The Path to Weilness

Conventional medicine and its indifferent bedside manner have finally pushed Americans into the arms of alternative therapies. Andrew Weil, the father of natural living, has been patiently waiting.

By Robert Pela, published on November 01, 2003 - last reviewed on October 11, 2007

Let others gather medical proof, says Weil, who waves away requests for an explanation of how or why any of his treatments work. "I'm not a researcher, but I'm great at coming up with hypotheses to test. When you see a recovery from a serious illness that doesn't fit your model, it should be taken seriously. They're living examples of people who've had what you have and done very well. I may not know how to make the same cure happen in you, but at least I can show you it's possible."

He'd like to see the word anecdotal (as in anecdotal evidence) stricken from the medical vocabulary, because it trivializes what he calls "uncontrolled clinical observation" (meaning undocumented incidences of healing). There are plenty such Weilisms to choose from. In his 1986 book Health and Healing, he writes, "Sickness is the manifestation of evil in the body." He has mentioned that he'd prescribe the club drug MDMA (commonly known as Ecstasy) as a painkiller, if it were legal. And then there's the matter of "stoned thinking," to which he still subscribes.

"In some ways, I regret having used the term 'stoned,' left over from my '60s-era life," Weil says. "It was meant to be provocative—but not about being intoxicated. It's about a different way of perceiving the world that relies on intuition, and using what you see in the world to develop a hypothesis. Of course, doctors are discouraged from using intuition—another unfortunate practice of Western medicine."

Despite his loud opinions about Western medicine and its practitioners, Weil claims a love of medical professionals and worries that doctors are as unsatisfied with the state of the medical industry as are patients. "The unhappiness of physicians is at an all-time high," he moans, "and significant numbers are leaving the profession—becoming pizza chefs or going into nonclinical medicine—because everything that made medicine satisfying is disappearing."

But ask Weil what will become of doctors once we all learn to heal ourselves, and he frowns and sighs. "I'd like to see more doctors become guides, teachers, lifestyle consultants, people who you can partner with to decide on treatment options," he says. "That's what patients want, but doctors aren't trained to provide that."

Weil knows this will change, because he has watched many of his own therapies gain mainstream acceptance in recent years. In the meantime, he's busy building a case against anti-aging medicines, which he considers unnatural and harmful. He's excited about studies he's conducted in Okinawa, Japan, which has the largest centenarian population on earth.

"By now, it feels right when I get attacked from all sides," Weil says from a shadowy corner of his office. "It gives me a sense that I'm in the right place, somewhere between alternative medicine and Western. I call it the future of medicine, and you'll know it's finally arrived for good when we stop calling it integrative medicine and start calling it what it really is: good medicine."