Retrospective: GAIA evening on 3 September

An unusual evening.

Because the owners of the room we normally use for the GAIA get-together needed it themselves, the September meeting took place at the Haus für Wirtschaft, Arbeit und Bildung (House of Business, Work and Education) in Tamsweg. That was not the only thing that was special. The evening was a joint event with the Bildungsverbund Lungau (Lungau Education Network), whose head, Leonhard Gruber, also deserves special thanks for stepping in to help with the preparations.

Because the evening was publicly advertised and was also attended by people with no connection to GAIA, there were no GAIA-specific items on the programme. Instead, the association and its aims were presented briefly and informatively, and GAIA was recommended as a meeting place for people who, in our special times of upheaval and challenge, are looking for the company of like-minded people who want change.

The central topic was health: how and why problems and illnesses of the musculoskeletal system arise, what symptoms they produce, and how they can be healed, or at least eased, through one’s own activity.

The speaker was an absolute expert and master of his field: Burkhard Hock from Berchtesgaden (Bavaria), a naturopath (Heilpraktiker) and the developer and teacher of the special method named after him for relieving or eliminating pain and impairments of the musculoskeletal system. Burkhard Hock also gave a fine example of how medicine really ought to be practised: drawing on thorough knowledge of his own field and neighbouring areas to provide well-aimed help and support, so that patients can fully develop their own capacity for self-healing – really the ideal case of medical work. Burkhard Hock is also far from trying to tie patients to him in any way, which ensures that nobody is being ripped off.

The books on display attracted great interest, for example the trilogy “Orthopädische Hausapotheke” (Orthopaedic home pharmacy).

Once again it was an evening that deserves to be called a highlight. The audience set off for home with clarity and optimism.

Yours, Peter