The concept of a body-mind connection is nothing new. With the recent rise in the use of alternative therapies to treat illness, the public has been swift to recognize this connection. Larry Dossey, one of the first in the scientific community to write about mind-body integration, now shows how this powerful combination can further affect our own personal healing. In his recent book, Reinventing Medicine, he explains the present shift away from how we have viewed medicine in the past and offers a fascinating look at what the future holds for creating wellness in our lives. Dossey identifies what he sees as three recent eras in medicine. He explains how we have gone beyond Era I (the 1860s) in understanding the mechanical or physical healing that takes place in the body. We have also ventured well beyond Era II (1950s), which allowed us to discover that the mind could actually influence the body, for better or worse. Now, Dossey believes that we have entered Era III, a combination of the two previous eras . . . with a twist. The mind-body interaction in Era III is characterized by phenomena such as familiar, unaccountable hunches, prophetic dreams, and bursts of creative energy. Although science has traditionally distrusted these phenomena for lack of evidence, Dossey offers the recent work of scientists at universities such as Harvard, Princeton, and Stanford to add convincing weight to his argument.
A perhaps troubling aspect for those in the scientific field is Dossey’s key concept, which characterizes Era III medicine, the concept of the nonlocal mind. The author believes that there is sufficient evidence to show that the mind operates beyond the body and is not subject to time. To strengthen his claim, he offers impressive studies for nonlocal events, which suggest that there is not only startling interaction between humans, but also between humans and plants, humans and animals, and even humans and inanimate objects. Anyone interested in the mind-body connection, how it influences our well-being, and how we can focus on it to positively affect our health will be interested in this book.
