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Excerpt
CHAPTER 2
MEDICINE FOR THE NEW AGE
Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
– Matthew, 4:4.
Medicine has its limitations.
Life force has none.
– Paramahansa Yogananda,
Scientific Healing Affirmations
How Life Force Heals
The Breath of Life
The book of Genesis has it that God made
Adam of clay and breathed life into him. The clay, of course,
represents the material substance of the body. The divine breath
gives it life and energy.
The Vedic tradition tells us that, with
every breath we take, we draw in prana through the medulla oblongata,
“the mouth of God.” From there it flows into the spine and brain
and on to all the organs and tissues of the body, infusing them with
life and energy – with the power and the intelligence to carry
on vital functions, to regenerate, and to heal.
Call it the breath of God, call it prana,
or call it chi: life force is the essence of all health and healing
– of life itself.
Restoring the Flow
The
flow of life force may be obstructed by physical injury, infection,
improper diet, substance abuse, genetic factors, stress, lack of sleep,
worry, and a host of other negative events, conditions, and patterns
of thought, feeling, and lifestyle. Such impairment of the free flow
of life force leads to physical and mental disability, disease, even
death.
If the blockage is minor and its duration
brief, then simply eliminating the negative conditions or patterns
that caused it in the first place may be enough to put you on the road
to recovery. In time, life force reasserts itself and restores health.
Imbued with intelligence as well as power, life force knows just
what to do and goes about doing it.
But when the blockage is prolonged or severe,
life force may withdraw, partially or totally. Or it may
settle into a pattern of reduced effectiveness. It no longer suffices
to just re-establish the external conditions that allow life force
to operate freely. You may have to employ special methods and
techniques to stimulate the life force and coax it back into its normal
course. Such measures may be helpful for minor problems – they
are generally indispensable to recover from a serious injury or
chronic condition.
Aspects of Manifestation
It is customary to speak of just three
aspects of manifestation — body, mind, and spirit. However,
the pyramid in figure 2 differentiates the physical body into energy
and form, thus yielding in four aspects. This fourfold representation
frames the discussion of specific approaches, models, and methods of
health and healing in the rest of this chapter – as well as throughout
the rest of this book.
To work its wonders of health and vitality,
life force must flow through all aspects of being: from spirit to mind,
to energy, and finally to the physical form. To maintain
or restore health and vitality, you need a continuous flow of energy,
and a balance among the different energies. For this, means
and methods that focus on the physical form are not enough. You
must also cultivate mental and emotional harmony, engage the will, and
connect with Spirit.
Approaches to Health and Healing
Models and methods of healing are incredibly
numerous and diverse. To make sense of this almost boundless profusion,
it helps to keep in mind two important points.
One. All effective models and methods of treatment
have something in common: one way or another, by design or by inadvertence,
they all enhance the flow of life force. Most help to create,
restore, and maintain the conditions that allow life force to flow freely.
Some also seek to directly facilitate, enhance, or redirect this flow.
Two. All models and methods
of healing fall into one of four basic approaches, corresponding to
the four aspects of manifestation.
Physical Medicine works
on the physical body directly; it affects the life force indirectly.
Clean a wound and protect it from injury and infection with a
bandage, and it will likely heal. The physical measures establish favorable
conditions, and life force does the rest. You can also use physical
methods to set broken bones, pump poison from the stomach, remove warts
with cryonic surgery, or correct vision with lasers. Chemical substances
can address a wide range of problems: antacids to neutralize
an “acid stomach,” analgesics to reduce pain, antibiotics to combat
infection, and so on. Often, physical and chemical interventions
are but temporary, stop-gap measures. But they can also help to
establish the conditions that enable the life force to do the work of
healing and to maintain vital functions.
Energy Medicine seeks to unblock,
harmonize, and balance the bodily energies. Here the focus is
less on correcting or compensating for specific physical conditions
and circumstances, and more on restoring and enhancing the free flow
of life force. Thus, for example, in dealing with your “acid stomach,”
Chinese medicine will not bother with antacid pills to neutralize the
excess acid. Instead, it will seek to restore the balance of energies
– perhaps soothe the liver with herbs, or use tuei na to change
the flow of energy in the meridians — and thus stop the excess production
of acid.
Thought Medicine helps
you to overcome a problem or challenge by changing the patterns of thought
and feeling that set it in motion. It helps you to connect with
Spirit and transform the mind, and thus open pathways for the life force
to heal the body.
Spiritual Healing, or Causal
Healing, touches your inmost Self to unlock
the flow of life force from spirit and heal all aspects of your being.
Over the ages, these four basic
approaches have given rise to many models and methods of health and
healing. Each model derives from a particular historical and cultural
context. Each one understands the nature of man differently. Each
has its own definition of health and illness, and its own methods
and techniques of treatment.
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