MIND BODY MEDICINE Herbert Benson & William Proctor (2010). Relaxation Revolution: Enhancing your Personal Health through the Science and Genetics of Mind Body Healing. Benson is a medical doctor that spent nearly 50 years (at the time of his writing in 2010) at Harvard University (from student to doctor to researcher to co-founder of the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital). Since the 1970's Benson has been researching the "relaxation response," initially a mind body method of coping with stress, and now a mind body science that has profound implications for improving the health of a multitude of stress related diseases. The method is simple, involves no drugs, cost nothing, involves some practice and time, yet most physicians have not heard of it, yet alone are trained in it or are willing to prescribe it. Benson believes that mind body medicine should be the 3rd leg of medicine, along side and equa...
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THE PRACTICE Seth Godin (2020). The practice: Shipping creative work. Short 1-2 page segments that read like blog posts filled with inspiration and practical advice for anyone that wants to produce and ship creative art (any self-directed work that we feel called to do AND that serves some specific other). There are many examples of specific people that serve as models for how to do parts of the practice, and ample quotes to live by. The essence of the book from a pragmatic standpoint are summarized below. The practice is self-directed (it may come from dreams, calling, passion, insights, visions...) AND the practice is rooted in service of someone in particular (not for everyone). We do our practice every day because it is who we are and what we commit ourselves to. The practice is a PROCESS that is under our control, but once we SHIP the ART (our product/service) and thereby put ourselves on the hook, we let go of the outcome, we live with the reality that we ...
HEALING ENERGY William Bengston (2010). The energy cure: Unraveling the mystery of hands on healing. Bengston is a sociologist, skeptic, science based researcher, and healer. He tells a story of how he met a healer, tried to disprove them, became a believer in their healing abilities, journeyed with them on many healing adventures, and eventually became a healer himself. While there are many case studies of healings with humans described in the book, Bengston wanted to know how and why these laying on of hands healings happened so he completed many controlled laboratory studies on mice with an aggressive type of cancer and found that laying on of hands healing as he describes it can heal mice of cancer. The mice were completely cured (which no one had ever been able to do with any kind of drug therapy), and the cancer didn't come back, they even showed immunity against being reinjected with cancer. This healing technique was taught to others in the lab setting, including sk...
SNAKE Dawn Baumann Brunke (2020). Awakening the Ancient Power of Snake: Transformation, Healing, and Enlightenment. With over 3,000 species of snake in every habitat on earth, snakes have an ancient history associated with the Goddess, rulers, medicine, and kundalini energy. All snakes are carnivorous, mate with a lock and key mechanism, and shed their skins. The two most common symbols of snakes are the Rod of Asclepius (symbol of healing with a snake entwining a staff) and Caduceus (winged staff with two intertwined snakes facing each other). Most snakes avoid people, and if threatened, they may rattle, hiss, or lift up their heads...best to leave them be. Further, the shedding of their...
HEALING LIGHT Agnes Sanford (1947, 1972). The healing light. A gnes Sanford's book The healing light was first published in 1947, and after becoming a classic, was republished in 1972. As an Episcopalian, her method of healing is decidedly Christian although at times she appeals to a broader audience by recognizing a universal healing power that she describes as "healing light." There are perhaps 30+ stories of healing that she personally was involved in, some witnessed by others, varying from small but dramatic (the nearly instantaneous healing of a smashed thumb with a blackened nail) to the large and dramatic (people near dead from heart condition that within the hour are able to walk). She also admits that some are not healed even though we feel called to heal them, and that healing can occur on many levels beyond bodily healing (e.g., mind and spirit). Her method of healing is straightforward and requires faith: contact God by quieting the self and connecting wit...
SOMEONE'S AT THE FRONT DOOR Patch Adams (1998). House Calls: How We can All Heal the World one Visit at a Time Patch is a medical doctor and genuine clown that defines health as, "...happy, vibrant life, doing the most with what you have, with delight" (page 2). He takes clowning around, playing around, and humor seriously believing that this helps nourish the mind, body, and spirit, especially in hospitals, but also in "house calls" like the old time doctors used to make to family's homes. The book is divided into several sections: one with words/phrases with a description, things to do (practices), and cartoons to illustrate, the second section is things a visitor can do, the next section on how to be a good patient, and finally a section on special concerns when working with children, teens, elderly, mentally ill, disabled, and dying. Patch has a unique and valuable perspective on medicine, healing, and life that we all could grow into to make the world a...
OLD ONES Chief Joseph River Wind (2015). That's What the Old Ones Say. "Old Ones," particularly first nation indigenous peoples like the Lakota people that Chief Joseph River Wind speaks of in this book, have much wisdom to share. The setting for the book is a campfire where the Chief Joseph River Wind and old friend Pipe Carrier share stories with each other about their lives and their people just as humans did around the first fires of long ago. One of the many wisdom lessons for me is that first nation cultures have a SONG for just about everything, and everyone is given a song by the Creator Wakan Tanka to help guide their life. Let us create space together, calling together the people in our life that we feel a close connection with...let us encircle the fire (maybe we can't have a campfire but surely each of us can gather round a candle, and if not that, we can gather round some other earth element like a bowl of water, a pine cone, vase of flowers...) and sha...