Soon it won’t only be athletes who are tested for performance enhancing drugs before any medals are awarded — Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners might also be tested.

The era of doping has entered the academic world; the journal Nature recently reported a finding by Cambridge University professors that a dozen of their colleagues admitted to regular use of prescription drugs like Adderal and Provigil which stimulate the brain. The report elicited a flood of responses, so the journal conducted its own survey, and so far the number of professors and students using brain stimulants has multiplied significantly. The academic culture is becoming “pop pills or perish.”

Four years ago, Dr. Anjan Chatterjee, an associate professor of neurology at the University of Pennsylvania, discussed the rising use of these brain stimulating drugs not to treat illnesses, but solely to improve performance. This was leading to a new specialty he called “cosmetic neurology.” He predicted that cosmetic neurology would mirror the growth of cosmetic surgery which once was scorned as vain and unnatural, but now has become mainstream. Dr. Chatterjee concluded:

“We worship at the altar of progress, and to the demigod of choice; both are very strong undercurrents in the culture. The way this will likely be framed is: Look, we want smart people to be productive as possible to make everybody’s lives better. We want people performing at the max, and if that means using these medicines, then great. We should be free to chose what we want to as long as we’re not harming someone.”

The original purpose of medicine is to heal the sick, not to turn people into gods. But in our winner-take-all society, anything that helps you perform at your max gives you an advantage in the competition. Is chemically tweaking the brain to improve performance the same as tweaking your musculature and endurance to win the Tour de France? No it’s not! It’s worse, because brain doping will have a much more profound impact on society. Those with access to medications will elevate themselves intellectually, financially, technologically, and politically, so that the gap between the haves and the have-nots will widen even more.

Medication is for treating illnesses, not for gaining advantage. If cosmetic neurology becomes mainstream there will be long-term consequences on the body, mind, and spirit. Let’s stick with the old- fashioned way of becoming a success, through hard work and struggle, because they also build character.

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At most of my presentations, I talk about making connections to something or someone other than yourself to build a community of shared spirit, because it’s those connections that get you through the hard times. In the Q and A that follows, I’m often asked whether this is a plea for God and religiosity in one’s life. I say it doesn’t matter what you connect to — it can be whales, old-growth forests, Greenpeace, your ancestral homeland — they may all be names for God. It could even be a gang of pierced, tattooed punk rockers.

I read about Andrea Collins Smith, a 37-year-old punk rocker. She is a mother of six and a college graduate who a year ago was diagnosed with a particularly virulent form of breast cancer. She had a bilateral mastectomy which was followed by chemotherapy and radiation. Four months later, the cancer had spread to her spine, and the bills mounted.

The whole Philadelphia punk, grunge, self-styled outcasts, rockers, and tattoo artists came together in community. They cook, clean, run errands and drive to Andrea to doctors appointments. They sponsor fund-raisers from auctions to bake sales; the School of Rock in Philadelphia put on a concert, and a burlesque group called the Bawdy Girls peeled down to pasties and G-strings in a benefit striptease.

Several months ago, Andrea and began a personal blog (www.punkmommy.org) as a way of keeping family and friends informed. What happened, however, is that it has become the online version of Tuesdays with Morrie. Sometimes her postings are painful, sometimes they make me laugh, and they always make me think and connect lovingly to her. Andrea says, “I’ve come to understand that life is very short. None of us knows how long we have. That’s part of the plan I don’t have any information about. You can sit around and wonder why me? But do you ever ask yourself that when good things happen?”

Last week Andrea discovered the swollen lymph nodes in her neck were cancerous. She will undergo repeated chemotherapy. Her community continues to rally, and Andrea tells us every time she writes that she loves us and gives thanks for the support.

I’m no punk rocker, but I am connected to this community because I love the love that surrounds her. I love Andrea’s courage in inviting us to share this most personal journey; her truth helps us make sense of the process of our lives. Communities of shared spirit break down old boundaries, and I say thank you to all my new relations.

Mi Takuye Oyacin. We are all together.

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Last week I spoke to physicians at the American Medical Directors Association. They are gerontologists, and palliative care specialists who run long-term health care facilities for the aging and chronically ill.

This may be the last place in clinical medicine where doctors still take time to talk to patients. These doctors spend less time prescribing drugs and procedures, and more time with patients and families helping them come together and heal.

I reminded them there is a difference between curing and healing. They know their frail patients will not be cured of their debilities, but they need to be touched, loved, and reminded that they are not alone. This is the sacred work of medicine: to inspire hope and to walk the healing journey together.

Afterwards I was signing books, and a colleague, Dr. Brenda Williams from Sumter, South Carolina, introduced herself. Brenda thanked me for my compassion and the reminder of the loving soul of medicine. “God bless you and your entire family,” she said, “I want to give you something.” She took a bracelet from her wrist and put it on mine. She said it was a prayer bracelet and showed me the small, latched silver box hanging from it. Inside were tiny circles of paper that had the initials of people she loved, those who were sick, and others needing help.

Brenda said she wore the bracelet every day so the people she loved knew she was thinking about them, letting them know they were not alone. Listening to her talk, I was awed by her compassionate presence. Brenda Williams is a doctor and also a healer. In addition to making diagnoses and treating patients (what doctors do), she connects with patients in ways that inspire them to become participants in their health — that’s a healer.

I took the bracelet and said that in Indian country when you gave someone a gift of your soul, it meant that you made a new relative, and I wanted to take her as my sister. We hugged enthusiastically and planned to talk later.

When I got home I incorporated the prayer box into my prayer shawl. The first name I put into it was my new niece, Jamila Williams, Brenda’s oldest daughter who is serving her second tour of duty in Iraq. With the shawl draped over my shoulders, I lit some cedar and holding an eagle feather asked for blessings for family old and new, and a special one for my niece Jamila.

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A couple of weeks ago I was privileged to present at a medical symposium with some legendary giants in the field of psychoneuroimmunology (PNI). Drs. Andrew Weil, the world-recognized face of Integrative Medicine; Candace Pert, the research pharmacologist who discovered the brains opiate receptor sites, and launching the discovery of a host of neurotransmitters and their mechanisms of action; and Antonio Damasio, the distinguished neurologist whose book Descartes Error is the best description of the strengths and limits of scientific inquiry.

From their unique perspectives, each spoke about the links between mind and body. They showed pictures of the brain that pinpointed the areas responsible for virtually every emotional state. They explained how chronic stress would wear down the bodies defense mechanisms and make you vulnerable to disease.

I spoke last, about the spirit of healing and how doctors can tap into it to magnify their own healing power and that of their patients’. Since ancient times, we have known there is a link between mind and body, and that priests and healers had the power to cure afflictions for which no organic causes could be found.

Over the last hundred years ago Mesmer, Charcot and Freud all identified the non-physical causes for patients symptoms. The mind could manipulate the body, and the body could manipulate the mind. Emotions are transmitted at the cellular level and the vibrational level; this is not New Agey, it is science!

Pharmaceutical companies, interested in the development of medicines that alter the brain, have funded most current bran research. . $50 billion a year is spent on drugs for brain and psychiatric diseases, even though those medications are only moderately effective and come with serious side effects.

I believe in evidence-based medicine, but I also recognize its limitations. Some things can’t be explained, important questions like; Why me? Why now? And what’s next? Science answers those questions in terms of statistics and probabilities. Those explanations almost invariably hold no meaning for patients. People need to make personal sense of their illness and suffering.

All cultures have ways of telling stories that help people make sense of their suffering and how to get rid of it. In a panel discussion at the end, we all agreed that abundant wisdom has been gathered over the ages about how to make sense of our lives. Life is not simply a story of mathematical probabilities, but of inexplicable tragedy and miraculous happenings. If you kindle the spirit you awaken the mind-body to healing.

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I see a patient who, after a two-year relationship of exquisite intimacy, decides to get engaged. As soon as the date is set, commitment panic grips the sweetheart. Everybody has either heard a story like this or experienced it personally; it’s the stuff of movies and newsreels. Boy meets girl, (or vice-versa) and they revel in love’s wonder until the attachment deepens, and then something happens to make her or him reconsider the commitment.

This panic often coincides with an event. It could be something as simple as a vacation or celebrating a holiday together, or more complicated, like purchasing a home together. The initial panic magnifies one’s ambivalences, fans resentment, and triggers faultfinding. Then comes the need to put some distance in the relationship. Slowly, they withdraw from the honey of love.

What do you say to someone whose sweetheart can’t make a long-term commitment to sharing the honey of love? I told my patient this story….

The Hadza tribesmen in Tanzania tell of a small, green and rust- colored bird called the “honey guide.” About the size of a robin, it is the beloved friend of the people because it points the way to life’s sweetness. When the honey guide calls to them, the Hadza whistle back to let the bird know they are listening. Then the bird leads them to the honey-laden beehive.

Before the Hadza eat the honey, they first break off a piece of the honeycomb and leave it for the honey guide to say thank you for showing them the way. If they didn’t do this, the honey guide would not come to them again.

Love is the honey bird: it’s available to us all, if we can hear its call and choose to follow it. You can’t run away from it, and you have to give it back if you want to keep getting it. That’s how you find your honey for life.

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