. Most likely some old forgotten memories come up about a similar incident in your younger years. Whatever the method, when
an emotional event from the past is made conscious, it either ceases its detrimental effects on its own or can now be dealt with in a
rational way.
Some of the main hidden emotions that we need to uncover and release are fear, guilt and resentments. These block the ﬂow of life-
force energies and make us susceptible to lack of energy, diseases and aging. The main remedies, after making a suppressed
emotional memory conscious, are unconditional love, understanding and forgiving ourselves and all others.
On this level you do not need to clean out all hidden negative emotional memories that would probably be impossible. However, you
should aim to uncover and remove all those factors that interfere strongly with the ﬂow of life-force energies in your body, with your
emotional health and enjoyment of life and also with your ability to make clear and impartial decisions.
The most important emotional event to discover and release is commonly our last death experience. This often is at the root of our
present health or social problems. To discover and overcome this try regression therapy as described in Mind Tools.
2. Overcoming Addictions and Cravings
For many, overcoming their addictions and cravings may seem to be the hardest task of the spiritual path. Addictions to certain foods,
drugs and stimulants are best overcome with a combination of Emotional Freedom Technique, guided imagery, prayer, afﬁrmation
and cleansing periods with a very high ﬂuid intake. Also homoeopathic doses of the addictive agent can be helpful.
In addition, we may also be addicted to or have cravings for certain activities or objects, such as sex, gambling, entertainment,
expensive dresses, jewellery or antiques. Again, the activity or object is not the problem, but rather the attachment to it, the desire for
it that controls us rather than we controlling it. The most important step is in acknowledging that we have a problem in this area. Apart
from prayer, meditation, guided imagery and afﬁrmations, the most helpful approach would be to live for a sufﬁciently long period in a
simple way in natural surroundings.
3. Free-ﬂowing Emotions
Freely expressing our emotions for most of us is contrary to our upbringing and social conditioning. A ﬁrst step is in learning to feel
our emotions when they arise instea d of suppressing them because the time or situation is not appropriate. Then we may decide to
express them immediately in a harm less way or re-enact the situation  at a later time. We can then in our imagination relive the
situation and may kick or punch a pillow or do or say, possibly in front of a mirror, what we felt like doing at the earlier time.
Nevertheless, it is preferable to deve lop the skills to react appropriately whenever the situation arises because then we can also be
an example to others.
Marriages and other close relationships are ideal opportunities to learn communicating. If free expression is not always possible, then
arrange a ﬁxed time at the end of the day or once a week when you each can freely express your thoughts and feelings. It is
important that only one speaks without interruption until he has said everything he wants to say and then the other replies also
without interruption. See the article on Healing Social Relationships.
4. Generating Positive Feelings
After emptying ourselves of negativity and learning to acknowledge and express our feelings and emotions, it is equally important to
ﬁll and surround ourselves with positive and uplifting feelings. Ideally this will come as a naturally by-product of habitual meditation
and through focusing on spiritual feelings during our daily activities. In this way we develop a higher emotional body as a precondition
for the second initiation.
In addition, it will be beneﬁcial to practise feeling exercises as explained in the article on The Love Cure  or in the Love Meditation
section in Mind Tools. Another possibility is to look at a beautiful or impressive object, such as a tree, a ﬂower, a cloud or a landscape
and send feelings of appreciation, admiration, joy and love to it. You can do the same by thinking of an individual whom you like or
love. After sufﬁcient practise also send feelings of forgiveness, appreciation and love to anyone whom you may have hurt or who may
have hurt you in the past.
Finally, learn to carry the loving feeling that you can now generate in special situations over into your normal daily activities. You can
do this by training yourself to carry this loving or joyful feeling in your heart wherever you go or whatever you do. Whenever you see
or meet someone, you can embrace  that individual with the warm feeling in your heart. This is especially important and effective for
improving relationships with people who do not seem to like or appreciate you.10/30/24, 3:03 PM Health-Science-Spirit - An Integrated Spiritual Path
https://health-science-spirit.com/Spirituality/An-Integrated-Spiritual-Path.html 3/7As another useful exercise you may try learning to change one feeling into another. You can start with any emotional feeling that you
may experience at the time or you may just generate a warm feeling by breathing into the abdomen or you may generate an
emotional feeling by imagining an appropriate situation. Intensify the feeling as much as possible, but then imagine how another
emotion might feel. In this way you may experimentally convert love into anger and then back into love. This will show you that you
do not need to be at the mercy of emotions arising as a reaction to outside events but that you can make a mental decision how you
really want to feel.
5. Reacting Positively
After learning to remain centred in the self-generated positive feelings of our heart, we still need to learn to react positively and
appropriately to the many frustrations of our daily lives. This can come only by letting ourselves be guided by a spiritual belief system.
After adopting a spiritual philosophy of life it will be much easier to see everything that happens to us as a test of our progress on the
spiritual path.
Every day we have many little tests. It is alright to feel a burst of anger if we break a valuable item, but we may also just laugh about
our clumsiness or look for an inner or outer reason why it happened. It does not matter too much how we react, as long as it is
appropriate. If we do feel a burst of anger, then it is appropriate to feel it and not try to rationalise it away. But after having felt the
anger, we should not remain stuck in it but use our mind to get out of it, either by seeing the funny side of it if that is possible, or by
trying to learn from it. However, it would not be appropriate to suppress any stirring of anger by quickly switching to one of the other
modalities.
It is similar with our reactions in relationship to others. The basic rule is to feel and express whatever emotion comes up, but then to
modify it according to our understanding of the situation from a spiritual point of view. Our emotional reactions are a reﬂection of our
beliefs and the more spiritual these become, the more positive will be our reactions. The ideal is that we can express our feelings
naturally in a way that is a positive example.
THE MENT AL LEVEL
Our mind is the most important level to heal because here we make the conscious decisions that affect all other levels. For an
overview see the article: Healing the Mind. As with the other levels, our aim is to free ourselves of negativity and developing positive
aspects instead. A well developed higher mental body is a precondition for the third initiation. We build this higher mental body by
practising abstract creative and intuitive thinking such as by thinking about the purpose of life or existence or the nature of God.
In order to free yourself of negative beliefs and thoughts, you must ﬁrst recognise them when they occur. A recommended way is to
develop the habit of having a small part of your awareness in the background as an observer. Whenever you have a negative
thought, your observer will ring an alarm bell and you realise what you have done. Then, as a mental exercise, ﬁnd the corresponding
positive thought.
As an example, you may watch someone passing by and observe that she is rather overweight. If you notice having a critical thought
about her weight, mentally apologise to her and either send her a mental compliment about some other aspect of her appearance or
just wish her well. It is alright to observe, just refrain from uninvited judgments, especially of a negative kind. However, the habit of
critically evaluating others is the opposite to an invited critical and constructive assessment in order to help someone.
Another important aspect in controlling our mind is to refrain from talking about other people, especially about common friends,
relatives or acquaintances, except when exchanging some relevant factual information. Anything more is gossiping, judging or
criticising and would delay progress on the spiritual path.
The Law of Manifestation
Any kind of worry is negative, whether you worry about your ﬁnances or your health or about a child or someone else. Worry or
concern is a form of fear and that is the opposite of positive expectations and faith. To a large degree we shape our own future by
what we expect. Our inner self tries to manifest what we expect. Our expectation acts like a magnet to attract and draw the expected
event into our outer reality. If we worry about anything, we expect a negative outcome and help to make it come true.
Therefore, our key lesson to learn at the mental level is to know what we want and then without wavering expect it to manifest
sometime in the future. Except where timing is essential, it


 SEE THAT YOUR BODY WILL GET CURED FROM MOST
OF THESE DISEASES (GASTRITIS, ASMA, DIABETES, ULCERS, EPILEPSY,
CANCER AND H.I.V.)
51 SClENTJflC PRlNClPL£
WE GET CURED BY ELEVATING OUR IMUNOLOGY SYSTEM OF OUR BODY
(OUR ANTI-BODIES).
CIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES:
THE URINE HAS MORE THAN 1000 CHEMICAL SUBSTANCES AS ANTIDOTES,
ANTITOXINES, VITAMINS, HORMONES AND THE SUBSTANCES THAT
THE STIMULATION OF IGE, IGA, IN THIS WAY HEALTH IS REPROGRAMATED PRODUCING
ANTIDOTES, DNA FOR BRAIN IT ERASES THE MESSAGE PRODUCING A NEW HEALTH
PROGRAM AND MAKES A CHEMICAL PHYSICAL, SPIRITUAL BALANCE IN MAN'S
ORGANISM.
AUTOVACCINE AN HOMEOPATIC PREPARATION
• HIPOCRATES DR. SAID:
• "THAT YOUR FOOD IS YOUR MEDICINE"
•
• AND ALSO HE SAID:
• ''YOUR MEDICINE IS YOUR FOOD"
•
• FEDERICH HOFFMAN DR.1660. GERMANY, SAID:"
• USEFULL FOR FAST IN EPILEPSIA, ULCERS, CATARACT & WICKED TUMORS.
•
• SAMUEL HAHNEMANN, 1755. INVESTIGATED AND FOUNDER OF HOMEOPATHY,
SEEKING SIMILIUM TO THE ILLNESS AND 600 ELEMENTS OF WORLD:
• "WE KNOW THAT THE TRUES/MILIUM, S/MIL/UM OF MAN IS THE URINE,
THEREFORE THE URINE CURE ALL THE ILLNESSES IN MAN'S ORGANISM'~
• TAKING OUR OWN URINE THAT IS AN HOMEOPA TIC PREPARED,
ACCORDIG TO THE POWER THAT GOD KNOWS THAT WE NEED.
IT IS ALSO AN AUTO VACCINE, BECAUSE ALL INGEST OWN INGEST CAUSES,
THE STIMULATION OF GLANDS IN OUR BODY. THE PINIAL GLAND IN BRAIN;
THE HIPOFISIS GLAND; THYROIDAL GLANDE AND THE SWINDLE
Interesting Case Histories of Urine Therapy
Urine Therapy is becoming popular all over the world, but slowly and steadily. Not everybody gets
the desired results, but there many, who claim that, they had no hopes from popular system, but
got amazing results when they took to urine therapy. It is surprising why some people get the
blessings of this miracle water, while other don't? while scientific data eludes many, the
movement of urine therapy goes on. Here are some of the stories of those who swear by this
precious fluid of the body.
52 Dr. V.P. Mehta, Mumbai
I am a qualified and experienced medical doctor with the highest degrees both in medicine and
surgery. On March 12, 1986,
I was diagnosed with cancer of the ary-epiglottic area (throat) with enlarged cervical lymph
nodes. After receiving chemotherapy and a course of cobalt therapy I was to be operated on.
Between August and October I tried UrineTherapy. By October 5, 1986,
my disease was under control and the proposed surgery was canceled.
I have not only recovered in a medical sense, but I am also leading a fully active professional life.
In other words, even the quality of my life has improved.
I feel the same zeal which I felt 30 years ago.
Dr. 0. New York
I was laughing and snickering in the back of the room.
After all, who would take anyone seriously talking about drinking one's own urine to heal any
disease! My main concern at the time was how I was going to handle this diagnosis of full-blown
AIDS and with what "spirituality" was I going to handle an oral, palatal Kaposi's sarcoma lesion
that was supposed to spread relentlessly throughout my body.
I was told just two months prior to this that the prognosis could be about two years more if I was
fortunate, and to seriously consider preparing a "living will."
For obvious reasons, I seemed to be much more tolerant to the idea of applying urine topically for
all sorts of conditions. My right foot was the epitome of necrosis.
For months doctors had prescribed many different medicated creams for a vicious case of
athlete's foot/ringworm. Nothing seemed to work.
After all, the root of the problem is the immune system not functioning at full capacity.
I couldn't wait to go home to put my own urine on the foot.
That evening was the first time in many months that the tingling itch did not drive me into a frenzy!
I actually got a full night of sleep. Not only did the ringworm condition totally disappear after a few
weeks, but the dry, cracked and painful skin all around my toes and bottom of the foot had totally
changed in colour and texture! New skin had grown in and was soft as a baby's.
It had a beautiful new flushed, almost orange-like color and it just did not appear to be my own
skin!
I anxiously began to research the field of autogenous fluids and, shortly thereafter decided that
recycling my urine was really a harmless form of auto-toleration based on theories
not much different than those in the science of homeopathy.
Drinking my urine was not that difficult, but deconditioning myself was the real chore.
I felt betrayed by society upon learning that our urine is not a poisonous, toxic and filthy
substance that our bodies so heroically expel. Since urine is filtered and cleansed blood,
and the blood is 95% water, how many dangerous substances can there really be in urine?
Starting with just a small ounce, I gradually began drinking my body's own distilled preparation
with respect instead of disgust. I then graduated to drinking up to 8 ounces daily.
Over the next 7 months the Kaposi's sarcoma lesion became increasingly smaller until it
disappeared totally! The mouth ulcers that used to plague me, stinging during meals,
have not returned even once.
I used to have monthly outbreaks of genital herpes, but I am elated to say that
autogenous Urine Therapy has produced a state of tolerance even against the herpes virus that
sooner or later, in conjunction with Ebstein-Barr virus (EBV), Cytometgalovirus (CMV),
and papilloma virus would have surely complicated my existence and further weakened my
immune system... just a matter of time.
I have NEVER felt better in my life. Now, I no longer fear for my life.
Mr. B. Georgia
I am a PWA (person with AIDS). I have been doing Urine Therapy for three months.
My fatigue and dizziness dissipated within the first month. I experienced intense eye itchiness.
A few drops of fresh urine stopped it immediately. If I forget to take the urine one day, the next
day I will pay for it with fatigue. Also my lymph gland swelling is reduced by 50%.
53 Mr. L. New York
I have been doing Urine Therapy for four months now. I am a PWA. My only symptom was a low
T-Cell count. My last test showed my T-cell count went up from 285 to 489.
Mrs. B. Florida
I had been suffering from migraine headaches for 35 years.
In addition, rheumatoid arthritis had plagued me for the last 15 years.
The pain and swelling in the joints of my hands was unbelievable.
I could not leave the house without painkillers. For four months, half of my foot was covered with
a fungus. I tried many different treatments. Unfortunately, it only got worse.
At 198 pounds, I was overweight aswell. Needless to say, I was not the picture of health.
Then a friend told me about Urine Therapy.
I soaked my feet in urine, and within a week, the fungus cleared up.
Then I started drinking my own urine.
The result was just incredible. Four and a half months later, my weight was down to 130 pounds. I
have lost 68 pounds! My arthritis is gone, and my headaches are gone.
I feel like I am 20 years old again. Thank you for telling me about Urine Therapy.
Mr. D. Georgia
I am a PWA. Three months prior to starting Urine Therapy I experienced heavy night sweats,
and I needed 18 hours of sleep daily! Also my skin was very dry and ashy looking.
All these symptoms got resolved within 10 days of Urine Therapy.
I now play one hour of basketball every day. What a difference!
Mr. T. California
Seven years ago, I was diagnosed with a lymphatic disorder.
The doctors first thought it was
Hodgkin's disease. During a vacation in Brazil I contracted some parasites.
One was Shigella and the other was Giardia.
I was treated with penicillin and many other antibiotics.
But I still lost weight and the diarrhoea was persistent.
Then the new testing for AIDS came out,
and I tested positive. I had constant problems with thrush.
I also suffered from Kapos


 and our
life force is depleted, our body cavities increase in size and are
gradually filled with fat or various kinds of pollution that speed the
aging process and lower the quality of our final years. The Taoist
method draws sexual energy up from the testicles and fills the
spinal and cranial cavities with ching. When full, this overflows
and begins to fill the chest and abdominal cavities with rejuvenat-
ing life force.
These reservoirs of chi within the body supply the raw mate-
rial used to make the body virtually impervious to disease in the
method known as "inner alchemy" to the ancient Taoists. This
process of refining the "Elixir of Immortality" or the "Pill of Im-
mortality" may be described in biological terms as storing the
body's life-force and then returning it to its source. The chi is
moved from these reservoirs within the body cavities into the deep-
est centers of the brain and bones. The secret of packing chi into
the bone marrow is well known to highly achieved masters of Tai
Chi Chuan and other internal martial artists. They know that mus-
cle power cannot survive the aging process, but that bones survive
for thousands of years. This practice which I will describe in an
upcoming book on Iron Shirt Chi Kung, is dependent on retention
of sperm power.
Recent scientific studies show the importance of bone marrow
to the production of disease fighting white blood cells. These scien-
tists will eventually catch up with the ancient Taoist masters and
figure out the full connection between healthy sex, hormones and
bone marrow and the prevention of aging and disease.32 Taoist Secrets Of Love
DEATH AND SEX IN THE NATURAL WORLD
"... When the living organism, whether vegetable or animal,
achieves its aim, which is a new seed, its organism deteriorates."
—Schwaller de Lubicz, The Temple in Man
Nature perpetuates its species through sex. In the male seed she
concentrates the parent's essential elements. The theme of paren-
tal sacrifice for the offspring is repeated in all life forms, from
amoeba to walrus, praying mantis to orchid.
One may readily glimpse the death in generation by consider-
ing the Emperor Moth's brief span. This large moth travels many
leagues across the countryside in quest of his female: "The famous
principle of the struggle for life is here the struggle to give life, the
struggle to die. Although they can live three days in quest of the
female, they perish as soon as the fertilization is complete."*
Plants, too, are subject to these laws. After a plant goes to
seed or bears fruit, it dies or enters a period of dormancy. Gar-
deners know that a plant prevented from going to seed outlives its
more precocious brothers. Most fruit-bearing trees do not produce
fruit until they are five or ten years old. During this period they
devote their entire biological force to the growth and strengthening
of tissue.
Later in their life, plants split their vital force between repro-
duction and tissue maintenance. When they grow old they need all
of their remaining energies for survival: they withdraw power from
the sexual sphere and bear no more.
Some male insects may increase their lifespan several fold
simply by not spending their seed. One may object that an insect's
sex life has no relevance to ours. Yet the insects excel brilliantly in
sexual invention and effectiveness. They comprise more than half
of the total animal weight on earth. They far surpass human erotic
variety. The insects make D.A.F. de Sade, Saint Anthony, and
David Bowie look like a troop of boyscouts discovering sex for the
first time.
Insects work the web of material life with particular intensity.
Their power to impose their definition of life is manifest in their
*Carlos Suares, The Cipher of Genesis (Shambhala 1978).The Biology Of Esoteric Sex 33
numbers, gigantic age and breadth of habitat, garb and custom.
Marxist-Socialist deification of the State but weakly mimicks their
pitiless genius for collective organization. Rather than staggering
them, nuclear war will offer a rare occasion to spin new organs to
create an abundancy of new life forms.
In all forms of life the reproductive act exhausts essential
energies. The offspring consume bodily stores of nutrition to get a
grip on their new life. Vital organs suffer the most depletion be-
cause they contain the densest concentration of nutrients. Among
humans, the female sacrifice of her bodily energy is unavoidable in
the passage to birth. The male, likewise, must surrender the po-
tency of his seed at least once to fertilize the female ovum.
Nature warrants the sacrifice worthwhile, for it fulfills her
goal of multiplying life. She intends the old to make way for the
new. But amongst all material creatures, only man has the force of
will to oppose Mother Nature. "Not distance, not the difficulty of
the journey, not the danger of approach foils instinct (in the animal
kingdom). In man, who sometimes has the force to escape the
sexual commandments, disobedience may have fortunate results.
Chastity in a human being can function like a transformer,
changing unused sexual energy into intellectual or social energy.
Among animals, this transformation of physiological values is im-
possible."*
It is the very possibility of transforming our instinctual and
essentially animal sexual energies into something higher that
makes us human, and potentially divine. The failure to direct our
sexual energy upward is a failure to fulfill our deepest human po-
tential. That is why unconscious sex with ejaculation of the male
seed is a kind of mini-death seen so often in the plant and animal
kingdoms. Two hundred to five hundred million sperm die upon a
single ejaculation. The expenditure of subtle energy is even much
greater than these huge numbers suggest.
If this spent seed leads to any kind of rebirth in the man, or in
the woman, receiving new life, this loss or death is in harmony with
nature. But without transforming these mini-deaths into a sharing,
a love, a child, or a higher awareness of some sort, this act of sex
becomes a mere killing of the potential life energy stored in the
seed. Perhaps that's the connection between sex and violence.
*Suares, op. cit.34 Taoist Secrets Of Love
Those radically opposed to abortion and contraception might as
well begin their campaign against men who kill their potential life-
force by ejaculating needlessly.
Although the Taoists have no concept of sin, they might say
that man has fallen to his current weakened psychic state in large
part because he has squandered his sexual energies over the last
several millennia. The Chinese legends speak of a golden age when
all men lived in harmony with nature and transmuted their seed up
as naturally as you or I breathe. Whether or not this is literally true
is irrelevant—the kernel of truth in the story is that man is capable
of a much higher existence than what he now accepts. The story
bears a striking resemblance to the Biblical story of Adam and
Eve's fall from grace after tasting the forbidden fruits of sexual
love. In this sense, the end of the Taoist cultivation is to regain the
lost paradise which still exists within every man and woman, their
original nature.
The major function of sex in nature is to create new life and to
perpetuate the species. Yet in our time humanity has been fruitful
and multiplied itself to the brink of overpopulation and its atten-
dant ecological horrors. The abuse of sexual power through indis-
criminate procreation has brought humanity to a global crisis. It
has accelerated the danger of a war which might result in the ex-
tinction of the species.
Apart from certain insects and higher apes, animals engage in
sexual intercourse for reproductive purposes only. The female re-
ceives the male only at definite mating periods, that overall com-
promise a small part of the animal's lifespan. It is clear that sex-
uality plays a different role for humans than it does for animals, and
it is critical that men and women become educated as to the pos-
sibility sex can play in their own evolution and thus affect the
balance of nature as well.CHAPTER 4
THE SEXUAL ECONOMY
"Man cannot be without woman and woman cannot be without
man. If you think intercourse is an isolated or separate act, longev-
ity is threatened and every illness arises."
—from the Recipe for Making Priceless Gold
Sun S'su-Mo, physician who lived 101 years36 Taoist Secrets Of Love
Every man is born with a certain amount of priceless vital chi
energy. Some begin with more than others, but for the sake of
simplicity let us assume an average man is born with a sum of
vitality likened at $1,000,000. Over one's life span this million dol-
lar's worth of life force is spent. Some spend wisely and live heart-
ily into the 80's and 90's. When you are young you spend it faster
because it seems like such a huge amount it could never run out.
Most people in our consumer society spend more money than
they earn. They borrow themselves deep in the hole, assuming
they will earn enough to pay it back later. If they fail, they face
bankruptcy or a corrective period of lean living. Through poor
habits the same thing happens with life energy, only the penalty is
loss of appetite for life, sickness, and death.
Let us say that someone earns an additional 100


moral, ethical, or legal. Trust yourself to be an instrument of love by
surrendering to your highest nature rather than being seduced by mortal
laws.
This poem from  the 16th-century mystic Saint John of the Cross, titled “A
Rabbit Noticed My Condition,” beautifully describes this attitude:
I was sad one day and went for a walk;
I sat in a field.

A rabbit noticed my condition and came near.

It often does not take mor e than that to help at times — to just be close to
creatur es who
are so full of knowing,
so full of love
that they don’ t—
chat,

they just gaze with
their marvelous understanding.
Do the T ao Now
Spend a day consciously choosi ng to notice one of God’ s creatures, such
as a dog, a butterfly, a moth, a spider, an ant, a fish, a cat, a deer, or
whatever attracts you. You can learn a lot from them about trusting your
inner nature. They are, as the poet says, “so full of knowing.”
OceanofPDF.com39th Verse
These things fr om ancient times arise fr om one:
The sky is whole and clear.
The earth is whole and firm.
The spirit is whole and full.
The 10,000 things ar e whole, and the country is upright.
All these ar e in virtue of wholeness.

When man interfer es with the T ao,
the sky becomes filthy,
the earth becomes depleted,
the equilibrium crumbles,
creatur es become extinct.

Therefore, nobility is r ooted in humility;
loftiness is based on lowliness.
This is why noble people r efer to themselves
as alone, lacking, and unworthy.

The pieces of a chariot ar e useless
unless they work in accor dance with the whole.
A man’ s life brings nothing
unless he lives in accor dance with the whole universe.
Playing one’ s part
in accor dance with the universe
is true humility.
Truly, too much honor means no honor.
It is not wise to shine like jade and
resound like stone chimes.
OceanofPDF.comLiving Wholeness
We traditionally  think of wholeness as something that’s complete. “The
whole nine yards,” for instance, implies the entire distance. “I ate the whole
thing” signifies having consumed something completely. Lao-tzu, however,
seems to view the concept differently: Who leness, he writes, has roots in
humility. When  humility evokes our wholeness, we live the reality that
we’re pieces of the whole.
With this attitude, you want to exist harmoniously with the entire universe
—cooperating with, and being subjugated to, other aspects of the whole.
You can’t even consider interfering with any piece of it because you’re one
with it. The mom ent you begin to place yourself in a transcendent position
in relation to others, or to your world of the 10,000 things, you’re
interfering with the Tao. I encourage you to examine your concept of
wholeness based upon this 39th verse of the Tao Te Ching. I can assure you
that the world will appear to have changed when you see it through this
lens.
Lao-tzu insists that the universe is whole; that is, it’s in a state of oneness.
There are no parts needing separation from this state. Sky, earth, spirit, and
the 10,000 things are all parts of the whole—and what’ s more, that’s their
virtue! Now while the sky and the trees may truly be in a unified state, your
ego insists that you’r e separate, distinc t, and generally superior. But if you
can modify your ego’ s viewpoint, your life will change.
When you’re cooperative and looking for signs of oneness, you’ll begin to
see and feel the interconnectedness of everything. For exam ple, your body
is a conv enient analogy for a universe all unto itself. While it is one entity,
it certainly has trillions of individual, although interconnected, cells. Just
one cell with an arrogant relationship to the whole makes all the cells suffer
and ultim ately become extinct, much like the individual who interferes with
the Tao by polluting the sky, depleting the earth, and disrupting the
equilibrium of the whole. A cancer cell that refuses to cooperate with the
cells adjacent to it will ultimately gobble them up, and if left unchecked,
will destroy the whole. Why? Because that cancerous cell has no
relationship to the whole. It will destroy itself as it kills the host upon whichit depends for its own survi val. And you’ll destroy yourself if you
participate in destroying the Tao upon which you are dependent for your
survival.
Each seemingly  individual part of a whole is potentially dange rous (and
generally useless) if it doesn’ t function in harmony. What’ s true for the
chariot in this verse of the Tao Te Ching is true for you as well. Your life
needs to have a relationship with the Tao, and that relationship is
characterized by Lao-tzu as a bond forged by humility. In other words,
wholeness and humility are one and the same, so update the way you think
about your relationship to life, and play your part “in accordan ce with the
whole.”
Here’ s what Lao-tzu seems to be instructing as I read and interpret this
verse of the ancient T ao Te Ching:
Cultivate your r elationship with the planet.
Live in the spirit of wholeness, knowing that you have a role as one of the
parts of the Tao. Remind yourself that you cannot interfere with the Tao and
live a life of greatness. This means respecting the environment in every way
by living in an Earth-friendly manner as a part of its oneness. Become an
advocate for conservation. Make time to pick up and recycle trash. Drive an
environmentally friendly automo bile, or better yet, walk in peace to as
many places as possible. Whole ness means maintaining a sense of balance
with the all-providing, gentle, nonpushy T ao. In humility, you’re able to feel
your own tiny role in this great drama orchestrated by your Sources. You’ll
see what Lao-tzu means by: “A man’ s life brings nothing unles s he lives in
accordance with the whole universe.”
Change the way you think of yourself fr om being separate to seeing
yourself in all that you encounter.
As you live in wholeness, notice how you begin to feel a connec tion to all
of life, rather than the separateness that your ego prefers. See yourself in
everyone you encounter, in every creature on our planet, in the forest and
the oceans and the sky—the more you do, the more you’ll want to stay in a
state of coopera tion rather than competition. You’ll also feel more inclined
to reject the concept that there is a “them.” Practice this way of being andnotice that the type of happiness that may have eluded you for a lifetime is
part of the oneness you begin to enjoy.
Here’ s how Rumi expressed this sentiment:
If you put your heart against the earth with me, in serving every cr eatur e,
our Beloved will enter you fr om our sacr ed realm and we will be, we will be
so happy.
Do the T ao Now
Go for a walk today and think in wholeness terms with all that you
encounter durin g a 30-minute period. See yourself in those  you might
otherwise have judged, includin g the very old, very young, obese, disabled,
or indigent. As you look at them, remind yourself, I share the same
originating spirit with every one of these people. This will help you feel
whole by shifting from your ego to the virtue of the T ao.
OceanofPDF.com40th Verse
Returning is the motion of the T ao.
Yielding is the way of the T ao.
The 10,000 things ar e born of being.
Being is born of nonbeing.
OceanofPDF.comLiving by
Returning and Yielding
I see one of the greatest teachings of the Tao Te Ching here in the shortest
of its 81 passage s. If you can master the wisdom in these four lines, you’ll
be as happy, content, and centered in the T ao as any sage.
With the first word, returning, you’re being nudged toward an
understanding of the basic principle of your existence. Without needing to
leave your body, you’re asked to die while alive. You accomplish this by
realizing that you’re one of the 10,000 things that has appeared in the world
of form. What Lao-tzu is expressing here in the 40th verse is what
contemporary quantum physic s has confirmed many centuries later:
Particles do not come from particles at the tiniest subatomic level. Instead,
when the infinitesimally small specks are collided in a particle accelerator,
there’ s nothing remaining but waves of “particle-less” energy. In order for
you, a much bigger speck, to form, you must have come from an originating
spirit.
Now Lao-tzu may have known nothing of quantum physics in the 6th
century b.c., but he was teaching  an essential truth even then: It’s spirit that
gives life.


 want to be. Concentrate your attention upon the feeling that you are already that
person. First, visualize the picture in your consciousness. Then feel yourself to be in that state as though it
actually formed your surrounding world. By your imagination that which was a mere mental image is
changed into a seemingly solid reality.
The great secret is a controlled imagination and a well-sustained attention firmly and repeatedly focused on
the object to be accomplished. It cannot be emphasized too much that, by creating an ideal within your
mental sphere, by assuming that you are already that ideal, you identify yourself with it and thereby
transform yourself into its image, [ thinking from the ideal instead of thinking of the ideal.
Every state is already there as "mere possibilities" as long as we think of them, but as overpoweringly real
when we think  from them]. This was called by the ancient teachers "Subjection to the will of God" or
"Resting in the Lord," and the only true test of "Resting in the Lord" is that all who do rest are inevitably
transformed into the image of that in which they rest [thinking from the wish fulfilled]. You become
according to your resigned will, and your resigned will is your concept of yourself and all that you consent
to and accept as true. You, assuming the feeling of your wish fulfilled and continuing therein, take upon
yourself the results of that state; not assuming the feeling of your wish fulfilled, you are ever free of the
results.
The Truth That Sets You Free
When you understand the redemptive function of imagination, you hold in your hands the key to the
solution of all your problems. Every phase of your life is made by the exercise of your imagination.
Determined imagination alone is the means of your progress, of the fulfilling of your dreams. It is the
beginning and end of all creating. The great secret is a controlled imagination and a well sustained attention
firmly and repeatedly focused on the feeling of the wish fulfilled until it fills the mind and crowds all other
ideas out of consciousness. What greater gifts could be given you than to be told the Truth that will set you
free? The Truth that sets you free is that you can experience in imagination what you desire to experience
in reality, and by maintaining this experience in imagination, your desire will become an actuality.
You are limited only by your uncontrolled imagination and lack of attention to the feeling of your wish
fulfilled. When the imagination is not controlled and the attention not steadied on the fee   ling of the wish
fulfilled, then no amount of prayer or piety or invocation will produce the desired effect. When you can call
up at will whatsoever image you please, when the forms of your imagination are as vivid to you as the
forms of nature, you are master of your fate. [You must stop spending your thoughts, your time and your
money. Everything in life must be an investment. ]
Neville - THE  POWER  OF  AWARENESS.doc                                                          Page 13 of 51Visions of beauty and splendour, Forms of a long-lost race, Sounds and faces and voices. From the fourth
dimension of space And on through the universe boundless, Our thoughts go lightning shod. Some call it
imagination, And others call it God.
Neville follows this with the date April 12, [19]53. In Awakened Imagination (1954) he would write, "On
the morning of April 12, 1953, my wife was awakened by the sound of a great voice of authority speaking
within her and saying, 'You must stop spending your thoughts, time, and money. Everything in life must be
an investment.' To spend is to waste, to squander, to lay out without return. To invest is to lay out for a
purpose from which a profit is expected. This revelation of my wife is about the importance of the moment.
It is about the transformation of the moment.... It is only what is done now that counts.... Whenever we
assume the feeling of being what we want to be, we are investing." (ch. b) Ed.
Neville - THE  POWER  OF  AWARENESS.doc                                                          Page 14 of 51Chapter Six
                       ATTENTION
A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.   James 1:8
Attention is forceful in proportion to the narrowness of its focus, that is, when it is obsessed with a single
idea or sensation. It is steadied and powerfully focused only by such an adjustment of the mind as permits
you to see one thing only, for you steady the attention and increase its power by confining it. The desire
which realizes itself is always a desire upon which attention is exclusively concentrated, for an idea is
endowed with power only in proportion, to the degree of attention fixed on it. Concentrated observation is
the attentive attitude directed [from]* some specific end. The attentive attitude involves selection, for when
you pay attention, it signifies that you have decided to focus your attention on one object or state rather
than on another.
                                                 *Neville substitutes from for towards, the reading in the original. -Ed.
Therefore, when you know what you want, you must deliberately focus your attention on the feeling of
your wish fulfilled until that feeling fills the mind and crowds all other ideas out of consciousness.
The power of attention is the measure of your inner force. Concentrated observation of one thing shuts out
other things and causes them to disappear. The great secret of success is to focus the attention on the
feeling of the wish fulfilled without permitting any distraction. All progress depends upon an increase of
attention. The ideas which impel you to action are those which dominate the consciousness, those which
possess the attention. [The idea which excludes all others from the field of attention discharges in action.]
This one thing I do, forgetting those things that are behind, I press toward the mark.
This means you, this one thing you can do, "forgetting those things that are behind." You can press
Attention toward the mark of filling your mind with the feeling of the wish fulfilled.
To the unenlightened man this will seem to be all fantasy, yet all progress comes from those who do not
take the accepted view, nor accept the world as it is. As was stated heretofore, if you can imagine what you
please, and if the forms of your thought are as vivid as the forms of nature, you are by virtue of the power
of your imagination master of your fate.
Your imagination is you yourself, and the world as your imagination sees it is the real world.
When you set out to master the movements of attention, which must be done if you would successfully
alter  the  course  of  observed  events,  it  is then  you  realize  how  little  control  you  exercise  over  your
imagination and how much it is dominated by sensory impressions and by a drifting on the tides of idle
moods.
To aid in mastering the control of your attention, practice this exercise: Night after night, just before you
drift off to sleep, strive to hold your attention on the activities of the day in reverse order. Focus your
attention on the last thing you did, that is, getting in to bed, and then move it backward in time over the
events until you reach the first event of the day, getting out of bed. This is no easy exercise, but just as
specific exercises greatly help in developing specific muscles, this will greatly help in developing the
"muscle" of your attention. Your attention must be developed, controlled, and concentrated in order to
change your concept of yourself successfully and thereby change your future. Imagination is able to do
Neville - THE  POWER  OF  AWARENESS.doc                                                          Page 15 of 51anything, but only according to the internal direction of your attention. If you persist night after night,
sooner or later you will awaken in yourself a centre of power and become conscious of your greater self,
the real you. Attention is developed by repeated exercise or habit. Through habit an action becomes easier,
and so in course of time gives rise to a facility or faculty, which can then be put to higher uses. When you
attain control of the internal direction of your attention, you will no longer stand in shallow water but will
launch out into the deep of life. You will walk in the assumption of the wish fulfilled as on a foundation
more solid even than earth.
Neville - THE  POWER  OF  AWARENESS.doc                                                          Page 16 of 51Chapter Seven
                           ATTITUDE
EXPERIMENTS RECENTLY Conducted by Merle Lawrence (Princeton) and Adelbert Ames
(Dartmouth) in the latter's psychology laboratory at Hanover, N.H., prove that what you see when you look
at something depends not so much on what is there as on the assumption you make when you look. Since
what we believe to be the "real" physical world is actually only an "assumptive" world, it is not surprising
that these experiments prove that what appears to be solid reality is actually the result of "expectations" or
"assumptions." Your assumptions determine not only what you see but also what you do, for they govern
all your conscious and subconscious movements towards the fulfilment of themselves. Over a century ago
this truth was stated by Emerson as follows:
As the world was plastic and fluid in the hands of God, so it is ever to so much of his attributes as we bring
to it.


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 minerals and alcohol consumption hardens
the liver. The world is recklessly consuming toxic alcohol
products which is leading to grave health problems –
please drinkers, bewar e and stop (see www.aa.or g)!!!
30
The health journals all agree that the best and most wholesome part of the
doughnut is the hole. The larger the hole, they say, the better the doughnut.
To fare well imp lies the partaking of such food as does not disagree with
body or mind. Hence only those fare well who live temperately. – Socrates Autonomic Ner vous System
– The Body’ s Communication Network –
Craniosacral or
Parasympathetic System Thoracolumbar or
Sympathetic System Superior
Mesenteric Ganglion
 Inferior
 Mesenteric Ganglion
31
Autonomic Ner vous System, showing its 2 divisions:
the Craniosacral or Parasympathetic System, and
the Thoracolumbar or Sympathetic System.
32
THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM
Your Body’ s Many Cries for W ater;
 You Ar e Not Sick, Y ou Ar e Thirsty.
These powerful quotes from  F. Batmanghelidj, M.D.’s  book
• Pure water is a natural medication for a variety of health conditions.
• Chronic cellular dehydration can painfully and prematurely kill. Its initial
outward manifestations have until now been erroneously labeled
as diseases of unknown origin.
• For the process of digestion of food, water is the most essential ingredient.
If the body has the necessary water in it before we eat food, the battle
against cholesterol formation in the blood vessels might be won.
• Cholesterol production in the cell membrane is a part of the cell survival
system. It is a necessary substance. Its excess denotes dehydration.
• Pure water is the cheapest form of medicine to a dehydrated body!
Visit Dr. Batmanghelidj’s website: www.watercure.com Hardening of Arteries is Deadly
On several occasions during my father’ s boyhood in
Virginia, his parents took him to the famous Luray
Limestone Caver ns. There he saw how, drop by drop,
water loaded with limestone slowly formed the stalactites
and stalagmites over eons of time. These were huge
formations created by deposits of the inorganic minerals
that are ever-present in most drinking water.
Calcium carbonate, or lime, is a very important
ingredient in making cement or concrete. This catalytic
agent is responsible for the hardening of concrete. When
taken into the body chemistr y and subjected to the
process of natural metabolism through the years, this
mineral becomes the principal troublemaker responsible
for what is called “hardening of the arteries.” Doctors
call this degenerative arterial condition “arteriosclerosis,”
and most people believe it to be a natural condition that
comes with the passing of the years. This is “herd
mentality” thinking – or rather, non-thinking! V ery few
people question this age-old superstition. Many people
accept the fallacy that they must face arteriosclerosis
and senility in their golden years. Read on – be informed.
Normal Arter y Compared to Clogged Arter y
Normal Artery Clogged Artery
33
A B
These photomicrographs show (A) a normal artery seen in cross section and
(B) a diseased artery in which the channel is partially occluded by atherosclerosis.
Exercise reduces the risk of heart disease through both direct effects on the
cardiovascular system as well as through reduction of intra-abdominal fat.
Therefore, the goal of exercise and maintaining normal weight should be to
lower the potential for cardiovascular disease and stay healthy and fit. Most doctors assert that there is no known cure when
hardening of the arteries takes place. New techniques
have been developed to implant plastic arteries in place
of the clogged arteries and veins of the heart and neck.
There is expensive heart vascular surger y and other
expensive surgical procedures for cleaning out the
inorganic deposits of the larger arteries (U.S. spends over
$150 billion yearly to tr y to remedy the affects of bad
diet). But when you consider the extent of the entire
pipe system of the human body, cleaning out a small
amount could not accomplish a great deal. Miles of
arteries, veins and capillaries would have to be cleansed
of their inorganic crust to be effective. Read on – the
solution to stop this hardening is living The Bragg
Healthy Lifestyle, to keep your heart and body healthy!
Brains T urned to Stone
34 The greatest damage done by inorganic minerals –
plus waxy cholesterol and salt (sodium chloride) – is to
the small arteries and other blood vessels of the brain. It
also causes deterioration of the kidneys, liver, heart and
other vital organs of the body. Essentially, premature
ageing and senility ar e the brain turning into stone! V isit
the large convalescent and rest homes and see with your
own eyes the number of people who can no longer
reason or think for themselves. Many of them cannot
even recognize their own children and relatives!
Millions of people have lost all power of thinking!
They often have no control over their eliminative organs
and have to wear diapers. Many of them have to be hand
fed. All the higher functions of the brain are gone. Their
minds and eyes stare into empty space.
This is the way many end up! Millions are saved from
this tragedy because they die befor e their body chemistr y
has time to turn their brains to stone. Hardening of the
arteries and calcification of the blood vessels starts the
day you are born, because from birth we begin taking
inorganic minerals and chemicals into our bodies.
The nervous system falters and suffers when we do not take care of our body. 35
Miracle Functions of the Human Brain
No power on earth can restore the life of a brain hardened by
inorganic minerals that has virtually turned to stone.
Don’t let this happen to you! This condition is preventable!
Drink organic vegetable and fruit juices and safe, pure distilled water only.
Lack of water is the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue!
Paul Bragg’s work on water and fasting is one of the great contributions to
the Healing Wisdom and the Natural Health Movement in the world today.
– Gabriel Cousens, M.D., Author of Conscious Eating and Spiritual Nutrition
There is only one water that is clean and that is steam distilled water.
No other substance on our planet does so much to keep us healthy and get us
well as this water does. – Dr. James Balch, M.D., Author of Dietary Wellness
Water is the Key to All Body Functions!
• Heart • Muscles • Energy
• Circulation • Metabolism • Glands
• Digestion • Assimilation • Sex
• Bones & Joints • Elimination • Nerves Visit bragg.com and send fr ee Bragg Health Musical E–Car ds from our web to friend s!
36 Do You
Show Signs of
PREMA TURE
AGEING?
Is everything you do a big effort?
•
Have you started to lose your skin tone?
Your muscle tone? Your energy? Your hair?
•
Do small things irritate you?
Are you forgetful? Confused?
•
Is your elimination sluggish?
•
Do you have allergies? Joint pains?
•
Do you have aches and pains?
•
Do you get out of breath
when you run or climb stairs?
•
How limber is your back and body?
•
How well do you adjust to cold and heat?
•
Ask yourself these important questions:
Am I healthy and happy?
Do I seem to be slipping and
not quite like myself anymore?
If the answer to these questions are “Y es,”
START TODA Y
Living The
Bragg Healthy
Lifestyle!
He who understands Mother Nature walks with God. Chapter 3
Bragg Speaks About His Childhood
Paul C. Bragg’ s Early Experiences
With Hard W ater
I was bor n on a farm in V irginia, along the Potomac
River. We got all our drinking water from a well overflowing
with cr ystalline, fresh water. It was ver y hard water because
it contained a great deal of calcium carbonate
and other inorganic minerals from limestone
in suspension or solution.
This hard water made laundering and
cleaning difficult. The soap used for these
purposes simply would not make suds.
Water softeners are good to use for only
doing laundr y, but please never use for
cooking, food preparations, drinking, etc.Limestone
Water When we boiled this water, inorganic
mineral encrustations form ed in large slabs inside the
kettles. In time, it created holes in the bottom s of the
kettles. Kettle after kettle had to be thr own away, with
the same deteriorations happening to each kettle!
But the greatest damage done to humans who drank
this hard, inorganic mineral water was to their entire
cardiovascular systems and their overall health.
My grandfather was a man in his mid-sixties. He was a
big, strong six-footer – about 200pounds of solid muscle. My
grandfather was a loving Christian family man, an expert
horseman and a hard working farmer.
I can


tolerate elevated temperatures, which healthy cells can easily bear. Hence the well functioning
thyroid helps to restore health, provided it is supplied with iodine, which it needs in order to
manufacture its vitally important hormone—thyroxin, Unfortunately these days iodine is in short
supply. Chlorine in the water supply is able to remove it from the thyroid.  Fluoride, a dangerous
toxin, is even more powerful in blocking this important hormone. In addition, as a consequence
of commercial farming methods, the soil contains too little iodine, thus producing iodine-
deficient plant foods. In recognition of all this, the governments of many countries have made it
compulsory to add iodine to ordinary table salt, on the grounds that as the public uses a great deal
of salt, everybody was bound to consume some iodine with it. High salt consumption, on the other
hand, is now known to be unhealthy and is, in fact, officially discouraged—resulting in a serious
shortfall of iodine even in people on a good diet.
Other enzyme inhibitors include food additives such as preservatives, emulsifiers, coloring
agents, artificial flavors and many other so-called food cosmetics, plus pesticides and other
agricultural poisons in our food supply. Some pesticide residues have even been found to inhibit
the production of male sperm. The hormone system, an important part of the body’s defenses, is
itself under severe attack.
The Essential Organs
Certain organs, such as the liver, the pancreas, the lungs, the kidneys, the heart and the brain,
are called ‘essential.’ And while they certainly deserve that name, one should not assume that
for instance the colon is not essential! The same applies to the small intestine, the bone marrow,
the spleen, even the appendix, which is part of the immune system. In fact there is nothing non-
essential in the body.
Copyright © Charlotte Gerson, 2007.  All rights reserved.
This material may not be reproduced in any medium, print or electronic without prior written permission from the author.Page 2 9Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comIn the course of healing it is therefore extremely important to deal with all the body systems.
Since the liver plays a major part in healing the body, the Gerson Therapy pays particular attention
to restoring its functioning as quickly and as thoroughly as possible. The liver is an amazing organ:
the only one in the body that is able to regenerate and re-grow, if parts of it are removed. It is
involved in most bodily processes; all physiological activities begin and end in it. Often described
as an organ of detoxification, which it certainly is, the liver has many more functions—dozens, if
not hundreds, which even the high technology facilities of modern medicine have not been able
to define.
According to Dr. Gerson, each new generation of liver cells takes about five weeks to come
into being. He assumed that it would take 12 to 15 generations of new cells to form a totally new,
healthy liver. Thus he arrived at specifying a period of 18 months to fully heal and restore the liver
of even advanced cancer patients and, with it, the whole organism. Unfortunately that is no longer
a valid model. In the past fifty years or so, owing to deterioration of the environment and of the
food supply, people have become much more seriously damaged than those whom Dr. Gerson
had treated. Even more seriously a percentage of cancer patients choosing the Gerson Therapy
have been pre-treated with chemotherapy, which means more damage to their systems. Therefore
nowadays it takes two years, not 18 months, to recover fully; those pre-treated with chemotherapy
may take even longer to detoxify and heal.
The Mineral Balance
In order to function well and keep its defenses fighting fit, the body needs a large number—
some 52 or so—minerals. On the Gerson Therapy this requirement is amply fulfilled by the
generous supply of fresh organic juices, made from produce grown on rich soil. However, Dr.
Gerson also recognized that two minerals, sodium and potassium, were mainly involved in
creating mineral imbalance in the body.
Over millennia the human body has become a ‘potassium animal,’ needing some 90%
potassium vs. 10% sodium in its diet—the approximate percentage found in natural, fresh, organic
vegetarian foods. Yet these days the average modern diet is far removed from these proportions;
instead, it is overloaded with sodium, which the body must excrete. Excess sodium is an enzyme
inhibitor, as described by Dixon & Webb3.It has also been shown to stimulate tumor growth and
produce edema, as the body ties it up with water to reduce its toxicity.
To remedy this situation, Dr. Gerson introduced large amounts of potassium to the patient’s
diet, in addition to the naturally potassium-rich food: up to 40 teaspoonfuls a day of a 10%
solution for the first two to three weeks, in addition to the naturally potassium-rich diet.  This
resulted in an immediate reduction of edema, ascites, and pain. He also noticed that adding any
other minerals, such as magnesium, calcium, iron etc., disturbed the patient’s mineral balance
Copyright © Charlotte Gerson, 2007.  All rights reserved.
This material may not be reproduced in any medium, print or electronic without prior written permission from the author.Page 3 0Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comand caused damage. His main warning was against adding calcium to the diet. Calcium, he
discovered with his close friend, top biochemist Rudolf Keller, belonged to the sodium group of
minerals and stimulated tumor growth.4 Even in cases of severe bone destruction by tumor tissue,
or in osteoporosis, the Gerson treatment with its high level of well-balanced minerals is capable
of achieving bone restoration.  In the light of all this, it is easy to see why mineral balance is an
important component of the body’s defenses.
References:
1. Taber’ s Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary, F.A.Davis Company, 1993
2. Enzymes, Malcolm Dixon & Edwin C.Webb, Academic Press, Inc. N.Y.1964
3. Ibid.
4. Dr. Max Gerson, A Cancer Therapy—Results of 50 Cases, P.210. Gerson Institute, San
Diego, 2002
Copyright © Charlotte Gerson, 2007.  All rights reserved.
This material may not be reproduced in any medium, print or electronic without prior written permission from the author.Page 3 1Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comChapter 5
Breakdown of the
Body’s Defenses
In the previous chapter we explored the body’s multiple defenses, which under ideal
circumstances enable it to maintain its dynamic equilibrium known as homeostasis. However,
if we consider today’s high level of ill health in the developed world, it becomes clear that those
sophisticated defense systems are unable to do their work and homeostasis can no longer be taken
for granted. To understand why this has happened, we need to consider the problem from a wide
perspective.
 As mentioned before, the human organism evolved over millions of years as part of Nature,
alongside plants and animals. It was only exposed to natural substances: environment, food,
shelter contained nothing artificial or alien. Not that our remotest ancestors enjoyed a Golden
Age. Their lives were undoubtedly hard and short, but their slow evolution was totally natural,
well adapted to the world they lived in.
Changes set in with civilization, but they only became drastic and rapid after the arrival of
the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century. A second wave of even more drastic innovations
followed in the developed world after World War II in the mid-20th century, changing people’s
daily lives, working routine, living conditions, and, above all, their diet, the most important factor
affecting us all. The huge development of commercial agriculture and the apparently limitless
expansion of the food industry changed our “daily bread” almost beyond recognition. However—
and this is the main point—the infinitely complex human organism hasn’t had time to adapt
and adjust to these fundamental changes and therefore its defenses can’t cope with the multiple
challenges facing them. They fight to keep functioning normally, but undermined by polluted air,
water and wrong food they break down sooner or later. Unfortunately for each new generation the
breakdown now comes sooner.
In this chapter we shall examine the causes of the breakdown in more detail.
Chemical Agriculture
 Artificial fertilizers have been in increasing use for well over 150 years, damaging and
impoverishing the soil and the micro-organisms on which the health of the soil and of all plant life
depends. Plants, in turn, are the food of animals and humans, and their reduced nutritional value
has far-reaching effects. Dr. Gerson was one of the few visionary scientists who realized early on
that there was a definite link between dietary deficiencies and diseases—and between diseases
Copyright © Charlotte Gerson, 2007.  All rights reserved.
This material may not be reproduced in any medium, print or electronic without prior written permission from the author.Page 3 2Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comand a sick, depleted soil. He wrote: “There is an external and an internal


 chew, y ou’ve got
to do a lot of things with that food in order to make it apply to  you. Let’ s
say you just had  a bite of salad, and now you’ve got lettuce and tomato in
your mouth. W ell, you’ve got to get some saliva into your mouth as well to
help you with that. Y ou’re not trying to salivate; your body knows exactly
what it’ s supposed to do. When you swallow, you don’ t have to monitor the
peristaltic reactions in your throat and esophagus to make sur e that food
goes do wn inste ad of up. It never goes up into your nose—well, maybe
once in a while, if you’re doin g something really silly. But you don’ t eat
your food and say, “Oh, wait a minute, I put it into my no se. It’ s not
supposed to go there.” It goes where it’ s supposed to, and then it breaks
down.
Y ou don ’ t have tomatoes and a great big piece of lettuce floatin g around
through your body, saying, “Where are we supposed to go?”  Y ou chewthem up, and dif ferent kinds o f enzymes attack the pieces of food. It all
goes exa ctly wh ere it’ s supposed to, through the digestive system and then
to all dif ferent parts of your b ody—your pancreas needs a little lettuce
today, perhaps. W ithout some co mponent of the tomatoes, maybe your toes
are going to fall of f. Every place in your body gets the proper nutrients
without your having to do anything.
Y ou’re n ot going around saying, “Oh my, I’ve got to get all this done.
I’ve got so much to do with th is digestion. I’ve got to make sure that my
pancreas and duodenum work. Ugh, how do I turn this lettuce into waste?
How am I going to get that out?” Y ou’re not busy doing any of that. It all
works in harmony and perfect ion. Y our heart is beating, and  it does so
thousands of times every single  day. Y ou don’ t need to tell your hea rt to
pump blood for it to do so perfe ctly. Y ou don’ t have to do any of it, yet you
are controlling it all.
Enlightenment is like that: Y ou get in harmony, and you start fu nctioning
optimally. Who you are as a hu man being just happens. It all works. Y ou
don’ t have to go around thinking every minute, Is this an enlightened
r esponse? Am I using higher consciousness her e? I don’ t know if I’m being
spiritual enough. Do I need to a djust?  Y ou don’ t have to do that any more
than you  have to beat your heart or operate your digestive system. It all
works perfectly when you’re in harmony. If you’re not, then it’ s as if you
were trying to d irect the tomato and lettuce to the right places. Y ou would
get so mixed up and puzzled by it.
If yo u tried to beat your own heart, you couldn’ t. Y ou natura lly let it
work. This is the same way you must see yourself within the universe—
allow yo urself to  work perfectly. The way you do so is to focus on yourself
while al so havin g respect and lo ve for everyone. These universal laws that
we’re ta lking ab out here are the very same ones that are in place for your
digestion or your cardiopulmonary system. The necessary enzymes are
released instantaneously, and i t all happens in a perfect way. There are
certain r ules and laws that apply  to everything we do, from how we relate to
each other to how our bodies function.
Sometimes after hearing me speak or reading my books, people will
come up to me and say, “I’m a seeker too.” They assume that I ’m this way
because I talk about the higher truths, principles, and laws that are universal
yet elud e so many people. This k ind of amuses me, so I’ll respond, “I’m not
a seeker. I’m n ot looking for a nything. I’m evolving, going through thedream, and enjoying it all. I am  bringing this mind-set to everything that I
do.”
When you’re in harmony wit h these transcendent laws, you are in
enlightenment. Y ou’re not seeking it. Y ou don’ t have to unders tand it, and
you don’ t have to agree with  it. Y ou simply know that it is. In fact,
enlightenment is nothing more than the quiet acceptance of what is.
Y our desire to m ake things better is also part of what is, so you learn to
go w ith that. W hen you are focused on making things bette r—helping,
serving, extending love—and are able to send that out into the world, you
are now a part of the spiritually aware, awakened consciousness.
THE THREE ST AGES OF ENLIGHTENMENT
I’ve fou nd that there are three specific stages of enlightenment.  The first
stage is learning  by hindsight. As an example, I think about this woman
who told me: “T en years ago, my husband came home from work, said,
‘I’m lea ving yo u,’ and walked out. I was devastated. For years, I couldn’ t
get over it. Bu t now I can look back on his leaving me as the most
important turning point in my l ife. I see the blessing in it.” Af ter years of
suf fering, she was able to come to the realization that his leaving her was a
blessing, not a tragedy. In oth er words, this stage of enligh tenment is
reached through  a lot of understanding of the past. Y ou do not immediately
embody the present-based know ledge that there’ s an opportunity in every
obstacle.
In the next stage, you do: you understand in your heart that e verything
that com es your way is a blessing. Y ou see that this is more  than just a
hokey p hrase used in self-help. In fact, what I’ve been talking a bout in this
book is not self-help but self-r ealization, which is way beyond self-help.
When you begin to realize yourself—when you discover your
magnificent potential—you see that everything that’ s coming at you has an
opportunity in it, even though it may look lik e an obstacle. Y ou think, I
wonder why I cr eated this. I wonder what lesson is in this for m e.  Y ou may
still hav e the suf fering, but it’ s minimal and doesn’ t last. Rather than 10
years, for example, you might move through a challenging situation in 10
weeks, 10 days, 10 minutes maybe.Suf fering is always played ou t in form because it comes from your
thoughts. Becau se you know tha t what you think about expands, you learn
not to focus on the negative. L et’ s say you’re going through a divorce, a
tough time financially, an illnes s, or a death in the family, whatever it is.
Now you’re looking at it as, I  can g et something out of this.  I can gr ow fr om
this. I can transc end and go pas t it.  Y our mind is focused on that instead of
on, Why is this happening to me? S omeday I’ll know why, but I don’ t know
why toda y. It’ s so terrible that I’ m going to be depr essed for six mor e years.
Y ou don’ t go t here anymore. Thinking like this belongs back there in
another time in your life. Y ou’re solidly in the second stage.
People ask, “If t hat’ s the second stage, what else is there?” W ell, the third
stage of  enlightenment happens  when you are able to get out  in front of
things. Y ou see them coming an d play them all out in thought, a nd then you
decide which of these is going to be brought into form.
For example, let’ s say you’re in a relationship and your par tner says
something upset ting to you. Y ou know that if you respond in a certain way,
then she ’ s going to respond in kind. Then you’re going to say th is, and she’ s
going to say tha t—you can play that all out in thought, and you’re out in
front of it already. Y ou can even see how this could devolve into an absolute
blowout, with both of you really upset for two or three days, maybe not
talking, maybe storming out, or  doing any number of things that people do
to avoid being intimate.
Again, you play that all out and  know you don’ t have to make it happen.
Y ou don’ t have to make her wrong, which is a grea t step. Y ou don’ t have t o
make yo u right, an even higher  step. There’ s no right or wrong here. Y ou
play everything out, and as you do, you decide that you


ash	of	Garam	masala

Directions

1.
Core	the	apples	and	pears.	Remove	rind	from	lemon	and	ginger.	Transfer
the	ingredients	to	your	juicer.	Add	Garam	masala.

2.
Divide	among	2	serving	glasses	and	serve	right	away!

3.
In	their	natural	state,	apples	and	pears	are	packed	with	enzymes,
phytonutrients,	and

vitamins,	minerals.	Enjoy!Delicious	Fruits	with	Herbs
(Ready	in	about	10	minutes	|	Servings	3)

Ingredients

1.
2	grapefruits

1.
1	apple

1.
1	pear

1.
1/2	small-sized	pineapple

1.
1	tablespoon	fresh	parsley

1.
1	tablespoon	fresh	basil

1.
1"	ginger

Directions

1.
Begin	by	cleaning	and	preparing	your	ingredients.	Now	transfer	them	to	a
juice	extractor.

2.
Press	the	mixture	through

juice	extractor.
	3.
The	juice	contains	only	natural	ingredients	that	your	body	needs	for
optimum	health.	Enjoy!Winter	Super	Blend
(Ready	in	about	10	minutes	|	Servings	2)

Ingredients

1.
2	Royal	Gala	apples

1.
2	carrots

1.
1	handful	alfalfa	sprouts

1.
1	handful	watercress

1.
1/2	lime

1.
1/2-inch	chunk	of	broccoli	stem

Directions

1.
Simply	juice	all	the	above	ingredients.

2.
Afterwards,	pour	the	juice	over	ice	and	drink	right	now!

3.
The	juice	is	a	source	of	vitamin	A,	which	helps	us	to	boost	the	immune
system	and	maintain	beautiful	healthy	skin.Orange	Zesty	Juice
(Ready	in	about	10	minutes	|	Servings	2)

Ingredients

1.
1	sweet	potato

1.
2	carrots

1.
2	apples

1.
1	orange

1.
A	dash	pumpkin	pie	spice

Directions

1.
Simply	add	the	ingredients	to	your	juicer.	Press	the	ingredients	and	pour	the
juice	into	glasses.

2.
Sprinkle	some	extra	pumpkin	pie	spice	on	the	top.Spicy	Tangerine	Treat
(Ready	in	about	15	minutes	|	Servings	4)

Ingredients

1.
4	tangerines

1.
4	carrots

1.
1	small	beetroot

1.
1/2"	ginger

1.
1/2	teaspoon	Maca	powder

Directions

1.
Peel	the	tangerines	but	leave	the	white	pith.	Juice	the	tangerines	and
transfer	the	juice	to	the	blender.

2.
Add	the	carrots,	beetroot,	ginger,	and	Maca	powder.	Blend	until	smooth.

3.
Serve	at	once	and	enjoy!Perfect	Summer	Juice
(Ready	in	about	15	minutes	|	Servings	2)

Ingredients

1.
1/2	medium	watermelon

1.
1/2	medium	pineapple

1.
1/4	teaspoon	Maca	powder

1.
1-inch	ginger

Directions

1.
Remove	rind	from	watermelon	and	pineapple.	Add	them	to	the	juicer.

2.
Stir	in	Maca	powder	and	ginger;	process	the	ingredients	in	the	juicer.

3.
This	is	a	delicious	anti-inflammatory	juice	and	it	can	protect	our	body
against	dehydration	and	heart	diseases.Wheatgrass	Citrus	Juice
(Ready	in	about	10	minutes	|	Servings	2)

Ingredients

1.
30	tablespoons	wheatgrass	juice

1.
3	oranges

1.
2	grapefruits

1.
1	lime

1.
2	sprigs	rosemary

Directions

1.
Put	all	the	ingredients	into	the	blender;	mix	well	and	pour	into	the	glasses.

2.
This	amazing	juice	cleanses	the	blood	and	regulates	blood	pressure.Spicy	Powerful	Drink
(Ready	in	about	10	minutes	|	Servings	2)

Ingredients

1.
1	cucumber

1.
1/2	jicama,	peeled

1.
1/2	bell	pepper

1.
1	small-sized	red	onion,	peeled

1.
1	orange,	peeled

1.
A	dash	cayenne	pepper

Directions

1.
Wash	all	your	ingredients	and	transfer	them	to	a	juice	extractor.

2.
Pour	the	ingredients	into	glasses.	Dust	with	some	extra	cayenne	pepper.

3.
This	spicy	combination	of	vegetables	and	fruits	will	provide	you	with	lots
of	energy!Oh	Sweet	Cauliflower
(Ready	in	about	10	minutes	|	Servings	2)

Ingredients

1.
1	medium-sized	head	cauliflower

1.
1	apple

1.
2	oranges,	peeled

1.
1	celery	rib

1.
1	carrot

Directions

1.
Add	all	ingredients	through	a	juicer.

2.
Pour	into	two	chilled	glasses.

3.
Drink	at	once	and	enjoy!Cherry	and	Sweet	Potato	Juice
(Ready	in	about	10	minutes	|	Servings	4)

Ingredients

1.
1/2	cup	dried	cherries

1.
1	sweet	potato

1.
4	tangerines,	peeled

1.
1	fennel

1.
1"	ginger

1.
A	dash	of	ground	nutmeg

Directions

1.
Place	all	of	the	above	ingredients	in	your	juice	extractor.	Process	until	you
get	the	juice.

2.
Pour	the	juice	into	four	chilled	glasses	and	garnish	with	drinking	straws.

3.
Sprinkle	with	some	extra	ground	nutmeg.	Enjoy!Peach	and	Raspberry	Juice
(Ready	in	about	10	minutes	|	Servings	4)

Ingredients

1.
3	peaches,	pitted

1.
2	apricots,	pitted

1.
10	raspberries

1.
1	½"	ginger

1.
A	dash	of	Chinese	5-spice

Directions

1.
Add	all	ingredients	through	your	juice	extractor.	Serve	over	crushed	ice.

2.
This	refreshing	juice	is	rich	source	of	vitamin	C	and	potassium,	which	may
help	cleanse	the	intestine.Cranberry	Blast
(Ready	in	about	10	minutes	|	Servings	2)

Ingredients

1.
1	cup	cranberries

1.
2	carrots,	trimmed

1.
1⁄2	cup	fresh	pineapple	chunks

Directions

1.
Process	the	cranberries,	carrots,	and	pineapple	following	the	manufacturer’s
directions.

2.
Add	crushed	ice	if	desired.	Serve	as	soon	as	possible	and	enjoy.

3.
Cranberries	are	packed	with	phytoflavinoids,	antioxidants,	and	vitamins.
Therefore,	this	juice	can	lower	your	risk	of	cancer	and	heart	disease.Orange	Blueberry	Delight
(Ready	in	about	10	minutes	|	Servings	2)

Ingredients

1.
1	orange,	peeled

1.
1	cup	blueberries

1.
1	large-sized	banana,	peeled

Directions

1.
Process	the	orange	and	blueberries	through	an	electronic	juicer	following
the	manufacturer’s	instructions.

2.
Add	the	banana	and	transfer	everything	to	a	blender;	blend	until	the	mixture
is	uniform	and	smooth.	Serve	as	soon	as	possible.Pear	and	Tangerine	Boost	Juice
(Ready	in	about	10	minutes	|	Servings	2)

Ingredients

1.
1	large	carrot,	trimmed

1.
1	sweet	pot


 ten times, through the mouth, nose,
tracheostomy, or breathing tube, it’ s not all the same. How we breathe really
matters.
By your thousandth breath, you’ll understand why modern humans are
the only species with chronically crooked teeth, and why that’ s relevant to
breathing. Y ou’ll know how our ability to breathe has deteriorated over the
ages, and why our cavemen ancestors didn’ t snore. Y ou’ll have followed
two middle-aged men as they struggle through a pioneering and masochistic
20-day study at Stanford University to test the long-held belief that the
pathway through which we breathe—nose or mouth—is inconsequential.
Some of what you’ll learn will ruin your days and nights, especially if you
snore. But in your next breaths, you’ll find remedies.
By your 3,000th breath, you’ll know the basics of restorative breathing.
These slow and long techniques are open to everyone—old and young, sick
and healthy, rich and poor. They’ve been practiced in Hinduism, Buddhism,
Christianity, and other religions for thousands of years, but only recentlyhave we learned how they can reduce blood pressure, boost athletic
performance, and balance the nervous system.
By your 6,000th breath, you will have moved into the land of serious,
conscious breathing. Y ou’ll travel past the mouth and nose, deeper into the
lungs, and you’ll meet a midcentury pulmonaut who healed W orld W ar II
veterans of emphysema and trained Olympic sprinters to win gold medals,
all by harnessing the power of the exhale.
By your 8,000th breath, you’ll have pushed even deeper into the body to
tap, of all things, the nervous system. Y ou’ll discover the power of
overbreathing. Y ou’ll meet with pulmonauts who have used breathing to
straighten scoliotic spines, blunt autoimmune diseases, and superheat
themselves in subzero temperatures. None of this should be possible, and
yet, as you will see, it is. Along the way, I’ll be learning, too, trying to
understand what happened to me in that V ictorian house a decade ago.
By your 10,000th breath, and the close of this book, you and I will know
how the air that enters your lungs af fects every moment of your life and
how to harness it to its full potential until your final breath.
This book will explore many things: evolution, medical history,
biochemistry, physiology, physics, athletic endurance, and more. But mostly
it will explore you.
By the law of averages, you will take 670 million breaths in your
lifetime. Maybe you’ve already taken half of those. Maybe you’re on breath
669,000,000. Maybe you’d like to take a few million more.Part One
THE EXPERIMENTOne
THE WORST BREATHERS IN THE ANIMAL
KINGDOM
The patient arrived, pale and torpid, at 9:32 a.m. Male, middle-aged, 175
pounds. T alkative and friendly but visibly anxious. Pain: none. Fatigue: a
little. Level of anxiety: moderate. Fears about progression and future
symptoms: high.
Patient reported that he was raised in a modern suburban environment,
bottle-fed at six months, and weaned onto jarred commercial foods. The
lack of chewing associated with this soft diet stunted bone development in
his dental arches and sinus cavity, leading to chronic nasal congestion.
By age 15, patient was subsisting on even softer, highly processed foods
consisting mostly of white bread, sweetened fruit juices, canned vegetables,
Steak-umms, V elveeta sandwiches, microwave taquitos, Hostess Sno Balls,
and Reggie! bars. His mouth had become so underdeveloped it could not
accommodate 32 permanent teeth; incisors and canines grew in crooked,
requiring extractions, braces, retainers, and headgear to straighten. Three
years of orthodontics made his small mouth even smaller, so his tongue no
longer properly fit between his teeth. When he stuck it out, which he did
often, visible imprints laced its sides, a precursor to snoring.
At 17, four impacted wisdom teeth were removed, which further
decreased the size of his mouth while increasing his chances of developing
the chronic nocturnal choking known as sleep apnea. As he aged into his
20s and 30s, his breathing became more labored and dysfunctional and his
airways became more obstructed. His face would continue a vertical growthpattern that led to sagging eyes, doughy cheeks, a sloping forehead, and a
protruding nose.
This atrophied, underdeveloped mouth, throat, and skull, unfortunately,
belongs to me.
I’m lying on the examination chair in the Stanford Department of
Otolaryngology Head and Neck Sur gery Center looking at myself, looking
into myself. For the past several minutes, Dr. Jayakar Nayak, a nasal and
sinus sur geon, has been gingerly coaxing an endoscope camera through my
nose. He’ s gone so deep into my head that it’ s come out the other side, into
my throat.
“Say eeee,” he says. Nayak has a halo of black hair, square glasses,
cushioned running shoes, and a white coat. But I’m not looking at his
clothes, or his face. I’m wearing a pair of video goggles that are streaming a
live feed of the journey through the rolling dunes, swampy marshes, and
stalactites inside my severely damaged sinuses. I’m trying not to cough or
choke or gag as that endoscope squirms a little farther down.
“Say eeee,” Nayak repeats. I say it and watch as the soft tissue around
my larynx, pink and fleshy and coated in slime, opens and closes like a
stop-motion Geor gia O’Keef fe flower.
This isn’ t a pleasure cruise. T wenty-five sextillion molecules (that’ s 250
with 20 zeros after it) take this same voyage 18 times a minute, 25,000
times a day. I’ve come here to see, feel, and learn where all this air is
supposed to enter our bodies. And I’ve come to say goodbye to my nose for
the next ten days.
—
For the past century, the prevailing belief in W estern medicine was that the
nose was more or less an ancillary or gan. W e should breathe out of it if we
can, the thinking went, but if not, no problem. That’ s what the mouth is for.
Many doctors, researchers, and scientists still support this position.
There are 27 departments at the National Institutes of Health devoted to
lungs, eyes, skin disease, ears, and so on. The nose and sinuses aren’ t
represented in any of them.
Nayak finds this absurd. He is the chief of rhinology research at
Stanford. He heads an internationally renowned laboratory focused entirely
on understanding the hidden power of the nose. He’ s found that those
dunes, stalactites, and marshes inside the human head orchestrate amultitude of functions for the body. V ital functions. “Those structures are in
there for a reason!” he told me earlier. Nayak has a special reverence for the
nose, which he believes is greatly misunderstood and underappreciated.
Which is why he’ s so interested to see what happens to a body that
functions without one. Which is what brought me here.
Starting today, I’ll spend the next quarter of a million breaths with
silicone plugs blocking my nostrils and sur gical tape over the plugs to stop
even the faintest amount of air from entering or exiting my nose. I’ll
breathe only through my mouth, a heinous experiment that will be
exhausting and miserable, but has a clear point.
Forty percent of today’ s population suf fers from chronic nasal
obstruction, and around half of us are habitual mouthbreathers, with
females and children suf fering the most. The causes are many: dry air to
stress, inflammation to aller gies, pollution to pharmaceuticals. But much of
the blame, I’ll soon learn, can be placed on the ever -shrinking real estate in
the front of the human skull.
When mouths don’ t grow wide enough, the roof of the mouth tends to
rise up instead of out, forming what’ s called a V -shape or high-arched
palate. The upward growth impedes the development of the nasal cavity,
shrinking it and disrupting the delicate structures in the nose. The reduced
nasal space leads to obstruction and inhibits airflow. Overall, humans have
the sad distinction of being the most plugged-up species on Earth.
I should know. Before probing my nasal cavities, Nayak took an X-ray
of my head, which provided a deli-slicer view of every nook and cranny in
my mouth, sinuses, and upper airways.
“Y ou’ve got some . . . stuff,” he said. Not only did I have a V -shape
palate, I also had “severe” obstruction to the left nostril caused by a
“severely” deviated septum. My sin


 particularly when they are
smoked or otherwise consumed together. Calamus also regulates breathing,
relieves asthma,  and helps expel phlegm from the lungs. Externally, it is used in
massage oils to invigorate circulation and promote muscular relaxation.
In Chin a a number of varieties of sweet flag are used, inclu ding Acorus
gramineus, Acor us terrestris and Acorus calamus. Chinese medicine, perceives all
these di f ferent species to contain the same therapeutic properties, and considers
sweet flag as mostly aromatic. This signifies its ability to awaken the spirit and
sensory orifices,  especially when they are obstructed by the presence of phlegm (as
in d eafness, dizziness, for getful ness, mental dullness, or seizures). Sweet flag is
also used to disp el dampness that has become lodged in the chest or abdomen (as
in as thma, chest pain and conge stion, abdominal distension, or indigestion), and is
also app lied as a useful external remedy for musculoskeletal pains, trauma, and
sores that are the result of cold, dampness or wind invasion.
The use of cin nabar by T aoist alchemists in search of the elixir of
immortality cam e into vogue in  China during the Han dynasty. Their researches
disclosed that cinnabar possesses the perfect balance of Y in a nd Y ang (mercuryand sulf ur on a physical level) once it has been purified from i ts toxic crude form
to a transformed  state via an exacting process of nine-fold sublimation. Cinnabar
played a  key role in the T aoist’ s proto-chemistry experimentations, which also led
to major  discoveries of methods for neutralizing potent naturally-occurring toxins.
This research benefited medicine by opening up a wide variety of previously toxic
mineral, plant and animal substances for therapeutic use. Eventually much of this
information was  shared with In dian T antric adepts who went on to master their
own unique processes of chem ical transformation. This India nized art of proto-
chemistry may have been the foundation of the Siddha system of medicine whose
techniques have  influenced A yurveda. It is interesting to note in passing that today,
the u se and imp ortance of minerals and metals in A yurveda greatly exceeds their
use in Chinese medicine.
Cinnabar in Chinese medicine is mainly used to calm and balance the mind
and spirit for such conditions as insomnia, anxiety attacks, convulsions and
restlessness. Due to its cooling nature, cinnabar also acts as a potent agent for
clearing excess toxic heat from the body as evident in suppurative skin infections,
mouth sores and snake bites.
In A yurveda, most minerals are used in very refined forms which have been
subjected to repeated incineratio ns that leave the end-product ch emically inert and
thus non -irritating to the tissues. Such mineral ash (bhasma) preparations have a
powerful catalytic ef fect on the metabolic processes. Both the naturally-occurring
cinnabar and artificially-prepared mercuric sulfide are considered ideal re-
juvenator of the blood because it contains both mercury and sulfur, the primal
minerals, which  are used in treating a whole host of chronic d iseases. Cinnabar,
according to A yurveda, also p romotes the health of reproductive tissues and
secretions and is used specifically, as in China, for obstinate skin disorders and
certain t ypes of poisonings. In terms of the Doshas, cinnabar alleviates both Pitta
and Kapha; some say it can be mildly aggravating to V ata.
Human beings for at least the last 2,500 years have been using the preputial
glands o f the musk deer for m edicine and perfume. The best quality of musk
reportedly becomes available du ring the rutting season when the  animal breaks the
gland’ s capsule with its hooves to empty the contents on to th e ground, but this
quality is extremely rare. Each capsule is said to contain up to 50 ml. of muskwhich has a mil ky texture and color when fresh but this gradually turns viscous
and redd ish-brown over time. Long ago the wild mountain mu sk deer roamed in
lar ge numbers throughout the H imalayas from Kashmir, Assam, Nepal, T ibet and
into the Chinese provinces of  Sichuan and Y unnan. T oday it has become an
endangered species, and wild musk has become dif ficult to obtain. Most
commercially av ailable musk is either synthetically produced or  comes from musk
deer farms.
The uses of musk are general ly similar in both A yurveda and Chinese
medicine, thoug h the specific c onditions for which it is prescr ibed dif fer greatly.
Because musk is highly regarded  in Chinese medicine for its potent consciousness-
reviving ef fect it is used to treat fainting, seizures, collapse, delirium, heart attacks,
and trau matic in juries which cause mental shock and confusion. Musk’ s ability to
awaken the mind and spirit is d ue to its intense aromatic and penetrating nature.
T raditionally musk is also used to treat amenorrhea and hasten  delivery including
expulsion of retained placenta o r facilitation of the downward passage of stillborn.
Musk is used topically, in the form of a plaster (usually mixed with other herbs and
beeswax), to treat traumas and injuries that result from nerve damage and painful
conditions.
Musk is perhaps A yurveda’ s mo st well known animal-derived product due to
its powerful aphrodisiac ef fect, and which can markedly increase semen production
in th e male. Musk is said to alleviate V ata and Kapha while  aggravating Pitta.
Being b oth pun gent and warming (as well as having a special vasodilator ef fect
upon the blood vessels), musk stimulates the heart and blood circulation, and is
thus considered a general tonic in cases of debility.A P P E N D I X  I I
T h e  U s e  o f  V i t a l  P o i n t s  i n  A s i a
The practices of acupuncture and moxibustion, which use needles and
mild ca uterization respectively to stimulate the vital points  along the
ener getic pathways called Meridians, are considered integral parts of
traditional Chine se medicine. While a growing body of scientif ic evidence
supports acupuncture’ s therapeutic claims, a scientific explanation for how
acupuncture wo rks still remains elusive. The origin of these tr eatments go
back as far as the origin of Ch inese Civilization itself, althoug h historical
evidence suggests that acupuncture and moxibustion arose separately and
were slowly integrated over t ime. The ancients maintained  that while
acupuncture cam e from the eastern parts of China, moxibustion originated
in t he north, p robably Mongolia. The mer ger of these two medical
modalities into a single system occurred sometime during the W arring
States period (475-221 B.C.). The basic philosophy of acupuncture and
moxibustion is summarized in the Y ellow E mper or ’ s Inner Classic,  which
appeared during  that era, and in the Classic of Difficult Issues,  which was
written during the Han Dynasty (206 B.C-220 A.D.).
Both acupuncture and moxibustion have been refined and enlar ged
over the centuries, and in recent years acupuncture has “gone high tech”
with the development of both laser acupuncture and electro-acupuncture.
Most practitioners however continue to practice acupuncture and
moxibustion, as  well as the adjunctive techniques of acupressure, massage
and micro-bloodletting in traditional ways, according to teachings based
upon the laws of Y in-Y ang and the Five Elements.
China is not alone in Asia in the use of vital points in therapy. V arious
indigenous systems have mapp ed such points on the body’ s surface, and
assigned to them specific ef fects and uses. The most notable among these
comparable trad itions is the Indian concept of Marmas, which is discussed
particularly in A yurveda’ s most important sur gical texts, the SushrutaSamhita. The Sri Lankan, T ibetan, and Mongolian healing traditions
incorporate elements of either the Chinese or Indian concepts or both into
their own distinctive ideas.
Marmas probably were first identified during the V edic period, when
kings an d warriors may have u sed this science either to ef fectively inflict
fatal wounds on their enemies (or animals of prey) or to prevent such
wounds from becoming fatal. Sushruta, who teaches that every Marma is a
seat of Prana, de scribes 107 Marmas on the surface of the hum an body. He
states th at when a Marma is traumatized, the destabilized Prana  aggravates
the body’ s V ata Dosha, which in turn blocks the Pervasive (vyana) V ata
channels that circulate near th e body’ s surface. Marmas  are classified
according to the underlying structure involved