Traditional Healing is the oldest form of structured medicine, that is a medicine that has an underlying set of principles by which it is practiced. It is the medicine from which all later forms of medicine developed, including Chinese medicine, Graeco-Arabic medicine, and of course also modern Western medicine. Traditional Healing was originally an integral part of semi-nomadic and agricultural tribal societies, and although archeological evidence for its existence only dates back to around 14,000 B.C., its origins are believed to lie much further back and probably predate the last Ice-Age.
Unlike other traditional medicines, Traditional Healing has no philosophical base, as its practice is totally founded on healing knowledge that has been accumulated over thousands of years, and upon the healer's personal experience, which includes his/her awareness of, and sense of unity with the natural world, as well as his/her understanding of the different levels of consciousness within the human psyche. Traditional Healers see the universe as an living intelligence that operates according to natural laws that manifest according to specific rules and correspondences, and exercise their inner conviction that the purpose of life and the nature of disease cannot be understood without a knowledge of these laws and the individual's relationship to the natural world.
Thus Traditional Healers share a profound knowledge and a deep understanding of how natural laws influence living things. It is for this reason that Traditional Healing is often referred to as "wisdom medicine" and Traditional Healers are often referred to as wise or "clever" men or women or as persons of knowledge. It is this knowledge and experience base that provides the similarity between the core principles of Traditional Healing through the ages and in different parts of the world.
Traditional Healers practice in a different way than practitioners from other types of medicine.
- Traditional Healers practice "World Medicine", that is the medicine that originally was, and still is the heritage of all humanity. Their medicine is free from the philosophical layers that have been added over the centuries to other traditional medicines as a result of political and religious pressures. As such Traditional Healers contend that they are practicing with a clarity of concept that has in most cases been lost from other traditional medicines.
- Traditional Healers are truly holistic and understand the mind-body relationship. They consider humans to be complete beings that cannot survive as component parts, and therefore hold that true health represent an integrated state of well-being that includes the body and the mind. They therefore belief that ill-health cannot be treated effectively by experts that treat components of the individual in isolation; and that the natural harmony called health can only be restored by an integrated and holistic approach that incorporates both the physical and the "mind" aspects of the individual.
- Traditional Healers use natural methods of treatment, because these were the resources that have nurtured the human race - and in fact all life - since the beginning of time. Traditional Healing treatments are always integrated and involve a combination of approaches such as counseling, nutritional therapy, herbal medicine, reflex therapy and other physical therapeutics.
- Traditional Healers used to be taught by other Traditional Healers with many years experience, by means of an "apprenticeship" that would take a minimum of 7 years, and usually much more. These days however most Traditional Healers have a combination of formal higher education as well as having been mentored for an extended period by a more experienced Traditional Healer.
- Traditional Healers have strong ethical principles that they extend to all life. They believe it is their duty to foster life in all its forms and to alleviate suffering. They also believe that Nature's laws must be obeyed in order to avoid decline and ultimate disaster.
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