A dictionary of Parapsychology. Please note that words in grey are hyperlinked to a corresponding archive with articles related to that particular topic.

Misapprehension (Mithya-Jnana), faults (Dosha), activity (Pravritti), birth (Janma) and pain (Duhkha) constitute the world. False notion or false knowledge is at the root of all misery and pain. From Mithya-Jnana or false notion comes the fault of like and dislike (Raga-Dvesha); from Raga-Dvesha proceeds Karma or action - virtuous or vicious - which forces a man to pass through repeated births for the sake of its reward or punishment. From these births proceed misery and pain.

Excerpt from All About Hinduism by Sri Swami Sivananda

Read more here: » Bondage: Vedic Philosophy - The Cause Of Bondage And The Means To Emancipation

firewalking: The trance-inducing ceremonial practice of walking over a bed of smoldering, red-hot coals as an expression of faith and sometimes as a form of penance. Participants describe it as a euphoric experience in which no pain is felt and no burns received. Many lose body consciousness during the walk.

Firewalking is associated with folk-shamanic Shaktism and is popular among Hindu communities inside and outside India.

See: folk-shamanic, penance, Shaktism.

(See also: Firewalking , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

chi (ki) energy flow: Treatment invented by Masato Nakagawa, Ph.D., the founder of Shinkiko. It relieves discomfort and pain by improving energy flow. the names chi (ki) energy flow and true ki energy flow (see Shinkiko) are synonymous.

(See also: Chi (Ki, Qi) energy flow , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Christian Science (Science): Religion founded in 1879 by Mary (Morse) Baker Eddy (1821-1910).

Christian Science basic principle is: mind is the only reality; illness, pain, and death are illusory. Christian Science practitioners engage in absent healing and can bring about resurrections. Members of The First Church of Christ, Scientist generally choose Christianly scientific prayer over medical treatment. Church officials accept their religion's association with alternative healthcare.

(See also: Christian Science , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

CHELATION THERAPY: typically administered in an osteopathic or medical doctorÕs office, chelation therapy is a series of intravenous injections of the synthetic amino acid EDTA, designed to detoxify the body. Often used to treat arteriosclerosis, angina, AlzheimerÕs disease.

EDTA stands for ethylenediaminetetruacetic acid (an amino acid). FDA approved for removing lead and other heavy metals from the bloodstream. One theory holds that chelation removes the calcium in arterial plaque; another suggests that EDTA works as an antioxidant. Proponents say that chelation also reverses gangrene, relieves the pain associated with lupus and arthritis, and reverses memory loss.

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

Chun Do Sun Bup Energy Healing: 6,000-year-old healing Art whose principle is that energy shortage or disruption is the cause of all diseases and pain.

(See also: Chun Do Sun Bup Energy Healing , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

JIN SHIN DO

Developed by psychotherapist Iona Marsaa Teeguarden, Jin Shin Do combines gentle, yet deep finger pressure on acu-points with simple body focusing techniques to release physical and emotional tension. The client determines the depth of the pressure.

Jin Shin Do promotes a pleasurable, trancelike state during which the recipient can get in touch with the body and access feelings or emotions related to the physical condition. This body/mind approach, performed on the fully-clothed client, is a synthesis of a traditional Japanese acupressure technique, classic Chinese acupuncture theory, Taoist yogic philosophy and breathing methods, and Reichian segmental theory. The client lies on her back on a massage table while the practitioner holds “local points” in tension areas together with related “distal points,” which help the armored places to release more easily and deeply. A typical session is about 11?2 hours.

Jin Shin Do acupressure is effective in helping relieve tension and fatigue, stress-related headaches and gastro-intestinal problems, back and shoulder pain, eye strain, menstrual and menopausal imbalances, sinus pain, and allergies. (With medical problems, the client is asked to consult a doctor.) Over a period of 10 or more sessions, armoring is progressively released in the head, neck, shoulders, chest, diaphragm, abdomen, pelvis, and legs.

After sessions, clients typically feel deeply relaxed and may even feel euphoric. If the client is responsive, there will be significantly less tension and pain together with an increased sense of well-being for hours or days. This response will tend to extend after further sessions. In the case of chronic fatigue, initially the client may feel more tired after a session, because the body is demanding rest. It is advisable to schedule sessions with time to rest and relax afterward. On the other hand, Jin Shin Do can be used before athletic events to improve performance, for horses as well as for people. “The Way of the Compassionate Spirit” is based on the eight “Strange Flows” that regulate the entire body/mind energy.

(See also: JIN SHIN DO , Alternative Health, Massage, Bodywork, Body Mind and Soul)

MUSIC THERAPY

Music therapy is the prescribed use of music by a qualified person to effect positive changes in the psychological, physical, cognitive, or social functioning of individuals who have health or educational problems.

The idea of music as a healing influence that can affect health and behavior is as least as old as the writings of Aristotle and Plato. The 20th century discipline began after World War I and World War II when community musicians of all types, both amateur and professional, went to veterans' hospitals around the country to play for the thousands of veterans suffering both physical and emotional trauma from the wars. The patients' physical and emotional improvements in response to music led the doctors and nurses to request that hospitals hire musicians. 

For children, illness and hospitalizations disrupt normal living patterns, school and important social activities. Music therapy helps to reduce this disruption by providing sensitive, creative interventions--including playing instruments and writing songs. These interventions also offer acute and chronically ill children the chance to learn, express themselves, interact with family and peers and, simply, relax and enjoy themselves. Even parents and siblings can join the fun and experience the benefits. The power of music is documented: Studies have shown that music can influence heart rate, respiration, blood pressure, pain perception, physical health and well-being. Music is loved by young and old.

(See also: MUSIC THERAPY , Alternative Health, Holistic Health, Body Mind and Soul)

BODYWORK: The term bodywork refers to therapies such as massage, deep tissue manipulation, movement awareness, and energy balancing, which are employed to improve the structure and functioning of the human body.

Bodywork in all its forms helps to reduce pain, soothe injured muscles, stimulate blood and lymphatic circulation, and promote deep relaxation.

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

Spirit. The lack of any mutual agreement between writers in the use of this word has resulted in dire confusion.

It is commonly made synonymous with soul; and the lexicographers countenance the usage. In Theosophical teachings. the term "Spirit" is applied solely to that which belongs directly to Universal Consciousness, and which is its homogeneous and unadulterated emanation. Thus, the higher Mind in Man or his Ego (Manas) is, when linked indissolubly with Buddhi, a spirit; while the term "Soul", human or even animal (the lower Manas acting in animals as instinct), is applied only to Kama-Manas, and qualified as the living soul.

This is nephesh, in Hebrew, the "breath of life". Spirit is formless and immaterial, being, when individualised, of the highest spiritual substance - Suddasatwa, the divine essence, of which the body of the manifesting highest Dhyanis are formed. Therefore, the Theosophists reject the appellation " Spirits" for those phantoms which appear in the phenomenal manifestations of the Spiritualists, and call them "shells", and various other names. (See "Sukshma Sarira".)

Spirit, in short, is no entity in the sense of having form ; for, as Buddhist philosophy has it, where there is a form, there is a cause for pain and suffering. But each individual spirit - this individuality lasting only throughout the manvantaric life-cycle - may be described as a centre of consciousness, a self-sentient and self-conscious centre; a state, not a conditioned individual.

This is why there is such a wealth of words in Sanskrit to express the different States of Being, Beings and Entities, each appellation showing the philosophical difference, the plane to which such unit belongs, and the degree of its spirituality or materiality. Unfortunately these terms are almost untranslatable into our Western tongues.

(See also: Spirit , Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,)

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)

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Alternative Health Dictionary

Below are the archives for the 4269 dictionary entries related to alternative health. The great advantage with this dictionary is that each word is linking to an archive with

1. explanations of the word from several sources<br>

2. articles related to the word, where the phrase is used in its natural context.<br>

Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary

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ACUPUNCTURE: Acupuncture originated in China over five thousand years ago. It is based on the belief that health is determined by a balanced flow of qi (also referred to as chi), the vital life energy present in all living organisms.

According to acupuncture theory, qi circulates in the body along twelve major pathways, called meridians, each linked to specific internal organs and organ systems. According to William Michael Cargile, B.S., D.C., F.I.A.C.A., Chairman of Research for the American Association of Acupuncture and Oriental medicine, there are over a thousand acupoints within the meridian system that can be stimulated to enhance the flow of qi. When special needles are inserted into these acupoints (just under the skin), they help correct and rebalance the flow of energy and consequently relieve pain and/or restore health.

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

 Pida:

pain

(See also:  Pida , Body Mind and Soul)

Analgesic: A substance that relieves pain.

(See also: Analgesic , Ayurveda, Ayurvedic Dictionary, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

 Duhkha:

pain, grief

(See also:  Duhkha , Body Mind and Soul)

Chakras: Vishuddha Chakra.

Vishuddha (or Vishuddhi) is the throat chakra. Words are, literally, "shaped currents of air" (the heart element); thus, "the word become flesh" is found as the opened heart. The elemental ether that lives in vishuddha is even more subtle than air and is thus "more than words can say." Vishuddha permeates words with their spirit, their near-ineffable meanings, nuances, and innuendoes often lost in a too-literalness. In other instances, subtle meaning is lost to us because we are in too much pain or fear or, worse, because we are blinded by greed or vengeance.

Read more here: » Chakras: Vishuddha Chakra (Vishuddhi)

Acupressure

Oriental healing system using direct finger pressure to specific tension spots to reduce stress and pain and affect healing. Also called Shiatsu massage and Reflexology.

(See also: Acupressure , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Acupuncture: An ancient element of traditional Chinese medicine. This practice can balance the flow of vital life energy, or qi throughout the body. Practitioners insert special needles into accupoints just below the skin’s surface in order to bring qi into harmony. It can treat a wide range of diseases, help manage pain, and build the immune response.

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

ACUPUNCTURE

Acupuncture is an ancient oriental healing technique based on the Taoist philosophy of balancing energy meridians within the body, thus allowing the body to heal itself.

Fine needles are painlessly inserted at key points corresponding to body organs to relieve pain and cure disease and dysfunction. Related techniques include the use of low voltage, electric current (electro acupuncture) or massage at key points (acupressure).

(See also: ACUPUNCTURE , Alternative Health, Massage, Bodywork, Body Mind and Soul)

ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE: The Alexander technique is a method used to help people illuminate their unconscious patterns of body tension and correct habits that cause physical and emotional problems.

It is used to allow a person to pattern his or her body's movement, inhibiting habits that cause tension or pain and replacing them with those that help his or her body to function more efficiently. Teachers of the Alexander technique believe that people can gain greater control over the way they use their bodies once these habitual movements are brought to consciousness. An individual may then apply new and healthier ways of using his or her body to improve the performance of activities in his or her life.

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