Radical Healing: Integrating the World's Great Therapeutic Traditions to Create a New Transformat Ive Medicine

by Rudolph M. Ballentine and M.D. Rudolph Ballentine

Book Overview

This extraordinary book offers nothing less than a new vision of medical care. Rudolph Ballentine, M.D., has created a unique, integrative blending of the primary holistic schools of healing that is far more potent than any one of these alone. Like Deepak Chopra and Andrew Weil, Rudolph Ballentine is a medical doctor who became intrigued by the workings of mind-body medicine and looked beyond the West in his search for understanding. Drawing on thirty...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0609601377
• ISBN13: 9780609601372
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: Harmony
• Length: 612 Pages
• Weight: 2.33 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.8" x 9.5" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

Radical Healing is a Real Healing Alternative

This book is very thorough in all alternative therapies and it becomes obvious that the author is a rare and true healer. Ballantine's desire for people's genuine, permanent healing is evident throughout this work. This book is ahead of its time in the sense that it presents the latest understanding of time honored Eastern and European healing methods which can be easily applied to the Western mind and body. The reader will embark upon a type of healing that western medicine could not come close to in its effectiveness and permanence in healing. State of the art technologies in the healing arts are thoroughly covered and each chapter explains real methods for the reader to begin their own healing process. The depth of the resource section at the back of the book is unbelievable! A necessary book for anyone interested in their own healing.

a heroic attempt to integrate Alternative Healing Systems

For over 600 pages Mr Ballentine makes a heroic attempt to put together a series of Alternative Healing Systems. I was afraid when I picked this book up that it was written by a novice who only copied introductions to these various systems, like many other books. But it is obvious that Dr Ballentine has used all of these systems to treat patients with varing conditions, rather than copying. And he has successfully combined them to treat patients. But does he succeed to explain all? I would have to say in my specialty Homeopathy, he has not had room to go very deep. In Chinese medicine which I know little about, he introduces concepts of elements and then does little with them. On the other hand the book is a BRILLIANT treasure chest ideas and insights to the ultimate nature of health and disease and the interaction of mental states and subtle alternative to conventional Allopathic Medicine. I was high-lighting every other page! If he meerly shows people there are many many different ways to treat disease other than Conventional Medicine and that each of these has a separate domain of effectiveness, he will ultimately succeed. But the subject is so big, he could explore it in more books for years and not cover all of the subject.Flower remedies are, as far as I know, totally without side effects. Homeopathic Remedies, are MOSTLY side effect free. Most are available over the counter. Sure Homeopathy can produce miraculous, "soul-altering" cures, but Dr Ballentine does not state that these remedies are most effective if taken for a limited time, no more than a month, and sometimes less . If Homeopathic remedies are taken longer than that, they become ineffective and if taken still longer they can be "proved", ie, they will exacerbate the symptoms they originally cured. People used to conventional medicine, who take pills the conventional doctors hand them forever, need to be aware of these limitations. I would not recommend anyone take Homeopathic potencies over 200C unless they know what they are doing! Or better, over 30C. The Appendix where he puts togther all 600 pages, may be the most useful part of the book, as he states. What is impossible to cure in Conventional Medicine, like the common cold, can often be easily, gently, safely and effectively treated by other means WITH NO SIDE EFFECTS. But I congratulate his effort. More work like this needs to be done. I have been lecturing for years that you and I, not doctors, are ultimatelty responsible for our own health. He explains this in very clear terms. Buy it! You'll need it. You can achieve a higher level of health than meerly the absence of obvious disease. It could change your life.

A book that puts it all together!

Radical Healing is sensational. Rudolph Ballentine uses clear, concise language, using lots of examples from years of clinical practice, to show how the body and the subtle energies (chi, prana, spirit)are interrelated, and how different modalities--homeopathy, herbs, breathwork, etc.--affect both the physical, mental, emotional, and energetic levels. It's a must-read for anyone who wants to understand how various alternative traditions work--and why! It's a great primer for self healing, too.The kind of medicine Dr. Ballentine practices may be "radical" by today's standards, but I hope not for long! As Dr. Ballentine notes, "Resorting to a drug to correct a human problem is analogous to dealing with a computer glitch by grabbing a screwdriver and trying to rewire its circuits. . . . when a few judicious taps on the right keys could modify the operating system and reprogram the malfunction out of existence." Dr. Ballentine has done us a service by sharing what he has learned about healing. This is one of the best books on healing and "alternative" medicine around.

Everyone should read this book! Integration of medicines is

I was captivated by the wealth of useful information found in this book, ranging from homeopathic medicines and working with doshas to spiritual health and prevention. The writing is intelligent, and the tables, pictures and detailed experiences helped me understand the concepts, therefore making the book fun to read. Thanks to Radical Healing, I see how important integration of medicines really is. I learned to trust my body and my judgement when it comes to my health care. I know not to rely on everything my doctor tells me, not by any fault of his own, but because he is not educated in my alternative choices. And until my health care providers realize the importance of integration and do something about it, I will continue to research my ailments and educate myself before seeking treatment. I highly recommend this book to everyone concerned about their well being and the well being of others. It will change the way you view the western way of practicing health care and perhaps get us closer to "Integrating The World's Great Therapeutic Traditions To Create A New And Transformative Medicine".

A unique integration of holistic healing systems

With a near saturation of books on various holistic healing modalities available, Dr. Ballentine's Radical Healing is uniquely refreshing. The book presents a unique integration of time honored eastern and western healing modalities such as Homeopathy, Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda, Native American Herbalism, and Flower Essences. Ballentine presents numerous case studies and personal experiences throughout his decades of holistic practice, which add great depth to the theoretical aspects of the book. It is this combination--the hundreds or sometimes thouands of years of empirical science that healing traditions such as Ayurveda, Chinese Medicine, or Homeopathy are based on--combined with Ballentine's awareness and use of intuition and the archetypes of nature, that make this book a cut above the rest. In this sense Radical Healing is truly "holistic," in that unlike overly specialized modern medicine, it addresses the entire physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of wellness and disease. Understanding that we need to view our health or disease holistically, i.e. as an interplay of all of these levels, rather than people who go to doctors to fix our "physical" problems, psychiatrists for "emotional" problems, and priests for "spiritual" problems, is indeed "Radical." However, I believe that Ballentine's vision provides an integrative model of healing for the future if we are to become responsible stewards of our bodies, minds,and our planet.