(This is part 3 of new contributor Dr Alan Mease‘s series on Integrative Holistic Medicine. Part 1 and part 2 are here)

Integrative holistic medicine is the emerging medicine of the future. Its values are significantly different and are best described by The Declaration for a New Medicine from the Bravewell Collaborative.

Declaration for A NEW MEDICINE

• We value the treatment of the individual in a holistic manner and the fulfillment of the needs of mind, body and spirit.
• We recognize the sacred and healing nature of the relationships between patients and healthcare providers and acknowledge that humanism, compassion and caring are central to health and healing.
• We believe that the empowered patient is the responsible central actor in healing, self-care and prevention and that a person’s emotions, trauma and stress levels directly affect the risk and course of disease.
• We will work for a healthcare system that creates an environment which supports healing relationships and recognizes that in order to be healing and empowering, healers themselves must be restored and whole.
• We will support truly integrative medicine that offers the highest standards of excellence in a full and complete array of care modalities.
• We embrace the spiritual dimension of life and acknowledge the importance of context and intention in the healing process for patients, caregivers and healers.
• We acknowledge that the risks of many serious illnesses, such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes, can be reduced with scientifically based nutrition, exercise and mind-body interventions.
• We believe in giving voice to the patient, in the openness of healers, and in honest and supportive communications among all members of the healthcare community.
• We will support the efforts of healers to develop integrity and spiritual qualities, which are as important as medical knowledge and technical skills to the process of healing.
• We dedicate ourselves to the change necessary to bring about the new medicine in an optimal healing environment.

Health care is in a time of crisis- a crisis of care, confidence and cost.  The NEW MEDICINE is emerging based on these values.  This has not been without obstacles.   The primary obstacle to this emergence has been a lack of a comprehensive conceptual framework.  The modern-day philosopher Ken Wilber’s four-quadrant model now provides a powerful tool for conceptualizing health and illness, investigating the efficacy of different treatment modalities, informing research methodology and medical education.  It offers a way to clarify the otherwise vague concepts of “integrative” and  ”holistic”.  This model will be reviewed in Part 4.

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What makes man unique is his consciousness, which exists even in infants and can be simply understood as the realms of waking, dreaming and deep sleeping. Central to the unifying theory of integrative holistic medicine is the existence of an energy field associated with the body-mind. The existence of a body with each realm of consciousness is taught in most healing traditions. This is due to the increasing complexity of the physical body-mind.

The 3 bodies of increasing complexity are the physical body-mind, the subtle body-soul and the casual body-spirit associated with three realms of consciousness, waking, dreaming and deep sleeping. Each of these is associated with the increasing complexity of human consciousness. (see below)

Modern medical science studies the exterior of each of these. The body-mind was incrementally understood in term of structure, anatomy; function, physiology and biochemistry. Treatments of body-mind dysfunction/disease use either a surgical/anatomic approach or chemical/drug approach to restoring normal physiology/function. Physical energies including radiation, electromagnetic and light are used in modern medicine and can be easily measured.

Ancient healing traditions teach that there are increasingly subtle energies associated with the increasing complexity of the physical body-mind. These are called subtle energies associated with the body-mind, the body-soul and then the body-spirit. The latter are equivalent to soul and spirit respectively. Each of these is represented in the interior consciousness of the human condition. More precisely the greater the degree of exterior complexity of physical form the greater the degree of interior consciousness within. This allows preservation of the enduring truths of the traditions without the outmoded interpretative frameworks. It also provides a model for continued human development through adulthood.

These subtle energies have been long recognized in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) as Qi. Manipulation of Qi is used in acupuncture, meditation and Qi Gong. Tai Chi or Taichiquan is a form of internal Qi Gong. Dana Farber Cancer Institute’s Zakim Center for Integrated Therapies in Boston, Massachusetts is running a trial on the efficacy of Qi Gong compared with aerobic exercise as an adjunct therapy for cancer patients. See also Dr. Saint Cyr’s article on Tai Chi and Arthritis.

Newer healing methods using subtle energy include applied kinesiology, thought field therapy, therapeutic touch, reiki, polarity therapy, homeopathy, and healing traditions of indigenous peoples. There is an increasing body of evidence today supporting the effectiveness of these methods in certain situations. Prayer and spiritual healing may also be the result of activating subtle energies. Subtle energy is beginning to be understood and measured by physics therefore gaining credibility as the unifying principal of integrative holistic medicine.

Next Week: Part 3 – Why does Integrative Holistic Medicine Work?

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As a physician I have long recognized that caring for patients requires more than an understanding of the science of modern Western medicine. The human experience is so much more than physical. The success of medical science in treating diseases of the body and more recently the mind is remarkable but it is only a recent phenomenon less than 100 years old. It is increasingly recognized by both patients and doctors that there is something missing. This has led patients to seek alternative treatments and physicians to develop an approach called integrative holistic medicine. Integrative holistic medicine is the art and science of healing that addresses the whole person: body, mind, soul and spirit.

All good physicians realize that healing is more than treatment of the disease and requires an understanding of the whole person with the disease. A person is a very complex conscious being consisting of body, mind, soul and spirit. Today we have access to both modern science and the wisdom of all ancient healing traditions to help us understand the whole person. The terms soul and spirit are confusing because of religions connotations but these are important elements of the whole person. Correct understanding of these terms requires preservation of the enduring truths of the traditions without the outmoded interpretative frameworks. These truths then need to be integrated with new research showing that human bodies produce energy fields which are influenced by external energy fields.

Integrative holistic medicine has expanded its concept of healing to incorporate a human energy field which is the foundation of Eastern medical systems such as Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) including acupuncture. Physical energies including radiation, electromagnetic and light are used in modern medicine and can be easily measured. Ancient healing traditions teach that there are increasingly subtle energies associated with the increasing complexity of the physical body-mind and consciousness. There is recent scientific evidence for the existence of these subtle and difficult to measure energies interacting with the human energy field. At the center of this is an integral physiology with the pineal gland converting energies into all the body’s systems. “The pineal gland is the cornerstone of the biochemical interface with our environment and the subtle energy that both supports and transcends our sense perceptions and sustains our body…”1 The enormous contributions of Western medicine with the profound insights of the Eastern systems of human energy and health are united by the new science and by the recent philosophical work of integral thinkers like Wilber2. If Western medicine accepts the new research documenting a truly cohesive physiologic system it must incorporate a unifying theory that accounts for the existence of energy fields within as well as outside the human body. Out of this comes a new form of medicine which is truly holistic and integrative.

- Dr Alan Mease

Sources:
The Scientific Basis of Integrative Medicine, Leonard Wisneski and Lucy Anderson, CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, 2000
The Integral Vision: A Very Short Introduction to the Revolutionary Integral Approach to Life, God, the Universe and Everything, Ken Wilber, Shambala, 2007

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How does Integrative Holistic Medicine Work?	Why Do We Need Integrative Holistic Medicine?	New Contributor: Dr Alan Mease

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