Health Care Is Under Attack

Patients get results by applying alternative care and that’s making the medical profession more tolerant of non-pharmaceutical treatments. “I don’t know what you’re doing, but keep it up,” is the often repeated phrase. It refers to the positive outcomes from patients using exercise, nutritional supplements, meditation, massage, and a long list of energy-based practices that boost immunity and improve the quality of life. In addition, patients’ requests have brought healers into the operating room, Therapeutic Touch into hospital, and energy psychology to psychotherapy.

Patients who have doctors who listen are creating teams that get the best of both worlds. The doctor assesses the direction of the patient’s health; patients discover therapies that are less invasive, cause fewer side effects, and are more effective.

Alternative Medicine is Gaining More Attention

People pay out of pocket for alternative care, indicating their commitment to “unproven” techniques that work for them. They do not dismiss their illness as being “all in the mind,” yet they’ve seen how, for example, stress caused by caring for a aging parent made them susceptible to illness. Waiting too long in the doctor’s office, seeing the doctor for ten minutes, paying for a costly office visit, and taking an expensive antibiotic that upset their digestion for weeks also causes stress.

Patients are discovering that deep tissue massage moves illness out of their system with no side effects. Learning Alexander Technique prevents recurring back pain. Emotional Freedom Technique stops nightmares caused by trauma when drugs did not. Patients also understand that no treatment works for everyone and how lucky they are to have so many techniques available to them.

Scientific Recognition of Subtle Energies

Awareness of subtle energies started out slowly with discovery of the x-ray over a hundred years ago. Now, we see its use in conventional medical settings–along with ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging, TENS electrical stimulation to manage pain, and electrical currents to stimulate bone growth in slow healing breaks.

Nurses, especially sensitive to patient discomfort, study massage, counseling, aromatherapy, and Therapeutic Touch, many of which are being incorporated into nursing protocols. Medical professionals who see the importance of treating the whole person take time to communicate with patients.

As Westerners mix with people from other cultures, they are learning about medical systems based on different concepts of health and healing. Acupuncture can be effective in the treatment surgery; t’ai chi is valued for increasing flexibility, balance and reducing pain in arthritic or elderly patients.

Research in quantum physics is bridging the gap between science and concepts that were once considered the rightful territory of mysticism. Popular writers such as Rupert Sheldrake, the biologist who explains morphogenetic fields, Lynn McTaggart, the science journalist who writes about subtle energies, and Larry Dossey, the MD who writes on the power of prayer in healing, are also making the theories more accessible.

Two Institutions Support the Study of Subtle Energy

The Center for Frontier Sciences is an open forum that is dedicated to the open and unbiased examination of any theories that challenge prevailing scientific views using sound scientific methods and reasoning. Some of the topics include the relationship of electromagnetic fields and life, the mind-matter interrelationship, and novel energy technology.

The International Society for the Study of Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine (ISSSEEM) is an interdisciplinary organization for the study of the basic sciences and medical and therapeutic applications of subtle energies. They sponsor an annual conference open to the public.

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