Finding Your Way in the CAM World

The number of modalities and options for treatment available in complementary and alternative medicine can be quite daunting to those who are looking into this field for the first time. With names like craniosacral therapy, acupuncture, SCENAR, rolfing, chiropractic, homeopathy, herbalism, etc. selecting what might work can be challenging. In any medical field, one therapy does not necessarily fit all. In traditional medicine seeing a specialist may actually narrow one’s choices. When you see a orthopedic surgeon, likely surgery will be the main option.

So what are some guidelines for exploring the natural, holistic options? Read more »

Healing Innovations Is Opening a New Opportunity

Beginning next month, we will be offering SCENAR pain relief treatments through Mountain Air Wellness Center in Cashiers, NC. Expanding into this market will give access to this revolutionary technology in the far western region of WNC. We look forward to being a part of this dynamic, creative, and visionary natural health practice.

An Evolutionary Perspective of Medicine

In trying to explain the action of SCENAR to others, there are three scenarios I’ve found to choose from.The first, having to do with the physical action of the electrical pulses that cause the nerve fibers in the body to release neuropeptides (the chemicals the body uses to heal itself); second, is a deeper explanation having to do with the energetic communication of the instrument and the body/mind to enhance the energetic alignment inherent in the natural state of wholeness; and finally, the deepest explanation having to do with the change in awareness and consciousness related to the experience of wholeness and presence within and beyond the body that comes to an individual after a number of SCENAR sessions.

Initially, only the first explanation is used, but as the number of sessions increase, discussions arise related to the other two explanations because of the individual’s curiosity related to the changes in their experience of their bodies and themselves. There grows within them a confidence in what their body/mind feels like when it is becoming whole. One person put it this way when I asked how they were feeling, “I know my body is healing. What twinges of discomfort I may occasionally feel, I know are just what is being healed at the moment, and are really inconsequential, because I know the feeling of health that is now present with me.”

To my surprise, I recently found in the book, Reinventing Medicine, by Larry Dossey, MD, an explanation of the evolution of medicine that parallels these three explanations I’ve discovered related to my SCENAR work. He describes three eras related to our understanding of wellness and healing that have guided the development of western medicine since the mid 1860’s.

Era I (Mechanical Medicine) began to take shape in the last third of the nineteenth century and can be called materialistic, mechanistic, or physical medicine. It encompasses the therapies that largely dominate western medicine today–drugs, surgery, etc. It is based upon the classical laws of matter and energy as described by Sir Isaac Newton. Mind and consciousness are considered a result of brain mechanisms.

Era II (Mind-Body Medicine) began to emerge after WWII with research into “psychosomatic disease” and the “placebo effect.” It became clear as a result of this research that our emotions, attitudes, and thoughts profoundly affect our bodies, sometimes to the degree of life and death. These discoveries were an enhancement to the Era I methodologies, and expanded the understanding of the unified nature of the body and mind and health. The field of alternative and complementary medicine emerged as a major social force shaping medical care that grants a major role for psychological and spiritual factors in health. However, the mind-body effects remain centered within the individual–one’s own mind affecting one’s own body. This limitation opened up the further evolution into Era III.

Era III (Non-local Medicine) is emerging now. It describes the mind as being a factor in healing not only within the individual but also between individuals. Mind is considered to be not completely localized to points in space (brains and bodies) or time (present moment or single lifetimes). Mind is unbounded by space and time and thus is ultimately unitary or one. This medicine includes any therapy in which the effects of consciousness bridge between different persons such as all forms of distant healing, intercessory prayer, and transpersonal imagery. Current research is documenting these effects and applications of quantum theory to biology are creating greater clarity about the nature of consciousness and the profound connectedness that underlies our existence as individuals.

So, in our quest for healing and health, medicine has continued to evolve as our awareness and understanding have expanded through research. It will be interesting to see how Era III manifests in our abilities to know our own healing capacities and the possibilities of extending healing to each other and the planet.

February is National Wise Health Consumer Month

Seems like every month is claimed as some kind of national something-or-other month by numerous groups, but this one caught my eye. It was part of a newsletter sent out by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, which I have found to be a relatively reliable source of good information and worth subscribing to.

The website link in the newsletter contains information on Dietary and Herbal Supplements, Cost Information (which had an excellent discussion of insurance issues) and Research Results from NCCAM funded CAM research. I found the Herbs at a Glance page to be very well done containing a list of 42 herbs including information about what the herb is used for, how it is used, what the science says, and side effects and cautions.

This seemed like good information, so am passing it along.