Here is the next post – which I am hoping may take care of some of your questions or contributions.
So what evidence is there to justify a fundamental revision of the present, established, medical regime; not to destroy it but, as I say, to revise its role?
In general terms I could respond that science’s experience of Nature is that it is rational, logical, efficient and unlikely to be accidental or random and never, yet, encounters chaos, but perhaps that is a subject for another day and is part of a basic perception of Nature I call ‘The Foundation.’
For now it is the hard evidence you are probably waiting for and which, for me, ‘proves’ and validates the arguments already implied by a fundamental view of Nature and its evolutionary trajectory.
First I would like to deal briefly with the clinical evidence of the late Dr Sarno MD in his book ‘The Divided Mind’ in which he carefully describes and explains how, after his failure successfully to treat his client’s fibromyalgia pains, for instance or, more famously, their back pains; he was forced to wonder, in his frustration, if there was not a more permanent medical solution he could apply.
What he discovered and successfully applied was not yet another physical remedy but, apart from a routine preliminary physical examination, was a purely psychological one which enabled his clients to realise that their anger in particular (and for different reasons) was hidden in the unconscious part of the mind, but if observed by the conscious mind, true healing could begin. Demonstrating a quantum leap in medical perceptions and deserving of Nobel recognition (albeit posthumously). Some clients were so devoid of the usual prejudice that applies towards mental solutions that they were fully healed as if ‘miraculously’- just by recognising their symptoms in one of his books.
Interestingly he found that the original mis-diagnoses, though often leading to removal of the initial symptoms, eventually caused them to shift into a different form or anatomical position and had to be treated afresh, again with poor results, and so on…
I do not exactly agree with his rationale for the overall process, but that is beside the point at the moment – as the result seems to be the same.
The other important bit of clinical evidence is apparent in the work of Dr B Weiss MD. His book ‘Through Time into Healing’ - also deserving of Nobel recognition - describes the direct health benefits of being able, under shallow hypnosis, to visit certain traumatic experiences in personal history and which initiated the cure of certain physical and even emotional disorders.
Again, the evidence of the critical role of consciousness as a means of self-discovery validates the ‘Man, know thyself’ of classical wisdom.
Of course, much more evidence covering a wider range of mind-body disorders is needed to bolster the ideal of medical practise and make its application more general, but there is already enough prima facie evidence to justify whole-hearted sponsorship for research into the practise of pure psychosomatism, as it could be called, and which embraces the primary benefits of: accuracy, non-invasiveness and empowerment. At this stage in the search even ‘anecdotal’ material should be welcomed as a source of investigative impetus.