About the Author:
EMMA BRAGDON, Ph.D.

It seems Emma Bragdon was destined to bridge conventional medicine with metaphysics and healing.

Bragdon’s mother was a nurse and her father was a prominent physician who taught at Harvard Medical School and did research for the National Institutes of Health. Conversations about health were firmly grounded in the highly respected “medical model.” However, another side of life presented itself. At age 7, Bragdon had a near-death experience. This helped her identify with the spiritual self that transcends the limitations of the physical body. Her lifelong interest in metaphysics was also quietly encouraged by two of her aunts, both intellectuals exploring parapsychology.

As a young woman, Bragdon lived in a Zen Buddhist monastic community for four years, meditating for 12 or more hours each day, under the guidance of Suzuki Roshi. This meditation practice was fertile ground for more intense spiritual experiences. The perspectives Bragdon gained about the inner world of mind and spirit during this time greatly informed her later work as a teacher, licensed psychotherapist, and researcher.

After earning a doctorate in Psychology, Bragdon devoted her life to the emerging field of “complementary” and “alternative” health. Her background had prepared her well to merge conventional medical practices with health protocols that attend to body, mind, and spirit. Since 1990, Bragdon has taught nine-day intensive experiential workshops in spiritual evolution around the world. Dr. Bragdon was the editor of the Spiritual Emergence Network Journal and worked for the Spiritual Emergence Network for seven years. She is a founding member of the “Catalyst Council,” and associated with the National Foundation for Alternative Medicine.

In early 2001, while in Brazil, Bragdon visited John of God, an extraordinary healer in the “Spiritist” tradition, a popular form of alternative healing in that country. Bragdon’s latest book, Spiritual Alliances: Discovering the Roots of Health at the Case de Dom Inacio (Lightening Up Press, 2003) explores John’s Spiritist healing and the promise it offers to Western medicine. Noted physicians from around the world endorse John of God’s work as well as Bragdon’s book.

Bragdon is the author of numerous articles and two other books including A Sourcebook for Helping People with Spiritual Problems (Lightening Up Press, 1988), and The Call of Spiritual Emergency: From Personal Crisis to Personal Transformation, (HarperSanFrancisco, 1990.)

Dr. Bragdon is the mother of one adult son. Although her home office is in central Vermont, she travels frequently, doing research for forth-coming books and documentary films on resources for healing in Brazil. For more information, please visit www.spiritualalliances.com.

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