“Anatomy of an Illness” – as perceived by the Patient (reflections on Healing and Regeneration)

by Norman Cousins, published by Bantam books

A breakthrough in holistic healing in the West took place due to the efforts of not a doctor, but a patient suffering from a serious ailment. The person in question is Norman Cousins, who wrote this book in 1979, based on his experiences and subsequent recovery from an “incurable” disease.

In his own words, Cousins wrote, “This book is about a serious illness that occurred in 1964. I was reluctant to write about it for many years because I was fearful of creating false hopes in others who were similarly afflicted. Moreover, I knew that a single case has small standing in the annals of medical research, having little more than “anecdotal” or testimonial value. However, references to the illness surfaced from time to time in the general and medical press. People wrote to ask whether it was true that I “laughed” my way out of a crippling disease that doctors believed to be irreversible. In view of those questions, I thought it useful to provide a fuller account than appeared in those early reports.”

The book is a story of an unusual partnership between a physician and a patient and how together they were able to beat back the odds. The doctor’s genius lay in helping the patient use his own powers: laughter, courage, tenacity. The patient’s talent was in mobilizing his body’s own natural healing resources, proving what an effective weapon the mind can be in the war against disease.

In one of the chapters “Pain is not the Enemy” he has recounted about the work of Dr. Paul Brand in CMC Vellore with patients afflicted with leprosy, and his amazing discovery that people who cannot feel pain suffer unimagined consequences, including losing their fingers and toes to rat-bites.

A Fistful of Rice

Siddhartha

“Siddhartha” – Nobel Prize winner Hermann Hesse’s most famous and influential book has given a totally different insight to seekers of the higher self. (Bantam Books)

Young Siddhartha, along with his friend Govinda, is on a long search for the truth, for enlightenment. After years of travelling, exploration and searching, they come into the august presence of Gotama the Buddha. And after getting convinced that he is indeed the Enlightened One, after being mesmerized by his sermon …… he decides to leave him and move on!

When everyone is shocked by Siddhartha’s decision not to stay back at the feet of this great soul, he says, “Not for one moment did I doubt that you were the Buddha, that you have reached the highest goal …. you have done so by your own seeking, in your own way, through thought, through knowledge. You have learned nothing through teachings …. nobody finds salvation through teachings. That is why I am going on my way – not to seek another and better doctrine, but to leave all doctrines and all teachers and to reach my goal alone – or die. If I were one of your followers, I fear that it would only be on the surface, that I would deceive myself that I was a peace and had attained salvation …..”

How many of us deceive ourselves that we are receiving education through the teachings of our teachers? If any teacher, any book, any lecture can make you sit up and think (even in direct opposition to what is being said), then you are on your way to learning !