Medicine, Miracles, and Manifestations: A Doctor’s Journey Through the Worlds of Divine Intervention, Near-Death Experiences and Universal Energy is a nonfiction narrative about the surgical career and spiritual quest of Dr. John L. Turner and his evolutionary journey into the field of Integral Medicine. After graduating from the Ohio State University with a degree in engineering physics, Dr. Turner continued in graduate school at the Ohio State University, Department of Physics.

Three years into the PhD program, he was given a book about Edgar Cayce, The Sleeping Prophet. This changed the course of his life! He was excited about the existence of a spiritual world and made immediate plans to attend the Ohio State University’s College of Medicine where he earned his M.D. He completed his internship year in general surgery and his first year neurosurgical residency at Ohio State University. He completed the remaining four years of neurosurgical training at The Cleveland Clinic Foundation.

For eighteen years, he served as the sole neurosurgeon on the island of Hawai’i, initially performing lifesaving procedures with a marginally trained staff and substandard equipment. By all measures, John L. Turner is a surgeon with classic western medical credentials. From his first day on call in Hilo, Hawai’i, metaphysical events appeared for his edification and continue to the present day.

Over the past ten years, the field of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) has generated excitement as the next major source for improved better health care delivery. The aim of CAM (or Integral Medicine) is: “To use a complete and as comprehensive as possible approach in treating any illness . . .” This requires the practitioner to use many modes of inquiry to carry out the healing task. These modalities are grounded in empirical research and relate to models of human psychology, consciousness, subconsciousness, alternative medicine and Eastern healing therapies.

In a book entitled Mind, Body and Health: Toward an Integral Medicine by James Gordon, Dennis Jaffe and David Bresler (1984), the authors called on health professionals to “consider the possibility of a universal life force as manifested mentally, physically and spiritually, which is benevolent and at the ground of human development and healing.” In Medicine, Miracles, and Manifestations, Dr. Turner encounters this universal life force in a variety of nontraditional healing modalities.

During his career as a surgeon, Dr.Turner’s curiosity drove him to explore several nontraditional healing modalities that broadened the scope of recovery for his patients. These new techniques included the practice of Johrei (the healing art of Japan), chanting and meditation (approaches found in all religious practices throughout history), soul travel and astral projection (as espoused by Eckankar, Robert Bruce and others), and precognition/remote viewing (as developed by Hal Puthoff, Ingo Swann and Russell Targ at the Stanford Research Institute).

Medicine, Miracles, and Manifestations, is the twenty-year story of Dr. Turner’s contributions to the field of neurosurgery through Integral Medicine. The concept of Integral Medicine has been written about by notable members of the medical community, including Andrew Weil, Larry Dossey, Deepak Chopra, Mehmet Oz and Dean Ornish. Each of these writers is a physician who specializes in internal medicine. What makes John Turner similar to these writers is that he, too, is a physician. What makes him different from these writers is that he is a neurosurgeon. In fact, he is the only brain surgeon to write of medicine from this perspective: hand’s on use of complementary techniques prior to, during and after surgery, and exploration of pathways that lead to the spiritual world.