My Interview with Bill Gottlieb of Prevention Magazine. Raw. Uncut. Uncensored.

I had the tremendous opportunity to sit down and talk with Bill Gottlieb earlier last week. For those of you who don’t know who Bill Gottlieb is, he’s former editor-in-chief of Prevention Magazine Books and Rodale Books. He is the author of the international bestselling sensation, Alternative Cures and 9 other tremendously bestselling titles about health and wellness. 

Bill Gottlieb has appeared on Good Morning America, CNN, and countless other media outlets. He was also the spokesperson for a commercial for The Doctors Book of Home Remedies—which was broadcast more than 50,000 times and sold 2,000,000 copies.

Over his illustrious career, Bill has helped countless individuals to identify and reach their goals for better health, in diet, exercise, career, relationships and spirituality. And, I’m sure that he can help you, or anyone else for that matter, on the right direction for health and success.

For more information about Bill and, to get an exclusive 50-minute FREE zero-obligation health consultation with Bill to see if health coaching may be right for you, go to Bill’s website http://billgottliebhealth.com/, and tell him that Eric Wang from Health Demystified sent you.

This interview is presented below completely unedited, uncensored and raw. You may not like what is said. You may not agree. And, it’s not a substitute for going to see your doctor.

In this interview, we talk about accepting ourselves just the way we are, and so I present this unedited, and uncut. This is the real deal.

This is one of the most profound conversations I’ve had in a very long time. I’m still trying to process and digest all of it. Hope this helps and enlightens you as much as it has for me.

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EW: Hi, Bill! It’s such a huge honor and privilege to have the chance to sit and talk to you today. Thank you for coming out and taking the time to do this interview with us.

Over your 30-year career, you’ve been a successful editor and author of some extremely prestigious health publications such as Prevention Magazine and the bestselling Alternative Cures, and you’ve helped to transform the health and lives of millions of people in your career as both a thought-leader in the health and wellness field and a health coach to thousands of clients. Can you tell us a little about yourself and your story of how you got to where you are today?

BG: Sure, Eric. I grew up in Allentown, PA, which is the town next to Emmaus, PA, where Rodale Press is situated. Rodale is the publisher of Prevention Magazine, and Men’s Health, and Women’s Health. So, I was really lucky to grow up there, and was always interested in writing and journalism. Senior year in high school, I interned at Rodale. And I came back to Rodale a couple years later, and the executive editor at Prevention magazine just happened to need a freelancer. And, that’s basically how my career started.

It was a combination of my interest and a lot of serendipity and luck. I ended up having a 20 year career there – from 1976 to 1995 – and that happened to be a period when the US grew up around natural health and healing, so I happened to be at Rodale at a wonderful time. So I was really lucky to be at the right place at the right time.

EW: So how did you get into health coaching and writing health books?

BG: About thirteen of the years I was at Rodale, I was in the book division. I was Assistant Managing Director at Prevention Magazine and Executive Editor of Prevention Magazine Health Books. [At Prevention Magazine Books], I started with a small staff of 6 people. In the next couple years, we just had a lot of tremendous successes, and that staff expanded and, at a certain point, I ended up as Editor-in-Chief of Rodale Books in 1986. And, then I spent 9 more years dealing with books after that. So I had a lot to do with all of that: conceiving books, and supervising writers. Editing books as well.

I left Rodale in 1995 on account of a really profound conversation I had with my spiritual practitioner/guide, and I decided to quit and was a volunteer for a year, and ended up writing books. My first book was with Rodale, and it ended up being a big success, and creating a lot of momentum to continue writing books.

EW: Can you tell me more about your spiritual guide and your conversation with him that influenced you to leave Rodale and carve out a new path of your own?

BG: I’m a student and devotee of a spiritual master named Adi Da Samraj. He’s a guru in the classic guru-devotee relationship. I start reading him in 1976, and I was captivated by his teachings and radiant persona, and I became a formal student of his in 1990 and a student of him in the next 2 decades.

The guru is seen as a radiant personality who is free of identification with the limits of the body-mind – thinking, feeling, physical sensation – all the limits and is awake as all-pervading and transcendental light and consciousness. And the relationship is motivated to awaken the individual in relationship to the same awareness beyond the body-mind and all-prevading and transcendental awareness.

EW: Can you tell us more about that? And what advice could you give those who are trying to find a direction for their career or their life in the face of uncertainty?

BG: I really felt that [uncertainty] of purpose when I was at Rodale. After 20 years in the corporate world, I felt that if my intention was really to serve others, and if I wanted to do the best for the reader and put my whole heart and soul into that, things would take care of themselves. I don’t think this is always the case, but I believe that people who are generally more self-interested don’t have that much free attention for excellence. I really think that that’s true. At the same time, I think a lot of people that are self-interested go on to great success, but I do believe that something about the impulse and calling from my spiritual life had something to do with my success.

EW: Wouldn’t you consider everyone to be self-interested – to some extent?

BG: To a certain extent, yeah. But I think part of the challenge of being human is to see where that takes you and see if you have an impulse to go beyond that self-centered impulse. I think as human beings, what is most intrinsic to us is a twin desire – which is a desire to love and a desire to be loved. Often time, the desire to love is not as activated as the desire to be loved. And, often times, [the desire to love] serves just as well [as the desire to be loved]. I think having the impulse to serve, if you really kind of go for that, you really find that it activates a tremendous amount of joy and energy and potential success that ends up [ironically] serving self-interest in the long run.

EW: I can see what you’re saying with that. I guess I wanted to share a little bit about myself. I was always really self-interested to a big extent, and I still am. But, I guess a lot of what I believed changed about a year ago.

During that time, I fell into a deep depression, and I guess it was a combination of stress from school and family issues, and being overloaded with work from pharmacy school as well as work. I was working night shifts at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital as a pharmacy intern. And, I was depressed – I was suicidal. I posted this on my blog. I finally came clean with it. I was too ashamed to tell about this experience [before]. I went on the Ben Franklin bridge, and I was thinking about taking my life. And, I happened to call a suicide hotline maybe 15 minutes earlier, and just as I was about to…about to take my life, the woman who I had talked to had actually called me back and after that incident, I was in the hospital for two weeks. And, there I spent time with other people who were suicidal or schizophrenic, and people who just suffered awful things like having parents who left them in a dumpster so they could go and get high. Stuff like that. And that experience – one of the lowest experiences in my life – totally changed my perspective on life.

It made me see that everyone had problems. Everyone is suffering from something. Everyone suffers from something. And, when I realized that, I became so grateful for the things that I had in my life. And, because of that experience, I realized I didn’t really want to be just a pharmacist. I wanted to be a life coach – and help people realize that life is so much more than just living for yourself.

BG: Well, that’s a profound and beautiful process that you went through.

EW: Yeah. It felt like suffering when I went through it but I see now that everything has a purpose.

BG: Yeah, you know, I think I was sharing with someone who contacted me who had a profound depression, and now he’s helping people get past that depression. I think oftentimes…well, I lost my mother when I was 18 and I went into kind of an interesting state as a result of that. And, I think these things happen for a reason. And, it’s really only those kinds of super-intense crisis where you actually reach the bottom and there’s nowhere else to go. That, somehow, in that context, mysteriously, something is freeing you to actually perceive what your destiny is, what your true desires might be and therefore to have a regeneration similar to that kind of classic experience like the “dark night of the soul” metaphor in Christianity.

Here you are, in a time when you’re looking at the rest of your life and trying to figure out what the purpose of your life is. And, I think it’s a profound and beautiful experience that you went through. I use the word beautiful because I think it’s wonderful that you came out on the other side of that, and your life was literally saved and now you see…

EW: I do really feel it was a voice from God. Still, to this day, I’m struck by how powerful that experience has been. It was one of those defining moments of one’s, of my life.

BG: So you were in a Pharm.D. program?

EW: I’m still in a Pharm.D. program actually. I’m scheduled to graduate this year. However, after I get my Pharm.D., I might work part-time as a pharmacist, but what I really want is to write some books and hopefully inspire people to get real about their health. To get their butt off the couch and do the things they need to do to get healthy and live their lives to the fullest.

What I’m doing now is interviewing some experts like you in the field of health and wellness.

BG: Yeah. For this new book I’m working on diabetes supplements and superfoods for diabetes, I just interviewed a pharmacist who’s become disillusioned with the whole reductionist “this medicine for that problem” approach, so, he talks to me very interestingly as a pharmacist about the limitations to the drugs that he’s dispensing and what others could do. I think it gives you a wonderful tool, almost paradoxically, like the Graedon’s – Joe and Terry Graedon – who have gone on to tell people a great deal about natural health and healing.

EW: Yeah, I totally agree. My dad actually has diabetes, so I can personally relate with that. I disagree that medications may always be the answer. There’s a lot more to health than just popping pills.

BG: Another pharmacist, Suzie Cohen, has a new book called Diabetes Without Drugs. It’s another example of a pharmacist who’s using that positioning to kind of, based on their authority…It’s very believable when a pharmacist is telling you not to use drugs. So it’s gives you a unique positioning to go forward with the rest of your career.

EW: Thank you. I really appreciate that. Let’s go back to you now really quick: You’ve been in the field of health publishing and well as health coaching, so can you tell me what you feel are some misinformation or mistakes that are being promoted today by the so-called or self-proclaimed “health experts” out there? What’s your take on that?

BG: That’s an interesting question. I think that the biggest one is really the reductionist philosophy behind much of medicine today. Like the heart, lungs, kidneys, pancreas, whatever. And the diseases of those organs are looked at specifically, and then drugs are given to take care of just that particular organ. We can see where that kind of thinking has gotten us. As a society, we are terribly ill, with so many people having heart disease, diabetes, obesity, cancer. We’re an extremely sick society on the basis of this highly reductionist approach. It clearly doesn’t work. What I believe the point of view that we should embrace is that our body is a self-healing mechanism, and given the right kind of nourishment – whether it’s food, whether it’s emotional nourishment, relationships, the nourishment of exercise, the nourishment of fulfilling work or whatever – given true nourishment, holistic nourishment, the body will heal itself. It’s a self-healing mechanism, and I think the experts that promote the reductionist view and continue to do that will look at smaller and smaller pieces and try to find solutions – but that’s just not working. And, medicines aren’t completely working.

There are a lot of modalities that really kind of represent the natural healing capacity of the body. Osteopathy is one. Naturopathy is another. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Ayurvedic medicine from India. Aromatherapy, massage therapy, exercise therapy. There’s really a lot of different modalities out there that are really about activating the natural healing powers of the body. The more people use those, I think the better it’s going to be for everybody.

EW: What’s your take on all those modalities of natural healing? Do you feel there’s merit to all those types of therapy? Or, do you feel some of it could be just hogwash?

BG: I think there’s a lot of merit to them. There’s different ways to prove merit. There’s the scientific method to prove merit. Like, evidence-based merit. Then, there’s thousands of years of tradition, and which therapies that have worked for people. Also, there’s clinicians with their own experience which have identified empirically what things work. When it comes to health, it’s a really individual matter.

I was just talking to a dear friend yesterday, who had found himself that the…he had a friend with cancer, and he was driving that friend to an Ayurvedic therapist, and he himself began to see that therapist and a chiropractor and do the dietary regimens he recommended and finding tremendous benefit. It’s really a matter of attraction.

Everybody doesn’t fall in love with everybody else. But some people work for some people and don’t work for other people. Similarly, you find the modalities that work for you. If you’re interested in a natural modality, you naturally will find those that work for you.

The same thing with diet. There’s literally hundreds of natural diets out there, points of view from every iota of the spectrum. And you just need to find what works for you. There’s no one diet that works for everybody.

EW: That’s a profound statement. Very, very true. There’s no one, specific diet that works for everyone. Just like there’s no one specific drug that works for everyone. It’s a process of trial and error that leads you to find what works for you.

BG: People are as individual as snowflakes. You are a very particular pattern, so what is it that combines with your particular pattern that brings to the fore your energy, you positivity, your drive, your enjoyment, your love, all the things that characterize health.

EW: That’s a great point. Now, given our individuality and our own values and energy and drive, what do you think is the biggest obstacle that prevents most people from achieving the health that they are trying to seek?

BG: Well that’s a very interesting question, and I was actually thinking about that a lot, What is the biggest obstacle? You know, it’s a paradox.

The biggest obstacle to people achieving what they want to get is not accepting what is actually happening. That is actually the biggest obstacle. Because, when you are resisting what’s going on – trying to stop something, suppressing something, trying to get away from something, we end up giving that thing more energy.

Like, if somebody is overweight, what’s the biggest obstacle to them losing weight? It’s probably dieting. Because they forbid themselves certain foods, in order to lose weight. And eventually they exhaust themselves, and they binge and gain the weight back. Just look at the pattern of dieting. This is what happens to 95% of those who diet: they lose some weight, gain it back because everything is too restrictive.

So the first step for those people is just to accept that they can eat anything. It’s kind of a core principle. You see it in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, which is very popular. “Acceptance and commitment” therapy, an interesting type of psychological therapy where they emphasize starting by accepting whatever is going on with you, accepting yourself emotionally, accepting your thoughts whatever they are, accepting your body however it is, and just acceptance as a whole for your whole being.

Really, it’s a profound phenomenon that the obstacle for people getting what they want is trying so hard to get it. And, acceptance is really the first step to meeting your goals. So, mindfulness, which is getting so popular really teaches that – just accepting what is. This lack of acceptance, resistance, and limiting your choices, fear-based limitations, like what drives people on a diet is really the biggest obstacle.

EW: Wow, that’s really mind-blowing stuff. Do you mind if we go into mindfulness for a second? And, what do you think are the benefits of practicing mindfulness?

BG: Mindfulness is essentially being present in the moment, accepting what is happening. There’s all different ways to do that which people teach – from like following your breath, having a practice of mindfulness, like a sitting meditation practice, taking that out to your daily life. Like bringing you attention back to what is. If you notice wondering or anxious thoughts, or condemning yourself for what happened in the past, worrying about what’s going to happen in the future, just bring yourself back to the present moment.

I was just reading a wonderful book called Paradoxical Relaxation, a guy I interviewed for a book I just did, Men’s Health for Over-40 Guys. We were looking at this illness called chronic prostatitis – really an illness of chronic tension of the pelvic bone. These guys are chronically tightening their lower body and then they get all these weird symptoms, urinary symptoms, pain symptoms, very common. And this guy had this, and he just had to teach himself the process of acceptance. He was telling this one story about a friend of his who is 80, who had brain cancer, and the friend started saying to himself rather than resisting what was happening, he said to himself “I want it this way: just the way it is”.

He would just say that, over and over again. “I want it this way: just the way it is.” And those kind of practices, where you just bring yourself into acceptance. Like this guy has a relaxation practice where he just lies down, he allows himself to feel whatever sensation in his body as tense as it is, or whatever it is, and only by allowing it does that area relax. That’s the way it relaxes, by allowing the tension, the tension relaxes.

Those kind of processes, affirmation of acceptance, bringing the mind back to the present, or just laying down and allowing the body to relax. Those are all mindfulness practices that are really profound. And, their very health-giving. And, just doing what you are doing – reading, and just combining your mind and heart with these profound teachings, just reminding yourself on a daily basis. 10 minutes. 15 minutes. They all help. And they lead to this equanimity. It’s not about becoming a passive person. It’s just about allowing what is and, from there, having whatever intention you have, you can bring great energy to things at that point.

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For the rest of our exclusive interview, stay tuned for Part 2 of our 54-minute interview – to be uploaded soon (as soon as I finish transcribing it!)

Again, for more information about Bill and, to get an exclusive 50-minute FREE zero-obligation health consultation with Bill to see if health coaching may be right for you, go to Bill’s website http://billgottliebhealth.com/, and tell him that Eric Wang from Health Demystified sent you.