What you Need to Know About

Alternative Therapies

Did you know that there are over 1800 Alternative Therapies that have been the National Institutes for Health. Numbers of these therapies are legitimate and evoke "the relaxation response" helping to calm anxious or agitated patients. This list of therapies includes: music therapy, art therapy and animal therapy. However, other therapies are dark and have strong occult ties such as: Reiki, Healing Touch and Therapeutic Touch. You may ask, "With 1800 alternative therapies in the health care market place, how can I know ones are not doorways to the occult?"

•     Ask the doctor or (practitioner) the history and  philosophy of this therapy?
•     Ask what practices the treatment uses?
•     Look for occult techniques that may be involved.
•     Use Christian discernment if the therapy sends up red flags warning you.
•     Pray and ask for the Holy Spirit to give you wisdom.
•     Read your Bible to see if there is anything in Scripture that contradicts this therapy.

 Remember, little research has been done to validate the medical effectiveness of any of the alternative therapies so be careful. Some may be a waste of your money while others may be downright spiritually dangerous. In closing today, I want to include a cute but telling poem for your entertainment and consideration:

  Alternative Medicine

A nurse on the medical wing

Had taken a course in I Ching

While checking the charts she would practice her arts

On the ills that the patients would bring

Spurred on by the welcome this bought

She soon other therapies sought

Iridology, Zen, Yoga, Tarot and then...

Transcendental... (well TM for short)

The doctors were caught on the hop

And ordered 'this practice must stop'

But all that their scrutiny prompted was mutiny

Awkwardness, temper and strop

So pond'ring their options awhile

Consulting the ward rank and file

They humbly suggested, then boldly requested

A double-blind crossover trial

The management couldn't agree

Such trials are so costly you see

They ordered both pills and the New Agers' skills

And to charge for each service a fee

            -       Peter Saunders