ABSTRACT

Most people in the western world conceive of “alternative healing” as a deviation from the norm. Modern western medicine, by contrast, is typically viewed as the culmination of a long, steady march toward progress and truth. Through a collective lapse of memory, our culture seems to have forgotten that modern western medicine is a relatively recent phenomenon and that most of what is called “alternative healing” has been practiced for thousands of years throughout the world. Herbal healing is considered by many to be the earliest form of healing. It has been practiced by lay women healers for thousands of years and still remains the chief form of healing in most parts of the world. Just as herbal healing rests upon a holistic world view, modern drug-oriented medicine derives from dualistic ideas. Since the modern medical body is conceived as a machine, it is also thought to conform to Newtonian laws of cause and effect.