Delusional Beliefs in Modern Ayurveda

By guest author, Craig Williams, LAc
(www.ayurvedaaustin.com) 

       “Deep as the ocean, Ayurveda defies description by thousands of verses. A person of low intelligence with little study, reasoning and understanding can hardly comprehend the ideas in the ancient texts.

     What is presented here in no more than a seed of medical science which abounds in hidden and diverse meanings accessible only to the masters. Ancient texts of great profundity should be studied by the wise analytically, constantly, and devotedly after having learnt the principles of other disciplines.”

         Susruta Samhita

     In my vast library of medical texts, one book stands alone as a guiding light throughout over twenty years of medical education and practice: “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn. This text was a landmark work which challenged the standard perceptions of progress in the fields of science. Kuhn presents a nuanced episodic model for scientific revolutions where periods of conceptual continuity are interrupted by periods of anomalies resulting in the creation of new paradigms. This provocative text has deeply influenced my education and practice of Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine and Functional Medicine. The concept of anomalous ideas challenging established paradigms in order to stimulate new growth is a very important idea when examining the state of modern Ayurveda in the west. Why has Traditional Chinese Medicine rapidly grown and flourished in the west while Ayurveda languishes without adequate comprehensive training programs? To diagnose this western “condition” we must ask sobering questions and expect honest answers.

     When addressing the issue of the state of Ayurveda in the west in relation to education, the two key factors which must be examined are: the teacher and the student. The role of the teacher in establishing and evolving a tradition is paramount. This is the lofty responsibility of the teacher, to uphold the tradition and adequately transmit it to qualified pupils. We can easily use two of my main teachers as examples of this issue, Dr. Vasant Lad and David Frawley. Vasant Lad is now considered by many to be the modern father of Ayurveda in the west and was my first teacher of Ayurveda. His legacy is strong in the states and now borders on a cult of personality with students often portraying him as more of a “spiritual Guru” than an Ayurvedic physician. Let me make this clear: I deeply respect Lad and in no way wish to discredit him. However when one examines the majority of his students, one does not find deep scholars, academic researchers, or savvy clinicians. Rather one finds individuals discussing “pranic healing”, reiki, homeopathy, chakras, and even the use of acupuncture needles on marma points! While studying at the Ayurvedic Institute I was constantly shocked to see how little Ayurveda was discussed in comparison to modern “new age” concepts. It was not uncommon to hear Lad discuss reiki, chakras, and the use of marma points for “pranic healing” over important foundational ideas of traditional Ayurveda.

     Perhaps one cannot fault Lad for bringing in these ideas into the classroom when one considers the average western student of Ayurveda who are typically individuals seeking an exotic spiritual healing experience rather than a medical education; in this environment the teacher has to entertain with pictures rather than teach. However regardless of the educational milieu, the ultimate responsibility falls upon the teacher to authentically represent and transmit the teachings. It is with this idea in mind when I hold Lad accountable for literally hampering the growth of a mature scientific Ayurveda in the west. Why was Lad not requiring his students to literally memorize the classic texts contained within the Brihat Treya or the Madhava Nidhana instead of giving talks on “pranic healing”? Why was there more talk about chakras than clinical application of Ayurveda in his classes? Why was the extremely complex system of Ayurveda always reduced to a naïve simplistic three dosha checklist by Lad?  Lad’s three volume textbook of Ayurveda is extremely thorough and complete, yet I rarely meet any of his students who seem to know the material in-depth! Therefore I honestly feel that Lad, albeit an important figure in modern Ayurveda, has fallen short of encouraging and stimulating deep critical study of Ayurveda to western students, students who seem more interested in literally worshipping him rather than mastering and embodying traditional Ayurveda. I have the utmost respect for Vasant Lad however I also wonder what will become of the Ayurvedic Institute once the charismatic force of Vasant Lad is no longer represented in the flesh. Has Lad cultivated students with adequate critical thinking skills and philosophical acumen to represent an authentic western Ayurveda? This question is an elephant in the middle of the room which no one seems to wish to address. From what I can see of today’s climate, the answer is not in the positive.

 
David Frawley is another example of modern Ayurveda which must be examined. Frawley is often portrayed as an expert on Ayurveda yet when one examines his publications, a very simple “cookie cutter” vision of Ayurveda is presented. In this regard, the work of Lad greatly exceeds the work of Frawley, as Lad has at least published a solid three volume series on Ayurvedic medicine. Frawley however seems to resort to a type of quasi-mysticism to make up for a lack of clinical Ayurvedic knowledge. Frawley does offer more in-depth correspondence courses on Ayurveda, yet much like the student body at the Ayurvedic Institute, I rarely meet a student who has completed Frawley’s courses who can effectively move beyond a first grade level of Ayurveda. Why is this? In Frawley’s case, I feel that his journeys into Vedic mysticism cloud the Ayurvedic environment with “spiritual” material filling in the weak points of his weak Ayurveda material.

In one of his texts, he even presents a quick cursory examination of “possession”, both by “spirits” and “gods”! In one sentence discussing “possession”, he unknowingly sums up the average western student:
 

     “Possession is most common in individuals who are passive, dependent, vulnerable, open and impressionable. There is often low self-esteem, an extreme sensitivity and a capacity to take on the influences of the environment.” ( Ayurvedic Healing, second edition)

     No, Frawley is not describing the modern western Ayurveda or Yoga student, just a person more likely to be possessed by “spirits” or “gods.” One wonders why this complex subject which would entail discussions of ontology, epistemology, psychology, sociology and even theology, is so quickly described in 1-2 pages in Frawley’s “textbook” of Ayurveda. This is not surprising as literally every subject in this text is summed up in 1-2 pages with an incredibly simplistic presentation of Ayurveda. This is the modern Ayurveda: diseases and conditions summed up in 1-2 pithy pages of simple “1-2-3” Dosha checklist expressions.  I often wonder what an allopathic physician thinks when consulting such texts in comparison to a 300 page allopathic pathology textbook or even a 300 page textbook of Traditional Chinese Medicine! How has the complex and diverse system of Ayurveda been reduced to such a simplistic presentation? I also respect Frawley and have privately studied with him in a Gurukula tradition for over 10 years however I am disappointed to see his infantile representation of the complex system of Ayurvedic medicine. This naïve and childish presentation of Ayurveda as a “dosha checklist” paradigm has resulted in waves of embarrassingly undertrained western Yoga teachers taking weekend Ayurvedic workshops and then literally start “integrating Ayurveda into their practice.” Can one imagine a 200 hour Yoga teacher, who already has extremely limited training / education, take a weekend workshop on allopathic medicine and then start consulting as a physician?  We laugh at this scenario yet this is happening weekly in the western yoga scene. Frawley continuously markets himself as a “vedic expert” and is portrayed as an “expert” on Ayurveda yet he does nothing to honestly address the glaring issue of the poor quality of education Ayurvedic practitioners in the west. One would hope that he would find this issue to be a massive concern as he markets his institute as a center for Ayurvedic education.

     This discussion may see harsh or overly critical. However in reality, the western Ayurvedic scene must be honest and address these uncomfortable issues if there is any hope for valid growth or improvement in education standards and acceptance from the allopathic medical community at least on the level of licensed acupuncturists and Chinese Herbalists. Ayurvedic practitioners should be held to higher standards of education which allow the tradition to grow and thrive and not resort to creating new titles such as “Ayurvedic lifestyle consultant” to mask the issue of unqualified practitioners! We must move away from simplistic “cookie cutter” dosha checklist handouts and weekend certification workshops if a western tradition of Ayurveda is expected to grow and evolve. The modern leaders of the western Ayurvedic educational environments must stop focusing on building business models and cults of personality and focus more on designing and implementing quality educational standards for western students of Ayurveda. It is my hope that this downward spiral of western “pop Ayurveda” will soon stop but a sobering look at the current environment does not inspire optimism. The tradition of Ayurveda will continue to exist regardless of the poisoning by the western world but we must work to defend and preserve this sacred Vidya and honestly examine standards of quality. One look at the state of modern Yoga gives us a frightening glimpse of how an ancient tradition can be diluted beyond recognition. Will this happen to Ayurveda? Perhaps the leaders will wake up and make honest evaluations before this dilution occurs. In the meantime, we must strive to represent valid systems and practitioners of traditional Ayurveda and hold the educational system to higher standards.