Lapis
"When something is obviously physically wrong with a person, listening to meditation tapes and 'loving' his ailements, just ain't gonna cut it."
No not with a closed attitude and fixed belief system it won't. If a person blocks any thing with their consciousness, it is blocked. Placebo in reverse.
There are many levels of awareness and thus many modalities of healing suitable for each level. There are as many vantage points as there are people. I will say that people that do nothing to adress emotional and mental dis ease will almost certainly re-manifest their physical dis ease no matter what temporary relief they have been able to aquire. We create our reality with our thoughts. That isn't just airy fairy spiritualitly, that is the realm of quantum physics. We are leaving "the world is flat" paradigm in healing and now proving that "the world is round" (in a healing sense). Actually to be more accurate, the world really isn't there at all but is a collective projection out of the field (consciousness). Did you know that a particle is also a wave? From many its a very convincing "reality" but there are those who are trancending it, (no longer caught in the dream (collective dysfunctional bellief systems) controlling it, and changing their realities by changing their thought forms.
Remember the story how the 4 minute mile barrier was broke and when it was many others broke it the same year. We block our true potential with incoherent thoughts, limiting beliefs, lies.
Old belief systems die hard. Blood letting was a "medical" paradigm too but the idea of prana, chi, etc has endured thousands of years. So has the representation of the trinity (mind body spirit).
It is up to each individual to become coherent (heal) and they will draw to them the coaches and info that they need at the level of awareness that they are at. Law of attraction at work.
Take what you resonate with and leave what you don't. It's everyone's own, unique, journey. Respect and honouring other's paths is an empowering ideal.