IJHC (The International Journal of Healing and Caring)

Philadelphia: Hanley & Belfus, 2002 456pp $39.95

Good, succinct discussions of many CAM modalities, and of a spectrum of target symptoms and illnesses with appropriate CAM therapies. Generously referenced.

For instance, the section on spirituality includes a helpful mnemonic for integrating spirituality with conventional medical care:

The discussion on Otitis Media (inflammation of the middle ear) is an excellent example of how CAM therapies can be helpful. Suggested modalities detailed include breast feeding, cranial osteopathy, osteopathy, lymphatic drainage, flavonoids, homeopathy, herbs and other botanicals, allergy rotation diet, acupuncture, aromatherapy, and avoiding second-hand smoke and pacifiers. In Europe, the vast majority of cases of otitis media are treated with these therapies. In the US, 98% of cases are treated with antibiotics. Considering that over 100,000 people die annually from medication reactions, and that CAM therapies carry minimal risks, we have much to learn from these differences.

Peter A. Campbell and Edwin M McMahon. Bio-Spirituality: Focusing as a Way to Grow

As discussed in my editorial in IJHC Vol. 2, No. 3, the body can be understood within wholistic frameworks as a part of the person, intimately connected with emotions, mind, relationships (with other people and with environment) and with spirit.

"Focusing," an approach developed by Eugene Gendlin, directs us to attend to the felt sense of what is going on inside our body. This is the intuitive, right-brained way our unconscious mind brings to our attention the rightness and wrongness of what we are doing; the itch that says (my words), "examine what you are experiencing, because there is something out of harmony, out of alignment, misdirecting us from our proper life course."

A felt sense is unmistakably meaningful, and yet we don't know what it is. In contrast, we know the emotions when we have them.
Gendlin 1986 (p. 53)

Gendlin teaches that "the direction toward a felt sense is always into and through the feeling, never away from it." Feelings and emotions change only when we identify the felt sense associated with the feeling and seek out the roots behind this - for these are what anchor the feeling in our psyche and prevent its release.

Campbell and McMahon take Gendlin's work into spiritual dimensions.

...Focusing makes one attend to areas of hurt and weakness lodged deep in the memories of the body, which forgets nothing. Conventional beliefs and orthodoxies often merely protect us from these vulnerable areas. We fight and make war to defend these beliefs, and it is a veritable "crucifixion" to face the insecurity of surrendering them...
Robert T. Sears, S.J.
Campbell/McMahon (Foreword p. ix)

[F]aith is grounded not in formulated beliefs but in the experience of the unfolding process itself. The very process of believing gives us an analogous way of understanding its deepest ground, the triune God. "I" focus on a "felt sense" which unfolds" into who I am in the process of becoming. Analogously, the Father (I) forms his perfect Image (felt sense) which gives rise to an unfolding process of integration and self-transcendence (Holy Spirit). Focusing is a doorway beyond formulations of belief to faith or believing itself. As one moves more deeply into it, every event, every "felt-meaning," can become a religious event opening one to incarnate Spirit unfolding in evolution. Focusing does not cause this redemptive contact with Spirit. It opens the way. The transforming event itself is always perceived as gift - as grace - and a growing gratitude and reverence emerge in one who lives out this spiritual type of focusing.
Robert T. Sears, S.J.
Campbell/McMahon (Foreword p. x)

Gendlin points out that we do many things to avoid dealing with our feelings because they make us uncomfortable. If they really make us uncomfortable, we may make a habit of avoiding particular ones, or may generalize and avoid feelings altogether. This works well to reduce our discomfort in the short run, but leads to addictions of all sorts in the long run. Drinking, smoking, sex, shopping, compulsive working can all be ways of avoiding feelings.

Campbell shares his personal experience of dealing with guilt over having placed his mother in an assisted living situation.

...Every time I came near to the doorway of guilt and could feel those unpleasant stirrings in my body, I was whisked away to a temporary soothing of these feelings (through a visit to my mother) and the doorway to permanent change remained tightly shut. The untouched treasure of potential transformation in my body's way of carrying guilt remained nothing more than a hidden possibility. My guess is that such potential is rarely touched in the many lives of desperation where addictive confusion leads people away from their bodies - away from the true home of their own spirit! (p. 180)

Campbell and McMahon point out that spirituality can function in the same way as any of these addictions. For instance, they warn about "spiritualities of control."

There are spiritualities and spiritual exercises that can best be described as spiritualities of control. They easily become part of our arsenal of process-skipping devices. They protect us from change and, therefore, become a piece of the system that firmly locks addictive patterns in place. Their goal is not process but containment - the polar opposite of a healthy openness to grace. (p, 189)

Campbell considers prayers that substitute positive feelings for negative ones, such as anger. In a particular prayer he cites, whenever anger is felt, the love of Jesus is substituted for the anger.

...The deeper felt sense is neither heard nor allowed to express itself. Unprocessed anger is pushed down for a time - only to reemerge whenever another occasion arises that provokes the memory of all such unfinished business.

When this occurs, as inevitably it must, the prayer exercise and feelings of compassion for Jesus on the cross will need to be repeated once again in order to control this troublesome resurgence. Soon, a predictable and addictive scenario of process-skipping prayer willbbe born, just like I used visiting my mother to exorcise my demon of guilt. The bottom line in all this is that the anger will never change. It will just go on repeating itself over and over again until, finally, it is owned and the body's felt sense is allowed to unfold. (p.191)

If Jesus could be an encouraging presence, accompanying the person as he or she enters into and owns real inner feelings, then this could be a prayer that leads toward healing and wholeness. Here, there is no avoiding or denying what is real. There is an openness to the surprise of grace working at the heart of what we fear or avoid most inside ourselves. (p. 192)

...The surprise of grace waits at the core of what we often use prayer to run from and avoid inside ourselves. The body-life of Spirit yearns to unfold within the as yet unheard story of my anger and the hurt that sustains it. The prayer addict misses all this. An overriding need for control closes down openness to grace! Such persons become as psychologically addicted to using Jesus on the cross to manipulate their anger as others might use work, drugs, or alcohol as a means of escape. (p. 192-193)

This classic has grown in popularity over time. I cannot recommend it highly enough. My only criticism is that this otherwise excellent book lacks an index.

References

Gendlin, Eugene T. Focusing, New York: Bantam 1981.

Gendlin, Eugene T. Let Your Body Interpret Your Dreams, Wilmette, IL: Chiron 1986.

Campbell, Peter A. and McMahon, Edwin M. Bio-Spirituality: Focusing as a Way to Grow (2nd ed), Chicago, IL: Loyola 1997 (orig. 1985).

William H. Simon, George E. Ehrilich and Arnold Sadwin (eds and contrib). Conquering Chronic Pain After Injury: An Integrative Approach to Treating Post-Traumatic Pain

Simon, Ehrlich and Sadwin have edited a good basic introductory reference for the public on pain management with a variety of complementary/alternative medicine approaches. Each of the editors has written sections of the book as well. Various tables summarize relevant material and nicely supplement the text, which is divided into easily digested portions.

The reviewer, who is familiar with a spectrum of approaches to relieve pain and emotional traumas, found items of particular interest:

A discussion on Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), aka Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD), its assessment and treatments

A table differentiating between physical and psychological pain syndromes (p. 92-93)

The discussion on CAM approaches highlights a broad spectrum of approaches, with a few suggested readings for most. Surprising significant omissions: EMDR, Energy Psychology approaches *L(WHEE; Emotinal Freedom Technique), both of which are the most potent of the available treatments for psychological trauma, and the latter of which is very helpful in treatment of physical pain as well.

Susan Mazer and Dallas Smith. Sound Choices: Using Music to Design the Environments in Which You Live, Work, and Heal

Carlsbad, CA: Hay House 1999 228pp. $16.95 2 1/2 pp of references and resources. Book comes with CD.

Susan Mazer and Dallas Smith are musicians who have gifts for music in words as well as in playing their instruments - reflecting a healing presence through the instruments of their personhood.

Each speaks for her/himself, creating a pleasant discourse, stimulating tension of similarities and differences, and harmony in their coming together to share their explorations of bringing music as healing into medical environments that ordinarily are stressful and anything but healing.

In addition to its aesthetic value perceived by how it sounds, music transforms time and place. Therefore, using music to create life- enhancing environments shifts the relationship between music and listener from one that is content- based- that is, entertaining or distracting- to one that is contextual, expressing and supporting a purpose beyond itself. Ultimately, music accompanies the process of life, enhancing and enriching our capacity to live it. (p. 9)

Music, both historically and in the present, ahs been linked to the power to heal, control, incite, lure, seduce, celebrate the word of God, and spread the word of others. (p. 12)

In our personal efforts to understand the dynamic between music and listener, we found that, beyond its capacity to entertain and enrich, music gives structure and expression to both time and place, defining circumstance and meaning. Our task as artists, we determined, was to create music so engaging that time becomes timeless, reality changes, and life is created anew. Thus, what has perhaps not been acknowledged is that music creates an afterlife consisting of the moments and years following a life- changing performance. (p.11)

Mazer and Smith describe how they birthed and are maturing their skills in using music in hospital and other healthcare settings.

Our sole purpose was to help patients and staff experience the clinical environment as shiftable space- space that can be transformed from fearful to safe, from strange to peaceful. Only then would it have the capacity to hold the wide range of emotional and physical events that occur in the transition from disease to recovery, from degeneration to regeneration. (p. 15)

From the first note, everything seemed to change. Music in the hospital setting was like an aural oasis- a distraction and an offering, entertaining and ritual. This environment demanded that we leave our egos at the front door along with our needs as performers. We were not going to have the benefit of the usual audience applause, acknowledgement, or any other tangible way of determining whether our music was sufficient. We had to accept the fact that for someone gravely ill, our presence might be inconsequential, the least significant event. At the same time, for those patients listening to the music drift down the long halls and into their rooms, our music could be the most important event of that afternoon. (p. 14)

Susan: I remember taking an undergraduate course on the psychology of music that was both interesting and frustrating. As I plodded through the cumbersome, and, for me, foreign language of behavioral science, I found little that I could relate to, as either a performer of a listener. My coveted musical experience is uniquely mine, I thought, hardly to be dissected, analyzed, and reduced to a psychological diagnosis that would make a contrivance of my experience! I feared that this scientific inquisition might ruin the magic by implying that my emotional responses were actually manipulations acted upon me. It would be like revealing how a magic trick is done. If that were true, I could be left with only a musical trap door- one that wo0ulod make my fears and stresses disappear artificially, as if the effects of music were some kind of smoke- and - mirrors sham. (p. 13)

Excellent presentation of music for healing. The authors are sensitive to the healing qualities of the instrument that is the musician - through which the music flows. Reading the book is a healing experience in itself.

Other CDs (also good holiday gifts!):
Heart to Heart - produced in conjunction with St Luke's Episcopal Hospital, Houston, TX as part of a comprehensive healing environment (http://www.stlukestexas.com/ )

Crossroads of the Heart - Music of electro-acoustic harp and various wind instruments (from flute to electronic wind instrument) that soothes without being boring. While the composers make no claims for the healing effects of their music, the essence of their healing presences is felt through their music. http://www.healinghealth.com/ http://www.soundchoices.com/

Jahnke, Roger. The Healing Promise of Qi: Creating Extraordinary Wellness Through Qigong and Tai Chi

New York: Contemporary/McGraw-Hill 2002. 315pp 11pp Notes and Refs, 2 1/2 pp Resources $24.95

Roger Jahnke brings us an outstanding discussion of subtle energies as Qi. His explanations are interesting and his style easy reading. Richly punctuated with parables, qigong and t'ai chi exercises. Lovely accompaniment of Chinese ideograms in the margins, with English translations.

Nine is one of the most important numbers to the Chinese; it represents the nine bodily openings, the nine inner chambers, and the nine heavens. The "nine times refined Golden Elixir" is a spiritual medicine that is cultivated internally through advanced Qigong called Inner alchemy or externally in an alchemist's laboratory...Nine Phases of [Qi] Cultivation and the Tenth Phase of Compassionate Expression... (p. 51)

The Three Treasures correspondences
There are three worldly domains: Earth Treasure, Life Treasure and Heaven Treasure. They find myriads of expressions, as in Body, HeartMiind and Spirit; Yin, Harmony and Yang; Lifestyle healings of Nutrition and exercise, emotional resolution, and spiritual practice/meditation; Food, Qi and Spirit; etc.

Mind and Spirit

...In Chinese, there is no discrete concept for mind, nor is there a discrete concept for heart. One single concept, Xin (pronounced "shin"), embraces both. Confused Western translators have struggled with this, often translating Xin only as "heart" or only as "mind." There is no heart and there is no mind, there is only Xin - HeartMind.

...The conditioning of life and all its traumas causes us to believe that the brain and mind are the directors of life, but when the thinking self is allowed to be integrated with the feeling self in the HeartMind, everything changes... (p. 65)

Conserving Qi
Sexual orgasm depletes Qi. Jahnke suggests that sex that stops short of orgasm builds Qi energy and, when one is used to this, is more pleasurable than orgasmic sex.

Many forms of qigong
There are many variations on the theme of qigong. An unusual one is to move intuitively, freely, allowing the flows of Qi to guide you.

This book is warmly recommended as a thoughtful and informative read.

Masaru Emoto presents outstanding pilot experiments on vibrational influences that can alter the crystalline structure of water.

It seems that energetic patterns of awareness shape aspects of water for which we as yet have only the sketchiest of appreciations and next to no understanding. In Japanese, the word hado captures the essence of subtle energies relating to consciousness. We in the West have much to learn from Eastern cultures that have been far more aware of subtle energy phenomena over many centuries.

Emoto's explorations are ground-breaking beginnings at clarifying some of the influences of conceptual vibrations on water. As 65 % of the human body is composed of water, this may provide new avenues to explain some of the influences on the body of mental intents and prayers for healing.

Further experiments are suggested, such as examining urine samples from people before and after they have had healing.

The various processes involved in creating these effects in water bear clarification, such as physical purification, mental intent, prayer, and other states of being.

Conversely, the crystal forms might provide a measure of bioenergetic feedback on spiritual development.

Laura Blumenfeld writes a fascinating story of her personal search for revenge after her father was shot in the head by a Palestinian terrorist in the Old City of Jerusalem. Her father, a rabbi, was a tourist. He was targeted for reasons that were unknown.

Blumenfeld spent many months speaking with the family of the incarcerated terrorist, presenting herself as a journalist, which is in fact her actual occupation. She managed to communicate with the terrorist himself, as well.

Though her father was able to forgive and release his attachment to the incident, Blumenfeld remained obsessed with the attack. She visited Albania, where revenge has been codified over 2,000 years of sanctioned practice; in Sicily, where the Mafia have established revenge as a tool for establishing and maintaining power; and in Iran, where Muslim tradition includes revenge as a part of its legal system.

Most fascinating to the reviewer, as a psychotherapist, is her personal odyssey of sorting out her relationships with her father and mother, and how this interdigitated with her resolution of her search for revenge.

This is an excellent, readable exploration of many facets of the issues surrounding vengeful feelings and their resolution.

Michael Reagan (ed) and Sharon Begley (intro). Inside the Mind of God: Images and Words of Inner Space

Beautiful photographs of brain cells, brain imaging, molecules of neurotransmitters and much more, with exquisitely chosen quotes of scientists who sit on both sides of the divided opinions about whether the brain is the source of mind, or whether spirit embodies itself in the brain (mostly emphasizing the latter).

There are a limitless number of different sciences, but without one basic science, that is, what is the meaning of life and what is good for the people, all other forms of knowledge and art become idle and harmful entertainment."
Leo Tolstoy (p. 33)

Science can purify religion from error and superstition. Religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes.
Pope John Paul II (p. 84)

I know God won't give me anything I can't handle. I just wish He didn't trust me so much.
Mother Teresa (p. 95)

In the final analysis, the question of why bad things happen to good people transmutes itself into some very different questions, no longer aski9ng why something happened, but asking how we will respond, what we intend to do now that it happened.
Rabbi Harold S. Kushner (p. 124)

Burton Silver and Heather Busch. Why Paint Cats: The Ethics of Feline Aesthetics

The reviewer is still left wondering about what cats' rights advocates would say, and still hesitant to recommend a book that appeared to be potentially unfriendly to felines, until his daughter showed him a book of parallel beautiful examples of human body painting: Roberto Edwards (Photographer), Painted Bodies: By Forty-Five Chilean Artists, Abbeville Press 1996

Book Reviews

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