Consciously Creating Health

 

Consciously Creating Health

Dr. Greg and Lyn Chappell

 

Hold up your hand and look at it. What do you see? Is it just a hand? Or, is it a palm, thumb, and fingers. Looking a little closer we see that it is a group of cells that make up these structures. These cells are composed of a nucleus, orgenelles, mitochondria, etc. We can work this process all the way down through the molecules to the atoms and their sub-atomic particles to trace the physical origins of the human body.

 

At this point something interesting starts to happen. We find that the physicalness of our basic selves is not "physical" at all.  According to the cell scientists, these sub-atomic structures are really composed of "clouds of energy" made up of little entities called quarks. The last I heard they haven't really seen them but know they are there by seeing their energy trails much like the planes high up in the sky that we can't see but know they are there by their vapor trails. And the quirky thing about the quarks is that they only exist when you focus your attention on them!

 

An interesting question now arises as to where the energy becomes physical matter and  what are we really, energy or matter? Actually, we're both. How these clouds are configured, which appears to be significantly influenced by thought and consciousness, determine the elements that make up the substances of our physical universe which includes our body. Sounds a little like quantum physics and Einstein stuff doesn't it? Actually, it is. Which brings us to the point of the matter and what this has to do with your health. But, first a little history to set the stage as to where we have come from in the last century in health care.

 

Energy systems have been acknowledged throughout history, especially in the healing arts, but, the science behind them didn't become popular until around the time of Einstein and his collegues in the 1930's. Predating this was our present day allopathic, or medical model of health which was rooted in the predominant thought process and related science that existed around the turn of the century. We call the latter the "mechanistic model" because the basic tenets upon which it was built is that the body is a physical machine and when this machine breaks down you apply physical measures to "fix" it. The community that promoted this idealism were called the Atomists. Their primary mode of treatment were drugs and surgery to manipulate the physical parts of the body. The physician is predominant in making a diagnosis and setting treatment regimines. Technology is relied on heavily for diagnosis and treatment and the patient is mostly subservient to the physician in the process.   

 

Along about this time was another emerging body of thought around health.This group was termed the Vitalists and their model was that of "vitalism". They were rooted in philosophies such as chiropractic,  homeopathy, accupuncture, Chineese medicine, and groups based in nutrition and body cleansing. As an example, chiropractic's philosophy is that  humans are self-regulating, self-healing organisms capabile of maintaining themselves in a balanced state of optimum genetic health within their environment as long as there is no interference to their innate ability to do so.The Vitalists used natural processes to enhance and support the body's innate ability to heal  and maintain itself at it's optimum genetic potential. The patient/client is an integral part of the decision making and healing process.

 

Now comes the politics. The Atomists had the political clout and soon established themselves as the unquestionable health care system. In fact, in the 1930's the federal government passed legislation that the only credible science was to be that which came from the Atomists. The rest is history. Without the ability to scientifically prove how energy systems and innate intelligence regulate human function the Vitalists had no credibility among the powers to be. Therfore, health care, for the last century, has  developed within the consciousness of the Atomists theories with the subjugation of vitalistic concepts as unscientific, cults, etc.

 

So, where has our allegiance to this system brought us over the last century? Let's take a look at the status of "health" care in the United States today:

 -According to the Journal Of The American Medical Association, July 26, 2000, 225,000 deaths per year from adverse reactions to medications and mistakes in patient care constitute the third leading cause of death in the United States behind heart disease and cancer. Putting this into perspective, that's about 600 people a day, equivalent to 2-3 jumbo jet liner crashes in which everyone perishes.

 -The World Health Organization"s Health Report 2000 looked at 190 countries in the world. The U.S. ranked first in emergency care but seventy-second in wellness care giving us an overall rating of thirty-seventh!  

 -According to Alternative Medical digest, we spend more on treating the side effects of medications than we spend on the medications themselves.

 -An Institute Of Medicine report states that out of 13 countries studied, the U.S. ranked 12th (second from the bottom) for sixteen available indicators such as neonatal and infant mortality, life expectancy, etc.

 - There are 17 million Americans who are clinically depressed with approximately six million prescriptions written for children under the age of eighteen.

Need I go on?

 

We obviously don't get health from a system that focuses on sickness and disease care. Bruce Lipton and the cell biologists at Stanford Univ. have shown that your genes have the coding to manifest health  or cancer and whichever one you call upon by the environment you live in will determine what your genes express. This "environment" is composed of the internal as well as the external influences on who you are as a human being. Examples include your choices around food, exercise, toxic substance exposure, mental attitudes and your relationships with yourself, others, and spirituality.

 

Is it any wonder why the Atomists philosophy is fizzing out and the more Vitalistic approach is gaining strength? The "alternatives" have now reached mainstream status. According to research conducted at Harvard Medical Center, there are approximately 200 million more visits to alternative practitioners than to primary medical care physicians each year. More and more people are rising above the mist and incongruencies of a failed system.  They are choosing to take responsibility for their own health by finding a health care practitioner who can be a coach and guide them through the maze of health care decisions based on the patient/client's desires and personal philosophy around health. Many times this incorporates both models in respect to the appropriateness for each in the specific situation.

 

In light of this shifting consciousness, it's interesting to observe the related institutional manuevering. We recently saw a  T.V. commercial showing a hospital utilizing alternative therapies for care of cancer patients. Our question is "how could we have better prevented the cancer from manifesting in the first place?". According to Dr. John Baylor in the New England Journal Of Medicine,  we have spent thirty billion dollars on cancer research since the Cancer Act was instituted in 1971. He goes on to state that "we have lost the war" as he didn't feel that we had impacted death rates to any great extent. Cancer is still the second leading cause of death in the U.S.

 

What if we had spent that thirty billion dollars on researching how to prevent the imbalance in the organism that enabled the cancer to develop in the first place?  How about focusing on finding solutions and prevention rather than struggling to find "the cure".Then go on to educate ourselves and especially our children as to how to make healthier lifestyle decisions. Maybe we would see a population prospering in health and wellness rather than degenerating  in chronic disease processes. Then the politicians wouldn't have to be so concerned about how to fund all the prescriptions and treatment in the future for our increasingly chronically sick nation. 

 

We can reverse this trend and create a healthier nation for all of us, especially our children to grow up in. It begins within each and every one of us as members of our collective society. Create a clear vision of what you want your health to be. Take responsibility for your own health and set a course and take action to manifest this vision? Seek out sources of information that start you thinking "out of the box". Don't wait until you get a wake up call some day that lets you know that you have neglected to consciously create your own health destiny?

 

We are all on a path in life at different speeds and with different philosophies and the whole process is constantly changing. We at Northern Michigan Holistic Health feel that what is important is whether you are defining and creating your own path by conscious, rational thought or are you floating in the midst of the status quo and accepting whatever happens to  you by chance circumstance?

 

The choice is yours. What is your vision? What are you going to focus on in your life?  The cell biologists seem to be telling us that whatever we focus on with intent, we become. What are we going to focus on as a nation? Health and wellness or sickness and disease? The conversations we have and stories we tell around these issues will create the reality we will experience.

 

We cannot change where we've been. We can only influence where we're going. As Joan Baez said, " You don't get to choose how you're going to die or when. You can only choose how you are going to live."