Tapestry of Healing: Where Reiki and Medicine Intertwine

by Jeri Mills, MD

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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.

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