The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World


Iain McGilchrist - 2009
    In a book of unprecedented scope, McGilchrist draws on a vast body of recent brain research, illustrated with case histories, to reveal that the difference is profound—not just this or that function, but two whole, coherent, but incompatible ways of experiencing the world. The left hemisphere is detail oriented, prefers mechanisms to living things & is inclined to self-interest. The right hemisphere has greater breadth, flexibility & generosity. This division helps explain the origins of music & language, & casts new light on the history of philosophy, as well as on some mental illnesses. The 2nd part of the book takes a journey thru the history of Western culture, illustrating the tension between these two worlds as revealed in the thought & belief of thinkers & artists, from Aeschylus to Magritte. He argues that, despite its inferior grasp of reality, the left hemisphere is increasingly taking precedence in the modern world, with potentially disastrous consequences.List of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionAsymmetry and the brain --What do the two hemispheres 'do'? --Language, truth and music --The nature of the two worlds --The primacy of the right hemisphere --The triumph of the left hemisphere --Imitation and the evolution of culture --The ancient world --The Renaissance and the Reformation --The Enlightenment --Romanticism and the Industrial Revolution --The modern and post-modern worldsConclusionNotes BibliographyIndex

Healing the Shame that Binds You


John Bradshaw - 1988
    The more I drank to relieve my shame-based loneliness and hurt, the more I felt ashamed.” Shame is the motivator behind our toxic behaviors: the compulsion, co-dependency, addiction and drive to superachieve that breaks down the family and destroys personal lives. This book has helped millions identify their personal shame, understand the underlying reasons for it, address these root causes and release themselves from the shame that binds them to their past failures. Key Features This is not just a recovery book. Among other things, it is a classic book on identifying and working through unresolved family issues. Includes affirmations, visualizations, inner voice and feeling exercises. Strong supporting studies make this a popular book with counselors and other professionals. Completely updated and revised

Together: Why Social Connection Holds the Key to Better Health, Higher Performance, and Greater Happiness


Vivek H. Murthy - 2020
    The good news is that social connection is innate and a cure for loneliness. In Together, the former Surgeon General will address the importance of community and connection and offer viable and actionable solutions to this overlooked epidemic.

The Mind-Body Code: How the Mind Wounds and Heals the Body


Mario Martinez - 2009
    On The Mind-Body Code, pioneering neuropsychologist Dr. Mario Martinez invites you to discover the dynamic interplay between your thoughts, body, and cultural history to master the creation of wellness and fulfillment.Biocognitive Theory: A New Model of Health and Well-BeingWhy do some people live well past the age of 100, without ever seeing a doctor? How can certain individuals reverse "incurable" disease, while others carry burdens of childhood wounds despite years of therapy? Dr. Martinez' Biocognitive Theory synthesizes insights from medicine and psychology, cultural anthropology, and Eastern and Western spirituality to find the answers to such baffling questions. The Mind-Body Code shows you how to speak the "biosymbolic language" of this new model of health. Six sessions of illuminating case studies complemented by relaxing yet potent mind-body meditations help you balance every facet of your life, from relationships and aging to abundance and ambitions.Embrace Your Greatness—and Empower Your Dreams The first step toward the health and satisfaction we all desire begins with one act: allowing yourself to be great. For it is in reclaiming your natural state of worthiness that you come back to wholeness and see anew all that is possible for you. With The Mind-Body Code, you hold a blueprint to rebuild your dreams and to take total control of your life's journey.Program HighlightsThe five portals of wellness and the biosymbolic language of your mind-body• How to break through your "ceilings of abundance" by healing archetypal wounds• Debunking the myths of aging with the secrets of the centenarians• From fibromyalgia to stigmata—fascinating case studies of the power of the mind-body-culture connection• Creating the "healing fields" of honor, commitment, and loyalty• The psychology of forgiveness—and a special guided practice for liberation from self-entrapment• Six CDs of insights and exercises with the founder of Biocognitive TheoryCourse objectives:Define the five portals of wellness and the biosymbolic language of your mind-body• Discuss how to break through your "ceilings of abundance" by healing archetypal wounds• Examine case studies of the power of the mind-body-culture connection from fibromyalgia to stigmata• Practice exercises with the founder of Biocognitive Theory, including a guided practice for liberation from self-entrapment through the psychology of forgiveness• Define and create the "healing fields" of honor, commitment, and loyalty• Debunk the myths of aging, by learning the secrets of the centenarians

DMT: The Spirit Molecule


Rick Strassman - 2000
    Rick Strassman conducted US DEA-approved clinical research at the University of New Mexico in which he injected 60 volunteers with DMT, one of the most powerful psychedelics known. His detailed account of those sessions is an inquiry into the nature of the human mind and the therapeutic potential of psychedelics. DMT, a plant-derived chemical that is also manufactured by the human brain, consistently produced near-death and mystical experiences. Many volunteers reported convincing encounters with intelligent nonhuman presences, especially "aliens." Nearly all felt that the sessions were among the most profound experiences of their lives.Strassman's research connects DMT with the pineal gland, considered by Hindus to be the site of the seventh chakra and by René Descartes to be the seat of the soul. DMT: The Spirit Molecule makes the case that DMT, naturally released by the pineal gland, facilitates the soul's movement in and out of the body and is an integral part of the birth and death experiences, as well as the highest states of meditation and even sexual transcendence. Strassman also believes that alien abduction experiences are brought on by accidental releases of DMT. If used wisely, DMT could trigger a period of remarkable progress in the scientific exploration of the most mystical regions of the human mind and soul.

The Horse Boy: A Father's Quest to Heal His Son


Rupert Isaacson - 2009
    But when Isaacson, a lifelong horseman, rode their neighbor's horse with Rowan, Rowan improved immeasurably. He was struck with a crazy idea: why not take Rowan to Mongolia, the one place in the world where horses and shamanic healing intersected? THE HORSE BOY is the dramatic and heartwarming story of that impossible adventure. In Mongolia, the family found undreamed of landscapes and people, unbearable setbacks, and advances beyond their wildest dreams. This is a deeply moving, truly one-of-a-kind story--of a family willing to go to the ends of the earth to help their son, and of a boy learning to connect with the world for the first time.

Sacred Space: Clearing and Enhancing the Energy of Your Home


Denise Linn - 1995
    Through them we can interface with the universe."Everything in the universe is composed of constantly changing energy, including your home and its contents. This energy can profoundly influence your ability to be healthy, loving, creative and abundant. By clearing and enhancing this energy you can transform your home into a sanctuary which radiates positive energy in ever-expanding circles.In this fascinating and unusual book, Denise Linn shows you how you can dramatically change your life by changing the environment in your home or office. She combines information from her own Native American heritage with material she has personally collected from native traditions around the world to bring you practical, easy-to-use exercises for balancing the physical, emotional and spiritual energies in your home, including how to:* Diagnose and solve problems with stagnant home energies.* Use sacred sound, spirit smoke, mystic symbols and purifying fire forclearing home energy.* Discover the personal numerology of your home.* Use the ancient art of Feng Shui for the placement of objects in yourhome.* Call house angels and totems as home protectors.* Use rituals to rid your home of unwanted spirits.* Instantly uplift the energy in your home.Your home can resonate, sing and pulse with Light energy that can touch the lives of everyone around you. Your home can become Sacred Space.

E-Squared: Nine Do-It-Yourself Energy Experiments That Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality


Pam Grout - 2013
    Create reality!       E-Squared could best be described as a lab manual with simple experiments to prove once and for all that reality is malleable, that consciousness trumps matter, and that you shape your life with your mind. Rather than take it on faith, you are invited to conduct nine 48-hour experiments to prove there really is a positive, loving, totally hip force in the universe. Yes, you read that right. It says prove.       The experiments, each of which can be conducted with absolutely no money and very little time expenditure, demonstrate that spiritual principles are as dependable as gravity, as consistent as Newton’s laws of motion. For years, you’ve been hoping and praying that spiritual principles are true. Now, you can know.       E-Squared proves the following: 1.       There is an invisible energy force or field of infinite possibilities. 2.       You impact the field and draw from it according to your beliefs and expectations. 3.       You, too, are a field of energy. 4.       Whatever you focus on expands.   5.       Your connection to the field provides accurate and unlimited guidance.6.       Your thoughts and consciousness impact matter. 7.       Your thoughts and consciousness provide the scaffolding for your physical body.8.       You are connected to everything and everyone else in the universe. 9.       The universe is limitless, abundant, and strangely accommodating.

A Headache in the Pelvis: A New Understanding and Treatment for Prostatitis and Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndromes


David Wise - 2001
    The 4th edition enlarges the scope of the book to specifically address the Stanford Protocol for women'ss pelvic pain and includes a large illustrated section on the method of pelvic floor trigger point release. It also includes details of Paradoxical Relaxation for conditions of pelvic pain that affect women.

Learning to Speak Alzheimer's: A Groundbreaking Approach for Everyone Dealing with the Disease


Joanne Koenig Coste - 2003
    Her accessible and comprehensive method, which she calls habilitation, works to enhance communication between carepartners and patients and has proven successful with thousands of people living with dementia. Learning to Speak Alzheimer’s also offers hundreds of practical tips, including how to -Cope with the diagnosis and adjust to the disease’s progression -Help the patient talk about the illness -Face the issue of driving -Make meals and bath times as pleasant as possible -Adjust room design for the patient’s comfort -Deal with wandering, paranoia, and aggression ​“A true godsend to anyone caring for those afflicted with dementia.”—Rudolph E. Tanzi, coauthor of Decoding Darkness: The Search for the Genetic Causes of Alzheimer’s Disease

The Health Gap: The Challenge of an Unequal World


Michael G. Marmot - 2015
    The same twenty-year avoidable disparity exists in the Calton and Lenzie neighborhoods of Glasgow, and in other cities around the world.In Sierra Leone, one in 21 fifteen-year-old women will die in her fertile years of a maternal-related cause; in Italy, the figure is one in 17,100; but in the United States, which spends more on healthcare than any other country in the world, it is one in 1,800. Why?Dramatic differences in health are not a simple matter of rich and poor; poverty alone doesn't drive ill health, but inequality does. Indeed, suicide, heart disease, lung disease, obesity, and diabetes, for example, are all linked to social disadvantage. In every country, people at relative social disadvantage suffer health disadvantage and shorter lives. Within countries, the higher the social status of individuals, the better their health. These health inequalities defy the usual explanations. Conventional approaches to improving health have emphasized access to technical solutions and changes in the behavior of individuals, but these methods only go so far. What really makes a difference is creating the conditions for people to have control over their lives, to have the power to live as they want. Empowerment is the key to reducing health inequality and thereby improving the health of everyone. Marmot emphasizes that the rate of illness of a society as a whole determines how well it functions; the greater the health inequity, the greater the dysfunction.Marmot underscores that we have the tools and resources materially to improve levels of health for individuals and societies around the world, and that to not do so would be a form of injustice. Citing powerful examples and startling statistics ("young men in the U.S. have less chance of surviving to sixty than young men in forty-nine other countries"), The Health Gap presents compelling evidence for a radical change in the way we think about health and indeed society, and inspires us to address the societal imbalances in power, money, and resources that work against health equity.

Moonlight Sonata at the Mayo Clinic


Nora Gallagher - 2013
    One day at the end of 2009, during a routine eye exam that Nora Gallagher nearly skipped, her doctor said, “Darn.” Her right optic nerve was inflamed, the cause unknown, a condition that if left untreated would cause her to lose her sight. And so began her departure from ordinary life and her travels in what she calls Oz, the land of the sick. It looks like the world most of us inhabit, she tells us, except that “the furniture is slightly rearranged”: her friends can’t help her, her trusted doctors don’t know what’s wrong, and what faith she has left just won’t cover it. After a year of searching for a diagnosis and treatment, she arrives at the Mayo Clinic and finds a whole town built around Oz.In the course of her journey, Gallagher encounters inhuman doctors, the modern medical system—in which knowledge takes fifteen years to trickle down—and the strange world that is the famous Mayo Clinic, complete with its grand piano. With unerring candor, and no sentimentality whatsoever, Gallagher describes the unexpected twists and turns of the path she took through a medical mystery and an unfathomably changing life. In doing so, she gives us a singular, luminous map of vulnerability and dark landscapes. “It’s the nature of things to be vulnerable,” Gallagher says. “The disorder is imagining we are not.”

Heart Intelligence: Connecting with the Intuitive Guidance of the Heart


Doc Childre - 2016
    Through its extensive communication with the brain and body, the heart is intimately involved in how we think, feel, and respond to the world. Expanding on their breakthrough book, The HeartMath Solution, the authors offer heart-based techniques and guidelines for living from the heart, which connects the puzzle pieces of our purpose and fulfillment. The book provides information and simple practices for accessing our heart’s intuitive guidance to connect with our highest choices for better outcomes. Our choices are especially important through these changing times because they constantly create or disrupt our peace, happiness and self-security. Our thoughts and feelings influence the chemistry that regulates much of our health — how we feel, for better or worse. Our thoughts, feelings, emotions and attitudes are just frequencies that we can learn to change — once we put our heart into our intention. Heart Intelligence provides practices to replace fear with the attitude of intelligent concern (managed concern) which leaves us in charge and more attuned to intuitive direction. We learn the benefits of practicing simple coherence techniques a few times a day for boosting resilience and emotional balance; making appropriate choices; and clearing our mind from anxiety or overwhelm when needed. It is through deepening our heart intelligence, coherence and connection that humanity will be able to shift from separation to cooperation resulting in higher solutions to our personal and global problems.