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Narrative Summary

Interview with Faith Nelson by Francois Lariviere

Faith Nelson, the daughter of J. and B. Nelson, was born in the late 1950s in Kansas. Faith happens to be the mother of a good friend of mine and was kind enough to share her unique journey with me at her home in January 2009.

Upon my arrival at Faith’s home, I was greeted by her warm, gentle personality. When I walked in, my attention was immediately drawn to the strange machines, tools, and rocks lying around her living room and office. Before the interview, I was familiar with Faith’s line of work as an integrative medicine practitioner, but I did not know what it really consisted of. After taking my seat in her office, I immediately wanted to know more. I wanted to know what the machines were all about, the personal side of her journey through life, what brought her to where she is today.

I began the interview by asking Faith about her childhood and religious upbringing. She started off by telling me she was born in Kansas and resided there until she was six years old. At the age of six, along with her parents and five other siblings, Faith moved to South Dakota. It is here where she began her spiritual journey.

In South Dakota, Faith attended parochial school within the Catholic Church until eighth grade. When I asked her about the impact of her spiritual upbringing in Catholicism she stated, “I definitely had my religious discipline and upbringing there, and so that was my foundation.” That same foundation would prove to be very important in Faith’s personal pursuits after high school.

While Faith and I discussed her personal religious and spiritual beliefs, she explained that in nursing school she was interested in exploring all religions, simply because she does not believe there is one true religion. Her beliefs in spirituality, along with her passion for nursing, gave Faith the drive to pursue healing from an alternative approach.

Faith’s true passion for healing is directly reflected in her academic achievements and degrees from programs all over the country. When I asked about her educational background after her move to Missouri in 1980, Faith explained:

Well, when I moved to Missouri I went to massage school, and actually went down in Arkansas because they didn’t have massage school here [. . .] at the time. I went down to [. . .] Arkansas, which also attracted me to the crystal mines down there. So L.M.T. is Licensed Massage Therapist, which I’ve been for 30 years now, and then C.B.T. [Certified Biofeedback Technician.] I am specialized in quantum biofeedback internationally. And then my Ph.D. is in integrative medicine and my Th.D. is in spiritual healing.

Faith is also a registered nurse and a nurse specialist in electro-medicines. Her journey into integrative modalities has allowed her to use many of these degrees and licenses in both private and public settings. She spent two years at the Skaggs Community Health Center. Her experience in the hospital as a registered nurse, along with her interests in integrative fields, opened the doors for something truly unique.

Faith developed and implemented the first total integrative department for St. John’s Hospital, now known as Mercy Hospital. This unique opportunity presented Faith with the challenge of incorporating a total health system into the hospital by using a wide range of non-traditional practices and technologies. She explained that the integrative clinic provides a variety of alternative therapies and technologies for patients suffering from a broad range of illnesses. A major technological advancement Faith was able to incorporate in the integrative clinic was electro-medicine. She went on to explain how the field of electro-medicine is constantly inspired by modern technologies and inventions. One very important device used in her healing sessions is the quantum biofeedback machine. Faith kindly showed me a few of these devices, explaining them in detail by stating:

This one here is called Electro-Medicine [. . . .] This is one for auricular therapy, and that’s for stimulating the acupuncture points on the micro-system of the ear. I use it for somebody that’s in a lot of pain or [has] headaches because it will take the pain or headache away almost immediately. So that’s a real quick and easy modality to implement. Then the quantum biofeedback [machine], that’s the one over here with the attachments. This is what we hook individuals up with, with their hands, and then with the head harness, and then we do a biofeedback with the computer interface based system.

As Faith and I discussed how the quantum biofeedback machine works, she continued on to show me several other devices and techniques laying around her home, which is now the location for her private practice. When I asked Faith about her company, Focus on Health, and she told me:

Focus on Health is my business. When I am practicing in my private practice, then my clients, they receive a combination of integrative—either hands-on technologies or energy medicine. I use a combination of all the techniques and applications depending upon the individual and what they need. And so I’ve just accumulated several different tools along the way, and so [. . .] every individual receives something different, in a different combination.

Faith went on to tell me how she uses her background in massage therapy and nursing to do more hands-on bodywork with her patients. As we walked around the rest of her home, Faith pointed that she uses electro-medicine, auricular therapy, essential oils, acupuncture, meridian therapy, Hemi-Sync® therapy, and hypnosis, along with cranial electrical stimulation and a variety of crystals for channeling certain energies. I felt as if Faith was showing me tools and technologies from 2030.

I also asked her about her knowledge in quantum biofeedback technologies and she explained, “You’re going to see more and more of the quantum technologies, I mean it’s just speeding up so fast it will be like Star Trek to the public.” Aside from her business, Faith is also currently developing certification courses for the quantum biofeedback machine.

The development of medical courses for independent integrative clinics, combined with her interests in eastern medicine and healing practices, allows Faith to travel internationally. I asked about her traveling experiences, and she told me she has always had a love for travel and for exploring spiritual healing in and among different healing cultures. Faith has traveled to such countries as Brazil, Thailand, Nepal, and Mexico. Faith’s most recent journey was an international tour, where she was teaching courses on quantum biofeedback. The four-month trip included visits to Africa, Dubai, Norway, Portugal, and other European countries.

After Faith provided insight into her personal journey into integrative medicine, the interview continued with a conversation about her family and a particularly fascinating spiritual experience. I asked her a few questions about her family and relationship with her three kids. Faith started off by telling me about her significant other, a licensed massage therapist, who is a lifelong practitioner of Edgar Cayce’s[1] work and fellow quantum biofeedback practitioner. He is also her business partner with Focus on Health. When I asked her how she thought her spiritual journey has influenced her children, she told me,

Well, I think everybody has—they make a choice, you know? They come into different families and living situations [. . .] and so, I think that everybody is here for a journey, to experience and to be exposed. I know my children grew up very non-traditional family [. . . .] The individual has to decide for themselves what direction that they are going to go with their own belief systems, whether it’s going to stay grounded in the traditional spirituality in Christianity versus, hopefully, broadening to be open to explore other religions.

After speaking at length about her three children, we ended the interview with short story about a unique visionary experience she had as a young girl. Faith told me,

I, very early on, was a visionary, and I remember in second grade I had a vision that I was a nun. I thought I was going to be a nun, and I was very close to priests and nuns within the Catholic Church at my parochial school, but I grew up very sensitive to energies, dreams, and visions.

I was fascinated by this, and I asked Faith if she still has visions—she does. She said her visions have guided her on her journey through life. Now, her one true vision is that allopathic medicine will become a new paradigm and allow for integrative medicine and quantum energy technologies to take over in the future of medicine. Like the vision Faith experienced as a child, her individual journey through life is unique and genuine. Her spiritual journey has taken her from the Midwest to many places around the world in search of new perspectives in the realm of mental, physical, and spiritual healing. Her openness to spirituality and religious doctrine is in constant bloom and, from my perspective, is truly inspiring. Her vision for the future is sincere and she is constantly bringing it to the lives of others daily. From practitioner and instructor, to mother of three, Faith Nelson continues to define her life as one without limitations.

Missouri State University Spring 2009 Religious Lives of Ozarks Women

[1] Edgar Cayce was a twentieth-century psychic who wrote various works concerning holistic medicine. [Edgar Cayce’s A.R.E. (n.d.) About Edgar Cayce. Retrieved from http:/www.edgarcayce.org/are/edgarcayce.aspx]