Handbook of Nature Cure Volume One: Nature Cure vs. Medical Science | by John L.

Fielder Dr Fielder eschews the use of all forms of medication whether they be so-called 'natural' or otherwise, including supplementation. He believes solely in the self-reparative nature of the organism and its ability to heal itself given the necessary care, attention and environment. The only exception being in the case of major trauma where reparative surgery is necessary. Title Handbook of Nature Cure Volume One: Nature Cure vs. Medical Science Author John L. Fielder Publisher Academy of Natural Living Year 2001 Copyright John L. Fielder ISBN 0 9586611 4 6 Academy of Natural Living John L. Fielder, dc, do, nd (adel) PO Box 901 Cairns Queensland 4870 Australia Contact: www.johnfielder.com.au email. All Rights reserved. No Part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information retrieval system, without the express written permission of the publisher DISCLAIMER: The information in this book is not intended as medical advice. The author does not recommend standard medical practices. The authors, publishers and/or distributors will not assume responsibility for any adverse consequences resulting from adopting the lifestyle described herein. Part I: Chapter 1 -Chapter One: That Fallacious Germ Theory by Harry Benjamin ... -The Unity of Disease The reader will now be fully ready for acceptance of the cardinal principle of Nature Cure, which is, that although, thanks to the pedantry and misconceptions of the leaders of medical science, ... -Nature Cure and Medical Science It is because they understand this fundamental oneness and unity of all disease that practitioners of Nature Cure are enabled to secure such seemingly miraculous results in the treatment of ... -Disease a Self-Healing Process What the medical profession calls a cure is merely the suppression of superficial symptoms, to cause further and more serious trouble later on! What the medical profession never understands is ... -Two Completely Divergent Philosophies All too often the great surgeon or physician, and even the general practitioner, vainly imagines that he or she can cure disease by suppressing symptoms and thwarting Natures work. The ... -The "Fruits" of the Old Philosophy of Disease Every tree is known by his own fruit, said Christ to his disciples. Let the men and women of today see for themselves the fruits of orthodox medical philosophy! They are before our eyes! ... Part II: Chapter 2 -Chapter Two: What is Fever? by Louis Kuhne ...

-Fever Is Fermentation Going On In The System We shall best comprehend the symptoms exhibited by fever by forming a correct picture of the processes of fermentation, as they may frequently be observed outside of the human body. For instance, ... Part III: Chapter 3 -Chapter Three: How Does Disease Arise? by Louis Kuhne ... -Disease Is The Presence of Foreign Matter In The System For the correctness of this definition there is an infallible test. If after that which we have designated as morbid matter has in a suitable manner been removed from the system, the disease ... Part IV: Chapter 4 -Chapter Four: Racial Memory by James C. ... -Symbiosis Now let us look at symbiosis. Probably most of you have heard that more honey can be obtained in an area where there are many old maids? The argument runs that unmarried ladies keep cats, and cats ... -Fallacy of "Cures" Leaving the directly harmful effects of drugs aside for the moment, we do not believe in the possibility of a cure in the ordinary acceptance of the word. You can no more undergo a ... -Learn From Your Dog To see how essentially unnatural is that teaching, watch your dog. When he is sick he goes away by himself into a corner, and refuses to look at food. Leave him to himself for some hours, or even ... -Safety Valves Now let us look into a common statement made by mildly ailing people. I am very well, except for my rheumatism, or My health is very good except for my cough, or I am in splendid form except ... -How Chronic Disease is Initiated According to our idea, if during an illness, the impurities stirred into the circulation are not allowed free exit from the system, the usual result is that they become deposited somewhere in the ... -And How To Clear Chronic Disease Up So, if you are determined to build high level health so that you can go through almost anything and still remain vigorous and alert, wholesome, undamaged and healthy, you must learn to cooperate ... -Tildens Rule Number One If, for example, you go weak at the knees from missing a cup of tea or a meal, it means that you should omit several more cups of tea or meals. It means that you have been overloading your ... -The Nature Cure "Crisis" Health is not quite what people think it is. It is vastly more than a mere absence of symptoms and discomforts. Like your garden, your body calls for a degree of intelligent attention and ... -To Build Serious Disease Now a few words more from Dr Tilden: Years ago when I gave salicyclates with the superstitious idea of curing rheumatism, I succeeded in establishing a heart involvement in nearly every ... -Miracle Drugs It is not by accident that all medicines are poisonous. Only that way can they be made to work. But there is also the patients imagination. During the war we were told that a marvellous new ... -Illness for All

People who equate everything in terms of cash should be satisfied with health service. It is decidedly expensive. But money costs do not tell everything. In this case not only the means but the ... -An Experiment One of my good friends died just a few weeks ago as a result of what he intended to be an amusing experiment. A month ago he sent for me to visit him at an Edinburgh hospital, and he explained, ... -Arthritis I have at the moment at least a dozen patients in Edinburgh with arthritic rheumatism. In each case, before we saw them they had had medical treatment over a long period of years, during which ... -Self Responsibility For real health attainment you must take the responsibility upon yourself. Practically any ailing person who is willing to do the right thing can get well, but instead most patients ask, Can you ... -The Stupefied Invalid How many of you have read or known about someone in a hospital who has been burned with a hot water bottle? Could you imagine any healthy child or grown up person lying still long enough for real ... -Somatic Sense For example, here is an inadvertent experiment I am in the process of completing. About two months ago I drove a spike of wood under my nail. The splinter of wood went down under the nail to ... -Body Wholeness Disease is never only local. Your body is either all healthy, or all unhealthy. It may indeed it usually does exhibit its distress more in one part than in another, but quite often ... -Your Daily Bread Now let us see why such deposits arise even in people who have become health-conscious and who are doing their utmost to live simply and naturally. Take our staff of life. How many people make a ... -Bread and Convulsions When dogs ate agenised bread they became dizzy, they staggered about, and before they died they went into convulsions. Human bodies stand up to a great deal more abuse than do the bodies of dogs. ... Part V: Chapter 5 -Chapter Five: Questions and Answers by James C. ... -Can you cure rheumatism by diet alone, or must one also have treatment? I can cure my rheumatism if I do the right things. The whole idea of Nature Cure is self-help and wholesomeness. That contains the real meaning of cure and it is a very good technique; but you ... -If Nature by itself, cures the body, why do you wear glasses? I am not a perfect specimen. I make no such claim, but I am not the weakling I was fifty years ago. Eyesight, to be perfect, would call for Nature Cure living over about three generations, as the ... -Can a person cure himself of tuberculosis? James Thomson referred to his own experience, having been discharged from the Navy as a young man, with this complaint. He mentioned that the doctor came to his bed in hospital and informed him ... -Do you disbelieve in all forms of inoculation, including the vaccination infants which is compulsory in Northern Ireland? Dont do it. Far fewer people are vaccinated today than are unvaccinated. The unvaccinated are greatly the majority. Vaccination was initiated by a man called Jenner who was a rogue and a ... -Do you think well of raw molasses? I believe in honey and in some hundreds of other honest food stuffs, but the question smacks of

remedies, which we do not advocate. I believe in wholeness of diet rather than in single items.<... -Is it possible to cure bowel obstruction without operation? If it cannot be cured without operation, it cannot be cured. With few exceptions bowel obstruction arises from hysteria, panic, intense jitters. Certainly a diseased organ may be cut away, and a ... -Will you please give a cure for depression? First thing, begin full deep breathing as soon as you awake. Most civilised people are unhealthy in one way or another, and a high proportion are suffering from a lack of fresh air. When you awake ... -Have you anything to say on the question of heart trouble? The heart is the central organ of the body, and if it begins to manifest distress, there is trouble for the whole body. A great deal of what passes for heart trouble is actually mental distress. A ... -Is alcohol good or bad for a person? Your body manufactures approximately 2gs of alcohol daily and it is not wise to add to that quantity. ... -Is there a point at which hardened arteries cannot be cured? Unquestionably, there is. Had I been forty years older, instead of still in my teens when I developed tuberculosis so seriously, I do not believe anything could have saved me. Similarly there ... -Diabetes is on the increase. Can anyone cure himself by taking insulin? Diabetes, like all other degenerative diseaseh igh blood pressure, Brights disease, cancer, arthritis, disseminated sclerosis and the restis on the increase throughout the ... Part VI: Chapter 6 -Chapter Six: Light And Air by Adolf Just <... -Light-And-Air Huts and Cottages One great benefit to health comes from sleeping in huts and cottages situated entirely in the open, and which at all times offer free access to light and air. We call them light-and-air ... Part VII: Chapter 7 -Chapter Seven: The Earth-Power by Adolf Just <... -Chapter Seven: The Earth-Power: Part 2 Following the lead of Nature, man lived originally in perfect sinlessness in the enjoyment of purest happiness, in a state of unclouded bliss, such as the myths of paradise current among all ... Part VIII: Chapter 8 -Chapter Eight: Vital Economy by K. Lakshmana ... -Chapter Eight: Vital Economy: Part 2 Now we come to the true principle, namely Vital Economy. That which maintains health, and restores it when lost, is life. The fivefold food-medicine furnishes only the needed repair ... Part IX: Chapter 9 -Chapter Nine: But Is It Nature Cure? by C. Leslie ... -Forward Many of our longer-established adherents will recognise this as an augmented revisal of the

statement first published eight years ago. The need for its message has not diminished in that time. ... -Words Out of Place Very few of those who resort to Nature Cure have any previous understanding of the principles involved. It is therefore not surprising that the average layman is unable to distinguish between ... -True Treatment Is Training That reference to mere hard cash is not so smug as it may sound. We are up against the essential deceit of the great majority of orthodox and unorthodox treatments that the patient can be ... -Carefully Hidden Help Many of the more intelligent vendors do make some attempt to show the patient a better way of living. It may be camouflaged as a condition for producing the best effects of the remedy; ... -Different Standards In this country today we find two groups of people, with different motives, persuading the public that all unorthodox healers, their philosophies and their practices, must sink or swim together. ... -How the Press Is Tied The topical press does not assist the layman to distinguish between the various unorthodox systems. Now and then some newspaper columnist, knowing that most readers mildly question current medical ... -Homeopathy Let us now consider, individually, a few of the therapies most commonly confused with Nature Cure. The following is typical of many enquiries: I should be much obliged if you would ... -Behind the Drug The philosophy of homeopathy is probably its own worst enemy, so we need waste no further time on that aspect. The important thing is that people treated by homeopathy mostly fare better than they ... -Unorganised Minerals Tissue Salts are in a way related to the homeopathic method. The general idea is that the more finely a substance is divided the more likely it is to affect or be of use to the cells of the body.... -Solutions Are Finer The manufacturer of tissue salts claims that the only difference between inert minerals and organised salts is in the fineness of the particles: that and nothing else. So he grinds up the material&... -Herbalism Both homeopathy and tissue salts have the negative virtue of being practically incapable of real harm almost a positive virtue by comparison with orthodox medication! But the same cannot ... -Patients Have Duties The ethics of being a patient are rarely emphasised, but they are almost as important as those of the practitioner. For example, a new Nature Cure patient may be required to produce a medical ... -Extracts and Irritants Health Foods appear to many people to be in the same category as herbs but, although there are some borderline cases, in the main there is a clear distinction. Herbs are plant tissues which have ... -For Beginners Many so called health foods are, of course, simply attractive and palatable concoctions of perfectly wholesome and natural foodstuffs. There can be very little objection to these, so long as ... -A Warning An extract or concentrate is always to be treated with suspicion it can so easily upset the balance of an otherwise reasonable diet and it may be a concentrate of the wrong part of the ... -Electronic Magic

Black Boxes are scarcely in the same category as the products discussed so far, but they also are often wrongly attributed to Nature Cure. A Dr Abrams of California started the ball rolling in ... -A Federal Inquiry Within recent years there have been further attempts in the States to make capital out of the popular respect for, and ignorance of, electronic apparatus. The first of these was exposed by a ... -"Urine Therapy" An Ancient Fallacy Emotional perversions are strange. They seem to give the unfortunate victim an uncanny power to influence others who may be hovering on the brink, and drag them down into the pit. To any healthy ... -Pro Tem "Cures" Again, such treatments brings results. It would take a very bovine constitution not to react violently to such an affront. The symptoms of the original disease may ... -Brutalising the Body Glandular extracts, although a source of much excellent ammunition for the opponents of vivisectional experiments, do not appear to the layman as very dangerous substances. They are, after all, ... -Insulin A very different sequence occurs if a glandular extract in this case, insulin is administered. (Particularly if the orthodox dietetic changes are made, since these increase enormously ... -False Promises Insulin is only one of a large variety of glandular extracts, but the effects are typical. They seem to produce wonderful results, but these are only obtained by a sort of chemical hypnotism&... -How to Destroy Nature Cure A final word about the risks, from the practitioners point of view, of dabbling in near-medicine. This can probably best be exemplified by what has happened in the USA, where true Nature ... -Nature Cure or Not Nature Cure? Summarising this catalogue of disclaimers, it may be said that the true Nature Cure Practitioner does not make use of any poisons to produce physiological reactions: neither poisons which are ... -Vital Reserve But what about the man so ill that all his confidence is lost? Surely it is right to start him on the road to health by stimulant or other reassuring means? If the means is genuine and ... -Dr J H Kellogg MD, Battle Creek Sanatorium: There is healing power in obedience, just as there is destruction in disobedience. When the evil-doer ceases to sin and enters upon a life of obedience to the natural laws, the curative forces ... Part X: Chapter 10 -Chapter Ten: The Divine Science of Health by K. Lakshmana ... -Chapter Ten: The Divine Science of Health: Part 2 One of the reasons for this state of things is that medicos as a rule are not interested in our health, but only in our ill-health. The average medical man, when driven into a corner in private ... -Chapter Ten: The Divine Science of Health: Part 3 One of the grievous shortcomings of medicine is the one to be mentioned here. If a patient, suspecting that he has some disease, such as gastric ulcer, goes to a doctor, the latter makes a ... Part XI: Chapter 11 -Chapter Eleven: What is the Cause of Disease?

by Kenneth S. ... -Chapter Eleven: What is the Cause of Disease? Part 2 All organs and consequently all functions are under the control of the nervous system. The efficiency of our organs is dependent upon the supply of nerve force, so it is essential that the nervous ... Part XII: Chapter 12 -Chapter Twelve: What is Nature Cure? by Kenneth S. ... -Dietetics This subject covers everything which is consumed by the mouth. Nothing but food should ever pass the lips. There is never a time when a poison or non-food has any value. Dietetics is the ... -Light This subject covers sunlight, chromotherapy, infra-red, ultra-violet and other forms of light radiation. It is very doubtful if any of these methods, except sunbathing, has any value beyond what ... -Air Air bathing, breathing, hot-air baths, ozone and oxygen therapy have all been used. Air bathing is most beneficial in that it tones up the muscles and develops efficient skin reaction. Breathing ... -Exercise Under this heading we find physical culture, weight lifting, sports and gymnastics. Running, Jogging, Swimming and all non-violent sports are the ideal form of exercise. Violent movements should ... -Physical Therapies Under this heading we can group all of the mechanical treatments, those which study and treat the body as a mechanical contrivance. The philosophy behind all of these treatments can be stated as ... -Massage Under this heading we have manual rubbing, stroking, kneading and vibration, as well as ultra-sonic, electrical vibration and concussion of the spine. Massage and vibration can best be described ... -Electrotherapy This includes Diathermy, Short-wave, Galvanic, Faradic and all other methods of applying electricity to the body. Except for the slight psychological help they may give some suggestible people, ... -Psychology Under this heading we have many schools of thought. All claim to teach the patient how to correct his mental faults and to give him the right approach to the problems of life. The system which has ... -Hydrotherapy This is the use of water. Many modern Naturopaths have now discarded the use of water and so in recent years this cheap, efficient and safe health aid has been neglected. Some people claim that ... -Semi-Medical Treatments Herbal remedies, Biochemic tissue salts, Homoeopathic drugs, and the thousands of remedies sold as natural remedies are all almost valueless. They have no place in a natural system of healing. ... -Fasting I have left the most important and least understand subject until the last. Fasting can be described as Natures own method of healing. Not that there is any healing power in the act of ... Part XIII: Chapter 13 -Chapter Thirteen: Everybodys Guide to Nature Cure by Harry

-The Three Fundamental Principles The philosophy and practice of Nature Cure is built upon three fundamental principles. It must be fully understood that these principles are not the outcome of mere theorising into the nature and ... Part XIV: Chapter 14 -Chapter Fourteen: Mental Therapeutics by Henry -Positive Affirmations The foregoing explains why affirmations of health are justified in the face of disease. The health conditions must be first established in the mind before they can be conveyed to and impressed ... -On Rules for Maintaining Health and Prolonging Life by Luigi -Man May By Dint of Art Mend His Infirm Constitution and Live to Old Age My treatise on a sober life has begun to answer my desire in being of service to many persons born with a weak constitution, who, every time they committed the least excess, found themselves ... -Man May, by Taking Thought of His Diet and Habits, Change His Disposition and Better His Temper For man, it is not to be doubted, may by art exempt himself in part from the influence of the heavens, it being the common opinion that the heavens give an inclination by do not impel us, for ... -Less Food Is Required As Man Grows Older This retrenchment is necessary, nor can it be avoided, since it is impossible for an to live foreve; and as he draws near this end, he is reduced so low as to be no longer able to take any ... -Two Mistakes Many People Make When Assessing Longevity Some allege that many, without leading such a life, have lived to be a hundred, and that in constant health, and though they ate a great deal and used indiscriminately every kind of viands and ... Part XV: In Closing -The Two Rules For Maintaining Health and Prolonging Life This sobriety is reduced to two things, quality and quantity. The first, namely quality, consists in nothing but not eating food or drinking wines prejudicial to the stomach. The second, which is ... -On Positive Affirmations The foregoing explains why affirmations of health are justified in the face of disease. The health conditions must be first established in the mind before they can be conveyed to and impressed ... -Bibliography Benjamin, Harry. 1967. Everybodys Guide to Nature Cure. 16th ... Chapter One: That Fallacious Germ Theory by Harry Benjamin By ignoring the part played by the individual himself in the setting up of disease within his own body, and throwing all the emphasis on purely erroneous factors, such as germs, our medical scientists have succeeded in giving the word "germ" a significance and dread power, ludicrously all out of proportion to the part these organisms actually play in the life processes of the individual human being. It is time the public realised what germs really are, and the part they really do play, if any, in the setting up and development of disease. One would imagine, from the way the medical professions speak, that one tiny germ or bacillus (countless thousands of which would scarcely cover the head of a pin) has only to enter the body of a

"healthy" individual for that individual to be stricken with some foul disease or other. Perhaps typhoid! Perhaps tuberculosis! And modern man goes around terrified out of his life because of the existence of these tiny creatures which he believes are always threatening him, and which only the most powerful microscope can reveal to his shuddering gaze. What nonsense it all is! Our bodies are always full of germs: they play a most important part in the working of the body, especially in the destructive processfor constructive and destructive processes are always going on within the body, night and day, sleep or awake, whether we know it or not. Where any living matter dies, it immediately begins to disintegrate into the simple chemical elements of which it is composed. It is in breaking down dead organic matter into its elemental constituents that bacteria are always employed by Nature. We all know that a dead animal left lying about unburied will soon begin to rot. It is precisely in this rotting processwhich is simply the reduction of the once living organic matter back into the elements of which it is composedthat germs are active. They are just as much a part of natural phenomena as anything else in Nature, and are brought into existence to do their allotted task by that omnipresent Power which, forever invisible, rules the workings of the universe. All living matter must die and be reduced to dust again, and bacteria are the appointed agents! They are the agents of disintegration! Now, the germs which help in the breakdown of dead organic matterwhether it be of dead bodies or of cell waste and other effete matter thrown off by the organismare not very different in kind from the germ hysterically supposed, by medical science, to be the cause of disease in the human body. It is simply because they lamentably misunderstand the work these tiny creatures do, that the medical world attaches so much significance to germ action inside the body, when seeking for the solution of the problem of disease. Germs take part in all disease phenomena because these are processes requiring the breaking down or disintegration of accumulated refuse and toxic matter within the body, which the system is endeavouring to throw off. But to assume, as our medical scientists do, that merely because germs are present and active in all disease phenomena, they are therefore the cause of the same diseases, is just as wrong as it would be to assume that because germs are present and active in the decomposition processes connected with all dead organic matter, they are the cause of the death of the organic matter in question. The analogy is absolutely just and fair! And equally ridiculous! But no one would say that because the decaying body of a dead dog is full of bacteria, the bacteria are the cause of the dogs death. We know they are there as a part of the natural disintegration process taking place as a result of the death of the dog. And so it is with germs and disease. Germs are a part of the results of disease, not its cause. Germs are present in disease not as causes, but as superficial helpers brought there by Nature to rid the body of disease. They are the "scavengers" employed by Mother Nature to break up and "bring to a head" the accumulated internal filth of years of unhygienic and unwholesome living, which are clogging the tissues of the body and preventing proper functioning. It is the elimination of this toxic accumulation of internal filth and waste material which is required if the treatment of disease is to be effectivenot tinkering with germs. They will automatically disappear when the body filth and refuse have been disposed of, upon exactly the same analogy as that of flies and household filth, instead of bodily filth. Nature Cure practice proves this beyond doubt every day! (Treatment which is directed merely towards the end of killing germs is treatment that can never be really effective, because it ignores the real cause of disease.) Thus, although germs are the very bugbear of orthodox medical science, they are of little account to Nature Cure, because the Nature Curist realises they are part of the effects of disease, and not its cause, and that they will disappear when the real cause has been disposed of. But that does not mean to say that disease may not be contracted through germ contact. Germs may be the apparent cause of disease in certain instances, and people may "catch" diseases from

each other, but only because they have within their systems the soil for the propagation of these diseasesin the shape of accumulated toxins and bodily refuse. No one who is clean and healthy inside can be affected by germs, or become the victim of germ infection. When people understand this, they will be freed at last from the dread germ-bogey which medical science has created for them out of its imperfect and superficial knowledge of the real action and affect of germs within the body! It is the outcome of medical inability to distinguish between the real causes of disease and its superficial effects and manifestations. In the face of the question, "What proof have you actually that the germ theory of disease is wrong?" it may be said that even in the case of acute infectious diseases (where the germ theory seems to explain the facts most fully) it can be said that people in ordinary health contain within their bodies the same germs that are said to be the cause of the same infectious diseases in others. This proves quite clearly that there must be some predisposing factor present in the body before an attack of any acute disease is possible. Given this predisposing factor, the germs become active; without them they are harmless. This predisposing factor is in every case a lowered vitality and a body clogged with waste materials and impurities. Members of the medical profession have themselves refuted the theory upon which practically the whole of present day medicine is based. In an address on "The Falsity of the Germ Theory and Its Evil Results" given by M Beddow-Bayly, MD, at the annual meeting of the Anti-Vaccination League in 1928, Dr Beddow-Bayly said: "I am prepared to maintain quite definitely that in no single instance has it been proved that an organism or germ is the primal cause of a disease. I would go further, and say that I have abundant evidence that the use of sera has resulted in incalculable harm and even death in man; that the discovery, manufacture, and testing of these sera are responsible for untold suffering among our younger brethren, the animals; and that the obsession of the minds of the medical fraternity with the clumsy and illogical germ theory has greatly retarded the progress of medical science by obscuring the real causes of disease." During the course of the same address, Dr Beddow-Bayly quoted numerous extracts from records of investigations made by medical investigators and research workers, all showing the untenability of the germ theory, of which the following is a fair example: "Dr Hamer, the late Medical Officer of Health for the County of London, in his report for 1915, dealing with the investigation of Dr Houston, the Water Examiner to the Metropolitan Water Boards, finds that the evidence supports the theory "that it is typhoid fever which leads to the development of the bacillus", and not vice versa, and "that the bacillus should be looked upon as the effect rather than the cause". Perhaps the most striking illustration of all, given by Dr Beddow-Bayly in support of his contentions as to the unsoundness of the germ theory, is the following: "The celebrated Professor Pettenkofer, to show his disbelief in the then recently mooted germ theory, swallowed a test-tubeful of cholera germssupposed to be sufficient to kill a whole regiment of soldiers!before a class of gaping students. Nothing happened! As Pettenkofer maintained, in support of his amazing act: "Germs are of no account in cholera. The important thing is the disposition of the individual." These quotations and illustrations from authoritative medical sources themselves, regarding the instability of the germ theory, can be multiplied ad lib if anyone has the mind to. But why go further? Surely the reader has here sufficient proof of the inadequacies of that theory of disease upon which the noble fabric of modern medication is built. To seek for the cause of disease in merely extraneous factors, such as germs and other outside agents, is to turn ones mind, once and for all, away from the possibility of an understanding of the true nature and cause of disease. That is what the whole medical world is doing today. With what result? The state of our hospitals and general health of the nation are ample witness!

 Extracted from: Benjamin, Harry. 1967. Everybodys Guide to Nature Cure. 16th Impression. Croydon, UK: Health For All Publishing Co. The Unity of Disease The reader will now be fully ready for acceptance of the cardinal principle of Nature Cure, which is, that although, thanks to the pedantry and misconceptions of the leaders of medical science, the names of diseases are legion, in reality their basic and fundamental causes are the same in every case, viz, a body clogged with waste materials and impurities; and that no matter what the particular disease might be called, apart from shock, or direct injury, or medical interference with the blood and nerve supply, its causes can always be found in disturbance of function due to three main factors: 1. wrong feeding 2. improper care of the body 3. habits of living tending to set up enervation and nervous exhaustion, such as worry, fear, overwork, excesses of all kinds, sexual abuse, temperamental and environmental difficulties, etc. It is these three main factors coupled with hereditary and predisposing influences, such as physique, personal peculiarities, and the like (aided by previous medical interference with drug and knife), which decide exactly what form disease will take in any given individualwhether it will be rheumatism or eczema, typhoid or pneumonia, cataract or deafness. So, what one always has to remember is that no matter what any disease may be described as in medical terminology, in essence: "Disease is the same in every case, because the underlying causes which determine the condition in the first place are identical, although the superficial symptoms and manifestations appear in so many different guises." Nature Cure and Medical Science It is because they understand this fundamental oneness and unity of all disease that practitioners of Nature Cure are enabled to secure such seemingly miraculous results in the treatment of disease. For instead of being appalled by the intricacy, vastness, and hopeless complexity of the spectacle of disease, opened up to the mind by the study of pathology along orthodox medical lines, and spending time in vainly endeavouring to grasp the significance of these merely superficial and extraneous manifestations of disease, which through a total lack of understanding of the matter, the medical profession calls diseasea thousand different symptomsthe Nature Cure practitioner gets directly to the root of the trouble (the fundamental causes of which are the same in every case), and by rectifying these, is enabled to effect a permanent cure. Whereas, medical confreres aimlessly flutter about the surface of the matter, attempting to patch up or get rid of symptoms, which are really the superficial effects of disease, and not the real trouble at all! The Nature Cure practitioner deals with fundamental, unchanging causes, and pays very little heed to symptoms, except as they may guide him in locating the actual seat of the trouble (which is always very deep within the system). The medical practitioner deals merely with the symptoms themselves, looks to externals for causes, and remains blissfully unconscious as to the very existence of the real underlying factors involved. The result is that under orthodox medical methods of treatment, not only is such a thing as real cure impossible in any given case, because of the neglect of the chief factors concerned, but the underlying disease-condition is yet further intensified and aggravated by this tampering with symptoms. For, not only does medical science mistake symptoms for diseases, but these self-same superficial symptoms and manifestationswhich the Nature Cure practitioner uses only as guides to locating disease, and which he leaves quietly alone because he realises that they are not harmful in themselves, but really Natures attempts at self-healing and self-cleansingare suppressively treated with drugs and surgery, and irreparable harm is thus done to the system by this "thwarting" of the bodys natural attempt at healing itself. Disease a Self-Healing Process

What the medical profession calls a "cure" is merely the suppression of superficial symptoms, to cause further and more serious trouble later on! What the medical profession never understands is that in every case disease itself, with all its varied multiplicity of expression, is merely Natures attempt at self-healing, and must never be thwarted, fought against, checked, or suppressed, but helped (as it were) out of the system by an understanding of the real causes at work, and by active or passive collaboration, as the case may be. "The Nations Fighters Against Disease"that is the proud title of the medical profession, and in it is expressed all their failure to understand the real essential nature of disease! Disease is not inimical to the system, something to be fought against; but it is a self-healing crisis brought about by factors, already described, which the system finds a hindrance and impediment to proper functioning! Disease, in short, is the result of mans own follies and mistakes, which Nature is doing her best to rectify for him! In effect, thereforeand if the reader can follow this clearly, he or she would be forever emancipated from the universal besetting fear of diseasedisease is nothing more or less than Natures blind attempts at cure. [Editor Note: As a whole, I do not believe that most Nature Cure practitioners would agree with the authors expression, "blind attempts", but would consider them as manifestations of "right action" on the part of the organism as it heals itself.] It is the systems attempt to deal as effectively as it can under given conditions which, through mans ignorance, folly, and self-indulgence, are causing impediment of function! Two Completely Divergent Philosophies All too often the great surgeon or physician, and even the general practitioner, vainly imagines that "he" or "she" can cure disease by suppressing symptoms and thwarting Natures work. The practitioner of natural methods of treatment, knowing full well their own feebleness within the mighty, allembracing powers and forces of Nature, bows their head with humility, and says, "Not I, but Nature, cures. All I can do is help Nature do her work by all means within my power." Herein lies the failure of orthodox medicine and the triumph of natural methods of treatment. One is based on a philosophy which looks upon disease as something which "happens" to man quite by ill luck, accident, or chance; something which enters the body from withoutgerms or microbesand has to be fought against and defeated. The other is based upon a philosophy which realises that all disease emanates from within the body, is self-generated as a result of individual mistakes and errors of living, and is Natures blind [?] attempt at self-healing. Two completely antithetical and contradictory philosophies of disease! The one exonerates man from all blame with regard to all the ills that befall them, allowing them to pity themselves as much-injured martyrs, always at the mercy of a wayward and malign Providence, never knowing when they may be attacked by some awful microbe or prowling germ, and by means of outside agents attempts to "cure" them; and the other states definitely and conclusively that mans ills are in every case the outcome of their own mistakes and misdeeds"as a man sows, so shall he also reap"and that only by rectifying these same mistakes will their troubles be finally overcome and a definite cure effected. The medical profession claims that it can cure disease by means of drugs, surgery, inoculations, etc; Nature Cure says that man must cure themselves of disease, but with the aid of help and advice from those qualified by training and experience to give it! The "Fruits" of the Old Philosophy of Disease "Every tree is known by his own fruit," said Christ to his disciples. Let the men and women of today see for themselves the fruits of orthodox medical philosophy! They are before our eyes! New diseases, such as neurasthenia and pernicious anemia, arising every few years, an appalling advancement in chronic diseases such as cancer, rheumatism, diabetes, kidney disease, asthma,

bronchitis, heart disease, etc, every year; devastating plagues of "flu"; nervous disorders triumphantly ascending; indigestion, constipation, colds, coughs, catarrh, and such like "home" ailments more prevalent than ever beforeis it not time for the new to supersede the old? Away with the effete and worn-out philosophy, which sees no connection between mans food follies and maltreatment of their bodies and bodily functions and the disease they suffer from; which attempts to "fight" disease yet cringes before it in fear and hopeless inconfidence! Let us inaugurate a new era in world historyan era in which man will accept the full responsibility for the diseases from which they suffer as being the results of their own follies and mistakes (either knowing or unknowing), and not inequities and tortures devised for and thrust upon them by malign Providence.

Chapter Two: What is Fever? by Louis Kuhne Warmth is always generated by fermentation; the more violent the fermentation, the greater the increase in temperature. This warmth is produced by the friction of the masses against each other and against the body, and likewise by the process of fermentation itself, and the changes in the fermentation accompanying it. Under proper conditions, every process of fermentation can be caused to retrogress upon its own course; and this applies to all the changes in form caused by such fermentation. This is a fact which has hitherto never been properly understood. But I need merely remind you how Nature melts ice into water, how the latter is transformed by great warmth and wind into vapour, and how this, vaporised and invisible, then again condenses and appears to the eye as cloud, pouring down as rain, snow, or hail to refill the rivers and streams, and by severe cold to be again congealed to ice. And all this has been brought about by differences in temperature. Constantly increasing warmth has brought about the changes in the state of the water, and increasing cold has caused a retrogression of the process. A similar thing takes place in the development of foreign substances in the body, and similar conditions produce a retrogressive metamorphosis and expel them from the system. What the exact nature of the little vegetable organisms, the ferments, is, is of but secondary interest for us; but it is important to know that they can develop only where there is suitable soil, that is, where substances are present which are ready to pass into decomposition. Where such are present, only the right kind of weather or some other exciting cause is needed to give rise to fermentation. Such fermentation is also set up in the human system at the first instigation, as there is soon as sufficient foreign matter ready to pass into decay or decompose. Such chance exciting cause is a change of weather (hence what are popularly known as colds); the consumption of food especially apt to ferment, which remains longer than it should in the digestive canal; anger, fright, strong emotion, a shock, etc. My observations show that fermentation always commences in the abdomen. Often it only causes diarrhea and is got rid of; but frequently, particularly where there is constipation, the system does not succeed in its attempt at speedy self-help and fermentation continues, especially in those parts where foreign matter has accumulated. The case is like that of a bottle where the bottom admits of no outlet, and the fermenting matter pushes its way upwards to the mouth. Thus we feel the first effects in the upper part of the bodywe get a headache. The fermentation produces warmth and we are soon conscious of the rise in the temperature of the blood. This is what we call fever. Fever can therefore only occur where foreign matter is present and the natural exits are stopped; that is (1) where there is no regular motion of the bowels; (2) where the urination is deficient; (3) where the pores are obstructed; (4) where the respiration is weak. From this we get a very simple explanation of fever, which long years of observation and experience prove to be true.

 Extracted from: Kuhne, Louis. 1899. The New Science of Healing. Leipzig: Kuhne. Fever Is Fermentation Going On In The System We shall best comprehend the symptoms exhibited by fever by forming a correct picture of the processes of fermentation, as they may frequently be observed outside of the human body. For instance, if a bottle of freshly brewed beer be allowed to stand a few days, an alteration will be noticed in the fluid, which is generally designated by the term fermentation. This much we know of the process of fermentation: it is a decomposition, a sort of decay, during which, as already mentioned, little vegetable organisms called bacilli not only, as is often assumed, propagate themselves by reaching the fermenting mass from without and then spreading further; they are also regenerated by the transformation of the mass, thus being themselves only transformed matter, or a product of fermentation. Through the process of fermentation, or decomposition, the original mass is altered in form. Thus living bodies are produced from food and drink, transformed by the fermentative process of digestion. In this manner we naturally arrive at the conclusionthat all life is only a continual change under given conditions and that without the processes which I term fermentation, it could not be imagined at all. The outward manifestations of fermentation are the following: first, the fermenting matter separating from the fluid is deposited on the bottom of the bottle. Now if the bottle is shaken, or a change in the temperature occurs, the deposit at the bottom begins to move and exhibits a tendency to spread. In spreading it moves upwards, and always in proportion to the amount of fermented matter deposited at the bottom and the temperature. Let us look more closely into the cause of fermentation. Everybody knows that wine and beer are bottled and put in a cellar to prevent fermentation as far as possible. The cellar temperature is pretty much the same both in winter and in summer; no sudden changes of temperature occur, so that the chief cause of a quick fermentation is wanting. Likewise in the human organism fermentation takes place more quickly in warm weather. We perceive how in the south and the tropics various acute fevers are always breaking out, whereas in our cooler climes we find chronic diseases prevailing. This is particularly on account of the more rapid and greater changes of temperature in the hotter climates, where by day the thermometer stands at 100F and at night at 40F; whereas in our northern countries the difference between the day and night temperatures seldom exceeds 22F and is often less. Fevers often occur with us in spring, the reason being that then we find the greatest differences in temperature. Some may find it strange that children especially should be subject to acute illnesses, the familiar childrens diseases, while later in life chronic forms of disease mainly prevail. The above-mentioned change of temperature is here aided by the greater vigour of the youthful organism, which is still so great that it needs but little or no exciting cause to stimulate the organism to make the vehement struggle for health, ie, by an acute disease to rid itself of the foreign matter. Now the same phenomena which take place in the bottle are observable in the human body. Here, too, the fermenting matter accumulates in the lower part of the trunk, and is then set in motion by some change in the weather, external shock, or mental excitement. Here, too, the movement is upwards; the fermenting substances have a tendency to spread and press against the skin covering the body. As long as the skin remains impervious, the pressure meets with resistance. Thus friction arises and consequently heat is developed. This is the explanation of the well-known fever-heat. In the same way, it is easy to explain why a person in a feverish state has a somewhat greater circumference of body than usualfor the skin, being elastic, yields to the pressure of the fermenting matter, and the greater the pressure, the greater the tension of the skin. When the skin has reached its extreme tension, so that it can yield no further, the fever is at its height and the danger the greatest. For as the fermenting masses still have a tendency to expand and are unable to escape to the outside, they make room for themselves inside. The body may be said to inwardly burn and death is the unavoidable resultof course, only if the skin remains impervious. If we succeed in opening the outlets, the danger is removed, for then the fermenting matters find an exit, leaving the body in the form of perspiration. The interior of the body is now relieved and the heat and tension of the skin immediately subside. No words are needed to show that the comparison between the human body encumbered with fermenting matter and a bottle filled with such, does not accord in every point. In the bottle,

fermentation has free vent, the matter can expand in all directions without resistance, until it reaches the surrounding sides. In the human body, it meets with impediments everywhere. Every organ opposes its progress and hinders its course. Then it presses, pushes, and rubs against the obstructive organ, thus producing heat in it and even destroying it; if no outlet be made, or its course diverted. According to the part principally affected, the disease is said to be one of stomach, lungs, liver, heart, etc. But the part affected in each individual case depends upon the course taken by the fermenting matter, and this course again, upon the place and manner of the deposits. Before the heat begins, we always notice, for days, weeks, or even months previously, a symptom, apparently the exact opposite of that describedthere is a feeling of chilliness. The explanation of this is very simple. It arises as soon as the deposits have grown so considerable, that the blood can no longer circulate properly in the extremes of the body, but it, so to say, compressed all the more in the inner parts, so that great heat arises there. Matter continues to be depositedthe time varying according to the particular patientuntil one of the causes already mentioned occurs, thus causing fermentation to set in. The deposited matter causes disturbance in the circulation and alimentation. The blood vessels become partially obstructed, especially in their minutest branches, so that the blood can no longer reach the outer skin. This is the cause of cold feet and hands and of a chilly feeling all over. Chilliness is therefore a precursor of fever and we should make a grave mistake were we to leave it unnoticed. If proper treatment be immediately applied the fever cannot fully develop, but is, so to say, nipped in the bud. When speaking before of the nature of fermentation, I remarked that in all fermentation little vegetable organisms, called bacilli, develop spontaneously. This is the case with fever, and thus the much debated bacillus question finds a simple solution. Whenever the matter which has settled in the abdomen begins to ferment, bacilli develop of themselves in the system; they are the product of fermentation, and likewise disappear of themselves when fermentation ceases and the system is restored to health, ie, when the process of fermentation retrogresses. It is therefore idle to speak of infection through bacilli in some mysterious manner without the presence of foreign matter in the system. The question is how not to kill the bacilli, but rather how to remove the cause of fermentation, the foreign matter. This done, these little monsters which have caused terror to so many timid minds, vanish as a matter of course. A few simple examples will more clearly illustrate my statements. Imagine a room left unswept and uncleaned for weeks, notwithstanding the much dirt that collects daily. Very soon vermin of all descriptions will take possession of the room and prove so troublesome to the inmates that every means will be tried to extirpate them. Now, if we attempt to destroy the vermin in the old-fashioned way by poison, we shall doubtless kill a large number, but by no means affect an alteration in the state of affairs; for the dirt itself is the actual producer and promoter of the vermin and will continually breed fresh swarms. But we shall attain quite a different result if we immediately cleanse the room of all filth; and by continuing this process we shall deprive the vermin of their proper elements and get rid of them for good and all. Another example: imagine the swampy edge of a forest in summer. You all know what an annoyance the mosquitoes are in such a place. It will be evident to you all that it would be no good using poison to destroy them. True, hundreds of thousands would be killed, but millions upon millions would constantly issue from the swamp. The swamp itself is the breeding ground of the little ferments, consequently one must do away with it before the mosquitoes can be annihilated. We know that on dry heights hardly any mosquitoes exist. Were one to collect a great amount of them and carry them up such a mountain, with the intention of keeping them there, one would soon perceive these insects so laboriously transported, flying back to their native swamps, the dry mountain height being no suitable place for them. A third example will render another matter still clearer. You are all well aware that the tropics, where by reason of the greater heat, there is a far greater diversification and development to be found in the animal kingdom than in the temperate and frigid zones, Nature gives birth to the most important and largest number of carnivores and carrion feeding animals. Whatever pains might be taken to exterminate them, new generations will always arise to take the place of those killed. Thus you see that these animals flourish only where, by reason of the greater development of life, there is also more

putrefaction. If no relief were at hand, the dead animals would quickly poison the air with their putrescence, and render it unfit for the living ones. It is now plain why the principal animals which live upon flesh and carrion have their home in the tropics and not the extreme north, where the reindeer which live on grass and moss can hardly exist. If therefore we should want to exterminate the carnivores and carrion feeders of the tropics, we should succeed only by removing the conditions of their existence, that is, the swarms of other animals there present; the beasts of prey would then disappear of themselves. All other means would be useless. But the smaller the animals are, the more difficult is their extermination; and of this the bacilli off the most striking example. In order to exterminate them it is of no avail to employ medicaments to poison them; we can only attain their end by removing the cause of their existence, that is, by expelling foreign matter from the body. In these examples I have shown how Nature acts on a large scale, for all her laws are uniform. Nor does she admit exceptions in the case of disease. Precisely as do the vermin, mosquitoes, carnivores, and carrion feeders appear, live, and thrive only where they can find favourable conditions, so can fever not exist without such conditions, that is it cannot exist unless the system is encumbered with foreign matter. It is only when such matter is present, as we have seen, that by some cause fermentation can arise, which process we call fever. But when we once know what fever is, it is not difficult to find a remedy. The closed up pores of the skin, against which the fermenting masses press, must be opened, and this can only be done by making the body perspire. The instant the sweat breaks out, the fermenting masses gain a vent, and the tension of the skin and febrile heat both abate. But with perspiration, the cause of the disease has not yet been removed. For the fermentation in any given case affects only a part of the matter deposited in the body; the rest remaining undisturbed is continually being increased by new accumulations, and thus forms an aver-present source of fever, which merely awaits a suitable occasion to break out afresh. Our aim must therefore be to bring about the expulsion of the matter still lying quiescent in the body. For this purpose I have introduced the friction hip and sitz baths by the aid of which the system is excited to expel the morbid matter from the body. At the same time everything must be avoided which may disturb the body in its work. The patient must have ample rest, eg, he must not be excited by being read to or by conversation. Even the noise of the traffic on the street is injurious, and the chamber should be kept somewhat darkened; also at night, it should not be illuminated. There must be free access of air, however. Not until there has been sufficient expulsion of foreign matter is the cause of the fever removed and thus the illness itself cured. Let us now briefly review the foregoing, in order to deduce some important final conclusions. In the case of all sick persons, alterations in the shape of the body are perceptible. These alterations are produced by foreign matter. The presence of such foreign matter in the body is disease. This matter consists of substances of which the body has no need, and which remain in it because of defective digestion. The foreign matter is first deposited in the neighbourhood of the secretory organs, but gradually spreads, especially where fermentation sets in, over the whole body. As long as the organs of secretion continue to expel a part of the foreign matter, the physical condition is endurable, but whenever their activity becomes lessened, the greater disturbances arise. The accumulation of foreign matter is not painful, being, so to speak, a latent or chronic process, which goes on unnoticed for a considerable period. We can best designate the forms of disease resulting from such accumulation as painless and hidden; they are essentially the same as those generally called chronic or lingering. The foreign matter is liable to decomposition; it is the real cause of fermentation and forms the soil on which bacilli can develop. Fermentation begins in the abdomen, where most foreign matter lies, but

rapidly spreads upwards. The patients condition changes, pain is felt and fever sets in. These forms of disease we may term painful inflammatory diseases; they are otherwise termed as acute. From the foregoing exposition we must now draw the momentous conclusion: there is only one cause of disease, and there is only one disease, which shows itself under different forms. We therefore ought not, strictly speaking, to distinguish between different forms of disease. It may be remarked in passing that different injuries, which are not really diseases in the above sense, are not here included. It is therefore the doctrine of the Unity of Disease which I teach and defend, on the basis of the observations laid down in the foregoing. I have now indicated the way in which I arrived at the convictiona bold one, as many may think that there is only one disease. Through observation and inference, we have thus arrived at a statement which is of fundamental importance for the treatment of the sick. But I am able to prove its correctness by facts. In modern science there is one kind of proof which is preferred to all others, and regarded as almost the only convincing one, and that is experimental. In the case in question, the experiment could be carried out only by the similar treatment of all kinds of diseases, when, if our statement is correct, uniformly successful cures must be the result. This proof I have given and continue to give. In the reports of cures, contained in the Appendix to my book, The New Science of Healing, you will find the results summarised. Chapter Three: How Does Disease Arise? by Louis Kuhne What is disease? How does it arise? How does it show itself? The answers to the above questions are important not only from a theoretical but even from a more practical point of view, for it is not until we have gained a clear insight into the nature of disease that we are in a position to arrive at once at the real method of cure, and so obviate all empirical groping about in the dark. The way which we pursue is that in which all natural laws are discovered. We start from observations, draw our inferences from these, and finally prove the correctness of our inferences by experiment. First of all, our observations must be extended to all symptoms which constantly re-appear and which occur in the case of every patient. These symptoms are essential ones, and must be taken from a starting point in our inquiry into the nature of disease. In certain diseases striking alterations occur in the form of the body; and it is these circumstances which caused me to observe further whether such alterations did not occur in the case of all patients. And this, as observation has proved again and again, is in fact the case; the face and the neck are especially affected by such changes which can therefore be most easily traced in these parts. For years I have made it my study to find out whether with the alteration of the outward form, the state of the health also changed in every case; thus it has been invariably. Thus I came to the firm conviction that there must be a particular normal form for every body, which is always to be seen in health, and that every change from this normal form is the result of disease. It became clear to me from the changes of form in the neck and face a trustworthy idea of the state of health of the individual could be gained. The alterations which we perceive in the neck and face take place in the corresponding parts of the abdomen and rump in a still greater degree, because as we shall see, they originate in the abdomen

itself; so that merely by examining the neck and face of the patient we gain an exact idea of the condition of his bodily condition as a whole. These external alterations in the neck and face are perceptible, firstly, when the morbid matter has penetrated in between the muscular tissues, whereby the body, which is as elastic as india-rubber, becomes distended (this condition is the less dangerous); secondly, through increased tension, caused by the induration of the separate tissues. You will be most readily able to form an idea of this state if you think of a sausage. Filled as it usually is, it can be bent in every direction. If it be stuffed fuller and fuller, as long as the skin will hold, the sausage will become so tense and hard that it can no longer be bent at all, except by bursting the skin. Similarly, the body can expand only up to a certain limit, when tension of the tissues takes place. Such tension is very distinctly remarked when the patient turns his head and neck. This stage is worse. If now the room between the tissues no longer suffices to receive deposits of foreign matter, the latter is deposited in lumps beside the muscular tissues under the skin, being then distinctly visible on the neck. Where we find such lumps on the head and neck we do err in concluding from these indications that there is a far greater number of such lumps in the corresponding parts of the trunk. On the abdominal covering these lumps may in such cases be easily felt and seen in all sizes. For the lumps in the neck are not formed until after lumps are deposited in the abdomen. On the other hand, we see in lean patients how the normal tissues of the body are actually displaced by morbid matter, so that only the remains of the former, shrivelled together as it were, are still to be seen amongst the foreign matter. The various discolourations of the skin also form a sure aid in the recognition of diseases, and in certain illnesses are never wanting. What do these alterations in the form of the body teach us in regard to the nature of disease? In the first place, there is no doubt that elevations and swellings result from the deposit of matter of one kind or another. At first, one does not know if this is matter the system can utilise, and which has simply been deposited in the wrong place; or whether it is matter which does not belong in the body at all. Nor do we know at first whether it is the matter that causes the disease, or whether the latter is the cause of the deposit. Further observation, however, brings us nearer the truth, for the deposits almost always begin on one side of the body, and are much more abundant there than on the other; and this is invariably the side on which we are accustomed to sleep. We thus see that the morbid matter obeys the law of gravitation, settling, as it were, on the bottom. But this side always being the more diseased, it follows that the matter is the cause of the sickness; otherwise the disease would assuredly sometimes begin on the other side. Further on, more proof will be given in support of this. We may also conclude from this that the said matter must be foreign matter, that is, such as does not belong to the body, at all event not in its present form. For we cannot assume that nutritive material follows the law of gravitation in the body, otherwise deposits on one side only would take place in the healthy body as well, if the person were in the habit of sleeping regularly on the same side. Besides, the system itself evidently endeavours to throw off the matter. Ulcers or open sores are formed, or there is violent perspiration, or eruptions break out, these being the means whereby the system tries to rid itself of the morbid matter. Should it succeed, a pleasant feeling of relief follows that of sickness, provided, of course, that enough matter has been expelled. Extracted from: Kuhne, Louis. 1899. The New Science of Healing. Leipzig: Kuhne. Disease Is The Presence of Foreign Matter In The System For the correctness of this definition there is an infallible test. If after that which we have designated as morbid matter has in a suitable manner been removed from the system, the disease itself disappears, and the body at the same time regains its normal form, the truth of our definition has been established. But now let us approach the question as to what may be the nature of this foreign matter, and how it gets into the system. There are two passages through which matter can be introduced into the bodyby the nose into the lungs, and by the mouth into the stomach. Each of these passages is guarded by sentinels, who are not,

however, thoroughly incorruptible, and sometimes they let things pass which do not belong to the body. These sentinels are the nose and the tonguethe one for air, and the other for food. As soon as we fail to promptly obey the sense of smell and taste, they grow more lax in the fulfilment of their duty, and gradually allow harmful matter to pass unchallenged into the body. You are aware how one can become used to sitting in dense clouds of tobacco smoke and inhaling it just as if it were healthy fresh air. The tongue has been still further corrupted, and we know that it can gradually be habituated to most unnatural food. Need I remind you of the different dishes and beverages which we now think indispensable, all of which were unknown some centuries ago? To these the present generation has grown so accustomed that it would rather renounce a natural diet than give them up. Our lung-diet is, on the whole, not so degenerate as our stomach-diet, as the former admits of no luxurious outlay. As a rule, the purest air, even today, still suits us best, whereas a hearty dish of porridge, for example, such as furnished our ancestors with blood and strength, is really relished by very few. In order to illustrate still more plainly how the digestive organs are slowly undernourished by the unnatural demands put upon them, I will adduce the following example. A dray horse that can draw 50 cwt with ease, may be made temporarily, with the aid of a whip, to drag a much greater load, say 80 cwt. If his master, however, having seen that the horse could draw the 80 cwt, were to give him this load daily, the animal might be able to draw this increased load for a short time, but the over-exertion would soon prove injurious. He would drag the load with increasing difficulty, until finally he could no longer draw even 50 cwt. The animal has been overworked, which would outwardly be apparent from his sprained legs and other symptoms. It is exactly the same with the human organs of digestion. For a very long time they will perform work far exceeding their natural functions, continually spurred on by the stimulants of our times. But their natural powers are gradually undermined and then they can only partially perform the work allotted to them. The transition from health to disease goes on so imperceptibly (often ten or twenty years or more) that the patient does not notice the alteration for a long time. It is very hard to say what amount of food forms the limit which may be borne by a diseased stomach. Often for instance one apple will benefit a weakly patient, whilst two would be injurious. One apple the debilitated stomach can digest, two would be too much. All excess is poison for the body. We must never forget that everything we put into the stomach has to be digested. Even a healthy stomach can really digest only a certain quantity of food. Anything beyond this is poison for it, and if not excreted goes to form foreign matter in the body. Moderation in eating and drinking is therefore the basis of lasting health. Now what becomes of such foreign matter? I call it foreign matter because it is foreign to the system. The system attempts to expel it, and this in the ways designed by Nature for the purpose. From the lungs it is again expelled directly by exhalation into the surrounding air. From the stomach, the bowels conduct it to the outside; or it first enters the blood and is then secreted by perspiration, urine, and expired air, that is through the skin, the kidneys, and the lungs. Thus the system takes care in the most obliging manner that our sins have no evil effect. Of course we must not require too much. If we overburden the system with much secretory work, it becomes unable fully to perform its functions and must find room for the foreign matter in its own interior. But such matter is useless for renewing the waste of the body, and is in fact positively harmful as it impedes the circulation and hence digestion. The foreign matter is gradually deposited in various places, especially in the neighbourhood of the secretory organs, that being the direction it takes. The beginning once made, the deposits accumulate rapidly, unless the manner of living be at once changed. Alterations in the form of the body now commence, but are at first visible only to the practiced eye. The body in this state is already diseased, though its disease is chronic, or latent, and unaccompanied by pain. The disease develops so slowly that the person affected does not notice it; only after a considerable period does he become conscious of a disagreeable change in his condition. He no longer has the same appetite, he is incapable of the same amount of physical exertion, he cannot do so much continuous brain work, and so on. His condition is still supportable, so long as the secretory organs continue to perform their work, that is, so long as the bowels, kidneys, and lungs are active and the skin

exudes warm perspiration. But whenever these functions relax, he at once feels sadly dissatisfied with his physical condition. The deposits themselves begin, as we have seen, near the organs of secretion, but soon accumulate in remoter parts, especially in the upper portions of the body. This is most distinctly perceptible in the neck. There in the passageway, the alterations may at once be seen, and at the same time the tension observed when the neck is turned from which we can find out from which side the matter has forced its way up. Before speaking further of the consequences of the accumulation of this matter, I must remark that nowadays the entire evolution of disease can but rarely be watched from the beginning, for most human beings enter the world laden with morbid matter. This is the reason why hardly any child enjoys immunity from so-called childrens diseases. These are, in reality, a sort of cleansing process, this being the way in which the system endeavours to rid itself of the foreign matter. The foreign substances which at first are chiefly deposited in the abdomen, finally spread through the whole body and hinder the normal development of the organs. Even should the organs respond sometimes by increasing in size, they can nevertheless attain to no perfect development, for wherever foreign matter is present, space is lost for nutritive material. Besides, as the circulation also is impeded, the process of alimentation is checked, and the organs become smaller, despite, or rather by reason of, the foreign matter deposited in them. This matter may for a long time remain perfectly quiescent or chronically latent; but under favourable conditions can also suddenly change in form. This foreign matter consists exclusively of substances which are soluble and decomposable; substances which are subject to disintegration, breaking up to yield new formations under the right conditions; substances which are subject to fermentation. Now fermentation often really occurs in the body and is of the highest significance. In all such fermentation microscopic fungi are active, and a striking change takes place in the fermenting matter; it increases markedly in bulk. Chapter Four: Racial Memory by James C. Thomson Racial memory touches upon a peculiarity of humankind. We continue to be gravely upset by the frightening events which occurred repeatedly to our numerous ancestors. These racial impressions are a powerful factor in determining the behaviour and well-being of large groups of people. Some individuals panic and become hysterical to the point of death at the mere suggestion that smallpox is in their vicinity. Such overpowering fear is dangerous in many ways. For one thing it makes some otherwise sane people undergo operations or have inoculations, and all other kinds of irrational treatments which are disturbing and dangerous to their health. So, directly, or indirectly, these unreasoning residual panics hurt or kill great numbers of people when they become hysterical about natural activities, which, if more carefully studied they should welcome as constructive efforts to safeguard and improve health. Only when we oppose and thwart these "house cleaning" efforts are we damaged, or even killednot by the house cleaning, but by the means used to oppose it. For health attainment a simpler and greater trust in natural phenomena is what matters. For example, consider Mahatma Gandhi, who went about with a sheet around him, lived on the simplest of foods, and otherwise lived in a biologically-honest, Nature Cure way. His simplicity and singleness of purpose enabled him to do a magnificent job of work for his people. But work of that nature and living in that way are no longer easy under any circumstances, and for the modern town-dweller, the simple life, if not impossible, is certainly not readily carried out. Symbiosis breaks down in the circumstances of a large city. Extracted from: Thomson, James C. 1950. The Belfast Lecture. Edinburgh: Thorsons. Symbiosis

Now let us look at symbiosis. Probably most of you have heard that more honey can be obtained in an area where there are many old maids? The argument runs that unmarried ladies keep cats, and cats keep down field mice and birds. Field mice and birds kill bees. So if there are too many field mice and birds you do not get much honey, and where there are more cats, more honey bees survive and there is more honey. That is a simple illustration of symbiosis, where one kind of animal helps other kinds of animals. We are inclined to forget that every living thing effects all other living things in its vicinity. That rule applies to humans at least as much as to other animals. If you care to analyse your own body you will find that it is made up of what may be considered as billions of microscopic animals (cells) all joined together and working together to bring the best possible health for you. Not only is every organ of the body symbiotic with all the other organs, but each of these organs is, in itself, a whole universe of untold millions of single-purposed cooperative cells, each doing its work in its own way. It is one-for-all and all working for one endyour very good health, stable and sustained. So, when your whole body decides upon a "spring cleaning", instead of becoming emotional and afraid, you should be thankful to your body for making such an excellent effort on your behalf, always a successful effort ifand it is a big "if"you would but leave it alone to do its job in its own way. Something very different occurs ifwhen a bodily house cleaning (any "acute disease") begins to bring out into the open the held up debris and acids of past months or yearsyou call in a doctor to have the activity stopped. Usually in the early simpler forms of this effort the doctor succeeds. The activity dies down and, if you live, he claims (and you think) that he "cured" you. We do not concede that credit. We consider that his procedures gradually turn simple situations into unspeakably complex ones; complicating the issue so that, whether you know it or not, you are going to die much sooner for having had your bodys regenerative efforts suppressed"cured"with poisons or mutilations. Fallacy of "Cures" Leaving the directly harmful effects of drugs aside for the moment, we do not believe in the possibility of a "cure" in the ordinary acceptance of the word. You can no more undergo a cure that will keep you cured without continued care, than you can take a bath that will keep you clean without further effort for the rest of your life. Any cure to be lasting must be kept up all the time if we are to remain healthy. The plain fact of being alive means that all the time body cells are breaking down and so manufacturing acids and other debris. Even so, the body happily keeps itself wholesome and clean if honestly cared forcured, in the correct sense of the word, if you live reasonably. Probably it is "The Angel at the Gate", that is why some people dislike our philosophy. They hate the idea that in the end, they alone, with their own daily habits of living, decide their good health, or lack of it. But whether you like it or not, that, within limits, is the almost universal fact. Exceptions do occur because of accidents, and to some extent, your present health stems from how your father and mother lived for years before you were born, and even from the habits of their fathers and mother, back to the third and fourth generations. If their and your own margins of safety allowed for a full disposal of the bodys day-by-day production of acids and broken down cell debris, then physically, you are set for the maintenance of good health into a vigorous old age. But you cannot possibly remain healthy if you are unable to eject your daily accumulations of debris quickly. It is that difficulty which produces so many serious problems for the city dweller. A body which does not succeed in keeping itself clean, gradually builds up deposits of rubbish until it crowds the vital machinery. That is why, and when, a "house cleaning" is called for. What is referred to by Nature Cure as a "health crisis" means that this rubbish, by an extraordinary effort, is being worked out of the body in one or the other of many formsboils, pimples, rashes, discharges, scurf, colds, diarrhea, fluxes, and fevers. All these are useful house cleaning efforts as we understand themthe natural way for the body to throw off any excess impurities. But the medical doctor, instead of seeing these efforts as something to be thankful for, something to leave alone,

convinces himself, and many of us, that the bodys actions must be opposed. Learn From Your Dog To see how essentially unnatural is that teaching, watch your dog. When he is sick he goes away by himself into a corner, and refuses to look at food. Leave him to himself for some hours, or even two or three days, and he will come bouncing back stronger and fitter that ever. That is always presuming that you have not insisted upon feeding him "health foods", taking him for walks, or giving him medicines. If he lives in your home and eats the same kind of food as you do, he will probably take on your kind of ailments, so keep your eyes open and learn how to apply the correct treatment. Watch the splendid results he obtains if you leave him alone. Note how frisky he is after his illnesshis "house cleaning". Safety Valves Now let us look into a common statement made by mildly ailing people. "I am very well, except for my rheumatism", or "My health is very good except for my cough", or "I am in splendid form except for this boil". They are mistaken; their health may be satisfactory according to their own standards, but if so, they are using the wrong words. Not "except for", but "because of" their rheumatism, "because of" their boils, "because of" their cough. Through these unusual efforts their bodily forces are able to keep them well despite the unwholesomeness of their day-by-day living. The greatest obstacle to a clear understanding of health attainment is a mental kink. It arises from what children are taught at their mothers knee, or when they go to schooland what school teachers have to answer for! One way or another the child is led to believe that if there is anything wrong anywhere in the body, the doctor alone can put it right. But there are several things wrong with that teaching. I have had excellent opportunities to test out this matter, and this is my present belief. It is no more possible for a human being to cure another human being than it is for one person to breathe for another. Only the inherent intelligence of your own tissues can cure you, and they do it thoroughly and quickly if you foster them and leave them alone. Health is not merchandise. It cannot be passed from one having it to one not having it. Take note next time you have a cold. Your food suddenly becomes tasteless. A good cold with acid mouth and sore throat makes it thoroughly unpleasant to swallow. But bravely you force yourself. You say, "I must eat to keep up my strength, otherwise I may die". But that is not a true estimate. On the contrary, you should recover much more quickly and wake up next morning or the morning after that feeling fitter than you have for years. So I suggest that next time you have a cold, do what your cold is telling you to doavoid food, curl up in bed and keep warm, the chances are that within 24 hours you will begin to sense an internal awareness of well-being that has been lost for at least some months or years. If you have never given your body this kind of opportunity to do a thorough house cleaning you have missed a wonderful experience. As the crises passes you rediscover many forgotten pleasures. Try it. In practice it works. I give you my word for it. Over the past forty years I have seen it happen many thousands of times, and it is so. How Chronic Disease is Initiated According to our idea, if during an illness, the impurities stirred into the circulation are not allowed free exit from the system, the usual result is that they become deposited somewhere in the body. Some part or organ is chosen where the dumped materials wont kill the personbut that means future trouble. The best way would be to spit them out, cough them out, or otherwise get them quickly into the open air. So, if some time in the future impurities begin seeking their way out of your body, you should encourage their effort, not "do something" or "take something" to prevent their elimination. Otherwise, some months later, a joint or other part of the body is likely to manifest stiffness or develop pain where the impurities have been stored away. After that disability becomes established you become aware of an aching back or a rash on the skin, or a stiff knee joint, but in every other way you feel better. That is what we mean when we say that people feel better because of their rheumatism, or their coughs and their boils. The next point to note is that no matter how small and insignificant any lesion may be, always the

whole body is involved; nothing is ever a local condition only. As people lose their rheumatism, back come the coughs, or the headaches they had previous to the rheumatism, but always in a more intense form, if for a shorter time. And How To Clear Chronic Disease Up So, if you are determined to build high level health so that you can go through almost anything and still remain vigorous and alert, wholesome, undamaged and healthy, you must learn to cooperate with your body. Do what it wants you to do. Give it a rest when it wants a rest. If you have an acid irritation in your mouth and find all food distasteful, do not say, "I must take something to neutralise the acid". Rather stop, think about it for a moment, and say, "I have been doing too much of this or that. I must stop it for a bit". Real cure calls for honest care and intense curiosity as to causes. With such interest and cooperation your body very surely catches up. But for reasonably quick results do not start off with doubts. Do not trouble to tell us "I get so weak if I go without my and " (favourite vices). We know you do, and we know why. Tildens Rule Number One If, for example, you go weak at the knees from missing a cup of tea or a meal, it means that you should omit several more cups of tea or meals. It means that you have been overloading your nutrition. You have been having too many cups of tea and too many meals. Here is a good piece of advice from Tilden, the famous American doctor, the man who has probably done more than any other single individual for genuine Nature Cure: "If you felt uncomfortable between the last mealtime and the next one, omit the next meal and carry on that line from mealtime to mealtime". Well, at first hearing, I wonder how many are now ready and willing to follow that advice? Yet it is very sensible: while you fast your body begins to use any small or large stores of rubbish as nutrient to keep you alive. If you have a tumour for instance, a great lump somewhere in your body, just stop eating and your body will feed on that tumour, reducing it, during the fasting period. Temporarily you will be living on stale meals, so you are unlikely to keep in a good temper. However, the important point is that in the process you will use up the stale meat, and soon the tumour will not be there any more. That is the only genuine kind of cure. Not only does it make you feel better, you have a better figure, you feel younger, and you will be a more completely symbiotic animal. In other words you have begun to achieve a state of high level health. The Nature Cure "Crisis" Health is not quite what people think it is. It is vastly more than a mere absence of symptoms and discomforts. Like your garden, your body calls for a degree of intelligent attention and understanding. The road to high level health is a difficult one for any long-medicated patient, but even more so for the practitioner who is trying to train such a person to travel the right road. One of the most common statements I hear from long-established invalids, who are in the process of getting well, runs something like this: "I am told that I am looking better, but I am really very much worse". We ask in what way they are worse, and as a rule they admit quite freely that the pain or disability they began with has diminished or even that it is quite gone, but now they have developed a new trouble. More questioning discloses that the new trouble is usually an old friend: "Oh, yes, I do remember now, I used to have those headaches 20 years ago". They came to us lame, sometimes not able to mover under their own power, but now they are walking fairly freely. Yet they complain they are worse, they have developed a backache. Within a week or two the "new" backache disappears and then becomes neuritis around an eye. A few days later an arm wont moveyes, 25 years ago the arm would not move. Over the next few months, or years they go over all their old symptoms; a series of farewell visits as it were, and meanwhile between the regenerative bouts they begin to feel fitter and fitter. So gradually they clean out all the cobwebs from the neglected corners of their bodies until they have achieved something that the average civilised person knows nothing about: real, pulsating, radiant health. And then, believe it or not, they begin to tell their neighbours how they enjoyed every minute of their

Nature Cure experience! To Build Serious Disease Now a few words more from Dr Tilden: "Years ago when I gave salicyclates with the superstitious idea of curing rheumatism, I succeeded in establishing a heart involvement in nearly every case. Since I gave up the use of drugs and injections, I have seen heart diseases only in new patients who have come to me after being medicated and improperly nursed". These words explain where to look for the real beginnings of chronic, degenerative disease. Almost any acute condition can be reduced or stopped by taking some poison that is more deadly than the systemic poisons that the body is in the process of eliminating. People living in Ireland will remember "the trouble" at the beginning of the 1914-18 war. It was just on the point of breaking out. Suddenly, Germany or Britain declared war and a much worse set of circumstances than had previously existed faced the whole country, and just as suddenly all internal trouble apparently faded away. But the key word is "apparently". It seemed to stop only until the bigger trouble began to diminish, and then what happened? Afterwards it was discovered that the earlier trouble had been fermenting out of sight. It broke out worse than ever and went on and on breaking out in different places more and more. Approximately, that is what happens when drugs are used to suppress a symptom. The pain may stop but beneath the surface the real trouble grows in seriousness and intensity until it becomes far more menacing than it was before the drug. In order to "cure" you with a drug, the poison which the doctor introduces into your body must be so disturbing to your vital forces that the trouble from your own systemic poisons becomes relatively unimportant. On that insecure foundation you claim you are "cured". But have you considered how much trouble has been laid aside for future reference? Your simple hopes of having it cleared up in a few days, weeks, months or even years are in vain. Each time you drug yourself you have added to your difficulties so that you are left with a worse set of symptomsif you remain alive. Miracle Drugs It is not by accident that all medicines are poisonous. Only that way can they be made to work. But there is also the patients imagination. During the war we were told that a marvellous new drug had come into use costing ten thousand pounds per dose, and it was being given to our wounded soldiers. Nearly everyone wants a drug like that. The rush was unprecedented and it still goes on, but a change is on the way. It was announced that penicillin was going to be made cheaper. As soon as it becomes cheap it will be discovered that the whole idea was a complete blunder. Then like many thousands of its predecessors, it will go into the graveyard of past medical "cures"useless, discarded, forgotten or replaced. Illness for All People who equate everything in terms of cash should be satisfied with health service. It is decidedly expensive. But money costs do not tell everything. In this case not only the means but the end is wrong. The essential short-sightedness of the scheme has been neatly caught by Hermoine Gingold in these words: "The national health service has brought illness within the reach of even the poorest people. It is a service that makes disease easy while penalising the healthy. It speaks much of drugs and disease, but gives no directives toward care and self support for lasting health." An Experiment One of my good friends died just a few weeks ago as a result of what he intended to be an amusing

experiment. A month ago he sent for me to visit him at an Edinburgh hospital, and he explained, "Look, Jim, dont think of my coming in here as a reflection on your theories. I believe in Nature Cure as much as you do, but for eighteen months, I have been paying into the insurance scheme for nothing. So when I got this illness I said to myself, Ill see what its like in one of their hospitals before I go out to Kingston; I had to get something out of it, even if it was only a good laugh. In two weeks, Im coming to your place". But he was cremated before the two weeks had elapsed. In the meanwhile, however, he had his good laugh. He had been greatly amused by one of their procedures. He told me how they were actually waking him every midnight to give him an injection. Like myself, he believed there is nothing better for a sick man than normal healthy rest and sleep, but this patient had to be given his financially and vitally expensive "miracle drug" injections. I do not believe such deaths are unavoidable or accidental. I believe they are directly due to the fundamentally mistaken drug treatment aimed at reducing symptoms in place of removing causes. Sometimes we are asked, "If you do away with drugs, what can you put in their place?" This implies that there is some benefit in drugs, instead of that all drugs are poisonous or destructive. Surely if we get rid of a bad thing it is unnecessary to put anything in its place. It is always better to allow your own body to do its work in the way it prefers, and is equipped to do, without interference from outside. Arthritis I have at the moment at least a dozen patients in Edinburgh with arthritic rheumatism. In each case, before we saw them they had had medical treatment over a long period of years, during which time their condition became steadily worse. Nearly all of them have had tonsils out, or their teeth out, or bothas well as the usual drugs, and any number of gold injections along with some of the newer treatments. One interesting aspect of these different "cures" is that nearly all these patients had felt better during the first week or two of treatment; then their rheumatism recurred and became steadily worse. Their painful discovery was that after each spell of medicinal relief the pain became more continuous and more intense. Self Responsibility For real health attainment you must take the responsibility upon yourself. Practically any ailing person who is willing to do the right thing can get well, but instead most patients ask, "Can you cure me?" We are powerless to do that. The cells in each human body are organised to work together for just that end. After all, they built the body, and they should be able to keep it in good repair. The moment we accept responsibility for our illness we can get well. Despite all extensive publicity to the contrary, nobody else, and nothing else can do this for you. No one person can cure another person. But relief in arthritic conditions is a slow and trying business. It is never quick, nor is it easy. For the patient it is painful because the crystalline formations in the tissues tear the tissues apart and cause even more intense pain as they work out. Another awkward side is that as you become healthier you notice things more. This means that you tend to feel more pain from the same amount of cause. The essential difference between a healthy and an unhealthy person is the degree of awareness. Because of more immediate knowledge the healthy persons defences promptly take action against anything that goes wrong. The unhealthy person has a slower and less intense awareness and response. These slow-reacting people are "accident prone"; they keep on having accidents of all kinds. It is a most unhealthy condition wherein the person waits until it is too late, and with him it becomes routine for accidents to occur. The insurance companies are beginning to realise that there are such people; they are reluctant to accept them as risks. The Stupefied Invalid How many of you have read or known about someone in a hospital who has been burned with a hot water bottle? Could you imagine any healthy child or grown up person lying still long enough for real

damage to be done from contact with an hot water bottle? Within a fraction of a second the healthy person would have become fully cognisant of the situation and would have taken the appropriate action. But a person who is drugged is not a healthy person. His fire and burglar alarms have been put out of action, and he remains unaware of the damage. That is why his motor mechanisms do not make the necessary immediate adjustments to meet the danger. After all, that is the basis of our charge against medicating. Proper response occurs only if the body is fully alert to what is wrong. Drugs of the sedative group induce a nervous and mental sluggishness and numbness, so that all reactions are slowed down and the best result that can be hoped for is comparative unawareness of anything wrongwhat we call low-grade health. Health in the ordinary acceptance represents merely this numbness along with a fair degree of stability. In other words the medicated person is so stupefied that he puts up with almost anything without resentment. In good health his bodily forces would take brilliantly correct and instantaneous actions to meet any and every kind of emergency. Somatic Sense For example, here is an inadvertent experiment I am in the process of completing. About two months ago I drove a spike of wood under my nail. The splinter of wood went down under the nail to within one fifth of an inch of the matrix. It had broken off well under the nail and I could think of no way of getting it out. But my somatic sense did all that was necessary, without my help. I had thought it over and after a week or ten days, and decided to cut it out through the front of the nail. But before I had dug down very far I realised that the splinter was already on its way out. It had become attached to the nail, so I left it alone and, slowly but surely as the nail has grown, the spike has been carried with it. But my intellect did not solve the problem. My thinking apparatus was not clever enough to do it. The humbling fact that the conscious part of my mind must acknowledge is that my bodily sense is more clever than my intellect, not only in one or two things, but in everything to do with the emergencies of life and health. The same situation exists between you and your body. In emergencies it does precisely the right thing; much better than you can do it. When it comes to any of the bodys health activitiesclassified as acute diseasesmy advice is, "Trust and leave it alone". Indeed the point must be emphasised. Without question, under the direction of what is called somatic sense, the body solves with a remarkable degree of smoothness and efficiency all its health problems. But on this aspect of our lives, intellectually we are almost completely at sea. When any health emergency arises we follow false gods and are readily misled by large and confusing words. We stop using our heads when professional men "explain" with such a phrase as, "antibiotics defeat the staphylococci and the streptococci along with their secondaries the pyogenic staphylostreptococci". Apart from their ability to get away with it, that bad language is no proof of any special gifts. Commonly such words become current among those who are more or less conscious of their lack of real understanding. There are those, of course, the stealthy ones, who consider it clever by this means to silence the non-technical critics. Body Wholeness Disease is never only local. Your body is either all healthy, or all unhealthy. It mayindeed it usually doesexhibit its distress more in one part than in another, but quite often that one part is putting in overtime to help some overworked or weaker organ. If you have a boil on your neck it is not due to the work of the wicked germs with big names nor is it your neck that is at fault. Ordinarily the body cells in and around the lesion are busy with a cleansing effort for the good of the whole body. Inadvertently, one amusing point about boils is that the sufferer always remarks, "If it had just been somewhere else!" But so far as its effect upon the health of the body is concerned, its position is unimportant. Almost always, wherever it occurs, a boil arises directly from its owners day-by-day habits placing too much strain upon his depurative organs. Boils are painful, but they are a most efficient way of releasing dangerous accumulations of poisonous matter. The Swedes are aware of their usefulness: they call them "health buds".

It is similar with a running sore or discharge. These too are "release valves" which save the body from complete breakdown. With boils and running sores it is advisable to discontinue all unsuitable foods and drinks until the organs discharge their overload of stale refuse. Above all dont worry about the harmless little germs with the big names. Their lot is worse than yours. At least you are getting rid of the filthy matterthey have to live in the horrid mess. Altogether they have been maliciously slandered; they too, if not attacked, are happily symbiotic with your own cells. Your Daily Bread Now let us see why such deposits arise even in people who have become health-conscious and who are doing their utmost to live simply and naturally. Take our staff of life. How many people make a habit of eating wholesome, clean, fresh bread? May I give you an estimate? Very few indeed. Genuine bread is expensive because the government does not pay the substantial subsidy for bread unless it has been adulterated. This is the situation as it is at the moment (1950). The ministry of food insists that 14 lbs of chalk be added to each bag (280 lbs) of flour. If their subsidy is to be collected that chalk must go in. When a member asked a question about this requirement last year, he was told that it was not chalk, it was creta preparata. Having said that the (then) Minister of Health sat down and everybody seemed satisfied. But creta preparata simply means prepared chalk. Chalk in flour makes the dough absorb a great deal more water. As one baker put it, it makes water stand up on end. In that way you are induced to buy water and chalk and you believe you are buying bread. But that is not all. Agene has been discontinued, but in its place millers are permitted to employ the adage process chlorine dioxide. [Editors note: the baking industry now in 1996 generally legally includes a number of new unhealthful artificial ingredients.] According to the manufacturers, this preparation is approximately three times more powerful than agene. It is recommended especially for bleaching the colouring matter of bran, "which makes it particularly valuable for bleaching very low grade flours". Bread and Convulsions When dogs ate agenised bread they became dizzy, they staggered about, and before they died they went into convulsions. Human bodies stand up to a great deal more abuse than do the bodies of dogs. I have seen horses and dogs die from snake bites, and I have seen humans who have been bitten by the same kind of snakes, and they did not die. In general terms, humans are far more resistant to poisons than are dogs and horses. When agene was still being used, I read that an illness deprived three Doncaster people of their physical sense of balance. One newspaper reported, "They could not stand or walk properly, and they could not keep on their feet without staggering. After six weeks treatment the local doctors said it was difficult to determine the cause of the staggering". Perhaps so, but I find a certain similarity between what was happening to the humans, and what happens to agenised dogs. How did that happen in Doncaster? About three years ago the question was asked in Parliament. It ran something like this. "Was it true that several tons of bad fish paste has been mixed with good fish paste and sold to the general public?" The answer was, "Yes", and it was explained that by mixing it in a certain way the poisonous content had been brought below the level that was considered unsafe and it was put in the shops and sold. A little later I had as a patient an analytical chemist who had been working for the Ministry of Food. To him I remarked about this strange idea and asked, "Does mixing bad stuff with good make the whole good?" He looked a little self-conscious and said: "You know, until I read your comments in a recent article, it never struck me as being in any way wrong. The problem as set to me was "How could this consignment be treated to reduce its toxicity to a level that would make it fit for consumption and release to the public?" After working it out I decided that if it was mixed with five times its weight of sound stuff it would be all right. We work by trial and error. We send a trial amount to a restricted area

and our scouts are sent to report if there has been any illness among the customers. Only if there are no complaints is it given general release". Such a scientist takes into consideration only the one particular problem set for his solution at that moment. He figures his answer out to so many decimal points. But if he omits some vital factor, his findings are liable to have an adverse effect upon you and your neighbours. Unfortunately, there is big money in keeping the public bemused on health matters. The following statement I take from an American publication: "One of the firms manufacturing miracle drugs in a single year made over forty two million dollars out of an investment on plant and machinery of only seven million dollars, their income for one year some six times their capital investment". In this country (England) much larger firms are training our farmers to use chemicals on the soil, so that they are ruining their land instead of farming it. When it was claimed that composted soil grew altogether better-quality crops than soil treated with artificial manures, one firm of large manufacturing chemists admitted that this was so, but reported that the crops would not be so large without chemicals. I suggest that honest reliable foods are more important than mere bulk. Chemists are dangerous mentors to accept as guides toward normal health. All their twisted ways from sprays on fruit, to chemicalised bread, are directly opposed to everything we stand for, and understand by high level health. For that we must return to symbiosis and simplicity. As we have seen, the real advance in general health in this country, over the past century or so has been due to improved sanitation, housing, and an understanding of dietetics. Although medicine often claims credit for the improved life expectancy, in plain fact the medical men have often opposed genuine enlightenment. They have also often retarded improved health in the most direct way by introducing poisonous drugs and deadly injections into their patients. The only way to become healthy and remains so, is to make our lives fit for the natural scheme of things. We must play fair with other living things, be they plant or animal, and regard our bodies as intelligent mechanisms capable of self-repair and self-cleansing. Most of the really crippling diseases are the result of attempting to obstruct or suppress the bodys selfhealing processeach of which the medically-minded person sees as a "disease". The self-cleansing processes are sometimes uncomfortable, but they have a positively constructive function. They are the only means whereby the body can be truly "cured". No human being can "heal" another; healing is an intrinsic power of each of us. Very often the most helpful treatment we can apply during an active phase of self-healing is non-interference; simply keeping the body warm and desisting from embarrassing it with food. Miracle drugs always turn out to be misfires; it may take a few years for this discovery to be made, but it always occurs. It cannot be otherwise, because drugs function by poisoning or disrupting the bodys working. Stopping a symptom is relatively easy; the real task is to improve the entire state of the living body, and as a rule that calls for patience, understanding, and a determined effort. At all times the health seeker must be on the alert to avoid damaging factors such as the adulterants added to many every day foodstuffs. The fact that food manipulation takes place with the full sanction of government departments is no safeguard to the consumer. The follower of Nature Cure must be prepared to accept responsibility for his own course of action, and if necessary steer contrary to orthodox influences when these conflict with his own reasoning. There are many groups interested in persuading the individual to abuse their system and to load it with damaging preparations. The real safeguard is an intelligent understanding and a realisation that no one has a greater interest in ones well being than ones self.

Chapter Five: Questions and Answers by James C. Thomson Questions and Answers follow. Extracted from: Thomson, James C. 1950. The Belfast Lecture. Edinburgh: Thorsons. Can you cure rheumatism by diet alone, or must one also have treatment? I can cure my rheumatism if I do the right things. The whole idea of Nature Cure is self-help and wholesomeness. That contains the real meaning of cure and it is a very good technique; but you must apply it to ways of thinking, exercise, breathing, sleeping and so forth, as well as to diet, to make a broken man whole. We do not treat the names of diseases. We try to get our patients to live so that their tissues clean up and so become healthy. With health rheumatism clears up. If Nature by itself, cures the body, why do you wear glasses? I am not a perfect specimen. I make no such claim, but I am not the weakling I was fifty years ago. Eyesight, to be perfect, would call for Nature Cure living over about three generations, as the optical system and the receptors are exceedingly delicate and comprise a part of the body which can be maintained at its best only by a long-term policy. Can a person cure himself of tuberculosis? James Thomson referred to his own experience, having been discharged from the Navy as a young man, with this complaint. He mentioned that the doctor came to his bed in hospital and informed him without preamble that he was to go home as he had only a couple of months to live. He determined to live if only to spite the doctor. He here emphasised that out of the experience he discovered what a vitally important factor is the will to live, whatever the motive. James Thomson made an excellent recovery and wrote to the doctor two years later to inform him of his triumph. The ironic sequel came in the form of a letter from the doctors widow to say that the doctor had passed away some time previously. Do you disbelieve in all forms of inoculation, including the vaccination infants which is compulsory in Northern Ireland? Dont do it. Far fewer people are vaccinated today than are unvaccinated. The unvaccinated are greatly the majority. Vaccination was initiated by a man called Jenner who was a rogue and a rascal. Health got 30,000 from the British Government on the basis that once vaccinated the person would be forever immune to smallpox. Then a great campaign started to enforce the rite, and in medical journals it is now generally stated that within a year smallpox had dropped to less than half. Actually it went up and up until it reached its highest limits some considerable time after vaccination almost became universal. Then as the public made the sensible deduction, they began to refuse vaccination in larger and larger numbers. After this revolt the disease in its disfiguring form passed away from this country, but obviously vaccination wasnt the cause of the cessation. Despite these facts it is generally taught in medical colleges that smallpox was brought under control in this country by vaccination. In actual fact the disease was eradicated owing to great improvements in sanitary science and the general rise in standards of bodily, household, and civic cleanliness. Do you think well of raw molasses? I believe in honey and in some hundreds of other honest food stuffs, but the question smacks of "remedies", which we do not advocate. I believe in wholeness of diet rather than in single items. Wholeness may be called the purpose of Nature Cure. For any one who is concerned about his health, I know of nothing more helpful than a grateful acceptance of the fact that, given fair play, the body is comfortably able to heal itself, no matter how serious the condition. Throughout the past forty years I have watched health return to many thousands of people who had reached the last stages of unbearably

painful and otherwise distressful disease. That is why I envy no man his work. I get inexpressible enjoyment from helping people, each one, to engineer himself out of his own particular morass. In each case some mental or ethical or physical urge has been misinterpreted or wilfully disregarded. To solve these problems which have baulked not only their victims, but, in many cases, professional men of the highest standing, makes my work utterly fascinating. But remarkably seldom is the real difficulty so much how to find the way out, as to persuade the sufferers to move, and to keep moving, in the right direction. In the majority of cases we find that there has been an over-emphasis. For example, instead of supplying themselves with a selection of whole foods to nurture the whole of the body, quite a large proportion of the "incurables" have replaced their normal trust in the wholeness of life with a false, superstitious faith in some lop-sided herb or chemical, some formula of words, or the magic of an injection of diseased matter from some animals festering sores; one or other of these or some similar stupidity is accepted as carrying a powerful magic which they hope is to sweep away their disabilities. In the varying circumstances we come upon we find that all food stuffs may be good, but in given cases any food at all may be harmfuleven deadly. That is why we must dig deeper than the simple superficial acceptance of some mystic power in any particular food or part of a food. That is why if you wish for genuine health you must accept self-responsibility; quite firmly, you must take charge. It cannot be left to another person, or to any single food stuff. But for some unknown reason, many people find it easier to put their faith in things. Even more strange still are those who prefer to trust one particular food; it may be olive oil, honey, or some such. A queer kink, but doubtless it avoids the necessity for thought and so saves them from developing headaches. Is it possible to cure bowel obstruction without operation? If it cannot be cured without operation, it cannot be cured. With few exceptions bowel obstruction arises from hysteria, panic, intense jitters. Certainly a diseased organ may be cut away, and a frightened and crumpled up section of the bowel may be cut away, but genuine cure calls for restoration of normal function. Once an organ or part is extirpated it cannot ever be normal again; if it cannot be repaired from within, it cannot be cured. In the case of obstruction which arises from a tumour pressing on the bowel, the tumour is the problem. In the more common spastic form, apply warmth and talk soothingly to the patient until he returns to a calm frame of mind, and the tension and the obstruction pass away together. The basic pain was holding up the tiny impulses which move the waste matter along the intestine. The muscular rings which do this work become rigid with fear. The worst possible treatment that can be applied at this stage, when the pain may be overpowering, is by the doctor or surgeon who palpates the painful part and then merely gives a negative shake of the head. The best procedure in such a case is to cut out the practitioner. Will you please give a cure for depression? First thing, begin full deep breathing as soon as you awake. Most civilised people are unhealthy in one way or another, and a high proportion are suffering from a lack of fresh air. When you awake in the morning, lie on your bed and pull your ribs up vigorously as you breathe deeply. By so doing you start the blood circulating through your rib marrow where it breeds millions more of the oxygen carrying red blood corpuscles. Next, get out of bed and take a quick, cold, splash. That too will encourage the blood to circulate this time through the pelvis and abdomen. Then dress and set off on a brisk two or three mile walk, without breakfast. After the first few times you begin to like the routine because it makes you feel so much better for the whole rest of the day. Having done that, next learn to take smaller meals than you are accustomed to. Make the evening meal the main meal of the day, but take it at least three hours before retiring at night. Malnutrition and depression, over-eating and mental distress, are commonly found together. Have you anything to say on the question of heart trouble?

The heart is the central organ of the body, and if it begins to manifest distress, there is trouble for the whole body. A great deal of what passes for heart trouble is actually mental distress. A worried or frightened attitude of mind may cause the heart to be greatly over-worked. If you can get the person to do a few sensible out-door exercises and stop sitting in a bad position etc, you will have begun to achieve something. One of my happiest experiences with heart trouble was with a lawyer whose brother was a Harley Street specialist. His doctor had told him that he must stop golf and retire from work because of angina. He enjoyed his golf and his work and was reluctant to take that advice. So off he went to London to get his brothers opinion. This led to visits to one or two of his brothers colleagues. All had confirmed the diagnosis and corroborated the doctors advice. At the end of our interview he said, "I do not think I could do what you advise, but I will get in touch with my brother". So he wired his brother, "A naturopath in Edinburgh thinks he can cure me, what do you advise?" and by return he had this message from his brother, "By all means, place yourself in his hands. He must know more than all the Harley Street specialists put together." Despite this sarcasm he took up our treatment and followed instructions with growing enthusiasm. At the end of three months he was satisfied. Once again he was able to play golf and walk up hills without distress. Only then did he acknowledge his brothers wire with a two word message of his own. It read, "He does!" But I did not cure him; he did that for himself when, biologically, he began to behave more reasonably. s alcohol good or bad for a person? Your body manufactures approximately 2gs of alcohol daily and it is not wise to add to that quantity. Is there a point at which hardened arteries cannot be cured? Unquestionably, there is. Had I been forty years older, instead of still in my teens when I developed tuberculosis so seriously, I do not believe anything could have saved me. Similarly there comes a stage in any disease condition where increasing breakdown with failing resilience renders regeneration improbable. Hardened arteries do not come out of the clear blue sky; they usually result from prolonged unwise ways of livingworry, over-eating, over-drinking, etc. Dr Lindlahrs favourite aphorism is peculiarly suited to hardened artery patients: "One third of what we eat enables us to live; the other two thirds enable the doctors to live". Even the poorest persons eat too much breadstuffs and unfortunately much of our present doctored bread presents probably one of the worst problems of all. Diabetes is on the increase. Can anyone cure himself by taking insulin? Diabetes, like all other degenerative diseasehigh blood pressure, Brights disease, cancer, arthritis, disseminated sclerosis and the restis on the increase throughout the whole of the civilised world. The insulin enthusiasts tell us that their product saves the lives of many thousands of these sufferers annually. On the other hand, as the vital statistics since 1922 show a steady rise in the death rate, somebody is not telling the truth. But here and there we get a glimpse of it. For example a statement issued in November 1953 from an American hospital for diabetics. Five chemists and three doctors had just completed a prolonged experiment on 4,000 patients. Their conclusionwhich by the way, is a medical opinion and not a Nature Cure oneis that not more than one per cent of diabetics require insulin. It is staggering to think that there is only one per cent of difference between our opinion and that of these drug doctors on the need for insulin. That finding will be rapidly forgotten in all orthodox circles. It would never do for the public to learn that only by self-effort can the diabetic be cured. Always there must be the miracle drug, injection or operation. To keep the rate of recovery high, insulin is given to persons who have not the slightest trace of

diabetes. Some of the most healthy people, especially strong men who are not ill in any way, excrete sugar in their urine. The only thing wrong with these people is an exceptionally sugary and starchy diet that, and over-credulity. Their sugar leakage is not a symptom of disease, it is a vital safety-valve. But these people are advertised as "saved by insulin". I believe that only through self-control and self-effort can there be any hope of cure for the diabetic. Chapter Six: Light And Air by Adolf Just Man was created naked by Nature, and in the beginning lived naked for a long time. "And they were both naked, man and his wife" Genesis 2:25; and according to the intentions of Nature he was always to go naked. This is the design of Nature which nothing can change. Going naked is in accordance with Nature, and consequently right. Everyone knows that light-and-air creatures, plants as well as animals, pine away in dark places and become more and more lifeless. But if they are brought to light, they instantly wake up and become full of life. It is as if one could see this, even in plants, which soon regain their healthy colour. In the case of animals we can plainly see how they brighten up, jump and run about. Today man lives, clothed as he is, with the greater part of his body in the dark. Let him once throw off his clothes, especially in the open air in the woods, and he will directly feel how new vigour and life reanimates his body. Immediately all the organs begin to work more vigorously, the digestion, the vitality is increased, and a rapturous sensation of well-being passes through the almost lifeless sick organism. When animals are confined in dark places, the process of transpiration still goes on, and the internal heat which is developed in sickness is still thrown off, while the wearing of clothes prevents this in man. Going naked temporarily, even in the room with as many open windows as possible, but better still in the open, in the woods, proves of wonderful beneficence and efficacy, and is more strengthening than any other means. The light at once reanimates the vitality of the body, which, moreover, being now entirely free from clothes, need not partly reabsorb through the skin, the bad used-up air which it had thrown off, and can take in pure air. This explains the immediate remarkable invigoration of the organism, and the wonderful effect of the light-and-air-bath. The importance of the light-and-air-bath in the preservation of health, the curing of diseases, acute as well as chronic, and also in the healing of wounds must become evident to even the dullest understanding. The many trials which I have made with the light-and-air bath, in the most varied cases of sickness have yielded splendid results. Young people as well as old, who had become exceedingly delicate from the wearing of much woollen underclothing and by shutting themselves off from light and air in other ways, went at once, and without passing through intermediate stages, naked into the open air, in wind and weather, in rain and snow storms, even at low temperatures. Some were so weak that they could hardly walk to the place where the light-and-air bath was to be taken. Directly they were naked they began to feel stronger, and could always walk home more easily and more quickly than they had come. There were among these light-and-air bathers not only some very weak, but also some very old and venerable people, over seventy and eighty years of age. In acute diseases, especially in acute cases, the patients always experienced such a refreshing, strengthening effect that they would not leave the open window even on the most urgent pleading of frightened relatives.

The improvement and convalescence, especially in acute cases, was so rapid and striking that the people about the patient were full of astonishment. At Jungborn, it was in the cool season especially that the light-and-air baths created the greatest enthusiasm. It is not the fault of the public if the light-and-air bath is not generally introduced. For the people are not educated to think for themselves in caring for their health, but always to hear without judging what is preached to them. It is most natural and best to go naked day and night, summer and winter, taking light-and-air baths without interruption. The old Teutons in our part of the country went almost entirely naked, with a loose hide at most thrown around the shoulders. This was even more true, in proportion as they clung to Nature in their diet, subsisting on the fruits of the forest, in addition to only milk, and to be sure, on meat, but on the meat of healthy animals, and not the increasingly artificial preparations of agricultural products, nor on alcohol and other stimulants. In cold weather especially, one ought to take a great deal of exercise during the light-and-air bath by walking and running. It is of course peremptory to become thoroughly warm again after the light-and-air bath. This is accomplished by brisk walking or by physical work, also by housework, or by wrapping in woollen blankets or bedding. It is a mistake to think that the light-and-air bath is taken for the purpose of feeling colder. We take it in order to feel warmer at all other times, for it is well known that he suffers from cold who is always sitting about a warm stove [or by the taking of hot baths and showers. Editor] It is also very beneficial besides taking the light-and-air baths to go bareheaded in the rain. Besides taking the light-and-air bath one ought to go barefooted whenever there is time and opportunity for it. The windows in the bedroom must always be open at night winter and summer. One kind of light-and-air bath is the sun-bath. You lie on the ground, preferably without clothes. In the hot sun the sun-bath must not be too long. One can take the light-and-air bath by alternating between sun and shade. It is of great importance that the sun-bath should be taken lying on the earth, and not on a mattress, or even roofs, as has been sometimes done. Man belongs to the earth. It is advisable to avoid as far as one may the scorching of the body by the sun. But if it should occur, the remedy to be applied is cold water and wet compresses (also compresses of moist earth). The customary oils and salves should be avoided. Extracted from: Just, Adolf. 1903. Return To Nature. New York: Lust. Light-And-Air Huts and Cottages One great benefit to health comes from sleeping in huts and cottages situated entirely in the open, and which at all times offer free access to light and air. We call them light-and-air huts and light-and-air cottages, but there is nothing about them in the way of appointments that would make of them special hygiene apparatuses and institutions. They are huts with a roof to keep the rain from coming through, but without walls, or only lattice walls. For protection against stormy weather they are provided with curtains. For winter (for they may be

used also at this season) they can be kept warm and made to keep out the snow by means of straw and partition walls penetrable by the air. It is still better to erect more perfect cottages with thicker walls, adapted to real dwelling purposes. But they must be sufficiently provided with windows, blinds, ventilators, etc, to permit the ingress, when open, of plenty of fresh air. The ceiling must be provided with ventilators which may be opened when windows and doors are closed. Pure fresh air is required by the body, especially in the night, when it is chiefly engaged in the work of digestion. Therefore sleeping in such a hut is very important. The rooms of houses, even if they are in the woods, are apt to be penetrated with odours from the cellar, the kitchen, closets, garbage heaps, etc. The air is vitiated, moreover, by the circumstance that several, often many persons live in a house side by side, and below and above one another, and that stone walls retain foul odours for a long time. They are therefore never filled with entirely pure, unvitiated air. But this is the case in light-and-air huts.

Chapter Seven: The Earth-Power by Adolf Just The fish belongs to the water, here alone can it live and thrive. The bird is destined for the airthat is its realm (as the hawk is king in the realm of the air. If the bird wants to rest it alights on a tree, it rarely touches the earth. Of course, I do not here speak of the land fowl.) But man walks on the earth. As long as man wore no shoes or clothes, he was always in direct touch with the earth, both when he moved, and when he rested. This direct connection of man with the earth was originally in no wise disturbed. Such a close connection of man with the earth is therefore the intention of Nature. It corresponds, moreover, to a holy inviolable law of Nature, the transgression of which will always be sternly avenged. In my earnest and untiring efforts to return more and more to a knowledge of her laws, in order to place it in the service of our fellow man, I have made this discovery, which will certainly prove of the utmost significance. I observed plainly that going barefooted in the room and on boards was in no wise so effective, so refreshing, and so invigorating as going barefooted on the bare earth, even if the sand or the turf was completely dry. Foresters and forest labourers have assured me that it agrees much better with them, and that they derived much more strength from their rest if they lay directly on the earth in the woods instead of on a bench or other contrivance. We still possess a splendid treasure of myths from the time of the old Greeks. Among them is the story of Antaeus. When the giant Hercules was in the service of Eurystheus, he was ordered to fetch the golden apples of Hesperides. But the golden apples of the Hesperides were guarded by the giant Antaeus, the son of Geea, the earth Goddess. Hercules closed with Antaeus, and during the struggle Hercules observed that Antaeus was always refreshed and strong when he stood upon the earth, but became weak and powerless as soon as he was separated from the earth and lifted up into the air. Therefore Hercules lifted Antaeus high up into the air, where he could easily strangle him.

These old myths, as I have already observed, especially the folklore traditions, contain the profoundest truths. Long after men had turned their backs on Nature, and were living in unhappiness and misery, there still lingered in the soul of the people an intuition, an impression of the correct life, of past and future conditionsespecially how men originally lived in Nature without sickness and want, what an unhappy state followed the violation of the laws of Nature, and in what way salvation will come. This intuition, this impression has found expression in poetic form, embellished by the imagination, in the myths which are often the creation of entire generations. These myths convey the truths of the past in quite a different way from history which is written by individual man and which everyone in his diseased condition has altered and fixed up according to his views and wishes. "What you the Spirit of the Ages call Is nothing but the spirit of you all Wherein the Ages are reflected." Faust (Goethe) The Bible is interwoven and embellished by a wreath of the most beautiful and most sacred myths. It contains the most sacred, and the most profound truths concerning the past and therefore of man; it is the Book of books. The Bible tells of the original perfectly happy state of man in paradise in the bloom of pure Nature, of mans fall, the transgression of the laws of Nature in respect to food, of the consequent misery, and of salvation. Jesus, as I have already stated, founded his theory of salvation on the closest approach to Nature, on a perfectly natural mode of living, without which there is no happiness for man. In the course of time many passages in the Bible have unfortunately been falsified, both consciously and unconsciously, and it is often wrongly understood and wrongly interpreted. From the classical myth of Antaeus I inferred that the earth has a most refreshing, invigorating, and salutary influence upon man, her son, as soon as he comes into direct touch with her. Animals and man are as much products of the earth as the plants; in consequence of their higher development the former have only become separated from the earth, have become walking nerve plants. But animals and man are still as much subject to the laws of Nature as plants, they still draw their strength and vitality from the earth. After this I attached a still greater importance to going barefooted on the earth (without sandals), and became more than ever convinced of the great curative effect of going barefooted. But I also asked myself if this influence of the earth could not be utilised on behalf of man in a still greater degree. For the first thing, I no longer had the patients sleep in high bedsteads but on straw-sticks or quilts on the ground in the open air or in light-and-air cottages. They were thereby brought closer to the earth during sleep. This was at once felt as a gain, sleeping became pleasanter and was more invigorating. But soon the patients lay down on soft grass entirely naked, even without a shirt, and covered themselves with quilts. They soon broke out in enthusiastic exclamations over the wonderful effect of the earth upon the body during the nights rest. The opinion was often expressed that all diseases, but especially the score of serious nervous troubles of our age, would entirely lose their terrors if only sleeping and lying on the earth at night once became customary in the curing of diseases. It is indeed a fact that the effect which the forces of the earth have upon man during the night is quite incredible. Whoever has not himself tried it and convinced himself of it, can have no conception of how refreshing, vitalising and strengthening that effect of the earth is on the human organism at night during rest. The only end of all healing arts must be to aid and strengthen the digestion of the patient. Nothing accomplishes this end better than lying on the ground during the nighthowever much the natural bath

and the light-and-air bath may facilitate the movement of the bowels. By sleeping on the ground, consequently, more than anything else, the entire body is aroused from its lethargy to a new manifestation of vital energy, so that it can now effectively remove old morbid matter and masses of old faeces from the intestines, and receive a sensation of new health, new life, and new unthoughtof vigour and strength. Whether it is because the body at night, especially during sleep, is lying perfectly quiet, or because the influence of the earth on the body is more powerful at night than in the daytime, the fact certainly is that one does not experience the extraordinary curative effect of the earth nearly as much in going barefooted or in lying naked on the ground during a light-and-air bath and sun-bath as at night. I have already mentioned the fact that animals, especially hares and deer, when they prepare their lair, carefully remove all leaves, bits of wood, etc. They evidently do this to be more directly in touch with the earth, so that the forces of the earth may exert the strongest possible effect. The animals do not scrape together grass, leaves, wood, and the like for their bedsbirds only do this in order to prepare a warm nest for hatching. It is a very striking fact that the animals of the woods always remove all the wood and leaves, and even the snow, so as to make an entirely bare spot on the earth where they may lie down to rest. Sometimes they also roll on the bare ground. In the case of deer, German hunters call this habit the "plaetzen". The fox and the badger drag many things into their dens, but their resting place is kept perfectly free. It is always on the bare ground. Wild bears will indeed creep into heaped up leaves and underbrush, but they tolerate nothing under them and lie on the bare ground; generally they even dig themselves into it to some extent. I once observed a domestic hog that was sick and was let out of its sty. On my advice it was left entirely alone, so that it might do what it wanted. It went into the vegetable garden, grubbed itself somewhat into the ground in a cabbage bed, and remained quietly lying there. After a few days it returned and was perfectly well. Of course the animal left off feeding while it was sick. Thus the animals, although they are constantly in close relation with the earth in their normal activity, walking and running, strive to get into especially close and direct touch with the bare earth when they rest and when they are sick. Extracted from: Just, Adolf. 1903. Return To Nature. New York: Lust. Chapter Seven: The Earth-Power: Part 2 Following the lead of Nature, man lived originally in perfect sinlessness in the enjoyment of purest happiness, in a state of unclouded bliss, such as the myths of paradise current among all civilised nations tell us about. But reasonthe serpent in paradiseheld out to man the alluring prospect of reaping still greater advantages and pleasures for body, mind and soul if they would no longer obey the commands of God, the laws of Nature [which God communicated to them through the organs of sense (smell, taste, etc), instinct, and conscience], but would pursue their joys and happiness in their own way. Out of this false use of reason, out of this abuse of reason, as I remarked in the beginning of my book, grew science, the daughter of that serpent, not only the science of medicine, but also the other sciences (pedagogy, theology, philosophy, jurisprudence, etc). Science does not observe the laws of Nature to make mankind prosperous and happy. Medical science even declares that living strictly in accordance with Nature would prove very injurious to man. Eating exclusively natural food does not give sufficient strength and injures the health, and the more intimate contact with light and air is very dangerous (colds, etc), it declares. Moreover, the natural mode of life would deprive us of many joys. On the basis of anatomical, chemical and other researches, it then goes on to prescribe an artificial diet, of which it says that it is at once enjoyable and strengthening to man, and thus lays down hygienic rules which leave instinct, taste (in its correct use), and conscience entirely out of consideration. Other departments of science, such as pedagogy, theology, philosophy, jurisprudence, etc, would also make men good and noble, and lay down precepts which in other ways than through close communion with Nature promise to guide men to happiness and contentment. In this way men came to put on shoes, to turn from the earth as their resting place, and to make

themselves bedsteads. They fancied thus to gain for themselves well-being, comfort, and joys which Nature did not offer them. But men gain neither comfort nor enjoyment, neither health nor happiness, neither virtue nor nobility of following the false allurements of their reason and the teachings of science, but only disease and pain, disgust and vexation, vice and crime, misery and despairthe very opposite of what they wished to attain, for thus Nature always avenges herself. The feet are in a certain sense for man what the roots are for plants. Man draws vital energy and strength out of the earth through his feet. Even barefooted, without sandals, if possible, ought to be the foundation of every Nature cure. In order to sleep again on the earth it is best to select a nice grass plot; if there is no grass plot to hand, a thin reed matting, such as gardeners use may be placed on the ground. In that way, of course, the earth power will fall very short of its full effect. Any thicker covering of straw, wool, cloth, or the like, to lie on must not be thought of, for the connection with the earth would in that case be markedly interfered with. No head rest is necessary, for it is of special benefit for the head to lie on the cool refreshing earth. We must not be discouraged if the first nights spent on the earth should prove uncomfortable. I have made the experience that patients, after the first few nights, were actually attracted to their bed on the ground, and strongly refused to tolerate anything under them. In rainy nights I was often concerned about having the patients come into the huts to sleep, so that the quilts should not get so wet, but it was with difficulty that I could induce the sick people to leave the ground. So, also, the hardness of lying on the ground is no longer felt. Nor need we fear the earth too cold at night to lie on entirely naked under covers; we shall only experience the sensation of delightful coolness. Some perspire more easily lying on the ground than in a bed. Of course, beginners and those persons who have not yet regained sufficient animal heat through a natural mode of life, can only lie naked on the ground under covers in warm summer nights, or in very mild or not too cold spring and autumn nights in our climate (Europe). During the first nights one generally sleeps worse on the ground than formerly in bed. After that, and sometimes even in cases of protracted and obstinate insomnia, a long, exceedingly refreshing and strengthening sleep will set in, which state of affairs will last for some time. But generally most persons will soon begin to sleep less and less, sometimes only from one to two hours, and the less they sleep nights lying on the ground, the brighter, stronger and fresher they will feel the next day. I myself have not slept a wink for weeks at a time on the ground, but during that period I never felt the least discomfort or trouble of any kind, as was formerly the case in sleepless nights during my long and severe nervous suffering while lying in a bed. On the contrary, those nights were particularly delightful and free of ennui, and during the day I was never so entirely without any trace of weariness and languor, and I never felt more refreshed than at that time.

Chapter Eight: Vital Economy by K. Lakshmana Sarma An abundance of the power called Life is the indispensable condition of Health, because, as we have seen, it is through the instrumentality of life that all vital processes, whether of health, or of disease, are possible, and this power resides, not in the gross body built up of food, but in the subtle body, of which scientists know nothing. We have also taken note of the fact that the amount of life-power that is present at any time in a body is limited by the encumbrances present. Since the reduction of encumbrances needs time and effort, this receptivity cannot be increased all at once. Hence, to maintain a sufficiency of vital power always, the only way is Vital Economy. Just here we will consider the pseudoscientific medical theory that food is the source of vital power. Medicos suppose that this is scientifically proved by the equality of the chemical energy of the food and the end products eliminated, namely carbonic acid gas, etc. This equality will always prevail,

whatever the food-rations consumed. If a man eats only a third or fourth of the amount prescribed by this pseudoscience, there will be the same equality. It is as if a parent, having a son at a University, tried to find out the allowance needed by the youth by remitting to him all he was able to spend; but the youths ability to spend bears no definite ratio to what he really needs. Our view on this point is that food serves only to make good the waste of bodily tissue that occurs by work done, and has nothing to do with the vital energy. The amount of food one needs to eat is determined by other laws than those imagined by the "scientists". It is a historical fact that these men invented their theory, known as the "calorie" theory, by the absurd and grossly misleading analogy of the steam-enginethe living body being considered by them as a kind of steam-engine which needs fuel for generating power, the food consumed being assumed to be the fuel needed by the human steam-engine. Actually there is not the least resemblance between the two. The body has more resemblance to an electrically-driven motor. The current of power that flows along the nerve, which causes the muscles to contract, is electricity, which itself is not life, but is generated and used by Life. The utter stupidity of this medical theory was demonstrated by Dr Dewey. He pointed out the scientific fact that, "Food is a tax on vitality." He also showed that the assumption was absurd, because if it were, there was no reason for fatigue. A tired man must go to his bedroom, and not to the dining room, to recover lost strength. We put it more strongly still by posing the question: Why death, if the theory be true? There is also the testimony of Dr Barbara Moore, who carried out long-distance walks in Britain and America, which testimony is given in the Appendix. Food needs to be digested, and the power that digests it is Life. The two are thus eternally distinct; that which is digested and that which digests are not all the same. Food does not digest itself. If it could, a tired man can recover his lost strength by eating a good meal. But the fact is, that meal might go far towards killing him. He must rest and recuperate and develop hunger and digestive power, before he would be fit to eat. On the other hand, by merely resting or sleeping, he recovers all his strength. The "scientists" ignore that fact that all through history there have been people who systematically ate about one-third or less of the medically prescribed rations, and have enjoyed superior health and fitness for work and lived happily, far beyond the biblical three-score and ten years. And even now there are followers of Hygiene, who eat very low rations on principle and are all the more healthy, efficient in work, and long-lived, because of their abstemiousness; these men are not infirm in their "old Age"; in fact, they are not old at all; for their youth is prolonged into what is called old age. Luigi Cornaro of Italy, who had lost his health in middle age, got a new lease of life and health, and lived to be more than a century old by simply cutting down his eating to twelve ounces a day. He wrote down his wonderful experiences of this life of sobriety in a book. Also, there is the testimony of Marco Polo, an Italian traveller, who wrote, in his book of travels in the "east", of the great longevity of the Brahmans of our country, due only to their abstemiousness in eating. There is also the crucial test of the cure of dyspeptics. These are easily and radically cured by fasting or an approach to fasting and other hygienic measures. They cannot digest the heavy rations of highcalorie foods prescribed by the medicos. If treated on orthodox lines they die in three to six years, suffering terribly all the time. The author himself was a sufferer from dyspepsia and neurasthenia, and was reduced to a state of utter hopelessness because of medical ignorance of the basic truth of the natural relation of food to Life; but he got restored to very good health in two years, by hygienic measures, as will be described later. Professor Chittenden of the US demolished the medical theory by experiments on himself and some volunteers. He proved that one third of the number of calories medically prescribed gave better health and strength than was possible by taking the full amount. Horace Fletcher, the advocate of thorough mastication, also proved the same truth by his own example and books. Dr Lindlahr said: "One third of what we eat nourishes us; the remaining two-thirds go to nourish the doctors." The facts of long fasts by patients for the recovery of health, as observed and recorded by the great

pioneers, totally disprove the theory. The medical view, that a faster lives on his own flesh until emaciation sets in, and then dies, is negated by these facts. Medicos do not know the distinction between fasting and starvation. The distinction is real, though rather too subtle for the obtuse brains of these self-styled "scientists". During a fast of a month or more, the body temperature as a rule remains constant; but the amount of body substance lost during the fast is not the same all the time. It is more than half a kilogram a day at first, but in the end it is a few milligrams, too little to account for the heat. It is the electric currents flowing in the nerves that maintain the body heat, not the tissue substance that is consumed. Also there is the curious fact that a man with an abnormally high temperature, who fasts, gets down to the normal, 98.4F. Also it happens that if a man with a subnormal temperature fasts long enough, say 40 days* (*Such long fasts are not advocated in our School of Health; this will be seen in the chapter on Fasting), the temperature rises to the normal. How do they propose to explain this? Professor Arnold Ehret states that a faster can be stronger after 20 days of fasting than he was before he began fasting. How is this explicable on the basis of the calorie theory? If this theory were true at all, then not one of those long fasts would have been possible. Dr Dubos, in his book on Basal Metabolism, had to admit that long fasts are not fatal because, as he put it, "some mysterious power intervenes to establish the basal metabolism (rate of processes of vital changes of food-substance) at a lower level so as to avoid disaster". This is an admission that life can survive without damage even when no food is taken for many weeks. Actually the abstinence from food has positively beneficial effects, as will be shown later. The principles and the rules of Vital Economy are proved true by the personal experience of all followers. And this alone will suffice to refute the calorie theory. That the minimum food, the food that is needed for the replacement of wasted body-substance, gives the best results in health and efficiency, is the conclusion arrived at by all the pioneers and their successors. On the other hand every excess over the minimum lowers the health-level and tends to provoke disease. The average eater, who consumes about four times as much, is subnormal in health and vigour, and is also deprived of access to the Natural Happiness that is derived from the Indwelling Supreme Spirit. He is miserable in proportion to his overeating. This much must suffice for demolishing this unproved, materialistic theory of the medicos. Here is a gem of commonsense uttered by an Irish soldier, quoted approvingly by Sir James Fayrer, showing that the climate of our country is not the real cause of the wreckage of health of British soldiers here: "They eat and they drink and they drink and they eat and they write home to say it was the climate that killed them." (Quoted by H Carrington in his book, Vitality, Nutrition and Fasting.) Extracted from: Sarma, K Lakshmana. 1984. Practical Nature Cure. Pudukottai, India: The Nature Cure Publishing House. Chapter Eight: Vital Economy: Part 2 Now we come to the true principle, namely Vital Economy. That which maintains health, and restores it when lost, is life. The fivefold food-medicine furnishes only the needed repair material. But the power that accomplishes these ends is life and life alone. This is evident from the fact that, without the vital response to the measures of health or cure, there is no cure. Those that ignore the life-power in their care of the sick do no good for them; on the other hand they do no harm. Life it is that does all the work, promoted and guided by Mother Nature, the hand-maid of God. When health is below par, it is life that restores it to its normal by efforts to eliminate foreign matter and to reduce the encumbrances that obstruct its functioning aright. A high level of health and ease in the cure of disease are both possible only when life-power is abundant, more than needful. Also the one that has an abundance of vital power enjoys a high degree of the Natural Happiness mentioned before, and is therefore always contented and cheerful and free from the grossly weakening slavery to desires for mere pleasures. On the other hand the man with low vitality is miserable, whether he is engaged in work or not, as remarked by the epic poet, Milton, who composed the Paradise Lost.

Like water stored in a lake or reservoir and spent economically through sluices, vital power that is stored up in the body serves in all possible ways to safeguard health. Also like money deposited in a bank and added to from time to time, vital power is available for all the urgent needs that may arise from time to time. On the other hand, like the improvident one who mortgages his house and lands, the one that squanders his vitality by self-indulgence, actually mortgages his body to disease and death. Life pervades and penetrates the whole of the living body that is unencumbered by foreign matter. (Even if some of this matter be not filth in a strict sense, it is a handicap to health, because matter in the wrong place is filth.) But in the encumbered body life-power is obstructed and hindered in its work by the foreign matter. Hence the necessity of keeping down the encumbrances and of making the body free from them by suitable hygienic means. If the vital power be insufficient, due to improper and excessive expenditure, it can be made to suffice by sensible economy in the expenditure, reducing the waste of vitality through channels that can be profitably closed. For this purpose measures like continence (Brahmacharya), fasting or abstemious eating, are useful and necessary. By these measures the foreign matter is eliminated and the body lightened, and then more vital power flows into the body from its mysterious source, whatever it may be. When there is abundant vitality, the body feels light, the tissues are clean, and the bodily figure is normal and comely. Quite otherwise are the effects if life-power is reduced to a low level. For lifepower is lessened by filthy foreign matter and by drug-poisons. Herein we must remember the categorical statement of Dr Alonzo Clark that "every dose (of medicine) diminishes the patients vitality". The greatest waste of power occurs in the work of food-disposal. By this waste life is greatly weakened, encumbrances increase and diseases occur again and again, become worse and worse. It is true that weakness of life occurs after sexual indulgence also. But men become victims of lust, chiefly because they overeat, thereby poisoning their brains and thus producing discontent and cravings. Hence the practice of Dietetic Righteousness is fundamental to health of mind and body. And of Dietetic Righteousness, Vital Economy is the chief part. The practice of moderation and self-control in the sex-life is usually understood to be the meaning of the term Brahmacharya, but we may consider self-control in all kinds of indulgence as included in the meaning of that word. It is the non-observance of Brahmacharya in this wide sense that tends to loss of health. And if the same course of wrong conduct be persisted in, where is the chance of the person recovering good health? But if he submits himself to the discipline that will be detailed here, and thus increase his store of vitalityhis Vital Reservethen to him Nature will vouchsafe good health. By excessive attachment to enjoyments one comes to disregard the rules of hygienic living; and this leads to loss of vitality. By communion with the four higher sources of healthnamely Ether, Air, Light, and WaterVital Power is maintained. But it is by the encumbering toxic filth that communion is hindered. Of all these four, the Ether-power is the subtlest and most important. And more of this power is received by observing Brahmacharya in the wider sense given above. Perhaps Life is the same as this subtlest of all the five elements of creation. Hence access to this source of life must be kept up for the maintenance of a high level of vitality. In the sexual life the married man must economise his vitality. That is his Brahmacharya, not absolute abstinence. It is said that the waste of semen is weakening. But it is the waste of vital power that is the real weakening of life. It is through loss of vital power that is the real cause of the weakening of life. It is through loss of vital power that the lustful man contracts horrible diseases, which are labelled as "syphilis" and treated by unlimited dosing with poisons like mercury, arsenic or antibiotics. But by Vital Economy and positive feeding these much-abused sufferers can be redeemed from the depths of incurable disease to which they are reduced by medical violence.

But of all the disciplines that are prescribed for men, the most important is Dietetic Righteousness, for the reason stated before, namely that other forms of unrighteousness arise from the constitutional defects caused by unrighteous eating. He that eats rightly is able to observe all the laws of righteousness. Indeed he is an all round righteous man as stated in the verse quoted from the Shri Bhagavatam. Food is eaten, and it eats; therefore its name is Annam, says the Taittiriya Upanishad. The significance of this text must be understood. What is eaten righteously is eaten and the end-products are eliminated, and hence health is unaffected. But if there be wrong eating, then it becomes toxic filth, which, being retained, is the cause of disease and death. The other text, which says that food is both medicine and poison, means the same thing. Even wholesome food, if eaten in excess and without hunger, becomes toxic filth. So wholesome food must be eaten righteously. What is wholesome food is explained in the next chapter. This rule is for both the healthy and the sick. Examples have been given already in the discussion of the calorie theory, those of Luigi Cornaro, and the Brahmanas of the past ages. The abstemious eater obtains all blessings, namely health of body and mind, length of life and happiness. On the other hand the unrighteous eater loses both bodily and mental health. The following story of one of the many experiments I made on myself will prove instructive. Once in 1915 or thereabouts I was overtaken by a nervous breakdown, for which I stopped eating and lived on tender coconut water for 15 days. Afterwards I planned to live on bananas and milk, sweetened with brown sugaravailable thenfor some months, for the sake of better health. At first I took about one litre of milktwo small-sized tumblersand four bananas, twice daily. The very next day I felt great weakness and a sense of heaviness. It occurred to me to cut down the rations by half. I took only one tumblerful of milk and two bananas each time. At once the weakness and heaviness vanished and I was able to go on with this diet for about six months. This was to me a proof that when the food does not agree, the remedy will be to cut down the rations and must be adjusted to suit ones capacity to digest and eliminate. This is how Vital Economy is to be practised. In this practise the calorie theory should be disregarded, because this theory is against the Order of Nature. It happens that some unrighteous eaters are seemingly not seriously affected in health, so that doubts may arise as to the truth of the teachings of hygiene. These men boast of their "excellent health" in spite of wrong eating. But if scrutinised according to the science of encumbrances, given later, they would be found to be harbouring diseases in seed form, and often these men die suddenly and unexpectedly of diseases arising from these encumbrances. Also their progeny is far from healthy. We should rather look at the instances of high level health and longevity of those that live righteously, and the instances of renewed health by reform of habits according to hygiene. Chapter Nine: But Is It Nature Cure? by C. Leslie Thomson "Ho ye who suffer. Know ye suffer from yourselves. None else compelsno other holds ye that ye live or die." Siddartha Extracted from: Thomson, C Leslie, ND. 1949. But Is It Nature Cure? (Pamphlet). Edinburgh: Kingston Clinic. Forward Many of our longer-established adherents will recognise this as an augmented revisal of the statement first published eight years ago. The need for its message has not diminished in that time. Its first appearance aroused considerable antagonism from many of those whose practices and theories it described. The reaction built up steadily and reached full fury after the publication, by the Incorporated Society of Registered Naturopaths, of a leaflet entitled This Nature Cure. This clear

statement of beliefs included the following extract from the Societys by-laws: "Members shall not prescribe remedies, eg. biochemicals, tissue salts, gland extracts, vitamin concentrates, allopathic, homeopathic or herbal preparations, nor shall they offer or promise cures for specific conditions." Understand, please, that our Society did not, and does not, attempt to impose that simple regulation on anyone except the practitioners on its Register. There is not the faintest suggestion of either seeking power to stop any one from going to any kind of practitioner that he or she may choose, or to interfere with the free choice of that practitioner in the methods he may use. Yet in a heated, and at times personally abusive onslaught, and at times personally abusive, which occupied a large proportion of editorial space in a "health" magazine for the best part of a year, we were accused of attempting to "dictate" to herbalists, homeopaths, biochemic dosers, tissue-salters and number of other varieties of the genus cure-seller. It is a sincere, although unwelcome, compliment to Nature Cure that these people should be so anxious to claim a place within it. The principles of Nature Cure certainly reach far beyond the treatment of people in ill-health, but these principles are not to be extended, twisted and mutilated to serve the purposes of those who profit by pill-vending. Every so often, one or other of the many unorthodox practitioner groups attempts to persuade the others to unite and demand some form of "official recognition": The aim is not always the same: sometimes the BMA is to be asked to grant recognition, sometimes the government. Either way, the hoped-for prize is a fairer deal for the non-medical patient and a legal status for unorthodox practitioners equal to that enjoyed by medical doctors. Nobody could deny that the National Health Service imposes heavy and grossly unfair burdens upon citizens who wish treatment other than that provided by the scalpel-and-drug school; but there are many reasons why we cannot sink our professional differences to present an apparently united front to the government of the day. If the hope is to further the cause and teachings of true Nature Cure, we must not start off by abandoning its fundamental principles. Just how these differ from the principles of any other variety of unorthodoxy may not be immediately obvious to our patients, who may accordingly feel that we are weakening our political potential by maintaining our individual identity. This critical survey is presented in the hope that it will show why we remain "awkward". We believe that reason is on our side. Words Out of Place Very few of those who resort to Nature Cure have any previous understanding of the principles involved. It is therefore not surprising that the average layman is unable to distinguish between various methods of therapy. He apparently believes that if a practitioner does not use drugs and medicaments of the usual kinds, or if he instructs his patients not to eat meat, or any other common article of food, or if he makes some mysterious ritual out of what would otherwise appear to be a perfectly simple and insignificant action, then he must be a Nature Cure Practitioner. That this confusion should still be widespread is only partly due to the restricted opportunity which we have for publicising our principles. More positively it is due to such factors as the intentionally misleading claims and implications of patent medicines advertisements and the activities of individuals who are in no way qualified to offer treatment or advice to those in ill-health but who have found it possible to make a living by purveying worthless or damaging preparations, claimed to be "natural" either in origin or in action. The health magazines are overcrowded with noisy claims on behalf of brews, extracts and compounds which will induce "inner cleanliness" or "assist the body in its self-healing effort." The proprietors of these various medicinal preparations and "health foods" are well aware that people are becoming increasingly suspicious of treatments which run counter to the bodys natural processes, and many of them seek to maintain the confidence of their customers by borrowing the language and arguments of true Nature Cure. The actual preparation may be identical with what it was 20 or 30 years ago, when it was advertised as having a frankly chemical and coercive effect on the body. That matters little: soothing double-talk about "natural action" lulls the customers suspicions and promises relief from his miseries in return for mere hard cash. But whether the patients belief in the naturalness of the

remedy is genuine or merely a lazy or ignorant assumption, the net result is that his picture of Nature Cure is distorted to include the preparation and any physiological effect which may be claimed by the vendor. True Treatment Is Training That reference to "mere hard cash" is not so smug as it may sound. We are up against the essential deceit of the great majority of orthodox and unorthodox treatmentsthat the patient can be healed by paying some one to "take away the disease" without involving the patient in either physical or mental exertion. These treatments do not recognise that the disease is a part of the patientnot something which has made unlawful entry into his body. It is nothing more heroic than a state of filth and disrepair into which the patient has allowed his system to fall. The main causes are the patients own behaviour, character and environment. None of these is significantly affected by the purchase and consumption of a concoction which may jolt the body into some form of physiological reaction. To many, the financial outlay can be a very real sacrifice, but it does not in any way serve as a substitute for self-discipline, intelligent understanding, and the personal and sustained effort which the patient must be prepared to expend if he is to regain genuine health. It matters not whether the vendor genuinely believes in the curative effects of his vegetable extract or tissue-food, or whether he is simply a commercial agent with something to sell, the implication that the patient need make no attempt to mend his ways is part of the philosophy of the orthodox medical school. Misapplying the technical terms from Nature Cure writings may confuse the consumer, but it does not remove the basic fallacy. Carefully Hidden Help Many of the more intelligent vendors do make some attempt to show the patient a better way of living. It may be camouflaged as a condition for producing the best effects of the remedy; instructions about avoiding this or that undesirable item of diet while taking the "cure" are commonly found on the leaflet wrapped around the bottle. Such advice may have far more effect on the patients body than any active ingredient within the bottle. If genuine improvement does occur, it can be fairly directly traced to (1) some simple advice of a corrective nature, administered with the preparation, (2) absence of any damaging drug in the remedy and, not by any means least, (3) discontinuance of a more hurtful and suppressive treatment. Any reader who has had personal experience of benefit following the use of one or other of the many "natural remedies" will no doubt be able to decide which of these three factors was most applicable to his or her own case. Different Standards In this country today we find two groups of people, with different motives, persuading the public that all unorthodox healers, their philosophies and their practices, must sink or swim together. On one hand, we find the medical intereststhrough their many and varied channels from Cabinet Ministers to glossy advertising bookletsassuring the public that all practitioners not on the medical register are "unqualified". The implication is that they are ignorant peddlers of dangerous nonsense. On the other side of the fence we find the untrained "healers" and most of the vendors of "health preparations", all eager to claim equality with the trained and qualified practitioner of natural therapeutics. "Numbers tell more than quality!" is their cry. "Let us unite and seek affiliation with the medical trade union." Readers of Rude Health have had many instances of the ways in which fair representation and expression of our teachings is hampered by orthodoxy, whether it be legal, medical, financial or Departmental. Also, the fallacy behind the clamour for "recognition" has been clearly and repeatedly exposed. In most states of America where osteopaths and chiropractors have been given legal status their activities are tolerated as mere adjuncts to regular medical practice. How the Press Is Tied The topical press does not assist the layman to distinguish between the various unorthodox systems. Now and then some newspaper columnist, knowing that most readers mildly question current medical

practice, tries to suggest that although medicine may be overburdened with stupidity and professional dignity and is a pawn of big business, unorthodox healers are a hundred times worse. A fairly typical specimen appeared recently in one of the national dailies. The writer was at pains to make it clear that he would not dream of suggesting that any other unorthodox people he met were either fools or knaves, and yet he was equally careful to imply that their activities were suggestive of those who are slightly dizzy, or mainly concerned with money-making. But then, that incisive Chestertonian definition of a journalist"a man who writes of the backs of advertisements"is painfully true. If there were no advertisementsand those of the drug group (including the tobacco firms) are more numerous than any otherthe poor journalist would be out of a job. So most editors require that any publicity given to unorthodox healing must leave a derogatory general impression. A tolerant amusement is always safe and effective. Another time-honoured method is to take up all the rubbish to be found, however unrelated and inapplicable, heap it over the object of attention and then ask "How can any one respect that?" Homeopathy Let us now consider, individually, a few of the therapies most commonly confused with Nature Cure. The following is typical of many enquiries: "I should be much obliged if you would publish a short statement on your opinion of homeopathy. Your attitude to the orthodox profession is made abundantly clear, but I feel sure that many people would welcome a reliable Nature Cure opinion on the subject of homeopathy. I am inclined to believe that there are more homeopaths who use Naturopathic aids than Naturopaths who use Homeopathy." That last sentence is more deeply significant than a first reading might suggest. Its implications cover not only the confusion between the two systemsin the lay mindbut also provide the essential reason why homeopathy still flourishes. Quite apart from the most important argument against homeopathythat it caters to the "disease-is-not-your-fault" and "health-can-be-bought" mentality there is the undeniable fact that its theories and practices do not bear serious investigation. Competent and impartial investigators have demonstrated time and again that the hypothesis of increasing potency with increasing dilution is utter nonsense. If there was any justification for the claim, the most powerful medicine imaginable would be a glass of distilled water, since thisfrom mathematical probabilitycontains every homeopathic drug in quantities corresponding to the highest potencies. However, the resourceful Homeopath probably has an answer to that, too! The text-books of homeopathy are characterised by a startling mixture of positive dogmatism and evasive generality. Selfcontradiction is a feature of homeopathic writings. "All drugs are disease-producing and poisonous", and "only through homeopathy will there be real progress in their administration". Or, " the homeopath does not treat symptoms, but individuals". That sounds fineright in line with Nature Cureuntil a later chapter explains that every homeopathic drug is specific to a symptom. Behind the Drug The philosophy of homeopathy is probably its own worst enemy, so we need waste no further time on that aspect. The important thing is that people treated by homeopathy mostly fare better than they would have done under orthodox treatment. How can we reconcile this with the physical nonsense of homeopathic drugs? The answer lies partly in the fact that no treatment at all often produces better results than medical or surgical interferencea fact which even an occasional doctor or surgeon acknowledges. In many cases, the faith of the patient and of the practitioner in the remedy is an important factor, and it may even be the only positive one. Faith is important if any treatment is to be successful. But there is a world of difference between blind, unreasoning faith in a drugor practitionerand the faith which results from an intellectual understanding of the situation. But the most important factor, in the cases which do show lasting benefit, is the advice or treatment given in addition to the homeopathic remedy. "What else did you do?" can often bring revealing information from one who believes that he or she has been cured by a wonder-drugbe it homeopathic, herbal, or a laboratory synthetic. Many who claim to be homeopaths are really giving Nature Cure advice and treatmentwith varying degrees of understanding and successand are using the stuff in the bottle solely as a symbol upon which the patient can concentrate his faith. (The practitioner himself may unconsciously do the same thing. He may have neither the training nor the self-confidence to rely on

natural methods, and must have the support of what appears to him to be a tried and tested preparation.) Such treatment is based on deceit: the patient is not made aware of the real causes of his disease or of the source of healingthe organised forces of his body. It is therefore only to be expected that once he feels that he is "cured" he will revert to his former way of living. His body will once more fall into disrepair and, some time later, he will again have to seek external assistance from the magic symbol. Putting the best complexion on homeopathy, it may be described as a halfway house between allopathy (orthodox drugging) and Nature Cure. It does less positive harm to the patient than allopathy, but it does not comprehend and acknowledge the true causes of health and disease. Unorganised Minerals "Tissue Salts" are in a way related to the homeopathic method. The general idea is that the more finely a substance is divided the more likely it is to affect or be of use to the cells of the body. Tissue-salt therapy at least has the advantage over homeopathy of being less easily shown fallaciousparticularly by orthodox biochemists. (Indeed, so secure against attack from this quarter do some vendors feel that they call their preparations "biochemic remedies!") But the fallacy is there, nevertheless. All students of Nature Cure, lay or professional, know only too well how misleading a picture of any food a chemical analysis can give. Government and cartel chemists have persuaded most people that finely divided chalk added to flour is as good as, or even better than, the organised minerals removed in milling. Possibly some of these chemists even believed what they are saying. The plain fact is that with a few obscure and doubtful exceptions, no higher animaland that includes mancan make constructive use of any mineral unless it comes through the plant kingdom. The mineral salts have to be built up by plants into living tissue before they are fit for the digestive and metabolic system of man to use for body building, body cleansing, or any other constructive purpose. Solutions Are Finer The manufacturer of tissue salts claims that the only difference between inert minerals and organised salts is in the fineness of the particles: that and nothing else. So he grinds up the materialin a suitable medium, laboriously and with much displayand claims that in this finely divided form the salts can be used by the body. Any one with the most elementary knowledge of physical chemistry knows that a mineral salt can be readily divided into the smallest possible particlesindividual ionsby simply dissolving it in water. (But possibly the tissue-salt-maker believes that he shakes up the nuclear structure of substances, too?) Tissue salts are not entirely worthlessbut their value is approximately the same as that of a slightly hard drinking water. That is, they may provide a small concentration of mineral salts within the alimentary canal, and so reduce any tendency to "leaching" by a too-soft and over-consumed water supply. (It is an interesting coincidence that many of those who advocate the use of tissue-salts also uphold the drinking of distilled water. The combination of these two follies is a less serious problem for the body than either by itself. Distilled water, which would otherwise tend to withdraw salts of organic origin from the body, may be "appeased" to some extent by the minerals in the medicament. A direct cancellation of the two factors is unlikely, but the net general effect is probably little different from that of drinking an equal volume of ordinary tap water.) Here again, the advice given with the salts may be useful but, as with homeopathy, the tendency to put ones faith in the wrong factor is a most undesirable feature. Herbalism Both homeopathy and "tissue salts" have the negative virtue of being practically incapable of real harm almost a positive virtue by comparison with orthodox medication! But the same cannot be said of another method of treatmentone which is probably more often confused with N.C. than any other the herbal remedies. Broadly, the claim made for these is that since they are all extracts and preparations of plant tissues they are, ipso facto, "natural", and hencewithout question"good for you". The fallacy of that claim is clearly enough exposed by the fact that nearly all the most potent and dangerous drugs in the materia medica are of vegetable origin. Almost invariably, the next argument comes up, and in general terms is: "Animals seek out particular herbs when they are illand animals are natural". The answer to that is rather awkward, because one has to contradict the questioner. There is no evidence that wild animals seek out specific herbs when they are ill. The domestic cat or dog may chew

grass when it wants to get rid of a troublesome stomachful. But the grass has no curative or drug effect, it is simply a violent irritant to the stomach of a carnivore or semi-carnivore. A dog eating grass is equivalent to a human sticking a finger down this throat. The principles of herbalism are essentially those of any other drug system. Certain poisons will produce definite physiological results in the body. The patient has symptoms of some particular kind, and the herbalist prescribes something which will neutralise the symptom or produce a tolerable imitation of normal function. The drugs he uses may be slightly less effective than those used by the orthodox medico, but they still function by poisoning the body into defensive reactiona process which, if sufficiently violent or often enough repeated, must inevitably exhaust the vital reserves of the body. Some herbal preparations, of course, are almost harmless and owe their efficacy to suggestive smells and flavours. The beneficial effects of coloured watertaken in the belief that it contains some magic elixirare too well-known to need elaboration here. But it should be again stressed that just because a preparation of no real value is offered by a herbalist, or any other physician, that is insufficient reason for calling the man a fraud. The purely chemical effect on the tissues is less important than the patients general response. In this the nervous system is the principal agent, and is influenced by all manner of suggestion. If a remedy appears to give the results sought for, then it is justifiable for the practitioner to prescribe it with some confidence in any similar case. This leads to a consideration which although not directly within the scope of the present discussion, is related to it, and should be stressed at every opportunity. Patients Have Duties The ethics of being a patient are rarely emphasised, but they are almost as important as those of the practitioner. For example, a new Nature Cure patient may be required to produce a medical certificate that he is unfit for work. The medical doctor who examines him will normally give some advice or a prescription along with the certificate. It is vitally important that the patient should make it clear to the doctorhowever tactfullythat his advice is not sought; only his signature. This may cause some feelings at the time, but it is the only honourable course. As a Nature Cure patient, the subject is likely to undergo a more rapid and successful recovery than a medical patient, and this "usually good" recovery will undoubtedly be credited by the medico to his prescriptionunless the patient has explained the position. In a recent case of this kind a young woman undergoing a violent fever was advised by the doctor to take a proprietary sulpha drug. The drug was not taken and the patient made a rapid (normal Nature Cure) recovery. The doctor now believes that the drug produced a wonderful cure and will certainly use it in all similar cases in the near future. The deadly effects of the sulpha drugs are well-known to our readers, and it is impossible to assess the suffering in others which may result from that patients lack of moral courage. Extracts and Irritants "Health Foods" appear to many people to be in the same category as herbs but, although there are some borderline cases, in the main there is a clear distinction. Herbs are plant tissues which have a poisonous effect on the body, whereas the typical "health food" is most often a concentrate or extract of a nonpoisonous nature. "Health foods" which, for instance, induce bowel movement, are of the borderline type. They act either by chemical or physical irritation of the intestines. (See "Two Health Problems"). But the majority of "health foods" are relatively innocent substances, which may to some extent make good one or other of the all-too-common deficiencies of civilised dietaries. For Beginners Many so called "health foods" are, of course, simply attractive and palatable concoctions of perfectly wholesome and natural foodstuffs. There can be very little objection to these, so long as they are taken only as a minor part of ones dietary, and their true functionornamental and appetising garnishings is appreciated. To many newcomers, the Nature Cure diet appears dull, insipid, and lacking in substance. That impression gradually gives way to a happier enjoyment as the digestive system of the patient is restored to more efficient working, and the senses of taste and smell recover from overstimulation by spices and seasoning. During the transition stage, a discreet use of various fruit, nut, and grain preparations may make the new diet more attractive to the novice.

It should be clearly understood that all "health foods" are totally unnecessary for the individual who is living on a reasonably well-balanced diet. Not only are they superfluous but, considered as a whole, some even have an insidiously damaging effect on the nations health. For instance, those prepared from by-products of the "purification" of flour. The miller removes the germ and bran and is paid for doing so. He sells the germ to a "health food" manufacturer who retails itafter a form of cookingto a small fraction of the community as a mutilated concentrate of what ought to be distributed in a more wholesome form to the entire community. Most other "health foods" are less anti-social, but are usually fantastically over-priced. The best that can be said of them is that they are harmless, and some may be of value. Even then, a slight correction in diet would probably have been better. Essentially, they are "something to sell". A Warning An extract or concentrate is always to be treated with suspicionit can so easily upset the balance of an otherwise reasonable dietand it may be a concentrate of the wrong part of the original food. A classic example of this was provided some years ago by a synthetic vitamin-D product. Using spectroscopic analysis to control their process, the firms chemists were able to attain a higher concentration of "vitamin-D" than previously thought possible. The only snag was that when the stuff was put on the market it caused several deaths and a large number of less serious poisonings. Even where synthetically-prepared vitamins or vitamin concentrates are administered without apparent ill-effect, they do not behave as vitamins in their natural form. In almost monotonous succession the "vitamins" which were so intensively prescribed by the medicos only a few years ago are being found ineffective. For a vitamin to perform its proper function in the body, the orthodox physiologist now finds that it requires the presence and co-operation of many other substances. These other factors occur strangely!in the natural foods which contain the vitamin, and the modern teaching is that vitamins are not simple substances, but "complexes". Each consists of two, three or dozens of more-or-less related compounds. In practice, the only way to ensure reliable and useable supplies of any particular vitamin in swallowable form is to eat the whole food in which it occurs. Electronic Magic "Black Boxes" are scarcely in the same category as the products discussed so far, but they also are often wrongly attributed to Nature Cure. A Dr Abrams of California started the ball rolling in the early twenties when the new hobby of wireless was all the rage and every one was talking about "vibrations", "wavelengths" and "ether rays". His methods were ingenious and his "explanations" and diagnostic terms were blatantly borrowed from naturopathic teachings. For a while his successmainly financial was phenomenal. His apparatus was unquestionably fraudulent, but the users of his "oscilloclasts" and "oscilloblasts" did get resultsand sometimes remarkably good results. This does not in any way diminish our belief that the apparatus is useless. A hazel twig is in itself "useless" but in the hands of the right person it can "diagnose" water, oil, metals, etc. The virtue, however, resides in the individual, not the twig. In time the Abrams stunt was shown up for what it wasa money-making swindleand for some years nothing more was heard of his techniques. Then other "black boxes" made their appearance, some in Britain. The "second generation" has had a longer, if less spectacular, run, although the technique and "patter" are faithful reproductions of the original. A Federal Inquiry Within recent years there have been further attempts in the States to make capital out of the popular respect for, and ignorance of, electronic apparatus. The first of these was exposed by a Federal inquiry, and revealing details were published in radio journals. The outfit had certainly developed since Abrams day, being similar to the more impressive type of super-radiogram in appearance, and filled with a bewildering conglomeration of radio components. The function of these, however, was exactly as in Abrams effortpsychologically potent but electrically nil. The gadgets alleged function changes little with the years: it "determines the wavelength of the disease vibrations" and then, by throwing a switch "generates vibrations which will cancel those of the disease". The diagnosis can be made from the patient in person, from a drop of his blood, or even from his handwriting. Astonishingif only it were true. But, still, the personal factor - in the form of the operator (physician)is involved, and any

success the machine may have is due solely to the ability of the practitioner to diagnose from superficial symptoms, and on the psychological effect of the apparatus, and the sales talk, on the patient. At least one operator has imaginatively extended his scope by using the gadget only for diagnosis. For therapeutic effects he relies on his own special collection of homeopathic and biochemic remedies. The attraction of the mystic power of electricity is exploited in many other ways. Connecting a group of people "in circuit" by means of copper wires is practised for the alleged purpose of "causing a healing current to flow"or words to similar effect. When the sceptic demonstrates that no electric current of significant nature or magnitude does flow, the operator is liable to take refuge in double-talk about "vibrations of etheric rather than purely electrical character". This may satisfy the anxious-tobelieve patient, but cuts little ice with the healthy student of electronics. Perhaps to avoid such criticism, the wires are sometimes omitted, and the group holds hands to form a ring. There is no doubt that intense emotional and nervous reactions can be generated by such a group: but that the reactions are wholesome and healthful is at least questionable. Just as in mobs of greater number, it is likely that the least balanced intelligence and the feelings of the emotionally immature will tend to predominate. The stopping of disease symptoms by excitement is practised in many forms. it is essentially self-deceit and, like the now outmoded Coue system, is liable to aggravate the physical distress of the body by upsetting its nervous co-ordination and control. "Urine Therapy" An Ancient Fallacy Emotional perversions are strange. They seem to give the unfortunate victim an uncanny power to influence others who may be hovering on the brink, and drag them down into the pit. To any healthy person, the idea of injecting urine into ones body, or of drinking the stuff, is repulsive in the extreme. But to one whose whole system is almost frantic with toxic overload, the prospect may seem less forbidding. (That is, of course, if they realise what is being offered to them. There are many more who happily submit to equally degrading treatment, because they are not sufficiently interested to find out what is being administered. Vaccination is a case in point). The consumption of urine is not, as some suppose, a new therapeutic discovery. It is mentioned, for example, in a French dictionary of drugs in the eighteenth century: "Fresh urine, two or three glasses drunk in the morning fasting, is good against gout, hysterical vapours and obstructions". The fascination of such treatment is bound up with childish complexes and adolescent repressions. The problem is assuredly psychological. Mental kinks can, of course, be resolved by physical treatment, but the symptoms cannot be described and comprehended in simple terms of physical cause and effect. In a psychological disturbance, the reasons given by the victim for his actions are not true reasons, but "rationalisations". So it is with the "theory" behind urine therapy. It does not bear investigation, but if said with dignity may sound like sense. The argument goes something like this: "The kidneys are organs of elimination: they throw deadly poisons from the body and keep it clean. What comes from the kidneys must inevitably contain much of the material which helps the kidneys to work. The essence of kidney-activity is in urine. The body will be better if the kidneys have more of this essence to work with. Therefore, restore to the body the valuable material which would otherwise simply go to waste". Put rank poison into the body to make it cleaner. Yes, the same tale is spun by the homeopaths, the upholders of vaccination and inoculations, and the druggists"ethical" and herbal. The magic lure of the paradox! The so-called National Health Service, the principal function of which is to facilitate and increase the consumption of drugs of all kinds, is also fundamentally based on this ancient superstition. Other aspects of the massive fallacy are seen in the various attempts to medicate the population by massprescription. Iodisation of salt is one instance, while an even more insidious and menacing example is the fluoridation of drinking-water supplies. (Some of the pathological and financial effects of the latter are discussed in Fluoridation and Tooth Health.) These forms of medication, however, have a certain cultured respectability and no unpleasant taste or smell, whereas the idea of urine-drinking is so repellent to the normal individual that there must be intense emotional distress, as well as faith in the paradox, to overcome the natural revulsion.

Pro Tem "Cures" Again, such treatments brings results. It would take a very bovine constitution not to react violently to such an affront. The symptoms of the original disease may vanishmiraculouslyand the "healer" will suggest that you have "helped the body with its self-healing effort". What has actually occurred is that the system is shocked and bewildered by this new addition to its worries. When the body is shocked, it is liable to lose so much vitality that it cannot continue whatever effort at self-healing may have been in progress. It concentrates on purely vital activity; survival is of prime importance. The outward symptoms of disease vanish. The patient becomes intoxicated, literally and metaphorically, and thinks he is well. For a while. Then comes the reckoning. He is appalled to find that far from helping his body to regain health, he may have subjected it to so great a shock, and so hindered the bodys normal functions, that his chances of a real recovery have dwindled to zero. (In passing, it may not be inappropriate to mention that although most people would draw the line at drinking urine, they might not have any strong objection to a cup of beef tea. The main constituents are very similarso perhaps it is mostly a matter of how you have been brought up!) Brutalising the Body Glandular extracts, although a source of much excellent ammunition for the opponents of vivisectional experiments, do not appear to the layman as very dangerous substances. "They are, after all, just the same things that ones own body makes and uses and are surely the most natural of all drugging or injectional treatment". True, up to a point. The juice of a calfs gland may be so similar to that of your own corresponding organ that it does not cause immediate collapse when squirted into your bloodstream. And it does make things happen! That is unquestioned. The diabolical thing is that glandular extractsand synthetic hormonesare so powerful that they brutalise the system into activities which it was probably striving to keep quiescent. A drug may make it difficult for the body to prevent undesirable activities, but a glandular extract can make restraint impossible. That is, the patients natural defences are penetrated and nothing his system can do will stop the devastation of his vital reserves. The worst feature of hormone therapy is that it may rapidly render the patients own glands inactive. If the gland was unable to produce adequate secretion previously, it will certainly not increase its efforts when the body finds its urgent need being met by external assistance. Consider the individual whose pancreas has been weakened and damaged by wrong living and who shows the outward symptoms of diabetes. If the patient is put on the right linesand continues to live a reformed existencethe general improvement in the conditions of his body may permit the pancreas, along with any other vital organs which may have suffered, to increase the efficiency of its remaining active tissue. Even if most of the glandular structure has been destroyed, the fraction remaining will usually compensate and may produce almost as much of the essential materials as the whole organ did originally. The bodys recuperative ability is almost incredible, given a fair chance. Insulin A very different sequence occurs if a glandular extractin this case, insulinis administered. (Particularly if the orthodox dietetic changes are made, since these increase enormously the overload on the vital organs.) Instead of maintaining a determined effort to become wholesome and selfsupporting, the body accepts the foreign material, and to the onlooker the "improvement" is magical. The system stops trying to keep the defective organ in working order. Why should it continue to make so laborious an effort if a working substitute is provided? The last vestiges of activity in the defective organ may fade out within a few months. The patient is now wholly dependent upon material robbed, with violence, from another creature. The humanitarian aspect is distressing, but no nearly so dreadful as what happens within the patients body. Where formerly the system was in a more or less uniform state of toxic saturation and malfunction, we find that a wholly artificial stimulus to metabolic activity has been introduced. That is, the energy which the body allows to be expended on various activities is no longer regulated by the capabilities and reserves of the system as a whole, but by the dosage of the glandular extract. This, in turn, is affected by the food-consumption of the patient and also by the ever-increasing strain on other vital

organs. A mad vicious circle is set up and the patient is fortunate indeed who can even hold his own against the forces which are acting in concert for his destruction. A gross misrepresentation? "Diabetes can now be controlled accurately and with complete success" is the claim of the medical school. "Insulin is the most wonderful curative agent of modern times", we are assured. But the inescapable fact is that the death-rate from diabetes has risen rapidly in a very part of the world where insulin is used! A fifty per cent increase in 10 years is this countrys record (1926-36). USA deaths rose 68 per cent between 1922 and 1944. False Promises Insulin is only one of a large variety of glandular extracts, but the effects are typical. They seem to produce wonderful results, but these are only obtained by a sort of "chemical hypnotism"the substance and individuality of the patient are consumed in a cruelly deceptive display of renewed energy and vitality. How to Destroy Nature Cure A final word about the risks, from the practitioners point of view, of dabbling in "near-medicine". This can probably best be exemplified by what has happened in the USA, where true Nature Cure has been almost squeezed out of existence by the openly aggressive activities of the American Medical Association. What seems to have happened is that many of the one-time naturopaths took up one or other of the "therapies" we have discussed and were promptly, and with legal justification, prosecuted for practising medicine without being duly registered practitioners. The situation is well reflected in a recent personal letter from Dr Herbert Shelton, of San Antonio, Texas, one of the genuine practitioners. He writes: "They have gone in for physio-therapy, synthetic vitamins, glandular products, and a lot of other clap-trap The medicos have succeeded in closing -----s School". (A Naturopathic college). Nature Cure or Not Nature Cure? Summarising this catalogue of disclaimers, it may be said that the true Nature Cure Practitioner does not make use of any poisons to produce physiological reactions: neither poisons which are openly admitted as such, nor poisons which masquerade as natural and vegetable remedies, nor even poisons administered in doses so fantastically small that they do not even exist. He does not make capital out of the superstitious belief of the ignorant in magic symbolssuch as bottles of different hues, smells pleasant and pungent, pills, capsules and powders. He is not interested in shopkeepinghe does not try to persuade his patients that health depends upon special preparations of foods and near-foods. He makes it clear that the most healthful foods are those which have not been prepared or tampered with in any way. He does not practise the witchcraft of those who feed or inject into their patients the most filthy, repulsive, stinking, abominable stuffs that can be found on land or sea. He does not, above all, allow his patient to believe that he, the practitioner, can cure any disease. He does teach the patient how he, the patient, can correct the mistakes in his way of living. He may help the patient to untie some of the knots which result from a ravelled existence. He knows, and he tells his patient, that disease is a thing which occurs only in unhealthy bodies. A healthy body can, and does, repair its own deficiencies. That is the essential principle behind all Nature Cure philosophy and practice. Work for a healthy mind in a healthy body and there is no call for remedies, artificial or "natural". Although we have discussed a varied list of fads and fancies, one quality is common to them all: they are unnecessary and have no place in Nature Cure. In the maintenance of health they are as superfluous as they are an impediment to its re-establishment. Of a few, it may be allowed that they do no physical harmbut even these are guilty of considerable psychological evil. The consumers mental attitude is warped by them. Instead of being made aware of his own immediate responsibilities he is lulled into a comforting assumption of childlike innocence and ineffectuality. He is not in any way to blame for the unwholesome state in which he finds himself: he cannot be expected to fact the tasks of self-repair and readjustment. These burdens he hands over the "remedy". And with them go at least a part of his most valuable assetsself-respect and self-reliance.

Vital Reserve But what about the man so ill that all his confidence is lost? Surely it is right to start him on the road to health by stimulant or other reassuring means? If the means is genuine and constructive in its principle, then certainly some outside aid is desirable and often very necessary. But it must not be something which induces an apparent gain by squandering the sufferers reserve of vital energy: not something which banishes a symptom only to consolidate the mass of toxic waste within the body: not something which promises to make good a deficitonly to prove a worthless sham: not something which claims to neutralise the errors of the pastonly to encourage the continuance of those habits: not something productive of a state of mind in which the intelligent intentions of the body are over-ruled by hysterias of self-deceit: not something which makes the man accept as natural a blind reliance on laboratory products, the contents of which he does not know and the action of which probably no one understands. None of these things can form the base on which to build an honest frame of health. Apparent recovery may occur, but ignorance of causes, misunderstanding of symptoms, confusion of the processes of tissue-cleansing with the signs of failing health, reliance on flimsy and external buttresses instead of on a sound, balanced and genuine construction, lack of comprehension of the strains and stresses, are all inevitable weaknesses. It is only to be expected then that breakdown and collapse of the whole structure of the "cure" is the normal sequel to such "remedies". The basic elements of cure are not to be found in bottles or in packetsthey cannot be synthesised and administered to humanity in doses sufficient to treat so many at a time. A realisation of the deeper roots which contribute to human well-being; a true understanding of the bodys vital functions, acceptance of full personal responsibility and a determination to carry through to completion tasks which may at times be difficult. These are achievements of a strictly individual kind. They are essential parts of Nature Cure. Dr J H Kellogg MD, Battle Creek Sanatorium: "There is healing power in obedience, just as there is destruction in disobedience. When the evil-doer ceases to sin and enters upon a life of obedience to the natural laws, the curative forces within this body rebuild and thus renew his tissues, healing them and obliterating the consequences of transgression." "The idea that blood may be purified by medicine of any sort, is a very great error and one which is productive of a vast deal of mischief. There are no herbs or drugs of any sort the taking of which will purify the blood. The blood will not be purified by putting something into it, but requires that something be removed from it. Water is the universal cleansing agent, and its free use is essential to blood purification ." "To undertake to purify the blood by means of pills is about as unreasonable as to undertake to launder a dirty shirt or any other soiled garment by the same means." The fundamental principles of Nature Cure philosophy as stated by Henry Lindlahr M.D. are as follows: 1. Every acute disease is the result of a purifying, healing effort of Nature. 2. The inflammatory process back of all acute and sub-acute diseases are identical in nature and purpose in the way they run their course, through the five stages of inflammation. 3. The bacteria found associated with acute, sub-acute and chronic disease are not the primary causes and instigators of these abnormal processes but rather the product of pathogenic conditions and the agents through which Nature breaks down complex, disease producing (pathogenic) substances into simpler compounds suitable for neutralisation by alkaline elements and for elimination through the organs of depuration. 4. The primary cause of germ activity is the morbid soil in which bacteria breed and multiply. Basing our practice on these fundamental principles we do not endeavour to "kill the germs" with poisonous drugs or vaccines, serums and antitoxins, but instead we endeavour through natural ways of living and natural methods of treatment to purify the organism of the systemic waste, morbid encumbrances and disease taints which furnish the soil for the development and multiplication of disease.

The French scientist Professor Antoine Bechamp said as early as 1864 in his lectures at the University of Montpelier and at the Sorbonne, the ancient seat of learning in Paris, that cells and germs are not the smallest living organisms as taught by Pasteur and his followers, but that they in turn are made up on infinitely more minute living beings which he named microzyma. The term "microzyma" translated means "minute ferment bodies". Bechamp teaches that cells and germs are associations of microzyma. The physical characteristics and vital activities of cells and germs depend upon the soil in which their microzyma feed, grow and multiply. Thus microzyma growing in the soil of procreative germ plasma, develop into the normal permanent, specialised cells of the living vegetable, animal or human organism. The same microzyma feeding on morbid materials and systemic poisons in these living bodies develop into bacteria and parasites. One of the many experiments that Professor Bechamp made to prove the correctness of his deductions was that of beer yeast. Beer yeast becomes active and multiplies normally only in a sugar solution. While feeding on sugar and digesting it, it decomposes the sugar into alcohol, carbonic acid and small amounts of acetic acid. When antiseptic substances were added to the fermenting fluid the normal activity of the yeast germs gradually subsided. They deteriorated and decomposed their detritus gradually changing into bacteria. The bacteria in their turn when they had consumed the decaying materials on which they had subsisted, disintegrated until there was nothing left but the original microzyma thus proving that microzyma are at the beginning and end of all organised beings. He found the chalk of Sins and other calcareous rocks alive with microzyma which started processes of fermentation in blood, milk and other fermentable substances. When we consider that these geological microzyma are the remains of fossil organisms which lived in remote prehistoric ages, we must come to the conclusion that these primal architects of life are practically indestructible and must be endowed with life in its most primitive form. The discovery of microzyma confirms the Nature Cure philosophy according to which bacteria and parasites cannot cause and instigate inflammatory and other disease processes unless they find their own peculiar morbid soil in which to feed, grow and multiply. The translator of Professor Bechamps last book entitled The Blood, comments as follows: "The experimental facts learnedly elaborated by Professor Bechamp and his collaborators make patent the absurdity of all pretended prophylactics against disease save one, and casts all rational minds back to the one sure and only protectionsound hygiene. We are mocked by quarantines, vaccines, inoculations and other devices for conveying the products of labour into the pockets of official doctors. We are gulled by them to the fullest extent of our willingness to be gulled. The opponents of a truly rational medicine are many and powerful, as evidenced by the suppression of Bechamps admirable discoveries beneath a "conspiracy of silence" and these opponents of the art of healing are entrenched in nearly all medical schools, in richly endowed research institutes, in expensive manufacturers of animal poisons for poisoning men and animals (under the ignorant belief that they are benefiting us), and in all medical officialdom." Dr Thomas Powells (of Los Angeles) discovery of the true nature of the so-called leucocytes together with our knowledge of the activity of the microzyma, furnishes us with a rational and consistent explanation of the process of inflammation. Inflammation always starts with obstruction in the capillary circulation caused by white blood corpuscles and other colloid or pathogenic matter. The obstruction causes the white blood corpuscles in the blood-stream to be forced into the neighbouring tissues (emigration of the leucocytes). Stagnation causes them to disorganise and putrefy. This morbid soil develops the microzyma of the normal cells into various kinds of "disease germs" or bacteria. "Disease is born of us and in us", wrote Bechamp, "and that is as it should be because the life of man and of every other creature is no more delivered over to chance that the course of the stars. Life would be delivered over to chance if it depended upon primitive microbic germs created for destructive purposes."

The "Patent Medicine" firms which advertise in that national dailies are the same, now "ethical", which advertise massively in the medical journals. Only the names are altered. (See Homeopathy Biochemics and Nature Cure, by Bertram T Fraser, M.A., B.Sc.) A wartime survey of the health of girls in the WAAF, published in the British Medical Journal, mentions, amongst other things, that the hemoglobin levels of girls in this service are higher than those of civilians. The survey does not reach a definite decision as to the reason for the improvement, but states that it is probably due to the high iron intake of women in the Service, and adds that much of it "comes from the iron cooking vessels which are rarely used in domestic cookery." (My italics.) That should make any regular reader of Rude Health curl his lips contemptuously. But then it must be remembered that the staffs of such bodies as the Medical Research Councilwhich issues most of the "information" appearing in official publicationsare composed almost entirely of specialist scientists (chemists, physicists and the like) who have no clinical experience whatever. They have neither a clear picture of the behaviour and appearance of a healthy person, nor do they have any understanding of human disease processes. The nearest they come to that is in observing and recording the behaviour of batches of unfortunate rats and guinea-pigs. They function in such a mechanical and unimaginative world that they even think in terms of elements, potentials and units, instead of foods, intelligence and people. Chapter Ten: The Divine Science of Health by K. Lakshmana Sarma Health is the greatest wealth, which means that he that has health must cherish it with care, lest he should lose it. To this end he must have adequate knowledge of how to live for health. Unfortunately it happens that most people do not know the value of health until it is lost. Indeed it may be said that the civilised world is learning how to live without health, and in this they are actively encouraged by the medical profession. It may be useful even at the very commencement of this book to explain that health is not merely the absence of disease, but a positive quality of the living body, of which fitness for ones work and happiness are distinguishing marks. Indeed as we shall see later, health alone is real as such, and not disease, which is only a symptom of a fall in ones health-level. It may also be stated here that the cure of disease is not a distinct science, but just an integral part of this true science of health, which may be called the Life Natural, or Natural Hygiene. That is to say, the cure of disease is here regarded as one of the concomitants of the recovery of lost health, and not something independent of it. Efforts to cure disease, which are not aimed at health-recovery, are therefore quackery, even though practised by "experts"that is, by men who are licensed by the state. That this is so will appear from the following confession by Sir James Barr, Vice President of the British Medical Association: "The treatment of disease is not a science, not even a refined art, but a thriving industry". And this remains true down to date, as will be seen in due course, and will always be true. In Gods creation there is a mysterious correlation between ends and means. This means that for achieving any particular end one must employ the appropriate means; otherwise the end that is reached will not be what we desire. That is why it is said that the end does not justify the means. What this means is that improper means must not be employed. This rule applies to the earning of money, as well as to the acquisition of knowledge. All wise and good men have agreed on this principle. For instance, it is wrong to use immoral means for winning knowledge; actually when immoral means are used, the knowledge obtained thereby turns out to be tainted and misleading. Applying this principle to the quest of health, we have to understand that we must proceed in accordance with the teachings of this true science of health, wherein the giver of health is recognised as God. It is for this reason that we designate this science as the divine science of health. Unhygienic means do not bring health, but lose health. This true science lays down the laws of living for health, which are the laws of God, and hence cannot be altered by men. Doctors that do not care to know these laws are unworthy of being trusted; the licence to practice medicine, which they hold, has no validity. Patients relying on such doctors not only

do not achieve health, they also lose whatever health they have. The practice of medicine, especially as it now obtains, is not only useless for preserving health but actually injurious to health and dangerous to life. Due to ignorance the average man takes his health for granted; that is, he assumes that for him health is an inexhaustible possession, which will not be lost by any amount of self-indulgence, in violation of the laws of Hygiene. He has also an inexhaustible faith in the ability of medicos to restore him to health as often as he loses it. Actually, because these men do not employ Hygienic means, they confer only a semblance of health, true health cannot be won through their ministrations, because the means used by them are wholly unhygienic. The final effect of medical ministrations is to land the patient in the third and last stage of disease, in which the bodily substancesblood, flesh, nerves, and the organsbecome degenerate; from this state of degeneracy arise diseases affecting the heart, lungs, or brain, or the body as a whole; the much dreaded cancer is just one of these. Medicos call these by the name "degenerative" diseases, which is misleading. This phrase suggests that these diseases arise first and that degeneracy of the body-substance comes afterwards as an effect of these diseases. The truth is that the degeneracy comes into existence first and the diseases arise from it as effects of this degeneracy. Very few doctors are aware of this truth. For instance, we may take note of the effort made by Dr A S McNeil to enlighten the members of his profession on this point. In his book, The Cancer Mystery Solved; he showed that "general poisoning" of the body-tissues is the condition in which this disease becomes possible. But all such efforts have proved futile, because these, if successful, would be far from financially profitable. The medicos depend upon an extensive practice in which the most deleterious substances are freely used, both for preventing and for "curing" diseases. Even if the medicos wish to reform their ways, the vested interests who dominate themthe manufacturers of drugs, vaccines, and serumswill not let them. For this reason there are always quite a large number of medical failures; these are patients who have been reduced to a state of utter hopelessness, being sufferers from doctor-made diseases, mostly chronic, and often of a fatal tendency, for which the medicos have admittedly no cure. A very few of these come to hear and accept the message of hope given by this divine science and are redeemed from their hopeless state and given a new lease of life and health. Many of these redeemed souls become faithful followers of the Life Natural and thus stay cured and enjoy a high degree of positive health for the rest of their lives. Also they are their own doctors. So Nature Cure is the system of last resort. In brief, the practice of medicine is based on the policy of violence to life and the living body, thus tending towards the ruin of health, while that of Hygiene proceeds on the principle of non-violence, which is in harmony with the laws of health. This means that the two are poles apartthat each is in perfect contrast to the other, and that they would cancel each other if combined. This contrast can be understood by the following analogy, taken from the universal religion of the Vedantas, which is in harmony with all religions, as well as with true science. All religions alike recognise two distinct stages of human life. In the first stage man relies on himself, or on the skill of professionals, ignoring God, the Indwelling Spirit, to whom he owes all he is and has, his mind, his life, and all else. This is known as the path of Pravritti, which means going away from God, deeper and deeper into worldliness. Because knowledge and skill come from God aloneGod, whom he ignores he becomes more and more ignorant, thinking himself wise all the time, and thereby commits sins, which are mistakes of a serious nature, and finally reaches a state of despair, in which he thinks mistakenly, of courseof suicide as a means of escape. By the grace of God a few are diverted from this wrong path to that of returnNivrittialong which, guided by that same grace, he reaches the true goal of life, which is reintegration with God in his supreme state, wherein he is freed from illusion and misery and becomes a co-sharer in his supreme Bliss. What is commonly called repentance is just this change from this wrong path to the right one. We may say that the mode of living followed by the average civilised manwho lives recklessly, without caring for the effects of this mode of living upon his healthis like the path of Pravritti going away from Godwhile the path of Hygiene, followed by the fortunate few mentioned above, is like that of Nivritti, whereby the goal of life is reached.

In worldliness a series of problems is apparently solved, but rise is given to new problems. But in this goal, which is deliverance, all problems are simultaneously solved and hence there is an end of all problems. In the same way, under medical care, a series of diseases are gone through, each being apparently cured, but only giving rise to new ones, so that there is no end to the problems of health, except by death or renunciation of the faith in medicos. But in the Life Natural there is a final and perfect solution of the main problem, the health-problem, which means that the disease-problem also is at an end. In this context we may take note of an admission by Dr Sir William Oslerquoted by NCP in the Health For All for AugustSeptember 1959: "The patient has to recover twice, once from disease, and once from the remedy." The reason is obvious; the remedy employed is always a poison, which generates a new disease, a worse one. That remedial cures are not real cures is implied in the statement by Sir James Barr, quoted before. That statement means that medicine is just quackery. There are a number of other pronouncements made by other wise and honest men, some of whom will be cited later. Realthat is, radicalcure can come only by the removal of the cause; this cause is the sum total of past unhygienic conduct, and the persistence in it. Therefore, to escape from the cumulative effects of proceeding on the wrong path, the patient must cease living unhygienically and begin to live in the right way, thereby making amends for his past sins. These ill-effects cannot be evaded otherwise. Continuing to rely on doctors is therefore a suicidal policy. That way the cause is never removed, as is seen from the following pronouncement by Dr Weir-Mitchell: "Back of disease lies a cause, and that cause, no drug can reach." Drugs, vaccines, and serums do not remove the cause of disease, they only aggravate the ill-health there is, and thus sow the seeds of more and worse diseases. That drugs and other medical agents are inimical to health is evident from the fact that all of them are poisons which violently interfere with life-processes, and build up worse diseases. This is corroborated by Dr Alonzo Clark, MD, in this sentence: "All our curative agents are poisons and as a consequence every dose diminishes the patients vitality." Diseases should be viewed as punishments for Hygienic sins. Persisting in this sinful way of life can only perpetuate ill-health, and make it more serious. This can be prevented only by reforming ones way of life; there is no other way. It will later be shown that many of these diseases are also capable of serving as stepping stones to better health, if they be got through Hygienically. But in the medical way this is impossible. The diseases are not radically cured, but driven in; this driving in of diseases is called "suppression". Suppressed disease is latent disease, which causes a diminution of health. Repeated suppressions bring about in the end a great fall in health and a predisposition to very serious chronic diseases, which are medically intractable, so that only "symptomatic" treatment is possible and is given. But these treatments also involve the free use of poisons. Ultimately it takes the patient far, far away from health and probably lands him in one or more of the diseases of degeneracy. Extracted from: Sarma, K Lakshmana. 1984. Practical Nature Cure. Pudukottai, India: The Nature Cure Publishing House. Chapter Ten: The Divine Science of Health: Part 2 One of the reasons for this state of things is that medicos as a rule are not interested in our health, but only in our ill-health. The average medical man, when driven into a corner in private friendly conversation is apt to reply: "If health becomes the fashion, then where are we?" No medico ever forgets his own personal interest in maintaining the existing social order. This would be doubted by many that are persuaded that medicos as a class are high-minded men and are therefore worthy of unlimited trust. The truth about the medicos is neatly expressed in the following passage in a letter published in a periodical and reproduced in the Vaccination Inquirer, September 1st, 1941: "Whilst on the subject of medical prestige one would like to gird at the traditional notion, sedulously fostered in many circles, that the medical profession, as regards its integrity of action and honesty of purpose, transcends that of other professions. I number among my friends and acquaintances a great

many medical men, and to be frank, they are a mixed breed, possessing in varying degrees good and bad qualities, so common to us all. The truth is, of course, that the doctor is just as much concerned with the financial side of his profession as any other professional man. There are noble and ignoble men in every walk of life, and it is unadulterated nonsense to state by implication that the doctor has a higher degree of morality or nobility of character than other men. In the main the doctor enters upon his career for the return it offers, social and financial, not for the good it can confer on his fellow men. Let us discard cant and humbug and face the facts." It was once remarked by Shri Vinoba Bhave: "There is no real antagonism between diseases on the one hand and doctors and hospitals on the other; if there were this antagonism, then every increase in the number of doctors and of hospitals must be followed by a decrease of disease among the people; but this is not what happens; an increase of doctors and hospitals is always followed by an increase of disease." We may add that this increase is a vicious circle. To cope with the increase of disease more and more doctors are turned out and more hospitals are built and this leads to a further increase, which compels another increase of doctors and hospitals; and this process goes on without end. It can end only with the extinction of the human race. Innumerable observers, some of them doctors, have testified to this fact. We may here refer to the contents of the book, Man the Unknown, by Dr Alexis Carrel, who was by no means a hostile critic of medicine. Not being interested in health, medicos as a rule do not give any Hygienic advice to their patients. Besides, even if some of them wanted to give such advice, they would be handicapped by their ignorance of the subject; medical students until recently were not taught Hygiene, and such Hygiene as they are now taught is defective and grievously wrong in many important particulars; certainly medicos do not know the basic principles and rules of living for health as taught in our Natural Hygiene. There is a passage in the confessional utterances gone through, mechanically, by Christians in their churches on Sundays, which runs thus: "We have left undone those things which we ought to have done and we have done those things which we ought not to have done, and there is no health in us." It might occur to some that the word "health" occurring in this passage means "spiritual health". But a reading of the gospels of that religion rather suggests that the son of God was as much concerned with physical as with spiritual health [thus "wholeness". Editor]; it does not appear that he saw any real line of demarcation between the two, and in this he agrees with our own great sages who have given us our sacred lore. It is said that he healed the sick ["made whole". Editor] and gave every one of them the parting exhortation, "Go thou and sin ["fall short of the mark". Editor] no more." We look upon religion, ethics, and Hygiene as integral parts of one single science, the divine science of living for health and holiness. The shortcomings of medical practice are all due to the fact that medicine is a system of violence; this shall be made clear as we proceed. The right principle and policy is non-violence, which is the guiding principle of Natural Hygiene. This policy proceeds from right knowledge of the fundamentals of true biology, which will be the subject of a later chapter. Such knowledge does not exist in "medical science" and hence it is quackery. The blessedness of non-violence can well be seen from the following story, which shows how one of our great pioneers, Dr Edward Hooker Dewey of the US, became converted to this policy. After finishing his medical course he served for some time as an Army Doctor. In the wards he observed that, notwithstanding the great divergence of the methods followed by individual doctors, the results were about the same, and this weakened his faith in the truth of the teaching he had received. When he settled down to practice in a small town, almost his first case was that of an adolescent girl, suffering from an ulcer of the stomach, who could not retain anything that was given, whether food, water, or medicine; whatever was given was vomited after a great deal of suffering; but after this she was relieved. To Dewey it seemed that Mother Naturethe Queen of Creationwas telling him: "Do not interfere with me and my patient!" And he obeyed, understanding that the ordinances of Nature must prevail over all human authority. For 16 days nothing was given. On the 17th day the patient demanded water; it was given and it agreed perfectly. After one or two days she demanded a little of some particular food; this was given and it agreed. Thus little by little, without medical interference, the

patient recovered her health within a month, and the recovery was perfect. About the same time another patient, suffering in the same way in the same town, was treated by an orthodox medico on the policy of violence; the patient suffered terribly all the time, because the routine was adhered to in utter disregard of the patients sufferings due to her inability to digest and assimilate what was given. After two months of such cruelty at the hands of the medico, the patient escaped him by death. By comparing these two cases, Dr Dewey came to the conclusion that medicine is not in harmony with the order of Nature. Thereafter he followed the way of non-violence, in which the patient is left free to fast, and is given no "medicine". This was the origin of the Fasting Cure. Dr Dewey also discovered the No-Breakfast Plan. Thus it was that Dewey started the quest of the fundamental truth of Vital Economy which finds a place in this book. That there is a mysterious power inside the living body which is ever safeguarding life and health and even curing diseases in a radical way by restoring lost health, provided there is no foolish intermeddling, will be seen from these two parallel cases treated by two doctors, following diametrically opposite policies. The same lesson is conveyed by the following case of self-cure of a buffalo-calf, which occurred in Davangere, a village in the northwest corner of the Mysore State. There in the house of a Brahman merchant a buffalo-calf had been ill; the efforts of the local vet only made it worse; the calf seemed to be dying, and so nothing more was done to it. One morning a younger member of the family, on coming out from his bedroom, saw the dying calf tied to a peg along with the other animals in the cattle shed. To him it seemed that this was needless cruelty, and so he got a servant to untie the calf. Now the calf, being free, got up on its legs with great difficulty and proceeded towards the open space, where the sun was shining. The servant wanted to tie it up again, but the master forbade him, knowing that sunlight was good for the sick. The calf basked in the sun until it had enough, then went into the shed, sipped a little water and fasted. The calf followed this routine for about three days, became quite well, and began to take food. What was needed in this case was simply to fast and non-interference by medicaments. The inmates of the house were astonished to see that the programme followed by the calf was substantially the same as that prescribed by the author for the aged mistress of the house, suffering from medically incurable chronic rheumatism; and they asked one another: "How did this buffalo-calf come to know of Sharmas treatment?" In the West, Hygienists call this Indwelling Power "Nature". But from our sacred lore we learn that Nature, Prakriti, is just the divine power that creates, sustains, destroys, and recreates the universe. She is immanent in all creatures and maintains them in health so long as they do not seriously transgress her laws, which are the laws of God, because she is not separate from God. So it must be understood that this blessed science is a divine science, and that God himself is the indwelling healer in all creatures, and also the teacher of this true science. Herein is a relevant paragraph from a book, Physiology, by Huxley and Youmans: "All who have watched the progress of the healing art in recent times will note that among the most enlightened practitioners there has been a steadily diminishing confidence in medication and an increasing reliance on the sanitary influence of Nature. It is notorious that in proportion to peoples ignorance of their own constitution and the true cause of disease is their credulous confidence in pills, potions, and quackish absurdities, and while this ignorance continues there will of course be plenty of doctors who will pander to it. And not the least benefits likely to follow the better diffusion of physiological and sanitary information will be the protection of the community from the numberless impostures of charlatans and a better discrimination of qualifications of competent physicians." (from an issue of the Human Culture Digest, Los Angeles, California.) From this it will be clear that quackery flourishes on the ignorance of the people. The quack is one who does not know the existence and value of Natures healing power. It may be objected by some readers that it is important to bring in the name of God here. Our reply is that we are not only believers in God, but also believe in the fundamental unity and inseparability of all true knowledge, and it comes naturally to us to trace to God all the blessings that we enjoy in life, and among those blessings the right knowledge by which we live to some good purpose. We freely concede to others the right to accept only what appeals to them as true and to reject all else. That does not

prevent us from teaching the science as we understand it. But whoever wishes to follow this system must at least accept the belief that there is, in the living body, a mysterious power not known to science, which Hygienists and even some doctors have agreed to call Natures healing power, vis medicatrix naturae. We shall deal with the unity of all true knowledge later. Those that believe in God, whatever religion they may follow, will find no difficulty in accepting the teaching given here, because we shall steer clear of all sectarianism, as far as possible; not only Hindus, but also Buddhists, Muslims, Christians, Parsis, and others will find that the teaching given here is in harmony with their own religions; down to date no believer has raised any objections to this our teaching. Medicos can, if they will, come to see that there is an indwelling healing power that can work miracles of healing far exceeding their own skill, because their own books tell them that in some rare cases always when there is no intermeddling by medicationthere occur what are called "spontaneous cures". What prevents such cures occurring much more frequently is medical violence; but this is something that medicos as a class will refuse to acknowledge. Even those medicos that admit the existence of an inner healing power more or less honestly believe that they are helping that power, when in fact they are doing violence to it. Really these spontaneous cures are cures by divine grace, or as they say in the West, by Nature, and hence they would take place in nearly every case if only there is intelligent cooperation with the inner healer, or at least no medical interference. It will later be shown that medicos are as a rule ignorant of the Hygienic teaching that disease is a healthward processa vital processwhich is the reason for our policy of non-violence. That is why they do not see that their policy of violence is wrong, and is even a sin against God. The consequence is that their patients steadily become less and less healthy as the years pass, and suffer from worse and worse diseases, until they come to a state which even the medicos are compelled to recognise as "incurable", which means, in most cases, only incurable by them. These are the medical failures. Really all medical patients are medical failures all the time, because they never are restored to health by the medical ministrations, and hence are never radically cured. It is only when there is such a complete loss of vitality and ruination of health that the case is recognised as a medical failure; but even then no one neither doctor nor patientsuspects that it is the doctors ignorance that is to blame for the failure. Some of these failures are redeemed by taking to the Hygienic way. But nowadays the medical policy seems to be to go on treating the patient until he dies so that he might not get restored to health by one whom they would call a quackthey themselves being the worst of all quacks. That is to say, if nowadays a medical failure is to be redeemed from his hopeless state, he himself must come to know the truth and dismiss his doctor. There is hope for such hopeless patients only by taking refuge at the feet of God; there is no other hope. Chapter Ten: The Divine Science of Health: Part 3 One of the grievous shortcomings of "medicine" is the one to be mentioned here. If a patient, suspecting that he has some disease, such as gastric ulcer, goes to a doctor, the latter makes a thorough examination and then tells him that just then he has not got that disease, but that it may develop in about six months, so that he must come after that time. This is because doctors are concerned with disease alone, not health. He does not give advice as to how not to get the disease. In the Life Natural there is no need to wait until the disease comes into being. By taking to the practice of living for health, the patient prevents the disease and remains in health. Thus it will be seen that the Life Natural is both preventive and curative, the prevention being effected by building up better health. Allopathic preventives are different; they prevent disease by suppressing symptoms, which is wrong as will be shown later. It is a historical fact that it was this divine science that prevailed and was followed from the very beginning of creation by all creatures. None of the medical systems prevailed then; this is probable because animals, both wild and domesticated, are followers of this science. It may be said that animals do this by "instinct. We do not approve of the mentality that has led to the use of this word for this purpose. Even if it be true that animals are guided by "instinct", it is admittedly a shame that men have lost this instinctive wisdom. The story of the buffalo-calf given before is herein relevant. Some time ago a book in Sanskrit entitled Ayurveda Sutram was found and published by the Mysore University. It is in the aphoristic form. Its teaching is not medical but Hygienic. It teaches that disease is due to the accumulation of mucusviscous slimy matterthe end-product of imperfect digestion,

due to hungerless and excessive eating; and it recommends fasting, improved breathing, and the free use of herbal foods for the recovery of health; no drugs are recommended; on the other hand the Ayurvedic textbooks that are now in use prescribe all kinds of poisonous remedies, both herbal and metallic. These textbooks came into existence as civilisation advanced and professional motives began to operate. Naturally the practitioners of present day corrupt Ayurveda did not like this old, long-ago-superseded book, and hence there was no second edition of the Ayurveda Sutram. It was this lost science that was revived and restored by the pioneers of Natural Hygiene, who had themselves become hopeless of medical methods. Unlike other medical failures, these men of independent and courageous minds did not give way to despair. Guided by divine grace, and also by making some observations of the ways of wild animals, they hit upon new, non-violent methods, and truths of Hygiene, and by following them recovered lost health and became free of their troubles. It happened that each of them discovered just a fraction of the true science. Their successors combined all these fractions and made some discoveries of their own. Among these new discoveries may be mentioned the Spinal Bath and two principles of Vital Economy and Vegetablarianism. The latter supersedes what is called "vegetarianism", which is not fully Hygienic. It is not intended to convey that all medicos of all time were ignorant and practised this quackery which is falsely called medical science. Some there were who knew a great deal more of Hygiene than the average medico. Among them we may mention one, Dr Abernathy, who used to say: "Stop the supplies, and the enemy will leave the citadel." This was a reference to the great value of fasting. Another, namely Dr Sydenham, known as the English Hippocrates, who lived in the 17th century, looked upon acute diseases as Natures efforts to eliminate "morbidic matter", which is what we call "foreign matter", the provocative cause of disease. (Hippocrates was a Hygienist who practised in Athens, Greece in the 4th century BC, who is even now known as the "Father of Medicine", though he certainly would not approve of this quackery if he were to come back and see how medicine has been perverted.) We can also mention Sir Frederick Treves, who declared that diseases are the guardians of health, and that without them mankind would have become extinct long ago. Major RFE Austin, of the Indian Army Medical Service, who died recently, was one of us. Doctors Douglas Latto and others are also noteworthy as disapproving the medical policy of violence. More than two centuries ago a German doctor named Hahnemann saw that medical practice was both futile and deadly to health, because of its guiding principle, namely violence. He tried to find a nonviolent way of using drugs. He could not imagine that drugs could and should be dispensed with altogether. He invented a new method which he called "Homoeopathy" (or homeopathy), in which "similar drugs" are used in infinitesimally small doses; similars are those drugs that would set up the same disease in a healthy person, whereas in orthodox practice "opposites" are used. From this time the older system came to be known as "allopathy". The new system, however, did not succeed in displacing the old one, which continues to flourish with ever-increasing vigour. Besides, homeopathic medicine is no more successful than allopathic in cases of deep-rooted chronic conditions. The reason is that in seeking to discover a new system, Hahnemann did not pursue the quest of the truth about disease far enough, so as to reach the true ultimate cause of the loss of healththe cause that is recognised in our Hygienic science. If he had persevered far enough in his quest, he might have discovered this very divine science, in which the cause of disease is understood to be hygienic sin, and the cure is making amends for that sinPrayaschitta. We have seen that the pioneers of our science were medical failures. It has now to be stated that they were failures not only of allopathy but also of homeopathy. Homeopathy could not cure them any more than allopathy could, because though the former was comparatively non-violent, it was not Hygienic; it did not rely on God, but only on drugs chosen and prepared in a different way. We must now face the question: Why did the divine science, which was alive when the book, the Ayurveda Sutram, was a textbook, come to be lost and forgotten. The reason most probably was that men became less and less willing to live Hygienically, so as to deserve health, and wanted easy cures without reform. At the same time they had transferred to the professional medicos their own responsibility, to themselves and to God, for their own health. The vaidyas, doctors of the corrupt Ayurveda, took over that responsibility, but failed to discharge it strictly according to divine law. They

began to ignore the Hygienic teachings of Ayurveda and took to the use of suppressive drugs, which would give their patients a semblance of cure, and this perpetuated the distinction between the professional doctor and his too-trusting client, the patient, and this meant the wilful neglect of health. This dependence of patients on doctors is unnatural, and it is this that has brought about the deplorable state of the peoples health, chiefly among the civilised peoples; and the condition is worst of all among the more "advanced" peoples. The best policy for the health-lover is to become, and to remain, independent of all doctorsnot only those that practise violence, but also of those that profess to practice non-violence. That means that every follower should aim at being his own doctor, subject of course to guidance by divine grace. Guided by grace one should do all that needs to be done and avoid doing whatever ought not to be done. As for the return of lost health, one must rely on God alone. Reliance on God, according to Bhagavan Shri Ramana Maharshi, is true self-reliance, because God is not other than the real self. That such independence is alone blessed was neatly expressed by Bhagavan Manu, the earliest law-giver, in the following line: "Dependence on others is misery; dependence on oneself is happiness." Let it be noted that such independence is not possible in any of the medical systems. It should be understood that this Hygiene is the only true science of rejuvenation there is. In favourable conditions it restores and prolongs youth. For practising this system with success it is not necessary to master the intricate details of anatomy, physiology, pathology, toxicology, and pharmacology. A single textbook by a highly cultured and experienced master is quite enough for guidance. Hence it is our devout wish and prayer that this science be studied and practised, by the grace of God, as a domestic science, by every follower in his own home. It may need to be explained here that there should be no dependence even on one that professes to be a Nature Curist or Hygienist. It is difficult to find a professional of such profound intelligence and of such noble character as would be worthy of implicit trust. Also there are principles involved in this science which would be unintelligible, except to men of such high qualifications as above stated. In particular I may here mention Vital Economy, a principle of the greatest importance in the practice of this science. But this principle seems to be insufficiently understood by a great number of professors of Nature Cure. The follower must therefore aim at perfect independence and qualify himself for it by devout study and practical experience, always relying on God for guidance. This will be further explained later. Chapter Eleven: What is the Cause of Disease? by Kenneth S. Jaffrey The short answer will be found in a little booklet which I wrote about fifteen years ago. As this booklet is now out of print I quote from page ten of that booklet where I state quite categorically that the primary cause of most disease is toxaemia, and not the deficiency of some element in the diet. I stated further on page fifteen: "I believe that only in rare cases of starvation does true deficiency disease occur". In order to compare the opinions of various eminent pioneers in the field of natural health, I am listing briefly those factors which they thought were the cause of disease. Let us begin with the discoverer of Nature Cure, Vincent Priessnitz. In 1829, he said: "Various causes engender vicious juices (meaning body fluids). The principal are: food of bad quality, the excess of good food, the suppression of perspiration, the want of exercise, and mental affliction acting violently upon the system such as anger, sorrow, care and melancholy. The causes of bodily disease, which do not proceed from external injury, are material, and consist of foreign matter introduced into the infected system." Today we would call this condition toxaemia. Now let us turn to Dr R T Trall in 1880. He attributed disease to toxaemia. In his book The True Healing Art he said this: "There are, aside from accidentsmechanical injuriesbut two sources of disease in the world, viz, poisons or impurities taken into the system from without, and effete or waste matters retained." Three years later, the German naturopath Louis Kuhne, stated in his book The New Science of Healing,

that disease was caused by the presence of foreign matter in the body causing what he called an encumbrance. In 1918, Hereward Carrington stated in his book Fasting, Vitality, and Nutrition that disease was caused by poisonous waste material. In his book Fundamental and Requirements of Health and Disease, Dr Thomas Powell stated that disease was caused by a poisonous substance which he called a Pathogen. This word is synonymous with toxaemia. In 1913, Henry Lindlahr in his book The Philosophy of Nature Cure stated that the primary cause of disease is an abnormal composition of the blood and lymph. In 1916, James C Thomson and Stanley Lief accepted and promoted Lindlahrs definition of the cause of disease. In 1926, Dr John H Tilden wrote his book, Toxaemia Explained, in which he stated that the primary cause of all disease is an impaired composition of blood and tissues called toxaemia. In 1928, Dr Herbert M Shelton adopted Dr Tildens definition of toxaemia. In 1930, Professor Edmond Szekely stated that the lack of internal and external cleanliness was the primary cause of disease. In 1950, K Lakshmana Sarma of India adopted Louis Kuhnes encumbrance theory. On reflection, we come to the conclusion that these eminent authorities all said virtually the same thing, each in his own way"The primary cause of every disease is an impaired composition of body tissues called toxaemia." Toxaemia is the name given to the abnormal presence in the blood, lymph, body secretions and cells, of any material which is detrimental to the normal healthy functioning of the human body. If this material is present in sufficient quantities it will impair or degrade the function of organs and essential parts. As there is a normal amount of toxic material in the human body at all times, we can say that when the amount of toxic material is excessive, toxaemia is in existence. Toxins are being generated every second of our lives and only become hazardous to health when we allow them to accumulate beyond the normal limit of tolerance. Toxins are caused by the normal breaking down of body tissues by the process called catabolism. Catabolism is the degradative or destructive phase of metabolism which occurs in our normal everyday activities. The normal processes of urination, respiration and perspiration expel this toxic material as fast as it is produced. This elimination of potentially poisonous material keeps the body tissues clean and fresh, thus maintaining good health. If this normal metabolic activity is impaired or degraded in any way, the elimination of this toxic material is checked or restricted and these toxins are not expelled as quickly as they are produced. They tend to be retained in the body tissues and accumulate there. This abnormal retention leads to toxaemia. We can say without fear of successful contradiction that toxaemia represents the poisoning of the body by its own abnormally-retained excretions. Efficient and prompt elimination of body wastes is maintained by an ample supply of nerve force or nerve energy, which we now know to be electricity. This nerve force can be lowered by anything in our lifestyle which uses up nerve force in excess of the ability of the body to replenish. Anything in our way-of-life which causes a state of lowered nerve force produces enervation. Enervation means a weakness or reduction of normal nerve strength. This lowered nerve force interferes with the normal elimination of toxic wastes and this results in the body poisoning itself. Self-poisoning is caused by retention of body wastes. Enervation is a state of functional weakness and diminished nerve force. Every function of the human organism and its many organs is under the direct control of the nervous

system. The organs function weakly or strongly depending upon the availability of nerve force. Normally, the flow of nerve force alternates and varies in strength from day to day and from hour to hour depending upon the nature of our activities and the condition of our environment. All of our physical, chemical, emotional, and mental activities influence the availability of nerve force. Our nervous energy is dissipated by all of our human activities and it is conserved and replaced by rest and sleep. Under normal healthy conditions the body ensures that it gets sufficient rest and sleep in order to recuperate itself after the daily expenditure of nerve force which our lifestyle demands. This is how it should be, but under the pressure of modern civilisation not everyone is able to exist in such perfect conditions. Today, mankind strives for financial gain, social position, political power and eminence in sport or profession. This often leads to people ignoring the signals which the body supplies to tell us that we have exceeded the point of tolerance and that rest is needed. In many cases we ignore the monitor which is warning us. Fatigue is ignored and stimulants are resorted to. These stimulants have two effects. One is intended to spur us on and urge us to continued efforts while the other, the sideeffect, causes enervation with its inevitable decreased efficiency and toxaemia. We cannot have one without the other. Every stimulant eventually produces depression and impaired function. Impaired function always follows enervation. When anything in our lifestyle causes enervation it is followed by impaired function, and gradually we deplete our reserves of nervous energy. The function of our organs gradually deteriorates and their efficiency is lowered. Naturally, the weaker organs suffer first and most, but inexorably all organs must suffer. Inefficient elimination of toxic wastes, impaired digestion of food, slowing-down of glandular secretions, and inhibition of glandular activity will occur following excessive expenditure of nervous energy. Functional impairment of some kind always follows enervation. It has been wisely observed that good health depends upon nutrition and drainage. By this is meant an efficient supply of suitable food material coupled with efficient and speedy drainage of body wastes and toxic material from the body cells. By this means internal cleanliness is preserved. The vital importance of efficient drainage is demonstrated when we reflect upon the fact that if the voiding of urine is suppressed for about two days we can succumb to self-poisoning. Similarly, with the lungs, we must expel carbon dioxide regularly and if this is inhibited for only a few minutes death can ensue. The normal activities of a human being produce toxic wastes which can poison the body if retained for a long period. Most illnesses are caused by the abnormal retention of body wastes and their absorption into the tissues. If the kidneys, skin and lungs fail to excrete their normal metabolic wastes regularly the accumulation of this autogenic toxin occurs with all of its dire consequences. It will be seen that drainage as well as nutrition is vital for our survival in normal good health. Extracted from: Jaffrey, Kenneth S. 1973. What Is The Cause Of Disease? Townsville, Australia: Jaffrey. Chapter Eleven: What is the Cause of Disease? Part 2 All organs and consequently all functions are under the control of the nervous system. The efficiency of our organs is dependent upon the supply of nerve force, so it is essential that the nervous system shall function efficiently. Elimination of body wastes is a normal and fundamental function of the human organism, and as long as nothing hinders it, drainage will keep up with the production of wastes. It is only when the eliminative functions have become impaired by some factor in a faulty lifestyle that the body risks being intoxicated. Not only does enervation impair the ability to eliminate wastes, it also lowers the ability to digest food. The food, which normally undergoes a process of decomposition called digestion, contains some

unessential materials and there is consequently a production of waste products which serve no useful purpose and must be discarded. Malfunctioning of the digestive system leads to poisoning of the tissues and lays the foundation for future disease. Not only is bad food unwanted and undesirable, but good food, if eaten to excess or if imperfectly digested, can lead to toxaemia and ill-health. It is regrettable but true that our modern lifestyle embraces practices which tend to destroy health. Over-eating, eating too quickly, eating too often, imperfect mastication of food, eating when in a state of discomfort, or when we have a fever, can all cause enervation and toxaemia. This state of affairs cannot continue indefinitely. Eventually, the point of tolerance will be exceeded and the organism will make a special desperate effort to violently expel the offending material. This special effort or exertion greater than the normal which was first noted by Vincent Priessnitz is the Healing Crisis, which is also called an acute disease or fever, is therefore to be seen as a healing and normalisation process. If the victim fails to heed the warning and persists in observing a faulty lifestyle, a vicious circle may be employed by the body itself and a series of acute diseases will occur in order to restore normality. If we fail to listen to the voice of the organism and fail to give it the most favourable conditions for recovery, further deterioration may occur. The toxic wastes may now be laid down in places where they will do least harm to and interfere least with vital organs and processes. The functions of the body may deteriorate and we will then have what is known as a chronic disease. In chronic disease we not only have the toxic material which has been retained excessively, but we may also have any medical drugs which may have been used in a vain attempt to cure the acute disease. These acute diseases have therefore not been cured but have been unnaturally suppressed. The main sources of toxaemia, apart from wrong foods and wrong eating habits, are retention of body wastes and accumulation of medical drugs. Added to this we have all of the negative and potentially destructive mental attitudes, sexual excesses, overwork, lack of exercise, lack of sleep, and accidental mechanical trauma. Often unsuspected causes of enervation are the chiropractic subluxation, the osteopathic lesion and the naprapathic ligatight. Anything which causes an impingement of spinal nerves can cause interference with the normal flow of nerve force, blood and lymph, and cause enervation and toxaemia. Since it is a fundamental tenet of Natural Health philosophy that toxaemia is the mother and forerunner of all disease, we should do everything in our power to prevent or at least mitigate enervation. Only a healthy lifestyle can do that. We should listen to the voice of the organism and rest when the body tells us that it is carrying out an acute process of cure. Then if we mend our ways by adopting a healthy lifestyle we will avoid the necessity for the body to institute acute diseases in the future. In this way our future well-being will be assured. But if on the other hand we disregard the warnings, and persist in the wrong eating habits and other factors in an unhealthy lifestyle, we will inexorably lay the foundation for chronic and potentially malignant diseases. If we allow self-poisoning to continue unabated, degeneration will occur in various organs. The weaker organs will be affected first, followed later by the stronger ones. As one organ after another breaks down, Latin or Greek names will be given to the visible external symptoms and the patient may be told that he or she has Graves disease, Brights disease, Hansens syndrome, and so on ad infinitum. The usual practice these days is to name a disease after the organ which breaks down first or after the doctor who first noted it. What is generally overlooked or completely disregarded is that the primary cause of every disease is toxaemia caused by factors in a faulty lifestyle.

Secondary causes arise from the impaired function of vital organs, thus adding to the misery of the patient. If the case is further neglected or if medical procedures are employed we can have a tertiary cause of disease. There are iatrogenic diseases which are, as is now well-known, directly caused by the administration of medical treatments or surgical interference which have been mistakenly employed in an effort to benefit the patient without removing the cause. Intelligent people must come to the conclusion that diseases do not arise without a cause. Instead of removing the cause, modern sufferers generally employ remedies. The treatment, whether medical, homeopathic or botanic is directed at the external symptoms and effects. Seldom is any effort made to remove the underlying cause. If we "kill" pain with drugs we do nothing to restore health. Pain is the monitor telling us that something is wrong. It is alerting us to the presence of faults in our lifestyle or environment. If we take a drug, homeopathic remedy or a herbal remedy solely to assuage the pain we may destroy the monitor which is trying to protect us. It is tantamount to shooting our guard-dog when it barks at a burglar. Present-day methods of treatment do not address the fundamental causes of disease. They all seek to give relief by suppressing the external symptoms. If we believe the theory I have set out, we know that all disease is caused by wrong living habits. That being so, we have at our disposal the key to the rational and successful treatment of disease. That key is called Nature Cure. Correction of a faulty lifestyle, provision of the bodys normal biological requirements, and rest, constitute the only valid recipe for the restoration to health of a sick person. What about bacteria and viruses. Do they not play a role in disease causation? None whatever! The germ or virus, no more cause disease than a garbage-collector creates garbage. Germs and viruses, along with garbage-collectors, are simply waste-disposal agents. If we do not care for our body in away which ensures prompt and efficient disposal of its normal waste products, then inevitably, somebody or something must do this work for us. Micro-organisms are Natures waste-disposal agents. How they perform their task is seldom pleasant, but potentially-harmful material must be removed in order to prevent disaster later on. If we wish to avoid an unpleasant visitation by a bacterium or virus, or if we wish to spare our organism the necessity for institution of a Healing Crisis, the solution to this problem is obvious. We should cease causing a toxaemic condition. Only by adopting and maintaining an appropriate lifestyle will we be able to live in such a way as to avoid ill-health To conclude, I can do no better than to quote verbatim from the pen of Dr John H Tilden. He defines toxaemia thus : "In the process of tissue-building (metabolism) there is cell-building (anabolism) and cell-destruction (catabolism). The broken-down tissue is toxic, and in health, when nerve energy is normal, it is eliminated as fast as evolved. When nerve energy is dissipated from any cause, physical or mental excitement or bad habits, the body becomes enervated. When enervated, elimination is checked, causing a retention of toxin in the blood, or toxaemia. This accumulation of toxin, when once established, will continue until nerve energy is restored by removing the causes. So-called disease is Natures effort at eliminating the toxin from the blood. All so-called diseases are crises of toxaemia." This priceless truth was discovered in 1829 by Priessnitz and espoused by others such as Tilden. How long will it take for mankind to become aware of it? Chapter Twelve: What is Nature Cure? by Kenneth S. Jaffrey I shall take as my next text a statement made 162 years ago by the founder of Nature Cure, Vincent Priessnitz. "Various causes engender vicious juices (by which he meant an abnormal composition of the body fluids). The principal are: Food of bad quality, the excess of good food, the suppression of perspiration, the want of exercise, and mental affliction acting violently upon the system, such as anger,

sorrow, care or melancholy." We have good reason to be proud of Nature Cure because it is the only healing art with which I am familiar which has not had cause to change its fundamental principles since the day it was discovered. What is the best way to achieve and maintain health? Since I am a Naturopath it is natural that I should advise everybody to investigate and adopt Nature Cure. Butwhat is Nature Cure? Sooner or later most of us are faced with this question. Like all other questions it demands an answerclear, concise and all-embracing. If we ask a friendly enthusiast, we could receive a weird, inaccurate description of certain methods which he believes benefited him in his search for health. We may consult books or magazines. They could prove even worse. Nature Cure, it seems, can be many things. Practitioners can be just as disappointing. A Practitioner call himself a Naturopath, professes to disbelieve in drugs, yet when faced with an actual case of ill-health, will unblushingly put his patient into a hot bath laced with epsom saltsa drug. If this "cure" fails to cure, he may then advise the patient to take a dose of a drug (which he professedly condemns), mixes it with water and hopefully gives this remedy to his patient to drink, telling him that it is a "natural" remedy. If these two procedures fail to make the patient happy he may produce a contraption like an old-fashion wireless set with knobs all over it. He seats the patient in front of the box and after adjusting to the wave-length of the patient (whatever that means), tells his victim to call again for a further session of this pure bunkum. This foolishness he calls Radiesthesia or Radionics. Big words that mean exactly nothing. Is it any wonder that the genuine inquirer pleads "What is Nature Cure?" In this booklet I will try to set out what Nature Cure is, derived from two words. the word "nature" implies that which is natural and normal, that which derives from nature itself. The word "cure" means care and attention. So, we can define Nature Cure as the art of caring for human beings in a way which is natural to their organism. Nature Cure is not only a way to assist in the removal of disease but also a way of life which provides the natural care and attention necessary to maintain health. Why do we need the system of Nature Cure? Have we not already got perfectly competent medical physicians, trained and qualified to advise us how to keep healthy and how to restore health when it has been lost? The answer is no. It is precisely because the medical hotchpotch of cures lacks a correct underlying principle and because it does nothing to solve our problems that we must look elsewhere for the truth about health. Can any sane rational person believe that in order to enjoy good health one has to be drugged, injected and mutilated from birth to death? Yet, this is the thoroughly negative and futile approach which is current today. Silver Nitrate or some other drug, is dropped into a babys eyes at birth. He is given soothing syrups and teething powders. His life begins with drugs. Before long he is being injected with poisonous vaccines which are supposed to prevent him from becoming sick. No logical reason is offered why a healthy person, if normally cared for, should ever become ill. Yet, the round of superstitious injections goes on. We are immunised against measles, whooping cough, poliomyelitis, and a host of other diseases we may never get. Throughout life, various organs such as tonsils, appendix or gall-bladder may be removed surgically. And still humanity remains ill. Nature Cure has a completely different approach to health and healing. It claims that health is the natural consequence of providing the body with its normal, natural materials and environment. We believe that when we are ill there is a perfectly natural cause for that condition. We believe that

illness is simply the organism reacting to a situation that is causing it some difficulty. Something has interfered with the normal, natural functioning of the body. The body, previously at "ease", comfortable and efficient, is in a state of "dis-ease". It functions imperfectly and is in a state of discomfort, illness or "dis-ease". The advocates of Nature Cure believe that the correct approach is to remove the cause of the "dis-ease" and to render any assistance that will provide the body with the most favourable conditions for a return to health. Doesnt this sound more logical than the blind hit and miss methods now customary? So it is! Let me state quite emphatically that the idea that ill-health is inevitable, is false. If we give the body what it needs we will enjoy normal health. The idea that human beings can be "poisoned" into health, is also false. No poisons of any kind are of any benefit to a well person and they are less beneficial to a sick one. In Nature Cure we classify as a poison any substance which is not needed by the body as a source of food and which the body cannot profitably utilise for the purpose of providing energy or building tissues. Drugs, medicines and many commodities sold under the guise of foods are in reality poisons. They may be mild poisons in some cases, but they are poisons nevertheless. Let us turn to the causes of health for a while. When we are well we rarely stop to consider what it is that is keeping us well. Obviously, something is. Nature Cure teaches that it is natural to be healthy. We believe that human beings, like, animals in their natural state, should be healthy. No drugs, vaccines or electrical gadgets are necessary to keep a normal person in good health. What then, is needed? Right living. Correct living habits will produce normal, natural health. If you are ill, have headaches or pains, feel tired and out of sorts, if you need a laxative to force your bowels to work properly, then you are ill. If you constantly have catarrh or get frequent colds, there must be something wrong. Butdoesnt everybody get a cold now and then? Of course they doif there is a need for it. Colds just dont happen capriciously. Colds are Natures way of removing unwanted material through the mucous membranes. They are our safety valves. Behind every illness or disability there is a cause. The body is self-regulating and self-repairing. We dont need to take medicines to ensure that the bowels work normally. We dont need to apply ointment if we cut ourselves. Healing is a natural process which should proceed without the use of any external or internal aids. Nature Cure does not use drugs, medicines, herbs, vitamin preparations, food supplements, or electrical machines. It uses only such methods as are natural to the body. Nature Cure teaches that illness is caused by an infringement of natural law. It teaches that the only sure way to regain health is by obedience to natural law. In other words, we should live naturally. In order to be healthy we need suitable food, exercise, rest, water, sunlight, fresh air, correct living habits and a positive mental attitude. When a person is ill the same factors are necessary as in health, but in different proportions. The chief causes of ill-health are foodless or poisoned foods, drugs, lack of exercise, insufficient rest, tensions, worries, fears, excessive stimulation, impure air polluted water, occupational strains and accidents, wrong living habits, and unbalanced emotions. Any one or more of these things can cause enervation, which is depletion of nerve force. This leads to imperfect elimination of body wastes and retention of poisons, causing toxaemia, which is an abnormal composition of the blood. This is the chain of events through which disease arises. Wrong living habits - enervation - imperfect elimination - retention of poisons - blood poisoning - disease. The job of a Naturopath is to uncover the factors that cause disease and then teach the patient how to

adjust his way of life so he will live in harmony with Nature and not against it. Sothe Naturopath is not a medical practitioner. He does not supply medical or surgical advice or treatments. If he does these things, he is really an amateur physician and has no right to call himself a Naturopath. Nature Cure is devoted wholly to the achievement and maintenance of normal health by natural means. It seeks to provide the correct environment and conditions so the Life-force within the body will restore and maintain health. Nature Cure recognises nature as the only healer. We use the following natural factors: Natural Foods, Fasting, Water, Sunlight, Air, Earth, Exercise, Relaxation, and Positive Thinking. Manipulations such as Chiropractic are used to assist in establishing normality of the body structure. The treatments in the usual sense of the word. Naturopathic treatments are used only to achieve normality. When the body is normal it repairs itself automatically. Naturopaths therefore do not promise to cure disease and they do not treat disease. They concentrate solely on normalisation of the patient. Naturopaths do not prescribe drugs, medicines or remedies of any kind. The only substance used in Nature Cure which even remotely resembles medicine is water, and water has never injured anyone or produced any harmful side-effects. The approach of Nature Cure to health is scientific, logical and rational. Its treatments are biologically sound and normal. Whilst theory is very interesting, actual practice is better still. Many thousands of people all over the world have been restored to health after all other methods had failed and medical authorities had said their case was hopeless. "Will the simple natural methods which I have enumerated suffice to banish disease?" They will, providing there is sufficient vitality within the body. Nature Cure will not save a dying person. It will undoubtedly prolong life, but unless there is enough vitality, even Nature Cure will fail. "If Nature Cure is so effective, why do not more people adopt it and why has the medical profession ignored its teaching?" Many people do not adopt Nature Cure because they do not wish to discard their old living habits. Many people would rather die or remain ill than give up drinking alcohol, smoking tobacco, or eating the flesh of animals. The choice is theirs. They elect to indulge their old tastes and habits rather than discipline themselves and discard their wrong habits of a lifetime. Members of the medical profession can be forgiven if they do not adopt natural healing methods. Most physicians do not know anything about Nature Cure and are too busy to investigate it thoroughly. There is also the natural resistance to change. Its in most of us. Another reason why Nature Cure is not popular is that there is little money in it. There is nothing to sell or exploit commercially. If people lived normal, natural lives there would be no need for drugs nor for physicians to prescribe them. Hospitals would be drastically reduced in size and number. Only a few surgeons would be needed to attend to people who were accidentally injured. If we accept the claim that it is natural to be healthy and that there are certain principles to be followed in order to maintain the highest degree of health, it is logical for us to study the human body and its environment and then determine what we should do to be healthy. In our short list of requirements we mentioned suitable food. Most people would accept this. But just what is suitable food? Here is where we have the widest divergence of opinion. The diet recommended by most authorities is, according to Nature Cure philosophy, most unsuitable. In a booklet of this nature it would be impractical to enter into a long discussion of food. Suffice it is to say that the secret of good nutrition is living food. We need a daily intake of foods in a state as near natural as possible. It is best to adopt what is commonly called a vegetarian diet, although I prefer to call it a natural diet. Next in our list of health needs is exercise. If man lived in a wholly natural environment he would not need planned exercise. Living under our civilised conditions it is vitally necessary to have daily

exercise in order to build and maintain strong flexible muscles and tissues. Rest is the opposite to exercise and just as important. Rest is really a period of relaxation in which all muscular tension is relieved. Sleep is the most natural and essential form of rest. Sunlight, although feared by many, is the power from Natures generators. All life on earth derives its power indirectly from the sun. This power in the form of solar radiations is absorbed through the skin, the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat. That rare commodity, fresh air, is also a most desirable factor in our search for health. Modern man is polluting his atmosphere with gases from factories, homes and transport machinery. This gives us a good reason for visiting the country or seaside as often as possible. Water, once a wholesome beverage, is now becoming an unwholesome poisoned soup. Many town water supplies are unfiltered which means that the water contains sludge and algae. Then fluoride, chlorine, aluminium sulphate, copper sulphate and other chemicals are added to make a substandard water still less suitable for human consumption. If we must drink this poisoned water it is advisable to distill or filter it to remove all impurities. Incidentally, water is not only used for drinking and bathing but also for producing better tone of skin and muscles. As well as the concrete factors just discussed we have the abstract factor of the human mind. Nature Cure teaches that a positive, constructive and optimistic attitude of mind produces the best mental climate for high-level health and emotional stability. If we attend to these factors we will be living fairly naturally. Should we be already ill, then it is necessary to eliminate the illness by removing the causes and the necessity for the illness. This process is called Nature Cure or Naturopathy. There are many schools of thought and each school stresses the factors which appeal most strongly to its adherents. To give you an idea of the wide divergence of treatment methods, I will quote the experience of a patient who consulted seven natural healers. These are the methods they recommend, in various combinations: Diet, Fasting, Exercise, Relaxation, Sunbathing, Osteopathic Manipulations, Chiropractic Adjustments, Massage, Spinal Traction, Herbs, Vitamin Pills, Homoeopathic Drugs, Biochemic Tissue Salts, Ultra-sonic Treatments, Diathermy, Short Wave, Vapour Baths and Radiesthesia. All of the practitioners consulted by this patient called themselves Naturopaths. It would be interesting to compare the various combinations of treatments and advice given and to try to analyse the reasons for using these particular combinations of methods. Perhaps, after all, they really believed in them. Whilst it is only natural that individual practitioners will always lay the greatest stress on the methods which have the strongest appeal to them personally, the effect on the patient is confusing. It is wrong to encourage belief in the power of medicine or food or a machine to heal; or even for that matter, to encourage belief in some magic power in the practitioners hands. At this point it would be wise to give a list of the most popular methods of treatment which have been classified from time to time as natural. Some of these treatments are far from natural and have no place in a system of healing called Nature Cure. This will be explained as we go along. A simple description will be given of each method, with my comment on each one and my opinion as to its merits or otherwise. Extracted from: Jaffrey, Kenneth S. 1975. What Is Nature Cure? Townsville, Australia: Jaffrey. Dietetics This subject covers everything which is consumed by the mouth. Nothing but food should ever pass the lips. There is never a time when a poison or non-food has any value. Dietetics is the cornerstone of Nature Cure but it is also the most difficult of all subjects connected with it. A fully-balanced diet contains everything needed for nutrition. Such things as vitamins, food supplements, and so-called

natural remedies are of very little, if any, value. The vast majority of people do not want to give up their orthodox eating habits, so we have many schools of thought, all vying with each other to make dietetics attractive and acceptable to the average person. All kinds of queer diets are proposed. There are diets for almost every conceivable complaint. Ulcer diets, Obesity diets, Constipation diets, diets for Arthritis and Rheumatism. One enterprising practitioner has even resurrected the old and discredited Salisbury diet consisting of cooked minced meat and hot water. Such diets are not only useless but harmful. Light This subject covers sunlight, chromotherapy, infra-red, ultra-violet and other forms of light radiation. It is very doubtful if any of these methods, except sunbathing, has any value beyond what psychological help they may give. The only benefits derived would be produced by the faith one has in them. Sunbathing, on the other hand, is a perfectly natural method of absorbing solar radiation from the sun and should be included in every natural health program. In the beginning, the exposures to the sun should be carefully graduated in order to avoid burning. Air Air bathing, breathing, hot-air baths, ozone and oxygen therapy have all been used. Air bathing is most beneficial in that it tones up the muscles and develops efficient skin reaction. Breathing pure air by means of rhythmic diaphragmatic breathing should form part of every health program. The ozone and oxygen treatments and hot-air baths have little value and act mainly as symptomatic treatments. Tobacco smoking could also be mentioned under the heading of Air. Inhalation of these poisonous gases pollutes the bloodstream and not only causes respiratory diseases, but aggravates many conditions in other parts of the body. Exercise Under this heading we find physical culture, weight lifting, sports and gymnastics. Running, Jogging, Swimming and all non-violent sports are the ideal form of exercise. Violent movements should be avoided. Those exercises which rotate, flex and stretch the spine are the most valuable as personal systems of exercise. Conscious posture correction has great value in overcoming some of the wrong postural habits of civilised life. Physical Therapies Under this heading we can group all of the mechanical treatments, those which study and treat the body as a mechanical contrivance. The philosophy behind all of these treatments can be stated as "A place for everything. Everything in its place". They all strive to produce normality of the body structure. The best known are Osteopathy and Chiropractic. They commenced as entirely separate and distinct systems. Today, they have overlapped to such an extent that chiropractic schools teach many osteopathic movements, while osteopathic schools teach almost all of the chiropractic methods. Chiropractic formerly concentrated its efforts on the examination and adjustments of the bony joints of the body, paying particular attention to the spine. Chiropractors now use hydrotherapy, electrotherapy, vitamins and many other adjuncts. Osteopaths originally depended solely on manipulation of the soft tissues and bony structure, and declared that there was no room for anything else. Osteopaths today use chiropractic adjustments, dietetics, food supplements, massage, electrotherapy and several other methods. American osteopaths even use drugs and surgery. Osteopaths claim that the osteopathic lesion is the main cause of ill-health. This is defined as a tissuechange in any part of the body which impedes nutrition, drainage and flow of nerve-force, blood and lymph. Chiropractors claim that an impingement of a nerve by a slightly misplaced or abnormally fixed vertebra or joint (called a subluxation) can cause an excess or shortage of nerve-force and thus act as a cause of disease.

The osteopath uses a series of actions which he calls osteopathic movements. These are leverages on the bony structure and manipulation of the soft tissues. The chiropractor uses a quick recoil thrust against a maladjusted vertebra or joint and calls this an adjustment. Unfortunately, much mumbo-jumbo has surrounded Osteopathy and Chiropractic. Exaggerated claims have been made for them and they have been grossly misused. These manipulations are not always necessary. If there is no appreciable mechanical disability they are not needed. However, if there is interference with the normal flow of blood, lymph and nerve-force, it is wise to adjust these abnormalities. Many thousands of people have recovered their health without manipulation, which proves that in some cases it is unnecessary. Manipulation should only be used when needed. When spinal discs are thinned or crushed, spinal traction is very beneficial. Massage Under this heading we have manual rubbing, stroking, kneading and vibration, as well as ultra-sonic, electrical vibration and concussion of the spine. Massage and vibration can best be described as external pushing. The effect is purely palliative and has been much over-rated. Massage does not produce any permanent beneficial change in the structure or chemical composition of the body. Some massage methods have value in that they relieve pain by breaking up congestion and dispersing toxins. They do not aid the body to remove the cause of disease so cannot be claimed as having any healing value. Massage should be used for relief of pain and even then only for as long as is necessary and until the body has been able to remove the cause of the pain. Electrotherapy This includes Diathermy, Short-wave, Galvanic, Faradic and all other methods of applying electricity to the body. Except for the slight psychological help they may give some suggestible people, the total effect of electricity applied in these ways is almost nil. It is far better and less risky to absorb natural radiations into our bodies through sunbathing and contact of the bare feet with the earth. Psychology Under this heading we have many schools of thought. All claim to teach the patient how to correct his mental faults and to give him the right approach to the problems of life. The system which has been used by Naturopaths right from the beginning is Positive thinking or the development of a positive mental attitude. This system teaches that a pessimistic, destructive and negative attitude of mind produces tensions, fears and worries and they in turn generate the climate favourable to ill-health. Conversely, it teaches that a positive, optimistic and constructive mental attitude assists in the achievement of harmony and health. Hypnotism has been use by a few practitioners. Hypnotism is a psychological crime. Never surrender your mind to anyone, not even a Naturopath. Hydrotherapy This is the use of water. Many modern Naturopaths have now discarded the use of water and so in recent years this cheap, efficient and safe health aid has been neglected. Some people claim that water application are not natural and have no value. If they are genuine in their belief this could only mean that they have not properly tested hydrotherapy. In the early days of Nature Cure, water was widely used to cleanse, tone and harden the organism. It was even called the Water Cure. Water may be used in the form of affusions, sprays, vapour baths, sitz baths, packs, and compresses. It can also be used in internal baths. It is fully conceded that some forms of water treatments such as colonic irrigations, hot mineral baths and other violent applications should be avoided. This however, does not detract from the great value of the simple forms of hydrotherapy when intelligently applied. Semi-Medical Treatments

Herbal remedies, Biochemic tissue salts, Homoeopathic drugs, and the thousands of remedies sold as natural remedies are all almost valueless. They have no place in a natural system of healing. While some of these remedies are much less harmful than orthodox drugs, they cannot remove the causes of disease nor can they supply any of the biological requirements of the body or be used by the body to build normal tissues. By their very nature they are either mild poisons or non-food and therefore should not be consumed by well or sick people. Herbalism is a system of botanic medicine. Plants are treated in many ways to make them into medicines. The body recognises these substances as unwanted material and make more or less violent efforts to expel them. Most herbs, if eaten in the natural state, are wholesome foods and should be regarded as such. When converted into medicines by roasting, boiling, frying and mixing with harmful ingredients, they lose any value they originally possessed. Biochemic tissue salts and Homoeopathic medicines are all highly diluted drugs. Here again the body will try to expel these mild poisons and so produce a reaction. But, as these drugs do not remove the causes of disease and simply mitigate the effects of wrong living habits, they do not qualify as natural methods of treatment. Many modern Naturopaths give medicines because they feel that most people are not yet ready for the pure teachings of Nature Cure and because there is a demand for something to take. They have even gone so far as to rationalise this procedure by claiming that people suffer from certain deficiencies which these natural remedies supply. The medical profession has used placebos for many years. A placebo is defined as medicine which contains solely inactive ingredients. The only possible benefit gained would be produced by the faith patients have in these remedies. Early hygienists made use of coloured water and bread pills. People were encouraged to believe that these so-called medicines contained some powerful and mysterious healing powers. Today this faith has been transferred to vitamin pills and food supplements. In great Britain, the situation has become so serious that an organisation known as the British Register of Naturopaths accepts as members only those practitioners who practise pure Naturopathy. In order to gain membership the applicant must promise not to prescribe remedies of any kind. This is a step by members of this organisation. There have been other methods used from time to time. Each has had its day. Some of these survive today and are used by a few practitioners. Under this heading we find Nerve-pressure, Zone Therapy, and Radiethesia, including the so-called Color-therapy. The first two I have mentioned constitute a group of methods which depends upon pressure at strategic points on the body to produce effects of stimulation and inhibition. They either speed up or slow down the flow of nerve-force and do on occasions, produce effects. Their value is minute, brief and not worth the trouble involved. At best, they do little harm. At worst, they suppress slightly some symptoms of disease. They are all unnecessary. Radiesthesia or Radionics is based on the claim that disease is caused by unfavourable radiations and that inducement of favourable radiations can improve health. Radiesthesia is quite useless for the purpose of making changes in the body structure or body chemistry. It has the saving grace that it does not do any harm except to convince the patient that there is some magical quality of healing in the little black box. The truth is that the inherent healing power within the cells of the body alone can bring about a return to health. You will get good results with Nature Cure, with or without Radiesthesia, but you will not get results without that force known as the Vis Medicatrix Naturae, or the healing power of Nature. Acupuncture and chicken embryo injections are methods which have become popular in recent years. They have the glamour of the East about them. Acupuncture makes use of needles which are thrust into the skin in certain well-defined areas. It is highly unnatural and quite useless. The embryos of unborn chickens are used to provide the raw material which is injected into dupes who believe it will confer some benefit on them. It is supposed to produce rejuvenation. Another most unnatural and useless procedure.

Fasting I have left the most important and least understand subject until the last. Fasting can be described as Natures own method of healing. Not that there is any healing power in the act of depriving yourself of food alone. But, Fasting does give the digestive system directly and the rest of the body indirectly, a much-needed rest. Right from the beginning Naturopaths have held the belief that rest or conservation of energy was the best way to assist the body to heal and repair itself. Naturopaths were not quite alone. Many years ago an eminent medical doctor, John Hilton, wrote in his classical work Rest and Pain, the following words: "Pain is the monitor. Rest the cure." Doctor Hilton understood that pain was the reflection of the nervous system telling us that something was wrong. He also understood that at this time the body needed rest to effect a cure. The secret of Fasting is not mysterious. It provides physiological rest, which combined with mental and physical rest is the most important tool in the hands of the Naturopath. Fasting is the Rest Cure. We have now concluded our review of the most important and best-known methods which have been included in the practice of Nature Cure. Any one or more of these methods has been called Nature Cure. I leave it to the judgement of the individual as to what he or she thinks about each one. I have tried to indicate fairly those methods which I feel should and should not be included. If my readers feel that I have unduly harsh on some natural health practitioners, I would point out that any unorthodox treatment is better than the orthodox medical treatment. Any treatment which poisons the body less or which subjects it to less strain or less enervation is bound to be more beneficial than orthodox treatment. Since it is the inherent healing power within the body which heals, it follows that the less hindrance caused the better the end-result will be. Some remedies are simply placebos which act on the principle that they keep the patient happy while Nature does the curing. The bottles of coloured water and bread pills which were used at the close of the 19th century were used on the assumption that patients expect the doctor to give them something to take. We can only hope that humanity is ready to emerge from this infantile stage and can now adopt a more scientific and more rational outlook towards health and healing. There is a widespread misconception that anything which is not "medical" treatment must therefore be Nature Cure. Members of the medical profession are impatient with Naturopaths. They claim that doctors already use everything that Naturopaths use, so there is no need for a separate profession. It is true that the medical profession at one time or another has used all of our methods, although they have now largely discarded most of them. Dietetics, Liquid Diets, Fasting, Exercising, Relaxation, Sunbathing, Water Treatments and Manipulation have all been used by medical practitioners. Here we can anticipate a question. "If there is no healing power in drugs, surely there must be some healing power in herbs or electricity. Arent they natural?" My reply is none at all. The power to heal does not lie in any substance, any machine or in any other human being. The power to heal is within the tiny cells of every living body, animal or vegetable. Every cell of your body is vibrating with life, expanding and contracting, pulsing with movement. It is absorbing electricity and radiating electricity. It is absorbing chemicals and excreting chemicals. This is the power that heals. When we understand this simple basic truth, we understand almost everything there is to understand about Nature Cure. There is no healing power in anything outside the body. Nature Cure is used only for the purpose of releasing the inherent power within the cell. Only such treatments and procedures as those which help the body to achieve normality are of any value. We of the Nature Cure school know through experience that the human body will function perfectly if it is given the right foods, a favourable environment, proper hygienic care, and congenial activity. We believe that unsuitable food, drugs, medicines and unnecessary surgical operations, unfavourable environment, unhygienic living habits and negative mental attitudes all cause disease, reduce efficiency, hinder Natures self-healing efforts ,and shorten life.

Every cell of the body has within itself the will to live, the will to survive. This is the life-force in action and this is what we have to encourage. A visit to a Naturopath is a pleasantly different experience from a visit to a medical physician. The physician is concerned mainly with outward symptoms and his treatments are directed largely towards removal of these outward symptoms. The Naturopath, on the other hand, concerns himself mainly with the search of causes of the disease. His treatments are directed mainly towards removal of causes. The medical profession holds to the belief that germs and viruses cause disease. The treatment is therefore directed largely towards the killing of these germs and viruses by means of drugs which are loosely called antibiotics. The Naturopath makes no effort to kill germs or viruses because he does not recognise them a being basic causes of disease. While he accepts the fact of the existence of bacteria, he knows that the bacteria are secondary in the scheme of disease-causation. Germs arise within a diseased and poisoned organism and thrive on the filthy matter they find there. Germs and viruses cannot and do not harm a healthy body. You can make a simple test for yourself which will prove this. Get two clean bottles. Stand them side by side. In one bottle place scraps of decaying food. Wait for a few days. The bottle containing the food will be infested by all kinds of vermin. The empty bottle will be free from infestation. Why? Because there is nothing in the empty bottle of interest to the vermin. Germs and viruses are scavengers of the human body. Germs find no habitation or food supply in a healthy body. Those who live in accordance with natural law have nothing to fear from germs. Every housewife knows that the secret of a healthy home is cleanliness. Apply the same line of reasoning to your body. If you have neglected your home it will become infested. So will your body. We return to our original question. What is Nature Cure? Nature Cure is a way of life which lays down certain requirements. If these are met we will be able to live in health. It also offers hope for the restoration of health to those who are afflicted. The right way back to health is to remove all unnatural living habits and obstructions to normal functioning of the body. The methods based upon natural law which I described earlier have their uses in varying degrees. When a Naturopath makes his diagnosis of a case, he forms a picture of the patient and his living habits. Obviously no two people are exactly alike and so his instructions may differ in each case. One person may eat suitable food but does not exercise enough. Another may exercise enough and eat suitable food, but due to the adoption of negative mental attitudes, nullifies all his efforts towards health. Some people eat basically good foods, yet grossly overeat, thus overloading their digestive capacity, producing indigestion and all of the ills that follow. Good health demands attention to all of the factors we have discussed. If we neglect one or more of these we may not necessarily die or develop cancer, but we will have reduced efficiency or shortened life-span. Any attempt at restoring health should take into account as many as possible of the essential factors, especially those that have been neglected over long periods. A one-sided approach to health is not Nature Cure. Dietetic errors account for by far the largest proportion of disease conditions and that is why Naturopaths lay such stress on the adoption of rational eating habits. No matter how positively we think, how much we fast, how much we exercise, if the food we eat is sub-standard we will never achieve the highest standard of health of which we are capable. We need food which is naturally suited to our digestive system. This is briefly raw fruit, raw vegetables, nuts, whole grains and a few other minor items. Our food should be masticated thoroughly and we should not overeat. Our food should preferably be organically grown using compost instead of artificial fertilisers. Food grown organically lasts better, keeps longer and has a higher nutritional value.

We need pure air on our skins. We should breathe this air deeply and rhythmically using the diaphragm rather than the chest for this purpose. We need plenty of sunshine, both through the food we eat and directly on the bare skin. Our skin also needs regular bathing with cool water and then rubbing vigorously. We need exercise and plenty of it. We should adopt a positive, constructive and cheerful outlook on life. We should radiate love, harmony and helpfulness towards our fellow man. We should try to achieve mental poise. These are the minimum requirements for health and given these we should live long healthy lives, providing our heredity is sound. If we have disobeyed Natures laws and suffer sub-standard health we may reverse the process providing the damage done to vital organs has not been too great. We must remove the cause of disease and do everything in our power to produce normality of the body structure and body chemistry. There are times when such treatments as manipulation can be used to correct structural faults and deviations. If the skin action has been impaired through years of neglect and it is no longer able to carry out its function of eliminating body wastes efficiently, hydrotherapy in the form of vapour baths, sitz baths, or compresses can be used to assist in normalising skin action. As long as the treatments are nonviolent in character and carefully applied they can assist in achieving normality. The wise and competent Naturopath is the one who can detect the faults in his patient and then selects a routine which is the best suited to his needs. The philosophy of Nature Cure recognises only two forms of disease. It is unnecessary to give names to various sets of symbols. The body is either in the Acute state or the Chronic state. That is all we need to know. If the body is in the acute state, the temperature will be above normal and it will also be more active than usual. This is a sign of high vitality. We call this the Healing Crisis. It may take the form of colds, influenza, diarrhoea, headaches, boils or skin eruptions. The Healing Crisis is an example of Natures effort to heal and restore normal functioning of the organism. When you develop a healing crisis the correct procedure is to Fast at once and continue to do so until the body indicates that the fast should be concluded. If you have not fasted before it is advisable to undertake your first fast under correct supervision If the body is in the Chronic state then a different approach is necessary. In the chronic state the temperature is normal or below normal. If through years of neglect, the taking of drugs or submission to operations, or incorrect management of previous acute diseases, the disease ceases to be acute, it then proceeds towards the chronic state. In this state there may be loss of efficiency, tiredness, pains, deformity, or any one or more of many symptoms. In this state the body is unable to heal itself and restore health. It has virtually ceased to struggle against its enemies. As the acute disease is Natures method of healing, we must direct all of our energies towards raising the vitality of the body so this state will be produced. This could take from seven weeks to two years. We make use of all the forces of Nature we have been discussing under the heading of natural treatments and which are appropriate to our case. When the body is given the right foods and all other requirements and there is an unobstructed flow of nerve-force and blood, it will proceed to heal itself. It does this by producing the healing crisis. As stated before, this is the correct time to undertake a fast. When health has been restored it seems logical that the person should then rearrange his or her life and living habits so as to prevent a recurrence of disease in the future. There are characteristics peculiar to Nature Cure which should be explained to the newcomer. It can best be done by citing a case history. A patient presents himself to a medical physician for diagnosis.

The physician finds that the patient has one symptom onlya headache. A drug is prescribed and subsequently the headache disappears. As far as the physician is concerned the case is closed. The patient suffered a headache, a drug was given, the patient now has no headache. In Nature Cure the case would not be closed so readily. We of the Nature Cure school would ask some pertinent questions. What set of conditions within the body produced the headache? What was the action of the drug, and by what means was the headache cured? What is the condition of the body? Have the conditions which produced the headache been removed? Has the drug caused any permanent change within the body? Until these questions are satisfactorily answered we insist that this kind of treatment remains unscientific and invalid. Cure of the disease does not always run quite as smoothly or directly as this case-history would indicate. The body has its own way of dealing with causes of disease. A short time after the adoption of a normal living plan certain dynamic and revolutionary changes take place within the body. The toxins or blood poisons which were most recently acquired are eliminated. Then those poisons which were accumulated further back in time will be eliminated progressively in reverse order to that in which they were accumulated. The poisons you accumulated a month ago will be eliminated first. The poisons you accumulated two months ago will be eliminated next. Those you accumulated twelve months ago will be next and so no. Thus the body progressively and systematically cleanses its tissues of unwanted and harmful material. This continues until the body finally rids itself of all harmful matter. A person who has had many diseases in the past and has cured them medically must understand that these diseases were not in reality cured at all, but only suppressed. Not only do his tissues contain the actual poisons which caused his disease in the first place, but also the residues of the drugs used to cure the disease. So, the body, acting under the stimulus of the new Nature Cure program, builds vitality which enables it to progressively throw off both the original disease producing poisons and the drugs used in treatment. In carrying out a Nature Cure treatment we commonly find that the patient has a revisitation of his old illnesses, but in a milder form and for a shorter period. This is what distinguishes Nature Cure markedly from all other forms of healing. A patient following a Nature Cure regime actually re-lives his past medical history in reverse. The intelligent patient is pleased to note that his body is now vital and active and that for the first time in years it is healthy enough to rid itself of poisons accumulated over a long period. Even though many so-called miracles have occurred under Nature Cure, it would be wrong to demand dramatic results in every case. Each case is different. Some people have had organs removed. Others have taken drugs or eaten unsuitable food over a long period. Others again have sustained injuries to the spine or other vital parts of the body. A person who after a long period of wrong living simply adopted more rational eating habits may find that his condition persists or even becomes worse for a time. Only a complete change in the way of life will be of any avail in these cases. Half measures will not do. A body saturated with poisons or unwanted materials will take some time and patience to rehabilitate. In rare cases, the sufferer must be content with prevention of any further deterioration in health or at best to experience a slow transition back to full health. We cannot dictate to Nature. A healthy person is one who can do a hard days work and enjoy it. He recuperates quickly. He needs no artificial stimulants such as tea, coffee or alcohol. He needs no poisonous sedatives like tobacco. He has normal bowel action without having to resort to laxatives or the enema. What is more he is free from aches and pains. His tongue is clean, his breath sweet and fresh. He feels well every day. His mind is alert and intelligent. If you do not measure up to these standards it is time you took stock of yourself to see what changes you can make in your way of life to correct any deficiencies.

If you have absorbed the contents of this book you will at least know the answer to the question, What is Nature Cure? To recapitulate, here are the principles of Nature Cure: 1. All healing power is within your own body. 2. There is no curative power in drugs, medicines, herbs, foods, electrical apparatus or anything else outside your own body. 3. Nature has not provided cures for disease. Nature has only provided penalties for the breaking of some natural law. 4. Return to an obedience to natural law is the only valid method of cure. 5. Drugs cause disease. If they succeed in "curing" one disease, they cause another. All drugs have two effects. One is that intended to benefit the patient and the other is the side-effect which harms the patient. You cannot have one without the other. 6. Since all drugs are potential causes of disease we should avoid them at all times. 7. Drugs do not act upon the body, as taught in medical schools and in medical textbooks. The body reacts to the drug. The body recognises the drug as unwanted material and makes an attempt to expel it. 8. True medicines are materials and influences which have normal relations to the body. Drugs are all harmful because they are not normal to the body by Nature. 9. Natures medicine chest contains: Sunlight, air, water, rest, exercise, correct temperature, natural foods, positive mental attitude, and correction of misaligned body joints. 10. Nature Cure consists in supplying the body with whatever it needs, and can use, in the particular circumstances. 11. Nature Cure assists to get well by removing the causes of disease, and by providing the most favourable conditions. 12. Nature Cure is not a one-sided approach to health. It makes use of all non-harmful methods which have as their objective the normalisation of the body. 13. When the body is given its normal natural materials and conditions it maintains health. It will restore health when it has been lost. Chapter Thirteen: Everybodys Guide to Nature Cure by Harry Benjamin Nature Cure is based upon a conception which realises that disease is something which arises in the system solely as a result of the bodys attempts to rid itself of obstacles to its proper functioning, these obstacles originating in the first place from factors at work within the body of the individual concerned, and not from factors outside, as Medical Science would have us believe. Thus instead of disease being looked upon as something inimical to the organism, and having to be fought against, as is the popular view, it is recognised as being in reality nothing else than the bodys attemptsblind and unconscious though they may beat self cleansing and self healing. Disease is regarded therefore, as being something directly connected with the life and habits of the individual concernedas the direct outcome of these same ways and habits of living, in fact, and not as something apart from or foreign to them. Further, the power to cure disease is taken to reside "always and only" within the body of the patient

himself, and will manifest itself as soon as the wrong habits of living and harmful practices which have hampered its activity in the past and obscured its presence have been rectified, as a result of correct treatment and guidance. Going still further, it is fully accepted by the Nature Cure Philosophy that orthodox medical treatment, with its drugging and surgical operations, not only cannot cure disease, but succeeds merely in turning simple diseases into far more serious ones. Extracted from: Benjamin, Harry. 1967. Everybodys Guide to Nature Cure. 16th Impression. Croydon, UK: Health For All Publishing Co. The Three Fundamental Principles The philosophy and practice of Nature Cure is built upon three fundamental principles. It must be fully understood that these principles are not the outcome of mere theorising into the nature and treatment of disease, but are the logical deductions and conclusions arrived at from nearly a century of effective Nature Cure treatment of disease, in Germany, America and in this country (U.K.), and tested and proved over and over again by the results obtained. 1. The first and most fundamental principle of Nature Cure is that all forms of disease are due to the same cause, namely the accumulation in the system of waste materials and bodily refuse, which has been steadily piling up in the body of the individual concerned through years of wrong habits of living, the chief of these being wrong feeding, improper care of the body, and habits tending to set up enervation and nervous exhaustion, such as worry, overwork, excesses and abuses of all kinds, etc. From the first principle of Nature Cure, it follows that the only way in which disease can be cured is by the introduction of methods which will enable the system to throw off these toxic accumulations which are daily clogging the wheels of the human machine. And to that sole end all natural treatment is directed. 2. The second principle of Nature Cure is that the body is always striving for the ultimate good of the individual, no matter how ill treated it may be, and that all acute diseasessuch as fevers (Scarlet Fever, Measles, Diphtheria, Typhoid, etc), colds, diarrhoeas, skin eruptions of all kinds, inflammations, etc., are nothing more than self-initiated attempts on the part of the body to throw off the accumulations of waste material (some of them hereditary) which are interfering with its proper functioning. That all chronic diseasessuch as valvular disease of the heart, diabetes, kidney disease, rheumatism, bronchitis, etc.are really the results of the continued suppression of these same acute diseases (or self-initiated attempts at body-cleansing), by orthodox medical methods of treatment. These methods include the administration of poisonous drugs, vaccines, narcotics, gland extracts, and X-Ray therapy, and the removal of affected parts by means of surgical operations. From a Nature Cure standpoint, therefore, when a doctor "cures" a patient of an acute disease through the agency of drugs, sera, anti-toxins, etc, or through the medium of the "surgeons knife", what he really does is to force the toxins (waste products) which the body is endeavouring to throw off, farther back into the system, and it is the concentration of these toxins (plus the drugs), in the vital organs and other structures which form the basis of future chronic disease. Obviously, the form which chronic disease will take in any individual, whether it be rheumatism, Brights disease, asthma, diabetes, etc., will depend upon the bodily constitution, and heredity tendencies. But the main fact to be noted is that according to Nature Cure, all chronic disease originates in the first place through the suppression, by wrong medical methods of treatment, of acute diseases. 3. The third principle of Nature Cure is that the body contains within itself the power to bring about a return to that condition of normal well-being known as health, providing the right methods are employed to enable it to do so. That is to say, the power to cure disease lies not in the hands of the doctor or specialist, but within the body itself. Within this will be found the source of that healing power which Nature is ever ready to bestow on all who are willing to accept her laws and live in accordance with them.

It is upon these three principles just enumerated that the practice of Nature Cure is built. The chief measures whereby this is achieved are: (a) Fasting, because fasting is Natures most potent healing agency. Through the medium of the fast, waste products and impurities, which have sown the seeds of disease in the human body, can be removed in the simplest, easiest and most natural way. (b) Scientific Dieting, because wrong feeding is the most potent factor in the causation of disease (far more so than any other), and through proper dieting, and proper dieting alone, can the further accumulation of toxic and waste matter in the system be prevented, the blood purified, and all the bodily structures allowed to work at their highest level of efficiency. (c) Hydrotherapy, because (in addition to the tonic and cleansing effect upon the system of judiciously applied hot and cold water), through hydrotherapy or water treatment, effete bowel matter can be removed from the system in the simplest manner possible, without having to resort to the use of any of the harmful and deleterious drugs and purges of orthodox medication. Whilst in the form of wet packs hydrotherapy offers a remarkably simple natural expedient for abating fevers and reducing pain and inflammation. (Again without any harmful after-effects, which cannot be said of the anti-pyretic drugs used for the same purpose by the medical profession). (d) General Body-building and Hygienic Measures, because only through proper exercise, deep breathing, effective care of the skin, use of sunlight, fresh air, etc., can the healing process taking place within the body of the individual undergoing natural treatment be given the fullest possible expression. (e) Psychotherapy, because the mental factor plays a partto a greater or lesser extentin all diseased conditions, and properly applied mental therapy is therefore as necessary a factor in all natural treatment, which would be in the highest degree effective as any of the measures above. By these simple measures thenaided by such subsidiary healing agents as, spinal manipulation (Chiropractic and Osteopathy), massage, artificial sunlight, etc., does the practitioner of Natural Healing seek to deliver our modern humanity from disease. Chapter Fourteen: Mental Therapeutics by Henry Lindlahr The new psychology and the science of mental and spiritual healing teach us that the lower principles in man stand or should stand under the dominion of the higher. The physical body, with its material elements, is dominated and guided by the mind. The mind is inspired through the inner consciousness, which is an attribute of the soul. The soul of man is in communion with the source of all life and all intelligence animating the universe. Wherever this natural order is reversed, there is discord or disease. Too many people think and act as if the physical body were all in all, as though it were the only thing worth caring about. They exaggerate the importance of the physical and become its abject slave. The physical body is the lowest and the least intelligent of the different principles making up the human entity. Yet people allow their minds and their souls to become dominated and terrified by the sensations of the physical body. When the servants in the house control and terrify the master, when the master becomes their slave and they can do with him as they please, there can be no order and harmony in that house. We must expect the same results when the lower principles in man lord it over the higher. When physical weakness, illness, and pain fill the mind with fear and dismay, reason becomes clouded, the will atrophied, and self-control is lost. Every thought and every emotion has its direct effect upon the physical constituents of the body. The mental and emotional vibrations become physical vibrations and structures. Discord in the mind is

translated into disease in the body, while the harmonics of hope, faith, cheerfulness, happiness, love, and altruism create in the organism the corresponding vibrations of health. Have you ever noticed how the written or printed notes of a tone piece, or the perforations on the paper music roll of an automatic player are arranged in symmetrical and geometric figures and groups? Dry sand strewn on top of a piano on which harmonious tone combinations are produced shows a tendency to arrange itself in symmetrical patterns. In this you have a visual illustration of harmonious sound vibrations, which express "the harmonics of the souls emotions", into correspondingly harmonious arrangements and configuration in the physical material on the paper roll. A jumble of discords of sound, if reproduced on a music roll, would present a chaotic jumble of perforations. Thus the purely mental and emotional is translated into its corresponding discords or harmonies in the physical. As the perforations on the music roll arrange themselves either symmetrically or without symmetry and order, in strict accordance with the harmonies or discords of the composition, so the atoms, molecules, and cells in the physical body group themselves in normal or abnormal structures of health or of disease, in exact correspondence with the harmonious or the discordant vibrations conveyed to them from the mental and emotional planes. Another illustration: two violins, as they leave the shop of the maker, are exactly alike in material, structure, and quality of tone. One of the two instruments is constantly used by beginners and persons incapable of producing pure notes. The other passes into the hands of an artist who understands how to use the instrument to the best advantage, and who draws from it only musical tones that are true in pitch and quality. After a few years, compare the two violins again. You will find that the one used by the tyros in music has deteriorated in its musical qualities, while the one in the hands of the artist has greatly improved in quality and purity of tone. What is the reason? The atoms and molecules in the wood of the two instruments have grouped themselves according to the discords or the harmonies that have been produced from them. If this rearrangement of atoms is possible in "dead" wood, how much easier must be the adjustment thus of atoms, molecules, and cells to discordant or harmonious vibratory influence in the living, plastic, and fluidic human organism! What harmony is to music, hope, faith, cheerfulness, happiness, sympathy, love, and altruism are to the vibratory conditions of the human entity. These emotions are in alignment with the constructive principle in Nature. They harmonize the physical vibrations, relax the tissues, and open them wide to the inflow of the life force. Swedenborg truly says: "The warmth of life is the heat of the divine love permeating and animating the universe." The more we possess of hope, faith, love, and kindred emotions, the more we open ourselves to the inflow and action of the vital energies. The good-natured, cheerful, sympathetic person is more alive than the crabbed, morose, selfish individual. It has been proven over and over again by everyday experience that mental and emotional conditions positively affect the chemical composition of the tissues and secretions of the body. The destructive emotions of fear, worry, anger, jealousy, revengefulness, envy, etc., actually poison the fluids and tissues of the body. The bile of an angry man may cause blood poisoning, and prove as fatal as the bite of a mad dog. Sudden fear, anger, or any other destructive emotion in the nursing mother may cause illness or even death of the infant. In psychological laboratories it has been found by scientifically-conducted experiments that under the influence of destructive mental and emotional conditions, the secretions and excretions of the body show a marked increase of morbid and poisonous elements.

Selfishness, fear, and worry contract and congeal the blood vessels, the nerve fibres, and the other channels through which the life forces are conveyed from the innermost source of life to different parts and organs of the physical body. The flow of the life currents is impeded and diminished. Such are the actual effects of fear, anxiety, and egotism on the physical organism. A man under the influence of great fear, and one exposed to freezing, present the same outward appearance. In both cases death may result through the congealing of the tissues and the shutting out of the life currents. The person afflicted with the worry habit may not die suddenly like the one overcome by great and sudden fear. Nevertheless, fear and worry vibrations constantly maintained will surely obstruct and diminish the inflow of the life force, lower the vitality, and therewith the resistance to the encroachment of the influences inimical to the health of the organism. The cells in the body are negative, or at least they should be negative to the positive mind. The relationship of the mind to the cell should be like that of hypnotist to subject. If the mind could not exert such an absolute control over the cells and cell groups, it would be impossible for us to walk, talk, write, dodge danger, etc. with almost automatic ease. The cells are not able to reason upon the truth or untruth of the suggestions conveyed to them from the mind. They accept its promptings unqualifiedly and act accordingly. Thus, if the mind constantly thinks of, say, the stomach as being in a badly diseased condition, unable to do its work properly, the mental images of weakness and disease, with their accompanying fear vibrations, are telegraphed over the efferent nerves to the cells of the stomach, and these become more and more weakened and diseased through the destructive vibrations sent to them from the mind. Extracted from: Lindlahr, Henry. 1923. The Practice of Nature Cure. Chicago: Lindlahr. Positive Affirmations The foregoing explains why affirmations of health are justified in the face of disease. The health conditions must be first established in the mind before they can be conveyed to and impressed upon the cells. The well-being of the human body as a whole depends upon the health of the billions of minute cells which compose it. These cells are so small that they have to be magnified several hundred times under a powerful microscope before we can see them. Yet they are independent living beings which grow, accumulate food, work, and die, like the big cellMan. These little cells are congregated in communities which form the organs and tissues of the body, and in these communities they carry on the complicated activities of citizens living in a large city. Some are carriers, bringing food materials to the tissues and organs, or conveying waste and morbid matter to the excretory channels of the body. Other cells manufacture chemical substances such as sugar, fats, ferments, etc., for the production of which complicated factories are required. The marvellous work performed by these minute organisms, as well as observations made in the dissecting room, and under the microscope, strongly indicate that these cells are endowed with some sort of individual intelligence. They do their work without our aid or conscious volition. Nevertheless, they are greatly influenced by the varying conditions of the mind. While their activities seem to be controlled through the sympathetic nervous system, they stand in direct telepathic communication with "headquarters" in the brain, and every impulse of the mind is conveyed to them. If there be dismay and confusion in the mind, this information is telegraphically conveyed over the nerve trunks and filaments to every cell in the body, and as a result, these little workers become panic stricken and incapable of rightly performing their manifold duties. The cell system of the body resembles a vast army. The mind is the general at the head of it. The cells are the soldiers, divided into groups of special work. Much of the work of an army is carried on through well-established departments, as the commissariat,

hospital service, scout and pickets, etc. Though the life and the activities of the army are so wellregulated that they seem automatic, nevertheless, much depends upon the commander. The vital processes of the human organism, digestion, assimilation, elimination, respiration, circulation of the blood, etc., are going on without our volition whether we be awake or asleep. These involuntary activities are impelled by the sympathetic nervous system, while the voluntary functions of the body are controlled through the motor nervous system. This division, however, is not a sharp one, the two departments frequently overlapping one another. The sympathetic nervous system resembles the commissarial department of the army which attends to the material welfare of the soldiers, while the motor nervous system, with headquarters in the brain, corresponds to the commander with his executive staff, the nerve centers in the spinal cord and other parts of the body being the subordinate officers in the field. While the physical well-being of the army depends upon the almost automatic work of its various departments, its mind and soul is the man commanding it. He determines the spirit, the energy, and the efficiency of the vast organization. If the commander-in-chief lacks insight, force, and determination, the discipline of the army will be lax and its efficiency greatly impaired. If he be a craven without faith in himself and in the cause he represents, his lack of courage, his doubt and indecisions will communicate themselves to the whole army, resulting in discouragement and defeat. The most successful commanders have been those who were possessed of absolute confidence in themselves and in the efficiency of their army, who in the face of grave danger and discouraging situations pressed on to the pre-determined goal with dogged courage and resolution. Determination and pertinacity of this kind create the magnetic power which imparts itself to each and every individual soldier in the army, and makes him a willing subject, even unto death, to the will of his commander. When the pest was invading Napoleons army, that great general entered the hospitals where the victims of the plague were lying, took them by the hand, and conversed with them. He did this to overcome the fear in the hearts of his soldiers, and thus to protect them against the dread disease. He said: "A man whose will can conquer the world, can conquer the plague." To my mind this was one of the greatest deeds of the Corsican. At a time when "New Thought" was practically unknown, the genius of this man had grasped its principle and was making them factors in his apparent success. "Apparent", because, while we admire his genius, we deplore the ends to which he applied his wonderful powers. At times when the battle seemed lost, Napoleon would go to the front where the danger was greatest, and by the mere sight of him the hard-pressed soldiers under his command were inspired to superhuman efforts and final victory. As long as the glamour of invincibility surrounded him, Napoleon was invincible, because he infused into his soldiers a faith and courage which nothing could withstand. But when the cunning of the Russians broke his power and decimated his ranks on the icebound steppes, the hypnotic spell was broken also. Friends and enemies alike recognized that, after all, he was but a man, subject to chance and circumstance. From that time on he was vulnerable, and suffered defeat after defeat. The power of the mind over the physical body and its involuntary functions (the functions which are controlled by the sympathetic nervous system) may be illustrated by the demonstrated facts of hypnotism. Through the exertion of his own imagination and his will power, the hypnotist can so dominate the brain, and through the brain, the physical body of his subject, as to influence not only the sensory functions, but also heart action and respiration. By the power of his will, the hypnotist is able to retard or accelerate the pulse and respiration, and even to subdue the heartbeat so that it becomes hardly perceptible. If it is possible thus to control by the power of the will the vital functions in the body of another person, it must be possible also to control these functions in our bodies. Many Hindus and Yogis have developed this power of the mind over the physical body to a marvellous extent.

Herein lies the true domain of mental therapeutics. We can learn to dominate and regulate the vital activities and the life currents in our bodies so that they will do their work intelligently and serenely, even under the stress of illness and danger. We can by the power of will direct the vital currents to those parts and organs which need them most, and we can relieve congested areas by equalizing the circulation, by drawing thereupon the surplus blood and nerve currents, and distributing the vital fluids over other parts of the body. We must be careful, however, to use our higher powers in conformity with Natures intent; that is, we must not endeavour to suppress Natures cleansing and healing efforts. It is possible to do this by the power of the will as well as by ice bags and drugs. Mentally and emotionally, as well as physically, we must work with Nature and not against her. When we understand the fundamental laws of disease and cure we cannot well do otherwise. On Rules for Maintaining Health and Prolonging Life by Luigi Cornaro [In the year 1553 Cornaro took up his pen again and wrote another short treatise on the subject to which he was devoted. He was now eighty-six years of age, but his writing had lost none of his clearness of expression and he was even more convinced of the essential rightness of his teachings.] Extracted from: Cornaro, Luigi. 1553. On Rules for Maintaining Health and Prolonging Life. Man May By Dint of Art Mend His Infirm Constitution and Live to Old Age My treatise on a sober life has begun to answer my desire in being of service to many persons born with a weak constitution, who, every time they committed the least excess, found themselves greatly indisposed, a thing which it must be allowed does not happen to robust people. Several of these persons of weak constitutions, on seeing the foregoing treatise, have betaken themselves to a regular course of life, convinced by the experience of its utility. In like manner I should be glad to be of service to those who are born with a good constitution and, presuming upon it, lead a disorderly life; whence it comes to pass, that, on their attaining the age of sixty or thereabouts, they are attacked with various pains and diseasessome with gout, some with pains in the side, and others with pains in the stomach, and the liketo which they would not be subject were they to embrace a sober life; and as most of them die before they attain their eightieth year, they would live to be a hundred, the time allowed to man by God and Nature. And it is but reasonable to believe that the intention of this our mother is that we should attain that term, in order that we might all taste the sweets of every state of life. But, as our birthright is subject to the revolutions of the heavens, these have great influence over it, especially in rendering our constitutions firm or infirma thing which Nature cannot ward against, for if she could we would all bring a good constitution with us into the world. But then she hopes that man, being endowed with reason and understanding, may of himself compensate, by dint of art, the want of that which the heavens have denied him; and, by means of a sober life, contrive to mend his infirm constitution, live to a great age, and always enjoy good health. Man May, by Taking Thought of His Diet and Habits, Change His Disposition and Better His Temper For man, it is not to be doubted, may by art exempt himself in part from the influence of the heavens, it being the common opinion that the heavens give an inclination by do not impel us, for which reason the learned say that a wise man rules the stars. I was born with a very choleric dispostition, in so much as there was no living with me; but I took notice of it, and considered that a person swayed by his passion at certain times be no better than a madmanI mean at those times when he suffers his passions to predominate, because he then renounces his reason and understanding. I therefore resolved to make my choleric disposition give way to reason; so that now, though born choleric, I never suffer anger entirely to overcome me. The man who is naturally of a bad constitution may, in like manner, by dint of reason and a sober life, live to a great age and in good health, as I have done, who had normally the worst, so that it was impossible I should live above forty years, whereas I now find myself sound and hearty at the age of eighty-six; and were it not for the long and violent fits of illness which I experienced in my youth to such a degree that the physicians gave me over, and which robbed me of my radical moisture,

a loss absolutely irreparable, I might expect to attain the above mentioned term of one hundred. But I know for good reasons that it is impossible, and therefore do not think of it. It is enough for me that I have lived forty-six years beyond the term I had a right to expect, and that during this so long a respite all my senses have continued perfect, and even my teeth, my voice, my memory, and my strength. But what is still more, my brain is more itself now than it ever was. Nor do any of these powers abate as I advance in years; and this is because, as I grow older, I lessen the quantity of my solid food. Less Food Is Required As Man Grows Older This retrenchment is necessary, nor can it be avoided, since it is impossible for mortal man to live forever; and as he draws near this end, he is reduced so low as to be no longer able to take any nourishment, unless it be to swallow, and that too with difficulty, the yolk of an egg in the four and twenty hours, and thus end by mere dissolution, without any pain or sickness, as I expect will be my case. This is a blessing of great importance, yet may be expected by all those who lead a sober life, of whatever degree or condition, whether high, or middling, or low; for we are all of the same species, and composed of the same four elements. And, since a long and healthy life ought to be greatly coveted by every man, as I shall presently show, I conclude that every man is bound in duty to exert himself to obtain longevity, and that he cannot promise himself such a blessing without temperance and sobriety. Two Mistakes Many People Make When Assessing Longevity Some allege that many, without leading such a life, have lived to be a hundred, and that in constant health, and though they ate a great deal and used indiscriminately every kind of viands and wine; and, therefore, flatter themselves that they should be equally fortunate. But in this they are guilty of two mistakes; the first is that it is not one in a hundred thousand that ever attains that happiness; the other mistake is that such, in the end, most assuredly contract some illness, which carries them off, nor can they ever be sure of ending their days otherwise. So the safest way to obtain a long and healthy life is, at least after forty, to embrace sobriety. This is no such difficult affair, since history informs us of so many who in former times lived with the greatest temperance; and I know that the present age furnishes us with many such instances, reckoning myself one of the number. We are all human beings, and endowed with reason, consequently we are masters of all our actions. The Two Rules For Maintaining Health and Prolonging Life This sobriety is reduced to two things, quality and quantity. The first, namely quality, consists in nothing but not eating food or drinking wines prejudicial to the stomach. The second, which is quantity, consists in not eating or drinking more than the stomach can easily digest, which quantity and quality every man should be a perfect judge of by the time he is forty, or fifty, or sixty. And whoever observes these two rules may be said to have a ??????? On Positive Affirmations The foregoing explains why affirmations of health are justified in the face of disease. The health conditions must be first established in the mind before they can be conveyed to and impressed upon the cells. The well-being of the human body as a whole depends upon the health of the billions of minute cells which compose it. These cells are so small that they have to be magnified several hundred times under a powerful microscope before we can see them. Yet they are independent living beings which grow, accumulate food, work, and die, like the big cellMan. These little cells are congregated in communities which form the organs and tissues of the body, and in these communities they carry on the complicated activities of citizens living in a large city. Some are carriers, bringing food materials to the tissues and organs, or conveying waste and morbid matter to the excretory channels of the body. Other cells manufacture chemical substances such as sugar, fats, ferments, etc., for the production of which complicated factories are required. The marvellous work performed by these minute organisms, as well as observations made in the dissecting room, and under the microscope, strongly indicate that these cells are endowed with some sort of individual intelligence. They do their work without our aid or conscious volition. Nevertheless,

they are greatly influenced by the varying conditions of the mind. While their activities seem to be controlled through the sympathetic nervous system, they stand in direct telepathic communication with "headquarters" in the brain, and every impulse of the mind is conveyed to them. If there be dismay and confusion in the mind, this information is telegraphically conveyed over the nerve trunks and filaments to every cell in the body, and as a result, these little workers become panic stricken and incapable of rightly performing their manifold duties. The cell system of the body resembles a vast army. The mind is the general at the head of it. The cells are the soldiers, divided into groups of special work. Much of the work of an army is carried on through well-established departments, as the commissariat, hospital service, scout and pickets, etc. Though the life and the activities of the army are so wellregulated that they seem automatic, nevertheless, much depends upon the commander. The vital processes of the human organism, digestion, assimilation, elimination, respiration, circulation of the blood, etc., are going on without our volition whether we be awake or asleep. These involuntary activities are impelled by the sympathetic nervous system, while the voluntary functions of the body are controlled through the motor nervous system. This division, however, is not a sharp one, the two departments frequently overlapping one another. The sympathetic nervous system resembles the commissarial department of the army which attends to the material welfare of the soldiers, while the motor nervous system, with headquarters in the brain, corresponds to the commander with his executive staff, the nerve centers in the spinal cord and other parts of the body being the subordinate officers in the field. While the physical well-being of the army depends upon the almost automatic work of its various departments, its mind and soul is the man commanding it. He determines the spirit, the energy, and the efficiency of the vast organization. If the commander-in-chief lacks insight, force, and determination, the discipline of the army will be lax and its efficiency greatly impaired. If he be a craven without faith in himself and in the cause he represents, his lack of courage, his doubt and indecisions will communicate themselves to the whole army, resulting in discouragement and defeat. The most successful commanders have been those who were possessed of absolute confidence in themselves and in the efficiency of their army, who in the face of grave danger and discouraging situations pressed on to the pre-determined goal with dogged courage and resolution. Determination and pertinacity of this kind create the magnetic power which imparts itself to each and every individual soldier in the army, and makes him a willing subject, even unto death, to the will of his commander. When the pest was invading Napoleons army, that great general entered the hospitals where the victims of the plague were lying, took them by the hand, and conversed with them. He did this to overcome the fear in the hearts of his soldiers, and thus to protect them against the dread disease. He said: "A man whose will can conquer the world, can conquer the plague." To my mind this was one of the greatest deeds of the Corsican. At a time when "New Thought" was practically unknown, the genius of this man had grasped its principle and was making them factors in his apparent success. "Apparent", because, while we admire his genius, we deplore the ends to which he applied his wonderful powers. At times when the battle seemed lost, Napoleon would go to the front where the danger was greatest, and by the mere sight of him the hard-pressed soldiers under his command were inspired to superhuman efforts and final victory. As long as the glamour of invincibility surrounded him, Napoleon was invincible, because he infused into his soldiers a faith and courage which nothing could withstand. But when the cunning of the Russians broke his power and decimated his ranks on the icebound steppes, the hypnotic spell was broken also. Friends and enemies alike recognized that, after all, he was but a man, subject to chance and circumstance. From that time on he was vulnerable, and suffered defeat after defeat.

The power of the mind over the physical body and its involuntary functions (the functions which are controlled by the sympathetic nervous system) may be illustrated by the demonstrated facts of hypnotism. Through the exertion of his own imagination and his will power, the hypnotist can so dominate the brain, and through the brain, the physical body of his subject, as to influence not only the sensory functions, but also heart action and respiration. By the power of his will, the hypnotist is able to retard or accelerate the pulse and respiration, and even to subdue the heartbeat so that it becomes hardly perceptible. If it is possible thus to control by the power of the will the vital functions in the body of another person, it must be possible also to control these functions in our bodies. Many Hindus and Yogis have developed this power of the mind over the physical body to a marvellous extent. Herein lies the true domain of mental therapeutics. We can learn to dominate and regulate the vital activities and the life currents in our bodies so that they will do their work intelligently and serenely, even under the stress of illness and danger. We can by the power of will direct the vital currents to those parts and organs which need them most, and we can relieve congested areas by equalizing the circulation, by drawing thereupon the surplus blood and nerve currents, and distributing the vital fluids over other parts of the body. We must be careful, however, to use our higher powers in conformity with Natures intent; that is, we must not endeavour to suppress Natures cleansing and healing efforts. It is possible to do this by the power of the will as well as by ice bags and drugs. Mentally and emotionally, as well as physically, we must work with Nature and not against her. When we understand the fundamental laws of disease and cure we cannot well do otherwise. Bibliography Benjamin, Harry. 1967. Everybodys Guide to Nature Cure. 16th Impression. Croydon, UK: Health For All Publishing Co. Cornaro, Luigi. 1553. On Rules for Maintaining Health and Prolonging Life. Jaffrey, Kenneth S. 1973. What Is The Cause Of Disease? Townsville, Australia: Jaffrey. Jaffrey, Kenneth S. 1975. What Is Nature Cure? Townsville, Australia: Jaffrey. Just, Adolf. 1903. Return To Nature. New York: Lust. Kuhne, Louis. 1899. The New Science of Healing. Leipzig: Kuhne. Lindlahr, Henry. 1923. The Practice of Nature Cure. Chicago: Lindlahr. Sarma, K Lakshmana. 1984. Practical Nature Cure. Pudukottai, India: The Nature Cure Publishing House. Thomson, James C. 1950. The Belfast Lecture. Edinburgh: Thorsons. Thomson, C Leslie, ND. 1949. But Is It Nature Cure? (Pamphlet). Edinburgh: Kingston Clinic.