Energy Medicine and the Politics (Politeia) of Health
“Politics” is derived from the juicier Greek word, “politeia,” which implies an active engagement in which people empower each other to enhance their communities. – Jean Houston
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“The Earth is what we all have in common.”
—Wendell Berry
6th of Series
If you didn’t read the earlier installments, we suggest you start here.
What Are You Doing with Your Outrage?
Donna Eden and David Feinstein
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A recent series of decisions by the Supreme Court in the wake of everything else that is unfolding prompted us to write, within the same e-letter, another article in the series.
In our January e-letter this year, we initiated the “Energy Medicine and the Politics of Health” series with an article called “Political Choices Are Health Choices.” It showed how social policies, based on state-by-state comparisons in the U.S., impact life expectancy, sometimes by as much as seven years!
We believe that the majority of people, whether progressive or conservative, support policies that are favorable for health. We all want our children’s and grandchildren’s generations to thrive. We are writing this to encourage you to champion health-affirming policies.
Our reasons for concern are accelerating. In the past month, we’ve seen 19 elementary school children murdered by a teenager with a legally purchased assault weapon. Another 13 mass shootings occurred during the first weekend (yes, weekend!) of this month, resulting in a dozen deaths and 70 injured. Also last week, we witnessed the terror in election workers getting hundreds of death threats to themselves and their families, with mobs coming to their homes, for just doing their job. We’ve seen how the events leading to January 6 put democracy in the U.S. on a razor’s edge and how millions of Americans are totally dismissing incontrovertible video-taped evidence of a nearly successful violent insurrection attempt, including close calls on the lives of the Vice President and Speaker of the House! We’ve seen a former Missouri governor, now running for Senate, air an ad suggesting that right wing Republicans have a right to shoot other Republicans who don’t adhere to the party lines. Following all this, we saw the Supreme Court reverse a state gun control law.
In addition, the Court has, in rapid succession, made it easier for police to lie to suspects, made it easier for the government to meddle with religion, and in the much-publicized decision last Friday, made it virtually impossible for many disadvantaged women to have an abortion. A decision the Court made last year was also perturbing. One of the horrors of Nazi Germany and many other totalitarian regimes is the way citizens were/are pitted to inform on one another. That could never happen here, we thought while learning of these despotic methods in our high school history classes. Yet the Supreme Court acted last September to uphold vigilante laws that make anyone discussing abortion as an option, even with the woman’s doctor or parents, vulnerable.
Such decisions could very well also be precursors to even greater intrusions into control of one’s life. Justice Thomas was clear that the reasoning used by the majority to overturn Roe and Casey could also be applied to limiting access to contraceptive options, criminalizing consensual same-sex relations, and banning gay marriage.
The right to personal choice in contraception is common sense healthcare and a fundamental freedom. Being able to love who you love rather than who the state says is appropriate for you seems so basic that it startles us to see it being revisited in 2022. It is hard to imagine that you don’t know and respect people involved in same-sex consensual relationships. Our company and our extended community are blessed with many such loving couples.
In the area of our specialty, when protections against fundamental rights are being targeted, the right to choose holistic health care is at risk. This is not a leap in logic. We have already in the past year had to ask for your help in battling legislative attempts to, in several states, restrict access to innovative health care practices.
We know that our views do not reflect everyone in our community. We know that some are offended by our position that it is the mother’s personal and weighty moral responsibility, not the government’s, to make choices about her pregnancy until the fetus reaches the capacity to survive outside the womb. In fact, we have people on our core staff and faculty who vote opposite of us on most issues, yet we treasure them. We respect and value different opinions. But we are also aware that many in our community look to us for our opinions on matters that impact emotional and physical health, and we feel compelled to take a stand when the right to love and be loved is threatened; when the right to decide if conception or birth should be avoided for health or other personal reasons; when health care choices are being limited to protect the interests of traditional health care providers; when the basic rights of certain segments of the population are at risk because they do not meet the approval of a minority that has power.
The historians who study the ways democracies go authoritarian talk about “gradual, gradual, gradual . . . and then sudden and unstoppable.” We imagine that most of you in our community who have read this far feel outrage over at least some of the above developments. We want to suggest that feeling it is not enough. We want to suggest that you use your outrage to fuel constructive action.
In fact, we want to suggest that you take an action every day, however small, so that your outrage becomes a force toward shifting the situation. What actions? Three of the articles in our Politics of Health series – by Jean Houston, PhD, Anneloes Smitsman, PhD, and David Gruder, PhD, in this issue – address that question. These include not only simple steps – such as liking a post, sending an angry emoji, displaying a bumper sticker, or going to a rally – but deep considerations of all the issues involved in ensuring that your children and grandchildren will live in a world that supports the best in humanity. These principles will create a mindset for envisioning how to put your intentions into motion, for formulating daily actions, small or large.
Let your daily actions be designed to influence others to also take action, actions that are informed by the ancient Iroquois wisdom that weighty community decisions should benefit the seventh generation into the future. With the dizzying pace of change, the choices we are collectively making today will have profound consequences even for our own generation. In case we haven’t been clear, we believe the November election will be the most consequential in our lives. Until November, in addition to your other daily actions, be sure you are registered to vote. Vote. Inspire others to vote. November is almost here.We are interested in and value your thoughts on this series. Your comments will not be censored. We expect differing viewpoints and hopefully rich discussion. Comments do, of course, need nowadays to be screened for trolls, bots, being respectful, understandable, on-topic, et cetera, so there will be some delay between your submitting them and their being posted.
Even though Donna and Donna won’t be responding to these comments directly, our purpose is to get dialogue going among the members of our community. We will also have a staff person answer questions that are directly pertinent for our organization to answer, such as questions about our policies. Finally, Donna and David and the subsequent guest contributors will read all of your comments when they are writing subsequent articles so they will have them in their minds.
The original name of nazi-Germany’s leader is Adolf Schicklgruber. His father Dieter Schicklgruber was a clean man. Adolf hated him and his morals and devised a plan to pollute the entire world: everyone a car and lots of airplanes.
Thank you so very much from Germany! Stay strong and keep on being critical on American politics- it is worthwhile and absolutely needed.
Thank you for this clear statement on the importance of valuing diversity and respecting difference and supporting a woman’s right to make decisions on the difficult issue of abortion. I have spent most of my life campaigning on all these sorts of issues and as you say we need to continue to do this in this very difficult climate. I know that not all people agree with my views, but I live with the hope that people can find someway to be kind to each other, to try and walk in another persons shoes when we don’t agree on an issue and still respect each other. It is easy to get on with those who have the same views….the key is listening and understanding to those we disagree with to find some common ground for working together. Your valuable work I know does this on a daily basis! I have signed up to some of your online classes and enjoy my daily energy routine helping to access my joy and radiance. Thank you, you are truly inspiring.
I am so sorry to read this statement. I did not expect to find this left wing propaganda on this forum. It felt like I was being given the talking points from MSNBC or CNN.
It’s only been a couple of weeks since I took my first Eden Method class. I was excited to incorporate energy medicine into my nursing practice. Now I honestly feel so attacked because most of my political views do not align with yours. And for you to attack Justice Thomas is outrageous.
I did not expect any political indoctrination when I signed up for the energy medicine class about weight loss. I will be contacting your office to see if I can request a refund.
I have no problem with you sharing your points of view, but to call for political activism for “your side” just is too much. I wanted to learn about energy medicine and healing, health and wellness.
Very disappointed,
Inge
I just continue to respect and appreciate you more and more. These are indeed challenging times and we in the healing community need to send out more love and be willing to be more open to listening with unconditional regard and be willing to speak up for those unable to do so for themselves. I also appreciate your suggestion of doing at least one small thing daily, breaking it down into actionable, manageable steps (we can only take one breath at a time, as I tell my clients, our thoughts and actions are the same). This is no time to be quiet. I am encouraged by your willingness to spark attention to the grave issues at hand, to not wallow in despair but gain strength by working for future generations. Thank you.
Dear Donna and David,
I am so incredibly grateful for what you just shared with our community. It might be helpful for the wider community to know that the USA ranks 50th ( last of developed nations) in maternal mortality rates. As a health concern, in some zip codes, women are 3x more likely to die from pregnancy than from abortion. In some other zip codes, they are 14x more likely to die from pregnancy than an abortion. And in some of the poorest of zip codes the death rate from pregnancy is a lot higher. The death rate from pregnancy for woman of color is a lot higher than for white women.
As a healing community that works to calm TW and lower the negative affects of stress as well as supporting strengthening our inner healing supportive energies, it is important to work to lower the stress levels for the vulnerable in our society. If certain politicians or political parties are targeting people in our communities and causing stress and suffering, it’s important to vote them out.
Thank you for your long time commitment to sharing self-care techniques that reduce stress and support healing. We all need this knowledge right now.
With much love and gratitude,
gretchen VanLoozen
Voting Republican. Voting to prevent people from using abortions as birth control. Voting against high gas prices and inflation. Voting for stronger borders and against human trafficking, yesterday 50 immigrants died in 103F temp locked in a van in TX. Voting against indoctrination of our children in school where they are being confused as to what is a male and female. Voting against socialism and universal income. I come to Eden method for healing not getting my blood pressure up by reading about politics.
Hi, i saw allots of this bad News.
so important thanik Gournammant have responsibility will be Change low and collecting all the registers weapons and those people ae need give with one or Out 2 Guards every Guards will have sallary because the live is important then many.
Thankfully
Killing a fetus is NOT a right. Killing a fetus is not “reproductive health care”. It’s murder. Allowing a woman to legally kill a fetus is NOT women’s equality….HELLO!!!
This is still the United States of America and all legal avenues have been exhausted once a case goes to the Supreme Court. That means the Supreme Court has the final say on what is and is not legal. All legal avenues have been exhausted on this issue and if you don’t like the outcome too bad, that’s life. Be responsible adults and accept the outcome and move on.
Thank you.