Legislation Information
A message fom John Holmstrom regarding legislation affecting the Ayurvedic community in California. (2003)
Hello to all the great people in the California Ayurvedic Community!
We are growing but we are still a small tidepool compared to the participants in the oriental medical community and their support system. Ayurveda needs to expand its horizons and its support in all communities in California. Ayurveda from a legislative point of view needs to build grass roots support all over California, not just in the Ayurvedic practitioner community. How many Ayurvedic practitioners are there in California now that are actually practicing and making their primary income off of Ayurveda? Realistically, not a lot - compared with other health care practitioners.
Step one to build our grass roots support among all Californians is to establish a yearly Ayurveda appreciation day. By educating the public about what Ayurveda is through actual free consultations and mini treatments, Ayurvedic practitioners are opening themselves up to everyone in all areas of our society. Ayurveda cannot remain corked in a bottle in just a few communities or yoga groups; it needs to reach everyone.
Senior practitioners need to come together in cooperation and respect and agree to help each other and Ayurveda by creating an outreach to politicians and politically savvy individuals. This outreach needs to include free treatments for politically important people and politicians, and also the sponsoring of fundraisers for state politicians that are sensitive and open to Ayurveda. We need to come off the Yoga farm after thirty years and visit the city to help the cause of Ayurveda in California. We need to stop talking to ourselves about how much good advice we can give, and we need to do some political action work. There is no way around this if we want to put Ayurveda on the licensing map.
Some people in the Ayurvedic community appear to think that the SB 577 Health Freedom Act is not useful to Ayurveda. SB 577 is allowing unlicensed Ayurvedic practitioners that don't have some sort of health practitioner license to practice in California, and not get thrown in jail or be prosecuted. Who in a balanced state of mind would think this development is bad for Ayurveda? At this stage in the development of Ayurveda, I don't see any individuals on the horizon that are willing to donate the hundreds of thousands of dollars it will take to lobby and create licensing for Ayurveda. Licensing takes big bucks...lots of moola.... big green....where is the person to donate this big chunk? Nowhere to be seen or heard of at this moment.
There is another issue in the promotion of Ayurveda in California that has seriously impaired the progress of any active and useful legislative push. Very few groups in the Ayurvedic community in the past have agreed with each other on much. There has been a lot of pushing of personal interests and agendas related basically to business. When it comes to uniting to push a legislative agenda for Ayurveda, in California, all special interest groups in the Ayurvedic community need to drop their stuff and come to the table of unity. Who did it first or got their way or was the most important has zip to do with pushing legislation for Ayurvedic licensing as the song goes, it doesn't mean diddle to a flea. A united front without bickering is essential.
There has been some talk also of the impact of the naturopathic bill that was passed on Ayurvedic practitioners. The fact is Ayurveda and other lesser-known practices did not receive any special treatment or exemptions in this bill. The all-powerful oriental medicine lobby did receive beacoup exemptions in the bill. Naturopaths can't practice acupuncture or oriental herbs in California, period. Does anyone in the Ayurvedic community even know why this happened? Does anyone get it? After years of infighting amongst each other, the oriental medicine practitioners decided to make an attempt to show solidarity and use their clout, all of them. They decided to use their prana and qi to uplift themselves and their cause.
There is also some talk about how state licensing for massage therapists will not be good for Ayurveda. The world is the way you see it. Universal state licensing can be a step forward or it can create a chicken little mentality. Again, where is the big hearted philanthropist with the deep pockets to smooze Arnold and the post-secondary state education department into creating a category of training for certifying a category of Ayurvedic bodywork?
Two years ago I approached the State on why they had no category of teaching certification for Ayurvedic bodywork. After several letters, they made it clear that there was no classification for Ayurvedic bodywork, because the state had not created a certificate program for this specific type of bodywork. So it was considered to be just another type of massage. We need some high rollers in the Ayurvedic community to come up with a plan on how to influence the post-secondary education department to allow this kind of training certificate to be created. Again, anyone out there that wants to take Arnold to dinner?
Finally, all of us in the Ayurvedic community need to realize that we need to quit the tidepool and get into the ocean. In reality Ayurveda is only a big deal for those that practice it, or have business interests related to it. In my travels, very few people still even know what Ayurveda is remotely. We need to extend our sphere of influence by creating larger coalitions with likeminded alternative health organizations that are lobbying for health freedom. Numbers are important, and Ayurveda by itself does not have the numbers now. As Bhagwan Dash told me, 200 people is by no means an international or national conference of phenomenal proportions. When you get 2000 attendees that are active, viable practitioners of substance...that is the start of an international or national conference. We just need to get off the throne, and see we are still in the tidepool.
What should the Ayurvedic legislative mantra be for 2004? Let the Ayurvedic genie out of the bottle, let Ayurvedic awareness expand to all corners of California and beyond. Take off the chicken little Easter suit, and put on a dress suit and have lunch with your local state representatives. Ayurveda begins at home. Give a free Ayurvedic consultation to your local congress person or representative, and give them some Ayurvedic advice.
Love to all the legislatively inclined, in the California Ayurvedic community,
John Holmstrom, 2003 President, CAAM