As the everything happens for a reason crowd coalesced into applause for Andrew Weil's and Caroline Casey's brilliant banter on stage at the Marin Civic Auditorium this evening, I thought indeed! how fortunate was I to leave Victoria the day I did, avoid a storm on treacherous mountain passes with hair-flying winds capable of toppling big rigs, to arrive refreshed for one of the most fruitful and enjoyable weeks I've ever had in Marin County.
Not to mention clean air after the storm washed the skies!
Andrew Weil and Caroline Casey spoke at Bioneers, a yearly conference where the creme of the health-new-age-creme got together to shmooze progressive ideas over wheat grass juice. That almost sounded trite, which I didn't mean at all. I have respect.
If you keep reading, I'll share the best of what I heard from Andrew Weil and Caroline Casey, which includes information close to my heart and life.
This week also featured the Mill Valley Film Festival, where I saw the magnificent movie The Horse Boy... you must, really must see The Horse Boy when it comes to a theatre near you. It is the most loving father son journey you can witness...
And it takes place in Mongolia; there are horses and reindeer and shamans, and the backdrop "curing" autism symptoms.
And then there was Litquake, an organization sponsoring literary events throughout San Francisco and Marin. I went to one event with a travel writer.
A home run for me & Marin.
I also, naturally, communed with my family. (I was raised in Marin and mostly San Francisco) Here's my Uncle Franklin and friends in their Mill Valley community. About 10 different friends at different times stopped to talk in the two hours we hung out in downtown square.
Mill Valley has a nice community feel.
Now for the juice of this evenings banter...
Andrew Weil spoke of the unseen world impacting the seen, and western doctors need to get with the program. The fact placebos work so often speaks of this unseen world and the power of belief.
Weil said, if you have a doctor who doesn't believe you'll get better, get another doctor.
Weil noted differences in patients who fight illness and those who take non-defensive stance to illness... it's like the fight preserves the illness.
This idea was amplified with Caroline's refrain,
"Don't fight, compost."
She used an example something like rather than fight coal plants make something with the sludge. (As a clean air activist, I'd say we must close coal plants, so that particular analogy I don't agree) The general idea is a good one.
Weil said something about a reasonable goal would be to ban pharmaceuticals. I don't know if he meant in all instances, and I'm taking these words out of context so I need to be careful but the implication was that many pharmaceutical companies are producing imperfect drugs that may not work, and can have toxic side-effects.
He'd like to ban direct to consumer marketing and advertising by big pharmaceutical companies, now a $640 billion a year industry.
He mentioned Chinese love American ginseng; whereas traditionally Western medicine hasn't recognized its benefits. In part, Weil said, because the benefits are wide-ranging and doctors here look for the "bullet" for a specific ailment.
Weil also spoke about the importance of stepping up environmental medicine and understanding how environmental toxins impact health. This is what is close to my heart. What has made me suffer illness and set me on my clean air search.
My clean air search has educated me on ever more toxic pollutants lurking in soil, air, and water in communities where I travel. Toxic spills are so rampant, so under-or not-at-all reported, you'd be shocked. But local communities usually know because one-by-one people get sick. We're not all Erin Brokovich able to get the word out on a massive scale.
Yet, massive toxic dumping has, and continues to take place, in so many areas that I have visited and am personally aware of.
Weil suggested sleeping in the dark has health benefit, and if you must turn on a light during the night, research suggests a red hue is best.
It's late so on that note, I'll sign off... after a fruitful evening and week.
Photo taken from Tiburon toay looking at San Francisco Bay and Golden Gate Bridge.
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To read more about Andrew Weil's action ideas, click here.