What happens when you put a world-famous environmentalist, a renowned neuroscientist, and a consummate holistic practitioner together on the same stage, and ask them to speak from the heart? In other words, what happens when David Suzuki, Candace Pert, and Norm Shealy stand up and share a common vision of healing?

That's a tall question, but it's one that was answered on the evening of May 25th, 2007, at the Royal Theatre in Victoria. On that evening, I had the honour and privilege of  introducing these three internationally admired and respected leaders to an obviously enthusiastic audience. And then they worked their magic. They distilled decades of scientific exploration, worldly experience, and profound reflection into a presentation entitled "Healing the Planet, Healing Ourselves."

David Suzuki is Canada's pre-eminent environmental scientist. From a childhood immersed in natural lore, through a long and distinguished career as one of the world's leading geneticists, to several decades as host of the CBC Television's world-famous science program, "The Nature of Things," David Suzuki has delighted and intrigued tens of millions of people around the world. He is a lucid and principled writer and speaker on every matter scientific and environmental– and many others besides. More than any other Canadian, Suzuki has championed the essential role of Mother Earth in our lives, and brought our attention again and again to the vital importance of attending to Her needs – because, in fact, they are our own.

Candace Pert has engaged in over three decades of detailed exploration of the biochemistry of human thought and emotion. Discovering and analyzing the way chemicals in the brain work and are affected by the ebb and flow of consciousness, she has bridged, with eloquent writing and passionate public speaking, the gap between pure science and the ordinary citizen. Her two best-selling books, Molecules of Emotion (Simon & Schuster, 1999) and Everything You Need to Know to Feel Go(o)d (Hay House, 2006), use plain language to explain the subtle interplay between mind and body. Her capacity for effective explanation led to her appearance in the popular film "What the Bleep do We Know?" Today, more than any other public speaker, she has made the science of human consciousness real and meaningful to millions.

Norm Shealy is the quintessential clinician. Training initially as a neurosurgeon, he began, more than 30 years ago, to explore the treatment of that most debilitating of human afflictions, chronic pain. He analyzed and then used every potentially useful treatment for chronic pain, from conventional to "alternative"–even inventing new therapies that are now widely used by others. Today his approach to chronic pain has become famous as the model for holistic treatment, and as a leader in holistic medicine, he has written eloquently and in great detail about what constitutes a truly integrated clinical practice.

So, on May 25th, an environmentalist, a scientist and a practitioner spoke about an integrated vision of healing, in which all of us, and the Planet that sustains us, are one seamless entity, linked together by intimate and indissoluble bonds. It was a night to remember.

Integration is really the answer.

Warren Bell, MD, is a physician in the heart of the Okanagan Valley. He is also a HANS member and President of the Association of Complementary and Integrative Physicians of British Columbia.

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