Article Tags: health education | healing | integrative medicine | ecology
In 2022 I will begin teaching a new series of classes under the title Evolutionary Medicine and this article introduces some of the ideas I will be discussing.
Energy Medicine
Looking at Spiritual, Metaphysical and Evolutionary Aspects of Medicine and Healing
A Spiritual Perspective is an important factor missing in modern medicine—it is essential in healthcare practice. People are much more than a physical body that can break or break down and needs to be fixed. Yes, we are material beings, yet feelings, thoughts, and spirits as well. Sometimes it’s our mind, or spiritual clarity, that needs fixing or realignment in order to promote healing. I believe this is an essential part of becoming and Staying Truly Healthy. After all, before we had “drug medicine,” all we had was Nature and our own energy. We had herbs and the knowledge passed along through shamans and healers for whom the physical and the philosophical/metaphysical dimensions of reality were not separate.
“If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.” Nikola Tesla
What is Energy Medicine?
We are bio-electric beings; maybe bio-electro-magnetic beings would be more accurate. While this aspect of reality is not yet widely explored for treatment options in modern medicine, we are already using invisible parts of the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum for diagnosis such as X-rays and CAT scans, as well magnetism for diagnosis as in the MRI. We also have EKG (electrocardiograms) plus electrical stimulation for wound and bone healing, but it makes sense that eventually we will further develop medical therapies and treatments that use EM energies directly.
Energy medicine is a broad term describing systems and methods of evaluating and sometimes treating the body in its many dimensions. Some are sophisticated, modern devices and instruments that measure electromagnetic points within and around the body, and test for responses. Some use acupuncture points to test the body. Examples of these instruments are the Electro-Interstitial Scanner (EIS) and EAV (Electro-Acupuncture according to Vohl, a German scientist).
Many aspects of energy medicine assess what is out of balance to provide specific diagnoses about what’s wrong in the body, from deeper infections, to immunization reactive patterns, to organ strengths and weaknesses. Assessing the energetic patterns of the body makes sense for the future of medicine, and this system aligns with Eastern Medicine, in that the energy flows are important to health and also that problems are seen to begin at the energetic levels before they become physical. Thus, assessing and correcting these patterns and balancing the energies in the body are more subtle ways to maintain health. This may be needed on an ongoing basis for maintenance or support of an existing injury or condition. Western medicine and science, of course, look skeptically at these forms of energy testing and therapy as non-scientific. Still, I fully believe Energy Medicine and Bioelectric treatment will be part of the Future of Medicine.
Sound and Light Therapy
Sound, light, and color are pure energies/vibrations, and they can influence and move body energies. The better we activate our body energies, the clearer and more vital we will feel. That’s what Acupuncture does—helps us move our electromagnetic energy. Sound and color therapy can also help in this. I have been involved with sound therapy for nearly 50 years, having developed Sonopuncture, the use of medical tuning forks applied to the acupuncture system. (These are various musical notes as aluminum alloy forks with knobs on them to allow a continuous vibration to stimulate energy points and circulation.) Each fork has a specific vibration in cycles-per-second, which are of course a part of the sound and color spectrum. It’s all energy and vibrations. Sonopuncture (and Acupuncture) is based on an understanding of elemental imbalance and what specific points to use for improving balance, a treatment that I have referred to as Sound Tune-ups. People typically experience the vibration moving through the body and even along specific meridian channels. They can also feel an overall calming, peaceful feeling. Sound is a pure energy and can help heal. This also means using music and sweet, harmonious sounds to help soothe us.
Light and Color Therapy
Everything is energy: even the colors we see are part of this energetic spectrum. Light, as in daylight, is also important and helps balance our cycles of light and dark, summer and winter. We are all affected by where we live on the planet and the kind of light/dark cycles and seasons that surround us. Many people use light boxes during the colder, darker months to treat depression and SAD (Seasonal Affect Disorder), and it can be helpful for resetting our body clock, brain chemicals, and neurotransmitters.
Color therapy has also been used since the beginning of time. Indeed, we use it daily in the clothes we choose to wear, in the foods we eat, and in the colors with which we surround ourselves. But there is also a specific form of treatment, which associates each ailment as a certain color imbalance. By the use of a white light shown through colored gels, the parts of the body affected are color-treated. I have written more about this in the chapter about Summer Light in my book, Staying Healthy with the Seasons.
Those interested in a simple use of specific color vibrations for balancing the body systems, can also prepare solarized, color-energized waters by leaving water in the sunlight in colored glass bottles for a day or two. From this you will receive predominantly that color vibration in your water. Drinking this water can actually be used to balance certain disharmonies, though subtle it may be. For summer, the cooling blue and green bottles are good to keep available. These are some easy ways to begin exploring a very complex topic that is treated very deeply in the Eastern healing systems based on the chakras, yoga and so on.
Electro-pollution
A core concept of my healing philosophy and practice is to both enhance whatever will promote healing while removing or minimizing whatever is harmful, correcting any deficiencies and toxicities. So, in regard to Energy Medicine we also need to consider potential harm caused by electro-pollution in its various forms.It may be hard to accept that something we cannot see or sense, something that all of us depend on daily at home and work, might be a significant problem in our modern lives—yet electricity may fit into this category. I have been concerned for many years that excessive exposure to environmental electricity, electromagnetic radiation (EMR), and Wifi everywhere is possibly a danger to our health, and may even be a factor in carcinogenesis. Foresighted scientists throughout the world are now showing us that EMR may indeed be one of the newest threats of our modern age. Of course, some people are more sensitive to this, while others hardly notice. Yet, for most of us, EMFs can affect our sleep and energy levels/
I suggest you pay attention to the effects that EMFs have on you. For example, if you have trouble sleeping, you may have too much electromagnetic stresses on you in your bedroom, or in the hours before bed when you play, watch or work on your computer. I know my sleep improved when I removed my TV and digital clock from my bedroom.
Swimming and water bathing can help to balance and de-magnetize us from our nearly continuous electromagnetic exposure. We need to keep our currents current and ground ourselves on the Earth, as by standing barefoot on the green grass, dirt or the beach.
Finally, Energy Medicine also brings the Psyche into play, and the Mind-Body-Health connection is another core message of Preventive and Integrative Medicine. Thousands of studies correlate mental activities and attitudes with health behaviors and disease outcomes. Our thoughts, feelings and emotions are all energies that affect our wellbeing so we need to attend to them with a healing attitude. Modern studies on the dire health consequences of chronic stress are just the beginning of conventional Western medicine’s understanding of this area. Mindfulness meditation for stress reduction and pain management is now commonplace, yoga studios are everywhere, and other “energy exercises” like Tai Chi and Qigong, already widely practiced in Asia, have found their way into our health care landscape.
Often the future resurrects the past and ancient ways are found to be useful, healing and wise.
Stay Healthy,
Dr. Elson