Before Reading This Book,

Please Take This Brief Quiz.

The answers are inside;
but if you want a shortcut go to:
www.lifedynamix.com/quiz

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What is causing so many people to feel toxic? Hint -- the simple answer is very cerebral.

What one contaminant in our food chain may help explain many current illnesses?

Hint -- it relates to career advice Benjamin was given in the movie The Graduate.

What religion does the majority of doctors in the USA practice? Hint - drugs are part of the rituals.

Does drinking one glass of red wine daily lower your risk for breast cancer?

Does drinking only one diet soda daily put you at significant risk for ill health?

Is the taking of supplements the healthiest way to avoid deficiencies of micronutrients?

Have laws limiting smoking venues made any improvements in our health?

TRUE or FALSE

According to one FDA scientist Vioxx contributed to 55,000 deaths in the USA alone.

Efforts of the EPA to improve the environment have increased our longevity.

In the last 3 years alone the percentage of people labeled as obese in the USA has increased by 10%.

Kindness will trump greed in the end.

The American Enterprise Institute and The American Chemical Council are US Government agencies designed to

protect consumers from harm.

The second leading cause of lung cancer is radon gas.

Research indicates cooking with an open wok causes lung cancer.

The Environmental Working Group doesn’t work ----– to make money.

Having gum disease doubles your risk for heart attack.

Sticks and stones may break bones but words never harm anyone.

More than 25% of chemicals used in personal care products are toxic.

Psychological distress will more likely shorten your life than having high blood pressure.

Most children taking anti - depressant drugs are getting counseling as well.

The VA was honest in their public disclosures regarding the suicide risk for our troops serving in the Middle East

conflict. I’m giving you this one because it’s too easy; ---They lied to us -- again.
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FOREWORD

NEOGENESIS Reconstructing the Self

Forget who I am or what I am. First know where I am coming from. I bare it all now herein.

Upon viewing Doctor Jill Bolte Taylor’s book, My Stroke of Insight, I was overjoyed.

Finally, I found someone on the same wavelength. My own opinions seemed validated by a

learned fellow traveler to Nirvana. Doctor Jill is a neuroanatomist and brain expert who

suffered a severe and life altering stroke. She had, to that point, spent her entire celebrated

career dedicated to the study of the brain; then suddenly she experienced devastation in her own

brain. Like me, she was fascinated by it all and sought special wisdom from her sufferings.

On the night of March 27th 2001, I experienced my own 'night of hell' as it began. I had

no idea that I would enter into this place we both seem to describe as Nirvana –a place of

serenity. Doctor Taylor and I arrived by different modes of transport, and fortunately my visit

was briefer. Instead of a typical stroke, I had a more subtle brain injury, a toxic encephalopathy.

I call it 'toxic brain' for short. It was a near-death absence experience that I survived.

My immediate recall was: as it evolved, I went from a prolonged and most extreme distress

(unexplained vomiting, incredible pain in my head and chest, my heart rapidly and irregularly

pounding, and a loss of body control) -- to a sudden bliss. I made this seemingly sudden

transition promptly after shouting out in fear, of what I well-reasoned to be impending death,

the four words: "I want to live." The pitch darkness of my bedroom seemed to explode with an

amazing array of beautiful lights connected to a seemingly endless dimension.

All misery gone, I enjoyed the splendor in moving pictures until daybreak, when I walked
out of my bedroom a dramatically different man. The soothing lights and the Nirvana

wonderment they heralded emerged due to an evolving blood flow deficiency injury to my

brain. My crippled left amygdala, the brain’s gateway of fear, was breached opened. The

energy potential of living fearlessly rushed in. Nirvana was quickly revealed.

All neurotic drivers seemed suddenly erased; unfortunately, along with some other brain

functions. I could walk but with subtle imbalance. I could talk but it was in an odd poetic style.

I could think and function but that thinking was no longer colored by fear, urgency, anxiety, or

ego. I felt empowered by love and especially blessed to be alive. For the first time in my life I

could deeply appreciate music, focus on beauty, and view the world as an inviting glorious

opportunity at each and every encounter.

Being of a religious bent, I strongly professed to all who would then listen that I survived,

what I thought had to be a toxic chemical induced near-death event, only as a direct intervention

from my God. He answered my cry for help. This is a miracle idea I still favor to this day.

At the time I did not realize my brain had sustained injury. In the following days I went

habitually through most of my normal motions and winged the rest. I was vaguely aware that

something was quite wrong. Sleep seemed unnecessary; impossible even. At first I attributed

the profound insomnia to my untiring fascination with my new Technicolor-like world; a world

I was accustomed to viewing only in dull and drab tones by contrast. It was akin to the coloring

theme in the movie 'Pleasantville’.

Each morning immediately following the event I would struggle to find my sundries to ready

myself for the day. All the while I was experiencing an uncommon calmness and serenity.

Because the memory validating part of my brain, the hippocampus, was damaged, it was

similar to instant Alzheimer’s! That is, I had very poor awareness of any function involving

time. I could not sequentially link or visualize most recent memories.

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My then broken chain of memories prevented me from recalling such simple things as where I

might have left my glasses, my car keys, any and all such items I needed to move on with the day.

At work, like all things in my 'new life’, everything was inspired by joy. My fearless focus was

on each patient, their troubles, their needs -- all framed in this incredibly awesome 'now'.

What a trip! But, there were big problems, some of which I was almost totally oblivious to.

Besides the extreme insomnia, one of the many new problems was that I had no idea how long I

was in a room with a patient. My internal timing function was severely disrupted. My receptionist

would burst into the exam room in a panic to tell me that the 10 minute scheduled visit had

already lasted over an hour. I had to assign one staff member to keep time for me. I left many

tasks unfinished. I left my home and garage doors unclosed. Others said I appeared fairly normal,

except for a dramatic change into a truly exuberant personality, so the charade continued for

about 15 days. The daily ritual of no sleep, ongoing calm searches for lost things, and practicing

medicine in my new role as ‘doctor feel-good’, persisted; while being enamored by it all.

My close friends finally decided that I needed help. They opined that the current physician in

charge of my case – none other than ‘doctor feel-good’ himself -- was helplessly demented. His

game plan of ‘watchful waiting’ did not seem to be bearing fruit. They arranged for me to see a

psychiatrist. This was somewhat unfortunate as the psychiatrist did not touch me; nor did he

wisely do a neurological exam. From across his desk, he focused on the behavioral changes,

labeled me in typical fashion, and gave me a drug that promptly worsened my condition.

The good things were: I quit my job, quit the ‘psych’ pills after 2 doses, and saw another

doctor. That doctor, listened to me carefully, gave me an extensive questionnaire, and did a

simple balance test (he had me stand on one foot with my eyes closed). I promptly fell hard

against the wall. He repeated it. I fell again, to my surprise, exactly the same way. He then

ordered an imaging study which reflected a blood flow deficit to my left lower brain. Before the

imaging results were even back, he confidently started aggressive treatment. I rapidly improved

as my left lower brain began to regain function; although unfortunately, with notable deficits.
Post brain injury, I was unsure of the spelling of even small words as I could not visualize

them, or anything else, as sharply as before. I was unusually klutzy. I over-reached for such

things as door handles and banged into passageways as I forgot how big I was. As a result, my

broken-open fingertips were covered in Band-Aids and my arms covered in cuts and multicolored

bruises. I suffered with severe insomnia. As I continued recovering function other

concerns emerged. So eventually I saw a neurologist who concurred with the treatment plan and

gave me the proper diagnosis-- toxic encephalopathy.

Although frustrated by the remnants of the brain deficits, I refused to remain a ‘victim’.

Struggling to overcome these newly acquired handicaps, I launched into an academic search to

understand exactly what happened to me. My quest soon began to focus more on the upside; to

appreciate the obvious ‘miracle’ part. The subsequent and now ongoing recovery has drawn my

attention to what I call Neogenesis -- the natural processes involved in the healing of one’s body

in general and the brain most specifically.

I wrote Neogenesis to encourage a better understanding of subtle toxic brain injuries; how

frequently they are overlooked, their best prevention and treatment, and their enormous

implications, not yet fully recognized, in this increasingly toxic world.

This book is not a profit making endeavor. It’s offered in gratitude for my countless blessings.

Updated versions can be viewed free at www.lifedynamix.com/neogenesis