By William Renaurd
The body contains infinite wisdom and vast armies at its command that can conquer illness, extend life, vanquish adversity, and perform miracles.
How did the human race manage to survive so many onslaughts of disease, epidemics, famine, and upheavals without the aid of modern drugs, skilled physicians, and sophisticated surgery?
If Biblical evidence is to be accepted, the life span of individuals extended beyond our present concepts. More recent records also indicate that "primitives" who do not fall prey to wild animals or natural disasters have a much higher rate of longevity than Modern Man does.
What has accompanied the miraculous journey of humanity as it descended the trees, from an arboreal existence, down into the eaves, and across the savannah? Our blessing is the highly developed human brain and its ability to affect the physiological being.
In that respect, humans are unique. All forms of life are endowed with immunological systems that ensure survival of the species. Only people are twice blessed as the possessors of a brain that can work in harmony with bodily functions and direct them--phenomena that have seldom been recognized or understood.
But the wondrous powers of the mind, while capable of being harnessed to fight off bacterial and viral invaders, summoning energies from the deepest labyrinths of the spirit, can also go astray and cause stress, depression, and illness.
The duality of human nature was recognized thousands of years ago, and so were the enormous powers of self-healing. During the centuries in between, we have lost, from time to time, this precious knowledge.
That we are capable of both self-healing and self-destruction is a truth utilized and understood by philosophers, religious leaders, physicians, and even charlatans. We are both beneficiary and victim of this unique power.
Hippocrates often commented upon the role that physicians can play in cooperating with Nature. He noted that the doctor only applied the splint; nature heals the broken bones.
Plato observed: "The great error in treatment of the human body is that physicians are ignorant of the whole. For the part can never be well unless the whole is well." Sigmund Freud spoke of the conflict in human nature, ‘the life force in a constant struggle with the death force’. He labeled them libido and destrudo.
They, and others of their vision, were able to grasp a truth that modern science is slowly beginning to acknowledge, that mind and body are not separate, but act upon each other, positively and negatively. We have the capability of making ourselves ill. We can also cure ourselves. There are dynamic, unconscious forces at our disposal.
Although improper nutrition, a harmful environment, and exposure to infection can lessen physical resistance, the powers of the mind and their influence upon the physiological processes can be decisive.
This is not an offbeat concept meant to denigrate the value of scientific progress. Ancient physicians knew and practiced what we now call psychosomatic medicine. Neither is it a new science, but one that has been too often ignored.
Healers of the past, lacking potent drugs, were forced to devote more time to contemplating their patient's maladies. They also discovered that physical diseases were intimately related to emotions and personal relationships.
Therefore, they were led to believe that good health depended upon people living in harmony with themselves and the environment. To be healthy is to be able to face changes and adversity with positive and challenging attitudes.
These truths were well understood, but were often linked with religious, occult, or esoteric rites, so that the patient would believe strongly in the probability of cure.
The idea that pain or disease could be caused by demons or spirits was commonly believed in early societies. It also persists among many people today. When cures are realized, the forces at work are combinations of faith and belief. How the blind have been inspired to see, the lame to walk, and the dying to rally may be matters of cynical disbelief, but these "miracles" happened and continue to occur often enough for scientists to give credence to the possibility that a body can cure itself.
In ancient Greece, healing temples relied upon the use of fasting, prayer, sleep, and psychological suggestion to achieve cures. Many of those ideas find their counterpart in modern concepts of holistic medicine that employ the modalities of nutrition, biofeedback, hypnosis, acupuncture, and psychoanalytic therapy.
Unfortunately, the discoveries of the Greeks and other enlightened societies of the past were eventually swept into an abyss of ignorance during the Dark Ages, when scientific rationalism fell into disuse.
There were, however, isolated islands of knowledge in the 12th century, such as the works of Maimonides, the Hebrew physician and scholar, who explored the relationship of illness and emotions. His treatises on asthma, as the result of emotional distress, are equal to many of the modern dissertations.
How did the human race manage to survive so many onslaughts of disease, epidemics, famine, and upheavals without the aid of modern drugs, skilled physicians, and sophisticated surgery?
If Biblical evidence is to be accepted, the life span of individuals extended beyond our present concepts. More recent records also indicate that "primitives" who do not fall prey to wild animals or natural disasters have a much higher rate of longevity than Modern Man does.
What have we lost, as civilization imposed its demands upon our natural instincts?
What has accompanied the miraculous journey of humanity as it descended the trees, from an arboreal existence, down into the eaves, and across the savannah? Our blessing is the highly developed human brain and its ability to affect the physiological being.
In that respect, humans are unique. All forms of life are endowed with immunological systems that ensure survival of the species. Only people are twice blessed as the possessors of a brain that can work in harmony with bodily functions and direct them--phenomena that have seldom been recognized or understood.
But the wondrous powers of the mind, while capable of being harnessed to fight off bacterial and viral invaders, summoning energies from the deepest labyrinths of the spirit, can also go astray and cause stress, depression, and illness.
Self-Healing and Self-Destruction
The duality of human nature was recognized thousands of years ago, and so were the enormous powers of self-healing. During the centuries in between, we have lost, from time to time, this precious knowledge.
That we are capable of both self-healing and self-destruction is a truth utilized and understood by philosophers, religious leaders, physicians, and even charlatans. We are both beneficiary and victim of this unique power.
Hippocrates often commented upon the role that physicians can play in cooperating with Nature. He noted that the doctor only applied the splint; nature heals the broken bones.
Plato observed: "The great error in treatment of the human body is that physicians are ignorant of the whole. For the part can never be well unless the whole is well." Sigmund Freud spoke of the conflict in human nature, ‘the life force in a constant struggle with the death force’. He labeled them libido and destrudo.
They, and others of their vision, were able to grasp a truth that modern science is slowly beginning to acknowledge, that mind and body are not separate, but act upon each other, positively and negatively. We have the capability of making ourselves ill. We can also cure ourselves. There are dynamic, unconscious forces at our disposal.
Although improper nutrition, a harmful environment, and exposure to infection can lessen physical resistance, the powers of the mind and their influence upon the physiological processes can be decisive.
This is not an offbeat concept meant to denigrate the value of scientific progress. Ancient physicians knew and practiced what we now call psychosomatic medicine. Neither is it a new science, but one that has been too often ignored.
Ancient Attitudes Toward Healing
Therefore, they were led to believe that good health depended upon people living in harmony with themselves and the environment. To be healthy is to be able to face changes and adversity with positive and challenging attitudes.
These truths were well understood, but were often linked with religious, occult, or esoteric rites, so that the patient would believe strongly in the probability of cure.
The idea that pain or disease could be caused by demons or spirits was commonly believed in early societies. It also persists among many people today. When cures are realized, the forces at work are combinations of faith and belief. How the blind have been inspired to see, the lame to walk, and the dying to rally may be matters of cynical disbelief, but these "miracles" happened and continue to occur often enough for scientists to give credence to the possibility that a body can cure itself.
In ancient Greece, healing temples relied upon the use of fasting, prayer, sleep, and psychological suggestion to achieve cures. Many of those ideas find their counterpart in modern concepts of holistic medicine that employ the modalities of nutrition, biofeedback, hypnosis, acupuncture, and psychoanalytic therapy.
Unfortunately, the discoveries of the Greeks and other enlightened societies of the past were eventually swept into an abyss of ignorance during the Dark Ages, when scientific rationalism fell into disuse.
There were, however, isolated islands of knowledge in the 12th century, such as the works of Maimonides, the Hebrew physician and scholar, who explored the relationship of illness and emotions. His treatises on asthma, as the result of emotional distress, are equal to many of the modern dissertations.
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