Heal thy Self - Alternative Healing

colour therapy, chiropracting, massage, esalen massage, Reichian therapy, hypnotherapy, healing circles, sufatshana yoga, naturopathy, acupuncture, Bach remedies, homeopathy, herbal remedies, palmistry, shiatsu, zone therapy. (Down to Earth Berri Handbook 1979:10)

There is an evident increase in the popularity of techniques, myths and rituals attributed to indigenous, Asian or other ethnicities (e.g. Tai Ch'i, yoga, chakra balancing, chanting, Tantra, Reiki, Shamanism, medicine wheel, Celticism, didjeridu). Workshopping neophytes build up a repertoire of self-diagnostic techniques, remedies, dietary patterns, therapeutic relationships and esoterica, and they may be initiated into or upgrade their awareness of 'the life force', 'hidden wisdom', balances and 'energies'.5 Akin to a spiritual 'supermarket', consumption is not dissimilar to that occurring at New Age festivals and centres like Glastonbury (cf. Bowman 1993:55).

As subtle and provocative gestures of refusal, the practices pursued and discourse digested in this 'vast school of consciousness' disclose a dissatisfaction with the curative and interventionist characteristics of professional allopathic medicine and with the doctrinal, hierarchic and paternal character of conventional religion. As such, biomedicine and the Church are both implicitly and explicitly contested. There is a tendency towards holism and voluntarism in the healing arts and new spiritualities. In alternative health care the emphasis is upon 'healing' rather than 'curing'. The latter generally refers to the removal or correction of organic pathology, and may not necessarily involve 'healing' (O'Connor 1995:28) which encompasses a holistic approach to human wellbeing.6 In alternative spiritualities, 'detraditionalising practices' (Heelas 1996:23) signify a turning away from the dogma of religious institutions, towards a privileging of the self (the 'inner' or 'higher Self', and 'intuition') as the ultimate source of authority and nucleus of responsibility.

Neophytes are constantly reminded of the sacrality of the self and primacy of 'growth'. And they are provided with many paths. As workshops like those located at Toc III in Self Development and Therapy or Spirituality demonstrate, individuals are responsible for self (re)growth via the performance of 'inner work'. Spiritual work is considered to be important for individuation. According to one initiate, time spent at Spirituality with Param,

changed the direction of my life from one of ... isolation ... to one of reaching for the meeting between all ... [Tantra] brings a coupling of energies, the balance of femininity and masculinity, sustains sensuality and heightens awareness of one's own consciousness and that of others. Through group practice of chanting mantras over the preceding days, an ecstatic reverence on new years eve was experienced, a beautiful lightening of reality which I continue to feel. (N. McKinnon 1995:13)

Heal thy Planet - Earth Consciousness

'Spaceship earth', photographed from outside the atmosphere and repeated endlessly on record covers and advertisements, has become a new outer membrane which circumscribes our consciousness, a new icon of finitude. (Vitebsky 1995:193)10

In recommending DTE festivals, the international directory for New Agers, the Pilgrims Guide to Planet Earth, promotes such events as exercises in 'raising our consciousness toward Planet Earth' (Khalsa 1981:5). At ConFest, a global orientated ecological consciousness, or what one permaculturalist referred to as an 'Earth friendly culture', forged out of disquiet over dominant consumption patterns, is expressed through a profusion of narratives and performances, ranging from the political/instrumental to the personal/aesthetic. Participants are encouraged to 'wholly attend' to sacred and sentient Mother Nature, Gaia. The DTE logo is indicative:

ConFesters enact the 'ultimate concern' of 'getting back to the Earth, the planet, nature' (Wogoit), of experiencing 'a closer tie with nature' (Corella), through performances which have their goal in connecting with the natural environment. It is no mere coincidence that ConFest is held in the bush, at distant locations to which urban-dwelling participants must travel hundreds, even thousands of kilometres. Not merely a spectacle to be observed and appreciated, ConFest encourages people to actively engage with the landscape, with 'nature': mysterious, indeterminate and primordial, not completely knowable or controllable (cf. Grove-White 1993:24).

Workshops endorse eco-consciousness, as numerous activist organisations and ideologues use the outdoor conference environment to seek support for 'green' philosophical, political and/or spiritual agendas: deep ecology, eco-feminism, intentional community, alternative technology, permaculture, animal liberation, vegetarianism. Various villages (Forest, Earth Sharing, Great Walk, Nuclear Free, Green Connections) have been sites for the dissemination of ecological awareness and activist issues. The agendas of activist neo-tribes like FOE Fitzroy and JAG (uranium mining), GECO and OREN (old growth logging), HEMP, the Great Walk Network (whose motto is 'less consumption - more joy'), and individuals like human-sculpture activist Benny Zable (whose 'Greedozer and Company' sign reads 'work consume, be silent, die - I rely on your apathy') and Nelumbo (a workshop holder who claims 'we're all barracking for nature'), all provide evidence of a robust eco-radicalism. There is general consensus that dichotomies like individual/environment, human/nature, personal/political must be overcome, and that, by 'acting locally', individuals can make a difference.

Self-Globe Nexus

The contemporary desire to 'heal the planet' is taken to begin locally, and the locales are the self (mind/body/spirit) and the immediate environment. Commitments include: the (re)turn to spiritual path(s) (e.g. New Age11 or Neo-Pagan12); the adoption of 'anti-consumption' behaviour (e.g. wise energy use, diet, a disciplined commitment to 'refuse, reduce, reuse and recycle'); and membership in autonomous eco-communities and environmental activist organisations. At the same time, eco-consciousness, expressed through various social, political and spiritual commitments, is a formula for individuation - for the self's wellbeing. Therefore, 'heal thy planet - thyself' is equally applicable. As Griffiths (1981:11) announced at Glenlyon I, '[w]e must join together and heal the Earth, which is also the only way we can heal ourselves'.13

The positive ramifications of working locally have been championed from the inception of the DTE movement. Cairns' Reichian inspired psycho-political liberationalism (more accurately rendered there as 'heal thy self - thy society') is an early manifestation. At Glenlyon I, facilitators predicted that on-site 'work' (spiritual, social, community, political) may usher in a 'New Age'. In both of these examples, macro transformations (new social/global consciousness) depend upon micro labours (self/local behaviour). They conform to 'critical mass' theory, which holds that if enough individuals work towards a similar spiritual or social goal, a critical threshold will be crossed.14 And 'heal thy self - thy planet' clearly elicits the thrust of this theory. Though this may be translated in rather transparent fashion as 'the planet will heal itself when we attend to healing ourselves' (Cheryl), it also evokes responsive environmental ethics (signified by the now familiar axiom 'think globally/act locally').15

What I have called the self-globe nexus implies an intentional responsiveness which relies in large part upon a sense of interconnectivity. Various ecosophies emerging between the 1960s and 1990s (and promoted at ConFest), clearly articulate and promote responsibility and interdependence. These are deep ecology, ecofeminism, social ecology and bioregionalism. According to Fox (1984 in Pepper 1996:23) 'the central intuition of deep ecology is that there is no firm ontological divide in the field of existence'. Eco-feminisms provide an analysis of social domination which reveal 'the interconnected roots of misogyny and a hatred of nature' (King 1993:75). In both systems, all life possesses intrinsic value and has rights equal to those of human beings. Both philosophies provide foundations for the appreciation of the sacred in nature, the interdependence of all life, a 'biospheric egalitarianism' (Dobson 1995:63), with adherents couching their environmentalism in 'woman-identified' terms (Seager 1993:223). In social ecology, or eco-anarchism, social injustice and environmental degradation are believed to be the result of hierarchical power relations, particularly those of capitalism. Here, moves towards bypassing the state via the creation of autonomous communities and informal economies, as well as civil disobedience, are advocated (Pepper 1996:31-3). Bioregionalism literally means 'life territory'. Its advocates promote the practice of 'dwelling in the land' (Sale 1985). It also necessitates decentralised, self-determined modes of social organisation. It is 'a culture predicated upon biological integrities and acting in respectful accord; and a society which honours and abets the spiritual development of its members' (Dodge 1993:114).

Communicated in workshops and redolent in the discourse of participants, these complementary and often conflicting strategies possess the unifying pretenses: (1) that self and globe are related ecologically, and, as a consequence; (2) that individuals can resolve current or prevent potential environmental degradation ('heal thy planet') by 'acting locally'.

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