Just how far back in human history the actual origins of holistic healing may lie is not known.  It is likely that for many thousands of years before the written records, healing information was passed on from the master practitioner to the initiate through oral traditions.  The first generally accepted use of plants as healing agents were depicted in the cave paintings discovered in the Lascaux caves in France, which have been radiocarbon dated to between 13,000 and 25,000 B.C.  However, there is evidence that Neanderthals living 60,000 years ago in present day Iraq used plants for medicinal purposes.  In 1960, at Shanidar Cave, Iraq, a Neanderthal man was uncovered who had been buried with eight species of medicinal plants (Lietave 263).  From the evidence of petroglyphs and artifacts, it seems that such a base of healing knowledge was acquired within numerous ancient tribal communities.  Perhaps, over time the healing concepts came to the wise persons in the group and gradually evolved to become healing systems.  Then, as this knowledge base expanded over the generations, tribal culture developed into specialized areas and the roles that are now known as healers or shamans.  

 

 

CONVENIENCE

 

 

Course materials are accessible twenty-four hours a day, and seven days a week, so you can study and learn whenever and wherever you choose. You can read and review lessens, discussions, articles, and additional commentary at anytime and as often as you would like to. You also have the convenience of studying in the comfort of your own home, or taking your HAI studies with you while traveling, working, or visiting your favorite internet café. 

 

 

The Healing Benefits
of Water

 

 

Water is a medium that is able to amplify and send energetic wave patterns.  The ability of water to copy, memorize, and carry energetic signals and messages was shown in the 1980s by researcher Jacque Benveniste.  In an experiment, he exposed ordinary water to the recorded signals of acetylcholine and ovalbumin.  The recordings were then introduced to isolated guinea pig hearts.  The effects of the digitized water were identical to the effects on the heart produced by the actual substances of acetylcholine and ovalbumin.  This experiment and others like it, although controversial, provide insight into the importance of water in cellular communication and the ability of water to duplicate and transmit the energy frequencies of a substance.  The ability of water to copy and memorize information is also the theory behind the potentization process that is used in homeopathy (Lloyd 65). . . MORE!

 

 

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate;

 

 

our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

~Marianne Williamson

 

 

EXCITING

CAREER OPTIONS

 

 

At this time, many holistic practitioners choose to work in private practice offering individualized holistic wellness consultations.  Others may be involved in: 

 

~Holding health seminars. 

 

~Writing books and articles on various aspects of holistic medicine. 

 

~Developing DVD and CD programs concerning holistic health. 

 

~Owning and operating a health food store. 

 

~Owning and operating a healthy restaurant. 

 

~Owning and operating a health spa. 

 

~Owning and operating a holistic clinic. 

 

~Manufacturing or formulating dietary supplements. 

 

~Manufacturing or formulating herbal products. 

 

~Manufacturing or formulating aromatherapy products. 

 

~Manufacturing or formulating flower essence products. 

 

~Manufacturing or formulating gem essence products. 

 

~And much, much more. . . .

 

 

Follow the links below to learn more about

holistic healing:

 

HAI Code of Ethics for Holistic Healers

 

Holistic Health Practitioner (HHP)Program

 

 

The Origins of Holistic Medicine

 

By Theda Renee Floyd, PhD, RN, HHP

 

 

Holism and holistic medicine are often thought of as new concepts only recently developed, but they are actually rooted in antiquity.  Ancient cultures such as the Indians, Chinese, Europeans, Native Americans, and others, have applied holistic principles in their healing practices for centuries.  As early as 5,000 B.C., the physician sages formulating the healing traditions of Ayurvedic medicine from India and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) from China recognized that health represented a balance of body, mind, spirit, and the universe.  This belief was, and remains, the underlying foundation in the healing traditions of indigenous peoples around the globe.

 

Ayurveda is the healing gift to us from the ancient enlightened Vedic culture of India.  It originated as part of Vedic Science, an integral spiritual practice that provides a comprehensive understanding of the entire universe of matter, mind, and consciousness (Frawley 6).  The ancient seers or rishis manifested truth in their daily lives through intensive meditation.  In the close relationship between man and the universe, the rishis perceived how cosmic energy manifests in all living and nonliving things, and realized that the source of all existence is Cosmic Consciousness (Lad 15).  Ayurveda teaches that each of us is a universe within ourselves, a microcosm, and a child of the cosmic forces of the external environment, the macrocosm.  Ayurveda views health and illness in holistic terms, taking into consideration the inherent relationship between individual and cosmic spirit, individual and cosmic consciousness, energy and matter (18).  Although the ancient Vedic texts were not written down until beginning around 1500 B.C., they include astronomical records that indicate the Vedic system, including Ayurveda, was in practice before 4000 B.C.  Ayurveda became the basis of the healing traditions of Tibet, Sri Lanka, and Burma, and also influenced TCM (Frawley 6). 

 

Huang Di, the Yellow Emperor, reigned over the northern part of China during the third millennium B.C., or about 5,000 years ago.  He wrote The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine which remains one of the most important classics of both Taoism and TCM.  This book includes a wealth of knowledge concerning the etiology, physiology, diagnosis, therapy (including acupuncture), and prevention of disease; as well as in depth investigations of such diverse subjects as ethics, psychology, and cosmology.  These subjects are discussed in a holistic context that indicates life is not fragmented, as in the model provided by modern science, but rather that all pieces make up an interconnected whole.  Through comprehension of the natural laws of a holistic universe, the way to promote a long, happy, and healthy life is revealed (Ni xii-xiii). 

 

In Europe, some 5300 years after his violent death, a Stone Age man often referred to as the Icemen or Ötzi was found frozen in an Alpine glacier near the Italian border with Austria.  Since his discovery in 1991, the Iceman has slowly revealed his secrets to a global team of scientists.  The Iceman carried a medicine pouch containing medicinal mushrooms of which it is believed he was self-medicating.  He had approximately fifty-seven carbon tattoos consisting of simple dots and lines on his lower spine, behind his left knee, and on his right ankle.  Using x-rays, it was determined that the Iceman likely had arthritis in these joints.  The tattoos, then, had been placed to target the arthritic areas as an early form of acupuncture.  It seems that well over 5000 years ago, the Icemen had access to holistic healing information focused on multidimensional levels. 

 

Just how far back in human history the actual origins of holistic healing may lie is not known.  It is likely that for many thousands of years before the written records, healing information was passed on from the master practitioner to the initiate through oral traditions.  The first generally accepted use of plants as healing agents were depicted in the cave paintings discovered in the Lascaux caves in France, which have been radiocarbon dated to between 13,000 and 25,000 B.C.  However, there is evidence that Neanderthals living 60,000 years ago in present day Iraq used plants for medicinal purposes.  In 1960, at Shanidar Cave, Iraq, a Neanderthal man was uncovered who had been buried with eight species of medicinal plants (Lietave 263).  From the evidence of petroglyphs and artifacts, it seems that such a base of healing knowledge was acquired within numerous ancient tribal communities.  Perhaps, over time the healing concepts came to the wise persons in the group and gradually evolved to become healing systems. Then, as this knowledge base expanded over the generations, tribal culture developed into specialized areas and the roles that are now known as healers or shamans.

 

What is known is that in ancient times life was perceived as being an interconnected whole, and energy was understood as a force which permeated the entire system.  However, as science developed and religious outlooks shifted, especially in the West, certain things came to be designated as clearly spiritual or of the spirit world, while all the rest were clearly material or of the physical world.  The spiritual and material no longer penetrated and mingled with each other as described for thousands of years in indigenous cosmologies, mystery schools, and sacred texts; instead, they had become separated (Angelo 4-5).

 

The roots of allopathic medicine came into medical dominance only recently, in the early twentieth century, and can be traced back to the French philosopher René Descartes (1596-1650).  Descartes believed that the basic principles ruling nature could be obtained by a combination of pure reason and mathematical logic.  With his words Cogito ergo sum (I think, therefore I am), he introduced the concept of dualism:  We sense our environment with our brains but regard it with our minds (What is 54).  His approach was analytic and involved breaking down a problem into its parts and arranging them logically, a technique which is still constantly at use in science.  This method of operation is termed reductionism, because its basic assumption is that we can reduce a phenomenon to a collection of independent components.  If we can understand each of the components taken independently, we can then understand the entire phenomenon, in a way that is similar to our understanding of the operation of a machine.  Holism, the opposite of reductionism, assumes that some phenomena, if not all, can only be understood as integrated wholes, and so cannot be broken down into independent parts (Slavin 7).

 

In his 1926 book, Holism and Evolution, prominent South African and British Commonwealth statesman, military leader, and philosopher Jan Christiaan Smuts (1870-1950) reintroduced the concept of holism, defining it as "the tendency in nature to form wholes that are greater than the sum of the parts through creative evolution" (Wikipedia 2).  However, it wasn’t until the 1970s that holistic became a common adjective in our modern vocabulary.  Accordingly, holistic medicine embodies the view that the individual is an integrated whole, independent of and greater than the sum of the parts.  As wellness is a state of balance, oneness, and wholeness, holistic medicine seeks to harmonize the body with the subtle energies that are its origin; thereby, eliminating the imbalances that are the root cause of illness. 

 

Today, investigators in a growing number of scientific fields are increasingly recognizing that everything is connected very strongly with everything else.  Natural structures vary from the level of the tiniest subatomic particle to the immense universe, but each possesses specific characteristics within the structure and is governed by similar principles of organization.  At the most fundamental level, substance is not made of hardcore elements, atoms, and molecules; it is made of ultra-minute waveforms.  Nothing is entirely closed or independent; rather, everything is very sensitively connected with everything else (Laszlo, Will 2).  All parts of such a coherent system are so correlated that what happens to one part also happens to the other parts (Laszlo, Science 25).  The material universe is actually a coherent web of interrelated events.  None of the properties of any part of this web is more important than another and the overall consistency of their interrelations determines the structure of the entire web. 

 

Like the universe, humans too are comprised of complex, integrated systems interacting and supporting each other on various vibrational levels.  We are living systems that are continuously receiving and transmitting information (Laszlo, Will 2).  A change in any one part of the system affects all the other parts.  As with a kaleidoscope, the slightest turn changes the whole scenario.  Changes are occurring at all levels simultaneously and continuously.  Treating the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual levels of an individual as unrelated systems fragments the whole self compounding existing problems and establishing new ones.  Socrates (469-399 B.C.) warned that treating only one part of the body would not have good results, “. . . for the part can never be well unless the whole is well” (Plato 167).  Holistic medicine is universal and rooted in the continuing principle of healing as a personal evolution.

 

 

Works Cited

 

Angelo, Jack. Hands-On Healing. Rochester:  Healing Arts Press, 1997.

 

Frawley, David.  Ayurvedic Healing.  2^nd ed.  Twin Lakes:  Lotus Press, 2000.

 

Lad, Vasant.  Ayurveda.  Twin Lakes:  Lotus Press, 2004.

 

Laszlo, Ervin.  Science and the Akashic Field.  Rochester:  Inner Traditions, 2004.

 

---.  “Will Spring and Summer No Longer Come?”  26 (2004).  1-2.  16 Jul 2011

<http://www.enlightennext.org/magazine/j26/laszlo.asp>.

 

Lietave, J.  “Medicinal plants in a Middle Paleolithic grave Shanidar IV?”  Journal of Ethnopharmacology  35 (1992):  263-6.

 

Ni, Maoshing.  The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine.  Boston:  Shambhala Publications, Inc., 1995.

 

Plato, with Morris B. Kaplan. The Socratic Dialogues. New York:  Kaplan Publishing, 2009.

 

Slavin, Alan J. “A Brief History and Philosophy of Physics.” 1-22. 12 Apr 2010 <http://www.trentu.ca/academic/physics/history_895.html>. 

 

“What Is Consciousness?” Science Illustrated. May-Jun 2009:  52-57.

 

Wikipedia.  “Holism.”  1-8.  13 Apr 2010.  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holism>.