ath. And thus
primitive medicine is inseparable from primitive modes of religious
belief. All these phenomena which we consider today natural--the
rustling of leaves in a forest, the crash of thunder, the flash of
lightning, winds, clouds, storms, and earthquakes--were to primitive
man the outward and visible signs of angry gods, demons, and spirits.
Similar spirits caused disease and death, and these evil spirits that
produced disease and death were to be placated and cajoled by man, just
as he did his other deities, by magic, by burnt offerings, and
sacrifice.

The first holy man, the first priest, was the "shaman," and it was his
duty not only to placate and cajole the spirits that were thought to
control the physical well-being of the individual members of the tribe;
but it was his duty also, by the exercise of his magic, to alleviate and
cure illness by exorcism. The "shaman" was therefore the first medicine
man, the first witch doctor, the first physician. He relied chiefly upon
psychotherapy as does the modern witch doctor of Christian Science.

Medicine could not begin to be medicine until it was disassociated from
magic, religion, and theology. This struggle has been going on from the
time of the "shaman" to the present moment. Primitive medicine stands
midway between magic and religion, as an attempt to safeguard health by
control of so-called supernatural processes, and the warding off of evil
influences by appeal to the gods.

In all primitive societies, priest, magician, and medicine man were one
and the same; and medicine remained stationary until it could divorce
itself completely from religion. Primitive medicine, then, springs from
folklore, legends, credulity, and superstitions; the same forces that
give rise to all forms of religious beliefs.

Huxley has stated, "Science commits suicide when it adopts a creed," and
from the earliest of times those men who had a scientific trend of mind
realized this, however vaguely, and have attempted to divorce science
from religion. The science of medicine has been divorced from
superstition, but its twin brother religion lies as firmly bogged in
the mire of superstition today as it did in the days of the incantations
of the first theologist, the "shaman." And it is due to this close
association of religion and medicine that ideas of the greatest
scientific moment have been throttled at birth or veered into a blind
alley through some current theological lunacy.