We can build this field of massage. In this field of dreams, science and research are revered and acknowledged as essential for their vast contributions and insights. In this field, the art of touching is cultivated with the recognition that there are ways to talk about energy, spirit and soulfulness in our work that are both inspiring, imaginative, true and relevant to the experience of giving and receiving.
We can have both. For this field we MUST have both. To me this is our birthright. In the broadest view we are a health-care profession – not only a medical profession and certainly not only an energywork profession.
Wholism and a systems view of both the facts and the direct experiences of human life is the field of dreams we should be cultivating together. We MUST take the whole into account.
In this field, the dreams of science, art, humanity as a whole, and each individual – all have an enhanced chance to come true.
Let’s not waste any more energy arguing about which areas in this field ought be cultivated. If you’re not interested in the piece over by that river, fine, cultivate the area you love. But it is all our field. And it is ONE.
Medicine is part of what we do. We have and need always to cultivate higher level skills in assessing and treating disease and injury.
Preventative health and health promotion is part of what we do.
Helping people feel really GOOD is part of what we do. Massage, more than any other healthcare modality, uses, among other things – pleasure – as an important antidote to pain and suffering.
Massage thrives in this field – the best of all possible worlds – in which the whole of human experience is honored and met with knowledge, imagination, compassion, and touch.