Ideas in the Wild: Elaine Brewster is Sharing Her Holistic Journey to Heal Her Husband’s Cancer
Scott Brewster didn’t ask for cancer — at least, not in any way he understood. A doctor of chemical engineering, he lived in a world of numbers and hard data. A world in which cancer is something that “just happens.” But when science failed him, his search for holistic answers would challenge his worldview on every level, healing far more than he could’ve imagined.
As Elaine Brewster watched her husband’s incredible transformation, she realized that all miracles begin with a choice — the decision to let go of illness, anger, fear, resentment, sorrow, and despair. In Scott’s Choice: Letting Go, Letting God, Elaine chronicles the end of Scott’s life and the spiritual journey they took on their way to letting go. I recently caught up with Elaine to learn more about why she wrote the book and the ideas she shares with readers.
What problem do you see people struggling with that inspired you to write this book?
Nothing could have prepared me for the shock of losing my wonderful husband, Scott. At the beginning of his cancer journey, we weren’t overly worried. We knew much more about the best holistic methods used for healing cancer diagnoses. Scott was positive, persistent, and faithful. His perspective was so contagious that I began journaling our journey with the goal of helping others who might face the same situation.
After his last breath, when I realized our holistic plans did not work, I planned to toss out my notes, assuming that if anyone knew his end result, they would want to run in the other direction! It was my sister-in-law Kelly, a psychologist, who said our difficulties were part of the tale. She said everything, from finding the right treatment for Scott to finding the right time for those treatments, was all helpful. Each detail helps others feel less alone and introduces them to a new way of thinking about healing.
With that hopeful thought, I began crafting our story again. It is a story worth telling and worth learning from. My ultimate goal is to inspire you to investigate your own body’s healing. Whether you are interested in every part of integrative medicine or are just hearing about it for the first time, I invite you to listen to our story. Learn from it, and take what you need to keep your body healthy and in full alignment.
It is also my hope that this story honors my husband — a good man who was ever ready to learn, grow, and do; a man who accepted change by moving forward with determination and vigor.
What’s an idea you share in your book that really excites you?
Sound has power: like pendulums that end up ticking in unison, the body entrains to the better frequency of what is being intoned, and the frequency begins curing the body. (I have seen sounds heal people at singing conventions, either with a circled group of caring people or with a machine that “sang” into people’s bodies the frequencies they needed.
This is called “frequency healing.”) An instructor I had told me, “Singing is the best entrainment to balance and integrates the energies in your body. The tone just enters you — so powerfully, it goes right into your brain.” (Music bypasses the conscious brain and goes straight to the subconscious. That’s why music — for good or ill — is so powerful!)
Each of us in the class intoned the same pitch on the same vowel for about five minutes, letting our minds be free to center in on the location and chakra color associated with that pitch.
There was a listening stillness, a thoughtfulness, and a serenity that cocooned us. It was as peaceful as a shady afternoon beside a forest brook. They say that one needs stillness to hear God’s voice and that our current world, fraught with worry, busyness, and constant noise/loud music/stimuli takes away that stillness. This setting brought back a pleasant, reflective pensiveness, and there was a subtle unity that linked us all by the end of the class.
How will following the suggestions in your book improve your readers’ lives?
I have come to believe that the only way our Western medical system can become more viable is through prevention. That doesn’t mean the quasi-prevention of diagnoses, but the prevention at the root of individual self-care — taking responsibility for what we put in and on our bodies.
Of course, there was much more — all of it quite fascinating — that made good sense and boiled down to taking responsibility for your own health. I’ve wondered, is that one of the legacies given to us by our beautiful, sterile hospitals — that many of us would rather have a costly procedure done by others instead of doing something cheap and simple ourselves?
Physiologist Dr. Gary Lindner encourages, “Be healthy by choice, not by chance.”
In other words, taking measures to ensure our own health. (And that’s exactly what I see people doing more and more nowadays — researching, discussing, and doing what they feel is best for them.) Getting well is easy! Just stop what you did that made you sick and start new programs that will make you healthy.
