Science has moved through three great phases — the knowledge of indigenous experience, the machinery of Newton, and the strange world of the quantum. Medicine is still living in the second.
Science is defined as systematised knowledge derived from observation, study and experimentation. It has moved through three phases. The earliest involved the collection of data by indigenous peoples living on the land — their experience of hunting, foraging and a deep sensitivity to the life around them. They used their sensory apparatus and an intuitive knowledge they appeared to call upon. Traditional Chinese Medicine is one example of that knowledge and their experience of ‘energy’.
This science of experience, spanning many thousands of years, was rapidly replaced by what we call Newtonian science. Newton’s main interest was the objective world that could be seen and measured. According to his view there was a cause for every effect, movement was linear, and matter could be broken into parts in order to understand its functions. This became known as ‘materialism’, and the new science of mechanics. Quantity began to dominate as reality moved away from quality to quantity.
