Thinking 'outside of the box' is probably one of the most crucial qualities required by health practitioners. Alas, the world of medicine, and, indeed, the greater world of politics, science, law and most fields, are populated and controlled not by vanguard visionaries, eager to implement new discoveries, but by small 'c' conservative, staid, perhaps even reactionary, or even worse still, self-interested, profit-motivated and status quo-defending individuals and institutions.

I doubt that many of the latter are readers of Positive Health, which, almost by definition, discusses natural healthcare approaches well beyond current understanding of the conventional paradigms. Upon reflection, I probably owe my own life, when it hung in the balance with meningitis, aged 7, to my father's persistent pestering and bullying, with the support of an 'outside of the box' neurologist, of an ear-nose and throat surgeon who couldn't see anything wrong with my test results. Had the surgeon not operated, the chances are that I might not have survived. And, over and over again during the years, when smitten by various health conditions which conventional treatment didn't alleviate, it has been an 'outside of the box' approach which has done the trick and restored my health.

This issue of Positive Health publishes a number of such revelatory, ground-breaking features, which have certainly astonished and challenged even my own understanding of outcomes for certain conditions. One these features is Case Study: Scenar Treatment in Stroke Rehabilitation, in which stroke patient Sam, one year after conventional treatment (meaning almost no treatment), acupuncture, Reiki and physiotherapy had not enabled him to progress, encountered Pamela Nancarrow, Scenar practitioner, who agreed to take on Sam on an experimental basis for one month, three times a week, to see if any progress resulted. The conventional prognosis mantra regarding stroke patients is that after 6 months following a stroke, any further clinical changes are extremely unlikely.

However, Scenar is definitely an 'outside of the box' approach. And, as you can read for yourself (see page 50), Sam, suffering from paralysis down the right side, walking, speech and many other difficulties, following several months and currently continuing Scenar sessions, has experienced considerably improved walking, speech and overall improvement. I know many people, including my now aged father, who have suffered a stroke and who have been put out to pasture or on the shelf, and who are not provided much hope of clinical progress. I hope that this feature will provide encouragement for patients that there may be hope after stroke.

The other astonishing revelation for me in this issue was the book The Churkendoose Anthology: True Stories of Triumph Over Neurological Dysfunction, reviewed in this issue (please see page 59). Of all of the 'outside the box' approaches I have encountered, the HANDLE® Approach, developed by gifted Judith Bluestone, is a genius combination of insight, self-mastery and knowledge, as well as the common-sense axiom that before you can treat and cure severe neurological, cognitive and/or behavioural dysfunctions, you need to understand the root cause or pathologies giving rise to these disorders. Thus, the reason for a child's autism, or hypersensitivity or lack of balance or co-ordination, lies in the weakness or under-development of the brain, the vestibular mechanism, the lack of co-ordination between the hemispheres of the brain, or other developmental problem. And hence, prescribing Ritalin or other drug will not cure these underlying causes and hence not permit the flowering of the individual's potential afflicted. As I am not an expert in neurological development, perhaps I may be naïve in understanding the relevant literature. However, it is clear as daylight, in reading the stories in this book of individuals who have improved, almost straight away, following a proper evaluation and assessment, and embarking upon the simple exercises devised; their profound transformation is almost amazing. Once again, 'outside the box' thinking having a miraculous result.

As many Positive Health readers will know from my conversations with many of them, I spend virtually my entire life nowadays reading research, clinical reports, books and articles from every branch of complementary medicine. Every issue of Positive Health is replete with Features, Research Updates, Letters and News Reports representing many tens of hours of direct work by the clinician authors, countless hours of work represented within the research reports, not to speak of the lifetimes of experience relayed in the results communicated by experts in their fields.

Our professional lives as practitioners, not to speak of our own health and that of our families, depend to a large degree in how current we are, how up-to-date we are with new approaches and 'outside the box' approaches. Positive Health is a unique community of 'outside the box' individuals which ought to be read by more practitioners, even those too busy or suffering from information overload. We would like to provide an incentive for current readers to recommend Positive Health to other individuals; for more information, please see the details on page 36.