Asthma Free in 21 Days: The Breakthrough Mind-Body Healing Program

WOW!! Talk about a "Tah Dah" experience, an "ephiphany", a life changing moment. I was attending a feild seminar as a graduate student in the School of Social Work fortunately Dr. Schafer was scheduled to present Spirituality in Social Work Practice. I was so impressed by Dr. Schafer's ideas, beliefs and her approach to life, I told myself, "I've got to get this book." I didn't know what I would discover, since I don't have asthma. I thought I would just read the book. However,the skills, ideas, tools presented between the covers of this easy to read, to the point book are appropriate for anyone seeking to make a change in their life. I discovered the mental imagery, other exercises, philosophy of FUN (to name just a few)are effective tools or methods for people whose abiltiy to take in vital life support is restricted by self doubt, expectations, fear. Anything that keeps us from living life abundantly can be addressed using the information and philosophy Dr. Kathryn Schafer shares. She knows from personal experience and her story is amazing and inspirational.

My teenaged daughter has asthma and carries her inhaler wherever she goes. I see the limitations that this illness places on her. I do not ascribe to the medical view that illness has only a physical origin. I consider that the body cannot be separated from the internal workings of a person, i.e. thoughts, emotions, beliefs and outlook. I purchased this book based on the author of the forward, Dr. Gerald Epstein, whose books, Healing Visualizations and Healing Into Immortality, I regard as essential tools for daily life. I read Asthma Free in one sitting. I found it to be fascinating, informative, original and in some ways, redemptive. The inherent message is that all of us have the power to choose the course of our lives, including the physical ills that cause us to suffer. The authors compile scientific research with original interpretation and creative exercises. In fact, the name and meaning of the program - the F.U.N. Program - actually presents a method to conquer any difficulty found in life. The three steps - to focus, to undo and to act - form the three essential movements of all mindbody healing work. First, one must recognize the issue. To do this requires a moment of stepping away from the emotional story or the physical symptom. You cannot see the painting if you stand pressed against it. Second, you need to reverse the situation to experience how it would be for you would live life without turmoil; even if you only imagine for a instant, this allows you to glimpse life in an entirely new way. Third, you must act. You must bring this new perspective into your everyday life and not confine it to intellectual awareness. These three directions, learned in principle during the authors' study with Dr. Epstein, offer a way to freedom from asthma. I feel quite fortunate to discover an organized system for health based on the perspective that I have always held. Now, I just have to convince my daughter that she can heal herself from asthma. Teenagers are not known for their ready acceptance of parental suggestions. But, I know that soon she too will tire of this illness and will then be prepared to accept responsibility to heal herself. I will then give her this invaluable book.

The first time I ever heard the word "psychosomatic" was in a high school English class. We had been assigned our first research papers, ever. And one of the Class Brains was reading his, on the subject of "The Psychosomatic Origins of Asthma". An asthmatic himself, he had seen four specialists and studied all the available literature on the disease. Back then, in the late 1950s, holistic treatment wasn't even a blip on the medical radar screen. Some twenty years later, when I had the good fortune to meet a Harvard-trained MD who subscribed to the notion that most disease had at least part of its origin in how we perceived ourselves and our world, I had the first-hand opportunity to put that belief to the test. Joining with this doctor, and several other medical and mental health professionals (of which I hasten to add, I am neither) in what he called "a healing group" we worked with seriously ill people to help them overcome their diseases through meditation and visualization. The success rate, while well below 100% was dramatic, and the impact it continues to have on my life, twenty years after moving across the country, has been similarly impressive. Obviously, I believe strongly in the mind-body connection, so this book caught my eye. Having recently lost a sister who simply would not consider anything other than classic, HMO-approved medical treatment for her catastrophic asthma-related illness, I suppose I reached for "Asthma-Free..." more out of a sense of frustration than to put it to any specific use. Nonetheless, I found it to be a valuable introduction into the science -- and I do think it IS a science -- of healing through visualization. The endorsement of classically trained physicians was certainly impressive. But even more impressive was the common-sense of it all...and the results that Ms. Shafer cited in her own case. I can't say whether every asthma patient has the belief system or the commitment to put this regimen to a full, fair test, but I do believe this eminently accessible and well-thought-out book offers some new techniques -- and new hope -- for those willing to give it a try.

The healing technique used in this book is largely based on behavioral modification. For that reason, it has been misunderstood as a non-medical, non-scientific treatment. To the degree that asthma is related to behavior--any kind of behavior, including fear response, eating, and environment--this book can help an asthma sufferer.Asthmatic "behavior" in this book is modified mostly through imaging--replacing the thoughts and feelings that accompany the onset of asthma with thoughts and feelings that are contrary to the typical experience. It is a powerful tool, and to the degree that someone's asthma is amplified or even catalyzed by behaviors, this book can be helpful to someone to that degree.This book is NOT a new age book, nor is it any kind of introduction to new age spirituality. Scientific method is abundant throughout it; nonetheless the book remains fun.Finally, I found any "new-age" label the book receives to be completely ironic. that the book begins with a question posed by a doctor to one of the co-authors that is identical to the question another famous healer, Jesus, posed a man who had been ill for 38 years: "Do you WANT to get better?" This simple question is the best possible point of origin for the curing of an asthmatic.