I have long lamented the fact that Christians tend to reject most alternative medicine because it’s entangled with other religions.  In many cases, the medicine and the religion go together because they both belong to the same culture, not because the religion is inherent to the medicine.  (And as Dr. Stewart pointed out – ‘though not in these words – the modern Western culture is the only one that completely separates physical healing from spiritual life.  Early Christians integrated their faith with their healing, as well.)  We’re throwing out the baby with the bath water, in many instances, and I think part of the reason for this is that we don’t understand how some of these alternative methods work.

If we don’t understand it, if we can’t offer up a scientific explanation for it, then we are quick to assume that it’s some sort of pagan mumbo-jumbo.  The problem is, there are plenty of things we don’t understand, and they’re not all bad!

Energy Medicine Technologies, edited by Finley Eversole, Ph.D. (published by Inner Traditions) can provide a good start at showing that there really is legitimacy to a number of alternative health methodologies that, in the past, we haven’t understood.

This book, subtitled Ozone Healing, Microcrystals, Frequency Therapy, and the Future of Health, is a series of shorter articles by various authors.  I received this book from the publisher to review, and found it balanced in tone – without any attitude of antagonism toward allopathic (our standard American medical system) medicine – and extremely informative.

Of course, since it is written by various authors, the overall writing style varies a bit.  I was surprised to find that it was all pretty understandable, though.  Well, with the exception of a single chapter.  Chapter two, “Life’s Musical Blueprint,” was a bit tricky for me to follow.  I was able to get the gist, but some of the specifics were over my head.  Other chapters get pretty scientific, as well, but the authors generally did a good job of explaining any technical terms they used.

What is the book about?  The concept that (in my words) our bodies have an entire other system generally ignored by modern medical practitioners (because it has not been understood or scientifically observable for most of history), in addition to those with which we’re familiar, such as the respiratory system and the nervous system.  Our bodies have an entire energy system, and disruptions in this system can cause disease just as surely as disruptions in any of the more familiar systems.  In fact, most of the authors in the book would probably argue that all disease is, at its root, a disruption of this system.

In every ancient healing system that I can think of, this energetic system plays a focal role.  And we have known that many of them work.  (For instance, it’s been demonstrated in the past that acupuncture is efficacious.)  I’m not saying that they don’t all work, but we had already proven a few.  We just didn’t know why or how they work.  But developments in technology and plain old interest in investigation of this area have led to scientific discoveries of certain patterns.  I’ve seen this in other books of late, too.  This one, however, specifically aims to inform the modern reader of just what is possible for healing: methods that are safer and more affordable (in most cases) than the methods we’re currently using, and with just as much scientific support.

I do take issue with the fact that one of the authors toward the end recommends a vegetarian diet.  His reasoning is that eating lower on the food chain enables us to consume fewer toxins.  That is undoubtedly true, but it’s not the only consideration for our diets.  Plant foods may not concentrate toxins, but they don’t concentrate certain other things, either, that are beneficial and necessary for health.

All of the other recommendations (and most chapters do include some practical applications) are at least harmless, if not particularly beneficial.  What is most eye-opening is just what the pharmaceutical company-driven industry has been hiding from us for a century!