Podcast 182 — Practical Practitioners: The Sky's the Limit!

Hi, I’m Joette Calabrese, and I welcome you to our health care movement — yours, mine and the countless men and women across the globe who have retaken control of their families’ health with Practical Homeopathy®.

So, for the next few minutes, let's link our arms as I demystify homeopathy — what was once considered an esoteric paradigm — into an understandable, reproducible, safe and effective health care solution available to all.

This is the medicine you've been searching for — my unique brand of homeopathy, PRACTICAL Homeopathy®.

Introduction: The Sky’s the Limit!

Kate: (00:58)

Welcome to the Practical Homeopathy Podcast. I'm Kate, and today I'm joined by Marylou, a woman who lives in two worlds that don't often meet: the world of competitive skydiving and the world of Practical Homeopathy®.

Well, let me tell you, Marylou is a professional skydiver with more than 4,300 jumps. Yes, you heard that right. She represented the United States in eight world championships. Among her honors are the FAI Leonardo da Vinci diploma and the FAI Bronze Medal and the USPA Lifetime Achievement Award and the title of Honorary Golden Knight. Wow, that is a lot!

Let's get onto the Practical Homeopathy® now after those impressive credentials — and there is more, believe me. So, after graduating from The Academy of Practical Homeopathy® in 2024, she founded Thru Wild Eyes Homeopathy, and she works with people and animals and teaches Joette's Gateway I and II and the Protocol Courses.

Her homeopathy story began about 15 years ago as a wildlife rehabilitator. It includes the end-of-life care for her mother, the healing of her cat, Prima, and the remedies she keeps in her fanny pack at skydiving competitions.

Marylou, you have a lot to share. I want to welcome you to the podcast.

Marylou:

Oh, thank you so much, Kate. I'm happy to be here.

Ready, set, jump!

Kate: (2:19)

I can't wait to hear all of your stories and to share them with the listeners. I just want to get started on a light note before we dive into the serious topic of homeopathy. I want to know what made you jump out of an airplane?

Marylou:

Well, the honest truth is when I was a little girl, I used to dream I could fly, and now I can.

Kate:

Well, flying is better than hitting the ground hard, for sure.

Marylou:

Yes. I mean, it's amazing.

There are many, many different aspects of skydiving, and the truest one for flying is doing a multiple-plane formation. And what I would love to do was be that person that would stand on the tailgate, and when they would say … they would look … they would tell me to go, and they would start the count for everyone else to leave.

And my body leaving that lead plane, flying like a flock of geese in a vertical formation, triggered the trail planes to exit. I would be alone in the air flying, and they would then dive out, and we would all converge in the middle. The base would leave the middle, and we would all dock.

And flying up to dock on that and all coming together is truly flying.

Kate:

Wow, that sounds incredible.

Marylou:

It was amazing.

Kate:

And scary, honestly.

Taking the plunge

Kate: (03:38)

Well, let's move on to your homeopathy journey, which started about 15 years ago.

I know when you graduated, and starting to see clients and teaching the Gateway to Practical Homeopathy® I and II study guides and the Protocol Courses … I know you said you love teaching and seeing clients.

So, tell us about your journey, and where you're at now.

Marylou:

It all started about 15 years ago when I was a wildlife rehabilitator in the state of Connecticut, where I lived at the time. The place that rescued the animals, taking care of the babies that would come in. If everyone that was injured with a broken leg or traumatized, taking them to the vet would've been just very expensive. So, the woman who owned the rehabilitation center … what she did was she went and studied homeopathy.

And so, she started to train me in homeopathy and working on baby wildlife animals. And the remedy that we sort of would start with, with almost anyone that came in, was Arnica for the trauma.

And it was wonderful that first year, for a Mother's Day present, she gave me my first homeopathy kit of 50 remedies in 30C. And I still have that kit today. So that was wonderful.

And from there, I would gently suggest things to friends, and if somebody was going to the dentist or telling them what to take before surgery, so it sort of transferred to helping people that I knew.

My mother, at the end of her life … I had started to work in Florida, where she lived, with a practicing homeopath and doctor. And we worked through probably the last two years of her life helping her get off of most prescription drugs.

And at the very end of her life, she passed very peacefully. And the only medication she was on was homeopathic, and it was Arnica.

I had all of the drugs from hospice. When she passed, I gave hospice all of the drugs back.

They said, “What did you do?”

And I told them, and they were very surprised. That was a real gift.

I, again, would just keep doing things, dealing with acute situations. And somehow, I ended up getting emails from Joette, which I have no idea how. And I probably saw something — signed up for something — and I think I actually signed up for her Cell Salt course first.

One day there was an email that came in that she was going to be redoing Gateway I and was doing the introduction, and she actually was leading all of those classes. I think it was each week or each month. I forget how often it happened.

Kate:

Oh yeah, that's when we did the relaunch of Gateway I, and she did an online teaching. Yes.

Marylou:

Yes. So, I was a part of that. And the thing that really interested me in it — one — is I could have a book and do it all on my own because I travel a lot and I a lot of times can't make classes, and it would be recorded so that I could listen to it later. So, that made me very happy, and I signed up for it.

The next thing I knew, I was getting invitations to apply for The Academy, and it just seemed like the universe was telling me that was the direction to move. So, I signed up for The Academy. And after a whole year of doing that — plus doing a nationals after the first month — I didn't do any work in The Academy for one whole month. So, you know what that put me in.

Kate:

Right.

Marylou:

So, I was behind the power curve right away, and I had to learn how to sort my work out and do what was important and what could I pick up later.

And then I moved forward and went to India in the month of December, and that put me behind another month. That was an incredible experience because I was in Calcutta and actually got to walk in the Banerji Clinic. And I got to meet the granddaughter, who was absolutely lovely and very welcoming. It just all fell into place.

And then came back and literally just turned my phone off and got to finishing and picking all of the ends up, like history and things that I put on the side, Human Disease and Physiology, and all of that.

And in the end, I graduated. It's been an amazing journey with homeopathy.

Jumping into success with Prima the Crazy Cat

Kate: (08:27)

Now you said that your cat, Prima, is one of your biggest teachers. Tell us all about that.

Marylou:

Because I had gone to The Academy, I believe that homeopathy is available to help the body heal anything that it can receive. And I had a kitten. She was maybe six months old, and she was a crazy cat, absolutely insane crazy.

She would bolt out the door. She would bolt over the fence. She would bolt up on the roof and jump off the fence. And I was absolutely scared to death I would lose her.

Kate:

Oh, my goodness.

Marylou:

And what I realized and learned is that she was having a very bad reaction to the rabies vaccine. So, I realized she had vaccinosis and started treating her for vaccinosis, and she calmed down.

Kate:

With homeopathy, you mean, right?

Marylou:

With homeopathy. There are wonderful remedies to even help release the negative effects that a body or an animal can feel from vaccines. So, that was amazing. That was the first sort of amazing thing that I learned from her.

She also — and still to this day — has this horrible habit of putting things in her mouth. And she was in my backyard, and she decided she was going to eat and was very fascinated with this branchy sego palm.

And luckily, I saw what she ate. That was maybe five, six o'clock at night. And it was about nine o'clock at night, she was collapsed on my bed and was barely moving.

Kate:

So, she was poisoned from that thing that she ate, huh?

Marylou:

Yes. And I looked up a sego palm and found out, yes, in fact, it was poisonous for cats.

And I started repertorizing and trying to figure the puzzle out. And I was looking for more specifics than realizing so much with homeopathy is we just need the symptom.

And blessedly, I had the cause of poisoning. So, I was trying to be way too specific and spent a lot of time and finally decided on a remedy.

I am in my bed with all of my books around me, all of the repertories. I am searching; I'm trying to find. And of course, I didn't think to take Ignatia to calm down myself and help me think.

And I'm looking, and I finally came up with Arsenicum.

Kate:

Arsenicum album, right?

Marylou:

Yes.

Kate:

It's one of our top medicines for poisoning.

Marylou:

Yes. I decided to use that, and I had learned from the homeopath that worked with my mother to give, every 15 minutes, a dose to find out if you have the right remedy when you have an acute situation. And if it's not, then you switch. And that, you know, followed through in The Academy, but that's where that was first ingrained in me.

So, I gave her a dose, and I kept looking just in case this wasn't right. I wanted the next thing to move on to.

I mean, she's my baby. Do I run to the vet? Do I take her to the emergency clinic that I don't know what they're going to do to her? I do not have, quite honestly, a lot of faith.

So, I'm looking for the next remedy, and my alarm clock goes off. I give her another dose, and there's no response. Hasn't passed out. She's still conscious, but she's not moving.

I keep looking, and I'm repertorizing again. And I give her the third dose; still no response.

I have my alarm set for the next time. I gave her the fourth dose, and within about three minutes, she was up, jumped off the bed and went to her food and started eating.

Kate:

Oh, my goodness. What a response!

Marylou:

Absolutely amazing. But for the first three, there was nothing.

So, it is truly, truly amazing. Honestly, Arsenicum was something that I made it all the way through India without getting food poisoning. And I ate street food. I ate everything when I was there.

Kate:

Wow.

Marylou:

And if I started to feel little something, I just took some Arsenicum. Amazing remedy to have in your pocketbook.

Another lesson she taught me is … six months ago. Again, she puts everything in her mouth still, and she all of a sudden broke out in this rash. She had all of these red bumps on her belly. There were these lumps in her back, and they all of a sudden came from nowhere.

And she's very delicate and very persnickety. If she has one flea, she goes crazy. And she is going insane itching.

Again, I start trying to figure out, “What did she eat? What is it?”

And, all of a sudden, it came back to me, “Marylou, just follow the symptoms. You don't have to know the ‘why’.”

So that's what I did, and I picked a combination remedy for itching and a rash, and it slowly subsided.

In maybe two hours, the insanity of the itching stopped, and within a week, the whole rash was gone.

In about four weeks later, it started to come back again, but without the same intensity. I repeated the remedies again, and it went away, and it's never come back again.

It's like Joette teaches. It was truly textbook.

Kate:

And if you're like Marylou and wondering what to do because your pet or one of your children, a family member has something like this, you can find a lot of information for free on Joette's website. It's JoetteCalabrese.com.

And then in the top right corner, there's a search bar, and you can just type in “rash.” And then it'll pop up all of the blogs or podcasts that talk about rashes, and you can find what remedies to use.

I'm sure Marylou used some of the remedies that are right on Joette's blog. So, I just wanted to throw that in … that if people are listening to this and thinking, “How do I know how to treat a rash?” That's what you can do.

Going airborne: bringing homeopathy to the skydiving community

Kate: (14:58)

So, I want to switch now to skydiving and homeopathy. Let's bring those two worlds together. And I can only imagine how many times you've used homeopathy for skydiving.

Of course, I would want the Aconite for the shock of doing it! But tell me what you've experienced, and what remedies you have on hand and maybe a story about how you've used it.

Marylou:

Okay. So, of course there are a lot of stories, but a really interesting one is not really about the skydiving itself.

But last year, I was at a world championship in the Netherlands, and I happened to have been on the jury. And the chief judge, I was working closely with her. She was from Australia. She was not feeling very well. She was having some gut issues and a lot of problems with her back.

And I said, “Would you be interested in trying anything homeopathically?”

And she said, “Oh, yes.”

And in Australia, she had used it occasionally. So, I gave her a couple of remedies for suggestions and at different time periods we started talking.

Fast forward, she actually became a client of mine. So, we actually got together on Zoom, which is where I meet most of my clients and took her whole case. She started to have great results.

So, I then was going to be teaching a Gateway I, which is where I started with Joette and sent out invitations to a lot of people all over the world that I know. She was one of the people that was very interested.

So, she took my Gateway I. She took my Gateway II. Oh, by the way, she signed up for both of them right away, and I said, “Oh, you're going to be my overachiever.”

Little did I know.

She then did Gateway II, was ready to do my Allergic?! Protocol Course that I was going to be teaching. And the next thing I hear from her is, “I've decided to sign up for The Academy.“

Kate:

Well, she really is an overachiever.

Marylou:

Isn't she? She is, and she's currently in The Academy right now and is in Arizona, where she's judging a world championship. She's going to stop here and visit me, and she's going to join me, and we're both going to The Academy's annual celebration in Florida.

Kate:

That's going to be a great time. I can't wait to meet her. You'll have to introduce me.

Marylou:

I certainly will. She's a fabulous, energetic person. She actually told me in the very beginning that when she took Gateway, she said, “Well, I'm not interested in helping anybody else. It's just for me.”

And I said, “Oh, really? That will change.”

Kate:

Yeah, that's usually how it starts. That's great.

I want to hear about the remedies that you always keep with you when you are at a skydiving event.

What goes up must come down

Marylou: (17:52)

What I always have is I always have a little fanny pack that I will keep. If I'm a chief judge, I have a ground-to-air radio on to communicate with the plane.

So, I always wear this, and I always have Arnica and Aconitum for if there is an accident or something happens. It's a great thing, and I've recommended it to so many skydivers.

As Joette has taught in different Protocol Courses that, for different symptoms, different parts of the body, for the skin, for the gut, you tend to repeat the same remedies.

Well, for skydiving, I definitely repeat some remedies. Symphytum and Calc phos, as a combination together, which is amazing for bones.

In fact, you need to be careful with Symphytum; that if there is a broken bone (or you think there's a broken bone), you should not give it till it's checked out with an X-ray and a doctor because it will actually start to knit that bone right away, and it could cause that bone to have to be re-broken. Symphytum is from comfrey, which is nicknamed “knitbone.”

And then another great one is Rhus tox. And I've got another great Rhus tox story, but Rhus tox is from poison ivy. Who would ever think?

But you take that when you have a feeling of it's hard to move, and it's a rusty gate. And once you slowly get things moving, things loosen up, or you've overexerted too much, Rhus tox is a fabulous remedy.

And Bryonia is “Ouch, ouch, ouch. Don't touch me. It hurts. I don't want to move.”

And then Hypericum, great for nerve pain or parts of the body that have a lot of nerves in it.

I had just been on the phone the other evening with a skydiver who's actually a multiple-time world champion who was getting ready for the circuit this year and to come to the world championships. And as she landed, she could hear her meniscus tear

And she ended up tearing both her meniscus and also her ACL. Had surgery. I spoke to her and suggested that she take some Symphytum and Calc phos. When I did that, I started laughing. I thought, how many people right now do I have that I'm working with that are on Symphytum and Calc phos? There're 14.

Kate:

Fourteen.

Marylou:

Fourteen people. So, it's used a lot in my world.

Success Story: Rhus tox — one flight plan, two happy landings

Marylou: (20:27)

So, the other Rhus tox story, which is very interesting. A friend of mine had a person that helped him on his farm, and he had hurt his knee. It got worse after two days to the point that he called in sick and said he wasn't going to be able to work.

So, I said to the friend of mine, I said, “Do you think he'd be willing to take anything homeopathically?”

And he said, “I have no idea. Here's his number.”

So, I called him, and I said, “Something great for what you've done to your knee would be Rhus tox. Would you be willing to try it?”

He said, “I'll try anything.”

So, I got it to the friend of mine, and he delivered it to him. He took two doses that day, another dose the next morning, and was back almost 100%.

He couldn't believe it. It was fabulous.

I had found out he was allergic to poison ivy. For those of you listening who are allergic to poison ivy, don't worry. You can still take it because it is highly diluted and potentized. So, you are taking a very small essence of the actual Rhus tox poison ivy.

So, what happened is I knew he was allergic to poison ivy. So, I had, the following spring … I sent him an email. And I said, “Just a suggestion: You could take this prophylactically before the season to help prevent or make the incidence of any poison ivy you get less.”

And I never heard from him, which I didn't think was unusual. And I talked to him later, maybe it was August that year, and I said, “By the way, did you ever try that?”

And he said, “No, I didn't, but you know what?

My poison ivy … I barely got any this year.”

Kate:

Because he had taken it earlier.

Marylou:

Yes. So, for those of you that are thinking, because he took it for his knee, it actually helped his allergic reaction to the actual poison ivy. He did it prophylactically. So, it's amazing the way that happens.

Success Story: A two-for-one takeoff

Kate: (22:35)

Let's do one more story. Can you share one more thing with us and then we'll wrap up the podcast?

Marylou:

So, I'm going to go back to the World Championships last year, and there was a judge that was there. And we're at the closing banquet, and she comes up to me because she had knew I was talking to the chief judge and said, “Marylou, can you help me with … I have a UTI. I'm starting to get a UTI. I'm going to be traveling in Europe for two more weeks, and I don't want to ruin my whole vacation. Please, is there anything you have?”

Well, I always have a kit with me, and it was in my backpack with my computer. I opened the computer up and start looking for UTIs. The first remedy I came up with wasn't in my kit.

That's okay. I used the second remedy.

I gave it to her, and I had the little bottle that I gave to her. I told her how often to take it, and sure enough, within a couple days, the UTI was completely gone, and she got to enjoy the rest of her vacation.

So, she then has gone on to become a student and currently is in Gateway. She's a very, very smart, book-smart person, and she's done an awful lot of studying. You give her a little bit, and she just goes forward with it.

So, she started repertorizing, learning how to use the repertory and the materia medica — those two books that are the foundational “bibles” for homeopathy — and she, on her own, started digging to help her family, her husband and daughter.

Her husband had very bad trembling and shaking, so much so that he would have to hold a glass of water with two hands, so it didn't spill. She told me about three weeks ago in class that she had given him this remedy, and she started to cry. And she said he, for the first time, was able to be in his car and have a bottle to drink out of and be able to do it while he was driving.

Kate:

Oh, wow.

Marylou:

The shaking had diminished — not totally — but had diminished that much.

Kate:

What a gift.

Marylou:

Amazing. It's the gift that homeopathy gives, and it's the gift that Joette gives. In all that she teaches, her goal and her mission is to teach every mother and grandmother, and that's what this woman is. She was a mother. There was a husband. And she's helping her family. The word is getting out to the everyday person that this is a wonderful alternative.

Kate:

Absolutely.

You have shared so much with us, and I know you have many more stories, as those of us who use homeopathy do. It's endless, it seems. But I want to close the podcast with just a final thought from you, Marylou, if you have anything that you'd like to share with us.

Closing advice

Marylou: (25:41)

I'll finish with … just sort of to wrap it up, the same way you started it so eloquently. It's two worlds that appear to clash together, and they don't. They come together beautifully, and they're both my passions.

And one is the passion for the skydiving and the flying and all of those people that have been so much of my life. And to now be able to touch people and have people have these wonderful experiences and to be able to heal themselves because that's what homeopathy can do. It's an amazing gift and thank you.

Kate:

Absolutely. It's been a pleasure to have you. I look forward to hearing more stories in the future and thank you for sharing with everyone who's listening today. We appreciate you, Marylou.

Marylou:

Thank you and have a wonderful party.

Kate:

Yes, and I'll see you there.

Joette:

It's my honor to share many lessons on this simple method of using homeopathy for free —without affiliates or advertising — here in my podcasts, but also my blog posts and Monday Night Lives.

But it's critical that you learn how to use these medicines properly. These podcasts should serve as only the beginning of your training. Peruse JoettesLearningCenter.com to find fun study group opportunities and in-depth courses developed by subject.

So, with the proper training, you can join the thousands of students before you in developing the confidence and competence to protect the health of your family and loved ones with my brand of homeopathy, Practical Homeopathy®.

Kate:

You just listened to a podcast from internationally acclaimed homeopath, public speaker and author, the founder of The Academy of Practical Homeopathy®, Joette Calabrese. Joette’s podcasts are available on all your favorite podcast apps.

To learn more and find out if homeopathy is a good fit for your health strategy, visit PracticalHomeopathy.com.

Disclaimer: Joette is not a physician, and the relationship between Joette and her clients, students and followers is not that of prescriber and patient, but that of educator and learner. It is fully the learner’s choice whether or not to take advantage of the information Joette presents. Homeopathy doesn’t “treat” an illness; it addresses the entire person as a matter of wholeness that is an educational process, not a medical one. To be treated or diagnosed, Joette believes that the advice of a holistic physician is in order.
Claims based on traditional homeopathic practice, not accepted medical evidence. Not FDA evaluated.