Integrative Health Studies Program

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you born and raised? What was your academic and work background prior to studying at CIIS?

I grew up bicoastal. I was raised in Sacramento, the heart of the Central Valley, but visited the East Coast for a few months every year. I did my undergraduate work in Iowa at Grinnell College. I was a religious studies major and my specific area of focus was South Asian Hindu yoga traditions. At Grinnell I applied for and received funding to undergo training to become a yoga teacher, and I taught faculty, staff, and students for three years.

Grinnell was an amazing place to go to school—small and academically rigorous with great professors and a really liberal, funky student body. After college I worked for a study-abroad program in South India for a year, teaching language, culture, and leading tours. I am really committed to this model of education, where there is a great deal of immersion, engagement, and exchange with the local community.

How did you "discover" CIIS? What specifically appealed to you about CIIS?

When I was in high school I started reading people like Ken Wilber, Fritjof Capra, and some of the holistic medicine literature. That led me to think about applying to colleges like CIIS and Naropa, ones that had a more integrative approach to learning. CIIS appealed to me in particular because of the way that contemplative practice and embodied learning are woven into the curriculum, and I was interested in seeing how the philosophy of Sri Aurobindo, The Mother, and Haridas Chaudhuri had been be applied in an academic setting. Also, I had taught a class on the "Yoga Tradition," and had been inspired to see the fusion between theory and practice. I thought CIIS might be a place where that sort of integration was the norm rather than the exception.

Why did you choose the Integrative Health Studies program at CIIS?

About 10 years ago, when I first became interested in CIIS, my passion was integrating Western biomedicine with alternative or complementary modalities. I wanted to be a medical doctor for a while, but when I learned that the main factors in health are really lifestyle choices, such as nutrition, exercise, and so on, my attention shifted to other ways of understanding health. I was fascinated by the different approaches of various non-Western systems, yet I understood the value of what biomedicine has to offer. Basically I wanted to find a method to bridge that gap, to make sense of how those two worlds might inform each other. That's the unique feature of CIIS's Integrative Health Studies program. It really honors and seeks to understand multiple ways of healing without giving priority to any one in particular.

At the time that I found out about this program I was also studying with a healer in Sri Lanka, and we spoke at length about how Western countries might benefit from integrating other systems into their medical approach. My dialogue with my teacher—his inspiration—was one of the main reasons I decided to return to the United States and to school. I wanted to incorporate what I had learned in South Asia with my future career and life goals.

What has been the most exciting aspect of studying in the Integrative Health Studies program?

The work of postcolonial researchers challenged my ideas about the relationships I form with the people I research. This concern of making my research beneficial to the communities with whom I am working has shifted the way I think about my own episteme and more importantly, about the inherent power dynamics of these interactions. I have thoroughly reevaluated my methodology and attempted to be more transparent about my own motivations in research and to be fully accountable for whatever work I create. Part of what frustrated me in my undergraduate years was this great silence in the academy toward the political and social impact of research and how research informs public policy and political decisions. There is also an increasing sense of isolation in academic institutions due to the use of a specific type of language and analysis that is completely useless for most people and potentially solipsistic. Thus, one of my major concerns is that my work be accessible and useful to people of various backgrounds—yoga teachers or medical doctors or people interested in improving their health.

You received the Kranzke Fellowship in 2004 to support your research in Tamil Siddha medicine. Briefly describe your work in this area.

Tamil Siddha medicine is relatively unknown in the Western medical and academic communities and in the general public. It originated and is practiced primarily in South India, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia.

I find the history of the Tamil Siddhas, the founders of this system of medicine, interesting, particularly their use of alchemical process—both interior and exterior—to produce health and longevity.   Usually working in secret, they use inorganic compounds, such as salts, minerals, and even metals along with an extensive plant pharmacopoeia to create thousands of different preparations. Certain rituals and mantras are equally as important as the physical medicine itself.

Through my research I want to be an advocate for this type of medicine, to help educate people about it, and to provide a venue for contemporary Siddha Vaidyas (doctors) to define their field and scope of practice and to   communicate their experience to multiple audiences, including the biomedical community. I plan to create an online forum, where there will be a number of ongoing discourses on topics that the Siddha Vaidyas consider relevant. This Web site will also be a hub for research and other information that people can access freely to learn about Siddha medicine.

How did you become interested in and involved with field work and research in this subject?

Before I came to CIIS I was living and working in South Asia for about 16 months. During that time I visited many shrines sacred to the Siddha tradition and came into contact with various Siddha Vaidyas (doctors). In particular, my teacher in Sri Lanka was a well-known healer on the island and had studied many traditions of healing. His relationship to the plant world was incredible, and his ability to apply his knowledge was astounding. I witnessed his work over a number of months and still do not understand everything I saw. I was particularly struck by my teacher's willingness to be integrative—to go to Western medicine when necessary and support that healing with his own regimen and systems. Most of all, it was his broad understanding of health and all of its various aspects, including the physical, emotional, psychological, spiritual, and other elements that really inspired my interest in the Siddha system.

What relevance do you think your work has for us today? What is its relevance to the field of integrative health?

Some of the greatest losses we have suffered in health care are the understanding of the power of intention and prayer, and the use of an organic biodynamic pharmacopoeia. Also, as a yoga teacher, I am drawn to the Siddha tradition's use of various yoga practices to sustain health in a preventive way, which is ultimately the most cost-effective approach to promoting longevity and quality of life. Ideally my work will be used to help people right away—to teach them how to breathe deeply, to relax, all the basic things that are crucial in maintaining health. Because of our lifestyles, these types of practices are more useful than ever before and are becoming increasingly popular. Within the health care system there is a movement toward the more cost-effective methods of education and prevention, and systems like Siddha medicine and yoga were designed specifically with those purposes in mind. The biomedical model and these other systems have a great deal to learn from each other. They're already in the process of dialogue, negotiation and collaboration, and I would like to ensure that it's a mutually beneficial exchange.

What are your plans after you graduate from CIIS?

After I graduate I would like to develop an integrative medicine clinic that specializes in Ayurveda and Siddha medicine. My dream is to have a center where these modalities, as well as yoga therapy, are available to people in a more affordable format other than a spa or treatment center. I am also interested in studying and working in Europe, to understand how its health systems operate and how they might inform and improve health care here in the United States. There are a couple of study-abroad programs that I would like to work for, specifically those that are oriented toward public health, medical anthropology, and integrative medicine. Eventually I would like to return to South Asia, preferably Sri Lanka, with a Fulbright and continue my study with my teacher there, and try to understand their model of integrative medicine.

Integrative Health Studies