Skip to main content

Reconciling Competing World Views: An interview with Dr. Rosalba M. Lopez, Ph.D., Traditional Chinese Medicine, acupuncture internal medicine and medical qigong.

Apr 25, 2016 ● By Nina Patrick and Jean Shinners

The Wheel of Co-Creation is a whole system worldview created by renowned thought leader Barbara Marx Hubbard. It identifies 12 sectors of endeavor in an active society, including arts, economics, education, environment, government, health, infrastructure, justice, media, relations, science and spirituality.
 

When they identify what’s new and beneficial in any of these sectors, individuals and communities begin to feel more confident and form a positive worldview. By looking at what truly is working in our communities instead of absorbing the bad news constantly showcased in traditional media, we are inspired with a renewed sense of hope for the planet and collective future. This month’s article features the Science Sector of the Wheel of Co-Creation.

 

 

The Science Sector

 

What’s missing, wrong or incomplete with science today?

I think the biggest thing is the division between Eastern and Western paradigms. The hallmark of all science is predictability. From the Western perspective, its goal has always been to master nature. From the perspective of Isaac Newton, whose work is still the basis for the Western medical paradigm, he viewed the stars and planets and determined that they were very mechanical in their movement, and so came up with the idea of man as parts. So if we could understand how these parts worked, we would then have mastery over such parts (i.e., the human body). This view dominated science for over 200 years.

 

What happened then?

As science determined that the atom was the smallest component of the human body, much work was done on the understanding of the atom. In 1885, with the discovery of X-rays and other scientific advancements, which allowed us to view inside the cell, science was changed forever. These emergent Western theories were called quantum mechanics. The quantum view of the atom was quite different, for once they were inside the atom, they realized that there were no parts. In fact, the inside of the atom was energy! So if we, as humans, are atoms, then we could no longer be viewed as a mechanism, but as energy. So in the modern Western paradigm, there is a lot of lip service paid to the term “energy medicine”, despite the fact that most Westerners still believe the fate of their health is dependent on gene expression. This epoch that Western medicine is currently trapped in is called genetic determinism; its foundation lies in the results of the Human Genome Project that was funded by the pharmaceutical industry. This industry is very invested in our misunderstanding of the human body as parts (genes), which can be intervened with by chemicals called drugs. I think it is laughable that one would believe that our maker would design us in a predetermined, genetic way. 

Dr. Rosalba M. Lopez, Ph.D.
Dr. Rosalba M. Lopez, Ph.D.

What is the alternative view?

The Eastern scientific paradigm has always been energetic in its perspective of the human body. It has thousands of years of clinical success and observation of those percepts that govern it. Up until quantum mechanics, science was not sophisticated enough to explain how it worked.

 

What’s emergent and holds the most promise for advancement in science for the future?

What needs to happen is what I call trans-disciplinary medicine. Here, we take whole components of Eastern and Western medicine/science and combine them to create a true “Wholistic” approach.

 

What do you feel a person can do to take a new approach in their personal lives to what is emergent?

There are four basic approaches or states of being that are addressed by the four branches of Chinese medicine. The first step is to stop expressing in Western ways (genetic determinism) and take responsibility for your health. The body must first be structurally organized myofascially so that it cooperates with the rules of gravity. The second step is to eat food for nutrition and vitality. The third is to complement the lack of nutrition found in food by using those essential supplement that might be uniquely lacking in each body. The fourth step is to exercise, but not from the Western, competitive mindless way of moving, where there is no consideration of what affect the exercise is having on the body—but to move with mindfulness, connecting heart, mind and being, being aware of what your body needs in the present moment by using practices like yoga, qigong or tai chi. Or, to simply take exercise like running, swimming or walking and make these mindful, moving mediations through the awareness of respiration.

 

What services do you offer?

I run a complete Traditional Chinese Medicine hospital and offer tuina (a form of Chinese manipulative therapy); acupuncture; internal medicine, using functional medicine to better understand the unique biology that come with each person; and qigong, a prescription of movement to enhance mindfulness and tonify, purge and regulate the body’s life force.

In addressing the four natural states, we use manual manipulation for the massage, needle manipulation for the acupuncture, nutrient and herb manipulation with internal medicine and movement through qigong.

 

Dr. Lopez can be reached at her Successful Longevity Clinic at 434 E. Northwest Hwy., in Palatine at 847-705-7199 or Successfullc.com.

 

Nina Patrick is co-president with Barbara Marx Hubbard of the Foundation for Conscious Evolution. Jean Shinners is an agent and guide of Conscious Evolution with Barbara Marx Hubbard, a member of the Foundation for Conscious Evolution, co-founder of CEC, international teacher, healer and community leader. For more information about the Wheel of Co-Creation, visit Evolve.org or CEChicagoland.org.