Health and wholeness

THERE is a good body of research in the scientific domain demonstrating positive possibilities in the relationship between spirituality and health, based on the stimulation of our bodies' natural healing processes. 

However, many people believe that best practice in the National Health Service has still not come to terms with ideas of holistic health which for others remain essential for the most effective practice of modern healthcare.

How can we encourage scientific medicine to rediscover its long forgotten art, and to practice holistic (or whole) healing? Is 'evidence-based medicine' failing to look in some important places for its evidence? What are the challenges holistic methods need to face up to in a science-based health environment?

This conversation at the Festival of Spirituality and Peace on Saturday 13 August, 11am – 12 noon, at St John’s Church, features Dr Geoff Lachlan, a former general surgeon who has produced interfaith and belief spiritual resources for use in NHS Scotland and Dr Vinod Kumar, a GP who now practices Ayurvedic medicine - both talking with Professor Kenneth Boyd, Professor of Medical Ethics at the University of Edinburgh.