By Ananya S. Rajan

I generally get annoyed with solicitors. I understand that they have a job they need to perform, and like everyone (except 2%) in our country, they need to work. It’s not their fault that they have a job that unfortunately irritates the most patient people. Nor is it their fault that they feel they have a product that people really ought to have.

Unfortunately, I have joined the solicitor ranks and should I begin to annoy you, you can always turn the page. However, what makes me different from a solicitor is that I am not going to sell you a product. I am going to simply tell you about it. I have one advantage over my competitors and it is that I am going to tell you about a book. (This shows how well I know my market. Being Theosophists and members of the Theosophical Order of Service, chances are you love to read. It’s an affliction we all have so no need to feel odd.)

Long before the present New Age movement, there was the Theosophical Society. Within this organization is the ground for what everyone thinks they’ve discovered today. What is rather grotesque about the present day New Age movement is the amount of money people make, the amount of publicity people get over their products or methods, and, lastly, how unoriginal it all is.

In 1984 the Theosophical Order of Service published a book called The Essence of Healing. The book was compiled, produced, and designed by our very own Karen Shultz (now, McCormick), Nadine Hunter, and Jean Gullo. Today it has an unassuming cover compared to the fancy covers of today’s books on healing. (The ones I constantly fell for until I began reading their material. This is not true of all healing books, but I am not selling . . . I mean, telling you about them.) What is true about this book is that it should not be judged by its cover.

Within the pages of this old, but very fine book is the essence of healing. Theosophists knew what they were talking about long before the whole mind/body thing came alive in the late 1980s, early 1990s. For Theosophists, there already was knowledge about auras and energy; the mind vs. the body; the benefits of eating a vegetarian diet; deep breathing, and so on. Luckily for us, this knowledge is compiled into The Essence of Healing.

Jean Gullo, in her foreword of twenty-one years ago, wrote:

“If, as some suggest, this is a forcing time for humanity, the evidence of an acceleration in this planet’s development during its latter phases, then we are in a rare position to make use of all the wisdom and experience of the past, while perfecting our talents, increasing our subtlest discrimination, and refining our bodies. And those bodies include our combined mental, emotional, and physical makeup.”

The Essence of Healing does just this. It makes use of the “wisdom and experience of the past” without any fanfare. Set in a simple type of that time, the book is divided into two parts. The first part deals with the history of healing, the energy fields, and the physics behind it. Many articles deal with the healers from ancient times and their methods, such as Asklepios, Artemis-Diana, Hygeia and her Companions and others. There is even a small article by H. P. Blavatsky titled “Witches and Wizards” which gives the origins of where such words came from.

The history of healers and their methods are not enough for a reader. One always wants to know how any of the material applies to them and this is exactly the next step in the book. “The Etheric Field” is a fascinating section to read. Many books of the present day tend to get a little complicated when trying to understand a topic one is not familiar with. The Essence of Healing addresses this problem by using language that is easy for young adults to understand.

The concepts may not be –“energy” field and “etheric” body may seem a little far out. But the book does a wonderful job explaining these concepts. Articles like “I Sing the Body Electric” and “Simple Ways to Keep the Etheric Field Healthy” contain information that everyone needs to know about their body and their health.

Moving from unseen to the seen, the book also discusses breath and breathing, what improper breathing does to our bodies, what the interaction is between breathing and emotion, how this all effects our -- you guessed it -- etheric body or energy field.

The book continues on to discuss the physical body and other methods of medicine, including aromatherapy and essential oils, even the Bach flower remedies, which is just now hitting the mainstream crowd. The fascinating thing about this book is that these are methods and thoughts that helped move such practices into the mainstream.

While I can’t force you to buy a copy of this book, I can tell you that I believe it is a great asset to have on one’s bookshelf. It is informative, easy to understand, covers every aspect of healing, and it’s a paperback. It’s small enough to take with you if you need something interesting and easy to read, and while some articles are longer than others, the articles are broken up into sections, which make reading them a delight. You can finish one section and soak it up before starting on another. It’s an offer you really shouldn’t refuse.