Abstract
Maginley's Beyond Surviving is a moving account of the hope, courage, love, and authenticity he witnessed in his years of supporting persons living with advanced cancer. The writer has drawn from a unique vantage point and a deep well of experience: a blend of disciplinary knowledge as a trained chaplain, a practitioner of energy healing, and his lived experience as a four-time cancer survivor. Maginley communicates through the language of science, the language of spirituality, and the language of lived experience.
Through this book he highlights the power of harnessing the wisdom of grief, love, and mortality to move beyond surviving cancer. He reveals the possibilities for spiritual growth and deep meaning that can accompany a cancer journey and the dying experience.
The 226-page paperback is divided into four sections, each portraying a different dimension of a cancer journey: cancer as dangerous, healing, transformative, and even, of ending well. Each section opens with a description of the author's own diagnosis and recurrence experience of a paraganglioma, a high-risk tumor that is usually benign, but not so for Maginley. His cancer journey began at 17 years of age, with recurrences at three more junctures in his life, each involving high levels of hazard and uncertainty. His lived experiences never monopolize the book, neither lingering nor belaboring his story. Rather, he transfers the focus to universal challenges at the end of life: finding meaning, seeking wisdom, and reconciling with self and others.
This book is not a page-turner and should not be devoured in one sitting. Rather, it is best approached with a focused and receptive mind to savor the delicate gems of language, insight, and powerful human stories.
In the first of the 19 chapters, we glimpse the practice of a chaplain serving people living with cancer; that glimpse reveals connections that are poignant, wise, and tender. He writes, “a sorrow shared is half as heavy” (p. 44). Every chapter illustrates the healing powers of spirit, of hope, and compassion amid the struggles that form part of the journey. Chapter 12 is the most didactic. Maginley purports that humans have not only physical anatomy but also a spiritual or energetic anatomy. He leads us through a description of the origins and development of the study of energetic anatomy. He is well grounded in the growing body of knowledge on bioenergetics energy and specifically, of Therapeutic Touch, a practice of ancient wisdom of the body's energy field. He illustrates this point with examples from his practice.
Chapters 16 and 17 address the phenomenon of Near Death Experiences (NDEs), having witnessed those of others' and his own. He introduces this topic with the sentence, “It was, fortunately, in a hospital chapel that I died” (p. 174). He articulates alternative biochemical, neurological, and psychological explanations for NDEs. He describes their impact on persons who have lived the experience. We learn about the clarity and intensity with which people remember their experience; a clarity and intensity that seldom fades. Maginley describes people who have had an NDE as “modern pilgrims who have grazed the edge of immortality” (p. 189). People who in ancient times would be viewed as shamans or seers, now tend to “quietly carry their secret, odd ducks in a skeptical world” (p. 189).
Maginley concludes with a short epilogue providing an update of seven of his case examples. We learn that they are thriving, enjoying More Time, and savoring the More Time they have. He shares that it is “a profound comfort” to reconnect with these individuals months and years later and discover they are still enjoying life. As a reader it is a profound comfort to know there are professionals as knowledgeable and as committed as Maginley to help us explore possibilities of growth, wisdom, love, and authenticity to take us beyond surviving.
Beyond Surviving received the 2017 Silver Nautilus Book Award and is available online on Amazon and Indigo.