17th floor of the Capitol

Some of you have been asking for more details about my day last Friday. I finally am getting over the increased pain from the events, so I think I can handle writing about it now. It was a big day for our whole family as Robert & Andrew were heading up north to look at a grain cleaner for Andrew; Cora was riding along with them to pick up a "New" basset hound in Minot; Jacob wanted to go see his friends the Bartlett boys; and I had this luncheon meeting at noon.
It was stressful for me, right off the bat, as I had to drive Andrew's pickup. With all of Andrew's luggage + banjo for his weekend at the Bartletts, plus Cora's plan to come home with a dog and her kennel, it seemed best for them to take the van for all of their "Stuff." I've only driven Andrew's pickup once so it made me nervous to have to take it to Bismarck for the day.
Then when I got up there, I had a hard time finding a parking spot. It somehow galls me to pay for parking and the hotel where the luncheon was held parks their cars in a parking ramp. I drove around the block several times until I found a spot on a side street. I wasn't exactly late, but I heard someone say, "Amen" just as I entered the restaurant.
Everyone sat down and the table was full. There was a small table behind Elizabeth and she gestured me towards it after she greeted me. Ellen came a few minutes later and Tone-Lise and Bel a little later yet and we filled up the table with BodyTalk practitioners. Just in case anyone is wondering, I had a $7 turkey sandwich with some raunchy potato chips. I was listening too much to the meeting at the time to think of asking for a salad instead. In this picture you can see Elizabeth in the blue and my partner, Ellen, in the green at my table.

Here are some of the other ladies. Most of these people were Core Synchronism practitioners but a few were Reiki ladies too. We pretty much listened to what has been happening out in the Dickinson area as we munched. I was appalled to hear that several Reiki practitioners had police officers come to their office with a massage therapist with them. The Reiki practitioners were required to continue their sessions, with the law breathing down their neck, to see if they were using any massage techniques. HOW CAN THIS BE? Do the police bow to the beck and call of the ND Massage Therapy board now??????????????

Our meeting broke up a little after 1:00 with everyone heading for the Capitol. Needless to say, I was UPSET. I arrived at the Capitol at the same time as my friends Bel and Tone-Lise. We took a quick tour of the House of Representatives and the Senate while I shared about our various home school battles we'd fought there and the battle to keep GM wheat out of ND in 2002. These friends were pondering taking the steps to the 17th floor and I thought I'd at least start out with them. I had a little extra steam to get rid of so I started out with vigor.

Bel said that she wanted to go at least to the 10th but we both needed to rest long before that. Tone-Lise never even got out of breath and she shared how people in Norway, her native land, walk a lot more than people do here. Well, as we came up on the 10th floor landing, I said, "Well Bel, I'd really like to go to the 12th." She laughed and after a rest, we continued our climb.

Then on the 12th floor landing Bel said to me, "Well Dawn, how about we go to the 15th?" We laughed together then and Tone-Lise said, "TO THE TOP LADIES," and so we did. We passed the 17th floor, where the meeting was to be held 20 minutes later, and climbed to the 18th floor which is an observatory. WHAT A GLORIOUS VIEW THERE IS UP THERE--ESPECIALLY WHEN IT'S THE FIRST TIME YOU'VE EVER MADE IT UP THERE WITH YOUR OWN TWO LEGS!"

Well, we enjoyed the view for a few moments and then descended to the 17th floor. We found the room, which was full of people already, and I was blessed when one of the ladies offered me her chair. I must have looked all worn out from the climb so I thanked her and sat down. I shared the arm of the chair with my friend of 20 years, Bel, and the meeting began.

Assistant Attorney General Mr. Edward Erickson (pictured below) opened the meeting at exactly 3:00. I think he was quite surprised with what he heard. Mr. Erickson had a hand-held recorder which he aimed at anyone who spoke. At first it was a bit daunting but then, when we realized that we were all saying the same thing, a group cohesion was quickly knit. You see, ALL of us now have a common enemy and that is indeed quite bonding.

The Dickinson ladies went first, as that is the war zone at present. One of the ladies shared that she had been at the Capitol on the day that the new Massage law was passed last year. However, when she realized that what was being said only applied to Massage therapists, she never gave it another thought. However, when an article appeared in the Dickinson Press last December, which was paid for by the ND Massage board, things changed. You see, in that article they charged that many of the energy modalities are practicing massage. Further, they demanded that if we did not stop doing our work, they would prosecute us and the penalty is $25,000.

Everyone who wanted to speak their mind concerning this nonsense could share their thoughts with the ND Massage Therapy Board via the tape recording. This young woman shared that she has clients who are critically ill and who depend on her Core treatments to keep them alive. I shared how once I was in that condition and Elizabeth's BodyTalk sessions kept me alive. I further shared that most of those sessions were done on the phone and it's pretty tough to move muscle tissue over the phone.

This Core practitioner further shared that she has collected testimony from her clients and most of them said the same thing, "How stupid do you think we are that we wouldn't know the difference between a massage and a Core session?"

These pictures were taken after the meeting but I wanted to show you "My" life saving BodyTalk practitioner in the blue here--Elizabeth Hanson. She does such a good job of presenting her thoughts and she out and out demanded that the ND Massage Therapy board PUBLICLY apologize to all of us for the slander that they caused us by mentioning our modalities in such negative tones. EVERYONE IN THE ROOM CLAPPED THEN!!!

Many people complained that the massage board did NOT meet in January, when they are scheduled to, so that we could take our grievances to them before we must lose income from their slanderous newspaper article. Elizabeth shared that 2 BodyTalk practitioners in the state have decided to postpone their work until something can be resolved here. It does make one wonder when the police have already been involved and it's not like I have $25,000 to give away.

Elizabeth said that we are all running legitimate businesses with credentials from our certifying organizations who truly do understand the ins and outs of what we do. She offered to give every one on the Massage Therapy board a free BodyTalk session to help them try to understand that BodyTalk is NOT massage. Later I offered to help her IF she happened to get anyone take her up on her offer as she is a very busy lady and things shouldn't all fall on her shoulders any more.

At the end of the meeting, there was still many practitioners with very high emotional levels in the room. Mr. Erickson could tell that things were not handled right on the part of the board for so many to come out to speak. He said that most of the time nobody comes to those meetings. Once in a while, someone will come to watch but not to actually SAY anything. Well, if you get someone playing high and mighty trying to take away your income, of course people are going to get upset. But it's more than that--these people are all healers!!! These people, like me, all have others depending on them for life-strengthening therapies. HOW DARE ANYONE SAY THAT THE PEOPLE OF NORTH DAKOTA DO NOT HAVE A RIGHT TO GO TO ANY PRACTITIONER THAT THEY WANT TO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We were falsely accused and my writing here is only the beginning of the writing that I intend to do on this subject. I will write at length my thoughts on this subject to the ND Massage Therapy board. I will inform them that I have people from all around the WORLD reading about their RIDICULOUS attempt to take over the alternative health care realm in ND. I intend to use this to show them that ALL TYRANTS WILL BE EXPOSED AT SOME POINT FOR WHAT THEY REALLY ARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How dare ANYONE in the United States of America lie in order to attempt to stop the free flow of ideas for the benefit of all??????????????? TELL ME THAT YOU GREEDY VILLAINS!

Well, I wasn't quite so emphatic in the Capitol on Friday, as I'm a much better writer than speaker, However, I didn't hesitate to point out that if Elizabeth had not been allowed to practice BodyTalk in 2006, I WOULD BE DEAD!!!!!!!!!! I wouldn't be here to help all of those I'm helping in BT currently and all of those I'll help in the future. I closed my thoughts with, "We NEED this modality in North Dakota!!!!!!!!"

Just before my friends Bel (on the left) and Tone-Lise descended the staircase, Bel said to me, "Dawn, you were very eloquent in your talk." ME, ELOQUENT???????? I just laughed, but it made my day! You know, I lost almost all of my friends when I pursued BodyTalk to save my life, but God has blessed me with a new set of friends. How many friends do you have who would urge you to climb the capital and wait while you caught your breath at every other floor? These 2 alone (not to mention all of you out there) make my life so rich so as to hardly even imagine that I once thought of myself poverty-stricken in the friends department. Isn't that just like the Lord? So many times I try to make something happen on my own and it all falls apart. However, when I just follow Him and obey His will for my life, THEN he adds the desires of my heart on top of the peace that passes all understanding for being where he wants me to be. Praise the Lord, oh my soul!!!!

We have no word about a meeting date with the massage board yet but I am praying that it will happen soon. We all agreed to meet with them, face to face, so now we wait. Do you suppose they'll be man enough to face us?????????? It should be interesting and I'll keep you posted.

In the meantime, each one of us must decide how to proceed with our businesses. I am leaving it up to the Lord. If He brings me someone to work on, then I will work on them. I'll make sure that they know that I'm not doing massage on them, but I refuse to make them feel like a bunch of dummies. PEOPLE KNOW WHEN THEY'RE GETTING A MASSAGE AND PEOPLE KNOW WHEN THEY'RE GETTING A BODYTALK SESSION. Why must that be so difficult to understand????????

Conquering my fears,

Dawn