Traditional healing - Hild

Traditional Healing Among the Inupiaq:  Importance of Caring for the Body, Mind and Spirit

Carl Hild, PhD, Alaska Pacific University, Anchorage, Alaska

Plato is recorded as stating, "This is the greatest error in the treatment of illness, that there are physicians of the mind and physicians of the body and yet the two are indivisible."  Over the past century we have learned a great deal about the mind and body, and yet for the treatment of illness engaging the spirit through the individual, the family, and the supporting community appears to enhance the quality of life beyond the clinical assessments of working with just the other two factors.  We must better understand and utilize the body, mind, and spirit to maximize well-being.  We need to involve the spirit of what is ingested, the spirit of family, the spirit of the caregivers, the spirit of place, and the interconnection to all. Individuals hold on until the last relative arrives or a significant event takes place, so that the spirit can then rest and there be peace.

Objectives:

1. Insight will be offered on the processes used by “Inupiat Tribal Doctors” over the past century, that seek the “Healing Powers of God” for the healing process of an individual and to seek God’s help in the area of “Direction,”  “Guidance,” and “Help.”
2. Recommendations will be provided “as to how” other health care providers can make use of these traditional practices.
3. It will be understood, that it is critical that there be established in the patient, a solid belief in both the exclusive healing powers of God and as well as those that are directed through the healer as a person, who can call on those external powers on behalf of the patient.
4. Individuals will be able to understand, that “Spiritual Healing” is an active practice in which there is “A necessary personal commitment” to do what is perceived through God in the diagnosis and treatment.

The half-hour program, Understanding the Healing Hands of the Maniilaq Tribal Doctors, is available online through the National Library of Medicine’s Arctic Health web site.  It is on the Traditional Healing page under Sharing and Teaching:  http://www.arctichealth.org/tm.php.

Presentation, peer-reviewed article, and paper related to presentation: