LEEANN VANDERLOOVEN
LESSON#11
1. The black South Africans believe that the sea is God's creation and therefore is a living body alive with healing spirit.
2. They believe that seawater cleanses one' s body and soul from evil spirits.
3. There a several medicinal uses for seawater: body purification, enemas, colon cleansing, vomiting, bathing, massage, steaming and poultices. It also includes natural effective solutions for dermatitis, eczema, psoriasis, athlete's foot and spots.
4. Bathing in seawater also increases the elasticity of the skin and improves it outer appearance.
5. The differences between the indigenous healing methods versus the medical profession when it comes to treating illness is, that indigenous herbal medicine includes communicating with the world of spirit when it comes to making a diagnosis and the correct plants and herbs that should be used.
6. The factors that must be taken into account by a traditional healer when taking a patents medical history is the knowledge of the spiritual nature of the plants and the second and more important is the intimate knowledge of the patients personality, background, family, work, and events taking place in his or her life at this time. Also a detailed assessment to the patients energy field and state of mind relative to the physical ailment being presented.
7. The disease is always linked to a breakdown of a relationship. The illness is a physical manifestation of a spiritual decay at another level.
8. the indigenous healer thus has to create, through ritual and invoking ancestors sufficient energy to heal the relationship spiritually first. Once the healing has take place in the spiritual world, that patient can then be helped physically.
9. Once the energetic background of the illness is known, the healer then has to gather plants, roots and leave to assist in transferring the repaired energy from the spiritual world across to the physical works to heal the body.
10. There are several ways in which herbal remedied are prepared some include:
a. MACERATION, softening the plant by soaking it in a liquid for a period of time.
b. DECOCTION, t he plant material is placed in a pot and boiled over a slow fire for a limited time
c. BREW, to cook the plant with an oily or greasy substance first.
d. INFUSTION, when a tea is made from the herb or powdered root.
e. TINCUTRE, a small quantity of plant material is steeped in an alcoholic solution.
f. LIQUID EXTRACT. Material is placed in liquidizer with an alkaline or acid solution.
g. COLD PRESSED JUICES, pressed by hand or pounded in a mortar.
h. SYRUPS, medicinal extract sweetened with sugar.
I. VAPOUR INHALATION, through steam.
J. FACIAL SAUNA, to treat skin conditions.
K. HERBAL POULTICE, when plant material is applied directly to the skin.
l. HERBAL OINTMENT, when herbal medicine is ground into a fine powder and mixed with an emulsifier to be applied externally.
m. HERBAL COMPRESS, when a towel is dipped in a boiling receiver of a herbal mixture and after twisting the excess liquid out, is placed over the painful swollen area of the body.
n. HERBAL BATH, the person is bathed in a bath containing the appropriate plant material.
11. The definition of a traditional/spiritual healer is that they are thus intimately acquainted with the spiritual nuances of people. They serve in a multifaceted role which includes training, knowledge, power and the ability to serve in a number of medico-religious functions such as herbalist, seer, ceremonial leader, physician, spiritual leader, psychologist, healer, priest and mystic all rolled up into one.
12. Traditional and Shamanic cultures believe that moral and spiritual transgression are likely to lead to illness, because they create both individual and communal disharmony. They feel that just technically treating a symptom does not always work. In African tradition, the emphasis is on the treatment of the whole person and that can on be achieved by recognizing the cultural health needs of each individual. Ritual, by embracing the cultural and ethnic beliefs of the community, can reach those parts of the psyche that conventional medicine can't facilitating the healing process, creating balance and wholeness.
13. The peculiar symptoms that children experienced due to separation from their parents during the war included, avoidance of events relating to past trauma, insomnia, inability to concentrate, nightmares, lethargy, confusion, fears, aggressiveness, social isolation and feelings of hopelessness about the future.
14. These social wounds of war were healed through the use of cleansing and purification rituals.
15. YES.
