New, less invasive medicine is our future

rom personal experience, I can tell you that surgery can be extremely invasive usually necessitating narcotic pain medication. There is a reason for that cloth that covers a surgeon's instruments, and it's not to prevent contamination! My surgeon is an expert plumber he was able to remove my colon and still leave me to function quite normally, saving me from bleeding to death.

The cost of beating death, however, was such a trauma that I cannot remember 80 percent of what happened, and I thank my brain for the ability to forget. I spent eight months recovering as my stomach muscles reattached themselves, as my wounds filled in and as the staples holding the intestines together would become superficial as the pieces of intestine will join to become one again.

In a magazine, I came upon a picture of a surgeon's kit from the 19th century, with a syringe for injections, a cutting utensil and a bleeding bowl to drain blood from the patient to alleviate headaches.

My first reaction was, "How barbaric!" But the more I thought about the 19th century approach to medicine, the more I began to realize how similar it was to our current surgical procedures. The only difference in medicine today lies in our knowledge of the body, its systems and our access to more mechanical technology.

Much like that Śbarbaric' 19th century methodology, we are integrating inorganic materials into the body to help prolong one's earthly existence.

But just as we advanced from the bleeding bowl to the combination of man and machine, a new age is quickly approaching an age of technology looking to encourage the healing power within ourselves healing with the body, rather than for the body. This "vibrational" medicine is a less invasive, less painful and a natural alternative to conventional removal and/or integration technology.

We entrust our bodies to govern the physical aspect of ourselves when we sleep, and most of them when we are awake; however, conventional medicine attempts to force our bodies to accept certain agents that it naturally resists. The human body has amazing defense systems against foreign objects. This is one of the drawbacks to integration technology the body will simply not accept certain foreign materials.

Science has been able to help the acceptance process with the aid of anti-rejection medications. If the anti-rejection medications are successful, then the body attempts to make the once-foreign object part of its own being by surrounding it with bodily tissue. Our bodies' knowledge led us to grow from millimeters to meters; yet we do not listen to its cries when we attempt to override our bodies' innate knowledge of growth and preservation.

Vibrational medicine works within the body to overcome these obstacles which current surgery tries to alleviate. The nature of matter is a controversial issue, and I believe that the closest theory that relates to vibrational medicine is "string theory."

In a nutshell, the theory states that matter is made up of vibrating strings, and the formation of a certain particle is based on the many possible combinations of geometries and vibrations. With the majority of academic acceptance being based on scientific approach, discovery and agreement, vibrational medicine may soon become actualized. Edward Witten, arguably one of the great physicists today, states "string theory is 21st century physics that fell accidentally into the 20th century."

Vibrational medicine is rooted in this concept that all of matter is vibration and geometry, and works to change the vibration of certain diseased parts of the body so that healing may take place.

From my own experience, I can tell you that there is nothing invasive about vibrational medicine. This method of healing uses intention, visualization and communication with the body.

Our bodies are constantly communicating with us through our five physical senses (i.e. pain and emotions); using these techniques is just one way to not only listen, but to respond as well. Many medical intuitives (people gifted in the ability to "see" within the body and recognize the underlying causes of disease) will tell you that pain is wonderful and say, "Congratulations!"

Patients may think these intuitives are nuts, but they are actually responding from a different perspective on a different level of understanding, rather than seeing the body as a well-oiled machine that you can build replacement parts for, they see it as a culmination of energies vibrations and their geometries ripe for a new phase of medicine.

The one constant in life is that things can and do change. Technology has made the integration of man and machine a reality. This technology may have done many wonderful things, but the future offers even better, less invasive methods of healing.

The future holds "alternative" medicine not as the alternative, but as the building block for new devices that encouraging the amazing healing properties of our bodies, rather than replacing them.

Writer Jeff Weichman is a junior majoring in biomedical engineering. He can be reached at dtrojan@usc.edu or (213) 740-5665.

Copyright 2000 by the Daily Trojan. All rights reserved.
This article was published in Vol. 141, No. 14 (Monday, September 18, 2000), beginning on page 4 and ending on page 6.