Thomas Zinser's Blog, page 6
June 30, 2011
Healing and the Multidimensional Self
"Psychosomatic medicine" recognizes that the mind often plays a part in one's health, and sometimes a very powerful part. Up to this point, though, Western medicine limits itself, generally speaking, to the physical level of diagnosis and treatment. In the last thirty years, it has also begun to recognize that emotional and psychological factors can play a significant role in some people's health and well-being. (In the scientific world, these forces are still treated as suspect and vague.) Medical science and modern psychology limit their vision of the person to these three dimensions. It would view a person like this:
A soul-centered approach to healing would agree that these levels – physical, emotional, psychological – are real and valid, but it also acknowledges other levels of the self as well. I talked about these in an earlier post and called them the energetic, psychic, and soul levels. Expanding on these levels, I would visualize it something like this:
From a soul-centered perspective, each person is a multidimensional being, and in terms of healing, each of these dimensions of the self would be considered a potential source of a person's symptoms or complaints. It also assumes, like other esoteric approaches to healing, that causality runs in both directions – from body to soul, and from soul to body.
Is it possible, for example, that depression has a psychic or spiritual component? Could a psychic conflict lead to depression and, in turn, create a chemical imbalance, rather than the other way around? Yes, it can. From a scientific point of view, we just don't understand how that works. We can't explain it. I think Western medicine will open up to these levels, but it will mean a major shift in paradigms.
In terms of treatment, how strongly each of these levels should be considered depends on the specific symptoms or problems the person is presenting. The diagnosis and treatment of a broken arm, for example, would obviously be treated at the physical level. In addition, it might be treated at an energetic level with acupuncture and healing touch. It might also require emotional and psychological treatment if the person was so traumatized by the event that it interferes with his or her healing and well-being. At a spiritual level, the injury may be treated with prayer, a healing ceremony, or a request for help from spirit guides. While the focus with a broken arm is on the physical level in this example, these other treatments can support and foster that healing as well. Sometimes it is one of the other levels that is the focus of treatment.
We don't have a unified vision in our culture yet of the person as a multidimensional being. I believe this vision is beginning to take form and will eventually emerge. In some ways, it is still the unfolding story of East meets West. The eastern traditions have a great deal to teach us about these subtle levels of consciousness and energy. They have a great deal to teach us as well about the spiritual dimensions of the self, and about spirits and other entities that can interfere with human consciousness.
We also have a great store of knowledge in our own culture about these other levels of healing, but it has been kept underground. There are many esoteric schools and traditions, for example, that recognize these other dimensions and address them in their different ways. There are several phenomena where the research is so extensive that the evidence appears incontrovertible. These include near-death-experience, past-life memories, and communication with discarnate entities or spirits. (It can even be embarrassing the way science ignores these phenomena and the evidence for their validity.)
What we don't have is a unified vision of a person as a multidimensional being, and we don't have that yet because it will require a leap. It will be a leap for medicine, for science, and for our culture as a whole. Sometimes I think we're on the threshold of that conversion, other times that we're still approaching it. In the field of healthcare, though, the emergence of alternative methods of healing is one sign that the shift is happening.
*Chakra image courtesy of Josian d'Hoop.
June 25, 2011
The Day the Veil Lifted: The Story of Jonas Elrod
Jonas Elrod is one of those people who was suddenly able to see behind the veil. He's also someone, like the two young women I talked about in an earlier post (Psychic Abilities – Don't Ask, Don't Tell), who is most afraid that people will think he's crazy.
Tom Z
Jonas Elrod was leading an ordinary life until he woke up one day to a totally new reality. He suddenly could see and hear angels, demons, auras and ghosts.
The documentary movie Wake Up follows this fascinating story of an average guy who inexplicably developed the ability to access other dimensions. Physicians gave him a clean bill of health and were unable to provide an explanation. What was it? Why was it happening to him? One thing was certain for this 36-year old man – life as he had known it would never be the same.
With his loving but skeptical girlfriend by his side, Jonas crisscrosses the country as he searches for answers and delves deeper into this thrilling world of the phenomenal and spiritual. Along the way, he encounters an amazing group of religious teachers, scientists, mystics and spiritual healers who help him piece together this intricate puzzle.
The film shows how all of us can search inward for our own peace and happiness while contributing towards a positive shift in global consciousness. Wake Up is a call to consciousness to everyone who sees it; an invitation to accept that there is more to this life than meets the eye. From The Daily Grail
See original website here: http://wakeupthefilm.com/
June 24, 2011
Medical Science Meets Mind, Heart, and Soul
This article is from the Atlantic Monthly Magazine. I look at this as a companion piece to the one I posted on Deepak Chopra. Freedman doesn't really address the paradigm shift that will be required by modern medicine in order to accept many alternative methods and approaches to healing. The article does give a good picture, though, of where things are at right now between scientific and holistic medicine.
Freedman, like Chopra, points out that drugs and surgery are the treatments of choice in modern allopathic medicine. He goes even further—and it's an extremely important insight—he suggests that in the practice of modern medicine, physicians often must wait for the patients to get sufficiently sick or debilitated to a point where drugs and surgery are then finally required.
This article has stirred up a very positive debate about this meeting, not just between cultures, but between metaphysics as well. You can follow the debate on the Atlantic Monthly website. The couple essays I've read were quite good.
Tom Z
The Triumph of New Age Medicine
Medicine has long decried acupuncture, homeopathy, and the like as dangerous nonsense that preys on the gullible. Again and again, carefully controlled studies have shown alternative medicine to work no better than a placebo. But now many doctors admit that alternative medicine often seems to do a better job of making patients well, and at a much lower cost, than mainstream care—and they're trying to learn from it.
By DAVID H. FREEDMAN
I MEET BRIAN BERMAN, a physician of gentle and upbeat demeanor, outside the stately Greek columns that form the facade of one of the nation's oldest medical-lecture halls, at the edge of the University of Maryland Medical Center in downtown Baltimore. The research center that Berman directs sits next door, in a much smaller, plainer, but still venerable-looking two-story brick building. A staff of 33 works there, including several physician-researchers and practitioner-researchers, funded in part by $35 million in grants over the past 14 years from the National Institutes of Health, which has named the clinic a Research Center of Excellence. In addition to conducting research, the center provides medical care. Indeed, some patients wait as long as two months to begin treatment there—referrals from physicians all across the medical center have grown beyond the staff's capacity. "That's a big change," says Berman, laughing. "We used to have trouble getting any physicians here to take us seriously."
The Center for Integrative Medicine, Berman's clinic, is focused on alternative medicine, sometimes known as "complementary" or "holistic" medicine. There's no official list of what alternative medicine actually comprises, but treatments falling under the umbrella typically include acupuncture, homeopathy (the administration of a glass of water supposedly containing the undetectable remnants of various semi-toxic substances), chiropractic, herbal medicine, Reiki ("laying on of hands," or "energy therapy"), meditation (now often called "mindfulness"), massage, aromatherapy, hypnosis, Ayurveda (a traditional medical practice originating in India), and several other treatments not normally prescribed by mainstream doctors. The term integrative medicine refers to the conjunction of these practices with mainstream medical care. Read the entire article here.
Photo: Courtesy of: http://www.flickr.com/people/39453315@N04/
June 16, 2011
Fred Alan Wolf – Shamanic Physics and Vibrational Medicine
Theoretical physics is in the vanguard of bringing the concept of "consciousness" into science. Fred Alan Wolf is one of the leaders in that vanguard. In this video, he talks about the vibratory nature of reality and the creative power of consciousness.
The implications of this are profound. Keeping the focus on healing and medicine, it will open up a whole spectrum of questions and possibilities. First and foremost among them: what role does consciousness play in a person's healing? Can it dissolve a cancerous tumor? Can it speed up the healing of an open cut? Can it protect us from the flu?
This spectrum is not new to the esoteric schools of healing. They have always recognized that healing can go from the bottom up, and from the top down. Fred Alan Wolf talks about this as a physicist at the top of his field.
Tom Z
