Alcohol, Cigarettes & Sex Addiction

/in /by

I came to Hawaii Naturopathic Retreat Center because I realized that I needed help and I found that my friends and family weren’t enough. I wanted help rediscovering myself, and my true purpose and I feel that’s exactly what I did. I was helped in a compassionate yet firm way. What amazes me most about the retreat is the broad spectrum in diversity of help that they can provide to anyone in any walk of life. I wish I had enough money to send many of my friends and family to the retreat – I have a list of people I would send if I could!

The biggest benefit of the retreat was calming the storm in my head. Before coming, I avoided talking to myself with drinking, smoking, chasing girls, etc. It was hard; there were days when I wanted to leave because I didn’t want to sit with myself. The retreat is set up in a way that I could have escaped and made mistakes if I wanted to – but the fact that I was able to make the decision to stick through makes me know it was my decision and makes me feel stronger to be faced with the freedom of choice when I leave the retreat. It’s an excellent way to set up recovery for the rebellious of mind.

I feel like I was having an identity crisis and this place helped me strip the façade that I’ve built around my core. I’m reconnected to myself in a profound way. I’m still somewhat nervous about the future – but not nearly as much as when I got here.
I feel a huge relief not waking up craving cigarettes every morning. That’s like breaking out of a certain kind of bondage. No matter what your addiction is – whether it’s work, or sex, or drugs… it doesn’t matter what it is – it’s all the same masking a connecting with yourself. You have to face the parts of yourself that hurt to heal it and make peace with it. I came to the retreat to find freedom from all addictions – over thinking in itself was as much an addiction to me as sex, drugs and alcohol. My brain and my heart were really disconnected and now I know my core is a ball of golden light!!!

-J.K.
Age 31, California
February 2014

Smoking Addiction, Depressed and Miserable

/in /by

Dr. Baylac is a very knowledgeable, compassionate Dr. She might have saved my life, and if she didn’t, she prolonged it and saved me from a miserable life of depression and medical catastrophe. I looked and searched, and tried every trick in the book to quit smoking and improve my health. There are no rehab programs for smoking, except in CA and Hawaii, because all drug rehabs allow smoking and caffeine. I had been laughed at multiple times calling in search of a program for nicotine addiction. No luck. I decided if I was going to do it, I would choose Hawaii since I live in California. I took my partner with me, because I knew it would be important for a lifestyle change. I couldn’t be the only one to change, and if she didn’t change, then at least she would understand and be supportive. Which she was, and has been the entire time.

I arrived in Hawaii on August 16, 2013, weighing in at 230 lbs, a smoker, depressed and miserable. It is April 23rd, and I am 173 lbs, a non-smoker, happy and loving life. It was a hard path to get here, but it is amazing because it is a lifestyle change that is deeper than diet and not smoking.

The experience is probably like nothing you can expect or imagine. It is beautiful setting. But man, it didn’t matter, everything was ugly to me. Myself, my surroundings, my life. The food change was rough, but I didn’t care that much. Eating raw is fine, its not my favorite, but I wasn’t hungry, and most of it tasted good after a week (I think due to my smoking my tastebuds were messed up). I craved hamburgers and french fries and wine. But not cigarettes. I think it was because I was immediately put into multiple therapies (body, mind, spirit, etc.). I was talking about the things the cigarettes pushed down. It was not fun, it was confusing and hard, but at the same time it was a relief. The top had been taken off the boiling pressure cooker that was about to explode.

So, I continued and stayed for 3 weeks, and lost about 15 lbs in the process. Dr. Baylac put me on over 35 supplements, plus IVs, and got my adrenals back on track, my liver cleansed, and my systems functioning correctly. I came home and kept at it. We order raw food weekly, and I did it for 6 months. Now we eat a mix of clean cooked foods, and the raw diet. I take my supplements, and continue to heal my liver, lungs, etc. I exercise, and I take responsibility for my body. BUT I could not have done it without Hawaii and Dr Baylac and her team.

I am thankful for everything you did Dr Baylac.

Thank you,
M.M.
April 2014 (seven months after departing retreat)

Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, stem cell transplant, Gerson Therapy

/in /by

I was diagnosed with Stage III Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma in July 2008. After I became aware of it, I could feel the tumors in my stomach. It was pushing against my aorta. I was very fortunate to have had a kind of Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma that was curable. This is my third year cancer free. Right now I am working on improving the ratio of red and white blood cells and platelets in my blood as these are not yet normal in numbers

Initially when I was diagnosed, I worked with my naturopathic doctor and tried some alternative cancer therapies. I did Vitamin C IV therapy as well as a very expensive treatment from El Salvador called, Bryomixol. My naturopathic doctor was very against chemotherapy and he made me extremely afraid of it. My oncologist on the other hand was very kind about the fact that I wanted to try alternative therapies and she gave me a window of time for trying alternatives. It was the unknown for me. I didn’t know anyone who was sick or who have had cancer. I was terribly conflicted over whether I should do chemotherapy or just stay with the alternative treatments.

In the end eventually I did start some chemotherapy and then while on a family trip in between treatments to Hawaii, I heard about Dr. Baylac and started communicating with her. I decided to stay in Hawaii and did not go back home to finish my chemotherapy. I stayed at the retreat with Dr. Baylac for ten days, because that was all I could afford and followed the Gerson Therapy program. After the ten days, they helped me to find an apartment and I moved to an apartment and continued to do the Gerson Therapy as good as I could by myself. I chose to stay in Hawaii to continue the Gerson Therapy by myself because I was afraid of the chemo that was waiting for me back home.

Dr. Baylac was someone who had taught me not to be afraid. I think that is the key thing I learned from her and I am very grateful to her for it.

I enjoyed the Gerson Therapy. I was satisfied with it. I didn’t feel like I needed any additional food outside of what the diet required. I did breathwork a couple of times and I really enjoyed that. And there were group sessions that were part of staying at the retreat and it made it a positive and friendly environment and I think that the people who were there really genuinely cared to help each other. It wasn’t a bunch of strangers, it became personal.
When I followed the Gerson Therapy on my own I worked really hard on the juices and soups and I think after I came back from Hawaii, I did that all the way through until I had my stem cell transplant. So, yes I did return home and continued with chemotherapy and eventual stem cell transplant. When I returned home I had another CT scan and the lymphoma had turned up in another area. If I had known then what I know now, I would have returned home immediately continued the conventional treatment and then afterwards had gone for the Gerson Therapy. I don’t know if I had taken my whole course of chemo before, if I would have remained in remission or not.

I followed the Gerson Therapy for at least for six months before I went for my stem cell transplant. I went into it very healthy. I feel that it is very possible that the Gerson diet had given me a good base for what was to come. The doctor was very upfront and he said that 6/10 people die from stem cell transplants. He was very excited about how I reacted to the chemo and how well the chemo responded to me, I guess, and that he is pretty sure that I am cured and we just had to find that out over time.
I am still following the Gerson diet in my own way. I don’t do the juices now, it is too expensive but I did it all the way until I had my stem cell transplant. I think learning how to keep the ph of the body neutral and learning which foods are too acidic is important. I also eliminated stress and stopped working. If I remember correctly I think Dr. Baylac had shared with me that in her experience most of the cancer patients she had treated were grieving or very unhappy, and I was and I just didn’t know how much.

Jane Whitmore
8 May 2012

Jane stayed at the retreat and followed the Gerson program in December 2008.

44 Year Smoking Addiction

/in /by

I would like to share with you the wonderful experience I had at the Naturopathic Retreat Center. I came there to release my 44 year smoking addiction. I have tried all kinds of therapies to stop in the past from acupuncture, patches, and hypnosis. None of these worked for me.

To my sheer amazement I came off the cigarettes very easily at the center. I believe the supplementation and raw food detox was the key. I found Dr. Baylac and her staff to be very loving and knowledgeable. They helped me process the addiction and release it completely. They taught me a new way of living that was easy to take back into my every day life.

Love and Blessings,
D. S.
October 2010

Weight Loss, Emotional Healing & Water Therapy

/in , , /by

Dear Dr. Baylac,

Thank you so much for your whole-soul approach in helping me physically and emotionally!! What a beautiful expression of love for life and truth you are! Thank you for honesty and your patience with me, I know my path forward now to reclaim my health will be slow, but you’ve given me good guidelines to follow. When you told me my first day here, that you represented my commitment to myself, I felt relief. At last! A doctor whose interest and determination lies not in just making money, but in really taking a patient’s health seriously enough to ponder in depth over the course of action to take, to bring about a healthy body & mind.

Water therapy! …wonderful experience. I felt like a little orbiting sphere at the mercy of nature, but trusting that good would happen! I will work on maintaining the unresisting spirit I felt in my spiritual path and stop focusing on the problems.

Anyway – thanks for everything!
Meg

kapfloat

P.S. The following is how I felt about the water therapy treatment. It is said that touch has an honesty beyond words. I found this to be so true as I experienced the Water Therapy Treatment at the Hawaiian Naturopathic Retreat Center!!

The experience gave me memories I will never forget! Gently swirling in a volcanically warmed pool, framed by softly swaying palm trees, and cooled by the occasional light wave from the ocean, I felt: unresisting, submissive, free of judgment…(no thoughts of fat, thin, good, bad), new, in awe, sense of wonder, innocent, silent communication, raised up…exulted, like a leaf in a gentle current, fragile and at the mercy of nature – yet trusting that good will happen, buoyant, expectant, exciting, surprised, playful, and love.

The Water Therapy Treatment touched me on a physical, emotional and spiritual level!! Thank you Dr. Baylac!! That was a truly wonderful and unforgettable moment!!

Meg
August, 2007

Fasting For Overweight & Severe Arthritis

/in , , /by

Water Fasting & Green Juice Fasting: Arthritis, Swollen Knees, Spinal Cord Injury, Overweight

In 2006, I was overweight and also had arthritis in my knees. My knees were swollen, kept swelling and I was in such pain that I could not walk. I am a health care professional, but didn’t know much about proper foods for health. I was always a conventional eater.

When I met Dr. Baylac, I asked if I could work at her retreat to learn about healthy living. While I was there, I developed an arthritic condition of both knees. I asked Dr. Baylac to help me. First I went on a green juice fast for 25 days. The juice fast went fine. Except for the first 3 days, when I had headaches, due to detoxifying from smoking, eating chocolate, sweets and conventional foods. I was very grumpy those first days. But on the 4th day I was feeling fine.

After 25 days on green juices, my knees were still swollen. Dr. Baylac put me on a water fast. I was very fearful of the water fast and did not really want to do it because I did not want to lose more weight. The weight loss was the side effect of the green juice fast. Anyway, upon Dr. Baylac’s insistence, I started the water fast and was on it for 12 days. During the water fast, I felt good, energetic, the swelling disappeared 90%, and my knees returned to normal. Except for the first few days, I went through the 37 days of first juice fasting and then water fasting without any problem.

After the fast I went on a raw diet. But since Dr. Baylac suspected food allergies, I had to start with one food at a time. The first day I had lettuce, and I broke my fast on lettuce leaves. All went fine. The next day I had lettuce and tomatoes – and this time my legs started swelling, almost immediately after the meal. So, I had a sensitivity to tomatoes, and had to avoid them.

In this way, we went through one food after another, all raw, to weed out the foods I couldn’t eat. Carrots were OK. But one day someone squeezed orange juice on my grated carrots – and my knees started swelling, immediately. I was sensitive to orange. I was OK with lime, lemon and grapefruit. But I had many other food sensitivities.

After one year on vegetarian mostly raw foods, my health is so improved that I do not have any food sensitivities any longer. Today I can eat both tomatoes and citrus, and any other food I earlier was sensitive to.

I also have an old spinal cord injury, which has made my balance unsteady. I often lost my balance and fell, while walking, and I had broken my nose from these falls, on several occasions. Due to my lack of balance I couldn’t climb trees. Would this improve as well? Yes, it improved – especially during the year after the fast. Right after the fast I started exercising. Dr. Baylac gave me simple exercise tasks for my balance and gait that I performed 3 times a day. I also added some exercises that I knew from my professional experience as a rehabilitation specialist. At this point, I had lost more than 40 pounds and it was easier for me to get around. I could start practicing going up and downhill without fear of falling. One year later – my balance has improved so much that I can climb trees. (I climbed a tree last week to pick fruits, a sour sap), and hike without falling. Today, I went on a 4.5 miles hike in the Volcano Park at a fast pace with other experienced hikers. My last fall was about 7 months ago.

Not only did I get well, I also lost 40 lbs during my first month at the retreat. I now feel fantastic, and I do athletic sports, like paddling Hawaiian canoe, a popular team sport here.

Without Dr. Baylac’s knowledge I would have been following the conventional way of treating arthritis with steroid injections and bed rest and gotten worse. Instead, today I am very happy and satisfied with my health.

I am so grateful that I was lucky enough to be on her path, that I continue to help her today in her beautiful magical and compassionate work.

Margo, summer 2007