Rosicrucian Beacon Magazine - 2012-09 - AMORC

Kiva Kachina Dance by Ray Naha: The Medicine Man, as a holyman, fostered and guided the tribe’s cosmology and approaches to life’smysteries. Here a dance is performed in a ‘kiva’ or temple. (Source: http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Pictures/Native-Artwork-page3.html)modern pharmaceutical and nutrition experts are evennow still drawing. They discovered such items as castor oil,cascara, numerous diuretics, emetics to induce vomitingand excrete poisons, anaesthetics to kill pain, as well asThe Medicine Man, as a holy man, fostered andguided the tribe’s cosmology and approaches tolife’s mysteries.sedative and hypnotic herbs. They discovered quininebark for the control of malaria and used willow bark,containing the ingredients of aspirin, for the symptomaticrelief of rheumatism and arthritis.Traditionally, some Native Americans believed thatwithin the area where the disease occurred, a plant or herbfor its treatment was also to be found. They accumulateddeep insight into the uses of many herbal remedies, aknowledge that has for the most part not survived intothe 21 st century. The Incas of Peru for example, wouldsend runners to the seashore for fresh fish to cure goitredue to the lack of iodine in the high altitude streams.In the Yucatan and other areas of Central America,2000 years before Columbus, native healers filled dentalcavities, fitted false teeth and applied artificial limbs.Their skill with surgical instruments was fine enoughto relieve pressure in the skull through the difficult artof trepanning. And it is believed they even managedCaesarean delivery long before the birth of Julius Caesar.In his book La Filosofia Nahuatl, the famousMexican author Miguel Leon Portilla notes that theAztec wise men distinguished between a true doctor ‘elverdadero medico’ and a ‘witch doctor,’ who generallyrelied on superstitious practices. One of the criteriafor differentiation was that a true doctor knew how ‘toconcert the bones’.In his psychic, psychological and psychiatric work,the Medicine Man excelled. He realised somethingperhaps better than some modern physicians do. A patientis much more than a broken bone, a high fever or a slippeddisk. The holy man would heal the whole person. He knewthat somatic ailments can leave psychic scars and viceversa, and he therefore saw fit to incorporate the powersof music, art, religion, psychology and philosophy in histreatments. Full and excellent rapport was one of his usualrewards. Many of the technique he used mystify us today,but that they were effective and resulted in genuine curesis not in doubt.Astral TravelInstances of psychic projection (astral travel) as Jonexperienced, were not uncommon. The Medicine Mantried and no doubt often succeeded in manipulatingthe psychic forces involved in healing processes in orderto alleviate suffering. One can well imagine the depthof psychotherapy involved during a week ofcontinual treatment with attendant drumming,chanting, rituals, sand-paintings, and visitsfrom loved ones. The healing attributed to greatMedicine Men of the past are analogous to themiracles of the New Testament, and may wellhave been of the same calibre and power.The following unusual case shows some aspects of theMedicine Man’s approach. A 10-year-old boy had beenunsuccessfully treated for a bladder condition by severaldoctors. A Cherokee Medicine Man was called, and ashe warmed his hands over some hot coals, he had the boystrip to the waist. Over the lower back in the region of thekidneys, he placed his warm hands directly over the boy’skidneys. As he softly rubbed the area, he chanted someold healing words, perhaps what Westerners would call aprayer. Then he whistled a single note, which he repeatedseveral times over and finally announced he was finished,departed, and the boy was cured. Eighty years later thepatient asserted that since that day, he had never againhad a recurrence of his ailment. The use of sounds, chantsand the laying on of hands for therapeutic purposes is notnew to the Native Americans, and there is ample evidenceto suggest that there existed in past centuries some trulynotable holy men who possessed not only great psychicpower, but spiritual maturity that far exceeded that ofthe norm.Hard as it may be to believe, Medicine Menreputedly even cured gallstones. After working on thepatient’s abdomen, the Medicine Man would suddenlyopen his hand to reveal a stone, no doubt meant to bethe actual gallstone. Of course it may have been a mere28The Rosicrucian Beacon -- September 2012