“Scepticism is the highest of duties; blind faith the one unpardonable sin.” — Thomas Huxley
Disease and illness are not in one’s genes. They arise from the mind, a part of us that is very little understood. Hence, the need for a healthy mind.
We have been depending too much on reductionist science and are led to believe that health and diseases are, basically, controlled by our genes. This myth has now been blown apart; our genes, if anything, have very little to do with our evolution and even our existence. That apart, we now know that we can even change our genetic pattern, if needed, by our environment. Our lifestyle changes for the better can change our genetic pattern. This has been recently shown in the case of killer diseases of old age.
If one is healthy and well, at any given time, it is just chance. If, on the other hand, one is ill and suffering, that is also chance! No science can predict either of those events with any degree of certainty. Doctors have been predicting the unpredictable future of patients for generations based on some phenotypic features called ‘risk factors’.
A very large prospective study, followed up for 25 long years, has shown that there are no risk factors, as far as human diseases are concerned. This ‘Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial’ (MRFIT) study further showed that the so-called risk factors could be controlled by drugs or surgery; but the risk, if it is there, still works itself successfully!
With the onset of quantum wisdom, we have now been able to comprehend much more than what we could grasp with our five senses. The quantum worldview opens a new vista in human physiology where we can get a wider holographic view of human life, at a given point in time. So-called lifestyle management also gets a new meaning in the quantum worldview.
In the new worldview, the human mind assumes special significance. Reductionist science does not take the mind into serious consideration, although some fringe studies did show that some altered mental states, such as depression and frustration, lead to serious illnesses. Mainline medicine is yet to give importance to the mind, as it is not yet sure where the mind is.
The Canadian neurosurgeon, Wilder Penfield, in his elaborate reductionist studies, put the mind inside the brain; but he later realised his folly and, in 1971, admitted that the mind cannot be confined to a small organ like the brain. Mind is our consciousness—the canvas on which our thoughts are projected. Consciousness is fundamental, and all else will have to arise from consciousness, wrote the great physicist Max Planck. Matter and energy being the two faces of the same coin, the human body becomes an illusion of the human mind. In view of this new scientific awareness, the real environment for healthy living, or even for recovery from any illness, should be the human mind.
A healthy mind is an insurance against disease and is a tool in reversing disease processes. Many diseases, like cancer, incubate for a very long time. Our mind is at work in every disease situation, from the common cold to cancer. In the latter case, the cancer cells, ‘aimless, jobless wandering cells’ that have mutated to survive a hostile environment in our bodies, urgently need a conducive environment to remodel and survive. Our reductionist idea of early cancer detection (a big business move for the cancer industry) is a fraud, as these wandering cells have gone far and wide, long before the cancer can be clinically detected. Hence, there is nothing called ‘early cancer detection’. Sometimes, the secondaries come up before the primary cancer shows up. Now, one can understand the significance of the need for a healthy mind to keep us physically healthy.
For the layperson, what should be the meaning of a healthy mind? A healthy mind is filled with “enthusiasm to work and enthusiasm to be compassionate.” This all-encompassing definition covers all parts of health. The words are chosen carefully. Enthusiasm is not just wanting to do a thing, but a compulsive motivation to do that. Enthusiasm to work is the love for work –‘want to work’ and NOT ‘have to work’!
Similarly, enthusiasm to be compassionate is a compulsive urge to be of some use to someone almost always, even to be universally compassionate. If one follows these two mottos in life, there is no room for any negative thoughts in the mind like hatred, jealousy, superego, anger, pride and greed (Wall Street greed!). The latter are the real risk factors for all major killer diseases.
In the true sense of the word, the real environment for human wellness and illnesses is the human mind. The rest of the conventionally acclaimed risk factors are not the real environment, although they do contribute to the final outcome. Genetics has given place to epigenetics. The human mind sits in the driver’s seat in human affairs which can even alter the gene penetrance.
Charles Darwin and Gregor Mendel have been given an undeservedly exalted position in medical textbooks and the neo-Darwinists still want to hang on to their coattails, as there is money in genetic profiling, genetic engineering, stem-cell research, dead body and cord blood preservation. Charles Darwin himself, in his old age and, before him, his own grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, and Lamarck, had clearly said that the environment is more important than the genes in human evolution. The new science of evolutionary biology has strongly reiterated that truth.
Like people who search for God inside mud and stone structures, these scientists have been searching for the real environment far outside this real environment of the human mind, in BP (blood pressure), sugar, cholesterol, tummy girth and what have you. At least, our future generation should have the benefit of this truth. We have to bring forth a generation of youth with a healthy mind. Real education should move in that direction.
Today, education is aimed at making a wealthy career for the child. That is not education. Real education is to ensure that a child grows up with a healthy mind and not just a wealthy career. If every Indian child develops a healthy mind, with enthusiasm to work and enthusiasm to be compassionate, all our societal ills, like terrorism, laziness, crime and rape, will vanish without any effort on our part.
But, unfortunately, education has been low on the priority of governments over the years. True, large amounts are spent on basic education, but the money is badly spent in government schools. Much of it goes towards salaries of teachers who are mostly absent from class and engaged in other activities.
In the case of higher education, the situation is equally bad, if not worse. Students are not encouraged to think for themselves. The entire exercise is to pass exams with a higher grade, which has blunted creative thinking among students. With few exceptions, colleges have become assembly lines to churn out graduates who have mastered the art of rote learning. This dismal scenario persists at the post-graduate level and into research. India hardly publishes any original research papers.
Can we hope that the powers that be would change the base of our education policy which would lay the foundation for a healthy mind in every child?
“21st century illiterate is one who cannot unlearn the wrong things that he has learnt and relearn the right things.” — Anon
We measure MIND/EMOTION & Intellectual positivity/negativity through scientific technqiues & support reengineering /rearchitecting Inner Core Energy Centers & its managements using 450+ alternative supplementing & complementing techniques using Metaphysical/Metachemical /metabiological fusions for balanced holistic well being ,Mahesh Bhatt