| If you were a citizen of classical Greece in need of | | | | experience. Again and again as I walk the corridors of |
| healing, you most likely would travel to Epidaurus, | | | | corporations I am reminded of the need for the |
| among the ancient world's most famous cities. Ten | | | | individual spirit-as well as the corporate spirit-to be |
| miles out in a narrow gorge among the loftiest | | | | heard above the roar of the mundane. In my |
| mountains of the Argolic peninsula is the chief home | | | | community workshops, as well as corporate |
| of Asclepius, the god of healing. Here at Epidaurus is | | | | seminars, people cry out for a healing of their spirits, |
| the greatest of his temples, a sanctuary of healing | | | | not in the religious sense, but in the very human |
| known throughout the world for its miraculous | | | | sense where we are called by that inner spirit to |
| successes in treating disease. | | | | experience that which is greater than we now know. |
| In this ancient world of Epidaurus, each person is | | | | To heal holistically requires traveling to this state of |
| treated holistically where the patient embarks upon a | | | | grace reached only through experiencing the full |
| journey that includes theater with laughter and high | | | | holographic spectrum of our humanness-our bodies, |
| drama, dancing, music, poetry, philosophy, massages, | | | | minds, and our spirits-which by our very nature |
| purification rites, baths, fasting, rituals, sacrifices, | | | | requires of us to delve into those often painful |
| empirical medicine, charms, hypnosis, and communion | | | | processes that do not make life happy and seldom |
| with the gods that release the imagination and | | | | fit into the molds we have designed. The tools of the |
| prepared the patient for spending a night in the | | | | spirit are not those used to heal the body nor the |
| temple. While the patient sleeps, Asclepius appears in | | | | mind. The tools of the spirit are found in the melody |
| a dream to give advice. In the morning, the | | | | the soul sings in the bandages of our wounds while |
| physician-priests, the Asclepiads, interpret the dream | | | | we traverse the levels of the deeper realities of the |
| and explain the god's precepts to the patient. | | | | spiritual realm. The world of spirit, the world where |
| Many a miracle cure is attributed to time spent at | | | | our souls reside, is a world of mist and solitude while |
| Epidaurus, including the story of one man who had a | | | | we live in a culture that canonizes bright sunshine and |
| suppurating wound made by an arrow lodged in his | | | | togetherness. The world of the spirit is found on the |
| chest. When he woke after a night in the temple, the | | | | other side of the mythical hero's journey beyond the |
| wound was healed and the arrow held in his hand. | | | | murky waters of uncertainty where clarity dwells and |
| Others were cured of blindness, lameness, stomach | | | | we are able to find a deeper meaning for a soul |
| ailments. At least one man was brought back to life. | | | | taking on a horrific illness like cancer or a mystifying |
| The stories of these miracle cures sound vaguely | | | | addiction. It is here we see the larger patterns that |
| familiar, awakening within us a distant memory, dusty | | | | emerge as we are able to experience our world with |
| and fragmented with age like the stone tablets that | | | | hearts softened by love, the language of the spiritual |
| were once the votive offerings of the patients cured | | | | realm. It is here we glimpse an understanding of |
| by Asclepius to show their gratitude and dedication. | | | | human suffering and create the stories that allow us |
| These faded memories tug at us, returning again and | | | | to find the triumphs in the tragedies. It is here we |
| again through the stories people have told throughout | | | | find the truth of who we are and in finding this truth |
| the ages as though the memories are held within our | | | | we find our bliss. |
| very cells, awakening us to a deeper call, a call that is | | | | Spiritual fitness does not come easily. It comes only |
| answered only through the understanding of the | | | | with a diet of the rich interweaving of our body, |
| complex interrelationship between the different | | | | mind and spirit, the food for our souls, the music of |
| realms of our humanness-the physical and sensory | | | | the mystics, the dance of the beloved, and the |
| realm experienced through our senses and in our | | | | solitude of the poet. Whether we are the healer or |
| bodies; the psychological world of the intellect and | | | | patient, Asclepius, the god of healing, awaits our call |
| emotion; and the spiritual realm where we meet our | | | | to him in our dreams where we can perhaps travel |
| essence self and move into the world of spirit, | | | | back to ancient world of Epidaurus and hear the |
| where, as Dr. Jean Houston writes in her book, A | | | | whisper of the soul, that whisper that reminds us to |
| Passion for the Possible: "An energy moves through | | | | look to the human spirit when healing the human |
| you that is Creation itself. It is as if you have hitched | | | | body and to the human soul when healing the human |
| a ride on the Mind of God and traveled to the State | | | | psyche; look to that which pervades all life-our |
| of Grace." | | | | spirit-the essence of all that we are. Then, only then, |
| It is this state of grace that we, as humans, seek to | | | | can we truly heal holistically. |