Health beyond civilization

Regenerative Culture Health, Healing & Movement
#1

Hi all,

I’d like to announce that I’ve started a new blog called Health Beyond Civilization, which is at:

HealthBeyondCivilization.com

My hope is that it will be a resource to help people rewild from the physical/mental health point of view, and from my experiences as an alternative health practitioner. Because my own experience has taught me that one size does not fit all. It’s sort of “rewilding for the weak,” among which I definitely include myself. It’s a remedial education.

If anyone is interested in contributing posts or articles, please contact me.

I just set it up, so please excuse the dust as I make little changes here and there.

#2

Hey David!

That’s exciting. I can’t wait to read more about that. After reading your post on “hating nature” willem and I and Penny Scout all talked about how year long rewilding programs should be more like rehab centers. Haha. Seriously. Glad you’ve decided to focus on those elements. It seems like we need them very desperately.

#3

David,

I can see your blog is in its archetypal stage, but nonetheless it is already absolutely beautiful - and ironically enough, something I’ve been thinking about more and more lately - ever since I found Jason’s piece “Learning to Walk” on Anthropik. (It’s a good article! And fox walking is fun!)

I look forward to reading your blog and wish you the best on developing it, and I hope you’ll continue to post on Rewild as well.

#4

Sounds cool David, I shall check it out.

#5

Urban Scout, yeah no kidding. I actually suggested to the folks who ran the program I was in that they should hire an addictions counselor. Don’t think that ever went anywhere though. I think health care is a big gap that needs filling, above and beyond the “use X herb for Y problem” approach.

SilverArrow, thanks! I liked the article too. I’m planning to write about walking, running, breathing, body mechanics, and that sort of thing when I get the chance.

#6

hello welcom, David, from wha i’v seen & read so far from yr blog i’v really enjoyed. in fact, yr section on standin practic caught my interests first since i like standin like forms. I look forward to readin mo of yr blog. Tanx fo comin aboard & sharin wit us!

#7

at this moment i am lacking clarity, but i have been thinking/feeling long about this

i functioned as a paramedic for a long time and saw the disempowering capability of the medical establishment

most of the people i helped knew nothing of their own bodies, let alone their ‘dis ease’. manipulated, prodded, confounded and confused by ‘experts’, long ago becoming disembodied (to be a more efficient, docile part of the machine) and taught to distrust their own experience, kept busy wage slaving away

health is a relationship

#8

Thanks, NeighborScout. I’m hoping to discuss that in a lot more detail on this new blog.

Which, by the way, I’ve just moved to its own domain. It is now at

HealthBeyondCivilization.com

#9

hey david, where are you in your studies for dr. tcm?

health care is my ‘area of focus’ as well - acupuncture and herbs primarily.

#10

Hey skalopsky,

I’m in my third and final year of school and in the middle of clinical training, challenging and a lot of fun. There’s an endless amount to learn.

Are you in practice?

I consider acupuncture to be a good post-crash kind of health care, but only if the problem of stainless steel needles can be solved …

#11

i’m also finishing my third year for acup.

have you ever used the reusable metal needles? know anything about the old stone needles they originally used?

acupuncture/tcm combo’d with local herbal knowledge is very useful.

#12

I haven’t used the reusable ones, but then again they’re illegal where I am and I don’t know where to find them anyway. But I am training in a non-insertion type of acupuncture which seems to be very effective. Also in a couple of months I’m taking a course on the use of minerals that includes a “magic stone needle” technique taught by a qigong guy named Jerry Alan Johnson, so that should be educational.

#13

hey David,

I like your blog too! I look forward to reading more.

I just found this really interesting book, Wind in the Blood/Mayan Healing and Chinese Medicine, by Hernan Garcia, Antonio Sierra & Gilberto Balam, for some details on Mayan massage (I practice shiatsu), which includes some point work (with “needles”) and plasters/poultices. The book details about fifty points used in Mayan healing that correspond to TCM points.

I haven’t read much yet, but it gives some info on the Yucatan Maya using both ix hun pudzub kik “the needle which bleeds”, and ix hun pudzub olom “the needle which frees the blood”:

. . .practiced with the spines and thorns of several varieties of plants (spines of henquen, zubin, and various bushes) and several animals (spines from the tail of the manta ray, lebisa, and xtoon (fish related to the manta ray), the fang of rattlesnake, tusk of peccary, the beak of the carpenter bird, and the quills of the porcupine). . . .somewhat duller spines, like those of the zubin or the spur of wild turkey. . .Practitioners of [i]jup[/i] and [i]tok[/i] generally keep their needles or "spines" stuck into cloves of garlic; we imagine this has an antiseptic action on the needles.

The cover has a cool picture of a “tool kit” of various needles. Viva rewilding acupuncture!

#14

Shit. Martin Prechtel was talking about Mayan acupuncture at the last ritual weekend here in Portland. That’s crazy. He said they had needles that were like a foot and a half long.

#15

i’ve been looking in to getting the reusable needles. you can get them, but they are illegal to use where i am too.

i find i tend to do a lot of tui na and herbs. i like to use fewer needles with treatments.

#16

Urban Scout, that’s fascinating, I heard of that book but haven’t looked into it. It’d be interesting to see how this stuff integrates with indigenous medicine/wisdom, probably the way it used to be …

Did Prechtel say anything else about acupuncture or their healing tradition with reference to Chinese stuff?

Skalospky, I tend to be an acupuncture guy myself which is why alternative approaches interest me so much.

Where would one get reusable needles anyway?