Warrior Pose
Authors: Brad Willis
PRAISE
FOR
Warrior Pose
“Brad Willis' life is the background for this extraordinary tale that provides compelling and essential lessons for anyone wanting a more fulfilled life.
Warrior Pose
is more than just one man's journey of healing and transformation. This book is a bright beacon of practical wisdom and guidance, inspiring us to reach for greatness and reminding us that we each possess an amazing capacity to achieve a more healthy and joyful life as well as our most heartfelt dreams. Read it and you too will be emboldened to soar.”
âRod Stryker, Para Yoga
“Brad Willis leads us on an amazing life journey of courage, passion, hope, despair, and never-die spirit. His war stories, tender moments with his son, and transformative lifestyle are beacons of light for everyone seeking to find their path of well-being.”
âDr. Suhas G. Kshirsagar BAMS, MD (Ayurveda, India), Director, Ayurvedic Healing, California Integrative Medicine
“Remarkable recoveries and miraculous healings of incurable cancers and other terminal disease have been the topic of many recent books. Bhava, born Brad Willis, has written the most exciting, original, and vividly relevant book yet on this topic. Its concise, hard-hitting prose makes a page turner about the shockingly grim world behind the nightly news as revealed to a top television reporter. Ram ignores his progressive physical collapse, stuffing his feelings and internal life to focus entirely on his macho career. Using his fierce will to survive and strong intellect to question medical authority, Bhava, draws inspiration from the miracle of his son Morgan, halts
his self-sabotaging habits, chooses âright living,' and heals himself via a selfless emotional life dedicated to teaching and healing others.”
âCandace Pert, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer, RAPID Laboratories, Inc.; author,
Everything You Need to Know to Feel Go(o)d
and
Molecules of Emotion: The Scientific Basis Behind Mind-Body Medicine
“This amazing book is a must read for all seekers. Brad Willis has lived the very deepest principles of Yoga and Ayurveda, healed against all odds, and become an inspiration to people worldwide.
Warrior Pose
not only takes us through an amazing journey through war zones and global crises, it leads us on an inner journey of profound self-healing and personal transformation that reminds us all of our own potential to access our inner power and live our truth.”
âFelicia Tomasko, Editor-in-Chief,
LA Yoga Magazine
“
Warrior Pose
is another important and insightful book by Bhava Ram. He has made many profound and original contributions to the field of Yoga, and we look forward to many more!”
âDr. David Frawley (Pandit Vamadeva Shastri)
Â
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
Copyright © 2013 by Bhava Ram
BenBella Books, Inc.
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Dallas, TX 75231
Send feedback to
[email protected]
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available for this title.
eISBN: 978-1-937856-70-0
Editing by Debbie Harmsen
Copy Editing by Eric Wechter
Proofreading by Rachelle Sparks and Cape Cod Compositors, Inc.
Composition by Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd
Printed by Bang Printing
Photo on page 118 courtesy of Tara Eby, In-Sight Photography,
www.tfortara.com
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Significant discounts for bulk sales are available. Please contact Glenn Yeffeth at
[email protected]
or (214) 750-3628.
To my son, Morgan,
who inspired me to find my way from
the darkness back into the light
Contents
 Â
3Â Â Â Moving Up
 Â
5Â Â Â Apartheid
 Â
6Â Â Â Drug Wars
 Â
7Â Â Â 30 Rock
 Â
9Â Â Â The Persian Gulf War
10Â Â Â The Gulf War Aftermath: Kurdistan
17Â Â Â Shining Light by the Sea
22Â Â Â Sailboats and Treasure
23Â Â Â Dark Night of the Soul
Â
Lead Me from the Unreal to the Real
From the Darkness into Light
From Death to Eternity
B
RHADARANYAKA
U
PANISHAD
: I.
III
.28
Foreword
As a young man, I was drawn to mathematics, science, and medicine. The exactness of a complex calculation, the explicit conclusion of a well-constructed lab experiment, the predicted impact of a pharmaceutical medication, the precise slice of my surgeon's scalpel as I moved toward an infected organâthese things resonated with me. A led to B. One plus one equaled two. Facts were facts, outcomes could be predicted, and ultimately, logic prevailed.
As my practice as a physician progressed, however, I witnessed how some patients healed and thrived as a result of specific treatments while others worsened and succumbed even though their conditions and therapies were identicalâA did not always lead to B. One plus one did not always add up to two. I came to see that the patient could not be approached as merely a body composed of interchangeable parts, as in the Cartesian model so prevalently taught in our schools of Western medicine. There was a far greater complexity to the human organism, and all its aspects needed to be addressed for true and lasting healing to occur.
A major key to healing, I soon realized, was the mind. Our thoughts not only determine our actions but they also play a major role in the neurochemicals we create in our bodies as well. These chemicals, in turn, impact the integrity of all our systems, from organs, bones, and blood to our immunological, cardiovascular, and even emotional health. Beyond this is also a deeper realm: that of the Soul. The more connected a patient is with his or her inner truth and authentic self,
the greater his or her capacity to face the most formidable of life's challenges.
As a result of these realizations, I put my scalpel down in the early 1970s and was fortunate to become one of the pioneers of the science and art of mind-body medicine. I devoted my professional life to exploring the profound human capacity to heal through mastery of our minds. As I verbally guided patients into deep states of physical and emotional relaxation and then provided them with positive imagery and affirmations, I began to see them effect profound change in their lives. It's a process I came to call Deep Healing.
As the years passed, I continued to see scores of people achieve remarkable results, even when faced with life-threatening conditions. I have witnessed people overcome emotional and psychological challenges as well, achieving optimal performance in their lives through positive thought. In the early years, mind-body medicine was met with great skepticism by most mainstream scientists and medical practitioners. Today it's an accepted and proven fact. Once you take charge of your thoughts, your inner chemistry is altered. You are empowered to take positive action, to find the light at the end of the tunnel. Your capacity to heal, and ultimately to thrive, is greatly enhanced.
Those of us in the healing profession don't always get to see the positive fruits of our work, but when we do, it is very pleasurable and, on rare occasion, truly remarkable. When Bhava Ram, at the time known as Brad Willis, came to my workshop at Esalen Institute in 2004, he told me he had come to pay homage, for it was upon hearing the voice and the words on one of my guided imagery tapes that he found himself awakening mentally and emotionally to a deep truth and inner power. It was at that moment that he began to realize he could take charge of his life, remake his inner landscape, and heal the surgically irreparable broken spine that had led to his total disability, as well as overcome his stage IV throat cancer.
Willis's journey led him into the greatest depths of the ancient and profound healing sciences of Yoga and Ayurveda, which arose thousands of years ago and comprise the foundations of mind-body medicine along with the essence of self-healing and self-realization.
But it was his remarkable life and near demise that set the stage for such an inspiring transformation. Like the Buddha, Willis was a seeker, a man driven by some deeper force to repeatedly put his life on the line to honestly express his inner truth, someone whose heart seemed to know the world had something to teach him, and whose mind was determined to learn. The impulse struck him early in his life. In the midst of the Civil Rights Movement and Vietnam War, the world around him seemed to offer only conflict and hypocrisy, but his heart pushed him to look deeper for meaning, authenticity, and purpose. As a result, he found himself hurtling through some of life's most challenging experiences.