Avoid 'snake oil' salesmen while using the best of mind-body principles

The young women entered the rape clinic crying.  "How can I stop attracting the negative in my life?"   She had been at a gathering of women where the speaker maintained that bad things happen to people because their thought patterns attract the negative in life.  The rape victim's overpowering guilt about these thought patterns was an additional burden added to the one from the violence she had endured, as she was made to feel responsible for the rape herself by one of the myths people embrace about the mind-body connection.

Another woman was diagnosed with breast cancer and convinced by a mind-body practitioner that a set of herbs coupled with energy therapy was the right route to take for the disease.  So the woman, diagnosed early with cancer, followed the prescription that sounded far easier than the medicines recommended by her physician.  Needless to say, the cancer eventually spread to other parts of her body, and within a year, she was dead.

Some theorists proclaim diabetes is the need for sweetness in one's life, so that the disease proceeds early on and influences the pancreas, even as the individual craves that continuing sweetness and finds it in food, thereby creating the disease known as diabetes.  The theory ignores the physiological aspects of the disease along with genetic factors.  Still on the surface it may seem plausible to the unsuspecting individual seeking answers for a complex disease.  While the individual struggles to work through diet, medicine, exercise and recommended routines recommended by a physician, that same individual now must reach for a mind-body guru's input, usually at extra cost.  And that input can often be inserted in a fashion that dismisses traditional medicine's routines in favor of promoting extra guilt on someone whose eating patterns may never have included much sugar.  As a consequence that occasional cookie or slice of bread must now be viewed through the prism of guilt, when science reminds us that many people develop diabetes through genetic factors.  That would likely, of course, be explained by a family "need" for sugar passed somehow along to its members.

Rape is described as an act of violence by an individual who seeks control and has rage.  Most therapists remind the victim not to feel guilty for that act of violence.  Diabetes is a disease with a long-term progression of physically-developed symptoms with a pancreas that does not produce enough insulin and that is not caused by diet as much as by the limitations of the pancreas in some people and certain genetic factors, that can be exacerbated by poor eating habits.  And breast cancer is known to be curable by traditional medicine when diagnosed early enough.

The mind-body connection has been scientifically established.  The mind can help control a certain amount of pain both physical and emotional, can re-frame difficult experiences and can offer relief through relaxation, meditation and other valuable techniques.  The body's strengthening through exercise and proper diet promotes clear thinking and mental agility.  These connections are valuable in developing and maintaining good health.  Much of modern medicine now embraces the mind-body connection.  Deepak Chopra is widely respected for his contributions to enhancing medicine by offering the valuable information of how the spiritual aspects of the mind and the body are interrelated and work together to promote health.

But the mind-body connection has been taken over by various practitioners of alternative medicine, some traditionally trained and others who have had various certifications from organizations that promote techniques that offer non-accredited programs.  Much of the curriculum offers courses with limited foundations of scientific research or research that is done by anyone outside the organization and its associates or financial backers.  These may appear impressive to the layman.  The damage done to the innocent client or patient, however, from those trained in these programs, can be considerable.  That's because very often selection for the programs is based more on interest and willingness to pay than any previous medical training.  The therapies offered to clients can drain financial and emotional resources and serve as a barrier to therapeutic interventions that have a track record of success and a scientifically sound frame.

The notion of the patient participation in an illness or rape establishes guilt  that has to be worked through with help.  Who will help?  The practitioner of the theory with an established routine and the glittery words to seduce while securing a profit as well.  And many might say "be sure to check with your doctor before trying any of these routines" in order to absolve themselves of responsibility for interventions that frequently don't work while at the same time they minimize what the doctor has said or could do.

Many of these practitioners who refer to themselves as experts in the mind-body connection may sound knowledgeable and concerned, yet a closer look can reveal just another snake oil salesman with a different kind of "oil" and the pattern of taking money from the innocent and the desperate.  It may sound like magic; and if it does, that's likely all it is, a slight of hand from your pocket to theirs.

While the profiteers continue to practice, who suffers most after all?  It's likely the patient who fails to get intervention that could likely have helped the problem, interrupted the progression of a disease or even saved one's life.