ABSTRACT
Modern medicine, considered by many to be the foundation for the allied health professions, is rooted in ancient traditions of healing. Indeed, some aspects of those traditions are relevant and complementary to modern medical practice. The allied health professions are included in the ancient traditions of the healing arts. This is an important point because the general populace has shown deep reverence for the esoteric and special skills for healers of all types since the early dawn of humanity. Contemporary society continues to revere the health worker, including the allied health professional. While there has always been a central figure who ministered to the physical, mental, spiritual, and social conditions of people, such as the medicine man of shamanistic folk tradition, the physician in primitive society was physician, priest, magician, and philosopher in one person. In addition, other healing types were concerned with what was perceived to be the spiritual and emotional causation of illness. In the ancient world, it was commonly accepted that a function of religion was to heal disease. 1 Magicians and others were called upon to handle the mystical dimensions of life, e.g., ancestral spirits, evil spirits, and witchcraft. They were traditional folk healers who were familiar with the mental and psychological needs of individuals and communities. Such health providers could, in a real sense, be construed as a community working within the community. As such, each provider played a defined role within a system of community service that addressed the needs of the whole person.
