ABSTRACT
The cultural dominance of biomedicine and its extraordinary successes have led many to believe it to be the one true medicine, the safe and effective medicine that has evolved out of the ages, superior in every way to everything coming before it and to the many other, lesser known, systems of medicine. Holistic medicine fully accepts the validity of these concepts and the insights into the nature of the body and its diseases that they have given rise to. The immense body of medical knowledge accumulated through the collective efforts of countless healers over long periods of time was largely left behind once the new methods of science began to reveal their power. American doctor Larry Dossey has recounted a memorable episode that occurred in the wards of the hospital in which he undertook his internship during the 1960s.
