[QUOTE=couch;901828]
I agree that many results are practitioner dependent, too. What I also find absolutely fascinating is that I can treat a person with TCM, someone else can use 5-element, someone else can use Kikko-style and another could use Japanese meridian therapy…and we could all achieve the same results!!! So what’s really going on here? Intention? Are all equally scientific methods in their own right? Is it practitioner dependent?[/quote]
I agree that intention is important and vital.
HOWEVER
For intention to be effective, it must be integrated with reality.
It seems as though many alternative practitioners view intention as the be-all, end-all of medicine. “As long as your intent is clear, then you’ll be successful” is an oft-repeated mantra. I’m not suggesting anyone on this thread has repeated such a claim, I’m just addressing the idea that many practitioners do have this viewpoint. A good portion of my class held this perception while I was in school.
To those that follow such a train of thought, I urge you to try your hands at flint-knapping (the making of stone tools with other stone tools.)
If, as is claimed, intent is all you need, then it should be a simple matter to knap a blade out of stone, as long as your intentions are clear and focused.
Nuh-uh. Doesn’t work that way. The intention may be clear, but without an understanding of the tools and medium involved, you’ll be lucky to knap something into an egg shape, if that. More likely, the stone you’re trying to shape will break in an unexpected way, or the tools you’re using will break instead.
Intention, however, is very powerful in the sense that if my intention is strong enough, I will find or devise the tools necessary to knap my stone. They say necessity is the mother of invention… and necessity and intention are like conjoined twins. 
With intention, I can persevere and learn the nature of stone, and the relationship my tools have with it. Once having learned it’s nature (how to identify its cracks, its weak spots, its strong spots, etc,) I am able to pick and choose where to start, where to finish, what pieces to remove and how, and what pieces to leave behind. As such, 3 cavemen with 3 different tools and 3 different stones, when asked to knap identical blades, will all go about it in a different way yet achieve very similar results.
Likewise, in Medicine, a practitioner’s intention can guide them towards the tools and understanding they need. What I think is key, though, is that TOOLS AND UNDERSTANDING ARE NEEDED FOR INTENTION TO MANIFEST. Whereas a flinknapper must understand their tools and the nature (diagnosis) of their stone, a medical practitioner must understand their tools - be it massage, needles, herbs or drugs - and the nature (diagnosis) of their patient. With this understanding, a practitioner is able manifest their intention and pick their treatment methods appropriately. The end result is an effect which matches the practitioner’s intention. With intention only, and no tools, no understanding of the nature of their patient, and no understanding of the relationship between their tools and their patient, who knows what will happen!? Iatrogenic disease, anyone?
So, if you ever come across a healer who claims that what they do works because of their intention alone, beware! Bewaaaare! And ask what exactly it is that they mean. If they start explaining it as being separate from anything (“Like, I just send good vibes through the needles and you get better, dude”) then run away. If they see intention as linked to something real (ie not supernatural,) then you’re good to go.
How’s your weather in NB? It snows and then rains here…third time this winter we’ve gone from -17 to +9 in two days. No wonder everyone is coming in complaining of W-C and W-H!!!
The weather’s been about the same… lots of wind, lots of precipitation, but the temperature’s swinging wildly here to. We went from +12C to -18C overnight this past weekend, and it’s been like that a bunch of times already.
