American and International Info Resources

Angie grew up in a family where she was the caretaker. The oldest of four, Angie was the only member of her family capable of deep caring, empathy and compassion. As a result, she was always attempting to protect her brother and sisters from her father’s physical and emotional abuse. Even her mother learned to turn to her for help and protection. Because everyone learned to rely on Angie, when things didn’t turn out the way they wanted, Angie was the one they blamed.

Angie became an invisible child. Because of her acute sensitivity to other’s feelings and needs, her feelings and needs went unnoticed. Everyone in her family wanted to take from her, but no one wanted to give to her. Angie was not a happy child.

As an adult, Angie did much inner healing work. She discovered that she had been ignoring her own feelings and needs while caretaking others. As she learned to take loving care of herself and let go of taking responsibility for everyone else’s feelings and needs, her family became furious with her. How dare she take care of herself instead of them! The blame that Angie had always experienced from her family intensified. Nothing Angie said had any impact on her family’s behavior toward her. They refused to support her in taking care of herself. They just wanted her back in the old system.

Angie finally decided that, although she loved her family, she needed to disengage from them. She realized that it was not loving to herself to allow her family to continue to treat her badly. She was unwilling to continue the old family system, and she realized that she had no control over how her family treated her. Angie broke almost all communication with her family for three years.

Of course, this caused her parents and siblings to blame her even more. During the few times that Angie communicated with her mother, the hostility was extreme. “What is the matter with you? Have you gone nuts? How can you abandon your family? You are being so selfish! Don’t you care about us?” Angie knew that it was useless to try to explain. Her mother didn’t really want to know the answers to these questions - she just wanted to have control over Angie.

It took three years before anyone in her family started to treat Angie with any sense of respect. It took three years before they accepted that they could no longer treat her badly if they wanted a relationship with her. Presently, Angie has a much better relationship with her family. While they will never have the deep caring and compassion for her that she has for them, they no longer expect her to take responsibility for their feelings and needs, and they no longer blame her for the problems that arise.

The question of disengaging from one’s family, or from a particular member of the family, often comes up in my counseling work with individuals and couples. Many people have been taught that it is wrong to pull away from one’s family - that one should keep the family unit intact at all costs. Many people have been taught that it is loving to sacrifice themselves for their family, and selfish to take care of themselves.

The problem with these beliefs is that it gives a person, who is being blamed and disrespected by their family, no way out. Many of the people I work with, who have problems with their families, know that they would never allow a stranger to treat them the way their family treats them. Yet they feel afraid if they think about speaking up for themselves, and guilty if they think about disengaging from an emotionally abusive family relationship.

Sometimes the most loving act, both for oneself and for others, is to disengage from an abusive relationship. It is not loving to ourselves to allow ourselves to be treated disrespectfully, and it is not loving to others to allow them to treat us disrespectfully. Angie’s whole family is much better off today than before she disengaged, even though they were furious at her for it. Angie was actually being very loving to them by expecting them to treat her with caring and respect.

Margaret Paul, Ph.D. is the best-selling author and co-author of eight books, including “Do I Have To Give Up Me To Be Loved By You?” She is the co-creator of the powerful Inner Bonding healing process. Visit her web site for a FREE Inner Bonding course: www.innerbonding.com or email her at margaret@innerbonding.com.

Your home theater is the central room for entertainment in your house and you want to make sure you get the right accessories to make it the best it can be. Some home theater accessories can be decorative while others are functional - and some like your TV might even be both!

How you decorate your home theater is a matter of personal preference, some folks like to have it look like an old time movie theater with vintage seats and a popcorn machine while others simply want a comfy couch to sit in. Still others don’t care about the décor and want to put all their money into getting the best electronic accessories they can afford.

When you are designing your home theater, you are going to have many options to take into consideration. This is often the most difficult thing that you will have to deal with when designing your home theater. The amount of accessories that are available are endless; and even though you may have a hard time choosing, this is also a good problem because you will always be able to find what you need after a little bit of searching.

There are many options here - you can go with a home theater in a box where everything you need is included, you can have a home theater consultant come in and design the system for you or, you can buy the pieces yourself separately and put together a custom system with all the parts that way you want it.

One of the most popular home theater accessories have to do with your stereo set up. Many people buy extra speakers to set up so that their home theater has surround sound. Even though this is not a necessity in order to have a solid home theater, it can definitely help. In addition, a large music collection may be something that you want to look into. In order to take your home theater to the next level, you can add hundreds of DVDs and CDs to your collection. This will go a long way in ensuring that you can always entertain your audience regardless of who they are or what kind of mood they are in.

Home theater accessories can be bought in a number of different places. Most people head to an electronics super store first. Here, you will be able to find hundreds of accessories that you can buy to customize your home theater. In addition, you may want to go online to check out one of the hundreds of online stores that sell home theater equipment.

Home theater accessories consist of hundreds of different options. Even though you will never be able to have every accessory that is available on the market today, you can at least buy a couple as a way to customize your set up. If money is an issue, you can start small and work your way up or even buy used components and save up for the super duper system that you really want.

No matter what you buy in the way of home theater accessories, having your friends and family around to enjoy your entertainment system with you is sure to make it the best home theater in town!

WHY REBUILD NEW ORLEANS?

On THIS WEEK WITH GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS Mr. Stephanopoulos noted
a “cold shoulder from federal officials who made many promises”
and that some congressmen are hearing from their districts “why
should I be paying to rebuild New Orleans?” even the Hon. Ray
Nagin, Mayor of New Orleans noted, “New Orleans …pushed to the
background”.

Where does this question come from? It comes from the lack of
information by the federal government, the State of Louisiana
and the media who themselves are resisting efforts to tell the
truth of the worth of the City of New Orleans. Why do they
resist? Simply because the majority of the people who will be
helped are poor and predominately black American. America is
built on a class structure. Those in authority and the media
relate to those who are already in a position of prominence and
wealth and if you are not, and if you are not a part of the
prevailing group: “forget you”!

Case in point: I (jazzhu.com) produced, directed, wrote,
photographed and edited the only Jazz Film in film history to
cover the City of New Orleans named “New Orleans The Crescent”,
which covered the city and completely gets ride of any question
as to the “necessity” (as if you needed any reasoning as to why
to rebuild a city from Omaha, to New York City or to repairs
made after the San Francisco and Los Angeles earthquakes of
recent years) of rebuilding any American city. As this film
exists for the entire WORLD to see, why does this question of
rebuilding still persist?

Simply, because despite our best effort to let America know that
this one of a kind film exists, those in authority are
whistling-past-the-grave yard called New Orleans trying to
pretend that they did not hear us. Why? Because we are not a
part of any partisan group, just a part of the American group. I
personally contacted CNN’s Lou Dobbs’ staff to no avail; I sent
a tape to a Senior Producer at ABC’s Nightline, a Ms. Sarah Just
(the tape was received by ABC on September 19, 2005), I have
sent e-mails to every e-mail I could find for the City of New
Orleans and have in times past I tried to contact the State of
Louisiana about development in the state–ALL TO NO AVAIL. Why
is this happening? The perception is politics as usual, that as
ABC is owned by Disney Corp. and that CNN is owned by Time
Warner and that those companies do not want a top film making
headway and they did not produce it. AS for the city and state,
it is just POLITICS AS USUAL!

Why am I so strident, simply because when the first black baby,
elderly person or any person died in the City of New Orleans due
to negligence: ALL BETS ARE OFF! To quote MLK “Now is the Time!
The federal government, the State of Louisiana and the media,
now controlled by big business, are playing with fire and the
lives of Louisiana residence. Delaying immediate, smart,
articulate, inventive and decent action regarding New Orleans IS
NOT AN OPTION. Some hope not to spend billions of dollars on a
people–who if the governments of America had spent a percentage
of those monies on such people years ago and the media had stuck
on the governments of America to do so–would not have died and
we would not even ask the question as to why rebuild.

As for now, NEW ORLEANS THE CRESCENT (the movie) answers the
question WHY REBUILD NEW ORLEANS–now MOVE America!

By: HUMAN UTILITIES WHOLE ARMOUR®

Flax seed oil is considered one of the best vegetable sources of omega 3 fatty acids. Omega 3 fatty acids are a special kind of polyunsaturated fat with many health benefits, which I’m sure you’ve heard about in the health news. When it comes to your training and diet, getting enough omega 3 fatty acids is very important.

Omega 3 fatty acids have far reaching benefits on health and the management of chronic disease. In fact, research has shown that they lower blood levels of triglycerides and very low density lipoproteins (VLDL). Triglycerides are a form of fat found in the blood stream that basically provides the necessary energy for cells to function.

However, high levels of triglycerides can be harmful to the body, and more specifically, your heart. Very low density lipoprotein can be a heart damaging form of cholesterol, which of course, is a bad thing.

To help reduce the effects of high levels of triglycerides and very low density lipoproteins, you must include essential fats in your diet. Why not start enjoying the healing benefit of flax seed oil?

Omega 3 fats lower blood pressure in people with high blood pressure and recent evidence has shown that omega 3 fats may bolster the immune system. You can see that the health benefits of flax seed oil can greatly give you a much needed health boost.

Doctors have long suggested flax seed oil to prevent Prostate and Breast Cancer because it is used to promote the circulation and cardiovascular health, as it is a dietary supplement. For many years, doctors have recommended this oil as it gives benefits to men and women.

Doctors have recommended that the Benefits of Flax Seed Oil is much more because it is a natural dietary supplement instead of taking drugs etc. Americans have, of course, been (for the most part) followers of the Western doctrine of medicine, which says a clinical approach to solving health problems, treated with synthetically produced medications and surgery.

Garlic and flax seed oil have been used as a preventive medicine for many health problems. Though, doctors and health professionals of the West have given new thought to the benefits of alternative medicines like those found in natural dietary supplements. Healers in the East like in China use natural supplements for their proven effects.

Medical professionals have also found links between Omega-3 deficiencies and depression. In addition, children who are afflicted with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are also known to produce low levels of these fatty acids. Taken regularly, flax seed oil may help overcome these deficiencies.

Here are some of the health benefits of flax seed oil:

Benefit of flax seed oil for coronary heart disease - Omega 3 helps reduce cholesterol, blood pressure, plaque formation and cardiac arrhythmia.

Benefit of flax seed oil for Arthritis - With the help of flax seed oil patients can reduce their drug use.

Benefit of flax seed oil for Cancer - Omega 3 kills certain cancer cells without harming normal cells.

Skin problems like acne, eczema and psoriasis are related to Omega 3 deficiency. Omega 3 fatty acids also helps improve your response to stress.

Other health benefits of flax seed oil:

Flax seeds hold twelve percent mucilage making it gentle, natural laxative and perfect for sensitive stomach.

• It acts as a buffer to surplus stomach acids

• It is very helpful in treatment of ulcers and irritable bowel disorders

• It is very useful lubricates and absorbs toxins

• It prevents toxin build up in the bowel

Personally, I use flax seed oil in all my protein drinks. Simply add 1 to 2 tablespoons in your protein drinks and you can start enjoying the healing benefit of flax seed oil. Whether you are training to build muscle or lose weight, I highly recommend that you start using a flax seed oil supplement in your diet.

Blake Bissaillion is the owner of http://www.building-muscle101.com. Building Muscle 101.com offers free weight lifting routines for the advanced and beginning
weight trainer. Also offers free menus, nutritional tips, diet tips and much more including a free 80 page manual on how to build muscle and strength.

Website Design Usability Tips

1. Getting to know about audience members

You want a site that has personality and quality content based on your audience taste. You have to understand their color preferences, technical skills and any prevalence of special needs.

2. Make the interface simple and obvious

The more obvious the interface is, the less frustration the site visitor has to guess about how your site works. You want the audience to concentrate on the content, not the interface.

3. Readability

Make paragraph easy to read. Don’t use small text for font size.

4. Make your page fast loading

Reduce the waiting time is a must if your page over 20KB.

5. Avoid hidden (rollover to reveal) navigation

It makes for a very clean design if all your navigation is hidden, but it may also mean that people won’t know where to click to go somewhere.

6. Get user feedback

Find out what works and what doesn’t.

7. Study site visitor performance

How long does it take to performance a given task? The time it takes to do thing has got to be reasonable. If it’s not reasonable, improve user interaction wherever possible.

8. Help section (site map, 404)

When site visitors make a mistake try to provide many ways to help them out of it.

9. Test early and test often

Test your code for bugs on web browsers. Test the interface for usability. Ask your friends and colleagues for in depth and valuable feedback.

Please don’t think that the website usability techniques discussed above are the be all and end all of web usability as they are not.

Sam H Mah is a search engine optimization website designer who provides web standard compliant website for small and corporate clients around Canada and the world. Request a FREE usability / SEO website critique.

We know that bond prices, like anything else with a price, can be tracked on a point and figure chart. We can also monitor the relative strength of bonds, just like we do with stocks. Also, when bonds in general gave a relative strength sell signal over two years ago, we knew that this group would likely perform poorly, when compared with the rest of the overall market.

It’s important to know that a large rise in rates can be just as devastating or catastrophic as a stock market crash to many investors. Especially investors who blindly follow computerized asset allocation models.

But WHY is this all happening? And why NOW?

Let’s face it; the Fed has been raising rates for well over a year now! Why didn’t bonds start collapsing back then?

Could it be there is no confidence in the new Fed Chairman? Could it be a “proxy” on the current President’s administration? Could it be a resurgence of inflation? Could it be the ongoing struggle between the dollar and the other currencies around the world? Could it be the fact we are getting mixed signals about the economy…where the “man on the street” sees no improvement, but yet, economists see signs things are picking up?
Maybe it is a combination of all of these reasons!

Perhaps it is something so very simple and basic that market pundits just keep missing it!

Maybe it is simply the fact that more people are selling bonds than buying bonds, which pushes prices down.

Look, when too many sellers appear, in any market, prices must fall. That is true whether you are selling fruit on the corner, selling all your baseball cards on Ebay…or if you are selling bonds.

But…most importantly, it DOES NOT MATTER why bond prices are falling and interest rates are climbing. I’ll say that again, it DOES NOT MATTER what the reason is for these price changes.

What matters is what you will need to do about it.

You see, the bond market, compared to the stock market, can sometimes be like the Wild West. The stock market has trading collars and curbs put in place since 1987 to avoid meltdowns like we saw on October 19th, 1987. The bond market has no such limitations. And don’t forget, there are no stop orders or limit orders to help dry up the outstanding demand or supply.

It’s a lot like that scene at the end of the movie “Trading Places” when Dan Ackroyd and Eddie Murphy are trading futures on frozen concentrate orange juice. When everyone wants to sell, it becomes frenzy…with no end in sight. With little or no stability in prices.

A lot of people just don’t understand this! Selling a bond can be like selling your home. When you want to sell a bond, there is rarely a “listed” market. So you need to contact a broker. They will come up with an offer price to buy your bond from you. This price has to work for you, or you won’t sell. But it also has to work for them…they will often turn around quickly and offer it elsewhere, in an effort to make a profitable trade.

There are times when firms will not want to buy a bond that is being offered around by another broker. So they will enter an extremely low offer to buy the bond, not a serious offer. But when a firm really needs to unload a particular bond, it has to take these bids, just to move a bond. So, once the word is out that XYZ’s bonds just traded at a severe discount, all bonds of that issue will often begin to slide as well. This is how chaos begins in bond markets.

The moves can be sudden, and they can be violent…both up and down!

It’s been a while since the bond market has experienced some real volatility. Hopefully we will not experience that, but we need to be prepared for the chance that we might.

Thomas Mullooly, President of Mullooly Asset Management, works one on one with individuals so they can regain control of their investments. Tom’s popular email alerts help folks to reduce the risks in their portfolios. To learn how to stop making simple investing mistakes and to sign up for Tom’s email alerts, visit http://www.mullooly.net, today!

There’s a time for every season, Sorrowing when death gives its’
call, A reality of living that Eventually come to all.

But, unless one dies to themselves, It’s a life never lived; A
life with selfishness, A heart that never learned to give.

The things we held on to, We thought we couldn’t live without;
Were the very lies Satan fed us, To keep us trapped in death’s
cloud.

For when we die to the flesh And live by the MASTER’S rule, We
find we never lost anything, But Satan; vicious and cruel.

The path to peace and victory is God’s will; God’s way, every
time. Because, God is for you, knowing your need better than you
know yourself and only He knows which path will meet it and
defeat Satan.

The reasons we serve God graduate the more we come to know Him;
for our safety and benefit, it’s exciting to see what God wants
to do next, His plan is better than ours, because we love Him,
for who He is. With each step of obedience, we discover life
more abundantly and a God who loves beyond measure.

As God ministers to the soul; He replaces Satan’s lies with
truth, heals, sets us free, teaches about who He is (a process
of restoring our innermost self to its’ original creation,
separate from evil.) In so doing, God gives light to the
darkness within, gradually indwelling us … as, once we know the
truth, we choose Him.

Devotedly, we, then, begin to serve God (having experienced His
perfection) for what He’s already done for us, for who He is,
out of love alone. He is worthy to be praised.

By the time we’ve reached this far in our own spiritual
journey, knowing the depths of Satan, we know beyond a shadow of
a doubt that God’s instruction is the path to life.

If our desires don’t match God’s will, we’re not in our right
mind.

© by Joyce C. Lock

http://my.homewithgod.com/blessingsandlessons/
http://www.aspecialplace.net/ChristianityMadeSimple/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeavenlyInspirations-originalwritin
gs/
http://our.homewithgod.com/heavenlyinspirations/heavenlyinspirati
ons-intro.htm This writing may be used in its entirety, with
credits in tact, for non-profit ministering purposes.

Enzymes are the workers in our body that make everything function, by enabling chemical reactions. All living cells contain enzymes. They are hard to visualize, since they are not something tangible, but our lives depend on them.

There are many kinds of enzymes, and they do everything from helping us breath to
our start of life at conception. Eighty percent of our DNA code relates to enzymes.
But the kind of enzymes discussed here relate to our digestion and the food we eat.

In the process of digestion, the digestive enzymes in our bodies break down food
into tiny particles that are easily assimilated by the body into the blood stream.
These are compounds that the body can use for fuel, growth and repair. One food
may take hundreds of different types of enzymes for the body to digest.

Food is naturally filled with enzymes, called “food enzymes”, that help us to digest
that food. The problem is that when we cook or process it, we kill those enzymes.
Temperatures over 118 degrees will destroy the enzymes. A good example of this is
pineapple, which has some very powerful digestive enzymes in it. These enzymes
work so well that when added to gelatin (like Jell-O), the enzymes won’t allow the
gelatin to thicken. So, the only kind of pineapple you can add to gelatin is canned
pineapple, which has been cooked and processed so that all the enzymes have been
destroyed. It is now safe to add to gelatin, but not as good for your body.

Our body can manufacture enzymes, called “digestive enzymes”, in pancreas. But
when we eat a diet that is filled with mostly cooked and processed foods, depleted
of enzymes, the pancreas is forced to work much harder than it was meant to,
manufacturing the enzymes the body needs to digest these foods. So the pancreas
ends up overworking, and the body spends much needed energy and resources on
digestion instead of important things like boosting the immune system, growth,
repairs in the body and fighting disease. Even worse, if the pancreas becomes so
overworked that it shuts down, then bits of undigested food start floating around
the body in the bloodstream, causing all kinds of trouble and illnesses.

The pancreas can be healed in time, with a diet filled with an abundance of
enzymes. A diet that includes raw fruits, vegetables, seeds and nuts, as well as
fermented and marinated foods, will help keep the pancreas from getting that bad
to begin with, and will enable the body to spend it’s energy on more important
processes like boosting the immune system and fighting disease. If your pancreas is
overworked, enzyme supplementation may be a healthy and safe addition. Check
with your health care provider, or naturopathic physician to be sure.

Food enzymes not only help with digestion, but also cleanse the body, breaking
down allergens and environmental products that can potentially be harmful. This is
why it is so vital that we eat a diet containing lots of fresh enzyme filled foods.
Especially in the world we live in today, where we are surrounded by poisons and
cancer causing agents. We need these wholesome foods now more than humans
ever have in the past, to help our bodies stay disease free and functioning properly.

A word of warning: some people advocate eating a diet of all raw foods, but this
may not be the best diet for everyone. An all-raw diet is often good short term for
healing and fasting purposes, but some people have encountered health problems
when staying on a raw diet long term. Truthfully, not all foods should be eaten raw.
Some foods are digested better when cooked, such as starches like potatoes and
grains. In the end, the goal of the Enzyme Health Diet Plan is to be healthy, not to
eat 100% raw food.

Because people are different, they need different foods to fuel their bodies. Just as
an all-raw diet may not work for some, heavy complex carb diets are not for
everyone. Some people need more carbohydrates, some need more proteins and
fats and some just need an equal mix of both of these things. If you don’t know
what metabolism type you are, you need to listen to your body. What foods does it
thrive on? If, after time, you still are having problems figuring it out, check our
recommended books and resources page on our website, Enzyme-Health.com There are some good books offered there
by experts on the subject, that can help your figure out what type you are.

This is an excerpt from the ebook The Enzyme Health Diet Plan by Dianne
Ronnow.

Copyright © 2005 by Mohave Publishing. All rights reserved.

The
Enzyme Health Diet Plan is a FREE e-book that can be found on the Enzyme
Health website at Enzyme-Health.com

Hasn’t time flown? Only six weeks to Christmas!

Now you may think that you’re too busy to even contemplate that far ahead, however if you don’t get your act together and prepare well in advance, instead of enjoying that time you could end up being totally stressed and miss valuable opportunities.

Your Business Checklist

Have you planned and booked the venue for your team break-up?

Do you know who will be having holidays and who will be working?

Do clients, suppliers, colleagues etc. need to be informed of your opening hours over Christmas? If so, when and how will you notify them?

Do you need to find out the availability of clients and suppliers over Christmas?

Have you organised personal and professional development for the New Year? How are you going to motivate the team after the holiday break?

Have you arranged a planning day to set your goals for 2005?

Who will you give gifts to this year?

What marketing activities need to be organised in the lead up to the end of the year?

What else do you need to do to ensure you are as prepared as possible?

Your Personal Checklist

If you’re going on holiday, have you booked it?

When will you service your car?

If you want to have repairs or renovations at home completed by Christmas, have you planned to get them done?

What do you need to do to achieve your personal goals for this year?

Who will you buy gifts for this year?

When will you shop for those gifts?

What else do you need to do to ensure you are as prepared as possible?

Plan Everything In Your Diary

Set timeframes for all your actions and schedule everything into your diary. This is vital, otherwise you’ll end up keeping yourself busy and before you know it all your good intentions will have fallen by the wayside and Christmas will be only a few days away.

The Final Word

Start preparing for the end of year now so you will be able to enjoy this special time instead of stressing yourself out getting everything done right up to the last minute.

About The Author

Lorraine specialises in working with businesspeople showing them how to dramatically boost their productivity, reduce the stress and the mess in their lives and have more time for enjoying their life.

lorraine@office-organiser.com.au

I tend to view massage therapy independently of broader
categories of therapy, healing or other restorative practices or
systems. I am inclined to do this because I am cautious about
allowing massage to be classified as a traditional therapy
versus an alternative therapy.

There are many practitioners who cringe when they see massage
therapy lumped in with “alternative” practices such as
acupuncture, chiropractic or naturopathic health. To some these
smack of quackery, fakery or, in some cases, lunacy. I believe
that this aversion to association with alternative medical
practices is extreme but I concede that a massage therapy purist
could develop such a phobia.

On the other hand, more open-minded massage therapists abhor
associating massage exclusively with clinical practices such as
physical therapy or other forms of rehabilitation. There is some
resentment towards the incorporation of massage therapy into
traditional medicine only because they feel that massage may be
viewed as simply a procedure. This view strikes me as a bit
vindictive but given the historical view of the mainstream
medical industry towards the alternative medical community, some
bitterness can be expected.

I would hate to see massage go the way of today’s politics which
attempt to label every political view as either liberal or
conservative. Massage therapy is neither traditional nor
alternative. Frankly, traditional medicine is, in actuality, an
“alternative” to massage when viewed in an historical context.

The first documented description of massage as a technique or
therapy dates back to 3,000 B.C. in China. The Chinese believed
that all illness was due to an imbalance of “Qi” within the
body. The inequitable distribution of this “life force” or “life
energy” was blamed for all ailments and this philosophy was
absorbed and incorporated by Japanese Buddhist monks into
Japanese massage techniques. This eventually evolved into the
unique Japanese massage therapy called Shiatsu or “finger
pressure.”

At the same time, similar approaches were evolving in India,
eventually becoming the practice of Ayurvedic medicine, or the
“arts of life,” which also utilized massage as an instrumental
healing methodology. Greeks, Romans and even Native Americans
highly valued not just the therapeutic, but also the actual
healing value of massage. Hippocrates himself is quoted as
stating that “anyone wishing to study medicine must master the
art of massage.”

But with the advent of the industrial age and the development of
modern scientific inquiry, massage was relegated to the list of
unenlightened, unsophisticated medical practices. In my opinion,
however, to dismiss the medicinal and restorative benefits of
massage was to dismiss the wisdom of the Ancients. The lack of
modern scientific diagnostic techniques and the inability to
examine the physical being at the cellular level, forced the
earliest physicians to take a macro view of the person since a
micro view was unavailable. That macro view and the knowledge
garnered through the ages is still the essence of the practice
of the ancient art of massage.

That is not to say that the more clinical modern approach to
massage is without merit. On the contrary, contemporary research
has validated many of the formerly unsubstantiated claims of
alternative practitioners. Scientific studies have confirmed the
effectiveness of massage in alleviating some depressive
symptoms, altering the immune system, controlling pain and
reducing stress. As stress is identified as the precipitator of
so many medical problems, physicians are less reluctant to
recommend massage as part of an overall regime to address
certain conditions.

So I echo the plea of Rodney King when he asked, “Can’t we all
just get along?” Massage does not need the blessing of the
medical establishment to claim its place among the healing arts,
thank you. Nor is it the exclusive therapeutic domain of the
alternative community. I am comfortable with claims that massage
can benefit the whole person and I welcome the recognition of
the scientific examiners who methodically study the benefits of
touch for healing. But I intend to plant myself firmly in the
middle and surrender to no particular ideology of massage
therapy. I endorse massage for what it does.