Positive Health Online

Introduction

The current practice of medicine is based upon the Newtonian model, one that sees people and things as intricate mechanisms which can be repaired in order to restore health. However, this approach to human life is increasingly being seen as inadequate and wanting in depth and meaningfulness. The public’s growing demand for complementary practices clearly indicates a dissatisfaction with the traditional allopathic process to the extent that many health centres are surveying this interest in alternative healing modalities.

On the other hand the complementary therapist has explored their art within the framework of an holistic paradigm, one that sees individuals as multi-levelled wholes existing within a great whole and where working with one part affects others. Equally, they acknowledge that the real power in their therapies lies in the capacity to access and to treat causes rather than effects and symptoms.

From outside of this framework one could be forgiven for wondering if the wide array of complementary practices operated under a single paradigm or indeed, had any common foundation. It is as a result of the impetus towards an expanded view of human nature and of disease, that links are being sought between diverse practices. As strength lies in unity and cohesiveness, then by employing individual therapies as part of a larger approach to the patient we are better able to treat them effectively and to allow them to recover their own inner power and stability. It is this search and for the common foundations of complementary practices that is the basis of this article.

A survey of therapies

In these tumultuous times the door is wide open for explorations and experimentation, both for the practitioner and the patient. Journals abound with invitations to try this or that therapy, some based upon ancient wisdom and others the result of modern forays into newly revealed truths about the cosmos and the human condition. Even health care system that have been practised for thousands of years are revealing new depths and applications as we enter new phases of the human condition, unprecedented degrees of suffering and, almost paradoxically, of potential for transformation.

A complete survey of complementary practices is beyond the scope of this article, however, at risk of marginalising someone or other, a list of such therapies might include Aromatherapy, Acupuncture, Colour Therapy, Cranial Osteopathy, Herbal Medicine, Healing and Reiki, Hypnosis and Psychotherapy, Polarity Therapy, Reflexology, Shiatsu and Vibrational Medicine.

I stress that this is only a partial list and there are also organisations that combine certain practices or who act as an umbrella body for a variety of treatment modalities. Coupled to this there are numerous philosophies and approaches to life at large that possess qualities that have a direct impact upon the health and well-being of the practitioner, such as Yoga and Zen.

Looking briefly at each in turn, Aromatherapy employs oils and fragrances to impart sensory vibrations to the patient that induce a calming and recuperative state of being considered so important to health. Each substance has its own unique healing qualities that also acts directly upon the gross and subtle systems of the recipient.

The Acupuncturist seeks to balance the flow of Chi or prana within the body by working on those sites where there are blockages or impaired flow of the life sustaining energy. Based on a detailed map of meridians, the practitioner locates the blockage and frees them with appropriate stimulation. This could alternatively involve manual pressure (acupressure) or the use of heat or electricity to aid the stimulation.

Colour therapy uses the vibrational qualities of colour to impart therapeutic vibrations to the healee. This again works at many levels at once and we are all familiar with the effects that varied colour has upon us in our homes and environment. Focusing in on this awareness has led to a powerful healing tool, acknowledging that vibrational energies being received by the eyes, as well as the whole aura, modify our energies and state of consciousness.

Cranial Osteopathy ostensibly involves manipulation of the bones of the head and spine and of the cerebrospinal fluid contained therein. While having a direct effect upon such organs as the pituitary, with its own far reaching effects, the gentle manipulation assists the unencumbered flow of energy throughout the whole energy system, helping to restore balance and relieve pain and distress. The spine is recognised to be a receiver and transmitter of energies and as a distribution network throughout the whole energy system.

Herbal medicine employs the therapeutic qualities of herbs and natural plant substances to act upon the being to rebalance energies, to release toxins and to generally allow for the individual to regain their natural state of health. Unlike drug therapy, where an isolated component from a natural source may be given, the whole plant is prescribed which will contain compounds that have additional and holistic effects. Again, there is a recognition that nature supplies us with our needs and that synthesising or isolating components will not deliver the full healing benefit.

In Polarity therapy one works with a combination of Ayurvedic and Western methods to adjust the psycho-energetics of the body/mind complex. The intuition of the healer, coupled to a wide range of skills, is brought to bear on diverse conditions.

With Reflexology the feet, like the ears, are taken to act as a map of the whole body. Through manipulation and massage of the feet, stimuli are delivered to any appropriate site in the body. Together with the obvious opportunity for contact healing via this route, Reflexology is able to provide deep relaxation and therapeutic treatment to otherwise inaccessible areas.

In Reiki one is dealing with the flow of healing energy into the human system with the aid of certain symbols that allow clearer access. As a system of energy renewal one may deal with pain, stress, addictions and other diverse problems. This approach has similarities with spiritual healing where operating at the level of causal energies can have profound and long lasting effects.

Lastly in this partial review of major therapies is vibrational medicine. This term covers a rang of modalities including Homoeopathy, Bach Flower essences, crystal essences and other related approaches. The underlying theme is to deliver an appropriate energy stimulus that will restore an imbalance in the individual’s energy system. The range and qualities of vibration are theoretically infinite and this is, of necessity, giving rise to newer ways of activating and delivering them to meet an increasing demand.

Models of Man

The current Newtonian model of medicine and man sees no further than the biomechanics of the system while acknowledging the complexity and adaptability of the parts assumed to be completely controlled by the brain and the central nervous system. All the organs of the body are described as units that carry out specific functions. For example, the heart is a powerful pump that carries oxygen and nutrient rich blood to all parts of the body; the kidneys are a toxin filter. It is no coincidence that at a time when technology in the seventeenth century was able to produce clocks of intricate design that also the structure of man’s anatomy was being explored in unprecedented depth. The analogy seemed obvious – we could model man on an intricate clock, a wonder of biological machinery. Something goes wrong then we simply remove and replace the offending part.

To deal with disease within this framework requires a detailed knowledge of each part and how they form part of the complex mechanism. Further, the way to deal with illness is to identify the malfunctioning part, system or subsystem and to either replace it or correct its malfunction with drugs or other therapies. In effect, one is working with the manifestation of exterior symptoms and assuming that dealing with them will correct the initial problem. Admittedly the level at which the problem is seen to occur can be very deep within the body’s biochemistry and molecular biology allows us access to the most intricate aspects of cellular function. However, this particular model of man does not acknowledge deeper frameworks of reality that might underlie these micro processes. This model still sees us as an intricate clock which we can now study at a more sophisticated level.

On the other hand, what is being referred to as an Einsteinian model, recognises that there are processes and forces that operate within and around the human being, indeed in all of nature, and which are not readily discernible by gross material detection systems. Further, it sees human beings as networks of energy fields that interface with the cellular and physical levels. The reference to Einstein derives from the famous expression of the equivalence of mass and energy which has been party to the revolution in our paradigms of the physical world during this century.

The potential that this model gives us is almost infinite. Instead of conventional drug and surgical approaches to treatment, we can address any problem through the subtle energy systems that make up the individuality. Couple this to a growing understanding of consciousness and its causal role in the world, and we can see a whole new basis for therapy within an holistic rather than fragmentary model of health and disease.

The New Paradigm

Central to this whole issue of complementary therapies is the recognition of the role of energy. Knowing this, however, does not necessarily illuminate us because as yet there is no consensus agreement as to the nature of energy itself. Ask any physicist the question “What is energy?” and they will probably start out talking about how it is involved in physical processes such as the falling of objects, chemical reactions, radioactive decay and so on. At this point they should have paused in realisation that this is not what energy actually is but ways in which it manifests. The late Richard Fenyman, the much respected physicist, was keenly aware of this deficit and purposefully wrote that: “Scientists fail to admit that they do not have the slightest idea what energy is.”

If the modern consensus does not agree on this matter then where can we look for understanding on this matter? The Greeks seemed to have enjoyed better insight into the nature of energy by virtue of the very root from which the word energy derives, ‘en ergos’ meaning ‘in motion’. From this awareness of energy as somehow linked to motion and change, we might form a more useful definition of energy as that which induces a change of state. This covers its function in all domains of reality, from the physical interactions that science is so familiar with to changes in mental and emotional states and deeper levels of consciousness. Energy then is the process of change itself, masquerading under various forms that relate one state of a structure to another. Now we can talk about healing and spiritual energy without being accused of dealing in abstractions and the indefinable. If a change of state has occurred, at any level of being or reality, then energy must have been involved in the process.

This ‘new’ understanding has been further expanded by the dawning recognition that consciousness and energy are two aspects of one process. A legacy from the ancients, the consensus is coming round to addressing the riddle of actual awareness as being an indigenous facet of matter/energy. As attempts to grasp the ineffable nature of consciousness have repeatedly failed within the physical and biological sciences, there are glimmerings of enlightenment that draw upon the philosophical and transpersonal domains of human experience. In some quarters then, consciousness is not seen as being derived from the working of complex systems, such the brain, but through it. In other words, consciousness has been here all the time, it is a part of the very fabric of reality, from whatever perspective you view it, and manifests in the forms we recognises as and when a system can allow it.

An Expanded Cosmos

The Einsteinian model then sees the universe as a web of energy processes, with the emphasis on processes. You cannot define an entity outside the net for its very existence is partly described by the nature of its interaction within the whole. Certainly this perspective derives part of its weight from the quantum revolution and indeed, both the revelations concerning the identity of mass and energy and the properties of the very small and very fast have become welded together in the new paradigm of nature.

While this Einsteinian model of being allows for a richer understanding of the human condition, we still have to derive an understanding of the processes by which ‘higher’ realities and more subtle energies become manifest within the physical and tangible world of the everyday ‘see touch’ realm. What is more, the focus on energies also brings into the arena the issue of frequency, in that wherever energy operates we need the concept of frequency, and/or wavelength, to help describe its action.

One of many researchers, Prof. William Tiller at Stanford University, has delved long and hard into these issues and has proposed a model that helps us to bring all these facets together. Known as the Tiller-Einstein model, he has addressed the question of how to makes sense of the idea of etheric, astral and higher realities that are so much a part of the expanded world view. His approach has been to re-evaluate the famous mass-energy equation of Einstein.

For most people E=mc2 is the complete Einsteinian equation, but in fact there is also a constant, called the Lorentz transformation, which sits underneath the more common expression. This is the part that indicates that, as you approach the speed of light, mass gets heavier and time dilates. Further, it is this fact which has led scientists to assume that the speed of light (c) is an absolute maximum since inserting values of speed greater than ‘c’ leaves one with the square root of a negative number which are assumed to be meaningless. What Tiller has done is to show that the resulting so called ‘imaginary’ numbers have significance and are relevant to higher dimensional frameworks.

The upshot of his work is that the speed of light is only a relative limit within one framework of existence and that inserting values of speed greater than ‘c’ results in a meaningful model of alternate domains of energy and reality. In effect he describes the different realities, that have been traditionally described in terms of etheric, causal and so on, within a framework of electro-magnetic (and magneto-electric) envelopes of multiples of the speed of light.

Perhaps with these beginnings we can now conceptualise the multi-dimensionality of man and the natural order rather than just leave it to the domain of direct experience. Each of these ‘higher’ orders is part of the whole, the greater system, and they are linked through interfaces that serve to bridge the ‘inner’ and the ‘outer’.

The work of Tiller and others on the subject of subtle matter represents the tipping of the scales in favour of a comprehensive model of human nature. As is so often the case, the metaphors and anecdotal descriptions, based no less upon inner experience, have been around for centuries. Now at least we are beginning to see the emergence of a conceptual framework that is derivable from a currently accepted standpoint. The path of the necessary paradigm shift is open in as much as the seeds of the new are lying dormant within the old.

A Common Framework

Now that glimmerings of an holistic paradigm are emerging from so many quarters, perhaps we can start to integrate the various treatment modalities within it. All the therapies previously outlined deal, in some way or other with energy or those processes that depend themselves on energy, subtle or gross. Many of them work directly on these subtle energy systems, either easing and manipulating the flow or accessing the life force with a view to modifying its impact upon the more physical biochemical systems.

Treatments such as Cranial Osteopathy, Reiki and Vibrational Medicine, bring new vibrations into the system to re-balance and correct dysfunction. Other modalities such as Colour Therapy and Aromatherapy employ the vibrational qualities of colour and smell to bring healing to the interconnected web of vibrational patterns that constitute our deeper self.

A pattern is emerging then that sees each therapy as contributing an energy impact of a particular type to a particular level or energy system within the patient. The multi-dimensional nature of a complex system such as a human being could not be addressed by only one therapy, not least because of the different temperaments of the healer and healee. Couple this to the inherent skills and tendencies of the therapists and diversity will inexorably be born out of unity.

The Way Ahead

We live in extraordinary times, the beginning of an age that requires new enhanced ways of addressing our needs. Health, holism and wholeness are an integral part of this movement to a great awareness of self and its interconnection and inter-relatedness with the totality.

As part of this new vision must come new ways to work with energy and to bring its qualities to the aid of the sick and needy. We can see this in part by the reawakening of old wisdom in new bottles, in new practices. Equally we can see new potentialities emerging that were previously unheard of. One example concerns the activation of vibrational medicines. Until recently most people assumed that to generate a homoeopathic remedy one had to undergo the classical process of dilution and concussion to release the vital essence within sub-molecular remedies. Now, certain individuals are able to hold a bottle of undosed tablets in their hand and ask within for the appropriate vibration to be delivered to the receptive medium. The energy then flows ‘through’ the palm chakra and within a short while one has a powerful vibrational remedy ready to use.

This in no way rejects the classical methods but acknowledges that all is energy and that one of the most perfect transducers and embodiments of multi-dimensionality is a human being, complete and ready wrapped. All these systems and levels exist within us and, as so many are now experiencing rapid transformation, the inherent ‘gifts of the spirit’ are manifesting in response to the times and to our cry for expansion and transformation.

We are now being called to consciously acknowledge our true nature, one coextensive with the natural order. This is the inexorable march of progress, of evolution, the outward manifestation and revelation of potentialities already contained within the part, and where the part of the whole are one.

There are no limits save those that we choose to accept, so healers; heal thyself and then bless the world with your own special quality and energy and Light.