May 2010, Volume 10, No 2

EVERY LIVING BEING

IS PART OF THE ALL

AND ALSO EMBODIES THE ALL

Raven
Credit: English Bay Gallery

Editorial Musings

We are at odds with ourselves internally; we believe that the inner is fundamentally different from the outer, that what is me is quite separate from the not-me, that divisions among people and nations are necessary, and yet we wonder why there are tensions, conflicts, wars in the world. The conflicts begin with minds that believe in fragmentation and are ignorant of wholeness.

- Vimala Thakar Indian social activist, spiritual teacher

Western society has championed the reductionistic approach to life, believing that if we dissect anything and everything down to ever more basic components then we will understand ever more clearly how it works… This approach has proven helpful in analyzing and understanding the structure, mechanics, chemistry, particle and wave aspects of nature, and has provided tools for manipulating the environment. In many ways, our lives have been made safer and easier through these approaches. We have shelter, durable and consumable goods, transportation and communications that can enhance our lives.

Unfortunately, these have been far from unmixed blessings. The costs to the environment from short-sighted exploitation and depletion of resources, poorly planned and crowded cities, and pollution are now threatening not only the existence of human life but of all living organisms on our planet. We have become over-focused on production and commerce – the 'what' of our existence, while overlooking or ignoring quality of life and respect for the environment and for all other living beings – the 'how' of our existence. To a large extent, this represents a left-brain hemisphere style of relating to the world. See Table 1. for hemispheric brain functions.

Socially, this attitude creates a 'me vs. them' approach to life, in which those who are more rich and/or more powerful exploit those who are less fortunate.

Research

This article is inspired by a fascinating series of YouTube videos on studies of the placebo effect on pains and other problems. A high-powered team of eight academics from various disciplines discusses research on many ways in which placebo reactions can be stimulated. These videos are most interesting for the self-healings they reveal. More fascinating yet are the limitations of the vision and comprehension of the conventional medical establishment about possible mechanisms of action for these processes. As I, myself, was taught in medical school, conventional medicine perceives people to be bodies with brains that may alter responses to physical conditions in rather limited fashions. Within this framework of explanations, self-healing is something of a mysterious surprise. In contrast, self healing is a very natural and common process within a wholistic perspective – where people are understood to be composed of body, emotions, mind, relationships (with other people and with the environment) and spirit. From a wholistic perspective, individuals are expected and encouraged to generate self-healings through varieties of mind-body and bioenergy mechanisms. Within this perspective, symptoms are reflections of a person's state of being in the world. When we address all levels of their being, not just the physical, then self-healing is a natural and frequent occurrence for most people.

Remarkable Recoveries

The field of psychotherapy holds to the basic premise that what is experienced by people with schizophrenia is not normal or real. As a result, in psychotherapy there has always been a major emphasis on trying to help clients give a full account of their inner reality in words, pictures or other symbolic representations, admit they were delusional, and through learning to measure reality with the yardstick of the therapist to regain full grasp of normal reality. Bruce W. Scotton (2002) points out that “Although traditional psychiatry and psychology have made impressive strides in the understanding the human mind and the brain, they adhere to an unnecessarily restrictive view of the psyche and its functioning, and in doing so they refuse to follow the scientific method. Specifically, our current sciences of the psyche fail to examine the data concerning, build theories to explain, and work therapeutically with spiritual experiences and experience of nonordinary reality."

The goal of this article is to expand the existing model by questioning and rethinking assumptions about the basic nature of client’s non-ordinary experiences. This article describes a non-traditional approach to treating people with schizophrenia that involves authentically accepting the person's story and symptoms as a valid reflection of an inner crisis, and treating the person's positive symptoms by respectfully using each aspect of their story as a direction from which healing can proceed towards spiritual integration and symptom resolution.

The starting point of all these stories is the healing professional asking the person to describe their inner reality and then engaging and treating them from within that reality.

This report is divided in the following sections:

1. A brief overview of the challenges and perspectives on treating people with schizophrenia.

2. A story of my personal path to healing.

3. A discussion on shared intentional focus and the validity of inner reality.

4. Case examples describing the challenges of reframing and resolution in achieving a successful treatment outcome.

5. Discussions of bioenergy field alterations that facilitate healing for these people.

6. Summary of the approach and conclusions.

Living with Life Challenges

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...

Variations on the Theme of Healing

I am currently the principal at a high school on a Native American Reservation in New Mexico. As part of my work for my Doctoral degree I took a course on WHEE: Wholistic Hybrid derived from EMDR and EFT. WHEE has proved to be transformational in my personal, family and professional life. This article details ways in which WHEE has been helpful in clearing current-life stresses; residues of recent and past traumas in myself and in family members; and in starting to transform the fears, angers, low-self esteem and other manifestations of the history of societal traumas experienced by the Native Americans over many generations.

Wholistic Approaches

Ivan Illich’s claim that the medical establishment has become a major threat to health as a result the medicalisation of life and the development of medical iatrogenesis (negative medical effects on health) appears to have been accurately prophetic. Expensive, specialised, intensive, technological and professionalised care has developed to the point that the general community is now unable to understand and deal with ordinary life processes such as pain, suffering and death. Although the medical profession is closely implicated in the development of this situation, along with capitalist and financial imperatives and institutional domination, ”Today’s major pathogen…[is] the pursuit of the healthy body” (Illich, 1986, p. 1325).

Student and Healee Experiences

Wholistic News Reviews

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

Poetry, Art and Humor are Healing

– 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.

Book Reviews