Pni: The New Mind/Body Healing Program

The interaction between mind and body has many important implications for good health, claim health care advocates. Dacher, a doctor in Reston, Va., is among them. Here he describes psychoneuriommunology (PNI), the marriage of ancient healing traditions with contemporary medical technology. The latter, he believes, should not be abandoned entirely, but used less frequently. He contrasts traditional medicine--the use of outside agents, medication, surgery, radiation or physical therapy, for example, to manipulate the physical body--with healing, or the use of inner resources of the mind and body to restore balance and harmony. Healing, he believes, results in full health and gives us the ability to ``live lives of vitality and joy.'' The author's advice for better health: the employment of imagery, meditation and biofeedback techniques. To that end, he offers a series of 18 exercises to reduce the stressors often responsible for disease. Some readers may find Dacher's views arguable or extreme--e.g., that cancer develops in those who endure persistent depression. And more references would have been helpful, as well as additional resources for further information on the ins and outs of alternative care. (Feb.)