	blood	vessel	walls,	the	LDL	and	VLDL	versions	of	cholesterol	are
meant	to	take	a	different	pathway;	they	leave	the	bloodstream	in	the	liver. The	blood	vessels	supplying	the	liver	have	a	quite	different	structure	than	the	ones
supplying	other	parts	of	the	body. They	are	known	as
sinusoids. Their	unique,	grid-like
structure	permits	the	liver	cells	to	receive	the	entire	blood	content,	including	the	larger
cholesterol	molecules. The	liver	cells	rebuild	the	cholesterol	and	excrete	it,	along	with
bile,	into	the	intestines. Once	the	cholesterol	enters	the	intestines,	it	combines	with	fats,	is
absorbed	by	the	lymph,	and	enters	the	blood,	in	that	order. Gallstones	in	the	bile	ducts	of
the	liver	inhibit	bile	secretion	and	partially,	or	even	completely,	block	the	cholesterol’s
escape	route. Owing	to	backup	pressure	on	the	liver	cells,	bile	production	drops. Typically,
a	healthy	liver	produces	over	a	quart	of	bile	per	day. When	the	major	bile	ducts	are
blocked,	barely	a	cup	of	bile,	or	even	less,	will	find	its	way	to	the	intestines. This	prevents
much	of	the	VLDL	and	LDL	cholesterol	from	being	excreted	with	the	bile. Gallstones	in	the	liver	bile	ducts	distort	the	structural	framework	of	the	liver	lobules,
which	damages	and	congests	the	sinusoids. Deposits	of	excessive	protein	also	close	the
grid	holes	of	these	blood	vessels	(see	more	detailed	explanations	in	the	previous	section	or
in	the	book
Timeless	Secrets	of	Health	and	Rejuvenation
). Whereas	the	“good”	cholesterol
HDL	has	small	enough	molecules	to	leave	the	bloodstream	through	ordinary	capillaries,
the	larger	LDL	and	VLDL	molecules	are	more	or	less	trapped	in	the	blood. The	result	is
that	LDL	and	VLDL	concentrations	begin	to	rise	in	the	blood	to	levels	that	seem
potentially	harmful	to	the	body. Yet	even	this	scenario	is	merely	part	of	the	body’s	survival
tactics. The	body	needs	the	extra	cholesterol	to	patch	up	the	increasing	number	of	cracksand	wounds	that	are	formed	because	of	the	accumulation	of	excessive	protein	in	the	blood
vessel	walls. Eventually,	though,	even	the	life-saving	“bad”	cholesterol,	which	rushes	to
every	wound	or	injured	site	in	the	body,	cannot	completely	prevent	blood	clot	formation	in
a	coronary	artery,	in	which	event	one	of	the	escaping	blood	clots	may	enter	the	heart	and
cut	off	its	oxygen	supply. In	addition	to	this	complication,	reduced	bile	secretion	impairs	the	digestion	of	food,
particularly	fats. Therefore,	not	enough	cholesterol	is	available	for	basic	cell	metabolism. Since	the	liver	cells	no	longer	receive	sufficient	amounts	of	LDL	and	VLDL	molecules,
those	liver	cells	assume	that	the	blood	is	deficient	in	these	types	of	cholesterol. This
stimulates	the	liver	cells	to	increase	the	production	of	cholesterol,	further	raising	the	levels
of	LDL	and	VLDL	cholesterol	in	the	blood. Hence,	the	“bad”	cholesterol	is	trapped	in	the
circulatory	system	because	its	escape	routes,	the	bile	ducts	and	the	liver	sinusoids,	are
blocked	or	damaged. The	arteries	attach	as	much	of	the	“bad”	cholesterol	to	their	walls	as
they	possibly	can. Consequently,	the	arterial	walls	become	rigid	and	hard,	which	is	still
better,	though,	than	having	all	their	wounds	and	lesions	exposed	to	the	gushing	blood
stream. Coronary	heart	disease,	regardless	of	whether	it	is	caused	by	smoking,	drinking
excessive	amounts	of	alcohol,	overeating	protein	foods,	stress,	or	any	other	factor,	usually
does	not	occur	unless	gallstones	have	impacted	the	bile	ducts	of	the	liver. Removing
gallstones	from	the	liver	and	gallbladder	cannot	only	prevent	a	heart	attack	or	stroke,	but
can	also	help	reverse	coronary	heart	disease	and	heart	muscle	damage. Cholesterol	levels
begin	to	normalize	as	the	distorted	and	damaged	liver	lobules	regenerate	themselves. Cholesterol-lowering	drugs	(statins)	don’t	bring	the	body	back	to	a	healthful	condition
in	which	the	liver	can	normalize	blood	cholesterol. Instead,	statins	artificially	lower	the
level	of	cholesterol	in	the	blood	by	blocking	the	enzyme	in	the	liver	that	is	responsible	for
making	cholesterol. However,	by	creating	an	artificial	“cholesterol	famine”	in	the	liver,
bile	is	not	formed	properly,	which	increases	the	risk	of	gallstones	and	hinders	the	proper
digestion	of	food. The	side	effects	of	statins	are	numerous;	they	include	kidney	failure,
liver	disease,	and	yes,	heart	disease	(for	more	information	on	statins	see
Timeless	Secrets
of	Health	and	Rejuvenation
). Cholesterol	is	essential	for	the	normal	functioning	of	the	immune	system,	particularly
for	the	body’s	response	to	the	millions	of	cancer	cells	that	every	person’s	body	makes	each
day	(the	immune	system	tracks	down	these	cells	and	kills	them	through	a	sophisticated
arsenal	of	weaponry,	including	the	drilling	of	holes	into	the	cell	walls	and	pumping	of	a
fluid	into	the	cell’s	interior,	causing	them	to	burst	and	die;	for	more	detailed	information
about	what	causes	cancer	and	how	to	heal	it,	see
Cancer	Is	Not	A	Disease—It’s	A	Survival
Mechanism
). Despite	all	the	health	problems	associated	with	high	cholesterol	levels,	this	important
substance	is
not
	something	we	should	try	to	eliminate	from	our	bodies. Cholesterol	does
far	more	good	than	harm. The	harm	is	generally	symptomatic	of	other	problems. I	wish	to
emphasize,	once	again,	that	“bad”	cholesterol	only	attaches	itself	to	the	walls	of	arteries	to
avert	immediate	heart	trouble—not	to	cause	it. The	body	has	no	intention	to	commit
suicide,	even	if	doctors	like	to	imply	this	by	the	use	of	suppressive,	intervening	treatments. The	fact	that	cholesterol	never	attaches	itself	to	the	walls	of	veins	should	be	part	of	the
cholesterol	discussion. When	a	doctor	tests	your	cholesterol	levels,	she	takes	the	blood
sample	from	a	vein,	not	from	an	artery. Because	blood	flow	is	much	slower	in	veins	than
in	arteries,	cholesterol	should	obstruct	veins	much	more	readily	than	arteries,	but	it	never
does. There	simply	is	no	need	for	that. Why. Because	there	are	no	abrasions	or	tears	in	the
lining	of	the	vein	that	require	patching	up. Cholesterol	only	affixes	itself	to	arteries	in
order	to	coat	and	cover	the	abrasions	and	protect	the	underlying	tissue,	like	a	waterproof
bandage. Veins	do	not	absorb	proteins	in	their	basal	membranes	like	capillaries	and
arteries	do	and,	therefore,	are	not	prone	to	this	type	of	injury. “Bad”	cholesterol
saves
	lives;	it	does
not
	take	lives. LDL	allows	the	blood	to	flow
through	injured	blood	vessels	without	causing	a	life-endanger


 e speaking feels what we have chosen r egardless
of our wor ds. The choice to join is the k ey to communication
because it is the k ey to communion. The point is not to seek
our goal in a communication, but to ﬁnd a pur e ground of
being fr om which to mount our message. W e don’t seek
joining thr ough our wor ds; we accept the thought that we
are joined with the other person befor e we speak. That
acceptance is itself a miracle. The teacher of God is a ﬁnely -tuned intuitional
instrument. A Course in Miracles  says we’r e to listen to our
brother, ﬁrst and for emost. If we’r e supposed to speak, He’ll
let us know. Jesus once sent His disciples out into the
countryside and told them to teach the gospel. “What shallwe say?” they ask ed Him. His answer was, “I’ll tell you when
you get ther e.” W e’re not to try to ﬁgur e out what to say to
a brother. It is mer ely our job to ask the Holy Spirit to purif y
our per ceptions of the other person. F rom that place within,
and only fr om that place, will we ﬁnd the power of wor ds
and the power of silence, which bring the peace of God. 16. COMMITMENT
“Whom God hath br ought together, the ego
cannot put asunder.”
A Course in Miracles  says we ar e to have total commitment
in all of our r elationships, and they will never compete with
one another. Commitment in a r elationship means
commitment to the pr ocess of mutual understanding and
forgiveness—no matter how many conversations it tak es,
nor how uncomfortable those conversations might
sometimes be. When we physically separate fr om someone we’ve been
involved with, that doesn’t mean the r elationship is over. Relationships ar e eter nal. The “separation ” is another
chapter in the r elationship. Of ten, letting go of the old for m
of the r elationship becomes a lesson in pur e love much
deeper than any that would have been lear ned had the
couple stayed together. At the so -called end of r elationships,
I have sometimes felt lik e I was falling in love with the
person mor e deeply than I had been befor e. What I’ve
discover ed for myself is that the Holy Spirit sometimes pulls
out all the stops at that moment, simply because it tak es all
the love we’r e capable of to let a person go. “I love you so
much that I can r elease you to be wher e you need to be, to
go wher e you need to go.” This moment in a r elationship is
not about an ending. It’s about the ultimate fulﬁllment ofthe purpose in any r elationship: that we ﬁnd the meaning of
pure love. Sometimes the lesson to be lear ned in a r elationship is
how to hang in ther e and try to work things out. Other
times, the lesson to be lear ned is how to e xit a situation that
doesn’t serve. No one can deter mine for another person
what principle applies in what cir cumstance. It is ultimately
our connection to the Holy Spirit, our own intuitional
guidance, that alone can lead us to the higher unfoldment
of events thr ough the deepest understanding. I have said in many lectur es, “Never abandon a person
when you’r e leaving.” What does that mean? It means that
it’s important for us to honor the eter nal natur e of
relationships. When r elationships change for m, their content
need not be diminished. The ego says, “ Look, it’s over with
them. It didn’t work out. We’re no longer together. What
was, was. I’m with someone new now.” The “e x” becomes a
second-rate citizen. Of ten the new mate feels justiﬁed in
saying, “Why ar e you talking to them? W e’re together now.”
Woe to the person who doesn’t support the healing between
a man or woman and their e x. Ultimately you discover that
how the person tr eated the last one is e xactly how they’ll
treat you. W e feel jealousy, the need to hold on to what
we’ve got, because in this ar ea, as in every other, the ego
says that ther e’s only so much love to go ar ound, that
another person’s good tak es away fr om our own. The ego is
a belief in ﬁnite r esour ces, but love is inﬁnite. Whenever
love is added to any part of the system, ther e is an incr ease
to every part. L ove only gives rise to mor e love. If my
husband or boyfriend heals with his past r elationships, it
only incr eases his capacity to love me fr om a healed and
whole place. The last woman in his life is not my
competition. She is my sister.A man I once knew came over to my house for dinner. We
had been dating a short time, and I ask ed him what he had
been doing all day. He told me he had been working on a
script with his last girlfriend, who was still his writing
partner. He told me that they had gotten into a pr etty stick y
conversation about their r elationship. She was still hurt,
having a har d time letting go, the same stuﬀ we all know. I
asked him how they had lef t it. He said she was pr etty
upset. I put down the food I was pr eparing, look ed him in
the eye and said, “Go call her.” The thought of that woman
being on the other side of town somewher e, enduring that
horrible anxiety while we sat down to a r omantic dinner,
was har d for me to bear. I had been in her place. How totally
unethical it would have been for me not to support that
woman in her feelings. “You don’t mind?” he said. “Not at all,” I told him. “ Dinner can wait.”
Our needs ar e not separate. If we contribute to another
person’s pain, it will always come back to haunt us. If we do
what we can to help them, someone will always come
around to do the same for us. It’s not enough to sit idly by
while others hurt, using the catchall phrase “It’s not my
responsibility” or “It would be codependent of me to get
involved” as an e xcuse for a selﬁsh stance. A woman once
said to me af ter a situation in which I felt betrayed, “I never
intended to hurt you.” I said, “ But you never intended to
love me, either.” Love is not neutral. It tak es a stand. It is a
commitment to the attainment of the conditions of peace
for everyone involved in a situation. 17. F AITH IN RELA TIONSHIPS“Faith is the acknowledgement of union.”
Often we long for another person because, in an invisible,
intangible r ealm, we’r e still communicating, still connecting,
still seeking r esolution. P eople will say, “You’re being
neurotic. It’s time to let go.” But ther e was a time when
widows wor e weeds for a year; grief was understood,
acknowledged, validated. It’s not neur otic to grieve a
relationship; what’s neur otic is when we don’t. On some
level, no matter how disassociated fr om our feelings we
might be, every r elationship brings hope—hope that this
might be a safe place, a haven, a r est af ter all our battles. When a r elationship doesn’t work out, for whatever
reason, our disappointment is natural. Every intense
encounter r epresents a deep and complicated k armic
connection. An ending r elationship is much lik e a death, and
in many cases the sadness is even gr eater. When someone
has died, ther e has of ten been completion and
understanding that doesn’t occur when both people ar e
alive but have separated without higher awar eness. P erhaps
the one we love is simply on the other side of town now,
sleeping with someone else, yet they ar e really universes
away since the r esolution we so crave has not occur red. There’s no need to pr etend this isn’t a knife to the heart. It
is, and ther e’s nothing to do but cry the tears that gush
forth lik e blood fr om a wound. ‘Now is the time for faith.’ L et us be sof tened by our
tears. When emotional knives hit the heart, walls crumble
that didn’t belong ther e to begin with. W e can lear n then. We can lear n what is illusion and what is r eal. W e can lear n
that idols can never ever be trusted, and we can lear n about
a love that never, ever leaves.There are many conﬂicts in r elationships that try our
faith. One of


 “infinite, et ernally present, the
mother o f the universe.” Natural ly, women are closer to it than m en since
they virt ually “e mbody” the Unmanifested. What is more, all creatures
and all things must eventually return to the Source. “All things vanish
into the T ao. It alone endures.” Since the Source is seen as female, this is
represented as the light and dark sides of the archetypal fem inine in
psychology and mythology. The Goddess or Divine Mother has two
aspects: She gives life, and she takes life.When the mind took over and humans lost touch with the realit y of their
divine e ssence, they started to think of God as a male figure. Society
became male-dominated, and th e female was made subordinate to the
male. I am  not suggesting a return to earlier female representations of the
divine. Some people now use the term Goddess  i nst ead of God. They are
redressing a balance between m ale and female that was lost a l ong time
ago, and that is good. But it is still a representation and a concept,
perhaps tempora rily useful, just as a map or a signpost is temporarily
useful, b ut more a hindrance th an a help when you are ready t o realize
the reality beyond all concept s and images. What does rem ain true,
however, is that the ener gy frequency of the mind appears to be
essentially male. The mind resi sts, fights for control, uses, man ipulates,
attacks, tries to grasp and possess, and so on. This is why the traditional
God is a patria rchal, controllin g authority figure, an often angry man
who you  should  live in fear of, as the Old T estament suggests. This God
is a projection of the human mind. T o g o b eyond th e mind and rec onnect with the deeper reality o f Being,
very dif ferent qualities are needed: surrender, non-judgment, an openness
that allo ws life to be instead of r esisting it, the capacity to hold all things
in th e loving em brace of your knowing. All these qualities a re much
more closely related to the fem ale principle. Whereas mind-ener gy is
hard and rigid, Being-ener gy is soft and yielding and yet infinitely more
powerful than mind. The mind r uns our civilization, whereas Being is in
char ge of all life on our planet and beyond. Being is the very Intelli gence
whose visible manifestation is the physical universe. Although women
are potentially closer to it, men can also access it within themselves. At this time, the vast majority o f men as well as women are still in the
grip of the mind: identified with the thinker and the pain-body. This, of
course, is what prevents enlightenment and the flowering of love. As a
general rule, the major obstacle for men tends to be the thinking mind,
and the major obstacle for women the pain-body, although in certain
individual cases  the opposite m ay be true, and in others the tw o factors
may be equal. DISSOL VING THE COLLECTIVE FEMALE P AIN-BODYWhy is the pain-body mor e of an obstacle for women? The pain -body u sually has a col lective as well as a personal aspect. The
personal aspect is the accumula ted residue of emotional pain su f fered in
one’ s ow n past. The collective one is the pain accumulate d in the
collective human psyche over thousands of years through disease,
torture, war, murder, cruelty, m adness, and so on. Everyone’ s personal
pain-body also partakes of this collective pain-body. There are dif ferent
strands in the collective pain -body. For example, certain races or
countries in which extreme forms of strife and violence occu r have a
heavier collective pain-body than others. Anyone with a strong pain-
body and not enough consciousness to disidentify from it will not only
continuously or periodically be forced to relive their emotional  pain but
may also easily become either t he perpetrator or the victim of violence,
depending on whether their pain-body is predominantly active or
passive. On the other hand, they may also be potentially closer to
enlightenment. This potential is n’ t necessarily realized, of course, but if
you are trapped in a nightmare you will probably be more strongly
motivated to awaken than som eone who is just caught in the ups and
downs of an ordinary dream. Apart fr om her personal pain-bo dy, every woman has her share in what
could be described as the colle ctive female pain-body — unless she is
fully conscious. This consists of accumulated pain suf fered by women
partly through male subjugation of the female, through slavery,
exploitation, rape, childbirth, child loss, and so on, over thousands of
years. T he emotional or physical pain that for many women precedes and
coincides with the menstrual flow is the pain-body in its collective aspect
that awakens from its dormancy at that time, although it can be triggered
at other times t oo. It restricts the free flow of life ener gy thr ough the
body, of which menstruation is a  physical expression. Let’ s dwell on this
for a moment and see how  it can become an opportu nity for
enlightenment. Often a woman is “taken over”  by the pain-body at that time. It has an
extremely powerful ener getic char ge that can easily pull you into
unconscious identification with it. Y ou are then actively possess ed by anener gy field that occupies your inner space and pretends to be you —
but, of course, is  not you at all. It speaks through you, acts through you,
thinks th rough y ou. It will create negative situations in your life so that it
can feed on the  ener gy. It wants more pain, in whatever form. I have
described this process already. It can be vicious and destructive. It is pure
pain, past pain — and it is not you. The number of women who ar e now approaching the fully c onscious
state already exceeds that of me n and will be growing even faster in the
years to come. Men may catch up with them in the end, but for some
considerable time there will be a gap between the consciousnes s of men
and that of women. W omen a re regaining the function that is their
birthright and, therefore, comes  to them more naturally than it does to
men: to be a bridge between the manifested world and the Unma nifested,
between physicality and spirit. Y our main task as a woman now is to
transmute the pain-body so that it no longer comes between you and your
true self, the essence of who you are. Of course, you also hav e to deal
with the other obstacle to enligh tenment, which is the thinking m ind, but
the i ntense presence you genera te when dealing with the pain-b ody will
also free you from identification with the mind. The first thing t o remember is t his: As long as you make an identity for
yourself out of t he pain, you cannot become free of it. As long as part of
your sense of self is investe d in your emotional pain, you will
unconsciously re sist or sabotage every attempt that you make to heal that
pain. Why? Quite simply because you want to keep yourself intact, and
the pain has become an essential part of you. This is an unconscious
process, and the only way to overcome it is to make it conscious. T o s uddenly see that you are or have been attached to your pai n can be
quite a shocking realization. The moment you realize this, you have
broken the attachment. The pain-body is an ener gy field, almos t like an
entity, th at has become tempora rily lodged in your inner space. It is life
ener gy that has become trapped, ener gy that is no longer flowing. Of
course, the pain-body is there because of certain things that happened in
the past. It is  the living past in you, and if you identify with it, you
identify with the past. A victim identity is the belief that the past is more
powerful than the present, which is the opposite of the truth. It is the
belief that other people and what they did to you are responsible for who
you are now, fo r your emotional pain or your inability to be your trueself. Th e truth is that the only power there is is contained w ithin this
moment: It is the power of your presence. Once you know that,  you also
realize that you  ar e responsible for your inner s pace now — nobody else
is — and that the past cannot prevail against the power of the Now. So identification  prevents you from dealing with the pain-body. Some
women who are already consc ious enough to have relinquished their
victim id entity o n the personal level are still holding on to a collective
victim identity: “what men did to women.” They are right — and they
are also wrong. They are right inasmuch as the collective female pain-
body is  in lar g e part due to male violence inflicted on women an d
repression of the female princip le throughout the planet over millennia. They are wrong if they derive a


, M.D., advised
that such a cancer cannot be completely excised by surgery because the
procedure woul d negatively affect the use of his right arm. Dr. Martinez
conjectured that the new cancer  might be a delayed adverse side effect of
the original radiation therapy that Senor Lechuga had unde rgone some
twenty years before.Three weeks after entering the Oasis Hospital, he left to follow the
Gerson Therapy at home. While the specific diagnosis of disease remained
uncertain, there was no doubt that this eighty-six-year -old man once again
needed to fight for his life—but with a different form of cancer. Then,
during the last week of Novemb er 1999, Senor Jesus Lechuga Valdez died
suddenly of heart failure. (See Illustration 21-2 depicting Senor Lechuga). A F OUR TEEN -YEAR RECOVER Y FROM OVARIAN  CANCER
In Nove mber 1999, while taking maintenance care at the Oasis Hots-
pital, the only official Gerson Therapy facility in Tijuana, Mexico, fifty-
one-year -old Sandra Whitwell, now of Stuart, Virginia, described her
permanent recovery from carcinoma of the ovary. Sandra currently works as
a nanny and nutritionist. Fourteen years ago ovarian cancer had threatened
her life; today she shares her story about using the Gerson Therapy to cure
herself of the most common gynecologic malignancy. As the fourth most frequent cause of cancer death in American women,
ovarian cancer ’s mortality rate exceeds that for all of the other gynecologic
malignancies combined. Every seventieth woman develops it, and 1 in
every 100 dies from the tumorous growth at its primary site or from
metastases. Arising from cells covering the surface of an ovary (epithelial
carcinoma), in 1997 in the United States 26,800 ovarian cancers were
diagnosed, whic h caused 14,200 deaths. Subsequent years have shown even
higher incidence. Despite all of the money invested in research by
American taxpayers, the incidence of ovarian cancer is rising steadily. Cancer of the ovary spreads by a shedding of malignant cells into the
abdominal cavit y and the peritoneum (its covering membrane) and then
implanting on the surface of the liver, the large intestine, the omentum, the
small intestine, the bladder, the diaphragm, or the stomach’ s attached fatty
tissue. Ovarian cancer cells also metastasize to lymph nodes in the pelvis,
aorta, groin, and neck. Talcum powder containing asbestos is suspected as
one of the probable causes.7
Sandra Whitwel l’s ovarian cancer came upon her gradually starting with
the breakdown of her body when she was seventeen years old. Invariably
her menstrual periods were beset with unbearable cramps, and these carried
over to her early twenties when she married Lawrence Whitwell, aNashville, Tennessee, policeman. “My painful menstruation was abnormal
and an indication of ovarian problems to come,” advises Sandra. “By age
twenty-three, cysts had developed on both of my ovaries which were
removed by surgery. Next, endometriosis struck, which required more
surgery to scrape the endometriu m. After each of these two operations I had
been asked by the consulting surgeons as to whether I had ever been
pregnant, and I had not. They never explained why they wanted to know
about pregnancy, but the doctors seemed anxious to perform an
ovariectomy or hysterectomy on me. “I never gave birth to a child. We adopted our son, Aaron, as a baby. But
then, when he was three years old his daddy was killed in the line of police
duty,” she revea ls. “Ovarian cysts formed again, one of them the size of a
baseball, and these were excised. After recuperating from a third operation
for cyst remova l, I had begun running for exercise—at least four miles a
day. I enjoyed the running and thrived on it. This vigorous daily movement
continued for me over an eight-year period. Early in 1985, however,
running stopped  abruptly for me. I awakened one morning in tremendous
pain and with a distended fluid- filled abdomen [ascites],” describes Sandra. “The operation that followed for removal of a grapefruit-sized cyst also
included a hysterectomy, which left me feeling awful pain. Two days later
my gynecologis t together with the gynecological surgeon told me I was the
victim of ovarian cancer. They wanted to go back in and take biopsy tissue
from the ovaries and several other or gans. “Since blood transfusions were required as well, and this was during the
time when AIDS resulted from  such transfusions, I refused the operation
and three pints of blood that went with it. Simultaneously, my health
insurance carrier did not honor our insurance contract. The insurance
company just outright canceled  my coverage,” Sandra states. “Upon my
contacting a lawyer to enforce reimbursement, he informed me that a
loophole in the policy allowed such cancelation under terms stating that this
ovarian cancer was a ‘preexistin g condition.’ I was just out of luck unless I
had lots of money to pay court costs and legal fees for litigation without any
guarantee I would win. “Having no treatment available to me, I left the hospital after resting for
seven days diagnosed with ovarian cancer. At age thirty-six, I was alone, a
widow, the mother of a seven-year -old son showing diabetic tendencies, and
without income. Except that I owned my Nashville house and some smallcompensation from my husband ’s death, I could not afford the sophisticated
chemotherapy or other toxic modalities being offered by orthodox
medicine. But I do have loving parents living in Stuart, V irginia, who would
do anything to save my life, and they were the people who did just that. “My mother, who has nursed cancer patients, did research and helped me
in decid ing to do nothing rathe r than take toxic therapy. With assistance
from mom and dad in caring for Aaron, I moved in with my parents. Then a
friend from Alaska sent me information about the Gerson Therapy,” Sandra
says. “Sitting with them in their living room, I remember watching
videotapes showing lectures by Charlotte Gerson. My mom said, ‘This
program makes  so much sense. Feed the immune system and give it a
chance to fight off the cancer itself.’ So not having hospital insurance was a
benefit, because I couldn’ t even consider taking any conventional therapy. “Accompanied by my mother as companion and caregiver, I traveled to
Tijuana’ s Gerso n Hospital. My intent was to receive the Gers on Therapy
and take instructions in following it at home. The trip occurred in
September 1985, exactly one month after my hysterectomy and cancer
diagnosis. Durin g that short period before learning the Gerson program, I
became what looked like a bag of bones,” describes Sandra. “My weight
loss was excess ive, falling from 120 to 92 pounds. With a height of five
feet, six-and-a-half inches, I looked really skinny. I was weak to the point of
collapse, and I did remain bedridden for four months. Only the love and
devotion of my caregiving parents pulled me through that worst period of
my life. “But first spend ing ten days at La Gloria Hospital to learn the Gerson
Therapy, and then returning to my parents’ home to be nursed by them,
saved me. I had rented my Nashville house to fellow church members. Then
bringing my son, I moved in with my mother and dad,” expla ins Sandra. “At the Gerson hospital, I immediately underwent detoxification reactions
—many of them—including emotional depression, many tears, constant
nausea, vomiting, headaches, burning sensations from taking castor oil both
orally and rectally, loss of appe tite, sleeplessness, whole body pain in the
joints, muscles, and bones. And I smelled like permanent-waving solution. It was my habit  to periodically take hair permanents, perhaps five times a
year, and that poisonous liquid  had permeated my body organs to poison
them. The Gerson Therapy pulle d out those accumulated toxins, and I gave
off the stinky odor of permanent-waving solution. I reeked of perm.”A lesson learned from Sandra Whitwell is that a person becomes what he
or she puts into and onto the body. That is, eat garbagelike foods and you
become garbage. Consume carcinogens and you turn into a walking cancer
factory. Bathe a body part in poison as Sandra did to her head, and you
make the entire  body a recepta cle for cancer. To stay healthy, you must
expose yourself only to good stuf f.
“Out of ignorance, I harmed myself with convenience or so-called
‘beauty’ items. In college, I had my room and the halls of that dormitory
smelling really bad from the permanent-waving liquid. Just think of all the
contaminated air I inhaled. Also, before I knew better, it had been my habit
to drink up to three full, six-cup pots of coffee a day,” admits Sandra. “But
instruction in the Gerson


path to personal maturity, and the universe will move us along whether we
want it to or not. Every relationship, in fact every encounter, gives us the
opportunity as well as the challenge to rise to the perfection we’re capable
of. We can fall into the morass of our ego wounds, but we can also choose
not to. Jesus will help us if we ask him to. How often people abandon one another when the wound is too great and
the forgiveness too weak. And sometimes the consequences are tragic. It’s
often said that love brings up everything unlike itself, the ego never more
activated than when two people’ s hearts are joined. Everything comes up
for review and release, no ground more treacherous at times—or more holy
—than the ground of love. Jesus secures our connection to others because he is our connection to
others. Calling on him is a request for help that rings throughout the
universe and is capable of changing it. Dear Jesus,
Please take into your hands
my relationship with ________. Lift our r elationship to divine right or der. May a wave of for giveness come upon us both, dissolving all walls that would divide us. May
we only see the innocence in ourselves and in each other. Free us of our fears of love, Dear
God. Heal us of our wounds, that we might no longer wound each other. Amen
The only way to feel close to God is if we’re at least willing to grow
closer to people. And obviously  that’s not always easy. Relatin g to another
human being can be like looking in the mirror and starting to attack the
glass. Since on the level of mind there’ s no separation between us, what we
do to others we are doing to ourselves. When we attack anyone, even in ourminds, it is as though we are bringing a sword down on their head, but
actually it is falling on ours. This is from A Course in Miracles :
A jailer is not free, for he is bound together with his prisoner. He must be sure that he does
not escape, and so he spends his time in keeping watch  on him. The bars that limit him become
the world in which his jailer lives, along  with him. And it is on his freedom that the way to
liberty depends for both of them. Therefore, hold no one prisoner. Release instead of bind, for thus are you made free. The
way is simple. Every time you feel a stab of anger, realize you hold a swor d above your head. And it will fall or be averted as you choose to be condemned or free. Thus does each one who
seems to tempt you to be angry represent your savior from the prison house of death. And so you
owe him thanks instead of pain. * (WB-366)
We become willing to see the innocence in others, then, so that we
might no longer  be tempted to attack ourselves. Heaven is an awareness of
our oneness; therefore any thoug ht of lovelessness toward another denies us
the experience of heaven. The peace of heaven is entered two by two. If God created me perfect, then that means He created everyone else
that way as well. God loves you infinitely, yes, but so too He loves
everyone else. It’s difficult for the mortal mind to even grasp the infinitude
of God’s love, and Jesus will help us when we falter. He lifts the mind
above thoughts of separation, transcending fully the thinking of the world,
reminding us how to love another person that we might truly love ourselves. Life’ s relationship lessons are always occurring. There is no
insignificant encounter because  in God’ s eyes there are no insignificant
people. The lesson might be the ethical move we may or may not be
making; the kindness or patien ce we may or may not be showing; the
person who’ s helped us toward  whom we may or may not be showing
gratitude; the person we may be blaming when instead we could forgive. Every relationship is a lesson in learning how to claim, and express, the
love that is who we are. Any time two people join, it will be a holy or an unholy encounter. Either spirit or ego will have its way with us. We’ll either meet soul to soul
or mask to mask. Our spirits are always leaning toward each other, while
our egos are always leaning away. Yet the choice is always ours. If you’re about to meet someone, before
you even walk into the room where they are, the most powerful thing you
can do is to pray for their happiness. Pray to see their innocenc e. Pray that
God use the relationship for purposes of good. Pray that the relationshipblesses both of you, allowing you the opportunity to see each other ’s
innocence. See Jesus with his arms around you both. This directs your mind to the field you wish to inhabit, the realm of love
instead of fear. It sucks the oxygen out of thoughts like “I’m  afraid they
won’ t like me.” For where there is light there cannot be darkness. Where
the mind is attun ed to God, it cannot be attuned to neurotic thought. Jesus is
a method of attunement. He will lift both of you above the illusion of
separation to the field where you are one. Years ago I was invited to a business meeting with some women in New
York. I don’t know what made me such an abject failure at all this that day. I don’t rememb er not meditating that morning, although I do remember I
came to the meeting straight from the airport. The one thing I do know is
that on that day I definitely didn’ t practice what I preach. For whatever reason, I had a negative attitude from the moment I
entered the room. I even said to someone sitting next to me, “God, I hate
meetings like this, don’t you?” And that’s when I started to see what was
happening. I realized that every  woman at the table had a look on her face
somewhere between shock and serious disappointment. Clearly, they had
thought Marianne Williamson wouldn’ t be like this. They thought I would
be... well... nicer. That was severa l years ago, and I still feel a pang of embarr assment
every time I remember it. One thing it did for me, for sure, was to make me
take very seriously how important it is to bless a room before I enter. As we bless others, we are blessing ourselves. The love we’re seeking in
life is love that we ourselves must generate. The love we give will be
returned to us, and the love we withhold will be withheld from us. We
might not see this immediately, but the law is inviolable. Do unto others as
you would have others do unto you because they will. Or someone else will. An idea doesn’ t leave its source and what we put out will be returned to us. Love is always available, but it must be consciously chosen. The ego
very slyly resists this, so obsessed with the love we’re not getting that little
room is left to consider what love we might not be giving. The ego is
outraged at the thought that someone might not be loving us perfectly every
minute of every day. Like a scavenger dog, the ego seeks any scrap of evidence of our
brother ’s guilt. Maybe someone didn’ t fold their laundry correctly! Maybe
they had the audacity to disagree  with us about something! The ego will useanything to separate us from others. If I’m focused on your guilt, then by
definition I’m seeing you as different from me, therefore separa te from me. Thus the separation is fortified. Always vigilant on behalf of its survival,
the ego is the mind of constant judgment. Literally nothing and no one is
ever allowed to be good enough. It’s often only in retrospect that we realize how we blocked love in a
relationship; at the time we were so sure the guilty party was the other
person, then later realized we ourselves were no better. At the time, we just
thought we were setting boundaries! Standing up for ourselves! Refusing to
be codependent! In love we are often blind until it’s too late. For the ego is
our self-hatred often masquerading as self-love. Its insidious dictate in love
is “seek but do not find”* (T -343). All that is why it’s important to pray early, at the beginni ng of a
relationship. And then of course  to pray without ceasing. I’ve noticed that
when I don’t know how to deal with a situation in a loving  way—if it
triggers me or constricts my heart for whatever reason—as long as I pray, as
long as I’m willing to see things differently, Spirit comes rushin g to my aid. “I will come in response to a single unequivocal call”* (T -62). If we’re  willing to embody more love, opportunities as well as
challenges will appear. Whenev er you’re having a difficult moment in a
relationship, stop to ask yourself what you’re thinking about this person
right now that God would not be thinking, and what God would be thinking
about them that you are not. Simply asking the question will summon the
answer. God isn’ t looking at anyone thinking, “Damn, he’ s such a jerk.”
Freud said, “Intelligence will be used in the service of the neuro


 ke fast
the image it escaped him. Nevertheless, he went early to the Jardin des
Plantes, thinking that on looking anew at the impression he should s ee
something, which would put him on the track of his vision. In vain—
the blurred record was as black as ever. The next night he saw the fish
again, but with no more satisfactory result. When he awoke it
disappeared from his memory as before. Hoping that the same
experience might be repeated, on the third night he placed a pencil and
paper beside his bed before going to sleep. “Accordingly, toward morning the fish reappeared in his dream,
confusedly at first, but at last with such distinctness t hat he had no
longer any doubt as to its zoological characters. Still half dreaming, in
perfect darkness, he traced these charac-ters on the shee t of paper at
the bedside. In the morning he was surprised to see in his noct urnal
sketch features, which he thought it impossible the fossil i tself should
reveal. He hastened to the Jardin des Plantes, and, with his draw ing as
a guide, succeeded in chiseling away the surface of the stone under
which portions of the fish proved to be hidden. When wholly exposed it cor-responded with his dream and his
drawing, and he succeeded in classifying it with ease.”
• An outstanding physician solved the problem of diabetes
Some years ago I received a clipping from a magazine descr ibing
the origin of the discovery of insulin. This is the essence of the  article
as I recall it. About forty years ago or more, Dr. Frederick Banting, a brillia nt
Canadian physician and surgeon, was concentrating his attention on
the ravages of diabetes. At that time medical science of fered no
effective method of arresting the disease. Dr. Banting spent
 130  considerable time experimenting and study-ing the international
literature on the subject. One night he was exhausted and fell asleep. While asleep, his subconscious mind instructed him to extr act the
residue from the degenerated pancreatic duct of dogs. This was the
origin of insulin which has helped millions of people. You will note that Dr. Banting had been consciously dwell-ing on
the problem for some time seeking a solution, a way out, and his
subconscious responded accordingly. It does not follow that you will always get an answer overnight. The
answer may not come for some time. Do not be discouraged. Keep on
turning the problem over every night to the subconscious mind pr ior
to sleep, as if you had never done it before. One of the reasons for the delay may be that you look upon it as a
major problem. You may believe it will take a long time to solve it. Your subconscious mind is timeless and spaceless. Go to sleep
believing you have the answer now. Do not postulate the answer in the
future. Have an abiding faith in the outcome. Become convinced now
as you read this book that there is an answer and a perfect solution for
you. • How a famous scientist and physicist escaped from a Russi an
concentration camp
Dr. Lothar von Blenk-Schmidt, a member of the Rocket Society and
an outstanding research electronic engineer, gives the followi ng
condensed summary of how he used his subcon-scious mind to free
himself from certain death at the hands of brutal guards in a  Russian
prison camp coal mine. He states as follows:
“I was a prisoner of war in a coal mine in Russia, and I saw m en
dying all around me in that prison compound. We were watched over
by brutal guards, arrogant officers, and sharp, fast-thinking
commissars. After a short medical checkup, a quota of coal was
assigned to each person. My quota was three hundred pounds per day. 131  In case any man did not fill his quota, his small food ration wa s cut
down, and in a short time he was resting in the cemetery. “I started concentrating on my escape. I knew that my subconscious
mind would somehow find a way. My home in Germany was
destroyed, my family wiped out; all my friends and former associ ates
were either killed in the war or were in concentration camps. “I said to my subconscious mind, ‘I want to go to Los Angeles, and
you will find the way.’ I had seen pictures of Los Angeles and I
remembered some of the boulevards very well as well as s ome of the
buildings. “Every day and night I would imagine I was walking down Wilshire
Boulevard with an American girl whom I met in Berlin prior to the
war (she is now my wife). In my imagina-tion we would visit th e
stores, ride buses, and eat in the restau-rants. Every night I made it a
special point to drive my imaginary American automobile up and
down the boulevards of Los Angeles. I made all this vivid and rea l.
These pictures in my mind were as real and as natural to me as one of
the trees out-side the prison camp. “Every morning the chief guard would count the prisoners as they
were lined up. He would call out ‘one, two, three,’ etc., and when
seventeen was called out, which was my number in sequence, I
stepped aside. In the meantime, the guard was called away for a
minute or so, and on his return he started by mistake on the n ext man
as number seventeen. When the crew returned in the evening, the
number of men was the same, and I was not missed, and the discovery
would take a long time. “I walked out of the camp undetected and kept walking for twenty -
four hours, resting in a deserted town the next day. I was able to live
by fishing and killing some wild life. I found coal trains going t o
Poland and traveled on them by night, until finally I reached Pola nd. With the help of friends, I made my way to Lucerne, Switzerland. “One evening at the Palace Hotel, Lucerne, I had a talk with a  man
and his wife from the United States of America. This man ask ed me if
 132  I would care to be a guest at his home in Santa Monica, Cal ifornia. I
accepted, and when I arrived in Los Angeles, I found that their
chauffeur drove me along Wilshire Boulevard and many other
boulevards, which I had imagined, so vividly in the long months in the
Russian coalmines. I recognized the buildings, which I had seen in my
mind so often. It actually seemed as if I had been in Los Angeles
before. I had reached my goal. “I will never cease to marvel at the wonders of the sub- conscious
mind. Truly, it has ways we know not of.”
• How archaeologists and paleontologists reconstruct ancient
scenes
These scientists know that their subconscious mind has a memory of
everything that has ever transpired. As they study the ancien t ruins
and fossils, through their imaginative percep-tion, their subc onscious
mind aids them in reconstructing the ancient scenes. The dead p ast
becomes alive and audible once more. Looking at these ancient
temples and studying the pottery, statuary, tools, and household
utensils of these ancient times, the scientist tells us  of an age when
there was no language. Communication was done by grunts, groans,
and signs. The keen concentration and disciplined imagination of the scienti st
awakens the latent powers of his subconscious mind enabling him t o
clothe the ancient temples with roofs, and surround them with
gardens, pools, and fountains. The fossil remains are clothed with
eyes, sinews, and muscles, and they again walk and talk. The p ast
becomes the living present, and we find that in mind there is no time
or space. Through disci-plined, controlled, and directed imagination,
you can be a companion of the most scientific and inspired think ers of
all time. • How to receive guidance from your subconscious
When you have what you term “a difficult decision” to make, or
when you fail to see the solution to your problem, begin at onc e to
 133  think constructively about it. If you are fearful and worried, you are
not really thinking. True thinking is free from fear. Here is a simple technique you can use to receive guidance on a ny
subject: Quiet the mind and still the body. Tell the body to relax; it has
to obey you. It has no volition, initiative, or self-conscious
intelligence. Your body is an emotional disk, which records your
beliefs and impressions. Mobilize your at-tention; focus your thought on the solution to your
problem. Try to solve it with your conscious mind. Think how happy
you would be about the perfect solution. Sense the feeling y ou would
have if the perfect answer were yours now. Let your mind play w ith
this mood in a relaxed way; then drop off to sleep. When you aw aken,
and you do not have the answer, get busy about something else. Probably, when you are preoccupied with some-thing else, the ans wer
will come into your mind like toast pops out of a toaster. In receiving guidance from the subconscious mind, the simple way
is the best. This is an illustration: I once lost a valuable ring, which


 in diets all over the country. This sameness is largely in the enormous consumption of non-vitamin, nonmineral foods composed of white flour and sugar. The average diet furnishes a vitamin B
1 intake of from 200 to 300 International Units. This
is just enough to prevent the development of the oriental disease--beriberi. The
American population are quite evidently not getting enough vitamin B 1 and are existing
on the edge of pellagra and beriberi all the time. In order to have the optimum benefit
from Vitamin B 1 a person of 150 pounds weight should have from 700 to 1,000 units
per day. G. R. Cowgill, one of the outstanding workers in this field, states: "There are grounds
for believing that American dietaries as a whole are unsatisfactory with respect to the
content of vitamin B 1." Dr. Cowgill follows this statement by a copy of the following menus:
   International Units of B 1 per
serving
Breakfast
Orange Juice 18.1
Soft boiled egg 15.1
2 slices toast (white) 7.4
Butter and honey 0.0
Coffee 0.0
Sugar 0.0
Cream 3.1
Total  43.7

Luncheon
Tomato soup 7.8
Broiled chicken 13.6
Mashed potatoes 10.0
String beans 8.8
2 slices bread (white) 7.4
Tea or coffee 0.0
Sugar 0.0
Cream 3.1
Pumpkin pie 1.0
Total  51.7

Dinner
Fresh fruit coctail 18.1
Roast beef 16.6
Spinach 9.0
Potatoes 10.0
2 rolls 7.5
Lettuce and French dressing 15.1
Cake 1.0
Coffee with cream 3.1
Total  80.4
Breakfast  43.7 I.U. Luncheon  51.7 I.U. Dinner  80.4 I.U. Total  175.8 I.U. B 1    Dr. Cowgill concludes with: "They do not supply even the minimum B 1
requirements!" Dr. Burt Wolbach, of Harvard University, has shown that certain changes take place
in the epithelium lining the windpipe and bronchial tubes of children who do not receive
enough vitamin A. In making postmortem studies on a number of children who had died of other diseases, he noted that the majority of the children showed epithelial changes
incident to vitamin A starvation. Postmortem proof, both gross and microscopic, existed
to confirm the fact that these children did not receive enough vitamin A. The gross
changes which indicated a lack of vitamin A were simply small abscesses in the tonsils,
and the presence of pus in the accessory si nuses. The same changes occur in laboratory
animals which are given inadequate quantities of vitamin A. Apparently these changes
take place on a less severe vitamin A deficiency, than that which causes the gross
disease of the eye. The changes in the throat and bronchial epithelium described by Dr.
Wolbach are now known to be very common. The change is the reversion of the cell
type from a secreting cell to one which is simply hardened and flattened, and has only the function of acting as a mechanical barrier, like a scale on a fish. Apparently this is
an effort on the part of Nature to sacrifice function for mechanical protection. On
account of the vitamin deficiency, the cell loses its ability to fight against invading microorganisms, so Nature sets up a whorl of flat, hard cells which serve as a
mechanical barrier. That this defense eventually fails is quite evident as the hardened, flattened epithelial
mass finally separates; becomes a small hardened scale, and drops off, leaving a raw,
undefended area which is immediately filled with invading microorganisms. The result
is many tiny foci of infection, the result being chronic bronchitis, chronic tonsillitis, as
chronic sinus disease. In our diets as they exist at the present time, it is quite evident
that we do not receive enough vitamin A or enough vitamin B. We have stated that vitamin C has the function of protecting the health of blood
vessels, gums, and teeth. An examination of the health or disease of these parts of the
body will furnish a good index of our success in achieving diets that are sufficient in
this protective element. Do we have a population with good, sound, healthy teeth? Do
these sound, healthy teeth have a sufficiently good vitamin and mineral intake so that
they may carry their function on into advanced years? Is the health of the small children and the condition of gums and teeth as satisfactory as it should be? Is it right and proper
that every school child in America suffers the handicap of having some diseased teeth,
some infected gums, and should the child be swallowing pus constantly, which comes into his mouth from pyorrhea? The obvious presence of mouth and gum disease in school children and adults needs no further argument or confirmation. We do not need to make vitamin C determinations on the blood stream. The widespread and severe
character of disease in this one part of the body shows conclusively that vitamin C
deficiency is universal in all civilized countries. Our needs are not being met in this
connection. What we get does not measure up to what we should have. In connection with rickets, the disease caused by lack of vitamin D, no argument is
necessary to sustain the truth of the statemen t that this disease is practically universal. The only question at issue is the degree of rickets that exists in any individual case. Here again the question of a right and proper standard comes into the picture. Four years
ago at a Baby Show held at the County Fair in a western New York County, a certain
fat, chubby baby won the prize as being the most perfect baby in the county. Within a month after this prize had been awarded, th e baby was in the hospital wearing artificial
supports on the legs in order to straighten out the crooked bones due to a severe case of
rickets! This baby had undoubtedly suffered from rickets during its whole life; but the lack of proper understanding of the disease and the lack of a proper standard caused the
judges to believe this was a normal, healthy baby. The judges had seen so many rachitic
babies, so many diseased babies, and had so seldom seen a normal, healthy baby, that
they were misled. Many doctors are deceived by fat and do  not know the difference between a rachitic
baby and a healthy baby. They do not know the difference between a healthy mouth and
a diseased mouth, unless disease in the m outh is far advanced. Moderate degrees of
tooth decay and pyorrhea are believed by the average laymen and the average physician
to be normal. A lack of vitamin D and the subsequent disease, rickets, produces changes
in the shape of the head, in which the forehead is high and broad. The head is wide
above the ears and bulges out above the temples. This is the type of forehead that
formerly was considered an indication of intelligence and brain power. The reverse is true. These high, wide foreheads which bulge not only sideways but forward are rachitic
and contain brains which are less active than normal. The type of chest known as "pigeon breast," which projects forward and comes to a
point at the sternum, is another common physical deformity caused by rickets. The well known knock-knees and bowlegs have been known as signs of rickets for many generations. A child may have one or all of these stigmata. It is a disease to be feared,
and should receive attention at the very earliest age. The deformities mentioned are not the only bone deformities associated with rickets. Other bones of the body may also be softened and deformed by this disease. It should be
remembered in this connection that while the disease is usually considered merely a
lack of vitamin D, it is also in some cases a lack of calcium and other minerals. Bones,
of course, cannot be property built without the basic building materials, which are
calcium and phosphorus. The question as to whether or not the ordinary diet contains enough of the various
elements contained in the vitamin B
2 Complex (riboflavin, nicotinic acid, pantothenic
acid, and pyridoxine) has been a matter of controversy for several years.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        Soil and Health Library
This document is a reproduction of the book or other copyrighted material you
requested. It was prepared on for the exclusive use of Oriana, whose email address is
orianaoriana@gmail. com. This reproduction was made by the Soil and Health Library only for the purpose of
research and study. Any further reproduction or distribution of this copy in any form
whatsoever constitutes a violation of copyrights. THE NATIONAL MALNUTRITION*
D. T. QUIGLEY, M. D., F. A. C. S. Published by The Lee Foundation for Nutritional Research Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Copyright 1943 D.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>
Q: What is the main source of vitamin D?,
A: Exposure to sunshine, which produces vitamin D in the skin.
Q: What is the purpose of the


. DNA is the
source for all the proteins that repair cells, build new ones,
replace missing or defective pieces of the genetic code,
heal cuts and bruises, and so forth. Without bothering to invent a new class of chemic als, the
DNA has ﬁgured out another use for its familiar raw
materials, the amines, amino acids, and peptides. Once
again, it is just the ability  to make these diﬀerent products
that is crucial. There is nothing special about the molecules
themselves, even though their discovery by a molecular
biologist may be special to science. Where does the ability to make the neurotrans mitters
come from, then? Perhaps we should look to the
contribution made by the mind. After all, it is not really the
adrenaline molecule that makes a mother rush into a
burning building to save her child or an endorphin
molecule that protects her from feeling the ﬂames. Love
makes her rush in, and single-minded determination
protects her from pain. It just happe ns that these attributes
of her mind have found a chemical pathway that the brain
can follow to talk to the body. Now we have arrived at the heart of the matter. Mind by
any deﬁnition is nonmat erial, yet it has devised a way to
work in partnership with these complicated comm unicator
molecules. Their association is so close, as we have seen,that mind cannot be projected into the body without such
chemicals. Yet these chemicals are not mind. Or are they? The whole paradoxical situation was wittily summ arized
several years ago when the eminent English neurologist
and Nobel Prize winner Sir John Eccles was asked to
address a conference of parapsychologists, who were
discussing the usual topics of ESP, telepathy, and
psychokinesis—the ability  to move physical objects with the
mind. If you want to see real psychokinesis, he told his
audience, then consider the feats of mind-ov er-matter
performed in the brain. It is quite astonishing that with
every thought, the mind  manages to move the atoms of
hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, and the other particles in the
brain’s cells. It would appear that nothing is further apart
than an insubstantial thought and the solid gray matter of
the brain. The whole trick is somehow done without any
apparent link. The mystery of mind-over-matter has not been explained
by biology, which prefers to push on to more and more
complicated chemical structures operating at ﬁner and
ﬁner levels of the physiology. It is still obvious that no one
is ever going to ﬁnd a particle, however minute, that nature
has labeled “intelligence.” This is all the more apparent
when we realize that all the matter in our bodies, large or
small, has been designed with intelligence as a built-in
feature. DNA itself, although ackn owledged as the chemica l
mastermind of the body, is made up of essentially the same
basic building blocks as the neurotransmitters it
manufactures and regulates. DNA is like a brick factory
that is also made out of bricks. (The great Hungarian
mathematician John von Neumann, besides being a founder
of the modern computer, was interested in robots of all
types. He once invented, on paper, a truly ingeniou s
machine, a robot that could build robots identical to itself—
in other words, a self-reproducing machine. Our DNA hasaccomplished the same thing on a grand scale, since the
human body is nothing more than variants of DNA built by
DNA.) You may ﬁnd it easy to think of DNA, with its billions of
genetic bits, as an intellig ent molecule; certainly it must be
smarter than a simple molecule like sugar. How smart can
sugar be? But DNA is really just strings of sugar, amines,
and other simple components. If these are not “smart” to
begin with, then DNA couldn’t become smart just by
putting more of them together. Following this line of
reasoning, why isn’t the carbon or hydrogen atom in the
sugar also smart? Perhaps it is. As we shall see, if
intelligence is present in the body, it has to come from
somewhere, and that somewhere may be everywhere. —
If we follow the next step of the neurotransmitter story, we
ﬁnd ourselves faced with another quantum leap in
complications, but surprisingly, the relation between mind
and matter actually begins to clear up. The areas of the
brain that mediate our emotions—the amygdala  and the
hypothalamus, which is also known as “the brain’s brain”—
were both found to be particularly rich in all the substances
in the neurotransmitter group. This implied  that where
thinking processes are abundant (meaning that many
neurons are tightly clustered), so will be the chemicals
associated with thinking. At this point there was still a
rather well-d eﬁned divisio n between chemicals that jumped
the gap between brain cells and those that traveled from
the brain down the bloodstream. (In my ﬁeld,
endocrinology, one of the deﬁning qualities of a hormone is
that it ﬂoats through the blood, a process that is generally
much slower than the transmission speed of a nerve cell,
which has been clocked at 225 miles per hour; a signal sent
from head to toe takes less than l/50th of a second. )Just when science thought it could isolate brain
chemicals and categorize their sites, the body cropped up
with its own complication. Researchers at the National
Institute of Mental Health found receptors in equal
abundance at other sites outside the brain. Starting in the
early 1980s, receptors for neurotransmitt ers and
neuropeptides were discovered on cells in the immune
system called  monocytes. “Brain” receptors on white cells
in the blood?—it would be hard to exaggerate the
signiﬁcance of this discovery. In the past, it was thoug ht
that the central nervous system alone relayed messages to
the body, rather like a complicated telephone system
connecting the brain to all the organs it wanted to “talk” to. In this scheme, the neurons function like telephone lines
conveying the brain’s signals—that is their unique  function,
shared by no other system in the physiology. Now it was seen that the brain does not just send
impulses traveling in straight lines down the axons, or
trunks, of the neurons; it freely circulates intelligence
throughout the body’s entire inner space. Unlike the
neurons, which are ﬁxed in place along the nervous system,
the monocytes of the immune system travel through the
bloodstream, giving them free access to every other cell in
the body. Outﬁtted with a vocabulary to mirror the nervous
system’s in its complexity, the immune system apparently
sends and receives mess ages that are just as diverse. In
fact, if being happy, sad, thoughtful, excited, and so on all
require the production of neuropeptides and
neurotransmitters in our brain cells, then the immune cells
must also be happy, sad, thoughtful, excited—indeed, they
must be able to expres s the full range of “words” that
neurons do. Monocytes can be thought of in eﬀect as
circulating neurons. With this one discovery, the concept of the intelligent cell
took on full-ﬂedged reality. One kind of localizedintelligence was already well known, that possessed by the
DNA in every cell. Since Watson and Crick  mapped the
structure of DNA in the early 1950s, investigation had
proved that this remar kable, almost inﬁnitely complex
molecule encoded all the information necessary to create
and sustain human life. But the intelligence of genes was
seen primari ly as ﬁxed, because DNA itself is the stablest
chemical in the body, and thanks to that stability, each of us
is able to inherit genetic traits from our parents—blue eyes,
curly hair, facial patterns, et cetera—and prese rve them
intact to pass on to our children. The know-how carried by the neurotransmitters and
neuropeptides represented something else altogether: the
winged, ﬂeeting, sentient intelligence of the mind. The
wonder is that these “intelligent” chemicals are not only
made by the brain, whose function is to think, but by the
immune system, whose primary role is to protect  us from
disease. From the standpoint of a brain chemist, this
sudden expa nsion of messenger molecules adds a new
order of complexity to his work. But for us, the discovery of
“ﬂoating” intelligence conﬁrms the model of the body as a
river. We needed a material basis for claiming that
intelligence ﬂows all through us, and now we have it. Anyone can see that his mind is ﬁlled with a bewildering
ﬂood of impressions that are far too amorphous to pin
down. To describe it, psychology is reduced to equal ly
amorphous terms like the famous phrase stream of
consciousness. Today, as if to ﬁll that stream with water you
can actually see and touch, brain researchers have found
cascades of brain chemicals.


 intellect
is insidious. The intellect refuses to believe that everything
is happening inside one mind-body reality; it creates the
ﬁction that the sick body is somewhere else, anyw here else
but in the same situation as itself. Illness is obviously a sign that there is a war going on. According to Ayurveda, the conﬂict is being waged “in
here,” contra ry to the germ theory of disease, which tries
to tell us that the war was started “out there” by invaders
of every kind—bacteria, viruses, carcinogens, et cetera—
which are lying in wait to attack us. Yet, healthy people live
amid these dangers quite safely. Only when the immune
system collapses, as in the case of AIDS, do we realize thatour skin, lungs, mucous linings, intestines, and many other
organs have learned to coexist with outside organ isms in a
delicate balance. The pneumo nia that an AIDS patient
typically catches is caused by a variety of Pneumocystis
that is prese nt in everybody’s lungs all the time. The AIDS
virus activates such diseases from the inside by
demolishing one part of the immune system (the helper T-
cells), thus breaking apart the network of information that
holds us together. In fact, we are this network, which projects itself into the
world as our bodies, thoughts, emotions, and actions. Nor
does the network stop with us. The simplistic idea that
germs are our deadly enemy is a half-truth, because germs
are part of the network, too. The whole living world is
bound up in DNA, which has evolved along one channel as
bacteria, along another as plants and animals, and along
still another as man. The environment “out there”
cooperates with the one “in here” like two polarities, in one
sense totally opposed but in another totally comple mentary. If you look at reality from the viewpoint of all DNA, not just
ours, then there is an entire global information network
that has to be kept alive and healthy. Viruses, for example, are capable of mutating very
quickly—that is why a shot that immunizes you from this
year’s ﬂu will usually not be eﬀective next year. The ﬂu
virus will have mutated somewhere around the world into a
completely diﬀerent strain. (One of the AIDS virus’s many
unprecedented talents is its ability to mutate a hundred
times faster than a typical ﬂu virus. ) Researchers have
recently speculated that the reason why viruses mutate so
rapidly is to keep pace with new variants of bacteria, thus
carrying to all parts of the globe the news that life is
changing. Getting the ﬂu, therefore, is like getting a news update. Your own DNA learns about alterations in the world’s DNAthat are challenging it, and your DNA then meets the
challenge, not passively but actively. It must prove its
viability by surviving the virus. The immune system rushes
to meet the invader, and they engage in battle, molecule
against molecule. The whole operation is timed to the split
second and leaves no room for error. The macrophages
rush to discover the identity of this new life form, probe it
for vital weaknesses, and then mobilize the genetic
material in their own DNA that will collapse the molecules
of the virus, rendering them harmless. At the same time, the immune cells also destroy  any of
your own cells that have played host to the invader. These
infected host cells have not yet died from the ﬂu. They are
engorged with living viruses that pose a threat after the
immune cells have wiped out all the ﬂu that is gushing
through the bloodstream. To kill an infected host cell,
certain immune cells (killer T-cells) latch onto it from the
outside and puncture holes in the cell wall. Like a deﬂating
tire, the host cell spills out its liquid content, collapses into
an empty bag, and dies. But the host cell is not just eliminated; its DNA is actually
dismantled by other signals from the attacking  immune
cells. This is an absolutely fascinating aspect of the whole
process. What is really happening is that one bit of your
DNA (the immune cell) is dismantling another bit of your
DNA (the host cell), which in fact is just a copy of itself. The only diﬀerence betw een the two is that the second bit
of DNA, in the host cell, has made the mistake of
cooperating with the ﬂu virus. No one knows why this
occurs. As we saw in the last chapter, our cells
mysteriously allow themselves to be killed from within
when viruses attack them. Physically, the virus is no match
for the cell, being thousands of times smaller and less
complex—as one medical writer put it, it is as if abasketball came through the window of a skyscraper and
the whole building fell down. You would think that such mistakes show the
imperfection of the body’s intelligence, but that is too
superﬁcial. What is actually happening here is an exquisite
example of quantum healing at work; in fact, the idea that a
war is going on is just another half-truth, for when one bit
of DNA dismantles another, we are witnessing a totally self-
enclosed process. Every part of a disease reaction, from the
scavenger cells that ﬁrst meet the invader, to the host cells
that take it in, to the macrophages, killer T-cells, helper T-
cells, B-cells, and so on, are all the same DNA expressing
its various abilities. In other words, the DNA has decided to
stage for its own beneﬁt a drama in which every part is
played by itself. Why should DNA put on one mask to succumb to the ﬂu
virus and another to rush in and destroy it. No one has
answered this profound question, but it must have its logic
in the whole scheme of life, the larger drama enacted by all
the DNA in the world. I can make a speculation that we are
watching DNA enrich life by adding as many variations as
can possibly exist on one planet. Nothing that happens to DNA is lost; it all stays within
the self-enclosed system. Once the ﬂu virus is defeated, the
DNA records  the encounter by producing new antibodies
and specialized “memory cells” that ﬂoat around in the
lymph system  and bloodstream for years afterward, adding
to the immense storehouse of information that DNA has
been accum ulating since life began. This is how DNA
makes you a player on the world scene. If I look out my window, I can see a multilane highway
with cars rushing by. Occasionally a jet ﬂies over, sending a
ﬂock of birds twittering into the sky. Gulls circle overhead,
thirty miles inland from  the sea, and in the air is the
distinct smell of the ocean, rich with marine life. All of thisspectacle, including me, is the play of DNA. It has been
projected from a molecule whose responsibility is to unfold
new life without ever compromising life as a whole. Someone once estimated that all the separate DNA of every
person who has ever lived would ﬁt comforta bly in a
teaspoon, and yet if the tightly wound DNA in even a single
cell nucleus of your body  were uncoiled and the pieces laid
end to end, they would stretch out to ﬁve feet. This means
that the genetic thread contained in the body’s 50 trillion
cells is 50 billion miles long—enough to reach the moon
and back 100,000 times. The Veda says that the universe’s
intelligence extends “from smaller than the smallest to
larger than the largest,” and DNA is the physical proof of it. Therefore, it must be wrong to think that conﬂict is the
norm. In general, a state of peace exists between your DNA
and the other DNA “out there. ” For every time that you
actually have to ﬁght oﬀ a disease by getting sick, there are
dozens, if not hundreds, of times when your body has
warded oﬀ sickness without any overt symptom. It is only
when there is a distortion “in here” that the immune
system loses its ability to silently defend, heal, and
remember. We tend to forget that peace is the norm. Psychiatrists
and sociolog ists take it as a given that modern man is
deeply divided in his psyche. The rise of stress-related
disorders, depression, anxiety, chronic fatigue, and “the
disease of being in a hurry” is a sign of the times. The
hectic pace of work, and life in general, has accustomed us
to turmoil. By now, peop le are thoroughly indoctrinated by
the idea that a certain degree of internal conﬂict is normal. The war, it seems, was started by us, and it is taking its toll
in a frighteningly ordinary way. —All of this is what I wish I could have expressed to Chitra,
the young woman with breast cancer whose story opened
this book. She was fortunate enough to receive a cure that
seemed miraculous, but as I was writing these chapters,
her case


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More than a decade ago, DEEP AK CHOPRA, M.D., founder of the Chopra Center for W ell Being in
Carlsbad, California, became the foremost pioneer in integrated medicine. His insights have
redefined our vision o f health to embrace body, mind, and spirit. His books, which in clude Quantum
Healing; Perfect Health; Ageless Body, T imeless  Mind; and The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success,
have become international bestsellers and established classics of their kind. DA VID SIM ON, M.D., a graduate of the U niversity of Chicago Medical School, is a neurologist and
an expert in A yurveda, the traditional medical system that has its roots in ancient India. His earlier
books include The W isdom of Healing, Return to Wholeness, V ital Ener gy,  a nd the Chopra Center
Herbal Handbook. He is  cofounder of the Chopra Center fo r W ell Being, where he serves as its
medical director. A l s o  b y  D e e p a k  C h o p r a,  M. D. A l s o  b y  D a v i d  S i m o n,  M. D.Copyright © 2001 by Deepak Chopra, M.D., and David Simon, M.D. This eBook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased,
licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the
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direct infringement of the author ’ s and publisher ’ s rights and those responsible may be liable in law
accordingly. www.randomhouse.co.uk
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to use previously published


 would like to say more about how to realize
unication within yourself. The real self, the divine principle, the
innite intelligence, or what ever you wish to call that deep inner
center existing  in every human being, contains all wisdom and truth
you can possibly envisage. The truth is so far-reaching and so
directly access ible that no further conict exists when this truth is
allowed to take eect. The ifs and buts of the dualistic state cease to
exist. The knowledge of this inborn intelligence far surpasses the
ego intelligence. It is completely objective; it disregards the small,
vain self-intere st—and this is one of the reasons you fear and avoid
contact with it. The truth that ows out of it equalizes the self with
others. Far from being the annihilation that the ego fears, that truth
opens up the storehouse of vibrant life force and energ y that you
usually use to only a minor degree and that you misuse in directing
your attention and hopes to the dualistic plane, with its tightly held
opinions, false ideas, vanity, pride, self-will, and fear. When this live
center activates you, you begin your limitless unfoldment, a process
whose accomp lishments become possible precisely because the littleego no longer wants to misuse them in order to nd life, as it did,
on the dualistic plane. The unied real self can always be contacted. Let us again return to
our example in order to see how. The hardest act to perform, which,
in reality, is the easiest act possible, is to ask, “What is the truth of
the matter?” The moment you are more intent on the truth than on
proving that you are right, you contact the divine principle of
transcendent, unied truth. If the desire to be in truth is genuine,
the inspiration must come forth. No matter how strongly
circumstances seem to point in one direction, you must be willing to
relinquish and to question whether what you see is all there is to the
issue. This generous act of integrity  opens the way to the real self. It will be easier to follow through when you consider that it is not
necessarily a question of either/or, but that there may be aspects of
right in the other person’s view and of wrong in yours, aspects that,
so far, you have not seen because your attention was not even
directed to this eventuality. This approach to a problem
immediately opens the way to rise to the unied plane of existence
and to be moved by the real self. It immediately releases an energy
that is distinctly felt when this act is done with a deep and sincere
commitment. It brings release from tension. What you then nd out is always totally dierent both from what
you hoped for and feared on the dualistic plane. You nd that you
are not as right and innocen t as you thought, nor as wrong as you
feared. Neither is your opponent. You soon discover aspects of the
matter you never saw before, although they were not necessarily
concealed. You understand exactly how the quarrel came into
existence in the rst place, what led to it, what its history was long
before its actual manifestation. With such discoveries you gain
insight into the very nature of the relationship. You learn about
yourself and the other, you increase your understanding of the laws
of communication. The more vision you gain, the freer, stronger,
and more secure you feel. This vision not only eliminates this
particular conict and shows  the right way to straighten it out, but
it also reveals  important aspects of your general diculties and
makes their elimination easier through this understanding. Thevibrant peace that comes from this extended understanding is of
lasting value. It aects your self-realization and your daily life. What I described is a typical example of unied, intuitive
understanding: of knowing the truth. After the initial apparent need
for courage and the momen tary resistance to seeing a wider truth
than the egotistic one, your path becomes so much easier than the
struggle that ensues on the either/or plane of the dualistic life. Before you can bring yoursel f to the unied way of thinking and
being, the tension will mount, for as long as you remain on the
dualistic plane, you struggle against unication because you falsely
believe that the moment you admit and see where you are wrong
and the other is right, you submit and enslave yourself. You become
nothing, worth less, pitiful—and from there it is only a step to
annihilation in your fantasy life. Hence, you feel that leaving your
dualistic plane is the greatest danger. The tension will mount as
your conicts escalate. But the moment you are willin g to be in
truth, the moment you are eager and prepared, not merely to see
your way, your little truth, not to give in to the other’s little truth in
fear of the consequences if you do not, but when you wish to
possess the larger, more encompassing truth, which transcends both of
your little truths, a specic tension will be removed in your psyche. The way toward the manifestation of the real self will have been
prepared. Obstructions to Finding the Real Self
Let me recapit ulate here: The two most signicant obstructions to
the real self are ignorance of its existence and the possibility of
connecting with it; and a tight, cramped psychic state with tight,
cramped soul movements. These two factors make contact
impossible with the real self, and therefore with a unied state of
existence. As long as you are on a dualistic plane, you must be in a
constant soul cramp. When you ght against one dualistic aspect
and press for the other, observe your soul movements. Supercially,
you may lean on the apparent justication of the position  you pressfor. You may say, “Am I not perfectly justied in combating this
wrong in the world?” On the dualistic plane this may indeed be so. But with this limited outlook you ignore that this very wrong exists
only because of your dualistic approach to the problem and your
prevalent ignorance that there is another approach. The resulting
tension blurs the view that other aspects exist which both unify
what you deem right and what you deem wrong, regardle ss of what
the wrong actually is. This simple act of wanting the truth requires several conditions,
the most important being the willingness to relinquish what one
holds on to, whether this be a belief, a fear, or a cherish ed way of
being. When I say relinquish, I merely mean questioning it and
being willing to see that there is something else beyond this outlook. This brings us back to why you are terried to relinquish the ego
state, hence the dualistic, painful way of life. Why do you resist so
much committing yourself to this deep inner center, which unies
all good and is instantly accessible? It is, however, beyond the
personal, little considerations of the ego. Your Ego Versus Your Divine Center
The dualistic plane is the plane of the ego. The unied plane is
the world of the divine center, the larger self. The ego nds its
whole existence on the plane in which it is at home. To relinquish
this plane means to give up the claims of the little ego. This does
not mean annihilation, but to the ego it seems to mean just this. Actually, the ego is a particle, an isolated aspect of the master
intelligence, the real, inner self. It is not dierent from it; there is
simply less of the real self in it. Since it is separate and limited, it is
less reliable than what it stems from. But this does not mean that
the ego has to be annihila ted. In fact, the ego will eventually
integrate with the real self so that there is one self, which will be
fuller, better equipped, wiser. It will have more and better assets
than you can imagine.But the separated ego thinks this development means
annihilation. In its ignorant, limited way, the ego exists only as a
separated being; hence, it pursues further separateness. Since the
limited conscio usness ignore s the existence of the real self—even if
it is accepted as a theory, its living reality will be doubted as long as
personal misconceptions are not eliminated—it fears letting go and
relaxing its tight hold, the very soul movement that leads to the real
self. This is the constant struggle of the ego until it ceases ghting
against an opposite through repeated recognitions of a wider truth
in every small personal issue. The real self cannot manifest  as long as personal problems are not
straightened out. But the process of doing this and the rst inklings
of self-r ealization often overl ap; the one furthers the other. This way
of looki ng at your basic human struggle may help you considerably. As long as you are totally  identied with your ego, you will
continue to cultivate more separation, and self-idealization must be
the consequence. Self-glorication and idealization seem, from this
point of view, the apparent salvation and


  correlate to
major nerve ganglia branching out from the spinal column,
levels of consciousness, arch etypal elements, developmental
stages of life, colors, sounds, body functions and more. Some people reportedly see the  chakras, de scribing them as
spinning wheels of light and color located along thebackbone, going from the base of the spine to the crown of
the head. Each of the seven  chakras  has a physical, an emotional, a creative
and a spiritual c omponent (see chart overleaf). Colin Hall, the spa
manager at the Ananda, likens the spine to an elevator shaft of
ener gy and the  chakras  as the various floors in the building of our
body from which to view and e xperience life. When we rise from
one floor to another within our consciousness, our perspective
changes and expands. “Based upon the area of consci ousness that it influences, each
chakra  has its own purpose in the body,” he explains. “In simple
terms, we have a  chakra  for each issue that we commonly think
about.” He goes on to say that our thoughts have a direct
relationship with our state of h ealth. For example, love and faith
based thoughts result in a smoot h ener gy flow through the  chakras
and thus the physical body. W orry, obsession and fear based
thoughts af fect the  chakra  that relates to the issues we are thinking
about, th us caus ing a blockage o r restriction in the flow of ener gy to
that part of the body. Chakra  therapists note that each  chakra  is found next to or
near a hormonal gland in the body, so the  chakras  have the ability
to push life ener gy or  prana  through the body to ensure vit ality. These ener gy centers receive and radiate ener gy constantly, acting
as storeh ouses and transmitters of universal ener gy as well. T hey
say that it is nec essary to balance the  chakras  from time to time to
ef fectively regulate this flow. According to yoga masters, disharmony on a physical, mental or
spiritual level may be corrected by certain postures that concent rate
the brea th on the abdominal are a.  Pranayama  is especially active
on the  chakras, while the A yurvedic therapy o f pouring medicated
oils on to the  chakras  (chakradhara ) also ef fectively regulates the
proper flow  prana. “It is particularly useful for people who have
improper lifestyle habits,” explains A yurvedic physician, Dr
Sreenarayanan, also of Ananda. “Their  chakras  are bloc ked as a
result of  stress, tension, bad diet, lack of exercise and so on. The
therapy acts on the immune system, releasing ener gy flows,
reducing anxiety and allowing the mind to become still and quiet.”Furthermore,  chakras  may be balance d by placing th e hands
gently over them, a few inches above the physical body. In this
process, the recipient may be receptive to a flowing or w arm
sensation believed to be the transmission of universal ener gy. Known as Reiki in the W est, practitioners say it helps harmonize the
body’ s biological and emotional systems. As universal ener gy is
received, the “doors” for self-he aling are opened — and people  use
it for pain manag ement and stress-relief as well as for more spiri tual
goals.A  chakradhara  session at Ananda, in the Himalayas, concentrates on the fifth
chakra, the one that is related to creativity and communication. Chakradhara  is
often recommended after a period of  panchakarma  (see pages 46–49), for
patients with high cholesterol or diabetes and for those who suffer from anxiety
and stress.Some of the wold’ s principal oyster  beds lie along the coasts of India, so
references to mother-of-pearl and pearls are abundant in the Indian epics. They
are potent when applied to the skin — as a powder or whole — especially on the
chakras.A Reiki master lays his hands above a client at Mandarin Oriental Dhara Devi. Both calm ing and spiritual, Reiki involves the laying of hands on, or above, the
body’ s  chakras  to balance and heal. THE SEVEN CHAKRASChakra Seven:
Thought, universal identity, oriented to self-knowledge
The crown  chakra  relates to consciousness as pure awareness. It is
our conn ection to the greater world beyond, and, when develo ped,
brings knowledge, wisdom, understanding, spiritual connection and
bliss. Chakra Six:
Light, archetypal identity, oriented to self-reflection
The brow  chakra  or third eye cen ter is related to the act of seeing,
both physically  and intuitively. As such, it opens our psychic
faculties and gives us greater understanding of “the big picture”. Chakra Five:
Sound, creative identity, oriented to self-expression
The throat  chakra  is related to communication and creativity. By
experiencing the world symbolically through vibration (ie the
vibration of sound representing language), a healthy fifth  chakra
results in expressiveness and erudition. Chakra Four:
Air, social identity, oriented to self-acceptance
The heart  chakra  is the middle  chakra  in the system of seven. It is
related t o love and is the integra tor of opposites in the psyche: mind
and body, male and female, per sona and shadow, ego and unity. A
healthy fourth  chakra  allows us to love deeply, feel compassion
and experience a profound sense of peace and centeredness. Chakra Three:
Fire, ego identity, oriented to self-definition
Located in the solar plexus, this  chakra  is known as the power
chakra. It rules  our personal power, will and autonomy, as well as
our metabolism. When healthy, it brings ener gy, ef fectiveness,
spontaneity and non-dominating power. Chakra T wo:
Water, emotional identity, oriented to self-gratification
Located in the abdomen, lower back and sexual or gans, the second
chakra  connects us to others through feeling, desire, sensation and
movement. Ideally, this  chakra  brings us fluidity and grace, depth
of feeling, sexual fulfillment and the ability to accept change. Chakra One:
Earth, physical identity, oriented to self-preservation
Located at the base of the spine, this  chakra  forms our foundation. It is rela ted to our survival instincts, our sense of grounding an d tothe physical plane. When healthy, this  chakra  brings health,
prosperity, security and dynamic presence.nattu vaidya
the barefoot doctor
Throughout India, people re ceive medical help from both
qualified and non-qualified practitioners. As we have no ted
previously, there are four traditional systems practiced in
India — A yurveda, Siddha, Unani and T ibetan medicine —
all of which are based on humoral pathology. Since
Independence in the 1940s, each has built up a solid base of
medical colleg es imparting education in five-and-a-half y ear
programs. They have been joined by a fifth: the study of
Naturopathy. C urrently, only  graduates of such recognized
medical schools are legally entitled to practice medic ine,
and it is believed that th ere are around 600,000 such
licensed practitioners. Be that as it may, there are, in addition, literally hundreds of
thousands of nonqualified healers servicing the health and welfare
needs of  India’ s huge population. Often, they comprise families that
have pra cticed their individual skills for centuries — and are well
known in the co mmunity. Some such practitioners may have s ome
rudimentary education as well, but economic and other factors may
have res ulted in their medical t raining being cut short. Others are
completely unqu alified on paper, indeed they may even be illiterate,
but they are th e recipients of countless generations of hea ling
knowledge. As such, they are hugely skilled — and a vital part of any
community.There are numerous examples of such traditional healers, all of
whom fall into a category that can loosely be termed the “bare foot
doctor” or  nattu vaidya. The village midwife :
Each vil lage has  at least one traditional birth attendant known as a
dai. T hese women are skilled in de livering not only healthy babies,
but have  knowledge of breach births, stillborn fetuses and ba bies
with um bilical cords round their necks. Often coming from a family
of m idwives, they are skilled i n ante-natal and post-natal care as
well. A sign by the door of Mysore-based Mohammed Khasim’ s practice. The son of
Abdul Gafar, a renowned bone specialist who treated the Maharajah of Mysore’ s
family, his skills have been handed down from father to son.Even though there are thousands of Unani doctors, more than 100 medical