This chapter is destined to heat up the discussion, and go beyond “your truth, my truth”.

I care very much about the integrity of the book, I want no one to speculate there is “dramatic exageration” or any fiction…outside of the “metaphorical context” in which is inherent, in any story. There will always be the possibility that one may “read into” and assume I mean or intend to deliver one message or “meaning”, while I may not have the insight or talent to see where my writing or the story has left “too much to the imagination”.

So, with that said, and your anticipation of more dramatic stories and the previous mention that this will be quite autobiographical, you are about to learn more about me…or should I say…my perception of how I interpret how people come to understand me, their “take of me”.

First off, as every one who knows me, there is a problematic process at work for some who meet me, or see me in my different “environments”. I do not wish to apologize to any one for my lifestyle. That said, note that much of my “private practice” has been as a “Lifestyle consultant” or what some have come to know (or some call themselves) a Life Coach. Because of the ambiguous nature of the term, and because so many are jumping on the “life coaching” band wagon, with little credentials or education or even life experience to offer folks much more than their bubbly or assertive personalities.

Secondly, I do not intend to apologize for my “education” or life experiences, that do qualify me to help be a guide toward a “transformative journey”. As an on-going “wilderness guide”, I still can “walk the walk”…I will clarify here and now….how I “Talk the talk”. That said, I prefer the term “legacy coaching” or “Transformative Living coach”…I believe and will expand on the concept which you will find in “the wrap-up” chapters…as to what is meant by Transformative LIving Community.

I am a community developer. Should I dare say a “healthy community developer”. The context of community I use is expansive…and it includes the social networking “beast” we find is growing on the internet. Some may consider the “social structures” available to any and all should be referred to as “a monster” in that there is so many additional concerns expanding and being illuminated, or children…and our very souls…I believe…are quite vulnerable.

I am a Health Care Consultant. In being an Advanced Practice Nurse, and Nurse Practitioner…I have that additional education that helps facilitate  and “extended” class of nursing. As a Nurse…in multiple different settings, I have been exposed to many differing forms of technology, and I have seen “medical applications ” that include drugs, chemotherapy, pain management, diagnostic imaging as well as “energy applications that fall under “medicines” domain…while mostly it will be “technologists” that push the buttons to deliver the energy, or bring the diagnostic energy “to life”.

Yes, “energy” is analogous to life itself. I will take you into the world’s of “high- tech” health care. Much of the high tech applications are “ordered” by the medical community, while again…this world…the High-tech health care world, is the domain of technicians, and Nursing. When I make reference to the “medical community” I will not be referring to “doctors” or Physicians…in an isolated context. I will be addressing those environments (and the personnel in them) which are for the most part “orientated to” and “delivering” a “medical model” sometimes referred to as the “illness care system…but they are widely referred to by most, as the Health Care System, as we know it.

Energy, as a concept is metaphorically expansive as the universe itself. As is technology. We will not see and end to technology, we rely on it so heavily for “quality of life”…and for “health enhancement” and “life enrichment”. If someone were to “pull the plug” on the movie theatre alone, I may slip into a deep depression and have to be even more creative to fill that void in the “Quality” of my life.

Energy, is interpreted differently be everyone. FEW, will agree on every interpretation of how and “what” is energy and its applications. We will discuss some of the medical applications of energy. I will ask questions about the impact of increasing exposure to “electro-magnetic” fields, (as I sit typing with this plate of energy called a lap-top…over my manhood…and close to my already compromised “back passage”.

I have already been a recipient to much of the technological revolution in health care…I have been scoped…I have been X-rayed extensively…and I will share the story of the work environment in which I know beyond the shadow of doubt, was my worst nightmare…of “exposure” to radiation poisoning. I will, but later in the book share what I have felt and discovered recently, is and ongoing concern of exposure in yet another area of “high-technology-health-care”. It will seem like a misnomer at times to refer to “health” in the same context as some of the areas, the medical community “interfaces” with “usually” sick folks. I know they are sick, have some times “little to lose” if terminal outcomes are predicted, but I must argue…are we living the ethic….”first do no-harm?”

The argument get “hotter”…the angered “practitioners” will no doubt take issue with me…some may feel I should be taken to court, silenced…while others would fall back on the historic “tar and feathers”.

I trust most of my audience will gain a sense that I am not a Charleton…nor a “snake-oil-salesman”. I may nearly stand alone on some topics (others fear the ostricizing, the black-balling…the sneering….the “other” name calling. I am not a quack…and it is usually those with the feathers to donate to the “tar and feathering” campaign…that quack the loudest. There has always been the “turf wars”…the territorialism…that is rampant in so called “Health” care.

We will explore that also…who has the rights, power and authority…to mandate “health” practices, to “the other”. The “other” most often referred to as “patient”, but sometimes “client” , has often had to relinquish their rights, their ethic…and for far too many, their dignity…to receive “care” at the hands of health care professionals.

This “interface” I speak of often through the book has a very metaphorical and philosophical theory behind it. It is the “interface” between “patient” and “practitioner”…and the “interface” of “ethics”…yes…health care ethics, “bio-medical ethics” included…and the “ethic” of autonomy, self-determination and choice…that will be expanded on. You may be surprised, pleased, or if “self-centred” and not “client-centred in your approach as a practitioner…you very likely may take offense. But, that is your context of which to reconcile as you put the book down (or toss it in open flame)…sometimes the truth hurts. We have grown up with that message. Perhaps your transformation needed to begin with a little “in your face”, interface, between “your truth and my truth”.

That said…lets define this “Box”. This “out of the box” buzz-phrase is known be many. Many get it when some one chants out, “let’s think outside the box, people”. What do I mean by “beyond the box”…

Well here again, I must leave you dangling…something to ponder…something that will be left for the complete read of this book. This I promise will be one of the highlight chapters…this will bring transition from “straight-up” discussion of what this book is meant to do…to “delivering the goods” on transforming your thinking, and most hopefully transforming ” your spiritual context”…you will definitely be prompted to “step outside the box”…the thinking, will transform to “BE-ing”.