Human-Earth Expressions on Integrative Health and Our Environment: Mapping Caves

A lost art and science of medicine, which may have begun evolving out of the cave more than 10,000 years ago, is resurfacing and reforming into a new map of medicine that is transforming contemporary patient care. This book unearths and transfigures human-earth expressions of healing through the exploration of metaphorical and symbolic images of caves revealed as recurrent symbols for mental states and physical environments. These caves of healing are introduced as the caves of the human body-caverns of heart and brain, and the caves of the earth body-caverns within, below and above the earth, which expand across cultures ancient and modern, shamanic and alchemical, initiatory and technological, intuitive and inventive, and imaginal and scientific. A mythological map is unfolded for navigating the relationship between the mind and the body, and healthcare and our environment, which invites a deeper, more integrative dialogue into much-needed philosophical, ethical and political discussions. The idea that the force of health is a force of Nature that becomes a fulcrum for healing is clarified here as a possibility for a new medicine for the 21st century called Integrative Health, which advances not only ancient and modern technologies, but also education, policy, research and clinical care by promoting the empowerment of personal responsibility, prevention of disease, continuity of care, and compassionate engagement between patients and healthcare practitioners. This new medicine facilitates a balanced circular ecosystem between illness and wellness, patients and healers, community and society, human and earth that revives and promotes the role of consciousness.