Living Proof: A Medical Mutiny
Author: Michael Gearin Tosh
I was told I had cancer and that I must expect to die soon. Almost eight years later I still do my job and enjoy life. I have not had conventional treatment. Did my cancer simply disappear? Did I do nothing? Far from it. A number of things happened, some by accident, most by design.
Michael Gearin-Tosh is diagnosed with cancer at the age of fifty-four. The doctors urge immediate treatment. He refuses. Intuitively, not on the basis of reason. But as the days pass, Gearin-Tosh falls back on his habits as a scholar of literature. He begins to probe the experts' words and the meaning behind medical phrases. He tries to relate what each doctor says—and does not say—to the doctor's own temperament. And the more questions he asks, the more adamant his refusal to be hurried to treatment.
The delay is a high-risk gamble. He listens to much advice, especially that of three women friends, each with a different point of view, one a doctor. They challenge him. They challenge medical advice. They challenge one another. On no occasion do they speak with one voice. He also turns to unexpected guides within his own memory and in the authors he loves, from Shakespeare and Chekhov to Jean Renoir, Arthur Miller, and Václav Havel.
In the end, he chooses not to have chemotherapy but to combat his cancer largely through nutrition, vitamin supplements, an ancient Chinese breathing exercise with imaginative visualizations, and acupuncture.
No how-to book or prescriptive health guide, Living Proof is a celebration of human existence and friendship, a story of how a man steers through conflicting advice, between depression and seemingly inescapable rationalism, between themedicine he rejects and the doctors he honors.
Clear-eyed and unflinching, Gearin-Tosh even includes his own medical history, "The Case of the .005% Survivor"; explores general questions about cancer; and examines the role of individual temperament on medical attitudes, the choice of treatments, and, of course, survival.
Publishers Weekly
Gearin-Tosh, a tutor at St. Catherine's College, Oxford, was diagnosed with myeloma (cancer of the bone marrow) and told that if he did not begin chemotherapy immediately, he would be dead in less than a year. The recommended treatment, while probably extending his life somewhat, would not cure the condition. A second specialist confirmed the original prognosis, but the author rejected the proposed treatment after a former Oxford pupil consulted a cancer statistician who warned, "If your friend touches chemotherapy, he's a goner." Interwoven with engaging anecdotes from his professional life, Gearin-Tosh details his research into the world of alternative medicine, a journey that led him to Chinese breathing exercises and acupuncture. The treatment that he credits with saving his life he found in A Cancer Therapy, by Max Gerson, a doctor who died in 1958. Based on the daily drinking of freshly made juices and taking several coffee enemas a day, the Gerson Diet also includes a variety of supplements. Despite the time-consuming nature of this restrictive regime, eight years later Gearin-Tosh is alive and pursuing an active professional life. He is careful to point out that while this program is working for him, "each person should explore his own way with their physician." Gearin-Tosh's detailed, engaging memoir of a search for his own cure will inspire readers to take the time to consider their own treatments. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Library Journal
This is a captivating, detailed, and enlightening account of surviving multiple myeloma, a rare and usually incurable cancer. Yet it is much more than the story of a man who questioned the prevailing therapies of conventional medicine. It is the tale of a contemplative person who gave himself the gift of time to reflect over his diagnosis, gather and interpret information, and enlist the support and resources of friends. Rather than rush into debilitating treatment with its incapacitating side effects and questionable benefits, Gearin-Tosh weighed his options and ultimately chose an unconventional, alternative route. Living Proof is also about Gearin-Tosh's relationships with his physicians and researchers and with the friends and colleagues who provided him with support and counsel during his illness. A fellow in English at St. Catherine's College, Oxford, he weaves literary selections from Chekhov to Yeats into his highly personal account, as well as excerpts of correspondence between his physicians and colleagues and relevant citations from the medical literature. It all comes together in an intelligent, beautifully written narrative sprinkled liberally with humor and aplomb. Recommended for consumer cancer collections and large general consumer health collections. Valeria Long, Grand Valley State Univ. Lib., Grand Rapids, MI Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
A remarkable first-person account of surviving cancer on one's own terms. Gearin-Tosh (English/Oxford Univ.) received the news that he had incurable multiple myeloma in March 1994 and for the next year kept a journal of his efforts to research his deadly disease, assess his options, and find a benign treatment regimen. This journal, supplemented by numerous letters to and from doctors, colleagues, and friends, form the basis for the first part of Living Proof. He relates how, after consulting a number of doctors in both England and the US, he opts not to undergo the brutal chemotherapy recommended by orthodox medicine. ("If your friend touches chemotherapy, he's a goner" was the warning passed along by someone who had consulted Dr. Ernst Wynder on his behalf.) His research leads him to examine alternative medicine therapies, and he adopts a program utilizing Chinese breathing exercises, acupuncture, regular coffee enemas, and a stringent diet that relies heavily on raw fruits and vegetables supplemented with vitamins and minerals. Gearin-Tosh's fiercely intelligent account ends in 1995, but the second section, which he wrote six years later, sets this apart from the usual cancer-survival narrative. Prefaced by tributes from two physicians, it includes the author's analysis of the situation cancer patients are likely to find themselves in and his advice to them. He argues persuasively against being rushed into treatment by doctors' survival statistics, advocates active involvement in one's own therapy, and urges resistance to the notion that personal temperament or instincts have no place or value in cancer treatment. Also included is a lengthy medical case history, wryly titled "The Caseof the .005% Survivor," written by his doctor and directed to physicians, giving extensive details about his treatment. An afterword directs readers to a Web site where Gearin-Tosh's medical records will be kept up-to-date. Without a hint of bathos or self-pity, and a pleasure to read for its author's intelligence, wit, humanity, and conviction.
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Liquid Light of Sex: Kundalini, Astrology and the Key Life Transitions
Author: Barbara Hand Clow
A nationally known astrologer explores the connection between spiritual emergencies at age 30, 40, and 50 and key astrological passages of Saturn, Uranus, and Chiron.
• Provides techniques for directing the kundalini energy released during planetary passages for optimal personal and psychic development.
• Includes charts for birth years starting in 1930 so that readers can determine the timing of their planetary passages.
• By Barbara Hand Clow, author of the bestselling Pleiadian Agenda (60,000 copies sold).
Kundalini--the energy of eros that lies at the base of the spine--can be overwhelming once activated. Times of activation coincide with the key astrological passages of Saturn, Uranus, and Chiron in one's birth chart and are often experienced as periods of spiritual emergency, confusion, and imbalance.
In Liquid Light of Sex, Barbara Hand Clow opens up new dimensions for understanding what occurs during these key life passages, which most of us experience three times in our lives. In the author's words, "we form at age 30, we transform at age 40, and we transmute at age 50." Focusing on the transformation at age 40--the time of imbalance and spiritual confusion often referred to as the "midlife crisis"--she explores how kundalini energy, the liquid light of sex, can be creatively channeled by unblocking the chakras. Offering effective methods for achieving physical, emotional, and spiritual growth during this important life passage, Liquid Light of Sex presents a roadmap for using celestial cycles to navigate positively and productively in times of great life change.
Table of Contents:
Liquid Light of Sex
Kundalini, Astrology, and the Key Life Transitions
Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Preface
Introduction by Richard Gerber, M.D.
1. I'm in Mid-Life Crisis Now!
2. The Fundamentals of Astrology
3. The Cycles of Life: The Saturn Principle
4. The Cycles of Life: The Uranus Principle
5. Uranus and Personal Empowerment: The Lower Chakras
6. Uranus and Enlightenment: The Upper Chakras
7. The Cycles of Life: The Chiron Principle
8. Toward a Global Shamanic Paradigm
Update 1996: Reflections on Key Life Passages
Update 2001: How Saturn Directs the Cycles in Our Lives
Appendix One. Table 1: Key Life Passages
Appendix Two. Table 2: Key Chiron Passages
Bibliography
The Natal Chart
Index
About the Author
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