Something interesting came up during last night’s Q&A in my SoulWorld Community membership program that I’d like to share with you.
One of our members asked about plastic surgery, and how the spirit world felt about it, which led to a discussion about the Guinea Pig Club.
This exclusive organization was made up of Royal Air Force aircraft crew who’d been seriously burned during WWII. They were patients of a remarkable New Zealand surgeon by the name of Archibald McIndoe, who set up a plastic surgery unit in a hospital outside of London in 1939.
Guinea Pig was an appropriate name for McIndoe’s patients. He experimented with a host of brand new techniques to reconstruct the faces of young men who’d been horribly disfigured by their injuries.
Early in the war, McIndoe noticed that airmen who came to him after being shot down in the Atlantic (as happened to my Uncle John, who was an RAF navigator, and later became the first spirit guide to work with me), had burns that were much easier to deal with than those who’d been shot down on land.
This observation led to the use of saline baths to ease the pain and speed up healing, something that’s still used to treat burns today.
He was a brilliant surgeon, but more than that, McIndoe helped his boys (as he called them) adjust to life after treatment. Members of the Guinea Pig Club benefited from his insights as a psychologist, as much as his ability to handle a scalpel. He encouraged them to spend time in the community during recuperation, and worked with all his boys to help prepare them emotionally for going back into the larger world.
Spiritually, what motivated Archibald McIndoe above everything else was something many old souls use to make a difference in the world: a desire for immortality.
A desire for immortality is chosen prior to incarnation when a soul wants to leave a legacy or create some kind of ripple effect in their upcoming life. It’s this desire that impels authors to write books or, like McIndoe, for physicians to save and transform lives.
There are only a few Guinea Pigs left alive, and the club was recently disbanded after more than sixty years. But Archibald McIndoe’s legacy will live on, and the positive karma he generated will ensure that he’s never forgotten.
I wonder, do you recognize the desire for immortality in yourself?
I always felt that I would write a book someday. I though I would follow my ant’s book about the story of her life and our family. But now I’m thinking more about a book on spiritual development for intuitive-sensitives or maybe house organization and de-cluttering, helping people to organize their lives. In a few years I hope to retire from working for companies as it would give me time to write.
I look forward to reading your books, Diane
Oh, yes! I have long felt that I had at least one book in me, which would immortalize me. I always felt it was a silly thing to feel, wanting immortality. Now I understand! Thanks.
It will feel like you’re impelled from within to do something important.
Dear Ainslie,
Terrific blog! Your Uncle John must be something very special to be one of your Spirit Guides. Please thank him for his service, not just as an RAF fighter pilot, but in a much larger sense of what he does for those with whom you work now.
As an ICU nurse, the one and only ICU I did not work in was burns. Those who do are extraordinary caregivers! Their dedication is over the top. It is an exceptionally challenging job. Did you know that the greatest advances in surgery are made during wars? When doctors and surgeons are pushed beyond known limits, and are forced to take risks not normally taken, and when they can work on the bodies of young people, they move the science of medicine forward much faster…but at a very dear price.
I’ll never forget an episode of M.A.S.H in which Dr. Hawkeye Pierce is so exhausted by hours upon hours of surgeries on the bodies of young soldiers that he has a kind of breakdown. Colonel Blake sat down next to him, and offered the advice of an old soldier who’d seen a great deal in his career in the Army. He told Pierce “There are just two rules in war. The first rule is ‘Young men die.’ And the second rule is ‘Doctors can’t change rule number one.'” What an incredible surgeon Archibald must’ve been!
Lastly, yes. I do want to leave something behind—a piece of immortality–a book that finally sets the record straight about at least two of the lives I’ve lived. I hope someone will read it.
Well done you!
Agreed on all points, Kate! That desire for immortality will ensure you set the record straight.