An article by Pamela Paul in the New York Times on October 6, 2023 entitled It Takes a Lifetime to Survive Childhood Cancer inspired me to use my skills to help children living with cancer and their families cope with their diagnosis.

I am a father of a child who survived childhood cancer. He is now 54, thriving in good health, married and has a 4 ½ year old daughter, Ada – the light of my life.

When Micah was seven years old, he was diagnosed with  metastatic Wilm’s tumor (a cancer of the kidney) which had metastasized to his lungs.

I rallied support by connecting with alternative medicine practitioners who I knew. I was directed to the Gladman Institute in Oakland, California and Dr. Sheldon Ruderman, who played a major role in Micah’s recovery.

While Micah was hospitalized, I taught him how to use relaxation and visualization to get in touch with his cancer. These visualizations came out of my training with Father Eli who taught me his healing methods.

When Micah got out of the hospital, he began working with Dr. Ruderman using what we now call “mind stories,” which are similar to the visualizations that I taught Micah.

Micah was scheduled for 16 doses of chemotherapy as well as radiation. After two or three doses of chemo, Micah was so frail that we stopped. His oncologist agreed with our decision.

Dr. Ruderman continued to do “mind stories” with Micah for many months. He was experiencing his healing by the time he was eight.

When Micah was eleven, the doctor said to me, “We weren’t saving many children back then [1976]. Your son made medical history by surviving the Wilm’s tumor.”

Micah went on to sing his way through and graduate from Stanford University. He is now 54. He has not had a single recurrence of the cancer.

If you find this story hard to believe, please just scroll down and watch the video.

How can I be of help to you and your children?

I can offer my experience in the following areas …

• Being an advocate for the parents and children
• Dealing with emotional and spiritual issues that come up
• Exploring diet, supplements, and herbs
• Looking into alternative treatment modalities
• Learning how mindfulness and being present can make the journey easier
• Reaching out to friends, family, and support from recognized healing groups
• Having clear conversations with the medical team
• Harnessing your own intuition

Support will take place both in person and online via zoom or other services.

Dr. Jerome Freedman is an author, healthcare advocate, Certified Radical Remission Health Coach, Certified Mindfulness Meditation Teacher, Certified Mindfulness Mentor, Certified Enneagram Teacher and a Certified Trauma-Sensitive Practitioner. He is a bladder cancer survivor since 1997. He is a long-time practitioner in the tradition of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh in which he is an ordained member of the Order of Interbeing and serves on several committees.

Jerome currently teaches Mindfulness in Healing at the Pine Street Clinic in San Anselmo, California (now on zoom) and writes daily on his blog, Meditation Practices. He is a contributing author of I Am With You: Love Letters to Cancer Patients, Nancy Novak, PhD, and Barbara K. Richardson.

Dr. Freedman served on the Board of Directors of the Marin AIDS Project and the Advisory Council of the Institute for Health and Healing between 2007 and 2010. In 2019 and 2020, he served as a patient advocate for the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) and a presenter at the 2022 Bladder Cancer Summit. He offered a talk at the 2016 Earth Holder Retreat at Deer Park Monastery in 2016 and contributes to the Earth Holder Cummunity – the Plum Village climate response community – as an activist promoting earth protection. He is a former technical advisor for Operation Diana, an NGO dedicated to the survival of elephants in Africa.

Dr. Freedman holds a Ph. D. in computer science, along with two master’s degrees in physics and a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering. He interviewed Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson on cosmology and Buddhist thought in 2011. He was interviewed on the Artfully Mindful Podcast by Don Thompson which you can watch here.

Click here to send an email to Dr. Freedman or call 415-488-6476 to learn how you and your child can be supported.

Also by Dr. Freedman

How to Use Mindfulness to Be Happy!
Mindfulness Breaks: Your Path to Awakening
Stop Cancer in its Tracks: Your Path to Mindfulness in Healing Yourself
Healing Cancer with Your Mind: 7 Strategies to Help YOU Survive
Seven Steps to Stop Interruptions in Meditation: How to Concentrate and Focus on Your Meditation and Deal with Distractions
Cosmology and Buddhist Thought: A Conversation with Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson – excerpted by Lion’s Roar Buddhist Magazine
The Enneagram: Know Your Type! Awaken Your Potential!
Contributing author to I Am With You: Love Letters to Cancer Patients published February, 2015.

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Healing Cancer with Your Mind

Our Story

The little boy in the video is my son, Micah. Other than being father and son, we have a common experience. We both are cancer survivors – Micah for 39 years and me for almost 20 years and we both used the 7 Strategies to thrive and succeed in our healing. Micah is now 47 and never had a recurrence.

Now, you too, can learn to use the seven principles of mindfulness in the newly released book, Healing Cancer with Your Mind. If you or anyone you know has cancer the Seven Principles of Mindfulness in Healing can guide your way home through diagnosis, treatment and recovery.

We are offering this book for one major reason and your participation will go a long way to helping us meet our goal. Our primary objective is to touch the lives of the many thousands of people facing a cancer diagnosis each day as well as their families, caretakers and friends by sending them free copies of Healing Cancer with Your Mind.

For each book that you purchase, we will send a free printed copy to another person of your choice. In addition, we will use the proceeds to send free copies of Healing Cancer with Your Mind to oncology and radiology doctors, cancer research institutions, medical schools, complementary providers, hospitals and the like around the world for them to share with their patients.

Your purchase may lead you to become and advocate for healthcare and take charge of your healing experience. This is the first strategy. Dr. Kelly Turner, PhD has shown that taking control of your own healthcare is one of the nine factors for Radical Remission¹.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to the more than 138,000 people who will receive a cancer diagnosis during the next thirty days in the US alone.

This book is also dedicated to our wonderful teacher, Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh who is receiving rehabilitation treatment a the University of California San Francisco Medical Center. We pray for his complete response and have committed 15% of the proceeds to his medical expenses here in the US.

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¹See Kelly Turner, PhD, Radical Remission: Surviving Cancer Against All Odds, HarperCollins, 2014, discussed here.

Healing Cancer with Your Mind

Why I Wrote the Book

I wrote Healing Cancer with Your Mind in order to inspire you to be the boss of your medical treatment and to share with you how and why you should do it.

The 7 Strategies to Help YOU Survive have been formulated over the past 40 years – ever since Micah had cancer. Up until now, they have been implicit in everything I did for my son and for myself. When I first was diagnosed with muscle invasive bladder cancer in 1997 and then again at the end 2013, I immediately applied these strategies and now I am cancer free with all my body parts!

At the beginning of 2012, I began making these strategies explicit so that I could share them with you in the form of a book.

Becoming an advocate for your own healthcare is your first stop on your path to well-being. Once you adopt this strategy, a daily meditation practice provides you with the foundation to recognize and know what is going on in your body, your feelings, your thoughts and your mind. With just nine minutes a day, you can learn to calm your mind and make appropriate choices for your medical care.

BE YOUR OWN ADVOCATE: Take a stand and be in control of your healing experience. Don’t just roll over and let the medical establishment run over you.

INVESTIGATE ALTERNATIVES: There is a magical world of alternative therapies that will further your healing and give you a sense of well-being on your journey to wellness.

MAKE HEALTH-PROMOTING LIFESTYLE CHANGES: These will include your opting for healthy dietary choices and energizing exercises.

PRACTICE DAILY MEDITATION: Tune into yourself to discover your body sensations, thoughts, and feelings.

CREATE YOUR OWN MEDICAL TEAM: Look for experts who know both Eastern and Western methods so that you can get the widest range of medical support.

REACH OUT TO OTHERS: Ask your family and friends for support and join a support group to share your healing challenges and experiences.

GIVE BACK: When you are ready, you will find joy and meaning in helping other people and giving back to your community.

Healing Cancer with Your Mind

What People are Saying

This just came in from Anna Halprin:

I am a cancer survivor, so what I have to share comes from personal experience. Cancer is like enlightenment at gunpoint. One must face it and do something. The 7 Strategies that Jerome Freedman has so clearly outlined (see page 129) provides us with realistic and practical modalities that give us strength to face the challenges of cancer and hope to survive. This is a must read book for anyone facing cancer or their caretaker.

Anna Halprin, Ph. D is a pioneer in the field of dance as a healing art and has been teaching and performing with people with cancer, AIDS, and other life threatening illnesses for the past 30 years. She is cofounder of the Tamalpa Institute in Kentfield, California and the founder of the San Francisco Dancers’ Workshop. Her numerous awards include the prestigious American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement in Modern Dance. She teaches in her Mountain Home Studio in Kentfield, California and tours the USA and abroad. She is the author of “Moving Toward Life”, “Movement Ritual”, and “Returning to Health with Dance Movement and Imagery”.

“Dr. Freedman speaks from experience, both as a cancer survivor himself, and the father of a Radical Remission cancer survivor. His book, “Healing Cancer with Your Mind” gives readers a nurturing, helping hand throughout the entire cancer journey, especially with regard to developing a meditation practice.”

-Kelly Turner, PhD, Author of the NYTimes Bestseller “Radical Remission: Surviving Cancer Against All Odds”

“Jerome is not a medical doctor, but a doctor of computer science – he’s a very smart man. He’s also an ordained practitioner in a Buddhist tradition and a compassionate listener and observer of the human condition. He has helped many friends and acquaintances navigate their way through cancer diagnosis, treatment, and often, recovery.”

–Martin Rossman, MD, from the foreword, author of The Worry Solution and Fighting Cancer from Within

“Healing Cancer with Your Mind” is a valuable guide to navigating the complex terrain of cancer diagnosis and treatment. Blending his direct experience with cancer and a deep practice in mindfulness and guided imagery, Dr. Jerome Freedman offers a unique and valuable perspective with mindful healing approaches.

-Leslie Davenport, Author of Healing and Transformation Through Self Guided Imagery

I am a 19 year parotid gland cancer survivor, a type of cancer that can return at any time. In addition to traditional western medicine protocol, as part of my healing process, I have used many different alternative healing modalities. The approach that Jerome has documented in his book coincide with my experience of surviving cancer. His book is a great resource for anyone facing the trauma and challenges of a serious health crisis.

–Julie Bernard, Homeopath

“Jerome Freedman’s Healing Cancer with Your Mind is a user-friendly approach to make practical (very practical!) specific things that can empower each person to achieve higher levels of health.  These principles are not just logical and rational, they “work” and they just feel “right.”  These principles will not only improve your health, they will improve your life!”

–Dana Ullman, MPH, CCH Author of 10 books, including two that contain a Foreword by the Physician to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, The Homeopathic Revolution, Discovering Homeopathy, and Everybody’s Guide to Homeopathic Medicines (co-authored with Stephen Cummings, MD)

This book is great! Dr.Freedman allows the reader to journey with him as he harnesses the power of mindfulness
to heal himself from Cancer. He also brings the reader along with him as he carefully and  meticulously considers the many options of both alternative and traditional healing approaches. The 7 Strategies  are both “practical” and “spiritual”. Especially the part of having your friends and loved ones being an essential part of your healing journey. Would recommend this book to people going through health challenges, as well as r those who want to obtain a greater insight into the power of mindfulness.

–Henry Dahut, J.D. Author of Henry’s Puzzle – Awakening To Infinity.

Healing Cancer with Your Mind

Frequently Asked Questions

What kind of cancer did Micah have?

Micah had metastatic Wilm’s tumor – a cancer of the kidney. By the time it was diagnosed, his cancer had metastasized to his lungs. Micah has been cancer free since 1977.

When I took him to see his surgeon at age eleven years, the doctor said, “You are Micah Freedman’s parents? How wonderful! He made medical history. We did not think he would survive.”

What kind of cancer did Jerome have?

Jerome had muscle invasive bladder cancer in 1997 and again at the end of 2013. This type of cancer is usually treated with a radical cystectomy, a procedure that replaces the urinary bladder with a false one as well as removes the prostate and selected lymph nodes.

What is mindfulness?

According to Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction at the University of Massachusetts,

Mindfulness means
paying attention in a particular way;
on purpose,
in the present moment, and
nonjudgmentally
as if your life depended on it.

You can learn much more about mindfulness on Meditation Practices and / or join our Mindfulness in Healing meditation group at the Pine Street Clinic in San Anselmo, California on Wednesday nights from 7:00-8:30 PM.

What is meditation?

Meditation is the practice of sitting or lying down quietly and watching how your body and mind go through various changes. In Healing Cancer with Your Mind, you will learn many forms meditation such as mindfulness meditation, sound meditation, mantra meditation and many others. The chapter on meditation is the longest one in the book.

What is 9 Minute Meditation?

Researchers have found that nine minutes of meditation a day may be adequate for you to receive the wonderful benefits of meditation without going to the mountains. 9 Minute Meditation is an online course that consists of more than twelve different meditation practices for you to discover the best one that works for you.

What is a guided meditation?

A guided meditation is a process to bring you into a calm and relaxed state by listening to a mentor or recording designed to bring about the relaxation response in you. Click here for a list of guided meditation that you can purchase and enjoy.

How Can I Help?

Your help is needed in many ways. Which ones of these most appeal to you?

1. Order the book.
2. Share this link with friends, family, business associates, and your social media contacts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, Tumblr, LinkedIn and anywhere else you can think of.
3. Send us the names and contact information for patients and caretakers who would benefit from receiving a free copy of Healing Cancer with Your Mind.
4. Send us the names and contact information of organizations that would be interested in distributing copies, whether free or for purchase.
5. Write a review, recommendation or comment that may be included on this page.
6. Anything else that you can think of to help make this campaign go viral.

Thanks for your help!

Do you have more questions?

You are invited to send in any questions you have about anything in this campaign, mindfulness, or healing. Please use the contact link at the top of this page under the video.