Book Reviews

by Daniel J. Benor, MD (unless otherwise noted)

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James Lovelock. The Vanishing Face of Gaia - A Final Warning

New York, NY: Basic Books 2009.  278 pp.  Bibliography 4 pp.  $25.00

James Lovelock is the originator of the modern awareness of Gaia as a unitary, living, geobiological entity. He points to serious growing dangers to human survival. Lovelock pulls no punches in confronting us over:

• Ignoring obvious evidence of global heating
• Failing to abide by the precautionary principle that states we must act in the interests of preservation of life and the environment on this planet – rather than exploiting our natural resources to exhaustion and extinction
• Failing to insist that our elected officials heed these warnings rather than voting for the self-interests of the powerful corporate and national interests that dominate our social governmental structures.

Corporate and national self-interests have dominated in political arenas at all levels of government. For instance, the UN has equivocated about the seriousness of the dangers of global heating, producing 'consensus statements' that appear to carry the weight of careful scientific deliberation. Lovelock points out that the opposite is actually the case.

…the words used to express the consequences of global heating were blurred until they were acceptable to representatives from the oil-producing nations, who saw their national interests threatened by the scientific truth. If this is what the UN means by consensus, scientific truth cannot be expected to come from its deliberations, and we are misled about the dangers of global heating. (p. 12)

To facilitate the manipulation of public opinion about global heating, governments and industries are increasingly favoring research based on complex, theoretical computer models for global heating – at the expense of observational research. Computer model analyses are always subject to questioning about their underlying assumptions and processes for assessing the effects of diverse factors on climate change.

Lovelock notes that direct observations are much more difficult to contest – and research to gather data from direct observations is finding decreased funding. He trenchantly observes, "It is said that truth is the first casualty of war, and it seems that this is also true of climate change." (p. 12) We are starting to produce truth in a virtual world instead of discovering it. (p. 114.)

We have experienced a dip in the progression of increasing global temperatures since 2007. Those
who would have us ignore global heating view this as an indication that warnings about its dangers are exaggerated. Lovelock points out that the reverse is true:

…in 2007 the Earth passed a significant milestone when the area of floating Arctic ice that melted in the summer was about 3 million square kilometers greater than usual, an area thirty times larger than England. Despite the heat absorbed, the global temperature did not rise; in fact it fell slightly, perhaps because to melt ice it takes eighty-one times as much heat as to raise the same quantity of water one degree. This property of ice is called its “latent heat.” You can see this yourself by making a near full cup of tea with boiling water. It will be too hot even to sip. Adding cold water to cool it quickly rarely works; but add a single ice cube and it will be cool enough to drink in a few seconds. In a few more years all that floating ice may go, and then the sun will be free to heat the dark Arctic Ocean, No longer will it have the Sisyphean task of trying to melt white, reflecting ice that rejects 80 percent of the sunlight it receives so that to melt it consumes most of the radiant energy that would otherwise warm the ocean. (p. 16-17)

Analyzing the major approaches to reducing global heating, Lovelock favors nuclear power as the most efficient choice. He decries the critics who have obstructed governmental investments in this choice. Nowhere, however, does he address the issues of radioactive pollution that have not found any safe solution as yet.

Much of the countryside has become the site for fields planted with biofuel crops, biogas generators, and industrial-sized wind farms-all this when land is wholly needed to grow food and more importantly to sustain a habitable climate and chemical composition. Don’t feel guilty about opting out of this nonsense: closer examination reveals it as an elaborate scam in the interests of a few nations whose economies are enriched in the short term by the sale of wind turbines, biofuel plants, and other green-sounding energy equipment. Don’t for a moment believe the sales talk that these will save the planet. The salesmen’s pitch refers to the world they know, the urban world. The real Earth does not need saving. It can, will, and always has saved itself, and it is now starting to do so by changing to a state much less favorable for us and other animals. What people mean by the plea is “save the planet as we know it,” and that is now impossible. (p. 19)

Lovelock feels we have passed the point of no return.

…forces now taking the Earth to the hothouse... include the increasing abundance of greenhouse gases from industry and agriculture-gases from natural ecosystems damaged by global heating in the Arctic and the tropics. The vast ocean ecosystems that used to pump down carbon dioxide can no longer do so because the ocean turns to desert as it warms and grows more acidic; then there is the extra absorption of the sun’s radiant heat as white reflecting snow melts and is replaced by dark ground or ocean. Each separate increase adds heat, and together they amplify the warming that we cause. (p. 72)

He points out that carbon dioxide in the breath and ammonia in flatulence of close to 7 billion people plus the same emissions from their pets and livestock account for 23 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions. On top of this we produce emissions in growing, distributing and preparing food. All of these add up to close to half of the entire greenhouse gas emissions on our planet. Furthermore, we destroy forests to produce food and other commodities

If just by living with our pets and livestock, we are responsible for nearly half the emissions of carbon dioxide, I do not see how the 60 percent reduction can be achieved without a great loss of life. Like it or not, we are the problem-and as a part of the Earth system. Not as something separate from and above it. (p. 74-5)

Lovelock is skeptical that we are capable of developing solutions to these problems in time to halt or reverse global heating.

Our contemporary industrial civilization is hopelessly unfitted to survival on an overpopulated and under-resourced planet, deluded by the thought that clever inventions and progress will provide the shoehorn that fits us into our imaginary niche. I think it is better we accept and understand how poor the chance of our personal survival is, but take hope from the fact that our species is unusually tough, has survived seven major climate catastrophes in the las million years, and is unlikely to go extinct in the coming climate catastrophe… (p. 81)

Our gravest dangers are not from climate change itself, but indirectly from starvation, competition for space and resources, and war. (p. 31)

…it is hubris to think that we know how to save the Earth: our planet looks after itself. All that we can do is try to save ourselves." (p. 13)

And lovelock is not entirely without hope for redemptive lessons along humanity's path, as a continuing part of Gaia's future. He suggests that humanity may have the capacity to repeat today the responses seen during WWII – where people willingly sacrificed their lifestyles in order to rise to the threats to their survival. " Our obligation as an intelligent species is to survive; and if we can evolve to become an integrated intelligence within Gaia, then together we could survive longer." (p. 97)

This book is a MUST READ for anyone concerned with survival of life as we know it on our planet.

Review by Daniel J. Benor, MD
IJHC Editor in Chief

Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander. The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life

Boston: Harvard Business School 2000.   206 pp   $22.50

I love this book! This is now one of my favorite books to recommend and to give as gifts to friends and colleagues.Rosamund Stone Zander is a family therapist and painter, and her husband, Benjamin Zander, is the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic – a volunteer Orchestra that is rated among the best in the world, where most of the other orchestras in this league are salaried. Over the years of their professional and personal collaborations, Ros and Ben have developed approaches for reframing challenging situations in positive ways, so that people who might otherwise end up in conflict are able to find their ways to negotiate mutually acceptable and satisfying resolutions to their disagreements.

Simple steps are detailed for re-conceptualizing prickly and knotty issues so that both sides discover ways around apparently insurmountable blocks and discover cooperative, mutually satisfying resolutions to problems. Much of their approach encourages the development of positive attitudes and expectations about dealing with such situations.

Each chapter is richly illustrated with personal anecdotes of how the methods Ben and Ros recommend have been successful in diverse challenging situations. Here are but a few of the many gems from this sparkling book:

An apocryphal story

A shoe factory sends two marketing scouts to a region of Africa to study the prospects for expanding business. One sends back a telegram saying,
SITUATION HOPELESS STOP NO ONE WEARS SHOES
The other writes back triumphantly,
GLORIOUS BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY STOP THEY HAVE NO SHOES.

Ros and Ben point out that when we get our backs up, much of what we assume to be fact is actually a reality that is created in our imaginations. By keeping this in mind, we allow ourselves to open to new possibilities in our negotiations.

A simple way to practice it’s all invented is to ask yourself this question:
What assumption am I making,
That I’m not aware I’m making,
That gives me what I see?

And when you have an answer to that question, ask yourself this one:
What might I now invent,
That I haven’t yet invented,
That would give me other choices? (p. 15)

Reframing one's situation in a major way:

You define yourself not as a piece, nor as the strategist, but as the board itself, the framework for the game of life around you. Notice we said that you define yourself that way, not that you are that…

When you identify yourself as a single chess piece – and by analogy, as an individual in a particular role – you can only react to, complain about, or resist the moves that interrupted your plans. But if you name yourself as the board itself you can turn all your attention to what you want to see happen, with none paid to what you need to win or fight or fix.

The action in this graceful game is ongoing integration. One by one, you bring everything you have been resisting into the fold. You, as the board, make room for all the moves, for the capture of the knight and the sacrifice of your bishop, for your good driving and the accident, for your miserable childhood and the circumstance of your parents’ lives, for your need and another’s refusal. Why? Because that is what is there. It is the way things are.

You ask yourself, in regard to the unwanted circumstances, “Well, how did this get on the board that I am?” or, “Now, how is it that I have become a context for that to occur?” You will begin to see the obvious and then the not-so-obvious contributions of your calculating self, or of your history, or of earlier decisions that landed you where you are, feeling like a victim. This reflection may bring forth from you an apology that will knit back together the strands of raveled relationships. And then you will be standing freely and powerfully once again in a universe of possibility. (p. 146-7)

This book is very highly recommended for anyone in the helping or managerial professions, as well as for anyone wishing to improve their negotiating skills in their personal lives.

Review by Daniel J. Benor, MD
IJHC Editor in Chief

Rothlyn Zahourek. Intentionality – The Matrix of Healing: A Qualitative Theory for Research, Education and Practice

Saarbrücken, Germany: VDM Verlag 2009  456 pp  US$112 paperback

This is an excellent book for a variety of reasons. It explores in great depth the meaning of intentionality in the healing process for healers and healees. Questions examined include:

What are the properties, antecedents, consequences, and characteristic relationships of intentionality in a healing dyad? Related questions include: 1) Can intentionality be explained and/or observed in healing, 2) How does intentionality manifest in client-healees and nursehealers, 3) Does intentionality occur within both healer and healees during healing as some contend (Epstein, 1996; Schlitz, 1997a&b), 4) Does the concept of intent relate to intentionality, 5) Do dyadic patterns of intentionality emerge from the interview and observation data, or are separate patterns identified for the nurse and client, and 6) Does intentionality have any relationship with the healing outcome as perceived by the participants? (p. 17)

Rothlyn Zahorek brings us a very thorough exploration of these questions, with a wide-ranging review of the literature, careful definitions of terms, and then the fascinating responses to her doctoral dissertation questions from healers and healees. For instance, I had never considered how intent and intention might be different. Zahourek clarifies:

The description that became most useful to differentiate intentionality from intent and intention came from existentialist Rollo May (1969). He explains that intentionality is a capacity for, or the quality of intent and intentions. It is not intention per se, and, as a capacity, it reflects the entire nature of the person. It is also not only reflected in will, motivation or desire. (p. 18)

Diagrams and explanations of theories facilitate the flow of explorations in clarifying what intentionality is and how it shapes healing processes.

Zahourek also provides a clear description of her process of distilling the individual responses into common denominators that underlie the experiences, perceptions and explanations offered by her subjects.  Where in other dissertations I've read, I've found these sorts of details dry, laborious and deterring, in this exposition I found these details fascinating.

HealingIntentionality became the primary core category. This communicated that the two categories were tightly linked, if not mutually interdependent. The healing process was influenced by how participants experienced and, later, described intentionality. Achieving a sense of wholeness and meaning even in illness was consistently described as healing by the participants. (p. 92)

The concept of shift, as related to restoring balance in a state of need, emerged as an essential aspect of HealingIntentionality. (p. 93)

A last gem I would share is Zahourek's poem summarizing the concepts gleaned in this study.

INTENTIONALITY IS
Capacity for awareness
Of ones self Of others
Of the world around
Of wholeness
Capacity for learning about
The ineffable
Spirit
Wholeness
Capacity for knowing
Ones self Another
Pattern
Wholeness
INTENTIONALITY IS
Appreciation of
Consciousness
Energy Information
Synchronicity
Paradox
Duality Unity
Meaning
Wholeness
INTENTIONALITY
Evolves from
Needing Wanting
Feeling splintered
Wanting wholeness
INTENTIONALITY
Manifests as
Motivation Action
Commitment Dedication
Determination
Seeking wholeness
INTENTIONALITY
(p. 13)

For anyone interested in intentionality as a factor in therapy, this book is a most useful and helpful resource. You may, however, be tempted to get your library to order it, due to its very high price.

Review by Daniel J. Benor, MD
IJHC Editor in Chief

2009.   226 pp    US$24.95

Bernie Siegel and Jennifer Sander. Faith, Hope & Healing: Inspiring Lessons Learned from People Living with Cancer

Hoboken, NJ: Wiley

Bernie Siegel is a wonderful healer, his words bringing inspiration and solace through the stories shared in this heartwarming book. I was reminded of a story Bernie likes to tell about the start of his career in providing support and nurturing to women with breast cancer – as I read this collection of reports from 32 people who learned to deal with their cancers as teachers and inner healers.

Bernie was distressed to find that many of the women he treated as a surgeon had no source of support outside their stressed families for dealing with their health challenges and the emotional turmoil they encountered – both from the cancers and from the medical treatments. Bernie invited a group of people who had undergone cancer surgery to meet regularly in his office in a support group.He found that the best way he could contribute was to let these people share their issues with each other and find support from each other, and to keep as quiet himself as he possibly could.

In this book there are stories of men and women, young and old, and a few as well of children who tell their experiences of dealing with cancers. For anyone who is challenged with cancer, this book brings the wonderful gift of hope. With the help, encouragement and support of the author, many of these people were able to arrive at a place of peace and inspiration, living their lives much more fully and meaningfully as a result of their experiences of dealing with cancer.

Review by Daniel J. Benor, MD
IJHC Editor in Chief

Richard Flook with Rob van Overbruggen. Why am I sick? What's really wrong and how you can solve it using META-Medicine®

Bosmin & King's Lynn, UK: MPG Books Group 2009. $29.99  258 pp  Endnotes 7 pp  Refs cited by author but not provided in book.

This book is a MUST READ for anyone exploring mind-body connections. Richard Flook, a Master Trainer in NLP has helped to develop Meta-Medicine® a method of identifying and releasing the neuropsychological roots of pain, stress and distress.A Meta-Medicine® practitioner clarifies when and where in people's lives they were traumatized and how those traumas imprinted themselves in their bodymind to cause psychological and physical symptoms and diseases. Such shocks include the following elements: they are unexpected, dramatic and isolating, and the person has no strategy for dealing with them. Once having identified these crucial issues, a person may use any of a variety of techniques to release them, such as NLP, WHEE, EFT, etc.

What makes this approach and book unique are the brain scans which demonstrate rings in particular areas of the brain associated with the symptoms. For instance, a person with lung disease with demonstrate a ring in the area of the brain related to lung functions. This is very exciting, pioneering confirmation of the mind-body connection.

Right and left brain hemisphere functions are affected by stressors. When a person experiences a major stress, this may block functions in one side or the other. When both sides are affected, symptoms are more likely to manifest. Identifying and clearing symptoms related to each side of the brain leads to rapid releases of the symptoms and illnesses.

I was fortunate to be able to work with Richard at the Healing the Healers Conference in Iceland in October, 2009. Richard helped a woman identify traumatic issues in her lives that manifested in bodymiind expressions as a bipolar disorder. We used WHEE to release aspects of these issues, and hopefully will be able to observe changes in the course of this woman's life.

I have one serious criticism, however, of Richard's theoretical framework. He identifies the levels of Mind, Body, Spirit, Social and Environment as defining a person's life experiences. Do you notice any important element missing? In my personal experience and in helping others resolve their life challenges, difficult Emotions are crucial to identify and resolve.

This is a landmark book that will be a help to anyone seeking to understand and address the mysteries of health and illness.

Review by Daniel J. Benor, MD
IJHC Editor in Chief

Cay Randall-May. Healing and the Creative Response: Four Key Steps Shared by Healers and Artists

Scottsdale, AZ:CayMay Press 2010.  $19.95  129 pp. Notes 4 pp.  References 4 pp.  Glossary 4 pp. Includes CD with voice discussion of many of the points considered in the paperback

Cay Randall-May is a highly unusual person, combining spiritual healing, art and science in her studies, work and personal life. She trained as an entomologist and for many years earned her living working with venomous scorpions. Her skills in the graphic arts were initially applied to drawings of insects, but have (literally) flowered and borne fruit in much more creative outlets. For years, Cay Randall-May has been a painter herself and teacher of painting for others. In parallel with her artistic abilities, she also developed her considerable intuitive abilities – to the point that C. Norman Shealy, MD, one of the pioneers in researching medical intuition, considers her among the top medical intuitives in the US.

In this excellent book (her fifth), Cay Randall-May discusses four steps involved in spiritual healing: Setting an intention; relaxing and clearing; engaging and blending; and attuning to the highest love. Her writing is clear and helpful to anyone wanting to understand the processes involved in healing.

This list of steps closely parallels those defined and taught by Lawrence LeShan, one of the earliest pioneers in studying healers and healing (LeShan 1974/1977). He found that the common denominators among healers were the steps of centering; joining with the healee; and joining with the All.

What Cay Randall-May offers us here adds substantially to healing awarenesses as taught by most healers. She points out how very similar steps and processes are involved when people engage in the creative arts. Illustrating her points with examples from painting, pottery, woodcarving, dance and more, she shows how creativity includes not only very similar processes, but also may produce similar healing outcomes.

This book is warmly recommended for anyone interested in the overlaps of healing and artistic creativity.

Reference:

LeShan L. The Medium, the Mystic and the Physicist, New York: Ballantine 1977. (UK edition: Clairvoyant Reality, Wellingborough, UK: Thorsons 1974).

Michael A. Jawer with Marc S. Micozzi. The Spiritual Anatomy of Emotion: How Feelings Link the Brain, the Body, and the Sixth Sense

Rochester, VT: Park Street Press 2009.  558 pp.  Notes 71 pp  References 12 pp   $24.95

Michael Jawer has done an excellent job of gathering an enormous collection of research evidence confirming links between the brain, the body and emotions. Students and academics who are starting out to explore these links may find many gems of interest in this book. For instance, Jawer's list of 36 emotions exceeds most of the lists of emotions I have seen. To some extent this is due to his looser definition of emotions than is used by many researchers in this field. Jawer includes cognitive constructs to which many apply the term 'feelings,' even though they are more in the realm of thoughts (e.g. desperation, longing and resignation). Nevertheless, this is a useful addition to our awareness. His discussions on how stress can be  
traumatizing to mind and body also have much to offer the reader.

I was pleased to pick up a few gems of awareness myself, such as:

…the term “biophilia,” coined by Harvard University biologist Edward O. Wilson… alludes…to “the connections that human beings subconsciously seek with the rest of life. Examples of biophilia include:
…The appeal of house pets and companion animals
…Our interest in gardening and keeping plants in our homes and offices
…The value of taking a stroll in the woods or getting more vigorous exercise outside…
Accumulating evidence suggests that, when we indulge our biophilia, we derive tangible benefit. (p. 445-6)

And I love the term I'd never encountered before, 'empathosphere,' coined by Michael Fox "to describe 'a universal realm of feeling that can transcend both space and time.' " (p. 414)

However, while Jawer has researched emotions through this literature, his understandings appear to be based on intellectual sortings of the dry masses of research evidence, missing the leavening that comes from life experience acquired from dealing with live challenges in a clinical practice – which provides a more solid basis for evaluating and interpreting the evidence.

For instance, Jawer writes,

…I do not consider depression – a subject much talked about these days – to be an emotion. Depression is a condition, the result of emotions unexpressed. In that sense, it is an anti-emotion, an example of what can befall someone when powerful feelings are disowned, bottled up, or dissociated. In many cases – perhaps all – there is also a genetic component, a latent disposition. But none of that alters my assessment that depression does not – indeed cannot – qualify as an emotion. (p. 24)

While these observations may be true for some people who experience depression, my impression from clinical experience and extensive readings on depression is that these sorts of cases which are the focus of Jawer are a small minority by far. Depression, in my personal and professional experience, is a distinct emotion that earns it a firm place on my list of emotions. Anyone who has gone through grief or other losses or suffers from bipolar depression could likewise testify to the reality of depression as an emotion in and of itself.

I also differ with Jawer/s discussions of intuition, a major focus of his book. For example, Jawer stops at the point of feelings in his discussion of an empathosphere that represents a resonation between living beings. My experiences and understandings of empathosphere include a collective consciousness that is facilitated by telepathy, clairsentience, and knowledge that transcends space and time.

Jawer has invested much of this book in support of his theory of 'thick boundary' vs 'thin-boundary' people. Thick boundary types of people are more likely to be insensitive to subtle perceptions and thin boundary people more sensitive to them. This might prove to be a helpful distinction in some situations. Interestingly, research in parapsychology has acknowledged the differences between believers and non-believers in psychic and transpersonal phenomena with the differences in their response to the question, "Do you believe in psychic phenomena or not?" Substantial research has strongly suggested that non-believers (affectionately labeled 'goats') possess these sensitivities as much as believers (labeled 'sheep') do, but the goats appear to use them in alignment with their belief systems. On tests of psychic abilities, the skeptics perform so consistently below chance levels that their results are highly significant. Meta-analyses of studies in which the sheep/goat effect were examined (Lawrence, 1993) demonstrated significance with odds against chance greater than 1 trillion to 1 (p <  10 x 10-8).

Jawer cites some of the research evidence from parapsychology journals and books, and reviews research on phenomena such as the out of body experience (OBE) and near death experience (NDE), but limits his theorizing to physiological, neurological and psychological explanations for these, and does his best to explain away any theories involving transcendent realities – which theories Jawer does not consider directly in any detail. Here, too, there is well-substantiated research confirming the existence of telepathy, clairsentience, and knowledge that transcends space and time (Benor, internet reference). Jawer proposes a variety of theories based on emotions and brain dysfunctions, suggesting such phenomena need not be explained as real extensions of our consciousness beyond our physical and emotional selves.

For instance, when it comes to apparitions (ghosts), he suggests that the electrical "vortex of energy in the body, when combined with issues of preoccupations held in the brain, can generate the phenomena we know of as ghosts, poltergeists, and similar haunts" (p. 131); or that infrasound may generate fears that are translated into imaginary sightings of apparitions (p. 404-5).

Jawer does not cite evidence contradicting his theories about these transpersonal realms of experience, such as that of Luis Vargas and colleagues, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry in 1989, showing that two out of three people who lose someone close to them experience bereavement apparitions. They either see, hear or 'sense the presence' of these people who are no longer in the physical world – in very real and palpable ways. The communications in both directions appear to be deeply meaningful and healing in many cases. Nor does Jawer mention research such as that of Gary Schwartz and colleagues (2002) confirming the validity of psychic and channeled information. Jawer dismisses reincarnation as a theory, suggesting that emotional energy created by psychological trauma might persist in the world (types of energy and how they might persist are not explained), subsequently influencing a fetus during its development in utero. My own review of the apparition, mediumistic (channeled) and reincarnation research includes a spectrum of evidence suggesting survival of the spirit as a real phenomenon and not just the product of physiological processes in the brain or of emotional projections and hallucinations (Benor, 2006).

For Jawer,

Such superstitions…are not far from the truth – but the truth lies in the biochemistry of the brain and the body and in the emotional energy retained in our being. I will state my concept again: the frozen energy of the stress reaction, combined with issues or preoccupations held in the brain, can generate the phenomena we know as ghosts, poltergeists, and similar haunts. (p. 155)

Jawer is impressed with a minor reference from spiritual healing research that lends support to his theory, but overlooks the much more substantial body of spiritual healing research (Benor 2001; 2007) that cannot be explained by his theories that are limited to body, emotions and brain. Jawer makes an observation on the work of Bernard Grad, one of the pioneers of healing research, performed studies showing that healers could hasten wound healing in mice and could enhance the growth of plants. However, Grad's evidence and the hundreds of other studies on spiritual healing – including healing from a distance – are all ignored by Jawer in his discussions. For Jawer, the evidence worth citing is:

…this intriguing observation by researcher Bernard Grad, who has studied people who seem to possess healing ability: "I have conducted experiments in which I obtained extraordinary results with people who made no claim to be healers but who were in states of emotional arousal." [Emphasis mine]. (p. 155-156)

So I would say in summary that the strongest audience for this book will be those who prefer to limit their consciousness of their existence to conventional, Newtonian medical and psychological understandings of the world.

On a personal note, I have to add that this was a difficult review for me to write. My views differ substantially from those of Jawer (and I presume those of Micozzi as well, though his voice is nowhere explicitly evident in the book). I experience the world very clearly as inseparably imbued with the presence of something transcendent that is beyond words. I can only begin to touch on the fringes of its essence when I start to put it into words, and hopelessly distort it when doing so. I feel I am a part of that vast essence, which includes everything beyond my physical self. I am a part of IT and IT is a part of me. This is not the place to expand upon my views much further, but I feel I must share at least a hint, a pointer for anyone with open mind and heart and inner gnowing – to at least explore this consciousness of what Larry Dossey calls 'non-local reality.' Jawer fails to go there.

I strongly believe that not going there is a major part of the reason the world is in the mess it is in, and headed for suicidal self-destruction. By separating ourselves from our world, we make it into something 'other' than ourselves. This, to many, gives license to exploit natural resources, exploit 'other' people, and wantonly pollute what I experience as part of myself – Gaia, the living, sentient ecobiological entity who gives life to everything on this world. I have persisted in writing this review despite many inclinations to set it aside, in the hopes that some few in the Newtonian camp of disbelievers in a broader participatory reality might consider looking beyond their Newtonian frameworks to a world that I feel desperately needs and deserves a deeper awareness, a better attitude, a greater acceptance, and – most importantly – more respect and caritas from humanity. This is the greatest healing challenge of our time. If the cancer that humanity has become on this planet cannot be cured, we and all life as we know it on our planet will not survive.

The fact that I have persisted in this review is a credit to Jawer's broad canvassing of the literature he reviews, however limited his spectrum may be.

References
Benor, Daniel J, Healing Research: Volume I, Spiritual Healing: Scientific Validation of a Healing Revolution, Wholistic Healing Publications 2007 (Orig. 2001).
Benor, Daniel J, Healing Research: Volume I, Professional Supplement, Southfield, MI: Vision Publications, 2001.
Benor, Daniel J, Healing Research: Volume I, Spiritual Healing: Scientific Validation of a Healing Revolution, Wholistic Healing Publications 2007 (Orig. 2001).
Benor, D. J. Healing Research, Volume II (Professional edition), Consciousness, Bioenergy and Healing, Bellmawr, NJ: Wholistic Healing Publications, 2004.
Benor, D. J. Healing Research, Volume III – Personal Spirituality: Science, Spirit and the Eternal Soul, Bellmawr, NJ: Wholistic Healing Publications 2006.
Benor, D. J. http://wholistichealingresearch.com/psi_research.html
Lawrence, Tony. Bringing home the sheep: a meta-analysis of sheep/goat experiments. Proceedings of 36th Annual Parapsychology Convention 1993, Fairhaven, MA: Parapsychological Association.
Vargas, Luis A., et al. Exploring the multidimensional aspects of grief reactions, American Journal of Psychiatry 1989, 146(11), 1484-9.

Review by Daniel J. Benor, MD
IJHC Editor in Chief

Sandra Ingerman. Soul Retrieval: Mending the Fragmented Self

New York, NY: HarperOne/ HarperCollins 1991.

This is an important book for anyone who works with people who have severe emotional wounds. Sandra Ingerman trained in shamanic healing with Michael Harner, and is now a very respected shamanic teacher herself.

In this easy to read book you will find explanations of shamanic cosmologies and approaches to healing, particularly focused on reuniting people with shattered personalities who have literally lost fragments of themselves. While this may sound like a metaphoric description of psychological fragmentation, in the world of bioenergetic anatomy and healing it is a literal description of aspects of a person that may become fragmented and lost – not just to conscious awareness, but actually dislocated energetically from the person and existing in remote energetic/spiritual realms.

Ingerman details methods for locating and reuniting these fragments with their owners. Case descriptions provide more concrete and understandable details of how the fragmentations occur and how they can be repaired.

For instance:

Carol, a participant in a shamanic workshop, went on her own shamanic journey. A teacher in one of the shamanic realms directed her attention to a childhood trauma that had left her with serious problems. Carol immediately recalled being raped by her father at age three.

Ingerman journeyed into shamanic realms, and with the help of her power animal observed the trauma occurring when Carol was three years old.

As I watched, I saw something for which I was totally unprepared. As the rape was taking place, I saw Carol's soul, her essence, separate from her body and leave. As I watched her departing soul, I was that it had gone into a place known in shamanism as the void – a place of pitch darkness, silence, lifelessness.  (p. 42)

Ingerman traveled into the void, calling out to Carol's soul. Connecting with her, Ingerman found her willing to return with her to rejoin Carol. She said, 'Yes' and Ingerman felt her holding onto her back.

When we returned to ordinary reality, I blew the three-year-old soul into Carol's heart and the top of her head, as shamans have traditionally done. "Welcome home," I said to the part that had been lost in the void. (p. 42-43)

A few weeks after our session, Carol called me. She reported she felt as if she were present in her body for the first time in her adult life. Whereas she always had felt disconnected from herself before, she now experienced life directly and intenself. Colors appeared more vibrant. Plants seemed as alive as animals. No longer did she experience life as a movie she was merely observing. (p. 44)

Some may view these reports of personality fragmentations and healings as metaphoric imagery that facilitate a person's reuniting psychological splits which occurred under traumatic circumstances. If this is so, it is still a remarkable contribution to healing such splits. Under more conventional psychotherapeutic approaches, repairing split personalities may take many months and years of therapy. Shamanic healings often occur in a single session.

Others may understand these reports as descriptions of energetic and spiritual realities that are outside conventional, Western cosmological frameworks. My personal preference is for these explanations – which Ingerman details very clearly in this excellent book.

Review by Daniel J. Benor, MD
IJHC Editor in Chief

Tapas Fleming. TAT Cards

Includes deck of playing cards with limiting beliefs, instructions for doing TAT http://www.tatlife.com/  $9.95
http://store.tatlife.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=72&products_id=247 

This is an excellent way to access issues that may be causing difficulties in your life and hindering you from maximizing your potentials. Each card in the deck has an issue on it, such as "I'll never be the person I was." or "I can't relax." By shuffling the deck and drawing a card, you allow your intuition to bring to your attention issues that may be helpful for you to clear. This can be for personal use or for group explorations.

Easy instructions included with the deck, supplemented at the website above with further information and workshop opportunities provide additional support.

I particularly like the invocation of intent for healing recommended at the start of the draw (this version is for two or more participants):

This process is on behalf of each of us and each other, our families, our ancestors, our conscious and subconscious minds, all the parts of us, all the points of view we've ever had, everyone involved in this, everyone who uses these cards, and anyone else who would like to benefit from this. This process will happen safely and easily.

The loving care of Tapas, the originator of TAT, is evident in the meticulous attention in the cards and in TAT to clearing issues from every particle and aspect of our being.

These cards are intended to be user friendly and to make TAT accessible to anyone who might be playing a card game, such as military and combat Veterans.

Review by Daniel J. Benor, MD
IJHC Editor in Chief

Philip Friedman. The Forgiveness Solution

San Francisco, CA:.Conari Press 2009  52 pages  $16.95   

The Forgiveness Solution is not a book to read, as much as it is a journey to experience.  Most of the book consists of exercises designed to connect the reader with his or her own true Self or Inner Being, mapping out the pathways form fear to love.  Friedman’s basic philosophy is summed up here:  A lifetime of personal and spiritual growth and practicing psychotherapy has led me to understand that underneath all distressing emotions is the core emotion of fear, which is itself a lack of love.  Love is the core positive emotion that we experience when we are connected to our inner Being or true Self.  When we feel separate from our inner Being or true Self, we experience fear. … The essence of our Being is love, and our journey through life is a quest to return to our core, which is love (page 49). 

He draws on perspectives and techniques from transpersonal psychology, spiritual healing, energy medicine, visualizations, and forgiveness research to create a comprehensive protocol for emotional and/or mental distress.  Each exercise assists the reader in releasing fear, anger, judgment, scorn, blame and so on, making room for love and light.  Personally speaking, Friedman’s perspective makes a lot of sense and it seems to cut through a lot of psychological complexity that may bog us down on our journeys.  Sad?  Angry? Confused?  Bitter?  Afraid?  Use forgiveness of self and others to get rid of all the garbage that obscures your beauty, allowing your natural joy, love, and light to shine forth.  The underlying simplicity of Friedman’s approach will appeal to those readers who are no longer interested in trying to analyze the roots of their pain, and wish instead to simply step into the present in a joyful way.  Once we can really internalize that “every communication is either an expression of love or a call for love” (page 5o), our relationships can begin to evolve, long-time grudges can dissolve, wounds can heal, and we can learn to love unconditionally, starting with ourselves.
 
However, it must be said that readers of The Forgiveness Solution must be able and willing to devote some time and effort to actually doing the exercises on a regular basis – affirmations, visualizations, self-acupressure, emotional freedom technique sequences, letter writing, journaling and prayer.  Just sitting down and leafing through the book will probably not result in any meaningful shifts.  But for people who are really motivated to make changes in their life – releasing fear and embracing love – this book could be exactly what the doctor ordered. Practicing psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists and counselors will find this book a treasure trove of useful exercises that they can prescribe to their patients and clients, helping to shift the focus from the therapeutic process to producing real results by connecting people with their capacity to love self and others.
Blessings,

Review by Elizabeth MacKenzie, PhD
Lecturer in the Health and Societies Program
University of Pennsylvania
Fellow of the Center for Spirituality and the Mind

Mark Grant. Change Your Brain, Change Your Pain

Wyong, NSW Australia: Mark Grant 2009. 212pp  Notes 13 pp   US$30  

An associated CD can be purchased separatelyMark Grant, a psychologist in Sydney, Australia, shares his understandings of how EMDR and related methods can release physical and psychological pains. His detailed presentation on the prevalence and contributors to pain is methodical, and his discussion of therapeutic approaches includes helpful, step-by-step exercises. For instance, Grant surveys research showing that people who are stressed are more likely to experience pains of all sorts, as well as various diseases.

Stress is anything that threatens your ability to satisfy your survival needs. 
Five main types and effects of stress which lead to pain:
     1. lack of safety and support
     2. emotional disconnection
     3. increased physiological arousal
     4. negative thinking
     5. trauma (pain memories). (p. 16)

Five basic strategies for overcoming pain:
     1. safety and support
     2. reconnecting with your feelings
     3. learning how to  control stressful feelings and pain
     4. changing your thinking
     5. building resilience (p. 17)

Grant reviews research on

…the complex, multi-layered nature of traumatic pain… recommend[ing] a phase-oriented approach incorporating safety, exposure and emotional regulation skills training, and reintegration (learning to think and behave more adaptively). Each phase of treatment addresses a different element of the problem, with all the phases forming a comprehensive treatment strategy. Drawing on the phase-oriented approach, and what we know about the different types and effects of stress which maintain pain, the following five-stage strategy is recommended:
     1. safety and support
     2. reconnecting with your feelings
     3. learning how to control stressful feelings and pain
     4. changing your thinking
     5. building resilience. (p. 54)

Grant observes that bilateral stimulation of the body markedly facilitates releases of pains, when a person mentally focuses on negative feelings and/or cognitions. Similarly, it facilitates replacements with positive ones. Both careseekers and caregivers will find this book rich in suggestions for ways to apply these principles.

While WHEE (www.paintap.com) is much simpler in its explanations and applications, Grant's book provides a broad variety of suggestions that are very helpful to anyone seeking help in dealing with pain.

Review by Daniel J. Benor, MD
IJHC Editor in Chief

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