There has never been a time in history when as many varieties of healing from traditional medicine to more alternative methods have been available and accepted by society as they are today. According to Rolfers Richard Carlson(Oakland, California) and Benjamin Shield (Santa Monica, California), “As more techniques are developed each year, it becomes increasingly important to be aware of the fundamental basis of healing. Despite the variety of methods, it is obvious that there must be elements of healing that go beyond mere technique.

By not getting lost in individual methods, we can discover what healing is all about.”

With that objective in mind, Carlson and Shield set out to uncover the common denominator or “golden thread” that underlies and unites all healers and healing methods. The result of their search is presented in a new book Healer son Healing published by Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc., February 1989. As Brugh Joy, M.D. writes in the foreword, “This book asks many of the best and most well known healers to distill their thoughts to the primary factor each has found to be the basis of healing. Healers on Healing Is a rich, multidimensional picture of healing. Written in a user-friendly style, Healers on Healing is presented in a way that is appropriate for readers at any level of knowledge or interest in healing.”

Among the contributors to the book are best selling authors in their own right: Bernie Siegel, M.D. (Love, Medicine and Miracles); Shakti Gawain(Creative Visualization); Louise Hay(You Can Heal Yourself); O. Carl Simonton, M.D. (Getting Well Again);Norman Cousins, Ph.D. (Anatomy of an Illness); and Elisabeth Kubler- Ross,M.D. (On Death and Dying).

Other contributors were selected for their well-known work in consciousness and healing: Rollo May (Love and Will);Harold Bloomfield, M.D. (How to Survive the Loss of a Love); Lynn Andrews(Medicine Woman); Ram Dass (Be Here Now); Gerald Jampolsky, M.D. (Love is Letting Go of Fear); and Don Hanlon Johnson (The Protean Body).

Each of the 37 essayists takes a personal look at healing from his or her own unique perspective. “Each piece is woven in to create an entire tapestry,” note the editors. “Within this rich variety of opinion, the common strands of healing appear and have become the major themes of the book; the role of love, returning to wholeness, listening to our innate wisdom, the nature of the healing relationship, the proper healing attitude, and the realization that healing is our natural state.”

As Carlson and Shield write in their after word, “Perhaps the greatest gift the contributors have given us is an enhanced sense that we are all healers.

Effective healing does not necessarily stem from increased education or mastery of technique. Rather, healing can take place when one or more persons open their hearts and spirits to the gifts they already possess.”Healers on Healing