Native Medicine

The origin of medicine is the natural world. Humans have walked the earth for at least 40,000 years and only during the past 150 years or so, have they turned to technology and science for healing. “Modern Medicine” is in it’s infancy. For all of human existence, the people have looked to the natural world for healing ailments of body, mind, and spirit. Plants, fungi, crystals, water, and animal sources of medicine healed people long before chemical compounds isolated in laboratories. Of course modern medicine saves lives. But as the balance has shifted from “balancing” oneself as a creature within the whole of the natural world, to treating symptoms with chemical intervention, much of the wisdom of natural medicine has been set aside. The essence of this wisdom is preserved in areas of the world where technology has not yet invaded the hearts and spirits of the people. Indigenous peoples, natives living on the land with tribal connections preserve the old ways and pass the wisdom down from father to son, mother to daughter.

Natural medicine treats the person as a whole being, including body, mind, and spirit. The element of the mystical is present in the alchemy of natural medicine. Medicine extends beyond herbal remedies and includes ceremony, food and even one’s interaction with the natural environment. In “Blackfoot Physics”, F. David Peat suggests thinking of the term “medicine” as more of a verb, and not so much like a noun…”…when in English we speak of “medicine” we automatically seek a referent, a substance, an object, something tangible, something that can be conceptualized. But suppose we begin with something verbal, with activity, process, a movement of harmony and balance. Medicine could then be felt in the beating of the heart, sensed as a movement around the sacred circle, the wind blowing through the leaves of the trees, the growing of green plants, and the astronomical alignments of the medicine wheel.”

This broader concept of medicine appeals to an intrinsic, innate place within us. It opens up possibility, creates freedom, and expands our hearts and minds. Worlds co-existing alongside of this visceral reality may hold solutions for healing ailments that are very real to us. Essentially, it is our connection to the natural world that grounds us here. Walking in the rain, listening to the sound of the river, fully embracing the present moment with tender gratitude; these are the ways of native medicine.