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This theological question will be examined within the conceptual
framework of the New
Medicine which deals with two entities, or metaphors,
WOB and Mind.. We shall examine how these entities relate to the theological
God, and what is His role in therapy,
Does an ameba suffer? Nature provides ameba with resources,
and obtains its excretions which serves as resource for other partners in the
food chain. Nature may also injure
it. Lack of resources and injury
distress the ameba but do not make it suffer. Suffering occurs in the mind,
which ameba lacks. Ameba is a pure WOB.
A dog has a mind. Watch his loneliness when left alone, or
his reaction to pain, and you will conclude that he suffers. So does the ape
whose ancestry begot homo sapiens. Primitive
man endured two kinds of suffering. A suffering caused by
hunger and thirst, which he
instinctively knew how to relieve. He was less knowledgeable about how to alleviate
suffering from disease. Soon he
realized that some of his fellows were gifted to handle this kind of suffering. This is when the
Shaman took his place in the tribe.
What distinguished a shaman from other members of his tribe, was his capability to observe and
handle odd situations. His insight might
have originated in an ailment which
he contracted. He then applied
successfully his experience to other members of his clan. His curiosity broadened his understanding
of phenomena around him. Nature
was a collection of beings with
human nature, which he handled in the same way as ailments. He contemplated that healthy spirits may alleviate hunger and
bring prosperity to his kin, and
his task was to strengthen
weak spirits for the benefit of his clan..
Evil spirits were not yet conceived.
In the primitive society the relationship between Mind
and WOB , is quite simple. WOB controls processes in the body. When lacking some resources, like
water, it sends the mind a signal of thirst as if saying: My control
of water balance slackens, go and get me some water. By itself WOB is incapable
of searching for water.
When the practice of farming got people to settle down, the
role of the mind became somewhat more complex. Essentially WOB is utterly
selfish. Its objective is to
sustain life at any cost, disregarding
external constraints. Now that societies were formed, this selfishness had to
be curbed by law and religion. Not all WOB demands could be met.
Some were forbidden by the society , others
required a compromise between WOB demands and what is allowed. This compromise
is handled by the mind. The two tasks of the mind remind of the Greek god Janus, who watches two opposite directions.
When mind turns inside it serves as WOB servant, while outside he faces the restrictions of
society. From now on mind serves as an arbiter
of WOB and society.
Shamanism may be regarded as an art of uncorrupted medicine,
which soon faced two grave dangers, religion and philosophy. The shaman was not concerned with the cause of disease (etiology),
his task was to remove disease from an ailing body. This attitude, however, changed tremendously during the Axial Age (800-1200 BCE) which is regarded
by historians as time of transition during which the major religions emerged.
Philosophers concluded that all occurrences in nature had a cause, and so did disease. The three western religions regarded sin
as main cause of disease. Apparently disease did not exist in Plato's world
of ideas, only health did.
According to his metaphysics, the word 'cat'
means a certain ideal cat 'the cat' created by God. Particular cats are
imperfect representations of this ideal cat.
Might one apply the same reasoning to the word 'disease'? Did
Plato's God really create 'the disease'?
Obviously not, since disease is the hallmark of imperfection. On the other hand God of western religions did
create it, for punishing sinners. Later on Christianity considered disease
as a manifestation of Evil. This metaphysical view of disease is interpreted by the mind
as guilt. Actually illness starts in the WOB, which signals the mind a sense of dis-ease, as if
saying: "I am losing control, get some help" Previously this sufficed
to call a shaman, but now this signal for help is wrapped up by the mind, in guilt,.
Greek medicine did not trod the same path and evolved independently. The two major schools of medicine, Asclepius cult, and Hippocrates were not interested in the cause of disease. The cult of Asclepius was a Greek version of shamanism. Hippocrates started as an Asclepiad. Later on the turned to the four humors of the body, During health they were balanced. Disease resulted either from a humor excess or deficiency. Treatment was directed to restore original balance. The physician was aided by the self healing capacity of the body which was called healing force of nature, a Hippocratic notion of WOB.
As the Western God gained in supremacy over pagan Gods, sin
as cause of disease became more and more important.
Galen's medicine continued to dominate medical thought yet soon became
overpowered by medical innovators like Paracelsus who was a
firm believer in the Primordial Sin.
It is striking that modern
textbooks of the history of medicine hardy ever mention God. History of medicine describes the evolution
of theories from the viewpoint
of modern medicine which regards itself as a science where God has no saying.
Take, for instance, William Harvey's important discovery of the role of the
heart in the circulation of blood (1578 - 1657). Modern historians regard it
as a scientific revolution. Yet when Harvey published his treatise 'De motu
cordis', God continued dominating the outcome of disease by perpetuating
guilt. God may not be a scientific object, however His medical significance
cannot be ignored.
Modern medicine banned God and kept His created guilt, which operates in any disease. Guilt accompanies cancer from it’s very beginning The first thought of a young female who discovered a small lump in her breast is: "where did I err?". "Why did I miss my latest mammography", or "Why did I continue smoking?" She is the sinner who disobeyed the Surgeon General's directives. She is guilty of neglecting prevention.
From now on her sense of guilt will be perpetuated by doctors,
family, and society. She will be blamed for treatment failure, since
coming too late. Whom else to blame?
Medicine spreads the false notion that it cures cancer. When statistics show
the opposite, she blames for its failure patients and particularly society .
Society should invest more in expensive preventive machines. It neglects
health services and therefore medicine fails to curb disease.
Purging
Many patients are aware of the incompetence of oncology. They seek the help of healers,
and face new dangers. Many healers of
alternative medicine believe that disease results from a failure of the body
clean itself, and this pollution has to be purged. Purging was already practiced
by physicians of ancient Egypt, and abandoned by modern medicine. Yet modern healers return to the roots, purge and endanger
the patient.
Medicine abandoned purging when realizing that the body
is a machine §with many malfunctions. Disease
is a malfunction which has to be corrected. Descartes maintained that
this machine has a soul residing in the pineal gland, which medicine rejects
as a nonscientific hypothesis. Ailment of the soul is non other than an aberration
of the mind which is handled by psychosomatic medicine. Descartes did not realize that the human
machine differs from man made machines by its capacity of self healing.
After all he was not a physician. All
diseases are more or less self healing. A capacity which was known as Healing
Force of Nature.
Iatrogenesis
Medicine realizes that some malfunctions are self healing,
however it lacks means to find out
which malfunctions may be ignored.
In order to protect itself (mainly legally) medicine regards all aberrations as diseases.
Until proven otherwise the human body is sick. This is the root of to
day's medical impasse, which causes medically inflicted
diseases, called Iatrogenesis.
Despite being a guilt propagator, God has many medical merits.
After all he sent us some great healers, e.g., Prophets,
Jesus and Mohammed. Even today
his heritage may heal some of his sick believers. The benefit
of Lourdes may outweigh some negative aspects of
Catholicism. However, in order
to find out its benefits, one has to experience it. Lourdes sets free our hidden spirituality.
Karen Armstrong might regard it as a proof of our being Homo religiosus.
Our mind is endowed
with two assets, imagination and creativity, which brought us where we are today.
The history of God is also
the history of imagination, and so is medicine. It started with shamanism, which
harnessed imagination to remove
disease from the body, and today it assists doctors and healers. Modern medicine
ignores this important dimension of therapy, and regards it as a useless and
harmful placebo effect.
Yet imagination is more than that. It is a channel through which our mind controls processes in the body which may be harnessed during therapy for the benefit of the patient.