This last weekend I went to Raw Spirit with my friends, Dave, Melissa and Jim. We camped on the grounds and volunteered before and after the festival. It was so much fun.

On our way there, we went to Berkley Springs in West Virginia and collected spring water and dipped our feet into the wading pools that the spring overflowed into. We were talking about ormus and how spring water is supposed to contain high amounts of the subtle energy. I can't say that I know a lot about ormus, but what I understand is that it is an energetic element that increases life-energy. About twenty minutes later, we went to an herb store and we found an ormus cream. Jim, Melissa and I tried a sample and applied the cream on our arms and faces. The next store we went to was an antique store. Apparently, Jim has been looking for some specific hard-to-find ragtime sheet music for a long time and there was a room half-full of it. A little while after, I got a phone call from my mom and she said that she was going to be able to make it for a good part of the festival. I swear, that ormus is lucky stuff.

We arrived at the festival grounds on Thursday night and pitched our tent(s). We made a "campfire" out of numerous candles and got to know some of the other volunteers. On Friday, we spent the day assembling tents, moving tables and chairs, hanging signs and making the places look lovely.

Saturday was my favorite day of the entire festival. Xavier Hawk and Joe Kennedy opened the festival with some beautiful music, poetry and prayers to the earth.

After that, I met up with my mom and we listened to Dr. Brian Clement's lecture. Janet, Kamen and Smilena, my friends from the documentary crew, arrived at about the same time. We talked to Dr. Clement breifly after his lecture and we asked him if he would like to be interviewed for my documentary. He very kindly agreed and the interview was fantastic. I could go on and on about how wonderful the interview was, but you will have to watch the documentary and see for yourself. =)

After that, I met my friend Philip for the first time ever (we had only conversed online). He is so sweet, it was fantastic to meet him in person. After that, I ran into my friend, Paul Nison. Last time I saw him, I was still in a wheelchair. It was great to see him again. We interviewed him for the documentary and he interviewed me for his web show. I will post the latter interview as soon as he posts it. After that, I met Arnold of Arnold's Way Cafe and he interviewed me for his web show.

The rest of the day was filled with a lot of music, dancing and conversing with some of the most fantastic people on the planet.

On Saturday evening, I went to a chocolate party with Spike and Jim. It was totally fun and I met a lot of cool people. The chocolate looked beautiful, but I have been keeping a policy of not eating after dark lately so I actually didn't eat any. I heard it was incredible, though.

On Sunday, we actually spent a good part of the day hula-hooping (and a have a big purple bruise on my stomach to prove it). I haden't actually hula-hooped before so that was awesome.

I went to a chakra-cleansing workshop that was incredible. We did yoga, a guided meditation, relaxation and essential oils. It was incredible. At one point, we were doing a guided meditation focusing on the solar plexus chakra. We were focusing on the color yellow and envisioning our lives transforming into full potential. We opened our eyes and a yellow butterfly was fluttering around the top of the tent. It was incredible.

I'm not really sure what it was... maybe it was the general good energy of the festival, the beautiful people I was staying with or maybe it was the excitement of being there... but I felt so social and compelled to introduce myself to people that I had never met before. It was exciting for me because I have almost always been somewhat shy around people that I had not previously met. I now feel very confident with introducing myself and initiating conversations with people. I thought a lot of doors were open in front of me prior to this weekend, but I feel like so many more have opened up in the last few days.

On Monday, we helped disassemble the tents, packed away tables and chairs and put things in trucks. We then packed up our campsite and headed out to an after-party for the volunteers. Unfortunately, someone made a mushroom dish out of raw oyster mushrooms. I don't blame the person who made them for thinking that if they are cooked, they are probably better raw. That is true for almost all vegetables. The oyster mushrooms ended up being one of those plants that are very toxic raw. The whole party was throwing up, I felt so bad for everyone.

I got home today and I have just been chilling out all day. I will post the interviews later and maybe some pictures.

Have a beautiful day!

-Bethany

PS: Here are some links to take a look at!

www.birchcenter.com

 www.foodunderfoot.com

www.purejeevan.com

 www.allrawdirectory.com

I'm baaack =). I know, I haven't updated this blog in forever.

As of a few days ago, I am officially done with highschool! I can't wait until I get started with massage therapy school in the fall, it will be amazing.

I got a VitaMix since I last updated and I looooooove it. I have no idea how I survived for so long without it.

Today I made the most amazing nutdip ever. I made it with 1 cup of cashews, 1/2 cup of sunflower seeds, 2 peeled lemons, half a red onion, 2 cloves of garlic, a dash of olive oil and about a tbs. of sea salt. I just blended it all up in the VitaMix, it only took me a few minutes.

Well, I'm gonna go! I'll update this again soon.

Love,

Bethany

My brother, Mj, has been home for the last few days. It's been great. He's the best ever. Last night my brothers, Tim and Mj, and I got to see Copeland at Mr. Small's in Pittsburgh. It was so amazing. The show was held at an old church that had been refurbished into a venue. There were old doors hanging from the sides of the cathedral ceiling to enhance the sound quality. The acoustics were perfect. It was all standing room, and we got there early enough to stand right up front. Brooke Waggoner opened the show and her voice just blew me away. I hadn't heard of her before, but I totally became an instant fan. Two bands played inbetween her and Copeland, they were just alright. Copeland closed the show with an encore performance of 'Brightest' and a song off one of their older albums. They were different live then on their albums, because only the lead singer sang and on the albums he doubled his voice over for harmonies. It was definitely a little different but they were still awesome.

So this week my younger brothers are being screened for the family genetic condition (Ehlers-Danlos) in Cincinnati. My dad and I have it (it is likely that most of my extended family has it as well, although they haven't been screened), so it's likely that they have it too. If they have it, it's not the end of the world. But it really helps to know if you have it or not. We're making a roadtrip out of the five hour drive. We're going to a friend's house om Columbus tomorrow, and then going to the zoo or something, and then we're going to be staying at my sister's place in Dayton until Thursday.

FYI- All six of the kittens are alive and well! Their eyes just opened a few days ago. I'll post some pictures soon, they're adorable. At this point, three are unclaimed. They should be ready to go to good homes in about a month. Let me know if you live anywhere around Beaver/Alleghany county and want a kitten (I would actually have to give you the contact info for my parents because it was my eight year old brother's cat that had the kittens). They're absoloutly beautiful and would make fabolous companions for anyone who would open their hearts to them.

I'm gonna go... I should get some sleep before leaving tomorrow morning.

Love you all!

XoXo Bethany

Hi everyone!

So I was browsing through my comments today from forever ago and I came across one that I want to address.

Question of the day: "Hi, I just found your story and your blog via Phillip and I'm curious if you've written your full story out anywhere? My one question is how did you know to try raw foods?" -Chasymn

Dear Chasymn,

Great questions! I'm in the process of writing out my raw journey in detail. It could honestly be a book, it's so long. To answer your question, I'll write my story out right now. Here goes. =)

My Raw Journey

I was paralyzed from the waist down for three years from an adverse reaction to a tetanus booster. I also suffered from fibromyalgia, osteoporosis, reflex sympathetic dystrophy (a degenerative auto-immune condition that affects, nerves, muscles and bones), anemia, asthma, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (a genetic connective tissue disease), gluten-intolerance and a few other chronic illnesses that had plagued my life since childhood. I had tried numerous treatments, but everything made my condition worse (Including a doctor accidently paralyzing me from the neck down for ten days from a medication mishap after a spinal cord infection from a surgery they did to manage my pain. It took me six weeks afterward to regain the ability to use my arms and hold my head up.). About three years after initially becoming paralyzed, I gave up. I threw my hands up and said "I can't do this. No more medical treatments. They.Can't.Help.Me.". I thought I was going to be in a wheelchair for the rest of my life. I wasn't looking for anything to cure me anymore, but I was looking for something to help keep me from continuing to get worse. I was sick in bed with a fever the majority of the time, and I wondered if maybe I could change that by eating healthy. I had no idea what healthy meant at the time, though (I was a die-hard junk-food vegetarian.). With Google and a medical encyclopedia as my guide, I googled all of my conditions seperately followed by "alternative options" and stuff like that. Eventually, I found Shazzie's website. This was back when she had a "raw transformations" page (I believe it's still hidden on her website somewhere, but it's not featured anymore). I saw success story after success story of people curing themselves of illnesses and shedding weight. I made the decision to go 100% raw, and the rest is history. Around the same time, I also started doing adapted yoga (another long story) and meditation. I regained movement in my legs a month after starting raw food, I started walking (with crutches and some hardcore storm-trooper braces) about a month or two later. I shed the mobility devices as time went on and I got stronger and stronger. Within about five months of starting raw food, I was walking independently. It's been a year now, and I am doing so fabolous it's ridicolous. I am walking, pain-free (with the exception of occasional risidual joint pain) and I have perfect feeling in my legs and hands. My muscles are strong, my bones are strong, my nerves have regenerated.

You can read my blog starting from the beginning to read about the specific details of my healing journey (I started this blog a few weeks after starting the raw food). I am having a documentary filmed about my healing, it should be released sometime this summer. The website for the film is www.bethanysstory.com.

Alright, well I'm going to turn in for the night

Love you all! XoXo

Bethany

Today is my little scene brother's fifteenth birthday! Happy birthday, Timmy!

I've been battling pink eye in both eyes this last week. They looked pretty nasty. I took the anti-biotic eye drops and discovered that I'm allergic to them. I got new eye drops and they felt awful so I didn't use them again. I have been doing home-remedy-ish things (colloidal silver, tea bags on eyes, eating lots of garlic and onion) and it's getting better (today my eyes are just barely pink and not very swollen, which is a huge improvement from yesterday). I'm pretty confident that my eyes will be all better in a day or two.

BLAH!

That's pretty much how I am feeling right now. I'm thinking that this is detox.

I'm tired. My eyes hurt from crying. My brain is in a fog. My ankles are hurting. I'm hungry. I don't like this at all.

If this doesn't pass within the next day or two, I'm going to break my fast early because I'm not sure that I'm ready for this intense of a detox right now. For now, I'm just going to keep drinking my juice and wait.

Hi Everyone!

Today my mom and I started a juice feast and I really could not be more excited. Last time I juice feasted, I was doing it by myself and it was really emotionally exghasting to be doing this myself. It's absoloutly fabolous fasting with my mom. Fasting is such an incredible journey and I can't wait to see where this one takes me to. Just for the record, I am 138 lbs right now (about 47 lbs. lost since starting raw foods nearly a year ago) and I'm hoping to lose a good five pounds or so on this fast. My only physical complaints right now are occasional joint pain and occasional shakiness... I'm hoping that will all cease as I fast, breathe and regenerate.

Last night I had my last solid food that I will have in weeks. My boyfriend, Duncan, and I made this beautiful Stir-not-fry (My friend Wendi Dee's recipe! www.purejeevan.com) and raw (vegan) sushi... it was sooo good. For the sushi, we made raw sunflower-based hummus with a little bit of Noma Shoyu and spread it on Nori sheets, and then put sliced tomatoes and avocados in the middle, rolled it up and, my god, it was good. We watched Phantom of the Opera as we ate our pseudo-asian food.

This morning my mom and I juiced parlsey, spinach, cucumbers, carrots and celery. It sounds crazy (and I usually don't care for carrot juice), but it's actually really good.

I'm going to go- I need to get ready to go to the library and work on some chemistry.

Love,

Bethany

Wow, it's been a while since I've written in here. I'm promise I'll update this more frequently from now on.

So much has been going on since I last blogged. I had a lovely Christmas (yeah, it's been that long since I updated) and new years with my family (I even got to spend a week with my brother in Lancaster over the week of New Years).

For my birthday (on the fifteenth), my dad took me out to dinner and then shopping. We came home and I had a surprise party waiting for me! All of my friends were there, it was so much fun. I was so surprised, I think I was in shock during the entire party. I just feel so loved that I have so many amazing friends that care about me. I love them all so much and I'm just still amazed that they all came (some of my friends even drove quite a ways to get there.).

On Saturday, my family, my best friend and I went to a raw potluck at our friend's house and got to meet Kevin and Annmarie Gianni (btw they're totally awesome, I really connected with them.). I love my raw meetup group, they're just the greatest ever. It was funny because so many other people in the group had birthdays the same week as mine, and we didn't even know it.

My friend, Philip McClusky, featured my story on his blog: http://www.lovingraw.com/blog/2009/1/18/tetanus-shots-gone-wrong.html. Philip, as pretty much everyone knows, has an amazing story of healing as well. He lost two hundred pounds and healed himself of several chronic health problems. Go to www.lovingraw.com to read more about Philip's story.

Alright, I'm going to go!

Have a blessed and beautiful day!

-Bethany

Party Pictures!

 <- Susan has an amazing story of healing as well. She was in a wheelchair for fifteen years, and now she is walking with no pain at all thanks to a diet of 50% raw food. This picture means a lot to me. Who knew either one of us would ever be able to stand up for a picture together =)

 <- No one can get enough of Finley!

 <- my fabolous raw cake =)