TRADITIONAL HEALING

Traditional Healing is the oldest form of structured medicine that is a medicine that has an underlying set of principles by which it is practiced. It is the medicine from which all later forms of medicine developed, including Chinese medicine, Graeco-Arabic medicine, and of course also modern Western medicine. Traditional Healing was originally an integral part of semi-nomadic and agricultural tribal societies, and although archeological evidence for its existence only dates back to around 14,000 B.C., its origins are believed to lie much further back and probably predate the last Ice-Age. Unlike other traditional medicines, Traditional Healing has no philosophical base, as its practice is totally founded on healing knowledge that has been accumulated over thousands of years, and upon the healer's personal experience, which includes his/her awareness of, and sense of unity with the natural world, as well as his/her understanding of the different levels of consciousness within the human psyche. Traditional Healers see the universe as a living intelligence that operates according to natural laws that manifest according to specific rules and correspondences, and exercise their inner conviction that the purpose of life and the nature of disease cannot be understood without knowledge of these laws and the individual's relationship to the natural world. Thus Traditional Healers share a profound knowledge and a deep understanding of how natural laws influence living things. It is for this reason that Traditional Healing is often referred to as "wisdom medicine" or "Wizard Medicine" (the word wizard means 'wise man', not 'sorcerer') and Traditional Healers are often referred to as wise or "clever" men or women or as persons of knowledge. It is this knowledge and experience base that provides the similarity between the core principles of Traditional Healing through the ages and in different parts of the world. There were and of course still are regional differences between the way Traditional Healers apply their knowledge, but this is simply a pragmatic adaptation by the Traditional Healer, because he/she cannot perform their role in a way that is isolated from the cultural perceptions and belief patterns of those whom they treat. Traditional Healers practice in a different way than practitioners from other types of medicine. Traditional Healers are truly holistic and understand the mind-body relationship. Just like a human being is an integrated entity and cannot survive in pieces and health is an integrated state of well-being of the whole body, ill-health cannot be treated efficiently by experts that treat specific organs or areas of the body. The natural harmony of the body can only be restored by an integrated and holistic approach that incorporates both the physical and the mental aspects of the individual. Traditional Healers use natural methods of treatment, because these were the resources that have nurtured the human race - and in fact all life - since the beginning of time. Traditional Healing treatments are always integrated and involve a combination of approaches such as counseling, herbal medicine, nutritional therapy and physical therapeutics.

Traditional Healers used to be taught by other Traditional Healers with many years experience, by means of an "apprenticeship" that would take a minimum of 7 years, and usually much more. These days however most Traditional Healers have a combination of formal higher education as well as having been mentored for an extended period by an older and more experienced Traditional Healer. Traditional Healers have strong ethical principles that they extend to all life. They believe it is their duty to foster life in all its forms and to alleviate suffering. They also believe that Nature's laws must be obeyed in order to avoid decline and ultimate disaster. Principles of Traditional Healing There are "four pillars" of Traditional Healing which according to the Roman historian Piny the Elder (2379 AD.) were: "Eruditio, Perspicacitas, Beneficentia et Caritas". Roughly translated these mean: "learning, insight, kindness and empathy". These are the basic principles that should guide the Traditional Healer in all his or her actions. Traditional Healing always deals with natural laws, because all life is subject to these natural laws and illhealth is usually due to an inherent or acquired weakness that has allowed an abnormal imbalance to occur, either within an organism, or between the organism and its environment. Therefore Traditional Healers do not only work at correcting any weakness or damage to the life force or psyche that has allowed an illness to "conquer" the individual, but also work to correct the resultant internal imbalances that allow the disease to persist. Traditional Healing Today Since the advent of 'big government', which in Europe occurred with the Roman invasions and in North America and Australasia with English colonization, Traditional Healing has at best been misrepresented and suppressed and at worst been persecuted. This is not surprising, as the Traditional Healers' extensive knowledge and their independence, because of their use of freely available natural resources, tends to place them outside of the economic and political control of governments. Governments therefore have, through the ages, tended to view Traditional Healers as a legacy of the past freedoms of tribal life and thus as a threat to their autonomy and power. This is why all governments have striven to fragment and control healing practices. Big government is generally only interested in control and power, and very rarely has had any real or genuine interest in the health of its subjects. This is proven by the fact that governments have, over the ages, been quite happy to sanction and give patronage to medical practices that were more lethal than helpful, as long as these were under their control. For the ability to control a country's medicine gives rulers unsurpassed control over its citizens.