It is becoming well knovvn (though still hard to believe) that the state of health of the people of the United States is among the worst of all the countries in the world. The diseases of degeneration (slow or “chronic” diseases) are what we suffer from. It is now estimated that one out of three of us will have cancer, and that figure is rising, making it truly a modern day plague. This is despite the fact that more research, technology, manpower and money are spent on health here than anyvvhere else in the world. Not only have these efforts failed, they have produced the very effects they are supposed to be alleviating suffering, sickness, and death in proportions hard to believe…The number dying from prescriptions by private doctors is unknown. The total number of deaths from prescription drugs, antibiotics, and unwarranted operations every year, far exceeds the number of Americans who died in the Viet Nam War.
All life forrns have inherent in their organisms the function of self-maintenance and repair. The visible manifestations of the function of the self-repair are what are usually called the symptoms of disease. It is these “symptoms” which medical treatment is usually aimed at, thus malcing it an actual interference with the natural healing function of the body, and most likely causing some chronic condition later on.
Said Lao Tzu over 2000 years ago:
Quick action bruises,
Quick grasping loses.
Therefore, a sane man’s care is not to exert
One move that can miss, one move that can hurt.
Our Healing Capabilities:
To most of us, the experiences of our, cuts healing (with or without iodine, mercurichrome, bandaids, lemon juice, etc.), our bruises and swelling subsiding, our fevers and colds running their course and ceasing (with or without aspirins, antibiotics, etc.), and our broken bones healing, are so commonplace that we generally ignore them and gain no understanding from such events.
With the aid of the microscope, medical researchers have been given the privilege of observing life on the cellular level. The most immediate and strilcing observation of living organisms at the microscopic level is that they are made up of individual, living, single-celled organisms, which live in some surrounding fluid environment. The various organs and tissues of our bodies are made up of an association of these individual cells whose shape is usually specific to the organ or tissue. Brain cells, for instance, resemble pyramids; connective tissue cells, called fibroblasts, are spindle-shaped or star-shaped; and epithelial (skin and lining) cells are either flat, cubical, columnar, or many-sided. The overall cooperation among all the various cell communities (organs and tissues) results in the existence of individuals such as ourselves.
In the case of the aforementioned cuts, bruises, fractures, and other injuries, the cells in the immediate area, as well as those further away, immediately adapt their functions to the new circumstances. The area is first protected, then regeneration of the tissue begins. Tissue can actually transform itself into tissue of a different kind. For example, in a fracture, muscle may become cartilage, and finally bone. The healing operations of the body appear to be carried out in an orderly manner, process following process until the task is done. Cells of all different varieties carry out specific fimctions like workers constructing a building.
When there is injury to an organ or, as it happens today, it is surgically removed, other organs will adapt themselves to the new situation and carry out the required functions. When half of the thyroid gland is removed, the other half will enlarge,’ generally more than necessary. When a kidney is removed, the other one enlarges. The composition and pressure of the blood, the temperature of the body, and many other physiological states are kept constant by continuous adaptive functions of the cells in response to the changes of the outside world (the process known as homeostasis). Cells carry out functions in preparation of future needs as well as present ones, as in the case of children and pregnant women.
All functions seem to be carried out to ensure the longest possible survival of the organism given the situation it finds itself in. How such an association of cells takes place is the most profound of mysteries. From birth to death, the organism resulting from this association of cells will manifest its own unique characteristics, which seem to grow more and more pronounced as time goes by. And yet, the physical body is made up of chemical substances which, through the process of metabolism, are constantly being taken from the physical environment, utilized, and discarded, so that after a few years the body has been completely changed. On the physical level, an individual living being would more accurately be described as an event…or a process. Consciousness, thinking and memory are what give us our sense of individual continuity. These factors have been associated with the brain, but no scientific proof as to how these functions are carried out have ever been found. The brain also is an association of individual cells, the chemical composition of which is ever-changing, making memory especially an unexplainable phenomenon. Memory remains today a major scientific mystery.
To consider this phenomenon called life as . nothing more than the result of atoms randomly banging into each other for a long time is quite a theory. So considering the transitory nature of the material elements of living organisms, we may say that they behave as if led by some great Principle. And this is never more true than in times of healing.
Many healing techniques, both ancient and modem, have come to light in recent years in response to the now visible failures of the modern medical establishment. It is likely that the general health would improve if their use were more widespread. They do not oppose natural healing processes as do modem medical techniques such as drug therapy, which aims at stopping symptoms (and pain), and leaves the cause unconsidered (and unremedied): The amount of things we can do that have healing value (such as reflecting on our actions, taking a walk, breathing deeply, listening to truly beautiful music, or taking the pause that refreshes prayer) is unbelievable.
Disease is, then, nothing to fear. It is the result of our unwise living, and not of malignant germs as medical research theorizes. It may perhaps be life’s greatest teacher. We need just know that it is our nature to heal. We need exert no effort for it to go on. It is aided by faith, peace, rest, no food, or pure food in small quantities, introversion and reflection. It is hindered (but only hindered) by doubt, worry, agitation, too much food, impure food, drugs, lack of understanding, and most doctors, although it is well known that the mere presence of a doctor sometimes gives a patient such relief that healing rapidly follows.
Nature will, however, kill us at the expense of healing us, which is to say that the healing process itself, if radical enough, can cause death. Science has discovered that living cells are potentially immortal, as long as their surrounding fluid environment is changed periodically so that they do not suffocate from their own waste products. Why is it then that we die? This, science has never explained. The meaning of each person’s death is very unique.
