by Angele Rowe in 2005
Issues Magazine Summer
I decided to review this book rather than give it to Christina because I had a session with Michael ten years ago when he did a tour of the Okanagan. My session gave me amazing insights into one of my early hurts. For that I am grateful and if his book helps one more person start their healing journey...blessings be.
I want to call Michael's book "The Unified Field", but this is a scientific theory that attempts to unify all the fundamental forces and the interactions between elementary particles into a single theoretical framework. After reading this book I believe that Michael's theory is equal to Einstein's except Michael explains how the body reflects every thought and every feeling we have from birth onward.
Drawing on his skills as a medical doctor and acupuncturist he writes a mini synopsis of his patients with his understanding of what happened within the context of Five Element theory and why they did or did not heal. Interspersing theory and patient examples helped me to understand the flow of energy easier and why it goes out of balance. He likens pain to a warning light on your car. If you cut the wire and the light goes out is your problem fixed?
He spends most of a chapter explaining why pain is our teacher and will never give up on us, always wanting us to open to the flow of energy but first we need to understand it. He says it demands our expansion of consciousness until we embrace the message with no judgements.
I also enjoyed his chapter on meditation and relaxation as he focuses on the stress of modern living and why so many people have a hard time staying alert and being relaxed at the same time. If we have much angst and we meditate, we often do so with the unconscious intention of increasing our dissociation, rather than reducing it. We must be in the body to heal it... not in our minds to transcend it.
I especially enjoyed the many chapters on the Five Element Theory and how the creative and destructive cycles interchange. He says 'Difficulty arises if we cannot access the energy of one or another element when it is needed.'
This book is not an easy read but Michael makes it enjoyable with all his personal insights and humanness as a healer. There are many do-it-yourself exercises included if you want to delve deeper into your pain. My first impulse was to print out a few pages every two months so you could get inspired in your healing journey but upon contemplation it would make more sense if you just bought the book yourself.
Angele Rowe: