Rediscovering Spirit in Medicine

Transcript Abstract

My talk will discuss how a reductionist world view came to dominate Medicine as it evolved from its shamanic origins into a scientific discipline. Over a span of centuries from prehistory through the Renaissance to the 19th century science moved away from the
notion of spirit in medicine. Disease was originally understood as
originating from evil spirits or malign energies, and healing plants were understood to contain countervailing, beneficial energies, or spirits.

In the Greco-Roman era, Natural Philosophy emerged and emphasized observation of nature and sought to find natural causes of disease rather than evil spirits or malign energies. Anatomists dissected the human body and found it resembled a complex machine. This trend toward reductionism continued through the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution to the beginning of the 19th century.

During this time, alchemy separated from chemistry, and by the start of the 19th century, experimental and organic chemistry had emerged as separate disciplines. The new generation of chemists looked for active principles in medicinal plants, not spirits. This materialistic quest reached a major milestone when the first pure alkaloid, morphine, was isolated from the opium poppy. Morphine was a crystal; it was clearly not alive, yet it had all of the healing properties of opium itself. This discovery led to a further banishing of spirit from Medicine. The notion of vitalism, that living things were powered by some sort of
divine spark or vital energy, fell out of favor.

The simple technique of acid base extraction that worked for morphine was quickly applied to a range of alkaloids in important medicinal plants. Notably, cocaine was isolated as a pure compound in 1855. In 1898, Arthur Heffter isolated mescaline from peyote. In 1901 Ibogaine was isolated from the iboga plant. The availability of these new alkaloid tools created the fields of molecular pharmacology and pharmacotherapy. These remain the basis of reductionist medicine to this day.

Spirit was nowhere to be found. Organisms were viewed as simply complex machines. Diseases could be healed by the application of the appropriate molecular monkey wrench. This reductionist view persisted
for the next 120 years. Only now are cracks in this edifice beginning to appear.

Reductionism catalyzed a change in our relationship to Nature. It became devalued. No longer did we view ourselves as partners in a symbiotic relationship with the community of species. Or indeed even as part of Nature. Nature existed for our exploitation, to be dominated,
owned, extracted, depleted, and ultimately destroyed.

The devastating consequences of this change in attitude can be appallingly seen in our daily news feeds. The planet is spiraling toward disaster while we blithely chant, drill, baby drill, forgetting that the coda to that mantra is burn, baby\burn.

The way that we have desecrated and desacralized Coca, one of the most sacred and beneficial plants ever gifted to our species, is illustrative of what this attitude has done to us. In the quest for riches
and glamour, we have isolated the single, most harmful compound in coca, and turned it into a global monster. A monster that has caused the death and enslavement of thousands. Corrupted governments on a global scale; spawned decades-long wars; caused unimaginable environmental destruction; and upended the geopolitical world order.

But cocaine is simply an alkaloid. It is not the demon. The demon of avariciousness and greed dwells within the human heart. The men who traffic in cocaine – and it is mostly men – in pursuit of riches care little how much harm it creates, how many people die, how much it destroys our already wounded and bleeding planet. Cocaine is not the beast; but it brings out the beast in men.

The world Is beset with problems. In the larger context of all the terrible things that are happening to it, does a solution to the cocaine scourge really matter? I believe that it could. I believe that it could be a first step toward rediscovery of the spirit in nature, in medicine, and in ourselves.

In my concluding remarks in this talk, I will explore some specific proposals as to how the needed changes could be made.