Muslim doctors to open free clinic in Brooksville

By Chandra Broadwater, Times Staff Writer
In print: Wednesday, June 11, 2008

BROOKSVILLE — It was about to rain Monday afternoon, and Dr. Husam Zarad had an exam table to move.

With some help from deliverer Don Lambert, the 45-year-old internist unloaded the table from the back of Lambert's pickup as the clouds darkened overhead. Wheeling it on a dolly, they maneuvered the large brown rectangle down a long, narrow hall and into one of the examination rooms at the soon-to-open Crescent Community Clinic of Hernando County.

On the way in, they passed a stack of gray waiting-room chairs and diagrams of the human body — detailed sketches of the nervous system and the brain — yet to be hung on the freshly painted peach-colored walls.

"This is our dream coming true," Zarad said, wiping sweat from his brow after angling the table into the room. "This is how we are going to give back to our community."

In the coming weeks, Zarad and nearly 40 other Muslim doctors in Hernando County will begin working on Saturdays in their new space in the Brook Plaza at Broad Street and Ponce de Leon Boulevard, just outside downtown Brooksville. Their goal is to provide free care to the growing number of underserved and uninsured people in Hernando County.

Today, the doctors and clinic spokesman Ahmed Bedier are expected to announce the opening of the clinic, financed solely by physicians from Hernando's Muslim community.

The local physicians have worked for the past year figuring out how to make their vision happen here in Hernando. Modeled after the Red Crescent Clinic in Tampa, and a similar site in central Los Angeles, it is one of a handful of such facilities in the state and country.

With Zarad and a handful of other doctors at the lead, they're ready to give back the way that their religion asks them — even if it's in a county where religious tensions still run high.

"Charity and doing good make up the Third Pillar of Islam," Zarad said. "And after talking about this for so long, we decided to make it really happen. I'm losing sleep just thinking of the benefits this will bring for the community."

Though far from where most of them have their practices in Spring Hill, the doctors liked the 1,400-square-foot Brook Plaza site, which used to be a doctor's office.

The new clinic is next to a Save-A-Lot grocery store and across from the Brooksville Public Assistance service center. There are also businesses where many people go to find day-labor jobs and several homeless camps in the nearby woods.

The location also makes it easy for people to walk to if they don't have transportation, Zarad said. And with hours on Saturdays, which they hope to expand to several days in the future, those who can't afford to miss work still will be able to see a doctor. So far, the only requirement to make an appointment is that a patient cannot have insurance.

While a schedule has yet to be worked out, the doctors expect to have two or three general physicians staffing the office while specialists, including cardiologists and neurologists, will rotate through the clinic on various days.

Zarad said the move by retailers such as Wal-Mart and Publix to provide cheap prescription drugs solved one problem for those who can't afford proper health care. Now he and his fellow doctors can help to solve another by giving them access to health care and prescriptions for the drugs they need.

"We've all seen the number of indigent patients increase," he said. "And that was a big reason for us to finally get this open."

It's not uncommon for many of those who can't afford health care or insurance to end up in emergency rooms for primary care, and often when their health problems have become worse. According to the 2006 Health Needs Assessment, about 18 percent of Hernando residents do not have medical insurance.

Three years ago, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded the county a $1.95-million grant to expand clinic services when the county's Health Department was identified as catering to medically underserved areas.

Those regions include Brooksville and the northwestern parts of the county. They were designated underserved because of a shortage of primary physicians, higher incidences of chronic illnesses, such as heart disease and diabetes, and a high percentage of families living below 200 percent of the poverty level, which at the time was $38,700 for a family of four.

About 23 percent of residents in these areas of the county also had no health insurance.

The Crescent Community Clinic will also add a layer to similar services provided by Nature Coast Project Access, a county-funded program that refers uninsured patients through the Health Department to a network of volunteer doctors, said Jean Rags, county director of Health and Human Services.

"The new clinic will be a great contribution to the community, and a welcomed resource to our many residents in need," Rags said.

Those behind the clinic ultimately hope it will work as a catalyst for others to donate their time and talents to such needs in the community.

"For example, many of the same people who can't afford medical care can't go to the dentist," said Bedier, the clinic spokesman. "We hope this sets an example for others to follow, and maybe a way to compete in doing good."

Bedier, no stranger to Hernando as the former executive director of the Tampa chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, added that the physicians aren't worried about some who might not support the Muslim doctors in the county.

In 2006, CAIR spearheaded efforts to get prominent politicians, including then-Gov. Jeb Bush, to denounce the comments of a Hernando County commissioner's wife, who wrote a letter calling Islam a "hateful, frightening religion."

The letter spurred weeks of alternating condemnation and kudos throughout the state.

"People won't be coming to the clinic to attend religious services," Bedier said. "They're going to come because they need health care. While the critics and naysayers will always be there, the majority of people in Hernando County are very loving.

"If there's a need so important like health care, then I think people will put aside their differences and work together."

Who Was Rudolph Steiner?

Rudolph Steiner (1861-1925) founder of the
Anthroposophical Society believed the Akashic records
to be just as real as reality itself.

...man can penetrate to the eternal origins of the
things which vanish with time. A man broadens his
power of cognition in this way if he is no longer
limited to external evidence where knowledge of the
past is concerned.

Then he can see in events what is not perceptible to
the senses, that part which time cannot destroy. He
penetrates from transitory to non-transitory history.

It is a fact that this history is written in other
characters than is ordinary history.

In gnosis and in theosophy it is called the "Akasha
Chronicle"...

To the uninitiated, who cannot yet convince himself of
the reality of a separate spiritual world through his
own experience, the initiate easily appears to be a
visionary, if not something worse.

The one who has acquired the ability to perceive in
the spiritual world comes to know past events in their
eternal character.

They do not stand before him like the dead testimony
of history, but appear in full life.

In a certain sense, what has happened takes place
before him.

Cosmic Memory

His description of Anthroposophy is as "a path of
knowledge, to guide the spiritual in the human being
to the spiritual in the universe".

Who Was Helena Patrovena Blavatsky?

Helena Patrovena Blavatsky (1831-1891) born in Russia
and was most noted as the founder of the Theosophical
Society in 1875, and believed the Akashic records were
much more than simply that, they actively have an
influence on our daily lives particularly creativity:

"Akasha is one of the cosmic principles and is a
plastic matter, creative in its physical nature,
immutable in its higher principles. It is the
quintessence of all possible forms of energy,
material, psychic, or spiritual; and contains within
itself the germs of universal creation, which sprout
forth under the impulse of the Divine Spirit".

Alchemy and the Secret Doctrine

She was a huge figure in the theosophy movement of the
19th Century and many of her ideas and beliefs are now
are associated with new age religions.

Theosophy is the study of religious philosophy and
maintains that each world religion has a portion of
the truth.

She travelled widely particularly to India and Tibet
as well as America and Europe and helped to introduce
many Eastern religious ideas and teachings to the
West.

She also published two hugely popular books Isis
Revealed in 1877 and The Secret Doctrine in 1888 as
well as many other smaller works before dying in the
Flu epidemic of 1891.

More information can be found at
www.blavatskyarchives.com.

Who Was Edgar Cayce?

The most extensive information on the Akashic records
arguably comes from Edgar Cayce a Psychic (1877-1945)
who would simply fall asleep or go into a trance to
access information from the records. And could access
them as easily as reading a book.

As I move along this path of light I gradually become
conscious of various levels upon which there is
movement.

Upon the first levels there are vague, horrible
shapes, grotesque forms such as one sees in
nightmares.

Passing on, there begin to appear on either side,
misshapen forms of human beings with some part of the
body magnified.

Again there is change and I become conscious of
gray-hooded forms moving downward. Gradually, these
become lighter in color.

Then the direction changes and these forms move upward
and the color of the robes grows rapidly lighter.

Next, there begin to appear on either side vague
outlines of houses, walls, trees, etc., but everything
is motionless.

As I pass on, there is more light and movement in what
appear to be normal cities and towns.

With the growth of movement I become conscious of
sounds, at first indistinct rumblings, then music,
laughter, and singing of birds.

There is more and more light, the colors become very
beautiful, and there is the sound of wonderful music.

The houses are left behind, ahead there is only a
blending of sound and color.

Quite suddenly I come upon a hall of records.

It is a hall without walls, without ceiling, but I am
conscious of seeing an old man who hands me a large
book, a record of the individual for whom I seek
information.

Reading 294-19 Report File

What Are The Akashic Records?

The Akashic records are the sum of all knowledge past,
present and future and more stored in the ether on a
spiritual plane.

Every thought, experience and emotion of every living
thing from humans to plants is kept in this cosmic
library, which can be accessed by going into a state
of unconsciousness through dreams, trance or
meditation, though also near death experiences.

Akashic is often interpreted from the Sanskrit as
meaning ether, sky or cosmos. And has formed a part of
many ancient belief systems and cultures.

In Hindu mysticism Akasha, the substance, which the
events are recorded on, is what the basic elements of
nature earth air fire and water are made of.

The Akashic records have many different names and have
been adopted in many different forms by various
religious groups.

Alternative names for the Akashic records include
collective unconscious collective subconscious the
cosmic mind and many believe this is what psychics tap
into in order to read others minds, talk to the dead
and know about events which they couldn’t other wise
know about past and future.

Many believe that it is the Akashic record of our life
that is used to judge us, or by which we judge
ourselves, when we die and which determines our
eternal fate.

This is often associated with the idea of karma and we
need to have accumulated more positive than negative
karma during lifetime.

The Nature Of The Akashic Records

The records are said to exist in an alternative plane
of existence and so are not readily accessible to
human except in certain states where this alternative
or astral plane of existence can be reached usually
through unconsciousness.

The records permeate every plane of existence and once
an idea is brought into existence it is recorded and
remains in existence forever.

Those who claim to have accessed the Akashic records
say they pass through a darkness surrounded by
threatening images and beings but follow a light to a
Hall where they are able to access the records freely
before returning once they have the information they
are looking for.

The Akashic records are sometimes spoken of as being
read like pages of a book or a series of images either
static or moving as in a film. As well as visions
audio and visual the records may be experienced
through still pictures.

The Records are split in to categories of experience
human, animal, plant etc and also into past, present
and future. When viewing the future, several possible
future events may be viewed all of which are possible
or one definitive version.

The records are often highly symbolic and cryptic and
almost always have to be interpreted once the reader
has returned to this plane of existence.

The Akashic Records - In Popular Culture?

There are numerous examples of the Akashic records in
Television and Movies, Literature, Music and Gaming.

Below is a list of the most popular.

In the Ultraseven movies released in 2000, the hero
discovers through the Akashic records that humanity
has hit an evolutionary dead end and is headed for
extinction.

In the Japanese strategy game Super Robot Wars Alpha
3, the villain’s aim is to capture souls in order to
take control of the Akashic records and thus the
Universe.

Charmed S2/E7 a man has to protect his knowledge of
the location of the Akashic records from Warlocks.

In the role-playing game Mage: The Ascension a group
of mages are able to read the Akashic records

In the 2004 movie Illusion the Akashic records appear
in the form of an old movie theatre.

In Princes song Family name, people access their
family history via the Akashic records.

The Akashic records form a prominent role in the first
two seasons of TV Show Eureka shown on Sci fi Channel.

In role-playing game Arcana Unearthed Akashic is a
class, which can access all knowledge.

In the book 2150 AD the Akashic records can be read
via computers.

A similar concept is shown in the film Minority Report
where computers are used to show future events.

Scepticism

Scientifically there is no objective evidence for the
existence of the Akashic records as with most other
supernatural and psychic phenomena all evidence is
subjective and thus cannot be scientifically tested or
explained.

Ervin Laszlo explores the science of the Akashic
records in his 2004 book Science and the Akashic
Field: An Integral Theory of Everything.

In which he claims the theory explains a lot about the
structure universe to evolution and marries science
and religion in a solution to the age old debate.

Many especially many of the major world religions are
sceptical about the existence of the Akashic records
and they do not form any of the major religion
official beliefs.

Though they are part of many smaller religions and
denominations official and unofficial beliefs
particularly those of new age and some eastern
religions.

Sceptics say that the supporters of the Akashic
records claim have been associated with many
historical figures and cultures, societies and
religions without any written or archaeological
evidence.

It has also been claimed that prominent psychics of
the past most notably Nostradamus and the Oracle at
Delphi also consulted the Akashic records for which
there is no record.

The term is believed to have started with the
theosophical movements movement of the 19th Century
and skeptics say it is an invention of that movement.

Religious References To The Akashic Records

There have been many references to the Akashic records
in major world religions. In the bible Moses pleads
with God on the Israelites behalf after they worship a
golden calf, taking responsibility he asks for his
name to be stricken out of the book that God has
written, as a punishment.

Later in Psalm 139 David tells us that in the same
book there is nothing that is not known about him good
and bad and even future events.

In David and Revelations it is revealed that this book
will be opened for final judgement and those whose
names are not in it will not enter heaven.

Edgar Cayse a Christian when asked during an interview
stated that the Akashic record and God’s book of life
were one and the same.

Q. [What is meant by] The Book of Life?

A. The record that the individual entity itself writes
upon the skein of time and space, through patience -
and is opened when self has attuned to the infinite,
and may be read by those attuning to that
consciousness...

Q. The Book of God's Remembrances?

A. This is the Book of Life.

Q. The Akashic Records?

A. Those made by the individual, as just indicated.

Of course the Akashic records have the strongest links
to Hinduism, which the name and idea arguably come
from. It is impossible as with many religious ideas to
determine where and when it originated but likely goes
back far into history.

We do know the Hindu mysticism was taken up by the
theosophical movements of the 19th Century.
Organisations such as the Theosophical Society
popularised the idea and it survives today in as part
of many new age belief systems.

Phenomena Explained By The Akashic Records

Psychics tap into the Akashic records to communicate
with the dead. The Akashic records link every living
thing allowing these connections.

Just as libraries have various sections so do the
Akashic records each life is like a book and humans
are all one section with other sections including
animals, plants, minerals and so forth all the
sections encompass the whole of knowledge past,
present and future.

Past life experiences are often explained by having
accessed the particular memories and experiences of a
deceased person through the Akashic records.

Many near death experiences involve meeting loved ones
either living or deceased who help guide them back to
the physical world. Also may explain the phenomena of
an individual’s life passing through their mind during
near death experiences.

Out of body experiences are explained by your soul or
spirit entering another physical plane and thus enter
the realm where the Akashic records can be read and
are often associate with near death experiences.

Edgar Cayse a physic well known for accessing the
Akashic records, recorded his experiences he describes
many common feature of near death experiences

"I see myself as a tiny dot out of my physical body,
which lies inert before me. I find myself oppressed by
darkness and there is a feeling of terrific
loneliness. Suddenly, I am conscious of a white beam
of light. As this tiny dot, I move upward following
the light, knowing that I must follow it or be lost".

FAQ about the Akashic Records

What are the Akashic records?

They are a record of all knowledge of every living
thing past present and future.

How do I access the Akashic Records?

The Akashic Records can be accessed a variety of ways
most commonly by entering an unconscious state through
meditation, hypnotism and trance. Though also
associated with dreams, out of body and near death
experiences. The psychic Edgar Cayse claimed to
accessed the Akashic records during sleep.

Some psychics claim to work by accessing the Akashic
records and thus gaining knowledge about individuals
and or past/future events.

What are the other names for the Akashic records? The
Akashic records are some times known as the collective
subconscious, the cosmic mind, the book of life,
though these terms may also have other similar but
different meanings.

What do the Akashic Records have to with death?

Akashic records are believed by some to be the record
of our lives by which we are judged and our eternal
fate decided.

Is there any scientific evidence for the Akashic
records?

No, all evidence is subjective

Who is Edgar Cayse?

Edgar Cayse (1877-1945) was a Christian, Psychic and
often consulted the Akashic records, while asleep, and
his patient’s subconscious in order to provide answers
and solutions to his patient’s problems. Founder of
the association for research and enlightenment Inc in
1931 who’s website can be found at www.edgarcayce.org.