Andean Plants: Mysticism or Medicine
Has modern medicine turned away from the ‘mysticism medicine’ to which owes its beginnings?
Peru’s agro-industry contributes only modestly towards the country’s economy despite the abundance and diversity of indigenous plants grown in the country, many of which have been cultivated by the local population for centuries. Yet with Peru’s rapid development, it has like many countries, pursued the advances of pharmaceutical medicine, losing touch with its native agriculture.
John Eddowes, a Clinical Psychologist trained at the Catholic University of Peru in Lima in psychological interpretation, has been researching native and alternative medicines for over thirty years. John believes that the benefits of local plants and herbs are largely untapped when it comes to basic health care.
“People abandon their beliefs and practices in health when they get close to the city,” says John. “While technology in health care is important the most frequent demands are for primary health care.”
During John’s studies he found that psychology today is focused on a rational approach to understanding human behaviour, excluding the role the body plays in the diagnosis of problems and the effects of treatment. As a teenager John experienced psychiatric treatments both medicinal and at an institute. He was very familiar with the broad impact clinical therapy can have on a patient. It was an influence he “didn’t want for his professional practice”.
“At first was the belief that it was a matter of plants and herbs, so traditional medicine would be about learning herbs and how they work,” says John, “but this was an incomplete approach.”
John visited healers or shamans and tried some of the plants the shamans use: first the San Pedro cactus then the Ayahuasca plant. He discovered that native medicine is not only about the plants but also about the “archeological sites that have been used for centuries to heal” and an ability or ‘special gift’ that shamans master over months, sometimes years, diagnosing and treating different illnesses. And whilst some of the techniques like nutrition, aspects of light and sound are applied in modern medicine, the shamanic teachings and practice are centred on a more intuitive approach to healing.
“Healing is a re-education of the habits of people,” explains John. “People get sick because they go against their own nature.” While each of his areas of study have reached a level of success in their own right, “healers should be trained in both sides to understand the complexity of human behaviour,” resolves John.
Combining his studies; the clinical psychology and the ‘mysticism medicine’ with the alternative therapies, developing a system of Peruvian floral essences allows John to better diagnose his patients’ problems and provide unique treatments. This precision and the native understanding of plants and how they can be applied, and if necessary amplified through ritual and location, is something he feels is lacking in modern medicine today.
Peru’s largest area is rural and it is populated with many species with huge health potential, the knowledge of which is passed down the generations of the local people. John, envisages a future where scientists and traditional healers can share and cultivate their knowledge, redirecting some of the government funding to create botanical gardens, aiming to improve and develop the environment as well as improve the country’s primary health care system. Like the encouragement China and India offer their local farmers to produce their indigenous plants and herbs, John believes that Peru could reap significant economic rewards through farming and exportation. While the world continues to debate the benefits of alternative and traditional medicines and its potential uses, like that of Cannabis among others, it is missing out not only on life saving medical treatments but a sustainable resource. A problem that could be rectified with a little support from governments with enormous health and economic benefits.
I am currently on an internship as a researcher for “Andean Stories” — a project by Journalist Kary Stewart and funded by Onaway.
