The research orientation mingled nurses, physical therapists and physicians with political scientists, biologists and anthropologists who validated as one the need for policies like the Traditional and Alternative Medicine Act in order to simultaneously preserve indigenous knowledge and absorb modern ideas from abroad.

Can Filipinos replicate the success of the Thais who have exported their own massage repertoire, which is now a staple in Philippine spas, even as they field test kits and mobile labs for diagnosing bird flu and prototype-vaccines for dengue fever? The Thais preserve their traditional medical paradigms yet at the same time engineer wheelchairs with computerized steering systems.

The combine of biological, health and social scientists can save time and hike the research yield with reviews of past literature.

1. The opening by Swedish physicians of massage clinics in America in the post-Civil War Era boosted acceptability of the therapy, which came in handy when a polio pandemic and World War I occurred. It served to rehabilitate both polio patients and wounded soldiers. Unfortunately for Western medicine, physicians replaced the time spent for essential physiotherapy with experimentation using electric gadgets and more efficient machines. Training centers like the Brooklyn School for Massage and Physiotherapy, circa 1920, did not last. [Stanley B. Burns, MD and Jason L. Burns, "Massage Therapy" photo essay, The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, Volume 6, Number 3, 2000, pp. 217-218]

2. Although massage, that is, the manual application of pressure to the body for wellness, has been traced back to the Shang Dynasty (1600-100 B.C.), it was only in the Tang Dynasty (581-618 A.D.) when this modality was formally placed in the official medical curriculum. [Ka Wai Fan, Ph.D., "Foot Massage in Chinese Medical History," The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, Volume 12, Number 1, 2006, pp. 1-3]

3. According to notes gathered by Elizabeth Grageda, a physical therapist, the Hilot may date back to the first civilizations of the Philippines, but contact with Hindu traders, Muslim missionaries and neighboring Malay cultures brought diverse beliefs and practices regarding health. Hence, massage is also associated with traditional Chinese and Ayurverdic medicine.

4. Be it the Hagud (Bukidnon), the Aptus (Ivatan), or the Kemkem (Pangasinan), the Filipino hilot-shaman engages in spiritualism for the diagnosis and treatment of an illness. Touch is, of course, the main modality, but healing is holistic, involving natural, biological, emotional and psycho-social factors.

5. The hilot-priestess (babaylan) was a major player in pre-colonial baranganic societies, but a deadly enemy of the Spanish friar and the American public health regulator.

6. The healing in pre-Hispanic times involved the whole clan, village and tribe. "When any chief is ill, he invites his kindred and orders a great meal to be prepared, consisting of fish, meat, and wine. When the guests are all assembled and the feast set forth in a few plates on the ground inside the house, they seat themselves also on the ground to eat. In the midst of the feast (called manganito or bayl n in their tongue), they put the idol called Batala and certain aged women who are considered as priestesses, and some aged Indians – neither more nor less. They offer the idol some of the food, which they are eating, and call upon him in their tongue, praying to him for the health of the sick man for whom the feast is held. The natives of these islands have no altars nor temples whatever. This manganito, or drunken revel, to give it a better name, usually lasts seven or eight days; and when it is finished they take the idols and put them in the corners of the house, and keep them there without showing them any reverence." ["Relation of the Conquest of the Island of Luzon." Documents of 1571-72. Contained in "The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898." Volume III, 1569-1576. Edited and annotated by Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander Robertson]

7. A physician, Jose Rizal, was critical of "the quack who saw a fever cured with a dozen sardines and afterwards always prescribed these fish at every rise in temperature that he discovered in his patients." ["The Indolence of the Filipino"]

8. The agent of the State in the Second Colonial Period saw the hilot and her cohort as nothing more than a charlatan. "Hardly a year goes by that some similar miraculous healer does not set up in business, and the supply of dupes seems to be unending." [Dean C. Worcester. "The Philippines Past and Present." Volume I. 1914]

9. The Filipino hilot-healer counsels his client to note the hot-cold continuum, mind the energy-metabolism balance and safeguard the spiritual channels in the body. The spiritual aspect embraces a person’s mission-vision, relationships and modes of satisfaction.

10. In 2004, the Filipino Indigenous Healers Study Group of the National Institutes of Health of the Philippines generated the "First NIH Directory of Urban Healers," which listed almost a hundred nativistic health practitioners residing in the Fifth Congressional District of the City of Manila. The greater part of them were women; the youngest was 28 years old and the oldest, 93. The surveyed were overwhelmingly (90.6 %) Roman Catholic, the Visayans (Cebuano, Waray, Ilonggo) taken together comprised 46.7 %, and 74.8 % were married. All of the interviewees used their hands in healing, aided by oil and chemicals (ointment), candles and incense, and tawas.

11. The newest kind of hilot is the spa therapist who is supposed to be trained, certified and licensed bodyworker. She is marketed by state and corporate entities as a vital commodity in the Philippines’ competitive wellness tourism thrust.

12. In the United States, the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork has developed practice standards and the Commission on Massage Therapy Accreditation is recognized by the US Department of Education. [Monica Myklebust, M.D., and Joanne Iler, M.A., "Policy for Therapeutic Massage in an Academic Health Center: A Model for Standard Policy Development," The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, Volume 13, Number 4, 2007, pp. 471-475]