For millennia, healing was in the hands of the people.
There were individuals whose role in their societies was to look out for the physical, spiritual, emotional and psychological needs of their peers. Within tribal societies, however – therefore, for most of the history of humankind – the four intertwined as inseperable aspects of “wellness”.
Healthcare,...(more) as we experience it today, is the by-product of a movement toward the separation of people from their own inner resources; perhaps more harmfully, from each other (the common people) as a source of healing. Our health is now relegated to the professional caregiver.
Once, the people were “cured” of their illnesses within the context of the community that supported them. Art, music, drama, ritual and ceremony, along with physical means such as herbology and mechanical intervention were all incorporated into what might be called a “healing experience” for the individual, of which many in the community participated.
Even in my lifetime, I got to experience the “magic” of this approach. I grew up in Brooklyn in the 1950's and when one of us became ill, first came the neighbors, then the Aunts, arguing about their various recipes and formulas and approaches,then the Uncles would deliver food and handle more mechanical support, then you could almost count on a Priest to visit, and, almost last would come the Family Physician who knew every person in the family (in their whole beings) for most of their lives and even generations back. (This was called a “house-call” – talk about Endangered Species!)
Last would be the hospital which, most of us understood, was the place you go to die. If all failed, then the body would lie in state in the person's own bed, in their own home and EVERYBODY would be part of the grief ritual.
(As an illustrative aside, physicians began to regulate, limit and then control the use of Midwives specifically to move birthing out of the home and into the hospital so that the image of the hospital would change to a place where people were born!)
The specialization of “medicine” as it is “practiced” today is the result of a siphoning off of individual, family and tribal power into the hands of first licensed and regulated individuals, then groups or organizations, and now, corporations.
I want to emphasize, however, that even though I use allopathic modalities and history as primary examples, I include ALL modalities that are taught (and “delivered”) Western-style, which is a segmented, head-oriented approach as opposed to a wholistic, heart-centered orientation.
The primary agenda, though unstated, is to control the dispersal of the modality to allow selectedindividuals to, essentially, reap the benefit of the good it can do. The power of the therapy then becomes associated with the practitioner and the institution that supports him or her. Healing the person becomes secondary to tackling problems, and economics, rather than humanitarian concerns, takes precedence.
As examples, both the AMA (American Medical Association) and the ADA (American Dental Association) were the survivors of inter-disciplinary battles between factions of practitioners who came into conflict around control, and the delivery of service. Both organizations came about as a result of efforts to eliminate economic opposition by “standardization” of services.
The ADA came about from a power-grab by practitioners who claimed mercury-amalgam was harmless, even though half the practitioners at the time recognized the material as toxic.
The AMA came about largely as a result of the publicity gained as its organizer (and self-appointed leader) attacked a non-physician that had developed an approach to naturally treating cancer that had cured tens of thousands! (I will be posting references and resources as time goes on.)
Granted, a scientific “head-based” way of dealing with the physical aspects of illness and injury has made incredible strides in prolonging life. Yet, throughout the world, human beings are suffering from the lack of connection that the focus on only one of four aspects of health produces.
Still, there are many of us who are practitioners of one form or another of “healing” that are able to go beyond book-learning and enter into a world where there is connection, rather than disconnection.
The purpose of this pod is to get practitioners of all stripes to begin sharing the ways that they've incorporated a “wholistic” attitude into the work they do with others. How, they've learned through trial and error (and often against great opposition) where to find the power in the space-in-between themselves, the people with whom they are connecting in the spirit of healing, and the environment and the community that supports all of them.
This pod is NOT about comparing the effectiveness of modalities, or promoting one or another approach or philosophy. It IS about helping each of us (and, we are ALL healers) broaden our perspectives on healing to, once again, include all aspects of it in dealing with the people with whom we are called to connect.
My life, in part, is dedicated toward encouraging people in ANY practice of medicine to begin speaking with each other about the painful, confounding, wondrous and inexplicable aspects of being a healer.
Yes, BEING a healer. For the purpose of this pod, let's define that as being a vehicle through which healing energy moves. Everyone knows that energy has many forms, of which tools and procedures are only a small part.
The one thing we all are exploring – IF we give ourselves and each other permission to do so – is the Healing Arts, and that goes way beyond any particular healing modality. If we allow ourselves to communicate about this, we'll find that we can learn so much from each other.
What would our healthcare delivery system (Catch that? The “Healthcare Delivery system”) now feel like if ALL schools of Massage Therapy spent as much time exploring the value of setting intent, creating sacred space, “toning” to tune in to the person, use of non-touch energy (like Reiki), the application of stones, essential oils and crystals, the skill of helping a person track physical pain to past mental/emotional associations, and meeting and training the whole family to massage each other as is spent on the location, physiology and articulation of muscles, tendons and ligaments (not to mention Billing!)?
These are the kinds of things I hope to see aired here in this pod. For simplicity's sake, let's just call it:
“They wanted me to become a Flesh Mechanic, but I became a Healer instead. Here's how I did it!”
So, let's get to it! I really look forward to your input, for the good of all. (less)
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