Consciousness Medicine

A comprehensive guide to the safe and ethical application of expanded states of consciousness for therapists, healing practitioners, and sincere explorers Psychedelic medicines also known as entheogens are entering the mainstream. And it’s no wonder: despite having access to the latest wellness trends and advances in technology, we’re no healthier, happier, or more meaningfully connected. Psilocybin mushrooms, ayahuasca, and LSD—as well as other time-tested techniques with the power to shift consciousness such as drumming, meditation, and vision quests—are now being recognized as potent catalysts for change and healing. But how do we ensure that we’re approaching them effectively? Françoise Bourzat—a counselor and experienced guide with sanctioned training in the Mazatec and other indigenous traditions—and healer Kristina Hunter introduce a holistic model focusing on the threefold process of preparation, journey, and integration. Drawing from more than thirty years of experience, Bourzat’s skillful and heartfelt approach presents the therapeutic application of expanded states, without divorcing them from their traditional contexts. Consciousness Medicine delivers a coherent map for navigating nonordinary states of consciousness, offering an invaluable contribution to the field of healing and transformation.

A comprehensive guide to the safe and ethical application of expanded states of consciousness for therapists, healing practitioners, and sincere explorers Psychedelic medicines also known as entheogens are entering the mainstream. And it’s no wonder: despite having access to the latest wellness trends and advances in technology, we’re no healthier, happier, or more meaningfully connected. Psilocybin mushrooms, ayahuasca, and LSD—as well as other time-tested techniques with the power to shift consciousness such as drumming, meditation, and vision quests—are now being recognized as potent catalysts for change and healing. But how do we ensure that we’re approaching them effectively? Françoise Bourzat—a counselor and experienced guide with sanctioned training in the Mazatec and other indigenous traditions—and healer Kristina Hunter introduce a holistic model focusing on the threefold process of preparation, journey, and integration. Drawing from more than thirty years of experience, Bourzat’s skillful and heartfelt approach presents the therapeutic application of expanded states, without divorcing them from their traditional contexts. Consciousness Medicine delivers a coherent map for navigating nonordinary states of consciousness, offering an invaluable contribution to the field of healing and transformation.

Radical changes are afoot in medicine as we build stronger bridges between science and spirituality. In CONSCIOUS MEDICINE Gill Edwards explains that mind and body are inseparable and that emotions are crucial in health and disease. Her new approach to healthcare is based on the latest research into the transformative power of consciousness, energy and the bodymind. She explains how, when you break your old habits of thought, you can not only reverse disease processes and heal injuries but also attract more positive events and circumstances into your life. Chapters cover 'miracles' in health and why our current medical model is limiting, how negative thoughts activate the stress response in the body which eventually makes us ill, how the body speaks to us symbolically through symptoms and illness, how to break free from limiting patterns and create a new health-full future. Always thought-provoking and inspiring, this is an accessible, practical and joyous book.

Energy Medicine in CFQ Healing describes holistic energy medicine focused on our inherent healing powers as revealed by an experiential study of traditional Eastern medicine, ancient Qigong meridian healing and Buddhist meditation practices. It clarifies the true nature of healing and recovery. To be free of suffering and pain requires the body to become relaxed with a healthy energy flow, and the mind’s conflicts replaced by peace and a harmonious consciousness. Health providers, therapists and their clients have personally benefited from CFQ training-in-healing. Fred P. Gallo, Ph.D. (author of Energy Psychology in Psychotherapy) says: “Energy Medicine in CFQ Healing is the most thorough statement of this dynamic approach to emotional and physical healing. Written by Master Yap with Dr. Chok C. Hiew, psychologist and devoted student of CFQ, this text and workbook shares the spiritual healing journey of Master Yap and provides detailed instruction in the application of the energy-consciousness approach through specific Qigong exercises that promote freeing your mind and healing the body.” The spirit behind this book is: To be well is a basic birthright. To lay claim to health and wellness, simply move in to unload the energy burden.

A profoundly fascinating, illuminating major work from the beloved, bestselling thinker and neurologist Oliver Sacks--completed by him just before his death--provides readers with a compelling, rare gift from the master. The River of Consciousness reflects Oliver Sacks at his wisest and most humane, as he examines some of the human animal's most remarkable faculties: memory, creativity, consciousness, and our present, ongoing evolution. Before his death, Sacks personally collected into this one volume his recent essays and case studies, never before published in book form, which he felt best displayed his passionate engagement with his most compelling and seminal ideas. The book, lucid and accessible as ever, is a mirror of his own consciousness, discovering in his personal and humane interactions with others, unique insight, and fresh meaning. Featuring a preface written two weeks before his death, The River of Consciousness reveals the beloved, bestselling author's unique ability to make unexpected connections, his sheer joy in knowledge, and his unceasing, timeless project to understand what it is that makes us human.

Blow Your Mindfulness An encyclopedia for the curious and courageous, The Book of Highs catalogs the hundreds of ways humans can alter consciousness, minus drugs and alcohol. Drawn from cultures around the world, here are positive techniques—Self-Hypnosis, Alterations of Breathing, Fervent Prayer, Spinning. And here are “negative” techniques—Self-Flagellation, Sleep Deprivation, Fire Walking. Methods derived from religious and mystic traditions—Transcendental Meditation, Tea Ceremony, Tantric Sex. Methods that use devices, from the domestic Metronome Watching, to the state-of-the-art Brain-Wave Biofeedback, Electrodermal Activity (EDA), Ganzfeld Effect, and Psychedelic Bathtub. Whether you’re looking for a life-changing adventure—like Skydiving—or something to do every day, just to change things up—like Zen Morning Laugh—The Book of Highs will get you there.

An investigation into the brain's chemistry and the mechanisms of chemically altered states of consciousness. In this book, J. Allan Hobson offers a new understanding of altered states of consciousness based on knowledge of how our brain chemistry is balanced when we are awake and how that balance shifts when we fall asleep and dream. He draws on recent research that enables us to explain how psychedelic drugs work to disturb that balance and how similar imbalances may cause depression and schizophrenia. He also draws on work that expands our understanding of how certain drugs can correct imbalances and restore the brain's natural equilibrium. Hobson explains the chemical balance concept in terms of what we know about the regulation of normal states of consciousness over the course of the day by brain chemicals called neuromodulators. He presents striking confirmation of the principle that every drug that has transformative effects on consciousness interacts with the brain's own consciousness-altering chemicals. In the section called "The Medical Drugstore," Hobson describes drugs used to counteract anxiety and insomnia, to raise and lower mood, and to eliminate or diminish the hallucinations and delusions of schizophrenia. He discusses the risks involved in their administration, including the possibility of new disorders caused by indiscriminate long-term use. In "The Recreational Drugstore," Hobson discusses psychedelic drugs, narcotic analgesia, and natural drugs. He also considers the distinctions between legitimate and illegitimate drug use. In the concluding "Psychological Drugstore," he discusses the mind as an agent, not just the mediator, of change, and corrects many erroneous assumptions and practices that hinder the progress of psychoanalysis.

Although some decades have passed, there are still worldwide controversies about a concept of human death on neurological grounds. There are also disagreements on the diagnostic criteria for brain death, whether clinical alone or clinical plus ancillary tests. Moreover, some scholars who were strong defenders of a brain-based standard of death are now favoring a circulatory-respiratory standard. The study of coma is extremely important because lesions of the brain are responsible for quality of life in patients or cause of death. The main goal of Brain Death and Disorders of Consciousness is to provide a suitable scientific platform to discuss all topics related to human death and coma.