An Interview With Larry Dossey, M.D.
What if Real Meaning
Comes from Nothing?
Genetic mapping can
predict an average of six
areas of vulnerability
within each of us—regardless of
gender, age or nationality. While it
can’t pinpoint which infirmary we
may succumb to, it can offer hints
as to life options and red
flags regarding potentially
worrisome frailties. Is that a
good thing?
As with virtually all
matters of mind/body/spirit
health, there are very few
“one size fits all” answers.
Heavy smokers can outlive
non-smoking relatives who
do or do not regularly absorb
secondhand smoke. Triathletes
can die young due to heart failure.
Go figure. Even though we can
wisely increase the likelihood of
meaningful longevity by choosing
naturopathic habits and by
consciously standing in our own
power, life is still guaranteed to
hand us a vast abundance of
twists, turns and plot changes.
That said, Larry Dossey, M.D.
believes that many people underestimate
the vast subtexts within
which both illness and healing
occur. For instance, two women
of similar age and wealth each
endure a nasty divorce. One
woman feels so liberated that she
takes off for a year of travel. If
the other divorcee silently sinks
into anxiety, anger, hurt and
depression, she may literally die
of isolation.
Dr. Dossey recalls such
phenomena during his first 20
years as an internist, as does his
wife, Barbara, a critical care
nurse. Both have devoted long
hours and great emotional energy
to their medical practices. Dossey
recalls the day that he literally
“woke up” to the wonders of
energetic healing, faith and prayer.
A series of dreams spoke to
him, telepathically. Realizing that
prayer work can help heal
patients, practitioners, and even
the world at large, Larry and
Barbara Dossey gradually
wandered away from their
allopathic training, favoring
a path of soul recovery that
transcends illness, space
and time. The Dosseys
have written or cowritten
dozens of books on
alternative healing. They conduct
lectures at hospitals, health fairs,
medical schools and churches.
Holistic Times has the story
on Larry Dossey’s newest workin-
process, an untitled manuscript
that Jerry Seinfeld could embrace:
the new book affirms that sometimes
our deepest healings happen
when we do nothing at all.
HT: Within our over-stimulated
daily lives, I hear you saying
that actively deciding to do
nothing can actually become a
decision to do something
momentous. We seem to load
ourselves down with burdens
that exist only because we
created them.
LD: Because each human being
has such a uniquely individual
story—not just our here-andnow
DNA fingerprints but
our full, cosmic contribution
to eternity—there has never
been a formula with which to
understand why illness
happens, or how to heal it.
People can and do get well
miraculously, right out of the
clear blue sky. We all love to
read case studies on spontaneous
remissions. Maybe the
person set it off unconsciously
but even if not, the good
news is that we can thus
behold a benevolent side to
the world. All our experiences
are actually given as grace
and blessing.
HT: When a patient desperately
seeks healing beyond allopathic
methods, an almost
bewildering set of alternatives
can appear: from ritual and
ceremony, to journaling,
dream analysis, prayer, Reiki,
immersion in nature or music.
How can individuals zero in
to identify and catalyze their
own inner healer?
LD: Our subconscious is a potent
healer that will stop at
nothing to restore balance. It
is constantly setting the stage
for healing at the cellular
level. We don’t have to
consciously ask our immune
system to fight infection or
ask our heart to beat. The
human body is wired for
healing. Our greatest healing
might be to acknowledge that
all of us are riding on the very
same bus. At some point each
of us will die, at least physically.
We all want to stretch it
out—even though beyond the
curing of the physical body
there’s a universal dimension
in which we all are eternal.
HT: There have been numerous
studies involving the role of
intercessory (distant) prayer in
helping to heal major health
challenges: HIV, infertility,
and cancer. From your own
frame of reference, which
study’s statistical “proving” of
prayer as a component of
healing could best change
one’s doubting mind?
LD: The field is so rich. I know of
nine studies on distant healing
with prayer. Non-believers say
it’s all a matter of chance,
even though six of these nine
are positive.
In New York, Columbia
School of Medicine performed
an unprecedented triple-blind
study on the power of worldwide
prayer for fertility. Triple
blind means that no patients
and no practitioners even
knew the study existed. This
group of 200 women in Seoul,
South Korea had people
praying for them in various
languages from all over the
world. Its results were astonishing.
The prayed-for group
achieved pregnancy at twice
the rate of the control group.
The statistical chances of that
are about one in a thousand.
But, there are still scientists
who are so cynical that they
simply can’t be brought
around. For those who must
cling to disbelief, we need not
waste our energy trying to
convert non-believers. We can
just shrug and say, “Science
changes funeral by funeral.”
Each generation of health
practitioners, researchers and
“...beyond the curing of the physical
body there’s a universal dimension
in which we all are eternal.”
scientists seem to become
more open to miracles than
their predecessors.
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HT: I believe that when
confronted with a serious
disease, a patient gets the rare
opportunity to heal by participating
in turning around the
doctors (or care team) as well
as the illness.
LD: Traditional medicine is
infected by a reductionist
point of view. Physicians
become exhausted by
spending all their time putting
out fires. An HMO environment
might allot a
practitioner less than 10
minutes per patient, which
may not be enough time to
address physical symptoms,
much less the deeper dis-ease.
When conveying harsh news,
physicians first carry the
burden of how to inform a
patient in just the right way,
by somehow intuiting how
much information this individual
can take. The same
words that rally one patient
to fine-tune or otherwise
champion their healing might
devastate the next patient.
There are even vast differences,
day by day, in a single
patient’s resiliency and ability
to assimilate cold, hard facts.
Nurses typically do a better
job with this, and patients
must actively engage their
own life force by consciously
examining the deeper meanings
behind their illness.
Hospital chaplains are
vastly underused. Various
allied health professionals
can spark and engage the
patient’s own “meaning
therapy,” as can interested
loved ones and
friends. I think just
about everyone has or
can find a trusted
confidante.
HT: The seeds and roots of our
most meaningful truths grow
deep within our own psyche,
invisible, as do hunches and
sudden inspirations. As you
say, the greatest hope of
healing may be in deciding to
do nothing at all—since
people are known as human
beings, not human doings.
Many studies have shown
that divine insight can manifest
through music, or follow
a conscious decision to meditate.
Just to sit quietly and
look within.
LD: In surveys of spontaneous
healings, music often seems to
play a pivotal role. The key
isn’t what type of music you’re
listening to; it’s the emotional
reach within the music that
stirs us at a soulful level.
I am alarmed at the day-today
noise pollution that
disrupts our cellular health.
Certain healing tones
can rebalance our
bodies, and internal
rebalancing can only
broaden our external
boundaries and
spread a healing
demeanor far and
wide. The key is to
find your own
safe, quiet place,
and to preserve it
as sacred.
Noise is pathological.
We
have documented that
noise pollution sets into
motion all manner of stress. It
raises adrenaline and cortisone
levels in our blood.
Terrorists know that
continual noise is more brutal
than physical force. All religions
honor silence.
Sometimes the very richest
healing comes from doing
nothing. The medical world
seems so intent on genetic
manipulation, and studies
prove that many of us are
over medicated. It shouldn’t
be all that hard, learning how
to just do nothing!
When someone lives amid
grass, trees and living
plants—even just a “green
strip” if they live within
concrete, urban settings—
people feel more relaxed and
happier when taking care of a
little garden or an animal.
Sitting in the middle of nature
makes a wonderful outdoors
office: for writing, for
daydreams, and even for the
occasional telepathic healing
dream. So often our own deep
intuition could tell us much
more than any panel of
sophisticated lab results. All
we need do is turn off the
noise and tap into our higher
intelligence via meditation,
prayer, dreaming.
Mary Grace McCord
