A Case of Prolonging Life in Brain Cancer

This case was entrusted to this humble priest by a fellow practitioner. An elderly man over eighty suffered brain cancer, mostly unconscious with rare lucid moments, and had stopped eating. The hospital had already issued a critical-illness notice; his remaining life was but a few days. His son came to ask a fellow Daoist whether any good method existed; the Daoist then asked me. I acknowledged I had no power to reverse heaven, but only supportive methods that might extend his life a little while—worth trying. The son agreed. In general, severe illness with unconsciousness arises from an unsteady hun and po. Especially in the elderly, hun and po are most loosely bound to the flesh body. In the world, sometimes an old person falls, then gradually declines, and soon passes away—all for this reason. Therefore I arranged the Big Dipper formation and lit the Seven Star Lamps to gather his father’s hun and po, and also borrowed the qi of sun and moon to illuminate his life-origins together. The next day the man woke and wished to eat; he took a little porridge. After another day he could actually get up and walk. His speech was clear, and he could take small steps, though he never left the ward. The son was overjoyed and told me the hospital doctors were bewildered: the tumor in the brain was already more than half the size and pressing on the nerves—how could he be conscious? Yet though the recovery was so rapid, it must have been a terminal lucidity. In the end he passed away less than two months later. Though his father died, the wish had been fulfilled.