Part 1 of a Series on the Book "Cured" and The Story of the Primal Wound and Adoptees and Freedom

In the book Cured by Dr. Jeff Rediger, Dr Rediger writes about going from seminary to medical school. The extended quote I am going to provide begins with Dr. Rediger quoting his mentor in seminary: 

            ‘The goal,’ he told me, ‘is not necessarily to arrive at an absolute answer. The goal is to improve the quality of your questions. The quality of your question determines the quality of your answer.’

            The questions we ask are the guiding light that moves us forward. If we’re asking good questions, we very well might be moving in a good direction.

            When I got to medical school, the philosophy was so different it felt like whiplash. I still remember where I was standing when I realized that the culture of the medical world was not at all what I had hoped or expected. I was at the front of a recently emptied amphitheater classroom, asking the professor a follow-up question to that day’s lecture.

            ‘Just memorize the material,’ the professor told me. ‘Don’t ask questions.’ 

            It was a phrase that would be repeated to me over and over throughout medical school: Don’t ask questions. Don’t ask questions. Don’t ask questions…But for me, this phrase was an uncomfortable echo of the philosophy I’d been raised on: that dogma should never be questioned. 

Dogma is a principle or set of principles laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true.

When it comes to adoption, society accepts the beliefs that, regardless of DNA, one person can serve as a parent as well as another (after being vetted by social workers) for a child, and that being raised by blood is less important than being raised by people who have money in the bank. 

I accepted this belief, also, until I did this thing which is called coming out of the fog.

There’s a point where if you throw a person into a pot of water and turn on the heat, the person’s going to realize they are going to cook if they don’t get out of the pot. Coming out of the fog is sort of like that: like: Holy shit: this water is really hot! I think I’m going to die! This is not the situation I thought it was! My life is cooking me! I need help! 

Cured is the story of Dr. Rediger’s 17-year investigative journey into the phenomenon of spontaneous remission in critically ill people. 

I have to tell you that I consider many adoptees, hold onto your hat, critically ill in one form or another. If you disagree and you’re adopted, that’s awesome. High five! If you disagree and you’re not adopted, go buy a lobster, put it in a pot full of water, and keep telling it it’s fine until it’s dead and you can eat it. With this belief as my lens, I see Cured as what I have been looking for—a sequel to The Primal Wound. The book that tells me what is possible. The book that tells me that wounded is not the whole story: the whole story starts with wounded and ends with health. 

In the introduction to Cured, Dr. Rediger asks the question, “Can my identity, in some way, determine my ability to heal?” 

I say HELL YES. 

And in my next post, I’ll tell you why.