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Book Review |
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Infinite
Grace: Where the Worlds of Science and Spiritual Healing Meet
Author: by Diane Goldner
Journalist and skeptical reporter, Diane Goldner, interviews some of today's energy healers such as Barbara Brennan and Rosalyn Bruyere. She also researches studies done by numerous medical doctors (including Deepak Chopra, MD, Christine Northrup, MD, Dr. Andrew Weil, and Mehmet Oz, MD) who have stepped outside of the clinical mainstream delving into spiritual models of healing.
Her writings are a blending of information she has retrieved from healer experiences, scientific studies, and client testimonies. Diane, herself was able to participate in a number of healer/client sessions, observing various techniques and comparing results occurring from their treatments. As an outcome of her four years gathering up materials, and compiling interviews for writing this text she concludes that "suffering is a path to bring us home", this quoted from her preliminary notes to her readers.
There were two chapters in particular I found personally worthwhile reading. Chapter 4 (Anatomy of the Soul) covers energy work in relationship to our chakra centers. Chapter 10 (Heart of the Matter) explores studies of patients with heart conditions. The latter was interesting to me personally as my husband recently underwent a mitral valve repair. Other condition-related chapters are Chapters 11 and 12 (Cancer and AIDS). Diane also devotes Chapter 2 (Child's Play) to reporting on the JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) study on Therapeutic Touch that was well-publicized by the media in 1998.
Diane's intention may very well have been to bring the scientific-minded and the metaphysical-minded or spiritual-minded schools into a neutral space to better understand one another. I am a spiritually-minded individual who has a somewhat skeptical nature so I find it refreshing to have the combination of opposing ideas together in this format, helping bring us closer to an understanding of all concepts of healing. Writing a book of this caliber is quite an impressive and challenging endeavor on her part and imagine at times it may have been a struggle managing a fair balance. I am grateful she did although I will admit that I did "skim over" some of the more detailed scientific jargon especially when it came to study data of charts, numbers, and percentages. I wonder if the more scientifically minded person might skim over the parts that I found to be interesting.
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