David Simon, M.D., has written that a "new approach to health and illness is emerging." In his role as Medical Director of the Chopra Center for Well Being, he utilizes his vast background in anthropology, Yoga, meditation, western medicine, and Ayurveda to help lead the rapidly growing field of holistic medicine. In Dr. Simon's office of the Chopra Center in La Costa, Julie Deife spoke with him.
Julie: How are we coming, integrating Ayurveda into our western health care mindset?
Dr. Simon: Patience is a virtue. This is a pretty recent shift in western consciousness. It is really our generation who for the first time is approaching a critical mass of people who even know about meditation and yoga. And, even among people who know meditation and yoga, Ayurveda is something that is pretty unfamiliar.
When you think about the progress, it's really been quite remarkable and astonishing. Only in America can we think it's not happening fast enough.
Julie: Is there movement in the medical community, per se?
Dr. Simon: The new generation is much more open and receptive than my generation. We have medical students rotating from UCSD every week now. I would say that half of them are enthusiastic about holistic and another of the remaining half are at least open. It is only those who know that they want to be an orthopedic surgeon and they don’t care about anything else, and that is fine, we need good orthopedic technicians as well, who are not interested.
Julie: What diseases do you think that we could effectively tackle at this point in time on a large scale with an Ayurvedic approach?
Dr. Simon: I think everything. But I think the most direct and obvious niche for Ayurveda in the west right now is gray zone conditions where people are clearly suffering, but medicine doesn’t have a lot to offer -- chronic fatigue, irritable bowel, myalgia, and also a lot of psychiatric problems like low levels of depression, insomnia, anxiety, panic. I think all kinds of intermittent cardiac, palpitation conditions that people get put on different medications for.
Julie: Specifically you have done incredible work with people who have cancer.
Dr. Simon: The Chopra Center does a course called Return to Wholeness, which is for people with cancer and sometimes we see miraculous changes. But regardless of whether or not their disease is affected we know that there is a deep healing that takes place. We also see repeatedly that it minimizes side effects from interventions.
Julie: You consider yourself a nontraditional healer. What is one of your primary approaches?
Dr. Simon: I see patients one on one and I recognize that asking questions without judgment is the most powerful healing technology that I have and as a result of that people become aware of things that they are holding onto that they weren’t previously aware of. Then they can consciously choose as to whether it is time to let go of it or not.
Julie: Would you share another?
Dr. Simon: I use my body as a diagnostic technique. And most of the time I am comfortable in my body. So if someone comes into my space and I start to feel uncomfortable, I make the assumption that I am uncomfortable because I am feeling something about this person's body. So I go into an intuitive mode of asking questions based upon certain mythological themes that we all carry with us, to see if I can get to a place where my resonance is being manifest in that person. Usually there is some release and then there is a commitment to start making changes in behavior that will start to release whatever is toxic and start bringing in some nourishment.