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Summary: Ancient Wisdom Revisited
Review: The senses of the wise man obey his mind, his mind obeys hisintellect, his intellect obeys his ego, and his ego obeys the Self. --Katha UpanishadThus, within this brief passage, we have the essence of Dr. Deepak Chopra's book Quantum Healing, which successfully sheds light for the uninitiated Western reader on the mind/body connection as it relates to medical healing. Although the ideas and techniques he discusses in his book may sound new to us, they are in actuality, as the Doctor demonstrates through his scrupulous tracing of the Western disciplines of neuroscience and physics back to the source of their beginnings in the ancient Vedic traditions, as old as time itself. With the precision of an artist meticulously carving a statue, Dr. Chopra proceeds to chip away at Western medicine's physical approach to healing, asserting the point that "when the memory of health returns [it] brings with it enough power to last a lifetime." These mind-based methods of healing, he tells us, are based upon Ayurveda, the ancient tradition of Indian medicine. In describing how he came up with the term quantum healing, Dr. Chopra relates the moving story of one of his first patients to undergo Ayurvedic treatment. The patient, a woman who had lung cancer, had responded well to the traditional Western treatments which had been combined with Ayurvedic methods. The Ayurvedic method depended upon a "change of diet, some Ayurvedic herbs, a specific daily routine including simple yoga exercises, and instruction in Transcendental Meditation." She was also "given two special mental techniques that went directly to the root of her cancer." After nearly a year of this treatment, the woman had a sudden remission of her cancer. "They can't find any cancer cells at all -- nothing," the woman's husband announced joyously over the phone to Dr. Chopra, who himself was surprised by the rapidity of the cure. Yet within a few weeks the woman's "miracle" began to teeter and stumble, not physically, but within the woman herself: "instead of being able to trust in her inexplicable recovery, she became conflicted, morbidly afraid that the cancer would return....It seemed that [her]cancer was easier to defeat than the sinister doubt that was creeping back into her life, defying her to be well....For her to be well again, she needed an explanation." This, Dr. Chopra concedes, was the real starting point of his book. He continues, "Research on spontaneous cures of cancer...has shown that just before the cure appears, almost every patient experiences a dramatic shift in awareness. He knows that he will be healed, and he feels that the force responsible is inside himself but not limited to him -- it extends beyond his personal boundaries, throughout all of nature....This leap in consciousness seems to be the key....The word that comes to mind when a scientist thinks of such sudden changes is 'quantum.' The word denotes a discrete jump from one level of functioning to a higher level -- the quantum leap." Throughout the remainder of the book, Dr. Chropra delves into an exacting and thorough description of how this process is worked out in a physical way, using a style of language and an approach that is easily intelligible by both technician and layman alike. He quite effortlessly moves back and forth between the scientific and the more subjective metaphysical explanations behind how quantum healing takes place, in order to show, he asserts, the true nature of healing. The result is a delightful and convincing work, filled with many anecdotes and personal insights which enhance his arguments. Quantum Healing, beyond its technical excellence, hedges into the realm of being a contemplative tour de force, wherein the emperical and the analytical embrace with sublime warmth and intimacy the intuitive and the metaphysical. Indeed, one can almost "feel" a heightening in one's own awareness as he reads deeper into the book with a joy that only a discoverer has as he is breaking into new uncharted territory. Dr. Chopra speaks with a clarity and confidence which is amply reinforced through his own personal experience. At one juncture he illustrates graphically the point that our minds create our reality. He relates an experience he had taking off from an airport in Bombay. The jetliner had apparently developed a problem shortly after take-off, and the Fasten Your Seatbelt sign flashed on overhead. The pilot made an announcement that they were having to return to the airport, and minutes later the jetliner bounced onto the runway. There was no fire or explosion, and no explanation was ever given for the incident. Within minutes, the passengers were reboarded onto a different jet, but about half elected to stay on the ground. "I didn't feel too disturbed during the incident," he writes, "and got on the second plane. The next time I caught a flight, about ten days later, my mind was at ease. However, as soon as they flashed on the sign, No Smoking/Fasten Your Seatbelt, accompanied by that ding sound, my heart started to pound. At first I couldn't put two and two together; then I realized that I had created a small conditioned reflex in myself....I then noticed that as soon as this explanation dawned on me, my heartbeat went back to normal. "For a few seconds I was present at the birth of one impulse that shaped my reality. It is plausible that I have unwittingly created myself by piling up millions of impulses just like it." What Dr. Chopra had "unwittingly" stumbled onto is undoubtedly the key behind our human creation of reality and how to clear unbeneficial reactions from our beingness, in essence allowing our minds to react to the present moment rather than be drawn back into a negative past experience which we have previously "conditioned" into ourselves.
Rating:
Summary: Some say bad-physics some say excellent, I say very good
Review: The sun may be setting on Dr. Chopra's popularity, but this book is an excellent vehicle to expand your view of mind/body health. If you are into learning about how molecules of the stomach (neurotransmitters), are the same as those in the central nervous system, and therefore, think, then this book is for you. If you are interested in learning how interacions with other people affect our health this book is for you. This book is about understanding the relationship of the mind/body not as 2 entities, but as 1. One of the previous reviewers says "bad physics", I do not believe this to be so. If you look into the work of Karl Pribram of Yale University where people in accidents had portions of their brains removed for medical reasons, and who never suffered a loss of specific memory (Holographic Universe, 1991). I am not truely convinced in the efficacy of chemotherapy as Dr. Chopra is, so for this reason and the fact that chemotherapy does not really have a place in this book, I cannot give 5 stars. Chemotherapy kills many people and saves few. There are much better cancer treatments then the 3 billion dollar a year chemotherapy treatment, many of them cost nothing. Anyway you slice it, this book is still an eye opener to those who seek knowledge about the delicate interrelationships between ourselves and all things. Very Good Book! 4 Stars!
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Summary: Not Nonsense - some miss the point
Review: To those reviewers that claim this book is nonsense are completely missing the point. In my opinion the author is expanding traditional Western thinking around healing. Not that we can actually study and manipulate the quantum level of our own bodies, but rather entertain new ways of enhancing our own healing through the power of our own minds Scientists can prove that being depressed, angry, or generally negative causes a negative biological reaction. Why can't the inverse be true? I recommend if you're searching for a way to better understand how your state of mind might impact your health, or are searching for alternative therapy, pick up this book.
Rating:
Summary: Not Nonsense - some miss the point
Review: To those reviewers that claim this book is nonsense are completely missing the point. In my opinion the author is expanding traditional Western thinking around healing. Not that we can actually study and manipulate the quantum level of our own bodies, but rather entertain new ways of enhancing our own healing through the power of our own minds Scientists can prove that being depressed, angry, or generally negative causes a negative biological reaction. Why can't the inverse be true? I recommend if you're searching for a way to better understand how your state of mind might impact your health, or are searching for alternative therapy, pick up this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Quantum Nonsense
Review: When I heard of this book, I could not believe that there are so many gullible people out there. Quantum healing is another example of so-called healers that hijack scientific ideas to bolster their money making deceptions. As a physicist, I know about quantum theory and it is one of the most successful scientific theories to describe the world on a microscopic scale. At the quantum level, atomic particles behave in ways that are strange and unfamiliar to people's everyday experience. For example, it is impossible to determine the exact position and velocity of an electron simultaneously. Particles possess both wave-like and particle-like properties depending on the how the particle is observed. We are forced to accept this uncertainty and we must use statistics and probability to assess the likely-hood of an outcome. Quantum mechanics is a process that is highly mathematical and there are only a few examples of simple problems in quantum mechanics which can be solved exactly, for example a simple harmonic oscillator or an electron trapped in an infinite quantum well. Even for the simplest atom, Hydrogen, which contains a single proton and one electron, we are forced into adopting highly advanced mathematical techniques and for the next element, Helium we use approximation techniques. Imagine, that for the simplest amino-acid, how complex the calculations become. A further extrapolation to a living person, the idea of understanding how a persons mind and body behaves from quantum theory is laughable. You might as well fix your car by using its registration date and finding out it star sign. [...]
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