Sitting three across and on the extreme right of a van's front passenger seat, 21 year old Mitchell May was in the company of five other young people. It was 1972, and they were driving to a bluegrass music festival in Tennessee. The road was slick with rain. Joking, singing, laughing, telling stories, the friends were thoroughly enjoying being together. Mitchell frequently faced to the rear of the vehicle for conversation about his activities as a farmer who grew organic vegetables, grains, and soybeans. He had been experimenting with innovative methods for producing soy milk, soy ice cream, and soy cheese. "My head was turned toward my friends in the back seat when I had an ominous premonition. The vision before me was of a large car hitting us head on. When I quickly faced the front, I saw the same scene of the car coming straight at us," said Mitchell May. "I instinctively acted to save the young woman beside me by lifting her bodily and throwing her over the seat to the rear. The driver of our van swerved left in an attempt to avoid the other out-of--control vehicle, which swung us around on the slippery pavement, and the oncoming car hit us with tremendous force at our right front fender and side. "I was thrown partially through the front of the van, lying half-in and half out of our vehicle," added Mitchell. "The van was collapsed and crushed inward - exactly at the spot where I was sitting. Its compacted metallic parts were wrapped around me so tightly, people said afterward, it took the rescuing crew forty-five minutes to extract me from the vehicle. I was unconscious."

None of the other young adults were seriously hurt, but Mitchell May had sustained devastating injuries. He was taken to a rural Tennessee hospital with his vital signs almost gone and remained in a coma for over a week. The victim's left leg had broken in six places, but his right leg had suffered forty fractures from hip to toes. He had multiple broken ribs, too. By the time he was cut out of the pile of twisted metal, his punctured lungs had collapsed from hemopneumothorax and his heart had stopped beating. He was pronounced dead. The ambulance crew managed to start his heart pumping, but at the hospital it stopped again. The emergency room team restarted Mitchell's atrioventricular heart node, this time by electrical pulsation. They patched up his lungs, too.

A Devastating Leg Injury
Mitchell's legs, with their numerous fractures, were another problem for the orthopedists, plastic surgeons, and neurosurgeons. Joints at the right ankle and knee were destroyed. Nearly all of the skin and muscle tissue were missing from knees to ankles, and the right leg had almost three inches of bone and nerve tissue torn away. Numerous surgeries were anticipated, but doctors judged it best to wait until the young man grew stronger. It wasn't likely that he would survive another shock to his body via surgical trauma. When he awakened from the coma, because of his right leg's severely damaged and exposed nerves, Mitchell's pain struck overwhelmingly and without letup. Neither oral nor injectable opiates did anything to assuage the terrible burning, stinging, aching sensations. It was as if his leg lay immersed in hot coals. The medical specialists' consensus was to amputate the right leg. Again they agreed that such a procedure must take place as soon as Mitchell's condition stabilized enough for him to survive surgery.

Moving in and out of consciousness, while being given morphine, antibiotics, and other chemotherapeutic agents, Mitchell repeatedly refused to allow the doctors to remove his leg. Infection set in. Osteomyelitis, pseudomonas, staphylococcus, and other pathological bacteria put him in danger of septicemia. Eventually, he was transferred to Vanderbilt University Medical Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, where doctors affirmed that his life was definitely in danger if his leg was not removed. Still, he refused the amputation, for his instincts told him that other alternatives might be possible.

"As I hovered in and out of consciousness with my body still deteriorating, the doctors kept insisting that I would never walk on my own again. I began to realize how serious my injuries were," Mitchell said. "I refused amputation because I sensed there was something inside of this experience - some secret, some key - that I needed to receive. I understood instinctively that by not claiming this experience as my own, I would be missing some vital lesson that was central to my being. Therefore, my decision was to inhabit this experience all the way to its end."

Six weeks passed in Nashville's largest hospital as Mitchell lingered in intensive care. Metal plates were implanted in his leg to hold the severed parts together and give the limb greater stability. Mitchell's parents, Marvin and Lorraine May, were constantly in attendance at their son's bedside, and finally decided to move him closer to their home in Southern California. Dr. Marvin May, who was on the faculty of the University of California at Los Angeles, was able to get Mitchell admitted as a patient to the UCLA Medical Center. So Mitchell took an extremely painful trip by airliner (painkillers had been misplaced) and arrived wearing a body cast from his neck to his toes. At the medical center, a team of about 40 vascular surgeons, plastic surgeons, infectious disease specialists, and orthopedic surgeons consulted on the patient's case.

The UCLA Medical School team held special conferences about Mitchell's case. They continued to insist that his leg must come off, and he continued to refuse. Interns and residents volunteered for extra grand rounds in order to learn more about the extent of Mitchell's injuries and his will to survive them. The patient's serious infections, severe nerve and bone loss and causalgia were main factors in their general agreement that the right leg must be amputated, and perhaps the left leg as well because of the spreading osteomyelitic septicemia. Even if his legs were saved, no UCLA health professional had any hope that the right limb would ever again be able to bear weight.

Mitchell's osteomyelitis was an infection of bone and bone marrow in the right leg caused by pathological microorganisms that entered the bone during his injury. Increasing bone pain, tenderness, local muscle spasm, and fever magnified his causalgia. Added to this was the patient's septicemia or blood poisoning, which was now affecting his whole body. Mitchell was no longer able to metabolize potassium and cell walls began rupturing throughout his body tissues. His eyes, ears, kidneys, and other vital organs were being severely damaged by the septicemia and were shutting down. The septicemia was accompanied by high chronic fevers of 104 F, chills, headaches, severe nausea, and diarrhea. The causalgia had Mitchell feeling absolute agony hour after hour, night and day.

Causalgia is an intense and unbearable feeling of extreme hot and burning pain caused by severe damage to sensory nerves. The pain was especially overwhelming since there had been partial damage to the sympathetic and somatic sensory nerves. The blood supply to his leg was markedly diminished. Dystrophic changes occurred with the growth of his skin and nails becoming abnormal. He experienced discomforting reduced body temperature, increased cold sweating, and other vasomotor abnormalities. Mitchell described those ongoing sensations affecting his right leg as: "Pain so tremendous that it felt like many dentists were drilling simultaneously on raw nerves sticking out of a hundred dental cavities."

Oddly enough, Mitchell's lower extremity pain worsened whenever anyone came near to his right leg. A visitor didn't have to touch him to evoke pain; merely approaching within six inches of the limb brought extreme anguish. It was at a distance of six inches from the body that his highly sensitive energy field extended. In the early 1970s, no conventional therapist on the hospital staff was aware of the existence of energy fields. So there was perpetual puzzlement among the nurses and doctors, as to why the patient cried out in greater pain when they passed close to the foot of his bed.

Healing Energy from the Laying On of Hands
During those several months of isolated confinement in three separate hospitals, Mitchell's weight had dropped from 146 to 97 pounds, and he was just as close as ever to dying while bathed in paroxysms of pain. The opioid analgesics, antagonists, and other pain killers did almost nothing to reduce his causalgia. In a desperate attempt to ease her son's intense suffering, his mother approached Thelma Moss, Ph.D., head of the parapsychology research laboratory at UCLA. Lorraine May asked for help. On Dr. Moss' research staff was a 65-year-old psychic healer named Jack Gray, who was reputed to have unusual abilities to restore health in some people whose conditions stubbornly resisted normal medical treatments.

Hearing of Mitchell's situation and knowing he was close to death, Jack Gray agreed to administer his healing skills on an experimental basis. He had been conducting a healing practice in Los Angeles, usually working for twelve hours daily. Still, in response to being called in after his regular daily office hours, the healer spent the entire night until six in the morning, for three consecutive nights, working with Mitchell. He used a combination of laying on of hands, hypnosis, trance states, prayer, meditation, and various forms of electromagnetic energy transfer. When asked by the patient's parents to describe his function, the healer said that he was reprogramming Mitchell's subconscious to take on the work of self-healing.

Jack Gray was working to assist Mitchell in restoring his 'life force', which is referred to in China as Qi (pronounced 'Chi'), in India as Prana, in Japan as Ki, and in ancient Polynesia as Manna. Other cultures sometimes refer to this life force as the Breath of Life. In the world of modern American medicine, Dolores Krieger, Ph.D., R.N., Professor Emerita at New York University, has legitimized this laying on of hands for purposes of transferring healing energy. Dr. Krieger calls her hands on healing technique therapeutic touch, which now is accepted in medical circles worldwide.

For purposes of enhancing healing, therapeutic touch currently is administered as viable therapy in 73 foreign countries. It's taught at graduate and undergraduate levels in more than 100 colleges and universities in the United States alone. Today, the laying on of hands to transfer healing energy from one person to another has become a part of orthodox medical practices.

How Healing Energy Works by the Laying On of Hands
Using the laying on of hands, thousands of healers around the globe have successfully decreased stress, allayed anxiety, reduced pain, eased asthmatic breathing, lowered high fevers, eliminated inflammation, accelerated wound healing, calmed crying babies, and relieved difficult labor. "It works simply," says the innovator of therapeutic touch, Dolores Krieger, Ph.D., R.N. "There are no miracles involved, and some of our most striking successes have been with premature babies, anesthetized patients, and those in coma, none of whom were aware that therapeutic touch was in progress." Thus, Dr. Dolores Krieger effectively answers skeptics who claim that the healer's ability to persuade or suggestion, is the producer of a placebo effect in the patient rather than the transfer of healing energy.

How might you transfer healing energy by the laying on of hands? The act of 'centering' is the point of entry, which takes place when you quiet yourself in order to be in touch with the innermost nature - your deepest consciousness. "When you are on center, your attention is focused on the unperturbable, quiet voice within that touches the farther reaches of mind and carries with it its own authority. This realm is a world of personal exploration with its own sense of timelessness and implicit order," says Dr. Krieger.

While in this state of consciousness, the healer attempts to get a sense of the patient's problem by being sensitive to differences of energy level and flow in the patient's energy field. To the knowledgeable practitioner, these cues indicate various states of energy imbalance and are picked up either by skin-to-skin contact or more sensitively without making body contact. Instead, the hands are placed a few inches outside the periphery of the body, directly in the patient's energy field where the healer can perceive a break in energy flow, pressure, or dysrhythmias.

Clues recognized by healers as indicating the presence of pathology are similar to those remarked upon by masters of Qi Gong. Too much or too little energy is observed as alterations in the patient's body, ranging from heat or cold in the deep tissues to pressure or a sense of congested flow in the patient's energy system. The healer may feel something akin to a tingling sensation, a perception of small electric impulses, or dysrhythmic pulsations.

Dr. Krieger advises that following a healer's assessment of the patient, the reliability is tested by checking laboratory reports. The healer then tries to rebalance the patient's energy field, repatterning it so that functions of the body may resume as an integrated whole. The healer does not create energy, but directs or modulates it. The most important ingredient used in the laying on of hands is "knowledgeable intentionality, honed with the context of compassionate concern for one in need."

Therapeutic touch accelerates the whole healing process and is particularly effective in working with fluid and electrolyte imbalances, dysfunctions of the autonomic nervous system, lymphatic and circulatory dysfunctions, and musculoskeletal problems.

Regular sessions of the laying on of hands have a cumulative effect. Response to treatment may be immediate, or change may take hours or days. Length of illness, the degree to which symptoms interfere with lifestyle, and general health are some of the factors which influence the success of therapeutic touch. 1

What Jack Gray Accomplished with Mitchell May
The UCLA medical community demanded that Mitchell May definitely have his right leg (and possibly his left leg) amputated to save his life, but he persisted in his refusal. This went on for half a year. Staff members of the orthopedic surgery department considered obtaining a court order to enforce one or both operations.

During that six-month period, Jack Gray had been continuing his healing work with Mitchell. Within the first three days of Jack's ministrations, Mitchell's severe pain completely disappeared. Causalgia no longer was present. Jack told Mitchell, "You are created in the image and likeness of God; therefore, everything you need for healing is already within you! You can heal this leg." During the ensuing months, after showing the patient how to make his pain turn on and off at will, the healer went on to help Mitchell slowly but steadily regenerate nerves, muscles, and bone.

Mitchell utilized many unique techniques taught to him by his healer/mentor. One such process is outlined below: "If I identified with just the wounded part of myself - my 'smaller self' - then that was all that I had access to, which at that time was fear, pain, doubt, and limitation. When I identified with my whole being - the 'larger self' - - then I could tap into a much greater resource of intuition, possibility, creative intelligence, and healing power. This method of working with consciousness has become very helpful for others with whom I work now," explained Mitchell May who has become a much sought after healer. "An identification by an ill person with the story of who he or she thinks they are, often influences their healing. "

"Working as a healer over time, has taught me that we adopt the attitude of our life's story. Some of us have an ongoing tale of woe: 'Life isn't fair; my life is hard.' If that is your story, it sets the tone for how you relate to everyone and everything. It's what you will generally receive back from life. Jack showed me how to change my story," said Mitchell. "When I did this my life and health improved. People came into my life offering new options, because my story was now open to change. I changed my world view. Most of us don't know where we received our stories, but merely accept them."

"To improve your circumstances, the first step is to identify your story. That may be seen by observing your life; whatever isn't working is the place where you can start changing your story," said Mitchell May. "Begin to imagine your life the way you want it to be and act on that imagination. When I was unable to walk and wore casts that supposedly were causing atrophy in my legs, in my imagination I played 'kick the can'. As a kid, I had loved 'kick the can'. So, even though I was confined to a full body cast, I played 'kick the can'. Not just in my mind, but I let my kinesthetic body actually feel the kicking of that can and therefore I experienced no atrophy. What you want to happen in your life must enter the body wholly in order to manifest it in the world."

Jack also used light, color, and sound to stimulate healing in his client. He took the young man into deep trance states, causing Mitchell to follow his voice but all the time leading him back to himself. He let the essence of light and healing come forth from the patient rather than from the healer. Jack Gray's ever present central theme was that the healing would come from within the person to be healed and not from the healer. Jack applied the laying- on of hands in a particular way hardly ever touching but allowing his hands to dance above and around Mitchell's injuries.

Unexplained Healing
Together, Jack and Mitchell's healing energies restored the life force to Mitchell's wounded body so as to bring about full healing which included the regeneration of new skin, muscle, nerves, organs, and bone. By January 1976, four years after the accident, Mitchell had full use of his right leg, a recovery that according to every expert consulted, was medically impossible. An assistant professor of orthopedics at UCLA, Edgar Dawson, M.D., the patient's orthopedic surgeon at the time, is on record as having described his recovery as "a miracle." Dr. Dawson has admitted, "I can tell you that it was not me that got Mitchell to where he is functioning today. Mitchell's leg was gone. There was no hope of saving it." 2

Dr. Dawson said, "When Mitchell came here he had a displaced fracture in his right leg and the bone was sticking out through the skin. The injury was grossly infected, unstable, and there was a lot of tissue loss. The chance of healing it seemed extremely remote and it was the consensus of opinion of a conference of 40 doctors that the leg should be amputated. Also, Mitchell had pain in his leg from causalgia, which is one of the most painful conditions known. It's basically a nerve pain, and we don't really understand the nature of this type of pain, and there is no good treatment for it." 3

On Sightings, a television program broadcast to an audience of over ten million, Dr. Dawson repeated, "The skin of Mitchell's leg from just below the knee to the ankle was gone and there was just bare bone hanging out with no muscle or skin over it. His leg was grossly infected. There was green material oozing out of holes in the bone. It was incredibly painful for him. The only way that I could imagine getting rid of the pain was to amputate his leg. And I did schedule him for amputation." The operation never took place.

Following Mitchell's unexplained healing, upon viewing X-ray films of the patient, Dr. Dawson turned to him and said, "I never would have believed it possible, but you have reformed an ankle bone!"

Since that day, Mitchell has frequently led vigorous four-week- long hiking trips into the wilderness, including the black gorge of the Grand Canyon. As do his fellow hikers, he carries a backpack along the steep circuitous trails. And every day Mitchell goes for long walks around the red rock canyons of his home in the southeastern desert of Utah.

Apprenticing as a Healer
After the first three months of working together at the UCLA Medical Center, Jack Gray told Mitchell May that he had been waiting many years for the right person to come along so that he might teach him or her how to assist healing in the same way he had been doing for 45 years. "You are the person I have been seeking," said Jack.

When asked to be his apprentice, Mitchell agreed and began intensive study with Jack for seven years (see Photograph 1-1). Under the mentor's tutelage Mitchell participated in healings by the laying on of hands, counseling, nutrition, meditation and trance states, until the time of Jack Gray's death.

Jack's passing occurred in the form of a pronouncement to Mitchell in which, following a full day of activities, the teacher said to his student, "It's time for me to say good-bye. Before long I won't be seeing you anymore. I must go because I've finished my work here." That night the healer had a heart attack. A friend found him lying on the floor and called an ambulance.

Mitchell became Jack's caretaker. During one of their conversations in the hospital, Jack said to his apprentice, "It's necessary for me to leave and no matter what the doctors do to try and save me, there won't be any benefit in their effort. I will remain only as long as it takes for you to build sufficient confidence to assume the full responsibility of being a healer."

One evening a few days later, 72-year-old Jack said to Mitchell, who was then 28 years old, "you aren't an apprentice any longer, but have become the one who heals." At that moment, the magnificent being who was Jack Gray left his earthly body and passed on in Mitchell May's arms.

During the seven-year apprenticeship when Mitchell was studying with Jack, they had become inseparable. Every activity of their lives together became a teaching metaphor. Whenever the two of them were out fishing, hiking, or working with an ill individual, Mitchell was learning. Together they designed classes and invited others to participate, including groups of health professionals. "However, the real learning for me," Mitchell said, "took place when I worked on a one to one basis with clients who were ill. In those cases, I became the healer and Jack the observer. He critiqued my efforts. As I worked with hundreds of different people, he prepared me every step of the way."

Documented Cases of Healing
Over the years, Mitchell has been able to help hundreds of people faced with serious health challenges. The following are just two of many documented cases of his work.

Lee Goodman is a 45 year-old naturalist from Utah who, early in January 1991, was diagnosed with a lemon-sized malignant brain tumor in her right frontal lobe. It was an astrocytoma in the fourth stage, the same disease that had killed Republican campaign strategist Lee Atwater. Following brain surgery and ten weeks of radiation therapy, the doctors' prognosis for Lee was one and not more than two years of life. Terrified by her presage of death, the patient immediately contacted Mitchell for a series of consultations.

Over the next six months, Mitchell used a combination of laying on of hands, counseling, nutrition, breathing exercises, and meditation with Lee. "The first time I saw Mitchell, I felt really energized. I always felt like he was there to attend to me and to help me find the path I wanted to follow," said Lee Goodman. "I felt I was with someone who was receiving me as I was. Over time I learned to locate my emotional feelings more and focus on their source. I could find feelings in my body."

Lee has undergone follow-up magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) since her return from Mitchell's office in Moab, Utah. Now, more than five years later, she has beaten the odds by continuing to remain free of all traces of cancer. 4

Another of Mitchell's clients, secretary Anne Kursin of Los Angeles, then age thirty-six, had been involved in a five-car freeway accident, during the fall of 1979. It resulted in her sustaining a severe neck injury. She consulted with and was treated in several orthopedic and chiropractic clinics yet she remained in constant pain along the entire right side of her body. She often lost her balance while walking and experienced great difficulty sleeping because it was so hard for her to lie down comfortably. After two years of deteriorating health, she was referred to Mitchell May.

Anne says that from the moment she met Mitchell, she sensed what she calls a "vibration," a feeling of "total peace and unbelievable happiness." She underwent only one healing session with him. He had Anne lie down on her left side, close her eyes and begin breathing deeply. "All of a sudden, I felt an intense vibrating heat in my back," she recalls. "The next thing I remember, I was somewhere else - I wasn't in my body. It lasted maybe forty minutes. Then I heard Mitchell saying, "Anne, you can come back now." I opened my eyes and couldn't move for awhile. I felt like I was in an eggshell of some sort of energy. My hands were tingling and hot, and I could feel energy coming from inanimate objects." Even now there are times when she says she can sense a certain energy in her hands.

More than the physical sense, Anne describes an emotional charge she received from Mitchell's treatment. "I felt like I had all the love in the universe with me. If there is anyone who doesn't believe in God, they would after feeling what I felt." From that moment on, all of Anne Kursin's skeletal and nerve pain as well as all of her other physical problems vanished completely and have remained at bay for more than a decade. 5

Healing Depicted by Kirlian Photography
Engaged in extensive research over many years to document the powerful bio-electromagnetic energies emitted from the hands of healers, Mitchell May has attempted to photograph, map, reproduce, and understand the life force transferred from healer to client in preparation for and during psychic and Spiritual healing. He has used various methods of Kirlian photography to show life forces involved with the laying on of hands, Qi Gong, altered states of consciousness, meditation, and more. At the back of this booklet are color photographs showing unprecedented pictures of energy being activated or transferred by a healer during the healing process. These photographs were all taken of authenticated healers such as Jack Gray, Mitchell May, and several others.

The effect depicted in Kirlian photography is the result of a high- voltage corona discharge caused by pulsed high-frequency waves (not to be confused with simple high- frequency waves), and it can therefore be explained in terms of ordinary physics. Through the action of high-frequency fields, electrons are emitted from the body of an organism and this energy is dissipated in the photographic emulsion in the same way as light. An image is thus formed in the emulsion, dependent on the strength of the emitted electrons. 6

"For over twenty years, now, I've been doing this healing work. And I still feel quite humbled by the experience," said Mitchell. "In recent years, my focus has shifted. Because of my full schedule, I don't have time to work with all the people who seek me out for healing. I have a long waiting list and am unable to take any new clients. So, I'm teaching in seminars and conferences where I may reach as many people as possible. Also, these days, a great deal of my time is dedicated to working with a dietary supplement, my Pure Synergy® superfood formula."

Why Develop a Dietary Supplement?
Just before his automobile accident, Mitchell May had begun to explore the role of nutrition in improving and sustaining one's overall health (you'll recall that initially he was involved in organic farming as an occupation). At that time, nearly 25 years ago, there was little in the way of comprehensive research on nutrition.

In the later stages of his recovery at UCLA Medical Center, Mitchell, together with Jack, was an integral part of many research projects and experiments being conducted at Dr. Thelma Moss' parapsychology laboratory. Mitchell also had returned to college and graduated with a Masters degree in psychology and is a licensed psychotherapist. At UCLA, he then pursued postgraduate research into the various manifestations of healing energy.

Mitchell was searching for a way to identify this life force energy and how it could be directed to help bring about a healing response. During the course of such research, he also thoroughly investigated the healing traditions of ancient cultures. One concept from the past which made its appearance repeatedly was the therapeutic use of certain plants such as algaes, mushrooms, herbs, flowers, and fruits - botanicals - to spark a healing and therapeutic response. The use of plants is interwoven with various methods of traditional healing cultures predating modern allopathic medicine.

Using Kirlian photography, photomicrography, and polarized light fields to produce energy field images of different natural substances, Mitchell discovered that the plants with the brightest, most intricate and balanced energy were those botanicals that have been used by different native traditional healers: Native Americans, Central American shamans, African medicine men, traditional Chinese doctors, Indian Ayurvedic healers, and Tibetan priests.

The images Mitchell revealed showed the inherent healing energies from very specific plants and other botanical superfoods, which when taken into the body in the form of precise synergistic combinations, set up the potential for a positive pattern of wellness and vibrant health. Seeing these energy fields that Mitchell May has captured on film and uses in his Pure Synergy superfood formula, one easily recognizes that there is an intelligence throughout all of nature as well as within our own cell structure.

Mitchell’s twenty-plus years of research into the healing potential of nutrition, life force, energy fields, and his extensive clinical experience in the healing arts, led him to create a very unique botanical superfood formula called Pure Synergy. He designed the formula from his research findings in order to offer the highest level of nourishment, regeneration, and life force enhancement possible. Pure Synergy is the very same formula that Mitchell developed with his mentor/healer, Jack Gray, to support the healing process and to -help one maintain a very high level of energy and well-being.

Look for the follow-up to Mitchell May's story and some additional fabulous color photographs never before seen which show the powerful vibrational energies that one incorporates into the body when you eat certain mushrooms, herbs, vegetables, grasses, grains, and other plant products. These will be published in Part 2 of my Medical Journalist Report on "A Dietary Supplement for 'Life Force' Enhancement" in the next issue of the Townsend Letter for Doctors.

Resource
For information about classes, seminars, or audiotapes provided by Mitchell M. May, or to learn more about his Pure Synergy superfood formula, contact The Synergy Company, 2279 South Resource Blvd., Moab, Utah 84532; telephone 800-723-0277; fax 435-259-2328; website www.synergy-co.com.

References
1. Karpen, Maxine. "Dolores Krieger: Tireless teacher of therapeutic touch." Alternative & Complementary Therapies (3):142- 146, Apr/May 1995.
2. Levine, Frederick G. "What is the truth about psychic healing?" Natural Health, Jan/Feb 1993, pp. 64-71.
3. Malarek, B.A. "Mitchell May, a medically documented case of unorthodox healing." The Unorthodox Healing Research Foundation Newsletter, Spring l977 pp. 4-6.
4. Op cit., Levine, Frederick G.
5. Op cit., Levine, Frederick G.
6. OldfieId, Harry and Coghill, Roger. The Dark Side of the Brain (Rockport, MA: Element Books, 1988), p. 94.
7. Walker, Morton. The Power of Color (Garden City Park NY: Avery Publishing Group 1991) pp. 152-156.

Reprinted from the Townsend Letter for Doctors & Patients, Issue #148, November, 1995.

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Brief Review
As described in Part One of this article series, at age 21, Mitchell May was involved in a near-fatal automobile accident. The very best of conventional allopathic medicine could not offer Mitchell any hope of his ever walking on his two legs again. Because of massive injuries, attending physicians insisted that he must have his right leg amputated. They agreed that the young man's immune system would be permanently and dangerously weakened and that his health and well- being would be severely limited for decades to come.

Mitchell would have none of this negative prognosis. Instead, he began what has become a lifelong search to find the many different methods of alternative healing which may restore an ill or traumatized person to wellness once again.

During this period in 1972, the University of California Medical Center at Los Angeles (UCLA) where Mitchell was hospitalized, had been conducting a special research project involving parapsychology. In a campus laboratory headed by Thelma Moss, Ph.D., ongoing experiments and investigations into the extrasensory abilities possessed by human beings were being recorded. One of the major studies was focusing on the apparent ability of some people to recover from illnesses or injuries even when the traditional western medical community said "It can't be done!"

Mitchell May became deeply involved with this laboratory where he met one of its most exceptional and key participants, the healer Jack Gray. Under strict scientific parameters, even when all other medical and scientific methods had failed, Jack exhibited an extraordinary ability to help many ill and injured people to recover their health and well-being. Mitchell learned from Jack how to activate a powerful and natural healing "life force" which dwells within all of us. With Jack's guidance, Mitchell was able to regenerate his critically injured nerves, bones, muscles and organs to a degree that medical science had said was impossible. His limbs were saved, and today Mitchell May rock climbs and takes regular hikes on mountain trails.

For seven years, Jack took Mitchell under his wing as his apprentice until the healer passed away. During that time he taught Mitchell many of the different paths to awakening healing energy. Jack kindled in Mitchell a keen interest in subtle energy, states of consciousness, alternative methods of healing, as well as the beneficial use of unusual natural substances such as plants, herbs, and botanicals that have unique nourishing properties. This became the foundation for Mitchell's intense research into cultivating the power of life force and its healing energy.

Having personally experienced the healing power of this life force, Mitchell began to investigate and create ways to help others to access and utilize it to help improve their lives. Among the many tools employed, Mitchell applied Kirlian photography (radiation-field photography), a method by which the 'invisible' energy or force fields of all substances can be visually recorded and thereby studied. Mitchell became fascinated with the energy patterns that were revealed by Kirlian photography and other highly sensitive equipment and was one of the first people to research and photograph the extraordinarily beautiful and colorful world of energy patterns that were being revealed in herbs, grasses, algae, mushrooms, sprouted grains and many other edible and natural substances.

Visualizing the Life Force with Kirlian Photography
Kirlian photography is a means of taking pictures of the nonmaterial world without a camera. It provides a way of viewing the unseen patterns of energy and force fields that probably permeate all substances. It offers us a tool with which to view both art and science. The technique can serve as a medical diagnostic instrument, too. The Kirlian effect is useful for recording energy balances and harmonies in all forms of life. l

The equipment which produces the Kirlian photographic effect uses no light but only the radiation spark discharging from an object being photographed on a film emulsion. The equipment consists of a metal plate and a generator or oscillator that produces a high-voltage field of variable pulse and frequency. Film put in contact with the plate and with the object on top of it causes a photograph to be produced. Depending upon the type of film used - instant color film, 35-millimeter black and white film, or something else with an emulsion that records images - different colors or shadings appear in a brilliant corona surrounding the object (see color Kirlian photographs shown below). 2,3

Discussing the Kirlian effect in their book, The Dark Side of the Brain, Drs. Harry Oldfield and Roger Coghill suggest that the Kirlian effect results from a high-voltage corona discharge caused by pulsed high-frequency waves. Through the action of high-frequency fields, electrons are emitted from the body of an organism and this energy gets dissipated in a photographic emulsion in the same way as light. Depending on the strength of the emitted electrons an image will be formed in the emulsion so that a picture appears. 4

William A. Tiller, Ph.D., of Stanford University has expressed deep interest in the Kirlian effect. He says that each individual organism or material radiates and absorbs energy via a unique wave field which exhibits certain geometrical frequency and radiation-type characteristics. Whether animate or inanimate, there is an extended force field that exists around all forms of matter.

Research on Natural Food Substances
Natural food substances emanate energy patterns which may be seen in the form of visible color coronas when photographed using Kirlian technology. In Mitchell’s research to create a regenerative superfood formula, he searched the world for those natural foods which have very special and particular energy patterns. When taken into one’s body, these foods become a contributing part of the molecular and metabolic structures, and thus become a powerful energy resource for enhancing one's health and well-being. His research and experiments were strongly leading to the conclusion that consuming certain very specific plants, botanicals, algae and other natural substances could significantly help one in maintaining or in coming back to homeostasis (proper alignment, balance, and overall vital health).

During this time as part of his research, Mitchell tried nearly every commercial nutritional product available, only to discover that none of them delivered what he sought or what he believed was possible. For this reason, he took it upon himself to find the most potent, balanced, and perfect synergistic combination of beneficial natural, organically farmed nutritional substances. For the past twenty years, Mitchell has been conducting experiments. He undertook exhaustive searches to secure, test, and view superfoods from around the world using the latest versions of Kirlian technology, photomicrography and polarized light field photography. Fortunately, he was connected with Dr. Thelma Moss' parapsychology research laboratory at UCLA and so had access to testing equipment, knowledgeable authorities in the field, and other university resources.

Along with photographing the energy patterns of natural foods and other nutritional substances, Mitchell performed world wide literature searches and interviewed many of the leading nutritionists, physicists, health professionals, alternative healing practitioners and other authorities about these superfoods and his personal research findings. His goal was to find, test and document those special superfoods which had the most potential to assist with human health and well- being. As part of his research he discovered new methods for keeping the vital energy alive in foods. It was one thing to find these superfoods and quite another for him to learn how to retain the potency so that, at the time of consumption, the foods still retain that life-enhancing quality. Mitchell has gone to great lengths to insure that the unique and valuable properties of these superfoods are not lost in harvesting or preparation.

Mitchell's years of research led him to create his own superfood formula. As part of his own testing, he lived on this product of his experiments almost exclusively for over two years. During this time, he continued his experiments with the formulation, always seeking that synergy that would take the performance of a nutritional superfood to a whole new level. After fifteen years of research, he created the nutritional formula for which he was searching -- Pure Synergy™.

Mitchell's Pure Synergy formulation evolved over all those years of testing and research into a blend of nature's most potent and nourishing foods, including such ingredients as rare, organically grown or wildcrafted algae, organic cold- or freeze-dried green juices and vegetables, traditional Chinese herbs, organically grown and freeze-dried Western herbs, organically grown Asian mushrooms, natural plant enzymes, multiple antioxidants and many other special ingredients.

Seeing how Mitchell's health thrived and his regenerative process was so supported by the Pure Synergy superfood formula, his colleagues and fellow health care practitioners began asking him to share it with them. From taking Pure Synergy, they too experienced increased energy, mental clarity, physical vitality and a renewed sense of well-being. Word of mouth requests for Pure Synergy grew to such an extent that Mitchell formed The Synergy Company™ to meet this ever- increasing demand. He now makes Pure Synergy at his own production that is certified to manufacture organic and kosher products.

Dr. Michael Whelan Takes Pure Synergy
Michael Whelan, D.C., clinic director at Cabot Chiropractic in Laguna Hills, California, uses Pure Synergy every day, as does his flight attendant wife Patti, and their two children, ages six and three.

"I have been taking nutritional supplements since I was fifteen years old, but compared to anything else I've ever tried, Pure Synergy, which has been part of my daily food program for nearly two years, is the best that I've ever come across. I use it for many different reasons which I could cite that relate to insuring good health. The first attraction to me is that it makes a huge difference in the increased amount of energy I feel after drinking it," says Dr. Whelan. "I'm 43 years old, run fifty miles a week, participate in marathons, was a bodybuilder, and generally am very active. My being a vegetarian, this green superfood addresses some of the issues relating to amino acids that I'm not getting from meat. It contains 22 of the amino acids, including all the essential ones."

"My patients love Pure Synergy and ask for it on their own. It has a better flavor than the barley grass and wheat grass juices or any of the other types." Dr. Whelan says, "This isn't any multilevel marketed item but gets dispensed at a fair price for all the work that Mitchell May has put into producing it."

"Pure Synergy comes closest to the most perfect food ever developed by man. With so many pollutants in our environment, this product is absolutely necessary for enhancement of one's health. There are times when I've awakened in the morning and not felt tip top, but twenty minutes after I've taken Pure Synergy, a nice feeling of well-being comes over me. Unlike any other food item, it elevates my mood and offers a mental and emotional uplift because the ingredients are so extraordinarily nourishing," Dr. Whelan says.

Ordinarily, one heaping tablespoonful of Pure Synergy powder is added to eight or ten ounces of water and/or juice and consumed on an empty stomach for the best nutrient absorption. Another favorite recipe calls for mixing Pure Synergy in a blender with bananas, berries or other fruits for producing a mid-morning or late- afternoon smoothie. Just as with Dr. Whelan, the experience of this author is that the abundant energy pickup, greater stamina, better mental alertness, improved digestion and elimination, and weight controlling appetite suppression of such a drink are truly gratifying.

The Ingredients in Pure Synergy
The collective and exceptional ingredients in Pure Synergy are kosher, 100% vegetarian, organic or wildcrafted, seasonally harvested, cold ground, fresh freeze-dried, concentrated, tested and produced using good manufacturing practices at The Synergy Company’s own award-winning production facility. The Synergy Company has worked to set a whole new standard of excellence, and many nutritionists believe that Pure Synergy is the most complete, comprehensive and synergistically balanced superfood available. Its quality, integrity and potency of ingredients and the care with which they are handled, processed and packaged create a superfood formula with unmatched quality and effectiveness. Pure Synergy is made with over 70% organic ingredients, which are approved by a third-party organic certifier. What follows is an overview of Pure Synergy's ingredients and some of the extraordinary measures that are taken to deliver such an exceptional product.

Synergized™ Algae consists of hand-picked, 100% fresh, freeze-dried or cold-dried algae, which are aquatic plants with an extraordinary ability to transform the sun's energy into essential nutrients. The algae in Pure Synergy include organic Spirulina, organic Klamath Lake Crystals™, HGP Chlorella, Australian Dunaliella salina, Dumontiaceae, wildcrafted, hand-picked Longicrusis and Digitata Kelp, Dulse, Bladderwrack, and Alaria. Such a comprehensive array of algae has much to offer, starting with its full amino acid profile, high chlorophyll content and exceptional chelation properties, which enables it to bind with heavy metals and other impurities and cleanse them from the body. Also, these algae possess an abundance of carotenoids, including beta carotene, which can bolster the immune system and help protect a person from free radicals and the sun's radiation. For vegetarians, algae furnish high levels of critically necessary protein, iron and vitamin B12. These aquatic plants possess precursors to neuropeptides, neurotransmitters and glycogen, which can help to nourish and enhance brain activity.

All of Pure Synergy's algae are carefully harvested according to Mitchell's exact specifications. They are harvested from either natural and protected pristine environments or grown in highly advanced pharmaceutical laboratories. The algae in Pure Synergy are the purest, freshest and highest quality available.

Many medical and nutritional experts believe that algae will play a critical role in enhancing health care and in helping to feed the world in the 21st century because they;
(1) have such a rich nutritional profile, including substantial amounts of protein,
(2) offer proven protection against radiation poisoning and general systemic toxicity,
(3) act as powerful antioxidants,
(4) help to strengthen the immune system, and
(5) grow very rapidly when given proper conditions, often reproducing themselves within 24 hours.

Synergized™ Phytonutrients & Enzyme contains a special blend of organic fruits and organic sprouts that contribute important enzymes and food co-factors that are deficient in most people’s diets. Vibrantly colored apples and berries are a rich source of potent, protective antioxidant phytonutrients, including quercetin, ellagic and phenolic acids, anthocyanins and proanthocyanins. It is now believed that these phytonutrients are responsible for a wide variety of health-protective benefits. By freeze-drying the berries, Mitchell is able to fully preserve and concentrate their crucial phytonutrient compounds. The fruit and sprout blend also provides several vital enzymes that act as catalysts for numerous metabolic processes, such as digestion, assimilation and internal cleansing. As always, extensive research, including Kirlian photography (see accompanying color photographs), helped Mitchell to find the most biologically viable and potent ingredients, the methods for naturally preserving their quality and the optimal combination. Pure Synergy's enzyme component includes organic freeze-dried Sprouts (natural antioxidants), organic whole Apple, organic freeze-dried Blueberries and Raspberries, Green Papaya (papain) and other natural plant-derived Enzymes including Amylase (for sugars), Cellulase (for cellulose), Lipase (for fats) and Protease (for protein).

Synergized™ Chinese Mushrooms & Herbs is a component of Pure Synergy that began with Mitchell's study of the ancient knowledge of Taoist practitioners in their quest for the creation and utilization of life force energy. Four organically grown Asian mushrooms, referred to by Taoists as the mushrooms of immortality are present in significant amounts in Pure Synergy and are joined with the immunosupportive Brazilian mushroom, Agaricus blazei. All of Pure Synergy’s mushrooms are grown on organic millet in a controlled environment.

The Synergy Company pioneered the use of Asian mushrooms in superfood formulas and has a complete spectrum of these valuable mushrooms in its Pure Synergy formulation. The National Institutes of Health is currently doing extensive research into the immune-enhancing and cancer prevention potential of many of the same mushrooms that Pure Synergy contains. Because mushrooms naturally attract toxins from their surrounding environment, all the mushrooms in Pure Synergy are grown in a sterile environment. They are tested for heavy metal and pesticide contamination and must meet the Japanese pharmaceutical standards, the most stringent standards in the world.

Pure Synergy also offers a comprehensive and highly valued traditional Chinese formula, composed of herbs that have been used in a synergistic combination for over 2,000 years to restore and maintain vibrant health. The same ancient and regenerative formula, which Mitchell has adapted and refined specifically for Pure Synergy, is in use today by hospitals in Taiwan and the People's Republic of China that practice and research traditional Chinese medicine.

These particular Chinese herbs are exclusively produced for The Synergy Company in Taiwan by a modern pharmaceutical company using methods that preserve their quality and potency. This company uses advanced pure water–extraction technology to concentrate and standardize Pure Synergy's Chinese herbs to a 7:1 ratio (it takes approximately 70 pounds of fresh-picked herbs to produce one pound of Pure Synergy's Chinese herbs). Because Pure Synergy's Chinese herbs are produced under stringent pharmaceutical protocols, they enter the United States and obtain Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval without the need for any fumigation or irradiation. It is an unfortunate fact that most imported herbs from China and abroad, because of insect infestation and bacterial contamination, must routinely undergo chemical sterilization, fumigation or irradiation to pass FDA inspection and to be approved for use in the U.S.

The Chinese mushrooms and herbs included in Pure Synergy are Shiitake, Reishi, Maitake, Cordyceps, Agaricus, Eleuthero, Astragalus, Tang-Kuei, Atractylodes, Rehmannia, Codonopsis, Fo-Ti, Poria cocos, Peony Alba, Polygala, Ligusticum wallachii, Jujube, Ginger, Schizandra chinensis, Citrus Peel and Licorice.

Synergized™ Green Juices is a blend of numerous true juice powders made from certified organically grown, spring-harvested grasses by using a proprietary low-temperature process that preserves its enzymes and nutritional bioactivity. Pure Synergy exclusively uses only the highest-quality and purest 100% juice powders. Its Synergized Green Juices includes organic Wheat Grass juice, Barley Grass juice, Oat grass juice, Alfalfa Grass juice and organic, freeze-dried whole-leaf Parsley, Spinach, Kale and Collard, which are loaded with protein, enzymes, natural fiber, minerals, vitamins and chlorophyll.

Synergized™ Western Herbs is a unique and nutritious blend of certified organic herbs. Most of these herbs are grown especially for The Synergy Company. The Synergy Company uses only certified organic Western herbs to ensure that they have not been sprayed with any chemicals, pesticides, toxic agents or any other potentially poisonous or otherwise harmful substances.

Upon harvest, Pure Synergy's Western herbs are carefully freeze-dried in a complete vacuum at very low temperatures. Freeze-drying herbs to exact specifications is very expensive, yet scientific research has shown that it is the most effective way to preserve and protect the many therapeutic and valuable nutrients in these herbs. Freeze-drying herbs ensures that the critical and powerful phytochemicals, such as essential oils, bioflavonoids, polysaccharides and enzymes, remain fully viable and bioactive.

The ten herbs include Nettle, Ginkgo biloba, Red Clover, Burdock, Yellow Dock, Skullcap, Dandelion and Rose Hips. The use of this collection of herbs is based on the considerable research Mitchell did into native healing traditions and on his extensive consultations with respected and highly accomplished herbalists.

Synergized™ Natural Antioxidants is a proprietary formulation that naturally preserves the viability of highly sensitive nutritional components. Because oxygen, light and heat can so easily depreciate the nutritional value of foods, it is essential to protect and prevent the deterioration of the ingredients in a superfood to ensure that the full value of the formula will be safely and naturally preserved for the consumer. Mitchell researched this subject in-depth and includes in Pure Synergy one of the first all-natural preservatives ever to be used. Pure Synergy's Natural Antioxidants includes special extracts of Rosemary, Clove and Sage, and naturally derived vitamin E.

Quality Control
Extra care is taken in Pure Synergy's production to insure that there is no dilution, deterioration or loss of the exceptional nutritional value of Pure Synergy. There are many quality control standards and measures implemented by The Synergy Company to enhance, maintain and guarantee the potency and effectiveness of Pure Synergy. For example:
(1) There are no fillers used such as apple pectin, rice bran, flax meal, barley malt, maltodextrin, apple fiber, grass fiber powders, and other low cost items that add bulk and fiber but little nourishment.
(2) Ingredients are obtained directly from the farmers, growers and other producers. Mitchell has a personal relationship with all of these suppliers and is involved in the growing, harvesting and preparation of many of Pure Synergy's components.
(3) All drying, milling and processing of Pure Synergy's vulnerable heat sensitive ingredients are done using only cryogenic (cold processing or liquid nitrogen) equipment.
(4) Each ingredient in Pure Synergy comes with an official laboratory certificate of analysis every time it is acquired. In addition, every ingredient is tested for purity at an independent FDA- regulated and USDA certified laboratory. Pure Synergy's ingredients are collectively put through over 200 stringent laboratory tests for quality control with every fresh batch produced. The standards set by The Synergy Company for Pure Synergy meet or exceed all FDA guidelines in the industry.
(5) Pure Synergy is packaged only in glass, the only packaging material that 100% blocks the entrance of oxygen and the subsequent deterioration and oxidation of ingredients. All bottles of Pure Synergy contain a special packet designed to absorb any residual oxygen. These bottles are then sealed using laser induction technology which positively insures a perfect oxygen-free atmosphere with a hermetic seal. In addition, because light is also responsible for adding to nutrient loss, Pure Synergy bottles are protectively amber-colored.
(6) All blending and bottling is done at The Synergy Company’s own FDA-licensed facility pursuant to Good Manufacturing Practices and Synergy’s own Quality Management system.
(7) Mitchell and others at the Synergy Company participate in every aspect of the manufacturing process.
(8) Pure Synergy is stored in a climate controlled environment until the time of shipment.
(9) The Synergy Company sells only direct to consumers and select health care providers and is not available through typical retail channels or multilevel marketing structures where a larger markup is necessary.

The Breast Cancer Challenge for Joy Craddick, M.D.
"Supplementing with Pure Synergy is vital to me. I wouldn't miss taking it every day because about a year-and-a- half ago I was challenged by breast cancer and didn't follow the conventional methods of treatment. From my investigations, I decided that the best means of immune system enhancement came from using Pure Synergy," says Joy Craddick, M.D., Medical Director of Partners for Health in Ashland, Oregon. "At the time that I practiced conventional medicine, I was a pediatric cardiologist, but presently I practice preventive medicine and brainwave biofeedback (called neurofeedback). My work involves trying to teach adults and teenagers how to take responsibility for their own health."

"Therefore, I suggest to everyone that they should explore the using of Pure Synergy, particularly by those people that I care for and who are challenged by cancer. I believe this nutritional supplement is very important for them since I attribute my own healing in great part to my use of this particular product," affirms Dr. Craddick. "Those clients of mine who have taken it have all reported to me that they feel much more energetic, vital, and healthy. They don't get sick as often. It's interesting to observe that some people feel like running a race within thirty minutes of taking Pure Synergy. For others, it seems to affect them in a more gentle way. But all users confirm that they have fewer problems with their immune systems."

"My conclusion is that the combination of ingredients in this product are synergistic to each other, and that's why they work so well to boost one's immunity. Another thing that has me feeling comfortable in recommending it is that Pure Synergy is made with organic ingredients," Dr. Craddick added. "I've talked to Mitchell May, heard his story on New Dimensions radio, and am much impressed by the 15 years of research that he invested before putting this product on the market. I trust him! I'm really gratified that he has chosen to stay away from any multilevel marketing hype which so increases costs to the average user of any product."

"I believe that Mitchell has high integrity. He makes sure that everything that goes into the superfood is absolutely pure. I insist that anything I put into my body must be extremely pure and good for me. I definitely feel that Mitchell's green product is good for me. My challenge with cancer is finally over and now I'm completely well, a happy situation I attribute in large measure to my taking Pure Synergy, which I'll continue to do as part of my preventative program," concluded Dr. Joy Craddick.

Benefits of Pure Synergy
Pure Synergy is designed to nourish the whole person, support total health, create a sense of well-being, and strengthen the immune system. As evidenced by the many people who regularly take the product, it can have tangible benefits for nearly anyone. Here is a brief listing of some of the benefits that many individuals have reported who use Pure Synergy: