Mindfulness, reiki and acupuncture are widely accepted in our society. Why are people attracted to these modern forms of alternative healing? Ethnologist Peter Jan Margry of the Meertens Institute approaches them as a cultural phenomenon and searches for their social meaning.
You only have to open a magazine or you will come across them:concepts such as mindfulness, reiki, acupuncture or chakra therapy. Not only in women's magazines, but also in management manuals – often written by men – all kinds of alternative healing and 'well-being' are mentioned.
“You used to think of alternative healing as magnetizers or quacks,” says Peter Jan Margry (Meertens Institute, University of Amsterdam), “but now the range is overwhelming. It is not only about healing, but also about therapies to prevent disease or to live healthier.”
According to the researcher, the great interest in alternative healing is an extension of the new religious movements that arose after the disappearance of the institutionalized religions. And thus it is also in line with Margry's research into pilgrimage and modern forms of religion. This does not mean that he approaches alternative medicine as a religious phenomenon:"Rather as a cultural phenomenon that may be related to faith."
Quckery
With a new research platform, Margry also hopes to involve foreign scientists – ethnologists, sociologists, anthropologists – in research into alternative healing. A first international conference will be organized in September. “It is therefore not a question of whether it will work or not. We do not look from a medical perspective, but from a social and cultural perspective. That is a fairly new approach.”
According to Margry, this is also because alternative medicine does not exist in itself as a field of science. “What does exist is a very dominant medical world and from that medical world there is a very active club in the Netherlands:the Association against Quackery. Their goal is to wage a crusade against all things alternative healing. However, that does not bring the knowledge and insight about it much further.”
Mass phenomenon
There is already a tradition at the Meertens Institute to look at alternative medicine from the past. For example, Willem de Blécourt wrote a thick book about irregular healers in the past. Margry has also done research on Jomanda before. But at the time, alternative healers were still the exception. “Now it has become a mass phenomenon,” says Margry.
Although mindfulness is a relatively new phenomenon in the Netherlands, there are also alternative movements with a longer tradition. “Acupuncturism had actually entered Europe since the eighteenth century. That is still one of the most accepted forms of alternative healing. But since the 1960s, we have seen increasing support for alternative movements. From that moment on, the spiritual and social safety net of the church disappeared.”
Higher educated
Alternative healing is more present among the higher educated and less among the lower educated, according to research:“We should investigate why this is the case, but perhaps the higher educated are more open to other cultures. At least seventy percent of people involved in alternative medicine have a higher education. And within that, the male-female division is one-third to two-thirds.”
“Of course you have very light forms of alternative healing, such as mindfulness and yoga, zen meditation, reiki. It is precisely those light shapes that are now very widely accepted in society, even though you do not know exactly how that works for people. So we want to know why people do this, what ideas they have about treatment, how those treatment practices are carried out and how the communication between therapist and client works.”
Inquiry into prayer
The popularity of alternative medicine in Europe is great. But in America it is even bigger, Margry knows:“The keynote speaker of our congress, Candy Brown (Indiana), looked at the way in which people in America want to unite alternative medicine with medical science. Here in Europe we don't need to know anything about it, and not at all in the Netherlands. But in America there is wider acceptance. Many hospitals have an alternative medicine department, also known as complementary or integrative medicines.”
“There is even research being done, for example to what extent praying helps. You might expect that people in the medical-scientific world would be less open to such matters. Ethnic diversity probably plays a more important role in acceptance there.”
Is the American situation – in which alternative and conventional medicine go together – also conceivable in the Netherlands? Margry doesn't see it happening for the time being, due to the great skepticism that exists in the medical world. However, the boundaries of 'alternative healing' are shifting, the researcher believes:"Certainly if you look at the wide acceptance of something like mindfulness, a practice that has an effect on people in our fast-paced society, whatever that means. Compare it with retreating to monasteries as we have known it in Europe for a long time. So in the longer term:who knows.”