by YoursChelbie 15 Replies latest jw friends
I remember while being a dub, there were many people in the KH I attended that seldom went to a traditional family doctor for common ailments. They were always praising their alternative methods of non-conventional medicine.
Even after they explained in principle how these methods work, I still had difficulty accepting them as safe alternatives. Anyone else had this experience?
My father is a retired Naturopath, so I grew up believing in alternatives. He had an enormous practice of JW's, from all over the world.
I am a self taught (seminars, classes, and tons of reading) herbalist, and totally believe in most alternative therapies.
I still believe in medical doctors too, for the most part. I rarely go to a doctor, and avoid prescriptions like a plague!! Antibiotics work really, really well on me, if I ever have to take them, because I take them so seldom.
Edited by - mulan on 6 August 2002 11:36:12
I have been "into" herbs for about 10 years...6 while a dub, 4 out.
I started on them while pregnant and when I was in the hospital the nurses were amazed at the births of my babies. All the nurses were writing down what I was "on". LOL
Now I try them first for ailments (and ask Mulan for advice of course) before running to the doctor. I have 4 children and we are never on anti-biotics and have been to the doctor less than 10 times in 15 years between us. Our health is so much better than our friends' and relatives. I wish I knew as much as Mulan but I'm learning.
I say they are worth a try. Doctors, chiropractors, surgeons, herbalists, etc. each have their own place and I don't discount any of them.
I too believe in natural products. Beer, cigarettes, and coffee are my favorites. I am 61, and feel terrific. Haven't had so much as a cold in several years.
alamb - could you please tell me what you took when you were pregnant? And what it did to help. I need some advice.
I tend to be one of those people who is really sensitive to allopathic medications. If someone is going to have a bad reaction to a medication, it will be me.
Therefore, I have come to depend on alternative remedies for most everything. I DO see a medical doctor, but I try to reserve allopathic treatment as a last resort. I've had several experiences where I had to be rushed to the emergency room because of problems with medication.
another bonehead Witness opinion:
"It's all man's pollution that's causing these allergies"
I used to hear this one in a rustbelt area that lost all its
smokestacks. People sneezed because Nature provided lots of
pollen from vacant fields.
Homeopathy is witchcraft hiding under a different name.
That doesn't mean it can't work, however.
metatron
zenpunk, I sent you an email.
larc, what is your secret? what brand of beer and how much per day? I gotta try this one! LOL!
Homeopathy, is that the one where they take a poisen that causes the same symptoms you are having, then they dillute it down to infinity, utill only the water you shook it in is left, then you take small amounts of it to get better? Wasn't it started by a Greek fellow back in Greece? I suppose you could call that witchcraft, but I think it would be more accurate to call it "flower essence" or maybe "poisen essence". I know it works, therefore I have respect for it. Also it is an ancient art, so it has the advantage of a long trial peroid and a lot of improvement. It worked in Greece better then the alternatives back then. However I see the possibility of each practitioner doing it a little differently, therefore it is not an exact science, but then neither is being a Doctor these days.
As far as your body doing well on antibiotics because you have abstained for so long, I would question the validity of that notion. While it is true that your body is free from the side effects of the antibiotics, however the germs you are likely to be infected with are ones that travel from animal to person, or from person to person, they are the same germs everyone else is getting. Therefore I would expect the antibiotics to work nearly the same against the same germs in most everyone. I have been going to the medical doctors all along, they are much cheaper then the naturopathy one here, and they have not given me an antibiotic in many years. They have cut back on all unnecessary antibiotics everywhere anyway. The germs get more resistant to them as time goes on, because of a process science calls evolution....LOL! Germs go through many more generations so much more quickly then us and they develope resistance to antibiotics over time, simply a fact of evolution, nothing to do with how many herbs we take personally. The issue is really bigger then any one person, and it involves a magical thing found in all life, the ability to adapt and change yourself to survive at the DNA level. If this process were really random hit and miss mutation, you wouldn't expect it to work so well with antibiotic resistant bugs. I believe there is a life force behind the process, an intelligence of consciousness guiding the evolution process, connecting all the germs of a strain together to share the trial and error information of all of them and direct the new changes. The numbers for random mutation just don't add up for me plus the fact that all the germs of a strian are not in physical proximity to communicate thier failures with each other and the process is happening within decades rather then millions of years as should be expected for random mutation and survival of the fittest.
I think with any system of healing, wether it's herbal or perscription drugs, the quality of care is a function of the "skill" of the practitioner. I'm surprised no one has brought up Chineese medicine in this thread. They not only have many madicinal herbs, they also use accupressure and accupuncture, which addresses directly the way your body processes the herbs, the energy flow through the body. I am of the notion that the body should be treated with the greatest knowledge of all its systems. The physical systems, the emotional systems, and the spiritual systems. I have yet to find a single practitioner who has skill in all of them...LOL
An herbalist, pychologist, acupuncturist, caripracter, who uses Reiki healing at the auric spiritual layers, and also has a medical degree in modern medicine, and can write me a script.....super doctor! Anybody know of one? Thats what it would take to be a holistic healer, because there are so many traps that individuals fall into by being ignorant of the knowledge found in all the other systems. Maybe we could program a super computer to assist all practitioners, and increase the overlap. The computer could cross index the different systems of healing and offer all the treatments, and then a list of practitioners near you. Now there is a buisness oppertunity waiting to happen!
Inside most all the seperate systems of healing you find little quirks of each practitioner, which won't stand up to investigation. Healing myths if you will, includded as part of thier practice. Yes even the medical Doctors have them too. Erronious assumptions are usually the cause. When I was learning Accupressure techniques, my teacher told me the silliest thing which he really believed. He said to remove my watch because Chi will not flow through a hand that is wearing a watch. Well I though to myself now if that is true, then 50 million americans hands would now be dead. Besides "life force" always finds a way to survive when given obsticles, just as the germs do, since Chi is "life force", it should be able to conquer this obstical. Chi will not only flow through a hand that is wearing a watch, but you can flow enough through it to fry the watch and make it stop. I decided finally to remove my watch but not for the same reason I was taught. His teaching was based on an error, and for him it was true. If he put on a watch I'm certain that his ability to move Chi would stop because he believed it to be so.
It was claimed by L Ron Hubbard that as much as 80 to 90 percent of all illnesses are psychosematic and can be dealt with and healed at the mental level using "regression theraphy", which he stamped a title on called "auditing". Funny thing is it works, so well that it's a Hollywood craze now. Very expensive however.
So why not use a symbolic, or ritualistic practice, of dilluting "poisening essence" to a parts per trillion level, to where there is only a "hint of the vibration" of the poisen left in the water, there certainly could not be even one molecule left at these dillution specifications. But it works! That is the magical part. Whether it is a "vibrational" healing process or a "substance" healing process, or simply an "intention" as in a witchcraft spell, does that really mater? It is the "practice" of the art that keeps it alive and well and I applaud those with the time and focus to advance and practice any healing art. As far as I'm concerned they are all magical, even the medical doctors have moved into the realms of magic....LOL
Edited by - libra_spirit on 6 August 2002 14:25:50
Great post Libra.
About the antibiotic thing, I was merely stating my opinion. Yours is good too.
You are correct about homeopathy. It is an amazing science that I wish I knew more about. Why does cobra venom (Cobralactin in homeopathy) help severe back pain? Who knows? But it does. It also works for tumors, rashes, eczema, and warts.
Arnica (arsenic) works amazingly for pain.
A preparation using coffee, is for insomnia.
My Dad used Homeopathy a great deal, and I have many of his books. I should look into it more. The one on cobra venom and arsenic are ones I remember from years ago.
