Soul balm soothes bodily and spiritual health

Thomas Moore will speak Tuesday, May 9, 2006 at the one-day conference "Spirituality and Healing: Creating a Healing Environment for the Mind, Body and Spirit," sponsored by Baystate Health's Department of Spiritual Services and the Department of Continuing Education. It will be held at the Log Cabin Banquet and Meeting House, 500 Easthampton Rd., Holyoke, MA.

At 8:40 a.m. Moore is scheduled to talk about "Creating a Healing Environment for the Body, Soul and Spirit," and at 11 a.m., will continue with "Treating the Whole person and Creating a Healing Environment."

In a recent interview with Ronni Gordon, reported in The Republican on Thursday 4 May, Moore said that all of his work is about the soul: “Spiritual needs have to do with what religion usually covers. The soul aspect, these things are more ordinary," he told Gordon. "It has to do with the emotional life, families, the need to have a sense of home." According to Gordon, Moore continued, "Part of the realm of the soul is to be connected to people and not so remote, to not treat people as machines."

Moore shared the story of his own mother’s death. It was difficult for his family to get information about her prognosis, and although his brother managed to talk to a distracted doctor doing her rounds early one morning, Mrs. Moore died soon after.