For most of my life, I have searched for ways to improve my scoliosis. My journey eventually led me to DahnMuDo School. My goal before going to DahnMuDo School was to straighten my spine to the degree to be out of the range of having scoliosis. I was diagnosed with scoliosis when I was 13 years old. When I was 12 years old, I was kidnapped. This was a very traumatic and physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausting experience. After being kidnapped, my spine became out of alignment. When I was 13, my back hurt constantly. My parents took me to the doctor and the doctors said that the only solution would be to do surgery and put a metal rod in my spine. Thankfully, my parents were against this idea. Instead of surgery, they sent me to a woman that they had heard about that taught exercises, called phsiosynthesis, from her home. By doing these exercises, I was able to relieve my pain, avoid surgery, and straighten my spine a little bit. In 2004, I started going to a Chiropractor in hopes to strengthen and straighten my spine more. I did have some improvements, but in 2005, the Chiropractor said that he felt that my spine was as good as it would ever be and his goal for me now was to maintain the health of my spine and hopefully I will still be able to turn my neck in 20 years. I was told by both medical doctors and a chiropractor that there was no chance that my condition could ever improve. This news was very upsetting to me. At the time, my son was taking karate. I was talking with his karate teacher, Master Bob, who is also a qigong master. He started explaining to me about energy and he felt that anything could get better and he felt that I could heal myself. I decided to give this a try and started to learn all that I could about energy and healing myself. I am so thankful that Master Bob opened up this area of life for me. I took qigong classes from him for about a year and learned a lot about energy. I was able to make improvements in my spine and enjoyed the process of qigong. In the summer of 2006, I started attending classes at Dahn and continued my training in energy. I became much more flexible and stronger. In July 2007, my Ji-Won-Jang-Nim - Donnie, suggested that I attend DahnMuDo School. I am so glad that he encouraged me to go. Although not always fun, DahnMuDo School was truly a life changing experience. First, we worked on loosening our muscles, meridians and joints and doing a lot of brain respiration so the left and right hemispheres of our brains would communicate more effectively and be more flexible. My brain was so tired. The days were so long and then we would meet early in the morning, as the sun would rise. Even though we did not sleep much and exercised so much, we were able to accumulate more energy and not feel tired. We learned to use our internal energy for our physical movements. As the days went on, I could feel my spine becoming more flexible and by looking in the mirror, my spine looked straighter.
After about a week into the program, I had an unusual experience. We were practicing Un-ki-bo-hyeong-gong. Master Jang told us to make the movements with our breath – to breathe in to the count of 5 as we move and then breathe out to the count of 5 as we move. This sounds simple enough, however as I would breathe in, at first, I was unable to breathe in slowly. I inhaled very fast and then I had to wait until the end of the count of 5 and when it was time to breathe out, my lungs started to spasm. It was as if my lungs did not want to let the air out. I could not tell if I needed to inhale or exhale. I felt that I never had air in my lungs. It was a horrible experience. Tears were rolling down my face and I really wanted to stop. I continued so that I could learn whatever it was that I needed to learn. I am thankful for Master Gang – as he helped me get through this. I kept looking over at him and I could feel his strength, peace, and compassion…..and he helped me to know that I had the strength to continue. I am so glad that I did continue because what I learned was amazing. It became clear to me that I did not want to let my air out because my body did not trust that there would be more air if I did let it out. It sounds strange because clearly, there is air available to breathe at any time. When I was kidnapped, I was strangled and suffocated many times. I now realize that, at that time, I formed an unconscious preconception and my body didn’t trust that there would be air for another breath. So, as I continued this exercise and my lungs were spasming, I started to tell myself that I trust that there will be air for my next breathe…I trust there will be air….I trust there is air…..Eventually, I was able to do the exercise and breathe to the count of 5 without a problem. At that moment, I felt such peace. For 30 years, my body was feeling like each breathe could be my last so I had a tension and slight background feeling of being uncomfortable…almost a slight panic feeling…constantly and I didn’t know why. When I told myself that I trust that there is air, this feeling went away. Ahhhhhhh! My lungs relaxed, my chest relaxed, my back relaxed. I was so tight before…trying to hold on to the air. I realized that when I had this uncomfortable feeling, I would label the feeling - incorrectly. For instance, I was trying to learn the vortex sword form – which is very challenging – I had that feeling in the background and interpreted the feeling that I could not do the form…I felt anxious about it and like I wasn’t good enough. After putting this all together and identifying that the feeling I was having was that my body didn’t trust that more air was available and after telling myself that I do trust that there is air, that background feeling was gone and I was able to learn the vortex sword form –confidently, quickly and without a problem. So I now have more peace and more self confidence.
I am so thankful for all of my teachers and people who believe in me. I hope by sharing my story that others can see how preconceptions can rule their life (without even knowing it) and by becoming more conscious of your body, you can find peace and become the master over your body, mind and spirit – to attain mastery over your life. Everyone has preconceptions – both conscious and unconscious. I hope my story has people become more conscious and see what their own preconceptions are. I also hope that by sharing my x-rays, that people can see that it is possible to heal their body. That even if doctors say healing is not possible, it is important to keep a positive mind and the determination to take action. I hope my x-rays will give people confidence to continually try their best, despite the odds – like their life depends on it - because ANYTHING is possible!
Katherine Stone
July 10, 2007 DMD School
Irvine center, CA
