I have been studying medicine for about 25 years. Although I began practicing in 1995, in reality, my education has never stopped – and nor should it. Especially in clinical medicine, wherein we deal with the visceral realities of human suffering, where every situation is a uniquely personal experience, one must constantly be learning, and hence it is for good reason that it is called a “practice”. There is so much to be discovered: considerations and contexts that aren’t found in textbooks, but only informed by experience. While this might be an obvious truth that applies in almost all fields of human endeavor, in modern times, with our emphasis upon academic learning, there is often a disconnect between theory and practice. Too many times I have met new practitioners, who upon graduation of their training, are hampered by a mere academic understanding of their discipline. This is a particularly germane issue in the field of natural medicine, which is replete with institutions offering a “science-based” version of natural medicine that falls short of fully representing and maintaining the tradition of natural healing, something I have observed in the field of Ayurveda, Naturopathy, and Traditional Chinese Medicine. The result are practitioners that are fundamentally confused and overwhelmed, who end up relying on gimmicks or a “paint-by-numbers” approach to natural medicine that does nothing to inspire confidence among past, current, and prospective patients.
In February of 2017, I will be taking a group of students to Nepal to study the classical tradition of Ayurveda, as represented by the 800 year old Bajracharya Medical tradition. Unlike their academic counterparts, these physicians are trained according to the traditional guru-shishya model that has been employed in Ayurveda since its inception, thousands of years ago. Please check out the following video, to learn more about this amazing educational opportunity:
To register for the two week Immersion program, please visit our partner at Sacred Earth Journeys. For those of you interested in the five week clinical program, please visit our information page to learn how to apply and register for this program.
