What sets Anatomy of the Spirit apart is Carolyn Myss's ability to blend diverse religious and spiritual beliefs into a succinct discussion of health and human anatomy. For example, when describing the seven energy fields of the human body, she fuses Christian sacraments with Hindu chakras and the Kabbalah's Tree of Life. Fortunately, Myss is a skilled writer as well as researcher, able to ground her extensive spiritual and religious discussions by using real-life stories and a tight writing style. Those who are squeamish with the notion of biography affecting biology will find this book a struggle (in one chapter, Myss links pancreatic cancer with a man's refusal to unburden his life and start fulfilling his dreams). Many, however, hail Myss for creating a valuable contribution to the ongoing exploration of spirituality and health. --Gail Hudson


Amazon.com Audiobook Review
A former journalist turned medical intuitive, Caroline Myss soothingly fuses Hindu chakras, Christian sacraments, and the Judaic Tree of Life to form her seven stages of power in the human body. Reading her own work to an appreciative studio audience, her tone is often confessional as she builds her case by using stories from her own life of spiritual growth. The audience responds with mild laughter at her wry asides, as if at a New Age dinner party somewhere in the Colorado mountains--where this was taped--with an extra place set for you. (Running time: three hours, two cassettes) --Kimberly Heinrichs


From Publishers Weekly
One of the hottest new voices in the alternative health/spirituality scene, Myss is a "medical intuitive" whose work with Dr. C. Norman Shealy resulted in their coauthored book, The Creation of Health. In this engaging volume, Myss describes our "spiritual anatomy" and how its dysfunctions affect the physical body. Going beyond the spirit/body connection, she presents a complete program for spiritual growth, drawing on concepts from three major religions. Linking the seven chakras of Hinduism to the seven Christian sacraments and the Jewish mystical Tree of Life, Myss details the struggles associated with each chakra and its correspondents. To Myss, our primary foundation, or first chakra, for example, corresponds to baptism and the mystical Jewish concept of Shekhinah. This chakra's energy, according to Myss, is concerned with our "tribe," be it our family, country or other group we identify with, and it activates our need for loyalty, honor and justice. Misplaced loyalties or conflicts will most likely manifest in the lower part of the body, in afflictions like lower back pain. The author intersperses her text with case studies and keeps her discussion close to real-life concerns. Her tone can be gratingly authoritative at times ("all human stress corresponds to a spiritual crisis"), and it's questionable whether the alleged correspondences are as firm as Myss posits. Still, there's wisdom here, in words that eschew New Age jargon and that make otherwise esoteric material accessible to a general readership. This book has breakout potential. One Spirit Book Club main selection; author tour. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
A medical intuitive, Myss offers a fascinating picture of the human body's hidden energetic structures and its connection to seven truths found in Judaism, Christianity and Hinduism. She offers insights into the symbolic blocks within our energy centers. While this presentation to a live audience is a bit more low-key than her presentation of WHY PEOPLE DON'T HEAL, Myss still delivers her material with conviction and humor. She spends the last 15 minutes answering questions. One helpful feature of this package is the drawing inside the cover of tape one, which shows the seven stages of power, something to keep on hand while listening. P.B.J. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
Myss, much to her amazement, is a medical intuitive. A journalist who quit her job to earn a degree in theology, she was skeptical of New Age fads and utterly unprepared for the manifestation of her powers: impressions of the state of people's health that just popped, unbidden and unwelcome, into her head. Myss movingly describes how she learned to accept and utilize her intuitive gifts to help people understand the emotional and psychological roots of their illnesses and life crises. Now, 14 years later, she feels ready to teach others how to "read your own body like a scripture." Myss draws on religious traditions, including the Hindu chakras and certain Buddhist and Christian precepts, to explain her approach to studying the anatomy of the human energy system--which she equates with the anatomy of the spirit. There is much here that makes sense, and much that requires some leaps of faith, but everyone interested in holistic health will want to read what Myss has to say. Donna Seaman


Book Description
Anatomy of the Spirit is the boldest presentation to date of energy medicine by one of its premier practitioners, internationally acclaimed medical intuitive Caroline Myss, one of the "hottest new voices in the alternative health/spirituality scene" (Publishers Weekly). Based on fifteen years of research into energy medicine, Dr. Myss's work shows how every illness corresponds to a pattern of emotional and psychological stresses, beliefs, and attitudes that have influenced corresponding areas of the human body.

Anatomy of the Spirit also presents Dr. Myss's breakthrough model of the body's seven centers of spiritual and physical power, in which she synthesizes the ancient wisdom of three spiritual traditions-the Hindu chakras, the Christian sacraments, and the Kabbalah's Tree of Life-to demonstrate the seven stages through which everyone must pass in the search for higher consciousness and spiritual maturity. With this model, Dr. Myss shows how you can develop your own latent powers of intuition as you simultaneously cultivate your personal power and spiritual growth.

By teaching you to see your body and spirit in a new way, Anatomy of the Spirit provides you with the tools for spiritual maturity and physical wholeness that will change your life.


From the Inside Flap
Anatomy of the Spirit is the boldest presentation to date of energy medicine by one of its premier practitioners, internationally acclaimed medical intuitive Caroline Myss, one of the "hottest new voices in the alternative health/spirituality scene" (Publishers Weekly). Based on fifteen years of research into energy medicine, Dr. Myss's work shows how every illness corresponds to a pattern of emotional and psychological stresses, beliefs, and attitudes that have influenced corresponding areas of the human body.

Anatomy of the Spirit also presents Dr. Myss's breakthrough model of the body's seven centers of spiritual and physical power, in which she synthesizes the ancient wisdom of three spiritual traditions-the Hindu chakras, the Christian sacraments, and the Kabbalah's Tree of Life-to demonstrate the seven stages through which everyone must pass in the search for higher consciousness and spiritual maturity. With this model, Dr. Myss shows how you can develop your own latent powers of intuition as you simultaneously cultivate your personal power and spiritual growth.

By teaching you to see your body and spirit in a new way, Anatomy of the Spirit provides you with the tools for spiritual maturity and physical wholeness that will change your life.


From the Back Cover
"Healers often cannot teach, and teachers cannot heal. Myss can do both. She is a blessing to the human race because she shows us what we all may yet be."
--Larry Dossey, M.D., author of Healing Words, Prayer Is Good Medicine, and Be Careful What You Pray For...You Just Might Get It

"Astonishing . . . we share her delight in discovering parallel messages from ancient and diverse sources about the infinite 'power of our spirit' that exists in all beings."
--San Francisco Chronicle


About the Author
Caroline Myss, Ph.D., is an internationally sought-after speaker on spirituality and personal power. She is widely recognized for her work in teaching intuitive diagnosis and is a pioneer in the field of energy medicine. She lives in Chicago.


Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Chapter 1

Energy Medicine and Intuition
I disappoint some people when I discuss intuition because I firmly believe that intuitive or symbolic sight is not a gift but a skilla skill based in self-esteem. Developing this skilland a healthy sense of selfbecomes easier when you can think in the words, concepts, and principles of energy medicine. So as you read this chapter, think of learning to use intuition as learning to interpret the language of energy.

The Human Energy Field
Everything that is alive pulsates with energy and all of this energy contains information. While it is not surprising that practitioners of alternative or complementary medicine accept this concept, even some quantum physicists acknowledge the existence of an electromagnetic field generated by the bodys biological processes. Scientists accept that the human body generates electricity because living tissue generates energy.

Your physical body is surrounded by an energy field that extends as far out as your outstretched arms and the full length of your body. It is both an information center and a highly sensitive perceptual system. We are constantly in communication with everything around us through this system, which is a kind of conscious electricity that transmits and receives messages to and from other peoples bodies. These messages from and within the energy field are what intuitives perceive.

Practitioners of energy medicine believe that the human energy field contains and reflects each individuals energy. It surrounds us and carries with us the emotional energy created by our internal and external experiencesboth positive and negative. This emotional force influences the physical tissue within our bodies. In this way your biographythat is, the experiences that make up your lifebecomes your biology.

Experiences that carry emotional energy in our energy systems include: past and present relationships, both personal and professional; profound or traumatic experiences and memories; and belief patterns and attitudes, including all spiritual and superstitious beliefs. The emotions from these experiences become encoded in our biological systems and contribute to the formation of our cell tissue, which then generates a quality of energy that reflects those emotions. These energy impressions form an energy language, which carries literal and symbolic information that a medical intuitive can read.

Here is an example of the kind of message the energy field may communicate. Lets say you had some trouble with math when you were in elementary school. Knowing the fact that twelve makes a dozen would not ordinarily carry an emotional charge such as would alter the health of cell tissues. On the other hand, if you were humiliated by the teacher because you didnt know that fact, the experience would carry an emotional charge that would create cellular damage, especially if you were to dwell on that memory through adulthood or use it as a touchstone for determining how to deal with criticism, or authority figures, or education, or failure. An intuitive might pick up the literal image of your exchange with the teacher or any other negative symbol linked to that experience.

Positive images and the energy of positive experiences are also held in the energy field. Think of a time when someone praised you for a job well done, or a kind act, or for some help you gave someone. You feel a positive energya surge of personal power within your body. Positive and negative experiences register a memory in cell tissue as well as in the energy field. As neurobiologist Dr. Candace Pert has proven, neuropeptidesthe chemicals triggered by emotionsare thoughts converted into matter. Our emotions reside physically in our bodies and interact with our cells and tissues. In fact, Dr. Pert can no longer separate the mind from the body, she says, because the same kinds of cells that manufacture and receive emotional chemistry in the brain are present throughout the body. Sometimes the body responds emotionally and manufactures emotional chemicals even before the brain has registered a problem. Remember, for instance, how quickly your body reacts to a loud noise before youve had time to think.

As Dr. Pert said on Bill Moyerss Healing and the Mind, Clearly, theres another form of energy that we have not yet understood. For example, theres a form of energy that appears to leave the body when the body dies. . . . Your mind is in every cell of your body. Moyers: . . . Youre saying that my emotions are stored in my body? Pert: Absolutely. You didnt realize that? . . . There are many phenomena that we cant explain without going into energy.

Reading the Field
In addition to reading specific dramatic childhood experiences, sometimes an intuitive can even pick up on superstitions, personal habits, behavior patterns, moral beliefs, and preferences in music and literature. At other times the energy impressions are more symbolic. For instance, from one patient who was suffering from tightness of breath, I kept receiving the symbolic impression of him being shot in the heart before a firing squad. Obviously this had not literally happened to him, but he had undergone extensive medical tests, which could locate no known physical cause for his condition. After I shared my impression with him, he told me that his wife had betrayed him several times with other men, and being shot through the heart was exactly how he felt about her actions. By admitting these emotions, which he had previously tried to ignore, he was able to address the problems both in his marriage and in his health.

Our emotional energy converts into biological matter through a highly complex process. Just as radio stations operate according to specific energy wavelengths, each organ and system in the body is calibrated to absorb and process specific emotional and psychological energies. That is, each area of the body transmits energy on a specific, detailed frequency, and when we are healthy, all are in tune. An area of the body that is not transmitting at its normal frequency indicates the location of a problem. A change in intensity of the frequency indicates a change in the nature and seriousness of the illness and reveals the stress pattern that has contributed to the development of the illness.

This way of interpreting the bodys energy is sometimes called vibrational medicine. It resembles the most ancient medical practices and beliefs, from Chinese medicine to indigenous shamanic practices to virtually every folk or alternative therapy. The truth is that energy medicine is not new; but I believe my interpretation of it and of how you can use it to heal spiritually in conjunction with contemporary medical treatments is unique. If a person is able to sense intuitively that he or she is losing energy because of a stressful situationand then acts to correct that loss of energythen the likelihood of that stress developing into a physical crisis is reduced, if not eliminated completely.

While I can parse the language of energy for you so that you can begin to see and feel the human energy field, begin to understand its corresponding spiritual anatomy, begin to know the sources of your personal power, and begin to develop your own intuition, I have some trouble explaining exactly how I personally acquire energy information. Other intuitives appear to have the same difficulty, but we all pick up on information that has the strongest impulsethe most intensity. These impulses usually relate directly to the part of the body that is becoming weakened or diseased. As a rule, a persons energy system transmits only the information that is essential to bring the conscious mind to an awareness of the imbalance or disease. Like the shot in the heart image, symbolic information can sometimes be disturbing. But this intensity is necessary in order that the bodys message can break through the habitual mental or emotional patterns that caused the disease to form in the first place. Medical intuitions cooperate with the bodys intention to promote its own health and life; that is, our energy will always seek health, in spite of what we may do to ourselves physically. If, for example, we tell a lie, our energy field will often communicate to the other person the energy fact that we are not telling the truth. Energy does not and cannot lie.

Stay with Your First Impression
When you receive an intuitive impression about yourself or the person you are reading, pay attention to whatever image comes up. Most people are looking for safe intuitions, not healthy ones, and safe insights, not healthy insights, because they usually want a safe passage into the future, into the unknown. So you may be tempted to dismiss a disturbing image that you receive, or one that is not congruent with your own desires or those of the person you are reading. Most people who come to me for an evaluation have already intuited themselves that something is wrong, but they are hoping that I will give that feeling some other meaning, such as Youre merely going through a natural body change, but nothing is wrong with you physically.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Anatomy of the Spirit shows the links between emotional and spiritual stresses and specific illnesses in the context of the anatomy of the human energy system. Dr. Myss's system of energy medicine will teach you the specific emotional, psychological, and physical factors that lie at the root of illness. For example, fears regarding financial matters affect the health of the lower back; emotional barriers to experiencing love undermine the health of the heart; a strong need to control others or your environment influences the health of the sexual areas of the body. Anatomy of the Spirit also presents Dr. Myss's long-awaited model of the body's seven centers of spiritual and physical power, in which she synthesizes the ancient wisdom of three spiritual traditions - the Hindu chakras, the Christian sacraments, and the Kabbalah's Tree of Life. With this model, Dr. Myss shows how you can develop your own latent powers of intuition as you simultaneously develop your personal power and spiritual maturity. As you begin to understand the anatomy of your spirit, you will discover the spiritual causes of illness, as well as how to sense and correct an energy imbalance before it expresses itself as physical illness, and how to recover emotionally and physically from an illness you may already have. By learning to see your body and spirit in a new way that draws on old truths, you can begin to develop a spiritual maturity and authority that will change your life.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly