Avatar and Medicine

By Deborah Lindquist, MD

I am a Medical Oncologist and Hematologist, which means I take care of patients with cancer and leukemia. I have been caring for these patients since 1980. Prior to taking The Avatar Course in 1993, I felt so badly for my patients that the sadness carried over into my home life. This made things difficult for my relationship and made me less available for my baby son. In Avatar, I learned the simple tools to decrease my thinking, thinking, thinking, which had caused so much grief in my life. What meditation couldn’t do for me in years, Avatar did in 9 days. And still does.

The most important shift in me was absolute appreciation of everyone for whom I care. This is the biggest gift of my life. It has taken away my joining in my patients’ suffering and replaced it with a wonderful sense of helping and of gratitude for being in their presence. Whatever each of us faces, we have the strength to overcome it. Not everyone is cured of their disease, but everyone benefits. They no longer feel alone. They know we are a team and each is empowered to make the best choices for him or herself. I am able to be the teacher about their choices and the cheerleader. Together we find hope, the balm for all pain. And the most amazing part of all is that I go home with more peace and calm than I started with.

When I see a patient, new or follow-up, the first thing I do is connect with them. This allows me to better feel what they are going through and what the first issues to be addressed are.

I also listen differently using the Avatar tools. I hear the words the patients say, but I also feel what the words mean to them. This guides me to ask other questions about their disease and their lives. I didn’t learn this in medical school or in the 13 years of medical practice prior to my Avatar course. I learned it with the Avatar tools. This approach opens new pathways to health which are specific to each patient and forms a bond between the patient and myself, as the caregiver. Family members are also included in this feeling circle. My job has become a delight in my life.

My journey with Avatar started in 1993 after a good friend of mine, who is also a medical doctor, took the course. Almost instantaneously, she created jobs for herself and her husband with no night call. She is now doing a job tailor- made to her wishes, which she loves. When I visited her shortly after she took Avatar, at her home in the mountains with the tall Ponderosa pine and the cool breeze, I said “I wish I could live in Flagstaff.” And she said, “Why can’t you?” She then told me about the course she had taken which allowed her to deliberately choose what she wanted in life. She had a bit of difficulty explaining the course, but I knew her and trusted her.

I saw what a huge difference it had made in her life. That was enough for me. I called her master and started finding out about the course. I started talking with the hospital, the other oncologist in Flagstaff, and a realtor.

I took The Avatar Course a few weeks later, and became very clear about my goals. On the last day of the course, I stopped off at my office on the way home. On the fax machine was a signed contract from the hospital, exactly as I had requested. I faxed it to the mortgage company immediately, and they approved my loan. The seller of the house accepted the offer, and the appraiser actually made the price come down, since she said the offer couldn’t include the Jacuzzi and the woodstove. So I actually got those free! Six weeks later, we moved to the house that was three blocks from that of my friend, the one I had loved the first time I saw it. And my husband got the job he wanted, too, as a paramedic.

So I have been using the Avatar tools in my life and my work ever since.

One of the tools I love from ReSurfacing is called “This and That.” I used this for my own healing when I had my hip replaced three years ago. After the surgery, I was having complications: the wound dehisced (came apart), there was drainage suggesting possible infection, and the surgeon on call was considering taking me back to the operating room. Then I realized I was thinking of my hip as “that hip,” i.e., not mine. All I did was shift my perspective to thinking of it as “this hip,” the only one I am ever going to have, and the complications resolved. I healed well, and am back to skiing, and step classes.

God bless you, Harry, for bringing this to our world. And many thanks and angel thoughts to all those I continue to play/work with as I teach Avatar, and practice medicine.

Deborah Lindquist, Sedona, AZ

 

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