That’s what I want to get into this book—the astonishingness of the most obvious things. —Aldous Huxley

Every day modern medicine announces the arrival of yet another “wonder drug” or “miracle procedure” to a world increasingly wary of expensive high-tech cures. Drugs, transplants, and surgery don’t work for 90 percent of our aches and pains and, while we’re grateful for life-saving developments, we know that most come with risks we cannot ignore.

One of the founding fathers of mind-body medicine, Larry Dossey directs our attention to simple sources of healing that have been available for centuries—treasures often hidden in plain sight—from the power of optimism and of tears to speed recovery to the surprising usefulness of dirt and bugs in curing disease and infection to the benefits of doing nothing.

 Dossey offers chapters titled Optimism, Forgetting, Novelty, Tears, Dirt, Music, Risk, Plants, Bugs, Unhappiness, Nothing, Voices, Mystery, and Miracles. Exploring the medical research that validates these simple remedies, he encourages us to align ourselves with the wisdom of nature and allow true healing to take place. The Extraordinary Healing Power of Ordinary Things can transform our view of what health is all about, whether our concern is cancer or the common cold.

The primary reason we are drawn to the simple and the ordinary is contained in the original meaning of simple: one, a unity, a whole… My goal is not to idealize simple things, but to focus on the variety of simplicities that can bring healing and fulfillment to our lives, and which often do.

“In this elegant, thoughtful, and profoundly useful book, Larry Dossey reminds us of the healing power of the life around us and offers us the gift of new eyes.” —Rachel Naomi Remen, author of Kitchen Table Wisdom