What’s Science Got to do With It?

Healing was once considered an art. Healing was understood by all to be a complex interaction between patient, healer, community of living people, communities of plants and animals (and insects, stones and fish), communities of non-living people (such as ancestors, spirit guides and archetypes) and that mysterious movement known by so many names : Creator, God/Goddess, All High. The healing arts included a keen knowledge of human behavior, a thorough knowledge of plants, a flair for the dramatic arts, especially singing/singing and costuming/body painting, and a comprehensive knowledge of anatomy, physiology, and biochemistry. (If you think these areas are not art, look at the system used by traditional Chinese practitioners, which includes such "organs" as a triple heater and a dozen different pulses.) Art does not exclude or contradict science. After all, science is the honest testing of ideas and the ability to clearly observe the confusing relationship of cause and effect. The best of science is deeply indebted to art. Art understands that science is left-brained and art is right-brained, and the whole brain includes both. However, science is not so easy with art. Science believes that art is superstition. Science believes that art is fuzzy, soft, unreplicable and therefore untrustworthy. (It is interesting to me that the Liberal Arts University I attended—UCLA—required students to take various science courses, but the Science College I rejected—MIT—did not require students to study art.) Science is defined as factual and art as fantastic. Truly great scientists understand the need to honor intuition along with information. But the world is rarely run by the truly great. Little by little, the art of healing is denigrated and the science of healing is venerated. The healer spends more and more time interacting with machines, drugs and technology and less and less time with the patient; more and more time studying books and less and less time learning about the strange, symbolic, provocative powers of the psyche. The healer focuses more and more on the fixation of the sick individual and less and less on the patient's need for wholeness in self, family and community. A herbalist becomes a biochemist. A pharmacist no longer needs to know botany. Herbs are presented as drugs in green cloaks. And the active ingredient is the only one worth mentioning. Is this what I want? Is that what led me to herbs? Is this what fascinates me about herbal medicine? My answer to all these questions is absolutely NO. While I acknowledge the utility of science, I retain the right brain's superior abilities in the art of healing. I defend the rights of miracle workers, shamans, shamans, herbalists, wise women, those who have the skill, personal power, and courage to bring about change—big and small, from birth to death and in between—in the lives of those around them. Herbal medicine. Magic plants. Psychoactive plants. Here is a thread and it goes way back. At least 40,000 years. Plants say they spoke to all of us until recently. Forty thousand years ago, we know that our ancestors genetically manipulated, hybridized and crossed specific psychedelic plants. And use them in healing. Maria Sabina, one of the most famous shamanic healers of the 20th century, went into the woods as a small child and ate psilocybin mushrooms because they spoke to her. She treated only with the help of "people" (mushrooms) and healed not only the body, but also the soul. In the Amazon, students of herbalism and healing learn about psychoactive plants as well as human teachers. Recently, there has been a lot of talk about active substances in plants. I have laughed many times because product ads claim to have the most of this or that, only to be replaced by the announcement that a new, better, more active active ingredient has been found. For example, when Consumer Reports magazine showed that Kyolic Garlic contained virtually no allicin (the "active" ingredient), Kyolic countered with an advertising campaign that claimed it was superior because it contained another, more potent active ingredient. For example, most standardized St. John's Wort/Joan's Wort tinctures are standardized for hypericin. But the latest research shows that hyperforin is the real active ingredient! To illustrate: an article a few years ago in JAMA on the use of Ginkgo biloba in the fight against dementia explained that of the several hundred components present, no active ingredient had been determined, and in fact it is likely that the effect is the result of a complex, synergistic interplay of parts. However, an article in the New York Times warned readers not to use ginkgo until the active ingredient was established. It Happened to Me: An MD on a menopause panel with me told the audience that no herb is safe unless its active ingredient is measured and standardized. What can I say? To me, the active part of the plant is the part that cannot be measured: the energy, the life force, the qi, the fairy of the plant, not the "poisonous" part. For the healer/artist/herbalist, the active part of the plant is the part that the right brain can use to actively, chaotically, naturally "octave jump" and perform a miracle. This active part is refined in standardized products because the real active part is the chaotic part, the changing part, the subtle part and the invisible part. Does science have anything to do with it? Definitely! The process of identifying specific compounds in plants, replicating them in the laboratory, and mass-producing them as medicines cannot be replicated or replaced by any healer or herbalist. The preparation of standardized drugs protects the consumer (usually) and protects the plants from overharvesting (although the resulting effect on the environment can be harmful). If we put into the lap of science anything that has to do with measurement and certification, then surely I ask science to be the guardian of the purity of the herbs we trade in our store, knowing that art is the guardian of the purity of the herbs. we gather (Apprentice Book Tip: When harvesting, put only one type of plant in the basket. This will make it quick and easy to notice if an intruder has been accidentally introduced.) This story has no end because it is ongoing. The dance of health and disease, art and science (and don't forget commerce) has no break. So the end of our fairy tale is not happy, but not sad either. Look; the real end of the rainbow is in your own heart.