My host mother in Austria is a craniosacral therapist, meaning that she aligns patients' cerebrospinal fluids with their energy fields to relieve stress and pain. Sounds radical, right? I did not believe that such treatments were viable until she performed craniosacral therapy on me; I could feel my energy radiating off of me as I drifted into a semi-conscious trance. After just an hour of therapy, my host mother accurately postulated that my birth had been out-of-the-ordinary (I came very quickly into this world and nearly died due to a nurse blowing a hole in my lung!).
A few days after my first craniosacral treatment, I was walking to the bus stop after school and saw a car adorned with a craniosacral therapy ad. This was one of those moments when I realized how drastically different Austrian culture and American culture are. You see, craniosacral therapy was a highly-accepted practice in Austria...so much so, that my host mother was often booked morning to night with appointments. Conversely, craniosacral therapy is hardly heard of in most parts of America. There is only one certified craniosacral therapist in Winston-Salem, out of a total of eighteen practitioners in the entire state of North Carolina. Eighteen is a very low number when you compare it to statistics from other professions...imagine how many thousands of dentists, chiropractors, and psychiatrists there are in North Carolina! Craniosacral therapy has been largely excluded from Western medicine because it has no apparent concrete evidence or explanation. The world of Western medicine adheres strongly to physicalism (also known as materialism), the doctrine that everything is shaped by physical properties (you become sick due to a virus, you experience love due to oxytocin, etc.). Strict physicalism can be a very limiting perspective, however; for example, it does not account for the placebo effect or unexplained, spontaneous healing. This is where vitalism comes in, the belief that living beings are shaped by non-physical factors, like energy fields. Physicalism has done great things for humanity; modern medicine would not be what it is today if it were not for the cause-and-effect nature of physicalism. Vitalism, however, can supplement the offerings of physicalism; consider this study conducted by former Wake Forest professor, Kathi Kemper, that found that non-verbal communication of compassion is possible and practical. This study proved the viability of the meditation practice of sending loving kindness to others that has been used for years. Consider also Reiki and Healing Touch, two practices that have been used for decades and have touched millions of lives. Even yoga centers on the union of mind and body, and for nearly three thousand years, it has promoted metaphysical well-being. Craniosacral therapy seems pretty radical. But try it out, and you may find that its effects are real. While there is not much science to currently back up this treatment, the scientific community is rapidly coming to terms with the fact that physicalism cannot explain everything. Indeed, fifty years ago, meditation was hardly a scientific interest at all, and now it is generally agreed that meditation, for whatever reasons, is powerful and effective. Imagine how our perspectives will change in the coming fifty years, and craniosacral therapy might not seem so radical after all! One thing is for sure: I would much rather have a human-administered, natural, holistic treatment for my anxiety and stress than a synthetic, austere pill.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
October 2018
Categories
All
|