⌛ Healers in the Philippines

A healer in La Union fixed my aussie mate who was suffering for nearly a week with a very high fever and painful body which the "real" doctor couldn't fix. Using a mixture of herbal treatment, massage and a bit of hocus pocus the "quack" doctor fixed him overnight. I also know of a filipina quack doctor who lives in the hills near Hobart (Tasmania) who is in great demand with filipinos and aussies.

I think western medicine is overrated and many people are looking to alternatives to taking handfulls of pills everyday prescribed by their doctor. A friend of mine has rhumatoid arthritis which is a horrible sickness that causes inflamed joints. After 9 months of taking doctor prescribed medicine and being unable to work, he went to a herbalist who suggested he try olive leaf extract. He is now healthy and back to work as a truck driver.

 

Yes, there are many things in life that we don't know the answers to. In some ways other animals have a better understanding of how their bodies work than we do about our own.

The pharmaceutical industry, and its profiteering, has a lot to answer for.

 

they can perform curse, backyard abortions, act as massage therapist, chiro's and also counsellors/tarot readers/matchmakers/and can refer you to specialist ...if it doen't work they are not responsible .. they can charge from free to $$ depending on your looks and info ...
good luck to d people who believe and get cured by shamans/doc/quack

 

People see what they want to believe.

 

I studied shamanism in central and South America as a student too many years ago to count. within a culture that uses shamans and has a belief system that supports their power over the unknown etc, that it works in the same way our "modern" medicine works to a point. Faith in the power to cure is half the treatment.
Keeping in mind treatment of illnesses at this level treats the symptomatic effects of minor afflictions 99% of the time. Even though, Andy Kauffman the offbeat American comic, came to the Philippines to take part in a desparate attempt to cure his cancer. The well known shaman was supposedly pulling out the diseased liver or other organ without surgery. A good slight of hand trick, (I saw videos of this ritual) it just shows desperate people will resort to desparate measures.

Shamans often use natural occuring medicines that are the derivitives of the majority of what we call modern drugs. This is very true in South America or was before the indiginous peoples were decimated.

Further, the use of some hallucinogens was/is prevalent. The mind altering nature of the treatment was truly a revalation, further reinforcing the belief in such practices. Dancing, drumming, chanting, can have the same effect.


It's really no different than any religion or belief system that porports to give us mortals power over the unknown and uncontrolable aspects of our lives.

 

Very good post RHB. Lots of good points made there.

I agree that spiritual healing is nothing much more than the use of herbal remedies, superstitious nonsense, and an appalling motivation to kill endangered animals.

But the placebo effect is well proven and scientifically documented too. You can be ‘cured’ by nothing more than professional reassurance and thin air. If you can cure the mind, you can cure the body.

But what I mean to say is that we have lost touch with natural remedies that do work, and the pharmaceutical industry is complicit in this as it pushes us to become ever more reliant on medicines that make money.

Much of Africa and Asia still use natural medications and these do work, they are grounded in scientific evidence. For an example, there are many tree types that have leaves that are rich in quinine. Local people use these as a malarial prevention. All other animals are much more in tune with their own body’s internal machinations. If they get diarrhoea, they will then eat certain leaves that settle the stomach.

Natural remedies can and do work.