Michael Chow - Week 6

Our theme this week is about the relationship and newfound bridge between spiritual practices and western medicine/science. This week's reading, "You Are Here: Locating Spirituality on the Map of the Current Medical World", by Parameshwaran Ramakrishnan, discusses this bridge, particularly between spirituality, religion, theology, and medicine, and how spiritual practices fit into our current western medical ecosystem. The paper discusses what a chaplain is and how a chaplain can provide support on an emotional scale. The seamless bridge between western medicine and spirituality lies here. In western medicine, there is no emotional support. There are pain pills and injections for physical pain, there are medicines for ailments, there are surgeries for injuries, however, there doesn't exist anything for emotional support within the medical ecosystem. A chaplain's job is to provide spiritual or pastoral care to members of their community. I believe this type of role is crucial to the evolution and incremental improvements to the medical ecosystem in the United States. I would go so far as to say that chaplaincy should become a proficiency taught in trade school or even medical school. Spirituality has the power to reach beyond what can be explained, and as our culture grows to become more and more accepting of different things, we should also accept spirituality into our medical impressions.