We all have our physical complaints from time to time and a little bit of conventional medicine found at the pharmacy will do the trick for some people, but for others conventional medicine has failed them and made them feel trapped by their health problems. That’s when people will check out alternative therapies like chiropractic, yoga, biofeedback, hypnosis, massage, herbs, fasting, nutrition, t’ai chi and acupuncture, all discussed in this book.

How much do you think you know about that last one, acupuncture, for instance? The following excerpt from an Eastern doctor who once treated the author of Manifesto For A New Medicine, James S. Gordon, M.D., might surprise you:

“The western mind makes up the story that the Chinese learned acupuncture by trial and error, that once upon a time a warrior was wounded with an arrow here”-pointing to his ankle-“and a physical illness disappeared there”-indicating his abdomen. “Then there was another injury and another correlation. Bullsh-t. The doctors, the acupuncturists, were monks. They meditated six, eight hours a day. In meditation they felt the points from the inside and knew which was connected where.” Pp 56

Could it be possible that such therapies will set me free from disease and pain, you ask.

Tell Me More!

The best way to tell you what’s in this book is to go by chapter, but since there are sixteen chapters, let me just highlight a few of the chapter titles and what the purpose of the book is so you can decide whether it’s something you’d like to invest your time in.

Time For A Change
We Are All Unique
Self-Care as Primary Care: The Power of The Mind I and II
Self-Care as Primary Care: Touch, Movement and Breathing
Self-Care as Primary Care: “When I Eat, I Eat”
Helping One Another
Creating The New Medicine

Following the chapters there are many notes on them specifying where to find more information on the subject; also resources of books mentioned in his book, of journals and of organizations for support, which he highly recommends.

Dr. Gordon draws us into his book by describing his concern for patients who never became well with conventional medicine and his ensuing journey to learn about “holism” and natural medicine. He had a nagging backache that took him to a Washington osteopath (like a chiropractor) named Dr. Blood. This frightening man crunched his offending “lesion” in his vertebrae and Gordon was suddenly able to straighten up. Unfortunately the relief only lasted a few hours.

He called that Eastern doctor mentioned above in desperation. Finally after finding out nothing about his credentials, he’s told to take hot baths in Epson salts and cold showers…then only eat three pineapples a day for a week. A lunatic, right? Well, Gordon knew friends who had been helped by him, so he took the medicine. He became worse.

The doctor explained he must become worse before getting better and to pour honey on the pineapple to eliminate the mouth sores. In three days Gordon’s sores healed, his temperature stabilized and his numbness and backache was going away so that at the end of the second week he reported an eighty to ninety percent improvement! He was almost free!

How Gordon Practices Medicine Today

Gordon learned a lot from that Eastern doctor, Dr. Singha, that he prescribes to his own patients. He was told to practice “chaotic breathing” for forty minutes a day before learning to do yoga or meditation, which teaches “complete” or abdominal breathing. He prescribes Chinese herbs and does acupuncture because of his wonderful experience having it done to him. He also tells his patients with chronic diseases to eat a certain way.

Stories of successful treatments were about a woman with debilitating Multiple Sclerosis, a pair of kid brothers with asthma attacks, a man with a stomach ulcer, exhaustion and bad back, a woman with cancer. Chapters are devoted to getting to know them and how they were advised.

Final Thoughts

This is a book that will tell you all you’ve ever wanted to know about alternative medicine, its history and why it’s so needed if we wish to be healthy, even slow the aging process. I was fascinated with the explanation and description of how we should breathe, the different kinds of massage and how some of us may need more vitamins or minerals than the average person. His suggestions for improving health care are idealistic visions for conventional health care, but not for unconventional.

If you read one book to guide you in your understanding of unconventional medicine, I think you would be wise to choose this one. Gordon writes in a very passionate, intelligent way that made me enjoy reading while I was learning. I understand better why support groups are so helpful, too, because the body doesn’t heal if the mind won’t let it, which is a major message of his book. Gordon, subsequently, practices at The Center for Mind-Body Medicine in Washington, D.C.

As Gordon says:

Learn from everything. Attitude, as we know from a number of the studies I’ve cited, is extraordinarily important in maintaining health and recovering from illness. I like approaching life as a student, and so do most of my patients. So do the people who are in our groups and workshops. It’s dignified and it dignifies everything that happens to us.

You may be healed. Free your mind, free your body.




Recommended: Yes