NATURE FORUM WORLDWIDE

[Kiki Suarez]

With great pleasure I participated as a moderator on the Nature Worldwide forum, contributing with themes and participating in dialogues, but this is becoming more difficult. I am slowly turning blind! In that process, I am going through some very concerning experiences that I like to share with you. There seems to be a link between conservation and traditional healing. But let me first tell you about myself .

I am a fifty-seven year old painter and psychotherapist, born in Germany, but living in Mexico for the last thirty-one years. For many years I have been considered clumsy and scatter- brained by family and friends. As long as I can remember, I have fallen frequently and bumped into things. Dishes remain dirty after I have washed them. A few months ago all of this got worse. An eye doctor diagnosed me with Retinitis Pigmentosa, a genetic disease of the retina, which is progressive and can lead to blindness. It was of little consolation to realize that I wasn’t that clumsy, but visually impaired. As it turned out, my case is quite advanced, though I still have some central and peripheral vision, I can still recognize faces and read. Nobody can foresee how long this will still stay with me. Until there is a break through via stem cell research, however, there will be no cure for my condition.

When one is told ‘There is no cure,’ many turn to alternative medicine and so did I, as I have done before. The first time I consulted an alternative practitioner was still many years ago back in Germany. My grandparents swore that he was the greatest. He checked my irises, quickly diagnosed benign tumors in my uterus and gave me some homeopathic medicine. But, after his consult, I went straight from his clinic to my gynecologist, who assured me I had no tumors at all, but a bacterial infection, which was quickly cured with antibiotics.

When I arrived in Mexico I carried all the romanticism imaginable that was so fashionable among my generation. In Mexico shamans and healers proliferated and still do and even among academics, many swear by their capabilities. One day my baby son had a high fever. I wanted to take him to a pediatrician. But a friend said his sister was a traditional healer. The healer came, cleaned the house with bushels of basil, rubbed two raw eggs over my son’s small body, cracked them open and declared a case of Evil Eye. I was instructed to put the baby in clay three times a day. The clay brought down the fever, but as soon as I took him out, it shot up again. The Evil Eye was persistent. After a week or so, I took the baby to the pediatrician. My boy had a very bad tonsil infection, which also was cured by antibiotics in no time.

A few days ago a friend came to me. She has a benign tumor in her uterus. It is growing and that makes it dangerous as it may cause hemorrhaging. “Have it taken out,” I suggested. “No,” she screamed. “My homeopath tells me removal will lead to “something worse” later.” She is a very well educated, smart young woman. “How do you know that this is true? Are there any studies to prove this?” I asked her. She was shocked as at that moment she realized she had chosen to believe the homeopath. Her medical decision was based on faith, not knowledge. “Try the homeopath and if the tumor disappears: great! If not: have it taken out believing that this is the best thing you can do for your health!” I said.

Another friend suffered hip pain for years. No, she was not interested in modern medicine. Yes, she selected homeopathy and acupuncture. I know both her practitioners and I like them. They seemed to know what they were doing. One day my friend fell down in the street, and broke her hip. The break, it was discovered, resulted not from the fall but from a rare blood cancer which produced tumors in her bones. That was the source of her pain. I am still angry at both practitioners for never ordering an x–ray.

I have interviewed people in very traditional villages here who live under the constant fear of the Evil Eye. Male shamans throw it on the midwives in their community, because they feel in competition. In this one the male shamans went so far as to burn the midwives houses. In many traditional communities people live under a daily and constant fear of their shamans judgments.

Back to my eyes. Many people with the best intentions have told me, “If you really want it, you can cure yourself from anything.” Little do they understand how cruel such suggestion is for someone diagnosed with an incurable disease. Their message implies that “If you do it right, you can be cured, but at the same time, “if you are not cured then you have only yourself to blame”. You don’t just suffer your predicament but additionally feel like a failure in positive thinking.

A Western doctor inclined to traditional Chinese medicine and an acupuncturist asked me recently, “Is there something you do not want to see which perhaps has led to this loss of vision?” In fact, yes, probably there are tons of things I do not want to see, and if my retinas were not as sick as they are, this would be a valuable question. But who in the world does not have issues they do not want to look at? If the result of that were Retinitis Pigmentosa, the whole of mankind would be on the verge of blindness!

The same acupuncturist believes: “If we are in balance, we do not ever get sick”. Well, were that so, why do animals and plants, even in healthy environments, fall ill? Why has there always been disease? Is it truly possible to always be in balance? As one’s life advances, one has to be out of balance from time to time. When we are not in balance, we experience that other common phenomenon: crisis. Crises make us creative, they push us forward and allow us to grow in many ways, and they ultimately kill us.

How can studied and intelligent people critical of Western medicine - often with good reason, I admit - be equally uncritical of alternative medicine? I started looking for answers on the Internet, and found that there are lots of reports and web-pages on traditional healing relating the traditional medicines of native people to conservation of nature. I found websites in which official projects of the United Nations and the World Bank promote the production of medicinal plants by indigenous people so that they could market them, as a means to motivate them to conserve the wild state of their territories.

I do not want to state that all alternative medicine is worthless and admit that plants and herbs have helped me sometimes more than Western medicines. But I have grown very concerned with people – including some with an academic background – promoting diagnoses and cures based on methods of medical examination or even the lack of any of that, and thus depriving people of the medical attention that could cure or have cured them if an accurate diagnoses or cure could have come in time. Now that I am reading that organizations like the UN and the World Bank officially promote such practices in the name of nature conservation and empowering indigenous people, I am even more concerned. So I chose to put it at this forum as my contribution to a dialogue related to conservation. I don’t know the answers, but my lifetime experiences strongly indicate that there is a very dangerous tendency to allow for and even promote practices and the sales of products that may cause great harm to people who are just as desperately ill as I am, or much worse, who may die if not diagnosed and cured properly.

I am a big fan of Socrates who said that the unexamined life is not worth living. In practice that means that we have to examine our beliefs continually. Mostly they are born out of our deepest fears and wishes. And we do not even know that, as it mostly happens in the subconscious part of our beings. Check out and be critical of your Allopath, but be as critical and aware of any alternative healer and medicine. Just then can we really find out the best from either side so that we profit from the best of both sides.
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kikitheartist

The deepest truth of Buddhist philosophy holds that at the center of the universe, and of each human being, there is a basic goodness and that everything is connected to everything else. www.kikitheartist.com

[Kiki Suarez]

From Anie in Australia
Hi Kiki, I read your post on that site.

It's a complicated question, & I'm not sure there is one overall answer.
Re indigenous people being funded to grow shamanic plants/help
conserve their environment, I think it's quite a good idea - chances are
townspeople wont easily develop a trust in their remedies, anyway.
I've (limited) knowledge of one famous shamanic medicine, ahuayesca,
which I believe, in a controlled environment, would most certainly
assist an 'examined life'. Whether such examination extends life,
cures illness etc, is up to Life.

I think it's possible to call something 'evil eye' 'possession' etc,
when there is an actual physical problem, but still a cure happens.
(& maybe it works best on simple people, as with the psychic surgery,
or, for that matter, placebo pills.)

All other methods, as far as I can see,
also depend on a multitude of factors, which really means it's a mystery:
one person has a 'miraculous' recovery, another tries everything
without success.The bottom line is all these bodies die.

I heartily agree that the people who share their theories about being able to
fix themselves, if they are balanced, if they learn to express their anger/love/
desires/sadness & so on, are often doing harm rather than good. It may have worked for them
once, maybe it will work again; but it wont help to feel you are stupid
or to blame, if you can't effect a change.
I also see that the idea of karma has it's uses, sometimes, &
may be ultimately true, but it's also a massive collusion to keep
people 'in their place', or a way of not feeling the suffering.

I saw what my friend went through, before & after having surgery
for lung cancer. Allopathic medicine gives a very low rate of survival,
or did then. She actually had a better quality of life, I think, by
choosing not to do chemo etc, & I hear that some doctors now are
saying to advanced cases 'it will make you feel like hell, & might
give you a few extra weeks'.
My friend tried many other things, though; some made me angry,
like the 'if you express the anger' line which broke 2 ribs- the
cancer was moving in.

On the other hand, it's my experience that a good practicioner
of homeopathy & acupuncture can help our bodies/minds maintain
a level of health, & sometimes a 'cure'.
& that regular medicine also has it's place.

I guess, in the end, we do what we can at the time, there's not really a choice,
we find ourselves doing it.
The same with the environment, some of us (fortunately) wake up one day
& are motivated to do something.

We'll find out quite soon whether the health of this world, which is not separate from us,
has been neglected for too long.
_________________
kikitheartist

The deepest truth of Buddhist philosophy holds that at the center of the universe, and of each human being, there is a basic goodness and that everything is connected to everything else. www.kikitheartist.com

[Paul Germain]

From Paul in Oaxaca, Mexico

Dear Kiki,

I am sorry to disappoint you, being unable to disagree with you!

Your testimony on faith in healing methods appears to me so sincere, objective and valuable! I can do no more but support your views. My 70th year of life continues to teach me not to believe anything or anybody, but to open my eyes.

Fortunately, we have the eyes of our spirit as well as those of our body. Opening one’s eyes means to me be completely open to what is, in all spheres of life. And not to think too much. And not allow our fears and desires determine what we choose to think, see or hide.

Your testimony is courageous, because most people, friend or family, will resist to it. Thank you for publishing it and inviting me (along with others) to read and comment it.

I am posting this at your request. I wish to support you, personally, and not only your views.

Best wishes for a very good life, the whole of it. And thank you also for Las Doñas de Chiapas… I love them despise their strong beliefs…

Paul Germain

[Kiki Suarez]

Thank you, Paul, for answering. When I went through the list of my acqaintances to send them this post, I noticed that with many I grew a little afraid to send off my post, many believe in "alternative" methods quite uncritically and I was afraid that they might now reject me. Then I send it off anyways, it is good to newly examine subjects, it is good for me also.So, I hope somebody comes along and contradicts me heavily, so that a discussion can start from which all of us might get new points of view.

Much love KIKI
_________________
kikitheartist

The deepest truth of Buddhist philosophy holds that at the center of the universe, and of each human being, there is a basic goodness and that everything is connected to everything else. www.kikitheartist.com

[Kiki Suarez]

Dear Kiki,



having read your initial posting, I would like to point out the following:



Traditional medicine incorporates two different sides:



a. The physical means (herb teas, pastes, etc.)

b. The spiritual means (prayers, etc.)



Whereas the physical means usually are less effective “ to the point” in the sense that they consist of less concentrated chemical drugs/mechanical means than modern pharmaceutical production can offer. Therefore, they often take more time to produce good results, they are more effective when used in an early stage of a disease or as a preventive cure. Once a disease has developed fully, they may not be effective enough to cure the patient instantly as would do modern medicine. However they can support the patient and his immune system to fight the disease and keep on going until the fight is done.

As concerns genetic diseases and serious diseases like cancer, I have not seen any positive results in the sense of a cure. However, certain plant medicines seem to support the psychic wellbeing of the patient undergoing cancer therapies.

As concerns more civilisatory diseases like headaches, back problems, there is evidence that acupuncture can help. (representative research of the german health care institutions).

Thus, as concerns the physical means of traditional medicine it is not a “versus”, but a selective and well-chosen “plus” that should in my eyes describe the relationship between both types of medicine.



The spiritual means of traditional medicine are not easily understood and there are many “Scharlatane” in the so called traditional world and the modern world. When someone is called or calls himself a Shaman, this does not mean that he or she really is one. As all shaman traditions teach, it is the spirits world choosing the Shaman and not mankind.

In addition, there are, as in all religious traditions different levels of spiritual capacity, also among shamans.

A high level Shaman is able to ask the respective spirit for help in removing obstacles in realms, a muslim would call one of several higher levels of “sky”. This will lead on the lower material level, our day-to-day world, to changes. These changes can ultimately lead to a process that will improve the health situation.

An illustrative example: an old friend of mine suffering of Parkinson went to be healed by a major Sioux shaman. First nothing seemed to have happened. Shortly after that, however, back home, he fell down in his living room and was unable to get back on his feet for about a day. Nobody came to look after him during that time and he felt very much lost, scared, feeble and desperate. This incidence, however, was reason for him to accept from then on modern medicine pills that helped him avoiding such situations and his overall condition improved considerably. The situation had moved away his strong antipathy against taking pills, which had been one of the obstacles. In addition, he learned while lying on the floor of his living room for one day almost to submit his will to God and leaving everything to him. His own very strong will had probably the most important obstacle for his further way in his spiritual life.

When consulting a truly spiritual and traditional shaman, therefore, one should be aware that his main task is to guide you on your spiritual way. Improving your physical health is in that sense a side effect.

Nonetheless, I know of a very high level shaman who was able to cure a patient of a deep shotgun wound. The bullet, deep inside the breast of the patient, was gone in X-Rax-Fotographs directly after the ceremony lead by this shaman.

Still, this is one of those spectacular events that should not veil the true task and activity of a true traditional shaman.



Best regards,



Monika
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kikitheartist

The deepest truth of Buddhist philosophy holds that at the center of the universe, and of each human being, there is a basic goodness and that everything is connected to everything else. www.kikitheartist.com

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