Timeless Healing: The Power and Biology of Belief

At the crossroads of medicine and theology, where clergy and health professionals meet people in crisis, few books guide and inform helpers as Herbert Benson's Timeless Healing. Benson, a physician, views mind, soul, and body as inseparable. He details neural and immune events comprising remembered wellness, remembered threat, and relaxation responses each a type of belief. Benson suggests that people are "wired for God" genetically and that "faith in an invincible and infallible force" carries healing power and is the "only long-term solace." Benson identifies hymns, prayers, and meditation on God's love as powerful catalysts to physiological healing and shows how to use them with patients. The author lists numerous studies of how spirituality affects health.