Sickness, illness, physical accidents and other bodily infirmities are some of the most difficult things to write about and even make an attempt to explain because if the reader attempts to prove the concepts given here by trial, they will most likely fail and perhaps make matters even worse. In a very important way, sickness is providing a very necessary service to the human body while at the same time making matters sometimes painful and downright dangerous to a patient’s survival if some correction is not made. Sickness is the bellwether, the canary in the coal mine, and is our obvious but almost always ignored sign that things are not exactly right in our lives.
In the evolution of the human consciousness there was a time when there was no real division between the body consciousness and the identity’s overall consciousness, but with the emergence of the ego “I” awareness, there began an every increasing division between the two. At that time, illness was nowhere near as prevalent as it is now, and frankly, witch doctors and shaman quite ably served the early communities with surprisingly good results. They had an innate understanding of the link between illness and the state of the mind. At times they would literally scare the illness out of the seemingly possessed unfortunate patient because in those early times, illness, sickness and infirmity was often viewed as being possessed by evil spirits.
In a sense, this was the earliest form of the placebo effect albeit used in a constructive manner, not to intentionally create mindless zombies. They were confronting illness in light of the wide held beliefs of the times. Instead of using scalpels, knives, and other useful paraphernalia to remove our appendages and some of our most beloved organs as is the practice today, the early healers used chicken bones, stones, eagle feathers and other less harmful implements to achieve quite similar results, leaving the organs intact.
Understanding the mind body link, the earliest practitioners, both healers and patients, did not need to have a Harvard education and a wall full of impressive degrees to know that one way or the other, almost all illness was the result of a discordant mental state whether it be from unhealthy beliefs, displeased spirits or psychological demons, projected outward from within. Here I speak in generalities to some extent, but under most conditions, the advent of modern day illness is the chosen method of the physical body to alert the ego consciousness (the exterior self) that something is wrong inside.
As the evolving ego consciousness began to focus more intently on our physical three dimensional reality, more and more it had to constantly assess and learn to deal with an ever more complicated world. Mankind was emerging from a time when the only things one needed to deal with in everyday life was the knowledge and location of the nearest hostile tribe, the timing of the next animal migration and where to find the sweetest fruit and tubers. In short, in those early times, living was a "no-brainer" compared to the vast amounts of stimuli facing today’s modern society. At least then, you knew who or what was going to kill you, now it’s a toss up, and the line forms to the rear.
Our civilization, as it became more complex, more intricate, more developed and more multi faceted, it required more and more concentration just to maintain a balance in a challenging system of reality like none other. It would now take every bit of our mental acuity as a civilization to maintain a psychological balance to hold our stance in this ‘Earth Reality”. Well, no surprise then, that in a way, sometime in the not so ancient past the ego began more and more to divorce itself from the concerns of the inner personality from which it had recently emerged.
The ego consciousness, feeling insecure in it’s new found physical state of control, began to ignore the very existence of the inner self from which it owed its very being. The ego was born from the inner self. The inner self can exist without the ego, but the ego could never exist without the inner self, evidenced by the pretty much ego-less animals sharing out reality, and getting along quite well I must say. Egocentric reality is just another way of doing it. The animals do not operate with a well developed ego to help them ascertain a healthy stance in physical reality, relying instead on ancient instincts guiding them in a state of natural grace.
It goes without saying that we are both psychological and physical beings, temporarily adopting human form, creating a psychological overlay of matter over form which permits the inner self to delve into a medium of reality previously quite unfamiliar to it. It has accreted physical matter upon and over psychological patterns, creating new form, in order to learn, grow, evolve and gain a different kind of experience than would be available without this quite unique adventure into consciousness.
In light of the advent of increasingly complex societies and accompanying inherent problems and challenges, the inner self began to feel an increasing need to find a way to alert and relay its distress signals to the attention of the ego consciousness so they could be addressed and corrected in a satisfactory manner. The method adopted could not be simpler. The inner self had to establish a link between mental and physical balance and bodily illness. The body would act as a flesh and blood barometer indicating the state of health of the physical personality.
Illnesses are in most part an indication of the mental blockage of the natural ebb and flow of psychic energy patterns within the subconscious. These blockages occur when one has adopted distorted beliefs and trying to assess reality in light of those beliefs, in order to react naturally, the physical body sets up unnatural barriers blocking these energy patterns physically. The human body, left alone, is immaculately equipped to take care of itself, to defend itself against any virus, bacteria or invading cancerous growths. By left alone I mean, not having to negotiate normal pathways blocked by negative beliefs.
A person who believes he is sick will be sick. A person who believes he is well, will be in good health. One of the problems with our society today is the constant bombardment of our consciousness with television commercials for drugs to cure illnesses that we didn't even know existted a few years ago. The drug companies know that if they hype a new drug for a new illness, describing the symptoms of the illness, they will create a need for their drugs where before no need existed. In other words they can essentially create the drug first and the illness will follow.
Many people adopt illness for social purposes, finding great comfort in the attention they get from their contemporaries discussing their drugs and doctors at cocktail parties. Some even find friendship, compassion and kinship with others who share illness in hospitals, doctors offices and in their daily life. There are some people who wouldn't be caught dead without the latest illness of choice, and will unconsciously sift through the most fashionable illnesses of the day to find one to try on like a new dress or suit before deciding on one and adopting it.
We now believe we can get ahead of the game by touting "preventive medicine", inspecting oneself, getting shots, taking certain pills during certain seasons to ward off the near certain onslaught of a dreaded flu or cold. When you believe in preventative medicine, you are establishing an inner fear of something that probably would not affect you anyway, and in concentrating on the feared illness, will instead invite it in. The body will acquiesce to your fears and beliefs, lowering it's defenses by disabling the immune system and inviting the culprit virus to do it's dirty work.
Illness serves a purpose, and that purpose is known to the inner self. What you believe consciously, the inner self will provide, and if you believe in illness, you will get what you concentrate on. If you find yourself succumbing to illness time and time again on a continuing basis, look inward for the solution, it will be found sometimes deeply rooted in your belief system. It involves much more than just finding and eliminating some negative belief, and can be far reaching in the unconscious mind, but it is not unavailable to the inquiring mind.
I am not in the least telling you to give up the health system that you have grown to trust, but to begin to look inside the mind for the deeper and lasting cures for all illness. If your doctor, doing his job well, cures your present illness without understanding and addressing the underlying source of the problems, you will simply adopt another illness again and again. The final cure must come from a careful analysis of your belief system, weighing it against the beliefs of your contemporaries, and rooting out unhealthy beliefs from your unconscious.
You are NOT under attack from a hostile environment and viscous, predatory viruses, in fact most viruses and bacteria live in perfect harmony within your body and without them you could not live. But when a psychic imbalance occurs do to discombobulated beliefs, they can run amok and cause great damage. You can begin now to try to understand your beliefs, looking back into the past, finding old worn out beliefs that still linger, that have never been discarded.
Your body is like a most intimate mirror, accurately projecting outward your inner state of being. If there is disharmony inwardly, the body will let you know. Your physical body is the living "RESULT" of your inner state of reality projected outward upon the stage of physical reality. You control what that outward RESULT will be with your beliefs, thoughts, imagination and expectation. You are in control unless you believe that you are NOT in control.
