery to replace my mitral valve and the echocardiogram also showed a moderate to severe tricuspid regurgitation. In the following years I had several hospitalisations with atrial flutter which were corrected by cardioversion and for which I later had an ablation. In 2011 I was hospitalised for 4 days with mycoplasma pneumonia from which I made a rapid recovery.
When in 2005 I heard of a lecture that mentioned ‘heart’ in the title I was understandably drawn to attend. Everything that was said at the workshop made sense to me. Here at last was someone who was not afraid to say truth. I have been attending Universal Medicine events ever since and my life has changed dramatically for the better, thanks both to the support I have received from Serge and the UniMed practitioners and my own commitment to living in a way that is more loving and heart-connected.
My experience of Universal Medicine:
1. The first consistent message I heard from Serge’s lectures was to always discern everything that he said and to feel for myself if it were true. We were shown a way of doing this by connecting to our heart. As I had been reading research from the HeartMath Institute in California just before I discovered Universal Medicine, and I had heard about the heart’s capacity to think, I was very open to hearing that the heart may also have a ‘brain’ which we can connect to.
2. Secondly, in eight years of hearing Serge Benhayon present, I have never heard Serge tell anyone what to do including what to eat or drink and there are many students world-wide who will stand up and say the same thing. His consistent message has always been to feel for ourselves.After researching cancer, I became very aware of the effects that coffee and alcohol had in my body and I minimised them in my diet until even a little of either was felt as a reaction and I cut them out completely. After my valve replacement I monitored my body regularly and became aware that I was having a reaction to gluten and dairy. I cut these from my diet long before Serge made any mention of them. So when Serge suggested that we become more aware of what we ingest I had already experienced exactly what he was saying.
Further to the above and in relation to the recent allegations in the press against Universal medicine, I have become increasingly surprised at the number of people at UniMed events who re-interpreted what is being said depending on where they are at and what they want to hear. This re-interpretation is then magnified even further away from the truth by family members or partners who often feel uncomfortable when a person in the family starts to adopt a more loving lifestyle. It is often easier for the person to justify the changes in their life by saying, “Serge said…”, when in fact it was not at all what Serge said!
3. From hearing Serge present I now have a new respect for doctors! After having read all I could on cancer, I developed a healthy disrespect for conventional medicine. I was disgusted at the useful research that was disregarded in treatment if there were no money in it for the pharmaceutical companies. Hence I was quite surprised when I heard Serge say that he was pro-medicine, a message he has repeated many times and which I have personally experienced on several occasions.
For example, in April this year I had a mild stroke at a Universal Medicine event and immediately went to ask Serge about it. As it happened, Serge was standing next to a GP who was also attending the event. Serge’s first action was to ask the GP to give me a check-over. The GP advised that I go to hospital and Serge agreed. I have found Serge to be very pro medicine. There are many people from all sides of the medical profession who attend UniMed events and who can attest to Serge’s support for what they do.
4. I have never heard Serge say that UniMed modalities are ‘superior’ to western medicine. UniMed modalities are presented as being complementary with conventional medicine. For example, there are certain techniques which can support people going through chemotherapy.
For a number of years Serge has been treating severely sick patients free of charge to support them in whatever conventional treatment they are receiving which includes providing free accommodation. I myself have experienced Serge’s support and generosity with the latest being late last year. After I was hospitalised with pneumonia, Serge made time to see me the morning after I left hospital and gave me a session to help clear my lungs, free of charge. My recovery was rapid, thanks to the medical doctors and Serge.
5. I have never heard Serge Benhayon advise “no exercise”. This sounds like a re-interpretation of his message about being gentle with one’s body and feeling into what it is loving for the body to do. Walking every day is highly recommended, as is swimming.
I was in such disregard that I took up paragliding at 50 and injured my back. I also crewed in a Sydney-Hobart yacht race in the late 60s where the conditions were so harsh that I wore a safety harness so as not to be washed overboard, carried a knife in case of emergencies, spent part of the time managing sea-sickness / diarrhoea, and finished it off with celebrating our safe arrival in Hobart with a rum and coke – being gentle with myself was not only welcome in this context, but sound advice.
While I still exercise and earlier this year skied black runs in Canada, I am now more aware to listen to my body and only do what is needed rather than pushing to the stage were the body suffers. As a result my body is recovering from past abuse. Next year I turn 70, but I feel fitter, healthier and happier now than I did when I was 50. I live more lovingly with myself and with others. There is now more harmony in my marriage (I was married for the first time at 61!) and I am surrounded by loving friends. Every day is a new joy!
by Anne McRitchie (Barnes)