Healing Power: Ten Steps To Pain Management and Spiritual Evolution [Paperback]

MD Philip Shapiro (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 22, 2005

We seek unlimited peace, love and joy in an uncertain world where suffering is inevitable. Because we manage our pain poorly, we get into trouble. The wisdom of the ages, taught by the world's diverse religious traditions, offers a solution to this dilemma by pointing out the connection between pain management and the cultivation of spiritual qualities. When we develop a spiritual practice, we learn how to transform our suffering into spiritual power. Dr. Shapiro describes a self-help method of ten steps that propel spiritual evolution. The ten steps teach us how to expand our healing power, improve our pain management skills, and cultivate spiritual qualities. The central premise is that life, through a series of painful lessons, teaches us that the peace, love, and joy we seek in the outer world can and must ultimately be found within. Dr. Shapiro elaborates twelve spiritual methods derived from the world's great religions. These methods help us unlock healing and spiritual powers inherent in the body. Detailed instructions explain how these methods help us cultivate peace, love, joy, strength, and courage in response to any pain of the body, mind, or soul. These qualities are the jewels of this life. They are healers. They help us eliminate or endure any painful condition of body, mind, or soul. They are more powerful than any barrier or challenge we may face. We encounter trouble no matter which route we take, but the way offered here is the path of least resistance, the way through our pain to peace, power, and strength. As we move forward through the steps, we find ourselves living the richest possible life, a journey where our spirit is in charge and we are ready for anything!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Dr. Phil Shapiro is a psychiatrist and devotee of yoga-meditation with an interest in the magnificent intelligent healing power as an antidote to the brutal realities of life. He has had a 40-year career as a clinician, teacher, and administrator in public psychiatry. Work has taken him from the inner city to the Alaska bush, from holistic to addiction medicine, and from the boardroom to the streets. In 1974, he worked in one of the first interdisciplinary holistic clinics in New York City. In l983, he became the Director of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities for the State of Alaska. Following that, he was the Chief Medical Officer at Oregon State Hospital and then Clinical Director of Forensic Psychiatry at Western State Hospital. He has been a surveyor, reviewing quality of care in hospitals and clinics throughout the country. For the past eighteen years, he has worked in community mental health centers. Dr. Shapiro received his medical degree in l969 from the University of Illinois Medical School, where he was a member of the medical honorary society, Alpha Omega Alpha. He trained in psychiatry at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Downstate and Kings County Hospital in New York City and received a masters degree in public health from Columbia University. Dr. Shapiro has been on the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University and is currently an Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Oregon Health and Sciences University. While he has studied the nature of disease and healing with many of the masters of psychiatry, psychology, and spirituality, his greatest teachers have been his patients who carry the devastating aspects of life: racism, poverty, mental and physical illness, homelessness, child sex abuse, rape, domestic violence, and addiction. These courageous people and the mean streets they walk continue to be his teachers of the brutal realities of li --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 372 pages
• Publisher: AuthorHouse (July 22, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1420857266
• ISBN-13: 978-1420857269
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,116,805 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars East Meets West = Healing, August 26, 2005

By 

William Johnson "Bill Johnson" (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Healing Power: Ten Steps To Pain Management and Spiritual Evolution (Paperback)

Dr. Shapiro is a practicing psychiatrist and a devotee of yoga meditation. With a deep understanding of the Western path of understanding as a way to deal with painful situations in life and the Eastern path of transcendence, he offers those facing the brutal reality of pain in life step by step instruction on how to regain an inner peace. Dr. Shapiro's work also will help those labeled as mentally ill or emotionally unstable to a deeper awareness of themselves as spiritual souls on a journey.

This work is a great resource for people in pain, written by a great soul who understands what it means to feel trapped by and lost in problems that can appear to be unbearable and unsolvable.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A unique, invaluable resource for managing life's pain., January 1, 2007

By 

Linear Thoughts (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Healing Power: Ten Steps To Pain Management and Spiritual Evolution (Paperback)

This book is a true gift. Dr. Shapiro has melded his unique perspective as a physician and clinical psychiatrist with his study of the teachings of the great sages. The synthesis of concepts is remarkable. The result is a universal toolkit for managing the physical, psychological and spiritual pain that life brings (with an big emphasis on psychological and spiritual components). The first part of the book draws a map of how we perpetuate our suffering, big and small. The second part offers an abundance of tools to break the cycle and manage life's pain. This is not an "Instant Karma" self-help book. It puts you on the path to relief from suffering, and arms you with a boatload of practical tools to deploy when the going gets tough. The rest is up to you. To be fully effective, at least some of the techniques presented (you select those most relevant for you) must be integrated into your daily existence. The payoff, however, appears to be as big as you want it to be. Beyond relief from pain or anguish, this book also offers the promise of a life that may never look the same to you again. In an amazing way.

3 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars more east meets west pablum, April 9, 2006

By 

book reviewer of portland (portland oregon usa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Healing Power: Ten Steps To Pain Management and Spiritual Evolution (Paperback)

There are about a million books out there with the same message. Shapiro says nothing new about the topic. In fact, it seems like he doesnt really believe in the concepts he discusses. A deriative work with nothing new to offer.