One of my favorite things to do is browse bookstores. I enjoy seeing new books on the shelves, touching them, reading what’s on the front and the back, and paging through them. When I’m seriously looking for something to read, the browsing takes on a definite ritual. I move around the front tables and up and down the aisles, eyeballing the books, waiting for cover art or a title to leap out at. Manifesting Michelangelo leaped.
The title prompted me to pick up the book. The words at the bottom – The story of a modern-day miracle that may make all change possible – prompted me to open the cover. On the inside flap, I read:
“At the dawn of the new millennium, Joseph Pierce Farrell made a startling discovery that holds the potential to transform the world. Having abandoned his childhood dream of a career in healthcare, he had settled for passionless job in real estate, lining his pockets while eroding his soul. Then one day he fell into a humble job restoring antiques and furniture. One even while working in his basement studio, he drifted into a meditative state and permitted his mind to soar with the unlimited imagination of a child. In that moment, he experienced a brilliant, blinding flash that ignited within him a remarkable power.”
I wondered if it was hype. So I opened the book at random – page 18 – and it described this experience he had. I bought the book. In a nutshell, Farrell’s story is how he evolved as a healer, the kind of healer I used to imagine as a kid, who heals through touch or, in some instances, just by his presence. Some of his more dramatic and documented healings include an inoperable brain tumor, partially restoring the features of a severely disfigured young man, and mending broken bones. Farrell calls it consciousness based healing, where his consciousness interacts with the consciousness of the person of the person seeking his help. It comes from the heart, through tremendous empathy for other people’s pains. He claims we all have this ability and, equally important, that we all have the capacity to manifest change in our lives and in the world.
One of the most dramatic stories involved a man’s foot. In 1978, Stu was a successful businessman who got caught in a traffic jam as he approached the Lincoln tunnel in Manhattan. There were some fender benders in front of him and traffic got snarled. He noticed a woman in a nearby car was struggling to get out, but the door was banged up. Stu ran over and helped her. As they stood there talking, a fully loaded 18-wheeler plowed into a van just behind Stu and the woman. The van shot toward the pedestrians standing on the highway, exchanging insurance info because of the fender benders. The van hit the woman killing her instantly. The bumper tore into Stu’s legs and tossed him into the air.
When he came to, he realized the bone of his left leg was sticking out of his shin. Stu’s father was a physician – and a professor of medicine at Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan at the time and brought together an elite medical team. According to Stu, his lower leg was smashed. “Most of the bone between my knee and my foot was thrown out of my leg…and had to be transplanted from my hips.” The medical team saved his leg, but his ankle and toes were fused and his foot had shrunk two sizes.
Stu had multiple surgeries over the years, took pain killers constantly. A decade after the accident, the muscles in his left leg had atrophied so badly that his lower leg “looked like a straight line.”
Two decades after the accident, he was facing amputation of his lower leg because the blood flow to the foot was so diminished. Then he heard about Farrell, scheduled an appointment with him, recited his medical history, showed Farrell his leg, and asked if he could help.
Farrell said he could, Stu asked how much it would cost, and Farrell said it was free. “What the catch?” Stu asked.
There wasn’t any catch. Farrell entered a meditative state, “allowing my nonlocal mind (or consciousness) to extend beyond me to incorporate Stu’s limb. Then I allowed myself to surrender to a connection to Source…” Farrell started seeing the damaged tissue from the accident and multiple surgeries Stu had had over the years. Signs of the healing gradually became visible and Farrell realized that what was happening exceeded anything he had experienced when working on injured knees or fractured arms. “In this situation, the traumatized area was quite extensive, and the change, visible on the surface, was equally substantial. It appeared to me that the extent of the healing was in direct proportion to the extent of the injury.”
Throughout the healing, Farrell never touched or manipulated Stu’s foot. But as Stu sat up, he was astonished that his foot had a normal color. Over the next few weeks, Stu’s foot continued to improve. Six weeks later, Stu was able to play golf, pain free, for the first time in twenty years. “I now go for walks, I can jump, I can do just about anything I want,” Stu says. “He gave me a chance to walk, with my father, with my family, and I’m deeply appreciative.”
The book is fascinating. The larger message lies in the last section, which provides five steps for how to manifest the change you want to see in the world,
well, on top one of my toberead stacks, this one will have to go asap! what an extraordinary story – thanks so much for this great opportunity to read!
Last week, I had a dream about a Michelangelo, where I was arguing with Mark and my friend Jessica about the artwork. Last night at sound healing, Jessica brought it up after another whacky dream of mine was being discussed. Tonight, I see it on your blog…I think I am meant to get the book. 🙂
BTW, I hope the nighttime antics have settled at your end.xx
Oh great on all counts! I am getting that book right now.xx
I just ducked over to read Sarah Morgan’s review of your book and had to laugh when she put this little comment on the end of the review;
“Okay… this gave me goosebumps, and I swear it’s true.
I had this all ready to publish. Then I looked again at the book cover.
The person I mentioned in the first paragraph was my Aunt Jeanne. She and I didn’t know each other well until I was in my 20s, but then became very close until her death this spring. She was a fascinating lady, and as with most fascinating people, she was fascinating because she was fascinated. She loved learning and being open-minded.
She also loved hummingbirds. They were her “thing”. The last thing I gave her was a beautiful blown-glass hummingbird.
I just saw the little hummingbird on the cover of this book. ”
That goose-bump feeling is not just because she thought to herself
“what a coincidence ?”
That feeling is because she knew deep down in her soul (whether she wants to admit it or not) that this was not just a coincidence.
It’s the feeling I get every time there is a “meaningful coincidence” in my life. The feeling is registered as a way of letting you know that there is more to this event than just a coincidence.It is not only a “coincidence” but a personal message to you from the universe,spirit,or whatever you want to call it.
And when you get that feeling you know it is a tap on the shoulder from beyond everyday consciousness…or a wink,if you prefer,telling you that you might want to mull over this chance event a little further.
“BE FASCINATED! “,couldn’t make for a better bumper sticker when it comes to life.
Like Albert Einstein said,
“There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.”
I got a real kick out of it!
I have soooo many books that I’ve piled up, but this one sounds like one I should put on the list for later. Those five steps are intriguing.
You’ll enjoy it, Nancy!
I’ll have to read it now! There are many similar stories of this in the Tibetan Nyingma biographies. Stories from the time of the Naths and the beginning of the different traditions that branched out from the Nath tradition. There are mantras combined with meditations that are practiced that help develop these abilities. There are also many oral traditions of these abilities manifesting among the Tibetans that were in the Chinese prisons during the Cultural Revolution.
The human mind is so vast, and there is so much to learn.
I figured the Tibetans were on this!
I think if I’d have seen this book and read the synopsis I may well have purchased it as well. Healing in such ways is fascinating and I would love to get invloved with something like this. I remember when my son was little he wasn’t very well so I made up a ritual, lit a candle and sat cross legged by his bed saying I would make him better. He still laughs about this – but in the morning he was well again. Sometimes I think we, as nations, are spending so much on drugs and perhaps are missing out on the powers that we may all have.
Rob did that kind of thing with megan when she was small and developed a wart on her hand. He did a sort of presto, it’s gone! And the next day, it WAS gone.
It’s interesting that just as the review of this fascinating book was posted this morning, we received an email from our publicist who was sending us a book review of Synchronicity and the Other Side. Apparently, she had sent a copy of the book to a friend or biz contact with a blog and asked her to review it. It seems the woman is a skeptic on the paranormal, but also I suspect that she is religious. An interesting combination for someone reviewing our book. In other words, it’s not a book that she would’ve picked up on her own, and she spells our her criticisms. Yet, in the end, it seems something happened. She got nudged. Here’s the link.
https://sarah-morgan.com/2011/08/17/book-review-synchronicity-and-the-other-side-with-a-surprising-conclusion/comment-page-1/#comment-3017
Interesting review. At least she’s open to the possibility, rather than a hard-core denier like some atheists I know. I agree that when one has an experience of profound coincidence or synchronicity, your body reacts with a tingling sensation or goosebumps or a heightened sense of connection. If it didn’t mean anything, your body wouldn’t react. I’ve had coincidences where I felt nothing register in the body, but the most profound ones did have that incredible sensation that I could not deny because my body’s physical reaction marked the event as something I needed to really pay attention to.
I’ve never understood the skeptics, though. But perhaps that says something about me. I’d rather believe in coincidences / synchronicities being a spiritual process than to live life as a cynic who discounts everything having any kind of meaning. A life without meaning (even if we only bring meaning to it) is no life at all, IMO.
A life without meaning (even if we only bring meaning to it) is no life at all, 100% agreement on that one!
I know what you mean about that heightened sense of connection. It’s real, tangible.