Ian Allen/Staff Photographer
LEFT: Dr Sonia Copeland, acting director for disease prevention and control in the Ministry of Health, is strapped and connected to the machine as Taylor works from the computer.
RIGHT: Cherri Taylor, quantum biofeedback specialist.
Phyllis Thomas, Enterprise Editor
Maizie Jackson*, a retired nurse, had been a diabetic for years. Resigned to her fate of living with a potential killer disease, she slavishly gobbled the medications that her doctors prescribed.
One day, however, she experienced rapid palpitation of the heart that sent her rushing to the hospital.
The condition was of such that Jackson was admitted to the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI). She was kept there for four to five days during which time a series of tests were carried out and treatment administered.
When she was released from hospital she was still not her old perky self and so continued to see the doctors.
Another episode of palpitations occurred and Jackson was taken this time to a private hospital. Doctors' intervention still did not produce the desired result, as her enervated body paradoxically screamed. Among the suggestions made to her, therefore, was that she should travel to London for special tests.
Biofeedback specialist
But, before she could book her flight, she met Cherri Taylor, quantum biofeedback specialist, who was on a visit to the country. Jackson's doctors had recommended Mrs Taylor.
Today, Jackson's diabetes is controlled. Not only that. She kept an appointment with Mrs Taylor for other problems, but she also had a broken little toe which the doctor had told her they could not treat.
She told Outlook, "That very evening after I saw her, the swelling went. The excruciating pain went." The broken toe was healed.
Troy, a St Andrew resident, had been struggling with alcohol addiction for years. For 15 years he had been trying to get sober, going into therapy, turning to Alcoholics Anonymous and other proven counter-agents of this poisonous addiction. Instead of recovery, he was consuming five to six glasses of liquor a night!
"The craving for alcohol would overcome me. It would override the desire to stop," he told Outlook.Troy saw Cherri Taylor as well. And since then, "I've stopped completely! The cravings have disappeared, it is quite amazing!"
Riddled with cancer
Then there is Cheryl. In September 2007, doctors at the UHWI did surgery on her stomach to remove cancer. The five and a half hour surgery, she said, practically removed all of her stomach which "was riddled with cancer".
"On Tuesday, October 16, 2007, I received the histology report from the surgeon, which indicated that despite the lengthy operation, there was still cancer in my body and I would have to go back for a second operation."
Cheryl's family doctor referred her to Taylor, whom she saw on October 25, 2007. The next day, on her doctor's recommendation, she did a CT abdominal scan. On October 31 she returned to her family doctor for the results. She said she was told:
"There is no cancer in your body - your lungs, kidneys and liver are fine. There's no need for you to go back (to the hospital)."
But Cheryl said she had gone to evening service at the Agape Christian Fellowship Church in Portmore for healing, in between the time she did CT abdominal scan and the time she went for the result. She said she was "slain in the spirit".
She is giving thanks to God that she is cancer-free.
Parkinson's disease
Cherri Taylor's own mother had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and it had progressed to a point where she was no longer able to feed herself. The specialist intervened and for the last year and a half her mother has been feeding herself.
By now, the question on everyone's lips must be: what did Cherri Taylor do to help these people when conventional medicine failed?
Her intervention was with what is called 'energy medicine' or 'energetic medicine', a non-traditional healing modality that is sweeping Europe and parts of North America.
It uses specific frequencies to remove blockages and/or to enhance energy flow in the body. Stress is the major cause of blockages, which ultimately result in degeneration. Energy medicine, Outlook's research found, has been effective with people who have suffered diseases from cancer to back pain, arthritis, sciatica problems, heart diseases, migraine, neuralgia ... you name it.
People with psychological problems, including depression, people with low self- esteem, people who are drug addicts, have also been helped.
Cherri Taylor specialises in the quantum biofeedback system, which is one form of energy medicine. It was invented by William Nelson, a medical doctor and an electrical engineer who was able to combine knowledge of quantum physics, biology and an expertise in electrical engineering to create quantum biofeedback.
Safe
The device used in this practice is registered as a safe medical device in Europe. It has FDA as well as Health Canada registration, Taylor informed Outlook.
The energy medicine practitioner was quick to point out that she is not a medical doctor.
Practitioners do not diagnose, treat or cure diseases. In fact, energy medicine, she argued, is not a replacement for conventional medical therapy, but another healing option that people choose.
"... The medical doctor is trained to manage disease. Our primary function is dealing with wellness. We facilitate healing by stimulating the innate healing intelligence within the body. We do it by reducing stress in the body. Any organ or system that is under stress is not functioning properly. In other words, it is not resonating at its unique, correct vibration."
The imbalances in the body may be genetic but in most cases they may be the result of lifestyle.
"We are bombarded every day by toxins in the environment, stress at home, stress at work. We are using microwaves - there are so many electrical appliances around us. These are altering the energy fields ... having an impact on our health, resulting in diseases."
Preventative approach
Cherri Taylor has a bit of advice for all. "Whereas remarkable results for existing conditions can be achieved (through quantum biofeedback), people should use the technology as part of a preventative approach to health and well-being."
Taylor has been practising as a certified and internationally licensed quantum biofeedback specialist for the last five years, and is said to be the most qualified specialist in Jamaica and the Caribbean. She worked as a general medical technologist in Jamaica in the early 1970s before migrating to Canada in 1973, where she was trained in immuno-haematology, the combined study of the immune system and the blood. That was to become her area of speciality for more than 20 years, at the Ottawa Civic Hospital. Wanting to extend her reach in complementary medicine, she studied natural healing modalities and graduated as natural health counsellor. Taylor is currently working on her PhD in holistic medicine. She returned to the country recently and heads Quantic Healing Solutions at Eden Gardens, Lady Musgrave Road.
Results
Doctors and the different kinds of health specialists have been integrating energy medicine in their practices. Local doctors have sent their patients to Taylor and have seen results.
Dr Sonia Davidson, a holistic medical practitioner, said she doesn't know how energy medicine works, although she understands the principle vaguely. What she knows though, is that Cherri Taylor has "worked with several patients of mine with dramatic effect".
"If someone went to her, who had a particular condition that we (doctors) had not been able to treat and she has been able to give them relief, then we need to take a second look. I have observed enough to know that something is going on ... I am satisfied if my patients get good relief," Dr Davidson said.
Scientific research
"She (Taylor) also assured me that there was a body of scientific research to support the validity of the modality. The fact that it is not yet accepted by conventional medicine doesn't mean it is not scientific. My experience is purely anecdotal, but what I have observed is enough for me to be satisfied that many of the cases have worked with a level of efficacy, as good as our modalities in conventional medicine, and in some cases, proven better."
When the Outlook's team visited Taylor's office at Eden Gardens, she was attending to a medical doctor. Dr Sonia Copeland, acting director for disease prevention and control in the Ministry of Health, was strapped to the machine. She wanted to make one thing clear: "I'm a client. This has nothing to do with the ministry."
However, Dr Copeland said of quantum biofeedback energy medicine, "This is to be promoted."
She was among a group of doctors and other professionals who attended a presentation given by Taylor a few days before. She said the Ministry of Health was coming up with guidelines and a regulatory mechanism for complementary medicine. The ministry would be looking at the various modalities, the health spa industry and health tourism.
Cherri Taylor can be reached at: qhs@sympatico.ca.
Names changed on request.
How it worksThe client is hooked up with headband containing electrodes. Limb straps are placed around the wrists and ankles. These are connected to the device called the Electro Physiological Feedback Xrroid, which is then connected to the computer.
This is followed by calibration, a quality assurance procedure, and then the test. Here, the specialist sends 10,000 low frequencies to the client to challenge his/her body to see how this person responds.
"As the system picks up imbalances it will also show us data of certain unbalanced areas. We get information via different routes, whether in the form of images, calculations or words."
Transmitter, receiver
Because it is a biofeedback device it acts as both a transmitter and a receiver. After assessment of the response, the specialist is able to send the corrective frequency back to the area to entrain the organ or tissue to vibrate within their normal frequency band.
"The device has an auto-focus capability where it constantly measures the amount of required frequency being administered. As soon as the required amount is administered, it stops automatically, so you can never get excess," Cherri Taylor said.
Well, after all of that, are there side effects in quantum biofeedback energy medicine? Not at all, according to Taylor.
"The frequencies we are sending are very low. There are some contraindications which we are conscious of. We are advised not to use this modality with pregnant women and clients with pacemakers." For pregnant women, it's a precautionary measure and for persons with pacemakers, "simply because pacemakers also use electrical current set at specific frequencies that we would not want to disturb".
Doubting Thomas
When this reporter was first told of quantum biofeedback and energy medicine the Thomas in me became her cynical self. "Yea, right. Here we go again!"
I gave excuse after excuse. I did not want to see this woman and her machine! But, I was eventually convinced and I allowed Cherri Taylor, a very pleasant woman as it turned out, to hook me to the quantum biofeedback machine.
INFORMATION
At first she took certain information from me, like my name and age. I think that was about it. Straps are placed around my head, my wrists and my ankles and hooked to a machine which is hooked to a computer. During the time I was on the machine - over an hour - there was no pain. But there was a little tingling in my toes. I glanced at the computer monitor and saw text. I saw the image of the eye with arrow pointing to specific sections. I saw other parts of the body. At the end of the interview I drank a glass of water.
We said our goodbyes.
Look back with me to three years ago. I had been having problems with my eyes and I swear I was going blind. I went to an ophthalmologist last year, who did certain examinations. The eye disease he was looking for that could have caused my symptoms weren't there. I mentioned to him that I had researched my problem on the Internet because I was told that there could be a link between such eye problems and exercise.
ADVICE
The goodly doctor told me to "stop the jump up and down exercise for two weeks". And sent me on my not so merry way.
I took his "jump up and down exercise" to mean aerobics. But I don't do aerobics. I don't like aerobics. I do weight training!
Back to the present. The problem with my eyes that had plagued me for about three years disappeared within a week of going on the machine.
In the last couple of days it returned, but nowhere as frequently, aggressively or as frighteningly as before.
- P.T.
