Posted on 08/28/2003 5:20:42 AM PDT by Ragtime Cowgirl
"Sometimes, Felos says, he gets nervous or anxious before a hearing.
"If I find that I'm getting nervous or keyed up or off-center, what I'll do is -- which is a type of meditation -- just focus on my breathing," he says. "Home in on the sensation of breathing, the sensation of the air entering the nostrils and exiting the nostrils. If you do that for 30 seconds, you'll find that you're more relaxed."
If people are truly spiritual, that will permeate all aspects of their lives, not just during worship, not just at home, but at work too, Felos says.
"You can't separate your work life from your spiritual life," he says. "A spiritual seeker has no spiritual focus."
At least one opposing attorney sees little spirituality in Felos. Pat Anderson, one of the lawyers representing Terri Schiavo's parents, questions Felos' ethics in fighting to remove the woman's feeding tube.
Furthermore, Anderson says, "I find him to be uncommonly persnickety in his diction."
George Felos begins his morning with yoga, which he has been practicing for 25 years. That’s about as long as he has been practicing law: “How do you work within that type of system and not become hardened . . . and maintain a spiritual center?” he says.
Raised Greek Orthodox in New York, Felos did not aspire to follow his father into law. He spent too much time at his father's office, supposedly on his way to father-son outings but actually waiting for his dad to finish talking to clients.
"I went to law school because I couldn't think of anything else to do at the time," Felos says.
After law school -- and his spiritual awakening -- Felos and his first wife lived on a small Greek island for three months. Each morning, they would wake up and buy a fresh quart of goat's milk for 9 cents and a 10-cent loaf of steaming hot bread. It was one of the best times in his life, Felos says.
Then it was back home and back to reality. His family had moved to the Tampa Bay area, so Felos decided to try for work here. He got an interview with the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's office.
"This is a tough job," Felos remembers the prosecutor telling him during the interview. "You've got to be hard. You've got to hit! It's a tough job. Can you do it?"
Having just spent three months living on an island and drinking goat's milk, Felos looked at the man and said, "You know, I really don't know."
He didn't get the job and eventually went into civil practice with his father. The two worked together as Felos & Felos until James G. Felos died in 1995.
Every morning these days, Felos is 160 pounds of elastic on his bedroom floor. He does yoga, inspired by a framed portrait of Paramahansa Yogananda, the founder of spiritual realization. He does more stretches and takes out a machine that helps with his chi, or body energy.
The purpose of the morning routine is to be "present in the sensation of his body."
He takes out a throw pillow and meditates for a half hour before showering and drinking a concoction of protein powder, banana, orange juice, yogurt and goat's milk.
Each morning he checks to see if something has grown on the mango tree and bamboo he planted in the front yard. Felos visits different places of worship about twice a month, he says. He has spoken at several, including the Palm Harbor Unity Church, the Center for Conscious Living and a spiritual awareness center in Crystal Beach.
He hangs out with friends -- ministers, yoga teachers, but no lawyers. He bought a Steinway grand piano and plays Beethoven on it. He invites friends over for chanting -- "I am that I am. I am that I am." -- while he plays the harmonium.
"He has a good sense of humor, and he has a gentle and kind soul," says Debi Chapman, a Palm Harbor yoga instructor who met Felos about seven years ago at a retreat. "It's just a heartfelt space, a very spirit-filled connection that George and I have."
Felos' reading material includes Handbook to Higher Consciousness, God Talks With Arjuna, The Experience of Insight, In the Meantime.
His home looks more hippie-ish than lawyerly -- red couch with big pillows, multicolored chair in hot tones, mint green carpeting, spry yellow kitchen and one living room wall painted neon blue.
He spends weekends with his 14-year-old son, Alexander, from his first marriage. They fish for mullet in St. Joseph Sound, the body of water that doubles as Felos' back yard. Caladesi and Honeymoon islands are in the distance.
Felos is in the final stages of a divorce from his second wife. "If I did relationships as well as I did law," Felos says, "I'd probably be happily married."
The journey continues
Felos does not mention Schiavo in Law as Spiritual Practice, but says he wants to start a second book when the case is over. He may talk about his spiritual journey with Schiavo then. For now, he is preparing for a hearing before the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Lakeland on June 25. He thinks the court will agree that her feeding tube should be removed.
That is what is necessary, he says, "to accomplish what I believe are Terri's wishes."
Does Felos believe Terri Schiavo's soul has spoken to his?
Felos declines to answer, showing his lawyerly side. "It's a pending case," he says.
FLORIDUH VOTER QUICK READ: Attorney Felos practices any and all religions where I guess the physical body isn't important unless it's his when he's doing yoga. In this Floridian article, he states "to accomplish what he believes are Terri's wishes." I think it's important to note that he has no supernatural powers in order to divine Terri's wishes. It appears he thinks he has supernatural powers.
Note that Michael Schiavo and his attorney Felos stay on message re: "Terri's wishes". The real issue is Terri's true medical condition. If her true medical condition becomes known, that she is not in a coma or vegetative state, that ruins what "needs to be accomplished." They are driven and as long as Felos can do his breathing exercises and say "I am" it's really not important how Terri spends her days without her parents, without therapy and without liberty.
He also stated in that yoga kept him from becoming hardened by being a lawyer. He's the essence of hardened and the porchlight's on but nobody's home.
Hospice is for Caring ... or is it for Killing? Read the latest observation of what happened in the Appeals Court hearing on April 4, 2003.
Hospices all over the country broadcast their deep and abiding commitment to serve the needs of the dying, who may have truly distressing and painful symptoms during their end-of-life period. Many hospices and professionals work tirelessly to relieve these symptoms. And we have the greatest respect for the doctors, nurses and other staff who care so much about those who are suffering and serve them selflessly. However, there are others in the industry who do not subscibe to the basic beliefs of those who founded this industry. There are those who would do the opposite of what most hospice professionals believe in.
Leaders of the Hospice of the Florida $uncoast, one of the largest nonprofit hospices in our nation have taken a different path. They have manipulated a helpless disabled woman into their hospice, even though she is not terminal. The hospice's C.E.O., Mary Labyak, travels all over the nation speaking at national and state conventions about hospice and end-of-life matters, yet she is willing to pervert the mission of hospice. She wishes to help kill a defenseless woman, Terri Schiavo, in the hospice she controls.
Labyak: "Changing the Way People Die in Our Community" Labyak believes everything she does is just fine, even conspiring to kill Terri Schiavo. She has written as recently as March 19, 2003, that she has spent her life with the goal of "changing the way people die in our community."
What is truly scary about Labyak is that she is a woman who actively wants to impose death upon the helpless disabled in our community, embodied by the prisoner of this hospice: Terri Schiavo.
Labyak states that she has "actively upheld the vision, values and philosophy that is the foundation of hospice and palliative care." Nothing could be further from the truth! This lady doesn't have a clue what the foundation of hospice is if she believes Dame Cicely Saunders and Elizabeth Kubler Ross would approve of Labyak's recent activities at this hospice! Or perhaps Labyak has suffered a complete lapse in memory of what the foundation of hospice is? The local community in Florida and around the country will not tolerate making hospice a place of killing and that is what Labyak wishes to accomplish!
The greatest embodiment of the hospice spirit is Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who worked for decades serving the dying, the poor and other patients. She revered the lives of each person she cared for. We can be certain that Mother Teresa would never execute Terri Schiavo as Mary Labyak intends to do. That is the test and Labyak fails it miserably. Her evil design is exposed for what it is, the moment one considers and asks, "would Mother Teresa kill this helpless woman?" Labyak would not even dare to say that Mother Teresa would do it, but even still clings to the plan of making hospice a killing place. She calls it "aid in dying." Double-talk. Deceit. Betrayal of the hospice mission!
Labyak brags that she is a great pioneer. If so, she is a pioneer of death dealing and the worst perversion of the hospice movement!
Under Labyak's direct leadership, the hospice stands ready to kill Terri Schiavo at any time the judge says "ok." The hospice, directed by Labyak, stands willing to cooperate in carrying out the wishes of Terri's husband who has fought in court for years to kill his wife, who, judging by his actions, is his wife in name only now. Michael Schiavo has chosen to live with another woman and had a child by this other woman. Yet, Michael Schiavo uses the money awarded to Terri, in order to try to end her life by withholding food and water from Terri. Is this the pioneering vision of Mary Labyak? Is this what she has spent her life working towards? Anybody would die if they were starved to death and not given any fluids. Is this the direction Mary Labyak and the Hospice of the Florida $uncoast wish to lead all hospices in our nation? Only through the valiant efforts of Terri's parents has Labyak (and the hospice) been prevented from killing Terri!
Will Mary Labyak, The Hospice of the Florida $uncoast and its Board of Directors make hospice a place that terrorizes the disabled? The Hospice Industry constantly complains that patients enter hospice too late for the patients to receive the services that hospice has to provide during the end-of-life period. Yet, if hospices are willing to kill patients, like Terri, the the Hospice Industry is shooting itself in the foot! Many patients will refuse to enter hospice if this practice is to become more common, as suggested by the leadership of Mary Labyak and the Hospice of the Florida Suncoast!
Articles about Hospice of the Florida $uncoast's patient, Terri Schiavo, who is NOT terminal, have been in the news both locally in Florida and in the national news. Why is a non-terminal patient even allowed to be in the hospice? The board of directors has a duty to make sure the hospice follows the guidelines for running a hospice. All hospice boards and staff know that only patients who are truly terminal can enter a hospice. Why hasn't the board protested the admission of Terri Schiavo into the hospice?
Why does Mary Labyak do nothing when everybody knows Terri is not terminally ill? Why is Terri NOT receiving therapy for rehabilitation as she needs? Why was the temperature in Terri's room set in the 60s until Terri's parents protested? Why are hospice employees forbidden from speaking to others about Terri Schiavo's condition or care, or, how the hospice is treating her? If you don't approve of the hospice actions, call them at: 727-586-4432 and let them know how you feel!
Are Mary Labyak, The Hospice, and its Board of Directors Remaining True to the Original Hospice Mission?
The human side of me is inclined to reply, "What souls?"
Seeking Right to Death. Fla. man says wife wouldn't want to live in vegetative state
In April 2000, after a probate judge approved the removal of the feeding tube, Michael moved Terri to a Woodside hospice. By then, he had finished nursing school and had started working as a respiratory therapist, the legacy of the years he spent caring for Terri.The fight to save Terri Schiavo’s life
Terri’s husband, Michael Schiavo, a respiratory therapist and nurse,
MARY LABYAK Secretary/Treasurer, Partnership for Caring Hospice of the Florida Suncoast
Glasheen: If you were putting together a primer, what would you say is the most important information people need about hospice? Labyak: Probably the initial thing is that hospice is about living and that people don't need to think of it as a place to go where there's no hope anymore. We see a lot of miracles in hospice. They might not be the traditional medical miracle but the miracle of being very sick and yet having your pain controlled, having your symptoms controlled and being able to carry on with your life and be the person that you've always been. To have continuity of relationships and the opportunity to talk to people honestly about what's happening and to find meaning, to find dignity in life, to spend time with your family doing things that are important.
Miracles, huh?
I saw that in one of the articles I read.
Michael Schiavo was a restaurant manager at the time of Terri's "heart attack". He went to nursing school so that he could learn how to "take care" of Terri - he testified about this at the malpractice trial. Thinking about that now, it takes on a whole new meaning.
You're right. I didn't notice that. Schiavo obviously wanted full control over her destiny pretty darn soon after she was found unconscious.
I was confused by the fact that Mike called 911. It seemed to contradict the notion that he had harmed her in some way.
Did he mistakenly assume she was already dead at the time he called 911 for "help" for her? Her heart had stopped, I think. Wouldn't that mean he would find no pulse?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.