Science, Miracles, and Inner Power

By VICKI MIZEL

My first writing started when our mother requested handwritten letters or poems for Mother’s Day when I was 8, and my brother was 11. When my brother was sixteen, he shined with Mad Magazine-type writings that made us laugh until we cried.

To practice, in 8th grade, I woke at 7 am on school days to write for half an hour. Years later when attending college my mother threw out my journals when she moved from Dallas to Denver. I still wish I had those journals to see what I was thinking and feeling in those days.

I took creative writing courses in my junior year but I was constantly criticized and it scared me to do more than college papers or stories.

It wasn’t until almost 20 years later, in graduate school for psychology, that I signed up to write a book for one of my courses. I’d always wanted to write a book, but I lacked the confidence. When I saw the stacks of papers I’d written in graduate school (almost two a week for 1.5 years), I figured a book might be easier.

I wrote about teaching people with Alzheimer’s memory training and getting positive results. I knew then the brain could regenerate, but science was saying it couldn’t. Now neurogenesis is a popular hot topic, but in 1998 - 2001 when I talked about it, people thought I was a “little touched.” I knew inside I was right, and it was just a matter of time.

I had been teaching memory training since 1983 and became a consultant for the San Diego City Schools Gifted Program, teaching memory training to K through 12 for five years until their funding was lost. I developed amazing recall and a visual creative memory from teaching and practice. I continued teaching all walks of life, including CEOs’, bankers, computer companies, colleges, and business people. In January 1999, I was injured by a big rig truck slamming into me, causing a brain injury. At that time, no one at UCLA knew how to help me. I was given three different diagnoses and none in my mind were accurate. Finally, I met Dr. Harold Toomin, who said to me, “You developed amazing memory abilities from your memory system, now you need to use it to get better. That is exactly what I did. I found out that Los Angeles Unified School District has an Older Adult Memory Program. I called to say, “I can teach this, I have a wonderful memory system. They agreed, and I eventually expanded to 9 classes two hours a week for 2 ½ years. That became the inspiration for my first book, “Love Remembers.”

I couldn’t have done it without the support of Holly Prado, my writing teacher, her writer’s group met in her home weekly. I wrote with Holly for ten years. I still struggled with my brain injury, but she encouraged me. “Just get it on the page and edit later.” She was so considerate and kind it gave me the confidence to try. It took two years to write, and another year to edit, until I was confident for Holly to edit. As my brain healed, my writing improved. In all, it took me eight years to write. The book is perfect, and I’m so proud of it. It compiles 26 years of my research, practice, and teaching memory training.

The first part of the book is of patient stories. The second half is the memory program I teach with the same slides and verbiage I used to teach seminars. Part 2 is another program I taught called Passion Quest - Finding the Work You Love and Loving the Work You Do. It’s a program to help people redesign and recreate a new life for themselves using visual pictures. I am so proud to offer my book and programs to help others heal too. In early April 2020, when the pandemic hit, I received a phone call from a doctor at Mount Sinai saying that my brother was dying from Covid and was near death. The doctor felt it too risky for me to travel to him and advised me to keep him company over videophone while I watched him die. I said, “I don’t think so. I am aware of the risks. I don’t want him to be alone, and I don’t want to be without him. It’s just us, our parents are deceased. I’m coming.”

He was happy and relieved to see me. He took my hand and said, “I need you to feed me the nutrition to help my immune system fight this virus.” I said, “Okay,” and went to work. I called our genius mentor, Dr. Timothy A. Binder, in Montana and he knew all the right nutritional supplements and homeopathics for Gary to take. I also got him Kate Farms Nutritional drinks to fortify him. Immediately, after taking the pills and the drink, Gary made a Popeye sign and I knew we were on the right track. After 10 days of doing this, he got off hospice. However, once off hospice I was no longer allowed to see him. Per policy, I could see him only if he was dying. Dr. Binder suggested I put the nutrition in drinks, meet the nurse downstairs, and have her take them to him. I did that for another 3 weeks, and miraculously he was cured of Covid! He moved to rehabilitation to re-learn to hold his head up and walk again after having been in bed for 28 days. There were ups and downs, but overall we were so happy.

My friend Rod who had been a true supporter all this time encouraged me to write a book about this journey. He called me for 13 weeks until I finally mustered up the courage to write a book about saving my brother. I wouldn’t have done it without the push. I’m proud to hear people say they like the book and it’s a real page-turner. It’s called “A Sister’s Love.” You can find it at www.savingbrotherfromcovid.com.

CONTACT INFORMATION: www.brainsproutsmemory.com www.loveremembers.net