The Mind Body Spirit Festival

When someone's telling you to "awaken your kundalini and feel the cool breeze above your head", it's difficult not to look at them like they're a hippy.

I always wondered why people would be interested in a Mind Body Spirit Festival.

But I don't have to wonder anymore; now I have a medical condition that doesn't have a proven cure. So, my options are limited, and I can't rule out things that might help tone down my symptoms.

I could deal with yoga, and possibly meditation. But, I'm too pragmatic to believe in things like palm-reading, "spiritual guidance", and finding my "inner self". People who sell things like photographs of "auras" just seem like scam artists to me; scam artists, or just people who are very loopy.

Yes, maybe I am narrow-minded. But even if spiritual therapy does help, I don't think practising it would help me, because I don't believe in it. And I think believing in spiritual therapy is crucial for its success.

Spiritual therapy reminds me of a theory I have about Tic Tacs: A person goes to a doctor, believing he's about to die. There doesn't appear to be anything wrong with him, and tests show nothing. No, he doesn't even fall under the chronic fatigue syndrome/fibromyalgia group. The doctor is out of advice. He grabs an empty pill case, turns his back towards his patient so the patient can't see what he's doing. The doctor reaches into his coat pocket for a packet of Tic Tacs and empties it into the pill case. He re-labels it with some medical mumbo-jumbo, and the patient takes it. A week later, the patient says he feels "cured". In the same way, spiritual therapy only works if you believe in it.

In my case, there's another snag in spiritual therapy. I feel as though "curing" myself in a "hocus pocus" way would fuel the argument that chronic fatigue syndrome is a psychosomatic disorder.

I left the Mind Body Spirit Festival with a lavender heat pack, a bottle of essential oil, and a firmly closed mind. But, at least I gave it a shot.