New Delhi, Jul 17 (IANS): People from all over the world are ditching their pills and embracing the path of natural healing with little or no medical intervention, claims a new book.

"Doctor You: Introducing the Hard Science of Self-Healing" by Jeremy Howick, Director of the Oxford University Empathy Programme, stresses that alternative or natural treatments are cheaper and equally effective as industrially produced drugs.

The aim to spell out the power of the body's natural powers to heal itself remains the book's core and it explains how using medical procedures are harmful.

By claiming to employ "hard scientific evidence" about self-healing, Howick disillusions the reader about the indispensability of modern medicine.

An interesting chapter mentions British band The Beatles, coming to an ashram in Rishikesh to learn transcendental meditation, spurring Harvard-based researchers to test out the validity of the technique, only to find out that it worked.

The book equips the readers with the knowledge that will empower them "to make the right choices about what drugs to take, what drugs to give to children, and when you should let your body do its thing".