Table 13.2. Common Therapeutic Method*
Prayer and Chanting
Healing always begins with prayer. The healer prays each day to prepare himself or herself for the work ahead. The healer may also pray with and for the patient. In
addition to the invocation of transcendent powers and presence, prayers serve a very practical purpose for the patient. They focus his or her mind on the problem at
hand. Among northern plains nations, the patient wraps pinches of tobacco in small pouches of cloth (“tobacco ties”) while praying for health and divine help. The
patient's prayerful preparation for healing is, of itself, healing.
Prayers are directed towards the highest good and generally closed with the traditional expression, “All My Relations.” This expression
is far more than a Native
American version of Christianity's “Amen.” “All My Relations” is a statement of the basic Native American philosophy that we should always dedicate prayers to the
health, harmony, and balance of all natural and spiritual relations: the Stones, Plants, Animals, Two-leggeds, Earth, Sky, Sun, Moon, Ancestors, Spirit Helpers, and,
most importantly, the Great Spirit.
Chants, like prayers, may be spontaneous or culture-specific formulas, such as the complex Night Chant of the Navajo or the “remaking” chants of the Cherokee.
Some chants, such as those used in
Si.si.wiss (“Sacred Breath”), an intertribal healing tradition from the Puget Sound region of Washington State, use specific
breathing techniques along with sacred words to drive noxious forces out of the body or to attract healing power.
5
Music
Many prayers are sung. There are songs to express gratitude, to celebrate, or to invoke the power and blessings of every aspect of nature; there are songs to willow
trees, thunder spirits, snow flakes, salmon, bear, the winds of the Four Directions, water, fire, and to healing and guardian spirits. Songs may attend the gathering and
preparation of herbal medicines. In
Si.si.wiss tradition, songs empower the healer and provide a continuous background during the laying on of hands. Some songs
are healing power: they enter the patient to seek out and remove pathogenic forces or invading spirits. Songs are received in dreams or visions, or are learned from
elders and medicine people.
Most songs are accompanied by a regular drum-beat. Sometimes, the drum itself is an agent of healing; its rhythm entrains the minds of both healer and patient and
leads them to an expanded awareness of self and spirit. Many healers substitute or add the rattle to their healing sessions, using the sound and movement of the
rattle to shake away disease. In the Indian Shaker Church, bells, a new “medicine” borrowed from Christianity, accompany the healing songs and evoke God's healing
power. The Indian flute, although rarely used in healing others, can be an important instrument of self-healing. Patients play the flute to empty
the mind of worries and
preoccupations while meditating with Nature and attuning to Her healing power.
Smudging
Native healing sessions frequently begin with smudging, which is a ritual cleansing of place, healer, helpers, patient, and ritual objects with the smoke of a sacred
plant, typically sage (
salvia apiana, other salvia subspecies; or referring to the wormwoods:
artemisia vulgaris,
a. tridentata, a. frigida, etc.), cedar (
libocedrus
descurrens or
juniperus spp.), or sweetgrass (
hierochloe odarata). Some healing ceremonies consist of nothing more than smudging the patient while praying.
Smudging induces an altered state of consciousness, heightened emotions
6
, and increased sensitivity. Because the tools of the Native healers are hands, heart, and
spirit, sensitivity to energetic or spiritual imbalance is a necessity for diagnosis and therapy.
Herbalism
Native Americans generally believe that, in ancient times, there was a local plant cure for every disease. Today, because of drastic changes in the environment and
population and the scourge of new diseases, these remedies are not as effective. Most of my Native relations do not hesitate to see a conventional medical doctor for
any condition that generally requires antibiotics or surgery. Native Americans use herbs
and Western medications, realizing that each has its strengths and
weaknesses.
Native American herbal medicine, like the gifts of Native agricultural technology, saved the lives of early colonists and continues to save lives today. According to
Virgil J. Vogel's classic
American Indian Medicine, “about 170 drugs which have been or still are official in the
Pharmacopeia of the United States of America or the
National Formulary were used by North American Indians north of Mexico, and about 50 more were used by Indians of the West Indies, Mexico, and Central and
South America” (
95
). Jacques Cartier (1491–1557) was cured of scurvy by a Huron decoction of pine needles, which are high in vitamin C. Native Americans taught
Europeans to cure malaria with quinine, to expel toxins with ipecac, and to treat constipation with the most commonly used
laxative in the world today, cascara
sagrada (
rhamnus purshiana).
Herbal remedies can reduce fevers, inflammation, and pain and, when applied topically, prevent infection. Weatherford (
96
) has an unsurpassed narrative account of
the gifts of Native American medicine to Western pharmacology. Some herbs, such as “Grandfather Peyote,” are considered medicines for the body and soul and are
ingested in a spiritually charged atmosphere of drumming, singing, prayer, and cedar smoke. Peyote has been attributed with cures of leukemia, tuberculosis,
pneumonia, stroke, and other disorders (
97
).
Native herbalists may have a repertoire of 300 or more herbs (
98
,
99
), used singly or in various combinations. Some herbalists use only the plants that appear to them
in dreams, which is often a result of praying for a particular patient. In the 1920s, a Lakota healer told Frances Densmore, “A medicine man would not try to dream of
all herbs and treat all diseases, for then he could not expect to succeed in all nor to fulfill properly the dream of any one herb or animal” (
100
). It may be futile to look
for distinct chemical agents in Native American medicine as explanations for efficacy, because much of an herb's effect may be due to ritual methods of gathering and
usage. At St. Regis, Mohawk Nation, there are approximately 200 ways of gathering plant medicines (
101
). In the Navajo Night Chant, some plants are gathered only
when the lightning flashes or used only during specific chants (
32
).
Laying on of Hands
Massage, healing touch, and non-contact healing are practiced by Native healers throughout North and South America. Native Americans find it amusing that
therapeutic touch, a similar modality, is being tested in modern medical and nursing research. Yet few nurses have sought pointers from America's senior
practitioners! In Native practice, the intent of massage is not merely physical. Often the hands are used to sweep away or remove spiritual intrusions or to brush in
healing powers.
Cherokees warm their hands over coals and circle their palms either on or above an affected area (
102
; and personal communication, Cherokee medicine man
Keetoowah
7
, 1978). Some healers hold their hands to the front and back of an affected area, creating what they now call “electrodes within the body” (
103
). The
healer imagines that electricity is moving from one hand to the other. Sometimes the muscles are rubbed in a manner similar to Western massage.
The Cherokee use
massage to relieve tension, sprains, and pain. Massage oils made of buffalo fat, bear grease, or sea algae may also be applied. To increase the healing effect, the
medicine person massages specific therapeutic points (
104
) or practices an ancient indigenous form of acupuncture and moxibustion (the application of heat or
burning herbs to the body) (
105
). For example, Eagle Plume, a renowned Blackfoot medicine man, treated his son's knee injury by inserting rose thorns into the skin
and burning them down to the bottom (
106
).
Counseling
Because Native healers recognize that
all health problems affect the mind and spirit, counseling is frequently a major part of the intervention. Clan mothers, respected
female elders, are especially known for their ability to offer kind, wise, yet strong advice during times of emotional difficulty. Native counseling emphasizes health
rather than pathology. The counselor generally seeks to augment a person's strengths rather than analyze or focus on weaknesses. Humor is frequently used to help
break obsessive and overly serious thinking or behavior. The goal is not to return a person to an average or “normal” state; instead, the goal is to help the patient
actualize his or her fullest potential by discovering the gifts of Spirit—“the original instructions.”
Counseling may take the form of talking things out or listening to the insight of an elder or medicine person. The counselor may help the patient create or discover an
image of improved health, perhaps by interpreting patterns seen in projective fields (e.g., fire, smoke, stones). Or, the healer may help the patient access healing
guidance by interpreting his or her dreams or visions. The counselor may also use his or her own visualization of healing powers to affect a proximal or distant patient.
The healer's “office” is often the sacred sweat lodge, hogan, or other ceremonial lodge, where both healer and patient can more easily discard avoidance, denial, or
hindrance to the truth.
Ceremony
Ceremonial healing includes both healer and patient. The most basic form of ceremony is communicating with the spirit of a disease through prayer and ritual.
Although the goal of the ceremony is to gather information, leading to the release of pathogenic forces, sometimes the patient must first make an offering to these
forces—a symbolic gift of words or gesture—to demonstrate acknowledgment and respect.
In Duran's (
77
) effective adaptation of tradition in the treatment of Native American alcoholism, the patient speaks to the spirit in the bottle. When a patient was
offered an alcoholic drink at a social event, this approach “allowed for the psyche of the client to become aware as to the risk involved as well as to activate the
unconscious process of the group...” (
107
). According to Duran, the patient has “taken the offensive ‘warrior' stance as opposed to the victim stance.”
Healing power is present in the ubiquitous Sweat Lodge (also called the Purification Lodge or Stone People Lodge). The Sweat Lodge is a dome of willow branches
covered by
blankets in which the patient, healer, and helpers pray and counsel together while ladling water onto red-hot stones. The lodge, pitch black but for the
glow of the rocks, is a symbolic womb, a return to primal wisdom. Traditionally, separate ceremonies are conducted by and for women and men. In some ceremonies,
the sacred pipe is smoked to further open the mind to healing guidance (
108
,
109
).
Healing ceremonies received during dreams and visions belong only to an individual healer. Other ceremonies are culture specific and are powerful affirmations of
cultural identity and values. There are an extraordinary number of these unique healing ceremonies. The following are just a few:
Navajo “sings” and sand-painting
The Green Corn and Midwinter rites of the Seneca “faces”:
gagosa, which are masks that personify spiritual beings and powers and are often made to fulfill a
dream
The Lakota Yuwipi
Native American Church ceremonies
Healing rites of the Ojibway Midewewin and other medicine societies
Shamanic exorcisms of the Inuit
Winter “spirit dances” of the Salish
Other Healing Sources
All Native Americans recognize the source of healing in Nature and Spirit. For example, natural elements, such as earth, water, mountain, and sun, are considered
elder healers; by harmonizing with them, patients may experience spontaneous healing or find intuitive solutions to their problems. Native Americans also recognize
the healing power of fasting and inner silence as ways to become more receptive to any healing influence. Family and community are also important facets of many
healing sessions. “Helpers” are often essential to add healing power and to reintegrate the person into the community. As all human beings can attest, illness creates
a feeling of alienation both from one's own normal self and from normal relations with one's community.
Duration of Therapy
Disease can have a slow or sudden onset. Similarly, healing can occur quickly or over a long period of time. However, even in serious or chronic disease, long-term
therapy may not be required. The intensity of therapy is generally considered more important than the duration (
110
). Research in dissociative identity disorder (
111
,
112
and
113
) suggests that sudden changes in consciousness may result in sudden changes in physiology. One alter (i.e., a disassociated identity) may suffer from
diabetes or allergies, whereas another alter may be asymptomatic and apparently healthy.
In Native American healing, the change of consciousness is not from one pathological adaptive state to another, but rather from an unhealthy
condition of mind and
body to a healthier state. The healing ritual shocks the patient into a new awareness of self and Creation. Healing may not be a gradual process but rather a quantum
leap. However, Native healers recognize that patients must make lifestyle and behavioral changes that reinforce and maintain the improved condition. Although
healing may occur quickly, way of life makes healing last.
ORGANIZATION
Lifelong Training
Healing power can be inherited from ancestors, transmitted from another healer, or developed through training and initiation (Johnny Moses, personal communication,
1988). However, the best way to develop, strengthen, and maintain healing power is through rigorous personal training. Among the Snohomish, “individuals
sometimes inherit a power from a grandmother, grandfather, aunt, or uncle.... If they want that power to be strong, they have to fast and go through a lot of sacrifice”
(
114
). The only prerequisite is patience.
Native healers generally train under one principal mentor, often a family or clan member. As anthropologist William S. Lyon notes, “It is really the function of the
teacher to train the novice how to be trained directly by the spirits” (
115
). However, today, with the greater ease of travel and intertribal communication, many healers
have several mentors. Wallace Black Elk (
47
) had 11 “grandfathers.” Medicine Grizzlybear Lake (
52
) had 16. Whis.stem.men.knee (Johnny Moses) was asked to
carry on his family's medicine at age 13, after being shamanically cured of cancer. He studied northern Nootka and Saanich traditions with his grandparents and later
with several other medicine people (
116
). Among the Yakima, a boy or girl might prepare for spiritual training at age 6, when he or she was brought by an elder to
secluded places in nature (
26
). Following the practice of many Native nations, the child leaves for his or her first vision quest at puberty. After years of continued
training and power seeking, sometimes lasting into middle age, the Yakima novice would participate in the “Shaman's Inaugural Dance.”
The English word
medicine man implies a uniform role and gender, which is incorrect. As we have already seen, some medicine people are ritual experts; others
specialize in curing snake bites,
setting bones, countering sorcery, divining, prescribing herbs, and so on. The Lakota distinguish the
pejuta wicasa, herbalist, from the
wicasa wakan, the “holy person” who communicates directly with the healing powers.
O
JIBWAY
M
EDICINE
T
RAINING
Medicine training is sometimes the domain of specific medicine societies. Among the Ojibway, this “university” is called the
Midewewin (
117
), a word meaning “the
sounding [of sacred instruments: drum or rattle]” or perhaps a contraction of
Mino (good) and
daewaewin (hearted). A member-sponsor recommends a male or female
candidate, who is invited to join only after a long period of character assessment. A new member must generally pass through four Orders, or Degrees, before being
fully accredited as a medicine person. In each Order, a new tutor is assigned.
In the first Order, the candidate is instructed once or twice weekly for one year in the sacred knowledge of plants, songs, and prayers. After initiation rites and testing,
he proceeds to the second Order; in this Order, the novice learns the history of his people and how to keep the spiritual senses open. In the third Order, the member
learns to commune with and summon spiritual powers and generate healing energy in the ill. In the fourth Order, the initiate is further purified, tested, and initiated to
assure that he or she can resist malevolent forces. On completion of the fourth Order, the member can test candidates and confer and confirm power in others.
Although now fully accredited, his education is not finished. The member continues to learn and train and to abide by the moral code of the Midewewin.
Dostları ilə paylaş: