Becker uses his personal experience to describe the rise and fall of technological medicine; he recalls the transformation of medical discovery into mechanistic dogma and the abandonment of the central rule of science: revision in light of new data. Following his own conviction, Becker began with experiments on regeneration in certain animals (such as the salamander) that can grow perfect replacements for body parts which have been destroyed. In this book he presents his belief that discoveries about electromagnetism presage a revolution in biology and medicine that may one day enable physicians to control and stimulate healing using only the electromagnetic forces present in the human body.