Books That Changed My Life

Daniel Redwood, D.C.

Author's Note: I was asked by the editor of Meridians, a traditional acupuncture magazine, to write a paragraph about each of the books that most strongly influenced my development as a healing arts practitioner. This expanded version of the Meridians article was published in Pathways. A third version was published in Noetic Sciences Review.

Starting with Zen Macrobiotics, which I read in the late 1960s, and finishing with The Age of Spiritual Machines, which I read in 1998, these books are classics of our time. They have given me many specific tools, but what has mattered more is that they have given me a glimpse into the spiritual essence of the great men and women who wrote them.

Zen Macrobiotics, by Georges Ohsawa.
Ohsawa's matter-of-fact statement that he had not had a cold in ten years first attracted my attention. At the time, I was a life-long allergy sufferer with tissues always close at hand. For me and many thousands more, Zen Macrobiotics provided the impetus for early experiments with brown rice and tofu, and the elimination of sugar, red meat, and dairy, and led us toward realms of nutritional and herbal healing never dreamed of in our allopathic childhoods.

Integral Yoga Hatha, by Swami Satchidananda.
More than the text, it was the photos of the bearded swami performing the exceptional postures that affected me deeply. Here was clear evidence from an ancient culture of vastly expanded possibilities for physical development. After reading Satchidananda's book and then attending several classes from one of his students, I've done my yoga asanas nearly every morning for the past 30 years.

Black Elk Speaks, by Black Elk as told through John Neihardt
This was my introduction to Native American culture and to the idea of the wounded healer. A childhood illness with a dangerously high fever catapulted Black Elk into a life-altering visionary experience. After he recovered, his Lakota tribe, recognizing that his experience could be integrated to benefit of the tribe as a whole, encouraged his development as a healer. Black Elk went on to devote his life to preserving American Indian traditions in the years when they were in greatest danger of being lost forever. The scene at the end where the aged Black Elk performs a rain ceremony is one of the great moments in American literature.

Autobiography of a Yogi, by Paramahansa Yogananda.
Among the first Eastern adepts to immigrate to the United States, Yogananda helped catalyze California's mid-20th century development as a transformational mecca. For me, Autobiography of a Yogi was the first convincing evidence that long-term commitment to disciplined practice could lead to powers and abilities far beyond those most of us ever attain. For those with time to listen, I also highly recommend the recent unabridged audiotape version narrated by Ben Kingsley.

The Sleeping Prophet, by Jess Stearn.
Traveling east from California on a singing tour in 1972, I spotted this book on the shelf of a friend's home in Buffalo. A biography of psychic and medical intuitive Edgar Cayce, it provided my first exposure to a Western system of holistic healing in which body, mind and spirit shared center stage. Over the next year, I read perhaps 20 more books on Cayce. It was from Cayce that I first learned to make vegetables the centerpiece of my diet and to seek out foods grown locally and in season. I also began my daily meditation practice and grew my first organic garden.

Anatomy of an Illness, by Norman Cousins.
This was the breakthrough work that brought mind-body medicine to the forefront of contemporary thought. A literary giant whose two life-threatening illnesses (heart disease and ankylosing spondylitis) profoundly altered the course of his life and career, Cousins went on to teach a generation of medical students the importance of laughter, belief, and the body's inherent power to heal. When Cousins was invited to join the UCLA faculty in the 1970s, I had my first inkling that conventional medicine was in the early stages of a major transformation.

Dear and Glorious Physician, by Taylor Caldwell.
This book, which I read around 1973, led me to wonder for the first time what it might be like to be a doctor. A gripping novel about the Roman physician who became St. Luke, it is a spiritual adventure that brings to life the early days of Hippocratic Western medicine.

Memories, Dreams and Reflections, by Carl Jung, M.D.
The best introduction to Jung's work, this autobiography shows how this seminal figure of 20th century psychiatry grew through experience. Jung's dedication to the life of the spirit and his appreciation of non-European cultures added crucial dimensions to psychiatry in its formative years. My strongest memory from the book is a scene where Jung is traveling in the American Southwest, standing in awe of a magnificent sunlit cliff dwelling. The Pueblo chief standing next to him says, "The sun is God. Everyone can see that." As much as anything I've read before or since, that simple statement firmly fixed in my heart and mind the certainty that spirit is alive in nature.

Be Here Now, by Ram Dass.
I still have my oversize original copy of Be Here Now (printed on brown paper and hand-stitched with twine) that came with a vinyl record of original music including a strangely moving track where Ram Dass sings the Jewish prayer Sh'ma Yisroel, accompanied by a sitar. I've carried it with me since the days when you could get a copy for free by writing to the Lama Foundation in New Mexico. This is the quintessential 1960s story of spiritual questing, yet many of the images I recall most strongly are quite physical: Ram Dass walking for countless miles through India, his pale skin growing brown, excess weight dropping off, as he discovered a newfound ability to be satisfied with far less food than he ever thought possible.

Medical Nemesis, by Ivan Illich.
Perhaps the most important social critic of the past century, Illich radically challenged and deconstructed conventional wisdom on health, schools, tools, transportation, and the other foundations of human civilization. What I love about Illich's work is that he consistently forces his readers to explore concepts and possibilities beyond our usual bounds of discourse. In Medical Nemesis he cogently critiqued doctor-patient power relations, the "monetization" of medicine, and the ways that conventional and even alternative medicine can strip people of their independence and ability to suffer with dignity. For the best introduction to the full range of Illich's work, see Ivan Illich in Conversation, by David Cayley and Ivan Illich.

Away with All Pests, by Joshua Horn, M.D.
A British physician, Horn was one of a small number of Westerners living in China in the years immediately following the revolution. I found Away with All Pests particularly valuable because it was my first glimpse of the human face of Communist China. Horn's reporting on the Chinese government's programs for providing food and shelter for a vast population, eradicating schistosomiasis, treating severe burns, and rehabilitating former prostitutes demonstrated a different side of a regime whose repressive features were far better known.

The Relaxation Response, by Herbert Benson, M.D.
In this short but powerful mid-1970s bestseller, Harvard professor Benson introduced a non-religious form of meditation to a mass audience. By maintaining the structure of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Transcendental Meditation but removing its Vedic form, Benson made it possible to incorporate this valuable technique into Western medical settings. His meticulous documentation of the physiologic effects of the practice (lowering blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate, and oxygen consumption) firmly established meditation as a mainstream antidote to stress.

The Law of the Five Elements, by Dianne Connelly, L.Ac., M.Ac.
My first introduction to Five Element acupuncture, this book provided a basis for understanding my acupuncture treatment. By demonstrating the insightful, compassionate mindset of a traditional acupuncturist through anecdotes from her practice, Connelly's book offered the next generation of acupuncturists a solid philosophical foundation for their evolving work.

On Death and Dying, by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, M.D.
I have great admiration for people who bring to the surface what has been repressed or hidden. With the publication of this landmark work, Kubler-Ross almost singlehandedly invented death and dying as a subject worthy of open discussion and academic study. Her description of the stages for dealing with death (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance) is a milestone in contemporary thought. I also highly recommend her recent autobiography, The Wheel of Life.

Love, Medicine and Miracles, by Bernie Siegel, M.D.
Siegel's emotional and spiritual work with cancer patients helped breathe life into the medical profession in the transitional years of the 1980s, just before complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) exploded into mainstream visibility. His perspective on medical statistics affected me deeply. In one logical yet radical passage, he noted that the course of an individual's healing process does not depend at all on what has happened to other people in other places. Thus, if you have an illness whose mortality rate is 95 percent, there is no good reason to assume that you will not be among the 5 percent who survive. Some people survive. Why not you?

Quantum Healing; Perfect Health; Unconditional Life; and Ageless Body, Timeless Mind, by Deepak Chopra, M.D.
During an astonishingly prolific five-year period in the 1990s, Chopra produced a superb series of books that played a key role in bridging the gap between science and spirituality. Chopra's work was my first introduction to Ayurveda. After reading Perfect Health, I immersed myself deeply in this tradition for a few years, first learning pulse reading from the Ayurvedic perspective. Through an artful blend of data, anecdote, metaphor, and analysis, the four books mentioned above explore his ongoing themes -- the indivisibility of mind and body, the idea that what appears to be supernatural is actually natural but as yet unexplained, and the applicability of ancient healing arts in the modern world.

Ayurveda: A Life of Balance, by Maya Tiwari.
Of the dozens of books I've read on Ayurveda, this is the only one that is both highly informative and emotionally engaged. Tiwari's opening story of her recovery from cancer is deeply moving and her detailed description of Ayurveda is expertly crafted. Her diet lists are the most comprehensive currently available. At the center of her healing philosophy is the relationship between food and memory. "Food is the keeper of all five elements; in its transformation the body of life is formed . . . Food is memory. Memory is being. Eating is remembering."

Manifesto for a New Medicine, by James Gordon, M.D.
At Georgetown University, Gordon pioneered the integration of alternative medicine information into the medical school curriculum. His book is among the finest self-care primers ever written and includes well-documented introductions to all major CAM disciplines. Its greatness, however, lies in a quality of emotional connectedness that even the finest of other physician-authors could learn from. When I need to recommend one book on CAM to an intelligent reader, this is the one. His more recent Comprehensive Cancer Care is the benchmark reference work on integrative cancer treatment.

Healing Words; Recovering the Soul; Space, Time, and Medicine; and Reinventing Medicine, by Larry Dossey, M.D.
With a series of groundbreaking books that began with Space, Time and Medicine in the early 1980s and first attained bestseller status with Healing Words in the early 1990s, Dossey has played a pivotal role in accomplishing something that until recently seemed impossible: mainstreaming the concepts of nonlocal mind and action-at-a-distance as scientifically sound and medically valuable. Dossey's books first opened my eyes to the extensive medical literature on prayer.

The Healing Path; Remarkable Recovery; and Healing Dreams, by Marc Ian Barasch.
Barasch is a former New Age Journal editor whose life in the fast lane was upended by a nightmare that accurately announced his thyroid cancer. The Healing Path documents his journey through a range of alternative and conventional therapies in search of true healing. It has become a "must read" for people with cancer. Remarkable Recovery documents cases where people survived "terminal" diagnoses. Healing Dreams is a crowning achievement, the finest book on dreams I've ever read. All three of Barasch's books display striking originality, a great gift for synthesis, and extraordinary writing ability.

Where Healing Waters Meet, by Clyde Ford, D.C.
During a routine first-visit examination for low back pain, one of Ford's chiropractic patients spontaneously relived a long-buried emotional trauma, shaking from head to toe, crying out in pain, totally out of proportion to the light touch used in the examination. For the next 20 minutes, she cried as he held her hand. When she arose from the table, most of her pain was gone. Rather than writing off the experience as an interesting anomaly, Ford embarked on a lengthy study of therapeutic touch and developed methods that consciously utilize touch as part of the process for healing emotional wounds. As a chiropractor myself, I've read many books by members of my profession. This is my favorite.

Healing and the Mind, by Bill Moyers.
In this companion text to his landmark 1993 PBS television series, master interviewer Moyers engages in lengthy conversations with holistic health pioneers including David Eisenberg, Dean Ornish, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Candace Pert, Rachel Naomi Remen, and Michael Lerner. Among the highlights is Moyers' journey with Eisenberg to China, where they visit hospitals and observe the practice of Chinese medicine. Seeing a Chinese M.D. whose entire practice was devoted to massage erased any lingering doubts I may have had that professional boundaries as currently defined in the West are arbitary and by no means permanent.

The Fifth Sacred Thing, by Starhawk.
With the exception of Homer's Odyssey, this is only novel I've read twice. A grand epic set in mid-21st century California, the protagonist is a female healer whose many talents include mastery of acupuncture and Chinese medicine-based energetics. I continue to be deeply moved by Starhawk's visionary depiction of an ecologically balanced society based on justice and creativity. Her ability to convey the essence of healing is surpassed only by her talent for crafting stirring drama.

Dragon Rises, Red Bird Flies, by Leon Hammer, M.D.
As someone who first felt the power of traditional acupuncture treatment under the care of a physician acupuncturist who previously practiced psychiatry, I found Hammer's presentation on the interface between Chinese medicine and Western psychology quite illuminating. He asserts that the two "are closer in concept and practice to each other than either is to the principles of Western science and medicine (except to Western science in the realm of theoretical physics)." Each seeks to understand the basic issues of human existence; each seeks to go to the root cause; and each is concerned with the whole person, not just in theory but in practice. Neither has as its primary goal the palliation of symptoms. Hammer's book sets the standard for the study of psychology in acupuncture practice.

The Healer's Power, by Howard Brody, M.D.
Few things kindle my anger more than health practitioners who abuse their position of power and respect. Brody's book is a classic in the field of medical sociology and ethics. In it, he brilliantly unmasks the implicit power relationships in the healing arts, setting a high ethical standard for all health practitioners. Doctors' power derives from their knowledge of medicine, but also from their economic class, social status, and power to define reality for their patients. Only by thoroughly understanding these oft-hidden layers of interaction can we avoid paternalism and grow into fully conscious practitioners.

Fundamentals of Complementary and Alternative Medicine, by Marc Micozzi, M.D., Ph.D.
The first textbook on the subject from a major medical publisher, this 1996 release (now in its second edition) quickly became the primary text in many medical school CAM classes. A medical anthropologist who was the founding director of the National Museum of Health and Medicine, Micozzi explores traditional healing systems with rigor, depth, and respect. This book also occupies a special place on my list because I wrote the chapter on chiropractic for the first edition, which in turn opened the door to many other writing opportunities.

Spontaneous Healing; Eight Weeks to Optimum Health; Natural Health, Natural Medicine; Health and Healing;; The Natural Mind; and The Marriage of the Sun and Moon, by Andrew Weil, M.D.
When Spontaneous Healing topped the bestseller list in the mid-1990s, Weil's bearded face became the logo of the alternative medicine movement. But in his earlier, less heralded books, he displays the same knack for speaking clearly and intelligently to a broad audience and the same willingness to publicly support controversial ideas. Even more than his brilliance, it is Weil's courage I admire.

Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease, by Dean Ornish, M.D. Ornish's research on reversing heart disease with a low-fat vegetarian diet, yoga, meditation, and participation in emotional sharing groups is the current gold standard for using the tools of modern science to affirm the validity of ancient health practices. Elegant and precedent-shattering, it was first published in Journal of the American Medical Association and The Lancet. I am still challenged by Ornish's assertion that people are most likely to sustain change when they make a series of major lifestyle changes all at once, rather than incrementally.

The Future of the Body, by Michael Murphy.
Co-founder of the Esalen Institute, Murphy writes about human potential with the clarity of a scholar and the energy of an activist. Epic in scope and many years in the making, The Future of the Body is his summation of the state of human evolution, with special emphasis on evidence of extraordinary human abilities. As one might expect, Murphy draws from the deep wellsprings of Eastern yogic and martial arts traditions, but he also guides us with great artistry through the best of the West. This book is unique in its emphasis on two areas with which the author has great familiarity: sports and Catholicism.

Health Through Balance, by Yeshi Donden.
Reading Donden's description of Tibetan Medicine, I recognized this system as a bridge between Ayurveda and Chinese medicine, sharing aspects of each cosmology. The most stunning moment for me was Donden's assertion that if a disease will respond to no treatment, its cause must be karmic.

Of People and Plants, by Maurice Messegue.
Messegue's is a rags-to-riches story with a heart. Born the son of a lay herbalist in rural France, he grew up on the land where his ancestors had lived for over 450 years and learned about plants from his father. Messegue attributed much of his success to the fact that he only used herbs gathered fresh (nearly always by himself) at the proper time of day, month, and year. If the strong fragrance of the herb has departed, he advises, so too have its healing properties. Though Messegue achieved fame for treating Europe's high and mighty, he never turned away people too poor to pay. I have followed the same rule, and I believe the world would be a better place if all health practitioners and institutions did likewise.

Molecules of Emotion, by Candace Pert, Ph.D.
Pert was a graduate student in her mid-twenties when she discovered the opiate receptor, the cellular bonding site for endorphins, the body's natural painkillers, which she calls our "underlying mechanism for bliss and bonding." This breakthrough presaged a sea-change in scientific understanding of human internal communication systems, pointing the way toward the information-based model that is now supplanting the long-dominant structuralist viewpoint. Her book is noteworthy both as an insider's history of the changing scientific paradigm and as one woman's journey of growth and understanding.

Kitchen Table Wisdom, by Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D.
A physician who abandoned the fast track toward a departmental chairmanship at one of America's high-prestige medical schools, Remen forged a different path, drawing on inner resources she developed while dealing with her own chronic illness. Cofounder and medical director of the pioneering Commonweal Cancer Help Program, Remen offers as good a model as I've seen for something in short supply -- the doctor who truly knows how to listen. From her deep listening emerge stories profoundly moving and healing. When I think of the archetype of the wise woman healer, she has Rachel Naomi Remen's face and voice.

Radical Healing, by Rudolph Ballentine, M.D.
The sections on herbs and homeopathy lift this book to a world-class level. Ballentine identifies four great herbal traditions -- Chinese, Ayurvedic, Native American, and European -- and describes the unique contribution of each to an emerging planetary herbal medicine. He considers the Chinese tradition's greatest contribution to be its specific application of herbs to the body's organ systems. Ayurveda's greatest strength is its rejuvenatives; the Native American tradition is especially rich in antimicrobials and ceremonial aspects of practice; and the European school has surpassed all others in exploring the use of plant remedies to antidote the effects of overly affluent living.

Anatomy of the Spirit, by Caroline Myss, Ph.D.
A gifted medical intuitive and former book editor, Myss writes with uncompromising candor born of the belief that people sometimes must be shocked out of complacency. Anatomy of the Spirit is constructed around a discussion of the seven chakras in all their bodymindspirit manifestations, but from my perspective the most important section is the one on "woundology." Myss calls for a new emotional empowerment zone where we do not see our wounds as the core of our identity, and where the goal is to get over the pain rather than "market" it. She is particularly impatient with therapies and support groups that stretch out the healing process indefinitely.

A Change of Heart, by Sylvia Claire.
After receiving a heart and lung transplant, Claire began to experience thoughts, emotions, and memories quite alien to the inner life to which she was accustomed. This is the story of her search for information about the organ donor, and the stunning confirmation that awaited her when she located his family.

Between Heaven and Earth, by Harriet Bienfield, L.Ac., and Efrem Korngold, L.Ac.
Bienfield and Korngold are veteran California acupuncturists well versed in a broad range of approaches. Their explanation of the Five Elements is sensitive, comprehensive, lively, and enhanced by engaging case studies. Their book offers a superb introduction to traditional acupuncture and herbal practice. The quality of writing is exceptional.

Chinese Medicine from the Classics, by Claude Larre and Elisabeth Rochat de la Valle.
This entire series reflects the highest levels of scholarship and inspiration. Larre and Rochat's analysis of the classical texts of Chinese medicine offers acupuncturists an enhanced appreciation of Chinese culture, language, and healing traditions. The stories they weave from the structure of Chinese characters are deeply moving and highly informative.

The Age of Spiritual Machines, by Ray Kurzweil.
A brilliant inventor of machines with humanitarian purpose, Kurzweil thinks deeply about technological trends. He projects that "there will be greater transformations in the first two decades of the twenty-first century than we saw in the entire twentieth century." Central to his thesis is that while "our most advanced computers are still simpler than the human brain -- currently about a million times simpler," by the year 2020 this disparity will have been erased, with computers achieving and then vastly surpassing the brain's memory capacity and computing speed. The consequences Kurzweil foresees go far into the realm of what most of us now believe to be science fiction. Kurzweil is a major visionary, and we need not accept all aspects of his vision to recognize the exceptional value of his contribution.

©2001 by Daniel Redwood