Yoga is one of the newest ‘secret weapons’ in the US Armed Forces. Major Nisha Money, who currently serves as the Chief of Air Force Fitness for the Surgeon General at USAF Headquarters in Washington DC, gave me the scoop. Soldiers suffering from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are being treated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. within a specialized care program that incorporates the iRest protocol. Major Money stated that she hopes that it will not be long before there is a movement to integrate body-mind-spirit healing modalities that not only serve as treatment interventions for emotional and physical trauma but also play a role in prevention by attenuating the impact of emotional trauma experienced in the battlefield.
As she put it, “Our soldiers are sent into combatant zones physically prepared to fight. It would also be helpful to add components within deployment readiness training programs that build mental strength as well.” Major Money MD, MPH, ABHM, trained in Preventive Medicine with an emphasis in clinical epidemiology and international health has an integrative medicine practice on the side. She’s also boarded by the American Board of Holistic Medicine, certified by UCLA’s Physician’s Medical Acupuncture Program, accomplished in “neurorobics”, and trained in mind-body medicine modalities and yoga nidra (Integrative Restoration - iRest) to help alleviate emotional distress secondary to trauma.
Nisha Money is a different kind of healer, working out of cement government offices, not in hushed, softly lit, treatment rooms more often associated with the movement of subtle energies. On Sunday, June 28th, Major Money will be presenting at the annual conference for International Society for the Studies of Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine (ISSSEEM) to be held from June 26 - July 1, 2009 at the Westin hotel in Westminster, Colorado.
Additionally, side by side with Deepak Chopra and Rustum Roy, Nisha will co-host a dinner and town hall meeting examining the divergence and confluence of consciousness in the community.
For more information on the conference, please go to http://www.issseem.org
Posted to Ode by mimischaefer
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Lauren S. says:
Thank you for sharing this information with the holistic health and military communities. This is an exciting time for the heath care. Creating awareness about, and access to integrative holistic health modalities empowers us all to me more proactive about healing and prevention http://www.achs.edu/news/news-detail.aspx?nid=161
Adam W. says:
I dunno - I think it has the potential to be really useful. I was however a little confused by the article as to who is actually going to be receiving this treatment. If, as the article states at first, they are going to incorporate it into PTSD treatments, I think it is a great idea. If, as Major Money seems to indicate in the second paragraph, they are going to use Yoga to try and make people into better killing machines, I certainly think it has the potential to backfire.
Don Bosch says:
GJ,
Neither, my friend. I've been a Navy guy for 22 years. Recently discovered yoga as a way to improve my flexibility, lose a little stress, and spend some time with my daughter (who also enjoys it). Surprisingly, most military folks are pretty normal people.
By the way, as the son, step-son, grandson, nephew, and friend of many veterans, the only killing machines out there are the ones our US Forces are working to deter.
Grace and peace,
db
Adam W. says:
Don,
I certainly apologize if my comments in any way seemed to disparage our troops or our veterans - that was certainly not my intent, and I can see how it might come across that way. In truth, I am constantly amazed that people who I never met are on the front lines doing everything they can to keep me and my country safe.
That being said, I have different feelings about certain people higher up the chain. While I disagree with some of our current military endeavors (a can of worms that I would rather not open here), I blame those endeavors on the people at the top setting policy, NOT the brave soldiers carrying out their missions. I have a similar feeling about training policies. The military has a whole set of psychological guidelines they employ during training specifically to make soldiers better at their job, which unfortunately can include killing people. These guidelines include desensitizing soldiers to violence, making the enemy "less human" (referring to them with pejoratives, demonizing cultural practices etc.) and classical conditioning. (ref. http://www.killology.com/article_behavioral.htm).
This however gives me another reason to praise our troops - research shows that these practices are mildly successful at best (ref. http://www.military-sf.com/Killing.htm). I would agree with the author of the last articles when he says that most people simply have no inclination to kill other human beings. All I meant in my previous post was that IF (a big if, as I am not 100% sure of Major Moneys intentions) the military is introducing Yoga in an attempt to make soldiers better at killing people, it has the potential to backfire. Yoga, even in its most exercise oriented form, can't help but connect the practitioners to the world around them. I think this would be a great boon to our troops (and to the rest of us as well) but would be sorely disappointing to anyone seeking to turn a logical, compassionate human being into anything baser.
Don Bosch says:
Hey bro - no sweat. Didn't take it that way. Sort of a catch-22; the deadlier we are the easier to convince the bad guys to walk away without firing a shot. You're right - the special ops guys, Marines, and other aviators I "grew up with" were picked for those jobs because they had an obvious moral fibre that people could depend on to make good decisions in favor of saving lives.* Use of force was a last resort. No commander wants a My Lai on his hands. FWIW, I've been at the War College over 3 year now and have seen plenty of stars, and they were good people too.
Dude, we have got to go diving together...
*NY Times has a good article on the changing face of warfighting and diplomacy:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/23/world/americas/23military.html?ref=world
And in case anybody's interested, here's the Defense Department's environmental home page:
https://www.denix.osd.mil/portal/page/portal/denix/environment/ARC
Marge C. says:
In addition to Yoga, we know of at least three Veteran's Hospitals that are allowing and encouraging the clinical use of aromatherapy treatments. We've donated oils to be used, and had one PO come through. www.naturesgift.com.
Randy E. says:
Many people are unaware they pay taxes for a Nat Institute of Health CAM office. While evidence exists regarding CAM, for most there are key safety question and whether they work for the purposes for which they are used.
Due to extensive training/experience in the Therapeutic Counseling area of the DoD (and the novel and sensitive use of energy applications in my DoD career), I was asked by staff of the Boca Raton office of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Med about potential of programs evolving in the US Mil. that use “mind-body" CAM that include meditation/prayer.
As an increasing matter of public health and interest, there is certainly a level good when researchers set out to determine whether people are wasting money on supplements/whether they may even be doing themselves harm. Particularly as an A.P. report cites a CDC (NCHS) survey that out-of-pocket spending on alt. med usage in the US tops out at $34 billion annually.
But when it comes to the healing power of meditative prayer the government finds itself in a peculiar position. As objective scientists, NCCAM folks can appropriately mash things like energy medicine in with prayer as treatment possibilities. However, as government scientists, it is entirely different. And yet, the mission of NCCAM certainly includes just such determinations, particularly where it relates to the "no atheists in a foxhole" reality.
So this is where we find ourselves when worlds collide: government engaged in constitutionally questionable research on CAM that include meditation/prayer. Yet, the government through the Air Force is engaged in the use of “body-mind-spirit healing modalities” to treat soldiers who deserve any and all possible treatments that might help heal the hurts caused by their service to us.
More than just interesting, these are the sorts of conundrums that we are going to have to wrestle with as both health and wellness reform and spirituality and religion move through the 21st century.