Dannion
Brinkley,
Chairman of the
Board, Compassion in Action / The Twilight Brigade
To the
White House
Commission on Complementary
and Alternative Medicine Policy - December 6-7,
2001
As we end another year, it is important to see how far we
have come – to look at the distance traveled. Being a part of this ongoing
process, now since 1989 - literally on a daily basis because of my hospice work
and my own personal issues. It is important to look for that decisive moment
that will determine the point of reference this Commission will work from in
making its recommendations to the President. What is that decisive moment or
point in time that crystallizes and brings us together in order to make specific
recommendations on that multi-faceted, multi-dimensional world we call CAM?
I believe our President and First Lady have given us that
point. In the December 3, 2001, issue of Newsweek, there is an article that I
am including at the end of this testimony that I believe identifies this
decisive moment.
I’ll quote the most important part – it resonates with a
statement the CAM community frequently asks – “What is the role of prayer in
healing?”
“What’s the role of prayer and faith…?
MRS. BUSH: That’s very important to us, and
that’s where we get our strength. But that was very important to us before
September 11th, as well.
THE PRESIDENT: Prayer has
meant a lot to me. It meant a lot to me before, it means a heck of a lot now
because there’s a lot of people praying for me and I feel it. Truly.
You know, it’s something, I have never felt more confident about something in my
life. And I believe a lot of it has to do with the prayers of the people.”
One of the most important, and least accepted CAM areas is
the area of spirituality in medicine – of the frontier sciences. What some
people call prayer, Dr. Larry Dossey calls non-local healing, and Dr. Fred
Thaled calls willful conscious intent. It is an area that many of the
traditional systems of medicine have accepted for thousands of years and western
medicine tends to discount.
When you look at the definition of these words.
- Non - reverse of or absence of
- local - Of, relating to, or characteristic of a
particular place, of or affecting a specific part of the body
- healing - To restore to health or soundness; cure; to
restore (a person) to spiritual wholeness; To set right; repair
- Willful – deliberate, or done by design
- Conscious - Alert, Awake, Having an awareness of one's
environment and one's own existence, sensations, and thoughts
- Intent - The state of one's mind at the time one carries
out an action; something that is intended; an aim or purpose
And then add them into a phrase I think we find what the
“heart” of healing really is. With over 400 studies on how prayer including
laboratory research on the effects on yeast cultures and the power of prayer or
the use of prayer, including interesting studies from Princeton showing that
prayer can have an affect on the success rate of invitro fertilization. This
must become a strong point in what you as a commission bring forth as
recommendation to the President.
I can relate closely to the words of our President because
I too have felt the results of people’s prayers. Today, I cannot be with you
because I am going through a series of cardiovascular and neurological
procedures to first look at what is occurring to me from a conventional point of
view, so that I can determine how to treat my condition from an integrative
perspective. It seems as though as I am always having an up close and personal
reference to modern day medical procedures either in my work or on myself.
It is the very same situation I was in a few years ago that
I learned about the power of prayer first hand. My friends, the radio
personality, Art Bell and his wife Ramona came to be with me as I was
hospitalized in critical condition –having to go through brain surgery and
having a grand mal seizure. They went on the air and on the Internet and asked
the world to prayer for me. I not only felt that love and have been the
beneficiary of its healing power, I know that I would not have made it through
that medical crisis without the love and prayers.
I think that the President and First Lady in their
recognition of the importance and power of prayer have brought a defining moment
in our discussion about the need to integrate prayer/spirituality into
conventional medicine. Add to this good science which includes the work of
Dr. Larry Dossey, Dr. Daniel Benor, Dr. Fred Thaled, Dr. Beverly Rubik, Dr.
Wayne Jonas, Marilyn Schlitz and the Noetic Sciences, Institutes, the Templeton
Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation, and many others and we have a point
in which this entire discussion crystallizes.
Sister Charlotte is always reminding us – physical, mental,
AND spiritual are all components of healing. She is correct and I think each of
you truly knows this in your hearts - and I hope soon in your minds.
I continue to train my people in Compassion in Action – The
Twilight Brigade that therapeutic touch and prayer are a very active part of the
healing system in VA’s. There is no soldier that does not know the power of
prayer.
As you leave this week, one more meeting under your belt,
and you head into the holiday season, please remember that prayer is not only
very effective, but also quite cost effective. It takes only a little of your
time to make an enormous difference in the lives of people. On a personal note,
keeping all of this in mind. I ask you to pray for our servicemen and women who
today are in harms way, protecting our freedoms and the responsibilities that
come with being free.
And please pray for our veterans – those men and women who
have already “paid it forward!” They served our country and now they need us to
remember them. And also during this holiday season, think of some of the great
men and women who have served this country such as Strom Thurmond, Robert Dole,
Daniel Inouye, Tom Harkin, Orrin Hatch, Robert Byrd, Dan Burton, Lindsay Graham,
Barbara Mikulski, and their families.
And please during this holiday season, go visit a veteran
and tell them Dannion sent you!
You are all in my prayers. Happy holidays.
With Purpose,
Dannion Brinkley
Chairman of the
Board
Compassion in
Action
Attachments:
1: We Can Handle It
2: Pearl Harbor Press
Release
PO Box 84013, Los Angeles, CA
90073 Tel: (310) 473-1941 Fax: (310) 473-1951
‘We Can Handle It’
In a candid conversation, the President and First Lady
talk about bin Laden, prayer, civil liberties, exercise, No. 41 and the war
ahead
Dec. 3 issue — It was the day before Thanksgiving, and
George and Laura Bush were flying west for a morale-boosting visit to the 101st
Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky. The news from Afghanistan was good and
the president was in a relaxed, expansive mood for this interview. Seated at a
conference table aboard Air Force One with NEWSWEEK’s Howard Fineman and Martha
Brant, the president and First Lady exchanged looks and smiles as they answered
questions. She seemed to enjoy listening to him. As he warmed to his subjects,
he sometimes raised a finger to underscore a point. Extended excerpts:
NEWSWEEK: You’ve talked a lot about how the country has
changed. How do you think the two of you have changed as individuals?
THE PRESIDENT: I’m not very good at
telling you how I’ve changed, because I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about
myself and how I’ve changed.
MRS. BUSH: Well, actually, I don’t think
he’s changed that much. I think what people see now is exactly what I’ve always
seen and always known how he was. He’s very focused, he’s very disciplined. I
said that a million times during the campaign and I don’t think it ever
resonated with the press. And, of course, he’s more serious—everyone is more
serious in our country.
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t think you change. If
you’ve got the characteristics necessary to deal with a crisis, they will
emerge. And Laura has always been a calming influence in my life and is a
comfort to me as I dealt with big decisions.
You know, this is a moment of high drama, needless
to say. And she couldn’t have been more calm and resolved, almost placid, which
was a very reassuring thing to me. I can’t imagine what it would be like had
Laura been hysterical, highly emotional.
There was a period of time when the threats were
significant and real, aimed at me and aimed at the White House and aimed at
other major targets. And during that period of time I shared some of those with
Laura, never did she say, “Get me out of here, what have you done this for, why
are we here, it’s a miserable experience... It’s your war, see you later.”
Laura, may I ask, where does that calm come from?
MRS. BUSH: Well, George actually steadies
me. He acts like I steady him, but the fact is he steadies me. I really am not
that afraid. I mean, you know, if something happens, it happens. I think both of
us have a little bit of an attitude—you know, this is our life right now and we
can deal with it, we can handle it.
What’s the role of prayer and faith
in this?
MRS. BUSH:
That’s very important to us, and that’s where we get our strength. But that was
very important to us before September 11th, as well.
THE PRESIDENT: Prayer has meant a lot to me. It
meant a lot to me before, it means a heck of a lot now because there’s a lot of
people praying for me and I feel it. Truly.
You know, it’s something, I have never felt more confident about
something in my life. And I believe a lot of it has to do with the prayers of
the people.
My attitude
about threats, it is truly: if it’s the Lord’s will. That’s what I believe.
How do you keep the emotion from getting to you too much? You still
have to do your job. Are there other things you turn to?
MRS. BUSH: He works out. He’s really running
faster than he has in a long time. He’s always turned to exercise to reduce
stress.
THE PRESIDENT: I exercise about an hour a
day; pretty intense these days.
Back up to a seven-minute mile?
THE PRESIDENT: Less.
MRS. BUSH: I’ve been working out, as well.
And then the other thing we do at Camp David or at the ranch is go for long
walks with our animals. And that certainly makes us feel great.
As a war leader, do you turn to any models, either in terms of time
in history or people?
No question. For example, the military tribunals, you look
at history. Before I made the decision to give me the option, I asked, who’s
done this? It’s an interesting idea. I do want to have the option, for a lot of
reasons—national-security reasons, security for the jurors, potential jurors.
Why did you feel it was important for you to have the authority
there?
I asked for the options; I said I wanted to
know. And I’m trying to remember who came in, [White House Counsel Alberto]
Gonzales and the vice president, they came in to brief me. [Attorney General
John] Ashcroft came in. And I said, well, tell me exactly what your
recommendation is for me on this executive order. They said, well, we recommend
that the secretary of Defense be the person in charge of making decisions. This
is a unanimous recommendation. I was, frankly, taken aback. I said, wait a
minute. I sign an executive order, I create the executive order, and somebody
else is responsible for the court? I said, if I sign the order, I want to be
responsible.
The flip side of that is some people say that maybe you have too much
power.
I’m mindful of the Constitution. I’m also mindful
of history. I think about how others have used force... I think the president
needs to have the powers necessary to conduct a war. And it’s up to me to make
sure I provide the right balance.
Even in the face of war on our home front, we provide incredible
protections for people who are not even our citizens. For people who are our
citizens, nothing has changed. For people who are not citizens, who come to our
country because we’re an open country and a generous country, we are providing
them incredible protections.
Are we going to get Osama bin Laden?
We’re going to get him one way or the other.
Will it be a successful war if we don’t get him?
Well, it’s going to be very successful in terms of changing
the government of the Taliban. We’ve got his number-two guy. Look, it may take
three years to get Osama bin Laden, but we’ve got him on the run. And I’ve
always said that this is a get-him-on-the-run mission.
But you’re saying it might take three years to get Osama bin Laden.
It could take 10 years. We will get him. And we
will get his organization. The thing America must know is that terrorism is
alive and well. And it’s our charge, our duty, this generation’s historical
opportunity, to rid the world of terrorism. And there’s going to be some
fantastic consequences from it, in my judgment. A new relationship with Russia.
The ability for us to affect peace in the Middle East. Hopefully, a country like
Syria will take a hard look at some of the groups in their country. And terror
and weapons of mass destruction go hand in hand. To the extent that the free
world can convince other nations to join together to rid the world of weapons of
mass destruction, we’ve done our children and grandchildren a great service.
Do you think that Saddam Hussein is evil and that we should expand
this to Iraq?
I think Saddam Hussein is up to no good. I think
he’s got weapons of mass destruction, and I think he needs to open up his
country to let us inspect. I think he needs to be held accountable and needs to
conform to the agreement he made years ago. That’s what he ought to do. It’s up
to him to prove he’s not.
He’s the one guy in recent history who has used
weapons of mass destruction not only against his neighbor, Iran, but against
people in his own country. He gassed them.
Why wouldn’t you say he’s evil, then?
He ain’t good.
Why stop short of using the word?
I think maybe because you’re trying to force
me to say it, and I’m stubborn... He is evil. Saddam’s evil.
Have you had a moment of painful reflection? You’ve had to decide,
for example, to use B-52 bombers, which are powerful and terrifying and which
risk possible civilian casualties, et cetera.
Fifteen-thousand-pound bombs, pushed out of
the back of cargo planes.
Right. Do you think that was crucial in what happened there, and was
it a different level of decision-making?
I made the decision early. One, that we could win a
guerrilla war with conventional means if we were able to use smart
intelligence-gathering, and if we’re able to get boots on the ground, to make
sure our targeting was more precise.
The idea of trying to seek justice by using cruise
missiles was shallow, as far as I’m concerned. It’s an antiseptic approach to a
war that just didn’t lend itself for that. I also knew we couldn’t bomb our way
to achieve our objective. We could bomb our way to help achieve the objective.
And, therefore, I knew full well that we would have troops on the ground.
I’ve been very careful to make it clear to our commanders that you’re
running the war, and I expect there to be conscious decisions about collateral
damage. I knew full well what collateral damage could mean. I also knew we were
fighting liars who would say things in the press that there was no verification
for whatsoever, that they would justify their own brutal murder and torture
within their country by blaming it on us. But I had no question in my mind [we
were] doing the right thing.
Is there something that you would point to where your wife has been
influential? Something where tonally she’s seen something outside the Beltway
that maybe you hadn’t?
I’ll tell you this: she’s not a shrinking
violet. I mean, if I do something she thinks needs to be toned down or
something, she’ll tell me.
But I do think there was some concern that, you
know, I might get carried away, because she understood how angry I was. Look, I
was an angry person and I was a sad person, and I was a determined person. I
went through a whole range of emotions.
What emotion did you have when you saw that plane?
I was angry. I was furious. But I had also realized
that I needed to be clearsighted. I needed to understand exactly what was
happening, get a feel for who was doing this, and prepare to respond.
Have you grown in any sense, do you think?
Of course. I think that I’ve always been the kind of person who has been
able to deal with the circumstances in which I find myself. I’m a
problem-solver. And I don’t spend a lot of time theorizing or agonizing. I was
raised in a family where, because of the love of my parents, you know, I’ve got
confidence to be able to deal with problems. I’ve got a faith that allows me to
be comforted by prayer and my own prayers, and prayers of others. I’ve never
been afraid for my life, I’ve never been afraid for my family’s life, I’ve never
been afraid to make decisions.
[Former Bush I adviser] Brent Scowcroft says you talk to your father
quite often, but you don’t necessarily talk about the war. Can you tell us about
that?
Yes, I talk to him, I check in with him, I’d say
once a week at most. I get to work, get to the office about 6:50 a.m. to 7 a.m.,
and he likes to get up early. And if I’ve finished my paperwork, I like to give
them a call and see how they’re doing and just check in. He really likes it. He
likes to hear from his son.
Do you talk about the substance of things, or is it just almost a
melancholy thing where he’s too far away from it to really deal?
THE PRESIDENT:
No, I mean, he’s interested
as heck. He was fascinated with the Putin visit, for example. There are a lot of
things I can’t tell him over the phone, because it’s not a secure line to his
house. He says how’s it going, you know, how is the war. He falls prey to the—to
the spins.
MRS. BUSH: He watches every single thing.
But you guys, you’re not watching TV news
any—you never have?
THE PRESIDENT: Not much.
Mrs. Bush, are you still reading the papers? During the campaign, you
would read them and point things out to your husband.
THE PRESIDENT: She does that still.
Do you get mad, still?
THE PRESIDENT:
No, she doesn’t get mad, she
gets pointed.
MRS. BUSH: Do I get mad?
THE PRESIDENT: She used to get mad. She got mad when she saw the
budgeters had axed one of her favorite programs.
As you run the war, how important are personal relations with world
leaders? And do you have nicknames for these guys?
I had better not tell you. I don’t use them
to their face. It is important to stay in touch with them. A lot of the leaders
are coming here to sit down and visit... I think it’s important for them to look
me in the eye. I want them to come so they know my determination.
