The "eastern bodywork traditions" are the big stickler here. People (including Christians and Jews, often a target of derision in Massage, along with practitioners of "secular science") were having their beliefs "corrected" with the 'science and law' of what were essentially New Age beliefs. The anger was unbelievable, including among New Agers who were told the State now would decide what "spiritual science" was true and what didn't make the grade.
The new, truly science-based, test came out with much fanfare, and now is not legal in the above states. While many of the complainants are "alternative," the few remaining skeptics out there are incensed as well. So are the liberal Christians who backed this new test, who are slowly realizing just how involved the Religious Right has become in backing a test seen as forcibly 'integrating' religious beliefs into scientific theory under the power of law.
Oriental medicine may be (or not be) many things, but one thing it can be effectively argued is that it is faith-based. So faith-based 'correction' of science now has a legal precedent, thanks to the test that is law in New Hampshire.
So you have the strange situation where some Fundamentalist Christians and Intelligent Design groups are working behind the scenes to protect this test and keep it in law, yet the very New Age that this test is said to serve hates it. Given the arrogance of the AMTA , who brought this test to states and used threats of delicencing "biased" therapists, not "open-minded" enough to accept the new 'facts' of Quantum Science and our "Spiritual" reality, there is a lot of frustration built up over this.
At least this will be played out in a political setting and not, as I feared, in a hospital setting. With Energy Work moving in that direction, I was afraid this mess would explode there.
Instead, New Hampshire will get to experience what happens when "Alternative Medicine" becomes "integrated" into a profession. Watch well, because this could be happening in your hospital someday.
