Lissa Rankin – As children, we are all born with healthy souls, but sometimes life does a number on us. The traumas of childhood, the wounds of coming of age, the sacrifices we make for our careers and our families, the losses that eat away at our joy, and the fears we inherit from an anxious, panicked culture take their toll, and if you’re like many of us, by the time you reach adulthood, you’ve lost touch with the vital, healthy soul that still thrives and radiates within every single of one of us.
This was certainly true for me. After a happy childhood, my soul was still very alive and vital through my teen years, but my medical education changed all that. After a decade of difficult, sometimes abusive medical education, I felt disconnected from my soul. I know it never left me- souls never do– but at the time, I found it hard to let my soul guide my life.
Arjun Walia – Modern day medicine, for the most part, is not really medicine. It’s not about people’s health but if anything, it’s about money. Arnold Seymour Relman was a professor of medicine at Harvard and former Editor-in-Chief of The New England Medical Journal and was also one of many prominent figures within the medical field who emphasized it best by stating, “The medical profession is being bought by the pharmaceutical industry, not only in terms of the practice of medicine, but also in terms of teaching and research. The academic institutions of this country are allowing themselves to be the paid agents of the pharmaceutical industry. I think it’s disgraceful.” (
Karta Purkh Khalsa – Food has been the medicine of humanity since the dawn of time. Many herbs that we associate only with seasoning our food are, in fact, potent herbal medicines.
Ethan Huff – When it comes to accurately and honestly reporting the news, there is a definitive limit to what reporters are allowed to cover, especially when they are fully immersed in the culture of what has come to be known as the “mainstream media.” There are certain topics that you just do not touch in this realm — unless, of course, you want to be fired or relegated to “fringe” status, which many of the best reporters over the years have sadly come to realize firsthand.