Dr. Gladys T. McGarey and Living Medicine

After reading "Patient, heal thyself" in this month issue of ODE I find it absolutely necessary to tell you about Dr. Gladys T. McGarey, age 86. She was born in India of American missionary parents. She was one of the first women in the U.S. in the early 30s to study allopathic medicine, something not at all well received by the male oriented American Medical Association. Years of practice, spiritual belief, studies from the Edgar Cayce works, and what she learned living in India taught Dr. Gladys what medical schools could not.

For over 60 years of practice she taught her patients about the physician within each of them, something the AMA was not at all enthralled with. She was accused of practicing witchery, she was ridiculed, it took many years for Dr. Gladys to finally take the bull by the horns; pioneering holistic approaches to chronic medical conditions was not enough, the birth of the American Holistic Medical Association took place and became a natural passage to what Dr. Gladys now calls Living Medicine.

The work of this woman continues, spending time and treating children of lepers in India, in homes founded by her family. A few years ago she brought Living Medicine to the women of rural Afghanistan, a task that took courage, a daring spirit and the necessary humor and no fear to ask those in charge in various tribal villages for the permission to teach women about a kind of medicine that would not interfere with religion or tradition yet could enhance lives. For more information, contact the McGarey Foundation. www.mcgareyfoundation.com