Snowaidene the Snow Queen, High Queen of the Domain and Realms, is the Founder and Master Healer of the Domani Healers' Hall. She founded it as a place for Domani who have skills in various forms of healing: whether herbal, energy, stone and crystal, spiritual, or knowledge and information, to come together and use those skills together for the benefit of the Domain and the world at large.

Please Note: Much the information presented here concerns alternative healing and medicines. Before you consider any alternative treatments, please consult with your doctor. Do not use any of these as a substitute for conventional medicines.

What is Holistic Medicine?

       Holistic Medicine is defined as "the art and science of healing that addresses the whole person-body, mind and spirit. The practice of holistic medicine integrates conventional and alternative therapies to promote optimal health and to prevent and treat disease. Holistic medicine has attempted to integrate the best of modern day technologies with the wisdom of the practice of medicine from the past. It represents the next stage in the evolution of health care to a higher level. Like all evolutionary movements, it has been met with strong skepticism and sometimes downright hostility from those entrenched in conventional medicine.

The Principles of Holistic Medicine

       The following twelve principles of holistic medical practice were established by the American Holistic Medical Association:

       Unconditional love is life's most powerful healer. Physicians strive to adopt an attitude of unconditional love for patients, themselves, and other practitioners.

       Optimal health is much more than the absence of sickness. It is the conscious pursuit of the highest qualities of the physical, environmental, mental emotional, spiritual, and social aspects of the human experience.

       Illness is viewed as a manifestation of a dysfunction of the whole person, not as an isolated event.

       Holistic physicians embrace a variety of safe, effective, options in diagnosis and treatment, including: education for lifestyle changes of self care, complementary approaches and conventional drugs and surgery.

       Searching for the underlying causes of disease is preferable to treating symptoms alone.

       Holistic physicians expend as much effort in establishing what kind of patient has a disease as they do in establishing what kind of disease a patient has.

       Prevention is preferable to treatment and is usually more cost effective. The most cost effective approach evokes the patient's own innate healing capabilities.

       A major determinant of healing outcomes is the quality of the relationship established between physician and patient, in which patient autonomy is encourage.

       The ideal physician-patient relationship considers the needs, desires, awareness and insight of the patient as well as those of the physician. Physicians significantly influence patients by their example.

       Illness, pain, and the dying process can be learning opportunities for patients and physicians.

       Holistic physicians encourage patients to evoke the healing power of love, hope, humor, and enthusiasm, and to release the toxic consequences of hostility, shame, greed, and depression, and prolonged fear, anger, and grief.

Why has Holistic Medicine Principles been so slow to be accepted?

       The majority of us who practice conventional medicine have been schooled in what is known as allopathic medicine leading to a doctorate of medicine (M.D.) degree. As with many lofty intellectual pursuits, allopathic medicine tends to select those who are conventional thinkers who may very intelligent, but are conformist in nature. In fact, due to the highly competitive nature of admission to medical school, those who are the most astute at gamesmanship have a higher probability of acceptance to medical school. Therefore, when a new certifying body of medicine was created in 1996, The American Board of Holistic Medicine, it was slow to be accepted into mainstream medicine. Though it has certified over 500 physicians as Holistic medicine specialists, the American Board of Holistic Medicine has yet to be accepted into the American Board of Medical Specialties which is the governing body of all specialty boards in the United States.

       The American Board of Holistic Medicine along with the American Holistic Medical Association had been compiling the scientific data necessary for Holistic medicine to become part of mainstream medicine. There now exists a large body of scientific evidence supporting various alternative medical treatments, however, few of my allopathic colleagues are aware that such evidence exists. Due to the rigorous time demands placed on physicians today, few have the luxury of learning about alternative medical treatments outside of their specialties. Perhaps adding to the skepticism towards alternative medical treatments, is that while they show efficacy in controlled studies, they cannot be explained from a scientific standpoint. An example of this is phenomenon of prayer improving surgical outcomes, or extremely dilute potions known as homeopathic treatments relieving symptoms defy scientific logic.

       Due to the decrease reimbursements by insurers to physicians coupled with the relentless increasing costs of maintaining a medical practice, most physicians have been forced to increase the volume of patients they see in order to keep financially solvent. It can be difficult to give patients the time and compassion required when one has only ten or fifteen minutes to spend with patients. Our allopathic training has also pulled our attention towards our specialty areas such as the heart, the kidney, or the liver while focusing less on the effect of illness on the entire patient, his or her family and society as a whole.

Conclusions

       Several years ago, it was reported by the American Medical Association that the American public has spent more on alternative therapies than on out of pocket expenses for hospital care. It is without a doubt, that the public is seeking medical treatment outside of conventional allopathic medicine. There is also a movement away from the large HMO style group practices and more towards physicians willing to spend a reasonable amount of time with their patients as equal partners in their healthcare. Conventional medicine will not die, it remains exceedingly good at emergency and acute care medicine. Holistic medicine can serve as a cost effective and compassionate means of delivering primary and specialty medical care. As the American Holistic Medical Association and American Board of Holistic Medicine pursue their agenda of education, Holistic medicine will eventually be integrated into mainstream medicine.

Lloyd K. Ito, MD
11/29/03

Using your Quartz

       Quartz ia a strong healing crystal, as it can help focus healthy energy, directing it to the source of sickness. It is the crystal that is most often used in making healing wands, a;though you can also use smaller stones.

       Rub the effected area gently with your crystal and visualize golden light passing from the Earth, up along your spine, through your heart, out along your arms and through the crystal. The crystal will amplify the healing energy as it passes into he effected area.

       Passing a quartz crystal over each of your body's energy centers in turn will clear any blockages and help energy to wash through you.

Fairies and Mental Health        Schizophrenics hallucinate alternate realities. People who claim to have been abducted by aliens are accused of having Fantasy Prone Personalities. So what about those of us who claim to be conversing with angels, fairies, and spirit guides? Are we nuts? Absolutely yes! If we weren’t crazy before we started chatting with the divine, we soon will be. Just the constant questioning of one’s sanity can drive a person insane. How do you know if you’re really talking to spirits or if you’re losing your mind?

       Let me start by saying that until the little creatures begin showing themselves as real and 3D touchable as any other critter on earth and do it on a massive worldwide scale so that they’re able to be counted and kept track of like anyone else on the endangered species list, then you won’t ever really know for sure will you? So why don’t they? Well that’s one of those million dollar questions. As far as I can tell it’s a combination of them not actually existing in a physical sense beyond the spiritual realm and that they get a certain amount of pleasure in teasing and playfully messing with our minds.

       I don’t know what the official stance is according to the Grand PooBah of Psychiatry, but I know that most people who are certifiably insane don’t know that they are. The saying goes that if you are capable of questioning your own sanity, then you must not be too far gone yet. Not very reassuring, I know. Are they real or not? That’s the question you’re asking. I could give you one of those psychobabble answers like, “They are as real as you believe them to be.” Again, that doesn’t really help much.

       Here’s the first question to ask yourself. Do they control you? The reason I ask is because throughout history there have been stories in all religions and cultures of some type of spirits that come to lovingly guide us along our way. So are the spirits controlling you and your life or are they guiding and nudging you? If they’re pushy and controlling you then there’s a higher probability that it’s a psychological game you’re playing with yourself. “The devil made me do it.” That usually means that you don’t want to face your secret motivations and so you have created an entity to force you to do things.

       If they don’t control you and are simply loving guides trying to help out, then do you control them? If you are able to tell them what to do and they are working around the clock at your beck and call, then chances are you’re making them up. Free will is at the core of love. Nobody is forced to do anything. If you’re able to control when they come and go and what they do or do not do to help you, then you aren’t working with separate entities. Angels, fairies, and spirit guides are not our cosmic slaves to be controlled and dictated to. If you can do that, then they aren’t real.

       Are you dependant on them? What I mean by this is that if they are an emotional security blanket then you’ve probably made them up in your mind. Real guardian angels and such are here to help you to believe in yourself, not to make you completely dependant on them for your every thing. If you can’t make a personal decision without your guides and they allow that kind of neediness, then they aren’t real. If you require they’re presence in order to create your art, play your music, or to write your great masterpiece, then chances are you don’t have enough self-esteem and you created a third party in your mind to give the credit to. That’s not the same as occasionally co-creating with them but being able to also work independently. If you are unable to do your spiritual works or offer your gifts to the world without their assistance, then they are probably not real.

       Finally, upon meeting with the spirits and building a strong mentally healthy relationship with them where neither is a control freak bossing the other around and both are free to come and go as they please. Then the last thing to consider is the impact that the relationship has on you. Are you called to do some sort of spiritual work? Are you shown how to give some kind of a gift of love to the world whether it’s music, writing, speaking, art, cleaning up the planet or whatever else? Most people who come into contact with the divine find themselves with some sort of an undying need to spread love and joy around the planet. Real angels, fairies, and spirit guides teach us how to give our greatest gifts to the world. They empower us with the self belief that we have always had whatever is needed to make a difference in the world. If the relationship isn’t spiritual and inspirational, then it’s doubtful that it’s really spirit guides or angels that you’re talking to.

       It is universally understood that the angels, fairies, spirit guides, or whatever other name your culture gives to those messengers of love and light, it is understood that they come from God. Again, it doesn’t matter if you call it God, Mother Nature, the Light, the Force or whatever name you like. These little spirits are divine helpers from the heavens come to cheer you on and to help you find a spiritually divine path. They are not owned by us and cannot be bossed around. They have no control over us and cannot boss us around without our consent. They can work amazing magic when co-creating with us, but they are here to show you your own magic and the divinity within you. Once that’s done, they tend to slip back into the shadows to allow you to shine your own light on your little corner of the world.