 correspondences
Chapter 6 FERRUM PHOS —
Introduction, materia medica, photographs and
descriptions of facial deficiencies, Schuessler’srecommended uses, astrological correspondences
Chapter 7 KALI MUR —
Introduction, materia medica, photographs and
descriptions of facial deficiencies, Schuessler’srecommended uses, astrological correspondences
Chapter 8 KALI PHOS —
Introduction, materia medica, photographs
and descriptions of facial deficiencies, Schuessler’srecommended uses, astrological correspondencesChapter 9 KALI SULPH —
Introduction, materia medica, photographs
and descriptions of facial deficiencies, Schuessler’srecommended uses, astrological correspondences
Chapter 10 MAG PHOS —
Introduction, materia medica, photographs
and descriptions of facial deficiencies, Schuessler’srecommended uses, astrological correspondences
Chapter 11 NAT MUR —
Introduction, materia medica, photographs
and descriptions of facial deficiencies, Schuessler’srecommended uses, astrological correspondences
Chapter 12 NAT PHOS —
Introduction, materia medica, photographs
and descriptions of facial deficiencies, Schuessler’srecommended uses, astrological correspondences
Chapter 13 NAT SULPH —
Introduction, materia medica, photographs
and descriptions of facial deficiencies, Schuessler’srecommended uses, astrological correspondences
Chapter 14 SILICEA —
Introduction, materia medica, photographs and
descriptions of facial deficiencies, Schuessler’s recommended uses, astrological correspondences
Bibliography —
Cell Salt Sources — Index — About the Author — Introduction
Hopefully, through the photographs provided, this book will
help you to visualize and recognize cell salt deficiencies and gaingreater health. There has been a great amount of interest in cell salts in the last
few years. Most of the material in English is a rehash of the classics.I have updated two classic books from the 1920s written by Dr.George Carey. They are The Biochemic System of Medicine and The
Chemistry and Wonders of the Human Body. I have adapted Dr. Carey’s
materia medica (a collection of symptom details) for the layperson,
translating some of his older technical medical terms into more mod-ern-day language. The Glossary at the end of the book will also assistyou with terms that are unfamiliar. Dr. Carey’s reference material is immensely interesting and use-
ful. In each chapter covering a particular cell salt, I provide this infor-mation as well as a Reader’ s Digest –type version of his other writings
on that particular remedy. Included in Chapter 2 are also severalpages of cell salt comparisons. In Europe the use of cell salts and facial deficiency diagnosis is
widespread. In Germany alone, there are about sixty “cell salt” organ-izations. The European view of cell salts originates from two follow-ers of Dr. W. H. Schuessler – Dr. Kurt Hickethier and Mrs. W. Sonner,who established the Sonnerschau Facial Analysis Theory in 1936.Since that time, thousands of practitioners have verified their obser-vation that facial features reflect the symptoms of cell salt deficien-cies. In each chapter I provide material from Dr. Schuessler’s“Therapeutic Index,” which can be found in his book, A New
T reatment of Disease by the Inorganic Tissue Cell Salts. I also include
photographs and descriptions of cell salt deficiencies as seen in theface. The last part of Dr. Carey’s work has to do with his obsession
with the cell salts and their relationship to the astrological constella-tions, birth times, and body parts. I include this information at theend of each chapter to provide a different view of the cell salts. This book is not intended to treat or diagnose diseases. Please
use common sense and consult your health care professional.Cell salts can be taken by anyone under any condition. Because they
are nontoxic, many pregnant and nursing women use them withsuccess. There are several ways to take cell salts. The most common way is to tap
2–4 pellets into the cap and drop them into the mouth. (Refer to page xx,
“Use and Handling of Cell Salts.”) This is called the “ dry” method. Many
people prefer this method, especially children who like sweet foods orcandy. Cell salts commonly have a lactose (milk sugar) base. Those with a lac-
tose intolerance can purchase cell salts with a liquid or sucrose base, how-ever they may be harder to obtain in these forms. In chronic cases in which a person will be taking cell salts for several
months or longer, you may have to alter the potency or use a “wet” form. This means that you put your pellets into a bottle of distilled or filteredwater (8 to 64 ounces) and consume it throughout the day. The advantagesof the wet form include the healing benefits of drinking pure water and con-tinuously infusing the body with cell salts throughout the day. There is a controversy regarding the amount of cell salts to be taken. Some people suggest 2–4 pellets taken 1–3 times a day. Acute cases seem todictate 5–30 pellets 3 times a day. My approach is to use applied kinesiolo-gy to determine the potency and number of pellets one should take. We have two reservoirs of minerals in the body, one to use on a daily
basis and one for emergency situations. When our local reservoirs aredepleted, we must draw from our deeper wells. When we are deficient inminerals, this is reflected in the face as well as in diseases or imbalances.The greater the deficiency, the greater the changes in the face. (The photo-graphs shown later in the book illustrate this principle.) When these signsappear, we can use cell salts to fill our reservoirs, and if we have a chroniccondition, we must do so quite slowly to replace our deep-well reserves.Once our mineral needs are met, we can be healthy, strong, energetic, men-tally clear, and at peace with others and ourselves. CHAPTER 1: U SINGCELLSALTS 1Using Cell SaltsCHAPTER 1Using the twelve basic cell salts, we can coun-
terbalance many deficiencies and cure or avoiddiseases and other health conditions. Preventionis always important. Although we may feel wellnow, pollution, stress, etc., tax our mineralreserves. Those of us who are taking macro andtrace minerals may still have deficiencies and maynot be obtaining the physical, mental, and spiri-tual benefits we seek from them. For instance,gastrointestinal challenges may reduce our abilityto absorb the minerals. Stomach problems, indi-gestion, gas, etc., are signs of poor mineralabsorption. Cell salts, by their preparation, arereduced to a size small enough to be easily assim-ilated into the cellular structure of the body,hence the name cell salts. (Other books refer tothem as tissue salts, as they are derived from min-erals important for the body’s tissues.) Acidblockers or other medications also restrict ourability to absorb minerals. This is another reasonto use cell salts! I recommend taking cell saltsuntil your local and deep mineral reservoirs havebeen replenished, which is evident when yourhealth and vitality have been restored, and thencontinue to use them for another 2–3 months. Dr. Carey and Inez Eudora Perry have also
provided metaphysical explanations of the cellsalts in their book Cell Salts of Salvation, in which
they make correlations between the twelve cellsalts and the twelve astrological constellations, apractice common amongst many medieval- andRenaissance-era doctors. You can see a symbolicrendering of their views on page xx. In this rather
esoteric book, the authors suggest that each of ushas a “birthday” cell salt (determined by the signof the zodiac under which we were born) that weshould take on a regular basis to support ourhealth. USE AND HANDLING OF CELLSALTS
1. Liquid – Take the number of drops indicated
on the bottle, unless otherwise directed. Placedrops directly under the tongue and retain forat least 30 seconds. Avoid touching the
mouth or tongue with the dropper. 2. Pellets – Avoid touching pellets with hands. Put desired number of pellets into lid of con-tainer and drop them into the mouth. Letthem dissolve under the tongue; do not chewor swallow them. Pellets can also be placed inwater – preferably distilled. Add them to thewater, stir, and then sip throughout the day. 3. Topical applications – The topical application
of cell salts sends the minerals directly to theaffected area for fast and effective results.Topical cell salt applications are very  simple.One can crush the pellets between twospoons and sprinkle the correct cell salts onthe skin area. (The recommendations for top-ical applications of various cell salts will befound in the chapters that follow.) Another method of topical application
involves putting 10 pellets of each recom-mended cell salt into a pint of hot or coldwater (as required for the individual case)and stirring the water with a non-metallicspoon until the cell salt is dissolved. Then,soak a cloth in this treated water, wring outthe cloth, and apply it to the affected areauntil there is relief, or until another applica-tion is required. You may chose to put anoth-er dry cloth over the soaked cloth to protectyour outer clothes or the bed sheets. One can also crush the cell salts (10 pel-
lets) and put into one ounce of a neutral-based (non-medicated or non-perfumed)cream


 computer. All the input of nature is channeled
into it, and out of it ﬂows all natural phenom ena. The
control over this comput er is located in the human brain,
whose billio ns of neural connections give it enough
complexity to mirror the complexity of the universe. The brain is not important as an object, the rishis
contend. It is important because our own subjectivity
shines through it; when our brains show us the world, they
are really showing us ourselves. By analogy, when an image
falls upon a mirror, a blending takes place. The mirror is
the reﬂection; the reﬂection is the mirror. In the same way,
the only reality we can know anything about is the one that
is being mirrored in the brain—everything that exists is
therefore inside our subjectivity. A physicist would not normally agree with this, since he
cherishes the objective method and looks on subjectivity as
virtually his enemy. A physicist says, “This is a proton,” not,
“This is my feeling for what a proton is. ” Actually, Veda is
not devoid of objective knowledge—it gave rise to its own
sciences of botany, physiology, astronomy, medicine, et
cetera—but the rishis did not feel that objectivity was the
most reliable way to know things, particularly once you
investigate deeper than nature’s surface. The truth, they
said, is that subjectivity can be either narrow or expanded. Nature is like a radio band. When you pay attention to an
isolated object—a rock, a star, or an entire galaxy—you
select one channel on the band. The rest obviously has to
be excluded—but only for that level of consciousness. It may be that other levels of consciousness receiv e more
bands, or more than one band at a time. Right now,
physicists estimate that our senses choose less than one-
billionth of the energy waves and particles that surround
us. We live in an “energy soup” incredibly larger than the
world we see. The visible universe itself is now thought to
be but a minuscule version of the original creation, the
residue of a much larger reality that collapsed somewhere
before time began, reducing its original ten dimensions to
our four. (I apologize for using the phrase “before time
began,” which is a blatant paradox, but there is no way to
state verbally how pre–Big Bang events occurred. ) Also, it
appears that at the moment of creation our universe was
ﬁlled with a billion times more energy than we now observe
with radio telescopes; the remainder was reabso rbed into
the same hidden ﬁeld where the other six dimensions went. The rishis declared that through expanded
consciousness, even this inconceivable lost reality  could be
made available to us. Theoretical physics agrees that the
lost dimensions and invisible energy ﬁelds have not actually
gone anywhe re; they have only sunk back to “sleep” in theprimordial ﬁeld. Similarly, the transcendental level of
awareness is available everywhere; you need not go
anywhere special to ﬁnd it. It only needs to wake up. William James expressed this idea in a famous passage:
Our normal waking consciousness, rational
consciousness as we call it, is but one special type
of consciousness, whilst all around it, parted from
it by the ﬂimsiest of screens, there lie potential
forms of consciousness entirely diﬀerent. We may
go through  life without suspecting their
existence; but apply the requisite stimulus, and at
a touch they are there in all their completeness. If so much more reality is nearby, why can’t we touch it. Researchers found a clue to the answer, curiously enough,
by experime nting with newborn kittens. Kittens are born
with their eyes shut and their optic nerves undeveloped. When they open their eyes, the mechanism for sight
matures at the same time; these two events always go hand
in hand. However, it was found in the mid-1970s that if you
blindfold a kitten during the two or three days when it ﬁrst
opens its eyes, the animal will be blind for life. During thus
brief but critical period, the experience of seeing actually
shapes the inter-neuronal connections in the brain that
make sight possible. This was an important ﬁnding, for biologists continue to
disagree over whether genetics or experience is more
important in behavior. This is the old question of whether a
trait is innate or acquired. Does a robin  learn to sing from
its mother, or will it sing if raised in isolation. The
experiment with the blind kittens showed that both
“nature” and “nurture” are essential; the kitten’s brain is
programmed for sight, yet it requires seeing for the
programming to unfold properly. There is a deeperimplication to all this, however. Our own brains could be
limited in just this way. Many things “out there” don’t exist
for us, not because they are unreal, but because “in here”
we have not shaped the brain to perceive them. We are like
radios that appear to have all the channels when actually
they are stuck on three—waking, sleeping, and dreaming. Because your brain is the only radio you have, you can
never know whether the fourth state exists unless your
nervous system is prepared for it. It is entirely possible that
we are literally bathed and surrounded by the transcendent
and yet have not tuned it in. The Veda gives a supporting analogy: thoughts are like
ocean waves. Rising and falling, they see only their own
motion. They say, “I am a wave,” but the greater truth,
which they do not see, is, “I am ocean. ” There is no
separation between the two, whatever the wave might
suppose. When a wave settles down, then it instantly
recognizes that its source in ocean—inﬁnite, silent, and
unchanging—was always there. The same holds true for the mind. When it is thinking, it
is all activity; when it stops thinking, it returns to its source
in silence. Only then, when the mind touches pure
awareness, will the real storehouse of Veda be located. The
experience of Veda therefore is not ancient or even
particularly Indian. It is universal and can be had at any
moment by any person. The whole trick is not to move
horizontally, which is how the stream of consc iousness
normally moves, but to sink vertically. This vertical descent
is transcend ing, meditation, dhyan, “going beyond”—all
manifestations of a mind that ceases to identify with waves
and begins to identify with ocean. If this argument is right, then the nature of the mind and
the mind-body connection have to be reconside red. The
point that Archimedes was looking for—a place to stand on
and move the world—actu ally exists. It is inside us, coveredup by the fascinating but misleading moving-picture show
of the waking state. This may explain why mind-body medicine has proved so
inconsistent. We casually assume that a person who
survives cancer or can cure himself of a fatal disease
operates with the same mental machinery as anyone else,
but this is not true: mental processes can be deep or
shallow. To go deep means to contact the hidden blueprint
of intelligence and change it—only then can visualization of
ﬁghting cancer, for example, be strong enough to defeat
the disease. But most people cannot do that; their thought
power is too weak to trigger the appropriate mechanisms. —
The practical question is whether meditation is strong
enough to radically improve our thought power. Several
studies cond ucted by scientists have shown that meditation
may in fact induce profound change, far beyond the simple
relaxation that most people use it for in the West, even
beyond the medical applications of relieving stress,
reducing blood pressure, and so on. The ﬁrst Western scientist to make any major
breakthrough with the fourth state was an American
physiologist, Robert Keith Wallace, who proved  that it
existed. In 1967, Wallace was a doctoral student at UCLA,
where he began his Ph. D. research on the physiological
changes that take place during Transcendental Meditation
(a form of mantra meditation). Using the methods of
modern biomedical research, he compiled data from
meditators over a period of several years. Without causing
any discomfort, he wired  them up to measure their brain
waves, blood pressure, heart rate, and other indices of
physical change. Wallace soon began to build a considerable body of
unique results. First, he discovered that something real
was indeed happening to the body in meditation. Within a
few minutes of beginning their practice, his subjects
entered a state of deep relaxation, marked by slower
breathing and heartbeat, by the appearance of alpha waves
in their EEGs (electroe ncephalograms), and decreased
oxygen consumption detected in the breath. This last
measure was particularly  important because it showed that
the body’s metabolic rate, tied to the total consumption of
fuel in the cells, had dropped—physiologists refer to this
metabolic reduction as a “hypometabolic” state. Meditators achieved their deepest relaxation quickly. It
takes four to six hours after falling asleep to reach the
period where


 premier mind/body
fitness programs that cultivate relaxation in the midst of action. They
integrate inten tion, breath, and movement to enhance mind/body
coordination. Scientific studie s on these practices have documented many benefits on
several aspects of health. Peopl e practicing tai chi show impro ved balance
and coordination  as well as enhanced heart and lung fitness. W e encourage
you to find a loc al tai chi or qigong class and use these beautifu l movements
to awaken mind/body integration.T o get a sense of the calming vitality these techniques provid e, try this
simple basic movement. Moving Y our Ener gy
Perform this beginning movem ent with your full attention in your body. All the moves are continuous, fluid, and in slow motion. Stand with your feet a little more than shoulder -width apart, parallel to
each other.Slowly raise your arms forward and upward, while at the same time
slightly bending your knees. Continue until your hands are about
shoulder height, with your fingertips pointing toward each other about
six inches apart, your palms facing toward you. Continue moving slowly as you rotate your shoulder inward, lowering
your hands so your palms face the floor at about waist height. At the
same time, bend your knees a little more.Again, gradually raise your arms and hands until your fingertips are
again facing each other; at the same time, rise up slightly, partially
straightening your knees. Repeat this sequence several times, imagining that you are moving in
water. After a few cycles, slowly lower your hands to your side and
resume a normal relaxed stance. CONSCIOUSNESS IN MOTION
Each of these m ind/body practices encourages the body to expre ss its natural
vitality t hrough movement. As the ener gy of your body is allowed to flow,
the chattering of your mind su bsides and a state of innocen t witnessing
emer ges. This experience of being fully present in your body cultivates
mind/body integration, enhancing the sensitivity of your thou ghts to your
molecules. Just as we know that our though ts and feelings can influence our body, we
know that our bodies influence our psychology and emotions. Changing
your pos ture, po se, or position h as a direct and immediate influ ence on howyou feel  and think. If you are feeling depleted and exhausted, try changing
the w ay you are sitting or standing to reflect a more ener gized position and
notice how your mental state is transformed. Developing enhanced
mind/body integration through yoga, tai chi, and qigong allows imbalances
to be identified  and corrected more readily, before they create more
established conditions. W e encourage you to find y our program of conscious movement. Practicing these procedures w ith your full attention will enable you to
maintain a clear and healthy line of communication between yo ur mind and
body at all stages of your life. MIND/BODY COMMUNICA TION
Not liste ning to your body’ s healthy signals accelerates aging an d is the root
cause of  many illnesses. When your body is expressing a healthy need but
your mind refuses to listen, imbalances begin, and the seeds of mind/body
disintegration are sown. Here are several common examples of mind/body
communication breakdown:
Y our body is tired and needs to sleep; your mind overrides this need in
order to watch a late-night television show. Y our body is full at the end of a meal; your mind insists on returning to
the buf fet for another helping of dessert. Y our body needs to eat; your mind insists that you have to work
through lunch. Y our body is calling you to empty your bladder; your mind refuses to
leave your seat in the middle of a movie. Y our body is asking to stretch; your mind refuses to disturb the other
passengers in your airplane row.Start list ening to  the signals fro m your body and honoring tho se that are
health-promoting. Y ou know w hich signals are good for you and which
come from unhealthy habits. Whenever there is a conflict between your
physical needs and your mental or emotional ones, ask yourself a simple
question: W ill fulfilling this nee d help me grow younger and live longer? If
the answ er is yes, fulfill the need. If the answer is no, because y ou recognize
that the behavio r is potentially harmful, pass. If due to a habit or addiction,
the impulse is so strong that it overrides your better judgment, perform the
action with full awareness and attention in your body. Consciously witness
your choice without harshly judg ing yourself. If you are meditat ing regularly
and are witnessi ng your choices, you will soon find that fewer im pulses arise
to create conflict between your mind and body. Every day in every way,
I am incr easing my mental and physical capacity. My Biostat is set at a healthy ____ years of age. I look and feel a healthy ____ years old. I am r eversing my biological age:
By changing my per ception of my body, its aging, and time;
Thr ough two kinds of deep r est—r estful awar eness and  r estful sleep;
By nurturing my body thr ough healthy foods;
By using nutritional complements wisely; and
By enhancing mind/body integration. 7
Y ou Can Reverse Y our
Biological Age
Through Exercise

ACTION STEP # 6
I am r eversing my biological age thr ough r egular exer cise. I put this into practice by:
Performing some aer obic activity at least thr ee times a  week. Performing twenty minutes of str ength training at least  thr ee times a
week. Consciously making choices that keep me physically active. A complete exer cise pr ogram
includes attention to str etching,
str ength training, and
car diovascular conditioning. Exer cise r everses all
the biomarkers of aging. One of the most important steps to reverse your biological age is regular
exercise. In this age of push-button technology you run the risk of spending
so m uch time in  your mind that you neglect the needs of your body. One of
the critical needs of your body  is to move. “Use it or lose it” is directly
applicable to your physical body. W e are seeing a growing epidemic of
obesity in W estern society th at is now af fecting our child ren, mainly
because the average person—adult or child—spends less time moving their
body than at any point in human history. As a result of not exercising
regularly, we suf fer increased risks for heart disease, high blood pressure,
diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis, and cancer. Several studies have shown how hazardous inactivity can be to your
health. A report published in 1968 found that if you impose bed rest on
young, healthy men for three w eeks, their measurements of cardiovascular
fitness deteriora te by the equivalent of almost twenty years of aging. As
anyone who has had to wear a cast for a broken bone knows fi rsthand, not
using a muscle leads to wasting and weakness.Exercise alone can alter many of the important biomarkers of aging. Drs. W illiam Evans and Irwin Rosenber g from T ufts University have
documented the  powerful ef fects exercise has on improving m uscle mass,
strength, aerobi c capacity, bone density, and many other key biological
markers of aging. One of the m ost ef fective ways to raise your level of
HDL ch olesterol (the “good” cholesterol) is through exercise. Studies have
shown that men sixty to seventy years old can increase th eir muscle
strength by 100 to over 200 p ercent after just twelve weeks of training. While y our bod y is getting stronger, it is also getting leaner. As a result,
your ability to handle sugar is improved and the risks for d iabetes are
reduced. Regula r weight training strengthens your bones and lessens the
chances for developing osteoporosis. This is particularly important for
women who are at risk of l osing bone once they are be yond their
reproductive years. Of all the appro aches to growing younger, exercise produces the most
prompt r eturns. W ithin a week o f beginning a fitness program, you’ll notice
definite improve ment in your sense of well-being. After a few weeks you
will not be able to go without it. Regular exercise is an essentia l element of
the reversal-of-aging program. T otal Fitness
A complete fitness program includes exercises to enhance flexibility,
strength, and endurance. Improving suppleness in the body improves your
physical and emotional comfort  level and reduces your chances for injury. As discussed in the last chapter, yoga, tai chi, and qigong all expand
flexibility while  enhancing mind/body integration. At least ten minutes of
gentle, c onscious stretching sho uld be a part of every exercise warm-up
routine. Unfortu nately, we see too many people who have the good
intention to start exercising, but  fail to take the time to warm up properly. As a result, the y strain a mus cle or pull a ligament and are unable to
continue the fitness program they need.Building strength enhances vitality and reverses a common feature of
aging known as sar copenia. This word, coined by research ers at T ufts
University, means “lack of flesh.” W eakness, reduced muscle mass, and
incre


 Yet, both his practice and
his reputation were damaged. It took years and hundreds of thousands of dollars in
legal fees to have his patient records returned and his practice restored. Events like
this are not supposed to happen in America, but they do happen to doctors who step
out of line. As a result, we are denied the right to choose certain treatments because
our doctors cannot offer them. Most people are unaware that a physician can lose his or her license to practice by
failing to adhere to “prevailing standards of practice in their community.” A loss of
license can occur even if no patient is harmed, no patient has complained and the
condition of the patients involved actually improved. Physicians can learn
something new at a medical conference or from a medical journal, but they cannot
use it in their practice. The only treatments allowed are the ones already in use,
which makes innovation and progress slow to almost impossible. Physicians must be
very courageous to depart from traditional practices, even if they believe doing so
can be helpful. Money is at stake, and competition from less expensive, natural treatments is
discouraged. The FDA is supposed to regulate drugs to assure that they are safe and
effective. In practice, FDA-approved, properly prescribed drugs kill about four
hundred people every day. Why? Because the FDA has become an instrument of the
pharmaceutical companies. The drug industry is among the most profitable in the
world, and Americans pay more for the same drugs than people in other countries. To help protect these economic interests, about one-half of the senior officials at the
FDA formerly were employed as key executives in the drug industry. After leaving
the FDA, about half eventually return to executive positions in drug companies. This
practice is termed “the revolving door.” The FDA is very biased in favor of drugs,
and people are denied free access to the documented health benefits of nutritionalsupplements. Needless to say, these people are not in favor of treating diseases with
vitamins. Both manufacturers and retailers of supplements have been subjected to
FDA seizures and harassment. One of the supposed justifications for modern medicine’s suppression of
alternative approaches is that they have not been properly tested for safety and
effectiveness. In truth, many alternative approaches (such as the use of vitamin
supplements) are supported by thousands of sound studies, while, ironically, up to 90
percent of the techniques and procedures used by modern medicine have never been
proven to be safe or effective. Medical Malpractice
According to a 1995 issue of the
Journal of the American Medical Association,
more than 1 million people per year are injured in hospitals, and 180,000 die from
those injuries. Illnesses caused by prescription drugs are estimated to cost more than
$136 billion a year. A 1981 study published in the
New England Journal of Medicine
concluded that at least one-third of hospital patients suffered some ill effect during
their stay, and that 9 percent suffered major injury. Consider what the late Robert
Mendelsohn, M.D., author of the 1979 book
Confessions of a Medical Heretic,
wrote: “I believe that more than ninety percent of Modern Medicine could disappear
from the face of the earth—doctors, hospital, drugs, and equipment—and the effect
on our health would be immediate and beneficial.”
Normally, one might think that if doctors went on strike the public would suffer
serious health problems. Yet, Mendelsohn noted cases when doctors went on strike
and the death rate declined. In 1973, doctors were on strike in Israel for a month, and
this coincided with a decline of 55 percent in the death rate. In 1976, a fifty-two-day
doctor strike in Bógota, Colombia, coincided with a decline in mortality of 35
percent. The same year, in Los Angeles, doctors staged a slowdown, and the death
rate dropped by 18 percent. In each case, when the doctors’ labor actions ended,
mortality rates shot back up to prior levels. In recent years, a number of medical journals, such as
Pediatrics, Lancet, Annual
Review of Public Health,
and particularly the July 26, 2000,
Journal of the American
Medical Association,
have been filled with statistics on injuries and deaths caused
by modern medical practice. The most recent annual estimate of hospital-caused
deaths is:
• 106,000 deaths from “properly” prescribed drugs. • 80,000 deaths from hospital-caused infections. • 12,000 deaths from unnecessary surgery. • 7,000 deaths from medication errors.• 20,000 deaths from other errors. These numbers total 225,000 deaths per year, but the real total is far greater. These numbers do not include unreported medically caused deaths. Why take
responsibility for a death if another plausible explanation can be given? Even in
good hospitals, only one “adverse event” out of four is reported; some studies have
placed the reporting as low as one out of twenty. Medicine-caused deaths in
outpatient settings have been estimated as an additional 200,000 per year. Again,
this figure is conservative. Perhaps one of the biggest problems, though, is X rays. The Threat of X Rays
One of the most serious threats to our health may be caused by one type of
medical testing: medical and dental X rays. There is no safe radiation level; any
amount of radiation can cause our cells to malfunction. The radiation levels from
medical and dental X rays (though supposedly within “safe limits”) contribute to
both cancer and coronary heart disease. Evidence was published in 1999 by John
Gofman, a medical doctor and a Ph.D. nuclear physicist, who is one of the world’s
leading authorities on radiation damage. Dr. Gofman’s book,
Radiation from
Medical Procedures in the Pathogenesis of Cancer and Ischemic Heart Disease,
presents a compelling argument for reconsidering how we understand disease and
death rates in our society and modern medicine’s responsibility for them. Gofman’s
research caused him to conclude that medical radiation was probably the single
largest cause of cancer mortality in the twentieth century. Gofman’s evidence suggests that medical X rays are a necessary cofactor,
meaning that while other factors are involved, the X ray is necessary for both cancer
and heart disease to develop. Dr. Gofman found that more than 60 percent of deaths
from cancer and more than 70 percent of deaths from coronary heart disease
involved X rays. To cite just one example, Gofman found that in 1990, medical X
rays were a necessary causal factor in 83 percent of all breast cancer. In other words,
chest X rays and mammograms are the leading cause of breast cancer. Fortunately, thermography is a safe and effective alternative to mammograms. Thermography measures temperature and appears to be a far more accurate way of
detecting tumors at a much earlier stage. A cancerous tumor, as it begins to receive
its own blood supply, is warmer than the surrounding tissue and can be discerned
when the temperature of the breast is measured. Modern medicine is responsible for about 90 percent of our exposure to man-
made radiation, and about 90 percent of that exposure is the result of diagnostic X
rays. A level of radiation less than that produced by ten bitewing dental X rays can
produce thyroid cancer, and not surprisingly, an epidemic of thyroid cancer is now
being found in people who had upper chest, neck and head X rays decades ago. Nevertheless, X rays are performed with alarming frequency. Gofman estimatesthat more than half are not necessary. Other researchers have placed the percentage
of X rays of “little to no medical value” as high as 90 percent. Even low-level X rays
are capable of inflicting genetic damage, presenting a hazard to both existing and
future generations. For example, correlations have been found between the number
of abdominal X rays a mother had received in her lifetime and the birth of a baby
with Down’s syndrome. The public worries about radiation from nuclear power plants, yet a more common
hazard is radiation from medical X rays. Decline X rays unless they are absolutely
necessary, which is not often. Children are especially vulnerable to radiation and
need to be protected by their parents. Applying Dr. Gofman’s data on medical X rays to 60 percent of the deaths from
cancer and 70 percent of the deaths from ischemic heart disease in this country, I
calculated that X rays cause about 650,000 deaths every year. Combining these
deaths with the acknowledged number of medicine-caused deaths (250,000 inpatient
and 200,000 outpatient per year) reveals an estimated total of more than 1 million
deaths per year caused by modern medical practice. This figure amounts to about
half of all deaths in America, making modern medicine our leading cause of death. Should You Have Medical Testing? Among the treatments that cause patients harm are diagnostic tests, everything
from ultrasound to X rays, from blood tests to barium enemas. Many of these tests
are inaccurate, present more risk than benefit and alternatives often are safer and
more effective. The only time these tests are justified are when safety is clearly in
question and only when the results of the test would require action. Avoid tests that
simply provide information. For example, avoid ultrasounds during pregnancy,
which do little more than inform parents about their child’s development and rarely
lead to any meaningful action. Always question your doctor carefully about whether
a particular medical test is necessary, especially if the test is invasive. All tests need
not be avoided, but ask about potential risks as well as benefits


 yurveda’ s
influence began to wane. W aves of Muslim invaders in nort hern
India fro m the 10th to the 12th centuries burned books, destro yed
hospitals and libraries, and slaughtered Hindu sages and Buddhist
monks as infidels. They brought with them their own  hakims  or
Unani doctors (a form of medicine formulated by Arabian
physicians, see pages 36–37) — so the system fell into decline. Early A yurvedic texts were engraved on palm leaf manuscripts.Ayurvedic physician in Kerala. This wa s further exacerbated by the arrival of the British. The
East India Company denied state patronage to A yurveda, closed
down e xisting schools and government medical colleges, and
substituted it with W estern me dicine. Of course, at a local level,
A yurveda conti nued to be practiced, but it wasn’ t until Indian
Independence that of ficial initiatives were taken to revitalize
indigenous med ical forms — and A yurveda once again began to
rise. What is Ayurveda? A yurveda advocates that each person is born with a b asic
constitution or genetic make-up called  prakruti  in S anskrit. If th ere
is a  changing nature or situat ion in the body during one’ s life
(vikruti ), im balance occurs. This ma y pass over time or may
become a disease. The aims of A yurveda are  ayus  (“long life”) and
arogya  (“diseaselessness“) with ultimate spiritual goals. Health is
achieved by balancing what are known as the bodily humors or
doshas  at all levels, according to an individual’ s constitution,
lifestyle and nature. There are many similar holistic medical
systems in other communities, including the Chinese, Amer ican
Indians, Africans and South Americans. DiagnosisBefore a ny A yurvedic treatment is prescribed, patients first of all
undertake a consultation with an A yurvedic physician to ascertain
their body type and present health status. “Body type is the variation
in percentage of  vatha,  pitta  and  kapha  (air, fire and water) in our
body,” explains A yurvedic physician Dr Y ogesh. “Based on the
present  dosha  state or  vikruti, suitable therapies, oils, medications,
advice or more may be prescribed.”
Most A yurvedic  physicians point out that A yurvedic treatments
vary from place to place, doctor to doctor and according to  the
nature of the client/doctor relationship. This makes it confusing to
many, and dif ficult to analyze,  research and compare with o ther
medical systems. “However, the purpose is always the same,”
explains Dr Renja Raphel, “Each body has its own defined
constitution from birth to death that is af fected by many dif ferent
things. W e doctors try to bring the body back to equilibrium: we
find out what is lacking and modify it, we add things and we request
changes in diets, climates, stres s levels, lifestyle habits and more.”
He goes on to add that the body has the power to help itself;
A yurveda simply helps it with the healing process.Shirodhara  or the pouring of medicated oil on to the forehead or “third eye” is one
of Ayurveda’ s best known therapies outside India.A student of the Vedas seeks understanding through a copy of one of the treatises
in Sanskrit.The use of  agarabathi  or incense sticks to promote clean air is an age-old
practice. Diagnosis is an extremely imp ortant part of A yurveda. In a
clinic or hospital, it is undertak en first thing in the morning be fore
the patient has c onsumed anything. The doctor inspects the tis sues
and the skin; examines the “nine doors” (two eyes, two ears, two
nostrils, mouth and throat, an us and penis or vulva) and their
secretions; takes faeces and urine samples to assess the  analam  or
digestive fire; takes the patient’ s pulse and assesses body
temperature; interrogates the patient on their sleep patterns, health,
lifestyle habits, climate preferen ces and more; and generally takes a
great de al of time to consider the  patient as a whole. Nothing can be
prescribed without this extremely thorough consultation. Many visitors to India aren’ t seeking medical treatment, but are
intrigued by this ancient wellness system and want to try a
treatment. This is perfectly possible in a spa whre the consultation is
shorter, but still important. “A t a spa, we look at  darshana  or
appearance,  sparshana  or touch ie pulse and body temperature,
and undertake  prasnai  or discussion,” explains Dr Y ogesh, “this
gives us enough information to decide on a patient’ s b asic
imbalances and which medicated oils we should use in a treatment.”A leaf from the  Ramayana  in Mahala yam called “Medicine Mountain”: it depicts
the monke y god Hanuman using a mountain of medicinal herbs to help his fellow
monkeys. Even in the Epics, much is made of India’ s healing heritage. Ayurvedic equipment from Kerala: medicine box, oil containers, mortar and pestle. Prognosis and Treatment
After the  diagnosis, the doctor d ecides whether the disease falls into
one of four cate gories: Curable with ease, curable with dif fic ulty,
ameliorable, or  incurable. At this point an astrologer may be
consulted to find the best time  and place for treatments to take
place. S ri Krishnakumar, the managing director of one of the most
famous A yurvedic hospitals in India, the Arya V aidyaChikitsalayam in Coimbatore, says that every avenue must be
pursued for the benefit of the patient. “Everything is inter -relat ed,”
he expla ins, “the mind and the body, the person and the unive rse,
the d isease and the lifestyle. A c onsultation with an astrologer may
bring up something that the doctor has not noticed.”
This is one example of how A yurveda may be dif ficult for non-
Indians to grasp. Skepticism of s uch practices runs high in the W est,
even though looking holistically at patients and problems is
increasingly gaining credence. Another dif ficulty may be had with
some of the treatments. These are literally multi-faceted  and depend on a huge number
of factors including disease, client personality and habits, work
practices,  dosha  imbalance, clim ate, and many more. The basic
premise is to cleanse and de toxify the body and balance the
doshas, restoring them to their original state of equilibrium. But
how this is achi eved varies hugely. There are hundreds of levels of
practice, from of ficial to folk, an d thousands of prescriptions — and
no treatm ent is a panacea. One thing is for sure though: a cours e of
treatments is rarely shorter than  three weeks, and after the course is
completed, follow-up is very important. India is home to a vast cornucopaeia of healing plants; many of Ayurveda’ s
ancient recipes are now supported by modern scientific research.Ancient form of pressure point massage. In the following pages, information on some common therapies
is given, but if you visit an A yu rvedic doctor, you may expect to be
prescribed any — or many — of the following: purifica tion
therapies, medication, special diet, herbs and minerals, massage and
other body work, exercise, yoga, meditation, aromatherapy, flower
and gem essences, advise on lifestyle, work and climate change, and
acupressure. All the medicines, oils and pow ders used in treatments are 100
percent natural and rely on India’ s huge pharmacopoeia. “A yurvedic
texts con tain the details of a staggering number of plant ingredie nts,
minerals, metals and other natural substances, along with their
properties, their methods of collection and extraction, as well as
specific combin ations of complementary herbs,” says Shah naz
Husain, herbal ambassador and producer, “The specific processing
methods and well-known combinations enhance the ef ficacy of the
treatments. Man y of the form ulations are still used with g reat
success today.”
Ayurveda in Spas
Even though some treatments ar e less common nowadays, many are
still to be found both at grassroots level and in the country’ s 2,100
A yurvedic hospitals. They are also increasingly finding their way
into spas  and retreats. Husain notes: “A yurvedic treatments are i dealfor spa treatments, because they  counteract degenerative processes,
environmental pollution, toxic build-up and mental stress, all of
which have become undesirable  features of modern life.” She notes
that man y people visit a spa particularly to address such mod ern-
day af flictions, and with A yurveda taking total wellbeing into


belief in serum therapy  rests on a foundation  of sand. "Dr. Benchetrit  even went so far as to say that he considered  vaccines and
sera  to be chiefly responsible  for the increase, of those two really
dangerous  diseases, cancer and  heart disease. And what is more,  he
added: "I have been for a long time a serologist,  and  I know  what I am
talking about. " As for Dr. Beddow Bayly,  he wrote: "So great is the
almost mystical veneration  in which antitoxic sera are held by medical
science,  and  so powerful the commercial  interests which  benefit by
their extended  use,  that it has come to be regarded as a breach of
medical etiquette  to criticise adversely  this form of treatment,  or to 135
 report untoward  results of it. " What extollers of the vaccine treatment
omit  to mention when they  triumphantly  assert that smallpox was
practically  wiped  out in the West by this  means, is that smallpox is a
dirt‐disease, and  that the science of hygiene has vastly improved  since
the days when it was rampant. Even so, the great Dr. Sydenham,  who pooh‐poohed vaccination,  said
that smallpox was  quite a simple illness to cure,  provided  the patient
was properly nursed. In view of all this, we may  well  ask whither  Medicine. " Is the law going
to force the public to submit  to alleged‐to‐be immunisations  against
this or that disease when the medicos themselves  are not even agreed
that such measures  are right, or dare  not agree that they  are wrong. And presuming  that immunization  does not actua'ly become
compulsory,  that is not going to prevent the authorities  from
persuasively  warning an innocent  public against the "dangers " of not
submitting  to it. At one time The Church persuaded  innocent people
that if they did not bow down to her, they  would have to burn in Hell
for an eternity. But though the autocracy  of the clergy is now more  or
less  a thing of the past, unless we are very firm in asserting our
democratic  rights, we may  be faced  with an even worse  form of
autocracy,  and  that is the autocracy  of what goes under  the name of
Science. And I say advisedly  "goes under  the name," because whilst
true Science  endeavours  to understand  the Laws of Nature,  false
science tries to improve upon Nature  under  the assumption  that man
knows better than Dame Natur'  herself. Thus not only is our  soil
interfered  with but  also the human  body. Dogmatic  surgeons  have
declared that tonsils, the  appendix and  even the gall‐bladder are 136
 useless organs, and therefore  should be extirpated  in order to prevent
them from  becoming  diseased. It is only a comparatively  short  time ago
that medical "scientists"  told us that  the pineal  gland and  the pituitary
bony were also useless organs‐and this, merely  because they  had as yet
found no special reason for their existence  in the  human  brain. Fortunately  for man, they  could not be Excised  without  killing the
patient. And yet, are the doctors entirely to blame  for the existing state of
affairs. Certainly a large  number  of individual  doctors find themselves
in a difficult position, Rot many of them admit that they  do not believe
in filling their patients with "pills and potions. " But so much has the lay
public been influenced  by prevailing  fads  and  fashions that its all too
ignorant members  demand  "the latest  and most up‐to‐date
treatments"  from doctors who may  not believe in those treatments
themselves. As for the poorer classes, if they are not given a bottle of
medicine by their physician,  they  consider they  are not getting their
money's worth. With regard to operations,  it cannot be denied that
despite their unpleasantness  and  attendant  afterpains,  many persons
actually enjoy  them because they  afford  an opportunity  for self‐
dramatisation. Nevertheless,  I contend  that the desire  to be fussed over
and  coddled  and  commiserated  is in itself a sign of morbidity,  and
hence denotes an absence of true health. I will even go so far as to say
that most of the troubles in the world  are either directly or indirectly
due to the same cause. Nor will I exclude wars ‐extravagant  though it
may  sound. Those men who foment or are directly responsible  for wars
are not normal and  healthy human  beings. Julius Caesar was an
epileptic, Napoleon  died  of cancer of the stomach, and Hitler presents  a 137
 neurosthenic  of the most  pronounced  type. Goebbels  with his club foot,
may  be regarded as a degenerate,  and  the obese Goring at one time
was a drug addict. Mussolini  was another  diseased  type, and suffered
from some chronic internal trouble for which  the doctors  dared not
operate. As for the late Kaiser Wilhelm, he was also atnermal and  was
born  with a physical  deformity. It is only very advanced  souls who can
exhibit  mental balance in spite of physical  disabilities;  and  such souls
are comparatively  few and far between. But  my principal contention  is that when human beings register a
hundred per cent true health, or even a litlle less, they


’ t bother you—it hit the samskara, and the
activated samsk ara bothered you. Regardless, to protect yourself from the
disturbance, you closed your heart. Your samskaras  are what cause your
heart to open and close.Chapter 23:
Dance of the Energy Flow
There is a very important interaction between the energy flow and your
blockages. The energy is trying to come up, but it can’t because you stored
these unfinished patterns from the past. It is these past impressions that
determine your preferences in life. If someone manages to stimulate a
negative past impression, you will not like them. If they manage to stimulate
a positive past impression, it may be love at first sight. It is very dangerous
to live this way—you are not in charge of your life, your past impressions
are. If you work on yourself, there will come a time when you fully
understand your heart. When you have let go of enough blocked energy
patterns, you will begin to expe rience so much energy flowing inside that
you will understand firsthand what the Bible means by “…out of his heart
will flow rivers of living water”  (John 7:38 NKJV). There will be a constant
upward flow of energy coursing  through your entire system. When you get
really open, it will flow out various energy centers like your heart, the point
between your eyebrows, and the palms of your hands. You will become a
being of light, a being of energy. That is when the energy is free to flow—
when it is not obstructed by these personal blockages. We’re going to
discuss this in later chapters, but mentioning it now allows you to
understand why your heart opens and closes in certain situations. The reason
should be obvio us by now—the state of your heart is dependent upon what
samskaras are being activated at any given time. Whenever you shove an obstacl e into any energy flow, it will create a
disturbance in the flow. It is these disturbances that you experience as
emotions. Let’s say you were very open and feeling a clean flow of love
through your heart. Then your lover said something you took offense to, and
you resisted. Your heart will no longer feel love; instead it will feel anger,fear, or jealousy. These disturbing energy patterns are the direct result of
you shoving a blockage into your heart’ s energy flow. All these emotions
are the same energy manifesting differently depending upon the nature of
the blockage being hit. It is interesting that we choose to give names to
these disturbanc es. Just look at all the names we give to our different
emotions. So far we’ve discussed the energy flow hitting just one blockage at a
time. The more blockages there are, the more complicated the disturbances
will become. Eventually, the disturbances will start to hit each other and
create very complex patterns of energy. This is what it’s like to live inside
ourselves. This is why emotion s are so powerful and often complex. You
can have  a love/hate relationship with something because you have patterns
inside that can generate different energy flows at different times. Whatever
samskara is most activated at any given time will determine what is
affecting your energy flow the most. We are very complex creatures to
predict, and this is why. Unfortunately, things can get even worse. At some point, enough
samskaras can be shoved into the heart so that you become totally blocked,
tired, and completely uninspired. Your naturally uplifting energy flow stops
supporting you. This is the power of these samskaras. They totally run our
lives. Remember that your energy is always trying to flow. The only reason it
can’t is because it’s blocked. Like in a dammed-up river, the flow tries to
find a way around the blockages. To the extent that some energy can
navigate around a blockage, you will feel some strength. But that energy
flow is condition ed by its ability  to continue flowing that way. If something
happens that stimulates yet another stored blockage, the energy flow will be
affected accordingly. This is why people have so many moods and why they
cannot be trusted to remain steady in their behavior. By the time the energy
flow manages to find a narrow pathway around all that stuff we have stored
inside, we becom e very narrow-minded about how the world needs to be to
support that flow. Our entire personality, with its very particul ar likes and
dislikes, is simply the expression of the pathway the energy managed to
find. Our ability  to feel love, joy, and inspiration is determin ed by how
much ener gy makes it through the blockages. Now you understand why your heart is so sensitive. Depending upon
how well the energy can navigate around the stored blockages, your heartwill open or close. Pay attention to this. Otherwise, you’re going to let the
opening and closing of your heart run your life. If you’re talking to someone
and they start discussing a subject that you have blockages about, your heart
may start to close. If your reaction is to walk away and avoid that person in
the futur e, the blockages are running your life. Similarly, if someone starts
talking to you about a subject that opens you up, all of a sudden they’re your
best buddy and you want to hang out with them more. Letting this opening and closing of your heart run your life is certainly
not spiritual. You’re not being true to yourself—you’re being true to your
blockages. That’ s all your psych e is. Your psyche is the net result of all your
blockages and how the energy manages to flow through them. As the
fluctuations in the energy flow cause your heart to change, your thoughts
will change. It’s actually very sad because you will end up lost in there. Those stored blockages will dominate your life, and that is no way to live. You won’ t go anywhere meanin gful; you’ll just go around in circles. There
is no actual purpose, intent, or direction to such a life—except to minimize
the suffering and get a periodic  rush. These samskaras are from the past. They are things that happened to you in your past that you were not able to
handle. Now they are determining your present, and they will determine
your future if you are not careful. We could not be discussing anything more important. These stored
patterns are going to determine where you go, what inspires you, who you
marry, and whether you get divorced. You’re not determinin g your path
through life—they are. Until you get very centered in witness
consciousness, you are going to follow your thoughts and emotions, and
they are determined by your samskaras. Surely you’ve been there. All that
has to happen is for the energy patterns flowing through the heart to shift,
and everything changes. Next thing you know, you’re leaving your spouse
or your job. These stored patterns represent the lowest part of your being. They are the result of you not being mature enough, or evolved  enough, to
handle the passing events in your life. These patterns became stuck in you
and are now determining your energy flow and your entire perception of
life. Understanding the effects of these blockages helps explain why it’s so
difficult to make personal decis ions. What you’re trying to see is how one
choice or the other will make you feel. “Should I marry this person, or
should I wait until I establish my career?” You’re using these thoughts tosee how the different choices will shift the flow of your energy through your
blockages. The problem is you have so many conflicting blockag es stored in
there that what to do is not clear. Of course it’s not clear; you’re consulting
your inner mess and expecting  a clear response. All the while, you are
noticing that these thoughts and emotions keep shifting inside. The
important questi on is not what to do about this, it is: Who is noticing all
this? The same consciousness is aware of this entire proces s going on
inside. There may be many samskaras in there, but there are not many of
you in there. There is only one consciousness watching all these competing
patterns and identifying with them. When you become one integrate d seer—the single witness watching all
these different things pass by inside—you are centered. You are clear. You
are free. But when you don’t sit in the seat of the witness, and your sense of
being is split amongst all these diverse inner patterns, things become very
confusing. It’s almost as though each path the energy takes through your
field of samskaras creates a slightly different personality. You’re one person
around this friend and you’re another person around someone else. You can
even have totally different inner dialogs going on when you’re around
different people. Look at what happens when you go to your childhood
home or a high school reunion. The surroundings stimulate past samskaras,
and you begin to think and feel the way you used to in that environment. Amazingly, in these situations  you feel completely at home with these
different versions of yourself. People in this state struggle to find themselves. They feel they must
choose which of these personalities is really them. The answer is quite clear:
none of them are you. Please don’t pick one of them and let that choice
determine your life. None of your thoughts are more you than any other


, you have to weigh the benefits versus therisks. I look at estrogen as primarily a toxic hormone. It isknown to cause six different cancers in women: breast, uterine,ovarian, cervical, vaginal, and colon cancers. It may causeAlzheimer’s disease, strokes, heart attacks, and phlebitis withfatal pulmonary emboli. It may cause fibroids, endometriosis,adhesions, fibrocystic disease, asthma, migraine headaches,and gallbladder disease. It can lead to auto-immune diseases,such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis,and others. Estrogen is the hormone that causes women to experience
menstrual cramps, PMS, breast tenderness, and nausea whenthey are pregnant. T o add insult to injury, estrogen is lipogenic. It creates fat around the hips, thighs, and buttocks, and it is thecause of cellulite. T ry telling women with a number of theseproblems that they are healthy because they are having periodsand you might find yourself in an argument. 84 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  It is surprising to me that Suzanne Somers, who already
had estrogen-induced breast cancer (she used to call estrogenher “happy pills”), is proposing that women take what Iconsider exceedingly high levels of estrogen. Not a week goesby when I do not see a patient who had an estrogen-inducedcancer while they were still having their periods. In otherwords, their own estrogen caused these cancers—it does notget more “bio-identical” than your own hormones. Interestingly, every problem, every complication, every
downside to estrogen is eliminated by progesterone (not to beconfused with Provera, or medroxyprogesterone, a syntheticchemical having no relationship to natural progesterone). Anytime high levels of estrogen, such as those proposed bySuzanne Somers’ books, are prescribed, a sufficient amount ofprogesterone must be prescribed to be protective. I believe thelevels of progesterone recommended in her books are woefullyinadequate and inappropriately administered. My advice on the proper dosing is available in chapter 11. T wo basic principles on which I base my approach are:
1. Women never stop making estrogen—it is prob-
ably the only hormone that hardly ever has to bereplaced. It continues to be made by fat cells,skin cells, and the adrenal glands. 2. Women do stop making progesterone. Because
of this, they are always at risk for developingbreast cancer, uterine cancer, ovarian cancer,colon cancer, and other cancers from estrogen. 85 MENOP AUSE AND PERIMENOPAUSE  MY APPROACH
When certain hormone levels decrease, for either natural or
surgical reasons, the pituitary responds by putting out certainhormones of its own to stimulate the ovaries to make morehormones. (The pituitary and hypothalamus glands are thestructures of the brain that control other glands throughoutthe body. ) In this case, the pituitary puts out a hormone calledluteinizing hormone (LH) to stimulate the ovaries to makemore hormones. LH may be the primary cause of the vascularsymptoms women experience when they are going throughmenopause—the hot flashes and night sweats. It is my feeling that the pituitary’s primary reason for
trying to raise ovarian hormone levels is so the woman can getpregnant. Once the pituitary is convinced a woman no longerneeds to procreate, it stops sending out the signals and the hotflashes and related symptoms disappear. However, if thewoman is placed on high levels of replacement hormones, thepituitary gets confused. It becomes convinced again that thewoman is trying to get pregnant, and so whenever there is asignificant drop (e. g., from stopping Premarin), it puts outLH and the symptoms recur. The ovaries put out four different hormones—estrogen,
progesterone, testosterone, and DHEA. Replacement of anyor all of these hormones can alleviate perimenopausal andmenopausal symptoms. The primary aim of the replacementof hormones is to keep the woman healthy and to prevent thebody from deteriorating. Since I look at estrogen as a potentially toxic and fat-
creating hormone, and since the body never stops makingestrogen, I take a relatively sparing approach to its use. Iprimarily prescribe estrogen for several reasons—to help86 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  alleviate hot flashes or night sweats, to help with “brain fog,”
and to relieve vaginal dryness. I will be discussing dosages,along with the various types of natural bio-identical estrogenavailable, in chapter 11. About two years prior to menopausewomen stop ovulating, which means they stop producingprogesterone. This causes them to experience an increase inPMS, breast tenderness, cramps, and related symptoms. Theremay be a development of fibroids or fibrocystic disease in thebreast, both being conditions caused by estrogen when thereis not enough progesterone. Progesterone is one of the most important hormones in a
woman’s body and, in my view, is probably the only hormonethat has to be replaced after menopause. T estosterone andDHEA are two other hormones I often prescribe for mypatients. I discuss the usual recommended dosages andapplications in chapter 11. THE BENEFITS OF PROGESTERONE
Looking over the stories of my patients presented in this book,
you can see that even though they had various medicalproblems, every one of them had conditions related to adeficiency of progesterone. Keep in mind that every problemrelated to estrogen is created by a progesterone deficiency. Giving women natural progesterone takes away menstrualcramps, PMS, breast tenderness, menstrual migraines, andasthma. It prevents fibroids, endometriosis, fibrocystic disease,and estrogen-induced cancers. The benefits of progesterone after menopause are as follows:
It can eliminate hot flashes and prevent and treat osteoporosis. It is a natural anti-depressant—it is the feel-good hormone forwomen. Progesterone is thermogenic—it helps fat to burn. It87 MENOP AUSE AND PERIMENOPAUSE  prevents Alzheimer’s disease, is great for the heart, and restores
the libido (estrogen does nothing for the libido). Throughout this book are numerous references to the
benefits of progesterone in terms of preventing estrogen-inducedcancer. It helps eliminate attention deficit disorder (ADD) andis the number one hormone for lowering insulin levels, therebyhelping to prevent obesity and adult-onset diabetes. WHAT ABOUT TESTOSTERONE. The ovaries are the primary (but not the only) source of testos-
terone in women. My feeling is that testosterone is the secondmost important hormone to be replaced, after progesterone. Again, it certainly is a lot more important to replace thanestrogen. In women, testosterone is the main hormone thatprevents Alzheimer’s (progesterone is second). It is the numberone hormone for preventing and treating osteoporosis (proges-terone is second). It is the number one hormone for the heartbecause there are more testosterone receptor sites in heartmuscle than in any other tissue (250,000 people die ofcongestive heart failure every year, caused by weakening of theheart muscle). You cannot build muscle without testosterone,so it helps keep muscles toned; it gives women more energyand makes them feel more assertive. T estosterone is alsonecessary for an interest in sex; women often begin fantasizingabout sex around 6 weeks after starting on testosteroneand progesterone. Another benefit of testosterone is that it can, when used
correctly, that is, when used in tandem with certain exercises,eliminate urinary incontinence in about six days. 88 THE MIRACLE OF BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES  DHEA— THE ANTI-AGING HORMONE
Forty percent of the DHEA in a woman’s body is produced by
the ovaries; the other 60 percent comes mainly from the adren-als. However, as time passes, a woman’s DHEA levels go down. This hormone is an important part of the immune system
and helps to prevent cancer, heart disease, and arthritis. Womenwith the highest levels of DHEA have the lowest incidence ofbreast cancer. DHEA also helps to prevent the “bad” cholesterol(LDL) from oxidizing. It is a precursor to estrogen and testos-terone, so it can help to alleviate hot flashes. It is also considereda fat-burning hormone. Surprisingly, even though DHEA is a very powerful
hormone, it can be purchased over the counter as a foodsupplement in drug and health food stores. This by itself is atestament to the lack of information about hormones amongmedical practitioners. Like any other hormone, it should beused correctly, and only if there is a deficiency. 89 MENOP AUSE AND PERIMENOPAUSE  HORMONES FOR WOMEN —
THE “HOW-TO” CHAPTER
chapter ELEVEN
The replacement of natural hormones is not an exact science. It
requires a team approach among the patient, the doctor, and thecompounding pharmacist. Over time, dosages may have to be adjusted, based not so
much on lab tests as on symptoms. For one thing, hormonelevels can vary through the course of the day. For another,every person’s hormone pattern is unique; there is no one-size-fits-all dosage. However, there are certain truisms. Forinstance, it’s fair to


 both
scour ges to a remarkable degree, and much of the credit for this, besides
frequent exercise, went to diet. Favored with rich land and a climate
suitable for corn, tomatoes, and all manner of truck produce, the population
subsisted on home-grown vegetables and dairy products, with small
amounts of nuts, grains, and meat to round out the fare. (Yogurt, a staple intheir diet, has long had a reputation as a longevity food; to capitalize on
this, one American yogurt comp any ran a series of delightful ads showing
an 89-year -old Abkhasian sampling their product while his cheek is being
pinched by his 1 17-year -old mother. ) Despite the fact that most of the long-living consumed cheese, milk, and
yogurt every day, total intake of fat and calories was unusually low by
Western standar ds, between fifteen hundred and two thousand calories a
day. In order to eat that frugally, many Americans would have to cut fifteen
hundred to two thousand calories from their diets. Daily fat intake for
Abkhasians was sixty grams, exactly half of the U. S. average. Although
they liked to drink the local applejack, only a few supercentenarians
smoked, and this rarely includ ed women, who traditionally shunned this
practice as a prerogative of male life. Almost all were married and had been
since their twenties. Since the region had few paved roads, it was customary
for people to walk distances up to twenty miles a day. One of the first Americans to penetrate this amazingly healthy culture
was Dr. Alexander Leaf, an enlightened Harvard Medical School professor
who was an early champion of prevention. T o bolster his belief that exercise
and diet were the cornerstones of lifelong good health, Leaf made a
pilgrimage to all the places in the world where legendary longevity was to
be found. Abkhasia excited him enormously; there Leaf witnessed firsthand
people surviving in good health to unheard-of old age. On his visit to Abkhasia in 1972, Leaf struggled to keep up with Gabriel
Chapnian, a short, sprightly elder who easily climbed a steep hill to reach
his garden at the age of 117. At 104, Markhti Tarkhil still rose at dawn and
plunged into an icy stream for his morning bath. Leaf wrote, “Markhti
attributes his long life to God, to the mountains, and to a good diet—and he
warns against eating without pepper. His ‘best’ age was 18, but he agrees
with Vanacha that he regarded himself as a young man until the age of 60. ‘I still feel young, I sleep well, ride my horse, eat well, and swim every day,
so I still feel like a youngster, even though not so strong as I once was. ’ ”
As we in the West age, our bodies lose muscle mass and replace it with
fat—at 65, almost half the body weight of both men and women is fat,
double what it was in their twenties. By comparison, nearly all the long-
living Abkhasia ns had lean physiques, with erect spines and firm muscles. Long after retirement, the oldest people thrived on outdoor life—they
tramped up to the high grazing areas in summer and dug potatoes in their
gardens. Even in cases where coronary arteries were blocked or other
damage had occurred to the heart muscle, the walking and climbing in
which everyone engaged seemed to of fset physical limitation. When Leaf brought back photographs of the long-living for National
Geographic  in 1972, millions of readers saw a face of old age that had
never been seen before in this country and scarcely imagined. Twenty years
later, we are facing a huge increase in all age groups over 65, and the long-
living Abkhasians are more and more fascinating to us. In their culture the
“new” old age has existed for generations. They traditionally led lives in
which all the right ingredients came together for conscious, purposeful
longevity—not just a longevity of survivors but of “youth in old age,” the
title Leaf chose for his book. Abkhasians managed to redefine youth so that it was not oppose d to long
survival. Someone could be chronologically old and yet young by their
standards. Jotting down his impression of one 98-year -old named Tikhed
Gunba, Leaf wrote, “Tikhed’ s blood pressure was 104/72 and his pulse was
regular at 84 [beats per minute]. He seemed a very placid individual with
much ‘mileage’ left. In the presence of two centenarians, Tikhed was still
regarded as a youngster. ”
The Supercentenarian “Hoax”
Why, given this idyllic situatio n, haven’ t we all heard of Abkhasia. The
reason is that confusion and mistrust quickly clouded the initial reports
brought back by W esterners. What made Abkhasia so interesting in the mid-
1970s was not lifestyle but the phenomenon of supercentenarianism. The
then-Soviet government wanted to reap a harvest of propaganda by
claiming that their oldest people survived beyond anything known in the
noncommunist world. Tremendous focus was placed on individuals such as
Khfaf Lazuria, the most celebrated of the long-living. Khfaf Lazuria was reported to be the oldest woman who had ever lived. She died in 1975, claiming to be 140, which meant she had been born
twenty-five years before the first shots were fired on Fort Sumter that set
off the American Civil War. While alive, Khfaf Lazuria was a petite woman
of only four feet two inches tall. Although frail, she moved nimbly, was
always eager to meet visitors, could thread a needle without glasses, and
was a lively storyteller. Rare for a woman in Abkhasia, she liked to smoke cigarettes, a habit she
had picked up, she said, at age 100. (Since she was too old to be taken for a
woman, she liked to joke, she might as well act like the men. ) Among her
colorful stories, Khfaf recounted her early memories of “the big war in the
North,” which Leaf guessed must refer to the Crimean War of 1853–56. That was also the period when she was abducted by Turks and not returned
home until ten years later, around the year Lincoln was assassinated. Perhaps even more remarkable than Khfaf Lazuria’ s claim to
superlongevity was that her immediate family boasted more than a dozen
members who had lived to be 100. Spellbound, Leaf accepted these tales completely; it therefore came as a
blow when large inconsistencie s began to surface. As it turned out, Khfaf
Lazuria had told every visitor a somewhat different story about herself,
freely changing her age, the number of husbands she’d had, how long her
parents had lived—in fact, few details remained constant. Leaf can be
forgiven for not knowing, as no casual visitor could, that one of the
cherished customs in Abkhasia was lying to strangers. Western visitors who
lingered long enough to acquaint themselves with the area learned that the
Abkhasian love of exaggeration was legendary, particularly if tall tales were
being spun to an outsider. When consulted about how old they thought the long-living actually
were, local gerontologists who had been sent into the region by the then-
Soviet government estimated that some of the long-living were certainly
quite old, upward of 115, but no one in the region who claimed to be 120,
much less 140 or 168, could supply reliable documents. In fact, since 90
percent of the local churches had been destroyed by the Soviets under
Stalin, almost no old records of births, communions, or marriage s existed in
Abkhasia. The final blow came when Zhores Medvedev, one of the most respected
Soviet geneticists, defected to the West in the early 1970s. Medvedev had
traveled through out the Caucasus and was intimately acquainted with the
methods of the gerontologists who worked there. In London he revealed
weaknesses in all the claims of superlongevity: Up to 98 percent of
Abkhasian old people were illiterate and many did not even know their
birthdays. For them, keeping track of time was haphazard, particularly
considering that there was an overlap of the Christian and Moslem
calendars in that region (the Moslem calendar is based on a ten-month
year). Soviet records before 1930 were nonexistent, and suspicions of a
deliberate hoax were raised when Medvedev pointed out that Stalin had
been born in Geor gia. Zealous attempts to convince him that he would live
a long life—som ething that most absolute despots are extremely eager to
believe—had added political fuel to the Abkhasians’ folkloric pride in
reaching extreme old age. The bubble quickly burst. In the cold light of day, there was really no
convincing evidence that families in the Caucasus had produced several
generations of centenarians. When the American yogurt company originally
conceived their campaign of the mother pinching her son’s cheek, they
wanted to find a mother and son who were both over 100 (this seem


,
includinggettingupandwalkingabout,isaneffort. However,agentlewalkoutinthefreshairwillactu-
allyhelp.Itwillbeaccompaniedbythecharacteristic
Rhustoxrestlessness. Eyeinflammation
SymptomsEyes:sensitivetolight;sore;watering. Eyelids:gluedtogether;itching;swollen. Worseformovingeyes. Causescold,wetweather. Theeyelidsarestucktogetherinthemornings. INTERNALMATERIAMEDICA Rhustoxicodendron (Rhus-t.) •143
Fever
SymptomsHeat:alternatingwithchills;dry;burning. Betterforhotdrinks. Worseatnighrvevening/mid morning;formovement;
colddrinks;forbeinguncovered. Thepatientsweatsfromtheslightestexertion,aswell
aswhenlyinginbedandwhenasleep,andwillsweat
overthewholebodyexceptforthehead.Willalso
urinatefrequentlywhilesweating.Hemaygetchilled
afterbeinghotandsweaty;anymovementalsobrings
onchillinessasdoesuncoveringwheninbed.Warmth
willhelpthechilliness.Thefevermaybeone-sided
(thatis,onesidemaybehotwhiletheothersideis
cold).Itmayfeelasthoughthereishotwaterrunning
throughthebloodvessels. Flu
SymptomsPains;inbones;injoints;inlegs;aching;
snooting;sore,bruised.Withexhaustion(seeabove);
fever(seeabove);sneezing. Headache
SymptomsPains:inbackofhead;rheumatic;violent. Betterforgentlewalking;forwrappinguphead;for
movement. Causeschangeofweather;coldair/wind;damp
weather;gettingwet;lifting. Hives
SymptomsRash:burning;itching;stinging.With
jointpain(seebelow). Worseforcold;afterscratching. Causesgettingwet/chilled;coldair;duringafever. Hoarseness
Causesover-usingvoice. Insomnia
SymptomsSleep:restless;sleeplessaftermidnight. Thepersonhasvivid,work-relateddreams,causedby
strainfromworkingtoohard. Jointpain
SymptomsPains:aching,sore,bruised;shooting;
tearing.Withheaviness;lameness.Stiffness. Betterforcontinuedmovement;forexternalheat;for
walking;forwarmcompresses;forwarmthofbed. Worsefordampweather;duringafever;onbeginning
tomove;atnight;forsitting;whenchilled. Thepainsareworseforrestandonbeginningtomove;
theyimprovetemporarilybutthepatientsoongets
tiredagain(seeGeneralSymptoms).Thepainscan
alsobebroughtaboutbyover-exertion, forexample
springcleaningorgardening.Mumps
SymptomsGlandsswollen/painful.Withfever(see
above). Bettertorheat. Worseforcold;onleftsideofbody. Thisisoneofthemostimportantmumpsremedies,
providingthecharacteristicgeneralsymptomsagree.The
typicalglandsareaffectedanditisoftentheleftside
thatbecomesswollenfirst. Sciatica
Betterformovement;forwalking;forheat. Worseforcold;forcoldcompresses;onbeginningto
move;forlyingonpainfulpart;forwashingincold
water;forwetweather. Sorethroat
SymptomsThroatdry.Ticklinginlarynx.Voice
hoarse. Worseforcolddrinks;forswallowing;foruncovering
throat. Causesstrainingvoice. Thevoiceishoarse,orstrained,fromtoomuchtalking
orsingingbutitimprovesaftercontinueduse(asdo
Rhustoxjoints!). Sprains
SymptomsPain.Withstiffness;trembling. Causesfalling;lifting;twisting. ItisimportanttouseArnicafirstafteraninjuryora
spraininordertodealwithanybruisingandpossible
swelling.ThengiveRhustoxifthesprainisaccom-
paniedbythetypicalgeneralsymptoms.Asprained
wristwillbeaccompaniedbyaninabilitytogripany-
thingproperlyandstrongly. Stiffneck
Causesdraughts;gettingchilled;lifting. Strains
SymptomsWithstiffness;trembling. Betterforcontinuedmovement. Worseforbeginningtomove. Gardeningorspringcleaningcancausethisstiffness
inthejoints.Itisworsewhengettingupafterarest,
andbetterforgentleexercise(whereasArnicastiffness
andsorenessstaysinspiteofgentleexercise). Toothache
Betterforheat;forwarmcompresses. Worseforcolddrinks;inwinter. Causescold,dampweather. 144•Rumexcrispus(Rumex) INTERNALMATERIAMEDICA
Thistoothache isonethatalwayscomesonafter
gettingcoldandchilled;itissensitivetocoldand
betterforheat,forexamplelyingonahotwaterbottle
ordrinkingwarmdrinks. RUMEXCRISPUS(Rumex)
Familyname:Polygonaceae
Othernames:Narrow-leafed/sour/curled/yellow dock;
gardenpatience
Theyellowdockisacommonweedthatgrowsin
arablefarmland,onroadsides,inditchesandonwaste
groundthroughouttheworld.Itsleavesarenarrow
andcurledattheedges,andtherootisdeepyellow,
odourlessandbittertasting. Therootistheusefulpartoftheplant:ithasbeen
usedsinceancienttimesasamildtonicandlaxative
(itslaxativeactionisverysimilartothatofrhubarbbut
itislesspowerful); ithasalsobeenusedtotreatmany
diseasesincludingdiphtheria,cancer,rheumatism,
piles,jaundiceandobstinateskindiseases,especially
ulcers,anditiswidelyregardedasabloodcleanser. Forthehomeopathicpreparationthefreshrootis
gatheredattheendoftheautumnbeforethetrosthas
touchedtheplant.Thetinctureismadebychopping
andpoundingtheroottoapulpandthenmixingit
withalcohol,beforestrainingandsuccussing.GENERALSYMPTOMS
Thisremedyisonlyusefulinacuteprescribingfora
particulartypeofcough,butitisveryeffectivesoI
haveincluded ithere.Thegeneralsymptomsarethe
sameasthespecificsymptomsforthecoughitself. Therearenonotableemotional/mental symptoms. PHYSICALCOMPLAINTS
Cough
SymptomsCough:infits;constant;dry;irritating;
tickling.Painsinchest:burning;sore,bruised;stitch-
ing.Larynxraw. Worseforlyingdown;forbreathingincoldair;for
freshair;forchangeoftemperaturefromwarmtocold;
forbecomingcold;forcoldair;onleftsideofbody;in
morningonwaking;fortalking;forbeinguncovered;
forwalkinginthecoldair. Thecoughcausespainsinthechest,usuallyontheleft
sideorintheleftlung,orunderthesternum.These
painsareworseonbreathingincoldair,andpatients
willusuallycovertheirheads/mouthswithscarvesso
thatonlywarmairisbreathed.Thereisafeelingof
rawnessandticklinginthelarynxandthismakesthe
coughworse.Patientshawkupmucusfromtheback
ofthethroat,whereitgetsstuck. Sorethroat
SymptomsThroat:raw;sore;irritated.Airpassages
irritated.Voicelost. Worseforbreathingincoldair. RUTAGRAVEOLENS (Ruta.) Familyname:Rutaceae
Commonnames:commonrue;bitterherb;country-
man'streacle
Rueisanevergreen,shrubbyplantthatthrivesinpoor
soilinfullsun.IndigenoustosouthernEurope,itwas
firstcultivatedinthiscountryinthegardensofmonks
andisnowfoundinherbgardensthroughoutthe
world. ThenameRutaisderivedfromtheGreekreuo('toset
free'),becausethisherbwasusefulinsomanydis-
eases.Countrypeopletreatedmanycomplaintswith
it-coughs,croup,colic,andheadaches,tonamebuta
few.Atonetimeitwasusedasapowerfuldefence
againstwitches,andtheGreeksuseditfortheindiges-
tiontheysufferedwheneatingwithstrangerswhich
theyattributedtowitchcraft. Itwasalsohighly
thoughtofasaremedythatprotectedagainst
INTERNALMATERIAMEDICA Rutagraveolens(Ruta. )•145
infectionsandpoisoning.Inancienttimesrueseed
drunkinwinewasusedtoantidotethepoisonfrom
mushrooms,toadstools,snake


ganism, examine the page that you are reading in this moment. What
do you actually see. Black ink formed into words that you are read-
ing. Try to imagine these words without the presence of the back-
ground upon which they are printed. The white page on which the
37
WAYNE W. DYER
words are printed does not receive your primary attention, yet this
page you are holding as a unit of a book creates a meaning in combi-
nation with the individual units of print called words. The environ-
ment in which those words are inseparably enmeshed is the page
itself. In this analogy, you are the words and your background is every-
thing upon which you are imprinted. This principle is important to
understand if you are going to become a manifester. Just as the stars
in the sky would be impossible to perceive without the background
of the dark sky, and you couldn’t see your own body or the body of
anyone else without a background that is in contrast to that body, so
does this principle apply to you. You cannot be described independent of your environment, and I
invite you to shift your awareness away from yourself as an organism
in the environment to yourself as an extension of your environment
and always inseparable from it. The result of this thinking will be that
you begin to see that everything in your environment is a part of you
and vice versa. Your environment is not something that you must
either push or it will push you around. It is an extension of yourself,
just as you are an extension of the environment. This is a unique concept to grasp. It is imperative, however, for
understanding the premise of this book. You are both distinct and
inseparable from your environment. BEING AN INDIVIDUAL AND AN ENVIRONMENT
SIMULTANEOUSLY
Have you ever seen a person with a front but without a back. Have you ever seen a person with an outside but without an inside. These rhetorical questions are meant to stimulate you to consider
how you can be differentiated and undifferentiated at the same time,
and why this is important in learning to manifest your life as you
choose. 38
Manifest Your Destiny
The nature of this physical world is essentially that of waves. Each
wave of energy that makes up a physical mass has a crest or a peak
and a nadir or a valley. These tops and bottoms of the wave are always
easy to identify as separate, yet they are always together. You cannot
ever get a bucketful of peaks and observe them independent of their
corresponding valleys. This is the fundamental feature of nature. The
north and south poles of a magnet are always together, yet always dis-
tinct. Your front always has a back, your inside always has an outside,
and now ycu must extend this understanding outward as well. Of course you are an individual who functions within this environ-
ment, and it is possible to describe both you and your environment
with separate identifying terminology that all of us would under-
stand. But, you must also remember that you cannot separate you
from your environment either. You are distinct, just as the tops of the
waves are distinct from the bottoms, but you are irrevocably con-
nected to the outer world just as that bottom of the wave always has a
top. When you begin to see this simple truth, mystical experiences of
manifesting also open up to you as a genuine possibility. Most of us
have failed to grasp this little truth, and it has led us on a disastrous
course of feeling that because we are separate from our environment,
we must exercise control over it. When we do this, we, of course, are
showing not only a lack of respect for our environment, but for our
own basic nature as an environorganism as well. PUSHING NATURE AROUND OR SEEING IT AS OURSELVES
When we think of ourselves as distinct from our environment, we
take on a posture of exercising control over it. This kind of thinking
leads us into destructive behavior on both the collective and the per-
sonal levels. We destroy forests, swamps, mountains, rivers, wildlife or any-
thing else that obstructs profit and convenience or for something we
39
WAYNE W. DYER
call “advancing” civilization. We defend these activities without
understanding that we are also destroying ourselves. Ultimately we
will make earth uninhabitable if we fail to ‘see that we are killing a
part of ourselves with this wanton disregard for nature. We all need to begin to experience ourselves as part of our total
environment. Then perhaps we will discontinue trying to beat that
same environment into submission. We fail to treat it with love, gen-
tleness and respect because we are convinced that it is something
other than ourselves that we are defeating. As we have seen, we can- |
not be described independent of our environment any more than our
outside can be described without our inside. The idea of ourselves as an environorganism commands our
respect for everything that we encounter. When we can respect that
which appears to be external to us, we will build to live in harmony
with, rather than in control over, our environment. In our personal lives, recognizing nature as ourselves opens up an
entire new world of manifestation. We see ourselves in an intelligent
world. Thus, the intelligence that is in myself is also in my environ-
ment. With this awareness we tend to see the connection to everything
much more clearly. We know that whatever appears to be lacking in
our lives is really due to our having been misinformed when we were
taught that what seems to be missing can be found outside us. As an environorganism, I know that the energy of what appears to
be missing in my personal environment and the energy of my own
body (inside and outside, front and back) is all the same. So, anything
I view as lacking is because I see myself as removed from what I want
rather than as connected to it. This is the beginning of the awareness that you can attract every-
thing to yourself because you are already inextricably attached to it at
an energy level. The notion of viewing it as unavailable begins to dis-
appear and you see manifesting as nothing more than materializing
an aspect of yourself of which you have previously been unaware. 40
ts Manifest Your Destiny
You will see yourself not only in your environment, but in every-
thing and everyone that is a part of that environment. Your new faith
will no longer permit you to see anything as separate. The separate-
ness will always be there, just as the peak of the wave is separate from
the trough, but they will remain inseparable even though separate,
different yet undifferentiated at the same time. You will have fused
the dichotomy that prevents you from putting this connective energy
to work. You will begin to view yourself as an organic part of this
world rather than as a separate entity in this world. SEEING YOURSELF AS AN ORGANIC PART OF THIS WORLD
There is a popular belief that we “come into this world. ” Thus we
are continuously embracing the idea that who we are and where we
come from are two different worlds. The essence of this third spiritual
principle for manifesting your destiny is that there is no separation,
and rather than coming into this world as a construction project, that
you actually grow out of it. Take a look at a plum tree and examine how plums appear in our
world. You plant a seed and the tree grows, ultimately blossoming
and producing plums. The intelligence that is in the plum is in this
world, and so, too, is it in the seed, the blossom, the trunk, the
branches and the roots. Every single element of the plum tree has
plum intelligence built into it. We do not say that plums show up
from the spiritual world of plum essence, and then become physical
earth-plane fruit. In fact, as we look at a plum tree, we could say with
all candor that it plums. Every year the thing just plums. In the same way that a plum tree plums, you, too, grow out of this
world, with the same energy that is in every aspect of your being. Were you to look at the earth from a distance you would observe that
it has rocks, oceans, vegetation, and that the thing actually peoples. You are a result of what the universe is doing on a conscious level,
just as a wave is what the ocean is doing and a plum is what the plum
41
WAYNE W. DYER
tree is doing. The intelligence that is you, unseen as it may be, is you
in every stage of your creation and life experience, and it is also the
same in every other person as well as in all things in our physical
world. Most of us were taught quite the contrary. Creation is generally
thought of as divided into the spiritual realm of the unseen and the
physical world of matter. Also, that we are the result of an act of con-
struction, and rather than growing out of the world, we were put
into it. This, of course, reinforces the idea of powerlessness in having |
anything to do with the act of creation. To empower yourself’ to,
become a co-creator in the affairs of your life, you will have to leave
these old ideas behind, but mind you, they do not die easily. The
conditioning process is embedded in the bedrock of