Integrative Medicine in the Hospital: Secular or Religious?

This article argues that many forms of “integrative” medicine (IM) offered in modern hospitals are both secular and religious. Practices such as yoga, t’ai chi, acupuncture, mindfulness meditation, biofeedback, chiropractic, homeopathy, aromatherapy, Reiki, Therapeutic Touch, and Healing Touch are premised on metaphysical assumptions about spiritual energy that are deeply informed by religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Daoism, and Western metaphysical spirituality. In the hospital setting, religious, spiritual, and secular language, goals, and techniques often bleed into one another—not accidentally, but through calculated marketing and rhetorical maneuvering. The case of “energy medicine” illustrates tactics that IM promoters use to gain entrance to the hospital by relabeling metaphysics as medicine. Intentionally blurring the boundaries between medical and religious therapies creates biomedical ethical and legal dilemmas through a lack of informed consent.