Let's take a respite from Lourdes... sexual slavery awareness post

I am addicted to audiobooks as my Los Angeles commute can take anywhere from 45 minutes to 1.5 hours at times and unless i have a good story playing on the radio i risk shooting the other drivers :D. I already told my husband i am leaving him during the week and renting an apartment close to work and somehow he didn’t find that funny ha ha.

Anyway, last week, in a rare change in schedules, my husband had to stay at work for another hour over his regular time. Great! I didn't have to pick him out right away after my own work day ended. An hour to kill gave me the perfect opportunity to stop by one of my favorite Los Angeles playgrounds: the downtown Los Angeles City public library. I love the "Popular Library" section in particular because it is all audiobooks and movies. I usually order my audiobooks to be delivered to the branch closest to work, but that means i have to know what i want. The local branch has only a handful of audiobooks and I have been trhough all of them. I go online and look at titles but browsing online is not half as efficient and not near as much fun as to being in front of hundreds of titles. I read the backs without having to wait for the screen to change, i flip the CDs to make sure they are in good shape, look at the art, the face of the author in the back... I have a lot of fun. Hmmm... I actually don't understand electronic readers either. How can you not miss the feel of the actual paper. Yes, audiobooks have no paper, but listening to the excellent actors simply makes the stories real. So, there i was, at the popular library with like five titles under my arm when i saw Somaly Mam's "The road of lost innocence." I already had another non-fiction title "Stolen Innocence" about a girl forcibly married to her first cousin when she was just 14 and living under the rule of the Fundamentalist Church of Later Day Saints. Somaly on the other hand, was sold as a sex slave at age 16 in Cambodia but the book summary said that Somaly now helps such young girls rehabilitate and have a better life. I had my hands full, but i took Somaly's book as well. No shopping bags at the library... i carried everything to the car... slowly.

Elissa's recount is riveting and totally enticing. I was really moved by the way she made me respect the people of that strange religion when at first i thought i would just hate their ignorance and horrible treatment of young girls. But Elissa not only tells her story, she tells the life of her people. I had read another similar book by Carolyn Jessop, another really young bride under the FLDS church (for short) and so i knew a little about the subject. But Elissa expands her account to include more of the day to day in the religion, the feelings, the love. She sued "The Prophet" Warren Jeffs, and won. A really interesting, painful but full of courage story.

Time to start Somaly's book . I was just not prepared for such material. Somaly is a woman who has endured unspeakable hardships from poverty to torture to total dehumanization. Even Elissa's troubles seemed small compared to what Somaly recounts: "yes i suffered torture, slavery, etc., but it was better back then, we see much more horrible things happen to girls as young as 5 or 6 nowadays" [not a direct quote but Somaly's words are similar]. The everyday life of these children is not something people can even fathom. The torture is mental, physical, sexual and a daily routine. How do they survive for so long? How can their bodies and minds not simply shut down and kill them somehow?

I felt like a cry baby after I listened to her story. If this woman survived such horror, thrived and is now helping others escape her fate, how can I even complain about my life????? I can tell you, Somaly made me wake up this morning and tell myself "get off of bed and stop complaining."

I invite you to read/listen to her story. You can also check her website, just google her name. She has a store dedicated to raising funds to save the girls but also hope to change the way the government of Cambodia rules over the perpetrators of this cruelty. I saw some neat items on Somaly's website but I found them sort of prohibitive in price. However, anybody can still donate a few bucks or just buy the book the help out.

Child slavery, abuse and sexual exploitation is never a nice subject. But i believe we are better off knowing this exist and maybe, just letting people be aware of this evil, things can get better.

If you read the book or has read the book make sure you comment here!

Looking for healing… energy healing.

As a college educated woman, still en her early 30s, a modern person by most accounts, I trusted the western medical establishment with my mental health problems. As you probably read in my book, my doctor told me “I am going to give you a very good medicine.” Unfortunately, while the honeymoon with Paxil was very sweet, it was short lived. Even worse, the separation proved to be painful, ravaging and very scary.
I was lucky to find the amino acid therapy which didn’t stop the paxil withdrawal, but gave me enough confidence and hope that it could eventually kick in and help me feel better. When the amino acid therapy proved not to be the answer to paxil withdrawal, my next life line was www.paxilprogress.org. The people in this support group not only gave comforting words, they knew very well what they were talking about: paxil withdrawal is hardly treatable. The only treatment is time as the brain heals and the body learns to once again live without paxil.
Natural medication was pumping in my system already in the form of powerful amino acids as well as all sorts of things I found at paxilprogress such as valerian root for anxiety and sleep, magnesium supplementation etc. On the other hand, I was afraid of acupuncture since some of the paxiprogress people had reported adverse reactions to it. Still, I was very sick and in desperation, I once again looked online for help. I found the word “healing” in one other very different route: energy healing.
I had been away from my religion for a while. I am catholic but hardly attend church or practiced in any way other than daily praying and faithful following to Virgen of Guadalupe. I was not against my church, just not practicing at the time. I believe in God and hold the opinion that all religions lead to the same conclusion: be good, be calm, be kind, work hard, and everything will be fine. So, when I found the words “energy healing” in a Buddhist’s temple website next to the word “free” and an address only a couple miles from my home, I looked up the schedule and drove myself to the place that same night.
I had read a little about energy healing and in previous years I even checked out some books from the library on healing energy. I got very interested in Prantic Healing from the book “Your Hands Can Heal You” since the author, Master Stephen Co had a whimsical approach to his teaching. It was not religious teachings but it still emphasized kindness to the world and help from the divine. I didn’t read much of the book but I immediately liked his approach to healing being a mix of chakra healing, laying of the hands and meditation for the good of the world as a means of helping ourselves and others to heal. I also was attracted by the fact that his school was located on Chino Hills, California, 10 miles away from my home to the east, a convenient location given Los Angeles’ distances and traffic. Most meditation, yoga, healing, etc., places in Los Angeles area are located in West Los Angeles County in vicinities such as Santa Monica, Venice, North Hollywood etc. Given the Los Angeles traffic, the locations are simply prohibitive for most of the East Angelenos like me. At the time, I thought of registering for some classes at Master Stephen Co’s school, but I simply got lazy and didn’t do it.
Now, I needed a lot of help. I was suffering so I was willing to try anything. I presented myself at the Dari Rulai Temple in La Puente California on an October evening at 7:00 pm at which time free energy healings where given. I found the place located in a heavily industrial area, tucked away in a small street on an unattractive row shopping/industrial center. I was ready to leave since it was dark and saw no movement nor traffic going in/out the shopping center nor even the street. But I saw light inside the corner space and some movement. So… I entered. I young man opened the door and presented himself as the assistant abbot. I told him why I was there and he told me they were about to start. At this point I followed instructions to remove my shoes and entered the actual temple from the entrance hallway and saw… nobody. Behind me, the abbot welcome me while his assistant gave me 5-6 pages on healing and one where I would sign that they were not medical doctors nor substitutes for one. When they were ready, they asked me what the problem was. I simply said “withdrawal from prescription medication.” I am sure they thought I was a junkie but they made no further comment. They sat me on a chair, asked me to close my eyes and relax… for 30 minutes. I was in the midst of the worst anxiety I had had in years, the flu like symptoms where really bad, but somehow I managed to sit quietly and not open my eyes for the duration.
What did it feel like? Nothing really, I could hear the sounds of both men moving around me as well as the tape being played where a man shouted Chinese words against a background of chirping birds. The smell of incense was strong and the beating of bead one against other kept popping in my ears. Inside me, I prayed my childhood’s prayers in support of what the abbots were doing. I started feeling really heavy and at the end, just grateful for the time the abbots have given me. I left promising to come back and report on my condition. On my way home, a cold wind started swirling in my belly going up my chest and downing my arms. I thought it was just a chill from the anxiety… but later when the same exact chill came back after each healing, I learned to recognize it as the energy moved inside my body by the efforts of the healer.
I went back to the temple another couple of times; I purchased a meditation CD as a way to supply some funds to their efforts. “This is ancient meditaion, no new age stuff” the abbot told me, preparing me for the challenge I had ahead. It was not going to be fun, it was going to be work. I have done de CD about 3-4 times and it is intriguing since it claims to increase calcium inside the body without any supplements. The abbot told me women need calcium in order to support healing, so I chose the Calcium Enrighment CD and gave it a try. On Sunday healings I actually saw more people going to the temple and I even sat through one of their other Buddhists ceremonies. I was comfortable with the abbots and the people. I met a Mexican lady who was dressed in the traditional Buddhists robes and we talked for a while. I saw entire families coming in… but never more than about 20 people at the time. The temple itself is small and can accommodate about 30-40 people only. But the striking thing is the fact that the healings are free. All other healers I had contacted would charge from $50-200 per hour of work. One offered a ½ hour session of distant healing for free. I went to my bed and lie down meditating on healing at the hour we had agreed. I thanked him but since I am in no position to pay for further work, our communications stopped there. I only remember how really sick I was that evening and how I was not able to be very calm at all. But I quietly thanked this man’s efforts as well.
The Buddhist abbots took the time to talk to me about what they do, how to approach the altar, how to make a contribution to the temple etc. At this point I hadn’t told anybody about my healings simply because they are too “weird” for my very earthly husband, father, siblings… but not so much my mother. Still I wanted to try the experience and report later if necessary. I knew that if my husband found out that I was spending time with two men in some dark La Puente street by myself… he would find it highly questionable. Not that my husband would be jealous per se, he would just deem the whole thing really unsafe and maybe even crazy.
Eventually I did tell my mother. Her family have a few members who practiced spells and other works of magic. Hence, she is more open to energy, chakra, spiritual and magic talk. She smiled and told me in no uncertain terms that my next healing would take place at our own catholic church. The same priest who tied the knot between my husband and me was organizing healing masses and laying of the hands for people. No problem I said. What I found on my own church was a similar experience as with the Buddhist monks… with a twist.
Stay tuned for Catholic Laying of the Hands healing on my next posting.