shamans and industrialized medicine

Shamans, like everyone else, live in this world and are part of it. We are permeable and share karma with all other beings. It seems that the more we are in the world, the more worldly diseases we get. Shamans who don't spend time in the industrialized world don't get as many industrialized diseases.

Yet I have known spiritual masters, including shamans, who have gotten cancer and gone to medical doctors or had various types of surgery.

(This was originally a comment to a question posed by another community member. The question, "Do shamans need doctors?" provoked many thoughts and I thought I should lso share my thoughts via my blog.)

It does seem that the more one gets plugged into the medical world, the more one needs it. Drug side effects' requiring other drugs is a good example of this phenomenon. It can be like a vacuum.

One needs to be careful to hold one's ground when working with doctors who don't understand natural and spiritual healing.

Also important, going to a doctor is a choice, not a need. We choose what kind of medicine we use.

What we all need is help with our health, so nobody should be judged for being sick or seeking any kind of help a la, "Physician, heal thyself." The most "shamanic" way to make that choice os to pray, look for signs, and do what one is guided to do.

One thing indigenous, shamanic communities have that the industrial world does not is the knowledge that an illness belongs to the group, not just the individual. Perhaps that is why the industrialized medical model is like a vacuum.