The
Churkendoose Anthology intrigued me
with its title. What on earth is it? was the initial reaction. The sub-title
explained that it is a collection of true stories of triumph over neurological
disorders. Since I have a deep interest in all health related issues and since
I advocate a (w)holistic approach, the book appealed to me.

The
book is divided into 7 parts. Each part deals with some specific aspects of
Neurological Dysfunction. Speech difficulties, late walking, hearing problems,
sight problems, problems of balance, general Attention Deficit disorders,
Autism… the spectrum of Neurological Dysfunctions covered where HANDLE has
helped is wide indeed. ‘OF PERSEVERANCE AND HOPE’ by Kate Bowers was
outstanding in its emotional depth and brought tears to eyes. Others stories
are good too.

One thing,
which ran as a common thread through all the stories, is the courage, grit and
patience of the sufferers, and their families. In some cases like Kate’s,
family support was inadequate (or was actually negative!) and the person helped
him/herself. But in many of the cases, the person was incapable of
communicating verbally and it was the great patience and understanding of the
parents, teachers, therapists and other care givers, and of course that of the
HANDLE practitioners, which has helped the breakthrough in communication and
thus helped the person come to terms with the various parts of the body-mind.

Another
point, which became clear was that while the incidence of similar problems is
more or less similar worldwide, the resources available vary significantly from
country to country. In India, for example, the number of patients will be enormous
but the facilities to help them grow into functional citizens are sadly
inadequate. The result is that one is forced to take a fatalistic approach to
the problems. Institutes like HANDLE should play a significant part in
educating and training a sufficient number of practitioners. The actual exercises
suggested are not expensive and that is a great plus factor.

Since
the book is a collection of true stories, the narrative style differs from one writer
to another, but the overall readability has been well preserved by the
editorial skills of Lisa Brenner. The comments by Judith Bluestone have added
value and have clarified the issues involved and the approach of the HANDLE
Institute.

The
book will give renewed hope and courage to the parents and other caretakers of
Neurological Dysfunctional Children and in a few cases, even adults struggling
with such problems. After reading the book, I got an impression that where all
other methods failed, HANDLE succeeded. Whether the success rate is 100% or
whether partial is not clear. I know of at least one case where the HANDLE
approach did not yield satisfactory results. I know because I recommended
HANDLE to the parents and they told me that HANDLE was one of the first
Institutes, which they consulted and alas, it did not help. So, if the epilogue
dealt with the success rates, it would have been better. I also know of several
case studies of successful cure of severe neurological problems through other
medical systems such as Homeopathy, Ayurveda, Reiki etc. Such variety of cases
and variety of healing methods led me to conclude that it is the indweller in
each body, who decides at the appropriate time to heal him/herself.

I
have one more point to complain about and that is the absence of an email
address in their book as well as the website. I could get only the snail mail
address as well as a telephone number, but not an email. I wanted to know from
them whether they were planning to expand their operations to other parts of
the world, so that more people are benefited. I hope that this review will
attract the attention of Judith and other members of HANDLE and that they will
respond.

I
certainly recommend this book as a good buy if you were in need of any
information on a Holistic Approach to NeuroDevelopment and Learning Efficiency
(HANDLE).

© 2003 S. V. Swamy

S. V. Swamy, India.

Categories: Memoirs