What a practitioner can offer you, to be of assistance to gain your inherent well-being, is limited by two things:
Their worldview is primarily shaped by two things:
Whether they believe in the terrain theory or the the germ theory - as I’m writing this, this is extremely relevant to any Covid-19 discussion.
What they consider “medicine” - spoiler, see below, there are 7 types of medicine not just two.
This cannot be stressed enough: their toolbox is always limited.
As Dr. Kelly Brogan says: “medicine is a belief system.” You are not going to have a discussion, or be offered a medicinary option, that is outside of their toolkit - outside their belief system.
In fact, when you mention things outside of their belief system, it is fairly common for MDs (and others) to consider you a “problem patient.” There are articles about this! This is notably evidenced by the fact that MDs receive very little training in nutrition. Pharmaceutical companies control much of the course work in classic “medical school.” So, when you see an MD, you get the tools they have in their toolkit: pharmaceuticals and surgery, and aren’t likely to be able to have a discussion about food.
Terrain theory or germ theory?
Germ Theory: the medical professional focuses on attacking an invader, you are a victim and vaccines are medicine
This is what most of us have grown up with. It was posited by Louis Pasteur in XXXXX. Under the germ theory, “diseases” are caused by microorganisms invading the body. Germs, viruses and bacteria are causative.
This theory is primarily responsible for the birth of vaccinations and antibiotics.
Under this theory, you have no agency - and are essentially a victim - as you go about your life encountering thousands of microorganisms every day.
Practitioners who believe in germ theory, will offer you the medicine of the Red Reductionist Zone (see below) - allopathic, western medicine, pharmaceuticals, that are created to suppress and control.
Terrain Theory: the medical professional focuses on building your immune system, you have agency, food, daily rhythms, and herbs are examples of the medicine
The terrain theory was posited by a contemporaries of Pasteur, Claude Bernard and Antoine Béchamp.
Terrain theory states that if an individual maintains a healthy terrain, internal environment, it can handle what your body perceives as outside invaders or threats. Health (or one being susceptible to disease) depends on the quality of your terrain.
When the terrain is weak, it favors the microorganism, and the virus or bacteria is given and “advantage” to grow and proliferate in that less-than-healthy internal environment. Currently “terrain” is often focused on the health of your gut and inflammation.
Practitioners who believe in terrain theory, offer you a range of mediciary tools from the Green Stewardship Zone (see below) - which includes TCM, Naturopathy, Homeopathy and Ayurveda, used for centuries to cultivate well-being and resilience.
Note: It is said that towards the end of his life Pasteur recanted his life’s work and said “the microbe is nothing, the milieu is everything.” He acknowledged that his colleague had it right. It’s the terrain in which the germ is found that matters.
Well-being Stewardship Practice:
By this time you know your worldview - whether you believe in the germ theory or terrain theory. Now, when you select a practitioner, ask if they believe in the germ theory or the terrain theory. Discuss this so you understand how this impacts their view of “treatment” and what is in their toolkit.
Looking at the 7 zones of medicine below, you can see what belief aligns with well-being and resilience. Use this as a guide to select practitioners you can work with in partnership for your well-being.
2. The nature of what the practitioner considers “medicine”
There are 7 “types of medicine” - not just 2
Beyond Eastern/Western or Traditional/Alternative, there are actually 7 zones of medical sciences and medicinary tools. Each has value and purpose.
Lumping everything that isn't "conventional" or "western" into one category of "alternative" diminishes your ability to discern how to create your own alchemical recipe for well-being and resilience. It diminishes your agency.
This is your opportunity to explore beyond what, until now, has been framed as only two choices of medicine.
Your choice has been limited as a business strategy - think about that!
The AMA set the strategy, and the insurance industry keeps disease-based medicine alive
Whether you or consciously aware of it or not, for decades the language and categorical thinking of the current dominant medical culture (that goes by the labels allopathic, traditional or western) has shaped your view of what constitutes medicine. When the AMA was formed in 1847 their stated goal was to eliminate competitive (anything other than allopathic, pathogenetic medicine that studies disease) medical sciences and medicinary tools.
Add to that stated AMA goal an insurance system that requires you to have a disease to "cover" (= pay) for anything, and you get the current sick care system focused on suppressing symptoms with pharmaceuticals and surgery.
This familiar system is the result of a few organizations taking steps (creating business models) to control your choice. As long as the Green Stewardship Zone medical sciences are labeled “alternative” they are viewed as a secondary or last resort. They are devalued.
When the AMA strategy and big pharma succeeded, you lost agency.
Until now.
The 7 Zones are a guidance system for selecting practitioners who can support your well-being and resilience
Red Reductionist Zone (aka Western Medicine)
Primary medicinary tools: Pharmaceuticals and surgery, if something is good for a handful of people, it is good for everyone (that’s the outcome of drug trials)
Focus: Pathogenesis - there needs to be a disease to treat, suppression of the symptoms, this is the allopathic medicine MDs learn in school. Great for emergencies.
Worldview: Newtonian outlook - measure what can be seen, treating parts of the body separately; and Decartes perspective that the mind is separate from the body. (Note: current quantum science has dis-proven both of these.) Doctors give orders you are expected to follow. Very little, if any, consideration is given for you as a unique individual.
Orange Explorer Zone
Primary medicinary tools: Usually a combination of pharmaceuticals and herbs. This approach plucks medicinary tools developed over thousands of years to support and expand well-being out of their deep and rich sciences of the Green Stewardship Zone and uses them in a disease focused framework.
Focus: Pathogenesis - disease orientation, focused on the root causes of disease.
Worldview: Functional Medicine falls into this zone. This is because Functional Medicine practitioners focus on “root causes” of disease (as stated on the Institute for Functional Medicine website). Compare this to the Green Stewardship Zone medical sciences focused on what supports well-being or blocks healing. This distinction matters. It’s like focusing on the root cause of preventing war rather than root causes of what supports peace. Functional Medicine has a valuable place between Red Reductionist Zone medicine and Green Stewardship Zone medicine.
Yellow Transitional Zone
Primary medicinary tools: What you find in your local store aisles, not dependent on a practitioner
Focus: Mix of pathogenesis (suppress disease symptoms) and salutogenesis (creating health) - depending on your research and focus
Worldview: In this zone, you are on your own, DIY style, exploring and doing the best you can with some research. Your awareness and worldview are shifting. You begin to sense that being "OK" is limiting. You may hear yourself say "I want natural medicine," although you may not quite know what that means.
Green Stewardship Zone
Primary medicinary tools: medical sciences and medicinary tools based on natural rhythms and substances found in nature:TCM, Homeopathy, Naturopathy and Ayurveda
Focus: salutogenesis,creating health, clearing stagnation of all kinds, releasing the root cause of imbalances that inhibit well-being and resilience,
Worldview: Everything is interconnected: internal to external, emotional, mental and physical states of being, nature and human beings. Each person is considered and individual. No two people, even with the same “symptoms” will have the same recommended healing plan because the root causes of stagnation are individual. Practitioners respect your inner wisdom, you have the opportunity to be partners in healing. Medicinal tools support elevating consciousness.
Teal (re)Imagine Zone
Primary medicinary tools: applying what you learn in the Green Stewardship Zone to all aspects of your life - including work and relationships. You may delve deeper into the philosophy or background of the Green Stewardship Zone medical sciences, for example, you may explore the Chinese meridian system or how specific plants have been used as medicine for centuries
Focus: all of life is a practice of salutogennesis - the health and well being of for all creatures (and air and sky) of the planet. You follow the practices of the Green Stewardship Zone medicinary tools and seek to create an outer life you know supports well-being and resilience.
Worldview: Your practitioners will probably offer some suggestions because they are constantly looking at the interaction and relationship between your state of being and your daily life. If this is not offered, have that conversation with them. Sometimes a change in job, or living situation, can completely change your state of health. Whether a change is needed due to chemicals lurking in spaces, or toxic relationships in a fear-based work culture.
Blue Quantum Alchemy Zone
Primary medicinary tools: the unseen non-material, quantum medicine, energy medicine, meditation, mindfulness, sound healing, reiki, cranial sacral, Emotional Freedom Technique (tapping), Brain Gym; these further expand your tools
Focus: salutogenesis moving toward paneugenesis (creating interactions that benefit the well-being of everything and everyone)
Worldview: When you live from this worldview you have fully shifted from "I" to "we." From an Illness perspective to a wellness perspective. You've also shifted from viewing your Well-being Stewardship practices from a personal, "I" practice to how they serve your community and world - the "we." People living their lives in the Blue Quantum Alchemist Zone create ways to be of service to others. They know outer change starts with the nature of their inner being. You may become a more effective activist for environmental justice, social justice, economic justice making use of the quantum actions of upward and downward causation.
Purple Harmony Zone
Primary medicinary tools: thought, Larry Dossey, M.D. calls this Era III medicine. He describes it as when an individual's mind affects not just your body (and emotions) but also the body of a person at a distance. Even if that distant individual isn't aware of that effort. Researchers in the field of consciousness are already demonstrating - with material, measurable, Red Reductionist Zone inspired methods - that this works.
Focus: moving towards paneugenesis, life affirming actions and beliefs, Dossey believes this is the future of medicine, and it will be used as a primary medicine.
Worldview: This worldview is just starting to emerge during this transition to the Planetary Era. Harmony. Peace. Healthy planet to support healthy people. Collaborative communities. Eventually an end to endless war. These are the hallmarks of the Purple Harmony Zone. Paneugenesis emerges - pan= all, eu = good or well, and genesis = creating interactions that benefit everything and everyone.
The transformative opportunity of applying these pathways and tools:
Use of medicine, and what is considered “healthcare” shifts from the current focus on the Red Reductionist Zone, evolving through an emphasis of Green Stewardship Zone medicinary tools, to primarily Purple Harmony Zone thought.
What kind of world are we living in when that shift happens and everyone is living a life based on paneugenesis?
