“The future must come and look at the past, to learn from the past.” ~ Erick Gbodossou, MD (traditional healer and Western-trained physician) from the Andrew J. Young documentary, Strong Medicine: The Secret Power of African Healing. Dr. Gbodossou’s words ring true today more than any other time in history. Scientific advances have learned (using CRISPR technology) to …
Ancient African Healing Methods, Part 1: History, Healers and Herbalism
While it’s common for us to discuss (and we will do so here) Africa as a whole, it’s important to remember that the second-largest continent on our planet is home to more than 50 sovereign nations. The African continent is split by the Equator and Prime Meridian, meaning that it is our only continent that sits in all four hemispheres. …
Ancient Egyptian Medical Texts, Modern Medical Research
Over 3,500 years ago, Egypt, a country that sits on two continents (northeast corner of Africa and a southwestern portion in Asia), experienced some of the primary forms of literature, agriculture, urban development, and precursors to the sciences we know today. While astrology and religion were among those “sciences” back then, the Ancient Egyptians were renowned for their medical knowledge. …
Ancient Celtic Healing
If you do a Google search for druidry, you are as likely to find modern-day discussions of ancient Celtic healing practices as you are to learn the latest tactics for druid characters in an online video game or Dungeons & Dragons. There is as much mystique that surrounds the ancient Celts’ polytheistic priests as there is research being done and …
Native American Healing Ceremonies
Thank you, Giver of Life, for all the life that was brought here before we arrived in this world. I thank Grandfather Sun for giving us our shadows because our shadows are direct representations of our ancestors who have gone before us. And, they follow us everywhere we go. They protect us. They guide us. So we thank Grandfather Sun …
Native American Healing
As Arizona Public Media (APM) reported in 2015, Native American healing traditions are embraced by treatment facilities of a wide variety–drug rehabilitation, domestic violence, abuse and trauma centers, and more. As the APM “Native Healing” video describes, “[m]ore and more mental health and substance abuse treatment facilities are turning to traditional American Indian ceremonies and practices, yet researchers are still …
Curanderismo, the Traditional Healing of Mexican Culture
Nearly a millennium-and-a-half after the cultivation of corn in Mesoamerica, around 1,200 BCE, the Olmec civilization is founded. This thriving society gives rise to the first cities and evidence shows advanced surgical procedures such as trephination (to treat a wide range of ills such as epileptic seizure, brain swelling and blunt trauma to the head). The fall of Olmec leads …
Ayurveda, or Yogic Science: The Ancient Wellbeing Practices of India
In Western medicine, we consider the human body an open system, says Dr. B. M. Hegde, Indian medical scientist, educationist, and author, and Editor-in-Chief of the medical journal, Journal of the Science of Healing Outcomes. But, he tells the audience in his 2016 TEDx MITE talk, “Ayurveda Over Western Medicines,” that the human body is a closed system. All it …
Sound Advice for Sound Healing
Human song is as old as time. Before mankind knew how to speak words, singing was likely mimicry of the sounds of nature and eventually developed into spoken word languages, according to scholars on the subject. The depth of music in our global cultures runs to our cores, and it’s why sound is so powerful to our well-being. Have you …
Acupuncture: The Ancient Chinese Healing Practice
Have you ever had a headache? How about joint pain? Or, lower back pain? And, what if I told you there is a 2,000-year-old-plus Chinese healing practice called acupuncture that has been shown to help with those and many more medical issues? In this week’s article, I am going to introduce you to acupuncture, as it may sound painful and …