How Total Immersion Changed My Life – Barry Shore

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In early August, I received an envelope in the mail from a TI fan named
Barry Shore in LA. I dimly recalled his name from correspondence years ago.
In 2004, Barry woke one morning unable to move anything but his head. Taken
to the hospital, diagnosed with Guillaine Barre Syndrome (GBS). He was in
intensive care for 11 days, monitored by telemetry for 11 weeks, in the
hospital for 4.5 months then confined to a hospital bed at home for a year
and a half. He’s had personal care assistants full time ever since. As soon
as he could leave the house he asked his assistants to take him to the pool.
They put flotation aids all over him and moved him around. He had an
instinct water would be healing, but no specific idea how.

Someone who saw him at the pool for hours every day recommended the TI book.
First question that occurred to me: Why would someone recommend the TI book
to a guy who’s paralyzed, who literally cannot move a muscle of his own
volition?  *Answer*: They must think it contains some indefinable magic.

Barry borrows the book from the library, starts reading and becomes
convinced this book carries the key to his healing. He orders our DVD and
carefully studies it with his care aide, and make plans for the aide to
mimic the movements. Barry still can’t use his muscles volitionally but he’s
got a conviction that if his muscles and nervous system can be imprinted
with outside assistance, that will help him recover.

Fast forward to 2011, after getting Barry’s package in the mail, seeing he’s
in LA and connecting this to a new campaign “How TI Changed My Life” I ask
my daughter Fiona to meet Barry at the pool with a video camera. You can see
the result here…

Barry can get around now, his legs are atrophied to sticks.. His hands still
curl into claws. He gets in the pool and begins swimming. Though someone not
familiar with the challenges he’s faced would look at his somewhat crablike
stroke and think “Not TI” I recognized TI in the Mail-Slot-like entry and
sort-of-full extension.

It’s when Barry stops swimming and starts telling his story that you
understand the “TI-ness” of it. He is so joyful, so grateful about the
effect of TI and swimming on him – not just on his physical person, but on
his spirit.

Barry makes me recall what I find most moving about the feedback we
constantly see – the personal emails and letters that come day after day, the
posts on our Facebook page and the TI Discussion Forum, what I hear in
person from people I meet. People love the way they swim now. They
feel *transformed* by the way TI connects outer grace with inner passion.  

• “Watch how Total Immersion changed ‘guillain barre’ sufferer Barry Shore’s life”[Click To Tweet]

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