This excerpt is made available courtesy of Prometheus Books (U.S.)

Alternative Medicine Has a Lot of Soul: Observations of a Lexicographer
JACK RASO
 

There are at least thirty synonyms for "alternative medicine" (e.g., "complementary healthcare," "extended therapeutics," and "holistic healing"). As a whole, these thirty synonyms suggest that alternative medicine is a progressive, "natural," psychosomatic approach to healing that complements biomedicine. Most of the hundreds of alt-med methods that have names, however, are retrogressive rather than progressive; are more supernaturalistic than "natural'; are more "psychospiritual" than psychosomatic; and relate more to organized religion than to science-oriented healthcare. Together, these alt-med methods are -- unlike biomedicine -- not an approach at all, but a limitless hodgepodge.

"Chi is just like God....Once you believe in it, it's there; once you don't believe in it, it's not there."

In both the sphere of organized religion and the world of medical alternativism, three general philosophies predominate: mysticism (e.g., Hindu mysticism), supernaturalism (e.g., theism), and vitalism (e.g., reincarnation). Basically, mysticism is belief in realities that are accessible only through subjective experience. According to supernaturalism, forces (or quasi entities) that are outside the universe nonetheless affect the universe. Mysticism and supernaturalism overlap: According to both philosophies, learning can occur paranormally-without investigation. (As Evelyn Underhill wrote in the classic Mysticism: A Study in the Nature and Development of Man's Spiritual Consciousness, "Mysticism, like revelation, is final and personal.")
Vitalism-the supreme sticking point between alternative medicine and science-oriented healthcare-is the doctrine that an invisible, intangible, unique form of energy is responsible for all the activities of a living organism. Vitalism has both supernaturalistic and mystical forms. For example, as the soul, the vital force appears supernaturalistic; as chi, it seems mystical.

The concept of chi (also qi)-an alleged multifaceted "cosmic life force"-is fundamental to various practices termed Chinese, including architecture, art, "health" practices, magic, and martial arts. The 1995 National Institutes of Health publication Alternative Medicine: Expanding Medical Horizons defines "qi (chi, ki)":

in Eastern philosophies, the energy that connects and animates everything in the universe; includes both individual qi (personal life force). and universal qi, which are coextensive through the practice of mind-body disciplines, such as traditional meditation, aikido, and tai chi.

Is chi measurable? In 1988, PBS aired an episode of Innovation titled "East Meets West." It featured a conversation between alt-med sympathizers Ted J. Kaptchuk. O.M.D. ("Oriental Medical Doctor"), and David Eisenberg, M.D. Kaptchuk stated:

The question of what is qi is complicated obviously. It has something to do with the vitality principle that makes things alive. It also has to do with passing gas. It has to include what you feel about your parents. It simultaneously has to include athlete's root on your toes.

To a Chinese clinician. . . qi is not a concept; it's a physical entity that can be measured, palpated, pushed, pulled, sent through needles; elevated and decreased. And thus far, there's not a tot of good evidence that it can be tracked, measured by machines, as we understand machines these days. The Chinese insist, though, that it is very much physical and they can feet it; we just can't measure it.

Then Kaptchuk stated:

I don't think it's a real thing in the sense of "you'll get it in a machine," or “you’ll discover it under a microscope," or "you'll have a measurement” because as soon as you do that, it won't be qi; it will be a scientific phenomena that doesn't include everything that qi is.

Obviously, getting a handle on chi is difficult. Chi apparently does not exist distinctly, if indeed it is not a delusive hope or misunderstood feeling. Richard M. Chin, O.M.D., described "vital energy" (chi or prana) in The Energy Within: The Science Behind Every Oriental Therapy from Acupuncture to Yoga (1992):

... [Y]ou cannot see your energy. You can, however, learn to actually feel it. But before you can do this, you must "suspend your disbelief" long enough to begin the work to find it.

I have found Jane, a registered-nurse friend of mine who was born and raised in mainland China, more enlightening regarding chi. Jane told me that the degree of seriousness of a disease is a measure of blocked chi. "Chi is just like God," she said. "It's just so-difficult to argue.... Once you believe in it, it's there; once you don't believe in it, it's not there." So it is with many of the other theoretical constructs of alternative medicine.

Since 1989 I have collected material on more than 1,200 health-related methods that are supernaturalistic and/or mystical -- in a word, unnaturalistic. They range alphabetically from abhyanga (a mode of ayurvedism, or traditional Indian medicine) to Zulu Sangoma bones (an African "divination method"). I have sought material almost exclusively in English on such methods. Many other unnaturalistic health-related methods exist. For example, Qigong comprises various vitalistic health-related and non-health-related systems and methods of ancient Chinese and twentieth-century origin. Each mode of Qigong involves contemplation, visualization, assumption of postures, physical exercise, massage, meditation, stylized breathing, and/or the purported application of psychokinesis. I have-described nearly fifty forms, variations, and hybrids of Qigong (e.g., Keep Your Wife Happy Qigong). But estimates of the number of types or systems of Qigong range from hundreds to over 87,000.

Proponents of alternative medicine have, implicitly or explicitly, conferred alt-med membership on most- (by far) of the more than 1,200 aforementioned methods. Alternative healthcare further encompasses unnaturalistic methods without names (or without English names)-the use of "Chinese health balls" ("Qi Gong balls") and the use- of "crystal cards" (purported carriers of "cosmic energy"), for example-and a sizable minority of "naturalistic" methods. According to naturalism, positing supernatural or paranormal influences-such as God, spirits, and detachable minds-does not serve any explanatory purpose. For most of the alt-med methods that are consistent with naturalism-hydrogen peroxide therapy, megavitamin therapy, and shark cartilage therapy, for example-scientific evidence of significant therapeutic, diagnostic, or preventive-medicine utility is lacking or absent.

That the majority of alt-med methods are unnaturalistic is not conspicuous. There are five major reasons for this obscurity.

First, the media tend to emphasize aspects of alternative medicine that are reminiscent of diet therapy, conventional drug therapy, physical therapy, and common sense. They- tend to focus on acts of treatment-assuming yogic postures, for instance-and play down whether the theory that underlies the specific method is scientifically reasonable.

Second, the media give considerable attention to "naturalistic" methods and to methods susceptible to misrepresentation as naturalistic, such as methods marked by the administration of pills or by physical exercise.

Third, many alt-med theoretical constructs are not self-evidently unscientific. For example, alt-med expressions equivalent to "soul" -- which basically means a non-material quasi entity that enlivens or otherwise affects physical things" -- number nearly one hundred. Some of these expressions - "bioelectrical energy," "biological energy," " biomagnetism," "bioplasmic energy," "body energy, nerve energy, “orgone," and "tachyon energy," for example -- are not easily recognizable by the public as referring to an unnaturalistic concept.

Fourth, those who publicly criticize alter native medicine rarely describe it in public as riddled with mysticism and supernaturalism-. Instead of targeting alternative medicine's jugular-the Metaphysical theories-that mark it as a quasi-religious movement- criticizers tend to target specific therapeutic and diagnostic claims and practices and- to review these claims and practices individually and in terms of scientific evidence and/or the law. In any case, the media prefer vague sound bites such as "quackery" and "out-and-out fraud" to pointed cri-ticisms that can cast doubt on traditional religious beliefs.

Fifth, it seems that even most health professionals are unaware of how numerous alt-med methods- are. According to the American Medical Association, for example, "alternative modalities" number only about two hundred.

An overwhelming number of alt-med theoretical constructs are the stuff of faith. Alternative medicine will maintain its appeal until crowd-pleasing articles of faith like chi lose their believability.

Note

1. Shelton, D. L. Mixed marriage. American Medical News, April 7,1997, p. 14. D

Jack Raso, Al. S., RD.. is Director of Publications at the American Council on-Science and Health and the author of The Expanded Dictionary of Metaphysical Healthcare: Alternative Medicine, Paranormal Healing, and Related Methods (1997). A diskette version of this dictionary is available at a nominal price from The Georgia Council Against Health Fraud (1-770-493-6857). An on-line version is at:- http://www.hcrc.org/