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PubMed1977

The cosmological and performative significance of a Thai cult of healing through meditation.

A cult of healing through meditation that was observed in Bangkok, Thailand in 1974 is described, and the cult is interpreted in terms of two axes, the cosmological and the performative, and the dialectical, reciprocal and complementary relations between them. The various ramifications of the cosmology are discussed--the categorization of the cosmos itself as a hierarchical scheme, the relations between man and non-human forms of existence, the ideas concerning power and its manner of acquisition and use, the relation between power and restraint, etc. The epistemological basis of the cult, which attempts cure through meditation, and the features of the ritual as they contribute to its performative efficacy are highlighted. The essay concludes by suggesting that there is a single scheme (episteme) underlying religious ideas and applications of knowledge such as meditation, medicine, alchemy, and astrology.

Cultural Characteristics↗
PubMed1986

Traditional concepts of mental disorder among Indian psychiatric patients: preliminary report of work in progress.

In a medically pluralistic setting a range of health care providers offer not only different forms of treatment, but different ways of understanding illness. Even within a single tradition, these concepts evolve over time. Chapters in the classical texts of Ayurveda describe varieties of severe mental disorder (unmada) arising from a particular humoral imbalance (dosa) or arising in association with specific demons and deities (bhuta) that produce distinct character changes and symptom patterns. Patients currently presenting for treatment of mental disorder may describe their illness with reference to these concepts, but they also rely on other indigenous traditional concepts such as astrology, karma, the effects of other humoral relationships, such as semen loss and so forth; or they may rely on ideas derived from cosmopolitan medicine or both. Patients presenting to allopathic psychiatric centers in India were studied to determine whether patterns of help seeking could be predicted from the conceptual model by which they understood their illness. We elicited explanatory models from patients and obtained a history of prior consultations to other types of healer. Preliminary findings were notable for the pervasiveness of prior use of folk healers and the prominence of somatic symptoms among patients presenting to these allopathic physicians. Hypotheses regarding the impact of explanatory models on patterns of medical help seeking require further study from a larger and more diverse data base.

Attitude to Health↗
PubMed2005

Relativistic parameters of senescence.

The laws of biochemistry and biology are governed by parameters whose description in mathematical formulas is based on the three-dimensional space. It is a fact, however, that the life span of a cell and its specific functions, though limited, can be extended or diminished depending on the genetic code but also, on the natural pressure of the environment. The plasticity exhibited by a cellular system has been attributed to the change of the three-dimensional structure of the cell, with time being a simple measure of this change. The model of biological relativity proposed here, considers time as a flexible fourth dimension that corresponds directly to the inertial status of the cells. Two types of clocks are defined: the relativistic biological clock (RBC) and the mechanical clock (MC). In contrast to the MCs that show the astrological reference time, the time shown by the RBCs delay because it depends on cellular activity. The maximum and the expected life span of the cells and/or the organisms can be therefore relied on time transformation. One of the most important factors that can affect time flow is the energy that is produced during metabolic work. Based on this observation, RBCs can be constructed following series of theoretical experiments in order to assess biological time and life span changes.

Aging↗
PubMed1996

Influence and power of the media.

People tend to get most of their information beyond work and family horizons from the press, radio, and television. So, do they really believe media stories that suggest, for example, there is no link between HIV and AIDS? This is unlikely, but there is a curious paradox--namely, that the same time, people to varying degrees are open minded about such stories as unidentified flying objects, astrology, reincarnation, and alien abduction. Yet, people are discerning and seem able to spot the dangerous rubbish, happy to be entertained and unlikely to be misled by the things that will really alter their lives.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1999

Genetic aspects of population policy.

Every science begins in folklore and matures as it reacts against dogma and myth. Astronomy developed in the Neolithic, but it did not outgrow astrology until the sixteenth century. Chemistry discarded alchemy at about the same time. On the contrary, the short history of genetics has been concurrent with the pseudo-science of eugenics, which, at times, has been widely accepted and incorporated in population policy and directive genetic counselling, with rare opposition by geneticists. Societal pressures are likely to increase with the power of genetic technology, the fear it generates and the perception that population growth threatens human welfare. Without a pertinent ethical code, geneticists are vulnerable to both temptation and opprobrium. The intrusion of eugenics into genetic counselling has been a recent source of concern to societies and congresses of genetics. This review traces the causes of this concern and the manner of its expression in the absence of an international voice for genetics that could address ethical and other common interests.

Eugenics↗
PubMed1997

[History of the tuning fork. I: Invention of the tuning fork, its course in music and natural sciences. Pictures from the history of otorhinolaryngology, presented by instruments from the collection of the Ingolstadt German Medical History Museum].

BACKGROUND: G. Cardano, physician, mathematician, and astrologer in Pavia, Italy, in 1550 described how sound may be perceived through the skull. A few years later H. Capivacci, also a physician in Padua, realized that this phenomenon might be used as a diagnostic tool for differentiating between hearing disorders located either in the middle ear or in the acoustic nerve. The German physician G. C. Schelhammer in 1684 was the first to use a common cutlery fork in further developing the experiments initiated by Cardano and Capivacci. For a long time to come, however, there was no demand for this in practical otology. THE INVENTION OF THE TUNING FORK: The tuning fork was invented in 1711 by John Shore, trumpeter and lutenist to H. Purcell and G.F. Händel in London. A picture of Händel's own tuning fork, probably the oldest tuning fork in existence, is presented here for the first time. There are a number of anecdotes connected with the inventor of the tuning fork, using plays on words involving the name Shore, and mixing up pitch-pipe and pitchfork. Some of these are related here. The tuning fork as a musical instrument soon became a success throughout Europe. THE PHYSICS OF THE TUNING FORK: The German physicist E. F. F. Chladni in Wittenberg around 1800 was the first to systematically investigate the mode of vibration of the tuning fork with its nodal points. Besides this, he and others tried to construct a complete musical instrument based on sets of tuning forks, which, however, were not widely accepted. J. H. Scheibler in Germany in 1834 presented a set of 54 tuning forks covering the range from 220 Hz to 440 Hz, at intervals of 4 Hz. J. Lissajous in Paris constructed a very elaborate tuning fork with a resonance box, which was intended to represent the international standard of the musical note A with 435 vibrations per second, but this remained controversial. K. R. Koenig, a German physicist living in Paris, invented a tuning fork which was kept in continuous vibration by a clockwork. H. Helmholtz, physiologist in Heidelberg, in 1863 used sets of electromagnetically powered tuning forks for his famous experiments on the sensations of tone. Until the invention of the electronic valve, tuning forks remained indispensible instruments for producing defined sinusoidal vibrations. The history of this development is presented in detail. The diagnostic use of the tuning fork in otology will be described in a separate article.

Acoustics↗
PubMed2000

Aspects of seasonality.

The seasons are astronomical, astrological, meteorological, biological, and agricultural. From a perspective outside the biological sciences, the questions of interest about plant seasonality are linked to this wider context. In this review I try to see flowering time, as one important aspect of seasonality, from an outsider's point of view, and describe what is known about it in different types of plants. What is known about it is conditioned by what particular scientists have asked about it, so the variety of approaches to seasonality is another point of emphasis. Detailed consideration is given to flowering seasonality in perennials compared with annuals, and both molecular and whole plant perspectives are presented.

Magnoliopsida↗
PubMed1990

Dryander of Marburg and the first textbook of neuroanatomy.

Born in Wetter, Germany, in 1500, Johannes Eichmann (Dryander) studied medicine and anatomy at the University of Paris from 1528 to 1534. In 1535, he was appointed professor of medicine at the University of Marburg. During the next year he held two public dissections, and in 1536 he was the author of the first text illustrating a Galenic dissection of the human brain. An expanded edition of this early book, the Anatomiae pars prior, was published in 1537. These texts represented an important transition from the dogma of medieval scholasticism to the precise observations of Vesalius. The books depicted the brain in eight figures, with four additional plates describing the skull, skull base, and cranial sutures. Detailed illustrations of the dura mater, cerebral cortex, and posterior fossa structures with clear, but inaccurate, relationship to the cranial nerves demonstrated Dryander's reliance on his own dissections. In 1542, he published a translated edition of Mundinus' anatomy. As was common at that time, the text plagiarized a portion of Vesalius' Tabulae sex, which resulted in the famous anatomist's anger. Despite this, Dryander continued to write on medical subjects as well as mathematics and astrology until his death in 1560. Because he was a progenitor of rational scientific thought, his earlier books represented an important advance in the progression to modern anatomic description and illustration.

Anatomy, Artistic↗
PubMed2006

New ways of believing or belonging: is religion giving way to spirituality?

In this article, the presence of alternative spirituality and practices within the general culture and their relationship to institutional religion are examined using national survey data collected as part of the 2001 Scottish Social Attitudes Survey. Alternative practices are found to divide into two groups of interests: concerns with personal well-being and interest in divination. Better-educated women are much more likely to engage with holistic practices associated with well-being; a minority of younger, less well-educated women are more likely to have found horoscopes, astrology, fortune-telling and tarot 'important in their lives'. Churchgoers find divination antithetical to religion while the use and salience of a range of holistic practices is as acceptable among churchgoers as it is among non-attenders and the secular (once allowance has been made for the connections between putatively alternative practices, gender, age and education). This underscores a focus on personal well-being rather than alternative spirituality in the consumption of holistic products and practices within the general culture. The study findings are used to assess claims for a spiritual revolution in modern Britain.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Syphilis in art: an entertainment in four parts. Part 1.

It is widely recognised that the history of art reveals the contemporary attitudes of societies and artists to changing patterns of social and sexual behaviour. This collection of artistic creations shows that representations of syphilis in art, over more than five centuries, are consistent with this view. The first quarter century of the morbus gallicus in Europe, starting in 1493, coincided with the spread of Renaissance influence, including printing. A host of pamphlets with woodcut illustrations reflected public alarm at the epidemic proportions and severity of the new disease, with its disabling and sometimes deadly consequences. Also revealed in these early works are the astrological and theological beliefs of disease causation as well as identifiable and serious attempts at public education. These twinned themes of understanding and educational endeavour recur together throughout the centuries and take many forms as man attempts to outline and influence attitudes and so improve his medico-social health. Attitudes to causation changed with experience so that by the beginning of the 17th century the morbus gallicus is no longer a mere contagion but recognised socially and represented artistically, as a morbus venereus. Its clinical presentation had changed remarkably from the alarming early days; and so too had its prevalence--from epidemic to endemic proportions. We find that the artists of both the 16th and 17th centuries, while somewhat reticent about syphilis, are nonetheless at pains to suggest that sex is not without its serious side effects. Their artistic exhortations suggest women as the source of the disease, so that we find Venus shown as both ideal love and the source of contamination. Such attitudes contrast strikingly with what follows. The 18th century is characterised by the sophisticated elements of European societies taking an irreverent or satirical view of sex and syphilis. In England this is reflected in the works of Hogarth and other notable caricaturists. The fierce castigation of men and their follies is matched by more understand and rational attitudes towards women. But it does not last. Indeed it seems almost to invite the studied censoriousness of the 19th centrury with women again stigmatised as a source of degradation and disease. In essence this collection of examples of syphilis in art illustrates wide variations in attitude and behaviour from alarm to tolerance and from intolerance through liberality to licence and much the same again, over nearly five centuries. Just occasionally an artist seems to be ahead of his times.

Engraving and Engravings↗
PubMed2002

The medieval kidney.

This article surveys the various perceptions of the kidney and its pathologies by encyclopedists, preachers, natural philosophers, surgeons and academic physicians around 1300. It focuses on the medical works of Arnau de Vilanova (d. 1311) and shows the medical discourse about the kidney in all its complexity. It draws attention to the incorporation of the medical nephrological debate into the scholastic frame, and to the close links between nephrology and astrology as well as alchemy.

Encyclopedias as Topic↗
PubMed1994

Monastic incorporation of classical botanic medicines into the Renaissance pharmacopeia.

Ancient Greek physicians believed that health resulted from a balance of natural forces. Many, including Dioscorides, made compilations of plants and medicines derived from them, giving prominence to diuretics, cathartics and emetics. During the Roman Empire, although Greek physicians were highly valued, the Roman matron performed many medical functions and magic and astrology were increasingly used. In Judaic and later Christian societies disease was equated with divine disfavor. After the fall of Rome, the classical Greek medical texts were mainly preserved in Latin translation by the Benedictine monasteries, which were based around a patient infirmary, a herb garden and a library. Local plants were often substituted for the classical ones, however, and the compilations became confused and inaccurate. Greek medicine survived better in the remains of the Eastern Roman Empire, and benefitted from the influence of Arab medicine. Intellectual revival, when it came to Europe, did so on the fringes of the Moslem world, and Montpellier and Salerno were among the first of the new medical centers. Rather than relying on ancient experts, the new experimental method reported the tested effects of substances from identified plants. This advance was fostered by the foundation of universities and greatly aided by the later invention of the printing press, which also allowed wider dissemination of the classical texts.

Byzantium↗
PubMed1994

The age-old spirit of nephrology from the oldest university in the world.

The University of Bologna began teaching in 1088, and the Faculty of Medicine was granted the same rights as lawyers in 1288, largely due to the reputation and teaching skills of Taddeo Alderotti. Among the other famous names associated through the ages with the Bologna School of Medicine are Malpighi, Valsalva and Murri. From the earliest times in Bologna, nephrologists attempted to show an interaction of the kidney with the outer environment (astronomy and astrology) and with other organs (anatomy) and an integration of the sophisticated structures within the kidney itself (microscopy). At the turn of the 19th century, the biochemical frontier was reached, and a new teaching methodology emphasizing careful consideration of all possible differential diagnoses was developed.

History, 15th Century↗
PubMed1994

Women, medicine and life in the Middle Ages (500-1500 AD).

The status of women in the Middle Ages was ambiguous, because although they had great responsibility and expertise in practical affairs they were viewed as chattel and inferior to men. They were skilled in cookery, often of highly spiced dishes using a variety of ingredients and flavorings, and they were taught the use of medicinal herbs. They were often skilled in simple first aid, though they were not allowed to practise outside the home. An important exception of this was Hildegarde von Bingen, whose Physica brought her great renown. In it she became the first woman to discuss plants in relation to their medicinal properties. For most people in the Middle Ages, treatment revolved around herbs and diet, together with faith and holy relics and the use of (forbidden) pagan incantation and ritual. Astrology was often a necessary adjunct to treatment. In Salerno, however, medicine had been practised from classical times, and medical training could last for 7 years or more. One of the greatest medieval medical texts is the Tacuinum Sanitatis, which describes in detail the 6 essentials for the preservation of man's health. Several vegetables and herbs are mentioned in connection with the kidneys, the picking and preparation of which are imbued with magic.

Europe↗
PubMed1996

An informal history of the interpersonal circumplex tradition.

Circular representations of human nature can be traced from ancient astrology to Leonardo Da Vinci to the modern interpersonal circumplex (IPC) tradition. which began with Harry Stack Sullivan. The Kaiser Foundation Psychology Research Group operationalized key concepts of Sullivan's and Timothy Leary (1957) provided extensions of Sullivanian theory that formed the conceptual basis for contemporary circumplex models The current generation of circumplex investigators is exceptionally well represented by the contributors to this special series. The IPC can serve as an integrative cognitive framework for making sense of diverse realms that are well outside its original focus of convenience. The visual and psychological appeal of this powerful model is briefly illustrated.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2004

Lo Spedale di Poveri, the hospital for the poor in Milan: 15th to 20th century.

The construction of the Hospital for the Poor was begun in Milan in 1451 at the instigation of Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan. In contrast to what had happened during the Dark Ages of the Medieval period, the new hospital was extraordinary both in construction and in medical organization. Wards for the patients were separated according to diseases, infective and noninfective, and according to sex. Each patient had his or her own bed and was fed adequately and kept warm. Patients were no longer treated by astrologers or monks but rather by doctors who had studied medicine at the University of Pavia. Each ward had its own doctor and surgeon, and from 1558 on, there was a doctor on duty in the hospital 24 hours a day. The hospital had its own pharmacy and drug reference book. The Hospital for the Poor, or Cà Granda (Big House), or the Ospedale Maggiore, as it was variously called from the 15th to the 19th centuries, became a training ground for anatomic and clinical studies. It was only in 1929 that a Faculty of Medicine was set up at Ospedale Maggiore.

Female↗
PubMed2006

Cognition and belief in paranormal phenomena: gestalt/feature-intensive processing theory and tendencies toward ADHD, depression, and dissociation.

Belief in paranormal phenomena and cryptids--unknown animals such as Bigfoot--may predispose individuals to interpret real-world objects and events in the same way that eyewitness identification can be biased by unrelated information (P. James and N. Thorpe, 1999). Psychological tendencies toward attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dissociation, and depression, even at subclinical levels, may be associated systematically with particular paranormal or cryptozoological beliefs. The authors evaluated these psychological tendencies using the Conners Adult ADHD Rating Scales (C. K. Conners, D. Erhardt, and E. Sparrow, 1999), the Dissociative Experiences Scale (L. Coleman & J. Clark, 1999), and the Beck Depression Inventory-II (A. T. Beck, 1996). They performed regression analyses against beliefs in ghosts, unidentified flying objects (UFOs), extrasensory perception (ESP), astrology, and cryptids. ADHD, dissociation, and depression were associated with enhanced tendencies toward paranormal and cryptozoological beliefs, although participants who believed in each of the phenomena differed from one another in predictable and psychologically distinguishable ways. Cognitively biasing influences of preexisting psychological tendencies may predispose individuals to specific perceptual and cognitive errors during confrontation of real-world phenomena.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

[Unearathed ancient pulsological books and theoroy of "three parts with nine palpation sites"].

Textual research is made on the evolution of the theory of "three parts with nine palpation sites" in TCM. It is concluded that the theory, having received the influence of ancient astrology and arithmatics, was sprouted in the Eastern Han Dynasty and still is valid today. It further points out that the arrangement of channel order, and selection of channel title were all influenced by the theory of "Three Parts with Nine Palpation Sites".

China↗