by Prabhath P

Perfect health and longevity, even immortality, seem attainable if our leaps in medicine and technology are anything to go by. However, the perils of such mechanical recourses are making themselves felt. The need now is to harmonize these medical advances with the widespread spiritual elevation of consciousness the planet is currently witness to.

Advent of Holistic Healing
On the revival and surge in holistic practices, Dr Patrick Dixon, physician and leading futurist, comments: "Expect the current growth of holistic practices to continue... alternative medicine, based on belief systems as much as objective data, will gain further ground as a third millennial generation becomes increasingly skeptical about the benefits of unchecked scientific progress."

The concept of healing is being reinvented by the coupling of science and spirituality. In contrast to the earlier approach of medicine that sees the body as a machine to be repaired, physicians like Dr Larry Dossey are more likely to view holistic healing as music while Deepak Chopra sees it as a river.

In his best-sellers, Quantum Healing, Ageless Body, Timeless Mind and Perfect Health, Deepak Chopra envisions a futuristic quantum medicine of consciousness, integrating cutting-edge science and ancient ayurveda. Quantum medicine aims to access the quantum mechanical body, the layer of natural intelligence for healing. Explains Chopra: "Quantum healing is the ability of one mode of consciousness (the mind) to spontaneously correct the mistakes in another mode of consciousness (the body)."

Dr Bernie Siegel, founder of ECaP (Extraordinary Cancer Patients) writes in his article, The Future of Healing: "The first thought that enters my mind when I consider the future of healing is that it will be returned to where it really comes from. We are the healers. The wisdom is within us, and not in what is prescribed for us… We need to remember that healing transcends the body but I also know that when one transcends the physical limitations, true healing occurs and with true healing some amazing cures are produced as byproducts."

Dr Brian Weiss, pioneer of past life regression therapy, progresses people hypnotically into alternative future lives to heal illness. His book, Same Soul, Many Bodies, takes people into an individual and collective future that they themselves create. In the process, their present lives are profoundly transformed and healed. The book talks about a future civilization, where healing would take place at a cellular level, and where light will play a major part.

"When physicists in their laboratories measure the energies that healers emit…I believe these energies are related to the energy of love (spiritual energy). Healing energy is a component of spiritual energy. With future research and improved technology, we will better understand this connection," he writes in Messages from the Masters.

Dr Dossey in his book, Meaning and Medicine, outlines his three versions of medicine. Era I medicine, he says, is materialistic and approaches healing as a war against illness. Era II medicine has the mind-body approach but is limited as it emphasizes only the individual consciousness in an individual body.

Dr Dossey terms the future as Era III medicine, anchored in the non-local mind, the unbounded consciousness, the ultimate healer spread throughout and beyond space and time. In Era III, distant healing is possible. Dr Dossey sees this future medicine as made of 'Therapies of Being' that channel boundless 'Being' itself for healing, heralding the return of miracles when even fatal diseases could be irreversibly cured without any technological side-effects.

Energy Healing
The recent emergence of reiki in India is a harbinger of the Being therapies of the Era III medicine that Dossey speaks of. Reiki is spiritually guided universal life-force, harnessed first by Dr Mikao Usui. Rei means universal and ki means life-force. Some researchers say rei contains deeper meaning, the supernatural knowledge of spiritual consciousness.

According to Rohini Khatri, Hyderabad-based reiki grandmaster and distant healer: "I have chosen reiki as the main healing platform to teach and practice many other therapies. I find it one of the best methods, easily practiced and taught. As you grow with reiki, you see miracles, you see healing happening around you all the time but the very principles of reiki do not make you feel you are the doer. The ego over being the doer is the biggest hurdle in the spiritual growth of a healer and reiki takes care of this. It makes you humble and more receiving as you progress on the path."

Khatri foresees India becoming the hub for all major healing practices in the world. She anticipates people drawn to easy and fast methods to create a balance within, and the presence of audio-visual media for healing and resorts offering holistic family holiday packages. She even feels that schools and colleges will eventually add holistic self-healing lessons as a part of the curriculum.

Reiki grandmaster Dr Beena Rani Goel, author of Healing Through Reiki and head of the Academy of Reiki Training and Healing (ARTH) in Belgaum, Karnataka, feels there is a bright future for reiki, pranic healing, aromatherapy, ayurvedic medicine, natural diet, and yogic exercises. Goel observes: "A large section of the population is disillusioned with allopathic medicine. Though very useful for emergencies, there is no cure for many illnesses, especially chronic diseases, in the allopathic system. Symptomatic relief is all it provides."

The main drawback of allopathy, Goel points out, is analyzing people as a collection of separate parts. "Human beings are much more than a collection of physical parts. In several instances when allopathy had written off the patients, they have healed themselves with the help of alternative therapies."

Healing, it appears, is the operative word now, as opposed to just 'treatment' that allopathy metes out. People, Goel observes, are beginning to view health as a personal responsibility. This is where reiki can help. "Though many people start reiki for physical healing, they soon realize that it is a great stress remover and takes one to higher spiritual planes, putting one in touch with inner happiness," Goel explains.

Integrative Medicine
Integrative medicine, integrating various holistic methods of treatments, combining modern medical advancements, ancient medical techniques and complementary therapies, is touted as the future of healing. Dr Issac Mathai, homoeopath and holistic physician, explains: "Every system of medicine should have a holistic approach and treat the person as a whole, otherwise treatment remains incomplete." So to provide optimum cure for patients he suggests the combination of ayurveda, allopathy, homoeopathy, naturopathy, or the integration of siddha, unani, herbal and Chinese medicines.

Dr Mathai heads Soukya, an International Holistic Health Center, located near Bangalore, pioneering integrated medicine in India. "Our focus is on health and healing, not just disease and treatment," he asserts. According to him, a doctor who is an expert in one system of medicine, aware of the benefits of other systems of medicines and possessing an attitude of openness, acceptance and respect for the benefits of other systems of medicines, makes for an ideal integrated doctor.

Soukya, situated on a 30-acre organic farm with landscaped gardens, in Whitefield, is run on eco-friendly principles. Its integrative medical facility has doctors from different systems of medicine monitoring the treatments done by well-trained therapists and customised according to the individual's needs.

There are separate male and female therapy areas (Shala), an open yoga and meditation hall (Shanthi), and dining area (Sadhya). The food served is ovo-vegetarian. The accommodation includes deluxe rooms with private gardens and luxury suites with open-air showers. Recreational facilities include a swimming pool, games and a jogging track.

In keeping with the integrative medicine trend, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, New Delhi, have set up their Holistic Medicine specialty where modern medical facilities are complemented with traditional healing systems. Therapies provided include acupuncture (traditional, moxibustion, reflexology, sujok, cupping, ultrasonic, laser), nature cures like yoga, pranayama, relaxation, meditation, panchakarma, hypnosis, reiki, pranic healing, magnetotherapy, aromatherapy and special nutrition.

Ecological Healing
"Truly holistic medicine extends beyond the mind-body connection to the human-planet as a whole," believes Carolyn Raffensperger, executive director of the Science and Environmental Health Network (sehn).

Though holistic healing accesses the impersonal non-local consciousness, its focus is solely on healing individuals. Ecological healing aims to heal Earth itself, the belief being our health depends on a healthy planet. This new movement of activists called Bioneers (from biological pioneers) works with nature to heal nature and ourselves.

Kenny Ausubel, co-founder of Bioneers, outlines the basic tenets of ecological medicine:
o The patient under the physician's care is part of the Earth.
o Humans are part of a local eco-system. Following the ecopsychological insight that a disturbed ecosystem can make people mentally ill, one can conclude that a disturbed ecosystem can surely make people physically ill as well.
o Medicine should not add to the illnesses of humans or the planet. Medical practices themselves should not damage other species or the ecosystem.

While techno-medicine in its attempts to enhance the lifestyle of an elite minority could harm the safety of humanity, other species and Earth itself, ecological medicine plans to create cures that would avoid harming the ecosphere. It seeks to integrate science with indigenous healing traditions to tap into nature's capacity for self-repair. Ecological medicine aims to create treatment methods modeled on living systems for detoxifying land, air, and water.

Visionary biologist John Todd's 'living machines' mimic natural ecologies by utilizing bacteria, fungi, plants, fish, and mammals to purify water and industrial wastes. The astounding work of mycologist Paul Stamets shows that fungi can help digest diesel spills and chemical and biological weapon components.

Kenny Ausubel writes: "Along with many others, I herald for this new century a Declaration of Interdependence, flowing from the simple recognition that all life is connected. At its heart is ecological medicine, teaching us that we are the land and water and air. By restoring the earth, we restore ourselves."

The Future
The need at the moment is to neutralize the dangers the human race has unleashed, to avoid a technological post-human future that might drive the planet and most of humanity to extinction. For this, those seeing Earth as a physical, biological and psycho-spiritual being, now aim to integrate ecological medicine, holistic therapies, ecologically-appropriate science and technology with spirituality and the evolution of consciousness.

Jim Fournier, founder of the GaiaMind project, coined the term GaiaMind, intended to emphasize our continuing connection to nature. Once this connection is understood we will see ourselves as an expression of the living Earth, as a totality, and become more self-aware.

Many of these visionaries forecast a future when humanity, through an integral evolutionary healing process, will integrate itself with the planetary web of life. As part of a super conscious Earth, a full-fledged Gaia, we are certain to attain collective immortality.

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