issues with sarnoclinic.com

Hello TMS wiki folks,

I am new to posting to this website but have visited it a few times.

I have been successfully using Sarno's techniques since June 2020, and have had my life totally transformed, both by his healing techniques and natural disasters that have disrupted my family's farm.....

I am finally writing a post here on account of a website that I have encountered: sarnoclinic.com

Although I should be rejoicing about another site recommending John Sarno's works (which I am), I am also disturbed at many other recommendations on this site that actually have nothing to do with John Sarno or his teachings (as far as I understand, having read his best books 20 times front to back- no joke).

Just scratching the surface of this site there are recommendations for 'relaxing' therapies like yoga and dietary recommendations like eating low fat and avoiding nightshade vegetables, and even the spelling of mind-body instead of mindbody (which is how Sarno preferred the word spelled).

Prior to reading Sarno's books I suffered from a wide diversity of agonizing pain including severe migraines, digestive problems and food sensitivites, tailbone pain, neck pain and stiffness, anxiety, tooth pain (with several teeth pulled), knee pain, elbow pain, and all sorts of crazy symptoms that we all know about...

My family operates an organic farm where we operated an all organic bistro for 10 years, and now have a market stand selling fresh produce. I am a chartered herbalist from some previous time in my life. I have researched and experimented with all sorts of diets and alternative therapies, all of which were pretty much unsuccessful until learning of all of my buried rage that was causing all of the mayhem.

I have excluded all sorts of food from my diet- nightshades (tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, eggplants), have avoided caffeine, too much meat (our bistro was vegetarian) drank only goat's milk products or no dairy, drank minimal alcohol, paid attention to food combining, took all sorts of medicinal herbs (and grew them and made tinctures and such).... and unfortunately, experienced no really amazing healing from any of it.

So I am truly concerned that this sarnoclinic page is recommended therapies that detract from Sarno's methods. Anybody can read about diets and alternative therapies from any other website on the internet- and probably many people will experience healing from them.

The reality is that they don't belong on a website promoting John Sarno's healing methods.

As he says in his books- how many relaxation techniques do we really need?

I imagine yoga can be great, but it can also be enraging (as are dietary choices). If you take yoga classes, or practice meditation, then anything that disrupts your engaging in these activities will be enraging, and will likely causes pain symptoms.

If you start eliminating foods like tomatoes and potatoes from your diet thinking they will help with pain, then you will be distracted from the true source of your pain- buried rage. Also all of the inconveniences with avoiding these foods, or changing the diet of your whole family, will definitely create more buried rage, and your brain will give you more symptoms to distract you from your buried rage...

Sarno's methods don't work for everybody. These people can ignore Sarno and go on to explore other avenues, hopefully successfully. However, websites that dilute Sarno's methods will be helping fewer people than planned. At least that's how I see it.

I hope to contribute more than just my opinions about Sarno websites on TMS wiki in the future. In this moment I think it is important to draw attention to this other problem.

There is no contact on the sarnoclinic page, so I'm hoping that somebody on this page has some connection to that page...

Happy Healing!
Peace,
Michael

 

Michael,

That's awesome that you're several years into a transformation based on Sarno's techniques!

I hadn't seen this website before. After checking it out, it looks like the majority of the content is on message with Sarno's teachings and suggested techniques. Dr. Howard Schubiner, Dr. David Schechter, Dr. Jen Barna, and others show up on there as well. It looks interviews were transcribed and presented on the site.

I agree that some of the nutritional advice (i.e. discussion about Vitamin D deficiencies, or foods that calm your nervous system) could be a distraction. Chasing a dietary solution alone wouldn't get someone very far with TMS. But, that is a very small part of the site.
I disagree on yoga though as I have seen folks utilize yoga and/or meditation as tools in different ways to help with their brains/bodies as they recover from TMS.

I think it is a bit confusing with 'Sarno' in the name of the site, as it implies affiliation or a direct connection to Dr. Sarno and his legacy.
There is no money involved--it's a free site and resource, described as a non-profit effort. There's nowhere on the site where they're requesting donations either.
There are probably a lot of other sites out there that are much more problematic than this one...

 

You're right! Thanks for the feedback. Anything pointing towards Sarno is great.

 

I checked out this website and found it suspicious. It is 100% anonymous, it looks like a poor compilation of the well-known publications and could be in violation of their copyright. It also says that their membership is currently free - but what about the future?

 

Yes, that is a flag there are no names anywhere....just listed as journalists and on the Content Integrity page: "We have dedicated teams of editors and experts who constantly review and revise our content."

 

Hi MIchael
Your personal history is interesting in that you even stand to benefit from the 'other' therapies and admit that they have nothing to do with TMS. Even here on this forum I read soooo much crap that has absolutely NOTHING to do with Sarno.

Diet and herbal stuff is one. The other is the warm kitty, fuzzy 'accept your pain and monitor it'. Sarno debunked all of these things in the first book I read 'Healing Back Pain' yet, they wormed their way back in. Another one 'forgive yourself' and a lot of other stuff that would have precluded me ever taking Sarno serious,...I think that's why it bugs...

My personal experience with healing by focusing solely on RAGE was rapid and thorough. RAPID and THOROUGH....
If I was told I was gonna have to 'make friends with the pain' or it required some extraordinary dietary lifestyle change, well that was what wasn't working at the PAIN clinic that had failed me utterly..it's like secondary gain stuff sneaking in the back door.

I took a class last summer on textual criticism of the Bible . Jesus hadn't been dead but a few years when the Jesus movement was hijacked and complicated theologies he would have wrinkled his brow at became 'Christianity'. That seems to be the nature of anybody who comes up with a simple and effective idea. It's like the second law of thermodynamics writ into human affairs. "All organized systems move towards entropy= Chaos". I am just really glad I got healed before the advent of the internet and too much info.

Early on when I told people of my RAPID and Thorough recovery from back pain, they would always say stuff like "Yeah.. I totally agree with alternative medicine" which of course Sarno made clear he was NOT a part of.

Perhaps it is just human nature. People find something that works for them and they think 'How can I make money from this?'

Why bother wrestling my spirit into a bloody mess rolling around in the pit of broken dreams and frustrating personal relationships when I can just drink Lemon Water?

https://www.sarnoclinic.com/five-health-benefits-lemon-water/ (Five major health benefits of lemon water)

relax..there will probably be even lamer sites.... second law of thermodynamics... human greed and PT Barnum

 

I agree totally with you about total complete BURIED RAGE 100% When I would get migraines my wife could literally see it in my eyes as they were bloodshot red. Red is Rage.