February, 1989 GAY PEOPLES CHRONICLE Page 9

ves, healing our planet

we call them survivors, because they have caused their own healing. They are in charge of facilitating the healing in their lives. We used to believe that doctors, therapists, surgeons, and pills cured us. Now we know that cures don't exist. To look outward is dependent and counterproductive. Healing means to turn inward, to see inwardly, to truly make a commitment to ourselves. Healing means to become whole within ourselves.

Holistic medicine is one adjunct program many PWAS choose to begin the healing process. Nutritional therapy may include vitamin C, E, and A, beta carotene and Kyolic garlic. Or it may include zinc, iron, magnesium, copper, selenium, lithium, egg-derived lecithm and speculina. The Japanese suggest shitake mushrooms, green tea, abalone. Herbs and homeopathic are recommended

also

But just eliminating junk food, sugar, caffeine and eating a balanced diet can't hurt either.

More rest, reducing high-level stressors, exercise---all of these are important. But learning mindfulness or meditation is the framework within which all of this works effortlessly and harmoniously. "Prayer is talking; meditation is listening." Meditation is the path to discovery of the self. There

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are many methods of learning meditation. Any one you choose that works for you is fine. The freeing of your mind from judgement and from mindlessness, the state in which the mind is in many places at once is a liberating experience. And, of course, creative visualization is an important healing tool as well. Creating a safe place to go to in your mind whenever you need to is very valuable.

Also imagining healthy cells devouring unhealthy cells or simply visualizing a high level state of well being for yourself every day creates a new reality of empowerment and being in control.

Bodywork, touching and being touched, is essential to well being. Reiki, psychic message, or just a good 15 minute rub down promotes wellness and eliminates the epidemic of touch deprivation, that all of us, especially those who are ill, suffer from.

Louise Hay teaches the art of affirmation. Affirmations are statements not yet true when you just them. These are a few examples: "I am willing to forgive," "My T-cell count goes up every day," "I love my body and allow it to heal." You must say them and/or write them many times in order to allow them to become the truth for you. Also, Hay tells us that "mirror

Photo by Drew Cari

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Judy Rainbrook accepts award from Martha Pontoni at the Community Service Awards

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Photo by Brian DeWitt

work" is very important. Sit in front of a mirror, look into your own eyes lovingly, and say "I love you, I really love you." Or "I love you. What can I do for you today to make you happy?" Or "thank you." Or looking into your eyes again, and say, "I forgive you, and I love you." You can also carry on loving conversations with yourself as awkward as this may seem at first. The mirror may also be a way to complete old relationships, for telling people things it may be too scary now or inappropriate to say in person.

All of this work is very important for self-healing to take place. However, it is essential to remember that medical treatment may also be very important. All of these treatments are adjunct to each other. Each individual must choose which treatments are appropriate. Be open to the possibilities of all of them including the more traditional methods when appropriate for you.

Lynn Andrews, another well-know new age shaman, speaks of the teachings of Agnes Whistling Elk, an Indian medicine woman. Agnes told her, "We come into this earth plane like a piece of smashed mirror. Each piece reflects the light of the Great Spirit. Because it is a smashed mirror, we're in fragments. In the process of putting those fragments together, like pieces of a puzzle, we are able to learn our life lessons." Lynn came to understand this by responding, "How do you see who you are? By making an act of beauty, an act of power, a mirror of who I am. You have to create something in the world that shines back when you look at yourself." Maybe as we look in the mirror every morning as we get up and every evening before going to sleep, what we begin to see is what we have created---a perfect, whole, no longer

fragmented reflection of our selves. We are healing our lives every day. With rituals of self-healing and empowerment, we are healing the world.

"The point of power is in the present moment. We are safe, and all is well in our world. With love we shall find the answers."

Suggested reading:

Badgeley, Lawrence E. M.D., Healing AIDS Naturally: Natural Therapies for the Immune System Bamforth Nick, AIDS and the Healer Within

Bateson, Mary Catherine, Ph.D.,

Thinking of AIDS: The Social Response to the Biological Threat Borysenko, Joan, Ph.D., Minding the Body, Mending the Mind Fields, Rick, Chop Wood, Carry Water Fortunate, Jon P., AIDS; The Spiritual Dilemma

Gawain Shakti, Creative Visualization, Living in the Light

Hay, Louise, You Can Heal Your Life, and, The AIDS Book: Creating a Positive Approach Levine, Stephen, Ph.D., A Gradual Awakening; Healing into Life and Death; Meetings at the Edge; and, Who Dies? Matthews-Simonton, Stephenie, and Simonton, O. Carl, M.D., Getting Well Again

Perl, Sheri, Healing From the Inside Out

Ram, Dass, Grist for the Mill, and, The Journey of Awakening Siegel, Bernie, M.D. Love, Medicine and Miracles

Sontag Susan, AIDS and its Metaphors, and, Illness as Metaphor Weinman, Ric, You Can Heal With Your Hands

Gay man sues West Point

A man who was forced out of the U.S. Naval Academy because he is gay is suing the academy.

Joseph Steffan, a highly commended midshipman, was forced to resign less than two months before he was to graduate and receive his commission in the U.S. Navy solely because he is gay, states the suit filed last month by Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund.

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At the time of his forced separation, the complaint alleges, Steffan a battalion commander and member of the Brigade staff, a position that belongs to a very select group of the highest ranking senior midshipmen at the academy. Steffan also had an outstanding academic and military record and would have graduated in the top ten percent of his class had he not been recommended for discharge two months before graduation.

In mid-March of 1987, Steffan learned from a fellow midshipman that he was under investigation by the Naval Investigative Service for homosexuality. Though he never received notice of an official investigation, Steffan asked to meet with the Superintendent of the Naval Academy to request that he be allowed to graduate. The request was denied and the matter submitted to the Academic and Performance Boards. Both boards recommended Steffan's discharge for "insufficient aptitude" based solely on his admission that he was gay. No consideration was paid to

Steffan's nearly four years of outstanding academic, military, or service record at the academy.

Having been told several times that appeal of the Board's recommendations of discharge would be futile, Steffan was left with the choice of either resigning or being discharged. Not wanting to carry the stigma of a discharge, Steffan made the painful decision to resign from the Naval Academy on April 1, 1987.

"Joseph Steffan's distinguished record of achievement was totally unblemished" said Sandra J. Lowe, the Lambda staff attorney representing Steffan. "He was a class service leader, a military leader, and was ranked in the top of his class academically. In every way, he was and is the best that the Naval Academy has to offer."

"The lesbian and gay community must forcefully continue its fight against the most homophobic institution in our society: the armed services," noted Paula L. Ettelbrick, Lambda's legal director. "For too long the courts have tolerated and encouraged the military's discriminatory policies, though recent victories in this context give us hope that the tide may be changing.

In his suit Mr. Steffan charges that his forced resignation violated his rights to speech, association, equal protection and due process. He requests his diploma and his commission in the United States Navy.▼

TV lesbian needs our support

Heart/Beat, a TV series set in a women's medical center, has positively portrayed an openly lesbian character, Marilyn. The show deals with her relationships and with her daughters' attitudes. However, ABC and producer Aaron Spelling have been receiving 1400 to 1800 letters a week demanding that the lesbian character be removed. A positive response from the lesbian-gay community is needed to

combat these letters and save one of the only positive, openly lesbian characters on prime-time TV. Write Aaron Spelling Productions, Warner/Hollywood Studios, 1041 North Formosa Avenue, Los Angeles CA, 90046, and to ABC-TV, 1330 Avenue of the Americas, New York. NY, 10019.

News

Reprinted from Stonewall Union