My op… but not a drop of blood!
But there wasn’t a drop of blood to be seen… Debbie Ravagnani, 51, from Sao Paulo
It happened so suddenly. One moment I was happily curled up in front of the telly. Next, I felt really nauseous. Stumbling to my feet, I rushed to the kitchen where my mum Isolina and sister Claudia were cooking lunch.
Something’s wrong, my mind was screaming.
But when I opened my mouth, no words came out.
Then I collapsed on the floor in convulsions.
Suddenly, I could see the whole scene as viewed from above – both of them panicking, my body lying on the floor. Next, I was dragged back into a dark tunnel.
Calling
It was 1984 and I was aged just 18. I feared I was dying. Then, a man I couldn’t see started talking to me though the inky darkness.
‘You’re not doing the things you said you were going to do, and there is no sense allowing you to go on like that,’ he said firmly.
The unseen voice told me I’d been refusing to learn and view life from a spiritual perspective.
It said I had to change and that I should be working with children. Strange.
I never really understood why, but I’d never liked children very much. Now this man was saying teaching was my calling…
Man’s voice
There I was, stuck in this tunnel just listening to the man’s voice when I suddenly remembered a friend who’d had a near-death experience after she tried to kill herself. She had excused herself to get back to life. So I decided to do the same, but I also asked for a second chance. ‘I will change,’ I vowed to the hidden man. I had lots of things to do. The next thing, I was back on the kitchen floor. A neighbour, who was a doctor, was kneeling beside me, a stethoscope on my chest. ‘You have to take your daughter to the hospital immediately,’ he said to Mum. ‘Her heartbeat is very irregular.’ I was rushed there, the strange man’s voice still echoing in my head.
No warning
Over the coming days, doctors ran a series of medical exams on me.
It was discovered that I had a tapeworm egg in my brain.
You get them by eating raw or undercooked meat or drinking contaminated water, and mine was making me seriously ill. The doctor
I was dragged down a tunnel
gave us two options.
To undergo surgery or wait for it to calcify.
Calcification can take a long time and people sometimes die without warning.
So the surgeon really wanted to operate.
It meant breaking open my skull, and I could be left deaf, mute or paralysed.
It would, however, keep me alive.
Healing hands
Life carried on while I waited for the calcification. I was a piano teacher and the mother of one of my students told us about a spiritual healer she knew. ‘She might be able to help you,’ she told me. Mum was a fervent Catholic, but she did not believe in spirits or life after death. But she was really desperate to help me, so she agreed to give it a go. Together we visited the home of Eva, an old woman, who built an extension at the back of her house where she conducted spiritual healings for people unable to find cures in traditional medicine. ‘There’s no charge,’ she told us as we were taken into a little room, separated by a curtain from the main area where people gathered for spiritual group sessions. I was nervous, standing there as Eva began her work.
Surgery
We stood during the whole procedure. I felt weak and dizzy, as if I had been put to sleep for real surgery. She pressed her fingers against my head and I felt like I was being cut, I could smell blood and formaldehyde in the air, but there was nothing in her hands. Not a drop of blood to be seen. After 15 minutes, Eva’s work was done. For the next two weeks I had pain in the area she ‘cut’, felt dizzy and extremely tired. It really felt like I had undergone a real surgical procedure. But had it worked? Back at the hospital, I had another scan. My specialist was shocked to see that I was on the mend.
‘There’s something wrong,’ he said, comparing my earlier scan to a later one. ‘These scans look as if they were from two different people. A month is not enough for an egg to calcify.’
I told the doctor about the spiritual intervention.
‘It can’t be that,’ he seemed to scoff.
I told him I wanted to stop taking the anti-convulsive medication.
Heeding his words
I never had the surgery and I felt fine. Eva had healed me. Now it’s been 32 years since the tapeworm egg appeared in my head. I’ve never had another convulsion, and I’ve never needed more treatment. And the voice in my out of body experience was absolutely right. I became a teacher and have worked with special needs children. Kids really were my calling. The day I was able to detect a dyslexic 8 year old in one of my classes, I felt rewarded. ‘I always knew that he was different, but nobody had told me before,’ said his mother. I also felt I owed Eva for my cure and assisted with her spiritual healings. The man’s voice never returned. But – thanks to Eva – I’ve dedicated my life to heeding his words.
The doctors found a tapeworm egg in my brain
It’s been 32 years since the egg appeared
I became a teacher as I was instructed!
The voice in my out of body experience was right
Ioften have nightmares where I fall from high places. Do I need to see someone? Shannon, 28, Bridlington.
Dear Shannon
Most nightmares are a normal reaction to stress or can follow a traumatic event. If they’re regular or are stopping you enjoying life, it’s a good idea to seek help. Try cranialsacral therapy, which works to restore the subtle rhythms in the body that control self healing. This can do a lot for easing nightmares. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, dreams connect to different organs. Falling can mean your kidneys need checking out.