"ENERGY MEDICINE"

My research for this article has once again brought me full circle with the realization that what appears to be new is really quite old. It’s actually quite validating for me that some things really don’t change. Yes, the names and the terms we give to our research and medicine changes, the players change too, yet through it all the constants of the physical laws of the universe that govern all life remain unchanging.

What does the term energy medicine actually mean? What are we trying to say? Beam me up Scotty but leave my cancerous tumor behind? Well maybe some day but not quite yet. The term energy medicine as I understand it is as basic as Einstein’s equation E=MC square. Of course that is an over simplification but it does fit.

We are body electric. Without the ionic charges of pluses and minus in, around and throughout all living cells life as we know it would cease to exist. Although energy medicine is a concept openly denied by western medicine, we have long embraced the concept. We use EEGs, EKGs and SPECT scans (electrical brain scans) to probe the depths of human nerve and electrical pathways. When seriously ill and hospitalized we may receive electrolyte solutions capable of carrying electrically charged ions through the blood to our cells.

Another modern example of energy use in medicine is the laser a technological marvel of the 20^th century that we have just begun to utilize. A laser produces an intense beam of radiating energy that actually cuts between the cells leaving very little scar tissue. Laser energy continues to be applied broadly in the field of human medicine in new and innovative ways.

In Victorian England the idea that an electromagnetic influence could pass between two people and influence their behavior became known as animal magnetism. Popularized by the 18^th century Dr. Franz Anton Mesmer. So came the term mesmerized meaning the manipulation of the human energy field. Mesmerism is the forerunner of one of today’s commonly used forms of energy medicine, hypnosis. Many of Europe’s most brilliant and famous minds took courses from Dr Mesmer including the famous physicist Michael Faraday.

Energy medicine is actually much older than Victorian England and Dr. Mesmer. Oriental and Ayurvedic medicine have utilized various forms of energy medicine for centuries including acupuncture, meditation, Tai Chi and Qi Chong, both called the moving meditation. These forms of energy medicine are prescribed for the patient and are tools used to restore and recharge the stagnant chi or energy of the body. In fact the their entire philosophy regarding health, healing and medicine revolves around keeping a balanced energy pattern circulating throughout the body.

Herbals and foods as well have energy patterns that can be used for healing. Plants are classified as warming or cooling, wet or dry, energizing or calming and will be applied in the opposite to balance energy patterns.

The language of healing may have changed; our body’s needs for energies that bring healing and balance have not. Energy medicine may be a new term; the concept is as old as time. Till next time, Rebecca