Body Wisdom

Printed in 2003 — I believe our bodies are far more complex and fascinating than we give them credit for. It is true God didn't think of creating our species until last, and we are less complete than other creatures, but we still have our unique qualities. Why I find the physical components and aspects of life just as fascinating as the spiritual is because of the body's ability to survive in the face of adverse conditions. Viruses alter their physical nature and prevent the use of vaccines to eradicate them. Bacteria make genetic alterations and resist antibiotics. We, on the other hand, can't even resist acquiring a cold.

Our problem lies in our ability to think and worry. I don't blame people for their health problems because if we didn't have credit cards, stock markets, jobs, families, races, religions, nationalities and more we would probably be able to do what the bacteria and viruses are able to do.

I keep thinking of one of my patients, a landscaper with extensive carcinoma of the stomach, who refused further treatment after surgery because, "It's springtime and I want to go home and make the world beautiful. So when I die I'll leave a beautiful world." He did die — at the age of ninety-four and with no sign of cancer.

Another gentleman who had flashbacks of his prison camp experience, because of his treatment on the oncology unit, chose to go home and die. The hospice nurse, after talking to him about his life experience, took him to nursery gardens where he could sit, downwind of the flowers. He visited many nurseries where they showed him compassion and after several months his follow up CAT-scan showed no sign of cancer.

I think these gentleman, and others like them, achieve what lower organisms achieve. They focus on the meaning of their life and their divine essence and they live it. They do not project their problems and evil onto others but seek to make a beautiful world and create goodness in their relationships. A physician wrote about his experience during the holocaust when he and his community were thrown into a concentration camp.

What would your response be to a question asking how diabetics, cardiac patients and others with chronic illnesses did when placed in a concentration camp? What shocked the physician of course was how well these people did when they knew that sickness and the inability to work meant starvation or a bullet through the head. As he said, there were no benefits to illness. Everyone suffered equally and under these conditions, a path away from illness was chosen. The mind refused to accept the illness and chose life. I would say the message these people gave their bodies is very similar to the role models viruses and bacteria provide for us.

I think animals find it easier to do the same thing. My friend Susan was told she had a year to live due to cancer. Her boyfriend deserted her because he couldn't handle it emotionally. Sitting alone one day, Susan noted a cat on the porch and let it in for company. The following day she took the cat, Flora, to the vet to be sure it was healthy. Susan was told Flora had feline leukemia and a year to live. Home they went, with the same prognosis, but only Susan was depressed. Flora ran around and enjoyed the day and Susan began thinking that maybe Flora knew something she didn't. Fourteen years later, they are both still alive. Flora had to teach Susan about survival behavior.

I know, as a physician, how destructive my thoughts were in the past about my family and patients when a certain diagnosis would be made. I have learned from experience that I don't know the future and it is not based upon statistics. Numbers do not predict the future for individuals. As we become capable of understanding more about the human body and communication within the body, I think we will find ourselves in as much awe of the body as we are of the universe.

The key, I believe, lies in what we decide we want to do with our bodies. Why are we here? If you were a conscious soul floating in space and saw an ad asking for volunteers to go to the blue planet and enter a human body to help heal the planet would you choose to go? I am not judging you or your decision, but what is the use of being a wise, conscious soul floating in space? It's a very impractical way to exist, though a lot more comfortable than what we are experiencing.

I think when we get in touch with our creativity and with how we can contribute to creation, our lives change in both the physical and spiritual spheres. There is no question in my mind that the individual who lives a life of meaning also lives a longer, healthier life as a byproduct.

Ask yourself if you are ready to be free of your past. To forget what your parents, educators, and religion have done to wound you. When you are ready, you can be free to heal. As one of my patients said, "I had no control over the parents who raised me or the circumstances I was exposed to. When things were so dark that I could not see, I let love into my prison and it touched every negative item, meaning the experiences in my life, and turned them into something meaningful."

She has learned to, "forgive the unforgivable and love the unlovable," and is free. Yes, you may need to understand in order to forgive but when you do, you will be free too. With that freedom comes a benefit to your body because when your life shifts to a life of love, every cell within you will awaken to that love and live that message. I know I am here for a limited time and so I have elected to use my body, while it lasts, to continue the work of my ancestors Abraham and Isaac. I work for the Lord we have in common, and use my body to manifest my Lord's creative energy.

Am I perfect at it? No. Am I human? Yes. So each day I go through a meditation which includes my gratitude for being alive; a confession of my humanity and weaknesses which I continue to work on; my intercessory prayers for the well being of others; and my personal petition to help me become the person I would like to be.

When I have that all worked out, I will be ready to leave my body and become dreamless, unalive, and perfect once again.

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