Books & Reviews

Title: A Future Beyond the Sun
Publisher: FisherMiller Publishing. 1997 ISBN 1-899077-04-9
Category: Autobiography

In this magical, funny but extremely moving book, Mali Klein allows us into her all-too-brief relationship with her husband, Greg, an ex-US Marine Vietnam Veteran. It is equally a love story – the account of two people starting out in a marriage that promised great joy – and the true story of how they came to terms with a life-threatening illness and their refusal to let it take away the precious and tender time they share.
From Switzerland, Greg and Mali travelled to Iceland, to Greece and to America where Greg’s illness was diagnosed. From then on their hospice was the world. They packed the wheelchair and their luggage-on-wheels, travelling on to add a further five months of quality time to the original six months prognosis until Greg’s death in Provence, France in May 1994.

Review One by Sara Miller, MD, Holistic Medical Doctor, Bristol Cancer Centre, UK, Issue 41, Caduceus Magazine.
‘This is a delightful and evocative book that deeply touched me. With great honesty, Mali Klein has laid bare her relationship with her husband Greg, ex-US Marine, Vietnam veteran and twenty years Buddhist monk with all their joys, their passions, their humour and the challenges of their journey with Greg’s cancer. It is a poignantly short love story, taking us from a beginning full of magic and promise through the stark reality of living and dealing with a life-threatening illness. Mali and Greg with great courage and fortitude, left the orthodox medical establishment and letting the world become their hospice, continued to travel until Greg’s death, five months after predicted, in Provence in 1994.
Mali tells her story from her heart, ‘how it was’, in a style that is both accessible and fluent. She offers hope to others on similar journeys for she has been there and survived, even in the face of not knowing how she would ever survive. She was able to allow Greg the freedom to enter into death empowered and on his own terms. This takes a great deal of courage and love.
The love of these two people is the central feature of this enthralling and hard-to-put-down book. Within its pages other people will find their own truth, their own lessons, the point where it touches their lives. The appearance of such a book is timely in a culture where we are at last beginning to look at how we deal with death. We have not been doing it well and it is time to empower the dying and give them back their death experience.’

Review Two by Stephanie Sorrell, The Science of Thought Review, November 1997
‘This is a moving and highly readable work. it is also a love story between the author, Mali Klein and Greg who was a former Theravadan monk for twenty years and lately Abbot of Chithurst Buddhist Monastery in Sussex. As a young man, barely much older than a boy, Greg had suffered a serious head wound while serving as a US Marine in Vietnam and within a few months of their marriage a serious and malignant brain tumour become evident because of this. This is a courageous story of how they both coped with this great shadow across their life and yet never allowed it to mar their enduring love for one another.
This is not a sad, self-pitying or sombre work as it could have been, but one written with humour, sensitivity and insight. Skillfully it draws back the curtain that shields many of us from the death process and reveals a beauty, strength and dignity that shines through. Both Mali and Greg are very human in their emotions, passing though all the stages of anger and frustration where their Buddhist ‘practice’ which they have spent many years harnessing, becomes their great strength. The book also includes information on how Essiac, the natural medicine often used for cancer conditions, works alongside orthodox medicine with stunning results.’

Title: Essiac Essentials
Authors: Sheila Snow (Canada) & Mali Klein (UK)
Publisher: Gill&Macmillan, Dublin, Eire. 1999 ISBN 1 85860 057 X
Category: Alternative Health

‘Provides a unique insight into the controversial Essiac formula’
Essiac is a popular herbal remedy of Native American origin that has a proven record of helping people with cancer. Today Essiac has an international reputation and is recommended by complementary and medical practitioners, cancer centres and hospices world-wide.

‘Essiac Essentials’ contains case histories of Essiac users spanning sixty years, including moving testimonies from some of Rene Caisse’s original patients. It also gives detailed information on how to grow, harvest or obtain the herbs commercially plus a simple-to-follow recipe.

‘Our experiences with Essiac have proved to us beyond doubt that passing on accurate information about the remedy and encouraging further investigation into its possible palliative benefits is a worthy vocation. At the end of the day, if just one person is helped and encouraged by reading our books we have fulfilled our mission.’

Sheila Snow and Mali Klein

Review: Network Magazine, Volume No. 71, December 1999
‘A concise guide to Rene Caisse’s herbal cancer remedy. Gives the background to the discovery of this herbal treatment ( a formula originally given by a Native American medicine man) plus detailed information on how to grow the relevant herbs and make up the recipes. Also case histories and a series of frequently asked questions. Will fascinate any reader interested in alternative cancer treatments.’

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Title: Essiac, The Secrets of Rene Caisse’s Herbal Pharmacy
Authors: Sheila Snow (Canada) & Mali Klein (UK)
Publisher: Gill&Macmillan, Dublin, Eire. 2001 ISBN 0 7171 3228 5
Category: Alternative Health

‘Essiac did not die with Rene Caisse…ever-increasing numbers of people are discovering and using it. They continue to bear witness to Essiac’s remarkable healing qualities.’

In their first book, Essiac Essentials, Sheila Snow and Mali Klein encouraged self-sufficiency, detailing the basic, step-by-step recipe preparation, how to make Essiac, what to look out for and how to identify, locate, grow and harvest to the four herbs to make up the tea.
In this new book they expand the vision to develop the research and reveal what they have discovered of other formulae and herbs Rene Caisse may have used alongside the basic four. They also share the information they have found in archives about the roles played by some of the more prominent figures involved with the development of Essiac, especially during the last years of Rene Caisse’s life.

In addition they include information related to the basic science of cancer, the related chemical and radiation therapies and the importance of maintaining a healthy diet and lifestyle in order to enhance the possibly palliative and remedial effects of the Essiac formula.

People who are ill have a right to the best of whatever it takes to give them every chance to get well and anyone who chooses to take Essiac has a right to the best herbs prepared exactly as Rene prepared them in the 1930’s. Essiac worked for Rene Caisse; it can work for us now.

Review: Holistic Health Magazine, Autumn 2001, UK
‘The story of Essiac, the herbal remedy renowned for helping people with cancer and its development by Rene Caisse, a Canadian nurse, has been reverberating around the ‘alternative cancer’ community for many years.

At last here is a book outlining the actual story of the development of the formula, case history notes and the 1939 Cancer Commission Hearings. A chapter is devoted to what cancer is, how it can arise and the conventional treatments for it. Another is devoted to diet and how what we eat affects our bodies. There is also a chapter answering many of the questions raised about Essiac – from how it should be used, whether it interacts with vitamin and mineral supplements and whether the preparation affects other conditions – one case is cited of high blood pressure normalising after use of Essiac. The ‘last but not least’ chapter, entitled ‘Tea Stories’, is a compilation of case studies from Rene’s six surviving books from Bracebridge Clinic where she carried out her work. Included are testimonies as evidence for essiac being used for goitre, stomach and leg ulcers, as well as for lip, breast, uterus, stomach, kidney, bowel, prostate and ovarian cancer, as well as non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and HIV positive diagnosis. A wide range and impressive – IF ONLY there had been serious follow-up trials of this substance rather than the protesting too much at claims for efficacy as is sadly the usual case with potential cancer treatments originating from anywhere other than pharmaceutical R&D departments.’

Review: Mayo News, August 15th 2001
‘The Big C and Rene’s Tea’

‘Seventy-five years ago a Canadian nurse adapted an American Indian medicine concoction to develop and popular herbal remedy which developed a proven record in helping people with cancer.

Rene Caisse jealously guarded the specific ingredients that went into the Essiac remedy and would not permit commercial drug companies to exploit the popularity of the Caisse discovery. Now in their latest book, authors Sheila Snow and Mali Klein follow up on their original work on how to harvest or obtain the herbs necessary to make Essiac with easy to follow recipes. Subtitled ‘The Secrets of Rene Caisse’s Herbal Pharmacy’, this book explores other remedies developed by Miss Caisse in her treatment centre.

The book contains a number of case histories on the success of Essiac and an account of the petitions sent to the Canadian Parliament asking that Rene Caisse be allowed to practice medicine despite the reluctance of the medical profession to afford her recognition over the years.
The book is an interesting extension of the growing acceptance of alternative medicine in the modern armory against disease.’

Review: Scottish Health News, September/October 2001

‘Essiac is a herbal remedy that has been found to be effective in helping people with cancer. It was developed by a Canadian nurse, Rene Caisse (Essiac is her name spelt backwards) during the 1930’s and was extensively investigated by the Canadian government at that time.

This book provides some archive material about the make-up of the remedy along with some useful information about the science of cancer and testimonials from some of her early patients. It explains the effects of treatments currently on offer, suggesting how Essiac can be integrated into an overall treatment pattern. A very helpful book.’