American Curator of Dr. Vodder’s European Lymphatic Massage
William N. Brown, Ph.D., L.M.T, D.Sc
By Kimberly Miles, PhD candidate, Natural Health

Dr. William N. Brown has worked as a holistic practitioner and teacher for over 20 years in Norway, Santa Monica, California, Atlanta, Georgia, and Cleveland, Ohio and now in Sedona, Arizona. Today, he focuses his practice on European Lymphatic massage, teaching the full technique and sharing information through his book, The Touch that Heals (2008). Dr. Brown explains why Dr. Vodder’s technique is rarely taught in its entirety:

In 1972 the technique was compromised to accommodate the insurance systems.  As a result it became a piecemeal process and an incomplete process. Practitioners’ only work on parts of the body at one time.  The lymphatic system is a systemic system, a cohesive flow that moves throughout the body so why would you work on it piecemeal? For economic reasons only. It has nothing to do with health.

Dr. Brown was born in Cleveland, Ohio on December 12, 1944. His mother was a nurse and his grandmother who influenced his life practiced both folk and natural medicine. His family’s roots had always been in healing.

My family especially the part of my family that was in Arkansas, in fact, my great, great, great grandfather was actually in slavery and his community called him “Smart Brown,” and he would go into the woods and pick herbs and use them to cure people. So that kind of folk medicine was part of my family tradition.  My grandmother being an ordained minister also was quite proficient in folk medicine as well.  

I think I must have been 12 yrs old.  My mother who was a nurse was in an accident and was injured in a fall and none of the medical people were able to help her. This was in the early 50’s. My grandmother took her to a chiropractor and in those days chiropractors were almost unheard of.  And he did an adjustment that helped her.  In between the time that she was actually able to find adequate help, she was in such pain that she went into the closet and cried because she did not want anybody to see her in pain.  As a child I was in the backyard, playing with other children and I would get this feeling and I would just walk into the closet and just hold her and put my hands on her.  She said I was her blessed child. She said that I helped her.  As a child I didn’t put that together.  I knew I wanted to be a teacher or a doctor.

Starting out his career in Real Estate in California in 1978, he had a lucrative business and was repeatedly top producer in his office. He had taken out a Life Insurance policy and received a visit from a gentleman from the insurance company. Dr. Brown was surprised to see it was his old friend who had taught him marshal arts in Hawthorne, California in 1979.  Roland’s visit was about to change Bill’s life in a profound way.   

Roland came into my office and looked at me and said, “You are eating too much red meat, white bread and tomatoes.” He just walked in the door. He said, “I can look at your eyes, your skin and your fingernails and know that.”  I was blown away.  So we started working out again together and he taught me about vegetarianism.  At that time I was addicted to whoppers.  And I had all these bumps down the side of my face, which I thought was normal. He took me by his house and said that he was going to make me a veggie whopper. It was delicious.  And he made me this and I couldn’t tell this wasn’t a hamburger.  From that he taught me about fasting.  And as I said we started to run together about seven miles in the morning and started to work out again.  

It was soon after experiencing the power of a vegetarian diet, fasting and exercising that he began to work in real estate part time and attend Donsbach University in Huntington Beach, California in 1980. He became passionate about nutrition and health and helping others. His sharp, inquisitive mind was always searching for more information.

After receiving his Masters in 1982 and Doctorate in Nutrition in 1984, Dr. Brown made the fateful decision to enroll in The International College of Healthology in Ventura, California to learn blood and urine analysis. He wanted a systematic way to discover the nutritional deficiencies in the patients he worked with in his practice.  It was however, outside the classroom that his true path in healing began to unfold. He met classmate Dr. Annie Childs who had been trained by Dr. Vodder himself in Lymphatic Massage.

So we take this break going out into the yard and I would take them (Bill’s classmates) thru the process of Rama Chi designed to elevate an individual’s energy level in order to elevate their chi. Dr. Child’s was one of the people that was in this class and she said that she had always wanted to learn tai chi and chi gong. And if I would teach her tai chi she would teach me lymphatics.  But to tell you the truth, I wasn’t really interested. I had taken shiatsu with a woman named Judy Fuller and when I took my first shiatsu course, as I would touch a point, I would get a color or a sound in my mind. This was the first time that Judy ever heard of someone getting a physic impression. So I was feeling pretty comfortable with my Shiatsu.

But I acquiesced to this kindly old lady in her mid 60s with twinkling eyes ad blonde hair from Austria. But when she smiled I said “ok, I’ll take your class and I’ll teach you tai chi.” About a month later in Santa Monica where her house was, I started instructing her in tai chi and we took her first basic class.  Well at the end of the class she would give you these hand outs and the instruction was typical Austria or German discipline where you had to do it precisely or you do it over and over again until you did it precisely or until you left the class screaming or in tears.  So I decided I’d do it precisely because it was easier.  So at the end of the class I had to do a practical and I got her leg and she sat up in class and said, “Who touched my leg?” I said I did.  And I was very apprehensive because I thought I did something wrong.  And you know Annie wouldn’t let you do anything wrong.  You had to keep doing something until you did it right.  “Oh really, you have the healing hands.  You come back tomorrow.”  Well I came back tomorrow for 6 years.  I became fascinated with her intricate knowledge of everything.  She just knew all the forms of bodywork on the planet and it was like sitting at the foot of the Buddha in learning about the relationships of bodywork and touch and the importance of the lymphatic system.

Dr. Brown is as passionate about Lymphatic's as Dr. Childs was. He looks at the benefits of Lymphatics from a broad perspective, based on his experiences. His view incorporates the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of his art.

It appears that water is the lifeblood of the universe--where there is water, there is life.  Rudolph Steiner stated that when the cosmic energies come on the planet, they are intergraded in our bodies thru the lymphatic system. In other words water appears to be the medium of the transport of life and consciousness. So which is why when this energy comes onto the planet it is integrated into the water.  When we talk about life we talk about water.  When babies are born, babies are in water.  Since our bodies are 70 to 80 percent water and lymphatic massage is designed to accelerate the flow of that water, there is energetically and physically a lot of interesting things happening.  

On the physical level you get balance. Each organ has its own lymph system and it goes into balance.  This is a systemic system that goes though out the body and carries the hormones and nutrients.  All of those aspects go into balance and when the body is in balance the other aspects based on Masloff’s Higherarchy of the higher aspects come into play.  There is union with God and spirit and evolution.  So that is the importance of lymphatic massage. It can prepare us for 2012 as well as to strengthen the immune system.  And it allows us to cope better emotionally because of increased serotonin.  It allows us to cope better physically because of the uptake of nutrition that occurs on the cellular level.  We cope better because the cells replicate better.  So we are in fact rejuvenated as a result of the lymphatic massage.

But herein lies its importance to the entire world; it is that touching is the true revolution.  To touch someone, you realize that you are not separate. And it’s only the view of our being separate that allows many of our maladies to occur.  

Dr. Brown carries on the tradition of Vodder’s European Lymphatic massage with a few new “organic strokes” that intuitively grew out of his work. He also adds a spiritual approach to the work that adds a deeper layer of meaning. Annie encouraged her students to add things to the technique that enhanced it as long as they could fully explain the benefit of the addition. When asked what is his greatest reward in doing his work, Dr. Brown smiles and enthusiastically responds:

That’s easy.  Seeing people smile.  They feel better.  I mean that’s it.  Have you ever seen anybody ill and in pain?  And then you see them smile and you see their eyes get brighter and glisten.  That is my greatest reward.  To see humanity at its best or at least humanity improved.  It’s an honor to be able to do that.
 
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