Marc S. Micozzi, MD, Ph.D., in this unique book is able to look at these healing traditions in light of modern wisdom about physics and the flaws in allopathic medical approaches. He provides an historical overview of Eastern and Western healing philosophies, pointing out how Asian traditions such as Ayurveda and Chinese Medicine are metaphysical-based, unlike the mechanistic/materialist medical tradition that sprung from the time of Newtonian physics.

This book looks at the paradigms which underlie these healing traditions and how modern findings about consciousness, energy, and healing support those ancient traditions. Micozzi points out the fundamental similarities between the various Eastern healing systems, showing how they rely on assumptions of a vital spiritual force governing one's health and the need to seek harmony within oneself and with one's environment.

Mind (thoughts, emotions) was seen by these ancient traditions as a critical factor in health and illness, and healing practitioners would work on multiple levels to help people foster well-being. Whether looking at prana and the chakras and nadis, or chi and the dan tiens and meridians, we can see how these cultures mapped the energy system long before modern scientists developed technology to measure electromagnetic correlates of these subtle energy flows.

This book offers a great outline/overview of multiple healing traditions - including also the larger context of how Western medicine went astray from this understanding and the results of that distorted allopathic focus (wasteful healthcare spending and chronic illness). Readers from many backgrounds can appreciate this scholarly work. This book is suited to both professionals in the healing arts as well as laypersons. If medical students were to read this we might have a much more effective health care workforce, where people would have a better understanding of health and the forces that govern our well-being. This book is well-researched and it even includes an appendix of Asian medicine treatment approaches for common health concerns.

Vital Healing, by Marc S. Micozzi
This book is published by Singing Dragon www.singing-dragon.com

The reviewer, Jed Shlackman, is a mental health counselor, hypnotherapist, energy healer and author.
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