DISCUSSION
A qualia-centric approach to Ayurveda and Hindu knowledge systems can address modern science’s blind spot
In this paper, I argue for approaching Ayurveda and Hindu knowledge systems in a qualia-centric manner, the way their originators intended. The materialist assumptions that underlie modern medicine, while undeniably effective, are not the only way to understand the body, just as the Western tonal system is not the only way to approach music. Using the wrong metaphysical lens is the root cause behind many seemingly intractable debates on the validity of Hindu knowledge systems. At the same time, it is important to have externally verifiable benchmarks — quality, reliability and efficacy — as universal metrics, and every healthcare provider must seek to meet them.
Copyright and license ©Indian Journal of Medical Ethics 2024: Open Access and Distributed under the Creative Commons license ( CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits only non-commercial and non-modified sharing in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
As the author acknowledges, what is written here applies only to those kinds of situations/illnesses where the body can heal itself and where the mind/brain is somehow involved (either diseases of the mind themselves, or diseases where “neuro-immunology” etc has been implicated).
Even within these narrow situations it is unclear whether the author is saying that the healing happens through a conscious “meditation” or an external intervention (like a placebo or a purgative).
As the author says, the advanced mediative states are only accessible to a few “capable” individuals. And also, to my knowledge, Ayurveda often doesn’t rely on teaching patients meditation.
Therefore the author is likely saying that through advanced meditation “capable” people discover “truths” about our body which they then use to intervene using tools like a placebo or a purgative which then causes an unconscious/subconscious change in the mind-body functioning of the patient leading to self-healing.
This is a plausible sounding explanation. But that explanation is useful only in two conditions
1. People do recover through these interventions, AND
2. There is no other explanation that makes sense.
This would require a case by case analysis, but my hunch is that either of these prerequisites fail in many of the common situations we come across.
To give a counterexample, when a Godman produces vibhuthi/bhasma from thin air, we can either explain it as “a quantum mechanics added reorientation of protons and neutrons using advanced mental capabilities that allow physical manipulation of subatomic particles” or we can say that “the Godman hides a powder solid between fingers which he then crushes”
One of those explanations do not rely on you to do years of “sadhana”.