Andrew Weil

Alternative medicine pioneer Dr. Andrew Weil was born in Philadelphia in 1942, earning a degree in botanical biology from Harvard University in 1964 and an M.D. Harvard Medical School four years later. Upon wrapping up an internship at San Francisco's Mt. Zion Hospital, Weil spent a year with the National Institute of Mental Health while completing his first book, 1970's The Natural Mind. From 1971 to 1984, he served on the research staff at the Harvard Botanical Museum, concurrently spending four years during the early '70s as a Fellow of the Institute of Current World Affairs. Weil's subsequent tenure as Associate Directory of the Division of Social Perspectives in Medicine at the University of Arizona earned him notoriety as one of just a handful of holistic physicians with a faculty position at a major medical school, and he additionally maintained a general practice in the city of Tucson. Weil's other best-selling books include The Marriage of the Sun and Moon, Chocolate to Morphine, Health and Healing, and Natural Health, Natural Medicine. Turning to record industry, he also issued a number of collections of healing music, among them, 1997's Meditations for Optimum Health and Sound Body, Sound Mind and 2000's Breathing: The Master Key to Self Healing.