even, humour therapy.

bloodthirsty excesses of allopathy.

..Except. Somehow despite its
brilliance, its quantum leaps in
knowledge and skill, the ever-
increasing expansion of the scope
of its influence, somehow it has
failed to bring about the good
health that is, after all, supposed
to be its raison d’être. As it wages
war against the diseases and dis-
orders that have eternally plagued
mankind, as its understanding of
the nature and causes of illness
increases, as technology opens
up new areas of the human body
for examination, somehow it
seems to have missed the whole
point of the exercise. In aiming the
magic bullet of allopathy at the
ancient enemies of longevity and
vigour, the wonder of modern
medicine seems to have forgotten
the whole person. For, as we all
know, good health is not about
merely ridding the body of an
invasive presence, it is about all
round healthfulness.
..And therein lies the downfall of
allopathy. The lack of an holistic
approach leaves modern medic-
ine holding a grail of good health
that is empty of the essential
elements to make it happen, that
can be seen to be the empty
vessel that it is.

..In setting itself up as the saviour
of mankind, allopathy has been
hung (well and truly) by its own
petard. One of the great truisms is
that the more one knows the more
one realises just how ignorant one
is. And as allopathy has shown us
the intricate deeply hidden wond-
ers of the human body, as the
layers of life that sustain health
have been stripped away to reveal
the swirling gruel of proteins, prot-
ons and other ingredients of the
primordial soup from which we are
made, it has inadvertently reveal-
ed the limitations of an illness-
based approach to health.
Although it has shown us the
pieces of the puzzle, allopathy has
failed to fit them together to form a
recognisable vision of general
good health. As ever the goal of
perfect health, of physical well
being, of a balanced physiology
that precludes illness and offers
the prospect of reduced degener-
ation and longevity, remains an
ideal to which modern medicine
can only aspire.

..Whilst gene research should
eventually answer all of our
questions and fit together the
pieces of this great puzzle, it is
too late for those who have seen
through the flimsy negligee
covering the varicosed legs of
allopathic medicine. For them the
wonders of modern medicine
have been muted by its glaring
deficiencies. The inability of allo-
pathy to treat the social, emotion-
al, metaphysical and spiritual
ailments that can be seen to be
the precursors of all disease, has
been its downfall.
..It is, of course, still a wonder, a
breathtaking, awe-inspiring and
largely incomprehensible morass
of techno speak and jargon. But
that is not enough to save it. No-
body in their right mind, of course,
would deny the value of allopathic
medicine. It is just a question of
horses for courses. Allopathic
medicine will aim itself at the heart
of any illness and cut it, blast it,
burn it or frighten it from the body.
Non allopathic medicine will have
a similar effect but without the
drastic measures that allopathy
might apply. It will seek to balance
the energies and essences of the
body and thereby remove the
basis for not only the illness being
treated but for all other aspects of
disease.
..As allopathic medicine rose from its barbershop origins to dominate
western consciousness as one of
many wonders of the modern
age, it managed to push tradit-
ional medical practices into a
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panacea for all the world’s ail-
ments, allopathy over-extended
itself. With a brash over-confid-
ence it continued to develop drugs (shock horror) and treat-
ments that, though they purged
the body of the illness, often had
worst effects than the illness
itself. It was not hard to see the
often devastating effects of some
treatments.
..A certain disillusionment had
already begun to set in as the
sixties started and the world
girded its loins for a bit of fun. As
the sixties found its feet and
stumbled towards its midpoint, the
‘certain disillusionment’ became
something stronger. It was, how-
ever, only in the backwash of the
oft-mentioned (in these pages)

burst of increased consciousness
that makes the 60s so special
that the medical systems that had
prevailed for so long before the
appearance of allopathy came in
from the cold.
..Imbued with a new freedom of
spirit and of thought, the world
turned its steely eye once again
on the discredited hokum of
alternative therapies and saw
them as not quite so lacking as
had been previously thought.
Whilst they did, indeed, lack that
reassuring element of scientific
validation (or something), they did
have much to recommend them.

..The ‘holistic’ approach of many
therapies -- seeking to treat the
whole person rather than merely
the affliction -- endeared itself to
seekers after health in a way that
allopathy and its ‘magic bullet’
could never do. As the hitherto
almost suppressed information
regarding the effectiveness of
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Acupressure.....
MGiving It.
The Finger.

of positive and negative forces
that play themselves out to create
the world and everything in it.
Although essentially correct, the
West’s appreciation of the Yin-
Yang theory is a gross over-
simplification. They are the oppo-
site forces of nature that work in
harmony when balanced and
produce disharmony when they
are not.
....Yin is the female component
which represents the earth, and
is the dark and passive side. It is
present in the visceral organs and
is the absorbing principle. It is
also present in even numbers and
in valleys and streams. Yin is
represented by the tiger, the
colour orange, and a broken line.
Yang, its male counterpart, is
pretty much everything that Yin is
Not. Yang represents the heav-
ens, light and the active. It is
regarded as penetrating and is
present in odd numbers and in
mountains. It is represented by
the dragon, the colour azure and
an unbroken line.
....The paradoxical nature of Yin
and Yang is poetically illustrated in
the Huang Di Nei Jing:

Got that?
....The theories of the Qi and Yin-
Yang laid the basis for all the
branches of traditional Chinese
and Japanese medicine, and acu-
puncture, along with its needle-
free alternative, acupressure,
were just two of many medical
techniques that came out of them.
Indeed, the concept of Yin-Yang is
at the very heart of Chinese
philosophy and belief systems.
....On closer inspection, acupunct-
ure is rather less of a therapy and
more a medical art. The points at
which the hair-thin needles are
inserted are very precise, and with
365 acupoints across the body, it’s
not just a steady hand that is
required. The needles used will
vary in length and material,
depending on the procedure and
the point of the body to be ‘need-
led,’ as it is called. The types of
metal that the needles are made
from depend on whether its the
Yin or Yang that needs to be
pricked back into place. The Yang
element is represented by the
‘yellow’ metals, such as copper
and gold with their stimulating and
energising powers, while the
‘white metals’ of silver, chrome

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logical effects has been produced
tracing their route to the brain’s
chemo-receptors. While this
research has not much aided the
cause of aromatherapists, it has
provided considerable grist for
the mind-body connection and
has even generated its own bit
of pseudo-scispeak: ‘psychoimm-
unology.’
...Despite the newly developed
therapy’s ability to treat a wide
range of specific illnesses, essen-
tial oils continue to be used most
commonly as mood changers.
The medical effects are, however,
claimed to be wide ranging. Just
one of the oils, the bactricidal,
anti-viral and analgesic eucalyp-
tus is said to be effective for all-
ergies, arthritis, asthma, athlete's
foot, bronchitis, colds, coughs,
cystitis, dandruff, diabetes, diarr-
hea, fever, fluid retention, swoll-
en glands, headaches, hepatitis,
herpes, inflammation, influenza,
kidney complaints, laryngitis, low
blood pressure, migraines, muscle
pain and strain, neuralgia, osteo-
porosis, pain, phlegm, rheumat-
ism, sciatica, sinus problems and
as a healing agent on wounds.
And -- from basil through herich-
rysum to ylang ylang -- all are
said to be as multi-talented.

....It is, however, notable that
aromatherapy’s greatest and
most enduring claim to fame is
as a line in a children’s nursery
rhyme. Remember ‘A ring a ring a
roses, A pocket full of posies?’
Well, the rings of roses were the
circles of sores that announced
another plague victim and the
‘posies’ were carried to ward off
the killer germs. Unfortunately,
however, the last line of the nur-
sery rhyme has the final critique.

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