Larry Dossey is known as the father of mind-body medicine and perhaps best known for his advocacy of the role of prayer in healing in 1995's bestselling Healing Words: The Power of Prayer and the Practice of Medicine. He admits that working on such seemingly impossible projects a few years ago would have ruined a researcher's career with "ATF," or "the anti-tenure factor." But things are changing. He wrote Reinventing Medicine to present proof that "the mind can literally change the external world" and how this "nonlocal mind" will change health care in the future. His argument for the existence of this nonlocal mind is as convincing as it is eloquently conveyed. Doubters, he says, merely need to examine their own dreams for proof this is true. When was the last time you had a conversation or found yourself in a situation you dreamed about the night before? Studies from as early as the 1960s "strongly suggest that dreams are an avenue of nonlocal communication between separate, distant persons."
Dossey's support of the nonlocal mind is sure to draw pooh-poohs from
cynics, including M.D.s, but, he warns, health-care workers are bound to
experience this force firsthand: "Doctors can experience their patients'
symptoms nonlocally, and this can be unpleasant." He cites the example of
psychiatrist Mona Lisa Shulz, a medical intuitive, who "began to grow
increasingly uncomfortable, feeling hot and flushed," while speaking over
the phone with a feverish patient. Dossey says this telesomatic event,
extreme empathy, or whatever you want to call it, is dangerous, but that
"empathic balance" is something that will be taught in medical schools in
the future to ensure accurate diagnoses of ill patients. Dossey was one of
the first vanguards of mind-body medicine, which is basically accepted as
fact today; he's again presenting the future of medicine, as otherworldly
as it seems. --Erica Jorgensen
From Publishers
Weekly
Always in the vanguard,
physician Dossey (Prayer Is Good Medicine, etc.) makes a fascinating case
for the next revolution in medicine beyond the current era of mind-body
healing. Rather than signaling an entirely new direction, he defines a
larger, more humane vision based on incorporating advances in integrative
medicine. His brief, persuasive work is bound to attract attention from
the general public and medical professionals alike, especially in light of
his pioneering work on the connection... (read more at Amazon)