Healium Review with Raj Shah, Founder of CTIS
Raj Shah uses Healium virtual reality to cope with more than 30 chronic conditions. Read about his predictions on the future of VR as a wellness tool.
Raj is the founder of a successful health IT company called CTIS. They work to provide efficiencies in patient treatment through strategic partnerships and research. In his spare time, he paints, meditates, and is involved in several philanthropic endeavors to make the world a better place.
We have taken several of Raj’s paintings and transformed them into 360-degree virtual reality experiences. They are available on our app for our Healium Pro monthly subscribers. Raj leads us through guided meditations in each of his VR experiences.
Raj is also the recipient of a heart transplant.
I have realized post-transplant that I have received a divine gift as a magical new heart. Clearly my donor is a divine soul. This has given me a new lease on life. Life of Amor fati.
The heart brought with it a substantial imbalance among my organ system. Just the age difference, differences in the gene pool, toxic medicines, emotional disconnect, ability to remain functional, and challenges of comorbidity.
Raj uses Healium as part of his therapeutic treatment for his transplant and many other chronic pain conditions.
How long have you been using Healium?
I have a long history with Healium. I’ve been using it for 18 months. I use it every day after a massage or Reiki.
What would you say to someone who is curious about using virtual reality as a wellness tool?
I am Healium’s biggest fan! I love promoting it and telling others about the benefits I’ve experienced. I’ve never tried other VR wellness tools because I don’t feel that I need to.
The hardest part is the last mile. Bridging that last mile to me is virtual reality and augmented reality because that is where intelligence is augmented with reality. You create something that fundamentally, you allow the patient to control and manage. That’s why when I saw Healium I felt that it would help me.
I think the future of Healium is the education part. Once people learn, they can follow anything. All my life, I understood meditation and grew up practicing it. Yoga and meditation were always a part of my life, but I always felt that something was lacking. After work, family, and daily life, meditation came second.
But being a technology person, I thought, “how do you extend virtual reality so it’s even more real? How do you get into it in a way where the traditional method of stopping your thoughts doesn’t really work? I think that’s where VR work will go a very long way.
Describe the virtual reality stories of your paintings and what they mean to you.
Watching this virtual reality story, based on my painting, brought to mind among other things Plato’s Cave and Immanuel Kant…but all of these lead in the same ultimate direction i.e a higher dimension of human awareness. All religions, (for better or worse) all mythology leads in that direction. i.e a higher dimension of human awareness to help ourselves.
The video is good for mental health – a release of knowledge and fixing misunderstanding by living in a cave (pandemic quarantine) behind the wall. The heart depicts the window to the outside world that gives hope. My own Plato heart cave.
Describe your setup when you use Healium.
I use it after my meditation and deep breathing process. I get into a comfy chair in a quiet room and diffuse essential oils.
What do you do for self-care in addition to using Healium?
In addition to maintaining clinical protocols, I have integrated a number of mind, body, and spirit harmony therapies. They are exercise, diet, yoga breathing, massages, stretching, mindfulness, meditation, cranial nervous system therapies, and painting. It has always helped me to remain reasonably functional and happy.
I also find there are times when nothing works. The physical, mental, and spiritual pain and agony make it impossible to function. I have very debilitating tinnitus which makes noises in my ear at level 7 or above on a scale where 10 is highest. That increases my pulse, blood pressure, and blood sugar. I have been trying to help with my “last mile” need. I have certain medications, therapies, and more.
The new thing I have done is to personalize and integrate therapy through the use of virtual reality where my music, my painting, and my meditation comes together to get me to the peace I need.
What changes have you noticed since using it?
It helps with my pulse and blood pressure. I use Healium to cope with more than 30 chronic conditions.
One thing I never do is quit. You’re given a choice. Why would you not choose to keep fighting? The opposite of fighting is not good either. Let’s say I gave up. Then what would I really do, just lay around and do nothing? That doesn’t work for me and doesn’t work for many people as long as they understand that they have the choice.
My hope is that I continue every day when I get hit hard, come out with a smile, and continue the journey.
Anything else you’d like to share?
To me, the whole world is a circus show, And I have been an actor and other times the director in all the acts. I am past all three acts. And therein is the joy of life. I got to star in my own play or movie and eat the popcorn of life. Welcome the plot changes–because it will. Amor fati – finally.
Last thing. I always saw myself as a shy clown, student, and teacher. Today although the circus tents are empty and the animals are gone, there is no more, “this is mine and this is yours”. I’m realizing equanimity lies in being nobody. And not trying to be somebody. A lifetime of memories and fun–right in our imagination. Finally, I can be an observer.
I was born with nothing, still have a lot of it left; and I know I will die with most of it to take it to my next life. So all is good.
Being nobody is to be happy
Raj Shah
To access Raj’s paintings via virtual reality, make sure you’re a monthly subscriber. Subscriptions cost as little as a dollar a day. Open the Healium app and find it under the Quiet Mind tab, titled “Raj’s Masterpiece.”