Kalikalos 09

For the past couple of years in this space I have been writing about the benefits of an alternative holistic holiday.Above all, this is a meaningful holiday,that without sacrificing the usual benefits of sun, sea and the temporary freedom from our work-a-day life, brings us “something deeper than a suntan”.

This year I want to look more deeply into the central concept of such an alternative holiday, namely its holistic nature. Let us ask exactly what is implied to say that a holiday is holistic. The first thing to say is that, holisitc has become, like motherhood, a term of universal and unquestioned virtue. If something is holistic, it must be good, not unlike labeling food “organic”.

This elevated status of holistic is relatively recent. Although Aristotle affirmed that “the sum is greater than its parts”, it wasn’t until 1926 in Jan Smuts’ Holism and Evolution (1926) that the term comes into English language. Sixty more years had to pass before Fritzjof’s Capra’s The Turning Point (1982)
brought the word into common usage as a way of characterising the systems view of life and nature, contrasting it with the prevailing mechanistic view.

	An Holistic Holiday A Taste of Community Living To Take Us Beyond the ‘I’ by Jock Millenson, PhD
	For the past couple of years in this space I have been writing about the benefits of an alternative holistic holiday.Above all, this is a meaningful holiday,that without sacrificing the usual benefits of sun, sea and the temporary freedom from our work-a-day life, brings us “something deeper than a suntan”. This year I want to look more deeply into the central concept of such an alternative holiday, namely its holistic nature. Let us ask exactly what is implied to say that a holiday is holistic. The first thing to say is that, holisitc has become, like motherhood, a term of universal and unquestioned virtue. If something is holistic, it must be good, not unlike labeling food “organic”. This elevated status of holistic is relatively recent. Although Aristotle affirmed that “the sum is greater than its parts”, it wasn’t until 1926 in Jan Smuts’ Holism and Evolution (1926) that the term comes into English language. Sixty more years had to pass before Fritzjof’s Capra’s The Turning Point (1982) brought the word into common usage as a way of characterising the systems view of life and nature, contrasting it with the prevailing mechanistic view.
	Nowadays, we tend to associate holistic with holistic medicine or holistic healing. Here the word is said to signify that the practitioner is taking into account body, mind and spirit in diagnosis and treatment of illness. In medicine holistic is approximately synonomous with the bio-psycho-social model of disease, whereby the causes of disease can lie in any of these three areas. Typically, holistic healing is associated with alternative therapies, such as acupuncture, herbalism, aromatherapy, or homeopathy. Actually, the association is far from perfect. As I pointed out in Mind Matters: Psychological Medicine in Holistic Practice (1995), It is perfectly possibly to practice any of these alternative therapies in an allopathic way. A herbalist who coordinates a herb with a set of physical symptoms without enquiring into her patient’s lifestyle, an acupuncturist who places needles into points based on pathologies without enquiring into the patient’s diet, or a homeopath who prescribes a remedy without asking about his patient’s intimate relationships is not practicing holistically. Which is not to say that such ways of practice are not sometimes successful. They are, and so too sometimes are chemical drugs. But what shall we say about holistic veterinary practice, or holistic dentistry or the Arizona holistic chamber of commerce? Or, to come closer home, when we look at what many holistic holidays are offering we find spas to pamper your body with massage and facials, relaxing breaks where you can wind down, and holidays where you need not lift a finger because every whim is catered for. Holistic has begun to take on a meaning quite different to its usage as a way of characterising natural systems.
		Let us come back to basics and remind ourselves that holistic implies, as social activist Patrick Geddes put it 100 years ago “thinking globally, acting locally.” Geddes idea was that in planning cities and communities, we must consider the planet, not simply the immediate locale. In general, holisitc means to broaden our perspective, widen our lens beyond the immediate locus of our actions. When we strip mine coal without considering the consequences for the environment, when we expand our money supply without considering the consequences of debt for our children, when we continue to place growth above sustainability we are thinking and acting for immediate gratification. It is precisely this narrow focus of awareness that has brought us to the place we find ourselves today—facing the alarming prospects of global warming and a planet with finite resources incapable of supporting a human species that is doubling in population every 39 years.
	A Community-based Holiday What has all this got to do with a holistic holiday? The answer is that on our holiday we can take the opportunity to join briefly an authentic community, where we can practice learning to live with the wider awareness—we vs I— that the truly holistic viewpoint requires. The prime examples of such uthentic communities that invite holiday guests are the ecovillages. Although we have no ecovillage in Cyprus yet, we do have the seasonal ecoCentre at Kalikalos in Greece offering this kind of holiday There, we can learn to “practice liviing our truth and making it count toward a new world of peace, partnership and sustainability”, in the context of community. Why? Because in community we are obliged to learn how to balance our personal needs with the needs of the collective. When we leave a coffee cup, who exactly in the community is going to wash up that cup? Practicing living for a week or two in a community that is responsible for its own day to day governance obliges us to look beyond ourselves without sacrificing our individual uniqueness.
	Jock Millenson lives in the Findhorn Community in Scotland and runs the Kalikalos Holistic Centre in Greece. Kalikalos Holistic Holidays Pelion, Greece 2011 Summer Programme Scarvelli Yoga, Satsang with Jac O’Keeffe, Walking weeks, Healing, Magic Circles, Painting & Drawing, Vipassana Meditation, Music & Singing, Vegetarian Cookery Email:info@kalikalos.com, Website: www.kalikalos.com
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