The World Health Organisation (WHO) is the United
Nations specialised agency for Health. The WHO constitution defines
Health as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and
not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. All 193 Member States
subscribed to the constitution and therefore this definition of Health
is probably the most globally accepted covering, Western, Oriental and
various other perspectives on Health.
Defining Health from a medical, organisational, or
governmental perspective is certainly useful to develop local, regional
and global strategies and policies to improve Health. Defining success
is much more difficult. Clearly, the effectiveness of short term actions
to combat sudden outbreaks of diseases where people obviously suffer
requiring urgent assistance is easy to measure. However, the long term
effectiveness of Health Programmes becomes a different story. In a way,
progress with regard to physical health can be expressed by a measure of
life expectancy. However, mental and social well-being is not so easily
captured in scientific parameters. Mind and body are interrelated:
Mens
Sane in Corpore Sano.
It is becoming increasingly accepted - particularly
from an Oriental perspective - that a healthy mind has a positive effect
on physical well-being. The converse is less obvious, i.e. the well
being of the body does not necessarily influence the mind. It was
Descartes (1644) who appears responsible for the alleged divorce of body
and mind. However, before this would take any significant effect, the
Western world embarked on an unprecedented industrial and economic
evolution. The result being the world we experience today, but more
importantly a firmly rooted belief that mankind is in control of all
matter.
I
think, therefore I am
No…
I am therefore I think!
In this context it is not surprisingly that Western
man desired to control Health as well. After all, the body and to a
certain extent the mind is simply subject to biological, bio-chemical
and electro-chemical processes, which can be measured, understood, and
controlled. Since Descartes medical science has evolved gradually, but
not at the same pace as for example physical science. It is only after
the Second World War that medical science started its march to conquer
health.
Life expectancy has increased. However, it is
impossible to attribute this entirely to the Medical Revolution
of the past 50 years. Other factors, such hygiene, economic progress and
improved safety standards may have equally contributed.
In less than 50 years the western world created an
environment characterised by ruthlessly competing global pharmaceutical
industries, ever more expensive public and private Health Services,
industrial type mega-hospitals, a rapidly increasing healthy food
industry. And, an abundance of medication where some products are
already replacing recent discoveries that do no longer work…
Of course there are victories; some illnesses have
more or less disappeared. Others can be controlled, provided there are
no economic barriers. However, new diseases (dis-eases) emerge at a
worrying speed.
In the mechanically controlled world, preventive
maintenance is a well accepted practice to avoid undesired failures. An
oil change every 20,000 km! Not surprisingly, this transferred to the
medical science, resulting in preventive measurements and preventive
medication. The mental effects of preventive health care are disregarded
or at least not fully understood. The discovery of DNA is undoubtedly
one of the major breakthroughs in the Western medical progression.
Today, its potential to provide detailed prognoses about an individual’s
health progression launches a new episode in preventive medical care.
This requires a fundamental ethical discussion. Do we really want to
know what may happen to us? Is there a self-fulfilling aspect?
For
every one I have a personal booklet, signed DNA, which declares all
illnesses which
you
are most likely going to get?
In conclusion, it is a fact though that almost every
individual in the western world is under some form of health care and
dependent on it. The costs are spiraling out of control and services
deteriorate. Do we feel better? Do we want to continue on this path
only?
It seems that our ambition to control nature, to
separate mind and body, leads us into a deadlock. So what can we
reasonably do?
A
new perspective on Health
The western medical world, beyond its ideal to extend
life, heal and contribute to the well being of an individual, is
submitted to the influences and conditions of economic imperatives;
enormous interests are at stake. The original human vision and its
primary ideal to serve life has progressively been replaced by a more
materialistic, pragmatic and mechanical vision. People are identified by
a registration number, a file number and statistics and their body is
assimilated with a mechanical vehicle.
Has the conventional western medical science
forgotten something?
Yes, simply the determining dimension of the human
spirit.
A wider definition of health and more focused on the
human as a living being opens the path to a new approach.
Health is a state of sustainable well-being intensified by a free
circulation of spiritual, mental, emotional and physical energy.
The principle characteristics of this state of being
are:
-
Cheerfulness
-
Confidence
-
Serenity
-
Harmony
-
Balance
-
Enthusiasm
-
Wonderment
-
Innocence
-
Creativity
-
Fluidity
-
Autonomy
Medical philosophies
Today, two principal approaches confront or compliment
each other depending on the country:
On the one hand the conventional western medical
philosophy, organised on the basis of ultra competent medical teams, latest
materials, and sophisticated equipment, strives for performance with an
untamed desire to conquer death. Intelligence, life saving efforts, and
maintenance of the physical body mainly result from a mechanical vision.
Operational assistance is primarily based on technology.
On the other hand there are the alternative medical
systems, organised by practitioners, educated in different and multiple
approaches both in the western and oriental world. These medical practices
are more specifically interested in a holistic view of the human being, in
primary causes, both on the physical, psychological and emotional level as
well as on energy levels creating an unbalance or disorder in the physical
body. They are essentially centered on health and well being of the
individual and the free circulation of vital energy in all its human
aspects.
Operational assistance is primarily based on a holistic
knowledge of the human being, tangible subtle circuits and the interaction
of cause and effect. Moreover, its actions stimulate the patient to take
matters at hand through a better understanding of interactive links. The
treatment system is based on proper interventions to liberate the flow of
vital energy.
The intentions, attitudes and behavior of people with
regard to Health.
The conventional western medical science reaches a hyper
specialisation, which, amongst others, induces a fragmentation reducing its
general view with regard to the wholeness of the human being. The means and
enormous systems that have been developed, to safe, heal and extend life of
individuals in comfort and competence, also show the other side of the coin.
The process of total care and sophisticated assistance of individuals
introduces and maintains the idea that without scientific support, the
individual is powerless and incapable to take care of himself. This process
leads to a progressive de-responsabilisation of the individual and an
increasing submission to the scientific authority. The result being a loss
of personal initiative and reduced responsibility regarding behavior and
attitudes.
Once upon a
time, health resulted mainly from personal responsibility. Every one took
care of himself and his environment mainly by natural means and practices
passed on from one generation to the next.
Today, due to the complexity and means of medical
services, the individual has almost delegated the capacity to take care of
himself and relies on the authority that claims to know.
Physiological and psychological disorders and unbalances
are rooted in the human consciousness. True solutions are therefore to be
found in this consciousness. Exterior treatments are often palliatives to
relax or to postpone and do not always resolve or remove the true causes of
disorders and unbalances. A predominantly material view only increases the
underlying fears for life and death.
The intensive assistance of medical services could
produce more or less the same effect as those who have gone to confess : “ I
do everything I desire, I profess, and I start all over” This means that I
live no matter how and when I don’t feel as well I run to the doctor to
compensate for my shortcomings or my behavioral excesses.
The acceptation and the presence of a single
materialistic view alienates man from the profound and the spiritual sense
of Life. This separation influences the well being and maintains an
incoherence between the genuine aspirations of his heart, conscious or not,
and the rhythm, pressure, conditions and almost hypnotic temptations imposed
by the materialistic world and its often perverse illusions. This
incoherence amplifies the emotions of an individual leading to a state of
chronic weakness. In fact, it is an implicit second state which seeks to
compensate its underlying and often not recognised illness, through
emotional nourishment arising either from people or material pleasure.
How can we desire to be in good health and at the same
time do things and behave against health? Therefore…
What is
the essential of Life?
Which
sense do we give or want to give to Life?
Which
ideal of life do we choose?
Vision
based on Universal Wisdom
The source of primary causes of many situations is in the
human consciousness. The answers to our desires and genuine needs are
equally found in human consciousness. Every evolution and transformation of
the conditions of the existence, the well being and health passes without
doubt through a change in consciousness and an individual and collective
reformation of its paradigms.
A solely materialistic view emphasises the idea and the
fear of death as being the definitive end of life. In a conscious or
unconscious manner, this idea, this fear, counteracts and deviates us from
the purest intentions through hidden fundamental beliefs, which conduct our
attitudes and behaviour in the exercise of Life.
The disharmony, the illness and suffering stem from the
separation of Heart and Mind, Spirit and Matter, at the centre of the
consciousness of man who divided his powers creating two distinct worlds :
the material or scientific world and the spiritual world of consciousness.
These two powers confront and oppose each other since mankind has lost its
connection with the true essence, resulting in duality; Since man has wanted
to exercise power, a domination over others, giving birth to the ego. This
battle persists over thousands of years and is the source of our suffering,
illnesses and our discords.
The ideal of the Alliance du Coeur is the rainbow that
reunites what appears separate
