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The Fourfold Path to Healing: Working with the Laws of Nutrition, Therapeutics, Movement and Meditation in the Art of Medicine
"I had not encountered Dr. Thomas Cowan before reviewing this book--boy, have I been missing something!... This book is probably the best self-help guide for the healing arts that has ever been written" --Nancy Parsons, waldorfbooks.com
"Readers will be pleased to know that its author, Dr. Thomas Cowan, combines the best of Eastern and Western esoteric wisdom in the healing arts with the best of modern findings in Western medicine.... This collaboration pulls together a mix of expertise that offers health seekers some truly holistic solutions." --Duncan M. Roads, editor, Nexus magazine
What is the Fourfold Path to Healing? It is a unique, comprehensive view of medicine, a holistic approach to healing that integrates the four aspects of our bodies: the Physical, the Life Force, the Emotional, and the Mental. Its principles are simple: right diet for healing the physical body; beneficial medicines or therapies for the life-force body, healing movement and exercise for the emotional body, and effective thinking activity for the mental body.
Dr. Cowan merges the wisdom of traditional societies, the most modern findings of western medicine and the esoteric teachings of the ancients as he works to answer this most important question: How do we obtain true health?
The Fourfold Path presents a unique, comprehensive view of medicine that will challenge your deepest beliefs, while revealing a practical approach to healing. The "fourfold approach" includes:
Nutrition, using nutrient-dense traditional foods; Therapeutics through a wide range of nontoxic remedies; Movement to heal and strengthen the emotions; Meditation to develop one's powers of objective thought.
CONTENTS:
PART 1: THE FOURFOLD APPROACH
Nutrition: Healing the Physical Body Therapeutics: Healing the Life-Force Body Movement: Healing the Emotional Body Meditation: Healing the Mental Body PART 2: THE ART OF MEDICINE
Infectious Disease Cancer Heart Disease Hypertension Diabetes Diseases of Adrenal Insufficiency Digestive Disorders Chronic Fatigue Women's Diseases Men's Diseases Weight Loss Depression Back Pain Arthritis Neurological Diseases How to Be a Patient APPENDICES
Cooking Instructions Therapy Instructions Movement Instructions Sources
This book is a great companion to Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions, (New Trends Publishing, 1999).
"Readers will be pleased to know that its author, Dr. Thomas Cowan, combines the best of Eastern and Western esoteric wisdom in the healing arts with the best of modern findings in Western medicine.... This collaboration pulls together a mix of expertise that offers health seekers some truly holistic solutions." --Duncan M. Roads, editor, Nexus magazine
What is the Fourfold Path to Healing? It is a unique, comprehensive view of medicine, a holistic approach to healing that integrates the four aspects of our bodies: the Physical, the Life Force, the Emotional, and the Mental. Its principles are simple: right diet for healing the physical body; beneficial medicines or therapies for the life-force body, healing movement and exercise for the emotional body, and effective thinking activity for the mental body.
Dr. Cowan merges the wisdom of traditional societies, the most modern findings of western medicine and the esoteric teachings of the ancients as he works to answer this most important question: How do we obtain true health?
The Fourfold Path presents a unique, comprehensive view of medicine that will challenge your deepest beliefs, while revealing a practical approach to healing. The "fourfold approach" includes:
Nutrition, using nutrient-dense traditional foods; Therapeutics through a wide range of nontoxic remedies; Movement to heal and strengthen the emotions; Meditation to develop one's powers of objective thought.
CONTENTS:
PART 1: THE FOURFOLD APPROACH
Nutrition: Healing the Physical Body Therapeutics: Healing the Life-Force Body Movement: Healing the Emotional Body Meditation: Healing the Mental Body PART 2: THE ART OF MEDICINE
Infectious Disease Cancer Heart Disease Hypertension Diabetes Diseases of Adrenal Insufficiency Digestive Disorders Chronic Fatigue Women's Diseases Men's Diseases Weight Loss Depression Back Pain Arthritis Neurological Diseases How to Be a Patient APPENDICES
Cooking Instructions Therapy Instructions Movement Instructions Sources
This book is a great companion to Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions, (New Trends Publishing, 1999).
433 pages, Paperback
First published November 15, 2004
85 people are currently reading
1035 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
March 10, 2012
I'm a big fan of the Weston A Price website, as well as Nourishing Traditions and Eat Fat, Lose Fat by Sally Fallon.
But this book... was just not up to that high standard.
For every useful fact on diet there was so many more very ignorant, simplistic and even offensive bits of nonsense, and airy fairy silliness. (About which planet is linked with which metal, and which bodily organ, and how this affects which homeopathic remedies you need, for example.)
The information on vitamin C was of an appalling standard and extremely ignorant and just plain wrong. All the masses of information showing the enourmous benefits of vitamin C were omitted entirely as well.
As for the suggestion that traditional peoples had fewer allergies because they 'took the long view' rather than thinking short term, and the case study of two kids with ear infections where one got well and the other with the same treatment didn't because they had an 'anxious mother' - these were not just eyebrow-raising, but very concerning.
People are abused with this type of 'blame the victim' nonsense all the time, and it is so unfair and can have a devastating impact on the patient, who is just asking to be treated for what is physically wrong with them! In the wrong hands this overemphasis of the mind-body link can be cruel. It is also completely unscientific.
(Sorry if this seems a bit of a rant but just about everyone I know that is ill has had a shocking encounter with a naturopath etc. who loftily expoused these same views and then blamed the victim again when they didn't help, rather than offering any real physical help.)
I'm so so glad I bought Nourishing Traditions and Eat Fat, Lose Fat but got this one from the LIBRARY! It was just not for me.
The above mentioned books plus any of the books by Dr Sherry Rogers, Dr Abram Hoffer, Andrew Saul or Dr Thomas Levy are such better choices for anyone concerned with their health and diet. These books take a genuinely scientific approach to health and diet and disease causation and treatment; an approach largely lacking in this book, for me. This book made me realise how good the other books I have been reading are. How logical, sensible and well referenced and reserched. (Plus they are working for me, and actually improving my very severe health problems, slowly but steadily.)
If you loved this book, then that is your prerogative of course and I wish you all the best with it. We are all different and have different opinions and views and I can also see that the author clearly has good motivations too. I'd never claim otherwise.
But this book was just not for me at all and I could in no way recommend it.
Best wishes to everyone with improving your health in whichever ways you choose, however!
Jodi Bassett, The Hummingbirds' Foundation for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (M.E.)
But this book... was just not up to that high standard.
For every useful fact on diet there was so many more very ignorant, simplistic and even offensive bits of nonsense, and airy fairy silliness. (About which planet is linked with which metal, and which bodily organ, and how this affects which homeopathic remedies you need, for example.)
The information on vitamin C was of an appalling standard and extremely ignorant and just plain wrong. All the masses of information showing the enourmous benefits of vitamin C were omitted entirely as well.
As for the suggestion that traditional peoples had fewer allergies because they 'took the long view' rather than thinking short term, and the case study of two kids with ear infections where one got well and the other with the same treatment didn't because they had an 'anxious mother' - these were not just eyebrow-raising, but very concerning.
People are abused with this type of 'blame the victim' nonsense all the time, and it is so unfair and can have a devastating impact on the patient, who is just asking to be treated for what is physically wrong with them! In the wrong hands this overemphasis of the mind-body link can be cruel. It is also completely unscientific.
(Sorry if this seems a bit of a rant but just about everyone I know that is ill has had a shocking encounter with a naturopath etc. who loftily expoused these same views and then blamed the victim again when they didn't help, rather than offering any real physical help.)
I'm so so glad I bought Nourishing Traditions and Eat Fat, Lose Fat but got this one from the LIBRARY! It was just not for me.
The above mentioned books plus any of the books by Dr Sherry Rogers, Dr Abram Hoffer, Andrew Saul or Dr Thomas Levy are such better choices for anyone concerned with their health and diet. These books take a genuinely scientific approach to health and diet and disease causation and treatment; an approach largely lacking in this book, for me. This book made me realise how good the other books I have been reading are. How logical, sensible and well referenced and reserched. (Plus they are working for me, and actually improving my very severe health problems, slowly but steadily.)
If you loved this book, then that is your prerogative of course and I wish you all the best with it. We are all different and have different opinions and views and I can also see that the author clearly has good motivations too. I'd never claim otherwise.
But this book was just not for me at all and I could in no way recommend it.
Best wishes to everyone with improving your health in whichever ways you choose, however!
Jodi Bassett, The Hummingbirds' Foundation for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (M.E.)
June 20, 2010
One of my favorite books. It's amazing, especially the chapter on how the heart and circulatory system REALLY work, as opposed to how the established medical community "assumes" it works. Highly recommended read.
October 11, 2011
Dr. Cowan looks at the whole person--the physical body, the life-force body, the emotional body, and the mental body. I have found his advice helpful over the years and I refer to this book often. I like a doctor who views the body through the lens of poetry as well as science. Amazing!
October 7, 2020
Informative book that looks at healing from alternative perspectives.
August 8, 2018
This book was a disappointment. I discovered it while reading others about nutrition and holistic approaches.
On the face of it this book is organized. It has narrative, drawings and sidebars. However, while it offers additional reading, those sources are repetitive and there are no citations to scientific research to support their narrative.
Not recommended.
On the face of it this book is organized. It has narrative, drawings and sidebars. However, while it offers additional reading, those sources are repetitive and there are no citations to scientific research to support their narrative.
Not recommended.
October 27, 2010
This is a really good book about supplements, health, and naturalpathic medicine. I almost felt like I could open my own practice with just this book to guide me. I don't agree with EVERYTHING but there is a really large wealth of information here. All the info is easy to read, understand, and seems practical. A very good book for somebody looking to solve some of their health woe's that traditional medicine is SUCKING at. There are alot of traditional herbs and old fashioned type medicines explained.
April 13, 2011
So many books telling us different things. As a vegetarian, I am still reading it with an open mind (the authors are Pro-dairy and red meats). But I do like to see all sides of health and what foods people recommend.
March 30, 2012
This is a reference book, to be picked up as needed after having read it at least once.
May 3, 2015
Wholistic health overview. Great resource.
August 6, 2015
This is what real doctor should be! Love dr. Cowan!
February 20, 2016
more prescription and specific than I thought it would be. alot of studied information
Read
February 6, 2020Whew, the "science" behind this is a bit woowoo for me. He kept referencing medical articles but had no citations and most of the medical documents were pre-1930s (for a book updated in 2010). The outcome of the "science" was interesting and some sound, but not really usable. Anything I agreed with were things found in Ayurvedic and Kundalini practices. If the topic of this book interests you, pick up an Ayurveda book instead.
July 3, 2019
Hard to follow with too many complicated theories for me.
August 28, 2019
So pissed that I spent good money on this. I should have started reading it when I first got it, at least then I could have returned it to B&N for store credit.
February 15, 2017
Contains recommendations for homeopathy and other less scientifically supported modalities.
Mentions Cayce as a leader in functional medicine. I am not sure how I feel about Cayce, some of his ideas seem good but some of them don't. Since they are supposedly channeled it's hard to render an opinion on them. That being said, Cayce seemed fairly against animal consumption which makes it hard to understand how he could be lauded here without at least explaining that part away.
I'm not sure who Cayce channeled from but either it was a person(s) who could have been wrong on some things or some supernatural being (or he didn't channel at all). If it was a person or no one it would cause us to question the remaining suggestions as potentially outdated. If it was supernatural the paleo premise is at least somewhat wrong. Not asking these kinds of questions regarding their recommendations leaves this book of questionable worth.
Mentions Cayce as a leader in functional medicine. I am not sure how I feel about Cayce, some of his ideas seem good but some of them don't. Since they are supposedly channeled it's hard to render an opinion on them. That being said, Cayce seemed fairly against animal consumption which makes it hard to understand how he could be lauded here without at least explaining that part away.
I'm not sure who Cayce channeled from but either it was a person(s) who could have been wrong on some things or some supernatural being (or he didn't channel at all). If it was a person or no one it would cause us to question the remaining suggestions as potentially outdated. If it was supernatural the paleo premise is at least somewhat wrong. Not asking these kinds of questions regarding their recommendations leaves this book of questionable worth.
January 11, 2010
I 'won' this book through a bid I placed in an auction to raise money for Soul Food Farm to replace their chicken houses lost in a fire. But I was interested in an anthroposophical approach to healing, I am fascinated by Cowan's multi-layered approach. Some of it's quite counter cultural--for example, our bodies need us to eat fat, and women my age being free to gain a few pounds is healthy. I also made one visit to this doctor, and I am in my third month of adjusting my diet based on his recommmendations. My digestion has improved radically.
July 4, 2008
Quite an interesting book; it has helped me with health in some areas
Currently reading
March 21, 2010Some folks consider this a companion book to Nourishing Traditions. Been meaning to get it for a long while; finally picked it up.
June 27, 2012
This might not look like a book that can be read from cover to cover, but it is. I loved Cowan's insight.
February 5, 2013
A good reference for beginners.
January 31, 2017
Not convinced by it at all and feel that I need to do more research for myself. I'm sure there are benefits from eating/ drinking bone broth but in moderation with a balanced diet.
January 4, 2010
This is the exact book I was meant to read but didn't know I had to read.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews