The Living Traditions We Carry
Paul Bergner’s life work is the culmination of studies from many great teachers before him. It spans Thomsonian and Physiomedical Herbalism of the 1800s, German Nature Cure practices and hydrotherapy, Naturopathic Medicine of the mid-1900s, and Unani Tibb medicine from Pakistan.
Together these teachings all support the core principle of Vitalism:
“The power of healing comes from Life and Nature.”
Thomsonian and Physiomedical Herbalism
Samuel Thomson
In the early 1800s Samuel Thomson organized a basic system of domestic and folk medicine relying on herbs. Historians note that by the mid-nineteenth century Thomsonian herbalism had become the primary domestic medicine for more than a third of the population of the United States. His methods stood in contrast to the practices of regular medicine of the day, which included using toxic minerals and blood-letting. Thomson was interested in medicine, and studied for time with a physician of the Regular School. After an incident when several family members nearly died, he abandoned that study, and began study with a local healer, Mrs. Benson. Benson taught him the common indigenous practices of steaming and sweating with diaphoretic herbs as treatments for fever. He also incorporated the use of the herb Lobelia, which was in use by at three local indigenous tribes to relieve asthma and coughs. Thomson made Lobelia an essential part of his botanical system as an emetic, expectorant, and relaxant/antispasmodic. Thomsonian practitioners were nicknamed "steamers" because of the incorporation of steaming for fevers. He observed that in life there is heat and in death there is cold. This became a guiding principle for Thomson and he was convinced that most disease was the manifestation of “cold” in the body, especially in the stomach. The foundation of his practice focused on raising digestive fire and promoting perspiration through steams and herbs.
“Our life depends on heat; food is the fuel that kindles and continues that heat… The stomach is the deposit from which the whole body is supported. The heat is maintained in the stomach by consuming the food; and all the body and limbs receive their proportion of nourishment and heat from that source; as a whole room is warmed by the fire which is consumed in the fire-place.”
“I have found by experience, that the learned doctors are wrong in considering fever a disease or enemy; the fever is a friend, and cold the enemy…it is the struggle of nature to throw off disease…”
~Samuel Thomson
Thomson devised a series of 6 herbal treatments, and numbered them as such so that it would be easy to follow. He started with Lobelia, which he said "cleansed the stomach, raised body temperature, and induced perspiration." Then next formula was used to "hold the heat in the stomach," and he used spicy herbs including ginger, horseradish, mustard, and peppermint. He then discovered bottled pepper sauce, and was so impressed with its ability to warm the body that he began to regard Cayenne pepper as one of his most important medicines. In Thomson's portrait he can be seen holding two plants, Lobelia inflata in his right hand and Capsicum annuum in his left hand, illustrating how important they were in his healing practice.
Thomsonian herbalism was not a formal school or institution by design. He believed in empowering people to care for themselves. Thomson was able to turn his ideas into a movement through his published books and pamphlets, and became a spokesman for the "people's medicine." This brought ridicule and scrutiny from the established medical system, and they sought to discredit him numerous times. He was even jailed for 6 weeks awaiting trial for the alleged murder of a patient with Lobelia. He was eventually acquitted when a witness ate some of the plant in question only to discover that it was not in fact Lobelia, but marsh rosemary, a harmless local plant. He went on to patent his remedies to give them credibility. Samuel Thomson died in 1843 and the movement lost his personal leadership. Thomson's students dispersed and formed their own schools and practices.
Dr. Alva Curtis
Dr. Alva Curtis was a Thomson's close assistant for some years. They eventually split over the issue of whether Thomsonian practitioners should be able to obtain a full medical education. Curtis founded a medical school with a complete faculty to teach such subjects as Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, Medicine, Surgery, and Obstetrics, all within the context of the Thomsonian practice and Materia Medica. The graduates of his school obtained MD degrees, and the school of medicine became known as "Physiomedicalism." Dr. Curtis' student Dr. William Cook, MD and others carried Physiomedicalism up to the twentieth century, during which time it also jumped the Atlantic and influenced British professional herbalism. Cook's student Thomas J. Lyle carried the tradition into the twentieth century as faculty of the last school of Physiomedical medicine in Chicago. We use Cook's and Lyle's writings as core textbooks at the NAIMH.
Dr. William Cook
Thomas J. Lyle
Herbert Nowell, ND
In the decades after the folding of the last Physiomedical School, Lyle's student Herbert Nowell, ND used Lyle's text on Materia Medica and Therapeutics to write a correspondence course in Canada. He wanted to keep the system from dying during the decades of oppression of alternative medicine by the medical establishment. Nowell was cross-trained both in Physiomedicalism, as demonstrated in his course, and Nature Cure, which he apparently studied under Dr. Henry Lindlahr in Chicago. (See the following section on Nature Cure). Nowell's teachings resulted in the founding of the Dominion Herbal College in Canada, under the directorship of Nowell's student Ella Birzneck RNT, MH, EP.
“Herbs are my religion. If they take away my herbs, they might as well take away my family Bible.”
~ Herbert Nowell, ND
Nowell, Birznick, and then Birznesk's daughter Judy Nelson, DC, ND in turn trained a number of North American herbalists during the 1970s and 1980s in the basics of Physiomedicalism. This influenced the "Herbal Renaissance" which occurred at that time. They trained Cascade Anderson Geller, who was eventually on the faculty of the National College of Naturopathic Medicine in Portland, Oregon, where NAIMH director Paul Bergner studied with her. She was his most important mentor in herbalism, and Cascade carried more influences than just Physiomedicalism. Paul learned many of the key elements in his practice and his approach to herbalism and nature from her.
Ella Birzneck RNT, MH, EP
Judy Nelson, DC, ND
Cascade Anderson Geller
German Nature Cure
Father Sebastian Kneipp
Father Sebastian Kneipp (pronounced Kuh-nype, like “type”) was a rural priest who practiced traditional Nature Cure with hydrotherapy. He was taught herbalism by his mother, referred to simply as Mother Kneipp, who was a Bavarian village herbalist. He is credited with introducing herbalism into the German nature cure movement, which before him relied entirely on dietetics, rest, and hydrotherapy.
"When the father of an illness is often unknown, the mother is always the diet."
~Father Kneipp
In 1855, Father Kneipp began developing what he called his Five Pillars for body and mind: Water, Plants, Exercise, Nutrition and Balance. Kneipp was world famous and treated hundreds of thousands of patients with Nature Cure. We include Kneipp's herbal in our readings at the NAIMH.
Dr. Henry Lindlahr, ND, MD
Dr. Henry Lindlahr, ND, MD was in his 40s when he and his wife were both diagnosed with terminal diseases. They eventually traveled to Germany and were cured by Father Kneipp. Lindlahr returned to the states and started a practice in Chicago, also founding an in-patient facility, and a naturopathic medical school. He established the current model of the naturopathic medical profession where physicians are trained in diagnosis but rely on the remedies of natural medicine. Lindlahr was a master of dietetics and vitalist therapeutics. We use his writings as core textbooks at the NAIMH.
“One of the reasons why Nature Cure is not more popular with the medical profession and the public is that it is too simple. The average mind is more impressed by the involved and mysterious than by the simple and common-sense … Nature Cure requires a degree of self-mastery, it requires effort, and most people do not want this, they want something quick and easy.“
~ Dr. Lindlahr
Dr. Otis G. Carroll
Dr. Otis G. Carroll, a student of Father Kneipp, established a Nature Cure spa in Spokane, WA, which became the largest such spa West of the Mississippi, and attracted patients from around the world. He was also a student of Dr. Henry Lindlahr. During the 1930s, Carroll built on the dietetic observations of Lindlahr, and began to screen all his chronic disease patients for food intolerance, concluding elimination of offending foods was essential to recovery from chronic illness. He also established innovative methods of hydrotherapy. He was reputed to know the properties of more than 400 herbs, which may imply that he studied Physiomedicalism while studying with Lindlahr in Chicago. He used herbalism in the context of Nature Cure focusing on simple pairs and triplets of herbs, used primarily to enhance digestion or to calm the nervous system. We incorporate his dietetics and herbal approach at NAIMH.
Dr. Carroll taught a number of naturopathic physicians, primary among them was Dr. Harold Dick, who continued his work in Spokane after his passing. Other prominent NDs trained in his methods were Dr. John Bastyr, Dr. William Turska, and Dr. Leo Scott. NAIMH Director Paul Bergner met and learned from all these grey-haired elders when he attended the National College of Natural Medicine (NCNM) in Portland, Oregon during the 1980s. All were inspirational in their clarity and commitment to vitalist medicine.
Dr. Harold Dick
Dr. Harold Dick carried on this practice of traditional naturopathic therapeutics. He graduated from Western States Chiropractic College with licenses in chiropractic and naturopathic medicine in 1956. He then completed a 3-year residency with Dr. Carroll in Spokane, WA. Dr. Dick was Paul's primary inspiration to incorporate food intolerance screening as a routine for all chronic illness patients, as is practiced today at the NAIMH.
"Unless you are willing to screen all your chronic disease patients for food intolerance, coach them through an effective withdrawal, and advocate life-long avoidance of the smallest amount of that food, you might as well find another profession.”
~ Dr. Harold Dick
A video recording of Dr. Dick showing before and after slides of his cured patients. All patients were screened for food intolerance and given hydrotherapy treatments. https://www.thecarrollinstitute.org/index.php/the-dr-harrold-dick-tapes/
Dr. Dick also mentored Dr. Wade Boyle ND, who in turn was a primary influence on Pauls' approach to herbalism, where the herbs are not used to fight diseases but to support the vital processes in a natural cure context. This is the model that permeates the NAIMH. Dr. Boyle also wrote a text on medical level hydrotherapy, parts of which we incorporate into the training at the NAIMH.
“Herbal medicine just means that you are using herbs as medicine. (Vitalist) herbal medicine is using herbs to support the processes of Nature Cure. “
~ Dr. Wade Boyle, ND
Dr. John Bastyr
Dr. John Bastyr was a key figure in incorporating 20th century physician-level herbalism into naturopathic practice being influenced by both the Eclectic physicians, the Physiomedicalists, and the regular medical doctors. Bastyr, a master of several modalities of natural medicine, including homeopathy, dietetics, herbalism, and manual medicine, developed an expanded herbal Materia medica and therapeutics over the mid-twentieth century, and these have become part of the naturopathic tradition.
From Dr. Bastyr, we learned methods of study of Materia medica which we recommend for all our students. He once said, “Beginning in medical school, I established the habit of reading one materia-medica item in the evening before sleep.” We encourage this in our community today. When he was asked by a graduating naturopathic physician what would be one line of advice to make them more successful. His replied, “Touch your patient.” We continue this tradition with our students' training through the medium of pulse assessment.
Drs Agatha and Calvin Thrash
Our other influence in Nature Cure comes from the Seventh Day Adventist tradition of Nature Cure. Drs Calvin and Agatha Thrash's books were among the first influences in Paul's education in healing during the 1970s. Later, Tori Hudson ND, who had studied with the Thrashes, was another important influence on Paul during the 1980s, with vitalist approaches and the use of hydrotherapy. This has also been enhanced by a professional relationship with Christopher Deatherage, ND and his wife Gloria, both students of the Thrashes who have run a busy Nature Cure practice for four decades in Missouri. NAIMH includes some herbal therapeutics and food intolerance screening methods learned from their practice.
Tori Hudson, ND
Christopher and Gloria Deatherage
Unani Tibb
The Four Humors system of medicine is an ancient and living system with roots in Egypt, Greece, and Rome, preserved and developed over a millennium by Arabic physicians and living today in the Middle East, India, and Pakistan where it is known as Unani Tibb (Arabic for “Greek Medicine”). Unani Tibb is a traditional system of medicine based on the teachings of Hippocrates (known as the Father of Western medicine), Galen (1st century prominent Greek physician and surgeon) and Ibn Sina also known as Avicenna (the preeminent Persian philosopher and physician of the 10th century).
Unani medicine is based on:
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The four Elements (fire, water, earth, air)
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The four Temperaments (sanguine; hot and moist, phlegmatic; cold and moist, bilious; hot and dry, and melancholic; cold and dry)
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and The six Lifestyle factors (Food and drink, Air and breathing, Movement and rest, Sleep and wakefulness, Emotions and feelings, Elimination)
Paul was very blessed to meet and learn from Christine Horn, ND who received training in Materia medica, formulation, and therapeutics at a Unani Women's Clinic in Karachi, Pakistan. We incorporate some Unani Tibb pharmacy methods such as using hot honey to decoct powdered herbs. We also use a digital copy of one of the Unani Materia Medica books given to us by Dr. Horn as a textbook at NAIMH. It has influenced our approach to herbal formulation. NAIMH has developed an area of Materia medica “for the Spiritual Heart,” that is informed by our own experiments and also the writings of the Unani works of Avicenna we received from Dr. Horn.
The North American Institute of Medical Herbalism
Paul Bergner, MH, CN
We carry these teachings now as living and evolving traditions. Things cannot be applied dogmatically according to what went before, but the principles remain. In the NAIMH community, grounded in the practical experiences of community learning and a culture of collaboration in our teaching clinics, we have evolved and adapted these traditions to the conditions, the diet, and the general circumstances of life in the contemporary era. These traditions also evolve in the larger community of our affiliated schools, each of them developing a unique expression of these traditions according to their own circumstances.
Students of Paul Bergner, the North American Institute of Medical Herbalism, and its affiliate schools carry on this lineage, empowering individuals to learn how to care for themselves, their loved ones, and their communities.