Journey to the IOM Integrative Medicine Summit

As soon as I learned of the Institute of Medicine Working Summit on Integrative medicine and the Health of the Public, mere words cannot describe the hope, the longing, the relief, the responsibility and the joy that welled within my being. Although my journey has been long, it has not been completely solo. Rather many other health practitioners of various healing modalities and traditions have journeyed far, have longed for a day when, perhaps, we would, at least be invited to the table. After all, we work side by side despite the agencies and institutions that have constructed the walls. We all have the same goals in mind--Healing.

With that in mind, I read the venue. Something within just clicked. This was a continuation of the conversation the James Reston and his 1971 New York Times article, "Now, About my Appendectomy in Peking" initially reignited. His subsequent articles detailing Chinese medicine in closed, communist China captivated the world's attention. For many in the West, this served as an introduction beyond the stories that generally filled sanctioned media. Although it introduced other ways of knowing, of seeing, treating and integrating healing, it more fully acquainted the west with the people of China. The unexpected and unintended consequences of the hybrid discourse that ensued, propelled many upon the associative paths of study. Yet, looking back in time, I sincerely believe that the west was taken by surprise!

Chinese medicine is not the only medicine that has value. Indeed, there are so many healing modalities and complete systems, many of them ancient. Nevertheless, they have stood the test of time. More importantly, the rituals of daily living which they have have prescribed have served as preventative measures and/or delimited the progression of disease. When engaged in accordance with worldview, each inherently contains more value. (I've studied so many for such a long time:-)

Understandably, the Summit sparked my interest. I submitted registration and anxiously awaited approval. This was to be a CONVERSATION- shared dialogue, listening and speaking. it provided opportunity to learn from each other and extend the aggregate wisdom to patients and families seeking a better quality of life. What could be more fulfilling?

Thanks to a dear friend in DC, everything was planned perfectly. Additionally, being in DC with her would grant us time together. Dr. Diane "Dwan" Tai, who does so much wonderful work has also committed this year to uplifting healing. Her last minute acceptance to the Summit was also a precious gift. All equated "Double Happiness."

Yet just before the summit, something overwhelmed me. Somehow, I felt less than worthy, less than up to the task. Nervousness and excitement collided. Thanks to a few friends dear words, the incredible energy of all the lives that have intersected with mine within the course of healing, of my pursuit of learning so many modalities and the experiences of my Chinese medicine masters completely filled me with an incredible energy, a force of lightness and strength at the same time. Indeed, I believe that many of the healers out there unknown to me were connected within that surge--Oneness realized! Thanks so much for ALL you do!

Upon the wings of all that shared experience, that life, love, hope and healing energy, I was ready. The footsteps were not merely my own. My body merely executed them. For the sake of others, we travelled on to partake of a grand conversation, to give and to receive. Yet, the 缘分 (yuan fen) destiny and synchronicity had only just begun. The best had yet to come...........

Love and gratitude to all who empowered and encouraged the journey, especially Lonnie Hodge, David Wolf, Dr. Ashis Brahma, Maynard Clark, Diane Tai, Marissa and David, my dear Tongxue and SO many more! We journey together! Namaste, 湘君。

First steps to the IOM Integrative Medicine Summit

It's funny how life happens. Synchronicity is always a welcome surprise, often unplanned. Nevertheless, it appears, connects, reinforces and guides.

Thanks to a friend who offered support and encouragement, I discovered the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Summit on Integrative Medicine and the Health of Public nearly two months before it commenced. Midst the seemingly mounting challenges that healers, natural medicine and traditional medicine doctors and practitioners have faced within the United States, especially within the last few years, I was hesitant to attend. yet, something much larger, much more powerful than misgivings, fear and a sometimes disheartened heart, compelled me to push on. It is for the sake of people and healing that I rededicated my life (More here).

Upon reflection, the medical doctors, the healers and Chinese medicine doctors I have studied with propelled my steps. The memories of those lessons and of the stories shared still live within and continue to teach and to give! Yet, the patients, the numerous patients, their family members and people afflicted with illness throughout the world called to my heart, appealed to my mind. They could NOT be denied! The stories they have shared compelled me to journey on! After all, these stories were not just stories and/or memories. Rather, they were and are the lives, experiences, and moments in time shared for the benefit of others. Accordingly, attendance arose from communal knowledge, aggregate wisdom, and the incredible honour and courage of all the people who touched my life. Together, we would go if only in spirit to uplift healing for ALL.

As my Chinese teachers said， "我应该做的！“ In the context of our lessons, my internships and conversations, this implied so much more than mere duty or obligation. It contended that doing all that one could as a Chinese medicine doctor or healer was and is a sacred duty, a contract, an obligation before all others. Mere words cannot convey the meaning and weight of those words, but I hope you read them with your heart/mind and sense their gravity. I realize this sounds strange but I know no other way to explain this. This sacred contract, this reciprocity is embedded and encoded within my heart and mind--linked and locked eternally.

Thanks to dear friends who have listened, healers who simply heal in accordance with the laws of reciprocity and the goal of health restoration and/or better quality of life in mind, I decided to go--to give voice to the voiceless. Remembering the reasons for the path, for the journey became imminently clear.
For all those kindred souls and persons who were unable to attend, for those whose lives were cut short due to hegemonic institutions and/or bureaucracy and/or the lack of 'appropriate treatment' for what ailed them, and the family members and loved ones whose lives have been altered by someone's illness, I realized that these steps were necessary. They were not my own. They were the sum of all！

Suddenly, the yolk became easy.

Thanks to all who led me to the seemingly distant shore, who guided the steps midst the downpours of life and the mist of uncertainty. Together, we took these first steps toward change, toward shared vision and continued the global conversation. More importantly, we traveled much farther. Uplifting healing for all, spirits joined, we soared to the next level...... Namaste,湘君

Integrative& Aboriginal Healing--Light For the New Year!

Obviously, I thought this post would detail more about the World Summit, but life sometimes deals its own hand. I WILL write more about that here within the next few weeks. However, something more compelling prompted me to write, to share.
As many of you know, the last few years in the United States, particularly 2008, was punctuated with unprecedented actions, including the suppression of health information not only within its borders but also within various regions of the world. This has been confirmed by numerous physicians, healers and entrepreneurs worldwide. Yet, these actions have also included the introduction and implementation of some controversial laws in Ohio and New Jersey. These included the "gag order" on anything related to nutrition unless, of course, with the exception of nutritionists. Such actions/mandates call so many aspects of life and human rights into question, I hardly know where to begin. I welcome conversations and comments related to this! However, the most disconcerting aspect of such legislation has led me to question the value of cultural knowledge, cultural practices and, of course, how these acts greatly delimit our survival as humans or "Divine Primates," as my friend Earon Davis so accurately details.

While many problems and challenges do exist within the US healthcare system, its associative agencies, and, indeed, throughout the world, I want to focus on some little rays of sunshine, casting such brilliant light. After all, this is a NEW YEAR! This is a time for Healing, Expansion and creativity!

From the bottom of my heart and the depths of my being, I wish you, your loved ones and those whose lives you touch and those whose live touch yours a happy, loving, healing and fulfilling 2009!

*Among the few bright shining stars, I want to highlight the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District in Russia , now actively investigating, exploring and seeking ways to implement a truly innovative system within the region. Every time I think of it, it makes my heart smile. For those of you who are unaware of the minority region and its traditions, I'll briefly explain that many consider this region the birthplace of Shamanism. Other traditional medicine also exists within the region, as well. Yet, Russia has the foresight to engage people in collective knowledge and truly integrative healing for the sake of its community. By doing so, they have placed medicinal knowledge, both aboriginal and western on more equal footing.
More information here

I have often stated that looking at symptoms simply as they are and then drawing the connections and then alternately looking at them through the pre-defined International Classification of Diseases (ICD) is in fact looking at the condition through dissimilar yet intersecting lenses. While the ICD often provides a shared language or point of context, it does not detail conditions, causes and context as richly as traditional medicines, despite the seemingly simplistic classifications and/or translations. The convergence often times offers new insight.

More importantly, however, the population of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District in Russia is diverse and overwhelmingly aboriginal people. Due to the deficiencies of and/or conditions not well addressed by western medicine, highlighting the cultural and ethnic disparities, engaging and incorporating the knowledge, cultural practices and adapting the western medical system to partner, actively demonstrates a concomitant strategy to insure the greatest health/ quality of life for the aboriginal people and by extension peoples who live beyond the borders. After all, many conditions we are experiencing and currently naming and/or identifying through the ICD have existed through the ages.

For their efforts, I applaud Russia and the medical school within the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District. Indeed, many others throughout the world have engaged such strategies, including but not limited to China with recognition of Chinese medicine, Zhuang Medicine, Mongolian and Western, Thailand, Mali, some Northern European countries and Indonesia, which perhaps embodies the most medical pluralities.

Yet, all of these traditions, these systems, healers of various traditions and practices and people who seek healing have co-authored these integrated systems.
To each of them, I am eternally grateful.

We all stand upon the shoulders of the ancients. We are all related. So, with this little bit of light, of hope, of hands reaching for and embracing collective knowledge, I leave you, all the while hoping it makes your heart smile at least one one-hundredth as much as it makes mine. Thanks so much for being you! Namaste,湘君

World Summit of Indigenous Cultures and True Healing

Later this week, I will realize a dream.
It's funny how that happens when we aren't looking.

It leads me to contemplate Herman Hesse's Siddhartha and the passage about seeking and finding. When one is seeking, one does not find because seeking means we have a goal in mind. It could well be that we then overlook what we need to encounter:-)

I received a last minute invitation to speak at the World Summit of Indigenous Cultures in Taiwan and the assistance to do so.

It is an unbelievable honour, but more an honour to share, to learn, to interact with indigenous peoples from five continents to collaborate, participate in the process of collective knowledge and wisdom.

My focus will, of course, highlight the global public discourse on health and healing, the pressing questions, the quests for more than mere alleviation of suffering and true healing, the role of traditional/indigenous healers, knowledge and wisdom and areas of study and application.

As I penned that paper rather hurriedly, I became truly aware of the many pathways of healers and patients, the quests for cures, the curious way in which we are all connected--today increasingly so.

Moreover, I felt as if I retraced the footsteps of my life--the illness that has led me through the Native Americans, the Sioux, the Cherokee, the Navajo, and many others, through indigenous peoples of Mexico, the Maya, to the medicine in Laos and Sierra Leone, Ethiopian, Egyptian and Malaysian healers, Unani, Reiki, Energy, Tibetan and Quranic medicine, and to the diversity within Chinese medicine, informed by region, minority, multiple disciplines and practice. The last of these has more fully consumed my time and life, yet each medicine pulls me in, draws me, inexplicably. I submit, willingly partake of the ritual interaction, the multi-faceted engagement and imbibe the knowledge and experience humbly, appreciatively.

Indeed, each healing modality and medicine share similarities and commonalities. They also offer different ways to live, to experience, to engage and see life!

It has been a lengthy journey shared with many, informed and enriched by those encountered along the way and I thank each and every one of you for sharing it with me, for adding to it by giving the gifts of YOU!

Indeed, there is so much work to be done and so much work in progress--healing on every level.

Perhaps, in totality, it is the "magic Kool-Aid" as my daughter Sabrina would say.
It could well be that the phrase I so often utter is also true...
~One man's magic is another man's medicine.

More clearly, more concretely, the more I see I become more aware of all I do NOT. Yet, one thing is clear...Healing worlds on all levels is being uplifted!

Upon the ancients' shoulders we stand as the Ancients watch over us, whispering in our ears, nudging...waiting for our stillness to listen.

As I travel to Taiwan later this week, partake in the rituals, open my heart/mind and travel to the indigenous villages, I will carry you all within my heart. Together, we will share, learn.
Love and hugs to you all!
http://indigenous.pristine.net/events/2008/wsic/presentations/debra_hayes_en.html

Namaste, 湘君

Pondering Directions and Ix Chel

Within the waves of global public discourse............
between and among healers,
healer to patient,
patient to patient, healer to scientist/researcher and/or M.D.,
so much chatter and musings fill the air.

In the midst of all this, I contemplate, reflect.
During a similar period of time this summer, a book sitting on my bookshelf called to me.
From within it, the light emanated. It revived my soul and spoke to me on so many levels.

After reading SASTUN by Dr. Rosita Arvigo, I had decided that she was and is one of the most amazing healers. It is not surprising that she and don Eligio Panti, the Mayan Healer who taught her entered my paper for presentation next weekend in Taiwan.

Read a bit of her interview from Whole Earth Review, Summer, 1992, by Nadine Epstein and see what enters your streams of consciousness.

FindArticles - Mayan medicine: lunch with Rosita Arvigo, shaman from Chicago - woman from Chicago, Illinois apprentices with Indian healer; includes information on ethnobotany and a list of useful herbs.

More about Rosita and Mayan Healing Quest for Ancient Home Remedies

Picture and further information from Student Rainforest Fund

Namaste, IX Chel (The Goddess of Medicine)

A Confusing time for Global health part 1

Confusion for global healers

International friends of mine who are healers around the world, distributed throughout every region have recently alerted me to difficulties helping their global patients, especially with regard to naturally occurring substances such as chamomile and evidence reports conducted in countries outside the United States. More importantly, perhaps, every difficulty has pointed to their reference to the International Classification of Diseases (aka ICD), formally adopted by the WHO in 1948 to measure fatalities.

More recently and through the subsequent decades, the ICD has grown to accommodate "new" and emerging diseases. One could argue whether some of these conditions are, indeed, new, when in fact other cultures and civilizations have documented them for hundreds of years and in some cases millenia. Nevertheless, viruses mutate region to region, population to population and over time. Nature responds to every variable, internal and external. Regardless, the ICD has become a recent sore point for many health practitioners around the world, most especially outside the US.

Who owns the ICD?

As determined the Word Health Organization (WHO), it has been the gold standard of diagnosis and foundation for treatment protocol. Accordingly, it was formulated to serve as a "common language" for health workers. Therefore, it was made internationally accessible and translated into the four European languages of the UN at the time. While other medicinal practices have painstakingly researched and classified their more complex patterns of symptoms and classified them into the ICD within their countries, the US refuses or more poignantly refutes these classifications even though they were compiled and formulated according to scientific standards.

What is a health practitioner to do?

For many more persons throughout the world, the question becomes what IS a patient to do?

Indeed, there are as many ways to view illness and disease as there are cultures and ethnicities. No one sees anything exactly the same!

Currently, more and more patients in modern societies find themselves plagued with chronic and difficult conditions and the responsibility of navigating more complex medical information, managing their own healthcare and more often than not, trying to heal while remaining active in society- going to work, family, etc. More and more health practitioners CAM or Western medicine, are required to seek or need a Western diagnosis determined by the ICD. What happens when a diagnosis such as lupus or MS or countless others take years to obtain? What happens to the patient? To where does one turn?

For me, it led me to explore the archives of Sioux and ultimately to Chinese medicine. After all, both had considerable experience with lupus. In China, it was documented for more than two millenia. For many others, the "Alternative" path also calls. If they explore their options and an alternative treatment helps them, then they, too have been restricted with regard to language they can use to relay the results. Other friends of mine, patients, within the US have recently been told they cannot use the ICD terms such as Rheumatoid Arthritis, etc. in whatever they say to support other modalities through lectures, and in some cases, among their friends and family members.

What is a patient, a doctor, a healer, a friend or the global community to do?

The ICD is Internationally shared by the global family.

Accordingly, it is not wholly owned by anyone agency or body but a tool meant to serve the people.

It's all a matter of "translation"--of listening, understanding, valuing the many ways to see:)

Praying forward more global communication and understanding, increasing value of diverse medicinal expertise, health and true healing.

I am eternally grateful to have encountered the people and tools needed along the way to decipher and discern changes, ways to see and understand concepts and ideas and for all those who share so much of their lives and their work with me. I am truly honoured. Thank-you one and all for teaching and friendship. love to you all

On that note, wishing all the readers of my thoughts, health and happiness and a journey of the heart. Thank-you for your time and consideration. Namaste, 湘君

Happy Holidays to ALL!

Dear Healers, Friends, Caregivers and Readers,

I would like to thank you for your love and support, your ideas and encouragement throughout this year and wish you all the most loving and happy holidays!

Together we have begun to make true healing a reality and begun to alleviate so much suffering globally. Mere words cannot express my gratitude. You are amazing!

From the depths of my heart I am wishing each and every one of you the utmost- health, happiness, prosperity, joy, love, peace and wishes fulfilled.

I honour and appreciate every one of you!

My very best wishes to you, your families and friends, and all whose lives touch yours.

Namaste

Debra
Xiangjun 湘君

Thanksgiving- With deep and profound gratitude

It's Thanksgiving Day in the USA

Although I personally believe that everyday, every moment, every breath offers so many facets to be grateful for,and at the very least remind us of our own humility and humanity, they also present opportunities to express kindness, gratitude, benevolence.

It's hard to imagine that ten years ago, I would not have been able to type this post or share my thoughts through this medium, weakened by the wolf of lupus, MS and so many other conditions, struggling to maintain breathing, to walk more than a few steps and keep my kidneys from failing. Yet, things change! My favourite book, the YI JING so clearly illustrates this.

It has been a long, arduous journey, through mountains and ice storms, sometimes sliding down icy peaks and searching through darkness for the Northern Lights, but the rewards have been priceless. As I sit here tonight, I am especially thankful for the lessons of illness and healing, the many discoveries along the way, the people and places I would not have otherwise encountered and the MANY people who shared their journeys, their experiences, the knowledge and skills along the twists and turns thus far.

I am especially grateful for the way everything seems to fall into place when we need it, how everything we need is somewhere within and around us. Awakening to the existence and presence of these necessities is all that is required:)

Tonight, as I do everyday, I appreciate the life I have been granted since the day Chinese medicine entered my life. I appreciate Dr, Arvigo for sharing Mayan traditions, the way my life has always led me back to the Sioux healing methods and knowledge of elders, for Ms. Souly for sharing Lao traditional medicine, for the Buddhist traditions I've learned along the way, for Unani and Quranic healing and teachings, Tibetan Medicine and so many others.

I appreciate:

Dr. Ashis Brahma for his friendship, his laughter and his love, for chats and comparative medicine conversations, for always believing and being the incredibly special man he is.

Dr. Elizabeth Garcia-Gray for her friendship, encouragement and support, for so many conversations and the times she shared her memories of her grandmother preparing herbs for the family, revealing that they rarely needed to go to the hospital.

Dr. Matt Krystal, Dr. Brian Hoffert, Dr. Richard Guzman, Dr. Alex Bolyanatz, Professor Ellen Johnson and all my professors for the tools they gave me to continue along the pathway, to pursue the way

Professor Jane Jiajing Wu aka The Chinese Lady for her friendship, her lessons that keep on giving, for her encouragement and her love

Dr. Larisa Turin for initially saving my life and teaching me so many Chinese and Mongolian Traditions

Dr. Zhengang Guo and Dr. Guang Xie for teaching and supporting me along the way, for sustaining my life and showing me the way

Dr. Yan Zao Ming, Dr. Qiu Shao Lin, Dr. Shu, Dr. Yang Qing Zhi, Dr. Shen, Dr. Zhang, and Dr. Chu for sharing so much of your time, knowledge and skills, for being such wonderful examples of what Chinese medicine doctors are and should be

My Huaihua family for all that you are

Dr. Zhu Ming for allowing me to learn and research in Huaihua and for his vision

Dr. Wang Hong Cai for his invaluable guidance, friendship and a memorable class

My friends and family for the incredible gifts you are to me

and My children for their love, for the sacrifices they have made and continue to make as we continue this path for true healing of all,

My Tongxue for being the wonderful man you are

and the many, many patients that have also been my teachers.

Thank-you all so much! I wish you all love, health and happiness. And to anyone who reads this, I wish you the same. Mitakuye Oyasin.