Groundbreaking Discovery for Beyond Recovery

My name is Mary O’Connor. Seven years ago, when I was 23, I was surfing in Venice, CA, and experienced what was later diagnosed as a stroke in my mid-back spinal cord. As friends pulled me out of the water, I couldn’t feel or move anything below my waist. I spent a month living in the hospital doing every type of physical therapy available, but doctors told me I would never walk again, and for the rest of my life, I would be in a wheelchair.

I have been working intensely with Bob Cooley, the founder of The Genius of Flexibility Centers and Research, and other trainers for the last six months. His Resistance Flexibility Technology (RFT) has gotten me from using a walker to using a cane, and I am just starting to take steps without the cane as I build muscle in my hamstrings. Looking forward, I won’t need any assistive mobility devices, and I’ll be having a body better than most people know possible for themselves. The progress we have made has been tremendous and wildly exceeded all doctors’ prognoses.

 

Bob was the first person who, when first meeting me, analyzed me and found that I had total nervous innervation in my lower body. Still, that scar tissue replaced most muscle tissue because the stroke resulted in rapid muscle atrophy.

 

Thirty-some years ago, Bob was in a pedestrian automobile accident and made discoveries that he used with the help of others to heal himself like what we are doing for me. He told me that when someone naturally stretches and lets their muscle contract, the muscle releases enzymes that cause transfiguration of the facia and regeneration of other tissues in muscles, tendons, ligaments, joint capsules, circulation, etc., nerves. Bob coined this way of stretching as RFT as it’s the opposite of what most people think of stretching.

 

He said there was no doubt in his mind that I’d be better than before my stroke. Immediately after being stretched in RFT, I could feel what he had just told me would happen. His incredible knowledge of the human body has allowed him to discover ways of removing scar tissue and accumulated dense fascia, which results in regeneration of my body but also with predictable physiological, psychological, emotional, and energetic benefits.

After incredible hard work and relentless hope, I am making breakthroughs in increased sensation, movement, and unexpected health benefits. This work is intensive and takes enormous effort from Bob and other RFT trainers like Jake, Katie, Karen, and it takes three trainers to RFT my central hamstrings. My body has been a unique learning experience for all of us, and it’s incredible to see the impact this situation has had on myself and everyone in my life-affirming regeneration and development. I am proud and grateful to say that I now can make all kinds of movements, ride an electric bike, and have dramatic upgrades in my digestion, immune system, lungs, elimination, and psychological health. It looks like I will have even better legs within the next six months.

 

I learned that if the therapies you are doing work, you don’t just get repaired. But instead, you get an even better body than before your trauma. With that repair, you develop those parts of you whose thwarted personal development initially resulted in the trauma —you get the gift of the trauma. I know this all sounds impossible, and only six months ago, my parents asked me to sign a will. I was gray, couldn’t digest food; things were looking bleak. I was beginning to resign myself to death. Nowadays, with my cane or motorized wheelchair, I go to the farmers market to get organic food, bike for aerobic exercise, and Resistance Flexibility Train (RFT) 5 days a week for an hour and a half.

 

Everyone’s healing journey is complex. Sometimes I feel anxious about where I fit in, not just to society but to who I thought and thought I was. Although those are pretty standard human thoughts and feelings, it becomes heightened when your body is drastically visibly “different.” Some days I feel I’m not handicapped enough and that I’m an imposter because it’s hard to believe how much I am changing in ways I never knew were possible. Other days I realize I betrayed my body, and I get upset that I can’t yet run, hike, or dance.

 

Healing takes time but is much faster than I ever imagined. Only by others believing and helping me develop could my healing occur. Importantly, over the past seven years, I’ve gotten a new perspective on myself, my life, and what it means to be balanced. Although I appreciate my body now more than ever, I’ve also learned that healthy psychology, emotion, and spirit are just as crucial to the wellbeing of my physical body.

 

 

Previously, I felt like my whole world revolved around the disability in my legs and whether I was “fixed” yet or never. The degree to which those thoughts and feelings overwhelmed and discouraged me led me to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. I’ve learned I needed other people to help lift me out of my darkness. My world has opened up to an incredible community of perfectly imperfect and brave people beyond imagination. The RFT trainers who work on me also spend considerable time getting the same kind of help for their specific development needs.

 

I have also connected with people from all over the world through social media who have had strokes, paralysis, and a hundred other things. Together we are truly uplifting and help each other to get through the hard days. My trainers at the Genius of Flexibility Centers have helped bring me into being the person I always wanted to be, not just physically but with personality traits, looks, and spiritual values that I have always admired the most in others.

 

I’m hoping to continue this healing, life-changing work and need financial help. I’m hoping, with your help, to fund a whole year of treatment, including access trainers, nutritional support, and specialized equipment like the hyperbaric chamber and electric bikes. All of this costs $10,000 a month.

 

I believe my story and the principles of RFT would be inspiring for people of all abilities to see what is possible with this groundbreaking technology and trainers. Whether you are a professional or Olympic athlete, an actor or singer, have severe disabilities, or a regular person that wants a better life for themselves and others. As a sponsor, you would have access to my evolving life upgrades and my RFT sessions, as well as behind-the-scenes footage of my journey.

 

The progress I continue to make is remarkable and truly magical to watch, affecting everyone who witnesses the unimaginable upgrades in me. Though my circumstances are specific, my situation is universal. The implications of my completely unexpected recovery and my advances beyond who I was before my stroke are far-reaching and can motivate others to get this new knowledge not just for people who had trauma but for whoever wants to advance themselves beyond what they imagined.

 

I'd love for you to learn this new way to resistance flexibility train your hamstrings in a Hamstring Challenge! You can follow my journey @Marywiththecane on Instagram & YouTube. And to learn more about Bob Cooley’s incredible discovery, please go to The Genius of Flexibility and The Body is Medicine .