great medicines

[Guest guest]

I see the dominant medicine of civilization going through three

epochs. The first was shamanic and that was most of history. When I

studied shamanic medicine, I was struck by the recurring theme of

clearing evil and supporting the good. The medicine of systematic

correspondence, which seemed to independently develop in all the

so-called high cultures of antiquity were also based upon this idea

(ayurveda, CM, unani, greek, mayan). But they were naturalistic

rather than demonological. Naturopathic medicine revived this concept

of clearing evil in the west and the advent of TCM in China revived it

in the east (remember CM had been on the decline or outlawed for half

a century or more at this point). However, aguably, there has been

some overemphasis on supporting the good in TCM and clearing the evil

in Naturopathy. But these trends appear to have moderated as the

adherents of each become more scholarly and sophisticated. But all

these styles in their epochs began with empirical finding, followed

with the development of theory, clinical experience and fruther

refinement of application.

 

In china, the same herbs are used in the ma wang dui texts, TCM and

allopathically to treat spasm. But the theories are demons, wind or

neurological dysfunction depending. Now WM is pretty much brand new.

The biosciences are really less than 200 years old and WM really

about 100 or so. In that time, WM has made remarkable advances in

lifesaving from acute illness and trauma, formerly the cause of 90% of

all deaths in humans. Again, if CM or some other med had as much to

offer in this arena, they had all of hx to prove it. But WM is still

an inferior medicine, albeit an extremely powerful one. This is great

when life is imperiled, but often causes side effects, chronic illness

and death when used to treat chronic illness. This is because there

was a basic failure to understand the need to support the righteous

and clear the excess, not just attack diseases and suppress symptoms.

Their very power worked against them.

 

All along, basic biology supported this idea of clearing cellular

waste and preventing mutations to prolong health and life.

Naturopathy jumped on the research when it clearly confirmed a lot of

their ideas about " cleansing " . My first degree was in biology and

that led me to naturopathy rather than western med due this idea of

clearing waste and restoring proepr nutrition. However, I was not

happy with my ND training at that time, which led me to TCM, a more

sophsiticated methods of clearing excess and restoring righteous, it

seemed. I know believe Naturopathy holds its own with TCM as it has

become quite abit more sophisticated in recent years. Naturopaths on

the cutting edge have really perfected the use of supplements towards

this end. Within thir own context, I consider them now equal to TCM

herbalists in the successful treatment of chronic illness, something I

thought I would never believe.

 

So all the great medicines of the prior two epochs addressed the whole

range of therapies, clearing, supporting and relieving symptoms. Yet

they were weak when dealing with life threatening infections and acute

trauma (we adopted gunpowder from the chinese as well as numerous

other inventions that are documented by Needham, so the fact that we

did not adopt their supposed cures for things that resemble the plague

at a time when Europe desperately need such information is perhaps

because these ideas must not have been widely known or were greatly

exxaggerated). Thus WM has been preoccupied with the most devastating

issues left unaddressed by prior cultures and ignored quality of life

issues till recently. Like all great medicines in their developmental

stages, all its power was exerted on symptom relief and disease

control. When one reaches their limit of attacking and suppressing,

it is time to develop a more sophisticated set of ideas.

 

However these ideas develop in their own context of genes and

telomeres, not yin and yang or demons. And it is ludicrous to think

such ideas (yinyang, not demons) will ever again be embraced by the

masses of educated modern peoples, whatever their actual

sophistication when studied deeply. However my bias against demons is

perhaps no more chauvinistic than modern meds bias against systematic

correspondence. Now right on the heels of the human genome project,

their are many avenues of development, from genotype specific drugs at

the " old " end of the spectrum to nanotech and bioengineering at the

very new.

 

The paradigm shift we have been waiting may have already happened.

Maybe not the one you envisioned. But a classic shift where the basis

of how to treat illness has been turned around. New ideas in the old

paradigm are failing; very few new safe drugs have been developed or

all well along. Pharm corp. stocks are dropping and there is genrwal

sense that a wall has been reached in drug development. That is

always when a paradigm shifts. Now all the talk in WM is literally

about the terrain, not the microbe anymore. Bernard would be proud.

And southern California will be its hotbed. The endless money, the

obssession with youth and beauty, the established infrastructure of

high tech and bio tech (which will converge into nanobiology at some

point) plus our recently passed stem cell initiative. Clear the

excess and support the right. Its always where great medicine take off.