Who’s the Expert?

Evidence-based medicine has developed to oppose the tendency of drug companies to increase profits by making false or harmful claims. It takes the point of view that if something hasn’t been proven to be true, it is false, and suspect. Together, the problem and response, which sustain otherwise unworkable complex systems, inhibit individual observation, spontaneity, creativity, and innovation. Like other incentives and regulations, they are designed to support the status quo, and to sometimes allow incremental change.

They also assume that one-size-fits-all. When the system has failed us, that is, when we have a chronic illness that by definition cannot be cured, we experience the downsides of centralized modernity. We learn that what helps no one, or a few, or the majority may not help us. One size does not fit all, and systems that bear the weight of private and public bureaucracy may be rigid, costly, and arbitrary, and may be too preoccupied with self-maintenance to fulfill their mission of helping others.

As the complex systems of the modern era has begun to fail, it has become popular to blame experts. The bright side of blame is that we recognize that passive obedience to expert opinions will not solve our problems. The shadow side is that our blame implies that we still expect others to take responsibility for our most important responsibilities and decisions. It also implies that we may blame or undervalue expert opinion as a way of avoiding a clear and compassionate view of our flaws and our unavoidable realities.

When we expect help from experts, we may miss the chance to take heart and become active partners in our healing and cure. We may fail to take heart, to pay positive attention to our bodies, or to learn how to sense, know, and care for our sevenfold body. We pass up the opportunity to become the expert on our body, which is shame because no one can know our body as we do, or weigh our bodily experience against the advice of doctors and other carers, or guide our healing and cure to suit our unique case of illness.