| The
Healing Room -Synergy
Sue Lanzon (with thanks to Joel Kreisberg & Richard Katz)
|
Since
the ascendancy of 'orthodox', medicine in The West, (a rise made possible
by the unholy alliance between science and industry) the dominant paradigm
in our culture has been one of scarcity. Individuals and communities
compete for resources, struggling to accumulate supplies of their own,
resisting pressure to share. Research is an area of intense competition.
Who will win the race to discover the cure for contemporary plagues
such as Aids? Who can offer the greatest financial incentive to researchers?
Proposed solutions to the current crisis in health care tend to revolve around improving the delivery of scarce resources, thereby implicitly reinforcing the core assumption. Doctors are compelled to make choices, based on economic factors, regarding which of their patients are most "deserving" of treatment. This compounds the already unequal power relationship between doctors and patients, in which "doctor knows best" and the patients must do what they are told, surrendering their bodies to a mechanistic, reductionist system, and being grateful for, at best, a suppression of symptoms. The dominant medical model in our culture has gained its place through the application of fear. An alternative to this is the synergy paradigm. Synergy is defined as "the combined action of two or more which have a greater total effect than the sum of their individual effects". A synergistic paradigm brings phenomena together in harmony, maximises their potential and produces something greater, with the possibility of continued expansion and renewability. A synergistic healing relationship requires integration between healer and patient, in which there is no imbalance of power but, through a connectedness which goes beyond the realms of 'self', initiates the healing energy and allows transformation to take place. In the use of medical systems such as homoeopathy, acupuncture, shiatzu, there is no waste of resources and the problem of scarcity does not arise. When a person experiences healing on this level, the synergistic experience can be relayed back to the community as new awareness informs their close relationships, and their personal growth activates greater connectedness with others. The experience expands and renews, so that transformation is a continual process. Education is the key to creating a paradigm shift. The healer needs to be seen as a focus in the community, inviting its members to explore their self-healing potential.The true healer does not seek to hold the balance of power but creates a safe space in which individual exploration and energy exchange can take place, conflict can be resolved and growth achieved. As we learn better how to heal ourselves, we inevitably benefit our families, our communities, our planet. The Physik Garden has been created through the synergistic collaboration of its members, and now looks forward to expanding and renewing continually through the exchange of information, debate and the sharing of experience. |
