Asklepios was the gentle Greek god of healing. Like Christ, he was said to have walked the earth performing miracle cures. His medicine was practiced by priests known as "therapeutes" (the first "therapists") who interpreted patients' dreams in which the god gave advice The results, as documented in literature and in thousands of ancient testimonies, reveal the root of modern medical science and psychotherapy. In this classic work, psychotherapist and Greek scholar Dr. Edward Tick explores the god as an archetype of the divine physcian symbolizing the Self. What he discovers restores the foundation for a truly holistic medicine. First he transports us through myth and history on an imaginal pilgrimage based on his journeys with patients to ancient Greek healing sites, where they recreate the dream incubation ceremonies once held in Asklepian temples. Then from case studies he crafts practical methods that today's healing professionals and lay readers can use anywhere, with or without the help of specialists. His radical model shows how consulting rooms, hospitals, and any place of rest can become sanctuaries for the recovery of the whole person.

The modern practice of medicine and psychology grew out of the ancient Greek healing tradition, said to be founded by Asklepios, god of healing and dreams. For two thousand years the system spread all over the Mediterranean world and planted the roots of Western medicine and psychology by offering ritual and holistic practices that recognized that healing begins at the soul level. Yet, since that time, the spiritually based practices were cast aside, leaving behind only the scientific medical techniques that dominate healthcare today. Resurrecting and restoring the sacred, mythological, and cultural origins of medicine and psychotherapy, Edward Tick, Ph.D., explores the soul-healing practices missing in our contemporary health systems. He looks at the dream incubation tradition of Asklepios, sacred theatre of Dionysos, oracle gifting of Apollo, special practices of warriors, and their roots in Neolithic shamanism and indigenous traditions. Demonstrating the ritual use of dreams, visions, oracles, synchronicities, and pilgrimage for healing and connecting to the transpersonal and divine, he explains how dream incubation is a technique where you plant a seed for a specific healing or growth goal in order to facilitate dreaming and work toward soul restoration. Using both ancient wisdom and modern depth psychology alongside stories of healings from his more than 25 years of guiding Greek pilgrimages, Tick explores how we can use ancient healing philosophies and practices to achieve holistic healing today. He examines the interaction between mind and body (psyche and soma) and between physical illness and the soul. He explains the art of making accurate and holistic interpretations of signs, symbols, and symptoms to determine what they reveal about the soul. Showing how dreams and other transpersonal experiences are essential components of soul medicine, the author reveals how restoration of the soul facilitates true healing.

Seeking the most powerful healing practices to address the invisible wounds of war, Dr. Ed Tick has led journeys to Vietnam for veterans, survivors, activists, and pilgrims for the past twenty years. This moving and revelatory collection documents the people, places, and experiences on these journeys. It illuminates the soul-searching and healing that occurs when Vietnamese women and children and veterans of every faction of the "American War" gather together to share storytelling and ritual, grieving, reconciliation, and atonement. These poems reveal war's aftermath for Vietnamese and Americans alike and their return to peace, healing, and belonging in the very land torn by war's horrors.