Page 13 - Winter 17

President’s letter
by Jane Keogh
for the moment at least.
DECEMBER 2016
There is a strange twist in Time attached to writing for any publication. Whatever is written in this present moment will not be read for nearly three months, such is the joy of publishing. This means that my present moment of putting pen to paper (or fingers to keys) may be meaningless or at best, old history, by the time you get to read it. I really hope so.
In the time between last writing and your receiving those words only a few weeks ago, our world has yet again exploded and we are under strong attack. I write in the season of peace and goodwill to all men. It really doesn't feel like it – or it has certainly bypassed some of our colleagues and the Good Thinking Society.
Impassioned communications have been flying back and forth, demanding action and revenge, talking of war and battles. The anger of the sceptics triggers fear and anger in ourselves. It is incredibly hard not to get hooked into it. But perhaps there is another way to look at this. What if we considered this whole situation in terms of light and energy? Since that is the medium that we work with, I hope that you will follow this line of thought.
We shine a light in the world with the work
Arthritis pain linked to weather
This headline virtually filled the front page of one of England’s leading tabloids a while ago. In the interests of homeopathy I invested {squandered?} 55 pence in purchasing a copy and in a further spirit of self-sacrifice endangered my blood pressure by reading the article. Apparently whilst anecdotal evidence has existed for years linking arthritic pain to weather, this has not really been believed until a scientific study had been done. Thus a three centre, eighteen month study involving 12,500 patients has finally established that people have not been deluded and when in pain can now take comfort in knowing that their suffering is scientifically valid. The rheumatologist in charge of the study predicts that this new information will pave the way for new treatments (Rhus Tox et al? – I wish!) that may help millions of patients.
Yet this is just the latest item in a string of pronouncements from science that have been summarized in the press. Among other things we have recently been told officially, following ‘proper’ investigations, that the moon can have effects on the living and that cooking destroys vitamin C (why they couldn’t connect cooking, heat and a heat labile vitamin without a full scientific investigation baffles me!). Now we are told
that we do, and the light attracts dark energy. Always has, always will. One cannot exist without the other. The more high vibrational light that we shine, the greater the low vibrational, dark energy response. So we could look at what is happening as a compliment!
Dark energy aims to reduce the amount of light in the world, and one of the ways to do that is to get those shining light to emit low vibrational energy instead. My fear is that we are being hooked in to emit dark instead of light energy. So what if we sidestep the pattern? I'm not suggesting for one moment that we stay silent, or turn the other cheek. But what if we refuse to engage directly with these people and go straight to the thousands of individuals out there curious enough to hear what we have to say?
Consider for a moment the case of Hanging Rock. A tiny group of Native American people most of us would never have heard of in our day to day lives. When their land, livelihood and very existence was threatened by a large oil company wanting to put a pipe line through their reservation, they turned to social media and suddenly millions of people around the world had heard about them and stepped up to support them. And the oil company backed off,
‘officially’ that sunlight will boost the immune response to infection. Those of us with large animal experience will have been told many times by farmers at the end of winter that “yon bests’ll be rite when’t sun’s on th’ quarters agin”*
Where do they get these people from? Now nothing is true unless science says so. The ‘bleedin’ obvious’ must be proved. If anyone reading this is old enough to have listened to ‘The Goons’ they may remember the joke in which Bluebottle says “only an expert can tell me I’m deformed!” – reality has now overtaken humour.
All this, whilst good knockabout fun, has a serious side. The present dominance of so- called
Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) is a threat to us all and to medical progress. I say ‘so-called’ EBM because although the basic idea behind it is sound the concept has been interpreted by many in the narrow field of trials and analysis rather than taking account of the realities of practice and patient appreciation (up to 50% of potential drugs that are successful in trials prove useless in the clinical situation). The result is things like ‘cascade’, ‘a pill for an ill’, medicine with an utter dependence on a diagnosis and a generation of practitioners incapable of thinking outside the box. Recently there was
And then there is Jeremy Corbyn. Whatever his politics – and that is not the point of my discussion – he has turned a massively negative campaign against him in the press and media into a triumph of numbers and people power, by astute use of social media. Two examples of a David and Goliath-situation, where the giant has been defeated by truth rather than battle.
I truly believe that by refusing to engage with the dark negative energy of the sceptics and by creating our own positive following with social media and an online newsletter we too can shine brighter than before.
As Spring returns and the days noticeably lengthen, remember that this is a time of New Beginnings. Plans hopefully created at the beginning of this year will be falling into place. Most importantly our community has the power to stand and show the world that we believe in what we do, and that we practice a compass- ionate and deeply effective form of medicine.
Please remember that we may be a small group but the light that we shine is powerful indeed.
a programme on television celebrating the one hundred years since the birth of James Herriot. In it his son (now himself retired), reflecting on the changes in practice since his father started observed: “When science comes in, fun goes out”. Substitute ‘humanity’ or ‘originality’ for ‘fun’ and you have the nub of the problem.
Everything is judged within the prevalent paradigm but that is nothing new. Most of the criticism that was levelled at Hahnemann and homeopathy can be reduced to ‘we don’t/can’t/won’t understand you, because it’s not the same as what we are used to’. Hahnemann’s answer to it all became a challenge to try the method and prove him wrong, if they could but, as today, many would not venture out of their comfort zone. Yet successful clinical results are the ultimate EBM. So we must keep plugging the message and the challenge, and in the immortal words of Norman Stanley Fletcher (Porridge): “Don’t let the B******s grind you down!”
* For those living south of Birmingham “My cattle will improve in condition once we are able to let them out into the sunshine once more”. John Saxton, UK
References
Sackett D L et al {2000} Evidence Based Medicine. How to practice and teach EBM.
Churchill livingstone
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