Most of the histories of the West are obsessed with the shoot-em-ups. But what about the patch-em-ups? Who had to deal with all that famous carnage? With all the bloodletting depicted by pop culture historians, it almost seems a miracle anyone survived to settle the West. Prior to World War II regular, or allopathic, physicians trained in mainstream medicine were often outnumbered by alternative practitioners--folk curers, herbalists, faith healers, homeopaths, patent medicine promoters, and medicine showmen. Mystic Healers and Medicine Shows profiles many of the most significant of these healers as well as a few other colorful regular doctors.

In this thoroughly revised and updated edition, Paris Flammonde traces the history of alternative medicine from the deeds of the earliest shaman right up to the practices of such contemporary healers as Deepak Chopra and Benny Hinn.

Exposes the pretension and fraud that surrounds the faith healer business, revealing how alleged faith healers prey on the insecurities and vulnerabilities of the people they preach to.

Insane Sisters is the extraordinary tale of two sisters, Mary Alice Heinbach and Euphemia B. Koller, and their seventeen- year property dispute against the nation's leading cement corporation—the Atlas Portland Cement Company. In 1903, Atlas built a plant on the border of the small community of Ilasco, located just outside Hannibal—home of the infamous cave popularized in Mark Twain's most acclaimed novels. The rich and powerful Atlas quickly appointed itself as caretaker of Twain's heritage and sought to take control of Ilasco. However, its authority was challenged in 1910 when Heinbach inherited her husband's tract of land that formed much of the unincorporated town site. On grounds that Heinbach's husband had been in the advanced stages of alcoholism when she married him the year before, some of Ilasco's political leaders and others who had ties to Atlas challenged the will, charging Heinbach with undue influence. To help fight against the local lawyers and politicians who wanted Atlas to own the land, Heinbach enlisted the help of her shrewd and combative sister, Euphemia Koller, by making her co-owner of the tract. In a complex case that went to the Missouri Supreme Court four times, the sisters fiercely sought to hang on to the tract. However, in 1921 the county probate court imposed a guardianship over Heinbach and a circuit judge ordered a sheriff's sale of the property. After Atlas purchased the tract, Koller waged a lonely battle to overturn the sale and expose the political conspiracies that had led to Ilasco's conversion into a company town. Her efforts ultimately resulted in her court- ordered confinement in 1927 to Missouri's State Hospital Number One for the Insane, where she remained until her death at age sixty-eight. Insane Sisters traces the dire consequences the sisters suffered and provides a fascinating look at how the intersection of gender, class, and law shaped the history and politics of Ilasco. The book also sheds valuable new light on the wider consolidation of corporate capitalism and the use of guardianships and insanity to punish unconventional women in the early twentieth century.

With the clarity of a physicist and the compassion of a gifted healer with fifteen years of professional experience observing 5,000 clients and students, Barbara Ann Brennan presents the first in-depth study of the human energy field for people who seek happiness, health and their full potential. Our physical bodies exist within a larger "body," a human energy field or aura, which is the vehicle through which we create our experience of reality, including health and illness. It is through this energy field that we have the power to heal ourselves. This energy body -- only recently verified by scientists, but long known to healers and mystics -- is the starting point of all illness. Here, our most powerful and profound human interactions take place, the precursor and healer of all physiological and emotional disturbances. Hands of Light is your guide to a new wholeness. It offers: • A new paradigm for the human, in health, relationship, and disease • An understanding of how the human energy field looks, functions, is disturbed, healed, and interacts with friends and lovers. • Training in the ability to see and interpret auras • Medically verified case studies of healing people from all walks of life with a variety of illnesses. • Guidelines for healing the self and others. • The author's personal and intriguing life adventure which gives us a model for growth, courage and possibilities for expanded consciousness

Within each of us there is a core discovery that needs to be made if we are going to become well. In a direct yet compassionate style, Misa Hopkins reveals the reason so many of us dont get welleven though we have tried a variety of treatments and solutions. There is a growing acknowledgement in contemporary spiritual thought that we are the creators of our own reality, including our health. Hopkins shares real-life stories demonstrating that healing is not just the result of finding the right cure, but rather a personal opportunity to create wellness by engaging the sacred flow of Divine consciousness. Without promoting any particular healing methodology or spiritual practice, she provides us with simple stepsa guidebookfor accessing the healing power and wisdom that already lives inside. Hopkins candidly takes us into the successes of her own healing as she uncovered and transformed secret needs being met through her life-challenging illnesses. She shows us how illness can actually meet profound subconscious emotional needs, causing us to remain sick, and then she teaches us how to invite our subconscious worlds into alignment with our conscious desires. The result of this alignment is the ultimate root of all healinga new level of our own Divine awareness and power awakened. "If everyone seeking medical and holistic help read this and addressed the hidden barriers to healing, they would get healthier faster and with less struggle. I want all my patients to have this book!" Valerie Olmsted, NMD, Host of The Enlightened Medicine Show Misa, after witnessing the results of your healing steps several times in my life and in the lives of clients youve helped, I know miracles can be created. Kevin Hooey, Transformational Coach This book is absolutely brilliant! Misa puts important concepts together in a way that makes you go...Oh I get it! It's a first aid handbook for the new 21st century consciousness. Cheryl McDaniel, LPN The 7 steps provide practical ways any of us can develop grass roots self-mastery in our journey of Divine awareness and healing. John Brown, Minister I have fewer migraines, less back pain, and sleep better! I am so much more upbeat and happy; trusting myself and my process, and enjoying ordinary life now! Arleahnna, Spiritual Healer