Book Reviews (Sep 2010)

Hopkins, Rob. The Transition Handbook – From oil dependency to local resilience. Foxhole, UK: Green Books Ltd. 2008.  240 pp    8 pp References  4 pp Resources  $24.95     

Rob Hopkins initiated the Transition Town Movement in a student project at the Kinsale Further Education College in Ireland. His ideas of dealing with the dual challenges of climate change and peak oil at local levels first took root in Totnes, in western England in 2005. The movement currently has member communities in growing numbers of countries worldwide. (Guelph, Ontario, Canada where I live has a fledgling group. Click here to see list of Transition towns.)

Governments around the world are doing a poor job of reducing oil use and carbon emissions. The Transition Town Movement is exploring, developing and promoting new ways to deal with these problems at local levels. Every person can make meaningful contributions towards these ends.

Transition Initiatives are based on four key assumptions:

1. That life with dramatically lower energy consumption in inevitable, and that it’s better to plan for it than to be taken by surprise.
2. That our settlements and communities presently lack the resilience to enable them to weather the severe energy shocks that will accompany peak oil.
3. That we have to act collectively, and we have to act now.
4. That by unleashing the collective genius of those around us to creatively and proactively design our energy descent, we can build ways of living that are more connected, more enriching and that recognize the biological limits of our planet.
   (p. 134)

Hopkins' plan has been spreading rapidly – not only due to the immanence of potential tipping points beyond which our world could be toast – but also because of his positive attitude and his open-ended, visionary approaches.

Hopkins demonstrates the positive attitude that infuses a lot of the earth-healing literature and initiatives. This is a very important contribution of the Transition Towns Movement. Quoting (p. 94-5) from Tom Atlee:

I’ve started viewing both optimism and pessimism as spectator sports, as forms of disengagement masquerading as involvement. Both optimism and pessimism trick me into judging life and betting on the odds, rather than diving into life with my whole self, with my full co-creative energy. I think the emerging crises call us to transcend such false end-games like optimism and pessimism. I think they call us to act like a spiritually healthy person who has just learned they have heart disease: We can use each dire prognosis as a stimulant for reaching more deeply into life and co-creating positive change.

And so I’ve come to conclude that all the predictions – both good and bad – tell us absolutely nothing about what is possible. Trends and events only relate to what is probable. Probabilities are abstractions. Possibilities are the stuff of life, visions to act upon, doors to walk through. Pessimism and optimism are both distractions from living life fully.

And (p. 98) from Paul H. Ray & Sherry Ruth Anderson:

Today as we are besieged by planetary problems, the risk is that we will deal with them in a pessimistic and unproductive style… Transfixed by an image of our own future decline, we could actually bring it about. A positive vision of the future, according to writer and philosopher David Spangler, ‘challenges the culture to dare, to be open to change, and to accept a spirit of creativity that cold alter its very structure.

Hopkins' approach invites people to come together in their town or neighborhood to brainstorm ideas and suggestions for initiating and building local initiatives within the Transition Town model. Many of the suggestions that have been gleaned from Transition Town meetings are marvelously practical and of immediate benefits to business owners who are unde various financial pressures. For instance:

Oil Vulnerability Auditing (OVA). In essence, it is a method for auditing the various processes a business uses, and where it utilizes oil, whether directly as fuel, as lubricants, in transportation, processing, packaging and so on. It allows the person conducting the Audit to build up an accurate picture of where oil is used, and then to explore, by pushing up the price of that oil, where the business’s vulnerabilities lie. At $100 a barrel? $120? $150 a barrel? Which parts of the business’s operations become unviable first? Is it the degree of dependence on transportation for the goods that they sell, prompting them to explore more local sourcing, or is it the energy intensiveness of their processing?
 
OVA is a risk-assessment tool. It looks to the bottom line, and requires no allegiance to the peak oil/climate change arguments. (p. 194)

Visions for far-reaching changes are encouraged, with development of timelines which provide goals that promote imaginative initiatives to make them possible.

For instance, Hopkins suggests the following Healthcare visioning with a target date of 2030:

The closure of local hospitals in favour of centralised ones – so rampant twenty years ago – has been reversed, and local healthcare centres are now not just about treating illness but promoting health in many diverse ways. They have forged partnerships with local schools, promoting food growing and familiarizing young people with the whole food cycle from seed to salad. The wellbeing of the individual is seen as inseparable from the health of the community. Human biology is now a compulsory school subject, and has expanded to include nutrition and basic herbalism.

About half of the medicines prescribed by doctors are now locally sourced, with local farmers growing certain key medicinal plants which are processed in local laboratories. Local chemists also now make over 50% of the medicines they sell on the premises. Doctors are able to prescribe a range of complementary treatments, as well as involvement in local community gardens, and access to affordable good food. The growth in access to meaningful work, the rebuilding of social cohesion and an emerging common sense of purpose, has resulted in fewer stress-related illnesses and cases of depression. Conventional and complementary practitioners are seen very much as two sides of the same coin, and the concept of promoting health rather than just treating disease has lead to a range of innovative measures.

As a result of people’s moving away from being sedentary consumers to becoming more physically active producer/consumers, there has been an increase in musculo-skeletal problems. Doctors are now able to issue prescriptions for, for example, Alexander technique sessions. It has become more commonplace, as in China, to see free Tai Chi sessions in local parks in the morning. Technology has also enabled certain tests and observations to take place online in the patient’s own home, what is known as ‘tele-medicine’. (p. 109-10)

Hopkins' book is very highly recommended for anyone concerned with global heating and its consequences.

References:
Tom Atlee, ‘Crisis Fatigue and the Co-creation of Positive Possibilities’, Co-Intelligence Institute, http://www.co-intelligence.org/

Paul H. Ray & Sherry Ruth Anderson (2000), The Cultural Creatives: how 50 million people are changing the world, Three Rivers Press.

Frederic C. Craigie, Jr. Positive Spirituality in Health Care: Nine Practical Approaches to Pursuing Wholeness for Clinicians, Patients, and Health Care Organizations. Minnesota, MN: Mill City Press, 2010. 380 pages. References and 2 appendices. $21.95     

This substantial volume offers much more than its title promises. In his warm, conversational and humorous style, Frederic Craigie, a clinical psychologist and medical educator, shares his passion for integrating spirituality, or the spiritual dimension, in three crucial areas in health care: clinicians, patients and health care organizations. He invites his readers through fascinating stories, interview transcripts, research reviews and case histories, combined with a wealth of professional and personal experience and wisdom, to broaden and deepen their understanding of why spirituality matters in the health care setting.

The author proposes four reasons why spirituality is important in health and wellness care and builds his entire book on these four premises: 1. Spirituality is intimately related to health, wholeness and well-being; 2. Spirituality mediates choices in health behaviors; 3. Spirituality often frames the ways that people cope with adversity and peruse the journey toward wellness/wholeness; and 4. Spirituality is important because people want to be known in this way by their caregivers.

Frederic Craigie uniquely focuses on ‘positive spirituality,’ which he understands not as the antithesis to ‘negative spirituality,’ but rather as the signal and emphasis for the direction and the pursuit of inquiry for all parties involved in health care. He encourages clinicians to learn the art of conversation that explores what truly matters to the patients, what is sacred for them and what sustains them. Throughout his entire book he provides wonderful practical examples, questions and suggestions. At the end of each chapter, F. Craigie includes a broadly based and substantial list of references. It would be extremely useful for the next edition of the book to include a final bibliography for ease of access because otherwise so many useful pieces of information will remain hidden, especially for those readers who tend to peruse books, which the author himself encourages.

The book consists of two main parts, followed by two appendices: The initial three chapters of the first section, “The Context,” offer a framework and considerable background materials on the subject of spirituality and spiritual care from a clinical perspective – a truly whole-person oriented clinical perspective. I particularly enjoyed the section on ‘Patient and Clinician Perspectives on Spiritual Care,’ in which F. Craigie identifies three themes as core elements of spiritual care (p.87): 1. “Being present” (intentionality in attention to emotional, social and spiritual needs; 2. “Opening eyes” (patient and caregiver recognizing the human dimension in one another); and 3. “Co-creating” (collaboration in developing holistic care plans that would maintain the humanity and dignity of patients in the face of death). The author develops much of the practically oriented second part of his book out of these three elements.

The fourth chapter explores the ‘three interlocking pieces,’ or ‘arenas of health care’ and their mutual influences and interdependence, which are the personal, clinical and organizational arenas.

The bulk of the book on Positive Spirituality in Health Care outlines F. Craigie’s nine practical approaches to bringing positive spirituality into health and wellness care. In this section, the author devotes three chapters to each of the three interlocking arenas of health care. Throughout these nine chapters, the reader finds specific strategies (total of 24) outlined for practical use. I appreciate the Index of Strategies at the beginning of the book as convenient access to the specific tips the author has developed.

In the personal arena, F. Craigie emphasizes the clinicians’ connection with purpose, their cultivation of character qualities, as well as the importance of groundedness and fostering of intention and presence. The only time the author seems to subscribe to one particular method, as opposed to a more generic approach or a wide variety of ideas, occurs in the chapter on Positive Psychology, the language and tools of which he recommends for cultivation of character qualities. Not only does Positive Psychology suit his approach to the topic of Positive Spirituality, but it is also heavily researched and thus satisfies the thirst of evidence-based materials by more conventional clinicians and practitioners. However, he also encourages clinicians to develop their own language and style of conversation and inquiry or to resort to other resources. (p. 153-4).

The clinical arena centers on the spiritual connections that are important to the patients. How do clinicians find out what matters to their patients? Frederic. Craigie suggests that clinicians may employ a two-part inquiry here: inventories and conversations. He contends that in the realm of spirituality, inventories serve as great tools for research, and highlights a few of them, such as the Spiritual Well-Being Scale. However, it becomes clear that the author’s personal preference lies with constructing nurturing conversations.

The author has worked out a specific approach to conversation, based on three principal templates that help organize conversational spiritual inquiry. Most significantly, the success of spiritual care conversations lies in the quality of the partnerships of clinicians and patients. Dr. Craigie masterfully outlines and describes his template for collaborative spiritual care conversations in a separate chapter. A discussion of recurring themes of transcendence and valued directions from these conversations ensues in the following chapter. As specific pathways to transcendence and to pursuing ‘valued directions,’ the author has chosen to explore eight approaches, which overlap significantly, but may provide a multitude of openings and evoke varied and various resonances with individual patients. These eight themes are: Letting Go, Willingness/Acceptance, Mindfulness/Being Present, Non-Attachment, Serenity, Spiritual Surrender, Gratitude/Gratefulness and Forgiveness.

The final three chapters of this book address the ‘soul’ of health care organizations, often known by other words, such as ‘spirit,’ ‘atmosphere,’ ‘tone,’ or ‘environment.’ In the earlier part of the book, ‘The Context,’ Frederic Craigie already delved into the literature on organizational soul and data from cross-sectional studies, intervention research and transformational narratives among others. In these last few chapters, however, he outlines and explores what appears close to his heart and soul, “How the soul of organization may be nurtured as part of the overall process of spiritual care.” (p. 312) In these ways, the author offers specific approaches to developing and nurturing organizational mission and values, cultivating a spirit of community, and fostering empowering health care leadership.

The book concludes with two appendices. Appendix I lists Fred Craigie’s favorite Spirituality and Health websites, which include organizations and magazines that offer valuable information. As the author points out, this is just a sampling. Appendix II offers his favorite books on the subject of Spirituality and Health Care, whereby most of his selections dates 2003 or newer.

Frederic C. Craigie’s book Positive Spirituality in Health Care contributes significantly to the field of integrative health care that holds dear the wholeness of each person, be it clinician, patient or administrator. This stimulating and enriching resource would be most beneficial to anyone involved in the health care setting, particularly nursing students, medical students and current health care providers, to support them in building purposeful relationships within their organizations, among themselves, and between them and their patients.

Review by Martina Steiger, ThD. Martina serves as a Spiritual Life Coach, educator, writer, speaker and editor. She offers mini-retreats as an opportunity to review and renew. For more information visit http://www.martinasteiger.com/.

Operation: Emotional Freedom – The Answer. DVD. Skywriter Communications Inc. 2010. http://www.operation-emotionalfreedom.com/   $19.95  Widescreen  78 minutes  Includes bonus interview with Gary Craig, the founder of EFT.     

This is an extraordinary and very important film that anyone involved in dealing with wartime Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) will want to see. This DVD documents a pilot study of a 6-session intensive treatment with Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) for a small group of combat veterans.

There are Viet Nam War veterans who are still suffering sleeplessness, hyper-alertness, anxiety attacks, flashbacks, anger, depression and emotional lability, inability to concentrate, low self esteem, conflicts with family members, suicidal thoughts and other disabling symptoms. No treatments have been successful with these veterans, including: psychotherapy, trauma debriefing, numerous prescribed medications, marijuana and other self-prescribed drugs and alcohol, and other treatments. Veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering similar problems, and have had similar difficulties in finding effective therapies.

Sadly, the US government has also made if very difficult for veterans to obtain disability benefits and treatment, such as available, through the Veterans Administration. Appalling numbers of veterans are suiciding – reaching the point that there are more suicides than battlefield deaths.

The improvements shown in this film are nothing short of revolutionary in the history of PTSD treatments. EFT enables these veterans to release most of their troublesome symptoms, to the point that they are able to function in much more normal ways. They can sleep, tolerate everyday stresses, relate in positive ways with their families, friends and employers – for the first time since returning from combat zones.

A caution bears mentioning: The film opens with combat scenes that may help civilian viewers appreciate the stressors which traumatized these veterans. These combat scenes could be retraumatizing for combat veterans who might also wish to view the film.