NUM230 In the Torah we see that Moses used an unusual cure to heal the people suffering from the plague. When Jews began dying in some kind of epidemic as result of their sins, Moses and Aaron took incense and placed it on the Altar, which immediately stopped the plague in which 14,700 Jews died [this verse and following]. Therefore, we already see in the Torah that sometimes unexplainable but sanctioned cures, which we might today call "alternative medicine," alleviates a desperate medical condition. The Mishna discusses the use of certain "alternative medicines" popular in Mishnaic times, and there is a fundamental argument between Rabbi Meir and the rest of the Sages about their use (Mishna Shabbat 6:10). In order to prevent disease, many thought that carrying or wearing the egg of a certain type of locust, a fox's tooth, or a nail from the coffin of a convict would keep a person healthy. All of these do not fall under the forbidden laws of the occult mentioned above in the Torah, but are merely practices that were popular in the time of the Mishna. Rabbi Meir permitted people to have these for medical reasons, while the Sages forbade these practices as "the ways of Amorites," i.e. forbidden practices or customs of non-Jews. The Talmud then makes a statement that is the basic guide to how Judaism views alternative medicines and their use. It says that if these practices are effective in keeping people healthy or healing sickness, then they are not considered "ways of Amorites" and are permitted. However, if these strange practices are not effective, then they are considered "Amorite practices" that are forbidden (Shabbat 67a). Therefore, we see that any alternative medical practices that yield verifiable results to improve health or minimize sickness are permitted, in Judaism, as long as they do not violate any Jewish laws. The Talmud goes on to list actions that were permitted at that time and that were forbidden as "Amorite practices" (Shabbat 67a). To the twenty-first-century eye, all of these look strange and ineffective. Yet, apparently, some of these treatment did work to minimize pain and sickness, and were therefore permitted by the Rabbis, and they are permitted in Judaism today as well. The strange practices (which we might consider "nonsense" by today's standards) also bothered Maimonides, the world-renowned scientist who lived about a thousand years after the Mishna was written. He explains that although these "medications" seem strange to us, they Indeed proved effective at that time (Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed 3:37). Perhaps this also explains why Shulchan Aruch, cited above, permitted a certain incantation that healed the person bitten by the snake in a life-threatening situation. If it worked, then it was permitted. Based on the above, today's alternative medicines would be permitted in Judaism if all three of these conditions are present: (a) they heal pain or sickness or prevent sickness in verifiable, consistent manner, (b) they do not cause any additional pain or damage to the body, and (c) they do not violate other Jewish laws.