Body, Movement and the Senses in Healing

THOMAS CSORDAS "the body is not an OBJECT to be studied in relation to culture, but is to be considered as the SUBJECT of culture, or in other words, the existential ground of culture".

• eliminates the Platonic distinction between MIND & BODY (dualism)
• MONISM: The body is the place where all understanding happens-culture is interpreted through the body. no distinction between mind and body.
• an infants growth into a social person happens through gradual experience, by taking in tastes, touching the textures, inhaling the smalls, viewing the sights, and walking the walks of the world into which we are born. We are the sum total of these continuing experiences.

SYNESTHESIA: Looking at the senses and healing

• Ability to experience one sense as another
• SESELELAME (Anlo)-sense awareness that straddles the supposed divide between cognitive perception, and physical sensation: hearing, tasting, smelling, understanding, obeying, sexual arousal, heartache, passion, inspiration to dance or spaek, tingling of the skin that indicates impending illness. ---synesthetic "metasense"---very different from the organ based 5 senses of Western culture
• Mechanisms the cultures use to identify sensory input:
• ATTENTION: focuses on a particular sensation in an area of the body
• ANXIETY & DEPRESSION: causes increased brain reactivity to stimuli & changes in the autonomic nervous system which may produce things like cold extremities
• CULTURAL SYNDROMES: culturally specific patterns of distress (ethnic psychoses)
• ETHNOPHYSIOLOGY: local concepts and concerns about organs and body processes
• EXTERNAL STIMULI: sensitivity to particular sensory imputs based on the meaning attributed to the stimulus and its relation to the state of the operson
• IMAGINATION: flashbacks, attention, anxiety
• METAPHOR: inducing sensations by metaphorical means
• SELF-IMAGE: sensations feeding into particular self-images
• SENSATION KINDLING: repeated experiencing  which creates sensitive circuits for experience
• TRAUMATIC MEMORY: evocation, somatic flashbacks, etc
• Healing can take place through these mechanisms as well because sensations are KEY SITES for these processes
• Birth Stories & cultural ideas influence women's birth experiences of pain
• embrace pain or reject pain or fear pain

Smell & Taste

• we are accustomed to our own smells, but reject or find foul or indicative of disease the smells of others who are unfamiliar
• women- low status will me that their smells are vilified or indicative of disease
• Puta (spanish) means putrid (comment of sexual behavior as well as smell)
• Western culture attempts to remove all bodily odors
• plants herbs and spices may also be seen as intolerable
• Senses inform us about threats and boundaries and smells are among the most powerful triggers of emotion, desire and repulsion
• "taste" is about social class as well as the sensations gotten from the tongue
• roles in safety from poisons
• role in learning and memory
• eating and drinking as fundamental social activities
• restrained by rules and taboos

TACTILE EXPERIENCES

• healing benefits of skin to skin contact
• ICU and neonatal units
• cortisol decrease (stress hormone) with touch-based therapies
• manual medicine (osteopathy & chiropractic)-no longer alternative?
• healing touch (HT) channeling energy healing through the hands
• magnets
• crystals,
• electrical, ultrasound stimulation
• hands
• oils
• therapeutic touch (TT): healers become empowered ans sensitized to their bodily perceptions through CENTERING and energy manipulation (smoothing and ruffling of fields).
• Reiki
• SHIATZU (Japan)
• relief from illness encompasses both resolution of SOCIAL DISHARMONY and BODILY HOLISM-attention to diet & well-being
• embodied confluence (blurs bodily boundaries between practitioner and patient)

RHYTHM, MOVEMENT & MUSIC

• Sound therapies
• swaddling and body contact enable babies to feel the rhythms of others
• vibrations are soothing
• music is cathartic, evocative-peak emotion
• sound healing in nada yoga
• Rhythm therapies
• repetitive sounds
• drum circles
• rhythmic dance-emotional release=CATHARSIS
• dance therapies: combination of breath, sound and movement
• hatha yoga(mindful movement)
• Tai Chi
• qigong
• nia
• RAGA: music and mood in Hindu-used as homeopathic remedies
• OM (theosis-personal communion with the divine)

HEALING RAGAS LECTURE

AROMATHERAPY & ART

• mid-twentieth century invention in its modern form
• uses scents to heals because of their inherent properties and has been incorporated into integrative techniques in Western medicine
• becoming a GLOBAL INDUSTRY (Auracare, ie)

ESSENTIAL OILS AGAINST VIRUS, BACTERIA AND FUNGUS

A landmark study on the broad antiviral effects of essential oils and their components was presented at the 1st Wholistic and Scientific Conference on the Therapeutic Uses of Essentials Oils, 1995.  In this study, the broad spectrum of activity of essential oils for conditions of the upper respiratory tract, skin, gastrointestinal tract, urogenital tract, nervousness, and arterial conditions were demonstrated. An overview of the antibacterial and antifungal effectiveness of essential oils was given also.  There are many other countries that are researching essential oils against these "incureable" diseases. I applaud their actions. Information is on websites around the world.

It is known that a body can't become "habituated" to essential oils. The results remain the same; they do not lessen over any length of time. On the other hand, the organism does become habituated to chemically synthesised narcotics, and the result is known as tolerance. One may start out by taking a single sleeping pill , before long one may well have reached the stage of taking anything from four to ten pills and still be unable to get to sleep.

Essenial Oils and Their Uses

Allspice (Pimento) - Scent: Clove. Traditional uses: Warming to the body, reduces stress, calming, relaxes tight muscles, lessens pain, mood uplifting, vapors help breathing, improves digestion, disinfectant.

Anise - Scent: Licorice. Traditional uses: Calming, lessens pain, aphrodisiac, promotes restful sleep, vapors help breathing, improves digestion, increases appetite, stimulates lactation in nursing mothers.

Basil  (Sweet) -  Scent: slightly licorice. Traditional uses: to brighten mood, strengthen nervous system, improve mental clarity and memory, for relieving headache and sinusitis. Avoid during pregnancy.

Bay Laurel - Scent: strong, sweet-spicy. Traditional uses: as an immune system stimulant, to regulate the lymphatic system, for relieving melancholy, anxiety, to stimulate the mind, for healing bronchitis, sinus infection. Avoid during pregnancy. Do not over-use.

Bergamot - Scent: sweet & fruity. Documented in old herbal texts. Traditional uses: balancing nervous system, relieving anxiety and stress, lifting melancholy, for restful sleep, antiviral, cold sores, psoriasis, eczema and insect repellent. Bergamot may cause skin sensitivity to bright sunlight.

Birch - Scent: sweet-woody, wintergreen-like. Used as an analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antiseptic and astringent.

Cajeput - Scent: camphor. Traditional uses: Slightly warming to the body, calming, relaxes tight muscles, relieves muscle aches and pains, promotes restful sleep, breaks up congestion, vapors help breathing, disinfectant, repels insects.

Camphor - Scent: sharp, pungent. Traditional uses: skin care, relieves pain, coughs, colds, fever, flu, infectious diseases.

Carrot Seed - Scent: warm, woody-earthy.  Used extensively in skin and facial care for mature skin, circulation problems and PMS symptoms.

Cedarwood - Scent: woody. Cedarwood was believed to have been used extensively by the Egyptians in cosmetics, perfume and medicine. Traditional uses: to relax tense muscles, calm emotions, help breathing, for enhancing meditation, easing pain, repelling insects, for hair loss. Avoid during pregnancy.

(German) Chamomile - Scent: strong, sweet, warm-herbaceous. Blue in color. German Chamomile has many of the same properties as Roman Chamomile. But, with a much higher azulene content its anti-inflammatory actions are greater. Traditional uses: to relieve muscular pain, to heal skin inflammations, acne and wounds, as a sedative, to ease anxiety and nervous tension, to help with sleeplessness. May cause skin reactions in some people.

(Roman) Chamomile - Scent: sweet and fruity. Traditional uses: to relieve muscular pain, as a sedative, ease anxiety and nervous tension, to help with sleeplessness.

Cinnamon - Scent: cinnamon. Traditional uses: warming to body, relaxes tight muscles, lessens pain, mood uplifting, aphrodisiac, helps relieve fatigue, improves digestion, increases appetite, helps reduce cellulite deposits, disinfectant, repels insects.

Citronella - Scent: fresh grassy-woody. Traditional Chinese medicine currently uses this herb for rheumatic pain. Traditional uses: as a mosquito repellent, for colds, flu and neuralgia, to relieve pain of rheumatism and arthritis, melancholy. Avoid using on sensitive or damaged skin.

Clary Sage - Scent: spicy, hay-like. It has been called "clear eye" and was used for healing eye problems in times past. Traditional uses: relieving stress and tension, lifting melancholy, easing pain, restful sleep, as an aphrodisiac; contains estrogen-like hormone, for menopause and PMS, relieving nervous exhaustion. Avoid during pregnancy, or if you have endometriosis, breast, ovarian and uterine cysts and other estrogen dependant conditions (cancer).

Clove Bud - Scent: spicy, fruity, warm and sweet. Traditional uses: for toothache, colds, flu and fungal infections, as a mosquito repellent, to relieve fatigue and melancholy, as an aphrodisiac. Not used on damaged or sensitive skin. Use in moderation.

Cypress - Scent: spicy, refreshing pine-needle. Cypress incense is used today by Tibetans for purification. Traditional uses: to increase circulation, relieve muscular cramps, bronchitis, whooping cough and painful periods; reduce nervous tension and other stress related problems, as an immune stimulant. Avoid during pregnancy, have high blood pressure, cancer or uterine and breast fibrosis.

Elemi – Scent:  resinous, pungent aromatic. Egyptians used this aromatic oil in the embalming process.  Excellent essential oil for the respiratory system; helps coughs to be more productive. Great for cuts and inflammation; aged or wrinkled skin, calming for nervous tension and stress.

Eucalyptus - Scent: strong camphorous. odor. Aborigines have used eucalyptus leaves to remedy many ills. Traditional uses: for colds, as a decongestant, to relieve asthma and fevers, for its bactericidal and anti-viral actions, to ease aching joints. 

Fennel - Scent: earthy-peppery. Traditional uses: for neuro-muscular spasms, rheumatism and arthritis; bronchitis, whooping cough, as a nerve tonic in relieving stress and nervous tension. Use in moderation. Avoid if you are pregnant or have epilepsy.

Balsam Fir - Scent: fresh balsamic. Traditional uses: to relieve muscle aches and pains, for relieving anxiety and stress related conditions, to fight colds, flu and infections, for relieving bronchitis and coughs. Said to ground one mentally.

Frankincense - Scent: spicy, balsamic. Frankincense was known as one of the most precious substances to ancient man and is associated with religious practice. Traditional uses: to calm, enhance meditation, elevate mind and spirit, help breathing,  for care of mature skin and scars.

Galbanum - Used in incense. In Egypt used in cosmetic & embalming. Traditional uses: treating wounds, infections and skin disorders, expectorant in chronic bronchitis, insect repellent.

Geranium - Scent: leafy rose. Geranium has been long revered for its fragrance. Traditional uses: reducing stress and tension, easing pain, balancing emotions and hormones, PMS, relieve fatigue and nervous exhaustion, to lift melancholy, lessen fluid retention, repel insects.

Ginger - Scent: warm, spicy-woodsy. Ginger has been used as a healing remedy for thousands of years. Traditional uses: reducing muscular aches and pains, increasing circulation, relieving bronchitis and whooping cough, nervous exhaustion, in healing colds flu and fever and to stimulate appetite.

Grapefruit - Scent: fresh, sweet, citrus. Some traditional uses: to lift melancholy, relieve muscle fatigue, as an astringent for oily skin, to refresh and energize the body, stimulate detoxification, as an airborne disinfectant.

Helichrysum - Scent: intense, honey, tea-like. Some traditional uses: to heal bruises (internal and external), wounds and scars, to detoxify the body, cleanse the blood and increase lymphatic drainage, for healing colds, flu, sinusitis and bronchitis, to relieve melancholy, migraines, stress and tension.

Juniper Berry - Scent: pine-needle. Some traditional uses: to energize and relieve exhaustion, ease inflammation and spasms, for improving mental clarity and memory, purifying the body, to lessen fluid retention, for disinfecting. Avoid during pregnancy or if you have kidney disease.

Lavender - Scent: sweet, fresh. Lavender has been used for centuries as a fragrance and a medicine. Some traditional uses: balancing emotions, relieving stress, tension and headache, to promote restful sleep, heal the skin, to lower high blood pressure, help breathing, for disinfecting.

Lemon - Scent: fresh lemon. Lemon was used to prevent scurvy by our ancestors who traveled the seas. Some traditional uses: to balance the nervous system, as a disinfectant, to refresh and uplift, for purifying the body. May cause skin sensitivity to the sun or irritate sensitive skin.

Lemongrass - Scent: powerful, lemon. There has been recent research in India which shows that lemongrass acts as sedative on the central nervous system. Some traditional uses: as an insect repellent and deodorizer, for athlete's foot, as a tissue toner, to relieve muscular pain (sports-muscle pain), increase circulation, for headaches, for nervous exhaustion and other stress related problems. Use with care and avoid in pregnancy.

Lime - Cold pressed from the peel. Scent: fruity-lime. Some traditional uses: to purify the air, for alertness, to relieve coughs or congestion, for uplifting and cheering the spirit, to heal colds, flu or inflammations. Lime may cause skin sensitivity to bright sunlight.

Mandarin - Scent: intensely sweet, floral citrus scent. Traditional uses: restlessness, insomnia, nervous tension, for children and pregnant women.

Marjoram - Distilled from the leaves and flowering tops. Scent: warm & spicy. Sweet marjoram was used medicinally by Romans and ancient Greek physicians. Some traditional uses: to relax tense muscles and relieve spasms, calm and promote restful sleep, ease migraine headache, for comforting the heart, lowering high blood pressure, to help breathing, disinfecting. Avoid during pregnancy.

Myrrh - Scent: sharp, warm balsamic. Some traditional uses: to heal wounds and nurture mature skin, for bronchitis and colds, to relieve apathy and calm. Avoid use on damaged or sensitive skin.

Niaouli - Scent: fresh, camphoraceous. Traditional uses: skin care, muscle aches and pains, asthma and bronchitis, sore throat, colds, fever, flu.

Nutmeg - Scent: spicy, nutmeg. Some traditional uses: for warming muscles, easing muscle aches and pains, to invigorate or stimulate the mind, an aphrodisiac, to stimulate heart and circulation, for relieving nervous fatigue. Avoid during pregnancy and use with care (can be moderately toxic if over-used.

Orange - Scent: fruity, sweet. Orange trees were once rare and native only to China and India. Some traditional uses: to brighten mood, calm and reduce stress, as an environmental disinfectant.

Oregano - Scent: spicy, warm herb. Some traditional uses: as a muscle relaxant and to ease muscle aches and pains, to heal colds, flu and bronchitis, as a stimulant, to energize the mind and body, and for relieving headaches. Avoid during pregnancy and with babies and children.

Palmarosa - Scent: flora-rose. Palmarosa is used today in Ayurvedic medicine. Some traditional uses: stimulate cellular regeneration,  moisturize skin, for nervous exhaustion and stress conditions, to calm and uplift.

Patchouli - Scent: musky, woody. Some traditional uses: for athlete's foot, as an aphrodisiac, to relieve stress and nervous exhaustion.

Peppermint - Scent: strong mint. Herbalists in ancient Greece and Rome used peppermint for nearly every ailment. Some traditional uses: for energy, and brighter mood, reducing pain, to help breathing, improve mental clarity and memory. May irritate sensitive skin. Avoid during pregnancy.

Petitgrain - Scent: sweet, woody-orange floral. Petitgrain was one of the ingredients of the original "eau-de-cologne". Some traditional uses: for relieving respiratory infections, to ease nervous tension muscle spasms, for relieving joint inflammation, to balance the central nervous system, for stress relief and restful sleep.

Pine - Scent: strong, coniferous, woody. Native Americans placed dried pine needles in their mattresses to ward of lice and fleas. Some traditional uses: to ease breathing, as an immune system stimulant, to increase energy, for relieving muscle and joint aches, to repel lice and fleas. Avoid use if you have prostate cancer.

Rosemary - Scent: camphor like. Some traditional uses: to energize, for muscle pains, cramps or sprains, brighten mood, for improving mental clarity and memory, easing pain, to relieve headaches, disinfecting. Avoid during pregnancy, if you have epilepsy or high blood pressure.

Rosewood - Scent: slightly rosy. Some traditional uses: to relieve stress and balance the central nervous system, for easing jet lag, to create a calm for meditation, for easing colds and coughs, to stimulate the immune system, as an aphrodisiac and in skin care.

Sage --  Scent: camphoraceous, pine-like. Skin care, circulation, muscles and joints, asthma, coughs, colds, fever, flu.

Sandalwood - Scent: woody, balsamic. Sandalwood is believed to bring about calmness and serenity and is linked with incense and meditation. Some traditional uses: to lift melancholy, enhance meditation, heal the skin, help breathing, for calming and reducing stress, restful sleep, disinfecting, as an aphrodisiac.

Spearmint - Scent: minty. Some traditional uses: for relieving bronchitis and sinusitis, to ease nausea and headaches, for relieving colds or flu, to stimulate, energize and relieve fatigue.

Spruce -- Scent: sweet-fruity. Used for: muscular aches and pains, asthma, colds flu, infections, anxiety and stress-related conditions.

Tangerine - Scent: sweet, citrus. Some traditional uses: for relieving muscle spasms, to soothe and calm nerves, for stress relief and relaxation, to stimulate the liver and increase lymphatic drainage. May cause skin sensitivity to bright sunlight.

Tea-Tree - Scent: spicy, medicinal. Tea-tree is one of the most scientifically researched oils. Traditional uses: an immuno-stimulant particularly against bacteria, viruses and fungi, for relieving inflammation, as a disinfectant.

Thyme - Scent: hot and spicy. Thyme was used by ancient Greeks to disinfect air and inhibit infectious diseases. Some traditional uses: To heal colds, bronchitis, for relieving muscle aches and pains, to aid concentration and memory, for relieving fatigue and said to heal anthrax. Avoid use if pregnant or with high blood pressure.

Vetiver - Scent: heavy, woodsy, earthy. Some traditional uses: for muscular aches, to increase circulation, to relieve melancholy and nervous tension, for restful sleep.

Yarrow -- Scent: slightly camphoraceous. Uses: acne, burns cuts, eczema, rheumatoid arthritis, high blood pressure.

Ylang Ylang - Scent: exotic sweet floral. Some traditional uses: brightening mood, relieving anger and anxiety, relaxing tense muscles, to calm and promote restful sleep, lower high blood pressure, an aphrodisiac.

Please note: This information is not intended to diagnose, or prescribe any form of treatment. The statements in this information have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. The products herein are not intended to treat, cure, or prevent any disease, and are meant solely for Aromatherapy purposes alone. If you are suffering from any illness or medical complaint, always first seek the advice of your physician.

POLYTHETIC MEDICINE

• CAM (complimentary and alternative medicine)