I am Ivy educated lawyer who resided in Manhattan for most of my life. New Age repels me. It is too glib for me. I see the attraction and find some strands enlightening but no New Age for me. I became near death with facial pain. The suicide rate is more than 95%.
More than thirty surgeries on my jaw did not free me from pain. My oral surgeon visited NY and dragged me to Harlem, against all my better judgment. This Chinese doctor who was a surgeon at Columbia combined Western and EAstern. He had me hold certain substances and tested my strength, outlining my face in magic marker. I was too weak so my mom's arm was connected to my arm. When he finished, there was such an accurate map of my pain patterns. I did not tell even the oral surgeon so accurately. He tried qi gong but it did not help. Blood declotters did.
The nerve pain caused severe TMJ. I saw Harold Gelb, one of the first dentists in the field. Harold used kinesiology to fix a dental appliance. I thought this was sheer lunacy, to run, and report him to the state and his hospital affiliations. It worked in making the appliance work. My own doctor told me in secret to see a chiropractor. Many doctors get so desperate themselves they seek aid. Not one of them believes in chiroptractor beliefs. There is contempt. It works in many cases when medicine can do nothing.
I can't aritculate how all these New Age modalities are viewed with utter skepticism. Pain compelled me. I now know why Steve McQueen went to Mexico for laeterile. If anything else New Age modalities gave me transient hope when hope was needed more than health. Something is going on. Medicine is limited. The New Age jargon drives me crazy. I wish more Western doctors would investigate these fields. There has to be a scientific basis beyond what New Age articulates. My Chinese friend from Hong Kong told me no one Chinese does Chinese medicine except peasants. They love Western drugs.
I also did Chinese herbs. My fear is that the pesticides on Chinese foods and herbs would kill me before the pain did. The Chinatown doctor told me that she could not help me. All she could was improve my immune system so that I could fare better. I stunk up my entire apt building. As long as they say they don't know, I am ready to give it a try. Today, I cannot believe I was so ill as to be desperate. Worry about suicide chronically and against your will, by reflexive impulse, and some of these ideas still sound wacky, probably are, but what the hell....