The Power To Heal : Ancient Arts & Modern Medicine (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Phillip Moffitt (Collaborator), Matthew Naythons (Collaborator)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

An extraordinary look at the emotions, the mystery, the faces, and the remarkable diversity of health, healing, and medicine around the world. Breathtaking original photographs and illuminating essays combine to present a unique and hopeful portrait of humanity's age-old fascination with the body and how to keep it healthy. Journey through the pages of this book and discover: Tibetan healers using miraculous "precious pills" made of diamonds and rubies; Red Cross medical personnel scrambling through the crossfire in El Salvador; healers in central Africa using soldier ants in place of stitches; an emergency-room team in Baltimore making split-second life-and-death decisions; and American doctors and researchers creating biological and pharmacological miracles.

Product Description

The Power to Heal is an extraordinary look at the emotions, the mystery, the faces, and the remarkable diversity of health, healing and medicine around the world. Breathtaking original photographs, detailed captions, and illuminating essays combine to present a unique and hopeful portrait of humanitys age-old fascination with the body and how to keep it healthy.

One hundred of the worlds leading photographers and a score of equally celebrated writers--among them Dr. Michael Chrichton, Maxine Hong Kingston, and Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross--agreed to undertake a worldwide quest to capture the essence of healing. These explorers found remarkable connections between the ancient arts and modern medicine, connections made more vivid by todays struggle to find a healthy way of life in a world of scarcity and turmoil.

Journey through the pages of this book and discover: Tibetan healers using miraculous "precious pills" made of diamonds and rubies; Red Cross medical personnel scrambling through the cross fire in El Salvador; healers in central Africa using soldier ants in place of stitches; an emergency-room team in Baltimore making split-second life-and-death decisions; and American doctors and researchers creating biological and pharmacological miracles.

The Power to Heal is a new type of photojournalism book. Its approach is one of many layers--any combination of which will provide the reader with a powerful experience. Each photograph taken along with its caption is a mini-story, and the photographs viewed in sequence produce a video-like effect. Each of the four chapters taken alone is a compelling story, and the four chapters taken together create an epic tale of our struggle to find the power to heal.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 1st edition (January 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0136845495
• ISBN-13: 978-0136845492
• Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 10.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #443,153 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Culture and caring, October 25, 2000

By	Merry Beeson (Tulsa, Ok USA) - See all my reviews

Impressive undertaking Reviewer: Merry Beeson from Tulsa, Ok USA I have been using the book for a folk healing class at the university level. The short reviews and the amazing pictures provide an excellent foundation to the course. I wish it were less expensive I would ask all the students to buy it. The pictures are powerful. It drives home our commonalities and gives land locked students access to other worlds.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Impressive undertaking, October 25, 2000

By	Merry Beeson (Tulsa, Ok USA) - See all my reviews

I have been using the book for a folk healing class at the university level. The short reviews and the amazing pictures provide an excellent foundation to the course. I wish it were less expensive I would ask all the students to buy it. the pictures are powerful. It drives home our commonalities and gives land locked students access to other worlds.

5.0 out of 5 stars Impressive undertaking, October 25, 2000

By	Merry Beeson (Tulsa, Ok USA) - See all my reviews

I have been using the book for a folk healing class at the university level. The short reviews and the amazing pictures provide an excellent foundation to the course. I wish it were less expensive I would ask all the students to buy it. the pictures are powerful. It drives home our commonalities and gives land locked students access to other worlds.