MSI Press Blog

  This week's book back story features Good Blood by Irit Schaffer. from the author -- Irit Schaffer is an author, speaker, physical therapist and healer in California. Her healing journey began in childhood where she was mesmerized by the stories of her father who had supernatural encounters with miraculous healing. Her dad journeyed through the turbulence of the Holocaust, was a Russian POW, imprisoned, suffered gunfire, gangrene infection.  There was no medicine to be had and yet he found a resilience that would change the course of his life and through his stories, hers.    Irit says “I would always ask him how he could tolerate the bullets taken out and not scream, and he would say that he had good blood. I would ask him if I had good blood, and he would laugh.”  That story set in motion Irit’s never-ending desire to understand the mind /body connection and the resiliency and resourcefulness of the human body mind spirit, called “Good Blood”.    Irit went on to achieve a Mast

Endorsements received for  Good Blood, Second Edition  by Irit Schaffer This is the only book I have read cover to cover in the past several years.  It captivated me and I couldn’t put it down.  As a retired psychologist and university professor, I view it as a stunning study of many aspects of human behavior.  As a spiritual seeker, I experience it as a motivator in looking for the Light to help me in my personal healing and transformation.  As the dad of two grown sons and grandfather of two young children, it challenged me to look at the legacy of Love and Light that I want to pass on to them.  I am grateful to Irit for writing this book that nourished and healed me on every level of my being.   Charles R. Billings, Ph.D. Corte Madera, California   This book allowed me to see that even in the darkest of situations, if you live in the mindset that there is always hope, you can survive and even come out stronger than you did before these challenging situations even occurred.   This bo

  excerpt from Good Blood (Schaffer) -  Author Note  People ask me when I began my journey with Good Blood, and my answer is always the same “when I was born.” I laugh when I say it, but it is true. As a child in Montréal, I would curl up next to my dad and beg to hear the stories of his childhood, his family, and his incredible war experiences. “Dad, tell me again how you had the bullets taken out without pain medicine and you didn’t even cry. Dad, tell me again how you healed.” “Dad, tell me again,” was my favorite line.  With my mom, it was different. It was forbidden to talk to her about the holocaust for fear that she would faint, and I was always afraid she wouldn’t come to. Yet, as a child, I did know three things about her war experience, and those three things made a deep impact on me:   She had exit papers to leave, but she stayed to help her parents.  A Christian family hid her and her parents, and it was a Jew who informed on them.  Her father gave her a gold chai

    Over the next few days, Irit Schaffer, author of Good Blood, Second Edition, has offered to share family photos to help readers get a feel for the people in the memoir. Here she shares a photograph of her father, writing -  "Th is is my father the day of his wedding in 1949, only 11 months after escaping almost 5 years of being a Russian POW and prior to that being in a Hungarian forced labour camp. It is hard to imagine he also survived being shot by 6 bullets and a gangrene arm and there was no medicine to be had. He said it was his good blood that let him heal and what allowed him to transcend and help people. Believe in the possibility which is a quality we can all access. " Book description: When she was a child, her father said he had "good blood" and that is why he and his wife survived and healed from the Holocaust. The author searched for the meaning and significance of her father's words over two continents and through four generations. Her journey

  Over the next few days, Irit Schaffer, author of Good Blood, Second Edition, has offered to share family photos to help readers get a feel for the people in the memoir. Here she shares a photograph of her grandmother, writing -  "I n this photo my grandma was 82 years old. She transcended in the camps and never let go of the light. Even during the darkest of times she was able to find the light. She would hold her daughter, my mother, every night in the camps, and say, tomorrow we will be liberated. This is what helped my mother survive. She had an inner peace about her that stayed with her for the rest of her life. This was part of the Good Blood light." Book description: When she was a child, her father said he had "good blood" and that is why he and his wife survived and healed from the Holocaust. The author searched for the meaning and significance of her father's words over two continents and through four generations. Her journey uncovered a unique voice

Excerpt from Good Blood, Edition 2 (Schaffer): Foreword by Arjia Rinpoche I was enjoying the sun rays shining through the giant red wood trees after a stormy winter day in Mill Valley when my dear friend Naomi walked up the stone steps with an attractive lady. She introduced her as Irit. Right after our introduction, Irit and I got into a long conversation about our backgrounds. Suddenly, I found myself in memory lane feeling as if I were right back in Tibet in the 1950s. But then quickly I realized I was still in Mill Valley -- just telling my story. Both Irit and I felt deeply connected, and from that moment on, we were able to develop a close friendship because we had shared our memories. Even though, we were from different cultures, we had faced similar challenges in life. When I was a small boy in Tibet, I had been wrenched from my secure monastery during the Religious Reform Movement of the 1950s and made to divest myself of my monastic robes and attend a Chines