“Dr. Trausch actually listened to me. He treated me like my accident was an event rather than an intention. He suggested that although we have free will, many circumstances are out of our conscious control. This was good! I did not at the time know it, but this was the beginning of my journey into the realms of philosophy and wisdom.” 

“As we gradually became acquainted, he talked to me and questioned me in this calming, confident voice, and I had the thought that maybe this would work! Doctors and therapists that I had previously encountered had just pushed information down my throat. They defined me as having something wrong. I was carrying a load of guilt that I had not only been responsible for the accident, but also for how the lives of my Dad and Mom, brother and sisters had all changed. And, that I could somehow have prevented this life of gloom I now lived.” 

“I felt that I was with a friend and was so happily enchanted that I initially began to see him twice a week. He was exciting, motivating, and was presenting ideas I had never even thought existed. I learned what genuine empathy was!” 

“As our sessions progressed, Dr. Trausch proved to be a very bright young man, well versed on almost everything, highly motivated, a positive thinker expressing confidence every moment. He reminded me of the boxer Mohammad Ali who, although he could knock you out with one commanding punch, rather chose to dance, to bob and weave, to gracefully float across the ring. He would take you to the edge of possibility, and then bring you back to safety. Dr. Trausch stayed with me, moving me around the ring of creative possibilities, so to speak. It was a delight to watch him weave symbolism and metaphor into his lessons, and actually make me enjoy not only learning, but to see discipline and risk and effort in a whole new light. I don’t know if Dr. Trausch knocked his clients into enlightenment, but he had the power to do it.” 

“More time passed, and Dr. Trausch worked with me at what he called a psychological ‘threshold level,’ meaning that he would not push me emotionally beyond where I could go, or was willing to go. Equally, he told me that he would challenge me regularly to get beyond where I was, to approach the borders of my ability, and that this would include all the arenas, thinking, feeling, and movement.” 

“He showed me how through the use of my mind, I could raise and lower my temperature according to my intentions. How every thought I had, and its quality and intensity, would have an effect in my body in terms of blood flow, heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, feelings of tension, stress, or wellbeing. How through mental intention, I could make muscles move, even though that movement was not pronounced enough to be seen with the eyes. This gave me previously unseen hope that I would eventually see them stir.” 

“He created incrementally difficult intention exercises for me to practice. He ushered me into crafted visualizations and guided imagery that spoke volumes to my subconscious mind, training it to assist in a unique and powerful way in carrying out my conscious intentions. He introduced me to the notion that the signals my brain could no longer send to my body because the spinal cord wire was crushed, could be transmitted from my mind through another medium, just as voices and pictures could in modern times be transmitted through the medium of space to waiting radios and televisions.” 

“He asked that I suspend my doubt and disbelief, and taught me principles that blended both spiritual faith and quantum physics in such a way that they complemented and supported each other. How could I resist?” 

“At first, no movement occurred at all. But, with willpower built through the marriage of both imagery and intention, the time came when the biofeedback signaled movement in my quadriceps even though I could visually see nothing at all. It would be such early commanding proofs that formed the motivational basis of my plan to rise, and walk.” 

“Dr. Trausch cautioned me, these ideas were not easily understood or accepted in conventional medical-model thinking. He instructed me to behave as if the principles I was being taught were true, but not to set any part of my heart on a final goal. Rather than spend all my energy in attaining my goal to walk one day, in the future I should bring genuine meaning to my life through appreciating the process itself, in the present moment. That is, whether I ever walked or not, I WAS TO GAIN MY SATISFACTION FROM THE IDEA THAT I WAS BEHAVING AS BEST I COULD. These ideas helped bring my confidence back. He had infused my spirit of wonder and promise with his presence and skill, and I was on a path. I was moving. I was growing, and it felt good.” 

“Dr. Trausch taught me to cast my intention out ahead of where I was, to a place I envisioned going, and then visualize myself growing into it. He taught me to constantly push my boundaries even though it did not at first make sense or feel good. He taught me many growth and healing formulas for body, mind, and soul alike, such as various kinds of meditation, Command Therapy, and Surrender Breathing, and we practiced them each week. In meditation training, for example, I learned how to discipline my mind like a mental martial artist. With that exercise I built a powerful concentration, and an ability to focus in such a way that I could alter my relationship with pain.” 

“Small, initial measurable changes appeared, and in subtle but definite changes in my outlook on life. The earlier feelings of impending doom that lay just below the surface of my everyday existence began to scatter, and I began, quite unconsciously, to prepare myself for what was to come.”