OSTEOPATHIC ORIENTATION
https://revolutionwellnesscentre.com/osteo.php
Philosophical Principles
The philosophical foundations inherent in an osteopathic orientation
should be clearly understood before introducing the Cranial Concept.
There does exist a system of medicine
that approaches pathology from a different perspective.
Osteopathic medicine,
while utilizing diagnostic labels and tests as well as external agents,
does not limit itself to this “disease theory” in philosophy or in therapeutic technique.
Nor does osteopathic medicine rely solely upon external agents to combat symptomatology.
Dr. Andrew Taylor Still,
the founder of Osteopathy in post-Civil War America,
formulated three general principals that illustrate the osteopathic orientation:
THREE GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF OSTEOPATHY
The body is a
functional unit.
Function and structure
are reciprocally interrelated.
The Inherent Healing
Potential of the Body
Dr. Still recognized that the human body manufactures all necessary substances
for the maintenance of life.
If given the opportunity, the body
has the capacity to heal itself.
The Rule of the
Artery
In order to function efficiently,
any body part must have a
continuous arterial blood supply.
The degree this blood supply is compromised directly correlates
with the degree to which disease begins.
The decade of The Cranial Connection – the 1980’s –
produced this same philosophical orientation in people other than osteopathic physicians.
Andrew Weil, M.D., (1983) does an excellent job of
embracing osteopathic thought in three of his nine principles of health and healing.
In 2024, Andrew Weil is a well-known
‘integrative medicine’ practitioner.
His third principle
simply restates what has
already been said:
The body has innate healing abilities.
“Healing comes
from the inside,
not the outside” (p.55)
His fourth principle
is all important and again parallels
osteopathic thought:
Agents of disease
are not the cause of disease.
“External objects are never causes of disease,
merely agents waiting
to cause specific symptoms
in susceptible hosts. ” (p.56)
His ninth principle
again restates Dr. Still’s original observations:
Blood is a principle carrier of healing energy.
“A healthy clrculatory system
.. is the keystone
of the body’s healing system.” (p. 61)
These ideas currently expressed by Dr. Andrew Weil were the cornerstone of osteopathic medicine as originally proposed by Dr. Andrew Taylor Still more than a century ago.
Dr. Weil has simply voiced what osteopathic tradition has been saying for decades:
“Rather than warring on disease agents with the hope of eliminating them,
we ought to worry more about strengthening resistance to them … ” (p. 56)
The AID’S Crisis of the 1980’s
was a case in point at the time The Cranial Connection was published.
The COVID Crisis of the 2020’s rocked the entire planet,
forty years later.
Research efforts have been directed at fighting disease agents,
of finding the proper external agent to eradicate the effects of the virus.
As research frantically looks for a way to combat this deadly virus,
who is trying to discover a way in which
to strengthen the body’s resistance to the virus?
The content has changed.
The questions remain the same.
The Symphony of Science and Spirituality
Center for Traditional Osteopathy Newsletter
Human civilization begins with two acts of “care”: the burial of the dead to prepare them for a new life and therapeutic interventions for other wounded or sick humans. Archaeological evidence attests to these in very remote times. Therefore, anthropologically we are humans as we are healers and open to the invisible, the sacred, the Beyond. The search for the profound meaning of life starts from these two elements, which are essential for knowing ourselves: it is necessary to take care of ourselves in our integrity of body, mind and spirit to become whole human beings.
Meditative and awareness practices have always represented a way of dialogue with the dimension of the transcendent characterized by a new landscape that transfigures our way of feeling and perceiving ourselves and the world around us. Opening ourselves to new realms of consciousness gives us the possibility not only to know ourselves better but also to enter into a deeper relationship with the laws that govern the homeostatic functioning of the human body.
The acquisitions of contemporary science favor the possibility of undertaking a journey, both new and ancient at the same time, in which science and spirituality can embrace each other.
Osteopathy is an art of healing that since its origins represents an example of how spirituality and science can coexist in taking care of human suffering and can reveal a path of “integral healing”, which considers the human being as a Symphony of body, mind and spirit.
Thomas Berry is a messenger of vision. As a Catholic priest, he was a ‘lone wolf’ – an individual who followed a path distinct from the path of the majority. He speaks of a threefold “New Story”, encompassing more than his spiritual tradition: 1- a cosmic text – the body of the Earth and every galaxy in the Universe; 2- a text of written scriptures in the religious traditions of humanity, and 3- the interior text of the human soul.
He believed that Humanity and the Earth would go into the future together – or their would be no future. A consciousness, a realization is arising in every discipline of the interrelatedness of all things.
“We need to allow ourselves to imagine new ways of being, new ways of seeing,
new ways of relating to one another and Earth.
This is the “Great Work” that we are being invited to be part of today…”
The Christian Future and the Fate of Earth, p. 53 (2011)
Osteopathy is a new way of seeing and being
and doing.