Health From Mind to Body
Robert Bruce MacDonald
How does the thinking of an individual affect him physically?
There are many clues about this in Theosophical literature. We read
how different organs in the human body correspond to different principles
in man. We understand that our thoughts, no matter how fleeting, have
karmic repercussions, for thoughts are substantial. We also understand
the body to be a consciously integrated system of organs communicating
and being communicated with, both through internal pathways and through
pathways connected to the outside world.
Each organ has its own centre of consciousness by which
it communicates with the rest of the body. One example of this is
work that has been done which maps certain sections of the colon to
various organs of the body. For example, there may be a section of
the ascending colon that corresponds to eyesight, and if this section
becomes stressed or damaged, there will be a corresponding weakening
of one's eyesight. Consequently there is a correspondence very often
between an illness and a malfunctioning or stressed colon. As the
colon becomes plugged, this leads to autointoxication in the body
as poisons build up in the colon and overflow into the body. Also,
this damaging of the colon provides a wonderful breeding ground for
parasites in the colon and elsewhere. Seventy per cent of known parasites
actually live in areas of the body other than the intestinal tract.
It is now estimated that over eighty per cent of North Americans play
host to parasites and are not even aware of it.
To see where the origin of our illnesses lie, we must
look to our own thoughts. Every thought has its own particular colour—its
own unique vibration. By keeping one's thoughts centred on the spiritual,
or rather by seeing the spiritual that at all times pervades the physical,
we attract to ourselves those life-atoms that are of a more spiritual
nature. This type of thought is easy and natural, not involving physical
stress since it is not of a material nature. However, when the focus
is shifted to the material and objects of desire, heavier life atoms
are attracted. Another product of the attachment to the material is
fear and fear is a primary cause of stress. Instead of the mind producing
natural thoughts it instead produces thoughts that are coloured, quite
often coloured by emotion. The different organs then become stressed
according to the nature of the thoughts that the particular personality
prefers to dwell on. Each organ has a particular type of consciousness
associated with it and thoughts that dwell on a particular subject
area would tend to lead to stress on the corresponding organ.
As the stomach is the seat of the emotions, stress would
most obviously manifest through the stomach and intestinal tract.
As we have pointed out the colon becomes overwhelmed and faecal matter
begins to build up on the walls of the tract, in time misshaping the
colon and producing a prime breeding ground for parasites of all types.
These parasites feed and produce poisonous eliminations that lead
in time to disease in the body. Traditional medicine then attempts
to treat the symptoms produced by this autointoxication with drugs
in order to mask them, but rarely thinks to trace things back to original
causes. Blavatsky looks causally at disease by looking at the fiery
lives. She writes:
They [the fiery lives] are "builders" by sacrificing themselves
in the form of vitality to restrain the destructive influence of the
microbes, and, by supplying the microbes with what is necessary, they
compel them under that restraint to build up the material body and
its cells. They are "destroyers" also when that restraint
is removed and the microbes, unsupplied with vital constructive energy,
are left to run riot as destructive agents. . . .
[T]he restraining influence of the "fiery lives"
on the lowest sub-division of the second plane—the microbes—is
confirmed by the fact mentioned in the footnote on Pasteur (vide supra),
that the cells of the organs, when they do not find sufficient oxygen
for themselves, adapt themselves to that condition and form ferments,
which, by absorbing oxygen from substances coming in contact with
them, ruin the latter. Thus the process is commenced by one cell robbing
its neighbor of the source of its vitality when the supply is insufficient,
and the ruin so commenced steadily progresses. (SD I, fn. 262-63)
Whether in the intestinal tract or in other organs of the body, this
process of fermentation is the key to understanding the onset of disease.
As the cells are forced to steal oxygen from one another (fermentation),
degeneration and disease begin.
This process of fermentation has been carefully detailed
in the book The Golden Seven Plus One by Dr. C. Samuel West. In a
brilliant but simple analysis, this Naturopath follows the disease
process at the cellular level. Dr. West demonstrates how improper
lifestyle including diet, lack of exercise, and wrong thought lead
to an accumulation of plasma proteins in the blood that in turn get
squeezed from the capillaries into the spaces around the cells. This
in turn interferes with the sodium-potassium pump which helps maintain
the proper functioning and health of the cell. Increased sodium in
turn draws water into this intercellular space leading in turn to
a perfect breeding ground for parasites and disease. Because of the
increase in intercellular water, oxygen is prevented from getting
to the cells and what we know as pain is experienced. The genesis
of any disease can be traced back to this state so that the name of
the disease becomes inconsequential. His treatment centres around
the lymphatic system. Trapped blood proteins have a tendency to cluster
together in these intercellular spaces and consequently some form
of energy must be directed to these areas so that these clusters can
be broken up. Then simple exercises can be used to engage the lymphatic
system into removing the trapped blood proteins and other poisons
that have built up around the cells. As soon as the cells can once
again receive regular oxygen, they heal quickly. Pain for Dr. West
is simply a lack of oxygen.
In addition to these traditional causes of disease,
many doctors are coming to see vaccines as a way in which the seeds
of disease are planted into the body. Dr. Leonard G. Horowitz is an
independent investigator into public health and the author of the
recent book, Emerging Viruses: Aids and Ebola. Dr. Horowitz and Dr.
Eva Snead are two medical practitioners who are questioning the whole
concept of vaccines. Their research indicates that the modern pharmaceutical
therapy of vaccinating against disease is in fact a process whereby
disease is planted into the body. According to Dr. Snead, you cannot
develop a disease unless the seed to that disease is in you. Vaccination
introduces that seed into your system when it would otherwise not
have been there. It is also apparent that the modern medical process
of focusing on diseases by giving them names and characteristics (symptoms)
is another process by which disease is implanted into people's minds.
The occultist will recognize that fear of disease is another way of
attracting that disease to you. Modern medicine's focus on disease
rather than on good health may be a very real cause of the poor health
experienced by many today.
In the end, self-responsibility is the key to good health.
By taking responsibility for one's thoughts and beliefs, one starts
on the road to good health. Any disease begins first with a thought.
By creating thought forms of a particular type we begin to attract
to ourselves the life atoms that will embody these thought forms.
Consequently, not only do we attract nutrition from our food, but
also we begin to attract those elements from our food that under normal
circumstances would be eliminated as waste. Now instead of being eliminated,
they get attracted to those areas of the body where thought forms
have been allowed to take root. These forms embody themselves and
begin to inhibit the healthy flow of the body's energies. As this
flow is inhibited, poisons begin to accumulate in the affected areas
and disease is the result. Herbs, homeopathic medicines, various forms
of massage, and many other modalities are just various ways of applying
energy to those areas where thought forms have begun to manifest.
These energies help to break up the manifesting forms so that the
body can eliminate their physical aspects and any poisons that have
accumulated. Of course, if the thinking that created them in the first
place continues to persist, the battle will be never ending. Disease
points to wrong thought. It is Nature's way of telling us that we
have gone off course. By studying Theosophy we can come to learn in
time what types of thoughts correspond to disease in which organs.
As individuals by looking at those areas of our life that are causing
us unhealthy stress, we can begin to correct our thoughts and move
towards health without ever knowing the correspondences. Theosophy
verifies the connection between thought and disease, but it is by
no means necessary to know these correspondences in order to move
to health. That is simply a byproduct of the self-knowledge that comes
from self-reflection. Address your fears, remove the stress, and health
will be your reward.
Works Cited:
Blavatsky, H.P. The Secret Doctrine. Los Angeles, CA:
The Theosophy Company, 1982.
Horowitz, Leonard G. Emerging Viruses: Aids and Ebola. Rockport MA:
Tetrahedron, Inc., 1996.
Snead, Dr. Eva Lee. Some Call It AIDS: I Call It Murder, The Connection
Between Cancer, AIDS, Immunizations, and Genocide. San Antonio, TX:
Aum Publications.
West, C. Samuel. The Golden Seven Plus One. Orem UT: Samuel Publishing
Co., 1981.