Sacred Medicine

A Doctor's Quest to Unravel the Mysteries of Healing

“Sacred Medicine is a book of inclusion. It does not prescribe nor preach nor proselytize: it illustrates, informs, and illuminates.” —From the foreword by Dr. Gabor Maté, author of When the Body Says No and In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts

In 2007, Lissa Rankin left a promising career in medicine to tend to her own health and well-being. Her search to discover why people really get sick and what truly optimizes health outcomes launched a bestselling book, two television specials, and a revolution in the way we look at mind-body medicine. But so many questions remained for this doctor and skeptic. How is it that some people do everything right and stay sick, while others seem to do nothing extraordinary yet fully recover? How does faith healing work—or does it? What’s behind the phenomenon of spontaneous remission—and is this something we can influence? Can we make ourselves miracle-prone?

Certain that, if she looked hard enough, she would find the answers, Dr. Rankin embarked on a decade-long journey to explore these questions and more. The result is Sacred Medicine, both a seeker’s travelogue and a discerning guide to the sometimes-perilous paths available to patients when wellness fads, lifestyle changes, and doctors have failed them.

In Sacred Medicine, you’ll follow Dr. Rankin around the world to meet healers gifted and flawed, go on pilgrimage to sacred sites, investigate the science of healing, and learn how to stay safe when seeking a healer. You’ll receive the wisdom offered by Indigenous cultures for whom healing begins with our sacred connection to Mother Earth, and dive deep into the cutting-edge trauma research that is igniting a medical revolution. Rich with practices and protocols that Dr. Rankin has found particularly effective, Sacred Medicine delivers a thoughtful, grounded exploration of questions around how we heal—and a path of hope for those in need.

Healing

This is a great book - very comprehensive. Learned a lot. Helpful whether you’re battling Illness or not.

Excellent book with a Doctors approach to non traditional healing methods

I appreciate Dr.Rankin’s personal style and storytelling brilliance. She is a really great writer. There is a lot of balanced wisdom in the presentation of the world we presently live in and the value to going deeper into Indigenous healing methods as well as good advice on how to avoid being taken in by charlatans and imbalanced people. There is little doubt the current healthcare system is broken and we all need to take responsibility for our healing of life’s traumas.

So many great and practical things to take away that can be used everyday.

Love it all. The voice reading the book is not ideal but it was tolerable

Balanced and Discerning

Loved listening to this book on Audible. Serendipity that I pressed play just after a breast cancer diagnosis as I had no idea it was going to be so focused on cancer. I think my breast cancer has more clearly spelling out the repressed anger of working on climate change, environmental and social justice issues within Aotearoa’s colonialism and patriarchy for so many decades. And my need to conform scientifically and medically and to be a perfectionist to prove my worth (including a PhD from Cambridge and half a medical degree) when holistic medicine has always been my calling. Increasingly, I feel like I’ve been duped by the feminist movement of the 80s and sold a lie of how to make it in a white mans world or die trying. Which I nearly have in so many ways! Thank goodness for the competency and understanding of our local breast cancer surgeon and the accessibility of public health care in New Zealand. I have been lucky. Breast cancer has been abit like removing a bullet to my chest and cw my other complex wounds I am healing well and thus are able to rest and rediscover my inner pilot light.

Narrator only one star

This book covers an enormous amount of territory. I would encourage the listener to be patient and willing to keep listening through the entire book. There are profound insights peppered throughout.

The narrator made my listen challenging. Her breathy overly affected and dramatic whisper through the beginning and intermittently through the rest of the book was at best annoying and at worst required me to stop and talk myself into continuing. As I suggested above, I’m glad I did.