CHANGE AND BE HAPPY! (The Healing Power of Illness - Thorwald Dethlefsen, Dahlke Rudiger)

Member Name: Aang

Product:	The Healing Power of Illness - Thorwald Dethlefsen, Dahlke Rudiger
Date:	05/10/01 (560 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: -

Disadvantages: -

This review covers digestive problems, headaches, asthma, infections, allergies and much more. And we begin with my chat to a doctor-friend who had been reading 'The Healing Power of Illness.

"Your indigestion is caused partly by psychological conflicts," said the doctor.

"Not eating too much curry too quickly?" I asked, remembering our trip to the Indian restaurant.

"I ate the curry and I haven't got indigestion. There can be more than one cause of an event. But ask yourself the following: is there something about life you are finding it hard to swallow? Is something eating you up inside? How good are you at handling your feelings? What are you feeling sour about? How are you coping with aggression? Are you deliberately avoiding conflicts? Are you excessively critical of people? Are you frightened about your survival? Are you good at accepting love?"

"OK. So I may be full of conflict. So what do I do?"

"Illness can mean a lack of what Buddhists and Christians and the Tao refer to as 'oneness'."

"Sounds a bit deep. What is 'oneness'?"

"Take a happy marriage. The ideal man has a balance between assertiveness and submissiveness. The ideal woman is the same: not too assertive and not too submissive. There is a balance between male and female characteristics within the ideal man, and within the ideal woman. That balance helps us to understand 'oneness'."

"Balance?"

"The person who has harmony and balance in their life is the person who can always handle anger and fear and guilt in a sensible manner; the person who has no selfish longing for money or revenge or power; the person who is self-confident and unselfish; the person who loves absolutely everyone."

"Everyone?"

"Think of Mother Theresa loving dying creatures from the gutter."
;

"So you think I may have a problem with love and anger and so on?"

"We all do. The wise person is the person who realises he has a problem. Jesus's friends were the prostitutes and tax collectors because they were wise enough to see their own problems. The people who are very far from Heaven are the pharisees who think they are 'saved'."

"We all have a problem?"

"We are all on a path that leads from the unhealthy to holiness. Or what the authors of 'The Healing Power of Illness' call the path from 'polarity to oneness.'"

"You're using big words again. Explain."

"It's impossible for us in this world to understand All-Oneness. But, think about Nirvana or the Kingdom of Heaven. The All-Oneness may be a state of eternal rest, or bliss, or pure Being without form or activity."

"You're not sure?"

"The authors of 'The Healing Power of Illness' say that in the Oneness, Everything and No-thing are one. This No-thing is the ultimate foundation of all being."

"Can you be less metaphysical! As you say, impossible for us to understand. Can we understand 'polarity'?"

"Illness can be one result of polarity. Polarity comes about with the creation of a world. Polarity is the division into black and white, good and evil, male and female, Yin and Yang, thesis and antithesis, subjective conscious side of the brain and objective unconscious side of the brain, knower and known."

"Hold on. What do you mean by 'knower' and known'?"

"In this world we have the division into 'knower' and 'known'. We need this in order to have what we call knowledge."

"We need polarity?"

"Each pole of existence draws its life from the other. You can't recognise evil
unless you can recognise good."

"So we have polarity."

"Yes. think of light. Is it made of waves or particles? It is both waves and particles. Is a door an exit or an entrance. In Heaven it may simply be a door."

"So why do we have this world with its polarity? Why can't we just have Nirvana or Heaven with its bliss?"

"Maybe Heaven can exist for some people right now. If they are enlightened."

"But that's just speculation. What about us right now, not in Heaven?"

"Why does a child go off to explore in the woods with all its delights and its dangers? Is it a learning experience?"

"You sound as if you are not sure why this world exists?"

"I am not sure. I can only speculate. But I like the analogy of the child exploring the woods. Now, remember that the child will not necessarily come to harm. If the child is enlightened it may avoid suffering. And there may be parallel worlds, or worlds on higher planes, where things go better."

"But what happens if the child gets hurt?"

"Our path to wholeness, and the destruction of the selfish ego, leads us through fear and suffering. There will always be suffering in this world."

"Always some indigestion? Why do we have good and evil?"

"Good and evil? What may seem good to one person may seem evil to another. Torturing and killing one's enemies may seem good to one person. Bombing Hiroshima may seem good; bombing Dresden may seem good; the Inquisition may seem good. From the point of view of the tiger eating a human being may seem good. Every valuation is always subjective."

"Bombing the World Trade Centre was evil!"

"Not to the people who carried it out. All polarities can be seen as both good and evil."

"That's Eastern thinking. Dif
ficult for our Western minds to grasp."

"Think about this. The more we attempt to nourish the one pole, the more the opposite pole grows in secret. The more we try to abolish war or disease, the more war and sickness grow."

"I don't get that."

"In concrete terms, if we punish Germany after World War I, we end up with World War II. If we bomb Afghanistan, we produce more terrorists. If we fill ourselves with too many antibiotics, we reduce our immunity."

"I'm still not clear about 'evil' and what to do about it."

"The authors of 'The Healing Power of Illness' quote Kahlil Gibran:

"'The whole of creation exists within you
And everything that is within you also
Exists within creation. there is no boundary
Between you and quite nearby objects,
Just as there is no distance between you
And very distant objects. All things, the
Smallest and largest, the lowest and
Highest, are present in you as co-equals,
A single atom contains all the earth's
Elements.....'

"Can you simplify that?"

"Within each of us is both hard work and laziness, good and evil, male and female, fascist and liberal, terrorist and pacifist. And, we are all linked."

"Let's get back to my indigestion."

"OK. The 'Shadow', a term from C J Jung, is all the bits of us that we pretend not to have within us. It is the Shadow that sees to it that all our efforts eventually turn into their opposites. The evil is not out there, but inside us. As Jesus said: 'Regard the big plank of wood in your own eye, before you start accusing others of having specks of sawdust in their eyes.' Our refusal to see this, prevents us from getting healed."

"The Shadow?"

"Yes. Regard the Shadow. Teenagers hate certain behaviour in t
heir parents; but later adopt that very same behaviour.

"Pacifists become militants. CND supporting Tony Blair joins up with American militarists. An Archbishop dies in the arms of a prostitute. Moralists end up with secret vices. Israeli leaders condemn terrorism while their soldiers shoot children. Russian communists become Russian Mafia. Health fanatics become ill. We all have our Shadow."

"Why do health fanatics become ill?"

"They don't realise that it is not the outer world that makes us ill; but the inner world. Jesus said the same thing when he talked about washing hands."

"So the Shadow is bad?"

"Your Shadow contains what you need to get rid of your indigestion. The Shadow contains what the world needs for its healing."

"I don't get it."

"It is looking at the dark side of our own nature that leads to healing! It is the encounter with the dark side that makes us well. It is self-knowledge that we need."

"So how do I get rid of my indigestion?"

"We need to travel through the world of opposites until we have learnt and integrated everything we need in order once again to become 'perfect as the Father in Heaven is perfect'"

"Travel through the world of opposites?"

"Learn to understand male and female, Moslem and Christian, criminal and non-criminal, rich and poor, bully and victim, handicapped and non-handicapped and so on."

"A painful journey?"

"There will be guilt. It is essential to learn to live with guilt. The Pharisees and the Church believe that salvation comes from keeping the commandments. Jesus attacked this idea when he said 'Let him who is without sin, cast the first stone.' And, the Shinjinmei Zen Buddhist text states: "If the slightest idea of right and wrong remains in us, then
our spirit will perish in confusion."

"So, we should not be so swift to condemn others. But, what about my indigestion? How do I achieve Oneness?"

"Love everyone. In 'The Healing Power of Illness' it says: 'The basic tool for uniting the opposites is love. Love strives for union. Love knows no jealousy, for its aim is not to possess. Love knows no limits. God is Love. Love evil men and redeem them.'"

"So I can always be healthy?"

"You can be healthier. Maybe illness cannot be avoided or abolished completely, because humans are inherently conflict-ridden. But, illness can help us find the healing path."

"Surely illnesses have got something to do with bacteria and viruses?"

"What causes things to happen? Why does a house get built? One. There were bricks. Two. Effort or energy was put into putting the bricks together. Three. there was an architect's plan. Four. Someone had an idea or intention to build a house. To the scientist, the bricks and energy are important. To the student of the arts, the idea is important."

"So there was more than one cause."

"Yes. And don't forget causes in the future?"

"In the future?"

"Why do we buy a gift? Because someone's birthday is next week. When we think of causes we think in straight lines. Past comes before present.

"Riemannian geometry suggests that there is no such thing as parallel lines, since as a result of the curvature of space, every straight line is a section of a circle. The two directions we call 'past' and 'present' eventually meet to form a circle. Our lives are based on our past. Our past is conditioned by our future."

"What is the ultimate cause of causes?"

"I don't know. The ultimate cause of causes cannot be found."
r>"You say we are conditioned by our future?"

"Werner Heisenberg wrote: 'at a very small space-time level- at the level of magnitude of elementary particles- space and time are in some strange way blurred, in such a way that within minute time-spans the ideas of 'before' and 'after' can no longer be defined. We need to recognise the possibility that certain processes can take place in the opposite order to that which causality apparently requires."

"In simple words?"

"Time may not be a straight line. Causality or linear thinking is the way of thinking of the left hemisphere of the brain, the scientists' way. The right hemisphere of the brain thinks analogically."

"Analogically?"

"Looking at patterns, relationships and underlying principles."

"What about indigestion or flu or other infections?"

"The cause of a person's infection can be traced to a particular germ. But why did that person get ill and another stay healthy? The cause of illness may be traced to the sick person's low immunity. But why does he have low immunity? The low immunity may be due to events in early childhood or environmental pollution? But can we ever find the ultimate cause?"

"Illness can be caused by both the past and the future?"

"In a novel the whole book is present at once - yet the reader needs time to allow the complete action to develop. This process is called 'evolution'. Evolution is the conscious realisation of an ever-present and timeless pattern."

"My indigestion?"

"It is through our disease symptoms that the Shadow makes itself known. Looking for causes in the past may divert our attention away from the real message, because it allows us to abandon our responsibility for ourselves, and allows us to project all the blame onto the sup
posed cause."

"So, blame our lack of love or whatever, and not just the bacteria. So what does my indigestion mean?"

"Rule 1 for interpreting symptoms: Nobody denies that things such as germs or poor upbringing exist; but, look beyond all that.

"Rule 2: consider the time at which symptoms appeared. Did the diarrhoea or heartburn or injury occur at a time of particular fears, dreams or events?

"Rule 3: listen to the way things are said. For example, someone may say, 'I can't bend over. I am so rigid.'

"Rule 4: ask what is the symptom stopping me from doing? What is the symptom making me do? For example, flu may stop me going to work and force me to rest."

"What if you have lots of symptoms?"

"Different symptoms may have one underlying cause. For example, stress may cause high blood pressure. This symptom, high blood pressure, may be overcome with pills; but if the stress is still there, a new symptom may appear, such as glaucoma.

"What may start as stress may lead to inflamations or accidents, then chronic conditions, then incurable disease, then death, then rebirth with some handicap. This life is only a tiny part of our overall learning process."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"OK. Let's consider HEADACHES AND MIGRAINES.

"Generally, a tension headache is accompanied by tensing of the muscles around the arae of the head. Quite frequently tension headaches arise when people are subjected to over-heavy work pressure.

"Sometimes headaches affect us when we are proudly perfectionist or too keen to enforce our own will. We need to learn to relax, to let go of our narrow minded self-interest, of all the pride that is driving us ever onwards and upwards."

"Migraine?"

"Migraine is a displacement of sexuality into the head. Migraine p
atients have problems with their sexuality.

"Digestive disturbances and constipation are high on the list of migraine sufferers' side symptoms: in other words such people are closed up. There is conflict between instinct and thought."

"Are you sure about the sex?"

"Blocked energy, sex or aggression, can lead to HEADACHES and HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE and RHEUMATISM and ARTHRITIS.

"Here are some questions to ask about headaches: 1. What am I worrying my head about?

"2. Are the above, the head, and the below, sex, working together?

"3.Am I trying too hard? Am I suffering from an excess of pride?

"4. Am I pig-headed and trying to run my head against a brick wall?

"5. Am I trying to replace doing with thinking?

"6. Am I facing my sexual problems honestly?

"7. Why am I pushing my orgasm into my head?"

"Any more on DIGESTION?"

"We can learn a lot from considering what we like to eat - If a person is hungry for LOVE, without having that hunger filled,
it reappears in the body as hunger for sweet things and dainties. Parents who over-indulge their children with sweet things, causing OBESITY, are not prepared to love their children, but are ready to compensate them on another level.

"People who do a lot of thinking and are engaged in intellectual work tend to like salty food. Strongly conservative people often prefer preserved and tinned foods and tannin rich foods.

"People who prefer highly spiced foods are constantly on the look out for new thrills and impressions. People who eat only mild foods are loth to season their lives with new impressions. They are anxiuos to avoid all challenges and go in fear of confrontation.

"MACROBIOTIC enthusiasts may reveal a certain fear of love and tenderness, and, or, a difficulty in accepting love.&qu
ot;

"What about me grinding my teeth?"

"Biting is highly aggressive. REPRESSED aggressive and sexual URGES cause illnesses and fill our clinics and hospitals. We need to learn to express our urges in a sensible way, and not repress them."

"BELCHING?"

"People who have difficulty with swallowing correctly may be people who have difficulty swallowing certain aspects of life. The result can be belching and WIND.

"Then, consider nausea and vomiting. A problem can churn up our guts. We may have no appetite for something in life. Some things in life may make us sick. MORNING SICKNESS in pregnancy may be an uncoscious resistance to the developing child."

"Bacteria?"

"I'm not saying bacteria don't play their part. But think about DIGESTION again. The ability to receive requires openess, passivity and self-surrender. When we fail to deal consciously with annoyance and aggression, when we swallow our anger, we suffer too much acid. p

"People with stomach problems lack the capacity to cope sensibly with what is annoying them, or with their own aggressive urges. Either aggression is not expressed, or, it is expressed explosively. Self-confidence and security are required for a proper handling of aggression."

"What about our INTESTINES?"

"People with disorders of the small intestine incline towards excessive criticism; they are always finding fault with things. The small intestine is also a good indicator of fears we may have for our own survival."

"DIARRHOEA?"

"Diarrhoea may suggest fear. The therapy for fear is always to let go, to become flexible and let be, to relax."

"Should one take pills?"

"Always continue with your doctor's treatment and take plenty liquids, to make you more fluid."

"CONSTIPATI
ON?"

"Constipation is a reluctance to give things away; a reluctance to give love; a desire to hang on to things; greed and avarice; a desire to keep everything for themselves and not let others have their say or their share.
Constipation is the fear of letting unconscious contents see the light of day; an attempt to keep unconscious, rpressedcontents locked within us."

"COLITIS."

"Ulcerative colitis can involve blood and slime in the stools. people who suffer from this may be people who ingratiate themselves with others; they sacrifice their own personalities and give up all life of their own in order to lead other people's lives for them; they are afraid to do their own thing and realise their own lives and personalities."

"PANCREAS?"

"There may be an unsatisfied desire for love, along with an inability to accept love and absorb it unreservedly. To avoid diabetes, it may help to love people a bit more?"

"Are you suggesting we stop taking medicines and going to DOCTORS?"

"Certainly not! Take your doctor's advice and continue with his treatment. But, let's look also at conflicts."

"INFECTIONS?"

"Bacteria, viruses and toxins are everywhere. So why does one body let them in and another not? An infection may be a conflict that a person has not learnt to live with and which may take on physical form."

"Surely we can't avoid conflicts!"

"Conflicts cannot be avoided. But, we should do the following: 1. acknowledge that there is a conflict and talk about it. 2. try to handle conflicts better by not repressing them and by not exploding with rage. 3. remeber that handling conflict successfully involves love and sacrifice and suffering."

"So there is pain?"

"Infection involves suffering. If an infection does get a
grip then there is inflamation and swelling, just as in a conflict situation there is pressure and tension. Then the body fights back and there is fever, just as in a conflict we may become fevered. then there is death or chronic illness or recovery. Recovery leaves us stronger, if we have built up immunity, just as learning to deal with conflict leaves us stronger."

"ALLERGIES?"

"Allergy sufferers need to ask 1. why am i refusing to tolerate aggression in my consciousness, and instead forcing it to work itself out in my body? 2. What are the areas of my life that I am so afraid of that I am avoiding them? 3. what themes are my allergens pointing to? SEXUALITY? Instinct? Aggression? Reproduction? Dirt, the dark side of life? 4. to what extent am I using my allergy to manipulate those around me? What has become of my love and my capacity for letting in what is out there?"

"BREATHING PROBLEMS and ASTHMA?"

"The patient should ask: 1. what is it taking my breath away? 2. what is it I am unwilling to accept? 3. what is it I am unwilling to give out? 4. what is it I am unwilling to come into contact with? 5. am I afraid to take a step towards some new freedom? And with ASTHMA: 1. in which areas am I trying to take without giving? 2. can i admit consciously to my aggressive urges? What opportunities do I have for expressing them? 3. how am I coping with my inner conflict between dominance and smallness? 4. which areas in my life am I devaluing and resisting? Can I detect something of the fear that lurks behind my system of personal values? 5. Which areas of my life am I trying to avoid, and which of them do i regard as filthy, ignoble and beneath me? Let in what you have previously been resisting."

"BLOOD PRESSURE?"

"People with LOW blood pressure are failing to stand on their own two feet. If they run into conflict, they quickly withdraw. They lack standfastn
ess, those with HIGH blood pressure are also failing to resolve conflicts. They take refuge in great external activity rather than getting to grips with the conflict. Aggressive energy is blocked. Questions that should be asked are: 1. are my head and heart, my intellect and feelings, in harmonious balance? 2. am I giving enough scope to my feelings and trusting myself to express them? 3. am i living and loving heartily, or only half-heartedly? 4. is my life borne along by a living rhythm, or am I subjecting it to a regular rigid measure? 5. does my life still contain enough combustible materials and explosives? Am I letting my feelings out? Or bottling them up?"

"Are ACCIDENTS caused by conflicts?"

"They can be. Freud suggested that accidents, like slips of the tongue, forgetting and mislaying things, are due to unconscious intentions. There are people who are accident prone. Think of certain drivers."

"Aren't you exaggerating the importance of conflict as a cause. Take M.E. as an illness. Some research suggests it is like a chronic form of polio and is spread by human faeces. Now if it is spread by human waste, then surely we need to concentrate on hygiene."

"I agree that if a well in an African village is polluted by faeces, or a hospital ward or restaurant kitchen are pollted by faeces, then it is common sense to have a clean-up. And it's common sense to take antibiotics if you get typhoid."

"So, what about all this stuff about conflict?"

"Let's go back to the filthy restaurant kitchen. We can prevent people getting sick by 1. cleaning the kitchen and 2. helping people to deal better with conflict. Cleaning comes first, but, helping people deal with conflict may be more important in the long run."

"Well, what can I say? Maybe this book will help us see other people's faults, and maybe our own faults, and we may beco
me more holy."