A Look at Traditional Tibetan Medicine: Part 2

In Part 1 of this 2-part article on Traditional Tibetan Medicine, I discussed the history of this ancient form of medicine.

Today I’ll take a look at how it works.

Tibet’s culture is deeply embedded in the Buddhist way. Accordingly, Traditional Tibetan Medicine is also deeply informed by Buddhism.

Because of this, Tibetan Medicine understands that good health is attained not just by being physically healthy, but also by having a healthy mind as well.

Based on the centuries-old Buddhist study of the mind, Tibetan Medicine gives priority to factors of psychological and spiritual development in its definition of health. It seeks to understand and explain the nature and reason for the suffering people experience in their lives.

It teaches acceptance of and gives meaning to the cycle of birth, sickness, old age, and death we all encounter. Common experiences such as not getting what we want, not wanting what we get, being separated from whomever or whatever is dear to us, and being joined with people and things we dislike becomes a basis of spiritual understanding and growth.

Tibetan Medicine explains how hatred, anger and aggression, ignorance and incomprehension and a materialist view of the world result in states of mind which are at the root of our suffering, and how our habitual patterns of thinking and behaving are the primary cause of illness.

It also asserts that through study and spiritual practice an understanding and awareness can gradually be achieved which transcends that suffering.

Tibetan Medicine attempts to help people become aware of the process of physiological, spiritual and psychological evolution as it originates from what people do, what people say, and what people think.

Every action sows its seed in the mind and will eventually ripen in accordance with its nature, and no experience is seen as causeless. The transient, ever-changing nature of all things is embraced. The conclusion which is reached from this view is the interdependent nature of all things. The highest value is placed on the attainment of compassion and what is termed loving kindness.

Because of this philosophy, I think it is safe to say that Traditional Tibetan Medicine is a deeply spiritual medicine.

Regarding developing good physical health, Tibetan medical theory states that it is necessary to maintain balance in the body’s three principles of function: rLüng (pron. Loong), mKhris-pa (pron. Tree-pa), and Bad-kan (pron. Pay-gen) often mistranslated as phlegm.

Lung is the source of the body’s ability to circulate physical substances (e.g. blood), energy (e.g. nervous system impulses), and the non-physical (e.g. thoughts). In embryological development, the mind’s expression of materialism is manifested as the system of rLüng. There are five distinct subcategories of rLüng each with specific locations and functions: Srog-’Dzin rLüng, Gyen-rGyu rLüng, Khyab-Byed rLüng, Me-mNyam rLüng, Thur-Sel rLüng.

mKhris-pa is characterized by the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of heat, and is the source of many functions such as thermoregulation, metabolism, liver function and discriminating intellect. In embryological development, the mind’s expression of aggression is manifested as the system of mKhris-pa. There are five distinct subcategories of mKhris-pa each with specific locations and functions: ‘Ju-Byed mKhris-pa, sGrub-Byed mKhris-pa, mDangs-sGyur mKhris-pa, mThong-Byed mKhris-pa, mDog-Sel mKhris-pa.

Bad-kan is characterized by the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of cold, and is the source of many functions such as aspects of digestion, the maintenance of physical structure, joint health and mental stability. In embryological development, the mind’s expression of ignorance is manifested as the system of Bad-kan. There are five distinct subcategories of Bad-kan each with specific locations and functions: rTen-Byed Bad-kan, Myag-byed Bad-kan, Myong-Byed Bad-kan, Tsim-Byed Bad-kan, ‘Byor-Byed Bad-kan.

In practice, the Tibetan Medical Doctor begins by interviewing the patient and finding out the pertinent medical history.

The doctor then does a urine analysis, in which the urine sample is examined. In the urine analysis the doctor looks for such things as the color of the specimen and its odor, and then after vigorous stirring, the size, color, amount, and persistence of bubbles, and any deposits. From this the doctor can begin to confirm the nature of the illness, the presence of infection and the localization of the illness among other things.

After that, the doctor feels the pulses in order to perform pulse diagnosis. In pulse diagnosis, the doctor is feeling twelve separate pulses – six distinct pulses at the radial artery of each wrist. The doctor feels for such things as the width, depth, strength, speed and quality of the pulse. Each of those factors when understood properly allows the doctor to clearly define the illness, its location, hidden complications and its etiology.

Once diagnosis is made, treatment can begin. The first consideration in treatment is the principle that all illness ultimately originates in the mind. This does not mean that all illness is psychological or psychosomatic.

Instead, it means that due to ignorance people misperceive the nature of reality and act in ways which create suffering such as illness. Given this basic principle, when treating an illness physicians first begin by recommending specific behavioral and lifestyle modifications.

If this is not sufficient, then physicians work at the level of dietary therapy. If these are not enough to cure the problem, physicians employ herbal medicines or, if needed, physical
therapies such as acupuncture.

Tibetan Medicine believes that the treatment ultimately must fit the patient; that is, treatment must be formulated in a manner which can and will be effective for that individual.

Behavioral and lifestyle modifications can include meditation instruction, spiritual advice, counseling, exercise, or the reorganization of habitual patterns such as sleep habits and eating schedules.

Herbal medicine is a big part of Traditional Tibetan Medicine. It utilizes up to two thousand types of plants, forty animal species, and fifty minerals. Herbal treatments range from simple to very complex, using anywhere from 3 to 150 herbs per formula. Each formula or set of formulas is prescribed to fit the manifestation of the disease and the evolving condition of the individual patient. As a result, herbal medicines often need to be modified at each visit.

If the behavioral modification, diet therapy, and herbal medicine are not sufficient to cure the illness, physicians can also employ therapies such as acupuncture, moxabustion, cupping, massage, and inhalation therapy.

A Look at Traditional Tibetan Medicine: Part 1

We are back from our two-week hiatus to continue this series on the Roots of Medicine. The last article before the break was a two-part look at Ayurvedic Medicine.

I continue today with a look at another traditional system of medicine, Traditional Tibetan Medicine.

I had my first in-depth look at traditional Tibetan Medicine a number of years ago, when I was living in San Diego and went to a presentation given by Dr. Yeshi Dhonden at the VA hospital in town.

Dr. Dhonden is a practitioner of Tibetan Medicine and the former personal physician to the Dalai Lama.

Dr. Dhonden was invited by the VA hospital to present and to do grand rounds. The grand rounds at the hospital that day took place in the auditorium, to a very large audience of health providers. The grand rounds consisted of doctors at the VA bringing some of their most difficult cases to the auditorium and having Dr. Dhonden give his professional opinion about their health status.

One of the primary tools in Tibetan Medicine is urine analysis, though not in the standard way as known in Western Medicine, as a UA. In Dr. Dhonden’s approach to urine analysis, the patient would pee into a cup, and Dr. Dhonden would then make his diagnosis by observing the urine.

I can’t remember what he diagnosed for the patients based on his urine analysis, but I recall the treating doctors, and the audience as a whole, sitting in awe of this man of such deep wisdom.

Besides his urine analysis, he also used pulse diagnosis, which is a form of diagnosis also used in Chinese Medicine. Once he formed his diagnosis, Dr. Dhonden then was able to make a prognosis and make recommendations as to what the patient could do to improve their health.

So what is Tradititonal Tibetan Medicine?

It is a centuries-old traditional medical system that employs a complex approach to diagnosis, incorporating techniques such as pulse analysis and urinalysis, and utilizes behavior and dietary modification, medicines composed of natural materials (e.g., herbs and minerals) and physical therapies (e.g. Tibetan acupuncture, moxabustion, etc.) to treat illness.

The Tibetan medical system is based upon a synthesis of the Indian (Ayurveda), Persian (Unani), Greek, indigenous Tibetan, and Chinese medical systems, and it continues to be practiced in Tibet, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Ladakh, Siberia, China and Mongolia, as well as more recently in parts of Europe and North America. It embraces the traditional Buddhist belief that all illness ultimately results from the “three poisons” of the mind: ignorance, attachment and aversion.

Traditional Tibetan Medicine addresses the well being of the whole individual in the observation, healing and prevention of physical, mental, and energetic imbalances.

By synthesizing knowledge from various medical systems, Tibetans created a approach to medical science drawn from thousands of years of accumulated empirical knowledge and intuition about the nature of health and illness.

Centuries ago, before Buddhism entered Tibet, Tibetans like all ancient people had a significant degree of medical knowledge. According to traditional sources, in the beginning of the 4th century many new ideas regarding medicine began to enter the country. At first influences came from India in the form of what is now called Ayurvedic medicine, as well as more spiritual and psychologically based systems from Buddhist and other sources.

Around the 7th-8th centuries the Tibetan government began sponsoring conferences where doctors skilled in the medical systems of China, Persia, India and Greece presented and debated their ideas regarding health and the treatment of illness. Those with superior abilities in the diagnosis, treatment and understanding of illness were invited to stay and contribute to the country’s medical knowledge base.

In the 11th century, this knowledge was codified into a unique system containing a synthesis of the principals of physical and psychological medicine imbued with a Buddhist spiritual understanding. This understanding formed a foundation for Tibetan medicine and benefited patients and doctors alike. It acknowledged how health and illness resulted both from the relationship between the mind and the body and people’s connectedness to the natural world and sense of spirituality.

Next time: A Look at how Traditional Tibetan Medicine works.

Ayurvedic Medicine: The Oldest System of Medicine, Part 2

In the last article on the roots of healing, I discussed how over the eons, the art and science of healing, as it becomes ingrained in a society’s way of being, becomes more systematized and formalized.

One such system, and the oldest system of medicine on the planet, is Ayurvedic Medicine. In the last article, Ayurvedic Medicine: The Oldest System of Medicine, Part 1, I talked about its origins and roots.

Today I will continue with the discussion, with Part 2 about Ayurvedic Medicine.

(Please note: After today’s column, I – and the Low Density Lifestyle website – will be on hiatus for the next two weeks. So this is the last article until Tuesday, Aug. 31).

As I mentioned in the previous article, Ayurveda stems from the Vedas, the ancient classical sacred texts of Hinduism. It is a medicine based on balance, and is a medicine of the body, mind and soul. It is closely associated with the other Hindu disciplines of yoga and tantra, which together are seen as the three paths of Vedic knowledge.

Ayurveda believes that building a healthy metabolic system, attaining good digestion, and proper excretion leads to vitality.

When people think of Ayurveda, they often think of the three Doshas: vatta, pita and kapha. According to Ayurveda, these three Doshas (literally that which deteriorates) are regulatory principles that are important for health, because when they are in a balanced state, the body is healthy, and when imbalanced, the body has diseases.

The three doshas stem from the five great elements: Prithvi – earth; Aap – water; Tej – fire; Vaayu – air; and Akash – ether. Ayurvedic principles hold that all of these compose the Universe, including the human body.

In addition, Chyle or plasma (called rasa dhatu), blood (rakta dhatu), flesh (mamsa dhatu), fat (medha dhatu), bone (asthi dhatu), marrow (majja dhatu), and semen or female reproductive tissue (shukra dhatu) are held to be the seven primary constituent elements of the body.

The doshas are comprised of the different elements. Vata is air and space, or wind; pitta is fire and water, or bile; and kapha is water and earth, or phlegm.

The Ayurvedic doctor uses a number of diagnostic approaches in order to determine the right diagnosis and understand which of the doshas is most predominant. This will then help the doctor to determine the best course of treatment.

This is actually standard protocol in any system of medicine, and what separates a system of medicine from just an approach or modality.

In a system of medicine, the doctor first makes a diagnosis, and from there determines what the best treatment principles and course of treatment is.

The difference between Ayurvedic, and any other traditional system of medicine, and modern/Western medicine, is that with Ayurvedic, diagnosis and treatment is both an art and science, and as an art it is known that sometimes the body will work in mysterious ways.

Whereas with modern/Western medicine, diagnosis and treatment has had the art taken out of it, and has become a technological science that attempts to reduce things down to absolutes, which then allows no room for the mysteries of healing.

In fact, in the modern/Western way of medicine, the mysteries of healing are best to be avoided at all costs.

And so, with diagnosis for the Ayurvedic doctor, the patient is to be questioned and all five senses are to be employed. Ayurvedic texts recommend a tenfold examination of the patient.

The qualities to be judged are: constitution, abnormality, essence, stability, body measurements, diet suitability, psychic strength, digestive capacity, physical fitness and age. Hearing is used to observe the condition of breathing and speech.

The study of the vital pressure points, or marma, is of special importance – it is the trauma science described in Ayurveda. There are 107 different spots described and located on the body surface which produce different signs and symptoms. With respect to the underlying anatomical structures, the symptoms vary according to blunt or penetrating trauma. The severity of the symptoms and signs also depend on whether the injury is exactly on the marma point or slightly around it.

Treatment includes diet and herbs; herbs may be a misnomer, because the Ayurvedic herbal pharmacy includes vegetables, animals and minerals.

In regards to the vegetable part of the herbal pharmacy, warming herbs such as cardamon, cinnamon, tumeric and pepper are very popular. They are said to strengthen the digestion.

Animal products include milk, bones, and gallstones. And minerals used include sulfur, arsenic, lead, copper sulfate and gold.

Some minerals employed by Ayurvedic medicine are toxic, but traditionally the toxicity of these materials are believed to be reduced through purification processes such as samskaras, which involve prayers as well as physical pharmacy techniques.

At least one scientific study has looked at the process of purification of toxic substances in Ayurveda with lab mice. The study looked at aconite, which is used in Ayurvedic pharmacy formulations, and is an extremely lethal substance in its crude and unprocessed form.

The study compared aconite in its crude and unprocessed form, versus aconite in the form where it is processed by way of the samskaras, which involve prayers as well as physical pharmacy techniques.

Unprocessed aconite was significantly toxic to mice (100% mortality at a dose of 2.6 mg/mouse) whereas the fully processed aconite was absolutely non-toxic (no mortality at a dose even 8 times as high as that of crude aconite).

Other treatment approaches include: the application of sesame oil to the body, known as snehana, abhiyanga and shirodhara; sweating, known as swedana; and panchakarma, which is a Sanskrit word that means “five actions” or “five treatments.” This is a process used to clean the body of toxic materials left by disease and poor nutrition.

Ayurvedic Medicine: The Oldest System of Medicine, Part 1

I’ve been writing about the roots of healing in this series, and in the last article I discussed sound healing. I said how sound healing is one of the oldest forms of healing known to humankind.

Now I will expand beyond discussing healing approaches and begin to discuss various systems of medicine. As medicine begins to be part of a society’s way of life, it becomes more systematized and formalized, in order that it can be used by the masses.

Ayurvedic medicine is one such system of medicine, and it is the oldest known system of medicine on the planet.

Ayurvedic medicine is native to India. The word Ayurveda comes from the Sanskrit and means, “Science of Life.” In Sanskrit the word ayurveda consists of the words āyus, meaning “longevity,” and veda, meaning “related to knowledge” or “science.”

Ayurveda springs from the Hindu tradition, although Buddhism has also had a major influence on Ayurvedic ideas.

Ayurveda traces its origins to the Vedas, the ancient classical sacred texts of Hinduism. There are four Vedas, and Ayurveda is said to stem from the Veda known as Atharvaveda, which contains 114 hymns or formulations for the treatment of diseases. Ayurveda originated in and developed from these hymns. In this sense, ayurveda is considered by some to have divine origin.

According to legend, the system of medicine was received by a man named Dhanavantari from Brahma, and Dhanavantari was deified as the god of medicine.

Dhanavantari is said to be an avatar of Vishnu from the Hindu tradition, and god of ayurvedic medicine. Dhanavantari was an early Indian medical practitioner and one of the world’s first surgeons.

Based on Vedic traditions, he is regarded as the source of ayurveda. He perfected many herbal based cures and natural remedies and was credited with the discovery of the antiseptic properties of turmeric and the preservative properties of salt, which he incorporated in his cures.

There is a quote attributed to Dhanavantri, in which he says, “I the Lord Dhanavantri brought this healing science on earth from heaven.”

Ayurveda is a medicine of the body, mind and soul, and is closely associated with the other Hindu disciplines of yoga and tantra, which together are seen as the three paths of Vedic knowledge.

According to Robert Svoboda, a doctor of Ayurvedic medicine:

“Because every embodied individual is composed of a body, a mind and a spirit, the ancient Rishis of India who developed the Science of Life organized their wisdom into three bodies of knowledge: Ayurveda, which deals mainly with the physical body; Yoga, which deals mainly with spirit; and Tantra, which is mainly concerned with the mind. The philosophy of all three is identical; their manifestations differ because of their differing emphases. Ayurveda is most concerned with the physical basis of life, concentrating on its harmony of mind and spirit. Yoga controls body and mind to enable them to harmonize with spirit, and Tantra seeks to use the mind to balance the demands of body and spirit.”

Within Ayurveda, there are eight disciplines of treatment, known as Ashtangas. They are:

* Internal medicine (Kaaya-chikitsa)
* Paediatrics (Kaumarabhrtyam)
* Surgery (Shalya-chikitsa)
* Eye and ENT (Shalakya tantra)
* Demonic possession (Bhuta vidya): Bhuta vidya has been
called psychiatry.
* Toxicology (Agadatantram)
* Prevention diseases and improving immunity and
rejuvenation (rasayana)
* Aphrodisiacs and improving health of progeny
(Vajikaranam)

Balance is a central theme in Ayurveda. Balance is emphasized; suppressing natural urges is seen to be unhealthy, and doing so may almost certainly lead to illness.

To stay within the limits of reasonable balance and measure is stressed upon. Ayurveda places an emphasis on moderation in food intake, sleep, sexual intercourse, and the intake of medicine.

Ayurveda incorporates an entire system of dietary recommendations, along with lifestyle recommendations, in order to help achieve balance.

To be continued tomorrow…

Healing with Sound, Part 2

In the first part of this article, Healing with Sound, Part 1, I disussed how healing with sound is one of the oldest healing modalities known to humans.

Modern science, especially quantum physics, has explained how it works. And modern medicine has incorporated the principles in developing ultrasound imaging; modern medicine also uses sound healing to treat kidney and gall bladder stones.

Here are some quotes over the eons on the profundity of healing with sound:
Plato: “Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other in the integration of the human being because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the Soul on which they mightily fasten, imparting grace, and making the Soul of him who is rightly educated truly graceful.”

Leonardo Da Vinci: “Do you know that our soul is composed of harmony?”

Hazrat Inayat Khan: “A person does not hear sound only through the ears; he hears sound through every pore of his body. It permeates the entire being, and according to its particular influence either slows or quickens the rhythm of the blood circulation; it either wakens or soothes the nervous system. It arouses a person to greater passions or it calms him by bringing him peace. According to the sound and its influence a certain effect is produced. Sound becomes visible in the form of radiance. This shows that the same energy which goes into the form of sound before being visible is absorbed by the physical body. In that way the physical body recuperates and becomes charged with new magnetism.”

George Leonard: “At the root of all power and motion, there is music and rhythm, the play of patterned frequencies against the matrix of time, Before we make music, music makes us.”

How does sound healing work? I mentioned in the previous article, Healing with Sound, Part 1, that the principle of resonance lies at the heart of healing with sound, that when sound resonates with the body, mind and soul, it allows the body to open up.

What occurs when this resonance happens is a person goes deeper into the sacred spaces within their body, the nonverbal regions where the soul resides. It is a deeply meditative place, a space of deep peacefulness, clarity and sharpened awareness.

The science of sound healing calls this entrainment, and talks about the different brain wave states that the body can be induced to go into.

In our everyday waking state, brain wave frequencies are in the Beta state. But with the proper entrainment from various sounds, the brain will go into the deeper and trance-like Alpha and Theta states, as the brain harmonizes with the vibrations of the sounds.

With sound healing, first you will become truly relaxed, allowing your brain activity to slowly guide into the gentle waves of Alpha. Your awareness expands and you experience a liberating sense of peace and well-being.

Alpha is a place of deep relaxation, but not quite meditation. Alpha lies just below conscious awareness – it is the gateway, the entry point that leads into deeper states of consciousness.

As the healing sounds continue, it can take a person even deeper into relaxation, where they will enter the elusive and mysterious Theta state, where brain activity slows almost to the point of sleep, but not quite.

Theta is the brain state where fascinating things can happen within a person’s neurological activity. Theta brings forward heightened receptivity, flashes of dreamlike imagery, inspiration, and long-forgotten memories.

Theta can bring deep states of meditation, and a sensation of floating. And because it is an expansive state, in Theta the mind can expand beyond the boundaries of the body.

Theta is one of the more elusive and extraordinary realms that can be experienced. It is also known as the twilight state, which is normally experienced briefly. Theta is like a waking dream, with vivid imagery flashing before the mind’s eye; in this state a person is more receptive to information beyond normal conscious awareness.

Healing sounds can be produced by chanting, bells, gongs, singing bowls, drums, rattles, and other sound tools.

Different spiritual traditions around the world teach the sacredness of various sounds, and that meditating and saying these sounds can lead to the creation of health, happiness, peace, and harmony, along with a heightened awareness.

And there are companies that have developed audio technology that incorporates binaural beats that synchronize the two hemispheres of the brain, allowing the brain to quickly go into the Theta state. The two best known audio technologies are called Hemi-sync and Holosync.

Healing with Sound: Part 1

Healing with Sound is one of the oldest and most primal ways of tapping into the Innate Healing System in order to help facilitate and maximize the power of a person to self-heal.

Today and next time I’ll delve into healing with sound, with a two-part article about it.

Quantum physics tells us that the universe is primarily made up of consciousness and information, and that the language of consciousness is vibrations and frequencies.

Matter emanates from consciousness, as quantum physics tells us – the technical name for matter is wavefunction.

A wavefunction is what matter is – part wave/vibration and part material form.

If at the heart of matter lies vibrations and frequencies, then at a basic level, matter communicates with itself through the primal sounds of vibrations and frequencies.

Ultrasounds are based on this principle. The ultrasound sends sound waves into the body, with a different frequency used, depending on which organ is being imaged. The organ picks up the frequency and through the process of resonance, the image of that organ is seen.

Resonance is the principle on which sound healing is based, just as resonance is the principle in which activating the innate healing system is based.

Resonance can open the body up in very powerful ways. The body can become like a tuning fork, reverbating in synchronous harmony with different sounds.

Different sounds resonate with different parts of the body, and a range of sounds can resonate with the entire body and find its way into the depths of the soul.

Sound healing is one of the oldest forms of healing known to humans. Sound healing was used in the ancient civilizations of China, Egypt, Greece and India. In the Bible, David played his harp to lift King Saul’s depression. Handel wrote his “Water Music” to help King George’s problems of memory loss and depression.

The Greek mathematician Pythagoras postulated that there was a rhythm of sounds that emanated throughout the cosmos, and that these sounds were in harmony with one another and with all of creation. He called this “The Harmony of the Spheres,” and it was his belief that as long as people were in harmony with the rhythms of the cosmos, they could then live in harmony with nature.

In modern times, sound healing is now widely used in Germany and Eastern Europe. Patients report a reduction in headaches, better sleep patterns, improved memory and concentration.

Hospitals are now using harpists to calm patients on the operating table after research found that the instrument eased pain. The sound and vibrations have also been shown to lower the heart rate, decrease blood pressure and combat heart disease. Research in the United States found that the range of vibrations emitted by the plucked strings affect the body’s nervous system.

At the Department of Coronary Care at St. Agnes Hospital, Baltimore, music ranks high on the list of modern day management of critical care patients. Its relaxing properties enable patients to get well faster by allowing them to accept their condition and treatment without excess anxiety.

In a study of 59,000 patients, 97% of them stated that music was a real help to them to relax in the postoperative situation and during surgery with local anesthesia.

To be continued next time…

The Innate Healing System

Over the last few weeks, I’ve written articles on some of the oldest forms of healing, methods that really are at the root of all healing methods.

These articles were on spiritual healing and on shamanism.

These healing approaches were predicated on helping the person to heal themselves. They were used to facilitate and activate the innate healing system that all of us have within.

The progression of medicine over the eons is based on this concept: everyone has a healing system, and it just needs to be maximized. All natural approaches have started with this basic premise, and have worked from there. All the modalities and disciplines used by the various natural healing approaches have this in common – they work at stimulating the body’s own reservoir of healing.

Modern medicine has gotten far away from this essential truth. It is a technological bioscience, and doesn’t recognize that people have great capacities of healing. To recognize that fact, that people can heal, a doctor would have to take the time to listen to a person, to get to know them, and then to give thought as to the proper treatment approach – and this approach would not just be writing a prescription.

It could incorporate nutrition, exercise, rest and stress management – the whole of the person would be looked at, from diet, lifestyle, emotions, attitude, spiritual health, the energetic body, and so on.

Working at this level is how the innate healing system can then be mobilized.

Bernard Lown, M.D., is the author of the book, The Lost Art of Healing: Practicing Compassion in Medicine. Dr. Lown is also a Nobel Peace Prize winner.

In The Lost of Healing, he wrote:
“Our health care system is breaking down because the medical profession has been shifting its focus away from healing, which begins with listening to the patient. The reasons for this shift include a romance with mindless technology, which is embraced in large measure as a means for maximizing income.

“Since it is uneconomic to spend much time with patients, diagnosis is performed by exclusion, which opens floodgates for endless tests and procedures. Malpractice suits should be viewed as mere pustules on the physiognomy of a sick health care system. They are not what ails medicine in the United States, they are the consequence.

“The medical care system will not be cured until the patient once again becomes central to the doctor’s agenda.”

Another physician who was a Nobel Peace Prize winner, was Albert Schweitzer. Schweitzer, born in 1875 and who died in 1965, practiced medicine in his native Germany and in Africa. He was fully schooled in the virtues of helping the innate healing system. He said:

“Each patient carries his own doctor within him. They come to us not knowing that truth. We are at our best when we give the doctor who resides within each patient a chance to go to work.”

In case you were wondering, Dr. Lown won his Nobel Peace Prize in 1985 for his work at trying to end nuclear war; Dr. Schweitzer was awarded his Nobel Peace Prize in 1953 for his philosophy of “Reverence for Life,” and the different ways that he manifested and expressed that.

Over the days and weeks to come, this series on Healing will take a look at different modalities and disciplines whose aim is to activate and cultivate the innate healing system.

I invite you to read along as I delve into these.

Spiritual Healing: The Roots of Healing, Part 3

Today is the final installment of this three-part series on Spiritual Healing and its place as the foundation of all systems of medicine. If you missed the first two parts, here they are:

Spiritual Healing: The Roots of Healing, Part 1

Spiritual Healing: The Roots of Healing, Part 2

(Also, as a quick aside, I’ll be on hiatus next week, the week of July 19, 2010, so there will be no articles next week – this will allow you to catch up on this series on Spiritual Healing, along with reading any articles on the website that you’ve missed.)

In the second article of this series, I discuessed what Lawrence LeShan identified as the two types of healers, Type I and Type 2. Type I healers use spiritual healing methods, while Type 2 healers use intent through physical or mental actions to manipulate another person’s physiology or energy flow.

As LeShan puts it, “In Type 2 the healer tries to heal; he wants to and attempts to do so through the ‘healing flow.’ In both Type I and Type 2 he must (at least at the moment) care completely, but a fundamental difference is that in Type I he unites with the healee; in Type 2 he tries to cure him.”

Perhaps the most accomplished healers use a combination of Type I and Type 2. They access higher states of awareness to bring the healing powers forward, and they also channel their own energies. This would be using the advantages of both non-local and local medicine.

Non-local medicine sends a healing message while local medicine sends healing energy. The ultimate healing message that comes from non-local sources is universal love. That, combined with the healer’s innate source, may be the correct formula.

To use this formula, and to develop as a healer, the healer must go through their own transformation and do their best to shed the trappings of their ego desires and their heart. If within the healer is a tangled web and hidden agenda of lies, petty jealousies, secret motivations, and so on, the healing message that stems from the Ultimate will be blocked.

Abraham Heschel, a 20th century Jewish philosopher and theologian, once said in an address to the AMA, “To heal a person, one must first be a person.”  To truly become a person is a commitment to maturity and an evolution of consciousness.

In this way, a healer can then evolve as a person. This evolution can lead to an expansion of LeShan’s typology to include a Type 3. This would be the type that I suggested above, where a healer aligns the universal energy with themselves and the patient, and then from the depths of their own heart and soul channels their own clear energy. Some healing modalities attempt to teach this method. Reiki healing and Therapeutic Touch are two energy modalities in which the training of the practitioners include concepts of altruism and compassion.

Barbara Brennan, in her book Light Emerging, discusses the process of healing as a means to shedding the blocks that stop the flow of creative healing energy. Her point is that the more we open ourselves up to the flows of the universe, the more we can channel that source for the benefit of others.

Others say the art of spiritual healing lies in the ability of the healer to elevate their consciousness to merge with the Divine. In the book The Art of Spiritual Healing, the author points out that “anyone who practices spiritual healing must rise above the level of appearances – above the discords of corporeal sense, or personal sense – to a higher plane of consciousness where there is no person to be healed and where there is room only for the Spirit of God.”

Qi gong as a healing tool would be another example of Type 3 healing. With qi gong, the practitioner is seeking to unify themselves with the universe. It is believed that when a person is completely relaxed and in a meditative state the body can resonate with the fields of the universe and the two will interact.

In China, qi gong masters do healing sessions where they emit their qi to those in need of healings. One qi gong doctor, Yan Xin, has said, “Early-stage cancer is curable as easily as the common cold. If the patient works with me, I can reduce mid-stage cancer, and control the spread of some late-stage cancer.”  People such as Yan Xin and other qi gong masters even perform group-healing sessions, where they emit their qi to the entire audience in order to help heal them.

The reliance on others to perform the healings may be an important part of someone’s recovery, but if the expectations are for someone else to totally do the healings, an important piece of the puzzle is then absent.

That is the ability for self-healing, to be reliant on our own innate healing capabilities and to use them to the best of our abilities. This self-healing potential can lead to a further expansion of the typologies. We can call these people Type 4 healers.

Type 4 healers would use as their foundational approach spiritual medicine, whereby they align their hearts, minds and souls with the Divine.

Type 4 healers are the types who are classified as spontaneous remissions. These are the people who go through extraordinary healings and remarkable recoveries. These are the people who have been blessed by miracles.

Some denigrate these types of healings, and believe them to be random acts of fate. One prominent oncologist says, “I think you’d have a better chance of getting struck by lightning than of having a spontaneous remission of cancer.”

Others are not so smug. In the book The Spontaneous Regression of Cancer, the author William Boyd writes that the term spontaneous regression “has a suggestion of something happening without a cause. That, of course, is absurd, for everything has a cause, apparent or inapparent. On consulting the dictionary we find spontaneous defined as ‘without external cause.’ If we add the subjective ‘adequate,’ we have a concept which we can use in our own thinking.”

Many of the people who are self-healers find themselves venturing down a path of reconstructing and renewing their life as they head towards self-healing. The inner life becomes intensified, epiphanies large and small are experienced, and cathartic episodes occur. This is what can happen to those who spiritually heal. The old coat is shed and a beautiful swan is born. The connection to the Divine is a trip into the quantum vacuum, where infinite powers reign, and where anything is possible.

Spiritual medicine is not about denying the physical and biological aspects of medicine. Sometimes it’s surgery that is the only answer, sometimes it’s a drug. From my experience, acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine often can change a situation. At other times, nutritional changes can be the key factor.

But what spiritual medicine can do is unite the disparate forms of medicine into one medicine, a medicine that stresses a binding connection with the Infinite Oneness of the Universe. To connect to this unity takes both the objective and subjective, the cognitive and the intuitive.

In the teachings of Zen it is said “the organism is regulated by the timeless original mind, which deals with life in its totality and can do ever so many things at once.”

This timeless original mind that regulates the organism is the realm that spiritual medicine delves into. It contains every potentiality of the universe, it contains the capacity to self-heal, and it contains the capability for self-transformation. With so many people clamoring to touch this realm, and desiring a spiritual connection to life, it is necessary that medicine follows suit and not cut people off from their souls.

In his book, Reinventing Medicine, Larry Dossey states that medicine has always been a soulful endeavor. “Serving people who are undergoing these life-changing events is one reason why medicine has always been considered a priestly function and why becoming a physician has always been regarded as a spiritual path,” Dossey writes.

Holistic medicine has always been comfortable wandering down the spiritual path. Western medicine needs to let down its guard and follow suit. When the two paths concur, it is possible they can then integrate. This can lead to a lessening of tension between the two groups. When this occurs, a chasm will be bridged and a healing will have taken place amongst the disparate fields of medicine.

This healing will be a spiritual healing; like all spiritual healings its resonances will be felt profoundly, touching many lives in the process. And this healing can then lead to a transformation both in medicine and in society.

Spiritual Healing: The Roots of Healing, Part 2

Yesterday was the first part of this series on Spiritual Healing. I continue on today with Part 2.

One of the most fascinating realizations, and something that has profound implications for the future, is the field of non-local medicine. This can be seen as spiritual medicine. Spiritual, non-local medicine helps distinguish between curing and healing.

Curing is a medical process aimed at relieving symptoms. Healing, which is a spiritual experience, is aimed at tapping the inner source of healing, and trying to open the inner processes that are blocking both healing and curing. The importance of the healing process in medical care has led the Canadian province of Manitoba to name a Spiritual Care Coordinator to oversee spiritual medicine in the province’s hospitals and institutions.

Non-local medicine is the medicine of the past, the present and the future, all rolled into one. Non-local medicine tells us that the mind and consciousness reaches out beyond the boundaries of the self and stretches outwards infinitely, into realities that we have yet to totally comprehend, ultimately extending into the quantum vacuum, which contains the potentiality of everything in the universe.

You can also see examples of non-local medicine, and non-local mind, in the everyday experiences of millions of people: the synchronicities, the intuitive understandings, the healings, and the miracles that many people have either experienced or witnessed.

Some may call all of these miracles, but on closer examination, all we are doing is tapping into the powers of non-local mind to create a transcendental form of medicine.

By going beyond the realm of four dimensional space and time, we enter into a world where we begin to touch upon the unitive consciousness, the place where all minds merge as one.

This is what spiritual healing touches upon – the eternal. Tasting the eternal is what mystics call direct experience and what they understand as ecstasy. Experiencing ecstasy generally is fleeting, but often that is enough to create a profound experience.

To delve into the realm of spiritual healing is to touch upon the ultimate Absolute. If this is a place where the potentialities of the universe reside, then it is possible that we can tap into its powers and use them to heal either others or ourselves. Because these powers are unlimited and contain the secrets of the universe, it is possible that they can be accessed to create what seem to be pure acts of divinity, or miracles.

People have been fascinated by the seeming possibility of miracles since ancient times. In the classic text of Chinese medicine, The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine, it is said that “not too long ago there were people known as achieved beings who had true virtue, understood the way of life, and were able to adapt to and harmonize with the universe and seasons…these achieved beings did not live like ordinary humans, who tended to abuse themselves. They were able to travel freely to different times and places since they were not governed by conventional views of time and space.”

In the Bible it is said that Jesus performed at least 35 miracles – walking on water, healing the sick, multiplying the loaves and fishes, turning water into wine, raising the dead.

In science, one of the ideals of uniting all the forces of nature into a superforce in hyperspace is the ultimate power that might reside. One physicist commented that “we could change the structure of space and time, tie our own knots in nothingness, and build matter to order. Controlling the superforce would enable us to construct and transmute particles at will, thus generating exotic forms of matter. We might even be able to manipulate the dimensionality of space itself.”

The late scientist Lewis Thomas remarked “the possibility that medicine can learn to accomplish the same thing [miraculous healings] at will is surely within reach of imagining.”

And Larry Dossey has proclaimed that to unravel the mysteries of miracles may take a Manhattan Project for Miracles or a National Institute of the Miraculous.

The term miracle itself is derived from the Latin “mirari,” which means to wonder or marvel. Miracles create a sense of awe or wonder, an amazement at the awesome powers of the universe. Any miracle, big or small, that occurs should be an inspiration to everyone.

Perhaps one of the miracles of miracles is the inability to always predict when they will come. If we could predict, then every prayer, whether sincere, sublime, or outrageous, would be answered.

It’s usually when we surrender to the universe, when we don’t make any requests but accept what is to come, that we leave ourselves open to the possibility of a miracle. For example, people who are looking to get into a relationship often find that it occurs when they are not looking for it. And the act of finding someone to possibly share your life with, especially when you are not looking, is truly a miracle.

Spiritual healers understand the aspect of surrender in their work. In Lawrence LeShan’s book The Medium, the Mystic and the Physicist he describes the way spiritual healers work as an attempt to aim for a unity state of consciousness; by doing this they merge their mind with this Infinite state, as well as with the recipient of the healing.

There is no focus on techniques or sensing of energy. Instead the healer surrenders all desires and thoughts in order to unite non-locally with the universe and patient. In doing this, the healer lets the healing happen as opposed to trying to do something to the person’s body to make the healing happen.

In his book LeShan differentiated between two types of healers, Type I and Type 2. Type I healers uses the spiritual healing method mentioned above, while Type 2 healers use intent through physical or mental actions to manipulate another person’s physiology or energy flow.

As LeShan puts it, “In Type 2 the healer tries to heal; he wants to and attempts to do so through the ‘healing flow.’ In both Type I and Type 2 he must (at least at the moment) care completely, but a fundamental difference is that in Type I he unites with the healee; in Type 2 he tries to cure him.”

This distinction could be used to understand the difference between spiritual medicine and energy medicine. Energy medicine can be an attempt by the practitioner to change the person’s energy fields, either through their intent, or by the physical manipulation of energy, as in acupuncture.

In spiritual medicine the healing current comes from a greater source than the healer, with the healer allowing themselves to be a clear channel for that source of healing energy. With this type of medicine it is then possible for a person being healed to experience a sense of their blockages being opened up.

This is not to say that energy medicine can’t do the same thing. I have seen some dramatic cures with acupuncture. In these situations the people are obviously opening up the areas in their body where energy is blocked. I believe that acupuncture helps align a person with the greater energies of the cosmos. And as an acupuncturist I stand in firm belief of my work. Yet it is only one way among many.

Even Chinese medicine recognizes this. Chinese medicine has a hierarchy of medicines from most to least superior. The most superior medicine is spiritual medicine. Then comes dietary medicine and herbs. After that is the exercise therapies, which to the Chinese mean qi gong, t’ai chi, and the martial arts. After that comes energy manipulation, such as acupuncture, tui na, acupressure, and so on. After that come drugs.

And the lowest form of medicine is surgery. Each has its time and place, but they considered the most profound medicine to be spiritual medicine because it had the potential to be the most transformative.

As Elmer Green, in his book Beyond Biofeedback, has said, “We have concluded from our work with hundreds of patients that anything you can accomplish with an acupuncture needle you can do with your mind.”

Spiritual Healing: The Roots of Healing, Part 1

“Healing is 80% spiritual and 20% medicine.” – Papa Henry Auwae, a po’okela, or master of Hawaiian herbal medicine.

Spiritual healing is at the root of all medical systems, and is also a core component of traditional healing methods.

This week, in a three-part series, I will take an in-depth look at the realm of spiritual healing and explore what it is.

One of the strongest examples in everyday life of the powers of spiritual medicine is the placebo effect; by itself it asks questions that can’t be readily answered within the framework of modern medicine.

Papa Henry Auwae, the Hawaiian healer quoted above, died a few years back at the age of 94. He had said that to attain his connection to spiritual dimension and spiritual healing, he meditated and prayed everyday in order that he could have a level, free mind.

He said the meditation and prayer work also aided him in maintaining his honesty and integrity, and feeling compassion and love towards others. By practicing these simple ways, he said it enabled him to develop a relationship with the universe that allowed him to access a power greater than himself.

Spiritual medicine is a healing modality that has existed since ancient times and is still a foundation of most traditional healing modalities, such as the medicine of Papa Henry Auwae. It is a form of medicine that is based on an attunement to higher states of consciousness; its use requires a different way of viewing primary reality. In traditional societies it is the way of the mystic and the shaman.

Ironically, some schools of western scientific thought look upon these types of people as delusional madmen.

This just goes to show that one societies mystical way of seeing is a threat to another societies paradigms. It was Sigmund Freud who sounded the death knell for the mystical experience when he proclaimed that it was “infantile helplessness” and “regression to primary narcissism.” Furthermore, he called religion a “universal obsessional neurosis.”

Thanks to the open-minded opinions of Dr. Freud, many psychiatrists have discounted religious and spiritual concerns in people’s lives – or brushed them off as a symptom of irrationality. According to a poll cited by psychiatrist Robert Turner of the University of California at San Francisco’s School of Medicine, 50% of all psychiatrists are atheists or agnostics, while at most only 5% of the general public is. And Dr. Turner says, “There’s been a long-standing practice for psychiatry to pathologize or ignore religious experience.”

So maybe the medical profession doesn’t know what to make of people who hear voices, or have psychic experiences, or claim they can talk to God, or think miracles are a part of life, but the American public, and people the world over don’t care. As Joan Borysenko puts it, “We are a nation of closet mystics.”

We want to believe. We want to believe that life has meaning, that there are no accidents, nor random events. We want to follow the words of Albert Einstein who said, “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

The floodgates of spiritual acknowledgement have been opened full thrust, leaving Dr. Freud to spin in his grave a couple of rotations.

Many people turn to the spiritual dimension when faced with a life-threatening illness. It is at this point that many people prefer to see medicine’s spiritual side, to comprehend spiritual medicine, and to see if it is possible that a miracle may occur in their lives.

On the other hand, there are people who are not readily suffering from a life-threatening illness but instead are desirous to use the art of medicine and healing as a tool towards self-transformation.

Either way, both of these groups would be inspired by the words of the Arabic physician Ali Pul who once wrote, “The medicine of the soul is the medicine of the body.”

Indeed, the art of healing is first and foremost a spiritual endeavor. Take away all the trappings of technological medicine and what you are left with is a sacred trust between healer and healee.

Yet unfortunately, western medicine has no interest in taking away the trappings and prefers staying within the realm of scientific materialism. This has allowed practitioners of integrative medicine to gain a stronghold in the realm of spiritual medicine.

Spiritual medicine is a much more synergistic fit with holistic medicine, and some would say spiritual medicine is holistic medicine. Yet spiritual medicine is also about being inclusive, not exclusive. Thus, in a perfect world, there would be only one medicine and it would be a spiritually based medicine.

In a spiritually based medicine, one important understanding is that thoughts and consciousness play an important role in healing. This be seen with the placebo effect.

A couple of years ago I went to a Halloween party dressed as a pothead. The key to my costume was the bogus marijuana I was showing off. I had purchased some dried celery, bagged it up, and led everyone at the party to believe I had the real thing. I started rolling joints and passed it around. A lot of the people smoking commended me on my weed; a lot of people got high off the celery.

Now besides the fact it will create an interesting debate if I ever run for President (I knew that party would come back to haunt me, as who will believe my assertions that the stuff wasn’t real – can I just claim I didn’t inhale?), it also creates a lively discussion about placebos. How can people get high off dried celery?

I didn’t realize that I had done a placebo experiment, I was just having fun. But experiments in the placebo effect have used similar methodology.

In one study, participants were given a drink they were told contained alcohol. Even though there was no alcohol in it, many felt and acted drunk and even showed some of the physiological signs of intoxication.

In another study, patients with asthma who were given an inhaler containing only nebulized saltwater, but were told they were inhaling an irritant or allergen, displayed more problems with airway obstruction. When the same group was told the inhaler had a medicine to help asthma, their airways opened up.

The placebo effect always shows up in drug trials; often times the group taking the dummy pill, the placebo, have better results than the control group taking the drug.

And even when the control group taking the drug does better than the placebo group, the results may be explained by the placebo effect.

That’s because subjects of a drug trial often know which group they are in, as people generally will experience physical sensations and side effects from taking the medication. This will lead them to rightfully conclude that they are taking the drug and then have higher expectations that the medication will work. And people in the placebo group, by not having any side effects, will have fewer expectations that the medicine will work, thereby lowering their success.

It may be that the most active ingredient in a placebo is belief. As the Greek physician Galen noted, “He cures most successfully in whom the people have the most confidence.”

For every healer, how to instill that confidence is a matter of choice. Some choose to wear lab coats and stethoscopes, some choose to dress as clowns (think Patch Adams) and give items that they imbue with magic and charisma, some perform rituals and wear the costumes of their culture, and some dress plainly and appear very down to earth.

The practice of medicine is truly an interpretative art in which there is a place for both objectivity and subjectivity, just as there is an objective and subjective realm in our personal lives.

To be continued…Part 2 tomorrow.

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