James Strohecker

James Strohecker, a recognized authority in the field of natural health and a pioneer in Internet health, is co-founder and President of HealthWorld Online (www.healthy.net), a critically-acclaimed Internet global health network, and NPICenter.com, the first business-to-business Internet network for the Natural Products Industry. An advocate of a new system of global medicine based upon wise utilization of traditional systems of healing and spirituality, Strohecker has focused on educating the public, health professionals and corporations in new paradigm philosophies—natural health and healing, wellness and spirituality—through book and Internet publishing, a public radio show "Alternative Medicine," TV and film projects, continuing education seminars, and consulting services through his company, InnerWorks Consulting Group.

As Executive Editor of the classic book Alternative Medicine: The Definitive Guide (Future Medicine Publishing), Strohecker directed all phases of the three-year, two-million-dollar project, including creative development, assembling the prestigious international team of four hundred contributing health professionals and scientists, and coordinating a staff of over one hundred writers, editors and researchers. He served as founding Vice-President for Future Medicine Publishing, Inc.

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Tennessee with a degree in cultural anthropology, Strohecker was drawn to spirituality and healing while living and working among indigenous Mayan Indians as a member of a National Geographic archeological expeditions in the early 1970s. Working among the ancient, ruined temples in the dense jungles of the southern Yucatan peninsula, Strohecker had a series of mystical experiences, culminating in a spiritual awakening that led to a significant encounter with world-renowned religious scholar and mystic Miracea Eliade at the University of Chicago.

In a key turning point in his life, Strohecker chose to decline a grant from the prestigious Divinity School at the University of Chicago to study under the guidance of Dr. Eliade, in order to embark on his own personal journey in pursuit of spiritual knowledge. For the next eight years he engaged in an intensive study of yoga, meditation and spiritual philosophy with the renowned teacher Swami Muktananda Paramahansa, including three years of practice and study of esoteric yogic disciplines in a monastic setting in India. During this time he also guided the development of an international spiritual research library with seminal writings from the world's great wisdom traditions.

Another key passion—his lifelong love of natural healing—was stimulated during his stay in India through an exposure to herbal medicine, homeopathy, Ayurveda and a wide range of holistic therapies. He believes that the principles of natural health are a matter of common sense, and have been with humanity for millennia. The ancient tradition of yoga, for example—with its emphasis on diet, lifestyle, exercise, stress reduction, personal detoxification and mental cultivation—is really a complete system of holistic health. Subsequently, he studied various forms of natural healing and transformation, including CranioSacral Therapy, Jin Shin Do and Jin Shin Jytsu Acupressure, movement therapy, bodywork, focusing and dreamwork. In all, James has spent nearly thirty years investigating and practicing systems of healing and personal transformation.

For years, much of James' focus revolved around his dream of creating a global database of the leading research and information on natural medicine—and on traditional forms of medicine from around the world—to help create a "global" medicine that blended ancient healing traditions, spirituality and natural medicine with the best that scientific western medicine had to offer. This, he felt, could help alleviate suffering caused by the lack of easy access to information on natural health and other viable alternatives to institutionalized conventional medical approaches. HealthWorld Online was the culmination of that vision.

Strohecker is co-author of five books including:

He has also collaborated or consulted on over twenty titles in the fields of natural health, psychology, creativity, human potential, yoga, meditation, and the world's spiritual traditions. He is editor of the integrative health e-newsletters, "Healthy Update" and "Healthy Shopping," has served as associate editor and columnist for Total Health magazine and contributed a chapter to Faulkner & Gray's 1998 Guide to Healthcare Resources on the Internet.



Strohecker serves on the Board of Trustees of the American University of Complementary Medicine and has served on the Presidential Advisory Board for Bastyr University, the first fully-accredited multi-disciplinary college of natural medicine in the United States. He has served on the advisory boards of the Academy of Guided Imagery, the Healthy Foundation, the Dove Healing Trust, and the Institute of Natural Medicine. He is listed in the International Who's Who of Information Technology. He and his wife Nancy reside in Los Angeles, California.

Jim can be reached at jim@healthy.net