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 By Lynnaire Johnston
Brandon Bay's story of recovering from a large tumour and then helping many thousands of childrens and adults worldwide overcome their issues, whether serious illnesses or creating a more powerful life is a compelling tale.
Recovering from, or even dealing with cancer, can be a triumph of hope over adversity.
Some people collect hats, I collect books. Specifically, books about becoming a better person – physically, emotionally and spiritually. I own all the self-help classics by such stalwarts as Louise Hay, Wayne Dyer, Shakti Gawain, the Dalai Lama, James Redfield (The Celestine Prophecy), Scott Peck, etcetera. Most of them I have even read. The thing they all have in common is telling you what to strive for – whether it’s enlightenment, peace or self-awareness – but to a book they neglect to tell you exactly how to achieve it.
Look through your own collection. See if I’m not right. Plenty of information on the “what” and “why”, but almost nothing on the “how”. Which may be a very clever ruse in order to keep selling books.
So when a copy of The Journey by Brandon Bays plonked itself on my desk I expected it to be like all the others. An American woman finds herself exceedingly sick, cures herself, then begins to tell others how they can do the same through her writing and courses. So far, so familiar.
But that’s where the similarity ends because Brandon Bays’ book goes into great detail about how she brought herself back from the brink, about the process she used, and gives fellow Journeyers the tools they need to heal themselves, physically and mentally.
And judging by the thoroughness of the instructions, it could be a gruelling trip! Certainly it takes you deep inside; even those issues you think you have resolved may show up for a re-enactment.
Talking on the phone from London, in a pleasant trans-Atlantic burr, Brandon explains what drives her is giving hope to others. She’s seen the miracle of her own survival – from an abdominal tumour the size of a basketball – and now wants people in similar situations, particularly women with breast cancer, to know they too can overcome their health problems.
Brandon’s story is sufficiently unusual to relate here. She had, she recalls, been doing everything right. She was a therapist and master herbalist, plus she practised kinesiology and neuro-linguistic programming (NLP). She was fully immersed in the field of natural medicine, ate a largely vegetable diet, exercised, meditated, and had a happy marriage. She was on the speaking circuit, presenting seminars with Tony Robbins.
Being diagnosed with a tumour was a bolt from the blue. But as Brandon says, “Very often we are given a wake-up call, in order to learn life’s lessons.” Denial gave way to feelings of shame. “Here I was teaching others to achieve vibrant health. I felt too ashamed even to ask my best friend to recommend a suitable doctor,” she explains.
The tumour was so large Brandon looked five months pregnant. She was given a month to try to heal herself, before the doctors would step in and remove it.
On hearing this, most of us would have broken down but here’s how Brandon describes what happened to her: “I was arrested by the sight of a mimosa tree. I clearly heard the message that I needed to slow down. Waves of gratitude washed over me, time opened up and I fell into a vast stillness of knowing I would heal. I was grateful for the opportunity.” Brandon wondered what her soul was trying to teach her.
While all this was going through her mind, she got busy. She changed her diet to all raw, fresh vegetables and fresh juices to clear her colon. She began an intense programme of colonic irrigation, NLP, creative visualisation and meditation, but her stomach remained distended.
Through massage therapy she gained access to a cell memory of childhood abuse, which she thought had previously been dealt with. “My body and soul were saying you may think you’ve handled it, but you haven’t. When I asked if the issue was completed, the answer I received was no. I was in such despair. I felt an abject failure. I didn’t know where to turn. But then something inside me gave up and surrendered which opened into a huge bath of peace. The word ‘forgiveness’ came into my mind,” she recalls.
A time of learning to forgive ensued, during which Brandon also had to face down the issue of pride and give up 30 years of blame. “I had to get off my self-made pedestal and forgive,” she remarks. “I realised I was clinging to the tumour, not it to me. Finally I let go of the blame and three weeks later the tumour was gone.”
Brandon believes that when we repress strong emotions, it blocks our cell receptors from receiving messages. When we feel emotions freely, it opens the cells. By unblocking them, stored pain is released and we are able to come to a place of understanding and forgiveness.
Brandon’s story is just one of many. She mentions a 17-year old Kiwi with an inoperable brain tumour, who spent a year doing the Journey process each week. Within a year, the tumour had gone. In Australia she came across a doctor who was giving away copies of her book to chronic patients because he so believed in the Journey process.
The concepts in The Journey and in the follow-up book, Freedom Is, are familiar to anyone who has done work on themselves – forgiveness, gratitude, non-attachment, awareness of the present moment and so on. Where Brandon Bays differs is in the process she has developed.
It isn’t easily able to be summed up but it takes participants through a multi-layered, emotional journey that allows them to get in touch with long-buried or ignored aspects of their inner selves. It is not a process that can be done overnight, nor does it provide instant answers. Rather, it creates the conditions which allow emotional issues to rise to consciousness where they can be dealt with lovingly and safely.
Brandon believes it to be a “very potent, step-by-step way to come to peace with yourself.” The 13 processes help people – sick or not – to clear all kinds of issues, Brandon says.
It is precisely because it is a “work book” that it has been such a worldwide success.
The book is backed by courses which are held all over the world, including Hong Kong. The next Journey Intensive Weekend is scheduled for 14th and 15th June 2008. It will be presented by Bill Macleod, who has been personally trained by Brandon. An Evening event will be held on 10th June 2008 by Brandon Bays herself. For more information visit www.thejourney.com, email
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or phone 6044 8840.
Lynnaire Johnston is the Word Wizard. Based in Auckland, New Zealand, she is a freelance writer and editor who also provides copywriting services. She may be contacted at
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