BIO Robert Doane, EAMP, L.Ac., Dipl.C.H.

I was born in Coulee City, Washington in 1947. My father worked on the Grand Coulee Dam project and then when that was over our family of four headed for Poulsbo, Washington where my father worked at Sub-Base Bangor. Those were tough times in America and any job was a good job. I started school in Poulsbo, but in the third grade my father accepted the area engineer job for the public works act in Fairbanks, Alaska. So in 1956 the family went on their Alaskan adventure, which kept my parents in Alaska for 20 years.

Growing up in Fairbanks was incredible. Walking to school at 50 below zero, wearing scarves over our mouths so we didn’t freeze to death and trying to do well in school was a great challenge. When Alaska became a state in 1958 my father’s work in Fairbanks was soon over since he was working for the federal government under a territorial treaty with the territory of Alaska. Consequently, we moved once again where the work was, which, in this case, was Wrangell, Alaska. During my father’s first year in Wrangell he worked alone and had my mother and I live in Poulsbo, since he didn’t know how long his new job of installing the Alaskan ferry terminals in Southeastern Alaska would last. However, in my junior year in high school my mother and I joined my father in Wrangell. Wrangell turned out to be a great place for hunting and fishing, and every weekend I lived there my father and I took off to go salmon fishing (which literally meant pushing a boat off of the beach in front of the house!). Those were great days, and I have very fond memories of the overwhelming beauty of Alaska.

Going into my senior year in high school I receive a Senatorial appointment to the Naval Academy, and in order to prepare myself academically it was decided that I would stay with friends during my senior year in Poulsbo and graduate from North Kitsap High School. My naval career came to a sudden end however when the Navy discovered that I was nearly half blind and my eyesight could not be corrected. That was very disappointing since the Navy told me I had one of the highest entrance exam scores in the history of the Academy.

There went my naval career, so I opted to study Physics at the University of Washington and received an undergraduate degree in Physics in 1969. I also had the pleasure of studying in England at the University of Sheffield in 1967-68 where I managed to pass the exam for an English degree in Physics, even before receiving my American degree. This was an odd situation.

While I was in England, at the encouragement of one of my professors, I began meditation and instantly took a liking to it. When I returned to the University of Washington, all my former classmates and professors noticed a marked change in me. When I told them it was the meditation, I had numerous requests to teach the technique I was practicing. My experiences were so profound and my desire to pass on the experience so strong I decided to postpone my Ph.D. and head for India, where I could actually learn how to teach meditation.

I went to India in 1969, studied at an Ashram at the foothills of the Himalayas and in 1970 was given permission to go back to the United States and teach the technique I was practicing at universities across the US. This was the beginning of my career as a meditation teacher and in a two-year period I had the pleasure of teaching over 1000 people in universities from Notre Dame, Purdue, University of Chicago, all the Universities in Iowa, Montana Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska. It was a wonderful time and kept me exceedingly busy. During most weeks I was traveling on airplanes at least 4 times a week. During this time my desire to live a more reclusive life intensified, and in 1971 I entered a meditative monastic order centered in Switzerland. My life for the next few years was composed of six months in silent meditation and six months teaching others how to meditate. I had the pleasure of teaching at the World Health Organization in Geneva, UNESCO in Paris, as well as in India. In India alone, I taught another 1000 people the art of deep meditation.

In 1972 I took a hiatus from silence and was sent to Los Angeles to investigate the possibility of developing a new television station based on the principles of positivism in broadcasting. Through a series of fortunate events I applied to the FCC for a channel allocation for this new concept. The channel was Channel 18, licensed to San Bernardino, California. My applicant company I named Global Television, Inc. and after interviewing and collecting affidavits from approximately 1000 political and civic leaders in all 5 counties of Southern California, I submitted the application for this currently unused television channel. After that I went back into silence in Switzerland.

Astonishingly, in 1974 the FCC informed me that my application was accepted. I now had two years to put the station on the air or the allocation would be given to someone else. I tried to avoid leaving my beautiful routine in Switzerland, but by 1976 it became obvious that I had to go back to LA and put the station on the air. Having absolutely no knowledge of how to run a television station, the head of the monastery sent me to LA with 8 very accomplished engineers who were also monks. The next 5 years of my life was composed of running this new station, which had a signal strength capable of covering all 5 Southern California counties. The station had to have a news operations, so I made myself the news-director of KSCI, Channel 18, and over 4-1/2 years I wrote, directed, and anchored approximately 3000 live television news programs. It was a lot of fun because our editorial policy was to air only positive news, which we did, and we became well known in the LA area for this unique approach. In 5 years the station was in the black financially and was a very successful operation.

I left the station in 1981 and also my monastic life to finally get married and to enter the “real world”, as it were. KSCI was sold in 1986 for over 40 million dollars and because I was a monk at its inception, I never claimed any of that money and almost all of it went to the monastery.

Getting married at 34 forced me to think about earning a living. I met three very energetic young men who owned an oil brokerage firm and I was hired by them to be trained as an oil broker. The name of the firm was Amerex Oil Associates in Morristown, New Jersey. Brokering oil trades turned out to be something I was very good at, and by the end of 1981 I already owned my own firm in Houston. Over the next 6 years I started 3 oil brokerage firms. All of them were successful, especially the last one, called Falcon Products. I did my best to amass as much wealth as I could and by 1987 I sold my firm, which left me financially self-sufficient. It also left me with a great deal of confidence on how to be successful at business, something that I had been terrified of as a monk. I retired onto my yacht, a newly furbished 65-foot Swan sailboat and spent the next few years learning the art of sailing.

As we all know, life can have its disappointments as well, and I did have my share. In 1991 my married life came to an end and, like so many others, I found myself a failure at my first attempt at marriage. However, in 1992 I met a wonderful German schoolteacher in Germany. Her name is Annemeike, and at the time I met her she was finishing her Masters Degree in Education at Hanover University in Germany. Anne and I both shared a background interest in health and Oriental medicine, which I had been studying on my sailing adventures. In 1993 Annemeike came to the United States and enrolled with me in the Santa Barbara College of Oriental Medicine. The purpose of the study was to receive a Masters Degree in Chinese Medicine and to open a practice somewhere in the world after graduation. In 1997, after graduating and passing our national board exams, Anne and I decided to open our clinic in Poulsbo, Washington, a little village on the Kitsap Peninsula, a short ferry ride from Seattle.

The clinic grew and grew and at present is one of the largest privately owned Chinese medical clinics in the United States. The clinic treats well over 135 people a day. Needless to say, my early retirement from the oil business was now over. The clinic became a very busy practice, requiring at least 4 acupuncturists working 12-hour shifts.

My wife and I have been blessed with two beautiful children, Max, born in 2001 and Sophia, born in 1999. Besides spending all day talking about Chinese medicine, I am also willing to brag about my children with the least provocation.

For those of you wondering about my meditation background I never dropped it. I rise at five o’clock every morning and meditate for two hours; it is a part of my life, which will always be there. I have been asked by so many patients over the years to teach meditation, but I managed to avoid it, since so much of my time was taken up by clinic duties. Now that the clinic is so large, and I have so much help, I have once again started to teach deep meditation to those who want to learn. A quiet, peaceful mind goes a long way in creating a happy, healthy life.

This is my story and I plan to spend the rest of my days in this beautiful community practicing this amazing medicine. I can testify as to the power of Chinese medicine. Currently, I am 66 years old, work 13 hours a day, have two small children and I feel fantastic! Let us show you the way to a healthier, happier life!