Healing Into Immortality. A Tribute to Dr. Gerald Epstein

In 1993, someone handed me a book titled “Healing Visualizations” by Dr. Gerald Epstein, and when I looked up the imagery for healing asthma, I was shocked as it was titled Exorcism. I wondered if becoming Linda Blair and having to spit out green phlegm was the answer to heal my own asthma. So naturally, I picked up the phone and called him and was surprised when he, the author and psychiatrist, answered the phone.

During my initial lengthy conversation and inquiry about his training and education he asked me, “Do you want to heal from asthma, or just keep asking me about my credentials?”

This was the introduction to Dr. Epstein that launched my 30 year journey into the healing arts. Between this first session, 10 years of study at the American Institute of Mental Imagery with Dr. Epstein and three trips to Jerusalem to study with his teacher Colette, my thoughts, beliefs, and practice about healing (myself and others) and living changed forever. He was even gracious enough to write the forward for my book Asthma Free in 21 Days.

I am saddened by his death, but will be forever grateful to him for his time and teachings, and the love shared by him and his wife Rachel. His philosophy and teachings live on as we all inquire about “Healing into Immortality”.

Gerald N. Epstein, MD, was one of the foremost practitioners of integrative healthcare for healing and transformation. Trained as a Freudian analyst, he abandoned this direction in 1974 to study therapeutic uses of the imagination under the guidance of Madame Colette Aboulker–Muscat in Jerusalem. Dr. Epstein has taught and lectured throughout the U.S. and the world. He has appeared on and been featured in/on national television, nationally syndicated radio shows, magazines, newspapers and websites, and new this year, social media (Facebook, Twitter, You Tube).

Dr. Epstein was an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Mt. Sinai Medical Center and taught at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. He continued to train health care practitioners in his GEMS model privately and at his American Institute of Mental Imagery (AIMI) until his recent passing.

Dr. Epstein has been a pioneer in the use of mental imagery for treating physical and emotional problems. As his work evolved over the years, he has become a leading exponent of the Western spiritual tradition and its application to healing and therapeutics. He and Dr. Elizabeth Barrett launched the Power Imagery Process (PIP), an online program and corporate workshop for self-development and change. He also founded a New York-based adult education center to introduce the public to dream reading, group imagery process, the art of relationships, morphology, the sources of illness and remedies for them, Western spiritual medicine and other areas.