Posted in reply to the post by Bschwad:
A great thread indeed!
Thank you all for posing such strong feelings and thoughts as well. After all, health and healing are, well, some of the most central pieces to our life, if not the most central. So why wouldn't we be passionate?
And Taishon, I applaud your intention. Being familiar with the scientific worldview myself (I was raised in it and in studying to be a doctor, got heavy doses), I see the apparent importance with scientifically verifying energy workers. And I do not discourage you from it. In fact, I would be very interested to see the results.
Seeing that you capitalize Science, only helps to remind that this is a particular stance in the world. One based in certain presumptions about how reality works. Just as many cultures have done through history and continue to do today, the beliefs inherent in the scientific worldview (the need for physical evidence, proving things and holding doubt until proven true, etc) are just that, beliefs. Of course, there is nothing wrong with having beliefs. In fact, it is a much bigger problem not to hold them, but that is in fact a whole other piece of logic to chew. My point here is merely to reflect that Science is a worldview. And a very prevalent one at that.
That said, I believe that rationally it is important to note the shortcomings of double-blind scientific study when looking at health. I have studied with healers in many cultures through out the world. I have worked with mostly Shamanic healers, but also Western doctors, massage therapists, herbalists and more. (Yes, these all overlap.) Science's need for proof can be limiting to the bodies natural ability to heal. Science itself has been increasingly finding that pharmaceutical medicines cannot beat the placebo time and time again. Shamanic healing has known this for years. IN fact, any medicine is provoking natural responses in our body that allow us to finally be healthy. As one of my teachers put it, "medicine's job is to get us in the frame of mind through which health can return" After all, what is our health? Is it a physical composition or a way of relating to our bodies?
Some years ago, I carried out a multi-year study with communities around the world looking at the effects of globalization on local healing traditions. Largely what I was finding is that people were healed by their healers when they believed in it before they went. (At several communities with hundreds of people interviewed, the success rate was 100%!) Similarly, when people did not believe, the success rate was much lower (but not at all 0)...
Now what I found interesting, terrifying and exactly relevant to the stance that you are taking in this realm was the most common story of all: In the majority of communities that I found (from Guatemala, to Kenya, to Thailand, to India and more) the communities were the recipients of well-meaning Westerners' intentions, intentions that resulted in the building of "clinics." The visitors taught everyone how the clinic was, in fact, "better" than their traditional healers, and, at the very least, more modern. (This sort of "behavior change" planning is actually required when receiving most international development grants.) Thus, the people believed the "smart" Americans and stopped going to their local healers. Meanwhile, the clinic was underfunded and could not afford to pay staff nor material fees, and the people are left with no healing options at all when they no longer believed in the local medicine. I wish that this was not the case, but truly, I found it time and time again.
So yes, science can do miraculous things. As it does every day. Still, diminishing belief in health and healing practices does not necessarily aid anything other than the obsessively scientific mind that wants to know "why? and how?" If one believes that something will make them better...than it probably can. If we allow ourselves to belief more, then maybe more will be possible. At least when it comes to health.
Thank you again for your careful consideration of these ideas. A great exercise of the heart and mind.
May you all feel blessed to have healing and may we each feel the miracle of each breath!