After reading the recent JAM article dealing with AIDS treatment and curative eurythmy, I was quite perplexed.

The documentation and results were quite impressive, my first response being, "Finally a treatment for AIDS - with curative eurythmy!" However, after the initial impression wore off, a more subtle and concerning dynamic surfaced within me, putting the whole issue of process or procedure into question. The choice of consonants used in therapy was one issue, but more serious was the certainty of the choice made and the attitude that one can treat people with a fixed "prescription."

Serious questions of technique and ethics arise when choosing and implementing a course of treatment. What truly helps or heals another? In a modality such as curative eurythmy, which uses the human body as a transmitter and receiver of etheric formative forces can one "capture" or "package" these forces and really prove their efficacy in a scientific way? One talks of the Healing Arts with the laws of science to respect and serve. When one uses instruments or substances or any tools in one's work - as with the physician, nurse, massage therapist, etc. - one can possibly "regulate" the therapeutic process more concretely and clearly. Artistic and music therapists use color, form, clay, paper, brushes and tones and instruments, respectively. In eurythmy, one lives totally in a world of relationship to imponderables; and, as Berrde Siegel, M.D. acknowledges in "Love, Medicine and Miracles" that much mystery and miracle accompanies the healing process.

Aristotle's "Ten Categories," a criteria basis used by Ita Wegman, M.D., can guide one into these refined processes of assessment and efficacy. One of these categories is "Relationship)" This might be the key for curative eurythmists to honor and use along with the other therapists. Most encounters - be they intimate, public or therapeutic - have mysteries and risks involved, complete with pitfalls and unexpected gems of clarity, connection - arduously worked for bonuses or result of pure inspiration, intuition or "luck." Relationships are needed to link what is trying to evolve and eventually become visible or tangible and then even to feel good or healed. This is always a mysterious process!

What and when and who does this healing? One knows that when one is truly understood or related to, one feels more human and whole, more "completed," "spoken to" or "with"- relationship. The archetypal language of meaning and relating beyond words but then using words as vehicles - as with psychotherapy - can maybe draw one closer to this central mystery of healing. Having vowels and consonants as vehicles, "movement/meaning keys," this feeling of having been truly touched, spoken to or with can result in healing and engage the core essence of one's being. This is a serious and sacred cause/effect out of which to resonate one's therapeutic humanness. This alchemical "event" or deed that is attempted in an artistic, therapeutic encounter factors in many imponderable entities, which are very hard to prove or even monitor with instruments of a diagnostic kind. Each therapist and patient is a unique human being. Points to consider are three kinds of relating, plus a com- posite one which is needed as one works therapeutically with eurythmy and the other healing arts: 1. One's relationship to oneself 2. One's relationship to one's modalities & methods 3. One's relationship to one's patient 4. One's relationship to the very present moment which "incorporates" the other 3 points - "The How of the Now!"

As eurythmists, one is struck with the prevailing diphthong sounding through this last statement, that of the "AU(ou)" the Sun Sound of Gold (AUrum). The ever-present moment of the now! Thinking and acting on one's feet in the very moment bringing the sounds/movements suited to that particular unique event in Time and Space is the challenge/key. That means openness to that ever-present entity of "Spiritual Presence" - the Healer. A linking availability for Cosmic and Human situations and needs: the "Golden" Rule and Moment.

Veronica Reif

Curative Eurythmist

Berkeley, CA