It is easy to understand why historically many people found it difficult to understand the world was a sphere. They looked out at the landscape and it seemed to stretch for as far as their eyes could see. They didn't fall off, no matter how far they walked or which hill they climbed. It took many years for the western world to prove our world was spherical (by sailing around it). Ayurveda has known this reality thousands of years before Christ. The ancient sages meditated and reached higher levels of consciousness - it enabled them to go beyond the senses and discover amazing truths about life, nature and the Universe. Today the scientific community has a way of proving something is real or effective - it's called evidence based medicine. The term is often synonymous with a trusted treatment and the medical fraternity single-mindedly use this approach as the only legitimate means of comparing the effectiveness of a healing system. However as is often the case with man-made rules and assumptions, some things simply don't fit or cannot be measured or explained in this way.
Just because we cannot see, smell, taste, hear or touch something with our senses doesn't mean it does not exist. Humanity is still discovering and trying to unravel the mysteries and wonders of our Universe. Take the stars that are billions of light years away, we know they are there because we can see the tiny dots in the sky. Sophisticated instruments allow us to see them more clearly and measure how far they are away from us. However, there probably are billions of other stars, galaxies and universes out there being created and destroyed, we just haven't developed the technology yet to record and therefore acknowledge their existence.
Long before the invention of the microscope Ayurvedic physicians had an established system of healing which acknowledged the existence of tiny particles or atoms and DNA; they also understood the less tangiable concepts of physics and the interaction of energy and matter, gravity and relativity. Ayurveda probably has the longest clincial experience of any medical system in the world, a pharmacopea of thousands of herbs, surgical procedures and ways of living to prevent illness and promote longevity. Ayurveda has its own sophisticated, intricate, systematic and logical way of explaining illness or imbalance. It goes beyond the senses and the physical entities to the soul and spirituality. It links our life with nature as a whole. We are inextricably linked with nature and this bond is part of the solution to our healing. While modern medicine (though great) focuses mainly on fixing symptoms and measuring changes - Ayurveda looks at the underlying causes - both the factors which can be measured and those which cannot. It looks at our life and how we connect with nature and our soul. The soul cannot be measured, cannot be seen but is a phenomena most of us experience in some way. In this way Ayurveda is not just a system of medicine it is also a way of living - a way of living life to the full by maximising our potential and living in harmony with nature; it is a spiritual medicine. Just as a plant needs sun to grow, so do we depend on the sun's energy through the plant to flourish. There are other cycles and connection between us and nature that we cannot see. Man's impact on global warming and the devastating implications are unfolding. Now the changes can be seen, they can be felt and they can be measured. This reality has come eventually. However with meditation and expanding our awareness, we can tap in to our spiritual oceans and understand how our life forces are intrinsically linked and inter-dependent.
Meditation helps us to sharpen our senses and also to shift our reality to expand our awareness. With that awareness comes greater understanding, greater compassion, greater health. Ayurveda is the medicine of the soul, the medicine of nature. It has much to give. Much more than can be measured by the archaic evidence-based science methodology.