While this is a book written by a distinguished local psychiatrist and Jungian psychoanalyst with impressive credentials that certify his assertions in his latest book, it is his “inner storyteller” that is his true gift. In Crossing the Healing Zone: From Illness to Wellness (Red Wheel/Weiser), author Ashok Bedi uses myth, metaphor and symbolism to illustrate his message as he takes the reader on a safe journey through the clinical material of science and medicine. This magical combination provides multiple entry points for any reader to explore his or her personal path to wellness. Bedi authentically weaves together Eastern and Western spiritual philosophies and healing traditions with his own background. A native of India, bathed in Hinduism, schooled by Jesuits and educated in England, the author comes uniquely qualified to deliver complex material in an understandable and welcoming format.
Crossing the Healing Zone is about a major paradigm shift in medicine from the model that engages specialists who may be disconnected from a patient’s other caregivers and the patient as a whole, to an integrative model wherein the individual is seen through a body/mind/soul/spirit prism when addressing any illness. This emergent medical approach positions the patient as the agent of healing. As patients realize and understand their own unique illness patterns, as well as their own unique healing patterns, they are able to access the healing zone that can shift the focus from an illness model to one of wellness. Between these two models lives the “healing zone” or transitional space necessary for true, lasting healing to take hold.
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The reader will find a rich tapestry of ancient wisdom’s healing techniques that assist in regaining a healthy life, including yoga, meditation, yantras and mandalas, to name but a few. Alongside these is the newest scientific research available on the efficacy of practicing these modalities. Specific to Bedi’s approach is his Jungian psychoanalytic perspective. Dreamwork, active imagination techniques and the teaching of how archetypes serve as guides to the healing zone take the more serious and spiritually developed reader to deeper regions of the unconscious.
One of the most significant contributions of this book is the reminder it offers to “healers” of all kinds to see their clients/patients in their entirety—as whole people. The message is a request to:
…transcend the mind/body/soul/spirit/nature split and think of individuals in their present state of health as the current readout of their program of existence…. What we see today in any individual is merely the present page in the book of his or her life, not the whole book. When you become curious about the rest of your own book—your own life story—you can access the potential of deep healing and the purposeful alignment of the present page and chapter with the rest of the story.
There is something for everyone in Crossing the Healing Zone. It starts off a bit slow, providing a basic understanding of various states of consciousness and stages of healing, but the author quickly opens the floodgates, offering a very comprehensive look at medicine and true healing.
Ashok Bedi will appear at Boswell Book Co. on Wednesday, July 17, at 7 p.m
