Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. Buddha Is it possible to identify commonalities across the hundreds of variations on the themes of healing? Between Acupuncture and Zen, your problems may be addressed at many possible levels within the wholistic spectrum. Each modality has its unique characteristics and blends of elements to address your ills through body, emotions, mind, relationships (with other people and environment)and spirit. One or more of these healing approaches may have precisely the key you are seeking to help you resolve your problems or may miss the mark in some way that leaves you with minimal response or no benefit at all. Most of the CAM therapies make broad claims to help many of the same problems. Evidence is beginning to accumulate to show that many of these claims are accurate. Despite their differences, I am impressed that we can identify several common elements among these therapies having experienced and studied many of them, and having reviewed the available research confirming the efficacy and effectiveness of a broad spectrum of CAM studies (Benor 2004). Here is my distillation of the essence of healing interventions common elements that are found across the spectrum of modalities