Jeanne Achterberg is internationally known for her pioneering research into the use of guided visualization to heal the body. She is the author of five books including Imagery in Healing and Woman As Healer. In 1999, Achterberg was professor of psychology at Saybrook Institute and senior editor of Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine. Her momentum as a lecturer and teacher was slowed down when she was diagnosed with ocular melanoma, a rare and often deadly form of cancer of the eye.
In this memoir based on her journal writings, Achterberg shares her roller coaster ride on the path of healing during a tumultuous year of highs and lows, nightmares and feelings of unity with friends. The author balks at the treatment suggested by experts in the field — either to remove the eye or to treat it with high tech radiation. In her research, Achterberg discovers that "the immunology of the eye does not play by the rules of the rest of the body; it is as they say 'a privileged environment,' and little is know about its immune defense system."
Knowing almost everyone in the complementary and alternative medical community, the author reaches out for help on her healing journey. Soon the calls and prayers roll in and Achterberg finds herself surrounded by positive energy from friends around the world — Larry LeShan, Carl Simonton, Jean Houston, Robbie Gass, Don Campbell, Sandy Ingerman, Michael Harner, Larry and Barbie Dossey.
"We heal and are healed, I believe, by the bonds we form with one another — love, trust, hope, belief, and all those invisible qualities that have lost favor in health care," the author writes. Achterberg's mantra becomes: "When my Vision returns, my vision will return." She injects mistletoe as an immune stimulant, chants, uses dream work, healing imagery, shamanism, and a variety of other healing helpers.
In the end, Achterberg turns her inner life around and the eye is restored. She concludes in a letter to her friends: "The true medicines are the prayers, ceremonies, calls, E-mails, letters, songs, dreams, and gifts of your intentions and time and energy. Such caring is beyond anything I could have imagined, nothing that I know how to repay, and I can respond only with tears of gratitude. I feel surrounded by love and am certainly the most fortunate creature on earth."
