Vision Spa Retreat

Will spa take root in an ecological economy?

 

Vision Spa Retreat is a virtual think-tank aimed at inspiring cultural shape-shifters, nature-based visionaries, and free-thinking entrepreneurs who are interested in creating community-oriented spa retreat venues and providing locally sourced services in line with an authentic soulful ethic. Sara Firman

 

As Vision Spa Retreat approaches its third year online, I've been reviewing my original intent which was to develop a spa-retreat consultancy service.  First, I wanted to observe what was happening in the spa world and how this reflected (or not) shifts in business towards environmentally responsible practices and in health towards more holistic views of what this means to individuals. 

The findings shared have often been personal reflections on the schism taking place as the spa industry in general dissolved its connection with water and began favoring hard science and technological sophistication over intangibles like spirit and soul. I linked spa with retreat to emphasize the value of slowing down and taking time out to contemplate the pleasure and purpose of our lives.

When we are in peaceful surrounds that include water, fresh air and fresh food, doing simple activities that engage us with nature - and are sufficiently unplugged from the 'outside world' - our innate capacity for self-healing is stimulated, along with a sense of being nurtured by the planet upon which we depend.  An impulse to take care of our communities and our environment may naturally re-emerge.

Vision Spa Retreat supports values and practices that put planet and people first, before profit. As a communal and cultural concept, spa-retreat has the potential to effect positive change in personal and planetary health. It is possible, necessary, and effective to integrate spa-retreat specialties like self-care, self-development, and self-expression with environmental concerns.

Vision Spa Retreat Readers Survey 2011: Pt 1

Vision Spa Retreat has had a short visitor poll on the site since it went up. Between November 2008 and May 2011, there have been only 7 anonymous respondents.  Still, the results are interesting and I'd like to acknowledge these kind folk by sharing their thoughts here, along with a few of my own.

Although I didn't mention the word 'retreat' in this 4-part questionnaire, I often feel more allied with 'retreat' than 'spa'.  I'm sorry to see 'spa' losing its association with water - I believe this fundamental element could guide us toward a more embodied consciousness. 

I'll need to write more about what I mean by that last phrase in another post. Meanwhile, here are some thoughts on Spa+Retreat .  I've summarized my  own aspirations for Vision Spa Retreat, in this Pledge which is also interspersed below.

If you'd like to answer the current poll yourself you can do that now or at the end.  This post shares the responses to the first two questions (shown in italics), directed to spa owners and spa goers respectively.  The last two questions will be addressed in my next post.

Spas: service is a humble art

There is much that the spa industry can do for spiritual wellbeing.  Health, peace, time, silence, touch and relationships are all things that people may hold sacred that they can experience in a visit to a thoughtfully programmed holistic spa. Jeremy McCarthy

This post was written after reading Dissecting the Spirit in Body, Mind, Spirit (June 2011) on Jeremy McCarthy's blog The Psychology of Wellbeing: Musings on the Science of Holistic Wellness.  Jeremy concluded his thoughtful piece by suggesting that:

While we like to figure out where to draw clear lines so we can box things into neat compartments that are easy to express independently, the key to success in holistic wellness is in getting comfortable with blurred lines.

I'd like to suggest that we consider this blurring as a kind of softening of our gaze on life that might allow us to be more receptive towards it and less demanding of it.  That would differ from the hard look taken by those seeking to profit by the human need for healing.  I don't think spa as industry can or needs to be the answer to all ills, and nor does it need to prove itself equal to clinical medicine. Perhaps there is more to our attraction to spa than meets the opportunistic eye.

Spa culturomics

 

 

 

When did people first start writing about 'spa', or rather mentioning the word in books?  Possibly in 16th century England when the Roman passion for bathing in natural waters was revived, Wikipedia) How do the English, French and German usages compare?

What can be learned from the history of American interest in 'hot springs', 'mineral waters', and 'spa', at least in terms of the mention of these in published books?  Can we see how 'spa' has gained in popularity and diverged from its original focus on healing waters?

Is there a difference between the British and Americans regards the written emphasis on 'healing' and 'medicine' from the 18th century to the present? 

When did the terms 'alternative medicine' and 'wellness' enter the published vocabulary in English (mid-20th century), and with what comparative level of usage?

How do the British, Americans, French and German differ in their interest in the four elements - Water, Fire, Air, Earth - in terms of the frequency with which they write about these in general?  Does that tell us anything useful?

These are just a few questions that came up for me when I spent an evening playing with a new online tool.  Below are some of the results, but please note that any interpretation of the results can only be superficial without further careful investigation.

Spa and Health Resort Medicine: new terms for old ways?

A report on Health Resort Medicine offers some thought-provoking perspectives on new proposals for Spa as in Medical Spa or even Global Healthcare Corporation.  This post explores some of the issues that deserve more careful consideration in the light of recent scientific studies of spa-related health practices.

As some in the spa world turn their attention towards medical credibility and application by promoting a scientific medical base for spa practices, the terminology used for these practices will need to be more clearly outlined.  If the discussion process that ensues is not inclusive of all approaches to health and healing, much of the unique contribution that spa can make could be lost.  

A proposal for Primary Care 2025 from Integrator Blog and the Institute of Alternative Futures suggests that 'integrative encounters address all dimensions of health by bringing the knowledge of conventional, unconventional, complementary, alternative, traditional and integrative medicine disciplines to bear across the many different cultural traditions of persons cared for.' Key phrase 'all dimensions of health'.

Recent studies of spa practices published in scientific journals highlight some important issues that remain to be addressed.  Spa professionals would do well to study some of this scientific and medical interest closely and consider it from the perspective of the unique and distinct service offered by spa.  The issue is not just one of expanding business opportunities.

 

Wellness and the spa: paradigm shift or marketing move?

A recent spa industry report suggests that it may be best not to emphasize bathing, meditation or spirituality if you want to attract more customers.  When it comes to wellness, people think exercise, then food, then spa.  They'll spend most on personal beauty and they'd like a lot more medical evidence.  They love massage but they're not so drawn to water experiences. 

Is this true for you?

Probably not, since we are all individuals and the details of how we seek and sometimes arrive at wellness differ for each of us.  It's interesting to look at patterns or trends; but it's also good to keep our own perspective, insights and experiences intact as we do.  This might be expecially important in a world overloaded with new ideas and products clamoring for market attention.

'There is a growing impetus for a paradigm shift, a switch from mere reactivity – trying to treat or fix our problems – to a proactive and holistic approach to addressing and preventing the root causes of our personal and societal ills. This is what the wellness movement is all about'  explains The Global Spa Summit, Spas and the Global Wellness Market: Synergies and Opportunities, prepared by SRI International, May 2010.

When I first heard that phrase 'paradigm shift',  I understood it as a radical change in perspective.   That was 20 years ago.  I was living and working at Schumacher College in Devon, UK,  where I took courses on the Greening of Medicine and Green Utopias.  Physicist and systems theorist Fritjof Capra, a visiting scholar, spoke in terms of a paradigm shift in values characterized by ecological literacy.  I liked these ideas.

I looked up the term 'paradigm shift' for this article and discovered that it was originally used by science historian Thomas Kuhn (1962) to describe change in basic assumptions, or paradigms, within the ruling theory of science - it actually meant 'scientific revolution'. Since then, the term has also been used in social science and non-scientific contexts to describe profound change in a fundamental model or perception.

By the late 1990s, 'paradigm shift' emerged in marketing speak.  Wordsmith Larry Trask advised refraining from using it, and counselled caution when reading anything that contains the phrase.  I don't think the Global Spa Summit document is describing either scientific revolution or radical change; it's mainly about an effort to 'repackage and develop new offerings to define and market spas as a wellness necessity'.

How would you feel about visiting a spa if you heard that the collective industry and the owners of the place you had in mind to visit had set out to 'position themselves strategically to capitalize on growing wellness lifestyle trends'?  Would you anticipate being viewed and cared for as an individual?  Or labelled as a good prospect, say a babyboomer ready to spend on forestalling a decline into elderhood? 

Yes, I'm wary of the report and its conclusions; though it is well-written and thought-provoking, worth reading and considering carefully.  I recognized in it language, themes and ideas that seemed resonant with my own.  The report states that it is designed to encourage open dialog about Wellness rather than to dictate specific courses of action.  I hope it will; but I fear it will instead be used to provide marketing blurbs and justifications.

Who is the grinch that stole spa?

 



A friend just wrote me after attending the Washington Spa Alliance’s First Annual Symposium entitled New Realities: Redefining the American Spa Experience, March 24, 2011:

'They had an impressive line up of presenters and it was truly well done, but I left with a real sense of anxiety.
 
This organization has an impressive Board, who are tremendously focused on wellness programs.  These include the well respected practices of Acupuncture, Meditation, Yoga, Tai Chi along with diet, nutrition and fitness programs. 

There was no mention of hydrotherapy, and specific touch therapies, the base of the traditional spa and the bread and butter of the revenue produced in spas. 

All spa therapies were lumped under the title of 'Touch and the Placebo effect'.  While everyone acknowledged there is value in the Placebo effect, it does not sound like they intend to research this topic in the evidence based program they are driving.
 
The other main concern for the use of water in the spa industry is of course environment - I understand this... we need to find solutions.
 
I am wondering who the "grinch" is that stole spa from our industry.'

I've been wondering too and I'd like to share some thoughts, and to invite you to chime in also.  I've presented my response under the headings 'The call for evidence-based spa practice' and 'Diminishing spa waters'.

There is much more that could be said; and some of that I have tried to articulate here on Vision Spa Retreat: Reflections on Spa, Soul, and the Role of Water.  I hope you will find this post thought-provoking.

The call for evidence-base spa practice

What my friend says about the above symposium answers the question Should spas reinvent themselves as global scientific healthcare corporations? (link to my earlier series of posts) with a resounding 'Yes'.

The mention about spa therapies having been lumped under 'Touch and the Placebo effect' indicates that corporate science/ medicine, linked with global medical tourism and the destination spa resort industry, may have strong interests in this venture.

A placebo is a sham or simulated medical intervention.  It is generally used as a derogatory term that underscores an emphasis on objectivity vs subjectivity - the mantra of science.  Below is an extract from Wikipedia which shows just what a baffling concept it is - defying research rules. 

I like to think the placebo effect is actually the untamed (and untameable) spirit of healing.   It is the healing that cannot be explained by current science and is therefore assumed to be anomalous.  It is the miracle that medicine cannot see because it does not fit the model. 

The placebo effect could only be documented in studies in which the outcomes (improvement or failure to improve) were reported by the subjects themselves. The authors concluded that the placebo effect does not have "powerful clinical effects," (objective effects) and that patient-reported improvements (subjective effects) in pain were small and could not be clearly distinguished from reporting bias. Other researchers (Wampold et al) re-analysed the same data from the 2001 meta-analysis and concluded that the placebo effects for objective symptom measures are comparable to placebo effects for subjective ones and that the placebo effect can exceed the effect of the active treatment by 20% for disorders amenable to the placebo effect, a conclusion which Hrjartsson & Gzsche described as "powerful spin". Another group of researchers noted the dramatically different conclusions between these two sets of authors despite nearly identical meta-analytic results, and suggested that placebo effects are indeed significant but small in magnitude.

The use of this term implies that the 'patient' can't really assess or take care of their own health and well-being without the proof of research and expert guidance of the scientific and medical kind.  This is not to say that such input is not helpful but it is not all that matters in questions of health and healing.

I'm not at all sure that the answers to health concerns for people in general can be provided by a spa industry redefined as a healthcare agency, especially when that call comes from business allies with vested interests in cornering a market - including a particularly wealthy sector known as 'baby boomers'.

Perhaps the marketing people are also seeing an opportunity to dress medicine as usual in friendlier and trendier clothes. They are seeing spa as an ideal umbrella under which to shelter a number of different interest that have customer appeal.  See the earlier two-part series: When is a spa like an umbrella. 

It all sounds quite good - and it might be - but I think that all who subscribe to it would do well to be  fully aware of the implications and honest about their intentions. There is a big difference between seeing the world as a place of shared values and linked wonder and seeing it as a vast market.

Read: Writing the World: On Globalization (Terra Nova), including Arundhati Roy on the "colonization of knowledge" in her essay "The Ladies Have Feelings, So... Shall We Leave It to the Experts?"

Also: The Quants and the Poets (Dark Mountain Project), by Paul Kingsnorth who is struck by how 'nothing is seen to be "real" unless it is sanctioned by the priesthoods of either Science of Business, and preferably both.'

From the website for Washington Spa Alliance’s First Annual Symposium:

' ...[T]he Symposium will gather leading minds in the disciplines of health, food, science, beauty, travel and sustainability for a discussion of common issues. The Symposium is the first to acknowledge that the spa industry is the field that envelops all of these areas. The event will illuminate the importance of working together to promote the wellbeing of the nation.

This is a singular time in our nation’s history, when Washington is looking closely at how our country can be healthier. Americans increasingly have turned to spas to learn the importance of diet and exercise, the benefits of organic plant-based diets, to redefine ideas of beauty and wellbeing, and to learn techniques of stress-reduction, and preventive medicine.'

It is true that spas have played an important role in providing venues where health ideas - generated in the  alternative health community and sometimes brought from overseas - could be offered outside of the medical system.

Spas also have provided settings in which these different approaches to health and a great array of healing modalities could be explored and developed under the influence of both cultural and business trends.  For better or for worse.

I wonder if the spa 'industry' really understands and values this creativity and independence?  Establishing another increasingly regulated system for educating people about health may not be all that it at first appears.

Unless the people are given a real voice also.  One way to do that would be to create an independent reporting database (real-life experiences, sometimes rather dismissively called 'anecdotal information') alongside the scientific evidence database (research studies).  

This would help maintain a healthy balance between the patient/ consumer and the service-provider/ industry.  It might also protect mystery and meaning - essential parts of our creative and subjective response to life that contribute to well-being in ways that will always defy formulation.

Read Is modern medicine more science or religion? by Larry Malerba, DO for more on some of the problems inherent in the medical model.

Could it be that the spa 'industry' is actually more interested in influencing people than being influenced by them.  Is 'redefining spa or the spa experience' a marketing move?  Who stands to profit?  Who stands to benefit?

A stay at one of the destination spas - whose owners are among some of the strongest proponents for the new medical alliance - can be 'extremely expensive...you could easily take a vacation to Europe at the same cost (or cheaper)' [Source].  This is clearly not open to all.

Perhaps in answer to any suggestion of elitism, one of these destination spa resorts, Canyon Ranch, has created the Canyon Ranch Institute aimed at catalyzing 'the possibility of optimal health for all people by translating the best practices of Canyon Ranch and our partners to help educate, inspire, and empower every person to prevent disease and embrace a life of wellness.'

From the website:

 

Canyon Ranch Institute will work with its partners to help:

    * Accelerate a cultural transformation to redefine individual and community health in terms of disease prevention rather than disease treatment;
    * Integrate and translate innovative and evidence-based wellness best practices into the fundamental knowledge and social base of every community;
    * Eliminate health disparities by ensuring that all people have the ability and opportunity to embrace a life of wellness.

Examples of their programs.  The intentions and actions outlined on the Institute's website are impressive.  And yet, these 'spas' have gone a long way from the source of spa in health through water.   

There are community-minded spas of a different ilk - the developing eco-resort Avalon Hot Springs in Northern California is just one example - that remain firmly based around natural hot springs, their healing value, and a recognition of spiritual mysteries of all kinds.  Here is Avalon Springs statement of core values. 

Obviously, these days 'spa' means many different things to many different people. We can't really talk in general terms any more. We'll need to keep asking 'What do you mean by spa?' and 'Who are the people who go to these spas?'.  It's not actually as simple as the trendsetting spa blurbs and 'leaders' in the spa industry suggest.

Although I am hoping that all such expressions of healthful living - whether with scientific or spiritual foundations - can live harmoniously side-by-side, I am worried that the driving force behind the medicalization of spa will not be so generous. 

And, in keeping with the origins of spa, I'd love to see water returned to central stage.

 

Diminishing spa waters

Regards the role of water in spa, on Vision Spa Retreat's opening page I wrote:

Many people are attracted to the images of health and reinvigoration associated with spa-retreat. However, the underlying essential value and role of our physical and social environments is often overlooked. Spa - sanus per agua (health through water) - should not be a luxury commodity.

Water as an indicator of health and also a tool for health, is central to the spa-retreat offering. Water, as a metaphor, provides many insights into human behavior and human potential, as the Taoists knew well. Water and humans need to be free and to have depth and clarity to thrive.

My friend hinted that the environmental issues around water have been used to support the idea that  linking spa with water therapies is no longer useful or practical.  Perhaps so, when viewed solely from a business perspective.

Suggesting that environmental issues around water mean that it can no longer be included as a central focus could also be a reflection of our lack of responsibility, respect and reverence for this essential element and its unique healing qualities.

Aside from any historical or linguistic connection with spa, we all need water to live and we are mostly water ourselves.  We recognize something of our own origins in water.  Water is the element that defies science too.  It is most unusual in its properties.

Here are a couple of recent articles illustrating how water continues to intrigue researchers:

Extraordinary liquid: explaining the mystery of water (Feb. 2010)
The mysterious properties of water and its healing power (July 2010)

Thinking of water as a resource is also quite different from thinking of it as a living thing, or as Theodor Schwenck said as 'nature's sense organ'.  Water can quite reasonably be viewed as a sensitive indicator of health - that of the planet and of ourselves.

Apart from its physical qualities, water has been considered by humans as the element of the unconscious, of dreams, of emotion, of nurturing, of creativity, and so on.  Water takes us deep into the realm of imagination.  It also presents us with the risk of the unseen and uncontrollable.

Could it be that how we treat water has implications for all these things?  When we leave out water, we may also - in intangible but important ways - leave out direct experience with nature and deep emotional engagement with life.

This is the realm of subjectivity and soul.  Science has difficulty with these things because they cannot easily be defined, controlled, regulated, anticipated.  Healing is not the same as curing - it is elusively personal.

Though marketers and politicians might try to appeal to these more subjective elements of our human experience, they also can never really control them.  Just like water, the soul, cannot easily be grasped or contained and still remain vital - it requires freedom of expression.

There is another important aspect to consider here, and that is the shadow side of human experience.  We can't have the light without the dark.  Golden Ages and Gold Standards in spa or science have their limits - they are not panaceas - whatever the marketing message might want us to believe.

It has been suggested that leaving a bad marriage without having acknowledged the parts of oneself that contributed to the troubles will only lead to a repetition of those troubles in the next relationship.  Until the industries and corporations that developed from science and medicine have fully and publicly faced up to their shadow sides, any marriage or alliance with spa is likely to fail.

For all these reasons and more, water - shapeshifter par excellence - continues to provide a powerful focal point for a consideration of spa as far as I am concerned.  My passion for spa has more to do with a quest for the wisdom of water reflected in human spirit than with the strivings of an industry.   From that perspective, something doesn't feel right in the redefining of spa as a global healthcare industry sans water.

Has spa been stolen?  And by whom?

[The Grinch is a fictional character created by Dr. Seuss, for the 1957 children's book, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!  Read more.]

Place of Peace: Native Americans and Hot Springs, AR

This is the third in a series of six posts inspired by several visits to Hot Springs, Arkansas, once known as The American Spa. I believe that much can be learned from the history and current state of the place for those of us who are interested in spa culture and the future of spa as a contributor to the health and vitality of both people and planet.  It is a meandering journey, appropriate here since the essential subject is water.  Sara Firman (Vision Spa Retreat)

Previous posts in the series:

• The American Spa: a salutary history
• Competing histories of Hot Springs, AR: fact or fiction

For thousands of years this sacred site was known as Ma-na-ta-ka® (Place of Peace). Elders of many nations from the four corners of Turtle Island made long pilgrimages to this magnificent place to perform ceremonies and share the gift of the curative waters called No-wa-sa-lon (Breath of Healing). They received other special gifts like healing stones, healing clay and healing herbs to enhance their journey through life. From the official MAIC webpage.

Over 3000 years ago, the land around the famous American spa town of Hot Springs, AR, was occupied by American Indians.  A National Park Service document notes that evidence for their presence comes mainly from the novaculite they quarried to make stone tools and weapons.  Caddo, Quapaw, Choctaw, and  other tribes used, or knew about, the various cold and hot springs.  But there is little conventional evidence to substantiate details or to affirm the above inspiring story. To some that's a point of great contention.

Competing histories of Hot Springs, Arkansas: fact or fiction

 
  

This is the second in a series of six posts inspired by several visits to Hot Springs, Arkansas, once known as The American Spa.  I believe that much can be learned from the colorful history and current state of the place for those of us who are interested in spa culture and the future of spa as a contributor to the health and vitality of both people and planet.  It is a meandering journey, appropriate here since the essential subject is water.  Author: Sara Firman of Vision Spa Retreat

There are several competing histories for Hot Springs - one in the romantic mythology used to market its offerings to tourists, another in the scientific and archaeological publications of the National Park Service that oversees the thermal waters and the associated Bathhouses, and then there is a sociopolitical history that marks the lives of the melting-pot of peoples who've lived there.   How might these stories relate to an ongoing appreciation and use of the natural waters, and the lifestyles that evolve around them?

These different histories are visible in an observant walk around town.  Especially significant I think is the story about the peace-engendering atmosphere of the place that the friend mentioned in the previous post also sensed.  The official visitors website says: 'For centuries, this misty Ouachita mountain valley was revered by Native Americans as a place of neutrality where all tribes could bathe in peace' and 'Legends tell us warring tribes would lay down their arms to bathe in the healing waters in the Valley of the Vapors.'

Meanwhile, a Park Service document adds carefully: 'Numerous tales about Indians using the springs have been repeated over the past 200 years or so. Many of these stories are European-American in origin, from an historian's point of view, classifiable as modern folklore.'  Similar creative renditions have been offered in Hot Springs' sister town, Eureka Springs, presenting interesting challenges to Arkansas' historians and anthropologists.

Before being censorious about these early adjustments of 'truth', it is useful to ask to what extent stories like these inform, inspire, nurture and heal, compared with any intent to mislead or manipulate.  Storytelling can be seen as a healing art, and in the world of spa the creation of fantasy settings is not unusual.  The important question to ask is: is harm done to place or person or creature through the weaving of a tale? 

The American Spa: a salutary history

Can something beneficial for the future of spa - in terms of its contribution to our health and that of the planet - be learned from the history of spa towns?  This series of posts takes a look at the town once known as 'the American spa'.  Like spa towns in general, Hot Springs, Arkansas, may be enjoying something of a revival.  It also has some interesting characteristics that highlight many of the challenges that face current spa culture.  This is the first in a series of six posts, the rest to come over the next three weeks.  By Sara Firman of Vision Spa Retreat.

In reviewing the ideologies behind spa or spa culture, we have an opportunity to heal or at least recognize  some historical ills. Hence my subtitle - a salutary history.  The word salutary references something that has a beneficial effect or promotes health.   It originates, like the first letter of spa*, from old French salutaire and Latin salutaris for health.  Historically speaking, spas were about 'health through water'. The primacy of water for spas in general has changed over time, but for me it is still an essential element.

*There are differences of opinion about this definition but one widely promoted possibility is that s.p.a. is an acronym for salus per aqua.  Read more: Putting the water back into spa

Spas and communities built in association with the natural waters of springs have some common histories and themes that remind us of the source of spa.   Settlement and development in these places reflects several factors including the growth of a wealthy social class and leisure culture, the use of recreational destinations as economic growth centers, as well as changing attitudes towards sickness and health.  

Hot Springs, Arkansas, provides a rich and challenging example of all these factors.

Spas as places of culture and creativity with a broad vision of health

When the question Could a union with healthcare be the spa industry's reward for becoming more savvy about scientific research? was asked in a recent edition (3, 2010, Scientific Proof, p. 20-22) of Spa Business magazine I wanted to know if savvy meant understanding the limitations of science and working with those, or using science as a tool of limitation and control that might not be to the ultimate benefit of spas or those who enjoy them.

I hope the previous posts have been, at least, thought-provoking.  This last post in a series of four on the proposed alliance between spa and the healthcare industry looks at the social implications of scientific rational and highlights some special though not scientifically provable qualities of spa worth preserving.  

Creativity, Culture and Community

I like to envision spas as community-based ventures - staffed by gifted trustworthy healers both trained and free to be intuitively creative; focused on slow, caring attention to individual needs for pleasure, relaxation and well-being; and built simply and unobtrusively within a natural water-based setting. 

A special quality of this kind of spa would be that it could bring us back to our natural roots.  Spa venues themselves are often set in nature or try to emulate that.  Some of those of us who seek these places hope to be treated as a person and not as a patient.  We don't expect to remain wrinkle-free and unmarked by life's challenges.  We want respect and understanding for who we are, and we want to make our own choices.

 Spas can be places of culture and creativity, both of which are linked with a broader vision of health than conventional medicine alone allows.  They have brought some of the ancient healing practices and concepts that were effectively suffocated by modern culture back to life; and they have added a few innovations of their own. 

Where these remain healing arts, they are often fun; where they are focused on positive health, they can be beneficial or at least harmless. When they turn into sciences (or pseudosciences), many lose the healing touch or even become potentially harmful. 

Keeping a track of benefit vs harm is wise and it often happens quite naturally in small enough community settings.  If something isn't working, people hear about it from people they know and trust, and don't support it.

I'd like to see spas focusing on what I call the three Cs - creativity, culture and community - and celebrating the local strengths of these.   In global communities, where information is less personal and easily manipulated - whether its source is science or not - accountability and truthfulness are hard to come by.  

The commonly espoused three R's - research, regulation and raising standards - try to address that but they are based on dominant models that may also: 1. remove individual responsibility and choice; and 2. suppress innovations that don't fit the model or offer profits.  It may all be done in the name of safety for the consumer but as we're already seeing regards food, for example, in reality this safety is questionable.

Just as family farms are being swallowed up by agribusinesses, we might soon see spas swallowed up by healthcare hotels. One of the experts in the Spa Business article that provoked this series of posts says that: 'The first hotel chain to come out with evidence-based spa therapies, because they've done specific medical research on their treatments, will have a major advantage over their competitors.' 

The association of scientific credibility with corporate business opportunity is not always as benign as it can seem.  From the reverse direction, another of the article experts says:  'The true scientist must take heed that something has to be working, since the [spa] industry is very profitable and people don't spend their money unless they feel it is worth it.'

The latter expert said in passing at the end of the Spa Business article: 'One might question why the spa industry would want, or need, the approval of the scientific community.'  I do, and here is a little more on the reasons why ...

Spas could lead the way in the art and science of healing

The previous two posts have brought forward some of the questions I think spas ought to be asking about what might be behind the alliance between the healthcare and spa industries proposed in a recent edition  (3, 2010, Scientific Proof, p. 20-22) of Spa Business magazine entitled Could a union with healthcare be the spa industry's reward for becoming more savvy about scientific research?

This third post in the series looks more closely at the limitations inherent in the scientific approach to health and healing.  It is not intended to refute the value of science but rather to explain the faulty reasoning behind the idea that science is the answer to all our problems, whether economically or healthwise. 

Spas will lose a great deal of their heart and soul, and their potential as places of holistic healing, if they choose to go unreservedly down the path suggested in the article.  Alternatively, they could lead the way in the art and science of the healing arts by seeking new models for our understanding of the highly creative and innovative practices that have found a last bastion of support in spa.