We live in a time when medicine is constantly presenting us, enthusiastic amateurs, with evidence of its verging on miraculous power. But in the chorus celebrating science, the voices of skeptics are getting louder. Many people prefer to entrust their health not to academic medicine, but to healers and homeopaths. Skeptics have enough reasons for criticism: negative side effects of taking medications, changes in symptoms (when some manifestations of the disease seem to be erased, and others behave “atypically”. – Ed.), inhumane approach, high cost, and much more.
Interesting is not so much the arguments of critics, as the fact of its existence, because before becoming constructive, she had to go through an emotional stage, giving the impression that all is not right that the-beaten path, although closer to the cherished goal, will never lead to it. This disrespectful attitude to medicine unites many, including some young doctors. Some see a way out in the replacement of chemical preparations with natural herbal medicines, others-in the study of the radiation of the Earth on the human body. Someone worships homeopathy. Proponents of acupuncture demand that when studying the body, move away from its physical structure and turn to the energy one. If we collect all the unconventional methods and points of view, we can talk about the general desire not to lose sight of the person as a whole, considering it as a body-soul unity. It is now clear to everyone that academic medicine does not consider the person himself. The philosophy of medicine, as before, is given very little attention. Of course, medicine should exist primarily in the form of concrete practical actions, but any action-voluntarily or involuntarily-reflects the underlying philosophy. Modern medicine fails not because of a lack of actions, but because of the lack of a general picture of the world and the person in it, which would help to make these actions meaningful. Medical actions have so far been focused only on the principle of efficiency and effectiveness, but the lack of a meaningful aspect has led to the fact that it has been criticized for “inhumanity”.
In this book, we want to take a new approach to the problem of the disease and its treatment, leaving aside all the usual, considered inviolable values and developments in this area. This position makes our intentions, one might say, dangerous, because we will have to step over many prohibitions and taboos imposed by society. We are well aware that we are taking a step that today’s medicine, which is developing in a completely different direction, will not repeat after us.
Therefore, we turn, first of all, not to medicine as a whole, but to those individuals whose personal views anticipate the collective (alas, somewhat retarded) development.
The event itself doesn’t make any sense. Its meaning becomes clear only when the analysis allows us to understand why and, most importantly, why it happened. So, for example, an increase in the column of mercury in a glass tube in itself does not mean anything, but if we consider it as a consequence of an increase in temperature, it will acquire meaning and meaning. If people do not correctly interpret the events taking place in the world and in their own destiny, their lives will also become completely meaningless and meaningless. To be able to explain something to yourself and others, you need a certain “coordinate system” that allows you to see what exactly should be realized. And only when the visible world of forms “turns into an equation” (Goethe), it will be filled with meaning and meaning for people.
Just as letters and numbers are the formal carriers of the ideas behind them, everything visible, concrete, and functional is the expression of an idea and is the intermediary on the way to the invisible. In a simplified way, these two areas can be defined as form and content. The content finds its embodiment in a form that only then becomes meaningful. This is most clearly and clearly manifested in art. The value of a painting is not determined by the cost of the canvas and paints, but the material components of the painting are intermediaries and carriers of the artist’s inner idea. Canvas and paint make it possible to see the invisible and thus represent the physical expression of the inner, metaphysical content.
We give such simple examples, trying to bridge the bridge to the methods used in this book when considering the problem of disease and treatment. Consciously and purposefully, we leave the field of “scientific medicine” without claiming to be “scientific”, since we have completely different points of reference. That is why our vision and understanding of the disease cannot be refuted by any scientific argument or criticism. We deliberately go beyond the scientific framework, because it is limited to the functional level and prevents the comprehension of meaning. The method we propose is not suitable for natural-born rationalists and materialists, it is designed for those people who are ready to follow untrodden (and not always logical) paths. Imaginative thinking, imagination, associations, irony, and the ability to understand what is being said between the lines can be good helpers in such a journey through the human soul. On this path, not least you will need the ability to perceive the paradoxes of phenomena and not strive for unambiguous interpretations of something.
Both the language of official medicine and everyday speech speak of a variety of diseases. This error clearly demonstrates the lack of understanding of the very concept of “disease”. The word “disease “can only be used in the singular — the plural is as meaningless as the plural of the word” health “(“health”). Both disease and health are phenomena related to the form of the human condition as a whole, and not to individual organs and parts of the body, as is customary in modern language. The body as a physical substance can not be sick or healthy, because it always finds expression of information from consciousness. It doesn’t do anything by itself, as you can see by looking at the corpse. The functioning of the body of a living person is possible only thanks to those immaterial phenomena that we most often call consciousness (soul) and life (spirit). Consciousness is information that is reflected in the body and becomes visible. It relates to the body in the same way that a radio program relates to a receiver. Since consciousness has an independent immaterial nature, it is naturally not a product of the body and does not depend on its existence.
What happens at any moment in the body of a living being is the expression of the corresponding information or the manifestation of the corresponding picture (in Greek, the picture is called Eidoon and, therefore, corresponds to the concept of “idea”). The pulse and heart follow a certain rhythm, the body temperature is a constant value, the glands produce hormones, antigens are formed. All these functions cannot be explained only by the existence of matter, they depend on the corresponding information, the source of which is consciousness. If the physical functions interact correctly with each other, then there is a variant that we perceive as harmonious. We call it health. If one of the functions fails, then the harmony is more or less disturbed, and we are talking about a disease.
Disease is a lack of harmony, a failure in a previously established, well-balanced order. Later we will see that from a different angle, the disease is, in fact, an attempt to restore the disturbed balance.
The destruction of harmony occurs in the mind at the level of information and only then manifests itself in the body. This means that the body is the level of manifestation of all the processes and changes that occur in consciousness. Just as the material world is only a stage on which the play of ideas-symbols of the spiritual world-takes place, “turning into an equation”, the material body is a stage for images of consciousness. If an imbalance prevails in it, it will always be expressed in the form of bodily symptoms. Therefore, it is a mistake to say that the body is ill – only a person can be ill, but this painful condition manifests itself in the body in different ways. The disease can be compared to a tragedy, and the body to the stage on which it is performed.
There may be many symptoms, but they are all expressions of the same process that takes place in the mind and which we call the disease. The body cannot exist without consciousness, but without it it cannot become ill. It should be borne in mind that we are not talking about the generally accepted division of diseases into somatic, physical and mental. This concept only makes it difficult to understand what a disease is.
The juxtaposition “somatic-physical” is absolutely not suitable for determining the cause of the disease, and the ancient concept of “mental illness” is only misleading, because the spirit can not get sick – in this case, we are talking about symptoms on the mental level, that is, in the consciousness of a person.
In this book, we will try to present a unified picture of the disease, in which the contrast “somatic-mental” affects, at best, the level of more frequent manifestation of the symptom.
Our contrast between the concepts of “disease “(a characteristic of the state of consciousness) and” symptom ” (a characteristic of the state of the body) departs from the analysis of what is happening in the body, approaching the still unusual in this sense, the study of the level of the mental. The doctor is like a theater critic, who, scolding a production that he does not like, most often attacks weak directing, poor scenery or acting. We, speaking here more as drama theorists, are interested only in the content and quality of the play.
If a symptom appears in a person’s body, it attracts more or less attention and disrupts the continuity of life. A symptom is a signal to which a person’s interest and energy are directed and because of which the usual course of events is disrupted. Whether we like it or not, we treat the symptom with respect. We consider this change, which supposedly came from outside, as a hindrance and try to eliminate it. The person does not want to be disturbed, so he begins an active struggle with the symptom. So the symptom almost always achieves what it wanted – to be dealt with.
Since the time of Hippocrates, medicine has been trying to convince the patient that the occurrence of a symptom is more or less accidental, its causes should be sought in the processes of the body. It is they who are studied by official medicine. She does her best to avoid having to explain these symptoms, thus turning both the symptom and the disease itself into something insignificant. But after all, a symptom sent by consciousness as a signal carrying some important information ceases to perform its main function.
For clarity, let’s turn to this example. On the front panel of the car there are many warning lights, they light up when some important system of the car fails. If one of the lights turns on while driving, we usually do not feel any pleasure from this, knowing that we will have to stop. Despite the understandable feeling of annoyance, no one is offended by the light bulb, because it only informs us about a problem in the machine. We perceive the light bulb as a message about the need to contact a car mechanic and fix the problem so that we can safely go on. But imagine how angry we would be if a car mechanic arrived and simply turned out this light bulb, even though we wanted it to stop burning when we spoke to him. In this case, we firmly understand that it is more important to eliminate the cause of the signal, rather than its absence.
The symptom also plays the role of a warning light, being a visible expression of an invisible process. It signals the need to interrupt the planned path and find out what is wrong. To be angry with it is no less stupid than to be offended by a light bulb, but to try to “unscrew” it is simply absurd. No need to try to prevent its appearance, you need to make sure that it is simply not needed. You should take your eyes off the symptom and try to look deeper, learn to understand what it indicates.
The main problem of academic medicine is the inability to take this step, so it identifies the symptom with the disease, not being able to separate the form from the content.
With great fanfare, using numerous technical devices, we treat organs and body parts – but not the sick person himself. We strive to eventually learn how to prevent the occurrence of symptoms, without wondering how much it is possible and necessary. It is surprising how little objective reality affects this process. Since the advent of the so-called modern scientific medicine, the number of patients has not decreased by a fraction of a percent. Only the symptoms have changed. This fact, which can, it would seem, sober up anyone, is carefully obscured with the help of statistical data. So, for example, we proudly announce the victory over infectious diseases, without mentioning that other symptoms have become much more numerous during this time.
Honest statistics will become only if it takes into account not the disappearance of certain symptoms, but the ratio of the percentage of sick and healthy people. And it has not changed in general and is not going to change in the near future. In human existence, disease is as deeply rooted as death – it cannot be destroyed by a couple of harmless medical tricks. If we could feel the full magnitude of illness and death, we would probably realize how ridiculous our attempts to cope with them with pills and procedures are. But, on the other hand, you can also save your illusions by belittling disease and death, reducing them to a purely functional state, thus filling yourself with faith in your own greatness and power.
I would like to emphasize once again that the disease is a condition of a person that indicates that his consciousness is not in order, that harmony is disturbed. This loss of inner balance manifests itself in the body as symptoms. A symptom is a signal that interrupts the established course of life and makes you pay attention to yourself in order to convey information that a person is ill, that he has a disturbed balance of internal mental forces, that something has happened to him.
“What happened to you?” the patient was asked earlier. The answer was always about the effect, not the cause: “It hurts me.” Today, the question has also been simplified: “What is your pain?» The very different questions: “What happened?” and “What hurts?” are very revealing. Both are addressed to the patient. Something has happened to the patient, or more precisely, something has happened to his consciousness – if it were not for this, he would be healthy, that is, perfect. If he lacks something for perfection , he is not well. This condition manifests itself in the form of symptoms that indicate a lack of something important at the level of consciousness.
If a person realizes the difference between a disease and a symptom, their attitude to the disease changes dramatically, as does their behavior. The symptom ceases to be his sworn enemy, which must be defeated and destroyed. He turns into a partner who can help find what is so lacking for a full recovery, becomes a teacher who develops a person’s consciousness and shows ruthlessness if he does not respect the higher laws enough. The disease has only one goal — to help us become healthy.
Symptoms can tell us what we are missing on the road to recovery, but only if we learn to understand their language. The purpose of this book is to help you remember what they are talking about. We consciously use the verb “remember”, because this language has existed for a long time and there is absolutely nothing to invent here. The language in which we talk about symptoms is “psychosomatic”: it is well aware of the relationship between the body and the psyche. If we remember this relationship, we will also hear what the symptoms are telling us. And they can say more than people, and their information will be much more important, because they are our most intimate partners. They know us better than anyone.
These partners communicate with us so honestly that it is quite difficult not to take offense at their judgments. The best friend will never dare to speak too unsightly truth directly to the face. The symptoms do this all the time. So it’s no wonder we’ve forgotten how to read their language — it’s more pleasant to live with our ears covered and our eyes closed than to hear nasty things about ourselves! But even if we prefer to be deaf and blind, the symptoms do not disappear, we are always connected with them.
If we dare to listen to their voices and start communicating with them, they can become our guides on the path to full recovery. They will tell us what we really lack, say out loud what we only unconsciously suspected, and give us a chance to learn to exist so that in the future they will never be needed again.
This has its own expression at the level of the language. When we say that a person has been healed, we mean that he has become whole, perfect. Treatment (the path to healing) is an approach to the state of a healthy person, to the wholeness of his consciousness, which is called enlightenment. Treatment consists in adding what a person lacks, it is impossible without the expansion of consciousness. Illness and healing are words that denote the two poles of the state of consciousness. They cannot be applied to the body. The body, as we have already said, can be neither sick nor healthy. It only reflects the corresponding states of our consciousness.
Even at this point, you can criticize academic medicine. She talks about recovery, ignoring the only level at which it is possible. We do not want to criticize medical practice, nor consider it a panacea for all ills. Practice is limited to activities that are neither good nor bad in themselves. This intervention is only on the material level. And at this level, medicine is surprisingly good; you can only completely deny its methods as long as they concern you personally, and you can never speak for others. Everyone should decide for himself how much he believes that the world can be changed by purely practical methods. If a person understands that this approach is an illusion, the game is solved, and it is not necessary to continue it. But no one has the right to forbid others to play, because co-existence with illusions is also a way of development!
So, for us, it is not so much what doctors do that is important, but the degree of awareness of this action. If you understand our point of view, it is clear to you that the criticism applies equally to academic and alternative medicine, which uses more natural and less harmful methods, but suffers from the same lack of philosophical concept. The path of a person is a path from ill health to health, which passes through recovery. Illness is not an unpleasant hindrance on this path, for it is the path itself. The more consciously we treat it, the better it performs its tasks. Our goal is not to fight the disease, but to use it. To learn this, you need to start from afar.