| In today’s episode of “Healing From Within” your host Sheryl Glick author of The Living Spirit, a tale of spiritual communication, spiritual awakenings, healing, miracles and of course a guide to your inner soul awareness. Sheryl is delighted to welcome Barbara Mulvey Little co-author of Opening Hearts with Dr.Lester R. Sauvage, a cardiovascular surgeon whose passion for life and true healing wished to leave a healing legacy to readers.
Barbara shares the time she spent with Dr. Sauvage both the man and doctor during the last eighteen months of his life. One of the books primary topics the spirituality of consciously choosing love no matter what challenges faced, shows readers that a faith- filled life was tremendously valued by him, and proved to be his greatest gift as he performed over 10,000 surgeries and helped his patients bring to their consciousness a motivation to live and heal. Barbara Mulvey Little is an author editor and has written Scripture and Meditations for the Rosary and Three Minus One: Parents Stories of Love and Loss.
During Dr. Sauvage’s long career as a pioneering cardiovascular surgeon and researcher he was credited with many life saving breakthroughs. As a husband and father of eight children he was devoted and loved. All of these exemplary achievements made him beloved and a shining example to follow, but ultimately his faith made him exceptional..His faith humbly practiced throughout nearly nine decades of life enabled him to be successful in his professional life and his relationships. Believing service to others ultimately leads to happiness, mindful attention, and knowing your innate self-healing power.
He believed optimal health incorporates a vital body an active mind and a vibrant spirit because life is not merely a physical process or an intellectual exercise. Within his definition of optimal health he also included those with physical or mental challenges and wrote, “It is not perfection that defines optimal health but rather a dynamic and responsive engagement in life even within our challenges. This thinking and understanding of our ability to live love and triumph no matter what life handed us was the true measure of his faith and love of God and that made him knowledgeable beyond the mind, but within the heart and soul and that made him an extraordinary doctor…God was doing the healing through him.”
Sheryl Says… “I have often interviewed people who mention Carl Jung one of the original founders of modern day Psychology. Jung was very interested in metaphysical subjects including his belief of life exisiting beyond the physical realm. Jung believed in order to help his patients he had to have them discover who they really were: both physical and spiritual beings and to help them find joy in life rather than just grapple with physical or emotional health issue. In other words he knew in learning to know themselves in their entirety they could conquer their fears and live a more productive life. Jung had a Near death experience and afterwards was filled with awe and faith in our eternal life force. Sheryl thinks Dr Sauvage was a multidimensional seeker of truth as was Dr. Carl Jung. Sheryl has interviewed other surgeons and doctors including Dr. Eben Alexander, Dr. Raymond Moody, Dr. Maurice Pressman Dr. Vernon Sylvest,who all understood the multidimensional aspects of our energetic life force or the body-mind-spirit connection.”
Working with a man of incredible goodness, kindness and love for Self and others and being in the energy and support of that sensibility was very positive and enlightening for Barbara. Dr. Sauvage purpose and mission was to do the best for every patient and he always turned to God as his constant companion, his faith steadied him, he never appeared stressed and responded to one crisis after another without anger yelling or obvious frustration. He never seemed to tire or lose his concentration. His approach to patient care wasn’t just to the person who needed surgery, but to the whole family and he was honest with the families. People believed in him. He eventually was led to the conclusion that we could keep patients out of surgery with modifications in diet exercise and stress. Life style did matter
Sheryl says “There is a beautiful endorsement By Mother Teresa sent to Dr. Sauvage just two years before she died…She wrote, “God love you for the beautiful way you bring His love into the lives of patients you serve. You have given not only your hands to serve, but your heart to love with kindness and humility. In doing so you touch God Himself….the practice of medicine can become real love in action….not just curing bodies, but helping people to know the joy of loving, of giving, and of being loved in return.”
Dr. Sauvage discovered that optimal health involves more than the mere absence of disease.Good health involves being all we can be physically mentally emotionally and spiritually. Traditional Western Medicine is beginning to recognize what Eastern medicine has understood and practiced for centuries- the body mind and spirit are not three separate elements, but a Unified whole with each part interdependent upon the others. It is also known that a happy mind and spirit helps heal an ailing body and then assists in keeping it healthy even after a physical trauma has passed. Since the surgeries Lester performed extended people’s lives, he was also concerned with the level of happiness patients could experience. Lester helped patients realize the power they had for self-healing. Before surgeries he would ask them Why they wanted to live? He was helping them discover the spiritual love that motivated him and a greater appreciation for themselves and life. In helping his patients find their inner being or Soul he helped them change attitudes, life styles and encouraged them to see life in a way that supported their success and personal growth while also giving them hope and encouraging healing themselves and the world.
Dr. Sauvage wrote, “ It has been my experience and I have observed that a person feels most spiritual when he or she has goals beyond material concerns. A person feels most fulfilled when connected to and doing some good for the world at large. That more spiritual aspect of life was something I always tried to nurture in my patients because without spiritual well-being a repaired aorta is a temporary fix at best.”
Dr. Sauvage’s purpose was to live a faith driven life of purpose and love for himself family patients life and God. By asking his patients to consider the implications of a longer life he gave them encouragement to consider matters such as love happiness and meaning. He wrote “Science is the basis for my orientation to my work and to the world, and faith is the basis for my orientation to my life and my relationships. This creates no conflict for me.”
Though science has been pitted unnecessarily against faith yet may great scientists believed in God. Luminaries such a Max Plank, Charles Darwin, Rene Descartes, Isaac Newton, Carl Jung all believed in a Creator..Other scientists such as Albert Einstein, a deist rather than a theist..Deists believe in an indifferent non-supernatural Creator who set universe in motion rather than a personal God who intervenes in human affairs but a Creator none the less.
Dr. Sauvage felt while spiritual matters are too fleeting and personal for laboratory conditions standards of proof for them must be different than for material things… Just because love or happiness or the meaning of life can’t be measured in a laboratory doesn’t make them less real. He offered the following suggestions to point towards the existence of God.
SIGNPOSTS POINTING TO EVIDENCE OF GOD IN THE NATURAL WORLD:
1 Functional Order Gravity and the order of the earth solar system and Universe cannot be described as random. The staggering complexity of interdependent systems and interplay between forces that created and maintained of life sustaining universe suggests a guiding benevolent intelligence. Death pain and decay are part of that order but in the grand scheme of things our universe tends towards growth and order not stagnation and chaos. That the universe has an incredible sense of balance provides a potent argument for divine existence
2 Water The basis for human life and the life of our planet…depending on age sex health water constitutes between 45 to 70 percent of the body. From the planets formation until the present time the miraculous cycles of nature have preserved the earth’s water supply in gaseous liquid and solid states…depending on climate and conditions water moves through these states continuously.. Everything in God’s creation is interdependent not wasted only transformed.
3 Life Cycles Life does not stand still…inception growth maturity and physical death…followed by decay into component elements to nurture the next cycle of life for other beings….Nothing really dies suggesting again a divine hand.
Dr Sauvage discovered and wrote that miracles can be commonplace if you know where to look. Science and faith intersect with healing and love, and we come to see that we all stand on the threshold of life and death every day, whether we are aware of it or not. Most people will never stand with someone’s heart literally in their hands as Dr Sauvage did but every one of us holds figuratively hearts our own, and the hearts of family friends and even strangers. And as we do we choose between life and death because every decision we make chooses one or the other. As God said in Deuteronomy 30:19 “I set before you life and death: a blessing and a curse. Choose life that you may live.”
He also believed that Love is the cornerstone of human emotions difficult to define adequately yet powerful enough that when put into action can change the world. The power of love fascinated Lester..Mother Teresa went to the heart of the matter when she wrote, “There is no other meaning to our lives than this—loving and being loved.
Another simple but important discovery was …The simple truth that underlies our lives is that we all need one another. Whether rich or poor, religious or secular, and regardless of gender or skin color, we are one human family We are truly a single united body of humanity. Dr Sauvage also thought much about happiness and concluded one doesn’t go out and find it but creates it from within their own thoughts and actions.
“Sheryl says…In my book The Living Spirit Answers for Healing and infinite Love in regard to happiness I wrote… “Since I receive intuitive messages for my clients many of them have asked me, “How can I find peace and happiness in my life? This is the answer I give them: Before there can be peace and happiness in a person’s life and in the world, every person must be responsible to do their own work and acknowledge what needs to change within their attitudes or actions so they may better relate to the outer world. Finding true happiness and joy is the natural outcome of self-investigation. There are no shortcuts. No one can make you happy or unhappy unless you give him or her the power to do that by surrendering or giving you own power away…..It is only by our own efforts and choices that each of us can develop a sense of accomplishment and self-growth recognizing the greater whole of our being and the role we play in creating everything in our lives.”
Barbara Mulvey Little has shared Dr. Sauvage’s deep felt heart based love of life and Spirit as he discovered the purpose for his life and indeed hopefully for all of us to eventually discover that as evolving souls who incarnate to remember who we are, and where we come from, and to live a purposeful life ultimately results in refining our Soul and living Consciously.
We have followed Dr. Lester Sauvage’s life time search for answers to What is the purpose of my life? How can I live a life of meaning? What is happiness and how do I find it? What do my actions reveal about whom or what I love? and Why does it all matter? Dr Sauvage was blessed to find truthful answers as a result of his wonderful life lived with love compassion and healing as he shared his passion for serving Spirit no matter how hard the challenges were, always retaining the courage and fortitude to use his spiritual gifts and help others.
Barbara and Sheryl would have you remember to look within and discover the rainbow of beauty hope healing and love for yourself and the world. You can serve others and delight in the physical beauties that are right in front of your eyes….children music art nature all gifts from above and know that we live within the Divine and the Divine lives within us.
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