In March 2007, Don Berry, a US Army veteran from Tullahoma, Tennessee, wrote in to my Intention Experiment website forum, offering to be our first human Intention Experiment.

In 1981, he had been diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis and his spine was fused, making it impossible for him to move from side to side. Over the course of the years he had both hips replaced, and he was in constant pain. As he had a wealth of x-rays and other medical test reports, he said, he could produce a full record of his medical history by which to measure any change.

 

In March 2007, Don Berry, a US Army veteran from Tullahoma, Tennessee, wrote in to my Intention Experiment website forum, offering to be our first human Intention Experiment.

In 1981, he had been diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis and his spine was fused, making it impossible for him to move from side to side. Over the course of the years he had both hips replaced, and he was in constant pain. As he had a wealth of x-rays and other medical test reports, he said, he could produce a full record of his medical history by which to measure any change.

Don’s blog prompted members of my online community to set twice-weekly periods during which they would send healing intention to Don, and he in turn began to keep a diary of his condition.

“While it was going on, I did start to feel better,” he wrote me. “It was not an immediate healing, but my well being was better and I was in less pain.”

When Don went for his semi-annual doctor appointment with his rheumatologist, for the very first time, after his doctor asked after him, he could say that he felt absolutely fantastic. “I was (am) still fused together, but I felt I was bending more and I was wayyyyyy down on the pain scale,” he told him. “The best I have ever remembered feeling.”

The doctor then pulled out his stethoscope to listen to Don’s heart, and had him take a deep breath. At the end of Don’s breath, as the doctor listened intently, he suddenly looked up at Don, his face incredulous, and said, “Your chest just moved!”

“The doctor actually sat there with his mouth open,” wrote Don, “I did not have a spontaneous healing, but the Intention Experiment set the wheels in motion for me to feel so much better, and it also caused me to recognize the way I thought affected my health and even the world around me.”

Weekly intention group
This sparked an idea – to run regular, informal group intentions for people like Don – an Intention of the Week. We could treat this as one more kind of experiment.

We began leading our web community in an intention from our web site – usually to help heal one of our participants or, in the wake of the financial crisis that autumn, to ease someone’s financial worries.

We’d invite the audience to nominate an intention of the week and we’d post the person’s name, condition and photo on our website to gather weekly to send healing intention every Sunday at 1 pm Eastern US.

Before long I was receiving hundreds of requests every week: people with cancer, children with brain damage or birth defects, estranged family members, wounded pets. And before long, I was hearing about miracles – healings from life-and-death injuries, spontaneous remissions of cancer, infants whom medicine could no longer help who miraculously got better.

The fact that it was working on babies – even foetuses –and people who were unconscious tended to rule out a placebo effect.

My website was turning into the cyber equivalent of a weekly prayer group.

Latest target
And all these years later, our latest target has been Luke Thomas, the young boy from Birmingham who tried to commit suicide after his first proper relationship broke up. On 8 December 2015, Luke jumped from a 40-foot structure onto hard ground.

He survived, but had multiple injuries and after several operations, at the time his stepfather Michael wrote us on January 5, Luke was fighting for his life but still quite poorly.

The fall had left him with a laundry list of injuries: brain injury and skull fractures, double vision in left eye and eye socket fracture, a punctured right lung, pelvis fractures, spinal injury at the bottom of spine, broken ankle and crushed heel (left foot), urinary tract nerve damage (no feeling when needing to go to toilet), left elbow fractures, and surgery trauma recovery for his pelvis, spine and elbow.

Then there were all the negative effects of multiple x-rays and CT scans, and all the pain relief drugs being administered at the moment, including paracetamol, ibuprofen, morphine and synthetic morphine.

And all that was all in addition to his suicidal state of mind over the break-up.

Our community sent intention to him on Sunday, January 10.

The following week, Michael sent in a report with an update on Luke, with both he and his wife convinced they were witnessing big improvements within 48 hours after our intention.

On the following Monday, January 11, he was told that they could stop the antibiotics IV for his chest infection, which was clearing up. On Tuesday they removed the cannula from his hand. He began sleeping better during the night.

Most important, his desire to live had returned. He was asking more questions about his recovery and trying to visualize himself back at home and school.

So we sent intention again, on January 17, and a week later, Michael sent through a remarkable report:

Luke’s brain injury became stable. His elbow fracture was healing and he could now use his arm for weight bearing, as he could with his left ankle. All his infections had cleared up and he was able to come off painkillers and antibiotics. The double vision in his left eye cleared up. He was allowed to start moving from bed to wheelchair and his bowels had improved.

“He is impatient and wants to get better quickly, has a real resolve to want to get into the gym,” wrote Michael.

Here he is out of bed for the first time in 10 days, exploring the ward and hospital, “a major achievement by him,” wrote Michael. The highlight came on his 15th birthday, when his three best friends came to visit him. Everything was going in the right direction.

Healing crisis
Michael wrote yesterday with an update: “In the last few days, he has had a setback, all involved with his bowel and bladder, where he has no feeling at this time. We are continuing the intention that he will be healed in this area too and although for now it is causing him a lot of discomfort and pain. His state of mind has also therefore had a setback with him stating on several occasions that he doesn’t want to be here anymore.

“ My experience of healing is that there are what are called ‘healing crises’,” wrote Michael, “where the body will go into a high state of elimination of some kind, which means a higher amount of pain will occur for a period of time before the area suddenly is healed. My wife has witnessed these episodes on occasion with Luke. I also believe that the medication he is still receiving won’t be helping his state of mind either.”

Later that day, Michael wrote, that Luke was not in a “good place emotionally.”

So let’s do our intention one more time, to give a final boost to this young man who has everything to live for. (See Intention of the Week below.)