Nature Cure.

Vis medicatrix naturae – the healing power of nature – is the core tenet of a system of medicine known as Nature Cure. This power describes the healing ability inherent to the body that is governed by the laws of nature. Nature – being both the sum total of the energetic forces at work throughout the Universe and the elements of the natural world, such as mountains, rivers, plants and animals – is ordered and intelligent.

The human body has a natural state, and when it is thrown into disequilibrium the body experiences “dis-ease”. Human biology is self-regulating; it naturally corrects and adjusts to reach a homeostatic equilibrium. Inherent to the theory of Nature Cure is the definition of health as an adherence to the basic laws and energy patterns of Nature. The origin of disease is viewed as noncompliance with Nature’s laws. Nature cure practitioners acknowledge that the nature of human biology, as the nature of the Universe, is to maintain equilibrium.

It is my belief that a healer’s primary role is to identify and remove obstacles to equilibrium and to facilitate and augment the natural healing ability both within the individual and also within the larger community.

When the behavior of a human being, or of a community of human beings, diverges from these laws, the natural harmony of the macrocosm (Universe) is disturbed. As a result, the vibrational state of the human body is similarly altered.

When one lives out of harmony with the laws of nature, one gets sick. Historically, the role of the healer in both naturopathic and classical Chinese medicine was to first recognize the imbalances manifesting in the human being as disease symptoms and then to look towards identifying the root of this imbalance with the relationship between human beings and everything else that is not human: the more-than-human world.

For a deeper understanding of nature cure please follow this link to Handouts and select Thesis Handout. This is an account of how I got into natural medicine, and conveys my approach and philosophy of healing with an emphasis on nature cure.