Customer Reviews

Quantum Healing: Exploring the Frontiers of Mind/Body Medicine

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The senses of the wise man obey his mind, his mind obeys his intellect, his intellect obeys his ego, and his ego obeys the Self. -- Katha Upanishad

Thus, within this brief passage, we have the essence of Dr. Deepak Chopra's book Quantum Healing, which successfully seems to shed light for the uninitiated Western reader on the mind/body connection as it relates to medical healing. Although the ideas and techniques he discusses in his book may sound new to us, they are in actuality, as the Doctor demonstrates through his scrupulous tracing of the Western disciplines of neuroscience and physics back to the source of their beginings in the ancient Vedic traditions, as old as time itself. With the precision of an artist meticulously carving a statue, Dr. Chopra proceeds to chip away at Western medicine's physical approach to healing, asserting the point that "when the memory of health returns [it] brings with it enough power to last a lifetime."

These mind-based methods of healing, he tells us, are based upon Ayurveda, the ancient tradition of Indian medicine. The term "Ayurveda" is derived from its two Sanskrit roots, Ayus, meaning "life," and Veda, which can mean either "science" or "knowledge." Combined, the literal meaning becomes "science of life."

In describing how he came up with the term quantum healing, Dr. Chopra relates the moving story of one of his first patients to undergo Ayurvedic treatment. The patient, a woman who had lung cancer, had responded well to the traditional Western treatments which had been combined with Ayurvedic methods. The Ayurvedic method depended upon a "change of diet, some Ayurvedic herbs, a specific daily routine including simple yoga exercises, and instruction in Transcendental Meditiation." She was also "given two special mental techniques that went directly to the root of her cancer."

After nearly a year of this treatment, the woman had a sudden remission of her cancer. "They can't find any cancer cells at all--nothing," the woman's husband announced joyously over the phone to Dr. Chopra, who himself was surprised by the rapidity of the cure. Yet within a few weeks the woman's "miracle" began to teeter and stumble, not physically, but within the woman herself: "instead of being able to trust in her inexplicable recovery, she became conflicted, morbidly afraid that the cancer would return....It seemed that [her] cancer was easier to defeat than the sinister doubt that was creeping back into her life, defying her to be well....For her to be well again, she needed an explanation."

This, Dr. Chopra concedes, was the real starting point of his book. He continues, "Research on spontaneous cures of cancer...has shown that just before the cure appears, almost every patient experiences a dramatic shift in awareness. He knows that he will be healed, and he feels that the force responsible is inside himself but not limited to him -- it extends beyond his personal boundaries, throughout all of nature....The leap in consciousness seems to be the key....The word that comes to mind when a scientist thinks of such sudden changes is 'quantum.' The word denotes a discrete jump from one level of functioning to a higher level -- the quantum leap."

Throughout the remainder of the book, Dr. Chopra delves into an exacting and thorough discription of how this process is worked out in a physical way, using a style of language and an approach that is easily intelligible by both technician and layman alike. He quite effortlessly moves back and forth between the scientific and the more subjective metaphysical explanations behind how quantum healing takes place, in order to show, he asserts, the true nature of healing. The result is a delightful and convincing work, filled with many anecdotes and personal insights which enhance his arguments.

Quantum Healing hedges into the realm of being a contemplative tour de force, wherein the empirical and the analytical embrace with sublime warmth and intimacy the intuitive and the metaphysical. Indeed, one can almost "feel" a heightening in one's own awareness as he reads deeper into the book with a joy that only a discoverer has as he is breaking into new uncharted territory.

Dr. Chopra speaks with a clarity and confidence which is amply reinforced through his own personal experience. At one juncture he illustrates graphically the point that our minds create our reality. He relates an experience he had taking off from an airport in Bombay. The jetliner had apparently developed a problem shortly after take-off, and the "Fasten Your Seatbelt" sign flashed on overhead. The pilot made an announcement that they were having to return to the airport, and minutes later the jetliner bounced onto the runway. There was no fire or explanation ever given for the incident. Within minutes, the passengers were reboarded onto a different jet, but about half elected to stay on the ground.

"I didn't feel too disturbed during the incident," he writes, "and got on the second plane. The next time I caught a flight, about ten days later, my mind was at ease. However, as soon as they flashed on the sign, "No Smoking/Fasten Your Seatbelt," accompanied by that ding sound, my heart started to pound. At first I couldn't put two and two together; then I realized that I had created a small conditioned reflex in myself....I then noticed that as soon as this explanation dawned on me, my heartbeat went back to normal."

"For a few seconds I was present at the birth of one impulse that shaped my reality. It is plausible that I have unwittingly created myself by piling up millions of impulses just like it."

What Dr. Chopra had "unwittingly" stumbled onto is undoubtedly the key behind our human creation of reality and how to clear unbeneficial reactions from our beingness, in essence allowing our minds to react to the present moment rather than be drawn back into a negative past experience which we have previously "conditioned" into ourselves.

Dr. Chopra's thoughtful book summarizes recent advances in neuroendocrinology that are helpful in explaining why the mind is not simply located in the brain, but is to be found throughout the body. He gives a cogent explanation for the mechanism by which an individual can 'think' themselves sick, and 'think' themselves well again--a proposition that I believe most people instinctively credit but cannot explain. His writing style is very compelling, and his book is filled with personal stories and stories of his patients that make it hard to put down. Unfortunately, Dr. Chopra seems unable to believe that the miraculous series of chemical reactions that we call the mind could have arisen by itself, and he therefore resorts to some distorted concepts from quantum physics to give a 'why' explanation. My advice: pay attention to the endocrinology and ignore the physics. The book will make you think long and hard about traditional 'Western' cancer treatment protocols

Clearly book has good content - and I believe educating oneself is vital in dealing with disease. However, Dr Chopra's credibility totally vaporises when he tries to give a physical explanation for the link between mind and body; his scientific/spiritual jargon is well chosen to snow-blind the reader. He makes vague, untestable (nonsensical) assertions to sew his his work into a reasonable sounding and *marketable* form. I am not in the pay of big pharma - I have no particular axe to grind - and the book is certainly not all bad - but as someone who knows physics I can tell you that Dr Chopra is abusing it. Also, while you are still thinking for yourself, google the 'appeal to antiquity' fallacy.

Dr. Chopra is personally responsible for my complete change in beliefs on being sick. In his book, he states clearly and simply that the natural state of the body is health, not illness. And after reading that, something in my mind locked onto it, believed it and for the last 10 years my body has been living it! I no longer think I need to be sick to build antibodies to various diseases, I simply allow my body to be healthy- even in the midst of coughing and wheezing people. It is a mindset for which I am extremely grateful! A highly valuable read.

To those reviewers that claim this book is nonsense are completely missing the point. In my opinion the author is expanding traditional Western thinking around healing. Not that we can actually study and manipulate the quantum level of our own bodies, but rather entertain new ways of enhancing our own healing through the power of our own minds

Scientists can prove that being depressed, angry, or generally negative causes a negative biological reaction. Why can't the inverse be true?

I recommend if you're searching for a way to better understand how your state of mind might impact your health, or are searching for alternative therapy, pick up this book.

D. Chopra is a genius, scientist, physician, and I wish he was my doctor. If you are on a cadre of drugs as I am after a severe heart attack last summer this book is a must read. You don't have to admit to physical defeat. Let Dr. Chopra help you open the doors of your mind and and take control of the quantum healing process.

QUANTUM HEALING: EXPLORING THE FRONTIERS OF MIND/BODY MEDICINE is an enlightening book that I enjoyed reading. I read it during my university years and still remember it. I met with author Dr.Deepak Chopra and took a corecourse on Ayurveda (Ancient Indian health science) during my university studies at Maharishi University of Management, Fairfield/Iowa, USA. Although I was a Business Administration major student with various Education courses, I enjoyed this course immensely! The book is generally about mind-body cooperation and how to be more blisssful, healthy, young-looking, successful and enlightened in our lives. If we have a mind-body cooperation; we can be more healthy, enlightened. For a perfect mind-body cooperation; the first thing we need to do is to live transcendence, meditate, live the coherence and restful alertness (Cosmic Consciousness). The more we contact with the UNIFIED FIELD which is the field of all possibilities; the more we will be healthy, successful, enlightened and live the absolute bliss (Sat Chit Ananda). I also strongly recommend and urge you to read Sufi author AHMED HULUSI's enlightening, magnificent, fascinating Sufi wisdom books. I've been reading them for 6 years now and doing Islamic meditation for enlightenment. It's wonderful! I am certain that, you will just love them!

This book is inspiring and hopeful, though it has been heavily criticized by many circles. If we could view the book from a neutral standpoint and not simply focus on hating the author's philosophies and assumptions, the basic message is that we could benefit from investigating what constitutes 'placebo', and if we can in fact encourage this not just when we are sick but for every day health as well. Lots of good information here.

I first read Quantum Healing about twelve years ago. I was studying how human consciousness occurs and my studies led me to this book. I was impressed by Dr. Chopra's excellent scholarship. He made complex workings of the human body make sense to a layman. Since reading this book, I have read more than eight other titles written by Dr. Chopra. My favorite book since Quantum Healing is The LOVE POEMS of RUMI. I purchased this copy of Quantum Healing to read the book again with a fresh look. I like to write in my books--taking notes and drawing images in the borders. This helps me when I go back to study the book again. I can quickly find information. I wanted a fresh look at Quantum Healing because it is so rich with ideas. I didn't want to just see what I had viewed the first time I read the book. I am convinced this book has messages for everyone. Thank you Deepak.

I was somewhat disappointed. There are levels of activity below the microscopic in the human body. Chopra calls them quantum by default.
He says that thoughts are connected to neurotransmitters, but there is no proof for this. I've read many books on quantum physics and the mind, and I'm always looking for a book on quantum chemistry and the mind. I was hoping that Chopra would deal with quantum chemistry more specifically than he did.