ines such as antibiotics and aspirin have a Cold nature.
Antacids counteract stomach inammation and are also considered
Cold medicines.
The stomach depends on the power of digestive Fire to break
down and process food. These Cold medic ines weaken and
undermine digestive function because of their ability to dissipate
heat. The repeated administration of antibiotics to children damages
their already sensitive and underdeveloped digestive systems, which
leads to innumerable problems in their later childhood and
adulthood. The most common consequence is weakness of the
immune system, manifested as allergies. The resulting deciency
and Coldness  set the stage  for disorders such as asthma, colitis,
arthritis, eczema, and candidiasis.
Accompanying the aversion to cold is a desire for heat and a
craving for warm foods and liquids. There is a feeling of weariness
and debility as well. Retarded circulation also leads to a stagnation
of Blood  and Moisture, which may congeal or harden into clots,
lumps, or masses associated with xed and localized tenderness and
pain.
THE FIVE EMOTIONS
Just as climate s exist within the seasons, emotions are primal forces
within the human psyche. All of us experience times of anger, joy,rumination, sorrow, and fear during the course of our everyday
lives. These emotions are often appropriate. It is natural to feel mad
when thwarted, happy when fullled, pensive when attention is
focused inward, sad over loss, and alarmed in the face of danger.
When any one state, however, dominates our internal experience or
outward behavior, it interfe res with the conduct of daily life and
disrupts the smooth ow of Qi.
The Five Emotions  are associated with the Five Phases. In excess,
these emotions generate imbalance. Anger  causes energy to rise—it
tends to are up and lash out with sudden explosivenes s, like the
windy storms of spring, unpredictable and intense. Joy causes
energy to disperse—it tends to dissipate and be lost. Being overcome
by joy can leave a person giddy and weak like the inten se heat of
summer, exhausted and drained. Rumination  causes  energy  to slow
down—sluggish movement tends toward stagnation, leaving one
lazy and inert, like the oppressive humidity of late summer, slow
and torpid. Sorrow  causes energy to stop—it tends to constrict and
close down. Imprisoned by grief, one is cut o from life; like the
drying leaves of autumn, feelings wither and motivation crumples.
Fear causes energy to sink—the bottom falls out. When survival is
threatened, one becomes petried with fright and loses control. As
in the perilous cold of winter, people feel frozen with fear.
The emotions are immaterial yet palpable. Although—or  because
—they are experienced deeply, they are dicult to dene and
categorize. Nevertheless they have profound and tangible eects. In
Chinese medicine they are considered one of the major inuences
upon health and disease. Wind  and Anger  particularly injure the
Liver, Heat and Joy the Heart, Dampness  and Rumination  the Spleen,
Dryness  and Sorrow  the Lung, and Cold and Fear the Kidney.
ANGER
When Anger  predominates, a person becomes easily upset by
frustrations and obstacles, unable to appropriately restrai n feelings.
This person is volatile, engaging in erratic and impulsive behavior.He vacillates between riveted interest and subdued indierence.
These unstable emotions and unpredictable actions result in the
uneven circula tion of Qi and Blood, creating a generalized state of
tension. This kind of person often leads a double life. Usually he
exerts tremend ous self-discip line in order to maintain self-control
and composure. But when the stress builds, or when he relaxes and
loosens his inhibitions, he is likely to explode in rage or indulge in
thoughtless, rash behavior. At work he may be dedicated, outgoing,
and resourceful, but on the weekends after a few drinks he may “y
o the handle” and “go through the roof.” He is prone to ailments
such as ulcers, hemorrhoids, and migraine headaches.
JOY
When the pleasure principle is the main focus of a person’s life, she
becomes unable to retain her reserve of energy. She seeks
gratication at every turn and becomes jaded, drive n to seek
continuously more stimulation. She appears fun-loving and romantic
but in fact is unable to sustain her interest and excitement without
external props and other people’s attention. She dislikes being alone.
By herself she feels lifeless;  in company she comes alive. She is
prone to free-oating anxiety, insomnia, despair. Her easy
excitability manifests as giggling, talkativeness, giddiness, and
garrulousness. This type of person dissipates her energy by burning
the candle at both ends. When she’s not up, she’s down. When she’s
not lled with excitement, she’s empty and hopeless. The high level
of activity causes accelerated metabolism which may take the form
of hypoglyce mia, anorex ia, or schizophrenia. These are
manifestations of Heat. However, the presence of Heat is not
accompanied by light or clarity. In fact, this person is often
confused, bewildered, and apprehensive.
RUMINATIONWhen a person is overly pensive and contemplative, he can easily
become xated on worriso me thoughts and ideas. He is often
tormented by his overconce rn for details and becomes caught in
circular thinking from which  there is no escape. His approach to life
may become obsessive to the point that he is unable to have any
fresh thoughts or experiences. Secure but dull, safe yet sorry, he is
prone to apathy and boredo m. He may be construed as a stick-in-
the-mud. People can depend  on this type of person because he is
reliable, sympa thetic, and a good caretaker. Without the demands of
work or responsibility to others, he can become inert, dropping back
into the well-w orn trails of his own mind. In this state, his energy
becomes stagnant and leads to poor digestion, heaviness, and
abbiness.
SORROW
When Sorrow  pervades, a person insulates and defends herself from
the pleasure of attachment and the pain of loss. She arranges her life
for the purpose of avoiding risk and the vagaries of passion. She can
become possessive, acquisitive, and domineering in an eort to
control her environment. Her striving for self-protection may keep
her too detached and inaccessible for true intimacy. She is pleasant
but cool. She has easy disdain for people she considers sloppy and
undisciplined and is uncomfortable with displays of emotion. Her
life is designe d to keep her feelings in. She appears tight, well
mannered, and scrupulously put together. Without the ordered
arrangement of her daily life, this person becomes completely
vulnerable and threatened. Overcontrol is her theme and can
manifest as asthma, constipation, and frigidity. She wards o
excitement and feeling.
FEAR
Fear arises when survival is threatened. A man who is in the grip of
Fear can think only of escape. His life is dominated by theexpectation of threat, so he isolates himself and hides from the
world. He becomes furtive and suspicious, relies on no one and
prefers to be left alone. He is the hermit, drifter, and loner. He
anticipates the worst, imagining calamity and disast er lurking
around every corner. He lives under a cloud of doom and gloom.
Critical and cynical, he believes the world is fundamentally harsh,
unsafe, and unfriendly. Among other people he remains aloof. His
isolation may eventually cut him o from life, leaving him cold and
hard like stone, impenetrabl e and devoid of spirit. Because of this
hardening, he is prone to develop arthritis, deafness, and senility.
METHODS OF  EXAMINATION:  OBSERVATIONS, QUESTIONS, PALPATIONS
Western diagnosis often involves evaluation of a battery of
laboratory tests and machine measurements. Chinese diagnosis
emphasizes methods that rely solely on the practitioner’s own sense
perceptions, judgment, intuition, and experience. The practitioner
inventories what he sees, hears, smells, and feels. He listens to the
patient’s feelings and complaints. He asks questions about activities
and events that cannot be observed directly.
Using himself as the instrum ent, the doctor takes the measure of
the patient: focusing mind and perception upon the gestalt of
posture, statur e, emotional and behavioral expression; upon specic
attributes of the tongue, pulse, and complexion; and nally upon the
areas and quality of pain or discomfort, restriction or freedom of
movement, overall vigor and weakness.
Like the Feng Shui adept who divines the currents of Wind  and
Water  that circulate  through the environment to place people in a
proper and benecial alignment to them, the doctor turns himself
into a


.
(Served Whole.)
Where the pineapple is very fine and ripe it may be
brought to the table whole. It is a pretty dish, and can be
served by digging out the eyes with a cheese scoop or pointed
spoon. The sections will be found to run clear to the center
and will split as easily as those of an orange. Pineapple thus
served should be eaten by holding it in the hand.

ORANGE BASKETS.
Cut as many oranges as will be required, leaving the peel
whole for the baskets, and a stri p half an inch wide for the
handles. Remove the pulp and juice and use the juice in
making orange jelly. When ready to serve put a spoonful of
whipped cream over the jelly in each basket. Serve in a box
lined with orange or laurel leaves.

GRAPE FRUIT.
This fruit possesses great medicinal property, and is
gaining in popularity every year.
To prepare for the table, th ey should be cut in half,
removing the hard pith and th e seeds in the center. Fill the
cavity and sprinkle the surface with powdered sugar, pouring
over each half a tablespoonful of grape juice. This should be
allowed to stand an hour before using. The abundant acid and slightly bitter flavor of this fruit
serves to quench thirst, and it is regarded by many as a
sovereign remedy for biliousness.  It is undoubtedly one of the
best liver tonics in the fruit kingdom; better results will be
obtained by not diluting it with sugar.

THE GUAVA.
This tropical or semi-tropical shrub yields an important
dessert fruit. It is, however, known to the inhabitants of the
cooler zones only through guava jelly—a rich, conserve
imported from the West Indies. The guava is cultivated in
Florida, but the manufacture of guava is chiefly confined to
the West Indies.

TO KEEP LEMONS.
Lemons may be kept for a time by running a string
through the nibs and hanging in a dry place.

MELONS.
Of all the fruits that grow in the balmy clime of the South
there is none so much appreciated as the watermelon. While
the watermelon contains over 90 per cent. water, it also
contains 10 per cent of carbohydrates, and other valuable
food properties.
We have given no recipes for the preparation of this, for
the very obvious reason that it needs none.
Those who have consumed the watermelon only in
diningrooms and fashionable cafes know but little about the
enjoyment there is in disposing of this article in the good old
Southern way. They should see two Southern cornfield
"niggers" on a hot summer's day, making for the shade of a
mulberry tree, laden with two large "millions" each, and
watch them go after the luscious contents of this fruit without
knife, fork, or spoon. This scene might whet up the
imagination of the aesthetic cityite until he perhaps could
gain some information as to how to eat and form some vague
estimate of the pleasure of consuming a melon as the Asiatics
did a thousand or two years ago.
The watermelon, cantaloupe and muskmelon compose a
triad of the best fruits known.
Their virtue consists largely in the fact that they contain
large quantities of pure non-acid distilled water and much
fruit sugar, which stimulates the activity of all the digestive
organs.
EVAPORATED FRUITS.

THE process of evaporation is merely the taking from fruits
enough water to keep them from decay. Therefore, in
preparing them for the table, all that is necessary is to restore
to them the water. This can be done by soaking them in pure,
spring water, preferably water that has been distilled. This
will give the nearest approach to ripe fresh fruit that can be
secured out of season. Cooking totally destroys and takes
from fruit its life and freshness.

PRUNES.
Take a quantity sufficient for two or three days, wash
thoroughly, put in a deep vessel or pitcher, adding just
enough lukewarm water to cover.  Let them stand over night.
They will be found thoroughly softened. The peeling can be
easily removed. Then serve with thick cream. This will be
found to be a delicious and healthful breakfast dish. The juice
or syrup should not be poured off; the unused portion can be
left in the vessel from 48 to 60 hours without injuring, if kept
in a cool place. The large fancy variety, running from twenty
to thirty per pound, are much better for preparing in this
manner.

PEACHES AND APRICOTS.
Take quantity desired. Place in deep vessel. Lay upon
them a light weight, and add a small quantity of water, not
quite enough to cover. Let stand six or eight hours. Then
remove fruit to another vessel. Take a few pieces of same,
remove the peeling and reduce to a pulp. Add this to water in
which fruit was soaked. Pour th is over the soaked fruit and
serve.
Recipe No. 2.—Prepare same as recipe No. I, only mix a
few seeded raisins with the fruit.  This will furnish a delicious
sweetening without the use of cane sugar, which is not
recommended to use with acid fruits.
The method employed in the foregoing recipes can be
applied to all evaporated fruits.

EVAPORATED APPLES WITH RAISINS.
Take the quantity of dried or evaporated apples desired,
and about half as many seeded raisins as apples. Wash apples
thoroughly, mix raisins with apples in a deep vessel, and
hardly cover with warm wate r. Let stand over night, when
they will be ready to serve.

NUT-FIG MARMALADE.
Cover a small platter with ground figs, one-quarter inch
thick. Cover this with a layer of blanched, sliced Brazil nuts,
about one-eighth inch thick, then a layer of seeded dates.
Over this place a layer of pecan meats, then another layer of ground figs, and cover this with sliced Brazil nuts. Press
firmly together and slice with  sharp knife. This is very
delicious served plain with whipped cream.

STUFFED PRUNES.
Soak prunes until soft. Remove pits and stuff with nut-
meats.

STUFFED DATES.
Select whole, firm dates, wash and remove stone and fill
cavities with any kind of nuts desired or with cream cheese.
Pack firmly and allow to dry before using.

PRUNE DESSERT.
Soak the prunes seven to eight hours, remove pits and
chop fine; cover bottom of pudding dish with prunes, over
this a layer of ground nuts, alternate layers until dish is nearly
filled. -Cover with the beaten whites of the eggs, a little
lemon juice and powdered sugar beaten very stiff; dot with
pecan nuts and serve.
CHEESE AND JUNKET.

JUNKET.
Into a quart of milk stir two tablespoonfuls of powdered
sugar, a teasponful of liquid rennet. In a warm room the milk
will soon become "set" like a custard, when it must be put on
the ice until needed. Serve with sugar and cream from the
same bowl in which it was formed. Any kind of fresh fruit
may be added to the junket before it has entirely congealed
and a portion of fruit given with each service.

CLABBER
Is nothing more than milk which has soured and turned
or thickened until it is of the c onsistency of baked custard. It
should then be set on ice, or in a cool place and not sent to the
table until ready to use. Some individuals prefer this as a
relish just as it is, but most people use sugar, cream and
grated nutmeg. The milk may be put in a glass bowl before it
turns. As a diet, however, better results will be obtained by
using it without sweetening or flavoring.

CREAM CHEESE.
Take thick cream and tie it in a wet cloth. Stir a
teaspoonful of salt into every pint of cream. Hang it in a cool
airy place for three or four days to drain. Then turn it into a
clean cloth, which must be put into a mold and under a
weight for about twenty-four hours longer, when it will be fit
for use.

CREAM CHEESE AND NUTS.
Cover a layer of cream cheese with dates sliced thin, and
on that, a layer of pecan nuts or sliced Brazil nuts, taking care
that the nuts form the top layer. Serve very cold.
CAKE, PUDDINGS AND PIES.

FIG AND NUT CAKE.
 Figs,  Nuts,
 Dates,  Cocoanut.
Make a layer each of ground figs, grated protoid nuts,
dates cut in halves with stones removed, and grated cocoa-
nut. Continue building these layers until the cake is of the
thickness desired, finishing with  the cocoanut; decorate with
crystallized cherries and nut meats.

SWEET POTATO PUDDING.
 Sweet Potatoes,   Eggs,
 Cream,   Nutmeg,
 Sugar,   Gelatine,
Milk.
Gr


 to spin in whatever direction makes
you feel better or use muscle testing to see what is best for you.
Head and Neck Exercise
Slowly, but with force, bend the head three times in each direction, forward, backward and sideways. Then move the head in circles,
again slowly and forcefully, three times in each direction. This is excellent for strengthening the neck and in all cases of head
congestion, eye and ear problems, and recurring headaches. In addition, you may circle the head 100 times in each direction.
Slant-board Exercises
These are strengthening to the intern al organs and invigorating. Slant-boards are commercially available. You may build one yourself
by fastening a belt to one end of a body-length padded board. The feet are slipped underneath the belt to hold the body in position
when the board is slanted, with the head about 30 cm lower than the feet. You may rest or meditate for a while on the board before
and after doing some appropriate exercises, such as repeatedly lifting the torso to a sitting position, or tensing exercises. Do not use
the slant-board if your blood pressure is very high.
Tensing
Tense and release one muscle after another, starting with one foot, then the other, working up towards the top of the head. Inhale
deeply, each time gradually increasing the tension, hold for a few seconds, then slowly release the tension while exhaling.
Finally, tense all muscles, starting with the feet and moving up to the neck. Simultaneously inhale deeply. Hold the whole body tightly
tensed for several seconds; then gradually release the muscles, starting with the neck and moving down to the feet, exhaling
simultaneously.
If a particular organ or limb is weak, focus repeated tension on it. Do this exercise repeatedly during the day. Tensing may be done in
any position: sitting, standing, lying down. Frequent tensing is especially important if you have to stay in bed for a prolonged period.
Body-Mind Exercise
Slowly move a stiff joint several times to the limit of its range. Then simply imagine the same movement but with an extended range,
and repeat several times. Then move the actual limb again and see whether its range has improved. The actual movements are
easier if performed during slow exhalation. Test in this way how far you can turn your head.
Rebounding
Rebounding may be better than jogging, especially for those low in energy. Some expensive models, called lymphasisers, are
deﬁnitely much better and preferred if you can afford the price. Otherwi se settle for a cheap rebounder or if you cannot afford even
that, bounce on top of one or two innerspring mattresses.
While it is alright to bounce higher for a while if you feel like it and do various fancy bounces, during the basic lymphacising exercise
you remain with both feet ﬁrmly on the mat. This is to greatly accelerate  the ﬂow of lymph ﬂuid through the body. Bounce only very
gently up and down, starting with just a few minutes and gradually increasing up to 10 or 15 minutes 3 or 4 times daily, best before
meals and bedtime, the more the better.
Keep your hands touching body areas in need of healing, such as the tumour area and the liver or wherever you feel discomfort. With
each upward bounce take a sniff until your lungs are ﬁlled after 10-20 sniffs and then exhale again in sniffs. Always try to ﬁll and10/30/24, 8:13 AM Health-Science-Spirit - Exercises
https://health-science-spirit.com/Healing_the_Body/Exercises.html 2/5empty your lungs as completely as possible. If you do it right, you should feel energised after the exercise.
GOOD USE
The principle of good use was developed by F.M. Alexander. It means using our body efﬁciently and with ease, maintaining maximum
balance and coordination between all of its parts. Most of us use our body poorly most of the time. By learning good use we can
harmonize our posture and movements and with this, improve our spine, muscular structure and even the functioning of our internal
organs and glands. In order to learn good use, we concentrate mainly on the way we stand, sit, stand up, sit down, walk and breathe.
Start by exploring your present use in front of a mirror, how you move your head from side to side, up and down, how the shoulders
move, how you talk and breathe. Then try to practice the basic movement of good use: move your head up and away from the torso,
but at the same time let the whole body ease upwards in a move that ﬂattens and lengthens the spine.
When turning the head or when moving it up or down, when standing, sitting, walking or lying down, always let the head ﬂoat 'up'
which means away from the body in line with the spine. It is not just a position to be maintained, but a continuous process of easing
the head up to lengthen the spine.
When we look at eye level, the neck  should be straight and the chin down. The main point to watch is that the back of the head is not
dropped backward which will produce a hollow where the head joins the neck. Except when intentionally tilting the head, there should
be no hollow at this point. Watch that your head remains up and the neck straight while you talk, sit down, stand up or move in any
other way. Instead of directly moving  the head upwards, think and feel it ﬂoating up. Let the move be manifested through the thought
and feeling.
Standing and Sitting
Another important aspect to watch is that muscles are relaxed when at rest. When quietly standing, feel that the eyes, the jaw,
shoulders and abdomen are relaxed, when sitting in addition the thigh and calf muscles. Check again and again because these
muscles have a tendency to tense when we do not watch. The same when lying down, check all muscles for relaxation.
When sitting down or standing up, back and neck should remain in a straight line. Only the joints at the ankles, knees and hips will
bend. When standing up, lean forward by following your head with the body. In this way you bend at the hips and this creates a
momentum, which lifts you off the seat and brings you onto your feet without any effort. You only need to straighten the three lower
joints and you stand in front of the chair.
Exactly the reverse procedure takes place when sitting down. The arms are not used in any way to push or swing when standing up
or sitting down. When sitting, keep your head moving upwards in order to counteract the tendency to slump. Check yourself
frequently that you sit straight but relaxed. When lifting something from the ﬂoor, keep the back and neck straight and bend only with
the ankle, knee and hip joints.
Walking
When walking, touch down lightly with the full forward foot, not just with the heel. While the other foot is brought forward, the whole
body weight rests now on the foot on the ground. Start rolling your weigh t off this foot by lifting the heel. In this way you rise onto the
ball of the foot and even onto the toes. This creates a strong momentum that propels you forward without any ef fort.
Now you repeat the same process with the other foot. The important part of walking is rising onto the toes, which gives you a light,
bouncing step, as if walking on air. Spine and neck remain in a straight line, shoulders relaxed. The arms swing gently, opposite arm
and leg move together. When climbing steps, rise onto your toes in the same way as for walking.
As an exercise for those with a froze n pelvis and a hollow back, keep the pubis or lower abdomen in a forward position when walking
or standing. Be mindful not to'stick the tail out'. For everyday use wear only shoes with low heals and ﬂexible soles, preferably
leather or other natural material. Take every opportunity to walk barefoo t, especially on grass. Negative or tensing energies can be
released through the soles of the feet by walking on moist grass, as for instance in the early morning when it is still moist with dew.
For more information see also books about the Alexander Technique and The Complete Guide to the Alexander Technique at
http://www.alexandertechnique.com.
Breathing
Generally, we breathe just enough for the activity at hand. However, to prepare for action it is beneﬁcial to supercharge our body with
oxygen and prana (bio-energy) by breathing more deeply than we actual ly need. This makes us more energetic, helps to cleanse the
body and neutralises overacid conditions. Practise deep breathing in fresh air. Watch that during normal breathing your lower ribcage
is moving. However, during sedentary activities it is preferable to breathe  as slowly as possible, deeply but slowly. This helps to relax
body and mind. Therefore, by deliberately over-breathing we create tension and by under-breathing we practise relaxation.
Watching the Breath
This is a relaxing exercise to quieten the mind, or as part of a meditation. Mentally follow the breath ﬂowing in and out without any
attempt to control it.
Full Breath
Inhale for several seconds, consciously ﬁlling ﬁrst the lowest part of the lungs, causing the abdomen to lift. Then expand the middle
part and ﬁnally the upper part of the chest. Hold the breath for several seconds then slowly release it, starting with the upper chest.
End by contracting


 being, to give them a
conceptual identity, to pronounce righteous judgmen t upon them.

Every human being has been conditioned to think and  behave in certain ways–
conditioned genetically as well as by their childho od experiences and their cultural
environment.

That is not who they are, but that is who they appe ar to be. When you pronounce
judgment upon someone, you confuse those conditione d mind patterns with who
they are. To do that is in itself a deeply conditio ned and unconscious pattern. You
give them a conceptual identity, and that false ide ntity becomes a prison not only
for the other person but also for yourself.

To let go of judgment does not mean that you don’t see what they do. It means that
you recognize their behavior as a form of condition ing, and you see it and accept it
as that. You don’t construct an identity out of it for that person.

That liberates you as well as the other person from  identification with conditioning,
with form, with mind. The ego then no longer runs y our relationships.

***

As long as the ego runs your life, most of your tho ughts, emotions, and actions
arise from desire and fear. In relationships you th en either want or fear something
from the other person.

What you want from them may be pleasure or material  gain, recognition, praise or
attention, or a strengthening of your sense of self  through comparison and through
establishing that you are, have, or know more than they. What you fear is that the
opposite may be the case, and they may diminish you r sense of self in some way.

When you make the present moment the focal point of  your attention–instead of
using it as a means to an end–you go beyond the ego  and beyond the unconscious
compulsion to use people as a means to an end, the end being self-enhancement at
the cost of others. When you give your fullest atte ntion to whoever you are
interacting with, you take past and future out of t he relationship, except for
practical matters. When you are fully present with everyone you meet, you
relinquish the conceptual identity you made for the m–your interpretation of who
they are and what they did in the past–and are able  to interact without the egoic
movements of desire and fear. Attention, which is a lert stillness, is the key.
 How wonderful to go beyond wanting and fearing in y our relationships. Love does
not want or fear anything.

***

If her past were your past, her pain your pain, her  level of consciousness your level
of consciousness, you would think and act exactly a s she does. With this realization
comes forgiveness, compassion, peace.

The ego doesn’t like to hear this, because if it ca nnot be reactive and righteous
anymore, it will lose strength.

***

When you receive whoever comes into the space of No w as a noble guest, when
you allow each person to be as they are, they begin  to change.

***

To know another human being in their essence, you d on’t really need to know
anything about them–their past, their history, thei r story. We confuse knowing
about with a deeper knowing that is non-conceptual.  Knowing about and knowing
are totally different modalities. One is concerned with form, the other with the
formless. One operates through thought, the other t hrough stillness.

Knowing about is helpful for practical purposes. On  that level, we cannot do
without it. When it is the predominant modality in relationships, however, it
becomes very limiting, even destructive. Thoughts a nd concepts create an artificial
barrier, a separation between human beings. Your in teractions are then not rooted
in Being, but become mind-based. Without the concep tual barriers, love is naturally
present in all human interactions.

***

Most human interactions are confined to the exchang e of words–the realm of
thought. It is essential to bring some stillness, p articularly into your close
relationships.

No relationship can thrive without the sense of spa ciousness that comes with
stillness. Meditate or spend silent time in nature together. When going for a walk or
sitting in the car or at home, become comfortable w ith being in stillness together. Stillness cannot and need not be created. Just be r eceptive to the stillness that is
already there, but is usually obscured by mental no ise.

If spacious stillness is missing, the relationship will be dominated by the mind and
can easily be taken over by problems and conflict. If stillness is there, it can contain
anything.

***

True listening is another way of bringing stillness  into the relationship. When you
truly listen to someone, the dimension of stillness  arises and becomes an essential
part of the relationship. But true listening is a r are skill. Usually, the greater part of
a person’s attention is taken up by their thinking.  At best, they may be evaluating
your words or preparing the next thing to say. Or t hey may not be listening at all,
lost in their own thoughts.

True listening goes far beyond auditory perception.  It is the arising of alert
attention, a space of presence in which the words a re being received. The words
now become secondary. They may be meaningful or the y may not make sense. Far
more important than what you are listening to is th e act of listening itself, the space
of conscious presence that arises as you listen. Th at space is a unifying field of
awareness in which you meet the other person withou t the separative barriers
created by conceptual thinking. And now the other p erson is no longer “other.” In
that space, you are joined together as one awarenes s, one consciousness.

***

Do you experience frequent and repetitive drama in your close relationships. Do
relatively insignificant disagreements often trigge r violent arguments and
emotional pain. At the root of it lie the basic ego ic patterns: the need to be right,
and, of course, for someone else to be wrong, that is to say identification with
mental positions. There is also the ego's need to b e periodically in conflict with
something or someone in order to strengthen its sen se of separation between me
and the other, without which it cannot survive. In addition, there is the accumulated
emotional pain from the past that you and each huma n being carries within, both
from your personal past as well as the collective p ain of humanity that goes back a
long, long time. This pain body is an energy field within you that sporadically takes
you over because it needs to experience more emotio nal pain for itself to feed on
and replenish itself. It will try to control your t hinking and make it deeply negative.
It loves your negative thoughts since it resonates with every frequency and so can
feed on them. It will also provoke negative emotion al reactions in people close to you, especially your partner, in order to feed on t he ensuing drama and emotional
pain. How can you free yourself from this unconscio us identification with pain that
creates so much misery in life. Become aware of it.  Realize that it is not who you
are and recognize it for what it is, past pain.  Wi tness it as it happens in your
partner or in yourself. When your unconscious ident ification with it is broken,
when you are able to observe it in yourself, you don't feed it anymore and it will
gradually lose its energy charge.

***

Human interaction can be hell. Or it can be a great  spiritual practice.

***

When you look upon another human being and feel gre at love towards them, or
when you contemplate beauty in nature and something  within you responds deeply
to it, close your eyes for a moment and feel the es sence of that love or that beauty
within you, inseparable from who you are, your true  nature. The outer form is a
temporary reflection of what you are within, in you r essence. That is why love and
beauty can never leave you, although all outer form s will.

***

What is your relationship with the world of objects, the countless things that
surround you, and that you handle everyday. The cha ir you sit on, the pen, the car,
the cup.  Are they to you merely a means to an end or do you occasionally
acknowledge their existence, their being, no matter  how briefly, by noticing them
and giving them your attention. When you get attach ed to objects, when you are
using them to enhance your worth in your own eyes a nd in the eyes of others,
concern about things can easily take over your whol e life.

When there is self-identification with things, you don't appreciate them for what
they are because you are looking for yourself in th em. When you appreciate an
object for what it is, when you acknowledge its bei ng without mental projection,
you cannot not feel grateful for its existence. You  may also sense that it is not
really inanimate, that it only appears so to the se nses.  Physicist will confirm that
on a molecular level, it is indeed, a pulsating ene rgy field. Through selfless
appreciation of the realm of things, the world arou nd you will begin to come alive
for you in ways you cannot comprehend with the


 of the
nonsensical conditioning that has dominated your enculturation. Toss out
any self-limiting ideas about your Divine nature and what it is capable of
achieving. Befri end that spark, consult it frequently, nurture it, pay close
attention to it, believe in it, and practice describing yourself first as a
spiritual being— one who lives as frequently as possible from this all-
loving, all-givin g, all-joyful place called your higher self. Your higher self
is just what it says: higher than your false self, higher than your material
physical self. It is the part of you that is aligned with your very Source of
being.
In the next chapter, you have the opportunity to consider an even more
unlikely assertion in light of all that you’ve been exposed to since
childhood. Not only do you have a lower ego-based false self, as well as a
spiritually based  higher self that is a piece of God, but you have a highest
self. A self that you have been trained to believe is not something that you
should ever claim. Y our highest self awaits you in Chapter Three.
Three Suggestions
— Set aside multiple times during your day to stop and ask yourself this
key question: Right now in what I am about to say or do, do my desir es
stem from my lower or my higher self?  The ego is all about self-serving,
ownership, winning, judging, and so on. The higher self is about serving,
loving, and being in a nonjud gmental state of peace. Ask yourself this
question, and create the opportu nity to align yourself more fully with God.
You then have access to the same powers of manifestation as your Source of
being. This question, when honestly explored, helps you align with the
power to fulfill your wishes and desires. You don’t need to abolish your egoanimal nature. You do need to keep it tamed so it isn’t allowed to
overshadow or destroy your spirit. Give your Divine nature a chance by
asking yourself this question.
— Spend some of your quiet meditation time visualizing a tiny spark of
awareness glow ing within your being. Practice seeing this God-portion of
yourself expanding its glow within your mind. See it grow ing into a
personally satisfying size. Continue this expansion exercise sensing the
spark/glow as your God essence. You will begin acting from this inner God-
realized image.
— Use these af firmations frequently: I am all-knowing, I am all-powe rful,
I am unlimited.  This helps you banish doubt and refer to this portion of
yourself that lives in a spiritual world of no restrictions. Simply affirm to
yourself without  explaining to others or demonstrating pride in what you’re
doing. You are ridding yoursel f of ego-dominated mental messages that
continue to want to convince you that you are primarily your body and its
five senses.
OceanofPDF.comCHAPTER THREE
YOUR HIGHEST  SELF
“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the
form of God, did not consider it r obbery to be equal with God.”
— PH ILIPPIANS  2:5–6
In the previous chapter you explored the idea that there’ s a spark of God
within you, which you can choose to expand into a consciously larger
component of your daily life. This spark is your spiritual essence—your
higher self. As your awareness increases that you are a God-rea lized being,
you will welcome it as the central focus of your life.
The concept of your higher self will gradually evolve into your highest
self, which is truly omniscient, almighty, and capable of producing
miracles. Here you will see a new reality—a majestic idea of yourself that
previously seemed inconceivable. Your highest self is descr ibed in the
pronouncement in the display quote at the beginning of this chapter, written
by Saint Paul in his letters to the Philippians in the New Testament. You
move from being a spark or a fragment of God to being able to assert that I
am God  and not feel as if you’re commi tting blasphemy or a cardinal sin by
such a declaration. Here, the idea that you are equal with God was
promoted by Christ Jesus, and you are encouraged by him to “Let this mind
be in you …”
This isn’t the God created by humans—the ego-driven deity who plays
favorites, requires ostentatious places of worship, has temper tantrums,
demands reparat ions, and is filled with rage, punishing those who do not do
his bidding. Not even close! I am speaking here of the creative Source of all
being, a God Who is responsible for creating the miraculous movement
from nonbeing to being, a God Who is formless—Who does nothing yet
leaves nothing undone—a God Who is everywhere. This is a Divine
invisible presence that’s within you. This idea is at the basis of all great
spiritual teaching throughout all time.Much of organized religious teaching proclaims that God is an all-
powerful being outside of you. That idea has been thrown at you since you
were old enough  to process this absurd notion. God, you were told, watches
you and punishes you if you misbehave, but listens to your prayers and
helps you resolve your conflicts if you do the right thing and please Him.
Perhaps it is a radical idea for you to declare, “I am God” and “God is
love,” or believe that “He who abides in love abides in God, and God in
him” (1 John 4:16) is who you are. When you are this God, this essence of
pure love, it is all you have to give away, and when you realign  yourself in
this vein (once again quoting  Jesus the Christ), “With men this is
impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Now, all things are
possible  leaves out nothing, including your ability to fulfill any and all
wishes that are aligned with God.
You may find it difficult at first to be able to assert to yourself that I am
God.  But when you put it into the context of God as love (and pure love
allows you to be almighty, all-knowing, and God-realized), you will, I
assure you, begin to regain the omnipotence that is your essen ce from the
moment of your transition from nonbeing (spirit) to being (human). I
emphasize these  teachings of Jesus to show that the declaration of I am God
is not only not in opposition to the teaching s of Christianity or other
spiritual practic es, but is fully aligned with these earlier teachings. The
reason it may seem blasphemous to say that I am God is because we’ve
adopted the God of the ego, created by humans from ego-base d ideas of a
God that imitates our most unholy human attributes.
I’ve been studyi ng two great spiritual teachers in depth for several years
as I’ve prepared  to write this book. One of them is Uell S. Andersen, and
the book of his that I read, studi ed, meditated upon, and am now living and
teaching is titled Three Magic Words. The book is 323 pages long, and it
was not until the last chapter—after many specific meditations and
exercises; after many enlightening words on consciousness, intuition, faith,
love, success, immortality, and more; and after investing time and energy in
what is being taught by the author—that I discovered what the three magic
words actually are.
Here is the beginning of the final chapter, titled “The Key”:This is the ineffable secret, the ultimate illumination, the key to peace and power: You are
God.  If you will accept this towering truth, dare to stand atop this magnificent pinnacle,
universal consciousness will be revealed to you from within. God is there. It is He who peers
from behind your eyes, who is your own consciousness, who is your very Self. You are not
just a part of God; you are altogether  God, and God is altogether you.
This is your highest self. It’s indeed a towering assumption—b ut one, if
used in context and alignment with the creative Source of all, that is the key
to mastering the ability to live a life of your wishes being fulfilled. After all,
with God as you, and you as God, all things are possible. This is not an
assertion limited to Western teachings or the Christian faith. In the Vedanta,
the ancient, pre-Christian teachings, we are reminded that we are not a part
of, but identical with, that absolute spirit of the world.
Before we go any further, I want to share with you some words from my
other great spiritual teacher, Neville, regarding this notion of you and me
actually being God.
Neville’ s book The Power of Awareness  contains 27 brief chapters—it’ s a
book you could easily read in a couple of hours. Yet much like the Tao Te
Ching, though it can be read in a brief amount of time, it could also be
studied endlessly and you’d repeatedly discover deeper meaning. (As I
mentioned earlier, I devoted a year to studying, meditating on, practicing,
and ultim ately writing essays on how to apply the wisdom of that tiny little
book of 81 verses. The result was published as a compendium titled Change
Your Thoughts— Change Your Life: Living the Wisdom


), California •
Rethinking the High-Starch Diet
by Dr. Douglas N. Graham
Foreword by Dr. ]ames H. Guest Acknowledgments
Many people were instrumental in the development of this book.
However, I believe that most of them are not aware of their influence on
me. It is for this reason that I feel it is important to give recognition to
several people who played a key role in my understanding of this highly
volatile subject.
To the late Dr. Herbert Shelton, without whose unswerving
dedication to the truth and prolific writings on htrman health I would
never have been able to comprehend human physiology from a
perspective of health, thank yott.
To the late T.C. Fry, a man with a tenacious desire to spread the
message of healthful living, thank you for all of the opportunities to
lecture, write, and hone my skills at presenting healthy messages in a
clear and succinct manner.
To Dr. Virginia V. Vetrano, who has dedicated her entire adult life to
helping others reach their health goals, thank yotl for the time you have
spent with me, patiently explaining cellular physiology and its
implications for supplying the necessities of health.
To my mentor, Dr. Keki Sidhwa, who took me under his wing and
lovingly shared with me the essence of his health philosophy and
countless gems from his personal experiences in "Nature Cure,'' thank
you from the bottom of my heart for all of that and the many
opportunities you have given me to be a messenger of health.
Without the help of several dear people, this book would still be no
more than an idea. Their support, comments, suggestions, proofreading,
and technical aid enabled me to bring my somewhat difficult-to-follow
writing style into a more clear, and hopefully cohesive, presentation.
Special thanks to Gail Davis, Laurie Masters, Ken Lyle, Lennie Mowris, Grain Damage
Rethinking the High-Starch Diet
by Dr. Douglas N. Graha111
1998, 2005 by Douglas N. Graham
This book is manufactured in the United States of America.
Cover design by Janie Gardener
Illttstration by Nissan Mayk
ISBN: 1-893831 -05-01 •
and Janie Gardener, who worked together to give this new revision a
long -overdtte face lift.
I wish to extend my most heartfelt appreciation to Antonia Home for
giving me her kind permission to reprint an excerpt from her late
husband Ross Home's published work.
Especially, I must thank my parents, Marty and Bea. Your infinite
love and Rock-of-Gibraltar-like confidence in me has been the greatest
blessing of my life. Thank you for always being available when I have
needed your guidance, for your ceaseless desire to see me happy, and for
your never-ending efforts to smooth the road of life for me. Most of all, I
want to thank you for setting a balanced, healthful example of successful
living.
Marty, you never tire of explaining the intricate workings of
computers (or life) to me. I am forever deeply indebted to you. You have
taught me more than anyone. May you both live long and blessed lives.
To my beloved wife Rozi, who carefully read every word for
meaning and made countless suggestions on how to improve my
message, a mere "thank you" seems insignificant by comparison. Your
efforts amaze rne. Dedication
This book is gratefully dedicated
to my loving sister, Nissan.
It is only throttgh Nissan's constant guidance and extraordinary dedica
tion to the finished project that I have learned the valuable skill known as
follow-through. Her intensely high demand for quality in her own work
has, I hope, to some degree tubbed off on me. It is not always easy to
accept correction, especially from one's sister. Nissan, your love for me
outshines even this attempt to rectify my writer's creative license.
Nissan has always been able to ignore the distracting influences of
others and to follow her own path, a trait that has, when coupled with her
tremendotts artistic talent and attention to detail, enabled her to earn
many of the highest accolades in her chosen field of pottery. Sbe is gifted
with brilliant vision, exceptional patience, and profound creativity.
I would like to believe that Nissan finds my own work standards to
be more than acceptable, and that she is always deeply proud of me. Table of Contents
~o1r~~o1rtl............................................................... Jt
Introduction......................................................... 3
In~tzin~d............................................................... ~
Th~ S ttzff of L if~................................................... 7
Historictzl Btzck~ound....................................... 8
Do~s Grain Eating Com~ Naturally?............. 10
Nut1rition............................................................. 1~
Nut1iition: ~at..................................................... :lt>
Nutrition: Prot~in............................................. 17
Nutrition: ~ib~r.................................................. JtB
Dig~stion............................................................ 19
En~r~................................................................. ~3
lJl~alth................................................................. ~ti
A Little Crazy?.................................................. 2 7
A,-~ Grains Addictiv~?...................................... 28
Athl~tic P~rformanc~........................................ 31
Famous V~g~tarian Athl~tes........................... 33
A 11\Teiglt~ Issue................................................. 3ti
Environm~nt....................................................... 37
Ecolo~............................................................... 39
Do You B~li~ve in Magic?................................ 40
Economics........................................................... ~~
171reshness............................................................. ~3
Next Time Have ~ruit!...................................... 44
Biblio~aphy & Resources............................... 4t>
Other Authors Sp~ak Out Against Grains.... 47
Grains Are for the Birds................................... 49
About th~ Author.............................................. 50 The obesity and malnutrition problems
experienced in epidemic proportions by those who
follow the Standard American Diet are due in
large part to the overconsumption of grains and
the underconsumption of fruit. Foreword
As a professor of clinical nutrition, I am always on the lookout to learn
new things and hear other opinions. I certainly got my money's worth
when I attended a lecture by Dr. Doug Graham a few years ago. I heard
many things from Dr. Graham that seemed outside mainstream
nutrition but he backed up what he said with research, and his own
physical condition was a strong testimony to the correctness of his ideas.
The most "outrageous" thing I heard that night was a statement that
wheat and other gluten grains contain opiates. I was skeptical. I had been
teaching nutrition for a long time and had never heard that before. When
I got home, I immediately went to my friends Medline and Google to get
their opinions. They told me that Dr. Graham was right. For example,
research by Dr. Paul Shattock at the University of Sunderland in England
had identified gliadinomorphins (gluten grain opiates) as a likely trigger
for many cases of autism. When these grains were removed from the
diets of autistic children, the majority of them became symptom-free.
Wow!
I purchased a few of Dr. Graham's publications that evening
including the first edition of Grain Damage. After reading for awhile and
reviewing my notes from the lecture, I decided to try his suggestions,
including removing grain from my diet. I estimated I would only last
about three days, but what did I have to lose? Actually, I lost a lot: sixty
pounds of fat and the symptoms of what I had thought was normal aging.
It is now about four years later, and I am in much better health and much
more active than I thought possible at the time I started.
When I frrst heard him, Dr. Graham was a voice in the wilderness.
Now, others are starting to catch on. Books such as Dangerous Grains
and others have now been published. While these books are inforrnative,
1 none of them provides the health-giving message as simply and
effectively as the small volwne you now hold in your hands.
Seventeenth-century physician Thomas Moffett said, "We are
digging our graves with our teeth."
Dr. Doug Graham said, "If you find yourself in a hole and want to
get out, first you have to stop digging."
Doug started his lecture that night by saying that he was not trying to
convert anyone to anything. He just wanted to share what had worked for
him. He said he was providing tools not ntles. Grain Damage not only
gives you the tools to stop digging, it will help you climb out of that
early grave and fill in what you have already dug.
Read, enjoy, and change your life.
James H. Guest, D.C.
Professor of Clinical Ntltrition and Laboratory Diagnosis
Parker Chiropractic College
2 Introduction
It is never easy to go "against the grain" of society. The old saying, "never
talk about politics or religion" should really be "never talk about politics,
religion, or food," as people seem to have equally strong feelings and
convictions about diet


 Unmanifested and the physical universe.
So i f yo u take your attention deeply into the inner body, you may reach
this po int, this singularity, where the world dissolves into the
Unmanifested an d the Unmanifested takes on form as the ener g y stream
of chi, which then becomes th e world. This is the point of birth and
death. When your consciousnes s is directed outward, mind and world
arise. W hen it is directed inward, it realizes its own Source an d returns
home into the Unmanifested. Then, when your consciousness comes
back to the manifested world, you reassume the form identity that you
temporarily relinquished. Y ou have a name, a past, a life situation, a
future. But in o ne essential respect, you are not the same person you
were before: Y ou will have glimpsed a reality within yourself that is not
“of this world,” although it isn’ t separate from it, just as it isn’ t separate
from you.
Now let  your spiritual practice be this: As you go about your life, don’ t
give 100 percent of your attention to the external world and to your
mind. K eep som e within. I have  spoken about this already. Feel the inner
body even when engaged in everyday activities, especially when
engaged in relationships or when you are relating with nature.  Feel the
stillness deep inside it. Keep the portal open. It is quite possible to be
conscious of the Unmanifested t hroughout your life. Y ou feel it as a deep
sense of peace somewhere in the background, a stillness that never
leaves you, no matter what happens out here. Y ou become a bridge
between the Unmanifested and the manifested, between God and the
world. This is the state of connectedness with the Source that we call
enlightenment.
Don’ t get the impression that the Unmanifested is separate from the
manifested. How could it be? It is the life within every form, the inner
essence of all that exists. It pervades this world. Let me explain.
DREAMLESS SLEEPY ou take a journey into the Unmanifested every night when you enter the
phase of deep d reamless sleep. Y ou mer ge with the Source. Y ou draw
from it the vital  ener gy that sus tains you for a while when you return to
the manifested, the world of separate forms. This ener gy is much more
vital tha n food: “Man does not live by bread alone.” But in dreamless
sleep, you don’ t go into it consc iously. Although the bodily functions are
still ope rating, “ you” no longer exist in that state. Can you imag ine what
it would be like to go into dreamless sleep with full consciousness? It is
impossible to imagine it, because that state has no content.
The Unmanifest ed does not liberate you until you enter it consciously.
That’ s why Jesus did not say: t he truth will make you free, but rather:
“Y ou wi ll know the truth, and th e truth will make you free.” This is not a
conceptual truth. It is the truth of eternal life beyond form, which is
known directly or not at all. But don’ t attempt to stay conscious in
dreamless sleep. It is highly unlikely that you will succeed. At most, you
may remain conscious during the dream phase, but not beyond that. This
is ca lled lucid dreaming, which may be interesting and fascinati ng, but it
is not liberating.
So use your inner body as a portal through which you enter the
Unmanifested, and keep that portal open so that you stay connected with
the S ource at all  times. It makes no dif ference, as far as the inner body is
concerned, whe ther your outer physical body is old or young, frail or
strong. The inner body is timeless. If you are not yet able to feel the
inner body, use one of the other portals, although ultimately they are all
one. Som e I have spoken about at length already, but I’ll ment ion them
again briefly here.
OTHER POR T ALS
The Now  can be seen as the mai n portal. It is an essential aspect of every
other portal, including the inn er body. Y ou cannot be in your body
without being intensely present in the Now.
T ime an d the manifested are as inextricably linked as are the timeless
Now and the Unmanifested. When you dissolve psychological time
through intense present-moment awareness, you become conscious of
the Unmanifeste d both directly and indirectly. Directly, you feel  it as theradiance and power of your c onscious presence — no content, just
presence. Indire ctly, you are aware of the Unmanifested in and  through
the sensory realm. In other wo rds, you feel the God-essence in every
creature, every flower, every stone, and you realize: “All that is, is holy.”
This is why Jesus, speaking ent irely from his essence or Christ  identity,
says in the Gospel of Thomas: “ Split a piece of wood; I am there. Lift up
a stone, and you will find me there.”
Another portal into the Unmanifested is created through the cessation of
thinking. This can start with a very simple thing, such as ta king one
conscious breath or looking, in a  state of intense alertness, at a flower, so
that ther e is no mental commentary running at the same time. T here are
many ways to c reate a gap in the incessant stream of thought. This is
what meditation  is all about. Thought is part of the realm of the
manifested. Continuous mind ac tivity keeps you imprisoned in the world
of fo rm and becomes an opaque  screen that prevents you from becoming
conscious of the Unmanifested,  conscious of the formless and timeless
God-essence in yourself and in all things and all creatures. When you are
intensely pr esent, you  don’ t need  to be concerned about the cessation of
thinking, of course, because th e mind then stops automatically. That’ s
why I said the Now is an essential aspect of every other portal.
Surrender — the letting go of mental-emotional resistance to w hat is  —
also becomes a portal into the  Unmanifested. The reason for this is
simple: inner resistance cuts yo u of f from other people, from yourself,
from the world around you. It strengthens the feeling of separateness on
which the ego depends for its  survival. The stronger the fe eling of
separateness, the  more you are bound to the manifested, to the world of
separate forms. The more you are bound to the world of form, the harder
and more impenetrable your form  identity becomes. The portal is closed,
and you  are cut of f from the inner dimension, the dimension of depth. In
the s tate of surre nder, your form identity softens and becomes s omewhat
“transparent,” as it were, so the Unmanifested can shine through you.
It’ s up to you to open a portal in your life that gives you conscious access
to the Unmanifested. Get in touch with the ener gy field of the inner body,
be intensely present, disidentify from the mind, surrender to what is ;
these are all portals you can use — but you only need to use one.
 Sur ely love must also be one of those portals?

No, it isn’ t. As soon as one of the portals is open, love is present in you
as th e “feeling-realization” of oneness. Love isn’ t a portal; it’ s what
comes thr ough  th e portal into t his world. As long as you are completely
trapped in your form identity, t here can be no love. Y our task is not to
search for love but to find a portal through which love can enter.
SILENCE
Ar e ther e any other portals apart fr om those you just mentioned?

Y es, there are. T he Unmanifested is not separate from the mani fested. It
pervades this world, but it is s o well disguised that almost everybody
misses it completely. If you know where to look, you’ll  find it
everywhere. A portal opens up every moment.
Do y ou hear tha t dog barking i n the distance? Or that car passing by?
Listen carefully.  Can you feel the presence of the Unmanifested in that?
Y ou can’ t? Look for it in the silence out of which the sounds come and
into which they return. Pay more attention to the silence than to the
sounds. Paying attention to oute r silence creates inner silence: the mind
becomes still. A portal is opening up.
Every so und is born out of silence, dies back into silence, and d uring its
life span is surro unded by silence. Silence enables the sound to be. It is
an intrin sic but unmanifested part of every sound, every musical note,
every so ng, every word. The Unmanifested is present in this world as
silence. This is why it has been said that nothing in this world is so like
God as silence. All you have to  do is pay attention to it. Even during a
conversation, be


9

CENTER FOR SCIENCE IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST
(Provides a list of U.S. mail-order businesses that sell or ganic food)
1875 Connecticut A venue, NW, Suite 300, W ashington, D.C. 20009-
5728 ; T el. (202) 332-91 10

CO-OP AMERICA
(publish National Green Pages listing businesses of fering or ganic food
products)  2100 M Street, N.W, Suite 403, W ashington, D.C. 20037
Tel. (800) 424-2667

DIAMOND ORGANICS (ships or ganic produce via FedEx)
Tel. (888) ORGANIC (674-2642)
FLAXSEED  OIL SUPPLIES
OMEGA NUTRITION
5373 Guide Meridian, Building B, Bellingham, W ashington 98226
Tel. (800) 661-3529 (from the U.S. and overseas)
WATER DISTILLING  DEVICES
THE CUTTING EDGE, Owner Jules Klapper
P.O. Box 5034, Southampton, New Y ork 1 1969
Tel. (800) 487-9516 or (516) 287-3813; F AX (516) 287-31 12

SEAGULL DISTRIBUTION COMP ANY, Attention Jef f Shipper
Suite #8, 3670 Clairemont Drive, San Diego, California 921 17
Tel. (619) 270-7532

AQUA CLEAN MD-4
(Contact this main of fice for your local Aqua Clean distributor.)
3725 T ouzalin A venue, Lincoln, Nebraska 68507
Tel. (402) 467-9300

PURE WATER, INC., Owner Steve Norvell (distributes Aqua Clean MD-4)
11760 Sorrento V alley Road, San Diego, California 92121
Tel. (619) 792-8275
SHOWER  FILTERS
THE CUTTING EDGE, Owner Jules Klapper
PO. Box 5034, Southampton, New Y ork 1 1969  Tel. (800) 487-9516 or (516) 287-3813; F AX (516) 287-31 12

SPRITE INDUSTRIES, INC.
1827 Capital Street, Corona, California 91720
Tel. (909) 735-1015

SEAGULL DISTRIBUTION COMP ANY, Attention Jef f Shipper
Suite #8, 3670 Clairemont Drive, San Diego, California 921 17
Tel. (619) 270-7532
OZONE  MACHINES AND  AIR PURIFIERS
THE CUTTING EDGE, Owner Jules Klapper
PO. Box 5034, Southampton, New Y ork 1 1969
Tel. (800) 487-9516 or (516) 287-3813; F AX (516) 287-31 12

AIR PURIFIERS, INC.
220 Reservoir Street, Suite 22, Needham Heights, Massachusetts 02194
Tel. (800) 442-1237; F AX (781) 449-8099
NONT OXIC  PAINTS, SEALERS, ADHESIVES, AND HOUSEHOLD  CLEANERS
AMERICAN FORMULA TING & MANUF ACTURING
300 W est Ash Street, Suite 700, San Diego, California 92101
Tel. (619) 239-0321
NONT OXIC  CARPETING
SUTHERLIN CARPET MILL
3653 V ine Street, Norco, California 91760-1866
GERSON THERAPY SUPPOR T GROUPS
THE GERSON  THERAPY  PATIENT  SUPPOR T NETWORKThe Gerson Institute offers a means of contacting others who are currently
on the Gerson Therapy as a means of exchanging ideas, tips, and hints
during the difficult recovery period. If a Gerson patient wishes  to be listed
for communication with others and receive their names and locations,
please contact the Gerson Institute to receive the appropriate release and
authorization for disclosure and distribution.
CONT ACTS  FOR A GERSON  THERAPY  SUPPOR T GROUP
A number of Gerson Therapy Support Groups exist in the United States
and throughout the world. These groups are organized by long-term
recovered patients. They offer local seminars, orientation programs and
advice to callers considering or doing the Gerson Therapy. The Gerson
Institute maintai ns a current list of Support Groups. Please contact them to
be referred to a group near you or if you wish to establish a group of your
own.
OceanofPDF.comTHE ROOT CANAL AND DENT AL AMALGAM COVER-UP OF
CANCER AND OTHER DEGENERA TIVE DISEASES
The Root Canal Coverup  (ISBN 0-945196-19-9, U.S.$23) is a 1993 book
written by Geor ge E. Meinig, D.D.S., F.A.C.D. It is availabl e from him
directly by sending payment to his company, Bion Publishing, 323 East
Matilijia Street, #110-151, Ojai, California 93023. The book can also be
obtained from the Gerson Institute.
Dr. Meinig admits to having installed many root canal fillings  while he
practiced dentist ry and founded the Association of Root Canal Specialists,
which he chaired for many years. What the dentist learned when he
eventually studied the work of oral scientist Weston Price, D.D.S., changed
his thinking and professional life forever. Dr. Meinig discovered that
patients treated with root canal fillings suffer from a variety  of serious
chronic illnesses.
In order  to treat the root of a tooth, or an abscess that forms at the base of
this root, a dentist must drill any loose or infected material from the canal
that houses the tooth’ s nerve. Then the dentist can treat the abscess. But
once a nerve is dead and removed, this tooth also dies. Dr. Meinig’s book
gives the background of extensiv e and detailed research done on root canals
by W eston A. Price, D.D.S., F.A.C.D.
When Dr. Meinig became aware of the dangers inherent in the accepted
root canal treatment, he renounced his position at the Associat ion of Root
Canal Specialists. Now he spends his time and energies makin g the public
as well as dentists aware of the research conducted by Dr. Price.
The first indication of problems due to root canals came from one of Dr.
Price’ s patients who was bedfast and virtually paralyzed due to rheumatoid
arthritis. For necessary reasons, her root-canal-filled tooth was removed
although it looked healthy and normal on X rays. Within a few weeks the
patient was up; and after some months, she could walk and her health was
totally restored—no more rheumatoid arthritis.
Curious at the patient’ s positive response, Dr. Price recovered that
extracted tooth from storage, sterilized it thoroughly, and implanted it under
the skin of a rabbit in an in vivo experiment. Within five days, the rabbit
was victimized by the same disease, severe rheumatoid arthritis. And in tendays it died of this disease. Dr. Price implanted the same tooth under the
skin of thirty-th ree rabbits. In each case, the tooth caused arthr itis to occur
in the rabbit and killed the animal.
Going even further, Dr. Price performed more experiments with trying to
clear the apparently infectious material from extracted teeth. He autoclaved
them (sterilized by steam pressure, at 250°F, or 121°(C). This made no
difference. Each rabbit with the “sterilized” (autoclaved) tooth implanted
still developed the disease and died, usually within ten days.  Then, as a
control, Dr. Price implanted a healthy tooth under the skin of a rabbit. The
rabbit lived without showing any signs of problems for fifteen years, its
normal life span.
He published the results of this laboratory finding. Subsequen tly, many
other patients had root-canal-filled teeth extracted—some suffering from
kidney disease, others from cancer, heart disease, or arthritis. In virtually all
cases, the patien ts showed considerable improvement or even total recovery
after their offending teeth were removed. However, in each case, the rabbit
receiving the tooth died of the same disease that the patient exhibited.
To explain: When the nerve is removed from a tooth, it’s no longer living
or supplied with nutrients. It is dead. However, the normal structure of the
tooth includes tiny “canules” (similar to the capillaries in every human
tissue) that carry nutrients to the living tooth. Once the tooth is dead,
nutrients stop circulating throug h these canules; instead the canules become
infested with bacteria or viruses. Not only that, but the filling of the nerve
canal shrinks a tiny bit, enough for more microor ganisms to lodge there too.
None of this infection shows on dental X rays. A dead tooth is thus a
potent source of bacterial and viral toxins that spread throughout the body.
Many people with a good immune system and powerful defenses can live
with this constant source of trouble without showing any symptoms. For
others


 coﬀin complex
had been airtight and watertight.
Other expert s suggest that the Lady might have been a
consort of the Emperor Wu, who took an intense interest
in alchemy. Chinese scientists, X-raying the body later,
came to the conclusion that she had died of a heart attack,
but also had tuberculosis, gallstones and rheumati sm. Also
in the tomb were some herbal medicines such as are used
in cases of heart disease today.
OceanofPDF.com– 7 –
MINERALS AND PLANTS
The elixir and medicines were made from either vegetable,
mineral or animal elements, but mostly from the ﬁrst two;
there were also recipes that combined these ingredients.
Herbal medicines and drugs play a more importan t part in
Chinese alchemy than in the western branches. Plant-
produced drugs were supposed to give quick but more
transient results, while those from minerals were slower
but surer. ‘Reﬁned pine, cypress and thistles can be taken
but they are inferior to the great medicines [gold and
cinnabar] and last only ten years or less,’ Ko Hung
maintained. It was argued that gold and jade were better
ingredients than herbs since herbs decayed when  buried,
softened when cooked and turned to ashes when burned; if
they could not maintain themselves, it was argued, how
could they give lasting life to others? But although
authorities like Ko Hung assert that metals produce better
results in this world, it must be remembered that the
Immortals on the Isle of P'eng lai used herbs, since the
herbs of immortality grew  there and it was to obtain these
that the various expeditions were mounted.
Amongst plants, the pine and peach are the most
frequently mentioned. Pine needles, roots and resin were
considered highly eﬀicacious. One lady hsien  lived entirely
on a diet of pine needles and dew. The peach, like the Tree
of Life in the Western Paradise, is a fairy fruit, one bite of
which automatically confers immortality. There was also
the unidentiﬁed plant called chih, the most desirable of all;
it is referred to as ‘the divine herb,’ the ‘plant of
immortality.’ It grew in the Isles of the Immortals butcould also be found by mortals ‘in steep and dangerous
places, and on high mountains and in deep valleys.’
One of the most famous pills of longevity was the Fo-ti
Ting, which was said to contain kolo nuts, meadowsweet
and hydrocotya asiatica minor. This was the medicine
which the herbalist Li-chung claimed as the source of his
longevity—and he should know, having lived 256 years and
outlived twenty-three wives. He is an historical person and
his authenticated dates were 1677-1933. He was said to
look like a man in the prime of life and could outstrip
young men in walking. He practised Taoist yoga and
advocated ‘inner quiet’ as the chief means of attaining a
long life.
The mushroom, the ‘mag ic fungus,’ the ling-chih, is the
most important of plants and pre-eminent for its
rejuvenating qualities. It is frequently referred to, which is
not surprising in view of the known psychedelic and
hallucinogenic properties  of some fungi. These fungi were
widely used in Chinese art, together with the crane and
butterﬂy, as symbols of longevity and immortality.
Asparagus appears to impart considerable powers; it will
‘strengthen people and cause them to walk twice as fast as
would thistle  or knot-grass if taken for one hundred days.’
These powers became positively miraculous in the case of
one man, Tzu-wei, who took asparagus ‘with the result
that he had eighty concubines, sired a hundred and thirty
sons, and walked three hundred miles a day.’ Knot-grass,
also called hare-bamboo, is a restorative, but it is diﬀicult
to obtain suﬀicient quant ities of the ﬂowers, and ‘to derive
great beneﬁt from takin g it requires at least ten years.’
Thistle ‘make s men sleek and good carriers,’ but it is not
as easy to take as knotgr ass, though in time of famine ‘it
can be given to young and old in place of grain; those not
knowing the diﬀerence think it is dried meat made of rice.’
There were also cassia or cinnamon and a sort of root likeginger, while sesame ‘prevents senility and repairs the
ravages of old age.’ Pine has already been mentioned for
its needles, roots and resin; but the resin is of particular
importance in a diet in order to ‘render the body light and
prevent the onset of old age.’ The durability of the pine as
well as its believed preservative properties made it a
symbol of immortality; all evergreens have the same
symbolism, giving them value as the wood for making
coﬀins and accounting for their presence in cemeteries. In
addition to this there are ‘more than three hundred uses’
for the pine.
There were also strange and obscure plants and animals
and birds mentioned, some of which appeared to be able
to change places, for example, one unidentiﬁed plant
which grew on a sacred mountain by the sea, or on an
island, could assume the shape of a luminous animal with
head, four limbs and a tail; this, used in the right manner,
would enable the consumer to live one thousand years,
occasionally for ten thousand.
Nor is it merely longevity that could be conferr ed by
these plants or creatures; they could also impart the hsien
qualities. The sap of juniper, if spread on the soles of the
feet, enables one to walk on water, or if smeared on the
nose gives the ability to stay under water without
drowning; it also makes the body invisible if painted on the
skin, while wiping it oﬀ restores visibility. It is a universal
panacea against disease, either internal or external.
Naturally, in accordance with Taoist principles of
harmlessness, animals were not supposed to be used in
compounding medicines, only their by-products such as
dung or urine. One of the famous early physicians and
researchers was T'ao Hung Ching, who had a pupil who
became a hsien  before his master. T'ao Hung Ching then
enquired the reason and was told that he had been
advocating and writing on experiments which usedanimals and so caused harm to them. He revised his work
and only used herbs thereafter and became an immortal.
While herbs were used extensively, most alchemists, as
has been seen, regarded metal-based drugs as more
potent, on the grounds that plants were perishable while
metals endured. This was particularly true of incorruptible
gold, but there is some dispute as to whether any value
was set on actual gold in Chinese alchemy. While gold and
cinnabar are called the ‘Great Medicines,’ it is more likely
that by ‘gold’ is meant the golden cinnabar, or artiﬁcially
made gold. The query arises from the fact that the word
chin, used for gold, can equally be translated as simply
‘metal.’ Gold was a latecomer to Chinese alchemy as it was
scarce in China and only found in any quantity in early
times in the one district  of Kiangsi. Most of it had to be
imported from remote places such as Siberia, where it was
exchanged for silk. The Chinese native precious
substances were originally cinnabar and jade. It is
probable that much of the symbolism, ritual and magic
associated with gold was imported with it from its native
sources. While all other metals had speciﬁc names, the
term chih usually referred to copper or bronze, so it may
be assumed that gold was of less importance; the fact that
it is not mentioned in early Chinese classics or writings
before the end of the fourth century BC would appear to
conﬁrm this. It was not until Han times that gold became
distinguished as the ‘yellow metal.’ The word is used in the
I Ching  in hexagram 21, but here it is the colour yellow
that is important, rather than the metal, since yellow was
symbolic of the Centre, the Earth, power and dignity,
implying that man should be like gold in this respect.
Nor was gold used as a general currency, although it did
appear in one of the proto-feudal states. It was its value as
an imperishable substance, not its intrinsic worth, which
gave it its place in alchemy, the argument being  that itwould impart its imperishability if taken internally as a
medicine or elixir, or if fashioned into plates or drinking
vessels, from which it would transmit its qualities. The
same applied  to cinnabar and jade. Gold and jade items
were buried in imperial and aristocratic tombs and the
corpse was sometimes completely encased in jade mosaics
held together with gold thread. Jade was placed in every
oriﬁce of the body.
Gold was esteemed principally for its colour, an attitude


 mome nt of my
day.
Dear God,
Open my eyes that I might see
And open my ears that I might hear
The magnificence of everything.
Open my mind that I might know
And open my heart that I might feel
The radiance of everything.
Open my soul that I might r ealize
The miracle of Y ou.
Amen.DA Y 243
I  a m  w h o  G o d  c r e a t e d  m e  t o  b e.
I am a child of God. I was crea ted in a blinding flash of creativity, a
primal thought when God ext ended Himself in love. Everything He
touches is infused with His wonder, and He has touched me.
The perfect me isn’ t something  I need to create, because God has
already c reated it. The perfect m e is the love within me. I allow His spirit
to remove the fearful thinking that surrounds my perfect self, so I might
extend to all the world the light He placed in me.
May every thought I think and every feeling I feel be an extension
of God’ s love. May fear and illusion fall to the wayside as I
embrace the knowledge of who I r eally am. I am who He cr eated
me to be, and nothing else is r eal.DA Y 244
G o d  a n d  I  a r e  o n e.
G od is my source, who continues to fill me with His nurturance and
love. I am never without His sustenance, for in every moment He pours
into me His divine elixir. Every  cell within me opens up to receive His
light.
I d o not look to outer things to  complete me, for I am complete in
God. I do not look to outer things to sustain me, for I am sustained by
God. I need only  to realize who  I really am, and my relationship to Him.
I live in Him as He lives in me; my God and I are one.
God is closer to me than my br e ath. He is the light of compassion
and the power of for giveness. H e is the truth of my being and the
sour ce of my str ength. As long as I r emember this, I will know
who I am.DA Y 245
FOR REFLECTION
O n  L e t t i n g  G o  o f  W h o  W e  A r e n ’ t  S o  W e  C a n  B e
W h o  W e  A r e
W hen Mic helangelo was asked how he created a piece of sculpture, he
answered that the statue already existed within the marble. God Himself
had created the Pietà, David, M oses. Michelangelo’ s job, as he saw it,
was to get rid of the excess marble that surrounded God’ s creation.
So i t is with you. The perfect you isn’ t something you need to c reate,
because God already created it.  The perfect you is the love wi thin you.
Y our job  is to a llow God to rem ove the fearful thinking that s urrounds
your perfect self, just as excess marble surrounded Michelangelo’ s
perfect statue.
The grea t, enlig htened beings of the world are those who have done
that—who have actualized the spiritual potential that exists inside us all.
By following their path, we follow the path that leads to our own
enlightenment. O ur task is to drop the nonessential clutter that surrounds
our shining selves.DA Y 246
R e j e c t i o n  i s  n e v e r  o f  m y  t r u e  s e l f.
T he re al m e cann ot be rejected. I f someone doesn’ t see my beau ty, it’ s
not beca use it isn’ t there. If someone doesn’ t appreciate my v alue, it’ s
not because I’m less valuable. My value—like everyone’ s—is
inestimable because my value is established by God.
No one’ s opinio n can increase or diminish the truth of who I am.
May I accept oth ers as God acce pts me. May no one feel rejected by me,
that I might feel rejected by no one.
May I be lifted above the pain of r ejection, as I r emember that
who I r eally am cannot be r ejected. May God’ s acceptance mean
mor e to me than  the acceptance of any person, for it is based on
my true worth. May I always r emember, when dealing wit h
someone, to make them feel as a ccepted by me as I wish to be by
others.DA Y 247
T o d a y  I  w i l l  n o t  p l a y  s m a l l.
T oday I will not allow false modesty to keep me from claiming the
power w ithin m e. God placed it there to be used on His behalf, and I
serve no one by hiding my light. Pretending to be less than I  am is a
game that I play at my peril.
In tr uth I have only scratched the surface of the gifts I can give to the
world, and it is my mission while I’m on earth to give to life all  I have. I
arrived on this planet with a s tore of power, and so far I have only
allowed myself to experience but a fraction of it. As I devote this power
to be used in the service of the healing of the world, it will ignite into a
mighty force. Such is who I am.
T oday I see the beauty and power and importance in everyone,
that I might see it within myse lf. It is humble, not arr ogant, to
accept t he power of God withi n me. Nothing in the world can
match in importance the gifts that God has given me.DA Y 248
A l l  o f  u s  a r e  s p e c i a l  a n d  n o n e  o f  u s  a r e  s p e c i a l.
E very heart is fil led with a blazing potential for greatness. Eve ryone
carries the same eternal spark, the same seed of God within us. Everyone
is equal at the deepest level of our souls.
T oday m ay I recognize everyone  as a brother or sister on my journey
through life, struggling as I struggle and yearning as I yearn. May I
extend the compassion I wish to feel from others, to everyone I meet.
May my eyes thus be opened to the truth beyond the veil.
Dear God,
May I cast no one
Out of my heart today.
May I see everyone as my br other
In light
And my companion along the way.
May I see in all of us
The truth of Y ou.
Amen.DA Y 249
M y  s p i r i t u a l  j o u r n e y  i s  t h e  m e a n i n g  o f  m y  l i f e.
S pirituality is an inner fire, the m ystical sustenance that feeds my soul.
My spiritual journey drives me  into myself, to a sacred flame at the
center o f my being. This journ ey gives me eyes to see, and the inner
strength to live the mystery of the real.
W alking the roads of the outer journey, outside the blaze of mystical
truths, I am cold and spiritually lifeless. I am less than my potential when
I am  lost within the illusions of the world. T oday I awake to the world
beyond the veil, and find the meaning of my life at last.
May my eyes b e opened today, that they might penetrate th e
darkness of a w orld that has for gotten love. May my ears be
opened to hear t he cries of the heart that go out fr om every soul.
May I not be tempted by the thin king of the world to for get why I
am her e.DA Y 250
FOR REFLECTION
O n  R e m e m b e r i n g  W h o  W e  A r e
W e ar e heir to the laws that gov ern the world we identify in. If we
think of  ourselves as only being s of the mortal world, then the laws of
scarcity and death that rule this world, will rule us. If we think of
ourselves as children of God,  whose real home lies in a realm of
awareness beyo nd this world, th en we will find we are “under no laws
but God’ s.”
Our sense of who we are determines our behavior. If we think we’re
small, li mited, inadequate creat ures, then we tend to behave that way,
and the ener gy we radiate refl ects those thoughts. If we thi nk we’re
spiritual beings with an infinite abundance of love and power to bring to
the wor ld, then we tend to behave that way. Who we think we are
determines what we do; what we do then determines what we
experience; and what we experie nce then determines our suf fering or joy.
It’ s hard to overestimate the


 is exactly what happened. The man remained
free of both cancer and arthritis for a follow-up period of
six years.
This now-famous case is a landmark in mind-body
medicine, but unfortunately it is not the whole story. Dr.
Simonton’s visualization therapy (it has branched out into a
broad mind-b ody program ) does not reliably cure cancer.
One of my patients used it with success to cure herself of
breast cancer, I believe, although she practiced the
technique on her own and not under a doctor’s scrutiny.
Long-term statistical studies, however, dispute whether
such sporadic results are any better than those of
conventional treatment. At present, conventional  therapy
has a big edge. If a woman with breast cancer, for example,detects the tumor while it is still very small and localized,
the chances of curing her (a “cure” means surviving at
least three years without  a recurrence of the disease) are
currently better than 90 percent. In comparison, the
number of spontaneous remissions, at the most generous
estimate, would be well below 1⁄10 of 1 percent. Until a
mental or other alternative therapy outperforms radiation
and chemotherapy, it will not become the treatment of
choice. Although patients may long for such approaches,
most doctors still fear and distrust them.
But even if Dr. Simonton’s patient were one of a kind, he
is enough to rock our conception of how the body cures
itself, for here is nature ﬁnding a way to combat death that
no doctor had ever tried—and here also is the dark
possibility that what the doctor usually tries is not helping
nature but stiﬂing it.
Curious and adventurous doctors have ﬂocked to
experiment with mind-body innovations over the last
decade, from biofeedback and hypnotism to visualizations
and behavior modiﬁcation. The results across the board
have been amorphous and hard to interpret. Psychologist
Michael Lerner spent three years conducting an in-depth
study of forty clinics oﬀering alternative approaches to
cancer, whose metho ds ranged from herbs and
macrobiotics to visualization of positive mental images. He
found that these “complementary cancer centers” were
sought out by patients who were generally well educated
and prosperous, that the doctors running the clinics were
also serious and well intentioned, but that nothing close to
a cure for cancer had been discovered anywhere he visited.
When he interviewed the patients, a fairly large
proportion (40 percent) thought that they had experienced
at least a temporary improvement in the quality  of their
lives. Another 40 percent reported that they experienc ed
actual medical improvements in their condition, lastingfrom a few days to a number of years. About 10 percent fell
at the extreme ends of the spectrum, one group saying that
they got nothing from the treatment and the other that they
were now partially or wholly recovered from their disease.
Generally, the record of alternative approaches is that they
give a measure of comfort and relief to patients, but
disappointingly, the remission rates are not radically
diﬀerent from those of standard therapy.
There are other problems that run deeper than
inconsistent results: the mind-body ﬁeld continu es to be
plagued by an inability to rigorously prove its basic tenet,
that the mind inﬂuences the body toward either health or
disease. It seems utterly self-evid ent that sick people and
healthy people enjoy diﬀerent states of mind, but the causal
connection is still elusive. In 1985 a major study of breast
cancer conducted at the University of Pennsylva nia failed
to ﬁnd any correlation between the mental attitude of
patients and their chances of surviving their disease
beyond two years. In an editori al accompan ying the study,
which appeared in the prestigious New England Journal of
Medicine, the whole concept of emotions aﬀecting cancer
was denounced. “Our belief in disease as a direct reﬂection
of mental states,” the editorial declared, “is largely
folklore.”
In response, letters deluged the journal, most of them
from physicians who heatedly disagreed with the editorial’s
conclusion. It certainly seems unreasonable to discount
mental attitu des as a factor in illness, much less as folklore.
Every practicing physician knows that the patient’s will to
recover plays a vital part in his treatment. Wedded as they
are to “hard” medicine, most doctors nonetheless cannot
condone the idea that attitude, belief, and emotions do not
play their part. Hippocrates stated at the dawn of Western
medicine that “a patient who is mortally sick might yet
recover from belief in the goodness of his physician.”Numerous modern studies have corroborated this, by
showing that people who trust their doctor and surrender
themselves to his care are likelier to recover than those
who approach medicine with distrust, fear, and antagonism.
In the wake of the edito rial, tempers ﬂared and lines of
allegiance were drawn, while the issues became even more
confused. Three separa te studies of breast-cancer survival
rates from the mid-1980s came up with three entirely
diﬀerent results. In one, the women who displayed strong
positive attitudes tended to outlive those who were
negative, and it did not matter if their diseases were more
advanced—positive emotions, it seemed, helped them
recover from a late-sta ge, metastasized cancer, while
patients with negative emotions died from small tumors
that had been diagnosed relatively early.
A second study, however, found that any strong attitude,
if expressed rather than held back, helped in survival of
this very deadly disease. While the ﬁrst ﬁnding bolsters
common sense—the idea that positivity is better than
negativity—the second does much the same from  another
angle, the idea being that it is better to ﬁght than to give
up. Publicity was given to a so-called cancer personality,
who bottles up emotions and somehow converts repression
into malignant cells. The opposite would be the “strong will
to live” type, who can be either positive or negative.
All of this follows a certain logic, except for the study that
appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine  to begin
with, second ed by supporting studies, which found no
correlation between any emotional pattern and surviving
breast cancer beyond two years. Even as it grew in
popularity, becoming one of the most welcome innovations
since the Salk vaccine, the concept of mind-body medicine
was shaken. Now, a familiar pattern has emerged, in which
the public is informed of some elating break through,followed by disappointing  clinical results that are generally
known only in restricted medical circles.
A classic example was the division of heart-attack
patients, more than three-quarters of them middle-aged
males, into high-risk Type A personalities and low-risk Type
B’s. The Type A personality was supposed to be a hard-
driving, compulsive worker, constantly racing deadlines
and churning his system with stress hormones, as opposed
to the relaxed, tolerant, more balanced Type B. Type A
suﬀered from  “the disease of being in a hurry”; therefore, it
seemed logical that his heart would eventually rebel,
leading to a coronary.
Unfortunately, controlled  studies have indicated that this
widely accepted division is not so neat. It turns out that
most people have some Type A in them and some Type B,
and that tolerance for stress varies widely, with certain
groups stating that they thrive on it. Finally, a 1988 study
found that if a man actually has a heart attack, Type A’s
survive better than Type B’s. Their drive to succeed
apparently turns into a beneﬁt once the coronary strikes.
The intricacies of the mind-body relation were not to be
easily solved. If one asks why a positive mind cannot be
easily correla ted with good health—it appears to be one of
the most obvious facts of life—the answer has to do with
what you mean by “mind ” in the ﬁrst place. This is not a
philosophical question but a practical one. If a patient
comes in with cancer, is his mental state judged by how he
feels on the day of the diagnosis, long before,  or long
afterward? Dr. Lawrence LeShan, author of the pioneering
studies from the 1950s  correlating emotions to cancer,
went back into the childhoods of cancer patients to ﬁnd the
black seed that poisoned their psychology, and he theorized
that it lay dormant in the subconscious for years before
inducing their disease.In my own practice, I saw a lung-cancer patient who had
lived comfortably with a coin-sized lesion in his lungs for
ﬁve years. He did not even suspect that it was cancerous,
and since he was in his sixties, the lesion was growing
quite slowly. However, as soon as I told him that the lesion
was consistent with a diagnosis of lung cancer, he became
terribly agitated. Within a month he started to cough up
blood; within  three, he was dead. If his state of mind
contributed to this untoward haste, it apparently acted
quickly. This patient could live with his tumor, but he
couldn’t live with the diagnosis.
Even more basic