Bernie Siegel

Bernie Siegel, MD, reached international acclaim in the late 1970s when he began talking about patient empowerment and the choice to live fully and die in peace, which he wrote about in his first book, Love, Medicine & Miracles. Since then, Bernie Siegel has published more than a dozen books, including, A Book of Miracles and Love, Animals & Miracles.

As a physician who has cared for and counseled innumerable people with terminal illnesses, Siegel embraces a philosophy of living and dying that stands at the forefront of the medical ethics and spiritual issues our society grapples with.

In May 2011, he was honored by the Watkins Review of London, England, as one of the world’s Top-20 Spiritually Influential Living People. Since the publication of Love, Medicine & Miracles, Siegel has continued to break new ground in the field of healing, supporting changes in medical education to “humanize” medical practice.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Bernie Siegel attended Colgate University and Cornell University Medical College. He trained to become a surgeon at Yale New Haven Hospital, West Haven Veteran’s Hospital, and the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.

In 1989, Siegel retired from Yale as an assistant clinical professor of general and pediatric surgery to devote himself full-time to write and to counsel patients and their families and caregivers.

What People are Saying About Bernie Siegel

“Bernie Siegel began his writing career twenty-five years ago, and from the outset he didn’t shy away from miracles. The title of his first book—Love, Medicine & Miracles—flaunted his disagreement with mainstream medicine. An MD who advised more love as a path to healing would have been in enough trouble. Opening the possibility of miracles was grounds for dismissal. In his new book, [A Book of Miracles] Bernie reaffirms his original beliefs, and with a lifetime’s wisdom and experience, he trusts in miracles more than ever.”
—Deepak Chopra