Walking Your Talk

Dr. O. Carl Simonton is dead. He's been dead since late June, but I only now found out.

I was Googling people who have been influential in my life: Joanna Bull, Howard Benjamin, Carl Simonton and others, to see what they are doing now. Carl is not doing much on this earthly plane, but believe me, he is sharing his wisdom in the great byond.

Carl Simonton was an early pioneer in the mind-body movement; convinced that the mind could, and did, effect the body's repsonse to healing and that by visualizing unhealthy cells being overtaken by healthy ones, patients could affect the course of their treatment and ultimately, the disease itself. Carl had a reputation as a kind of freak back in the seventies by the medical community, when he first went public with his ideas.

In the late eighties I brought him in to do a weekend workshop for the cancer patients I was working with at the time. It was a big deal to have someone of his stature in our community, and a real stretch for my organization's budget. But I knew I had to have him come and share.

For three days Carl publicly gave us hope, permission and techniques for healing. He privately provided me with words of wisdom as I would drive him back and forth to the workshop and media appearances. "The body needs a balance between work and play," he would tell me. "I can tell you are working too hard. Take Monday and Tuesday off since you will have worked all weekend." What? That concept was unheard of to me, but Simonton backed it up by informing me that he would be sailing his boat for 2 days, when he got home. He too, would have worked the whole weekend.

Dr. O. Carl Simonton walked his talk and that made an impression on me. He parlayed his thoughts into the ground-breaking book, Getting Well Again, and helped thousands of cancer patients around the world through his presentations and week-long group sessions at the Simonton Cancer Center.

His heart and his work will be long remembered by many.