Archives for December 2013

The most LIKED article on my site in 2013. Republishing it removes the likes, but it originally had 1.4K… For me, that is a reflection of (a) how much people love Anita Moorjani and (b) how her message resonates with us all.

After reading about Angelina’s choice this week, I wondered what the amazing Anita Moorjani would have to say about it.

As you might know, Anita was instantly cured of cancer after a near-death experience. She went on to write about it in her New York Times best-seller Dying To Be Me.

This is what I wrote to her: I was thinking that if it’s Angelina’s reality that she will die from cancer because of what happened to her mother, then I guess that is what she will create. However if she truly believes she has evaded it with this operation, then I guess she has evaded it. Would you agree?

Anita very generously replied: Hiya Yasmin!

“Yes, I absolutely do agree with you – and I don’t have a problem with Angelina’s choice – because doing this will alleviate her fears of getting cancer, then she has basically created that reality. She has to do what she has to do, and I would never judge her for it. Personally, I can just leave it at that, but so many people are asking me my opinion on this matter, as though looking for guidance, or a cue as to my take on this whole subject of having a double mastectomy as a preventative. So my take is that it is absolutely not necessary to have a double mastectomy even if you have the gene. So my issue is not with Angelina per se, but with the way our society, and the entire medical system view cancer. Because Angelina is a public figure, her double mastectomy is now putting fear into everyone else’s minds and hearts, and causing them to go and be tested genetically, to see if they have inherited the cancer gene. And if they find that yes, there is a cancer gene (which, by the way, many people have, but never get cancer!), they will develop this fear, and feel the need to go and do the double mastectomy, or hysterectomy, or whatever in order to alleviate the fear. My point is, let’s move on from propagating the thinking that cancer is purely physical, and that detecting some gene, or doing earlier and earlier detection, or that cancer is some enemy that has to be found and caught at any cost. This thinking in itself is unhealthy, and is propagated by many well meaning people, with the intention of doing good.

If we, as a society, put as much focus and awareness and money into health awareness as we put into cancer awareness, and taught people how to FOCUS on health, instead of focusing on cancer, we would have a very different reality. If we taught people what it means to be mentally, spiritually and physically healthy, instead of putting our focus on cancer, we can create a very different environment, where health is supported and promoted by society as a whole, instead of a planet obsessed with finding disease everywhere we turn.

As a result, I don’t support any anti cancer movements, or drives, or campaigns. Never have and never will. But I am always happy to promote total health and wellbeing.

By the way, please feel free to share my views with anyone you wish.”

If you would like to read more background about Anita’s experience, click here.

Anita Moorjani’s account of her near-death experience is one of the most moving things I have ever read. From Amazon: “In this truly inspirational memoir, Anita Moorjani relates how, after fighting cancer for almost four years, her body—overwhelmed by the malignant cells spreading throughout her system—began shutting down. As her organs failed, she entered into an extraordinary near-death experience where she realized her inherent worth . . . and the actual cause of her disease. Upon regaining consciousness, Anita found that her condition had improved so rapidly that she was able to be released from the hospital within weeks . . . without a trace of cancer in her body!”