Acknowledgments

Many people, and a number of extended networks or communities, have contributed to the evolution of Choices in Healing. First, I acknowledge above all my Research Associate, Don Flint, who has worked for years with me, through countless revisions of this book, with intelligence, energy, dedication, humility and good humor. Frank Urbanowski, my publisher, Harriet Harvey and Katherine F. Arnoldi, my editors, and Nadine Parker, my Administrative Assistant, have contributed to the book beyond measure.

Philip R. Lee, long-time Chairman of the Commonweal Advisory Board, has been my mentor in the health care field for many years. This book owes him a great debt for his advice and counsel.

Rachel Naomi Remen, Virginia Veach, Asoka Thomas, and Jenepher Stowell have been invaluable comrades in the world of psychological and spiritual work with people with cancer through our joint work in the Commonweal Cancer Help Program.

The whole book has been reviewed by the late Jenifer Altman, Bill Buchholz, Harris Dienstfrey, Tom Ferguson, John Fink, Robert Houston, Richard Grossman, Adam Lerner, Edna Lerner, Steve Lerner, Max Lerner, and the late Brendan O’Regan. I owe a special debt to Dienstfrey, Ferguson, Houston, and Edna Lerner for the detailed reviews and support they provided.

Chapter reviews were provided by Jeanne Achterberg, Keith Block, Michael Broffman, Stanislaw Burzynski, James Carter, Marcus A. Cohen, Alistair Cunningham, David Eisenberg, Bernard Fox, Joseph Gold, Gar Hildebrand, Alex Jack, Gary A. Johanson, Yola Jurzykowski, Lawrence Kushi, Marion Nestle, Julia Rowland, Gordon Saxe, William Redd, Le Trombetta, Patricia Spain Ward, Gary and Julie Wagner, Arthur D. Alexander III, and David Walde.

Kate Strasburg was of special assistance during the time this book was written. She helped research quotations for the book and created an invaluable bibliography, “The Quest for Wholeness,” that informed much of this book. She also developed an exceptional library in patient-centered care at Commonweal.

Choices in Healing owes a special debt to several extended communities.

First and foremost, it has been inspired by the participants and staff of the Commonweal Cancer Help Program, and all those who have attended my Tuesday night talks in the Cancer Help Program through which this book developed. The core staff includes or has included Asoka Thomas, Jenepher Stowell, Marion Weber, Nadine Parker, Christine Boyd, Jnani Chapman, Holly Bronfman, Robin Lysne, Monica Kaufer, Christine Schultz, Shanti Soule, Jeanne Bel, Purusha Doherty and co-leaders Rachel Naomi Remen (who is also Medical Director), Virginia Veach, Nischala Devi, Shannon McGowan, and Lenore Lefer. I also wish to acknowledge the other staff members who joined us for the early Cancer Help Programs held at Yogaville in Buckingham, Virginia. Swami Satchidananda, Nischala Devi, Holly Bronfman, Madhuri Honeyman and Jan Abruzzo deserve special thanks for their contributions to the Virginia programs.

Second, it owes a great intellectual debt to the participants in the annual Lloyd Symington Foundation Conference on New Directions in Cancer Care at Commonweal. This community includes or has included Rachel Naomi Remen, Virginia Veach, Marion Weber, Lucy Waletzky, Larry LeShan, Joan Borysenko, Barrie Cassileth, Sandra McLanahan, Nischala Devi, Barry Flint, Grace Monaco, Shannon McGowan, Keith Block, William Buchholz, Jeanne Achterberg, Frank Lawlis, Irving Berg, Harold Benjamin, Michael Samuels, Richard Grossman, Leo Stolbach, John Fink, Toby Symington, Wendy Schain, Ursula Brandt, Alistair Cunningham, W.M. Gallmeier, Herbert Kappauf, Gerwin Kaiser, Stephanie Simonton, Anna Halprin, Dawn Lemanne, Michael Hawkins, Julia Rowland, Dale Borglum, Jim Spira, Lydia Temoshok, Jan Abruzzo, Dean Ornish, Mark Renneker, Shunsacu Fukuda, Fawzy Fawzy, Jon Kabat-Zinn, and many others.

Third, it also owes a great debt to the overlapping intellectual communities of the Institute for the Advancement of Health, the Fetzer Institute, the Institute of Noetic Sciences, and the Center for the Advancement of Health, where some of the foremost clinicians and researchers concerned with mind-body health have gathered. Eileen Growald of IAH, Rob Lehman of the Fetzer Institute, the late Brendan O’Regan and Winston Franklin of IONS, and Charles Halpern of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, who founded the Center for the Advancement of Health, had the foresight to create and nurture these formative intellectual communities.

Fourth, it owes a great debt to the remarkable intellectual community of researchers, scientists, clinicians, and advocates of both mainstream and complementary cancer therapies that came together to produce the Office of Technology Assessment report Unconventional Cancer Therapies, for which I served as Special Consultant.

Fifth, the book also owes an immeasurable debt to the extended Commonweal community– friends across the country, staff, participants in Commonweal programs, individual and foundation donors–without whom Commonweal’s work would not be possible. Peter Almond, Carolyn Brown, Arthur Carpenter, Colleen Hicks, Winifred Mauzy, and Arthur Okamura as members of the Board of Directors, and David Parker, Executive Vice President and General Manager, deserve special acknowledgment.

Finally, I want to acknowledge my great debt to those who taught me useful things about the life of the spirit: to Swami Satchidananda, who taught me the yoga practices that have been the ground of my inner life; to Desikachar, who deepened and broadened my understanding of yoga; to Dharmawara, who taught me Vipassna meditation; to Harada Roshi, who taught me the precepts of Zen Buddhism by living example; to the friends who have also been real teachers; to my family, which enjoys the special grace of caring for each other; to my son Joshua, who teaches me humility; and to Sharyle Patton, wife, friend, and partner beyond compare.