Of course amulets and images and ceremonies with explicit and implicit protective functions are an important part of everyday life for many people, and even the simple get-well card, Dossey suggests, may be a form of protection against hopelessness and fear which otherwise may become an internal negative and destructive force. Though it is a difficult topic both because it involves anomalous connections and influences that do not appear compatible with scientific models and because it touches upon the dark or shadow side of human nature, Dossey succeeds in this book. It has sufficient scholarly depth of historical and scientific research to satisfy or at least competently address the intellectual resistance against acknowledging that there is a legitimate question here. You Just Might Get It. Harper San Francisco, 1997.
Prayer is part of our mental and emotional landscapes.
Apparently, some readers charged that the experiments Dossey had done on the efficacy of prayer were heretical, blasphemous, and sinful. Given the contemporary cultural ambivalence toward organized religion, big science, and the corporate-culture of health care, this is a book that was begging to be written. For the most part, Dossey succeeds in untangling some popular culture, ancient rituals, arcane theological data, scientific research, and old wives' tales concerning these matters. He writes clearly and with common sense. The lines between prayers and wishful thinking, positive thoughts and blessings, certain psalms and hexes can sometimes be blurry.