Publisher's Weekly Review
Holistic physician Dossey examines the potential power of 14 readily accessible sources of well-being, providing a strong case for utilizing such remedies before more extreme measures. His expansive discourse on optimism, forgetting, music, miracles, plants, risk taking and other "simple" things makes clear that, while these are hardly "simple" when fully appreciated, often they are undervalued or completely ignored by the mainstream medical community, which turns to high-tech procedures and worst-case scenarios as a first resort. According to Dossey (Reinventing Medicine), a nearly single-minded clinical focus has obscured patients' interpretation of their own experiences, leaving out important clues about how people heal. He provides numerous examples of those who have discovered "spontaneous healing," which most physicians discount or downplay because they defy explanation. Despite the title, this is not a step-by-step guide to accessing the healing power of home remedies. Instead, Dossey takes readers on a poetic, well-researched journey into the many paradoxes that are inherent in the human condition and how they relate to healing the body, mind and soul. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
It may seem odd that a book promising to reveal the keys to happiness as well as health lists unhappiness as one of those keys, but Dossey, former cochair of the National Institutes of Health Panel on Mind/Body Intervention, contends, not without documentation, that unhappiness is as necessary for the preservation of good health as, say, periodic tetanus shots. Add healthy doses of such other common but oft-overlooked good things as optimism, novelty, music, plants, and miracles, and one can expect a longer, happier life, Dossey says. Going further than promoting the obvious, Dossey also believes that including a bit of dirt, some bugs, a few tears, and a certain amount of forgetfulness can also significantly add to life's length and breadth. In a lively style that punctuates scientific data with charming anecdotes and personal history, Dossey offers medicine sweetened with just enough sugar to make it palatable and seasoned with some spice for interest. --Donna Chavez Copyright 2006 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Dossey (executive editor, Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing) has written numerous volumes on the subjects of mind-body medicine and the role of consciousness in healing. For his first book since the best-selling Healing Words, he has collected scholarly research, experience and phenomena, and historical references on remedies or interventions for common, everyday illnesses. Easily acquired by anyone and available within our natural world, these remedies include optimism, forgetting, novelty, tears, dirt, music, risk, plants, bugs, unhappiness, nothing, voices, mystery, and miracles. For each, Dossey begins the discussion in terms of its use in history or with a scenario of someone's life experience with a corresponding illness, where the remedy was used or would be useful. Many of the claims made regarding the healing sources are based in empirical research, with citations listed in the notes section at the book's end. Because the text is written in a smooth narrative fashion, the reader's interest is engaged and held. Recommended for public and consumer health libraries.-Beth Hill, Univ. of Idaho Lib., Moscow (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.