Other Therapies

Moxabustion is a Chinese therapy involving the burning of a cigar shaped stick, made of moxa (artemesia vulgaris) and other herbs, close to the skin at specific acupuncture points, (or in China, even on the skin). The heat, therapeutically can be even more effective than acupuncture, when appropriately applied.

In certain circumstances, the moxa is burned indirectly through different media, depending upon the condition treated. The media used with moxa include ginger (to treat digestive disorders and arthritis from vacuitous cold), garlic, to treat swellings and carbuncles, salt (specifically placed upon the abdomen) to treat digestive disorders accompanied by vomiting and diarrhea, and aconite, an energetically hot herb, to treat severe cold vacuitous conditions.

Contraindications for moxabustion include conditions where the patient exhibits excess heat or high fever and the abdominal cavity and the lumbosacral region for pregnant women.

Because of the smoke and odor from moxabustion I personally use a relatively smokeless variety of moxa.

There is a concept in Jewish tradition called "Segula." Literally translated as "a treasure", a segula is a cure which defies logic, which has been handed down through oral tradition from generation to generation, and which clearly works! The Rabenu Bachaya brings down, for example, that when the Jews reached Mara, (the place of bitter waters, shortly after crossing the Red Sea, and before reaching Mount Sinai) Ha-Shem taught and tested Moshe on the healing properties of plants, both their natural medicinal properties as well as their "segula" properties, which defied logic.

A famous Segula which is brought down in the holy book, "Ta'amei Minhagim U'Mekorei Dinim", is the cure for Hepatitis. The procedure is brought down as follows: "One takes a male dove or pigeon for a man with Hepatitis and a female dove or pigeon for a woman with Hepatitis and places the anus of the dove firmly upon the umbilicus of the sick person, and the person will recover."

The first time I saw it done was on my wife and myself when we each came down with Hepatitis A upon returning from Israel in 1982. Immediately upon having the first dove placed upon my umbilicus, I felt a suction, and the dove started rhythmically pulsating. Then it died. My complexion immediately changed from yellow to pink, and I felt stronger. After 7 doves had died, it stopped working. Yet when we changed doves, it worked again, and we later realized that when it hadn't worked, we had mistakenly used a female! All told 11 doves died on me and 7 died on my wife. Two months later I was able to drink 4 glasses of wine on Pesach, and my liver had completely recovered. An interesting footnote, is that doves used in this segula were autopsied at Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem, and it was determined that the cause of death was asphyxiation (choking) rather than hepatitis! Since then, I have performed this segula on multiple patients, never ceasing to be amazed by the wonders of our Creator!

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