QUANTUM HEAIING

his eyes. It was a difficult momenr, meeting him. As I said hello, Ididn't .lower my gaze, but Dr. liang lowered his.

"!(e've come to talk a little,,' the Japanese doctor murmured."Are you too tired?"

The man in the bed made a polite gesture, and we pu.lled upchairs. I began to sketch in the main ideas I had already told myhost. In essence, I believed that healing is not primarily a physicalprocess but a mental one. Ifhen we saw a bone fracture mend or amalignant tumor regless, we were cooditioned as doctors to look atthe physical mechanism first and foremosr. But the physical mecha_nism is likep screen. Behind it, I said, is somethlg much moreabsrracr, a form of know-how that cannot be seen or toluched.

And yet that know-how, I was convinced, is a powerful force thathas not really come under our control. Despite all our eflons to coaxthe healing process when it falters, medicine cannot explain it.Healing is alive, complex, and holistic. We deal with it on otl, .r*.,limited terms, and it seems to obey our limits. yet, when somethingstrange happens, as when an advanced cancer suddenly and mysteri-ously vanishes, medical theory is baftled. Our limits ,h.n ,"._ ,r..yartificial.

In rny own praclice, several cancer patients have recovered com_plerely after being pronounced incurable and given only a few monthsto .live. I didn't think they were rniracles; I thought they were proofthat the mind can go deep enough to chunge the u.ry i"...rrr, ,h".design the body, It can wiJre mistakes off the blueprint,'so to speak,and destroy any disease-cancer, diabetes, coronary heart aisease_that has disturbed the design:

_My words were tumbling out, because I was speaking in the wake

of the most remarkable experience in my professionat tif.. A f._weeks eadier, while I was visiting India, ooe of the greatest livingsages had imparted to me some techniques, daring back thousands ofyears, that he said would restore the mind's healing abilities. I amspeaking of Maharishi Mahesh yogi, who is best known in rhe

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€ hirn. As I said hello, IrC his.

)anese doctor murmured.

srule, and we Pulled uP

6 I had already told mynot primarily a physical

bone fracture mend or aned as doctors to look at

Bur the physical meeha-

is something much more

e seeo or touched.

l, is a powerfirl force that

>ite all our efforts to coax

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I given only a few months

thought they were proof

ge the very patteros that

re blueprint, so to speak,

cofonary heart disease-

was sPeaking in the wake

professional life. A few

roe of the greatest livingdaring.back thousands of's healing abilities. I am

r is best known in the

A PERSONAT INTRODUCTION

Ifest as the founder of Transcendentd Meditation, or TM. I have

been meditating for near.ly eight years and routinely prescribe TM inmy medical practice. (Ironically enough, I learned to meditate froman American in Boston, not in India.)

I was sitting with Muttorlshi one afternoon in the fledgling settle-

ment called Maharishi Nagar, about fifty mi.les west of New Delhi.

I7e were alone in the modest house he occupies, surrounded by the

school and hospital buildings that were still under construction. This

is already one of the rare spots that I consider the true India. You feel

that a great ancienr culture retains its dignity there, and its enormous

Sisdom. Because of Maharishi, the ancient Vedic sages do not seem

remote in time, separated from us by thousands of years, but very

intimate. Even the location is near the very spot where Lord Krishna

spent the night educating the great warrior Arjuna in the secrets ofenlightenment-the story is recorded in the epic poetry of the Bhagavad

Gita.Withour preliminaries, Maharishi turned to me and said, "I would

like to see you alone in my room tomorrow. Can you come right after

your moroing meditarion?"

I was taken by surprise, but I didn't ptess him with questions. The

next morning I appeared at his door. Maharishi was sitting in lotus

position on a silk-draped sofa. He beckoned me in, and we sat

together quietly. Then he said very simply, "I,have been waiting a

Iongtime-.to.briog.out sorle special .techaiques. I believe they willbecome.the medicine oFthe'future. They"wete known in the distant

lNst.but .were'lost in. tlrc .conftision of time; now I want you to learn

tbelrro"and,.at, the.same time f -want you to explain, cleady and

scientilically; - horr. they .vork ,'i

Over the course of the next few hours he taught me a series ofmental techniques, including those he called "primordial sounds."The way they are used is related to meditation, but they are pre-

scribed for specific illnesses, includiog those we consider incurable inthe rl(/esr, such as cancer. Maharishi explicitly told me that these

QUANTUM HEAIING

were the strongest healing therapies in Aytraeda, the ancient tradition

of Indian mddicine. He taught them to me quite simply, and I had

no difticulty learning what I was to do when I got home to my

patients. At the same time, I realized that he was asking me to step

far beyond the physician's role as it is known in the West.r0fhen we were through, I had filled several notebook pages with

his instructions. Nlaharishi smiled with the penetrating sweetness and

compassion I alvdiys thiok of whea he comes to mind."This knowledge is extremely powerful," he repeated. "By compar-

ison, the drugs and su-rgery you are used to using are very crude. Itvill take time, but people will grow to realize this. " Very casually he

rurned to receive other visitors who had come to see him about the

children enrolling in school at Maharishi Nagar.

A few minutes later I was standing alooe oo the porch, staring

across the.desert at the baffen red landscape in the distance' l|(e were

ara place that most Western pcople don't know exists. Would they

really believe tbat a major'shift io medical thinking started thereZ I

know pleoty of research doctors, and I had to laugh thinking about

their reactions. The physical basis of science.is very solid and, in the

eyes of every doctor, extremely coovincing. The power of the raind is

almosr equally dubious.

To tell the truth, my doubts had a hard time reaching me just

then. I started down the dust path toward my quarters, the broiling

Indian sun beating on my neck, and I felt exhilarated. It wasn't a

feeling of self-imponaoce but of almost impersonal, uncontainable

joy. I did not know why, but some great secret had been opened to

me, and I felt as if I had been carried up to the sky. I had been shown

how to pierce the mask of matter, and for the moment the heat, the

dust, and every other material bond were as nothing. I didn't care even

about my own skepticism, although I knew it would statt pinching

me soon enough. Some hard decisions faced me: I.had to figure out

how to make these techniques credible. People might dismiss them as

faith healing; others would accuse me of selling false hope.

ING

aru&, tlls ancietrt trad,itionne quite simply, and I had

' when I got home to myLt he was asking me to step

>wn in the S?est.

everal notebook pages withe ;Snetrating sweetness and

aes to mind," he repeated. "By cfrpa.-to using are very crude. Itrlize this." Very casually he

:ome to see him about the\agar.lone oq.the porch, staringe in the distance. S7e were

r know exists. Would theyd thinking stafted there? Id to laugh thinking. about

ce is very solid and, in the

- The power of the rnind is

ud time reaching me just

imy quarters, the broiliog:lt exhilanted . It wasn't aimpersonal, uncontainable

seclet had been opened tothe sky. I had been shownthe moment the heat, rhe

nothing. I didn't care even

w it would start pinching:d me: I had to figure out,ple might dismiss them as

lling false hope.

A PERSONAI INTRODUCTION

I needed to show ahat this was a science in its own right' How to

do that? It would come. Indian thought has always been grounded on

the conviction that Sarla, the truth, alone triumphs' "The truth is

simple," Maharishi encouaged. "Make it clear, let it stand on its

own, and don't get lost in complications'"

The name Ayurve& originated more than fout thousand yea$ ago;

in Sanskrit it means "the science of life"' Growing up in India' as I

did, does not Suarantee that you will learn much about this ancient

pcience. My grandmother used to rub turmeric on oul insect bites

when I was a child, and she warned us never to eat sour fruit with

milk. That was Ayurveda in my house. In general, Ayurveda has been

eclipsed by rVestern scientific medicine, crowded out of its own

birthplace by progress. Outside the related culrures of India, Tibet'

Nepal, and Sri Lanka, Ayuweda is all but unknown, although it has

left a lasting mark. The poPu.lar systems of Eastern medicine that

have planted a few roots iu the ltrest, such as Ghinese acupuncture'

were founded on Ayurvedic principles thousands of years ago'

Over the centuries, the origioal knowledge of Ayurveda has been

scattered. Indians who live according to traditional values, mostly in

the countryside, still tend to follow Ayurvedic Practices, but they

have subjected them to many different interpretations' Most of these

are very partial, even one-eyed. Every uaidya, or Ayurvedic physician,

cites the ancient masters of Ayurveda, such as Charaka and Sushruta,

as his authority, but that does not mean that what he prescribes will

be the same as the vaidya in the next village.

Many Ayurvedic techniques have disappeared outright, and unfor-

tunately these are the very ones that might contribute most to

modern medicine. The ancient doctors of India were also Sreat sages'

and their cardinal belief, was that the body is created out of cooscious-

ness. A great yogi or swami would have believed the same thing'

Therefore, theirs was a medicine of consciousness, and their way of

treating disease pierced the body's matter and went deeper, into the

core of mind.

QUANTUM HEAIING

'tl(/hen you look at Ayurveda's anatomical charts, you don't see the

familiar organs pictured in GraT! Autottty, but a hidden diagram of

where the mind is flowing as it creates the body' This flow is what

Ayurveda treats. Or rather, did treat. Before meeting Maharishi' I

assumed thut Ayrrrveda was folk medicine, because all I saw of it were

folkways-the herbs, diets, exercises, and incredibly intricate rules

for daily life that are iust "in the air" when one grows up in India'

Maharishi's interest, however, centered on the lost Ayurveda and

its ability to cure Patients through nonmaterial means' Now that he

had givert me those means, he also expected me to tell people how

they worked. That was why I wanted to talk to interested physicians'

such as my contact in Tokyo.

Now I was repeating this to a man who was dying in a hospital bed

a thousand miles away from home, and who knows how far away from

his spiritual ancestry' My words trailed away in the quiet of the

shado*y room. It was obvious that Dr' Liang was very tired now' He

hadn't spoken, but as we got uP to leave, he touched my arm' "L€t us

hop€ that you are right," he said. "Thank you'"

As we c/alked back through the wards, I looked again at the tiny

7rn gardens outside the wiadows. Tucked in alcoves not much bigget

than a hospital room, each on€ was a model of devoted care' The

clipped yew trees, cut so precisely, looked beautiful in the warm

O.,oU.t lgn.. I7e walked out to the parkiog lot, and at my car the

Japanese doctor and I shook hands warmly' I told him I would start

..r.iog -y new techniques in America first, but I would keep him

informed every steP of the waY.

Driving back to the hotel downtown, I made a mental note to send

him a few words that Maharishi once told me about the life of a

vaidya, zn Ayurvedic physician: "A vaidya is an invincible warior'

because he fights the element of death. A vaidya gives-he is the

giver of life, and so he is cherished in nature.''

These words imply that the doctor must make an inner journey'

taking his understanding beyond the limits of the physical body and