Thursday, June 30, 2011

A Native Philosophy on Healing

In the philosophy of healing, disease is caused by improper relationship to the natural world, spirit world, community, and/or one's own spirit and soul.  Therefore, illness is always environmental.  In one form or another, the environment provides the key context for illness, health, and the processes and expressions of healing that revolved around the reestablishment and maintenance of balance.

Breath is seen as being connected to the breath and the spirit of the Earth itself.  We breathe the same air that the plants breathe; we breathe the same air as the animals; and we depend upon the same kinds of invisible elements as plants and animals.  Therefore, we share a life of co-creation in an interrelated web of relationship that has to be understood, respected, and manipulated to maintain right relationships among important parts.  Natural elements such as Sun, fire, water, air, wind, snow, rain, mountains, lakes, rivers, trees, volcanoes, and a host of other entities plays roles symbolically and physically in the expression and understanding of the ways of healing developed by indigenous people.

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