beliefs

[Guest guest]

On Feb 4, 2010, at 11:48 PM, wrote:

 

> Thea,

> Again, I am on your side and am sincerely interested

>

Oh John, you are on everybody's side. Your unfailing universal

friendliness has been noted and appreciated. Please know that I am

not in any way considering your remarks contentious. It's just that

while I deeply appreciate your good nature, sometimes (as for example

regarding my effect on the clinical findings of students ten years

hence) I find your thinking a little woolly. This fills me with

caution. If what you mean by being " on my side " is that you believe

that we essentially agree on many matters, I am not so sure. I ask

that you be cautious in assume this. Many of your posts clearly

represent different interests and viewpoints than my own. I am

grateful to continue cordially, but I wish to make it very clear that

this is not the same as agreement or similarity.

 

For instance:

 

> Do plants have consciousness? I believe so.

>

For me, this is an example of what I would call strictly extra-

curricular thinking. Given that I was a professional organic

vegetable farmer before I was an acupuncturist, of course I have had

much thought on the subject, but professionally and especially in the

classroom it is necessary for me to remain rigorously agnostic on such

matters-- because it is not really relevant to teaching Chinese

herbal students the fundamentals of good medical care.

 

Good medical care is what I am really interested in-- and since

psyche is relevant to medical health (especially in the populations

many of us serve), I am interested in matters of psyche as they

inextricably intertwine with physical health or physical distress.

Your reflections below, while they are worthwhile explorations on a

personal level, open up questions that do not actually need to be

answered in order for us to be very good herbalists.

 

Please understand that I am in no way denigrating your questions and

reflections. They are beautiful and worthy. I am just not convinced

that this is relevant to the practice of Chinese herbalism. Like

religion, these are strictly personal explorations and must not be put

forth as mandatory matters of belief or disbelief in a Chinese medical

classroom.

 

Furthermore:

 

Much of your writing on the subject of herbs and spirit has fallen

into this category of what I would call 'extra-curricular thinking' or

personal exploration, and much of that has been focused on what I

consider to be the realm of shamanism. I am not a shaman, and I am

not interested in shamanism. I have respect for shamanism and there

are some individual shamans who impress me a great deal, but that is

not my way, and it is certainly not what I teach as Chinese medicine.

I have studied, for instance, with Eliot Cowan (Plant Spirit Medicine)

but only for a short time--- because that was all it took to

convince me that it was not for me. I did continue to have a very

thought-provoking and informative exchange with Eliot, and consider

myself to have learned a great deal from him, but I was learning about

how shamanism works, not becoming a shaman myself.

 

So please understand that there may in fact be great differences in

our viewpoint-- and great differences in what we consider to be

relevant to professional practice and/or teaching Chinese medicine.

 

 

OK, gotta get to work now. I'll respond to your second post later.

 

Thea Elijah