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Reinventing Medicine: Beyond Mind-Body to a New Era of Healing
If you read one book on medicine this year you may want it to be this one. Founder and President, Preventive Medicine Research Institute. Reinventing Medicine is sheer inspiration grounded in impeccable science. Larry Dossey has once again written a stunning book that will change the way medicine is practiced while helping each of us live life fully and joyfully right now, Christiane Northrup, M.D. Hope comes to our dangerous times in the words of Larry Dossey. He continues to challenge his own profession to reinvent itself by releasing the chains of the mechanical world view and returning spirit to the art of healing. Bravo! Would that all our professions follow suit. Director of Medical Oncology
Hardcover
First published September 8, 1999
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About the author
Larry Dossey
63 books86 followersLarry Dossey is a physician and author who propounds the importance for healing of prayer and spirituality. He combines science and prayer to advance the cause of healing the sick.
Larry Dossey studied medicine, graduating from University of Texas at Austin & the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas in 1967. While attending medical school, he became interested in Eastern religions such as Buddhism and Taoism. Severe, recurring migraines prompted him to study biofeedback and meditation in hopes of finding a means of controlling the headaches. He began to practice meditation regularly, while remaining skeptical about the type of praying he had learned in his youth. After graduation, Dossey went on to a distinguished medical career, which included service in Vietnam as a battalion surgeon and residencies at the Veterans Administration Hospital and Parkland Hospital in Dallas. Dossey's curiosity about the connections between science and religion prompted him to begin researching medical studies focused on the power of prayer to aid healing. In the 1980s, Dossey began writing books to document and explain his findings.
Dossey's 1993 book, Healing Words: The Power of Prayer and the Practice of Medicine, made it to the New York Times bestseller list and sold close to 150,000 copies in the first three years after its publication.
Larry Dossey studied medicine, graduating from University of Texas at Austin & the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas in 1967. While attending medical school, he became interested in Eastern religions such as Buddhism and Taoism. Severe, recurring migraines prompted him to study biofeedback and meditation in hopes of finding a means of controlling the headaches. He began to practice meditation regularly, while remaining skeptical about the type of praying he had learned in his youth. After graduation, Dossey went on to a distinguished medical career, which included service in Vietnam as a battalion surgeon and residencies at the Veterans Administration Hospital and Parkland Hospital in Dallas. Dossey's curiosity about the connections between science and religion prompted him to begin researching medical studies focused on the power of prayer to aid healing. In the 1980s, Dossey began writing books to document and explain his findings.
Dossey's 1993 book, Healing Words: The Power of Prayer and the Practice of Medicine, made it to the New York Times bestseller list and sold close to 150,000 copies in the first three years after its publication.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
November 14, 2012
I started reading this book to contribute to a paper on alternative and complementary medicine in college. it opened me up to ideas far beyond anything i expected going into it - started me asking questions that have changed my entire view of reality and philosophy of life. that should tell you enough... Definitely worth a read even if the title does not interest you in the least, if only for some of the scientific studies cited and ideas on theoretical physics, collective consciousness, etc.
June 2, 2018
I have always liked to believe that we are all somehow connected. This book is about everything spiritual without being specifically religious. Many case studies and research projects are quoted and the statistics make this a very interesting and thought provoking read.
March 3, 2013
Dossey cites enough studies to make the book relevant, and has enough case studies to keep the book from getting too dry and boring. Most of the research he talks about is Western and he interprets it from a Western viewpoint. He hardly deals with subtle energy, at all (only to say that he doesn't believe in it).
I also do not agree with his representation of what he calls "nonlocal mind," which is similar to Jung's concept of the collective unconscious or the Buddhist idea of non-duality. I agree with him that the phenomena exists, but I think he tries too hard to attribute every single unexplained phenomenon to nonlocal mind; sometimes stretching explanations too far (ironically, because he accuses medical science of stretching scientific explanations too far to try to explain unexplained phenomena).
Generally, I enjoyed reading the book and I felt that he made a lot of good points. I found his chapter on death to be especially touching. However, my contentions with some of his claims about nonlocal mind ran fairly deep.
I also do not agree with his representation of what he calls "nonlocal mind," which is similar to Jung's concept of the collective unconscious or the Buddhist idea of non-duality. I agree with him that the phenomena exists, but I think he tries too hard to attribute every single unexplained phenomenon to nonlocal mind; sometimes stretching explanations too far (ironically, because he accuses medical science of stretching scientific explanations too far to try to explain unexplained phenomena).
Generally, I enjoyed reading the book and I felt that he made a lot of good points. I found his chapter on death to be especially touching. However, my contentions with some of his claims about nonlocal mind ran fairly deep.
July 28, 2009
This is a great book for those of us fascinated by modern research science and "new-age" beliefs.
This book is a guided tour through the edges of modern mind-body research. How do we prove the power of energy healing, focused meditation, or ESP? Fascinating research scenarios like MIT's random number generator are discussed as well as current results and experiments.
Beyond an accounting of the methods being employed to yield visible data, the book also outlines intriguing areas of research like prayer and the placebo effect.
This book is very clear without ever being too technical, but the clear purpose is to attempt to unify a lot of unrelated studies into a better way of thinking about how to study the mind's effect of the body and other phoenomena we can't easily measure
This book is a guided tour through the edges of modern mind-body research. How do we prove the power of energy healing, focused meditation, or ESP? Fascinating research scenarios like MIT's random number generator are discussed as well as current results and experiments.
Beyond an accounting of the methods being employed to yield visible data, the book also outlines intriguing areas of research like prayer and the placebo effect.
This book is very clear without ever being too technical, but the clear purpose is to attempt to unify a lot of unrelated studies into a better way of thinking about how to study the mind's effect of the body and other phoenomena we can't easily measure
August 1, 2017
This book is mostly about mind-body medicine and more so what the author calls "non-local" which goes beyond the mind into the collective consciousness and spiritual realms.
He discusses conventional western medicine in a refreshing way. Most often, I find, that when proponents of alternative medicine compare their practice with conventional medicine it is a "better than", "us vs them" with an effort to show how screwed up western medicine is.
Not so in Dossey's book. He brings out the strengths of our existing system and shows how the different views of medicine and healing work together.
He discusses conventional western medicine in a refreshing way. Most often, I find, that when proponents of alternative medicine compare their practice with conventional medicine it is a "better than", "us vs them" with an effort to show how screwed up western medicine is.
Not so in Dossey's book. He brings out the strengths of our existing system and shows how the different views of medicine and healing work together.
January 6, 2015
Very interesting book. A sincere discourse on human consciousness and the potential for medical science and technology to embrace the unlimited nature of the human mind in health and healing. Personally, I have a few problems with this book, not because it goes too far in its assertions, but because it doesn't go far enough. It's well written and thought provoking. I would love it if many of my colleagues read it and gave consideration to its suppositions.
October 14, 2013
I was told about this book quite awhile ago, and I am so happy I got the chance to read it. This book is inspirational and elaborates magnificently about the new ways that medicine is changing the ways that patients are being treated. I look forward to reading his other books as well!!!
February 18, 2022
i read this book for school and by god i'm counting it for my reading goal. i thought that there were a lot of interesting ideas and i'm very glad i read it, though i was extremely skeptical of some of the concepts. either way, it was a fascinating read.
March 18, 2009
Dossey removes the egotisicm from medicine and replaces it with healing. Somewhere in its history, "western" physicians forget the who was at the center of their task: the Patient.
January 7, 2022
Top tier! One of the best books I have read in years. Will come back for review.
December 1, 2008
This was the first book that had me thinking out of the paradigm I was operating in.
January 31, 2016
This book gave generalized views, studies and definition to consciousness extending beyond our own individual minds and into others minds to help heal. Easy to read but I would like an updated version, as this was written in 1998 and I do not see what he speaks of in today's medicine. It presents possibilities rather than explains how-to's.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews