and joints, stretches, breathing exercises, massage,
reflexology, hydrotherapy, and nutritional and
emotional counseling developed by Randolph
Stone, D.C., D.O., N.D., who based his technique
on the concept that illness is created by blockages
of energy flow throughout the body. Stone also
believed that the use of the hands—one electro-
magnetically positive, the other electromagneti-
cally negative—helps release the blocked energy,
and that release in turn promotes better physical,
mental, and emotional status. The American Polar-
ity Therapy Association was established in 1984.
See also BIOENERGETICS.
poultice, herbal A moist “pad” of fresh herbs
used as a therapeutic topical application to relieve
pain and promote circulation.
prakruti The human constitution consisting of
one or more of the primary body/personality
types—vata, pitta, and kapha, according to
Ayurvedic medicine.
See also AYURVEDA; DOSHAS.
pranayama Yogic breathing exercises.
See also YOGA.
pranic healing Restoration of health and balance
by using prana, the Ayurvedic word meaning
breath, life force, or vital energy that goes through
the body.
See also AYURVEDA; YOGA.
prayer, power of The belief that prayer has a
direct and positive effect on people afflicted with
illness. Studies have been conducted in which one
group of ill individuals has been prayed for and
another group has not been prayed for; the group
of people who were prayed for had a better and
faster recovery rate, indicating that prayer, particu-
larly when it is done by large groups of people, has
beneficial effects.
See also DOSSEY, LARRY; FAITH HEALING.
primal scream therapy A psychotherapeutic
technique geared toward releasing old and intense
emotional burdens carried subconsciously that may
be causing illness. According to a winter-spring
1994 International Primal Association (IPA)
Newsletter article by Larry King (H. Lawrence
King) adapted by him from material he wrote for
Behavior Todayand read as an introduction to his
1993 convention workshop, “Primal 101”: “Psy-
chotherapy is the art and science of easing emo-
tional problems. Many forms of psychotherapy are
designed to help the client know and understand
what is in their unconscious. Very few are designed
to actually change what is in the unconscious.How-
ever, if the material in the unconscious is not
changed, it retains its enormous power to occa-
sionally override even the most powerful of egos.
When it does that, we call it ‘neurosis.’ In one way
or another, it always results in emotional pain. The
unconscious is primarily a record of the past anda
storehouse of past physical and emotional tensions.
These tensions can be triggered by present events
so that they are felt in the present. In fact, because
their origin is from the unconscious, and we are
thus unaware of their actual source, these power-
ful tensions seem to originate in the present, and
the person or situation triggering them appears to
be their primary cause—when they may, in fact, be
only a very minor part of the cause.
“My understanding of the object of psycho-
analysis,” King continued, “is that it helps the
client discover these unconscious origins of pre-
sent-day tensions (and their accompanying but
misplaced ideations) and to analyze and use the
knowledge consciously to change present and
future behaviors.”
Another IPA article, by John Rowan in the fall
1999 IPA Newsletter, explained primal integration
as opposed to primal scream therapy or primal
therapy: “Primal integration is a form of therapy
brought over to Britain by Bill Swartley, one of its
main originators, although it was also pioneered
here by Frank Lake. It is not to be confused with
Primal Therapy, coming from Arthur Janov; it is a
parallel development occurring at about the same
time. It lays the major emphasis upon early trauma
as the basic cause of neurosis, and enables people
to regress back to the point in time where the trou-
ble began, and to relive it there. This often involves
a cathartic experience called a ‘primal.’ But some
people using this approach do not like this lan-
guage, and instead call what they do regression-primal scream therapy 127