Alternative 12 Steps: Nontheistic derivative of the Twelve Steps, expounded by Martha Cleveland, Ph.D., and Arlys G. in The Alternative 12 Steps: A Secular Guide To Recovery (1992). Three of their Steps affirm spiritual resources or spiritual energy.

(See also: Alternative 12 Steps, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

alternative nutrition (alternative nutritional treatments, alternative nutrition strategies, alternative nutrition therapies): Ill-defined group of methods that apparently encompasses Chinese herbal medicine, the Chinese System of Food Cures, and nutrient pharmaco-therapy--administration of specific micronutrients in pharmacologic doses.

(See also: Alternative nutrition, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

acupressure touch: Gentle form of acupressure.

(See also: Acupressure touch, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Ama Deus: Reportedly, a system of healing, magic, and divination used for millennia by Guarani shamen in Brazil. The Guaranis are a South American Indian people.

(See also: Ama Deus, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

auto-suggestion (self-suggestion): Form of verbal therapy wherein one repeats affirmations or suggestions until one's body-mind begins to act accordingly.

(See also: Auto-suggestion, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

auricular reflexology: Mode of reflexology whose focus is the ear. Dr. P.F.M. Nogier of France discovered the method in 1967.

(See also: Auricular reflexology, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

biodynamic psychology (Biodynamic therapy): Therapeutic approach developed by Gerda Boyesen, a clinical psychologist and physiotherapist born in Norway. It is related to bioenergetics. One of its principles is that, when bodily fluids do not circulate efficiently or tissues are not properly cleansed, emotional tensions or blockages show up and keep bioenergy from vitalizing the body.

(See also: Biodynamic psychology, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Acu-Powder (Acupowder treatment): One of the clinic services offered by the School of Classical Taoist Herbology, in Manhattan (New York City). It involves application of a remarkable herbal powder to acupoints.

(See also: Acu-Powder, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Biogram Therapy: (biogram healing, Biogram Healing System, biogram mind-body healing, Biogram System): Treatment developed by Dr. Richard Johnson. It involves guided imagery and is the basis of an audiocassette program. Biogram refers toa something that communicates directly with the source of a malady to initiate the healing process on mental and physical levels.

The principles of Biogram Therapy include these:

(a)           One can learn how to use one's mind to correct any negative physical conditions in various areas of the body.

(b)           Everyone possesses a cellular memory, the experience of one's ancestors in genetic code, which may cause otherwise inexplicable difficulties for the individual.

(c)           One can develop both the ability to see inside one's body with one's mind and the ability to derive information from one's DNA archives (the Library of Time), with which one can retrain oneself at the cellular level.

(See also: Biogram Therapy, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

behavioral kinesiology (BK): Brand of applied kinesiology developed by psychiatrist John Diamond, M.D., author of Behavioural Kinesiology: How to Activate Your Thymus and Increase Your Life Energy (Harper and Row, 1979). Therein, he defined BK as an integration of psychiatry, psychosomatic medicine, kinesiology, preventive medicine and the humanities.

(See also: Behavioral kinesiology, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

bleeding manipulation (bloodletting therapy): Component of Chinese auricular therapy that is a form of acupoint bloodletting.

(See also: Bleeding manipulation, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Alphabiotics: Brainchild of Dr. V.B. Chrane, who began practicing it in the 1920s near Abilene, Texas. His son, Dr. Virgil Chrane, Jr., founded Alphabiotics as a profession on December 28, 1971. Its theory posits a lesser self, a Greater Self, and Life energy. Practitioners are called alphabioticists. (See Alphabiotic Alignment/Unification Process.)

(See also: Alphabiotics, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Ayurvedic nutrition (Ayurvedic diet): Nutritional phase of Ayurveda. It involves eating according to

(a)           one's body type and

(b)          the season.

The activity of the doshas - three bodily humors, dynamic forces, or spirits that possess - determines one's body type. In Ayurveda, body types number seven, eight, or ten, and seasons traditionally number six. Each two-month season corresponds to a dosha; for example, the two seasons that correspond to the dosha named Pitta (see Raktamoksha) constitute the period of mid-March through mid-July. But some proponents enumerate three seasons: summer (when pitta predominates), autumn, and winter (the season of kapha); or Vata season (fall and winter), Kapha season (spring), and Pitta season (summer).

According to Ayurvedic theory, one should lessen one's intake of foods that increase (aggravate) the ascendant dosha.

(See also: Ayurvedic nutrition, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

acupoint bloodletting: Form of bloodletting characterized by puncturing acupoints with needles. Its common usage has various purposes, including activation of blood, clearance of channels (meridians), and reduction of hotness.

(See also: Acupoint bloodletting, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

acupuncture anesthesia (acupuncture analgesia, acupuncture assisted anesthesia, anesthetic acupuncture): Use of acupuncture to relieve pain during surgery wherein the patient is conscious, either in conjunction with or instead of analgesics or chemical anesthetics. It was introduced in 1958 in the People's Republic of China.

(See also: Acupuncture anesthesia, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Acuscope therapy (Electro-Acuscope therapy): Form of energy medicine (vibrational medicine) that speeds healing of virtually any injury. Its centerpiece is the Acuscope (also called the Electro-Acuscope), a computerized device that balances the body's electrical current.

(See also: Acuscope therapy, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Baguazhang (circle walking, circle walking method, circle walking technique, Pa Kua Chang, Pa Kua Zhang, Taoist Circular Motion of Meditation and Tendon Changing, Taoist circular walking practice): Art developed by Dong Hai-Chuan, a Chinese, during the mid-1800s. It boils down to walking in a circle but encompasses at least a dozen stepping techniques, such as the chicken step, the elephant step, the snake step, and the mud walking step. it can improve cultivation of chi and conduces to uniting man, heaven, and earth.

(See also: Baguazhang, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

aura analysis (aura reading, auric diagnosis): direct or indirect examination of the vital energy that envelops each human. Nonpsychics can analyze the aura through Kirlian photography or a Kilner screen.

Dr. Walter J. Kilner (1847-1920) of St. Thomas's Hospital, in London, invented this screen: two plates of glass, an eighth of an inch apart, containing an alcoholic solution of a dye (usually carmine or a coal-tar dye).

Auric colors reveal the personal traits of the subject, such as impressionableness and spiritual arrogance. Proponents also associate auric colors with glands, organs, organ systems, and psychological states such as anger and boredom.

(See also: Aura analysis, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Bindegewebsmassage (bindegewebsmassage system, connective tissue massage): Form of bodywork developed in Germany in the 1930s by Elisabeth Dicke. Its theory resembles that of traditional acupuncture, positing a powerful association between particular areas of connective tissue (e.g., cartilage) and specific paths of the nervous system and internal organs.

(See also: Bindegewebsmassage, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)