A Case for Looking: Bridging the Technical and the Spiritual

Working for cancer imaging scientists while separately supporting cancer patients with counseling and meditation while they underwent their treatment, the author observed the many clinical benefits of meditation for patients. Noticing that the stabilizing effect of meditation on the patient’s condition was being used for support during periods of conventional cancer treatment, but not in itself being studied scientifically, the author was prompted to write up this “case for looking”. The author takes the reader through a full discussion of observations and ideas to build the case for implementing scientific investigation of the effects of meditation on the body’s cells, as practiced by cancer patients in support of their treatments. This is a must read for anyone who has undergone, or supported someone undergoing, cancer treatment and would like to see medical science move forward in the direction of expanding our understanding of the effects of meditation on the body, to improve the experience of cancer treatment.

An imaginative, innovative, and fact-based exposition of the many reasons why scientific validation studies should be implemented for the effects of meditation on the body’s cells, as practiced by cancer patients in support of their treatments. Based upon real patient case experiences and drawing observations from a 26-year private practice as a counselor supporting cancer patients undergoing conventional cancer treatment, the author builds the case for further investigation. With this anticipated validation, a new specialty of conventional medicine is proposed that can research and develop the combined effectiveness of co-applying conventional cancer treatment modalities of surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, cancer drugs, and immune therapy together with applied meditation, and energy-based techniques in new, innovative treatment protocols, to shorten and optimize harsh, and hard-to-endure, cell-destructive treatment phases, and stimulate earlier implementation of cell-stimulating phases. Woven into the discussion are facts about current cancer treatments, use of meditation and related techniques, historical yogic background information about meditation, and recent scientific imaging studies of meditation-induced effects to the brain. The ‘case’ concludes with a summary of potential clinical investigations, and imaging instrumentation development, that could theoretically take place to help usher in a future new specialty of conventional medicine that intertwines existing fields of psychology, radiology, oncology, Chinese medicine, and spiritual practice. Recommended for i) students of medicine, engineering, and the biosciences who plan to work in the fields of cancer treatment and the imaging sciences; ii) students of meditation, healing arts, and spiritual studies who wish to integrate their work with conventional medicine.

Judy Schwimmer, MBA, MA, works on staff for cancer imaging scientists helping with editing of publications and grants. She is also a trained counselor and an experienced long-term meditator, who has assisted cancer patients in support of their conventional treatments. Eager to bridge these areas, and improve the cancer treatment experience for everyone, she has written and self-published this first book of ideas and observations for investigation. Judy and her husband, Dennis, reside in West Los Angeles, California.