Health and disease are as much part of our life as eating and drinking, sleeping and being awake. The World Health Organization (WHO) definition of health "Health is the absence of disease, and disease is the absence of health" expresses the general understanding of the population.
It is very complex how the individual person perceives health and disease. Somebody who has a common cold can feel really ill whereas somebody with a fractured legs or arms can feel very healthy. Bishop Tutu, a friend of Nelson Mandela, the president of South-Africa, was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer. "I felt totally healthy", was his comment, "until the doctor diagnosed me as being ill." Such medical statements create often a catastrophic mood in the patient from which it is very difficult to escape.
Everybody reacts differently to health and disease and therefore each person will cope differently on emotional, rational, physical and spiritual level. Each society has developed basic guidelines about the understanding of health and disease and also which treatments and healing methods are being offered and accepted. Although we react in a highly individual way to our personal diseases, our upbringing and the social environment determine our perception. Our own culture does not allow too many diversions from the accepted norms. We are punished if we don't follow the written or unwritten rules. We will feel sanctions of various kind if we behave in a way that is different to the social norm.
Myths of all ancient cultures speak of a Golden Age, a paradise which was free of all diseases. Those times were followed by a difficult period in which mankind had to fight with many diseases. The Bible describes why the father and mother of all mankind had to leave paradise: Eve gave Adam the apple from the tree of knowledge and they had to leave paradise, punished for disobeying God's law. In Greek methodology Prometheus stole fire from heaven (use of fire was for the Gods only) and mankind was punished by the opening of Pandora's box. All the ills and sorrows of mankind flew out, the last thing in the box.
Since the end of the Golden Age mankind had to cope with plagues and the devil. One of the plagues and one form of suffering was disease. History does not tell us as from when disease was seen as a specific form of suffering.
The Arthara-Veda of ancient India speaks of praying which helped people who had become insane. Mental disease, caused by the devil, could be alleviated through prayers to God. Again, it is difficult to differentiate between disease and other forms of suffering. But all plagues are a consequence of sinning against God and caused by the devil. Healing methods of Arthara-Veta are prayers and not medical methods.
The cultures of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia had a very similar perception of disease and therefore treatment was similar. Disease was described in the old writings as a complex system of symptoms which were related to certain parts of the body. Yet again diseases fell upon a person. Many names of disease and symptoms are linked or identical with the names of demons or Gods.
But already we find in those cultures something like a diagnosis, a prognosis and methods of how to treat the disease. We can find already in the writings of the Old Kingdom in Egypt references as to whether a disease can be treated or not and if a treatment is considered successful. Pictures and writings of both cultures differentiate clearly between different types of disease: external injuries and internal diseases.In Mesopotamia reading and interpretation of the Omen developed to a very special form of art, which informed the medical people about the cause of the disease and also about the possible treatment. Not only could humans be affected by diseases. Some diseases, such as Zara'ath, translated as Leper would also befall houses and gardens.
Both cultures perceived diseases as an expression of ritual impurity which could be cleared through the use of clearing rituals. Diseases were also perceived as punishment when violating taboos, social rules or consciously planed crimes against humans and Gods. Diseases could also be inflicted by sorcerers, demons and by the Gods.
Those old societies did not function according to logical thinking and reasoning. Therefore a concept which was valid for the whole of the society cannot be found. The concepts of those societies are based on a magical understanding of health and disease. The connection between heart and pulse and also the existence of blood and veins, arteries was well accepted. It was known that the blood travels through the arteries and transports the disease through this process across the body. Diseases were treated with colours, herbs, ointments, sacrifices, rituals and prayers.The ancient Egyptians embalmed their dead to protect them against demons. If the dead were not treated properly, their bodies developed a disease which eventually destroyed it. This disease was called Whdw and was identical with the name of a demon. It was understood in later Egyptian cultures that the disease/demon Whdw was linked to certain biological processes. In the history of disease the acquiring of this knowledge was a turning point and responsible for the change of the perception from an archaic understanding to a rational- and systematic way of looking at disease and also of treating it. This approach has been further developed by the Indians, Greeks and Chinese.
The Indian Caraka Samhita views "health as the highest source of wealth, joy and redemption", whereas diseases destroy health, a good life and life itself. Health, but also disease "live" in the mind and body of humans. Air, phlegm and bile are the three doshas which are responsible for the development of diseases, whereas passion and delusion are responsible for the diseases of the mind. Ayurvedic medicine is a far reaching and all encompassing system of diagnosis and healing methods which are altogether embedded in an deep holistic understanding of life and philosophy. The body can be treated with somatic (such as change of eating habits, ointments, herbs etc.) but also with spiritual methods and mental diseases can be treated with religious and philosophical activities, by strengthening the soul and learning to concentrate. Although diseases are caused by many external and internal reasons of mind and body, demons may play a part by causing diseases.Health and longevity were high goals in Indian philosophy and the art of living. Modern Indian ayurvedic medicine is regarded as furthest reaching medicine amongst a wide circle of professionals.
Chinese medicine and Indian medicine are very similar. Health and disease are part of the philosophy of the TAO, the philosophical and religious base of Chinese society. The basic principles of the Tao, Yang and their interactions express themselves in all other principles of life such as male and female, positive and negative, black and white etc. Health and disease are expressions of the human microcosmos with all ist parallels in the macrocosmos. Health and longevity can be reached by leading your life according to the rules of the TAO.
In issue no 4/96, 1/97 and 2/97 of espacio time we published an extensive article on "Healing in the Far East" by Dr. med. univ. M. Jaschke. In the Chinese understanding of medicine the 5 circles of the body are linked to the 5 elements: water, fire, air, metal and wood. Disease develops when those circles are not balanced. Chinese medicine also considers the individual circumstances of life, the general philosophy and the attitude of a person to life and health or disease in direct relation to health and disease.
Shintoism took a different view. The religion was founded by Gyogi, a Korean monk in 7th century. It combined the old religion of Japan with Buddhism and prepared a break of the old Japanese culture away from the previously accepted ancient traditional Chinese culture. The worshipped Shinto Gods (spirits of nature and national heros) were seen as an incorporation of Buddha. In this belief mankind live in a considerably changing world in which the individual and mankind are part of the whole and therefore act as an active part and contribute to the constantly changing process of life (see articles by Juan Manuel Vasquez) about the shamanism of their culture.
For the Greeks health was also one of the most desirable goals in life. The Greek writer Theornis speaks of health as "the most desirable goal in ones life". Disease was detested and the Greek saying "orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano (your prayer must be for a sound (healthy) mind in a healthy body" highlights the Greek understanding of health and disease. Greek medicine therefore became very complex and obtained a high place in society. The notions of health and beauty were linked and hygiene plays an important role in ancient Greek society. People spent a lot of time striving to be healthy and beautiful. The ancient Greek literature describes any problems of health and beauty as disease. Health is seen as being in harmony with nature, whereas disease is in contrast to nature.
In history the Greek culture is seen as the first where the concept of health and disease differ fundamentally from the earlier barbarian concepts, because the Greeks were the first to classify diseases methodologically and to treat the patients accordingly.
Hippocrates (460 - 377 AD) is widely regarded as the founder of Western Medicine. All medical doctors of the Western hemisphere still swear to the oath of Hippocrates which is the basis of Western medical ethics. He taught that the cause of all disease in the body is rooted in human attitudes and is influenced by "divine" factors such as cold, wind and sun. Epidemical diseases are caused by pollution (miasmata), which travels through the air and are inhaled by people in polluted regions. Yet again we find a connection to the Gods as it is believed that miasmata is caused by the activities of the sun which is a symbol for the God Apollo. The Greek myths promulgate that Apollo sent plagues to Thebes as it had been polluted by the "heroic" actions of Oedipus.
This point of view is similar to the understanding of the Indian philosophy and its concept of Karma: the responsibility for deeds and actions spanning several generations. In Jewish-Christian tradition the descendants of Adam and Eve have to carry the heavy burden of original sin. The sins of the father will be visited on the son.
A lot of the old scripts have probably been written in Kos, the birth place of Hippocrates. The notion of disease was individualized by Hippocrates and his followers, who named and classified such diseases as tuberculosis, pneumonia, pleurisy and "holy diseases" such as epilepsy.The symptoms of a patient were connected by various humours, still used today: sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric and melancholic. Health could be maintained in the eyes of the Greeks by adopting a temperate lifestyle. "Moderation in all things." (Epicurus 3rd century BC) The Epicureans believed in temperance and moderation and the importance of pleasure for a happy life; the other strong philosophy school of thought was the Stoics who believed in divine law and acceptance of divine will. Health, beauty and happiness were however the most important goals in life for the ancient Greeks. They could only be achieved and maintained if the person was able to organize his own life in an appropriate manner using his own power according to his abilities.
The classic ideal is that health is a true expression of symmetry and beauty symbolizing spiritual beauty and therefore spiritual health. The Roman proverb "A healthy mind lives in a healthy body" has been a motto for schoolchildren over 1 000 years.
Suffering in general and particular suffering during a disease was considered in most cultures a result of disobeying the rules of the culture or the respective Gods. Christianity - a monotheistic religion based on the notion of a creator as the source of life - postulates diseases as a form of punishment for violation against the rules given by God (Ten Command-ments). Moreover, the Christian religion regards additionally diseases and suffering as part of the disease as a possibility for eternal redemption. The life of Jesus Christ was the prime example for this concept. Christ's public feeding of the sinners and his explanation: "They don't need a doctor although there are ill", is an example of this approach. (Matthew 9:2-7). His actions were based on the understanding that sin is a disease in itself which needs healing.The ascetic side of Christianity treats disease with pride because through the suffering of a disease one chastises and humiliates the lust of the senses. Suffering therefore is seen as a virtue which chastise the carnal lust. For that reason the work with leper sufferers are regarded as divine work because one could obtain respect and esteem of fellow humans and society and furthermore the promise of acquiring saintly attributes. Many thinkers throughout history are concerned with the question why so many outstanding philosophers, politicians and poets as well as artists display a melancholic temperament and also suffer from chronic diseases. This seems to be a typical problem of the Christian West. The great philosophers of the East such as Buddha, Lao-Tse and Confucius led a normal life and did not experiences more severe diseases than their fellow humans.
The increase of suffering regardless of its disease goes hand-in-hand with the development of increasing individuality: if somebody can get something out of suffering such as going to heaven with a cleaner shirt will be the consequence a strengthening of the position of the individual in the culture. The foundation of Christianity with its roots in the Jewish religion assumes that all humans are images of God. This approach stresses the importance of a persons own individuality. So a fundamental change regarding the understanding of life had taken place: the meaning of life was not longer an adaptation to the cycle of life such as in shintoism and old shamanistic philosophies and religions but was linked the effort of the individual, personal health and individual success. Those goals of life became throughout our history and particularly during the industrial revolution predominant for Christian societies hand-in-hand with brotherly-love, to help those who are less successful or less healthy. The understanding of ones own self-worth thus changed in the process of history: from being a member of a community, embedded in the cycle of life to an independent individual, trying to proof his self-worth to and himself and his creator by being successful in life.
Concepts of disease in the different societies of our culture were shaped also by the existence of different diseases. As described beforehand the ancient Egyptians already had the first means of a diagnosis which can be seen as the foundation stone for a medicine of diagnosis, which developed more and more throughout the centuries. During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance many infectious diseases were prevailing and cost many a life. Arabic and Roman authors of their time elaborated on the old concept of infections and infectious diseases but altogether a clear concept as such did not exist. The reasons for infections were manifold: they could develop within the body, as a result of the development of the disease or by other influences such as the stars. That for example is why the name for the virus infection is called influenza = influenced by the stars. The big epidemics took place 527 - 565 (emperor Justinian), plague and cholera epidemics (mid 18 century), in London (1665) and also in Marseilles (1720) as the last big epidemics in Europe. The most terrible of all epidemics was the leper one during the middle-ages. As from 1495 the syphilis also developed epidemic character.
The growth of the medical knowledge prompted a clearer definition of epidemic diseases: their infectious character was always the same from person to person. This ontological approach to disease of viewing the disease as real and giving it an independent existence was based mainly on the ideas of Paracelsus (1678 - 1541). Disease was defined by this school as parasites, which were caused by external factors, independent from the personal circumstances of the individual. The Englishman William Harvey (1578 - 1657) assumed an individual life of tumors and that diseases which are caused by infections or poisoning have their own vitality, in today's language: their own energy.
Thomas Sydenham (1624 - 89) was one of the founder of Nosology, the science of classifying diseases. Sydenham believed the cause of epidemics were occult and unexplainable changes in the centre of the earth, giving off vapour which changed the quality of the air and made humans more susceptible to epidemics. Another important role for the existence of epidemics were unexplainable and anxiety causing occult factors.
Linne (1701 - 78), Boissier de Sauvages (1706 - 67), Cullen (1710 - 90), Pinell (1745 - 1826) and Schoenlein (1793 - 1864) created nosological systems in which diseases were classified in groups, species and genre on the basis of their clinical symptoms. This classification system is still the basis of our modern understanding of disease. The scientific understanding of medicine and the subsequent instruction for doctors are based on the following premise: a diagnosis can be made based on the classification of the symptoms and the medication necessary will be prescribed as listed. A further investigation or understanding regarding the disease or the patient are therefore not needed within this system as the doctor can reach the correct diagnosis and method of treatment through the classification system . This system of diagnosis has established itself firmly and irrevocably in our health system.
The theories of the French philosopher Descartes were very influential during the age of reason throughout the Western world and proved particularly strong in the medical world. The human mind was put in the very first place and was therefore far superior to other forms of life. Descartes, his scholars and his successors perceived the bodies of humans and animals as soulless machines but humans could connect body and soul through the conscious process of thinking. The body is a perfect machine and changes through disease to an imperfect machine. No machine has the ability of self regulation but needs to be repaired by external forces. With this point of view diseases did not require any healing processes because if the body was faulty and consequently the bodies' symptoms were considered as interference's that had to be analyzed, classified and repaired. All processes of nature were regarded as being blind and unconscious and could only be destructive. The traditional view of mother earth and nature as a "benevolent being" was now regarded as barbaric. The true nature of all things was now the rational perception of the human mind which task it is to detect processes of interference and to eliminate them. This concept is still today a foundation of our conscious and/or unconscious belief and therefore the basic of our actions.
The Cartesian philosophy, the philosophical foundation of the age of reason, regarded disease only as a property of the body, whereas crime, sins and inherited diseases were seen as diseases of the soul.
The medical profession became divided during the Middle Ages: the local practitioners and the surgeons were now organized differently. The surgeons now were in the same guild as the barbers. They were responsible for all external treatment of the body such as wounds, abscesses, dislocations, skin diseases, tumours, hernias and cataracts whereas the local practitioners were responsible for internal diseases. For that reason surgeon still today have a lesser position within the medical hierarchy although they are highly respected by society and the patients.
With the use of the stethoscope (1819) the medical profession became more and more independent of the personal perception of a patient. This new found "objectivity" was now of good use in the newly developing hospitals of the industrial nations. Patients in these hospitals came from the overcrowded and impoverished slums and they were prime guineapigs for the new "objectivity" of the medical factory. The development of these modern states also encouraged the collection and analysis of statistics and so it was finally possible to compare symptoms of disease on a wider scale. The nosology was extended and elaborated and with this development the mechanistic approach to disease and its medical treatment became established. The big epidemics were "controlled" with the development of vaccination and the next step in this direction was the discovery of antibiotics. (by end of the second world war). Now the medical profession was able to "control" bacterial infections. The most recent step in the progress of total control is the development of genetic engineering: so far the finest possibility of repairing a defective machine, our body. The cosmetic correction of noses, lips, the "improvement" of the sexual organs such as lengthening the penis or correcting the vagina are now common procedures. More and more horror stories about silicon implants and long-term diseases as well as disabilities appear in various magazines and papers on the long-term effect of such procedures. But so far we don't know anything about the long-term effects on mankind as a result of genetic engineering. We are still learning more and more about the long-term effects of hormone therapies which were regarded for many years regarded as the new wonder of modern medicine. (see Sherill Sellman Article: A Bitter Pill to Swallow)
Our understanding of disease today is therefore based on the individualistic approach deriving from Christianity and the growth of the so-called objectivisation of symptoms to which we are reduced and treated accordingly.
Major contradictions and inconsistencies within a society always reflect various attitudes and positions but also show how people react and cope with rules and problems postulated by the society. We have outlined here that health and disease can be regarded as cultural belief systems which people from respective cultures more or less identify with.
For example, on one hand a profound connection exists between the age of reason and the industrial revolution. Based on this foundation the development of rationalism and functionalism, and on the other hand the romanticism of its time. Tuberculosis was the disease of the industrial revolution, in the same way as syphilis was part of the late Renaissance and melancholy part of the baroque age. A very high percentage of the working population suffered from tuberculosis as did many scientists and artists such as Novalis, Chopin, Schiller, Bayle and Laennec, two researchers of tuberculosis. The disease and the suffering caused by it were described at length in poems and songs and often somewhat glorified.
The contradictions of our time also include Romanticism. A strong stand in Western culture - particular in the Saxon countries - was a moral duty to stay healthy in order to worship God. Two predominant goals of life characterize our Western societies: first there is the necessity of health, closely connected with external beauty and secondly richness, prosperity, closely linked with the understanding of security. Idealists and materialist agree regarding the importance of those goals. One group (the materialists) needs the money to buy health and beauty and the treatment necessary to obtain this. The other group (idealists) are projecting their hopes and wishes onto to another dimension, which promises a happier time, eternal health and life. Most groups and many followers of the New Age and in particular the lightworkers can be put into this category.
Light and shadow are a unity, most people associate "good and bad" with it. For that reason people direct their goals in life only to achieve enlightenment without integrating their shadow side and separate this unity at the expense of losing contact with the separated side. They lose touch with the ground, the contact to mother earth is missing. Many people dissatisfied with their life strive for "quick enlightenment" and turn to New Age or other esoteric movements. This often lead to even bigger problems on each level because trying to solve life-problems one- sided only intensifies the problems instead of solving them. Conflict and diseases have to be tackled here and now on a holistic level, the energy which has caused the disease has to be understood and accepted to activate the individuals own healing properties. Only then will the body accept the support of other methods in its healing process. Every wish to avoid confrontation with your own inner processes or to substitute this with longing for a false harmony, will cause illusions either on this dimension or another level and feed life-denying energies. In these type of processes people do not take the causing energy seriously but try to visualize problems away instead.
We have now seen that the basic contradiction of the division between health and disease appears in almost all cultures. This polarity is the product of the historical development of a culture in which health and virtue are very closely linked as are disease and vices. Somebody who is ill is not normal and will have to do everything to obtain the situation of normality again. A person who is ill cannot work and therefore damages firstly others and in particularly the economy, secondly himself because disease and sin are still closely connected in the understanding of both the conscious and the unconsciousness of people. All miracles of healing in the New Testament performed by Christ, always included the redemption of sins. Disease has been strongly criminalized in modern society and therefore the pressure on the individual to stay or become healthy is very high because it is based on fear: the fear not to be normal, the fear to become dependent on others, the fear of death as the business with fear is very lucrative.
When in his quest to look for help the patient eventually visits the doctor he is meet by the mere medical knowledge of facts of the doctor, which tries to slot him into the categories of a stricly patho-physiological causality, and which will reduce the role of the patient limits of the functioning of certain organs: the doctor and patients relationship completely loses any personal interaction and becomes a relationship between two objects.
The growing number of "therapeutic dissatisfied patients" reflects the perpetual cycle of medical attempts that is missing its aims, especially as the system does not investigate the cause of the disease but merely looks at the patient's symptoms and then just treats the symptom as the disease. The more complicated methods of diagnosis and therapy became, the more it becomes necessary that the patient must be treated in hospital. This is a development which is also part of the perpetual cycle. The problem, however, is also intensified by the highly specialized different medical disciplines in our modern ultra efficient societies where hospitals are managed like large companies .
Shapiro describes (1959) the history of the Western medicine as the history of placebos, whereas Jores (1962) and von Kress (1964) in studies of Western medicine postulate that doctors are the creators of diseases. They recognize that the scientific naively conducted medicinal system is a professional error on a grand scale. This is proven by the increasing amount of functional diseases. The growth of the alternative healing movement is also a result of the dissatisfaction of patients.
So the modern patient finds himself in the middle of a wide range of conflicts which are characterized by the following polarities:
a) big cultural contradictions of health as a virtue, disease as a vice and sin;
b) the social conflict of an increasing individuality together with a growing so-called objectivity resulting in a de-individualization of symptoms and their commercialization;
c) the need for disease in our culture because of a large pharmaceutical industry, the whole health system and the large market of therapists of all directions and also several ideological groups which depend financially on this;
d) the much idolized attributes of beauty and youth in our culture, the general fear of being different, the fear of aging and the taboo regarding dying;
e) the general addiction of our society to eternity;
f) the helping syndrome of numerous religious groups or other alternative groups which are on a mission promising rescue to everybody in order to secure salvation for themselves.
In addition to all of this the patient has to cope with remedies based on a diagnosis which only needs to search for interferences in order to classify and eliminate them. A deep understanding of the internal and external connections of life, the embedding of the individual in the whole such as the tides, elements and cosmos has been lost and exists only in rudimentary approaches in small groups of society. They are often regarded as fringe groups or charlatans.
So it is no surprise that health in our society promises freedom i.e. being free. Whereas disease means that the patient is caught in the net as described above, left on his own having to find a way out while his life energy has been weakened.
Experiencing a feeling of helplessness and left without orientation, the diseased patient will then turn to alternative medicine which promises a way out. What we all don't realize is that the alternative practitioner is also caught in the same trap. They, like the doctors and the patient, are a product of the very same society. Therefore they are susceptible to the same blind spots in their perception. However, natural methods are more healthy for the body than bio-chemical medication. The consciousness of the practitioner treating the patient can generally be as linear as that of traditional medicine: health, beauty, money = success are the motivation and aims. Unfortunately the client is no longer significant but the method or the system; which needs to prove to itself that it is the one and only!
The solution to this problem is not easy and demands a lot of time and effort: we have to set ourselves free of the traps of our culture by learning to know our body with all its strength and weaknesses, so we can help it in its healing processes. We have to let go of perceiving our body as a functioning machine which should always to be there for us and functioning perfectly. It is certainly easier to go through such a change of consciousness when we are "healthy" than when we are "ill". As in such a situation we are even more weakened and therefore trapped in the unconscious belief of our culture.
We will always find an answer to any of the questions we raise if only we search in the right direction instead of expecting certain pre-defined solutions. This is also true for our own body: our body has its own pharmacy which interacts with our whole being if we understand how to use it properly. We have to learn to access our own inner knowledge. For centuries we have been used to accepting external knowledge, coming from the outside and it is difficult for us to believe, that each one of us has an inner knowledge which helps to adapt and cope with all situations of life and therefore also to cope with diseases. In ancient cultures diseased people asked the sorcerers, medicine man or the Gods, the priests and later the doctors. Many patients today who reject to taking chemical medication are often quick to take any homeopathic or other natural remedies. The underlying pattern is however the same: help is expected to come from the outside and therefore we take away the chance of the body to develop ist own awareness. Diseases are often a sign for necessary steps in the development and growth of a person and "dissolve" themselves often exactly at that moment when the whole being deeply understands the step necessary to take. This is because an integration between becoming aware and the consciousness of the body has taken place which we deny, if we immediately take external remedies in the case of any slight symptoms. We have to un-learn seeing and experiencing the body as an object and instead learn to accept the body as a living pharmacist with all its inner knowledge.
Christa Muths
B.Sc., M.A., M.Sc.
Principal of espacio , Internat. Centre for Holistic Studies
Editor of Treff-Räume espacio time
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