A Dialogue on Integral Medicine

Marilyn Schlitz

Marilyn Schlitz, Ph.D., is Director of Research at the Institute of Noetic Sciences and senior scientist at the Geraldine Brush Cancer Research Institute at the California Pacific Medical Center.

“So how do we really help with a greater sense of balance? The main thing is to nurture the soul of the providers.”

In this second and concluding part of a dialogue on Integral Medicine, Marilyn Schlitz describes one of the essential factors of an integral practice: the recovery of the soul for the care-givers themselves. Granted that exterior science is important; and granted that alternative treatments and complementary medicine need to be included—but what then? What is the nature of an integral medical practice if it does not include the consciousness, soul, and sprit of the medical practitioners themselves?

“The stats on physicians are really grim. They have higher suicide rates, higher chemical dependencies, drug abuse, alcoholism, divorce rates, all the rest of the social indicators in that population—and it's because it is out of balance.”

Thus, as Marilyn and Ken discussed in Part I, where orthodox medicine treats the illness and alternative medicine treats the whole patient, integral medicine goes one step further and treats the physician as well.