New Age Medicine

The Reissers and Weldon write on a subject that is storming the health care system; "alternative" medicine. It's all over the place, and there's plenty of people in my church who dabble in it or actually make a living as "alternative doctors" with no idea whatsoever that they're involved with something that isn't Christian in origin, and is likely at odds with a Christian worldview (depending on what they're doing). The Reissers and Weldon work through the underlying worldview behind much of what falls outside of the "western medicine" veil and explain how little there is in common between the eastern and western worldviews from which their corresponding medical views and practices arise. They work through the main common denominators of much of the eastern worldviews (namely Hinduism, Buddhism, Tribal Shamanism and their various sub-groups) and they explain what the 'doctor' is doing (in the context of the worldview from which the practice emerges) when they wave their hands over you, put needles into you, tell you to meditate, etc. They examine things like Applied Kinesiology and Touch for Health, Qi Gong, Acupuncture, Biofeedback, Therapeutic Touch, Homeopathy, Jin Shin Do, Iridiology, Psychic Healing, Rolfing, Eastern Meditation, Kirlian Photography, Orgonomy, Palmerian Chiropractic and various forms of oriental massage (Do'in, Shiatsu, etc.). The Reissers and Weldon comment extensively on the various systems of thought and are quite well read. They don't over simplify, but this also isn't a medical textbook. They explain things as straightforwardly as they can (though much of most eastern worldviews are dramatically foreign to any unfamiliar westerners) and give a good amount of commentary on the empirical verification for many "alternative medicine" systems and practices. Theologically, they connect worldviews with their outflows (i.e. religious systems with medical beliefs), knowing that most eastern cultures don't compartmentalize life like we do in North America. This means that they evaluate the practices on the basis of their own explanations for them, and offer suggestions to steer clear of systems that become non-systems when the religious element is removed (i.e. if you don't believe that your body is an illusion made by your mind and all disease stems from problems related to 'energy' flow in your 'illusory' body, then any form of 'correcting' that flow becomes utterly meaningless). They work through Christian implications for interacting with eastern religious practices masquerading as "medicine" and caution the believer to no dabble in the mystical and ultimately satanic. But, the Reissers and Weldon also don't throw the entire "alternative medicine" enterprise under the bus. They recognize that there is lots of health related possibility with vegetables, fruits and various compounds that are unfamiliar to North American medicine. They recognize that western medicine has become increasingly obsessed with simply treat