Thoughts of Healing: “Layers and Levels”
by James Biddle MD

I’m grateful to have this opportunity to share some of my thoughts about health and healing. It may be helpful to review some of my background. I’m a conventionally-trained M.D. physician who is board-certified in Internal Medicine. In medical school, I became interested in the works of Edgar Cayce, whose teachings embrace wholistic, broad-ranging, and spiritual aspects of healing. After residency, my studies continued with in-depth trainings in hypnotherapy, massage, Tai-Chi, and Reiki. I’ve also had lesser trainings in a wide variety of modalities, including osteopathy, homeopathy, Bach flower remedies, electrodermal testing and vibrational therapies, kinesiology, acupuncture, breathwork, movement, intercessory prayer, and shamanic approaches. More recently, I’ve been focusing on nutritional therapies, detoxification, supplementation, and natural support of the hormonal, immune, and digestive systems. It is from this perspective that I approach the topic of “Layers and Levels in Healing.”

Perhaps it is easiest to begin with the primarily physical level, which is the level to which conventional allopathic medicine generally limits itself, usually utilizing surgery or medications. This approach is extremely powerful when the underlying disorder is occurring on the gross physical level, such as an acute wound, trauma, or infection. This approach is less powerful when the physical ailment is more chronic in nature or is resulting from an imbalance at a “deeper” level. Because of this inherent limitation of conventional medicine, as well as a common attitude among physicians that any other approach is “alternative” at best and “quackery” often, I know many people that have turned away from utilizing conventional medicine at all. I personally feel that this is unfortunate, as it effectively “throws the baby out with the bathwater.” Instead, I encourage my friends to be informed health-care consumers by taking charge of their own case and utilizing all health-care providers simply as consultants. It can be very empowering to realize that your doctor works for you, while you always have the final decision concerning any advice received.

At the other end of the spectrum from the basic physical level of healing is the spiritual or energetic approach. I am combining the concepts of spiritual and energetic healings because they share the common ground of transcending space, and potentially time. Even a cursory overview of this field reveals that the conceptions we create to explain it quickly multiply exponentially. To me, this says that no person, group, or system is likely to have “the” answer, although many may indeed have “an” answer. Since I have personally accepted that this ineffable level is probably quite beyond anybody’s conceptual abilities, I can be fascinated in exploring the different conceptual frameworks that may be used as tools or guides in this arena. For example, hands-on and distant healing states in prayer and in Reiki offer substantially different frameworks, but in my personal experience the energy invited is quite similar. Since we are indeed “One in the Spirit,” how could it not be?

The energetic or spiritual level of healing is considered to be the “deepest” level of healing that one can experience. In fact, I’ve often said that I’d love to devote my entire career to energetic healing. However, I’ve instead felt called to explore the many levels which lie between the two apparent extremes of physical and spiritual healing, as reflected in my brief biography above. At this point, my calling is to explore even deeper aspects of physical level healing: aspects that have been ignored or avoided by conventional medicine, yet require a medical education in order to pursue. This involves looking beyond the surface symptoms and into the microscopic, cellular, biochemical, and molecular bases of persistent illnesses and chronic disease states. Therefore, over the next few issues, I’ll share with you some insights into some of my favorite topics in “Metabolic Medicine”, including “Identical-to-Natural” hormone therapy, preventing and treating osteoporosis, and using nutritional therapy to reverse diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and arthritis. I hope this provides a useful service for you.