Ever since I retired from the practice of traditional Western medicine, I have enjoyed exploring a host of "alternative" or "complementary" healing practices that I was taught were about as effective as snake oil as far as healing was concerned. Hocus-pocus. But I've seen them work, so I'm curious about them. My interest in these practices dates back to my experience with hypnosis in the 1970s, thanks to the work of people like Milton Erickson, widely acclaimed to be the father of modern hypnotherapy.
True story:
I was a third year medical student on my orthopedic rotation, shadowing the orthopedic resident who was on call for the weekend, when we were paged to the Emergency Room to see a woman who had slipped on the ice in her driveway and dislocated her elbow. This is a painful injury, and it usually requires sedation and strong pain medication or light anesthesia before the injured joint can be safely realigned and immobilized.
The resident I was with that night had a reputation among his colleagues as something of a maverick. He'd orchestrated his own inguinal hernia repair under self-hypnosis when he was an intern...no anesthesia needed, thank you very much...and he was known for offering hypnosis to his patients in lieu of anesthesia for certain procedures, as well.
This was back in the 1970s when alternative approaches to healing were met with derision and even mockery by traditionally trained physicians like myself. So I was a little skeptical when the resident I was with that night offered to hypnotize the woman with the injured elbow, and she readily agreed.
He simply instructed her to direct her gaze upward while she slowly closed her eyes and counted backwards from ten. Ten. Nine. Eight...and she was out. He relocated her elbow, wrapped it, and asked her to open her eyes. She walked out a happy woman.
I was sold. So sold, in fact, I went on to study self-hypnosis, and I eventually underwent a surgical procedure without sedation or anesthesia myself. Afterwards, I walked out of the OR and took myself out for lunch. So I know it works...
It didn't take a huge leap of faith to move from hypnosis into a meditation practice, and from there to consciousness studies, and from there, to energy practices. All of which are considered to be nonsense in the "real" health care community where I practiced traditional Western medicine for thirty years.
"The only thing that interferes
with my learning is my education."
~Albert Einstein~
Most mainstream medical providers deny or dismiss the validity of energy medicine...practices that are believed to free up and move internal energy. Not everyone believes that focused attention or consciousness can redirect or release energy in the body, and that this can lead to healing. But many people do believe in it. They dedicate their lives to it. They train for years. They include practitioners of therapeutic touch and Reiki, sound healers, color therapists, crystal healers, chakra and aura healers, faith healers and shamans, acupuncturists, Ayurvedic healers, yogis and Qigong healers, among many others...
"You matter...
unless you multiply yourself by
the speed of light squared.
Then you energy."
~unknown~
...which intrigues me. Not only how energy medicine works...but the fact that it works at all. And the fact that so few health care providers are aware of these techniques...or curious about them...or receptive to them, because they don't believe in them.
"We could all use
a little more magic in our lives..."
~Steffi Black~
~Mindful guide, coach, and qigong practitioner~
This week I came across another practice I had never heard of. I'm curious about it, too. "Pain Reprocessing Therapy" (PRT) offers relief of chronic pain without medication, manipulation, or surgery. It has proven very effective in relieving intractable low back pain, the commonest condition that drives patients to pain management specialists. This is a mind-body practice that is based on the presumption that pain persists after an injury heals because pain circuits misfire. PRT rewires these circuits through a system of psychological techniques. It has a lot to do with mindfulness. This is the book:
The prevailing bias against these practices and techniques arises out of the usual arguments citing the placebo effect. It denies the subjective influence of the healer's presence, touch, consciousness, empathy, connection, and open heart, all of which have been shown to promote healing. It ignores the fact that the therapeutic efficacy of many traditional Western medicines and practices also depend upon the placebo effect. They work because the patient expects them to work. Because the patient believes they work. Their efficacy also depends upon the interaction between the patient and the health care provider, including his attentiveness, ability to communicate, and to instill trust and hope.
"The placebo effect is scientific proof
that we have the ability
to heal ourselves."
~Dr. Kelly Brogan~
Health care is based upon science. Upon research. Upon observational studies and outcome statistics. If you are a health care provider, or if you see one, you trust medical science. You have studied it, or observed it, or experienced healing because of it. You are also aware of its shortcomings.
Many traditionally trained physicians reject the role and efficacy of alternate approaches to healing, among them energy medicine, because they haven't studied them or tried them. This is blatantly unscientific. The true scientist is curious about things he doesn't understand. He makes an effort to learn about them. He tests them out. He tries them for himself.
As health care providers and consumers, instead of rejecting outright what we don't believe in, or understand, or trust, we should explore, observe, and evaluate for ourselves. Who knows what we might learn that will help us heal others...and ourselves.
"Skepticism is the first step
towards the truth."
~Denis Diderot~
and...
"Truth is the basis
of all healing."
~Barbara Schmidt~
jan
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