hi valarie,
thanks for your post (and sorry for the delay in replying). some
questions / comments;

1) you said that, "Ayurvedic medicine, like Western medicine, or any
other form of medicine is not something to [believe in]".

my view is that western medicine IS something to believe in. the
difference between western medicine and ayurvedic medicine in this
respect is that people believe in western medicine not only because
of results or due to blind faith, but because of it's scientific
foundations. ie, techniques are formulated and tested within a
scientic framework of clinical trials, by reference to anatomical
knowledge gained from real human bodies and so on. i don't know much
about ayurveda, but this system / way of life seems to be founded
more on unproven (unprovable ?)theories.

having said that, the "if it works, use it" argument works for me to
some extent as well.

2) you mentioned the holistic nature of traditional eastern
medicine. however, is there any reason why western medicine can not
be non-holistic, or any reason why traditional eastern medicine has
to be inherantly more holistic? surely, you don't need to be
practitioner of ayurveda to blend diet, excercise, life habits,
meditation, pyschotherapy etc

3) you said that my perspective "is typical of the Western mind-set,
that unless something can be proven under the microscope, its value
contributes little in your awareness"

i don't actually believe that. if something works, then fine.
that's good. it's just that i'd like to understand WHY it works. and
also, i think that if disciplines such as thai massage are to ever be
fully integrated into western health services (rather than remain
left field / alternative)it is important that they have a scientific
grounding as far as possible. i'm aware that many people would regard
this as "selling out" but who knows what form thai massage might have
taken if, like western doctors it's gurus had been allowed to dissect
bodies and so on.

4)orgone. i'd never heard of that before. thanks for the link.
however, to what degree is this idea actually supported by the
western medical community (not that acceptance / non-acceptance
neccsarily presumes validity or lack of validity. and does orgone
function in the ways that traditional eastern medicine says that it
does? ie does it folow the classical chinese / indian maps of chi /
prana meridians, is it linked to the organs in the same way, can it
be manipulated by treating meridian lines or acupoints through
pressure, stretches, needles, heat and so on?

regards, and thanks again, dan :)

ps, at the moment, i'm reading "anatomy of hatha yoga" by h. david
coulter. i'd recoment this book for practitioners of yoga or thai
massage as it seeks to explain the postures, breathing etc in western
physiological terms. this doesn't mean that mr coulter, or myself
say that chi / prana does not exist (i'll reserve my judgement on
that one). neither do a think that western medicine is perfect, that
it knows everything, is never wrong, or will never change its mind.
it's just that, where possible, i like to find logical, provable
scientic explanations to things. :)