Ayurvedic Medicine: India's Holistic Method

Ayurveda's Doshas

Different cultures have unique methods to natural healing. For instance, India's traditional medicine is Ayurveda (knowledge of life). Ayurvedic medicine is a holistic approach to health and life. According to Alternative Medicine: The Christian Handbook, its healing methods focuses on incorporating medical, philosophical, and religious beliefs. The Alternative Medicine Handbook states that Ayurveda is an "ancient healing system" that can be tracked back to the Vedas.

The Vedas

Traditionally, Ayurvedic medicine teaches that life held in tact by a nonphysical life energy (prana). Prana signifies a healthy life that is balanced physically, mentally, spiritually, and environmentally. When prana is not balanced, people become sick, age, and ultimately, die. 

According to The Alternative Medicine, this energy balance isn't limited just an internal factor, but external, too. There must be an energy balance between people and their environments to achieve unity with the Universe.

What products and practices does Ayurvedic medicine incorporate? According to Alternative Medicine, Rasayanas, or herbal supplements, gemstones, panchakarmas (purification procedures), and yagyas (religious ceremonies to solicit the aid of Hindu deities). Other therapeutic procedures are breathing exercises, meditation, massage, diets. 

It is important to estrange yourself from negativity. Ama is an accumulation of negative energy, which is unhealthy for you. Negative energy isn't only people, but negative thoughts, unhealthy food, and habits.

Interestingly, Ayurveda teaches that there are three doshas. There is a specific dosha found in specific body organs and they have a relationship with at least two environmental elements. The three doshas are kapha, pitta, and vata. The five elements are earth, water, fire, air, and ether. Why ether? According to The Alternative Medicine Handbook,  ether is believed to be connected to hearing and opening spaces in the mind.

Ayurveda's relationship between the Elements and Doshas

Ayurvedic practitioners believe that the doshas act as a bridge among organs and internals parts of the body. In addition, they also connect the body with the cosmos.

Ayurveda is similar to Chi, China's traditional medicine.

Alternative Medicine Vs. Conventional Medicine

There's a reason it's called alternative medicine -- it's not conventional (i.e., mainstream). Alternative medicine, or complementary alternative medicine (CAM), differs from conventional, Western medicine. As stated in Alternative Medicine: The Christian Handbook, alternative medicine's approach to health care is "treating the body, the mind, and the spirit." This is the focal point of alternative medicine -- healing the body, the mind, and the spirit by "relying on noninvasive 'natural' methods of healing." 

For example, the traditional medicine of India is Ayurveda (knowledge of life) and it sought to nourish a person entirely by using medical, philosophical, and religious beliefs -- body, mind, and spirit.

You may have already started thinking that conventional medicine does the same thing. That is true only because there are some conventional, medical institutions that are now incorporating holistic practices into their care. In The Best Alternative Medicine, Dr. Kenneth R. Pelletier states "medical schools and insurance companies are gradually accepting CAM modalities." This is known as integrative medicine, but this wasn't always the case.

There was a time where CAM and conventional medicine were at odds with each other. CAM considered conventional medicine an institution of financial gain in league with pharmaceutical companies. Meanwhile, conventional medicine viewed CAM worthless and unproven therapy. However, over the years, both sides have realized the benefit of one another and are now working with one another.

Personally speaking, I would recommend natural, prescription-free remedies than pharmaceutical drugs. For example, when it comes to fighting cancer, studies show that alternative medicine cures cancer by employing the cannabis plant. Although there are cancer-survivors that use conventional, Western medicine, we cannot ignore their expensive medical bills.

Overall, there are benefits of CAM that are void in conventional medicine and vice versa. It is up to you to learn the benefits of each and discern what is harmful. For instance, aspirin can be dangerous; it causes gastric bleeding, ulcers, and ironically, suppresses the immune system. In Prescription Alternatives, Dr. Earl L. Mindell states that aspirin is harmful used long term and a study published in British Medical Journal found aspirin to cause gastrointestinal hemorrhage -- 50 mg or 1, 500 mg.

"Are you in good hands?"

Understanding Magic, Medicine, and Natural Healing

Magic, Medicine, and Natural Healing, researched by andRe Christos Helios

Since the days of antiquity, civilizations employed magic when it came to medicine. There weren't any hospitals with emergency rooms and people coughing. There weren't any Tylenol tablets for headaches or Bayer for pain relief. It was the application of magic that facilitated medicine for healing -- natural healing, not Western medicine.What is magic? Magic isn't optical illusions. Nor is it solely the practice of communing with intelligences (i.e, spirits).

According to P. Christian's Histoire de la Magie, magic has its origins in the Greek words Magos and Mageia, meaning magician and magic. Christian continues that these are renderings of Pehlvi and Zend's Mog, Megh, Magh, which in these languages, mean priest, wise, and excellent.

Christian further delves into the etymology of magic with the Chaldean Maghdim, which means supreme wisdom or sacred philosophy. This research concludes that magic has nothing to do with optical illusions, but is the embodiment of a superior knowledge practiced by the Righteous.

Joseph Ennemoser's History of Magic, which was translated by William Howitt, supports this idea. He inclines that among the Persians, Medes, and Egyptians, magic was understood as a "higher knowledge of nature" combined with religion and astronomy. He states that Plato understood magic, or Wisdom, as "nothing less than a worship of the Divinity" and that Aupleius believed that Magus meant a priest in the Persian tongue.

History teaches us that the practice of the oldest magic took place in Chaldea, India, Persia, and Egypt. According to Ennemoser, Zoroaster, Ostanes, the Brahmins, the Chaldean sages, and the Egyptian priests were acquainted with the secret knowledge of Magic. They dedicated their lives to preserving this Secret Wisdom as well as healing the sick.

Prominent occultist Eliphas Levi asserts that magic is "the traditional science of the secrets of Nature which has come down to us from the Magi." It is this science that administered medicine in the form of natural healing.