Personal Advice on Recuperating from Surgery from Carol and Florinda
Table of contents
Background: Hernia Surgery that Kept me Out of Sunday with Castaneda
Back when I was attending Cleargreen night sessions with Castaneda regularly (as well as Sunday Group meetings), I had hernia surgery that caused me to miss a few sessions, beginning with the one on March 12, 1997. Following the surgery, I received telephone calls at home from both Carol Tiggs and Florinda Donner. During these conversations with Carol and Florinda, they were concerned about my condition and offered their advice on healing, and even using the situation to my advantage.
I have never publicly reported anything about those conversations before, but I think they give a little window of insight on what it was like being connected to Castaneda world. Their specific advice on using energy in healing oneself and using recuperation time to recapitulate may also be of interest to those who follow Castaneda recommended practices.
Illness or Medical Conditions in Castaneda World
It was always a concern to them when someone in their group was ill or had a physical condition. In the case of Tycho, the Orange Scout, for example, her worsening health condition eventually led her to be expelled from the group, with a monetary payment. Castaneda often talked about his own physical conditions, past and present, and what he had done or was doing to overcome them. He had shared in Sunday and night sessions about having had hernia surgery, so when I needed one too, he was very solicitous with concern and advice.
When Castaneda asked where I was that Wednesday night after I had surgery, Ellis and another Sunday group member told him I had my surgery that day. He remembered I’d had one scheduled. He indicated he was concerned about which kind of screen they had used to patch up the hernia. Ellis couldn’t tell him which one it was as she didn’t know. Nyei indicated she was grossed out listening to his explanation of the surgery. Castaneda mentioned that in my case it was a congenital condition–I had told him both my parents had had it–so he commented, “So it’s like that. That’s all you can do.”
First Call from Carol Tiggs
Homeopathic Remedies
A couple of days later, I received a call at home from Carol Tiggs. She was certified as an acupuncturist and had studied homeopathy. She advised me on homeopathic stuff to take for after surgery, including one in particular to take for abdominal pain and scarring. Arnica, gelsemium supervirnus, and nox vomica were for post surgery, she said, and the one for scars was staphisigryia.
She had a lot of other advice, including that the benefit of this kind of thing happening was that it’s an interruption in your life that can help bring silence. She recommended recapitulating all the illnesses and surgery in my life and in my family.
Carol asked me what other surgeries I’d had. I told her about a urinary tract blockage I’d had surgery for years before (which it turned out was a surgery both my father and grandfather had needed too). She suggested I “scan” (like an internet search) all comments related to illness and conditions that one has to have, or related to the family. She could just “hear” that being the “Jennings problem” (the urinary tract surgery).
Carol asked what kind of people my family were, and if I’d been very athletic growing up. I said no, quite the opposite, that Tensegrity was a major “not doing” for me. Carol asked if my family were “thinkers.” I said no, primarily TV watchers and politically oriented. She said we need to “remake our patterns” and “bring the energy into the whole body.”
Fuzzy Search; Exhalation Exercises
She said she liked the term “fuzzy search”: “if we keep it open it pulls up things that we may not even be thinking of.” She said this was “a time to remorph oneself,” like computerized pictures. Carol advised to visualize increasing circulation and increasing my awareness to a particular area. She asked if I felt cold very easily. I responded yes. She said that was a sign that one’s energy had a tendency to stagnate.
Carol advised it would be well for me to do lots of the exhalation exercises, counting three times more for the exhale than the inhale takes. She also said to visualize doing them in my head, even if I couldn’t do them physically, to “help send the energy there.”
Increasing Energy to Specific Areas of the Body
Carol explained that basically what I needed to do was increase the “energy,” or “intent,” or “ch’i” in areas of my body. For now I could “think about the left side.” She said when she needs to recover from something physical, she imagines herself “in a hot pool, feeling the body as a whole unit rather than isolating the injured part.” She told me that I had a great ability to organize and conceptualize, and that I needed to bring that talent into my body, that “the tissues and cells could take that and use that.”
Carol said that later I could recapitulate the disappointment and fury at not having been prepared properly and not knowing what to expect from the surgery (I had told her I was suffering more pain and discomfort than I had ever experienced from a surgery before, and that I hadn’t been advised that might be the case). The bottom line was that, in the long run, I needed to “just become a story, empty.” She indicated she wanted to see me “become an explorer,” and to “get that ability to organize into my tissues.”
‘Sorcerers Use Everything‘
I said I thought there must be some sorceric value to this experience, and she repeated that, “Yes, sorcerers use everything that’s put in front of them, everything.” She said a hernia can be a “good bellwether or indicator of areas of tension.” She told me Castaneda used to get recurrent pains in that area when he got upset with her or tense about whatever she was doing. “He had to lose that tension in order to get rid of the pains in that area.” She said my body might be different, that I could find another area to do that with, but that that could be another use for it. She also said she would call the next day to check on me. I told her I was planning to go to Miles Reid the next day, to have him do some work on me.
Castaneda Tries to Get My Number
At the night session the next day, Castaneda talked about me again and said I better not being coming to class on Sunday. He said he’d been trying to get my telephone number from Ellis. He claimed he realized Ellis was “getting jealous,” that she thought he was “going to be taking Rich away from her.” So I didn’t find out about what he’d said until I got to class that Sunday.
Carol Calls Again
After that Sunday session, there was a message on my answering machine from Florinda. And about 6 PM, Carol called.
Carol said she’d heard I’d been to class that day and called me “a wild child.” She asked, “You didn’t do a lot of movements, did you?” I told her no, just the ones for the left side that were easy but that I couldn’t do the other ones for the legs. I just sat down during those. And I told her I wouldn’t be back for awhile until I could do the movements better.
Recapitulating When You Can’t Do Anything Else
She suggested that at this time, “when you can’t be doing anything, you can be recapping, you can be having your own ‘class.'” Carol thought maybe it was good I was there that day, both for the gorilla story he told, and because she knew he was going to talk about recapitulating.
She said the incision scar would be a goad to recapping, to getting past the family instilled stuff, and that as I was recapping I’d be “creating new cells to replace the old ones.”
Low Blood Pressure and Needing to ‘Awaken the Beast’
Carol asked me if I had high blood pressure or hypertension. I told her no, that normally I had regular blood pressure, although lately it had been a little on the low side. She asked me what my last numbers were, and I told her 98 over 66.
She said, “Well that’s low. In Western culture they like that, because they think you won’t have a heart attack or high blood pressure, but in Eastern medicine they see that as being sedentary, and lacking in ch’i. So that’s not good either. What we have to do with you is awaken the beast, meaning getting the circulation going. You need movement.”
She asked me if I had back problems. I told her I just had stiffness and soreness in my left shoulder. She said that was often accompanied by a problem with the hips as well, especially the opposite hip, the right hip. Carol recommended I have my knees and ankles checked too. She was glad I was going to Miles, and said I should have him “remake” me, or “get the jungle going.”
New Cells After a Recapitulation
The new cells that recapping would create “wouldn’t have that old history,” she claimed. She asked if I got a red face from exertion and movement. I said that I did (I didn’t tell her I also had Irish blood so that I got a red face from virtually anything). She asked about the arnica she had recommended. I told her I had felt better the night before after taking the amounts she had suggested. She wanted me to get a 6X strength, as well as the 30X.
Florinda Calls
About 7 PM, I heard from Florinda. She had told them when she was calling me that morning and I wasn’t home that she bet I was on my way to class. Both Carol and Ellis told her she was wrong, that they’d talked to me and that there was no way that I could be there, but she just figured I’d be “greedy,” though they wouldn’t believe her.
She wanted to know how I was. We talked about hernias and what they were related to. I told her Kathleen in the group said she had had it too, and how many people in my family had had it, but that I hadn’t even known until it happened to me. The only person I’d known prior to that who had had one was Castaneda.
She asked me if I had high blood pressure because I had a red face all the time. I told her I was one-quarter Irish and that always seemed to have been the case. I asked her if she had any Irish in her, because she reminded me of some of my Irish relatives and that was my favorite side of the family. She seemed to appreciate that.
Florinda Can’t Cook
She gave me her telephone number and said I could call her if I needed anything. She said she’d bring me chicken soup, but she said “No, you don’t want me to do that because I’ll probably poison you, because I can’t cook. So make sure I don’t bring you any food unless I buy it.”
She said to take it easy and not to do too much for awhile. Florinda said she looked forward to seeing me back soon, but told me not to push it. She didn’t think it would take that long. She asked about the stitches. I told her I was going to Miles.
Likelihood I Would Move On to Another Cause
She asked if I’d had more stress in my life lately. I said yes, for the past few months, because I was trying to figure out what to do with the activist organization dealing with LGBT and AIDS issues in the media that I ran. Since I had gotten involved with Castaneda, I wanted a lower profile. I wanted to move on from the organization I’d founded because I wasn’t so comfortable anymore being an out front gay activist in the media.
She responded that it didn’t matter so much the cause, because there were worthwhile things that were needed as far as gay rights. I responded yes, that I felt I could justify doing it. She said that it wasn’t justification. “You’re likely to go from this to another cause. It doesn’t so much matter what the cause is, as long as you’re being impeccable. You’re getting to the point that it doesn’t matter too much what you’re doing.”
Conclusion
I think these two conversations give a sense for how thoughtful both Carol and Florinda were to the people close to their group. At the time, these interactions reinforced for me the feeling I’d already developed that Castaneda and the group around him had become my “new family.” I was ready to follow my teacher, Castaneda, anywhere.
©️ 2024 by Richard Jennings, all rights reserved
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