It was quite gratifying to deliver a talk at my alma mater, Albert Einstein College of Medicine on last Wednesday, April 9th. I want to publicly thank Dr Albert Kuperman for inviting me. He is a professor and dean at Einstein and we met at a small talk I gave in the fall. He is tremendously open to the holistic approach to healing. The topic involved integrative medicine which endeavors to bring together science-based studies with some alternative approaches.
I spoke about my personal journey and how my explorations into the metaphysical world has led to my transformation into a meta-physician. I shared with the students the notion of the open-minded skeptic, someone willing to explore new and promising therapies and suggestions, while remaining firmly grounded in experience and evidence.
I also tried to describe the complexity and subtleties involved in the treatment of real patients in the world of private practice. Scientific awareness is essential. Knowledge of ‘evidence-based’ studies is crucial, yet they don’t necessarily apply to the patient who sits before the physician in his/her examination room.
I emphasized how I approach alternative therapies such as herbal, acupuncture, homeopathy, naturopathy and energy healing–be open-minded but look for evidence for their effectiveness. Be aware that there is much information available to patients via the internet & infomercials. Unfortunately, a considerable amount is not valid.
Risk / benefit analysis is important in considering what therapies are tried. Drug interactions with pharmaceuticals needs to be understood & discussed with patients who are already utilizing alternative treatments.
The examination room is a ‘sacred space’ in which the patient opens themselves to the physician who must respect this intimacy and apply all their skills to the task at hand. The ‘art’ of medicine is in balancing the knowledge obtained by scientific studies, with the physician’ s own experience as well as intuition.
There notion that the healing relationship between physician & patient is a process allows for necessary feedback of therapies offered and the experience of the patient. ‘Trial & error’ with hopefully a minimum of ‘error’ is the only way to proceed towards the best & most effective treatment for any one patient.
It was gratified to perceive the response of the students to some of my ‘stories’ of extraordinary experiences of awareness [EEAs] such as the near-death experience, after-death communication & medium sessions.
Most of them seemed completely comfortable with the notion of spirit and a spiritual dimension to reality.
In short it was a rewarding and satisfying experience for me. Hopefully the audience felt the same way.
Le