Status Updates From Dr. Dean Ornish's Program f...

Horizontal intimacy can be increased through participation in support groups, development of communication skills, learning forgiveness, developing feelings of trust, practicing altruism, and so on. Prayer and meditation are two ways of realizing vertical intimacy.

There are two general strategies for achieving intimacy: horizontal intimacy developing the connections and relationships between ourselves and others—or vertical intimacy developing the connections between us and the higher parts of ourselves.

Dr. Scherwitz analyzed tape-recorded interviews from a nine-year research study involving almost 13,000 men. This study, called the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial (MRFIT), was designed to determine if moderate lifestyle changes could help prevent heart disease. Dr. Scherwitz found that people who used frequent self-references later developed heart disease more often than people who didn't.