Dr. Larry Dossey's eight books, including Reinventing Medicine, Be Careful What you Pray For...You Just Might Get It, and Prayer Is Good Medicine, offer ample evidence of his pioneering efforts in expanding our horizons in regard to the healing arts. He is a meaning maker par excellence who has an adventuresome spirit that revels in the interface between medicine and spirituality. In addition, Dossey is remarkably well read, a Renaissance man with a generous heart who is constantly extending courtesy and praise to the works of lesser known authors and their books.
The 14 mind-expanding essays in this collection of pieces originally appeared in the peer-reviewed journal Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine. These selections are organized under three thematic headings: Meaning, Mind, and Nonlocality. Almost all of the essays relate in one way or another to the nature of consciousness and its role in health and healing.
For years, Dossey has been admonishing the medical establishment to expand its repertoire of meanings — to acknowledge and honor alternative therapies. On these pages the author discusses the omni collar problem of work-related stress and isolation, the eating disorders of our culture, war as an infection that eats away at the soul of nations that espouse it with enthusiasm, the return of prayer, and the nature of immortality. We especially appreciate his ruminations about the need to reenchant our world. He calls for the abolishment of "thing apartheid" whereby inanimate objects are not accorded the same respect as living, sensate organisms.
One of our favorite chapters is "Tickled Pink" where Dossey salutes the salutary health benefits of laughter, humor, and play. He quotes Jewish scholar Speed Vogel who says, "Humor and meditation accomplish some of the same aims. Both help to let everything float away — they show you that you're not the center of the universe."
Reading Dossey is our prescription for all those who want to keep their souls nourished in these meaning-ripe times.
