Matter and Mind Are One

Master Li Hongzhi said, ""The Buddha Fa" is most profound; among all the theories in the world it is the most intricate and extraordinary science. In order to explore this domain, humankind must fundamentally change its conventional thinking. Otherwise, the truth of the universe will forever remain a mystery to humankind, and everyday people will forever crawl within the boundary delimited by their own ignorance." It is very true. I started to learn Falun Dafa in 1995. I have gained so many benefits from it, and so have my patients. If I had not obtained Falun Dafa, I would not know the truth that "Matter and mind are one thing", from Zhuan Falun by Li Hongzhi. If I had not changed my old conventional thinking, the following events would not have happened.

I have worked as a physical therapy assistant since 1994. I treated four patients with both legs completely paralyzed from 1998 to 2001. None of them had any movement of either legs or feet when I first treated them. The first patient was 75 years old and was paralyzed 10 months before I saw him in 1998 as a home health patient, and he had a lumbar aneurysm. The patient told me that the surgeon opened up the back and closed it without surgery due to the aneurysm being too dangerous to operate. However, he was paralyzed after that. The second patient was a 23 year old girl who had a car accident at the age of 20 and was paralyzed 3 years before I treated her. The third patient was a 27 year old male who had a gunshot wound to his head at age 13. The fourth patient was a 22 year old girl who had been paralyzed for 12 years due to Charcot-Marie-Tooth syndrome. I treated the first patient about 2 months, 3 times a week in 1998. The last three patients were treated for about 6 to 12 visits, 1 to 3 times per week in 2001 as outpatients. All these patients had had physical therapy treatments before, and they were able to use their upper extremities well. The first, second, and fourth patients had no muscle strength in either leg, and the third one had muscle spasms in both legs from time to time.

Generally speaking, ordinary people believe that this is permanent damage to the brain or spinal cord and will never recover, so paralyzed patients are paralyzed for good.

The whole story started with my first paralyzed patient. When I walked into his house, the very first demanding statement from him was "I want to walk again." This patient had had 10 months of physical therapy since he was paralyzed. He had been an inpatient for three months, and was treated for seven months as a home health patient by different physical therapists before I entered his house. I had personally treated stroke patients with complete paralysis, and they were still paralyzed. I did not think that this patient could walk again. I looked at him and I suddenly remembered Master Li saying, "Matter and mind are one thing." If mind is matter, it will send the message to both legs from the brain, right? After my thinking was done, I asked my patient "can you tell me how your wife walks?" He said she picks up her legs to walk. I asked him when you walk who will pick up your legs? He said that he would. I asked him to pick up his legs. He said he could not. Then, I told him that you can not walk if you can not pick up your legs. I told him that I was here to show him how to do exercises, but that he had to do it, not me. "Please remember that it is you who wants to be up and walking, and you having to pick up your legs." Therefore, I started to show him how to do the leg isometric exercises in bed. At that time, both legs were so soft with no muscle strength at all. I asked the patient and his wife to remember how weak both legs were. I told him to think through from his head to both legs to do the isometric exercise. His wife and I had a very hard time seeing his legs having any movement, and he could not feel any movement either. However, I could feel a very tiny movement under my hand from both his legs after he did some exercises. I asked him to do the exercise as many times as he could. In the beginning, he said both legs hurt a lot, and "could you do other therapy, like massage to my legs and do my leg exercise for me?" I knew he was asking me to do passive range motion exercise and massage his legs for him. I asked him, "Are you serious about getting up to walk?" He said, "of course!" I told him he had to do the exercises himself, otherwise, it would be my arms getting stronger and you would continue to lie in bed. I explained to him again he had to do the isometric exercises in order to send the message to his legs from the brain. Otherwise, you will not pick up your legs when you want to get up to walk. The mind orders the brain to send the message to the extremities. One has to cooperate with oneself in order to take any action. Right after talking, his wife said, "You are giving him a message from God. He has hope now." Day by day, the patient was able to do more exercises from tiny movements to a little movement. Gradually, the patient was able to pick up both legs a little in sitting. In two months, he was able to stand up with a lot of assistance from two people. After two months, he was able to be an outpatient for physical therapy. Three years later, I called back to his home and his wife said on good days he was able to walk 150 feet with a rolling walker and bad days 15 to 50 feet with the walker.

In this case, I learned my lesson that "matter and mind are one thing" is a very true statement. Without breaking through the old way of conventional thinking, I could be just another ordinary physical therapy staff person doing the same passive range of motion exercises for my patients. The right thinking and actions will caution us to have the right movements. If one wants to get better from a bad condition, one has to change oneself first. If one waits for others' help without self-effort, chances are there's no hope.

After the first case, I understand more about the important of self-motivation and self-effort. When I saw the rest of the three patients, I instructed the patients to do the isometric exercises and explained to them how it would work. It did not take too long for them to be able to do isometric exercises with both of their legs. I do not know what happened to them now due to the short time I treated them. However, I know it is up to them now.

I know if I did not practice and learn Falun Dafa, I would not be able to help these patients at all. It is simply because I would not be able to think the way I do now.

If one wants to get better completely from physical health to mental health, one needs to obtain Falun Dafa. That is the only way. Thank you for letting me share my experiences with you.