Curing cancer is never easy, but sometimes we make it even harder than it need be. We’ve seen enough evidence now to know that cures effected for symptomatic relief are rarely permanent; either the disease comes back (metastasis in the case of cancer), or the symptoms change into other symptoms, or the treatment itself causes other disease (iatrogenic disease). Those of us who see diseaseas systemic understand that permanent and irreversible cure is effected through whole-body treatment.
In this day of health faddists and food consciousness, some of us have learned to intelligently use food and food substances as medicine to treat our bodies. We’ve learned the value of repairing body tissue and body chemistry through the building properties of the enzymes in the fresh vegetable juices. We’ve learned the value of eliminating toxic wastes from our bodies so that our clean system scan properly absorb and utilize the nutritional material.
And yet,the practice of body and organ repair is still partial. The practice of true wholistic medicine would need involve all aspects of the person, physiological, mind as well as body.
When we observe some of the mental bear traps some patients get themselves into, we may wonder not why they are not better, but why they are not sicker.
In terms of our health, this is no small matter. We are now accumulating scientific evidence to detail the intricate and sensitive connections between mind and body. For instance, when we think of stress, we think of a psychological state.We may have too much on our minds; we may wonder if decisions we’ve made are right; we may feel insecure and unsure but these states seem to originate in our thinking, or in our minds. Anyone who has paid attention to the experience of stress knows, however, that the mental anguish is quickly turned into bodily symptoms and sensations. We may begin to feel tired and overloaded; we may develop bodily pains. Research tells us that one effect stress has on the body state is to upset the immunological system. Disturbance in the normal function of the immune system means that we become more prone to disease. It is this same immune system that we attempt to build up through the use of our nutritional foods to fight the diseased cells.
We shouldn’t assume that the mind and body are in balance. We shouldn’t even assume that the attempt to right one will automatically right the other. Healthy mind can help to right a diseased body, but an unhealthy mind can prevent a body, getting all the right substances, from getting well.
It is important, then, that we work with our beliefs, our attitudes, and our relationships (to ourselves and to others), as well as with our bodies.
Cancer both creates its own psychodynamics and augments pre-existing ones. I know one woman who was never happy until she got cancer. She was depressed and worried most of the time. She never had the feeling that her family cared about her.She acted in ways that turned people off, but it was because she craved the attention that she never got. Her cancer has been life-saving to her. Her family didn’t want her to die, so they set about investigating all kinds of treatments and discussing among themselves which treatment would be best. They chose a nutritional approach supplemented with other non-toxic substances. They soon discovered, though, that for her to be diligent in her treatment (that is,not eating most foods that most Americans eat), she would have to become asocial pariah. So then they had to find ways to help her feel more comfortable following a treatment regimen that isolated her at social functions and went against the thinking of most of her friends. The result of it all was that this woman got lots and lots of loving attention. She’s probably thanking her lucky stars for the day she found out she had cancer.
Some patients have learned to manipulate the state of their body as a technique to manipulate the attention they get from other people. Another woman I know ha shad cancer for 10 years. The cancer is perfectly in control and she feels fine when she is strict with her diet. Sometimes, though, she’ll complain about not feeling well. When she’s questioned, it turns out that she’s gone off her diet .She’ll let herself get sick in order to get people to pay attention to her, but she’ll never let it go too far. She doesn’t want to die. She just wants more from people than she’s getting, and she hasn’t learned a way of getting what she wants except through making herself sick.
There are also those who can’t get completely well because all treatments fail on them.hese patients leap from treatment to treatment like rabbits. Nothing works.But then you find out that they only tried the Hoxey treatment for three months, or only took half the prescribed laetrile tablets, or only eat well when they are in their own home. These patients are always on the look-out for new treatments, since all the old ones haven’t worked. The new ones won’t work either, though.
These are the mild cases. Some patients can even go so far as to die in order to make their point. A young man in psychotherapy confided after hearing his diagnosis that at last he was able now to get back at his father. He had experienced his father as demanding and felt that no matter what he did, he would not be able to please his father. When he was finally bed-ridden from the cancer, he paid his father back in kind. The father would fix him food, but it was always the wrong food, or too hot or too cold. The father would call the young man’s friends and ask them to visit, but it would be the wrong friend, or the wrong time of day for a visit. It seemed as though this young man’s hatred of his father kept him bed-ridden for much longer than he needed to be. He died holding on to his anger.
Those of us who are close to a cancer patient can often have confusing feelings. We may want to help, but sometimes feel helpless and inadequate. These feelings are,in part, a response to the recognition that there is indeed very little we candor. We can’t force-feed the correct foods to a person. But, the feelings we have in the relationship with a cancer patient also reflect the way the cancer patient feels about himself, and the way he wants us to feel. The rabbit-like patient may induce us to do more diligent investigation of treatments. We may,like him, scurry around frantically looking for the answer. It’s as though the panic is contagious. We will come up with more and more treatments; all will fail, and then we will end up being the failure. We will have the feeling that if only we had heard about this treatment, or if only we had pushed the patient to be more conscientious. Sometimes it is easier for the patient to get us to have the feeling of being the failure than it is for him to experience his own lack of cooperation with the treatment, or his own failure.
Some Things To Think About
- Trace minerals are finely wrought chemical elements which travel through the fibrous material of the plant. When man eats the tender leaves of the plant, he is taking into his body the most infinitely soluble particles capable of feeding the most delicate and intricate parts of his body. Recent experiments indicate that long life and high I.Q. are related to trace mineral intake in body tissues.
- As seafood has the greatest amount of trace minerals from the ocean, so chlorophyll has the greatest amount from the land. The greenest chlorophyll plants have the greatest amount of trace minerals of the plants produced on the earth. Refined foods or man-handled foods seldom contain trace minerals in natural form.
- The finest water obtainable is the distilled water as it comes from plants. We can get this chlorophyll-rich water when we drink vegetable juices or eat salads, etc.
- From a chemical standpoint, chlorophyll has almost the exact components of human blood. It is an excellent red cell builder for man. It is the greatest food we have to bring someone out of anemia.
(Excerpts from Health Magic Through Chlorophyll from Living Plant Life, by Bernard Jensen. See book list, page 15)
