Cancer as Initiation: Surviving the Fire

By Barbara Stone

Book Overview

This is the haunting personal story of one woman's journey through breast cancer, a disease that has reached epidemic proportions and now claims the lives of 46,000 American women each year. For Barbara Stone, cancer was not a death sentence, but a challenge to become more fully alive, an initiation into a new stage of life. She fought this illness with the best tools Western medicine has been able to discover: surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. But she also combined these treatments with the best tools that Eastern medicine could offer: meditation, yoga, herbs, and acupuncture. Her gripping account draws on the wisdom that came to her through dreams, and includes her journal entries which show the emotional highs and lows of the healing process. Stone shows that one can take the fear out of breast cancer by gaining greater understanding of the nature of the illness, and, most of all, explaining ways to prevent immune system dysfunction in the first place.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 081269273X
• ISBN13: 9780812692730
• Release Date: November 1999
• Publisher: Open Court
• Length: 266 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.2" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A must read for 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!

Teenage Daughter of Breast Cancer Survivor Finds Insight

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.

Teenage daughter of a breast cancer survivor finds insight

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.

I couldn't stop reading as Ms. Stone brings to life prayer.

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.

This isn't a book about disease--it's a book about life.

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.