(Written by  David Yeung  and translated to English by Eugene Wing-King in Toronto)

A Record of My Self-treatment of Shingles:

Last year I have written two articles titled “ A Record on My Self-treatment of [Unbalanced Ear Fluid]” and “Continued Narrative of My Self-treatment of [Unbalanced Ear Fluid]” (issued on October 21 and November 3, 2020 respectively) which described how the actions of life instinct were unleashed completely and comprehensively due to meditation, healing illness and breakdown of the body.  By continuing to meditate, life instinct will exert its actions to protect and maintain one’s physical and mental health.  During the course of my meditation, this instinct has manifested its power many times.  The following is a description of one of my life instinct experiences many years ago.

I recall that on a certain day in February 2014, there was a palm-sized area on the side of my waist near the navel that suddenly felt unusually sensitive. This sensitivity gradually becomes stronger.  I felt an intense feeling of electric shock when my skin rubbed slightly against my clothes, when the water pressure and temperature during a shower irritated the spot, etc.  The painful sensation can be felt directly from the skin to the body making me jump up.  This sensitivity gradually became stronger.  Even without external stimulation, the extremely sensitive feeling continued, which made me very uncomfortable.  There was a red rash that looked like measles which, when touched, felt hot.  This was a symptom I had never experienced in my life.  According to my knowledge, I suspected that this is what the traditional Chinese medicine called “Snake-like Sore”.  I had listened in on adult conversation when I was a child about the “snake”.  One of the saying was that the “snake” grew on the waist.  It then moved around the waist.  If the “snake” completed one round of the abdomen, there would be no cure.  The way to deal with it was to burn the snake head and snake eyes with incense.  If the “snake” was burned to death, the disease could be cured.  Another saying was that one required to locate the head of the “snake” and used real human hair to tie the head tightly to block its path.  It was only then that one could start treating the patient to heal.  At that time, I thought the disease was mysterious and interesting, but I did not foresee that I would contract it at this time!  So I immediately went to the Internet to search for information.  There are tremendous amount of information on the Internet.  Allow me to briefly describe here:  In western medicine, “Snake-like Sore” is called “herpes zoster” and commonly known as “shingles”.  It is a viral disease.  Shingles is due to a reactivation of varicella zoster virus (VZV) in a person’s body.  The initial infection with VZV causes chickenpox.  Once chickenpox has resolved, the virus may remain inactive in nerve cells.  When it reactivates, it travel from the nerve body to the endings in the skin, hence the name “snake” in Chinese medicine.  When the virus reaches the skin, it produces blisters.  To deal with the disease, Chinese medicine and western medicine have their own treatment methods:  The treatment of Chinese medicine includes herbal soup to expel cold and dampness, Chinese medicine for heat-clearing and detoxification, washing the blisters with decoction, hot needle moxibustion therapy, cupping therapy etc.  Western medicine will administer specific drugs.  The best time to administer such drugs is within 48 hours after the onset of the shingles.  The drugs can quickly suppress the virus, control the growth of rash, and reduce the chance of post-neuralgia.  It is recommended that the patient be treated as soon as possible within 72 hours after the illness.  Although the treatment methods of Chinese and Western medicine are quite different, it is a common view to strive for the treatment as soon as possible.

Let’s get back to the subject.  At that time, when I realized that I had the symptoms of shingles, I felt that I could take this opportunity to explore the effect of meditation on this disease.  So I was not in a hurry to seek medical treatment, but increase my practice of meditation.  After about a week, the waist remained extremely sensitive, but fortunately there was no pain.  However, the rashes seemed to be worsening.  They were generating redness and heat.  The only thing I could do then was to continue meditating.  After another two days, there was a sudden strange sensation on the left forehead with a slight itching.  When checking with a mirror, I found there was an area of about 2 by 3 square inches with rash spots.  One or two days later, blisters appeared on the skin surface.  After another one or two days, the blisters clearly had swelled, but the sensitivity of the waist was slightly reduced.  The rash showed signs of shrinking back slightly.  I knew that the blisters were toxins discharged from the body, and thought it was time to go to the family doctor for formal examination and treatment.  I immediately call the doctor for an appointment.

The doctor carefully checked the condition of my forehead.  He couldn't tell what it was.  I asked him if it was shingles.  He said it didn’t seem to be because shingles rarely appeared in that part of the body and the blisters did not look like shingles.  He said it might be that I had touched something and then causing skin allergy at that spot.  After that, he prepared to prescribe me with drugs, saying that I need to take one medicine orally and apply another one on my skin.  I believe the drugs that the doctor wanted me to take were antibiotics in nature.  I therefore suggested him to prescribe me with ointment for lip herpes first to see the result before prescribing other medicines.  The doctor was kind enough to follow my suggestion and prescribed Zovirax Cream (Acyclovir Cream, 5%) for me.

I went home and applied the ointment according to the prescription.  After a day or two, the blisters on my forehead began to shrink and diminish.  Few more days later, the area dried up and became scab.  This patch of scabbed skin appeared like a pale red birth mark which looked very similar to the birth mark of the former Soviet Prime Minister Gorbachev on his forehead.  Unfortunately, no photo was taken at that time.  After many days later, the scabs and dry skin were completely fell off.  The waist sensitivity and rash disappeared, and my health returned to normal.

In this incident, I have again experienced the actions of the life instinct which expelled the virus that invaded the nervous system through the relative small number of nerves on the forehead stopping the virus from causing great harm to my body. 

The above narrative describes how I used meditation to fight diseases.  It shows that meditation can make a person change from within, strengthen physical fitness, and enhance disease resistance.  When life instinct manifests itself, our physical and mental health can be maintained.  It is the physical evidence that “all-stages meditation” is the way for human beings to be self-reliant.

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Disclaimer: The above is a description of myself, as the instructor of All-stages Meditation and the promoter of “Self-awareness of Consciousness” Movement and based on my comprehension of the principles of meditation and my understanding of life, choosing not to seek medical treatment and medication immediately, but to face this disease with meditation.  This way of handling is purely my personal decision, in order to explore and study health and disease issues and the principles of meditation.  I am only responsible for my own choices and health.  I have no intention to instruct, suggest, encourage, abet or influence anyone to imitate this practice.  The effectiveness of meditation and the ability to fight diseases depend on the level and achievement of each person's meditation practice. Not everyone can achieve this.  I (Teacher Yeung) do not encourage students or anyone to give up traditional treatment.  (-- Mr. David Yeung)