 |
 |
Dalai Lama, U.S. doctors meet in New York to discuss healing NEW YORK (May 5, 1998 3:44 p.m. EDT http://www.nando.net) - Western medicine mixed with Eastern meditation as the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, met with top U.S. doctors Tuesday to trade ideas on health and healing. Taking part in an all-day conference at New York City's Beth Israel Medical Center, specialists in such fields as pediatric neurosurgery and psychoneuroimmunology discussed their highly technical knowledge with the Dalai Lama, who in turn told them about Buddhist thought and meditation techniques. "Mental attitude is very, very useful when you face some problems, also illness or pain," he said, partly in English and partly through an interpreter. "It is difficult to say by thinking, one can simply eliminate pain, but adapting a certain way of being has much to do with how you respond," he told them, his traditional burgundy and saffron robes in stark contrast to the doctors' dark business suits. But, he told them, he is just "a simple Buddhist monk." "I am not an expert in these subjects," he said. Many of the doctors peppered the Dalai Lama with questions, asking his views on such medical issues as ways to treat children, how much knowledge to give patients about illnesses and the use of behavior modification. "We in the West in particular are so concentrated on the technical aspects of what we do," said Dr.Fred Epstein, a leading pediatric neurosurgeon at Beth Israel. "We never concentrate on the fact that the mind is much much more than the brain." The Dalai Lama arrived in New York last Wednesday for a two-week visit to the United States. The 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner, who has lived in exile since 1959, also was scheduled to meet with Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng in Boston and travel elsewhere in the country. At the medical conference, the Dalai Lama explained that Buddhist techniques of visualization and yoga could be used to control one's body. In fact, he said he knew people who through meditation could do such feats as concentrate heat in certain parts of their body or go without breathing perceptibly for long periods of time. Those who support an integration of Eastern tradition with Western science cite studies showing heart-attack and cancer patients living longer when therapy and support groups are part of their treatment. But there are skeptics. "I don't buy into the effectiveness of all these techniques, and I don't go out of my way to encourage my patients to partake," Dr. Craig Smith, chief of cardiothoracic surgery at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, said in this week's issue of New York magazine in an article on so-called mind-body medicine. A few of New York City's top hospitals have launched programs integrating the two schools of thought. Beth Israel is opening a new center later this year that will offer acupuncture, hypnosis and meditation, while Columbia-Presbyterian has similar services at its Complementary Care Center. By Ellen Wulfhorst, Reuters. Copyright 1998 Nando.net Copyright 1998 Reuters News Service janet paterson 51/10 - sinemet/selegiline/prozac almonte/ontario/canada - [log in to unmask]