Other Testimonials:  Read what people who have attended Sid's Seminars have to say.

Recovery Stories:
Read what cancer survivors have to say.

Like anyone faced with a cancer diagnosis, Sid Levinsohn felt his life screeching to a halt in 1995 when doctors told him he had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

 The disease and the fear it created seemed to blot out everything in his life. The relatively good prognosis for non-Hodgkin's patients gave little comfort.

Levinsohn, a former St. Louis Park businessman who built a local pharmaceutical supply company into an industry leader, said he didn't like the feeling of destiny being out of his hands. After spending much of his life dabbling in biofeedback and alternative medicine, he believed that things other than chemotherapy and radiation influenced survival.

So, he turned to those he considered the real experts: cancer patients who had beaten the odds.

"The idea was to crack cancer survivors' success code," he said.

Seven years later, Levinsohn, 73, said he feels healthier than ever. The cancer is gone, he said. He credits his recovery partly to traditional treatments. But he also strongly believes that the strategies gleaned from survivors played a key role, which is why he's devoted his retirement to sharing what he's learned.

"There's a reason for everything," said Levinsohn, who owned Pharmacy Corp. of America and now lives in Minnetonka. "I was supposed to come down with [cancer] and maybe it was so I can do this."

Quiet Miracles

Out of his experiences have come the Quiet Miracles workshops that Levinsohn has put on nationwide for the past six years. The nine-hour workshops, given in weekly three-hour sessions, are designed for people who have cancer and other life-threatening illnesses. But they're open to anyone interested in exploring wellness and healing.

Although Levinsohn limits the number of participants to keep the experience personal, Quiet Miracles has a growing legion of fans, including WCCO-TV morning anchor Cindy Hillger, who has battled colon cancer, and a number of medical professionals.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota also named Levinsohn one of its Minnesota Champions of Health this year for "creating a blueprint for coping and overcoming chronic disease," according to the award letter from Dr. Mark Banks, president and chief executive officer of Blue Cross.

"What Sid does is enlarge people's sense of what is possible and make them realize they can become more than what they believe or what they are told," said Dr. Alan Hymes, a retired thoracic and general surgeon at Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park.

The heart of the workshops is material that Levinsohn gathered from interviews with dozens of cancer survivors during the year he fought non-Hodgkin's.

He found the survivors by talking to the medical professionals who treated him. He also asked friends and neighbors if they knew of people who'd gotten a grim diagnosis and lived to tell about it.

He was stunned to learn how many people had survived -- itself a morale booster. One of his nurses at Fairview-University Medical Center in Minneapolis turned out to be a patient who beat the odds.

During the interviews, Levinsohn said he was struck by a common trait -- something he calls a "fighting spirit" -- in survivors.

 “When I listened attentively to their conversations, I could not help but perceive the greater inner power that these extraordinary people awakened," he said.

"What I vicariously felt was that in spite of all the odds against them, at some point in their life these long-term survivors made a conscious self-healing decision -- a personal choice to step in and take full control of their own medical journey and destiny," he said.

That alone wasn't enough to cure them, said Levinsohn, a pharmacist who always recommends that patients continue their regular medical care and treatments. But it may have been enough to make a difference, he said.

Although there's no scientific proof that a fighting spirit cures disease, Levinsohn said that a growing number of small studies demonstrate the connection between mind and body and its potential to heal. He expects science to catch up eventually to what survivors already do or know.

"I couldn't wait for that to happen, and neither can many other people," he said.

Bits of Advice

Levinsohn said he's compelled to tell others about cancer survivors' fighting spirit and the difference it made. Here's some of his advice:

·         Become an active participant in medical care and commit your entire being to getting well mentally, physically and emotionally.

·         Recognize that negative thoughts can impede healing, while positive thoughts can aid it. Find the root causes of negative thoughts and feelings and resolve them.

·         Visualize yourself getting better and act as if you are already healed.

·         Work with your regular physician, but also choose the best that both traditional and alternative medicine have to offer. Remain open to the possibility of various ways to regain your health.

·         Find meaning in the cancer experience and believe that lessons can help you or others.

·         Develop a support network of relatives and friends.

·         Move from fear to faith by believing in a higher power. Through prayer, ask for help in healing.

·         Believe that there are healing powers within you that can be tapped.

·         Set long-term and short-term health goals, along with a plan to achieve them.

Many of those who have taken Levinsohn's workshop say they believe it helped them overcome their illness.

Ronda Kanne, a Woodbury nurse, signed up for Quiet Miracles a year ago, shortly after she learned she had thyroid cancer. While the sessions at first seemed a little New Age-y for Kanne, she tried them anyway and she said she believed they helped end her fears and work toward wellness.

"I wanted to do anything to improve my outcome, and this gave me hope," Kanne said. "As a nurse, I've seen how important that is for patients."

Not everyone who has taken the workshop has been a fan, said Hymes, who has reviewed some of the workshop materials and has talked with medical professionals who tried the workshop.

Critics say that it could give cancer survivors false hope of a cure, Hymes said. Or, it could make those whose disease isn't cured feel like failures.

Hymes, however, doesn't believe this is true. The workshop helps take away the fear and despair that a grim diagnosis brings. Even when recovery isn't possible, he said, the workshop "gives people control again. It teaches them how to live, not die."

For more information on the Quiet Miracles workshops, or to request that Sid Levinsohn speak to a community group, call 952-935-1423. A $45 charge at workshops covers the cost of materials. There's usually no charge for speeches. Information also is available on Levinsohn's Web site: http://www.survivorsbeatingcancer.com

-- Jill Burcum is at jburcum@startribune.com .

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