Alternative Medicine: Distance Learning

(This would include Herbs, Naturopathy & Natural Healing)

Distance learning has been a part of natural healing education in America since at least the early 1900s. In an earlier post, I commented on an offering by Benedict Lust, the father of Naturopathy, in which he offered to teach nature cure through a correspondence course.

Correspondence courses have had a bad odor about them in the not-too-distant past. I remember comic books from the 1960s that offered to teach home auto mechanics and criminal investigation through correspondence. This seemed unlikely to me even then as a child. Later, there were correspondence courses offered on television by companies who used minor celebraties to pitch for them. It seemed like an endless list of professions they offered training in for the prospective student. I'm sure the question in many people's minds then as now was whether they were legitimate trainings or certifications.

A partial answer to “legitimacy” is that many skills and professions are not licensed or regulated. However one obtains training is then entirely legitimate if there is an actual course of training and the company or institution offering the course is not a diploma mill. (Diploma mills I shall address at a later date). If there is an adequate course of training that prepares a person for entry into a field or profession, then that is all anyone could ask for. I have come to this conclusion based on my own experience, and have a number of reasons to back this up. I shall give two here.

There is a lot of book work in learning natural healing, far more than most people understand. A student should be able to study and read books and course material at a distance as well as in a class room. It is important to have homework or tests that are sent in and read and graded. There should be a mentor or teacher that the correspondence student has to ask questions of or to monitor the student's progress. If those requirements are met, then there is no shame learning through a “correspondence course.” Let me reiterate: there is no quickie way to deeply learn natural healing–you have to study, study, study, and many of the books are very expensive. Then you have to practice.

Distance learning is now an accepted part of our culture. People expect to be able to take college level courses at a distance on the computer. There are some for credit classes in alternative medicine offered at universities and accredited schools. Some of them can be taken online. The material and literature those courses are drawn from are not from higher education, but from books and practices developed by practitioners from over a hundred years ago. Some of those practitioners may have started out with correspondence courses. Distance learning in alternative medicine has come full circle.

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