This years Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) conference was held in Estonia 10 – 15 July in the Baltic region of Europe. Although it was the GEN Europe conference, 113 communities from 46 countries were represented and synchronicity led me into some wonderful connections and conversations as part of the GEN partnership with HCN.
I was delighted to meet Gerone Baang who represented GENOA (Oceania and Australia) and we shared inspiring stories with each other. The Findhorn Foundation and Community in Scotland has been my home for eight years, prior to that I lived in Australia for nearly 20 years and I remain closely connected and deeply interested in that part of the world. Gerone shared the 2017 annual report of GENOA and I was impressed by the great activities and projects taking place.
She introduced me via email to Dr. Romy Paredes describing him as ‘the amazing man running Wellnessland Health Institute and Wellness Center in Cebu Island in the Philippines and the founder of the Self Health Empowerment Movement (SHEM).’ This week we enjoyed a conversation via zoom with each other and I heard more about his connection with GEN.
In 2017, SHEM hosted the Transformation Medicine Emergence Convergence. This three day event was organised by GENOA and fifty representatives attended from different sectors of society. Cebu Island is one of the larger of the 7107 islands in the Philippines and is where Dr. Romy lives. In 1999 he graduated from medical school and a few weeks before this, while leaving the hospital after completing a 48 hour shift, glimpsed a young boy on the floor, hugging the toilet, losing his hair and vomiting into the bowl.
He immediately recognised the young child as undergoing chemotherapy and thought, ‘That pathway is destructive rather than healing.’ Reflecting back on that moment, Dr. Romy explained, “The arrogance of my mind surrendered and my heart awakened.” He recognised the limitations of prescribing medical drugs and his career shifted dramatically in direction.
Rather than follow the traditional medical path, he was mentored by a holistic doctor in Reno, Nevada, USA and went on to create the first center of holistic healing in the Philippines. Although centers of alternative health exist there, the mainstream medical paradigm is predominant. Imagine a world where the holistic approach is the norm…
He felt his ambition evolve into a clear vision. “I want to empower and educate people to discover the Doctor within”. He created the non profit SHEM which is now linked as one of the partners of GENOA. Dr. Paredes is also a
volunteer of the ISHA Foundation in India and SHEM has been giving basic ISHA programs to the public. He met Sadhguru, the founder of ISHA, at the Inner Engineering Program in Hong Kong and firmly believes in transformation from within. The organisations unite in helping to raise human consciousness.
“It’s a simple approach,” Dr. Romy says. “Each person is their own best doctor. Nature is the best medicine and the prevailing ailments are due to toxicity and deficiency in the body, energy and mind.” I appreciate how this approach plays out in words. When people go for an appointment at Wellnessland they’ll open a door that says Conversation Room rather than Consultation Room, be called students rather than patients, and explore farmacy rather than pharmacy.
As well as practising as a holistic doctor, he writes books and gives seminars about empowering people, communities and organisations. “Doctor are highly trained by the pharmaceutical industry, we are taught to prescribe” he says with conviction and clarity. “It is a fear based system, rather than one based on love.”
Dr. Romy compares the current health care system with a new model through the Parallel Principle of Paradigm Shift which he has developed based on holistic principles. Personally I’ve become increasingly interested in the places where our holistic centers link with the society around them – through business, education and healthcare – and felt a wonderful bridge with his work as we continued our conversation. In the words of Peter Caddy, one of the three founders of the Findhorn Community, “It is very much our work to be a point of synthesis, to link centers together to see where we can unite.”
He first heard about the Findhorn Community seven years ago and read co-founder Eileen Caddy’s book of daily meditations. It was this same book that first introduced me to the community when I was living in Australia. It never ceases to amaze me how the inspiration spreads so far and wide. Eileen had a dedicated spiritual practice and for over fifty years of her life listened to the ‘still, small voice within’ encouraging all of us to follow our inner guidance.
Dr. Romy poses important questions, “What is the future of healthcare? How organised are we worldwide in crafting the future?” He was excited to discover the existence of the Holistic Centers Network and I can imagine many fascinating connections unfolding. For example, with Isabelle Duchesneau, Executive Director of Le Monastère des Augustines in Quebec City, the oldest wellness center in our network with a 400 year history.
Le Monastère is located on the birthplace of the first hospital in North America, now sensitively restored and redesigned. It offers a unique opportunity to experience holistic health, to connect with the Augustinian Sisters’ remarkable heritage and and to learn from their expert knowledge of medicinal herbs and plants, all within a secular environment.
The holistic approach to health and wellbeing is universal and cross cultural. Holistic centers share the values of Hippocrates, “Let food be thy medicine” and the garden was a key element in the development of the Findhorn Community. Dorothy Maclean, the third founder, was able to connect with the intelligence of plants through meditation. The devas shared guidance on how to nurture each vegetable, so their goodness could then nourish the growing community. By trusting in a higher intelligence we can embark together on the path of transformation. I look forward to learning more from each other and exploring ways to collaborate with Wellnessland and SHEM and our shared vision of the future.
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