The Way Toward Health - June 6, 1984

June 6, 1984

Many schools of religion and so-called esoteric knowledge have promoted the idea that sexuality and spirituality were diametrically opposed to each other.

People in the sports arena also often encourage the concept that sexual expression is somehow debilitating to the male, and can weaken his constitution.  Priests take vows to ensure sexual abstinence.  The fact is that sexual expression is, again, an important element in the entire range of human experience, encouraging mental and physical health and vitality.

Some people may have a stronger or weaker sex drive than others, and yet that drive is a strong part of any individual’s natural rhythm.  Damned up, such sexuality still keeps trying for expression, and it is often men of habitual “sexual discipline” who suddenly break out in bouts of sexual promiscuity or violence.

In actuality, the combination of a philosophical stress upon discipline, physical and mental, with the belief in the sinful self, often brings about the most unfortunate human dilemmas.  These ideas usually ride along with feelings that power is desirable but dangerous.  To abstain from sexuality then means to store up one’s own power.  People with such beliefs often have severe problems with constipation, and have retention symptoms – retaining water, for example, or salt or whatever.

They may also suffer with stomach difficulties, many being overly fond of extremely spicy foods.  Some have unusually heavy appetites, even though these may be regulated by a series of diets – which are then broken by overeating.

There are so many other elements involved in human nature that I do not really want to point out any culprits, yet male-segregated communities are obviously notorious for encouraging that kind of behavior.  Every individual in such institutions or societies is not affected in the same fashion, of course – yet you do have these kinds of closed societies, relatively speaking, and they can indeed serve as cradles for fanaticism and rigid stereotypes of behavior.  Again, here you find that discipline, rather than free will, is stressed, so that the opportunity for choices is drastically reduced.  The more open a society, the more healthy its people.

The Way Toward Health - June 5, 1984

June 5, 1984

Since ancient times religion has tried to help man understand the nature of his own subjective reality – but religion has its own dark side, and for this reason religion unfortunately has fostered fear of the spontaneous.

Instead of promoting the idea of man’s inner worth, it has taught people to distrust the inner self and its manifestations.  Most churches preach a dogma that stresses concepts of the sinful self, and sees man as a creature contaminated by original sin even before birth.

This distorted picture depicts a species of sinners innately driven by evil, sometimes demonic, forces.  In this dogma man needs to apologize for his birth, and the conditions of life are seen as punishment set by God upon his erring creatures.  Unfortunately, such concepts are also reflected in psychology, particularly in Freudianism – where, say, slips of the tongue may betray the self’s hidden nefarious true desires.

The unconscious is understood to be a garbage heap of undesirable impulses, long ago discarded by civilization, while again much religious theory projects the image of the hidden self that must be kept in bounds by good work, prayer, and penance.

Amid such a conglomeration of negative suppositions, the idea of a good and innocent inner self seems almost scandalous.  To encourage expression of that self appears foolhardy, for it seems only too clear that if the lid of consciousness were opened, so to speak, all kinds of inner demons and enraged impulses would rush forth.

Again, people who have such views of the inner self usually project the same ideas upon nature at large, so that the natural world appears equally mysterious, dangerous, and threatening.

In political terms, such persons also look for strong authoritative groups or governments, stress law and order above justice and equality, and tend to see the poorer, less advantaged members of society as impulse-ridden, dangerous, and always ready for revolution.  It is quite frequent for persons with those beliefs to discipline their bodies overmuch, take positions as police guards, or set themselves up in one way or another in control of their fellows.

I am not here stating that all police guards, members of the military, or whatever, fall into that category.  Such people will, however, tend toward a strongly disciplined life.  Many of their health problems will deal with eruptions – interior ulcers, skin eruptions, or in very definite mental and emotional eruptions, and great outbursts of force and temper all the more noticeable because of the usual disciplined patterns of behavior.

In most such cases, there is a lack of the normal range of emotional expression.  Such persons often find it extremely difficult to express love, joy, or gratitude, for example, and this lack of expression is taken for granted by others, who do not see it in its true light, but think instead that the person is simply reticent.

Secondary personalities and schizophrenic episodes are also somewhat characteristic – again appearing as sudden explosive behavior when conflicting beliefs are damned up and held back.  And when it is believed that the inner self is indeed a bed of chaotic impulses, then it becomes less and less possible for an individual to express normal ranges of activity.  The person then feels lethargic and out of touch with work or family.

Expression is a necessity of life, however.  Each person feels that drive.  When one set of rigid beliefs threatens to make action appear meaningless, then another set of buried, repressed beliefs may surface, providing new impetus when it is needed – but also forming a secondary personality with characteristics almost opposite to those of the primary self.

We will have more to say on all of these issues – but now I want to discuss spontaneity, or its lack, in relationship to sexuality and health.

All of the negative beliefs just mentioned touch upon sexuality in one way or another.  Those with the beliefs just mentioned often think of sexuality as bestial, evil, and even humiliating.

These attitudes are intensified where the female sex is concerned.  You have, of course, a strong drive toward sexuality, and if you believe that it is to be shunned at the same time, then you are in a very ambiguous position.  Women with such beliefs and conflicts often wind up having hysterectomies, performed incidentally by male doctors, who hold the very same beliefs.

Many men look forward to having sons, while at the same time they revere marriage as a necessary part of respectable family life, and also feel that marriage is somehow degrading – particularly to a male – and that the sex act itself is only justified if it brings him an heir.

Such a male will seek sex with prostitutes, or with women he considers beneath him.  In a strange fashion, he may even feel that it is wrong to have sex with his own wife, believing that the sex act so degrades the both of them.  In many cases these people will be great sportsmen, follow conventionalized male pursuits, and perhaps express contempt for the arts or any interest considered remotely feminine.

The Way Toward Health - June 4, 1984

June 4, 1984

One of the issues I want to discuss in depth is that of spontaneity in relationship to health and disease.

Your very physical existence itself is dependent upon the smooth functioning of many spontaneous processes.  Your thinking, breathing, and motion are all guided by activities that are largely unconscious – at least from the standpoint of what you think of as the conscious mind.

Your body repairs itself constantly, and your mind thinks – all without your normally conscious attention.  The same applies to all of those inner processes that make life possible.  Your thoughts are conscious, but the process of thinking itself is not.  Spontaneity is particularly important in the actions of children, and in the natural rhythmic motion of their limbs.  Feelings also seem to come and go in a spontaneous fashion.

It is indeed as if some inner spontaneous part of the personality is far more knowledgeable than the conscious portion of which we are so rightfully proud.

Many people, however, fear spontaneity: it evokes extravagance, excesses, and dangerous freedoms.  Even people who are not so fervently opposed to spontaneity often feel that it is somehow suspect, distasteful, perhaps leading to humiliating actions.  Spontaneity, however, represents the spirit of life itself, and it is the basis for the will to live, and for those impulses that stimulate action, motion, and discovery.

In the truest regard, your life is provided for you by these spontaneous processes.  As I’ve mentioned in past books, at one time the human personality was “more at one with itself”.  It accommodated unconscious and conscious experience more equitably.  Man was more aware of his dreams and so-called unconscious activity.

It is only because civilized man has somewhat overspecialized in the use of one kind of knowledge over another that people fear the unconscious, spontaneous portions of the self.  The fear alone causes them to block out still more and more unconscious knowledge.  Since the spontaneous portions are so related to bodily activity, they are very important in facilitating good health, and when people feel divorced from their spontaneous selves, they also feel divorced to the same extent from their own bodies.

Such individuals become frightened of freedom itself, of choices and of changes.  They try desperately to control themselves and their environment against what seems to be a raging, spontaneous mass of primitive impulses from within, and against a mindless, chaotic, ancient force of nature.  In the physical world, such behavior often leads to compulsive action – stereotyped mental and physical motion and other situations with a strong repressive coloration.  Here any expression becomes almost taboo.  The conscious mind must be in control of all actions as much as possible, for such a person feels that only rigid, logical thought is strong enough to hold back such strong impulsive force.

These attitudes may be reflected in rather simple compulsive actions: the woman who cleans the house endlessly, whether it needs it or not: the man who will follow certain precise, defined routes of activity – driving down certain streets only to work; washing his hands more frequently than other people; the person who constantly buttons and unbuttons a sweater or vest.  Many such simple actions show a stereotyped kind of behavior that results from a desperate need to gain control over oneself and the environment.

Any excessive behavior may enter in, including oversmoking, overeating, and overdrinking.

It will be difficult for some people to believe that spontaneity is to be trusted, for they may be only aware of feeling destructive or violent impulses.  The idea of expressing impulses spontaneously will be most frightening under those conditions.

Actually the people involved are repressing not violent impulses but natural loving ones.  They are afraid that expressions of love, or the need for dependence will only bring them scorn or punishment.  Therefore, they hide those yearnings, and the destructive impulses actually serve to protect them from the expression of love that they have somehow learned to fear.

Science itself, for all of its preciseness in some areas, often equates instinctive, impulsive, chaotic, destructive activity one and the same.

Nature and the inner nature of man are both seen to contain savage, destructive forces against which civilization and the reasoning mind must firmly stand guard.

Science itself often displays compulsive and ritualistic behavior, to the point of programming its own paths of reasoning, so that they cover safe ground, and steadfastly ignore the great inner forces of spontaneity that make science – or any discipline – possible.  As I have said before, spontaneity knows its own order.  Nothing is more highly organized than the physical body that spontaneously grows all of its own parts.

As your life is provided for you, so to speak, by these spontaneous processes, the life of the universe is provided in the same fashion.  You see the physical stars, and your instruments probe the distances of space – but the inner processes that make the universe possible are those same processes that propel your own thinking.  It is erroneous, therefore, to believe that spontaneity and discipline are mere opposites.  Instead, true discipline is the result of true spontaneity.

Value fulfillment of each and every element in life relies upon those spontaneous processes, and at their source is the basic affirmative love and acceptance of the self, the universe, and life’s conditions.

The Way Toward Health - June 3, 1984

Part Two: Starting Over

Chapter 10: A New Beginning. Instructions, Suggestions, and Resolutions – and When to Ignore These

June 3, 1984

The thoughts and beliefs that we want to rearouse are those that were often predominant in childhood, as mentioned earlier in this book.  They are spiritual, mental, emotional and biological beliefs that are innately present in the birth of each creature.  Children believe not only that there will be a tomorrow, and many tomorrows, but they also believe that each tomorrow will be rewarding and filled with discovery.

They feel themselves couched in an overall feeling of security and safety, even in the face of an unpleasant environment or situation.  They feel drawn to other people and to other creatures, and left alone they trust their contacts with others.  They have an inbred sense of self-satisfaction and self-appreciation, and they instinctively feel that it is natural and good for them to explore and develop their capabilities.

They expect relationships to be rewarding and continuing, and expect each event will have the best possible results.  They enjoy communication, the pursuit of knowledge, and they are filled with curiosity.

All of these attitudes provide the strength and mental health that promotes their physical growth and development.  However simple those ideas may sound to the adult, still they carry within them the needed power and impetus that fill all of life’s parts.  Later, conflicting beliefs often smother such earlier attitudes, so that by the time children have grown into adults they actually hold almost an opposite set of hypotheses.  These take it for granted that any stressful situation will worsen, that communication with other is dangerous, that self-fulfillment brings about the envy and vengeance of others, and that as individuals they live in an unsafe society, set down in the middle of a natural world that is itself savage, cruel, and caring only for its own survival at any cost.

Your body actually lives on large quantities of joyful expectation.

The fetus is propelled by the expectation of future growth and development.  It is bad enough to anticipate that most unfortunate situations will worsen rather than improve, but it is foolhardy indeed to believe that mankind is bound to destroy itself, or that nuclear destruction is nearly inevitable.

Many people no longer believe in life after death, and so large numbers of the population are philosophically denied a spiritual or a physical future.  This deprives body and mind of the zest and purpose needed in order to enjoy any pursuits or activities.  Such beliefs make any human endeavor appear futile.  There are ways of reacting to the dangers of nuclear energy that are far more healthy and beneficial, and we will discuss these later in the book.

For now, I simply want to suggest that all such beliefs should be understood and dismissed as soon as possible.  We hope to show how most natural health-promoting beliefs can be applied to all mental, physical, or emotional illnesses or difficulties.  I want to assure you that regardless of your circumstances, age, or sex, you can indeed start over, re-arousing from within yourself those earlier, more innocent expectations, feelings and beliefs.  It is much better if you can imagine this endeavor more in the light of children’s play, in fact, rather than think of it as a deadly serious adult pursuit.

In other words, we will try to instill a somewhat playful attitude, even toward the most severe problems, for the very idea of play encourages the use of the imagination and the creative abilities.

Again, because of the simultaneous nature of time, beliefs can be changed in the present moment.

There is no need to search endlessly into the past of this life or any other, for the “original” cause for beliefs.  Making a change in the present of a certain kind will automatically alter all beliefs “across the board”, so to speak.  It is important, however, that you do not strain too hard to achieve results, but allow yourself some leeway.  You react to your beliefs habitually, often unthinkingly, and in usual ideas of time, and in your experience of it – you must allow yourself “some time” to change that habitual behavior.

As you do, you will discover yourself reacting to the desired beliefs as easily and automatically as you did to the undesirable ones.  As you do, keep the idea of child’s play in mind, however.  This will allow you to keep the entire affair in a kind of suspension.

The child plays at being an adult long before he is one, and so you can play with more desirable beliefs while you are still growing into that more beneficial picture.

The Way Toward Health - June 1, 1984

June 1, 1984

Large numbers of the population do indeed live unsatisfactory lives, with many individuals seeking goals that are nearly unattainable because of the conglomeration of conflicting beliefs that all vie for their attention.  They are at cross purposes with themselves.

This leads not only to private dilemmas, illnesses, and seemingly futile relationships – but also to national misunderstandings, entanglements, and world disorders.  There are indeed ways of breaking through such conflicts, however, and those broader avenues of expression, peace, and satisfaction are available to each individual, however unfortunate the entire picture seems to be.

It is possible, therefore, to improve your health, and to deepen the quality of all of your experience.

In terms of earthly life as you understand it, it is overly optimistic to imagine that eventually all illnesses will be conquered, all relationships be inevitably fulfilling, or to foresee a future in which all people on earth are treated with equality and respect.  For one thing, in that larger framework mentioned earlier in this book, illness itself is a part of life’s overall activity.  Disease states, so-called, are as necessary to physical life as normal health is, so we are not speaking of a nirvana on earth – but we are saying that it is possible for each reader of this book to quicken his or her private perceptions, and to extend and expand the quality of ordinary consciousness enough so that by contrast to current experience, life could almost be thought of as “heaven on earth”.

This involves a re-education of the most profound nature.  All of the conflicting beliefs that have been mentioned thus far are the end result of what I have called before the “official line of consciousness”.  Certainly, people experienced disease long before those conflicting beliefs began – but again, that is because of the part that disease states play in the overall health of individuals and of the world.

What we are going to have to do, then, is start over.  It is indeed quite possible to do so, for you will be working with material with which you are intimately familiar: your own thoughts, emotions, and beliefs.

You must start from your present position, of course, but there is no person who cannot better his or her position to a considerable degree, if the effort is made to follow through with the kind of new hypotheses that we will here suggest.  These ideas are to some extent already present, though they have not predominated in world experience.

This alternate way of thinking is biologically pertinent, for it should be obvious now that certain beliefs and ideas serve to foster health and vitality, while others impede it.

These ideas are translations of the emotional attitudes of all portions of nature and of life itself.  They are better than any medicine, and they promote the expression of value fulfillment of all kinds of life, whatever its form.

A note:  This will be the last chapter of the first part of the book – which is to be called “Dilemmas”.  The beginning of the next chapter when we start it, will be the first chapter of the second part, to be called “Starting Over”.

I want to remind you both that what I am saying is indeed possible, and more possible than not.

Ruburt can start at his present position, as each person must begin with the situation at hand.  The point of power is in the present.

The Way Toward Health - May 31, 1984

May 31, 1984

These concepts have many cousins, so that we actually have an entire family of beliefs that are all in one way or another related.

Foremost, connected with the distortions about creativity and expression, is the belief that knowledge itself is dangerous, evil, and bound to lead to disaster.  Here, innocence is seen as synonymous with ignorance.  What you actually have behind such a belief is a fear of free will and of making choices.

The more extensive your knowledge, the more aware you are of probable actions, and of the conglomeration of choices that then become available.  There are also people, then, with an intense thirst for knowledge who believe that knowledge is indeed good and beneficial, while on the other hand they believe just as fervently that knowledge is forbidden and dangerous.

All of these instances lead, of course, to severe dilemmas, and often pull an individual in two directions at once.  They are the cause, also, of many spiritual, emotional, and physical difficulties.

It should probably be noted here also that this suspicion of knowledge is intensified when the female sex is involved, for the legends quite erroneously give the impression that knowledge is twice as disastrous if possessed by a woman.  This should be kept in mind whenever we discuss beliefs that are specifically sexually oriented.

It must seem obvious that behind all such beliefs lies the distrust of nature, man, and life itself.

We must also remember, however, that in a fashion beliefs themselves are tools, and in some situations beliefs that seem quite negative can also clear the way for more beneficial ones.  With all of this discussion of negative beliefs, therefore, it is a good idea not to call any beliefs bad or evil in themselves.  They are no more bad or evil in their own way, say, than viruses are in theirs.  If you look upon them in that manner, you will avoid being overwhelmed by what seems to be an endless parade of negative thoughts and beliefs that can only lead to destruction.  Instead, compare the negative beliefs, for example, with the storms that sweep the country:  they have their purposes – and all in all those purposes tend to promote and support life itself.

While we are still in the middle of such discussions, however, remind yourself that any situation can be changed for the better.  Remind yourself constantly that the most favorable solution to a problem is at least as probable as the most unfortunate “solution”.  Remind yourselves also that despite all of your worrying, the spirit of life itself is continually within your experience, and forms your physical body.

The Way Toward Health - May 30, 1984

May 30, 1984

Epilepsy is a disease often experienced also by people who have strongly conflicting beliefs about the use of power or energy, coupled with a sometimes extraordinary amount of mental and physical energy that demands it be used.

In many such cases, the individuals involved are highly intellectual, and possess obvious gifts that are, however, seldom put to full use.  Such people are so frightened of the nature of personal power and energy that they short-circuit their nervous systems, blocking the ability for any purposeful action, at least momentarily.

Because they realize that they do indeed innately possess strong gifts and abilities, these people often seek attention for their disease, rather than for their abilities.  They may become professional patients, favorites of their doctors because of their wit and repartee in the face of their affliction.  These persons, however, again, are living at cross purposes.  They are determined to express themselves and not to express themselves at the same time.  Like so many others they believe that self-expression is dangerous, evil, and bound to lead to suffering – self-inflicted or otherwise.

This particular group of people are also usually possessed by an extraordinary anger: they are furious at themselves for not being able to showcase their own strength and power – but “forced” instead into a kind of behavior that appears sometimes frightening and humiliating.

Individuals who suffer from epilepsy are also often perfectionists – trying so hard to be at their best that they end up with a very uneven, jerky physical behavior.

In some instances, stuttering is a very mild example of the same kind of activity.  On the one hand, some epileptic patients feel a cut above the usual run of humanity, while on the other they perform far more awkwardly than normal persons.  Again, many also believe that those with special talents or gifts are disliked by others and persecuted.

This brings us into a conglomeration of beliefs unfortunately connected with romanticism.

These beliefs are centered around artists, writers, poets, musicians, actors and actresses, or others who seem unusually gifted in the arts or in various other methods of self-expression.  The beliefs lead to the most dire legends, in which the gifted person always pays in one way or another for the valued gifts of self-expression – through disaster, misfortune, or death.