The world has gone mad. The cloud of nuclear Armageddon hangs over us all as war rages on in Ukraine; systemic oppression, locally and globally, can no longer be hidden or denied. Hate, fear and anger have metastasized through our social and political bodies.
It is ego run amok, as politicians the world over vie for power; egos doing anything they can to insure their own survival, operating under the illusion of solidity and permanence, careening toward destruction, willing to take the rest of us along for their deadly ride.
The world cries out for healing; for medicines that can help to lift the veil that has clouded our vision, to reveal our true natures, our energetic connection with all beings, with the cosmos itself; to remind us that what happens anywhere effects what happens everywhere.Read the rest of this entry »
We all sense the “feeling” of a space when we enter it. We might feel comforted, or irritated, sedated or energized. Whether it’s a friends living room, a doctor’s office, or a mountain landscape, every space generates a different reaction.
Solidity and emptiness: a paradox
Although the world appears to be solid, modern physics has revealed that it is essentially, and mostly, in fact, empty space. At the subatomic level, the atoms that comprise matter, are both particle and wave, solid as well as vibrational.
As human beings, moving through space and time, we are also both material and energetic. We perceive the material world with our senses: touch, smell, sight, sound, and taste. Our perception of the energetic realm is more subtle and mysterious, often unconscious, but just as real as the material realm.Read the rest of this entry »
Witches, Nurses, Midwives (WNM) is one of the seminal works of second-wave feminism. It was written in 1973 by two professors at State University of New York at Westbury, a new public college. At SUNY Westbury the curriculum included alternative subjects, such as Women’s Studies, and served a student body of older, ethnically diverse and working class students. Professor Barbara Ehrenreich went on to become one of our most important cultural critics; Professor Deirdre English, a prominent journalist, author, and an editor for Mother Jones.
This book was originally published as a pamphlet. Passed from person to person, it became an underground classic, addressing power, misogyny, and class struggle in the evolution of American medicine and health care.Read the rest of this entry »
I first heard about Crooked: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry and Getting on the Road to Recovery from a patient of mine who was about to undergo his second spinal surgery.
“Wow, she really trashes chiropractic big time,” he let me know. “And I think the book is getting a lot of notice.”
So first, a disclaimer: I am a chiropractor.
But I am not one to shy away from criticism, so I immediately bought the book and started reading. Granted, it was hard for me to take in the venomous barrage aimed at my profession. But I plowed forward.Read the rest of this entry »
“Digital natives” are those young women and men who have been raised from childhood on computers. We see them everywhere: Toddlers in strollers playing with iPhones, pre-teens on iPads in restaurants, strategically distracted to allow their parents to eat in peace; Junior High and High School kids doing schoolwork on laptops in the classroom or at home, sitting or lying in bed.
For the digital native, the computer is an extension of his or her body. By the time they enter pre-school, many can navigate apps. Ten-year olds can program software. Adolescents live their social lives on tiny screens. Most of the digital native’s life runs through this digital medium.
The recent announcement that Aetna would be pulling out of a large number of the Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare) exchanges, affirms a fundamental truth about health care and insurance in our country. Business and health care do not mix.
The ultimate goal of health care is to heal patients. The goal of private industry, based upon shareholder mandate, is to generate profits.Read the rest of this entry »
Carlos presented in the clinic, walking stiffly. He wore a green asbestos suit and steel toed boots. The distinctive chemical smell of the steel mill where he worked clung to him like a second skin. Carlos is a welder. He wields a blow torch for most of his day. Large pieces of steel hanging from gigantic chains and pulleys circle above and around him. One by one, he maneuvers them into a position where he can begin the fiery work of melting them down and reshaping them.
There are open fires in the big, hangar-like space where Carlos works. A toxic cloud hangs over the building, penetrating the clothing and skin of all who are exposed. The ground shakes every 15 minutes or so from a machine in the next building as it pounds tons of molten steel into new forms. After awhile, one doesn’t notice these little earthquakes. They just blend in with the sounds of saws, trucks and the loud whistles that signal break time.
The work is tough but lucrative, especially for a recent arrival from Mexico. A union job. Seventeen dollars per hour, English not required. But it takes a toll on the body. One day, after three years on the job, Carlos bent over to pick up his blow torch and felt a sharp lower back pain that radiated into his right buttock. It was enough to stop him from going on. He reported the injury to his supervisor, who filled out a work injury report and sent Carlos to the clinic where I work to be examined and treated. While Carlos was glad to get the medical attention, he was also thinking about missed time from work, lost pay and his family. As there were rumors that another round of layoffs was coming, he was feeling very anxious.Read the rest of this entry »
