|
|
| Book Reviews - Vol. III |
 |
|
PERSONAL SPIRITUALITY
Daniel J. Benor MD (SMN) Wholistic Healing Publications, 2006, (PO Box 502, Medford, NJ 08055, USA – www.wholistichealingresearch.com 596 pp., paperback, $29.95. ISBN 0 9754248 4 X
Tellingly subtitled ‘Science, Spirit and the Eternal Soul’, this massive book is the third volume of Daniel Benor’s Healing Research series. I say ‘tellingly’ because the subtitle gives an indication of the book’s message and direction. Each of the first two volumes - Spiritual Healing: scientific validation of the healing revolution, and Consciousness, Bioenergy and Healing –have been published in professional research editions and in amore popular format. This volume, containing 1, 369 notes and over 50 two-column pages of references, is not for the dilettante, although it also contains an enormous number of apposite quotations.
Thirteen chapters cover in detail out of body experiences, near death experiences, reincarnation, apparitions, nature spirits and angels, mediumistic experiences, possession, psychic surgery, religions and healing, mystical experiences, quantum physics in relation to the mystical, spiritual healing and spirituality, physical and emotional correlates of religion and spirituality, and participatory spirituality. Typically, Benor’s treatment introduces the evidence – both anecdotal and research or laboratory- for the phenomena in question. He explains different ways of approaching or explaining the evidence before a more extended discussion and comment from personal experience, and a useful summary at the end of the chapter. On occasion, he puts forward a range of explanations from conventional materialistic science, but generally shows these to be deficient in some key respect. At the same time, hehighlights shortcomings of some types of anecdotal evidence.
I am familiar with much of the research cited, and found Benor’s analysis well-balanced and his conclusions soundly drawn from the evidence. He is very open about the effects of his professional training, which one sees gradually modified by experience, reading and reflection. Scientific and medical training predisposes people towards materialistic and reductionist explanations and indeed leads them to dismiss much of the kind of evidence put forward in this book. Benor, however, maintains a rigorous and open-minded approach, which is in myviewthe most constructive one. Will it convince the sceptic? Probably not, as fewwill have the patience to read about such topics at length or be capable of extending their philosophical assumptions to the necessary extent.
A good example of his approach is Benor’s treatment of psychic surgery, a topic about which I know relatively little. I imagine, however, that most readers of this review and of the book itself will have some prima facie reservations on the basis of what they have read. He reviews a number of reports in detail on the basis that they seem to demonstrate remarkable cures that are activated by faith and spiritual healing. This enables the reader to explore the evidence and come to a personal conclusion. The accounts of the phenomena vary considerably, but there are some extraordinary case histories that speak for themselves. Doubts nevertheless arise, since many psychic surgeons do use sleight of hand; however, this does not mean that they are cheating all the time. In addition, Benor observes that healers seem to be more concerned with the reaction of healees than with the researchers. This kind of workalso has implications for the existence or otherwise of subtle bodies, a theme that recurs throughout the book.
As indicated by the title, the theme of personal spirituality is paramount. Benor is surely correct in his analysis that Western civilization has broken its connection with nature and closeted itself from spiritual awareness, constructing reductionist barriers that immobilise our intuitive and spiritual senses. Research in both the scientific and the spiritual realms supports Benor’s contention that ‘we are all part of a vast, magnificent web of spiritual consciousness that extends through infinite space and time.’ Spirituality is defined as our basic quest for cognitive understanding of ultimate meanings and values in life, while spiritual awareness is said to arise out of gnosis or deeper insight into the nature of things. Hence the logic of his book as ‘an urgent call to awakening our awareness of our intimate interconnection with the world around us.’
The final chapter contains an extensive discussion of the nature of participatory spirituality. In the course of evolution, the Divine comes to know itself through its manifestations and anever increasing awareness of the interconnectedness of life and consciousness. Benor proposes the notion of participatory intelligent design, the principles of which he spells out in some detail. Participatory spirituality ‘opens us to our awareness of our interconnectedness with our higher selves, with each other and with Gaia, our planetary ecobiological system’, acknowledging that we each have a place in and a responsibility for the creation of reality. This profound and scholarly work provides the reader with the necessary cognitive map to come to a realisation of the metaphysical and ethical implications of the deeper nature of human experience.
Reviewed by David Lorimer
Scientific and Medical Network Review
Spring 2007
|
|
|
Wholistic Healing Publications
Daniel J. Benor, MD, ABHM, Editor
P.O. Box 76
Bellmawr, NJ 08099
Phone: (609) 714-1885 (866) 823-4214
Email: DB@WholisticHealingResearch.com
Web: www.WholisticHealingResearch.com
|
All original material contained on this site is copyrighted property of Wholistic Healing Publications.
See full details and disclaimer. |
|
|
