Like Attracts Like

Last fall, patient of mine suggested I read a book entitled “Ask And It Is Given”. Never having heard of it before, I looked the book up on Amazon and found that it was just one of a number of books, tapes and videos created by couple named Esther and Jerry Hicks. Collectively referred to as the ‘Abraham material’, this prolific body of work seemed to have attracted a large number of devoted readers who enthusiastically reviewed the book on Amazon. Intrigued, I ordered “Ask and It is Given” along with one other, more recent book by the Hicks. When I sat down to read the book the day it arrived, my first impression from just a few pages was less than positive. The content was repetitive, the language stilted and the sentence structure strained. I began to doubt whether I would be able to get much out of the book – or even tolerate proceeding much further. It crossed my mind that perhaps I had ventured a bit too far onto the turf of the New Age. But, on the strength of my patient’s recommendation and the fervor of the Amazon reviewers, I pressed on.

It was a good thing, too. Because once I got used to the lingo and the writing style, and accommodated myself to reading and re-reading essentially the same thing numerous times, I found the actual subject matter absorbing. The message it conveyed, though not entirely new to me, was of great personal as well as universal significance.

As far as I can tell, when boiled down to its essence, that message comes down to one simple proposition. All of their publications and all of their numerous seminars (it appears they spend a great portion of their lives traveling from one venue to the next in a giant RV) are dedicated to disseminating it, explaining it, clarifying its implications.

That proposition – though the Hicks I’m sure would claim it is a law of nature more than a mere proposition - is that thought creates reality. The same idea can be expressed in any number of ways: thought attracts reality, intention precedes existence, intention brings into being reality, what one thinks is the cause of what will occur… “Ask and it is given” is just another variation on the same theme. All of them come under the rubric of what is called “The Law of Attraction.”

As I mentioned, it isn’t that this concept is original with the Hicks. Not by any means. It has been known since antiquity and found its way into many spiritual and philosophical traditions. In twentieth century American culture, a variation on the Law of Attraction was most famously popularized by Norman Vincent Peale when he preached the ‘power of positive thinking’. Fundamentally, his point was that constructive, affirming thoughts bring about constructive, affirming consequences. Destructive, negative ones likewise bring about destructive, negative results.

But what distinguishes the Abraham materials, what makes them so, well, attractive, is that they are extremely practical. They not only provide a construct by which one can understand why the Law of Attraction exists and the implications of that fact, but more importantly, for me, at least, they also provide a relatively straightforward methodology that assists people to apply it.

It is all well and good to say, “Think nice thoughts and your life will be wonderful!” But the fact of the matter is that we often don’t think nice thoughts at all – and it is difficult to control the ‘not nice’ thoughts that creep into our minds. This ‘don’t think about white elephants’ phenomenon is the insidious side of the Law of Attraction.

If you are looking for a parking spot on a crowded street, thinking about how few spots there are will attract a street with no parking. The same applies to feeling lonely, poor, unhealthy or any number of negative experiences. Unfortunately, most of us have deeply ingrained habits of focusing on what is wrong or missing, and drawing more of the same into our lives.

‘Ask and It Is Given’ gives numerous ways by which one can unlearn some of these injurious habits in order to break this viscous cycle. It really is a matter of habit, a matter practice to train or retrain the mind to perceive what is wanted and not focus on what is not wanted.

When a person is ill, the application of the Law of Attraction can be a bit of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it implies that on some level people attract illness. I certainly have met my share of people who concern or fixation on their poor health or the possibility of being sick seems to have been a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Yet, it is beyond my level of perception to see how a very young child attracts cancer (or any other significant illness, for that matter). All of us know of active, positive people with life affirming attitudes who have been struck with terrible diseases. In these cases, it is difficult to comprehend how the law applies without reference to concepts such karma or a collective will.

In addition, for some, the implication that this is possibly true will be a burden with its own negative consequences of increased worry and self-recrimination. Obviously, this is the opposite of what the Hicks wish people will take away from their work.

The focus of the Law of Attraction is less on looking backward into the past, and more about being inspired about the future. It offers a hope that positive thoughts about one’s health will lead to a positive outcome. “Ask and It Is Given” is full of practical instructions on how to go about that.

One might, for example, imagine a state of good health, or recall a previous time of good health by focusing on how it feels to be well or the things that one is able to do when well. The essence is to mentally put oneself into a state of experiencing wellness by thought or imagination. This mental - or some might say ‘energetic’ – reality attracts more of the same in the physical plane.

PART II

The ink had barely dried on the first part of this series when an old college buddy of mine emailed to alert me to the fact that an article about Esther and Jerry Hicks had appeared in the Sunday edition of the NY Times (‘Shaking Riches Out of the Cosmos, Feb. 25), of all places.

It was a bit surprising to learn that the esteemed paper of record would take an interest in something so imbued with the spirit of the New Age. But, as it turned out the focus of the reporting was less on spirituality and more on an apparently quite materialistic dispute between the Hicks and an Australian women named Rhonda Byrne.

Byrne is the producer of the wildly popular video ‘The Secret’, which has sold over a million and a half copies and looks like it might be heading toward another million or so. Although marketing of the Secret began humbly enough through word of mouth and the internet, its popularity exploded into the national media limelight courtesy of Oprah Winfrey, who featured it on her show (twice, I am told).

Byrne originally had enlisted Esther Hicks to appear in the video, which was a natural choice since the Secret is really nothing more than a dramatized (some might say over dramatized… way over dramatized) explanation of the “Law of Attraction”. But according to the Times, irreconcilable differences arose between the Hicks and Byrne over the editing, distribution of the video as well as who is deserving of credit for making this information accessible to the public.

In the end, the Hicks demanded to be edited out of the project, a second edition of the Secret was made featuring other experts and Byrne went on to make a fortune. (The second edition is widely available on the internet, going for about $30, while relatively copies of the first edition still can be found usually for triple that price.) Although the Hicks deny financial factors were involved in their dispute with Byrne – their own endeavors apparently have made them quite wealthy, thank you very much - money, or more precisely, the amassing of it, seems to unfortunately be central to the popular interpretation of the Law of Attraction.

The Times article protrays the Secret as the first 21st century incarnation in a lineage of work which it characterizes with phrases like ‘think and grow rich’ and ‘prosperity consciousness. ’ This tradition includes people like Napoleon Hill who wrote “Think and Grow in Rich” in 1930s, Norman Vincent Peale whose “Power of Positive Thinking” appeared in the 1950’s, along with more contemporary descendants like Jack Canfield of “Chicken Soup” fame and Wayne Dyer, writer of “Your Erroneous Zone” and a number of other bestsellers over the last 30 years.

Expressions such as ‘prosperity consciousness’ betray a disturbing interpretation of this entire genre and the ideas behind it. Depicted simply as a means to become wealthy and achieve other forms of material success, they may gain great popularity (and garner wealth for their authors), but they also become easy targets of cynical critique. Most importantly, it misses the depth and subtleties of the principle while ignoring more transcendent forms of happiness and success.

It is interesting that although the difference between material success and contentment has been emphasized in countless ways by countless teachers and authorities for centuries if not millennia, we never really seem to believe it. We all have heard about the consequences of King Midas’s golden touch, but somehow we remain unconvinced.

Perhaps the vulgarization of the “Law of Attraction” is inevitable when it is drawn into the public domain and promulgated indiscriminately. And, my hunch is that this was at the heart of the rupture between Byrne and the Hicks. Not only is there a stylistic garishness to the video that does a disservice to its message, but to a certain extent the Secret is devoid of the actual secret.

It is simple enough to state that thoughts become reality, but thoughts can be very nuanced and have different layers of meaning of which the thinker is not consciously aware. It is not so easy to break habits of long ingrained thought patterns, nor to shape them so as to deliver a sought after outcome.

What the Hicks have spent the last several decades communicating via their books, tapes and workshops is not about money or other forms of mundane success. Rather, they explore the dynamics between consciousness and reality. More fundamentally, it is about understanding that human existence is rooted in a non-material, energetic reality that emerges into a concrete, corporeal world and how, through this understanding, an individual has tools to shape his or her experiences in life.

PART III

The prospect of my oldest child graduating from college and setting off on his own in a few months had me reflecting somewhat wistfully about his earliest days as an infant in Sri Lanka. Soon after his birth on a straw mat on the floor of my clinic in a remote village, we took up residence in a wing of a formerly grand manor on what used to be a tea estate.

The lady of the house, Mrs. Gunawardena, was a garrulous and corpulent elderly woman who had once presided over a coterie of servants and workers, while raising a handful of children. Now living alone and only able to move with great difficulty, she seemed to enjoy the presence of a young couple and their infant, regaling us with stories of the old days when she enjoyed the privileges bestowed upon the upper caste landed gentry, a time when the estate was both productive and profitable.

But by the time we arrived, that world had long since disappeared. Her husband had died, the estate had closed, and her children had gone to live abroad. She had become a relic of a bygone era living off her memories.

Yet within the time capsule of her home, there intruded a few reminders of the outside world. Most notably, a television and a subscription to the interfaith magazine ‘Guideposts’®, both of which she gladly shared with us. While watching old American shows from a village in the tropics on the other side of the world was entertaining and more than a little disorienting, it was the magazine that made the stronger impression on me.

Guideposts, originally created in the 1940’s by Norman Vincent Peale, the Christian clergyman famous for teaching the ‘Power of Positive Thinking’, found its way to Mrs. Guanwardena’s because, like many of her social class, her ancestors had disavowed the indigenous Buddhist faith in favor of Christianity, which was introduced by the first colonial masters of the island, the Portuguese, in the 16th century.

Now, with a touch of missionary zeal of her own, she suggested I peruse her library of current and back issues, that perhaps I would find its content interesting. Having left my Western religious roots years earlier and immersed myself in the study and practice of Eastern philosophy, medicine and religion for nearly a decade, it was not without a touch of condescension that I humored my landlady by taking a few copies back to my side of the house.

Browsing through its pages, I began to be drawn in by the content, surprisingly touched by these simple stories contributed by everyday Americans. There was something both irresistible and ingenuous about directness of first person narratives based on true experiences. Though they were meant to inspire a belief in a Christian God, what I found more compelling was the belief in faith itself and how empowering that was. The power of positive thinking, indeed.

Running through my first stack of magazines, I went back for a second helping and it wasn’t long before I had read through all the back issues and began to eagerly await the arrival of the latest one in the mail. Although during my year at Mrs. Gunawardena’s, I must have read the contributions of hundreds of people, today, over twenty years later, all of them are lost to memory – except one.

It is the account of a young woman who suffered from a particularly aggressive case of multiple sclerosis. Starting with mild symptoms of tingling and muscle weakness, it wasn’t long before she couldn’t walk and subsequently ended up lying totally immobilized in bed. With the progressive loss of her outward capacities, she turned inward. At first she could read and converse, but when that no longer was possible, she was left with only her own thoughts.

At some point, she decided to focus all her attention and energy on prayer. Every waking moment was spent praying to her God for her family, her friends, and for herself. It was sometime during this stage when physically she was nothing more than an emaciated skeletal shell of herself lying curled in a fetal position, that a group from her church paid her a visit.

She had been placed on the living room couch to receive them. They entered the room and stood before her. I don’t recall whether they sang to her or just spoke personal greetings, but in the midst of this gathering, she heard a voice that clearly intoned, “Stand up.” Thinking it to be the minister who stood at the back of the group, she focused on him. But he gave no indication that he had said anything and a few moment later when she heard the same words again, he hadn’t moved his mouth.

In fact, everyone else appeared oblivious to the message she had heard. But after a third, more insistent command to stand up, she decided to act. Getting to her feet, the group parted with mouths agape in astonishment as she began to put one foot in front of another, slowly making her way to the hallway and into the kitchen where her mother was preparing some food for the visitors. Her mother turned her head to see who had walked in and fainted straight away.

It was a spontaneous and complete remission. The multiple sclerosis with all its symptoms had disappeared. At the time of its publication, this young woman, still in her 20’s, was 100% healthy, devoting herself to sharing her experience with church groups and anyone else who would hear it. The Power of Positive Thinking, the Law of Attraction, thought precedes reality – however one wishes to describe the phenomenon, for me this remarkable story is a constant reminder that health is dependent on something more than the state of our physical being.

What Needs To Be Cured

In treating a patient, one of the basic decisions a healthcare practitioner must make is, “What is it that needs to be cured in this particular person?” At first glance, this might not seem like a particularly difficult question to answer, but the simplicity is deceptive. A person complains of a bloated abdomen, but what needs to be addressed may be weak digestion that leads to a build-up of gas, or perhaps a tumor that is causing an abundance of fluid to accumulate. Similarly, persons with chronic headaches or migraines can temporarily remove the symptoms with pain relief medications, but the headaches are rarely cured with them. What needs to be addressed can vary from hormonal imbalances to dental problems to upsurges of suppressed rage to any number of possible causal factors – or a combination of factors.

Often a patient presents with a chief complaint that is in the context of their state of health relatively inconsequential in and of itself. The practitioner then must understand the larger context in which this complaint arises and based on that, decide which health issues are truly of consequence. A treatment plan, while also taking into account the perceived needs of the patient, should be focused on the more important problems.

Ignoring the more consequential health issues for the lesser ones is, in a sense, a form of pandering and a breach of responsibility. More importantly, it also can violate the first rule of medicine, which is ‘to do no harm’. For instance, if a person complains of facial blemishes or acne, but during a thorough consultation one learns that there is an ongoing history of cardiac problems or endocrine (hormonal) imbalances, a treatment solely focused on the skin not only ignores the opportunity to treat the more severe conditions, but will most likely also have the effect of making them worse. A blinkered focus on the elimination of symptoms often leads to such a result because the larger consequences are ignored. Symptoms in and of themselves must be understood in some context. Skin eruptions, on the face or elsewhere, are part of a larger picture and as such are usually an attempt by the body to discharge toxins.

There is an internal wisdom to the body in its attempt to maintain health. One aspect of this is to shunt toxins from the interior most part to the exterior part, and from the vital organs to the less vital ones. To stop this process without understanding and addressing the larger issues is harmful – akin to stopping a vent from discharging foul water or air.

Not only is the build-up of this discharge harmful, the methods by which the venting must be obstructed go against the natural mechanisms of the body and thus necessarily must be quite forceful. A classic example is the drug Isotretinoin, more commonly known by its most popular trade name Accutane.

Isotretinoin belongs to a class of chemical compounds known as ‘retinoids’. Chemically related to vitamin A, when taken orally retinoids act by regulating the growth of skin cells. Although this drug sounds benign enough on the surface, it actually turns out to be quite dangerous. Pregnant woman are strongly warned not to take it because it is known to cause severe birth defects such as mental retardation and physical malformations. Amongst a host of other side-effects, it is also known to induce fatigue, bleeding, inflammatory bowel disease and suicidal thoughts.

While acne, especially where the eruptions are inflamed or painful, can be very discomforting emotionally and physically, it is still essentially a manifestation of toxins on the most superficial area of the body. The body has been successful in keeping it far away from the most vital organs. To eliminate the symptoms without addressing the underlying disposition of the body that produce them is playing with fire.

Not only is one exposed to the potential side-effects of allopathic drugs, there is a more insidious part that few people will ever perceive unless they understand this process. A young adult who was ‘successfully’ treated for acne develops allergies several years later or rheumatic joint pain a decade later or has premature hypertension…

Who will make this connection? Certainly not a layperson, nor the allopathic professional, who would more than likely would ascribe the later problems to ‘bad genes’. It would be fair to say that even a majority of ‘wholistic’ or ‘alternative’ practitioners are probably not trained to connect the dots on how most of these pathologies progress.

While certainly not in the class of the side-effects of most allopathic drugs, natural remedies – whether herbs, vitamins, homeopathic remedies or others – have the potential to be harmful in a similar manner if they likewise are used to eliminate a particular symptom without due consideration being given to the context in which that symptom appears.

For example, the homeopathic remedy created from potassium bromide (known as ‘Kali-bromatum’) primarily affects the nervous system and can be indicated for in certain cases of epilepsy, ataxia, anxiety and even schizophrenia, amongst other disorders. However the choice of Kali-bromatum, as with any appropriately selected remedy, is not based on the diagnosis, but on certain characteristics of a patient with the diagnosis.

A conscientious homeopath will look for a very restless, agitated person. Kali-bromatum patients are famous for their hand-wringing, they often sigh, fearful in the dark and they are often troubled by a strong sense of guilt or remorse believing they have or will commit a great crime for which they will suffer punishment. There is a sense that s/he is in danger and must leave.

A great many more details fill out the picture of this remedy, but this is the gist of it. Nevertheless, suffice it to say that the selection of this remedy for someone with acne, who does not fit the profile, on the one hand, may or may not successfully eliminate the acne. On the other, it is asking for trouble – a trouble which may not arise for weeks, months or years and which very few people will recognize as having a connection to the ‘successful’ use of the remedy.

PART II

Though it wasn’t more than a hundred yards, walking down the hall took forever. “How we take our health for granted!” was the thought rattling around in my head as the elderly woman ushered me back to her room. On my own, I might have covered the distance in two or three minutes, but my patient had met me at the door of her senior living facility and I had to follow along at her pace.

In retrospect, it wasn’t at all a bad experience. First of all, I got to appreciate my own relative health. Second, I had the opportunity to step back from the rushed blur that so often is my daily life to savor a moment of being mindful of her pace, of taking one step at a time, to consciously slow down and confront my own impatience. And, most importantly, it afforded a chance to share the experience of a slice of this woman’s life; to feel a bit how it is to ‘walk in her moccasins’, so to speak.

Although we shared a bit of conversation en route, I had a sense that she was just trying to be polite and that her real focus was on mustering the energy and determination to take those steps without mishaps or giving in to exhaustion. A cane in one hand and the wall railing firmly grasped by the other seemed to provide just the support she needed to successfully negotiate this journey.

But it was about all she could manage. Having reached her unit and opened the door, she made headed straight for the recliner into which she immediately dropped her weary body. While she settled in, I pulled up a chair and surveyed the compact, snug room.

It was filled with a menagerie of objects – some utilitarian, some aesthetic, some nostalgic – from the huge television that was placed no more than two feet in front of her recliner to pictures of family to kitchen utensils to various and sundry knickknacks. It occurred to me that these were the remaining artifacts of a long life, of a much bigger life. They were the survivors of a life pared down to a small room in a recliner in front of a very big television set.

Before we could talk, she needed to settle in and recoup her energy. She closed her eyes for a few moments and took a number of long deep breaths. When the eyes opened and her head turned toward me, I asked simply, “What is it I can do for you?”

She gave a half-hearted smile and replied, “I’m not sure, but I’m exhausted all the time. I can’t sleep more than a few hours…” She gave me the ‘Doctor Report’. Doctor X said this, Doctor Y did that test, Doctor Z suggested such-and-such… Then there was the history of the medical interventions: this surgery and that surgery, this procedure and that procedure… Finally, she handed over a piece of paper that inventoried all the medications and supplements she was consuming daily.

Seventeen different prescriptions drugs were listed along with a few vitamins… (I counted them to be sure.) Some of the names I recognized, some I didn’t. Some of them she could explain what they were for, most of them she had not a clue. But she was sure that her sleep problem began after starting the latest drug. When she told a doctor about it, he had replied that she needed to take it to control another problem - a problem, it turns out, that was a side effect from a different drug.

I explored as much as I could about the drugs and what they were doing to her, trying to sort out the cascade of effects and side effects. Above all, I was trying to understand what was this woman experiencing that truly was from her own body and what was just a result of this pharmaceutical onslaught.

As I queried the woman and listened to her replies, it became clear that there was no way to sort it out. She herself had become lost in and inseparable from this drug haze. Putting aside my own sense of frustration with the difficulty of it all, my own indignation at the perversity of the system that had led to such a situation and a touch of pity for the person who passively, trustingly was enduring its consequences, I tried to focus on one question: what needs to be cured? Put another way for these circumstances, what possible positive change can I effect?

Without the authority or facilities to initiate any change in her drug regimen, without any clarity about what symptoms this woman was truly having, I knew I needed to explore her condition from a different perspective altogether. There is an old maxim that one learns almost from day one when studying homeopathy. It is that homeopaths treat people with symptoms, not symptoms of people. Keeping that in mind has served me well innumerable times over the years.

So, I started to search for the person amidst all of the drugs and pain and exhaustion. And surprisingly, it wasn’t so difficult to find… I began by asking, “What is the worst thing about your situation?” The answer came back quickly: “I don’t go out now. I was always out before. I feel caged in.”

“So, tells me what is it like to be caged in? “I used to be so friendly, but I’m bored with the people here. They only talk about their doctor visits and their illnesses. This is like a jail, I’m not free. Rules, regulations, renting… It isn’t my own place. I don’t belong. I don’t feel like myself.”

“You don’t feel like yourself?” “With freedom, I’m more of a person. Even my family, they think they are right and tell me what to do… I don’t feel like my own person. I have a mind of my own and don’t want to let people talk me into things I don’t want.”

I don’t feel like a person. This was her story, her experience of life. And it wasn’t just in this situation or this stage of life, it was the same experience with her marriage which ended 3 decades earlier, where she was treated “like a vegetable”, like she “wasn’t there” or “didn’t exist”. And it was true of her childhood as well, when she felt “tossed aside” and that her mother “wanted to get rid of us”.

It was the same experience she had in the one dream she could recount for me - of reaching the top of a staircase only to feel empty, sad and alone. And it was for this reason that she compensated by going out, by wanting to be with people, especially her friends, of making sure she was wanted.

And this is the state for which I choose a medicine, a constitutional homeopathic remedy, a medicine for her not her symptoms. About the remedy, I feel pretty confident. Whether it will penetrate through the wall of drugs and side effects to impact her beneficially, to increase her vitality, to reduce her suffering, only time will tell.

Part III

Hydrocyanic acid, also known has Hydrogen Cyanide or Prussic acid (because it was first derived from a pigment known as ‘Prussian Blue), was discovered two centuries ago. It can be found in the pits of a number of fruits such as plums, apricots and peaches, and is also present in bitter almonds as well as in the leaves of the laurel plant. A powerful poison, it has some industrial uses, most significantly in mining because it facilitates the extraction of gold and silver. It is also used in the production of nylon and other synthetic fabrics. Due to its toxicity, it has been used in fishing to stun the fish and also for insect fumigation.

It is as a poison that Hydrocyanic Acid is best known. It acts with great rapidity, paralyzing the respiratory centers of the body affecting the central nervous system and the heart. When inhaled, it first causes irritation in the throat, the tongue burns, mucous membranes turn, and, then there appears a general restlessness and anxiety, headache, and nausea. As the effects progress, the breathing becomes difficult and then spasmodic. Finally, as consciousness is lost, the blood pressure falls suddenly and respiratory paralysis sets in.

The poisonous effects are so toxic and rapid that the use of hydrocyanic acid has been a favored method to end human life. There is a long history of state sanctioned executions, assassinations and suicides having all been carried out by means of it. Most notoriously, hydrocyanic acid was the agent used by the Nazis in the gas chambers of the Holocaust. (Many members of the German high command committed suicide with it as Allied forces closed in on Berlin at the end of the Second Word War.)

In contrast to this infamous legacy, homeopaths have used homeopathic dilutions of hydrocyanic acid as a medicine almost as long as it has been known. Ailments as varied as angina, epilepsy, stroke, sunstroke, hiccough, cholera and whooping cough, amongst others, fall within its curative influence. Regardless of the pathology, what is common to those needing this remedy is the sudden onset of symptoms, spasms, debilitating death-like exhaustion, bluish hue to the skin and lips (‘cyanosis’), coldness and great anxiety. A well known symptom is “fear of imaginary toubles” – an irrational fear, like being crushed by a falling house or of being hit by a car while crossing the street even though it is quite a distance away. The remedy, in fact, has been called ‘a great frigthener’.

About a decade ago, a Dutch homeopath, now residing in New Zealand, published a number of cases in which Hydrocyanic Acid acted curatively.1 What was most interesting about these cases – and the reason that she wrote about them – was that while they presented with many of the common traits of this remedy, mostly exhaustion, coldness, and fear, these Europeans all had something else in common.

For instance, one woman in her mid-40’s, presented with a long history of illness, asthma, allergies to foods and chemicals, kidney inflammation, acute fevers, amongst other things. She appeared very ill – thin, pale, bluish lips, and said that almost everyone, on looking at her, assumed that she was dying. Many visits to various doctors had not produced any diagnosis as to her underlying problem except for those who concluded that she was a hypochondriac. No treatment had been helpful, including previous homeopathic prescriptions.

What was exceptional about this woman was a special affinity she felt for the Holocaust. As a child she used to “play concentration camp” with her dolls and had dreams of “being in a place full of soldiers and singing songs to make them like me.” She would get flashbacks of being squeezed in with groups of naked people, a feeling of disgust as she is “pushed up against bare, stinking buttocks”. Even though a Protestant, she always had a fascination with Jews, Hebrew, Israel and the Second World War. She would vacation in Israel, “not for fun, but because I needed to be there”. None of this came from her parents, who were always puzzled by this special connection.

She was convinced that her experiences as well as her illness were rooted in a past life. Previously, in a trance state during a session of regression therapy, she found herself being a Polish child witnessing arguments at home whether or not to flee, then being crammed into a train, disembarking under the glare of powerful spotlights, clinging to a teddy while losing his parents in the chaos, and being told to undress in order to shower. Finally, there is the remembrance of a ghastly scene with people jammed into the chamber, screaming, falling over him and gasping for breath in great terror as he inhales the Zyclon B, the term the Nazis used for hydrogen cyanide.

Whether one is inclined to believe that the woman actually had this previous life or believes rather that this is a deep-seated delusional state is actually less critical than the fact that these images, feelings and interests reflect her actual experience in her current life.

And, most significantly, a homeopathic preparation of Hydrocyanic Acid produced remarkable changes in this woman. For the first time in her life she began to put on weight, she re-grew a full head of hair and her energy increased. Over time, she made a wonderful recovery.

Collins has treated a number of Europeans with similar connections to the Holocaust. And she is not the only one to recognize this phenomenon. I myself have had patients with a similar connection to the Holocaust. An American rabbi named Jonassen Gershom, has written two books, “Beyond the Ashes, Cases of Reincarnation from the Holocaust” and “From Ashes to Healing”, recording many cases of people who came to him with a sense that they had suffered through the Holocaust in a past life as a Jew and that there lives had improved by the conscious acceptance of this reality.

When a patient presents with illness and suffering, it is not always readily apparent what really needs to be cured.

1. Morrison, Roger. “Carbon: Organic and Hydrocarbon Remedies in Homeopathy”, pg. 469-472; Hahnemann Clinic Publishing, 2006

Vitalism

My neighbors used to be devotees of the “X Files". Aware of the deprivation our family suffers having neither cable nor satellite television, they sometimes invited us over to view their favorite program or even lend us a tape of one of the latest episodes. We usually accepted their gracious offer — though our enthusiasm ran higher for the neighborly socializing and the crystal clear images of their satellite system on a big screen TV than for the actual program itself. The last time we indulged ourselves, I was somewhat surprised to find that the episode we viewed was in theme and plot almost exactly the same as the one we saw the previous time. To wit, they were both about some highly sophisticated computer which had developed an independence and intelligence beyond anything that its creators had programmed. The shows revolve around the efforts of the expressionless male and the brainy female leads to subdue the computer which has run amuck on a violent path of self-protection.

Not that this is an especially inventive story line. Endowing a computer with consciousness like Hal in “2001” and even Big Blue of the Kasparov versus IBM chess battles of recent years are cinematic and real life antecedents. Yet, methinks the reason for the recurring allure of this theme lies embedded in a much larger issue.

If nothing else, contemporary civilization is marked by our capacity to explore and exploit the mechanics of physical reality. As the ability of human beings to create objects that in some cases mimic and in other cases supersede certain parameters of performance found in the creatures of natural world, we find ourselves fascinated, consciously or subconsciously, with what actually separates us and other life forms from the things we create. Rephrased, the question refers to the distinction between the mechanism of life and life itself.

Intuitively, we understand there indeed is a distinction. Yet, it is hard to put a finger on exactly what that may be. The short answer is “consciousness” — but what in fact is that? For the moment, let us give a name to whatever separates a living being from other things. Call it the “X Factor”.

Although unfamiliar to most modern people, there actually is a very old belief in the intangible “X Factor”. Discredited and discarded long ago along the road to modern scientific thinking, it adds a dimension to life that goes beyond the laws of chemistry and physics. It is a force of nature that animates living beings.

This concept or the philosophy related to it is called “Vitalism”. The dictionary tells us that the word refers to “a doctrine that the life in living organisms is caused and sustained by a vital force that is distinct from all physical and chemical forces...”1

Our ever more sophisticated mastery of the mechanics of physical reality encourages us to all but ignore vitalistic thinking. We are apt to try to explain away all phenomena — even those related to the experiences of human life — in mechanistic terms. This certainly is the foundation of modern medicine. Whether speaking of a flu, a headache, an ulcer, cancer or depression, the conventional medical understanding inevitably returns us to a model of human beings as a complex conglomerate of tissues and chemicals.

But to define life and life processes exclusively in these terms can be quite limiting. For instance, our medico-legalistic quandries concerning the definition of death based on physical functions alone is a prime example. When is it appropriate to declare a person dead? When is it permissible to withdraw life support systems?

The experts must determine which organ and what physiological function holds the kernel of life. Is it the brain, and if so what part of the brain? Or is it the heart and circulatory function or the lungs and respiration? Actually the determination is impossible and, ultimately, the decision is arbitrary.

Yet, apart from the sophistication of our knowledge about how the body functions, we can often sense when the real life has gone out of a body. It is not a matter of whether the brain or heart is still functioning. It is a matter of whether or not the animating force — our “X-factor” — is still present in the body that lies before us. If absent, then we may sense an instinctual repugnance toward artificially supporting the physical tissues when in fact ‘no one is home’.

While the contemporary person may find it difficult to shake free of our contemporary common sense, vitalism is a useful outlook that sustained ancient peoples as well as traditional cultures and religions. Even today in Japan, one can barely have a convesation without using language which refers to vitalistic thinking. Weird as it may sound to our ears, Japanese for “hello” is literally “How is your fundamental vital energy?”. The common term for weather is translatable as “the vital energy of the sky (or heaven)”.

Vitalism and vital energy is also a principle fundamental to many medical systems that lie outside of the dominant, conventional model. Oriental medicine and philosophy dubs it “Qi” (pronounce ‘chee’). East Indian thought and medicine calls it “prana”. Western thinkers and physicians of vitalistic medicine use a variety of terms such as ‘vital force’ , ‘vital energy’, or ‘dynamic principle’.

Amongst other systems, homeopathy is founded in vitalistic thinking. Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy, in his writing gave a lucid expression of his understanding:

“In the healthy human state, the spirit-like life force that enlivens the material organism as dynamis, governs without restriction and keeps all parts of the organism in admirable, harmonious, vital operation, as regards both feelings and functions, so that our indwelling, rational spirit can freely avail itself of this living, healthy instrument for the purposes of our existence.

The material organism, thought of without life force, is capable of no sensibility, no activity, no self-preservation. It derives all sensibility and produces its life functions solely by means of the immaterial life force that enlivens the material organism in health and in disease.”2

Thus, to the acupuncturist, ayurvedic practitioner, osteopath or homeopathy (amongst others), since the essential nature of a living being is not to be found in physical tissues and organs of the body, neither is the essential nature of illness, nor the avenue to cure. True cure results from rectifying a disturbed or weakened vitality.

Symptoms are merely an expression of the disurbance in a person’s vital force. They surface as an attempt by the vital force to stabilize or cleanse the entire system when it becomes disordered, but they are not the disorder itself. Elimination of the symptoms alone does not bring cure anymore than clipping off the dandelion flower will uproot the plant.

The endeavour of vitalistic medicine provides great challenge and great satisfaction. There are few short cuts. It demands that each person be understood and treated according to the uniqueness of his or her personal vital energy. It calls upon both practitioner and patient to possess patience and clarity of purpose.

1. Guralnik, David, Ed. “Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language”, World Publishing Company, New York. 1970.

2. Hahnemann, Samuel. “Organon of the Medical Art”, edited by Wenda O’Reilly, translated by Steven Decker; pg. 65; Birdcage Books; Emonds, Washington. 1996.