Science and Your Health

Updated 11/04/1999

I don't want to sound like I am against science, but I have a sincere comment to make about science that I feel needs to be made.

Many thousands of years ago, "science" was in the hands of Astrology and the astronomers. It was said (and is still being said by some) that the stars rule our actions.

Science has been improved over the years. A lot of the superstition has been taken out of science. For instance, we now know the world is not flat. We have come to understand why mushrooms have the effect they do. We know more about the causes of sickness and we can cure most of what was uncurable even a hundred years ago.

But, we have traded one superstition for another.

We are looking deeply into the molecular level of living bodies and discovering equations of life that seem to say "This is what rules our actions". So, the new science says it is not the stars that rule our actions. So now we can all go around blaming our genes instead of the stars. In fact, I often hear people say "it's in my genes" instead of "it's in my stars".

So how is this another superstition?

Have you ever heard me say that the body follows the mind?

There are countless books coming out on the market that, to me, clearly demonstrate the mind's ability to control the body - even to the point of creating "miracles" that completely baffle "science". "It can't be done," I have heard medical science say. "The make-up of the cells and their behavior are beyond our control," they insist. "But we can influence the cells with chemicals and radiation," they continue.

Of course you can! But that doesn't take away from the real fact that such outside influence is not really necessary.

No, I am not a Christian Scientist, nor do I practice nor promote prayer over practical medical attention. What I do promote is to keep an open perspective on what actually controls our behavior, and I strongly believe it all starts with our attitude, which then molds our values and beliefs, which then controls our decisions, which then determines our behavior. And how we behave influences how the cells in our body behave. If we have a sickly attitude, I believe we will have a sickly body - and all the science in the world is not going to "fix" the illness if the mind is determined to be "sick".

I believe there will come a day when science will find a cure for everything - everything, that is, except for what troubles the mind. As fast as a troubled mind can conjure up a new illness, science will be able to counteract it and correct it. Intervention of this kind is obvious today. Polio is out. Measles and Chicken Pox no longer are death threats. Even the Black Plague can be controlled. And now cancer is finding a determined enemy in the halls of science. This is truly wonderful news!

Or is it?

We are becoming more and more addicted to what science is telling us is reality. At the same time, in the background there is a continuing warning bell ringing out that our belief in science, like our belief in Astrology, is misleading us. Notice I clearly say "our belief in". And notice the implication of this as to how the mind works relative to the body functions. Science "works" because we believe in it. One new and very interesting theory proposed by Science is that we discover a thing because we are looking for it, and prior to looking for it, it never existed. This clearly implies that the effects of physical science as we know them are being created by our minds. As we think, so it is. When considering the ramifications of this and the "evidence" to the contrary, this is hard for the lay person to swallow.

Science in and of itself is not a bad thing. How we accept science as an authority in our lives can prevent us from discovering the truth about our minds and the mind/body connection. As long as we "use" science to tell us what is real, we are simply delaying the inevitable. I have seen hypnotism at work and know of its strange power first hand. Hypnotism is being used as a substitute for anesthesia, and this clearly demonstrates the power of the mind over the body. It is not that the body does not sense pain, rather it is that the mind does not react to it. Also, in not so rare cases, spontaneous healing is occurring all over the world. These cases make me wonder just how much control the mind has over the body. And if I accept the teachings of the mystics (of all times, old and new), I can but deny that science is the last word in healing the body and know that only the mind is.

I beg of you, is conjuring up a science to cure a troubled body really the best way to handle a troubled mind? I also caution you that it is probably worth "taking an aspirin" to "subdue the headache" so you can have a clear mind to think with. The next step in the "cure" would be to discover the "troubled mind" within and deal with that.

I predict that someday we will all come to know and use our minds to the extent that medical science as we know it today will no longer be needed, and that the rest of science will be ragarded as we now regard music and the arts - as an unnecessary mood-altering device, nonetheless entertaining. We shall return to the days when form and function were useful to represent "that which is", but unlike those days, we shall fully know and be in touch with "that which is".

Until then, keep a healthy attitude.