Alternative medicine is a growing phenomenon, yet as Ghada Abd El-Kader finds out, it has yet to be welcome in Egypt Over the last decade, a form of alternative medicine based on the use of electromagnetic fields has spread across the world, notably in North America, where it originated. Energy is everywhere in the universe, as Magda Serri, ophthalmologist and therapist, indicates: "The body radiates, absorbs and conducts energy; each of the five senses depends on specific frequency bands." Active in the struggle to obtain official sanction for "energy healing", Serri has yet to practice the Therapeutic Touch (TT) methods in which she was trained in Canada -- something others undertake unofficially, sometimes under cover of conventional medical qualifications. Originally developed in the early 1970s by New York University nursing professor Dolores Krieger and her natural-healer mentor Dora Kunz, the system was initiated in Ontario by Crystal Hawk 23 years ago; in 1994, Hawk established the Therapeutic Touch Network, which now boasts 12,000 members -- a step also taken in Alberta, the Atlantic Provinces, British Columbia, Manitoba and Quebec. There are now over 18 PhD theses and 22 post-doctoral research projects on Therapeutic Touch, and it has been officially adopted by the Order of Nurses of Quebec, the Ontario College of Nurses and the Victorian Order of Nurses (VON); it is also used in Canadian hospitals in oncology, maternity, organ transplants and intensive care. Serri explains that there are two kinds of energy therapy: biofield therapy targets energy fields surrounding the body, the existence of which has yet to be scientifically established; methods like reiki (universal life force), qigong (life force modification) shiatsu and Therapeutic Touch involve manipulating these fields by applying pressure to the body. Serri says the discovery of energy healing has fostered a renewed interest in ancient medical techniques for removing physical as much as emotional pain. Non-invasive and holistic, it is believed to go hand in hand with conventional medicine, hence Serri favouring the term "complementary" over "alternative". Guided by the old principles of energy exchange, the method upholds the premise that, by passing his healing force into a patient, a therapist can effect recovery. First he must identify those areas where there is an energy imbalance in order to realign the energy fields in them. Healing occurs when balance is restored, thus reactivating mind, body and spirit and eliminating obstacles in the way of natural self-healing. Serri also speaks of colour therapy, which uses colour to modify the patient's chakras, which correspond to specific spots on the body. Each of the seven colours in the spectrum resonates with a chakra (literally "cog" or "wheel"), applying a specific colour to which will help sustain its proper functioning and thus maintain the required overall balance. And Serri is not alone in her support of the practice: Tarek Ali Hassan, Al-Azhar University endocrinology consultant, sees the spread of complementary medicine as a reaction to frustration with conventional methods for both its overuse of drugs and "an increasing feeling that it is too eager to accumulate financial gains, too embroiled with pharmaceutical companies". A continual struggle, he says: suppression of symptoms versus prevention and cure. Conventional physicians (often sarcastically) point out that no such cures have been proven to work empirically, to which Hassan responds by emphasising that Western-style medicine is often a necessity -- something that should in no way detract from belief in complementary methods being, in many cases, the better appropriate intervention. Others, like Abdel-Qawi Hamad, head of the Cairo University medical department's Ethical Practices Committee, insist that complementary medicine lacks the required "principles to govern its practice". El-Sawy Habib, cardiologist, agrees: unscientific and undertaken without the benefit of facts and figures or prior experiments to determine its results, complementary medicine should definitely remain illegal. Specifically in Egypt -- contrary to the West, where complementary medicine had a more positive reception -- such attitudes reflect a deep-seated distrust of soothsayers and other impostors posing as alternative medical practitioners, a very widespread phenomenon. Ahmed El-Goubari, member of the British Organisation for Rheumatism, indeed, lumps it all up into "instances of deceit". Yet, with over 80 research projects conducted on it, according to Serri, TT has proven consistently beneficial in accelerating healing by controlling pain and stimulating the immune system as well as reducing anxiety in cases of Alzheimer's. "It also helps control arthritis and other chronic pains, speeding up recovery from a serious operation, improving sleep, and reducing pre-operative anxiety and post- operative pain." Yet with the prevalence of El-Goubari's view, the practice is unlikely to see the light of day -- for official approval will be long in the coming. Head of the Doctors' Syndicate and MP Hamdi El-Sayed, for one influential party, is no supporter of TT. He sees it as comparable to "an ignorant person claiming to cure people with water" -- a kind of profitable swindling. Patients must always be supervised by a certified physician, he said, who is able to determine the right means of treatment, including such established alternative methods as massage, sound treatment and acupuncture. But Serri is unphased: "Nothing on this earth is here by chance; everything has a purpose. All that is needed is to heighten our awareness of that purpose, thus improving our lives. A professional therapist can help a person develop the capacity for well-being within himself." A typical Therapeutic Touch (TT) session AN INITIAL "centering" exercise -- equivalent to a brief meditation -- has the practitioner focussing internally on their intent to heal. This is followed by an assessment of energy fields, with the hands moved over the entire body at a distance of two-four inches; this is intended to determine the location of imbalance in the patient's Human Energy Field (HEF). Next comes "unruffling": the practitioner "decongests" the fields in question with sweeping circular motions of the hands, redistributing the energy -- whether by "replenishing" deficient areas or "flushing out" excess through the feet.
