What is Health? Modern physics has presented entirely new theories about the world and how it behaves. These theories have been widely accepted, and yet conventional medicine has been reluctant to incorporate them into itself and continues to view the body as a clockwork mechanism in which illness is viewed as a breakdown of parts. In his remarkable book Space, Time and Medicine, Dr. Larry Dossey shows how medicine can and must be updated. Drawing on his long experience in the practice of internal medicine and his knowledge of modern science, Dr. Dossey opens up startling questions. Could the brain be a hologram in which every part contains the whole? Why ha

Dance Introduction Dance is fundamentally a subject of aesthetics. But the artistic culture of the body that it involves requires us to include this subject under the scope of this book. One of the greatest dancers of our modern times was Anna Pavlova, and a few glimpses of her personality can be gathered from the extracts that we are presenting below from a book written by Agnes deMille. Agnes deMille was born in 1909 in New York City. Her father was the playwright William deMille, and her uncle the famous film director Cecil B. deMille. As a young girl she saw the great Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova perform, and from that moment onwards her life was devot

Hatha Yoga Pradipika (A few extracts) The two main and very practical tools used in the discipline of Hatha Yoga are the Asana and the Pranayama techniques. The word asana comes from the verb as, "to sit" and can mean "sit ting position", but, more than that, 'refers to any specific body position described by the founders of Hatha Yoga. In the technique of Asanas, the body is taught to remain immobile in certain special postures. Why immobile? Because the usual restlessness of our body is just a sign that it is unable to hold even a limited amount of energy that enters into it. It immediately wants to dissipate it. By remaining absolutely still in the most

Page – 138 Nutrition Introduction There is a story told in the East of two fakirs who had spent years in seclusion studying yoga, having learned extraordinary feats of physical and mental control and mastery of their minds and bodies. Standing on the banks of the Ganges they fell into one another's company, and in the course of their conversation one of them happened to imply that he had developed the ability to do more miraculous things than most, probably including his companion. The other fakir, a bit older and perhaps a bit wiser, rebuked him gently, wondering whether he might not be carried away by a moment's boastfulness. But his new found friend

Extraordinary Feats Exceptional Energy One key to outstanding athletic performance is the ability to call on unusual reserves of energy. Jose Torres, in his book on Muhammad Ali, says of the turning point in the second Frazier fight: "He (Ali) is using those mysterious forces. I can't explain it any other way." Having himself been a professional boxing champion, Torres would not talk about mysterious forces if other explanations were handy. This sense of exceptional energy is not confined to individuals. John Brodie, of the San Francisco 49'ers, refers in his autobiography certain "times when an entire team will leap up a few notches. Then you feel that treme

Adventures and Achievements Introduction When the great mountaineer George Mallory was asked why he wanted to climb Mount Everest, he gave the enigmatic reply: "Because it is there" — a line that, like its author, had passed beyond the realm of mountaineering history and into the realm of legend. Mallory, a type of unfulfilled genius by all early accounts, -was radically altered by his struggle with the great mountain — it gave him an over-riding goal in life and became the symbol for him of that which is most worthy of' attainment. Here is how he describes his first view of Everest: At the end of the valley and above the glacier Everest

1932: First electoral campaign Triumphant Courage Roosevelt had a fairly wide though not unusual experience of illness before paralysis struck him. He was capable of feats of exertion over short periods that amazed his friends — for instance he could tire out a horse on rough mountain trails — but in a curious way his vitality was mercurial; he could vault over a row of chair at the San Francisco convention and play golf within two strokes of a course record, but in those days he was not what would be called a "strong" man. He was graceful rather than muscular; taut, not solid. His body was a sensitive mechanism, and photographs of the tim

Coach and Pupil: The Story of Jesse Owens The role of the coach in any great athlete career is usually important. It often goes beyond mere training of the body: good coaches influence powerfully the build-up of the personalities of their trainees. It has been the case for Jesse Owens, the celebrated winner of 4 gold medals in the Berlin Olympics of 1936. He was a black man and his coach a white man, in a time where segregation in America was still very much a reality. Nevertheless, a strong bond was soon established between them, to the extent that Jesse Owens himself would say that coach Riley was "a rare man, as much a father to me

A marathon monk salutes a sacred tree Marathon Monks It may well be that the greatest athletes today are not the stars of professional sports, nor the Olympic champions, nor the top triathlon competitors, but the marathon monks of Japan's Mount Hiei. The amazing feats and the incredible endurance of these "Running Buddhas" are likely unrivalled in the annals of athletic endeavour. And the prize they seek to capture consists not of such trifles as a pot of gold or a few fleeting moments of glory, but enlightenment in the here and now — the greatest thing a human being can achieve. The mountain itself is a mandala. Practice self-reflection intently am

Ancient Olympics The Greeks loved to play, and they played on a great scale. All over Greece there were games, all sort of games; athletic contests of every description: races — horse-, boat-, foot-, torch races; contests in music, where one side outsung the other; in dancing — on greased skins sometimes to display a nice skill of foot and balance of body; games where men leaped in and out of flying chariots; games so many one grows weary with the list of them. They are embodied in the statues familiar to all, the disc thrower, the charioteer, the wrestling boys, the dancing flute players. The great games — there were four that came at stated seasons — were s