THE DOCTOR AND THE HEALER
Peter Roche de Coppens, Ph.D.

Anyone truly interested in health, illness, and healing, and, therefore, in medicine and psychotherapy, whether professional health-care practitioner or lay person, cannot help marveling at what is happening today in the medical profession and in the world! On the one hand, we have never had more knowledge, material resources, and on-going medical research. The medical technologies and sophisticated remedies that are available to us have never been greater or more accessible to more people on this planet. On the other hand, it is highly questionable as to whether these are paying off in terms of global health, longevity, personal happiness, and fulfillment! Social science statistics are very clear but rather pessimistic: the rates of psychopathology, suicide, anti-social behavior, depression and doctor-induced deaths and illnesses keep going up, particularly in those countries that are most developed, wealthy, and technologically advanced.

All over the world and particularly in traditional societies and in Europe, there is a growing interest in ethnic and traditional medicine, in holistic or integrative medicine that seeks to bring together the best of modern science and the wisdom of the past. The two approaches are very different and almost opposed in a number of ways. In traditional societies, the healthcare specialist was, usually, a wise person who played and integrated many different roles. He was the priest or shaman, the philosopher and educator, and the counselor and advocate. Medicine was then closely related to their theology, anthropology, and cosmology—to their basic conception of Man, God, the Universe, and Life.

The spiritual dimension and the soul were recognized and played a most important role. Pre-scientific medicine was natural, simple, inexpensive, with few side-effects but closely related to education, morality, and the assumption of responsibility on the part of the patient. Most important, the basic thrust of its approach was the understanding and removal of the causes of the pathology and not merely the suppression of symptoms! Medicine has a soul and was a vocation—the alleviation of human suffering and the maintenance of proper health and autonomy of the patient. Its impact was systemic rather than specific and a person rarely went to see a healthcare specialist unless he has an accident or was wounded in hunt or battle. People generally knew when they were going to die and died quickly with relatively little suffering.

Modern scientific medicine (allopathy) is roughly a century and a half old; it claims to be “scientific” i.e. to be based on the essential rules of the scientific method (truth is established through personal observation and experience and should be repeatable given the same conditions and methods) but, in fact, is rarely such because of the enormous complexity of the phenomena involved and the huge imponderable that always exist. It becomes evermore complex, technologically sophisticated, expensive, and dangerous! Its basic focus and service is the suppression of symptoms with little care for the underlying causes and, therefore, does not ask for a life-style change, morality or education, from its patients; it has a definite specific impact, and is highly specialized and monopolistic in its approach.

Through an increasing specialization and rationalization, its has adopted a 19th century mechanistic and reductionistic approach that studies the parts with no concern for their relationship with other parts; and it does not recognize the spiritual dimension and the soul (at least in its main-stream and institutional approach). Today, this approach presents us with a tremendous double paradox: On the one hand, it is becoming evermore expensive and sophisticated to the point that fewer and fewer people can really afford it while it is also becoming more and more dangerous with more and more pathologies and deaths that it is responsible for. On the other hand, there have always been a few men and women, from all races and cultures, who with no professional training or clinical experience, who have been instruments for the most thorough, lasting, and complete healings. Generally they did not ask for money but asked that their patients ”repent” and change their lifestyle-- renounce their dysfunctional habits.

Today, we find in the world at large but particularly in underdeveloped and traditional societies two kinds of healthcare specialists that represent the polar opposites of the two basic types of medicines, with many alternative, natural, and complementary approaches in the middle. These are the physician or medical doctor, the representative of the scientific, allopathic modern Western approach and the healer, the representative of the older traditional approach. The first works essentially with matter, focusing on the physical body and working through biology and chemistry, the second operates primarily with energy, focusing on the “energy-bodies” which are claimed to be causal in respect to the physical body. Needless to say, they are at the opposite poles and, generally, do not get along, the ladder being persecuted as “charlatans” by the former!

Until recently in Europe and fairly recently in the USA, the medical doctor and the healer definitely stood at the opposite poles and were irreconcilable enemies. The medical doctor being the professional specialist, working through a rational-empirical method, the product of many years of academic studies, costly but prestigious, this gave him/her the status of a “health professional” that stood at the very top of the healthcare hierarchy. The medical doctor works essentially with matter, in that his basic frame of reference is the physical body, which is studied and analyzed through biology and chemistry, via technological instruments and a pharmacopoeia that are ever-evolving and perfecting themselves. The physical body is seen as a “battlefield” where evermore diversified and powerful viruses, microbes, and pathogenic agents are ever fighting to conquer that body. The central goal being that of remaining one step ahead of them and to overcome them when the natural defenses have been penetrated.

According to the professional perspective and ethic of the medical doctor, it is the painful and dysfunctional symptoms that must be eliminated, as quickly as possible and without giving much thought to their possible causes. Here the lifestyle and the morality of the patient are perceived to be his/her own personal affair and are not interfered with. Various treatments and protocols are applied, in a standardized way, to all patients afflicted by the same pathologies without being too concerned with the final upshot of the ladder as what is truly important is to apply and respect existing norms and laws.

The healer is generally a person endowed with a particular gift of energy, fluid, or prana and, many times, also with a particular visual auditory or kinesthetic sensibility. Most often, this is a person who has little higher education and no medical or clinical experience and who works through his/her particular sensibility and intuition. If truly authentic, his/her “point of reference” is religious or spiritual. The authentic healer is primarily, but not exclusively, interested in the causes of the pathologies of his clients which are directly linked with their lifestyle (attitudes, behavior, and relationships, etc.). Being interested in the global well-being of his clients, he will also be concerned with education and morality. The removal of the symptoms can be facilitated by massage, herbs, and energy treatments but the extinction of causes (which used to be called the “remission of sins”) involves the removal of dysfunctional patterns and clear changes in lifestyle which play a truly important role in this approach.

The healer works essentially with energy, rather than matter, and thus with the “energy-bodies” (the etheric in particular) rather than with the physical body. For her the body, hence the physical body and its various possible symptoms are the effects created by these “energy-bodies” that structure and govern the physical body. As such, she will not need evermore sophisticated technological instruments to operate. It is, probably, here that we find one of the most profound sources of incomprehension and antagonism between healers and medical doctors.

Let us always bear in mind the central axiom of the integral medicine of the future: “the body and the psyche have been so designed that they can heal themselves from all known and unknown diseases provided they are given the proper matter (food) and energy (attitudes, faith, and level of consciousness). To these two, I would personally add destiny. Authentic healers, as well as the ancients who sought wisdom rather than scientific knowledge, concluded that what truly heals the patient is what used to be called the Vis Medicatrix Naturae and what we call today the immune, hormonal, nervous, and circulatory systems. Energy and different vibratory frequencies, as well as food and our frame of mind, have a direct impact upon these four systems that are then either dynamized or hampered.

For thousands of years, the East with its traditional medical approach and the West with homeopathy, have recognized and worked with energy which was called “prana”, “chi”, or “vital energy”. Acupuncture, herbs, astrology, and laying-on-of-hands healing work with energy and have fully confirmed the fact that that which is alive is very different and thus works differently than what is dead! Thus, the structuring and regulating key of our physical body and of its various functions is truly Life, energy. It is for this reason that a few modern healthcare researchers have come to the conclusion that “exhaustion is the mother of all illnesses”: that with a proper vitality various remedies and therapies do work and yield positive results whereas the same with a low vitality would give very different results or not work.

Hence, it is truly Life, vital energy, and consciousness and communication (which are a form of energy) that are responsible for a good health and for the healing process, which makes them indispensable. At the psychic level, the best way of cultivating, maintaining, and increasing one’s energy level, or vitality, is to thank God and express one’s appreciation and gratitude for all the human experiences one is living through—to manifest la joie de vivre. Bear in mind that the most sophisticated and perfect machine, endowed with a capacity for self-repair and healing, cannot function and would grind to a halt without energy!

Life, or energy, can manifest themselves on three distinct levels with different modalities and functions: on the physical (biological) level, on the human (psychosocial) level, and on the spiritual (psychospiritual) level. At the physical-etheric level, the electrical and magnetic level, we can create machines that will generate and use physical energy. Magnetism, electricity, electromagnetic fields, ionic and nuclear fields are all different forms and manifestations of physical energy. There are also researchers that have succeeded in creating machines that can act on the etheric-vital level, the level that is closest and most connected with the physical plane (the Chi machine, the Orgone generator, etc). These machines can have an indirect impact and reflection also upon the higher planes, but they cannot have a direct impact. Only a human being with his psychic and spiritual bodies and centers can have such a direct impact.

The greatest and most complex generator and transformer of energy, life and consciousness, is none other than a human being with his energy bodies and their psychospiritual centers. In fact, human beings are incredible “transmitters/receivers”, “transducers”, of various forms and manifestations of life, consciousness, and energy! Hence, rather than creating evermore sophisticated and efficient machines, that can only operate on the physical level, its might be much more profitable to work upon and develop ourselves—to actualize the incredible potentials and faculties that are latent in our being and consciousness. This, I believe, will be one of the greatest “discoveries and conclusions” of the medicine of the future. One can never divorce the observer from the field he/she observes and the person from the actions of that person. The doctors/healers of the future will have to lead a holy life—a balanced, healthy, moral, and evolving life as holiness will be one of their most important and necessary attributes!

As Walt Whitman used to say, about a century ago, “Western civilization has created huge sky-scrapers and powerful machines, but what has it done for the persons who live in these sky-scrapers and who use this machines?” I would say very little indeed! By focusing on the world at the material level we have grossly neglected our inner world, our human and spiritual levels. Today, therefore, the time has come to redirect our attention, intelligence, and energies to man himself, to the inner potentials and resources of human nature (the energy bodies, their psychospiritual centers, and the seven functions of the psyche in particular). In other words, it is truly crucial to become aware of the fact that the greatest and most perfect machine that exists which is the archetype and essential “model” for all machines we can build in the world is… man himself!

The medical doctor, his science and art, can and must continue evolving and developing themselves and this on two basic axes:

The horizontal, quantitative, external axis: the development of medical science and the creation of new machines, remedies and therapies.
The vertical, qualitative, and inner axis: the activation of the intuition, of the inner resources, energies, and faculties; the actualization of our psychic and spiritual potential together with the faculties of the energy bodies and their centers—hence of our soul! The true awakening and dawning of spiritual consciousness.

A human being is not a machine that you can repair by taking out and replacing different parts that break down. A human being is a living and conscious being who has the capacity to auto-repair and heal himself provided he has the necessary food and energy. As such, he has both an inner and an outer life that must be harmonized and synchronized. This means that we must unite the laboratory (science and external experiments) with the oratory (spirituality and inner experiments). The time has come to become aware of the fact that if the medical doctor has studied and actualized his own latent potentials and faculties (at least up to a certain point), he will be himself the greatest healing instrument for the healing and reharmonization of his patients rather than his scalpels, pills, or various machines and therapies!

It is truly essential to render explicit a fundamental fact, known by all saints, sages, and mystics of all times; namely, that all inventions, theories and machines, instruments and technologies, created by human beings are really a projection and objectification of an internal model and set of potentials which are already present in their own nature! As such, new inventions, theories, instruments, etc. are, indeed, useful and necessary for persons who function at a lower level of consciousness and being; however, as they transform and raise their level of consciousness, they can obtain the same results without machines through the creative power of thoughts and of their own inner faculties, linked with their psychospiritual centers. Persons who have reached this and higher levels can then also be utilized as instruments for the divine will by higher Powers and Entities—which is the case for the truly authentic Saints, Sages, and Healers!

We can find a concrete and specific example of this in the ever-increasing panoply of various health tests designed to given advanced warning of health problems and the best way to deal with these. These tests, however, can also be ambiguous, interpreted in vary different ways, and affect the life of the patient who must then follow certain cures and treatments thus compromised the quality of life of the patient. At times, these tests and treatments can be worse that the illness itself that might regress and go into remission spontaneously (for example, colonoscopy, mammography, and chemotherapy). On top of this, these tests can also create premature fears and anxieties that would not have manifested at this point had these tests not been carried out!

Finally, we must also take into account the fact that many pathologies will heal themselves in time as our body and psyche are working 24 hours upon 24 to reestablish harmony and heal us! There exist many arguments, pro and con, which are equally valid, for carrying out many tests and check-ups whose central objective is, ultimately, to create and enrich a true “industry of illness-tests”! Fortunately, however, there is another approach to resolve the same problems and dilemmas: the “clinic eye” of the true doctor and the sensibility and intuition of the authentic healer. I will give you two concrete and specific examples:

On December 11, 2003, one day before leaving for Italy, I caught a bad flu. During the afternoon and the evening of that day, I had various pains in my whole body and my fever kept rising from 99.1 to 102.4. I had caught the classical flu and I also knew why I caught it, but now what was I to do? If I entered the American “medical circuit” or went to the hospital, I knew very well what I could expect. For at least one week I would be “grounded” in bed and would lose both my work and vacation in Italy! Thus, I called two old friends, one a medical doctor and the other a healer.

The French doctor advised that I take two homeopathic remedies which, fortunately I had at home while the healer recommended the “Swedish Bitters” which I also had at home. Both told me clearly that should my fever be above 101 the next day, I could not leave for Italy even though, psychologically, it was clear that I would have greatly benefited by leaving! To be able to carry out the program I had created for myself at that time would give me great joy and motivation and thus would have raised the functioning of the Vis Medicatrix Naturae (my immune, hormonal, nervous, and circulatory systems) and thus help me to heal completely. So, I decided that I would “look for a sign” which was to see what my temperature would be like 15 minutes before I was to leave for the airport.

That night I slept little and badly. I was agitated and thought much about what would happen and with what consequences. In the morning, I took my fever which was still above the critical threshold and which did not augur well. But, 15 minutes before leaving for the airport my fever had fallen to 100.4 which was below the threshold I had chosen. So, we left for the airport but ended up in a bottleneck on route 80! After various difficulties, I did reach the airport and was able to leave because my flight was delayed… just the time I need to clear security! Thus, I left and was able to save my work and vacation in Italy. I did have to use a lot of intuition, patience, perseverance and faith, without which I am sure that I would not have left and returned to my home in Pennsylvania!

Another example is the following: I know that I have certain health problems that do not go away and that I must do something about them. I ask the help of a doctor in Rome and of a healer near Milan (as I was in Italy at that time) both of whom are old friends. Both of them use “alternative testing methods” that are fast, non-invasive, very effective and rooted upon the evaluation of my energy level and specific frequencies of different organs. The results are practically identical, one giving me more details than the other. This comforted me and confirmed that both did understand my problems also because what they told me corresponded perfectly with what I could feel and deduce myself. At the practical level, I was also advised to do two or three allopathic tests next Spring in the USA.

The morale of all of this is simple and clear: there are very different methods to get a health check-up and an evaluation of one’s basic health. These range all the way from intuition, sensibility, and the “clinic eye” to allopathic and conventional tests that are ever multiplying and becoming more sophisticated, but that are not necessarily more accurate or less ambiguous! The ideal would be to “distill the best” from these two approaches, always beginning with what is simple, natural, systemic, and with a global vision; then, one can get an “empirical” confirmation via a few conventional tests that are not invasive or dangerous. Here, I am now convinced that some conventional tests should be avoided, especially if prescribed in a routine fashion and without very specific reasons to carry them out. For example: colonoscopy, mammography, and the various tests that use “blood markers” to identify possible pathologies.

An important point to remember, however, is that many healthcare professionals still do not know or do not take into account the fact that, as far as our global health is concerned, the true and only healing agents are our immune, hormonal, nervous, and circulatory systems. These four systems always work full-time to reestablish both health and homeostasis (harmony) in our body. Often one does not realize that that which is most effective (and certainly less dangerous!) is that which is simple, natural, inexpensive and which has a systemic impact… and which is the opposite of what many people think and of what the collective conscience constantly reinforces. Remember Hippocrates’s dictum, “Primum non nocere” (avoid iatrogenesis)!

The best and most effective therapies and remedies are not those which are more technologically advanced, artificial, and complex—the latest discoveries—but rather those that are natural, simple and which have shown their efficacy through time. All therapies and remedies, always and inevitably, have a greater or lesser imponderable, things or levels that we are not yet aware of and cannot observe. Thus their impact and result on a larger number of persons and over a long period of time is very important. This explains, at least in part, why in the USA, where more money is spent on healthcare than in any other country and where the latest and most sophisticated technology is used, the basic results in quality of life, health, and longevity are far behind those of countries that spend much less and which do not have the same level of technological sophistication! This sounds like an unbelievable thing and paradox but it is true!

According to the WHO (World Health Organization), in the year 2000 the USA were the 35th country in terms of quality of life, health and longevity! Some people have even suggested that if all Americans who afford health care (more than 40 millions still cannot!) the classification of the USA would be even worse as iatrogenesis and nosocomia are now the third cause of death after heart and cancer and account for more than 250,000 deaths per year and millions of medically-induced pathologies! To be sure, we must study and utilize both matter (science in the world and for ourselves) and latent energies and faculties. During the last 500 years, from the Renaissance (the 16th century) and, in particular, since the Age of Reason (the 18th century), we have privileged and over-developed the first at the expense of the second. The result has been, in the words of a dear friend of mine and a well-known medical doctor of Paris, that we “have created sub-humans and super machines”!

In my philosophy of life and way of looking at things, there is no doubt that the latter is the most important stage which is truly fundamental for the holistic doctor of the future (the one that truly has the vocation of healing and helping others with their health problems). The bottom line here is, therefore, the fact that the doctor or healthcare specialist has to become himself/herself the most important instrument for the healing of his/her patients; she has to become an authentic healer, recognizing, integrating and developing the spiritual dimension (the inner dimension) which will then be united with her professional knowledge and clinical experience (the outer dimension).

The so-called “sensational and miraculous” healings of the Great Saints, Sages, and Healers are not the result of an arbitrary and capricious “divine will” but, rather, the result of laws and energies that we not yet understand and which are yet to be discovered! I am fully convinced that the holistic and integral science and medicine will discover these laws and energies in the near-future and that they will learn how to utilize them to heal the various pathologies and diminish the sufferings that still afflict so many people. These laws and energies are intimately related to what we call “love”; hence to discover and utilize them is it essential to learn how to love: ourselves, our patients, Life and God the Creator of the Universe, of human beings and of Life!

We must enter and study at the “School of Love which is truly the School of Life”! This Great Work, the true Magnum Opus, is now in your hands as the time has come to accomplish it… if we wish to survive and catch the great opportunities, the great challenge, of the 21st Century. Together, I am convinced that we can accomplish it, heal many diseases, relieve a great deal of suffering on earth, and help people and ourselves truly accomplish what we have come to do in this world!