A Message From Michael

it feels so good to know that we can help others with our gifts, words and actions

Hi Jim,
My name is Michael Stephanowicz.  In case you do not remember me, I had come to you for a massage session back in January, 2009 during a business trip to Minneapolis.  I will be coming back to the Minneapolis area again sometime in mid-May and hope to have the time to schedule another awesome session with you during my visit.  I will know if I have the time (and funds) available as the date of my trip there grows closer.

I know that you probably see and meet a lot of different people throughout the course of your work, but I wanted to remind you of something that occurred during my previous session with you and the impact that it had on my life subsequent to my session.

While you were working on my back, you asked me if I had a close female friend whose name began with the letter "S".  You said you were seeing someone in my aura whose name was something like Sharon or Sherry.  When I inquired as to why you were asking me that you said that you felt that someone close to me - a female - was soon going to be having problems with her pancreas and that it was important that she not accept the diagnosis that the doctor gave her.  You said that it was very important that she seek out a second opinion, and possibly even a third.  But you knew it definitely had something to do with her pancreas.  You also stressed that it was very important that she not ignore any symptoms she might experience and to have her look into it as soon as possible.

Well, to be honest with you, I just kind of poo-poo'ed the whole idea of what you were talking about.  At the time of my session I was married (we have since divorced) and my wife's name was Leslie.  So I really didn't give it too much thought (or honestly) credence.

If your massage wasn't as wonderful as it was and if it hadn't left me feeling so high on life for a very long time afterward, I would've simply dismissed you as some kind of "New Age" kook  (sorry, but I have to be honest here).  I had heard the term "auras" before but simply attributed them to "New Age" lingo and fancy.

About a week after my return home (I lived in San Diego at the time), I began thinking about what you said.  As a matter of fact, I couldn't get that message that you shared with me out of my head.  And so I started thinking about my sister Shannon with whom I have been very close all my life.  (Not physically as she lives in New Jersey and I live in California)   Shannon and I had always had a habit of speaking with each other via phone at least once a week - every week - since we were young adults.  About 2 months before my visit to Minneapolis, I noticed that Shannon's calls to me became less frequent.  When we did speak, she mentioned that she and her family were doing fine and said nothing was wrong, just that she was tired from being really busy with work, school (she was attending college in order to pursue her degree in teaching) and her family of 5 kids.  Not to mention a husband who has a severe problem with alcoholism and gambling and a whole host of other addictions I won't even go into.

So not being able to get what you had said to me out of my mind, I called Shannon.  She sounded horrible.  She said that she had been having some problems with her kidneys and had recently been diagnosed with pancreatitis and hypothyroidism.  I asked her how the treatments were going for her and she claimed that she was going to a doctor who had been recommended to her by one of her university professors but that she didn't seem to be getting any better.  As a matter of fact, it seemed that she was getting increasingly sicker even though she was on a whole host of medications.

Because she had had a series of miscarriages several years before, her doctor was thinking that the source of her problems was actually her ovaries, which were negatively affecting her thyroid and subsequently her pancreas.  So she was heavy-duty medication for her ovaries, her thyroid and her pancreas - none of which seemed to be helping.

So I told Shannon what you had said to me during my massage and asked her if she had gone to get a second opinion.  She was actually pretty open to what I had to say.  During our telephone conversation, all of a sudden there was silence from her end of the line and then I heard her crying.  When I asked her what happened, she simply said that she felt a sense of warmth move through her body, like someone or something was standing next to her and coating her with waves of warmth.  Then she asked what you looked like.  When I described you to her (to the best that I could remember) she said that was exactly the description of the person she had just seen standing next to her while she was talking to me on the phone.

So I instructed her to go to your website while I had her on the phone and when she saw your photos on your website, she yelped, "That was him!"  So I told her that even though it goes against everything I had ever believed, I felt that your message must've had some validity. There were just too many coincidences to ignore.  So I suggested she seek out another doctor to see what they had to say.

The very next day, Shannon called me back and told me that she had been leafing through a magazine at the university she has been attending and happened to come across an article which almost literally jumped out at her.  Here's where it gets even weirder.  That day, she was in a section of the university (Rutgers) where she had never been to before.  She wasn't even sure why she was on that section of campus as she had no business there and it was out of her way to her classes.  But she said that she couldn't help thinking about what you had told me and she must've gone back to your website a dozen times.  Finally that morning, before she left for her classes, she looked at your picture on your website and - now it gets really weird - she felt that you were speaking to her and telling her to go to this building on the Rutgers campus that she had never been to before and had no reason to go to.

So she felt you were leading her to someone or something she needed to see or find there.  When she arrived at the building, she kept asking herself, "Now what do I do?"  That's when she went into this waiting area where there were some magazines on a table.  She sat down and sifted through the magazines and one fell out of the stack onto the floor and it landed upside down, opened to an article about pancreatic cancer.

Shannon said that as she was reading through the article, her jaw just about hit the floor as almost everything the article mentioned about the symptoms of this one type of pancreatic cancer were almost identical to the many symptoms she had been experiencing over the last several months.  The article even mentioned that many times, doctors misdiagnose pancreatic cancer as pancreatitis and even often as thyroid disorders.

So Shannon said that without hesitation, she found the listing of an oncologist who specializes in pancreatic cancers and scheduled an appointment.  Because of the severity of her symptoms they were actually able to get her in to see the doctor the following day.  They immediately admitted her to University Medical Center of Princeton.  The doctors told her that even though in most cases pancreatic cancer is virtually untreatable and incurable - if caught early enough there are steps that can be taken to increase one's chance of survival and recovery.  The doctor also told her that if she had waited just a week or so more, she would have been passed that point.

Shannon went through a whole host of chemotherapy and radiation treatments and a lot of non-traditional things with which I am totally unfamiliar.  Less than 8 months after she had been admitted to University Medical, she was in complete remission.  Whle she has had a couple of minor bouts due to side effects of some of the meds and other treatments, she is pretty much back to leading a normal, healthy life.  She actually went back and completed her studies last year and received her Masters degree in Secondary Education just before Christmas this past year.  She - and her family (myself included) - have you to thank for that.

I have to tell you this Jim.  None of this would've ever happened if you hadn't given me that advice you had given during my massage session more than 2 years ago. 

A few weeks ago I was in training for a new position for my job.  One of the instructors posed to us a question which had to do with managing new employees.  His intention was to make us aware of how the things we teach those in our employ can further affect others in years to come.  For instance, if we have a new employee that is somewhat shy yet has a wealth of bottle-up creativity and we take steps to encourage them to nurture that innate creativity  - and then to share that creativity with their supervisors, how that encouragement can have a positive effect on the entire company for years to come.

I guess I was somewhat daydreaming during that class, because my mind was off wondering about Shannon.  I was thinking...what if?  What if a student that she teaches goes on to become a great doctor or scientist who makes a significant discovery which helps to cure people of a horrible illness.  What if - because of Shannon's encouragement - that student reaches a potential they never would have reached before?  And what if all that happens because Shannon's life was saved because of advice that you had given me during a massage many years before?  Really makes you think that there has got to be some sort of "divine" plan for all of this, doesn't it? 

A couple of years ago, you would've never caught me thinking these kind of thoughts.  I was always one of those that if I couldn't see it, hear it, touch it, taste it or feel it - it simply wasn't real.  Now see how a massage from a guy in Minneapolis opened my eyes to a whole different way of thinking?

Well, I have rambled on enough for one night.  It's almost 11 o'clock here on the West Coast and I have a 7 AM meeting in the morning.  But given that I had just found out that I was scheduled for an upcoming trip to Minneapolis in May, I could not rest until I had let you know of some good you had done in my life and the life of my dear sister Shannon.  I sincerely hope that I have the opportunity to meet with you again when I am in Minnesota.  I will keep you posted on my exact travel dates and availability in between meetings and trainings.

Thank you for your wisdom, your kindness and sharing,
Michael Stephanowicz