FOREWORD<br > As this century winds down， medicine as we know it is<br >being redefined. This may be inapparent to those persons<br >within and without the profession who remain focused on<br >the traditional concepts of disease and therapy. But for those<br >who can catch the main drifts， it is clear that ou r medical world<br >can never be the same. It is not， and can never be， business<br >as usual.<br > This work by Shealy and Myss is a part of the emerging<br >model of humans. If there is a single， dominant feature of<br >this new view， it is this: consciousness-whatever we may<br >mean by that term-matters. It matters greatly~ not just in<br >trivial， relatively inconsequential ways， as many psychosomatic<br >theorists have maintained. It is no exaggeration to say that<br >one s state of mind not only contributes to health and illness;<br >it can be a matter of life and death.<br > This fact is most vividly dramatized in the area of cardio-<br >vascular medicine， where life-threatening events can occur<br >within seconds. In other areas the effects of the mind work<br >more slowly-as in the immune system， which is the territory<br >being explored by Shealy and Myss. Because of the larger time<br >scales involved， which may be on the order of months or even<br >years， and because， also， of the astounding number of in-<br >termediary variables involved， such as whole families of im-<br > mune cells， microorganisms， antigens and antibodies， and<br > hormones， the effects of the human mind may seem dwarfed<br > or completely overshadowed. But they are there if we look<br > in astute ways. And in immune-related disorders the effects<br > of mind， too， may be a matter of life or death.<br >