This is an amazing set of audio tapes. These tapes are perfect for those of us who no longer know what to believe about the religions we were raised with and the place of prayer in our daily lives. What is the purpose of prayer? Does prayer work over a distance? (yes) What is the right way to pray? (Your own way.) This is not a book about religion, but a book about how science has proven the effectiveness of prayer, regardless of our prayer style or religion. Many different experiments are cited, and Dr. Dossey makes the case that prayer deserves a place in the spectrum of the healing arts. The author's style is straighforward and very interesting.

Dr. Larry Dossey explores the mind-body connection and draws very startling conclusions about the mind and human experiences. He steps out on a limb which does not break nor does he fall off of it. He is one of the few physicians who dare to write about subjects that are considered 'taboo' by 'true' scientists (which MDs consider themselves). The book begins with a true story about Sarah, a young lady who had a gallbladder operation with unintended consequences: she experienced cardiac arrest and subsequent defibrillation, for the life-threatening arrhythmia, v. fib.. Her experience is unique in that afterwards, she described the events in vivid detail, including 'seeing' the mismatched socks worn by the anesthesiologist. This, in and of itself, is highly unusual but it is *even* *more* *unusual* that she has been *blind* since birth. Therefore she experienced a "different" form of seeing ... Dr. Dossey explores metaphysical forms of reality and spiritual concepts associated with health and well-being. He weaves the findings of quantum physics in with, the theories of Rupert Sheldrake, along with the described experiences of mystics from various religious traditions. The main theme is "nonlocal mind" and a "unifying consciousness". Essentially he writes about how individuals are co-creators with the divine ... This book is riveting and hard to put down. The author is well-read and provides a solid foundation to support his controversial conclusions. It is a 'must read' for anyone who asks the questions, "who am I" and "what am I doing here?" Erika B.

This book is filled with wonderful Mother Teresa thoughts on prayer. It also contains some beautiful prayers that can easily be incorporated in to daily prayer. The collection of thoughts is concise, on point and organized effectively. Mother Teresa never disappoints.

While this book is wonderful, it is not better than "No Greater Love" by Mother Teresa. "No Greater Love" remains my number one book of her wisdom.

Prayer speaks from the heart and when done well, it can bypass our inherent prejudices and resistance. Mother Teresa knew this, and her inspirational words, just as her prayers, transcend any faith position and speak to everyone. Dr. Anthony Stern, in his inspiring book brings this great master of prayer to the average reader. Everything Starts from Prayer presents Mother Teresa's own words in an arrangement both accessible and thought provoking.

As I was reading the book I was struck by the scope and the depth of prayer that the book reveals through Mother Teresa's beautiful and powerful prose. I realized that besides being an incredibly charitable woman, who devoted her life to help the poor and the sick, she was a great master of praying, with inner knowledge and experience that surpass many other spiritual teachers. Dr. Stern arranged Mother Terasa's prayers in a way that illustrates the nature and the process of prayer and illuminates the many variations and subtleties of praying. Mother Teresa addressed many aspects of prayer, from child-like prayer to healing prayer and even to the resistance to prayer. It is particularly instructive to read the way she addressed the special pain and loneliness of modernity. Her insights into the problems of the ailing psyche from a spiritual point of view are most interesting. When talking about the narcissistic self, she tells us that there is no place for spirit where there is only self. Even God cannot put anything into what is already full. (page 54). Unlike some current spiritual ideas, which divorce spirituality from morality, Mother Teresa teaches us that spirituality and morality go hand in hand. It is easy to be proud and harsh and selfish--so easy. But we have been created for better things (page 12).

I recommend this book for anyone who takes prayer seriously, whether new to the practice or experienced. We can all learn a great deal from Mother Teresa and use her experience to further enrich our own prayer lives and learn about our (spiritual) selves. It is a book which should be read not just once, but used repeatedly as a companion to the praying person, a resource that one can refer to when looking for guidance and inspiration.

The bibliography at the end of the volume includes books on prayer from different religious perspectives and the resource list will be useful for those who are searching for in-depth experience of prayer in a monastic setting.

Mark R. Banschick, MD Adjunct Professor, Hebrew Union College

A sweet book which covers the subject of reaching God through prayer. It is stripped of the boundaries of formal religion and gets to the heart of the matter: How to make contact with God,How to pray, Why you should pray and the nature of prayer. Mother Teresa's words are simple but rich, clear and evocative. I will return to this book again and again for guidance. The book is simple but not simplistic. It raises the spirt and guides the soul.

AS A PRACTISING HOMEOPATHIC DOCTOR THE BOOK IS HELPFUL FOR HOMEOPATHIC STUDENTS AND OTHERS

This is the best review of homeopathy written. It is balance and practical with a clear summary of homeopathy, what it can and cannot do and a practical section on how to use it for common problems.

Note: I've had this book for about 4 years now and just now getting around to write a review of it.

This a good book if you are new to qigong. Cohen steps the beginner through theory and then the various qigong exercises. This includes color and organ meditation, healing sounds, Big Dipper, External practices, diet, etc. He also includues some moving meditation such as the Eight brocades and Five Animals frolics.

Pluses:
* Covers a lot of material.
* Well footnoted and indexed.
* Has suggested routines for a student to practice.
* Gives adviced on the dangers of wrong qi practice. Which is quite important but neglected in some texts.

Minuses:
* No illustrations for meridians or acpuncture points. These would help explain and guide a student. Especially with the excerises like Microcosmic orbit. I found it odd that a Qigong expert like Cohen would neglect to include this.
* The moving meditations are done by drawings - I found them impossible to follow. Photos would have been much better.
* Some of the qigong exercises listed are watered down and much simplified for instance the color light meditation. It's still somewhat useful but only about a third of the exercise is
there and you don't get the full effect. I don't know why Cohen
does not tell the reader why he watered some qigong methods down.

Overall a decent introduction, as most of the material is very basic. This makes it good for the beginner but be prepared to buy other books if you want to do other methods like Microcosmic
orbit or learn about meridians and acupuncture points. This also goes for trying to learn the moving meditations from this book - a beginner with no experience with this material will be lost. It will keep a dedicated beginner busy for two years or so. Once beyond that the reader is advised to seek out formal instruction or check out other texts that do include more intermediate methods.

If you want to do moving qigong work look elsewhere, this is not a stong point of this text. Books like Wen Mei Yu's WIld Goose Qigong or Meridian Qigong.

Other books that would complement this one include:
Qigong Empowerment by Liang Shou-yu
Meridian Qigong by Li Ding - hard to get but some online stores specializing in Qigong carry it.
Wild Goose Qigong by Wen Mei Yu

This is a very enjoyable and easy-to-read book, full of rich awareness, grace, and deep appreciation for life and nature. It is a scholarly work, and also an artistic work by one who appears to be a master at his craft and sees it as a valuable, if not indispensable practice for "riding the river of life."

Chi Kung can be seen as an extension of Taoism where the emphasis is upon a quiet mind, a peaceful attitude, and persistent practice.

Cohen, provides a number of useful pieces of scientific experimental data in this regard with much additional anecdotal information plus a good bibliography with extensive notes.

This is a very satisfying change from all other Qigong literature that I have seen. Few chi kung texts have a bibliography or footnotes, so that it becomes impossible for the reader to check and validate information. This may be the typical Chinese format, but it is quite inadequate from a western viewpoint because there is neither the scientific security upon which to build nor sufficient experimental details for exact replication of the experiment.

I applaud Cohen for clearly seeing this weakness in all the previous work, and for having gone "the extra miles" in trying to correct this deficiency in "The Way of Qigong."

Cohen provides a full and very readable description of chi kung basics and procedures for enhancing one's healing potential as well as a graceful recitation of benefits and dangers of chi kung. He beautifully describes the chi kung lifestyle.

Such "added value" is definitely apparent in this book, and I do not hesitate to strongly recommend it to beginning students of chi kung.

Keep in mind, this book is not intended to be a how-to instructional guide (one should find a teacher for that and not use a book). Instead, this book is both informative and inspirational.

Over the past 25 years, since the Beatles travelled to India to learn Transcendental Meditation, Westerners have been fascinated by the mystical aspects of numerous health promoting practices from Eastern countries. The religious and philosophical ideas that served as a context for what are essentially exercises for the mind, body, and spirit in the same sense that we Westerners regard working out the body alone as exercise, has clouded our view of the true benefits of many of these practices such as Qigong. Qigong, along with many other worthy Eastern exercises has gotten absorbed into the mass marketing machine of the New Age movement and has consequently turned off the less radical mainstream audience that is simply looking for ways to improve the quality of life. Cohen's book puts the practical health benefits of Qigong in focus by presenting us with scientific data that prove its merit as an easy to master exercise that is unique in its ability to address health issues that tradition forms of Western exercises do not address. If you want to be able to easily lift your groceries or run up a flight of stairs with out losing your breath, then lift weights and run on a treadmill. However, if you want to be able to work and play in a relaxed and optimally focused manner, and if you want to be prevent disease--then do Qigong. That is the message of Cohen's book. I am typically able to judge a book by how slow I read it. That is--the more profound and thought provoking the ideas being presented are, the more I tend to dwell on each page and spend a day or two ponder or putting its ideas into practice. There is also a sense of savoring the ideas such that you are sorry when you finally reach the end of it. Cohen's book is that kind of book.

I was hoping for a more scientific book for researching health and faith. This is OK but goes pretty light on the science. A better book, I think, is called Sprituality, Theology and Psychology (maybe not in that order). It ties the three together nicely.

This is a terrific book. I've read just about all the other popular books on the connections between spirituality and health (by Koenig, Matthews, Dossey, Siegel, Chopra, Benor, and all the rest) and this is by FAR the most level-headed and scientifically grounded. It seems that everyone writing on this topic is either a conservative religious M.D. or some kind of new age follower. Levin is neither. He's a credible, methodologically skilled scientist who actually did much of the original research he summarizes. I've heard him talk--he's excellent--and this book, like his lectures, focuses on the how & why of a spirituality-health connection. He comprehensively outlines all the possible ways that faith may be connected to health--through effects on behavior, social relationships, emotions, beliefs, etc. He even raises the possibility of some things that a lot of scientists might consider unproven (subtle energies, nonlocality, psi, the supernatural), but he is careful and guarded with his tone and, throughout the book, meticulous with his citations. He always considers both sides of the issue and never overstates things. Plus the book is marvelously readable. When was the last time you could say that about an epidemiologist? Very highly recommended to both science types and laypeople. This guy is ready for the big time.

This is a great book! It pulls together the unbelievably huge amount of scientific research that shows a strong connection between spiritual practices and beliefs and having better health. Levin also shares personal stories of people who have seen changes -- sometimes big changes -- in their lives and health that are linked to prayer and other spiritual practices. One of the most interesting things he finds is that, in terms of health benefits, it really doesn't seem to matter which religious path is followed. The important thing just seems to be that a person connects with God or a religious tradition or a spiritual path of some type. Levin describes health benefits documented in many groups, including Yogis and Buddhists, Catholics, Protestants, and Jews. In general, God seems to be good for us, no matter what we perceive God to be. Why would religion or faith in God be good for health? The book describes all kinds of reasons--from religious people not smoking and drinking to benefits from being in a supportive social group. But the most amazing thing is that these "expected" kinds of explanations for why faith is good for you don't seem to explain the whole picture. Even after these "normal" explanations are taken into account, Levin says that additional benefits of spirituality may come from something beyond what can be measured in scientific studies. That is, the health benefits of connecting to a higher power could have a more "supernatural" explanation. Whatever you believe about the subject, the book makes a powerful case for the importance of spirit in health.

Dr. Larry Dossey delivers far less than he promises in "Space, Time, and Medicine". Instead of a revolutionary "new paradigm", he presents us with many ideas that seem to have little to do with curing illness, and far more to do with Dr. Dossey's spiritual views. I seriously doubt that an individual suffering from heart disease or terminally ill with cancer would be comforted by being told that they are misperceiving time! Although the idea that modifications in consciousness can change the outcome of an illness does have scientific evidence backing it (as well as plenty of anecdotal evidence, and, in my case, second-hand experience), the book fails to cover how meditation and consciousness-altering practices can be effectively applied against disease- and, in the twenty years since this book was written, little progress has been made (other than a general acceptance of yoga and meditation as a supplement to orthodox treatments).

Despite this critique, however, Dossey does present several interesting arguments in favor of his approach, and some fascinating case studies, including one involving a psychic police officer suffering from stress-related illness, and some interesting observations involving the health of people with "type A" personalities and worldviews. Dossey demonstrates a mastery of physics uncommon among individuals outside the field, and does an excellent job of explaning the physical thought of Prigogine, Bohm, Heisenberg, Einstein, and Bohr, as well as the mathematical proofs of Kurt Godel.

"Space, Time, and Medicine" isn't beach reading, doesn't present any revolutionary new data, and won't shake the ground beneath your feet. But if you're a physician interested in following up on potentially effective "alternative" approaches, or a layman with an interest in how the "new physics" relate to your state of being- you can do far worse than read this book.

Originally published in 1982. Dr. Dossey gives a pretty detailed account of some of the more interesting challenges that Quantum Physics makes on our traditional mechanistic worldview. Spends a good deal of time on Bell's Theorem, David Bohm's implicate order and Progogine's dissipative structures in very clear and easy to understand language (and no math). Concludes that not only are we wrong about spacetime and the nature of our existence, but these errors make us ill. Argues that medical science is based on a classical physical model, and needs to catch up with the implications of uncertainty, non-locality, and the "Biodance" (this metaphor alone is worth the price of the book!). Implies a lot of things that I imagine he covers in his later books - this is the first one I've read, but I'm hooked!

This book brilliantly describes the essence of how various illnesses may be brought on by our misperceptions of space and time, and what we can do to change our perecpeptions and heal ourselves. As Dr. Dossey reminds us, "It is not man who is at the mercy of an external 'real' time -- it is time itself which is shaped by man." Since the effects of urgency can bring illness upon us, this book is a welcome guide to finding our way back to a healthier perception of space and time. Dossey explains how absorbing activities like fishing or needlepoint can help us kill the relentless push of time, and bring us to the healing perception of infinite space and time.

Larry Dossey likes to say that prayer has been scientifically proven, but he just doesn't have a case. He avoids directly defining "prayer" or explaining how exactly it would work. Does anyone really believe that God would let someone get sick or die just because no one prayed for him or her? Dossey wants us to believe that a just God is a sort of cosmic favor dispenser, only helping those who pray. The evidence doesn't support what he says. Soft-headed, gullible New Agers will love this book; others beware.

I thought this book was fascinating. Scientific research in the field of health psychology has repeatedly shown that our thoughts influence our health. This goes one step further to say that other people's thoughts influence our health as well. I think this is not too much of a stretch since we know from quantum theory that certain things can influence other things without coming into physical contact. That consciousness itself is enough to influence the physical world. The author discusses this possiblity and experiments with it. I liked the pioneer spirit of this author. If you want to learn about the connection between consciousness and matter, another great and easy to read book is "Rhythm, Relationships and Transcendence" by Toru Sato. It's also a fascinating book!

Larry Dossey describes the Navajo belief in the power of words, the importance of thinking and speaking in a positive way -- in "the Beauty Way." Counter this with how easily caretakers can "hex" a patient's recovery with such statements as, "You have three months to live if you're lucky," or, "Only 2% of people with this kind of cancer survive more than a year."

Dossey is a physician and researcher who has helped bring credibility to alternative therapies and to spirituality in medicine. In an earlier book, "Healing Words," he reported on scientific experiments illustrating the positive effects of prayer. In this book he explores prayer's potential for harm. Perhaps the most obvious illustration of this argument is how often nations have prayed for victory against each other, both invoking the protection of God! And we've all heard of the power of belief in such practices as voodoo to create harm. But there can be more subtle influences at work, as well.

Citing the sociologist Charles Perrow, Dossey describes the nature of a "tightly coupled system." In loosely coupled systems -- such as a lawnmower's gasoline engine -- the parts are relatively autonomous and can be individually replaced when they malfunction. We are becoming increasingly familiar with the interdependence of more tightly coupled systems, often learning the hard way. In "The Logic of Failure," for example, Dietrich Dorner described a city council which attempted to limit noise and air pollution by lowering the speed limit and installing speed bumps. The unintended effects: Cars were forced to travel in lower gear -- producing more noise and exhaust, increased travel time produced increased congestion, and eventually people began to prefer shopping at outlying malls -- leading to economic failure of the downtown area.

Tightly coupled systems -- such as the human body -- are highly interdependent, where a malfunction can create an entirely unpredictable cascading effect. Dossey illustrates how giving orders with prayers can invite disaster. We could pray to rack up our immune systems, for example, and overdo it. Since it's difficult to predict all the complexities of healing, he suggests resorting to the age-old invitation of leaving the details to a higher power.

One of my favorite sections of this book is entitled "Reversing Medical Curses Through Prayer." He does acknowledge that doctors don't usually intend to do us in; nonetheless, the harm is real: "Medical curses such as 'It's your funeral,'" he writes, "'You're a walking time bomb,' 'You should have had surgery yesterday,' 'There's nothing more I can do,' and so on, are not uncommon." A spiritual approach can counter the impact of such harmful and influential statements. For example, Dr. Thomas Oxman and colleagues at Dartmouth Medical School found that the factor most highly correlated with survival and a positive post-operative course after surgery was the degree of spiritual meaning in the patient's life.

In such a situation you would do well to ask yourself, "How can I participate in my recovery and not be a victim?" "What is my purpose?" "What is meaningful to me?" "How might I make a difference in the world?"

Larry Dossey's new book is a splendid, generous and inspiriting appeal to revive the ancient arts of dream healing. He focusses attention on open secrets that I believe will be central to our medicine - and our way of being in the world - in the twenty-first century: that mind is nonlocal, so we can be anywhere (quite literally) that we can picture; and that the body does not distinguish mental or emotional events (if deeply believed) from physical events, so we can heal ourselves - and others - through imagery. Best of all, he is fully alive to the ways in which dreams teach us what our bodies need to stay well, often us showing us possible problems long before physical symptoms manifest, and how our spontaneous dream imagery offer fresh and vital keys to self-healing and recovery. Larry Dossey is an exemplar of what the best doctors of the coming century will be - healers and teachers who operate with mind, body and spirit. He has given me inspiration on my own path of teaching and practicing dream healing, as reflected in my books CONSCIOUS DREAMING and DREAMGATES (and the forthcoming DREAMING TRUE). He gives all of us courage for the journey on the path of heart and soul. I hope he will find many readers in our medical community, because we urgently need this antidote to approaches that reduce the patient to a collection of body parts to be mended or sustained by pharmaceuticals and invasive surgery. We need to marry the best of our medical science to a way that honors the individual as a whole person and encourages her to ask for help from a deeper Source and bring all her spiritual resources into play. Larry Dossey shows us how.

Larry Dossey's book presents its readers with a new and unique theory of how prayer will be able to influence the health of our body. He begins his book with a brief overview of the three different Eras of medicine. Era I deals with mechanical, material, or physical medicine and Era II deals with mind-body medicine, which may include any form of therapy where the body treats itself and only itself through psychosomatic methods. In this book, Dossey adds to this list by suggesting the possibility of an Era III, called eternity medicine. He suggests that individuals can affect patients from a distance, called "intercessory prayer." The mind, separate from the brain, has the ability to transverse space and time. He backs up his argument with ample evidence from Harvard, Duke, and other prestigious institutions. Each experiment builds upon the next, reinforcing the principles and theories of Dossey.

The case for the possibility of an Era III is further developed through other examples of individuals who have experienced "non locality" or phenomenon that they can't explain. For instance, we can often experience non locality through our dreams and déjà vu's. Dossey also presents his readers with a feel of futuristic medicine. He believes in traditional medicine that is supplemented by prayer and other acts of non local medicine.

For me, it has reshaped my thinking and has helped me to explain the world from a different perspective. It has also played a large part in my faith, strongly reinforcing the principles that I have learned through my religion. I would recommend this book very highly for the interested individual in mind-body relationships.

Have you ever suspected that healing requires something more than either an entirely body-based approach... or even a mind-body approach? Would you like to better understand how powerful prayer really is for healing? If so, you'll love Larry Dossey's book, "Reinventing Medicine", in which he describes this new era of non-local medicine. Dossey cites very convincing scientific studies that indicate healing can be achieved at a distance by directing loving thoughts, intentions and prayers to others -- even if they are not aware that these loving thoughts are being extended to them. Dossey's revolutionary book inspires us to consider the healing power of what he calls Eternity Medicine in our everyday lives right now. I get goose-bumps of excitement and joy each time I read this book, and give it my highest recommendation.

This book, like most of Larry Dossey's books, is simply a retread of the most familiar elements of feel-good New Age pablum. He defines "spiritual experiences" so broadly that basically any pleasant, quiet moment (i.e., a relaxing cup of coffee, a child's smile) is artifically imbued with "spiritual" qualities. A waste of time.

I enjoyed reading this book because certain spiritual experiences have happened to me in the past year that confused me. I was glad to read that Dr. Gersten had a name for what happened to me. I agree with his view of God and how different people are on different levels and that determines the form of God we worship. I recommend this book for those people who have had or have heard about an enlightened experience. After reading this book it showed how in the dark as Westerners we are on this subject and how other parts of the world it is much more common.

Dr. Gersten will probably change the lives of many people with this book, he's already changed mine. Nothing in self-help, spiritual psychology or alternative medicine that I have read even comes close. After reading the rehashed clichés of so many "empowerment" books, the idea that you can be a millionaire once you get empowered gets really old if you know what I mean. I was relieved to find new and exciting information I could actually use (check out his explanation of mantra meditation, you'll love it). I have never seen an angel myself, but if I thought I had, this book would be comforting. The author gets into some very cool nitty gritty stories that illustrate how to figure out if you are in spiritual crisis or just need to go on medication. For those who are on medication, you might want to read this to find out if your doctor is trying to medicate away real miracles. If you don't know whether you are seeing real angels or have an over active imagination this book tells you how to tell. Great miracle stories too.