Former Congressman Berkley Bedell, Chairman of the Board at the National Foundation for Alternative Medicine writes, "Over forty three million people in the USA cannot afford health insurance; healthcare has almost become a luxury item. Globally, over five billion people can not afford prescription medications. The need for affordable health solutions is largely ignored in our current medical paradigm which has created a system of medical care that is unsustainable"8
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"The performance we receive for what we invest in health care is probably the biggest failure in American History."
- Business Week, August 26, 2002
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In his book, "Power versus Force," Psychiatrist David Hawkins writes, "The health care industry is so overburdened with fear and regulation that it can barely function. Healing from individual illness or the healing of the health care industry itself can only occur by the progressive steps of elevation of motive and abandonment of self-deception, to attain new clarity of vision. There are not any villains; the fault is in the misalignment of the system itself. If we say that health, effectuality and prosperity are the natural states of being in harmony with reality, then anything less calls for internal scrutiny rather than the projection of blame on things outside the system involved.”9
The health care system in America is in trouble. Former Assemblyman from the New York State Legislature (1970-1976), Dan Haley, writes, "...the US has one of the most bureaucratically controlled and over-regulated medical systems in the world."10 ... "we don't have a free market in non-toxic therapies in the US-in things that, by definition, can't hurt us."11 ... "the FDA clamped upon the US a harsh regime of censorship and repression of anything that could compete with the giant drug companies."12
Our health care system needs an overhaul. However, the 'internal scrutiny' that Hawkins advocates takes precious time, and making decisions to change the system, to foster effective, non-toxic therapies, also takes time. Meanwhile, according to JAMA in 1998,13 55% of our population and 83% of cancer patients are trying new forms of complementary and alternative health care, usually paying out of pocket. There is a dramatic rise in visits to alternative practitioners - from 427 to 629 million - nearly double the 386 million visits to primary care physicians. In answer to consumer demand, many clinics and hospitals, are now creating entire departments dedicated to complementary health care, e.g. Memorial Sioan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, and Myrna Brind Center at Thomas Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia.
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"Where the people lead, the leaders must follow."
- Ghandi
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However, most of our research dollars are still dedicated to exploring the efficacy of prescription drugs. The conventional medical field seems to thwart efforts to develop affordable healthcare.14 The National Foundation for Alternative Medicine, started by former congressman, Berkley Bedell, writes, that it takes at least five years to clinically document the effectiveness of a new therapy; meeting the requirements of the Food and Drug Administration generally takes one billion dollars for one new drug or treatment protocol; the National Cancer Institute budget for cancer research is over $4 billion; the scientists at the National Institutes of Health have refused to test most alternative therapies, even ones that show promise for humans.
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"There are reasons why doctors ignored non-Western treatments for so long. Most of the alternative or complementary therapies like massage therapy or herbal remedies can't be patented. And since no one's going to make a lot of money from them no one wants to finance their investigation. "
-Barrie Cassileth, PhD.
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
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Two-time Nobel Prize winner Dr Linus Pauling put it bluntly: "The war on cancer is largely a fraud." Why? Little research money is devoted to complementary medicine, if they are protocols that cannot be patented, e.g. herbal remedies. Clinical trials for complementary health protocols that are low-cost, effective, and originate in an entirely different paradigm than the conventional bio-chemical, rarely get funded.
Kardecist Spiritist Centers Can Help
Spiritist Centers offer a model, a way out. They should, at least, be part of the conversation about finding a remedy to our situation.
For the poor, they offer free medical consultation, nutritional supplements, and medication, to those who prove need. They can respond to needs more quickly than our slow-moving, bureaucratic systems of welfare, e.g. Medicare and Medicaid in the USA. As reported in Newsweek, our medical researchers now recognize that both mental and physical health are improved through involvement in community, through volunteer work, and spiritual activities like prayer and meditation.15 Spiritist Centers create a place for those activities under one roof, thus providing a baseline of physical sustenance, improved health, preventive care for illness, allaying the costs of managing sickness, and contributing to spiritual wellness and evolution.
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People who regularly attend church have a 25 percent reduction in mortality-that is, they live longer-than people who are not churchgoers.
- Dr. L. H. Powell, Rush University Medical Center16
Preliminary data on a trial of 750 heart patients shows that 30% had lower death rates if they were prayed for and given a special program of music, therapeutic touch and guided imagery.
- Dr. Mitchell Krucoff, Duke University17
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People are recognizing that there is a spiritual component to being healthy, and healing. 84% of Americans think that praying for the sick improves their chances of recovery18. Many are looking for a way to develop spiritually, not sure where to turn, and concerned with how to maintain a meaningful connection to community. In Brazil, some of these individuals have found their way to Kardecist Centers where they take training to become healers, take classes to study Kardec's philosophy, and learn about spiritual dimensions within an ecumenically-based, caring community.
Hopefully in the future we will see the Gates Foundation, or another similar foundation born of corporate profits, sponsoring the maintenance of Spiritist Centers in the USA. In the meantime, if there are not sufficient funds to start a Center, one can certainly consider bringing components of Kardecist Spiritist Centers into our already existing health centers-to revitalize and improve the emotional and spiritually-based therapies.
In Portraits (Part Two), you will be introduced to rejuvenation devices that appear to be highly effective in the tradition of Spiritist healing. Rustum Roy, who wrote the Foreword for this book, told me that our foremost scientists are researching just such electromagnetic devices.19 and finding they have great potential for healing. They will soon be reviewing the efficacy of such devices in use at Spiritist Centers. In the future, after adequate clinical trials, these apparatuses may also be approved for use in our health maintenance systems and hospitals.
For the patient, it is challenging and sometimes frightening to seek medical help now. "Should I go with conventional treatment, with complementary care, or spiritual healing?" Even though 55%, more than 116 million North Americans are actively pursuing good health through alternative health care options, they are usually finding their way without professional guidance, in spite of their doctor's opinion. We need proven paths of alternative health care options. We need blueprints for clinics and health centers that have effectively made these options available. We need doctors and patients to be open to new options, and working together as an aligned team to solve health problems. I hope this book will serve such