Reiki: The Essential Guide to the Ancient Healing Art Review

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(More customer reviews)The information in this book is absolutely fantastic. It has 14 chapters which cover: 1) What is Reiki?, 2) The History of the Usui System of Reiki, 3) How Reiki differs from other healing methods, 4) Reiki for personal healing, 5) Reiki Treatments, 6) Combining Reiki with other methods of healing, 7) Other ways of using Reiki, 8) Reiki with chronic illness, 9) Reiki for self-development and spiritual growth, 10) The First Degree class, 11) The Second Degree class, 12) The Third Degree or Master's Training, 13) How to find a Reiki Master 14) Becoming a Reiki Practitioner.
My favorite parts of this book is the best quality and largest photo of Dr. Usui which gives true meaning to the saying "A picture is worth a thousand words." The section about when not to use Reiki (don't give after a pre-operative anaesthetic has been administered or during an operation. And much more info I'll need to know as a nurse.) Also, I learned "If a person is suffering from a particularly severe complaint, it might be wiser to avoid the problem area completely for the time being, allowing the energy to flow through from the other areas and reabalance the system in that way." Unfortunately I learned this after the fact of touching the upper arm of my pastor who had rotator cuff surgery. I had to stop because he was so tense me getting anywhere near his shoulder. Also I should have asked first if I could do Reiki which I also learned in this book. There is just a world of information inside! My very favorite part I will write out as it is only a paragraph on page 72 but I've used it and it is so powerful I can hardly believe it!
"Using Reiki to Balance the Chakras: Sitting in a chair, place one hand on the forehead and one on the back of the neck. Then place both hands on the shoulders. After this, place one hand on the chest and one on the back. Next, place one hand on the solar plexus and one hand on the corresponding position on the back. Finally place one hand on the abdomen and one hand on the tailbone. This short treatment will balance the chakras effectively."
Note: I did this exercise [above] as a first level healer and it worked just as strong as where I am now at second level! It really works! Try it after having/viewing an attunement. A good attunement dvd I recommend is the Reiki: First level attunement by Steve Murray offered here at Amazon. o8E
Soar!

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Reiki is a Japanese word meaning Universal Life Force Energy. Drawing on ancient practices, Reiki balances the energy in the body, renewing vitality and bringing about a powerful feeling of serenity and relaxation through the laying on of hands. Reiki can be used to relieve the problems associated with stress, tension, chronic illness and post-operative pain. In this revised and updated edition, Chris and Penny Parkes explain what to expect from a treatment, how it works and how it can be of benefit—and even show how you too can train to practice Reiki.

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Informed Touch: A Clinician's Guide to Evaluation and Treatment of Myofascial Disorders Review

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(More customer reviews)I am a massage therapist, who does deep tissue, sports and medical massage. I find this book to be a great guide. It is not as complete as the Janet Travell manuels, but it covers the main points of pain.

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A clinical reference manual for the evaluation and treatment of muscle pain.
' Detailed color illustrations of pain patterns and trigger-point locations.

' First accessible reference manual for acupuncturists, chiropractors, osteopaths, and physical, occupational, and massage therapists.

In this easy-to-use guide to the treatment of muscle pain, medical educators Steven and Donna Finando present evaluation and palpation techniques for reducing trigger points--and thereby alleviating pain--in the most clinically significant musculature of the body. A "user's manual" for health care practitioners, Informed Touch examines a wide range of pain patterns and their treatment. Introductory chapters include discussion of the oriental medicine concept of Qi and its relationship to myology, information on trigger point location and activation, and palpatory skill-building techniques. Detailed information on each muscle, including pain-pattern and trigger-point illustrations and specific palpation instructions, allows clinicians to locate specific areas quickly and accurately. A visual index, showing reduced versions of the pain-pattern illustrations, makes it easy for clinicians to identify the muscles that may be involved in a patient's complaint. Informed Touch answers the reference needs of the growing community of physical and occupational therapists, acupuncturists, chiropractors, osteopaths, and massage therapists.

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Gastrointestinal Oncology Review

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(More customer reviews)I am a gastroenterologist practicing in Japan. In this country, the specific book such as "Gastrointestinal Oncology" is very rare. This book is very well written in the field of gastrointestinal cancer. I had learned and enjoyed it. The shortcoming is the references are a little bit old. I'm looking forward to the revised edition.

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Biomechanics: Principles and Applications, Second Edition Review

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(More customer reviews)Compiled and co-edited by Donald R. Peterson (University of Connecticut Health Center, Biodynamics Laboratory, farming, Connecticut) and Joseph D. Bronzino (recipient of the Millennium Award from IEEE/EMBS in 2000 and the Gaddard Award from Worcester Polytechnic Institute for Professional Achievement in June 2004), "Biomechanics: Principles And Applications" is a collection of twenty informed and informative articles on various aspects of, and researches into, the science of biomechanics. The contributors address everything from applications on system-level aspects of the human body (the musculoskeletal system, auditory system, lymphatic system, the cardiovascular system), to biological sub-systems (tissues, cells, molecules). Drawn from the third edition of the "Biomedical Engineering Handbook", these seminal articles introduce current methods and strategies for modeling cellular mechanices, present topics in biofluid mechanics, feature more than 140 illustrations and 60 tables, and provide a number of useful equations to assist in modeling biomechanical behaviors. A volume of truly impressive scholarship, "Biomechanics: Principles And Applications" should be a core acquisition selection for every academic library reference collection on the subject, as well as on the supplemental reading lists for students of Biomechanical Engineering.

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Traditionally, applications of biomechanics will model system-level aspects of the human body. As a result, the majority of technological progress to date appears in system-level device development. More recently, biomechanical initiatives are investigating biological sub-systems such as tissues, cells, and molecules. Fueled by advances in experimental methods and instrumentation, these initiatives, in turn, directly drive the development of biological nano- and microtechnologies.
A complete, concise reference, Biomechanics integrates coverage of system and sub-system models, to enhance overall understanding of human function and performance and open the way for new discoveries. Drawn from the third edition of the widely acclaimed and bestsellingThe Biomedical Engineering Handbook, this is a comprehensive, state-of-the-science resource concerning the principles and applications of biomechanics at every level. The book presents substantial updates and revisions from the Handbook's previous editions, as well as an entirely new chapter introducing current methods and strategies for modeling cellular mechanics. Organized in a systematic manner, the book begins with coverage of musculoskeletal mechanics including hard- and soft tissue and joint mechanics and their applications to human function. Contributions explore several aspects of biofluid mechanics and cover a wide range of circulatory dynamics such as blood vessel and blood cell mechanics and transport.
Other topics include the mechanical functions and significance of the human ear and the performance characteristics of the human body during exercise and exertion. The book contains more than 140 illustrations, 60 tables, and a variety of useful equations to assist in modeling biomechanical behaviors. Incorporating material across the breadth of the field, Biomechanics is a complete, concise reference for the skilled professional as well as an introduction to the novice or student of biomedical engineering.

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Coarticulation: Theory, Data and Techniques (Cambridge Studies in Speech Science and Communication) Review

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(More customer reviews)Because this is a collection of papers by different authors, quality and style vary from chapter to chapter, but there are few wasted words, and hardly a sentence without a kernel idea worth taking the time to understand. On the other hand, it is a difficult and demanding book to read cover to cover, and most readers will probably prefer to focus on areas of particular personal interest rather than tackling the whole volume at one go.
Chapter 1, entitled "The origin of coarticulation", discusses what causes coarticulation, a history of the investigation of coarticulation, and how coarticulation develops in children¡¦s speech. A series of coarticulatory models is reviewed, including Lindblom's 'target undershoot' model of the 1960s (p. 16), Oehman's observation that two vowels interact with each other across intervening stops (p. 17), Wickelgren's idea that we store not phonemes in our brains but collections of context-sensitive allophones (p. 18), up to Keating's 'window' model of the 1980s (p. 21), in which every feature of a segment is associated with a range of values rather than an absolute target.
Part II is entitled "Research results: components of the motor system for speech". Each chapter features a key articulatory organ or organ complex: the velopharyngeal complex, the tongue, the larynx, the lips, and the lips and jaws.
Part III provides a home, under the catch-all classification of "Wider perspectives", for two chapters that did not quite fit elsewhere, "Cross-language studies on articulation" and "Implications for phonological theory".
The chapters of part IV, "Instrumental Techniques", report on the state of the art of various specialized methods and instruments for performing articulatory and acoustic measurements. The methods presented are: palatography, X-ray, computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ultrasound, electromagnetic articulography (EMMA), electromyography, transducers for investigating velopharyngeal function (including aerometry, electromyography, various acoustic methods, radiography, endoscopy, photodetection, various mechanical devices, ultrasound, MRI, and EMMA), and techniques for investigating laryngeal articulation (including fibreoptic endoscopy, transillumination, electromyography, pulse-echo ultrasound, acoustic analysis with inverse filtering, glottography, and the Sondhi tube).
The final chapter of the book addresses use of the spectrograph and other acoustic tools in studying coarticulatory phenomena. This chapter gives examples of how to do acoustic analysis of formant transitions, the stable portion of a vowel, stop release, fricative noise, nasals, liquids and glides, voicing and tone, and duration and intensity. This is a laudable beginning, but there is room for much more to be done in this area.
While this book is overall very tight in structure and rich in content, it is not by any means the do-all, end-all work on coarticulation. There are a number of areas not covered in this book that I would like to have seen, and hope to see in future works, such as: what really happens between *words* in running discourse?
This book is a good beginning of more serious and concentrated work on coarticulatory phenomena than has previously been seen. Hopefully many more such studies will follow.

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Coarticulation means the overlapping gestures that occur during the pronunciation of any sequence of speech sounds. This topic in the science of phonetics provides a challenge to speech production theory as well as to various projects in the field of speech technology, including that of building a natural sounding speech synthesizer. The eighteen chapters in this book cover the experimental techniques used for investigating the phenomenon, the experimental findings to date, and the theoretical background.

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Fat History: Bodies and Beauty in the Modern West Review

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(More customer reviews)There are very few books on the history of our cultural obsession with weight and/or with "weight bigotry" in the U.S. When did it start? Why? How did it get so vehement? So an attempt at perspective is definitely welcome.
Stearns reports that before the 1890s, plumpness was preferred, and signals began to change only as fashions, fat-control devices, and increased public comment on fat began to emerge in the decade prior to 1900.
After that, the trend grew and intensified over an entire century. Stearns sees this growing obsession as a "compensation" for our indulgence in other pleasures about which we are ambivalent--consumerism, sex, women's freedom. As long as we demonstrate strict discipline about our body size as a kind of puritanical guilt-laden compensation, we can allow ourselves these other indulgent, consumerist pleasures.

Stearns likens the vehemence of fat hatred to Calvinism: only the elect (thin) are "saved," glorified through "salvation" stories of heroic weight loss, and rewarded with welcome entry to the cultural pleasures now available. Those who fail or refuse to measure up to the strict standards of slenderness are punished by being relegated to "fat hell" where open season--in the form of attacks and endless analyses of moral failings, character flaws, and psychological weaknesses--is allowed, imprisoning the recalcitrants in the consequences of their supposedly deplorable lack of self-discipline. Clothes, love, and the good life are not to be theirs.
By way of contrast, the French, who have equally strict standards of slenderness, are committed not to compensation for other pleasures but to high aesthetic standards of beauty. In France, fat is not an indication of moral or psychological weakness but is simply an offense against beauty--fat is just ugly. Divergence from the norm is not considered blameworthy but is assumed to be remedied fairly easily with a little restraint and maybe some reducing creams. With a little work, no one *need* be ugly. It is, therefore, the personal responsibility of each individual to make those moderate efforts and meet the beauty standards amidst an environment of reminders and encouragement.
The result? Both patterns are oppressive, unrelenting, and rigid, but the French are 14 pounds lighter on average and weight in France has been declining rather than increasing.
Stearns does not see that historical French patterns or approaches can be adopted in the U.S. However, he notes that merely recognizing another, different pattern opens the door for reconsideration of U.S. attitudes. Those attitudes were shaped over a century; they can also be reshaped.
Stearns believes that we place too much responsibility on individuals for what are, essentially, social issues. To require everyone to immerse themselves in personal battles against weight while indulgence and excess in all other areas remains unaddressed in the public arena seems not only unfair but unbalanced. Basically, Stearns hopes we will lighten up a little on individual weight issues and look more seriously at larger cultural indulgences.
Simply for the effort to bring historical perspective to the issue, the book gets four stars. But it is sometimes a frustrating read. It is fraught with equivocations and reminders that many factors are at play, all of which preclude crispness. It is not until the very end that clarity begins to emerge from the discussion.
And finally, it describes the scene without benefit of factors that could, conceivably, change all the rules and the analysis as it relates to new trends. If, as research is increasingly showing, fat and related major diseases are common in cultures based on animal-based diets and uncommon in cultures based on plant-based diets, the emphasis shifts from "how much" one is eating to "what" one is eating; from "restraint" to "plenty" without weight gain.
Such a major shift in our understanding of food, nutrition, disease, body weight, and nutrition medicine would shift blame from individuals to a diet that we thought served us but in fact did not. This would chart a very different course--and analysis--for the new century.

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Lawyers on Trial: Understanding Ethical Misconduct Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a major and independent examination of attorney ethics and enforcement. It should be part of the curriculum of law school legal responsibility courses, and is also interesting enough for lay readers. Abel lives up to his name, and has an important contribution to the field here.


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Lawyer misconduct affects many people: clients, adversaries, opposing counsel, judges, the legal profession, and society at large. The records of disciplinary proceedings offer a penetrating, and largely ignored, perspective on how lawyers misbehave. Because the lawyers' professional lives are at stake, the factual records are extraordinarily detailed and the lawyers surprisingly open about their motivations and justifications.In Lawyers on Trial, Richard L. Abel presents the stories of ten California lawyers who broke the rules: hiring an ex-cop to chase ambulances, flouting fee limitations in medical malpractice cases, creating a fictitious company and impersonating non-existent people in order to appropriate Sega's computer games, a former California Real Estate Commissioner defrauding developers and financiers, helping a represented co-defendant negotiate a plea without his lawyer's participation or knowledge, and defying a judge's sealing order and his own client's wishes for closure in order to champion the "defenseless" and "oppressed" and protect "widows and children." The book begins by showing how nearly a century of political struggle over self-regulation shapes the way the disciplinary system selects and processes cases and concludes by canvassing reforms that could improve the performance of the legal profession.Lawyers on Trial will be invaluable for those contemplating law school, law students and teachers of professional responsibility, continuing legal education classes, lawyers encountering ethical dilemmas in their practice or trying to understand misbehaving colleagues, members of the public thinking of retaining a lawyer, and clients dealing with their own lawyers.

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