Radical Remission: Lessons from 1,500 Cancer Survivors

Origins of Radical Remission Research 0:00

Well, I have the the the joy of having less current with me today and radical remission less. Thank you so much for for spending some time with me. Absolutely. Always happy to be here with you and reconnect. So radical remission. I mean, how how did that start? I mean, what what kind of I gave birth to, you know, the these principles. So back in the early 2000s, I would say, doctor Kelly Turner was not yet Doctor Kelly. Kelly Turner, she was, a an oncology social worker who heard about the term spontaneous remission.

And that ignited this curiosity of what that was. What does that mean? And as she started digging in, she found that there were cases and cases in cases of unstudied spontaneous remissions. So she decided to go back and get her PhD to research what these people did to heal, because nobody was looking into it. And, so she traveled around the world. She traveled for ten months to ten different countries and interviewed people who were known to have been healers of these spontaneous remissions. And then they invited her in to speak to patients.

And then all of a sudden, it kind of the world opened its doors to her, and she was able to interview over the years, over 1500 cases of what she calls radical remissions, because what she found during these interviews was that nothing was spontaneous, and it was quite radical. And, she found that there were ten common healing factors among every single person that was interviewed or researched, and that has become the found the foundational information from the Radical Remission Project and all the different offerings that we have.

So this is essentially not just something that she, you know, philosophy she had or feeling she had. Yeah. This is based on, hard evidence. People that have yeah, they had cancer and, you know, medical community, you know, felt like there's no way with the type of therapy that they are doing that they were gonna, you know, be cured from cancer. And then they did these, you know, different principles. And, lo and behold, you know, this is what moved them forward and got healed. Yeah. So it was, you know, it was as a research study that she did.

And there were over 70 different things, in fact, healing factors that came into the research. And it was just that these ten were done by all of them and their lifestyle changes. So we bring them in, you know, we present them in many ways to the world. But mostly we like to emphasize that they are all immune boosting. They are all backed by, you know, scientific research from very reputable medical journals over and over and over again, each individual one. And we often talk about external research that supports it.

And it's just really important for people to say, we always say this is not a treatment plan. This is a hypotheses that was researched. And what we do know is they're all safe with whatever the treatment type is. And that you can absolutely weave these and anyone can. It's from a health seeker to a cancer patient that is, you know, late stage. What actually defines a radical remission or radical remission survivor is someone who has healed completely, alternatively, never touched conventional or someone who has used conventional.

And it failed and they were kind of sent home on hospice or we don't have any more treatment for you. You know, get your affairs in order kind of conversations. And then they found healing. And then the last element of a radical remission survivor, which is the most frequent that we see today, you know, all these years later, 15, 20 years later, after the research is the integrative approach. So people who are utilizing conventional treatments, but they're also realizing that they themselves have some control over their health, some way to adopt lifestyle change that can improve their quality of life, boost their immune system, help with their longevity.

And we have just seen over and over again how effective this is in our work. And, and that last element, what I will say to really kind of define the integrative approach and how I like to say miraculous it is, that these people have found healing was they had a 25% or less five year survival rate. The people that were researched, that took the integrative approach. So it's it's not just, stage one through stage four. It's really those people who had that dire prognosis and then found healing. So it's really remarkable.

Someone I was just working with a client yesterday and she said, how do you stay so positive all the time? And I said, well, I have the blessing of being able to see people live. I see late stage cancer patients that I've worked with for five

The Ten Healing Factors Explained 5:01

plus years that are living beautiful, healthy lives. So I, I'm here to share that that late stage dying, late stage diagnosis does not need to be, a death sentence or a reason to be very scared and sad. Obviously it is scary and it is sad, at moments. But we don't need to stay there. We can have hope. And and the beauty of these principles is that it's not kind of these weird, strange thing or unsafe things to do, you know, it's very foundational, basic and, and it, you know, health supporting no matter what, no matter what other things that you're doing.

These are just very foundational principles. Absolutely. Yes. And you know, I found my way here to doing this work because, my sister had a very aggressive, very conventional, cancer journey in 2014, and she ended up passing away after a year from diagnosis. And it was very eye opening. We've never really witnessed cancer in our family. And that kind of began this curiosity for me of, you know, what would I do if this were me? And so I became a health seeker. And then over time, my grandmother and cousin all have breast cancer or have had breast cancer journeys.

And so now I'm considered a provider for someone who is high risk. No genetic markers, but lots of family history. So I do very proactively get my, you know, my twice a year getting MRIs and mammograms and getting all of my, my proper scans to keep my eye on things. And there are times where something might show up and I need to get, you know, further diagnostic, so on. And I always lean back on. I've been living this way, too. And much like I'm sure you are living that healthy lifestyle, if we if we teach it to people, we need to walk the walk.

And so I always lean back on that. And as I know the people I work with do leaning into those ten things, right. So we can't do all of them perfectly all the time. There's always something that you can dust off and refresh and and really dig back into that. And just knowing that they're there is, incredibly powerful tool. And what I love is that, you know, when you think of cancer, you think of something big and scary and you need something really powerful and strong, and you have to go after it and kill it and all these things.

But when you look at these principles, you know, they are just kind of very doable, just supportive. And and so it just kind of speaks to me that cancer essentially is just an imbalance in all these different factors. And by just bringing the body back into balance and doing things that are restorative and regenerative, then the body can heal itself. You don't have to go on, blast it with these kind of very, you know, excessive things. You just need to really make sure the foundation is there. And I think what was really interesting for me as I was learning about this, not I would say I don't want to say alternative.

It's like not the conventional aspect of cancer, but the lifestyle and the complementary things and the integrative approach. It was so eye opening to me because I didn't know it existed. Right. My sister went through this entire journey. We didn't know anything about it. The very standard answers would come to her, you know, what can I do? What should I eat? Oh, don't worry, we've got you. You're doing everything you can. Go live your normal life. And I, as I'm sure you agree, it's a disservice to not share that there were things that people can do.

Because what I've seen so beautifully is the more people do with these factors and work the factors and learn about the integrative approach, the more motivated they come, the more hope filled they come. And that in itself can bring healing. And I love that you are kind of dancing away from alternative because I mean, essentially it is not alternative. You know, these are, I would say primary and and then you can build upon that, you know. So, so do you mind just kind of giving, you know, first just a little bit of an overview of what the ten principles are.

And then I would love to kind of dive deeper into them so we can understand them and and how to best utilize some. You got it. I created a little slide deck for you, for us to share with our our audience today. So here are the ten facts. And they are I probably didn't mention this properly. They they're our book that was, written by Doctor Turner in 2014. The, was called Radical Remission and it outlined these ten different healing factors. And then again in 2020, she created the next book, which was radical Hope and radical.

Her mission really dove into this from a cancer perspective. Radical Hope opened it up to other life changing diseases that went into remission. Things like Alzheimer's, things like Ms.. ALS, things that you just don't even know. It's an option, that it can be reversible and I would gander that you might more often hear about spontaneous remissions in cancer than you would say, Alzheimer's or ALS. And just knowing that it is possible that even if one person has done it, it could be you. So that's that's the mindset of a radical remission survivor.

So here are the ten factors that we break out into these four categories. And you'll notice only three are physical. So we do have, you know the standard things you'd think of right. Exercise diet where you come in as herbs and supplements, having that provider that can really provide you very specific guidance on your needs. We have our emotional factors, which came up again in all every interview, the importance of increasing positive emotions, releasing suppressed emotions. Our mental factors are all about mindset.

So we have our strong reasons for living our purpose. Right. Empowering yourself. And I'll dive deeply into a little more deeply into each of these to explain them, but empowering yourself. We look at this, originally in radical remission, it was called Taking Control of Your Health, and then it was renamed Empowering Yourself in Radical Hope because it gave. That was more of the term that we were looking for to showcase that empowering yourself on your healing journey and taking the the driver seat or the being the CEO of your health, is really quite healing.

And we'll talk about that a little bit more. And then increasing social support can't really deny the power of, community and connection. And then we have our two spiritual factors deepening spiritual connection and following your intuition. And I would say these two might have been maybe more surprising than the others as far as when the research was being done. Following your intuition isn't exactly, there a tangible thing. So, we can we can talk a little bit more about how that came as well. Yeah.

And then and when you look upon that, empowering yourself

Empowerment, Intuition, and Fear 12:19

and following your intuition, there's a lot of a lot of cancer patients. They feel that almost like the body's betrayed them. You know, all of they've done all these different things and they live to have, you know, in their mind, in many ways they feel like they've lived a healthy lifestyle. I mean, obviously some hasn't. But I see a lot of, you know, their yoga teacher, the vegetarian, they do all these different things. And so all of a sudden they're diagnosed with cancer and they kind of feel, well, you know, something's happening to me and that I don't feel like I have power over because I've done everything that I feel that I should.

And then so the importance of still going inside and feeling what is right for you, because there's not a blanket treatment for. That's right for everybody. And, you know, one person may choose to do some, do more of the kind of holistic type of therapies some may choose to do, mostly just conventional or some may choose to do combination. But it is so important that you follow your intuition, what feels right within you. And like you said, become CEO of your own journey, right? Yeah, and truly understand what you are choosing for your body and making sure that you educate yourself to the point of your level of comfort.

Some people will dive down the rabbit hole of research for hours and hours every night, and other people are more kind of accepting at the surface level. But there's so much information from the integrative approach, so many different kinds of practitioners and different kinds of ways to support all of these lifestyle changes, that it's really such a personal journey, and everybody really does need to look within to see what it is they need. Looking at these, these ten different elements, these healing factors.

What, what I always like to say, like what one speaks to you, the most, which one's kind of like, I don't really want to look at that one. And that's probably the one that needs to get, you know, the most attention that maybe it's not where you start. Right. And and how do you guide people through the fear? You know, because it sometimes is hard to connect with what's what's inside of you when you have this, you're dealing with a essentially a disease that can cause death and that it is one of the leading causes of death.

So how do you how do you guide them through that fear to be able to connect to that intuition within themselves and then also then empower themselves? Yeah, that's a great question. I think the way we really approach it is hope filled in a way, because we're focusing so, specifically on these ten factors and everybody has a different approach to how they want to, you know, handle, you know, embodying that in their life. So it's actually very mindful. It very much brings everyone to the present moment exactly where you are today.

Which factor do you need right now. And that could be, you know, really down. I really need to work on my, my increasing positive emotions factor because, I'm feeling like I'm in a funk. I'm just not happy. You know, maybe I'm not depressed, but I'm living with the idea that this may be the rest of my life. This chronic cancer from a chronic illness perspective. And so we'll work very concretely on today and maybe this week. What are you and that, as you know, you know, that mindfulness, that bringing things to the present moment without judgment, you know, really being curious, really does help people embody these without feeling so overwhelmed because we're really taking it one step at a time.

And we always say over and over, there's no order of importance to the factors. And everyone approached it differently. And it wasn't overnight. It wasn't like, give me this list of ten, and tomorrow I'm starting my Excel spreadsheet to check box every day. These ten things, it's, you know, oh, like, I, you know, we have healing stories that we share. You know, I failed to mention that's a big part of what we do is share stories of healing and we have a podcast, we offer a workshop. And in that, in those different modalities, we share people's healing stories and how they approached it.

And you'll hear over and over again, you know, some people were like, wow, I really I didn't even know that I didn't have a healthy diet until I realized what a healthy diet was, or I had some serious trauma from my childhood, from a divorce, from a car accident. And I never really addressed it. I just put it aside, and I really I think I'm ready to look at that. You know, so it really is different, but it's very slow and it's very, as you said, intuitive. And over and over again at the end of our podcast, every episode, we ask, people like you, we've had healers.

We have healers on. We have, you know, we call radical remission survivors on and over and over again the piece of advice that most people offer at the end, we say, what? What would you say to someone new to a healing journey and overwhelmingly it is. Take a breath. Take a moment. Be quiet. Listen to your mind, to your body, to your heart. What feels like the right thing? What's the next best thing? And it's really powerful to have received that message, especially as the host listening over and over again to these these people reiterate the same thing from all different perspectives that we all need.

We're very busy, right? As a culture, we have a lot going on. You know, we have hits constantly from our phone to our watch telling us our phone wants us. You know, we can't get away from all of the technology and just communication and life. And so slowing down is really important. Taking off the watch, putting the phone off or completely powering it down and putting it in another room and sitting and having that time of reflection. I was just talking to somebody yesterday about how, another like one really challenging thing to do anymore is to just drive in quiet, don't turn on a podcast, don't turn on the radio, don't listen to music, don't listen to news.

Just drive alone in silence and see what where your thoughts go. So there's a lot of ways that you can access it. Some people don't really enjoy meditation. It doesn't work for them in the way that they have found yet. I might challenge that, but taking a walk that doesn't have headphones or a friend and really seeing what type of thoughts come to mind and that is really where the intuition will speak its loudest, is, you know, what are the things that consistently start coming up or the messages that you're receiving?

Yeah, I mean, the greatest healers that we have is as far as our within ourselves. Yeah. So, you know, by slowing down, by being quiet, you know, that inner inner knowledge, inner intuition, inner, you know, we'll start to resurface. We'll start to bubble up. And exactly what you're saying, just being quiet allows that. Then to communicate and and the thing is that when people are diagnosed, you know, they. And I hear this again and again, also on the podcast that I do is that people always say that I wish I knew I had more time, you know, so it is they, they always because they, they feel now they're diagnosed cancer.

You got it. They got it. Rush got to do something. They're fighting against the clock. And, and the oncologist frequently. Can I use that? You know, feeling and then immediate. They cannot throw them on that, you know, throw them on all the different therapies. And, you know, I hear we got to do chemo, got a cat, we got to do radiation and all that. Not saying that those things are bad. Just saying that exactly what you are. Just take that moment. Know that you have more time. Cancer has developed over a long period of time.

It didn't just happen last week. You know it. It has been developed over a long period of time. So taking that little extra moment to just to be quiet and really feel what feels right to you, you have that ability to have that time.

Spiritual Connection and Inner Trust 20:30

Yeah. And there's so many ways to be treated and there's so many times that I hear people say, well, I just knew in my heart I wasn't someone who was going to do chemo, but I was okay with surgery or radiation, so it's not required. It is a choice and you can certainly make that choice. And until you're finished with it, you really honestly don't know what your choice would be. But what I can say is following that that intuitive hit and not living in fear, right? Obviously no one's gonna be like, hey, sign me up for chemotherapy.

That sounds great. I don't know that anybody's ever said that. So there is a fear element, right? So looking beyond the fear and saying like, do I feel do I believe that this is going to heal me? And if you believe it will heal you, then it is a path to take. Because if people resist and I just don't feel like this is the right thing, then that does that suppresses the immune system. And we want a strong, healthy immune system the whole time we are in treatment, if possible. And doing everything we can to keep that very thriving immune system alive.

And so having fear and negative thoughts about your choice around your treatment is also not going to serve you. Having that decision, making the decision and committing to it. And once you're in it, just really believing in it, whatever that is. And one of the factors, you know, along that kind of grouping is then that spiritual connection. I mean, is there what does that mean? Because obviously I have Christian, you have Muslims, you have Buddhist, you have, you know, all these different religions and philosophies and so what does spiritual connection really mean?

So from our perspective, through the eyes of the radical remission survivor, obviously everybody had different beliefs systems. And we actually really like to reframe religion as an element of spirituality. It is one way to connect spiritually, and it's a big way for a lot of people. And, you know, there have been, you know, centuries of wars around it. But it it is not that is not a spiritual connection. Spiritual connection is a feeling. They all described it as a feeling from within. It was a physical sensation.

It was a feeling in their their soul, in their spirit. And the way I like to describe it when we teach about it in a workshop, just because we're speaking to a larger group of people and you don't really know where they come from or what their history is with their, religious backgrounds. We talk about the feeling of, just using nature as an example and the all that you might feel if you were standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon looking into this massive beauty of earth that's beyond like something so much larger than ourselves, right?

Or standing at the bottom of a 100ft waterfall and the feeling, the power of that, that water booming and hitting the earth and and shaking your body with, you know, the sound, but also the grandeur of it going into the woods and being quiet and listening to the sounds like there's so many people that connect so deeply with nature that it's a really great starting point for someone who's trying to connect with spirits, with their spiritual side that they don't have, or they don't feel like they have one.

I even say sometimes it's, that feeling when you, you know, for me, you know, I had little my kids are older now, but when they were little, if I was in another room and I could just hear like a burst of giggles and my heart would just swell like, that feeling is a spiritual connection. It's it's that immense love that, that we all kind of have in this interconnected ness of our lives. Yeah. I mean, when we feel powerless sometimes because we're always at some point going to feel like we've, you know, we're powerless in this situation.

Yeah. It is so great to be able to lean on something or have something that just feels greater than yourself. You know, some power that is, is driving something and being able to connect with that. Yeah, no matter what religion an individual has. But or philosophy or spiritual feeling or connection. Yeah. Whether just kind of connecting with the tree out in the forest or like you're saying, stand in front and Grand Canyon or looking at the sky and then saying, you know, look how vast this is. And and look how amazing the organization and all these things are happening in nature.

Just, you know, just the beauty of all of that, you know, being able to connect to that and know that, you know, things are okay. Things are happening that are greater, more powerful. And seeing that intelligence, you know, that that intelligence exists within you and then be able to rely on that. Absolutely. Yeah. And it's interesting, the people who have the most, spiritual connection, I won't say faith because it doesn't have to be in, you know, in something. It could just be, you know, the universe is a very typical term source.

Where did all of that come from? So many people that have found healing. I see this consistency of being able to lean in and trust and have, a way to connect that helps them reduce their fear of death and the people that live in like a very, very fearful place, which is very natural and very expected. That's the person that I would say should really lean into this factor specifically to really help calm that fear. Obviously, it's very natural to fear death. We all will. But it will happen to everyone at some point.

So facing it, whether you're a healthy 20 year old or someone with, late stage cancer at 90 years old, we all have to face it at some point. So not, you know, culturally, we don't look at that. We don't want all that's like over here where we will deal with that later kind of thing. But if you can bring it in and if you can kind of welcome it as if this is going to happen at some point and understand more about it, learn about it, take the fear out of it as much as you can. It really is quite healing, and it brings a lot of peace with letting go of what could happen.

Yeah, what I tell my patients, frequently is that, you know, whatever your thoughts are or wherever your mind is, that's your gravity point, you know? So if you focus on the fear or you focus too much on the cancer or on death, you know, then all of a sudden your body starts to then kind of modulate itself, you know, using that as a gravity point. But if you focus on joy, know happiness, connection, then then that becomes your gravity point and then your body start to become alive. Absolutely. And, you know, thinking about that from the perspective of that one factor I mentioned, releasing suppressed emotions.

It's a big one, right? That's where people really start to dig into, big t little t traumas. Right? The, the various spectrum of things that occur over life experience. And it's really fascinating to me. One of the things that came up in the interviews, in the research was nostalgia. So you'll notice the term isn't releasing negative emotions. It's releasing suppressed emotions. So that suppression comes in many ways. It's not always negative nostalgia. I don't think of nostalgia as a negative thing.

It's, oh, remember back in the day when this happened and that was such a great time of life? But some people live there and it of course is very common from a a cancer patients perspective to wish back to before they got diagnosed. But if we can accept our present and understand

Emotions, Loneliness, and Support 28:28

that that was one point of our lives, as wonderful as it may have been. That was great. And how can we bring pieces of that to today? So we're not living there, you know, like we always say, the, the classic, you know, football, the American stereotype of like the football player who was like, you know, king of the castle and his high school, loves that stage of life where people who wish their kids were still babies because they loved the innocence stage of a, you know, a new baby or a toddler.

So wishing back to that and really pining away is the piece that we're working on releasing and thinking really clearly. Why did you love what did you love about that point in your life, and what can you do today to try to foster that in your present? Yeah, because then and the present is where you have the power of healing. You know, if you if you keep being and at that time that was in the past, you know, it doesn't mean that you can't love the past and enjoy the moments I've been in the past.

But if you're not able to stay in the present and appreciate and love the beauty in the present, then you are separating yourself. You know from the power that exists within you right now. Yeah, yeah. And it's interesting, right? The past is what we know. It's known it's done, we can't change it. And a lot of people are fearful of the future. What if what if, what happens? What about the next scan? What about if I have no more drug options like this? The constant what if thing is the unknown and all we have is today, right?

The present moment that we have now? And how can we capture being okay here and so many people? Very a very radical, remission minded perspective is being in that present moment. And what were I wouldn't I don't want to say gifts. It doesn't feel like the right, the right term, but like, what are the lessons that we can take from the journey? All of it. Life and the cancer journey. What are the lessons and what are the gifts that we can pull from that? The gratitudes that we can pull and it is so clear over and over again.

So many people say, I am such a happier place in my life now than I was before I got diagnosed. And while they had a perception of health there, they may be even more healthy now. And we always like to. I think it was Lissa Rankin that quote, this quote came from where we can either be healed or we can be cured, or we can be both. And I'm paraphrasing here, but, you know, looking for a physical healing or a cure from a disease is not the same as spiritually healing or feeling cured of, you know, a life that we dragged along with us right?

Yeah. And and like you're saying, I mean, many, many patients that feel that their cancer diagnosis was the greatest blessing because they had to really then look hard at their life and, and really kind of modulate or kind of create a life that brings joy, that brings peace instead of just living. And, you know, whatever it is going on right now that you have made the cancer communicate, saying that there's something that needs to be fixed, right? Yeah. And the people that do that work, the people that really take that time to look and follow these factors and really look within are the ones that can find the gift and or the blessing or, you know, the knowledge, the education and realizing how much more connected they are with themselves, who they are, their emotional state, their physical state, their spiritual state, all of it.

And I know I'm leaning in our conversation quite a bit on on the emotional factors, because I feel that that is something that a lot of people kind of brush off and, and don't focus on because they feel cancer is such a physical disease. And obviously it is something that's happening physically to you. And in you, but then to recognize the importance of these emotional, spiritual factors, you know, to me is so important. So one of the other factors that you, that's on that kind of emotional side is, is your connection with with people, connection with community, you know, having that support around you.

And I know there studies out there showing that, you know, the emotion of loneliness is more dangerous. And that's and smoking, you know, and it kills more people than smoking. Yeah. So, it, you know, having that connection and being, being part of a community is, is so, so, you know, important for our health because we are essentially almost like a pack animal. I mean, we we are meant to be with any community. Absolutely. Yeah. This factor, the research is so compelling. And we actually have a research study that we refer to that says that having, strong social support is more beneficial to your health than not smoking, not drinking, not having a healthy diet, not exercising combined.

So they have researched that even if you do all of those things, if you have a strong social support system, you're going to have a higher quality of life. And that to me is so powerful. And I also think about, you know, there's every person on this earth at some point has felt lonely, or maybe they felt left out of a friend group or, you know, even if it's when you're 10 or 12 and you're in middle school and, you know, at that stage of life where everybody's trying to learn where they fit, it's it's such a feeling everyone can identify with on some level.

And if you think about that feeling and then you think about when you do feel accepted and you do feel the love from your family, your friends, you feel respected, you see, are seen by your loved ones as who you really are authentically. That's so powerful. It definitely counteracts that more lonely, alone stage. And I think that's just if we can tap into just even what those feelings feel like. Back to the emotional piece. It just showcases how important that strong social support is. And, you know, it's not always easy.

And I tell people, you know, a lot of people lose friends after they have a diagnosis, their friends that they really thought were showing up for them or would show up for them in a situation. When the situation shows up, the friends don't because they're they have their own fear around what cancer means. They have their own fear about what that could bring and the loss of their friend. So there's a lot that goes on with that social support piece and the the development, the beauty when they do show up and the sadness when they leave.

And some people find themselves with a skeleton crew of what they used to have. And I always say, you know, you need to think about your healers are part of your social support team, right? You know, when you connect well with your healer, you know, I'm sure you're, you know, your patient dynamic is very different than someone that's going into a sterile hospital and getting eight minutes with their oncologist. So it's it's your part of that. You, Doctor Carr felt, are part of that social support system in a way that, you know, we're hearing very deep aspects of these people's lives.

They're sharing their fear and their joys and their highs and lows with us. And that's part of it. It doesn't have to be that you have a dinner party of 30 people that all think you're the greatest thing. You know. So it really looks very different for everyone. And if the people are feeling that loneliness, the best thing you can do is say something to someone and let it out. Because the longer it's in your mind and it festers and it grows on its own, it can create its own animal. But if you say it, it takes the power away a little bit.

And because that's sometimes, I mean, some people are just natural and being able to, to have that community around them. But then there are other peoples where this is quite challenging. You know, they're introvert. They they have, you know, they just they kind of go into themselves, you know. So and you mentioned, you know, say something, you know, to give other people the opportunity to be able to step up, but obviously not feel like if they don't then to, you know, feel like they're bad people, but just kind of giving, giving the opportunity for people around you, you know, without the fear of rejection.

Are there other pearls of wisdom that you could, kind of bring forth that you've seen been really, really helpful for people in a situation where they feel very isolated and alone? Absolutely. You know, it's interesting is that we talk about, two elements of this factor, right?

Purpose, Hope, and Taking Action 37:18

As humans, we're really either good at giving help and guidance and support or receiving help, guidance and support and culturally we are, you know, we're told to be independent. We're told to be self-sufficient. We really, you know, provide a lot of accolades for people who have that. But ultimately, we are challenged as a culture with receiving. And when you are under, you know, in cancer treatment and you're living with a big diagnosis like this, it's time to ask. And if that means that you need to ask a neighbor that you've never met, if they could give you a ride, or if they could bring you your trash cans or something.

When you do that, when you allow someone in, then it fosters a sense of, the ability to know them a little bit. You know, you're not just going to get in a car and drive to an appointment and not speak. You're going to be like, oh, how is your day? What are you doing? Oh, you're going on this vacation. Oh, you have kids. Oh, you don't have kids. You have, you know, you learn about people and that's just little tiny, nuggets that can come from opening the opportunity. And we always like to repeat that when you give and how good it feels when you're able to support someone that you really love and you want to be there for them and they let you, it is such an amazing feeling.

And that really taps into that spiritual connection too. But when we don't ask and we say, oh no, am I right? It shuts the door. But if even if you don't need someone to make you a meal, if they want to say yes because it allows them in, and that feeling that you are gifting them, they deserve that too, right? They're people we love. They deserve to feel that, ability to support us. And I think that's a nice way to start thinking if you're really alone and you're isolated and kind of it doesn't matter how many people you have in your circle, it matters how many people you feel supported by.

And if you only need one, that's okay. Sometimes we even say, you know, your pet could be all you have, right? If people live really remotely and they don't have a neighbor or they don't have friends accessible, but they really love their pets like they have, you know, a dog or even a plant that they get up and they take care of it and they see it grow and they, you know, they that that's also kind of tapping into that purpose. We can touch base on that a little bit too. But utilizing pets for that love, can also be a really powerful way to, just feel that unconditional love because they're, they're just kind of always going to be a little bit like a baby.

Yeah. And and the I mean, it's it's so important the point you're making in regards to allowing people then to, to, to give to you kind of opening yourself up because we know, studies are showing that a cancer personality type, a lot of times are the ones that are always giving, always doing. And, you know, when you're always in that giving doing, you're not receiving that much, you know, and not opening allowing other people to have that opportunity give to you. So it is so doesn't mean that you shouldn't be carrying, shouldn't be loving.

But just kind of allowing people to return the favor. Yeah. Yes. And I'm sure that everyone offers a lot more support than they're willing to take. So I just I welcome everyone to say yes, I love and you. Yeah. Purpose. You know, I, I'm obviously we can go into diet. We can go and and exercise and herbs and you know and that's why you know this your program exist out there so that people can really dig into these different factors and get to know them a little bit more. And, and I know you have know coaching programs, obviously the book, you know, Radical Remission and the follow up book.

Yeah. That that exists that as resources for people. I want to dig in deeper. But, you know, let's talk about purpose because that that seems to be also one of those really, important factors, because if people don't have something that drive them towards something or have a reason for existing, then it's almost like the body then gets a programing saying that, well, if I don't have a purpose, I don't have a reason, then why should I? You know, support this healing or fight this ugly, you know, battle that I'm dealing with right now, right?

Right. There's no hope in that. And Doctor Turner initially really described this well as kind of the opposite of depression, because depression, you have no will to live. And with purpose there is a will to live. There's a reason, and it doesn't mean that that's going to be the necessarily the thing that heals you completely. But having it is part of this kind of greater shell of all of these different things, all these components that come together. Purpose is an extremely powerful tool to help people stay in the present and stay focused on what they can control and what they do want to do.

And it looks so different. It could be that, you know, some people have a job and they feel really connected to that being their purpose. Some people find parenting to be their purpose, you know, being here for their kids and watching their milestones. But not everybody has kids, right? And cancer is affecting people younger and younger. So how can we keep fostering purpose even to, you know, the young 20 something as their, you know, their purpose that we need to have what I always call the North Star, right.

What is your North Star? And some people, it's, you know, finishing a scrapbook or, or diving into their painting or prayer, you know, there's there's something that gets everybody motivated in their own way, and it's just tapping into what that is. And we obviously have some tools when we do the the workshop and the coaching around how to help people find that. But most often it's, you know, who do you want in your life? Where do you want to live? What kinds of places do you want to travel? And, you know, what do you want to be doing when you're there?

And when you look at those three elements and really hone in on what that means to you, you can create a plan. And maybe it feels scary to plan a trip. It maybe feels scary to plan a trip that requires a long flight. But if you plan it, it gives you, you know, the joy of planning it sometimes is as fun as the trip itself. But, you know, just just saying that the possibility is there, being open to the idea will allow you to think about the trip, or maybe look at pictures of the place you want to go.

And all of that is positive. So it's the little tiny baby steps we take toward that goal or that purpose. That is the day to day part. Yeah. And I had a patient recently and they they got this beautiful spa beach spa to vacation spot that was really hard to get. And they were so excited. And yeah, and the patient just wanted to be well enough, you know, to to feel vital enough to be able to go on that, that trip and be on that beach and experience that moment. You know, that that that was the goal and that was the driver.

And so it doesn't have to be this grandiose, you know, that I'm going to, you know, cure the world of this or, you know, make this, you know, phenomenal invention. It can just be like you're saying, as simple as that. Yeah, absolutely. And I think what I just heard you say, which I think is really important, is you need to tell someone. You need to tell your practitioner, I want to go to Japan, and how can I do that? And I know, you know, I know I'm in treatment. I know I have low white blood cells, I know I have this, I want to go there.

How can we make it happen and let them in again? Part of that connection, part of that purpose, part of that empowerment masking and just letting someone know that that's part of it, that's really important. I never really thought about it that way, but I think saying it out loud helps. It helps kind of, you know, manifest if that's your thing. Yeah. It's a certain I mean, the words have power.

Programs, Resources, and Community 45:48

And when we communicate it, it's like positive, you know, past positive affirmations. Yeah. They do have a power and they shift energy. And sometimes even if we, you know, don't don't feel it. And we can think it by saying it, we're starting to then reprograming ourselves and then our body starts to then kind of move in that direction. Exactly. Yeah. Well, yeah, we, we obviously we can talk for days about all these different things. Yeah, I love it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So where, where do people start?

I mean, how did they find you and and what can they expect? You know, by, by being part of the radical remission community. Yeah. You know, one thing I didn't mention, which I think deserves, saying out loud is, so Doctor Turner created a workshop back in the day. She wrote the book Radical Remission. It talks about the factors in the book, and since then has evolved to a workshop that people can take. And what we do is we look at each factor. We spend about an hour on a factor each. Sometimes it's a weekend workshop, sometimes it's virtually, you know, over the course of ten hours.

But we look at each factor and we look at Doctor Turner's research, we look at supporting scientific evidence that that is in medical journals, that supports it. We talk about a healing story from someone, from her research or our coach community that has used this factor really powerfully in their healing. And then we do an activity around how do we get this into your own life. So that workshop caught the eye of researchers at Harvard years ago. And it started, a process where they actually researched our workshop.

And it took a while. But here we are in five ish years later, maybe more. This past year it got published in a medical journal, and what it showed was people who took the workshop. They were interviewed before, they took it after they took it one month after and six months after. And what they showed, the research after being analyzed showed was that quality of life improved at, I think 7.7% after one month, but then at six month mark, it was almost 11%. So again, it's not like this. It's not a, you know, immediately overnight healing.

It's a very slow, gradual pace. But if you think about the fact that and the researchers said they were surprised at six months that it was still going up, they weren't sure. Because, you know, it's a workshop. People do stuff like this all the time. And do they take away from it? And the fact that at that six month mark, we're still going in that long term positive growth is so incredibly powerful, so I love that we can share that about this workshop at workshops like it that have these, you know, lifestyle interventions are so important.

So that's one way to to connect with radical remission. We have our podcast, The Stories That Heal podcast that, you are on. We encourage everyone to to check out the episode of Doctor Carl, tell and again and they are we talk to people who are radical remission survivors and people who have healed five or more of their own radical remission, cases in their work. And then recently, that just this summer we have a new e-book that's come out. So if you join our mailing list, you can get this free e-book to, be delivered right into your inbox.

And it shows you two tips on each factor. So there's ways to embody this into your life. If you're kind of an e-book person and you like that, we invite you to sign up for the mailing list to get that. And then we also just started a Thriver membership. So we do have a community where if you're not ready to dip into the whole workshop or you've taken something like that and you just want that consistent, connection with people that are like minded and radical remission minded people, I would say forward thinking, inspired Thrivers, describes them.

And we do five classes a month, and those classes are more, I would say, around the emotional, spiritual and mental factors. So it gives people that opportunity to connect in a very positive way. It's not a support group. It's it's just connection community. There's a little education in there, opportunities to connect with our coaches. And then again, beyond that, we do have one on one coaching and on our website radical remission.com. Anybody can go there and check out our events. They can check out our coaching.

They can check out this new membership. They can sign up for the newsletter and get the e-book. So radical remission.com is probably the the hot spot where I could I kind of leave everybody. And if they're social media fans, they can find us at Radical Remission on Facebook and Instagram. Yeah. So there's lots of ways to plug in. Yeah. Depending on the individual's comfort level. And yes, to kind of reinforce the, the Harvard study. Yeah. That it keeps going up. I mean, these principles that ten principles, these are not like you you'll learn in one day and now you've learned them.

It is a forever journey, right? Yeah. A refinement of of each principle. And so it, it it becomes a, a lifelong study almost to, to perfect. You can never to move in the direction of perfection of these principles. And they and each thing that you are then implementing obviously take you that much closer to well-being and health. Yeah. So just celebrating that in each thing that you're incorporating when you're incorporating it. And so, that that's what I love about your program, so. Well, les, it's always such a pleasure.

Thank you so much for what you're doing and for what's being offered. And and I know you're you're one of the co-directors of of radical remission. So this is something that is there to your heart and, you're helping so many people. Thank you so much. Yeah. Thanks so much for having me. And I very much appreciate being part of the summit. Thank you.