universecannon said:
Making this discussion into a Western Medicine VS Shamanic Medicine thread just seems ridiculous to me. I see people who naively idealize shamans, just as i see people who naively idealize doctors, and everything in between...We have to adapt and learn as much as we can about as many routes to healing as possible in my opinion. Instead of fighting over which is better, its more interesting to ask how we can improve and integrate the two.
But as far as which misconception (in regards to people thinking doctors/shamans knowing everything) seems more prevalent in the world, and which has a larger overall negative impact? Personally it seems blatantly obvious when zooming out and looking at the larger situation in the world that the idealization of doctors as some sort of all knowing arbiter of health knowledge seems FAR more prevalent and FAR more damaging overall than the this much less frequently seen idea that a shaman is able to cure/know everything. I'm not aiming this at anyone... but if you really think that has done more damage than this widespread idealization of doctors, then you are just kidding yourself and need to open up your eyes and take a good hard look around.
This.
I agree UC. I think that if people put down their swords and read each other's comments without overlaying any aggressive tone or intent... I think it is clear that the vast majority of the posts here are speaking towards a broad openness to the
best of both modalities. Some leaning more towards modern western medicine and some more towards natural and indigenous techniques, but I haven't seen any of the stalwarts or idealizers spoken of on this thread... here
on this thread as it were.
Surely they exist, but as you suggest (and I mentioned before as well) the prevalence of people who trust and idealize their doctors, the often terrible pills they hand out like Pez dispensers, and the clinical trials that spawn them is far higher in our society. Orders of magnitude so. In the US, the number of people who even realize shamanism is still a thing and wasn't wiped out during the Indian Wars of the 19th century are actually statistically slim.
Medicine may be better in places like the UK and other progressive European nations, but Big Pharma is the same worldwide. The companies are not restricted to the US, but are often based in Europe in Pharma towns like Basel. These companies have shown little or no respect for human life, and instead of doing what is best to treat and cure diseases, have been proven time and time again to place profit over doing the right thing. They haven't really cured anything in decades. The new model is to treat symptoms (often poorly) and get people hooked on expensive drugs that they wind up taking indefinitely... only switching to another such drug when the old one becomes incredibly toxic, goes out of patent, or is taken off the market.
If you don't believe me, even a cursory amount of research will show you what I mean. One example is Phen-Fen. They knew full well that people would start dying when they prescribed that stuff to everyone who wanted it... and some who didn't. Sadly, the common image of the altruistic physician trying to hold up the Hippocratic oath is not mirrored in the coldly profit-driven businessmen who actually control our medicine. Furthermore, they are not even subject to malpractice suits and nearly never suffer any repercussions when they cause widespread death and suffering.
It was suggested that shaman get away with more than western medical practitioners... In my experience, people tend to run bad shaman out of town far more often than you see people who admit to fudging clinical trial results even receive a fine... let alone go to jail.
And as I said earlier, these two modalities are not the only (or even best) games in town. I find that eliminating stress, a skilled acupuncturist, a regimine of detoxing, lengthy massage sessions, and some good old wellness spa days are far more effective for me than either.
