Book Reviews

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

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Jeri Mills, MD. Tapestry of Healing: Where Reiki and Medicine Intertwine

Green Valley, AZ: White Sage Press  2001   203pp   $15.95

Jerri Mills is unusual on at least four counts.

First, she is a physician who has developed her own healing gifts and uses them in her practice of obstetrics and gynecology. Mills initially studied shamanic and Native American healing, then Reiki, and found that the healing would “turn on” automatically as she ministered to the women in labor and delivery at her hospital. This came naturally to her, as she describes herself as being a naturally “hands-on” person, who intuitively comforts people with ordinary touch (in addition to touch required for me dical examinations). Women who were in pain and who had difficult labors would find their problems rapidly eased with the healing. Mills was initially anxious that patients would be disturbed or put off by her offers. 

At first I turned to energy work only as a last resort, when traditional therapies were unable to help my patient.  One such patient was a woman on whom I had performed a Caesarian section two days earlier.  Her intestinal function had not returned to normal.  Drugs and standard medical procedures had done little to relieve her sharp abdominal pain.  I offered to ‘try this energy technique that I had recently learned’; she agreed.

After running energy over her abdomen for about fifteen minutes, her pain was gone.  My patient turned to me with an angry expression on her face and snapped, ‘Why didn’t you do this for me two days ago?’”  (p. 31)
for me two days ago?’”  (p. 31)

Being a physician, her observations on the effects of healing are more understandable and authoritative than most non-physician healing reports..

Second, Mills was a veterinarian prior to studying medicine, so she also shares reports of successful healing with animals.

Third, she has had the courage to speak openly to her colleagues and to write about her experiences. Her colleagues have responded with mixed reactions, ranging from warmly approving her use of a modality that markedly benefits her patients, through surprised questioning to learn more about healing, to questioning whether she should be doing this.
I have known numbers of doctors who privately reveal that they have gifts of spiritual healing, but most are afraid to discuss this publicly. Their anxieties and fears are well-founded. Peer censure in the medical community can be fierce and devastating. Doctors can be censured by their local professional medical boards for practicing medicine in ways that are outside the accepted norm of their community. For instance, in 1982 I spoke with a doctor who had been warned to stop teaching meditation to his patients for the control of hypertension, with the threat that if he did not comply, his license would be suspended.

Fourth, she writes clearly and convincingly about approaches to using healing and its benefits.
This book is warmly recommended to anyone interested in how healing can be integrated in a medical practice.

M. Sue Benford. Strong Woman: Unshrouding the Secrets of the Soul

Nashville, TN: Source Books 2002   272pp  $17.95   6pp refs.

Sue Benford shares her personal journey of recovery from childhood cancer, which left her severely disabled. With dogged perseverance, she overcame her crippling weaknesses and physical deformities, going on to become the women’s world champion weight lifter in the 97 lb. class and breaking all records for breaking records in weight lifting.

Benford describes her spiritual awakening – through meditation, psychic counseling, research in religious texts, and guidance from spirits, angels and Christ. Milestones along the way were a series of synchronicities  – those remarkable coincidences that remind us we are part of a larger, exquisitely choreographed existence.  Three soulmate relationships ripened her spiritual development.

The wisdom in Benford’s spiritual development is inspiring. I share here a few words that synchronistically complement the editorial in this issue of IJHC.

I remember something Scott Peck had written describing the inability of people at earlier stages of spiritual development to accept those at more advanced stages.  Peck observed that, “The greatest problem of these different stages – and the biggest reason it is so important to understand them - is the sense of threat that exist between people at such different points on the spiritual journey.  To some extent, we all may be threatened by the people still in the stages we have just left, because we may not yet be sure or secure in our new identity.  But for the most part the threat goes the other way, and we particularly tend to be threatened by people in the stages ahead of us.”

I now experience first hand, this fear by a person not yet ready to be transformed or born.  A strict fundamentalist, Dan [a soul mate] was in the second trimester, or Stage Two, of his fetal soul’s development.

I found it interesting how Dan, and most other fundamentalists Christians like him, considered themselves already “born” when, in actuality, they had only truly just been “conceived.”  I wondered how they justified their unloving and unforgiving behaviors, toward themselves and toward others, if they really thought they were now born into the all-loving Christ.  Who was right - Dan or me?

Jesus explained to me the cognitive differences between developing souls in terms of grade levels in school.  He said that no grade was more worthy of loved by God than another but each did have its own set of rules and responsibilities to master along with its own level of understanding.  He said that we would not expect a first grader to understand the same things that a twelfth grader did.  Nor would we apply the same responsibilities and freedoms to the two different grades- tests would be different and privileges would be different.

He said that those in the higher grades, and the graduates, must always defer to the understanding of the lower grade levels.  To do otherwise would be “unloving” and unacceptable behavior for the higher-grade students.

In other words, Dan was not wrong; in fact, quite the contrary.  He was portraying his understanding of being a “good Christian,” according to his elementary understanding. He would have to continue his attempt to become “perfect” through following the only rules and test allotted for his grade.  Eventually, most likely in another lifetime, he would progress to new challenges, rules, and understandings.

Jesus said that is why he and the disciples spoke in parables about things visible in the physical world.  It was so every grade level would have something they could grasp onto and comprehend, regardless of the developmental capacity of “their eyes and ears” for seeing and hearing the invisible, or spiritual, truth represented by the physical world analogies.” p. 111

Benford initiated a scientific re-investigation of the shroud of Turin, alleged to have been wrapped around Christ after the crucifixion. She feels the evidence supports its authenticity.  This book deserves a thoughtful read.

Richard Leviton. The Galaxy on Earth; A Traveler's Guide to the Planet's Visionary Geography

Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads. 2002.   577 pp   $18.95

Richard Leviton is an Earth mysteries expert, having written at least another half a dozen books on similar subjects.  This book is a geomancer's do it yourself toolkit.  I do not envisage referring to it on a day to day basis in my relationship with the Planet, rather using it as a guide to understanding my feelings and intuitions of a site listed in the book, after visiting and experiencing it.  I found myself intrigued by the myths alluded to throughout and how they cropped up in various different cultures under similar guises.

My first impression of this book was that it seemed a bit daunting, weighing in at over 500 pages.  My next thought was how many of the sacred sites mentioned had I actually been to - less than a fifth – and still a long way to go!  I was surprised at the omission of some sites, for example the Pyramids at Giza and Stonehenge, England.  However, Richard does state the reason for this - that too detailed a coverage was needed for them.  The places described are those where "the veil is thinner.”  My own view is that anywhere you go can become a sacred site.  It's your interaction with it that can make it so, especially if you visit it on a regular basis.
After reading the foreword and preface, I was keen to discover more, and go on to the Geomantic features.  Part One is entitled "Geomancy, Cosmology and a Planet of Sacred Sites."  A bit of an introduction about what is meant by these terms would have been good, but Richard went straight into a practical exercise, which intrigued me.  From the start he talks about connecting with the Planet and what we can do for Her.  This section sets the scene for the rest of the book.  Myths are explained as being guides to visionary geography i.e. sacred sites, giving you clues with which to find your own.  These sites are arranged in a pattern, equivalent to that found in the galaxy - as above, so below, but always remembering the bit in the middle too - so don't leave yourself out of the picture.  Further exercises expand on this theme, utilising the fact that Gaia's qi and chakras correlate to parts of the human body.  He states that "…the genius of the Earth's sacred geometry is that it enables us to penetrate the incomprehensible whole and find the master key.”

Part Two is called "An A-Z inventory of the Light Pattern Library of the Earth Grid.” It explains some geomantic features, their associated myths and the experiences offered at them.  Richard reminds us that our rightful role as humans is to be geomantic interfaces between the Galaxy, the Planet, the spiritual hierarchy and matter.

Part Three is an alphabetical listing of sacred sites.  Each is described with its physical and historical facts, associated legends and reports of travellers’ experiences while visiting it.  Then its geomantic function is explained.  Abydos is one of the sacred sites mentioned.  Richard says, " It was once the most venerated, if not the holiest city in all of Egypt.”  Abydos revolves around the myth of Osiris, whose son killed him and scattered his body throughout Egypt.  After Isis put his body back together, Osiris became Lord of the Underworld, who weighed the hearts of the dead.  Not surprisingly, one of Abydos' geomantic features is an Underworld Entrance.  I certainly tuned into it when I visited the site, feeling that I was bring balanced, centred and prepared for something important for which I had to be correct.

Santiago de Compostela is another interesting sacred site. "The city acquired its name as the Field of Stars when a hermit saw supernatural lights in the stars. Guided by them, he found the tomb of St James. Many visitors affirm the site's aura of devotion and holiness. In the 1980s, Blanche Merz used scientific measuring equipment to analyse energy emissions around the relics of St James, and found an extraordinary level of vitality and spiritual charge, higher than anywhere else she had investigated.  The "light of life" above the crypt was dazzling, illuminating the brain, Merz commented."  Shirley MacLaine reported, "…the ley line energy of the Camino permeated the acupuncture meridians of the feet of the pilgrims, supporting self-realisation.”  Richard says a Dome and a Three Star Temple are amongst its attributes. I felt a truly intimate moment between the Universe and myself while there. Maybe I had connected, with Richard's "specific archangel that oversees this Three Star Temple.”

Interwoven through the book is another theme - that of the Ray Masters, which I found fascinating. Their role, colour and expression are described. "One of their jobs was to ground their celestial energy through the thirteen dragons on Earth so that they could function within Earth's geometric terrain and so that the dragon energy could be introduced into the Planet's energy body.”

This is a very comprehensive publication - but more of reference book than one to be read cover to cover.  It is well researched.  The indexing is a bit less extensive than I would have liked, but overall, great value at around £15.  This book will appeal to anyone interested in Earth mysteries, but especially those with a yen to travel to the sacred sites it describes in such graphic detail.

Chrissy Holmes, Librarian
Bristol Cancer Health Centre
England

Joseph Chilton Pearce. The Biology of Transcendence: A Blueprint of the Human Spirit

Rochester, VT: Park Street 2002    279pp    8pp refs    $22.00

Pearce has a true gift of engaging discussion that crosses the boundaries of science and spirit. This book is full of gems that bring together brain physiology, psychology, Christianity and personal spirituality.

Pearce is well known from his earlier books about the magical child. Here, he writes of his personal spiritual development and of his views on the difference between transcendence and religion. 

His personal experiences include periods during his life when he was able to activate intuitive/psychic abilities to scan masses of data accurately; to sell sterling silver to everyone (including an unscheduled, in-home sale at midnight); and impossible physical feats (e.g. climbing a high, crumbly cliff with an overhang).

He points out that the need to honor, nurture and develop our transcendent awareness  is not a trivial or unimportant difference, because 

… Our violence toward ourselves and the planet is an issue that overshadows and makes  a mockery of all our high aspirations… (p.1)

…What are the actual, tangible results of those lofty religious institutions that we have known throughout history?  If we examine them by the fruits they produce, rather than by creeds, slogans, concepts, and public relations that sustain them, we would see that spiritual transcendence and religion have little in common.  In fact, if we look closely, we can see that these two have been the fundamental antagonists in our history, splitting our mind into warring camps. (p. 1-2)

Our transcendence has been sidetracked - or derailed altogether-by our projection of these transcendent potentials rather than our development of them.  We project when we intuitively recognize as possibility or tendency within ourselves but perceive this as a manifestation of capacity of some person, force, or being outside of ourselves.  We seem invariably to project onto each other our negative tendencies (“…if it weren’t for the likes of you…that government….those people…”), while we project our transcendental potentials onto principalities and powers “out there” on cloud nine or onto equally nebulous scientific law.  The transcendence we long for, then, seems the property of forces to which we are subject.  Like radar, our projections bounce back on us as powers we must try to placate of with which we must struggle.  Perennially our pleas to cloud nine go unheeded, our struggles against principalities and powers are in vain, and we wander in a self-made hall of mirrors, overwhelmed by inaccessible reflections of our own mind.  Handed down through millennia, out mythical and religious projections take on a life of their own as the cultural counterfeits of transcendence. (p. 2)

Pearce presents a strong case for interpreting the teachings of Christ in the light of personal spiritual development, rather than adherence to a ritualized liturgy. Pearce suggests that Christ’s teaching were not intended to enthrone Jesus and the apostles, and certainly not the later established church, as the primary purveyors of spiritual wisdom, nor as the primary focus for spiritual observance. Christ taught that each of us has a direct connection to God.

…Once open to the heart, we recognize the universe as benevolent and our personal self to be the center of that benevolence. The moment we place that center outside ourselves, as onto some group, person, or invisible deity, we have betrayed and denied our heart. The intelligence of the heart, as it moves for well-being, is not just a figure of speech; it is the only intelligent function. (p. 207)

Pearce has a gift for reviewing diverse materials in an engaging manner. He includes a helpful discussion on the brain and transcendent awareness, but this is nowhere near as compelling as his discussions on spirituality.  This book is worth a good chew.

See also:
Pearce, Joseph Chilton, Magical Child, New York: Bantam, Inc. 1980.
Pearce, Joseph Chilton, Magical Child Matures, New York: E. P. Dutton, Inc. 1976.

Dolores Krieger, PhD, RN. Therapeutic Touch as Transpersonal Healing

New York: Lantern/Booklight 2002   291pp   6pp notes/refs   $20.00

Dolores Krieger takes several steps forward in this book.  She shares transpersonal aspects of healing that take TT beyond the mechanistic bioenergy model of simply assessing bioenergy fields that reflect physical and psychological problems, and adjusting bioenergy states through healer intent. Yet Krieger firmly grounds the transpersonal in theory and experiential explorations, with a strong focus on teaching in a responsible way.

Krieger presents lists of descriptors for various aspects of the TT experience that are helpful in dissecting and analyzing TT, but most of all – in appreciating its multi-faceted, multi-layered potentials for bringing the TT therapist  (Krieger uses this term instead of healer) through bioenergy interactions into ever greater awarenesses of the transpersonal dimensions of healing.Discussions of the chakras (major bioenergy centers along the midline of the body) emphasize their transpersonal resonations with the cosmos, in addition to their regulation of localized body functions. Krieger strongly advises that a person should be helped to regulate her own chakras and that these centers should not be treated by the TT therapist. (In this, she differs substantively from practices common to many other healing approaches.)

Krieger has several earlier books on TT. This one takes the reader more deeply into the need to focus on the personal and spiritual development of the healer. A few cogent points:

The fundamental factors in the practice of Therapeutic Touch are the TT therapist’s knowledgeable use of her chakras with intentionally, an empathic recognition of the limitations and aberrations of the healee’s imblanced vital systems, and, most importantly, the therapist’s uncoerced extension of permission to her own inner self to integrate with her physical, emotional, cognitive, and spiritual levels of consciousness in the compassionate interest of helping of healing someone in need. (p. 75)

…the concept of Warrior as archetype…The war, if that term is even applicable, is always against one’s own weaknesses and self-imposed limitations, and against those in society who would throttle others’ rights to similarly grow in the image of their innermost selves.  The Warrior is adamantly committed to this self-search and unyielding in the pursuit of gaining control of her personal world. (p.. 195)

I have often thought of the most potent of personal polluters- Wishful thinking, Impulse, Fantasy, and Exaggeration- as the Four Dragons. (p.. 200)

My growing hunch is that there are significant but unrealized gaps in what we know about the human condition.  One of these gaps contains the latent drive, a need to help or heal that remains close to the surface of our personalities but has been strongly repressed in Western society at various times by both church and state. (p. 13)

The reviewer found this book more focused on transpersonal issues than Krieger’s earlier ones and warmly recommends it to anyone wanting to learn about Therapeutic Touch.

Diane Wind Wardell, PhD, RNC. White Shadow: Walking with Janet Mentgen

Lakewood, CO: Colorado Center for Healing Touch 2000    410 pp   $25.00 

Diane Wind Wardell brings us a glowing picture of Janet Mentgen, who developed and teaches Healing Touch (HT), and established the Healing Touch International organization. Many nurses and other caregivers are using HT, which includes a variety of interventions in addition to hand and distant healing.

At the same time, this book is a marvelously detailed journal of the development of Wardell as a healer and HT teacher.

Here are a few of the many interesting observations:

My most important messages come, not from those I am drawn to, but by the gifts of others I would otherwise avoid.  They and I are unaware of our connection until it bursts upon me, the lesson learned.  Sometimes, I feel like a hammer has been poised above my head for just such times.  It has fallen again and again and I wonder when I am to replace it with a more gentle awareness.  ( p. 26)

She [Mentgen] said, “Trauma release is the opposite of the techniques we do when we come at symptoms from the emotional/mental aspect.  Energetically it really goes underneath that level and works with the physical-energetic aspect, which then supports or becomes structure for carrying the emotional-mental process.  So what we are doing in this particular case is we are connecting the etheric template back to the etheric body and we are repairing the strands.  It is really what we call fifth level work [this type of work is taught in Level IIB onward].  In this process we are connecting the cellular memory.  We are activating the memory so we can talk to that cell.  “You know, you don’t have to act this way any more.  We can release this for you.”  We do that through the release mechanism.  Just imprint the process,  1, 2, 3, release’ and the cellular memory will release as far as what the cells are supposed to do on a cellular level.  It doesn’t have to make us hurt anymore…”    (p. 33-34)

This is the sort of book one likes to dip into, ponder its lessons, and return to savor again and to chew on. The lack of index and references will hinder such deeper study.

Jaentra Green Gardener. A Healer’s Voice

St. Paul, MN: Tree of Life 2000  194pp $19.95
available through www.healinghandsnetwork.org

This is an excellent book on many levels. 

First, it tells the story of the author, who worked her way through a series of therapies on her journey out of Multiple Sclerosis, including spiritual healing as an important component in this healing.  (See article in this issue of IJHC for brief details.)

Next, it describes how Gardener developed her own healing gifts, which appear to be considerable. She went on to build a modest school for healing, teaching others more quickly the various therapies it had taken her over a decade to discover and develop – at great personal and financial (over $80,000) cost.

Clinical vignettes of impressive healings are interwoven with the descriptions of her healing approaches.

This reviewer is particularly pleased to find another healer who strongly advocates clearing of emotional dross as an important, often essential, aspect of healing. Even more interesting are healings that Gardener describes in which psychological issues are cleared energetically without the conscious awareness of the healee.

Craniosacral therapy identifies bioenergetic rhythms around the head and sacrum. Gardener has expanded on this, identifying a variety of energetic rhythms in the body that allow access to deep healings, even of people who are in coma.

Another aspect of Gardener’s healing process is the frequent use of multiple healers to work simultaneously on the same healee. This reduces the ego involvement and increases the intensity of the healing process.

Gardener and her colleagues have taken on people with extremely complex and serious physical and psychological problems, with some outstanding successes. For instance, having overcome her own MS, Gardener has also been able to help others with this problem. 
Here is a small excerpt from a lengthy description of the healing process of a woman who was told by her chiropractor that her physical problems – which included Lupus, Lyme Disease, Fibromyalgia, and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (among others) – would not clear until she worked on her emotional issues.

A desperately sick body means a very broken heart. And this woman seemed tgo put all of her emotions into physical symptoms. To make emotions so unsafe that it is better to hurt yourself rather than to feel them, made me think Beatrice had a disturbed childhood…

After a long series of healing treatments, over many months,

…I suggested she do a rebirth of herself in love. With a team of people, we held her, and played music. We asked God’s help to renew her soul, so fragmented and unloved with a new being who was cherished and cared for by God.

As I held her neck and head, I felt a vibration, a quickening, and a movement rushes through her body.  I knew I felt a special love, and prayed Beatrice did too. Beatrice completely claimed the new birth of new life. She said she felt that inside herself she had a new innocent center untouched by her personal tragedies.

This new self came from a gift from God. I believe God’s love interacts through the field of gravity to open and heal us. What Beatrice needed was a new central core to use as a foundation to build a new life. God supplied a love that blossomed into a self unafraid of death…

Beatrice’s new being was the center around which we grew a new body, built from the fragments and ashes of her sick body. Now her remembered childhood tragedies were transformed into wisdom that allowed her to be herself and realize she was precious. Then the body memory released and new movement and health continued to grow and surround her new inner core.

This book is very highly recommended for all levels of readers, from novices in healing to the most advanced. Items of unusual interest include: dealing with genetically inherited guilt; dealing with rhythms within the body to bring about healings (see article), love and higher awarenesses in healing.

Joe Sabah. How to get on Radio Talk Shows All Across America – Without Leaving Your Home or Office

Presenter Publications, PO Box 101975, Denver, CO 80250  1999  $198 including list of 960 contacts, 73pp book, audiotape

  Getting the word out - to share what’s important to you and what you’re passionate about – can be a challenge. Sabah provides a wealth of practical steps, including contacts to 960 radio talk shows.

  Some of the many topics included:

• Organizing your presentation
• Preparing a press kit
• Presenting yourself to the talk show producer
• Selling your product
• Organizing orders processing

This is a very helpful, well organized presentation.
The price is a bit high, but probably worth it if you make the connections that facilitate your work.

Ashleigh Brilliant. I Have Abandoned My Search for Truth, and am now looking for a good fantasy

Santa Barbara, CA: Woodbridge 1994.
This is one of a series of books with cartoons that lampoon existential and spiritual issues in endearing ways. 

(Cartoons taken from several books and from website http://www.ashleighbrilliant.com.)

Jody Bergsma. Faerie

Bellingham, WA: Gallery Press 2002   39 pp  $15.95

Lushly illustrated story of conflict between fairies and ogres that is resolved with magic and lessons that reveal the hurts behind negative behaviors.

Suitable for ages 8-11.

Bernard Libster. The Bonsai Bear

Belleview, WA: Illumination Arts 1999   31 pp  $15.95

Another spiritually oriented book in the Illumination Arts Press series for children.

Pleasantly illustrated tale of a childless couple in Japan who adopt a bear cub. The husband is a master at bonsai, the art of shaping miniature trees. He shapes the bear so that it doesn’t grow up and can stay in the family. The wife prevails upon him to let the bear grow up and return to the wild.

Suitable for ages 8-12.

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