FOREWORD
As this century winds down， medicine as we know it is
being redefined. This may be inapparent to those persons
within and without the profession who remain focused on
the traditional concepts of disease and therapy. But for those
who can catch the main drifts， it is clear that ou r medical world
can never be the same. It is not， and can never be， business
as usual.
This work by Shealy and Myss is a part of the emerging
model of humans. If there is a single， dominant feature of
this new view， it is this: consciousness-whatever we may
mean by that term-matters. It matters greatly~ not just in
trivial， relatively inconsequential ways， as many psychosomatic
theorists have maintained. It is no exaggeration to say that
one s state of mind not only contributes to health and illness;
it can be a matter of life and death.
This fact is most vividly dramatized in the area of cardio-
vascular medicine， where life-threatening events can occur
within seconds. In other areas the effects of the mind work
more slowly-as in the immune system， which is the territory
being explored by Shealy and Myss. Because of the larger time
scales involved， which may be on the order of months or even
years， and because， also， of the astounding number of in-
termediary variables involved， such as whole families of im-
mune cells， microorganisms， antigens and antibodies， and
hormones， the effects of the human mind may seem dwarfed
or completely overshadowed. But they are there if we look
in astute ways. And in immune-related disorders the effects
of mind， too， may be a matter of life or death.
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