Larry Dossey (born 1940[) is a Texas internist and author who has advocated for a blending of orthodox medicine and spiritual medicine since the 1980s. Along with a small handful of other physicians (such as Bernie Siegel), he was early in orienting his patient advocacy along lines of New Age, preceding the better known Deepak Chopra in that field.][Pike, Sarah M. (2004), New Age and Neopagan Religions in America; New York: Columbia University Press; pp 96 and 102-103.]
Dossey's "nonlocality" approach involves sending "healing energy" (though prayer, meditation, visualization, etc) to distant patients.[Pike, Op. cit., pg 96.] By his account, modern medicine can be divided into three "eras": his Era I is conventional medicine of the 19th and early 20th centuries, which he terms "Mechanical Medicine"; his Era II is later 20th-century "Mind-Body Medicine"; and his Era III is 21st century "consciousness as energy" medicine that he says links people throughout the globe.[Pike, Op. cit., pp 102-103.]
Biography
Dossey was born in Groesbeck, Texas.[ According to his written biography on his personal website,][ Larry Dossey (biography) (accessed 4 September 2015) ] Dossey graduated from University of Texas at Austin and received an M.D. from University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas (1967).[ Dossey became a United States Army Medical Corps officer and served as a battalion surgeon in Vietnam during the Vietnam War, being decorated for valor.][Dossey, Larry. "War: A Vietnam Memoir", 1995. Retrieved February 14, 2022.] He served as Chief of Staff of Medical City Dallas Hospital (1982).[
]
Reception
Dossey's writings and opinions have been controversial, having drawn both praise and criticism.
Surgical oncologist David Gorski has written that Dossey utilizes straw man arguments, misrepresents and misunderstands medical research and "the evidence base in favor of the woo that Dr. Dossey favors is pathetic in comparison to that supporting science-based medicine."
Gary P. Posner, a physician, has criticized Dossey for writing "New Age psychobabble". Posner in a review has stated that Dossey uncritically accepts psychic powers, parapsychology experiments and dubious claims such as or "distant healing" as genuine, whilst ignoring the literature that has refuted these subjects.[Posner, Gary P. "Medical Practice Enters a New Age". Originally published in the Summer 1994 Skeptical Inquirer and in the Summer 1994 Tampa Bay Skeptics Report. Retrieved 6 September 2015.
]
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Archived from the original on 6 November 2023
Psychologist Robert A. Baker in a review for Dossey's Healing Words wrote that it is an entertaining book but "We'd all be better served—Dossey, his patients, his readers, and the general public—if Dossey would take his head out of the clouds, plant his feet on the ground, and stop talking nonsense. Everyone knows that evil looks won't kill you. We also know that sticks and stones will break your bones and a doctor's words alone-no matter how kind or gentle-will never heal you."[ "If Looks Could Kill and Words Could Heal". Skeptical Inquirer. Retrieved 6 September 2015.]
John Roberts in the BMJ has described Healing Words as a religious book, useful to see how an argument could be made on how humans could utilize prayer to heal but some of the book was "convoluted new-age jargon".[Roberts, John. (1995). Healing Words: The Power Of Prayer And The Practice Of Medicine by Larry Dossey. BMJ. Volume 311, Number 7013, page 1174.]
Dossey's views and activities have frequently been reported in the media. For example, Business Insider quoted Dossey as having "coined the term 'time-sickness' in 1982 to describe the belief that 'time is getting away, that there isn't enough of it, and that you must pedal faster and faster to keep up.'"
The Belfast Telegraph described Dossey as a "distinguished American physician" and a "New York Times best-selling author", while quoting his views on Lorna Byrne.
The "Jacket Copy" blog of the Los Angeles Times interviewed Dossey and quoted him extensively when reviewing one of his books.
Works
-
Dossey, Larry, (1982) One Mind: How Our Individual Mind is Part of a Greater Consciousness and Why It Matters, 2013, Carlsbad, California, Hay House.
-
-
Dossey, Larry, (1989) Recovering the Soul
-
-
-
Dossey, Larry, (1999) Reinventing Medicine: Beyond Mind-Body to a New Era of Healing; San Francisco, California: HarperSanFrancisco.
-
External links
