Wednesday 12 December 2012

Causes of illness lie deeper


Mind body Healing

A small excerpt from Mind-Body Medicine: Science, Practice and Philosophy© Page 65
Craig Hassed 6/7/2007



In many ways, one is challenged to come to a metaphysical understanding of this relationship between consciousness, mind and body before one can begin to explain many of the unusual scientific observations made in mind-body medicine.
 
If one tries to understand the world in purely physical terms one is liable to meet confusion and misunderstanding. Thus, the causes of illness lie deeper, and therefore it is natural that when illness arises the cures lie deeper also.
 
This does not preclude the importance of physical factors or the application of physical treatments, but it merely suggests that they are dependent on deeper causes.
 
The shift of emphasis from what happens on the surface in physical terms to what is driving the process, i.e. moving from looking at the condition to the cause, totally shifts the emphasis of treatment.




"You ought not to attempt to cure the body without the soul; and this is the reason why the cure of many diseases is unknown to the physicians of Hellas, because they are ignorant of the whole, which ought to be studied also; for the part can never be well unless the whole is well. … Let no one persuade you to cure the head, until he has first given you his soul to be cured by the charm
(fair words). For this is the great error of our day in the treatment of the human body, that physicians separate the soul from the body."
Plato: Charmides
 

Natural intelligence:
"Every one who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe - a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble. In this way the pursuit of science leads to a religious feeling of a special sort, which is indeed quite different from the religiosity of someone more naive."
Albert Einstein - The Human Side.

 
One of the most notable ideas held by the ancients, and still expressed in theology and holistic health, is that there is an orderliness or intelligence permeating the whole of nature. One only has to look at the beauty and geometry of natural forms or the complexity in biological processes to have a sense that it must be the product of a conscious and intelligent creative process.
To Einstein it would have made little sense to suggest that a computer or a car is the product of design and intelligence and yet the human brain and body, which is vastly more complex, is the product of chance.
 
He asserts that it is all the product of an intelligent and conscious process. This is not the same as the naïve view of ‘creationism’ or ‘intelligent design’ often associated with this concept.
 
The body’s innate and natural tendency to spontaneously heal itself with great intelligence, precision and coordination is recognised by all ancient and traditional healing systems, whether they be indigenous, Hippocratic, Chinese Traditional Medicine, the Indian system of Ayurveda or any other. The tendency to move away from holism to reductionism is also an age old one dating back to ancient Egypt.


"Medicine is practiced among them on a plan of separation, each physician treats a single disorder, and no more: thus the country swarms with medical practitioners, some undertaking to cure diseases of the eye, others of the hand, others again of the teeth, others of the intestines..."
Herodotus


 
This is not to say that specialised knowledge is not extremely useful but, according the holism, it should not be at the expense of an holistic perspective.
 
Traditional healing systems tended to appreciate the holistic principle but contemporary science has certainly been able to elucidate the biochemical mechanisms in far more detail.
 
The risk has always been, however, that the principle gets lost in the plethora of information. So perhaps one important principle that we need to be reminded of is that we do well to work with nature, not against her.


"Thus the physician strengthens nature, and employs food and medicine, of which nature makes use for the intended end."  Thomas Aquinas
You can read the whole article here >>>>> Mind body medicine - Full text - Craig Hassed 
 
I highly recommended you reading this research paper (85 pages)
 
Cheers
Philip Martin

 


 



 

 






 

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