Spontaneous Healing: How to Discover and Enhance Your Body's Natural Ability to Maintain and Heal Itself

Andrew Weil's basic premise in "Spontaneous Healing"-that that body can heal itself-is one of my own most cherished beliefs, and I have found the experience of reading Dr. Weil at a time when I am recovering from an illness to be particularly inspiring and informative. That is not to say that the book is for those who are currently ill; indeed, Dr. Weil focuses as much on prevention as healing. But for those who are ill this book can be an illumination. I have read Dr. Weil's "Health and Healing" so I was familiar with his ideas about healing and medicine, but the lucidity of his writing here eclipses that early book and brings his points home as clearly and simply as possible.

Dr. Weil believes that allopathic doctors need to pay more attention to nurturing the body's inherent ability to heal, instead of administering medicine. He argues again and again that allopathic medicine, while extremely valuable in certain illnesses, is, for the most part, not a very good solution to many types of illness. Often allopathic medicine is merely suppressive. This is definitely the case with medicines that treat autoimmune disorders and digestive disorders like ulcerative colitis-once the medicine is stopped, symptoms often return, sometimes worse. This is one of the reasons I refused to take Colozal for ulcerative colitis. According to my gastroenterologist, Colozal treats the symptoms of colitis efficiently, yet one has to stay on the medicine indefinitely for the "cure" to be effective. In fact this is not a cure at all. Real healing occurs when the body is given a chance to heal. To this end, Dr. Weil suggests alternatives to allopathic medicine: lifestyle changes, diets recommendations, and certain tonics. These alternatives do not merely combat specific germs or suppress symptoms, but rather work with the bodies natural defenses to promote healing.

People have treated themselves successfully with alternative remedies for years. Here, Dr. Weil gives numerous case examples. Indeed, testimonials form the basis of much of his knowledge of healing. He argues, lucidly, that testimonials should not be ignored but taken very seriously; they should even be studied. While Dr. Weil scrutinizes the stories he hears very carefully, and is reluctant to take every story of healing at face value, he understands that "testimonials are important pieces of evidence." He writes: "They are not necessarily testimony to the value of particular healers and products. Rather, they are testimony to the human capacity for healing. The evidence is incontrovertible that body is capable of healing itself."

Without the help of testimonials I would have never used Ayurvedic medication for my ulcerative colitis symptoms. Yet, I was convinced by the simple power of other's people's stories of healing. (One of Dr. Weil's "Seven Strategies of Successful Patients" is, "Seek out other who have been healed.") And now I can offer other people my own story of healing.

The sections on the role of spirit and mind in healing struck me as the most important in the book. Why has the medical profession abandoned the idea of psychosomatic illness? Dr. Weil cites several testimonials of people using the power of the mind and spirit to cure serious illness. He even mentions Dr, John Sarno, whose book "The Mindbody Prescription" helped me tremendously when I was first diagnosed with my own illness.

Simply put, this book is important. I recommend it highly.

This was book that really put Andrew Weil on the map and public speaker circuit and it was totally deserved. A wonderful mix of Weil's personal journey of being disaffected with the medical system, his travels abroad to look for answers he could only find at home, stories of patients that taught him key concepts about the body's inherent capacity to heal itself, and discussion of herbal and mind/body research that has influenced his work are only some of the main concepts he expounds upon in this volume. The main crux of the book is short and sweet: the body can heal itself because it is a healing system.

Weil links the lack of doctor's belief in this healing system directly to their education. Medical students work in teaching hospitals populated by patients who represent only one end of the total spectrum of illness - the very sick. Since in this group healing responses occur less frequently than in the general population, doctors develop pessimistic attitudes that are applied across the board to all seen patients in their practice and often these attitudes are conveyed through thoughtless remarks that are the equivalent of a "medical curse". These powerful words expressing little optimism for healing are often internalized by the patient (although a chosen few will rebel and fight against them just to prove the doctor wrong) and rob the patient of belief in their own capacity to respond to their illness.

Building on these concepts, Weil describes several of his patients and friends who, against traditional medical odds, have undergone "unexplained" spontaneous healing often from life-threatening conditions. In almost all cases, acceptance of the illness rather than struggle characterized a key part of the healing process and indicated a mental shift that Weil believes can initiate a transformation of the personality with it a healing of the disease. It's a relief for anyone finding hope for the medical profession while reading this book that Weil has begun a revolutionary medical school program in his home state of Arizona that begins to incorporate many of the "radical" ideas found in this book. This is a medical volume that should be on everyone's shelf.

An EXCELLENT book. At last someone presents a new point of view. Having been the "victim" of countless western medicine proponents, this book was the answer to my prayers. I began his 8 week program (also found on his website) and have noticed a remarkable improvement in my physical well being, not to mention my attitude about life in general.Dr. Weil points out that in order to achieve this state of well being, you yourself must first undergo a change. It is not an easy task; it requires a lifestyle change as well as a belief and spirit in yourself that what you are doing will yield positive long term benefits. Unfortunately, our society promotes drugs to ease our ills. Our medical community promotes this for their own benefit. Dr. Weil offers alternatives which are safer, less expensive and much more beneficial in the long run. If you REALLY want to feel your best then read this book.It is beyond me how some people just don't "get it". I think many of those people who criticize this book are getting something out of their suffering.

& #65279; Spontaneous Healing By Dr. Andrew Weil M.D.

Dr. Weil is both a visionary and a pilgrim in the field of alternative medicine. He saw the possibility of self healing long before it became accepted by the medical community at large .He has spent years researching the body's natural ability to maintain and heal itself. He is a graduate of Harvard Medical School and has worked for The National Institute of Mental Health and was a research associate in ethnopharmacology for 15 years at the Howard Botanical Museum .He is currently associated with the University of Arizona at Tucson, where he now practices natural and preventive medicine. Early in his career he felt that the emphasis of Medicine should be to prevent disease, rather than cure it after it occurred. He contends that the body is perfectly able to heal itself if all of its systems are functioning in unison. Healing is the result of a mind-body connection and a restoration of the balance between the two. He was quick to observe that most patients who came to him had been abandoned by other physicians. They had been pronounced incurable and in many cases had been sent home to die. Often this was a result of too many Specialties, and Specialists dealing with only a part of the anatomy instead of dealing with the person as a whole. The first step to healing them was overcoming this negative energy and replacing it with positive energy, dealing with one system at a time. Healing requires a lot of energy, positive energy. Positive energy required for spontaneous healing comes from correct breathing, proper and adequate nutrition, stress reduction, spiritual connection and the willingness to make life changes that promote optimal healing and health. Dr. Weil traveled extensively studying natural herbs and plants that have been used by practitioners for centuries. He believes in the holistic approach that encompasses physical and spiritual well being. His 8 week plan to enhance healing deals with all aspects of harmony within the systems, supplemented with natural medicinal herbs and plants. We now have a population of over medicated people because the average physician does not take the time to assess the entire person and treats symptomatically. The patient does not feel that he or she has his money's worth unless he leaves the office with a handful of pill samples or prescriptions. These same people, with a little more basic knowledge of their bodily functions and systems could readily heal themselves. As a nurse, I have been part of the medical profession for 45 years and know the pessimism that pervades the profession. We are keyed in to preventing death instead of promoting healthy life. Dr. Weil is as refreshing as a breath of fresh air, and his approach is a "down to earth", sensible answer to optimum health. With the prohibitive cost of today's health care, alternative medicine is becoming more and more appealing to the increasingly health conscious public. Other books by Dr. Weil are Natural Health, Natural Medicine, and Health and Healing.

Phyllis Fowler

Andrew Weil a graduate of Harvard Medical School, after many years of practicing medicine, found that the medical professionals did not cure or heal ailments but took care of the problem either by surgery, drugs. In the 1970's he met Dr. Fulford,an osteopath who helped and cured people with many different types of ailments. Dr. Weil explains that our bodies have a natural ability to heal themselves. If we are in touch with our body, mind and spirit we can be on our way to a better, healthier person. We have to take on the responsibilities of our own care, we are the captain of our own destiny. At times we do need the medical community because we are sometimes caught in emergency situations and we need to be discerning in our choices of care but we should not depend on this treatment. We need to practice preventive ways of keeping ourselves healthy and not depend on quick fixes when we get into trouble. Thank you Dr. Weil for taking a stand and making a difference.