So many compelling ideas and threads that run through this discussion. Yes, Herbert Benson has done some extremely interesting work in the Mind-Body medicine field, as has Larry Dossey. Well, there are quite a few, actually. I agree with BenSen who says that science has become the new religion, resulting in scientism. To point this out to a scientific fanatic usually results in responses that confirm this diagnosis: the intolerance of other beliefs, the name-calling, the superior feelings that the adherent alone has the "truth." I've been there, done that, been that. Being raised by a Christian Scientist drove me into the arms of science big time and I can't tell you how much resentment I harbored as a young adult about all the medical treatment that had been withheld from me. I studied genetics and molecular biology under a fellowship at a big state university. I was fascinated by the power such systems could give us over our health and biology. I was the fiercest proponent of Western medicine there ever was.

Until, of course, it failed me. And then, yes, what else is someone to do except seek out alternative methods? This is what always amazes me when proponents of Western medicine are so contemptuous of these methods; most people don't start out there. They end up there when they have nothing else left to try. And often, it works. Often, as others have pointed out, these "alternative" methods have been in use for thousands of years. Quite possibly the reason they're still in use after all this time is because they work.

One thing I learned in graduate school while I studied genetics: our genotypes represent an enormous reservoir of genetic diversity. They have to, in order to permit us to respond physiologically to changes in our environment. If we were all the same--in other words, if all of us responded identically to every chemical or physical aspect of our environment--our species would have gone extinct a long time ago. And yet, the scientific method, which, in order to produce measurable results, must hold all variables constant except one, needs to overlook this fact in order to progress. This of course does not mean that progress hasn't been made. It has, obviously. But in order to keep progressing, we need to lose the scientism and realize that we don't know everything yet and that the alternative methods that work have something to offer. If the explanation of how they work doesn't fit into our currently accepted models, then perhaps our currently accepted models need updating or the explanation of why the method works isn't quite there yet. We often seem to forget, in the grip of a currently accepted model, that the model is simply our best way of describing the phenomenon. It isn't the phenomenon itself.

At any rate, I do understand that some gung-ho positive thinking types can be extremely irritating with their "blame the victim" attitude. My dad used to make me CRAZY when I was sick and he'd come rolling (he was in a wheelchair for most of my life) into my room to put me through some mind-body exercises--half the time I started to pretend I wasn't sick just to not have to go through all that. Hmm, maybe THAT'S how it works (kidding.) But, having been through everything I've been through in my life, medically speaking, I feel those irritating people aren't a good reason to give up all personal power in dealing with an illness. We don't need to accept that blame. If we don't accept it, they can't lay it on us. They just look like the sad person lacking in compassion that they are in that situation. And I do believe--and the work done with monks is just one bit of evidence--that there are biophysical/biochemical mechanisms that exist in our bodies that can help us to heal if we can figure out how to access them. The placebo effect is another bit of evidence.

And it turns out that my dad, who was told by the medical establishment he would live no more than five years after the accident that paralyzed him, lived another thirty in good health, dying at age seventy-five, never having seen a single doctor after he came home from the hospital.

Also, Abbybwood, I will say that one thing that amazes me beyond belief is the fact that this country, which is so enamored of mainstream medicine, makes it so damned difficult to get the stuff! Yeah, it's the ONLY thing that works! Without it you're toast! But--sorry, you can't have it. Unless you're rich. I haven't had health insurance most of my life since I freelance but now that I have it from my husband's job, the insurance carrier spends all their time trying to figure out how to deny or make some other entity pay for every single claim I submit.

I think you're absolutely right and I have no problem whatsoever with the concept of socialized medicine. The few times I've needed medical care when I was in Canada or England, I was delighted with the care I received (envious, too). I wish we could have a similar system in place here but I'm afraid that the insurance companies are so entrenched and are making so much money under the present system that it is going to be a bloody fight. My understanding (and I might have my figures wrong from memory) is that something like 2 or 3 % of medical overhead costs in Canada go to the bureaucracy that administers it. That is contrasted to 15% of these types of costs in the U.S. being spent on efforts expended to make someone other than the current insurance carrier pay for the services.

Utterly delightful satire. Thanks for the laughs.