What is Second Mind Medicine? and other FAQ's
Updated: Apr 19, 2021
What is Second Mind Medicine? Second Mind Medicine is an approach to understanding and healing ourselves that is based in the premise that we human beings are much more than bodies. If we want to honor our own experience and understanding of ourselves in addition to objective measures, then we must take an experiential as well as analytical approach to medicine. This is exactly what Second Mind Medicine does by mapping a complete model of human anatomy called the 5 bodies. With this map, we can begin the process of exploring the entire human system, sub-conscious and conscious, to identify new ways of understanding disease and healing.
What is the Second Mind? Second Mind Medicine is an application of the Three Minds framework, which defines a worldview in which consciousness is primary rather than matter–a position that is consistent with leading-edge science and philosophy. This fundamental, transpersonal consciousness is the Second Mind. Acknowledging the Second Mind helps us integrate various disciplines and healing systems across the world with our own direct experience.
Is there evidence for the Second Mind? Yes. Please see this post.
How is this different from integrative medicine? Integrative medicine applies practices from healing systems around the world to help a person heal. Second Mind Medicine goes beyond this by
declaring that such an approach has the most philosophical, theoretical, and developmental merit in the context of a non-materialist and consciousness-based view of healing.
detailing a complete metaphysics (the Three Minds framework) to go along with a view based in the primacy of consciousness.
detailing a complete model of human anatomy.
establishing a theoretical framework for multi-directional healing.
Can you tell me more about the 5 bodies? Please see this post.
What is multi-directional healing? Multi-directional healing is the principle that healing that occurs in any one of the bodies influences the other four bodies as well. For example, healing a cut on the skin also heals the mental experience of pain, which co-occurs with a re-arrangement of our informational and energetic patterns. Similarly, a shift in our sense of consciousness can be felt in the mental body and physical body. Therefore, the greater the number of ways in which we can access our bodies, the more likely we are to find the ways that help us heal.
Can any condition be healed? The word healing is related to the word whole. Healing is an integration that occurs in two ways: integration of a part and integration of the whole. Skin that heals after a cut is an example of integration of a part. The cut caused a dis-integration of the skin and the body's immune system works to re-integrate the edges of the skin. According to the principle of multi-directional healing, however, even this simple act of healing has systemic influences across the entire human system. The more aware we are of these influences across the 5 bodies, the more we are healing as a whole. Both kinds of healing are facilitated by working with the 4 pillars of wellbeing. Healing as a whole means we see ourselves fully. We know who we are and what we are, not only as a form and personality but as potential across and beyond the spectrum of a lifetime. In this sense, healing is always possible.
Isn't the idea that consciousness is primary purely speculative? It is no more speculative that assuming matter is primary. Most people don't realize that the idea that matter is primary and consciousness is secondary is philosophical speculation. We don't realize it because our educational systems, including those that have trained most experts, generally do not teach us to examine our philosophical assumptions. Read more here.