Doctor Says Wave of Mind-Body Medicine is Gaining Momentum

Before he became a published and well-respected OB/GYN, Dr. Shawn Tassone studied math.

His research into the compression of S-shaped curves taught him that, for instance, the nearer ocean waves approach land, the closer they become, the larger they grow and the faster they move until, finally, they come crashing onto shore.

The moral of the story is that not only is progress inevitable but often dramatic and accelerated as well.

Interestingly, the very same patterns that fascinated Dr. Tassone so many years ago are appearing again. This time in his practice of medicine.

Since 2002, Tassone and his wife have been running a busy women’s health clinic in Arizona, a veritable proving ground for the latest advances in medicine. But in 2009 it was the advances being made in a different although related arena that led him to enroll as a graduate student in the College of Mind-Body Medicine at San Francisco-based Saybrook University.

It was at Saybrook that Tassone began working on a “narrative biopic” about the life and work of Dr. Larry Dossey, best-selling author of 12 books on medicine and healing including Reinventing Medicine and the soon-to-be-released One Mind, executive editor of EXPLORE: The Journal of Science and Healing, and the man widely credited with infusing the term “nonlocal mind” into the modern-day vernacular.

Broadly defined, “nonlocal mind” refers to the presumed source of a broad range of interactions that are beyond the comprehension of the physical senses, including intuition, synchronicity (simultaneous occurrences), and spontaneous healing. According to Dr. Dossey, it’s this ability to affect physical cure for yourself and others by means of a singular nonlocal mind – or Mind for those who consider this a divine consciousness – that represents the most advanced “Era of Medicine.”

“It makes sense to me that at some point that wave is going to break, or hit a break point where this nonlocal healing has to happen,” says Tassone, relating this concept to his earlier mathematical researches. “I don’t think it’s something that you can avoid.

“The question that I have is, has it been there the whole time and we just discovered it? Or is it something we invented? I would venture to say it’s probably been there the whole time. We just weren’t able to incorporate it.”

Even so, as futile as it may seem to people like Dr. Tassone, there are still a considerable number of people doing all they can to keep this wave from reaching shore.

Last year, Tassone wrote an online article for Psychology Today detailing a case of his involving a woman suffering from severe pelvic pain. Long story short, rather than operating on her, which was his first inclination, he chose an approach that dealt directly – and successfully – with the patient’s thought.

“What I discovered that day was the mind holds so much power over pleasure and pain,” he wrote.

Unfortunately the response Tassone received from mostly women readers was so vitriolic, even threatening, a number of comments had to be removed from the web site.

“I got so distraught about all these threats because these women were saying to me, ‘You are so wrong for saying that pelvic pain is all in your head,’ related Tassone. “I wasn’t saying that at all!

“In a way, it was almost worse than [the] response I get from doctors when I tell them about mind-body medicine.

“So, what I took away from that [experience] was that, even though there is definitely a physical and mental component to pain, we as a society are more geared to fix the physical and unconsciously ignore the mental, maybe because that’s easier to deal with.”

Despite this resistance, however, the wave of nonlocal healing appears to keep coming. Whether it’s generated by Tassone himself or the legions of others who for years have been noticing and effectively applying this connection between our thoughts and our physical well being, it’s getting closer, higher, faster.

“It used to be, ‘Doctor heal thyself,’ from the Bible,” said Tassone. “But I think that what it [should be] is, ‘Patients heal thyself.’

“If the patients would make the transition themselves and push this issue, that’s when I think that wave is going to crash.”

Eric Nelson is a Los Altos resident. His articles on the link between consciousness and health appear regularly in a number of local, regional, and national online publications, including The Washington Times. He also serves as the media and legislative spokesperson for Christian Science in Northern California. This article published with permission by Communities @WashingtonTimes.com.