Healing into life and death

After years of counseling the terminally ill, Levine began to explore the nature of healing: What explains the phenomenon of cancer patients who seemingly cure themselves? Mixing case histories with philosophical meditations, Levine emphasizes the need to unblock the ``healing opening'' to the heart and to make healing a way of life, not just an occasional attempt to solve a crisis. He argues that by always looking forward to the wonderment of the next moment, it is possible to embrace such potentially negative emotions as anger and fear, thus opening the mind and heart to the concept of healing. Readers willing to accept the author's somewhat mystical approach will find this meditative exploration of life and death to be challenging and thought-provoking. WKB. 615.5 Sick Psychology / Medicine and psychology

While working with the terminally ill, Levine, director of the Hanuman Foundation's Dying Project, discovered an interesting phenomenon. In preparing for death, many were being healed. Levine also noticed that those who became physically well were often in better health than they had been before. Further study lead him to conclude that the physical healing was a by-product of a new balance of mind and heart. Vivid case histories of patients are used to illustrate how individuals learned to let go, become open to life, and stop struggling against illness, pain, and death. Levine discusses meditation and how to use it to ``heal into life and death.'' This approach is certainly not for everyone, but for many terminally ill patients and their families it may offer new hope and peace. Mary L. Kirk, Unv. of North Carolina at Wilmington Lib. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.