The new focus of energy medicine is based on the belief that our "life force" creates energy fields that are unbalanced during emotional or physical disease. Because our energy fields are part of an interconnected whole, the use of focused intention by one individual can aid in the health and well being of another. What do you know about healing? What practices do you have to maintain health and wellness?
Artwork by Susan Seddon Boulet. Many thanks.
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39 comments:
I've been confronted with a variety of serious deseases in my family & in my neighbourhood.
One thing which might be (and was) good to achieve is/was to preserve (or get) a calm & peaceful mind (in the midst of 'storm', of pains, fears & sorrows).
On how to get to such a point I won't say something, because this doesn't only depend from the 'method' (for example prayer, meditation, medication etc.) but mainly from the person (and the influental people around him/her).
I know that our "life force" is definitely effected by our emotional and physical well being, which in turn is effected by how we interact with others in our lives. Toxic relationships wear away at our energy and drain our vitality and ability to heal. Feelings of helplessness and hopelessness contribute to opening pathways for disease to enter our bodies. Surrounding ourselves with positive energy, practicing loving kindness and forgiveness, not only heals others, but ourselves as well. I, myself, have experienced the return of my life force every time I've let go of negativity and non-reciprocal relationships. These things act like sinkers around your ankles and pull you down into depression. Healthy relationships, on the other hand, are life-giving. Also, our spiritual connectedness with the Force of All Life,the very center of our being, the place where we go to "drink from the well" is our all important source of life-giving energy and healing. We all will die from one cause or another, but we can still remain vessels of healing for ourselves and others until that time comes.
I have never had any major health issues and I currently am in perfect health and intend to keep it that way. So how do I intend to continue that?
Well for starters there is the power of the mind. I am sure we have all heard of people "un-thinking" their cancers away. I totally believe in that. Our mind controls our body and not the other way around, hence nothing that includes medical conditions can enter one's state without the mind's permission, if I may use such words. As the author above wrote our emotional state, our beliefs, perceptions and most importantly thoughts have everything to do with it. Positive and healthy thoughts radiate health and negative and angry thoughts radiate dis-ease.
A lot more can be said on this but I do not want to write an article.
Secondly, since we live in a physical realm we also have to understand that there are consequences to every action. Hence if one eats lots, unless they have trained their mind so well that eating does not equal weight gain, they will gain weight. Hence in my own life I not only practice but also teach to others (as a holistic nutritionist) ways of giving the body the natural and wholesome food and only what the body needs and none and I do mean none of what the body does not want or need. For some people this may be extreme but to me it is very simple, it's either you want to put yourself at risk and suffer or not, and I choose not.
Through proper eating, sleeping and thinking, I believe one cannot only heal their body but prevent literally anything.
I know nothing about healing. But I and almost all of family members are in a good health. Thanks God. I just want every people in a good condition and have their ability to finish their jobs and tasks.
Be blessed and health....
Eat, exercise, stay active, stay curious, think...
listen to your body, get check ups, and don't let things get to you so much...
I do think the dichotomy of brain-body annoys me because the brain is part of the body. In fact the body functions in such a way to protect the brain, so that the brain can find another chance to pass on genes.
Brain and body are hopelessly intertwined. That said, the hocus-pocus medicine is causing people to not get the help they need. And has no proof beyond anecdote and placebo effect.
Paying attention to one's "life force" may help them reduce their stress... but to tie it to a life force is like saying Santa exists. Why? Well... Santa keeps kids behaved during the holidays (some) and obviously his presents get them excited. If life force is proved by how the people feel, so is Santa.
A general and positive feeling for the kid.
Depends on what you want to heal, I think not only our life force affects everything but also every other factor of health or unhealth. I think they all affects each other by osmosis. A bit of mental unhealth will affect a physical unhealth and vice versa. So everything has some affect. The "energy field" or "life force" is pure consciousness and will help if conscious and hinder if unconscious. I have heard many stories about people having their own subjective proof about healing, I've never had any proof of it, but that doesn't mean its not real. I think a lot of people think they are capable and are not though and practice on the back of the new age movement.
The best practice for health is always going to be prevention through healthy diet , and study of mind and consciousness to help you recognise real health from false health.There is a tyoe of wisdom that will be able to spot another wise person in a city environment, but would be unable to pick out a wise shaman in the amazon. And a shaman who might be able to pick out wise people in the amazon but not in the city. However there is a universal wisdom that can enable a person from either place spot another wise person wherever they go. When everything affects your health , everything becomes a practice to maintain it.
Some practices I have used:
I used to use Tai Chi. I had a course in it at college. Unfortunately my practice slipped and I've forgotten most forms.
The Middle Pillar Exercise, and Circulation of the Body light, as taught by Israel Regardie. Very effective for me. Visualizing radiant and divine light descending and charging different energy centers in the body, then moving that light via visualization around the body, and expanding the aura.
I've been using a Sufi Heart mediation. I can't remember where I found this one....online somewhere. And I've just tried googling it to post a link, but can't find it. Oh well. All I do is sit quiet. Meditate on a emerald light glowing in my heart region. I let this light then course through my body for a few minutes, then I send the energy out to a specific person who may need loving-kindness.(I especially send it to people who rub me the wrong way!)
The Middle Pillar is extremely charging. Best to do in the morning.
The heart, I do at the end of the day, or as needed. I think this is one of the most powerful meditations/exercises that I've used. I have sent this energy out to people and I think it helps them.
This practice of energy medicine relates to the laws of thermodynamics...
another aspect of this concept is bodhisatvic: weather we deliberately or consciously send energy or not, we affect our environment and fellow man in a profound manner. In a sense, as entropy takes place- that "leveling off" process- we share who and what we are at an energetic level; our health, our emotions, all of ourselves blur together. Am I my brother's keeper? I am my brother's "keeper", because I am a part of him, and he a part of me. A bodhisatva takes responsibility for the energy that radiates around them at all times, for the greater good.
A wise student surrounds themselves with those that represent what they wish to become, knowing one day that entropic effect will become evident. This is also why when one wishes to study the Tantras, it is strongly suggested that they do so in an ecologically clean environment that is non-violent and has not had any major disasters- literally the karma of the area can become a hindrance to health and growth.
We unbalance our EM energy field, our aura, by different kind of accidents, provoking different blockages of the energy flaw what at the end is resulting in a disease.
Our body has perfect software but through different, fears, phobias, conditionings, accidents we cut or reduce energy flaw through some meridians, some nerves and disease is there.
Power of our intention is great, I do believe in it. I treated our cherry tree some four years ago in the moment it was ready to die and it continued its life for additional 4 year; it died this year after such a magnificent blooming.
I am a bit sad because I noticed this spring the tree was in need of my energy, of my help. Several times being alone with a tree I thought I have to treat it, I have to give him energy, but always postponing it for later. Later was too late.
I want to express a principle that is sometimes overlooked in energetic matters involving Intent. To do so, I will use an analogy. Imagine a water tower in a small town. This tower provides water and pressure to all within the area. It follows specific channels and if they are blocked, thos areas get no water. Thus it is imperative to keep the channels open! There are many methods to do this, but it must be done for results to occur!
So far, we are in sync here. Now, in order to provide water to the area, not only must the channels be clear and clean (your discussion); there must also be water in the tank!
The pump that pushes the water from the river up to the tank must be working and there must be enough water in the tank to provide the flow needed.
So, my point is that in addition to knowledge of the nature of energy and how it flows, one that is a facilitator for healing, as well as the client must have water in their tank!
This means that the healer must be somewhat healed and energetically whole. It also means that the flow provided to the client must be "pumped up to the tank",... ie. the client must have a receptive heart. These are not something that comes from words and explanations. The level of personal energy for the facilitator is a result of recovering what she/he has lost in the past. Becoming energetically whole. And the receptive heart in the client means the she/he must have pushed the infected patterns to the surface for healing.
Healing requires energy. The more one recovers from historical parasites and wounds, the more one can heal one's self and assist others. Even then the client MUST be able to access their infected patterns to clear them and be willing to do so...
I practice qigong and have studied some of Mantak Chia's books, amongst others.
I see people's blockages - and I can - sometimes - shift energy in other people.
Sometimes though, I can't do anything because the patient is unwilling.
The self is complex because we make it so - otherwise its crystal clear.
I gave up healing others ten years ago - concentrating on healing myself. Now, I'm back - stronger and more focused than before - and its all coming together.
Give it what names you like - words are tools to help us communicate. Systems are created to help us understand our world. Lets be humble and accept it.
I have learned that healing is not about changing something from illness to health or dis-ease to ease. . .
Healing is about remembering who and what you are!
Suppose there is a man who is a billionaire. . .
One day he is in a accident and loses his memory.
He wonders around as a homeless poor man.
Would I need to help him gain money?
Help him learn the difference between poverty consciousness and prosperity thinking?
No.
What I would do is treat his lack of remembrance.
Once I help him remember who and what he is... the abundance is his again
It is the same for all else that we think, believe, want.
Someone has cancer.... affirm that they are healthy.
The body is experiencing an illness but that which is the I AM of the person can never be ill.
Affirm and know that.
As the healer, we must know it for the person first.
We cannot pity, feel sorry for, or play into the illusion. . .if we do, then health is a distant concept that cannot come to the person.
Often times we feel separate from God
We believe that we are our bodies and so when the body suffers.. we believe that we suffer.
Once we remember the essence of what and who we are and that health is already here not something that must be sought after, obtained, worked for. . . then our body will return to health (if that is what is meant).
There is also the lesson the soul chooses to learn before incarnating into human form.
The illness is a lesson to aid on the journey of evolution.
Do not cure it.
Bless it.
Love it.
and let it go. . .
Return to Love!
Healing is an ongoing process! It is part of the journey and not a destination. I am very introspective and am always seeking solutions to become balanced and seek wellness of Body, Mind and Soul. It takes time to become the best me I can be!
One thing I've learned about healing is that it's really true that when you heal yourself, you heal the planet and others as well. When I stop hurting, then I am freed up to do something more positive, and that lighter energy comes through and affects others through my new attitudes, approaches, and intentions. If I live on a more whole and loving level, it helps everyone around, and my impact on community and the natural environment is improved, so that others and everything around me can also benefit from not receiving the shit I don't kick, and conversely, receiving support from my more positive and aware approaches.
I have studied a wide variety of healing arts and have received the services of many practitioners. And the bottom line is that you can't heal until you are ready to do so.
And ready means ready to accept the possibilities that change when you move from considering yourself broken somehow to considering yourself restored to health.
Carolyn Myss had a very good point in her analysis on why people don't heal- they have become comfortable in their victim space and enjoy the victim-attention. Healing means having to cast that mask aside and be considered normal again. There has to be an understanding that energy will still flow to /through you when you chose to be healed/normal again.
In severe challenges, one must rise to the challenge and fully connect to the will to live, the will to survive. If the pain is emotional, you must forgive yourself and others to release yourself from that space. There is no easier way to clear through it and move forward than to release your feelings with forgiveness and move on.
And while the mind is powerful in its ability to create and discard realities, basic trust in the body to let you know how things are going must be nurtured. Your body is unique, and it will tell you when things aren't working for it. You just have to be willing to listen to the sensations produced, day in and day out. You need to honor what your body "says" over whatever your friends or mass media is telling you. Some folks tolerate a wide variety of foods very well, other have allergies and other reactions, that need to be noticed and dealt with. The gut reaction is a powerful response that needs to be considered on many levels.
Another thing about healing, vibrational / etheric healing practices can be very supportive and can be quite effective where "regular" medicine fails in its approach. Most "stuff" starts in the auric field before it manifests as a bodily "illness". If you take a wellness approach and keep your energetic body as clean and balanced as the physical, you have better immune response and stay much healthier overall.
Healing happens when you're ready for it, even if you don't consciously realize it. And sometimes that means having a lot of patience with yourself as you grow through to being able to accept the transition inherent in the healing.
Over the years one of the most important things that I have learned about healing is that one person's definition of healing can be drastically different from anothers.
This understanding of healing is not simply limited to individuals either. We, as a society, have very definite opinions/ideas about what healing is. Until we are able to come to a new understanding or awareness of healing, we will limit our capacity to experience it.
healing begins within us..........and is carried foreward by the whispers of the wind...........the explosions of thunder around us.................the beauty of morning beginning and the the depth of darkness on a deep winters night.........it deepens with each breath.........and expands as our inner light illuminates our darkest crevises............its our own drumming beating to our beat in our own time............it is never ending and always expanding........its wild and mysterious..........and if you pause its seems the answers are right here ...........in our own grasp no matter how tentative............how fragile we might reach for it................waiting for us to discover what we have known along.
It's the Zero-Point Field that serves as the medium for that. It's the warp of the tapestry of space-time and the energy moving around and through it is the weft that paints the picture of our universe. At a quantum level, wellness may just be simply(!) learning how to go with the flow and follow the path of least resistance. But, in order to do that, one must be able to accurately perceive 'the flow' in order to go with it. The problem is that, when teaching someone how to perceive the flow, one must understand that the flow can only be perceived correctly from one's own perspective. That is, we can direct our own lives far better than we can ever hope to direct another's.
The core teaching, though, is always self-taught, as no other can fully grasp our perspective. Macroscopically, that is, outside our differentiated 'selves', there IS only one 'way' and the trick is realising that it's unavoidable. This reminds me of this new series called 'Merlin' that's running on BBC at the moment (US will get it in January, BTW). One of the main concepts of the first episode was, "One cannot choose one's destiny nor can one escape it." Applying that concept of destiny- wyrd-like--is learning to go with the flow.
I would have to go with pat on this one as far as getting someone to perceive what I perceive in order for them to heal. I do believe that good health follows emotional well being, but there is something that I have tuned into all these years that has allowed for my body to heal that which the medical profession claimed would not be healed. Whatever it is I'm not sure, except for that it works. Whenever I have healed others it was through advice as to what they should do to heal but never as a spiritual healer. Even then it is difficult to get people to follow tried and true advice. Generally I have abused my health a great deal but find that through the perception of good health I stay healthy. I frequent the hot tub daily and focus on the enjoyment of it and try to fill my days with peace, love and joy. I think it is a matter of focusing your mind to heal. Avoiding negativity is a must but when unavoidable it just needs to be dealt with and then expediently move forward into the brighter future. We all have to die sometime, its just a matter of when and how, not if.
There are no such things as "energy medicine" there is no such thing as "life force". Both as metaphors for highly complex chemical and energetic processes which exist in the human metabolise. Healing likewise his a highly complex, and not always, systematic, complex of biochemical activities, wholly natural, often faulty, mostly effective, but often has undesirable consequences. Intervention by modifications off diet and interventions by substances can also lead to undesirable consequences whilst providing support to the natural processes of healing. Such simplifying and generalist questions that you pose are too vague to be useful.
Whilst it is true that some 'energy medicine' is based on putative energies, there ARE veritable energies like sound and magnetism that are used in alternative medicines. Even Radiation Therapy, as a treatment for cancer, is a form of energy-based medicine, so I can't quite agree that there is no such thing. Things like 'Light Therapy' sound childish at first, until one makes realisations like the relationship between sunlight, melanin and calciferol. Sunlight triggers melanin to produce calciferol (Vitamin D). So, it's easier to beat rickets outside on a clear, sunny afternoon than hiding away in a dark room and it's simple light thereapy. But the link between stronger bones and exposure to sunlight is FAR from obvious; I suspect that there are many 'less obvious' situations that can aid or deter health just waiting to be discovered and made obvious.
The elusive and putative 'life force', although unproven, has been the foundation of Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda for thousands of years and both systems do yield decent results. It may come to pass that we discover that there is a harmonic field that is comprised of how E-M fields and Weak-fields interplay. At least that's my conjecture. Somewhere in that highly complex interaction (as you rightly describe), could lay such a layer of interacting forces at the quantum level. If there is such a field (an harmonic electro-weak field), its complexity would be incredible due to the variety of E-M wavelengths combining with chromodynamics on the Weak-force side (not to mention the charge parity aspects).
But, as people are either viewing these phenomena (like E-M and Weak force) individually or looking for some 'other', NEW force (to explain 'life-force'), they may well be over-looking the area where the truth lies. I.e., if we're looking in the wrong places, it's little wonder why it remains elusive. Looking like that could be a silly as expecting to photograph gravity (using E-M to probe gravity, which it can't). Quantum flux is bloody tricky to monitor, retain, interpret and use to our benefit and it is just that which energy medicine purports to do. Until these phenomena are FAR better understood, I can relate to your reticence in accepting it. As for
me, I'm open to the possibility but have not been convinced that the exact mechanism has been discovered (in fact, I'm pretty sure it hasn't), but the results of these techniques stand as evidence that something is working and THAT leads me to think that there IS a mechanism in existence but that is not understood. The fact that it is not well (if, at all) understood in scientific terms means that it should be handled with care, i.e., practised by those who are trained in the 'art', until we can FIND the science and train people in that.
Step 1: Someone makes an analogy between the physical concept of energy or the frequency of a quantum wave function and metaphysical experience.
Step 2: This analogy gets misperceived as an identity. The person believing the identity is now a new age fundamentalist.
Step 3: Based on this mis-perception a technology based on "energy fields" is thought possible and since biology is based ultimately on physics a medical technology based on this theory is thought possible..
Step 4: A medical practice is set up based on this "healing" through manipulation of "energy fields" or some other "esoteric" process. To what extent it is based on genuine misguided belief or hope of economic gain I cannot fully judge but marketing techniques are definitely used to amplify and project the message.
Step 4: Someone gets cancer - let's say prostrate cancer.
Step 5: Because of all the talk about energy fields and "alternative healing" a credibility problem occurs between the doctor and the cancer patient. The patient does not know who to believe or which doctor to go to (both offer anecdotal evidence with respect to efficacy) but his metaphysical experience, and its misidentification with physical processes leads him to the "healer" and away from what is now perceived as "western medicine".
Step 6: Chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery are rejected as options and "cleansing of poisons from the body" are embraced.
Step 7: The patient dies as a result.
In my opinion it should be illegal.
I think Molly's question remains important. I would guess Chaz and I are unlikely to share much difference on alternative medicine and so on. I often feel the tone he generates and share it. Something remains though on just what healing is, both in the complexity of our bodies as standard science is beginning to see them and the creation of a world of more care and concern. Much of what we have created that is good in the West is tainted by much that is wrong - somewhere in this trying to work out what healing is remains important, not least in working out why we still do so much damage to ourselves. Marx was at his best when detailing (often from court and medical officer records) just what effects the industrial revolution vs having one people's bodies (Grundrisse on recall), and today we hear about stress all the time yet seem to do nothing real to combat it. My questions would be about what needs to be developed as a systems model to make our lives less prone to need healing in some kind of cycle of understanding we do need self-healing systems that recognise what is pathological - including what 'cures' bring with them. Medicine is still often at sticking plaster levels when it comes to this and Foucault was right in describing much of its attitude in terms of regimes of truth. Playing rugby towards the end of my time, I was routinely 'mouth stapled' (bleeding gums) and injected with cortisone at half-time, and put back out as 'healed'. One might say, had I really been healed, I would never have played the stupid game in the first place! Many of my students may have wished the mouth staples had been bigger and insoluble! Wider talk of a system we do not understand very well should be encouraged, not stitched up. Everyone can have their own opinions - the problem comes when those that control just want to restrict 'cure' to fit for work or the second half.
All that alternative stuff is okay - when you actually understand the mechanisms that make stuff work, and why most of it is complete crap. Having studies ancient medicine to some degree, I thank reason, empiricism, and damn hard work of the science of medicine and biology that have freed us from charalans, fakers and quacks. Not that I have 100% faith in modern medicine. I am currently seeing a shite load of money and technology around me for my cancer treatment. There are massive financial interests and personal to keep all those beeping machines going. This must place massive resistance to new therapy ideas. Having said that I am also reassured that, money being so tight in the NHS, all that cash must be doing something effective - if we were all dieing of the treatment (like I feel I am at the moment) or the treatment was all smoke and mirrors you can be damn sure that those millions were not spent.
I like the hopefulness in Chaz's observation that "all that cash must be doing something effective - if we were all dieing of the treatment (like I feel I am at the moment) or the treatment was all smoke and mirrors you can be damn sure that those millions were not spent. "
My mother in law as given three months to live by her cardiologist over a year ago. At the time, she had a slew of doctors that she saw on a regular rotation several times a week for kidneys, heart, cancer (in remission), stroke - all taking tests and rescheduling her for appointments in another 14 - 30 days. She would land in the hospital once a month or so, and they would all argue about treatment and release her with a different list of medication, often more than before. After she was given her three months to go, we took her home, spoke to the one doctor that we had confidence in, her Osteopath, and canceled all of her other appointments. Needless to say, these doctors were not happy about that. Our position was that her quality of life for the time she had left, needed to be more than a visit to a different doctor daily.
Working with the Osteopath, we took a look at the medications that she was taking and began to drop them one by one, while increasing her nutritional supplements with Standard Process products. While her kidney's, heart and stroke disabilities didn't get better (she gets some identity from these), they also didn't get worse, until she left our house and resumed her prior medical routine. After a couple more hospital says, we were asked to, again, care for her as a final answer, she was fading fast and the nursing home her only other option. Again, we worked with the Osteopath and again saw her overall vitality improve and organ function stabilize.
I tell this story to say this - my mother in law's experience showed me that the current medical model is very much an industry that has less to do with the health of the patient than the survival of the industry. If my mother in law did not have good Medicare supplemental insurance, I am not sure that these doctors would have been running up the bills with tests and visits the way they are. I shudder to think of how many Medicare dollars have gone into her health care with hospital stays, surgeries, treatments. As I look at her peer group, they have all learned to identify their health with this treatment, and all patterned their lives around taking handfuls of drugs and going from office to office. I wonder if they would improve if they had someone to advocate for them the way that we do with our mother.
I look forward to the time when the age of ethics will catch up with health care. We can all see that the current industry practices are not at all efficient and sometimes take more from our health than they give. It will be interesting to see how it can change.
The problem is with holistic medicine, the methods are not proven. In traditional medicine, there are your risks of getting a bad doctor, or a method that for an unseen reason will cause more damage for harm. But what supports traditonal medicine are solid studies, while not perfect, are as close as we can get to saying something works.
Now, there are subjective factors such as, a generally happy person can rebound faster, if you believe in your treatment then it is more effective. I accept that, and that should be incorporated in our health as much as possible.
Things like Reiki may be real, and have a reason behind them that we don't understand with current knowledge. So, I say, fine.. if it makes you feel better, visit a practitioner, you can't argue with results. But when it comes to your life, go to Reiki AND get chemo if it is what is recommended. As you said, complimentary.
I see your point. And yet we all know that those studies are conducted to prove a point, and can be presented to say what we want them to say in broad parameters. Don't get me wrong, I do not want to take any drug that hasn't been tested by the fda - and yet I do only in that I eat for health and take nutritional supplements regularly.
There is much to what you say about attitude and belief. I have seen miraculous recovery based on belief. It seems to me that our beliefs form the limits of who we are. If we believe that conventional medicine is all that will work, then it will be. If we believe that our possibilities are unlimited, and that by simply affirming the life in us, we can obtain and maintain health, then we will. What I can see about healing, is that it is highly personal, for that very reason. When confronted with a serious illness, our lives are drastically changed, and our beliefs and values are brought into intense focus. Perhaps it is our opportunity to reformulate these.
Yes, Molly ... and no. The "scientific method" of experimentation can and should be used to check specific functionality of all kinds of treatments. The presupposition is that the studies are properly set-up and managed and that all of the results are published and considered. This means, of course, that those conducting the tests have to as open for negative as for positive results and that comprehensive attempts are made to keep the parameters equal. In terms of testing the efficacy of medical treatment this means a lot of work, even more time, and - in the systems with which our societies work - a helluva lot of money. Moreover, when you add to this the complex nature of the subject then there are untold possibilities for "spin" and there's so much spinning going on here it makes us all dizzy.
One of the major weaknesses of traditional, main-line medicine is the underemphasis on our "holistic" nature. This, of course, is partly due to the misappropriation of the term by hundreds of charlatans, quacks and weirdos. Taking a holistic view means no more and no less than seeing the human person as a psychosomatic unity and is implicit in the 60 year-old WHO definition of health: " Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well- being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." Or, as Juvenal put it 2,000 years ago, "mens sana in corpore sano".
For those, like chaz, going through the conventional system, this can sound like a cynical joke (although I am sure, from his postings here, that chaz is well capable of looking after himself according to the "bigger picture"), where they feel themselves poked, prodded, medicated, sent from one specialist to another, treated with disinterest (or contempt), not being told the truth, and generally being reduced to "the kidney in Room 17". And, in fact, if you wanted to set up an environment negative to healing, you'd have to work hard to develop many of the contexts in our main-stream health-system structures (and I'm speaking here as someone who has spent the last twenty years working as a health professional). There is vast room for improvement in conventional medicine, most of which is being stymied by structural idiocy.
Yet, despite all this, the conventional system still succeeds in treating millions of people successfully every year. And many alternative methods, when subjected to rigorous scientific testing, just haven't come up to scratch - homeopathy is one good example.
Of course there are going to be lots of reports of positive effects of homeopathy (or other alternative methods of treatment); this is no wonder, when one considers that "the power of positive thinking" (or, if you prefer, "the placebo effect") is so efficacious. If the patient approaches treatment with a positive attitude of faith and trust, he/ she has already contributed massively to a positive healing environment. But the real problem is that conventional medicine doesn't value this effect nearly enough (or that so much of the "health" industry, Big Pharma, etc. has, at best, no interest in such aspects). This is the really important point people like Patch Adams are making.
Being strictly a biochemist in a previous life (just under a decade ago) and therefore having had the opportunity to work as an analytical chemist for one of the U.S big pharma "Abbot labs" and later done research at the University of Chicago (Chicago's Ivy league) under some brilliant doctors I will reveal the following:
I have been a witness to the corruption of this industry (pharmacy) first hand. Manipulating data until the numbers fit and the outcome of our research to have the "scientific data" say what the FDA wants to see to approve drugs for sale and label it as safe. Its no wonder some drugs get recalled. There is an actual formula used by these companies to determine whether they will pull a drug off the market. if the costs of lawsuits secondary to deaths and disabilities caused by the pharmaceutical are less then the revenues the drug will stay on the market. One of the directors of a major division of abbot labs got there by pushing through a drug through research and validation to FDA in 1.5 years only to have the drug be pulled from the market 2 years later. and he was rewarded with a promotion to division manager. While doing research at the U of C again I encountered corruption in the supposed search for truth. In the field of research at big universities one must publish or parish and if your hypothesis are not what you believed they were your funding gets cut. (here i was thinking this would be a more ethical place) in addition to this many researchers have vested interests in the products they are researching. I one of my duties was to put together data for papers for publication. I came across some wonderful data for the benefits of vitamin C gathered at this lab some 5 years prior to my arrival there, however the head researcher dismissed the data and said that it was old and not valid and valid it was, the reason for that statement I learned later was because this doctor had product which was only 50% as effective and he wanted to push his product as "THE" agent for therapy. I also learned that some of his hypothesis about a specific injury mechanism at the cellular level were untrue, yet he has published many papers stating otherwise in very reputable journals such as JMB, JAMA to name a couple.
In a book called World Without Cancer : The Story of Vitamin B17, the author reports that there are more people getting rich from cancer treatment then there are people dying and therefore there will never be a cure for cancer. This book also reports on how the research study on vitamin B17 was repeated many times until it could be discredited. Again the "scientific method" at work. I encourage those interested to read up on it. This is the same principle used by big pharma to determine if a drug should pulled from the market.
So I would not rely on medical doctors, pharmaceuticals or this so called research. By this statement I am not implying that there all drugs are bad nor that all medical doctors are bad there a few good ones on both camps. and do not get me wrong if I were on a car accident and dying there is no other place I would like to be in than in an emergency room.
About curing and healing. in my opinion the medical establishment attempts to cure and never comes close to healing. to me heal is to return to an even better state then one was in prior to becoming ill, to achieve balance by whatever means that may be. cure is to attempt to bring the person back to pre-disease status, and while doing so many people suffer tremendous "side effects which in essence the majority of the time end up leaving the person in a worst state then they were prior to becoming ill.
As a natural healer I have seen some truly miraculous things happen, have helped many patients which were failed by the medical establishment, regain health. a patient went from 20/200 vision to 20/25 as measured with a snellen chart with pre and post examination by an optometrist, my most dramatic case. Other patients have reported seen changes in things which they did not mention were issues before embarking on the road to health, improved libido and sexual function, recover ability to read up close, gall stone pain and sooooooo many others to list here.
Again, if I am imagining this then my imagination and my patients imagination are great, whether this was achieved with "life force" or whatever it may be the changes are real and these patients feel the changes which is the most important thing.
I do think that healing is a process of spirit and imagination. But I also think that it is a process of recognition. I know that when one morning, I felt myself coming down with what I thought was a cold, and ended up with a series of trips to the emergency room, resulting in a diagnosis of Strep Pneumonia within 24 hrs, I was glad to have the fluid drained from my lungs, glad for the medication, glad for the extended hospital stay. Everyone seems to have a different answer as to why something like this might occur.
Medical intervention during such a crisis is important. So is supporting the body in ways that give it time to heal itself. Everyone seems to give us different suggestions for what kind of support will best serve us. I think this is because there are different answers for each of us, based on our values and beliefs. How we posit our consciousness, our systems integration, our self appreciation and recognition, all play key roles in obtaining and sustaining good health. Whether we are looking for something outside of ourselves to provide relief or a "cure," or searching and adapting our internal systems for methods of optimum healing, makes a big difference in the support that we ultimately choose.
Osteopaths are great - my back as been saved and my life turned around by a great massage from a fully qualified osteopath, where the doctor could only suggest bed-rest and ibuprofen. I take it that your mother in law is in the private medicine system, with all those doctors looking for a piece of the action? There are clear differences between what private and public medicine seems as the correct and appropriate "clinical desicion".
Whilst in Bangkok, I had a medical MOT: highly efficient, comprehensive, low cost and in an immaculately clean hospital with very friendly and concerned staff. They discovered a 10mm calculus in my gall bladder, and recommended surgery. When I reported this to my NHS GP at home she sent me for a consultation with the digestive department, and they subsequently confirmed the diagnosis with a scan. This took a matter of a few months, but I was basically asymptomatic most of the time. Whilst the Bangkok doctors were keen to get the cash and ignore the fact that the bile duct itself was clear: English doctors advised against an unnecessary operation unless symptoms got worse. This seemed a clear indication of the differences between a money making process and a service which is free but with limits on resources. After 2 years and cutting down on fat the gall bladder problem is gone. Had I taken the advice of the private health system, I would have be without a gall bladder and a a large sum of cash, and still be on my bad old diet.
Beware of vested interests.
I think the trick is to look at the conceptual basis of "healing". "Healing", at its foundation, confuses metaphysical experience with physical experience - science with art.
Metaphysical experience is genuine and those who believe that objectivity is the only experience are wrong. But equally those that have metaphysical experience, and interpret it as physical experience are also wrong and dealing in fundamentalism.
Disease is an observable physical malfunction of our bodies. It is not a metaphysical experience. (We can have a metaphysical experience of being sick but the disease itself is an essential experience. It is not existential. It is a biological fact, not a religious or artistic one). The protocols associated with "studies", and the statistical analysis of them, has been designed to eliminate dependence on anecdotal evidence which is extremely unreliable in such complex systems. The experiences we have are associated with our central nervous system and most of the disease processes are associated with physical processes in our bodies which are nearly completely (usually completely) autonomous from our nervous systems and our experiences.
What does it mean to die? How does it feel to be dying? Why is dying important to us? What is the significance of sickness or of death? These are questions that are metaphysical in nature. But I believe that the very notion of "healing", by which is meant a process other than scientific medicine of stopping disease, is itself at its foundation a theoretical error based on an equivocation between certain metaphysical experiences of "energy" or "vibrations" which are not physical at all but rather metaphysical. These get interpreted as physical and the problem starts.
To put it simply, theoretically there is no healing. There are only experiences, religious ones, or artistic ones, conjured by healers that are real. That is why poetry and religion so often surround "healers" and is so often absent in traditional medicine. Find a doctor who comes into his patients room and sings, dances or recites poetry. You will not find them. But healers? They frequently will emphasize these areas. They are concerned with the spirit. They are meta-physicians not physicians and they are attacking a physical problem. That is an error.
I cannot know that "there is no healing" empirically as I am not a witness everywhere. I am simply not everywhere where people are sick and I do not state "there is no healing" from empirical experience. In a word, there is no way to observe that there has never been a healing just as there is no way to prove there has never been a violation of the law of gravity. Still it is a theoretical statement that I believe has not been dis-proven by experiment and I believe in fact has been confirmed.
I assert (predict) based on theory something very simple: If you do a statistical study of healing you will find it does not exist. Anecdotes can suggest that a study be done but no confirmation can be gained without a study of a statistically relevant sample size - preferably several studies. This is not a lack of faith on my part. It is just an understanding of the role of faith and the role of science. It is based on a theoretical understanding of the theoretical error at the basis of "healing". That error is the confusion of metaphysics with physics.
There is a epidemic of critique against modern medicine which is unjustified. This has nurtured breeding ground for quackery. I can understand why. Every bone in my body is telling me to seek alternative medicine. I have just completed my first week of chemo and radio therapy. Everyday I have to go to the hospital and participate in my own suffering. On Tuesday I was fitted up to a little pump which injected over 1 hour a compound of platinum called Cisplatin. This has toxified my entire body by interrupting all dividing cells. I have bee vomiting for two days as the anti-emetic drugs aren't working well enough. When they are I feel like throwing up and am in constant pain.
As for the actual cancer: it has not caused anything you could call pain. Day by day I am also receiving radiotherapy. This involves having my head strapped, and utterly immobilised, to a tailor made head-mold (thank hell I am not claustrophobic) and fried from 5 directions. This has casued swelling at the back of my neck so that my uvula is dangling on the back of my tongue making me want to vomit. All this has major and extensive side-effects including the destruction of my immune system: the very thing that has been keeping cancer at bay for months or years.
There have been moments this week when, if I had a button to die, would have pressed it. I have 6 more weeks of treatment and have not the foggiest idea of how I am gonna get through it, as with each weeks the greater risk to my health increase and the pain and discomfort will ramp up and even increase after treatment has finished. This is a balancing act. the treatment is killing cells, good and bad. As cancer cells divide more quickly, they are more vulnerable to the attack. Natural processes (my immune system) that attack cancer are now of no consequence. I am locked in. The hard part is making the effort everyday to increase the pain, and all the while the nay sayers, the critics, the fakers and quacks offering alternatives niggle at my consciousness: "take the easy way". Have some sheep's sorrel and relax! Take multivits, avoid acids, do acupuncture, take homoeopathic remedies, the cancer will go away. This thing that I hardly knew I had, that has never caused me a day off, or the slightest pain just sits at the back of my throat. But can I ignore the doctor when he tells me that I would be dead in a year without treatment and that my chances of surviving 5 years are 81% if I got through the pain of treatment? I'm doing the treatment for my partner and my 13yo son, not for me. It is hard and will be painful but I can't just think about myself.
I’ve watched a lot of friends go through the cancer thing. Some have gone the alternative route, some a mixed method, some the full bore western medicine route, others just finish living without treatment. In all situations I fully support personal choice. ALL!
In this one area I do have the sense that the patient must be confident in whatever treatment they chose. Whether science will support the need for such a belief system I do not know.
As we know, ‘miraculous’ cure is possible too.
I’ve discussed things like prostate cancer and other possible cancers of a male like me with friends and physicians and still am not sure what course I would take, if any.
I do know that I have had mixed results from all sorts of different medical models and do not reject any I have used entirely.
In India, we have a seed called Rudraksha . more details on http://en.wikipedia.or /wiki/Rudraksha This seed is a a healing bead and more than that has very powerful spiritual properties. When I mean spiritual, I do not mean faith or belief. I mean it in a physiological way. For some people, keeping the rudraksha in their hand can make them feel the "energy" usually around the Jaw. In my case , it made my tongue touch the palette and I felt a very pleasant sensation above the nose, around the jaw and in the top part of my neck. I started wearing the Rudraksha on my forehead and felt an intense "pull" accompanied with "bliss" a kind of high. researching on the net I got hold of the term "endogenous canabinoid receptors" and "anandamide" which might explain the effect, but the cause I believe was Rudy. The problem with Bliss was that I couldn't concentrate on my work Its as if being high and going to office. I didn't know what to do. But I kept reading on the net , and found out a way to channelize this bliss. i.e If you can concentrate on one point so much that you cannot think of anything else, at this point, the bliss vanishes, the moment u start thinking of something, it will reappear. But practising the "lock point" the place where your thoughts get locked is important. That is when I read about Yoga and meditation and how to go after the nothingness. Slowly you learn to ignore the mundane things in life, anger, insecurity , sadness, and also excitement. because this means your journey to a change in consciousness has begun and its just a matter of time and practise when you will reach a point of all knowing...the term in Sanskrit is "SthitaPradnya" or "Knowing everything, just by staying steady in a place" . The Bliss is only a covering, the juice is what lies inside the bliss.A few websites which gave me guidance for meditation are
1. http://www.kundalinicare.co /aboutkundalini3.html
2. http://en.wikipedia.or /wiki/Muraqaba
3. http://www.geocities.co /advaitavedant/avadhutagita.htm
It has nothing to do with what you belief, as , inspite of being bought up in a hindu family I was eating non-vegetarian food, would beer around in the pubs of bangalore and was not that keen on going to temples either, even now. I am just a normal dude who was having a good time with the software boom in India . I still listen to the explicit comedy on slacker . But these are all mundane things in life, when you realise what you are , basically these things don't excite you as much as the world inside you.
My advice to anyone who feels Bliss, read up whatever you can on the internet. Believe only what is convenient for you , because it means your consciousness development is at the level when u still need those things which u feel like you want. But slowly and steadly when u keep wearing the Rudraksha and meditate everyday something will change and you will grow out of it. Don't force yourself, cause you will yoyo back into where u started from.
The "Mind's eye" is nothing but a change of consciousness to be put simply , but for that u will need to grow out of your current consciousness. Once you are that....you can heal the world.
Well, I'm a Registered Nurse, currently taking my Master of Science in Nutrition. I'm also an Usui and Karuna Reiki© Master and Teacher. I meditate, and use Tai Chi.....I use my whole toolbox to keep myself healthy, and to work with clients and students.
I believe that whenever a persons stays positive that his/her illness will be healed eventually has 90% chance to achieve so. A happy lifestyle too influences the balanced body metabolism that results to a healthy physiques.
I enjoy your posts so much, I have passed the Lemonade Award to you. You can get the details on my site. Have a great day!
ive done some spiritual healing before now, a couple of times on myself. belief was the strongest emotion towards the healing being successful which is why it was so.
One of the occasions I fell off my cycle and jammed my hand in between the handlebars and a metal railing. Immediately my backhand started to swell and bruise and due to my many experiences and capabilities with the psychic, spiritual, supernatrual and unknown I thought about the bruuising not lasting a normal amount of time for me. Within 5 minutes the entirety of the back of my hand had turned a purple colour in bruising and had swollen by about 6 or 8 mm's. Then for the next 3 or 4 minutes i watched the bruising disappear slowly, it was disappearing by the edges slowly fading back to normal, thus the size of the bruise was descreasing in size too. It was fading fast enough for me to see it disappear in a similar way to a fade out in computer and television graphics. Within 5 minutes all the brusiing had disappeared and the swelling had subsided by more than half too.
My mum has worked in nursing all her life and has never heard of any kind of brusiing that can disappear as fast as it appeared!
My belief of it not lastig long for me was what caused it to disappear. I have many experiences and capabilities with the psychic, supernatural and spiritualso i knew it wouldn't be present for a normal amout of time, only i didnt expect it to disappear like that.
how this kind of healig worked was by soul energy programing affecting the body that surrounds it. I knew it wouldnt last long, i believed it wouldnt last long and i knew i was capable of making it disappear early, i also had no emotions, beliefs or thoughts of not being successful in this healing, so those expectations extended out of my soul into my body.
for the brusiing to disappear like that either the damaged blood vessels repaired themselves and the blood was absobrded by my body or the whole action was just set into reverse formula.
if a person has a bad awful life that can either be harmful for the body or it can strengthen it. Sadness can cause illness and so in an associated scenario expectations can cause ill health or well being.
Total belief is the first step to being this way, the rest falls into place naturally.
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