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Post by khyron1144 on Feb 17, 2004 14:24:46 GMT -5
I have often heard science and medicine that sounds like its on shaky foundations like psychology, psychiatry, and certain economic theories as witch doctery or voodoo. I think this shows a remarkable amount of disrespect. Not for these so called sciences, but for voodoo and withc doctery.
In all honesty, I would trust my mental health to a shaman, priest, witch, voodoun, medicine man, or similar before a psychologist or psychiatrist.
Is anyone else with me?
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Post by Jorghnassen on Feb 18, 2004 20:54:03 GMT -5
Depends on the price they ask for...
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Post by EK - Shadow of Death on Feb 18, 2004 23:53:47 GMT -5
Numerology and astrology are still very much respected in India. Even amongst the educated and (relatively) wealthy, numerologists are often consulted before making any major decisions (like marriage, etc). They're also surprisingly accurate based on my personal experience.
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Post by Merkuri on Feb 19, 2004 11:43:43 GMT -5
I took an anthropology course in college entitled "Religion, Magic, and Healing". We studied the healing methods of quite a few different cultures, including our own western medicine. Quite a few of these unconventional (to our eyes) methods actually worked to help people recover from illness and injury. We saw a video (actually, I should say I heard the video, since I was covering my eyes for most of it) where a man who claimed to be channeling the spirit of a dead "traditional" healer (a native american witch doctor, I think) did surgery using no anesthetic or sterilization. He would spit in the wounds, just to prove that he was really doing something magical and it wouldn't get infected. And he did it there on video, his patients appeared to be in no pain whatsoever. There was a strict screening and preparation process for his patients, however, and folks who didn't believe entirely were turned away. Nonetheless, for those who believed, it worked.
This course gave me a new respect for alternative healing methods. I believe that the body has an almost supernatural ability to heal itself simply by willpower alone, and that if a person truly believes a healing method will work that it has a good chance of working, whether it scientifically makes sense or not. The placebo effect, anyone? I still prefer our good ol' scientific western medicine, but I think that some of it (if not all) is actually the placebo effect and that we can do most of the healing ourselves if we find a method that we can fully believe in. The opposite is also true, though. That if you don't think a healing method will work, then it probably won't, and you can sabotage yourself in that way. Basically, the moral of the story is to get the healing you think will do you the most good, whether it comes from a drugstore, prayer, or a man channeling a dead spirit.
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Post by Jorghnassen on Feb 21, 2004 0:21:45 GMT -5
What's up with people calling modern medicine "western" medicine anyway?
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Post by LadyWinterWolf on Feb 21, 2004 5:28:10 GMT -5
What's up with people calling modern medicine "western" medicine anyway? |
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Post by Merkuri on Feb 21, 2004 9:32:28 GMT -5
What she said.  Besides, that's what my anthropology class called it. We couldn't call it "modern" medicine, because most of the healing methods we studied were still in practice today and had an equal claim to the "modern" (as in, current) label. |
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Post by Jorghnassen on Feb 21, 2004 22:55:32 GMT -5
I don't know, calling it "western" makes it sound like it's neither used nor developped outside of Europe/the Americas, which of course isn't remotely true.
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Post by FionaMar on Feb 25, 2004 5:07:54 GMT -5
I don't know, calling it "western" makes it sound like it's neither used nor developped outside of Europe/the Americas, which of course isn't remotely true. |
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Post by khyron1144 on Feb 25, 2004 15:57:47 GMT -5
Depends on the price they ask for... Well, when I went to a therapist it cost me twenty dollars a session because of the sliding scale for low income families. As I understand it, Christian ministers will talk to you for free. Most of the witches I know ask for a small token energy exchange, usually less than twenty dollars or the equivalent in yard work or similar nonmonetary exchange. I get reiki treatments from my mom for free. I don't know if I have a point, but it looks like some of these can be a better deal. |
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