Essay On Native American Healing

The practice of healing is a relevant matter that can involve purely spiritual, purely physical, or both means of treatment. It can differ according to a cultural group’s norms and rituals. Obviously, theories of spiritual energy cannot be authenticated by the scientific method, and thus are typically dismissed as non-empirical beliefs by the scientific community, which is a straw man fallacy. Yet, at times, even doctors have no other explanation than to use the term “miracle,” whether believers in a non-physical essence or not. The outlook one takes on their illness has been known to either worsen or help their condition. Therefore, healing has connections with spirituality and science in the sense that true healing is only complete if
White society considers this terminology to represent a type of clinical doctor who might prescribe one with the necessary drugs to improve or at least slow the effects of an illness. Native American medicine beliefs and practices differ greatly from the culturally defined western model of healing using pharmaceutical, surgical, and conventional medicine (Goelz). In comparison, the Native American interpretation of medicine man, or wicasa wakan, is much deeper and more complex. For example, it covers four specific types of healers. The pejuta wicasa is the man of herbs, the yuwipi is the man who uses the power of the rawhide and stones to find a cure, the waayatan is the man of vision, and the wapiya is what one might call a witch doctor. Reality is, each type has different forms of healing, but none merely use physical medications. Unlike white society, Native Americans are immensely connected to nature and their own state of minds. In Lame Deer Seeker of Visions, John (Fire) Lame Deer states, “He does not cure with the herbs alone; he must also have the wakan power to heal.” Among various American Indian groups, the wakan is considered a great spiritual power of supernatural origin belonging to some natural objects. This knowledge assists in the proper diagnosis and therefore treatment of a patient because indigenous cultures hold no
Spiritually is not necessarily religion, but simply a sense of connection to something or someone of higher divinity. In regards to spirituality, scientific researchers continue to explore a variety of scientific hypotheses concerning the remote effects of customs like prayer in the healing process (Dossey). In fact, persuasive evidence indicates that individuals who remain on a spiritual walk of some sort often live much longer than individuals who do not. Obtained over the course of the past few decades, the bulk of existing proof is more than enough to establish the reality, rather than myth, of a healing effect. Specific cases have been published in books, articles, and other reliable sources. Examples found demonstrate the utter efficiency of spiritual healing in a range of bodily conditions from mild to terminal