“A powerful journey … incredible value for anyone who reads this marvelous piece of work!” —Michael Brickman, CEO, Alternative Health Partners Inc. “The reader’s mind and heart will be engaged and moved by the life-affirming narratives unfolding in this book. Superbly written, it is grounded in scholarly research protocol and enlivened by deep understanding. This inspired account is of value to scholars, clergy, laity, and all who wrestle with the problem of meaning.” —Dr. Frances Kostarelos, Professor, Anthropology and Political and Justice Studies Governors State University Can illness be a gift? It can be a part of life’s great journey. Genuine healing transcends the elimination of illness. Viewed as an opportunity to grow, we learn how to bring our lives back into balance and realize our true potential. Illness can force us to explore the meaning and purpose of our lives, and our relationships. It can lead us to examine our own mortality, what we have become, and how we wish others to remember us. It can guide us to understand how the many other events of our lives can move us into healing, While cancer, AIDS, and other life-threatening diseases have facilitated many to transform their lives, for each of us, life itself—and all our illnesses—can be the great journey into healing; the greatest journey we’ll ever take. The great transformation from an unexamined life bound by the pain of separation from others, into the awareness that one’s essence connects with all others in the unity of spirit, is the gift of life. Illness can be a vehicle to get us there. All the people described in these pages took that journey. From their accounts we learn how they were transformed, and how they came to accept their illnesses as gifts.