Jerry Hicks Undergoing Chemotherapy

"In reality, we have never encouraged Jerry or Esther to take any sort of medication or medical treatment because we know it is easier to teach them with what they know how to find their vibrational harmony with energy." - Abraham Hicks 03/02/1997 San Francisco, CA

Over the past few weeks, Esther and Jerry have had to cancel several workshops, including ones in Atlanta, Boston, and Kansas City. Initially, a brief letter on the Abraham Hicks website reported that the cancellations involved a "a spider bite that Jerry got in Florida." The latest update reveals that Jerry has been undergoing a 28-day chemotherapy treatment. In Jerry's letter, he says this had something to do with blood tests that showed his "white blood cell count was extremely exaggerated." He does not confirm whether this was related to the spider bite he initially believed he had or if the supposed bite was just his reason for performing the blood tests.

Some—but certainly not all—Abraham Hicks supporters will be put-off by this. After all, Abraham has been telling Esther and Jerry (and everyone else) for years that they can achieve perfect physical well-being by aligning their thoughts with their desire to be well. They have even purported, "You could have every deadly disease known to man, within you, today, and if you chose different feeling thoughts tomorrow, they would all leave your body." Despite over 25 years of actively promoting this idea of being able to align one's body solely through changing the way you think, Jerry was unable to utilize Abraham's advice and processes to transform this situation overnight or even to come back into alignment without the assistance of conventional medicine. Though Jerry chose to receive conventional medical treatment, he is doing his best to make his situation appear to match Abraham’s victim-blaming philosophy by accepting his part in attracting the experience. In his letter, he writes, "Abraham and I have discussed the chain of thought that brought this about and I’m satisfied that I’m not going to do that again." He also works to downplay what he refers to as “heavy chemotherapy” by calling it the “big guns” and suggesting it is a part of his “path of least resistance.”

As far as we know, he still only has 10 days of chemotherapy remaining. While he's recovering, Esther plans to continue the Abraham Hicks Vortex of Attraction Live Stamford, CT workshop solo. This will be the first time I've heard Esther on her own since her interview with Oprah Winfrey. In the meantime, this will hopefully convince those who listen to Abraham that the Abraham materials are not good alternatives to conventional medicine.

* My friend Dave Stone covers this latest news in his article Death of Abraham Hicks, Esther and Jerry Hicks' Creation. And Cosmic Connie has a brilliant article on it entitled Jerry Hicks on chemo: Abrahamscam gets a little help from Western medicine.
* CORRECTION: Initially when I posted this, I referred to conventional medicine as traditional medicine. To my shame and embarassment, these are two different things. Traditional medicine refers to things like acupuncture, chiropractice, and things of that nature. Conventional medicine refers to modern, western medicine. I was meaning to refer to conventional medicine (not traditional medicine). My comments below reflect the error, so please replace instances of "traditional" with "conventional" and properly shame me for this instance of clear stupidity. Thank you, xoxo kyra

Where Angels Go To Die: Faith Healing

I was watching Lisa Ling's Our America. It was an episode on faith healing, an industry notorious for charlatanry and corruption. Skeptical from the beginning (particularly when Ling said that she planned on taking a very unscientific approach on the subject), I found myself pleasantly surprised. There were no "I can walk!", "I can see!", or "I can hear!" moments. In fact, at the end, (spoiler alert) Ling acknowledges that Steve (a paralyzed man she was chronicling) and the woman with cancer (the mother of two other women featured in the show) had no noticeable physical benefits from attending the faith healing event. While Ling does not use this fact to deny the usefulness of faith healing (and in fact, ends suggesting that there are other benefits to the "hope" faith healing provides), the episode brought up an issue that--to me--is more problematic than the ineffectiveness of faith healing.

The two women, who's mother has been diagnosed with cancer, believe that when they bring their mother to the faith healing event, she will be healed by God. When Ling inquires as to why they are not opting for medical treatment, they explain that they can no longer afford the chemotherapy. Having personally known others who have found themselves in similar situations (delaying or avoiding treatment because of the cost), I was able to really relate to their situation. Here were people who had been perfectly willing to go the route of conventional, effective treatment, but because of their financial situation, had been unable to do so. Similarly Steve, the paralyzed man featured in the episode, could not receive any major benefit from the medical community. They could not make him walk again. They could not fix him. In fact, as he even mentions, it is really expensive to be paralyzed.

Both stories pointed out a glaring issue---not in the world of faith healing--but in the way America deals with the sick. In this nation (as in all of them), there is a high price to health. This leads many to seek out alternative, cheaper forms of treatment. Here are people, at the what may very well be the most difficult point of their lives, and they are grasping at straws, reaching for someone or something that can give them hope. And the predators of quackery come out of the woodwork. They market themselves to these desperate people. They prey on their weakness and take what money they have left. And of course, I fuss at the charlatans, because it isn't right what they are doing, but at the same time, shouldn't I be fussing at the medical community for denying wellbeing to those who cannot afford it?

I am by no means trying to suggest that there is any value to turning to faith healing. In fact, I think going down that path offers more harm than any benefit it could ever offer. I'm also not saying that there will not always be those who will turn away from medicine for religious reasons. However, good people, who cannot afford to be well, find themselves spending their last moments kneeling before charlatans and con artists. And it will continue to be this way until we find a way to make medical treatment easily and readily available to anyone who needs it. I'll admit that it is getting better, but it's certainly not good enough. And until we, as a people, can offer medical treatment to all, we will have to remain helpless witnesses to the weak as they spend their last days pleading to God and hucksters for a cure.