#42 The Relationship Between Science, Plant Medicine, Spirituality and Healing with Dr. Joe Tafur
Dr. Tafur has been an Integrative Medicine activist throughout his medical career - while in medical school at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine, and during his Family Medicine Residency at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). While a resident, he collaborated on research projects with the UCLA Center for East-West Medicine and the Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine. After residency, Dr. Tafur subsequently completed a two-year Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship at the UCSD Department of Psychiatry under psychoneuroimmunology expert Dr. Paul Mills.
Dr. Tafur has observed that modern medicine struggles with certain mental and psychosomatic health problems because the system fails to address the emotional and spiritual dimensions of these illnesses. Under the guidance of master shamans, Dr. Tafur has learned about the importance of acknowledging the emotional body and its role in modern disease, and how spiritual approaches can be used to heal the emotional body and, in turn, the mind and physical body.
In Peru, Dr. Tafur learned how Ayahuasca shamanism (a ceremony involving the use of Ayahuasca, a traditional medicinal Amazonian plant known for its spiritual properties) could be used to heal the emotional body. After observing hundreds of people experience this kind of spiritual and emotional healing, Dr. Tafur recognized the broader value of spiritual healing techniques.
Dr. Tafur is the author of The Fellowship of the River, a fascinating account of his journey through the Amazon jungle as he comes to understand how psychoactive plants interact with the complex network that connects our minds and hearts to our physical anatomy. Dr. Tafur serves on the board of Modern Spirit, a non-profit organization dedicated to demonstrating the value of spiritual healing in modern healthcare by illuminating the intersection between biology, emotion, and spirituality.
In this third interview with Dr. Tafur, we discuss the science behind plant medicine, and why it can be so effective at addressing the root causes of emotional trauma.
“Science is not medicine. It is important, but it is not medicine. Medicine heals, even spiritual medicine and science should not limit healing works.”
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