Friday, February 5, 2010

Bye-bye, Brugh

Last December, Brugh Joy passed away.  Brugh originally had been a doctor.  He'd interned at Johns Hopkins and finished his training at the Mayo Clinic.  He was a practicing physician until a bout of pancreatitis steered him toward alternative medicine.  Brugh dove into energy healing, Jungian work, and dreams.  He left his medical career and began leading self-development workshops.  Michael Crichton wrote about his experience at one of Brugh's seminars in his book Travels.

My wife and I do dreamwork once a month with a couple of friends who are students of Brugh's.  In 2008, they got me into one of his weekend workshops, in Chicago.  It was an amazing experience!  At the first meeting, he led a heart-centered ritual that inducted everyone into the work for the weekend.  I was amazed at how this one 80-something man could work with all 25 of us, taking each of us deep into the work.

In the evening, after the last session of the day, Brugh was chatting with me, when he casually put his right hand on my chest and his left on my back.  I felt intense energy flow through my chest, blowing my heart open.  Every morning, we'd do dreamwork.  He'd call for dreams, and he'd go around the circle and got right into the meat of each dream immediately.  And the dreams I had while I was there were very big, very vivid, as if Brugh's presence had evoked powerful forces from my subconscious.

This turned out to be my only chance to work with Brugh in person.  Brugh had had pancreatic cancer sometime in the 1990s and had fully recovered.  He was in such good health that he went on a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash in Tibet a couple of years ago.  But in 2009, he was diagnosed with a recurrence of his pancreatic cancer, his third experience with pancreatic health issues.  This time, there was no recovery.

The way Brugh worked with treatment for his cancer, and the way he approached his death, was a lesson in itself.  He treated chemotherapy as if it were a holy sacrament.  He was totally open to whatever happened, and he met his own death with a sense of wonder and curiosity.

Most of the people in the Chicago group had known Brugh for several years, some for a couple of decades, so I was surprised and grateful when I received email inviting me to a celebration of Brugh's life with the rest of the group.  I went with my friends to Chicago last Sunday, and we all gathered again.  We sat in a circle, conducted a Brugh heart ritual, and shared stories.  Brugh was certainly there in spirit.

I'm grateful to have had the chance to work with Brugh.  He helped me come to terms with my chronic pain condition.  He showed me that working with the physical body is a valid spiritual path.  His advice to find some type of body movement practice, such as dance or martial arts, led me to tai chi, which has been very good for me on a number of levels.  So even though I knew Brugh for just a little while, I'm going to miss him.

25 comments:

Arjuno said...

This is beautiful - elegeantly bypasses blame and recrimination

Carol O said...

And here it is 2013, and Brugh is still deeply missed by those of us who are connected to him. His teaching lives on in each of us whose life he touched.
We love you, Brugh! We feel your presence strongly.

Sirigid said...

10By chance I came across this beautiful letter - I will print this out for his brother and my family!

Thank you!

Heide Joy

Helpless said...

Heide, you're welcome!

Unknown said...

Thank you for sharing this Karl. I am very moved to hear about the work that Brugh did to help so many - I would have loved to have a chance to meet him. Was there any move to keep his workshops going or are there any similar workshops based on his work, that anybody could point me to?
Barbara

Helpless said...

Barbara, some of Brugh's students have gravitated toward Carolyn Conger, www.carolynconger.com . Carolyn and Brugh worked together sometimes. There also are a couple of online communities of Brugh's students, and they would have information about workshops or programs that are carrying on Brugh's work. One is the Kinship Project, www.kinshipproject.org . The other I knew of was called Hearts-A-Joy, but I can't find it. If you're interested in the Jungian aspects of Brugh's work, you might like James Hollis, a Jungian analyst, www.jameshollis.net

Unknown said...

Wow Karl - this is wonderful - I really appreciate your taking the time to reply. I've dived into Carolyn's website and have gotten so much from it already! I see that I missed a one-week residential workshop she held in May - I would have loved to go!
Again, thank you kindly.

DavidKNZ said...

Many years ago, my father was diagnosed with prostrate cancer, later metastasizing. Too young to die, he became depressed. Somehow, I managed to send him a copy of "Joys Way" He read it avidly, and became aware that death was not an end, particularly as Dr Brugh had been similarly affected. He wrote, requesting 5 copies (which I sent) and a cheque (which I still have). Now, in my bookshelf, I have his much annotated copy showing just how inspirational it was to him. It faciltated a communication which both of use wanted, but alone were unable to effect. Such is the nature of Miracles :-)

SBWSWSW said...

I am grateful that I got to attend a seminar by Brugh in the 1980's. One of his "students", Carole Kammen, passed along so much of his wisdom. She still is doing this kind of work, through the Pathways Institute. Here's the link: http://www.pathwaysinstitute.com/about-us

Unknown said...

There is a Heart initiation conference with a teacher named Carol Kammen this late may 2017
She studied with Brugh decades ago. I know of no one else who offers such an initiation.
www.pathwaysinstitute.com
You may inquire with me directly if you wish jmsmrcr@gmail.com

Dr Vikki Hufnagel MD said...

What is missing in all of the posts and in his own work is that pathological under his care he and his wife covered up for decades....they knew thus man was hurting women and they kept silent....this is not to be forgiven and I will hope to expose it because the hippy dippy parts of this path allowed evils to exist .

SBWSWSW said...

I just got an alert that someone commented about Brugh.

I studied with several of the people he trained. My course in life was significantly changed because of my exposure to Brugh's teachings. His Spiral meditation, where one is both the Healer and the Healed, is one that I continue listen to. (I have to listen on a cassette tape player, no less!) I was lucky enough to attend an evening meditation in New York City with Brugh. There was a quality of his being both in this world and somewhere else at the same time, like he had access to more of the universe than the rest of us. His energy was calming, his presence powerful, simply in his being.

I do not believe that Brugh abused anyone in any form. It was inconsistent with how he lived his life, and unlike many who prevert power when attention is paid to them, he came across as the same person who wrote Joy's Way many years before, explaining energy healing in a simple yet broad way. This was not a man whose ego was at the forefront.

Especially these days, when I hear about a person who has lived their life in a principled way, talked about negatively, as the comment above, I question the motivation for speaking or writing that negative comment. When a person who has consistently shown high regard for others and has been a thought-leader, a proponent of change for the better is suddenly accused of some awful action, I wonder about the accuser. In this case, what I saw in Brugh was a man who lived his life with integrity, with actions and words being consistent.

While it's popular to take down people we view as powerful because it gets other people's attention, to me it points to the accuser's projection. Especially in this case, when the man is dead (at least on this earthly plain), and there is no other information other than the accusation, I am suspect.

Unless and until more information backing up the above claim is available, I would like the comment above this deleted.



Dr Vikki Hufnagel MD said...

I am working on a book that describes perversion. I am studying a member who followed BJ and looking in depth .He was a follower and is a extreme evil person so I am try to follow the path he took. If you knew him please share with me your experience. Robert Jeffery Schuster an attorney.He lived in California. He did book deals with NY publishers. He and his best friend grew up and were focused on perversion to hurt females. I suspect he hurt many females.

Unknown said...

I agree 100% with what SBWSWSW wrote. Brugh was a man of extreme integrity. I studied
with him decades ago, and he changed my life for the better. As a female that knows about abuse I can detect almost immediately if someone has unclean energy. Brugh had
very very clean and healing energy.
I never in all the years I studied with him and the people I introduced to his work, heard any such character flaws.
Sounds a lot like jealousy to me. Like Trump lies that have no basis or prove

The Geet said...

I also started with Brugh in 1978’. Hand worked in conferenceEast coast to West coast. And traveled with him in group in 1985 to Tibet. That’s almost 34 yrs. I still have all my tapes from all those
Groups. And when my mom died he invited me to stay in his home to recover. Never in all those years was there EVER any hints of Any abuse!

The Geet said...

Brugh was separated from his wife for years and was never around for. Any of the conferences or public appearances that I know about. THERE IS NOTHING TO EXPOSE EXCEPT THE DISINFORMATION IN YOUR MIND!

The Geet said...

Carol O here it is2021 And we still miss him

Happy Pretty said...

I miss Brugh a lot. I was in his last residential workshop in 2009 and the workshop was cut short because he needed to go to Mayo for treatment. The memory and feeling in that summer stayed with me. I still remembered the wind chime, the hammock, the decoration around the place. Winter and Christmas is coming up again, 13 years by now, I still miss Brugh a lot. His 4 attributes of heart centre meditation: compassion, innate harmony, healing presence, unconditional love are the keys to selfless service. Love and miss you Brugh!!

Unknown said...

Brugh's legacy lives on in each life he touched. The deep principles he shared are timeless.
I have a series of audio tapes from the 10 New Years gatherings Brugh offered between 1990 and 2000. Does anyone know of a group who is still studying his work who might find these useful?

Tim Brown said...

I would be very interested in his audio tapes. I took a number of his programs and want to refresh. Are they still available? If so how do I connect with you? This is the first time on this site so I am not sure how to proceed. TB

Tim Brown said...

On Jan 22 someone posted that hey have a series of Brough's audio tapes. I was in several of his programs and would like to listen to those tapes for renewal and to see how they impact me now at a different stage in my life. How do I connect with person that has them? TB

Unknown said...

Hi Tim,

Deborah here. I'm the person who posted about having some of Brugh's audio tapes. Please reach out to me at dbdilts@gmail.com. I am currently out of the country so email is the best way for me to connect.

Warm regards,
Deborah Bacon Dilts

Anonymous said...

I'd love to hear those tapes. I saw Brugh years ago on Keewaydin Island off the west coast of Florida and have always been curious. Can we share them somehow?

Unknown said...

I miss Brugh very much. Just listeningto his voice or reading his text is an induction. I would love to listen to more of his teachings too, if it's not confidential. I live in Hong Kong, is there any way can share by mp3 format? Appreciated!

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the article. It was nice to read it. In it, you said he was an "80-something man," which makes me wonder at the state of his health at the time, as everything I've read says he died at age 70 (Dec 2009, born in January 1939).

I'm reading one of his books now, and getting great insight from it.