Having said the immune system is not only a physical entity but has a mental and emotional counterpart which is always part of the health solutions we seek. The premise to achieve good health is ‘as above so below’. This saying is a popular modern paraphrase of the second verse of the Emerald Tablet, a compact and cryptic Hermetic text attributed to the legendary Hellenistic figure Hermes Trismegistus.
Another way of describing this premise is by the principle of correspondence -not I hasten to add as scientists do, having a selective meaning in quantum mechanics, rather in the day-to-day common-sense appreciation of its meaning. Like unto.
In health terms if we say we feel good, we mean some kind of balance is being experienced between our mind and body. It isn’t saying everything is hunky dory -indeed we might be in the process of suffering illness or injury or struggling to emerge from some dark place emotionally and mentally. What it is saying is the balance of health is tipping in the right direction. Like unto. The change driver can be mental, emotional, or physical.
And when the inner nature of our energetic BodyMind posits itself as the change driver extraordinary things can happen. Reports of Yogis who have lived hundreds of years are too numerous to be dismissed. Feats of endurance and death-defying conquests overcoming impossible odds are reoccurring patterns in recorded history. And in daily life our admiration extends to neighbours and friends who have stoically extended their active lives by refusing to accept prognosis of terminal illnesses.
In some circumstances the change driver be activated by the physical form of the BodyMind.
Here are a few examples. Two people have a body-blending sexual union and in the aftermath they feel mentally and physically wonderful -indeed they might also say they feel spiritually united. A person addicted to a stimulant of some kind will say they feel good on experiencing its effects. A pain sufferer who has a high threshold of resistance will say they are coping okay without pain relieving medication. People taking drugs to combat illness can say they feel better when the drugs kick in and stabilise their condition.
These prior examples show the ‘feel good’ factor is temporary and dependent upon repeating or maintaining the physically induced ‘inputs’. Now -look at the same examples which can have a negative mental and emotional outcome.
When the body-blending sexual union is driven by desire to relieve mental and emotional frustration -the result is exhaustion, a kind of peace which temporarily drives concerns ‘out of the window’. It does nothing to enhance mind and body union. When the stimulants addicts take wears off, they are back where they started, the harmony they experienced is absent. The person who is able to resist extreme pain without medication not only suffers tiredness from the effort, but they can also lose function physically by the resistance they manifest. People dependant on drug medication to overcome illness not only alter the natural chemistry of the body -they affect the ‘chemistry’ of their mind.
It is said we are what we eat. Some 60 chemical elements are found in the physical body, but what all of them are doing there is still unknown. Roughly 96 percent of the mass is made up of just four elements: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen, with a lot of that in the form of water. The remaining 4 percent is a sparse sampling of the periodic table of elements.
It is generally agreed we can ‘engineer’ the mind to control adverse physical responses, as we also admit damage control is rarely permanent. By the same token we acknowledge uncontrolled emotion can injure ourselves. Only when we treat the physical body with the respect it deserves are we able to achieve healthy balance of the BodyMind.
The physical body manifests an intelligence on its own account -we can be aware of this by changes in the mental and emotional feelings experienced. Although we most often only acknowledge this intelligence after the fact, there is an awareness, sometimes described as ‘gut reaction’ forewarning of change. Before you think of dismissing this statement soberly remind yourself we have been physically evolving for tens of thousands of years, and analysis shows we are hybrids -having genetic roots arising from other biped, quadruped, and other ovoviviparous species. You only have to look at the functions of these other species present in our modern-day world to realise they express an instinctual intelligence which governs and guides their form of life.
Man is also instinctively intelligent, however, in the course of evolution we have programmed our brain minds to behave rationally -or to put it in simple English; to think, amass, and recall thought. And we conceitedly describe ourselves as self-aware beings, distinctly different and more evolved than any other form of earthly life.
Self-healing can only be lastingly achieved when both minds, above and below, are treated in tandem. To do that we need to re-install and develop instrumental consciousness -learn from the world of nature how that is done.
So, having understood how and why self-healing can work -in my next post I’ll look at means and methods you can employ to activate the self-healing nature of the BodyMind.
Having recently lost my beloved cat -here is a poem that reminds us they are more intelligent than us humans!
Cat Secret
I couldn’t match the ease of her repose,
those watchful half-closed eyes unseeing
would not blink or curiously follow threat-less change.
Yet in a moment she could walk, run or leap,
engaging organ, bone, and muscle to action
apposite events. Instinctively known.
Self-named Creator, war maker, king of beasts.
Really? I tried but never could BE as she.
Unimpressed, she knew I needed her –a kind
of insolence aware of my demands -making me
question – is she a form of life I’ve yet to live?
Did I not pass that way on evolution’s path
Cat secret understood?
Yet, when she called for food or care
I would hasten as if her soul demanded
desiring body it has not, and resting
in dreamless sleep fear possession-
that something I am not would uncoil
in my head, mocking my intelligence.
Now she has passed me by, heading
to the grey havens and the Mirrorless Sea,
her secret intact. Now my kingly nature
sits squat upon Eternity’s endless shores
beggaring love, ears a-cock to hear again
her demanding call, the herald of rebirth.
Mine Quick Voice of Aquarius 