Felos on Fox, 03/25/05

Closed Caption Capture of ED's interview with Micheal Schiavo's lawyer and deathmerchant, George Felos.

...side of them. We had one of the nurses on a few days ago who had treated terrI for a year. She claims that in her opinion, michael had no love for his wife and may have attempted to kill her by injecting her with insuliN. What's your reaction to those sort he allegations?

>> They're lies. As simple as thaT. They were circulated in this case years ago, they were brought to court, they were examined, they were rejected, they were called by the court incredible. This person wasn't a nurse at the time. What we've seen is just an amazing smear campaign and campaign of misinformation about mr. Schiavo. The court found that terri -- this is the words of the court. That terri is blessed with a loving husband michael who has done his utmost to care for her. The guardian appointed who did an extensive investigation in 2003 said there is -- that those charges have no substance to them. And you know, when you don't have the law on your side, and you don't have the facts on your side in a case, what you do is you spread misinformation and untruth and that's what that is.

E.D.: You refer to that 2003 guardian report, which by coincidence, i happen to have in my hands. You are absolutely correct in what you -- what you assert there, but in it, the court-appointed guardian, who was looking at michael's request to withdraw the feeding tube, says thiS. He says, michael schiavo's testimony regarding the basis for his decision to withdraw life support based on a conversation he had with his wife is not clear and convincing, and he says that et reason he is concerned about it is because of the obvious financial benefit to michael of being the sole heir at law to the $700,000 plus, and some people suggest that that is the reason he wanted to take her off life support, to in essence let her die to get the money.

>> Well, number one, you're reading from a report from 1999. Not the 2003 report that was entereD. And the -- E.D.: This is the 2003 report, and it is contained in there and i just read verbatim out of iT.

>> Well, what you're reading from then is the 2003 2003 guardian summary of what the 1999 report said, because mR. Wolffson in 2003 didn't say thaT. There is no --

E.D.: That is what the person who was -- who reported to the court, the disinterested party, said.

>> In 1999. And that -- and that person testified in the trial, in the year 2000, and found that had he heard the testimony of the friend joan and the brother-in-law, that he may very well have sided with michael in his report. But the -- but the real -- the real fact is that these issues have been -- have been decided and litigated over and over and over again. There is no money for mr. Schiavo to in heart. I mean, the -- inherit. The real issue happening in the state of florida, can the governor, who just simply disagrees with the court order, overturn it because he doesn't like it, and we're in a constitutional crisis down here because the governor is if tent on using the branches of the state government to try to subvert a court order. It's absolutely shocking that we had to go to court and get an order restraining the state from abusing terri when it should be the state that protects its citizens.

E.D.: Well, all the legal aspects are playing out in the court and we get thousands, thousands of emails every day from people about this on both sides, weighing in in support of mierkal and in support of the parents, but here are just a couple of things that people always question us about, so maybe you can tell uS. Why didn't michael divorce terri when he decided to become involved with another woman and have children with her?

>> Michael is dedicated to terri, he loves terri, he made a promise to terri. When she turned to him and said honey, if something like that happens to me, looking at somebody, an accident, please don't keep me alive, take the tubes out. He knew if he walked away, her wishes wouldn't be carried out. Love is inphi night. When you have a -- infinite. When you have a child and you have a second child, you don't love the second child any lelS. The fact that michael loves two women and he's been fortunate enough to find someone after terrI's cardiac arrest that he could share part of his life, i think is a good thing.

E.D.: But you know, a lot of people would say, well, you may love your spouse, the spouse, if she were in any way able to understand what was going on, certainly wouldn't be looking favorable live upon her husband living with someone else and fathering children?

>> Why do you say that? I think terri loved michael. I think terri would want michael to be happy and to have some degree of happiness in his lifE. So i disagree with you.

E.D.: All right. The other question that we're constantly asked, is michael clearly has made the decision that he does not feel that she can come back, that she can regain her consciousness, really her ability to understand, to move intentionally, to come out of this persist at this vegetative state. Her parents on the other hand and I think a lot of parents can relate to this hope, feel that with therapy and advancement in medicine she could at some poinT. Why doesn't michael simply give the guardianship to the parents and say listen, I've done all i can for her, now i understand that you hope that she can remain alive, that she can come back to us, here, it's your ball now?

>> Well, a couple of thingS. First, it's just not michael's opinion that there's no hope of recovery. That's the conclusion of the court after extensive evidence and testimony and science. You know, there's so much misinformation about that, but the fact is terri can't recover. But the main point is, you have a woman, terri, who made her own choice, who said to many people, that she didn't -- she did not want to be kept alive through tubes, she didn't want to be kept alive artificially, so once the court found that those are her wishes, it's out of michael's hands. The court has said whomever is terrI's guardian must carry out what she wanted, so if michael resigned today as guardian and someone else were appointed they would have to do the same thing he's doing now and that's because each of us have a fundamental right to make that choice. When -- you know, no one controls our bodY. It's up to us to decide whether we want medical treatment and we don'T. Terri made that decision, she has the right to have that decision carried out.

Felos has a warped view of death. He is a new age whack job. He gets off on the dying process. If you ask me he's plain nuts. If you or I had delusions of grandeur, was on a mission from God, and had auditory hallucinations we would be on some MAJOR drugs.

Excerpts from Litigation as Spiritual Practice by George Felos (Blue Dolphin Publishing, 2002) Compiled by James A. Smith Sr., executive editor, Florida Baptist Witness Published November 6, 2003
Chapter Five, “Death and Resurrection,” describes Felos’ significant spiritual experience during a ten day retreat at the Kirpalu Center for Yoga and Health in Lenox, Mass., in April, 1988. The experience “birthed a personal transformation of immense and unexpected proportions. I came to the retreat in April, 1988, wanting a change in my life and was returning home with my old life vaporized.” (47)
Felos writes that although he experienced his “initial spiritual awakening in my early twenties, I had spent the last few years of my mid-thirties backsliding.” (47)
Described as “a superconscious experience,” Felos writes, “I was drunk with God” resulting in the inability to walk on his own without the assistance of others. “My predominant expression was laughter and a grin just short of it.” (49) “I had imprinted upon me the purpose of life—God-realization—and in the knowing of this purpose came instant fulfillment. Although to some I reckon the above sounds like metaphysical gobbledygook, I will attest there exists a Universal Consciousness that not only can be experienced by us but is us.” (50)
“I lost the boundary between the idea of myself and the world around me and gained immeasurably. Subject and object merged, and in some way I experienced the essence of each thing my consciousness touched. I felt the joy of grass as it grew and sense the genetic code by which it manifested into physical reality. In ecstasy I became the solemn grace and beauty of a tree and new the freedom of the passing clouds. I don’t speak metaphorically.” (50) He then cites Isaiah 55:12. (51)
He describes the same experience with other individuals at the center: “When I perceived and felt someone so completely, I often could hear her thoughts and knew what she was going to say before she said it. It was as if the individual before me was transparent and I could see the person’s form, yet look through it at the same time.” (51)
While on the plane ride home from the retreat, Felos reads a book about “conscious dying” written by a meditation teacher who is active in hospice work, which “described the enormous potential for spiritual awakening, both for the patient and the caregiver, which sometimes is realized during the death process.” (53)
“Scripture says neither hands, nor feet, nor emotion, nor mind, nor body are we. Our death—the permanent separation of our spirit, our consciousness, from the body—if experienced with awareness, can provide the opportunity to dispel the greatest of illusions: that we are this body. The author goes on to describe how meditation and spiritual practice is the process of dying—the means by which we extinguish our ego and body identification and realize we are the expression and manifestation of the Divine. Pretty heady stuff, especially for one who had just died and been reborn, so to speak. I deeply connected with the message of this book, and as I gazed out the window upon the clouds and surface below, I felt death move a bit closer.” (53)
His first legal appointment after returning from the retreat at the yoga center was with Doris F. Herbert, the cousin of Estelle Browning, seeking his assistance in the removal of her feeding tube. (54)
Felos became consumed with yoga and meditation following his retreat, including three or four hours per day to the point that his wife and those close to him were “disturbed by and concerned with my abrupt and radical change and believed I was close to becoming nonfunctional.” (55)
“I had not ‘adopted’ some new philosophy nor decided to ‘operate’ under some new belief system. I was part of a process so compelling that my participation wasn’t optional.” (56)
“The mystics have said that this world, this universe, is nothing but the thought-form of God. In Genesis, God intended that there be light and there was light. Christ fed the multitudes with only a handful of fish, not because he was a sushi master, but because he had the deepest realization that matter is an expression of mind and spirit. This creative power is not exclusive to the Divine, but comes as part of our birthright. We are made in the image of God. This does not refer to having two arms, two legs, and a head. It means that in some way we naturally possess the attributes and qualities of the Universal Consciousness. I believe Christ intended his life on Earth to be an example—a testament of what is possible for us. We are not only instructed to worship God, but to ‘become sons of God’ (John 1:12).” (60, italics in the original).
This discussion occurs in the midst of his description of his first meeting with Mrs. Herbert to discuss the case of Mrs. Browning and his joy with having this kind of legal case to deal with. “After she departed it seemed evident to me that the case, given my recently acquired fascination with death and dying, was a blessing rather than a coincidence.” (61)
Felos visits Mrs. Browning for the first time. Browning, who was radically debilitated by a stroke, was a resident of a nursing home for more than a year and one-half when Mrs. Herbert, her cousin and caregiver, sought to have the feeding tube removed, honoring Mrs. Browning living will.
He writes of his meeting, including a “soul-speak” conversation: “‘Mrs. Browning, do you want to die? … Do you want to die?’—I near shouted as I continued to peer into her pools of strikingly beautiful but incognizant blue. It was so eerie. Her eyes were wide open and crystal clear, but instead of the warmth of lucidity, they burned with the ice of expressionlessness.” (63) Felos notes that Browning was not in a coma and she was “more than vegetative, as she appeared able at times to interact with her environment in a rudimentary way.” (68) Chapter Eight, “Soul-Speak” “As I continued to stay beside Mrs. Browning at her nursing home bed, I felt my mind relax and my weight sink into the ground. I began to feel light-headed as I became more reposed. Although feeling like I could drift into sleep, I also experienced a sense of heightened awareness. As Mrs. Browning lay motionless before my gaze, I suddenly heard a loud, deep moan and scream and wondered if the nursing home personnel heard it and would respond to the unfortunate resident. In the next moment, as this cry of pain and torment continued, I realized it was Mrs. Browning. I felt the mid-section of my body open and noticed a strange quality to the light in the room. I sensed her soul in agony. As she screamed I heard her say, in confusion, ‘Why am I still here … why am I here?’ My soul touched hers and in some way I communicated that she was still locked in her body. I promised I would do everything in my power to gain the release her soul cried for. With that the screaming immediately stopped. I felt like I was back in my head again, the room resumed its normal appearance, and Mrs. Browning, as she had throughout this experience, lay silent.” (73) “I knew without a doubt what had transpired was real and dispelled the thought as intellect’s attempt to assert its own version of reality.” (73)
As proof of the existence of “soul-speak,” as he calls it, Felos cites an incident with his wife years before concerning their yet-to-be-conceived, unborn son. At this time there was disagreement between he and his wife about whether they should have children. One day at his office, Felos was “hammerstuck. While almost seeing stars like a comic book character, I heard the soul of my yet-to-be-conceived child emphatically shout: ‘I’m ready to be born…will you stop this fooling around!’ … The voice I heard was distinctly male, and I beamed with the idea I had a son—or was going to have a son—or sorta had a son out there—or something like that.” (75) Later, when his wife told him of having a similar experience that day. “I had no doubt we were beneficiaries of the same soul transmission…” (76)
[Later in the book, Felos describes another “soul-speak” conversation with Mrs. Browning the evening before the trial began in which he argued for removing her feeding tube. (216)]
In addition to other implicit and explicit suggestions of Felos’ belief in reincarnation, he discusses his previous existences and/or future existences or lifetimes (106, 138).
In a discussion of the “cosmic law of cause and effect,” Felos argues that we create our own physical realities with our mind, but most people do not understand their own power to change their life’s circumstances – even including the ability to make a new dream car appear “out of the ether.” (178-179) He cites as an example of this power, the biblical account of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead because Jesus concentrated solely on that act. “Jesus knew without any shred of doubt whatsoever that through God all things were possible. That is why Lazarus rose, and that same knowing is also why the mountain did come to Mohammed.” (179, italics in original)
Felos illustrates this power in his own life by describing an incident while on a plane during a time when he was engaged in a “right-to-die” case and had become very involved in the hospice movement. He pondered, “I wonder what it would be like to die right now?” and “indulged the thought by imagining the plane starting to lose it trajectory and descend.” The plane did, creating chaos in the cabin as people began to realize the plane was going to crash. “Needless to say, the juxtaposition of my imagined death and the possibility of a real demise heightened for me my different reactions. I assure you, my hubris in assuming that I would meet a life-ending crash with equanimity was not lost on me.” (181-182) The pilot later explained to the passengers that there was an unexplained problem with the auto pilot which caused the momentary descent. “At that instant a clear, distinctly independent and slightly stern voice said to me, ‘Be careful what you think. You are more powerful than you realize.’ In quick succession I was startled, humbled and blessed by God’s admonishment.” (182)
Felos describes himself as a “crusader” for the “right-to-die” in chapter 21, where he also admits to enjoying his status as a news celebrity, describing it as “exhilarating” to see himself on television. (217) Later he writes, “I was getting pretty good at trying my case in the media and shaping public opinion. … Developing a good ‘sound bite’ helped, but so did the media’s support of the cause. Some of my best quotes appeared on the editorial pages.” (238) Responding to media requests after Gov. Martinez vetoed (July 3, 1989) the bill permitting the removal feeding tubes which was initiated by the Browning case and moved along with the assistance of a “powerful state senator from Jacksonville” (230), Felos writes, “…there I was on the holiday news—Mrs. Browning’s white knight, stalwart at his covered desk, intently crafting her plea of last hope to the Supreme Court. Did I love it! And given the strenuous effort, I much appreciated the positive reinforcement.” (242)
Chapter 22, “Collective Consciousness and the Fear of Death,” has an extensive discussion of the hospice movement which Felos is deeply involved in, noting, “The force that created today’s Hospice also propels the right-to-die movement. We sense that keeping one alive against his wishes—artificially perpetuating the body once the spirit is ready to depart—is a defilement of life’s final rite of passage. It appeared so obvious to me that the ability to die with dignity, as that term is defined by each individual, is an essential personal right.” (223)
Concerning the Florida Supreme Court’s affirmation of his position in the Browning case (Mrs. Browning actually died while still being fed and before the case was argued before the Court): “A profound satisfaction welled up. I believed I had made a difference. The result of my efforts would touch many lives, now and in the future. I felt proud to be an attorney and was grateful to God for this extraordinary opportunity. I still am.” (251)
Concerning his involvement in a income tax case in Federal Tax Court (which he ultimately won), Felos writes about his feelings while doing yoga on the eve of the trial: “I felt like an empty vessel, a vehicle through which Spirit does its own work. I felt deep gratitude for being endowed with the abilities that allow this work to be done through me. In a sense I lost, at least for that moment, a personal agenda. I became an agent and God was the principal. All I needed to do was permit the work to come through me.” (268)

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