Every day modern medicine announces the arrival of yet another "wonder drug" or "miracle procedure" to a world increasingly wary of expensive high-tech cures. Drugs, transplants, and surgery don't work for 90 percent of our aches and pains and, while we are grateful for life-saving developments, we know that most come with risks that we ignore at our peril.
Long hailed as one of the founding fathers of mind-body medicine, Larry Dossey directs our attention to simple sources of healing that have been available for centuries--treasures often hidden in plain sight--from the power of optimism and of tears to speed recovery to the surprising usefulness of dirt and bugs in curing disease and infection to the benefits of doing nothing.
Exploring the medical research that validates these simple remedies, Dossey encourages us to align ourselves with the wisdom of nature and allow true healing to take place. "The Extraordinary Healing Power of Ordinary Things" can transform our view of what health is all about, whether our concern is cancer or the common cold.

"From the Hardcover edition."

Reviews

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.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

"In this elegant, thoughtful, and profoundly useful book, Larry Dossey reminds us of the healing power of the life around us and offers us the gift of new eyes. "The Extraordinary Healing Power of Ordinary Things" vindicates anyone who has looked beyond drugs and surgery in search of their own ability to heal." --Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D., author of "Kitchen Table Wisdom "
"Larry Dossey's insights into the ordinary illuminate a path to happiness and help us see 'the universe in a grain of sand.'" --Mehmet C. Oz, M.D., coauthor of "YOU: The Owner's Manual"
"Delightful, human, funny, poignant, and surpassingly wise, Larry Dossey's essays are a national treasure." --Joan Borysenko, author of "A Woman's Journey to God"
"One of our most original thinkers on the nature of consciousness and its role in healing." --Michael Lerner, president of Commonweal
"Larry Dossey's words of wisdom have inspired and challenged me for years." --Christiane Northrup, M.D., author o

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 Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.