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Just a quick note regarding my proposed study on happy endings. I've done alot of database work on my current job, that's what I did primarily my first few years out of grad school. So, I'm going to attempt to take whatever info I receive, put it into some sort of spreadsheet type database for now, and organize it so that certain fields can be searched on and grouped together. For instance, if one wanted to tally how many were healed by alternative medicine, we could do that. Has it been more females or males who've been healed? Or if one wanted to see whether those who have thus far been healed of pd, were in the early stages only, or whether some more advanced cases were also represented, they could do that as well. That's why I requested the sorts of info that I did. I'm not gonna get too fancy, but hopefully whatever I can collect can be used for further research, and perhaps point the way toward any common threads that can be explored in more detail. We may find that truly, there really haven't been any healings (which I personally doubt), or conversely, we may be pleasantly surprised. I find it rather humorous, considering Kathie's reposting of a previous healing story, how many are quick to disclaim any such occurrence. I think we'd all be ecstatic. Who's to say that this story is unverified, it doesn't sound that way to me, as Kathie said she's met this woman. Most stories are unverified and heresay, until one attempts to explore them further. That's the only way to find out for sure. If we could collect enough stories, and had enough real names to track down, including witnesses and doctors who could possibly verify the story, I think we might be surprised. I think that because most people have never heard of a healing, they assume that it's generally untrue. That's the beauty of the internet, we have the chance to solicit such stories and later hopefully follow up on them in a more rigorous fashion. If anyone wants to post their stories to the group as a whole (and take the heat!), please do. However, if you don't wish to do that, please just be sure to let me know if ya send me your story that you don't want names given out, and I'll keep it to myself. Depending on the specific request, I may however, forward the info onto the professional researchers later, so they can in fact verify the stories or not. I leave that up to you guys. If anyone out of our group ever does get on Oprah, I think we should also use that opportunity, not only to educate the general public about the (numerous) negative aspects of pd, and why we need more research, but also to solitcit healing stories. One more point I want to make. By emphasizing this aspect of pd research, I am in no way trying directly or indirectly, to hurt current efforts to obtain more pd research money, Quite the opposite, in fact. I want MORE, but more also for the minority of pd'ers. I think that if lawmakers believed that in fact we are close to reaching a cure, as there are now actual doumented cases of healings, where there were none before, they would be willing to invest even more to help speed up the process. It's the same belief principle as I've mentioned before. If lawmakers believe that PD is relentlessly progressive and fatal, and that no one has ever been healed, then the goal remains that much more elusive. If, however, there seems to be a possible end in sight, as we now have documented cases of healings, that we could use to complement the other ongoing research, then the goal becomes more attainable. Makes sense to me. Well, thanks ahead for your responses. Wendy