Healing from multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS)

I. Lottes (68), Bayreuth (Germany)

About 20 years ago, while painting the walls of our living room, I noticed a contraction of my bronchial tubes which caused me considerable shortness of breath. The reaction was so severe that I had to immediately stop painting and hire a painter to do it. I wasn’t able to enter the room while the painting was going on because the problems would immediately begin again. In the ensuing weeks and months these problems would also arise on other occasions too, such as in shoe stores. The shoe purchase always had to be carried out rapidly, otherwise I would have to leave the store without buying the shoes. If I did buy some, I would always have to set them out in the fresh air for a few days before I could wear them. Later I bought shoes from a mail order firm and avoided the leather goods departments of department stores. If I needed a purse or handbag, the problems - mainly shortness of breath, but also burning of the eyes and sometimes nosebleed and dizziness - would immediately begin after touching and opening these objects.

As the years went by, reactions to other chemicals occurred, for example to hairsprays, paints and caustics for painting garden furniture, window frames and doors. During these activities, I would also get headaches and nausea as well. I can remember, for example, that I had to leave a paint store immediately because I felt so bad. Glues of all kinds such as carpet or handcraft glue would cause the same problems.

Because I had enjoyed painting very much since my youth, I kept trying to do the work that arose myself, but I always had to stop and allow someone else to do it because my body reacted more and more severely to paint fumes. Often, when visiting the doctor for other ailments, I would also mention these conditions, but was never treated for them.

While attending an esoteric fair in Bayreuth, I learned of the Bruno Gröning Circle of Friends. A few weeks later I attended a physicians’ information lecture at the University of Bayreuth, which took place in March of 1999.

As an walk-on in the documentary film - the mist of the machine did not mind

After an introduction to the teaching of Bruno Gröning, I did einstellen regularly to the healing force and always attended the community hours. Until 2003 the symptoms grew more severe with any kind of the work described. Even on vacation I wasn’t able to come into contact with paint or varnish because I would immediately be short of breath. Therefore I avoided all these situations as much as possible in order to be able to live without the problems.

In the autumn of 2008, extras for the filming of the new Bruno Gröning documentary film were sought in Munich. I had the intense feeling I should apply. I drove to the filming location with a friend, was dressed in a 1950s style costume and sat down in the small cinema where the filming was taking place. To portray the time period as realistically as possible, a fog machine was used to make the beam of light from the projector visible. I was sitting of all places in the row where this machine stood, and interestingly this fog didn’t bother me at all. Normally I would have had to leave the room due to attacks of coughing and nausea.

Do the work that I enjoy so much

In the spring of 2009, I went to the leather-goods department of a department store to buy a suitcase. Only back home did I realize that I had spent at least half an hour in that department, opening several suitcases without any problems at all. Encouraged by this experience, I immediately decided to paint our garden benches with wood varnish. To my great joy there were also no problems or symptoms at all from that. Even the brush cleaner no longer triggered any reaction at all. I now use hairspray again on occasion and am able to very calmly look for shoes in shops or walk through the leather-goods departments of department stores without any physical effects.

I thank God and Bruno Gröning with all my heart that I was able to experience healing from all the physical reactions to these chemical substances and can once again do the work that I enjoy so much.