https://onbeing.org/programs/rachel-naomi-remen-the-difference-between-fixing-and-healing-nov2018/
In this radio interview, Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen talked about the course called “The Healer’s Art” which she created for the medical students to teach them the difference between curing and healing beyond the western scientific knowledge.
According to the transcript in the website, she says:
“It reminds them that healing is a different relationship than a curing relationship. It reminds them of their power to make a difference through their human response and connection to their patients. …I happen to see medicine as a spiritual path. That’s my personal thing, that medicine is a spiritual path, which is characterized by compassion, harmlessness, service, reverence for life, courage, and love”.
I agree with her. As an acupuncturist and a massage therapist, I have seen many sad-looking patients who came to us after being disappointed with conventional western medical treatments with a variety of medications.
However after a series of our hands-on body works or acupuncture treatments, those patients often start looking very differently. One of them had such a significant change in her facial expression, such as her eyes brightening, laughs more, and she looked overall more alive than before, even when there was little improvement in her physical symptoms.
Through her treatments, I started wondering if the failure of the western medicine might have been the lack of close spiritual connection with the patients.
