President of SIO presents to an audience of over 800 at the Department of Religion Interfaith Lecture in the Hall of Philosophy at the famous Chautauqua Institute.
The Chautauqua Institute is renowned as the intellectual vacation resort for such historic dignitaries as Thomas Edison, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and more recently, President Bill Clinton. The title of his lecture is “We Are More Than the Sum of our Parts! Integrative Health, Synergy and the Transcendence of Holism — a Biological Perspective.”
The Chatauqua Institute brings together scientists, theologians, and artists to discuss big questions and stimulate new avenues of learning. Dr. Sagar was sponsored by the Reverend Joanne Campbell Brown, Director of the Department of Religion, and Helen Moss, Founder and Chairperson of the Helen Moss Foundation for Cancer Research.
“The main message is that our outlook on life has been very shaped by science that is focused on dividing everything into parts,” Sagar said. “The irony and perhaps paradox is that health care means whole care.”
When we evaluate reality, we should evaluate the whole picture, not just the parts, he said.
“The person in the health care system doesn’t see him or her self as parts. She sees herself as a whole system,” Sagar said.
This was espoused by religions for many centuries, but since the Renaissance we have focused on reductionist thinking, he said.
“In fact, reality is actually created more by the whole pattern of how things come together than by the parts,” he said.
In the last 50 years, there has been a re-emergence of wholeness research in physics and health care, Sagar said.
Religion had a role in this, he said. Some religious dogma is very reductionist, but there are also many religious practices that can lead to wholeness through mind-body pathways, he said. There is an intangible element that is spirit or a complex process. This process is currently being evaluated by systems theory, a new research avenue that Drs Sagar and Lawenda are applying to integrative oncology. "In effect, the integrative is the process", said Sagar; "Whole systems research is in its infancy, but the results are encouraging. Dean Ornish MD and Marja Verhoef PhD will be discussing research details at the Sixth International SIO Conference, in New York 12-13th November, 2009".
“Clearly, many things in life are intangible, but can be defined by expanding scientific methodology to consider the whole, and not just the parts,” Sagar added.
Born in London, where he trained in pharmacology and oncology, Sagar emigrated to Canada in 1990, where he is a Radiation Oncologist and Associate Professor in the Departments of Oncology and Medicine at McMaster University, Hamilton.
Since 1995, he has been exploring these ideas in the context of complementary and holistic medicine. His interest in this area “spontaneously emerged from a personal journey of understanding life.” He said his interest in understanding his patients “emerged into a passion for trying to understand the big picture".
A board-certified radiation oncologist, Sagar received his graduate training in pharmacology and medicine at the University of London. He is currently an associate professor of oncology and medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. He was also a teacher in the pastoral counseling graduate course at Wilfrid Laurier University and part of the Faculty of the Center for Mind/Body Medicine, Washington D.C.
Sagar is president of the Society for Integrative Oncology that aims to understand the benefits and complications of complementary and alternative medicine.
A report in the Chautauquan Daily can be read here:
