Let's now look at the alternative therapies that are not generally accepted. I group them according to their likely mechanism of action. 

Energetic healing

They heal through the mediation of the life force. They can be hands-on or thought-only techniques, which can be supplemented with symbols. They include REIKI, AROLO, prananadi, bio-energy, etc. They all have in common that they transmit a frequency of the universal life energy field to the patient. This can be done by the practitioner only channeling, i.e. not modifying the life energy with his/her own body (e.g. REIKI), or by using symbols or other methods to transmit a modified form of life energy to the patient. Some of these methods are controlled, others are free to use. Controlled methods are usually used under the supervision of a master of the spiritual world or under the supervision of angels and other beings. This category is obviously unacceptable to the scientific approach because it falls partly under the category of faith. Thus, believers believe and non-believers react with a kind of denial. Attempts to prove the existence and transmittance of life energy are questionable, because science always works with inanimate instruments, and these cannot be influenced by transferring life energy. However, moving inanimate objects by means of bioenergetic methods falls partly into the category of illusionism and partly into the category of magic. Therefore, the operation of life energy will probably never be scientifically proven beyond all doubt. But why does this bother anyone? 

The life energy itself can be experienced by all, if you are open to it, and even the healing that comes from it. So, why not use it? Some people are healed by it, some are not, just as the same can be said of the effectiveness of medical methods. If something can be experienced, it exists, if it works, it can be used. The rest is just a matter of ideology. The essence of the scientific denialism is that if something cannot be tested and proven by scientific means, it does not exist, i.e. it is an illusion. It is the same kind of mind-fixation as religious dogmatism. 

Cures that work by transferring information

The healing in this case is done by information that is transferred into the mind (subconscious or conscious). The information activates the self-healing powers. There are many ways of introducing information, e.g. through symbols, other signs, images, sounds, or homeopathic remedies. The boundaries of the categories are blurred, as energy healing techniques also use symbols, which also act as information inputs. Homeopathy is worth a little more mention here. It is a remedy that is most widely accepted in medical circles. Here there is a remedy that exists materially, one could say, it is administered in a tangible form, there is a description of it, there is a homeopathic pharmacopoeia (Materia medica), on the basis of which remedies can be prescribed. This is closer to the scientific way of thinking. It is true that, if one thinks about it in more depth, one may be confused, given that the vast majority of homeopathic remedies no longer contain any chemical molecules that can have an effect. However, since most doctors don't know how drugs work (only what they work on), they are not really bothered by the lack of clarity about the mechanism of action of homeopathic remedies, which is more likely to excite chemists. The point is that there's a small ball that's like as a medicine, there's a description of it and instructions on how to prescribe it. However, it is possible to transfer only the information content of homeopathic remedies into the mind, then there is no agent physically present, this is no longer accepted, and this is slippery territory for medical thinking. It is worth wondering on it. As long as you have a named (e.g. sodium muriaticum; sodium chloride) milk sugar pellet that contains no detectable components other than milk sugar but works, that's OK, if one transfers the same agent into the mind using the name, that's suspect. Newertheless in both cases the same thing happened, (sodium muriaticum) information was put into the mind. That takes us to the next category.
 

Methods that act by altering consciousness

This group includes meditation techniques, mind control and hypnosis. Whether the patient does it on themselves or someone else does it on them. The point is that the state of consciousness is altered, a disease program is erased or rewritten as a health program.
 

- Methods that work by faith

This includes those healings and recoveries in which (apparently) no technique was used, the patient being healed simply through faith in a healer, a ritual, a sacred place or person. Although I have placed it in a separate category, the mechanism of operation is identical to the previous one. Faith works by altering the state of consciousness. The patient, through faith, rises to a higher state of consciousness at the level of the mind and overrides their disease program, which is encoded in the mind. From there it is just a step to the next level.
 

- Spiritual methods

The patient in himself/herself or the healer in the patient consciously activates the consciousness above the level of the mind, which results in overriding the disease program. That's what Jesus did, that's what enlightened yogis do, that's what we teach in UCCM's Spiritual Self Awareness training. From this perspective it becomes abundantly clear that the essence of all illness is our disconnection from our own higher consciousness. This consciousness can also be called God. When we get in touch with our own highest consciousness, we are back in Oneness. We will be able to integrate into higher and higher Oneness with ourselves, with the universe, with God, and this will result in the disappearance of disease syndromes. So, if we understand this, we have understood the cause and the essence of disease. The root cause of all disease is a disconnection from our own divine consciousness.
 

Limitations of the use of alternative medicine:
 

1. Confronting with the patient's limitations

Not all patients can be cured by alternative methods. They may lack trust, faith in the healer, in the method, in God. There may be a lack of awareness, which means that the patient does not look for the source and cause of the illness in himself/herself, but blames it on external circumstances. As long as he/she persists in this thinking, the illness cannot be taken away from him/her, since it serves his/her development and experience. The disease is a signal, which symbolises the detachment of the patient, if he/she does not take a single step towards unity thinking, then alternative methods will have symptomatic, apparent, temporary results or will be ineffective. The patient's limitation is also if he/she derives a perceived or real benefit from the maintenance of his/her illness. He/she may lose his/her disability pension, be unable to find a job when he/she recovers because he/she has not trained himself/herself because of his/her illness, etc. This is not a recent phenomenon. Jesus was addressed by a blind beggar: "Lord, give me back my sight! My days are numbered, I want to see the Saviour before I die, then I will die in peace. The beggar regained his sight, then he died. Part of the reality of the story is that the patient had the blind beggar as the lifeform and he lived from it. No one would have been able to give him his sight back before. If the patient lacks the motivation to recover, he/she cannot be cured by any method.
 

2. Confronting the limits of the time factor

The patient may have the confidence, the faith, the need for change, but not enough time to fight the battle with themselves to move on to unity thinking. The disease is so advanced that he/she is racing against time. In this material body we can experience the limits of space and time, which we must consider for our existence. In such cases, medical therapies can be life-saving for the patient, who can then gain time to change his/her pattern of thinking.
 

3. Confronting our own limitations

The healer should always be in his/her own highest state of consciousness, with the awareness that there is always something higher. In other words, evolution is continuous. A new patient is always a new confrontation, a measure of where we are. If the patient is a part of me, then if I correct the defect in myself, the patient will be healed. It is possible to heal based on the unity principle, provided the patient wants to be a part of me. If not, why should I do his/her work for him/her? There is nothing impossible for God, I am in God, therefore there is nothing impossible for me. It would follow that if I am in God, I can heal everyone. But this thinking is wrong on several points. God respects the patient's free will to remain sick and not to return to Him. On the other hand, what does it mean to be in God? I may have already realised some divine qualities, but the number of divine qualities I can experience is infinite. Finally, the physical body (both mine and the patient's) is subject to the limitations of space and time, this means that the "impossible" can only be realised in a reality without space and time dimensions. But there everyone is healthy! The mind can suggest the illusion of limitlessness to the healer, who thereby falls into the trap of the mind. The situation is analogous to when Satan suggested to Jesus that he should jump off the top of the temple tower because he could do anything. Jesus did not jump off. It is an acceptance of the limitations of ourselves, an awareness that I am part of God but not identical with him. The part is never the same as the whole, even if it is dissolved in Him.

Margaret Rhasoda-Varga
UCCM head-master
(The art of living life II. excerpt)