Sunday, June 27, 2010

Naturopathy's Essential Vitalism - ND Lloyd's ISBN 0443069557

here, I cite from Canadian naturopath Lloyd's 2009 book "The Energetics of Health: A Naturopathic Assessment" which is all about naturopathy's central, science-ejected vitalistic premise!

001. Lloyd, I. (ND CCNM 2002) states in "The Energetics of Health: A Naturopathic  Assessment" (ISBN 0443069557; 2009):

"the body has an innate ability to heal (vis medicatrix naturae) [p.xi...] we once again believe that human life is integrated with nature (holism) and that there is a force, beyond ourselves, that guides us (vitalism) [and teleology per its purposefulness, p.004...] Socrates [...] used the term logos or 'will to live' to describe the vital principle present in man, yet the origins of vitalism are often associated with Aristotle [..] the 'soul' animated and directed the body [p.005...] vital substances [...include] qi [...] qi is the animating life force and substance.  It is considered the essence of life and the origin of all other vital substances [p.021...] naturopathic medical principles and philosophy [...] the healing power of nature (vis medicatrix naturae) [p.029...] the naturopathic principles and philosophy are [...#2] the healing power of nature (vis medicatrix naturae) [p.030...] the healing power of nature (vis medicatrix naturae).  The healing power of nature is an important principle of naturopathic medicine. [Quoting NDs Murray and Pizzorno] 'the basic philosophical premise of naturopathic medicine is that there is an inherent healing power in nature' [p.032...] the personal essence is a descriptive concept of an individual's vital or life forceVital force is considered the primary force of all forces.  It is the divine creative intelligence.  The collective life force, or vital force, is a common pool of subtle energy [...] personal essence refers to an individual's life force or vital energy, which comes from the collective life force [p.040...] systems theory supports the concepts of vitalism and holism [p.060...] qi or life force [p.102...] the naturopathic definition of health and disease is based on the concepts of holism and vitalism [p.120...] the life force or qi [p.196...] life force is the force, power or energy which enlivens the material organism [...] the spirit-like life force that enlivens [...] prana is the life force, equivalent to qi [...] the vital life-sustaining force [...] qi is a Chinese term for vital energy or life force [...] the concept of qi, or some similar life force, is incorporated into many therapies used in the holistic approach to health [p.238...] vitalism is the view that life is governed by forces beyond oneself.  There's forces are unique to living beings and permit them to go on living. The forces cannot be reduced to physical laws.  Often it is associated with the notions of spirit or soul [p.239]."

Note: particularly how this central naturopathic belief incorporates aspects of vitalism, spiritism, and teleology, what I call naturopathy's "purposeful life spirit" belief amalgam.  Energy, of course, is a cooptation of a scientific concept -- here, serving the purposes of supernaturalism. Actual energy is a property of the physical universe, not an ethereal metaphysical figmentation.

002. I've employed this Lloyd citation as an introduction to posts that will follow concerning the debate that recently occurred on Canada's The Michael Coren Show between CFI-CASS members and NDs Rouchotas (CCNM 2004) and Tardik (CCNM).

Rouchotas practices with Lloyd, and stated [quite condescendingly, in my opinion] on Coren:

"sir, what makes you think that modern naturopathic medicine isn’t progressing? [14.41...] read, sir. Read [36.12...] this is well-entrenched science [36.50]."

My answer would be this: 

well, what makes me think that so-called modern naturopathy isn't progressing is the fact that so-called modern naturopathy has ignored the progress of science, in the biological arena particularly, that has been occurring for several decades, wherein such essentially naturopathic concepts like vitalism, supernaturalism and teleology -- what Lloyd gushes over for an entire book -- are indeed science-ejected.

Read, sir, read [ya smarmy git].

In the sense that, truly, the science-exterior is falsely labeled science by naturopaths, ND opinings of  'the scientific basis of ____' or 'the scientific evidence for ____' are quite ABSURD!

Warning: science has been unlimited by naturopathy to such an untenable extent that naturopathy's use of the words science and evidence are meaningless.

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