From: ibshambat@gmail.com   
      
   A problematic attitude I have seen in followers of Western allopathic medicine   
   is their dismissive, even hateful, attitude to the practitioners of   
   alternative medicine. The claim being made about them is that they are   
   irrational quacks who do not live in    
   the real world. In fact these are simply people who have figured out that   
   there have been smart people in the world before there was Western allopathic   
   medicine, and that some of these people have come up with valid things. Their   
   stance is not irrational;   
    it is highly rational. It comes from understanding that there have been many   
   smart people outside Western allopathic tradition, and that is a lesson from   
   which many people, including regular doctors, stand to learn.   
      
   Another claim has been that such things are witchcraft. I see witchcraft in   
   the same way in which I see guns. It is what you are using it for. Witches   
   believe that all that people send out comes back to them three times; which   
   means that most witchcraft    
   is going to be good.  With ones who are doing bad things through witchcraft,   
   there should be a way to keep them in check in the same way as can be done   
   with any kind of wrongdoing.   
      
   Of vast influence in the Western world are three worldviews: Materialism,   
   Christianity and Metaphysics. All of them hate one another. However it is also   
   possible for them to work with one another as well. During the Second World   
   War, the English military    
   went to Aleister Crowley for advice, especially as to how to deal with Nazi   
   magic. There have been people in the academia studying such things as   
   re-incarnation. There are many people who, having been exposed to paganism or   
   occultism, convert to    
   Christianity and use the knowledge they’ve gained to empower the church.   
      
   I guess the question to ask is one made by Rodney King: “Can we all get   
   along?” I think that we very well may be able to all get along. I follow   
   Jesus, but I am respectful of other paths to wisdom. I have especially found   
   wisdom in the Hindus and    
   Buddhists. Probably the only major spiritual path I’ve never considered   
   seriously is Islam, and they have to blame for that the behavior of their   
   followers.   
      
   I have seen the best and the worst in people, and both appear to cut across   
   ideologies. They are not all equally good or equally bad; some are better than   
   others. However within each one there is also variety among individual   
   practitioners. I both    
   embrace and oppose multiculturalism. It is valid for there to be a cultural   
   variety in the world instead of a universal monoculture that fails to consider   
   ways and wisdom other than its own.. At the same time, tolerance for other   
   cultures doesn’t mean    
   accepting a culture that thinks it is right to throw sulfuric acid into the   
   face of a child for going to school, or to brutally beat one’s family, or to   
   kill one’s daughter and throw her body to the dogs for getting raped.   
      
   Is there a potential for abuses with things such as occultism? Yes, yes, a   
   thousand times yes. The correct solution is for the benevolent to learn the   
   tricks of the malevolent and use them for things that are right. Academia   
   gains absolutely nothing from    
   failure to consider alternative medicine; instead it impoverishes its own   
   understanding. A truly rational person will realize, once again, that there   
   have been many smart people in the world before there was allopathic medicine,   
   and that things stand to    
   be learned from these people. Then one’s understanding of the world will   
   grow deeper, and one will be able to do more for the world.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)