As Thomas Kuhn showed so well, the path of science is characterized by periods of revolution during which the dogmatic system of beliefs derived from the past is replaced by a new paradigm—a new view of how things work. This change is brought about by the gradually increasing failure of the established paradigm to deliver on its promises and the ability of the new one [better to] explain reality. As in all revolutions, the change in ideas is always bitterly opposed by the practitioners of the established paradigm.
The paradigm that was in place in the 1950s was based on the chemical-mechanistic concept of life. In this view, living things were chemical-mechanistic machines whose capabilities were constrained to those functions permitted by this model; there was no place for any characteristics, such as autonomy or self-healing, that did not fit this mold. This was reinforced until it became a dogma, the proponents of which claimed to know everything there was to know about life. This paradigm not only dominated our society but ruled the medical profession as well, limiting both the methods that could be used to bring about a cure and our perception of the ability of the human body to hear itself.
As each technological advance entered medical practice, we found ourselves paying an increasing price of unexpected side effects. Most technological cures for cancer, for example, were found to be carcinogenic themselves. Because such unexpected side effects have required additional "technological fixes," we now find ourselves in a spiral in which technological applications are piled one atop another, with no end in sight and no cure for the patient.
The chemical-mechanistic paradigm has failed, and a medical revolution has begun. Today, motivated by a growing dissatisfaction with the mechanistic concept and the treatments it dictates, many physicians are reexamining and applying therapeutic techniques that were previously discarded as "unscientific" by academic medicine. The use of foods, herbs, meditation, and acupuncture are only a few examples. This radical change in medical practice is deeply rooted in Ancient concepts of life, energy, and medicine, and it includes a reaffirmation of the innate healing ability of living things.