Cut, burn, poison vs. Connect, Nourish, Support
The tyrranical reign of "modern medicine" has left a trail of destruction in its wake. It is time to make way for a healing paradigm that not only restores confidence but restores hope in humankind.
I would like to acknowledge up front that 100s of thousands of people, perhaps millions, have received life-saving support from the caring people within the medical regime. There are clear and unequivocal advancements in the science of healing (particularly acute trauma) that have emerged over the past century.
But, most importantly, I acknowledge that a great many individuals enter into the field of healthcare with the high hopes of being able to truly help people get well. Unfortunately, no one told them that’s not what the system is oriented towards. However, a great many are coming to see and accept that. This signals change is upon us.
But even for its clear benefits - acute trauma - even some of the acute traumas (eg. heart attack) were perhaps caused by the medical interventions (eg. properly prescribed pharmaceuticals & surgical procedures) that preceded the problem (problem-action-solution within a closed loop system). Not to mention the lack of clear direction provided to patients in making dietary choices (high quality animal fats, anyone?), let alone the misinformation perpetrated throughout the medical system for decades (‘fat is bad for your heart because it clogs up your arteries’). And from what I hear, good luck finding any nourishing foods on the hospital menu for convalescing patients.
The practice that emerged from the 19th century as the AMA took hold was one of control and bully tactics to enforce their way and to force practitioners out of business who didn’t succumb to their model. Today, they possess one of the largest political lobbyist budgets of any large organization - that should tell you a lot right there.
In fact, the term “quackery” was devised by the AMA in the 1840s as a means of rooting out and slandering the likes of herbalists, nature cure practices (working with air, water, movement, plants, food - noninvasive, anyone?). Undoubtedly, there were those (just like today, in fact) who sought to defraud people with false claims and were only promoting whatever garbage they could scrounge in order to make a quick buck while taking advantage of the naive trust of the people (the AMA was intent on commandeering the role of dominant profiteer on the fear and mishaps of the populace).
Supporters of the Flexner Report (1910), the AMA no doubt had in their sights the tremendous profits that were coming down the pike from sales of pharmaceuticals. Smash the competition, and you have absolute domain.
In 1966 they coined Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) a system of standardized terms for medical procedures. Control the language, control the minds ~or~ control the discussion, control the outcome.
Very few people realize that herbal remedies were not simply the realm of folk healers living in mud and thatch huts across the impoverished, pre-industrial realms. Quite the contrary, there is a rich tradition (even in the West) of sophisticated, educated practitioners utilizing herbal preparations as their main therapeutic intervention (aside from perhaps air, water, and movement).
Throughout the mid- to late 19th and early 20th centuries a great revival was underway as trained physicians were educated in the pharmacognosy of herbs.
Now to interrupt this train of thought I’d like to emphasize something…
What’s more important than the therapeutic agents employed by a practitioner is their philosophy of the source of well-being within each individual and how to restore harmony once lost
As there has been a great resurgence in the usage of herbs in North America over the past 50 years or so (which has gained great momentum over the past 10-15 years), there has been a concomitant inclination to abide by the inherited reductivist philosophy espoused by such organizations as the AMA, if not the entirety of “modern medicine”.
To view the human being purely through a mechanistic lens, even as a seemingly infinite interplay of subtle biochemical twists, turns, receptor docking, inhibiting, pumping, etc. is to miss the mystery that we are.
Does one really know how to create child? Okay, beyond the gross act - can one anticipate its occurrence? Does one really know how to raise a puppy, or heal an injured horse - that is, the exact mechanism to do so? I assert that, no, we don’t.
Yet we do, and we have for many thousands of years.
The act of connecting is something many of us learned from Madison Ave, I fear. For those of us bereft of much exposure to the natural world, any animals in the house, let’s call it rural life, we very well may have learned about “connecting” through cartoons, tv shows & commercials, video games, or other non-participatory activities.
To connect with another human, on a heart level, is a uniquely powerful experience. Movies which convey this well grab the heartstrings of their audience - yet we’re left feeling empty at the end, because we didn’t actually connect with something real. We crave authentic connection.
A great deal of trauma experienced by the children of the Western world could have been healed, still could be healed through conscious, compassionate connection.
This is something I have experienced with the wild plants and landscapes I work with over and over again. It’s a natural phenomenon that is not hidden behind a curtain of mystery or magic. It is simply there, waiting for us to tap into it with our courageous hearts and minds.
Turning the medical paradigm on its ear is not all about calling out the great harm the current establishment has caused - it is about reforming the way WE view not only healthcare, but the entirety of the world around us, including ourselves.
Connection must begin within.
To connect with the world around us, we must first feel deeply within ourselves. This most often means experiencing a great deal of pain in order to get to the essence within ourselves.
Here, proper nourishment (physical, emotional, and spiritual) is essential in order to even be in a position where we can begin to authentically connect with ourselves. Depletion happens as a circumstance of our physical surroundings and our state of mind. Programming keeps us situated in a depleted state, continually cycling back to the baseline trauma response state.
It is truly a mystery exactly how and when healing begins, but it is inextricably an act of support from within ourselves and the world around us, recognizing our efforts, in time, to collaborate towards our vindication of self. As we assert our sovereignty of mind, body, and spirit we make a great call into the wild bringing in the powerful helpers awaiting the invitation to participate in our individual hero’s journey.
Each of us carries a story that is meant to be healed through its own unique process. The biochemical approach will never meet the needs of the spiritual individual - it happens in reverse. The biochemical “reality”, as it were, is a consequence of the material life lived.
Seeking to manipulate these processes through our intellect and will is a self-limiting endeavor. We have become entrained to a system which inherently disempowers the individual and which has completely done away with imagination (eg. AI pushing into every crevice of our lives).
Connection, nourishment, and support. This is our way back home, back to a harmonious life. It is upon each of us to take the first courageous step forward…then the next…and the next…