What's New on IJHC (July 2010)

Table of Contents 10-2

Editorial Musings

Oneness: A healing chorus unifying our levels of beingness
Daniel J. Benor, MD, ABIHM, Editor in Chief

Research

'Placebo' Is the Medical Term For Self-Healing
Daniel J. Benor, MD, ABIHM

Remarkable Recoveries

Healing People with Schizophrenia through Shared Acceptance of Clients' Realities and Shifts in Bioenergy Fields
Yuliya L. Cohen TDCE, BACS, ERT

Living with Life Challenges

This Is Your Brain In A Mine Field: Diagnosed with PTSD - the Challenge to Be Objective
Rick Adair

Abstract
 
This article is written in response to a request by the IJHC to share my personal experience of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and subsequent treatment with Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) and other modalities that involve meditation and music. My experience as a combat medic in Vietnam and as a professional civilian paramedic are given a face to help facilitate this study. Included are issues from my childhood that contributed to my PTSD.
 
 
Early wounds: land mines in later challenging situations
 
In 1971, shortly after returning home to Los Angeles from a one-year tour in Vietnam as a combat medic, I went body surfing at a local beach. Never having been taught that you should swim parallel to the shore to escape a riptide, I used up most of my strength swimming against the current. Just as my feet touched the sand and I knew I was safe, two boys and a girl, about eight or nine years old were swept by me in the strong current of the rip. Even though it felt like suicide, I allowed the current to pull me out again as I swam toward the terrified children. I had no idea how to help them and instinctively knew if I started shouting for a lifeguard that they would panic and drown... plus there was no lifeguard within earshot of the pounding surf.
 
The children stayed calm as I juggled them in my arms trying desperately to move all three toward the shore. After a couple of minutes it was evident that we were making little or no progress. I knew that our best chance would be if I focused on the two younger children and let the older boy who looked the most calm, fend for himself. Without words, my eyes told him, “If you don’t stay calm and keep up, you’re going to drown.” Very slowly all four of us made our way toward the shore in spite of the strong currents and large surf.
 
To this day, I can only say it was the Grace of God (whomever He, She or It might be), that got us ashore because I felt completely spent when I attempted to rescue them. As we walked onto the beach, no one spoke... they went in one direction and I went in the other. As I lay alone on my towel surrounded by hundreds of people, none of whom apparently witnessed what had happened, I felt nothing but deep shame for abandoning the third child. I knew that they probably would have drowned had I not been there, but as always... It just wasn’t enough. All I could see were the eyes of that little boy as I spoke to him with my eyes... I couldn’t forgive myself. Even though the three children survived- the best possible outcome - I was programmed, as it were, to always feel as though my efforts in any situation fell short of some perfect standard that I had created in my mind...

Read this article

Variations on the Theme of Healing

The Benefits and Potentials of WHEE:
    Wholistic Hybrid derived from EMDR and EFT
Anita Baisley, MA Ed/Admin, Reiki Master

Wholistic Approaches

The ‘Sickening’ Search for Health: Ivan Illich’s revised thoughts on the medicalization of life and medical iatrogenesis. 
Francis C. Biley, RN PhD

Student and healee experiences of healing
Bailey
Benor-Research
Cohen

Poetry, The Creative Arts and Humor are Healing

Tango: A Deeper Look 
Sharna Fabiano

One of the incredible things about tango is that it is so multi-dimensional: art, hedonism, competitiveness, healing. Its all there.
– Daniel Trenner
   Tango Maestro and Revivalist,
   Northampton, Massachusetts

Tango is a strange beast. Its intimate embrace and intertwining legwork prove as irresistible for some as they are intimidating for others. Erotic images typify the portrayal of tango in popular media, but curiously, experienced social dancers tend to liken what they do to mind-body practices like yoga or martial arts, highlighting experiences of connection and creative flow.

What is it about tango that cannot be perceived from the outside? It would seem that this dance, while being sensual, romantic, and intimate, also demands a great deal of focus and discipline. Devotees the world over have left their jobs, emptied their living rooms, and changed their wardrobes to study and dance tango. On the other hand, many try tango once and never return, citing it as “too difficult, ” a judgment rarely made of other partner dances.

Michael Autrey, a freelance writer in Portland, Oregon, draws a comparison between tango and yoga as experiences that must be felt rather than seen:

When it comes to tango and yoga, a picture - or video - is not worth a thousand words… Close-embrace social tango does not make for telling images; nor does meditation. Why? … [In tango and yoga,] the principal sense is touch… Dancing, one is 'in touch' with the floor, one's partner, the music: the whole, greater than the sum of its parts, is touching in every sense of the word.

The touch of the foot on the floor or the arm on the back, even the 'touch' of musical sound waves on the inner ear brings our focus into the sensory realm. By cultivating our natural proprioceptive abilities (sense of the position of the body), tango can give us the feeling that we are one with what we touch. If tango is defined by this connective sensation, rather than specific shapes or steps, it’s easier to understand why its essential qualities are invisible. You have to 'do it' with your body in order to 'get it' with your brain.

Read this article

Wholistic News Reviews

Traditional, complementary, alternative, and psycho-social modalities of treatment
Larry Lachman, PsyD

Heart Disease and Anger

Omega-3 Fatty Acids and Psychotic Disorders

Cardiovascular Disease, Medication and Interactions with Herbal Products

Cancer and Liver Disease-Causing Agents and Diet

Questions Pertaining to the Protective Role of Vitamin-D and Ovarian Cancer

Book Reviews

Richard E. Cytowic. The Man Who Tasted Shapes: A Bizarre Medical Mystery Offers Revolutionary Insights into Emotions, Reasoning, and Consciousness.

Jack Kornfield. The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness, and Peace.

David Hamilton. Wired for Compassion.

Yekutiel, Lea. Making the Breast of It: Overcoming Fear of Intimacy After Mastectomy.

Christopher K. Johannes PhD & Harry E. van der Zee MD Hom, (Editors). Homeopathy and Mental Health Care: Integrative Practice, Principles and Research.

John Pollard. The Self Parenting Program – Core Guidelines for the Self-Parenting Practitioner.

Mary Ann Wallace, MD. Mindful Eating, Mindful Life: How to Change the Habits That Sabotage Your Health.

Joanne Wannan. New Lives – Stories of Rescued Dogs Helping, Healing, and Giving Hope.

Nick Trout, DVM. Tell Me Where It Hurts: A day of humor, healing and hope in my life as an animal surgeon.

Maria Becker, MD. No More Fears for Maddox.