"Taking Health into Your Own Hands" describes the traditional Taoist understanding of health in the form of a seven-level model that can be applied to Western individuals in practice. Traditional Taoist medicine distinguishes seven levels of healing, which have decreasing significance from top to bottom. The highest level is meditation, consciousness, prayer, and religion. The second level is breathing. The third level is movement. The fourth level is nutrition. The fifth level is massage and touch. The sixth level is acupuncture and herbal medicine. The seventh level of healing is surgery and allopathy.