Customer Reviews

Cancer As Initiation: Surviving the Fire A Guide for Living With Cancer for Patient, Provider, Spouse, Family, or Friend

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My mother happens to be friends with Ms. Stone, the author of Cancer as Initiation. It was after I met her that I became compelled to read her book. My mother also battled breast cancer, and this book gave me a sense of what she might be experiencing. The author uses a unique blend of journal,expository, and personal writings, creating a book that is difficult to put down. I enjoyed learning about her use of both Eastern and Western medicine. Cancer as Initiation offers the family members of breast cancer victims and survivors hope and peace. Cancer is a blessing and a curse, but frightening to all. After reading Barbara's book, and doing some soul-searching of my own, I know that if I am ever diagnosed with breast cancer myself, the power to beat it lies within me, and my own unique combinations of Western and Eastern medicine.

Barbara Stone not only wrote an enlightening, creative book, she is an amazing person. My mother and Ms. Stone have been good friends since high school, and I met her earlier this year. I can assure you she practices all that she preaches.

Being from a relatively small, conservative area, I was not aware of much of the Eastern medicine Stone mentions in her book. I was eager to learn all I could, and Cancer as Initiation provided much insight for me into areas I had not previously explored. I was unaware how much basic mediatation would eventually help me.

As I examined the book closely, I found ideas not only about surviving cancer, but about keeping a healthy outlook on life as well. Stone's creativity and completely open mind certainly were well used in this book I recommend to anyone touched by cancer in even the smallest way. By moving away from what is commonly called the "death sentence" theory, Ms. Stone has painted a new picture of the cancer survivor. And painted it well.

In reading the book, I kept in my mind that we can be proactive with our bodies. Understanding our energy and understanding that there is more than meets the eye is what Barbara Stone's book examines. Our Western Doctors can see through this study that the power of meditation along with other holistic health methods is important for the person affected with Breast Cancer as well as the Physician that treats this deadly disease.

Thank you Ms. Stone for your contribution to all women.

A fascinating and deeply intimate account of one woman's survival of cancer and the journey she travelled to get there. Open and honest about the feelings and thoughts experienced when one is facing death, be it death of the physical self and/or death of the old life to the birth of a new life. Barbara wonderfully incorporates traditional medical therapies with alternative therapies. Her intelligence and wisdom are apparent as soon as you begin reading. A book you just cannot put down!

Cancer as Initiation is a very personal account of one woman's encounter with one of the most dreaded diseases on earth--but more than that, it is a book about claiming life.

Countless books have been written about cancer, about women's health issues,about alternative health care and holistic healing. Even more offerings of the inspirational genre promise to help us find meaning in the midst of personal adversity and pain. Dr. Stone walks us through her own experience in a way that provides us with good nourishment for the journey --information and inspiration and encouragement and wisdom--and is downright enjoyable reading to boot.

I've shared this book with patients and friends facing cancer. But even more, I've shared this book with fellow pilgrims seeking wholeness. It is a gift to anyone who is engaged by the deeper questions involved in creating a path of physical wellness and spiritual integrity.

Discovering cancer, and her own mortality, Barbara Stone draws on wisdom, faith, and resolve to lead herself and us on a triumphant journey over fear and disease. Her story will deeply touch you. Truly, it is a "profile in courage." Whether well or ill, everyone should read this book.

Joseph Gustafson, Poet

The Inner life, the Outer life, and the Transcendant steering of the interplay of emotions makes this a landmark contribution for all interested persons whether they be the cancer patient or family or friend. The writer intensively lives her feeliings and rides this roller coaster displaying the sheer beauty of her thought processes through dreams, journal work, and personal interactions. The use of Kirlian photography to portray her progress is an important feature of the work. She demonstrates the sidestepping of this number one opportunity for passive suicide! It is a great personal vote for engaging life.

I can't imagine anyone upon discovering they've been diagnosed with breast cancer thinking, "Wow! Just think what I could learn from this experience!" But Dr. Barbara Stone shows us in this vivid book that not all of our blessings come in pretty packages; she reveals the insights and gifts that came to her through her deep, emotional and sometimes terrifying battle with breast cancer. In the end she not only survived but gained inner strength. Of course it's difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel when diseases are concerned, but this unique book takes the reader on a step by step journey of the mixture between medical and wholistic healings that saved one woman's life. Breast cancer touches one out of every nine women so it is of utmost importance that these survival techniques be shared with the optimistic view of surviving and achieving spiritual growth.