Dr. Peter Kath - Germany

Music as a part of an evidence-based health system

Here you can watch all recordings from the World Health Congress 2021 Prague 10th - 12th September 2021.

Dr. Peter Kath, inwardly a musician, by profession lawyer, is engaged for more than 20 years as a disciple of Dr. Shri Balaji També with meditation, yoga and Ayurveda.

He is a member and consultant of the executive board of the registered association Santulan-Veda.

Findings from his work are reflected in e.g. his lectures on “Project-management beyond feasibility” and “Conflict-management”.

He lives in Frankfurt a.M. and is taking much pleasure with his wife and three sons.

Contribution to the Videocongress on 20 June 2020:

Transcript of the Contribution:

What is the purpose of the European Ayurveda Association? Our purpose is to promote and propagate Ayurveda and disseminate educational and informative material. The planned Platform 2020 Prague is in line with these goals and we are really thankful for the opportunity to support the considerable efforts made by Tomáš Pfeiffer and his team. I will present three small points. I want to talk about words, the law, and bridges.

Words

Let us start with words. As You know, lawyers work with language. I am a lawyer and words are one of our essential tools. So speaking of traditional integrative medicine TCIM - what is tradition? Tradition is something that lives through repetition, something that we experience and something we repeat again and again. And from this point of view, Ayurveda has a really long history. If we talk about integrative medicine, integration means that we put something together and this is exactly what Ayurveda does, it integrates all elements. We do not treat the disease, we treat the patient. We strive to re-establish a balance, which is called ‘Santulan’ in Sanskrit. This is what we try to achieve. Now, evidence-based medicine - that is something I stumbled across when reading in preparation for this meeting. What does it mean? Evidence-based medicine is medicine based on facts. But let me pose it as a question – is it different from TCIM? What are facts? Facts are perceivable phenomena that we observe with our senses, perhaps expanded by technical means. But then again, they are just there to be observed with our senses. What are the facts related to? They are related to their application, the means we use and the result. We compare the situation before and after a treatment. From observing countless cases and my own personal experience I can say yes, Ayurveda produces results, yes, herbal medicine produces results, and yes, yoga practice produces results. So without any doubt, Ayurveda is based on facts and I am sure, from this point of view, you will confirm that all the branches we are discussing here and that you represent do the same.

Law

My second point is the law. We have a custom that in order to prove a quality or a capacity, you need to offer a paper that shows you are a doctor, a professor, a lawyer, whatever, that your medicine does this and that, and that you have proved that it is successful. We have many such papers in Europe. Madan [Prof. Dr. Madan Thangavelu] presented one of them. And that means laws, rules and regulations in Europe. As a lawyer, I respect the laws and thank God we have them, but they have their limits and they need to be safeguarded against one-sided and unfair influences and, of course, profit-driven interests. I therefore see it as essential to build a database, because we need to know what is going on, we need this information. We need to gather all the laws and everything that is connected with this branch we work in.

Bridges

My third and last point is bridges - what unites us? This is a question that was posed in your paper for this meeting. I would say we are one. Science has long recognized the butterfly effect; music is about oneness, Yoga is about oneness, Ayurveda is about oneness. So we are, in fact, united. There is no need to cross bridges, we are already there. I say we need to show and display this, and I think this initiative, the Platform 2020 Prague, is a good start. Thank you.