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A

Short Book

on

Meditation

For everyone...

And brain injury survivors.

There are 5.4 million brain injury survivors living on disability in the United States (CDC). There are also 2.3 million brain injuries annually in the United States, alone. Joseph Haranzo (author) is a survivor of an automobile accident in 1992. It left him badly hurt and in a coma for five weeks. When he eventually regained consciousness, Joseph could not swallow or walk, or even sit up without being strapped into a wheel chair.

Now, he meditates daily. His book is ideal for people that don't have a lot of time to dedicate to an alternative treatment, for people with a short attention span, and even persons with significant memory deficits. The book is easy to understand and implement. It is natural in its approach.

What happens when someone wakes up to find they've become a new person? The brain is the "computer" for the human body; When it goes awry, it's a horrific event to try and live through, for the individual and the family. The world is just starting to be made aware and deal with the trauma involved with brain injury. The simplest speech and memory mechanics become overwhelming. That's why this meditation book is small. It gives words that are precise and universal. The large reading audience of brain injured survivors can understand it.

A Short book on Meditation gives the benefits of taking a deep breath, relaxing, and finding more control in life. It relates the simple healing powers of the mind and body, too re-secure the broken link. Allowing for the self-help healing properties and principles that today's people are always searching. Millions of people are waiting to get the benefits of this affordable book. Millions want to get in-touch with this book and themselves. If you properly implement the meditation techniques described, you will feel a measurable difference in your physically, mentally, and emotional wellbeing.

ROANOKE TIMES

DATE: Saturday, June 1, 2002

SECTION: VIRGINIA

COLUMN: A Cuppa Joe

SOURCE: JOE KENNEDY

VICTIM'S BOOK A SMALL STEP IN RECOVERY

I am sitting at a table at Barnes & Noble Booksellers and holding a very small paper-bound book. The title is "A Short Book on Meditation For Everyone . . . and Brain Injury Survivors." It measures 5.5 inches by 4.25 inches. It's a 40-page masterpiece. Oh, it's not a masterpiece in the same sense as a trendy novel by someone with a degree in creative writing.

It's a masterpiece because it contains useful information, and because, when you read it, you feel the heartbeat of its creator, Joseph Haranzo. A survivor of a critical injury to the left frontal lobe of his brain, he has adopted meditation as part of his lengthy recovery. In 1992, he and his then-wife Terri were driving home from the beach in South Carolina then a car pulled from a median-strip crossover and rammed into their Camaro's driver-side door.

"From the impact, I was comatose," Haranzo, of Roanoke, said. This is what he has been told: The Camaro went over the embankment on the right side of the road, rolled 10 times and flipped once from front to back. Two passers-by, an insurance man and an off-duty EMS worker, were among the first to offer aid.

The long way home

The Haranzos had their seat belts on. Without them, they surely would have died. Terri's injuries were less severe than Joseph's. At a hospital in Loris, S.C., (pop. 2,067), a doctor drilled two holes in Joseph's skull to relieve pressure on his brain. Eight hours later he was airlifted to Duke Medical Center in Durham, N.C., where he stayed five weeks.

Then he was transported by ambulance to Thoms Rehabilitation Hospital in Asheville. Terri visited him daily. He is one of the estimated 5.3 million Americans living with disabilities caused by traumatic brain injury. The aftereffects are hard on everyone involved. Like many similar couples, the Haranzos wound up divorced.

Joseph is medium-sized, with goatee and glasses. He looks fit and athletic. Then you notice the cane. His life was changed in an instant, and it has taken him a long, long time

to begin to accept this. Meditation helps his attention and concentration. His meditation book demonstrates his intense desire to help others. Helping others gives him hope. He emerged from his coma little by little. One day, in the hospital, he didn't recognize his surroundings and believed he'd been kidnapped. He lost his sense of taste and smell. A doctor told him he had the mind of a 5-year-old and would never walk again.

A way to deal with the world

No scholar at Northside High School (class of 1986), Joseph spent years denying his disability. Then, he picked up a romance novel at a drugstore and took it home to read. More books followed. Now, he says, "I actually have books on shelves at my house."

For years, he resisted therapists' instructions to write things down, to make notes to help him get through each day. Now he writes all the time - poetry, fiction, nonfiction. It helps him deal with the world.

Toward the end of our talk, Haranzo laughs, tells me he has been concentrating like mad and is glad he has lost his train of thought just once. At 24, he was a runner. For six or eight years after the accident, he dreamed of running again. At 34, he eyes his cane and says, "I don't care to run. I'd like to have a good gait and a nice, firm step. A confident step."

Haranzo says it's not moving.

He means it's not selling.

I've read it twice. It's moving.