I began by explaining that the purpose is to help people relax about the one human experience everyone must eventually face. Greg introduces his work as a psychiatrist, professor, residency training director, and practising clinician. Alongside that professional background, he describes more than forty years of meditation and an interest in the Monroe Institute and the Institute of Noetic Sciences. His first experience of Transcendental Meditation came during college, when he discovered that regular practice helped him remain calm during examinations. That gave him an early understanding that we can change how we experience events rather than simply be pushed around by them.

I shared a youthful interest in Zen Buddhism, judo, and Japanese poetry, including the poetry competition that won me a trip around the world. These recollections establish the conversation as an exchange between two longtime explorers of consciousness.

The first substantial theme is whether the brain produces consciousness or receives it. Greg describes the conventional biological position: consciousness arises from brain activity and ends when that activity ceases. We both favor a broader view, in which consciousness exists beyond the brain and the brain acts as an interface or receiver. I brought up accounts of people functioning despite extensive loss of brain tissue and Karl Lashley’s attempts to locate memory in the brain (but it was not). Greg discusses models that treat consciousness as a fundamental feature of reality.

This leads into out-of-body experiences and remote viewing. I describe the experience of perceiving your body from elsewhere and ask whether consciousness might deliberately relocate its sense of presence. Greg connects this with remote viewing and discusses research associated with Dean Radin at the Institute of Noetic Sciences in California. I make a point of distinguishing between obtaining information about a distant place and feeling fully present there. Throughout this section, we both see experiences beyond ordinary bodily perception as reasons to reconsider the idea that death necessarily means the disappearance of awareness.

The conversation then returns directly to dying and bereavement. I point out that those left behind can endure years of grief and distress, and perhaps deserve as much consideration as the dying person. Greg agrees, then discusses the transformation often described by people who have had near-death experiences: a profound reduction in fear, a sense of peace, and a changed understanding of life and death.

I highlighted NDE descriptions of overwhelming, unconditional, nonjudgmental love. Greg emphasizes accounts in which people report observing medical procedures from above their bodies and recalling details they apparently could not have seen from their physical position. We both interpret these accounts as support for consciousness extending beyond the body, and as potentially reassuring to people frightened of dying.

Watch the video conversation here.

Another theme is the changing relationship between consciousness, language, and the brain near death. I asked about confused or seemingly nonsensical speech which sometimes happens, alongside the striking phenomenon of sudden lucidity shortly before death. Greg suggests that these might reflect changes in how the brain accesses a wider field of consciousness. I propose that learned language depends closely on the brain, it’s a reenforced learning pattern rather than a natural gift and that speech may falter as a person’s connection with the physical body loosens.

Greg adds a thoughtful observation: language allows us to share experience, but also compresses experience into what words can contain. A deeply mystical experience may be far larger than its verbal description. I connected this with the Zen image of a finger pointing at the moon—the pointer directs attention, but cannot substitute for the experience itself.

The discussion takes a substantial detour into hearing voices and psychiatric interpretation. I questioned whether automatically dismissing a person’s experience as pathological can increase their distress. Greg introduces a Jungian account that emphasizes engaging with the person’s experienced reality. He also explores an alternative model in which some experiences might involve difficulty filtering a broader field of consciousness. I connected this with channeling and the distress of being unable to switch an enforced “connection experience” off.

This part of the conversation was exploratory: we discussed spiritual interpretations of voice-hearing, creativity, and psychological overwhelm, while criticizing psychiatry’s tendency to reduce human experience to neurotransmitters. When I mentioned a Dutch approach to engaging with voices, by talking with them as real, Greg explicitly says he has not seen the particular studies.

Reincarnation becomes the next possible source of comfort. Greg discusses Ian Stevenson’s investigations of children reporting previous lives and considers two interpretations: actual reincarnation, or access to universal information through nonlocal consciousness. He leans toward reincarnation, while acknowledging that the discussion does not establish how to distinguish between those possibilities. For our shared purpose, either interpretation suggests that human identity may extend beyond the present body.

Toward the end, I confronted Greg and asked what people can actually do. Greg’s starting recommendation is regular meditation. He describes the value of recognizing that we have bodies, thoughts, and emotions without necessarily being reducible to any of them. He also mentions Monroe Institute practices, holotropic breathwork, psychedelic experiences, and past-life regression as approaches people use to explore expanded awareness.

For further reading, he names Ian Stevenson, Dean Radin, and Stanislav Grof, and discusses the ancient Eleusinian mysteries in relation to overcoming fear of death.

Greg closes by emphasizing the difference between intellectual understanding and personal experience. Reading can open a door, but an experience that changes one’s own sense of identity can bring a deeper reassurance. The conversation ends affectionately, with our shared hope that exploring consciousness will help people approach death with greater peace, curiosity, and confidence.

That link again.

I hope you enjoy this new approach to a newsletter [not necessarily adopting it for the future]. Please let me know your thoughts,

Prof. Keith Scott-Mumby
The Official Alternative Doctor

Health is not created by eliminating every difficulty from life. The body is not a porcelain ornament that survives best when nothing disturbs it. It is an adaptive organism, designed to be challenged, to respond, to repair and—within limits—to return stronger.

This is the essence of hormesis: a stressor that is harmful in a large or prolonged dose can stimulate beneficial adaptation when delivered in a small, controlled, intermittent dose. The response is commonly represented by a J-shaped or inverted U-shaped curve. Too little challenge leads to stagnation; an appropriate amount encourages adaptation; too much causes injury.

The stressor is not necessarily “good” in itself. What is beneficial is the organism’s resistance response to it.

Exercise provides the clearest example. A hard walk or session with weights temporarily disturbs the body. Muscle fibers experience microscopic damage; ATP demand rises; reactive oxygen species increase; calcium balance changes; inflammatory signals are released. Yet those disturbances activate repair, mitochondrial biogenesis, antioxidant defenses, glucose transport, protein synthesis and tissue remodeling. Provided there is sufficient recovery, the person becomes better equipped to withstand the next challenge.

The exercise did not make the body stronger during the stressful part. The body became stronger while recovering from it.

This gives us the basic formula:

Challenge + adequate recovery = adaptation.
Challenge without recovery = breakdown.
Recovery without challenge = gradual decline.

So, What Is Hormesis?

I first wrote about this little-known effect in 1999 in my book VIRTUAL MEDICINE, which is now expanded and published as MEDICINE BEYOND.

Hormesis (from Greek hórm?sis, “rapid motion, eagerness,” from ancient Greek hormáein “to set in motion, impel, urge on”) is the term for generally favorable biological responses to very low-level exposures to toxins and other stressors. It’s a biological version of the old saw: That which does not kill me makes me stronger. See graph:

Increasing doses stimulate at first and then steadily suppress (inhibit)

Paracelsus was there first, working with micro-doses of noxious agents and obtaining significant therapeutic results.

One of the valuable areas where the concept of hormesis has been explored extensively with respect to its applicability is aging. Since the basic survival capacity of any biological system depends on its homeodynamic (homeostatic) ability, biogerontologists proposed that exposing cells and organisms to mild stress should result in the adaptive or hormetic response with various biological benefits. This idea has now gathered a large body of supportive evidence showing that repetitive mild stress exposure has anti-aging effects12.

In 1998, Edward J. Calabrese and Linda A. Baldwin at the Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Massachusetts, published a survey of publications, judging their worth and validity, and found over 4,000 relevant research papers. Their analysis suggests that hormesis is a reproducible and relatively common biological phenomenon, pertinent to many living species and a wide variety of tissue insults, including radiation, temperature extremes, and chemical toxins.

Strychnine And The Old-Fashioned Tonic

An example would be strychnine, a deadly poison, which was once used medicinally in minute doses as a stimulant and included in various “tonics.” It even appeared in early athletic performance experiments. Thomas Hicks, winner of the notorious 1904 Olympic marathon, was given strychnine and brandy during the race—a performance-enhancement program that makes modern sports nutrition look positively timid.

Strychnine blocks glycine receptors, particularly in the spinal cord and brainstem. Glycine normally restrains motor-neuron activity. Remove that inhibition and the nervous system becomes violently excitable, producing muscle spasms, convulsions, respiratory failure and potentially death. The difference between an apparently stimulating dose and a dangerous one is far too narrow to make strychnine a sensible modern hormetic. It is a fine historical illustration of dose-dependent effects, but a dreadful lifestyle recommendation. 

Hormesis does not give us license to consume tiny quantities of every poison. Some agents cause cumulative damage, mutations or cancer without any established beneficial range. There is no sound reason to seek hormesis from lead, mercury, asbestos, tobacco smoke or ionizing radiation. We already possess much safer ways of activating our cellular defence systems.

Why Stress Can Strengthen Us

Mild stress activates a network of ancient survival mechanisms. These include heat-shock proteins, antioxidant enzymes, DNA-repair systems, autophagy, mitochondrial renewal, immune surveillance and metabolic switching.

Autophagy is cellular housekeeping: damaged proteins and worn-out components are identified, dismantled and recycled. Exercise and temporary food deprivation can stimulate this process, although human autophagy is difficult to measure directly and extravagant claims about the exact hour when it “switches on” should be treated cautiously.

Another response is mitochondrial biogenesis—the production and improvement of the cellular machinery that generates energy. Cells exposed to manageable energy demands receive a message: We need more capacity. Muscle responds similarly to resistance. Bones respond to loading by retaining or building structure. The cardiovascular system responds to increased demand by improving delivery.

This is not confined to the body. The nervous system also needs appropriate challenge. Learning, novelty, coordination, social engagement and solving difficult problems encourage the brain to maintain its networks. A life in which nothing surprises, stretches or occasionally frustrates us may be psychologically comfortable but biologically impoverished.

The significant word is intermittent. A brief stress followed by safety and restoration can be strengthening. Continuous stress is something else. Chronic anxiety, sleep deprivation, loneliness, overwork, unremitting inflammation and relentless strenuous exercise do not reliably produce hormesis. They produce allostatic overload—the cost of having the emergency machinery switched on for too long.

The body needs punctuation. Stress is the exclamation mark; recovery is the full stop.

The Most Useful Hormetic Stressor: Muscular Work

Resistance training is probably the most valuable controlled stressor for an older adult. Muscles need to be given a reason to remain. If they are never required to push, pull, carry, rise, grip or stabilize, the body quite economically dismantles what it considers unnecessary tissue.

The exercise must be challenging enough that the final repetitions require genuine effort, while remaining technically safe. That might mean weights, resistance bands, machines, sit-to-stands, wall push-ups, stair climbing or carrying groceries. The ideal method is the one that can be progressively increased without provoking injury.

Large systematic reviews of trials in older adults show that resistance training improves strength, function and, to varying degrees, muscle mass. Even very elderly people can improve. 

Brief bursts of vigorous activity can add another useful challenge. These have acquired the rather charming name exercise snacks: perhaps 30–60 seconds of brisk stair climbing, fast walking uphill or rapid cycling, repeated a few times during the day. Observational evidence associates small amounts of vigorous intermittent lifestyle activity with lower cardiovascular and overall mortality, although association does not prove that the brief bursts alone caused the benefit. 

For an 81-year-old, “vigorous” should be defined personally. It means sufficiently demanding to produce heavier breathing, not an invitation to discover whether the paramedics are having a quiet afternoon. Anyone with unstable cardiovascular symptoms, unexplained breathlessness, fainting, serious arrhythmia or uncontrolled blood pressure should be assessed before experimenting with vigorous exertion.

Heat: An Ancient Stress Signal

Heat exposure is another plausible hormetic practice. Sauna temporarily raises skin and core temperature, increases heart rate and redistributes blood flow. Cells respond by increasing heat-shock proteins, which help stabilize and repair other proteins. Repeated exposure may also improve vascular function and heat tolerance.

Finnish observational studies have found that more frequent sauna use is associated with lower cardiovascular and all-cause mortality, and possibly lower dementia risk. These are impressive associations, but they do not prove that sauna alone caused the benefits. Sauna users may differ in exercise, income, social connection, diet and general health. Reviews nevertheless conclude that Finnish sauna bathing has one of the more substantial bodies of evidence among passive heat practices. 

A practical approach might be 10–20 minutes at a tolerable temperature, perhaps two or three times weekly, leaving immediately if dizziness, nausea, chest discomfort or unusual weakness develops. Hydration matters. Alcohol and sauna are an especially foolish partnership because of hypotension and arrhythmia risk. People with unstable heart disease, severe aortic stenosis, recurrent fainting or poorly controlled blood pressure need individual medical advice.

A hot bath may provide a gentler alternative. It does not reproduce every feature of sauna, but it can supply a modest thermal challenge and may benefit vascular function. Passive heat is especially interesting for people whose mobility limits vigorous exercise, although it should complement movement rather than replace it.

Cold can be a stressor too, however, the evidence is far less triumphant than the evangelists imply. One does not need to sit heroically in a dustbin full of ice! 

Finishing a normal shower with 20–30 seconds of cool water, gradually extended if enjoyable and well tolerated, can provide a mild challenge. Cold-water swimming should never be undertaken alone, and sudden immersion is particularly unsuitable for someone with significant heart disease, arrhythmia, uncontrolled hypertension or a history of fainting.

Cold immediately after resistance training may actually be counterproductive when muscle growth is the goal, because suppressing the acute inflammatory and signaling response may reduce part of the adaptation. 

Temporary Hunger Rather Than Constant Grazing

Food scarcity was intermittent throughout human evolution. Constant access to calories is comparatively new. Allowing a daily period without food may encourage metabolic flexibility—the ability to move between glucose and fat metabolism—and may improve insulin sensitivity or assist weight control in some people.

A moderate overnight fast of roughly 12 hours is a reasonable starting point: finish dinner at 7:30 p.m. and eat breakfast at 7:30 a.m. Some people may extend this to 13 or 14 hours, preferably by avoiding late-night food rather than sacrificing breakfast and then devouring the kitchen at noon.

Time-restricted eating studies show modest improvements in weight and some metabolic markers, but it is not magic and is not invariably superior to ordinary calorie control. In older adults, the chief concern is protecting muscle. Adequate total protein, resistance training and sufficiently substantial meals are more important than achieving an impressive fasting window. Trials suggest that time-restricted eating can preserve lean tissue when combined with resistance training and adequate nutrition, but frail or underweight people should not treat fasting as a longevity competition. 

People taking insulin or sulfonylureas, those with a history of eating disorders, pregnant women, and frail or undernourished individuals need particular caution.

A Hormetic Lifestyle

An excellent week might include two or three strength sessions, several brisk walks, one or two brief vigorous intervals where medically appropriate, and regular balance work. Add sauna or a hot bath a few times weekly, an occasional cool shower, and a consistent overnight period without eating. Include novelty: take a different route, learn something difficult, talk to someone outside your usual circle, lift something moderately heavy, spend time outdoors in imperfect weather.

Then recover deliberately. Eat adequate protein and nourishing food. Sleep deeply. Alternate demanding days with easier ones. Maintain companionship, pleasure and periods of genuine calm.

The goal is not to collect stressors as if competing in the Hormetic Olympics. Heat, cold, fasting and hard exercise all draw upon overlapping recovery resources. Combining a long fast, exhausting workout, ice bath and sauna in one heroic morning may create more strain than adaptation.

A useful stressor should meet three conditions: it is brief enough to end, strong enough to provoke adaptation and followed by enough recovery to rebuild. If sleep deteriorates, resting heart rate remains elevated, performance declines, mood becomes brittle or fatigue persists, the dose has probably crossed from hormesis into harm.

Optimum health is not permanent ease. Neither is it perpetual struggle. The body does not want to be abused. But neither does it want to be treated as an invalid. Your body wants to have fun and putting it under mild pressure does that very effectively!

A little adversity tells the organism to renew itself. Too much adversity damages it. No adversity gives it permission to retire.

Prof. Keith Scott-Mumby
The Official Alternative Doctor

References

Keith Scott-Mumby MEDICINE BEYOND, Mother Whale, Las Vegas, Nevada, 2015, p. 161

Mattson, Mark P. “Hormesis Defined.” Ageing Research Reviews. 2008;7(1):1–7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arr.2007.08.007. 

Radak, Zsolt; Chung, Hae Young; Koltai, Erika; Taylor, Albert W.; Goto, Sataro. “Exercise, Oxidative Stress and Hormesis.” Ageing Research Reviews. 2008;7(1):34–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arr.2007.04.004. 

Laukkanen, Jari A.; Laukkanen, Tanjaniina; Kunutsor, Setor K. “Cardiovascular and Other Health Benefits of Sauna Bathing: A Review of the Evidence.” Mayo Clinic Proceedings. 2018;93(8):1111–1121. 

Cain, Tara; Watters, David; Chalmers, Sarah; et al. “Effects of Cold-Water Immersion on Health and Wellbeing: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.” PLOS ONE. 2025. 

Borde, Ron; Hortobágyi, Tibor; Granacher, Urs. “Dose–Response Relationships of Resistance Training in Healthy Old Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.” Sports Medicine. 2015;45(12):1693–1720. 

Stamatakis, Emmanuel; Ahmadi, Matthew N.; Gill, Jason M. R.; et al. “Association of Wearable Device-Measured Vigorous Intermittent Lifestyle Physical Activity With Mortality.” Nature Medicine. 2022;28(12):2521–2529. 

I’ve said this often in my writings: that purpose (meaning) in life and belonging (social connection) are worth decades of extra living. In the reverse, if your life has no purpose or meaning, it’s not (or hardly) worth living anyway and people lacking these attributes do tend to die measurably sooner.

Now I don’t mean extension of life while troubled by sickness and disabilities. I’m talking about joyful, vibrant and zestful living, in vigorous full health, or close to full health.

That’s a standard not even acknowledged by modern industrial-scale medicine. Their self-serving definition of “health” is free of some symptom or other. What’s great for them is that you get tricked into accepting a symptom solution. But it never solves the cause, only masks the symptom. It’s a perfect business model for them because you go on paying for that masking effect for the rest of your life.

Now I’m very serious about this. Let’s take purpose first. Your purpose defines the meaning in your life; the WHY you are here and what it is you want to accomplish. Maybe you’ve never thought about this much but as the years lengthen, you need to focus more and more on what it is you should be doing.

The scientific facts are irrefutable: a recent (July 2026) huge meta-analytic study of nearly half a million subjects from the United States, Europe, and Asia, over a period of 32 years follow-up, showed those with a strong sense of purpose had around a 30% less mortality, that is death due to all causes.

[[Psychological Medicine , Volume 56 , 2026 , e214]

Now if that isn’t a new scripture, I don’t know what is! Forget obedience and reverence for the Old God; that’s not worth a nickel in terms of longevity and health. For real meaning, it comes down to your own values; not some clunky interpretations of how you are supposed to live by priests and gatekeepers, heavily enforced by threats of Hell and damnation.

So breathe easy!

My New God, as described in my bestselling book New God New World, blesses you with extra years of health and vitality, if you get it right. Much better than punishment for getting it wrong!

There is already substantial literature that links purpose in life to healthier behaviors and better health outcomes. Individuals higher in purpose in life, for example, tend to engage in more physical activity, are less likely to smoke or use other substances, and more likely to get preventative cancer screenings. Perhaps as a result, such individuals are also less likely to have chronic disease, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, or dementia.

In a nutshell, individuals higher in purpose in life have longer health spans and lower risk of mortality. These days we like to keep these two measures as close as possible. Lifespan is how you long you live but “healthspan” is how many of those years are useful and disease-free!

My saying that: we Boomers want to party till our last day on earth sums it all up in a memorable trope. 100% healthspan!

So what about belonging? In fact what do we mean by “belonging”? It’s that sense of being surrounded by people like us, who process the world in the same way, and among whom we are valued as an individual. Usually we know each others names and live in the same neighborhood. We share values and calendar dates.

What is often studied is religious community and I don’t accept that as enough. It doesn’t tell us whether spiritual beliefs are important, or just the sense of belonging. But there are interesting facts to be gleaned.

Religious attendance is associated with U.S. adult mortality in a tiered fashion: People who never attend exhibit 1.87 times the risk of death in the follow-up period (nearly double) compared with people who attend more than once a week. This translates into a seven-year difference in life expectancy at age 20 between those who never attend and those who attend more than once a week.

Again, I emphasize that spirituality and religion are not the same thing. But I do recognize the shaky connection that most people hold: they think being religious is the same, or as good as, spirituality. Suffice it to say, it comprises the relationship with the sacred and the search for the transcendent, in addition to the personal search for existential issues related to the end of life, to its meaning, which may or may not lead to the development of religious practices or be linked to organized religion. 

[Koenig et al., 2012;Lucchetti et al., 2010]

But there’s something rather important hiding inside these statistics. What if the health benefits attributed to religion are not really about religion at all?

What if much of the benefit comes from belonging?

Think about the traditional church community. You don’t merely turn up to hear a sermon. People know your name. They notice when you aren’t there. They ask how you are. They know your husband, wife, children and grandchildren. They may visit you when you are sick. There are dinners, coffee mornings, choirs, charity events, celebrations, funerals and weddings. There is a rhythm of human connection.

You matter to somebody.

That last sentence is enormous.

One of the most damaging experiences a human being can have is the feeling that nobody would particularly notice if you disappeared. It doesn’t have to be dramatic loneliness. You can be surrounded by people and still feel profoundly disconnected. Conversely, you can live alone and yet feel wonderfully connected because you have friends, causes, groups, correspondence, projects and people who are delighted to hear from you.

Belonging is not the same thing as merely having people around.

It is the feeling that I have a place here.

I think this becomes increasingly important as we grow older because society has a nasty habit of gradually removing our roles. You retire and suddenly you are no longer the doctor, teacher, businessman, engineer, secretary or whatever identity carried you through much of adult life. Children grow up. They have their own families. You’re not quite the parent any more. Friends move away. Some die. The world begins, rather rudely, to suggest that perhaps your principal occupation now should be growing old.

Rubbish!

This is exactly when we should be constructing new roles.

We should be asking: Who needs me? What excites me? What am I learning? What am I contributing? Who are my people? What can I still create?

Especially that last one.

Human beings are creators. We make gardens, businesses, friendships, books, meals, jokes, families, music, inventions, communities and sometimes glorious trouble. Creation gives consciousness somewhere to go.

Retirement should never mean retirement from purpose.

Indeed, I think one of the greatest mistakes in our culture is the idea that the objective of working life is eventually to reach a point where we have nothing to do. People fantasize about endless leisure. But endless leisure can become remarkably empty. A holiday is wonderful partly because it is a holiday from something. Make the holiday permanent and by about Thursday afternoon you may begin wondering what you are supposed to do with yourself!

Purpose needn’t be grand. It doesn’t mean you need to save humanity, discover a new planet or write War and Peace.

Purpose can be wonderfully modest.

Growing the best tomatoes in Nevada can be purpose. Teaching your granddaughter to cook can be purpose. Caring for animals can be purpose. Joining a singing group can be purpose. Writing your memories can be purpose. Helping someone who is struggling can be purpose. Learning Italian at 82 can certainly be purpose, especially if you have the additional incentive of planning to flirt outrageously in Rome!

The scale doesn’t matter. The aliveness does.

Purpose means tomorrow contains something that matters.

And this is where purpose and belonging join hands. Very often our strongest purposes involve other people. We teach, help, encourage, build, entertain, comfort, organize, share and love. Purpose draws us outward and connection feeds something back.

That reciprocal flow may be one of the most powerful health tonics available to us.

We already know that social isolation and loneliness are associated with increased risks of cardiovascular disease, cognitive decline, depression and premature mortality. The magnitude is large enough that loneliness is no longer something medicine can dismiss as merely an unfortunate emotional state. Social connection belongs in the health conversation alongside exercise, nutrition, sleep and the rest.

But I want to go further than simply saying, “Don’t be lonely.” We need to create belonging deliberately.

That may mean joining something. Better still, it may mean starting something.

If you cannot find your tribe, build one!

Invite six interesting people to supper once a month. Start a walking group. Form a discussion circle. Volunteer somewhere. Join a choir. Start painting with others. Find people who share your spiritual interests. Teach something you know. Learn something you don’t know.

And please don’t make the mistake of thinking friendship is something that just happens spontaneously when we are young and therefore cannot be created later in life. Friendship is partly an activity, not a passive happening. It needs tending. Somebody has to make the phone call. Somebody has to suggest lunch. Somebody has to say, “Come over Thursday.”

Why shouldn’t that somebody be you?

You don’t need identical beliefs to belong. You need mutual recognition and connecting values. Is all!

And I suspect this brings us close to the real reason that purpose and belonging affect longevity. They tell the organism that life is still happening.

There are people to love. There are things to do. There are surprises still waiting. There is something worth getting up for tomorrow morning.

The body hears that message.

I don’t mean this merely as a metaphor. Psychology and physiology are not two entirely separate kingdoms. Our emotional lives influence sleep, inflammation, hormonal signaling, immune function, cardiovascular physiology, health behaviors and innumerable other processes. A life of engagement produces a very different biological environment from a life of chronic isolation, helplessness and despair.

So perhaps we have been looking at longevity from the wrong end.

We obsess about what we should remove. Don’t smoke. Don’t drink too much. Don’t eat this. Don’t eat that. Reduce your cholesterol. Reduce your blood pressure. Reduce your weight.

Medicine loves subtraction. But perhaps longevity also requires addition.

• Add friendship.

• Add laughter.

• Add curiosity.

• Add usefulness.

• Add something you are looking forward to.

• Add people who are pleased when you walk through the door.

• Add a reason to get out of bed.

• And above all, add love.

This fits perfectly with my conception of the New God. I don’t see the Divine as some celestial accountant awarding bonus years because we have behaved ourselves. That takes us straight back to the old reward-and-punishment religious model that has failed dismally.

I see it much more naturally. Life flourishes when we participate in it. Consciousness seems to expand through relationship, creation, curiosity, service, pleasure, affection and meaning. We become more alive by being more alive.

We should probably stop using the expression “anti-aging.” Why should we be anti anything? Let’s just be pro-living! If that happens to produce extra years, excellent. I’ll take them!

Just been experimenting with some new portraits!

So Ask Yourself

What am I here for now? and Who are my people? If you have good answers to both, treasure them.

If you don’t, then perhaps you have just discovered your next great adventure. Because purpose is not something you have to find buried somewhere inside yourself, like a lost set of car keys. You can choose it. And belonging is not merely somewhere you arrive. You can create it.

Do those two things and you are no longer merely attempting to live longer. You are giving Mother Nature a very good reason to keep you around. And THAT is my kind of longevity medicine.

To your good health,Prof. Keith Scott-Mumby
The Alternative Doctor

Of course there were exceptions and that shortfall didn’t apply to the Okinawans, Ikarians, Hunzas or other isolated groups. But nobody counted them and their ways, until starting around maybe the 80s. Interest in natural longevity gradually expanded over the years to become the “blue zones” concept, popularized by Daniel Buettner, a National Geographic Explorer and Fellow, and Emmy-Award winning journalist. A blue zone is a territory with an extraordinary high concentration of healthy old people, notably centenarians.

A healthy Ikarian (Blue Zones) Diet

Note that I said healthy: a large population of doddery dotards would mean nothing. Just some trick of the light perhaps! But if they live far longer than most AND keep their health faculties in good working order, that’s the start of a path to discovery, surely?

Up until the twenty first century the perception of aging was that it was inevitable. We had no control over it. Attitude of mind was irrelevant. Sooner or later you began to crumble and descend into a miserable dotage of frailty, cognitive impairment, aches and pains and severe limitation of movement.

Some years ago I wrote a piece titled Do You Want To Be An Old Crock Or A Classic Car? The difference between a rust-bucket old banger that has to be sent to the crushers and a decades-older beautiful smooth-running classic car is simple and obvious: the classic car has been properly looked after. We should treat our bodies in the same way and take care of them; otherwise you will become an old crock. The conclusion is still valid and the piece continues to change reader’s perceptions.

A lot of people I talked to at the time had a blunt-force thinking attitude of “I don’t care. I don’t want to grow old and suffer. I’d rather die.” This was very unfortunate because, like it or not, people were starting to live longer and longer, but not necessarily healthily. By the time you reach 80-some and are suffering from stooped posture, aches and pains, limitation of movement, difficulty remembering, incontinence and other indignities of old age, it’s too late to have a change of heart. You have ruined your prospects of a zestful old age and must pay the price.

[Of course it’s never too late to make wise and health-giving changes and derive at least some benefit]

The point is that people get what they expect to get. If you are sold into the story that old age is an infirmity, you can expect a fairly unpleasant ride through your dotage.

And don’t listen to dismissive doctors. Most of them go on with the same old line, “Aging is inevitable. There’s nothing you can do about it. You just have to put up with it.” It’s errant nonsense. Any doctor who utters those words is criminally bad, or just plain ignorant. You want to work with a doctor who offers detailed advice about diet and nutrition, staying active, keeping inflammation at an absolute minimum and, above all, setting the right positive mental attitude. “You are what you eat” is an old, old trope in medicine but there is also a twin phrase, equally valid: you are what you think you are!

Now we Boomers (and the up-and-coming Gen-X, Millennials and Gen-Z) are well served by a positive and fun-loving approach to life. It’s been my slogan for decades that we Boomers want to go on partying till our last day on earth. That brings up an important health definition: it is to distinguish between lifespan and so-called “healthspan.” Lifespan is how long we remain alive; healthspan means how many of those years are healthy, enjoyable and trouble-free.

Ideally we want the two measures to be very close. Get rid of the idea of your “final years”, meaning the difficult troubled times as you struggle to cope. If you wake up one morning, healthy and zestful, have a great day and then go to sleep, never to wake up, that’s a great ways for it all to end, you’ll agree.

That’s the benchmark to aim for. It’s the exit I preach!

Brain Health

Now, let’s separate out the issue of brain health and talk about that. We are not a brain, there is abundant evidence for that statement but it is completely ignored by the establishment. There are individuals walking around with next to no brain (less than 1%) and yet no-one can tell there is anything amiss; memory is excellent. One case known to me went to college, got a degree and began to practice accountancy.

But our brain is still important. It’s the main biological organ for connectivity with the outside world. So we should rightly look after it and be concerned for its effective functioning. Not surprisingly, brain health is now the number one concern for elders, ahead of cardiovascular health and cancer prevention (AARP 2025 Health Priorities Survey).

Yet decades of obsession with low-fat diets has done much damage. It’s a misguided obsession with the supposed harms of saturated fat, built on false science perpetrated by Ancel Keys in the 1970s (he was being paid by the sugar industry to distract attention from the damage cause by high sugar intake). He simply faked or distorted his findings by omitting countries with a high fat intake and good health and omitting countries with a low fat intake that were overall unhealthy.

Here are 2 graphs, the first that Ancel Keys published (which looks convincing) and the second is with all the countries he studied included, which shows virtually no connection between heart disease and fat intake:

It took nearly fifty years for the facts to emerge and there are still die-hards who won’t give up their pet hypothesis that fats are bad for us. Unfortunately, our brains are around 60% fat. So for decades we have been starving our brains and the result is an epidemic of dementias. Moreover heart disease, which was supposed to be being solved by Ancel Keys’ research, has continued to rise, relentlessly. So he was well wide of the truth – but that was his aim.

The story of cholesterol runs along similar tracks. Cholesterol has been demonized to the extent that people fear it as deadly and take complex drugs, with dangerous side effects, to combat it. The aim is to get your cholesterol levels as low as is possible. Yet our brains hold 20% of the total cholesterol in your body! Fighting against cholesterol is to deprive and damage your brain!

Science gets very muddled when big business dollars get into the mix and distort the truth. Ain’t that so!

To your health,

She always looked so vibrant and healthy, though I did read reports recently of her having to cancel or pull back on public performances, due to health issues.

When the C word was finally used, it became more understandable. Poor old Dolly had such faith in the medical profession (to the point of donating $1million to Moderna’s Fauci scam). But I doubt the doctors did her any good, for all her wealth.

Anyway, I don’t want to discuss Dolly’s health beyond that. Not relevant or none of our business!

But the issue was raised (by her) that the years of looking after her beloved husband Carl Thomas Dean, as a caregiver, took its toll. She admitted to rather letting her own health decline, though neglect, while looking after him. That’s something we can’t afford to do, at any age.

It made me think a good deal on one of my walks. It could be a maxim, that we MUST look after ourselves, well into old age, so we do not become a burden on our spouse or relatives. It’s not fair to take the view “I don’t care about preserving health.” It’s just passing the buck and means someone else will get all the dirty work that you are laying up.

And it doesn’t work to just say, “I’ll go into hospital or a home.” Unless you are VERY rich, that will soon burn through all your capital. Besides, your family may not want that for you and will sacrifice themselves to keep you outside the system and in their loving care.

No, it really comes down to a DUTY, that we must take care of ourselves as fully as possible, for as long as possible.

In a lively video titled “I ain’t dead yet!”, Dolly explained: “Back when my husband Carl was sick, that was a long time, and then he passed, I didn’t take care of myself, so I let a lot of things go that I should have been taking care of.”

Parton’s husband, Carl Dean, died in March 2025. While the couple never disclosed what disease he had, Parton shared that he was “ill for quite a while.”  We don’t know how she didn’t take care of herself, but her few words speak volumes given that she had been taking such extensive care of her husband.

When you care for someone else, it is all too easy to neglect to care for yourself.

63 Million in The USA Alone

There are 63 million caregivers in the USA, a nearly 50% increase since 2015.

Demographics: One in every four adults is a caregiver. Of these, 94% care for adults, and one in three is under age 50. Caregivers are increasingly diverse across race, income, and generation. 29% are sandwich generation caregivers, supporting both children and adults. 

Intensity and Complexity: Over 40% of caregivers now provide high-intensity care. Many perform complex medical tasks like administering injections or managing equipment, yet only 22% receive training. 

Health and Financial Strain: One in five caregivers report poor health; a quarter are taking on debt due to caregiving. Half report negative financial impact due to caregiving, and one in five cannot afford basic needs like food. 

Workplace Impact: Seven in ten family caregivers are employed, but many face disruptions and lack access to supportive benefits.

In fact only 11 million of the 63 million caregivers receive any compensation, through Medicaid, VA, or other state programs. These caregivers are more likely to be younger, lower-income, and from diverse backgrounds. 

Caregiving Comes With A Serious Health Risk

Some 23% of caregivers report that they find it difficult to pay attention to their own health while caring for another, according to a report from the National Alliance for Caregiving and the AARP. 

Carers often neglect routine health visits and screening, which might detect problems before they get started proper. Also, when people are spending much of their days dealing with hospitals or at doctor’s offices with those they care for, they just don’t want to spend any precious free time in a medical setting for themselves.

Moreover, when a caregiver takes their care partner to a doctor’s appointment, hospital or treatment, they are rarely asked how they, the caregiver, are doing, or if they need support.

There is a huge emotional toll, including anxiety, guilt and depression. On top of that there is a limitation of capacity to socialize or do things like attend shows, or literary meetings and gatherings.

Even those who do long-distance caregiving can experience burnout and self-neglect. The average family caregiver spends 27 hours a week on care and many put in 40 hours or more. There is an intensity that comes with caring for someone with a serious illness, which doesn’t leave much room for self-care.

Close to two-thirds of caregivers report emotional stress, and 45% report physical strain. There is the additional burden of loneliness, experienced by nearly a quarter of all caregivers who may be missing opportunities to socialize and connect outside their homes, away from the family members and friends they care for.

Love Becomes Captivity

One of the cruellest aspects of family caregiving is that love can quietly turn into captivity. The caregiver begins by helping someone they love, and months or years later discovers that almost every hour, decision and emotion revolves around somebody else’s needs.

Here’s are some strategies which will act as ways of giving the caregiver at least some of their life back.

1. Stop believing that love requires unlimited availability

This may be the most important one. A caregiver can love someone profoundly without being available every minute of every day. Yet guilt creates the feeling that going shopping, meeting a friend, taking an afternoon off—or simply closing the bedroom door and reading a book—is somehow abandonment.

It isn’t.

The caregiver needs protected periods in which they are off duty. Not “off duty unless something happens.” Properly off duty. Someone else takes responsibility, the phone can be ignored, and for two or three hours they become themselves again.

That psychological separation can be enormously restorative.

2. Build a team—even a tiny one

Caregiving becomes particularly destructive when one person becomes the indispensable person. Everything comes through them: medication, meals, appointments, washing, transport, emotional reassurance, emergencies.

Instead of vaguely telling relatives, “I could use some help,” give people ownership of specific jobs.

One person does Tuesday shopping. Someone else takes the patient to appointments. A neighbor sits with them Thursday afternoon. Another relative makes three freezer meals. Somebody else handles insurance paperwork.

People are often surprisingly willing to help but remarkably bad at inventing ways of doing so.

The caregiver should become the coordinator of care, not necessarily the provider of every piece of care.

3. Create one sacred piece of the day

Even where respite care is impossible, reclaim something small that belongs absolutely to the caregiver.

Perhaps 7:00–7:30 every morning is coffee in the garden. Perhaps there is an evening walk. An hour of painting. Music through headphones. Meditation. Gardening. A long bath. Twenty minutes sitting in sunlight doing absolutely nothing useful.

The activity matters less than the principle:

“This piece of my life still belongs to me.”

That is sovereignty in miniature—and sometimes miniature sovereignty is where recovery begins.

4. Put pleasure on the schedule

Caregivers become terribly efficient. Meals, medications, laundry, doctors, cleaning, appointments, prescriptions. Life turns into one enormous checklist.

Pleasure gets postponed until “things settle down.”

They may never settle down.

So pleasure has to become an appointment too. Lunch with a friend next Wednesday. A movie Saturday afternoon. A massage. A concert next month. Sunday breakfast somewhere beautiful.

There is something psychologically powerful about having a pleasurable event ahead of you. A caregiver needs things on the calendar that are not connected with illness.

5. Refuse unnecessary perfection

This is a huge thief of caregiver energy.

The house doesn’t have to be immaculate. Every meal doesn’t have to be freshly cooked. Every visitor doesn’t need entertaining. Every minor discomfort doesn’t require immediate intervention. And sometimes frozen lasagna is not evidence of moral collapse.

Ask repeatedly:

“Does this actually need doing?”

Then:

“Does it need doing by me?”

Those two questions can liberate hours.

Caregiving should operate on the principle of “good enough”, not domestic sainthood!

6. Protect the relationship from becoming purely clinical

This is especially important when caring for a spouse.

Gradually the relationship can become nurse and patient rather than husband and wife, partners, lovers, siblings or friends. Every conversation becomes: Did you take your tablets? Have you eaten? How is the pain? When did you last go to the bathroom?

Illness takes over the relationship.

Deliberately create moments in which illness is banned from the conversation. Watch an old comedy together. Look through photographs. Gossip outrageously. Play cards. Listen to music from when you were young. Talk about people you both knew.

Try occasionally to meet person to person rather than caregiver to patient.

Both people need that.

7. Maintain a life outside the illness

Caregiving shrinks one’s world. Friends disappear—not necessarily through indifference, but because invitations repeatedly get declined. Hobbies disappear. Travel disappears. Eventually the caregiver can lose contact with the person they were before the illness arrived.

Fight that contraction deliberately.

Keep friendships alive. Keep one hobby going. Keep learning something. Go somewhere new occasionally. Maintain conversations with people who don’t begin by asking, “How is he?” or “How is she?”

And when somebody asks the caregiver how they are, they should be allowed to answer truthfully.

The patient has an illness. The caregiver does not have to become part of the illness.

8. Give yourself permission to enjoy being alive

This may be the deepest one.

Caregivers sometimes experience a peculiar guilt when they enjoy themselves. How can I be laughing when she is suffering? How can I go out to dinner when he cannot? How can I possibly take a holiday?

But, honestly, the suffering of one person is not reduced by requiring another person to suffer alongside them.

In fact, quite the reverse. A caregiver who sleeps, laughs, socializes, exercises, sees daylight, experiences affection and occasionally has a thoroughly wonderful time comes back with more emotional resources to give.

Joy is not a betrayal of the person you care for. Joy is part of what keeps you capable of caring.

That might actually be the central thought of this piece. We speak endlessly about care for the patient, but perhaps we need to enlarge the concept. The caregiver is part of the care system too. If that person becomes exhausted, anxious, resentful, isolated and joyless, the entire system begins to fail.

The goal therefore isn’t merely to help caregivers “cope.”

It’s to make sure that, while looking after somebody else’s life, they don’t accidentally surrender their own.

God bless you, Dolly! You were a blazing light!

To Your Good Health,

Prof. Keith Scott-Mumby
The Official Alternative Doctor

Data Source:

AARP and National Alliance for Caregiving. Caregiving in the US 2025. Washington, DC: AARP. July 24, 2025. https://doi.org/10.26419/ppi.00373.001

Quite a lot really. It all depends on your model of consciousness. If it really is true that we are a non-material, aware entity, there are certain things that MUST be true, by definition.

For example non-material means no matter, energy, space or time (those are material characteristics). Take just a couple of points and think it through, with logic, not superstition or religious guff… No time means no beginning and no end. No end means you can’t go away. You’re here (or somewhere) FOREVER!

That means you can’t die or vanish. You cannot UN-be!

No space means (in effect) you are all-space. You fill up everything, to the very ends of the universe and beyond. That reminds me of a lovely witty remark I like to quote by English writer G K Chesteron: the Cosmos is just about the smallest hole into which you can cram a human mind. 

[Actually, to be very accurate, this is the actual quote: Chesterton, G. K. (1908). Orthodoxy. London: John Lane. Chapter II, “The Maniac.” “The earth is so very large, and the cosmos is so very small. The cosmos is about the smallest hole that a man can hide his head in.”]

You should give yourself points; billions, trillions of points, just for being you. Your mind can reach out to the edges of the universe. Therefore your mind is as BIG as the universe! Forget all that hoo-ha about the meek inheriting the earth. Anyone with intellectual balls enough can inherit the entire Cosmos!

So what? Well, if we don’t go away or vanish at death, what happens? For the feeble reductionist scientists, it’s not a problem. Everything is matter (stuff), there is no life, no living essence. When the chemicals pack up, we’re done. All gone.

Of course they can’t prove that childish dogma, by the very nature of their position. It’s forever unprovable and as Sir Karl Popper would point out, it’s not a falsifiable position, therefore it is not science.

Sir Karl Popper. One of the 20th century’s most influential philosophers of science

But we can prove the opposite. There is life beyond death. The evidence is abundant. So how do the reductionists rationalize that? They don’t. They just claim all evidence is fake or a delusion. It MUST BE FAKE is their position, because there is no life essence, so proofs there is cannot exist.

As I said, very childish.

They should know better really, because science says that we must survive beyond death in some capacity of other. It’s advanced physics. Matter and energy (same thing) cannot be created or destroyed. We leave some impression behind; something of our energies survive; information won’t go away or unexist; there’s “essence of us” out there in reality; we leave a mark. Fact.

But I don’t want to trivialize this. Let the low-grade loonies get on with their denials. What REALLY happens when we die; I mean what happens to our consciousness? One minute we’re alive and maybe talking; next minute we’re down; gone. But are we really no more? 

The phenomenon of death is something that concerns only our physical form. We stop breathing; the heart quits; chemicals max out; and then the body doesn’t do much.

But even that is not simple, as so many cases of recovery of individuals pronounced deader than dead prove. It’s getting harder and harder for doctors to truly identify the moment of actual death. Flat lining (no more heart electrical signals) does not mean recovery isn’t possible. Not breathing or having no oxygen for even quite substantial periods is still recoverable.

People in a supposed “brain dead” coma can and do wake up and are normal!

I covered this topic in some detail last week, concentrating on just the physical facts.

https://alternative-doctor.com/safe-and-effective-you-gotta-be-kidding/

What Happens to The Me?

The real question posed by my title is what happens to the thinking, aware entity at the moment of death? With the body gone, it means that person will no longer be able to communicate to us. But does that mean he or she is no longer there?

If you were to die tomorrow, what would you likely experience?

These are big questions and you may prefer to ignore them: “We’ll never really know, so what’s the point of worrying?” It’s a position. Many hold it.

But reports and clues are littered around everywhere, telling us what to expect.

What it is not: there are writers with opinions, not based on any facts, but just quoting somebody else out there who spins stories. One of the daftest is that you will go into another world, just like this one and not even know you’ve died for a time. There will be paths and walls and windows and furniture that will all look familiar to you.

Emanuel Swedenborg, writing in the eighteenth century, described this daffy spiritual world in which people initially find themselves in familiar surroundings, living in houses and communities remarkably like those they left behind. It apparently never occurred to Swedenborg he was just hallucinating. His idea was just a dream.

Later Spiritualist writers, particularly Andrew Jackson Davis, expanded this into the idea of “Summerland,” where souls inhabit beautiful homes and landscapes that often resemble an idealized earthly existence.

But pause for a moment and think it through. If your favorite armchair appears in heaven, who made it? If a hundred-year-old oak dining table accompanies you, does the carpenter who crafted it arrive there too? What of the trees that became the timber? What about the bricks, wallpaper, carpets, teaspoons, motor cars and pianos? Do material objects possess immortal souls alongside their owners?

The concept quickly becomes philosophically awkward. It seems to require an endless duplication of the physical universe, with every manufactured object somehow translated into eternity. Yet if all these things are merely symbolic or thought-created, then they are no longer really the original objects at all, but expressions of consciousness.

Interestingly, even Swedenborg himself did not quite describe heaven as a warehouse of earthly possessions. Rather, he suggested that the houses and surroundings correspond to a person’s inner spiritual state and, in a sense, arise from consciousness itself rather than from transported matter. 

[https://swedenborg.com/emanuel-swedenborg/explore/spiritual-world/]

For me, that distinction is crucial. If consciousness survives death, it makes far more sense that any environment experienced there would be created by mind, not by hauling sofas and sideboards across the boundary between worlds!

For me this everything-as-it-was story is for wimps and pattycakes. We are better than that, surely?

Same Goes For Angels

In his book Heaven and Hell, Swedenborg says that he was allowed to experience the process of dying and being awakened in the spiritual world so that he could tell people on earth what it was like. He describes how angels sat beside him, unseen by most because angels are in the spiritual world. These angels stayed with him throughout the entire transition, surrounding him with loving thoughts.

I always laugh at portrayals of angels. Just think of the MASSIVE chest muscles it would take to flap those wings! (think turkey breast meat). Yes, it is laughable. All the angels I encountered or know of didn’t need wings, any more than they needed hands and feet.

Yes, there may be supernatural beings present at death, but are they essential? I don’t think so.

So Where Does That Leave Us?

I think the best clues to life after death come from NDE’s, or near death experiences. These are remarkably consistent among people who have drowned or had a heart attack and survived. You’ve probably read accounts: the tunnel, being drawn towards the light, radiant bliss when you get to whatever is there, loving beings waiting for you… Accounts are remarkably consistent and that carries some scientific clout.

If people are just hallucinating, how come these visions are so consistently similar? Millions of people all having the same hallucination? Nah, I don’t think so, though that’s what reductionist scientists try to fob us off with.

Anita Moorjani’s marvelous account of dying in her book Dying To Be Me talks of God in life-after-death being a state, rather than a person. That’s entirely consistent with my own experience and knowing, which I have described at length in my best-selling book New God New World.

I’ll revisit this theme from time to time, because a physician walks a line very close to death. It’s part of the job description that you have to help others step “over the line”. When the person has gone, I know I’ll likely never see them again, though family and friends sometimes get visited by specters at the moment of death.

But at least I know I’ve done a good job, when I help him or her make the transition wisely and lovingly.

Well, LOTS more to write and say about that. I hope this is “food for thought” and more than just a tasty spiritual snack!

To your health,

Prof. Keith Scott-Mumby
The Official Alternative Doctor

I’m not anti-vaccination, in principle, as you know. I’ve written a dozen times over the years that I’m glad to live in a world where there is a rabies vaccine, thanks to Louis Pasteur. It’s a horrible illness and the vaccine is about 99% effective, if given in time.

BUT THE RABIES VACCINE IS NOT WITHOUT RISKS! I have never claimed that. In fact it’s pretty unpleasant stuff. There are no recorded deaths from the modern vaccine, though it carries a high rate of mild, temporary reactions. Because rabies is virtually 100% fatal once symptoms appear, the benefits of the vaccine drastically outweigh the risks of any complication.

That’s safe AND effective. 

But take Hep A and B. The hepatitis A vaccine is recommended for “high-risk” children and adults, while the hepatitis B vaccine is recommended for all adults under 60 years. All infants in the USA are given Hep B on their first day of life. Yet in a recent study, published in JAMA, researchers estimated that only 40% of U.S. adults had immunity to hepatitis A and only 27% were immune to hepatitis B virus.

They described that as “suboptimal”. I would be tempted to use the word “crap”.

What about, say, measles? The measles vaccine, as you probably know, has been touted as one of the greatest advances in modern medicine that “saved” us all from a deadly fatal disease. Surely that is “safe and effective”? No, that’s nonsense. To begin with, measles had all but vanished as a problem by the same time that the vaccine was introduced. (see chart)

Before measles vaccine was ever invented, the deaths due to measles had dropped from all-time highs of 10,000s per year to 100 per year. Some of this we know had a lot to do with better hygiene, sanitation, electricity, transportation of food, refrigeration, labor laws, and nutrition.

But there is another factor, rarely mentioned, but which I consider likely crucial. Vitamin A dosing.

You will know that I personally choose vit A as the “antibiotic vitamin”, not D as some try to maintain. In the 40s and 50s kids in the Western world were widely dosed with cod-liver oil, which contains lots of vitamins A and D.

Did you know that high-dose vitamin A is the RECOMMENDED treatment for serious measles cases, listed on the CDC website?¹

Secondly, measles was never a scary threat in the way that scaremongers try to make it out today. In 1962 the disease was described by Alexander D. Langmuir, then Chief Epidemiologist at the U.S. Communicable Disease Center (the forerunner of today’s CDC), as being “a self-limiting infection of short duration, moderate severity, and low fatality…”²

Yet today, with all the fear mongering, you would think that measles is about to carry off all our young children!

Measles is, of course, a real disease, and while it can have serious complications, it is largely determined by an individual’s immune status. Before widespread vaccination campaigns, measles was a common childhood illness that conferred lifelong immunity. Now, due to waning vaccine-induced immunity, adults—who are at higher risk for complications—are increasingly affected by outbreaks.

It’s not working! But they disguise this by counting “don’t knows” as unvaxxed, where it’s a fact that over 85% of the population are technically vaxxed. They boast that.

Additionally, while the measles vaccine is heavily promoted as safe, a growing body of evidence reveals dozens of serious adverse events associated with the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine. 

Some of you know I was probably the first MD in the world (1983) to point out that youngsters tended to develop autism disorders after receiving the MMR (I mean within days, not months or years. After you’ve seen a dozen cases in a month, all with the same story, you don’t need researchers and “investigators” (read shills) looking for clusters and “proving” there is no connection.

You KNOW it is a pattern.

The connection with autism remains controversial and is clouded by arguments as to whether mercury (thimerosal) is the problem, which it appears not to be.

But there are many other complications of this tricky-treacherous vaccine, which is thus neither safe nor effective.

These well-documented risks raise critical questions about the one-size-fits-all vaccination policy being enforced through mandates. The notion that every child must be vaccinated without consideration for individual risk factors ignores the reality that vaccines—like any medical intervention—carry risks that must be weighed against their benefits, not just weighed against loss of profits.

Take another one; good old flu!

There are, in fact, over 200 viruses (and even some bacteria) that cause influenza and influenza-like illness (ILI), all producing the same or similar symptoms (fever, headache, aches and pains, cough and runny noses). Without laboratory tests, doctors cannot tell real flu from ILI. Both last for days and only rarely lead to death or serious illness. At best, vaccines might be effective against only Influenza A and B, which represent only about 10% of all circulating viruses.

Unfortunately, flu shots are just about worthless. Oh sure, they can trot out reams of spun figures to show how crucial it is to get your annual jab. But does it really do any good? And is it really as safe as they claim; that even children and babies should get “harmless” flu shots?

I’ll start by addressing the second question first:

“… the swine-flu vaccination program was one of the CDC’s greatest blunders…In 1976 health officials launched a 100-million dollar program to immunize every American. But the expected epidemic never materialized, and the vaccine led to partial paralysis in 532 people. There were 32 deaths.”³

So much for the continuous chant that vaccines are “safe”. So what about “effective”? 

Based on U.S. surveillance network data from September 2025 to February 2026, estimated vaccine effectiveness (VE) rates against influenza A- and influenza B-related outpatient visits for adults ranged from 22% to 34%, which is absolutely dismal, and 30% to 41% for those ages 65 and older. That’s the group they claim that the vaccine is most needed for and does the most good! 30 – 40% effective? Nah. I don’t think so.

Among children and adolescents ages 6 months to 17 years, VE rates against outpatient visits ranged from 38% to 41%, hardly impressive. “These findings support CDC’s recommendation for annual influenza vaccination,” they concluded.⁴

No they absolutely do NOT! 22-30% protection? That’s not effective in my book.

Did you know that science says that it takes 71 people to be vaccinated against flu, to prevent even one case and 29 healthy adults need to be vaccinated to prevent one of them experiencing an ILI? No, I suppose not, since the medical industry doesn’t WANT you to know!

Add this… Last year.

In adults ages 65 and older, with standard-dose inactivated influenza vaccines, the effectiveness was just 16%. And that’s the age group they claim it does the most good!

Unfortunately, lying and deceit seem to be the normal business protocols in the pharmaceutical industry. You owe it to yourself and your loved ones to stay informed.

Prof. Keith Scott-Mumby
The Alternative Doctor

References:

1. https://www.cdc.gov/measles/media/pdfs/2026/05/measles-prevention-and-treatment-overview.pdf
2. Langmuir AD. Medical Importance of Measles. American Journal of Diseases of Children. 1962;103(3):224–226. doi:10.1001/archpedi.1962.02080020236005
3. U.S. News and World Report, Joseph Carey, October 14, 1985, p. 70, “How Medical Sleuths Track Killer Diseases.”
4. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/75/wr/mm7509a2.htm

A particularly telling case was published in 2009 because the victim happened to be wearing a continuous heart-rate monitor, giving the investigators unusually good timing data.

A healthy 48-year-old Norwegian man capsized while kayaking in 3.5°C seawater. He remained conscious for some time as he cooled. Eventually he became unconscious, submerged completely and went into cardiac arrest. His personal heart monitor enabled the physicians to reconstruct the sequence unusually accurately.

Their estimate was: about 31 minutes from cardiac arrest/head submersion until CPR began.

During that interval there was therefore no effective circulation and, to all practical purposes, no breathing or ventilation whatsoever. 

And it gets stranger. He then remained in cardiac arrest while being resuscitated for hours. Cardiopulmonary bypass was established 121 minutes after cardiac arrest, and sustained spontaneous circulation was not restored until 207 minutes — 3 hours 27 minutes — after arrest. 

Yet his neurological examination eventually showed no focal brain damage. Formal neuropsychological testing one year later showed cognitive function at or above population averages, and he returned to his work as an engineer and resumed kayaking.¹

They think that one case which follows their pattern “proves” their story. I say JUST ONE case the contradicts orthodox beliefs proves there is much to learn about the process of physical death.

Then there is an astonishing 83-minute case.

In 2015, Romlin and colleagues reported a 7-year-old girl submerged in icy seawater for an estimated at least 83 minutes.

When recovered she was in cardiac arrest, with ice actually present in her upper airway. Yikes! Her first documented nasopharyngeal temperature was only 13.8°C (normal is 37°C). She was rewarmed and made what the authors explicitly called an “excellent” and “exceptional” recovery, although treatment and rehabilitation were prolonged. 

This case is important because 83 minutes is a documented submersion duration, unable to breathe atmospheric air, not 83 minutes of CPR.

Here’s another…

In 1986, 2½-year-old Michelle Funk was completely submerged in an icy Utah stream for at least 66 minutes. When recovered she was without breath and pulseless. Her core temperature eventually measured about 19°C.

After prolonged CPR and extracorporeal rewarming she appeared to make an extraordinary neurological recovery. The original JAMA report described it as a “good neurologic recovery.”²

And Now The New World Record: At Least 147 Minutes!

This one is extraordinary and was only published in 2025.

An 8-year-old boy in Pennsylvania fell through pond ice and remained submerged for at least 147 minutes; the estimated range was approximately 147–177 minutes. His peripheral temperature on recovery was measured at an extraordinary 7°C (45°F). He had no heartbeat (asystolic). CPR was continued during transport and he was placed on VA-ECMO (an intensive, temporary life-support system that takes over the functions of both the heart and the lungs) and rewarmed. 

The authors explicitly describe this as the longest documented submersion survival in the medical literature.³

But — and this is a large BUT — he did not recover totally without adverse effects.

MRI showed early hypoxic-ischaemic changes. At six months he could stand unsupported, ride a tricycle, eat soft foods and obey simple commands, but he was still relearning basic tasks and recovering from neuromuscular weakness. The paper authors used the expression “meaningful neurological recovery”.

So we can say this: There is no precise instant at which cessation of breathing becomes death. Breathing can cease, circulation can cease and every ordinary outward sign of life can disappear, yet under exceptional conditions the process may still be reversible. Documented cases include apparently complete neurological recovery after more than half an hour without spontaneous respiration or circulation, and exceptional neurological recovery after more than 80 minutes of cold-water submersion. Human beings have survived documented submersion for at least 147 minutes, although the most extreme survivor sustained some neurological injury and had to re-learn basic tasks.

Medicine is incautious by pronouncing that circulation has “permanently” ceased or that the brain has “permanently” lost its capacity to function. It cannot point to cessation of breathing or even the first flat ECG and say, in every circumstance, “There. That was the moment the person ceased to exist.”

Indeed, these cases rather demolish that idea.

Many of these recovery cases have no “memory” of what took place while they were deeply unconscious. But some do.

The largest prospective study is the AWARE Study, led by Sam Parnia, with Peter Fenwick. Among more than 2,000 cardiac arrests, survivors reported a spectrum of experiences. About 9% described experiences meeting accepted criteria for a near-death experience, while about 2% reported explicit awareness of actual events occurring during resuscitation. One patient gave a verifiable account of events, meaning he was aware of what was happening around him, during a period when cerebral function would not normally have been expected to support conscious awareness.⁴

There are also numerous other published case reports.

One review from India described three patients surviving severe illness or trauma. All three reported classic features:

• an out-of-body experience,

• heightened awareness,

• vivid perception,

• and lasting psychological change after recovery. 

Interestingly, the authors noted that some details faded with time, suggesting that these memories may behave differently from ordinary autobiographical memories.⁵

From the medical literature over the past 40 years, certain features recur with surprising consistency:

• a sense of leaving the body,

• unusually clear or “more real than real” consciousness,

• encounters with deceased relatives or beings,

• overwhelming peace or unconditional love,

• panoramic life review,

• reluctance to return,

• profound and lasting changes in personality and values.

Whether these experiences arise entirely from brain physiology or represent consciousness continuing under extraordinary conditions remains an open question. The experiences themselves are well documented; the interpretation remains debated.

No matter: very often what happens is the person have a vivid and typically joyful experience which seems to liberate him or her. After “dying” and then coming back the individual seems develop a powerful sense of personal existence that cannot be shaken by mere death.

Some survivors begin preaching, others running courses, some write a book, on what it really means to be alive.

Meantime let me remind you of the words of that beautiful song “The Rose” (verse 2):

It’s the heart, afraid of breaking
That never learns to dance
It’s the dream, afraid of waking
That never takes the chance

It’s the one who won’t be taking
Who cannot seem to give
And the soul, afraid of dying
That never learns to live

We all get nearer the final exit, every day a step nearer. But it is nothing to fear. Remember, we cannot UN-be. That just can’t happen.

Prof. Keith Scott-Mumby
The Alternative Doctor

References:

1. Heart rate monitored hypothermia and drowning in a 48-year-old man. survival without sequelae: a case report. Cases J. 2009 Aug 18;2:6204. doi: 10.4076/1757-1626-2-6204
2. Bolte, Robert G.; Black, Philip G.; Bowers, Robert S.; Thorne, J. Kent; Corneli, Howard M. “The Use of Extracorporeal Rewarming in a Child Submerged for 66 Minutes.” JAMA. 1988;260(3):377–379. doi:10.1001/jama.1988.03410030093036
3. Bartoli, Carlo R.; Wong, Ronald; Mazandi, Vanessa M.; Fairman, Alexander S.; Maffei, Frank A. “Ice Water Drowning Survival After 147-Minute Submersion and 7 °C Hypothermic Circulatory Arrest.” JACC: Case Reports. 2025;30(25):104885. doi:10.1016/j.jaccas.2025.104885
4. Near death experiences, cognitive function and psychological outcomes of surviving cardiac arrest. Resuscitation. Volume 74, Issue 2, August 2007, Pages 215-221
5. Purkayastha M, Mukherjee KK. Three cases of near death experience: Is it physiology, physics or philosophy? Ann Neurosci. 2012 Jul;19(3):104-6. doi: 10.5214/ans.0972.7531.190303. PMID: 25205979; PMCID: PMC4117086

For this newsletter I’m side-stepping eliminating the bad (avoiding what I call “Bandit Foods”), which are inflammatory, and just looking at the positive qualities of a range of foods which help protect against cancer—or which will help fight it, if you have already been unlucky enough to contract cancer.

Don’t forget my “3 Pillars of Healing” in this context:

1. Good nutrition, including avoidance what your body doesn’t tolerate

2. Chemical clean up of your personal environment

3. Psychological detox (this is the one which is usually omitted, often with disastrous consequences)

As for cancer-beating foods, remember the FDA, CDC, ACS and AMA do not admit such a concept. But then, their management of cancer is a disaster in the extreme.

Instead, we can turn to Loma Linda University, in California, for direct information concerning which foods might keep you safe. 

Loma Linda University, if you don’t know, is a Seventh Day Adventists institution. These are the people who live exceptionally long and healthy lives, which they attribute to vegetarianism and alcohol avoidance. Great for some but certainly not for everyone.

Research shows certain plant foods contain powerful compounds — called phytochemicals — that can help fight cancer and reduce the risk of its development. These specific foods may hold a key to prevent the growth of cancer cells in the body, writes Andrew Woodward, an oncology nutritionist at Loma Linda University Cancer Center. 

[https://news.llu.edu/patient-care/7-foods-fight-cancer-heart-disease-and-enhance-health]

Thing is, it’s now well-known that inflammation has been shown to promote cancer cells to grow and spread. It so happens that foods are the worst and commonest sources of inflammation within the body, particularly manufactured foods, vitiated grains and processed seed oils.

But it gets tricky because few “experts” seem to know what I learned 40 years ago: every individual is different and everyone has their own inflammatory or “Bandit Foods.” You can’t generalize and say “these foods are good,” although you can say certain foods are “bad” but some good foods are bad for certain individuals. (my mother and sister, for example, get really sick if they accidentally eat anything from the lily family (onions, garlic, leeks, etc.)

But there is some common ground. Just don’t go supposing that one overall rule applies to everyone; for every “healthy” food you can name, I had dozens or scores of individuals who were made ill by it (Yes, even different spring waters)!

The Linda Loma University website focuses on certain food groups and calls them all functional, although I do not, for reasons just explained. But they are well worth including in your diet, if you fully tolerate them.

So much so that I have put a selection of these foods in my “Liquid Gold” reborn mix! (not that I am suggesting this is the same as eating a proper portion of each of the foods).

These are:

Berries — including acai, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, chokeberry, mangosteen, blackcurrant (packed with vitamin C), bilberries and lots of pomegranate. They taste sweet but technically are low in sugar (low glycemic index).

The darker berries (blueberry and blackberry, for example) contain blue-purple antioxidants called anthocyanins, that reduce inflammation and protect the brain from oxidation. These are king among antioxidants.

Berries also contain ellagic acid, which neutralizes carcinogens and has anti-tumor benefits. Blueberries contain pterostilbene — a powerful antioxidant and can reduce inflammation. 

Cruciferous vegetables — Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, bok choy, cabbage, cauliflower, collard greens and kale are all considered cruciferous vegetables. These vegetables contain indole-3 carbinol (I3C), which reduces hormone-sensitive cancers; sulforaphane, which deactivates carcinogens; and fiber, which is a humble cancer preventive. 

Garlic and onions — The National Cancer Institute suggests garlic and onions may reduce the risk of stomach, colon, esophageal and breast cancer. Garlic is famous, of course, for its measurable anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and anti-inflammatory benefits, as well as cancer-fighting properties. Cancer prevention comes from many sulfur-containing substances, including allicin and diallyl sulfide (DAS), which appear to deactivate carcinogens and prevent DNA mutations. Onions offer many of the same benefits, providing quercetin and sulfur-containing molecules that block some carcinogens and induce apoptosis, a process that kills cancer-trending cells.

Hericium erinaceous (lion’s mane mushroom) is delicious, eaten raw!

Turmeric — Turmeric (active ingredient curcumin) is a golden-yellow colored seasoning used in many Indian dishes, curries and mustards. There have been more than 6,000 studies of Turmeric. Its anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and antioxidant properties help fight cancer. Curcumin appears to reduce tumor reproduction, reduce blood vessel formation, reduce invasion and induce tumor cell death.

It’s not very bioavailable but, hey, just eat LOTS of it!

Spinach and other green leafy vegetables — Spinach is a powerhouse of nutrients whether eating raw, juiced or lightly cooked. Spinach is loaded with: vitamin K, which promotes blood clotting; carotenoids, which supports eye health and antioxidants; fiber; folate, which aids DNA formation and repair; and other phytochemicals. Several studies suggest that phytochemicals glycoglycerolipids and carotenoids fight cancer; especially prostate, breast and stomach types. 

You’ll read “Google experts” whining about oxalates in spinach, as if that was going to kill you! Baby spinach has less oxalate, so the absorption of calcium and iron is greater. Spinach and arugula also contain plant nitrates that produce nitric oxide and nourish the endothelium (inner lining) of blood vessels.

Ginger and other seasonings — Certain compounds found in ginger make it a powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant food to reduce oxidative stress that your body has to fight on a daily basis. Ginger is also useful to calm the stomach and reduce nausea. Other seasonings such as basil, oregano, dill, cinnamon, clove and many others to flavor foods may well reduce inflammation. Using these in their dry form maintains their shelf life for about two years, while also preserving them in a concentrated form. Adding seasonings to recipes also reduces the need for excess salt, adding more antioxidants and add flavor.

Woodward also commends mushrooms, as I do. But there are none in my multi-formula. Mushrooms, in addition to adding flavor to foods, have an assortment of immune modulation substances called betaglucans. Other noteworthy benefits include antioxidants, reducing hormone-related tumors and reducing excess inflammation. These benefits can have the most impact when eating mushrooms that are fresh, cooked, powdered or dried.

Many other plant foods have cancer-fighting properties and health-enhancing benefits. “Add variety to a healthy diet with beets, carrots, chili peppers, citrus fruits, seaweed, tomatoes, etc,” Andrew Woodward says. “The more colors on your plate, the better.” I second that.

However, other factors are also important for cancer-prevention, such as exercising, avoiding toxin exposure, not smoking or consuming too much alcohol, sleeping well and controlling stress.

Talk with your healthcare provider if you have questions about cancer. 

For a simple nutrient-dense formula for health and longevity, take my Liquid Gold vitamin and minerals formula. It tastes delicious (fruity with jut a whiff of passion fruit (maracuja) and provides abundant quantities of key nutrients. I completely reworked it recently, from a white-label version to my own unique and brilliant—much needed—all in one!

One shot glass a day is all it takes to be safe from deficiencies (see why it is called Liquid Gold!)

Learn more here.

To Your Good Health,Prof. Keith Scott-Mumby
The Official Alternative Doctor

What sense does it make to say you are happy and healthy if you live in a society where you could be imprisoned at any moment, on just a whim or the accusation of being, simply, different? Obviously that touched a raw nerve for the Russians.

But what has always lingered with me was the question of level 9: past lives and karma.

Whether one believes in reincarnation or not is almost beside the point. My purpose was never to persuade anyone of a particular doctrine but to encourage people to think more deeply about why illness occurs and what healing actually means. As healers, we are often so intent on removing disease that we rarely stop to ask whether there is a larger story unfolding in a person’s life.

This raises an uncomfortable question.

If suffering has meaning, and if a person’s life follows a path that includes lessons we cannot fully understand, is it right for doctors to always intervene? Could there ever be circumstances in which illness is not simply an enemy to be defeated but part of a journey that ultimately serves the individual?

Authors Ruediger Dahlke and Thorwald Dethlefsen think so. Together they wrote a marvelous book (1983) with what has to be the most intriguing title ever: The Healing Power of Disease.

Most doctors are understandably reluctant even to entertain such thoughts. We are trained to diagnose, to treat and, whenever possible, to cure. Yet anyone who has practised medicine for many years knows that healing and curing are not always the same thing. Patients sometimes die healed in spirit, while others survive physically but remain profoundly wounded. The longer one practises, the less tidy the relationship between disease and healing appears.

If karma exists, and if some people have accumulated an abundance of what we might call “good karma”, is it not allowable for them to share it with others less fortunate? I have always held that glorious, if slightly arrogant view, that I have abundant “good karma” and have been allowed to pass it on to others as a world-class healer and teacher. 

Then suddenly, perhaps due to the publication of my best-selling book New God New World, I have begun to frame the same question around a different aspect of Being: grace.

Could a person with abundant grace not share it with others around them?

The remarkable Russian saint Seraphim of Sarov believes so and expressed the idea beautifully:

“Acquire the Spirit of Peace, and thousands around you will be saved.”

Notice that he did not say, “Teach thousands.” He did not even say, “Heal thousands.” He spoke of becoming something, not merely doing something.

Perhaps this is the deepest form of healing.

Seraphim of Sarov (from OrthodoxWiki)

Modern psychology, interestingly, points in a similar direction. Researchers have demonstrated that emotions are contagious. Kindness encourages kindness. Hope spreads. Calmness influences those around us. One person’s inner state quietly shapes the emotional climate of an entire family, workplace, or community.

Science describes the phenomenon. Grace may explain its deepest source.

According to that sublime authoress Simone Weil (1909 – 1943), grace, “is the divine intervention that allows for spiritual uplift and liberation.

So am I on to something here? Let me point out that there is an important difference between grace and karma. Karma, in many traditions, concerns justice. We reap what we sow. Grace belongs to an entirely different realm. Grace is not earned. It is received. It is gift rather than reward, generosity rather than accounting.

But it can be shared, surely?

As I reflected on this, I realized that I had known people whose presence changed the atmosphere of a room before they had spoken a single word. We have all met individuals like this. They are not necessarily famous. They may never have written a book or held high office. Yet when they enter a room, people somehow relax. Conversations become kinder. Hope quietly returns. Nothing dramatic has happened, and yet something has undeniably changed.

The older I become, the more conscious I am that I have indeed been greatly blessed. Not because I imagine myself wiser than others, but because life has repeatedly granted me unexpected insights, extraordinary teachers, remarkable patients and learning experiences that have shaped the way I see the world. These have never felt like achievements to boast about. They have always felt like gifts to be grateful for.

Perhaps none of us possesses grace. Perhaps we simply become more or less open to it. Perhaps our task is not to manufacture blessing but to allow blessing to flow through us.

In the words of that wonderful writer Simone Weil, “Grace fills empty spaces, but it can only enter where there is a void to receive it.”

Simone Weil, author of Gravity and Grace (La Pesanteur et la Grâce)

As doctors we often focus, quite rightly, on acquiring knowledge and technical skill. We should. Lives depend upon it. But after decades of practice I have come to believe that patients receive far more than our nostrums, remedies and prescriptions. They experience our presence. They sense whether we are hurried or attentive, anxious or calm, judgmental or accepting. They notice whether we see a diagnosis or a fellow human being.

In that sense, every consultation becomes much more than an exchange of information. It becomes an encounter between two people, each bringing something invisible into the room.

Could that invisible quality itself be therapeutic?

This idea resonates with something I have gradually learned over the years. Presence is not a technique. It cannot be faked. It arises naturally when we ourselves have become more peaceful, more compassionate and more accepting. Patients recognize authenticity with astonishing accuracy.

Perhaps this explains why some healers accomplish far more than their technical abilities alone would predict. Their knowledge matters, of course, but it is accompanied by something less easily measured. Their very presence reassures. Their confidence steadies frightened minds. Their compassion eases suffering that no drug can reach.

Looking back, I wonder whether grace may indeed be an Eleventh Level of Healing?

If that is true, then the greatest calling of a healer is not merely to become more knowledgeable, although knowledge remains essential. It is not merely to become more skillful, although skill saves lives. It is to become the kind of person whose presence itself carries hope.

When patients leave our consulting rooms, they may remember very little of the technical explanation we gave them. They are much more likely to remember how we made them feel. Did they feel heard? Did they feel valued? Did they leave with a little more courage than they brought with them?

Perhaps that, too, is healing.

And perhaps grace, unlike almost everything else in this world, does not diminish when it is shared. Like the flame of a candle lighting another candle, nothing is lost. Instead, there is simply more light.

If so, then every encounter with another human being becomes an opportunity. Not necessarily to solve every problem or remove every pain, but to leave that person carrying a little more hope, a little more joy and a little more sense of their own worth than when they first arrived.

From C. S. Lewis: “Joy is the serious business of Heaven.”

From Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: “Joy is the infallible sign of the presence of God.”

And from Mother Teresa: “Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier.”

For me, that is an inspiring thought. It also places a gentle responsibility upon all of us who seek to heal. Our greatest contribution may ultimately be not only what we know, but who we have become.

In the end, perhaps healing is not simply something we do. It is something we become. And if, by God’s grace, our own lives have become a little more peaceful, a little more joyful and a little more loving, then perhaps those who meet us may leave carrying something of that blessing with them. 

That, I believe, is healing by grace.

To your good health,Prof. Keith Scott-Mumby
The Official Alternative Doctor

PS Level 10, if you are intrigued, is DEATH. That great humanitarian Bernie Siegel described death for suffering cancer patients as “a form of healing”.