| The ancient Maya were not only great | | | | would include massages, induced sleep, and |
| astronomers or mathematicians, but also had an | | | | sweating. Common practices today to many |
| advanced medical knowledge. Much is known how | | | | therapists in our societies. |
| the Maya, practiced and cured illness, which some | | | | The "Ah Men," had a special place in Mayan |
| of the scattered descendants of this once mighty | | | | society, and were considered close to the Gods, |
| civilization still practice today. Who were the | | | | allowing them to use medicines that could alter |
| Mayan "Ah Men?" | | | | their patients consciousness to be looked |
| The Maya had doctors and therapists like we do | | | | favorably by the Gods, and spiritually healed. |
| today, but the fundamental belief of how illness | | | | Plants like the peyote, morning glory, certain |
| was caused differs. Mayan's believed illness was | | | | types of mushrooms and sometimes tobacco |
| equated with angering the Gods, and doctors | | | | were used to induce trances. |
| were both spiritual and natural healers, called | | | | Medicines were gathered from the rich forests |
| "Medicine Men" or "Ah men." | | | | and the environment around the large Mayan |
| When someone was afflicted with an illness, the | | | | cities. Many of these medicines contain the natural |
| "Ah men" would be called. As sickness was | | | | ingredients our own medicines use to cure or |
| believed to be caused by ones soul captured by a | | | | prevent illness. Scientists regularly search the |
| supernatural being., the medicine man would first | | | | rainforests forests that remain - discovering, and |
| research any past behavior that may of angered | | | | testing plants for their medical value. |
| the Gods. | | | | Curiously as most of the ancient Mayan texts |
| But it was a mixture of spiritual healing through | | | | were destroyed after the Spanish conquest of |
| ritual cleansing, the taking of traditional herbal | | | | the traditional Mayan territories, medical texts |
| based medicines, and therapy that would heal the | | | | were kept and are now a record of how these |
| sick. The "Ah Men" were great herbalists, and | | | | medicines were made, and what they cured. |
| medicines were often snorted, swallowed, rubbed | | | | Perhaps used by the first European settlers as a |
| on or applied as an ointment. | | | | cure for malaria, and syphilis. Commonly recorded |
| Once the spiritual cause of the illness was | | | | diseases the settlers caught- recorded in both |
| determined, fasting and other rituals were also | | | | church records, and the journals of the new |
| required to nurse the sick back to health. Therapy | | | | European settlers during that era.. |