Erika Corinne C.

Sison 2018-06823

East Meets West Reaction Paper

For a long time, I thought that Chinese Medicine was more superstitious than anything
scientific. I grouped it into the same category as good luck charms or horoscopes. After this
documentary I realized that while Chinese Traditional Medicine isn’t a substitute for
Conventional Healthcare, it shouldn’t be overlooked. It has its own merits and benefits that
perhaps conventional healthcare is unable to provide.

I realize that I can’t just deify Western “Evidence-based” Medicine as the golden
standard for good and effective healthcare. I suppose that years of reinforcement from Western
TV shows and books where Healthcare professionals are strictly white-collar, scientific minds. I
like the point the documentary makes when they refer to Western Medicine as “Pathology care”.
A lot of the conventional medicine I think of today is mostly curative rather than preventive. I
think that a lot of the serious medical problems in the Philippines that cost thousands of pesos
to cure or treat (such as dialysis or angioplasties) could be prevented. But because our mindset
is geared towards what occurs ​after ​and not ​before ​a diagnosis, we continue to waste money,
time and effort.

They threw out a few statistics that shocked me, such as the reduction of hospital
intervention by 90% when a sample group of patients suffering from severe chest pains was
given regular acupuncture treatments. They stressed the billions of dollars they could save if
Chinese traditional medicine was more integrated in today’s Medical culture. While I think that
these numbers may be a bit too good to be true, I realize I believe the same things about a
general improvement in lifestyle choices. I do personally believe that conscious healthcare
choices make a big impact on whether you will be spending thousands in the hospital or not.
It’s just a lot easier for me to accept this logic when it comes to habits that have clear scientific
origin. Reducing fat intake or exercising for example can be proved to reduce the risk for heart
disease in a systematic, evidence based way. The pathways that Acupuncture or Cupping on
the other hand, take to better health aren’t as clear. Yet the evidence is quite clear when one
acknowledges the amount of people experiencing the positive health benefits of its practice.

It’s really interesting to see that not only practitioners or patients, but also actual doctors can
attest to the beneficial effects of traditional Chinese Medicine. “Serving more people and cutting
cost” as one of the doctors put it, seems like a pretty good reason to put aside our biases and
move towards a more inclusive, holistic healthcare system.
Erika Corinne C. Sison 2018-06328

Himala Critique

If I’m being honest, the way faith healing was portrayed in Himala was very unsettling. A lot of the movie is filled with
these uncomfortable silences and religious/cult-like scenes that feel like they belong in a horror movie. In a way, I
think that this works to the film’s advantage and really sets the tone for the bleakness and mystery shrouding the
subject matter. The predominance of religious beliefs is palpable in the community where Elsa lives. She is even
initially thought to be possessed, the evil spirit to be exorcised from her body with some form of corporeal
punishment. Once she shows her “ability” however, public opinion changes dramatically. Somehow, everyone is
praising her as a saint, and even foreigners are coming over to experience her powers.

It’s not a very well developed town. I think that it was the general ignorance and lack of healthcare options that
resulted in the sensationalization of what Elsa did. In a place devoid of resources and education, modern medicines
and interventions may seem just as miraculous as faith healing. But because they are deprived of what seems like
basic necessities in more developed countries and places, they look to what they not necessarily understand, but
something that is far more available and familiar to them: religion. It’s no fault of theirs, and I can’t say that it is
necessarily a bad thing either. We trust institutions like hospitals to care for our physical well-being because we trust
that healthcare practitioners are educated and competent enough to heal us. For years, local religious bodies have
established that they hold some moral superiority and wisdom over their respective communities. In the same way
that a layman may not draw the connections between a clogged artery and a heart attack, religious persons do not
need to have concrete evidence to validate faith healing. The evidence is in the fact that they feel better.

Faith healing is something very ingrained in Filipino society. I don’t think a lot of us have experienced it first hand, but
there are a lot of stories that go around where faith healing actually worked. To be fair, this might be because no one
really likes to talk about the failed instances of faith healing. The convenient reasoning is that if you weren’t healed
either you didn’t have enough faith or it wasn’t God’s plan. If you were healed it was the opposite. There’s no way to
argue against a believer’s stubborn and self assured faith in God’s infallibility. And If it’s not harming anyone, then I
suppose we should support it. As long as they don’t use it as a substitute for actual healthcare and as long as our
government doesn’t use it as an excuse to not provide it to the best of their ability, I don’t see why we should be
against it. But the film says it best with “Walang Himala.” It is us who makes the miracles. I think it should be our
prerogative to ensure that these life saving “medical miracles” are available to as much people as possible. Faith
should inspire action.

I personally don’t have a lot of experience in the traditional types of faith healing that one might associate with Roman
Catholicism. But I am guilty of being one of these believers, in my own religion, an offset of Protestantism where I am
a “Born Again Christian”. My mom used to say that If our faith was strong enough, we wouldn’t need doctors at all.
We would just have to pray over our sickness and God would heal everything. I pray for the sick. I pray for healing in
life everyday. When I get a fever or if one of my family members is sick, I pray extra hard in the hopes that God will
be more convinced (which theologically speaking isn’t really supposed to work that way).I can’t demand that every
person in the healthcare community convert to Christianity or accept Christ in order to provide better healthcare. But I
believe that strengthening a patient’s emotional wellbeing can have a significant effect on ones experience with
sickness. I think that “faith healing” shouldn’t just be recognised as a special spiritual event that attracts tourists and
desperate people. Faith healing can be a gradual process, where we connect with patients on a spiritual level.
Praying for them. Praying with them. Speaking words of affirmation and healing. Wherein we can provide them the
solace experienced by a community of believers suffering and praying together. It’s not necessary. Maybe it might be
overstepping for some. But I think it’s just like getting to know your patient a little better and putting that extra effort to
understand their experience.