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Principles of Human Medicine
By Michio Kushi
In order to provide a method of healing that will be available to everyone, and will affect really permanent health, we make the following seven proposals.
1. OUR SYSTEM SHOULD BE BASED ON COSMOLOGY. That is, instead of starting from one diseased organ, we start from the basic unity of all things: body, mind and spirit, are one; whole and part are one; many=one; life and death are one; environment and body are one. All applications of cures proceed from this understanding.
2. AVOID EXTRACTION OF PARTS FROM THE WHOLE.We should not mistake symptoms for disease; no matter if we fall ill with measles or a heart attack; there have been a long chain of changes which have occurred within our body. Because this extended period of building-up is less visible than its result, the final emergence of the symptoms, there is a tendency to ignore it. The causal period, however, is fully as much as part of the disease. Examples of treatments based on extraction, or failure to see the complete process, are the administration of vitamins and minerals which have been extracted from their original sources, or of drugs which remove the particular symptoms.
3. ANYONE CAN UNDERSTAND AND PRACTICE THIS MEDICINE. In this respect, human medicine is very different from the present-day concept, because one does not have to be an expert with specialized analytic training in order to bring about health. On the other hand, the kind of cure which comes can be far more profound, because true cure must reach the very roots of being.
4. THE MAIN TEACHING IS A WAY OF LIFE. All our techniques are grouped around the study of how to develop and follow daily living. Everyday life itself is the means of cure: in order to become healthy we change our personality and our values: the entire orientation of our life changes. Disease is the result of protracted, daily abuse of our bodies; and a good way of life means a conscious embracing of practices which promote life.
5. USE THE SIMPLEST POSSIBLE METHODS. This is the practical application of the two preceding points: by altering day-to-day food and living conditions we promote healing. Such methods are well within the reach of anyone; it does not take large quantities of money to buy, or long years of formal stuff to learn.
6. WE SHOULD NO RELY ON OTHER TO HEAL US. It is an axiom of many good doctors that they are only helping the body cure itself, yet many of their methods may conflict with that ideal. A person who is sick must cure himself/herself. If he/she does not do this, he/she can never really be free; and when we think of health in the widest perspective, as complete adaptability, resilience, good humor, and great energy, health itself is the means to freedom. We may take advice from someone else, but the daily application of personal judgment ultimately determines the success of the cure. In this way, although it is simple, human medicine is more difficult than ordinary symptomatic treatment. There is no passive yielding up of personal responsibility to an “expert” one must actively grasp his/her freedom and make his/her own way. Alleviating physical symptoms is relatively easy, but this total, whole medicine involves prayer, thinking and self-reflection.
7. THIS WAY PROMOTES WORLD PEACE AND HAPPINESS. This means the bringing of health to the body of mankind, and can be catalyzed by people who come to know very deeply the preceding principle. They can inspire and guide the whole world to a positive way of life; they are not in any one profession, but end up acting as politicians, philosophers, writers, in short, as free people.
To learn more about how to be a free person contact a free person:
David Snieckus at 617-964-2951
