Getting Well Again: The Bestselling Classic About the Simontons' Revolutionary Lifesaving Self- Awareness Techniques

(some details corrected in book list, 12/ 23/'03) Books like these should never be used as a substitute/replacement for formal medical care. Yet anyone who knows anything about health, knows of the power of mind to heal body. They also know that you keep all your options open, whilst never casting caution to the winds, surrendering obliviously to any sort of passing faddism. Simonton's book is the best over-all guide to mind-body healing I have seen, and I am as contemptuous of unproven 'alternatives' and new-age drivel as anyone. Yet, Simonton's isn't the only volume for your health bookshelf. His book recommends others for the average reader. I might also suggest you add a few others: - cancer-survivor Louise L. Hay, "Heal Your Body"; - Shakti Gawain's basic "Creative Visualization," useful if somewhat 'new-agey'; - Thomas Cleary's recent "Taoist Meditation"(not just for Taoists by a longshot); - Joel Goldsmith's older "The Art of Spiritual Healing," now in trade paperback; - Bernard Hollander MDs' classic, "Hypnosis and Self-Hypnosis"; - Yogi Ramacharaka's older "Science of Breath," not to be ignored becuase of the authors' name or because of the strange title; Rama Prasad's "Nature's Finer Forces" if you're getting even more ambitious about breathing; - Franz Alexander "Psychosomatic Medicine." - Henry Bieler MD, "Food Is Your Best Medicine" - everything you can get your hands on by Carlton Fredericks. - Michael Saso, "The Gold Pavilion," the safest book I know of to begin working with oriental alchemy, relaxation, visualisation and breathing techniques useful for health and well-being, mental or physical; -Israel Regardie, "The Art of True Healing," useful for health, relaxation, rhythmic breathing, and a score of other purposes, healing alot of areas of your life (see reviews;) -everything by Karen Horney (yes, psychology has alot to do with physical health;) -Carl Jung, "Two Essays on Analytical Psychology," alot more useful that it sounds, everyone should read it and have it around for re-reading; - anything by Theodore Reik, paricularly "Listening With the Third Ear," and any other good psychology writers (Erik Erikson, Otto Fenichel) you may find, and that come highly recommended. - and, so little mentioned by new agers, tho they are oft in her debt (directly or indirectly), Emma Curtis Hopkin's classic 'Scientific Christian Mental Practice,' in spite of awkward title and slightly difficult text, has taught me more of spirit healing than any other book I have read. There are others. There are some volumes by Israel Regardie, now out of print, that speak quite excellently to the issues of relaxation, rhythmic breathing, etc., with regards to health. It would be nice to see these re-issued. In the meantime, Regardie's "Art of True Healing" may prove useful to many. There are also Regardie's useful discs/tapes that discuss body 'awareness,' relaxation, and rhythmic breathing - all of which may be much more usef

I read this book 17 years ago while I was undergoing chemotherapy and it completely changed the way I saw myself, my illness, my treatment and my prognosis. Give this book to anyone you know who has cancer and help to save their lives. I agree entirely with the previous reviewer, this book is a MUST, as important as the conventional therapy you receive.

My husband was diagnosed with cancer in 1982. He took chemo and radiation concurrently as his "only" chance to live--even so, his prognosis was not good. He found a copy of this book and an audio cassette tape from the Simontons. He read the book, then read it again, then read it again, while continuing chemo and radiation! Each day, three times a day, he listened to the audio tape. He placed as much faith in the book and its suggestions and in the relaxation-visualization tape as he did in the conventional treatment he was receiving. He lived almost fifteen years after diagnosis and did not die from inoperable lung cancer but from bleeding ulcers. This book and the visualization tape if it is still available, are MUSTS for people diagnosed with cancer who are willing to use their minds to help their bodies cure themselves.