Space, Time, and Medicine: Foreword by Fritjof Capra

by Larry Dossey

What we call modern physics says something entirely new about the world and how it behaves. For many years, these theories have been accepted as the most accurate descriptions we have ever had about our world. Nevertheless, medicine has been reluctant to incorporate these ideas into itself, continuing to view the body as a clockwork mechanism, in which illness is caused by a breakdown of "parts" Drawing on his long experience in the practice of internal medicine and his knowledge of modern science, Dr. Dossey shows how medicine can and must be updated. Discussing the new theories of Bell, Godel, and others, he opens up startling questions for medicine: Could the brain be a hologram, in which every part contains the whole? Why have ordinary people been able to raise and lower blood pressure at will, control heart rate, body temperature, even one minute blood vessel, in a way no one can explain? What is the role of consciousness in health and illness? Perhaps the most startling of Dr. Dossey's discussions concerns nonlinear time. There is evidence that our obsession with time and our belief that time "flows" (a belief refuted by the new physics) may profoundly affect our health. "Time sickness" is becoming an accepted medical concept, a possible cause of the greatest killer of all-heart disease. Dr. Dossey presents remarkable clinical data showing that by changing their view of time, people have been able to positively affect the course of disease. Just as the clockwork picture of the universe was abandoned in the onslaught of new data, our mechanistic view of health and illness will give way to new models which, too, will be more consistent with the true face of the universe.

Genres: Health, Nonfiction, Physics, Medicine

264 pages, Paperback

First published April 12, 1982

About the author

Larry 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.

Reviews

[Marilyn McEntyre · Rating 4 out of 5]

A provocative reflection on the way our notion of time affects the rhythms of our lives and even the rhythms of our bodies and, quite palpably, our health. Borrowing a note from Fritjof Capra (The Tao of Physics), Dossey takes a wide view of our psycho-physical connectedness to the energies of the universe and to other creatures, and invites us to consider the ways in which it can be demonstrated that imagination or thought affects physical experience.

[Judith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thought provoking and insightful, especially for those who believe in Eternity. Also looks at how our mind affects how we respond to treatments, and how anesthesia warps our perception of time.

[Isabeau Vollhardt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't let the quantum physics scare you off: Dr. Dossey's descriptions make the theories easy to follow and understand with regard to revising our entire concept of the human body and health, which has been stuck in Cartesian logic and Newtonian causality since the 1600s. Ironically, some forms of what are called "alternative" medicine actually incorporate awareness of quantum reality in their practices (acupuncture is just one of those). Anyone who wants to seriously understand how we need to approach alternative/complementary medicine, or how we need to change our viewpoint about how to treat chronic disease, will benefit greatly from reading -- and owning -- this book.

[John · Rating 1 out of 5]

Rated: F

A little too "out there" for my tastes. If you believe that time is non-linear in our everyday life, it might be good.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this in a used bookstore and picked it up because of its extremely intriguing idea: that modern discoveries in quantum physics have direct implications for how we, as humans, experience time and health. This book was published in the early 80s, so I won't pretend the "modern physics" discussed by the author is the exact same as the "modern physics" someone might write about today; however, I was pleasantly surprised that many of the ideas didn't feel outdated - a lot of the interpretations presented in the book seemed to stand on solid ground in the 21st century.
The author's argument was interesting and rooted in quantum physics/mechanics, but at times i felt the arguments rested more on leaps of intuition than actual scientific evidence. Although that's a tough challenge because much of what the author was saying was about the limitations of science in accurately describing how the world works. Despite "medicine" being 1/3 of the title, I also felt the book could have talked a lot more about how to incorporate the space and time ideas into modern medicine. I would have liked to see a lot more ideas proposed for how clinical treatment and therapy could be revolutionized to align with the theories presented here.
I read this book mostly just because I'm really interested in time and its potential nonlinearity. But I also enjoyed thinking about that nonlinearity in terms of human health, and also the "universe as hologram" was a fascinating idea I've never encountered before.
Given that this book is 40 years old and on a niche topic, I wouldn't really recommend it unless someone had a specific interest in space, time, and medicine, but it was a fun and interesting read for passing the time and thinking about the things I like to think about.

[Rah~ri]

Ooo?