Coming Down to Earth

Many of our contemporary mind/body/spirit activities, whether ancient or brand new, have been lumped under the heading New Age and also must respond. The mind/body/spirit practices and the many therapies that have sprung from them have been a major step towards a holistic consciousness where life and health are viewed in terms of a whole system, in contrast to the fragmented view that evolved with mechanistic science. The validity and need for mind/body/spirit practices has allowed them to grow into one of the new major tools available to both health care professionals and the general public, and the popularity of these practices and concepts can readily be seen by the plethora of services, magazines, and books now available on these subjects.

However, for all the validity and genuine healing brought about by the mind/body/spirit awareness there is something seriously missing. Where are our natural and man-made environments in this equation? We see mind, we see body, and we see spirit, but what about Earth, the very entity that provides for our life? What about the ecologically disastrous condition of our massive cities and the complete lack of aesthetic beauty in our urban and suburban living spaces? Can you really heal the separation between mind, body, and spirit while still exploiting and destroying the natural environment? The glaring absence of "environment" in these new mind/body/spirit movements is a major tragedy in the beginning of this new millennium.

People are flocking to resources of mind/body/spirit practices because they have lost faith in traditional psychological and scientific procedures and because these resources and practitioners are viewed as being on the cutting edge of healing technologies, as they supposedly understand that true healing must affect the total human organism to be truly effective. But the total human organism encompasses mind/body/environment/spirit. We are just as much a part of our environment as we are our minds, bodies, and spirits. Healing the whole naturally leads to healing ourselves, just as healing ourselves naturally heals the whole...read more ...