Dear Stephen,
I know you that you did much work with patients who had either trauma or mental illness…does one need to resolve past emotional issues to heal from lyme or other chronic illness?
Stephen’s response:
Sometimes. Disease complexes are well, complex. There are often other reasons people are ill than just having a cold or whatever it might be. In my own case a long term illness made me look at my life style and become much more conscious of how I managed my energy. I was working so hard in an attempt to heal ALL pain in the world – a problem for many healers. I didn’t want to look at that so I became very ill for over a year and HAD to look at it. It necessitated a lot of deep inner work. And as I worked it through I also was working physically to heal. At the end I was, in general, healthier than I had ever been. But sometimes, a cold is just a cold.
Stephen
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Stephen Harrod Buhner was an Earth poet and an award-winning author of twenty-four books on nature, indigenous cultures, the environment, and herbal medicine including the acclaimed book Healing Lyme: Natural Healing & Prevention of Lyme Borreliosis & Its Co-infections.
Stephen came from a long line of healers including Leroy Burney, Surgeon General of the United States under Eisenhower and Kennedy, and Elizabeth Lusterheide, a midwife and herbalist who worked in rural Indiana in the early nineteenth century. The greatest influence on his work, however, was his great-grandfather C.G. Harrod who primarily used botanical medicines, also in rural Indiana, when he began his work as a physician in 1911.
Stephen’s work has appeared or been profiled in publications throughout North America and Europe including Common Boundary, Apotheosis, Shaman’s Drum, The New York Times, CNN, and Good Morning America. Stephen lectured yearly throughout the United States on herbal medicine, the sacredness of plants, the intelligence of Nature, and the states of mind necessary for successful habitation of Earth.
He was a tireless advocate for the reincorporation of the exploratory artist, independent scholar, amateur naturalist, and citizen scientist in American society – especially as a counterweight to the influence of corporate science and technology.
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a balanced response, as always. in the future, (when he has time!,) i’d love to see more of Dr. Buhner’s opinions/experiences on herbs and emotions, trauma, and possibly other issues, such as mental illness and unresolved pain.
there is no doubt that these factors can play a role in so many conditions/diseases, and Western Medicine is finally embracing this (even while condemning the patient for poorly understood diseases/conditions) but i suspect Nature has some answers, if we look closely enough.
also, i am grateful for your words re: Lyme and anger/rage in your recent “Healing Lyme Disease Coinfections” book (awesome companion resource!) and the void of help and understanding and trained healers for this problem in modern society. i can’t help but wonder if disease has lessons for us as a mirror to world around us, and our for our given times…
and thanks. : )