The River, exploring cancer through imagination, dreams and metaphor

On October 4th 2012 Paul`s life came to a standstill and was forever changed when he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. This book is the story of his experiences, thoughts and feelings since that time.
Paul had worked as a Psychologist for thirty years before this and had been most interested in the relationship between mind and body. In his own life and with his clients he had used meditation, dreams and imagination as useful tools in exploring the psyche.
In September 2012, a month before his diagnosis Paul had a profound dream which he recorded the next day. It contained images of a warrior, a cloaked woman, a boat, a river and the gates of death. Whilst it was confronting Paul approached the dream as a symbolic representation of his life rather than a literal one. It took on even more significance when a short time later he was diagnosed with cancer.
Had his dream crossed from the symbolic world to the real one?
This dream became an important tool for Paul to enter his psyche and see whether there were old unconscious wounds that needed to be healed in order to come to peace with his illness and was very fortunate to have this metaphor as a guide.
Over the following three years the characters and symbols of his dream appeared in other dreams and in some of his meditations, offering him further insight into his inner world. Some of them were easier to understand than others but all contained food for thought and a sense of direction in the chaotic world of cancer.
In The River, Paul has interspersed these insights with the actual physical treatment he received . He found the side effects from the physical treatment very challenging because he felt it made his mind/body connection very blurred. It became a constant balancing act to blend modern medicine and his psychological approach.
The River documents the first three years of Paul’s journey.