Ian Gawler and author Guy Allenby appeared on Life Matters on October 23, 2008 to discuss the launch of Ian’s biography, ‘The Dragon’s Blessing’.

The popular Radio National program is hosted by Richard Aedy and airs Monday to Friday from 9am.

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By Fran Metcalf

THERE’S a big difference between recovering from cancer and surviving it.

“For many people, the point where they are told they are cancer-free is often more stressful than the original diagnosis,” according to Ian Gawler, a cancer survivor himself who now counsels people with the disease.

“That’s because when you’re going through treatment you’re doing something and there’s a focus. When you get the all clear a few years later, there’s nothing.”

Gawler was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer at the age of 24. His leg was amputated at the hip but less than a year later he developed secondaries and was told he had six months to live.

That was 1975 and, ever since, his life has been devoted to practising and promoting meditation, nutrition, a healthy lifestyle and natural remedies as vital methods for preventing and managing the disease.

Recently in Brisbane to deliver his 25th annual meditation and healing workshops at the Relaxation Centre of Queensland, Gawler says the mainstream medical fraternity remains just as reluctant in 2008 as it was 30 years ago to embrace a holistic approach to healing.

“For me, healing involves body, emotion, mind and spirit,” Gawler says.

“We just come through this rather extraordinary period of medical history where scientists have treated people as though their heads are not connected to their bodies.

“This was encouraged by things like antibiotics which were amazing discoveries but cancer doesn’t respond very well to a single drug and depression needs more than a pill.”

Gawler was working as a veterinarian and competing in decathlons when he was diagnosed in the mid-1970s and his journey has been documented in a soon-to-be-released biography, The Dragon’s Blessing.

Apart from a strict dietary regime, Gawler discovered Melbourne relaxation guru Dr Ainslie Meares, who was one of the first advocates in Australia for the healing potential of meditation.

“Ainslie Meares believed that by meditating profoundly, one could return to a deep natural balance where the body’s healing systems could be powerfully activated to bring about a healing from within,” he says.

But meditation isn’t the only lifestyle skill to learn or change when it comes to managing cancer, Gawler says.

“When I talk about lifestyle, it’s exercise, nutrition, how you manage your relationships, what’s going on with your mind – everything involved in our day-to-day lives,” he says. “There’s a huge error of omission in the standard management of cancer in that lifestyle is seen as disconnected in some way. For instance, one of the best things people (with cancer) can do these days is to exercise.

“Research shows that following treatment for primary breast cancer, women who exercise half-an-hour daily reduce their risk of dying by 50 per cent.”

Melbourne oncologist and Australian Medical Association spokesman Dr Allan Zimet says he started advising his female patients with breast cancer of the value of exercise about a year ago when the scientific evidence was proven.

“Over the past 25 years, both camps (mainstream and complementary medicine) have moved more to middle ground and recognised neither group cures cancer for many people,” Zimet says.

Gawler believes a preventative diet should be plant-based, whole foods with a minimal amount of meat, no dairy and a preference for Omega 3 and unsaturated fats.

That’s the basis of the food offered at the Yarra Valley Living Centre, a residential retreat for people with cancer and their families run by Gawler and his wife Ruth.

Set in the picturesque Yarra Valley less than 100km outside Melbourne,

the main focus is meditation and diet but Gawler says there’s also the opportunity to learn how to “die well”.

“Death is real and often comes without warning. We can either ignore it like a lot of people in our culture do or we can live a life that’s informed by it.”

The Dragon’s Blessing (Allen and Unwin) by Guy Allenby is in bookstores now. More info at www.gawler.org

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Today I got to the point in Ian Gawler’s book where I am on quite familiar territory: the bit where he explains his theology of healing. It’s a theory I know well in various guises, a theory that crops up time and again in various Eastern and/or esoteric philosophies. He says that we have seven bodies, only one of which, the physical body, is accessible to the senses. The other six – the emotional, intellectual, intuitional, spiritual and astral bodies – are of varying degrees of subtlety and while some people can “see” some of them they are invisible to most of us. Illness happens when the energies of two or more of the bodies are conflicted and healing occurs when coherence is restored between them. I’m not sure what I believe about this theory: I’m probably too steeped in my Western world view to embrace it fully but it’s disconcerting that some practices based on this idea, such as acupuncture, seem to have real, measurable effectiveness, as does Ian Gawler’s method of healing cancer….

Gawler’s method is quite logical given the theoretical framework he is working from. Everything in his programme, including the diet, the meditation, the positive thinking, the exercise, is done for a reason: it is a method of bringing harmony to the seven layered reality in which we live. And, while it it seems to work it does present me with an interesting issue. I have been ordained in the Anglican church for almost 30 years. I have, many times prayed for healing, and sometimes to my great surprise seen those prayers answered. I have myself experienced and witnessed healings that might be described as miraculous. Yet I, personally, do not have a coherent Christian theology of healing, neither do I know of anyone else who has one. In the Christian church our healing practices involve praying and laying on of hands. We trust God for healings and sometimes God delivers. But we don’t quite know why. We anoint with oil and we fast. But again, we don’t quite know why. I don’t know of a working theology of illness which seems to me to be a necessary precursor to a working theology of healing. Why do we get sick? What is going on, spiritually speaking? Why do we pray for healing, but continue in lifestyles which are unhealthy? Why have we no Christian theology of nutrition, exercise or balance? Why are so many of us unhealthy, unfit, overweight and ill?

I remember as a young man being present at the conversion of a devotee of the Hare Krishna faith. Once he had said the sinner’s prayer and given his life to Christ, we took him out to a restaurant and gave him a steak, so that the “bondage” of vegetarianism could be broken. We thought that in Christ we were free to eat or not as we pleased, and that a sign of our spiritual maturity was to stuff ourselves with food that others thought was tainted. How arrogant we were, and how lacking in any sense of the connectedness of body mind and spirit.

I have no doubt that somewhere there is an adequate Christian theology of healing, one in which I can pray knowledgeably for people, and where I can know what is actually going on when I fast and anoint. In one of those pieces of Providence that continually surprise me, I am going to the Titoki healing centre in Whakatane the day after tomorrow. I’m going to lead a ministry retreat for Maori clergy and to teach on the parables, but I am hoping now for some time with the Titoki staff. Perhaps they will be able to point me in the right direction?

Ian's chest with cancer

Back in 1975 a young Vet and decathlon athlete by the name of Ian Gawler was diagnosed with cancer.
The dramatic way the disease manifested in Ian Gawler’s chest was something like a scene from Alien; a foreign object striving to burst out of his body; a malignant, angry mass of cancer that seemed determined to take his life.
Visible bony lumps grew from the ribs, sternum and the crest of the ilium. (see photo)
He was coughing up blood and small pieces of bone, while lung X-rays showed up gross opacities.
His specialist told him he had only two or three weeks to live.
Eleven months earlier he had his leg amputated to arrest the spread of osteogenic sarcoma.
The old Australian expression, ‘If he was a horse you would have shot him’ springs to mind.
Eighteen months later the cancer was completely gone.
His recovery was so dramatic that some call it a miracle.
Ian describes it as hard work. Meaningful. Actually interesting. Even fun. But also hard work.
He also claims that what he did is repeatable.
Now, this remarkable medical story has been told by author Guy Allenby in Ian Gawler’s Biography, The Dragon’s Blessing.

Ian's chest post cancer

Ian says he was fortunate to be around in the pioneering days of Holistic and Mind-Body Medicine when the mind, and meditation as well as nutrition were just beginning to be used therapeutically.
And for Ian, the changes that cancer brought into his life sparked an intense spiritual journey and the search for meaning and purpose in his life.
The Dragon’s Blessing unfolds as Ian goes on to recover and then found the first cancer self help group in Australia – one of the very first such programs in the world.
The Dragon’s Blessing stands out as a cancer related book for many reasons. It offers a profound insight into the life, recovery and work of someone whose story epitomizes hope for so many people touched by cancer.
But more than just recovering, Ian Gawler then dedicated his life to helping others – both with cancer, equally groundbreaking work with developing MS self help programs and with those who are well – athletes, business people and those interested in preventing illness and achieving real wellbeing in their lives.

Why The Dragon’s Blessing?

Quention's drawing

The title of the book is related to a drawing by Quentin, an 11 year old boy who was diagnosed with a brain tumour.
Quentin was paralysed down his natural right side and he completed the drawing left handed, six weeks after surgery for a brain tumour.
He explained that the dragon had lived in the lake for a long time.
However, recently the villagers had grown in number – they had been throwing a lot of rubbish in the lake and they were lowering their fishing nets deeper into the lake and tangling in his scales. So the dragon had arisen out of the lake to warn the Emperor. If he did not tell the villagers to put these things right, then he, the dragon, would kill them all.
This amazing metaphor for cancer began a remarkable series of pictures that Quentin drew with Ian and coincided with Quentin himself experiencing a remarkable recovery.
The Dragon’s Blessing provides a real opportunity to understand what it takes to recover from an almost hopelessly difficult cancer and provides a profound insight into the life of a person who epitomises hope, self empowerment and positive thinking for many people. The Dragon’s Blessing also provides intimate insight into the personal, and particularly the inner life of a man who is deeply spiritual and who has studies and combined ancient wisdom into a modern context. Ian Gawler has studied with Christian, Hindu and Buddhist teachers including His Holiness The Dalai Lama and his main, long term teacher, the world renowned Tibetan master, Sogyal Rinpoche.
Ian has been at the forefront of bringing meditation into popular usage and establishing meditation’s therapeutic value.
Ian Gawler has appeared widely in the media over many years. He is known for his capacity to bring humour, clarity and humanity to difficult and complex subjects. He makes them accessible to a very wide audience.
The Dragon’s Blessing, Ian Gawler’s life story, is not only a great story; it will inspire and inform people from all walks of life.

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For many people the diagnosis of cancer seems like a death sentence… but it need not necessarily be so.
“Surviving Cancer” brings us stories of hope and inspiration, from people who have successfully recovered from all kinds of cancers- even some against medical odds. We become aware of just how much more than pure medical/surgical treatment is involved in bringing about successful survival. The way we live, think and focus all come into play. Diet, meditation and finding the right mindset and strategies are powerful survival tools. A holistic approach melding body, mind and spirit, allow the body to unleash its full healing power.
Each person tells his or her own story, in their own words, describing the ups and downs, highs and lows, in their very personal cancer journey. They give us insight into their thought processes and what failures and successes they experienced in their battle. Each story shows remarkable honesty and a deep view of their emotions, devastations and hopes.
Another thing that comes across strongly is how most of these courageous survivors view their cancer as an experience which teaches them invaluable lessons about themselves, their lives and humanity… and changes their whole view of life and often the direction their lives take from then on. They value each and every day in a way those who have not faced death usually do not.
“Cancer might rob us of that blissful ignorance that once led us to believe that tomorrow stretches forever. In exchange, we are granted the vision to see each today as precious, a gift to be used wisely and richly. No one can take that away.”
The book is edited by Paul Kraus, himself a cancer sufferer whose recent writing focus has been on health and healing.
“Surviving Cancer” shares real life examples of those who have recovered from cancer and provides encouragement and hope to others who are beginning their own journey. Cancer can be beaten- and the more open you are to utilising everything possible, and the more you have in your cancer-fighting toolbox, the better your odds can be. This book can help fill in some of the gaps and give inspiration and motivation.
“We travel a long way in a lifetime, no matter how long or short the individual life. What we would hope is that the footprints we leave behind spell out a love of humanity. Our part, our bit of humanity is to light a candle and trust that our light shines a path for the next person.”

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