Is complementary medicine right for you?

It is an overstatement that the western medical system is incomplete. If you have ever had someone close to you go through illness or have spent a significant amount of your life working in the industry you begin to realize the limitations of western medicine and look for other perspectives of health and healing. When you think about it from a historical point of view, western medicine is relatively young and has been developed through science where fields of study are isolated and named – physical medicine, psychology, cardiology, endocrinology etc. People train to become experts at one very small aspect of health and can lose sight of the big picture. We can understand the interconnectedness of nature but fail to apply it to ourselves. As a result, we have become adept at dealing very well with acute care and disease management but lack capacity for preventative and holistic medicine.

It is not my intention to discredit the marvels of western medicine but to offer some alternative perspectives that have the potential prevent suffering and not only prolong lifespan but prolong quality of life. We are at an age where if we can blend the approaches of modern medicine with the wisdom of ancient cultures we can unlock limitless potential for growth and well-being.

When considering alternative medicine, we need to look at it from a neutral perspective outside of our culturescape. There are countless alternative approaches to healing, a few of these have started to become capitalized in the west and with capitalization comes dilatation through a Chinese whispers effect. What may have started off with good intentions quickly becomes polluted by profit. An example of this is the various forms of western yoga that make promises to the ego rather than the soul. Or the capitalization and popularization of Ayahuasca in Peru has given Shamanic medicine a narrowed perspective in the west. People are resorting to what they perceive to be a ‘quick fix’ without understanding the core ideals and values behind it. Unfortunately this can be damaging to the reputation of such approaches, plant medicine is an extremely small part of something much, much larger.

It’s my impression that to truly understand alternative perspectives to healing it is important to get as close to the source of it as possible – the catch to this is that becomes rather difficult to stumble across when you’re living in the commonwealth. I have found that a large proportion of alternative practitioners have learned a skewed perspective and are therefore missing core elements. I have been lucky enough to find a teacher that comes from that source and is truly remarkable. Jhaimy Alvarez calls himself a curandero (healer in Quechuan language). He was born in Cuzco and has lived an extraordinary life learning the wisdom of the Andean people and training with his masters in Peru.  He now travels between Peru and Canada spreading his wisdom with the west.  During the last year I have been learning from Jhaimy and have the privilege of travelling with him to the Andes on a pilgrimage of discovery. I will be sharing this wisdom with you in the hope that we can all begin to understand ourselves and the inter-connected world around us.