Systems of Healing
Introduction
In the modern world we tend to define illness physically and to limit health to
measurable parameters. As a result, we divert ourselves from a deeper
understanding, not only of sickness and health, but also of ourselves and our
place as human beings in the world.
A different view suggests that to be “hale and hearty” is to be whole and full
of heart. To be whole is to be at peace; to be full of heart is to know one’s
feelings and purpose in the world.
As Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of Homeopathy, says in his “Organon of
Medicine,”
In the state of health the spirit-like vital force (dynamis)
animating the material human organism reigns in supreme sovereignty.
It maintains the sensations and activities of all the parts of the living
organism in a harmony that obliges wonderment. The reasoning spirit who
inhabits the organism can thus freely use this healthy living instrument to
reach the lofty goal of human existence.
(The Organon of Medicine; Sixth Edition, translated by Kunze, Naude and
Pendleton; Published by J.P. Tarcher, Inc. Los Angeles, 1982. Para. 9, Pgs
14-15. All quotes from this edition.)
According to the modern view of health, however, if we have no noticeable
symptoms, if we can work and play with reasonable energy and consistency, we can
consider ourselves healthy. According to this view, vitality is not universal;
it is not a driving principle of existence. Rather, our scientists tell us, the
life energy is a derivative of the physical world, a spin-off of molecular, or
maybe atomic or sub-atomic activities. Even the profundities of genetic
engineering are founded on this idea, unique in the world’s history.
Never before have we limited the world to physicality. Never before has
one idea of the basis of the universe so powerfully driven mankind to such a
frenzy of activity to prove that it is so. No culture, no religion has been able
to penetrate so deeply into the fabric of our lives. Our very metabolism is
defined and limited to what is physically describable. Any other point of view
is regarded as “unscientific” and therefore irrelevant.
We have given up the sense of mystery and so pursue pleasures instead of joy,
goals instead of meaning, success instead of satisfaction, and stimulation
instead of will power. In our attempt to rid ourselves of the inconvenience of
paradox and ambiguity, we individually and collectively risk a gradual descent
into despair. As the underpinnings of our lives are ignored – for they do not go
away – we wonder why we cannot rest and cannot fend off our gnawing sense of
discontent.
For if health is separate from life as a universal principle, if disease is only
a matter of physiological dysfunction, no matter how subtle, then we are little
more than automatons that just need to be adjusted, a few parts replaced or
tuned. And if cure involves only our bodies, then health is dependent on less
consciousness and awareness rather than more.
But there is another way to look at health and healing. In other cultures and
times, and in western culture not so long ago, the living world in general and
human beings in particular were seen differently: The body is the focal point of
a unique energy, a locus of soul-force and divine reality. The healer or
physician has a sacred task ultimately defined by his or her ability to connect
with the whole of the person -- the body, the feelings, the thoughts, and the
soul.
If we cannot touch souls as healers, then we cannot truly say that we heal.
Ancient China: Yin and Yang
Yin and Yang are well known and as much misunderstood. The main misconception is
to consider yin and yang to be static and absolute. Yin and yang are not
absolutes; like cold and heat, there is nothing that is absolutely yin or
absolutely yang. Spring is yang relative to winter, but yin relative to summer.
Fall is yin relative to summer, but yang relative to winter. Up is more yang
than down, and down is more yin than up, but there is no absolute up or absolute
down. So to describe these concepts accurately we should say that yin-ness is
more physical, more stable, more 'earthly', more feminine and nurturing, more
mysterious, more global and less easily defined. Likewise, we should describe
yang-ness as more energetic, more volatile, more abstract, more masculine and
directive, more rational, more linear, and more easily described. We must
understand the relativity of Yin and Yang in order to use the concepts
effectively.
Also, we must understand that one of these complimentary polarities is not
'better' than the other. It is not better to be yin or yang. What is better is
to have these in proper balance within and around oneself. If we live too much
in the abstract or rational realms, things are likely to happen that make us
aware of the concrete and physical world. If we live too physically, questions
about meaning and purpose are apt to force themselves on us.
That said, we want to use Yin and Yang as a way of classifying some of the
various methods of healing. By doing this, we will be able to understand more
clearly how to use the different therapeutic modalities.
Yin and Yang can be subdivided into four groups: yang of yang, yin of yang, yang
of yin and yin of yin. These nicely describe the primary energy qualities of the
daily and yearly cycles.
Click here for Yin Yang Circle.
Beginning with the upper left quadrant, we have the most yang area. In the
daytime the sun is increasing in strength (yang) and is visible (yang). In the
upper right quadrant, the Sun is decreasing in strength (yin) but still above
the horizon (yang). In the lower right quadrant, the sun is decreasing further
in strength (yin) and it is below the horizon (yin). In the lower left quadrant,
the sun is increasing in strength again (yang), but still below the horizon
(yin).
Using these same four categories, we can place different therapeutic modalities
by their energetic quality from least physical and most energetic (upper left)
to the most physical and least energetic (lower right). We should emphasize that
there is more to this framework than we can describe in this small space. Here
we can only give the broad outlines.
In the first quadrant, the Yang of the Yang is Homeopathy, a method of therapy
that uses the most subtle of remedies. Next, in the second quadrant, the Yin of
the Yang, is Chinese Medicine where energy is manipulated primarily with needles
and herbal medicines. Third, in the quadrant of the Yin of the Yin, the area of
the most material, we speak briefly about modern medicine, and last, in the Yang
of the Yin we speak about Osteopathy and Chiropractic.
One clue about deciding which modality to use is that the more material the
modality the more interested the practitioner is in defining the disease. To put
it another way, the more specific and definable the condition, the more likely
it is that a more material modality will be able to treat it successfully. (This
raises another issue about what successful treatment is, but that is outside the
range of this presentation.) Further, we can say that the more specific the
cause of the condition is, the more likely it is that a more material modality
can treat it.
Ancient China: Physician and Patient
As well as the Chinese notion of Yin and Yang, many people are also familiar with the Five Elemental Phases and with the reality of Qi, the universal life force that can be enhanced and manipulated.But we are not so familiar with some other things about the old Chinese system that made it radically different from the modern medical approach.
In old China there were
five different levels of relationship between the patient and the physician:
1. The simple presence of the
physician would cure.
2.
The physician had to say
something about life style, more exercise, different diet, more meditation,
different work, whatever it might be.
3. The physician had to give some kind of remedy -- herbs,
foods, or now, homeopathy.
4. The physician would have to touch the patient in some way,
with massage, acupuncture and moxabustion, manipulation, or other techniques.
5. The physician would have to give “poison remedies” or
perform surgery.
We see here two important principles. First, as we go down the list, the relationship between
the doctor and the patient becomes physically closer, but less subtle. The doctor does more and more and the patient less and less. Except for the first category, which is pure interaction with no activity, the other categories represent greater authority and action on the patient by the doctor.
Second, as we go down the list, the disease is apparently more deeply established. The condition of the patient is more serious and therefore requires more action by the physician.
A physician I once discussed this with pointed out that almost all of modern
medicine is based on the fifth mode of interaction. In this mode the physician
does almost everything and the patient almost nothing. The physician in this
mode is required to have maximum authority over the patient because his or her
method is so one sided.
Also in old China it was thought that “A physician who must wait for the patient
to become ill in order to treat is an ‘inferior physician’.“ Illness shows up in
many ways before it becomes physical: changes in mood, in diet, in sleep
patterns, in pulse quality or in attitude. In Chinese medicine as originally
conceived and practiced, all of these could be noted, systematized and treated.
Further, the health insurance system was not separate from the physician. A
retainer was paid to the physician as long as the person was well. If the person
became sick, the retainer stopped until they were well. The physician was
therefore financially motivated to keep people healthy, not just to treat them
when they were ill.
Modern Chinese medicine is strongly influenced by the materialistic world-view.
When the Communists took over China, they found that most of the doctors had
left the country, which caused a serious crisis in the health system.
Ingeniously, but at the sacrifice of the essence of the original approach, the
“Barefoot Doctor” was created. He was a quickly trained, rurally based
practitioner who knew some basic acupunctural and herbal formulas and could
practice modern medicine as well on a rudimentary basis.
The few pre-Revolutionary physicians who remained reduced their vast medical
knowledge to a few urgently needed and simply applied diagnostic and therapeutic
techniques. In so doing, they defined illness and cure in ways similar to modern
medicine. This approach resulted in a list of formulas for treatment rather than
a dynamic, interactive, even artistic approach to healing.
Through the remnant of Chinese physicians that managed to leave China with their
knowledge -- supported and sometimes challenged by Western scholars and
therapists -- something of the original approach to Chinese medicine has
returned. Chinese medicine is still colored, however, by its immersion in a
materialistic, fragmented world motivated by a need for immediate results. The
need to treat many people in order to make a living, the rush to have a
‘successful’ practice, the demand of patients to feel immediately better have
all tended to dilute the practice of Chinese medicine.
No longer does the physician taking a pulse hover over the wrist of the patient
like some great and delicate bird that senses past history and present need. No
longer does the physician interview and prod and smell and even taste to
determine what this whole, miraculous individual might truly need.
As in almost all areas of modern life, truth seems bound by the exigencies of
expedience.
Homeopathy: Energetic Essence (Yang of Yang)
Homeopathy works according to radically different principles from materially based, 'scientific' medicine. These principles, the natural laws of cure, are described by Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, the developer of Homeopathy. To cure rather than just relieve an illness, these laws must be acknowledged and followed.
Classical Homeopathy
(For a more complete discussion of Homeopathy see the article on the Homeopathy page.)
The Basic Principles
1. Homeopathy is based on the observation that the symptoms that a substance creates in a healthy person can be alleviated or removed by that same substance in a sick person. This principle, which is fundamental to understanding Homeopathy, is called the similium. The ability of a substance to remove symptoms that it creates has been established over nearly two centuries through hundreds of thousands of detailed, recorded provings and clinical experiences.
2. Homeopathic medicines are created by a process of diluting and energizing the substances. Through these preparation methods we can access what Dr. Samuel Hahnemann calls the semi-spiritual, vital essence of the substance.
3. In Homeopathy we utilize our understanding of the whole person to determine the configuration of symptoms that will lead us to the most effective remedy.
How is Classical Homeopathy different from other uses of Homeopathic Remedies?
In the first paragraph of his main work on Homeopathy, The Organon of Medicine, Dr. Samuel Hahnemann
said, "The physician's highest calling, his only calling, is to make sick people healthy - to heal, as it is called."
As homeopathic practitioners, we do not engage in mystical theory or elaborate philosophies of disease and health. People usually know when they are sick, and they usually know when they are better. Our role is to assist in the process of cure. We have no other.
1) Taking the Case
Usually, people know what they need to know to describe what is wrong. However, we must ask the correct questions in order to get answers that are relevant to the selection of an appropriate homeopathic remedy. It is not enough to know that the person has diarrhea, or a cough, or headaches. These symptoms are so general that it is impossible to understand anything about the person's real illness. We must know what the person is thinking, what they are feeling, how he or she reacts to weather, to times of day, to different foods, to movement, to stress, and perhaps most importantly, what peculiar symptoms there are. In other words, we must study and comprehend the whole person.
2) Selecting the Remedy
In Classical Homeopathy we usually use only one remedy at a time. If the illness is acute (curable by itself if the person doesn't die of it), we will give frequent doses and sometimes alternate two remedies. The effect of the remedy should be quickly noticeable. If, however, the illness is chronic (that is, it will not cure itself no matter how much time passes), then we give a single remedy and wait to see the result, sometimes as long as six months. Therefore, the selection of the remedy is extremely important and cannot be rushed.
3) The Process of Cure
Ideally, cure should be gentle, quick and sure. In practice, because most of us have had varying levels of toxic input, either as medicine or simply in the environment, true healing can seem long and difficult. Fortunately, in Homeopathy, there are guiding principles that let us understand whether a person is improving or not. Psychological improvement is primary; physical improvement will follow. The improvement of older symptoms follows the removal of newer ones; the cure follows the history of the illness. Symptoms move from within out, from deeper to the more superficial.
Chinese Medicine: Manipulating Energy (Yin of Yang)
To try to summarize Chinese Medicine in such a small space is almost ridiculous. China, with India, is a great culture that has managed to survive thousands of years of vicissitudes and struggle with something of her dignity intact. In the modern world, her ancient strengths are often hidden, but through these strengths, though darkly at times, she grapples with the most modern of issues: how to find meaning in a world dominated by a superficial physicality. In her struggle for significant survival, one element of her culture has resisted extinction: the extraordinary system of healing we call Chinese Medicine. Evolved through millennia, distilled out of a combination of esoteric philosophy, spiritual practice and practical application, almost lost in a modern revolutionary madness, Chinese Medicine stands now as an eloquent monument to the persistent human need for wholeness.
The sage-physicians in whose presence we are healed, who we let peer un-resisted into our souls, who can tune our whole being with the suggestion of a smile, these people are for the most part gone. But even they would need techniques and a vision, a language of theory and practice that could be taught to an eager student. These eager students, who often lacked the inner accomplishments of their mentors, would build systems and schools, vessels to carry the precious elixir that these techniques and philosophies as often hid as revealed. Today, we are left with a distant echo of this ancient greatness. Even the schools and philosophies are in such tatters that we often cannot even understand their intent, let alone experience or even sense the truth they transmitted. Still, like the forensic technician who can digitally interpolate the sounds of a faint conversation and ultimately reproduce it, contemporary healers and scholars have managed to resurrect what seems to be a close approximation of a very old and subtle approach to health.
Chiropractic, Osteopathy and Rolphing: Energizing Bodies (Yang of Yin)
These three approaches to healing have in common the idea that structural alignment governs or strongly influences function. The assumption of each of these approaches to healing is that energy will flow better, and thus health is more likely, if the musculoskeletal structures of the body are properly aligned.
Osteopathy was proposed as a means of healing by Andrew Tyler Still, MD after the American Civil War. He felt that the standard medical practices of the time were inadequate or dangerous. His research led him to conclude that the body contains its health and can express that health if properly stimulated. He developed a series of manipulations, primarily of the joints of the skeletal system and particularly the spine. His approach has been integrated into the modern medical system, but has its own medical schools that produce a DO, Doctor of Osteopathy degree. Dr. Still's methods are used in the present day as an adjunt to modern medical treatment.
Chiropractic: While Dr. Still included soft tissue manipulations, diet and exercise in his approach to healing, D. D. Palmer took a more exclusive approach. In 1895 he proposed the system now known as 'chiropractic'. This system used spinal manipulation almost exlusively on the premise that the spinal nerves feed the whole body either directly or indirectly. Therefore, the condition of the spine should be central to the overall health and susceptability to illness. In modern times, Chiropractic has remained outside the medical establishment. There are practitioners everywhere with varying levels of skill and style.
Rolfing: Developed by Ida P. Rolf in the 1950's, Rolfing is a system of soft tissue manipulation. A rolfer aligns the body so that the gravitational influences on it will be absorbed in a dynamically healthy manner. Unlike the previous two systems, any joint adjustments are incidental. Rolfing is included here because it also relies on structural adjustment to produce dynamic results.
Modern Medicine: Manipulating Matter (Yin of Yin)
Modern medicine, sometimes called scientific medicine or allopathy, is built on a materialistic philosophy. This point of view proposes that all that exists is material, and that anything that appears not to be physical is derived from physical structures.
Usually, people are not aware that this is the first time in the known history of humanity that such a philosophy has been the driving force of a medical system. Even physicians who have a deep commitment to a spiritual life will often be rigorously committed to a materialistic science in their work.
The implications of this for modern medicine are complex and far-reaching. First, the predominant mode of medical research is through the study of physiology and biology. The interest of the modern medical researcher is in what physiological action a given substance has on the biological system under consideration. The approach is ultimately empirical with little if any concern for underlying principles that might guide the research.
The one principle that might guide modern medical research is the notion that each complex substance is built around an 'essence'. This concept is borrowed from medieval alchemy and drives researches to look for the 'active ingredient' in any natural substance such as an herb or mineral or animal. An extension of this idea is to build molecules that act directly on the metabolism in the way that will disturb or inactivate the disease process. This same idea has lead to genetic research where the genes themselves are manipulated to prevent or block disease.
While modern medicine has produced some startling results (especially in the area of surgery) the drugs produced often have complex and serious side-effects that make their use difficult and risky. Doses are usually standard rather than individualized and often patients have to take medications that treat the side-effects of the primary drug. Further, because many of these substances have never existed before, or have never existed in biological systems, or are synthetic replicas of natural substances, their long term effects are unpredictable. The effects of early vaccinations in later life, for example, are just beginning to be explored.
Last, because the life energy is thought to be derived from the material universe, it is not taken into account as a reality in itself. No other medical system has treated from this point of view. Personality, time, and character are usually minimized, if considered at all.
None of this is to suggest that modern medicine has no value. Some of its accomplishments are enormously important. Modern medicine sometimes provides the only effective avenue of treatment, particularly in the areas of life threatening acute illness and infectious disease. What we wish to suggest is that modern medicine has inherent risks that are just now beginning to be acknowledged and explored seriously. This fact should be considered when entering into treatment.
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